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 32: Monsters and Sovereigns

The air was heavy and breathing was hard. Megidramon hovered over them, leering down with his fiery red eyes. As if to make the digimon more ominous, the sky darkened with storm clouds every passing second. The Digital World itself seemed to be protesting this monstrosity's very existence and looked to be doing all it could to drive him away. If only a little inclement weather would be enough to drive it away. It would save them from the worse fight of their lives.

"I'm suddenly having second thoughts about this," Rapidmon said. Megidramon roared at the top of his lungs and spewed hot ash at them, "MeGiDo FlAmE!"

The ash came at their too fast for them to try to get away. But worse was the fact that the attack was coming right at them. Rika shouted, "What the hell goggle head!? Are you trying to kill us!?"

"No, I'm trying to kill Beelzemon. You guys just won't get out of the way," Tamerkato snapped.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Taomon drew her brush through the air and along the ground, "Talisman Spell!"

A green yin-yang symbol appeared beneath them, encompassing them in a green light that split the ash apart and protected them from the burning heat. But the heat still had them sweating just from the proximity. If this much heat was able to get through...how much hotter was it outside the protective field?

When the ash subsided, Megidramon brought his massive fist down upon the protective barrier. The first blow made a loud thunderous boom and they heard Taomon grunt "This won't survive a second hit."

"Guardromon! You were Tamer's friend before. How do we stop this?" Kazu asked. His partner scratched his head, "Last time this happened, the digidestined talked sense into him."

"Oh great. The one thing he doesn't want to do," Kazu groaned. Taomon called out, "We'll figure this out later. Everyone, get ready to run. On my mark! Ready?"

Everyone readied to take off, setting themselves up to run. Rika went to Juri, hoping to help the poor girl away since she was still too shell shocked to do anything.

"Now!" Taomon cried out. She dispelled the shield as soon as Megidramon wound up a second attack, and everyone scattered away to avoid the massive claw digging into the ground. That was their chance and everyone scattered away in different directions, hoping to get away before things got worse. Rika drag Juri along, the poor girl still staring at the spot where Leomon fell just moments ago.

Rapidmon carried Beelzemon away while Cyberdramon charged forward to block the attack. He uppercut Megidramon, stunning the monster for a moment while Guardromon and Taomon set up for a combined attack. As soon as they were safely away, Ryo, Kazu, and Rika acted quickly to support their partners, "Digimodify!"

"Speed boost Activate!"

"Strength Boost Activate!"

"Machinedramon's Cannon Activate!"

Taomon attacked first, clasping her hands together and summoning an array of red talismans to fly at Taomon, "Thousand Spells!"

The attacks hit their mark, but only served to bring Megidramon's attention onto Taomon. At least until Guardromon fired the cannon's on his back and struck Megidramon in the chest. It flashed like light as the digimon was pushed back, until he opened its mouth again to spew out hot ash, "MeGiDo FlAmE!"

Once again, the hot ash came and followed Guardromon as he rushed towards the water. Before the hot ash and smoke could harm him, Cyberdramon flew in and decked the mega from above, slamming his jaw shut. But that left him open and Megidramon grabbed him off his head and slammed him onto the ground, "RARGH!"

He did it again and again until the digimon was limp in Megidramon's hands. Megidramon hissed and threw Cyberdramon aside. Ryo gasped and raced to where his partner landed along the sand. Tamerkato proceeded towards them, calmly saying, "Guys. Fighting each other isn't going to do any good. We really ought to work together to destroy Beelzemon."

"You're the one attacking!" Kazu shouted angrily.

"No, Megidramon's attacking Beelzemon. You guys are attacking him. Big difference," Tamerkato said, just as his partner roared again angrily. This thing, this monstrosity, was not the sweet and kind Guilmon they remembered. Now all they could see in it was malice. Anger. Bloodlust. Henry jumped in front of Tamerkato, grabbing a hold of him by the collar, "Takato! Get a hold of yourself!"

He just looked at him indifferently, "My name isn't Takato."

Henry groaned, "Fine! Digimon Tamer! Whatever! Will you come to your senses!?"

"I am at my senses! He killed Leomon! That needs to be punished. Therefore, he needs to die. You don't get more sensible than that," Tamerkato explained calmly. The fact that he said it so calmly was the most terrifying. It was then that Rapidmon finally dashed in with his cannons aimed at Tamerkato's head. Tamerkato looked from the Ultimate to Henry, his eyes more cold and analytical than they'd ever been before. Henry remembered the stories from Takeru, the things Rika had warned about, the grumblings of the digidestined. For the first time since he'd met Tamerkato, he was sure all of it was true. Then he chuckled, "What is this? Your gamble to stop me? Going to pull the trigger? Shoot me in the face? Why are you all trying so hard to protect Beelzemon?"

"I'm just trying to protect my partner!" Rapidmon said, keeping the gun trained on Tamerkato. He looked back from Rapidmon to Henry, "You two are acting just like Beelzemon."

That accusation struck Henry. And he hated. It made him mad. Mad in a way he didn't know he could be. He pulled Tamerkato closer and shouted, "WE'RE ACTING LIKE BEELZEMON!? YOU'RE THE ONE GOING ON A RAMPAGE!"

"No, I'm being deliberate. I'm just trying to get to Beelzemon. You're the ones going on the attack," Tamerkato answered back quietly. It took all the self restraint Henry had to not punch him right there. He took a moment to catch his breath and think for a moment but had nothing to say to that. Tamerkato brushed his hands off him and remarked, "If you're done, I think I said I was going to murder that piece of crap. And I intend to follow through."

He adjusted his clothes and proceeded towards Beelzemon, getting far enough to be just beside the digimon when Rapidmon fired a shot into the air. The shot went so close that it managed to blow past his hair. Megidramon roared and Tamerkato spun in his tracks to look at the Ultimate. Henry's eyes widened as he looked at his partner, "Are you crazy?"

"Maybe I am. Maybe I've gone stupid too! I mean, he's not the only one able to lose his mind and start doing very stupid things at the drop of a hat!" Rapidmon blurted out angrily. Tamerkato looked at him quietly, staring for the longest time before remarking, "Stupid? Is that what you think this is? Stupidity? It's not. This isn't stupidity. It's clarity. I mean...I tried to be kind. I tried to be merciful. I tried talking things out. And it doesn't work! Well today, I'm not going for mercy. I'm not being kind. Because it doesn't work - the Dark Masters, Myotismon, Armageddomon, Apocalymon, the traitors! Kindness just means they'll come back worse later on. Today, I'm honoring everyone who's ever died because I tried to be kind. Because I tried to be merciful. Right now, only one person is going to die. And he's right there!"

He pointed at the injured and dying Beelzemon, still shooting a defiant look at Tamerkato. It was hard to deny that Henry wanted to take revenge for Leomon. But this...this wasn't right. He shook his head, "If you do this Tamer, you're going to be just like him. And we can't be like him. You can't...if you really are the Digimon Tamer, you need to be better than him!"

There was a pause. Tamerkato looked back sullenly like he was weighing Henry's words. But then he sighed and answered, "That's where you're wrong Henry. I'm not better. I never have been. I'm The Digimon Tamer. Ryo is right to hate me. Rika's mom is right to scorn me. Because I am so much worse."

He'd made up his mind. Henry looked over to Rapidmon, knowing what his partner had to do and afraid of actually doing it.

Juri watched silently as Tamerkato continued on towards Beelzemon. Rapidmon trained his gun but was whipped away by Megidramon's tail. Guardromon and Taomon jumped in front of the digimon in a last ditch effort to protect the injured mega and were batted aside by Megidramon's massive arms. Beelzemon drew his shotgun one more time to get off one last minute shot. Tamerkato didn't even try to get out of the way.

They were going to kill each other. Juri couldn't take it any more. She wanted to scream. To shout. To let out all the pain and guilt building up inside her, "STOP!"

Tamerkato and Beelzemon paused to look at her. She must've looked absolutely pathetic, kneeling on the ground with tears streaming down her eyes. Between pauses her breath, she pleaded, "No more. Please...don't...there's been enough death. I don't want anyone else to die. So please...don't."

Tamerkato looked at her mournfully, his expression breaking out of his impassive state for the first time since the island. Without looking away from her, he snatched the shotgun out of Beelzemon's hand and threw it aside. Then he kneeled down at the digimon's side, "Juri's right. There's been enough death. But that doesn't make what you did right."

He raised up his hand and touched Beelzemon on the forehead, "You need to be punished."

It was hard to understand what happened next. All he did was press a finger to Beelzemon's forehead, but the mega started screaming at the top of his lungs. Screaming. Pleading. Pushing Tamerkato away and crawling away on the dirt, "NO! MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE! MAKE IT STOP! WHY?"

He stopped screaming only to violently vomit on the ground, before screaming again, trying to crawl away as fast as he could. Henry and Ryo were on Tamerkato again, pulling him back and away from Beelzemon as the digimon continued to drag himself away. Ryo snapped, "What the hell did you do to him?"

"I put a memory in his head," Tamerkato answered quietly. Henry looked from the boy to Beelzemon, "What the hell kind of memory did that?"

That was the question wasn't it. Ignoring how he did it and assuming it was just some kind of Ancient thing, what memory did he put in Beelzemon's head to reduce him to a scared and frightened digimon crawling away for his life. And the answer Tamerkato gave was probably one of the least reassuring answers he could've given, "A really bad one."

It was strange how four little words could be the scariest thing any of them heard - four words they'd probably heard a million times on their own. But in this time at that order, they were scarier than anything else Tamerkato had done. Juri's eyes lingered on Beelzemon, finding him pitiable now despite the senseless violence he'd unleashed upon Leomon. She almost felt sorry for him. Almost. But Leomon's death kept her from feeling more than pity for him. It was a hollow feeling, because no amount of suffering inflicted on him would ever bring Leomon back to her.

And then she remembered that a digimon's memories became a part of the digimon who absorbed them and she was compelled to wonder if some part of Leomon was still alive. Did he linger on in Beelzemon, somewhere? Or were his memories part of Beelzemon now, just another thing to be angry about. She hated everything about that - how powerless she was to do anything about it. The fact that someone else had been taken from her life unfairly. And all of it was Tamerkato's fault. If he hadn't egged Beelzemon on...

She looked his way, seeing him watch Beelzemon crawl along the sand screaming and begging for mercy. He was like a monster. No, The Digimon Tamer was a monster. Rika was right. They'd all been right. He was horrible.

"So...are you okay now or should we be worried?" Kenta asked nervously, looking back at Megidramon growling at them. Tamer seemed calm but that didn't explain Megidramon...or why the digimon was still there. Kenta added, "Because Guilmon's not turning back and he's still terrifying to look at. He isn't going to eat us, right? Right? Takato? Right?"

The Digimon Tamer didn't answer, looking back at the massive mega digimon hovering over them. He ran a hand through his hair to swipe it back and adjusted his goggles up over his head. A moment of silence followed as he drew a deep breath, seemingly to calm himself but that did nothing to regress Megidramon back to his rookie form. He was still angry. Of course he was. It made her wonder...

...if Leomon were still alive, what would her anger turn him into? Would he be strong enough to make even Megidramon tremble in terror? If only she had been stronger...braver...she would have been able to save Leomon.

Henry wasn't sure the situation could get any worse and was glad it hadn't. But he was sure something was going to set either Tamerkato or Megidramon off at any moment. His attempts to reason with Tamerkato hadn't quite gone anywhere. And now he was silent, staring at his partner calmly as his partner leered back.

Then the clouds parted and a blinding pillar of light descended from above to strike Megidramon. The mega let out a howl of pain as it crashed into the ground, gnashing its teeth and thrashing its arms angrily. The massive monster turned its head skyward, opening its mouth to reveal rows upon rows of teeth, "MeGiDo FlAmE!"

Hot ash spewed out of his mouth towards the sky, only to disappear into the light. His backlash seemed to empower the pillar of light and it grew in size until the digimon was consumed completely by the light. All they could make out was his silhouette for a split second and even that disappeared eventually.

For a moment, it seemed they'd lost two digimon in the span of a few minutes: Leomon and Guilmon. Then the light faded to reveal the little red dinosaur resting unconscious on the ground. Tamerkato gasped and ran to his partner's side, cradling the unconscious rookie in his arms - or at least as much as he could cradle the adult sized rookie, "Guilmon! GUILMON!"

The fear was back, this time for whatever was able to single handedly take out the monster Megidramon so easily. The clouds parted to reveal a light blue serpent made of clouds and wrapped in long chains, bathed in a glow of light that made the world around them seem dark. As the serpent came into view, so did its long wispy beard that reached so far down that it almost touched the ground and waved in a nonexistent wind. The digimon looked down on them, "What the hell is going on?"

The voice was not quite what he expected from such a large digimon. He expected it to be booming and commanding but instead it spoke softly like a parent. Still, Henry knew this digimon from the show and was more than excited by the fact that he actually got to see it in real life. He was sure everyone knew this digimon's name too.

"Who's asking!?" Rapidmon shouted back at it. Well, almost everyone should've known who this digimon was. Guardromon slapped Rapidmon across the back of the head and explained, "That's Azulongmon! A Sovereign Digimon!"

"Hey! Rapidmon! Maybe don't anger the giant digimon in the sky that just took out Megidramon!" Rika added. Rapidmon threw up his arms in frustration, "Does it matter? This makes three crazy digimon trying to attack us just today. Why break the streak? Let's see how many we can get! Let's aim for four! Five! Sky's the limit today."

"I really hope you're kidding," Henry slapped his forehead and called out to Azulongmon, "Azulongmon!"

It was very daunting to be this digimon's center of attention. Even more daunting when it leaned in closer to look with his four eyes. He put on the bravest face he could as the dragon asked, "Humans? Wait! Are you the digidestined!? It's been so long! It's good that you're here! We don't have time to lose! Is the Digimon Tamer with you? Please say-"

"He's not," Tamerkato answered quickly, keeping his attention focused on Guilmon. He lied. He wasn't sure why but decided against calling it out right now. He wasn't sure adding more to his bad mood would do any of them any good right now. Azulongmon glanced down at Tamer and Guilmon briefly, "Was that your partner?"

Tamerkato nodded quietly and Azulongmon rolled his eyes, "Work on your anger issues. Seriously, we've got enough things on our hands without having to deal with a human who can't keep his emotions in check. Which digidestined are you, by the way? I don't recognize any of you. You're not that one who wore the fire jacket were you? Your fashion sense has barely gotten better."

"I think he runs a noodle cart now, actually," Kenta added quietly.

"We're not the digidestined!" Rika answered the digimon above them. The flying dragon examined them carefully, "Are you sure? You have digimon partners. And what look like digivices. Just not any digivice I've seen before."

"We're sure," Taomon assured the flying dragon. Azulongmon mumbled something under his breath before asking, "Well if you're not the digidestined, then who are you and...wait, Tamer?"

He looked directly at Ryo when he said that and the boy groaned, "For the love of...why does everyone think I'm Tamer? I'm Ryo. I'm human too. The Digimon Tamer is-"

Tamerkato shot him another dirty look and Ryo paused, considering what he should say and settling on, "Not here. And certainly not me."

Azulongmon stared down at them quietly before sighing, "It doesn't matter. Since you're here, there's...the Catalyst! Why do you have the Catalyst!?"

Calumon cowered at the sound of being called the Catalyst and retreated to safety behind Juri. Tamerkato's attention was back on his partner and he hardly noticed that the subject was now about the little digimon. Or maybe he did notice and was feigning ignorance. Henry hater the uncertainty that accompanied Tamer's actions, "Calumon is actually why we're here."

He paused as he considered what he was going to say next. Admitting to a Sovereign that he had been the one stopping the Devas seems like a bad idea. Then again maybe he would be understanding? Azulongmon seemed like an understanding digimon. On the other hand, he had knocked Megidramon back to Guilmon with one attack. So what chance did they have if they made him angry? He swallowed the growing lump in his throat and again, "The Devas came to our world. And they were looking for this little guy. So we decided to come to your world and ask why. We know your world's in trouble. We gathered that much from the Devas when they fought us. But what exactly is it?"

The sovereign gazed down on them from on high, and Henry wasn't sure which unnerved him more: the monstrosity Tamerkato had released or the sovereign staring down at them. He was sure they were about to be attacked, when Azulongmon spoke, "Come with me and I'll explain everything to you. But not here. Time is a factor and we can't afford to waste it."

The dragon descended upon them so fast that they weren't prepared for the flash of light that followed his descent, or the sudden rush of wind as he encircled them. He coiled around them, moving in a serpentine spin at such speed that the whole world seemed to go crazy as he spun around until they felt their stomachs turn and the world spin.

When he finally stopped spinning around them and uncoiled, they found the sandy beaches of Gekomon Village replaced by miles of endless desert. And worst of all was a blinding light just a short distance away that they needed their hands to shield themselves from. Rika groaned, "What happened? Where are we?"

"The Tier of the Sovereigns," Azulongmon answered proudly, hovering just before the light to shield them from it. Now that they were better able to see, they could make out the silhouettes of several other digimon present - a tortoise, a giant bird, what looked like a rabbit, an overgrown dog, a pig, and a mouse in a metal ball. Rika rubbed her eyes, trying to get them to focus but wasn't able to concentrate properly. It didn't help that Beelzemon was still screaming bloody murder and she cried out, "Will someone shut him up!?"

Taomon leapt over to Beelzemon and apologized, "I'm sorry. This is for your own good."

She hit him across the back of his head as hard as he could, finally rendering the mega level digimon unconscious on the ground.

"AZULONGMON! WHY DID YOU BRING INTERLOPERS HERE!?" a voice cried out, prompting Calumon to shriek, "That's him! That's the mean and scary voice the monkey took me to!"

His screaming panic sent him burying his face into Juri out of fear, as if looking away from the silhouettes would make whatever digimon they were about to meet leave him. The voice added, "Oh, it's the catalyst. Where are Makuramon and the dragon digimon?"

Azulongmon flew straight into the light, apologizing as he went to confer with the silhouette, "Will you stop with the light show, already? It's not impressing anyone - you're just making it hard to see anything!"

Silence followed before the light began to fade, revealing the silhouetted digimon along side six new massive digimon they had never seen before. Although it wasn't hard to figure who they were: the Sovereigns and whatever remained of the Devas. The large crimson bird swept its way towards them, "Hmph...why are there humans here? Are these the digidestined?"

"I'm afraid not, although I wish they were," Azulongmon answered dryly. If it was possible at all to feel any more unwelcome in the Digital World, Henry was sure they were feeling it. Azulongmon added, "However, they have digivices that can affect digimon partnered with them. So perhaps they are."

"I see. Wait, isn't that the little imp that I rewarded some power to? What's he doing here?" The large crimson bird asked loudly, gesturing towards the unconscious Beelzemon with his beak. Then it occurred to Henry that this must've been the digimon that Impmon had given Calumon to. The bird gazed down upon them expectantly, its eyes moving from one to another until it finally rested on Henry, "You! Explain!"

"Um...well, he attacked us because he was looking for a strong opponent," Henry answered quietly, trying not to avoid the large digimon's ire. The bird grunted its disapproval, "Hmph. He did strike me as weak willed. Even with a fraction of my power, he was weak. Very well, I am Zhuqiaomon - crimson bird of the south quadrant of the Digital World! Tell me who you are, humans, and why you are intruding in our domain!"

"Um...I'm Henry, that's my partner Rapidmon. That's Rika, her partner Taomon, Ryo, his partner Cyberdramon, Kazu, his partner Guardromon, that's Kenta, Juri, Tam...Takato, and his partner Guilmon," he answered quietly, "And you already know Calumon...the catalyst as you call him. We're here because we're trying to figure out why he was in our world and why the digimon were crossing over into our world to get him back. We got the basics down, there's trouble in your world but what exactly is going on?"

"I see, I see. And how exactly did you get to our world?" Zhuqiaomon asked next, "Travel between worlds should only be possible for the digidestined and the Digimon Tamer. And you are neither."

Henry paused, moving his gaze over to Tamerkato as he struggle to come up with an answer. Tamerkato just shook his head at him, as if he were begging him to not answer the question. He really wished he'd snap out of whatever was eating at him because he was not the quickest thinker in this kind of situation. Thankfully, Guardromon answered, "I helped them. I went to their world in search of the Digimon Tamer. I found them."

He breathed a sigh of cautious relief. At least he hadn't lied. After all, it was technically the truth. There was just one thing he didn't understand. Why was Takato or Tamer choosing now to have his mental breakdown? Why now was he regressing back to using secrets.

"He's been down there a long time. Maybe we should go down to help?" The turtle said, looking away from them. Now that they could get better a look at it, the realized the turtle was massive, with a large oak growing from his back and a second head protruding from the side of his neck. The second head, "Quit worrying about the little prat for five minutes. He's fine! We haven't even introduced ourselves. Humans! We're Ebonwumon, Sovereign Lord and Black Tortoise of the Northern Quadrant!"

"I'm just saying that maybe we should go down there and help him," the first head countered, still ignoring them, "It's not like he can take care of it by himself. We couldn't take care of it together. Maybe we should've sent him some back up? Some of us definitely should've gone down with him."

"Focus!" The second head countered. As soon as he said that, a giant pillar of red fire shot out of ground from behind the Sovereign digimon. It was followed by several large blasts of white lightning and the ground shaking beneath their feet. Once the shaking subsided, the first head said, "I was right to worry. Something is going horribly wrong down there!"

"So what exactly is going down there?" Ryo asked. Azulongmon glided past them towards a large and growing crevice that was just behind the gathered digimon. Azulongmon answered, "We Sovereign digimon serve as the guardians of this world and the last line of defense against danger. One day, we sensed...something...wrong and came to investigate. We found this crevice that tunnels far below the surface of the our world. And we found...a thing. We don't know what it is. We're not entirely sure if it's even alive. But it attacked us, and it was unfazed by anything we did to stop it. That was when we realized a horrible truth about whatever this...thing is. It's not digimon...or human. But it is Digital. And it seems to only want to destroy. We fled from it. And then WarGreymon came to help. He saw the danger and sacrificed himself to buy us time - collapsing the very earth on top of himself to bury it. But the time he bought wasn't enough. The thing beneath us started to escape. Now, one of our own, Baihumon has gone down to battle."

There was another flash of lightning from deep within the crevice, followed by a pillar of red fire. Kazu walked over to the pillar of fire and commented, "Wow, he must be a really brave digimon to go down there."

"More like he was the only one small enough to actually venture down into the new crevice," Ebonwumon's second head pointed out, "Maybe you haven't noticed, but the rest of us are too big to actually get down there."

"But then what about the rest of you?" Taomon asked, gesturing towards the rest of the digimon - the dog, the pig, rabbit, and the mouse. Kazu readily agreed, "Yeah! The rest of you have got to be small enough to fit inside! Well, except for you big guy."

He readily gestured at the pig. Kenta adjusted his glasses, "That's why they needed Calumon. They're not strong enough. If the Sovereigns ran scared, what chance would these guys have?"

"WE WERE NOT SCARED!" Zhuqiaomon roared at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing through the Digital World. Ebonwumon's second head cleared its throat and clarified, "What he means is it was a tactical retreat."

The first head countered, "They have a word for that. It's called scared."

Their inability to agree was amusing, made all the better when the fire on Zhuqiaomon's body erupted into emboldened flame. It stopped being funny when Calumon yelped, prompting Rapidmon to point out, "As funny as it is to watch you guys argue, shouldn't you be more worried about your friend? You said he was down there by himself. And besides, you have Calumon now. What are you waiting for?"

A beat of silence followed as the digimon sovereigns looked amongst themselves until the rabbit groaned, "Oh for the love of...fine, I'll tell them. We don't really know how to use it. We were hoping to either find the Digimon Tamer or that Makuramon would find the information to use it first. But we haven't seen either Makuramon or Majiramon since they left to get the Catalyst."

"SILENCE ANTYLAMON! Until you learn to hold your tongue, go guard the Western Gate to our domain!" Zhuqiaomon roared, the fires on his wings growing ever brighter. Antylamon's ears slunk down as the giant bunny shrank away, turning to leave with her shoulders slumped. Henry looked hard at Tamerkato now, who still sat on the ground beside his silent partner. He seemed to be saying something but it was too quiet to actually hear. Probably disturbed by what he'd done to his partner. And as for Juri, she'd also seemed to have shut down. It seemed both of them were out of the fight on this end now.

Ryo wondered if the reason none of them had mentioned what happened to the other Devas was a fear of reprisal from the Sovereigns. He was about to explain when Rika opened her mouth, "If you're waiting for the monkey and the dragon, don't bother. They're dead."

"WHAT!?" Zhuqiaomon roared angrily, an apparent habit of his. Rika didn't cow like Antylamon, actually appearing annoyed with Zhuqiaomon for exploding like a child, "Hey! They attacked us! Besides, it's not like they were going to listen to us when we told them to stop."

"You...YOU'RE THE ONES WHO KILLED THE OTHERS! MIHIRAMON! SINDURAMON! SANDIRAMON! PAJIRAMON! VAJRAMON! EVEN INDRAMON!"

Zhuqiaomon was mad now. As he roared, pillars of fire erupted from the sand around them and encircling them in a brilliant display. Ryo tried gesturing at Rika to knock it off, hoping she would stop antagonizing the giant fire bird in front of them. Especially since that worked so well for them last time. Instead she only seemed empowered by his rampage and she rolled her eyes, "That's not impressing anyone. Take it from me: you're just coming off as really childish."

Zhuqiaomon paused to consider what she said and the fires died down, leaving only blackened scorch marks along the ground. The bird leaned in on Rika, and they were able to better appreciate his massive size. His head alone was probably the size of an SUV, "How can a human like you be so unintimidated?"

"Are you kidding? We've been fighting for our lives against crazy digimon since we got here. Why should you be any different?" she countered grumpily, "I mean, the last guy had eight heads. Then there was Megadramon who came out of the snow, Beelzemon over there actually showed up on a motorcycle and was trying to shoot us. At this point, I think we're all tapped out for being surprised or scared."

Zhuqiaomon examined her carefully, and he was sure she was about to get herself killed. He hurried ahead of her and pulled her behind him, "If you're thinking of hurting her, you're going to have go through me."

He'd lost enough in his time here in the Digital World. Ryo wasn't about to lose anymore, especially not to this overgrown bird. Zhuqiaomon shook his head, "I wasn't planning on anything. I was just thinking on how much she reminds me of the The Digimon Tamer. For a moment, it seemed she was. But the look in her eyes is different. They're younger, more optimistic. The Digimon Tamer had the eyes of a warrior. Eyes that already had a plan to stop you before they'd met yours."

Ryo tried his hardest not to glance at Tamerkato, wondering how Zhuqiaomon would take the news that he was the Digimon Tamer. Whatever warrior fervor Zhuqiaomon thought he had was gone a long time ago, only coming out as spats of pure anger whenever he was provoked enough. Now he just seemed broken. He contemplated what to say or do now but was unsure for the first time since he'd come to the Digital World. All he wanted for now was to go home.

"Well, what if we helped?" Kazu asked aloud, "I mean, since you don't know how to use the Catalyst, how about we go down and take a look at...whatever it is that has you all spooked. Maybe we can do something about it!?"

Zhuqiaomon turned his attention to Kazu and growled, "And how do you propose to do that?"

Kazu gestured at their partners, "Between Guardromon, Cyberdramon, Taomon, and Rapidmon? We fly down there! It'd work since we could just squeeze into the gap. If we can't stop it, we can definitely help Baihumon get out."

The sovereigns and Devas looked between each other, silently communicating with their eyes until Azulongmon answered, "Why not? What's the worse that could happen?"

Author's Notes: Megidramon is defeated but has the rage of the Digimon Tamer subsided? What will the heroes find in the depths of the Digital World that has even the Sovereigns scared? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v2.0 due out next week on Friday December 6th at 8 PM CST. Let me know what you guys think in the reviews section! I also welcome constructive criticism and feedback! And hey, if you loved it, then don't forget to favorite to show support and follow to keep up with all the latest updates. And hey, I hope you're all having a happy Thanksgiving and enjoying the holiday shopping season. That's all I have for now. Let's look at previews for the next chapter!

"It's kinda dark and there needs to be more light!" Kazu shouted back up.

A bolt of lightning shot up from within the depths of the crevice followed by another pillar of fire. Azulongmon moved out of its path and heard the kids below screaming in terror and protest as their flung around by his beard. After a moment of silence, Rika shouted, "Dammit Kazu! You just had to ask for light, didn't you!?"

"I didn't mean that kind of light. And seriously, stop shouting at me. You're making me look bad in front of Azulongmon!