The Annals of Darkness: The Beginning

by Shire Folk

Part I. A normal life is first in the minds of Sora, Kairi, and Riku before they are thrust headfirst into another plot for Kingdom Hearts. Maleficent is back, and her nefarious plans could cost Sora his heart, in more ways than one. SXK RXN RiXYuf

38. Sedah and the Great Crest Hunt

I've been waiting to do these next few chapters for ages. Here is where the tensions and anxiety build as we near the final act of the first act.

Please forgive the length, but I have much to go through in these last three chapters and I only want forty. Don't ask me why, I'm not sure myself.

Because it is so long, if you feel inclined to write mini-reviews during the chapter, please do so in a PM.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Digimon, Final Fantasy…

The Beginning

Chapter XXXVIII: Sedah and the Great Crest Hunt

Keys awoke slowly as the sun rose steadily into the sky from its place on the horizon. The red light glanced off of the glistening waves of the ocean that broke gently against Whamon's gigantic body and streamed into his now opening eyelids. A tear welled up in his eyelids as he gazed in majesty at the new dawn. The soft sounds of the others' breathing added into the sounds of the ocean that met his ears. He keenly recognized Aiwemon's beside him, the air leaving the two slits in his beak in a gentle hiss, and Kairi on his other side. He smiled as he looked at her sleeping figure and the sea spray entered his nostrils, the salty scent even going down to his tongue. But he was used to such occurrences, having grown up on islands, and his heart enjoyed the smell and taste even more as its familiarity entered once more. But Keys couldn't deny that the sight of a peacefully sleeping Kairi brought more joy to him that moment than anything else. It was the morning of their fourth day out from File Island, and to his knowledge Kairi had slept soundlessly for the last two nights.

Ever since we danced in the moonlight.

Keys sighed wistfully as he gazed at his princess, sleeping in the early morning light. Her black shirt was dirty (though he could scarcely tell because it was black) and stained from the salty ocean spray. There were a few small rips in it, as well as her skirt, caused from the battles that had occurred since they were aboard the Dutchman. A small dark patch was stained on her navy skirt, from blood that had leaked from her leg at some point. Keys wondered what it could have been from. His eyes strayed back up to her chest and he smiled when he saw the crown pendant he had given her for her birthday still hanging from around her neck. There was no blemish upon the metal, and he could see a small part of her face reflected in it where the metal was smooth. Her auburn hair was matted and frayed, and longer than he had remembered her having when they were still on Destiny Islands. He moved some of his own hair out of his eyes and grimaced when he finally acknowledged that the last of the gel had been worn out of his brown hair.

He gave Kairi one last look and smiled once more at her peaceful face before he rose onto his own feet. Looking around, he recognized that Tai was the only other one awake in the morning's chill air. He strode towards the digidestined leader, careful not to tread on any others or their partners. Tai glanced over at him as he approached and they nodded to each other.

"It's been four days since we left File Island," Tai stated, staring ahead of him. Keys nodded.

"Four eventful and uneventful days," he agreed. Tai looked at him in curiosity and Keys answered his unspoken questions. "First day," Keys began, "we build the raft with the help of the Island digimon, begin sailing, meet Whamon, destroy the black gear within him, destroy the black gear inside of Drimogemon, and find the tags. First night, a star vanishes, Kairi and I dive into our hearts and find that Roxas and Naminé, our siblings," he added seeing Tai's forgetful face, "have been placed in hospital because they fell defending Twilight Town from our enemy. Then Kairi had her nightmare again that night. Nothing big happened at all on our second day out, but while everyone was asleep at night Kairi and I had a moonlight dance."

"Sounds romantic," Tai said with a laugh. Keys blushed and rubbed his nose while the leader sniggered.

"Anyway," Keys continued loudly, drowning out Tai, "Nothing happened again yesterday, and nothing happened during the night."

"So now here we are," Tai concluded; "The fourth day out, not a sign of Server, and preparing for another uneventful day."

"You spoke too soon Tai," Whamon countered. "We're almost there." Tai gave a yelp of surprise.

"What, really?" he asked, reaching for his pocket telescope. He placed it to his eye while Keys placed a hand over his eyes and gazed out. Nothing but a small haze on the horizon was visible to his eyes but Tai spoke contradictory.

"An island," the leader mused through his pocket telescope, "or maybe it might just be the continent of Server."

"It's Server," Whamon confirmed. "And I did it in less time than five days. I should get a tip." Keys looked down at Whamon and smiled.

"Hey, you said three and a half without traffic," he argued jokingly. Whamon chuckled.

"I met you guys the afternoon of your first day," he reasoned; "By your reckoning that would make it three and a half days." Keys smiled wider and patted the giant digimon's head.

"I knew that Whamon," he said approvingly. "What would you like? If it's in my power to give I'll gladly do it."

"As long as it isn't all of our fish," Tai warned in jest. Whamon laughed loudly, loud enough to start waking a few of the digidestined.

"Don't worry kids," he said. "This one's free. You guys saved me from Devimon's power. If I can ever help you out, I'll gladly do it." Both guys currently awake smiled at the giant digimon.

"Thanks a lot Whamon," Keys said.

"We'll take you up on that offer if we're ever in the neighborhood again," Tai said before turning around to the mass of sleepy digidestined and digimon. "Hey guys wake up!" he called loudly. "We're landing on Server soon." Keys saw Matt cock open an eye as he leaned up from his back.

"I was just resting my eyes a little." Joe sleepily adjusted his glasses as he woke.

"Well your eyes were snoring pretty loudly," he said to Matt.

"Come on," Tai said quickly, "we'll be landing in a few minutes. We have to make sure we have everything ready."

"So we're really there?" Sora asked as she got up. Keys nodded and prodded Aiwemon with his toe.

"Rise and shine buddy," he said as his shoe poked into his partner's wing. "We're almost there." Aiwemon opened his eyes and looked up at Keys.

"That's good," he said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with his wing, "but I'd rather have something to eat first." Keys laughed and placed him on his shoulder.

"Don't worry," he assured. "I'll make sure we all have breakfast as soon as we land."

"It would be nice to eat without having to worry about food washing away," T.K. piped up. Keys smiled at him and turned Kairi over as she woke up. Her eyes met his for a moment and she smiled before they were suddenly drawn past him.

"Hey what's that?" she asked. Keys turned around and now saw that a large shoreline of the continent could now be seen with his naked eye.

"Wow," exclaimed Agumon, "that island's huge!"

"It's not an island," explained Tentomon, hovering in the air above them on his insect wings, "it's the continent of Server." Palmon left the party and went to stand next to Mimi's head, as she still slept on, or was half-asleep.

"Hey Mimi wake up," Palmon urged. "You just have to see this. We're going to land on the shores of a big continent." Mimi turned over in response and laid down on her other side.

"No," she moaned. "I'm getting a pedicure." Palmon sighed and placed a vine-fingered hand to her head as Keys laughed loudly and shook his head. A glint in Kairi's eye caught his and he looked at her.

"Do you want to know what I was dreaming about?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper. Keys raised his eyebrow and Kairi continued before he could even begin to contemplate what she could have been dreaming. "I was dreaming about us," she continued, her eyes emanating all the warmth in her heart, "and how we danced together in the moonlight, and in the ballroom." Keys smiled and squeezed her shoulder affectionately before getting up and moving to Izzy. The computer expert was tapping away on the keyboard of his laptop with a map of Server on the screen.

"What's up Izzy?" he asked as a small piece of paper came out of a drive in the laptop.

"I've been analyzing the map and I've found the best possible landing site in our vicinity," he explained. Izzy looked up from his laptop and gasped. "Wow Whamon, you sure do move fast."

"Thanks kid," the whale digimon replied. Keys looked around in confusion and found that they were already near the shores of the continent.

"I don't think I could have flown here as fast," he whispered in awe, looking down at the bulk of Whamon's head as they went past two columns of rock sticking out of the ocean like the teeth of a giant creature. Any who had previously been asleep, or feigning sleep, finally shook off the shackles that had them confined to the dream-world and stood, wide-eyed and awed as they entered the fiord. The rocky shore was not the sandy beach that Keys had been expecting; in fact it simply jutted out as a cliff above the waves, letting anyone who might unwarily venture too close to the edge plummet ten feet into the waves below.

But that wasn't a problem for the gigantic Whamon, who swam right up to a foot from the cliff's edge. Tai and Agumon were the first to drop off, sliding down the side of Whamon's head to land hard on their feet against the continent. Keys held onto Aiwemon in his arms, the bird digimon preferring to eat before expending energy flying, and lifted off into the air. He glided off and touched down next to Joe as the younger boy had just finished sliding down with Gomamon. Kairi landed next to him, Menelmon flapping her wings before landing on the ground near her partner's feet, giving Aiwemon a cold stare.

"You lazy bird," she scolded, pointing her wing at him. Aiwemon opened one sly green eye at her and hopped out of Keys' arms. Menelmon bristled and ruffled her feathers as he walked towards her, Biyomon and Sora sliding down next to Kairi.

"I take after my partner," Aiwemon said as he got closer. Kairi and Menelmon both grimaced while Keys placed his hands behind his head and looked slightly away, touched.

"Lazy bum," Kairi said. Keys bristled this time and looked at her sharply.

"Hey!" he retorted. "How am I being lazy right now?" Kairi came up at a loss and Izzy came down, Tentomon flying above his shoulders.

"Come on down Mimi!" Tai called as Palmon slid down, seeing that she was the last one still atop of Whamon. Keys looked up at the girl and saw that she had her hands near her mouth in fear.

"Um, this is a little too X-treme Sports for me," she cried. "Couldn't someone just airlift me off of here?" Keys sighed and looked towards Tai, who smiled and shook his head.

"Sorry we can't just move the continent for you Mimi," Izzy said, not a hint of a true apology in his voice. "Now according to the map, this is the best place to come ashore."

"You can do it Mimi," Joe said in assurance, "really. Just put one foot in front of the other. It's just as easy as falling off a log."

"Well I've fallen off of plenty of logs," Mimi answered, "and believe me it's not as easy as it looks!" the last word came out as a shriek as Whamon bounced into the shore, forcibly causing Mimi to lose her balance and begin to slide down. She lifted into the air near the end of her descent and crashed into Izzy, flattening him down onto the ground.

"I think I broke a nail," she moaned as she got up.

"I think you broke Izzy," Kairi muttered, looking at the sandwiched boy.

"There should be a village of Koromon a few miles inland from here in a forest," Whamon said. "They should be able to help." Keys nodded at him as the giant whale turned around.

"Thanks again Whamon," he said appreciatively. Whamon chuckled as he moved farther out.

"No problem kid, good luck finding the crests." Whamon then dived and Keys gulped. He had no idea that the water had been that deep so close to shore.

They then sat down and had a better breakfast than any they had had in the last few days since leaving File Island. For one thing, despite Keys and Kairi, they hadn't been able to cook anything over an open flame while they had traveled on top of a living creature. Aiwemon was feeling much more inclined to fly alongside a walking Keys after eating when they set out again.

The landscape was rather much the same as that of the shoreline as Keys noted, rocky, barren and lifeless. Not even the birds sang here. But he couldn't shake a feeling of uneasiness that was entering his heart. It was familiar, the same feeling he got whenever the heartless were near. His eyes darted around amongst the crags, hoping and dreading he'd find a glimpse of a shadow creeping around. A soft hand touching his shoulder jolted Keys out of his search and his eyes found Kairi's.

"Sora," she whispered. "What is it?"

"I can feel heartless around Kairi," he said earnestly. "I just don't know where they are. The fight is nothing, but the suspense is killing me." Kairi nodded and looked at their hands while Mimi griped about wanting a bath.

"Aren't the heartless attracted to the keyblade?" she asked. Keys nodded.

"Yes. They fear the keyblade and so swarm towards a holder of the blade in an attempt to destroy their fear." Kairi placed a finger to her chin in thought, but before Keys could even shake his head at her Joe cried out.

"Hey look over there!" he cried, pointing out across a barren plain towards a forest in the distance. But his finger sank at the sounds of shouting and came to rest at a scuffle that was taking place in the midst of the plain. Plumes of darkness kept rising from where Joe was pointing, and Keys spared no time rushing forward past the other digidestined. He knew heartless when he saw them. Aiwemon flew next to him, matching his speed with his wings and Kairi and Menelmon were right behind. The others followed, but they couldn't match their speed.

The Oblivion made its appearance within his right hand and Keys changed his course slightly as roughly half of the force of heartless, which he noticed consisted entirely of neoshadows, turned away from their opponent and started moving towards him. He smirked and drew his left hand behind him, fire curling in it. With a cry he swept his hand out in front of him twice and dozens of small fireballs barreled out of his palm towards the heartless. The neoshadows stopped as the fireballs impaled them, but moments later Keys was upon and among them, arching his blade with precision and finesse into the mass. Three fell in an instant, and two more were taken out as the black steel of the Oblivion paved its way through the head of one and then the back of another in what seemed as one fluid motion. His keyblade felt no resistance from the dark flesh of the heartless, ripping through what was rapidly becoming a mist of darkness around him. His desire to protect whoever it was the heartless had mobbed to was his only consideration as he cleaved his way through the mass, clearing away the heartless as a farmer scythes through grain.

If he'd only known how much pain that figure would cause him.

Blue blasts came streaming from Aiwemon's eyes, striking the heartless near Keys and causing them pause long enough for the keyblade his partner held to smite them. Aiwemon's talons ripped through neoshadows as he covered the back of his partner. The claws of the neoshadows were sharp and came quickly, but Aiwemon's talons were keener and the bird was faster. None touched either his or Keys' bodies as the heartless quickly found themselves outnumbered by the pair.

Kairi had stood back from the battle, staring along with the other digidestined at the display as the dark mists continued to grow around the battling pair. She knew that he could fight, hell she'd fought alongside him, but there was something different now and she couldn't quite tell what it was. Keys and Aiwemon burst out of the cloud of darkness, heading for the remaining group while the cloud faded away to reveal that nothing had survived their purge.

Keys gripped his keyblade tightly as he charged forward towards the final cohort, still in a ring around their target. Aiwemon was beside him, glowing.

"Aiwemon digivolved to, Ohtarmon!" He hit the ground running, his mace held readily in his burly arms while his beak snapped angrily at the group of foes in front of them. He pointed his mace in front of him while they got closer and he continued to run with a cry of, "Feathered Mace!" Heartless vanished as the feathers continually struck into the mass, which finally took notice of their approach. Too late though. Ohtarmon relinquished his attack as he got closer. He swung his mace when he broke into the tide and the pure white energy coming from his attack obliterated them into only the wispiest of dark mists.

Keys leapt up into the air as his partner broke into the mass and positioned his keyblade's point downwards and raising it above his head, the Oblivion slowly becoming shrouded in a cloud of electricity. The neoshadows never saw it coming when he landed and drove his blade's tip into the ground in a finishing blow. The pent up electricity surged out in a shockwave pattern and created a wide circle of destruction against his enemies. Keys pulled the Oblivion out of the reddish earth and mowed down the last heartless that stood between him and the initial target of the heartless. The figure wore light blue armour of a hue that he'd never seen before, but the black sword he held was wreathed in fire, the flames of which were blue with the purest black at their core. Keys placed his back to the figure, who he noticed was taller than him, and Ohtarmon moved in so they formed a triangle. They nodded curtly at each other before each of them dove into the horde of heartless in front of them. Oblivion's black steel dealt death to any heartless that stood in its wake as fires erupted from its master's eyes. Neoshadows crept forward against Keys, wary of the reach of his blade, but their eyes could not see fast enough to catch sight of the boy moving seamlessly amongst them, his keyblade ignited in the fire of his passion. A loud ring broke out as the Oblivion came down on the head of an unsuspecting neoshadow and a spark came through the darkness from the connection with a snow white keyblade. Kairi had joined the battle at last. She darted past Keys to hold against a mob making for their new companion, and her blade showed no mercy to any heartless in its wake. Kairi was keeping her oath.

Their new ally swept his brute sword in a wide arc in front of him, dispatching the heartless into puffs of smoke. The momentum of his swing brought his sword precariously close to Kairi, and she winced slightly as the edge of the sword nicked her in the side while her attention was focused against the last remaining company that Keys and Ohtarmon were now engaging.

None noticed a small black jolt enter the wound.

"Let's end this," the man in armour said, dropping his left hand from his sword and raising it against the heartless. What appeared to be light suddenly surrounded the remaining group and shone down on the heartless, causing them to cower in fear.

"Nova Blast!" Greymon's fireball crashed into the center of the heartless and finally destroyed the last of them. Ohtarmon glanced at Keys as the latter released his keyblade.

"Well," said Ohtarmon, shouldering his mace as he spoke, "that takes care of that." Keys nodded and moved towards Kairi, who was still standing near the man. She was shaking her head slightly with one hand on it, but Keys ignored it for now and moved instead towards the armoured person.

"Thanks for the help keyblader," the armoured person said, planting the tip of his sword into the ground and leaning slightly on its hilt. Keys stopped for a moment and looked curiously at the person.

"Excuse me?" Something had registered in his mind about the term, but he couldn't quite figure out what. The armoured knight removed his helmet to reveal his face of blue skin, brown hair tinged with blue flowing over his handsome, youthful face. Keys stopped and stared at his appearance, with black eyes and lips. The man chuckled and placed his helmet under his arm and extended his arm towards Keys in friendship.

"Thanks for the help," he reiterated. He smiled even further while he forcibly shook Keys' hand. "I'm an Ebunik," he explained, indicating his appearance. "My people hail from the world of Grascora. I fell under attack by those, creatures, and escaped into a portal of my creation. Unfortunately, it seems they followed me here." He smiled meekly as Keys stared at him in awe. He'd never seen a person like this before, and the appearance of another off-worlder here was disturbing to say the least. But, he didn't feel very dark at all, so he took this as a fortunate turn of events.

If he had been paying more attention, he would have noticed that he didn't feel anything, light or dark, from this man. Keys turned his head as Ohtarmon and Greymon came up with the rest of the digimon and digidestined. A bright glow surrounded the two champion level digimon and they reverted back into their rookie forms.

"Wow Keys," Matt said in stunned appreciation. "We never knew you could fight like that! Remind us not to get on your bad side, like, ever." Keys smiled as he looked at the younger boy. The Ebunik cleared his throat and Keys turned around to look at him again.

"Keys?" he asked. "I thought your name was 'Sora'?" Keys raised his hands and shrugged.

"Well that's my nickname on this world," he explained before becoming curious. "Hey wait a second, how did you even know my name? And what's yours anyway?"

"I am called Sedah," the man replied, "knight of the kingdom of light known as the Wurderlond. Son of Sonork, brother of Nodiesop and Suez." He spat mentioning his last brother's name and Keys cocked his head slightly.

"Bit of bad blood between you two?" Matt asked, folding his arms. Sedah nodded his head and looked inquiringly at the group of digidestined. Keys popped his head up in sudden remembrance.

"Oh right," he said hurriedly. "Uh, Sir Sedah, I'd like you to meet my friends. This is Tai, and that's his partner Agumon over there, Sora and Biyomon, Matt and Gabumon, Joe and Gomamon, Mimi and Palmon, Izzy and Tentomon, T.K. and Poyomon, this here is my digimon partner Aiwemon."

"Nice to meet you Sir Sedah," the bird rookie replied, inclining his head at Sedah.

"And this," Keys concluded in confusion as he steered Kairi and Menelmon towards the knight. He had no idea why she had seemed to fall back, into obscurity. He paused for half a heartbeat as he considered what Sedah had said before going on. "This is,"

"Princess Kairi," Sedah finished for him, "keybla-keybearer, princess of heart, and of the Radiant Garden. And her digimon partner Menelmon." He then kissed her hand in respect. Keys and Kairi blinked, and didn't notice a tiny wince when Sedah's lips touched Kairi's hand, but Aiwemon noticed both the verbal slip-up and wince and frowned as much as a beak would allow.

"How do you know all this?" Kairi asked wearily. Keys looked in concern at the tone of her voice, and Menelmon noticed a twitch in the corners of Sedah's mouth. Before the knight could answer Agumon spoke up.

"Tai I smell Koromon," said the digimon, pointing his nose towards the forest.

"Really?" the goggle-headed leader asked. Agumon nodded and led the way into the forest, into which the others slowly followed. Keys held back with Kairi, as she was showing a reluctance to follow Sedah and the others into the wood.

"Kairi?" Keys asked softly in concern, "Are you okay?" She shook her head slightly.

"Uh, yeah," she replied unsteadily, contradicting her head shake. "Yeah I think I am. Oh, I don't know." She looked into Keys' eyes and he was surprised to see fear in them. "Sora," she whispered. "Something about this guy seems familiar, but… he scares me." Keys' eyes widened in surprise as she continued. "And I don't know why, but something hurt when he kissed my hand. And he said he's a knight of a kingdom of light Sora. A knight of light." Keys nodded and held her hands close to his chest. She didn't need to say anything more to him.

A tear formed in the corner of her eye and slid down her cheek.

Kairi leaned closer into him and Keys' hands left hers to support her as her form slumped into his chest. "I feel so tired," Kairi moaned wearily. Keys steadied her and slowly led Kairi away into the forest after the others. Menelmon and Aiwemon shared a concerned glance with each other before soaring into the air, staying close to Kairi the whole time.

At length they came out of the forest and in front of them lay a valley in which a village of dusty-brown pavilions lay. Many of the pavilions were small and appeared to be only one storey high, but in the center of the village one towering building stood above them all.

"Great!" T.K. exclaimed while rubbing his foot. "We can rest."

"Even better," Mimi corrected, dashing down the hill towards the village. "A bath!"

"Mimi wait!" Palmon cried, following closely behind her partner. Agumon looked up at Tai, keeping him and the others from following the girl for the moment.

"Tai something doesn't feel quite right here," he said. The others nodded and cautiously moved down the hill after Mimi. They suddenly heard her give a startled cry and their speed increased, Kairi forcing herself to keep going. They spotted Palmon lying flat on her back in the middle of a path in the village with Mimi being carried by about a dozen little grey balls with large floppy ears.

"Are those Koromon?" Sedah asked while they chased after them, Palmon at the front of their line.

"No those are Pagumon," Tentomon said, "and there are more to them than meets the eye." Keys rounded a corner and saw nothing but the Pagumon in every direction.

"Which way did they go?" Gomamon asked. They heard another cry for help that came from the towering pavilion to their right.

"To the Tower!" Tai called, rushing forward through the drawn entrance flap. Had the situation not been so hasty, Keys would have had time to marvel at the appearance of the inside, purple rugs, giant chandelier, white balustrades on the upper floors, and two winding staircases flanking the entrance.

"Hey look up there," Sora said, pointing at a pink object on one of the stairs as she went to get it. "It's Mimi's hat… there's the price tag, it's Mimi's alright." Keys came up onto the upper floor with Kairi, Tai, Izzy, Sora, and Joe and they spotted her purse lying on the floor that led towards another room. Mimi never went anywhere without it.

"Logically that could mean only one thing," Izzy said. "She's missing." Tai strode forward angrily.

"Alright that does it," he growled, shoving aside a curtain and moving into a room lined with cages and boxes on the sides. Another curtain was drawn at the front of the room, concealing anything behind it. Keys, Kairi, Sora, and Izzy went into the room after Tai, and while Izzy hung close to their leader the other three examined something sticking out of one of the boxes that rested in a cage, which now that he thought about it looked more like a shelf.

His face instantly reddened and he felt Kairi's gaze on the back of his head, boring holes into his skull. He dimly heard Sora yelling at Tai not to go in, but the embarrassed gasps of Tai and Izzy were enough to tell him that they hadn't gotten the message in time. Keys sunk his head into his hands when he heard the two idiots drop onto the floor from blows to the head and the sound of the curtain being drawn closed once more.

"I thought I told you not to go in there," Sora tisked. Keys slowly slumped past the curtain and out of the room, conscious of Kairi's gaze on him and making dead sure his mind didn't stray.

"Hey where's Mimi?" Joe asked in concern as he passed the younger boy. Keys looked at him.

"She's having a bath," was his answer.

---

That night the Pagumon of the village had gathered all of them together on the third storey of the tower, and were celebrating their arrival with such hospitality that Keys had not had before. Never before were Donald, Goofy, and he treated to a banquet upon arriving somewhere, yet now here he was, sitting with a group of kids and their digimon and a knight he knew next to nothing about, being treated to a banquet of exotic and quite delicious fruit.

"Welcome to our village," the Pagumon, all with party hats adorning their heads, were singing, "we hope you never go. Stay and visit here with us and please enjoy the show."

"This is definitely a Pagumon village," Gabumon said to Agumon.

"Something is definitely wrong here Gabumon," the yellow dinosaur digimon replied. "I know what I smelled was Koromon, I'd bet my nose on it."

"I feel just like a princess in a big beautiful palace," Mimi said in a highly pleased tone. "Isn't this what you used to feel like Kairi? It's so nice." Keys looked over at Kairi with concern, as she appeared to be caught off guard with the question.

"What? Oh, well I'm not really sure," Kairi replied half-heartedly, looking down from the platter of fruit in front of her. "I've always been used to doing things for myself. I don't know what I'd do if I started having people serve me and expecting me to do nothing." Mimi frowned at her answer.

"Well I'd relax and live a life of luxury! That's what I'd do if I was a princess."

"I once had a Chihuahua named 'Princess'," Joe said glumly. Kairi glanced away from Mimi towards Keys and smiled meekly at him. He only half-heartedly returned the smile. She had become increasingly weary as the day progressed; she had almost passed out during a tour of the village and surrounding area, given by the Pagumon. After that, Keys had Aiwemon and Menelmon watch her like hawks, which wasn't too hard considering one of them. The other digidestined were all concerned about her well-being as well, especially Joe, but for some reason Sedah was taking an uncanny amount of interest in Kairi. He'd kept asking Keys about her, and despite his constant reminding that she already had a boyfriend, him, he'd sadly been unable to deflect the interest the knight had in her. When Kairi almost passed out though, he could almost swear he saw Sedah smirk while he himself was preoccupied with making sure she was well. He sighed and shook his head, deciding to bite into a pear and eat to take his mind off of things.

"This is strange," Tentomon commented. "I've often heard that the Pagumon are terrible pranksters."

"You were just hearing an awful rumor," Gomamon said from next to him.

"Nice of you to say that," a passing Pagumon said.

"These guys are really nice little digimon," Biyomon said from next to Palmon and Menelmon.

"Right," another passing Pagumon confirmed, "nice digimon." Keys couldn't resist looking strangely at them after he heard them say that. Sure they seemed like nice digimon, but he would have thought that they wouldn't need to say it like that. His musing was drawn away by a bright golden light coming from T.K.'s hands.

"Poyomon digivolved to, Tokomon." In front of T.K. now stood a little white digimon with four short and stubby legs, looking a little bit like a pig, with two thin and wavy ears coming from the side of its head.

"Yay!" T.K. cried, "He's Tokomon again!" Tokomon leapt into T.K.'s outstretched hands and the little boy hugged his partner affectionately.

"The food made him digivolve," Izzy observed.

"Congratulations," Matt added.

"Together we can make me Patamon again," Tokomon said, snuggling into T.K.'s shoulder. Keys looked away from them at Mimi, who had suddenly stood up.

"Let's hear it for Tokomon!" she said enthusiastically. Keys raised his eyebrows slightly, but clapped his hands along with the others and gave his congratulations. It seemed a little childish to him, but any cause for celebration in these times was welcome in his opinion.

"Congratulations, way to go! We're so excited, all aglow!"

"Kairi!" Keys whipped his head around at Menelmon's voice, away from sighing exasperatedly at the Pagumon's renewed singing. Kairi was face-down on the floor, her arms in front of her with one hand still holding a half-eaten plumb. Keys and Joe were the first humans upon her and they quickly turned her over into the recovery position. Keys only smiled slightly and sighed at their next discovery.

"She's finally fallen asleep," he said, relieved. The others all made sighs of relief and he stood.

"I think that's all the partying tonight we're good for," he announced. "And now, I think we must be getting to bed."

"But," Mimi complained, "we've just started eating!"

"It is only seven at night Keys," Izzy said. "The Sun's just going down."

"Alright fine," Keys relented, "that's all the partying I'm good for tonight." He pinched the bridge of his nose and lay down. "It's just been a tiring day for me is all. Try to keep it down okay?"

"Oh don't worry," one of the Pagumon assured him. "We can move the party into another room, there's more than one here in the tower. You can all come back to sleep here when you eventually tire out."

Even after they had left and the room was dark, Keys still did not fall asleep for hours until the first of the other digidestined wearied. Something was keeping him up. For the first time in two days, Kairi was having a restless sleep.

---

From the moment Kairi had fallen asleep she knew something was terribly wrong with her. For starters she had appeared directly onto her platform instead of simply losing her conscious mind to sleep. Glowing white cobblestones now surrounded the platform in an intricate network that led off into the abyss, which no longer looked like an abyss. Now her platform appeared to be in the center of a brightly lit courtyard, beautiful flowers and trees surrounding three fountains that formed a triangle around her platform. She could see shining white walls not far in the distance, with towering parapets and banners rising from the peaks of the corner towers. The spirits of her friends that her heart was connected to: Sora, Riku, Naminé, Roxas, and Max where out and in a frantic pace.

"It's getting too close to the heart!" Sora was yelling at the others. "We're being cut off!"

"What of the threat to other parts of the body?" Naminé interjected quickly. "Are we just going to let them become overrun?"

"We won't last very long if we just sit here," Riku said. "We need to sally forth and fight it back. Then we can worry about places other than the heart." There was a cry from above and Kairi turned her head to see Menelmon flying in as swiftly as her wings could bear her.

"The enemy has taken everything outside our walls," the bird digimon cried, swooping down to the others. Max unsheathed the Defender from the sheath on his back.

"Then that's it then," he said. "We hold a defense of the heart as long as possible."

"HEY!" Kairi suddenly yelled and all eyes were drawn towards her in surprise. None had noticed she was there, and up till now she had felt like a spectator at a tennis rally and completely out of the loop.

"Please excuse my foul language for once," she steamed vehemently. "But what the fuck is happening to me?"

"We're under attack," Sora replied. Kairi turned her gaze on him and he recoiled.

"By what?" she asked sharply, her words cutting through the air like a scythe.

"Darkness," Riku replied and Kairi stopped, looking at him with fear. "Darkness has invaded your body and is taking control. We've been fighting it all day and haven't been able to do anything against it."

"But," Kairi stuttered. "That's impossible! Isn't it?"

"Apparently it's not," Roxas said. "We've erected defensive fortifications around your heart-"

"The platform?" Kairi asked. Naminé nodded.

"Yes the platform," she replied. "It symbolizes and represents your heart, and right now the darkness is cutting your heart off from the other hearts it's connected to."

"So what happens to you guys?" Kairi asked.

"This is our home Kairi," Menelmon said, laying one wing over her chest. "We won't disappear until the heart falls."

"But everything else has been taken," Sora said sadly. "This is the last refuge where your light dwells and it is also its strongest source. Even if you give up or are forced to remain here, I'm sorry to say that your body is no longer in your control."

"So I'm possessed?" Kairi asked, shaking her head. "How could this happen?" The others looked as if they were about to answer when there came a dull booming sound.

"The enemy is at the gates," Riku remarked.

---

Far away in the fortress of Bara-dûr, Maleficent was sitting in a dark chair, and putting all her mind to the task of taking over one princess of heart's body. Her resistance so far had been stronger than she'd expected, but it was of little concern to her. She already had complete control over the princess' body, and now she continued only to bring Kairi to her knees and beg for mercy.

Oh, how she would love torturing this one.

---

"So let me get this straight," Kairi said to those around her while the dull booming continued. "Darkness has somehow infected my body and is possessing me. You guys have been fighting it all day, which would be what was making me tired, and now my heart's under siege."

"That pretty much covers it," Roxas said, looking towards the gate when a particularly loud boom sounded. Kairi sighed and hung her head for a moment, pinching her nose.

"Well let's see what I can do," she said abruptly, making a dash for the gate. The others all glanced at each other before following her, drawing weapons. Kairi reached the gate, the Oathkeeper glowing with a white light as it stayed in her hands, and saw that the strong timbers that made the gate, along with the flowing wrought-iron patterns on the back, were cracking and breaking at the force of a great ram. Then came an eerie call from behind the gate, in a voice that chilled the very marrow of Kairi's bones.

"Open, in the name of the great darkness!"

The ram smote the gate once more, and it burst asunder at the blow. Kairi felt herself flattened by a large piece of timber that had struck her across the chest as other members of her party tried to evade the flying debris as a dust cloud rapidly grew around them, restricting nearly all vision. Her keyblade clattered to the ground when she was struck down. Kairi gasped as someone pushed the beam off of her. She was completely winded and was struggling to draw breath.

"Don't stand," Sora said, propping up the back of her shoulder. He had been the one to push the timber off of her. "You're still too weak." Kairi nodded grudgingly while she still struggled to breathe and the dust cloud slowly diminished.

"Is everyone okay?" Naminé asked from somewhere to Kairi's left.

"I'm good," Max called from behind.

"I'm fine as well," Roxas said from the right.

"I'm alright," called Menelmon from somewhere above them.

"I'm okay," Riku said, sounding the closest to the ruined gates.

"Kairi's a little winded but apart from that we're both okay," Sora said. Kairi drew a ragged breath and placed one hand to her chest.

"What's going to happen?" she asked hoarsely, standing up despite Sora's best efforts to keep her down. She called her fallen blade back into her hands. Her question was answered by a sudden surge of darkness that flowed in through the open archway.

Riku and Naminé reacted first. Riku swiped with Way to the Dawn, cleaving the darkness back a little and Naminé raised Island's Fire, white light shining from its crimson tip. The light shone in the darkness and beat it back a little, but it only halted for a moment before surging forward and overcoming the light. Riku fell back before it could overcome him as well, but the darkness seemed reluctant to follow, or it had at least slowed by some power Kairi couldn't detect.

Roxas and Menelmon then moved in, the boy twirling around and slashing out with Sleeping Lion and Twilight Thorn, and the bird beating her wings and showering the darkness with icy feathers. Neither attack did much. Kairi nodded curtly to Sora and moved forward, raising her free left hand towards the darkness. A swift current of light rose from out of her platform and struck Kairi in the back. She did not even flinch as she felt the power of her light growing within her and the spot where her heart was glowed. Light billowed out of her palm towards the darkness. It suddenly reared up and deepened, trying to grow more menacing and powerful, but it was dispelled, and pushed right out through the archway.

Kairi stopped shining her light and her lips twitched into a satisfied smirk when she saw the darkness stay outside. "Why do I not feel tired?" she asked smugly.

"Because your conscious mind is down here," Naminé said uncertainly, scratching her head, "and not up there? I don't know. You just aren't."

"Good one Kai," Riku said approvingly. "You beat it back when none of us could." Kairi smiled wider and turned away from the ruined gates to see Max clapping and whistling.

"Now you shall witness my power pitiful Kairi!"

The smile dropped off of Kairi's face and her heart froze in terror when she heard that voice again. Max's own face was one of horror as well. Kairi slowly turned around again and saw the sight she had been dreading.

Maleficent was standing there, in the ruined gateway, a malevolent smile on her face.

Kairi reacted quickly with a new snarl, she wanted this witch out! She would not be possessed by this demon for who knows what purpose! She raised her hand again in anger and let her light billow out again.

Maleficent only smiled wider.

The light was about to reach the sorceress when Maleficent suddenly raised her staff and a shell of darkness blasted out of it. Kairi's light was overcome entirely by the blast. Maleficent's smile slipped into a cackle as Kairi and her party slowly fell back. Kairi unleashed another wave of light, but now Maleficent was advancing, and all behind her was swiftly dwindling into nothing but the purest black. Another dark shell pulsed from Maleficent's staff and Kairi's light seemed even feebler this time as the shell overcame it. Kairi looked to her others and nodded.

They turned tail and fled back towards the platform.

Kairi and Naminé turned as they ran and sent balls of light out of their keyblades at Maleficent, but the dark witch smothered all of them with blasts from her staff. Kairi and Naminé fled again in haste, and the girls turned their heads back, and now they saw balls of darkness heading towards them, too quickly for them to outrun. They looked at each other in the last moment before they were both struck in their backs.

They screamed in agony as the darkness touched their skin. This pain was immense to the two princesses, even if one of them was only a spirit of her true self. Kairi felt pain like knives were sticking into her in every inch of skin that the ball of darkness was touching, but the pain didn't only originate there, it was spreading across her entire body. Parts of her body that had not even been touched were now screaming in unbelievable pain.

After they had been touched, darkness rushed out from behind Maleficent and overtaken them, now it was encasing them in a cocoon of torment and pain. Kairi was screaming until it clawed up to her neck, then she clamped her mouth shut and screwed her eyes closed against the pain, letting the tears freely fall.

It is not yet time.

And then the pain was all gone, and she was being dragged onto the platform while Maleficent screamed in rage. Kairi turned her head to look back out at the last second when a blinding light dazzled her eyes. The light formed a complete shell around the area of her platform, and she thought she saw flashes of where darkness was trying to penetrate, but for once the light was stronger than the darkness. Kairi dimly looked around her, feeling the cold sweat beading on her forehead, clothes and hair, knowing she looked like a nervous wreck, and seeing the exact reflection in Naminé as the girl lay next to her in a heap.

Kairi was about to hug her in relief when pain assailed her head and she suddenly found herself near the paopu tree. Her eyes widened in stark fear.

She was in the dream now.

---

Maleficent stood angrily from her chair and cursed. Kairi had escaped her and reached the deepest depths of her heart, where the light was too strong for even her to reach. But how had the girl eluded her?

Maleficent sat back down and shook her head while Diablo cawed. It didn't matter; she now had control over the princess' body. Now she'd be able to do whatever she liked to get revenge on the boy who'd killed her. And maybe she'd be able to tear an irreparable rift between them in case the girl ever managed to overcome her. Yet she highly doubted that.

---

Keys awoke the next morning to find that T.K. was in a hysteric panic. Tokomon had apparently gone missing overnight, and now the little boy had no clue where his friend was.

"Don't worry little bro," Matt was saying comfortingly. "We'll find him." Keys got up and moved slightly towards Takeru. He looked at Matt and the younger digidestined nodded.

"We'll find him," Keys said in determination. He turned away and moved towards Kairi, who still slept. "Kairi," he called. "Wake up. We've got a job to do." Her eye fluttered open, but before he could see their colour she had gotten up and planted her lips on his. Keys jolted back in surprise and stared at her. That was far more forward than Kairi had ever been before, and usually she would give him some kind of visual warning before a kiss. Something didn't feel quite right about the feel of her lips or the kiss itself either.

"Are you feeling a little… off today Kairi?" he asked unsteadily. The others were all watching the exchange in confusion, except for Sedah, who was smiling. Kairi's gaze turned away from Keys towards Sedah and she smiled.

"No Keys I'm fine," she said. Menelmon came up next to her and looked up at Kairi.

"Are you sure Kairi?" the bird digimon asked. "You don't seem like yourself today." Kairi sharply turned her eyes on her partner.

"I'm fine Menelmon," she snapped. And without further speech she slinked out of the room with Sedah, leaving everyone puzzled.

"What just happened?" Tai asked, moving up to Keys.

"I-I don't know," Keys replied slowly. Maybe Kairi was just upset about the dream again. At least she hadn't screamed this time. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and looked at the others. "Come on, we need to find Tokomon." He looked at Menelmon and Aiwemon and the two bird digimon moved closer to him as he went out.

They spent the next hour searching the entire village for T.K.'s lost partner, meeting up at the base of the tower where Izzy had drawn a map in the dirt with a stick and was coordinating the search. The Pagumon had offered to search by the waterfall, while Agumon stubbornly stuck to his nose and went into the forest, trying to smell him out. Tai stood on top of the tower with his pocket telescope while Biyomon, Menelmon, and Aiwemon searched from the air. Not surprisingly there were a few people who weren't searching so they wouldn't lose track of everyone, surprisingly Kairi and Sedah were part of this group and to Keys' confusion she was laughing and joking with the knight when just yesterday she said he scared her.

"Can we hurry this up?" Mimi asked as Keys walked in from the north. "I have a pedicure and a mud wash scheduled in a half an hour."

"Tokomon should know better than to interrupt your beauty treatments," Gomamon said sarcastically.

"You are so right," Mimi replied, missing the sarcasm entirely. Keys shook his head at the girl, and his heart gave a weak tug when he heard Kairi laugh at a joke Sedah had just told her.

"Tokomon's not in the north part of the village," Keys said when he reached Izzy.

"He's not in the south," Sora added as she walked in.

"He's not in the whole village," said Matt. Keys sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as Aiwemon landed on his shoulder.

"I can't spot him," the bird digimon said sadly as the Pagumon came by and said he wasn't at the waterfall.

"This is bad," Izzy said. "But Tokomon's so small; he can't have gone too far."

"Maybe Agumon will have more luck in the forest," Keys wondered. His thoughts were interrupted when Tai called from above them.

"Well that's weird." Keys looked up at him.

"What is?" Tai pointed out away from the village.

"There's smoke by the river." Keys glided up into the air and hovered next to Tai, looking in the direction he was pointing.

"That isn't smoke," he said while shaking his head as he saw the plume. "It's steam."

"It must be Tokomon!" T.K. yelled.

"Or maybe it's Agumon," Izzy said. "He may have found Tokomon by the waterfall and is boiling the water as a signal."

"No really it's nothing," the Pagumon said. "We looked by the river and didn't see a thing."

"Well he could have shown up after you came back," Joe reasoned as Tai came out of the tower.

"I'm going to take a look around," he said.

"No don't do that!" the Pagumon yelled, sweat beading on their bodies.

"Chill out," Keys said. "We're just going to check it out, see if you missed anything." He looked inquiringly at the Pagumon, they were nervous about something by the waterfall, something they didn't want the digidestined to find out about.

"Just take our word for it," one of the Pagumon meekly answered. There was the ringing sound of metal and a shriek from Mimi and they all looked to see Sedah pointing his flaming sword at a small black ball with little round ears.

"That looks familiar," Keys muttered, landing on the ground once again. "Hey, Kairi and I saw that kind of digimon in Primary Village."

"What is this little squirt?" Sedah asked, inching closer with his sword. Keys couldn't answer that question, but stared at Sedah's brute sword. The flames which encircled it no longer had any darkness at their core, and there appeared to be a fleck of dry blood at the corner of blade's end.

"It's a Botamon," Tentomon said.

"But why would a Botamon be in a Pagumon village?" Palmon asked.

"What do you mean by that?" Kairi inquired.

"Botamon is the baby digimon form that digivolves into Koromon and then into Agumon," Gabumon explained. Keys looked at the Pagumon and frowned.

"I knew it," he growled, pulling out the Oblivion. The Pagumon raised their ears in fright and started leaving with a parting song.

"It's time for us to leave here. We really hate to go. We told you this was our place now you know it isn't so."

"Never trust anything that speaks in rhyme," Keys muttered. He pointed the Oblivion towards the steam and none needed him to say anything as they all dashed towards the river.

"Agumon!" Tai yelled when they reached the waterfall.

"Tai help me!" came a feeble cry from behind the cascading waters.

"Hold on Agumon!" Tai roared. "We're coming!" Tai went in behind the waterfall and Keys took a defensive stance in front of the rocks next to the falls.

"Agumon digivolved to, Greymon!"

Keys looked up at the falls as rocks on the roof the cave behind the falls parted and the water spewed down on two sides. Greymon stood directly underneath, and in front of him were two grey digimon that stood on their hind legs and looked a little bit like rabbits.

"Gazimon," whispered Tentomon. "On an evil scale of one to ten, ten being bad, these digimon are twelve."

"Then I guess that makes Devimon a thirty-six?" Keys asked dryly.

"Nova Blast!" Greymon's fireball struck the two Gazimon and sent them spluttering into the river. Keys smiled and shouldered his keyblade, making his way into the cave with the others. Tokomon had been locked in a cage and now T.K. was hugging his partner at their reunion. Numerous little ball-like pink digimon with bright red eyes and string-like pink ears had also been locked in cages and were now being set free. Keys assumed that these must be the Koromon.

"The Pagumon are gone," Keys said from the front as they freed the Koromon. "You can all return to your village now." The Koromon were quick to thank them, one of them even latching onto Keys' face and giving him the wettest kiss he'd ever received in his life. He could hear Kairi's laughter in before everyone else's, and after the Koromon had dropped to the ground and apologized, saying he was just so happy, Keys was willing to let it go and laughed it off a little; until an amplified voice spoke up from behind them.

"Hello."

"Oh great," Joe said as he turned around and saw the giant projection of an orange monkey digimon wearing a pair of shades and holding an electric guitar and microphone. "It's a digi-rockstar."

"There is nothing entertaining about Etemon," Tentomon said. "He has the power to control anything electronic through his dark network."

"You measly little digidestined humans. Thank you, hello."

"It's Etemon!" cried the Koromon in distress.

"You bratty kids messed up all my big beautiful plans," Etemon said, "so now I'm going to have to punish you all by playing a little number I just wrote. It's called 'Wrecking the Whole Place'!"

"Wrecking the Whole Place?" Tai asked skeptically.

"Do you think he can actually do that?" asked Izzy.

"Dark Network Concert Crush!" Etemon roared into the microphone. Keys held his footing as the ground shook beneath him, and what looked like miles of underground black cable uprooted themselves from the ground and held in the air, pulsing with red flashes of energy. Blasts came from the cables and struck the ground, destroying anything underneath whether it be tree, rock, or village building. A blast struck the river directly in front of them and Greymon stood in front of Tai, who flung himself protectively over Sora as the girl protected Biyomon.

"Digivolving time guys," Keys said, looking up at Etemon and pointing the Oblivion at the projection. "Let's take out this insult to music, Aiwemon." His partner nodded approvingly.

"Aiwemon digivolved to, Ohtarmon!"

"Gabumon digivolved to, Garurumon!"

"So you want a digivolution do you?" Etemon asked with a smugness that shook Keys slightly. "Well guess what, the answer's no!" He struck his guitar in a cacophonic chord. "Dark Network Concert Crush! Ah-hu-hu a-hu-hu!" Greymon and Garurumon roared in agony and Ohtarmon dropped his mace and clutched his helmeted head as golden light surrounded them and they shrunk back to their rookie levels.

"What the-?" Keys asked in shock as Aiwemon stood weakly in front of him.

"Hm," Kairi muttered in admiration. "He's good." Keys looked at her incredulously.

"What?" he asked. "How can you say something like that?" Aiwemon stirred weakly in front of him and Keys turned his attention towards his partner.

"Concert Crush took our power," Agumon said.

"Does rock and roll have that effect in your world?" Tentomon asked. Sora rolled her eyes.

"Only on our parents," she replied. Keys shook his head.

"Not my kind of rock," he said. "Parents love my music."

"Really?" Matt asked with a raised eyebrow. "What kind is that?" Keys looked at him before glancing grimly around the cave.

"The kind we built this city on," he answered. Etemon growled and strummed on his guitar again.

"So you like the classic tunes do ya? Well here's a number one hit from the digi-past, Dark Network Concert Crush!" More blasts came from above them and the walls stated shaking as debris and one keyblade fell to the ground. The Oblivion vanished as it lay next to where Keys had fallen, moaning as he suddenly felt very weary.

"You low-life," he whispered, "You took my energy."

"Get a better insult kid," Sedah whispered quietly. "You're always being too kind."

"Ha ha!" Etemon roared as Joe knelt next to Keys to help him. "Yeah! Dark Network darling! I'm the King!" Keys looked up and gave the best smile he could.

"Elvis sucks!" he goaded in a thunderous shout. Etemon's face only got angrier.

"What!" he roared. "How dare you insult the King! Now you're going to have to pay-"

"Aha!" Keys retaliated, a look of victory on his weary face. "You admit it! You aren't the King!" Etemon dropped his guitar and microphone and his hands went up to his head.

"What? No! That's not what I meant!" Despite the situation, nearly everyone couldn't help but laugh at the monkey's expense. Nearly; Kairi and Sedah were the only ones not laughing.

"You have potential Etemon," Sedah sighed. "But it looks like he got you this time. Keyblader one, Etemon zero. Now I know why you weren't invited to the party by Malef-" he stopped when Kairi suddenly jabbed her elbow into his side not protected by armour.

"Speak nothing of that!" she hissed. If she had wanted none to notice what she and Sedah had said she was unfortunate, for even though Keys, Aiwemon, and the others were all busy trying not to get hit by falling rocks, some of them in a wearied state, Menelmon heard every word.

"Is there no way to fight this monster?" Sora asked as she helped Keys onto his feet.

"Right now? No," Aiwemon replied, getting himself onto Keys' shoulder.

"If we could only go a step further," Gabumon began, "we might have a shot at it."

"A step further?" Matt asked.

"That must be what Gennai was referring to when he told us to find the crests and the tags," Sora said as she and Joe propped Keys up. He turned his head and looked at her.

"I think it's a little late for that now," he whispered. He almost fell over again when another blast struck, except this time it hit the top of the entranceway over the cave.

"Rockslide!" Tai yelled, running away from the entrance. The Koromon all started bounding further into the cave, leading them on.

"Hurry this way!" Keys got close to Kairi and Sedah with the help of Sora and Joe, and found that they were still standing where they had stood and were not yet following the Koromon, yet preparing to reluctantly follow.

"Kairi," Keys whispered anxiously. "Do you have another ether?" Kairi turned her nose up at him and began walking away with Sedah, who was smirking at him.

"Go find your own ether," she replied coolly.

"Ouch," Joe said quietly.

"She's being very mean and rude today," Gomamon said angrily. Sedah turned his head at this comment and smiled again, only for Kairi to hit him in the side again. Menelmon reluctantly followed Kairi, but for some reason Kairi turned and gave her partner a cruel stare.

"Kairi?" Menelmon asked, genuinely frightened at Kairi's hostility.

"Leave me alone weakling," Kairi snarled. Menelmon leapt back as Kairi made threatening movements before Sedah stopped her and turned her back towards the path they were going. He leaned his head close to her and began whispering something, at which Aiwemon's head sharply rose before falling down again in weariness.

Keys looked down at Menelmon in deepest sympathy when he reached the frightened rookie. He shook off Sora and Joe's support and knelt down.

"You guys go on ahead," he said. "I'll catch up." The two humans glanced at each other before nodding and running after the others. Biyomon and Gomamon stayed for a moment by Menelmon's side.

"Don't worry Menelmon," Biyomon said, "we'll find out what's going on."

"Yeah," Gomamon added. "And when we do we'll knock some sense into Kairi. She's got no right treating you like that."

"Be careful guys," Keys whispered to them before they left to follow their partners, "I think Kairi had the dream again last night. We gave her the space she needed last time, but she hasn't had much time to sort anything out yet today." Biyomon nodded in understanding and left immediately, but Gomamon held his gaze on Keys for a second longer before hanging his head.

"Alright Keys," he said in a sigh, turning to leave. Keys didn't keep watching the digimon make their retreat, nor did he hear or feel the blasts still coming at the entrance, now buried in rock. All he saw was the frightened look on Menelmon's face as she stared off in the direction where Kairi had gone.

"Kairi?" she asked again, so quietly that Keys could barely hear her. Aiwemon hopped off of his shoulder so Keys could wrap his arms comfortingly around the little female rookie. And when he did she turned into him and wrapped her wings as far around him as they could go.

"What's wrong with her?" Menelmon asked after a long moment of silence. Keys shook his head and delicately placed her on his left shoulder while Aiwemon hopped back up onto his right.

"I don't know," he said as he stood and started walking. "But I'm going to find out before she does anything else." After a minute or so he could see everyone else standing at a dead end in the tunnel where the image of the Sun was carved into the flat rock that marked the end. Sora, Biyomon, Joe, and Gomamon were all eyeing Kairi and Sedah, but the others were staring at the Koromon or the carving on the rock.

"What is this place?" Keys asked when he arrived, before falling over again as his legs finally gave way. Sora and Matt helped him up while the Koromon answered.

"This is a safe place where we go whenever anything bad happens to our village," they explained.

"So what happens now?" Tai asked. "We're at a dead end in a blocked tunnel, we're trapped like rats." Several things then happened at once. Golden light suddenly surrounded them in a box by shining from the walls of the cave, and even behind them where there had been no wall. Tai's tag began to glow as well, and as he unfurled it from underneath his blue shirt the wall with the image of the Sun began to shrink and remove itself from its place. Kairi and Sedah both dropped to their knees, but this time no one spared them a glance as they watched the shrinking wall form into a golden-red trapezoid with the Sun's image and hover in the air in front of Tai.

"I think I know what this is," Tai said as the trapezoid flew into his tag. "A Crest." Keys looked at the goggle-headed leader while the latter bowed his head. "The Crest of Courage," he heard Tai half murmur. Tai then snapped his head up and looked outside where light was shining.

"Didn't there used to be a wall there?" Joe asked, looking across the vast landscape of beautiful wooded mountains. Birds were singing as the forest seemed to go on for miles and miles into the horizon.

"Yes but the crest must have brought us here," the Koromon answered. "These mountains are a long way from our village."

"Score!" Matt said, helping to keep Keys' shoulder up. "Keys beats Etemon in a word game and we get frequent flyer miles."

"It's so beautiful," Mimi sighed, cupping her hands to her heart. Tai raised his crest into the palm of his hand.

"With this crest," he mused, "we could do anything."

"Don't be too hasty Tai," Keys flashed back quickly. "We only have one." Tai looked at the weakened keyblade master and nodded.

"Don't worry Keys," he said; "we'll find yours and Kairi's soon enough."

"There's no rush," Kairi quickly said as she frowned while looking at the beautiful country. "We can take our time." Keys frowned at her and sighed in frustration.

"Don't you remember what happened when we fought Maleficent while fighting Devimon?" he asked. "There was no way we could win!" Kairi only smiled.

"Oh I remember," she said blissfully. Keys shook his head once more and placed one foot forward, signaling to his aides that he wanted to walk.

"Let's be careful now Keys," Matt said cautiously. "We don't want you to fall on any rocks and bring us all down with you." Keys laughed, glad for anything to lighten his mood.

"We're going to head back to our village now," the Koromon said. "Good luck everyone." Keys smiled she watched the little digimon bound away, and felt that there would always be a hope to defeat evil as long as there are those willing to help the ones who fight.

---

They marched forward through the woods for a good hour, and Keys was starting to feel a little better as his energy slowly returned to him. When he asked, he found that it didn't really bother the others for their need to help him walk, and that they actually enjoyed helping him in his situation. But every time he tried to talk to Kairi she scorned him and Sedah spun him away. And then it seemed to him that his heart broke when the knight laid a kiss on Kairi's cheek and she did not recoil. Menelmon walked sadly beside him whilst Aiwemon perched on his shoulder, both bird digimon's shoulders drooping every time they tried to engage Kairi in conversation. Sora, Biyomon, Joe, and Gomamon weren't having much luck either, and they stuck close to Keys, sending furtive glances down the line to Sedah and Kairi who hung as rear guard. The spirits of everyone else were high though as they moved through the beautiful woods; Tai often gazing fondly at his crest.

"You know," Sedah said. "As soon as Etemon figures out we're gone…" he left his sentence hanging and a feeling of dread suddenly engulfed everyone.

Thanks a lot Sedah, Keys thought. Just when we think we're in the clear you have to go and ruin it all. Just like you're doing to Kairi. He glared at the knight of Wurderlond, but Tai drew his attention away.

"Etemon, Shmedemon," he said arrogantly as they walked down the mountainside and through the forest. "We've got a crest, that means Agumon can digivolve to the next level and take on that digi-jerk."

"That's true Tai," Matt said while still helping Keys to walk. "But do we really know that the crest will help Agumon to digivolve?"

"It should, shouldn't it?" Keys asked tiredly.

"Of course it will!" Tai retorted, "Right Agumon?" Agumon looked tiredly up at Tai; he was still recovering along with Gabumon, Aiwemon, and Keys from when Etemon took their energy. Uncertainty was in his eyes, as if he didn't really know either. All they had was Gennai's word, and even though that was enough for Keys and apparently Tai, it seemed as if the others were now having doubts.

Tai folded his arms and looked at his partner while they halted. "Listen buddy this is your big chance, don't let me down now. You're the only one who can digivolve further. So either you try harder and digivolve to the next level to save us from Etemon, or I'll find myself a new digimon!"

"Not much of a choice," Tentomon said.

"Whoa Tai!" Keys mumbled. "Ease up on him alright! You're putting a lot of pressure on him. In fact, you're starting to act a lot like someone I know should not be acting." He turned his head and glared at Kairi, who raised her nose into the air in defiance.

"Arg," Tai groaned before looking directly at Izzy. "By the way, how are we supposed to use the crest to digivolve again anyhow?"

"Well from what we've seen so far from the other digivolutions, it takes a lot of energy." He paused for a moment, "for example they can't digivolve if they're hungry. In addition, the partner of the digimon must be in some sort of danger, usually under attack."

"And we can't forget one more thing," Keys added. "Gennai said that the crest would only allow our digimon to digivolve further when we're demonstrating the quality within that makes our crest special and unique. Tai, I heard you murmur that yours was the crest of Courage." Tai pumped himself on the chest and started moving down through the forest again.

"No worries then," he said swiftly. "I'll provide the courage, we'll provide the food, and Etemon provides the danger. And since it's a higher level of digivolution my theory is that even more energy is required." Keys took one look at Tai, and then to Agumon, and then back to Tai, shaking his head the whole time.

"This is not going to end well," he remarked dryly, and Matt and Sora nodded their heads as they supported him and moved forwards after the leader.

Behind them, Kairi and Sedah smiled and followed.

Keys was right in feeling sympathetic for Agumon, for not fifteen minutes later Tai called for a rest just as hunger started to set in for most of the digidestined. Sora and Matt set Keys down on a log, and Aiwemon wearily hopped off of his shoulder and sat next to him. Joe and Mimi took off their packs and started laying their meal of fruit and bread out, but just as Keys was about to grab an orange Tai scooped it all into his arms and strode away with Agumon to a point further away. Keys licked his lips and his stomach rumbled as the sudden scent of fruity flesh and juice plagued his nostrils while Tai stuffed food into Agumon's mouth, giving his partner no regard for its capacity.

"That really wasn't very nice of him," Aiwemon moaned in complaint, on both accounts of watching him force Agumon to eat and taking the food away.

"Just one more teensy bite," Tai said, shoving an apple into Agumon's loaded and protesting mouth. The rookie leaned his head back plopped down onto his back, the mass overcoming him. "Stop your bellyaching and open wide," Tai whined. "You've got to keep on eating. You're the only one who can protect us from Etemon Agumon! Listen everyone's given you their food so that you could digivolve, isn't that right?"

"Yeah," Matt sighed, looking down at Tai without comprehension.

"We didn't give our food," Mimi whispered, "He took it from us. Of all the nerve."

"Well the food won't do us any good," Gabumon said tiredly, he was still recovering from the encounter with Etemon as well. "We still won't be able to digivolve if Etemon takes our power away."

"So those who don't work don't eat huh?" Joe asked dismally.

"But I'm hungry!" Tentomon moaned.

"And so am I," Sedah growled, his hand straying to the hilt of his brute sword. Tai turned his head and glared at them, and Keys returned his glare with a stoic stare of his own.

"I said is that right?" Tai asked again, louder this time. Keys waited for a hard moment before joining in with the others in their affirmative chorus. Tai turned back towards his partner and swiftly spun another article of food into his mouth.

"I guess there isn't much we can do to help," Palmon said.

"I don't think Agumon can take much more of this," Biyomon added.

"Man, Tai is really pushing him," Sora chimed in worriedly. "Agumon's stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey." Keys looked at Agumon with deepest sympathy.

"That amount of food isn't healthy for anything," he muttered. "If Tai keeps this up, Agumon will get a bad case of gout."

"Does it matter?" Kairi asked spitefully. "We can't take down Etemon anyway, so why don't we just let it go?"

"What are you trying to say Kairi?" Matt asked. "That we should just give up?" Kairi shrugged.

"We can't win," she answered. "So why bother fighting?" Keys stood and stared at her unblinkingly. He didn't waver despite the fierceness of the gaze she laid on him, nor did his weariness cause him to drop onto the ground.

"The Kairi I know would never say that," he growled. He knew her words had deeper meaning than just an Ultimate level baboon. Kairi scoffed her head ever so slightly to her right, and her eyes bore into his, and what he saw made him angrier and even more confused.

Her eyes were yellow.

"Princess Kairi, Keys," she bit with her tongue. Keys felt the sting that it was intended to cause, and the knowledge that he knew she was doing this to hurt him caused more pain than the act itself.

"You haven't forced anyone to call you princess except for Captain Jack Sparrow," Keys bit back. "You aren't like that." The sound of ringing metal filled his ears and Sedah stepped between him and Kairi with his flaming sword pointed towards Keys.

"I think it's time a knight taught a little brat to show a little respect for royalty present in their midst," he warned. Keys glared at Sedah, and at his sword, but backed down.

"Sora what?" Menelmon asked wearily as Keys dropped to his seat on the log.

"Now is not the time for this battle," he said. "For one thing I don't have the strength to fight." He cast a furtive glance at Kairi and Sedah, and his heart plummeted when he saw her kissing him. He looked away, the beginnings of tears stinging his eyes.

"I don't care if he is a knight of light," he growled. "Or if I don't feel anything dark from him, he's bad news and has Kairi under some kind of spell. I know it!"

"You've got to eat up!" Tai roared at Agumon, attracting Keys' attention back to the matter at hand.

"Both Tai's and… Princess Kairi's personalities have taken a turn for the worse lately," Izzy said quietly so that the aforementioned princess and her knight wouldn't hear. "I remember them both being quite nice, even to us younger kids." Sora sighed dismally.

"I know what you mean," she added. "Tai was pretty cool during soccer camp. He was a team player. He may look like he's trying to run things all by himself; but whatever crazy action he takes, he does it for the good of the team. But now all this…" she left her sentence hanging as Tai shoved more food into his partner's mouth.

"Makes sense," Keys commented. "But right now the team is hungry and only Agumon is eating," Agumon plopped down on the ground, protesting to Tai that he couldn't take any more food, "albeit poorly at that."

"Tai's personality seems to have changed ever since he got a hold of that Crest of Courage," Sora continued. Keys gave a bitter laugh.

"Not being very courageous now," he muttered. "Fighting alone in this way isn't courageous, it's suicide." His stomach gave a particularly loud grumble at this point and he felt he'd had enough of watching Agumon suffer and listen to his own stomach suffer.

"Accio orange," he said, holding out his hand. Thankfully Tai hadn't had a chance to stuff Agumon with the orange that had initially been swiped from him and it soared out of the dwindling pile placed in front of the goggle-headed leader. Tai spun around and looked at Keys as if declaring he was guilty of treason.

"Give that back right now Keys!" he yelled. "You gave it up for Agumon!" Keys calmly surveyed Tai, and was strangely comforted by the frustration he was causing the leader while he slowly peeled the orange.

"I didn't give it up Tai," he answered peacefully. "You swiped it out of my hand before I could start eating it." Tai looked to any others for support at having his leadership stolen from under his feet.

"Sora!" Tai pleaded to the girl as she sat next to Keys. Both Soras looked at each other and the male one answered.

"I'm bushed Tai," said Keys. "Etemon drained my energy, Agumon's, Aiwemon's, and Gabumon's as well. I know Agumon's the only one who can digivolve to the Ultimate level, but that as yet remains to be seen. Look at Aiwemon," he inclined his head towards his partner, who was still sitting tiredly next to him.

"He's been resting on my shoulder for the last hour and a half," Keys argued, "and he's not looking much better."

"We all need food Tai," T.K. moaned quietly.

"I'm hungry!" reiterated Tentomon.

"Yeah well the fact is guys," Tai retorted, "if Etemon shows up he'll just steal your energy again. Only Agumon will be able to protect us."

"How do you know that?" Sedah asked. "You haven't really seen me in action yet, and Olympus forbid that the keyblader is actually able to do something before that oaf saps him faster than a curse." Keys looked questioningly at the Ebunik. It felt almost like he knew this person but wasn't quite sure where.

"Idiot," Kairi muttered under her breath. Keys ignored it for the moment and bit into his orange, savouring every last fleck of juice that ran down his parched throat. The forest was quiet for a moment as everyone watched the internal struggle inside of their leader.

"Tai." The boy whipped his head around, scared at the sudden weakness in Agumon's voice. "Tai I can't eat another bite. Let the others have some food."

At last Tai relented, and everyone else was glad that they were finally able to get something edible into their bellies. Aiwemon and Gabumon improved remarkably, and Keys felt heartened as his energy returned to him. He felt as if he could take on… well he didn't feel like he could take on Maleficent just yet, but a couple thousand heartless felt right up his alley.

"Hey guys!" Joe suddenly called, lifting his tag up out of his shirt. It was glowing in a light blue radiance.

"The tag's reacting," Izzy declared. "The crest must be nearby. Huh? Hey Joe wait!" But Joe was already off, speeding down the forest path in a speed they hadn't thought possible for him. They followed in pursuit, but suddenly he fell down, like he had tripped over something. Keys caught up to him and looked down at the boy's feet, where he had tripped over a length of black cable.

What's cable doing out here? He wondered, bending down to look at it. Then his mind went back to when Etemon had attacked them.

"It's Etemon's dark network!" he cried.

"Quick!" Tai yelled. "Down the path, I think I see something up ahead over the trees!"

Nothing impeded them as they ran, and sure enough the trees thinned and large stone columns sprouted out of the foliage, the path slowly became paved by cobblestones as well, and a towering arch marked the end of the forest as the road led its way out into a desert, where a monumental stone structure stood. The building was circular, with many archways in its magnificent masonry. Statues of warriors, Gods and Goddesses, and great black lions stood in many of the archways and lined the road that led straight to the building. Fountains littered the path at the entrance to the building and Keys couldn't help but notice that he'd seen architecture very similar to this on many other occasions in a particular world. They entered the building through its entrance, and after traversing a long dark corridor with a bright light at the end emerged in the center of a large oval, where stone stands went up and around the entire oval. A giant electronic scoreboard was on one side of the oval, and in the stands on the other side was what looked like a control room likening to one Keys would have normally found in a Blitz stadium. Underneath the screen was an entrance that reminded Keys of the one in Olympus Coliseum, large and dark with a spike portcullis preventing entry or exit. Large iron statues with the heads of men and open mouths hung beneath the screen as well. Inside the oval were white lines drawn in a rectangle and two giant nets at either side.

"It's amazing," Izzy said in awe. "It looks just like the Roman Coliseum."

"What's the Roman Coliseum?" Tentomon asked.

"Well Tentomon it's an ancient arena," Tai answered. Keys shook his head.

"This isn't a coliseum," he answered. Izzy looked at him in disbelief.

"What do you mean it isn't a coliseum?" he asked. In answer Keys pointed to the ground.

"Philocetes taught me this," he said. "A true coliseum has a circular bottom where gladiators, heroes, and monsters fight to the death. What we're standing in, and what Phil admitted to me as what he took for a coliseum, is a hippodrome, a racetrack for chariot races."

"Ha!" Sedah suddenly burst out. "I knew the old goat didn't have a real one." Keys looked sharply at him.

"What?" he asked. "How do you know Phil?"

"I competed in a tournament once," Sedah replied quickly, and left it at that.

"But I'm sure the ancient ones didn't have big screens," Mimi said, looking at the board.

"Or soccer goals," Sora added, looking at the nets.

"Okay everyone," Tai began. "Let's split up and search for the crest!" Just as he began to move, Agumon fell onto the ground. "Huh? What's the matter Agumon?"

"I can't move Tai," the dinosaur digimon answered. "Just let me rest for a while."

"Come on Agumon get up!" Tai said forcefully. "You can do it!"

"I can't."

"Give him a rest Tai," Joe said quietly. Tai turned around and looked at him as Joe pulled out his tag again. "The only clue we have is my tag, so Gomamon and I will search and you guys can rest here for a while." He turned and started to leave with Gomamon, but Tai insistently followed along. Keys sighed and dropped onto the ground, and then Sora moved in behind a black and white ball that had rolled into their area.

"A soccer ball!" she said, stopping it with her feet while a smile came to her face. "Hey, anyone for a game?"

"Yeah!" T.K. and Mimi said simultaneously.

"Great," Matt added. "It can be the human team playing against the digimon team." Tentomon buzzed into the air on his wings.

"What on earth is soccer?" he asked. Keys looked up kindly at the insect digimon.

"My thoughts exactly," he added. Sora looked blankly at him.

"What? You don't have soccer on your world? You're such a depraved child." Keys simply smiled and shook his head.

"Do you guys have Blitzball?" he asked back. When Sora shook her head he laughed. "Then you're the depraved ones. Ah well, how do you play soccer?"

"It's easy," Sora answered. "You use your feet to try and get this ball into the goals. You can also use your chest or your head." She then did a flip with her foot and sent the ball flying up to meet her head, where she pushed it off from. Gabumon ran to intercept the ball, winding up a kick.

"Here I go!" he yelled, striking the ball with his foot. Keys watched it soar high into the air before it fell down on Biyomon's head. It bounced off of her pink feathers and landed in Palmon's hands as the plant digimon stood behind her.

"That's really using your head," she said as Biyomon fell down onto the ground.

"Oh and I forgot to tell you," Sora giggled. "You can't use your hands."

"Unless you're the goalkeeper," T.K. said. "Then you can touch the ball with your hands."

"Yeah," Matt added. "You should be the goalie for your team Palmon." Keys stood up and made his way onto the field where the three humans had assembled. Sora looked at him, and smiled when she saw his own smile.

"This looks a lot like Blitz," he said, looking between the two nets and the field. "The lines and nets are in the exact same places, and the ball even looks kind of similar."

"Well what's Blitzball then?" Sora asked. Keys looked up into the sky and raised his palm.

"Water," he said, creating a sphere of the liquid in his hands. "It's almost exactly the same," he explained. "Except that anyone can use their hands and it's played entirely underwater."

"What?" T.K. asked. "Don't you guys need to breathe?" Keys laughed.

"Of course we do," he said. "But that's why the halves are only five minutes long, at least when my friends and I play. The pros go for thirty minutes and everytime they�run out of breath they just head to the top of the pool and take a new one.�How long are the halves in soccer?"

"Fifty minutes or so," Sora answered. "But with all the calls and cards, a ref could easily cause a half to go on for over an hour."

"Yeah, we can't do that in Blitzball," Keys answered with his hands behind his head. He swung it to one side, getting some of the hair out of his eyes and looked at Palmon with a gleam. "Alright Palmon," he said, watching her toss the ball in between each of her hands. "Bring it!"

"Alright you asked for it," Palmon replied, winding her arm back. She let fly the ball, aided by her vines, and it soared high above Keys, who was ready and waiting at center field. The ball slowly fell down towards him as the other players took the field, Kairi and Sedah abstaining, but he made no move to do anything. Palmon made it to her goal, and Izzy took his, Matt and Sora played as Keys' wings while Mimi and T.K. took defense. Gabumon faced off against him as center, Aiwemon and Tentomon on the wings, while Biyomon and Menelmon played defense. Then, the ball struck his forehead, and Keys butted it off.

The ball streaked for the ground by his feet and Keys immediately set into motion, driving past a spinning Gabumon while maintaining possession of the ball. Dribbling instantly proved to be a little more difficult than he had anticipated, but within a few moments he had a rhythm down. Aiwemon came in on a flanking maneuver, but with a quick flick of his foot Keys passed the ball over to Sora. The girl took possession of the ball and moved further up the right side of the field. Menelmon moved to intercept her from the front, but her foot slipped and she landed in a daze on her front. Sora kicked the ball up to avoid the fallen bird digimon, and spinning in the air, she sent the ball on a long pass to Matt at the other end of their offense. The ball was only halfway over when Sora crashed to the ground on Menelmon's opposite side. Matt picked up the ball with his chest and saw Biyomon preparing to crash into him while Tentomon and Gabumon were both approaching fast from the sides. He quickly spun the ball off to Keys in the center before being flattened by the rush. Keys gobbled it up with his feet and kicked the ball for the net. Palmon rushed to intercept with her hands and vines, but the ball was in the upper right corner before she could reach.

"GOAL!" an announcer's voice suddenly blared as an image of a streaming soccer ball came onto the screen. Keys pumped his fist and yelled hoarsely at his teammates, who were all rushing in on him.

"ZIGGY ZIGGY ZIGGY!" he cried, holding his hands up for slaps as Matt and Sora reached him first.

"OI OI OI!" they replied, T.K. and Mimi now reaching them as they made their way back to center en mass.

"What's the name of the game?" Keys yelled, continuing the cheer which by now had grabbed their team by the throat and would not let go until it was finished.

"The ball in the net!"

"Dun-dun-ah!"

"Charge!"

"Dun-dun-ah!"

"Charge!"

"Dun-dun-ah!"

"SUPER CHARGE!"

As soon as the cheer ended their faces split at the seams and howls of laughter erupted from the deepest depths of their lungs. The digimon were all blinking questioningly at them and glancing at each other, wondering if this was normal human behaviour. The laughter finally abated and Sora motioned for Palmon to toss the ball back to center, to which she complied, still confused by the sudden positive turn of spirits.

The ball rolled towards center, and came to rest under Keys' right foot. The boy grinned and stared at Gabumon, who was glaring back at him. He knew he wouldn't be getting past the digimon so easily this time, even if they were still green. Keys applied pressure to the toe of his shoe and flicked the ball up above his head. He let it fall down, perfectly vertical, and touch his head before it bounced directly upwards.

In what happened in an instant but seemed to be in slow motion Keys' feet left the ground and he did a back flip, nearly an insubstantial amount of time passed before his foot struck the soccer ball with monumental force. It spun towards the ground and straight for the goal at a pace none of the humans had ever seen a ball kicked before, yet it stayed above the ground on a cushion of air. The ball went right past both defensemen and straight for Palmon. She got her arms up readily, it would be easy to stop it at her level and she wouldn't let Keys score another goal, but the ball wasn't done yet. Just before she would have caught it the ball soared up and past her head.

Palmon looked behind her at the soccer ball, still spinning in the net before looking at Keys, who stood at center field with a smirk the size of the ball as the word 'GOAL' blared throughout the field yet again.

"The Sphere Shot," he said. Palmon scooped the ball out of the net and threw it back at him.

"Do that again Keys!" Sora called from his right, clearly impressed at his skill. Keys smiled as the ball rolled towards him, and also smiled at the scowl on Sedah's face. He knew that if Tidus and Wakka were here, they would absolutely love to play a few games with these guys. Another foot kicked the ball before it could reach him though and it went far into the stands.

"I can't believe you're playing soccer at a time like this!" Tai raged. "Can't you guys use your heads for something other than hitting the ball?"

"But Tai," Sora muttered in a disheartened voice, "didn't you see Keys' shot?" Tai folded his arms over his chest as Joe walked past Palmon into her net and Kairi and Sedah finally walked onto the field.

"Splendid shot Keys," Kairi said sarcastically.

"Yeah I saw it," Tai muttered, not paying the two new arrivals any attention. "Dumb show-off, but the sooner Joe finds his crest, the sooner we can leave." Keys raised an eyebrow and approached the goggle-headed leader.

"Show-off?" he asked threateningly.

"Hey Joe," Gomamon said, "you're tag is reacting again."

"Yeah I know," Joe said as he stood next to the net, "it has to be around here somewhere." Booming laughter suddenly filled the stadium, coming from the screen. Keys turned his attention towards it as it flicked on and saw two gloved white hands clapping. It then switched to Etemon, holding up a microphone and glaring at them from underneath his sunglasses.

"Who's the King?" he asked.

"I thought we'd already established that Elvis was," Keys said as he slowly backed up next to Izzy.

"If the crest is in the goal," the genius whispered, "then logically we're safer there. Remember what happened when Tai found his crest?" Keys nodded his head slightly as he slowly backed up with Izzy towards the net.

"Yeah," he answered, "he became arrogant and cocky."

"That's not quite what I meant," Izzy replied quietly. Mimi and Palmon flashed past him and Keys turned, scooping up Aiwemon and Menelmon while Kairi and Sedah were beating a brave retreat to the goal.

"Hey!" Agumon called, running in slowly from the side. "Wait for me! Oomph!" He tripped and fell over his clawed feet and landed hard on the stone.

"Agumon!" Tai called as Sora and Biyomon came in last. He looked about to run out after his partner when the net suddenly inverted and trapped them all in what had become a cage.

"GOAL!" Etemon roared as the soccer ball appeared on the screen again for the third time; then it showed him again. "I sure did it! I scored a goal!"

"This whole thing was a trap!" Tai yelled in surprise. Tentomon buzzed towards the net arrogantly.

"Does he really think he can stop us with a simple ne- yeouch!" Electricity coursed into the digimon and he suddenly recoiled in high-voltage pain, crashing into Tai and causing a chain reaction that sent nearly everyone onto their backsides.

"Now listen up," Etemon said in amusement. "If you do that you might get hurt. There's electricity running through that net, it's a shocker I know. Now I really wanted to be there to destroy you myself but I'm just way too busy, you know how us rock & roll legends are you know. But don't worry; the acting substitute for me is a very rare treat. Now let's see if you can put your puny little heads together and find out who our special guest star is. Well?"

"How would we know who it is?" Tai retorted.

"Fifty munny says it's going to be some kind of heartless," Keys muttered to Matt. The boy nodded his head and looked fearfully towards Etemon on the screen.

"Now I'm sure you'll all be surprised," Etemon announced as the sealed off gate opened with the grinding of metal that hadn't been moved in years. "Here he comes!" A shadowed figure stepped out through the entrance, and it was only when it stepped into the light that they knew what it was.

"It's another Greymon!" Tai yelled. Keys noted that it was, except that it had a large collar around its neck. Matt smirked at him and Keys grudgingly paid him his winnings.

"Hn," Etemon grunted with a laugh as the Greymon made its way towards them, breaking through stone walls and the other net, "I knew you'd be surprised. I'm so evil. Now let's get started it's time to go, here's the show!" Tai looked towards Agumon as the other Greymon roared from atop the other net.

"It's time to digivolve," he said. Agumon nodded and complied.

"Agumon digivolved to, Greymon!"

Both Greymon's charged each other in the center of the field, and neither appeared to be making any headway against the other.

"You can do it Greymon!" Gabumon yelled. Keys nodded and added his support, but he couldn't help but feel like a helpless cheerleader, unable to fight.

Greymon bashed his head down against his adversary's head and the collared one recoiled. Then it swung its tail into Greymon's ribs and charged again while Greymon was stunned. It butted its head up against Greymon's chin and sent their champion flying into the net. Electricity coursed into Greymon in the same way it did to Tentomon. An electric wave burst out from the point of connection, breaking Greymon's contact with the net and dropping him onto the ground.

"Come on Greymon!" Tai yelled. "You need to digivolve!" Greymon wearily raised his head and looked at the other Greymon, towering above him.

"We're done for if he can't digivolve again!" Tentomon moaned.

"No we aren't," Keys said. "He just needs some help."

"Digivolve Greymon," Tai ordered. "You've got to!" Greymon stood up and charged his adversary again.

"What was that I just said about him needing help?" Keys asked as he watched the other Greymon throw theirs to the ground and start pounding on his skull with his foot. He raised his right hand to the sky, glad that he had the energy to perform magic again. "Firaga!"

"What'd you just do?" Aiwemon asked.

"Just watch," Keys answered in grim satisfaction. Two streaking meteors of fire barreled out of the sky towards the Greymons and struck into the side of the one following Etemon's orders. Greymon took this opportunity to slash his tail into the side of his opponent and sent him flying.

"Hey that was just like my Meteor Wing attack when I'm Birdramon," Biyomon said excitedly. Keys looked down at her with a smile.

"I got the idea from you," he admitted. "Magic can take any form as long as you can envision it. Now then, any ideas for getting out of this place?"

"Well a current runs through the net," Kairi said. Keys looked at her in surprise, she was being a lot more helpful now for some reason than she had been before.

"Maybe we can short it out," Izzy wondered.

"Leave it to us," Tentomon said as he flew next to the keyblade master, "ready Keys? Super Shocker!"

"Thundaga!" The electricity struck the cage and hot white sparks flew off in all directions. Tentomon flew up into the net and screeched in pain as the power coursed back into him.

"Sorry Tentomon," Izzy apologized. "I thought that would work. The net must have some kind of monumental breaker to keep the current from shorting out after a sudden jolt."

"Then what else can we do apart from waiting for Greymon to win?" Menelmon asked, looking out of the net at the Greymons. "Because I don't think it's going to happen, he's moving slower than usual."

"He ate too much food," Sedah scoffed. "He's slower than a satyr's pickup lines." Greymon was put in a headlock as he spoke and thrown into the stands.

"We really need help!" Gomamon cried. "Marching Fishes!" Water spewed out of the mouths of the statues that were beneath the screen and multicoloured fish swam out of the water and into the air. A Gazimon had been standing above the heads with lit fireworks in his hands, and the fish promptly took the firebrands from him before pushing the Gazimon off of the statue. They flew in formation towards the aggressor Greymon, wielding their fireworks. The Greymon drew his attention towards the fish as the fire licked at his sides and followed them away.

"Where did those fish come from?" Joe asked as the Greymon chased after the fish. "How did they just come out of there like that?"

"I don't know," Gomamon answered, "but if it's not broken don't fix it."

"It's really elementary Joe," Izzy explained. "There's probably just a dimensional vortex rift in the water."

"Ditto," Gomamon agreed. Keys shook his head to clear any inkling of knowledge he might had thought he had in this area.

"Enough techno babble," he said loudly enough to attract their attention away from the fish, which had just dropped their payload and were now soaring away. "Do we have a way out or not?"

"We should dig a hole and tunnel our way out," Izzy said, grabbing at one of the large stone tiles that made up the field.

"I've got a faster way, magnet!" The swirling field of attraction bloomed into existence above the net's boundaries and all the loose tiles in their cage flew up to the top of the net and held there. One still remained firmly lodged next to a black cable like the one they'd found in the forest. The image of a thick cross was etched onto the slab. Joe's tag began to glow blue again.

"Hey it's reacting again," he said, placing it down on the slab. "Maybe this rock is the crest we've been looking for." The slab suddenly glowed with an intense light blue and was then inside Joe's tag, now resting on soft earth. The ground suddenly gave way and they fell into a pit in a giant heap.

"It is my crest!" Joe said. "Yes!"

"Get off me insolent bird!" Kairi groaned as Menelmon lay over her. Menelmon turned her frightened eyes towards her partner and Keys rose to face Kairi, getting Menelmon off of the girl and placing her protectively behind him, not that there was much room to do so.

"As soon as we're out of this Menelmon," he said. "I promise to figure out what's going on." Tentomon then called from above them, indicating that he'd found a tunnel.

"You said that last time," Menelmon whispered disappointedly. Keys sighed and nodded as they began piling and shoving to get through the tunnel, Kairi and Sedah at the lead.

"I know," he whispered back. "But last time I tried to talk to her and she obviously doesn't want to do that right now. This time I'm going to go straight to her heart." Menelmon nodded and flew up to sit next to Aiwemon, who was waiting at the lip of the tunnel for Keys to crawl on up.

The tunnel was rather short, and they only had to crawl for a half a minute before they emerged outside, behind a wall on the sidelines of the soccer field where the two Greymons were now dueling in the center. But the other had their Greymon in a headlock, and was now rushing towards a partitioning wall between the field and the stands. Greymon was hurled through the wall, which provided no resistance, and smashed into the stone bleachers of the arena. Tai gripped his crest in his hands and stared angrily at the duel.

"Greymon you could win if you'd only digivolve," he snapped. Keys looked at the boy in amazement when Tai suddenly leapt onto the wall in front of them. "Greymon!"

"Tai don't!" Sora pleaded, grabbing him by his brown shorts while he crouched on the wall.

"Don't stop me!" Tai snarled. "This is my chance to make him digivolve to the next level; so please mind your own business Sora!"

"But Tai," Sora reasoned in desperation, "without a reaction from the crest there's no way for him to digivolve!" If she had hoped this would dissuade him, she was wrong. Tai only turned his head back towards Greymon, an arrogantly determined expression on his face.

"I can make him do it," he said. "Watch!" Then he stood, and leapt off the wall and started running full-tilt towards the opposing Greymon.

"What's he doing?" Matt asked. Keys looked at Aiwemon, and they both nodded.

"I know what he's doing!" he answered, jumping onto the wall. "Come on Aiwemon!"

"The other condition for digivolving is that their partner must be in danger," Izzy reiterated, "but Tai wouldn't-"

"Well he is!" Keys retorted, hopping off the wall with Aiwemon flying at his side.

"Hurry up and finish him off!" Etemon instructed from the screen, oblivious to Tai's actions. "Use your Nova Blast!" Fire started to ignite in the muzzle of the collared Greymon as he prepared to attack the one still lying limp on the stands. At that close range and with such an easy target, his aim would have been true, had his head not jerked at the last moment when Tai cried out.

"I'm not afraid of a big fake like you!" Tai roared defiantly. "Okay fire breath, come and get me!"

"Idiot kid," Sedah mumbled from the sidelines, "but I've got to admit, he's got guts."

"What do we have here?" Etemon asked. "A dope who thinks he's a superstar? You got it, now start singing your final number." The Greymon turned around and advanced a little towards Tai, smoke beginning to pour out of its mouth and nose. Tai suddenly realized that his plan may not have been such a good one after all when the flames roared out of Greymon's mouth and blasted towards him.

That's why he was lucky Keys was there to save his skin.

Only a few moments before Tai would have been incinerated into a roast digidestined Keys got in front of him and raised a reflega shield around the two with a magical intensity that a Nova Blast couldn't hope to penetrate. As the flames harmlessly broke against the shell Keys spun around with eyes burning as intensely as the fire that would have enveloped the boy.

"What are you?" he roared. "An idiot?"

"I'm getting Greymon to digivolve to the next level!" Tai retorted. Keys went up to him and looked down at the boy, and Tai stoically met his gaze.

"By being stupid?" Keys asked. "This isn't being courageous Tai, this is suicide. You can't accomplish anything by selfishly putting yourself in harm's way."

"You do it all the time," Tai reasoned. Keys' eyes gave a warning flash and Tai backed down a little.

"That's different," he said quietly. "I put myself in danger so others don't have to. I risk my own life so others can live free and safe. And I put myself in the way to protect those I care about, as I'm doing right now." The shield dropped as Tai was left to reflect on this; but as the smoke cleared and Birdramon, Garurumon, and Ohtarmon became visible through the haze, standing alongside them against Etemon's Greymon, Keys could see Tai's newfound insight wavering fast.

"Now Greymon!" Tai called again as Greymon stood, confirming Keys' suspicions. "I believe in you! You can do it Greymon, digivolve!" A burst of light came from Tai's crest for a moment and Keys had to look away from its intensity, and then the sky darkened. Keys looked beyond the Greymon in front of them towards Tai's partner, who was radiating a dark purple colour. The Oblivion appeared in Keys' hands and he slowly took a step backwards. Columns of dark purple energy descended from the sky and into Greymon, wrapped by rings of red fire. Something incredibly wrong was happening, something that shouldn't be. The columns ended and Greymon grew by gargantuan proportions. Now he was a digimon fifteen times the size of what he had been, but his appearance and presence drove fear into Keys' heart. None of his enemies had given him such fright, even Maleficent paled in comparison to the amount of evil he cold sense in this being in front of him.

His entire being had become skeletal, like an ancient dragon that had died and rotted away a thousand years ago. One long bony horn and two emerald eyes jutted out of his skull, and an orange dolphin-shaped missile was embedded in his otherwise empty ribcage. The mere ground under him moaned as the stone gave way under his massive weight. Keys took another two steps back, although that little helped to put more distance between him and the massive digimon.

"That thing is evil," he whispered, dropping further back.

"Oh no!" Tentomon cried from the sidelines. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Who is it?" Kairi asked deliciously, as if seeing the digimon was giving her the girl's wildest dreams.

"It's SkullGreymon. The mere sight of him makes other digimon tremble. He is a fully digivolved digimon, whose explosive power causes him to constantly search for battle."

"This could be very bad," Izzy theorized. "There's been some terrible mistake and he's digivolved into a horrible monster!"

"This could be bad Izzy?" Keys asked with fear tainting his voice as he continually inched backwards, giving ground to the behemoth before him. Ohtarmon and Garurumon followed his example; if he was backing away, there was a legitimate cause for fear. Not that they needed much prodding themselves. Keys gave Ohtarmon a hesitant look. He doubted very much that anything had gone right with this transformation, but if this was still one possible digivolution for Greymon…

Maybe it would be better if they didn't find the crests.

Keys looked backwards at Tai, who was still standing with his mouth gaping open at SkullGreymon in horror. His eyes were inadvertently drawn to the tag and crest hanging around the boy's neck. The crest was black.

Now he truly understood, Tai had corrupted his crest's virtue, and this was the darkest digivolution to the Ultimate level possible. If and when he found his crest, Keys knew he would try his hardest to make sure that nothing of the sort came to happen to Aiwemon.

His attention was brought back to the massive skeletal digimon before him when the remaining Greymon finally broke in fright and began to flee. However two quick strides from SkullGreymon's legs made retreat for the helpless champion impossible, and a quick flick of the arm later sent the Greymon flying into the giant screen upon which Etemon watched the battle. The orange missile embedded in SkullGreymon's ribcage rocketed out and exploded against the screen. Keys had to block the violent light from the explosion with his arms but it still wasn't enough. When his sight returned, a wisp of a gasp escaped his lips to see that the entire screen, a good chunk of the surrounding stone structure, and the Greymon, had been completely vaporized into tiny particles of data.

The power this digimon contained was immense.

"All right!" Sedah boomed. "Let's get ready to rumble!" Keys didn't even pay any attention to him this time as Tai had started talking again.

"Listen to me SkullGreymon!" the leader was yelling. "If you really are Greymon's digivolved form then you can't hurt me!" Keys grabbed Tai's arm and heaved him backwards towards the others and, hopefully, safety.

"He can't hear you!" he roared, rolling out of the way to dodge a boney toe from crushing him. The stone itself cracked under the force as the earth groaned. Sparks jumped and skated across the ground from breaking cables and wires of Etemon's dark network. Garurumon leapt up at SkullGreymon to try and slow the giant down, but the skeletal arm of SkullGreymon smashed into the wolf, which tumbled back down to the ground. Birdramon's claw pierced into a bony shoulder before an equally boney tail smashed into the bird's back. Keys charged in with a roar, the Oblivion held high as Ohtarmon moved in beside him despite their fear. The need to stop SkullGreymon before he could hurt anyone was greater than the fear he imposed on them. Keys jumped high onto SkullGreymon's ankle and started swinging the Oblivion at the bone as Ohtarmon combined with him against the foot. SkullGreymon roared, but whether in pain or annoyance Keys couldn't tell. The foot he was riding on suddenly jerked, and Keys was forced to stab his sword into the bone, receiving another roar. Ohtarmon flailed with his mace from the ground as bone flew all around him and he valiantly dodged each strike made for him. A second jerk of the foot and Keys lost his grip and flew into the air. His flight was short-lived, as a skeletal fist punched him through the air into the stone stands near the other digidestined. Ohtarmon continued to flail around, wielding his cumbersome mace to try and knock the flying hands away from him. A foot came crashing down, and he raised his mace just in time to prevent being crushed. Yet despite his strength, his muscled arms bristled and locked as the full weight of the digimon bore down on him, and he knew he had precious seconds before his endurance would give out.

"Leave it to me!" Tentomon yelled, flying in front of SkullGreymon's face. "Tentomon digivolved to, Kabuterimon!" Kabuterimon flew directly past SkullGreymon's face, and the ultimate followed it. Ohtarmon dropped his mace in relief as the pressure came off and he heaved a shaking hand to remove some of the sweat pouring down from under his sweaty helmet.

Keys got up out of the crater that his impact had made and looked himself over, scarcely surprised by the other digidestined's surprise. A few bruises, cuts and scrapes, nothing too critical; but his chest majorly hurt from that punch and it would take a while to recover his wind. His eyes instantly sought out Kairi, but she was looking away from him in indifference. He scowled and tried to shove past the group, but his lack of air caught up to him and he dropped to the ground. Joe and Sora were instantly there to support him and he coughed. There were gasps and Keys brought his hand in front of him as he coughed again. It was barely discernable against the black of the fingerless glove that cloaked his palm, but there was no mistaking the shining crimson on his fingers.

He was hacking out blood.

---

LONGEST FREAKING CHAPTER I'VE DONE SO FAR, AND YES IT'S A CLIFFANGER! Kill me if you wish, but that's just the way the story goes. The next two should hopefully be shorter.

The Patriots should have won the Super Bowl. I had a dollar in an almost forty dollar pot saying that they'd win with a game score of 42. I would have never thought of Giants-31.

And let the screams of "WHAT IS HAPPENING TO KAIRI?" commence…

May the Grace of the Valar Protect You

Shire Folk