Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.  I do own Phloem because he's my original character, so that means I also own Rime.  Pixie Sugienna belongs to yamatos.girl, while Brian O'Conner and Magnus Dean belong to Fallen Angel.  AlanAlectai owns Alan Aramyr Gerai.  And now appearing… ChibiSora and SteelKnight with their respective characters, Relaina Michet and Sho Kania!  Kurai Happatai, made by PrincessKitty-Chan and I, is also appearing this chapter.  PrincessKitty-Chan gave the basic idea of Kurai Happatai a while ago, and I pretty much made up the rest for this chapter…

Warnings: Yeah, this is a PG fic… but a fight scene in this got slightly bloody.  Reader discretion is advised… kind of…

Notes to People who Submitted Characters

These have now officially been moved to after the story itself.  All participants may want to have a look at the notes.

~*~  ~*~ marks flashbacks

--  -- marks dream sequences.

//  // marks telepathy.

Curse words are starred out, except for the first letter.  Hey, this is a PG fic!

Chapter 4: Blazing Black Ice

Guilmon looked cautiously around the corner.  Behind him were Magnus, Phloem and Tapirmon, Pixie and Otamamon, and Alan and Veemon.  He sniffed, and when he did not smell anyone he turned sideways and nodded at Magnus.  "It's clear," he said happily.  Everyone continued forward when the all clear was signaled.

After a few doors they were finally at their destination.  A plaque above the door was inscribed with Brian's name in silver.  The first room was a large open hall for greeting guests, but it was currently unoccupied.  They continued through the hall to a slightly open door.  Magnus walked in first, only to displace a water bucket.  However, he moved quickly out of the way, and the bucket instead landed on Phloem's head.

Phloem, now sopping wet, carefully removed the bucket from his head.  He was still smiling, even if his slightly long brown hair was now plastered against his head.

"Oops," said a repentant voice.  Brian's Patamon flew out from under a mahogany desk placed in the center of the room.  "That wasn't supposed to hit him.  Magnus, why did you move out of the way?  It was a perfect shot!"

"Which is why I moved out of the way," countered Magnus reasonably.  He looked at Phloem.  "You all right?"

Phloem nodded.  "I'm fine."  Tapirmon went down to the bucket and picked it up.  "Tapirmon, that would be rude," said Phloem to a comment Tapirmon had mentally made.  "Throwing the bucket at Patamon would solve nothing, right?"

//Right, but he deserves it for dousing you with water.//

"He wasn't planning on dousing me.  It was completely an accident, so he does not deserve to be hit with the bucket."

Both Alan and Magnus were starting to get suspicious of how Tapirmon and Phloem were acting.  Phloem seemed to reply to things Tapirmon didn't say, and Tapirmon never made a sound.  Alan had a guess about what was going on, but he didn't believe it was possible.  Magnus also had a guess, and it just made complete sense.

At that point, Brian came in from another room.  He seemed a bit surprised to see all the people gathered in his living room because he had only expected Magnus and Phloem.  He threw a look at the drenched Phloem, the annoyed-looking Tapirmon, and the apologetic expression on Patamon's face.  "Patamon, you missed Magnus again, didn't you?"  Both Patamon and Magnus nodded.

"That's right, Brian," said Patamon cheerfully.  "And then this kid was walking in after Magnus, and he got soaked instead!"  Tapirmon threw a glare at Patamon.

"That is funny," Brian replied just as good-humoredly.  Tapirmon switched his glare over to the human.  "Hey, calm down!  It was just a joke.  Why don't you get dried off in the bathroom?  There should be some extra towels in there.  It the first door to the right, down that hallway," he said as he pointed.  Phloem nodded and walked where he was shown with Tapirmon following.  After the past couple of days, nothing surprised him anymore.  Having a prank played on him by a young general's Digimon was nothing compared to getting imprisoned.

Once Phloem was gone, Brian addressed the other two in the room.  "Hi, Pixie, and hello again, Alan.  I bet you two tried to rescue Phloem too, right?"

Both of them nodded.  "That's right," said Pixie.  "You know I don't like what Rime does."  She shrugged.  "So I just snuck down there and was planning to get him out.  I ran into Magnus, and we all came here with him, and then Phloem got hit with that bucket of water..  Does Patamon play pranks on Magnus all of the time?"

Magnus spoke up.  "Brian, that prank was meant for the kid, wasn't it?"

Brian grinned sheepishly.  "Actually, yes.  I used my resources to look up information on a certain Cadet Phloem to see why Rime hates him so badly.  Here's what I found out.  He comes from a long line of farmers called the Greenhill family.  He had one older brother who didn't have a Digimon and was killed at the age of five.  Phloem reportedly did not have a Digimon either, and he was also to be executed on his fifth birthday.  There his profile said that he experienced a "traumatic event" and was not killed.  Instead, he suddenly had a Digimon and a week later, he was tested and sent to the Imperial Guard for training as a soldier."

"A "traumatic event?"  What do you mean by that, sir?" asked a curious Alan.

"It doesn't say.  However, I did look up the history of the execution squads, and on that same day ten years ago, the execution squad scheduled to kill the same Phloem Greenhill and another child was "killed in duty."  I suppose that means that Phloem must've received his Digimon then.  And get this: the execution squad contained the emperor's former mistress and the mother of High Prince Rime, Lady Fala."

"Oh!" gasped Pixie.  "Could a person like Phloem actually kill someone?  He seemed so innocent!"

"Coming from someone younger than him, Miss Sugar-"

"Don't call me that."

The general smiled slightly.  "Coming from someone younger than him, Miss Sugienna, I believe that he must appear pretty darn innocent.  Is there anything strange about the kid?"  Magnus thought for a minute, and Alan had a reflecting look on his face.

"He seems to speak silently with his Digimon.  It's like they're telepathic with each other," Magnus said tentatively.  "I'm not sure about this, but the only other explanations are the kid is lying or insane."

Pixie nodded in agreement.  "Telepathy does make sense.  He didn't seem to be lying.  And you forgot to explain how we didn't get him out of his cell.  Right, Otamamon?"

"That's right!" exclaimed the amphibious virus from Pixie's arms.  "The whole place glowed a bright green, and then it was like every single security system in the place had been shut off!  Even the restraining collar on that Tapirmon was off.  And those two just walked out of there like it was normal.  But, the two are pretty special.  All Digimon can recognize a human like him when they see one if they know what to look for."

"Then it was what I thought it was!" exclaimed Alan.  "He had a Digivice!"

The other three humans' jaws opened in surprise.  "He has a Digivice?  Aren't those just old legends?" queried Magnus.  "Were did he get it?"

He was answered not by Alan, but by Phloem.  "It was a gift."  Phloem was back in the room, and he was again smiling at them all.  "It was a gift that Thunderbirdmon carried to me."

"Thunderbirdmon?"

"A Digimon that the prince made us kill," said Phloem as he put a hand on Tapirmon's head.  Phloem lost the smile, and he now had a profound expression of sorrow on his face.  "Thunderbirdmon didn't mind, and in fact he told me to kill him.  He carried our Digivice to us.  He called it a "gift" from someone else."  He traded glances with Tapirmon.  "Is there anything else you would like to know, sir?" he asked to Brian.

Brian nodded.  "So, you're a Digidestined… Did Rime know that?  Is that why he wants you dead?"

"I do not know why the High Prince wishes to kill me.  I have never done anything against him."

"Never?" asked Magnus.  "Have you ever killed anyone other than Thunderbirdmon?"

Magnus had asked just to see if the hints about him murdering an entire troop of soldiers was true.  He had not asked to try to intimidate Phloem or make him uncomfortable, but Phloem's eyes widened and his breathing became shallow as he stared off into space.

Sobs escaped between his fast gasps of air.  "I didn't… Tapirmon didn't… Why?  Why did they… did they want to kill us?  Apemon?  Where… where did it come from?  It saved me… No!  The screams… Apemon, Apemon… killing… blood… NO!"

~*~ He could feel the ropes, tight against his hands and holding him in place as the Apemon moved towards Gorillamon. It had a horrible, terrifying, enraged sneer covering its face as it raised its metal bone club.  He could only see the side of its face, but he was still trembling with fear, even if the wild Digimon had saved him.

The Gorillamon tried to destroy it as the Apemon turned towards the white ape.  "Energy Cannon!" the Gorillamon cried.  A blast of bright energy shot from the cannon.  Apemon simply swung his bone club and shot it back at the Gorillamon.  But instead it missed, and it hit the Gorillamon's partner instead.  The muscular man went down, gasping in surprise at the hole through his stomach.

Almost mercifully, Apemon destroyed the surprised Gorillamon. "MEGA BONE STICK!"   As his partner disappeared into data, the man also bled his life away and died.

The rest of the execution squad now attacked the Apemon, but their Digimon did not have enough time to evolve to Champion before being taken down by the Apemon.  "METALLIC FUR!"  As he swept among the Rookies, they quickly dissolved into digital dust.  First a Labramon, then a Gomamon, next a Salamon… As they each died, the Apemon also made sure to take out their partners.

Phloem looked away, crying, as the red liquid of the human's blood sprayed across him from several of the humans as their bodies connected with Apemon's blade-like fur.  He did not want to see them dying.  He did not want to live at the expense of other people's lives.

Finally, there was only one pair left.  A Candlemon desperately tried to defend a white-haired woman.  She had been the owner of the cold voice, the one that had not wanted to watch the child tortured.  Phloem wondered briefly how she felt, and suddenly, he could sense it.

He could sense a child running away through the woods, a scared little girl who had been able to slip away from her bindings when the battle had started.  He could sense Apemon's rage, as well as a protectiveness of… of someone?  Was it him?  He could also feel the woman's emotions, and her Candlemon's.  The Candlemon simply wanted to protect his partner to the end.  The woman, however, was a jumble of emotions.  Fear, regret about something she would leave behind, and a strange longing for an end to it all.

The emotions disappeared as the lonely two had been obliterated.  And yet… and yet, to the very end, the woman had wanted to die.  The only reason she had been alive before that was a duty that had kept her from committing suicide.

As that sixth sense opened, Phloem suddenly knew what all the emotions he had never understood before meant.  A new sense of maturity and responsibility hung about the young child's shoulders like a leaden cloak.

Phloem watched, now unsurprised, as the Apemon came and cut him loose from the bonds on the tree.  He fell into the Apemon's arms, and then he realized that he could sense much more about this Apemon than anything else.

//Why…?// he asked, talking in a way that was so new, yet so natural to him.  //Why…?//

The Apemon watched him, and a sad, caring expression grew on its face.

//Why did you kill them… Apemon… Why…?//

"I did not mean to bring you such pain, my partner.  You have the ability, so henceforth I will only talk to you in that way.  I will only talk out loud to attack, because in their own right, attacks will only bring pain to someone.  Speaking my attacks in front of you has only brought both of us pain."  The Apemon looked sadly around.  //I did not mean to kill them, my partner…//

//Partner…// Realization hit Phloem.  //You are my partner.//

//Yes,// said the Apemon as it turned back into Tapirmon.  //I have searched for you for so long, and now I have finally found you.  And I will always, always protect you.//

The two newly united partners grieved for their sad reunion beneath the blood-covered tree. ~*~

"Killed…" Phloem was gasping and sobbing in the real world.  He had not told what he had relived in his mind out loud, but they had still gotten the gist of what happened.  He was shaken back into reality with a hard bump from Tapirmon.

His eyes returned to normal, and so did his breathing.  He looked around him with a startled expression.  "Sorry," he said while looking down.  "I get panic attacks when people ask me about that."

Everyone else was staring at him in surprise, and they were staring at Tapirmon in slight fear or caution, depending on the person.  He realized that they must have heard the part about Tapirmon being Apemon, and he shook his head at their reaction.

"Don't worry.  Tapirmon is not like that.  He has never done anything like that since."  He smiled, albeit a bit tremblingly, at everyone to try to put them at ease.

Alan looked nervously between Phloem and Tapirmon.  "W-well, at least we know why Prince Rime hates him now, r-right?"  Phloem blinked and lost the smile.  He wanted to hear what this was about.

Brian nodded in agreement.  "True.  The woman with the white hair and the Candlemon that Phloem was mumbling about must have been Rime's mother, Lady Fala."

"It was a stupid thing to kill her!" exclaimed Alan's Veemon.

"You're one to talk," Alan muttered.

"Huh?" asked the clueless Veemon.

Alex just sighed.  "Never mind.  But now that we know why Rime hates Phloem, what are we going to do?"

"We need to get him out of the city.  If he has a Digivice, then there has to be something important about him," Pixie reasoned aloud.

"Could you all please stop talking about me as if I wasn't here?" Phloem asked.  "I don't want to be killed either, you know."

"Right.  Well, we need to get you out of here quickly," said Brian.  "But what exactly did you do to get Rime mad at you in the first place?  He probably didn't know who you were right away."

A faraway look was in Phloem's eyes.  "It was actually quite a while ago, when we were both kids.  I was around seven, and…"

~*~ Seven-year-old Phloem stood waiting in line inside the training grounds.  Low, white walls barely separated the area that he was in from the others.  All of the students in the class stood at attention in their gray uniforms with their Rookie Digimon to their right side, and their instructor – currently just as intimidating as he would be in eight years – had a strange boy with long, white hair and piercing blue eyes standing next to him and his Leomon.  Next to the white-haired boy was a Tapirmon.

"This is High Prince-Candidate Rime Sanctus," said the instructor to the classmates of varying ages.  Most were older than Phloem, though one or two out of the twenty were slightly younger.  "He will be your new classmate."

Later…

Phloem was walking back to his dormitory after an extra-long one-on-one training session with the instructor.  The drill sergeant was constantly saying that he had a lot of potential, but the seven-year-old Phloem didn't really understand what he meant by that.  All he knew was that he had to work extra hard and do a bunch of things that most of his classmates didn't do.  He was so tired right now that he didn't watch where he was going and ran almost ran into someone.

He lost his balance as he stepped to the left to avoid hitting the person and fell down on his back.  Standing above him was the High Prince-Candidate.  "You should watch where you're going, idiot," said Rime arrogantly.  "After all, I am of a higher rank than you."

"Rank doesn't matter," protested young Phloem as he stood up.  "Anyways, you have a Tapirmon, just like I do!"

"Rank matters a lot more than you probably think, idiot," sneered Rime.  "Besides, your Tapirmon probably Digivolves into something more suited for fighting than thinking.  Mine will Digivolve into Sorcerymon, which is quite a regal Digimon and fully fitting the future High Prince."

Both Phloem's Tapirmon and Phloem bristled at the implied insult, while Rime's Tapirmon just looked sheepish at his partner's behavior.  "You're not the High Prince yet!"

Threateningly, Rime grabbed Phloem's collar, choking him slightly.  "Ah, but I will be.  The emperor loved my mother the most, and the other candidates aren't my equals!  No one is my equal!!"  To prove his point, Rime lifted Phloem off of the ground and pushed him backwards as he let go.  He clearly expected Phloem to land harshly on the ground.

Phloem did not.  He was able to twist like a cat and landed slightly unsteady on his feet.  "Well, you can't beat me at fighting!  I'm a cadet soldier of the Imperial Guard!  If there's a such thing as the Imperial Guard, then even the emperor must need someone to protect him."  Phloem's eyes widened as he ducked from a punch thrown by Rime.

"I…don't…need…anyone…to…protect…me!" Rime shouted as a few of his hits began to connect.  Phloem's Tapirmon started to go in to break up the fight, but Rime's Tapirmon blocked him.

But Phloem didn't need the protection of his Digimon in the first case.  He blocked the next punch thrown by the prince and swept away the prince's balance with a well-placed kick to the shin.  Rime fell down hard on the ground, and the ten-year-old prince stared in hatred at the cadet, who was wisely retreating from a needless fight with the possible future ruler of his country. ~*~

"So that's what happened," finished Phloem.  "He's hated me ever since then, and occasionally he would come to my classes just to make trouble for me."

"Then let's get you out of here!" shouted an enthused Patamon.  "Getting you out will make Rime so mad," squealed the Digimon happily with a huge grin on his face.  A similar grin appeared on Brian's face.  The thought of being able to make Rime furious appealed to the prank-loving general.

"No kidding!" Otamamon said as Pixie also grinned.  "Just imagine what his face will look like!"  Both Otamamon and Patamon burst out laughing at what they thought it would be like.

"Thanks for volunteering to help, Pixie," Brian said to the princess with a grin.  "It'll be easier to get him out of here with the Princess of Sugar's help!"

Pixie turned red and glared at Brian.  "Stop it with the sugar jokes…"

"I guess I'll come too," volunteered Alan to take Pixie's attention off revenge for the teasing.

"The more the merrier," Brian said happily.

"Yes!  This will be so much fun!" cried Veemon as he struck a pose.  "This extraordinarily strong Veemon will help out, too!  I don't have an ounce of fat in my body!  It's all muscle."

Alan muttered, "Which explains a whole lot.  This is a classic case of all brawn and no brains."

"What?" asked Veemon.  "What do you mean by that?"  Alan kept silent, and Veemon wrapped himself around Alan's leg.  "Come on, tell me, tell me!"  Alan still refused to say anything.

"This is interesting, Magnus," Guilmon mentioned to his partner as they watched the Veemon try to figure out what his partner had said.  "Are we taking him to the River?"

"Yeah.  It'd be the safest way to get him out of here."

Out of all the people in the room, Phloem was the only one listening to Magnus and Guilmon.  "Are you talking about the River of Light?  I thought that no one could touch it directly and live."

Magnus shrugged.  "Maybe for some people, but I've never died from using it to travel."

By now, everyone else was also paying attention.  "It's not a real river, is it?" asked Alan curiously.

"Yes, and no.  If you wanted to, you could get water from it, but the actual water is pretty far under all of the glowing stuff on the top.  It isn't a river of light, like the name suggests.  It's actually more like a river of digital data.  The data carries you along, and the river drops you off randomly in any spot along its banks, or even the banks of any rivulets that run into it."

"Wouldn't it be risky to go all the way to the River from here?" Brian wondered.

Magnus nodded.  "But we're not going to the River.  A rivulet of it runs beneath the palace near the crypts for the nobility."

"C-crypts?  D-don't wild Bakemon l-live there?"  Alan's face became pale, and he pushed his glasses up nervously.

"Sometimes stronger Digimon," said Magnus with a casual shrug.  Alan gulped audibly.

******

Phloem wondered briefly how he ended up in a dark, creepy cavern full of various urns of different former nobility.  It was just creepy to think that the ashes of so many different people were in the same room as you.  And it didn't help that there would be the occasional evil laugh from an unseen Bakemon.  As another one rang throughout the hallways, Phloem shivered, and it was not from the slight chill that pervaded the great stone rooms.

He reflected that it was nice to be finally out of his stiff uniform.  He had borrowed some old clothes from Brian, and now he was in a comfortable, if loose, brown shirt and knee-length green pants.  His pristine white shoes were now replaced with more comfortable brown boots.  To top if off, he was wearing a green bandana around his neck that matched with the pants.

Eventually, Magnus led them to a path through the urns that brought them to an amazingly beautiful sight.  In a room that looked like it had never been developed by human hands lay the source of one of the rivulets of the River of Light.  From the ceiling hung a large crystal stalactite, and from the shining tip of it a stream of glowing digital data dropped into a pool that bubble with crystal clear water.  Where the water dropped out of the pool and into a stream through a series of tiny waterfalls, the data began to float on top of the water and gave the stream the glowing luminescence that the River was known for.

"It's beautiful," breathed an awed Pixie and Otamamon at the same time.

//Did you expect something like this, Tapirmon?// asked a stunned Phloem.

//No.  It's… amazing.//

"This is where you go in," Magnus informed Phloem taciturnly.  Phloem nodded and stepped forward.  He and Tapirmon prepared to jump in the streamlet just below the final mini-fall.

That's when a cold voice stopped them just before they jumped.  "I don't think so.  Trying to escape, my dear friends?"

Ten heads, both human and Digimon, turned to look at the source of the voice.  High Prince Rime and his Sorcerymon were standing in the doorway of the small cave.

The prince looked over their small group arrogantly.  Behind him stood five of the Imperial Guard, but these were unlike any Imperial Guard that Phloem had ever seen.  For one, their pristine white uniforms had a black edge around them.  And unlike any Imperial Guard or even common soldier that Phloem had ever run into, they had virus Champions for Digimon.  To be precise, each of them had a Bakemon.  The emotionless eyes of the Guards in front of them somehow matched the Digimon that they had.

Alan backed away from them nervously until he was at the edge of the data stream.  "D-does anyone know who t-those p-people are?" he stuttered nervously.  Veemon stood courageously in front of his partner, ready to protect him from anything.

"Graveyard Guardians," Magnus said shortly.  He was completely focused on the ten Guardians and Rime, and he looked almost happy that there was likely going to be a fight.

Even Brian, the eternal jokester, looked nervous at that bit of news.  "These are the specially trained Guards?  Shoot!"  Seeing that the Guards were pulling out some guns, Brian said a bit hastily, "Not literally, of course.  So, Prince Rime, what's been happening lately?"  Brian was actually grinning like this was one huge joke.

Rime smiled his frozen smile.  "One, Phloem has finally given me a good enough reason to kill him.  Two, he escapes somehow from one of the most high-tech cells we have.  Three, it turns out that one of my father's generals, my fiancée, and one of the most rebellious nobles in the city are helping him.  Not to mention the general's most troublesome pet bodyguard."  Magnus simply rolled his eyes at the implied insult (somehow while still keeping his eyes on the guards) and drew his own gun.  He pointed it at Rime, but the Guardians already surrounded the prince, so he had no clear shot.

Then the Bakemon flowed forwards, and soon everyone was on the defensive.  Phloem and Magnus, however, stayed in front of everyone else.

The Digivice began to glow, and with it so did Tapirmon.  "Tapirmon Digivolve to… Apemon!"

Phloem looked behind him where everyone else was standing.  "You all get in the stream!" he told them sternly.  "Apemon and I can handle the Bakemon, and you need to get out of here."

"I'm staying," Magnus said as he calmly aimed at the Guardians.  "But you should get out of here.  I doubt that you can be of much help."

As he said that, he shot one of the Guardians in the head.  The sight of that made Alan turn rather green, and to ensure his safety Veemon pushed him into the stream before jumping in himself.  Pixie and Otamamon shortly followed him, but Brian hesitated.

"Get out of here!" Magnus ordered his friend without turning around.  "I'm the bodyguard, not you."  A bullet, shot by a Guardian, ricocheted near Brian's feet and convinced him that his friend was right.  Soon it was only Guilmon, Magnus, Apemon, and Phloem against five Bakemon, one Sorcerymon, Rime, and currently only four soldiers.  Guilmon could not Digivolve because his other form would not fit in the small cave.

"METALLIC FUR!" Apemon shouted.  The spiky fur on his back and arms shot out and took out two of the Bakemon at once.  A blast from Magnus's gun also took out another of the Guardians.  The remaining three grouped even more closely around Rime.

The three remaining Bakemon disappeared and reappeared around Phloem and Magnus.  "Zombie Claw!" the three shouted spookily.  Guilmon deflected one Bakemon's hands with a Pyro Sphere, and the other two Bakemon were slapped away with Apemon's Mega Bone stick.  One of them was deleted.  Another soon followed from a mixture of a shot from Magnus's pistol and Guilmon's attack, and then the third was quickly deleted by Apemon's attack again.

"I won't help out against humans," Phloem informed Magnus.  "They can't be reconfigured."  Apemon skillfully deflected shots from the guns of the Guardians.

"Then get out of here, you stupid kid.  I can take care of the rest."

Phloem nodded, and both he and Apemon dropped back and stepped into the river.  Like everyone else had, they disappeared.

Before Magnus could fire another shot, however, Rime, guarded by his Sorcerymon from any bullets, rushed past Magnus and Guilmon and ran into the stream.  "I'll never forgive you!" was what Rime was shouting as he faded from view.

"That's one pissed prince," remarked Magnus as he calmly rolled behind a stalagmite for cover with Guilmon.  He smiled as the next three bullets of his gun each connected with a Guardian, and then calmly strolled with Guilmon into the data stream, where they, too, soon vanished.

******

Sho Konia sighed as he looked between the report of crime in the area and the person who was carrying it.  They were all on a grassy hill where Sho had been ordered to meet this certain person.  Sho was a member of the army of the Heaven's Delta area, near the mouth of the River of Light.  He was well known for his unique clothing – which he was technically not supposed to wear, but did anyways – and his lone-wolf attitude.  With very dark blue, to the point of almost being black, hair and dark brown eyes, as well as his silver sleeveless shirt, black pants, and silver-and-black gauntlets on his arm, he was a memorable person.  To his side was his Snow Agumon.

What was troubling him was the fifteen-year-old Relaina Michet, who was two years younger than him but of a high enough rank to be his equal already, and the report she had brought him.  Her narrow, hazy blue eyes were observing him under the few bangs of bluish silver hair that had fallen across her eyes.  Her tanned and slender figure looked classy in her dark blouse, silver vest, and ice blue pants.  To her credit, she didn't look happy about either Sho or the report, either.  Her Gabumon was also at her side.

"So," said Sho, "we have to "take care of" a partnerless human?  Together?"

"I can do it on my own," Relaina stated flatly.  "We're trained to kill, so it's not a problem."

Sho's already-present frown deepened.  "Let's get this straight," he said just as emotionlessly.  "You don't want to work with me.  I don't want to work with you.  But we have to work together to catch and kill this partnerless thief."

"Kurai Happatai."

"What?"

"That's his name.  If you'd read the report, you'd know that.  Which just proves that I can handle this on my own."

"I'm going to come anyways."

Her emotionless eyes stared into his.  "Your choice.  But I'm not going to wait up for you.  He was last seen by the River."

She turned and began to walk towards that shining landmark in the distance.  "You could have been a bit friendlier, you know," mentioned her Gabumon offhandedly as they power-walked down the hill.  The horned Digimon looked behind him and noticed that Sho and Snow Agumon were already following.

Relaina practically growled, "I hate working with people.  And he's older than me, but not even a bit higher in rank than me.  Pathetic," she snapped as she commented on her co-worker.

Gabumon smiled.  "Perhaps not.  Maybe he just wasn't promoted because of his clothing choice," he said pointedly.  "After all, I seem to remember that happening to a certain person just yesterday, hmm?"  Relaina smiled very, very slightly at that memory.  Yesterday, her commanding officer had brought her aside and told her that he wanted to promote her, but he couldn't because she didn't follow certain regulations.  Because he had been around her for ten years, she was just open enough to tell him exactly what she thought of the army's uniform.  Judging by how red his face was afterwards, she might of added to his vocabulary.

"You're walking slow," Sho said as he easily power-walked past Relaina.  Because he was at least a foot taller than her, his legs were longer and he was able to cover more distance.  His Snow Agumon was jogging to keep up with him.

Relaina glared at his back as she was left behind.

******

Sunset along the River of Light was quite beautiful.  Many people on the eastern side would sit down with their Digimon every night and just watch it slowly dip across the horizon and paint both the sky and the river countless shades of stunning colors.  Already, some families were preparing to watch the event as the sun set.  But Kurai Happatai, the mysterious thief, had never indulged in such practices, mostly because he had no Digimon to watch it with.  People had always counted him strange because of that, and many had tried to kill him.

Some couples and families with a tradition of seeing the sunset everyday turned to stare at the black-clad individual who was running past them.  Kurai couldn't blame them.  He knew that he looked good in the baggy black shirt and his wide-legged black jeans.  He also wore a black cap that hid most of his black hair, a black and silver-studded belt, and black shoes embroidered with silver thread in the pattern of wings.  He would've stopped to chat with some of them, and possibly of picked their pockets while they chatted, but he couldn't even look at the sunset at this moment.

Now was especially not a good time for Kurai to watch the sunset because two guards, one with a Snow Agumon and the other with a Gabumon, were now chasing after him.  As he ran, he silently cursed the Empire, Digimon, the Emperor, and whoever thought that Digimon were a necessary part of life.  And on top of his already bad luck, he looked to the side and realized that one of the larger streams that joined onto the River was snaking in front of him.  Any form of escape was now blocked off, and he knew that he would probably face a very painful death at the hands of the guards.

His eyes lighted on the River, and he slowed to a stop.  After he threw a glance behind him and checked on the position of the guards, he again looked at the River.  It's not a very comfortable way to travel, but whatever works…  He slowly walked towards the River and gave a short hop in.

Behind him, Relaina and Sho watched with some surprise as the thief began to disappear.  But then Relaina, refusing to let an outcast to society get away from her, ran forward and tried to grab onto Kurai.  She fell through his vanishing body, and as soon as she hit the shining waters she also began to vanish.  Sho, who had tried to grab onto her and hold her back, just because she was assigned to work with him, ending up slipping on the thick grass along the banks and falling into the river.

As all three of the humans disappeared, the two partnered Digimon gave one look at each other and jumped into the River.  Like many partnered Digimon, they didn't care where they went as long as they stayed with their human.  The five beings vanished into the rushing river of data.

~TBC~

Notes to People who Submitted Characters

Tatsu-no-Houou – Okay!  I finally got your e-mail, so like I said in the reply, you might be appearing sometime later.

Ichi-kun – Sorry, but I'm not accepting any more characters.  Your character sounds interesting, but I don't have room for more people.

Midnight Guardian – Um, I wasn't accepting any more characters, you know?  Sorry, but you're not in the fic.  Though I do think that your character would've been interesting to write, I just don't have room in the fic.

PrincessKitty-Chan – Heehee.  I finally put in a character like you wanted me to.  But you know what?  Because I couldn't read your review about what you wanted your character to be like, I designed the character.  Hope you like him!

AND TO EVERYONE WHO HAS A CHARACTER IN THE FIC: You get to choose another thing!  What type of ability do you want?  You know, something like Phloem's empathy.  Everyone automatically gets the telepathy with his or her Digimon, but you can also get other stuff if you wanted.  Some choices are telekinesis (moving objects with your mind), telepathy with things beside Digimon, healing, and teleportation.  If you have another choice and it is in the same line of psychic stuff, I'll probably approve it.

Author's Notes: Er… Rime is annoying.  He's a good bad guy, but he keeps on asking to be made a good guy.  Here's Chibi Rime again, pleading like usual.

Chibi Rime: Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease! *gives puppy dog eyes*

Chibigreen: It's pretty annoying for the main bad guy to want to be good, especially when I imagined up a bad guy that was so handsome.  If I could draw him correctly, he would probably be added to the "cute guys of the anime world" list.  I do need a bad guy.  And he makes a pretty darn good bad guy, that he does.

Chibi Rime: But I'd make a wonderfully handsome good guy, too! *gives puppy eyes again*

Chibigreen: Whatever… Rime's a narcissist. ^__^ And in case anyone is wondering, I'm going to be using both Japanese and English terms for all of this.  And how did Chibi Rime become my muse?  He is a made up character!  Well, my other muses are, too, but this one is straight from my imagination!  This just gives me another bit of strangeness in my fics.  See ya next chapter!

Oh, and if anyone wants me to let them know when I update this fic, leave your e-mail in a review!  People who are participating in this fic will be notified anyways.