Where the Shadows Lie

by usa2z

Davis receives a pair of rings that switch the wearers' bodies. Chaos ensues.

17. New Forms I

Chapter 17: New Forms, Part 1

Izzy:

"Um… I guess I just… move the pawn?" Tentomon said.

The human moved the piece for his partner, and then made his own move.

"Check." He said.

"Not again…"

The insect digimon had been in the party that had found the emperor's base to begin with. That meant he was present in the area when the younger kids arrived to pursue it. He had offered to help. Normally that would have been a good thing, but with Kari and Gatomon in the state they were in, the group had decided Tentomon was more trouble than he was worth. They wouldn't be able to talk about body switching with him around.

Fortunately for them, circumstances provided a convenient excuse to politely send him away. One recommendation later and Tentomon was here in the real world on the camping trip, spending quality time with his partner. That had pleased Izzy. Older digidestined like him rarely got to see their partners, at least compared to their younger counterparts. At first the arrangement had pleased the digimon as well; the first day of the trip had been great. They had spent most of it chatting and catching up. The second day… was obviously beginning to grate on him.

"Sorry, buddy."

Right now, everyone else was out fishing. This wasn't an option for the digimon, however. He couldn't stray to far from the cabin for fear a camper outside their group would see him. Right now, his options for entertainment were to watch Izzy play games on his laptop, or play board games with him. Chess and checkers were the only such games in the cabin.

"Um…" Tentomon began "Um… I block with the rook?"

That was the only move that gave him another turn, but it only gave him that.

Izzy moved his queen. "Checkmate."

"Good game." his partner sighed. "Uh… how many loses was that?'

"Ten" Izzy thought. "It wasn't that many." He said. "Want to play checkers instead?"

"Sure."

The skill floor and ceiling were a lot lower for that game than for chess, but they still existed. Izzy quickly found himself winning it too.

"King me." He said.

His partner obviously was not pleased.

"Many I can let him win." The human thought. "He caught on when I tried that in chess, but with a game this much more simple..."

Sure enough, Tentomon began making a comeback.

"Um… I think I get to jump you three times."

"Congrats! Let me do that for you!"

The short armed digimon could not reach all the way across the board. They had started with chess because Izzy had feared the limited ability to personally jump checker pieces would take a good chunk of the fun out of it. Now he was hoping the change in momentum would make up for that. He jumped Tentomon's piece all the way to the other side of the board.

"Awesome, partner." He said. "Now you get a king too."

"Huh..." Tentomon said "I… hadn't noticed that..."

"Oh crap." Izzy thought. He looked back down at the board. Sure enough, there was another path the piece he had moved could have taken that would have made it to the other end. "That was the one Tentomon was thinking, wasn't it? He's going to know I was letting him win!"

The digimon just sighed again. "I can't bet you, can I?"

Awkward silence followed for a moment. Fortunately, it was quickly broken by a knock on the cabin door.

"Hey guys!" Mr. Takenouchi called out. "You hungry? The fish sure were! We caught a ton!"

"I actually am." Izzy said. "You too, partner?"

"Yeah… let's eat."

Stepping outside, they found the other digidestined cooking fish kebabs over a camp fire, a skill they had learned in their adventure four years ago. Soon the group was sitting at a picnic table to eat, or rather on it in Tentomon's case. On the side facing the cabin, they figured the digimon could easily hide under the table before a camper coming into the site noticed him. He seemed to enjoy the meal, even thanking the others for catching it.

"This tastes great! Thanks guys."

Still, despite this bit of pleasantry, Izzy continued to worry for his partner.

"We don't know how long it's going to take to defeat the Digimon emperor. Can we really ask him to stay here indefinitely?"

He might have worried more, had their lunch not been interrupted by the return of the younger digidestined. Barring Cody and Amarillomon, they emerged from the portal midway through the meal. Yolie did not give a good impression, her D3 in one hand and the other arm over TK's shoulder as he held her up.

"Good gods! Are you okay?" Mr. Takenouchi asked.

"It's not as bad as it looks." She replied, raising her arm free. "I can walk... I'm just really sore."

"Do you need to go to the hospital."

"A hospital will ask to many questions. We're better off just having Joe look at me."

"Is that wise?"

"It's fine, really." the Christian answered for her. "I took a worse fall a few weeks ago and was alright the next day. It really helps when you have a champion digimon taking the brunt of it for you."

"You're welcome." Patamon said with a grin on his face.

"Thank you." TK said, smiling back.

Yolie looked over at her partner and repeated the thanks. Poromon responded "Don't mention it. What are partners for?"

Their chaperon turned to his daughter. "I'm glad you aren't doing this stuff anymore. Did anything this bad happen to you four years ago?"

"She got abducted three times and almost eaten by Bakemon in one of them" Izzy thought.

Sora just shrugged. "Nothing I couldn't handle."

It was her father that sighed this time. Once again a brief moment of awkward silence ensued.

Joe broke it, stepping toward Yolie. "You said you wanted me to have a look?"

"Please do." She replied, taking his hand.

He glanced over at Tai, who nodded in response. Izzy caught the meaning. "I want to talk digimon stuff. Get the adults away."

"Let's go inside." The doctor in training answered. He looked over to his brother. "You wanna help? You have more college training than I do."

"Not by a lot, whiz kid." Jim answered. "But yeah, I'm happy to help."

"I'd better go with you guys." Mr. Takenouchi said, taking the bait. He went into the cabin with the Kidos and Yolie, leaving the others free.

"How did that raid you emailed us about go?" Tai asked once the adults were out of earshot. "By the looks of Yolie, I'm not guessing well."

"Callous as it sounds, it actually went rather well." Gatomon answered. "As TK said, injuries like this are in our job description. On the plus side, we freed a bunch of digimon, and we stole some body switching rings."

The older kids gasped.

"No way!" Sora exclaimed.

"Way." TK said. Smiling he pulled a pair of green gemmed rings out of his pocket. "Patamon and I snatched them from a box labeled 'Dark Rings of Exchange'. The emperor just had that laying around in storage. We got some other goodies too."

"Other goodies?" The boy genius noted.

"Body switching?" Tentomon asked. "What are you guys talking about?"

The others exchanged glances... even with their chaperons gone there was still one part of the situation they couldn't freely talk about...

"Or is there?"

Izzy glanced at the rings. Unlike with their parents, the digidestined had no moral obligations to not share their secrets with their partners. The only reason they had withheld the truth so far was that it seemed much easier than getting them to believe it. Tai's attempts with Agumon had ended in disaster, after all. Even to people from the Digital World, body switching seemed to out there to believe. Now though, now they had a way to prove it their leader did not have then.

"Not to mention it might solve Tentomon's problem too."

The ring's holder glanced back at him. As their eyes met, he asked "Are you... thinking what I think you're thinking?"

"I think I am." Izzy said. He turned to his partner. "Tentomon, there is something we need to show you."

"Show me?"

"Yes." He took the rings from TK and slid one on his finger. "It will make sense if you put on this ring."

"Are you sure about this, Izzy?" Tai asked. "I'd be willing to do it for you if you want."

"It's fine; he's my partner. Honestly, I think it would be fun anyway."

The boy genius suspected all of the digidestined had wondered what it was like to be a digimon at one time or another. He felt that he in particular did more than anyone else. The Crest of Knowledge was as much about curiosity as raw information known; that was how its bearer had activated it. He chuckled a bit. Tentomon had been the one encouraging that curiosity then, beseeching him to reclaim it, both literally and metaphorically, from Vademon. Now he was encouraging it in a very different way.

"You guys are acting really weird." The beetle complained.

"Trust me. Like I said, it will make sense if you put this on." He held it out to him. "Let me help you. I'm the one with the opposable thumbs," he smiled "currently."

The digimon kept looking at him strangely. "Is this a prank? Will that ring shock me or something when you put it on?"

"Probably, but not in the way you're thinking." Izzy thought. He asked out loud. "Have I ever been one to pull pranks?"

"I guess not..." the insect answered. "All right… if you say so." He put his claw forward.

"Thank you, partner" Izzy said, and slipped the ring on.

For a brief moment, everything went black. Then, as sight began to return... the world was blurry. For a split second, he reflexively expected it to unblur as his sight returned, but, as he intellectually knew would happen, it didn't.

The boy genius had known Hollywood's imagination of insects seeing dozens of the same image in a honeycomb pattern was bogus already. It didn't take anywhere near as much time with Tentomon as he had spent to know that. Between his experiences there and his inclinations to research things away, it didn't take long for him to get a theoretical understanding of how the world should look through compound eyes. Resolution would be inferior to what vertebrates saw, hence the blur he was now seeing, but it would be all one image, which he now knew first hand.

The placement of his eyes on the side of his head made for a another big change to how he saw the world, As he had also known was coming, the newly made insect could see almost 360 degrees around him, not just horizontally but also vertically. With Tentomon's body itself in the way, he could not see straight behind him, but despite facing forward, he could clearly see everything on his sides, including his sides of his new body themselves. This also included his belly, some of his back, the top of his head, his new arms and legs, and the table beneath, and the sky above.

That said, even though he already had that theoretical understanding... actually seeing the world that way in person was more than a bit disorienting. For a second, he wanted to vomit.

"AAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

Tentomon obviously took it far worse. No doubt a human's view of the world looked as mesmerizing to the former insect as his view was to Izzy, if not worse. At least the genius had some idea of what was happening.

Tentonmon stumbled back and fell on his rear.

"Oh Drasil! What's happening!?"

"Partner, it's okay." He spoke. You're seeing the world though human eyes. It's me, Izzy. We switched bodies."

"Wha... switched bodies!?"

"What's going on out there!?" Mr. Takenouchi yelled.

Turning around to look at him, Izzy experienced a pair of new alien feelings. The first of the the stiff, heavy feeling of moving in an exoskeleton. That he had expected, but it was overshadowed by something he hadn't. It wasn't particularly positive or negative… but he had no idea how to describe it. It came when his new feet touched back down against the table, but it didn't really seem like it came from his sense of touch despite that. He had no idea what to make of it.

"Is there something about insect senses I don't know?" He asked himself.

He did not have time to dwell on it before Tai drew him back into the here and now. "It's fine." He yelled back at Sora's dad. "Um..." their leader pulled the ring off of Izzy's new claw and pretended to be stocked as he did it. "We just pulled a prank on Izzy. It's a zapper."

The adult just groaned and then went back inside.

Tai said to the former digimon. "Thanks for the idea, by the way."

Enduring the strange new feelings again to turn back around at Tentomon, Izzy saw his parnter having some parallel realizations to his own. As he stood back up, the former insect was plainly shocked but the motion. No doubt noticing the smooth, light motion of his fleshy body, the newly made human began groping said flesh.

"It's like… I'm covered in meat."

Inspired by this, Izzy too rubbed his new arm against his face. The trend of expected reactions still being alien returned. Instead of the normal feeling of skin against skin he felt the hard grind of bone against bone. That was the other big reality of having an exoskeleton… From head to toe every part of him was covered in bone. It was as unsettling as it sounds.

That was when he noticed the most alien part yet. Wanting to move his other arm up to his face as well… he felt three of them move. He was moving a total of four arms now.

"This... will take some getting used to."

It was then he noticed his partner pulling at his arms for second, as if trying to pull the "meat" off. Izzy was about to say something, but then, once again paralleling his partner's thoughts, Tentomon seemed to notice his he had gone from four arms down to two, the ones he still had swooping down onto his sides, where the extra limbs would have been.

"Oh no." Izzy thought. "That's gotta be scarier for him than me. He literally lost limbs!"

Fortunately, his response sounded more disappointed than scared. "It's… it's like I'm a Motimon again."

"Huh, true. That form only has two arms too." Izzy thought. "You're not a Motimon, though." He said. "You're not a digimon at all, in fact. Like I said you're a human, me specifically: Koushiro 'Izzy' Izumi."

"How is that possible?" Tentomon complained. "Can someone please explain to me what's going on!?"

One explanation later, he responded "So… the Digimon Emperor invented body switching dark rings... we stole a pair... and Davis and Veemon are evil now and steal bodies?"

"Yep, that's about accurate." Izzy answered.

"Don't forget his sister, Jun." Matt added.

"Her too."

"That's... a lot to take in." The former digimon said.

"It's been a wild two months." Matt responded.

"I... can imagine."

"Speaking of which," TK put in. "Now that we have the rings, I think we can end that for you."

Matt chuckled bitterly. "Rings of our own or not, we still don't have my body. I can't exactly switch back without it."

"True," his brother replied "but we do have plenty of male bodies around here. Wouldn't you rather have one of them rather than being stuck as a girl?"

"That... would be an improvement."

The blond then turned toward Kari.

"On that subject, we don't have your body either, but we also have plenty of female bodies in the group, wouldn't you rather be girl again than stuck as a guy?"

"Yes!"

It was the first time Izzy had seen her speak with such enthusiasm, even to TK.

"Then I think we have a solution." The Christian said, apparently not noticing the distinction. He walked over to Izzy. "May I have your ring."

"Or course." The former human held out his claw and the blond withdrew the ring. Handing it to Kari he said "Here you go."

"Thank you so much." She said putting it on. Seemingly regaining a bit of courage.

"You're welcome."

Tai handed the ring he was holding to Matt. He slid it on too and once more there was a moment of silence.

Then Davis's body moaned "Wha... why didn't it work?"

"It didn't work!?" Tai exclaimed.

"It didn't work!" Matt growled back.

"Uh oh…" Izzy thought.

"But why not?" Kari almost cried.

He couldn't see her face clearly with his new compound eyes… but he could feel the distress in her voice. It wasn't hard to guess why. To have such a golden opportunity dangled in front of her, only for it to be snatched away…

"7:05" Gatomon said reflectively.

"Pardon?" Matt asked.

"I think there's a time limit on how often the rings can be used. When I first switched with Veemon, I was stuck staring a clock. He must have been looking at it right before then." The former cat turned toward her human. "Remember that, Kari? It was a full day after you switched with Davis. Why would he have waited that long if he could have done it right after his partner did?"

"That... does make sense." She said in a slightly less upset tone. "I... I... guess it would explain why Davis and me couldn't switch back when we put the rings back on that next morning... I thought the rings just couldn't do the same switch twice..."

Tentomon gasped "You... if you thought rings couldn't undo a switch why did you let Izzy and I put them on?"

"I... um..." the former girl muttered.

"Uh, he hasn't seen much of how... flustered Kari is before now, has he?" Izzy thought. "This could create a problem."

"That was Davis's explanation," Gatomon answered for her "but coming from him, I don't know how much we should trust it. Even if it is true, you could always just go back through another body. I'd be happy to volunteer, and I'm sure Matt and Kari wouldn't mind."

"I wouldn't mind borrowing Jun's body on the way back." Izzy thought. "If Matt wants to try being Tentomon."

The curious boy had wondered a few times what being a girl was like too, even if much less than being a digimon.

"Shame it couldn't have been Mimi instead."

The thought made him feel a little bit guilty, though… given all that was going on.

"Are you sure that would work?" The former digimon asked.

"Yes," his partner answered, called back to reality by the question "I wrote a mathematical proof the other night."

Matt just chuckled. "Of course you would."

"Yeah, he would" Tentomon said. "...thanks?"

"Don't mention it." Izzy answered. "If there wasn't a way to switch back, Davis wouldn't have run away."

"True…"

Between that and his proof, Izzy did not see how Gatomon could be wrong.

"So..." Kari began "Matt and I can switch tomorrow... right?"

"I believe so," Her partner answered, however she turned toward Tentomon then, with another question. "though it seems like you'd rather go back to being a digimon first, right?" She glanced between the switched partners. "I'm gathering switching between species is a lot more different than between genders."

"Probably." The newly made digimon thought, stiffly twitching his bony second pair of arms. "Or at least between humans and insectiods is."

"But we've been swapped two months already..." Matt whined.

"He's right" Izzy agreed. "Besides, I honestly don't mind. This switch was my idea anyway. I'm really curious what it's like to be a digimon." He turned toward his partner. "You don't mind either do you?"

"I... actually don't" He said. Sighing he continued "I do wish you'd asked before you swapped us, though."

"Would you have believed us if we'd asked?" Tai countered.

"No, I wouldn't have."

Tentomon laughed, the irony not lost on him.

"Really, I still don't mind." He said. "I have to admit; this is a lot more interesting than loosing at checkers was. The thought of being stuck this way was scary, but if you're proven we can get back, partner, well, at this point I have trust that we can."

"Good to hear." His partner said.

"Good to hear indeed." Matt echoed.

"With that out of the way," Izzy began, his curiosity still intact, "you said you found 'other goodies', TK?"

"Yeah," the blond replied. "The emperor had a lot of gadgety techno things in storage, but two of them really stuck out to me. The first one was in the same box as the rings."

He then pulled something else out of his pocket. With Tentomon's blurry vision, the former human had a hard time making out what the small item was… it looked like a black tube with a purple gem on top.

"Is that a long ring?" He asked himself.

The others around him had a more direct question. Tai blurted out "Is that a body switching dark spiral?"

"That is what it looks like." TK agreed.

Izzy decided to take their word on that.

The Christian turned toward him. "Do you think it's like, the next model of body switcher, like the spiral itself was to the dark ring?"

"That is what would seem logical." He agreed. "I'm not sure what the improvement would be, though."

"Maybe it's a shorter time between switches?" Patamon guessed.

"Maybe it's more knowledge left behind." Matt put in.

"Both of those sound like they could be right." Sora responded. "It seems like you'd have to put it on to find out."

"Don't suppose Kari and I could do that?" Matt asked. "Where's the other one?"

"That's the weird thing." TK said. "There is no other one. At least, there wasn't in the box. This is the only one I found."

"Sounds like putting it on is a bad idea, then." Tentomon replied.

Matt groaned. "Who knows who's wearing the other one?"

"Yeah, I thought so too." His brother said. "I was thinking Izzy should examine it, though, like he did the other rings we had."

Izzy just stared at the spiral... it still looked like a tube from this distance, the blur swallowing the gaps.

"I can try..." He said. He wanted to, and agreed he should... but was pessimistic about it.

"Good." The blond answered. "There was one other thing." He took off his book-bag, and took... something much larger out of it. A box with a cording coming out of it?

"Is... that a VCR?" Matt asked.

"It was attached to a TV, so yeah, probably."

"So... you stole the emperor's VCR?" Tai asked. "That... doesn't seem mission relevant."

"The TV it was attached to was the kind we use to go back to the Real World from the Digital World. I don't know if that means anything, but it stuck out to me enough I thought we should check. I'd have brought the TV too, but it didn't fit in my book bag."

"Fair enough."

Mr. Takenouchi and the Kidos came out of the cabin then, Yolie and Poromon with them.

"You okay, Yolie?" Sora asked.

"Jim and Joe agreed I'm fine." She groaned. "But your dad says I should stay the night here anyway."

"Dad!"

"I won't hurt." Joe interjected. "She could use it, and it's probably better to er on the side of caution anyway. I'm not a real doctor yet."

That seemed to appease them both.

"Either way, we did say she should take some Tylenol," Jim added "and she'll need to eat for that." He gestured to the lunch they had started then looked back at the younger kids. "We were eating some fish we caught when you guys came. Want to join in? There's plenty."

"I dunno," TK said. "It'd be rude to leave Cody out of it. He's staying in the Digital World now to keep tabs on the base."

"At least take some back with you." Mr. Takenouchi offered. "Our treat."

"Thanks."

Patamon landed next to Izzy as their chaperon handed out the food. It was... yet another bit of weirdness, the first time he stood so close to eye to eye with the small creature.

"I've been so preoccupied with the feelings of this body I haven't even noticed how small it is compared to everyone else..."

He could see everyone in his extended peripheral vision. Most of them were too far away to see clearly in the blur, but even the ones who weren't... made for quite the spectacle. They were giants. Even next to the younger kids he felt suddenly like a bug.

He then laughed internally.

His train of thought was interrupted by a comment from Gatomon.

"Matt... erm, Jun, can I talk to you for a minute, just the two of us?"

"Um, okay?" He answered.

"Thanks." The digimon said. She turned toward her partner and added "Go ahead on back without me, all catch up in a minute." Finally she turned toward Patamon. "You and TK can watch over her till I get back, right?"

"Of course."

With their approval, she and Matt began walking toward the cabin... well, slowly waddling in Gatomon's case.

"Want some help?" The other asked.

She looked down in embarrassment. "Yes, thanks."

Matt then picked the DemiVeemon up and carried her inside.

"Don't suppose you'd let me talk one-on-one with you too, Tentomon?" Mr. Takenouchi asked Izzy. "I still want to do that interview."

"Um, sorry. I really don't think that's a good idea."

The actual Tentomon had already given a similar answer to a similar question. The digimon had never technically given the oath of silence their human partners had, but they had a personal stake in keeping the Digital World's secrets said humans didn't have either.

The anthropologist just shrugged. "Thanks anyway."

With that, the group resumed eating.

"I wonder what this is gonna taste like with Tentomon's mouth?" Izzy wondered. It was obvious that different humans tasted the same foods differently, and if his new insectoid sense of taste was as different from his old as his sight was, who could guess how this might turn out?

Ready for an answer, Izzy picked up a kebab. As he touched the stick, that strange sense that was not touch came back, just like when his feet touched the wooden table.

"Makes sense I guess." He thought. "Real insects' arms are just legs, after all. It isn't to strange they'd both have this feature... whatever it is."

Then, he actually took a bite of taste of fish. The taste was... only slightly different from what he'd known.

"That's... kind of disappointing."

But then, as he withdrew the stick from his mouth, part of it rubbed against his tongue, and that strange new sensation came once again... and suddenly didn't seem so new...

A very bizarre realization then dawned on him. In one surprised gulp he almost chocked on his food.

"You okay, partner?" Tenomon asked in concern.

"I'm... fine..." He said. "It couldn't be?" Was his only thought.

Then he tested it. Reaching for more food, the boy turned bug grabbed a kebab by the meat rather than the stick... and the most insane hypothesis he'd ever made was confirmed.

"I'm tasting fish. My mouth is empty and I'm tasting fish." He realized. "I'm tasting... through my hand."

---

Matt:

"Thanks again." Gatomon said as he sat her on the bed.

"You're welcome."

Closing the door, Matt turned back to the former cat and asked "What did you want to talk to me about?"

She stuttered for a minute, as if trying to figure out the right words.

"It's okay, really. You're... I feel like you're my sibling almost as much as Kari. Whatever it is, you can talk to me about it."

The digimon sighed. "Alright, I'll cut to the chase. Would you mind staying Jun a little bit longer?"

"What?"

"It's... it's for Kari. I think staying as Davis a bit longer would be good for her."

"Gatomon... are you insane?"

"Hear me out... you know she wanted to be leader of the younger digidestined, right?"

One of few gains from Davis's life, it was inevitable that Kari would talk to her new big brother about the googles she found on her new head. It was something else for them to relate over, given Matt's history with his age group. It was also totally irrelevant.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"It's the only bit of self-worth Kari has right now. She can't lose that." Gatomon answered. "Also... I really think she needs it. You're seen her. Despite everything we tell her, despite everything everyone tells her now... it's plain she still doesn't think she deserves her own life. At this point I don't think anything we tell her will change that. She has to change her mind for herself, and well, I feel like leading the charge that reclaims her body is the best way for her to do it. It would be like... like she earned it back. I'm not saying she should stay Davis forever, just until she can do that."

That did make a certain amount of sense. He didn't agree with it, but he could understand it.

The dragonspawn continued "Either way, she needs to at least be part of the group that does it, the younger group that actively hunts the body thieves, not the older group that stays on the sidelines... and especially not Jun, not the one that can't even go to the Digital World."

What a great way to add insult to injury.

"Gatomon, you heard your partner just now, didn't you? She wants to switch with me. She wants to be a girl again as much as I want to be a guy. Don't you understand that?"

"Honestly, I don't think I do." She admitted. "I hate being a DemiVeemon, but now that I get to be a rookie most of the time... it's really not that different from how my old body was without its tail ring. I'd be fine staying like that if it meant keeping Kari happy."

It was then that Matt realized that digimon did not experience gender like humans did. Thinking on it, it made sense. He'd seen Izzy's reactions to becoming Tentomon. A change in species could only be far more dramatic than a change in sex... and it was something they essentially did just growing up. Gatomon had been born as a bouncing head, then she became a puppy, then she came of age as a cat, and then, once she met her partner, started moonlighting as an angel or a later a sphinx. Every step in that chain was a far greater physical change than he had endured by becoming Jun. If digimon had been as bothered by it as he had been by that...

"They'd go completely insane." The human thought. He could see no other outcome.

Still, it solidified in his mind that the digital monster did not know what she was asking.

"Heck, even by digimon standards her changes in form seem extreme."

He answered "Humans just don't see it like that. Being stuck as the wrong sex... it's just... wrong."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It... just is?"

Matt could tell she was not satisfied by that answer.

"How could I begin to explain it?" He asked himself.

The old question of how you would explain color to a blind person came to him.

He decided on a different approach.

"It doesn't matter. Kari feels this way too. You heard her; she said she wants to switch with me. She'd rather be a girl again than be the leader."

"I'm not sure she knows what she wants at this point." Gatomon answered "I'm not sure she'd even want her own body back if we weren't trying to get it for her."

"Who are you to decide that?" Was what Matt thought in response.

As if sensing his thoughts, the former cat added "You were there when she called herself Davis, weren't you..." She shuttered as she continued. "back when she wanted to die? It's obvious she's taken in everything he said about being the one that deserved her life. She's happier now than she was then, but... it hasn't all gone away. I don't think any of it has really gone away."

"So?" he yelled back. "What are you suggesting? We just cut her out of the decision? Do you want me to refuse to switch with Kari and keep her stuck as Davis against her will? Do you want me to be like him?"

"Of course not!" her partner said. "Obviously, I wasn't saying to cut Kari out; I would have asked her. I just wanted your support when I did."

"Well you don't have it!" He spat back. "I'm not giving up this chance so you can manipulate your partner."

"I... see."

That was all she said in response, but her face said quite a bit more. The disappointment it conveyed bordered on disgust.

"Is that aimed at me?" Matt thought.

"Don't you dare look at me with eyes like that." He said "Don't you dare manipulate me too."

With that the disgust on her face was all in.

---

Davis:

"Ugh." Jun groaned as he woke up. "Wha... where are we?"

"We're in an infirmary." His sister answered "In Ken's base."

"So, we made it?"

"Yes, thanks to Veemon."

She looked over at the other bed, and her brothers eyes followed; there was Veemon, still out cold. Unlike the human, who had merely fainted from shock, the digimon had been violently knocked out... and it showed.

"Is he okay?" Jun's concern sounded sincere.

"Master Veemon should be fine once he awakens, Mistress Jun." A third voice came.

"Um, hello?" Jun answered. "Who are you?"

"I am Sistermon Ciel. I will be your nurse today."

The white and blue nun's robes the digimon wore did vaguely remind of a nurse's outfit... baring the dark spiral on her arm. Quaint as the former was, the latter remained more than a bit disheartening, a reminder that there nurse was, in fact, a slave, even before she started calling them "Master" or "Mistress". That... made the matter even worse, as if she was their slave as well as the emperor's.

"You're a spy." Davis reminded herself. "This will help bring him down."

Jun's eyes were on the dark spiral as well, a bothered expression on his face. Was he thinking along the same lines as she or was the spiral just confirming he was with a humanoid digimon rather than a true human?

"At least he's not as afraid of her as he was of Dokugumon..."

When Veemon eventually woke up, her reaction was similar. "Ugh, where are we?"

"We're in an infirmary in Ken's base." Jun said. "Thanks to you."

"Um... you're welcome?"

The nurse began asking medical questions of "Master Veemon." It was plain she did not appreciate that moniker.

"Please don't call me that." The white cat asked. "I'm not your master. I'm a digimon like you."

"My apologies, Mistress Gatomon." She replied. "At any rate, how are you feeling?"

Davis mouthed to her partner "go along with it." "Mistress Gatomon" in turn just groaned and complied. Most of her answers amounted to "I'm fine but sore."

"In that case, I would say you're free for discharge when you feel up for it." Sistermon eventually said. "I can provide you some pain killers, if you'd like."

"No thanks."

Jun looked a bit jealous of Veemon's treatment. "How come you didn't ask me all those questions?" He asked the nurse.

"Fainting once from fear is not really a cause for medical concern." She answered. "I would only have worried if it had been a chronic problem, which Master Davis has already told me you don't have." She smiled. "If you'd like, I can give you a physical. His Majesty wishes for me to become more familiar with human anatomy, now that he is living here full time."

"Ken's living here now too?" Davis noted.

"Um..." her brother replied, "No thanks."

"I guess she's not humanoid enough for Ken or Jun." Davis sighed.

"Maybe I'll get one later." her thoughts continued. "If I'm staying here long term, I'd like a nurse who can treat humans too."

Glancing back at the dark spiral said nurse was wearing, her next thought was "...how long am I staying here again?" For many reasons, she hoped not long. She wanted that both for Sistermon... and for herself.

A few minutes later, Veemon was up, and they were guided into a waiting room.

"Please wait here." Sistermon said. "His Majesty wishes to personally escort you to your rooms."

Ken had been present when the former boy first entered the base, descending back into it along with Chimeramon on the platform it had come out on. Their host seemed as though he wanted to make a big first impression on them... though he wasn't so keen on waiting for Jun and Veemon to wake up for it.

"To late chud," looking at her brother, Davis laughed internally "your new pet already beat you to it!"

Jun's response surprised her, though. "Thank you very much, Sistermon."

"Maybe she's humanoid enough for him, after all." Davis thought. "Damn are you an enigma, Jun."

Their nurse left the room then. Despite his earlier impatience, it wasn't long before their host arrived.

"Ken?" Jun asked. "Is that you?"

Davis realized this was the first time her brother had seen him in his Digimon Emperor get-up. He had only ever seen the boy in Real World casual clothes.

"On Earth I was known merely as Ken Ichijouchi, but we are not on Earth. We are in the Digital World, and I am its emperor." He said smiling. "I should dress accordingly." His smile soured a bit as he continued. "I also expect to be ad-dressed according."

"Oh, um, sorry..." Jun paused for a moment, as if deciding whether or not to comply. In the end he said. "Your Majesty."

"What was that?" Davis wondered uncomfortably. "He's just trying to appease him, right?"

It did seem like a good idea... Ken would have to trust his guests if they wanted to be able to spy on him. That would be a lot easier if they were in his good graces...

"Am I going to have to call him that too?" She asked herself. Hearing Jun do it was one thing, but the thought of treating the slaver like royalty herself was... more than a bit repugnant.

"Do I have a choice?" Was her next thought. By coming into his base, the Motomiyas had effectively placed themselves at Ken's mercy. If they didn't keep him happy with them...

The thought of Veemon with a dark spiral on her tail personally throwing her and Jun into a dungeon was the first to come to mind. It only got worse from there.

Despite the disturbing thoughts in his guest's brain, the emperor's smile returned. "Good to hear." He said. "Feel free to stop by here any time anything ales you, or for that matter, call the nurse over the intercom. I can assure you that you and your brother will always be her first priority."

"Does that include you?" Davis thought. She doubted it severely. He had no doubt whatsoever it did include any digimon slaves more injured than them. "For that matter, where does Veemon fit into it?"

"Thank you again, Your Majesty." Jun responded. If he had any similar thoughts, he knew better than to show them.

"Here's hoping he did."

The smile on the emperor's face was ear to ear. "You're welcome." He said smugly.

"Follow me," He continued, turning around. "Let me show you to your rooms."

As they stepped into the hallway, darkness returned. The infirmary had been the first room of any sort she'd seen with light beyond the bare minimum needed for seeing. All of the halls between there and the hanger had been dark. The former boy had suspected Ken only lit rooms when he had a pragmatic reason to do so, say to be examined by a medic. She did not have long to dwell on that thought, though.

"So, you have returned to the darkness." A voice she could not identify said. "How amusing, as though your kind could survive here."

Ken stopped in his tracks upon hearing it. "What! You again?"

"Um, are you okay… your Majesty?" Jun asked.

Their host turned around with a distraught look on his face. Despite it, he said. "Of course I'm okay! It's not like I'm afraid of a stupid voice!"

The look on Jun's face was not exactly distraught, but it did convey a particular discomfort of the "I'm with psycho." variety.

It was one he had directed at Davis more than a few times lately…

Ken was not looking at Veemon, but her partner could see she had a similar expression on her face too.

"Am I feeling… sympathy for the Digimon Emperor?" She thought. In general, the former goglehead would be on board with calling Ken crazy too, but in this particular case...

Between that and her earlier conclusions about keeping him happy, the sympathetic girl said. "Don't worry about it, Your Majesty. Humans like us can survive darkness easily."

The emperor calmed down with that. "Well said, Davis. No wonder you activated the Digi Egg of Courage." Turning back to Jun he added "You should follow his example."

The former boy did not know what to make of the look on her brother's face, but she relished it anyway. Getting a complement from someone they both called "Your Majesty," even if begrudgingly, could only please her. The fact that "His Majesty" was essentially telling him off while doing so only made it that much sweeter.

The "stupid voice" had its own reaction: "You can hear me?"

"Of course. It's not like you're being subtle." Ken answered for her.

Deciding to answer for herself as well, Davis added "Yeah, I can hear you."

There was no reply.

The emperor seemed to forget about the voice, whatever it was, and they marched forward, but from what his momentary defender overheard, the others hadn't.

"Jun, they said the same things." Veemon whispered. "You're good at math. What do you think the odds are they had the same hallucination at the same time?"

"Really, really low." He whispered back.

It was plain neither of them had heard whatever she and Ken had and that they didn't know what to make of it.

"How could they have not heard it? It was loud and clear…" She asked herself internally. "Did Jun blow Matt's hearing or something with his loud music? No… that wouldn't make sense. Heck, Veemon's a cat now; I know she has way better hearing that I do."

Suddenly, the former gogglehead was reminded of the times she'd seen glimpses of the Dark Ocean or its denizens when others around her could not.

Then it was Davis's turn to freeze in fear.

"It… it's not after me again, is it?"

Veemon stopped with her, looking at her partner with concern, but the human snapped out of it before Ken or Jun noticed.

"No," she thought as she resumed walking. Just as the former boy knew, somehow, the master of the Dark Ocean wasn't a digimon, she knew whatever this voice was wasn't it. She… knew it that well. The feeling she had gotten from it, even the shadow of that feeling she had just gotten from thinking about it… next to that fear this new voice was nothing.

Still, it was enough to give her even more sympathy for its apparent target.

"Ugh! Now I relate to him!" She groaned internally. That lead to her next thought "Do I really want to help him against it? He's the Digimon Emperor!" A moment later, that was followed by "Maybe… if it takes him to another world, he can't keep the others away from me until Tai comes around."

She did not have long to dwell on that either before Ken turned a corner, and the light of a decently lit hallway came into view.

"Is that where we're meant to stay?" She though. Despite assurances to Ken, the human like him had hoped not to have to live in the base's darkness. "Maybe this part is meant to impress us?"

As they entered the light, they came upon an open door to another obviously lit room. As they looked inside, their host said. "This will be your room, Davis."

If the hallway was meant to impress, then the room itself took the cake. It didn't just have decent lighting. It had... everything.

The first thing she noticed was the screen door on the other side of the room opened up to a balcony. That would be lavish enough normally, but in a flying base...

Running out onto it, the view was the most amazing she'd even seen.

"Oh my god."

Her brother and partner rushed out to share in said view, obviously similarly impressed.

"This is... amazing." The digimon exclaimed.

"You said it." The human replied. He turned around back toward their host. "I hope my room is this awesome too." He said. "...Your majesty."

"Of course," Ken replied. "Your room has all of the same amenities as Davis's. I see you've already taken to this feature, but it doesn't even end here. Did I mention this option is available underwater?"

"Underwater?" Davis thought. "That sounds even more amazing."

Her host flipped a switch on the wall. Machinery roared to life as glass walls began to rise up from the edges of the floor. Looking up, the Motomiyas saw them connect to the base of an awning above them.

"The seal is both air and water tight." The emperor began. "It will deploy automatically if the base descends into the ocean or flies so high that the air around it is too thin to breath." Seeing the wonder on Jun and Veemon's faces, he added "And yes, the base can do that."

Davis could not see his own face, but she had to assume it had a similar expression to her partner and brother.

"Damn!" She said. "Erm... your majesty."

Fortunately, Ken was amused rather than offended by that faux pas. Chuckling he added "Manual control is, of course, disabled in those circumstances, but you can always retract the awning itself."

He flipped another switch and, as promised, the awning retracted, revealing a glass panel beneath it.

"Control of the panel is attached to the awning itself when the walls are not deployed and to the walls when they are."

To illustrate the latter point, he flipped the first switch again, and all of the glass, both walls and ceiling, retracted.

"Damn indeed." Jun said. "Your Majesty."

"Indeed." His Majesty replied. "And I haven't even shown you the room itself. Let's come back in so I can."

They obliged without hesitation. The next thing Davis noticed was a very large TV poking out from the wall to his right, from it coming every video game controller the former boy could think of. It was less obvious than the balcony, but now that she saw it, it attracted her interest even more, tomboy that she was. Running up to examine it, she picked up the PS2 controller, and a list of games appeared on the screen. Tilting the joystick down, she began scrolling... and scrolling... and scrolling.

"One advantage to ruling a digital world is having access to more data than you could ever imagine." Their host began. "Sure enough, that data includes every video game ever released. You can play any of them just by picking up the appropriate controller and searching it out on the list. Similarly," He walked over to the other side of the room. Against the wall there was a large bed, with a TV remote on the nightstand. He picked it up and turned on an "On Demand" channel. "I also have access to every TV channel on Earth, both live and On Demand. All of Japan's channels are listed up top, and if you're feeling adventurous, all foreign channels are also included beneath them. Few of them are in Japanese, but a lot have subtitles available."

"Oh my god!" Davis exclaimed again. "Thank you..." For a second, she hesitated to finish, but added "Your Majesty."

"Is this obvious bribery really going to motive you?" the former boy asked herself internally, catching on this time. The answer was "Hey, if I'm gonna spy on him, I might as well do it in comfort."

Ken smiled again. "You're very welcome." he began. "And I haven't even showed you my favorite feature yet."

Following his gaze, the Motomiyas turned toward the left side of the room. A table with a computer on it was in the center of the wall.

"I don't suppose that has every PC game ever release too?" She asked.

"It does" Ken answered. "It also has faster internet than anywhere on Earth, effectively being inside the internet itself."

"I think Izzy described it as more internet adjacent…" Davis thought. She decided to go with it, though.

"Is that your favorite amenity?" The former gogglehead asked. "I know it's already mine."

"No, as I said that is mostly a product of it being in this world. The feature I'm most proud of took a more substantial amount of engineering. Can't you guess what it is?

Wooden doors were opened up on either side of the computer. One of them revealed a large bathroom, complete with a hot tub. I was very impressive, but it didn't seem to Davis what her host was talking about. Through the other door, she saw... herself? Sure enough, the far wall of that room was covered by a large mirror.

"Is that meant to be a closet?" She asked. There was nowhere else in the room for one, but stepping inside, the mirror was the only thing that seemed appropriate. "It doesn't have any racks for clothes."

"I have made such things obsolete." Ken said, stepping inside himself. "Let me show you."

The emperor took out his digivice and placed it into a holder on the wall separating this room from the bedroom. Then, seemingly miraculously, his clothes began reshaping themselves. Within a couple of seconds, they had changed to match the ceremonial robes of Emperor Akihito back in Japan.

"Woah!" Jun gasped. His sister could only share the sentiment. "How did you do that?"

Their host answered that question with one of his own "You've noticed how those of us with D3's automatically change clothes when coming to this world, correct?" Following her affirmation, he continued. "I have found a way to control this effect."

As if to underscore this, his clothes changed again, this time to a purple toga of a Roman Caesar.

"As you can see, all I have to do while my digivice is here is think about what I want to wear and my current clothing transforms to match."

His clothes changed a third time, back to their original form.

"With this technology, you don't ever need a second pair of clothes or even to do laundry. Even something as abstract a towel wrapped around you after a shower can be transformed into the night's pajamas, and then those dirty pajamas into clean clothes the next day."

The emperor's smile then turned more than a bit cheeky. "And, given the bodies you two choose, I'm sure you can think of other applications for it.".

Davis could see her face blushing in the mirror. She wanted to call her host out for this, but, even if she weren't embarrassed, all of the reasons she'd thought up to call him "Your Majesty" also were reasons it might be a bad idea...

"That does work for my digivice too, right?" Jun put in. "Your Majesty?"

"Why am I not surprised?" His sister asked herself. She could see red on his face too, but couldn't hear it in is voice.

Still, even if she wouldn't so readily admit it, a very large part of her shared the sentiment.

"Maybe he's the smart one after all."

"Of course." The emperor responded. "As I said, your room has all of the same amenities as this one." He withdrew his digivice. "Why don't I show you?"

Their host led them out onto the balcony. As he turned back toward the room, the guests saw two doors besides the one they'd came out from. The nearest was closed, but past that, the far door opened into another room seemingly with the same furnishings as Davis's. A door with an electronic lock was on the far side, theoretically opening to the hallway they had come in from.

"That is your room, Jun."

Sure enough, as they entered, they saw another closet with a mirrored wall, on the opposite side of the room as before. Stepping into it, its only other difference was the shape and size of the holder, the latter being bigger than what they'd previously seen

"The effect was a bit trickier to replicate with your generation's digivice, but I was able to reproduce the necessary hardware in the interface. As you can see, it is the only difference between your rooms, other than their orientation."

The older teen did not waste a second drawing his digivice and stepping toward the interface.

"Really?" Davis balked. "Now?"

Jun got red again. "Okay, fine." He said as he putting it away.

Ken was, of course, as cheeky as before. "You're welcome."

Still red, the former girl said. "Thank you very much, Your Majesty."

His sister repeated him.

"You're welcome as well, Davis." He said. Returning to a normal tone he added "That is all of the high-tech features, but I have a few more mundane ones to show you."

"As if we needed any more." His guest thought. "Maybe this stay won't be so bad after all!"

He gestured to the wall, and pointed out an intercom. "As I mentioned, before, you may use that to call Sistermon Ciel if you are feeling sick. You can also summon a maid or room service, both of which have committed staff. If you have a more unusual request, my slaves will do everything in their power to make it happen."

"...And, there's that word again." Davis thought the moment of good feelings abruptly ending. "slaves"

It surprised her how casually the emperor used it. It was a reminder of just where they were... and what they were doing.

Of course, the same counter came to her as before. "You are a spy."

Oblivious to this, Ken walked over to the nightstand and picked up two articles, a standard sized piece of paper and a smaller plastic card. Showing them the paper he said, "This is a map of the base."

The spy perked up accordingly to those words.

Similarly oblivious, their host went on "Feel free to wonder around it as you please." He then showed the plastic. "This is a key card. It will open every electronic door in the base except the ones to Davis's room and mine. Let me demonstrate."

On the wall nearest Davis's room was another closed door, with a lock similar to the one on its entrance. The emperor placed his key into said lock and it opened.

"Consider this your common room." He said.

Stepping though the door, the guests saw a living room with a large wooden table in the center. On one side if the table, facing a door to the balcony, was a TV with two each of the multitude of controllers in their individual rooms. On the other side was large sofa.

It was nice. As Ken had implied, it was not as impressive as their main rooms, but it was still a great addition. It brought another thought to mind, though. Their host was now showing them extra rooms... but he hadn't shown them where Veemon was staying. Her partner was about to bring this up when she noticed a few... other things in the corner of the room: a pet bed, a cat jungle gym, and a litter box.

Following his guest's eyes, Ken put in "I figured pet-ware was appropriate for such a room."

"Pet-ware" Davis thought disheatedly. "Of course! Of course, that's how he sees Veemon." The next thought was "Is that how I'm going to have to treat her around here!?"

She looked over at her partner. The look on her face looked... calm. That was how it would look to most people, at least, but close as she was to her, the digidestined could tell it hid... acceptance?

"She saw this coming." Davis though. "Oh Veemon, you brave soul..."

Her disheartedness must have shown on her face, as the emperor seemed to have seen it... if not understood it. He offered "If you'd like, I can have your pet stay with Wormmon instead."

"No," She answered. "This is fine... Your Majesty." As hard as it usually was to include that honor, this time was by far the hardest, but partly spurred on by her partner's assurance, she did.

It was then that she noticed what amounted to doggie doors the common room's main entrance and the exit to the balcony. They were not present on the doors to either of the bedrooms, however.

"I... don't suppose I could get pet doors like that put in for my room too, um, please... Your Majesty."

For a second the emperor's face took a look of confusion bordering on the disgust. It quickly dissipated, though. He just shrugged and said "Sure, why not?"

Stepping toward the main door he added. "At any rate, I have one last amenity to show you."

He slipped the key into the lock and revealed another open door directly across the hallway. Inside it was a large swimming pool with another, hot-tub nearby, twice the size of the ones in their bathrooms

"This really is a fancy hotel." Davis thought. "And it's made just for us..."

Their host did not bother with an up close demonstration. Instead, he just handed Jun her map and key.

"That is that is all I have to show you. I trust it is to your liking?"

"Yes, it really is." Jun said. "Thank you, Your Majesty. This has to be the most amazing place I've ever stayed at."

As much as his sister hated to admit it, it was to her as well. "I just wish it didn't come with so much... baggage..."

Once again a thought repeated itself in her mind, this time the one about spying in comfort.

"And it looks like a lot more comfort than I ever would have expected."

It was then that the emperor's face took on a much more... serious expression.

"Here it comes." Davis thought.

"Of course," Ken began "all of this assumes you all are my friends rather than enemies. I have heard you are; when you surrendered to Dokugumon, it caused quite a clamor in the area, but I haven't heard it from you directly. Can I hear it now?"

It was what she'd been dreading the whole time.

"Of course, Your Majesty." Jun said for her.

Ken looked back at him with mild annoyance.

"Good to hear, but you aren't the one I was addressing." He turned back toward Davis and, for the first time, Veemon. "You two are the ones I'd really like to hear it from. None of this comes free, and you two are the ones I'm expecting to pay the bill." His face then became even more serious. "Rest assured I have other arrangements in mind should you decide not to."

Davis gulped. Recognizing the threat, another old thought resurfaced, this time the image of an enslaved Veemon throwing them in the dungeon. Even without it, she knew what answer she was supposed to give, the answer she'd already rehearsed, but somehow, even with it, part of her still didn't want to give that answer.

It was Veemon that first responded. She repeated Jun's "Of course, Your Majesty." After that, she went straight to the point. "Anyone who would take this body away from me is my enemy, and I've heard what humans say about the enemy of my enemy. I trust keeping this body is implicit in our arrangements?"

Ken giggled. "Of course." Addressing all of his guests he said solemnly "Let's make it explicit. I promise that, as long as you remain my friends, I will not force you to leave these bodies, or any other bodies you decide to take, and I will protect you from anyone who would." He then turned directly at Davis. "Do we have a deal?"

The digidestined glanced at her partner. "How can I back out now?" She thought.

"Yes, Your Majesty." She said to Ken. She hated to admit it, but it was easier than she thought it would be.

"Excellent!" He responded. "When I need you, I will summon you over the intercom. Be ready to comply."

Then, his expression lightened back to what it was before.

"In the meantime, enjoy your stay."

He did not wait for a reply; he simply walked out and closed the door behind him.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?"

That was the only thing she could think. Her brother, however, had a different take.

"This is gonna be great!" He smirked.

"Are you kidding me?" Davis screamed. "Jun, did you forget where we are already?"

"We're in the best place I've ever stayed in. I know it's the best you've ever stayed in too. I saw you gushing over those games earlier. I understand, though I'm a bit more partial to the TV myself... and of course the closet."

"Is that worth selling your soul for?"

He just shrugged.

"It's not like we're actually working for him. We're spies, remember?"

The smile that covered his face then rivaled the smug grin of the emperor's.

"And if we're doing that, we might as well do it in comfort."

Davis just sighed. She had had the same tough multiple times now, but it was obvious her brother had a much easier time accepting it.

"Of course he did, of freaking course!"

It wouldn't have surprised her in any circumstances. In the ones they were in, it was even less surprising.

"Easy for you to say!" She balked at him. "You heard what Ken said! Veemon and I are the ones who have to fight for him! You just get to stand by playing dress up while we fight our own friends!"

And that wasn't even factoring in what Veemon specifically was gonna have to endure.

"You're freaking welcome." Her partner thought.

For a split second her brother was clearly offended… but then he just shrugged.

"Hey, if you guys are the ones out fighting, that means I have more time for actual spying." He responded. "Besides, I've got a really great find in my hand right now!"

He held out the base map as he said that. It was another thought they had both had. And it was a great one to be reminded of.

"The first big piece of intel we found here," She thought "and it's a really big one."

She wasn't sure how much it meant going forward, but it was great for now.

"Jun, that is awesome! We need to send it to Tai right away!"

Her brother rolled his eyes at that name, but she just groaned in response.

"Oh come on!" the former boy growled as she snatched the map away. "You said yourself I could contact him again on my D-Terminal."

That did seem to appease the romantic, but, as his sister pulled out said D-Terminal, she realized the problem with it.

"Um... I can't send a picture with this thing... can I?"

Jun looked back and forth between his sister's face and the machine a couple of times, then the same realization seemed to dawn on him.

"That thing doesn't have a camera, does it?"

"It... doesn't."

How were they supposed to share the map?

"Damnit! I can't be undone by something this simple!" She screamed inside her head. "There has to be a way!"

"Can we just leak the emperor's identity." Veemon suggested.

"No, we need more than that." Her partner lamented. "We can tell them Ken is the emperor, but after months of lies, I don't know why they'd believe us. The first thing we leak to them... it has to be something they can verify on their own. The map would work because we saw them inside the base, so we know they know at least some of the layout. They could compare what they saw to the map to know it's legit, but the emperor's name... that wouldn't work. We could include it with something else, but it doesn't work on its own."

The white cat's expression darkened. It was plain she liked that thought as little as her partner. It was also plain she couldn't refute it.

Then Veemon looked over at Jun. "You've got good ideas, what do you think?" She asked.

Following her partner's eyes, Davis half expected her brother to cower in fear at the digimon's address. Looking into her brother's eyes... he did… but only for a split second. Like his offense before she blew it off.

"That… is more maturity than I expected…" His sister thought. "Am I being too hard on him?"

"Thank you for that compliment, Veemon." He responded. "Let me think."

He didn't think for long. A few seconds later, Davis followed his eyes through the door to her room. The computer was visible through it.

"We're inside the internet." He said. "That's what Ken said. He said that was why it got the speeds he advertised."

"So? What does that have to do with anything?"

"That's that the only thing we have that uses the internet." Jun responded. "We both have cell phones."

"You really think those would work here?" The former boy asked. "I don't think I've ever seen a cell tower in the Digiworld."

Pulling out his phone Jun answered "There's only one way to find out."

Three clicks later, a ringing came from his sister's pocket.

"My gods!" Davis pulled out her phone. Sure enough, caller ID revealed "Matt."

"I knew you'd come through for us!" Her digimon chimed. "Erm… you did, right?"

"Yes!" Her partner answered for him. "We can send pictures with this!"

"Thank you again, Veemon." Jun put in. He handed his sister the map. "Would you like to do the honors?"

"Yes, thanks."

She took a photo of the map. Its image on her phone was a lot smaller than the real thing, but you could still make out the details. All that was left was to send it to Tai's speed dial, "Big Brother".

Davis began typing a message.

---

Izzy:

"Well..." he thought "it's a VCR?"

The machine was laid before him, the top unscrewed and removed. Its interior matched the image he'd found online for a VCR's inner layout. Even with the blurry vision his new compound eyes gave him, Izzy could see as much if he leaned in and viewed it close up.

Of course, leaning came with its own interesting experience. As his feet pressed down upon the wooden table he was standing on, the... taste of wood came to him.

"Damn is that gonna take some getting used to!"

Even before examining the raid's loot, the boy turned bug had been compelled to look into a bug's sense of taste. It only took a quick Google search to discover that real world insects had what amounted to taste buds in very bizarre places. Some, beetles like Tentomon included, even had them on their feet, rather than inside their mouths. In some ways, it actually did seem to him like a better arrangement than what humans had. Part of the point of taste, after all, was to tell if you were about to eat something poisonous. As the article he read pointed out, such insects could tell this without even having to take the risk of putting the potential poison in their mouths.

It still really freaked him out every time.

"And here I thought I knew what to expect when switched into this body!"

Side facing compound eyes were one thing. You knew Tentomon had those just by looking at him. You knew any bug did. This... it was so alien he never would have thought of it, let alone looked into it, if he hadn't experienced it first-hand.

"And the eyes are still weird too..."

To actually make out the words in the article he'd read, he almost had to lean into the point where his new eyes touched the computer screen. To say it was straining on said eyes would have been an understatement. He still felt he had to do it. He felt even someone much less curious would have had to make sense of something not only that bizarre but that unavoidable in this body.

"Could have been worse…"

He had already known digimon, even incectiods like he now was, were surprisingly humanoid compared to their animal counterparts. He might not have been able to make sense of the taste buds on his limbs had he not still had a tongue to compare them too, which a real beetle doesn't. A real beetle also would not be able to see color like he still could, just shades of gray. They were also deaf. Digimon, on the other hand, came from humans, though the machines they made, and were meant to be with humans. They had to interact with their partners in ways even pets could not, most notably speech. Heck, judging by his claws, something he had also known beetles did not have, Tentomon was even drawing features from other insect species, many of which could hear or see in color.

Of course, that only went so far. You couldn't spend much time around say, Gatomon, and not notice how much they identified with the animals they resembled. Figuratively speaking, digimon were made in the image of their human makers, but literally...

Izzy decided to focus on the task at hand, not that there wasn't another reason his mind had wondered. Smart as he was... Izzy really didn't know what to look for. Computers were his specialty, not VCR's.

That said... there was one interesting thing he did notice.

"There's a tape in here."

He picked up the VHS. Ignoring the taste of plastic, he brought it up to his eyes for closer inspection. Like with the machine that contained it, Izzy could not see anything out of the ordinary about it. Unlike with the VCR, though, there didn't necessarily have to be.

"Whatever's on this tape could be a pretty big intelligence victory, even if it's just the emperor's home movies. We need to play it and see!" He thought "…at some point."

The newly made bug would have had a hard time looking around with his new eyes, but he had already seen as a human that there was no TV in this cabin. Few campsites would have had them, something or other about experiencing nature.

"Good thing I've got internet everywhere." He thought.

Continuing to think, he realized they didn't need one here.

"That VCR can hook up to Digital World TV's anyway. We can watch it when Yolie goes back tomorrow."

"We" was literal. Izzy had planned to go back with her then rather than endure the boredom Tentmon had had here as a digimon. Now that Tentomon himself was human, he could fully participate in the camping trip.

"It will make for a great vacation for both of us." His partner had thought. "Like no one's ever had."

He still couldn't wait for the chance to fly around unfettered. Just the limited experience he'd already had flying around the room felt like boldly going where no man had gone before. That was because none had… not like that. He must have spent an hour doing it when he came in.

"Check."

Speaking of Yolie, she was also in the cabin, playing chess with Joe… and winning by the sound of it.

"Typical." The other brainy child thought. The three of them were the main players of that game in the digidestined. He was the best, of course, but the bespectacled girl wasn't far behind him.

At any rate, they had had to stay behind when the rest of the humans went out for archery. Mr. Takenouchi had required it of them, Yolie to recover from her fall, and Joe, as a doctor in training, to watch her while she did. Poromon was also here, having volunteered to stay and watch Yolie as well.

"What a great partner." Izzy had thought. "Shame mine won't do the same with me."

That last part was a joke. He had encouraged Tentomon to go out and use his new body, which the newly made human did happily. Athletic activity would only enhance the experience of having a new form.

"Shame I can't follow suit, yet… or can I?"

Having done everything, he could with the VCR, it was time to examine the other object TK stole. For that new needed to get some new scientific equipment from the other side of the room, and there was only one way he wanted to get there.

Taking the spiral in his hand, he spread out his wings, and flew. Even with his limited eyesight, even confirmed to this one room, it was still amazing.

"I never want to walk again."

That was the only thing he could think as he arced across the room. Purposefully he was not going as the crow, or rather, Tentomon flies. He wanted to drag it out.

And, of course, there was another reason for that even beyond the excitement of flying itself. When he finally landed, his new feet literally tasted the floor. Walking here and doing that with every step would have been almost the opposite experience.

His landing was next to a cooler, the one containing the food the Takenouchis had brought. The "scientific equipment" he sought was, admittedly, the father's lemon slice.

"Tomato, tomato." He thought.

The boy genius had done this experiment before on the gemmed dark rings. The most obvious difference between them and normal dark rings, baring of course the gems and their body switching, was the fact that normal dark rings were labeled in digicode. They had to be. That was how the Digital World and the objects made in it worked. He learned as much early on in his adventure four years ago, when he saw literal digital coding written out in a factory on File Island, and erasing parts of the code changed the thing it represented. Theoretically, without the code written on it, a dark ring it shouldn't be able to do anything. This paradox had been the first thing he tried to explain.

The explanation had turned out to simply be invisible ink. Once he had that hypothesis, he had tested it with common methods used to make such ink visible. After simply holding it up to the light didn't work, the next step was to heat it up in the fire place; the nerd in him being particularly disappointed when that also did not work. What did work was lemon juice. One squirt of that and the words "Dark Ring of Exchange" were plainly visible in digicode. In all probability, "Dark Spiral of Exchange" was similarly written on this object, but experiments by nature needed to be repeated, and of course, his new body put a new twist on it.

He began to taste lemon as he held the slice in hand. "Here goes something."

Squeezing it was almost like taking a bite out of the sour fruit, something few humans could handle. Still, compared to the tastes of wood and plastic he'd been almost constantly experiencing, even that lemony sourness was vaguely pleasant.

"Being a Tentomon chef must be awesome." He thought. "Getting to taste all the ingredients before the final product is ever made…"

Sure enough, as the juice landed on the spiral… something began to appear on it. Izzy had to hold it up to his eye to read it, but it said exactly what was predicted.

"Checkmate."

Appropriately, that was when Joe and Yolie's game ended. That result was also what he had expected.

"Good game." Joe said. "Congratulations"

"Congratulations, Yolie." Izzy echoed.

"Thanks guys."

She then looked over and saw the other nerd holding the squashed fruit in one hand and the dark spiral in the other.

"Well, the other hand with fingers anyway." He thought, twitching the other, clawed, arms he was still getting used to.

He must have looked peculiar even without that. Yolie asked "What's with the lemon?"

If Tentomon had lips instead of mandibles, Izzy would have smiled then.

"Let me come show you."

Taking the excuse, he flew up to Yolie and held the loot up to her.

"Dark Spiral of Exchange?" She read. One explanation later and she continued. "Clever. Any other tests you want try while we're doing science?"

"Sadly, I don't think there are any more I can do. I looked at the dark rings with a microscope, but I didn't bring that here and it didn't really tell me anything anyway." He lamented. "Shame we can't see the code for these things, the real code. 'of Exchange' has to be a shorthand just as much as 'Dark Spiral' is. Anything that can processes a sapient mind has to have thousands, if not millions, of lines of code."

"Yeah… that sucks." The other computer genius agreed. "We could learn so much about them with that, not just about how they work but maybe even how to make them ourselves. Shame the digimon analyzer doesn't show code, just some generic information about a species."

"I know, right! Anything that can scan a digimon ought to be able to do it with Digital World objects too."

I was not the first time he had had that lament

"Do you think it's possible to modify the analyzer to do that?" Yolie asked.

"Maybe?" He responded. He'd had that thought before too. "It would be Herculean task though. We definitely couldn't do it in a day."

"Not least because I have these eyes this day in particular." He joked in his mind. He could only imagine he'd burn said eyes out of their sockets spending all of it with his face pressed against the computer screen. "I doubt Tentomon would appreciate that."

"Yeah," Yolie agreed "I couldn't do it after today either, if I'm going back to hunt the emperor." She chuckled. More seriously sounding, she continued. "Have you done everything you can with the VCR too?"

"Yes," Izzy lamented. "but I don't think I accomplished much on that front either. I don't really know much about how a VCR works. I did find out that there's a tape in there, though."

"A tape?" She questioned. Then her tone got exited. "You think there's any intel on it?"

"That was what I thought when I saw it, too."

"You guys sure it isn't just the emperor's favorite anime?" Joe asked.

Yolie shrugged. "It could be, but I think we have to find out."

"Agreed."

Yolie looked over where said tape was.

"You mind if I take a look at it too?" She asked. "I don't know much about VCRs either, but it can't hurt to have a second pair of eyes take a look."

"And a better pair of eyes." The newly made incest moped internally.

"Be my guest." He said. "Science needs to be peer reviewed."

"Well said." With that Yolie got up and walked that way.

As she left, Joe put in "You want to play a game of chess while she does that?"

"Aren't you supposed to be watching her recovery?" He half joked.

"Eh, I can do that from across the room." The doctor in training responded.

"Sure, I'm game."

He landed on the chair Yolie had been sitting in… and tasted it, as expected.

"Shame I don't have the stamina to just hover while I play."

It wasn't hard to imagine a Tentomon doing that, but, to his dismay, that species' newest member had found himself to brunt out after his hour of flying around.

Joe made the first move, the classic king's pawn to D4. His opponent responded by moving his queen's pawn to D5… and tasted said pawn as he did so. The taste of plastic was hardly appetizing.

"At least it isn't more wood." He thought "Good thing something here besides the VCR and my computer is made of something else."

The bizarreness of that thought was not lost on him.

More standard opening moves followed, as with most games Izzy and his friends played. As the game progressed, however, it began to play less and less like their usual games did. Mostly, the former genius realized all of a sudden, because he was losing.

"Check." Joe said.

He wasn't just losing… he was really losing. Joe had beaten him before… but never like this. Queen, two knights and rook were gone, and all Joe had lost was a bishop and two pawns.

It was quite a change in pace after beating his partner 10 times.

"Wha… no way!" He thought. "Wait... if I beat Tentomon all those times, and now I'm in his body... I'm not… dumber… am I?"

He had suspected it might happen. At first it had seemed like it ought to happen, given a brain was part of a body. After asking the swap victims about it, however, he had concluded the data did not support that hypothesis. Kari was convinced she had become as dull as Davis after gaining his body, and Matt seemed to believe her. He had even reported beating her in a game not unlike this one, but as Izzy had noted, that game had demonstrated a counterpoint. If Kari had lost intelligence with Davis's brain, from everything he'd heard about Jun, shouldn't Matt had gained it with hers? Add to that that the former body had lost the game to Veemon's brain, and the theory seemed dead. Matt had a counter explanation for Gatomon in Veemon's body that could have been right, but Occam's razor still seemed to suggest Kari was an exception rather than a rule. Izzy hadn't said it, given the state she was in, but he suspected her problems were all in her head. Said mental state made it seem even more feasible.

Now… now he was getting first hand evidence Matt might have been the exception rather than Kari…

"That can't be… I've been doing science this whole time, since I got done flying." He thought "Except… all of that was just looking up stuff on Google or repeating experiments I'd already designed as a human."

He realized then that there really hadn't been much in the way of new information to come out of his new brain, mostly just thoughts he'd had before and joke about a Tentomon chef his partner might have made.

"You okay, Izzy?" Joe asked.

Somehow, given how much Izzy prided himself on his intelligence, the thought of losing it was the most disturbing one he'd had that day, even compared to taking in having bones on his outside or taste buds on his hands.

"Oh, um… yes" His opponent lied. "Let's keep playing."

Sure enough it didn't take long for the check against him to grow to a checkmate.

"Oh... dear..."

"Congrats Joe" Yolie put in. "Yeah, I don't think I have anything else to say about the VCR either."

She looked over at Izzy.

"Since you got loser last time, I call this time."

"...loser" Izzy thought, feeling the insult unintentionally added to injury.

"Sure." He said despite this.

"Science needs repeating, as we keep saying. Maybe that was a fluke" He told himself internally. "...please let it be a fluke."

The former genius found himself losing to Yolie even faster.

"Check." She said.

"Maybe I should switch back tomorrow, after all..."

Before check could turn into mate, however, the game was interrupted by the cabin door bursting open. Given it took him away from the game, the insect was okay with tasting his chair as he turned his new body to look that way.

At first, he had a hard time telling who it was in the door beyond that three people came in. He recognized his own body by its height, but, for a second, the other two both looked like Tai.

"I guess the other one is Jun?" He thought "Erm... Matt."

"You guys are back early." Yolie pointed out. "Where are Sora and her dad?"

"And my brother?" Joe added.

"Sora is detracting them." Tai said, confirming his identity with his voice. "I... there's something I need to show you guys..." He looked at Yolie. "You in particular."

Whatever it was, it sounded urgent... It also sounded like Tai really did not want to share it, despite that.

"What is it?" the girl asked.

Matt just groaned.

"A waste of time."

"Maybe." Tai said "But I still want your opinion on it."

The leader handed her his phone and said "Look at this and tell me what you think."

It was only a second before she stepped back in shock.

"Is that the emperor's base?" She gasped. "Where did you get that?"

"That's the part that worries me." He responded.

"Little Sis?" Yolie said, Izzy guessed reading the speed dial. "That doesn't make sense... unless..."

Tai looked down.

"Yeah... that is what I had Kari's phone number as."

"How would Kari have that?" Izzy asked himself. Like she said it didn't make sense...

"unless Davis were the one using it now."

The room was silent for a moment.

"So... um," Tai eventually broke the silence with "does it match what you saw while you were in there?"

Yolie began moving her finger across the screen, as if tracing the path she had taken in the base.

"Hanger... cell block... yeah, it looks like it matches."

"Hold up!" Izzy exclaimed. "Are we saying Davis leaked us a map of the emperor's base?"

"That is what he claims." Tai answered. "He also claims to that the Digimon Emperor is Ken Ichijouchi and that he lives in the Digital World now.

Yolie scoffed. "Now I know he's full of crap! A guy as awesome as Ken would never turn evil like this."

"I don't know about that." Joe countered as Yolie scoffed again. "Still, I find it kind of hard to trust at this point."

Poromon flew up at looked at the phone.

"I don't know... that looks like the base to me too." He said. "If he's telling the truth about that..."

"The best lies contain a kernel of truth." His partner interrupted. "Seriously, Tai, why are you entertaining this?"

"He didn't at first." Tentomon put in. "But when I asked about the text he got... I figured we should examine it."

Izzy did not know what to make of that.

His partner continued "Sora agreed, when he showed her too. Matt…"

"Didn't" the former boy finished for him, scorn in his voice. "I can only imagine he's laughing at us right now."

"I'm with him." Yolie said in similar tones. She turned toward Tentomon. "Why would you think this is a good idea?"

"Maybe it's because I just learned about all this today, but I have a hard time believing Davis and Veemon went... that bad?" He answered.

"No way!" She balked "Are you seriously suggesting he's just a spy?"

"Yeah," Joe put in. "If he were, I don't see why he would have run away when he was exposed. For that matter, why would he have hid the truth from us to begin with? Bare minimum, he stole Kari's body. Is that really so far from really working with the Digimon Emperor?"

"Honestly, yes." He answered. "In my mind, at least, it's the difference between a thief and a tyrant. The scale is just that much bigger." He turned to Yolie. "I didn't say he was just a spy, just that I couldn't see him going that bad. Wasn't he a hero most of the time we knew him?"

That did seem to appease her a bit... only a bit, though. She was calmer, but not obviously not convinced.

"Like you said, you only just found out today."

Tai just shrugged. "I don't believe it either." He said. "But was convinced it was a good idea to let you guys see it and judge for yourselves." He reached for his phone back. "If you don't agree with Tentomon either," he began.

"I dunno, I think he might be onto something." Poromon put in, still looking at the phone. He added "Like I said, that looks like what I saw in the base as well. That part of what he said looks like it's true."

"Not you too!" Yolie sighed.

Even with poor eyesight, the newly made insect noticed Matt facepalming in the distance.

"Izzy, may I use your computer for a moment?" Joe asked.

"Sure, why?"

As the oldest boy approached the machine, he said "There is another piece of information we can… well, if not prove at least disprove in what Davis sent us. He said Ken Ichijouchi is the emperor and that he's living full time in the Digital World now. That last part would be easy to falsify."

"Good point." Yolie responded. "Please go falsify it for us."

"Let's see," Joe said as he began typing. "just type his name into Google and… well then…"

Izzy was too far from the screen to read what he found. Fortunately, his partner did it for him.

"Boy Genius Missing from Home" He read aloud.

"No way!" Yolie blurted out.

"Local prodigy Ken Ichijouchi was reported missing from his home on the night of August 1st." Joe read from what must have been a news article. "Huh"

"No! Ken!" Yolie cried.

"So…" Poromon asked "Does that mean he's the Digimon Emperor!"

"Of course not!" His partner screamed "It just means he's missing! My poor sweet prince!"

"She is right; that does not prove he is the emperor." Joe said. "It does make Davis's story that much more feasible, though." He paused for a moment. "Maybe we really should give it a chance?"

Izzy was expecting Yolie to explode on him then, but Matt beat her to the punch.

"How are you guys taking this seriously!?" He yelled out. "If you had your body stolen by those ass hats you wouldn't trust them either."

"Could we just show it to the others when we go back to the Digital World tomorrow?" Poromon asked in response. "Your bro and his partner saw a lot more of the base than we did. So did Armadillomon and Cody. They can compare it even better."

There was silence for a brief second. Izzy couldn't clearly see Yolie's face or Matt's, but once again he knew an explosion was coming.

Then Matt just started laughing.

"Huh?"

It wasn't exactly "ha ha" laughing. The newly made digimon could still hear more than a little bitterness in it… but it was still kind of… ironic?

"Fine" Jun's victim eventually said. "Show it to my brother if that will appease you idiots. There is no way in this world he will take it seriously. He's too 'Christian' for that."

"Isn't that religion supposed to be about mercy and forgiveness?" Izzy thought.

Still, from what the newly made digimon knew of TK, he had a hard time imagining him applying that to Davis. He was not unlike Cody in that way, who had even less reason. Izzy couldn't see either of them judging this kindly.

"Truth be told, I'm inclined to agree with them." He thought.

That said… after what had happened at the chess table, he wasn't very sure in what he was thinking.

He turned his neck to glance at Tentomon.

"Wasn't he the one that suggested this in the first place? If my old brain came up with it…"

Before anyone could react to that, the cabin door came open again. In walked Sora… along with her father and Jim Kido. She couldn't distract them forever, it seemed.

"There goes our opportunity of discussion."

Indeed, that was the end of the open, all-inclusive discussion. Whispers did continue to circulate though, when the adults weren't listening. The ad-lived consensus seemed to be to just sweep the issue under the rug until the rest of the younger kids saw it, then go from there.

"Here's hoping it works out." The former genius thought.