Not a whole lot that needs to be said this time around, so please read and review. Thanks.

Disclaimer-I don't own digimon or any of the characters in it.

Rebirth of Courage

-Chapter Three-

I saw immediately that the young man and the two digimon had only one chance, so I quickly pulled out my D-arc. I slashed two cards through it in the blink of an eye, the first was a digivolution which, as always, seemed to freeze time for an instant as Guilmon digivolved to his champion form, the giant red dragon Growlmon, then a hyper speed card, the victims' only hope. In a blur of red scales, Growlmon launched into the center of the clearing, picked up the boy and the two digimon, and brought them over to just in front of me. A split second later the twelve beams collided, and the resulting explosion threw us all to the ground and sent a deafening sonic boom through the air.

My ears were ringing horribly, but I knew that if I hesitated we could all die. I quickly stood up and peered through the smoke to try and get a fix on my opponents. As the smoke cleared, I saw that all twelve Garurumon were still there, but they seemed to have been stunned. Unfortunately, they were very quickly getting over their momentary discomfort.

"Growlmon, quick, fire a few blasts at random spots between them, we need to get them separated, if they operate as a pack we can't hope to win!"

"Right," replied the big dragon, "Pyro Blaster!"

My plan worked perfectly, the Garurumon were forced to separate into smaller groups in order to avoid the explosions.

"Now Growlmon, you take those four on the right, I'll take the two in the middle, then we can take care of the last six easily!"

Growlmon quickly ran towards the four disoriented Garurumon, firing random blasts as he ran. I loved to watch my partner do battle, and I would have continued, except I had my own enemies to worry about. I quickly pulled my sword off my back, as always wondering where it had come from, and ran towards my opponents. One of the two I had marked out was quite a bit larger than the others and had several scars, it was he who I believe led the pack. But now there was no more time for though, the battle was upon me.

* * *

I was leaning over Brian's unconscious body, checking to see if he had any serious wounds, I couldn't find any, so I sat down with a sigh of relief, and took my digimon into my arms.

My attention was quickly drawn to the titanic battle being waged before my eyes. Growlmon (I think that's what David called him) had already killed three of the Garurumon and was finishing off the fourth as I watched. David had also defeated one and was currently engaged in battle with a big, scarred Garurumon. The more I watched the battle, the more impressed I became, the fact that he could take on an obviously stronger than average champion said something. Although David was obviously not as powerful as Growlmon, he was still far more powerful than any human I had ever met. And that sword... it seemed to glow with an inner flame as David swung it at Scarface (my name for the big wolf), and Scarface seemed to be trying to dodge it rather than parry or deflect it. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was afraid of what might happen if it touched him.

The battle continued, neither combatant giving or gaining one inch, and I could see that it was fast becoming a stalemate. Then David did something truly strange, he threw his sword as hard as he could off to left of Scarface, so that it got stuck into a tree about six feet up the trunk, just about level with the top of the wolf's back. Then, just as Scarface lunge at him with his jaws wide, David leapt to where the sword was stuck, yanked it out, and rebound over the wolf's back, bringing his blade around in a deadly sweeping motion that cut deeply, too deeply, into the back of Scarface's neck. Now that was obviously a very serious, possibly fatal wound, but what came next was strange. As Scarface drooped to the ground, the wound burst into cold blue flames which quickly engulfed his body, leaving not a trace of him left after they dissipated in a couple of seconds. The other six wolves, who had been held back Growlmon, howled at the sight of their leader's demise, and quickly retreated into the depths of the forest. As I watched David stand there after the battle, I wondered, how strong was he? Was Growlmon really stronger than him, or had I misjudged his power?

* * *

The battle had been reasonably challenging, the wolf had been far more powerful than your average champion. It had been smart enough to know that if it had delayed even a second to try one of it's special attacks, I would have split it wide open. Unfortunately, it hadn't been smart enough to just run away when it was faced with a more powerful and cunning opponent. I hated killing wild digimon when they were only doing what they thought was necessary in order to survive.

I looked around then to see what had happened to the others while I fought. Growlmon had de-evolved to Guilmon and was walking towards me now, and the girl...? Ah, there she was, she was sitting next to the unconscious young man, Brian I think she'd called him, with her digimon near her, and she appeared to be pondering something. Guilmon was standing right next to me now so I fondly patted him on the head.

"You did great Guilmon, I think you've gotten even stronger over the last few months."

"Yeah!" cried Guilmon, but then came an ominous rumble from the direction of his mid-section, "can we have lunch now, my tummy aches."

I laughed then, I had stopped trying to teach Guilmon which meals came at which parts of the day, to him it was all just lunch. I had even begun to call them all lunch myself.

"Don't worry Guilmon, we'll eat in just a little bit, but first we have to see to our companions."

"Okay!" he replied, smiling happily.

If only everyone were as innocent and carefree as Guilmon, I thought to myself before walking towards where Marena was sitting. She stood up as I walked over.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"No, just a few scrapes and bruises," I replied stonily, I had never been good at expressing my feelings with anyone but Guilmon, anyone I associated with for very long always mentioned it eventually.

Thankfully, she let it slide, probably sensing my discomfort.

"How is your brother?" I asked, trying to sound concerned, for her sake.

"He's fine, he doesn't seem to have any serious injuries."

"Oh."

"From what Renamon and Gatomon have told me, he seems to have taken a nasty fall while he was trying to get away from the Garurumon."

"Well, that's good, are you guys hungry, Guilmon says he's hungry, but that's not unusual after a battle like that."

"We already ate, but after all this excitement, I feel like I could use a little something, and I'm sure my digimon would be happy to eat."

"Mm hmm," said Gatomon fervently, while Renamon simply nodded quietly.

"Ok then, all of my stuff is back above that waterfall, so we'll have to go."

"What'll we do with Brian?"

"Don't worry about it, I'll carry him, he doesn't look that heavy," I said as I looked down at the tall, but skinny blonde kid.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

So we set off, with Guilmon and Gatomon leading the way, chatting happily while Renamon leapt from tree branch to tree branch beside the path. As I walked on, I tried to figure out why I was helping these people. I had met many other humans during my life, a lot of whom had been in grave danger at the time, and I had not helped any of them. I figured, if you weren't capable of taking care of yourself, then you deserved to die. But for some reason with these people, with this woman, it was different. I knew that no matter what happened, I would never willingly abandon her, yet I could not fathom as to why.

We were setting a brisk pace, so we arrived at the waterfall before a half hour was up. After I had set the comatose young man down on the small beach, I turned to Guilmon.

"Guilmon, would you mind going up and getting the food and bags, you're a faster climber than I am."

"Ok."

"I will help him," said Renamon quietly, before disappearing in the general direction of the waterfall. In a few moments Renamon and Guilmon had returned with the food, so I quickly set about gathering some firewood and building a small fire. Before long I had got the fire going and was cooking up some of our rations, fish mostly. Once, long ago every creature in the digital world simply disappeared when they were fatally wounded, or so the elder digimon had told me. Yet, for some strange reason the creatures had gradually stopped disappearing as they died, the process had supposedly begun about the same time as the War for Existence, around five hundred years ago. The food was soon ready and I passed it around to each of the members of this ill assorted group before sitting down.

There was no talking as the meal progressed, Guilmon had always known that I liked it silent while I ate, but I guess the others were still in shock from there ordeal. I could feel Marena's eyes boring into me as I ate, for I had purposefully positioned myself so as not to have to look at her. I'm sure she was insulted by my position, but I needed time to think without having to see those strange red eyes. After we had all finished eating I stood up, gathered the dishes, and went over to wash them in the stream. It didn't take long for me to finish, and after I placed the dishes in my bag, I saw that my companions had all settled down in their sleeping bags for the night.

"Good night everybody, sleep well," An unusual thing for me to say, but it seemed fitting for some reason. After saying that I crept silently up the cliff face and lay down next to the waterfall. I had always liked high places and never passed up a chance to sleep somewhere high.

* * *

I woke up that morning, surprisingly well-rested considering that I'd only had around five hours of sleep. As I sat up I stretched languidly, trying to get a look and make sure all my companions were still here. My digimon were sleeping on either side of me, and Guilmon was laying on a mound of sand, snoring softly. Brian still appeared to be out of it, I would check on him in a few seconds, but first..., yep there was no way around it, David was definitely not with the rest of us. Ah well, no reason to worry about that, there's no way he would leave Guilmon behind, so he had to be around here somewhere. Time to see to Brian, I got up and walked over to where he was laying and checked his vitals. I could not see anything unusual, so I decided to try and wake him. Brian had always slept like a rock, so I didn't really expect him to wake when I shook him, whether he was injured or not. I decided I'd have to do what I usually did, I walked over, filled my cupped hands with water, and then pored it on his face from about three feet in the air.

"Wha..., wha... what the heck are you doing, ohhhhh," he groaned in pain as he tried to rise.

"Not too quickly, brother dearest, you took one heck of a pounding last night, but David managed to save you, and the rest of us."

"David, who's tha..., oh yeah, I remember, that's the name of your mysterious dreamboat, so you finally found him huh?"

"Yep, and he's the one who defeated those wolves last night and carried you hear after the battle."

"Well, where is he, it sounds like I should thank him."

"I'm not totally sure where he is right now," I replied a little sheepishly.

"Hmm, some hero, not even there when you need him."

"Don't worry about it he'll be back, his digimon is still here, see," as I said this, I directed Brian's vision over to the happily sleeping Guilmon. Brian visibly jumped, I guess it's not everyday you see a dragon, small or not.

"That's one heck of a digimon, bet he's pretty scary when he digivolves."

"Yeah, but I have a feeling he won't hurt me."

"Well, as interesting as this topic is, do you have any food, I'm starving."

"Not a problem," I said, pulling some bread and cheese out of my bag and handing it to him.

* * *

I had been awake for about an hour and was listening to Marena's conversation with her brother. I liked my solitude and saw no reason to come out of it just yet. As their conversation continued and slowly became playful brother-sister banter I decided it was time to wake Guilmon. I stood up and silently clambered down the cliff-side, so silently in fact that neither Marena or her brother noticed me until I had shaken Guilmon awake.

"Mmm... peanut butter... wha... huh, oh David good morning!" cried Guilmon happily before throwing his arms around my neck ecstatically, Guilmon always showed his emotions to there full extent. Marena and her brother both whipped around to look at me.

"Where were you?" asked Marena, somewhat anxiously.

"I was sleeping up above the waterfall, nothing to worry about."

"Oh." It seemed that the young man was trying think of something to say, so I waited silently. He stood up and walked over to me haltingly before speaking, I guess he didn't want to be seen as an invalid when he introduced himself, good, that meant he had some sort of dignity.

"Hello, my name is Brian, I understand that I have you to thank for the fact that I'm still alive, thanks," he said as he extended a hand to me.

"David, it was nothing," I took his hand and shook it firmly.

"Marena, where are you two headed?"

"Well," she blushed prettily before continuing, "the only thing I had in mind when I came here was to somehow find you and ask for your help, I couldn't handle the real world anymore."

"Oh, so you had no plan of any kind then, did you?"

"No, not really," she said, blushing prettily.

"Well, I can lead you both as far as the human city of New Tokyo, it's a strange place, run by some fanatics from the Church of the Prophet, but you can build your new life, or whatever is you plan to do, there."

"Thank you David, I appreciate what you're doing."

"Don't mention it."

To Be Continued...

I'm really sorry that this took so long, I hadn't decided whether or not to complete this story, but I really enjoyed the characters, so I figured I might as well. Once again, I'm sorry, please R&R with your opinions and suggestions.