Sitting in her dimly lit room, Laylamon stared down at the journal in front of her. Her handwriting was barely legible, her ever increasing frustration beginning to wear on her. She bit down on the end of her pen in irritation and then crossed out what she had written. Sighing heavily, she put the pen down, closed the journal, and leaned back in her chair. Every time she wrote in it she was unhappy with the words she wrote. There was too much on her mind for her to properly write how she felt. How she wished she could stop the raging storm of thoughts long enough for her to collect herself.

A knock at her door made her huff.

"Who is it?"

"DemiDevimon, my lady."

The messenger was one of the last Digimon she wanted to deal with. Resigning herself to whatever news he had, she stood and approached the door. He was cowering when she opened.

"The two groups you sent to get Beelzemon? They, uh—they were defeated."

She grabbed hold of the door jam. As she crushed it, the wood splintered and a distinct imprint in the shape of a hand was left. DemiDevimon shrank away from her.

"Go get Datamon. He and I need to have a small talk."

"A-as you wish, master."

Flustered by her anger, he jumped into the air to fly down the hallway. Laylamon stepped out of her room just as DemiDevimon disappeared around the corner. She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. In an attempt to distract herself, she dug the claws of her metal hand into the wall. Though the sound helped her to relax somewhat, the anger was still foremost in her thoughts.

It seemed that the DigiDestined were gaining strength at a faster rate than she had anticipated they would. At the rate things were going, they would be strong enough to challenge her face-to-face and win. That meant that everything she had worked towards was in jeopardy.

No doubt they would do whatever it took to put a stop to her plans.

The final phase of her plan needed to be ready to be initiated before that could happen.

"You wanted to speak with me?"

She opened her eyes to stare down at Datamon. "Progress report."

"In a few days' time, the final phase will be ready," Datamon said. "Is there anything else you need to know?"

"No. You are free to leave."

Datamon gave her a curt bow and slunk away.

How disappointing. I had thought there would be enough time. Rubbing her right shoulder with her left hand, Laylamon raised her head to stare up at the ceiling. Beelzemon. What will you do when you come to face me? Will you try to fight me? What will I do if you try?

As she reentered her room, Laylamon lowered her gaze to her journal. She opened it and leafed through it, stopping when she reached the very last page.

With her pen in her hand she began the process of slowly filling the page.

~0~

Trying to be as quiet as he could, Daiki slowly opened the door to the room. His plan was to talk to Mikami, so when he saw Beelzemon staring at him, he was startled. Though he thought about shutting the door at that moment, he figured it was as good of a time as ever to talk. He stepped into the room and closed the door gently, his eyes on Beelzemon.

"Mind if we talk?" Daiki asked, whispering.

"You don't need to be quiet," Beelzemon said. "She barely reacted when I picked her up to put her on the bed."

Daiki bristled upon hearing that. There were a number of things he wanted to say, and he had to bite his tongue to stop himself. There was no point in being angry about something so harmless, as much as he hated the thought of it.

"Right," he mumbled. Breathing in deeply through his nose, Daiki ran a hand through his hair. "I'm taking back what I said to you. None of us are going to do anything to hurt you. Mikami doesn't deserve that kind of pain again." When it looked like Beelzemon was going to speak, Daiki shoved his finger in the Digimon's face to silence him. "But we'll be keeping our eyes on you. We'll find others ways to punish you if you try anything."

Unfazed by the threat, Beelzemon raised a hand to push Daiki's hand away from his face. "Not much of a 'talk'."

The remark made Daiki sneer. A noise from the communicator in his pocket interrupted him before he could say anything back. Rolling his eyes, he headed out of the room.

Pressing the button brought up a hologram of Angela.

"Good morning, Daiki. BanchoLeomon, Devimon, and I will be arriving where you are in a few minutes. Make sure everyone is ready when we get there."

"What's up?"

"We're making our move against Laylamon. I'll explain everything once we get there."

"Alright." He paused, his eyebrows furrowing. "…Is this gonna be our last fight against her?"

"It probably will be. See you soon, Daiki."

The hologram disappeared when she ended the call. Daiki shut off the device and rubbed the back of his neck. He chose to head into the other bedroom first. Both beds were full; on one was Yoko, Salamon, and Gabumon, while the other had been taken by Judai, Dorumon, and Biyomon. In the far left corner of the room was Shizuka, who had fallen asleep sitting up. Not far from her, Tadashi was sprawled out on the floor. Daiki glanced to the right to see Renamon watching him.

"I heard," she said.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough to hear your conversation."

He looked annoyed when he muttered, "Right."

Brushing that aside, he walked up to the twins. He just crouched down beside Shizuka when she opened her eyes to glare at him.

"Sorry. Feel better knowing I'm waking everyone up?"

As he jabbed Tadashi in the side with his finger, Shizuka grumbled and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Tadashi sat up with a yelp. After taking a moment to calm himself, he frowned at Daiki. He merely shrugged and stood back up. While the two slowly got to their feet, Daiki turned his attention to the two beds. Renamon had already woken Yoko, Salamon, and Gabumon, so he prodded the other three awake. With a loud yawn, Judai stretched, hitting Dorumon with his foot in the process. Biyomon fluttered over to where her partner was standing while Dorumon did his best to climb down to the floor. After several seconds of him struggling, Daiki grabbed him and set him on the floor.

Yoko, holding Salamon in her arms, looked up at Daiki. "Is everything alright?"

"I dunno. I'll explain in a bit. I still need to get Mikami up."

He ignored the complaints and headed for the other room. Beelzemon was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Daiki couldn't stop himself from glaring while he opened the door. Tearing his gaze away, he entered the room and walked up to the bed. He was gentle as he shook her. Groaning, Mikami squeezed her eyes shut tighter before finally opening them.

With a small smile on his face, he said, "I'd offer you some coffee, but I don't have any."

Rolling her eyes, she gave him a playful smack on the arm. "What's going on?"

"Come on. I want to explain to everyone at the same time."

She nodded and swung her legs over the side of the bed to stand up. Everyone had scattered throughout the room, with Judai having fallen back asleep on the floor. A kick from Shizuka made him jolt upwards.

"Angela, Devimon, and BanchoLeomon are coming," Daiki said.

Concern flashed across Gabumon's face. "Has something happened?"

"Angela didn't say much, just that they'll explain when they get here. It shouldn't take them very long to show up."

"So, uh…" Shifting, Dorumon tapped his claws together and then waved towards Beelzemon. "How are we gonna explain him to them?"

While everyone else puzzled over the question, Mikami cleared her throat. "I'll handle it. Hopefully they don't jump the gun the moment they see him."

"Pun intended?" Shizuka asked.

When Mikami turned towards her with an unamused look on her face, Shizuka raised her hands into the air. The group fell silent as they waited, fidgeting and pacing impatiently. From where she was standing, Mikami could see Daiki glaring at Beelzemon from the corner of his eye. It was hard for her to resist snapping at him, but she left out a breath of air when he finally moved his gaze to the door. At least he was trying, so she couldn't complain too much. Not that she wouldn't be lecturing him about it later.

Ten minutes later, a noise outside alerted them to the trio's arrival. Holding up a hand, Mikami walked towards the door. The three were climbing off the back of a MegaKabuterimon when she stepped outside.

"Mikami!" With a smile on her face, Angela hurried over to pull Mikami into a hug. "How are you doing?"

Mikami had to pry herself away from Angela. "Pretty well, all things considered."

"Good. There's a lot going on, so—"

"Before you three go in to talk to everyone, there's something I need you guys to do." The odd look on Angela's face had Mikami smiling slightly. "Keep an open mind, okay? And please don't freak out."

Wrinkling his nose up, BanchoLeomon looked at Devimon. Just as confused as the lion was, Devimon shrugged.

"Okay…" Angela paused to frown. "Should I be worried?"

"No, but I know you will be once you see who I'm talking about."

"…Who?"

Deciding not to delay the inevitable, Mikami quickly flung the door open. Just as she expected, they didn't take the sight of Beelzemon standing among them well. Angela was staring at him with a mixture of confusion and anger. Devimon shifted into a defensive stance and BanchoLeomon prepared to draw his sword from its sheath. Mikami waved both her hands to try to get them to look at her.

"Don't attack him!" she shouted. "He's my partner!"

That made all three of them stare at her with their mouths hanging open in disbelief.

"I know it's hard to believe. I couldn't believe it when it first happened." She dug into her pocket to hold out her Digivice. "But I promise I'm not lying. This isn't something I would lie about."

Uncertain but curious, Angela moved her face closer to the device. "Damn. I'm sorry, I just…" She straightened and rubbed her eyes. "Him?"

Beelzemon piped up. "Your reactions are understandable. Don't feel as if you have to trust me."

A snarl came from BanchoLeomon.

Devimon huffed. "As if we would."

"Devimon," Angela snapped. "Alright, Mikami, we're listening, so feel free to explain what's going on. How'd this happen?"

Grateful that Angela was willing to hear her out, Mikami nodded. "I know you'll get mad hearing this, but it's important."

As she explained how Beelzemon ambushed them and everything that happened following that, she kept a close eye on their reactions. No matter what she said, Angela remained composed while she listened. BanchoLeomon managed to keep his anger under control, only allowing his calm façade to break for brief moments. Devimon seemed to have a permanent aggravated look on his face the entire time but said nothing. At the end of her explanation, BanchoLeomon closed his eyes and folded his arms.

"So that's that. Like I told everyone else, it is what it is and it's out of our hands. The only thing we can do is focus on what needs to be done."

Placing a hand on Mikami's shoulder, Angela smiled. "Well said. He was willing to protect you, so I'm willing to trust him."

"Are you being serious?" Devimon hissed.

"Yes. Have a problem with that?"

"Of course I do. We shouldn't trust him."

"You'll just have to get over it then, won't you?" Angela replied, smirking. "Anyways, we don't have time to be standing around arguing."

Mikami moved so that she was no longer blocking the door. She followed behind as the three headed inside.

"To get right to the point, we have reason to believe that Laylamon is planning an attack," BanchoLeomon said. "All her forces have been called back to her castle. As such we have decided to gather our forces and attack while they are in one place. If we are able to take them by surprise, we can finish this once and for all."

"What is our plan of attack?" Tadashi asked.

"We have discussed multiple plans. Our time is short; it is hard to know when Laylamon will deploy her forces. It would be best to discuss this on the way to meet with the rest of the Resistance."

"I agree. That seems to be the best course of action," Renamon said. "Is everyone in agreement?"

Everyone was quick to show their agreement by nodding. Satisfied, BanchoLeomon turned to leave. "Then we should hurry. The sooner we get there, the quicker we can finish this war."