DISCLAIMER: Okay, I DON'T own Matt or Shedramon. And when I say Matt, I don't mean Yamato. Matt's a friend of mine who asked to be in this when I told him about it, and he made up Shedramon. Understood?

* * *

"New recruit?"

"Yes."

"Cool, so'm I. What are you doing here?"

Ah, of course. She expected that question once she'd entered the lab, but luckily this moronic employee had been left in charge. There was no one else there. "I need the com—er, the device."

"Which one?"

She struggled to stop her temper from flaring. "The one being studied."

"Oh, you mean the one with the recordings?"

"…Yes…"

He narrowed his eyes. "Yamaki said not to let anyone take it out of this room."

Damn. "Uh, you see, I got direct orders from him. Results came back and it's harmless."

"…You sure?"

"Of course."

He hesitated. "Fine." He got up and went to the back of the lab. He came back with the small piece of metal—the communicator. "Here."

"Thank you," she said, and left quickly. "Baka."

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we th—"

"Shut up, Cleese!"

Jonathan glared at Anne. Sabirdramon fought to suppress his laughter, yet Amonæmon remained expressionless. So did Lestemon. Though Anne thought that Kyomon was the perfect image of childish innocence, Lestemon appeared to be totally solemn. His black scales easily stood out against the desert; the blue ones glittered with some sort of malice. Or at least that's what it looked like. Anne still couldn't get a reading on him, though.

A sudden howl jolted her out of her thoughts. Lestemon snapped up and emitted a low growl. But Amonæmon didn't stop.

"What was that?" she asked Amonæmon, fearfully.

"Latramon," he replied. "Nothing to worry about."

"I hope so…" She saw a small dust cloud on the horizon.

"That's them. They travel in packs and are extremely agile. Yet…something seems to be wrong."

Jonathan interrupted. "Don't you think it might be a bit WISE to get out of their way?"

"No," said Amonæmon.

"What?!"

"Something isn't right. I need to see to that."

"Why?"

"I am one of two guardians of the desert."

"Why can't the other one deal with it?!"

"Because he doesn't know he is a guardian."

"How can that be?" asked Anne.

Amonæmon looked at the horizon. "Many Digimon do not realize their hidden power immediately. It comes within time. I was the same, and so were the four Digital Gods. The strongest Digimon may Digivolve to be a weakling, and vice versa. However…"

"What?"

"I do know the names of some future guardians."

"What are they?"

"Well, one of them is myself. The other guardian of the desert is Amuramon. The two of us can then Fuse to become Ejimon."

"Eji for Egypt?"

He shrugged. "I don't know the name of one, but I do know he is the ultimate paladin of the Tai Chi."

"Ah, okay." Anne peered at the horizon. "Are those Latramon?"

"Yes."

"Okay…" From that distance, they looked like coyotes. Suddenly, Lestemon growled again and his arm shot up in the air; it caught a golden blur and he pinned it to the ground. It was a Latramon, Anne gathered, because it looked sort of like a coyote. Its fur was a silky gold color and had dark, blood-red stripes along its back. She looked closer at the whimpering Digimon and saw little ridges along its back. Then she realized that it probably fit the description of a chupacabra more than a coyote.

"Where are you going?" growled Lestemon.

"Nowhere, nowhere!"

"Don't lie to me, you piece of desert filth." He shoved it harder against the ground, making it gasp for air. It struck Anne that Lestemon had a personality much more like PetitDracomon than of Kyomon. The Latramon whimpered again.

"Holy bird, trouble, big trouble, we help!"

"What d'you mean, 'holy bird'?"

"Red phoenix! Big fire!"

'Lestemon, stop," ordered Amonæmon. "They have a limited English vocabulary. Let me handle this." Lestemon scowled and stepped aside. Then Amonæmon talked to the Latramon in a different language. It babbled excitedly for a few seconds and Amonæmon said something else to it. It bounded away.

"What did you do that for?!" exclaimed Lestemon. Amonæmon ignored him.

"Apparently, Zhuqiaomon is PetitDracomon's latest victim," he said. "The Latramon feel that there is something they can do to help her, but I fear there is none. We have to get to the oracles if we have any chance of finding your friend, Anne," he added.

Lestemon turned and glared at Anne. "What?"

She suddenly remembered that she had yet to tell Lestemon about Kamemon. "Er…you see…it's nothing. Come on." Yet, as they went on, she couldn't help but feel that Lestemon wasn't about to de-Digivolve back into Kyomon anytime soon.

About a few hours later, Lestemon still hadn't de-Digivolved, and Anne was worried. In fact, he seemed to be getting more and more hostile and agitated. Then she saw something large and black on the horizon. "What's that?" she asked.

"I don't know," said Amonæmon. "I've never seen something like that in the desert before."

This time, Jonathan looked closer. "Wait a minute," he said. "Is that a Digimon?"

Anne scanned it. "It's a BlackWarGreymon!"

"Oh, crap! Amonæmon!"

But Amonæmon didn't respond. Then he looked at Jonathan and said, "It's not real."

"What d'you mean by that, Anne got a reading!"

"I know. But it's not a true Black WarGreymon."

The creature launched itself into the air. "Terra Destroyer!"

Amonæmon countered it with his scepter. "Amon's Blade!"

BlackWarGreymon was barely fazed. "Terra Destroyer!"

"Eye of Horus!"

This time, the attack rebounded and hit BlackWarGreymon dead on. It flew back and its data started to flash. Then it collapsed and appeared to delete…but there was a different Digimon in its place. It got back up into the air.

"Shedramon!" said a different, male voice with an American accent. "Kill!"

"Dragon Kick!" yelled the Digimon, apparently called Shedramon. The attack struck Amonæmon right in the chest and sent him back a few yards. Lestemon bounded forward.

"Larcener Str—"

"Dragon Kick!"

Suddenly, Lestemon got blown back and de-Digivolved into Kyomon. Then Shedramon turned on them. Then a boy stepped up to its side, apparently the one who'd told Shedramon to "kill". Anne guessed he was American.

"You idiots," he said. "Shedramon is the strongest Digimon ever. You think your spindly weaklings could even scratch him?"

She didn't like the way he spoke. "Shut up!" she growled. "How come Amonæmon was able to force him out of hiding?!"

"Oh, you mean that great violet parrot? I told Shedramon to stop it."

"I didn't hear you!"

"Maybe you weren't supposed to!"

"WAIT A MINUTE!" yelled Jonathan. "Who are you, first of all?"

"Matt."

"Matt who?"

"Is it any of your business?"

"Shut up!"

"Make me!"

The two bickered and argued so much that Anne really didn't see the point of it. She carefully picked up the dazed Kyomon and tried to get a reading on Shedramon. It failed.

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"

"Why don't you go shoot yourself, you might get Upper Class Twit of the Year award!"

"Oh, shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"I said it first!"

"You are, but what am I?"

Jonathan, by this time, was thoroughly agitated, so Anne pulled him away. "I'm sorry, uh, Matt, but he's easily angered. I'm Anne Connor, he's Jonathan Dowd, that's Kyomon, that's Amonæmon, and that's—"

"A Sabirdramon."

"How'd you know that?"

"He has his own card, you know."

"Oh."

It turned out that Matt did come from America, as Anne had thought. Kyomon was beginning to come 'round and Amonæmon wasn't badly hurt. Shedramon wasn't exactly the strongest Digimon ever, but he was strong. Matt had created him like that, so his Rookie had the power of an Ultimate. Shedramon was also a knight of the Tai Chi. Anne pondered this, for Amonæmon had mentioned something about a future guardian having something to do with the Tai Chi; but she couldn't remember what it was at the moment. "D'you know anything about the guardians?" she asked.

"You mean Qinglongmon, Xuanwumon, Zhuqiaomon and Baihumon?"

"No. But, speaking of them…did you know that two of 'em are dead?"

"Which ones?"

"Baihumon and Zhuqiaomon."

"Oh, yeah. Shedramon saw this huge black thing thrash Zhuqiaomon around, though."

"That's PetitDracomon. I think we've got something he wants."

"Why would he want anything to do with you? Your Digimon aren't enough of a challenge for him, and it doesn't look like he's interested in anything other than world domination."

"Oh, right. But actually, I think that it's more of a grudge…"

"Oh."

"Er, have you heard of the oracles?"

"I think so…"

"How far away are they?"
"Not very. Just about a half-hour's walk from here'll get you there. Why?"

"I need to ask a few questions."

"Oh, okay, fine then. If you want to get there by sunset, I'd start now."

"Thanks. Oh, and sorry for attacking…"

"Why should you be sorry? It's not like you had a choice."

There was an edge in his tone that made it sound non-sympathetic. She sighed and beckoned to the others. "Let's go."

"But we just got here!" protested Kyomon.

"She's right," said Amonæmon. "The oracles aren't too far from here, and if we don't want to run into PetitDracomon we should set off immediately."

"Is that the cave of Caerbannog?"

"Shut up, Cleese."

"You."

They'd gotten to a cave, which did sort of look like the cave of Caerbannog from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Matt was unimpressed. This was supposed to be where the oracles were.

"Is it safe to go in?" asked Anne.

"Yes," replied Amonæmon. "But here I must leave you. If you pass their test, they will protect you. If you do not…you won't need protection. Good luck." He leaped up into the air and disappeared.

"Well," said Jonathan, "that was fast. C'mon."

The six of them, if you included their Digimon, dropped down into the cave. At first, Anne couldn't see anything. But the little group continued on. It was downwards from there; it kept getting darker. Then she saw a light up ahead. "Hurry," she said. "They can't be too far from here."

"We figured that," said Matt, a bit annoyed.

The light got brighter and they reached a clearing. "There's nothing here," commented Kyomon, and fluttered over to the clearing. "See? There's nothing in this place—" Suddenly, there was a loud crack and Kyomon shouted. Something knocked Anne down and for a wild, fearful moment, she thought PetitDracomon was there. But she realized there was nothing of the sort and got up. But then…

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed. Was she seeing quadruple? There was FOUR of Kyomon! How could that be?!

"You see it too?" Jonathan said. He and Matt were also knocked down, and were apparently seeing the same thing she was. It wasn't a hallucination.

"I suppose that this is the test," said Shedramon solemnly. "To see which one is real."

A pit fell in Anne's stomach. She swallowed hard and thought, well, this is going to be easy, just ask. "Kyomon?"

"What?" said the four of them in unison. Then they seemed shocked a bit and stumbled—all at the exact same moment. Whatever the original was doing, the three were copying him exactly. Oh dear. This was going to be a bit harder than she thought.

* * *

Yamaki walked back down the corridor to the control room. Something didn't feel right. Now that he thought about it, the person who stole Threadfall seemed somewhat familiar…where had he seen that face before?

Then he remembered. Ah. Of course.

He sighed. Even though the two were practically identical, they seemed…different, in some way. A chill ran up his spine. He tried to shake it off, but then he saw someone lying on the floor. "Riley!" he yelled, running over to her. "What happened?!"

Slowly, she came to. "…What? What's going on?" Suddenly, she snapped awake. "Where is she?!"

"Where's who?"

"There was this person who practically flew out of the control room, and she got the device…she said it was fake…then I think she drugged me or something, but I dunno…"

"Don't tell me it was the same woman who stole the virus."

"Who?"

He ignored her and hurried into the control room. It picked up a faint signal inside the building. Threadfall automatically switched on.

She moved swiftly to the portal, feeling somewhat triumphant. She got back the communicator without any trouble. The lab worker would probably be sacked for letting that happen, though. She felt a twinge of guilt, but immediately shook it off as she approached the portal to the Digital World. Master would be pleased.

Yet, as she crossed through to the other world…she had no idea that something followed.

"Sir, Threadfall's gone!"

"What?! What do you mean?! It's not supposed to just disappear! What about the anomaly?"

"It's gone too. Maybe it's just a glitch—"

"That program has no glitches. I can assure you that. Make sure that the Alliance hears nothing of this, understood?"

"Yes, sir."