Chapter Three

Leiko gave a shiver of annoyance as she inched open the makeshift door to their Roan's quarters. Merely being around that group and being witness to the affection that they all had for one another was trying on her nerves. And those two petty, juvenile boys! Trying to impress her with tales of their adventures, when if she had been out in the world she could have had any man that she wanted. Ugh.

A muffled giggling sound came from the area that served as Roan's study. As their little group had delved further into the caverns that they now inhabited, they'd found a wide range of smaller caves and rooms that had been set up for specific purposes by their mysterious benefactor. There were living quarters (of a sort) for each of them that had seemingly been carved right out of the stone, as well as well-stocked pantries and the study. In addition, though they'd never had cause to use them, there were also 'prisons' of a type as well, rooms that had to have brought back unpleasant memories for Ian.

The girl stepped into the study. Roan was seated on a chair, with his sister straddled atop his lap. The two were locked in what appeared to be a rather incestuous (but not quite passionate) embrace. Leiko bit her lip in an angry scowl at the girl who had stolen what should have been hers before clearing her throat.

Roan didn't appear to be at all concerned at having been caught in such a situation with his sister and rose to his feet, dumping Rio to the floor. "Have you brought them?" he demanded, his dark, stern eyes studying her closely.

Leiko tried, but tried in vain, to hold up under that glare. It was only a moment before she lowered her eyes in deference to him. "Yes."

"All of them?"

The girl's swarthy cheeks flushed an even darker hue as she nodded. She was upset with herself for having been made so subservient to Roan, but could think of no easy way to put herself on a more equal footing with him now. "The one you wanted, Tai, is arguing with his friend Matt about which of them I found more attractive. There is no suspicion in them about what is really happening here. But the others seem to have some doubts about being here. Particularly the younger pair. Be careful what you say around those two, Roan... there's something odd about them."

Roan frowned, then gave her a nod in return. This was the third time he'd been warned off the younger pair, but he insisted upon claiming the power that they could bring to him. "Under what pretext did you bring them?"

"As agreed. The very mention of the name 'Gennai' brought them to attention with no argument whatsoever."

Rio smirked at Roan from her place on the floor, and exhaled a small chuckle. "You don't actually think that he'll do what you're asking, do you big brother? Those five were part of the group that risked their lives several times to save the world, if our friend was being honest. Now you're going to ask him to help you enslave it?"

Roan's eyes bore down upon his sister with a dangerous look of haughty superiority in them. "Sister... dearest sister... when did I ever ask anything of anyone? If his mind was truly as ravaged by Piedmon as our dear friend insinuated, our combined strength should be more than enough to push him over the edge and into my service. Leiko's efforts have already shown us that we can manipulate he and his friends at will. As it happens, I've already sent Daven to entertain our guests and follow up with whatever impairment that he can muster."

Rio continued to grin. She fully expected her brother to succeed at what he was trying to accomplish, all the while hoping for a failure that she would be present to witness. "And if he realizes what you're trying to do to him? What then?"

"Trust in me, Rio. He will submit. I have studied what materials our friend has left us, and I tell you that even at his best, Tai Kamiya would be no match for me. As he is... I will dominate him easily. He will not refuse the return to prominence that I have to offer him. And I will present it to him in an attractive and noble enough package for his mind to convince his spirit that only good can come of my offer. And then? He will acquiesce. You cannot, after all, place a chick back in the egg once it has spread its wings, can you... dearest sister?"

*****

Daven smiled while he spoke to the group as genially as his admittedly uncongenial upbringing would allow. His nature was far from outgoing, but the boy had spent many of his early years on the rough streets of Iwaki learning how to gain the allies necessary to survive. Several of those same allies had watched with bewilderment in their eyes as the lanky boy had later betrayed them to their deaths in order to gain more and stronger associates. And now, with the mindbending resources of the crest of Duplicity at his command, the boy had perfected his talent almost to an art. Even as he spoke to the dark-haired boy who was the leader of this group, the crest concealed beneath his shirt started to grow warmer as it exercised its power against the emotions of all present.

Then, uneasily, Daven saw the youngest boy lean over and whisper something to the girl beside him, who nodded in response. Leiko had warned him that, while there was a strong bond between the entire group, it was particularly strong between these two. She'd also implied that her power of Deceit did not seem to affect them. And so he brought the conversation to a rather abrupt end and excused himself from the group, hoping that he had done enough to let Roan do what he desired with their leader. In any event, he'd learned long ago not to put his hand so far out that he could not draw it back at his need.

Matt looked at Sora, who was still fuming and staring sharp daggers at him. "Hey! What's wrong?" he asked with concern.

"Look at the two of you!" she hissed a whisper back at the boy. "We've just followed a stranger at least three miles from where we should be just because she mentions Gennai's name, and instead of being concerned about who she is or where she's taking us, you two start trying to flirt with her! Never mind that she's at least three years older than you!"

Both Tai and Matt took immediate action to avoid the girl's eyes, both appearing at once to have found something suddenly fascinating about the chamber walls surrounding them. Torches of some kind of another lined those walls, but what burned in them clearly was not fire. Tai was on the verge of going to investigate just what it was that made them cast their light when…

"Hello, my friends!" a deep voice welcomed the group from somewhere behind the shadows. Matt, Tai and Sora turned as one and watched as a tall figure dressed in black stepped from the shadows, placing a foot on the stone in front of them. "My name is Roan Kuroda, and I thank the five of you for coming."

Tai stood up. "Tai Kamiya," he answered with a nod of the head and moving to shake Roan's hand. "These are Sora, Matt, T.K. and my sister Kari," he said, indicating the others in turn. Despite her misgivings about being in that place, Sora allowed herself a weak smile of relief. For the first time in a long time, he was at least beginning to act like their leader again.

Roan smiled. "I know who you all are. In fact, from the point of view of those who are aware of the digital world, the five of you are very nearly legend. I daresay that I appreciate what you have done for both this world and that one more than most that you will meet."

Tai acknowledged the boy with an appreciative, but still grim, nod. The fact that few people in the real world had acknowledged what they'd done for it had been a sore spot of his for some time. "The girl who brought us said that you had news of Gennai?"

"Indeed... though, to be strictly accurate, what I have for you is a warning that comes by way of a comrade of his," Roan replied. "At one time you were, I believe, told what happened the day that the one you know as Gennai rescued the eggs of your Digimon partners from the agents of the dark masters? Our friend was with him prior to that day."

"So what is it that you wanted to tell us?"

Roan paused and studied the group. His criminal background notwithstanding, he was blessed with a brilliant mind and was carefully assessing what he would say next. "Did you ever wonder if something similar to what you prevented in the other world might one day try to take hold in ours?"

The five peered at him quizzically. "Or in other words," he continued, "that an evil force… or person, or thing might some day try to come to rule in this world by using the power of that one?"

"It's been tried before," Sora prompted the other. "If you know as much about us as you say, then you certainly know when."

"Exactly," Roan answered with a sage nod, as if the girl had made his point for him. "Myotismon. He was relatively weak as far as evil masters go, but he still managed to take your city with little or no interference from its authorities, correct?"

"Yes, but we did beat him," Kari interrupted. Both she and T.K. had remained nervously silent for most of the time that they had all been in the cave, but she felt compelled to speak now. After all, she herself had taken a major role in ensuring that the evil of Myotismon had been driven from the city.

Roan nodded, turning his smile on the girl in a way that deepened her discomfort. "Agreed. You beat him. Not the military, and not the police… you. And what did you receive at the completion of that great task, hmm? Accolades? Prominence? Thanks, even? Or nothing? Nothing but scorn from those who in their own minds twisted what had really happened until they were not really in danger?"

"Are you saying that its about to happen again?"

"It might, Matt." And this time, the words came not from Roan, but from Tai. It was not, after all, the first time that he had worried about such a thing. He could well remember his eyes searching the sky in trepidation, simply waiting for it to split once again in order to allow a blitzkrieg of dark forces to invade from that world into his own. And this time, who would stop them? His own way to the digital world had been closed, leaving him with no way to bring back the aid that had saved them the time before...

"Indeed," continued Roan, now with his back to them in a seemingly offhand manner. "And now there are no digimon allied with you to stop that next time, are there? What now?"

The children, with the exception of T.K., all glanced at one another. But no answer was forthcoming before Sora spoke. "I still don't understand what you want us to do about it."

A feral roar now echoed throughout the cavern, similar to the one that they had heard upon entering. This time Tai heard the noise more clearly, and a far off look started in his eyes. Roan turned and smiled, and though the look was friendly enough, there was something about it that seemed a bit off. "Hopefully more than you did last time." Now he focused solely on Tai. "You understand, don't you? You hear him calling to you. This time, I want you to be ready not only to defend the world, but make it ready to defend itself. Force them to take this threat seriously!"

Matt's eyes narrowed at the choice of words. Finally he was starting to understand what this conversation was leading up to. "You intend to create that threat..."

Roan bowed his head and shook it slowly. "Consider it a vaccination, Matt Ishisa. A vaccination. Force the authorities to recognize and acknowledge the power of these creatures before something truly terrible happens." The older teen spread his hands to emphasis his harmless intent." If such a creature, perhaps under Tai's command, shows up in the center of town one day and causes a bit of superficial damage without really hurting anyone, would that be such a bad thing? Especially if it gives the authorities cause to formulate a plan that might forestall future attacks that are not so restrained?"

Tai stood quite still, his eyes narrow as if in deep thought. Ever since they had left the digital world, when his thoughts were his own, he had felt that something was missing without his friend. Could this really be it? Were their digimon partners no more than a security blanket that they clung to when the dreams of another attack came upon them? "He... he may have a point..."

"What?" demanded Matt and Sora, coming to their feet. "Tai listen to what he's saying!" the blond boy exclaimed wildly. "He wants you to use that Greymon to make the world see you as a threat!" He turned to Roan. "That is what we're hearing, right? You've got a Greymon here, and you want Tai to try to control it."

Tai turned on Matt, fury in his eyes. "And how bad would that be? Do you want to continue to be a joke? To continue to hear that the danger couldn't have been all that great, because it was stopped by a group of stupid kids? Do you want to keep looking up at the sky and being afraid because you know that, next time, there won't be anything there to stop it?"

"Listen to you!" snapped Sora at Matt. "You are supposed to uphold the virtue of friendship, but I haven't seen very much that's friendly from you for the past month! If going to see whatever is making that noise is going to help Tai…"

Roan grinned as he felt the crest concealed beneath his shirt exhale its angry heat and throb against his skin like a second heartbeat. The rage beginning to rise to the surface among these three friends was like a furnace lit within the cold recesses of his soul. But then, just as suddenly, he felt it begin to run cold again as he glanced over at the younger two. For at that very moment the living Crest of Hatred allowed him to see truly, and Roan became well aware that, throbbing beneath the shirt of T.K. Takaishi and in direct opposition to his own, a golden heartbeat surrounded and protected the pair.

"I don't need you coming to my defense!" Tai shouted, turning now on Sora. "If anything, you've been less of a friend than he has, even though that's pretty hard to do!"

"Stop it!" screamed Kari, coming to her feet. But to the others' surprise her outburst was not directed at Matt, Sora or her brother, but rather at their host. Roan looked surprised, even unnerved at the younger girl's reaction as his hand drifted unconsciously to the front of his shirt. Kari looked to be on the verge of tears and abruptly turned and darted off into the cave, sobbing fiercely as she went.

T.K.'s heart ached as he watched the girl run off, and was instantly on his feet and after her. "Kari!" he called, his voice echoing far into the cave.

Roan frowned. He had been prepared for something like this to happen, but it was thoroughly disappointing nonetheless. With a clandestine nod that the three remaining children could not see, he indicated to his underling in the shadows what steps were to be taken. Matt started after his little brother, only to be stopped by the firm hand of Roan around his arm. The older boy's grip was like iron. "Wait, it's okay. You'd only get lost down there, the caverns are so extensive. I'll send one of the others to find them and bring them back. Why don't the three of you at least come and see what I have to say. If you think I'm wrong then you can just leave, right?"

Matt frowned and looked after the younger children, then to Tai and back again. Sora's words had stung him fiercely. He had thought that he had been a good friend when Tai needed him, but from the reactions of the two he had been anything but. He took a deep breath. "Okay, but just a quick talk and then I'm going to look for T.K."

*****

T.K. followed the corridor through a dizzying variety of twists and turns, each of which seemed to take him further into the depths. He was soon became afraid that, when he did find Kari, they would be unable to find their way back out. Were it anyone but her, he might also have been worried about being able to find them in such a maze... but of course, between the two of them that was never a possibility. The Crest of Hope under his shirt warmed gently. He would always know where to find her.

It was perhaps five minutes later when he came upon the girl, sitting against the wall with her knees drawn up to her chest and sniffling loudly. He gave a concerned, devoted look and then sat down by her side, draping an arm over her shoulders. The girl buried her brown eyes into his shoulder and continued to weep for just another moment or so before looking up. "Oh, T.K.! It was so horrible. It was just like he… he's so… so..."

"Evil?" the boy finished for her. "Yeah, I know. I felt it, too. This whole place is. He was somehow pushing the others to make them snap at each other like that."

Kari dried her eyes and rose unsteadily to her feet, assisted by the boy. "We've… we've got to go back and get them, T.K., and then leave. Sora was right, we shouldn't have even come in the first place." But then her face fell as she peered back at the narrow corridor through which she had run. "But I don't remember the way. I must have passed a dozen turns."

The boy smiled gently. "A couple of dozen at least. But I think as long as we're always going uphill we'll be more or less on the right path. We were headed down the entire time."

Kari hugged him close, thankful for his staunch support in the face of her admittedly foolish flight from the caverns. "I'm just glad you stopped when you did," he murmured into her ear.

"Why?"

T.K. nodded in the direction away from the corridor, to the place where the illumination from the artificial torches stopped. There, hidden in the darkness, was the boundary of a large crevice in the exact center of the cavern floor. As the pair inched closer, they found that there were roots of some sort growing on the edge of the chasm, and the gravelly surface made the footing extremely unstable. Kari shuddered at what might have been, had she not stopped. By the time she would have seen the danger, it would have been far too late to stop. "Let's get out of here," she whispered.

Unbeknownst to the pair, another twosome had already followed the trail that they had left on their way to the abyss. The snarling canine was crouched low to the ground as he watched the young children made their way back into the main corridor, restrained from attacking only by the touch of his mistress' hand on his fur of his collar. "No, wait," she murmured to the hulking beast. "See where they go. This may yet work out the way that Roan wants it to."

*****

"Matt what are you doing?" demanded Sora, catching up to him and grabbing the boy's arm to pull him to a stop. It had been a few moments earlier when she noticed that he had turned around and was headed back to the main cavern while Tai had continued to follow Roan into the depths. The girl had been torn about which of the boys to stay with for a moment before finally deciding to trail Matt. At least she knew where Tai was heading.

"I'm going back to look for T.K. and Kari," the boy answered gruffly, turning his head away from her. "No matter how good or bad of a friend I may be, I know that Tai can look out for himself. I'm not sure that those two can."

Sora bit her lip and bowed her head, falling a step behind the obviously irritated boy. "Matt I'm so sorry. I don't even have any idea what made me say that. I know you've been doing all that you can to help Tai. We all have. It was just... back there when you snapped at him I just felt so mad at you that I had to say something nasty like that, even though I knew it wasn't true."

Matt stopped short, and glanced an apology back over his shoulder at her. He exhaled. "Yeah... yeah, I know. I felt the same way. I was going to say something to Tai, but what I said didn't come out at all like I had intended."

Sora frowned. "Let's… let's just go find them, Matt. I'll help. They've got to be back this way somewhere."

But then, just as they had turned to go, both stopped suddenly and looked up. There in front of them and blocking their way, was the boy that had tried to entertain them upon their arrival… Daven, he'd said his name was. But what made them stop was neither his presence nor the disturbingly evil look in his eyes. It was something much bigger, towering above the slender boy.

It was an Ikkakumon.

*****

T.K. and Kari watched from their hiding place as the one called Daven forced Matt and Sora into a sort of jail cell and shoved them in, his authority enforced by the Ikkakumon towering at his side. It came as no surprise to the pair. They had spent the last ten minutes trying to avoid a Garurumon that was being led around by a dark-haired girl, one who looked so similar to Roan that they suspected that they were related. Like the Garurumon, the Ikkakumon did not look at all like the one that they had gotten used to in their time in the digital world. The colors were more muted and there was a distinct lack of intelligence in its eyes, but the fangs and the single horn jutting out from its forehead looked no less deadly.

"Now what?" T.K. asked, but the girl placed a finger to his lips to hush him and pressed him back against the wall as their pursuers trotted past them to join up with Matt and Sora's jailer.

"Did you catch them, Rio?" Daven asked.

The girl shook her head. "But they're still somewhere around here. I want you to take him," she jerked her thumb up at the Ikkakumon, "and get back to block the entrance to the cave. I don't want those two getting out of here like that."

"What about these two?" Daven demanded, motioning towards the cell door. "Roan wanted them held until he gets back to decide what to do with them."

"I'll handle my brother and both of them. You just get to the entrance and set up a barricade, understand?" She leaned closer and took a longer sniffed the air about them for a moment. "And get rid of the liquor, you damned fool. This little scheme of Roan's is about this close to blowing up in his face, and we can't afford to have you drunk, not now. Understand?"

The boy's eyes darkened as he nodded, far from pleased about the situation, then bowed to the authority she wielded under her brother and turned to leave with the massive sea creature tromping along behind him. When the pair were gone the girl sat down with her back to the wall, and her canine companion situated himself directly in front of the door behind which sat Matt and Sora and lay down, resting his muzzle across his folded paws.

****

"Damn!" Matt swore, slamming his fist violently into the stone wall. Then, "Oww," he whimpered, clutching his hand and bringing it to his mouth.

"Matt that isn't going to help," Sora chided and turned around, sitting on the hard, damp floor.

The boy sighed and nodded glumly while continuing to rub his injured knuckles and sat down as well, wrapping his arms around his knees and burying his face in his arms. "T.K.," he whispered quietly.

Sora felt an urge to go and comfort the boy, then stopped. She was unsure just how he would take the gesture. It was becoming increasingly clear to her that once again he and Tai were in some sort of a competition for her affections, and that, more than anything, made her feel both fortunate and furious at the same time. As she had once demanded in a fit of frustration, "What makes either of you think that I'm choosing between the two of you?" The outburst had afterwards embarrassed them all, but now gave her pause for thought. Was she choosing between them?

She had been on outings with both boys quite frequently -- "outings" because she absolutely refused to call them "dates". She had also kissed both at one time or another, but none of those times had ever had any real romantic significance for her. She had always considered herself much too young to be involved in a serious relationship, yet here were T.K. and Kari both three years her junior considerably happy to be sharing one themselves.

Did she love either of them? Or worse yet, both of them? She had always told herself that she would not begin a relationship simply to become involved in one. But since she really had no scale on which to measure them, she was afraid that feelings of romantic love might one day come upon her but that she would not recognize them and so simply ignore them. Yet months ago she felt secure enough to give advice to T.K. when he wanted to know how to approach his as of then unannounced relationship with Kari. What had she told him then?

Don't talk to me about it. You should know who to talk to, and even though it'll the toughest thing you've ever had to do to talk to them about it, in the end you'll understand.

Or something to that effect. The point being that, sooner or later, she would have to come out and talk to Tai and Matt about what she was feeling. To save her sanity it would probably have to be sooner. Well, since she couldn't exactly talk with both of them about it at the same time, and since she apparently had nothing better to do right now…

"Hey, Matt?"

"Hmm?"

*****

"T.K. that's crazy even for you! I... I won't let you do it!" Kari stammered.

The boy winced and turned to her, a pleading look in his eyes. She could stop him, and they both knew it. She had been able (with Sora's help) to guilt Tai into coming on this trip in the first place, and T.K. was well aware that he was no more resistant to her charms than the older boy was. During the time that they'd been together, she had established just how it would be between them.

"Kari, please don't. We've got to get them out of there. You've got this worked out as well as I do. Roan needs Tai to control that Greymon, and for God only knows what else. He doesn't need Matt and Sora. Who knows what he'll do, or when."

The girl bit her lip. If she agreed with T.K.'s theory (and she had to admit that it seemed likely), that each of these new children held crests that in opposition to their own and were used to influence the same types of Digimon, then Matt and Sora were definitely not in his plans. The Garurumon resting outside the cell door and the hatred that Roan had unleashed within their group earlier made that abundantly clear. Disturbingly enough, it also meant that lurking somewhere around here were corrupted clones of the rest of their Digimon.

She sighed. She worried for the boy, but also knew that if it was not the two of them, there would be no one to save their friends this time. "Okay. Do it," she conceded. T.K. nodded and turned to go, but she caught his shoulder and turned him around to face her once again. "Just be careful... please?" she begged, taking one of his hands and holding it to her lips.

His answer came accompanied by an unexpectedly sage and gentle smile. "Kari?"

"Yes?"

"I promise."