Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A/N: Another chapter...with a twist! Just a little note. I've started a Digimon forum on this site and it does have an FTFOD section. If you have any questions or want to know something (or complain!) feel free to post me a question. That way I'll be able to keep track of them. I'll be posting a lot of FTFOD news (and hints!) there. It's called Digital Connections. (named after a chapter in this story.) There are other topics on it, as well, so feel free to start one of your own. Thanks!

Following the Footsteps of Destiny

Chapter 96: Kari's Light Divided

Luciamon

Cyber, Western Hemisphere, Digital World

Luciamon landed gracefully at the top of the stairs, and her golden eyebrows narrowed into a frown. Why isn't there a guard patrolling this area? I thought DarkAngelicmon wanted to make sure the Digidestined couldn't escape once I got them into the castle. Unless...

A sudden shiver raced down her spine, and she glanced nervously over her shoulder at Mickey and the rest of the Digidestined. The group of humans and their digimon partners had made it to the top of the stairs without any problems, but the fact that they had climbed three floors without getting caught did nothing to ease the fear in their eyes.

What if DarkAngelicmon has somehow figured out the truth?

She quickly dismissed that thought with a shake of her head and managed a weak smile.

There's no way he could possibly know unless I've somehow given myself away, but I know I haven't. The only digimon who knows the truth about me is Lucemon, and he certainly wouldn't have said anything. After all, he wants to help DarkAngelicmon, too.

She knew she had to do something in order to prevent the fallen angel from suffering a terrible fate, but in order for that to happen she needed to keep the only two people who could save him alive long enough to help him find his way back to the light.

Don't worry, my fallen friend, I will find a way to save you yet.

For the first time since the day Daemon had been defeated by DarkAngelicmon's army, she finally had hope. After all, the two people who could save the fallen angel were standing right behind her.

"Dad, has Izzy sent you another e-mail yet?" Mickey asked, glancing nervously down the corridor. It was completely deserted.

T.K. frowned at his D-Terminal and smiled when it let off a sudden beep. "Izzy must have read your mind, Mickey. He's just sent me some instructions for a weak point that will lead us to the fourth floor."

Luciamon hovered nervously next to the golden-haired Digidestined and studied the words Izzy had written. The e-mail said:

T.K.,

You guys are almost there! The next weak point is located about forty feet down the corridor you're currently standing in. It's on the right-hand side of the wall, and it leads directly to a staircase that will take you to the fourth floor. Just keep doing what you're doing and don't get caught. Not now when you're so close!

Izzy

"You'd think after all these years Izzy would've finally learned to trust me," Davis muttered, giving T.K.'s D-Terminal a dirty look.

Ryoko raised his golden eyebrows and smiled in amusement. "How do you know that comment was intended for you?"

"It was, trust me."

Luciamon glared at Davis and let out a frustrated sigh. She admired the former leader's strength and courage, but his stubborn refusal to allow them to split up made her want to hit him over the head with something. He was ruining her plans, and if she did not find a way to convince at least some of the Digidestined to rescue Gennai then all of them would walk right into DarkAngelicmon's trap, and that would make it difficult for her to get them all out of the castle in one piece.

There's no way I'll be able to convince Ryoko to lead a few of his friends down to the dungeons, but maybe Dai will listen to what I have to say. He seemed a lot more open to the idea of splitting up than either Ryoko or Davis. If he doesn't listen to me then I'm going to have to change my plans, and quick.

DarkAngelicmon had wanted her to lead the Digidestined directly to the room with the crests, and she was supposed to have accomplished that by using the North Tower as a way to get inside the castle. Several caves had been dug into the cliffside, and one of them was actually a tunnel that ran the length of the valley. The entrance was located at the edge of the forest, and the exit stood only about three feet away from the right-hand side of the castle. In fact, the opening of the cave was located directly across from the door that led to the North Tower. DarkAngelicmon had chosen two useless digimon to guard that particular door because she was supposed to have instructed the Digidestined to destroy them. According to the fallen angel, useless digimon were expendable, and that was why he had not hesitated to use a couple of them in his evil plan to capture the Digidestined. None of the guards knew what was going on because DarkAngelicmon had not wanted one of them to let something slip and cause the Digidestined to become suspicious. The only digimon who knew the truth, other than DarkAngelicmon and herself, was Ivymon. Ivymon was a poison plant digimon with long, white hair, green skin, and blue eyes. Her outfit was made up of green leaves and white berries, and her arms and legs ended in roots instead of actual hands and feet. DarkAngelicmon had ordered the plant digimon to hide on the balcony overlooking the North Tower door, and from there she was supposed to watch the cave. Luciamon's job had been to raise her right hand as soon as she had defeated the two guards with help from the Digidestined. Her raised arm was the signal they had all agreed on as a way to let Ivymon know she was to alert DarkAngelicmon of the Digidestined's arrival. By that time the fallen angel's misty screen would have stopped working, and that was why he had had to come up with a detailed plan to get the Digidestined into the castle. He had anticipated what would happen to the screen ahead of time, and as a result he had had to come up with another way to make sure he knew where the Digidestined were at all times. From there they had worked out a path to the crest room while avoiding as many guards as possible. Spritemon, of course, did not know about Ivymon or the more important details of DarkAngelicmon's plan to sneak the Digidestined into the castle. She only knew the Digidestined were supposed to be delivered into the fallen angel's hands.

That had been the original plan, but she had plans of her own. DarkAngelicmon did not know about the weak points, and that was why she had used them as a way to get the Digidestined into the castle. She had discovered the first one purely by accident and had kept it in mind ever since. She had seen a lot of digimon die, but she would not let the same thing happen to the Digidestined. She wanted to explain to them why they needed to split up, but she could not do that because she could not risk having DarkAngelicmon find out what she was really up to. Lucemon knew all about her plan, but at the moment there was no way he could help her. He had gone to Server in order to contact Azulongmon, and she was very much alone.

What am I going to do?

The only thing she could do now was make sure the Digidestined got to the room with the crests before DarkAngelicmon did. After all, she had the element of surprise in her favour, and that might be the one thing she could use to help the Digidestined steal the crests and escape from DarkAngelicmon before he could capture them, but unfortunately that did not solve her problem concerning Gennai.

If only there was a way I could convince Dai to help me...

"Why isn't there a guard here?" ExVeemon asked, frowning in confusion.

Luciamon huddled behind Sam and anxiously fluttered her wings. "I don't know. Let's keep going. This place is starting to give me the creeps, too."

Sam let out a small whimper, and Luciamon gently squeezed his hand. She knew how he felt, but they had no choice but to keep moving. The crests had to be saved, and so did Gennai.

Don't worry, Sam. One day you will find out the truth, and when you do I know you'll be able to forgive your father. I promise I won't let DarkAngelicmon hurt you before your dad has a chance to tell you what really happened.

He had to forgive his father otherwise the Digital World would fall into ruin and all hope would be lost. The Digidestined had to stand united otherwise they were doomed to fail.

They can't fail. If they do, DarkAngelicmon will be lost forever.

"Hurry," Sam moaned. "Something about this corridor feels...wrong..."

Luciamon brushed her golden hair out of her eyes and motioned for the others to follow her, but all of a sudden some of the torches started flickering, and she felt her blood turn to ice. The corridor was still empty, but for some reason she suddenly had a feeling they were not alone anymore, but before she could say anything all of the torches died, and she found herself surrounded by darkness.

Ryoko Ishida

Cyber, Western Hemisphere, Digital World

Ryoko let out a loud gasp, and before he could stop himself he grabbed onto Dai's arm and clung tightly to the goggle-headed leader's shirt. "What's going on? Why did all the torches suddenly go out?"

"We're not alone," Sam whispered, his voice echoing eerily off the stone walls. "The darkness is coming for us."

"Sam, will you please snap out of it?" Matty pleaded, shaking the raven-haired Digidestined by the shoulders.

Ryoko could just barely make out his friends' faces in the dark, but the glow coming from his D-Coder provided enough light for him to see the fear in their eyes, and the expression on Sam's face made him wince. Even Luciamon appeared to be frightened, and the look she gave Davis was filled with desperation. "Now what?"

Davis was about to answer when something moved in the darkness ahead of them. The torches hanging along both sides of the corridor suddenly flickered to life, and they gasped at the sight of a dark shape crouching on the floor only about ten feet in front of them. It was almost as if the shadows created by the torches had solidified into a dark presence. The thing looked ready to spring at them if they so much as moved a muscle, and Ryoko had no doubt it was a living, breathing manifestation of evil created by the Powers of Darkness and sent to destroy them by DarkAngelicmon himself.

"What is that thing?" Takara shrieked, her hazel eyes growing wide with horror and fascination.

To Ryoko's complete disgust the thing in front of them started to ooze a creepy, smoking, purple liquid that reminded him of blood. The violet goo dripped slowly onto the stone floor and began to spread through the cracks beneath the shadow's feet in a network of tiny veins. The small rivers of unidentified liquid became a large puddle, and Ryoko quickly scurried backwards until his shoulders hit the wall. He had no clue whether or not the stuff was actually dangerous, and he was determined never to find out. Who knew what kind of damage it could cause?

"Yuck! Talk about gross!" Luciamon squealed, hiding her face against Angelicmon's wing.

"You feel it, don't you?" Sam whispered, gazing anxiously into his father's eyes. "That thing wants to get us."

"Everyone stay back!" T.K. snapped, pulling his sons against the wall. The golden-haired Digidestined stood protectively in front of Mickey and Matty and sent his digimon a frightened look. Angemon managed a quick smile before turning his attention back to the waiting shadow.

"Shouldn't we get rid of it?" Embermon demanded.

The little rookie took a hesitant step forward, but Ken snatched the reptile digimon into his arms and quickly shook his head. "No, don't!"

"Why not?"

"I have a feeling that thing's going to be way too powerful for you guys to defeat. We have no idea what we're up against. Besides, it hasn't attacked us...yet..."

"Maybe that's only because it hasn't spotted us yet," Matty pointed out.

"How do you know it hasn't spotted us? I mean...how can you tell? It doesn't have any eyes!" Alopemon snorted.

Ibismon rolled her own eyes and made a face. "Well, even if it can't see us, it can definitely hear us. You guys are making enough noise to wake the dead!"

"What is that purple stuff?" Takara whispered, pointing at the puddle on the floor.

"It's so familiar..." T.K. murmured.

Ryoko shifted closer to Palmon and Alopemon, and he gazed uneasily at his uncle. "What do you mean?"

Ken let out a sudden gasp and grabbed T.K.'s arm. "T.K., you remember, don't you? The Emperor's base. That purple liquid is exactly like the stuff we saw coming out of the gate in the Emperor's base. It was a gateway to the World of Darkness..."

"What?" Sam shouted at the top of his lungs.

Ryoko quickly clapped a hand over his raven-haired friend's mouth and gazed at Ken and his uncle in astonishment. Both of them were staring at the thing in terror, and even Davis looked a little green around the edges.

"What are you guys talking about?" Sam demanded, his face turning pure white.

Davis impatiently shook his head and wrapped an arm protectively around Dai's shoulders. "Not now. We have other things to worry about at the moment!"

All of a sudden the shadow let out a low hiss, and everybody froze.

"It knows we're here, and it's going to kill us!" Sam cried.

"No!" Mickey snapped, stepping forward and holding out his D-Coder. "Stay away from my friends, you creepy shadow! I won't let you hurt them!"

"Mickey, what are you doing?" Matty gasped, leaping forward and trying desperately to drag his brother back against the wall.

Both of their D-Coders suddenly exploded with light, and the shadow disappeared in a huge, glowing yellow and orange ball of energy. The thing let out a shriek of pain and promptly disappeared. Even the purple goo had disintegrated into thin air.

Mickey and Matty clung to each other and stared at the spot where the shadow had been crouched with their mouths hanging open.

"Did...did we do that?" Matty gasped, gazing at his twin in astonishment.

Mickey swallowed hard and shrugged his shoulders. "I...think so. You saw the light coming from our D-Coders, didn't you?"

Matty slowly nodded and gently patted his twin's back. "Yes, but-"

"You guys completely obliterated that thing!" Sam whispered, gazing at the twins as if he could not believe what he had just seen. "How?"

"That's what happens when you don't let yourself give in to darkness," T.K. said quietly, smiling softly at his sons.

Mickey and Matty both blushed and smiled shyly at each other, and Matty reluctantly let go of his brother.

"Well, that has got to be the weirdest thing I've ever seen!" Dai snorted. "Come on, guys, let's go before something else decides to attack us. So much for there not being a guard!"

"No kidding," Luciamon muttered, glancing nervously down the hallway. "The weak point's not far from here. We should keep moving."

"I agree. We can figure out what happened here later," Gabrielmon said quietly.

T.K.'s D-Terminal beeped loudly, and he held it up to get everyone's attention. "Izzy sent me another e-mail. He wants to know why we're standing around when we're supposed to be following his instructions. I'm not going to bother explaining what happened here to him in detail. We can tell him when we get back to the human world. You guys heard what Dai said. Let's move before something else goes wrong."

Ryoko quickly followed the others down the corridor and glanced suspiciously at Luciamon. The female angel must have sensed his gaze because she suddenly turned and smiled at him. Her arm went around his shoulders in a quick hug, and he frowned thoughtfully at his D-Coder. He was sure she was hiding something, but he still had no clue what her secret might be. Mickey and the others did not appear to feel the Powers of Darkness radiating from her the way they could with DarkAngelicmon, and that confused him. There were times he was sure she wanted to help them, but at other times he felt as if she were working against their plans to steal the crests back. Was she really an innocent digimon trying to escape Vampiramon's clutches?

I wonder, Luciamon, just whose side are you on anyway?

He did not know the answer to his own question, but he had to find out soon before they found themselves stepping right into a trap.