Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or any of the associated franchises. I am just using them to entertain the masses with a good story. I only own the characters, plot, and other story elements that I had to create.

Chapter 6

The Only Hope Left

After the battle with Operamon and Roy, Henry and Takato decided that for their partner's safety, they needed to do what Rika did. They needed to tell their parents about their digimon partners. After discussing a few more things Takato, Henry, Terriermon, and Guilmon left Rika's house. It was mid afternoon, the sun warming the air a bit. The cold crisp of December was still in the air, but now all you needed was a light jacket to be comfortable outside. Rika was inside with her grandmother, finishing their game of scrabble. Renamon, however, didn't feel like playing that word game anymore. She headed outside and went up onto the houses roof. She lay down on the roof and watched the clouds in the sky roll by. There were several, and some were a little grey. Renamon guessed that it would storm later, but soon her mind began to go back to the fight.

She remembered most of the fight, but the biggest part the stood out for her was Roy's face. In that one moment his face went from an emotionless mask to that face which was begging her to help him. To save herself, to do anything so he wouldn't kill her. His sword arm was trembling like mad, like there was a great battle with in it. What ever was making Roy kill digimon did not have absolute control. Roy wouldn't allow it, but why did he stop when he was about to kill her. He didn't flinch when he killed Operamon, or even show any remorse while he was chasing Guilmon and Terriermon around. She stood up then and their, and with out a word disappeared. She would find him and find out what was going on.

At Takato's family bakery/house he waited outside with Guilmon. The last customer left the shop with out noticing Guilmon, and Takato sighed. He told Guilmon to wait where he was as he went inside. His mother was at the register while his father was in the back baking some fresh bread. His mother smiled as he came in and said, "Hey Takato, where were you?"

Takato smiled as he said, "I was with my friends. Speaking of friends, mom. I would like you to meet a new friend of mine."

Takato's mother nodded her head as Takato headed for the shop door and pulled Guilmon in. Takato's mother looked at him for a few minutes before she let out a blood curdling scream and yelled, "MONSTER."

Takato put his hands up trying to calm her down as he said, "He isn't a monster mom. He is a digimon, and I he has been my friend for a while." No matter what Takato tried, his mother wouldn't calm down.

Finally his father came into the room from the kitchen, wondering what all the screaming was about. He then saw Guilmon and then looked over to Takato. He thought about it a second and then remembered a while back when Takato was trying to move a large TV box up to his room. Back then, he thought it was a dog or other pet. He walked over to Takato and said, "So, is this that thing that was in that TV box you tried to hide in your room."

Takato nodded his head as he said, "He has been staying in a cement building in the park since then. I have been taking the day old, the day old day old, and the three day old bread to him for food. He has gotten a real liking for your bread, and for peanut butter."

Takato's father walked over to Guilmon as he said, "Well, I guess you just proved you could have a pet, and I assume that is why you brought him here now."

Takato shook his head as he said, "Well, with the help of some other people me and Guilmon have been fighting back some evil digimon. They just seem to appear in different places in the city and they start attacking. We have fought back at least 15 evil digimon now."

Takato's mother suddenly calmed down and put her arms around Takato as she said, "Oh, you have been in that many fights. My pour baby, are you hurt?"

Takato tried to break free of his mothers death grip hug, but his father was the one who freed him. He then turned to Guilmon and asked, "So, you have been protecting my son for all this time."

Guilmon got a goofy smile on his face as he said, "Yep."

Takato looked at his dad and said, "But now someone is hunting him and he whipped our butts. It is a human, and he was able to defeat this really powerful digimon with only a sword. After that he turned and tried to destroy Guilmon and my friend's digimon Terriermon and Renamon. He almost destroyed Renamon, but for some reason he stopped. After we got away we decided it is time we protected our digimon, and I can't protect him if he spends so much time alone in his hideout in the park."

Takato's mother and father looked at each other, and then after gaining a silent agreement his mother turned and said, "Well, I have a bag of day old bread I was going to throw out in a minute, you would like it Guilmon."

Guilmon cheered as he said, "Hooray, bread for Guilmon." Takato smiled and looked at his father who gave him a satisfying nod.

At Henry's apartment, it was a similar story, except nobody freaked out like Takato's mom did. They all just asked Henry to tell the whole story from the beginning while Suzie began playing Miss Pretty Pants with Terriermon, who was silently calling for Henry to save him. After he told his father about the Operamon fight and how this strange guy named Roy almost killed his father nodded his head and said, "I think your right Henry. It is much safer for Terriermon if we know about him. I am happy you decided to tell us about him. Still, what makes you think this Roy guy is being controlled?"

Henry looked at his father as he said, "The thing is, if he had drove his sword one more time he could have killed Renamon, but he didn't. He stopped, and then it looked like a different person suddenly had taken control of the body and he mumbled something to Renamon. I didn't hear what, but soon after he drove the sword into his own leg while Renamon jumped down and told us to make a run for it, and if you knew Renamon that would be the last thing you think she would say."

Henry's father nodded his head and said, "I see your point." Henry spoke with his father another few hours, trying to figure out how you could control a human.

At the Hypnos building, Roy was walking out of the buildings infirmary, and he was feeling terrible. Yamachi knew he had some how fought the control program, and told him that he did it again the program would start to attack his brain. All Yamachi need was the body, the control program had already downloaded all his fighting moves into its memory. Roy laid down on his futon as he stared at the ceiling. Yamachi was, however, happy about the fact he defeated Operamon. So, to reward him for that Yamachi granted him the ability to talk as long as he was in his room. Roy stepped into what Yamachi considered his room, but Roy thought of it as his cell, his cage. He checked the time, and it was only 7:00 pm, but he decided to go asleep then. After all, what else did he have to do?

As he fell asleep his mind began to work its way around the program. In his dream, he saw himself chained to the wall like he saw once before, but the chains slowly began to loosen, and then disappear. In front of him was a path, and all he could do was walk down it. As he walked he saw his emotions, memories, and everything else that made him who he was. He then reached the end of the path. All these things that made up who he was, they were in a cage He was in a cage, a cage made by the control program. He began to look around the wide collections of items until something caught his eye. It was floating just outside the cage. He walked over to the far wall of the cage and saw it was a small yellow ball of light. It floated as if it was on a gently breeze. Roy reached out through the cage bars and took it into the cage. He looked at it a second, and saw the light dime a bit. It dimmed enough to show him it was something alive, something red, and something that had strained some white cloth.

Roy's eyes opened in aw, it was Renamon data. It had survived the attack of the control program. He looked at the small ball of data. If he could only see her, all he needed was to ask her what he should do. Suddenly, the ball of data began to pulse, and Roy was trusted out of his dream.

He woke up laying on his futon, and he thought it was all a meaningless dream until he looked down and saw the ball of data. It had exited his body. He looked at it a second and then said to himself, "What do I do with you?"

As if in response to his question the ball began to float over to the last piece of paper. It floated above the paper a second and suddenly burn lines began to form on the paper. When the ball floated back to his hand he saw that it was a set of pictures. The first looked like him eating the ball of light. The second showed him battling something or one. The final was a split image with two pictures. A thick line separated the two images and the word "OR" stretched across the line. On one side he saw himself standing alone in his slayer clothes holding a bloodied sword. There was a mass on the ground behind him. The other had two silhouettes in it, both were standing up and the way it looked suggested the scene was a happy one, but he could not determine anything else from it.

He looked at the ball of light and said, "I just wish I could talk with Renamon. I really need to see her and tell her what is going on." In response to his question the ball of light began to pulse and it then shot out a beam of yellow light. He looked out the window, and saw the beam shine high in the sky.

Roy wasn't the only one who saw the light. Renamon was running beside the park, looking for Roy when she saw the light and felt it was a single for her. She followed the light to the Hypnos building. She had always gotten a bad feeling from this building, but she decided to risk it. She jumped up the side, landing on the thin window ledges. She saw the light begin to weaken as she got higher in the building. The light disappeared as she reached the window, and inside Roy was sitting on the floor.

Roy was looking at the ball in wonder when he heard a tap on the window. He turned and his heart almost did a back flip. It was Renamon. He walked over to the window and opened as far as he could. Yamachi had changed the windows in here so they weren't big enough for him to escape through. They were also made of a special unbreakable glass, making it impossible to escape by breaking them.

He smiled at Renamon as he said, "Renamon, how did you find me?"

Renamon smiled as she said, "I followed your single. Here, let me come in." Renamon disappeared for a second and then reappeared beside him, using the shadows to get through the window. Roy almost broke into tears. He rushed up and gave Renamon a tight hug as he said, "I almost killed you, I am just thankful I was able to stop myself."

Renamon, surprised with the show of emotion, did all she could and return the embrace. She had to admit, it felt good to have his warm body up against hers. He was a bit taller then her, at least 6 inches, but she didn't mind. He had just gently rested his head on hers, and he was careful not to crush her head between his arms and chest. She listened close and could hear his heart beat, and it seemed to be calming down due to her presence. Roy also had an interesting scent about him, and she kind of liked it. Roy broke the embrace a few seconds later and Renamon asked, "Roy, what has happened."

Roy sighed as he said, "The guy who adopted me is a mad man. He just wanted me to be his weapon, a tool he could use to destroy digimon. He brought me here and strapped me to an operation table. He then pumped raw digital data into me, and then a control program. I am lucky I can even talk to right now if Yamachi hadn't been happy about me defeat of Operamon."

Renamon stepped back as she said, "Please, slow down. Explain exactly why you attacked my friends, why did you attack me."

Roy slumped down on his futon as he said, "I didn't want to. It's the evil control program. Once I leave this room it guides my every move. I can't blink unless that program does it for me. This is the most control over my body I have had since this began. Usually, the program makes it look like it pulled me away from my skin. Once I leave this room the control program binds me. It actually makes it feel like my mental body is bound with at least a hundred chains. All of them linked to the solid white wall behind me. The only reason I was able to stop my self today is I broke the chains that were binding my right arm, and that much was enough to just redirect the blow into my own leg, not enough to stop it."

Roy began to cry, and Renamon didn't blame him for doing it. She sat down beside him on the futon and placed her hand on his as she said, "Isn't there anything you can do?"

Roy pointed at the ball of yellow light that had singled Renamon. He had set it on the small end table beside the futon. He said, "From my understanding that is a bit of your data. The bit left in the handkerchief I used to bandage your wound. The day Yamachi was pumping me full of data he said that if he introduced digimon data, he might have trouble controlling me. I decided that I had to try anything that could save me from his grasp, so I swallowed the handkerchief. I guess it wasn't able to help me after all."

Renamon looked at the floating ball and said, "So, that is a little piece of me."

Roy nodded his head as he said, "A couple drops of your blood that had mixed with some of the loose data running through my blood stream."

Renamon looked at Roy a second before she said, "Roy, I don't know what I can do to help."

Roy smiled as he said, "You don't know how much you have already done. Just seeing you are alright has given me some hope. I never wanted to be someone who brought you pain Renamon."

Renamon tried to comfort Roy, but she then heard someone walking down the hall. She quickly disappeared, and Roy flipped the light switch off and jumped under the blanket of his futon. The door opened and Yamachi stood in the door way. He looked around the room, wondering why he had heard strange sounds coming from the room. He then gave Roy a final glare as he closed and locked the door behind him. Roy waited a few seconds before he flipped the light on and Renamon reappeared in the room. Roy reached up to the small ball of light and took it into the palm of his hand. He then bent down and picked up the slightly scorched piece of paper and said, "Renamon, truth be told. I may have a way out of this, and I think it has to do with that ball of data."

Renamon took the paper from him and looked at the three different pictures. She didn't know what to make of the other two, but she knew that the first one suggested he eat the little ball of data. She looked up at Roy as she said, "Who gave this to you."

Roy held out the little ball of data as he said, "It floated over the paper for a few seconds and burned the markings into place."

Renamon looked at it for a second before she said, "I don't know. It is a little risky, but you can do as you wish. I have to get back to Rika." With that Renamon began to walk towards the open window. Roy followed her. Roy looked at her. She was truly beautiful, the gentle snow that had started falling mixed with light of a half moon. She looked like a vixen goddess. He walked up to her, and before she left he said, "Renamon, I want to ask you a favor."

Renamon turned with a questioning look in her eyes as she said, "What is it Roy."

Roy lowered his head, his hair now hiding his eyes as he said, "If it comes down to it, I want you to do what ever you must to make sure I won't hurt any body else. I don't want to kill again."

Renamon looked at Roy with wide eyes. He had just asked her to do something she didn't think she could. If he became too dangerous, he asked her to stop him the only way she could. After a few still moments she got down of the window's ledge and looked up into Roy's eyes. She shook her head and said, "You can beat this, and it will never come to that. So, don't even let it cross your mind." Before Renamon knew what she was doing, she had slowly extended her legs to their full length, bring her head closer to his. She leaned in and gently kissed him on the check. She then lowered herself down, her face beginning to redden at her actions. She quickly went back to the window, and disappeared into the shadows.

Roy was standing their petrified. What had just happened? More importantly, why did it just happen? Why did she just kiss him? Sure it was a kiss on the check, but it was still something Roy had not been expecting. He raised his hand up to his check and felt the warm spot where Renamon's lips had been. He looked out the window, and could see her yellow blur bounding over the distant roof tops, and he sighed. He had to get free before he hurt her, or worse. He looked over to the small yellow ball of data, and his mind was made up in a second. He grabbed it off the night stand and with out a second thought popped the data into his mouth for a second time. Hoping it would give him some way to free himself from the control program, he swallowed it. He felt the room spin a second, and then he fell on to his futon, asleep.

In that instant the control program realized something was wrong and went into full body override. It straightened Roy's body onto the bed, and then doubled the amount of its processor power it was devoting to containing the youths mind and soul. In relation, the mental image of Roy became encased in a ball of chains that were twice as thick as the ones that already bound him, but the damage had already been done. The digimon data had been introduced.

Inside the metal chain cocoon, Roy could feel himself changing. He didn't feel any different or notice any changes, but he guessed that what ever could happen would happen in time. At the same time, the chains on the outside of the cocoon began to rust, and fall away as they were attacked by the data.