Disclaimer: I don't own digimon, I never have, and I never

will...If you believe I do, I'll find somebody to get you a nice

padded cell...


Authors Note: I'm sorry Tai fans, I'll try not to use him as a

universal punching bag anymore...


Chapter IV


"Look, a castle!" Tai exclaimed, pointing ahead. "That must be

where they are!"


"You don't have to be a genius to figure that one out," Sora

whispered to Mimi and Jyou. Mimi giggled and Jyou smiled.


"What's so funny?" Tai asked.


"Nevermind Tai..." Jyou told him.


Tai wrinkled his forehead. "Lets go inside," he proposed. They

were near the castle, hidden in the trees.


"Hey! Are you friends of the Guardians of Hope and Knowledge?" a

voice called to them.


"Wha...Aww...it's so CUTE!!!" Mimi exclaimed. The small digimon

that had addressed them shrank back in fear from Mimi. It looked like

a ferret with the tail of a squirrel.


"Hey! Is that a rat?" Tai asked.


"I don't know, but I'm sure I'm allergic to it..." Jyou replied.


"Hey, I'm not a rat, Cactus Head!" the little digimon yelled.


Tai jumped in surprise. "S..S-sorry...Man, that little guy sure

is loud when he wants to be..."


"So, who are you, little friend?" Sora asked it.


"I'm Sumamon. So do you know them?" he asked.


"Yes, they're our friends. Do you know where they are?"


"In there...but if I were you, I wouldn't go in there. Katyamon

lives there."


"Katyamon? Sounds like a karate move or something...How do you

know they're in there?" Tai asked it.


"I saw them go in with the Marlamon." Sumamon replied.


"What are Maramon?" Sora asked.


"Mar-LA-mon, are bird-like digimon, who lure unsuspecting

digimon into Katyamon's grasp for her to decide if she wants to kill them, or

make them her slaves. I have a feeling your friends are dead."


"How come you haven't been captured?" Tai asked suspiciously.


"Well....I..." Sumamon trailed off.


"What?" Tai asked, taking a menacing step towards him.


Sumamon said nothing.


"Well...?"


The Sumamon darted away. Tai started after it, but Jyou grabbed

his arm. "Let it go. You already scared it half to death."


"Fine, let's get to the castle."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Leave him alone!" Takeru shouted. Katyamon had been pounding on

Patamon for quite a while now.


Katyamon turned to Take, "Why do you care? He's of no use to you

anyway." Katyamon walked over to Izzy. "Koushiro? Time to wake

up Koushiro..." Katyamon lifted his chin up. Izzy was awake, he

didn't respond to her voice or her touch. "Heh...heh...heh...Perfect," she

purred.


"Leave him alone too!"


"Why should I? Soon you won't care what I do to them." She said

as she walked over to him. Takeru felt a sharp pain in his mind. He hung his head and tried

to block it out.


"I'll do as you wish...for now." Katyamon told him, lifting his

head up. "But...everything comes with a price." Katyamon walked over to the

table and flicked his crest onto the floor. Takeru watched in horror as

she brought her foot down and broke it in half...tag and all. Takeru stared

at the broken crest....not believing what he saw.


Just then, the door swung back, and there stood a Marlamon.

"Majesty, a group of kids have broken into the castle, they..."


"Let them come...Lead them here...to us." Katyamon ordered. The

Marlamon nodded and raced off.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Come on! This way!" Tai yelled, and raced in the direction of

the blinking lights on his digivice. The Marlamon hadn't given much of a fight. In

fact, they hadn't fought at all. They just persuaded the guards to let them in.

They came to a sturdy-looking wooden door. Tai opened it and went in with Sora,

Jyou, and Mimi in tow. He stopped dead in his tracks at what he saw. There

was someone in a cloak standing next to a table. He spotted Takeru chained

against the wall with his head down. He also spotted Izzy, restrained as well,

except to the floor.


"Welcome, Digidestined...As you can see, I have two of you as

guests already...but I am willing to bargain with you. If you want Hope...you

must give me Courage. If you want Knowledge...I get Reliability. That's the game, now

choose. If you don't choose....None of you leaves this room." Tai, Sora, Mimi, and

Jyou looked at each other. One of them had to go. They had to abandon either

Tai or Jyou.


"I'll go..." Tai said, defeated. Tai's crest started to glow brightly. "But first...Who
are you?"


"I am Katyamon, ruler of the Marlamon, and now your master." As

she said this, she pulled her cloak back, revealing her face. Her dark, purple

eyes were almost hypnotic. Tai blinked, and shook his head. 'She's human! Well,

sort of. She's got furry arms...' Tai thought, surprised.


"Quit hesitating Courage...Step forward."


"Release him first."


"You don't trust me...you have good instincts. Come half way to

me, then I will release him."


Tai considered it for a moment, then walked towards her. "Okay,

now let him go," Tai demanded. Katyamon waved her hand, and Take was

unchained from the wall, and started floating towards him, just

from Katyamon's gesture.


"Tai..." he whispered as he floated past Tai, "...No...."


Sora, Mimi, and Jyou were all lifted into the air by the same

invisible force. Katyamon swung her hand in a circle, and then closed it.

All of them disappeared.


"What did you do with them?" Tai asked forcefully.


"See for yourself." Katyamon gestured towards his digivice.


Tai pulled it off his belt, and saw a very weak signal on the

farthest edge of it. 'She's more powerful than I thought...' Taichi bit

his lip.


Katyamon snapped him out of his thoughts. "You are quite stupid,

Taichi Kamiya...For the Digidestined can't go anywhere without a

leader... Just like soccer, right?"


Taichi gasped. 'She knows! No, she couldn't know. She's been in

the digiworld.' He reassured himself.


"You are good at soccer. You won your first game after you got

back from the digiworld, with a header..." Katyamon smiled. "And

then, after the game, when you were all alone..."


An image entered Tai's mind. He unwillingly replayed that

devastating moment in his head. The headlights, the sound of the tires

screeching, and then...the car slamming into him, flipping him onto the

hood, and then his head made contact with the asphalt.


Katyamon picked up a silver chain and snapped it in the air just

right so it was securely wrapped aroud Tai's wrist. That pulled him from

his thoughts. He cried out as she yanked the chain towards her, dragging him

forward. He struggled to get free. She dragged him until he was at her

feet, then she pulled him up into a standing position. She was at least a

head taller than him. She ripped his digivice out of his hand.


"No!" Tai yelled and tried to snatch the digivice from her hand.

Katyamon simply held it above her head. She then jerked on the chain,

knocking him over. She placed the digivice on the table next to Takeru's

digivice and broken crest. She grabbed Tai by his collar and lifted him

off the ground.


"Are you afraid?" she asked menacingly.


"No," Tai said, shaking slightly.


"Then why are you shivering?" With her other hand, she pulled

his crest out from under his shirt. In one swift motion, she snapped

it off his neck and dropped him. She fixed the string it was on. Then, she

put the crest around her neck, where Izzy's crest was. When she was

holding Tai in the air, he saw two digivices, and a broken crest. He

couldn't tell whose it was though.


"Time for you to re-experience the nightmare of your past."

Katyamon told him. She whipped him around, slamming him into a wall. With

her free hand, she grabbed his arm and twisted it sharply behind his

back. Tai cried out as pain shot up his arm. He felt it splitting, and then

breaking. She'd just snapped his arm like a twig. He felt her claws sink into

his arm. His warm blood ran down his arm, into his hand, and then slowly

dripped onto the floor. Tai hit face first. He tasted blood in his mouth, and

spit it out.


"Meddling brats!" Katyamon yelled at a tall blonde boy, and a

brown-haired girl.


"Tai!" Taichi heard the sweet voice of his little sister, Kari.


"What have you done to him?" another voice demanded. Tai's eyes

focused and he saw that it was Yamato. Matt, his rival, his

friend...of all people, Mr. Cool was here to save him. Tai also knew that Yamato

was a caring friend. That's why he had the Crest of Friendship. Even

though he could be a pain, and had odd ways of showing his friendship

sometimes.


Katyamon lashed out with her telepathy attack. Matt and Kari

heard a deafening high pitched sound in their heads. Kari was driven

to her knees by it. Matt winced and ran towards Katyamon. He tried to

tackle her, but she just knocked him back. When he got up, he felt

something wrapping around his neck. He grabbed it and realized it was a

chain. It tightened on his neck, and he desperately clawed at it, to

keep it from strangling him. It lifted him off the ground. The chain got

tighter and tighter around his throat. An idea popped into his head. He

pulled one hand out of the chain and reached for his digivice.

He choked and pulled his digivice off his belt and turned it on. A

baby blue light shot out of it, and the chain disappeared. Yamato

fell and rolled as he landed so he wouldn't break anything. That's

when he heard Kari scream. He looked up sharply and saw Tai

struggling to help Kari. Katyamon was just about to hurt her. Yamato pushed

himself to his feet, despite his protesting muscles. He hurdled

himself into Katyamon, and succeeded in knocking her over this

time.


"Kari, get Tai out of here!....Aaaaahhhhhh!!!" Yamato cried out

as Katyamon threw him across the room. She then turned on Tai.


"Oh no, TAI!!!" Kari yelled. Her crest glowed and there was

another bright white flash. Kari found herself and Tai in the digiworld

forest. Tai shuddered and collapsed.


Matt once again pushed himself into a standing position. He

leaned against the wall for support. When he looked up, he saw Tai and

Kari were gone. Katyamon was growling out of frustration because they

had escaped. She marched up to him and brought her hand up to

smack him. She was so quick about it that Yamato stood there

shocked after she did it. Her claws had raked across his cheek.

He started to move, but she was faster.


"Cat's Eye!" She yelled the name of her attack and hit him with

it at point-blank range. A beam of white energy burned into Matt's

chest.

He cried out in pain. She stopped, not wanting to kill

him...yet. His eyes, half closed, looked at her as he slowly slumped to the

ground...into the inviting, and deceiving darkness.


Katyamon reached down and took his crest. "Friendship....hmm...

Suits you well blondie." She placed the crest on her neck, with

Courage and Knowledge.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Gabumon and the six other digimon treked towards the castle.

They had been walking for hours.


"Gabumon? Are you sure we're going the right way?" Gomamon

asked.


"I'm sure it was here. I don't understand, we should have gotten

there in no time."


"Maybe Gabumon's losing it..." Gomamon commented quietly.


"Hey! What's that sound?" Agumon asked. All the digimon stopped

and listened.


"If I'm hearing right, that's Jyou." Gomamon said.


"Let's find out." Agumon suggested.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Sora, Mimi, and Jyou wandered through the forest they were in.

They called for Takeru. The three of them had found each other rather

quickly.


"Jyou!" a familiar voice called. Seven digimon entered the

clearing.


"Palmon!" Mimi cried into Palmon's shoulder.


"Biyomon! I'm so glad you're here!" Sora exclaimed.


"Glad to see you again, Gomamon," Jyou told him and patted his

head.


"That's it? Don't I get some mushy show of attention?" Gomamon

asked playfully.


Jyou hugged him and then looked around. "Hey, where's Patamon?"

he asked.


"With Take at the Marlamon's castle." Biyomon informed him.


"We're going there now. Gabumon's trying to lead us there."

Agumon supplied.


"Oh great, she's got Patamon too?" Jyou muttered.


"What do you mean...*got* Patamon too?"


"Well, when we got there, Izzy and Take were chained to the wall

of a dungeon. They were in pretty bad shape, too..." Jyou went on,

unaware of the pair of eyes watching them.


(Note: This is from the 'pair of eyes' mentioned above, point of

veiw.) A boy about his age was unconscious on the ground next to him. The

blue-haired boy was describing the blonde on the ground next to

him perfectly. He rustled the bushes, and nudged the blonde with his

foot. The blonde moaned and stirred. The group of digimon and digidestined

turned towards the bushes, expecting an evil digimon to come out. Then they

heard a moan, a *human* moan. They all went over to investigate.


"Takeru!" Jyou said surprised. He knelt down and looked him

over. There were a few small cuts on his wrists, a gash on his face, and

wounds on his side.


"Jyou...." Take said weakly.


"It's alright Takeru," Jyou assured him.


"No....Patamon....She hurt....Patamon...." Take closed his eyes

and fought to stay conscious. "She....did..something....Izzy...NO IZZY!!!"

Takeru suddenly shouted.


Mimi jumped at his sudden yell and turned away. She stepped

right into someone. Her eyes got big, and he covered her mouth so she

couldn't scream. She struggled.


"Jyou, Sora, help!" Mimi said through his hand. Sora and Jyou

turned. There was a boy trying to restrain Mimi. He had metallic baby

blue hair, and eyes to match. He was about a foot shorter than Mimi. Sora

and Jyou walked towards them, intent on rescuing Mimi. The boy saw he was

outnumbered when he saw the digimon also advancing on him. He

pushed her forward so she fell onto Sora, then he turned and

ran. Jyou and Gomamon chased him. The boy ran and jumped over a creek,

followed closely by Jyou. A rift suddenly opened up in front of him, and

he couldn't stop. Someone stepped out of it, and he ran smack into them.


"Katyamon..." he gasped. She picked him up by his shirt collar.


"Akira, you ungrateful brat. This is where you ran off to."

Katyamon saw Jyou enter the clearing, and stop to stare at them. "You've been

helping them?" She hissed at him.


Jyou rushed into the clearing after the boy, and then stopped

suddenly. Katyamon was there, holding him in the air and shaking him.


"Gomamon..." Jyou started.


"Say no more, Jyou. Gomamon digivolve to........Ikkakumon!!!"


Katyamon paid them no mind. "Harpoon Torpedo!!!" Ikakumon shouted

starting his attack. Katyamon shielded herself and the boy easily.


"She's too strong..." Jyou started. Katyamon suddenly flung the

boy aside like a rag doll.


"Cat's Eye!!!" She cried. The white beam of energy hit Ikkakumon

head on. He de-digivolved into Gomamon and fell into Jyou, knocking

him over.


"Gomamon!" Jyou cradled his digimon companion.


Katyamon turned to the boy and repeated her attack on him. It

only hit him partially because he doged, but still got hit none the less.

He was flung back by the force, into a tree. "That will teach you..."

She turned to Jyou. "Reliability....humph....It suits you...I guess. Not as

well as cowardly would though...But if you want to live up to your crest, I'll

give you a chance...Leave and take the Guardians of Love and Sincerity with

you. This is not your battle....not yet..."


"I won't abandon my friends!" Jyou said defiantly.


"Some friends they are...They treat you like dirt. Anyway, if

you don't leave, and they die, don't say I didn't warn you..." Katyamon

openedthe rift again and stepped into it, just as Sora, Mimi and the

digimon entered the clearing.


"What was that?" Sora asked.


Jyou thought for a moment. "Nothing...Absolutely nothing..."


"How did Gomamon get hurt by 'nothing' Jyou?" Sora asked. Jyou

remained silent.


"Hey, it's that guy who tried to kidnap me!" Mimi yelled and

pointed at the light blue-haired boy, lying unconscious on the ground

across the clearing.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Tai, please wake up." Kari held her brother's head in her lap.

She saw the damage done by Katyamon. Tai had some puncture wounds on his

arm and that same arm was broken. There were bruises all over him,

but the worst was on the side of his face. It looked like someone had

hit him with a baseball bat. Suddenly her digivice went off. On the edge there

were three dots.

"The others...They can help..." She dragged Tai, as gently as

she could, across the clearing, so the others were sure to see her light on

their digivices.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Yamato Ishida awoke to find himself chained to a wall. He

smelled no fresh air as he pulled in breath after breath.The air was musty,

and it smelled like Tai's soccer socks after he played a long, hard

game. He pulled his head up and looked around. There wasn't much to look

at. The only things he could see was Izzy, who was lying unconscious on

the floor, and Patamon, who was in a small cage. Something that smelled

totally different entered his senses. He opened his eyes and saw a

thick, crimson liquid on his chest. His mouth opened in shock. It was

blood...*his* blood. It didn't hurt that much, but maybe that was because he couldn't

feel anything. His body had gone numb. The dungeon was freezing cold.

He lifted his head at the sound of the door opening. A marlamon

entered the room, carrying a bowl and a washcloth. Another digimon

entered the room behind the marlamon quietly. 'It looks like a rat...' Matt

thought. The Marlamon walked over to him and wet the washcloth. It applied

this to Matt's chest. His shirt was not in tatters yet, but being in the

digiworld, it might as well be. The other digimon quickly scampered over to

Izzy. The Marlamon turned at the sound of light clicking on the floor. It

saw nothing, so it turned back to him, finished its job, and left.

The cloth had left Matt wet, and he felt the cold even more. After the

Marlamon left, Katyamon entered the room.


"So blondie, how's your dad?" (Insert sarcasm here.) Katyamon

asked.


Matt frowned. 'How could she know about my life?' he thought.


"What, don't you remember?" Katyamon asked.


"I remember...and it's none of your damned business!!!"


"Now now, I'm sure he doesn't, excuse me, *wouldn't* want you to

use that tone to your elder." Katyamon told him. "If I'm not

mistaken, which I never am, *you* caused his death." Katyamon studied Yamato's

face. "Anger...Resentment...Guilt..." She laughed, "...all of them

appear on your face as proof."


"I am *not* responsible for his death!!!" Matt shouted, his

temper flaring up.


"Oh really? Wasn't it *you* who disobeyed him and went to a

concert against his will? Wasn't it *you* who he was looking for that

night? Weren't..."


"NO!!! He was drinking, that's why he got killed. It wasn't my

fault! I waited up for him, and he never come back!" Yamato shouted at her.


"And what would have happened if he came back?" Images, memories

flooded into Yamato's head, of his father beating him when he

was drunk. He didn't mean to do it, and he had been getting help to stop

himself, but every once in a while, he smacked Yamato around a little. Yamato

pushed back tears that started to form in his eyes, that threatened to

overflow. Katyamon leaned in next to his face and whispered, "Everyone

blamed you...Everyone knows you did it... Everyone still blames

you...and...they'll kill you for it." She grabbed his head and bashed it

against the wall. Yamato slipped into unconsciousness gratefully.


"Marlamon! Deposit these three out of my... our castle. They are

nothing but trouble."


"Yes, Queen Katyamon," four marlamon said. They unchained Yamato

and Izzy, and got Patamon out of the cage.


"Oh nevermind, I'll do it myself." Katyamon told them. They

bowed their heads out of respect, and left quickly. Katyamon waved her hand,
and Matt, Izzy, and Patamon disappeared.



Author's Note: So did ya all like it? PLEASE review! I need

inspiration! Thanx for reading, look forward to the next part!

~Akira~