Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon.  Though I wish I did.  Then all my favorite couples would become official.  But, since this isn't a perfect world, onto-

Rika: Come on, move it, we don't have all night.  And we've got another fanfic to do tomorrow at the crack of dawn.

BlackTerriermon: Yeah, and later tonight she has to meet Takato at that restaurant and then go see a movie, go to his place, and then-

Rika: Die rabbit!!!

Okay, while Rika tries to kill BlackTerriermon again, I would just like to mention that I've been reading too many Rukato fics, with Rika and BlackTerriermon disclaimers.  Oh well, they can't be worse than the Greymon roaming around my head, blowing up stuff.  Also, please review!!!!!!!

This fic takes a lot of things from Lord of the Rings, like parts of the plot, battles, history, races, that sort of things, but only some.  It isn't a complete adaptation, I'm just using a lot of things.  Some of the characters I've placed into some roles from the books don't really fit, but I've modified those roles a lot.  Also, I draw on both the books and the movies, including the upcoming one.  I haven't memorized the opening lines (yet) so I'm just making this up.

BlackTerriermon: (pops his head in again) Doesn't everybody do that?

Me: Rika, he's over here!

Rika comes running back in, chainsaw revving, and chases a screaming BlackTerriermon out again.

I've also 'borrowed' stuff from Digimon 01, 02, Tamers, and Frontier.  This is my first fic, so please be merciful with the criticism, and I may revise this later, as time allows.  Heard of heaven on earth?  School is hell on earth.

The Lord of the Digivices

Part 1: The Fellowship of the Digivice

Long, long ago, many Digivices were forged in the great fires of the Second Age.

***

A giant mountain, filled with lava, is filled with shadowed workers.  As one of them finishes pounding on his anvil, he picks up the finishes product with tongs, and dunks it into a barrel of water.

After the steam clears, he takes the creation in his hand, and it is shown to be a white Digivice.

***

Digivices had always been a part of everybody's life, with every human partnered with a Digimon, and receiving a Digivice at birth from a Digi-gnome, the representatives of the Four Holy Beasts.  But it wasn't till the end of the Second Age that they became weapons, and were melted down and rebuilt into tools of wars.

The great lords of the time each recreated his or her Digivices to become more powerful, some to conquer, some to protect.

Twenty Digivices of Power were forged, each a different model, for the races.  Each could be given to a wild Digimon, untamed, and it would greatly enhance its power, or could also increase the bond of a human and Digimon to phenomenal levels, beyond what anyone had ever thought possible.

Three were forged by the Elf Lords, Gennai, Seika, and Shibumi, fair and immortal, the benevolent rulers of the Elves.

Seven for the Techno-Mages, masters of metal and computers.

Nine more were given to outcast Digimon seeking power, all partnerless.

But the One Master Digivice was forged deep in the Reaper Mountain, in the Reaper Zone at the core of the mountain, where the laws of physics didn't necessarily apply.

Lucemon, fallen in thought, though not yet in appearance, had learned the secrets of the Digivices, and then made one for himself, bonded to his life and power.  With it, his own power was amplified far beyond what a Rookie's power should ever be.

The moment the One Digivice was awakened, all the High Digivices knew of it, and knew they had been betrayed.

The Nine Wild Ones flocked to Lucemon's power, seeking dominion, but eventually themselves being enslaved by the One Digivice.

Only the Three Elven Lords openly declared war on Lucemon, and allied themselves with many Digimon and Digidestined.

The final battle of the Alliance of Man and Elf took place at the foot of Reaper Mountain.

Lucemon's legions of ADRs, spawned from the Reaper Zone, and wild Digimon clashed with the combined army of empowered humans, Digimon, and Elves.  The battle tide rose and fell between the two armies, until Lucemon took the field himself.

With his raw power, combined with his Master Digivice, he swept away whole battalions of men and Digimon single-handedly.

Ancient Greymon and Ancient Garurumon, two Ancient Digimon, Rulers of the Elements, had sided with the humans, then charged to the front of the lines, and challenged Lucemon.

Their battle raged for many hours, but in the end, both fell before Lucemon.

But Lucemon was nearly dead from the combined efforts of Ancient Greymon and Ancient Garurumon, and so the greatest human warrior of the day, Taichi, advanced on Lucemon, and severed his hand from his body, while still clutching his Digivice.

Alas, Taichi did not cast the One Digivice back into the Reaper Zone, as the Digidestined and Elves counseled, deciding to instead take it as a token of their victory, and perhaps someday to purify it.

He handed it off to Cherubimon, Ophanimon, and Seraphimon, the Three Great Angels, hoping they could still purify it somehow.  Shortly afterward, Taichi disappeared from history.

On the journey back to Rivendell, the Three Great Angels were ambushed by Skullgreymons and MetalTyrannomons still loyal to Lucemon.

Already weary from the battle, the bandits pushed the angels against the river, and then, when they tried to escape to the air, focused on Cherubimon, who still had the One Digivice.

Cherubimon fell to his death in the Great River, and the One Digivice was lost in its deep waters.

So the Digivice disappeared from history until many years later, yet still centuries ago, a Digimon found, and beheld it as a 'birthday' present.

The One Digivice's power was too much for the Digimon, Keramon, and drove him insane.  In his insanity, he fled to the depths of the mountains, away from the sun and the rest of the world.

Under the Kyoto Mountains, he whispered to himself and the Digivice for a long time, until, almost by chance, the human Takehiro Matsuda, on a quest with several techno-mages, fell into Keramon's hole, and found the Digivice on the ground, where Keramon had thrown it after a fit of rage.

The Digivice, dormant after the long darkness under the Mountains, did not activate fully when Takehiro picked it up.  Instead, only its invisibility cloak had activated, a most excellent aid for the foundling thief who had been summarily drafted by Davis the Black.

Takehiro continued on with the technomages, until they fought and won against Dragomon, in the Lonely Mountain.

Afterwards, Takehiro returned back to Shinjuku, married and settled down.  He and his wife died in a boating accident in Shinjuku, but before he died, he had given the Digivice he had found on his journey to his young son.

Takato had been one of the few rare humans who didn't have a Digivice and Digimon come to him when he had been born, so he had been desperate for a Digivice, and had begged his father for his extra one until he had relented.

After his parent's death, Takato had been desolate, and, needing a friend, had slid a drawing he had made of his imaginary Digimon through his Digivice.

The next morning, Takato had been overjoyed to find his very own, personally created Digimon beside him.  His friends and family had took the appearance of Guilmon as a freak accident, or a late arrival.

Takato didn't care about that, all he knew was that he had a friend, and a Digivice, though it was

different from everybody else'

And so, our story starts with the arrival of Davis the Black, the wandering human, to check up on

the son of his old friend…

***

Davis looked like any ordinary human, though his Digimon was far from ordinary.  Veemons were extremely rare, and as far as it was known, his was the only one in existence actually.

At the moment though, Veemon wasn't a Veemon, as Davis had Armor Digivolved Veemon to Raidramon to get to Shinjuku quicker.  Also, it was much cheaper than finding a horse, or renting a car.

He looked around the countryside, smiling.  It had been far too long since he had been here, and it was just time for another vacation.

"Hey Raidramon, pick up the pace, you don't want us to miss lunchtime at Takato's right?" he asked, nudging his Digimon a little.

"Davis, this is Shinjuku, in Hobbiton.  Everybody have almost six meals a day, so we're bound to arrive at one of them."

"Good point," agreed Davis, "but I'm getting a bit saddle sore after that last two hours of riding."

"How do you think it feels for the horse?" Raidramon shot back, making both of them laugh.

"Well, I guess I don't mind walking the rest of the way," Davis said, and jumped off his Digimon and held up his Digivice, as a blue light shot from Raidramon back into his Digivice, and leaving Veemon standing beside him.  Aside from having a near legendary Veemon as a partner, his Digivice was also different from the norm, having blue outlines, and a square screen, along with several more uses than the plain white one.

Veemon stretched.  "Ah, that's better.  But Davis, what's with the big rush back here anyway?  You haven't been here since Takehiro's funeral."

"Well, I just decided that I needed a vacation, and Shinjuku is as good a place as any," Davis said, waving at the green fields.

"Yeah, and they've got tons of food too!" Veemon said, temporarily getting starry-eyes, before returning to normal.  "But this doesn't have anything to do with that last visit with Kari?"

Davis blushed.  "It wasn't anything like that!"

"Ssssuuurrreee…"

Davis sobered up quickly though, which worried Veemon somewhat.  Davis only got serious when something big was going on.  "Kari called me in because she said that she had a vision, of fire, and battle, and she said that she saw Shinjuku, and lots of other stuff, but here is the kicker- she said she saw the One."

Veemon stiffened.  There was no need to ask which "One" Davis was talking about.  "And she saw it in Shinjuku?"

"Yeah," Davis nodded, "and since I'm happened to be one of the closest traveling Digidestined at that moment, and since I'd been here before, she asked me to check on it."

"Do you have any idea where to start looking?" Veemon asked.

"Well, before we left, Yolei modified my D-3 here to search for the specific energy signature of the One, and she said, and I quote 'even you can't mess it up from that point!'"

Veemon laughed at Davis' impersonation, but stopped when the D-3 began beeping.  "Well, that was fast."

Davis' eyes narrowed.  "A little too fast.  Let's see, according to the map, the One should be right around…"

"Davis!"

Davis looked up before he could figure out where the signal was coming from, as he was tackled by a boy, wearing goggles, just like himself, though Takato's goggles were yellow and round, while Davis' were black and rectangular.

Davis smiled as the younger boy Takato hugged him like an old friend- which he was was.

"Hey Takato, how've you been?" he asked, managed to separate the two goggleboys.

"Fine, Davis," Takato said as he stepped back and looked at Davis.  "Man, you still look almost exactly the same as the last time I saw you!"

Davis laughed nervously.  "I just eat lots of vitamins.  But you have sure gotten taller.  How have you been getting along?"

"Well, you see, just after you left, I actually got a Digimon partner!"

Davis blinked.  "What?"

"Yep!" Takato said happily.  "His name's Guilmon, and he even came with a special Digivice!"  Though it should probably be more like the Digivice brought him here.

Davis' eyebrows raised.  "Special Digivice?"

"Yeah," Takato said, reaching down towards his belt, and unclipping it.  "It's the one Dad brought back from that trip with you.  Since I didn't have one, he gave it to me, and that invisible thing it does is really handy."

Davis took the Digivice from Davis and examined it.  It was definitely different, Davis saw, different even from his own model, with a round screen, surrounded by a red strip of metal, and red highlights against a white base.

"So how did you get your Digimon again?" Davis asked, handing it back to Takato, trying to ignore the bad feeling he had in the pit of his stomach.

"Well, I guess I can tell you the truth," Takato said, slightly embarrassed.  "You see that slot here?  Well, I don't know what its for, but anyway, you remember those drawings I showed you?  Well, I basically jammed them through the slot, and then, overnight, Guilmon was born."

Davis blinked.  "That has to be one of the weirdest stories I've ever heard.  Though it doesn't sound impossible."

Takato smiled.  "Yeah, it does sound weird.  When I tired to tell Kazu and Kenta, well, they laughed their heads off."

"Sounds like those two," Davis agreed, as they entered Takato's modest, two story home.  Though Takato wasn't a millionaire, his father had brought back a hefty sum from his adventure, and had left most of it to Takato, so Takato actually didn't need to work at all.

"Where is Guilmon anyway?" Davis asked, looking around the small house.

"In the kitchen," Takato said ruefully.  "He has this insane obsession with bread of all things.  I spend half my money on making sure that he always has some lying around."

But Davis saw that though Takato complained, he still cared deeply for Guilmon, quite enough to make up for Guilmon's flaws.  Besides, Takato was one of the few people who understood the pain of not having a Digimon, so he could really appreciate having a Digimon around.

As they entered the kitchen, Davis saw a large red dino, almost as tall as either men, and was munching happily on a piece of bread.

"Guilmon, this is Davis," Takato said, pointing at Davis.

Guilmon put down the bread, and walked over to sniff at Davis.  "Davismon?"

Davis nearly fell over at that.  "Davismon?!"

Takato rubbed a hand behind his head in an embarrassed manner.  "Well, he calls almost everybody a 'mon at first.  Don't worry, he'll get over it."

"Takatomon, he smells funny," Guilmon said, sniffing a very uncomfortable Veemon.

"Well, almost always gets over it," Takato said.  "Anyway, its about time for second lunch.  Want to join me?"

"Sure, just let me wash up," Davis said.  "Which way was the bathroom again?"

"Down the hall, last door on the left," Takato said pointing.  "You can leave your stuff on the second door on the right.  I've got tons of guest rooms so I don't mind."

"Thanks," Davis said, walking off down the hall, Veemon following.  After rinsing his face, Davis stepped into his temporary room, and pulled out his D-Terminal and D-3 again.

"Now where was that signal again?" Davis asked as he poked at buttons on his Digivice.  "Wait a second, looks like there it is- ten feet away?!"

He looked at the wall, and heard Takato chatting with Guilmon.  "No, that's impossible.  I mean, the One Digivice was just supposed to make a Digimon super-powerful, not bond with a human and create a Digimon!"

Davis frowned down at the display.  "And besides, the signal looks almost the same, but it still looks different.  That's it, I'm calling up Yolei."

Davis tapped a number into the keypad on the back of his D-Terminal, and there a beep, until Yolei's face appeared on the small screen.

"What is it Davis?" she asked tensely.  "Did you find it?"

"Well, yes, and no," Davis said.

"What do you mean yes and no?!" Yolei shouted through the link, and Davis winced at the volume of her voice even through the tiny speaker.  "There's not more than one Master Digivice, you know!  That's why they call it the 'One'!"

"Well yeah, but remember this kid called Takato I told you about?"

"Yeah, son of that other guy you dragged along with you to take on Dragomon."

"Well, he was born without a Digivice, so his father gave him this other Digivice that he found on the way to Dragomon, and apparently, somehow he used it to create his own Digimon."

Yolei blinked, and just stared at Davis for a few seconds.  "Let me get this straight.  This other guy just happened to find this unusual Digivice lying in the mud somewhere, gave it to his son, it made a Digimon, and it looks like the One Master, and you didn't bother to tell us?!"

"No, that's the thing, its red and white, not black.  Actually, it looks more like one of the Elvish ones.  And the signal doesn't match exactly."

Yolei lowered her head for a moment, thinking, when another person pushed her aside.

Davis' face lit up.  "Kari!"

"Hey Davis," she greeted.  "Davis, this is very important.  You have your Digi-Armors with you, right?"

"Yeah, how do you think I got here so fast?  That I just rode a horse?" Davis asked sarcastically.

"Get Flamedramon to hold that D-Arc, and I want him to roast for a minute."

"Won't that probably destroy it?" Davis asked.

"If its what we suspect, the amount of power need to destroy it would probably level everything around you for miles around, so a little attack from an Armor Digimon shouldn't hurt it at all."

"If you say so," Davis said, nodding, "but I hope that if we're wrong, it doesn't destroy it.  This kid really loves his Digimon."

Kari was still grim.  "If we're right, I don't see how he's still sane in the first place."

"Some humans are possibly the most strong in mind of the three races," Davis remarked.  "His father sure went far beyond my expectations.  Alright, I'll go roast that D-Arc, and hope that it melts."

"I think its too late for that," Kari said, nodding once before the screen shut off.

Davis walked back out of the room, and back to the kitchen, where Takato had already set out some food.

"Hey Takato, mind if I borrow your Digivice for a moment?" Davis asked, pointing at Takato's belt.

Takato looked puzzled, but complied.

Davis walked into the living room, where there was an empty fireplace as it was the middle of a quite warm day.

Davis handed the Digivice to Veemon, who walked over to the empty fireplace.  Davis held up his D-3 and shouted "Digi-Armor Energize!"

In a flash of red, Veemon Armor Digivolved to Flamedramon.

"What's going on?" Takato shouted when he ran in at the giant burst of light.

"Takato, this is important, very important," Davis said solemnly.  "Don't worry, this won't hurt anyone.  This is just a test.  Flamedramon, do it!"

The Dramon nodded and then stuck the claw holding Takato's Digivice into the fireplace, and then it ignited into a blaze so hot, that Takato had to shield himself from the heat, the rest of the he

"What are you doing?!" he shouted as he watched his beloved Digivice burn, but Davis held out a hand, and stopped Takato.

After a minute, Flamedramon extinguished his flame and brought the Digivice back into the house.

Davis took out his D-Terminal and set it out on a coffee table, and then a small holographic image of Yolei appeared above it.

"Well, how does it look?" he asked the hologram.

"Idiot, you have to bring it closer for the scanner to work!" she shouted at Davis, and he winced even though the voice was still coming through the tiny speaker.

Flamedramon couldn't' help but smirk a bit, as he moved closer to the D-Terminal, and a scanning laser came out of one end, and moved over the the D-Arc slowly.  As Flamedramon turned the Digivice around for the scanner to look at, he noticed a lot of Digital symbols rising up from it.

"Damn," she muttered, as she looked at an unseen screen.  "Its not even warm at all, it completely deflected the heat…"

"So it's the One?" Davis warily.

"Yeah, and its already at 60% of full power," Yolei reported.  "Another year or two, and, well, we wouldn't be around to be talking about it."

"Hey guys, what are you talking about?" Takato asked, getting a bit annoyed at them ignoring him.

Davis glanced at him for just a moment before he turned back to Yolei.  "So, what should I do now?  Try to see if Imperialdramon's attack will destroy it?"

"Destroy it?!" Takato cried, realizing they were talking about his Digivice, but Flamedramon held him back, and he just growled.  He had heard the rumors about Davis, but hadn't really believed them up until now…

"Imperialdramon might be able to destroy it, but not without leveling most of the countryside," Yolei said.  "Come back to Isengard immediately.  We've got major trouble, Lucemon is already mobilizing his forces.  Take it with you, we might be able to come up with something here."

"Well, there's a slight problem with that," Davis said.  "Like I said earlier, its bonded with Takato.  It is an actual Digivice now, and its linked to him.  I can't take it from him without some major trouble."

"Fine, leave him there," Yolei snapped.  "Its not like the Dark Masters are going to be poking around in Shinjuku of all places.  But don't use Imperialdramon to travel, a giant Mega level dragon would be far too obvious.  Just use X-Veemon and get here fast!"

The image blinked out, leaving Davis scowling.  He had been hoping for a vacation, but from Yolei's tone…

"Will somebody tell me what is going on!!" Takato demanded.  "And what about my Digivice?"

Davis collapsed into a chair.  He sighed again.  He hated having to thrust Takato into this, but if it was his destiny to have this One Digivce…

"Takato, sit down, I've got his little story to tell you, and I don't have a lot of time," Davis said in an uncharacteristically serious voice.

Takato, surprised by the tone of Davis' voice, sat down in another arm chair.

"To make a very long story short, you've heard of legendary super-powerful Digivices right?" Davis started.  "Digivices that the Elf lords and such used, along with Mega Digimon partners?"

"Yeah," Takato said, nodding.  "They were always some of my favorite stories, with all those battles, and cool Digimon…"

"Well, there was one really bad one, called Lucemon, heard of him?" Davis asked, and got a shudder in response.  The name Lucemon was still almost as swear word these days.

"Yeah, big bad guy, and got killed a long time ago right?"

"Wrong.  Basically, there were two reasons why he was so powerful.  One, he was a fallen angel, and those are never Digimon you want to tangle with.  Two, he made his own Digivice, and that boosted his power a lot.

"But, 3,000 years ago, he fought against all the rulers of Middle-Earth and nearly won, until two Digimon, Ancient Greymon and Ancient Garurumon, fought him, and just about killed him, and took his Digivice away from him.  The problem is that they died doing it, and somebody else picked up the Digivice and didn't blow it up then and there.  On the way home, that Digivice got lost along the way, and ended up with another Digimon called Bokomon, who took it deep under the mountains for a long time."

"Wait," Takato said, realization dawning.  "You can't mean that my Digivice, the one my dad brought back, is the big head one?!"

"Yes it is.  You see that writing there?" Davis pointed at the faintly glowing writing on the Digivice, and Flamedramon handed it back to Takato, who winced, thinking he was going to burn his hand, but it wasn't even hot.

"That another thing about Digivices of Power," Davis said dryly.  "They're very, very, very durable.  It would take at least an Ultimate Digimon to dent it."

"What does it say?" Takato asked, peering at it closely.

"Don't ask me, I'm not the expert on stuff like that," Davis said, shrugging, "but it worried Yolei and I trust her."

"Who's Yolei anyway?" Takato asked curiously. 

"Just a friend of mine," Davis replied casually, eyes daring Takato to say anything more.  Takato was too busy examining his Digivice to care.

"Anyway, basically, I have no idea why it works for you, but still, I've got to go talk to some other friends of mine about it."

"Why do you want to destroy it?" Takato asked, as he clung to the Digivice protectively.  "Its harmless!"

"Now, yeah, but you haven't seen it in action," Davis said, eyes glazing over for a moment, before returning to the present.  "But for now, don't use it to make yourself invisible.  I know its fun, but don't!  I'll explain later, but the normal stuff, like the analyzer is fine.

"I've got to go now, but I want you to go to Bree, to the Chinese Restaurant/Inn.  The Digitamamon owner knows me, so just wait there.  I should be back from my friends by the time it takes you get there.  Don't travel by night, and if you see any strange Digimon, run!  Guilmon can digivolve right?"

"Yeah, to his Champion form Growlmon, but I haven't finished designing his Ultimate level form yet," Takato said.

Davis blinked.  "Designing?"

"Well, when I created him, I forgot to make up his higher levels, much less his lower levels!" Takato said defensively.

"Well, I guess that makes sense," Davis said, rubbing his head, "but you should be oka-"

Davis stopped when he heard a noise in the hall, and motioned Flamedramon forward, who crouched for a moment, and then lunged forward into the darkened hallway.

His claws met a sword, and another figure walked into the sunlight.

Takato blinked.  "Leomon?  But that means Jeri-"

A sock puppet, vaguely resembling a dog, poked its head in.  "Ruff, sorry Takato, the door was open, and we walked in, and heard you had company and well…"

"Come on in," Takato greeted, and the brown-haired girl, along with her partner Leomon, stepped into the room, though Leomon had to hunch over significantly.  He eyed Flamedramon slightly.

Davis and Flamedramon actually looked sheepish.  "Sorry about that, we're a bit paranoid."

"Well, after all that talk of the Digivices of Power, I don't blame you," Leomon agreed, sheathing his blade again.

Davis glanced at him sharply.  "How much did you hear?"

"Well, from somewhere around 'long story,'" Jeri said.  "And I can't let Takato go all alone!  He hasn't even been outside of Shinjuku once!"

Takato groaned and slapped his head.  "Jeri!"

Suddenly, they all heard snickering from outside the window.

Jeri frowned.  "Five dollars says its Kazu and Kenta.  Leomon?"

Leomon complied with her request and quickly stride over to the window, and reached outside it, and pulled in two more boys, one wearing a visor and black t-shirt, the other an orange t-shirt and gray jacket.

"Hey, heel, sit down, something, just let us go!" Kazu protested as he tried to get the lion Digimon to put him down.  "Guardromon, give us a hand, will you?!"

A brown metal object flew in through the window, which Kazu caught, and saw that it was Guardromon's right hand.

"Ah, Kazu, can I have that hand back?  I need it, you know."

Kazu hit himself over the head with the detached hand, and then tossed it back out the window, where Guardromon caught it and screwed it back in.

"Let me guess, you heard it from 'long story' right?" Davis asked groaning, before getting an idea.  "Wait, Takato, you're good friends with these three right?"

"Yeah," Takato answered hesitantly.

"Then they'll make excellent traveling companions!" Davis said, looking as if he had just come up with the most brilliant idea since Digimon cards.

Everybody's mouths fell open.  "WHAT?!"

***

"I still don't see why we have to go," Kazu grumbled as he and Kenta shouldered filled backpacks.

Takato was busy stuffing several knapsacks full of bread, as Guilmon needed his daily amount of bread.

Jeri was packing relatively lightly, and had already left a call at her house's answering machine in case her father and stepmother visited her.  She was already a grown lady so she didn't have to tell them everywhere she went.

Kazu and Kenta, luckily, were able to drop everything and go, as they didn't really have any obligations to attend to anyway.

Davis was already up on Raidramon, and was quickly giving Takato a few quick instructions.

"I'll see you in Bree at Digitamamon's place.  You should be safe there.  And don't use your real name.  I'll explain why later, but just use something, like, Underhill, or something.  And whatever happens, do not show that Digivice to random people."

Davis hesitated for a moment, before continuing, "Oh yeah, you noticed that your Digivice is different from everybody else's right?  Well, that model is called a D-Arc, because it contains more information than the other two models.

"Takato, the four of you should be safe here in Shinjuku.  And you know the slot along the side of your D-Arc?  You can slide your Digimon cards through it, and use it to help power up Guilmon, and stuff.  It works just like the card game, so it should be very useful.  Good luck Takato"

And with those words, Davis the Black, Digidestined, nudged his Digimon mount, and then sped away like a big gust of wind.

Takato stared after Davis wistfully for a moment, and then nodded resolutely.  He still wasn't quite sure of all of Davis' big talk of danger and monsters, but still, he remembered just yesterday he had been wishing for an adventure like his father, and here one was!

"So chumley, you ready to leave on your grand quest?" Kazu asked, stepping up next to him.

Takato nodded enthusiastically.  "Just like dad!  This should be fun."

Jeri looked a bit more concerned.  "I just hope nothing really big happens to us."

And with those words, the foursome started on their journey, that would eventually be recorded as the start of the greatest quest of all time.

***

Once out of Shinjuku, Davis and Veemon switched to relatively low speed flying when they hit the Kyoto Mountains, after Veemon had digivolved to his Champion form, X-Veemon.

After that, they headed east to Isengard, the stronghold of Kari the White, the Digidestined of Light.

As X-Veemon glided over the valley, he noticed that there was already a lot of activity going on.  "Wow, never knew Kari had already organized an army," Davis marveled at all the Digimon below him.

 The two landed right in front of Isengard, where Kari stepped out to greet him.

"Hey Davis, how was your visit to Shinjuku?" Kari asked, smiling at him.

Davis couldn't help but blush a bit at her smile, but quickly got back to business.  "Not good, its definitely the One Digivice, but I still have no idea how Takato connected with it and created Guilmon."

Kari smiled again.  "Don't worry, we've figured out some more stuff.  Why don't we take a walk though the gardens?"

Davis smiled at an opportunity to be alone with Kari, without anybody else around.

"The hour is very late, but still, this Age has some life left in it," Kari mused as they strode through the gardens.

"Yeah," Davis agreed.  "But hopefully this Age won't end with another huge battle that takes out half of the Digimon and humans lying around."

"Yes, and even without it, Lucemon is still very strong, even though he can't fight personally.  His lieutenants have already left the Rose Star Castle, and have probably past through Odaiba and Shibuya already."

They had already reentered the tower of Isengard and rode an elevator to the top of the tower.

Davis gasped.  "What?!  Then I've to go now!  Forget stealth, I've got to go to pick up Takato with Imperialdramon now!"

"Too late for that," Kari said, smiling sinisterly at him.

Davis gulped as he backed out of the elevator into the throne room of Isengard.  "Uh Kari, are you feeling okay?"

"Never better," she said as she followed him out.  "But let's just say I've had a revelation recently about the way things should be."

Davis didn't like the evil smile Kari was wearing at the moment.  "Uh, does that mean you've realized that you should ditch TK and marry me?" he asked nervously.

"Forget TK, but I think my new enforcer doesn't like you dissing angels," Kari said, looking at something behind Davis.

Davis whirled around and saw - "What the hell happened to Seraphimon?!?"

"New and improved BlackSeraphimon," Kari said, giving him a smirk.  The formerly blue and golden armor of Seraphimon had been altered significantly, replaced with a stale white the predominant color now, and eight black bat wings on the back, along with a crooked cross on his helmet.

Davis suddenly noticed something.  "Uh Kari, what's that mark on your neck?"

"Dark Seeds implantation," answered another dark voice, and Davis yelped when out of the shadows appeared a tall vampiric Digimon.

"Myotismon!" Davis spat.  "So, I'm surprised you're still around, after that trashing Tai gave you awhile ago."

"Well, it was quite painful," Myotismon said, bearing his fangs for a moment, "but I think that recruiting your most powerful warrior over to our side is sufficient payback."

"What did you do to them?" Davis demanded as he stared at the glowing red eyes of Kari as she came to stand next to the undead vampire Digimon.

"Dark Seeds are such wonderful things," Myotismon commented, advancing on Davis, with Kari backing him up.  "I was thinking of using them on Ichijoji but instead decided that just using them to brainwash the Digidestined of Light would be better."

Davis raised his Digivice, but suddenly noticed the black stone surrounding him.  "Control Spire material?!  You actually made it?!?"

"Well, Yolei did, under my orders," Kari said, gesturing around, showing the digivolving-restricting material.  "Of course, I said it was to prevent lord Myotismon from digivolving to his Mega forms, but still, it would serve as a very useful prison for you too."

"What happened to Yolei anyway?" Davis asked, backing up.  He knew the limitations of the Control Spires, and that they weren't that strong, but it would still take quite a beating, and without a Champion Digimon…

"I sent her out on a fool's errand to go scout some random territory," Kari said, and for just a moment, Davis thought he saw a glimmer of light in those now pitch black eyes before it disappeared.  "And this valley is now filled with Dark Ring controlled Digimon, so I'd think she have a hard time getting back in."

Davis glanced, around, and let his hand drift down to his pocket.  "If you think I'm going to give up without a fight, then you have really have lost your mind, Kari."

"How?" she asked smirking.  "No digivolving, and a Mega Digimon ready to back me up," she said gesturing at BlackSeraphimon.  "But if you're really in the mood to rumble…"

Kari snapped her fingers, and BlackSeraphimon stepped forward, looking quite ominous.  "Seraphimon was captured centuries ago by Lucemon, but it wasn't until I got a chance with him that we could corrupt him completely.  I daresay he's more powerful than TK's Seraphimon by now."

"Well, don't count your angels till they've hatched," Davis said, grabbing his D-3 and holding it up.  "Golden Armor Energize!!"

Kari and Myotismon shielded their eyes as the D-3 surged with power and holy light started pouring out of it.

"What is this?" Myotismon demanded to know, as he staggered towards a corner.  So much holy energy and light was seriously damaging to him.  "I thought you said that the Control Spires prevented digivolution!"

"Veemon Golden Armor Digivolve to-"

"But not Armor Digivolution!" Davis shouted triumphantly.  "And I'd like to see the Digimon that can tangle with-"

"Magnamon!"

"I leave this to you, Kari," Myotismon said, as he shattered a window, and flew out as a swarm of bats.  He had overseen the 'rehabilitation' of Seraphimon himself, and even in his higher forms he knew he would have trouble with the fallen angel.

Back inside the chamber, the extreme amount of energy shattered the walls, and stopped the signal coming from them, and also blew off the roof, leaving the throne room bare to the elements.

BlackSeraphimon advanced on the glowing Magnamon as he floated there, and abruptly the golden light stopped, leaving the Holy Knight there.

"Attack!" Kari ordered, pointing at Magnamon, and the brainwashed Seraphimon quickly complied.

With naught a sound, BlackSeraphimon flew forward and rammed Magnamon, sending both of them flying off the tower.

"So looks like it's just the two of us now," Davis said, giving a savage grin as he brought up a staff that had suddenly appeared in his hand.  A black jewel at the top glowed with power, and briefly two symbols flashed in it.

"You don't have the power to stop me," Kari said, summoning her own staff from the ruins of the next room.  "I offer you one last chance to join us.  Lucemon was once good, and there still remains some purity in him.  If he kills us all, he will just become a tyrant, and rule over all of Middle-Earth.  But if we join with him, we can curb his power somewhat, look after the best interests of the little people, share in Lucemon's restored power once he has retrieved the Hazard Digivice."

"If you were in your right mind Kari, you would be choking yourself about now," Davis retorted.  "The Hazard Digivice can only be wielded by one, and Lucemon doesn't like sharing his toys, or so I've heard."

"Then DIE!" Kari shouted as she thrust her staff forward and sent a burst of white energy at Davis.

Davis quickly formed a bubble of blue energy, and flew down the side of the tower, dodging Kari's blast.

"Magna Blast!" Magnamon shouted as his armor showered gold blasts of energy at BlackSeraphimon.

But BlackSeraphimon held a hand up, and a shield formed around him deflected the golden blasts of energy.

But Magnamon was already attacking again, with a cry of "Magna Punch!" and shattered the barrier and slammed his fist into BlackSeraphimon's face sending the Mega reeling back.

BlackSeraphimon recovered quickly though, and held his hands cupped together, and shouted "Seven Hells!"

Magnamon quickly swerved to the right, but the attack still nicked his shoulder, leaving it smoking.

BlackSeraphimon flew forward, and grabbed Magnamon in a bear hug, and shouted "Testament!"

Magnamon cried out in pain as electricity surged through his body, but he still managed to strain enough to raise a fist and punch BlackSeraphimon away from him.

He glanced over at the fight between Davis and Kari and did not like what he was seeing.

Davis slammed into the ground, again, a crater forming around him from the impact, and struggled to raise himself up again.

Kari floated over him, smiling wickedly at him.  "Just like some of our old practice fights.  But this one ends here!  Ha!"  She sent another ball of pink energy down at Davis, but Davis managed to raise his hand and counter with a blue attack of his own.

The attacks collided, and temporarily blinded Kari, giving Davis enough time to fly over to Magnamon, once again wrapped in his protective bubble.

"How you doing buddy?" he asked his Digimon partner, who was panting, while the still mute BlackSeraphimon floated in the air before them, waiting for them to make the next move.

"Not so good," Magnamon replied.  "This guy is strong.  I'm doing some damage to him, but not as much as he's doing to me.  Without digivolving to Imperialdramon, I don't think I can win this."

Davis grunted.  "Okay, here's what we do, on my signal, I give you all my power, and you try your very best to kill him."

Magnamon blinked.  "That's your plan?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, there is absolutely no way that plan can fail."

"This isn't the time to be sarcastic Magnamon."

"No, this is the time to come up with a good plan!"

"Listen, just use your ultimate attack, and that should at least seriously wound him, and if I give you all my power that should leave you enough to fly us out of here."

A pause.  "You know, that's actually been one of your better plans."

Davis raised his staff, the orb at the top glowing.  "Let's do it!"

Energy streamed from Davis into Magnamon, restoring his golden glow, and he flew forward towards BlackSeraphimon with unprecedented speed.

"Eat this!  Magna Explosion!!"

BlackSeraphimon cried out in pain as the light engulfed him, and after a few seconds, he crashed into the ground, his armor heavily cracked, and charred.

Magnamon quickly flew back towards Davis, and the two quickly flew off before BlackSeraphimon could recover.

Kari stood watching them flee.  "Heh, always knew he didn't have the courage for a prolong fight."

BlackSeraphimon landed beside her, and kneeled, waiting silently for orders.

"We'll let them go for now, I doubt that they will even be able to limp as far as Rivendell.  And for now, we must assemble our army, and capture more Digimon, and prepare for war.  This will the big one."

***

"What did I do to deserve this?" Kazu complained as the four humans and Digimon trekked through the woods of the Shire.

Takato looked around at the beautiful scenery of the Shire.  He had never thought to actually travel all that far away from home before, and not like this.  A part of him was terrified by all this, of dark Digivices, Digidestined, war, and such, but another part of him was thrilled that his grand adventure was finally starting.

Suddenly, Kazu spotted something, and nudged Kenta, who looked in the direction Kazu was pointing, and nodded.

"Uh guys, we just saw something, and we' re going to go check it out, and we'll be right alright?" Kazu said, and then sprinted off, quickly followed by Kenta.

Takato and Jeri both sighed.  "I don't even want to know," Takato said, knowing that those two were going to get into trouble somehow.

"So, Takato, how do you know that guy Davis anyway?" Jeri asked shyly, blushing a bit at the fact she was almost alone with Takato.  Leomon quietly fell a few steps behind Jeri, and pulled Guilmon along with him, to give Jeri a little time.

Takato, being the young, innocent (and oblivious) Tamer that he was, didn't notice Jeri's blush, as he went back through his memories.

"Well, supposedly, he's been coming here to the Shire for centuries for vacations, occasionally with another friend of his, Ken Ichijojou, I think, and supposedly it's the same person, though most people say that its just a bunch of relatives, all with the same name."

Jeri blinked.  "I'd heard that too, but haven't he actually told you the truth?"

Takato shook his head.  "Nope.  Most of the time he just chatted with dad, and borrowed a lot of food, and when I did ask him about that, he got all mad and asked if he looked old, and dad told me not to ask afterwards."

"Well, I guess if you walked to somebody and asked if they were a hundred years old they would be offended," Jeri agreed.

All further conversation was forestalled by familiar screaming.

Takato and Jeri turned towards the source, just in time to have Kazu and Kenta crash into them.

"Guys, what did you do now?" Takato asked exasperatedly.

"Nothing, nothing," Kenta said quickly.

"It wasn't our fault!" Kazu added defensively.

"Dino Burst!"

"Duck!" Takato shouted, and they dropped to the ground, as a blast of fire flew over their heads and incinerated the trees surrounding them.

An Allomon, an Armor dinosaur Digimon, roared as it stomped through the trees.  Its partner, a tall, punkish kid continued ordering his Digimon "Get them!"

"Run!" Takato shouted, as he got back to his feet and ran forward, Guilmon following behind him, eyes narrowing as he shifted into battle mode.

Leomon scooped up Jeri, and ran forward, easily keeping stride with Takato and Guilmon.

Kazu and Kenta scrambled to pick up the cards they had dropped, before another Dino Burst attack flew towards them.  Luckily, MarineAngemon easily blocked the attack with a heart shape bubble, but Kazu and Kenta decided that their lives were worth more than their cards.

Guardromon flew forward, his jets firing, as he picked up both boys, with MarineAngemon floating behind him, watching for more attacks.

As Guardromon caught up with Takato and Jeri, Takato shouted "What did you do to that guy, and why is he trying to kill us?!"

"You know Bandit Keith, the top card player of that gang?" Kazu answered.

Takato paled.  "You stole cards from him?"

"We didn't steal these, we won them fair and square," Kenta defended himself.  "Its not our fault he's a sore loser and card player!"

Takato sighed, as he looked behind him.  Yep, Allomon was still behind them, roaring mad.

Suddenly, he glanced at the card Kazu was carrying, and grabbed.  "Gotta borrow this!"

"Hey, that's the one I used to beat him, you can't just take that!" Kazu protested indignantly as he tried to snatch back his Shurimon card.

"And it might just help us win now!" Takato shouted as he brought out his D-arc.  "Now, let's see, how do I do this?"

Takato felt the heat of another attack from behind him and decided now wasn't the time for theatrics, and just slid the card through as he shouted "Digi-modify!  Shurimon's Double Stars activate!"

Everybody stared as the familiar shurikens of Shurimon appeared in Guilmon's arms.

He blinked down at them, and then looked at Takato.  "Are these some new sort of bread?"

"No!" Takato shouted back.  "Just throw them at the trees behind, so that they'll all fall on top of that Digimon back there and his mean partner!  You should know how to!"

"Okay," Guilmon shrugged and seemingly effortlessly chucked the shurikens at their rear.

The star shaped projectile sheared through the thick trees on either side of the path easily, and without even a proper "Timber!" collapsed on top of the gang leader and his Digimon.

Takato saw his plan work, and gave a sigh of relief.  "Guys, I think we can- Ahh!"

That last part was because they had all just encountered a hill, and all of them fell forward screaming.  Even Guardromon was dragged down with them as Guilmon had latched onto a leg to try to keep them up, but the weight was too much for the machine Digimon, and his jets gave as he dropped with them.

They hit the bottom of the hill, and kept going as they fell through the ground, and landed in a dark cave.

Jeri coughed as she stood up.  "Is everybody okay?"

"I think so," Takato answered, as he stood up, and then helped Guilmon up.

He suddenly noticed Guilmon was still growling.  "What is it, boy?"

Guilmon's narrowed eyes were looking at a large pile of something in a corner.  "There's something bad here, Takato."

"Bad?" Takato asked, looking where Guilmon was and paled as he suddenly realized what those things were.

Obviously the others hadn't, as they had all wandered over there, and were poking through it.

"Hey, look what I found!" Kazu exclaimed, as he picked a metal object that had caught his eye.  "It's a Digivice!"

Kenta was also digging through the dirt, and brought out another Digivice.  "Me too!"

Jeri had also picked up something, and was rubbing it with her sock puppet.  "Ruff, Jeri found something too, ruff!"

"Guys get away!" Takato shouted as he pulled them back, all of them still holding their buried treasure.

"What's got you so spooked chumley?" Kazu asked as he banged the Digivice on the wall once to try to activate it.  He got his answered, when a skull fell from the ceiling and landed right in front of him.

Everybody screamed, but they calmed down when they realized that it wasn't anything alive.

"Where are we?" Jeri asked, as she looked around the huge cavern, trying to figure a way out.

"I have no idea, and I don't want any ideas," Kenta stammered as he backed away from the skeletons.

What none of them noticed was that some of the bones in there weren't quite dead yet.

Takato saw Kazu still examining his find, and realized that it looked eerily familiar.  "Hey Kazu, can I look at that?"

Kazu snatched the ancient Digivice away from Takato.  "No way chumley!  Not after the way you snatched that card of mine's away!  And where is it anyway, I want it back!"

Takato sweatdropped.  "I think I lost it on the way down."

"What?!" Kazu exploded.  "Do you know how many victories that card gave me?!  That was my lucky card!  Now I've gotta find another lucky card, and its coming out of your pocket!"

"Uh guys," Kenta stammered, pointing at a pile where something was disturbing the dust.

Unfortunately, Kazu and Takato were still to busy arguing too notice, but fortunately, Jeri noticed what Kenta did.

"Takato, I think something's over there," Jeri said, fear starting to creep into her voice, as Leomon stepped in front of her protectively.

"This place feels like a tomb," he muttered.  "A violated tomb.  I think we should depart before we disturb any spirits."

"Too late for that!" Kazu screamed as out of the pile of bones rose a SkullGreymon and a SkullMammothmon.

Takato and Kazu gaped at the sight of the Ultimate and Mega Digimon, before screaming along with Jeri and Kenta.

The SkullGreymon lumbered forward, red eyes filled with malevolence.  "Dark Shot!"

"MarineAngemon!" Kenta cried out, and the tiny Mega flew in front of Kenta, and with a  "phoo!" shot out a large heart shaped bubble that deflected the missile away from them and towards the roof.

"Everybody, run!" Takato shouted as he sprinted towards a tunnel as everybody followed, with rocks raining down on them from the deflected shot.

The two skeletal Digimon gave a feral roar before pursuing their prey.

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" Kazu shouted at Takato, who was in the lead, as they desperately raced for their lives.

"As long as its away from those two ghosts, who cares?!" Kenta interrupted.

Suddenly, Takato stopped up ahead, and everybody else crashed into him.  They had reached a dead end.

"Now what should we do?" Jeri asked, glancing nervously behind her.  "We can't die here, we have a mission."

Takato was still trying to think of something, when he suddenly remembered his Digivice.

"Do any of you have a Digmon or Drimogemon card?" he demanded.

Kenta shuffled through his cards for a moment, before offering Takato a Digmon card.

"What, you want to use that to dig us out of here?" Kazu shouted as he saw Takato accept the card.

"Wait, Takato knows what he's doing," Jeri said confidently.  "Takato usually has a plan, right?"  She gave him an encouraging smile to try to calm him down so he wouldn't panic like Kazu and Kenta were.

Takato smiled back at Jeri, and then answered Kazu, "Actually, yes, I am going to use this to get us out of here.  Digi-modify!  Digmon's Rock Cracking Activate!"

For a moment, Takato regretted the fact that he couldn't take the time to come up with a better pose to slash his card, but decided that he could think of one later.

Drills materialized on both of Guilmon's arms, and he quickly applied them to the dirt wall that was separating them from freedom.

"You have got to teach me how to do that!" Kazu said in awe as he watched Guilmon work.

"Guys, they're here!" Kenta cried as SkullGreymon and SkullMammothmon stampeded through the cave and halted in front of them.

"Just a little longer!" Takato shouted as he thought he saw a little light coming through the dirt rather than the strange glow from the underground fungi.  "Try to hold them off!"

"You've got it!" Kazu shouted.  "Go Guardromon!"

"Here I go!" Guardromon shouted as he launched himself forward.  "Guardian Barrage!"

The whistling missiles (literally with little whistles in their mouths) flew towards SkullGreymon, but the missiles hit the body of the undead Digimon, and did very little damage.

"Pi pu!" MarineAngemon shouted as he encased of them in a pink bubble as SkullGreymon's claw rammed into them.

"I see sunlight!" Takato shouted excitedly as a tiny shaft of yellow streamed in.

Suddenly another claw thrust through the thin layer of dirt left, and grabbed Guilmon and Takato and pulled them out.

"Takato!" Jeri cried out, before she and Leomon were also pulled.

"Hey, wait for us!" Kazu and Kenta cried out in unison as they used their hands to push aside the remaining dirt and dove outside.

All four humans were lying on the ground outside panting, with another figure standing over them, smirking.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" he asked as he looked down at all of them panting on the ground.

Suddenly, Takato shot back up.  "Run!  We've got to get away before those two get out here!"

"Don't worry, Cyberdramon can handle them," the stranger said confidently, indicating the growling dragon beside him.  Cyberdramon had been the one to pull Takato and the others out.

"You don't understand," Takato continued, recognizing Cyberdramon as an Ultimate level Digimon, "there's a-"

But his words were cut off as SkullGreymon and SkullMammothmon burst out of the hill, roaring.

The stranger's face frowned, but he still didn't look too concerned.  "Don't worry, watch."

Takato turned around, and saw Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta running out of the way of their two hunters, but it seemed they had other concerns.

As soon as the Ultimate and Mega looked up at the sun, they both screamed in pain, and reeled away from the light.

"Cyberdramon, finish it!" he ordered, and the dragon jumped forward, claws glowing with energy.

"Desolation Claw!"

 The attack slammed into SkullGreymon and SkullMammothmon, and pushed both of them back into the dark cave.  With a few more slashes, a small avalanche buried the opening.

Cyberdramon landed back beside the stranger, who was trying to reassure the young humans.

"Don't worry, I've dealt with them before," he told them.  "They're the leftover remains of once-great Digimon, who were reanimated by dark spirits.  They're very dangerous, but they can't stand sunlight, or any holy light for that matter."

"Thank you for pulling us out, I don't know how much longer we could've last," Takato said, as he made sure he still had all of his stuff.

"No problem, you're just lucking that we were just passing by, and Cyberdramon heard the battle going on.  By the way, the name's Ryo Akiyama."

Suddenly, Kazu and Kenta, were had previously been busy counting their cards, went starry-eyed.  "Ryo Akiyama?!  The Legendary Tamer-Warrior?!"

Ryo sweatdropped.  "Uh-oh."

The two Digimon fanatics were on the Legendary Tamer in a moment, asking for his autograph, and a photo with him, and various other memorabilia.  Even the growling voice of Cyberdramon wasn't enough to deter them.

Kazu fished in his bag for a camera, while Kenta searched for a pen and a piece of paper to get Ryo's autograph, while Ryo just sweatdropped and backed away nervously.

As the two were still searching for their items, Ryo backed up to Takato and quickly whispered "Don't go near the Barrow-Wights again, old evil spirits lurk around there, and at night, well, there's no sun.  I'll see you guys around, I've got another engagement elsewhere."

At that moment Kazu and Kenta found what they had been searching for, but Ryo hoped on Cyberdramon, who quickly flew off before the two boys could grab on again.

Boy gave groans of disappointment, while Takato just stared in wonder after the Legendary Tamer, Ryo Akiyama, who was said to have fought in great wars in the east, far, far away from the Shire.

Jeri, meanwhile, was still looking at what she had dragged out of the cave.  "Hey, this Digivice looks like yours Takato!"

Takato blinked, and saw in the light of day, that all of the Digivices they had found in the caves were exactly like his, but had different colors, brown for Kazu, a light pink for Kenta, and orange for Jeri.

Before any of them could stop, the other three original Digivices rose from where they had been attached, and the new Digivices pulled the white ordinary Digivices, and then all three activated and beeped.

"Hey!" Kazu cried out as he tried to grab his white Digivice, but too late, but then blinked when the D-Arc came online and seemed to connect to Guardromon.  Kenta and Jeri's new D-Arc also seemed to be doing the same thing.

Kazu's eyes lit up.  "Hey chumley, you slid Digimon cards through the slots here right?"

Takato nodded distractedly once.  "Yeah, you just slash it and yell out the command."  Takato was still thinking back on their harrowing experience.

"Cool!"

Takato's head jerked up.  "What?"

Kazu had run off, and was fumbling with a couple of his more powerful cards.

"Oh no…" Takato muttered before he heard Kazu shout out "Digi-Modify!  Wargreymon's Terra Force activate!"

There was a very large explosion behind them, and a moment later a large tree fell down.

"At this rate, we'll never get to Bree," Takato muttered, as more explosions sounded in the distance, especially after Kenta joined Kazu in 'experimenting' with their new D-Arcs.

***

It took them two more days to get to Bree, and when they did finally reach the gates of Bree, it was already nightfall, and raining too, so none of them were in too happy a move.

Takato, trying to keep the hood of his cloak up, knocked loudly on the gate, and hoped the gatekeeper wasn't asleep.

Luckily for him, the small peephole in the door opened quickly.  "What do you want?  What is your business?"

"Uh nothing, I'm just Mr. Underhill, just traveling, sightseeing, that sort of thing," Takato said, plastering a fake smile on.

The doorman peered at him intently for just a moment, and then shrugged.  "Eh, fine."  The latch closed, and then the small human sized door opened, and all four of them hurried through, though not without a quick glance over their shoulders.

They trotted through the town quickly, and found the inn quickly, and ran in.

The inside was crowded, with humans, Digimon, and even one or two techno-mages and elves scattered about.

Takato moved towards the bar area, where a Digitamamon wearing an apron was barking orders at the Tapirmon waiters.

"Hey you, don't spill that soup!  Hurry up with those won tons!" Digitamamon shouted at various Rookies as they scurried about, not noticing Takato until the young goggleboy tapped him in his side.

"Uh, excuse me, but could you tell me where Davis the Black is?" Takato asked, peering up at the two yellow eyes of the Ultimate Digimon.

Digitamamon paused for a moment.  "Davis the Black?  Human, tall, carried around an odd Digivice, and staff, and has a Veemon?"

Takato nodded eagerly, but his face fell, until Digitamamon said "Haven't seen him for months.  I wonder what happened to him."

Takato glumly trekked back to the tables the others had reserved, and where Kazu and Kenta were slurping down bowls of Digitamamon's Chinese soup.

"Did you find him?" Jeri asked him, but she saw Takato's glum expression, and put her arm around his shoulder to try to comfort him.

"So you didn't find that guy then?" Kazu asked between spoonfuls of soup.  "Well, good riddance to him then, after making us go with you."

Kenta waved over a Tapirmon waiter, and asked for another pint of soda.  Takato suddenly noticed something.

"Excuse, but who's that in the corner over there?" Takato asked, tugging on the Tapirmon's arm, and pointing towards a tall man, who had his legs crossed, and was smoking from a pipe.

"Him?  Don't know his real name, but we just call him Strider," the Tapirmon said.  "Don't like his type at all, with all his grim faces, and such."

After the Tapirmon waiter had left, Jeri asked "Did Davis give you any idea of where to go if he couldn't meet you here?"

"No.  All he said was that I should be very careful about using this," Takato said, holding his red D-Arc.

"Well, it can't be all that bad," Jeri said.  "I mean, we all have the same models now, and we're still fine, so your Digivice can't be that harmful for you."

Jeri's left hand came up, with the sock puppet.  "Come on, Takato, cheer up!" it said.

Takato took a deep breath.  "Yeah, I guess you're right."  And then sweatdropped when he realized he was talking to a sock puppet.

"While you guys are still trying to figure what to do, I think I'll go get another bowl of this soup.  This stuff is great!" Kazu said, carrying his empty bowl back towards the bar.

"What about that Elvish place your dad stopped by, Rivendell?" Jeri suggested.  "Maybe they'll have an idea about what to do?"

Takato nodded, his eyes lighting up once again.  "You know, that's not such a bad idea!"

Anymore planning was paused when Takato's ears held Kazu's voice say "Takato Matsuki?  Sure I know a guy named Takato!"

Takato whirled around, and saw Kazu at the bar, slightly drunk, pointing back at him.

"He's over there," Kazu said.  "Hey, Takato, come on over!  This guys are buying!"

Takato panicked, and rushed over to Kazu, and started pulling him back to the table.

"Sorry, sorry," he said, bowing towards all the men arrayed there, "he has absolutely no tolerance for alcohol, my name's just Underhill, and we've got to get going-"

At this moment, Takato slipped on a puddle of beer that had been spilt earlier, and gasped as his D-Arc went flying out of his hand.

In the corner, Strider's head jerked fractionally.

Takato managed to grab his D-Arc again, but the impact of the fall made him clench his hand around it, and press a particular button and-

Everybody gasped as Takato vanished right before their eyes!

Jeri and Kenta jumped to their feet, and hurried over to the spot, while Kazu just stared around dazedly.

***

Miles away, in the dark night, Digimon raised their heads, hearing a signal.

***

Takato crawled away from the circle the drunken men had formed around where he had disappeared.  Everything was grey and shadowy now, but Takato just kept crawling, listening to the murmurings that his sudden disappearance had precipitated, until he back into a wall, and then quickly pushed the invisibility button on his Digivice again.  Guilmon was instantly beside him as he had been following Takato's scent.

He had barely caught his breath, when a hand hauled him up.

"Nice little trick there," murmured a voice in Takato's ear, and Takato looked up and realized it was the man called Strider.  Though Takato couldn't quite see the face, he could see something glinting in the dark hood of the man's cloak.

Before Takato could do anything, he felt himself being dragged out of the main room, and into a private room, with Guilmon and an Agumon trotting along besides.

"Takato!" Guilmon cried, as he ran to Takato and stood in front of him, ready to defend him.

The man leaned over and snuffed out all the candles in the room with just his fingers, and the increasing darkness made Takato get even more nervous.

"Now, I can blend in if I want to, but to disappear like that," and Strider pulled of his hood once the last of the candles were out, "in front of ten people's eyes like- Well I wish I could do that."

"W-who are you?" Takato asked nervously, his hand drifting towards hid D-Arc.  If this man was a follower of Lucemon, he was in trouble..

"Around here, I am called Strider.  But you can call me Tai.  Strider sounds cool, but if my girlfriend ever heard that, she'd beat me up."

Takato blinked at the casual response, but the mysterious Tai sobered up quickly as he paced the room quickly.

"That's an unusual Digivice you have there," Tai said.

Takato blinked.  "Not that unusual.  It's a family heirloom."

"Must be a powerful family," Tai said, glancing out the windows.  "Are you scared?"

"Uh, yes," Takato said nervously.

"Not quite enough."

Suddenly the door burst open, and Tai whirled around, sword drawn, and with a loud clang it met Leomon's blade, as the Champion Digimon strained to overcome Tai's blade, but it seemed Tai was easily holding his own.

Tai pulled away from Leomon quickly, leaving him stumbling for a moment, and Tai calmly sheathed his blade again.

"Look like its just your friends, Takato," he said, sounding relieved.  "But that brief moment of invisibility I assure you, was almost enough to condemn us all."

"Who are you?" Jeri asked, her voice quivering slightly, but determination etched across her face.

"The name's Tai, and my buddy here is Agumon, and I'm your best chance for living," he said.

"How do we know that you're on our side?" Kazu asked suspiciously.

"You don't, but I'm asking you to trust your instincts and listen to me, because there are very powerful Digimon coming here, and I would not like to fight them in the middle of a village.  And how could you not trust a fellow goggle boy?"

Tai turned back to Takato, and the young boy saw that Tai also wore a set of goggles, similar to Davis' goggles, but with gray circular lenses.

"Hey, I thought Davis was the only other goggleboy!" Takato said.

Tai snorted.  "Actually, I started the trend, and he followed my example."

"Does that mean you're a Digidestined?" Takato asked, hoping for a yes.

"You could say that," Tai said, "but different from Davis' type, I use a Crest more than him."

Tai fished under his shirt, and dug out a small necklace, on which hung a small tag, with a crest with a sun symbol on it.

Takato gasped as he saw it, as it seemed to radiate light and goodness.

"We can trust him, you guys," he decided, and the others relaxed somewhat since Takato had always been a good judge of character.

Tai nodded, relieved that he had gained their trust, and then turned towards the door.  "We've gotta go now, if you guys want to survive.  I know this countryside like the back of my hand, and if those Dark Masters are going to find us, they're going to have to hack through a couple of forests to do it."

Everybody stared a bit bewildered at Tai's confidence, but a sudden high screech made all of them jump and run out the door after him.

***

After they left Bree, their backpacks bulging with food thanks to a generous Digitamamon (of course Tai had had to threaten him once or twice, but that's not the point), they had almost immediately left the main roads, and had started going through caves, thick woods, lakes, any and everything.

By the end of their third day traveling with Tai, Takato could barely tell east from west.

"Are we there yet?" Kazu panted as they finally emerged out of a particularly thick wood, and a wood that Guardromon had gotten stuck in five times.

"There!" Tai said happily when he saw a mountain, with some ruins on it.  "Weathertop!  We should be safe there, for at least a little while."

Tai ran forward, and the rest of them followed him as he led them up to the top, where there were the remains of a tower on it.

"In ancient days, this used to be an old watchtower, but then it got attacked, and after that, well its long story," Tai said, as he set down his pack, with Agumon lying down besides him.

He reached into his pack, and dug out several swords, wrapped in leather.  He laid them on the ground, unrolled it, and tossed one at each of the humans.

"These swords are for you.  If you get separated from your Digimon, these swords are strong enough to damage nearly any Digimon that you'll probably meet- including Megas."

Kazu and Kenta stared in awe at the sword, while Takato just accepted it grimly, and Jeri was staring at it with a bit of fear.

"Me and Agumon are going to scout around, still here, and try not to make too much noise," Tai warned.  "You guys are pretty powerful, but still, there are dark things wandering about that would make you cry out for your mommies."

"Hey, I resent that!" Kazu and Kenta shouted indignantly, before they all heard an eerie howl in the distance, making Kazu and Kenta scream "Mommy!" and run to hide behind a rock formation.

Tai smirked.  "See?"  He turned with a dramatic swish of his cloak.  "Stay here.  I'll be back soon."

Tai and Agumon walked down the hill, slowly, and the four young kids saw a bright golden flash from below, and then a loud whoosh as something flew away.

Takato clapped his hands after a moment.  "Well, I guess there's nothing to do but get dinner ready."

Before anybody could do anything, a fireball stuck the middle of the ground, and set the dry wood there alight.

Takato whirled around.  "What?!  Put that out before someone sees!"

Everybody rushed over to stomp it out, before MarineAngemon blew one of his little bubbles that grew and then smothered the fire.

Takato gave a sigh of relief, and then turned to Guilmon.  "What did you do that for, boy?!"

Guilmon tilted his head a bit.  "What?  Do what?"

"Shoot that fireball!"

"But I didn't do it," Guilmon said, pointing at himself.

Takato blinked.  "But if you didn't do that, then who else here uses fire attacks?"

"That would be me."

They all turned towards a shadowy corner, where a small purple demon Digimon, bouncing a blue fireball in his hands, walked out towards them.

Leomon, being the closest, stepped forward, and Jeri brought up her analyzer screen.

"Impmon, Rookie, this mischievous little demon likes to cause trouble with his Bada-Boom fireballs."

"You've got that right," Impmon said, and then tossed the fireball off the side of the hill, where it exploded with a bright flash.

"What are you doing?" Kenta shouted panicking.  "There are dangerous Digimon about!"

"Me being one of them," Impmon said, smirking at them.  "I'm just letting my friends know that youse guys are here.  I wish I were at full power to help reclaim the Hazard Digivice," and here Impmon glanced at the red D-Arc in Takato's hands, "but orders are orders."

Everybody tensed as he stepped closer to Takato, and then peered oddly at Guilmon.  "Hey, pineapple head, where'd you get that mark on you stomach from?"

Guilmon looked down.  "This?  Takato drew it on me."

Impmon blinked.  "Strange.  How did the Hazard get onto you…" Impmon glanced at Takato's D-Arc.  "And what did you do to it?  Last time I saw it, it was pitch black."

Takato clutched his D-Arc protectively.  "I don't care what anyone says!  This is my Digivice now, and it's not evil!"

Impmon stared a moment longer, and then shrugged.  "Hey, whatever kid.  Now, if I were you, I would start making sure my affairs were in order, cause you don't want to leave a lot of loose ends."

Impmon whistled, and there was the loud roar of a motorcycle, before one drove right up the side of the hill, and drove straight through the small crowd of Digimon and humans, and when the dust cleared, Impmon was gone.

Takato grabbed his pack, and then ran towards the center of the clearing.  "Everybody get ready!  I think we've got company coming!"

Everybody ran towards the center of the clearing, and quickly pulled out their swords, though none of them really any idea how to use them, but it was better than nothing, right?

Takato pulled out a random card, and held it up.

"Chumley, what are you doing?" Kazu asked nervously.

Takato didn't answer, until a burst of light shone from the card.  When the light cleared, it was now blue, with a dinosaur's head on it.

Takato shoved at Kazu, and said, "Slash it."

Takato was already concentrating on another card before Kazu could ask another question, so he just shrugged, and said "Digi-modify," as he slid it through his D-Arc.

He jumped as Guardromon shouted "Guardromon matrix digivolve to… Andromon!"

Kazu stared in awe at his new Ultimate leveled Digimon.  "Whoa!  You've gotta teach me how you did that!"

Takato had already created another Blue Card, and had handed it to Jeri, before working on one for himself.

Jeri couldn't help but pause for a moment, and then struck a pose.  "Digi-modify!  Matrix Digivolution activate!"

Kazu and Kenta stared at her strangely, before she shrugged.  "What, you guys can have poses, but I can't?"

They didn't get a chance to answer, as Leomon shouted "Leomon matrix digivolve to… Grapeleomon!"

Leomon was now taller, with blue fur, and armor on his arms and legs, along with a more metallic look.

Takato coughed to gain their attention, and then struck another pose.  "Now watch a master do it.  Digi-modify!  Matrix Digivolution activate!!"

"Guilmon matrix digivolve to… WarGrowlmon!"

Guilmon now towered over both Grapleomon and Andromon.  Cybernetic armor had appeared around the dinosaur's chest, armed with deadly looking blasters, and two jets in the back.  In the middle of the chest plate was the Hazard symbol.

Takato nodded.  "That should do it."

"So this is the bearer of the Hazard, who dares to defy the great Lucemon?" said a clown, who suddenly appeared, balancing on a ball.

Everybody stared.  "They're sending in a clown?"

The clown jumped off of the bouncing ball, which disappeared, before pulling out a couple of drawings.  "But not just any clown, I'm also a storyteller!  You see, once upon a time, four Tamers set out to hide from the forces of darkness the Hazard Digivice, which had been lost long ago, but oh no!  Piedmon found them, and seized the Hazard Digivice, and returned victorious to his master and was rewarded beyond his wildest dreams!"

Kazu snorted.  "That's the worst story I've ever heard."

"Did I forget to mention that it's a true story?" and with those words, the childish façade of the clown disappeared, to be replaced by a red-suited Digimon, with wild hair, and wearing a pair of swords on his back.

Takato brought up his D-Arc.  "Piedmon, Mega-level, demon man type Digimon.  He'll confuse you with his Clown Trick, and then skewer you with his Trump Swords."

Piedmon landed again, and strolled towards them leisurely, and as he did, six shadows seemed to rise out of the ground, and take solid forms around him.

Kenta raised his D-Arc.  "Wraithmon, Ultimate-level.  They may not look like much, but their Ebony Blaster and Shadow Slash will definitely make you hurt."

"A Mega and six Ultimates vs. one pathetic Mega and three Ultimates.  I like these odds," Piedmon said, and then raised an eyebrow when he spotted WarGrowlmon, and the symbol on his chest.

"What's this?  Hmm, a Digimon, bearing the symbol of the Hazard.  You must indeed be a powerful Tamer to be able to tap into the power of the Digital Hazard, but all great Tamers must eventually fall!"

With that last word, Piedmon lunged; taking out his swords, but Takato frantically raised his own sword to block, and barely managed to hold back the powerful strike by the Mega Digimon.

Before anybody could move to help Takato, the Wraithmon were on them, and they were just barely holding their own.

Piedmon struck at Takato with both of his swords, but Takato kept backing up, dodging his attacks.

Piedmon suddenly leapt forward, and before Takato could stop him, his hand darted towards Takato's Digivice.

"I've got it!" Piedmon shouted triumphantly, but when his finger touched the D-Arc, it glowed with power, and Piedmon cried out in pain as the D-Arc sent out a blast of power into his body, and sent him flying backwards.

Piedmon landed in a heap on the other side of the clearing, smoke rising from his body.

All the Wraithmons paused when they saw their leader in a heap, and WarGrowlmon took advantage of it.

"Everybody, out of the way!" he shouted, and his main blasters glowed with energy before he shouted "Atomic Blaster!"

The twin red streams blasted their way through the Wraithmon, killing two outright, and severely injuring the rest.

The cyborg then leaned down to check on his partner.  "Are you okay, Takato?"

Takato got to his feet, panting.  "I think so," he said, but then held up his D-Arc.  "What happened?"

Before he could ask more questions, they all turned to the other side of the battlefield, where Piedmon, along with the remaining Wraithmon were regrouping.

"So, it seems that you've tapped into the power of the Hazard Digivice," Piedmon said shakily.  His eyes narrowed, the implications of this running through his mind.  Unfortunately, none of the humans were as well informed.

"We must now take our leave, but before we go, here's a parting gift!" and before anybody could react, Piedmon had hurled a small dagger at Takato.

The dagger plunged into his right shoulder, and Takato fell again, as cold crept down his arm, and throughout the rest of his arm.  At the same time, WarGrowlmon cried out in pain also, and dedigivolved back to Guilmon, clutching his right arm.

Suddenly, there was another cry from above.  "Starlight Explosion!!"

The Wraithmons screamed in pain from the bright light, and the rest of them dissolved then and there, but Piedmon was just blinded from the bright attack, but the following attack got rid of him.

"Terra Force!"

A giant ball of energy crashed into Piedmon, and sent him flying into the distance.

Jeri was kneeling over Takato, trying to keep him awake, while Kazu and Kenta quickly placed themselves in front of the two just in case these newcomers were enemies.

From the once again dark sky, a glowing bird landed, and two riders got off of its back.

"What happened?" shouted one, and it was Tai, as he ran over to check on Takato, while the other Digimon, a warrior in golden armor, followed behind.

Tai kneeled down and probed Takato's arm gently with his hands, and pulled out the dagger that Piedmon had thrown.

He cursed when he saw that the tip was broken off, and before the rest of their astonished eyes, the dagger dissolved into fine mist that was blown away.

"Sora!" he called, "get over here, we're going to need a lift fast!"

The other person who had gotten off from the giant bird ran over at Tai's call, and they saw that she was a tall woman, with kind features, and bright red hair, with a blue hat on her head.

She gasped when she saw the dagger in Tai's hand.  "Where'd did you get that?"

"This is Sora, a friend of mine's," Tai introduced them to Sora, and Jeri thought she saw Sora's eyes flash at the word "friend".  "We've got to get Takato to Rivendell immediately before-'

He was interrupted when both the giant bird and the golden warrior flashed with light before shrinking into two Rookies, Agumon and Biyomon.

Sora looked at Biyomon. "Why did you dedigivolve, we've got to get this boy to Rivendell now!"

Biyomon shook her head.  "I'm sorry, Sora, but we just sensed this force suddenly, and it forced me and Agumon to dedigivolve."

Tai's head shot up, and he pulled out his Digivice, and a small grid appeared on the screen, and on the grid were several black spots.

Tai started muttering swear words that made Jeri wince, and Kazu and Kenta listen in.

"Dark Towers," he said.  "They stop all Digivolution for miles around, and forces any digivolved Digimon that is higher than Champion back to their base levels.  They must really be desperate if they erected one this far out."

Sora nodded.  "And with it miles in the opposite direction, it would be better just to find horses and ride towards Rivendell."

"Hey, our Digimon are still fine," Kazu spoke up, pointing at Andromon and Grapeleomon.  "How come they didn't dedigivolve along with yours?"

Sora frowned.  "That is a very good question.  But that must be answered later.  I was wandering around these regions, and its just luck that Tai found me in time for me to help with the battle."

"Who attacked you, and how did they find you in the first place?" Tai asked.

"Well, after you left," Jeri started, "this Digimon called Impmon appeared here, and sent out this signal fireball, and then he rode off on a motorcycle I think.  After that, Piedmon arrived with those Wraithmon, and he tried to take Takato's D-Arc, but I think it shocked him for some reason, and then we were winning, and then Piedmon stabbed Takato."

Tai's eyes narrowed.  "That Digivice, the one that links Guilmon with Takato, refused Piedmon."

Jeri nodded.  "And I don't think Guilmon's doing too well either."

Guilmon was also on the ground, unconscious, but he was thrashing about, and eerily enough, he cried out in pain in unison with Takato.

Tai thought for a moment.  "This is very strange, but hopefully Gennai will have more answers."

He looked at the two Ultimate Digimon still there.  "I don't know how you guys digivolved, but you guys are the most powerful of us at the moment.  At first light, we're going to have to make a run towards Rivendell.  The Wraithmon are less powerful during the day, and Piedmon will still be recovering from that trashing we gave him, so you should be able to hold them off."

"What about you?" Kazu asked.  "What are you two going to do while we're running away from those creepy guys?"

"There are some herbs around here," Tai said, waving at the countryside.  "We're going to try to find some of them.  Though Takato's wound doesn't look it, it is very deep.  The dagger was created in the Black Land, where evil reigns, and it is slowly poisoning Takato.  If we don't get him to the Elves, he may be beyond our reach."

"You mean he'll die?" Kenta asked. 

"Worse," Tai said.  "He will become a servant of the Dark Lord, and the Dark Lord will torture forever for using his Digivice."

"No!" Takato cried out, and everybody turned to him, but the goggle boy was still unconscious, but he seemed to be having a nightmare.

Tai stared at him for a moment longer, before turning away.  "We leave at first light."

***

When the sun rose on the group, Tai and Sora left, but promising they would return soon.

Grapeleomon easily carried Jeri and Takato, while Andromon had slung Guilmon over one shoulder, while he held Kazu and Kenta in his arms.

The group set off, keeping a lookout for any of the Wraithmon.

As they traveled, Takato's condition worsened, as he grew paler, and also developed a fever, while still crying out at odd times.

At times, he awoke, and suddenly warned them to take cover, just as a Wraithmon past by.

After the third time this happened, and after the Wraithmon had past, Kazu commented, "Man, does Chumley have a sixth sense, or what?"

Jeri frowned in thought.  "Tai said that Takato's D-Arc was somehow linked with all this, and somehow had a link to this Digimon Dark Lord.  I guess that because these guys are his minions, Takato can sense when they approach."

"And a very useful talent it is too," Tai said, as everybody looked up and saw Tai and Sora had gotten several horses from somewhere, and had dismounted, their partner Digimon holding the horses.  "I don't know about what you said, but it's more likely that that wound has created a minor link between Takato and the darkness.  The longer its there, the closer Takato comes to entering their world, a world of shadows."

"Takato must be very brave though to be able to be resisting them this long," Sora said sympathetically.

Tai drew out a few leaves of a plant, and crushed them into a powder, before pulling out a container, and opening it to show it was full of steaming water.

He dropped the powder in, and a pungent smell permeated the clearing, clearing everybody's mind, and giving them a sense of calm.

"These are kingsfoil leaves," Tai explained, as he soaked a cloth in the water, and then wiped Takato's wound with it.  "Very hard to find, but they're very powerful, but I'm not that sure even it'll work on this sort of wound.

The growing redness of the wound seemed to retract a little, and Takato's delirious mumblings subsided a bit when Tai gave him a drink of the medicine.

Tai nodded.  "That's the best either of us can do for now.  Now this becomes a race to see if we can reach Rivendell before Takato succumbs to his wounds."

***

Takato's ability for predicting when the Wraithmon approached saved them from several more encounters, but when a couple of DarkTyrannomons managed to surprise them, a couple of Wraithmons were drawn to the fight, and though they had managed to beat them back, the fight had exhausted Grapelemon and Andromon and forced them to dedigivolve.

They had then rode on the extra horses Tai and Sora had brought with them, but it was the fourth day when Takato suddenly jerked awake, behind Jeri on the horse they were sharing.

Everybody stopped, as Takato had somehow climbed to his feet, and was leaning on a tree.

Tai was the first to dismount, and had reached Takato, when he noticed uneasily that the screen of Takato's D-Arc had a flashing hazard sign…

Tai cautiously reached towards it, just to check on it, but it sparked, and Tai quickly retraced his hand.

That thing really is protective of Takato, Tai thought, looking at the Digivice.  But why Takato of all people?

"What is it, Takato?" Jeri asked, as she approached Takato, but a grunt from the boy made her stop.  "Is there another enemy nearby?"

"No," Takato said, weakly, sweat collecting on his brow.

His eyes were focused on something in the distance.

For the last few days, Takato had been seeing two worlds, one, the material world, the other, the spiritual.  Of course, his visions of the spiritual world were quickly slipping towards visions of the shadow world, and that was how he was able to see the darkness of the Wraithmons approaching.

He had seen the powers of the others too.  Jeri had a bright orange glow around her, Kazu a dull brown, Kenta a light pink, and Tai and Sora's auras were curiously suppressed, as though they didn't want people to realize their true power.

But another aura was approaching them.  Blazingly bright, and a beautiful blue, it was rapidly approaching, and it was like a beacon in the darkness.

"She's coming," Takato said quietly.  "She's…"

"Who?" Sora asked, puzzled.

"An angel…" Takato whispered before he drifted off again.

Tai picked Takato up and set him up so he was sitting with his back to a tree.

He looked in the direction Takato had been looking, and saw something coming.

For the last couple of days, the countryside had been full of forests, caves, plants and such, so it had been easy for them to hide, but the area they were now approaching was mostly empty, with just a few trees.  They would just have to make a straight out sprint from here on in.

Tai squinted and saw a shape now, a yellow Digimon with many tails…

Sora groaned.  "Not her, anyone but her."

Tai pulled a hand on Sora's shoulder.  "I know she's not the nicest person in this world, but, well, I actually can't think of anything to make this better," Tai said, rubbing his head embarrassedly.

Sora rolled her eyes.  "Oh thank you, glorious leader."  But she softened the remark with a fond smile at Tai.

"Well, who's coming, a friend of yours?" Kazu asked, trying to see better who was approaching.

"Takato said an angel was coming," Jeri said.  "Is that true?"

Tai snorted.  "I think Takato's really gone off the deep end now, if he called her an angel."

Takato barely managed to open his eyes, and saw the angel getting off the Digimon.  She wore a blue cloak, with the hood up, but she pulled it down, showing brilliant red hair up in a ninja-style ponytail, a fierce expression, and pointed ears.

She's beautiful, Takato thought.

"So, the mighty Digidestined are forced to ride horses, running away from the scary Wraithmon," she sneered, fire in her violet eyes.

Sora sighed.  "Hello Rika."

Tai and Sora quickly started to bow, but a quick glare made them pause.  "Don't do that," Rika said.  "And you can consider that an order if you want."

Tai and Sora shared a quick private look between them.  They loved annoying her.

"Who's this?" Kenta asked, staring.  He was a little be stunned by the beautiful rider, and by the pointed ears on her head.

"Eyes to yourself," Rika snapped at him, and looked around.  "Where's the Hazard Digivice?"

"The boy, Takato Matsuki, carries it," Tai, said indicating the ill boy.

Rika knelt down, and the fire in her eyes dimmed just a little, as she examined him.

"Looks like he's on the verge of dying, or worse," she said as she checked him for injuries.  "But it doesn't look like he was in any battles.  What hit him?"

"This," Tai said, producing the handle of the dagger that had stabbed Takato.  "They fought Piedmon, and we managed to drive him away, but he left this little present."

Rika continued to touch Takato gently, and quickly found the place where the dagger had pierced the skin.  The skin there was still red, and in the middle of the red was a small black spot.

Rika touched the wound, and closed her eyes, and concentrated, and Takato started breathing a little easier.

Rika stood up.  "I've managed to give him some of my power, but he's fading fast."

"There are a couple of Dark Towers back thataway," Tai said, jabbing a thumb behind them.  "They've been keeping us from digivolving and getting him to the valley faster."

Rika nodded.  The animosity between the three had temporarily given way to professionalism.  They were talking of war now.

"My Digivice works differently then yours," Rika said, holding up her blue D-Arc.  "Kyuubimon and I will take him to Rivendell."

"Can you handle him?" Tai asked.  "This is open country now.  You won't be able to hide anywhere when the Wraithmon catch up to you."

"I never hide," Rika said arrogantly, "and they'll never be able to catch us."

Tai nodded unhappily.  Rika did have a point.  But they wouldn't be able to keep up with Rika at full speed.  On the other hand, if she took Takato with her, then Jeri and the others should be out of danger since the Wraithmon were only pursuing Takato.

Rika moved towards Takato and pulled him up, and slung one of his arms over her shoulders, and they limped back towards Kyuubimon, who was silently waiting.

Takato eyes opened a bit, and he started murmuring.  "Rika… Nonaka…. Ru…ki…..Makino…. Digimon…Queen…"

Rika's eyes widened.  She turned her head towards Tai and Sora.  "Did you tell these bozos anything about me, like my last name?"

Tai and Sora stared at each other, puzzled, and shook their heads.

"No," Sora confirmed.  "Neither of your names, and we didn't even know you were coming till Takato stopped us and said you were coming."

Rika frowned, and looked a little closer at Takato's face.

Though it was pale and flushed, there was still the innocence of youth, along with a bit of handsomeness, and determination.

Rika blushed when she realized that his face was only a few inches from her own, but quickly turned away so the others wouldn't see it.

"What about Takato?" Jeri asked, or near demanded.  "What's going to happen to him?"

Tai shook his head resignedly.  "Rika is his best chance of getting to Rivendell before its too late.  With our powers sealed, Kyuubimon is the fastest of us, much faster than these horses."

"What about Guilmon?" Leomon asked as he gently set the dragon/dinosaur on the ground.

"Are you kidding, I don't think a jar of peanut butter would wake him up!" Kazu said.

Takato's head stirred, as Rika put him on Kyuubimon, and then got on in front of him.

"Guilmon," he whispered, and Guilmon's eyes snapped open as he suddenly sprang up.

Takato's hands moved, and he fished a card out of his pocket, and spoke in his weak voice, "Digi-modify, digivolution activate."

Guilmon roared as his form was wrapped in light, and then he exploded outward, as a bigger version of himself.

Jeri blinked.  "Guilmon still has enough strength to digivolve to Growlmon?"

Rika scowled at the demon dragon.  "If he thinks he's following us-"

"Do you want to say no to him?" Sora cut in, gesturing to the growling Champion Digimon.  "I think he wants to stay with Takato no matter what."

"And how hard do you think it'll be for those walking shadows to see a big red dinosaur?" Rika asked, waving at Growlmon.

"They can already sense Takato," Tai explained.  "Growlmon will just be extra protection for you while you run."

Rika didn't stop frowning, but she did let the subject drop.

As Kyuubimon turned towards Rivendell, Takato unconsciously wrapped his arms around Rika.  Whether this was for comfort, or maybe he just wanted to stay on, it still made Rika red as a tomato again.  She was just glad Tai and Sora couldn't see her, or she would never live it down.

This little boy is going to so get it, Rika thought, restraining the urge to punch the lights out of Takato.  Though he is cute, he is going to die if he ever mentions this.

"Let's go, Kyuubimon," Rika said, and then shouted behind to Growlmon "Just try to keep up you big lug!"

Growlmon, in feral mode, just nodded.

Rika, Takato, and Kyuubimon took off like a shot, and with much more stomping, and the ground shaking, so did Growlmon.

"I hope she makes it," Sora said.

"She has to, or Takato is lost," Tai said.

"I hope she saves Takato," Jeri said, staring after the rapidly disappearing forms of Kyuubimon and Growlmon.

***

The two Champion Digimon ran for many miles, crossing the land so fast that most things were just big blurs to the two riders.

That Digimon is faster than he looks, Rika thought, looking at Growlmon, who was still keeping pace with the more agile Kyuubimon.

"He is not what he appears to be," Kyuubimon said to Rika.

"What you mean?"

Kyuubimon stared at Growlmon's stomach.  "For one, he has the mark of the Hazard, so that makes him stronger than any normal Digimon.  How he got the Hazard, I have no idea, but also, I sense great power, and potential in him."

Rika frowned.  "And I wonder about this boy.  He seems so innocent and nice, but I can sense the darkness trying to corrupt him, but he's fighting much more than I ever expected any mere human could."

"You, calling a human nice?" Kyuubimon questioned, a smirk in her voice.  "Now I've heard everything."

"Can it," Rika said, feeling a blush on her face again.

There conversation was interrupted when there was en explosion from to the left of them.

Rika turned around and saw that there was quite a few Digimon chasing them now, many of them quite demonic in nature.  Musyamon, DarkTyrannomon, Devimon, and in the lead, an IceDevimon.

Rika sneered.  "If they think they've got a chance to catch us, then they'd better think again."

She pulled out her D-Arc, and one of her favorite cards, and shouted "Digi-modify!  Hyperspeed activate!"

Kyuubimon's legs accelerated as the card took effect, and she rushed forward, the fires on her feet leaving an impressive trail of sparks.

Behind her, Takato stirred.  "Growlmon…"

"What?" Rika looked back, and realized that the dino, though he was fast, couldn't keep up with Kyuubimon after that last card, and was falling behind.  The demon pack after them had made him their main target since they saw Rika was now out of reach.

Rika looked down at Takato.  She couldn't even tell if he was still conscious or not, as his eyes were still closed.

"We can't stop for him," she said, figuring that he was still listening at least, "getting you to Rivendell is top priority!"

"No," Takato said, and he looked up and Rika's retort froze in her throat when she saw the impassioned plea on Takato's face.

Rika, contrary to popular belief, wasn't heartless, and even she had a hard time trying to think up an answer with Takato's innocent eyes staring up at her, especially in such close proximity.

She tried, she really did, but finally she said "Kyuubimon, turn around, we're going back for Growlmon."

Kyuubimon's head jerked.  "What?"

Takato smiled up at her, and then his head fell forward again to rest on her cloak.

"Just do it," Rika ordered, and Kyuubimon complied, turning around in mid-jump, and running back the way they had come.

"No, stop," Takato whispered again, and Rika let out a yell of exasperation, and ordered, "Stop!"

Kyuubimon put on the brakes, and luckily, Rika had a firm grip on Kyuubimon, and Takato had a firm grip on Rika. ( ^-^)

Rika jumped off of Kyuubimon, and pulled Takato with her.

"Will you make up your mind, gogglehead?!" Rika shouted at the Tamer, and she stopped when she heard him chuckling.

"Sorry," he said weakly, and he pulled out his D-Arc again, and two cards.  One glowed, and quickly morphed into a Blue Card, much to Rika's surprise, and he slashed this one first.

Growlmon, who had been drowning under the mass number of Digimon, grew, and grew, until he was at the Ultimate level now, and with one Atomic Blaster decimated the pack that had been bothering him.

The second card Takato slashed made WarGrowlmon turn around and at superspeed go flying towards Takato and company.

Rika blinked.  "You managed to get him to digivolve to Ultimate just like that?"

But her question went unanswered as Takato had passed out again.

Rika sweatdropped.  "You have the worst timing, you know that, gogglehead?"  She shook her head in disbelief as she put Takato on Kyuubimon again.  "Then again, you're a goggleboy, and I'm surprised I can even stand your presence considering the other two ones."

WarGrowlmon had already caught up with them, so they once again took off at high speed, thank to the effect of the cards their respective Tamers had slashed.

"Uh, excuse me," WarGrowlmon asked, leaning over towards Kyuubimon.

Kyuubimon looked up at Wargrowlmon.  "Yes?"

"Do you have any peanut butter?"

Kyuubimon sweatdropped.  "You're thinking of peanut butter at a time like this?"

WarGrowlmon nodded.  "Yeah, peanut butter is good.  Don't you like peanut butter?"

Kyuubimon sweatdrop was getting bigger.  "Uh, no."

"Wow, really?  Well, how about bread?"

Kyuubimon sweatdrop was now gigantic.  "Why are talking to me?"

"Because you're pretty."

Kyuubimon blushed at that comment.  "Uh, thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Less jabbering, more running!" Rika snapped.

"Sorry," Kyuubimon apologized to Rika.

Rika's mood wasn't helped any by Takato chuckles from behind.

"Shut up gogglehead!" she shouted.  "You supposed to be mortally injured!"

That shut him up.

***

After the effects of the card had worn off, WarGrowlmon had still been able to easily keep up with Kyuubimon.

They were nearly to the valley of Rivendell, with the Elvish master Gennai reigned, when Rika started noticing that there were a lot of shadows around them.

Rika leaned down and whispered into Kyuubimon's ear, "When I say go, I want you to stop, attack those shadows around us, which should overshoot us, and then ram through them."

WarGrowlmon, who happened to have very good hearing, chose that moment to pick up Rika and Takato.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" Rika shouted indignantly.

"Kyuubimon can't attack as well with two passengers, right?" WarGrowlmon explained.

Rika blinked.  "You actually figured that out?  The bread-obsessed dinosaur?"

WarGrowlmon nodded proudly.  "Yeah, Takato taught me how to!"

Rika slapped herself.  The sooner she was away from these two, the better.

She saw Kyuubimon was still waiting for the signal, and then, when she saw that shadows were closing in on Kyuubimon, she shouted "Now!"

Kyuubimon stopped, and the shadows all were far in front of her before they could stop themselves, and she shouted "Fox Tail Inferno!"

The shades screamed as their mortal enemy fire burned them, and they quickly rose up, into the hulking physical forms of Wraithmon.

As the Wraithmon were still recovering, Kyuubimon leapt into the air, and started spinning.  "Dragon Wheel!" Kyuubimon drove right past the Wraithmon and quickly resumed her fast sprint to catch up with WarGrowlmon.

The Wraithmon, enraged, chased after them, but the high sun slowed them down so that they couldn't go at full speed.

Rika was glad to see that they were approaching a river, but was not glad when a swarm of bats flew over her, but before it could engulf the four, they were already across the river.

The bats gathered on the other bank away from Rika, and formed into a grinning Myotismon.

"Princess Rika, what a pleasure to see you again," he said, giving a mocking bow.  "And under such fortunate circumstances."

"More like unfortunate," Rika muttered under her breath, but shouted back "What makes you think you have the advantage?  This river is the border of the valley of Rivendell.  Take one step into it, and I promise you, you won't like the consequences."

Myotismon looked up at the shallow water of the river and snorted.  "I think I'll take my chances."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Rika said, and then started murmuring words in the Elvish tongue.

Myotismon and his Wraithmon troops had started forward across the river, when suddenly the water seemed to pick up.


"What is this, a trick?" he asked, as he stared at the slowly rising water.

Before he could do anything, from around the bend, a giant flood of water came crashing down, and slammed into the vampire lord and minions, and swept them away.

Rika smirked.  "See ya later chumps."

Her victory celebration was cut short when Takato jerked awake again, screaming.

"NO!" he shouted.  "IT'S MINE!  IT'S NOT YOUR ANYMORE!!  IT DOESN'T WANT TO BE YOURS ANYMORE!!  I DON'T WANT TO BE USED ANYMORE!!  NO!!!"

Rika frowned at the raving Takato.  "He's not going to last much longer.  We've got to him to Rivendell."

***

Takato Matsuki, for most of his 18 years of life, had just been a rather ordinary boy.  Well, aside from the lack of a Digimon of course.

Grow up, get toys, have birthday parties, eat, hug parents, get crushes, have best friends.

But in his  delirium, as he sank into the darkness,, memories emerged, memories that came from before his birth.  Of terror, chaos, pain, and then a human body.

Takato Matsuki cried out in pain as he sank deeper and deeper.

Until a light burst through the darkness, and an angel descended.

She now appeared as a Digimon wearing yellow armor, and long white hair, and welding a staff, with a fox head similar to her own armor.

She walked towards Takato, and stared at him for a moment.  Then she reached toward Takato's head, and snapped his goggles.

"Ow!" Takato winced, and his mindscape dissolved around him-

***

Takato's eyes opened, and he saw Rika leaning over him, face mere inches from his.

Takato yelped and in the automatic male reaction awkwardly crawled backwards.

A moment later, Rika sagged forward, but Kyuubimon caught her with her head.

"Are you okay?" Kyuubimon asked concernedly.

"Yeah, just a little drained.  I had to go directly into his mind and wake him up," Rika explained.  "But there is something strange about his soul.  As if it is not entirely… human."

Kyuubimon, if she had had eyebrows would've raised one.  "How so?"

"There is just something that is not… right for a mortal, or an immortal's soul."

"Have you ever gone that deeply into someone's soul?" Kyuubimon queried.

"No, not without their permission, or when they were unconscious, with all the barriers down.   But there are other things that just… off."

She looked at Takato.  He was on lying on the rocks of the river bank, face still pale, but his breathing was easier than it had been for a few days.

"We don't have time for these questions.  Come on; let's move on before any of those creeps swim back upstream."

End Part 1

So, that's part one of this fic.  I just got the idea for this thing, and my mind kept focusing on it, so I decided to type this up.  Anyway, please read and review, and tell me whether I have any discernable writing skills.

I'll get the next part out whenever my muse starts giving more ideas.  Also, my own personal muse hasn't taken a single form yet, so he/she/it can't appear.  I threw all the canon characters out after they wrecked my TV.