Y/N: So many things are going on in this chapter. It's almost overwhelming to think about it. And even harder to figure out what needs to be said here, so I think I'll just let the chapter speak for itself.

U/N: I reread Takeru's like six times people and it's not good, I'm just throwing it out there. Honestly, just read it go "okay." And move on xD I tried fixing it and it just got worse, so. YEP. ENJOY THE REST OF THE CHAPTER THOUGH!.
FLIPPING CHAPTER four billion. In all actuality it's chapter 199 in total, and if you count the "go read 04 now" chapter in 03 this is chapter 200. Like. What? Life is nuts. But I genuinely do hope you all like it. It's quite the chapter... and it features almost every narrator. It was originally just Mimi, Takeru, Michael and Iori or something similar, but now it has like... everyone else. This chapter was very hectic to write since it was so many different story lines and also we wrote them separately obviously and just. It was interesting. Now go read it. And go like it. And review it.

Title: Digimon Adventure 05

By: Yukira and Urazamay King

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.

Part 3: Battle of the Nine Worlds

Chapter 50: All Ends Meet

Sora Takenouchi:

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" I asked finally as Mimi stuck a large colourful key into what looked to be a blue police box. Everyone was acting really weirdly, and there were two Neo's a few minutes ago, and honestly, I didn't know what was going on, but no one was telling me.

"Should we tell her before we take her back?" Yamato asked Mimi quietly.

Mimi looked over her shoulder nervously and then shook her head. "You'll see in three seconds." She decided before pushing me into the police box. I stumbled inside and tripped over a rock, rolling back out the door. Which seemed impossible...

Slowly I got to my feet and looked around. It was raining now—storming really, and the streets were torn apart and destroyed. Had they taken me to some sort of dystopian version of our city? What happened, "What does that key do?" I asked sharply.

"Well it's confusing," Mimi defended herself.

"It time travels." Biyomon told me, ignoring the silent conversation the others were having. "It's a time traveling key Sora, and we used it to go get you. We needed you for this battle. And we needed you for everything. We couldn't go on without you."

"W-what?" I asked. A time traveling key wasn't what had caught me off guard. That was relatively normal for us, and it was actually kind of interesting and cool—but why had they had to go back in time to get me? "Where am I here?"

"You... died." Palmon explained as Mimi, dragged Neo and Yamato away to discuss how to tell me what was going on. "In that battle with Arkadimon. Sora, you saved Neo's life and died, that's why we went back to save you. We brought you back to life and dragged you back to this time." I'd died? I was dead? I was supposed to be dead? They'd changed time to save me? Wasn't that bad?

Biyomon seemed to know what I was thinking because she shook her head and grabbed my leg tightly. "It's okay! Because we traded Arkadimon for you!" They'd gone out of their way—out of their time, come back and saved me, killing Arkadimon and bringing me to the war that they couldn't fight without me. Well, I couldn't help but feel loved.

"When is this?" I asked, looking around, as the rain soaked through my jeans, blouse and hair. "How much later is this?"

"Just one day." Dracomon informed me.

One day? One day had caused this much damage? I turned quickly in a circle to get my bearings and found that we were near to Mimi's restaurant. I stopped when I was facing the direction of it and saw that there were piles upon piles of metal... something-or-others, all lying down in the middle of the streets. I could see Plesiomon's head poking up over some of the buildings.

"Alright," Mimi declared finally, "Sora, here's what's going—Sora?"

I was already running toward the restaurant. That was where the battle was happening, right? I wasn't sure if I was in the right frame of mind to be battling, but if this was for all the worlds, then it was worth it! Biyomon was flying alongside me, and Palmon and Dracomon were right behind.

"Sora!" Neo and Yamato shouted, rushing after me as well.

My heart practically stopped when I came up to the restaurant. All that was left was a giant pile of rubble. All of Mimi's hard work was destroyed—and all because of those robot things. Whatever they were... how deadly were they? If I'd died in this war—who else had?

I took a further look around and saw Meiyomon standing in a group with all of the crest digimon, some I didn't recognize. Aimon looked up and winked to me before returning to their conversation. Plesiomon and TyrantKabuterimon were next to each other, looking exhausted as all hell. Emiko's Monmon was sitting with Bearmon, Pumpkinmon, Gotsumon, Impmon and Goblimon, all of them resting against pieces of rubble. Meramon was standing next to a Unimon the two of them speaking very seriously, as two digimon I didn't recognize played nearby—and I knew they'd have to be the digivolved versions of Lunamon and Coronamon. Kamemon was standing by a broken fire hydrant, playing in the water that was spraying out of it and into the air with my mother's Mushroomon who looked happy enough, so I knew my mother had to be okay.

Finally I spotted the humans. Koushiro was standing with Jou and what looked to be Katsue—I had to get to them! They were still alive! I took off at a run toward them, but my foot snagged on one of the fallen robots causing it to boot up with some remaining energy and fire a blast to the sky.

I let a scream escape me as I ducked out of the way.

A second later Koushiro and Katsue had both turned to me, their arms in some replica of the blaster that had just attacked me, poised and ready to fire at me. Koushiro's face fell and he dropped the arm, tearing across the battlefield toward me and leaping over the bot in front of me, wrapping his arms around me.

"They did it!" He gasped, refusing to let go as I hugged him back. I imagined the hug was likely more dramatic to him than it was to me, since I'd seen him only fifteen minutes ago in Mimi's restaurant, but I was happy to see him nonetheless.

When he finally pulled away, Jou and Katsue were standing next to me, the latter hugged me quickly, but Jou just looked to me with an attempted smile, "I'm happy you're okay Sora," he said, putting his arm on my shoulder. I knew he meant it, but there was something else—something bad had happened, and it was affecting Jou more than anyone.

"Where's Momoe?" I asked quickly, and he winced instantly, "Jou, where is she?"

"Woah-ey!" Mimi called, interrupting us as she stepped over the bots, "You guys were busy." She joked, "How'd you do it?"

"Well they—" Katsue started.

"No wait!" I shouted, "Start from the beginning."

Katsue groaned, and rolled her eyes at me, apparently it was a difficult task, but then she perked up and had an idea, "Monimon!" I looked to the others, confused as to what she was doing and saw that Koushiro was hugging Mimi now, glad to see she was okay. When I looked back to Katsue she had a small green television in her arms, "Watch carefully. I'm going to play it fast."

I didn't have time to question her because the screen was suddenly flashing through pictures. Robots filling the sky, and falling down, then a few quick shots of Katsue instructing Monimon to record it all when they got to the restaurant, Katsue defeated one, they were all fighting—everyone—there were multiple shots of my mother beating the crap out of the robots, and I couldn't help but smile at her. A quick rundown of Jou and Momoe getting married. I looked to Jou with a smile, but it fell when I saw the restaurant explode. My mind started going through everyone I'd seen a moment before—who was inside? Did they all die? Who were they? A second later, my mother rushed past, and I wanted to sigh with relief, but who were they? Was everyone okay? But I knew they weren't. Momoe had just run inside with Miyako—for Emiko. I didn't have time to mourn though because a second later Koushiro was dismantling a droid and filtering the air or something, and then the droids got bigger, and Jou called a retreat, sending everyone else to safety, Mimi gathered her team and left to go save me, and then they continued fighting until the robots unexpectedly fell to the ground, dead.

"What the heck?" Yamato gasped, bending over to look at the screen, "Why'd they die?"

"We have no idea." Koushiro said, "But they have a hive-mind, I expect someone has defeated Yggdrasil." I honestly had zero ideas as to what that last word might've meant. Was it a different language? Why hadn't anyone else acted confused? Maybe I should've stayed back and let Miyako explain all of that...

"You think it was Daisuke?" Mimi asked.

"It might've been." Jou nodded, "Now we've got to find Arkadimon."

"Nah!" Yamato grinned, "Got him." He pointed over his shoulder to ZeedGarurumon and Katsue, Koushiro and Jou all stared in awe.

"You beat Arkadimon alone?" Jou asked.

"We helped!" Neo and Mimi argued, but upon the look everyone gave them, they quieted down quickly.

"How can you be sure Yeeg-drag-seal is dead?" I asked.

"Yggdrasil," Koushiro corrected, "He's the God of all worlds, he rules over everything and is trying to destroy us all because he thinks we aren't worthy of living. He's mad at Arkadimon and his nine great evils, but now that Arkadimon is gone, that means no one is ruling them—that's probably bad, but there should only be two left if my calculations are correct." I understood most of that... "How can we be sure he's dead though?" Koushiro asked, "We can't."

"Which is why we have to go to the Digital World." Jou explained further. "We have to find Taichi and the others, if he's still alive we're going to need to fight him."

"And what about Earth?" Katsue asked, "If he's not dead then these things could come back at any second."

"Then you stay here." Yamato suggested, "You keep all the digimon, except ours of course. If they come back to life, then Japan is in your hands Katsue."

Katsue grinned and looked to the robot arm she had, "I like the sounds of that." She looked to Yamato suddenly, "But take Monimon." She let her digmon leap into Yamato's arms, "Don't question it—I need this footage okay? This is my big break. I need him to film the end of it all. Don't leave him behind."

"I promise." Yamato nodded.

"And don't die." She warned.

"I promise," He said again, "You... should stay alive too."

"Good idea." Katsue joked before turning to her new team, "Everyone rally up! I'm in charge!" She shot a glance over her shoulder at us, "Good luck." She said, "And don't fail. All nine worlds are in danger. You can do it though." She nodded firmly and then turned away once more.

"So are we goin'?" Monimon asked excitedly.

"Well," Neo said, "Mr Doctor, could you take a look at our digimon? They're kind of in pain."

Jou scanned his eyes over Biyomon, Palmon, Dracomon and ZeedGarurumon. "I'll do it once we get there." He nodded. "Right now we have to find a way to the Digital World and save everything."

"That shouldn't be too hard." Koushiro grinned, pulling his key out of his pocket, and opening a door out of nowhere. The arch of the door that appeared was perfectly intact but the door itself looked like it had endured an explosion—jagged pieces of wood stood up at odd angles and most of the door was just gone. Koushiro grabbed the remaining part of the door and pulled it open.

"After you," He offered, holding the door open for us all.

Michael Washington:

"What happened?" Mrs Yagami asked as we flew around the corner, to the side of the temple after having collected Anubismon and GigaSeadramon. I didn't have the answers she was looking for though. The metal Yggdrasil robot things were shut down, all strewn across the ground, as we carefully avoided them on our way back to the others.

I couldn't see anyone besides the robots, anywhere along the battlefield.

"Where did the others go?" I asked GigaSeadramon who looked down to me as he floated through the air next to us.

"Leomon told us he was going back inside," GigaSeadramon explained, "He told us to come as well, but chose to wait for the two of you."

"Was your mission successful?" Anubismon asked, running next to Kurayami as we leapt over the robots and manoeuvred our way back to the castle gates.

"He got away." Kurayami said quietly, "But... in a way, yes." I knew what she meant of course having been there. Her mission was complete because we'd finally dealt with her mother's issue, but the real problem was still out there, looking for a body to possess, and if he hadn't liked me, then he was left with only Emiko, or my sister. As we ran I looked out to the field of fallen robots, and saw, above the trees was a tree bigger than any I'd ever seen. Had that always been there?

We were on the bridge soon enough, but the doors were locked as he pulled on them. I started knocking loudly on them hoping for someone to respond. "Hey!" I yelled, "Guys! Open the door!" I looked back to the others to think of a new plan but they were all gone. "Guys?" Suddenly Anubismon was standing right in front of me, reaching forward and grabbing me around the middle. With a small yelp he had jumped into the air, flipping through the air and landing smoothly on the other side of the wall next to Kurayami and Mrs Yagami. "Well that works too..."

I turned and found that everyone had grouped together in the center of the temple, just down the street. I motioned for the others to follow and we all set off, running toward them to find out what exactly we'd missed.

It was Taichi who had spotted us, stepping from the crowd and practically running toward us. Kurayami jumped into his arms and hugged him. I hadn't realized either of them were even the slightest big close, at all, and apparently I was right because they both awkwardly released each other and stood apart.

"Where the hell did you go?" He barked.

"I kissed the devil." I blurted as a quick response. "He was possessing Kurayami's mother and then he finally left because of our digivices, she turned to dust and then he kissed me, taking over my body and then I died, but Kurayami brought me back to life."

"Oh," Taichi said awkwardly, "Alright then, if that's all. I'm glad you're okay."

"Because we're friends?" I asked.

"Yes?" Taichi said questioningly. "Of course. I may not act like it all the time, but I do care about everyone on this team. So yeah we're friends."

"Score." I grinned.

Taichi shot a look to his mother that read annoyance mixed with relief before turning to the others and strode toward them once again. Over the heads of Leomon, MetalifeKuwagamon, and an entire new set of digimon, were people I didn't expect to see. I stared toward them all as Mrs Yagami leapt into the arms of one of the new digimon.

My Father was standing looking around with excitement to all the digimon as his arm wrapped around Mary's shoulders. Mary looked disgusted of course, but there was definitely more to the look now, she was getting over her hatred for them, probably realizing that they were our only hope in this battle. Next to her was Willis who waved at me excitedly, he was standing with Tatum and Jenna, both of whom were still alive thankfully. Tatum caught sight of me and ran toward me, pushing through all the digimon and straight into my arms, throwing her arms around my neck and kissing me. I lifted her off the ground for a moment and then set her back down, smiling into the kiss.

"You're alive," She gasped, pulling away, hugging me, "Taichi said—and then you didn't—you weren't here—what happened?"

"I'll tell you later," I told her softly, kissing her forehead. "I'm glad you're okay too." Kurayami shyly stood next to me waiting for me to enter the circle first. I shot a glance back to GigaSeadramon and Anubismon, both of whom nodded as Tatum began dragging me into the circle. I grabbed Kurayami's wrist and took her along.

"Michael!" Dad and Jenna cried out the second I entered the middle of the circle for Tatum to drag me back to her spot on the other side. I felt bad for Kurayami, since no one was excited to see her, but to be fair her family wasn't here—and then I felt like a royal douche bag because her family was dead.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder as Tatum finally stopped, spinning us around next to Willis. I finally got a good look at everyone and was fairly confused. When had Willis and the others gotten here? Where was Iori? Was that Marshall? What the hell was he doing there? Who were all these other knight digimon? Where were Terriermon and Lopmon? And was that Devimon? I ignored all of my own questions because Kurayami had one of her own.

"What happened to the droid things?" She asked.

"They shut down," Taichi said with a shrug, "I don't know why." I looked to him and saw over his shoulder, Hideto was sitting in a corner with Mari, holding her hand comfortingly. I didn't want to know what had happened. I wasn't ready to find out. "They just stopped fighting, and about time too—we were nearly ready to forfeit. We would never have won—they got stronger."

"Maybe they just used up all their energy?" Mrs Yagami suggested.

"Maybe," Taichi said, "In which case, they might recharge, so we should use this opportunity to plan our next move."

"May I make a suggestion?" It sure sounded an awful lot like Mimi. The knight digimon parted to reveal her and Koushiro making their way forward with Palmon and Tentomon. Taichi grinned at them, but they were very serious as Mimi practically strutted her way toward the center of the circle. Her father yelped and tried to run to her but she hissed something to him. Something about him ruining her dramatic effect and they could reunite later.

"Please do," Taichi nodded.

"I think it would be a good idea to go for Yggdrasil." Mimi said with a shrug.

"We can't," Kurayami said, "Norn had to open a special portal to get there."

"Well I have a sneaking suspicion he's here in the Digital World now." Koushiro said, "Yggdrasil, in Norse Mythology is a large tree that rules over nine worlds. Has anyone noticed any—"

"Large trees? " I cut in. "I have." Koushiro nodded and pointed to me. That made sense. Yggdrasil was now in the Digital World. Had Daisuke and Ken not managed to destroy him? Maybe he realized his robots were failing and came to do the job on his own.

"We should get there quickly," Yamato added, walking into the cleared area with Gabumon, Dracomon and Neo, "We don't know his plan."

"We could all die at any second." Neo added as Yamato joined the group next to Taichi, and patted his back, pointing to the clearing where Jou stood with Gomamon, Biyomon, and some girl who looked an awful lot like...

"Sora?" Rei gasped from somewhere in the group, "Taichi, you said she..." Taichi was already running for her though, throwing his arms around her. She laughed as he hugged her, spinning her in the air. "What happened?" Rei asked.

"Time travel," Jou shrugged his shoulders, "It's a long story."

"One that I'm not really sure I understand," Sora admitted when Taichi finally set her down, and led her into the circle where her father greeted her next, holding her in his arms and refusing to let go. After a while Rei rushed to her side to join the hug. Sora was blushing clearly not very pleased with all the attention, so I thought it would be best not to draw any more focus to her. I smiled at her and she smiled back, and then I knew that she knew just how happy I was that she was back.

"We can't yet." Taichi said firmly, returning to the tree idea. "If that's Yggdrasil we're going to need the Holy Three aren't we?"

"Well where are they?" Yamato asked, looking around and spotting none of them.

"Who are the Holy Three?" Noriko asked. "Are they in danger?"

"It's Daisuke, Miyako and Iori." Koushiro filled her in quickly. Noriko and Natsuni looked to each other panicked, and I noticed just then that they were holding hands.

"Since when?" Sora asked, but she was whole heartedly ignored.

"No idea," Taichi admitted told Yamato as if the others hadn't spoken. "They could already be dead."

"No." Kurayami said flatly, "Daisuke isn't dead."

"Neither is Iori." Natsuni snapped.

"But how do you know?" Taichi asked.

"I just do." Natsuni and Kurayami said together. I turned to Kurayami and saw her eyes flick to the sky as she gasped.

"What's wrong?" I asked her quietly.

Kurayami turned to me, her eyes filled with fear, "He's here." She mouthed before looking away as if she'd said nothing. Which just wasn't true. She had. She'd said that he was here, which was obviously the shadow we'd just been facing. Which was obviously... the Devil.

"Well we can't wait on them." Neo said with a shrug, "They'll come if they come, and if not then we have to do it without them."

"But we can't do it without them." Mimi whined, "The fairy strictly said that we'll need them."

"And they'll show up." Koushiro said, taking Mimi's hand, "They have to. It's destiny."

"Yeah it is," Willis grinned.

"Well..." Taichi looked around as everyone's eyes fell onto him. It was his time to make a decision, Daisuke wasn't here which made him the ultimate leader for us at that moment. Would we go, or stay? It was his choice now. "We're going." He decided finally. "Mom, Rei, Natsuni—you all stay here."

"Well what about me?" Noriko asked.

"You were included in 'all'," He informed her, "Everyone with a crest—" Neo glared at him, "—You can all get ready to go. We've got to save the world one last time."

"I'm coming too." Neo objected.

"No, you aren't." Taichi argued, stepping away from Sora finally to stand with Neo, "You get on my nerves all the time, but I don't want you dead. Your digimon can't digivolve past a champion, and it's because you don't have a crest. You Neo, are not ready to get out there and fight, and thus, you cannot do so."

"You can't just tell me what I can, and cannot do." Neo argued.

"I was voted leader here Neo," Taichi said firmly, "I need you to stay with Rei. I need you to make sure she's okay, because if you don't, and we fail, she'll be alone when she dies. And I can't have that."

Rei practically sprouted from the ground directly in front of me, staring me in the eyes, "What are the remaining two crests?" She asked. I jumped in surprise, but hastily reached into my pocket and pulled out the last two crests. One was brown and was most certainly the crest of trust, and according to all of Miyako's information, the crest would find its owner in due time, but it wasn't meant to happen until the future, which meant that the last crest we'd ever have to worry about was sitting in my open palm. It was a dark purple colour and the three curving lines formed a shape that reminded me of an eye, with one single dot in the middle.

"This one is honesty." I said, using my other hand to nudge the purple one forward. Rei's face lit up excitedly as she snatched it out of my hand and spun on the spot, throwing it through the air toward Taichi and Neo.

"I'm coming!" Neo shouted, "Because—!" He froze as the crest stopped flying directly in front of him and Taichi, glowing a deep purple colour.

Neo held out his hand and let the crest fall down into his hand.

"That's the crest of honesty," Rei told him with a grin, "And as we all know, honesty is your policy brother." Neo smiled at Rei and then looked down to the crest and to his partner. Slowly he looked back up to Taichi, holding the crest up for him to see.

"I guess it's settled then," Taichi decided reluctantly, "Neo fits the bill. He'll be coming along." Neo looked to Dracomon, both of them jumping with excitement.

"Where is Hikari?" Sora asked Taichi, before looking to Yamato, "And Takeru?"

"Safe." Taichi assured her before turning to the rest of us.

"Everyone get ready. We're leaving in two minutes. Say your last goodbyes. Because you might never come back." He turned to Rei finally and held out his hand for her. Rei was gone, standing with Taichi and Neo in a second, which left me to turn to Tatum.

"Don't worry," I told her, "I'll be fine."

"Because you're not going yet." Kurayami said from behind me. I looked to her, confused and saw her pointing toward Jenna whose hand was on her temple as Dad and Mary tried to console her. She shook them off and told them sharply that she needed to walk it off, and then she was walking off, through the Temple.

"You're right." I told Kurayami, there was no way I could leave now. The Shadow King was somewhere in the Temple, and my sister was wandering alone. I turned back to Tatum and kissed her quickly. She grabbed the collar of my shirt, but I managed to slip away, giving her a final look of assurance before running into Willis.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"Tell the others that I'll meet up with you." I told him. I tried to get away quickly, assuming he'd stop me, but he let me go for a second, before stopping me, but not like I'd assumed.

"Michael," He said. I looked over my shoulder and saw that his back was still to me, "I'm happy that you're my brother," He said, looking to the ground, "it feels like it's been forever, when it obviously hasn't... I just need you to promise that you're not going to die on me."

"Well I can try," I told him.

"Please do."Willis pleaded.

"Goodbye Willis." I told him softly.

"Good luck." He countered. And then I was off, pushing past Mary and Dad gently, and then roughly past Marshall, Kurayami on my heels.

"Shouldn't we bring our partners this time?" Kurayami asked. I nodded and spun around, running backwards. I crammed my fingers in my mouth and whistled catching GigaSeadramon's attention. He took off into the air a second after gathering Anubismon's attention. We were running down the street that Jenna had gone, but it ended abruptly with only a few locked doors and an alleyway. "She must have gone down here." Kurayami said leading the way through the alleyway. GigaSeadramon was flying directly above the alley, and Anubismon had caught up, running directly behind us.

"Jenna?" I called out nervously and unintentionally as we ran. Where was she? If we couldn't find her that could mean that the shadow already had. On the other hand, if we couldn't find her, maybe he couldn't either... But he was searching from the sky... "GigaSeadramon!" I called, realizing how stupid I was, "Can you see her?"

GigaSeadramon scanned the area as we kept running, emerging on the other side of the alley, and turning down what looked like the market street. GigaSeadramon was still looking, so I kept running with no other lead. Kurayami and Anubismon were running alongside me, both of them searching just as desperately as I was. "JENNA!" I screamed as loudly as I could. What if she was taken? What if she couldn't fight the hold? What if she died?

No!

Jenna could never die! Ever! She was immortal or something! She had to be!

"I found her!" GigaSeadramon called from the sky. I relaxed instantly. She was okay. I followed my partners gaze straight toward the Temple wall where, just as he'd said, Jenna was standing, in her gothic attire. I didn't stop running for a moment, headed straight for the stairs that would lead directly up to her.

"Be careful," Kurayami warned as I leapt onto the steps, "He could be anywhere."

"I know," I told her over my shoulder. But the important thing was that Jenna was safe, which meant we still had the opportunity to keep her that way. Jenna was staring toward the Giant tree, her arms crossed across her chest. I reached the top of the stairs quickly and slowed to a stop, catching my breath and walking the rest of the way to her, "Why'd you run off like that?" I asked her, "You know how dangerous it can be."

"I know," Jenna said with a shrug, not taking her gaze from the tree. I stood next to her, and looked to Kurayami as she took her stance next to us as well, Anubismon following closely behind.

"There's a shadow out there," I told her, "He wants you dead."

"No he doesn't." Jenna said flatly. I felt her eyes boring into the side of my head so I slowly turned my attention to her, and jumped back, pulling Kurayami with me. Anubismon had already leapt in between us protectively.

Jenna's eyes were shining and red and her lips were curled into a wicked smile. "Oh, Michael," She said with a man's voice. "Michael, Michael, Michael... You never learn, do you? I don't want to kill you, oryour sister. I just want your bodies."

"Which is twisted and sick," Kurayami said boldly, "just so we're clear."

"Oh boo hoo," Jenna growled, still using the man's voice. I wasn't sure I'd ever get the image out of my head—my baby sister was speaking to me using the voice of the devil with her eyes glowing a deep crimson red... "At least I'm not killing her—you should be thankful. I could easily kill her and you and everyone you know. But I'll let you live."

"Really?" Kurayami and I asked together.

"Then what the heck is your plan?" I asked.

"I just need a body." Jenna said with a shrug, "So I can release my shadows onto the world."

"And then?" Kurayami asked. I knew very well that the shadows he was speaking of were the residents of the Dark Ocean which was ultimately the equivalent of Hell, which meant that every dark soul in the history of time was going to be unleashed onto the world.

"They'll each find their own body, and take them over." Jenna explained, "So we can all live once more."

"Well," I said simply, "Here's the thing." I looked him directly in the eyes and shook my head, "That's never going to happen."

Jenna's face screwed up with anger and she raised her hand sending a spiralling blast of darkness toward us. Anubismon spun around quickly and pushed me into Kurayami, causing us both to topple over the edge of the wall.

Kurayami was wrapping her arms around me quickly as we fell fast, crashing toward the ground. I tried to think of a plan, but what was there to do? We were falling off of a very tall stone wall—

With a loud thud we'd landed on GigaSeadramon's back. I acted quickly and pulled Kurayami to a sitting position, positioning her in front of me to make sure she'd be safe. I couldn't let anyone die here—Sora had literally just come back from the dead, which meant that there was no room for failure. All hope was restored, and we were, under no circumstances going to die.

And that went for Jenna as well.

"Jenna!" I screamed loudly, leaning to the side so Kurayami's hair wouldn't be in my face, "Jenna, listen to me."

"She can't hear you." The Shadow King said using her body, "You don't think I'd fall for the same trick twice, do you?" GigaSeadramon stopped in midair within hearing range. My eyes flicked to Anubismon who was poised and ready to strike. Who was he kidding? If he hit my sister I'd probably knock him senseless! The Shadow King may have been the one doing the talking, but the burns on my arms and the cuts on my face were proof that her body would remain very much injured it, and ultimately when he let her go. Which meant that if we killed her to kill the Shadow King, then my sister would be dead too.

"No," I admitted, "That would be stupid—but this isn't the same trick." Jenna tilted her head, her curled, messy hair falling to one side of her shoulder. "Last time I used the power of my crest to get out of your hold—and I could easily do it again. But Jenna doesn't have a crest."

"Are you accepting defeat?" Jenna asked, "Willing to let go and allow the shadows to take you?"

"No!" Kurayami and I shouted as one.

"Never!" I continued, "But you're stupid if you think Jenna will need a crest to get out of your hold. She's the strongest person I've ever met. She's brave, and truthful, and loving and kind—Jenna has mastered each and every one of our crests without it being her destiny to do so. Jenna doesn't need a stupid crest to figure it out. She's a smart girl. She knows she's wanted here. She knows how to get back—she just has to realize it."

"Micahael..." Kurayami said quietly, "Do you really think she can?"

"Of course." I said firmly. Kurayami nodded and shakily stood to her feet, "Sit down! What are you doing?" Kurayami set off, running down GigaSeadramon's face and then leaping through the air. I scrambled forward to watch her fall, and saw her land on both feet on the Temple wall, ten feet from where Jenna stood.

"She cannot find her way through the darkness!" The Shadow King laughed.

"Yes she will." I turned my head sharply and saw a woman standing near Jenna now. She was wearing a long draping autumn coloured dress and her hair was hanging in curling golden locks. She looked to me with the same green eyes I used to wake up to every morning, and suddenly I was choking on nothing at all. It was my mother. "Jenna," Mom said, moving toward her swiftly. Jenna waved her hand and shot more darkness from her, but it just shot straight through my mother's mostly transparent body. "Jenna, just remember what I told you when you were little sweet heart. The darkness isn't as scary as you'd like to think. It's all in the mind of the beholder."

"Oh shut it," Jenna shot.

"Jenna!" Kurayami said, reaching forward and placing a hand on her shoulder. Jenna's jaw dropped and a loud, growling roar escaped her mouth as she turned sharply and hit Kurayami in the shoulders, sending her flying.

"No," I argued, "Jenna, listen here!" Jenna jolted her head quickly to me and then kicked off the ground and was only two inches from my face a second later.

"I'm listening," The man insider her mocked.

"Think of Mary." I said loudly, trying to contact Jenna from inside. "Jenna—you don't hate Mary. You know you don't. You argue with her because you know what is right, and you want her to see it. You want to show her who you are and what world is right. Because of your purity, and your hope and faith in a new, better life. You can look down there right now and look at your mother—you see her even though she's dead because you love her so much." A tear started rolling down Jenna's pale skin and I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"You should stop your attempts now." Jenna's hand wrapped around my throat and she slammed me down against GigaSeadramon's back. Suddenly his tail was swinging like mad trying to get her off of me.

"No!" I gasped, "Don't hurt her!"

"Aw, cute," the Shadow said.

"Jenna—I know you're there!" I shouted, clawing at her hand, trying to pry her off of me. "I know you're there because you crying—you can hear me. Why would the Devil of all people cry? He wouldn't—Jenna... Mom's here. Jenna, get rid of him."

"She can't." The Shadow said, "Stop trying!"

"Jenna can!" I insisted, "She can do anything!"

"Jenna!" It was a little girl's voice now, right behind me. I tilted my head and saw someone who looked an awful lot like Willis. "Jenna, let go of him. You're killing him." Why was this girl being so calm? She'd just said it! She was killing me! I couldn't breathe and my vision was blackening."Jenna, this is your brother. Both of you are here, and both of you can escape, just as long as you push this evil, evil man away from your mind."

Jenna's grip loosened on my neck and she looked to me, so much fear in her eyes. Suddenly she was jumping back again, landing on the wall again, looking up to me.

I was gasping, taking in as much breath as I could and then spun around to face the girl who had just been there, but I saw no one. I turned back for my Mom, but she was gone too. It was just Kurayami and I again. Kurayami was running to Jenna then, holding her with both hands.

"Jenna," She said frantically, "He's going to kill your body. The longer you stay in there the harder it will be. I don't know what it's like in there, he might be holding you, but you have the strength to get out. Just like Michael did. The strength is in the balance of the crests. It's like darkness really. Darkness is all about balancing light and dark, and strength is about balancing your mind and soul. Jenna, him being there isn't in your mind. Look through his darkness and get out."

"The darkness isn't so bad." I said, steering GigaSeadramon down toward the wall where I hopped off of him and stood by my sister. "Everyone always fears the Darkness," I looked to Kurayami and smiled at her, "But there's nothing to be afraid of. The darkness is just the unknown—the inevitable, the things that could or should be. But none of those things will happen if you don't come back to us."

"You can do it Jenna." Kurayami insisted, "Just listen to our voices. You have the strength."

"Just look through the darkness and come to us." I added.

I almost let out a scream at all of the things happening at once. Jenna's knees buckled and she fell, clutching her head, screaming loudly in the man's voice as my digivice began to glow. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw that it was completely black, and then I slowly looked up to Kurayami who was holding a shining white digivice.

"Gigaseadramon digivolve to..."

"Anubismon digivolve to..."

"Splashmon!"

With a flash of black and white, Anubismon and GigaSeadramon had been dragged together into an explosion of light and colour. Then, a moment later, standing down on the ground from the Temple wall was a man with white clothing and water flowing around his head acting as hair. I could see where he came from and all, the water from Betamon, and since he was a Darkness digimon, and a humanoid form... it sort of made sense. But he looked a bit like a lame superhero.

My attentions however were then turned to Jenna when the man's screaming disappeared and her own voice took over. I crouched over and threw my arm around her. I didn't know what to say, I'd never been in this situation, but she needed to hear my voice to find her way out, so I just started talking. "Jenna, our digimon is a superhero." I told her, "He's pretty cool—I'm happy to have a fusion digimon, that's for sure. I think we might've even beaten some of the others... probably not though, we seem to be behind all the time. But open your eyes. Just look at him. Jenna... just look."

Suddenly she was thrown backward, dragging me part way with her as she tumbled partway down the stairs that we'd run up. Her body lay sprawled out on them as a great shadow burst from her mouth and shot into the sky. I wanted to run to Jenna, but we couldn't let this shadow escape. If he did he'd be coming straight for Emiko having already failed twice.

I certainly couldn't let him attack a baby. There was no way that was going to happen.

The shadow was shooting quickly through the sky—getting away, but before I could even call out an order, Splashmon was in the air right in front of him. "Hydro Pressure." He said calmly, holding out both hands and sending drowning the shadow. The shadow came soaring back down to the castle wall where it hit like a cannon ball.

Kurayami screamed and jumped out of the way as the wall began crumbling beneath her. She landed smoothly, but the walls were still crumbling and the ground where she stood began to fall. I ran forward, jumping through the air and grabbing her hand.

"Ouuuuaagh!" I screamed when her weight pulled at my arms. I wasn't a weak person, but holding an entire human hanging from one arm, dangling above a great distance—that wasn't an easy task! I threw my other hand down and grabbed her other hand seeing the shadow beneath her begin to take shape into the pale man in the suit. The Devil himself. I pulled as hard as I could, pulling Kurayami out of the way, both of us collapsing on top of each other as the man sprang into the air. He landed somewhere behind us, so I hastily got to my feet, looking toward him.

He was staring down the steps toward my sister, and my heart was suddenly beating much faster—he couldn't control her—but that didn't mean he couldn't kill her. He raised his hand slowly, and tilted his head, a wicked grin spreading across his face.

"Bead-Drown!" Splashmon called from the air, clapping his hands together. A bubble of water appeared around the Shadow King's head and he froze. He tried to shake it off, but it wouldn't budge. He began to splash at the water with his hands, but it just fell back down to the bubble.

I figured I'd use the time of his confusion to get to Jenna. I checked to see Kurayami was alright before running toward the stairs as fast as I could, but before I could even catch a glimpse of Jenna the Shadow King had melted into the shadows, the bubble of water falling and splashing on the ground. I looked down and watched his shadow pass beneath me.

"Kurayami!" I shouted, turning to her as the shadow blob on the ground moved quickly toward her. "Come here!" She nodded and started running, but the Shadow King emerged right in front of her, stopping her, and causing her to run right into him.

"Hello pretty one," He said casually, cupping her face in his hands, "Oooh—you are gorgeous!" He leaned forward and I saw Kurayami's face blush—if he kissed her, he'd take control of her body!

Suddenly I realized that this man had kissed my sister.

I was running toward him, and before I knew it, I'd grabbed him from behind and threw him as hard as I could toward the edge of the wall.

He vanished instantly into a shadow on the side of the wall, and then shot straight back up, appearing behind me again.

"This has gone on long enough," He said simply, with a wave of his hand, "I'm no longer having any fun at all." He pointed his fingers toward me, and I braced myself for the worst, wincing, but I was suddenly on the ground. Kurayami had saved me as a blast of darkness shot overhead.

"You saved me!" I gasped, surprised.

"Yes, well," She shrugged, "I owed you."

As we both turned back to the Shadow King we saw that he was pointing his fingers down toward us now—there was nowhere lower to go—we were dead!

But then Splashmon was in the way. "Michael," He said, "Kurayami, please stand back." We exchanged worried glances but hurried to obey, getting to our feet and backing up. "You're quite right," Splashmon said, "This has gone on long enough." Suddenly his hair was wrapping around him in a sort of cocoon getting bigger and bigger until, with an explosion of water raining down, Splashmon was no longer a lame superhero, but instead was a giant ferocious tiger made of water and darkness.

"Now that is what I'm talking about!" I laughed, punching the air.

"Well, cheerio," The Shadow King said, his face panicked. He turned into a shapeless shadow again and was shooting into the sky before someone leapt out of nowhere and grabbed onto his leg before it could join the shapelessness.

It was Jenna, angry and ready to fight. She pulled with all her might, dragging him back down to the wall. She spun toward him, now back in his human form, and she punched him directly in the face.

"Splashmon!" Kurayami ordered, "Now!"

"Duck Jenna!" I shot.

Jenna let out a little scream and ducked, throwing her hands over her head as the Shadow King recuperated from her punch only to have Splashmon's millions of golden teeth rip him apart.

"You know," Kurayami said quietly as we watched in horror as our partner devoured one of the Great Evils of the world, finally sealing off any problems we should ever have with the Dark Ocean. "I always thought light was the only thing to defeat darkness... but one shadow consumes another as if the second never existed. Darkness won over darkness."

"Strength helped," I joked, elbowing her lightly. She laughed nervously, but returned to our partner who seemed to be done now. He looked back to us and nodded. He was ready to continue this fight, and we had to be too. There was still Yggdrasil—that shadow wasn't the worst of our worries—but now that he was gone, we were one step closer to a happy life.

"You're leaving aren't you?" Jenna asked, looking to the three of our expressions. She looked to me finally, her lip quivering. "If you die, I'll kill you." She said.

"I feel like you two would get along..." I said quietly to Kurayami before stepping forward and hugging Jenna. "I promise I will never die... today."

Jenna laughed and pushed away from me. "I'm serious. I'll go tell Dad and Mary and Tatum—but if you don't come back..."

"I will." I told her simply, "Simple as that. Easy peasy pumpkin and pie."

"You're such a dork." She laughed, punching my arm. I messed up her hair and laughed, sticking my tongue out at her and then ran for Splashmon before she could destroy me for being such a stereotypical big brother.

I was sitting on a beast made of water which was odd, I figured I'd sink into him, but he was solid enough for me to ride, so I had no complaints, the Tree was pretty far away and I didn't want to walk. I reached down and helped Kurayami up and then, with one last thumb's up to Jenna, we were off.

Iori Hida:

Piedmon flew toward the shadowy man. He looked far more solid than I'd expected him to. I couldn't see through him at all. He also wore a bowler hat. It didn't scream "Great Evil!" to me, but what did I know about that?

"Ending Snipe!" Piedmon called as he neared Sigma. Both of Piedmon's hands sparked as he charged up an electrical current that he then shot towards Sigma.

"Stop," Sigma called out pitifully. "Stop, it tickles," he continued, before laughing maniacally. "You think something as weak as that is enough to beat me?"

"If that won't work, let's try another," Piedmon said. "Clown Trick!"

Piedmon reached into his red sleeve and pulled out a long white sheet that he proceeded to throw over Sigma. It covered the shadow from head to toe, and then it slowly descended to the ground.

"That's that then," Momoe said pleasantly. "I really thought he'd be tougher than that."

"Oh, but I am," Sigma laughed, hopping down from a tree branch. Piedmon cursed. "Circus tricks are too predictable. You can't beat me. I know you too well."

"You don't know me," Valkyrimon called, holding out his bow and screaming "Aurvandil's Arrow!" The arrow never missed its target, and was surrounded by a bright light. It hit Sigma right in the chest, before flowing through him. The light caused his torso to fade out of existence, but once the light died down, his chest grew back.

"Child's play," Sigma scoffed.

"Mjollnir!" Vikemon called, pulling the morning star off of his back and striking down at Sigma with a powerful blow. Vikemon was hot headed. While in a battle he let himself be fueled by rage. I worried about what Sigma's taunting would do to his control. "Mjollnir!" Vikemon shouted again, when Sigma was found remaining perfectly upright after his first attempt. He tried it three more times, each resulting the same. Sigma would not stand still long enough for us to get a hit on him. And if we were lucky enough to catch him, he would melt out of existence only to appear somewhere else seconds later.

"C'mon, Valkyrimon," Miyako cheered, thrilled beyond belief to have her digimon partner back with her. I was equally as pleased to see her alive and relatively well. I had instinctively thought the worst as Kiyoko and I travelled across the Digital World searching for the shadow that had plagued Kiyoko for so long. He seemed to be able to feel Sigma's location. It was incredibly creepy, but I didn't care about that, not when it helped me find Miyako and Jou's family safe and sound. Kind of. Sigma wanted to possess Emiko in order to slaughter the other two, but he hadn't started yet, so I figured that we'd had excellent timing.

I wasn't as excited about Miyako about participating in this fight though. I was one of the Holy Three, but I didn't know what that meant. I was important to the fate of the worlds. The worlds were literally depending on me, but I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. Miyako had been facing this demon all year, and Daisuke had already taken out Lucemon, the great evil of Heaven. Adding to that, Daisuke on a mission in another world that Miyako told us was very important. He could be facing the ruler of those robots for all I knew.

But what had I done?

I'd been infected by wrath, just as Daisuke had been taken by pride, but unlike Daisuke, I had no hand in freeing myself from that spell. Ken saved me. I'd saved Hikari by sacrificing myself, but Gennai had healed me right away. I ran away angry a lot, because everyone had treated me like a child. I'd run away when my fairy queen told me to, leaving her to face Lucemon alone. I didn't fight any of the sin digimon, I didn't save any part of the Digital World from the Death Knights. I participated in the destruction of MaloMyotismon only minimally, and Fanglongmon probably could have been defeated without me, and so could Apocolymon. He had actually, years before I'd ever had the chance to face him. If I was supposed to save the worlds, why had I accomplished nothing?

I felt weak and inadequate. And with the way the battle against the robots had been going, I knew I would have failed to help that fight too.

What did the fairy queen expect from me? What did she see in me that she didn't see in anybody else? I needed to know, or else I wouldn't be able to live up to her expectations, and I really wanted to make her proud of me.

"You really don't know how to fight, do you?" Sigma told Vikemon with in a snarky voice. As I predicted, Vikemon saw red. He launched himself into his Bazooka Howl attack, where he let out a long, loud howl, before unleashing all of his berserker rage. Sigma laughed wickedly the entire time.

"He's trying to tire them out," Miyako realized, as Valkyrimon threw himself into the fight as well with his Punishing Storm attack. He was whipping around in circles, raising his arms up as he summoned tornado after tornado to chastise his foe. And Piedmon was using several different Clown Tricks other than his popular sheet trick. There were rubber chickens created out of trees he'd hit when Sigma dodged, and several pied were being thrown in various directions.

"They won't last long," Kiyoko muttered. "But Sigma doesn't tire. He's lost his living body. He doesn't need sleep. We have to defeat him quickly, if we want any chance at all."

"But—" Miyako protested.

"I don't know," Kiyoko told her, guessing her question and cutting her off. "But we'll have to figure it out. I can't let him continue wandering around. He needs to die."

"Momoe, take Emiko and go," Miyako instructed her sister. "I'll focus better if you're not here. I don't want to have to keep watching over my shoulder to see if you're okay."

"Come on baby," Momoe told Emiko, nodding to her sister. "You and Mommy are going on a little trip."

"Be quick about it," I instructed. "He never seems to get distracted from the prize."

Momoe took Emiko into her arms and started running behind us, as far and as fast as she could. Her loud scream caused me to turn around, wanting to know what the problem was. Sigma was standing in front of her.

"You're not going anywhere," he snarled. "I don't leave survivors once I've decided to kill. Give me the girl and your death will be swift and painless."

"You can't have her!" Momoe screamed, setting Emiko on the ground and standing in front of her with her hands balled into fists. Sigma melted into the ground and came up directly in front of Momoe. He lifted his arm and smashed it against her, tossing her aside like a rag doll.

Emiko let out a frightened scream and curled up on the ground, shaking. Sigma reached down and hoisted her into the air, letting her dangle in front of him as he clutched her left arm. Miyako and I moved toward them instantly, determined to save her from his gasp. Valkyrimon had the same idea and darted towards Sigma.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Sigma warned, shaking Emiko, causing her to cry out in pain on top of her sobs of terror. "You wouldn't want to be responsible for the girl's demise, would you?"

Valkyrimon stopped mid-flight and I grabbed Miyako's arm, who appeared to have not heard a word he was saying in her haste to save her niece.

"Miyako, sweet Miyako," Sigma purred. "How I loved our nightly torture sessions. I longed for them all day while cramped inside the body of a scared, confused teenager. You brought out the demon in me. I'll miss you the most, I think, once you're gone. No more flesh to mangle, or will to destroy. Your mind would no longer be a playground for me to twist and contort."

"Stop," Miyako said shakily.

"And Kiyoko," Sigma said, turning to his old host body. "Miserable boy that you are, you served me well. Until you developed a feeble backbone that is. How are you faring without me? Such a lonely boy, you're a disgrace to your parents. Tell me, have they looked for you once, since you left? No. They wanted you to leave didn't they? You disgusted them. They made you into the pitiful boy you are now."

"Y-you did that," Kiyoko interjected. "N-not them."

"I only exploited the damage they'd already caused," Sigma laughed. "And your roommates hated you so much. Plotting to kill them didn't win you any favours. They could never love you."

"Friends love each other," Miyako insisted. "That's what makes strong bonds."

"Oh, but that's not the love he wants to feel," Sigma said. "He wants so much more than could ever be possible. He just wanted to catch his eye, to make his parents proud. But he can't. He's worthless. And everyone knows it."

"That's not true," I protested.

"But it is," Sigma countered. "If it wasn't, he wouldn't have depended on me to keep him alive."

"That's true," Kiyoko muttered. His shoulders were shaking with each new point Sigma made. Points that couldn't be true, but Sigma knew Kiyoko's mind better than anybody else. He was getting Kiyoko where he knew it would cause the most damage. I didn't understand any of it though. What was he talking about his parents for? And was he referencing Hideto?

"It is true," Sigma agreed. "You know that you can't do anything to stop me. You cast me away when that foolish woman gave you the illusion of self-confidence. You're nothing without me. You were bornfor my control."

"Don't listen to him," Miyako insisted. Emiko continued to shriek, trying to wriggle her way out of Sigma's grasp, but only managed to make him hold onto her even tighter.

"You did this to your so-called friends," Sigma said, gesturing to the world around him. "They'll all die today, whether it be by Yggdrasil's pitiful attempts at wiping out the populations, or by my hand. Andyou were the one to introduce me to them. It was with you that I planned out each and every one of their deaths in graphic detail. I'd be honoured if you could stay and watch as I kill them, one by one, until only you remain."

Kiyoko was on his knees now, trying to control the shaking, tears falling despite his attempts to keep them at bay.

"It's all my fault," Kiyoko agreed, crying out. "I brought him to you. He sat in on your meetings. He knows all about you. I'm useless. I just led everyone to their death."

"I forgive you," Miyako told him instantly. "I forgive you for bringing him along, for giving him access. I'd even forgive you for letting him come and mutilate my flesh, if you even knew he was doing that. I forgive you."

I should have been the one saying it, but I was glad Miyako had. I wasn't particularly vocal about such things. I knew he didn't mean it, he hadn't been in control at the time and had no choice. It wasn't his fault. So I did the honourable thing, the right thing, and I forgave him too, even if I didn't say it aloud.

Three lights burst into being, lighting up the darkness that had taken over the forests since the sun wasn't a possibility at the moment. At first, I was confused. But then I noticed little Emiko was now on the ground, clutching a small flashlight in her tiny hands, pointing it directly at Sigma. Her hands were shaking, and his arm was faded out. I knew it would come back, but for now, I was glad to see her out of his clutches.

The second and third lights however, weren't the same warm glow as Emiko's flashlight. They were coming from Miyako's and my digivices. Mine was shining a bright turquoise, while hers was a deep yellow. The colour of each other's crests. Honour and Forgiveness.

Miyako let out a bubble of hysterical laughter as she lifted her digivice into the sky. Our two digimon froze as they were swallowed by a brilliant white light, and started moving together at a great speed. Valkyrimon looked like he'd be crushed by Vikemon's great size.

"Valkyrimon digivolve to…"

"Vikemon digivolve to…"

"Gaiomon!"

He was a brilliant looking dragon warrior digimon, with black samurai armor with red detailing. He was humanoid, like Valkryimon and looked similarly light on his feet. But he seemed to possess a frightening set of battle instincts reminiscent of Vikemon. Long silver spikes of hair protruded from the helmet that covered his face. There was a crooked blade sticking out the top of his helmet, and he had a similar, short blade coming out of each of his shoulder plates. There were black billowy pants underneath his armor, revealing large, black dragon's feet, with sharp claws tipping each of his four toes. He wielded a sword in both of his hands, both swords just as crooked as the blades on his armor. There was a short blade spike extended from each bend in the sword, giving it a dangerous look. He was made for combat, and I was glad he'd arrived.

"Not possible," Sigma muttered, staring at our new partner. Miyako let out a giddy squeal, finally taking the time to rush over to her sister, leaving Kiyoko—who hadn't quite taken our words to heart until that moment—to pull himself together.

I took the opportunity to sneak in and snatch up Emiko while Sigma was distracted. She was determined to keep holding her flashlight, but she wrapped her arms and legs around me tightly and I had a feeling I'd have to pry her off when this was over. She was still shaking and crying loudly.

"No matter," Sigma declared. "I'll dismiss of you just as easily as I did the others."

"You have wronged my friends," Gaiomon told him. "And now, I will defeat you for your crimes not only to them, but to all the nine worlds as well."

"Bring it on then," Sigma ordered.

Mimi Tachikawa:

Once everyone was filled in on the Arkadimon situation, we piled onto Plesiomon and headed for the giant tree. How none of them noticed it, I didn't know. It was a bit of an eye sore. It wasn't particularly pretty. It kind of looked like an enlarged version of the tree I'd seen in the Tunnel of Time, and Jou mentioned seeing something like it in the park back in Odaiba. There had to be a connection there, and I didn't like where the connection seemed to be leading. The tree on Earth had opened up, allowing millions of robots to swarm the planet; this one too, had probably served the same purpose for the Digital World, only now it had grown exponentially. That could only mean that Yggdrasil was here.

What that meant for Daisuke, Ken and their digimon partners, I didn't know.

"I don't see anything," Taichi commented. He was seated next to me on Plesiomon's back. Sora was clinging to Koushiro, desperate to be kept away from both Neo and Yamato—who appeared to be back in the running for her affections. Mari was sitting solemnly in between Willis and Hideto. Yamato was sitting with Jou near Plesiomon's head, casting not-so-subtle looks in Sora's direction. Monimon was moving around, making sure to get everyone's reactions as we prepared for our battle with Yggdrasil.

"That's probably the point, Taichi," Sora told him, rolling her eyes.

"He's not going to open himself up to our assault," Koushiro agreed. "Though, we have no record of him, and therefore could be looking directly at him as we speak and simply not know it."

"I don't think he looks like a giant tree, Koushiro," I said wryly.

"I actually don't either," he said. "I was simply stating a possibility. In Norse mythology he is depicted as one, after all."

"He's probably down by the tree," Willis suggested. "We should just go check it out."

"Bring us down, Plesiomon," Jou instructed.

From the ground, the tree looked bigger than ever. It was a horrifying shade of grey, looking more than just a little bit sickly, with black leaves filling out its branches. I scanned the branches, hoping to findsomething that looked out of place, but aside from the actual tree, nothing looked out of the ordinary. Damn. I'd been hoping to actually meet this guy before he tried to kill us. I kept my guard up, waiting for him to come up behind us, and I screamed bloody murder when a hand was placed on my shoulder. I swung around, curling my left hand into a fist and swinging it quickly at my attacker.

"What the hell, Mimi?" Daisuke snapped, grabbing my hand mere inches from his face. "I'm on your side."

"Daisuke?" Taichi said confused, looking at our goggle-clad companion. "Aren't you supposed to be in a different world?"

"We had to leave silly," a small girl in a frilly dress and a stylish dress said.

"Norn here helped us escape," Daisuke said with a grin, dropping my now relaxed fist. "Yggdrasil bailed on Ken and me when UlforceVeedramon and GrandisKuwagamon fused into this awesome fighting machine." He gestured over his shoulder to a warrior digimon. He wore silver armor with dark blue accents, had a fantastic set of wings and was playing with some fire while Daisuke spoke. "This is DoruGoramon. He's great. Ken and I fused! Isn't that awesome?"

"You're lucky you don't have to be the humble one at the moment," Ken teased, rolling his eyes at Daisuke's enthusiasm. I could tell it was all show though. He was bouncing around on the inside freaking out just as much as Daisuke was.

"Congratulations," Sora told them happily. I didn't think she really knew what we were getting into. She'd been dead—a fact I couldn't ever forget, even if she didn't remember it happened—when the robots invaded Earth. She didn't know just how unbeatable they seemed to be. We'd told her, but sometimes you have to see something to truly understand, and I was pretty sure this was one of those times.

"Thanks," Daisuke said happily. "We totally beat Takeru and Hikari too."

"Uh…" Jou said glancing quickly at Shakamon who was looking down on Daisuke clearly not impressed.

"No way," Daisuke groaned. "Where are they? They've got some explaining to do."

"They're safe," Taichi insisted.

"They can't be," Hideto commented. "Those robots were all over the Digital World. And Earth. And probably all throughout all of the other worlds too."

"Don't forget about those great evils still roaming about," Mari added.

"Erif too," Neo concluded.

"Kiyoko and Iori are taking care of Sigma as we speak," Taichi said, full of confidence. "And Michael and Kurayami stayed behind to finish off "the devil", which I'm assuming is just the Shadow King. That's the last of the great evils guys. Things are looking up."

"Knock on wood," Yamato said, rapping his knuckles against the trunk of a nearby tree. "We don't want to jinx anything Taichi. We're close, but we're not out of the jungle just yet."

"Out of the oven and into the frying pan," I agreed.

"So…where is Yggdrasil?" Willis asked. "If we're going to talk the talk, we might as well walk the walk, you know?"

"That's the problem," Ken muttered.

"I know he's here," Norn insisted, her blonde curls bobbing up and down as she nodded her head. "I just can't find him. I feel him though."

"Great," Taichi said. "He could be out there killing anyone right now."

"We need to get this done with," Jou said grimly. "I'm done with the waiting. I need this over."

"We all do," Mari agreed.

The two were hurting the most at the moment. Jou didn't know where his daughter was, or if his new sister-in-law was still alive like Valkyrimon suspected. We were pretty sure his brand new wife was dead. We just couldn't fathom a way for her to have survived. And Mari had lost her digimon in a way that none—other than Willis—had managed. And unlike Willis, she wouldn't be getting hers back.

It wasn't fair.

But then, war wasn't fair.

War was serious business, and we were standing around using clichés when we should've been hunting down Yggdrasil. I wanted him dead just as much as the others, but we weren't doing anything about it, though I could understand their hesitance. This battle would be our last. I could feel it in the air. We wouldn't be fighting after this, whether it was because Yggdrasil won, or because we'd finally made it to the end of our digital adventures, and could live in peace at last. Regardless, I needed to remember every last second of it.

WarGreymon was standing tall, eyes darting back and forth in the air. His muscles were tense beneath his orange, scaly skin, and his silver and gold armor seemed to shine in what little light we had to work by. Next to him was ZeedGarurumon looking stronger than ever—though I knew he must've been near exhaustion. He'd fought hard against Arkadimon already today, and before he'd digivolved, he'd faced Yggdrasil's army. His dark blue, armored body was looking a little worse for wear, and dirt clung to his once shining frame. His turquoise claws were digging into the dirt in anticipation. Phoenixmon was flying above us, scanning the surrounding area, her golden and deep orange plumage seemed to dance like flames as she flew, her armored head always searching. TyrantKabuterimon was following in her lead. His body was a beautiful shade of purple, one that reminded me distinctly of Koushiro's crest. His mechanical looking hands were clenching, and the whips at his waist were flitting about as he flew, his many wings fluttering a mile a minute. My own gorgeous partner was near me, dressed in skin tight red clothing, black heeled boots a white cape. Having her, in that familiar rose helmet gave my clenching stomach comfort. Her mouth—the only visible part of her face—was contorted into an anxious frown. She was twitching her fingers around her whips, wanting desperately for the battle to just start, just as I was. Plesiomon was still in the air as well, his large white body, decorated in simple stripes of purple with tufts of orange down his back. He was a giant sea creature, like the Loch Ness monster, and while he looked out of place hovering over a forest, I wouldn't have had it any other way. Shakamon was sitting cross-legged, meditating over a condensed ball of energy that was burning like a tiny sun. His golden garments glowed in the light the ball cast off, and his long silver hair seemed to shimmer.

It was hard to believe that these digimon, these powerful megas—and beyond—were the same digimon that had been waiting for us that fateful day we'd fallen from camp into a world we didn't know. Thirteen years it took us to reach this point, and those thirteen years had definitely treated our digimon well. They seemed so strong to me, but I knew they weren't a match for Yggdrasil on their own.

Luckily we had others that had joined us since the day we'd met those seven energetic In-Training digimon back then—including Gatomon.

DoruGoramon, the warrior that UlforceVeedramon and GrandisKuwagamon had fused to for us to meet, was crouching down, his legs bent at the knees while he searched for any clues of Yggdrasil's location. Leopardmon held his rapier at the ready, the red sash tied at his waist fluttering in the gentle breeze. His long blonde hair fell down the back of his cat-like face. He looked so graceful with an underlying strength. Coredramon—though only champion level—was his opposite. He didn't look graceful in the slightest. He was big and bulky, with his thick muscles and blue scaled skin. He didn't look fearful, though he had every right to be. He was facing an enemy far outranking his capabilities, yet he seemed more excited than anything. Omnimon was stoic as always in his gleaming white armor. His red and white cape too, was moving with the wind. Only his arms signified the two megas that had fused to create him. One arm was armed with the Garuru Cannon, while the other readied his Grey Sword. The distinct lack of a second Rosemon, dressed in white and pink with the same fierce heeled boots as my own Rosemon wore, cut me deeply. I hadn't taken the time to get to know her, and now I never would. Even though I barely knew her, she was already missed.

The tiny Monimon that Katsue had sent with us was looking more than a little nervous. He was still recording everything around him, but he jumped at even the slightest of sounds.

While Omnimon and Coredramon were relatively new to our numbers, I'd fought with the others countless times in the past, and I knew they could make a difference. I just didn't know if it would be enough.

Where were Valkyrimon and Vikemon or Piedmon and their partners? When were Michael and Kurayami going to show up with theirs? I didn't know. And I didn't have time to waste wondering. There was still so much I needed to sear into my brain.

I was in a trance. I needed to remember every little detail of my friends before the fight began, and I didn't know how much time I'd have.

Daisuke was holding Norn in his arms, propping her up onto his hip. They were murmuring to one another, trying to discern Yggdrasil's location. His brown hair was messier than usual, and the goggles were askew, hanging down past his ear on one side. He was wearing shorts, and his black high top shoes with the buckles. His vest was hanging open overtop of his blue striped, long sleeved tee. Norn was wearing a laced dress that bunched at her waist, and a tiny grey vest. There was a beret in her dirty, blonde hair, and she looked far too serious for a child of her age. She looked like she'd seen more than any of us could handle. It probably had something to do with her connection to Yggdrasil. Ken was leaning in to their conversation, adding in comments only twice, content with leaving the other two to speak. He was, as always, dressed in a pair of dark khakis, with slip-on dress shoes and a button down shirt, though he didn't look nearly as put together as he usually did. His long, dark hair was sticking up in places, and he looked exhausted. The frown adorning his face was the only sign that he was worried about his wife. He was trying to remain focussed on the battle at hand, but I knew he would have preferred to have her there. I think we all would have.

Behind those three, I caught sight of Mari's bushy hair. She'd tied it off on the back of her head, but it didn't seem to want to stay there. She wore a shiny, black headband as well, which stood out in sharp contrast with her blond locks. She had a short jacket on with pockets placed on her ribcage, and a black dress underneath it reaching down to mid-thigh. Her above the knee boots reminded me instantly of Rosemon's. I didn't know what she was thinking when she got dressed in that getup. How had she managed to survive the fight in New York wearing something as complicated to move in as that was? I didn't know. I'd barely managed in my sneakers, loose green shirt—tied at my waist with a black sash—and jeans. Her eyebrows were pulled together, and her eyes were blazing in a rage she was barely able to contain. She wanted revenge for her partner. Willis was holding her hand tightly. He seemed to realize just as I did that she wasn't fully stable at the moment, and was grounding her in reality. His blonde hair was dishevelled, and he had dirt smudged across his face. He wore a ruined white tee underneath a short-sleeved red button down that was hanging open, and a pair of dark wash jeans. His jeans were dark, though a lot of their colour was covered with dirt.

Taichi looked so different from his eleven year old self. It was the hair that did it mostly, though his determined face added to it. He'd matured so much, even if he was still instinctual and rash sometimes. He was still dressed in his council attire, wearing his suit pants and his deep blue button down, though he'd ditched the jacket at some point. His tie was hanging looser around his neck, and there were many rips and tears in his ensemble. His knuckles were red, and his finger tips were scraped up pretty badly. I didn't know what he was using to fight, but I could relate to the weapon related injuries. I had several slivers embedded into my hands thanks to my chair leg. One was bad enough to rip open my hand, and it had bled for awhile, though it had eventually stopped.

Yamato was next to Taichi, continually glancing at Sora out of the corner of his eye. He was battered, completely beat up. He should have stopped fighting ages before I forced him to. He was going to be a walking bruise in the morning. Several patches of his skin were already starting to turn purple. I didn't remember the last time I'd seen him without his leather jacket. He'd shed it during the Arkadimon fight, and the tee shirt he wore underneath revealed his impossibly pale arms. He really needed to get out into the sun more. He was on guard, ready to dart out and protect Sora in an instant, and she'd probably need it. Until she saw Yggdrasil, I doubted she would know why we were all so scared. Monimon had shown her his footage thus far, but I still didn't think she understood our fears.

Neo too seemed to be watching her. He was clutching his newly acquired crest. The deep, plum crest of honesty should have been so easy to hand out, but it had taken so long to do so. He really didn't have time to practice using it now. I could only hope that his honesty policy was enough to help him survive this. Coredramon couldn't do it along. Neo's white tee shirt was ripped and stained, and the black long-sleeve shirt he wore underneath it wasn't in much better condition. There were scrapes up and down his arms from our fight on Earth, and his white jeans? Forget about them. They were history. Blood and dirt covered them in tiny splotches, like little polka dots. His white hair was still wet, clinging to his face, and missing it's gravity defying quality I'd become accustomed to. Hideto was beside him in the perfect contrast. While Neo was white from head to toe, Hideto was black. His hair too, was heavy from the rain and his loose black pants were soaked and drooping. His shirt clung to his chest, and was torn across his back, revealing a nasty patch of scraped skin, embedded with bits of concrete. He was ignoring that very well though, glaring at the giant tree in front of us as if it were Yggdrasil himself.

"Yggdrasil is pretty strong guys," Daisuke commented, interrupting my memorization. "We might need more than just this."

"Kiyoko and Iori have their digimon with them," Taichi told him. "And Michael and Kurayami's are still at the Temple."

"Could you at least fuse?" Ken suggested.

"I don't know," Taichi admitted. "With ZeedGarurumon being a higher level now, I don't think I can. And if we do, we'll be losing power. From what I've gathered from their Arkadimon fight, ZeedGarurumon is just as powerful as a fused digimon. If they become Omnimon, we're losing a mega instead of gaining any power."

"You're not the only ones that can fuse, Taichi," Sora reminded him dryly. My eyes clung to her immediately, greedily drinking in her appearance one last time. She wasn't as worried and anxious as others were, but her face was serious. She wasn't playing around. She knew she didn't know what was going on, she realized she wasn't nearly prepared for this fight, but she was going to give it her all anyway. I felt my shoulders relax slightly. That was good. I'd been so worried about her. Her red flats, and black skinny jeans were paired perfectly with a loose, billowing red top with black buttons and accented with the black scarf she'd tied around her neck. She wasn't as beaten as the rest of us, but she was by no means untouched. Arkadimon's rough handling of her was evident.

My eyes were quickly drawn away by Jou's impatiently tapping foot. He looked as much like a drowned rat as Hideto did, having spent the entire battle in the rain, unlike Yamato, Neo and I, who'd taken a time out—get it?—back before it started to rain. He wasn't wearing his glasses as they'd been too damaged to stay put, though I could tell he was regretting that decision. He couldn't see what was going on. He kept squinting, and there were lines on his face that I'd only seen on grandparents. I was trying not to lose hope about Momoe, but I could see that Jou had already done so. He was resigned to being a widower already, and was barely clinging to the hope that Kiyoko had been right about his daughter. Even his clothing seemed to reflect that, as they drooped with the weight of the rain. The dark blue button down and his black slacks looked positively dreary now.

"Shall we?" Koushiro asked Sora. She nodded, and they pulled out their digivices. My lips quirked into a quick smile when Koushiro's eyes flickered to me before his digivice lit up red with the crest of love. Phoenixmon and TyrantKabuterimon flung together becoming one digimon.

"Phoenixmon digivolve to…"

"TyranKabuterimon digivolve to…"

"Eaglemon!"

The golden, metal eagle that emerged gleamed, but couldn't hold my focus. I didn't know how much time I had left, and I needed to take in as much as I could about Koushiro.

"Mimi?" Jou asked, but I couldn't do anything but look Koushiro from head to toe once. Just once. I noticed he was soaked, that he was wearing a striped red and black shirt with three-quarter length sleeves, and a pair of jeans that Sora had picked out for him. I saw that his hair was a mess and looked adorable that way. His left hand kept reaching up to touch his throat where the robot had nearly strangled him.

But I'd run out of time. Yggdrasil made his presence known.

"Such pitiful creatures the worlds have chosen to defend them," a metallic voice called from above us. Everyone's eyes moved as one to the very top of the giant tree. There I could barely make out a white robot shape, just like the hundreds I'd fought against in Odaiba, just like the millions that had tried to eradicate all life on the planet.

"Yggdrasil," Daisuke growled.

"Conceited much," Hideto commented. "All his minions look just like him."

"I don't," Norn said glaring at him.

"Norn," Yggdrasil said, noticing her presence. "You've become nothing but a disappointment to me. You are worthless."

"No I'm not!" she shouted at him. "I'm trying to prove their goodness to you."

"You cannot prove something that does not exist," Yggdrasil informed her.

"But it does," Norn screamed. "I've seen it."

"Enough of this," Daisuke said, adjusting the goggles on his head, the symbol of his leadership. "It's time to fight. DoruGoramon? Everyone? Attack!"

DoruGoramon led the charge, leaping into the air with the thrust of his large wings, shouting "Brave Metal!"

WarGreymon and ZeedGarurumon followed him, with calls of "Terra Force!" and "Full Metal Breath!"

"Mystic Break!" Eaglemon added, before Omnimon and Leopardmon followed with "Double Shot!" and "Black Aura Blast!"

Shakamon flew at the robot, aiming his sword at his head, and Coredramon launched himself up into the air screaming out "Blue Flare Breath!"

Monimon jumped up into a tree to get a better angle of the attacks—though I thought he was also probably hiding in fright. Plesiomon and Rosemon made up for it though, teaming up with their Rosy Cradle and Sorrow Blue attacks, meant to subdue Yggdrasil with a sad song and a shower of rose petals.

The resulting explosion of their combined attacks was deafening, and Yggdrasil was lost from sight in the accompanying cloud of smoke. We let out a cheer. We shouldn't have been so stupid. We knew that Yggdrasil wouldn't go down easily.

"Is that all?" Yggdrasil asked arrogantly. "I was expecting…more."

"Hit him again!" Daisuke shouted.

The ten digimon agreed, and prepared for a second volley of attacks, but Yggdrasil wasn't going to sit back and take it again.

"You are fools," he declared. "If you think any amount of teamwork is going to beat me. I can create a team of my own to take you down in an instant. In fact, I'll do just that."

"What?" I asked exasperated. He was going to summon more of those stupid robots? That wasn't fair. I hadn't had enough time to memorize Koushiro yet. And the others that weren't here… No. I wasn't going to let him. I called out to Rosemon, who decided to try and attack him before he had the chance to bring in the robots, but he knocked her out of the way with ease.

The ground shook beneath my feet as one of the large roots of the giant tree lifted out of the ground. Slowly, it changed from a hunk of wood into something else entirely. It changed from grey to black, growing two sets of long, narrow arms with five claws adorning each hand they were attached to. One of those twenty claws was bright red, while the others were a glossy black. A white spike appeared at the back of each of the four elbows just as a pair of legs was beginning to form. Each leg was paired with a foot armed with three sharp, red, claws. A thin body formed, connecting the arms and legs, and then a head with a helmet reminiscent of Kabuterimon's, with dark blue hair sticking out the back and a toothy mouth hanging open with a long, red tongue. A large silver cannon came next, branching off of the back of the root creature, and finally a glowing yellow and blue aura of a similarly helmeted creature whose body was only made up of a pair of wings.

"Is that him?"

I turned as saw Michael coming towards us, his plaid shirt standing out against his dark pants and blonde, curly hair. He was pointing at the creature that the root had turned into. Kurayami was next to him, with her black hair pulled into a messy ponytail, her two bright purple streaks pulled along with the rest, creating a stripe down either side of her head. I looked beyond them, thinking I'd find Anubismon and GigaSeadramon but didn't. Instead, I found a giant, blue water tiger with sharp claws and more teeth than even Tokomon.

"No," Ken told him.

"Who is it then?" Kurayami asked.

"We don't know," Neo said sounding bored.

"Milleniummon," DoruGoramon said, sounding far more like GrandisKuwagamon than UlforceVeedramon in that moment.

"But he's been taken care of already," Sora said nervously. "You said so."

"So did the Winter Queen that Miyako was speaking with," Koushiro added.

"But isn't Milleniummon one of the great evils?" Jou asked.

"You hate the great evils!" Daisuke yelled at Yggdrasil just as the Millenniummon his root had turned into started to thrash about.

"This isn't one of the great evils," Yggdrasil said proudly. "It's just a version of one that has been perfected—he'll only do as I say, as they should have from the start."

"Millenniummon was really easy to defeat the first time around," DoruGoramon said. "There was just a champion and a rookie in the battle against him. You'll have to do better than that if you want to beat us."

"I did say perfected did I not?" Yggdrasil commented. "But if you insist." Then he let out a spine tingling metallic laugh as he raised his arms. The ground shook again as four more roots raised out of the soil, slowly shifting forms into other creatures.

"What now?" Kurayami asked.

"We'll have to divide ourselves," Daisuke ordered. "But we can't forget about Yggdrasil. Someone has to stay on him at all times."

"Who?" Sora asked.

"Whoever's available after this," Daisuke said. "Ken and I will stay with Millenniummon. If he could get defeated by a champion and a rookie before, he can sure as hell get beaten by a fused pair of megas now that he's been "perfected." Keep an eye on the others. We don't know what he'll turn into. It might be Arkadimon even."

He and Ken rushed over to DoruGoramon after that, leaving us staring at the other roots in horror. DoruGoramon let out a loud "Doru Din!" as he launched into the fight.

"I doubt it could be Arkadimon," Koushiro said anxiously. "He was a glitch to the Digital World. Yggdrasil only has access to what is supposed to exist, he's only able to draw on what is—or has been—because of his roots. A glitch doesn't technically exist, so he shouldn't have access to that data."

"We don't know if that's how this works though," Sora continued for him. "It's only speculation at this point."

"I'll take speculation," Taichi declared. "It's better than nothing. Who are we up against? Does anyone recognize anything yet?"

I scanned the four roots, trying to keep myself from just watching DoruGoramon and Millenniummon's fight, but failing at the same time. One root had changed its colour immediately to gold, and another to purple. The third was white, and the final root was now black, though it quickly gained both purple and red as it changed shape.

DoruGoramon was punching Millenniummon who didn't seem to feel any of the attacks, though Millenniummon did not fight back either.

"I think I know that one," Willis said suddenly, pointing to the red, black and purple root. It had changed drastically since I'd last seen it, though it had only been a few seconds. There were seven legs with red claws on the end. They were spindly and reminded me of a spider. The legs led up to a mouth that was nowhere near its head. Seven eyes surrounded the mouth, and just above the small body that the mouth was attached to, was a purple head. "It's Ogudomon."

"Who's that?" Taichi demanded.

"He's mine, that's what," Mari said glaring at the digimon angrily before she started to stalk towards it.

"Mari," Hideto protested. "You can't. You don't have a digimon."

"Exactly," Mari growled, and continued on her way.

"I'm coming with you!" Willis called. "Leopardmon!"

"Extinction Wave!" Leopardmon called throwing himself at the Ogudomon Yggdrasil had created.

"So he's not only using great evils?" Yamato asked, sounding confused.

"No," Koushiro said. "Tatum provided me with information pertaining to Ogudomon before. He was the combination of two of the deadly sin digimon. Reason makes me believe that this is—"

"A combination of all of them," Neo finished before Koushiro had the chance. "And that's what, two of the great evils right there?"

"That makes three," Jou commented.

"Four," Kurayami growled. Everyone turned to look at her and she simply pointed to the golden root. It had sprouted a tail and hundreds of spikes. There were three rows of eyes down its head, and two rows of five red orbs along its spine. It was huge and it was a dragon. It was—"Fanglongmon."

"Let's go then," Michael told her. "You want to take him on, so let's do it. Splashmon!"

"My pleasure," the large water beast purred in a low growly voice. It sounded positively evil. "Tiger Typhoon!" Everyone was doused in water as the tiger digimon threw himself—and his large wave of water—at the digimon that had held Kurayami's mind captive for so long.

"That's not going to be enough," Taichi warned the pair of them, as they started off to follow their digimon.

"They won't be alone," Sora informed him.

"Eaglemon!" Koushiro commanded. Eaglemon let out a thrilled call and followed after Splashmon calling out "Kaiser Phoenix!" as he did so. My four human friends ran towards the fight. I wanted so badly to run after them. I wanted to fight alongside them, so I could know that Koushiro would be alright, that Sora wouldn't just die again, that Kurayami and Michael wouldn't be swayed by Fanglongmon's mind tricks again. But I couldn't do that. There were still two more roots to worry about, and we couldn't spread ourselves too thin if we wanted to fight Yggdrasil at the same time.

"Is that?" Yamato asked.

"Apocolymon," Taichi confirmed.

I turned to see the third root, the purple one, had formed into the pentagonal box that formed the base of Apocolymon. Gold accents popped up and the claws came crawling out of the root as well. Finally, the tiny, creepy little digimon man sprouted out of the top, finishing off Apocolymon.

"I've got this one," Jou said firmly.

"There are others that can still help," I protested. "Let me help."

"Koushiro's not sure about his Arkadimon theory. You might be needed. If not, then go face Yggdrasil," Jou insisted. "If you defeat him, the others will fall too. We're just distractions anyway."

"But," I protested.

"Let the man do what he feels he needs to do," Hideto told me, dragging me away from Jou and towards the final root.

"No matter what this is," Neo said. "Yamato, you and Taichi need to go on to fight Yggdrasil. You're the most experienced fighters here. And you've got the most strength."

"And if it is Arkadimon?" Yamato asked.

"Then we go down fighting," Neo said solemnly.

"I can't let you do that," Yamato countered.

"You won't have a choice," Neo declared. "Now go."

"Just do it," I told them. "Defeat Yggdrasil, and then we can all go home."

"You say that like it'll be easy," Taichi said laughing without humour. "Be safe."

"We will," Hideto confirmed.

I watched Taichi and Yamato rush over to the giant tree. The final root was still forming, and the others were effectively distracted by the digidestined that were facing off against them. WarGreymon lifted Taichi and Yamato to the first of the branches, before attacking Yggdrasil with his Mega Claw attack. The two boys struggled to climb up the branches while ZeedGarurumon flew up to attack Yggdrasil from behind with his Zeed Cannon. I caught sight of Plesiomon attacking Apocolymon with a Sad Water Blast, and Apocolymon attacking back with a loud "Reverse Digivolve!" which Pleiomon was thankfully able to dodge in order to throw a Shaking Pulse his way. Fanglongmon's loud call of "Dragon Smash!" had me looking towards his battle against Splashmon and Eaglemon. Eaglemon flew out of Fanglongmon's range before his tail could catch him, but Splashmon just stood his ground, letting Fanglongmon's tail slash right through his watery body. Fanglongmon decided to try a biting attack and headed in for a Koutei-no-Kiba but I didn't get a chance to see the results, as my attention was diverted by Millenniummon, who was trying to use his Ultimate Fusion attack—which from what I gathered meant trapping his foe in a pocket dimension he created—but DoruGoramon easily flew out of his range, attacking with his Brave Metal attack. "Catedal!" It was Ogudomon, attacking Mari and Willis, foregoing Leopardmon and aiming for the source of his power: Willis. Leopardmon jumped in there and swung his rapier, screaming "Black Aura Blast!" and attacking Ogudomon just in time.

"Mimi," Hideto called. "Mimi, do you know who this is?"

"What?" I asked, forcing myself to look away from the others' battles. I caught sight of the digimon that the root turned into. He was covered in a silvery white set of armor with dark blue and red accenting on his elbows, hips, shoulders and hands. There were wings sticking out the back of his shoulders, and faces on his kneecaps. The artilleries on his shoulders were alive, and his pelvic area had another face. A bat-like red mask covered most of his face too. "MaloMyotismon."

"He's one of the weaker ones, right?" Hideto asked.

"He was beaten by dreams last time," I explained.

"I don't have one," Hideto said awkwardly. "I don't have a dream to use."

"My dream just got blown up," I pointed out, thinking of the restaurant that was nothing but a vacant lot now. "What about you Neo?"

"I wanted to marry Sora," he said slowly.

"We're doomed," I gasped.

"We can still fight," Shakamon reminded me, hoisting his sword in the air and rushing at the armored vampire digimon, and slashing at his knees. Omnimon jumped in after him, with his Transcendent Sword attack, slashing at his shoulders with the Grey Sword. With his Strike Bomber attack, Coredramon rushed forward, smacking MaloMyotismon in the face with his tail. Rosemon held back, staring at MaloMyotismon, waiting for him to make his first move before she tried anything.

"Pandemonium!" MaloMyotismon boomed. He started secreting a gas-like substance that caused Omnimon, Shakamon and Coredramon to be engulfed in a cloud. When the cloud cleared, Omnimon was using his Blaster Blade technique, blasting at Coredramon with his Garuru Cannon while dueling with Shakamon with his Grey Sword.

"What are you doing?" Hideto demanded.

"He's confused," Rosemon informed him. "They all are. They don't know who is ally and who is foe. I must do something. Now."

"Then do it!" Neo snapped, angry with his digimon for being so easily distracted. I couldn't help but relate with the confused digimon. I was so easily distracted. I knew I needed to focus on this fight, and leave the others to their own battles, but I couldn't help but look any time I heard a digimon call out an attack. I needed to know they'd survive each attempt the enemy made at their lives. Plesiomon was calling out "Water Tail Blaster!" and struggling to fend off Apocolymon's Death Claw attack, only for Apocolymon to follow that attack with his Shokushu Kougeki, a slight variation of Death Claw, just to catch Plesiomon off guard. Our beloved sea monster was caught in Apocolymon's grasp!

"Thorn Whipping!" Rosemon screamed, tossing her whip around MaloMyotismon's neck, trying to convert him to our side using her influencing technique. She was going to use MaloMyotismon to stop Apocolymon, while our allies continued to fight, but she couldn't. She tugged on her whip multiple times, but MaloMyotismon didn't listen to any of them. "Come on!"

MaloMyotismon just let out a deeper version of Yggdrasil's laughter. He reached up and tugged the whip, sending Rosemon crashing into the ground at my feet.

Then it clicked.

"These aren't digimon, Rosemon," I told her. "They're just a part of Yggdrasil, like those robots were!"

"So they don't have a mind of their own," Rosemon concluded.

"And they're probably indestructible too," Hideto grumbled. "Just to make things even more difficult."

"What are we going to do?" I asked in a panic.

"We fight," Rosemon informed me. "Beauty Shock!"

Oh God. I was having a hard time figure out what to think. I wanted to remember everyone just in case, but I was drawing a blank as to what my mother's hair colour was. How big was my dad's smile? What did Koushiro like with his jellybeans on his eggs? I couldn't remember things. This wasn't good.

"Mimi," Hideto said, grabbing me by the shoulders. "Breath slowly. You're hyperventilating. You're the most experienced fighter we have with us. You can't freak out. Calm down."

"I can't!" I screamed, tears starting to fall down my face. "Everything is going wrong. This is our last fight. I know it is. And I don't think we win!"

Smack!

"You can't think like that," Hideto said, having slapped me across the face. "I know that was wrong, hitting a girl and all, but I don't have time for such nonsense. I have to win this, because I need to find a dream to work towards. I need to help you rebuild yours and I want to help Neo find a better one. So smarten up Mimi, because we have to win."

"Right," I said, taking deep breaths. Everything was too much, clouding my focus. He was right, of course. I'd been saying it all along, I needed to focus, I needed to stay on guard. Why had I lost sight of my own brilliant advice?

"Enough of this!" Rosemon shouted at her three allies, after failing to take MaloMyotismon out on her own. "Beauty Shock!" she screamed, shocking each of them in turn with her whip. That seemed to be enough to shake them of their confusion.

"Coredramon, digivolve," Neo commanded. Coredramon nodded, and Neo's digivice turned the same deep plum colour as his crest immediately. Coredramon was lit up win a white sort of spotlight.

"Coredramon digivolve to… Wingdramon!"

It wasn't fair how he could digivolve so quickly after getting his crest, but I didn't care so much at the time. We needed all the help we could get in defeating Yggdrasil's creations. Wingdramon was just as blue as Coredramon had been, and was still covered in dragon scales. He was clutching a yellow orb in each of his clawed hands though, and wore a mask with two red spikes on the tip. Orange tufts of hair burst out from under the helmet, and he had gigantic wings now, and a longer tail. He had what appeared to be smaller wings along the back of his arms as well, and a lance strapped to his back.

"Attack!" Neo told him. Omnimon, Shakamon and Rosemon followed suit. Wingdramon let out an Exploding Sonic Lance, accelerating up to maximum speed in a nose dive, and striking MaloMyotismon with the lance on his back. Shakamon attacked with his sword again, and Omnimon tried just his blaster this time with his Supreme Cannon attack. Rosemon followed it up by using her Ivy Hug to tangle MaloMyotismon in her vine whips, allowing Wingdramon to swoop in with another attack. This time he used Blaze Sonic Breath, shooting a blast of fire at MaloMyotismon. But MaloMyotismon just burst out of Rosemon's hold, using his Screaming Darkness attack, blasting Shakamon and Rosemon to the ground with attacks shot from the living artilleries on his shoulders.

"We need more," Hideto said, pointing out our thoughts. How could Jou and Willis handle the battles with only one digimon? I looked to see that Plesiomon had burst out of Apocolymon's hold, and was pelting him with his Hydro Impact Crusher, and that Leopardmon was behind attacked by Ogudomon's Gradus attack, which he was using to pulverize Leopardmon with his gigantic legs.

"Then we'll get more," Neo growled. "Wingdramon, one more time!"

"Wingdramon digivolve to… Slayerdramon!"

Slayerdramon was more like Coredramon than Wingdramon, in that he was more humanoid. He was white from head to toe—kind of like Neo—with only hints of gold breaking up the gleaming colourless armor. He wore a hunter green cape, and a curved sword—made of several spiked pieces seemingly welded together—that was nearly as large as his body was clenched in his left hand.

"Let's try this again!" Neo commanded. "We've got to beat this guy."

"Koryu Slash!" Slayerdramon shouted, stepping in closer to MaloMyotismon, and curling his sword around his indestructible body, and attempting to shave off his shell, layer by layer. Of course it didn't work, and only sparks flew.

"Rose Spear!" Rosemon tried, straightening her whip into a rapier, and attempting to crack MaloMyotismon's armor at the same time that Shakamon slashed at him with his sword.

"Ultimate Uppercut!" Omnimon called when the two had failed. He used the Grey Sword to send MaloMyotismon into the air, then jumped up after him, repeatedly firing his Garuru Cannon down after him.

Still nothing happened.

"Where's Kiyoko?" I questioned with a whine. I was frustrated okay! "Maybe you two could fuse."

"I don't need him," Neo said confidently. I didn't know what he meant, but the wheels seemed to be turning in his head. Hideto caught on to my confusion.

"Neo's a master at Jogress," Hideto explained. "He's the reason we were able to fuse those digimon we were infecting back when we were still against you."

"Oh," I said, remembering a time when I watched Mari's Rosemon inject two digimon and then saw the two digimon meld into one. It wasn't a very happy memory.

"Slayerdramon, fuse!" Neo commanded.

"With who?" Slayerdramon said, just as confused as I felt. He looked around, finding only MaloMyotismon who didn't already have a fusing partner.

"Yourself!" Neo shouted, exasperatedly.

"O-Okay," Slayerdramon said…but then both he and Neo's digivice were glowing a dark plum colour, and his shape was changing.

"Slayerdramon digivolve to…"

"Brakedramon digivolve to…"

"Examon!"

"Who is Brakedramon?" I asked. My head was hurting. I was too confused to make heads or tails of this. I took the time to take in the newest member of our fused ranks. He had wings that were each at the very least twice the size of his dragon body, and he had wings at least his size hanging off of each arm. His tail was three times as long as he was tall, and the mechanical weapon that was his right hand, was the same length as his height. He was bright red, with a white underbelly, and if he were to stand, I knew he'd stand upright. He had long horns sticking out the back of his head.

"Brakedramon is Dracomon, in a different time," Neo told me. "You gave me the idea really, when you brought me back to get Sora, and I saw my past self. There was the potential for him to become someone far different than who I was at the time I saw him, and I remembered that Dracomon could have gone two very different ways, depending on his moral ground at the time of his first digivolution. Had I still been excessively evil, he would have become a green Coredramon, which would then become a Groundramon, then finally Brakedramon."

"So you fused Dracomon with his evil self?" I asked.

"Cool, isn't it?" Hideto asked with a grin.

"So we have a chance right?" I guessed.

"Who knows what this guy can do," Hideto laughed. "Omnimon, tag team him with Examon."

Examon flapped his wings once—not even a full time—and he was already far above our enemy. "Dragonic Impact!" he called, before flying down at MaloMyotismon, lighting with fire as the friction he was experiencing due to his speed reacted with his skin. Just as MaloMyotismon tried to recover from that blow, Omnimon rushed foreward with his Sword of Ruin, which apparently was an attack that created a ring of energy around himself and MaloMyotismon, which he then caused to explode, landing a direct hit on the root imposter.

But when the smoke cleared, nothing much had changed.

"We can do this," Hideto said, repeating himself over and over again.

"Even if we can't," I told him. "We're going down fighting."

"Ain't that the truth," Neo agreed with a slight smirk.

Kiyoko Izumi:

Sigma was staring at Iori and Miyako's newly fused digimon, anticipating his first move. But Gaiomon was perfectly content with just staring back, occasionally moving his weight from one foot to the other to keep Sigma guessing.

Somehow, Iori and Miyako had managed to find it within themselves to defend me against Sigma, despite Sigma being one hundred percent correct in all of his statements. I was weak. I was useless. I was a disgrace to my family and an unworthy friend. I didn't want to be those things, but I was. The desire to change was enough for my crest to function though, so I never had to force myself to change.

Emiko continued to sob, and I empathized. I wished I could do the same without seeming even weaker than I was. I could curl up somewhere and just let it all out to the point that I'd be starting with a clean slate. But I wasn't a child, and I didn't have anyone to comfort me as she did. Iori was forced unwillingly into the role of comforter for her, but he didn't even second guess it. She was a child and therefore needed comfort.

I didn't have anyone that would offer that to me.

Maybe Yoshie, but that could be pushing it.

I hadn't had anyone other than Sigma in a long time. I had trouble functioning without him. I found myself staring at things and people far more often than is socially acceptable. I didn't have Sigma to keep me from making a fool of myself. I didn't know how to fully be in charge of myself. It was very nice at first, deciding everything for myself. But it was exhausting. I had been thirteen when I first met Sigma. I wasn't old enough to be on my own. He raised me into the man I was today, however weak a man that was.

And so what if I wanted Hideto to love me! Was it a bad thing to want love? I didn't think so. I craved that feeling, and Hideto was perfect. He didn't have to love me back. It was his decision to make though, not Sigma's. He hadn't said it…but he hadn't said he didn't either. Or that he couldn't. Until he told me flat out, I wouldn't know. And Sigma wouldn't know either. He couldn't. He only knew my mind inside and out. Not Hideto's. He hated Hideto anyway. He didn't like the way that Hideto sparked something in me, made me brave enough to fight against his hold on me.

Everything I was able to contribute to the cause, I'd learned from him. But that didn't mean I couldn't use what he'd taught me against him. He knew me better than anyone, and the same could be said in reverse.

I kept my face to the ground as I tried to carefully brush the remaining tears off of my cheeks without letting anyone see. They'd been nice enough to not mention that I'd been crying like a baby. But I wasn't a baby and I couldn't afford to let my fears continue to get the better of me.

I had to prove my worth to Sigma, but more importantly, I had to prove it to myself.

Sigma was wrong about one other thing too. I did have a friend: Piedmon. He'd never confused me with Sigma. He refused to call me Sigma, even when Sigma had demanded he do so, calling me only "Sir" instead. Piedmon believed in me. Yoshie believed in me. All that was left was for me to believe in me.

"Rinkazan!" Gaiomon said, breaking the silence that had permeated the battlefield. He used his two swords and sliced them forward toward Sigma, and through him. He left behind an eerie track of light that would have destroyed Sigma, if he hadn't caught sight of it in time. He melted into the ground and appeared behind Gaiomo, using his fists to slam the digimon into the ground.

"I really thought you'd be more interesting," Sigma drawled. He kicked Gaiomon, causing the digimon to roll across the forest floor, smashing into trees and knocking them over.

Miyako furiously shook Momoe's shoulders, desperate to wake her up. She wasn't going to be able to drag Momoe out of the way if a tree started to fall in our direction. But Momoe wouldn't budge. If it were possible, Emiko's cries got louder, and she clung to Iori tighter. He tried to pry her arms from around his neck with little success. He was murmuring in her ear, though what he was saying, I couldn't hear.

Piedmon decided to join in the fight, sending his swords flying at Sigma, trying to catch him off guard before he jumped onto Gaiomon, but the swords passed right through Sigma without him attempting to humour us. He was serious now, and that did not bode well for us. When Sigma said he was going to kill something, he killed them. I remembered a junkyard dog that had fallen into his grasp by daring to growl as we walked passed. I distinctly remember scrubbing at my hands for weeks, trying to wash the feel of the fur beneath my fingers away. Sigma called me weak then too. Mari's old hamster lost its life the same way. I still hadn't told her about that though. She was really frightening.

Sigma landed on top of Gaiomon, drilling his knee into his throat. Luckily, Gaiomon's armor made it difficult for Sigma to get in that great of a hit. Unfortunately, Sigma was a shadow, and seemed to remember that face. He took his hand, and reached inside of Gaiomon's chest, determined to kill him from the inside out. Miyako let out a horrified scream and Iori stared with wide eyes. Their new digimon was going to die so soon after digivolution. A part of me wanted to turn away, but I couldn't. I stood in transfixed, morbid fascination, watching as my previous possessor scrambled a digimon's insides. I wondered briefly if all digimon had organs, or if they were like Whaemon—lacking any sort of insides.

Sigma had really done a number on my brain if that was what I was focussing on, instead of trying to figure out a plan to stop him. Piedmon, however, wasn't as easily distracted. He knew his attacks wouldn't work on the shadow, and decided to tackle him while Sigma was laughing at Gaiomon's pain. Piedmon was able to get Sigma away from Gaiomon but the shadow noticed what was going on just a second later and faded from being, allowing Piedmon to travel through his body. It was enough time for Gaiomon to get to his feet though.

"Rinkageki!" Gaiomon called, noticing Sigma's location and preparing his swords for another light attack. This time, instead of leaving a trail of light where the sword had slashed, he moved them in a complicated set of movements, causing a trail of light to appear behind Sigma—a trail that was heading for the shadow.

"Damn," Iori growled as Sigma caught sight of it and jumped out of the way, slamming down on Gaiomon with his leg. Gaiomon fell to the ground, rolling along the forest's floor. None of Sigma's physical attacks—except for his organ merry-go-round—seemed to be causing Gaiomon any damage. Gaiomon was simply losing his footing because he was always a step behind Sigma. That was how Sigma worked though. He used his opponent's predictability against them.

Could I make that work to our advantage?

My mind was reeling. I was pulling at my memory bank, trying to learn what I could remember about Sigma's attack strategy, and combining it with what I knew about Piedmon and Gaiomon. Piedmon wasn't strong enough to win, but he could play the role of distraction fairly well.

"Ending Snipe!" Piedmon tried, once again drawing Sigma's attention away from Gaiomon only to bring it onto himself. Simga sunk into the ground and appeared at Piedmon's side, slamming this joined hands into my partner's side. Piedmon came flying towards Miyako, Momoe, Iori, Emiko and I, landing on the ground in front of me.

"Try this on for size," Gaiomon growled, lifting his hands into the air. "Gaia Reactor!"

All the energy in the atmosphere seemed to fly toward Gaiomon, and he condensed it into a powerful orb in front of him. He looked to Sigma and chucked it at him, slashing it with his sword just before it got out of his reach. The resulting explosion tossed us off our feet. Iori landed on his back, before rolling over to protect Emiko from the blast. Miyako threw herself over her unconscious sister, and Piedmon crawled over to hold my hand, squeezing it tightly, trying to assure me that we'd be alright.

When the shockwaves finally died down, I risked a peek at the battle site. The trees within a fifty foot radius were all demolished, but Sigma remained standing, laughing at Gaiomon.

"A valiant attempt," Sigma complimented. "I almost didn't realize what you were doing, but you were too obvious. You'll need to work on that if you hope to beat me."

"I don't hope," Gaiomon declared. "I plan on it."

"You're a cocky one aren't you," Sigma commented with another laugh.

"What the hell just happened?"

"Momoe!" Miyako said in delight. "You're awake."

"Yeah, I'm awake," Momoe said impatiently. "What just happened to the trees?"

"Doesn't matter," Iori said firmly. "Take your daughter."

"Emiko!" Momoe called happily. She pried Emiko off of Iori, and hugged her baby close to her chest, whispering sweetly into her ear.

I caught Piedmon's wrist just before he jumped back into the battlefield. "Wait," I told him. "I need you to do something for me." I whispered instructions into his ear, and told him to go distract Sigma so that I could give Gaiomon his own set of instructions.

"This is for Kiyoko!" Piedmon shouted much to my embarrassment—and secret pleasure—as he kicked Sigma in the side of the head, causing the shadow to fly towards the edge of the clearing Gaiomon had created. I took that as my opportunity to rush towards the samurai dragon, and set off running, ignoring Miyako and Iori's protests. I winced as I saw Piedmon get thrown into the trunk of a tree, before Sigma flew at him and punched him in the chest, knocking the tree he'd been leaning against over.

"My turn," Gaiomon muttered just as I reached him.

"Stop," I hissed. "I've got a plan."

He listened as I murmured my idea, nodding after I'd finished. "It's worth a try," he agreed.

"Excellent," I said, thrumming with excitement. Sigma could be defeated! But we only had one shot at this. If we missed and tried again, he'd know our plan. It would be predictable. Sigma preyed on predictable. But we weren't the only ones that were predictable.

I caught sight of Piedmon flying through the air once more, after Sigma had hit him. Sigma was rushing after him, but froze mid-step before turning toward me.

"What have we here?" he asked. "Is someone pretending to have a back bone again?"

I didn't answer. I just stared at him, breathing heavily. My plan had to work. My plan had to work. I kept repeating it over and over in my mind as if hearing it enough would make it true.

"Let's see how easy that back bone is to crack," Sigma suggested. He sunk into the ground and appeared in front of me, picking me up by the front of my shirt. "Goodbye, Kiyoko," he hissed before tossing me into the air, whirling around and kicking me in the chest, sending me flying through the air. I managed to scream out a choked "NOW!" before landing roughly on the ground, rolling over and over again until I landed painfully on my back.

"Ending Snipe!" Piedmon shouted. I knew what he was doing, though I couldn't lift my head to see—it was too painful. He was holding his hands out, electrocuting Sigma. It wouldn't work, but I wasn't expecting it to.

Sigma had a pattern. If someone attacked him, he'd sink into the ground and attack them in close combat. It was a constant in his technique—one that I'd known for ages, but hadn't realized its full potential until now.

"Rinkageki!" Gaiomon called.

Good.

That meant Sigma did as I predicted. He moved to Piedmon's side, allowing for Gaiomon to send his long distance light attack towards Sigma. Sigma would dodge, though he'd be confused. No one sent attacks in such quick succession. Not at him in any case. He would follow his own pattern though, and appear next to Gaiomon next.

But Gaiomon would be ready for him.

"Rinkazan!" Gaiomon called. I heard the sound of his swords, metal on metal, as he prepared his attack, so that he could launch it just before Sigma rose out of the ground, catching him off guard, and blasting him with the full power of the light attack.

I needed to see it.

I grunted in pain as I rolled myself onto my stomach, lifting my head just in time to see the scene I'd longed for since I'd forced Sigma from my body. The trail of light was directly in his path, but he didn't see it until it was too late as he rose from the ground. He let out a scream as the light lit him on fire, burning him until there was nothing left. I let out a shaky laugh.

"We did it!" Miyako screamed from across the clearing. Momoe and Emiko were doing a happy dance—though Emiko was still crying. Iori strode towards his digimon partner a conflicted look on his face. He knew, as I did, that the fighting was far from over. Sigma may be gone, but he wasn't the last foe we'd face.

Piedmon jumped over to my side, and helped pull me to my feet. Once I was upright, the pain didn't seem quite as bad, though it was definitely still present. I walked gingerly over to the others.

"Hey, what's that?" Momoe called, pointing into the distance.

"A…tree?" Miyako guessed. It sure looked like one, though it was as large as Infinity Mountain at the very least.

"I think we've found out next destination," Gaiomon announced.

"The Temple first," Iori said firmly. "Then the tree. We need to drop Momoe and Emiko off with Yuuko and the others that won't be fighting."

"I want to help," Momoe protested weakly.

"Then help your daughter," I suggested. She glared at me and for once, I didn't flinch at a mean stare—though it was mostly due to pain. It still counted though.

"Come," Piedmon suggested. "We've a long way to go, and destiny awaits."

Takeru Takaishi:

I couldn't believe this was happening.

I couldn't believe it was happening because if I did I'd have to accept my imminent death. A dinosaur made of rocks and lava was generating fire from its open jaw and spitting it toward me while I held a sword. The sword was probably the least weird part of the whole situation, and yet, at the same time, for me, wielding a sword was most definitely not a natural, or common occurrence. And yet, if I could possibly survive it... it would be the absolute, best, most wonderful chapter to my book.

Hikari was standing back from me as I frantically jumped out of the way of the blasts of fire being shot toward me. I knew Hikari was hoping for me to win the fight, but as far as I could tell, the statistics were not in my favour.

Luckily, all those years playing soccer with Daisuke, Taichi and Ken proved useful and I was fast enough to evade the blasts with only one coming close to me—and even being three feet from me, I could have sworn the hair on my bare shins had been scorched. This was no ordinary fire, but did I ever really believe that it was? Nothing was ever so simple in the Digital World.

"Would you just stay still?" Erif asked with a growl.

"Don't do it!" Hikari shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth.

"I didn't plan on it!" I shouted with exasperation as I, yet again jumped out of the way of the blasts of fire. I was fast, but jumping side to side with a heavy metal sword meant that I was eventually going to run out of energy, and the dinosaur in front of me was losing next to none of his own.

I needed to think of a plan. I didn't have anything to fight with besides the sword, I couldn't drag Hikari into the battle. I couldn't let her get hurt. Besides, she didn't have a sword handy like I did. I didn't havetime to think of a plan though! I needed someone smarter! Someone like Koushiro or Willis! What would they say?

"Prodigious, serendipitous, pandemonium, loquacious!"

Of course I didn't exactly understand that. Koushiro could be so confusing sometimes... I needed Willis! What was his interpretation? What did I have to do? What did that last word even mean? Loquacious...?

I just needed to channel Koushiro. I needed to channel his crest—mine wasn't helping me just then. I needed someone else's. Alright. Loquacious...

To talk a lot.

Talking.

Buying time!

"Why now?" I shouted suddenly, "Why us?"

Voldcdramon tilted his head and looked closer to me, leaning his head down slightly, "What do you mean? Who else would I pick?"

"No," I shook my head, turning to Hikari and trying to register what I needed. I needed a plan. A simple plan. "Why us? Why weren't you in the battle? You're working for Arkadimon aren't you? Why aren't you doing what you should be doing?"

"How do you know that this isn't exactly what I'm supposed to be doing?" Erif asked.

"Because you're avoiding the question." I pointed out. I looked to Hikari who flashed a grin to me, still hopeful, but I could tell her brain was spinning as she too tried to find a plan as well. I could only hope she was more successful than I was.

"Very well, "Erif grumbled, straightening his neck again, "I'm on my own mission."

"A-and what's that?" I asked, my voice faltering for just a moment before I shook off the fear and stood tall. Taichi had locked me up with Hikari, and although he did it to fulfill Yamato's request, I knew he'd want me to protect his sister. He'd want me to stand tall and courageous. I'd just have to channel Taichi this time. I'd have to channel our leader, the hero. "What mission?"

"Why would I tell you?" Erif asked, squinting his eyes as the lava in the chasms on his back began to bubble again.

"Why wouldn't you?" I countered, "If you're just going to kill us, why wouldn't you tell us your plan?"

"Yes, but if you escape then I have a problem now don't I?" Erif scoffed, "I'm not that stupid."

"How could we possibly escape?" I asked quickly, pointing to Hikari who was staring at the ground now, "She's got no weapon and I've got just a sword. At least satisfy my curiosity before you kill me." I had to force myself not to raise his suspicions by smiling. This was more than I could have asked for in a million years. I felt like I was in one of my favourite comics or television shows. "Come on."

"Oh alright," Volcdramon rolled his glowing yellow eyes and then looked down to me again, "You remember our last encounter? I took the digimentals. I activated them. I activated their powers before you digidestined could take them from me. And although I didn't take their powers it didn't matter. They will scatter into the air, and I'll take them from there."

"What?" I asked, thoroughly confused, "Why do you want the digimentals so bad?"

"You fool," Erif-dramon growled, "I want their power not the digimentals! You children win every time, why is that?"

"Because of the crests." Hikari responded, almost scaring me to death. But she didn't. So it was okay. She was now standing right next to me, looking up to our enemy with the same amount of ferocity as I was. I wanted to tell her to get back to where she'd been standing before, out of the line of fire. I couldn't have her get hurt! I had to have her live through this apocalypse. Before I could react however, Erif had spoken again.

"Because of the crests." Volcdramon agreed, "And since they're a part of your heart, I needed to find a new way to get those same crests."

"For Arkadimon." Hikari guessed as I realized what Arkadimon had done with Sora. He'd literally taken her crest... he absorbed her with his Dot Matrix attack—and it was like the others had been saying. Just one crest made the opponent ultimately stronger... that's why Meiyomon had been so angered by Ken and Michael losing the new batch to Syakomon... Why had Arkadimon needed to absorb Sora if his ally had found a simpler method? Why would Arkadimon go out of his way to make things more complicated...?

"You weren't telling Arkadimon." I noted, "You were going to take those crests for yourself! You were going to overthrow Arkadimon to prove your worth—to prove your strength."

"Obviously," Erif rolled his eyes. But why would he need to overthrow Arkadimon? Why couldn't they just work together? Something told me it wasn't just a simple as him wanting to do it on his own... but what did Arkadimon rule? Nothing really... Arkadimon only ruled over the evils of the worlds... and the evils of the worlds were set to take over the worlds... which meant that... if Erif wanted to overthrow Arkadimon, then he wanted to overthrow Arkadimon's only true threat as well. Yggdrasil.

"You want to rule all nine worlds." I said, absolutely positive.

"I'm evil." Volcdramon said, "Isn't that always the case?"

"He's got a point," Hikari said from the corner of her mouth. I turned to her to stick my tongue out, but instead I saw her expression turn to a shocked one very quick. I turned back to Erif as his foot came hurtling toward me. I acted quickly and heaved the heavy sword in a slicing motion, cutting his ankle. His foot jerked back with a roar escaping his mouth. "Takeru!" Hikari exclaimed, "Good news! I've thought of a plan!"

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Run." She said with a grin.

"What?" I gasped.

"Run!" She screamed, grabbing my arm and pulling me along with her, through the trees, not daring to look back for even a moment. "We have to get to the Temple!" Hikari declared. "We need Shakamon."

"We can do this without them!" I shouted, shaking my head, "We can't lead him toward them! It's dangerous."

"They're our only hope." Hikari gasped, "Takeru, you're amazing, but you cannot slay a digimon! You're just a human! If there's one thing I've learned over the years, fighting your own battles is dangerous. We need the others."

She had a point, and yet somehow I just couldn't see it in myself to lure him all the way to the Temple. I knew we were headed that way anyway, but there was no way I could put them all in danger! I had to change direction... I had to keep Erif away while keeping everyone else safe. And that included Hikari.

"There's the bush!" She cried out, still holding her digivice for directions, "There it is! We're going to make it!" Behind a single green bush stood everyone I was trying to protect... I couldn't go through there. I had to protect my friends. And I had to protect Hikari.

"Perfect," I told her. "Now go."

"What?" She gasped, "No—you're coming. You're absolutely coming." She grabbed at my arm and tried to pull me toward the bush but I pulled from her grasp. "Takeru!"

"Go!" I shouted, glancing back to the lava dinosaur racing toward us, setting the entire forest on fire. "GO!" I was practically in tears now. "Hikari, you said it yourself. It's our only hope. Go!" I tried to push her through once more but she stopped me, slapping my arm and then we both froze, staring to each other the moment before we were doomed to die.

"They aren't our only hope." She said quietly, "You are. You are our only hope."

"Hikari... please just go." I said, just as quietly.

"I'll never go." She shook her head, "I'll never leave you."

"Volcanic fount!"

Hikari screamed as I acted as fast as I could. I grabbed her arm and pulled her as fast as I could in a different direction, rushing from the lava shooting straight toward us.

"What about Marrow?" Hikari screamed suddenly, pulling from my grasp and turning to Erif again. "What about Marrow!"

"Volcanic fount!" Erif shouted again, dropping his jaw and allowing his mouth to fill with more magma.

"Stop!" Hikari screamed, "I just have one more question! I thought Marrow was in charge!"

Erif growled, causing the magma in his mouth to bubble and pour from his mouth, dripping to forest floor. With a snarl he spit the rest of the lava to the ground. "Marrow was a fool. I fed him the ideas so you'd all think he was in charge. If he was of any use he wouldn't have failed his only mission. All he had to do was cause problems with you children. Make you suspect him."

"Well he did that." I pointed out.

"Maybe, but not well enough, clearly." Erif snapped. "Now, any more questions before I kill you?"

"Why have you never transformed before?" I asked quickly.

"Yggdrasil's monsters are sucking the air away." Erif said. "You can still breathe. You've just noticed there's still air. Why is that? Because digimon don't need it. My smoke however replaces the air, the smoke from my volcanoes, if breathed in by a digimon will cause them do die within minutes. You humans are different. You can just step away and breathe normally once more, but while working with the other death knights I couldn't very well transform or they'd all die." Just one more reason why I couldn't drag Patamon and Gatomon into this battle. They'd die without a chance to fight him... so that really meant it was up to us. "Now, I'll give you three seconds to come up with any further questions. Ready?"

"Yes," Hikari said boldly, "I've got one. How fast do you think two exhausted humans could run?"

"What?" Erif asked. With a simple squeak Hikari was running again, with me just seconds behind her. "Oh, not again!" I heard his heavy footsteps coming after us, but didn't look back. As long as I could distract him long enough for the others to win the war they were fighting... then perhaps they'd be able to team up and find a way to defeat him and then I'll have done my duty. I couldn't burden them with this when they had so much to deal with already!

But then there had to be a way. Destiny would give us a chance—it wouldn't doom us to a hopeless battle. Surprisingly, there was always hope. Always and everywhere... funny how the crest of hope chose me—I was almost annoyingly optimistic...

Crest of hope... the crests—Erif wanted the crests because they made him stronger—well then perhaps they could make us stronger too. And suddenly what Iori had told me shot through my mind. We need love.

"Hikari!" I said loudly as we ran, hand in hand, keeping my sword arm held at a distance. "There's something I've got to tell you!"

"Well I don't want you to say anything you wouldn't say if we weren't about to be killed by a giant digimon!" She responded sharply, "It'll just ruin it!"

"But it's really important!" I insisted.

"Yes, well, alright," Hikari nodded, leaping over a large stone, "Then I have something to tell you too."

"Me first." I objected.

"Together?" Hikari offered. I turned to her with a nervous smile and nodded, "Ready? Three... two..."

"I love you!" We blurted at the same time. "What?" We gasped as one, both laughing with excitement. "I love you!" we said again. She loved me? When did that happen? How did that happen? Well, quite frankly, it didn't matter! I couldn't stop smiling, with a new found source of energy and adrenaline.

Iori was right. We did need love. I now knew what to do.

I stopped running and released Hikari's hand. There was nothing that could stop me from doing this. It was what was right. I couldn't allow Erif to get away from this—I couldn't let him get to Hikari or the rest of my friends. I had to keep them alive, and I had to keep the unspoken promise I'd had with Taichi to keep his sister safe.

"Takeru!" Hikari gasped, stopping and turning to me, "Come on!"

"No." I said flatly. "I'm tired of running. No more running. I'm ending this."

"Takeru look out!" Hikari screamed, lunging forward and pushing my shoulders as hard as she could. I fell hard to the ground, and as if in slow motion, watched as the long, burning tail of Erif swung just over my head as I fell to the ground.

Suddenly everything was speeding up again as I rolled out of the way and jumped to my feet, turning to see Hikari who had been hit by the tail, slamming against a tree. She fell to a heap on the ground and my knuckles began to turn white with the amount of force I put into squeezing my hands into fists. My nostrils were flaring as I spun from my best friend to the monster that had hurt her.

"You're going to pay for that!" I shouted loudly, "You're going to pay for hurting her! She means everything to me, and that means that by messing with her, you've messed with me. And let me just tell you—no one who has ever messed with me, has gotten away with it."

"Because you've always had your partner!" Erif laughed.

"No." I objected, "Because I have hope. Patamon and I are connected because of our hope. And that means that if he can do it... then I can do it too." I'd never thought of it that way, but it was true. The moment Angemon had come into my life, the moment I'd gotten Angemon to finally digivolve into ultimate. The moment I was under Apocalymon's spell and I'd finally mastered my crest to get Seraphimon to enter the fray. It was all because of my hope. I'd always been hoping—hoping Sora would become my sister, and she was the closest I'd ever get, hoping that when I jumped down the tower where the Sovereign were keeping our partners—all I did was hope that I wouldn't die upon landing. And then I didn't. And of course, for so long I'd been hoping for Hikari to love me... and now she did. Hope was all around me, and that was all I was going to need for this battle. Hope, and the rest of the crests. Love, Knowledge—Courage.

All the crests. All at once.

I felt my heart lift as I ran toward the beast. I wasn't sure if it was stupidity or destiny, but whatever it was, I knew what I had to do.

"Volcanic Fount!" Volcdoramon shouted, the magma pouring once again from his mouth as he shot it down to the ground. Just like soccer—avoid the opponents. I leapt to the side and then sprang into the air, slamming my sword into his back leg. Erif cried out in pain as I used the sword to pull myself up onto his back before pulling the sword back out. "No!" Erif shouted. "Circle of Death!"

I had no idea what that attack would do, but I knew it couldn't be good. I found out quickly though as the volcanoes on his back began to bubble and pour lava out into puddles collecting all over his back, and overflowing, dripping onto the ground as the great black smoke he spoke of shot into the sky. The lava pouring onto the ground moved quickly and created a large circle around the two of us. I looked to Hikari quickly and saw that she too, was in the circle.

Circle of death didn't sound too charming—I had to stop him before he killed us all!

And then I was running along his back, leaping over piles of lava, pulling my hat from my head and covering my nose and mouth, blocking the smoke from my lungs. The bottoms of my shoes were melting as I passed the second set of volcanoes.

I looked to the circle and the lava was bubbling like mad as the smoke clouds thickened within the circle around us. If he was a digimon, could he breathe it in?

I didn't have time to risk such a reckless plan.

"You're just a human!" Erif laughed, "You're too late!"

"It's never too late!" I cried out, jumping out of the smoke toward his neck, the sword thrown over my shoulder. Before landing I slashed with all of my strength toward the base of his neck, the blade of the sword slicing straight through his neck.

I dropped the sword as Erif's body fell limp, his knees buckling as his body fell toward the ground. The lava was splashing with the movement—I had no choice, I had to jump! I readied myself and ran to his shoulder and leapt into the air just as his body exploded into the golden dust leaving behind a simple orange orb.

I couldn't help but scream as I came crashing toward the ground. "Urraaaaaaaaagh!" I screamed as I slammed into the ground hard and painfully. I groaned and rolled back and forth, clutching my elbow before roaring with pain.

I sat up quickly and started pulling at my shoes that were scorched and slightly on fire. I winced at the touch but flung them from my body and jumped to my feet, spinning, and grunting, biting my lip as I clutched my elbow.

Why was I in so much pain? The heroes never had to go through this after their battles! I found myself jumping up and down to avoid crying in pain again.

"Y-you alright?"

I spun quickly and found myself staring at Hikari who was clutching her head with both hands as she laughed at me. Between the two of us sat the orange orb.

"Me?" I asked, stopping my crazy dances, "I'm fine, perfectly fine." I started walking toward her, busying myself in picking up the orb to avoid letting her see my blushing face. The orb was hot to the touch, but I picked it up anyway, throwing it over my shoulder where it smashed against a tree behind me. "How are you?" I asked her, staggering toward her, exhausted. "You okay?"

"Oh you know..." She said as I fell to my knees next to her, gently moving her hands to look at her head. There was a little bump, but she'd be okay. "I was just chased through a forest by the thing that killed my friend, and then my best friend killed a dragon digimon with a simple sword!"

"Ah, well," I laughed, "It happens to the best of us."

"Really?" Hikari asked, blushing and looking from me. "Because I feel like it's only ever happened to me."

"Exactly." Without thinking, I scooped her face into my hand and brought it toward me, kissing her full on the mouth just as dawn cracked on the horizon. Hikari wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back, and even though we were in the middle of a war, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered, just that my first kiss was with my soul mate. The girl I loved, the girl who finally realized her love for me, and we were together at that moment. And forever.

Taichi Yagami:

The sun was rising. I didn't know if anyone else noticed it, but I sure did. It was giving me a miniscule amount of hope for this battle. It seemed symbolic, in a way. The sun was rising on our final battle—because that's what this was, the last one—something that was bittersweet to me.

This was the hardest battle I'd ever had to face—not only because Yggdrasil was the toughest foe we'd ever laid eyes on either. It was the location that did it for me. Yamato and I were clinging to the uppermost branches of the giant tree Yggdrasil had created in the Digital World, watching as our digimon struggled to keep pace with the floating, whit robot of doom. The only good thing about him, was the green cord that kept him attached to the tree, since that meant he couldn't leave the area—and as a result the five different digimon our friends were facing off against couldn't either. They weren't digimon though. They were "versions" of the great evils that had been "perfected," whatever that meant. I didn't get a chance to learn though, since I wasn't fighting against them like the others were. I kept trying to peek down to their battles, to see if they needed me down there with them, but I could never see clearly enough. I knew who was fighting who—unless they'd changed since I'd left them—but I couldn't even begin to guess how they were faring.

We weren't doing too well though. ZeedGarurumon was able to hold his own at first, but he was already exhausted from his fight with Arkadimon, and was growing even more tired as the fight went on. WarGreymon was seriously outclassed, and was falling behind no matter how hard he tried to keep up.

What I didn't understand, was how Yggdrasil could fight against us so flawlessly while focusing so much of his attention on those roots he'd morphed into the great evils. He couldn't be that powerful, could he? No. It was just his shell that was causing the problems.

"War Driver!" WarGreymon called, building up energy in his claws so he could slash Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil merely tossed him aside, and turned to ZeedGarurumon who was preparing an attack of his own.

"Blowback Breath!" he shouted, spewing explosive energy from his mouth.

"C'mon," Yamato groaned when that didn't work. We'd be trying for awhile now with little to show for it, and from what I heard of the battles below, they were in very similar situations. "What do we try next?"

"We can't do anything except keep fighting," I told him. "Give it another go!"

"Great Tornado!" WarGreymon called, spinning himself at a tremendous speed, like a tornado, and launching himself at the white robot.

"You will soon fail," Yggdrasil commented. The cord he was attached to the tree with kept him firmly in place, so WarGreymon's high winds didn't affect him in the slightest. "Your energy is already depleting, and your "friends" are losing as well. How does it feel to get so close only to have victory slip through your grasp?"

"I don't know," called a familiar voice. "Why don't you tell us?"

And with that, I heard the whooshing sound of metal flying through the air, and watched, amazed, as a club sword that I recognized from my living room wall sliced through the green cord attaching Yggdrasil to his inter-world connection. I caught sight of a blonde boy—young man—in a bucket cap and bare feet clinging to a branch on the opposite side of the tree with a shocked amazement on his face.

"Takeru," Yamato gasped.

I was going to congratulate him on a job well done—since Yggdrasil seemed infuriated by this new development—but the severed cord was whipping around, and caught me off guard, knocking me out of the tree. I fell quickly, and despite my desperate attempts to grasp a branch as I passed, I wasn't having any luck. I had pretty much resigned myself to a very low survival rate when someone caught my arm, swinging me under a branch and stopping my fall.

"And you think I need protecting," Hikari laughed. "Aren't you glad I showed up now?"

"Incredibly so," I told her. Shakamon—who I'd learned had brought both Takeru and Hikari up into the tree in the first place—helped Hikari pull me up onto the branch she was resting on. I pulled her into my arms immediately, noting her exhaustion and less than perfect condition. What the hell had she and Takeru been up to? And where were his shoes? They were supposed to be staying at my house, staying safe…but if they hadn't listened to their own hearts, I wouldn't have been alive, and we would have been fighting an endless battle against Yggdrasil.

Speaking of Yggdrasil…

I looked up, about to order Shakamon to bring me back when I saw WarGreymon whizzing past us on a one way ticket to the ground. He smashed into the hard soil, sinking beneath the surface, followed by Yggdrasil, who was taking Takeru's actions out on my digimon partner. ZeedGarurumon was carrying Yamato and Takeru down, and once he deposited them, he ran at Yggdrasil, intending on stopping him, though he didn't have any attacks that seemed up for the job.

"Can you get us down there?" I asked Shakamon hastily, and he nodded, taking Hikari and I down to the ground. As we were descending from the now decaying tree, I noticed each of the five "great evils" was decaying as well. Their colours faded to the sickly grey of the tree's trunk, and their limps fell off in dead clumps. Plesiomon shot his Shaking Pulse at Apocolymon to speed up the process, while Rosemon, Omnimon and some red digimon I had to guess was Dracomon at a higher level took pleasure in massacring MaloMyotismon's remains. Mari had decided to help Leopardmon in finishing off Ogudomon's remains in revenge for Lalamon, while Splashmon utterly destroyed Fanglongmon for Kurayami. DoruGoramon ignored the decaying Millenniummon—realizing he'd finish himself off soon—and flew at Yggdrasil, letting out a loud "Doru Din!" as he tackled Yggdrasil off of WarGreymon, letting out a destructive shockwave.

"Hikari!" Mimi called happily, ripping my sister away from my side. Everyone was making their way to us, eyeing Yggdrasil warily as he fought off WarGreymon's Ultra Tornado, DoruGoramon's Doru Din and ZeedGarurumon's Zeed Cannon. "You're back!"

"And I'm going to stay," Hikari declared. Takeru walked over to her side and took her hand firmly in his own, saying "We both are."

"We can't send you away at this point anyway," Yamato decided. "We're so close…but I don't know how to do this."

"We got him once," Daisuke said. "DoruGoramon cracked his shell, but only once. So it is possible. We just need a lot of power."

"That's something we've definitely got," Miyako announced, sneaking up behind us.

"You're okay!" Ken yelped, grabbing his wife into his arms with such quick speed, causing Miyako to burst into laughter as she hugged him back. She clung to him fiercely, whispering through happy tears how glad she was that he was okay. How she didn't think he would be. He responded similarly, peppering her face with quick kisses. I looked away from the happy reunion, turning my attention to the other companions that had recently arrived.

"Sigma's gone," Iori said firmly, walking towards us with a samurai digimon at his side, and Kiyoko and Piedmon were behind him.

"That's great!" Hideto exclaimed.

"It really is," Kiyoko said, hiding a grin—or he was grinning, until Jou had him by the front of his crumpled white jacket. His face was screwed up in a mix of pain and fear after Jou did that.

"Where's Emiko," Jou demanded. "You said you were going to get her."

"Sh-she's with her mo-mother," Kiyoko gasped out.

"She's dead!" Jou screamed, shaking Kiyoko violently in his horror. He yelled it so loudly that even the fighting digimon stopped what they were doing, and Yggdrasil let out a bone chilling, pleased laugh. My heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach. That wasn't supposed to happen. It was bad enough I'd been told that Momoe had to have died in an explosion, but to watch as Jou was informed that his daughter had just joined her…that was a whole new, horrible experience.

"Leave him alone, Jou," Hideto instructed, heading over with Mari to try and rip Kiyoko out of Jou's grasp. He didn't seem to realize that the poor kid was pretty badly injured already. Not that I blamed him exactly, it was absolutely horrible news.

"He let my baby die," Jou said shakily, finally dropping Kiyoko when his hands started shaking too badly to hold him.

"I did not," Kiyoko protested.

"Jou," Miyako said calmly. "She's fine. She's at the Temple with Momoe. Neither of them are dead."

"N-none?" Jou asked pleadingly.

"None," Iori confirmed.

Jou sank to his knees, his hands shaking and tears streaming down his face. I didn't know if he was overjoyed, or just overwhelmed, but I was beyond thrilled to hear that. Yggdrasil however was not, and started fighting with even more vigor than before.

"Jou," Mimi said softly, taking his hands into her own. "Emiko's fine, and will be fine for a long time if we can just beat Yggdrasil. Are you with me?" Jou gave her a jerky nod, and their digivices lit up with each others' crest.

"Rosemon digivolve to…"

"Plesiomon digivolve to…"

"Lotusmon!"

A distinctively feminine digimon remained after the lights faded. She wore purple thigh-high boots and a layered white skirt over her light purple skin. She had a purple top with white sleeves, and a yellow and purple helmet. In one hand, she held a rainbow-coloured-flower staff, and in the other she held a Caduceus with a white snake and a black snake weaved around it.

"Let's do this, Lotusmon!" Mimi cheered, and Jou got to his feet, letting out a small smile at her enthusiasm.

"Go Gaiomon!" Miyako and Iori called together.

"You can do it Shakamon!" Hikari and Takeru yelled, holding their joined hands in the air.

"Fight hard, Eaglemon," Koushiro and Sora asked of their partner.

"Let's beat this guy!" Daisuke and Ken called to DoruGoramon.

"You beat the devil, Splashmon," Michael called.

"This should be a piece of cake," Kurayami finished.

"For Alice," Willis instructed Leopardmon, though I had no idea who Alice was. Then he glanced at Mari. "And for Mari."

"For our futures," Hideto added to Omnimon.

"Do it for Earth, Examon," Neo said.

"For all nine worlds," Kiyoko corrected to Piedmon.

I looked to Yamato, who just rolled his eyes at their motivational speeches. We smiled at one another before shouting out, "Just kick his metal ass!" to our two digimon that were still fighting Yggdrasil. WarGreymon led the charge with his Terra Force, which Yggdrasil batted away with his metal arm. ZeedGarurumon tried a Full Metal Breath attack, releasing a blast from his Zeed Cannon whilst simultaneously firing all of the other weapons throughout his body. Yggdrasil let them hit him, laughing as they exploded as if ZeedGarurumon was just tickling him. Eaglemon and Splashmon tried together, letting out a Mystic Break and a Tiger Typhoon at the same time, but Yggdrasil lifted himself in the air and shot a blast back at them. He was growing frustrated. Not good. Lotusmon threw a Serpent Ruin in his direction, and Omnimon followed right behind with a Double Shot, with Examon adding a Pendragon's Glory into the mix. Before Yggdrasil could attack them in return, Gaiomon sent out a Rinkageki—some sort of long range light attack—which Piedmon piggybacked on by sending his Ending Snipe out after it. DoruGoramon attempted yet another Doru Din, while Leopardmon and Shakamon tried their swords once last time.

Nothing.

Power wasn't going to be enough, no matter what Daisuke thought. We'd need some sort of strategy. I just needed time to think. I prayed I'd have enough time to at least attempt it.

"I do not take kindly to incompetence," Yggdrasil informed us mechanically, raising his arm and shooting to the left. "I hope this fuels your fighting. I'd hate to go entirely unchallenged."

"No!" Iori gasped, catching sight of the dark haired girl that Yggdrasil had aimed at. She was hiding behind the trees, looking up at Monimon—who was in the branches. Iori moved to go after her, but he knew he didn't have enough time. Natsuni was a goner.

Or so I thought.

Michael had already jumped into action, before anyone else had known what was going on. He pushed Natsuni out of the way, hitting the ground just in time for Yggdrasil's blast to hit the tree trunk, causing the tree to topple over backwards and Monimon to fall. Michael stood up just in time to grab the television digimon.

Somehow, in the flurry of digimon attacks that Yggdrasil was surrounded by after that little stunt he'd pulled, I caught sight of something. Just a small something, that glinted in the light of the still rising sun. The crack Daisuke mentioned… And it got me thinking.

Apparently whenever I think, I rush into things headfirst before the thought has fully processed in my brain, causing me to do some pretty stupid stuff, such as running into the battle myself, clenching my fists and planning—however subconsciously it may have been—to exploit Yggdrasil's only known weakness in a way that might've worked better had I been a digimon. I ducked under Shakamon's swinging sword, and weaved my way around Eaglemon's Mystic Break and Gaiomon's Rinkazan attacks. I nearly lost my head when WarGreymon went to use his Mega Claw technique. He stopped though, when he saw me. I thought I saw him trying to get to me, to take me away from the scene, but I couldn't stop myself even if I wanted to. My clenched fist slammed into Yggdrasil's shell, the hit reverberating up my arm, shaking me as a whole. Of three things I was absolutely positive. First, that had to be one of the stupidest things I'd ever done in my life, and that was saying something. Second, my entire arm was in an insane amount of pain. And lastly, everything was orange.

I mean everything.

It took me about a second to realize it was just me that was orange. I was shining like the rising sun, and Yggdrasil slammed one of his arms into my side, knocking me across the battlefield, while I was figuring it out.

"WarGreymon digivolve to… VictoryGreymon!"

I rolled through my landing, ending up with a face full of dirt.

"What the hell was that?" Yamato demanded, ripping me off the ground and getting into my personal space. "You could've been killed!"

"But I wasn't," I said with a grin, looking to see my new digimon partner. He didn't look too different than before, except for his lack of clawed gauntlets and the presence of a giant sword. His helmet was a little different, as was his chest plate and the shield on his back, but over all, he wasn't that different. The differences though, made him look so much cooler—something I didn't think was possible.

"You jerk!" Hikari screamed at me, smacking me across the arm as soon as she arrived.

"Well, this jerk has just figured out how to win," I said proudly. "We just need to have all of the digimon attack a teeny tiny little spot at the same time."

"That's not impossible or anything," Yamato said sarcastically.

"No one digimon is strong enough on their own though," I explained. "We need their combined strength."

"Then you'll get it," Yamato said slowly, a form planning in his mind. "ZeedGarurumon, give your strength to VictoryGreymon!"

ZeedGarurumon looked confused for a moment, but he removed himself from the battle, feeding his strength to my new partner, and promptly returning to his Gabumon state.

"Shakamon," Hikari called out. "You next!"

"As you wish," Shakamon told her, jumping back from the fight and giving his energy to VictoryGreymon, leaving only Patamon and Salamon in his place. Hikari, Yamato and I made our way back over to the others, who all eyed me warily, as if I'd just suffered a tremendous, mental breakdown instead of saving everything in existence.

"What's going on?" Sora asked.

"We're giving our strength to War—I mean VictoryGreymon," Gabumon explained. "Taichi found a way to win."

"Lotusmon!" Mimi screamed immediately, followed closely by Miyako's call of "Gaiomon!"

Both digimon gave their energy, reverting to four rookies, who quickly made their way over to us. Michael called for Splashmon next, followed by Willis' shouts for Leopardmon to go next. Neo didn't seem overly pleased to be instructing his digimon to give up the strength he'd worked so hard to digivolve literally minutes ago, but he ordered Examon anway. Hideto and Kiyoko called for their digimon afterwards too, leaving only Eaglemon, DoruGoramon and VictoryGreymon as our fighting team.

"Eaglemon!" Sora called out finally. "Just do it."

"You too, DoruGoramon," Ken said awkwardly.

Didn't they have faith in my strategic ways? Probably not. I was a bit too rash for either of their tastes.

"Okay, buddy," I called out to the now glowing VictoryGreymon. "There's a very specific spot I need you to hit. Can you see it?"

I didn't want to be too specific, or else Yggdrasil would know my plan, which wouldn't cause a lot of problems I just didn't want to deal with at the moment. VictoryGreymon clenched his large sword, and flew at Yggdrasil.

"Dramon Breaker," VictoryGreymon shouted, striking Yggdrasil in the tiny crack in his armor. At first nothing happened, and I held my breath. If VictoryGreymon couldn't do this with the combined power of all our digimon, we were doomed.

And then there was a beautiful breaking sound as the metal that made up Yggdrasil's body started chipping away, shattering into a shimmering shower of metal as the sun's reflection danced off of them.

"We did it!" I shouted, astonished.

"Yes!" Mimi screamed loudly. Other's joined in the celebration. I couldn't believe it. We'd won. It almost seemed too easy, but I disregarded that feeling as Agumon—who had reverted from his super-ultimate form after giving all his energy to the attack—ran at me, jumping into my outstretched arms.

"We did it, we did it, we did it," Michael and Willis were chanting, whilst jumping up and down. Lopmon and Terriermon were rolling around on the ground, knocking Palmon, Tapirmon and Gatomon over in the process. Mimi was screaming in victory, dancing in a circle while dragging Koushiro and Sora along with her. Takeru was holding Patamon in the air, swinging him around. Mari tackled Kiyoko with excitement, and tears in her eyes. Miyako was pressing little kisses all over Ken's face, while Wormmon and Veemon celebrated at their feet. Hawkmon and Biyomon were fluttering about the air happily, with Tentomon by their side. Natsuni still looked upset about being scolded, but was hugging Iori anyway. Labramon was bouncing around Hideto's Agumon and Gabumon, and Gomamon was laughing happily. Betamon was quieter than the other digimon, choosing instead to surround himself by the equally quiet Gabumon and Dracomon, where he wouldn't overexert himself. Hikari was hugging Kurayami, who was hugging Norn, and Daisuke was hugging all of them at once. Neo was off to the side, though Hideto was trying to get him to cheer along with the rest of us. Armadillomon was at Jou's feet, trying to get him to cheer, but wasn't succeeding. Jou wouldn't be able to get excited until he'd seen his daughter and Momoe alive and well with his own two eyes. That just left Yamato.

I expected him to be looking at Sora longingly, but he wasn't.

He was next to Monimon, who was shaking badly, both of them staring in horror behind me. I turned around and caught sight of a blue, crystallized creature. It was pale blue, with a white cape and arms. There were a lot of diamonds shapes forming its body.

"Don't let me keep you from your celebrations," he drawled. "However unnecessary they may be."

"Yggdrasil?" I gasped, looking towards our digimon. There were nothing but rookies surrounding us. Everyone let out strangled gasps and screams as they noticed Yggdrasil's presence.

"No one has ever broken through my shell before," Yggdrasil commented. "I commend you for it. But of course, I'll have to destroy you as well. There's no getting around it."

I pushed Agumon behind me. He was exhausted. My hand might've hurt, but I was in better shape than he was. I saw that most of the others did the same thing, stepping forward, clenching their fists and preventing their digimon from fighting.

"Bring it on," I said with false vibrato.

"I shall," Yggdrasil said, starting to move forward, stopping only because of the melodic voices that rang through the air. "Meddlesome fairies."

"The time has come," one voice said. Iori's eyes lit up, making me place this as that green fairy queen of summer that had removed the memories of the world combination from three years ago.

"The moment of destiny that we've foretold involving the Chosen Three," a second fairy said. This time it was Miyako that looked excited. It was the Winter Queen.

"Embrace your traits, for you need them now," the first continued.

"But what do we do?" Miyako pleaded.

"Look to Humility," a third and final fairy—the fairy of spring—instructed. "He knows what needs to be done."

As one we all—Yggdrasil included—looked to Daisuke.

"Traits," he said. "Our crests."

"Got that," I said. "What about them?"

"Um…" he said, looking around wildly. His eyes landed on the small girl in the lacy dress. "Norn."

"Not so fast!" Yggdrasil said, flying at us.

"Split up!" I ordered, and we all headed in three different directions, leaving Norn behind, where Yggdrasil could get her.

Daisuke Motomiya:

We were all running, spreading out. I looked over my shoulder to see we'd been separated into three distinct groups. And then I noticed that Norn was left behind. I started to run back for her, but Taichi caught my arm, swinging me around.

"Not so fast," he said. "She's going to need our help—we've got the crests after all—but you need to tell us what we've got to do to help her. She can't win if you don't."

"She's a part of Yggdrasil," I explained quickly. "But she realizes there's good in the world, all the worlds—except for maybe the Dark Ocean, but that's beside the point. She can list the crests, but she doesn't understand them. With the power of our crests, she'll be able to beat Yggdrasil, from the inside out."

"Sounds like a plan," Taichi said, wincing as he watched Norn fall to the ground. Yggdrasil seemed to be taunting her, laughing as she continually tried to explain the good she knew had to exist. She needed help. She needed me.

But before I had a chance to start running, Taichi strode forward with Agumon at his side. "Hey Norn," he called. "Courage is great, but can be ridiculously stupid sometimes. It's having nerve or gallantry."

"It's going out to do something, even though it scares you," Agumon elaborated. Norn looked to the pair of them, and nodded, pulling herself to her feet despite her shaking knees.

"Friendship is an emotional bond that develops over time and companionship," Yamato explained. "It's having someone that won't judge you, no matter what decisions you make, unless they're really, reallybad."

"If lots of people have friends," Gabumon asked. "How can they all be inherently evil?"

"You're right," Norn agreed, flashing a look in my direction. I smiled at her, hoping to convey my support.

Both Agumon and Gabumon placed their hand on my waist, and I was suddenly glowing with the light of both the crests of courage and friendship.

"Kindness in itself is good," Ken said quickly, looking at the glowing in excitement. "It's the quality of being friendly to others, being generous and considerate."

"And there's a glimmer of kindness in even the darkest of hearts, that can grow tremendously," Wormmon added, looking to Ken, before scuttling over to touch my leg. A magenta glow joined the orange and dark blue surrounding me.

"Darkness isn't evil," Kurayami said firmly. "It's just a balance. And balance is just the even distribution of something enabling someone or something to remain steady."

"Without darkness, there is no light," Labramon said, cutting off whatever else Kurayami was going to say. "Goodness is literally dependent on its opposite to exist at all."

Norn smiled at both Ken and Kurayami, taking a step toward Yggdrasil, who merely swatted her away. My chest clenched at the sight. Labramon rubbed his nose against my leg in comfort, adding his black aura to my collection.

"Honesty is being free of deceit," Neo yelled at her. "No false pretenses."

"Being truthful is good," Dracomon said. "Even though the truth sometimes hurts people. It's better to feel the sting of truth early, then the pang of betrayal later."

Norn nodded, pulling herself to her feet. Dragomon laid his hand on my back, casting forward a deep plum into the mix.

"Pride can be bad," Hideto admitted. "It's one of the deadly sins after all, but it's more than that. To feel pleasure in your accomplishments isn't bad. It's when you build yourself up too high, and get obsessed that's the problem, because you're always going to fall down hard."

"You have to be careful," his Agumon warned.

"But it's not wrong to feel good about who you are," his Gabumon concluded. They each came forward and touched my elbows, casting a pale blue into the assortment.

"Humility plays into that," Veemon instructed Norn. "It's keeping your head during those times."

"That doesn't mean you have to put yourself down," I warned her. "It means that everyone is equal, and that you remember you're not better than everyone else is."

Veemon moved to stand in front of me, leaning back against me, adding my peach coloured crest to the concoction.

"Now what?" Neo demanded.

"I don't know," I admitted.

Use the crests, dummy.

The voice came in my head, and it was unmistakably Spring. I nodded, though no one else heard her voice. I moved my hands forward, bringing them together in front of me.

Let them go, Spring instructed. Lend Norn their power, so that she can learn them to their full potential.

Lend them to Norn? Got it. I unleashed the mishmash rainbow at the little girl I'd invited into my home ages ago, orange, dark blue, magenta, black, deep plum, light blue, peach; courage, friendship, kindness, darkness, honesty, pride and humility.

"You can do it Norn!" I shouted.

Iori Hida:

What was Daisuke doing? I couldn't hear what he was saying, but Norn seemed to be able to, and was starting to hold her ground better. And then Daisuke threw a colourful array of light at her, which hit her and lifted her into the air.

"What's going on?" Takeru asked.

"They're the crest colours," Michael commented.

"Are they giving up their crests?" Jou asked confused.

"No," I said firmly, repeating the words as I heard my fairy queen speak. "They're lending her their power, teaching her the crests."

"Should we be teaching her too?" Kiyoko asked.

"Yes," I said, once again repeating the words of the fairy queen as she spoke directly into my mind.

"Hey Norn!" Takeru shouted. "We've got some lessons for you too!"

She looked down at us from her cocoon of coloured light and nodded.

"Koushiro, go ahead," Takeru ordered. Koushiro's eyes widened and he took a few steps forward.

"Knowledge is information and skills acquired through experience or education," he called to her. She looked confused—as expected—by his definition. He sighed and tried again. "It's the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject."

"It's curiosity that matters," Tentomon said before Koushiro could get frustrated by Norn's still clueless look. "Or rather the satisfaction of that curiosity, while the application of the information retained due to that curiosity is important as well."

Norn tilted her head, pondering it for a second before nodding. Tentomon placed one of his claws on the top of my head, mimicking what the other digimon had done to Daisuke, and I was surrounded in a bright purple light.

"Faith is having confidence in someone or something," Jou called. "It's being dependable and knowing that you can depend on other things."

"It's like a promise," Gomamon elaborated, knocking into my left knee, adding a silver gleam to the purple.

"Strength is complicated," Michael admitted. "But at the same time, it's so simple. It's focus. The focusing of your mind, body, character, emotions… It's finding the balance of all of that, the balance of the crests."

"You're mind and soul," Betamon insisted. "There's more to strength than muscle."

Norn nodded, turning to watch as Yggdrasil stalked forward to get her, despite the shining shield she was encased it. Betamon nudged my right leg, adding a shimmering white to my aura.

"A feeling of expectation," Takeru said with a grin. "Knowing that if you can imagine it happening, you can experience it too. That's hope."

"Without hope, there would be no light," Patamon said proudly, landing on my shoulder, and adding a yellow as bright as sunshine to my collection.

"Desire can consume you," Kiyoko said. His voice was so soft, I could scarcely believe that Norn could hear him.

"But it isn't bad," Tapirmon said quickly, before Norn could get scared.

"It's a strong feeling of wanting to have something," Kiyoko explained. "It's wishing for something. It's like…magic."

Norn seemed to perk up at that, though she started to back away from Yggdrasil. She wasn't ready yet to face him. Natsuni grabbed my hand and I resisted the urge to pull her close. I was surrounded by digimon—even Tapirmon, who had floated up to rest by the shoulder opposite Patamon's perch, adding a lilac colour to the mix—and didn't want to disrupt the power they were giving off. Norn needed this to fight against Yggdrail. And I wasn't going to stand in the way of that.

"Oh," Michael gasped. "Trust….uh…"

"It's probably just believing in the words and actions of others," Takeru commented.

"And not worrying that whatever they're saying isn't true," Jou added.

"Here," Michael said, tossing a light brown crest at me. I caught it, and the brown added itself to the rest.

"Not feeling angry or resentful to someone when they do something to upset or hurt you, is forgiveness," Armadillomon called to Norn. He came to a stop in front of my, tapping my shin with his tail. The dark yellow of forgiveness exploded around me, and I gained the confidence to talk to her myself.

"Grudges don't do any good," I told her. "They make you worse of a person. They weigh down on your heart and mind, causing inner resentment and stress. My grandfather always told me that giving forgiveness was easier than gaining back a friend. He lived by that, and I'm trying to do the same thing."

Iori. It is time. Give the energy to Norn.

I aimed my hand towards her, and shot the purple, lilac, silver, white, brown, with both bright and dark yellow towards Norn, tossing hope, faith, desire, trust, strength, knowledge and forgiveness at her.

Miyako Ichijouji:

You must do your part as well.

Right. She said it like I knew what she was talking about. She may have been the Winter Queen, and therefore had some sort of omnipotent presence, but I was just a human. A human scared out of my mind and wishing more than anything that this was over already, and a human that had no idea what Iori and Daisuke had managed to do. They'd become walking rainbows, and had encompassed Norn in their a colourful ball of energy.

Explain it to her.

"Explain what?" I demanded.

"No one said anything," Sora pointed out. Willis rolled his eyes.

"They're obviously doing something important," he said. "They're two thirds of the Holy Three, right? So you ought to know what we need to do."

But I didn't.

Figure it out. The clues are there.

Clues.

In a life or death situation for the entirety of all nine worlds, she wanted me to look at the clues and piece together what they were doing. Well, the colours were very specific, and there wasn't any red or green, so it wasn't a real rainbow…

They looked more like the crests…which Daisuke mentioned would be important before we split up. And then he said Norn—who was covered in the light of the crests.

Good. Now tell her.

"I think we need to explain our crests to Norn, so she'll be able to use them against Yggdrasil…." I decided.

"Okay then," Mimi said happily. "If it has a chance of helping us win, I'm game. Hey Norn! Purity rocks. It's being yourself even when others say you shouldn't. Because only you know who you are, and you shouldn't care what others think of you. You need to love yourself before others can love you!"

"Mimi thought I was ugly for a long time, and told me that a lot of times," Palmon said seriously. "But I didn't let that change me, and she didn't stop saying it either, since it was something she really believed."

"That's horrible," Mari whispered in astonishment, but I was distracted when Palmon leaned against my side, covering me in a bright green light.

"In the end, I became strong enough to push the goodness and beauty I knew was inside of me to the surface because of that stubbornness we shared. I digivolved," Palmon concluded.

"Light is emotions," Hikari shouted quickly. She seemed to realize just how short Norn was on time, and was getting straight to the point, rather than tell a story, like Palmon had. "It's feeling when things happen and not forcing yourself to ignore the bottled up emotions within you. It's letting them out."

"It's natural," Gatomon added, reaching over to touch me as well, adding a light pink. "Instinctual."

"Love is an intense feeling of deep emotion or affection," Sora said awkwardly.

"Sora," Biyomon scolded. "Love is wonderful, but it can't be described by one of Koushiro's standard textbook answers. Love can be felts so many ways. For family, friends, lovers, digital-partners-that-mean-so-much-more-than-those …"

"You're right, Biyomon," Sora said. "Love is complex, and ever changing, growing and spreading."

"It's a miracle," Lopmon interrupted. "It's surprising and welcome, and can't be explained by science. It's highly improbable, but it's absolutely extraordinary."

"She's right," Willis said. "But it could also be destiny." He paused to look at Mari, letting Terriermon take over from there.

"It's something that has to happen sometimes," Terriermon said. "The events are laid out in front of you, you just have to find them—and you will, when the time is right."

The three digimon came forward. Lopmon and Terriermon jumped up to my shoulders, and Biyomon leaned against me. Gold, bronze and red coloured the air around me.

"Tenacity isn't meanness," Mari said. "It's determination. You don't let anyone push you around. You stand up for yourself and your friends, because you think that it's right."

I waited for Lalamon to speak before realizing she wasn't there. I was a horrible friend to have missed something as important as this. All I could do was squeeze Mari's hand extra tight when she slipped her hand into my own, adding her own light green flair to my blinding batch of coloured light.

"Honour," Hawkmon said. "Is your integrity."

"It's your allegence to your own moral standards," I continued.

"It's respect," Hawkmon added.

"For yourself, and for others," I concluded. Hawkmon slipped his wing into my other hand, clenching my hand tightly, and adding the familiar burst of turquoise light to complete the light show.

"Now what?" Mari asked me.

"I—" I started to say. I didn't know, and I was going to admit it, but the Winter Queen stopped me. She whispered into my mind. Give it to her.

"You?" Mari urged.

"Hang in there Norn!" I screamed, pushing the light energy at Norn with my arms, pulling Mari and Hawkmon along with me. Love, light, purity, tenacity, honour, destiny and miracles were all tangled up in the mess of light and dark green, pink, red, gold, turquoise and bronze. The colours collided with the others, making for a complete set of crests. "It's up to you now!"

Kurayami Higorashi:

There she was. Standing in front of the blue, crystallized version of Yggdrasil, glowing like a beacon of all that was good in the world. All that was important.

I couldn't let go of Daisuke's hand as we watched her—the little girl we'd found on the street, now fighting for all of mankind. I needed to help her—but how? How could I possibly help her when all that needed to be done was for her to use the power of the crests against the greatest evil ever—oh God. It was impossible.

"Norn!" I blurted, "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to destroy him with the crests!" She responded as she leapt out of the way of his attacks, "Using my lifeforce."

"Doesn't that mean you'll die?" I asked loudly, but she didn't answer.

I finally released Daisuke's hand and was running forward, rushing into the battle to help her. There was no way I could leave her there alone. And then, as if I'd given them all the idea, everyone was rushing forward in a giant mob of humans and digimon alike. All of us coming to save the little girl who was our only hope.

Yggdrasil froze, clenching his fists together.

"ENOUGH!"

His voice was so loud and clear. I felt it vibrate through my body as he shot crystals around to us all.

"I will not stand for this!" He said—his voice echoing in my head. "Now. Stand still while I kill you all." Why would we stand still? It didn't take long though to realize what he'd meant when he said that. I couldn't move. At all. I was frozen still. From what I could see of the others, they were too, all of us mid run—unable to move...

Well, not all of us.

Daisuke, Yggdrasil's spell doesn't work on you. You must go.

My eyes flicked to Daisuke who was looking around as if everyone had gone mad. He could still move. He looked to me, panicked, unsure of what to do. I tried my hardest to reassure him, but I couldn't move an inch. He turned slowly to Yggdrasil as he lowered a giant crystal down to the small girl in front of him.

Daisuke was tearing across the ground between the two of them—I'd never seen anyone move so quickly. Soon he was diving through the air, tackling the glowing girl out of the way. The crystal slammed into the ground, piercing through the dirt.

Yggdrasil turned his fiery eyes to Daisuke and raised his crystal again, slamming it down hard. I screamed inwardly as it barely missed him. He rolled away and frantically got to his feet. He looked to Veemon, but he too was frozen. It was just Daisuke and Norn. Left to win this together—or so it seemed.

As the crystal came down once more, heading straight for them, a stick flew straight through the air, hitting Yggdrasil in the side of the face.

Now is the time I spoke of my Forgiving Knight. Do your duty to all nine worlds.

Iori was rushing forward, clutching another stick as if it were his kendo stick.

"Step aside little one." Yggdrasil ordered, "Or I'll end your life first."

"Little?" Iori asked sharply, "Oh, screw you." And with that he was lunging forward, smashing the thick branch against Yggdrasil's face-hard. Yggdrasil fell back for a moment but responded quickly, his hand wrapping around Iori's neck.

"How dare you—" Before Yggdrasil could finish his sentence Daisuke had jumped through the air and grabbed onto his arm, biting it as hard as he could. Yggdrasil released Iori and both he and Daisuke fell to the ground.

"Stop fighting!" Norn screamed to Yggdrasil, "Stop this!"

"I gave you a mind of your own to do my bidding," Yggdrasil growled, "not to form your own thoughts and opinions. Silence you wretch."

"She's just a little girl!" Iori barked, clutching his stick even tighter.

"She's a human. Just as bad as all of you." Yggdrasil said, easily swiping Daisuke away as he ran in for another hit.

"Like I said," Iori said, watching Daisuke fall, "Screw you." He was running again, with his stick, hitting Yggrasil across the face as hard as he could shattering the stick into a million pieces.

"ENOUGH!" Yggdrasil bellowed, clapping his hands together and sending both Iori and Daisuke flying away from him. He turned his attention to Norn, "So you're the only hope these worlds have? I find that to be quite pitiful seeing as you're me."

"No." Norn said flatly. "I'm you, but with a sense of dignity! A sense of honour! And all the other crests! I'm far more than you'll ever be!" I wanted to punch the air excitedly—she'd learned so much. She was a fierce little fighter.

Honour. Another voice floated through the winds. The prophecy foretells this to be the most universal—the most important crest. It's up to you.

I could tell everyone's eyes had shot straight to Miyako. All except for Norn and Yggdrasil, each of whom seemed not to hear the voice. Miyako was standing nervous, afraid to fight, afraid to move. So many awful things had happened to her over the past year, and now she was being told the entire weight of the world was on her. Daisuke had saved Norn, Iori had stopped Yggdrasil—it was now up to her to save the worlds.

She shook her head and was running forward, her eyes shut, and her fists clenched. She let out a scream of fear and anguish. Yggdrasil turned his head toward Miyako as her violet hair billowed around behind her, her running speed was incredible as she shot toward Norn.

Finally she stopped, taking Norn's hand.

"This is it." Miyako said boldly. "The end of your reign on the nine worlds. It's time for someone new to take over!"

"Oh?" Yggdrasil asked. "And who might that be?"

"Norn." Miyako said as if she'd known it all along.

"Me?" Norn asked, but then with a sense of finality, "Me!" She bellowed raising her hands and firing the colours of all twenty one crests. The beams of light hit him square in the chest and he let out a blood curdling scream. Norn turned her head to me and smiled. "I love you." She said before, with a bone chilling 'boom' everything went white.

Jun Motomiya:

"Should they be taking this long?" Katsue asked.

No one could answer her. I didn't know. They were saving the world—lots of worlds actually—was there a time limit on something like that? There should be. I was waiting there, with my stomach all tied up in knots, waiting for my little brother to come back to grin at me. But he wasn't coming back. Shuu was tapping his foot next to me, which only made my nerves wind tighter.

"I don't know," Shin told her finally, when she repeated herself. "I've never been around for these things."

"Me either," Isao said. "I should have been though."

"Yes," Shuu said. "You should have. But this isn't the time for that. We can't start feeling guilty. It makes it seem like we've given up on them."

"I feel guilty," Toshiko told him. "And I don't even have any hope left to fix it."

"I didn't mean—" Shuu said awkwardly.

"I know," she said, dismissing him. "I was just saying."

"Takeru and Yamato are strong," Natsuko said. "They'll be fine. Takeru has always assured me that there is always hope, even in the darkest of times. And Yamato firmly believes in his friends' capabilities. They'll be fine."

She didn't even sound like she believed it herself. I don't know how she planned on convincing everyone else.

"Taichi and Daisuke are good leaders," Mr Yagami—I thought his name might be Susumu—pointed out half-heartedly. "They'll bring them home?"

"They'd better," I growled.

"What chance do they even have?" Chiziru cried. "Miyako and Momoe have already gone the way of the dinosaurs, not to mention that other friend of theirs."

"That "other friend" was my daughter, Sora," Toshiko snapped.

"We know," Mantarou said placating. "She's just panicking. She's really mean on a good day, though…"

"My son didn't leave me," Fumiko insisted. "He couldn't have. He promised not to."

"It's hard to keep promises when you're in the midst of a battle," Mimi's waitress, who insisted we call her Izumi, told us. "You focus only on the task set before you. You can't worry about what's going on outside of the fight. You just can't."

"And you know this, how?" Katsue demanded.

"I've had experience," she said dryly. "But I have every faith in these new digidestined."

"The ones that used to be evil?" Mimi's mother—Satoe, maybe?—asked.

"All of them," Izumi corrected. "They aren't the first set. And I doubt they'll be the last."

"Koushiro liked to research the original set," Yoshie said softly. "Do you know much about them?"

"I know everything there is to know," Izumi said with a wink. "I'd be happy to talk to him about it, when he gets back."

"If," Kae corrected miserably.

"When," Izumi said firmly.

We were waiting on the remains of the street. We'd demanded that the giant dragon take us back when we noticed that the robots had all fallen to the ground, completely useless. When we got back, though, the others were already gone. Those jerks left us behind, where we could do nothing but wait, and pray that they'd be okay. We'd lost three—probably Emiko too though—already, and I dreaded the thought that Daisuke would be the next added to that list. Meiyomon was tossing broken pieces of the street into the air, exploding them with his mind. He was getting impatient. I could tell he wished that they would have brought him along, instead of leaving him in charge of the fight on Earth. He wanted his brother back.

Kae and Fumiko gasped loudly, rushing forward, we all turned to see what caught their attention, and Yoshie, Satoe and Natsuko started running after them. There, in the middle of the broken street, was a shining yellow doorway, with a pair of blonde boys walking out, followed by a smaller, blonde girl, a pretty brunette, a red headed male and two blonde adults.

"Willis!" Susumu called instantly. "What happened?"

The boy that had to be Willis shook his head, clutching the two rabbit like digimon in his arms tightly to his chest. The other boy had to be Michael, and the blonde girl had to be his sister. She was hugging their father, while Michael held on to the pretty brunette—Tatum, if my memory served me correctly—his girlfriend. The redhead didn't look like he knew what was happening, and I decided to ignore him, since he wouldn't have the answers I desperately needed. There was Betamon, with Monodromon on the ground, walking together, and a Kudamon—Shuu guessed—with them.

They all moved out of the way of the door, when Taichi walked out, holding his girlfriend in his arms, before she could crash back down to Earth as her legs gave out under her. Rei was smiling, with two baseball sized digimon dressed like devils floating around her head. Taichi's Agumon was walking proudly next to a blue dragon, and a man with such blonde hair that it was white followed behind them. He had to be Rei's brother.

Behind them came Yamato, Takeru and their father, Hiroaki, who both Fumiko and Natsuko ran forward to greet. It was pretty awkward, let me tell you, when Yamato and Takeru noticed what was going on between their parents—they were not in Happy Town any longer, but it didn't matter when two seconds later, Fumiko went racing towards her son, Iori, as he came through the door holding hands with that Natsuni girl, and leading the horrible one, Noriko. He was instantly in her arms, and she dragged him away from the doorway, stopping near me. Armadillomon ran after his partner, who'd dragged Natsuni along with him. An Impmon and Goblimon followed them out.

"You're okay," Fumiko cried happily, water coursing down her cheeks in an instant.

"I told you I would be," Iori told her, awkwardly patting her back.

"I tried to believe you, but you took so long," she said.

"He had to beat the bad guys," Meiyomon called as he tackled Iori into a hug.

"I'm happy for you two, you know," she continued. "I didn't know if you knew that, and I needed to make sure."

"I'm glad," Natsuni said, hugging the older woman. "I really think we could be friends."

Kae's happy squeal drew my attention away from the happy scene, and I saw her hugging her son close to her, and then scream even louder when she caught sight of Miyako, who wasn't dead after all. Chiziru ran at her, dropping her façade of being the mean big sister, and sank to the ground crying with Miyako in her arms. Mantarou was too stunned to do much of anything other than open and close him mouth repeatedly. Though he did manage a smile after awhile. Wormmon and Hawkmon tried to escape the scary, crying females, and went to talk with the digimon partners instead.

"Hikari!" Susumu yelled. "Yuuko. You're alright."

"Did you ever have a doubt?" Yuuko said with a false laugh, before clinging to her husband. The pair engulfed Hikari in their embrace, and before too long, Taichi wandered over to join them, having left Rei with her brother. Gatomon and Dorumon looked around awkwardly, before going over to talk with Wizardmon, Patamon and Gabumon over by the Takaishi-Ishida family.

A little television set walked through the door next, and Katsue went wild, running over to pick it up, crooning at it about being so brave—and did it get the footage? I had a hunch I knew what footage she was talking about, and I didn't want to see it. It would put me on edge, I wouldn't be able to relax—especially since Daisuke didn't seem to be coming home…

"Yoshie!"

Yoshie rushed forward, jumping into the man's arms. I took it that this was Mr Izumi. Mostly because Koushiro was standing at his side, rolling his eyes at his parent's show of affection. He didn't protest much though, when his mother pulled him into a group hug. His face just turned bright red when his girlfriend laughed at him as she walked through the door behind him with a man—who I assumed to be her own father—at her side.

"Keisuke?" Satoe called confused, pulling Mimi into a hug regardless.

"Why haven't you come home?" Keisuke asked.

"I have to be with Mimi," Satoe told him. "She's my daughter, and I have to be there for her."

"What about your job, and your life in New York?" Keisuke asked.

"We'll discuss it later," Satoe said firmly.

"I'll be off then," Keisuke told her, wandering back through the door to the Digital World.

"Come back, Daddy!" Mimi screeched.

"Don't worry," Tatum assured her. "We'll take care of him."

"We've got to get back to New York anyway," Willis said. "Bye everyone."

"We'll talk to you soon, okay?" Michael added, before they—and their family—rushed off after Mimi's father.

"Well…bye," Mimi pouted.

"Where're they going?" a black haired guy asked.

"New York, I guess," a blonde girl commented sadly.

"Kiyoko!" Yoshie shouted, grabbing the third person, a blonde boy, and dragging him into her family hug. Mimi grabbed the dark haired guy—calling him Hideto—and dragged him off towards Izumi, as they were her work family.

The blonde girl stayed where she was, looking at all of the families gathered around her and awkwardly shuffling her feet. Kiyoko pushed his way out of Yoshie's hold, and walked over to her, stopping next to her for just a second before wrapping his arms around her. They both froze.

"This is even more awkward," she told him.

"I thought so too," he said, quickly dropping his arms.

"Thought you'd start the party without me, did you?" Hideto asked, dropping his arms around their shoulders and laughing.

"Never," the girl said sarcastically.

"Ahh!" Toshiko screamed, running forward, making everyone around her stop whatever they were doing and watch as she engulfed a young woman in her arms. "They told me you were dead!"

"I was dead," Sora told her mother. They both burst into tears and her father—who had followed Sora through—joined their embrace immediately. "I think so anyway."

"Then how are you here?" Toshiko demanded, but thought better of it. "I don't even care. I'm just glad you are."

"Me too, Mom," Sora said through her tears. "Me too."

"I love a good reunion," Shuu said from my side—though his words were strained. He too seemed to notice that neither of our brothers had come out yet. They would though. They had to.

"Looks like you'll get yours now," I commented when I caught sight of blue hair coming through the doorway. Jou walked out standing tall, with his little girl curled into his chest, clinging to him with all of her might. Gomamon came in after them chattering away. Jou looked so much older than he had when the fight had started. He stopped walking and looked back to the door, holding the hand that wasn't holding his daughter out, and gripping the hand of the next person.

I screamed like an insane person as I ran at her. I thought she'd exploded. I thought I'd witnessed her death, but there she was, a little worse for wear, but alive, holding her boyfriend's hand. She laughed as I tackled her, telling me not to worry, that she wasn't going anywhere, but I couldn't let go. Not until I saw him. I stared deeply into the doorway, and for a horrible minute, nothing happened. I thought he didn't make it. I let Chiziru and Mantarou jostle me about as they too wanted to hug their sister. I wasn't feeling anything except fear anyway.

There was a commotion behind me and I whirled around, desperate to distract myself from my brother's lack of presence, and saw Rei—Taichi's girlfriend—screaming from her place in Taichi's arms.

"Pal, Pul, don't!" she screamed.

"We can do it," they shouted back. "We wanna help."

"It's too big for you!"

"We're super strong, don't worry," the male looking one called back.

They were trying to lift up one of the robots, starting the cleanup I supposed. But Rei was right. The robot was far too heavy for them to handle. They were just too small to be much help. And why they decided to start with one on an awning on one of the nearest stores I'd never know. It didn't matter either. The robot was shaking in their hands, and then it was plummeting towards the street, which wouldn't have mattered so much, if Koushiro hadn't been standing directly underneath it.

"Otamamon digivolve to… Gekomon!"

My little tadpole digimon digivolved to a large green frog with a French horn wrapped around his body. Gekomon flew at Koushiro knocking him out of the way just in time for the robot to hit the street.

"No," Koushiro complained. "Not you."

"I did good, huh?" Gekomon asked, starting to glow again and reverted to Otamamon. "Whew. That was a lot of work."

"You did good," I told him, smiling, though it was a little strained. I looked back to the door, waiting, hoping that he'd still come.

And then he came, holding his girlfriend's hand—who I felt guilty about forgetting—and grinned as he caught sight of me.

"We won," he said simply, and then I burst into joyous laughter, grabbing him and holding him close. "It's fine Jun. I'm fine."

"You are now," I said. "I'm not going to let you leave my sight, you know that."

"I hope that's not true," Shuu said, taking my hand, and pulling me away from my baby brother. What could possibly be more important than Daisuke right then? "We could have died today, Jun. I don't like that I can think that, and have it be true. And it made me realize how dumb I've been. I've been putting our lives on hold because of a piece of paper from my childhood. Because of that, we might not have had a chance to fully be together, and I don't want that. We'll never know when something might happen again. It might not be something as big as this, it might even just be a car accident, but we can't know, and I don't want to miss out on anything. Not with you."

"What are you saying?" I asked slowly.

"Sorry Jou," Shuu said. "But I need to do this."

"Do what?" I asked.

"Go ahead," Jou said with a short laugh, holding Momoe closer to him. "It's not a problem."

Shuu squeezed my hand tighter, and lowered himself to one knee. My heart started racing. No way was this happening!

"Jun," Shuu said. "I love you. Will you marry me?"

"Yes."

It was an instantaneous response, not nearly as enthusiastic as I once imagined it would be, but I was exhausted, and too busy crying silent tears to worry about jumping up and down for joy. I was just sohappy.

"Sorry I don't have the ring on me," Shuu apologized, pulling himself to his feet. "I didn't really think I'd need it today. This was really not planned."

"I don't care," I told him. "Just kiss me."

And he did.

Next on Digimon Adventure 05: The ending is here, it's time for everything to get wrapped up in the final chapter of Digimon Adventure 05.