Wow, I'm actually becoming quite pleased with this story and the way it is turning out.

Renamon:…

Me: Hmm? Renamon what are you doing here, you're supposed to be in the story!

Renamon: Why have you let Rika choose Icedevimon over me?

Me: Because he's so much more cooler than you! Ha,ha…get it? Cool and ice?

Renamon: Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right here, right now…

Mute: Because I'm in charge of the delete button! And besides torturing the authoress is a privilege reserved for me and me alone!

Me: Hang on a minute Mute this is my laptop so all the buttons on it belong to me! And show me some respect! You are my creation and I gave you life!

Mute: ..That would explain why my life sucks so much…

Renamon: Ahem. Neither of these two own Digimon. Some rich guy in Japan does.

Me: Why does everybody like to rub that in so much?

***************

"Avalanche claw!"

With a final shriek, the Lynxmon shattered into shards of data which was then hungrily collected by a ghostly white monster.

Rika smiled as unfeeling as always. When she watched her Digimon fight it was as though she could temporarily drive away the unending loneliness inside. But it would always catch up to her at night. How many times had she cried herself to sleep, burring her face in the pillow in the hope it could magically drown the simmering misery inside her?

A sudden breeze whipped around her slender frame. Rika shivered and drew her trench coat around defensively. At once she felt a pair of arms, one unnaturally longer than the other and defiantly not human, encircle her. Rika shuddered again. And it had nothing to do with the change in temperature.

"Are you cold my dear?" the demon whispered seductively, his face hovering mere inches from her own.

"Never!" his tamer replied harshly a spark of her defiance leaping into her eyes.

Icedevimon tightened his grip another further precise notch, smirking slightly to himself as he heard the young girl's laboured breathing. His fingers caressed her smooth chin flicking away a strand of stray hair, while the other came to rest over her chest. Fascinated, he felt her heart beating wildly with fear, zest and something else he could not identify. Scowling, he questioned his memory, looking for a name for the unfamiliar emotion. His memory informed him it could not as he had never felt it before. This caused his scowl to deepen further as this was not the first time he had sensed Rika feeling like this. For some reason he was bothered by the fact that his tamer was unhappy. And Icedevimon didn't like being bothered. No, he liked to feel in control of the situation at all times.

While Icedevimon was contemplating Rika's feelings, the adolescent was mentally kicking herself. How could she have let the situation get so out of control? She was the tamer and he was just some computer program that went around defeating other computer programs for her own personal satisfaction. It was all just a game anyway, a game that she was good at and a game Icedevimon was helping her to win. He was nothing without her and the cards. So why was he making her feel this way?

Rika shook her head angrily. She didn't feel! She didn't need to! All she needed was herself, the cards and the ability to keep the title 'Digimon Queen'.

Icedevimon was startled when the teenager tried to break away from his restraining arms. Looking down he saw her face contorted and locked in an icy rage. For some unknown reason Icedevimon felt fear stab him. But it wasn't of Rika despite how terrifying she looked at the moment. At any rate she could never hurt him; why he could quite easily snap her fragile neck in less than a second. No, what Icedevimon was feeling was fear for the young girl struggling in his arms. Fear that she would hurt herself, trying to escape from his strange embrace in the state she was in.

Rika blinked, her fury rapidly vanishing as she felt empty air where there had previously been solid arms supporting her. Gravity took over and her body fell forward, plunging towards the concrete. Gravity failed though, when an arm whipped out and grabbed her, pulling her back onto her feet.

The owner of the arm watched her, as his arm returned to his side and she spun round to meet his unwavering gaze. A few moments passed while the two stared at each other each puzzling over the fallen angel's actions. Then the female tore her eyes away from that bloodshot gaze and walked off at a brusque pace towards her home. The male watched her for a moment before gradually fading away into thin air.

And the whole time they had been there, neither had noticed the wide-eyed, pyjama-clad boy hovering above the street and witnessing all that had passed.

****************

Takato woke up in his sweat-drenched sheets, gasping. His eyes roamed the room reassuring himself that everything in the room was how it should be, before his brain calmed down and he started to replay the dream in his mind. He had admired the girl for keeping a cool head when face to face with a roaring tiger, the body swamped with flames, not to mention her efficiently when it came to battling. But…at the end…she had seemed to be fighting an inner conflict with herself while being held in the arms of her digimon. The pain in her eyes was evident and she had been visibly trembling.

The Digimon had seemed cold and calculating, delighting in absorbing the data of another of his kind with an almost maniac grin on his face as he did so.

Takato looked down at the D-Power in his hand and trembled. If to be a Digimon tamer meant to be in an emotional turmoil with yourself and in charge of an insane partner, he wasn't so sure he wanted to be anymore.

*****************

Renamon frowned as she watched the trembling boy in the window before her. That dream he had just had was on ordinary dream, she could tell. Could he be psychic? Could he have witnessed some apocalypse event from the future? Is that why he was chosen to be a tamer?

Renamon shook her head. Look at her, observing a scared young human, a human she had decided to forget. And yet…she had come back. She had gone back on her mental vow to forget the boy and returned to the window. Why? Surely she had a stronger will than this!

Renamon resumed her observation of the boy. He was trembling, staring at the D-Power as though it might explode. An image flashed in the vulpine mind of a young girl shaking before a crowd of Digimon who were all reaching out for her. Okay, so maybe Takato wasn't facing a mass of power-hungry Digimon, but by studying his face Renamon could see that he was just as scared of her kind as Rika had been.

A mixture of pity and sorrow arose in Renamon's chest, bubbling in her lungs. Was she really going to stand by and let a child suffer in fear of his destiny? Was she going to allow some twisted Digimon to become Takato's partner and rob him of his humanity like she had allowed Icedevimon to do so to Rika?

A strange light danced in Renamon's eyes as her soul overflowed with grim determination. She was a Digimon on a mission and the Sovereign help anyone who got in her way!

Renamon delicately stepped through the window and breached the boundary separating the two worlds, her body taut and prepared for anything. Ahead she could see Takato's D-Power glowing faintly as though welcoming her. Feeling reassured, Renamon completed the journey.

In the Digital World there was a blinding flash of light. Then silence. A leaf fluttered down through the window-less air to the unoccupied ground.