Disclaimer: I won nothing but my originally characters, the rest belong to their respective companies and artists.

In the Darkness

"So how far away do you think they are guys, are we close?" Alice said looking from Kyubimon to Cyberdramon. They had been riding on Kyubimon's back for hours now and they'd finally stopped to take a water break and fill up their canteens. According to their watches and their digimon the sun would be going down soon making it a bad idea to travel but unfortunately they hadn't found anything that would make a good shelter so far and they knew it was essential that they find one soon. "I don't know, the scent is faint which would suggest they were here a while ago. They made no attempt to hide their route or cover their tracks, we will find them eventually." Kyubimon said in the usual deep voice as she lifted her head to breathe in the coming night air. She had been tempted to get on her knees and thank the gods when they'd caught sight of the river, carrying the two girls and their bags had not been easy after doing it for several hours. "They continue to follow." Cyberdramon growled as he finished getting a drink as well. He was use to these kind of conditions and was rather impressed by the fox and her endurance. Those children that had brought them here, they continued to try and follow them despite his group's obvious superiority which had also surprised him, he had thought they would have given up after the first hour. "Let them, they'll give up soon enough and if they cause problems we'll simply scare them away no problem." Rika said as she screwed the lid on her canteen back on, glad to have the chance to refill. "I would imagine the kid Davis is complaining his head off right now, plus they got Mikey to worry about." "True," Alice agreed as she swung her arms back and forth to stretch them out, reminded of why she'd never loved camping that much. "The sun's getting lower." She added as she looked into the sky that was becoming many different colours as oppose to simply blue. "We need to find some kind of shelter soon." "Then we'd better get going, I'll take the bags for now." Cyberdramon said as he picked up the bags that the girls had set down neat the river so that they would be in arms reach if necessary. "Thanks, Cy." Alice said in surprise, she would have never figured him to volunteer to do anything that wouldn't end in bloodshed and chaos. Who knew he was capable of doing something nice for someone else? "Thank you, Cyberdramon." Kyubimon said, bowing her head slightly in his direction, not wanting him to know how grateful she was that he had made the offer. "I'll be able to go faster without the added weight of the bags." "Yeah, thanks." Rika said with a nod. "It's nothing." Cyberdramon said with a threatening look, daring them to say otherwise. He didn't want them to thank him, especially Kyubimon. He was simply doing it to get to Ken faster; he cared nothing for Kyubimon's well being. "Whatever." Alice said seeing that he didn't appreciate the thanks. "Let's get going then." And off they went in a cloud of dust, with the Digidestined still trailing behind them.

Elsewhere in the Digital World

"So you have no idea what Aracnamon is up to besides destroying things and generally causing more destruction then ten Cyerdramons playing football?" Ryo asked as they walked through the forest, as they'd been doing all day. The sun was getting ready to set and they were looking for a place to bed down for the night. "No idea, we didn't even know it existed up until a little over a week ago." Izzy said with a shrug, as unhappy about the fact as Ryo. It was always difficult to beat an opponent you couldn't understand or anticipate/ "The only reason why we got you here so easily was because Ken told me about the different layers of the real world and I was experimenting with the idea of visiting them. I had everything in my laptop, otherwise you wouldn't be here at all." "So it's just the three of us, huh?" Ryo said not really liking the odds at all. Aracnamon sounded nearly as dangerous or more dangerous then the D- Reaper and that had taken himself and all his friends to defeat, nearly dying in the process. "If he's as tough as you think he is then you should call your friends in, vacation or not." "We would if we could, now." Izzy said with a sigh as he tried not to think of the blasting they were going to get for not alerting the other guys sooner. "When we originally stumbled upon the devastation in one of the systems we thought it was just some rogue digimon causing problems. By the time we found out what we were up against it was too late, none of our e- mails can get to the real world. Right now we're in a section of the Digital World which hasn't been obviously effected by Aracnamon but whatever he's doing is affecting here as well." "I'm going to die." Impmon said loudly from beside Ryo who'd been doing his best to ignore the annoying digimon. "I'm going to die and it's all your fault, Ryo. But at least I can get deleted knowing that Rika will delete you if you live to get back to our real world." He added as he deliberately kicked a stone at Ryo. "And she won't make it a quick one either." Holding in several imaginative phrases and four letter words Ryo ignored the sting of where the stone had hit, refusing to give the little bastard the pleasure of knowing he was getting to him. "The only one she'll be deleting is you if I tell her how you behaved. And even if she doesn't because she's got a blind spot when it comes to you Cyberdramon doesn't have that problem and you'd make him a lovely snack." "So tell me about your friends and their digimon, do they all evolve their partners with cards like you?" Ken asked to avoid conflict. Besides, Ryo's cards interested him. "Yeah, we all use cards." Ryo said as he kept Impmon in view in case the little pain decided to try something like trip him. "Our unspoken leader's probably Takato, aka the Gogglehead. His digimon's name is Gilmon, think a hyper five-year-old for personality in a dinosaur's body. My friend Henry's got a digimon that looks like a white rabbit; a Terriermon who's really mouthy but kinda grows on you after a while, once you get us to all his Momentia's which is his favourite phrase. Henry's little sister Suzy has a Lopmon, just like a Terriermon only a different colour and much more loveable. Think a cuddly brown and pink bunny rabbit and that's Lopmon. Then there's the poor twins who have this little disgrace for a partner, we all feel sorry for them." "Shut up, Pretty Boy." Impmon said as he stuck out his tongue at Ryo, pissed off at Ryo and the world in general. "You leave Mako and Ai out of this if you wanna stay in one piece." "Then there's my girlfriend Rika, she has a Renamon who eats pathetic little digimon like Impmon here for breakfast. She and Rika are a lot a like in that aspect." Ryo continued with a fond smirk. "Rika would have Aracnamon running like a chicken with its head cut off." "Don't forget your eternal slaves Dumb and Dumber." Impmon chimed in sarcastically. When he got back he was going to repeat every part of this conversation to Rika and then they'd see who was laughing. "Dumb and Dumber?" Izzy asked with a smirk, thinking that these two made quite a pair and that it was a good thing they weren't partners. "Kazu and Kenta, they're kinda fans of mine because they're afraid of Rika and see me as their only real defence. Kazu has a Guardramon and Kenta has Marinangamon, they're not as bad as Impmon thinks, just slightly obsessed." Ryo said with a smirk. "And then there's Jeri and Alice to complete the group. Jeri's digimon is Calumon, a digimon that you'll never forget even if you meet hundreds of digital monsters. He's smaller then Impmon but he keeps going and going like the energizer bunny and will eat anything, especially if it contains sugar. Jeri's partner was originally a Leomon but he was killed in battle." Ryo said, leaving out who had killed him. "When we were finally able to get back to the Digital World after D-Reaper we found out that Jeri had become connected to Calumon during the Reaper incident and that her D-Arc worked for him too. As for Alice well she doesn't have a digimon but she basically helps us with ours and creates cards to help improve our digimon as well as the Digital World. She kind of had a partner in a digimon called Dobermon but he was only created to help our digimon be able to go onto another level, after that he deleted. You know you two would have a lot in common, Izzy. Alice is really into computers too." "She's psycho." Impmon said thinking the word summed her up very well. "She's a Gothic freak who all the guys are afraid of. She should date your digimon, Ryo, they have a so much in common." "You say that because you're afraid of her, you baka." Ryo said glaring at him for the comment. "And I don't think Rika would take kindly to you talking about her friend that way. And for the record she's not psycho, she's just not a people person. And she's not a Gothic, she just likes black okay?" "Sounds like an old friend of mine." Izzy said with a smile as he remembered the good old days when he and Black Angel were still friends. "She had a real thing for the colour black, she use to say she'd get married in black if her father would let her." "Have I met her?" Ken asked as he raised an eyebrow at the comment. Izzy looked as though he had very fond memories of this girl but as far as Ken knew Izzy wasn't one to date or show much interest in the opposite sex, this was a change. "No, I only talked to her online." Izzy said with a sigh as he remembered how that relationship had ended. "We'd arranged to meet once but she never showed up. She stopped e-mailing and chatting with me after that, guess she changed her mind." Izzy sighed and wondered again for the thousandth time why she had never shown up to meet him. He had a feeling maybe it was because of his looks, he was more brain then brawn but he had thought that wouldn't matter to her. He guessed he'd never know for sure. "Well if it weren't for the fact that it would never work given where you live I'd give you Alice's e-mail address, you two would get along really well I think." Ryo said with a smile as he patted Izzy on the shoulder. "Especially if you like girls who like black." "Yeah, Izzy needs a girlfriend." Tentamon said as he flew overhead, listening in on the conversation. "Since the girl stopped talking to him he's ignored all women except for the other Digidestined." "Shut up, Tentamon." Izzy said looking above with an annoyed look at his digimon who didn't seem to know when to keep his mouth shut apparently. "And I don't ignore girls, I just don't have time to date!" "I bet if she e-mailed you today you'd make time to go out with her." Tentamon shot back with a smile in his partner's direction. "Well if Izzy ever makes it to my world I'll introduce him to Alice." Ryo said with a friendly pat on Izzy's shoulder. "And you never know, maybe the other girl will e-mail you sometime or come looking for you, it could happen you know. Like Terriermon always says, Momentia, don't worry about it. I.....can't believe I said that."

Meanwhile

"Hey, Alice, look over there." Rika said pointing a finger towards a large tree, which she was pretty sure had a digimon in it. She'd caught something climbing up it anyway and if it was a digimon then maybe it could help them. It was nearly dark and they needed to find a place to camp out soon. "Let's check it out." Kyubimon agreed and changed direction, heading straight for the tree in long leaps. Coming to a stop in front of it the girls got off her back and walked over to stand at the base of the tree where they couldn't see anything but Kyubimon confirmed she could smell something or someone. "Is anyone in the tree, we aren't here to cause you any trouble, we were just wondering if you could recommend a place to sleep around here that would be safe." Rika said as she looked in the branches. "Neither of our digimon will hurt you." "There are some caves nearby." A voice from above and the girls watched as a squirrel like digimon hopped down the tree to land on a branch that hung over their heads. "You and your digimon could sleep there." "What direction?" Renamon asked having evolved back to her rookie form, her energy depleted too much for her to remain as Kyubimon. She recognized the digimon, Copmon, and knew them to generally be kind and truthful monsters. They reminded her a lot of Gilmon in fact, but less childish. "Can you smell the water nearby?" Copmon asked as it peered down at them, cocking his head in a way that reminded the girls of an owl. "Yes." Renamon said with a nod, "due east from here." "You're smelling the waterfall, there are caves all around it." Copmon said with a titter in his voice. "I think that'll work." "Thanks, we'll do that, here." Alice said reaching into her pocket where she'd stuck an energy bar to nibble on. Breaking off a piece she held it out to the digimon who eagerly took it into its paws. Thanking them profusely for the gift the digimon stuffed the whole thing into its mouth and began to chew rapidly making his head look twice as big as before so puffed out were his cheeks. Calling out their thanks the two girls and their digimon made there way in the direction the Copmon had pointed out and found that as the Copmon had said the area was ideal for camping out as there were plenty of caves to chose from.

later that evening

Renamon walked around the outside of the cave as she tried to figure out what was bothering her so. She'd tried to get some sleep since Cyberdramon had said he was going to stand guard for the first half of the night but she still couldn't sleep, her mind and senses too active. Something or someone was keeping her awake and she was getting the bad feeling that it was the latter. Not that she'd seen or heard anyone following then besides the children who had brought them here but it was something else, something far more dangerous. But what was it that her eyes couldn't see and her nose couldn't smell? "Why aren't you asleep, I can handle it." Cyberdramon growled from the shadows where he'd been standing guard, insulted that she thought she needed to stand guard as well. "Something's not right." Renamon said, deciding to tell the truth. "I know it sounds unlikely but I sense someone is following us other then the children and their Digimon." "I sensed nothing." Cyberdramon growled. "I can't pick up on it in anyway, it's more of a feeling, an instinct." Renamon said as her eyes scanned the area around them; the only sounds present were the crickets and the water falling nearby. "I know someone's out there, I can't describe it but I do." "You're imagining things, Renamon. I wouldn't have thought it of you." Cyberdramon said looking at her harshly. "Just keep your eyes open, Cyberdramon." Renamon said quietly before making her way back into the caves with the eyes of two digimon on her, one set glowing faintly in the darkness from its perch in a nearby tree where it watched and pondered.

In the morning

"Uh oh." Alice said pointing to the north as they prepared to leave the caves to set out again on the trail. Coming up quickly were two Digimon that appeared to be above rookie form and were headed in their direction. As they drew closer the girls and their digimon recognized two familiar figures riding on the back of the large bird like digimon and with a sinking feeling the people on the back of the other digimon who resembled a Pegasus. "Looks like they're more persistent then we thought." "Damn." Rika said, pretty sure that she was seeing the little blue digimon Veemon in the arms of one of the figures on the Pegasus, which would suggest the figure was the annoying Davis. "Of all the luck." "Hey there." A voice the girls recognized as Tai's as the bird swooped down, landing a few meters from the girls and their digimon. "You guys okay?" "We're fine. Like we said before, we can take care of ourselves." Rika said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, her sunglasses hiding her eyes from view. She was in a hurry and these guys had outlived their usefulness. "You didn't need to come and baby-sit us." "Funny, since you're going the wrong way." Yolei shot back as she slide off her digimon's back with a glare. There was no way in hell she was going to let these girls wander around the Digital World like they own the place. "We just stopped here for the night because it provided better cover, we are aware we moved off the path they took." Alice said with a voice that dripped with ice water. "Like Rika said, we can handle ourselves." "Yeah but there's a shorter way to get where they are." T.K. said as he slide off Pegasusmon's back as they landed beside Halsemon, Yolei's digimon. "That's why we're here, to tell you about it. You did say that it was important you find him quickly right?" "That's true, but why did you all come then?" Alice said crossing her own arms in front of her chest, letting them know that neither she nor Rika were going anywhere unless they felt like it. She hadn't slept the best and was not in a nice mood. "Well it was Cody who pointed out that you could cute through the Gurillimon Valley to get to the guys quicker since that's where they're headed." Tai said with a smile as he stood beside Yolie, just in case. "I was going to come by myself to tell you but I wouldn't have been able to catch up to you guys on foot so I knew either Yolie or T.K. had to come with me. These are Hawkmon and Patamon's evolutions by the way." Tai added motioning to the two digimon. "Halsemon and Pegasusmon." "Nice." Rika said with a raised eyebrow. "But that doesn't explain why there's more then two of you here." "Well we were worried about you guys and thought that we should all come in case you were in trouble. Plus if we're going to show you the way to where the guys are we're all safer in a group then alone." T.K. said with a friendly smile. "I know you'd rather go by yourselves but it really isn't a good idea, no matter how strong your digimon are." "Yeah, Red, wouldn't want you to get eaten, you'd poison the poor digimon." Davis chimed in with a smirk as he and Veemon shared a grin. "If we let you guys come with us I'll tell you now that if you call me Red once more I'll knock your lights out, kid." Rika said with a more aggressive stance to her posture. She hated being called red or other stupid little nicknames like that. She especially didn't tolerate it from snot nosed brats with visions of grandeur. "You could try, Red." Davis said with a wide smirk, sure that she wouldn't dare try anything with all his friends around. Besides, she was just a girl, what's the worst she could do to him? "You're right kid, I could." Rika said stepping forward and before Davis had any warning she drew back her fist and nailed him in the face, knocking him clear off his face and into the dirt. With a cry Veemon tried to shake Davis awake while Rika walked back over to stand beside Renamon who looked at her Tamer with a smirk. That was her Rika. "Nice right hook." T.K. said with a smirk as he looked at Davis who was already looking a little purple in the face. "T.K., how can you say that?" Yolie said as she ran over to help Veemon pull the unconscious Davis into a sitting position. "He's our friend." "And she gave him warning, he should have known better after that bully in the park that Rika's not one to take crap from anyone. Besides, it was a nice punch, he never saw it coming." T.K. pointed out with a hint of a grin. "Plus he'll be fine, you know how hard Davis's head is, he probably barely felt it." "Yeah I did." Davis groaned out as he opened one eye, the one that wasn't already swelling with a hundred different colours blooming around it already. Sure that Davis was fine now Veemon let go of his partner's arm and marched over to Rika to give her a piece of his mind for hurting poor Davis. The brief showing of teeth from Renamon had him rethink the idea and walking back to his partner a bit quicker then usual. "We'll let you come with us." Alice said after she and Rika had finished discussing the idea while the other's tended to Davis. "But don't think that you can order us around or interfere with what where here to do. If you try anything stupid you'll see just why our digimon are feared and revered in our Digital World. Deal?" "Deal." Tai said with a nod. "But if you try to harm the Digital World or its inhabitants in any way we will stop you and get you out of here so fast your head will spin." "Deal." Well that's it for now, I'm trying to update as many of my stories as possible before March Break so if you read any of my others keep an eye out for the updates. Thanks to all those who have been reviewing my stuff and those who have been simply reading. BIG thanks especially to Kurokitsumon for letting me borrow one of his characters who you will be meeting in more detail in the following chapters to annoy Renamon as she continues to sense him but not see him.