AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Happy Friday! I hope you're well and that you've had a great week, and I hope you enjoy today's update!

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

The ocean was calm; a smooth sheet of silver that stretched out to the horizon broken only by small waves that lapped gently at the sand, whispering untold secrets of the mysterious fathoms below. The grey sky brought a sense of unease that was familiar and paradoxically soothing, and he gulped in a deep breath as his boots crunched against the colourless sand, each step leaving a deep scar in its wake. He hated it here, and yet there was a part of him that couldn't help but feel like this was where he belonged.

It was desolate, but it was also peaceful; so far removed from the insects of the Digital World. Ruling was becoming more tiresome of late, and the distractions that tore his attention from larger pursuits were a persistent source of annoyance that continued to try his patience. For months he had battled on and off with the humans he'd found, but now more players had joined the game. He enjoyed the challenge, but there was a part of him that almost yearned for the days when things were simpler. Easier.

Back when I didn't have to hurt so many of them.

Ken growled over the voice that bubbled at the back of his mind. There was his weakness, he fumed; a small part of his soul that couldn't ignore the pain that came with power. Everything would be simpler when the Digital World was under his rule. Everything would be calmer, quieter, and his.

He stopped abruptly at the sound of sniffling, and his dark eyes narrowed at the small, trembling figure a few short steps away. She had tucked herself into the bluff and wrapped her arms tightly around her knees as she shivered against the stench of depression in the air. He wanted to sneer at her and remind her of just how feeble she was, of how she deserved to be here, but that sliver of weakness cinched its way around his throat. He tried to turn and walk away, leaving her and her insignificant problems behind, but his feet acted of their own accord. Instead he stepped closer, just like he did every time, and whilst he would never describe his voice as warm his words lacked their usual coolness.

"You're here again." The snivelling stopped. She raised a tiny hand to brush back the curtain of brown hair and she lifted her red-rimmed eyes towards him.

"So are you," she answered quietly. She brought her hands to her chest and blew on them gently for warmth. Unlike Ken, who was covered almost entirely from head to toe, the girl's thin, sleeveless tunic was hardly the best attire for the Dark Ocean. Slowly stood, brushing the grey sand from her legs and wrapping her arms around her stomach.

"But I like it here," he replied. The girl's red eyes stared right through him; two spots of crimson in a colourless world.

"Nobody likes it here." Ken sneered. The girl was nothing more than a stumbling block in his path – vermin to be crushed under his reign – and yet he was standing with her as though she was an equal. He growled with anger, and the girl stepped closer. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing that an imbecile like you would understand," he snapped. She was unaffected, as usual. They'd spent enough time together on this lonely shore that his temper didn't bother her anymore. He had often wondered when he would become just as indifferent to her pitiful emotions as she was to his anger. She turned her gaze to the sheet of steely water that spread out to the horizon.

The girl confused and frustrated him. There were other humans on the server; this he knew. The would-be healer with his collection of walking wounded, and the other boy whose partner had somehow managed to circumvent the influence of the Dark Towers, to mention nothing of the newcomers who had started to crawl out of the woodwork. But of the pests and their partners, he had only ever seen the girl set foot upon the sands of this beach that felt like limbo. He found the colourless shore soothing and calm, but for some reason it terrified her. Even as she stood tall, staring out over the silvery abyss, he saw her shoulders tremble and noticed how the knuckles of her clenched fists were white with fear.

"I know why I'm here," she said after a moment's pause, not taking her eyes off the water. "Why do you keep coming back?"

"What business is it of yours?" he snarled. She looked at him with a sad smile.

"Because nobody chooses to be here; not really."

She reached for him again, offering a small, gentle hand, but he growled and jumped away from her touch. In an instant his hand flew to his whip, and before he truly knew what he was doing he had brought the fine leather whistling through the air towards her, swinging blindly. She barely jumped out of the way in time, but the whip kissed the side of her face and left a sliver of blood along her cheekbone. A second snap, and the whip wrapped tightly around her wrist. Her eyes widened in surprise, and Ken chuckled as he tugged sharply, bringing her stumbling towards him. She might have kissed the dirt at his feet if he hadn't reached out, catching her by the neck and wrapping his fingers tightly around her throat.

"You don't know me," he hissed, his face inches from hers. The terror that had flared in her eyes had faded, and the rubies were as calm as the ocean as they stared back at him. With another feral growl he tightened his grip, and he didn't stop the smirk that spread over his lips as she finally gasped with fear. Her free hand moved to scratch at his wrist, trying to pull away, but the more she struggled the tighter his grip became.

"Without your digimon, you are nothing," he hissed. He lifted her higher until her toes scraped the sand. He barely felt her short nails through his gloves as she continued to scratch and claw at him. Her eyes were growing wider by the minute, the calm thrown in to a sudden tempest, and he heard her wheezing and gasping as her struggles grew weaker. "Pathetic and weak." Her eyes began to roll as she looped her tired fingers around his wrist. Her lips opened and closed like a fish before finally gasping a single word.

"Please…"

For a moment, he considered what it would be like to squeeze the life from this girl. Or, better still, how she would react were he to place her under the control of a dark ring; he suddenly regretted that he was not able to better prepare for the unexpected trip. Despite his boasts, this wasn't a place he came to willingly.

But there was still a part of her pitiful resistance that amused him. There was something almost quaint about the way she and her pathetic Tailmon continued to seek him out again and again despite their laughable odds. The girl might be pretty good with a bow, but against an armoured digimon it was hardly an effective tactic, and her charming stubbornness was beginning to border on stupidity. Their games of cat and mouse had been bordering on tiresome, but now… with her new friends, perhaps she would finally be worth fighting. And how satisfying it would be, he thought, to wipe her out in battle than to let her die with only his hand around her throat.

He threw her to the ground, and she fell as a dead weight in to the sand. The whip was still snared around her wrist, and he yanked it back, sneering as she whimpered and rolled away from him. She curled up in to a tight ball, hugging her arm and rubbing at her neck, coughing and gasping. She was so small, he thought absently as she wheezed in to her knees. Small, weak and pathetic.

With a chuckle he turned on his heel and walked away, fingering the black digivice on his belt. As he walked, the girl's coughing slowly subsided, and he paused as she fell silent. He wondered for a moment if he might have killed her yet, but he heard the sand shifting beneath her and he growled in both anger and satisfaction.

"This isn't you," she rasped. "You're better than you want everyone to believe. Otherwise, you would have killed me already."

With a roar, he turned back to her, raising the whip once more. She'd barely lifted herself to her hands and knees when he towered over her, bringing the whip whistling through the air. She yelled in surprise, barely bringing her arm up in time to shield herself. The whip split the skin along her silvery forearm and she doubled over the wound, gasping in pain. Another strike landed on her back before he threw the whip aside and dropped to a crouch next to her, gripping a fistful of her hair and tearing her head back so that he could look in to her terrified, crying eyes.

"Don't tempt me," he spat, "or next time I might just finish the job." He threw her aside violently, and she curled in on herself again, cradling her self-inflicted wounds and sobbing. This time when he walked away, she gave him no reason to turn back.

"That's Santa Geria," Gabumon whispered as they paused at the edge of the forest where grass gave way to sand at the base of a mountain. The small stone huts were built so close against the sloping cliff that they almost looked carved from the bluff, with a scattering of yellow-green trees and bushes dotted in between. Further from the ground the houses grew sparser and shifted from stark-white to sun-blushed ruins nestled between snaking paths that twisted and spiralled together as they climbed towards the white-hot sky. Against the pale landscape, the tall, black needle was a sharp eyesore.

"What's that?" Taichi whispered, pressing himself flat against the sandy grass. Gabumon crawled next to him and stared at the tall black obelisk that sprouted from the centre of the city.

"The Kaiser called it a Dark Tower," he replied in an equally hushed tone. "He said that he would use it to control everyone in the area. Then he summoned the dark rings to control the Gazimon. I don't know what happened next; Yamato made me leave to find help." Taichi couldn't stop the smile that pulled at his lips.

"Idiot," he muttered under his breath. Gabumon nodded in fond agreement.

"So what do we do?" Daisuke asked.

"We need to find a way to bring down that tower," said Koushiro. Taichi twisted to look over his shoulder.

"You think that'll solve it?" Taichi asked. Koushiro shrugged.

"I have a theory," he answered quietly, crawling closer. "At first I thought that maybe these rings worked like the black gears – that they would corrupt a digimon's data and make them more susceptible to darkness – but from what Gabumon's explained it sounds more like it's a form of mind control, and these Dark Rings are how he conveys his orders. Gabumon said the tower went up first and the rings came after, so now I'm wondering if the rings have a limited range."

"What do you mean?" Sora asked. Koushiro pursed his lips and frowned at the tower for several seconds before finally coming up with an answer (or, more likely, coming up with a way of explaining his answer that they had a chance of understanding).

"It's little more than a theory at this stage, I'd need more data to substantiate it, but what if that tower is part of a network to extend the Kaiser's reach? Like how your cell phone bounces off a cell tower in a cellular network." Taichi glanced up at the looming spire. There were no clusters of antenna like on a cell tower, but he supposed there didn't have to be. This was the Digital World; things didn't have to make perfect sense (or any sense at all).

"So if those things are like cell towers," Taichi began, "does that mean that if we take them out…"

"That's right," Koushiro said with a nod. "If they work like I think they do, then taking them out could disrupt the Kaiser's network. It should weaken his control over the dark rings in this area."

"But how are we going to do that?" Miyako asked loudly. Taichi winced at her shrill voice. They might be a fair distance from the village, but judging by the size of the Gazimons' ears he wouldn't be surprised if they'd heard her clear as a bell. She was quickly shushed by several of the others and Taichi saw her cheeks flush as she continued in a hushed voice. "I mean we don't even know how strong it is. What if we need explosions or something to bring it down?"

"Fladramon can take care of that," Daisuke boasted. "He's a walking fireball." Veemon grinned and puffed out his chest, and Miyako rolled her eyes.

"Just because something's on fire doesn't mean it's going to explode," she snipped.

"I could try and dig down underneath it," Armadimon suggested. "Maybe we could try and uproot it."

"But we don't know how far down it goes," Iori said with a thoughtful frown. "What if they go all the way down in to the Digital World and connect to each other like a physical network? Or what if we get closer to it and find out that you guys can't even armour digivolve?" Armadimon frowned.

"We need to collect more data," Koushiro said with a frown. He glanced to Taichi and Taichi arched an eyebrow.

"You want to get closer." It wasn't a question. Koushiro nodded.

"If I can get close enough, I might be able to gather enough data on my digivice to analyse later."

"But what if it's too closely guarded for us to get close?" Miyako asked. Sora nodded in agreement.

"There's no use getting the data if we can't get back out again. If Gabumon's right, then all the digimon in the city could be under the Kaiser's control, and if the tower affects the Digimentals too then we might as well hand ourselves over to the Kaiser." Daisuke scoffed.

"He's just a kid-"

"A kid with a city of minions on his side," Taichi argued. He curled his fingers in to fists. "And he has Yamato."

"Shouldn't we be tryin' to save him?" Veemon asked, blinking his large eyes up at Daisuke.

"I… I'm not sure, buddy," he answered quietly.

"We are going to save him," Taichi said firmly, "but Sora's right – getting in isn't going to be the problem." To Taichi's left, Jou cleared his throat nervously.

"Um, guys..." It was phrased almost like a question, and Taichi turned to where Jou was sitting with Palmon. "I have an idea…"

The plan was explained and, with no better proposed alternatives, eventually agreed. Jou got the rope and Gabumon found a thick piece of bark that was sturdy enough to be wrapped around his waist. Against his bright yellow of his stomach the wood looked almost black, and he twisted the makeshift ring until the rough fastening was hidden under his pelt. Taichi offered his wrists first, followed by Palmon who would pretend to be his partner (she wasn't particularly strong, but neither was she weak, and when she had volunteered for the task Sora had agreed that it was better than Taichi being completely unprotected). Sora and Piyomon came next, followed by Daisuke and Veemon and then Iori and Armadimon.

"Miyako and Hawkmon should stay behind," Jou suggested. "If you get in to trouble, Holsmon's the fastest way to get you out of there. And I don't have a partner, so I'll stay here." Taichi didn't miss the way his voice hitched a little, and had his hands not been tied up he would have reached out to Jou's shoulder. Instead he caught Jou's eye and nodded with what he hoped was a reassuring smile as Gabumon took the rope in his paws and led them towards the city.

"I wish Tailmon were here," Taichi heard him mumble. "She'd be better at this sort of thing."

Me too, Taichi thought, though he kept his mouth shut as they passed in to the shadow of the city. Gabumon began to snarl and tug the rope as they passed several digimon on the lower levels, and after one particularly sharp tug Taichi slumped heavily, dragging his heels in the dirt and earning a genuine glare from Gabumon. The resemblance to his partner was painful.

"Who goes there?" a voice cried, and their small procession halted. Gabumon stiffened and turn to glare at the approaching pair of RedVegiemon sentries. They looked like oversized-beetroots with spiked green clubs at the end of their wiry red arms. They waddled closer, sniggering to each other as they beheld Gabumon's captives, stopping a little too close for comfort. They planted their clubbed hands in to the dirt and lifted themselves up until they towered over the group, and their glowing red eyes narrowed suspiciously. Taichi caught the glint of the dark rings bound tightly around their pockmarked skin.

"Hey! Don't I know you?" one said, leering at Gabumon. He turned to his partner. "Do you know him?"

"Isn't he the one who ran away when the Kaiser took over?" the other asked, leaning closer. Gabumon's face remained impassive.

"Yeah!" the first exclaimed. "Didn't get too far, did ya?" The RedVegiemon chuckled deeply to each other, and Gabumon snapped his jaws fiercely.

"I was sent on a mission by the Kaiser," Gabumon retorted, his tone clipped and matching the RedVegiemon in their arrogance. The RedVegiemon shrank back, their eyes almost comically wide. "While you've been stuck here enslaving digimon, I've captured Chosen Children and their partners." He tugged the rope and Taichi stumbled forward, growling. For a moment Gabumon's glare faltered, but when Taichi tugged back with a discrete nod of his head Gabumon glowered again and turned back to the RedVegiemon. "Now if you'll excuse me, the Kaiser wants them tied up at the bottom of the Dark Tower until he can come to collect them." The digimon blinked in surprise, and for a moment Taichi wondered if they had bought Gabumon's story. After a silent beat they erupted in enthusiastic offers of help and support. With a cold glare that reminded Taichi so much of Yamato, Gabumon silenced them and stepped forwards, leading them to one of the snaking paths that led from the pristine city to the dusty ruins and beyond.

By the time they reached the top, Taichi felt his calves burning, and he raised his bound hands to mop the sweat from his brow on the sleeve of his blazer, regretting not leaving the jacket with Jou and the others in the shade. Gabumon's growl was the first sign that they weren't alone, and Taichi stared through his drooping hair at the Vegiemon patrolling the base in small groups. They were smaller than the RedVegiemon who patrolled the upper levels with a watchful eye on the city below. They were almost at the base of the tower when someone shouted them to halt.

"The Kaiser wants these Chosen Children kept here," Gabumon said firmly before anyone could interject. A RedVegiemon sloped forwards, fixing Gabumon with a strange look. Finally he cast his eyes further down the line, taking in the small group who by now were slouched and weary. From the corner of his eye, Taichi saw Daisuke straighten, fixing their inspector with a fierce glare.

"Odd that he didn't want them kept in the cells with the other one," he said slowly. Gabumon's eyes widened a fraction and the RedVegiemon shuffled closer with a smirk. "You didn't know he wasn't here? How strange that the Kaiser didn't give you all the information you needed to carry out your mission. Perhaps there is something wrong with your ring…" He waddled closer to Gabumon, reaching towards the band of bark around Gabumon's waist, and Taichi cursed. He glanced to Daisuke who looked to Veemon who nodded with an eager grin.

"Split up!" Taichi shouted, though it was almost lost under RedVegiemon's yell of, "Get them!" Diving to the side, Taichi dropped the rope from around his hands and ducked under a flurry of green-purple vines as Palmon ensnared the closest RedVegiemon and held him in place. The air was filled with the yellow vines of Vegiemon as they surged forwards, lumbering towards the them faster than Taichi would have thought possible.

"Digimental up!" Daisuke and Iori cried out in unison. Taichi threw himself under a pair of outstretched vines to dive towards the base of the tower. Koushiro had pressed himself against it, holding his digivice against the surface with a frown while Tentomon darted this way and that to intercept the incoming attacks.

"Anything?" Taichi asked.

"I can't analyse the data, I can only collect it," Koushiro answered.

"Well can you collect it faster?"

"I'm trying my best but I – hey!" Taichi had gripped his shoulder to pull him roughly to the ground, narrowly avoiding a fiery blast that splashed harmlessly against the tower. Koushiro tore his arm free with a glare. "Now I have to start over!"

"You're welcome," Taichi growled, hauling himself to his feet. "Tentomon, make sure he doesn't get himself killed."

"I'll try my best," came the clipped response. Fladramon had joined the fray now and the RedVegiemon had turned their attention towards him, peppering him with blasts of fire that splashed against his armour. On the other side of the tower, Digmon was firing gleaming silver drills to try and keep the swarm at bay, though several Vegimon had wrapped their vines around his arms and were trying to pull him to his knees.

"Taichi!" Sora's voice cut across the battle like a knife, and he span in time to watch her become ensnared in the vines of three Vegiemon, though her wide eyes were fixed on him. "Behind you!"

The burns splashed across his back and knocked the breath from his lungs as he staggered forwards. A second round of RedVegiemon's Chilli Pepper Pummel sent him to his knees and filled the air with the stench of singed cotton and hair. Thick yellow vines tightened around his arms and chest as he was pulled upright, blinking the blinding light from his eyes to find the others in a similar state – bound by vines and lifted several feet off the ground. The ground shuddered as Digmon was finally brought down, and Daisuke cried out as several Vegiemon latched on to Fladramon who let out a furious roar. A ball of fire began to form at his knuckles, but the Vegiemon wrapped their vines around his arm and aimed his fist towards Daisuke, and it was quickly extinguished.

"You cannot hope to defeat the Kaiser," RedVegiemon proclaimed. He waddled closer to Taichi with a sinister chuckle. "He will rule the Digital World, and you will bow before him. He will crush you and you will kiss his boots while he-" Whatever the Kaiser was going to do to them was lost in a sudden gust of wind as Holsmon's Tempest Wing blasted the digimon back in to the tower. It landed with a resounding CRACK, sending a spiderweb of fractures shivering up the dark column.

The Vegiemon turned their attention towards Holsemon with single-minded fury. The RedVegiemon were roaring orders to attack amidst bursts of fire, and Taichi yelped as he was thrown down to the ground. Holsmon reared up in to the sky and quickly twisted, facing the oncoming attacks with a grin.

"Mach impulse!" From beneath the wings of his silver helmet, two large gusts of wind sliced through the air and pushed the Vegiemon back, sending them tumbling over each other in a disgruntled wave. Holsemon rose in to the air, twisting away from the wave of attacks that fell short of their target, and Taichi almost laughed at the sight of Jou clinging desperately to Miyako with a hand clamped over his mouth.

Taichi rolled to his feet and rushed to Sora who was struggling with the last of Vegiemon's thin vines. With a fierce peck from Piyomon's sharp beak the digimon yelped and let go, clutching its injured limb as it hobbled directly in to Fladramon's flaming fist.

"You all right?" Taichi asked, offering her his hand. She didn't need it, but she took it anyway, and as she laced her fingers with his he felt her offer a firm squeeze.

"Fine," she answered. She glanced over Taichi's shoulder. "The tower's damaged. It's getting worse." Taichi turned, eyeing the spiderweb of cracks that had spread up from the RedVegiemon's impact. Digmon lumbered past the tower, and each heavy footfall made the cracks grow by an inch or two, coughing out clouds of dark dust. Something heavy collided with the other side, and the cracks grew again. Taichi quickly scanned the fight.

"Daisuke!"

"Yeah?" He was several feet away, dodging several attacks at once. Fladramon landed heavily beside him, sending out a spiralling circle of fire that left the Vegiemon dancing back, and Daisuke finally looked up. Taichi jerked a thumb towards the tower and Daisuke nodded. "Fladramon!"

"My pleasure!" He quickly turned his attention towards the tower, fighting his way towards it with Daisuke in his wake. Sora tugged Taichi's hand, pulling him out of the way of another barrage of flaming peppers which exploded at their feet. Taichi kicked flaming vegetable gunk off his sneakers before glancing to the sky. Holsmon was circling the tower, throwing an attack here and there to help with crowd control. Across the small plaza, Koushiro and Tentomon were keeping Iori safe while Digmon was shooting drills at the nearest attackers.

"Come on," he said, tugging Sora's hand. Together they waved through the crowd, darting this way and that to avoid the digimon and their attacks. Piyomon followed, watching their backs and retaliating when she could, though her magical fire was barely more than an inconvenience at best.

They reached Koushiro and the others just in time to see Fladramon launch his first attack on the tower. The cracks worsened, spreading further across the base, but otherwise the tower remained intact. Taichi cursed.

"This looks like a job for me," Digmon said between fending off the RedVegiemon who had organised themselves in to a line and were quickly advancing, trapping them in a corner. "If only I could get to it!"

"If Fladramon could cause a distraction then he might give you an opportunity," said Iori.

"We don't know for certain that destroying the tower will do anything," Koushiro interjected. "It's just a theory-"

"You've never steered us wrong before," Sora countered. "Piyomon, can you get a message to Miyako and Holsmon?"

"Leave it to me!" she chirped. She took Sora's message and took to the skies, and Taichi watched as Holsmon paused to listen before diving towards Fladramon.

The RedVegiemon were upon them now, and Taichi tugged Sora aside as they launched their first assault. Koushiro took to protecting Iori whilst Tentomon did his best to destroy the attacks as they advanced, managing to explode several chillis in the air. Digmon was hunkered over Iori and Koushiro, his impenetrable golden shell protecting them from the rain of fire. A pause in the onslaught allowed him to twist, and he plunged his drills in to the dirt.

"Big crack!" A fissure split the plaza, and the Vegiemon and RedVegiemon dove out of its path in an angry fluster.

"Digimon, go!" Iori cried. Digmon nodded and sprang forwards, running astride the fissure. It took a moment for the digimon to realise what he was doing, but by the time they had regained their wits Fladramon had dropped down amongst them with Holsmon hovering over his shoulder, allowing Digmon to reach the tower unhindered. He drove his drills in to the spider web of fractures.

"Titan drill!"

Cracks raced the length of the tower, belching dirt and fragments of stone before they reached the peak. The tower gave a great shudder before tilting to the side, crumbling as it fell and crashing to the ground in pieces.

The attacking digimon stopped in their tracks. A heavy silence fell over the plaza and Taichi pulled Sora behind him as he watched the digimon warily. After a moment they began to move again; slowly at first, as though waking up from some kind of dream. They blinked the red glow from their eyes and wriggling their way out of the Dark Rings in a confused stupor as the city below erupted in victorious cheers.

"Taichi," said Sora, grabbing his wrist. "Yamato – we have to find him." Taichi grit his teeth and nodded, turning to the first digimon he could find.

"Someone mentioned cells – prison cells – where are they?" The Vegiemon scratched its head for a moment, blinking her clear eyes at them in confusion before she was finally able to answer.

"Back towards the city," she said. "When you reach the fork in the ruins, turn left and head to the old temple. The cells are underneath."

"Then let's go!" Daisuke proclaimed. "Fladramon will have your friend busted out of there in no time-"

"I wouldn't bother if I were you."

A shadow swooped overhead and Taichi stiffened, looking up to the sky. A giant dragon digimon loomed overhead, its tattered crimson wings spread wide. It was lowering itself towards them, and Taichi caught the thick black ring that was strapped around its neck, peering out from behind tattered tufts of crimson and yellow. A battered ivory skull sat atop its snout, and a figure stood between the jagged horns; Daisuke's enthusiastic descriptions of the boy-tyrant had barely done his flamboyant outfit justice. The Kaiser smirked down at them, his fingers tightening around the hilt of his whip.

"Looking for this?"

The digimon twisted, its tightly-coiled tail slowly unravelling. Taichi's heart leapt to his throat.

"Yamato!" he roared, rushing forwards. Yamato's body hung limp, and as the digimon dangled him perilously in the air Taichi caught sight of crimson matted in to his blond hair. Taichi's heart stopped. "Let him go!" The Kaiser merely laughed and cracked his whip. The digimon rose high in to the sky, taking Yamato with him, and Taichi's heart skipped several beats.

"Sora!" Piyomon cried. Taichi turned, only to be blinded by the light of evolution as Sora's digivice erupted. Birdramon was still glowing when she surged forwards, calling Taichi's name, and Taichi wrapped himself around her leg as she took to the air. She soared with such speed that Taichi couldn't breathe, and he pressed his face into her scales until she finally broke through the clouds and hung on a warm updraft. The sun was blinding, and it took too long for Taichi to blink the sunlight from his eyes in order to search the skies, only to find them empty.

The Kaiser and Yamato were gone.

Tailmon paced nervously, wringing her paws together. She'd been woken in the middle of the night by Hikari's nightmare, and after soothing the girl back to sleep she'd hoped that would be the last of it. When she awoke to the glorious sunshine that filtered through the gaps in the thatched wall, she was at first grateful for the undisturbed cat nap until she realised that while Hikari's bow, quiver and shoes were neatly laid out next to her small pile of blankets, Hikari was nowhere to be seen. She'd spent the day worriedly pacing their makeshift hut in a terrified panic. With Hikari missing again, Tailmon felt like her heart might just explode.

When a shadow passed outside their makeshift hut Tailmon jumped in surprise, dropping in to a deep crouch. Her heart froze as the figure walked to the small entrance, and when the reeds were pushed aside Tailmon barely stopped herself from springing forwards with a cry.

"Hikari!" she gasped, dropping her paw. "I was so worried! Where have you-" As Hikari stepped inside, Tailmon felt the question die in her throat. The tremble in her arms, the haunted look in her eyes, and the rotting stench that followed her like a fog were enough to tell Tailmon exactly where she'd been.

She took Hikari's hand and led her to the blankets, wrapping the thickest one loosely around her shoulders before preparing a fire in the centre of their small shelter. She heard Hikari's teeth chatter as she stacked the twigs and kindling, and she heard the occasional whimper as she reached for the flint to start the fire. By the time the fire was truly burning, Hikari had fallen so silent that Tailmon thought she might have been asleep. As she packed the flint away and beheld her human partner, she was dismayed to see Hikari's empty eyes fixed absently on the fire, watching without seeing as the flames danced and writhed and the wood popped and crackled.

Tailmon sat on the other side of the fire and waited silently. If there was one thing she had learned from their years together, it was that Hikari recovered best in silence; taking a moment to pull the pieces of herself back together one by one. Tailmon hated it. Hikari was so removed from her normal, vibrant self that Tailmon couldn't help but think that each time she rebuilt her walls she hid something new behind them. And of course, being just as stubborn as her brother, Hikari refused to talk about it.

That didn't stop Tailmon from trying.

"You were there again, weren't you?" Tailmon asked when Hikari's gaze was no longer glassy and unfocused. Hikari tried to smile, but Tailmon's stern glare made it flicker and fade like a candle in a storm.

"It's not like I plan it," she said softly and Tailmon winced; her eyes might be back to normal, but her voice was still quiet and hollow.

"Hikari-"

"I'm okay, Tailmon," she interrupted, and this time her smile stayed a little longer. "It doesn't matter."

"Of course it doesn't matter; you're not dead," Tailmon muttered before she could stop herself. Hikari's shoulders tensed.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it's supposed to mean." Hikari bit her lip and stared down at her lap like a scolded kitten but Tailmon did not offer an apology. Hikari's selflessness was a topic that had come up in many a heated discussion and often resulted in them dancing in circles around each other. Hikari's unwillingness to put herself first had almost gotten them killed on numerous occasions, like the time when she'd given the last of their rations to a village of baby Zurumon on the eve of a storm that had trapped them in a cave for three days, or when they'd first run in to the Kaiser and Hikari's decision to defend an injured Punimon had left her with a long scar across her back and three jagged scratches on her arm that had healed in to pale, knotted lines across her tanned skin.

Hikari shifted uncomfortably and the blanket slipped from around her shoulders a little. At first Tailmon thought the shadows were caused by the fire playing across her skin, but when some of the purple marks didn't join the dance Tailmon sped forwards, ripping the blanket from Hikari's grip before she could protest.

Her right cheekbone was swollen and split with a scar no bigger than Tailmon's claw which had left a small trickle of blood down the flushed cheek. Under the sudden inspection, Hikari tucked her arms close to her stomach but not before Tailmon noticed the raw, red wrist or the smear of blood that her other arm left behind. Tailmon reached out and snatched her uninjured wrist, examining the thin, clean scar that ran down the outside of her forearm. And when her eyes travelled back to Hikari's face they stopped at the splotchy ring around her neck. Hikari raised her free hand to try and sweep her hair over the injury, but Tailmon had seen enough.

"Tailmon," Hikari croaked, but Tailmon turned away and sprinted to Hikari's satchel, withdrawing a bundle of rags and their half-full water canteen. Tailmon would need to refill that once she had gotten Hikari to sleep. She bounded around the fire and tugged one of the rags from the bundle to soak it with cold water.

"Tailmon, don't worry, I can – tssss." Hikari winced as the compress was applied with just a little too much pressure to the wound on her cheek. When tears threatened to fall, Tailmon almost felt guilty until she remembered just why she was angry in the first place. Part of her was tempted to leave it to Hikari to patch herself up, but she frowned at the thought. Here was the girl she had raised from kitten to… well, perhaps Hikari still had a little too much impulsiveness in her to be a fully-grown cat just yet.

After cleaning Hikari's face Tailmon moved on to her arm, this time applying the compress with much less pressure. She softened the dried blood and removed it with several whispers of the cloth against Hikari's inflamed skin, and when that too was clean Tailmon wrapped it tightly in the linen rags.

"Anything else I should know about?" she asked quietly. For a moment Hikari remained silent and still, as though ignoring the question would make the situation go away, but then after a moment she dropped the blanket and twisted so that her back was facing the fire. Stiffly she took the wrappings from her waist and lifted her tunic, leaving her torso bear except for the black wrapping around her chest that Hikari had taken to wearing for modesty as her figure had begun to change from that of a little girl. The faded scar that ran from her left shoulder blade to her hip winked in the firelight, and Tailmon winced at the smaller, fresher mark that ran alongside it. The attack had created a small graze on her bare skin, but the blow hadn't been heavy enough to break any of the flesh beneath Hikari's tunic, leaving behind a thick red welt that ran from hip to shoulder. Tailmon briefly wiped the graze and then set to packing everything away.

She didn't need to ask where the injuries had come from. Whenever Hikari came back from the Dark Ocean she came back damaged, and if the Kaiser was there too it was always worse. The only positive, Tailmon reflected with a morbid sigh, was that at least the Kaiser left his scars on the outside.

"Are you going to tell me why you went there?" Tailmon prompted softly, bundling up the used rag. Hikari shrugged her tunic back on and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders again. For a moment Tailmon thought Hikari would ignore the question entirely, and was pleasantly surprised when her heavy sigh was interrupted by Hikari's meek voice.

"I was thinking about home," she almost whispered. Her eyes were still fixed on the fire as she chewed her lip. "About Taichi… and my parents… The others…" Tailmon sidled closer and placed a gentle paw on Hikari's cold knee. Hikari shivered.

"We'll see Daisuke again," she said. "He's sure to have given Taichi your message by now. The others will be here before you know it."

"And then what?" Hikari asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" Hikari stared at her lap, picking at the hem of her threadbare tunic.

"I don't want to leave you." Tailmon shivered. She'd been trying her best not to think about it, but if the gates were truly open again, where did that leave Hikari? She didn't belong in the digital world, but Tailmon didn't belong on Earth. It had been difficult, trying to keep Hikari alive in a world that would easily have destroyed her frail human form, but Tailmon knew she had it better than the others who'd had to bid farewell to their partners.

"Maybe you won't have to. Maybe the gates are different now." Hikari didn't look up. Tailmon took Hikari's trembling hand and tugged gently. "Come on, let's get you to bed." She carefully coaxed Hikari down on to the pile of blankets, tucking them tightly around Hikari's tiny frame. Hikari clenched her eyes shut and rolled on to her other side, curling in to a tight ball and shivering fiercely. Tailmon settled by the fire, missing Agumon now more than ever. His fires always seemed somehow warmer, and his presence – and the reminder of Taichi – often helped soothe Hikari when Tailmon alone could not. It felt strange now that it was just the two of them again, and she didn't doubt that Agumon's absence had helped nudge Hikari back in to that strange dark world.

Tailmon shivered and turned her gaze back to Hikari, wishing she knew more about the dark world if only to keep Hikari from slipping back there so often. She never felt more powerless than when Hikari was snatched away from her. But there was so little she knew and much less that she could do, and so she resigned herself to watching Hikari's shivering shoulders until the tremors finally faded and Hikari slipped into a restless sleep.