The Dark Bandit

The Dark Bandit

Part Ten

After walking for about fifteen minutes more, Mimi and the newly-evolved Togemon reached the strange little cabin that they had spotted before. As her digimon had stated previously, the girl noted a tall, strange looking creature positioned in front of the house.

"Is he a wild digimon?" Mimi wondered. She'd never seen such a creature before. He almost appeared to be a stuffed teddy bear, but he was taller than the house, as tall as Togemon, and he looked very angry.

Togemon shrugged. "Certainly appears to be without a partner," she replied. "What should we do?"

"Somehow, I don't think he's here to welcome us," the girl reasoned. "Maybe I should try to talk to him."

"He doesn't look like he wants to talk," her partner commented, noting the annoyed expression on the digimon's face.

"Maybe he guards whoever is in the house. If we explain that we're just passing through and we're not criminals or anything, maybe he'll let us visit," Mimi suggested optimistically. "I'm going to try to talk to him. You stay here. If there's any trouble, you can jump in and help out." The large plant nodded.

"Right," she agreed.

Mimi stepped into the clearing surrounding the house. "Hello!" she waved cheerfully. The digimon guarding the house peered down at her with an inhospitable expression. "I was just passing through the area and I got a little lost. I was wondering if you could tell me the way to the palace?"

The tall bear-like digimon merely growled in response. "Lovely Attack," he shouted. Mimi stared in shock as large translucent blue hearts came in her direction.

For some reason, she got the impression that she should avoid these hearts. Quickly, she turned in the opposite direction, back towards Togemon, but discovered that the hearts were surrounding her.

"Prickly Bang Bang!" a deep voice shouted from behind her. Suddenly, sharp, thin objects were flying through the air, and the hearts were popped as though they were simply soap bubbles. Togemon stepped from behind the trees, as the strange sharp objects had come from her.

"Togemon, take care of this rude digimon!" Mimi declared, being quite a bit annoyed at the bear-like creature's unprovoked attack. In her hand, the small box she was still holding began to emit high pitched noises once more.

Togemon jumped headlong into the battle, fists flying. A few moments later the giant plant and the giant bear were involved in a boxing match. Mimi would have been quite amused by the scene if she wasn't aware of the seriousness at the same time.

The battle continued for a few minutes before Togemon was able to shove her opponent backwards. The bear digimon fell down and landed hard on the ground. "Prickly Bang Bang," the plant shouted, shooting out the needles once more.

"Ahhh!" the bear shouted. It scrambled to its feet and disappeared into the forest.

"Wait!" Mimi called. The digimon paid no attention to her, however, continuing its mad dash through the woods. She sighed. "I was hoping to figure out what it was doing here," she confided to her digimon.

A white light surrounded the tall plant, and it shrank back down into Palmon. Mimi stared in surprise. "You de-evolved?" she asked.

Her partner nodded with a shrug. "I didn't have enough energy to stay as Togemon."

"Hmm…" she replied, intrigued.

"Didn't we want to see what was in that house?" Palmon reminded her partner.

Before Mimi could reply, the door to the small cabin opened and a short little old man stepped out. "Greetings," he commented. "So glad you could make it. My security team was getting a bit out of hand."

***

Daisuke heard a noise in the hall late that night. He was so exhausted, at first he wasn't going to even bother to see what it was, but then he heard yelling. Several different voices were shouting in protest. Probably to being taken to the dungeon.

Intrigued enough by the fact that a few of the voices were female, he stood up and made his way to the door. He had just reached it and was about to peer through the small window when the door opened and the guards tossed one of those figures at him. With a grunt, Daisuke and his new cellmate fell backwards in a heap.

The door closed a moment later before Daisuke could even react. He groaned in pain, wincing slightly when his sore, bruised back hit the stone floor.

"Daisuke!" the voice of whoever was with him shouted, and he recognized the voice.

"Hikari!" he realized then, scrambling to his feet at the same time she did. "What are you doing here?"

The Princess avoided his eyes sheepishly for a moment before she replied. "I'm not sure," she answered. "The guards burst into the room in the middle of the night. I think everyone else was taken, too. I heard them shouting. I couldn't see much in the dark, though."

"Everyone?" he repeated, shocked. "But – why?"

"Koushiro thinks that Father wants to use our digimon to evolve his digimon to a higher state. And that he'll need us at a weakened state to do that," she explained. Quickly, she went over what the young wizard had said before.

"I won't let him hurt V-mon," Daisuke declared. Then his face fell. "I don't think I'll be able to stop him, though," he realized.

Hikari sighed. "There's got to be something we can do," she told him with some optimism.

***

The two brothers found themselves tossed in a heap on a dusty floor. Yamato found that his fall was cushioned by his brother, but Takeru was not so lucky. Before either could recover, the door slammed shut once more. Immediately, the elder boy jumped to his feet and ran towards the entryway, but it had already been locked before he had even gotten up.

Takeru watched with a slight rolling of his eyes as his brother proceeded to yell a string of profanities in the direction of the guards. When that elicited no response from them, Yamato resorted to kicking the door in frustration. Then he sat down beside his brother, carefully staying off his foot.

"You done?" the younger brother questioned.

Yamato glared at his brother and examined his barefoot toe for serious injuries. "I knew this was coming," he admitted after a moment. "But that doesn't mean I'm not mad about it."

Takeru was eerily calm. "So I saw."

"This isn't right," he grumbled. "Not right at all. We need to be together."

"What do you mean?"

"Our best chance of defeating the King – or whatever controls him – and saving our digimon is to combine our forces. We can't do that if we've been split up."

"Well, that would explain why he separated us."

Yamato looked up from his uninjured foot. "I don't like it," he stated. "What if the King decides to regress our digimon back to their baby forms? What if they can't evolve back? What if their lack of energy makes us weak?"

Takeru shrugged.

"How can you be so calm?!"

The younger brother shrugged once more. "I don't know. I guess I just know everything will turn out all right."

"How do you know that?"

"I don't, really," Takeru admitted. "I just know that if I think positive, positive things might happen."

Yamato sighed and laid down on the hard floor. "I have a feeling we'll need a lot more than positive thinking to get us out of this situation."

***

Mimi sipped her tea from the old man's tea cup and smiled courteously. The situation was strange, the reason for their meeting was strange, and yet they were sitting there drinking tea as though everything was just fine.

"Do you need more sugar? Or cream?" the old man asked. Mimi politely shook her head.

"No, thank you, this is fine."

The old man nodded. "I suppose I should get down to business then," he decided. "I am Gennai. I suppose you could say that I am a bit of a mystic."

"Why did you have that strange digimon guarding your house?" Palmon interrupted before Mimi could ask just what he meant by that statement.

"Oh, Monzaemon?" Gennai questioned. "He was placed there by the King of this land about twenty years ago, I think. He was nice at one point, but he really had developed a bit of a temper over the years. Maybe not enough sleep or something." The old man shrugged slightly as he sat down at the table.

"He was supposed to guard your house?" Mimi asked.

"Yes, basically. The King wanted to make sure that no one came to see me and I saw no one. He really should have picked someone a bit friendlier. It gets boring being alone in the forest for twenty years and having no one to speak to."

"Don't you have a digimon partner?" Palmon wondered. The old man shook his head.

"I'm afraid I never found the right one for me," he replied, not really answering the question. "But we're not here to talk about me. We're here to talk about digimon and their evolutions."

"That's right, we are," Mimi agreed. "Why was Palmon able to evolve again? I thought only the King's digimon could evolve higher than this stage. And why didn't she stay as Togemon?"

"Palmon was able to evolve because of that little device in your hand," Gennai answered as he sipped his tea. "It's an ancient item known as a Digivice. It helps to increase the bond between digimon and partner, and it gives the digimon greater strength."

"How does it do that?"

"I'm not entirely sure," the old man replied. "I think that the digimon uses some of its partner's energy. But I could be wrong. Digivices haven't been seen in a very long time."

"What happened to the other digivices?" Mimi wondered.

"Other digivices?" Mimi quickly explained about the box they had found and how the digivices had floated off after Palmon had evolved. "Ah, yes," he recalled. "The other digivices went to their true owners."

"True owners?" Palmon repeated.

Gennai stood up and walked over to his stove, where a small teapot was still brewing. "Yes, it's a very old legend that surrounds the digivices. Many years ago a group of young people was called to defend the world from something. It's never clear in the legends what they fought, but through using the digivices they were able to defeat that threat. If the digivices have returned, then the people they have been sent to are the ones who must fight this new threat."

"A new threat?" Mimi gasped.

The old man poured himself some more tea and then replaced the teapot. "There is really no reason for the digivices to be available except for the partners to help the digimon evolve to higher levels. The world has been at peace for many years. Now if they have reappeared, it is necessary for the digimon to evolve further."

"So we'll have to fight?" Mimi frowned.

Gennai nodded solemnly. "Indeed. You'll have to fight many threats."

Mimi frowned even deeper. "I'm not sure I want to fight," she admitted.

"You won't have to do it alone, Mimi," Palmon reminded her. "I'll be by your side. And so will the others who received the digivices."

"That's right," Mimi cheered slightly. "Gennai, where have the other digivices gone to?"

"Their rightful owners," he repeated. "I don't know who they are." He held out his hand. "May I?"

The girl handed over the little blue box with a nod. The old man examined it for a moment. "The other digivices have not yet been delivered to their proper owners," he reported. "When they have been, you'll be able to track them using this device."

"Track them how?"

***

Sora groaned as she was tossed into the dark, dusty cell. She heard the door slam behind her, and then she heard Yamato's voice call out a few choice words to the guards. She heard Miyako scream in protest as well. Wisely, however, Sora remained silent. She knew that screaming her frustration would not solve the problem. No, she decided, it was much better to sit down and think of a solution.

"Huh?"

A voice from somewhere in the cell startled her. Someone else was there with her. Nervously, Sora backed into the cell door, eyes scanning the darkness in search of – something – she knew not what. "Who – Who's there?" she managed to stammer out, trying but failing to sound brave.

In the dim light from the window in the door behind her, Sora was able to make out a dark figure slowly taking shape. "Sora?" the voice questioned. It was hoarse – sounding, but familiar in some way.

"How do you know my name?" she demanded, still on guard. It could be a trick. It could be her tired mind playing tricks on her, it could be…

"Taichi!" she gasped, once the figure had come into view. "Oh my!"

Without wasting another second on words, Sora scrambled to the injured boy. "Are you alright? What happened?" he managed to blurt out.

"Don't talk," she urged. "You're too weak." Carefully, she helped him to lie down again. In the corner of the cell was a bucket of water that was their only source of nourishment for the moment. Within seconds, she had retrieved it and helped him to sip a bit of the water, the same way his sister had done for him the day before.

"Hikari?" he questioned after he had drunk a few sips.

"She's alright, Taichi. Don't worry."

He nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. "And everyone else?"

"They're all here," she reported. "We were dragged from our room in the middle of the night. As far as I know, everyone is here – in the dungeon."

The Prince sighed and shook his head slightly. "None of us deserve this."

"No," Sora agreed. "We don't. But Koushiro has a theory as to – as to your father's motivations."

"Motivations?" he repeated blankly.

"At least for separating us from our digimon," she clarified. Quickly, she told him of the young wizard's theories for further evolutions.

Taichi sighed, but before he could comment in response, both were aware of a strange commotion coming from the corridor. "What is that?"

"I'll look," Sora volunteered. She stood and walked to the door, peering out the peephole. Before she could comment, two strange spheres of light flew into the cell.

***

Koushiro squinted in the dim candlelight at the words in the large book he was now studying. After his conversation with the others that afternoon, the young wizard had decided to search for further legends regarding the evolution of digimon. Perhaps, he theorized, there was some truth to them.

It was very late at night, and he really should have been sleeping, but he was so involved in his studying that he knew he would not be able to rest for several hours. Even now, he was running on adrenaline that was so strong he barely noticed his tiredness.

The redhead was so involved his studies that he did not notice the door to his small lab open and shut behind him. Footsteps sounded softly behind him, and he was nearly startled right out of his chair when a voice behind him spoke.

"Don't you ever sleep, Koushiro?"

After taking a moment to calm his thudding heart, the wizard turned to the one who had spoken. "You're not sleeping either, Jyou," he reminded his friend.

"Only because I was attending to Lady Motomiya," he replied. "You, on the other hand, have no reason to be awake this late."

"Of course I do," Koushiro replied somewhat shortly, turning back to his book. "I need to find information on an old legend about evolving digimon."

"I suppose that it's so important it can't wait until morning, right?" the young doctor retorted.

"Actually, it can't," he answered. "It's very important that I find this legend. People's lives could be at stake."

"Koushiro, you're being dramatic." Jyou stepped away from his friend and glanced at a pile of books on a table nearby. Noting the title of one of them, he lifted it and began to skim the pages.

"I'm not being dramatic," Koushiro denied. He looked up from the book for a moment. "If I don't figure out exactly what happened when the children in that legend were able to evolve their digimon further, the King may be able to de-evolve the others' digimon in order to evolve his own."

Tentomon sat behind the pile of books Jyou had been observing. He was reading a book of his own. "Don't mind him, Jyou, he tends to get wrapped up in his work," the bug-type advised.

The dark-haired doctor shrugged. "I know," he assured the digimon. "Unfortunately it may effect his health."

The door behind him opened once more, and a small white digimon entered. "Oh, there you are Jyou," Gomamon greeted. "I've been looking all over for you."

Jyou lifted his digimon from the ground so he could better hold a conversation. "What for?"

Gomamon shrugged. "No reason. I just wanted to know where you were. I think something important is going to happen."

Koushiro whirled around in his chair. "What do you mean by that, Gomamon?" he demanded.

The little white digimon blinked nervously. "I don't know," he replied defensively. "I just feel like something's going to happen."

"I feel it too, Koushiro," Tentomon confessed. "I'm not sure what it is, either."

Jyou was about to reply to this when suddenly, two small white spheres floated into the room.

***

The tall, thick skinned guards that held his arms would simply not loosen their grip, no matter how hard he struggled. He was tired, but he was not giving in easily. His feet stumbled as he was dragged behind the others, many of who were kicking and screaming in protest much stronger than his own.

With a grunt, Ken suddenly fell to the ground, his knees groaning in protest as he hit the harsh stone floor of the stairs leading to the dungeon. In the shock, both of the guards assigned to him released their hold, leaving the dark-haired boy to tumble down the stairs and land in a bruised heap at the bottom.

By the time he was able to recover enough to sit up, the rest of the guards and their captives were long gone. Before Ken could make another move, his guards had reached him, and gripped his arms tightly, pulling him onward once more.

They finally reached the dungeon corridor to find that the others had already been thrown into their cells. The other guards were standing around, talking casually. When the last prisoner was hauled into the area, one of them, obviously the leader of the guards because he was larger, pointed to a door directly to the left. One of the other guards stepped forward with the keys and opened the heavy metal door. They stepped aside and watched with some amusement as Ken's two escorts tossed him unceremonially into the room.

Groaning from the harsh collision with the floor after his fall down the stairs, the dark-haired boy simply lay still and rested for a few moments. The door slammed loudly behind him, and he heard a gasp from inside the room.

"Are you alright?" he heard the voice question, and through the fog in his mind he was able to identify it as Miyako's.

He blinked his eyes a few times and managed to lift himself up off the ground. "I think so," he mumbled softly. He examined himself as best as possible in the dim light. His knees were sore from the fall, but the skin had not broken. His elbows, on the other hand, were skinned, and a few drips of blood were coming from each joint.

"What happened?" she questioned upon seeing the blood.

"Fell down the stairs," he replied casually, touching the sensitive areas lightly.

She gasped. "Those steep stone stairs we came down on the way here?"

He nodded, still paying attention to his bruising. "Those are the only stairs I noticed."

"I'm surprised you're in once piece," she commented.

"Nothing serious." He pulled up the leg of his pants enough so that he could see his knees. They were injured, and it was obvious that a nasty bruise would appear on each of them within a few hours, but they were still usable.

Miyako frowned slightly. "I was worried," she confessed.

Ken paused momentarily in his examinations to look at her. "About what?"

"You," she admitted. Her voice lowered to a softer level. "When we were dragged out of the room, I didn't hear you, and I was worried you had slipped out."

He shrugged, turning away and pretending to study his hands. "I figured screaming wouldn't really do much good," he replied.

Miyako was about to agree when two bright spheres floated through the barred window on the door. "What?" she questioned blankly instead. One of the bright spheres floated in front of her, and, cautiously she reached out and grabbed it.

"Wait," Ken spoke up, but she had already taken it. "We don't know what they are," he reminded her belatedly.

Miyako peered at the strange object in her hand. "They're important," she replied. "And this one's mine." Cautiously, the boy looked at the sphere in front of him. "That one's yours."

"Mine?" he repeated. "How can you be sure?"

"It must be," she reasoned. "It's floating right in front of you."

With ever present caution, he gripped the device in his hand.

***

Mimi finished sipping her drink. Gennai was about to offer her some more tea, when suddenly the strange device sitting next to her began to make a few noises. Alerted, the young girl lifted the small blue box and stared at it. In the center, she could see eleven blinking dots all clustered at the top.

"What on earth?" she gasped.

Gennai peered over her shoulder at the digivice. "Ah, yes," he noted with smile and a nod. "The others have received their digivices as well."

"How do you know that?" Palmon wondered, also peering at the device.

The old man pointed to the dots on the screen. "Each of those dots represents a digivice. Have you ever seen a compass?"

"Those funny looking things sailors use so they don't get lost?" Mimi wondered.

"That's it," he nodded. "Those little dots represent the other digivices. You can use yours to track them. The top of the digivice is straight ahead. When you get closer to the others, the dots will move down closer the center."

"Like a compass always points to the north," Mimi nodded in understanding.

"Exactly."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's find them, Palmon!"

***

Hikari stared at the funny looking device in her hand. She wasn't sure what it was, but she suspected it was very important. As she turned it over and examined it, the Princess got the feeling that this little blue box would help to save her kingdom and perhaps her life.

Daisuke reacted to his with different feelings. Where as the Princess felt it would change everything for the better, he got a strange sense of doom from the little box. Not that it was evil, but that something bad would occur as a result of it.

Both of them agreed on one thing, though, and that was that the devices would change everything, and that they were destined to receive them.

***

Iori awoke in the middle of the night to find his digimon awake and sitting on his bed. "Armadimon?" he questioned, blinking his eyes.

"I don't know what it is, Iori, but that thing is weird."

He sat up in bed and immediately saw what Armadimon was worrying about. A strange little white glowing sphere was hovering right above his head. "What is that?"
"I don't know," Armadimon repeated.

"Do you think I should – take it?"

"It's probably not floating in front of you if it belongs to someone else," the golden-colored digimon replied sensibly.

Cautiously, the boy headed his digimon's advice, reaching out his right hand and grasping the glowing sphere. The glow around it died, and he was able to see that it was actually a strange little pale blue box. There were darker sections on it, and there were also some strange blinking dots in the middle. Ten of the dots were clustered around the center of the box, but one dot was near the bottom.

"What do you think it is?" Armadimon wondered.

Iori could only stare. "I have no idea," he answered.

***

Jyou could only stare blankly at the strange little box in his hand. "What – is this thing?" he wondered. Normally, the cautious physician would have avoided a floating, glowing sphere, but something inside him had prompted him to grasp the strange object in his hand, and it had immediately stopped glowing. Now, it was a strange little blue box.

"It's a digivice!" Koushiro shouted. The young wizard was nearly beside himself as he began flipping through the pages of the book still sitting in front of him.

"A what?" Tentomon asked, buzzing over to peer over his partner's shoulder at the book.

"A digivice," he repeated. A few moments later, Koushiro arrived at a page. There, a strange looking blue box precisely like the one he held in his hand was drawn rather crudely on the page.

"What is it supposed to be?" Gomamon wondered.

"It's something that the Chosen used in ancient times to help their digimon evolve to higher stages!" the wizard replied, still so excited he could barely keep still. "They were rumored to be only myths, but if we have them, that proves that they're real!"

Jyou blinked. "Does that mean that we were Chosen, too?"

"Probably."

"So, Koushiro, what do these things do?" Tentomon questioned, getting right to the point.

"Well, as far as I can tell," Koushiro began, but was interrupted by the sound of running feet in the hall.

"Koushiro!" a voice shouted, and a few moments later a boy skidded into the doorway. He was still dressed in a loose sleeping garment, and he slid, barefoot, on the floor. Armadimon scrambled behind him.

"Iori, you too?" Jyou gasped, noting the strange blue box that was in the boy's hand as well.

"You have one, too?" Iori questioned. He held out the strange blue device. "It came to me while I was sleeping."

"They're digivices, Iori," Koushiro replied. "As far as I can tell they're used to evolve digimon to higher levels. If you have one, that means you've been chosen as well." The wizard appeared thoughtful for a moment.

"But Koushiro," Iori interrupted. "What about these funny dots?" He held out his digivice. The eleven dots were still there, but now two of them were in the direct center of the device.

"They moved!" Armadimon realized when he saw the dots. "Before, all the dots were over there, except that one that's farther away. Now those two are in the middle."

"They did," his partner agreed, staring at the strange dots with a stunned expression.

"Then the digivices must also be used for tracking other digivices," Koushiro realized. He returned to his book, flipping through the pages once more.

"Tracking other digivices?" Jyou repeated.

"Maybe each of the dots is another digivice," Gomamon theorized from where he was, flopped over Jyou's shoulders.

"That would explain why two of the dots got closer when we came here," Armadimon agreed.

"What I don't get is how it works," Iori confessed.

"I don't either," Koushiro admitted. "But I suppose as long as it does work and we know how to use it, it will have to do."

***

Sora stared at the device in her hand. "Could this be one of those things Koushiro was talking about?" she wondered aloud.

"What do you mean?" Taichi wondered.

"Well, when Koushiro was talking about evolving digimon, he said that a long time ago, a group of people were supposedly able to evolve their digimon further than adult stage by using strange devices with symbols on them."

"These have symbols on them," her friend noted.

She nodded. "Then it could be that these are them. But there's no way to test it. We don't have our digimon."

***

Mimi's feet pounded along the ground as she ran, Palmon rushing to keep up with her. Normally, neither of them liked to run, but she was so excited about receiving a digivice and finding the others that possessed them that she had begun running, and even now did not stop.

Palmon panted behind her. She carried the basket of food in her arms, struggling not to trip and spill its contents on the ground. "Mimi! Wait!" she panted, and finally stopped, too tired to continue any longer.

Mimi reluctantly paused and waited for her digimon. Over her shoulder she carried the bag of clothes she'd been persuaded to take, and in her free hand, the lantern. In the other hand was the little blue box known as a digivice.

"Are you all right?" she questioned.

The plant digimon could only wheeze a few times in response before collapsing on the ground. "Do – you – think – we – could – slow – down?" she managed to ask.

"I'm sorry Palmon," Mimi apologized. "I guess we could walk instead of run."

"Thanks," Palmon gasped.

A few moments later, after pausing to catch their breath, the two started out at a much more subdued pace. It was still very dark out, and Mimi was beginning to tire, but she kept going.

"Hey Palmon, you know what I've noticed?"

"What?"

"We're heading in the direction of the castle," Mimi reported. "I wonder if that has anything to do with that weird feeling we had before."

"About something being wrong?" her partner questioned. "Maybe."

"I'll bet Princess Hikari received one of the digivices," she theorized. "But who could have the other ten?"

"Maybe Taichi?" Palmon suggested.

"Maybe," Mimi agreed. "But that's only three. The digivice shows that there are at least twelve of us, including me."

"Maybe the others are some of the guests Hikari's having?"

"Possible. I could see her having at least nine guests," the girl agreed. "After all, it is her sixteenth birthday."

***

That morning, four days after Princess Hikari's sixteenth birthday, the sun rose over the kingdom of Yagami.

Inside the castle, Koushiro had fallen asleep over his research, still gripping his digivice in his hand. Tentomon was curled up on a nearby table, dozing amongst piles of books.

Jyou was safe in his bed, a light blue nightcap falling over his face as he slept. Gomamon snored beside him, and the digivice sat on the nightstand beside his bed, still blinking slightly.

Iori slept in the small room he considered his quarters. Armadimon rested on the floor beside him. Concerned about loosing his newest possession, the boy had stuffed the device under his pillow where no one would find it.

In the dungeon, the prisoners slept with less comfort. Yamato and Takeru had managed to make themselves semi comfortable on the floor of their cell, their digivices still grasped protectively in their hands.

Daisuke had fallen asleep with Hikari's lap as a pillow. He had been tired, and hurt, and she had offered. He had protested, but had been persuaded. The Princess slept sitting up, her somewhat regal gown now dusty, dirty, and torn from the trauma of the last few days, but her spirit so far unbroken. Her digivice lay on the ground beside her, but Daisuke clutched his protectively in his hand.

Taichi was in a worse state than his friend. Unaccustomed to harsh torture, and having displeased his father more than he could ever guess, the boy tossed and turned, in some physical discomfort even as he slept. Sora had stayed awake for a while, trying to tend to her friend, but eventually she had passed out on the floor beside him as well. She had put her digivice in her pockets under the folds of her skirt. The Prince had tried to hold on to his, but had lost it in his disturbed sleep. It now lay on the ground beside him.

Miyako had struggled to get comfortable on the stone floor for a good hour. Her cellmate, somewhat used to less than luxurious sleeping conditions, offered generously that she use him as a pillow. So eventually, after a lengthy debate on the subject which never really focused on the issue at hand, he slept on his back, and she contented herself with using his stomach as a headrest. She was pleased because she was a bit more comfortable, and he was pleased because he no longer was kept awake by the constant tossing and turning. Both of them had put their digivices in their pockets where they believed they would be kept safest.

Outside, a young girl and her plant-like digimon made their way towards the castle in the early morning hours. Though tired from the long walk, both had been kept awake by the tea at Gennai's cottage, a few snacks along the way, and the knowledge that neither wanted to sleep in the dark forest.

"What do we do now, Mimi?" Palmon questioned.

"We can't go through the front door," Mimi decided. The two guards standing at the front entrance would most likely have permitted them to enter, but Mimi was still concerned about the strange feeling she was having, and did not wish to engage them in a conversation.

"So what do we do?"

That, in itself, had not occurred to the girl when she had decided to walk to the castle. Security was light in the early morning simply because getting over the walls of the palace was nearly impossible. Mimi didn't relish the thought of climbing over the tall stone walls.

Suddenly, in staring back and forth between the walls and her digimon's thoughtful expression, an idea occurred to Mimi Tachikawa.

***

Three cheers for all of you who have read this far!!! Yea!

It's almost over – probably about two or three parts left in this, depending on how I break it up. Yes, I am fairly certain of how it ends. No, I'm not telling you. ~_^

Well, I told you Mimi had a big part, didn't I? Yes, and she meets the elusive Gennai. Naturally, he has to show up to explain everything. Seriously though, did he ever serve any other purpose?

In the next part, Mimi meets up with everyone else, we finally discover why the King wants them (in more details), and what his plans actually are. Expect to see more angst-filled, sappy scenes ahead. The end? Coming soon!

Thanks, everyone who has read this far! And thanks again to all the great reviewers! Three cheers again! Yea!

If anyone wants to receive an email about when I update this next (since Author Alert is now gone) or when I next put up a story, just send me an email at Turquoisecow@excite.com, and let me know. Yes, this is cheating the system, but I'm not the only one, which tells you that the system sucks. ^_^

Oh yes, and I don't own Digimon! Never have, never will. Sue me? All you're getting is my stuffed cow. Moo.