Disclaimer: Digimon is a franchise owned jointly by Toei Animation and Bandai, and conceptualized by Akiyoshi Hongo. Doctor Who is a property owned by the British Broadcasting Company created by Sydney Newman. The concept of The Tamer v2.0: In His Name is a fanfiction idea. Please support the official properties.

The Tamer v2.0: In His Name

Chapter 8: A Deal With IceDevimon

When Rika finally arrived at her front door, she stopped just short of opening it and called for her partner quietly, "Renamon."

"Yes, Rika?" her partner answered from behind her. She turned to face the fox and noticed the concern in her eyes. If she knew what was good for her, then she definitely should be afraid. She looked the fox in the eye - wanting to get all her frustration out here and now, "You embarrassed me twice already. You said you were the strongest digimon, right? So how did you lose to a Dokugumon and how did that idiot who's partner never fought before manage to digivolve before you!?"

Her partner was eerily silent, and that just made her angrier, "ANSWER ME!"

"I didn't lie to you Rika," she answered, "I'm doing my best. Perhaps the problem isn't me."

"Oh so it's my fault, is that it?" Rika felt her blood boil and her face go red, "Because I keep giving you every advantage, every power up, any thing you could want or need. Even my strategies work. How do I know? Because the goggle head followed my strategy to beat Gargomon and it worked. So why aren't you getting the results?"

Renamon was even quieter now, and her expression was hard to read. Was she mad? Scared? Livid? She didn't care. All she wanted was answers and the fact that Renamon wasn't giving any only fueled her anger. Every second without an explanation only made her blood boil more. Then, finally, Renamon gave an answer, "Perhaps this partnership was a mistake. It's obvious that we're incompatible with each other. I think it would be best if we part ways."

"That's fine with me," Rika answered, watching Renamon disappear. Then she stamped her foot in anger. How dare she disappear on her. She shouted out into the darkness, "If I can't help you, there's no way anyone else can!"

Nothing. No response. She'd left. Fine. They always left in the end anyway. Her dad left, mom was rarely around...what did she expect? She preferred to be alone. It took another moment for her to cool down enough to slip back into the house, to find her mom still talking with that fashion designer earlier. Even when mom was around, all she cared about was fashion. She hoped to avoid getting dragged into another conversation about being a model again. She hated modeling. As she tiptoed by the living room, she over heard the designer say, "You can't keep trying to make Ruki like what you don't. She's a tomboy. Like I was when we were her age. It's just not her thing and forcing her will only push her away - sort of like what happened with my mom and me."

"I just want to have the same kind of relationship with her like I had with my mom. Before...y'know," her mom's voice fell quiet. The fashion designer added, "That's why you got so close to Koushiro's mom after you two started dating. Have you heard from him recently?"

Her mom was quiet for a long time before she answered sheepishly, "Nothing. He just...disappeared like TK. Of all the people in the world, I didn't think he would ever just leave - abandon us for no reason. He doesn't answer his phone or his emails...you don't think he hates me do you?"

"He's not that kind of guy. Matt's worried about his brother too. He says he's going to quit the band after this tour and go looking," the designer said nervously, "It bothers me. I checked in with the others and they're all still okay."

Rika raised an eyebrow. Dad had walked out on them. She thought her mom knew that. So why was her mom refusing to accept that? He wasn't coming back. Sign the divorce papers and move on. She shook her head at those thoughts, though. As much as she didn't get along with her mom, the idea of her dad walking out on them was just as upsetting to her. Why did he leave? Why wasn't he coming back!?

She was so angry, she ran back into her room and slammed the door shut behind her. Her mom and the designer definitely heard her, but she didn't care. She just wanted to be alone now. In a fit of rage, she kicked over the desk in her room and dropped down onto her bed - screaming into the pillow to vent. It didn't help.

Then she heard a knock at the door, "Ruki? Honey? Are you home?"

It was her grandmother. Rika lay there, face down into the pillow without answering. Of all the people in her family, her grandmother was probably the only one she liked - if only because she was the most patient and understanding of her family. Her grandfather on her mom's side lived outside the city and refused to ever visit, while her grandmother on that side passed away before she born. It was an event her mom didn't talk about. As for her grandfather on her dad's side, he'd passed away not that long ago from heart failure.

On top of being reminded of her family troubles, she also had to deal with the fact that the loser who'd never had his digimon right before had suddenly made his partner digimon digivolve. How!? The goggle head had fought more than that guy! What was she doing wrong? It had to be Renamon's fault. She'd lied to her. Lied about how strong she really was. She was the best there was when it came to this. That's why they called her the Digimon Queen!

As red hot as this made her, she also noticed a deathly chill in the air. She sat up to get under her blanket and realized she wasn't in her room. She wasn't even in her house. Wherever she was, it was full of ice and cold. And it ran down her spine, making her shiver not just with cold but dread. There was something else here with her in the cold and the dark.

Maybe that fear was the reason she failed to notice two long white arms reaching for her from behind until they'd wrapped themselves around her. She tried to let out a yelp, but one hand moved to cover her mouth.

"It's okay tamer. I'm not going to hurt you."

Takato and Juri made their way back down the street. It was night out now and they both should've been home a long time ago. But Takato didn't seem to be in any particular rush to get there. He'd been quiet since the park and hadn't said a word since. She was sure there was something else he wasn't saying - and it probably had to do with all that weird stuff he said. Or maybe it had to do with that thing he said about liking her. Well, he didn't say like. He said protect. But boys could never say they liked a girl. What else could protect mean?

And she was still trying to process that. Boys were gross. Well, maybe Takato wasn't all bad. He seemed nice, even though he was weird sometimes. What would her friends think? They definitely had something to say about all the time she'd run off with Takato. Oh no! Did they notice? That wasn't good. She was sure they were going to give her a hard time about. Nah, they couldn't. They weren't boys - only boys were mean to each other. Right?

She snapped to her senses when she heard the familiar beeping of Takato's digivice. He seemed alarmed at first, jumping in terror at the sound before pulling his digivice out of his shirt and holding it in front of him like a locket, "Oh, not now. No, not now, I'm busy!"

"What's going on?" she asked, even though she could see the screen as plain as day and the arrow that was on it. Takato tapped the digivice's screen and began talking to himself, "It looks like there's another digimon around here. And it's...moving. Not good. Shoot, okay, I won't be able to get you home. I need to go back and get Guilmon."

"Then I'll come too," Juri volunteered, only to be cut off with a sharp, "NO!"

Takato seemed to pause - as if he realized he'd just snapped at her and his tone shifted to become more apologetic, "I'm...I didn't mean to snap, Juri. I'll...look, let's hurry and get you home so you'll be safe. Then, I'll go back and-"

"NO!" she protested just as quickly, before going red in the face as she realized she'd just raised her voice for no reason. She lifted up her sock puppet again, "If Takato is going to go somewhere, then Juri will come too to make sure he doesn't get himself hurt."

She looked up briefly, noting the confused look on his face and he nodded, "Okay. But stay behind me and Guilmon. Let's hurry back!"

Henry managed to get back home just before his curfew was up. Which was good news for him since he didn't want another lecture about punctuality or responsibility or anything else like that. He'd been thinking on what Rika had said the other day in the alley and wasn't sure what to make of it. He didn't know how he'd never noticed but there were inconsistencies. Maybe the whole thing was made up? That had to be true. But that didn't explain the digimon, the digivices, or…the whole thing was making his head hurt.

He'd managed to take two steps into the apartment when his digivice started beeping like crazy. He shuffled through his pockets to try and shut it up before anyone noticed, but it was too late. His mom poked her head out of the living room, "Jiangliang? Are you home?"

"Yes mom," he answered quickly, trying to come up with an excuse for why he was heading back out into the hallway, "I just…gotta get some air."

He needed to get some air? He just got home! That was such a lame excuse. Once he was back outside, he started pressing every button on the device to make the beeps go away. Nothing. Realizing it wasn't going to stop, he looked at the screen to examine the cause of his bad luck. The radar was back and pointing in the direction of another digimon - IceDevimon. He cursed his luck.

He wanted to leave it alone but…he couldn't choose to ignore it either. People could get hurt. They would get hurt. And Takato was definitely on his way back to get Guilmon. He groaned at the choice before him. It was obvious which one was the correct one he'd have to take. Without another word, he raced back to his partner. Hopefully, he'd be able to help in time.

Yamaki watched the field agents return with another captured wild one in a containment cage. Izumi had decided to join him so that he could use his past experience to identify the creature, not that Yamaki needed it. All he was concerned with was testing the Juggernaut program and getting it ready to fire - once that was done, all of this would be over.

The field agents began unloading the cargo and they got their first glimpse of the target - a massive hulking minotaur with what looked like a gun for an arm. Thankfully, the gun was damaged and unable to fire. It seemed like the report were right. When this one emerged, it didn't do it properly and appeared partially in a wall - who knew what kind of risk that put the public at. This time it was a building, but next time it could be halfway in a gas tanker, a plane engine, or a human being. And that was completely unacceptable as far as Yamaki was concerned.

He looked over at Izumi, waiting for him to identify it. The computer expert was still shaken from the initial test fire of the weapon though. He made a mental note to make sure he saw a counselor and one of the on-site psychiatrists before sending him back to work. The last thing he needed was his top expert committing suicide or 'growing a conscience' and sabotaging the program.

Finally, Izumi found his nerve to identify the beast, "It's a Minotarumon - a champion level, virus type."

"In Japanese," Yamaki reminded Izumi, not really in the mood to deal with any more of his nonsense jargon. Izumi took a moment to collect himself, "It's attributes make it closely related to the spider your team acquired last time."

"But its a bull."

"Digimon don't operate on the same logic as our world. It looks like a bull, but has more in common with the spider."

"I see. Well, that just means we can use it for study. There's no need to test the Juggernaut again," Yamaki noted, gesturing at the field team to get it in discretely before anyone noticed.

POP! POP!

Two soft gunshots rang out from nowhere - one striking the monster square between the eyes and the other striking it in the shoulder. The field operatives stepped away from the cage - some scattering for cover while others drew assault rifles and traced the direction of the shots. Yamaki instinctively pushed Izumi to the ground and drew a pistol from inside his jacket. The shots came from just outside the facility garage, where he noted someone on an old motorcycle taking off at high speed. At this distance, his pistol couldn't get an accurate shot.

One of the field agent tried hitting the rider, but wasn't able to line up a shot quick enough before they disappeared around a corner.

Yamaki cursed. It was Burnt Leaf again. It had to be. They were aware of what they were doing and he couldn't have that. Not on his watch. But there was little he could beyond try to be more careful. One of the field operatives approached, "Sir, should we go after them?"

"No," Yamaki shook his head quietly, "If they wanted to kill us, they could've. This wasn't an attack, it was a message."

A message to stop what they were doing. But Burnt Leaf was just as unable to handle the situation as they were. If Burnt Leaf could handle the situation, they would've stopped more wild ones from crossing over already. No, this was about the fact that they were no longer the sole protectors of Japan. And Yamaki was going to send a message back. Once the Juggernaut was online, there'd be no more need for Burnt Leaf. He looked down at Izumi, who lay on the ground with his arms over his head. The man flinched when he tapped his shoulder, "Are you alright, Izumi?"

"Ye…yes," he answered, pushing himself off the ground, "I…I think I'm going to go back to my office and…clear my head."

Yamaki sighed. It seemed that the message had gotten through to Izumi and shook him to his core. That wasn't good news. It looked like the juggernaut program was going to face further delays. But there was one other thing bothering him about all this. The Juggernaut was the only weapon they had that could kill these digimon. Burnt Leaf did it with a gun. So what kind of gun was it that it could kill one of these things with one hit? It wasn't the head shot, otherwise all the chest shots from their guns would've done it. He tried to stay calm as he realized he was in over his head.

Renamon leapt through the trees of the park and settled herself in, sitting down atop it and taking a moment to think about what she'd do now that she didn't have a partner. It was true, Rika had given her everything she needed to win. But she barely won. She'd only won one encounter thus far and it was against a Goblimon - hardly a serious threat. And then there were the words of Impmon - a warning that she shouldn't trust humans. But Rika wasn't any ordinary human."

"Hey there, toots."

Speak of the devil, Renamon thought to herself quietly. She turned her head towards another branch and saw the imp digimon with folded arms staring down at her, "You ain't half bad, y'know? In all your fights, I mean. It's just a shame that the human you's stuck with ain't much help."

"Rika and I decided to go our separate ways," Renamon said quietly. The little digimon nodded in approval, "And good riddance, too. You'll be just like me - on your own and doin' just fine. Humans, who needs 'em right?"

Renamon was inclined to agree with that last point, but not with the first one. She had no intention of scraping out a meager living in the human world, living in the parks and eating whatever Impmon was eating to get by. She intended to find a way back to their world - she'd done fine on her own there before. There was one thing that stuck out to her though, "Why do you hate humans so much?"

"I don't hate humans," Impmon defended himself, "It's more like I don't think we need 'em. They're a pain and all they do is hold ya back from what ya want to do."

She nodded along quietly as they went on, "Whenever anything goes wrong, instead of tryin' ta figure out what happened, they just start blamin' each other. Sometimes they blame you. And don' even get me started on they moods. Happy one second, mad as hell the next. And fo' no good reason either. It's like they's always in a mood y'know? Plus, sometimes they just start fightin' over ya. Ya know what I mean?"

That gave Renamon pause and she looked at the digimon curiously, "What do you mean they fight over you?"

Impmon clicked his tongue angrily, "Never you mind that. I smell some humans comin' this way now."

As much as Renamon wanted to know what he meant, it was hard to ignore the smell coming their way and she turned her attention downward to see the boy called Takato, that girl with the sock puppet, Guilmon, Henry, and Terriermon running by. It was hard to make out but Takato was saying something about the digimon being in that direction. Her ears perked up at that - a chance to prove she would be okay on her own without Rika. And whatever they were running towards must be strong if the boy was willing to forego the disguise of the box.

Yes, this was her chance. She stood herself up and leapt into the darkness after them. Distantly, she heard Impmon call behind her, "What're you doing? Don't run afta' the humans. Aw geez…dames. What can ya do, right?"

Juri followed after Guilmon and Takato as he followed the path laid out for them by his digivice. They ran into Henry back at the park too, seemingly annoyed about having to deal with another digimon. Although it was night, they were getting a lot of looks from people passing by. With each turned head, Takato assured everyone that they were testing a rubber costume and no to worry about it. After running for a while, he stopped and stated, "Okay, the digivice says they should be…in there."

He pointed inside of an electronics shop, whose customers had stopped what they were doing to stare outside at Guilmon as he sniffed the glass. The little digimon remarked, "What's that? It looks fun!"

"I had this problem before," Takato answered sheepishly, craning his neck to look up at the many stories of the building, "I was chasing a cat but because the digivice can't tell us how high or low it was, I ended up looking for it on the wrong floor. Ended up having to jump out a window to get it."

Juri raised an eyebrow at what he said, certain that it was another of the weird things he'd say sometimes without reason. Then Henry pointed up, "Look up there. I don't know what that is but I bet that's what we're looking for."

Juri craned her neck up and gasped when she noticed the top floor of the building was sealed in a fine layer of ice. In the beginning of fall. It wasn't exactly cold out, but it wasn't hot either. There was no way that ice could've been there. Juri suggested, "Maybe they just left the air conditioning on too high?"

"It could be a Frigimon or a Mujyamon. Those guys love the cold," Takato answered absentmindedly, either ignoring or not hearing what she said. He went around the side of the building and called, "This way guys, I think I found a side door."

Sure enough, there was a side door with a sign marked 'Tenants Only'. Through a small window, they could make out the stairs that made their way up to a higher level. Without even trying, Takato patted Guilmon and the digimon understood to break the lock with his claws. Juri gasped as the door swung open and Takato took the first step inside, "What're you doing? We don't live here! That's breaking and entering."

Takato paused as he considered her concerns and tried to explain, "Technically, Guilmon broke the lock. I'm just entering."

"He's not wrong," Terriermon remarked.

"But this is," Juri gestured at what they were doing, trying to dissuade him from going further. She looked at Henry and was pleased to see he agreed, "She's right. We could get arrested."

A frown drew itself on Takato's face, as if he was disappointed with their responses, "The top floor of this building is frozen over and the digivice says there's a digimon around here, meanwhile you're worried about a sign. We need to go up there and make sure no one is hurt. We might get in trouble for ignoring the sign, but we won't get in trouble for helping anyone out. It's a sign, not my mom or Miss Asaji."

"You really are a little trouble maker," Juri said to him, but he didn't seem to notice, "I prefer to call myself a problem solver. Come on!"

"Is he always like this?" Henry asked her. Terriermon added, "He just kinda leaves and does his own thing. I respect that."

"I don't," Henry frowned.

Against her better judgment, she followed them up the stairs until they were at the very top and down a long hallway. Immediately, the temperature seemed to drop below freezing and their breath could be seen in the air. Voices echoed from the end of the hall, reverberating off the ice and becoming a garbled mess. But that didn't stop them from reaching the end and coming across the only door that was completely frozen over. And the voices were louder from the other side.

Rika ran free of the arms as soon as they let her go - the long, spindly fingers retreating back to an extra large set of claws and arms that dragged along the ground. And at the end of the arms was a tall, pale man in white leather costume that included chains and spikes along his body. Right away, Rika knew what she was looking at. The devil digimon IceDevimon. She minded her distance while he added in a comforting voice, "It's okay tamer, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help you."

"How is kidnapping me from my room helping?" Rika demanded angrily, brushing her arms together as the cold started nipping at her. The devil digimon frowned, "I was there the day you chose your partner - I begged and pleaded to be chosen. Yet you chose that damnable Renamon. But I can see that she's no longer with you. Either it didn't work out, or she wasn't good enough. Either way, it confirms what I already knew. She was never meant to be your partner. I was. We would work so well together if you would just choose to work with me."

"Back off creep," Rika warned taking a step away from the digimon. A hand placed itself on her shoulder from behind, and she spun around in a panic to see IceDevimon standing behind her. She looked back at where the digimon had been just a second before and saw he was gone. There was only one - that was a relief. The digimon added, "I can sense much fear in you. So much anguish, anger, frustration. Those are the source of my energy - the source of my strength. Don't you understand, Rika? I was born to be your partner. I'm far stronger than Renamon ever was. Just look!"

He gestured above and Rika gasped as she saw a ceiling full of digimon frozen in ice above, on display like trophies. IceDevimon went on, "Just by being around you, I can feel myself already becoming so much stronger than what I was. Join me! Let's work together to become the strongest there ever was."

"Not interested," Rika replied through chattering teeth. It was so cold, she noticed her breath would turn to fog as quickly as it left her. If this guy was so cold that being around her made it this freezing, then she wasn't interested in it. All she wanted was to go home, "Now, let me go."

IceDevimon was impossible to read and his mood barely seemed to change, as if he'd chosen to ignore what she'd just said, "Think on it Rika. Together we could become the strongest in both this world and the Digital World. You could have anything you could wish for and I…I will be the herald to your greatness!"

"Is this supposed to be about me, you or us? Because it's kinda hard to tell with that speech you're giving," Rika answered angrily, annoyed that she still wasn't being shown the exit. She didn't get it - what exactly did this guy think would happen if he kept on talking? Then she realized she might actually say yes out of boredom if he didn't stop talking. It didn't help that he started talking right away, "We are meant to be together, tamer. Surely you understand this?"

"Look buddy, you picked a really bad day to come knocking at my door and you're obviously too dumb to take the hint. So let me spell this out for you," she stated matter of factly, marching right up to him and pointing a finger at his face, "I-A-M-N-O-T-I-N-T-E-R-E-S-T-E-D. I am not interested. Let me go home."

IceDevimon remained unreadable, gazing down at her with his cold red eyes. She flinched under his unbreaking stare that seemed to be calculating what he would do next. When she took a step back in alarm, IceDevimon's eyes widened and he took her by the arm, "I didn't want to do this. But how else can I make you see?"

"Let me go!" Rika shrieked, scared of whatever IceDevimon was planning. She pulled as hard as should could to break his grip that seemed to get tighter and tighter on her. IceDevimon's grip became cold and icy, and she could feel her skin starting to burn under it. That was when she heard a loud boom - an explosion from a wall of ice that blew apart a small opening. For a moment, she was relieved to think that Renamon was coming to save her.

It didn't last when she saw both Guilmon and Terriermon come running in, followed by Takato, Juri, and that Henry kid. She groaned in frustration as they showed up - conflicted between relief to see her rescue and annoyance that these kids seemed determined to follow her around. IceDevimon released her, and she used that chance to put distance between herself and the digimon. For his part, IceDevimon growled, "Intruders, leave this place! You're not welcome here! Wait, digimon? With partners? But I thought only Tamer...no, you're digidestined! Yes that must be it!"

"Nothing of the sort," Takato shouted back at him, "Rika, are you okay?"

"Stop playing the hero, goggle head," Rika grunted, stamping her foot, "I don't need rescuing!"

Takato threw up his hands in defense, "I never said you did, but you could've fooled me - to be honest, we weren't expecting you to be up here. Where's Renamon?"

"Forget about her. Let's get out of here!" Rika grunted, trying to hide the fact that she was thinking the same thing. There wasn't any time to dwell on that, though. She ran as fast as she could to rejoin their side - not because she wanted saving. It was just the safest place at the moment. Then again, IceDevimon had gotten to her in her room. Who knew where else and how else he could get to her.

"Tamer! Please don't go!" IceDevimon grunted behind her, just as his icy hands shot out of the floor to grab at her. She stopped in her tracks, terrified of being grabbed again when Guilmon and Terriermon leapt on him, "Pyrosphere!"

"Bunny Blast!"

The fire ball and green energy blast hit their marks, and the arms retreated back into the ground. She took off again, slipping on the ice and sliding to a stop beside Juri. The girl offered her hand to help her up but Rika slapped it aside. She didn't need their help.

"Hey, Terriermon - why is it called Bunny Blast? Aren't you named after a dog?" Henry asked now of all times. Rika couldn't believe it. Why ask now? Terriermon rebuked him before he could, "Not the time, Henry."

"But-"

"Henry! We need to fight!" Terriermon spat back bitterly, "I'm not going to sit back and miss this."

Oh, right. Rika felt embarrassed that she forgot this kid didn't like to get mixed up in fights.

"Nobody fight!" Takato declared, rushing forward to meet with IceDevimon, "IceDevimon, what are you doing here and why do you have Rika?"

"I don't have to explain my reasons to you, human," IceDevimon answered angrily, rising into the air for effect to make himself more menacing. Then he advanced on them, brushing the boy aside. Takato made another attempt at diplomacy, "That doesn't mean you shouldn't. Whatever is making you do this, maybe we can help. That's why we have digivices, right? To help!"

"Enough," IceDevimon snapped at the boy, "I've found the one who can make me stronger. With her, we can save the Digital World. Out of my way!"

That question struck Rika. And from the looks of it, it got the others attention too. The gogglehead even asked, "Save the Digital World from what?"

IceDevimon was no longer interested in answering questions. He was only interested in taking Rika by any means necessary. Rika reached for her belt to retrieve a card - then she paused. Renamon wasn't here. She may as well try to knock IceDevimon over with her breath for all the good it would do.

Terriermon and Guilmon charged the digimon again, and were swatted aside with ease. Rika froze as IceDevimon advanced on her, and she felt a hand pull her. Great, it was the goggle head again! At least, she thought it was until she realized it was sock puppet girl, "We should run!"

She and Rika bolted for the hole in the wall just as Terriermon and Guilmon attacked again. And were knocked aside no problem. Takato continued trying to plea with the digimon. She closed her eyes, expecting to be captured again.

"DIAMOND STORM!"

Rika's eyes shot open and she watched a rain of diamonds slam down upon IceDevimon from above. IceDevimon raised up his arms to protect himself, "Another intruder. Wait, I know you. You're-"

"Renamon!" Rika gasped as the fox dove down from a perch and kick the champion digimon across the side of the had. The fox used the momentum of her kick to push herself off the ground as she landed and leapt up into the air again. IceDevimon growled, "Why!?"

He threw a punch with his elongated arms at her, "WHY DO YOU KEEP GETTING IN MY WAY!?"

Rika was glad to see Renamon had come to save her and called out, "Renamon, are you-"

"I'm sorry, I thought we weren't talking right now," Renamon snapped at her, silencing Rika. She wasn't sure how to take that. Renamon had turned her down. She tried to reply but was unable to find the words to speak. Renamon then charged again, ready to attack. She leapt into the air and fired, "DIAMOND STO-"

"TUNDRA FREEZE!"

A beam of cold ice shot out of IceDevimon's eyes, striking Renamon in the leg and encasing it with ice. Rika panicked, "RENAMON!"

"Henry! Snap out of it! Did you forget that you have a deck?" Terriermon complained, "Don't just sit there. Use one of them!"

Henry closed his eyes, seeming to wrestle with this dilemma before extending his hand out to Rika, "Can I borrow your deck?"

"My deck?" Rika raised an eyebrow. Henry nodded, "I didn't bring mine. You don't mind right?"

At this point, she didn't care. She removed her belt with the deck holder in it and handed it to the guy, "Take it. Do whatever you want. I'm going home."

"Home?" Henry repeated, dumbstruck. Rika nodded, not wanting anything more to do with this, "I hate this. And I hate digimon."

"Rika, wait!" Henry called after her but it was too late. She didn't care about what they had to say or what they wanted to do. She wanted nothing more to do with this, just casually strolling out of this ice cave through the entrance they made. Juri tried to reach out to her, but Rika slapped her hand away. She was going home.

Terriermon asked, "What's her problem?"

"Was it something I did?"

"GUYS! Stop fighting!" Takato shouted, pulling them back into the fight with the digimon in front of them. He was pleading with Guilmon, IceDevimon, and Renamon who were locked into a deadly three way battle. IceDevimon was trying to kill them both, while Guilmon was concentrated on IceDevimon. Renamon attacked the devil too, but kicked Guilmon away anytime he got too close. This left the dinosaur no choice but to defend himself every time Renamon tried to kick her away. And Takato grew more desperate, "Guys! Stop this, please!"

"It's no use, Takato. They're just going to keep fighting no matter what," Henry observed, taking Rika's deck out of her pocket to examine it, "Here, this should help! Terriermon, get ready to fly!"

"Huh?"

Henry produced a card and was about to begin swiping it, only to stop. They had to help. They had to fight. But Henry couldn't bring himself to do it. He just...couldn't risk Terriermon getting hurt. He dropped the card and apologized, "I'm sorry."

"You can't quit on me now, Henry!" Terriermon complained to his partner, but it didn't matter. Henry couldn't bring himself to fight. Just as he was about to put the deck away, Takato ran up to him, "Can I borrow that if you're not going to use it?"

Henry didn't hesitate to hand the deck over. He shuffled through it quickly, then turned back to the fighting quickly, "I'm sorry it had to be this way. Digimodify! Angemon's wings Activate!"

A flash of light burst from Takato's digivice and the digimon sprouted six angelic wings on his back. He took off into the air, just as Takato swiped another card, "Speed Boost! Activate!"

With that second swipe, Guilmon was zooming through the air - circling IceDevimon and pelting him with fireballs. The ice digimon went on the defensive, spreading his wings and trying to fly away from the fireballs only to bump into Renamon. Even though her leg was frozen, she was still able to leap into the air and use her frozen leg to club the digimon in the face. It knocked him over and shattered the ice into a thousand tiny pieces that splintered all along his body. He growled, "What are you-"

"Diamond storm!" Renamon shouted, leaping into the air and peppering the digimon with ice. Perhaps it was the continuous attacks that did him in, or the fact that he was caught off guard. Either way, this last blast was all it took to finally end the ice digimon once and for all. He screamed in a panic before bursting into a cloud of data. As he did, Renamon rose up and began absorbing his data. Henry rubbed his eyes to make sure he saw that right. She'd absorbed him. IceDevimon was gone and Renamon was the reason.

He asked, "What was that?"

"The way of the Digital World. The weak die. The strong live," she answered. She would've sounded cool if she wasn't gasping for breath from fatigue. She quickly composed herself and made her way for the exit. After what she did, Henry didn't want to be in her way. But that didn't stop Takato, "You didn't have to do that!"

"Your idealism is nice but it's only that. If you don't change your attitudes to this, you'll never get stronger," she answered before continuing on. She stopped again just short of the door, "I guess I should thank you. This only confirmed what I feared - Rika held me back. I'm better on my own."

And then she disappeared, unwilling to hear Takato remark, "But...you only won because we were all together."

Author's Notes: Rika has given up on being a Tamer! Will she rethink her decision? Are Rika and Renamon going to work together again? What danger is consuming the Digital World? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v2.0 - In His Name due out next week on Friday March 15th at 8 PM CST. If you loved it, let me know in the reviews section and I'll try to respond as soon as I'm able. And hey, why not follow or favorite the story to keep up with all the latest updates? That's all I have for now! I'll see you guys in the next installment! Now let's take a look at previews for the next chapter!

Guilmon dove in front of it just before it crossed the goal, catching it in his mouth and promptly spitting it out towards the goal, "Blegh, that tastes like dirt."

"It's been rolling on the ground," Terriermon laughed, "Guilmon ate dirt!"

"Guilmon! You're not supposed to eat the ball silly," Calumon giggled excitedly, pointing out the goal he'd just scored, "That's one point for us by the way which means you have to play the next round on one leg!"

"I do?" Guilmon tilted his head in confusion. Terriermon felt like today was going to be an interesting day.