AUTHOR'S NOTE: Like I said on my profile, I've been having horrible writer's block lately. But I think I managed to come up with a decent chapter. Yay!
Um, let's see...there's a bit of an inside "French" joke running around in this chapter. It's based on the fact the Renamon's name is based on French for fox. Oh, and "card slashing fun" is a phrase my Hirokazu-obbsessed friend adores and made me squeeze in somewhere.

Takato fans, don't hate for the dirving. It's all for the humor. Oh, and **gasp** There's no Yamaki in this chapter! What's wrong with me?

Jenrya groaned loudly as he regained conscious.
"What happened?" he asked before really understanding what was going on. His back was sore, and he felt like he'd been hit in the stomach with a bag of bricks. His right eye was swollen, and he could feel what he suspected would be bruises all over his face. Terriermon was lying next to him, still fast asleep.

"Nothing much." Ruki said. Jenrya sat up and looked at her in confusion.
"What are you talking about?" he asked none too brightly.
Ruki shook her head. "You asked what happened, so I told you. Keep it up and I'll rename you gogglehead." she teased.
Jenrya chuckled. "Takato wouldn't like that." He looked around. He was back in his room, somehow...
"Last I remember I was in the park..." he muttered. Then a memory came flashing back at him. Grey meeting up with him and Terriermon, attacking them. Devi saving him...then Grey going berserk...attacking them both...
"Grey and Devi!" Jenrya gasped. "We...we have to get Devi away from Grey! He's gone insane!" Jenrya yelled, but Ruki put a finger to his mouth to silence him.
"You haven't caught up on recent events." she said sadly.

Renamon paced around the room, walking back and forth over and over and over...
As soon as Grey had attacked them, a horde of Hypnos employees had begun to swarm the building. She tried to get Kiiroishi and Devi and escape, but by then there had been too many people there for her to successfully get away. So she took Jenrya and Terriermon and ran for it.
She let out a self-disgusted sigh. She'd abandoned him. Of course, she reasoned with herself, if she hadn't gotten out of there then they would be short one digimon that could rescue him.
Yet, she still couldn't shake the feeling that she had abandoned her own son. Left him...

"Aren't your feet tired yet?" a young man's voice asked. Renamon looked over and saw Takato watching her.
"You've just been walking around like that ever since you got here. What exactly is wrong, anyway?" he asked, taking a seat. Renamon looked at him and sighed.
"You wouldn't really understand." she said. "Thank you for offering to listen, but I don't think you would get it."
Takato frowned at Renamon's answer. "I might not get it, but at least I will listen." he objected.
"I suppose that's true." Renamon mused aloud.
"You've changed, Takato." she said, looking the gogglehead over.
"Really?" asked Takato, surprised by the compliment of sorts.
"Well, you're still an odd person, but you have matured. You're not as reckless or frightened, in a good way. It's easier to see the good qualities in you, I suppose." Renamon rested her chin on her paw as she thought. "You're brave and you're understanding. I suppose that's why Ruki feels for you like she does." the fox-like digimon mused.
"Wow..." Takato muttered, blushing. "I never expected you to shower me with compliments, Renamon." he said.
"You're right. It is odd." Renamon pointed out. Takato laughed.
"No kidding. You better pace yourself unless you want a jealous Ruki after your blood." Takato warned Renamon, grinning. Renamon chuckled and shook her head.
"Ruki's right. You are an idiot." the yellow fox said, sighing. Takato scowled.
"And I thought you liked me..." he whimpered. Renamon laughed.
"Thank you cheering me up." she said solemnly. Takato nodded.
"Any time."

"Oh, my back...my head...owww...." I moaned.
Devi glared at me. "Oh, would you shut up already?" she snapped.
"Look, I know it hurts, but do you have to complain every five seconds?" she yelled at me.
"Yes." I said simply. Devi let out an exasperated sigh. "I swear, you're more of a wimp than Pata."
"Pata? Who's Pata?" I asked, letting my attention drift away from my aching body. Devi and I were once again in jail cells. Devi was playing doctor to me, using the healing abilities she gained from her Devimon data. Ever wonder why a devil digimon is so hard to take down? It's because they have incredible healing speed incorporated in their data. Kind of like how mom and I can teleport to places. Just one of the French benefits.
Unfortunately, though, the process of transferring that data to my injuries involved Devi touching the wounded spot with one of her immense claws. Those are sharp, and Devi wasn't really taking any precaution to not cut me. I think it's because I was being a pain in the butt about it. But hey, you try getting healed by someone who is raking their claws into some bad wounds you have and see how you like it.
"Pata's one of the newer hybrids. She's a real little kid, a Patamon hybrid. She's almost as wimpy as you." Devi told me matter-of-factly.
"I am not a wimp!" I protested. "Oww..." I moaned as Devi began to rake a particularly nasty wound on my back.
"I think I proved my point." Devi muttered smugly.
"I thought you could handle this, though. Grey doesn't have a problem with it..." Devi mused.
"Yeah, but Grey's used to your touch." I teased her. "OW!" I yelled as Devi dug her claw into the aforementioned back wound.
"Say something?" she asked innocently. I scowled as she kept on working. "You're evil." I said. Devi laughed.
"But of course, mon ami." she said lightly, badly faking a French accent. I shook my head.
"This Pata...how old is she?" I asked Devi, just to keep conversation going, so that I didn't have to focus on the painful healing process.
"Mmm...about five years old, I'd say." Devi told me, continuing to work.
"What?" I exclaimed in shock. "Five? But...but...she's just a little kid!" I sputtered.
"I know." Devi muttered tersely. "I just hope Yamaki isn't making her fight."
"Me too." I agreed, remembering way back when I was that age. That was just too young to get wrapped up in fighting. Surely, Hypnos couldn't be that black-hearted.
"You're done." Devi announced. I got up from my cot, feeling fresh and renewed, though still aching a bit from Devi's, er, temper.
I looked around. It was even worse than my old cell. No windows whatsoever.
"Wonderful, isn't it?" Devi asked me.
"Oh yeah. Couldn't have asked for a better view." I said sarcastically. Devi punched me on the arm.
"Y'know, for a cutie, you sure are ornery." she stated. I blinked and looked at her.
"You think I'm cute? Seriously?" I asked. Devi laughed.
"You're no Grey, but you have that boy-next-door kind of charm, yeah." she decided. I groaned.
"That's not much of a compliment." I complained.
Devi winked at me. "Your buddy Reiko thinks you're cute." she teased. I felt my whole face go red.
"How d'you know about that?" I demanded like an idiot. Devi laughed.
"You forget, I'm not dumb. Grey and I tracked you for a while before we finally came to you. We had to know when would be the safest time to approach you." she told me, smiling.
"So I figured a few things about you." she waved a finger at me. "If you don't go after her once this is all over, I'll attack you personally." she threatened. I gulped.
"Um, seriously?" I asked. Devi nodded. "Yes, seriously. Now, how are we gonna get out of here?" she asked.
I shrugged as I looked at the wall in front of me. "Blast it?"
"Why, I never heard a more brilliant idea from you." Devi declared.

Everyone pretty much screamed as Takato yet again nearly missed getting into a wreck.
WHAM! Hirokazu, Shuchion, and Gillmon all slammed into each other.
Jenrya held onto the armrest for dear life while Terriermon held onto his head for dear life.
Ruki and Renamon were both as tightly strapped in as possible, praying for their lives.
Reiko was yelling at her dad to slow down and let someone else drive, while Takato was vainly trying to drive despite the noise.
With a loud screech, the car finally stopped. Ruki let out a loud sigh of relief, Jenrya was vainly trying to extract Terriermon from his head, and Reiko started screaming at her dad, who held up his arms in defense. Shuchion was shaking Hirokazu and Gillmon awake. Renamon just sat there.
"That was not card slashing fun, gogglehead!" Hirokazu yelled as Shuchion finally woke him up. He promptly leaped over and attempted to strangle Takato. All chaos broke out even worse than before.
"Hey, hey, I got us here, all right!" Takato yelled as everyone started to gang up on him. "So my driving wasn't the best! I was stressed! But we're here!" he yelled.
Hirokazu released his grip on Takato's throat, and Reiko stopped yelling.
Eventually, everyone managed to get out of the car. For a moment they all stood in front of the building, not really sure what to say.
"Well," Ruki said, grinning. "I say we go for firepower. Renamon?" she asked, pulling out her D-Arc.
"More than ready, Ruki." the fox-like digimon said.
"Terriermon?" Jenrya asked.
"I'm ready to go, Jen!" the rabbit-like digimon declared.
"Gillmon, you ready?" Takato asked his partner.
"Of course, Takato!" the red dinosaur told him.
Jenrya turned to look at Shuchion and Hirokazu. Hirokazu grinned at him.
"We've got it all planned out. We'll scope the place out from the inside, then tell you guys what we know." he said. The three tamers nodded.
Reiko ran up to her parents and hugged them. "I'll be right back!" she shouted as she ran off after Hirokazu and Shuchion.
Both Jenrya and Renamon turned away, their faces vainly trying to conceal their thoughts about not having that goodbye.
"Let's go." Takato whispered, his voice rough. His fellow Tamers followed him, along with their partners.

It was a loud explosion as Devi and I both attacked the wall with out strongest attacks. We came face-to-face with the outside once again. Without hesitating, we both leaped from the large gape in the building. To my surprise, I saw Aunt Shuchion, Hirokazu, and Reiko gaping up at us. My guess was that they came to rescue us. Guess they didn't expect us to rescue ourselves.
"You idiot!" Reiko yelled as Devi and I ran over to them. "You could've gotten killed, mon boy! YOU ARE SO DUMB!" she raged, and slapped me across the face.
I touched my burning cheek, shocked that Reiko would ever do that.
Hirokazu, Aunt Shuchion, and Devi all stared at her in shock. I was too, I'm pretty sure. Reiko gasped when she realized what she did.
"I..." she whispered, and I noticed that she was blushing. "I didn't mean to. It's just that I...I was scared you'd get hurt or something. That something happened to you..." she whispered, blushing even harder and making every effort to not look at me.
"I guess I should've been more careful, huh?" I asked Reiko. She looked up at me and smiled.
"You guess, mon boy? You guess?" she asked, glaring at me. I knew she wasn't serious, though. But I was happy to know she'd worried about me.

We stopped as a large, grotesque digimon landed in front of us. He had angel wings, red-demon like wings, striped legs. He was wearing a metal helmet from which his red hair poked out. Then his arms...he had four arms, one large, red, and beetle-like. Two exactly like Devi's, and a skeleton arm as well.

"HEAT VIPER!" he yelled, aiming at Devi and I.

Suddenly, a flash of green light came speeding past us and Devi collapsed, gone forever.