Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. I don't own "All You Wanted" by Michelle Branch. Heck, I don't even own a house, so please don't sue. Also, I don't make any money from these insane ramblings. Unfortunately. (Oh, and the name Cherith belongs to some Star Wars author or another.)

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"All You Wanted"

Chapter 2

I didn't know that it was so cold and

You needed someone to show you the way

So I took your hand and we figured out that

When the tide comes I'll take you away

The Digimon Emperor smiled to himself as he considered Wormmon's report that someone was approaching his fortress. He walked into the viewscreen room, expecting to see his Digidestined rivals' faces, but frowned in consternation as he saw only a lone girl who he was sure he'd seen before. Oh, yeah, he remembered suddenly, the girl I ran into. Cherith, I think. He grinned and snapped his fingers. She seemed to be staring at his fortress in amazement. Well, he could give her amazing.

"Wormmon, have Airdramon await me behind the fortress. I'm going to meet with our visitor."

"Yes, master," Wormmon replied and scuttled away.

Ken walked to the rear of his fortress and exited through the back door. Airdramon was waiting there, a huge blue serpent with a skull-like head and red wings. He jumped onto his mount's head and commanded it to fly straight up, over the top of the fortress, and down over the girl who would be below. As he topped the fortress and began the steep dive, he wanted to laugh with the sheer exhilaration, but he squelched the feeling. He had Airdramon land in front of the fortress, but he didn't dismount. He found Cherith in a defensive half-crouch, standing in front of the locked front door of his fortress, staring with her mouth and eyes wide open. He was again struck by her natural, almost wild beauty. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, reminding himself that she was an invader in his newly acquired territory.

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Cherith had to make a conscious effort to close her mouth. She straightened out of the defensive position she had taken when she had heard something above her and had glanced up. She had surprised herself, however, by getting into the doorway for the extra protection it offered. She would have expected herself to stand there with her mouth wide open until the dragon thing landed on top of her.

She pushed these thoughts from her mind and forced herself to walk toward the huge monster and the boy in front of her. Get a hold of yourself, Cherith. Pull yourself together. After all, you're only completely lost and faced with a boy who rides a dragon. She walked to one side of its head and looked up at the person perched up there.

"Do you know," he said harshly, "that you are trespassing?"

"No, I did not," she replied firmly. "I am totally and completely lost." She looked at him closer. If it was Ken, his hair and clothing were definitely very different. His hair was spiked, and he was dressed mainly in blue and black, with some kind of cape over his shoulders. He was also wearing a pair of goggles or glasses or something like that, she didn't know how to describe them.

"Well, you are," he said, and jumped down in front of her, landing neatly on his feet and creating a miniature crater in the snow. "What are you looking at?" he asked, noticing her scrutinizing gaze.

"Is that you, Ken?" she asked, almost incredulously.

He glared at her. "I am known as the Digimon Emperor here, Cherith. Be sure to remember that."

She smiled and said, "Sure, no problem." Her smile faded as she remembered the reason she had been trying to find him. "Ken--I mean Digimon Emperor-- I've been looking for you. Your mother is almost frantic with worry. She has no idea where you are. You ought to go home so she can stop worrying."

He frowned at her. "I don't recall being put at your beck and call. I'm not accustomed to taking orders from people trespassing in my domain."

Her eyes grew cold. "It was a request, not an order. Anyway, this is your mom we're talking about. I can't believe that a complete stranger like me could care more about her than her own son. If you won't come, I will at least go back to her and tell her that you're still alive."

He looked surprised and a little hurt by her words. "I am going back home, thank you very much. Anyway, how would you get back if you are really lost like you said earlier?"

Cherith shrugged. "I figured I'd follow my footprints back to the TV thing and try to go back the same way I think I got here."

Ken frowned. "How did you get to the Digital World, anyway? You aren't Digidestined, are you?"

She glanced at him in surprise. "Digital World? This is a separate world? Then how did I get here?"

"Yes, it is a world, comprised completely of data. When humans come here, their bodies are translated into data. And I asked you how you got here before you asked me.

She hissed softly between her teeth and replied, "I'll tell you en route. We really should get started. It is a ways to the TV thing."

He smiled. "Not really. We're gonna fly." He gestured to the dragon behind him.

Her eyes widened slightly. "Cool. I was wondering, what is it?"

"A species of Digimon, short for Digital Monsters. He is an Airdramon." He jumped onto its head, holding onto a bony ridge, and offered her his hand. She accepted it, and was a little surprised at how strong he was. "Don't worry about falling off. It's used to human riders."

She nodded and then snapped her fingers as she remembered something. "How I got here. Your mom and I split up to search the apartment for you. I was alone in your room when two things came out of the computer screen." She was startled that he didn't seem at all surprised by this.

He surreptitiously commanded Airdramon to fly very high up so the flight would last long enough for her to complete her story. Anyway, he could take her in a dive if he did it that way. He shivered slightly in the cold wind. She noticed and took off her coat, offering it to him. He shook his head. "I can't take it from you, then you'll freeze."

"No, I won't," she said. "I have a sweater on. Take it."

He accepted it. "Thanks. That's much better. But please, finish your story."

She smiled at him and continued. "Anyway, through a strange course of events, I ended up pointing one of them at the computer, and I seemed to get sucked into or through it. When I opened my eyes, I was in front of the TV thing I mentioned a couple of times. I followed footprints in the snow to that big rock where you found me. Excuse me for a moment." she said, reaching into her coat pocket. He moved his arm to make it easier for her. "Here's the one that pulled me through the computer."

Ken had to fight to keep his jaw from dropping. There, in her hand, was a D-3 Digivice. "Th-that came out of the computer?!"

She looked at him in surprise. "Yes. Do you know what it is?"

Wordlessly he reached inside her coat to the waistband of his pants and pulled out a device just like hers, only in black and grey instead of white and clear. "This is a digivice. It allows its owner to pass between the Digital World and the real world."

She frowned slightly. "So this world isn't real?"

He seemed surprised by her question. "I thought it was a computer game, but I've been told otherwise. I'm not sure what to believe."

"So it should be called the physical world, not the real world."

Just then, Airdramon gave a bellow. "We're over the portal now. I'll answer all of your questions later." He smiled at her. "You aren't afraid of heights, are you?"

"No," she answered. "Are we going to dive?" she added hopefully.

"Yes," he replied. "You might want to hold onto me. We will fall very quickly."

"Okay," she said, positioning herself behind him and wrapping her arms securely around his waist. She felt her heart pound with exhilaration as they hurtled toward the ground at an astonishing speed. She gasped as it seemed that they would smack the ground, but the Airdramon pulled out of the stoop just in time. It landed smoothly on the ground, and Ken jumped down near the TV thing. She followed him down before he could offer to help her, and he sent the Airdramon back to his fortress.

"Fortress?" Cherith said questioningly.

He smiled. "It's the, well, you called it a rock."

"Oh, that thing." She turned to the TV thing and said, "Now, how is this done?"

He got out his digivice, and she did likewise. They pointed them toward the TV and Ken said, "Digiport open!" Again she felt the falling sensation before she was sucked through the screen. At least I have a vague idea of what's going on, and I'm not alone this time.

Suddenly they were both back in Ken's room. Unused to the transition, Cherith started to lose her balance, and Ken caught her. "Thanks," she said. He smiled at her, and she heard his parents coming toward the room they were in, apparently having heard her. She clipped her digivice to her waist and gently nudged Ken over closer to the door.

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Ken sighed softly as he collapsed onto his bed. His parents had laughed, and cried, and hugged him, and asked him if he was alright, and told him never to worry them like that again, and asked him where he had been. Cherith had kind of stepped forward as though she were about to leave then, and they had thanked her repeatedly and would not hear of her leaving until after supper. At that point, he had complained discreetly of his hunger, and his parents had bustled off to prepare the meal, leaving the two of them alone. Cherith had just called her parents ad secured permission to stay for dinner after her mom had spoken with his.

He glanced at her. She was looking at him as though she wanted to ask him something, but was almost afraid to. "Yes?" he inquired.

"Well," she said, dropping her gaze, "do you think you could help me with the biology assignment? I didn't get any of the stuff about photosynthesis."

He smiled warmly. "Sure, no problem." He got out his biology book. "You see, the sunlight, which is luminous and thermal energy, strikes the leaf. The chlorophyll absorbs the energy, which excites the electrons in the molecules...."

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Cherith lay in bed that night, unable to sleep. She had remembered where she had heard of Digimon before. It had come to her as she had gotten into bed, struck her so suddenly that she had nearly stumbled and fallen onto the bed.

It was probably eight years ago, on a class trip to the city. She hadn't been able to fall asleep because of her excitement. It was, after all, the first time she had been in the city that she could remember, because her parents had moved to the countryside when she was one. It was also one of the first times she had spent the night away from home, and she was glad that she shared a room with three of her close friends.

She had been looking out the window at the city lights when they began flickering on and off. Then this huge thing fell out of the sky and opened up. Out of it came a big green parrot. It had gone to the ground, and where it had landed, fire and lightning had flown into the air. After a while, it had stopped, and she had watched the city lights until her eyes began to close.

Wait a minute. Cherith frowned, suddenly realizing that there was no way she could have known that it was a Digimon. She shouldn't even have known the word 'Digimon.' I was just a kid. But then, maybe that's why. She resolved to ask Ken about it if she had the chance. With this thought firmly in her mind, she managed to fall asleep.

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