Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A/N: I'm finally back! MBFG is next!

Following the Footsteps of Destiny

Chapter 37: Evil Hides Behind A Mask

Ryoko Ishida

Server, Eastern Hemisphere, Digital World

Gabrielmon gently laid Dai in the grass, and Ryoko knelt next to his friend's side.

"Dai, come on. You have to wake up," he said softly, placing a hand on the goggle headed leader's arm.

Dai did not respond, and he felt his eyes fill with tears. What if he never wakes up?

Alopemon leaned against his side and gave him a gentle smile. "Don't worry, Ryoko. He will be alright."

Ryoko rested his cheek against his partner's head and sighed. "I was worried about you."

"I was worried about you, too," Alopemon murmured. "Please don't run off like that again."

"I'm sorry," he whispered, hugging his partner tightly.

The little rookie's forehead came to rest against his, and Alopemon gave him a very serious look. "I mean it, Ryoko. I can't protect you if you're always running away from me."

"I wasn't running away from you," he murmured, stroking his partner's ears. You know I love you. I was just worried about Dai. I might not know you very well, yet, but I do know that we're going to make a perfect team."

"I agree," Alopemon said quietly. "I hope you realize how much I care about you. I know it might not have seemed like it when we first met, but I was distracted by the battle."

"I know," he said quietly. "Don't worry about it. That's one of the reasons why I'm glad that you're my partner."

Alopemon smiled and nodded.

"It's great having a digimon, isn't it?" Mickey said softly, sitting down next to him and giving Gabrielmon a fond look.

Mickey's partner was standing next to Angelicmon, under a tree, and the two digimon had their heads bent close together. They were whispering softly to each other, and Gabrielmon suddenly looked up, as if he sensed Mickey's gaze on him.

"Is something wrong, Mickey?" Gabrielmon asked, coming over and sitting down next to his partner.

Mickey shook his head and leaned his cheek against the angel digimon's shoulder. "Thank you for saving Ryoko," the older twin said softly.

"You don't have to thank me," Gabrielmon replied, wrapping an arm around Mickey's shoulders. "I wanted to save him!"

Ryoko blushed and smiled at Gabrielmon, who smiled back at him.

"I'm so glad that you're an angel digimon," Mickey whispered, running a hand over one of his partner's wings. "I was hoping that you would be, but I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure. You're absolutely amazing, you know that?"

"Thank you," Gabrielmon replied, resting his cheek against the top of Mickey's head.

"Of course he's an angel!" Matty laughed, flopping down on the ground next to his twin. "After all, we did find Halomon and Celestimon under an angel statue! I thought it was pretty obvious!"

"And yet you were still shocked when Celestimon digivolved," Mickey replied, looking amused.

Matty rolled his eyes and gave his brother a smile.

"Have you two finally stopped fighting?" Sam asked, giving them a look.

Ryoko glanced at his twin cousins and raised his eyebrows.

"We weren't fighting," Matty shot back, giving Sam a dirty look. "We were having a disagreement!"

"Whatever!" Sam laughed.

Gabrielmon whispered something to Angelicmon, and they both smiled.

"Besides, I had a good feeling about Halomon," Matty added.

"So did I," Angelicmon said softly, wrapping an arm around Gabrielmon.

Mickey's partner nodded and patted Angelicmon's wing. "It looks like you guys were right."

"I didn't tell you my suspicions before because I wanted it to be a surprise," Matty explained, turning to look at his twin.

Mickey smiled at his brother and pulled Matty against him in a hug. "Right. I bet you were afraid that you'd end up being wrong!"

"So?" Matty laughed, placing a hand against the back of his brother's golden head. "See, Sam? He forgives me!"

Mickey's forehead was resting against Matty's cheek, and the older twin laughed.

"I'm just glad that we all made it out of there in one piece!" Takara said, sitting down on Dai's other side. "You wouldn't believe how worried I was for all of you!"

"We were worried about you, too," Ryoko replied, leaning over Dai to kiss her cheek.

"There! That should stop BlackWidowmon from following us!"

Ryoko looked up at the sound of Ogremon's voice and turned to see that the virus digimon had blocked off the tunnel. The entrance was completely sealed with rocks and large tree branches.

Embermon nodded with approval and smiled at Ogremon. "Good thinking."

"See, Kara? Not all virus digimon are bad!" Sam laughed.

Takara made a face at him and rolled her eyes.

"Hey! I'm not that good either!" Ogremon grumbled.

"Kara, who were you shouting at earlier?" Matty asked, giving her a curious look.

"No one," Takara mumbled.

Apparently Matty had not forgotten about that.

Dai suddenly let out a groan, and Ryoko quickly turned back to his friend.

"Dai?" he whispered.

Dai slowly opened his eyes and blinked. "What's going on?"

"Don't worry. Everything's okay now," Takara said softly, taking his hand. "How are you feeling?"

"Terrible," Dai mumbled. "Where are we?"

"In a forest," Mickey replied. "We managed to defeat Gnomemon, but BlackWidowmon was still after us so we had to escape. Halomon digivolved to help us."

Dai lifted his head, and the goggle headed leader's eyes widened when he spotted Gabrielmon. "Wow! He's an angel, just like Angelicmon! You're really lucky, Mickey."

"Thanks," Mickey said softly.

"It's nice to meet you, Dai. I am Gabrielmon," the angel digimon said softly.

"You, too. You're a great digimon."

"I'm glad you think so," Gabrielmon replied.

"Why did you digivolve?" Dai asked, looking confused.

Gabrielmon glanced at Alopemon and smiled. "Ryoko was in trouble."

"What?" Dai snapped.

The goggle headed leader abruptly sat up and winced.

"Will you be careful before you end up hurting yourself even more?" Ryoko snapped back. "I'm fine."

"What happened to you?" Dai demanded, staring directly into his eyes.

Takara quickly explained what had happened, and Dai's face turned pale.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" the goggle headed leader asked, his voice shaking with anger.

"No! I was trying to protect you!" he shouted back.

Everyone stared at him in shock, including Dai, and the goggle headed leader suddenly leaned against his side.

"Don't ever do something like that again," Dai mumbled so softly that he just barely heard the words. "I'm not worth it."

Ryoko's eyes filled with tears, and he quickly turned his face away. Yes, you are.

"Here," Angelicmon said softly, handing them their D-Coders. "You'd better keep a closer eye on your Digivices from now on. Those evil digimon can be tricky."

"Thanks," Dai said softly.

"Dai, I'm really sorry," Embermon whispered, standing on the goggle headed leader's knee and hugging him tightly. "I should have made more of an effort to protect you."

"No way. You did a great job," Dai said, tugging gently on Embermon's tail.

"You really scared me when you wouldn't wake up," the little rookie mumbled into his shoulder.

"Sorry," Dai murmured. "Don't worry, though. I'm okay."

"Thank goodness for that!" Takara whispered, slipping an arm around Dai's waist.

"I will always worry about you," Embermon said softly.

"You humans are so reckless!" Ogremon said. "It's no wonder that you're always getting yourselves into trouble!"

"Who's the ugly digimon?" Dai asked.

"Hey! It's what's on the inside that counts!" Ogremon replied, giving Dai a dirty look.

"Oh, this is Ogremon," Sam said. "He was the digimon that Gennai chose to protect Alopemon."

Sam quickly told Dai about everything that had happened to them in the cave, including their escape, and the goggle headed leader's face filled with astonishment.

"So our D-Coders can help us find each other again! That's so cool!"

"I know!" Matty laughed, and Ryoko smiled at his cousin.

Dai suddenly touched his arm, and he jumped.

"Um...thanks for taking care of my Digivice," the goggle headed leader muttered.

Ryoko blushed and nodded.

"Alright, so what's this about Gennai being captured?" Ogremon asked.

Ryoko quickly told the virus digimon about Vampiramon, and he told him about how she and her evil gang of digimon had captured Gennai.

When he was finished, Ogremon frowned. "So Andromon and Leomon went to look for him? Well that settles it then! I'm going to go look for Gennai, too! File Island is actually my home, but I came to Server because Gennai needed me to protect Alopemon. Now that Ryoko's here, I can finally get back to the island and help the others. Leomon probably needs me."

"Sounds good," Dai replied. "While you're doing that, we're going to go look for Sam's and Takara's digimon partners."

"After you get some rest!" Ryoko snapped.

Dai glared at him and sighed. "Alright, alright! After I get some rest!"

"How are we going to get home?" Sam asked, looking a little worried.

Ogremon pointed to a small television that was half hidden by a group of bushes. Ryoko had been so busy worrying about Dai that he had not even noticed it before.

"Come on, guys. We'd better get going," Mickey said softly. "Thanks for all of your help, Ogremon."

Ogremon shrugged, and his green face split into a wide smile. "Hey, no problem. This isn't the first time that I've helped out a group of humans. I'd better quit it or the other digimon on File Island are going to start thinking that I'm nice!"

Ryoko laughed and shook Ogremon's hand. "We'll see you around, Ogremon. Thanks again!" He did not bother asking the virus digimon about the first time that he had helped humans. We probably won't get an answer anyway!

Dai tried to get to his feet and would have fallen over if Matty had not caught his arm.

"Did I not just tell you to be careful?" Ryoko shouted. "Why do I even bother? Here, let me help you."

He slipped his arm around his friend's waist, and Mickey quickly moved to Dai's other side. Together they managed to drag the goggle headed leader over to the gate.

"This had better not happen again!" he snapped, glaring at the goggle headed leader. "Especially now that Alopemon and I can help you fight!"

Dai ignored him. Instead, the goggle headed leader turned and hugged Mickey tightly.

"Thank you," he heard Dai whisper in Mickey's ear.

Mickey smiled and nodded. "You're welcome."

Ryoko felt his face turn red and bit his lip. Are they talking about me?

"Bye, Ogremon!" Takara called out.

"Good luck!" Sam added.

"You guys be careful!" Ogremon called back.

Ryoko and his friends held out their D-Coders, and they were swept back through the gate.

DarkAngelicmon

Server, Eastern Hemisphere, Digital World

DarkAngelicmon stood at the edge of the canyon and smiled at the sight of BlackWidowmon stumbling out of the cave.

I warned them to be careful about Halomon, but obviously BlackWidowmon didn't listen to me.

He sighed and brushed a stray strand of black hair out of his eyes. Technically he was still an angel digimon, and that was why he had been able to sense what Halomon's champion form was going to be. Digimon had a way of sensing their own kind, which was why he had known about Angelicmon, as well.

"It definitely makes things interesting," he said softly.

I would love to meet them in battle, although I certainly won't be making the same mistakes that LadyDevimon made with Angewomon. I've never really been the jealous type!

He smiled in amusement and laughed as he watched BlackWidowmon trip over a rock.

Once again our master's going to be very disappointed. Oh well. Let the others fail. I never expected much from them anyway. In the end, I will be the one who destroys the Digidestined. Soon all digimon and humans will be forced to obey me and my master. It is my destiny.

"Watch out, my fragile human friends," he whispered softly. "You have not even come close to seeing our true strength. As I always say, beware The Powers of Darkness, or they just might swallow you whole."

He turned his back on BlackWidowmon and leaped gracefully into the air.

And Masato Takaishi thinks that his digimon is powerful. Well, we'll see about that!

He smiled slightly and flew off in the direction of Cyber, without a backwards glance.