It was the early evening by the time Tai returned home with Agumon. The phone rang and the boy answered it to receive the news from Joe: No one else besides all eight children have moved from Hikarigaoka.
What none of them knew was that Gatomon was observing Kari via a small telescope from the opposite building, after having seen the little girl interact with the nymph's daughter, she suspected little Kari to the eighth chosen child. A fact that left her restless. She'd been right there, ready to strike down the human child but was unable to do so.
"I don't understand why? Why couldn't I carry out the goal I'd intended?" She said to herself. Gatomon then noticed Miko hop onto Kari's lap. "A pet cat, hmph. They give it food and it naps all day. Sometimes it'll pay attention to the owners. But this is out of envy. I never had anyone who accepted me for who I was."
Deep in her mind's eye, she'd begun to remember back when she was in her previous form as a Salamon. A small blue-eyed, creamy-white puppy digimon wearing a gold collar around her neck – the same markings as the holy ring around Gatomon's tail.
"When I was in my Child-Level, Salamon, I was pushed around by Myotismon every day. It was always for the same reason."
'I've already told you: I'll make you suffer the same pain every time you look at me with those eyes.' Gatomon remembered Myotismon's exact words.
"And regarding her...the nymph's daughter...Kylie… She was a strange one from the beginning."
"Stop it!" Kylie ran between Myotismon, who almost lashed her with his crimson lightning. "What are you doing!? Hurting her, just because she looks at you, because you dislike her eyes? How can you be so cruel, or insane!?"
"She prevented Myotismon from harming me, something no one had done for me before...and I was...overwhelmed."
Gatomon still remembered that instant. Myotismon had been both shocked and indignant. Perhaps that was when the heir had begun to suspect things, and lead the Nymph's daughter into escaping one night.
"She would've been much better off as far from Myotismon as possible, no matter how much he seems to cherish her." Gatomon murmured thoughtfully.
Gatomon pulled the glove off her palm, and stared at the faint marking, where a scar should have been before. That scar had been given to her from Myotismon's harsh strikes. But Kylie has used her powers to heal the scar when she saw it, so that Gatomon no longer had that painful reminder of her agony filled past.
"I suppose its good thing that Sorceress bound me to not reveal the eighth child's location," Gatomon murmured. "Otherwise, it'd reveal where Kylie was too..."
Again she remembered other memories involving the young fairy.
"Oh what a lovely cat!" Kylie remarked. Without warning, she went and scooped up Gatomon into her arms.
Gatomon was utterly flummoxed, and her first impulse was to hiss, and claw the strange creature's throat out. When a thump, like a heartbeat echoed through the room, and Gatomon relaxed.
'It's so warm...what is this?' Gatomon wondered.
~A mother's love in physical form, and you feel it. ~
An unseen voice spoke in her mind, and Gatomon looked around, expecting to see Wizardmon. But it was only her, and Sirene's heir.
"Love..." Gatomon said shocked.
What's more, unlike Myotismon, the young woman actually said Gatomon's eyes were beautiful. True, Sirene's child had been kind to her and perhaps Kylie's love affair with Myotismon is foredoomed to remain star-crossed, but Gatomon refused to admit, dare she say it? Vexed and a little abandoned when the heir escaped that one night.
Gatomon then began questioning. "Yet where was I born, anyway? What was I doing before I met Myotismon? I can't remember anything."
"Thinking about the past?"
"I've told you to stop interfering with my thoughts!" Gatomon said through gritted teeth, before turning to face the speaker.
Behind her was a digimon that had nearly spotted Kylie and the others yesterday as they were headed home.
"Sorry." Wizardmon bowed his head in shame. "That's not what I meant to do."
"Hurry and find the eighth child, Wizardmon!"
"Yes, I know."
One he left, Gatomon went back to observing Kari. She had no idea of what has transpired this evening involving Kylie nor of the trouble that would soon brew.
That same night, the Pantheon sisters' parents were out to dinner with friends while the servants that had already returned were running errands.
Kylie finished relaying to Beth and Dana what had happened in her bedroom, yet something had the animals on edge. At first the girls had thought they wanted company, but then there came a suspicious fluttering, scratching somewhere in the mansion.
"What's that?" asked Dana tensely.
"Just a mouse in the wall," Beth commented. "He must have come inside without the maids noticing."
"But it sounded like it came from… the far end of the West wing." Kylie whispered.
The scratching came again, from a different corner. Then again, not too far from the windows.
"Maybe it's a whole family," Dana guessed nervously.
Then came a rustling, as though something small and soft was being dragged across the floor. It gradually increased until the whole ceiling above us was alive with rustling and stirring and gently scratching sounds.
"I hope its Speck and his siblings having wandered into the mansion!" Beth said uneasily.
"What if it's rats?!" Kylie whimpered. "Or, absurd as it sounds Myo- I mean, someone has broken in!"
"With all the protective enchantments?" Beth questioned.
But they had to be responsible and find out what was going on in the West wing—and try to get rid of it, if possible. Yeah, right. Get rid of a million rats. What were they going to do—politely ask them to leave?
And what if it wasn't rats upstairs? But an intruder maybe some crazed no maj or warlock who had somehow entered the mansion? Then she took a deep breath. What was she thinking? Were they magical or not?
"It'll only take a minute," Beth said. "Just got to find out what it is."
This must be one of the things parents really hate about being a grown up. Whenever someone hears a spooky noise, they're the ones who have to check it out—even though they probably feel like hiding, too.
The whole manor seemed to be listening as Beth started to inch towards the west wing. Listening as she was about to take another step. Something then rolled in front of her, it was one of the scented candles from the guest room in the west wing.
She then heard a familiar chitter and Beth calmed. "Ugh, seriously Speck? You and the smaller animals just about gave me a heart attack—huh?"
Behind her, Beth just saw all five compies hurrying away from another room. "Speck?"
If the compy pack was in the opposite room and scurrying down the hall already… then what was in the guest room?
She quietly pulled open the door then fumbled for the light switch and flicked it on. Listening for the scream that tore out of her throat as she saw the hundreds—no, thousands—of black bats that had been waiting.
It was on the night before they departed for Earth, Lady Despair had called Wizardmon into her sinister laboratory among the potions to inform him of his task. "My child is...deluded by the allure of the girl, dark beings often find themselves drawn to the light."
"My Lady, I hate to argue with you, but she is very powerful. How will I be able to destroy her?" Wizardmon asked. "And what if Lord Myotismon..."
"He won't find out, I give my word," Lady Despair reassures. "And I have just the thing to aid you."
She fetched a dagger, and dips it in a gray, make up texture like cream. Lady Despair holds it up, and opens a box with a rat in it. She touches the rat with the tip of the dagger, and it turns to stone.
"You are very cunning, Wizardmon." Lady Despair praises. "You are right up there with Gatomon. Surely you can use your spells to get close enough just to SCRATCH that little tramp. So we're free of her presence, and my child can clear his mind to do what is needed to be done."
"You know the truth, you've felt the ley lines, the path of magic to Carolinus, you feel the flow of magic and it affects you," The Dark Spectre Queen said to Wizardmon. "You feel the call of Eternity, and know what you must do to keep the balance of light and darkness."
The small magician had started when he heard her voice but could not see the owner. He was flying over Ariake Forest when the false Crest began to glow. "It's glowing! But why here?"
Up head was a crow on a nest of clothes hangers and some scraps of cloth but it was what was in the nest that caught Wizardmon's eye.
"It's the Digivice!" He cast out an orb of energy which scared off the crow.
Wizardmon landed and retrieved the object only for an annoyingly familiar voice approach.
"Hey, Wizardmon! What are you doing over there?"
Quickly Wizardmon hid the digivice in his pockets as Demidevimon got closer. "Oh, nothing."
"I don't think doing nothing would've led you here. You found something, didn't you?"
"Well, alright you caught me."
"What?"
"This world is more fun than I thought it would be." Wizardmon pulled out a bottle of wine and pretended to slur. "I ended up getting drunk."
"Not you, too." The bat scoffed. "If you keep that up, you'll be wiped out just like Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon!"
"Please don't tell Lord Myotismon or her Ladyship about this. Okay?" He handed him the bottle.
"Yeah, yeah. Geez, all of Gatomon's troops are useless dolts!" DemiDevimon flew away with the bottle in one of his claws.
"I can't hand this Digivice over to Myotismon. But if the Digivice is here… where is the eighth child?" He then looked at the extra item he'd been given: the dagger Lady Despair had ordered him to use on Kylie.
As he flew back to the apartment complex, he looked around contemplatively then back at the dagger. No, he had no quarrels with the late Sirene nor her daughter. Gatomon held no such resentment towards Kylie either.
So with a determined scowl, he flung the dagger into the bay with all his might. As the dagger sunk into the water, a glowing, purple bubble encased it, as a scaly hand balanced it on one fingertip to examine the dagger with a shining, violet eye.
"My, my, there might be hope for Gatomon as well," Vanessa said to herself, before she vanished with the taken dagger.
In a fiendish cloud the bats hurled themselves at Beth. She closed her eyes and doubled up, but there was no avoiding them. She could feel their leathery texture and spiked wings brush against her arms even as she managed to form a tiny orb of energy. They were crawling all over her, their toes scrabbling for a foothold and their teeth searching for a tender spot to bite...
"Beth! What's going on over there?" Dana went over to see what all the commotion was.
With a whoosh the bats swirled up into the air and flew down the stairs toward her. She screamed and flung herself face down on the ground. But the bats didn't want her.
They flew back upstairs, whirled around a shocked Kylie for an instant—and then disappeared through the open window at the end of the hall. Beth ran up the stairs to watch them, she was soon joined by Dana.
Beth drew a long, shaky breath. "I—I guess that's what was making the noise in the west wing guestroom."
"What did they want?" Dana asked.
Kylie gulped. "I think the proper question would be who were they after?"
There came the sound of the telephone ringing, the maid answered then called up to Beth, "Miss Beth, it's your friend Zaira!"
Beth answered it and the thunder guardian informed them of her most recent premonition…
Back in the Kamiya apartment, Kari and Agumon were eating watermelon while watching the news with Tai.
"Tokyo is flooded with eye-witness reports on these mysterious, large animals and mysterious humanoids with the most recent spotting in Shibuya Center. Also in the same area, several young women with acute anemia have been found collapsed, the police have begun an investigation..."
Tai turned off the T.V., looking unnerved. "They lost a lot of blood?"
It could only be Myotismon, he also remembered the romantic entanglement Kylie had explained. Would the guardian be sharing a similar fate or be turned much like other vampire's victims in the old legends if she hadn't escaped?
The phone rang at the moment, breaking him out of those thoughts, it was Matt.
"Did you see the TV?"
"I didn't have the time, I was there in Shibuya with Kylie and two of the guardians!" Matt replied.
"Then… it was you they mentioned on TV!" Tai said as he and Agumon walked into his room closing the door so his parents wouldn't overhear.
"Myotismon attacked us, he wanted Kylie to come with him but she refused." Matt was explaining. "That villain even killed his own subordinates!"
"What'd you say?!" Tai was shocked.
"Tai, I swear this guy's capable of anything! And if his creator Lady Despair, is anything like him, we can't tell what she'll do! We need to find the eighth child quick!"
"If Myotismon finds her first we're all dead!" Tai responded.
He had no idea that the guardians were flying fast towards his apartment or of the shocking revelation that was about to unfold.
At the same time, Wizardmon brought the digivice to Gatomon and begun voicing his own theory to her.
"I think the eighth child… Could be somewhere deep inside your thoughts."
Gatomon was taken aback, as though something clicked. "Inside my thoughts?"
"Your heart is put under tight locks and kept prisoner. What happened is that your mind was sealed, the key to finding the eighth child is hidden deep within. Are you scared of retrieving the memories of your younger self? Why aren't you trying to remember? Take back the memories you've lost! Remember your past without fear!"
Gatomon narrowed her eyes and put up her claws defensively. "Did Myotismon or that two-faced sorceress send you here?!"
"I am a digimon that will always fight alongside you." Wizardmon didn't even flinch. "They have nothing to do with this."
Gatomon lowered her paws and listened to Wizardmon speak.
"Before I met you, I was always alone… I traveled alone, unable to make any friends."
He reminisced of his long travels. Whoever owned or read from the forbidden Book was punished in his world. Although he knew this, he couldn't hold back the urge to learn of its secret knowledge. As a result, he was exiled. The composition of his body was changed so that he now looked like a life-sized rag doll. He should have died then. But then a small shadow approached him and called out to him.
Anyone who didn't know her would find it hard to believe that this small creature, who only reached up to his waist, could destroy opponents ten times her size. Wizardmon still recalled the conversation they shared the evening when they first met.
"I'm grateful for your help, but I have nothing to give you in return." Wizardmon had said to Gatomon.
"I see. You've lived a long time being alone."
"What?"
"When you live too long in solitude, your heart becomes cold. It could happen to everyone. Even me."
"That's what happened?" Gatomon questioned.
"I was about to die with a heart of stone due to my loneliness. The one who freed me from that loneliness, Gatomon… Was you. Yes… I remember that this is what you told me back then…"
"I've always been waiting; waiting and searching, but I never find her!"
"Waiting? Searching? For who?"
"I have no idea. I don't remember anymore. But I was waiting for someone."
"I was waiting for someone?"
"Yes, that's what you said. From the way you worded it, I know you were not referring to neither Sirene nor her child."
"I don't understand, who was it I was waiting for?" Gatomon wondered.
There was only one other way to find out. Kari had just put Miko back inside, when she turned around she saw Wizardmon floating an inches from the balcony railing. Then a familiar white cat front flipped towards her.
Kari was delighted. "You're the one I saw around midday! You came back! You really are one of Agumon's friends, right?"
Gatomon didn't answer. Wizardmon landed onto the balcony next to her then set the digivice into Gatomon's right paw.
"What's this? Why do you…?" Kari reached out towards the digivice, which began to shine a bright light.
"She's the eighth child we've been searching for?" Gatomon questioned.
"Yes that's right." Wizardmon replied.
Gatomon turned to him. "Then where is her digimon?"
"That's something you must discover for yourself, remember who were you waiting for?"
Whatever effects his words contained, they began to bring back bit by bit Gatomon's forgotten memories. "Yes, when I was a Nyaromon I was always waiting for someone. It was a very long wait day after day. The time went by and I kept waiting, but no one ever came.
In her memories, a tiny, adorable digimon, with permanent pink blushing cheeks appears now in the flashback, a holy ring around her neck like a collar and eyes a beautiful blue. She wanders across a desert, the sun beating down on her.
"I learned to survive on my own and digivolved little by little. If I didn't, I would've died. Even though I knew that, in truth, I was supposed to digivolve with someone else by my side. When I became a Salamon, I stopped waiting and went out in search on my own. That's how I began my journey, suddenly, someone appeared in my path… but it was not who I was waiting for."
But when the Salamon walked into a forest, she's startled by the sound of rumbling, and dozens of Garthim appear. They surround the scared Digimon, but she's surprised, when a beautiful woman, with pink, glowing, cat eyes and shimmering golden hair appears.
"But the one who appeared in my path...I mistook her for the one I was waiting for."
Lady Despair smiles warmly at the small critter, and beckons her to come closer, and she picks up Salamon when she approaches. Sierra cradles the little digimon close, and turns to leave the forest with the garthim following.
"And for a while, I was so happy, so many days she cared for me," Gatomon said with a mix of joy and sadness. "But she had to leave for the Human world, and couldn't take me with her, so she left me in the charge of her 'child.'"
In the memory Myotismon loomed over her ominously.
"It was Myotismon. The days of despair and suffering began until I had forgotten my memories… I forgot that I was waiting for someone… Searching for someone…"
While Gatomon reminisced, Agumon noticed there was someone out there with Kari and alerted Tai.
"Who's there?" Tai yelled out
"Onii-chan!"
"What are you doing to Kari?" Tai demanded.
"Wait. Listen to us first!" Wizardmon tried explaining.
"Kari get come with me, those digimon are our enemies!" Tai urged his sister.
Kari stepped forward. "No, you're wrong! Gatomon was looking for me…"
Agumon launched a fireball at their direction, Kari held her arms our protectively but
"Look out!" Gatomon shoved Kari out of the way and got hit by the fireball.
"Gatomon!" Kari cried out in distress for her.
Fortunately the cat digimon was unharmed.
"Gatomon protected Kari..." Tai was stunned. He didn't know what else to say.
"Now do you remember the memories that you've locked away?" Wizardmon asked.
Gatomon understood the meaning of this girl's gentle look into her eyes. "Yes. Kari is my… dearest partner. The one I had been waiting for all this time was Kari."
"Waiting… for me?"
"I was looking for you everywhere. Kari!" She ran up and hugged the little girl who held her back.
Kari smiled at her brother happily, "This is Gatomon, my Digimon. She's my partner. Just like you and Koromon."
"Then Kari really is the eighth child…"
"And I'm her Digimon partner." Gatomon walked forward. "I swear I'll protect her at any cost!"
"Even if what you say is true, who is this guy?" Tai pointed at the wizard Digimon.
"Wizardmon is my friend." She told them. "Besides, he's also the one who found the lost Digivice."
"You think I'm just going to believe that?" Tai demanded.
"I don't care if you believe it or not. I only follow after Gatomon." Wizardmon answered coolly before handing the digivice to Tai.
Then it hit Tai at that same moment about Vanessa's cryptic words. The eighth child was a girl and under their noses the whole time…
"Urgh, she knew all along! Of all the rotten tricks!" Tai fumed. The information would've been useful hours ago!
Kari stared puzzledly at Tai's reaction. Wizardmon and Gatomon merely waited for him to calm down. "Getting back to the matter at hand, Kari needs her Crest and by that I mean the original."
"The original?"
Gatomon held out one of the false crests for Tai to see. "This is a copy we used to find Kari's Digivice. Myotismon has the original crest." Her eyes grew sharp. "We must take it back. We must take back Kari's Crest."
"You guys will wait here." Wizardmon instructed as he and Gatomon walked to the balcony railing.
"Wait! Where is Myotismon? I want to come to!"
"It's too risky. We'll handle this ourselves."
Gatomon and Wizardmon slipped quietly through the night's darkness. Unluckily for them, DemiDevimon caught sight of the two leaving Odaiba. He had been following Matt at Shibuya under Myotismon's orders, and had just arrived.
Myotismon's coffin lay in the underground lair. It was protected by a magic barrier that made no maj humans unconsciously avoid moving closer to that area. Even looking in that direction, all that could be seen was dim darkness.
Fortunately for them, Lady Despair was back in her other hideout. She'd claimed she was brewing a little 'surprise' for the other guardians very soon.
"Where's the crest? Wizardmon, we must hurry!" Gatomon said in worry as the coffin belonging to Myotismon laid out before them.
"No need to rush. There's still time left before dawn." Wizardmon said pointing his staff at the coffin.
And sensing something, he and Gatomon hurry to open the unoccupied coffin, and reaching under the silk pillow to pull out a crest.
"Here it is!"
"We did it, it's the original Crest!"
However their good mood came to end. The presence of chittering bats announced Myotismon had returned. Swiftly they closed the coffin even knowing that they were caught in the act.
"What are you doing in here?" Myotismon demanded a little too calmly.
"Nothing!" Wizardmon tried to lie.
Myotismon gave a blank, cold stare, which he turned to Gatomon and Wizardmon, and holding up a crest of light and tag in between his fingers. "It seems you're searching for this?"
Uncertainly, Gatomon and Wizardmon looked at the one they had before looking back at the vampire. Their reactions were all the confirmation he needed.
"What do you from stealing the original Crest? So you were planning to betray me?" Myotismon snarled before crushing the false crest in his fist.
Wizardmon leapt towards the vampire but he floated aside, causing Wizardmon to fall to the floor. Gatomon hurries to his side.
"Wizardmon!"
"I'm alright."
Gatomon turned to glare darkly at Myotismon.
"It's those eyes again. I've always suspected you would turn against me and that is why I had to teach you by punishing you. Do you think a small thing like you could do something against me? After such betrayal, I won't forgive your lives!"
"I haven't betrayed you. I was always on Gatomon's side from the very start!" Wizardmon stood in front of Gatomon protectively.
"Fools. Grisly Wing!"
Both Gatomon and Wizardmon tried to fight off the swarm of bats, but there were too many and they were carried back outside into the park. The bats then drop them from high up in the air, where they fall to the ground, and Gatomon lands on her feet. But Wizardmon crashed into the dirt, at the feet of Myotismon.
Wizardmon raised his staff into the air and chanted a spell. Dark clouds appeared above his head at once.
The fight in Daiba Park could be viewed from the Kamiya family's apartment.
"What's that?" Kari suddenly pointed.
At that moment, what appeared to be several multicolored comets were flying directly towards them.
Tai had yelped briefly before squinting and staring. The glowing from the 'comets' faded to reveal seven of the guardians in fairy form, looking like they'd literally run a mile.
"Are we glad to see you!" Tai waved them down.
Beth and the girls looked almost out of breath as though they'd flown all the way from their respective homes to the apartment.
"Where's Kylie?" Kari asked, looking at them one by one.
"We had to lock her in her own bedroom so she wouldn't go straight into Despair or Myotismon's clutches!" Dana explained.
"Gatomon and the others are fighting!" Agumon informed them.
Zaira nods frantically. "I know! I saw a premonition: about Kari being the eighth child and Myotismon returning to catch both Wizardmon and Gatomon just as they recovered the crest!"
The Storm now rumbled forebodingly.
"Agumon, we're joining them!" Tai told his Digimon then glanced up at the guardians, "Let's get over there!"
"Right!"
"Wait, I want to come too!" Kari pleaded.
Haruna responded before Tai could. "No, wait here in case they return."
A worried Kari could only watch the storm, feeling greatly worried for Gatomon's safety.
Back in Daiba Park, lightning fell down towards Myotismon. It would have been a direct hit except the vampire deflected it with his cape.
"You know the consequences of angering me!" he jeered.
Gatomon leapt right at the vampire, only to be easily backhanded away.
"Thunder Cloud!" Wizardmon launched another attack.
Myotismon held out his hands in open palms, the lightning reflected back towards the small wizard knocking him back.
"Crimson lightning!" His blood-red whip tangled around Wizardmon. "I'll finish you off first, Wizardmon!"
"Stop!" Gatomon had gotten up. "If you want to fight, do it with me!"
"Those eyes again. They're not merely reflecting your hostility. Those are the eyes that never lose hope, no matter the circumstances. Eyes that believe in tomorrow. Coming from you, they are what I hate the most," Myotismon said, his lips curled into a smile. But from Kylie…
The night Kylie escaped his castle, he'd flown into a passion of anger and confusion. Once he calmed down hours later, he sulked alone and in the days that followed, the vampire barely slept or ate when she was gone.
As they fought the shadows suddenly shifted, and revealed Lady Despair, in a loose, billowing black dress with a gold chain belt around her waist.
"Did you seriously think I wouldn't have put an enchantment, so to be sure if anyone other than me and him opened the coffin, we'd know..."
"Ack! I was careless!" Wizardmon said in alarm.
"I do regret this, despite what you might think, Gatomon." Lady Despair sighed, looking down to the cat digimon. "I never should've left you in my son's care, he was not meant to care and groom you into a servant of the darkness. But the fact of the matter is your eyes are too much like hers, and he treated them like a sword aimed in his direction."
Myotismon and Gatomon looked at Sierra in confusion. What was she talking about?
"Oh, don't look so surprised." Lady Despair laughed, stopping next to Myotismon. "I took in Gatomon because I knew who she was...the future partner of the eighth child..." She turns to grin at Gatomon in a knowing manner. "And like you, she was a child of a higher being, the daughter of the Nymph Sirene!"
Gatomon gasped in shock, as Myotismon sputtered incredulously, while Wizardmon looks at Gatomon in disbelief, and prompt recognition.
"Your eyes...so like the Nymph that defied the Queen of Darkness until her death." Wizardmon gasped.
"That's right, Gatomon. You have no genuine digital core," Lady Despair said in 'I know something you don't know' manner. "Sirene created you, the same way as I did my precious children. You began as a drop of blood and essence, with that ring floating in the center."
She points at Gatomon's holy ring, which she looks at, her tail flexing in alarm.
"That ring belonged to the Nymph, and it's all that's left of her physically, aside from her accursed daughter."
"Then that gives me all the more reason to defeat you both!" Gatomon declared sternly. "And I'll make doubly sure to protect Kylie from you both as well!"
Again Gatomon pounced and she was swatted away but this time she was on her feet.
Myotismon scowled. "I see, that changes everything! First I'll destroy your beloved friend, he'll soon be meeting Hades! Grisly Wing!"
All the bats swarmed Wizardmon before he was picked up by them and they flew away picking him right off until they were several feet from the ground.
"A pity, Wizardmon..." Lady Despair sneered into the small wizard's ear. "If you'd just killed Kylie with the magic dagger I gave you, I would've sent you and Gatomon far away to a lovely planet where you two would've lived together happily."
"Then you obviously don't know me very well!" he responded.
"Finish him!" Lady Despair snapped.
"Wizardmon!" cried Gatomon.
"Gatomon – Aaah!" The bats had dropped him into the bay. With his ragdoll body all wet, he would surely drown.
"Wizardmon!" Gatomon cried tearfully.
"Gatomon…!" Wizardmon sank into the waters, in his fist he held the crest tightly.
"Wizardmon…" Gatomon whimpered. She was utterly devastated by the sudden turn of events.
The quiet sounds of the waves were interrupted by heavy footsteps. Through the fog, seven bright lights fast approached.
"We come to help!" Tai was riding on Greymon's shoulder.
"Don't forget us!" Beth cried.
She and the girls took defensive stances before Myotismon and Lady Despair.
"It's an honor to see you appear before me voluntarily." Myotismon addressed the guardians. "A pity, I expected to see her before me demanding answers to the questions she has."
"Well, Kylie won't be seeing you again tonight!" Theo snapped.
Beth said to Myotismon, "I'm not gonna mince words here, I don't believe you're the one for Kylie and frankly, you're NOT my idea of a brother in law. All I can say to you personally, is that she's alright if that's what you truly want to know."
Uh-oh, tactical error. Myotismon turned a steely gaze right to the Keeper of the Heart.
"I mean, she's always okay." Beth ended up squeaking.
Greymon launched a Megaflame at Myotismon and Lady Despair. They deflected it while Myotismon strikes Greymon with his crimson lightning.
The girls countered with their own elemental attacks before MetalGreymon steps to the plate.
"Enough!" Lady Despair shouts. She raises her hands, and immediately, black lightning shoots from the sky, and strikes all but Despair and Myotismon, trapping them in spheres.
"We have no time for this nonsense!" Lady Despair growled at Myotismon. "We've wasted enough time, we have what we need."
Lady Despair waves her hand at Gatomon, who's encased in a pink sphere of light.
"Ahh! Let me out!" Gatomon yells.
"No, my pretty kitty." Lady Despair shushes her with a finger pressed to her black lips. "Now that we have you and the crest, there's no more point pussy footing around."
The wicked woman's eyes glowed red, and she peered into her eyes. But as she did Gatomon gasped in alarm, feeling the Sorceress pouring through her mind. And then...
"AHHHHHHH!" Lady Despair screamed as a purple butterfly appeared over Gatomon, and blasted the Sorceress with lightning.
The Demonic Dame's whole body lit up, her skeleton showing in her body, before she was flung backwards into Myotismon.
"Mother! What's happened!?" Myotismon asked in shock.
"Ah! Ah! Ooooh!" Lady Despair groaned, rubbing her head. "Oh, fool that I am! I should've guessed!"
Lady Despair glared at the purple glowing butterfly and Gatomon as it vanished.
"She's under a powerful enchantment, I can't use my powers to find out the child's identity from her mind," Lady Despair proclaimed. "And she can't reveal it to us, even if she wanted to...The Dark Spectre Queen's spells are potent, I fear we can't discover the 8th child identity through her..."
"Then she's worthless, My Lady!" Demidevimon stated, having just arrived. "Why not destroy her now, and get rid of a nuisance!"
"Fool Boy! Just because she can't reveal it, doesn't mean she can't still be used to find the brat!" Lady Despair strolls over to Gatomon, and pokes her on the nose with one of her sharp, black, curved nails.
"The 8th child and she are connected, as long as we have the feline, the eighth child will come to us." Lady Despair laughed. "We just need to capture all the children in this city, and the child will reveal themselves in time."
"That's low!" Tai yelled.
Myotismon warned Beth. "To you, I leave a message to Kylie: She is to join me or I shall further take matters into my own hands."
"This isn't over yet," Lady Despair addressed Tai. "Once we get our hands on the eighth child, you, your little friends and those fairies will be next!"
"Be certain that we'll see you again." Myotismon sneered before he and Lady Despair began to fly away.
"Wait! Gatomon!" Tai yelled
"Tai!" She screamed.
"We'll find you and get you back we swear it!" Beth called out.
Myotismon and Lady Despair's ominous laughter rang throughout the mist as they vanished into it with their captive.
Back in the Kamiya apartment, little Kari had an unpleasant feeling in the pit of her stomach. They all should've been back by now. "Gatomon has to come back…" she said softly before looking back out at Daiba Park. "Won't she? GATOMON!"
Her cry echoed in the night.
To be continued…