"Welcome back," Drake says, already a little leery of the new Velveteen Dream, something drastically changing in the man since he'd been such a pivotal part of Impmon digivolving. Drake still has so many questions about that, but Luke had seemed as confused as Drake was regarding it all, or perhaps just keeping everything close to the vest, as he's known to do.

"Thank you," Dream says, his eyes dark and piercing, the smirk on his lips more than a little annoying. "Glad to be back."

Drake wants to ask so many things, but the words keep dying on his tongue, so when Dream turns and joins the others, Drake exhales slowly and follows. They figure out where they want to go next, and one digiport ride later, find themselves by a simple little village, full of mud huts and cheerful digimon going on about their day. Before they can approach to enter, a digimon slips out to greet them. The Gatomon looks anxious, wringing her hands together. "I'm sorry to bother you!" she exclaims. "It's just, I didn't want word to get out in the village."

Drake quirks an eyebrow and smiles at her. "It's ok, what can we help you with?"

"The village leader took in a Salamon a long time ago," she explains. "The little thing was hungry and near deletion, but we took care of her, fed her, got her back to full strength. Then she decided she wanted to get stronger to help us, so she was determined to digivolve, but something went wrong- in her research, she found out about these weird antibodies and snuck out to try to find their origin. It appears she found them, because they overwhelmed her and when she came back, she was a Nefertimon X. Which would be fine, but she wasn't prepared for that level of power, and she went mad. I was able to keep her away from the village, for now, but she's very strong, and it's only a matter of time before she tries again."

"So you want us to...?" Drake prompts her.

"Try to purify her if you can! I've heard stories of you all doing that in the past. Please, I'm begging you, bring her back to us before she hurts herself or someone else."

Drake nods, exhaling slowly before turning to the others. "What do you think? Can we do it?" He squeezes his digivice, unsurprised when everyone standing before him nods, one by one, thoughtful emotions on their faces as they do.

Thankfully, Nefertimon X isn't too far away, and Drake hovers behind some trees as Gatomon peers out at her friend. "She's so beautiful," she whispers in awe. "But so scary."

Armor coats the beast, wings bursting from her back, large claws bracing her as she lands heavily and sighs. "I sense you, Gatomon. And you brought some digidestined for me to play with. I imagine you think they can fight me and rid me of this X-Antibody. I don't want rid of it, though. Look at me, I'm incredible!"

"I don't want you to change either, Nefertimon," Gatomon calls out to her. "I can tell this form makes you happy, I just want to help rid you of the part that's torturing you, that's making you do things you'd never do if it was you in control!"

Nefertimon lets out a caustic little laugh. "And what if you try this and it turns out I have been in control all along?"

"You would never hurt us, not like this. Not on purpose," Gatomon calls out to her. "You definitely would not threaten to kill me."

Drake hopes she can keep her talking as he creeps through the grass, approaching the frightening digimon slowly. He's almost there- thinks he has her, but then Nefertimon X must somehow just sense because she twists around and glares right at him. "Do not move, human, I am not done with my dear friend over there, just yet. Then I will make you suffer the same fate."

He does pause, digivice held tightly in hand, unsure waht to do next, how to finiish what they'd promised to do, when... there's a flash of brown and Dakota's there, face lit in determination as she slams her digivice against Nefertimon X's massive front paw. "What is this?!" Nefertimon yells out, looking down. Immediately her eyes widen in horror. "NO!" she attempts to attack, but she's too slow, Dakota's digivice glows bright, blinding her, freezing her mid-move as the power eats into her data, reconfiguring, restructuring her core. The bad is wiped clean, the good is reenforced by Dakota's sweet strength, and Nefertimon X's body glitches a couple of times before stabilizing, Dakota slowly removing her digivice and stepping backwards, blowing some of the hair out of her eyes as she looks up warily at the massive digimon.

Gatomon approaches uncertainly. "Nefertimon...?" she breathes out and her friend looks down at her.

Nefertimon's face crumbles and she begins to cry, massive tears dripping down at Gatomon's feet. "I'm so sorry," she wails. "It wasn't me, it- it was the-"

Gatomon's face lights up even as she begins to cry herself, clambering up Nefertimon's massive body, hopping from armor plate to armor plate until she's clinging to Nefertimon's face in a weird kind of hug. "I know," she says soothingly. "It's ok now, don't worry about it. No harm was done."

"Thank you," Nefertimon weeps. "Thank you so much for not giving up on me."

Gatomon smiles. "Never," she vows.

Once everything is sorted, and Nefertimon X is welcomed back into the village, the group of digidestined walk back towards the digiport. Drake hesitates near Dakota and smiles. "You did fantastic out there today. Managed everything without us even needing to digivolve our partners." He pats Gabumon on the head. "That doesn't happen often."

"No, it doesn't," his partner agrees, eyes twinkling. "Always have to appreciate it when it does, though."

"I'm just glad I could do something useful," she says, rocking back and forth on her feet. "I still hope Salamon will get to experience a proper digivolution herself soon though."

Drake smiles at her. "I'm sure she will, don't worry about it." Turning to the others, gaze lingering on Dream for a split second, still uncertain about what to think of his abilities, his change in temperment, he exhales slowly and decides, for now, to let it go. "C'mon, guys. Let's go home."