The Reign of Courage

Part Twelve: A Magical Defeat

***

Standard Disclaimer Thingy: Digimon and all related characters ARE NOT mine. The plot, however pitiful it may be, IS! Thanks for not suing or stealing. Enjoy!

***

"This stupid thing is just useless," Miyako grumbled, banging her digivice against her hand in frustration. "Just plain useless."

"Miyako, it's not entirely useless," Hawkmon reminded her as diplomatically as possible. "It would be a good idea not to destroy it."

"But it is useless!" the girl replied, half-whining now. "What good is it if it can't tell me where anyone is? What good is it!" She sank against the ground in frustration, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"Well, it did let Hawkmon armor evolve," Iori reminded her in a calm voice from nearby.

"Lot of good that did us!" Miyako shouted back, heedless of logic. "Ken's still missing, and who knows if they've found Sora! Now they're all going to get themselves killed and I can't do anything about it!"

"Whoa," was Leomon's comment at that moment in time, and Armadimon had to agree with the large feline.

"Miyako," Hawkmon said, cautiously, calmly. "Be careful."

Miyako had ceased shouting at this point. She had a look of stricken fear on her face, and she looked around wildly. Iori observed what scared her – there was something different about her. He'd seen it before, when he was a boy, and he knew he'd probably see it again before his life was to end.

There were flares of magic around Miyako.

Judging from the look of fear on her face, Miyako had not experienced this before, which Iori couldn't help being slightly surprised about. When he was young, living with his grandfather, he'd seen many children, in the heat of emotional passion, first experience the flare-up of magic. Since he'd come to the palace, he'd learned from Koushiro more of the technical aspects of magic and its control, though he didn't possess any magical energy himself, but he had learned the practical ways of dealing with a magic flare-up at home in the dojo. That usually involved talking calmly with the person who was experiencing it, and then quickly getting them to someone – usually an experienced wizard or sorceress of some sort – who could help them control it.

Though he couldn't perform the second half of that – magic prevented him from getting to Koushiro or anyone outside of this dust filled forest – Iori was determined to attempt to calm Miyako as much as possible. 

"What's – happening?" the girl wondered, the fear in her eyes even more pronounced. She could  see the flaring colors surrounding her, Iori noted, and that scared her.

"Miyako, it's all right. I've seen this before. It's a magic flare," the youngest chosen stated. "It won't hurt you, you'll be fine; you just need to calm down."

"A magic flare?" Leomon repeated, confused. The look on Miyako's face told Iori that she, too, was lost. He needed to try to explain to her what was going on without scaring her senseless.

"What's a m-magic flare?" Miyako questioned, her voice shaky.

"It's nothing dangerous," Iori assured her. "There's magic in you, and it's making itself known. That's all."
"Magic?" Miyako's voice was even shakier now. The colors surrounding her suddenly grew brighter. "How did it get there?"

"You mean she's got magic?" Hawkmon translated. "But – how? And why?"

Iori nodded. "I've seen these tons of times. Magic can stay dormant for a long time. When it finally makes itself known, it flares up like this. My grandfather's dojo had quite a few students that possessed magic – and it made itself known during practices. Usually, it's discovered at a young age, but not always. The best thing to do, Miyako, is to calm down as much as possible and not get too excited. Then, as soon as we can, we'll find someone who can teach you to control it. I'm sure Koushiro would be happy to help." His voice remained calm throughout his speech, and he noted that the colors surrounding her were beginning to fade slightly.

"Maybe you should sit down," Armadimon suggested. "That usually helps, right?" He looked to his partner for assurance.

"Yes, sit down. Breathe deeply. Daisuke and Hikari will hopefully have found some water, and that will help," Iori agreed. "Once we've got some food, you can eat some of that, too."

"They should be back any moment," Hawkmon agreed.

At that exact moment, there was a rustling in the trees at the edge of the clearing where they'd set up camp. "You're not going to believe this, but there's a stream less than ten minutes walk from here," Daisuke stated eagerly, carrying a sack filled with water. Then he spotted Miyako, and was so astonished he dropped the bag, spilling the water all over the ground.

"No -!" Iori shouted, but it was too late. The water had already been soaked into the dry ground. "Great," he mumbled under his breath.

"What's going on?" Hikari wondered, following behind him also carrying a sack, this one filled with berries and roots she'd found. "Oh Daisuke – did you have to spill the water?"

Daisuke didn't  note the bag, the water that had spilled over his shoes, or even Hikari's concerned voice. "What happened?" he blurted before anyone could explain.

Hikari looked up from the ground and the sack – which she'd been eating out of as she walked – and noted Miyako for the first time. "Good question…"

"It's really nothing to worry about," Iori began, trying to subdue the situation before Miyako got anymore nervous or Daisuke inadvertently blurted something that might be harmful. "It's just that Miyako's having a magic flare-up. We need to keep her calm," he added, hoping that, if not Daisuke, at least Hikari would get the hint.

"Daisuke, I think you should go get some more water," Hikari decided, picking up the sack he'd dropped on the ground and thrusting it into her hands.

"But I -," the boy began.

"Great idea," Leomon interrupted. "I'll go with you." With that, he picked up the nearest sack, which had been carrying a few blankets, emptied its contents onto the ground, and walked past Daisuke, grabbing his arm as he went and dragging him behind. They were gone before the boy could utter another word.

Iori sighed, relieved.

"Magic flare-up?" Hikari questioned of Miyako. "I didn't know you had magic powers."

"Neither did I," the girl replied, dejectedly. The flame-like colors were nearly muted now, but Iori saw some dark colors mixing within them.

"Princess, a word, please," he interrupted politely, gripping Hikari's sleeve and pulling her aside.

"I didn't know magic could appear so late," Hikari noted once they were out of hearing range, leaving Tailmon, Armadimon, and Hawkmon to try to keep the girl calm.

"I didn't either," Iori confessed. "But I've seen these happen before. We need to keep her calm until we can get her to someone who has knowledge of magic. Koushiro would be best, I think, but if we can't get to him, there could be a problem."
"What sort of problem?" she wondered.

"Do you see the aura around her? That's the magic. The more excited she gets, the brighter the colors. The goal is to get the colors to be muted as much as possible. As she gets calmer, the colors will get duller. Then the aura will eventually be invisible to those who don't possess magic. But, the colors around Miyako aren't only getting duller, they're getting darker."

"I have a feeling I know where this is going," Hikari nodded. "The darker colors mean that the magic is getting darker."

He nodded. "This may be the worst place to have a magic flare-up, because there's so much magic interfering. It's full of magic – to keep us here, to keep us away from the other Chosen, to keep ordinary people out. We can sense it, and we don't have magic ability. Added to that, is the fact that we have no one to help her. This won't be easy."

***

Sora cautiously tapped the forehead of the sleeping boy on the ground. "Come on, sleepyhead," she coaxed in a soft voice. "Time to get up and fight the monsters."

Taichi groaned and rolled over slightly, but he was awake. "Don't wanna," he mumbled.

"I guess you don't want to eat then, either," Sora replied. "Oh well. I get Taichi's share of the food!" she shouted loudly to the rest of the group.

"No you don't!" the wild-haired boy shouted, sitting up quickly and dashing for the center of the camp.

***

Daisuke very cautiously carried the sack full of water back into the campsite. He was determined not to spill it this time. Since they were unlucky enough to be the half of the original group without the cooking utensils, they had no pots, buckets, or plates with which to eat. When he returned, he saw that Iori, experienced with making do with limited materials, had set up a cooking apparatus.

Two tall, sturdy sticks had been jammed into the ground about three feet apart. Each of the sticks had a fork at the tip, and a third stick had been placed between them. Now, Iori was rubbing dust-covered sticks together at a spot underneath the setup in an attempt to start a fire.

When Daisuke had reached the site of the makeshift kitchen, Leomon lifted the stick in the center from its raised position, and instructed the boy to hang the sack filled with water on the stick.

"I guess we just throw together what we can to make some food, huh?" he questioned. Iori nodded.

"None of us has much cooking experience, but I'm sure we'll figure out something," he replied. "That is, if we can get a fire started."

Daisuke shrugged. "We'll manage. Want to get some more firewood while I see what's edible?"

"Do you know what's edible?" Leomon questioned.

"I eat, don't I?" the boy replied with a grin. "It can't be much harder to cook." He began rummaging through the sack of berries, nuts, and roots Hikari had left at the campsite while Iori, Armadimon, and Leomon wandered off to search for more firewood.

There was a little meat left over after the previous night's meal, but Daisuke doubted it was still good enough to eat. He tasted a few of the roots and found that they were actually quite tasty. He frowned, however, since there was no knife to chop them to smaller pieces.

"What are you going to do?" V-mon questioned, sensing his partner's dilemma.

"I guess they'll have to stay in larger pieces," Daisuke decided. "Maybe if I could stir the stuff while it's cooking, they might mash easier in hot water."

"Will that work?"

"Maybe." He shrugged. "I have no idea. But I won't be able to cook anything until I have a fire. Let's see if I don't have better luck than Iori did."

***

"We have got to get home soon," Yamato sighed as he ate the last of his food from his plate. "I am a horrible cook. If I don't get home and eat some good food soon, I'll starve."

"Don't you think you're being a bit overdramatic?" Taichi questioned, eagerly devouring the last of his own portion. With his mouth full, he continued: "I think you and Mimi do a great job."

"Do you really?" Mimi asked, overhearing the compliment from the opposite side of the circle. "Thanks so much! It's really hard to get anything with such limited supply of food, you know."

"Oh, it's terrific, Mimi," Sora said before anyone else could say something less complimentary. "You've done great."

Takeru swallowed the last of his food and took a gulp of water from his cup. "I'm just glad we found some water," he stated. "I was getting really thirsty."

Taichi stood up, wiping his hands on his shirt. He stretched once, yawned, and squinted through the dust, which appeared to be getting thicker by the second. "I'd say we should skip the washing of the dishes and get moving," he decided, serious now. "We've already wasted a lot of time."

Wordlessly, the others stood as well, and within moments, they were packed again and ready to begin walking.

"Which way do we go?" Jyou questioned, peering around the clearing. He was barely able to see through the thick dust. He turned in all directions. Everything appeared the same, although the dust behind him wasn't quite so thick.

"I'm guessing we need to find the source of this dust," Yamato stated, and his words were nearly swallowed. Jyou had to strain to hear him, even though he was standing next to him.

"You won't have to search long then," a deep voice pierced the dust, and then the clouds parted, and a dark, towering figure was visible.

***

"Having any luck?"

Daisuke nearly forgot about the bag of water hanging over his head and almost stood straight up. "Not much," he admitted. "This wood doesn't want to light – and if I can't get it to light, we won't get to have anything to eat today."

Hikari sighed. "Have you noticed anything strange about this dust?"

"Aside from the fact that it won't go away?" he wondered, crouching on the ground and resuming his fire-starting attempts.

"Yes. I think it's starting to let up a bit." She paused momentarily. "You're going to cook?"

"Sure," he replied, grinning. "Somebody's got to."

There was silence then, and a moment later, a small spark leapt from the twigs Daisuke had been rubbing together viciously. Another moment, and a small flame was blazing in the pile. "Not bad," Hikari observed.

"Let's just hope Iori, Armadimon, and Leomon manage to get some firewood back here soon so it keeps going," he replied with a frown as he stood up again. "How's Miyako?"

***

"I'm guessing that's our enemy," Jyou observed the large black digimon.

"Yeah, big, black, and evil-looking definitely fits him," Gomamon observed.

"Oh no," the creature replied. "I'm not your enemy. I'm your worst nightmare. And you can call me Devimon." With that, it threw back its head and began to laugh.

"Actually, we're your worst nightmare," Taichi shouted in defiant response. "Agumon!"

"Agumon evolve! Greymon!"

"Hit him with all we've got, right Piyomon?" Sora questioned. The pink bird nodded.

"Piyomon evolve! Birdramon!"

"It would be the best strategy for us to hit him with everything," Koushiro agreed.

"Tentomon evolve! Kabuterimon!"

"Well, since we're sure he's the enemy, I guess that strategy will have to do," Jyou noted.

"Barrel of laughs, Jyou," Gomamon replied sarcastically. "Gomamon evolve! Ikkakumon!"

"You ready, Palmon?" Mimi asked.

"Ready! Palmon evolve! Togemon!"

"Let's do it!" Yamato shouted his agreement.

"Gabumon evolve! Garurumon!"

Patamon peered at Takeru. "What do we do?" he wondered.

"Stay out of the way!" Yamato replied sensibly. "Unless you want to get killed!"

"Not particularly," Takeru replied in agreement. He stepped back, away from the battle.

***

Miyako could still see the strange aura that now appeared to surround her on a permanent basis, even though Hikari had said that it was invisible to her. The bright colors were definitely gone, but now, something was different about it.

Iori nodded when Miyako told him about it. "None of us can see the aura because we don't have any magical ability," he explained in his usual calm voice. "It'll still be visible to you, though. And, when you develop your magic, you'll be able to see other things you couldn't before."

"Like other auras?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Precisely. From what I've been told, I can tell you that all those who possess even the tiniest bit of magic have an aura. And even those without magic have a pale aura, though it's harder to see. But there's other things to see," he continued. "Spells and such. I can't explain it exactly, I don't have any magic. But I'm sure Koushiro will be glad to."

Miyako was about to comment on this when she noted a scent drifting towards them from the main campground. "What is that?" she wondered.

The boy sniffed the air once. "Daisuke's cooking," he replied. "Care to test?"

***

"Get him while he's distracted," Taichi said, just loud enough for his partner to hear. Devimon, his head still thrown back in laughter, was most definitely distracted.

"Right. Mega Flame!" Greymon called, but the giant fireball bounced harmlessly off the creature's wing.

"From above!" Sora called, and a second later, Birdramon attacked.

"Meteor Wing!" the fiery bird called, but it bounced uselessly off Devimon's head.

"Mega Shocker!" Kabuterimon added his own attack from the opposite direction.

"Should have guessed," Koushiro sighed pessimistically. "The odds were against it having an effect."

"My turn," Togemon shouted, jumping forward and latching herself on to one of the creature's legs.

"Togemon! Get him!" Mimi shouted encouragement.

"Fox Fire!" Garurumon joined the fight, and gripped his teeth securely into the other leg.

"That's it!" Yamato shouted.

Devimon only laughed again and shook one leg. Togemon sailed backwards into Greymon, who groaned aloud and fell backwards on to the ground.

"No!" both Mimi and Taichi shouted in unison, rushing towards the pile-up.

"Foolish humans," Devimon intoned, shaking his other leg. Garurumon was loosened, and he crashed into Ikkakumon.

"Ow, that's gotta hurt," Jyou winced sympathetically.

"You're telling me," Ikkakumon groaned from the bottom of the pile.

"Dark Wing!" their enemy called, sweeping an arm wide. A stream of dark energy flew through the air, causing Kabuterimon and Birdramon both to fall to the ground.

Yamato swore under his breath. "We're doomed. All that didn't have an effect at all."

"Can't you evolve again?" Taichi was asking Greymon, in the hopes that the more evolved state would be of use. But the large dinosaur was too busy trying to untangle himself from Togemon to reply.

***

Hikari munched slowly on her food; the expression on her face grim.

"You all right?" Miyako wondered, sitting beside her and trying to be cheerful.

The brown-haired princess peered up from the plate. "Yes. I suppose I'm just worried, that's all."

"Oh good, I thought it was the food for a moment," Daisuke looked relieved.

***

Takeru peered from behind the tree that was his hiding spot. "I don't care if we don't have a chance, Patamon," he said to the flying digimon hovering behind him. "We can't just let them be destroyed like this. We've got to help." 
"Right. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready." Takeru removed his digivice from his pocket.

***

Daisuke finished the remainder of his portion of stew and was taking a sip of water from the sack they had chosen to use as the communal cup when he saw the flash of bright light in the distance.

"Whoa!" he said, and fixed his eyes on the spot. "Do you see that?"

Miyako saw it, turning around, and seeing the huge bright white light glowing from the center of the dust filled clouds. "What is it?" she wondered. "It's so…"

"Bright," Hikari noted. "Do you think - ?"

"I think it could be," Tailmon agreed with her partner. "It could be them."

"So is that light a good thing or a bad thing?" Hawkmon wondered.

***

"Patamon evolve! Angemon!"

For a few moments Takeru couldn't see anything. Couldn't hear anything except the squealing of his digivice and the shout of his partner as he called out his evolution. Everything was surrounded in a white light, and he couldn't see past that. Couldn't even see the dust that filled the area.

Then he saw his partner. Angemon was a humanoid digimon like he'd never seen before – not even in Koushiro's many books. He was tall, with blue on his legs and a completely white upper body and arms. A helmet covered most of the digimon's head, leaving only a mouth and a long lock of blond hair exposed.

"Heaven's Knuckle!"

Devimon's scream of outright pain shook the entire area to its core. "NO!" the evil creature shouted.

"Evil cannot be allowed to triumph," Angemon stated as though quoting from something.

The half-deleted Devimon only grinned and laughed for a moment. His legs had begun the deletion – even parts of his torso were fading. Takeru felt a chill go down his spine as the evil creature cackled.

"Oh, but don't you see?" Devimon was saying. "You've used up all your energy as well! So you haven't won! Ha! Ha!" He was laughing even as his head was deleted and faded away to nothingness.

Takeru's eyes were huge in astonishment. He stared up at his partner, suddenly feeling as though he was once more six years old. "No-," he whispered, softly. He wouldn't cry, he told himself, he just wouldn't. But tears formed in his eyes. "No!" he shouted, wiping them away with a frustrated hand.

Angemon was deleting slower than Devimon had, but he was still fading. "Don't worry," he told his partner with a cheerful expression. "I'll return if you want me to."

Takeru didn't know how to respond to that, and couldn't even if he'd wanted to. A lump was forming in his throat that was the size of a rock, and he could hardly see because of the tears. "No!" he shouted again, but it sounded more like a sob than a word.

With another too-cheerful (and yet sad at the same time) smile, Angemon was gone. The bright light faded and Takeru could hardly breathe. He was hardly aware of it when he sank to the ground, suddenly feeling weak. How could he go on without his partner? How? How was it possible when he'd spent his whole life with Patamon – and before him, Tokomon? How could he?

"Takeru," Yamato said, softly after a long period of silence, but Takeru didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to be comforted by an older brother. How could Yamato possibly have any idea what he was going through? How could anyone? It wasn't fair, and the younger sibling was determined to be miserable for the rest of his life. 

At least, he thought he was. Then, suddenly, through his tears, he felt something soft float through the air in front of him. He blinked and peered through watery eyes, seeing a single white feather, left from his partner's wing, float to the ground. Hardly daring to hope, he saw another, and then another, until a small pile of them had collected on the ground. Takeru reached forward, wanting to collect that last memory of his partner, when suddenly, the air seemed to shimmer, and it wasn't just because of the dust. He blinked, and when he had finished blinking, an orange and white egg lay before him where the feathers had once been.

"Whoa," was Yamato's response, but Takeru didn't have one, at least not a spoken one. He stared for a full second or two before he practically flung himself upon the egg and wrapped his arms tightly around it.

"I'm not ever going to let anything happen to you, ever again," he promised the egg, cradling it in his arms as delicately as he possibly could while still hugging it, tightly.

"Eventually, the egg will hatch," Gabumon spoke up, having de-evolved after the fight's completion.

"He'll be Patamon again?" Takeru asked, and his expression turned from an expression of unconditional love to great cheer.

***

The light had been so bright for a few moments that no one knew quite what to make of the situation, but then it faded. The dust was lifting. Daisuke was the first to notice it. Then, he thought he spotted a bit of green poking through one of the trees, and a bit more on the ground.

"I think they did it," he said, quietly at first, but then it turned into a cheer. "They did! They did it! It's over!"

And everyone was cheering, dancing, shouting, and hugging people they normally might not have hugged. Laughing as hard as they could, and grinning even harder. Iori jumped up and down in the excitement, and hugged Tailmon and Armadimon at once. Miyako almost screamed in happiness and hugged Iori and her partner, who didn't mind the squeeze as much as he might normally have. Daisuke gripped V-mon's hands in his own and spun around in circles until he got dizzy and Hikari had to help him off the ground.

In the excitement, no one noticed the dust was fading even more, and that they were no longer in the same place they had been. The clearing they had been in was replaced by an open field with green grass stretching as far as they could see, and a small village in the distance. Flowers sprouted from the ground and small, wild digimon peered nervously out of their hiding places to watch the group dance around.

Eventually everyone got tired or (in Daisuke's case) nauseous enough to stop and lay in the grass. "I'm so glad that's over," Daisuke breathed, enjoying the summer air and the sun that was setting in the distance and breathing in the smell of the grass.

"The battle or the dizziness?" V-mon wondered.

"The battle," the boy replied. "I'm still dizzy."

That was enough to nearly send the group into hysterics again, and it was awhile before they'd calmed down. Miyako sat up, peering around her.

"Where are the others?" she wondered. "And what happened to Leomon?"

"They'll probably find their way out eventually," Hawkmon said, trying to keep his partner from worrying.

"Yeah, probably," she agreed, stretching. "Let's say we wait for them and sleep outside tonight. Just one more day before we all have to head back to the real world."

"I'll agree to that plan," Iori declared solemnly. He'd enjoyed the short vacation – even if it hadn't been a pleasant one.

"It has been nice to spend so much time outside," Armadimon agreed. "Even if we were surrounded by so much dust."
"Hmm," Hikari murmured in agreement. She noticed Miyako sitting up again. She looked worried. "Miyako? What's wrong?"

"I was just wondering what happened to Ken," the girl confessed.

"Hey, that's right," Daisuke recalled, sitting up suddenly. "Where did he go off to?"
"He must have come out of the dust with us, right?" V-mon asked.

"Yeah, he must have," Hikari agreed. She sat up and peered in the direction of the forest and all around her. There was no sign of anyone except for a few small frolicking digimon for as far as the eye could see. And that was pretty far, being in the middle of a wide expanse of field.

"I don't like this," Tailmon muttered under her breath. Only Hikari and Daisuke were able to hear that, but the feeling of fear had spread anyway. It was completely silent.

"I see something," Miyako said, softly. "Is it magic or do you see it, too?"

Hikari peered in the direction the older girl was pointing and squinted. "I don't see anything," she confessed. "Must be magic."
"What do you see?" Iori wondered.

"A shadow," the girl replied.

"Shadow from what?" Armadimon questioned. "There's nothing here to cast a…shadow," he trailed off, realizing the evident answer to his question.

"He's back," Daisuke whispered. "I can almost feel it."

Miyako looked at him strangely for a moment and got to her feet. "I wish I knew more about what I was doing," she said with a worried expression.

"Miyako, don't do anything crazy," Hawkmon warned, flapping his wings so that he could confront his partner at eye-level.

"I won't," Miyako assured him, but the bird was doubtful. Miyako and he tended to occasionally disagree on what would be classified as 'crazy.' But, with Miyako's assurance, Hawkmon cautiously landed once more on the ground.

"You're going to do something, though," Hikari noted without question.

"I'm going to try something," she corrected slightly.

Daisuke couldn't see the dark shadow, but he knew it was coming. "Do whatever it is – or try – whatever – just do it fast!"

"I think we can use our digivices to protect ourselves," Miyako replied. She pulled hers out of the pocket of her dress and held it out in front of her. The digivice immediately reacted to the oncoming darkness and began to glow brightly.

"Good idea," Iori agreed, nodding his own agreement. He removed his own digivice and stood beside the girl. A moment later Hikari and Daisuke joined the line of protecting light as well and stood beside Miyako.

As expected, the darkness could not get much farther than the edge of the light. Contrasted against the brightness of the digivices, everyone could see the shadow. And they could feel the chill in their bones as a figure they now all could recognize rose from the ground, appearing before them.

He laughed when he saw them, and his voice was the same. Deep, dark, grating. "I am uninterested in you four," he said in that inky voice. Miyako shut her eyes. The darkness around him, the dark swirling magic around him, was immense.

"Do you fear me?" he questioned.

"I'm not afraid of you," Daisuke shouted, letting his courage take hold even when his brain was telling him to hide and remain quiet. "I know you can't step into the light. I know you controlled Devimon. I know you're not interested in us. So what do you want?"

"Devimon was a mistake and nothing more," Demon replied, his deep voice indicating his disgust to be associated with that name. "His power was weak, and I knew he would fail." He laughed again, that sort of laugh that made everyone shudder again. "No, I'm merely here to deposit something I am through with."

Miyako sensed something very different then, and turned back just in time to watch the cloaked demon disappear seamlessly into the ground. When the thick darkness surrounding him had also followed – a slower process – she was able to glimpse a figure, lying, weakened on the ground in the midst of the cloud.

Daisuke recognized him first. He gasped aloud and dove into the dark cloud before anyone could stop him. "Daisuke!" Hikari shouted as he disappeared into the dark mist, but of course he didn't bother listening to even her.

Miyako waited another split second for the darkness to clear even more, and then dove after him, even though nearly every bone in her body was telling her to go hide under a rock. "Oh no!" she gasped. For a moment, the darkness surrounded her, choking her and whispering deadly things into her ears.

'You can't do this. You can't save him. You can't save any of them. Your magic is too weak to do anything with and you'll never learn to control it anyway. Just give up. Give up. You were raised to be a lady, not to go running through the dark after some freak like him. Just go back home. You're kidding yourself if you think you'll make a difference."

"No!" Miyako shouted, as was the instinct in this occasion. "I won't!" The forcefulness of her words alone appeared to be enough to cause the darkness to back off for a moment, but Miyako wasn't finished.

"I'm not going to back off and leave my friends to die. I'm going to figure out how to control this magic, and I'm going to make a difference. I don't care how I was raised, I will do this!" Without even being conscious of it, she realized that her magic was unleashing. The bright colored aura around her appeared to be expanding, and the darkness was retreating even faster than it had been. Within moments it was gone, and Miyako felt an exhaustion like she'd never felt before.

"Miyako," Hikari gasped, because somehow she could see the bright colors around her and she could sense the darkness. The older girl wavered slightly and then fell backwards, loosing consciousness. Hikari managed to catch her before she fell to the ground, holding her up carefully.

"Is she all right?" Iori questioned as Hikari helped Miyako to lay on the grass.

"I think so," she replied. "Just wore herself out. I have a feeling that was an incredible amount of magic. Especially for one so new to release."

"Iori? A little help?" The black inky darkness was gone, and Daisuke stood in the center of where it had been, apparently unaffected. He, too, was trying to support a weakened figure.

"What do you think happened to him?" Hikari wondered. But neither Iori nor Daisuke could answer that question.

"I don't know," Iori admitted, shaking his head. "He doesn't seem to be hurt."

"There's no blood," Armadimon noted.

"Something bad," Daisuke stated simply. "Just bad."
V-mon nodded in silent agreement with his partner. "Very bad," he agreed, noting Wormmon, who lay, just as un-moving, beside Ken.

***

Dum, dum, dum…..

Gah, that wasn't that great…I always let myself down by the time I reach the battle! I have this HUGE idea in mind and it turns out to be kind of a let down.

Anyhow, I hope you're not disappointed enough to leave, because there's still one more part left. ^_^