[Lord of the Rings is a copyright of JJR Tolkien. Copy/paste other disclaimers here.]

{VERSION UP and starting animation plays....}

Backstep 11
Dark Lighthouse Upon the Horizon

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Location - Digital World
Time - almost three hours into Digital Conundrum, Digital World time
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"So, where exactly are these Holy Rings?"
"Don't ask me, Tentomon. If I asked Owsley, maybe he'd give us some intel."
"Have you been able to talk to him recently?"
"Not since we were at that ramen place."
Buck, Parker, Tentomon and Elecmon were walking through the bamboo forest - or at least what had been the bamboo forest near the Holy Stone. Since the sounding of the Trumpet of Hope, the forest had grown wild. And not only that - the foliage had changed entirely. Now it was like a tropical rainforest, devoid of wild animals or digimon, not to mention humanity.
"Why don't you try talking to him now?" Tentomon asked for probably the hundredth time. He seemed to have grown impatient.
"Not now - I'd doubt he's awake at a time like this!"
"Come on! Just this once?"
Parker forced out a heavy sigh. "All right, all right, I'll do it." He pulled out his D3 and pressed a button. The map-grid faded away into white, when normally Owsley's drowsy face would fill the screen.
"There!" Parker exclaimed, pocketing the D3 deep into his jacket. "Nobody home!"
"He's probably just having a root beer," Tentomon suggested.
"If circumstances were normal, I'd expect a lot of digimon rushing out to attack them," Elecmon grumbled beneath his breath. He and Buck were strolling a few feet behind Parker.
"But things aren't," Buck sighed. He took out his D3 and called up the map-grid. Nothing could be seen, except for the four red dots that marked himself and the three others with him. Not even a blue star or two to mark the Holy Rings. There was, though, some warping at the edges of the screen that Buck hadn't noticed.
"I don't like this place," Elecmon whispered as Buck put away his D3. "It doesn't feel right."
Buck could feel a warmness upon his chest. Curious, he pulled out his Tag: it had started to shine again.
"You're right," he soon added airily.

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Location - Owsley's room, Steele residence, Mount Prospect, Illinois, USA
Time - seventeen days into Digital Conundrum, real world time
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"A Crest of Love," Chloe breathed, taking the dog tag from Owsley's hands and slipping it over her head. "What does it do? I've had it for sixteen years."
"Well, according to Frank, it's supposed to make a digimon evolve," Owsley said, turning to face the girl. "I'm assuming you have a digimon somewhere."
Chloe shook her head. "I left my digimon behind in the Digital World, after whatever I did back then. I think my partner was a Hawkmon...."
"Hawkmon ... I think I've seen one of those before," Owsley mused. "Some Japanese girl named Miyako had one, I think. She's gone now, of course - casualty of the disappearances."
"Oh. I see." She sighed. "How long is this supposed to last? I mean, all these people being gone … how long until they get back?"
Owsley shrugged. "Beats me. Probably they'll get back in seven years and have the world to themselves."

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Location - Digital World
Time - over three hours into Digital Conundrum, Digital World time
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The two men and their partners were still marching through the dense forest. It was silent, with the exception of Parker and Tentomon's incessant bickering over communications on the D3. Buck, weary, was seated on Kentarumon's back. Occasionally he would take glimpses of the forest before falling into a brief nap - he couldn't help but notice that the trees were fading into black and white.
"Did a volcano go off around here?" Buck yawned after ten minutes of riding through the bleak landscape. "Everything looks coated with ash."
"Doubt it," Kentarumon murmured. "Sulfur stench lingers for quite a while in the Digital World. I'd say this was brought about by the sounding of the Trumpet."
"Darkness befalling the Earth and Digital World ... I didn't think it'd be taken so literally." Buck yawned and said a faint "Wake me later" before he drifted off to sleep.

"Buck!"
The journalist awoke with a start, something he was unaccustomed to. He found himself on a sandy surface, looking up at Elecmon's beaming face. Strangely, though, it wasn't in the bright blue-striped red he remembered - it was all muted by subtle shades of gray.
"Did I go color blind or something?" Buck yawned as he stood up. He saw Parker and Tentomon a few feet away, looking out at something in the distance - they seemed to have stopped their bickering by now. "Everything looks so ... gray."
"Remind you of something?" Elecmon asked.
Buck turned around to get a sense of where he was. He and Parker were on a beach, battered by steely waves with the consistency of oil. To his left was a Japanese-style fishing village, rotting into the earth; to his right, the remains of a lighthouse dotted the breakwater....
"We can't be here again," Buck gasped. "We're at the Dark Ocean."
"Ain't that a treat," Parker said, sarcastic. "We've already found everything we need out here." He took out his D3 and checked out the map grid. "See? No stars at the fishing village, nothing out in the ocean, and - wait, what's this?"
Buck took out his D3 and did the same. "There's something out near the lighthouse," he mused. "Two - no, four blue stars."
"Could they be the Holy Rings?" Tentomon asked.
"Beats me," Parker shrugged. "Now come on - let's get them so we could get home and undo all this." He trudged off to the breakwater, his partner flying off behind him.
Buck sighed and followed in the younger man's footsteps. He knew that Parker wanted to go back in time to undo the Digital Conundrum - even though it would mean not seeing Elecmon again. Buck had learned to tolerate his partner, and Parker may have, as well; the chrononaut would have a tough time choosing to backstep or not. Besides, the words the Guardian spoke at the Dark Ocean, when Parker and Buck had first met him, started to echo in the journalist's head.
I know Francis went back in time to undo this ... but you must know that nothing can prevent a Digital Conundrum....
It seemed to be no time before the two humans and their digimon had reached the ruins of the lighthouse. The area was abandoned, save for them, yet the stench of a past struggle still hung in the air.
"How long has it been since we were here?" Buck asked, leaning against a wall of the lighthouse.
"A few days," Parker replied simply. He took out his D3 and scanned the map grid. "The items are inside - come on."
The two men and the digimon silently entered the lighthouse through a decent-sized hole that may have been a doorway. The interior of the lighthouse was rather dreary, like the rest of the world: A staircase that used to spiral to an upper level now hung in midair; the light that would have signaled to faraway ships was now slivers of glass and mirrors on the rotting wooden floor. The roof was patchy, at best - the clouds could be seen poking through at times. Another stairway, sunken in the ground, led to a basement.
"Nothing shiny around here," Elecmon grumbled after scouring the ground level. Tentomon had flown to the higher reaches of the tower, examining the rotting causeways.
"Same here," the insect-like digimon reported after flying down to Parker's side a few minutes later.
"Maybe it's in the basement," Buck mused. He marched down to the sunken stairs and clambered slowly down, Elecmon scurrying behind. Parker and Tentomon followed moments later.
The damp underground room was poorly lit, especially with only the light of the D3s illuminating the environs. It was obviously close quarters: the men had to crouch down as to not have their heads collide against rock. The climb down was also relatively lengthy - currently they would probably be a few yards above the secret entrance to the Center that Takeru and Hikari had stumbled upon only days before, if they had known about it. Being so far underground, the two men were also growing chilly; even Parker, in his faux fur-lined jacket, would shiver.
After a drawn-out fifteen minutes, the group finally reached the end of the stairway. This room, much like the winding staircase the men took, was all but pitch dark.
Again Buck looked down at his D3. "It says that those Holy Rings are down here," he sighed. "If only we could see our way around here."
"I don't have a flashlight," Parker shrugged. "But according to this, it says we're right on top of them."
"Maybe they're underneath us," Elecmon stated. "I could dig for them."
"Sounds like a good idea," Buck said, testing his way around the room, eyes glued to the D3 in his hands. After a few minutes he looked up. "This is strange, though - the star just ... vanished."
"Hey, same here, Buck," Parker called from the other side of the room. "But we didn't find anything!"
"Apparently it was an error on the D3's part," Tentomon buzzed. "Let's go back upstairs."
Relieved to be out of the chilly, damp room - yet puzzled over the 'glitch' on the D3 - the two men and their partners slowly trudged their way back out into the open.

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Location - Steele residence
Time - seventeen days into Digital Conundrum
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"I'm telling you, Mr. Talmadge, that Chloe girl is a security risk! What if she's a spy for the Carpathia regime? We'd be found out even before the seven years started!"
"Ramsey, calm down. She may just be a young girl trying to find her family. People are still doing that these days."
Donovan, Ramsey, and Talmadge were sitting in the parlor, each of them with a mug of coffee in their hands. Talmadge was smoking on another cigar, filling the air with its pungent stench.
"I'd doubt she's a security risk," Donovan shrugged. "I mean, according to the family profile the Panel gave us, it clearly states that Chloe is the daughter of the former owners of this house. How else would she know how to get here? Or how about her father's occupation?"
"Donovan, there's a picture of an airline pilot in Owsley's room!" Ramsey exploded. "It was just a little hint!"

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Location - Dark Ocean
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"Uh, Frank, there's a ring on your right hand," Tentomon pointed out when the group reached topside. "And there's one on yours, too, Buck."
"You've got to be kidding us," Parker scoffed, pocketing his D3. He raised his hand before his face, and a shocked expression immediately came upon him. "Is this ... a Holy Ring?" he asked blankly.
Buck had put away his D3, and was looking at his hand in the same way. "I'd guess so. There seems to be some writing on it."
"Digital Hieroglyphs, no doubt."
"I can't tell, Frank - they're too eroded. Maybe if I rubbed off some of the dirt -"
A crashing of rocks interrupted Buck's reverie. Frantically the men and digimon dove back into the basement staircase, waiting for the falling rocks to stop raining down.
The dust cleared moments later, a sure enough sign to come out into the open. Now the lighthouse was nothing more than a conical shell half its original size; the spiral staircase was a twisted hunk of metal in the center. With the roof of the lighthouse gone, Parker and Buck could see the perpetrator of the destruction.
Dagomon.
"Not this jerk again," the group moaned in unison.
"You thought you finished me off last time, didn't you?" the black squid-human-hybrid digimon hissed breathily between his fanged teeth. "You may have wounded me ... but the Dark Lighthouse will shine once again!"
"What the hell is a Dark Lighthouse?" Parker breathed, not knowing that his answer would come in a flash of white light. He and Buck threw their arms over their eyes, but they knew that it was all futile....

The light died down to a comfortable level, suitable enough for the men to lower their arms. They and their partners were in a whitewashed, conical room, with a brass staircase leading up to a causeway hundreds of feet above. A prismatic light hung in the upper levels, yet its fire was dead.
"I'm assuming this answered your question," Buck scoffed. "It sure looks like a lighthouse in Vermont."
Parker eyed the journalist with an incredulous look - he had never been anywhere north of Philadelphia, with the exception of Alaska.
Then the light above flashed on - but it was not the familiar white glow of a lighthouse's beacon. Instead, it was a beam of pure darkness, making the whitewashed room fall back into gray.
Buck's Crest of Truth started to glow brightly from underneath his shirt. Suddenly weak, the journalist staggered his way to a door in the wall, hoping it would lead outside.
"Buck, what's going on?" Parker called as he ran to the door, Elecmon and Tentomon behind him.
"It's ... that light," Buck managed between shallow breaths, clutching the dog tag hidden beneath his clothes. "It's making the Crest shine ... remember that video?"
Parker nodded, but chose not to traumatize Buck by retelling the situation.
"We have ... to destroy that light," Buck hissed, throwing his weight on the door. It creaked open; Buck fell heavily onto the rocks outside. "It may be ... our last chance...."
"It's already too late, Chosen Child," a booming, ominous voice called out from the ocean. Wearily Buck raised his head to look for the source; Parker came and knelt by his side, but looked up as well.
The inhuman form of Dagomon rose from the ocean, a towering shadow before the two adult Chosen Children. His body was engulfed by light as the lighthouse's beacon swept over him. The digimon's shape seemed to grow slimmer, yet more lithe, towering ever so much higher above the breakwater, almost twice as tall as the lighthouse now....
And then the light faded away, revealing the monster that Dagomon had become.
He was now a leviathan, a sea serpent in metal plates, and his dragon-like head was hidden beneath a helmet of gold. Fangs jutted out from his mouth, and his darkness-muted crimson tongue lolled out of it.
Parker took out his D3 and pressed a button, displaying the dragon's statistics. "His name's Metal Seadramon, a Final-level digimon," he gasped, trying to make himself heard to Buck. "His special attacks are Ultimate Stream and Poseidon Divide. And there's something here in Digital Hieroglyphs...."
"Demon of the Ocean," Buck whispered, taking a short glance at Parker's D3. "He draws his strength from that light."
"Excellent deduction," Metal Seadramon chuckled. "The Guardian destroyed the light millennia ago ... but thanks to the Holy Rings and the amplified powers of your Crests, it has risen again! All a simple matter of manipulating Time...."
Parker, distracted by the serpent's words, took his dog tag from beneath his shirt. It, like Buck's, was shining, but not as strongly.
The Crest of Time has the power to control time, the chrononaut thought, just like me and the Sphere....
"And now I have no more need for your ... help," the serpent crooned, rearing his head. A blue light started to gather at his head, aimed for the two men on the breakwater.
"Ultimate Stream!"
A blue beam of energy, muted by the sweeping of the dark beacon, shot out towards the two men. Helplessly they looked up as the streaming energy drew closer....
"Tentomon, evolve! Kabuterimon!"
The giant insect's dark mass rammed into the side of Metal Seadramon's head, forcing the special attack off its target. The stream of turquoise light blasted through the lighthouse, causing the tower to topple over onto the far side of the breakwater.
Buck's Crest stopped glowing, and he got to his feet, weakened no more by the dark light. "I have no idea why that happened," he gasped, slowly catching his breath.
"It's your connection to the Guardian," Elecmon grumbled. "That's probably it - that digimon just wants to possess you again."
"But he said he couldn't leave the Golden Land for three and a half years."
"Because he was weak from the destruction of those Holy Stones," Elecmon snapped. "Now come on, we have to finish this demon off at last."
Buck nodded and took out his D3. The device's screen started to glow with a whitish tinge.
"Elecmon, evolve! Kentarumon!"
The centaur galloped off to the edge of the breakwater, directly in front of Metal Seadramon. Kabuterimon was behind the dragon, a ball of electric energy forming in his hands.
"Curse you!" the dragon roared. "You destroyed the lighthouse again! But as long as you hold the Holy Rings, I could rebuild it anew!"
"He's distracted, Kabuterimon!" Parker called out. "Fire!"
The giant insect opened its arms, releasing a stream of electricity towards Metal Seadramon's armor-plated backside. "Mega Blaster!"
Blue flashes blanked out the Dark Ocean realm as Metal Seadramon was bombarded by the barrage of lightning. Yet moments later, when the light died down, the dragon still towered above the crashing waves.
"Ha! My metal armor is insulated against electric attacks!" he taunted, flicking his pronged tail lazily. His tail lashed into Kabuterimon's side, sending the digimon crashing into the jagged rocks of the breakwater.
"Kabuterimon!" Parker yelled, running over to his partner's side. "Are you okay?"
"Just beat-up," the insect moaned. "Let me at him again."
"You heard that blockhead," Parker argued; "electricity doesn't affect him."
"Darn." He looked over at Buck, off some ten yards away in distance. "You know, it'd be nice if that Guardian came over to help us."
Parker nodded. "But I don't think Buck wants to go through that again."

Just a few feet away, Buck and Kentarumon still defiantly held their ground before Metal Seadramon. Buck ran over to his partner and leaped onto his back.
"Come on, Kentarumon," he urged, "you've gotta do something!"
"All my attacks are electric, Buck," he grumbled, pawing at the rocks.
"Damn," Buck whispered, noting that Metal Seadramon was starting to lower his head down at them.
Then he saw a patch on the digimon's underbelly unprotected by the armor.
"There!" he yelled out. "Attack!"
Kentarumon outreached his right hand and aimed the now-emerging gun barrel at the lone unprotected spot. "Hunting Cannon!"
A ball of golden light shot out of the centaur's hand, flying straight for the white patch of natural scales. An explosion rocked the dragon's body, forcing him to crash into the ocean. Now in the water, the remaining electrical energy from the attack scoured over the length of Metal Seadramon's serpentine form, sending heavy smoke from the burning ocean into the air.
"I guess we did it, then," Buck muttered excitedly, patting Kentarumon's shoulders in encouragement.
The centaur, though, stared off at the still ocean, his mind seemingly far away. "I doubt it," he whispered, keeping his armed hand at the ready. "Just a strange feeling...."
"Buck! WATCH OUT!!"
Buck and Kentarumon turned in the direction of the sound: It was Parker, running towards them with Kabuterimon flying slowly behind.
"The dragon's rising out of the water again, and he's going to attack!" the chrononaut cried out. "Get out of the way!"
Buck and Kentarumon turned back to face the ocean - sure enough, Metal Seadramon had lunged out of the water, his glowing snout a telltale sign he was about to fire his special attack.
"You thought you could stop me, Chosen Children?" the dragon roared, spittle thrown out of his mouth in giant globules. "Ultimate Stream!!"
The beam of shining blue light inched closer towards the defenseless men, who gaped at it in disbelief. Buck roughly slid off Kentarumon's back onto the rocks and stared upward - if there was a god in the world, now would be the time for him to intervene, he thought desperately as he mumbled a string of nonsensical words....
Then the Holy Ring on his hand started to glow with a golden light.
"Holy Mother of God," he whispered, holding the ring to his eyes. The Digital Hieroglyphs engraved on the ring were now clear, rearranging themselves into their Engish equivalent. Buck recited them in a hushed whisper as the blue light of Metal Seadramon's attack threatened to engulf him and his partner.
"Seijin no dai-tenshi no Michael wa, tatakai ni mamoru...."
With the recitation of those words, the D3 hidden in Buck's hands shined with a blinding golden light. Buck looked up from the ring, and saw that Kentarumon was shrouded in a golden aura as well.
"Kentarumon, super-evolve! Knightmon!!"
A heavy suit of armor, with a broad sword held in his right hand, materialized before Buck where Kentarumon once stood. Immediately the knight reached behind him and armed a giant shield engraved with a golden medallion on his free arm. He brought the shield before him, deflecting the force of Metal Seadramon's attack only mere seconds before it would have hit his body.
Moments later the blue light died down, and the armored digimon lowered his shield. He turned his helm-shielded head towards Buck, and seemed to gaze at him sternly.
"Are you alright, Buck?" he asked in a gruff voice.
Buck brought himself to his feet warily. "I'd guess so." He looked down at his hand, and saw the Holy Ring still glowing with its golden light.
"Now I shall finish off this demon," Knightmon rumbled, turning towards Metal Seadramon and bringing his sword to a ready position before his body. The sword in his hands shone with a blue light, illuminating the Digital Hieroglyphs that Buck could make out as "Berserk Sword" that decorated the blade itself.
Parker took out his D3 and pressed one of the buttons, displaying Knightmon's data on the screen. "Hmm ... a Perfect-level - whatever that is ... and his special attack is Berserk Sword." He pocketed the D3 and looked at the new digimon as his own partner reverted back to Tentomon. "This could prove interesting."
"Well, Knightmon's sword is known to be formidable against dramon-type digimon," Tentomon stated matter-of-factly. "It's made of the legendary metal Mithreal."
Parker looked down at his partner with a sarcastic look in his eyes. "Isn't that the legendary metal from Lord of the Rings?"
Now it was Tentomon's turn to look at Parker strangely; but there was no reason to continue the argument, now that Knightmon was about to attack.
The armored digimon leaped high into the air before Metal Seadramon's head, his shining blade now held over his head. In a swift movement he brought down his arms, the sword's path illuminated in blue.
"Berserk ... Sword!"
Metal Seadramon was about to aim his snout at Knightmon, but the Perfect-level digimon thrust the giant sword down the dragon's mouth. Without even a final gurgle the Dark Master of the Ocean disintegrated in a flash of golden bits of data.
"You ... you did it!" Buck whooped, jumping into the air as Knightmon reverted to Elecmon and fell into his arms. The Holy Ring on Buck's hand had stopped glowing now, the strange words in Digital Hieroglyphs again heavily eroded away.
"That was fun," Elecmon smiled, snuggling into Buck's chest. "I want to do that again."
"Well, we'll see," Buck sighed, turning to face Parker and Tentomon. "So, where to next?"
Parker shrugged. "My guess is to head back home ... but we escaped from here with the Guardian's help. Buck...."
But the journalist had already surmised what Parker was suggesting. He set Elecmon on the rocks and took out the Tag from behind his shirt. He held it pensively in his hands, looking down at the stylized question mark engraved upon it.
"Frank ... I don't want to do that," he whispered without look up into Parker's face. "You don't know what it's like ... having another mind in you, controlling what you do and say ... and the pain! You saw what happened to me - I transformed into that ... that monster!" He forced his head towards Parker, tears rising to his eyes in his fury. "And I had no control over what he did! If I had a chance, Frank, I would have defended that Stone with my very life - it would still be standing if I had some say in how the battle had gone! None of this would have happened, Frank: the Conundrum, the disappearances, everything....
"But no ... we're stuck here ... and there's no chance of undoing it ... even that time machine of yours, Frank...."
There was no containing the tears now. Buck crumpled to his knees and buried his face in his hands, afraid to let the military-bred Parker see his shame as the world before him turned dark....

Francis ... I have come to take you to the Center again....
Buck turned his head around, striving to find the source of the echoing words. It sounded so much like the Guardian, the warden of the gates to the Golden Land....
"Where are you?" he called out, but his words were little more than a whisper.
Then, there was Parker's voice: "Buck? Are you all right?"
Buck wanted to call out in response; even his mouth was voicing out the words; but instead the Guardian's voice sounded in the darkness.
Cameron is all right, Francis; there is nothing to worry about. Now come with me, and the digimon, as well ... the four of you are to return home....
Buck could feel someone grasp his right hand - Parker, no doubt - but why wasn't the chrononaut standing beside him? This must all be some sick dream, Buck thought desperately, trying to find something, someone in the vast darkness that surrounded him.
But all he could find was himself, suspended in an ivory orb of light with digital data encircling it. All he wore was the chain on which the Crest of Truth was suspended upon, his only protection from the shadow of forgetfulness....

"Buck! Buck, wake up!"
Slowly Buck opened his eyes, finding Parker looking down at him, worried. He was about to ask what had happened, but familiar words echoed in his mind ... the four of you are to return home....
"We're at NNL again, then?" Buck finally managed, bringing himself up to a sitting position. Elecmon crawled onto his lap and sat up.
"Not unless a giant botanical garden has something to do with time travel," the digimon replied, pointing at something with a stubby claw.
Buck, puzzled, turned to where Elecmon was pointing. Instead of the golden halls of the Center were flowering sprouts of every sort of beautiful flora ever created. The bubbling of a creek could be heard nearby, and a light mist hung in the air.
"Is this ... the Golden Land?" Buck asked, turning towards Parker.
The man shrugged. "Who knows? Now come on, we have to find our way home." He stood and walked off, but soon stopped in his tracks.
"You hear that, Buck?" he whispered, cocking his head to the side.
Buck shook his head. "What?"
A metallic clanging, like steel meeting steel, could be faintly heard in the distance. "That." Another clang. "There it is again. I wonder what that is."
Buck lay back down, his body welcoming the soft grass beneath him. He stared up at the vibrant sapphire sky, watching a black shadow and a white speck of light bouncing playfully above. Every time they met, a metallic clang could be heard ringing clear across the garden.
Then the features of the two shadows soon sharpened in Buck's vision, and the man jumped to his feet in his realization.
"It's Black War Greymon and the Guardian," he whispered. He looked towards the sky again, watching the shadows dodging each other again. "They're fighting...."

{'Til the End of the World, credits, and ending animation plays....}