Disclaimer: I didn't create and don't own Digimon.

House of Darkness

"Are you okay, Ken?" asked Gatomon, who had landed on her feet.

Ken pushed himself into a sitting position. "I think so. Where are we?"

Gatomon surveyed the scene. Dark trees surrounded them. Through the bare branches, dull red sky was visible. "I wish I knew. I've never seen this place before."

The four owlmon landed on nearby branches. "Sorry, we are," the bright red one said.

"Merely not we wanted to cause the your fear," said the razor-feathered one.

"Merely these the our orders," the one-legged owlmon said. "To bring you here, to this place."

"The Place of Fright," said the winged skull.

"We therefore the messengers; the owlmon. I therefore MacawOwlmon," said the brightly colored one.

"I ArrowOwlmon," said the one with sharp feathers.

"I also OneLegOwlmon."

"I therefore SkullOwlmon."

Gatomon and Ken exchanged nervous glances. As they both knew, digimon with "skull" in their names weren't usually good news.

"What do you want with us?" Ken asked.

"Merely not we know," said MacawOwlmon.

"Merely enter the this door," SkullOwlmon said.

"This we are instructed to say to you," concluded OneLegOwlmon.

The Owlmon rearranged themselves into a square. "Darkness Door!" A black door formed between them.

Gatomon and Ken looked at each other uncertainly. "Well," Gatomon said, "can you think of any other way to get out of here?"

"No," Ken admitted. "But I have a bad feeling about this."

"So do I." Gatomon walked to the door, and then ran inside. Ken followed her. The door disappeared, leaving them in absolute darkness.

"Great. Now what?" Gatomon pouted.

"I thought Gatomon could see in the dark," Ken teased with a smile in his voice that wasn't on his lips.

"Not when it's this dark…Wait. What's that?"

Ken saw it, too: something was glowing. They walked towards it, and were surprised to find a digimon, a birdlike creature with feathers that glowed bright red.

"Who is it?" the digimon asked.

Ken decided to answer. "I'm..."

"I know who you are!" the digimon snapped. It looked at Gatomon. "Who's she?"

"Who are you?" Gatomon retorted.

"I asked you first!" the bird digimon exclaimed.

"Well I'm more powerful than you," Gatomon smugly replied.

Ken was becoming impatient. "Gatomon..." he sighed in irritation, then turned to the avian digimon. "Can you help us find a way out of here?"

"I might, but I won't because she's rude."

"Then will you at least give us one of your tail feathers so we can find our way out?" he pleaded.

"Hmmmm. Okay. If you answer a riddle."

"A riddle?" Ken asked in confusion. "Okay."

The bird staightened up grandly and cleared its throat. "This existed first. This will exist last. This is contained in every closed box. No box is open until this enters. This is all that matter's. This is no matter. This is powerless. This is power. This hides. This reveals. What is this?"

"What kind of a stupid riddle is that?" Gatomon asked.

"What kind of stupid digimon are you?" the bird retorted.

"A very hungry one," the cat said, "who's hankering for some birdmon."

"Even try it, kitty!"

Ken shook his head. They were making it hard to think. But that didn't really matter: he already knew the answer. "Darkness and Light." The two digimon were startled by the human's sudden interruption. He met the glowing avian's stare challengingly. "Isn't it."

The bird digimon looked shocked. "How did you figure that out so fast?"

"It wasn't hard," Ken explained. "Clearly, every other sentence referred to opposites: black is all colors mixed together, thus all matter, while light is energy, not matter. Darkness is also the absence of light, so would be in a closed box. Light equals energy; energy equals power. It was, in fact, blatantly obvious, especially since this place seems to be a showcase of darkness and light—light in the form of you. May we please have a feather now?"

The bird digimon obliged, handing Ken a tail feather glowing bright orange. Ken thanked it and nodded in farewell. As he and Gatomon walked away, the parrot-like digimon called after him: "Remember the riddle, Ken Ichijouji. It means so much more than you know."

Out of earshot of the strange creature, Ken addressed Gatomon. "What seemed strange about that encounter?"

"That digimon knew you, but not me. It doesn't make a lick of sense."

Then they found a door.