AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Happy New Year! (Well, it's still technically 2020 for me, but I'm already halfway through a bottle of prosecco and I can't guarantee being in any fit state to post anything tomorrow, so I figured I'd upload this a little bit early.)

Thank you all so much for all the Christmas wishes and the love you gave the last chapter. It was the best Christmas present ever!

I hope that 2021 brings you love, light and happiness, and I hope that you enjoy today's update.

POUNDING HEARTS AND RUMPLED FUR

"Hikari, come on! We have to hurry!"

Hikari crashed through the bushes, pushing the brambles from her face as another twig scratched her cheek. Her eyes stung and she bit her lip as she stumbled blindly through the bushes after Tailmon's voice.

"I can't go any faster!" she cried, clutching at her whistle. She heard Tailmon's claws slicing through the bushes, and then they were gone and Hikari spilled out on to a narrow path. Tailmon cried her name and pulled her to her feet, dusting down Hikari's pink shorts and straightening her yellow shirt.

"We have to keep moving," she said. She reached out and took Hikari's hand in her paw, and then they were running again. Hikari clamped her lips together and swallowed a whimper as she ran as hard as she could. She had to be strong and tough like Taichi. Taichi was waiting for her.

But her breath was catching in her chest and her head was sore. Her tummy hurt. Tailmon's paw fell from her fingers and Hikari bit back tears as she stumbled over her feet, crashing heavily against a tree to keep from falling. Tailmon leapt back to her side, glancing nervously over her shoulder before taking Hikari's hand again.

"We have to try," she said. "You heard Elecmon; the gate could close at any minute. Please keep trying, Hikari. For me." Hikari clenched her eyes shut and squeezed Tailmon's paw, and then she took a big deep breath (just like Taichi did sometimes) and then they took off again.

They followed the path as it descended, twisting and turning around trees and bushes and roots that were tall enough for Hikari to run under. Hikari let Tailmon pull her along, focusing on the sound of her partner's voice and trying to ignore how her chest felt like that one time her dad had squeezed her too hard after coming home from the hospital. The thought made her want to cry. She wished her dad was squeezing her now.

"C'mon, Hikari. Keep going."

Tailmon had already tried to evolve three times, but Angewomon was still too tired from their fight with Apokarimon to help them now. When Primary Village had appeared they'd cheered and sprinted down the hill, but as they had picked their way carefully through the growing mountains of eggs they'd been spied by Elecmon who had hurried them on their way.

"We're almost there!" Hikari scrubbed tears from her cheeks and she lifted her head. The trees looked thinner here, like they were coming to the edge of the forest. Her breath hitched. She didn't want to be away from Taichi anymore, and she didn't want to have to run anymore, but when they caught up to the others then she would have to say goodbye to Tailmon, and she didn't want that either.

Tailmon bounded ahead and clambered up a nearby tree to check they were still heading in the right direction. Hikari leant heavily against the trunk, gulping in breaths. She felt sick. Her head hurt. She crouched down, burying her head in her knees and shutting her eyes so hard she saw stars.

"Wait…no…" Tailmon whispered. Hikari looked up, wiping away tears as Tailmon leapt down towards her. She grabbed Hikari's wrist and ran again, pulling her along so quickly that Hikari felt like she was flying.

"Tailmon – you're hurting me-"

"We have to hurry!"

At last they left the last of the trees and bushes, and then they were running on sand, flying towards a lake. A narrow path joined the beach to a small island where Hikari could see Gennai, Piyomon, Tentomon, Palmon, and a trolley car. Elecmon had said something about a trolley car. It was how they were going to get home.

But it was already moving. The top of the trolley car was sparking with small bolts of electricity as it picked up speed, rolling away from them.

"No!" Hikari screamed. They had to wait. They couldn't leave yet. They couldn't leave her behind. "Wait! Come back! Come ba-" Her toe caught in the sand and she fell. The sand stung her eyes as she rolled towards the water. Footsteps were thundering towards her and hands helped her sit up. Gennai was there, his frail hands holding her tightly as she watched the trolley car disappear in to the sun-

Hikari woke with a jolt. She couldn't breath. Her chest was tight and her eyes were burning, and she tugged the blanket over her head as she buried her face in her knees. She stuffed a fist in to her mouth and focused on the feeling of her teeth on her knuckles. She bit down, hard, until it was all she could think about. Only then did the ache in her chest start to ease.

She couldn't remember the last time she had dreamed of the trolley car. Years, at least. It left her reeling, and it took several minutes of deep breathing through her nose before she could peel back the blankets and wipe the last of her tears away.

Tailmon was watching her. As Hikari sat up she leapt towards her, bringing a canteen of water which Hikari gratefully accepted.

"Hikari?" Tailmon asked softly. Hikari raised the canteen to her lips to keep her teeth from chattering and she took several deep gulps.

"'m f-fine," she whispered. Gatomon's eyes flashed.

"Liar." Hikari shivered and tugged the blanket around her shoulders before stepping outside. Jou had offered them space in the big hut but Hikari had politely declined; she slept better in smaller spaces (at least, she usually did). The big hut was too big and filled with too many unfamiliar noises. She and Tailmon had spent the afternoon setting up a small shelter of their own, and with Jou's permission they had dug out a small fire pit. It was only as Hikari settled in beside it that she realised she had no way of lighting the fire, and she was grateful when Tailmon followed a moment later with the flint and steel.

The skies were still dark overhead, but despite the early hour they sat and ate a cold fish and a handful of berries. Eventually the warmth from the fire made it through to Hikari's bones and she finally stopped trembling. Tailmon took the remains of the fish and buried them on the outskirts of the camp before settling back by the fire. The skies were lighter now, filled with a pre-dawn light that banished the darkness.

"How do you feel now?" Tailmon asked. Hikari closed her eyes and tightened her grip on the blanket.

"Itchy."

There were better words to describe the feeling, but she didn't know them. It wasn't like an itch on her skin – it was an itch that ran deep in to her bones and pumped through her veins. An itch that made her want to move; to run far away until she couldn't run any more. An itch she couldn't scratch with her fingers.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Talking helped sometimes. Hikari brought the blanket up to her chin and stared in to the fire, nodding slowly. She didn't know where to begin. Tailmon settled in beside her, leaning heavily against Hikari's arm. The weight felt comforting.

"You dreamed about the trolley car again, didn't you?" Tailmon asked. Hikari nodded slowly. An awkward silence fell between them then, and Hikari knew what was coming next before Tailmon had even opened her mouth. "Why didn't you go back?"

It was a question Tailmon had tried to ask her a thousand times now; ever since the first time they'd watched Daisuke disappear through the television screen back to the human world. A thousand times, Hikari had changed the subject before Tailmon could bring it up, and a thousand times Tailmon had let it slide.

"It's too dangerous for me to leave," Hikari answered. "We've made the Kaiser mad-"

"No more than we have before." She wouldn't let it slide this time. In truth, Hikari had known her chances of derailing the conversation were slim at best. She sighed as Tailmon's head lolled against her arm. "Tell me the truth."

Hikari stared up at the sky, watching the last stubborn stars as they disappeared behind the sunrise. She had tried. And she knew that Tailmon knew, even if Tailmon had been too kind to mention it. The night after they had first met Daisuke, Hikari had crept back to the television set under cover of darkness, when she should have been sleeping, and had sat there with her digivice outstretched until the sun had begun to rise – long enough for her to wonder if perhaps she was the problem.

"Everything will be so different now," she whispered. "What if… What if I don't belong there anymore? What if I belong here now? What if-" Her throat tightened around the words and she shut her eyes, bowing her head and hiding behind her hair. Tailmon's paw found the crook of her elbow.

"What if…" she prompted.

What if Taichi didn't miss me as much as I missed him? The question was too scary to ask aloud, but it bounced around her head. What if they all moved on without me?

The itch was spreading to her feet now. Already her heart was beginning to race. She stood suddenly, sending Tailmon tilting sideways as she barrelled inside their small hut.

"Hikari?"

"I need to run," she answered. She threw the blanket over her pillow and shrugged her way in to her tunic and fastened it around her waist before reaching for boots. She tightened the straps around her ankles, and by the time she was reaching for her bow Tailmon was there.

"I'm coming with you," she said in a voice that left no room for argument. Hikari fastened her quiver across her chest and accepted her bow with a grateful nod before slipping out of camp and heading East towards the rising sun. All too soon, Hikari lost herself to the rhythm of her feet pounding against the floor. They emerged from a field of tall grey grass, skirting the shadow of a Dark Tower as the sun's first rays banished the chill from her bones, bringing the dawn of a new day.

They hadn't left Odewara until mid-afternoon, with Kikuro fussing around her sister and trying to make excuses for them to stay, and after a particularly frosty goodbye they had finally piled in to the car just in time to make it back to Odaiba as school was finishing for the day. Taichi had stayed long enough to help take the suitcases up to the apartment and to grab his school blazer; his father had given him a strange look when he'd said he was going to school to collect his class work, but he hadn't questioned it (and the ease with which he'd believed Taichi's lie made Taichi think he hadn't believed it at all).

The reaction he received when he opened the door to the lab wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting. Sora's eyes bulged and Koushiro's mouth hung open awkwardly. Daisuke grinned and opened his mouth to speak but was quickly silenced by Miyako who elbowed him in the gut while Iori busied himself with tidying up several empty snack wrappers from the digimon who were staring up at Taichi with smears of chocolate and crumbs around their mouths.

"T-Taichi!" Sora spluttered, the first to regain any kind of composure. She stood and straightened her skirt – something she often did when she was nervous – and Taichi tried to ignore the way his stomach bubbled.

"Hey guys," he greeted, trying to keep his voice bright as he closed the door slowly behind him. Koushiro cleared his throat.

"We weren't expecting to see you until Thursday," he said in a voice that was so calm it was almost robotic. Taichi shrugged, watching Koushiro from the corner of his eye as he did his best to remain casual despite the mounting tension in the air. He could almost taste it.

"Dad got called back in to work tomorrow. We came back early so we could get mum home again." And so he could get back out of town. The words went unspoken, but Sora's smile tightened and he knew that she had heard them anyway.

"I wish you'd called," she said through a strained smile. Taichi swallowed thickly and forced a smile of his own.

"Why? Did I miss something?"

That the question was not met by some sort of explosion from Daisuke was worry in and of itself. Daisuke was instead looking to Koushiro who was looking to Sora who was looking right back at him. (Miyako and Iori were looking nervously to each other, while the digimon were looking hungrily at the bag of snacks in Iori's hands.) Sora smoothed her already perfect skirt and lifted her chin the way she always did when she was about to tell him something he didn't want to hear. He frowned.

"We found Hikari. She's all right," she added hastily, which only made Taichi frown more.

"So why didn't anyone tell me?" he asked. He glanced around their small group and a more pressing question quickly presented itself. "Why isn't she here?"

"She didn't want to come back, not just yet," Sora offered quietly. "She said she had things to take care of before she could."

"Like what?"

"She didn't say," Koushiro answered in a very matter-of-fact voice which told Taichi he was edging towards being unreasonable. Taichi took a deep breath and Koushiro continued. "I imagine she's made a home for herself in the Digital World, just like Jou. It can't be easy to give it all up, even if it is to come home." Sora stepped closer and took Taichi's hand in hers.

"We know you, Taichi," she said in an almost whisper. "It wouldn't have been fair to tell you when you were in Odawara. I was going to come over when you were back in town and tell you then." He almost allowed himself to be mad at them before he realised that they were right (and when were they not?); it would have torn him apart to be saddled with the knowledge that Hikari had been found but be powerless to do anything about it. Perhaps it was kinder this way. He swallowed his pride and squeezed Sora's hand.

"So… how was she?"

Daisuke did most of the talking as he recapped their last adventure, talking about a great white monster and falling from a cliff and a picnic with berries. Taichi's mind wandered as he listened, hearing less of what Daisuke was saying and more of how he was saying it. There was a sort of reverence in the boy's tone that reminded Taichi of how the boys in his class used to talk about the girls in magazines. He hadn't noticed it before (or, perhaps he had, but had chosen to ignore it), but there was a definite note of infatuation in his voice, and Taichi landed on the sudden and jarring realisation that his sister would be Daisuke's age now.

What would she look like, he wondered as Daisuke began talking about their fight with Ikkakumon. What would she be like? She wouldn't be a little girl anymore, that was for sure. Would she even need a big brother? Would she still want one? And if she did, what would he even do? Would he have to keep boys like Daisuke at bay? That was what big brothers did in the dramas his mother liked to watch, but was that what big brothers were supposed to do in real life-

He was pulled from his thoughts when Sora pressed something cold in to his hand and wrapped his fingers around it. He blinked himself back in to the room and found her smiling gently at him.

"She asked us to give you this," she said, squeezing his hand one last time before stepping back. For a moment he simply stared at her, too afraid to look down, and she offered him a reassuring smile as she fell back next to Koushiro. Taichi took a deep breath and tore his eyes away, glancing down to his hand where he found a threadbare pink ribbon peeking out from between his fingers. His heart stopped as he uncurled his fingers to stare at the whistle. It didn't quite gleam as brightly as he remembered, but aside from a couple of minor scratches it was mostly unchanged.

It gave him hope that he would find his sister in much the same way.

He didn't force a smile – he wouldn't insult Sora and Koushiro by pretending that he was happy about how things had worked out – but he did nod, doing his best to show that he understood. Sora gave him a relieved smile as Koushiro nodded in return, and Taichi didn't miss how Daisuke and the others let out a tense breath. Only then did Taichi smile, if only for Daisuke's sake; the kid had been staring at him with a shadow in his eyes that didn't suit his usually boisterous expression, and it was starting to make him nervous. He gestured to the gate and Daisuke jumped in to action, and Taichi felt Sora slip her hand in to his as the gate swallowed them.

They emerged in the middle of an empty field, with a wall of trees behind them and a vast empty landscape marred by a Dark Tower no bigger than Taichi's thumb. Tall strands of grey-green grass brushed at Taichi's knees as the cool air danced across the back of his neck. He shivered. As the others pulled themselves to their feet, Taichi glanced down at the whistle. His other hand tightened around his digivice and he studied the screen. No other signals for miles, and yet…

He lifted the whistle to his lips and blew.

Trees rustled in the distance. The wind whispered through the grass. The dots on Taichi's digivice didn't change. He let out a heavy breath and closed his eyes, lowering the whistle to his chest and letting his digivice fall back to his hip as he heard the others close in around him. Delicate fingers wrapped around his elbow.

"Taichi?" Sora asked tentatively. Taichi opened his eyes and scanned the horizon, landing on the Dark Tower, and he lifted his chin.

"Hikari or no Hikari," he said in a voice that sounded much stronger than he felt, "that Kaiser isn't going to take care of himself. I don't know about you guys, but I see a Dark Tower on the horizon that's really ruining my day."

"Then let's get it!" Daisuke cheered, his sentiments echoed by an equally-enthusiastic Veemon. They were the first to evolve, closely followed by the others, and Fladramon led the digimon in a charge across the plain with their partners close behind. Taichi hung back, clutching Hikari's whistle in one hand and Sora's hand in the other as they followed.

"I'm sure she's coming, Taichi," Sora offered, but her voice was weak. She squeezed his hand and gave him a smile. "You blew the whistle so loud I'm sure everyone in a hundred miles heard it."

"Yeah," Taichi murmured, eyeing the Dark Tower as Fladramon launched his first assault. "That's what I'm worried about."

The bright light and sudden growth that came with digivolution made Ken hold his breath until it faded, and he let it out in a single bark of victorious laughter.

"You see, Wormmon?" he taunted, his eyes glued to the screen. "This is a real digimon – a powerful digimon – something you could never hope to be." The screen showed the evidence of his victory; Agumon was gone, without a hint of SkullGreymon. The dark spiral had worked precisely as intended, leaving Ken with full control over MetalGreymon, corrupted and cowed by Ken's power. Where a normal evolution might have given him bright orange skin, this MetalGreymon was pale grey-blue, casting the silver of its armour in a new, colder light. Once-orange tufts of hair were now crimson red as they jutted out from beneath his gleaming silver helm, and the purple of his stripes matched the purple of his tattered wings. Altogether, the creature's mere presence was impressive, and his strength… Ken couldn't wait to see it in action. At Ken's feet, Wormmon tucked his scrawny chin in to his chest and shivered.

"Yes, master," he mumbled. Ken sniffed.

"The dark spiral is a league above the dark rings," Ken continued, his sharp eyes picking out the lines of black that looped around MetalGreymon's upper arm. He glanced across to his second monitor to review the feedback from the spiral. Where the ring had warped and stretched itself thin in an attempt to contain such power, the spiral held strong; a constant source of control that was no match for the creature's free will. Ken allowed himself a victorious smirk. "They can easily contain the power of an adult digimon, and I bet they can do much, much more…" He eyed the spiral hungrily, wondering just what else it could enslave. He considered wrapping one around Wormmon, if only to see whether the digimon did in fact have any higher powers, but he scoffed. Wormmon was pitiful at best; even the weakest of Ken's resources would be wasted on him.

Instead he let his mind wander to all of the digimon he had encountered so far in his adventures. He had encountered so many child level digimon, all with the ability to evolve… Left to their own devices it could take years, if it ever happened at all, but with his intervention… He allowed himself a moment to indulge the thought of entire villages full of adult digimon and beyond bowing to his will.

"Wormmon." The insect jumped, his claws skittering nervously across the floor, and Ken sneered. "See that the spirals go in to immediate production. The dark rings are useless to me now; destroy them and re-use all you can." He paused, his breath held as though about to issue further instruction, and after letting Wormmon writhe nervously for several seconds he turned to leer down at him. "Well, what are you waiting for?!" With a surprised yelp, Wormmon scurried from the room.

Ken sank in to his throne with a satisfied sigh. SkullGreymon had been a thorn in his side form the day of Agumon's capture, and to have his presence eliminated by such a simple modification… It was almost too easy. The next challenge was deciding where to set him loose.

He flicked through his monitors, surveying the world beneath him. He found the girl easily enough; she was sat on a small hillock, sharing a handful of fruit with her partner. He lingered for a moment to watch them. Capturing that Tailmon had been a goal for some time now, but she was an adult – and a strong one at that, given how easily she maintained her evolution. She had been out of reach before, but with the dark spiral now in his arsenal… Ken smiled at the thought, but today was not a day for capture. That was a thrill he would save for later.

He moved on, and his smirk quickly turned to a sneer. The blond boy was scouting nearby. Ken almost missed the days when the boy had been too easy a target to bother himself with; ever since his rodent partner had gained the powers of Hope the pair had taken up more of his time than he cared to admit. SkullGreymon might have been a match for them now, but Ken wasn't willing to gamble on such uncertain odds.

A sensor started to beep. He let the node fill the screen and his eyes narrowed as the sound of a soccer whistle filled the room. He quickly muted the sound, staring at the trespassers. Five humans, but only three digimon – and rather inexperienced they were, too. Yes, they would make the perfect chew toys for MetalGreymon.

He swept from the room, summoning Wormmon with a yell. The digimon emerged from the shadows and scuttled after him.

"Yes, master?"

"I'm going on a trip," he announced. "Have MetalGreymon strapped to as many Airdramon as it takes to carry him; I won't have him exhausting himself by travelling before the fun's even begun. I want this done by the time I reach the cells, Wormmon. I will not be kept waiting." The creature bobbed his head and scurried away frantically as Ken tugged his gloves higher and tightened the fastenings around his neck.

It was a Snimon who flew him from the base to the cells, easily overtaking Wormmon who was running as fast as his pitiful legs would carry him. Snimon set Ken down by the entrance of the smaller cells, those used for housing lesser digimon, and he made his ways past glowing eyes and rumbling growls and scratching claws. He remained unfazed; these creatures were his, bound to his will by dark rings – and soon by spirals. Perhaps he would need to enhance his current facilities to deal with the countless adult digimon he would soon have under his command.

Finally he arrived at his destination. He made no attempt to quieten his footsteps as he approached, though it took the inhabitant several seconds to acknowledge him. Shaggy blond hair fell away as two piercing blue eyes glared at him.

"Comfortable?" Ken taunted. The boy didn't respond. "I'd ask if you minded me dropping by but seeing as I have you at my mercy, your opinion doesn't really matter." The boy's eyes narrowed but he remained silent. Ken sniffed. "Nothing to say? Have it your way then. I only came by to tell you that I'm off to meet a few of your friends. If all goes well, they'll be occupying the cells around you before the end of the day. And if things don't go according to plan…" He allowed himself a smirk. "Then there won't be enough left of them to imprison." The boy opened his mouth but Ken had already turned away, and whatever curses the boy cast at his back were lost under the restless snorts of his neighbours.

By the time Ken emerged again, he found SkullGreymon waiting with a contingent of Airdramon hovering overhead. Wormmon scurried closer.

"Master, SkullGreymon is ready for you." Ken snapped his fingers and one of the Airdramon dipped low enough for him to leap on to its back. He stared down at Wormmon who was craning his neck to the sky.

"Don't wait up."

They finished off the last of the pears (which tasted like peaches) and took some time to bask in the midday sun. The itch was gone now, and a morning of running had left Hikari's legs aching. She rolled her ankles and flexed her feet, wiggling her toes to keep the ache of stopping from setting in too soon.

Her eyes scanned the horizon. They'd travelled a considerable distance in the space of a morning, and when she glanced back over her shoulder the dark tower was nowhere to be seen. She felt calmer when she couldn't see them, even though Tailmon's inability to digivolve confirmed there would be another nearby. She tried not to worry about it too much, and focused instead on the dark smudge that marred the side of a distant hill. A cavern of some sort, judging by the way the shadows were packed so tightly together.

"What do you think's in there?" she asked, pointing it out to Tailmon. Her sharp eyes could easily pick it out, and her ears twitched forwards.

"Probably something best left alone." She glanced at Hikari with a wicked glint in her eye, and when she smiled her fangs gleamed. "Wanna check it out?" Hikari grinned back. Alone the cave would have terrified her, but there was something about diving in to the unknown with Tailmon at her side that left her feeling as fearless as Taichi.

Together they raced across the plains, the sun warm on their backs, and Hikari forgot all about cable cars and gates and anything that wasn't right there infront of them. Tailmon bounded gracefully alongside her, baring her fangs in a wild grin as they ran so fast it almost felt like flying. It was almost like old times, before there was a chance of them going home, before the Kaiser, before they had anything more to think about beyond where to find dinner and where to spend the night. It was wild and carefree, all adrenaline and grass stains. Pounding hearts and rumpled fur.

They arrived at the mouth of the cavern flushed and panting. Hikari's legs were shaking and her blood was racing, and she grinned breathlessly at Tailmon as they ventured inside. Hikari knocked an arrow as they followed the curve of the cave, slipping into the shadows where the sunlight couldn't reach. As Hikari's eyes began to adjust she spied torches wedged in to cracks in the walls, giving them just enough light to see from one sconce to the next. The flames burned low, casting tall gyrating shadows against the stone. Hikari's heart pounded in her ears; a thundering drumbeat in the deafening silence.

Her digivice beeped. She jumped, unable to scream past the breath that stuck in her throat. At her side Tailmon had dropped in to a low crouch, claws bared, and when they met each other's eyes they giggled nervously. Hikari untucked her digivice from the wrappings around her waist and studied the screen.

"There's something up ahead," she whispered. The device had been mostly inactive since the appearance of the Kaiser, but now the screen had flared to life and identified a small red dot that appeared to be something of extreme importance given how violently the digivice was shaking beneath her fingers. She should have been scared, but there was something about the reassuring pulses from her digivice that made her excited. Something was calling to her; reaching to her chest and pulling her further in to the dark.

The cavern ended in a small grotto which housed two tall mounds of dirt. The mound to the left was empty, though the dent at its peak suggested it must have held something in the past. The mound to the right was home to a strange trinket no bigger than Hikari's fists. Its outer shell was glistening silver, cut away to reveal a flash of gold at the tip. It stood on two gleaming feet, each decorated with three pink claws, and engraved on its front was the Crest of Light. It almost seemed to pulse as they approached, glowing with a light of its own.

"I think it's yours," Tailmon whispered as they came to a stop. Hikari couldn't tear her eyes away, but her hands remained firmly at her sides.

"I'm not sure," she answered softly. "Daisuke lifted the Digimental of Courage, and Jou said Iori and Miyako have the Digimentals of Knowledge and Love. What if there are more new Chosen out there?" Tailmon's large eyes blinked up at Hikari.

"You'll never know if you don't try." Hikari felt like she did know. She would place her hands on either side of the Digimental (and it had to be a Digimental), and she would tug and pull and twist, but at most it would shock her away. The Digimentals were for the new Chosen Children with their strange new D-3s. Still, at Tailmon's urging she stepped forwards and reached towards it.

She felt something shift behind her and she twisted out of the way. Something whizzed past her ear and embedded itself in the wall behind the Digimental – too wide to have been targeted at her. It was a warning. Tailmon yowled and Hikari turned, knocking an arrow as her partner darted forwards to knock a shadow from the air. A fierce growl from Tailmon told her that she had whatever it was under control, and Hikari fixed her eyes on the mouth of the cavern where a figure was silhouetted by the dim torchlight. It was tall with wiry, human-like proportions, and as Hikari raised her arrow it responded by twirling a vicious staff in its hands, faster and faster until it became an impenetrable blur.

Her eyes landed on a torch over the creatures shoulder and she released an arrow, knocking the sconce to the floor. The disturbance drew the digimon's attention and it shifted, just enough for Hikari to dart in to its blind spot. The digimon seemed to be expecting her, and it reached out to snare her injured wrist. Hikari gasped sharply, and the pain that lanced up her arm left her defenceless as the digimon span her around and sent her careening in to a nearby wall with a cry. Tailmon called her name but Hikari barely heard it over the ringing in her ears as she fell to the floor. She blinked stars from her vision to find the digimon reaching towards her and she scrambled back, reaching over her shoulder to pull an arrow from her quiver.

To her surprise the digimon leapt back. Someone was calling her name, but her breath was coming in sharp gasps and her heart was pounding in her ears. The digimon's hands flew to its face, tucking its fingers under its chin. It tore the mask away, freeing a shaggy mane of golden hair. Blue eyes widened in surprise as he stared at her, his voice deep and breathy as he uttered a single word:

"Hikari!"