Digimon Slayers

by SilvorMoon

Part 7 up! Ruki and her friends want answers, and the mysterious priest Ryo seems to have them, but his motives are suspect. Throw in a slightly spacey sage, a desperate sorceress, and a mysterious program... Ruki can't back down now, can she?

4. The Temple and the Priest

The Temple and the Priest
By: SilvorMoon

It was a mercifully quiet morning. After the events of the last couple of nights, the entire group was feeling more inclined to relaxing than to fleeing for their lives, and after a brief consideration, Ruki had decided that they could spare an hour or so of tarrying before they had to set out again. After all, she reasoned, Yamaki wouldn't be keeping an eye on his soldiers every minute of every day; it would probably be a while before he realized that his mercenaries had betrayed him. What he would do then probably wouldn't be good, but it wasn't in Ruki's nature to sit around biting her nails over things that might or might not happen.

As things stood, the situation was actually a pleasant one. They had enjoyed a quick breakfast of bread and fruit from their communal stores, Antieramon supplementing his portion with greenery harvested from the riverbank. That was a bit of a relief; if he couldn't satisfy himself with what he could forage, feeding something as large has he was would have been a difficult chore. As it was, all they had to do was to persuade Guilmon that they really did need to make their supplies last for at least as long as it took them to get to the next town.

Now everyone was entertaining themselves in whatever ways suited them best, scattered in small groups around the camp site. Hirokazu and Jenrya had decided they liked each other, and were currently engaged in a round of friendly sparring. After much convincing, Renamon had finally agreed to retrieve Hirokazu's pack and weapons from the inn, and now the two young men were showing off their respective swordsmanship talents. Takato had watched just as long as it took to reassure himself that the fighting was going to stay friendly, but he need not have worried; Hirokazu was a good soldier, with a high level of respect for royal blood.

Now Takato was entertaining a few of the Digimon by doing tricks with a dagger, balancing it on his thumbnail, flipping it like a coin, catching it hilt-down to balance in the palm of his hand. He tossed an apple left over from breakfast into the air, then threw the dagger after it to spike it cleanly. Then he divided it into pieces, passing it around to his audience, much to their approval.

Off to one side, Guardromon, Antieramon, and Renamon were engaged in quiet conversation, getting to know each other better. They seemed to be getting along quite well. Guardromon respected Antieramon's steadfast loyalty to the prince; both of them admired Renamon for her wisdom and power. It was good to see them getting along; having the three most powerful Digimon in the group fighting with each other would have been a considerable problem.

At the very edge of their little campground, Ruki and Kenta were sitting quietly, talking magic. Ruki was no Healer and never would be, but her University training had at least given her a sound knowledge of the theory - indeed, better than Kenta himself had. Now she was busy instructing him, and was surprised to find she was enjoying it. Kenta was a good student: he listened with the utmost respect to whatever she told him, absorbing it all like a sponge soaking up water. He never tried to show off or argue with her (unlike many of her former classmates) and asked intelligent questions. Of course, he hadn't quite gotten the hang of putting it all into practice yet, but one couldn't have everything.

A swift move of Jenrya's sword disarmed Hirokazu, sending his own sword flying. It flipped over Takato's head, making him yelp and duck, before embedding itself in the soft earth beside the stream. Takato's dagger was not so lucky; it flew out of his hand and splashed into the water, partially burying itself in mud. Ruki looked up from her teaching in annoyance.

"Don't you musclebound clods go putting holes in each other," she warned. "I don't want you running to Kenta every time you get some little scratch or scrape."

"Why not?" asked Hirokazu. He'd already taken advantage of the Healer's considerable skills once that morning, having him magic away the last remaining traces of his hangover from the previous night. "He doesn't mind. He likes it."

"I really do, you know," said Kenta. "I like being useful."

"That doesn't matter," Ruki replied. "You can't just go throwing magic around like it's water. It's not something you can afford to waste, and it's not a toy."

"I know that," Kenta said, "but what's wrong with healing someone if they're hurt?"

"For one thing, it wastes energy. I don't want you spending all your power on little things just to have us meet an emergency later that you'll need all your strength for. For another thing, people build up resistance to Healing magic if you use it on them too often. Lastly, I want to be sure you know how to ward yourself before you start using your magic for anything."

"I'm trying to ward. I really am," he said. "It just keeps getting away from me."

Ruki sighed a little. "I know you are. You're in a strange situation. Most Healers don't have to worry about warding, but you're a lot more powerful than your average Healer. We've already seen you spend out more than you should for healing little things, and there are limits to how much magic a human body can take. You wouldn't want to accidentally fry somebody you were trying to heal, would you?"

His face, already pale to begin with, turned almost white. "That could happen?"

Ruki nodded solemnly. "I saw it, once. Some hotshot kid at my school trying to show off how powerful he was. He cut one of the lab animal's paws off and tried to fuse it back on again."

"What happened?" asked Hirokazu.

"The animal exploded," said Ruki, grimacing. "The student was expelled."

"That's awful," Kenta said, looking a bit sick.

"I don't believe it!" said Hirokazu. "All this time, I've been letting this guy do magic on me, and he could have killed me?"

"It was a possibility," Ruki replied with a shrug.

Takato shook his head. "I'm starting to think it would be safer to walk into a melee naked than to study magic."

"It's not that bad," said Jenrya. "Don't let her scare you; most people manage just fine. Magic takes self-control, that's all. It's only when you start cutting corners and taking chances that you get into trouble."

"That's why Ruki is safe," said Renamon wryly. "She is very serious about her work."

Ruki raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying I don't know how to have fun?"

"Not with magic," Renamon replied. She vanished, reappearing on a tree branch ten feet above where she had been. "Only those of us for whom magic is as natural as breathing can afford to play with it."

"And who is this 'we' you're talking about?" Ruki asked.

"Us," answered Renamon. "The Digimon. We are magical by nature; separate us from magic, and we are only animals."

"Hm," said Ruki. She had never really thought about them in that light before, but in a way, it made sense. It was the only way she could imagine for creatures like Marine Angemon to exist. She filed the information away for future reference, to be considered when she didn't have more vital things to think about.

"I don't mean to complain or anything," said Kenta, "but all this work is giving me a headache. Can we maybe do more of this later?"

"I guess," answered Ruki. She got stiffly to her feet; sitting in the meditation position for long periods of time put her legs to sleep. "We probably have been lying around long enough. Time to hit the road, gang."

"I was afraid you'd say that," said Takato, as he tried vainly to get the mud off his blade.

"All right!" Hirokazu cheered. "Finally, we get to do something!"

"Yeah, run away some more," said Jenrya realistically. "Where are we going, anyway? Do we even know?"

"No idea," Ruki admitted. "I told Takato I was on my way to New City, but that was just to convince him to go away..."

"Hey!" said Takato indignantly.

"...but I really don't have a fixed destination anymore," Ruki continued, as if she hadn't heard him. "I'm open to suggestions, though."

"Good, because I have one," Jenrya replied. "Why don't we go to my hometown, in Mainboard City?"

"Any special reason why we should?" she asked.

"A few. For one thing, I have a little influence there, in case you've forgotten. We can get help and protection there."

"For another thing," Hirokazu chimed in, "Yamaki's got his home in New City. I don't really think you want to go there."

"Good point," said Ruki with a grimace. "Okay, then, Mainboard it is... and let's hope we can get there in one piece."

"We will," said Takato. "What else can happen?"

Ruki sighed. "I wish you hadn't said that."

~*~

Ruki walked slowly near the end of the procession. Jenrya was in the lead today, guiding them through the forest in the direction of his home city, leaving her to ponder her situation without the extra burdens of leadership. She was perfectly pleased to let the situation stay that way for as long as possible. She'd never wanted to be the leader of anything, whereas Jenrya had been born to it. Now she was free to do some serious thinking.

In her hands, she carried the box the Arks had come in. She studied them thoughtfully. Most of the slots were empty now; the loss of the "Healer" and the "Friend" Arks had put a noticeable gap in the collection. Now only three were left: the pink one labeled "princess", a purple one labeled "guardian," and an orange one labeled "priest." She wondered what would happen when she found the people who carried them. Presumably, they too would find their partner Digimon, and would then join their little roving band. Then what? Was she just expected to spend the rest of her life walking around with a strange assortment of humans and Digimon? She thought she was bearing up fairly well under the circumstances, but she wasn't prepared to put up with this kind of thing indefinitely.

Maybe it would help if she just got rid of the box? She had the sneaky feeling she was being used as a carrier for the thing, to help these strange, semi-aware objects find the owners they were drawn to. Maybe she could avoid the problem if she just chucked the whole thing in a ditch somewhere... but deep down, she knew she couldn't do that. She was too much of a sorceress to just throw away powerful and potentially dangerous magical objects, no matter how much inconvenience it might cause her to keep them. Like it or not, she was stuck obeying this geas, whatever it might bring her to.

Then there was another thing nagging her: the mysterious empty slot, the one marked with the sign of tricks and deceptions. Why was it empty? Had someone gotten to it before she had? Or was it, as she had considered before, simply a red herring to make her go looking for something that didn't exist? If so, why go through the trouble of luring her onto a false trail? Wouldn't that be counterproductive to helping her find the other devices' owners? Or was someone trying to stop her? If so, why? None of the questions had immediately available answers, and pondering them only made her feel frustrated. Getting frustrated made her want to blow something to bits, which, she had to remind herself firmly, would be a bad idea for someone who was supposed to be keeping a low profile.

"The last thing I need," she muttered, "is to pick up another one of these weirdos."

Just as she spoke, there was a rushing noise. Something very large and dark flashed over their heads, moving so fast as to be visible only as a vague shadow. For a moment, it blotted out the sun, and then vanished just as quickly.

"I think," said Renamon quietly, "it's already too late for that."

Ruki sighed. "Great. More fun."

"Your friend there is very perceptive," said a voice above their heads.

Everyone looked up. Perched proudly in the branches of a tall tree was a young man of indefinite age. He was dressed in long robes and carried the staff of a priest, but if hadn't been for that, Ruki would have sworn he was a young warrior - perhaps even a nobleman. He was still young and strong, even handsome, with suntanned skin and clear blue eyes that were a far cry from the serious, ancient faces of priests she had known in her time. He grinned at them, showing off even white teeth, but there was something about his expression that inspired the opposite of attraction - more a feeling that she ought to be watching her back. Before anyone could say anything, he leaped down from his perch and bowed politely to all of them.

"Greetings," he said pleasantly. "Pardon me for startling you, but I couldn't help notice that there was an unusual adventuring party in the forest, and I thought I would come and perhaps offer my services."

"Who are you?" asked Takato. He sounded as suspicious as Ruki felt.

The newcomer shrugged. "I go by a few different names." With a knowing smile, he added, "A lot of people just save themselves trouble and call me 'the mysterious priest'."

"That's what I thought," said Ruki, sounding disgruntled. She glared at the sky in general, then stepped over to him and whispered, "Ryo, can I talk to you offstage for a second?"

He scowled and whispered back, "We're in the middle of a scene. Can't it wait? I'm supposed to be doing my grand entrance now."

"Now, Ryo."

Ryo sighed and followed Ruki a short distance away.

"All right, what do you want to complain about this time?" he asked.

"This," said Ruki. She hauled out a thick sheaf of papers labeled Digimon Slayers: By SilvorMoon. "Look. We're doing the first season of The Slayers, okay? Xellos doesn't even show up until Slayers Next. You're in the wrong season."

"I've got news for you," Ryo replied. "The author likes Xellos, so she put me in, anyway. Looks like you're stuck with me. Besides, have you looked at the rest of this chapter?"

Ruki made a face. "I didn't think it was fair to read ahead."

"Well, go on, look."

She flipped through a few pages of the story. Then she sighed.

"So much for continuity," she muttered. "Oh, all right... but if you try any of that sore wa himitsu stuff, you're going to get a knuckle sandwich." After a moment of consideration, she added, "And don't you dare try to kiss me!"

"Wouldn't dream of it," he answered, giving her his most angelic smile. She glowered at him and went stomping back to the rest of the cast, who were loitering around drinking coffee.

"All right," Ruki said, "the self-referential bit is over. Back to work. Where were we?"

"Mysterious priest," Jenrya prompted.

"Oh, right," said Ruki.

Ryo cleared his throat, then continued. "If it makes you more comfortable, you can call me Ryo."

"All right," Ruki replied. "What made you decide you needed to help us? Just feeling generous this morning, or what?"

"I'm helpful by nature," Ryo replied. "Also, I have information that only I can tell you - information you might find interesting."

Ruki's eyes narrowed. "Like what?"

"How about the location of the missing Ark?"

There was a momentary pause, as Ruki pondered that question. Finally, she said, "You know where it is?"

"Naturally," he replied.

"Well, where is it?" asked Takato.

"Not so fast," said Ruki. "Listen, Ryo, or whatever your name is, I know your type. You're not the kind who goes around handing out free information. What's the catch here?"

Ryo spread his hands, making Ruki think of streetside entertainers insisting they had nothing up their sleeves. "What can't I just want to do you a favor?"

"That's a possibility," she said, "but not a likely one."

"Then maybe I'm just bored. It's been a long time since I've seen such an interesting group as you all. You might be some entertainment for me."

"That sounds more likely," Ruki said with a sigh. "I just knew we were going to end up as a traveling circus. All right, then, tell us your information."

Ryo grinned again. "All right, I will. If you were to alter your course a few degrees to the northeast and travel approximately five miles in that direction, you will find yourself coming to the ruins of one of the Old Cities. At the center of this city stands an ancient temple. My advice to you is to have a look inside it. You will find things of interest there."

Ruki narrowed her eyes. "You're sure this is the truth?"

"Every word I've said is true," said Ryo. He made a gesture with his staff and his free hand, one Ruki recognized as being powerfully symbolic among magicians and priests. It was still possible he was lying, but she doubted anyone who wasn't demon-bound would dare violate that sign, and she didn't think anyone who was trafficking in demons would dare call himself a priest.

"Interesting," said Ruki flatly. "Is that all you wanted to tell us?"

"I think so."

"Good. Now, go away."

The priest laughed. "I'm hurt. I had heard you were disagreeable, but I thought you would have at least some appreciation for someone trying to help you... Looks like I was wrong. Oh, well. Have fun with your adventures. I'll be watching you."

He turned and seemed to vanish into the trees, long before the shadows of the forest should have hidden him. Ruki scowled.

"I'm not sure I believed a word of that," said Hirokazu.

"I'm not sure what to think of it," said Jenrya. "I don't think he was lying, exactly, but I'd bet my whole inheritance he wasn't telling the whole truth."

"So, what do we do about it?" said Takato. "I vote we keep going the way we were. Whatever that guy wants us to walk into, it probably isn't good. Odds are the 'interesting things' he's talking about were a bunch of monsters ready to take us apart."

"But he said he was talking about where the missing Ark was," Hirokazu said.

"He sort of said that," said Kenta thoughtfully. "Not exactly, though."

Jenrya stared upwards, as if he could read a map in the clouds. "Hm. Mainboard is almost due north from here. Veering five miles off course won't hurt us much... if that's where we want to go."

"Hm," said Ruki, frowning again. "Well... if it comes to that, we do have enough firepower to protect ourselves... and someone who can put us back together if something happens to us... I guess it couldn't hurt to go look," she decided. "After all, I'm a tomb-raider by profession, anyway. I have experience at this kind of thing."

"Cool," said Hirokazu. "We're going, then?"

"Looks like it," Takato replied. "But it had better be worth it!"

Peering down at Takato from a perch in a tall tree, the mysterious priest smiled.

"Oh, it will be worth it," he said. His grin widened. "To me, anyway."

~*~

Despite not trusting their strange advisor, the traveling party found the journey to the temple to be fairly easy. A short search revealed a track running through the woods, which still had evidence of once being a handsome thoroughfare, and it was still traversable as long as the people walking on it were careful not to turn their ankles on a stray rock. When they had walked a short distance and were neither jumped at by monsters, nor did they fall down any traps, they all began to relax a bit.

At the moment, Hirokazu was actually singing. He didn't have a great voice, but it didn't hurt anyone's ears, either, so they let him get on with it. The song he sang was a typical example of a mercenary's choice of music, having pleasantly off-color lyrics and seemingly endless verses, meant for passing the time on long, dull marches and passing lonely nights. Ruki and Takato both knew it, or versions of it; it had been around since time out of mind, passed among soldiers and vagabonds for centuries, and they had been hearing it all their lives. Sometimes they would chime in if they came to a part they liked, and everyone was mildly surprised to hear that Ruki did have a pleasant singing voice. Jenrya, growing up in a noble family, had never been exposed to anything like the song before, and he kept silent and tried to pretend he wasn't interested. Terriermon snickered openly at some of the more bawdy verses, making Guilmon and Culumon ask what was so funny. Kenta, proper till the end, tried his hardest to pretend he wasn't hearing any of it, and blushed until he was pinker than Marine Angemon.

"Come on, chum!" said Hirokazu. "Lighten up! It isn't like you've never heard it all before. Besides, everybody else likes it. Don't you?"

"I've heard music in better taste," said Renamon levelly. "Then again, Digimon such as myself hardly understand this human preoccupation with the opposite sex."

"Aren't there any other Renamons?" Takato wondered.

"No," she answered. "Renamon is the name for me: it is what I am. You might as well ask if there are other Takatos or Rukis." She paused a moment. "Though that is not true for all Digimon. It is a complicated matter. Some of us are just... singular."

"Probably because they're magical, and not natural," Jenrya murmured.

"I'm going to ask more questions about that when I have more time to worry about it," said Ruki. "In the meantime... Hirokazu, don't pick on Kenta. He can't help it. Healers are notoriously unworldly."

"You mean they don't know how to have any fun," Hirokazu grumped.

"It's just one of those things," said Ruki with a shrug. "You'd think as much as they're concerned with the workings of the human body, they wouldn't have a problem with the idea of sex, but..."

Kenta blushed even redder than before. "Can we please talk about something else?"

"Okay," said Guilmon. "How about we talk about them? They look interesting."

Everyone looked up; they had gotten so interested in the conversation that they had ceased to watch the road ahead. Now they could see that coming up the road behind them were a pair of young humans. One appeared to be female, the other male, and that was as many differences as there seemed to be. Both had round faces, slightly untidy brown hair, and wide brown eyes, and both were dressed in identical costumes, the loose-fitting and sensible garb that marked them as travelers, possibly warriors. They seemed young, certainly younger than the rest of the band, and didn't appear to be heavily armed, or armed at all - the closest thing Ruki saw was a staff the male was using for a walking stick - but that didn't mean anything. Ruki decided to be on guard.

"Hey, you two!" she called. "Where are you off to?"

The twosome paused. Until Ruki had bespoken them, they appeared to have been involved in a whispered conversation of their own, and had been caught unawares. Now they stared at the traveling party with identical suspicious looks.

"Where are you going?" the girl demanded.

Jenrya crossed his arms and fixed them with a warning look. After all, he knew he deserved to be treated with good manners.

"We asked you first," he said. "Courtesy dictates that you answer first."

The boy nudged the girl with his elbow. "Don't tell them anything."

"We're just traveling," said the girl. "We don't have anything to do with you."

"We won't know that until you tell us where you're going," Ruki pointed out. "It's not like there's a whole lot at the end of this road. We might be going the same way."

"I don't think so," said the girl. "The only thing at the end of the road is-"

"Psst!" the boy hissed at her.

She shut her mouth, aware that she had almost revealed her purpose. The pair held another whispered discussion, making frequent and suspicious glances at the traveling party. At last, the girl, who appeared to be the speaker for the pair, stepped forward.

"You've got Digimon with you," she accused. "Nobody who travels with Digimon can be any good."

At that disparaging remark, Guardromon took a few steps forward, apparently intent on settling this slur against his partner's honor, but a few of the others stepped in front of him before he could get moving. He looked disgruntled, but even he didn't care to argue with Antieramon.

"You've got us wrong," said Ruki. "We're not - well, some of us aren't outlaws, anyway. Look, about the Digimon, they're not what you think. These are - are tame Digimon. Well, not that either, really, because they're not like animals..." She fumbled for an explanation. How exactly did you explain what these creatures were, anyway? "They're our friends."

The pair looked skeptical.

"Humans don't make friends with Digimon," said the boy at length.

"We do," said Takato stubbornly. "We owe our lives to these Digimon, and them to us. We'd be dead by now without them. I know it sounds weird, but not all Digimon are bad. In fact, most of the ones I've met have been pretty nice, once you get to know them... except maybe Terriermon," he added, shooting a teasing look at the little Digimon, who made a face at him. Guilmon and Culumon giggled.

The strangers stared, their faces showing disbelief, and Ruki found herself feeling equally surprised. It was one thing to just tell people that these Digimon were intelligent friend, and not just tamed animals or monsters. It was another thing entirely to show them. You couldn't tease and banter with a captive animal. Had Takato been thinking about that when he'd made that comment, or had he just been playing as usual? It was hard to tell.

"What kind of people are you to be taming Digimon?" asked the girl.

"I'm glad you asked," said Ruki. "I happen to be Ruki Makino, legendary Cardmage. This is the displaced Crown Prince Jenrya. Also, Takato Matsuda and Hirokazu Shiota, two mercenary soldiers of considerable talent, and Kenta Kitagawa, possibly the most powerful Healer on the continent. The Digimon are called Renamon, Terriermon, Guilmon, Guardromon, Marine Angemon, Antieramon, and Culumon. Happy now?"

"Are you sure you should have told them all that?" Jenrya whispered to her.

"Why not?" she asked. "It's obvious they don't believe me; now they'll think we're anyone but who we are."

It was true; both of the young wanderers were frowning as if not quite sure they weren't dealing with lunatics.

"Oh," said the girl. "Well, my name's Ai. This is my brother Makoto. He's the youngest."

"I am not! I'm the same age as you!"

"You are not! I'm a whole ten minutes older!"

"So what? Ten minutes is nothing - I'm still the same age as you!"

"Yeah, only younger! And you're a boy - I'm still more mature than you!"

"You are not!"

"I am so!"

The adventurers stared at each other as their new acquaintances worked themselves into a furious shouting match. Ruki rolled her eyes. So much for these two being dangerous! If these two were genuine warriors, then she was a Seadramon! More likely they were just a couple of village children out on a lark, pretending to be treasure-hunters or something. If they had been carrying on like this anywhere something really dangerous was lurking, they would have both been food for the nearest monster before they had known what had come upon them.

"Okay, you two, break it up!" she ordered. She grabbed the girl by the shoulders, and Takato seized the boy, separating them. "I've been in enough fights this week without watching you two scream at each other, too."

"She - he - started it!" shouted both children in unison.

Ruki looked at them both seriously. She guessed they were about five years her junior, making them not much more than eleven or twelve - an immature eleven or twelve, she thought. Probably they'd spent their whole lives having people tell them how cute they were, being twins. Probably they were both spoiled from the cradle. Ruki sighed. If there was one thing that annoyed her, it was spoiled small children. She neatly ignored the fact that she had grown up in a privileged household and had usually gotten everything she wanted herself - and indeed, still did.

"Look," she said. "I don't care if you started it or you started it or Culumon over there started it, I want you both to cut it out!"

The children looked sulky, but nodded.

"That's better," she said. "Now. Tell me where you're going, and be honest about it. I have ways of knowing if you're lying, and if you're running away from home or something stupid like that..."

"We're not running away," said the boy, still sounding sulky. "We're going to look for treasure!"

Ai glared at him. "Now you've done it! You went and told them!"

"Well, she's a sorceress! She would have known if I lied!"

"She's no sorceress! She's just some redheaded girl pretending!"

"But, Ai, the Digimon...!"

"All right, that does it!" Ruki snapped. "You both are going to shut up, right now!"

As she spoke, she flourished a card, and there was a warping in the air as of rising heat. A stand of nearby trees suddenly went up in a flare of white-heat. In the time it took to blink, there was nothing left of them but a heap of chalky ashes with a few blackened stumps poking through them. Ai and Makoto stared.

"Now, you were saying?" said Ruki casually.

The youngsters were still too stunned to speak. Ruki was used to the reaction: they were both thinking how easily they could have ended up as ashes.

"Um, maybe you shouldn't have done that?" said Kenta hesitantly. "I mean, someone out there might have noticed that... You know, like what you told me about magic-tracing..."

Ruki flushed. "Oops. Sorry. Lost my temper."

"What's the problem?" asked Hirokazu. "We're out in the middle of nowhere. Who could have seen us?"

"I think what he's saying is that someone could have noticed that flare through magical means," said Jenrya thoughtfully. "Most mages can - can - well it's not really feeling, but they can detect when another mage is doing magic, and tell one person's power from another. A really powerful one can detect a spell miles away. And the mage who's currently the best at that kind of thing is..."

"Never mind; you don't need to tell me!" Hirokazu said. "Man! What'd you do a stupid thing like that for, Ruki?"

"I told you, I lost my temper," she said, sounding very sulky. "I didn't mean to do a spell - it just got away from me. I'm not used to having to worry about people tracking me."

"Anyway, we don't have the leisure to stand around and worry about it," said Jenrya. "Maybe we were spotted and maybe we weren't. If we were, we had better get out of here before something nasty shows up to bother us."

"You'd better get out of here, too," said Takato to the twins. "If... the people who are after us show up, we don't want you involved."

The twins considered this a moment, looking unconvinced.

"Where are you going?" asked Ai at last.

"Well," said Takato, "we were going to Mainboard City, but then there was this strange priest, and he told us there was temple near here that we should look in, so-"

"I knew it!" said Makoto triumphantly. "You're out to steal our treasure!"

"Your treasure? What treasure?" asked Ruki.

"The thing we found," said Ai. "A little mechanical thing. We found it and hid it, and we were going back to the temple to get it. You can't have it! We found it first, and it's ours!"

"You found a little mechanical thing?" Ruki repeated sharply. "Listen, kids - that thing you found - it might be dangerous, for all you know. You ought to let us see it and make sure."

"You're not stealing it from us!" said Makoto stubbornly. "We - we'll fight you for it, even if you are a sorceress!"

Takato laughed, a little nervously. "I wouldn't talk like that, if I were you. I've seen what she can do when she gets mad, and it makes that little fireball she threw look like nothing."

"How are you going to fight her?" asked Hirokazu. "You don't even have weapons!"

"Oh, yeah?" asked the boy.

He hefted his staff, gripping it in a way that said he meant business, shifting his feet to a defensive position. Next to him, his sister slid into place to guard his back, and slipped a fan from where it hung on her belt. Ruki had taken it to be simply an ornament, but now she saw that the lovely fan was actually ribbed with metal, razor-sharp. It looked like it would be effective as both a shield and a weapon. Well, label her surprised and ship her to Server - the sprats knew how to fight, after all!

"Okay, kids, let's not get carried away here..." she said, trying to sound soothing. It wasn't something she was very good at, and the twins didn't seem to be buying it.

"You might be a sorceress," said Ai, "but this steel is spell-treated to resist magic! We'll see how well you fight without your spells!"

Ruki grimaced. She had been hoping that if they persisted in wanting to fight, she could use a spell to put them to sleep or temporarily stun them, but that wasn't likely if the girl could reflect anything she or her friends threw at them. If they tried it, it was possible the spell would bounce back at them and put them in even worse shape than they were now. That would mean a direct physical confrontation, which she didn't like any better - it would take too long, and she didn't want to hurt these kids, no matter how annoying they were...

"You have an unfair advantage!" Guardromon protested. "There are two of you, and only one of Ruki! One of you must step down from the fight!"

"Well, she's older than us, and a sorceress," said Ai stubbornly. "She can do it on her own. We don't want any of you helping her!"

"This is getting ridiculous," said Ruki. "Look, kids, I am not..."

"Excuse me," Renamon interrupted smoothly, "but it occurs to me that if this is to be a battle for the mechanical object, then only the object's owner should compete for it. Which of you two found it first?"

"I did!" said Makoto.

"You did not! I did!" answered his sister, right on cue.

"I was the one who picked it up!"

"Well, I saw it first!"

"I was the one who found the hiding place!"

"I put it there!"

Ruki watched, bemused, as the twosome forgot all about fighting her and began quarreling with each other instead.

"Come on, let's get out of here," she said.

The group hurried up the path with all the speed they could manage. Even the sounds of their footfalls could not drown out the sounds of two shouting youngsters until they'd put a good distance behind them.

"That was pretty fast thinking," said Ruki to Renamon.

"Merely an application of my observations," Renamon answered modestly. "Besides noting their siblings' tendency to bicker, I've yet to meet a human who wasn't motivated to some degree or other by desire for material things. If they both desire the same object and are forced to choose one owner for it, of course they will argue."

"I don't think greed is what's driving them," said Ruki, "but whatever your reasoning, it worked... so thanks."

"Any time."

Moving swiftly up the path, they eventually began to see signs that the temple they'd been hearing about really existed. The path was now lined with columns and arches, some broken like fallen trees, but just as many still upstanding. Antieramon had to duck from time to time as they walked beneath the arches - obviously they had been made with humans and not Digimon in mind. Ruki was intrigued to note that the closer they came to the temple, the more complete the structures seemed to be, as if there was some force protecting the place from the ravages of time. Ruki didn't consider herself a deeply religious character - she was sorceress enough to know not to get on the bad sides of supernatural entities, but she didn't care to have more to do with them than was necessary. Nevertheless, this place was remarkably well-preserved, so something must have been protecting it... Looking around, she saw signs of repair - places where stones had fallen and been pinned back in place with bits of metal or mud-mortar. Spirits didn't do that! A lone acolyte still defending his faith, then? Or something more?

"Watch yourselves," she said. "We may not be alone."

She pointed out the signs she had noticed, and the other young warriors agreed that she was probably right. There was a slight reshuffling of the group, as the most dangerous fighters slipped to the outside of the ring, while those less able to defend themselves (Kenta and Culumon in particular) moved towards the center of the group. All of them looked nervously around for whoever or whatever might be lurking around... but nothing appeared.

"Maybe it's not here anymore?" Takato suggested, looking around at the harmless scenery. All he could see right now was the path, with its decorative border of arches and columns, and the trees beyond. With the sun beaming down on the white stone, it looked rather pretty and not particularly threatening.

Guilmon sniffed at the air. "Somebody's here. I smell a Digimon!"

"What kind?" asked Jenrya.

Guilmon sniffed again. "Can't tell."

"Well, that's a big help," said Hirokazu. "How many are there? Just one?"

Guilmon nodded agreeably.

"Well, that's all right, then," Hirokazu replied. "All of us together ought to be able to handle one Digimon."

"Provided it's not a really powerful Digimon," said Ruki. "Supposing we meet a fully-grown one, like Marine Angemon only nastier? We might be in trouble then."

"Aw, we can handle it," said Hirokazu. "We're like a small army!"

Ruki snorted, but didn't offer any opinions. She would prefer that he was right, but...

They came to the end of the path and stopped. They were looking down a staircase leading into a steep-sided valley, and in the center of the valley was the temple. The structure was worth stopping to stare at; such places always had a certain presence about them, a lingering spiritual energy built up by years of devout worship. Even now that it was empty - nearly empty, Ruki reminded herself - the place still had a certain nobility about it.

However, they didn't have long to admire it. While they were still taking in the sight of the temple - and the staircase they would have to descend to reach it - they heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Instantly, Hirokazu, who had been acting as rear guard, sprang into defense position... but it was only Ai and Makoto.

"You tricked us!" the girl accused.

"Yeah, so?" Ruki replied. "You weren't going to let it drop any other way, and I really didn't feel like hanging around to fight you."

"Well, we're not letting you into our temple," said Makoto stubbornly. "It's our treasure and you can't steal it!"

"We're not going to steal it," said Jenrya placatingly. "We just want to look at it, all right?"

The pair considered.

"Are you sure?" asked Ai.

"Positive," Ruki replied. It almost didn't qualify as a lie; she really did want a look at this mysterious device. Of course, if it turned out to be what she was looking for, then maybe the bargain would be reconsidered...

"Okay, then," said the girl sulkily. "But we've got to come with you. There's traps in the temple. You'll need us to show you the way."

Ruki privately thought that she had been raiding ancient cities and abandoned temples for long enough that she could spot any trap a couple of contentious children could, but she didn't say that out loud.

"Anything to keep you two off our case," she said. "Lead the way."

Still not entirely happy, the twins began hiking down the long staircase. It was not a particularly easy journey; the old steps were crumbling, and each step had to be taken carefully to avoid dislodging a loose brick and taking a tumble. Guardromon took one look at the situation and abandoned it as hopeless, choosing instead to fire off a pair of booster-rockets and fly down the slope. Antieramon chose to skid down the grassy slope rather than try to edge down sideways on a staircase that hadn't been designed for large rabbit feet. The rest of the group scrambled down the stairs with varying degrees of grace, finally landing safely at the bottom.

The view from the bottom of the steps was not an improvement on the one from the top. It was past noon, now, and the light at the bottom of the crater-valley was diminishing rapidly. Furthermore, what could be imagined from a distance to be a complete building could now be seen as it was: a cracking and dilapidated structure, becoming slowly overgrown by climbing vines, though there were signs that someone had been doing their best to keep the weeds under control. The door of the temple had fallen away, its hinges rusted to dust long ago, leaving behind nothing more than brown stains against the white stone. It was eerily silent; even the wind had trouble reaching into this deep hollow.

"Are we sure we want to go in there?" asked Kenta nervously. "Maybe some of us should wait outside, just in case we need a - a rescue or something."

"We aren't going to need a rescue," said Jenrya. "You're traveling with magicians - you are a magician. If there's anything dangerous in there, we'd know about it."

"We'd know about it," said Makoto. "We've been in there lots of times, and there's nothing-"

"Izzat so?"

Everyone jumped. A voice had rung out, seemingly from nowhere, echoing off of stone walls and bouncing back from all directions. The group drew closer together instinctively, looking for the speaker.

"Yeah, that's right, be afraid," said the voice. It was rough and rasping, not the voice of something pleasant. "You guys are trespassin' on my property. If ya knew what was good for ya, you'd make tracks in the other direction before I get ticked."

"Who are you?" Ruki shouted. "Show yourself!"

No one showed. Everyone looked around, peering into the shadows and the cracks between stones and fallen walls, until...

"Look there!" said Renamon.

They looked. Against the side of the valley wall was a large, dark shadow. It was distorted and vague, but they could make out the shape of a vaguely humanoid thing with horns and claws and a long tail.

"What the hay is that?" Takato exclaimed.

"I don't know," said Ai in a small voice. "I never saw that here before!"

"I'm the guardian of this temple!" the voice said. "Nobody gets in here without my permission, and I don't give permission. If ya have any sense, you'll all get outta here before I get mad!"

Ruki frowned, trying to make out the nature of the thing that addressed her. Wherever it was, it was well-hidden, at least to the human eye. She switched her attention to her magic-sense, trying to find the being's magical aura, and was dismayed to find herself balked. There was a wash of magical and spiritual energy all over this temple, and her limited sighting abilities couldn't penetrate it. Of course, if that was the case, it meant that Yamaki probably couldn't see through it, either, which was nice to know, but didn't solve the problem at hand.

"There's a Digimon up there," Guilmon said, breaking into her thoughts. He sneezed. "Doesn't smell good."

"A Digimon," she repeated. "Well, at least it's not a demon..."

"Who you callin' a demon? Who'dyou think I am, Chaos Dragon Garv?" the voice shouted.

"Ha, ha, really cute," she muttered. "Listen, guardian - we're coming in whether you like it or not!" She beckoned to the others. "Come on."

Takato looked nervous. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Of course. If that thing were going to hurt us, it would have done it by now."

She began walking forward. As she suspected, nothing attacked her. Of course the creature had been bluffing!

Then she stepped through the door of the temple, and a large chunk of the ceiling fell in. Only Renamon's lightning fast reflexes saved her from being crushed. Her only knowledge of the event was a rumbling noise, an impact at her side, and then she was lying on the hard earth looking at a pile of rubble.

"You were saying?" said Renamon.

Ruki grimaced.

"I move," said Jenrya, "that we back up and try this again."

Ruki stared at the fallen stones. She was definitely letting herself get overconfident!

"I think you're right," she said.

~*~

Yamaki was bored. After years of scouring old tomes, translating ancient documents, searching abandoned and half-forgotten temples, he had finally learned the key to curing his ailment. Now any other work was superfluous; he could do nothing until he had the Culumon creature in his hands. It left him with a decided gap in his schedule.

Briefly, it crossed his mind that he ought to find Reika and ask her to help him pass the time. He knew she would, no matter how he decided he wanted to spend the time. She was worried about him working so hard, and would be happy to see that he was finally taking some time off. His mind knew it, and the part of him that loved her and wanted her to be happy was telling him it was the right idea, but something else balked him. Her worrying had begun to vex him lately - not because he minded her trying to care for him, but because he had started to sense something else underlying that worry. Though she didn't say it in so many words, he had the impression that she didn't want him to complete his mission, that in fact, she wanted for everything to stay just as it was. That bothered him. How dare she stand between him and the thing he wanted most? It made him angry, and with the anger came a sense of unease. He needed this spell completed, and the idea that he might eventually have to fight her to make it happen unsettled him.

*And if it doesn't work, after all this?*

He sighed; that thought had been preying on his mind, too. He couldn't imagine any route to healing that was more extreme than this one. The formula for the spell he'd written out was incredibly complicated, as potent a piece of magic as anyone had ever done. If it went wrong, there was a chance it might kill him. Not a great chance, he thought - he had done spells like it before and survived with nothing worse than a few days' tiredness - but the chance was still there. Even if it didn't kill him, simple failure was a prospect almost as bad.

*If this doesn't work, I will admit defeat,* he told himself. *That would be proof enough that whatever is wrong with me has no cure. If it doesn't work, I'll just give it all up. All of it. There is no more point in being a sorcerer if my life's work amounts to nothing...*

He shook his head, dispelling those thoughts. Now he was beginning even to depress himself.

*Let me just say I want this all over with, and leave it at that.*

Back to the problem at hand: he couldn't finish without the Digimon. Where were his bounty hunters? They should have had plenty of time to catch up to the sorceress and her companions by now! Surely they would have something to report by this point, even if it was only that they had tried and failed... unless they had been killed, which was a distinct possibility. After hearing what that Ruki had done to his Digimon warriors, he didn't doubt she could obliterate a simple swordsman quickly enough if she was pressed. Perhaps he ought to check up on them all.

One thing that could be said for perpetual blindness: it made magic-sight almost ridiculously easy. With only a flicker of thought, he sent his consciousness out beyond his mundane study and into the world, homing in on the last known location of his two bounty hunters. From there, it would be easy enough to track them. He had noticed from the moment they had met that the young Healer the swordsman traveled with was phenomenally powerful but badly warded, his magical aura standing out so vividly around him that his own personal life- energies nearly disappeared from sight; from a distance, he would glow like a lighthouse. Without warding, he was liable to leave a trail of residual energy that would last for days. It was that trail Yamaki homed in on.

For the first few miles, things went about the way Yamaki had expected they would: the twosome (one could assume the Healer wouldn't go far from his partner) had traveled swiftly overland and eventually caught up with Ruki's traveling party. There were signs that magics of one sort and another had been used - fragments of battle spells, dispelled illusions, and Healings - that would indicate a battle. Apparently it was indecisive, because the trail then doubled back to a cluster of life-energies that meant a town. Then, oddly enough, the Healer went back to the site of the original battle, then left again. Then there were traces of some weird magic unlike anything Yamaki had ever seen before, and it concerned him. By now, he'd thought he knew just about everything there was to know about magic, and seeing anything new disturbed him. After that point, the Healer had returned to the battleground for the third time and stayed there. Then the trail became much dimmer; Yamaki surmised that either his enemies had wounded him so grievously that he had used up most of his power staying alive, he had changed sides, or he had finally started warding himself. Or any combination of the three.

Beyond that point, the trail of the Healer became more difficult to follow, but that hardly mattered, because he was now traveling with Ruki and that traitor Jenrya, and the combined forces of three such powerful magic-users was easy enough to follow, wards or no. The trail moved along, about the distance a slow-moving party could travel in a day. At one point, their path crossed that of another mage, a strong one, one whose magic bore a strange resemblance to the unknown force the Healer had encountered, and Yamaki made a mental note to research this when he had the time.

Then, only a few miles later, the trail abruptly faded into a fog. For whatever reason, they seemed to have wandered into a place of old power, where magic was sunk into the very earth, and he couldn't see through it.

*Do they think they can hide in there?* he wondered. *Or do they have some other motive for wanting to visit a ruined temple? They won't find anything in there; that old place was cleaned out years ago; anything of value is long gone. Hm...*

He debated with himself. It would be more than a small bother to punch through that fog to route them out, especially at this distance, but he was loath to just leave them there. They could be plotting any kind of mischief in there. Even if they weren't, he didn't feel like waiting around for them to come out.

*Then I'll just send something in to deal with them.*

Contrary to popular belief, mind-control spells were among the most utterly impractical things there were. Keeping any independent-minded being under control for any length of time was next to impossible - well, if it weren't, he would just spell Ruki into giving Culumon to him and be done with it. On the other hand, planting a suggestion in the mind of a less intelligent creature, particularly a suggestion that was similar to the way it already thought, was fairly simple. That was the kind of magic he liked: simple and next to impossible to notice or trace. With that in mind, he searched the local countryside, looking for something that would suit his purposes.

He was in luck: a gang of Digimon was nearby, looking for mischief. All it would take was a gentle nudge, and then Ruki and her comrades would find their sanctuary had become anything but.

~*~

It had taken a good deal of debate before the adventurers decide to dare the temple again. Ai and Makoto naturally didn't want a part of anything that would let these strange strangers get near their treasure, but they also didn't want an unknown and unfriendly creature keeping them from doing the same. They were willing to be marginally cooperative if their new acquaintances would get rid of whatever was keeping them away from their cherished object. Jenrya was more than half convinced that this was all just an elaborate trick by the mysterious priest and wanted nothing more to do with it. Ruki, on the other hand, had been born perverse, and the near- accident made her that much more determined to get in there and see whatever this mysterious creature was trying to keep her away from. Eventually, her stubbornness won out, and they hatched a plan.

A few minutes later, a slightly diminished band could be seen walking slowly back down the slope and making their way to the temple door. They crept, making sure of each step before they moved, presumably testing to see whether the temple's guardian was going to try to thwart them again. Actually, they were just buying time.

Meanwhile, a much smaller group was settling at the bottom of the slope as well, but behind the temple. Ruki had levitated herself and Ai to the bottom of the steep wall, while Kenta, Marine Angemon, Renamon, and Anteiramon provided their own transport. Kenta had admitted having some small abilities with light-casting, so while Ruki kept her mind on defending the party, should they run into trouble, he arranged to cloak them all in a magical don't-look-at- me fog. Ai had been brought along primarily for her magic-deflecting shield; Ruki had a notion it would be useful if they were attacked. Renamon came as a scout, having already proven her senses and reflexes were greater than anyone else's. Antieramon's purpose was to clear away the rubble of the cave-in when they reached the door, and to hold off any others they might encounter. Guardromon might have possibly outranked him in the raw strength department, but he couldn't have moved as silently as Antieramon did. Marine Angemon wasn't strictly necessary to the expedition, but he had refused to let his partner go without him.

The general outline of the plan was that the group approaching openly would get the guardian's attention and keep it for as long as it took for Ruki's party to reach the doorway. Then they would clear the passage and keep it clear for as long as it took the others to get inside. Once they were in there, of course, they'd have to watch their backs, but Ruki thought she knew every trick there was for protecting a ruined temple, and had confidence in her ability to guide her companions to safety.

However, her plans didn't work out the way anyone expected them to. The diversion group reached the bottom of the stairs with no problems and inched their way toward the temple, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. They reached the point where they had been standing when the guardian had first addressed them, and still nothing happened. They walked all the way up to the entrance, and there was still no response at all.

"Hey, Ruki," said Takato, "I think he gave up."

Ruki walked out into view, looking disgruntled.

"He didn't give up," she said, scowling at the shadows. "He's planning something. Either that, or he thought he got rid of us the first time and wandered off."

"In that case, let's get in there and do whatever it is we're going to do before he comes back," Hirokazu suggested. "All this sneaking around isn't my style."

"Mine either," Ruki agreed. "But obviously it's somebody's. Antieramon, Guardromon, a hand, please?"

The two Digimon ploughed into the rubble at the temple's entrance, stirring up clouds of dust and ancient mold and making Marine Angemon sneeze. Within seconds, the way was clear, and the group stepped inside.

It was pitch-black beyond the temple door. Jenrya held up one hand, making silver-white light flare around it to illuminate their passage. The tunnel was in surprisingly good shape - the walls were cracked, and everything was dusty, but they could still see elaborate carvings and mosaics adorning every surface. It was very pretty... and also, Ruki thought, a good way to disguise hidden triggers and traps. Just to be on the safe side, she sent Ai and Makoto up ahead. They had said they knew their way around; let them put their money where their mouths were!

As it turned out, they did know their way around. They led the way confidently, navigating around a trick floor tile that would trigger a trapdoor that would dump a load of rocks down on their heads, pointed out the place where a trip-wire had once been before it had rusted away, and tugging on a small statue in a niche that turned out to be the handle of a secret door. Ruki reluctantly raised her estimation of these two; they could behave like rational beings when they weren't busy fighting each other.

"See that trapdoor up there?" Makoto was saying, pointing up at an ominous-looking opening in the ceiling. Used to be, you stepped on that tile there, and it would open it up and all these snakes would drop down on you. We pushed the button by accident once, and a bunch of skeletons fell out. You should have heard Ai scream!"

"I did not scream!" she said. "Anyway, you're the one who fell down the shaft."

"I did that on purpose!"

"Not the first time!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Shut up!" Ruki snapped.

The twins quieted and looked mutinous. She glared back at them.

"Don't you ever stop fighting?" she muttered.

"She - he - started it!"

She rolled her eyes, but declined to comment.

"Hey, all three of you be quiet," said Terriermon. "You're making too much noise, and I'm trying to hear something!"

Everyone froze to look at Terriermon. He had both his ears standing in the air, swivelling independently of each other in a way that reminded Ruki of the technomagical items called "satellite dishes." Finally, both ears seemed to come to a consensus, pointing back in the direction they had come.

"Something's following us," he said.

"I told you that thing was still out there," said Ruki, grimly smug.

"Nah, it's not him," said Terriermon. "It's a whole bunch of things - big things."

"Smells like Digimon," Guilmon commented.

"Oh, great," Hirokazu muttered. "Just what we need - to get chased around this maze by a bunch of angry Digimon."

"Maybe they aren't angry?" Takato suggested. "I mean, so far all the Digimon we've met have been nice..."

There was a crash in the distance, as of something large being smashed to smithereens.

"Somehow," said Renamon, "I doubt that will be the case."

"Exit's blocked off," said Jenrya, looking around. "No room to fight in these narrow corridors. We're going to have to make a run for it - try to lose them. Ai, Makoto, what's the quickest way out of here?"

The twosome consulted in brief whispers.

"This way," said Makoto, beckoning them up a side passage. The others hurried to follow them.

They were almost not fast enough. Whatever was coming after them weren't the kind of creatures to worry about things like walls; they just picked a direction they liked and barged ahead without worrying, leaving trails of wreckage in their wake. Hearing a particularly loud crash, Ruki looked over her shoulder and saw a mob of Fuugamon, fire-spitting cousins of the Ogremon that had ravaged her town. These things would show no more mercy to her and her friends than the Ogremon had showed her father. For a moment, it didn't matter that she was a great sorceress, or that she was traveling with a band of seasoned warriors and powerful Digimon - she was still afraid.

"They're gaining on us!" she shouted.

"We're almost there!" Ai shouted back.

They came to a door at the end of a long hallway, and the twins began trying to shove it open. It appeared the settling stone had caused the doorway to tilt slightly, holding the door in place. Impatient, Hirokazu shoved them both out of the way and threw his shoulder against the door. His soldier's muscles could do what a pair of children couldn't: the door popped open, and there was a scramble to get through it. Antieramon had to bend himself almost double to squeeze though the opening, while the people behind him fidgeted and listened to the monsters approaching.

Then disaster struck - or rather, stuck. The door wasn't wide enough for Guardromon, and when he tried to fit through anyway, he found himself wedged in place.

"Come on, come on, move!" Ruki urged. She was stuck on the wrong side of the door, and not liking it one bit.

"I'm trying!" Guardromon said.

At the far end of the hall, the Fuugamon were standing and watching the spectacle. Apparently they hadn't been expecting to find anyone here, and were not quite sure how to react. Most creatures in the Ogremon family were slow thinkers, and it would take them a little while to finish processing the ramifications of the situation. When they were done, though, Ruki doubted she would like whatever ideas they came up with.

"Can't you do something?" Makoto whined. "You're a sorceress! Blast them like you did the trees!"

"If I blast them, I'll bring the ceiling crashing down on our heads. Would you like that, huh?"

"I won't like getting eaten by a Digimon, either!" Ai protested.

There was a crunching noise. Guardromon had managed to brace himself and was now pulling with all his considerable strength, forcing the doorway to crack and crumble. Chips of stone fell away as he pulled himself through. The Fuugamon were still rumbling threateningly. Suddenly, they came to a decision and came roaring forward, flailing their clubs and smashing everything before them as they rushed forward.

"Oh, no!" Ai wailed, watching them as they bashed their fists against the walls. "Don't hit the-"

Several things happened at once. One of the Fuugamon slammed his club against a brick in the wall, and the brick gave, sinking in with a grinding noise. There was a massive mechanical whirr, and the section of floor the three humans were standing on abruptly gave. Ai and Mako gave identical shrieks as they dropped out of sight. Ruki, anticipating trouble, was able to levitate herself out of the way, and just barely missed cracking her head on the ceiling. There was an earsplitting metallic clang as Guardromon finally ripped himself free from the doorway, clattering on to the floor, landing with a crash and a few soldierly oaths. That, plus the mess the Fuugamon were making and the shaking of the trapdoor proved to be too much for the dilapidated old building, and a large chunk of the hall abruptly caved in.

Finally, the dust cleared, and Ruki floated back to the floor to have a look at the situation. The trapdoor had swung shut again; there was no sign of Ai and Mako. Wherever they had gone, they were on their own. The Fuugamon's crashing and bashing appeared to have destroyed the mechanism that opened it, and she doubted they could ever make it work again. As for the Fuugamon themselves, they had been caught by the rockfall, and some had surely been buried in it. A human would have been crushed by such an impact, but they were tough creatures, mostly bone and muscle and leather skin. She doubted that even those who had been buried were seriously hurt, and she could hear several still moving around behind the heap of debris. They would dig their way out, and they were likely to be furious once they were free. Ruki went to rejoin her friends. They were all in reasonably good shape, save for Guardromon, who had several deep scratches down his sides from where the doorway had pinched him. Marine Angemon blew a stream of glowing bubbles, and the rents healed as if they had never been. Everyone looked to Ruki for their next instructions.

"We're getting out of here," she said.

"What?" said Takato. "But what about the kids?"

"They're just going to have to get by on their own," she said. She dropped her gaze. "I don't want to sound like I don't care what happens to them, but there's nothing we can do for them right now. They said they know their way around; they can probably find their way out of wherever they are right now. We're just going to have to hope that's what they do. In the meantime, we're trapped in a trap-filled temple with a bunch of crazy things that will likely want to kill us if they can catch it. We need to concentrate on getting ourselves out safely."

"She's right," said Jenrya. "There's nothing we can do for them right now. We'll just have to press on."

Somewhat dispirited, they continued with their exploration. Ruki traveled at the front of the party, checking for traps and other dangers. The further they progressed, the more she began to think the other dangers were more to be avoided than the traps. Whoever had rigged up this temple, they had apparently not been a killing order. Most of what she encountered was only marginally dangerous, if that - the traps seemed to have been laid more to frighten and discourage than to do real damage. On the other hand, this place was none too structurally sound, and there were places where the ceiling or floor had caved in. They edged their way along as carefully as they could, wincing whenever anyone made a misstep or sneezed from the dust.

Despite all that, they made reasonably good progress. They charted a course inward and downward, on the assumption that anything precious would be kept at the very heart of this maze. Nevertheless, the loss of their guides made them uneasy, and they couldn't help but think of where in this dark, dismal place they might be...

~*~

Slowly, Ai opened her eyes. It didn't make much difference - there was nothing to see but impenetrable darkness. Nevertheless, she thought she might still be alive, and she sat up to make sure.

"Mako?" she called. "Are you okay? Are you still here? You had better not tell me you're dead."

"I think I'm still a little alive," her brother answered weakly. There was a rustling sound as he sat up.

"Where are we?" Ai asked.

There was a pause as Makoto tried to remember. "We fell down the trapdoor. We're down on the bottom floor now. In a pit."

"A big pit?"

"Yes."

"Too big to climb out of?"

"Yes."

"Then we're trapped down here?"

"Yes."

"Will you stop saying that?" Ai shouted. "It's not doing any good. We've got to think of a way out of here. Maybe if I stood on your shoulders..."

"No way! You're too weak to pull me up!"

"I am not! I'm just as strong as you!"

"No you're not! Let me climb on your shoulders, and I'll pull you up!"

"No, you won't! You'll walk off and leave me!"

"I will not!"

"Yes you will! You never want me around, you're always saying how you'd be better off without me, you'll leave me down here in the dark..." Ai's voice choked up. "I'm going to be trapped down here forever!"

"We aren't going to be trapped," said Makoto. "Those people will come and find us."

"No, they won't. They don't know their way around like we do. They'll just get lost," said Ai. "Anyway, they don't like us. They only let us come with us to see the treasure."

"They'd like us more if you weren't always making trouble," said Ai.

"Me make trouble? You're the one who's always picking on me!"

"Only because you pick on me!"

"I do not!"

"Yes you do!"

"Do too!"

"Oh, this is hopeless!" said Ai. "They don't like either of us, and they aren't coming, and we're stuck no matter whose fault it is!"

"That's the first smart thing I've heard you guys say since you got here," said a raspy voice.

Both children looked up to see who had spoken, and were surprised to find that they could see. A reddish fire was burning somewhere, casting a faint light. They could see a familiar shape silhouetted against the fire.

"You're the temple guardian!"Ai exclaimed.

"Well, ain't you something?" the creature said. "Yeah, I'm the guardian. What's it to you?"

The creature took a few steps, shifting enough that the light could shine on him rather than behind him. Now they could see him for what he was: a Digimon, mostly purple with a white face. He did indeed have hornlike protrusions on his head, a pointy tail in back, and even claws on his feet. His eyes had a catlike green glitter to them, suggesting excellent night vision. Most interesting of all was a detail his shadow hadn't been able to reveal: he stood less than a yard high.

"You're what we were scared of?" asked Makoto. "But you're just a little guy!"

The Digimon gave him a sour look. "Thank you for tellin' me that. I never woulda noticed. Anythin' else you wanna point out?"

"Sorry," said Ai, looking contrite.

"Yeah, yeah, you say you're sorry. Well, I know ya ain't, so don't try to put anythin' over on me," the Digimon snapped. "You don't care about my feelin's. Nobody does. And I don't care, either!"

He began to stalk off, muttering under his breath.

"Hey, wait!" Ai called. "Come back here!"

"Why?" the Digimon shouted back. "Whatsamatter, ain't finished insultin' me yet?"

"No..."

"Well, whatever it is, I don't wanna hear it!"

They heard his footsteps stomping away, and then there was silence.

"Well, you really blew it that time," said Ai.

"Me?" Makoto exclaimed. "What did I do?"

"You insulted him! He might have helped us if you hadn't made him mad!"

"He wouldn't have helped us no matter what I said!"

"You don't know that!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Would you two just shut up?"

They jumped guiltily. The little Digimon was back, glaring down at them.

"Sheesh!" he said. "You two have gotta be the biggest idiots I've ever seen, y'know that?"

"It's not our fault we're stuck in this pit," said Makoto.

"That ain't what I'm talkin' about. I mean the way you keep yellin' at each other all the time. It's ridiculous!" he said. "If you two would work together, you'd be halfway outta the temple by now. Why do ya do that?"

They stared at the floor.

"I don't know," said Ai. "I guess it's just always been this way."

"Stupid," said the little Digimon. "Really, really stupid. You two have always got someone to keep you company and watch your back for ya, and whaddaya do? You fight with each other. Stupid!"

"Maybe I don't want someone following me around all the time," said Ai.

"Me either," said Makoto. "It's a pain being twins! Everybody acts like that's all there is to us - that we're alike."

Ai nodded. "They think we should always want to do everything together...."

"Everyone thinks we have to like the same stuff...."

"We have to dress alike all the time...."

"We never get anything of our own - we have to share everything...."

"We don't even get to pick our friends. Anyone he likes, I have to hang out with, too!"

Makoto hung his head. "Sometimes I'd give anything just to be alone for a while!"

Ai nodded. "Me, too."

The little Digimon shook himself; he seemed to have gotten dizzy just trying to keep up with their conversation.

"That's what you think," he said. "Bein' alone ain't that hot, either."

"If you don't like being alone, then why are you down here?" asked Ai.

"'Cause there ain't nobody out there who wants me, that's why," the Digimon snapped. "And I don't care, either! One of these days, I'll show 'em all..."

"They might like you more if you were nicer," Ai scolded.

He glared at her. "Huh. That's what you think, toots. Those Digimon from back home - if you weren't tough as a boulder and just as stupid, then forget it! Huh, just 'cause I was little and smart instead of strong and dumb, they chased me out! And humans? You can forget about 'em! They'd just as soon kick ya as talk to ya, if you're a Digimon."

"We're talking to you," Makoto pointed out.

"Oh, yeah? Well-" He stopped in mid-rant. "Oh, yeah, I guess ya are... but you're only doin' it because you think I'm gonna help you out! Well, you can forget it. I don't help nobody and nobody helps me. I can take care of myself, by myself."

"What's wrong with you?" asked Ai. "Don't you want people to like you?"

"No, I don't! ...Well, maybe a little... but that's not the point!"

"If you want people to like you," said Ai, "why are you hiding down here and chasing away anyone who gets near?"

"Because..." he began. He stopped. "Hm. Maybe ya got a point. I hadn't looked at it like that before... Guess we're all a little stupid, huh? But I'm still not as stupid as you two," he added. "If I had somebody to watch my back, I'd use 'em, insteada fightin' with 'em all the time just to prove we're different."

The twins looked at each other.

"Is that what we're doing?" Makoto asked.

"It might be," said Ai. "We're sitting at the bottom of a pit we could have gotten out of if we hadn't been so busy fighting about it... I guess that is pretty stupid."

"Toldja so," said the Digimon. "Maybe you two ain't hopeless, after all."

"Neither are you," said Ai. "You shouldn't be hiding down here. Why don't you come with us? We could be your friends."

"Nuh-uh! How stupid do I look? You'd dump me just as soon as you found your way out of here."

"No we wouldn't!" said both twins in unison.

He stared at them. They looked up at him with identical hopeful expressions.

"There must be somethin' wrong with my ears," he said. "I coulda sworn you two just agreed on something."

"We did," said Ai. "We promise, if you help us get out of here, we'll let you come with us. We won't leave you behind."

Makoto nodded. "We promise!"

The Digimon shook his head. "I've gotta be crazy, even thinkin' about listenin' to you clowns... but at least if you change your minds I won't be any worse off than I am now... What's your names?"

"Ai and Makoto."

"I'm Impmon. Can't say I'm pleased to meet you, but... aw, whatever. Here, kid - Makoto or whatever you call yourself. Gimme that stick thing of yours and let's see if we can get ya outta there."

It took a bit of climbing and scrambling to finally get out of the pit, but by their combined efforts, they managed in the end. While the twins sat on the floor and caught their breath, their new Digimon friend looked them over critically.

"Not the most impressive humans I've ever seen," he said. "Guess you'll have to do, though. Guess it ain't every Digimon who can tame a human. That's something to write home about... if there was anyone to write to. You two plannin' on gettin' outta here sometime soon, or you wanna sit there on the floor another coupla years?"

"We're coming!" said the twins, jumping eagerly to their feet.

Impmon studied them. Obviously their intention to get on his good side was overriding their natural impulse to squabble with each other. Well, they'd see how long that lasted. Impmon picked up a torch from a bracket on the wall, pulled a ball of fire out of nowhere to light it, and began walking to the exit with his obedient new humans trailing behind him.

~*~

The staircase led down. That was all that could be discerned from a visual examination. It was a spiral staircase, unlit, and impossible to see down for more than a few feet. Ruki thought the magical emanation was stronger down there than it was where they were standing, but it was difficult to tell.

"Don't hold me to it," she said, "but I think this might be the way."

"Don't worry, we won't," Terriermon drawled.

She glared at him. It wasn't her fault the last few passages they had tried were dead ends. She might be talented in her field, but she wasn't omniscient!

"I'd like to see you do better," she said. "If you want to lead this expedition, go right ahead. Show us your infallible knowledge, since mine seems to have failed."

"Moumantai! Boy, you get touchy when you goof up," he said.

"I haven't goofed up," said Ruki. "I was engaging in a trial-and-error exploration. There's a difference."

"Leave her alone," said Jenrya to his partner. "She's doing the best she can. If you want to be useful, you can go have a look down that staircase and see if it's safe, before we all try to go down it."

"Who, me? You've gotta be kidding!" said Terriermon. "I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid!"

"I'm not going down there unless there's a good reason for it," said Guardromon, eying the narrow stairway with distrust. He still hadn't forgiven the doorway for refusing to let him through, and he didn't care for the idea of getting wedged in a dark staircase.

"Quiet down," said Kenta, showing a surprising streak of authority. "Marine Angemon will look. I doubt there's anything down there that can hurt him. You don't mind, do you?"

His partner chattered agreeably and flitted down the stairway. They could hear him squeaking to himself as he flew, until finally the echoes died out. Then they returned, and he shot out of the passage like a pink firework, hovering around his partner's head and accepting a few words of praise for a job well done.

"Well?" asked Hirokazu, impatient. "Don't keep us hanging! What does he say?"

"He says there's a big room down there," Kenta translated. "A pretty one, he says, with pictures and statues."

"Sounds like the kind of place we'd be wanting," said Ruki thoughtfully. "All right, let's check it out."

They went down the staircase, not without a certain amount of difficulty. Getting any number of people down a tightly spiraling staircase without bumping into each other was a chore, especially when some of them were large people; Antieramon had to bend himself almost double to fit, and even then his ears dragged along the ceiling. By the time they reached the bottom, it seemed that even his seemingly endless patience was fraying.

Thankfully, once they reached the bottom, there proved to be room enough for all of them, and then some. The space they stepped into wasn't just large, but cavernous, high enough that by their limited light, they couldn't even see the ceiling. What they could see, though, was more than enough to be impressive. Truly this must have been a glorious place back in its early days, and it was still more than grand enough to deserve some reverence.

The floors were done in mosaic tiles, depicting massive, four-legged serpents winding across it in intricate patterns, intertwining with fish and water lilies. The walls were likewise done up in more mosaic and relief-sculpture. In fact, every available surface seemed to be decorated with images of the twisting blue dragons, ranging from tiny ones no longer than a man's finger to a single massive one that covered the entirety of the far wall, with his tail at the ceiling and the rest of his body looping back and forth across the surface until his head nearly rested on the floor. Ruki thought she could see where there had once been jewels fitted into his eye sockets, but even without them, the beast's face looked intelligent and serene, strangely lifelike, as if it were sizing up these strange visitors in its domain.

Reflecting its face was an underground spring, its waters gathered in an elaborately decorated basin with more dragons and water lilies around its edge. More fountains stood at intervals along the wall, but the mechanisms that pumped them seemed to have worn out years ago, leaving them dry and dusty.

"What do you think?" Ruki asked Jenrya, who stood closest to her.

He examined the dragon carvings. "Probably dates back to... oh, I would say just a few years before the seal was opened. Obviously this is a temple of the sect who worshiped the element of Water in the form of the Serpentine Dragon. They were an order who believed in deep meditation, mathematics and other thinking arts, and in general believed in the pursuit of the ultimate Truth through study and reflection."

"Interesting," said Ruki. She hadn't heard any of that before, but then again, her studies had been in magic, not history, and she'd only touched on as much theology as she needed in her line of work. "How do you know all that?"

"Because I had a royal education," he answered. "Actually, there are more than a few people who think the Mage Shibumi was a member of their order. My father was - is - he is interested in a lot of their works. They may or may not have learned the ultimate Truth, but they did pick up a few things worth knowing."

"I see," she answered. "Well, that's interesting, but it's not what I wanted to know. What I meant was, do you think what we're looking for is down here, and if it is, where do you think it's hidden?"

"Oh." He colored a little. "Sorry. You have no idea how accustomed I got to spouting off things like that, living with my dad."

A large paw patted his shoulder encouragingly. "You will have much to tell your father when we rescue him," said Antieramon.

Jenrya gave him a grateful smile. "I know. He'll be impressed, won't he?"

"So," said Hirokazu, looking around the room. "People used to meditate in here, back when all these fountains were running? I sure couldn't have gotten any thinking done with all that water splashing around. Hope they had a privy stashed close by here."

A few people snorted, and Ruki rolled her eyes.

"I'll tell you what," she said. "Why don't you stop making jokes and meditate on where something might be hidden in all this mess?"

"I agree with her," said Renamon. "The Fuugamon haven't forgotten us. It would be best to complete our mission quickly, and then search for an exit."

"Would that work?" asked Takato. "I mean, we haven't got our guides anymore. The way out has caved in. We wouldn't be able to find our way out without a lot of running around in the dark, with a mob of angry monsters chasing after us. At least here, we have some space to move around, and Ruki can work her magic without having to worry about blowing stuff up. We've even got a bit of cover, with the statues and fountains and all."

"He's right," said Hirokazu, turning businesslike. "This is the most defensible position we're going to find around here... and Fuugamon are flame-types. They might not like this temple water. It could give us an edge."

Ruki was quiet a moment. Then she shrugged.

"Okay, so maybe there are good reasons to travel with soldiers," she said.

"We shall stand our ground!" said Guardromon grandly. "Let our enemies come, and we shall slay them or perish valiantly in the attempt!"

"Let's not, please," said Jenrya. "But I'm with Ruki on one thing - while we're down here, let's do some searching."

They split up and searched. The smaller Digimon, like Culumon and Marine Angemon, peered among the cracks in the walls and the openings in fountains. Antieramon peered high up on the walls, while Terriermon flew right up to the ceiling, coming down with his ears coated in cobwebs. Guilmon snuffled around on the floor, trying to catch a recent scent that might lead to the last place a human had been. The rest of the group poked in whatever corners they could find, rapping at the walls for secret panels and testing tiles for hidden switches. Their search turned up fruitless.

Having not turned up anything with her physical senses, Ruki propped herself in a corner and closed her eyes, intending to use more unnatural abilities. All mages could sense magic to some extent, but it was not something human bodies were perfectly adapted to, so instead of having some kind of magical "sixth sense," they magically adapted a sense they already had. Some people detected magic by feel, sensing it as various textures or vibrations. There were others who could hear it as different pitches or tones. There were even some few who could smell it, with white magic smelling of floral perfumes and dark magic as a stench of death. Ruki herself had even known one boy at her school who could taste it, and refused to sit anywhere near her in class because her ambient magic left him with the taste of hot peppers in his mouth for hours afterwards. He had eventually married a young woman with no particular looks or talent, but whose particular magic made anything she cooked taste of chocolate. The last time Ruki had seen him, he was looking quite happy and very well-fed.

But to Ruki, magic was something to be seen, shining as lights of various colors, intensities, and patterns. She searched for these now, and almost immediately found herself staring into a dark world through which a variety of lights were moving. She frowned a little; the very air down here was thick with blue magic, making her feel she was peering through a fog. She tried to pick through it, sorting through her impressions. The Digimon each shone in her mind's eye, dabs of living magic (she was rather pleased to see that Renamon shone the most brightly - she really was a Digimon sorceress). Takato and Hirokazu had only the barest smudges, only the magic of life that every living creature had. Jenrya had more, glowing softly with his silvery-white light. Kenta's powers were impressive even through the fog, gleaming around him in a pale-pink nimbus - not dazzling, but deep, as if he stood in front of a tunnel of light that went on for miles. This was the first time she had seriously taken stock of his abilities, and just now, she felt very glad that he was a Healer and not something more destructive, or her job would be in jeopardy.

However, other than these moving bits of brightness, there wasn't a lot to see. She could see the faintest gleams from the Cards Jenrya, Takato, and herself were carrying, another glow from the dragon-idol and its reflecting pool, and that was all.

Or was it?

"Guys," she said, letting her eyes snap open. "We need to be watching that wall over there."

"Why?" asked Takato.

"Because there's something behind it, genius," she snapped. "Something alive. Or more than one something."

"What kind of something?" asked Jenrya urgently, his hand going to his sword.

"I don't know," she answered. Saying, "Something purple," wouldn't have been helpful or accurate, but it was the only impression she could get with her eyes closed.

Tensely, the group gathered around the wall in question, watching and listening. First to the Digimon, and then to the rest of the group, there came a sound, as of echoing voices, too muffled to be made out clearly. Then there was a grinding of gears, and everyone readied a weapon or an attack as a section of the wall began to swing inwards...

Ai, Makoto, and a small Digimon stepped out.

"See?" it was saying. "I toldja I'd get ya outta here. Am I good or am I good?"

Ai laughed. "You're great, Impmon."

Everyone stared at them a moment, taken aback. The twins grinned.

"Hi!" said Makoto. "How did you get down here?"

"We walked," said Ruki succinctly. "Would you mind answering the same question?"

"Impmon led us," Ai said proudly. "He was the guardian of the temple, but now he's our friend."

"Humph! Am not."

The twins giggled, clearly delighted with their new companion. Ruki thought maybe this was justice: they had found a Digimon more disagreeable than they were! Then she backed her train of thought up. They had found a Digimon? The guardian? She felt a sinking sensation.

"Oh, great," she muttered.

However, she didn't have any time to worry about it. A distant rumbling announced that someone upstairs had found the staircase, and was about to pay them a visit.

"Here come the Fuugamon!" Guilmon shouted.

"No time to talk, kids," said Ruki to the twins. "Battle stations, everyone! It's showtime."

The group scattered, either heading for defensible positions or hiding places or standing their ground, according to their nature. The twins took one look at the monsters and ducked back into the tunnel again, hoping they wouldn't be seen in the dim light. Impmon looked affronted for half a second, saw what the others were up against, and decided to follow the twins.

On the battlefield, light exploded: Jenrya had tossed his lighting-spell into the air, making it hover thirty feet off the ground and glow like a spotlight. In its white radiance, humans and Digimon battled with spells and blades. Antieramon had produced his double-bladed axe and was hacking at two monsters at once, while the other Digimon tossed fireballs and whirlwinds into the fray. Hirokazu and Takato attacked with their swords, but their blades didn't have much impact on the Fuugamon's leathery hides. Ruki and Jenrya had more success with their spells, but they feared to use anything really damaging and risking hurting one of the others by accident. Kenta distinguished himself by immobilizing a few in ice, but he had never been meant for battle, and they kept forcing him to back off. He was starting to run out of places to hide.

"Look at those big ugly lugs," Impmon was muttering as he watched the fight. "Stupid grunts messing up my temple. Bad enough getting chased off by critters like that - now they're messin' up my hiding place..."

"Why don't you fight them?" asked Makoto. "You're a Digimon. Digimon are supposed to fight."

"Huh! Shows what you know," he said. "I'm too small to fight. They'd walk all over me, just like all the others. Now, if I could evolve, then I'd be somebody to worry about! I'd bash 'em all into the ground!"

"Well, we can fight," said Ai. "We promised to protect you, and we will. Right, Mako?"

"Right," he said.

"But-" said Impmon.

He didn't get any further than that. Both children had already dashed out the door.

"Oh, what the heck," he muttered, and rushed out after them.

Instantly, the twins struck their defensive positions, back to back. Ai unfurled her fan and twirled it expertly, making the Fuugamon shy away from its gleaming edge. One of them attempted to blast the twosome with a flaming hurricane; she deflected it and sent it bouncing back on its caster. Another Fuugamon tried to bash her with its club; Makoto parried it with his staff and smacked the monster a smarting blow over the head. They backed away, circling and growling, unable to figure out these two matched people who fought as one.

"Night of Fire!" Impmon shouted, tossing a reddish fireball. It landed on the foot of a nearby Fuugamon, making it jump up and down, grunting and hooting in pain. A swift flick of Makoto's staff swept its other foot out from under it, making it fall on the floor with a loud thud.

Unfortunately, the fall did nothing more than make the monster angry. As soon as it could get its feet back underneath it, it began attacking again, swinging its club ruthlessly. It was all the twins could do to keep from being battered to pieces.

"They're not doing so well," said Jenrya, sparing a glance in their direction.

Ruki tossed a fireball that sent the Fuugamon she was fighting staggering backwards - blistered, but not seriously hurt. "We're not doing so well. I really wish we were out in the open. Guess I've got no choice..."

"No choice? No choice but to do what?" Jenrya asked.

She fished for something in her pocket. "This."

She wound up and threw, and something purple and shiny sailed across the room. It clattered to the ground a few yards from where the twins were standing.f

"Grab it!" Ruki shouted. She didn't know what they might do with it, but...

"Right!" Ai agreed. "Impmon, can you clear the way?"

"I'm all over it!" he answered. "Summon!"

A whirlwind started on the floor in front of him, gradually growing in size until a globe of light floated out of it. With a gesture, Impmon sent the globe sailing gracefully into the face of the nearest Fuugamon, making it howl in agony and stumble backwards. In that second, the twins made a dash forward, diving for the device. They landed side by side next to it. Ai glanced at her brother.

"Together?" she said.

He nodded. "Mm-hm."

They reached out as one, their hands touching it at the exact same time.

Instantly, light shot from the device, brilliant purple light that arced across the room and struck Impmon like a thunderbolt. He cried out... but it didn't sound like pain. It sounded like exultation, and they stared in amazement as his limbs lengthened, his claws extended, wings burst from his back...

"Haha, yeah!" he cheered. "Now this is more like it! Now let's see what these guys make of me!"

Faced with a masked, black-winged terror, armed with a massive gun, most of the people in the room had the good sense to duck for cover. The Fuugamon, though, were a bit slower in reacting, and the next thing they knew, the newly-evolved Digimon had aimed his gun at the nearest monsters and reduced them to digital dust.

"Who's next?" he asked. "Whatsamatter? You aren't afraid of Beelzemon, are ya?"

The Fuugamon evidently were. Already they were beginning to try to fade into the shadows.

"I like this guy," said Ruki, nodding in approval. "He has style."

"How did he do that?" asked Takato, staring in awe. "Our Arks never made that happen."

"You got me," Ruki answered with a shrug. "Maybe it's because there are two humans channeling their energy through it, instead of just one... or maybe he just really wanted to evolve."

There was another blast of light, and three more Fuugamon went up in smoke. The others were scrambling away as fast as they could, tripping over each other as they hurried for the exit. Beelzemon kept shooting at them until they were well out of sight. Then, with a sigh of sudden tiredness, he dropped back to his natural form and lay panting on the ground. Instantly, Ai and Makoto were kneeling on either side of him.

"Are you okay?" asked Makoto worriedly.

"Sure," he said. "Just... a little tired... Whew! That evolving stuff takes it out of a 'mon."

"You were great," said Ai, hugging him.

He blushed furiously. "Cut that out! Stupid!"

"Just what I was afraid of," said Ruki, coming to join them.

"What?" asked Makoto. "Hey, what was that thing you threw? The thing that made Impmon evolve?"

"That was what we call an Ark," said Ruki. "It's a technomagical object that works with Digimon and Cards to make them more powerful... obviously, we haven't learned everything about them yet. The long and short of it is, Impmon is now your partner... partner to both of you. That means he's stuck with you from now on."

The twins looked at each other. Then they shrugged.

"I guess I don't mind sharing," said Ai.

"Me neither," Makoto said. "The three of us work pretty well together... Maybe there is something good about being a twin, after all."

"So you've never seen anything like that Ark before?" asked Jenrya, coming up to join them.

The twins shook their heads.

"Then what was the thing you were hiding down here?" he asked.

Ai grinned. "Watch and see!"

She walked over to the giant dragon on the wall. She put her hand into its mouth and pressed its tongue, making it tip downwards. There was a rumbling in the floor, and the fountain bubbled. Slowly, a pedestal rose up out of the water. There was a box resting on it. Ai waded through the water and opened it, fishing something large and shiny from its depths. She offered it up for their approval. It was a vaguely cylindrical object about a foot high, pointed on top, and made all out of silvery metal. Its outside was rimmed with what appeared to be small model horses on sticks. When she set it on the ground and pressed a lever, the horses began moving around in a circle on a tiny track, while tinny music issued forth.

"What on the four staffs of LON is that?" Ruki muttered.

"I believe it's called a merry-go-round," Jenrya replied. "An ancient form of entertainment, quite primitive. It's probably worth some money by now."

Makoto nodded vigorously. "It's our treasure! We're going to sell it for money so we can go exploring!"

Ruki sighed deeply. "Great."

~*~

"So long Ai! Bye, Makoto! See you around, Impmon!"

Further up the road, the three travelers turned and waved one last time before disappearing over the crest of a hill. Privately, Ruki wasn't all that sorry to see them go. True, she had offered, if not with a great deal of enthusiasm, to let them come along with her and her friends, but they had politely declined. She couldn't say she blamed them. This wasn't really their fight - their interests were in exploring and treasure hunting. She consoled herself by thinking that Impmon (or Beelzemon) would be able to take care of them. In the meantime, she didn't think her disparate little traveling party needed a couple of argumentative preteens and an equally obnoxious little Digimon traveling with them.

"Think we'll ever see them again?" asked Takato, as they set off down the road again.

"Maybe," said Ruki. "Somehow, I doubt we'll get away from them this easily."

Jenrya laughed. "Come on, admit it, they weren't that bad."

"No, they weren't," she said. "Actually, they kind of remind me of myself at that age. That's one good reason not to want them around. You guys are in enough trouble with just one of me."

That made everyone laugh. Even Ruki smiled a bit.

"Bit of a wasted effort all the same," said Hirokazu. "I mean, we didn't even find anything down there, after all of that!"

"Didn't you?"

Everyone looked up. They were not surprised to see a familiar priest lurking in the treetops above them.

"You again," said Ruki. "Listen, you - didn't you tell us we would find the missing Ark if we followed that road of yours? Why didn't we? You'd better give us some straight answers this time, or-"

"What a temper," said Ryo mildly. "I didn't promise you'd find the Ark there. I said you'd find something interesting, and you certainly did! It's not my fault you jumped to conclusions."

"It is when you lead us to think they're true," she countered.

"Well, you found the carrier of the 'guardian' Ark, an ancient artifact, a mystic temple... oh, and some Fuugamon. I wasn't expecting them, but they were interesting, too. I'd say that still counts as a good day's work." A thought seemed to occur to him, and he grinned. "At least you didn't have to dress up and dance."

Ruki glared at him murderously. "Very funny. Don't try to get off the subject. You do know where the last Ark is, don't you?"

"Of course I do!"

"Well?" she demanded. "Where is it?"

He grinned again. "Sore wa himitsu desu!"

Ruki growled and started forwards, but he was too quick for her. He leaped, straight up, and vanished into the treetops. They heard him laughing distantly, and then that, too, was gone. Ruki sighed.

"That guy is going to drive me crazy someday," she said. "Oh, well. We'll catch up to him in the next chapter..."

"Did I miss something?" asked Takato.

"Nothing important," Ruki replied.

Meanwhile, hidden among the tree shadows, Ryo watched the little party leave. It had been an interesting day, and he was looking forward to seeing more interesting performances from them. He smiled as he reached into his pocket and took out a metal-blue device.

"Cyberdramon, come," he ordered.

There was a rush of wings, and a great dark dragon dropped out of the sky to land before him. He ran his hand over the beast's helmeted head.

"Good boy," he said. "Come on. We're going to do some traveling."

With that, the trickster pocketed his Ark and set out into the fading sky.