If he was being honest with himself, Koushiro didn't know how he was at all keeping his eyes open.

It had been quite some time since Koushiro and Jou started moving in the direction of the rest of the group, and it had been even longer since Koushiro first started to reach out to the other members of the Chosen Children team. His D-Terminal and laptop had been tucked away into his bag since they had started to move, but Koushiro found himself itching for them, desperate to double check if there were any other notifications that had appeared on the chat log.

Koushiro looked down at his hand in an attempt to keep himself focused on the situation at hand. He had a lot to concentrate on in terms of pressing forward. The rest of the group was waiting for him, and he was going to find them one way or another. He was counting on himself to be able to meet with them before the next battle took place. They needed backup, and his smaller group did as well.

"Alright. I think that we should stop for now."

Jou's voice cut through the silence, and Koushiro was simultaneously relieved and concerned at those words. He turned to face the dark-haired boy standing behind him, and Tentomon did much the same from his place on the sand below. "We've been moving for ages, and if we don't get some proper rest, we aren't going to be able to handle another fight if it happens. Even if the Digimon have eaten something, that doesn't change the fact that we haven't been able to sleep ever since we were first attacked by Dagomon. We should find a place to settle down for at least a little while to try and recover our energy," Jou explained when he noticed the quizzical looks he was being given.

"Okay," Koushiro agreed. He knew that the rest of the group was going to be waiting for him and Jou to arrive, but he was also too smart to let his stubbornness get the better of him. He had to press on and make sure that he was safe to do so, and for the time being, forward movement meant sleeping for a little while. He could barely keep his eyes open, and given the fact that he had been running on adrenaline for what he assumed to be the past few hours, resting seemed to be the best choice for him and the rest of his group.

Koushiro and Jou didn't have to walk very far to find a cave that pulled itself into the cliffside nearby. Koushiro had to wonder if perhaps the landmass that they were on had this similar structure the whole way around. He hadn't been able to do much of anything to get up on higher ground up to this point, and the cliff above cut off before giving way to a step incline that led down to the beach below. Traveling up to higher ground would undoubtedly involve the Digimon having to evolve to their upper leveled forms, and that was energy that Koushiro knew they weren't going to be able to waste. As such, the cave that cut into the inside of the cliff that seemed to stretch on for an eternity was the group's only option.

The cave was dark, and Koushiro decided to remedy this by reaching into his bag to pull out the D-Terminal that he had tucked out of view. He opened the device by flicking the lid of it up. He navigated over to the chat log a moment later, reading over the messages that he had received since then. There weren't any updates regarding Meiko in the chat that held exclusively the younger Chosen Children, and Koushiro couldn't help but wince at that fact. He shook his head and tried to concentrate on the positives of the moment rather than letting the negatives overwhelm him.

Koushiro did notice that there was another notificaiton that had appeared though, and he navigated his way to another chat log that did have a new message. This time, the message was from none other than Hiraku. Koushiro read over it, and by the time that he was finished reading it, he learned that Daigo had taken over Hiraku's computer to type out the message while Hiraku was busy with something else.

Their new mission was to defeat Dagomon before they returned to Earth. They weren't going to be able to risk leaving Dagomon alone any longer than they had to, and they wouldn't be able to truly find safety as long as Dagomon was still alive. The ruler of the Dark Ocean was the greatest threat to the peace of the worlds in that moment, so defeating him was the only choice that they had.

"It looks like we have a new mission now," Koushiro told Jou. He shifted his D-Terminal so that the screen was facing Jou, and he passed the device over when his senior reached for it a moment later.

Jou's eyes went wide at Koushiro's words, but he scanned over the message regardless. Tentomon and Gomamon, meanwhile, decided to sit down on the ground beside their partners in the silence. Gomamon's eyes threatened to slip shut, and it didn't take long for the white Digimon to drift off completely into slumber.

"I don't like the sound of that," Jou confessed as he handed the D-Terminal back to Koushiro. There was a newfound weariness in Jou's eyes when he spoke those words, and he leaned back against the wall of the cave nearby. "I know that this is definitely the best option for us right now, but that still doesn't mean that we have to like it."

"I hope that the rest of the group gets that message soon," Koushiro told Jou. He was hoping that they were able to prepare themselves before the team fully united. The sooner that they were able to get back together to fight off Dagomon, the better. Koushiro shifted his attention to the chat once again, and he started to type out a message telling the rest of the group to try and recover as much energy as possible so that they would be ready for the inevitable encounter. The last thing that any of them wanted was to wind up in trouble over something of this nature, and Dagomon was dangerous enough that facing off against him was bound to cause problems for them if they weren't careful.

Koushiro had just sent the message out when he felt something come down on his wrist. If he wasn't quite so tired, he would have immediately leapt to attention, but instead, he simply stared down, seeing Jou's fingers examine him carefully. Koushiro realized belatedly that Jou was trying to make sure that Koushiro's injury from the fall earlier was starting to heal properly, but he didn't comment on this openly.

"It seems to be doing well enough..." Jou murmured to himself. He lifted up Koushiro's arm once again just to get in a final glance to ensure that his suspicions were correct. When he saw no reason to disbelief his previous judgement, Jou set Koushiro's hand down once again. "I'm glad that we haven't had any issues with your recovery thus far."

Koushiro nodded his agreement. He could see something exhausted in Jou's eyes though, and it was so prominent that nobody would ever be able to deny it. There was something going on in the back of Jou's mind, not that this was particularly surprising to Koushiro. Of course Jou was going to be bothered by something given the situation; this was an awful circumstance that they had found themselves at the center of, and Koushiro had to admit that he was a bit upset about it as well.

When Koushiro examined Jou in full, he recognized that the issue was likely caused by the past problems that Jou had mentioned when it came to the fact that the rest of their party was in trouble as a whole. Jou had been helping to heal injuries ever since the Digimon attacks started a few months ago, and the idea of the rest of the group potentially falling into such an awful state while he was away couldn't have sat well with him in the slightest.

Koushiro hesitated, wanting to say something but not knowing where he was supposed to find the words from. What could he even say in a situation like this? There wasn't anything that seemed to come to his mouth easily, almost as if there was a blockade between his mind and his lips. He had never been the best with emotions, something that he had admitted a thousand times over, but it didn't help him to break through the issue. He wanted to do something that would keep Jou from further struggling under the weight of his problems, but what could he even do? Where was he meant to start with all of this?

Jou didn't seem to notice Koushiro's critical staring, instead focusing on dragging one hand absentmindedly down the back of Gomamon's body. Gomamon didn't even stir, still as a rock for the fist time in as long as Koushiro could remember. Koushiro smiled down at Gomamon's sleeping form, and he had to admit that he wished that he could find himself in such a position as well.

Tentomon's gentle snores reached Koushiro's ears a moment later, and Koushiro couldn't help but chuckle with a shake of his head at the sound. He set one of his hands against Tentomon's shell, simply enjoying the fact that he was there with his partner for a moment longer. This was hardly an ideal situation that they had found themselves in, but they were at least doing what they could to make the most of it.

As soon as Koushiro allowed his eyes to slip shut for a moment, he wasn't able to fight off his own exhaustion any longer, and the darkness seemed to immediately close in around him. He was simply lucky that Jou was able to keep himself awake for a while longer to make sure that neither one of them found themselves on the wrong end of an attack from their foes. Jou smiled over at Koushiro's sleeping form, his eyes falling into something exhausted along the way. However, this was the type of exhaustion that not even sleep was going to be able to cure easily. That much was something Jou knew all too well.

After all, sleep was nothing but a temporary reprieve from his issues for the time being. Sleep sometimes presented him with the images of crimson all to bright clashing with the color of turquoise, the shade of Daisuke's Crest. Jou didn't think that he was ever going to be able to tear those images from his mind no matter how hard he tried. There was no amount of scrubbing internally that would free him from the fact of the matter: he had witnessed something terrible, and there was no easy escape from something so dark.

Jou stared up at the ceiling of the cave. The space was almost entirely cast in shadow since Koushiro had closed his D-Terminal after having shown Jou the message from Daigo. Jou didn't mind it all that much though. They were less likely to wind up on the wrong side of an attacker if they were deep within the cave with all lights turned off. Jou could see the back of the cave from where he sat if he concentrated hard enough, and he didn't think that there was at all an issue to be found in terms of the group being attacked from creatures that were farther back in the confined space. That meant that there was only one hole for Jou to watch, and he would be able to wake up one of the other members of the group to look after it soon enough so that he was able to catch some rest of his own.

For the time being though, Jou was simply happy that the Dark Ocean as a world wasn't the coldest thing in the world. The name made it seem as if it was an unforgiving place in terms of climate, but that didn't seem to be the case. Instead, the Dark Ocean was simply lukewarm and humid, the air itself having an almost sticky quality. It was as if the universe itself grabbed onto people and refused to let them go, growing attached to the very idea of their skin. It wasn't suffocatingly hot, but it was just sticky enough to be mildly frustrating. All of the walking that the group had done undoubtedly hadn't helped their case at all.

Still, Jou supposed that the mildly irritating heat was better than the alternative of the Dark Ocean being cold. After all, the Dark Ocean being cold would mean that they would have to start a fire. There wasn't exactly a way for them to start up a fire to begin with since they were on a beach with no way of getting access to tree branches or anything else wood that could burn away the potential chill without forcing their partners to evolve to a higher level. How would they start off a fire when the air seemed to be so resistant to such an idea to begin with? The heat was an inconvenience, yes, but it was better than the alternative, that was for sure.

Jou stared up at the ceiling for a while longer, just to make sure that they were that there wasn't anything of note that was above him. He didn't think that Deep Ones had the ability to cling to the walls to begin with, but he still thought that it was best to be safe rather than sorry. His paranoia had only grown worse as of late, and he hadn't even realized that such a thing was possible in the first place. He had been anxious and nervous enough as a child, and even when he grew out of that, it only seemed to come back. There wasn't any escape for him or anyone else from the relentless fact that the world around them was harsh and brutal.

But they would be free of it soon. That was what Jou kept telling himself, at the very least. He was going to find the rest of the group soon enough, and from there, they would find a way to take the battle straight to Dagomon. They had a bunch of Ultimate level Digimon on their side, and even if they were at a disadvantage due to the inherent draining quality of the Dark Ocean, they would find a way to pull through. They had to find victory against Dagomon no matter how impossible it seemed at a first glance. That was the only way they and Earth would ever see peace after all. There were no other options, so this was simply the way that it had to be.

Sora wasn't sure when she started to feel like there was something wrong, but she knew that the sensation most certainly existed, and it was persisting long enough for her to be confident that there was an issue taking place. It was a gentle nagging at the back of her mind, threatening to pull her apart if she didn't address the problem soon enough. The problem, of course, was the fact that Sora didn't even know where to start in terms of figuring out what it was that was causing such issues in the first place.

Eventually, Sora forced herself to stop walking, and she looked out at the nearby ocean. Her hair was rustled slightly in the gentle wind that blew through the area, and Mimi stopped walking soon afterwards, their partners following her lead. "Do you feel that?" Sora asked. "It's like... I can tell that something is coming."

Mimi bit down on her lip, refusing to look over in Sora's direction. "A little bit," she murmured, but Sora could tell that there was more to it than that. Mimi most certainly knew what was going on, but she wasn't willing to admit it openly. After all, that would mean that they were going to have to face off against a new problem, and that was the last thing that either one of them wanted to do.

Sora took a small step in the direction of the sea, and the water began to grow more violent as it slammed against the shore. Her eyes went wide, and Sora immediately realized just why she had been feeling so strange. She felt as if she was being watched, but she didn't know how to phrase it until after she was left with no choice but to confront the fact of the matter.

"There are Deep Ones," Sora murmured intensely. "They're going to be coming out of the ocean any second now. In other words, we're going to have to fight through them if we want to get out of here to meet up with the rest of the group."

Mimi seemed to freeze on the spot, and she shook her head slightly. The action was so small that it almost seemed to grow lost in the fray and the chaos of the moment. "No..." she whispered under her breath. "We have to get out of here so that we can meet up with the rest of the group."

"They're already coming!" Piyomon chirped in agitation. She pointed one wing in the direction of the ocean, and a moment later, the ocean began to build in strength before a shadow broke through the surface of the water. Sora recognized the outlines that were moving closer immediately, and she knew that her fears about Deep Ones being present had been confirmed.

"We're not going to be able to run away at this point," Sora said. "All we can do is stand our ground and make sure that they don't do too much damage to us. We can't run because they've already spotted us, and I get the feeling that the Deep Ones are going to be able to move faster than we ever could."

Mimi appeared to know that Sora was right, but she didn't seem to be willing to openly admit it at the same time. Still, she didn't allow her doubts to surface in full as she reached for her Digivice and pointed it in Palmon's direction. "We're going to need as much power as possible if we want to win this battle," she pointed out. Sora could tell from those words that Rosemon was going to be the first of the Digimon to join the fight.

Sora reached for her own Digivice, staring down at the radar that she had last been staring at. The rest of the group was still scattered and far apart even if they were making progress on getting back to one another. They were going to find a way to reunite one way or another, but in order for that to be possible, she and Mimi were going to have to triumph in this smaller battle. It was the only option that they had been given, and Sora was going to stand her ground until the bitter end.

"Let's go, Piyomon," Sora said evenly. Her partner nodded, and Sora allowed light to burst free from the surface of her Digivice. If they were going to have to engage in battle, then it would be best for them to get ready sooner rather than later.

"Palmon, warp evolve to... Rosemon!"

"Piyomon, warp evolve to... Hououmon!"

Sora sighed as she watched Hououmon and Rosemon both take to the skies before rushing in the direction of their foes. Rosemon's cape and ponytail swung freely in the air behind her while Hououmon's feathers rustled. Rosemon raised her whip first and brought it down on the crowd of Deep Ones that was waiting on the ground before her. All of the Deep Ones that made contact with the weapon were forced backwards immediately, stumbling against their brethren or disappearing completely beneath the watery surface of the ocean's line.

Hououmon, meanwhile, began to create sparking spheres of energy that came in close against her body before being released freely, flying through the sky before slamming straight into the Deep Ones that were the closest to breaking free of the water in full. Hououmon watched as the Deep Ones were once again pushed backwards before she prepared yet another attack to unleash.

Sora, trusting their partners to be able to handle the fight at hand, decided to take her eyes away from the scene of combat. She looked over to Mimi, able to sense that something else was going through the head of the girl accompanying her. Sure enough, she was met with the sight of Mimi's vacant eyes as she stared down at the ground, something almost haunted having overtaken her entire form.

"I don't want anyone to get hurt again," Mimi muttered under her breath as Sora took a step towards her. "I'm tired of seeing people charge into battle and falling apart because they can't handle it. No person should have to take this. Meiko was right... This isn't something that any person should have to do, much less children. That's what we are still, isn't it? We're kids, and yet, here we are."

Sora was silent throughout all of those words before she wrapped an arm around Mimi's shoulders. "Do you remember what happened when we were kids?" she asked. She knew that her choice of words was peculiar because of the way that Mimi had just said that they were still children, but Mimi didn't seem to mind it, instead simply looking over at Sora with brown eyes lacking in anything resembling energy. "You left our group because you had to try and find a meaning for all of this. You had to figure out what your reason to fight was, and in the end, you decided to fight because you knew that holding back would only cost more lives."

"That was before I saw Daisuke collapse on the sand covered in his own blood," Mimi told Sora, her voice edging on acidic even if the poison wasn't directed at Sora. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back to the way that I thought about the world before that. He could have gotten himself killed, and we're back to continuing to fight."

"You saw Whamon and Piximon sacrifice themselves for us too. Chuumon too, as a matter of fact," Sora pointed out. "That was the reason that you left us behind to figure out what you had to do with yourself. You came back with your answer, and I believe to this day that you made the choice that was best for yourself."

"I don't understand why all of this has to happen. Why are we so numb to all of this? We're being attacked by so many Deep Ones, but we're barely even blinking. This is something that any other person would be so concerned over, and yet... We don't care. That's because of the fact that we've been through this a thousand other times anymore, and there's nothing that can be said," Mimi said. "This... It's all too much. Why are we used to this?"

"It might be scary that we've been through a lot, but... It's going to be alright," Sora assured her. In the distance, the sound of Rosemon's whip lashing out once again could be heard, but Sora continued regardless. "You aren't alone. I know that we can't change the past because that's already been said and done, but we can do what we can to look after one another. We're all here for you, and we aren't going to be abandoning you any time soon. We've looked after each other up to this point, and even if we've all been struggling... All it takes is just a little nudge in the right direction for us to realize that we're doing what we can to lean on one another. We deserve to have help. We deserve to be able to help each other and be helped in return."

Mimi looked over at Sora, and the redheaded girl cupped her hands around Mimi's chin with a light smile on her face. "You deserve the rest of us. I know that you're scared of everything that we've been through and what we could go through, but... This is the biggest part about being a Chosen Child. We all have one another as part of a support system. It's been that way from the very beginning. We're there for each other, and even if we're all struggling right now... We're going to find a way through this thanks to the support of those around us," she assured Mimi. "I'm going to be here for you no matter what too."

Mimi simply stared into Sora's eyes for a long time, and she reached up with one hand to pull Sora's fingers away from her face. Their hands intertwined a moment later, taking advantage of one another's presence to stay grounded in the face of all that they had been through. "You know, Sora... You can count on the rest of us too. I know that your first instinct when others are suffering is to hide your own pain, but... You can express yourself every once in a while. You learned to stop hiding your emotions a long time ago, and even if you're falling back on old habits, I know that you're going to pull through this on the other side. You're one of the strongest people that I've ever met," Mimi confessed. "I don't know where any of us would be without you. I don't know where I would be without you, to be more accurate."

Sora was stunned silent at Mimi's words, and the other girl took this as a perfect chance to continue. Hououmon's spheres of energy exploded against their targets in the distance. "You've been trying so hard to hide your pain from the rest of us so that you can help us out, but that doesn't mean that you have to ignore yourself along the way. In fact, we want you to feel happy with the rest of us, and that means that you can open up to us," Mimi went on. "You say that I can lean on the rest of the group, but that applies to you too. After all, you're deserving of our care too. All you have to do is accept that much as the truth."

Sora almost felt tears welling up in her eyes from those words, not having realized just how much she needed to hear them until after they had reached her ears. She smiled gently, not doing anything to wipe away the tears that were starting to streak down her cheeks already. "I know that recovering from anything isn't exactly easy, but... It doesn't have to be easy. No path to moving on is going to be simple, but that doesn't mean that we're alone. It doesn't have to be easy because we aren't alone. We never have been, and it's time for us to reach out to each other and accept that," she whispered.

"We can both count on each other and the rest of the group. We forgot about all of that because of how easy it is to fall back on what we're used to, but... Sometimes, what we're used to isn't the best thing to accept," Mimi smiled gently. "We might not have all of the answers, but that's okay. We're going to find a way to power through this either way. After all, we're the Chosen Children. We've been through so much up to this point, and... We'll survive this time around too."

Sora nodded her agreement. The rest of the group was there for them too. Mimi had been trying so hard to become a rock for Meiko that she allowed herself to neglect her own needs, and Sora had been so concentrated on becoming the ideal confidant for the rest of the team that she forgot about her own sense of self. They had isolated themselves in ways that were strangely enough rooted in helping others, but that was no longer going to be an issue for either one of them from that point onwards. They weren't going to allow their problems from the past to weigh them down ever again, not as long as they were able to rely on one another.

"We'll figure out a solution for all of these problems," Sora told Mimi firmly. She nodded with more determination and confidence than she had been able to muster together in what felt like the last year or two. She knew that wasn't strictly true, but the sense of liberation and freedom that passed through her was so sudden and overwhelming that it seemed to eclipse nearly every experience that she had seen over the course of her recent memory.

As soon as those words left Sora's lips though, everything around them seemed to shift. Sora let out a gasp, and she found herself reaching for her Digivice out of curiosity. Her hand remained locked with Mimi's even as she did this though, and she saw that the other girl was doing much the same thing. Light stretched out from the screen, and despite how bright and sudden it was, Sora found herself staring into the heart of the inferno.

The first thing that Sora noticed was the way that the coloration of her Digivice briefly changed. The red that usually came with Piyomon evolving to the Perfect or Ultimate level had been altered, and instead, a line split the Digivice in half vertically. One half was red while the other was green. The red was on the right while the green sat on the left. When Sora glanced over to Mimi's Digivice, she saw that the opposite applied to the girl standing at her side, the right color being green while the left was red.

Sora glanced up when she saw the illumination in the rest of the area start to shift slightly, and a gasp left her lips as soon as she realized what was happening Hououmon and Rosemon, who had previously been fighting pretty close to one another, started to glow with the same light that was flooding out of Sora and Mimi's Digivices. Sora stared into the heart of the inferno, and she watched as Hououmon and Rosemon turned to blurs of red and green light respectively.

The Deep Ones were left to shriek and recoil in pain as they pulled away from the light that had flooded the area, and the streaks of red and green light began to weave together before they came together at a single point high above the battlefield. Sora was too stunned to say much of anything, and something deep in her stomach tried to figure out how she was supposed to process all of this.

When the light faded, there was a figure flying high above in the sky. The size of the newcomer was so immense that it put even Hououmon and HeraklesKabuterimon to shame. Wings made of earth spanned out in either direction with green trees sprouting upwards from the back of the creature. The Digimon's head was also masked by mostly greenery with a small amount of silver lining as a helmet. The creature's claws were golden and shone in the limited light that was left behind by the evolution process.

There was another figure standing on top of the head of the creature, but this one looked much more human than the bird-like beast. This figure appeared as a woman wearing primarily golden armor around her arms and legs with green leggings to match her chest plate. Purple and pink gathered around her torso, and a helmet sat atop her head with orange sticking out of it. Vines flowed around her freely in the gentle breeze, and everything about her was the pinnacle of perfection and beauty.

"Hououmon..."

"Rosemon..."

"Jogress evolve to... Ceresmon!"

"What is...?" Mimi questioned, the first one to be able to find her voice in the midst of the confusing circumstances. It seemed clear what was going on, but neither Sora nor Mimi could entirely word their emotions on the matter. To Sora, none of it even seemed to feel real in the first place, almost as if she was suspended at the heart of a dream that she would never be able to break free of.

The fact of the matter was that she and Mimi had spurred their partners to Jogress evolve. Sora hadn't seen a Jogress evolution of this nature since Omegamon, two Ultimate level Digimon combining to make something even stronger. It caught her by such surprise that all she could do was stare, the warmth of her Digivice pressed between her fingers so lovely and perfect that she chose to use it as her one lifeline aside from Mimi's hand.

"They... They fused..." Sora murmured, her eyes still wide as could be. She didn't entirely know how she was meant to phrase her emotions on this subject, but at the same time, she didn't think that she had to. There was a distant pulse in the back of her head, and Sora knew without having to ask that it was the heartbeat of Mimi. It was the heartbeat of her Jogress partner, because that was what they were now, wasn't it? Sora hadn't seen a Jogress evolution from the older Chosen Children aside from Omegamon, and yet, she and Mimi had been able to push forward to create this new Digimon from their bonds.

Ceresmon's earthen wings flapped, and the woman on top of the creature's head pointed forwards. The bird let out a battle cry before diving downwards, her wings sweeping into all of the Deep Ones that were unfortunate enough to wind up in her path. Vines started to weave outwards from the back of the bird before grabbing onto the Deep Ones as the woman flicked her wrist. The Deep Ones that were unfortunate enough to wind up being grabbed were left unable to escape, thrashing against the vines and other plants until they were crushed to data. The blackened cubes of data spiraled into the sky before vanishing from sight.

"She's a puppeteer," Mimi realized. Sora glanced over in her direction, and Mimi nodded to confirm it. "The woman on top is the one manipulating the bird. She's the one with the real power, and the bird is following her directions. In other words, it's probably just a hollow shell to deal more damage thanks to its sheer size."

Sora shifted her attention back in the direction of the bird, and she realized that Mimi was in fact correct; each movement of the earthen bird was also accompanied by a motion of the woman's hands in some way, shape, or form. Everything about the woman was perfectly composed, and Sora could tell that this was the partner that she had spent so many years loving and caring for up to this point. Piyomon and Palmon were both in there, and they were going to make sure that the battle was won one way or another.

The Deep Ones that were brave enough to launch themselves at the bird were met with a blast of energy that was released from the earthen creature's mouth. The Deep Ones were incinerated almost on impact before they could even find the time to scream, and their data flew away into the horizon. Sora could do nothing but stare at how much the Digimon was capable of, and she had to confess that she didn't think she had seen a creature this strong in a long time. It sent a shiver up her spine, and judging by the shocked expression on Mimi's face, the other girl agreed with her on that subject completely.

"Wow..." Mimi murmured. She stared at Ceresmon for a moment longer, watching as the woman atop the bird continued to control the large bird at her disposal. When Mimi decided that she was done with watching the Digimon on the horizon, she let out a small laugh, the sound coming out relieved and overwhelmed thanks to the weight of her own emotions.

Mimi threw her arms around Sora's body, pulling the redhead in close before Sora could find the time to respond. "We're Jogress partners!" Mimi exclaimed, recovering incredibly quickly despite how flustered she had been a short moment ago. Sora was hesitant for a moment, still surprised and struggling to process what was happening, before she pulled Mimi back against her chest again a moment later. The two simply stayed like that for a long moment, enjoying the presence of one another.

When Sora pulled away from Mimi, all she could do was smile gently in the direction of her companion. It made sense that this was happening, if she was being honest. After all, Jogress evolutions were caused by immensely powerful bonds, and after all that they had been through, she and Mimi were finally able to find peace with one another and their issues. That meant that they were going to finally be able to move past all that had been plaguing them, and they only had one another to thank for all of the progress that they were going to be able to make.

Sora let out a small choke of a laugh, not realizing that there were tears in her eyes until after they started to slip down her cheeks. Everything about this situation felt so oddly freeing, and it was as if the weight in her chest had been lifted. Sora hadn't even realized how much it was suffocating her until after the tension was gone, giving her the chance to breathe easily at long last.

Mimi was still holding tightly to Sora's hand as the two faced one another when she next spoke. "You know... I wouldn't have anyone else as my Jogress partner," she smiled gently. "I think that this happened because we're exactly who we need right now. Everything has been so hard as of late, but... As long as we're here together, I feel like I'm going to be able to pull through it one way or another."

Sora nodded. She felt exactly what Mimi was talking about, and it was so perfect that she didn't know what she was supposed to do about it. Everything inside of her had seemingly been unlocked by the key that came with Mimi's pulse echoing in the back of her mind. All of her previous worries about not being able to help the others of her team had melted away, giving way to only the beauty of the current moment.

They had endured much more than they were willing to admit, and yet, they were still going to come out it on the other side. Everything was a mess and a half, but for a few haphazard moments, Sora knew that they were going to be alright. In a way, she was confident that this was going to be the first step to being able to help the rest of the group. After all, if she and Mimi had been able to take the most difficult step-the first one-everything had to fall into place from there. Sora simply knew it. It was a gut instinct, but she wasn't going to protest it in the slightest.

The sound of a loud explosion echoed through the area, and Sora glanced up at the bird of nature that was swooping through the area. Hououmon and Rosemon, for all of their immense attacking power, had never been the best defensively because of the way that their bodies were built. HeraklesKabuterimon was more than able to take any hit that was sent his direction, and the same applied to Vikemon, but neither the bird nor the warrior of flowers had ever fallen into this category.

All of that had changed the moment that their Jogress evolution took place. Ceresmon wasn't flinching in the slightest at the attacks that were being thrown in her direction. The earthen bird wasn't at all bothered by the strikes, and the woman standing atop the head of the creature was easily able to sidestep the attacks that were sent in her direction. The woman flicked her wrist, and she created a small sphere of energy that danced through the air before slamming into the Deep Ones that were on the ground below her.

The bird reared back a moment later before rushing forwards, wings flashing in the minimal lighting of the space before slamming into a group of Deep Ones that had gathered together. The Deep Ones were trying to fuse as far as Sora could tell in a desperate last ditch effort to find the strength necessary to lash out at their foe. Unfortunately, the fusion process of the Deep Ones was cut short when Ceresmon slammed into them, and all it took was the force of her wing to send them all scattering.

Some Deep Ones were unlucky enough to simply dissipate into data at the first contact of Ceresmon's wing, though the others weren't entirely out of the woods, instead winding up as the next targets of the twin energy spheres that flew from the warrior's palm and the bird's mouth. The explosion that followed kicked up sand and seawater in every direction, and Sora was glad that she and Mimi were out of the splash zone, even if it was just barely. It gave her more of a chance to simply stare at the battle from her place on the shoreline, eyes wide and jaw dropped at the sheer destruction that Ceresmon was dealing out to those who dared to cross her.

"Wow," Mimi whispered under her breath. She let out a small laugh, the most open and human she had sounded in a long time. All of the tension that she had been battling had melted away much the same way that Sora's fears had alleviated themselves, and everything finally seemed to be coming close to finding balance once again. They still had a long way to go before they would be truly free of all that they were dealing with, but they were making progress, and that was what mattered most. Ceresmon was the sign of their progress, and she was going to be what spurred them into true change for themselves and the others of their team.

Before Sora knew it, the Deep Ones had been thinned to such a degree that only a fraction of them still existed. Ceresmon wasn't leaving behind any proof of the battle ever having taken place to begin with though, instead rearing back one last time before sweeping downwards to take care of the final major group that was in the area. From there, Ceresmon's warrior form drew a circle in the air, creating ten spheres of bright yellow energy in the process before sending them outwards.

The energy orbs flew through the air, weaving in every possible direction before they slammed into the Deep Ones that were still left behind by the battle up to this point. The Deep Ones weren't given the chance to escape before they were hit by the homing orbs, none of them having the chance to either retreat into the water or fuse with one another to put up a better fight. The battle seemed to have lasted a thousand years in Sora's eyes solely because of how breathless she felt after having spurred on the Jogress evolution, but she knew that it couldn't have been that long. After all, the Deep Ones weren't ever provided with the chance to fuse and put up a notable fight against Ceresmon. For all of their numbers, they truly weren't threatening on their own, especially when placed before a Digimon that was so overwhelmingly powerful.

Ceresmon paused once each of the ten energy spheres had made contact with their targets, and she glanced around the scene of the battle to see if there were any of them who had managed to escape her grasp up to this point. She was careful in her scan, glancing back and forth with such an aura of power that it seemed as if anyone that she looked at directly would be left to shrivel away as dust on the wind before disappearing from view. Her hand fell down to her side, and the earthen husk of a bird landed gently on the sand, shaking the ground slightly from the contact but not kicking up too much of the sand or water in the spot where the two types of terrain met.

As soon as the puppeteer bird stopped moving, the woman on top of the beast's head turned in the direction of Sora and Mimi, a gentle smile spreading across her features. From there, it didn't take long for light to cover her body, and when it disappeared, only the outlines of Pycomon and Tanemon could be found on the sand below, shrinking to a fraction of the side that they had been just a few moments prior.

Sora and Mimi didn't need even a moment of instruction before they started to dash in the direction of their partners, smiles wide across their features. Sora scooped Pyocomon into her grasp as Mimi laughed before picking up Tanemon as well. For a moment, the four simply laughed, relieved at the idea that they had managed to survive for a little while longer. Sora pulled Pyocomon against her chest, tears still rolling down her face. None of this felt real, if she was being honest. It seemed as if something was keeping her from fully accepting reality, like the striking suddenness of the past few moments was blocking her from full understanding of the situation at hand. After that one peak point of resplendence, there was no way for Sora to bring herself back down to Earth no matter how hard she tried or how much she would have wanted to return to normalcy. Then again, did she even want to go back to that?

"We did it!" Pyocomon cried out cheerfully. She looked up to Sora, her eyes shining brightly with excitement from the situation at hand. "We were able to defeat the Deep Ones, and on top of that..."

"We found out that we're Jogress partners!" Tanemon finished for her. It seemed as if Pyocomon and Tanemon were feeling the full beauty of their connection as well, just as much so as their human companions if not more so. Neither Pyocomon nor Tanemon seemed to have the strength to wipe their own smiles from their features, not that they were particularly trying all that much.

"I can't believe it even now," Sora confessed with a light laugh. "It doesn't feel real no matter how much I tell myself that it is. None of it seems to fit together, but... I know that it did happen. We're Jogress partners, and Ceresmon is the Digimon resulting of that bond."

"You two were amazing!" Mimi cried out. "I don't know how you were able to do all of that, but I know that I'm impressed! It's incredible how easily you were able to take care of all those Deep Ones! I know that we were already defeating them quickly as it was, but... That was just... Amazing!"

"It was thanks to you and Sora, Mimi," Tanemon told her partner. "I know that we wouldn't have been able to do that if you two didn't have such a strong bond. Jogress is about connections, isn't it? If you hadn't been able to reach out to each other, none of that would have happened."

Sora nodded with a light smile. She knew that Tanemon was right, and she was glad for the reminder even if she had already known the truth of the matter before the conversation began. She and Mimi had accomplished something incredible there, and they were going to continue fighting for the future even after the battle had drawn to a close. There was still more waiting for them out there, and Sora finally felt ready to face it.

In a way, it was strange how much a single moment could change everything. Sora had felt the peak of her understanding shift when she saw Garudamon for the first time, for example, and it was a key moment in her coming to understand her relationship with her mother in all of its complex beauty. That had happened again though, and this time, it meant the start of something entirely new. Sora was ready for the future as long as she and Mimi were together, and beyond that, she was prepared to help the rest of the group in ways that she had feared up to that point.

It felt as if everything had changed, like Sora would never be able to look at the rest of the world the same way again. A new lens had fallen over her gaze, altering the way that she had once regarded the way that she went about her daily life. And yet, she knew that it wasn't a bad thing. This was all that she could have ever asked for, and in a few ways, it was even more than that as well. Sora didn't think that she had ever found anything that made the pieces come together so perfectly, and she knew that this day would go down as an experience that changed her life once and for all.

"Yeah," Pyocomon agreed with Tanemon, pulling Sora out of her rapid-pace thoughts. "If you two weren't able to figure out what you had to do, then we wouldn't have been able to win that fight. We wouldn't be here right now if you hadn't pulled all of that off."

"What did it feel like?" Sora found herself asking before she could restrain the words. She was curious about it, if she was being honest. She had heard Jogress mentioned in the past, but the details of the experience had always been out of her grasp. This was as good a time as any to hear the truth of what happened when Jogress took place from the eyes of a Digimon. She already understood her side of the family better than anything, after all, finally seeming to comprehend more about herself than she ever could have dreamed.

"It was like there was a blockade being removed," Pyocomon confessed. "I didn't even realize that there was a barrier in the first place, and then... It was gone, and that was when we started to fuse. When everything was said and done, everything just made more sense than it ever could have before then. We were together, and we knew more about life than we thought was even possible. Then, the Deep Ones were going down, and we knew that we were fighting together."

"Was one of you that bird while the other was the woman herself?" Mimi questioned as she glanced down to Tanemon once again, her hand stroking gently at the top of her partner's head, a sign of a job well done while also being a gesture of comfort for all of the parties in the area.

"No, not at all! It was like we came together to form the woman and the bird at the same time... Pieces of us were in both of them, and while the woman is the one in control of the two, we were involved with both of the parts of Ceresmon," Tanemon explained. "We were both the puppeteer and the puppet if that makes any sense."

Mimi nodded, and Sora knew that this understanding didn't have anything to do with basic explanations. After all, it wasn't something that could be easily described. Instead, it was a matter that people simply had to come to understand through gut instincts and similar matters. Sora didn't think that she would ever be able to tell others quite what it meant to go through Jogress. Instead, it was simply something that everyone had to go through at some point or another in order to truly comprehend it.

The most notable feature of Jogress though was undoubtedly the way that she could still feel the distant pulse of Mimi's heart in the back of her mind. Technically, the ideas of such a thing being possible were up for debate, but Sora had seen so many peculiarities over the course of her life that this felt like nothing by comparison. This was the truth of her current life, and it was something that she hoped never abandoned her again. It was a new way for her to view the world, and she prayed that she was able to feel it forevermore.

"We should probably try to find the rest of the group soon," Pyocomon pointed out, interjecting and breaking the silence that had fallen over the group as they all deliberated over the finer points of Jogress and what such a thing meant for them both individually and as a whole.

Sora let out a gasp as soon as she realized that Pyocomon was right. They still hadn't moved closer to the rest of their team since the Deep One attack took place, too distracted by trying to stay alive that they weren't able to do much in terms of finding their teammates. Of course, all of that was about to change with the Deep Ones having been taken care of, so that meant that they were free to continue in the direction of the designated meeting point for the Chosen Children in full.

When Sora glanced down at her Digivice, which was still pressed against her palm where it had been when the Jogress evolution took place, she frowned to herself. The green and red division from the center of the Digivice had dissipated, giving way instead to the regular pale cyan that the Digivice regularly was. Sora didn't even realize that she was disappointed with the return to normalcy until after she saw the familiar color once again, but she ultimately forced herself to push that aside. She was bound to see the mixture of red and green again in the future, and she was simply going to have to wait until the proper moment arrived for her to see the beauty of Jogress once more.

In the meantime though, Sora looked at the radar, noticing that a few of the signals had started to grow closer together over the course of the battle. She was glad to see that some of the other members of the group were at least making progress while she and Mimi had been caught up in other subjects. She let out a small sigh and glanced up to Mimi, seeing that the other girl was also looking down at her Digivice. Pyocomon and Tanemon both looked at the screens of their respective partners.

"It seems like we've still got quite the distance to go," Sora commented. The space between them and the other groups was getting smaller as time went on, but there was still a gap, and they had to close it as soon as possible. After all, as it stood right then, there wasn't a way for Pyocomon, Tanemon, or their partners to fight back against any Deep Ones that attacked them. If they were ambushed by another force of fighters-or, even worse, Dagomon-the chances of them being able to defend themselves and escape were slim to none.

"The Digimon are going to have to rest and eat something before we can safely go on though," Mimi pointed out, seemingly reading Sora's mind by bringing up the very concerns that had been passing through the redhead's mind. She glanced around the area, but when she didn't see much of anything in terms of cover, she simply started moving in the direction of the sharp cliffside incline that led up to the higher elevation lining the edge of the beach. It wasn't spectacular in terms of a place to hide out, but the farthest place that they could get from the shoreline was the best bet that they had, especially since their partners didn't have enough energy to evolve and get them to higher ground.

Sora followed after Mimi, sitting down next to the girl soon afterwards. Sora didn't realize how overwhelmingly relieving it was to be off her feet until after she was given the chance to escape walking, and her legs seemed to pound with the lingering traces of pain that Sora hadn't even realized was present to begin with. It seemed as if she had lost focus of quite a bit when the Jogress evolution took place. It wasn't too surprising given how much Sora's perspective had shifted, jarring and sudden like a punch to her preconceived notions about the world around her, and everything had seemed to fall away in favor of concentrating on the thing that had mattered the most to her at the time.

Mimi started to rustle through her bag before Sora could find the time to do so, pulling out more than enough in terms of food for the group to share amongst themselves. Beyond that though, Mimi retrieved a box of pocky, and while it wasn't exactly the most healthful option that was placed before the group, Sora knew exactly why Mimi had shown it off at this time of all moments.

Mimi opened the box swiftly as Pyocomon and Tanemon started to dig into their own food. Mimi slid one of the pieces of the chocolate-coated treat free of the box, holding it delicately between her pointer finger and thumb. She extended the box in Sora's direction, offering some to the redhead gently.

Sora offered Mimi a nod of thanks as she pulled her own piece of pocky free. Mimi shut the box when she recognized that Pyocomon and Tanemon were already occupied with their own food, and she slid the container back into her bag a moment later, undoubtedly leaving it there in case she found need for it again later on.

"Cheers," Mimi said simply, her smile perfect and bright across her features as she extended her pocky stick diagonally in Sora's direction. She didn't have to say anything about the reason for the treat for Sora to understand her rationale.

This was a celebration, a mark of all that they had accomplished. They had done something magnificent that day, and they deserved to find joy in all that they had managed to see to fruition. Their emotional issues were starting to be resolved, and even if they still had a long way to and a slew of unanswered inquiries, they were on the right path. They had taken the first step that was necessary to start a journey that would last them a lifetime, and they would be able to aid those around them the same way that they helped themselves through the difficult time.

But Sora didn't voice any of this. "Cheers," she said instead, knowing that all of those words were best left unspoken. She chose to focus on the taste of sweetness that filled her mouth after she took a bite of the pocky stick with Mimi doing the same beside her. Everything had changed, and their past perspectives would never be dragged to the light again. Even so, they were making progress, and that was what mattered most. This was an important day, and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, Sora found that she didn't fear anything that the future could have thrown at her.

They were going to be fine. She was sure of it.

And so we have our first little plot twist evolution of the story! Woo!

You didn't really think that I was only going to have the Ultimate evolutions in this story, did you? Well, now, you know that isn't the case. I've been planning on giving everyone extra Jogress evolutions for quite some time now, and this just so happened to be the first of the bunch to show up. Hell yeah for Sora and Mimi!

I wound up choosing Ceresmon as the Jogress level for those two primarily because I've always liked Ceresmon. However, when I tried to pick between the bird form and the medium form, I found that I couldn't really decide on one or the other. Instead, I decided to go for a new interpretation entirely; the woman is the one in charge and has about 80% of the mental capacity and tactical prowess of the pair. The bird has the raw defensive and physical strength though and is used like a puppet by the medium form. They're both Ceresmon, just two parts of the same Digimon that fight in tandem. I adore this interpretation and just had to use it for this story.

With that said, I hope that you guys had as much fun with this chapter as I did! When we next meet, the group will be continuing to come together as they push on through the Dark Ocean. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this new installment of the story. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital