FalcoLombardiUltimateHD, who owns Max, asked for this one. Here you go, Amigo! :) Enjoy! :)

Digimon belongs to its respective owners. I only own Rachel.

A/N: Please be gentle in the reviews. I'm not overly knowledgeable about the Digimon world save for the Digimon Fusion world and wrote this with Falco's help. :)


The Knights And A New Friend

Max woke up as if he had been asleep for a long time. "Huh?" He asked himself before looking around to see he was in a sort of meadow. "How did I get here? And where is here?"

He noticed how amazing the world looked and wondered if it was from the real world or another fictional world. He was used to fictional worlds as he had been to a few of them, but this one he didn't recognize.

He got up and began walking, soon stumbling upon some humans and he was about to approach to ask them questions when he heard crying. "Leave us alone!" A voice cried out as the humans laughed cruelly.

Max got closer and to his shock, he saw some young Digimon who were trying to escape the bullies, but they were trapped as the bullies taunted them and pinched the Digimons' arms, making them cry out. Max knew at once he wasn't in the real world and though he still didn't know where he was, he wasn't about to continue to let these young ones get bullied.

He quickly tapped the shoulder of one bully and quickly moved before the bully turned around and that led to the bully confronting his friends about who tapped his shoulder and while the three bullies were arguing, Max moved into the line of sight of the Digimon, who looked at him with fear, but he motioned them to run as he got closer. "I'll keep them distracted," he said. "Hurry, go hide."

The Digimon didn't hesitate to do so and the bullies turned in time to see Max turn around and the Digimon were escaping. The boy faced the bullies with a glare. "Leave them alone," he said firmly.

One bully sneered. "Then you'll take their place," he said.

Max braced himself, thinking of ideas to get away, but the bullies closed in too fast.

In another place not so far away, four of the Royal Knights, Alphamon who was the leader, Craniamon, Omnimon and Gallantmon were lying on their backs next of a tree and a lake and were relaxing, but their thoughts were a bit turmoiled.

They were in disbelief they had fallen so easily into a trick from a evil Digimon who was disguised in King Drasil for trying to use all Royal Knights to kill the humans from the real world with few Digimons without any Royal Knights seeing the bad trick until it was too late.

Thankfully, they had seen through the trick in time, but since the accident, some humans and Digimon were scared about Royal Knights and are even scared about those who didn't want hurt humans or Digimons because of that.

Alphamon sighed. "People don't want to approach us or have anything to do with us because of our bad reputation," he said.

"Can't really blame them," Omnimon said. "After what happened, they don't even want to come talk to us for fear they'll fall into a trap."

Craniamon growled. "If I ever see the one who tricked us again, he'll pay for this," he said.

"I just want everyone to see that we're not really like that," Gallantmon said.

A nearby sound caught their attention and it sounded like someone was hurt. "Is there a battle?" Omnimon asked.

Gallantmon shook his head. "No, that sounds more like someone is under attack?" He said.

The four at once headed for the area the sounds were coming from and they were shocked to see the sounds were from a young human who was getting beaten up by some bullies. The boy fell to the ground and the bully sneered at him. "That's what you get for interfering, loser," he said, laughing with the others.

But they stopped laughing when they saw the four Knights, gulping as they watched Craniamon step closer. "Let. The. Boy. Go," he said firmly, pulling out his weapon and holding it to the side. The other three Knights did the same, ready for a battle and the bullies ran off, thinking the Royal Knights would hurt them, the leader letting Max go before fleeing with his comrades.

Satisfied that the bullies learned a lesson, the four Knights looked to see Max was unconscious and Alphamon reached down, picking up Max with the upmost gentleness, holding him in his hand as his comrades gathered near.

"He's hurt badly," Omnimon said in concern.

Craniamon scoffed slightly. "Looks like he may have some broken bones," he said.

"But he's alive," Gallantmon said before looking curious. "What did that human mean about this one interfering?"

"We'll worry about that later," Alphamon decided. "The boy needs medical attention. Let's get him back to the castle."

The other three agreed, following their leader back to their home.


Several days later...

Max had been unconscious for a while, hearing some voices as he seemed to be slightly awake, but not ready to wake up. "No broken bones?" Someone asked.

"Thankfully, no," said another. "He's lucky."

"If we hadn't stepped in, he might have been injured worse," said a third voice.

"We'll check on him later," said the first voice. "For now, let him rest."

"I hope he wakes up soon," said the second voice. "I'm curious to know more about him."

Max drifted off again and woke up sometime later, finding himself in a strange place that looked like a giant castle and he was in some sort of infirmary. He still felt a bit sore and wondered if he bones would break, but it seemed his injuries had been fixed quickly, yet he didn't know how much time he had spent unconscious. He got up and carefully tested his weight, finding he could walk, which told him he didn't have any broken bones.

He looked around the giant infirmary, feeling a bit small as he glanced around, noticing that the bed he had been one was for a human while there were bigger beds for what seemed to be giants. He walked backwards while looking around since he was very curious. As he walked backward, he bumped into something, but figured it was a wall, so he stayed put, not realizing he had actually bumped into someone.

Alphamon was rather amused to see the human looking around curiously and when the boy backed up into him but didn't move, he chuckled softly to himself. "Good to see are awake and moving about," he said.

Max jumped in surprise at hearing a voice behind him before he noticed the voice was above him too and he turned around to see he had bumped into a giant leg and he tilted his head back to see it was a giant looking back at him. Swallowing nervously, he backed away from the tall being and backed up into another person's legs. "Easy, boy," said a new voice and Max turned to see someone else just like the other person and the boy bit his lip nervously, feeling afraid when he saw two others come into the room.

"The kid's awake?" Asked one of them.

"He's awake," said the first giant Max had bumped into.

The four giant looked at the boy, noticing how the boy had begun to tremble a little. "He's afraid," he said softly.

Alphamon kneeled down, knowing it didn't make him any shorter, but he hoped the action would make him a little less scary looking. "It's alright, little one," he said, his voice soothing. "We're not evil and we're not going to hurt you."

"We saved you from some bullies," said Omnimon.

"They beat you up pretty badly, but we stopped them from hurting you more," said Gallantmon.

Max recognized their voices then as the ones he had heard while semi-unconscious. He noticed how the giants seemed careful to look less intimidating and their voices were reassuring. The boy took a deep breath, figuring he owed them a thank you for saving him. "Thank you," he said. "Um, can you guys tell me who you are and where I am?"

"I am Alphamon, leader of the Royal Knights," Alphamon said before gesturing to his comrades. "These are Gallantmon, Omnimon, and Craniamon."

"What is your name, kid?" Omnimon asked curiously.

"Max," the boy said.

"Welcome to our home, Max," Gallantmon said.

"As to where you are exactly, you are in the Digital world, home of the Digimon," Craniamon explained.

Max nodded, finding Craniamon a little scary, but seeing he was nice like the others and the boy thought they were all really cool. The four knights continued to explain to him everything he needed to know, not even hiding the incident that gave them a bad reputation. They told him what happened, though they were worried he'd be afraid of them.

To their surprise, Max didn't fear them, saying that if they were truly bad, they wouldn't have saved him. He refused to leave them because of that. "I can see you guys aren't like the bad reputation the others have spread about you," he said. "Plus you're all really cool."

"That is kind of you to say, Max," Alphamon said.

The boy smiled before looking a bit shy. "Is it okay if you guys can be my Digimon partners and we can all be friends?" He asked.

The four were greatly surprised to hear that request. "Well, Royal Knights aren't supposed to be partners with a human," said Gallantmon, trying to not sound too harsh.

"Oh," Max said, looking a bit sad.

"Hey," Omnimon said, gently ruffling Max's hair. "He said 'aren't supposed to'. He didn't say 'can't'."

"Omnimon is correct," Alphamon said with a nod.

"Never had someone even ask us to be their Digimon partners," Craniamon said honestly.

The four Knights were quiet before looking at Max, sensing something special and different with the boy and they looked at each other before nodding. "It would be nice to have a human partner," Omnimon said.

"Then it is agreed," Alphamon said before they turned to Max. "We'd be honored to be your Digimon partners, Max."

The boy lit up at hearing that and his delight made the Knights all chuckle.

They gave the boy a tour of their home, showing him the library, kitchen, swimming pool, training room, dining room, a room for meeting with some Digimon and humans or between Royal Knight for some talks about mission or else, library with so much books, a big garden with a fountain and more stuff that Max couldn't believe like if it was a dream since the castle had everything and several bedroom with some bedrooms who were for several Royal Knights in the same bedroom or individual bedroom.

"There's a lot of rooms," the boy said, sounding curious.

"For the other Royal Knights who live here," Alphamon said.

"Wait, there's more of you guys?!" Max said in surprise, sounding even more curious.

Gallantmon chuckled. "Yeah, but they're on missions right now, even if our reputation is tarnished, but they should be back by tonight," he said.

"Even when the castle is empty, there is always an army of Knightmon guarding it," Omnimon said.

Craniamon reached down to Max and gently picked him up. The boy held still as he was a bit afraid, but he knew the Digimon wouldn't hurt him. "Max, how did you come to our world?" He asked him.

"I don't know, to be honest," the boy said before looking sad. "And...if I don't know how I got here, then...I can't get back home."

"Well, since you have nowhere to go, I may have a solution," the Digimon said before turning to his leader. "Alphamon, would it be okay for Max to stay in the castle with us?"

Max was surprised by this as he felt that sleeping in the castle would be like from a fairytale. "Well, as long as it doesn't cause a problem with anyone," the boy said.

Alphamon chuckled. "Every Royal Knight is a good person, Max," he said gently as he ruffled the boy's hair with a gentle hand. "You're more than welcome to stay if you wish and we'll help you find a way back to your real-world home."

"Really?" The boy asked before looking relieved. "Thank you. That's so awesome of you guys."


Sometime later...

The four brought the boy out of the castle and Max felt safe and secure with them as the Knights all had their weapons. "Glad I'm with you guys," he said. "Bullies often see me as a target."

"We don't like bullies," Omnimon said firmly.

"Nothing bad will happen to you with us here, kid," Craniamon reassured him.

"Let's focus on something better," Alphamon suggested. "Max, where would you like to go for your first visit to the DigiWorld?"

"Well, are there some good beaches for sunbathing and swimming?" The boy asked.

"Yes, they're are," Gallantmon said with a smile. "And since it's a bit hot for summer, that sounds like a great idea."

"Then we'll head there," Alphamon said.

"But what if the heatwave affects you guys in your armor?" The boy asked in worry.

Omnimon chuckled. "Our armor is actually our bodies, Max, so there's nothing to worry about," he said reassuringly. "But thank you for being so thoughtful."

They soon came to an empty beach, the Knights purposely chosing this beach because of the 'bad' reputation and they didn't want to spoil anyone else's day, so they came to a beach devoid of anyone but themselves.

Max went into the water, finding it to be warm, but not too warm. It was just right for swimming and he turned to see Alphamon, Omnimon, and Gallantmon join him, the boy being surprised that their armor didn't make them sink into the water even though the armor seemed rather heavy.

But he noticed Craniamon didn't join them. "Hey, Craniamon!" He called out to him, making the Knight look at him. "Come join us, please?"

"Come, old friend," Alphamon said.

"No thanks," Craniamon said, politely declining.

But his fellow Knights had a plan. "He's probably feeling a bit down after that last mission he went on with our fallen comrade who claimed to defeat more enemies than Craniamon," Omnimon said.

"I have a plan," Alphamon said as he headed towards their friend, who didn't suspect a thing, just looking out at the water, which made it easier for Alphamon to sneak up behind him.

Max tried not to giggle as he saw what the leader had in mind and when Craniamon got closer to the edge of the water to observe something he had seen, Alphamon made his move and jumped on his comrade, making them both fall into the water, to which Max, Gallantmon, and Omnimon laughed as Craniamon broke through the surface of the water, a bit annoyed until Omnimon threw some water in his face, which made the Digimon see that they were messing with him.

Gallantmon suddenly saw a shark heading towards Max and the boy gasped as he saw it too. Quickly, the Knight lifted Max out of the water and high above the shark to keep the boy safe. "I've got you, Max," he said reassuringly.

The shark ended up taking a bite out of Gallantmon, or at least tried to, but the Knight felt nothing and the shark ended up with major pain in his teeth from trying to bit on hard metal. Alphamon, Craniamon, and Omnimon quickly grabbed the large shark and threw him far away, to which the shark swam away and Max breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, guys," he said. "And thanks for the save, Gallantmon."

"No problem, kid," Gallantmon said, smiling.

After a while, they were on the beach and Omnimon was curious. "Max, can you show us how to do sand castles?" He asked. "I've heard about it, but whenever we approach the humans here, they flee in fear."

Max grinned. "Sure," he said. "Just let me find some tools."

It didn't take long for him to find buckets and sand shovels. "Okay, so building sand castles requires sand that is somewhat wet and can stick. It can't be too dry, but you don't want it to be too wet either," he said as he continued to explain while he made a sand castle. Even if the design was somewhat basic, the boy added rocks and shells to it to make it stand out and the Knights were impressed.

"So you can use stuff from the ocean to make your castle really cool?" Gallantmon asked.

"Yeah," Max said. "There's actually sand castle contests back in my world and some of those castles are really amazing. I don't know how the judges can pick just one for the winner because they're all cool. One person did a castle just like from back in the times of King Arthur. They even made a round table to go with it."

"A round table?" Alphamon asked.

"King Arthur made the table round to represent equality and other good traits," Max explained.

"He sounds like he was a good, wise king," Omnimon said.

"He really was."

The Knights decided to create their own castle and Max watched, giving helpful hints to make the castle stronger if he noticed some parts were a bit weak. The Knights appreciated this and as the boy was watching them create a giant sand castle that was as tall as them, another bully went up to Max.

"Why are you friends with such losers and horrible monsters like these freaks?" He asked.

Max looked at the bully with anger. "They are not losers," he said, catching his friends' attentions. "They are awesome Digimon."

"They're not," said the bully. "Especially Craniamon. He's ugly and a monster."

This made Craniamon angry and he was about to step forward to teach this human a lesson, bad reputation or not. Thankfully, his comrades held him back to prevent him from doing something he might regret. Max was angry with the bully.

"You should leave while you still can," he said.

The bully didn't say a word and left, but jumped away from a jellyfish that had come up to them, seeming afraid of it. Max went up to Craniamon. "Want me to get revenge for you?" He asked.

That made the four curious. "What do you have in mind?" Alphamon asked.

"That bully seemed scared of the jellyfish," Gallantmon said. "But that breed is actually harmless. They won't sting, but if frightened, they'll release a foul odor."

Max smiled and went up, taking one of the jellyfish very carefully and he threw it towards the bully, making it land in the bully's hair. The bully freaked out and screamed while fleeing, crying while the Royal Knights laughed at how the bully was so scared of a harmless jellyfish. "Okay, that was better than doing something stupid to hurt that bully," Omnimon said.

Max noticed Craniamon still seemed a bit sad. "Craniamon, what's wrong?" He asked.

The Knight sighed. "It's true about my face being scary and even if the Royal Knights have a good reputation, people avoid me due to my scary appearance," he admitted.

"Hey, don't think like that," Max said. "I think you're awesome and I like how your face looks. It's not scary at all."

Craniamon looked at the boy, appreciating his honestly and he felt a bit better that the boy wasn't afraid of him.

The Knights then took him to a big, snowy mountain far away and Max was surprised as he looked around from where he was riding on Alphamon's shoulder. "How big is the DigiWorld?" He asked.

The Knights smiled. "Bigger than you think," Gallantmon said as they continued to the mountain. "It's going to get a bit cold up here," he said after a moment.

"It's okay," Max said. "I'm not afraid of the cold. It doesn't bother me anyway."

They were surprised, but continued until they reached the top and Max saw what they meant by the world being huge. "I don't think we'd have enough time to see everything today," he said.

"It would take several weeks to show you the whole place," Craniamon said in agreement.

Seeing they were surrounded by snow, the boy asked Alphamon if he could place him down. Complying, the Knights were curious as Max went over to a spot and flopped back into the snow, making a snow angel. "What are you doing, Max?" Gallantmon asked curiously.

"Making a snow angel," the boy replied. "Come on. Try it. It's fun."

The four had never heard of it, but decided to try it and it was funny because their forms weren't the same in the snow, so the snow angels came out differently. Max then went on to explain a snowball fight and the four Knights decided to try it, asking Max to be their referee since they were worried he would be injured in a battle with them, even if it was a snowball fight. The boy agreed and Alphamon chose Craniamon as his partner while Omnimon and Gallantmon teamed up.

"Okay, so whoever loses the snowball fight has to do something special," Max explained. "You guys ready?"

"Ready!" They all said together and the battle was on.

Snowballs flew through the air as the two teams tried to get each other, some snowballs hitting their targets and others missing, but they still ran around, laughing and throwing snowballs before in the end, Omnimon and Gallantmon won the battle, but Alphamon and Craniamon were in good spirits and took the loss graciously.

"Though, what's going to happen to us since we lost?" Alphamon asked.

Max grinned. "You and Craniamon are going to get tickled," he said.

"Tickled?" Omnimon asked curiously, which led Max to explain what tickling was and the four were very curious about it.

"A fight that doesn't hurt?" Craniamon said. "How is that possible?"

"I'll show you," Max said. "First off, Omnimon, can you hold Alphamon down on his back? Gallantmon, can you do the same for Craniamon?"

The two did so as they pinned their fellow Knights down and Max got the work, tickling their sides, underarms, feet, in-between their claws, and lower necks. Surprised at the onslaught of tickles, Alphamon and Craniamon were in stitches as they laughed, their laughter going up another octave as Omnimon and Gallantmon joined in too.

Gallantmon then grew curious and changed his target, tickling Omnimon, who laughed in surprise before he continued laughing. "AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Feeling they were free, Alphamon and Craniamon moved and gently grabbed Max, who was surprised and looked up at them, seeing them look at him with mischievous looks. "Let's see how ticklish you are, Max," Craniamon said.

Max tried to squirm away, but Alphamon gently pinned him down, the boy's shirt riding up just a little to expose his stomach and Alphamon playfully wiggled his fingers into the boy's stomach, making him laugh.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! NOHOHOHOHOHOHT THAHAHAHAAT!" He laughed out before feeling his shoes being removed and Craniamon began tickling the boy's feet, making him laugh more.

But while they were tickling him, they kept an eye on him to make sure he was breathing alright and they weren't accidentally hurting him. "He's really bubbly," Alphamon said.

"Kind of reminds me of the younger Digimon," Craniamon said with a chuckle before they let Max up and let him rest as the boy put his shoes back on and Craniamon tickled Gallantmon in revenge.

"Thanks, Craniamon," Omnimon said, grateful for the rescue.

"Oh, but that leaves you for me, old friend," Alphamon said, playfully tackling his friend and tickling him, making him laugh as the two got revenge for the tickle fight, even if it hadn't been in the rules of the winner of the snowball fight.

After the tickle session ended, the four noticed Max wasn't near them and they looked to see he was skating on an icy lake and the boy smiled. "Come on," he said encouragingly. "Ice skating is fun."

The four weren't sure how it worked, but they decided to try. Gallantmon, who was first to step on the ice, slipped a little, but then found his balance and skated, doing pretty good. Encouraged, Alphamon tried, but he slipped and fell, to which Craniamon laughed until Omnimon playfully pushed his comrade to go help their leader and Craniamon lost his balance and fell on the ice, to which Omnimon tried to help, but he too fell down on the ice. Gallantmon went up and helped them, but the three slipped and fell again.

"This is harder than it looks," Alphamon said.

Max looked thoughtful. "Try using your claws to get a better grip on the ice," he suggested.

That suggestion turned out to be helpful, even if they did slip a few times. Omnimon slipped and fell, which made Alphamon fall too, the latter landing on his back and the former landing on top of him as if they were two lovers about to kiss. Gallantmon laughed in amusement, thinking it was funny and Max laughed too. "It's almost romantic since black and white go very well together," Gallantmon said, making Alphamon and Omnimon blush a bit in embarrassment.

"Hey, check this out, Max!" Craniamon called out as he was getting better on the ice, which made Max happy, but he was worried his friend was skating too fast.

"Craniamon, careful!" He called out.

No sooner had he called out, Craniamon stumbled and slipped, falling and sliding fast towards Gallantmon and Max. Gallantmon, unable to get out of the way in time, fell on top of Craniamon while the latter quickly grabbed Max to avoid the boy from being hurt as they slid fast towards their comrades.

Omnimon had just gotten up and was helping Alphamon get up when Craniamon and Gallantmon crashed into them, making the two fall on top of Gallantmon. The four slid to the snowy ground and hit a tree with snow on it, making the snow fall down on all of them. Craniamon quickly protected Max to keep him from being hurt in the downfall of snow.

After a moment, Alphamon laughed as the situation hit him and he got up, shaking the snow off himself. "Well, that was fun," he said.

"Yeah, it was," Omnimon said as he got up, helping Gallantmon up.

Gallantmon nodded. "Wait, where's Max?" He asked.

"Right here," Craniamon said, showing that Max was safe in his hand. "I grabbed him so that he wouldn't get hurt."

Max's stomach growled, to which the boy blushed a bit. "Um, guess I'm hungry," he admitted.

"Not surprising," Gallantmon said. "You were unconscious for a few weeks."

Omnimon picked Max up. "I know a good place with the best restaurant to get some food if Alphamon's okay with it," he said.

"Yes," Alphamon said. "I could use some grub too."

They were soon in town and Max grew worried. "Wait, what about your reputations?" He asked in worry.

"Even if most of the Digimon and humans are scared of us, some of them forgave us by now and they know it wasn't our fault," Gallantmon said.

"Still, let's go to a place where the people haven't lost trust in us," Alphamon said. "I don't want a repeat of the other places that threw old food and eggs at us. It was difficult getting all that out of our armor, even after taking a bath."

The others nodded and when they got into the town, the people were very friendly and welcomed the Knights and Max warmly, so the four felt safe in bringing their friend into a Digimon restaurant. They got a table with chairs large enough to seat them and Max took a seat beside Alphamon and they placed their orders, which soon came and they dug in.

Max was enjoying the food. "You guys were right. The food here is great," he said.

"It is," Omnimon said as they finished their meal and just then, another Digimon came up to them with a human by his side, one that Max instantly recognized.

"Rach!" He said, jumping up and hugging her.

"Max! I thought that was you," Rachel said with a smile, hugging the boy.

"Greetings, Knights," Angemon, the Digimon with Rachel, said.

"Angemon," Alphamon said with a smile. "Looks like our partners are friends."

"Max and I go way back," Rachel said before looking at the boy. "You got the Royal Knights as your partners? Dude, that's awesome!"

"So this is the young man I've heard from my fellow Knightmon," said a Knightmon that walked up to them.

"Ah, you have a human partner too, Knightmon?" Omnimon asked.

"Yes," Knightmon said, placing a hand on Rachel's shoulder.

Some of the Knightmon who guarded the Royal Knights' castle, came up to them, taking a vacation that Alphamon had granted them. Garudamon, ExVeemon, Stingmon, and Cyberdramon came over and met Max and were happy to have a new human friend who didn't judge them and Max was ecstatic to have some new friends.

Night was coming on and the group decided to return to the castle, but that was put on hold as a huge Ogremon came out of nowhere and began attacking a nearby city, making everyone scatter. The Royal Knights would have gone to help, but it was a city that was scared of the Royal Knights. "I don't know if it's a good idea to help them because they're so afraid of us," Craniamon said.

"But I want to help them," Omnimon said.

Max nodded. "Come on," he said. "You guys can help and maybe something good will happen. You guys are protectors and there are those that trust you. You can't let them down."

Alphamon nodded. "You're right, Max," he said. "Come, my comrades. We must help them."

The battle was fierce as the ones afraid of the Royal Knights saw the four fighting for them and the Ogremon fought back. "Royal Knights are weak!" The Ogre Digimon said as the city began to burn. Omnimon, Gallantmon, and Alphamon went to help those trapped in a burning house, leaving Craniamon alone to battle the villain, but the brave knight held firm.

"I won't let you cause this city more pain!" He said.

The Ogremon laughed and unleashed a surprise attack, laying down a glue trap that Craniamon walked into and he got stuck. Max tried to free him, but was caught by Ogremon.

The other three Knights managed to rescue all the people in the burning house and saw everyone had fled to safety, but when they turned around, they noticed with shock that Ogremon had Max in his hand and Craniamon was stuck in a glue trap on the ground and the evil Digimon had his foot on Craniamon's back to force him to stay down.

"Try anything and they're are dead," Ogremon said before looking at the Knights. "Throw down your weapons."

Having no choice, the three did so, hoping their comrades would be alright. Just then, Angemon and Rachel flew into the scene with the girl on the flying Digimon's back. "Hey! Garbage face!" Rachel called out. "Let them go!"

Ogremon growled and went to slap them away when Max took advantage of the evil Digimon's distraction, biting down hard on the Ogre's finger with his teeth, making the evil Digimon let him go in pain and surprise. "Max!" Craniamon said, reaching out and catching him to avoid the boy from being hurt.

Seeing their chance, the other three jumped in and kicked the evil Digimon and Craniamon manuevered his glued legs to trip the Ogre so that he fell into the glue too, making the evil Digimon get stuck with his arms at his sides as if he was tied up with rope and he couldn't get free since the Royal Knights were strong. "I'll be back for revenge!" The Ogremon said before vanishing and the Knights got their comrade free. Max sighed in relief and smiled.

"Thanks for the save, guys," he said.

"Thanks for creating that opening for us to attack," Omnimon said.

"Well, Rachel and Angemon helped with that," the boy said.

"But you used our distraction to give your friends the advantage," Rachel said as she and Angemon came closer, both smiling. "That Ogre isn't going to forget this defeat anytime soon."

The people, seeing the Knights saved them, apologized to the Royal Knights, seeing they weren't as bad as they were led to believe and the Knights felt better that people started to trust them again, but it would take time to earn everyone's trust again, but still, it was a start.

Later on, as they headed back for the castle, the four noticed how Max started to look a bit sleepy. "Max, are you alright?" Gallantmon asked.

"Yeah, just getting a bit tired," the boy admitted. "Um...can one of you carry me the rest of the way? I'm not sure I can do so without falling asleep."

"Of course," Alphamon said, scooping Max up into his hand. "You had quite a day today. It's no surprise you're tired."

When they arrived back at the castle, the Knightmon, who were happy to see the four knights and their human partner, said that the other Knights had returned. The four went to greet their comrades and Max got to meet the others he hadn't met before and the other Knights were surprised to learn that a human wasn't scared of them, but they proved to be friendly towards the boy, who saw that they weren't corrupted by the false King Drasil anymore and they seemed to like Max, having heard about what happened in the city and agreed that they would do their best to help others as long as it could make their reputation better and fix it.

After a bit, they headed for their room and Max looked curious. "Can I watch some TV and rest with you guys?" He asked.

"Sure, Max," Omnimon said as they took him to one bedroom big enough to fit all four of them and they settled down to enjoy some television, settling on a movie.

But during the movie, Max fell sound asleep, to which the four Knights noticed and they felt sleepy too, so they turned off the TV and got into the large bed. Alphamon settled down first and placed Max on his chest, holding the boy protectively as Omnimon, Craniamon, and Gallantmon settled down too beside their leader.

Max stirred a little. "Shh," Alphamon soothed, to which the boy settled down again.

"We'll always be friends with you, Max," Omnimon said.

"And we'll find a way to get you back to your world someday," Craniamon promised.

"And a way to come back to the DigiWorld and visit us," Gallantmon said.

Alphamon smiled. "You stuck with us and now we'll stick with you," he promised as they all settled down, falling asleep as peace filled them all.


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GoldGuardian2418