Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

Digital Manifest

Keepers

Chapter 13: Memory of the Beast King

Leomon landed on a rooftop with a grunt, pausing to take a look around the terrain. The giant, lion warrior had taken to exploring the city again once it had become clear that Jeri would be a while with her choirs. He had told her that he would return in about an hour to check up on her and so she had given him her blessings. Leomon was a bit surprised that she was so willing to let him out of her sight, seeing as how he died after all, and given the amount of attention that she had showered on him when they had first met in the park so long ago, one would think that she wouldn't want to let him out of her sight, especially after so short a time had passed after being reunited. But she let him go with a soft smile and her blessings, as though she had all the faith that she needed that he would come back to her. Perhaps this was because of the fact that he had, basically, returned to her, coming back from the dead in order to do it (though how this came to be still baffled him), or maybe it had more to do with her experiences from the D-Reaper crisis that she had told him about during the brief time that he had come back to Shinjuku. Leomon frowned. That was something that bothered him. That his death had had such a drastic affect on the girl that she had come within inches of completely giving up on herself. That, and some previous experiences in her life, the death of her real mother from when she was very young…

Leomon could imagine that his dying made things any easier for her. Regardless, whatever she had gone through during the D-Reaper invasion, it had brought her out of the depression that she had sunk into (having gotten the story from his partner, piece by piece since he had been reintroduced to the girl), and it had given her a new self-confidence, rivaling how she was when they first met. In many ways it was almost as if a veil had been lifted and she was now more eager to experience life. Perhaps some of it was facilitated by his return, but it was clear that her sense of change and self-worth had been an ongoing process long before he had reentered her life.

And because of that, Leomon was proud of her.

But things of that nature aside, we must now come to the reason for Leomon's pausing on this particular rooftop.

The beast-warrior had spent a lifetime fighting in the digital world, and as a result he had a lifetime's amount of accrued experience in detecting possible sources of danger. As those sources were more often digimon than not, he had learned to detect the presence of his digital brethren no matter who or what they were, and whether they were a threat to his being.

Such was the case now.

With a low growl Leomon's hand caressed the hilt of his sword as his eyes continued to scan the area, finally settling on a power generator unit. On it stood a small, black, impish creature with a pale face, a red bandana wrapped around his neck with matching gloves covering his hands, and a cruel smiley face emblazoned on his chest. A smug look graced his face as he gave Leomon the once-over. Leomon did likewise. After a moment, the dimunitive digimon finally spoke.

"Interestin'," he said. "You look just like him. Gotta say, I'm certainly impressed, and it takes a lot to impress someone like me. I'm curious, how'd you manage it? The whole look I mean? Couldn't have been easy."

"What do you mean?" Growled Leomon, his hand never leaving his sword. "Who are you?"

"I can see that you don't remember me," said the dark creature as he hopped off of the generator. "The name's Impmon. I'm sure that you've heard one of the Tamers throw that name around, but just in case your memory needs joggin', then perhaps this will help…"

Leomon suddenly tensed as the creature that had identified himself as Impmon suddenly glowed and grew in height. As the lightshow died down Leomon found himself face to face with one of the last beings he had fought prior to meeting Ryan and Chris.

"Beelzemon…"

Leomon fell back into a defensive stance, drawing his blade from its sheath in one smooth motion, faster than the eye could see, and growled menacingly at the Mega Demon Lord, preparing himself to fight and die. Again.

Instead of attacking as expected, Beelzemon just raised his claws in a placating gesture.

"Take it easy there. I'm not here to fight. Quite the opposite in fact. I want to talk."

Leomon narrowed his eyes, not relaxing his stance.

"About what?"

"You."

Leomon blinked.

"Tell me something, Leomon," said the ex-Demon Lord. "What were the last words that you said to me, right before I… killed… you."

Leomon met Beelzemon's gaze carefully, not sure why this being who had once been his enemy was asking him about this, or why he wasn't attacking him yet. Though Jeri had told him about Beelzemon trying to rescue her, risking his own life for her in the battle against D-Reaper, the lion digimon was suspicious of his intentions for doing so. Perhaps he had nothing to worry about, especially since he got a sense of honesty and trust, as well as nerves, from Beelzemon about how this meeting could go down. Digimon could change, this was true (he himself was proof of that, and the same could be said for Rika and Renamon) but the last time he had laid eyes on Beelzemon the Viral Mega had impaled him with his claws and was threatening the children. Oh well. Might as well humor him. Leomon's mind went back to that dreadful day, and the battle between the two of them slowly came to mind.

"I told you that you were being used, and I asked you if the power you were given was worth keeping just to harm the children."

"Beelzemon nodded.

"Interestin' that you remember dat," the Demon Lord said. Leomon raised an eyebrow.

"Why is that? I was there when we fought."

"Yeah. But how did you come back?"

Leomon felt something tense up inside of him. Beelzemon had struck a cord. Being a digimon of the southern quadrant he knew perfectly well that death for a digimon was more often than not final. Digimon, particularly the ones that were power hungry like Beelzemon (or as he had been) were all for gathering data, and Beelzemon especially when they had fought had not been the type to let free data escape his grasp if it offered him strength, ruling out the possibility of his reformatting after death, and he knew that he had died. Hadn't he felt the pain of Beelzemon's claws piercing him? Hadn't he felt his body slowly disintegrate while the horrified face of his partner, Jeri, filled his darkening vision? His last words trying to comfort the girl, offer some solace for her in the wake of his passing so that she could move on. The same words that he had always told her…

"Lion heart…" whispered Leomon.

Beelzemon gave a start at the use of those words. He had heard them leave Leomon's lips the day he had killed the warrior, and he had heard talk about it every now and then for months ever since. It was Leomon's way for describing the inner strength that Jeri had in her heart, and very, very few people outside of the Tamers group knew about it.

And because of this, Beelzemon was disturbed.

Just who is dis guy? The Demon Lord wondered. Before he had been certain that this wasn't Leomon, and that it was just another claiming to be the Tamer's dead comrade. Yet somehow this Leomon knew things that he shouldn't. Things that he couldn't. And there was a look in his eyes… a look of nostalgia. Of treasured memories.

I don't know how dis is possible, but for some reason I'm almost convinced dat he is da real deal. And dat's not possible.

As Beelzemon looked Leomon over, his three eyes widened as, for a brief instant, he thought that he saw a trail of gold energy trace its way across Leomon's body. He couldn't be sure, since he had seen nothing more than a glimpse of it. It could have been a trick of the sun, but somehow, deep in his digital heart, the sense of familiar data coursed through Beelzemon's body, in tune with the rest that lay buried within, and the Demon Lord wondered.

Who is dis guy?

As Beelzemon was thinking that thought, someone else was having similar lines of thoughts. Ryan trudged alongside Richoemon, Henry, and Terriermon, both boys drawing looks from various passersby as they made their way through the streets of Shinjuku. At another time, Ryan would have worried about the attention that their partner digimon was garnering them despite the time that he has had to get used to the idea that digimon had become more or less an accepted fact of life in the real world. His brow furrowed in thought, Ryan's attention was instead more focused on the puzzle that was Leomon, the digimon that had appeared out of the blue and gave them aid in a battle against an Okuwamon, had known the Digidestined and had even died for them at one point. How he had come back was something of a mystery, and after a brief talk with him at the St. Jude's hospital three days ago, he had apparently known some things that he had been holding out on him and Chris during their time together in the digital world.

Ahuramon's Shadow…

That name still made Ryan wonder. Just what exactly was it? And how did Leomon know it? He had said that he had heard of it while traveling in the digital world, which he supposed made sense. Anything could have happened during the time before that they had hooked up and one word or a rumor could have made its way to Leomon's ears.

But still, thought Ryan. When Chris had asked what the deal was with the Mammothmon… he claimed that he didn't know what it was. My memory may be a bit choppy from everything that's happened to me, but I'm positive that's what he said. Did he just not remember at the time? Or did he lie?

Ryan let out a light sigh, realizing that too much time had passed since he had last seen his traveling companion. Three days was quite a lot of time but things had been busy. When he had been making bread with Takato yesterday, the kid had mentioned something about Jeri planning some sort of welcome back party, but so far nothing definite was set. And with the tests that Janyu was making him go through to make sure that the data trapped in his body was continuing to dissipate, and with Yamaki trying to get in touch with his and Chris's parents over in the states, he felt more inclined to stay close to the area of Hypnos in case he or Chris received word on a new development. Truth be told, Ryan was looking forward to going back home. He wasn't sure precisely how he would explain Richoemon to his family, but if everything that he's seen and heard so far was true with the publicity of the Tamer's adventures, then he should have a relatively easy time with that. He just hoped that his life would settle down soon and return to some semblance of normalcy and that he could leave his strange adventures behind him. The Tamers seemed like a rather capable bunch to handle the fallout…

Even as Ryan thought that, a tug that could only be described as his conscience told him that he couldn't very well just leave everything in the hands of the Tamers just because he was back in the real world and they already had the experience necessary to combat wild digimon. The strange Wild Ones that had popped up recently, the Apemon and the Snimon, were beyond anything that the Tamers had already encountered. There was something strange going on in the digital world, and he and Chris seemed to be at the center of it all, though for the life of him Ryan couldn't figure out why that was.

Maybe it has to do with our digivices, thought Ryan, his hand reaching over to the device that was strapped to his hip. I mean, they are a different model from the Tamers, and if what half of Chris and the others have told me is true, there's a good chance that they may be more different than just their difference in design. I…

"Hey," spoke up Terriermon from his spot on Henry's shoulder. "What's with the face?"

"Huh?" Ryan said, a little startled with having his concentration broken in such a manner.

"Well it just looked like you were thinking hard about something, and I was a little worried that you might strain your brain doing that. It looked like it was only a matter of time before smoke started coming out of your ears…"

"Terriermon…" groaned Henry, his eyes staring up at the sky as though beseeching the heavens for an answer as to why he was partnered up with such a rambunctious digimon. The mouth on his partner has landed the long eared rabbit dog in more trouble than was healthy. That fight with Gorillamon from almost a year ago was an excellent example of that.

"What? Come on! This guy thinks a lot, almost as much as you and that can't be healthy. I mean, having one Henry is bad enough, but two…?"

"Better watch it bunny-boy," said Ryan, frowning at the long eared digimon. "One of these days someone's going to send you to the moon if you keep talking like that."

Terriermon giggled.

"I take back what I said, Henry. Ryan at least has a sense of humor, and says things other than Terriermon to me. I still think that we should expand your vocabulary…"

"Terriermon…" said Henry, exasperation clear in his voice. Terriermon smiled, and even Ryan grinned a little at that.

Walked right into that one didn't he?

"I guess Terriermon has a point though," said Henry, turning to look at Ryan as they continued to walk down the streets.

"Don't I always?" Giggled Terriermon. Henry, Ryan, and Richoemon ignored him.

"What are you thinking about?"

Ryan shrugged.

"Lots of things," said Ryan. "Mostly about the things that I experienced when I was in the digital world."

"I'll bet that he was thinking about his encounter with the Chuumon and the Sukamon," chuckled Terriermon, raising one hand to his mouth in an attempt to hide his smile. Ryan glowered at the rabbit.

"Terriermon…" Ryan growled, making an eerie approximation of Henry's tone of voice whenever he got irritated with his partner.

"Sheesh. Sounds like someone else needs a lesson in speaking too. Come on, Ryan! I'm only curious about what happened! That's the one story that Chris didn't tell us back when he gave us your back story, and each time someone mentions it you get all flustered and angry, and dodge the subject the way people avoid poisonous snakes, real or digital! I just want to know!"

"Terriermon. If he doesn't want to tell us, then you shouldn't push him."

"You're no fun…"

"I never said I was. You going to come down to my place now Ryan, or are you going to stop by at Hypnos first and see my dad?"

Ryan gave a watchful glare at Terriermon before answering Henry's question.

"I was thinking about stopping by Hypnos first, get another batch of tests over with and check and see if Yamaki has any new information on my and Chris's parents. After that, I'm open to suggestions."

Henry nodded.

"I'll walk you there."

Ryan smiled and nodded.

"Thanks."

The group traveled in silence for a few minutes. Then Terriermon spoke up.

"So… will you tell me now?"

"Zip it," said Ryan with a touch of irritation in his voice.

"You know, based on what little information that I already have, and the context that it's in, I can guess as to what happened."

"And I'll neither confirm or deny whatever guess that you have."

"Either way, if it's what I'm thinking, you certainly attract the strangest relationship prospects. Who's next? Rika?"

Ryan stiffened and glared at Terriermon.

"Not even if my life depended on it," he said quickly.

"Terriermon…" began Henry warningly. Terriermon sighed in defeat.

"I'll be shutting up now…"

"Smartest thing he's said all day," muttered Ryan.

"Here's the final information that you've requested sir," said Rileyy as she handed a file to Yamaki. Yamaki opened the folder and thumbed through the papers that it contained.

"Thank you Riley," said Yamaki, placing the folder and its contents on his desk and began to analyze them in detail while Reilly waited for his response and his next batch of orders. Not that it mattered. The first page told him all that he needed, but he wanted to know the details of the research and how the officials in charge of it had come to this conclusion, and so quickly. At the top of the first page in the file, stamped on the image of a brown haired boy with green eyes, red t-shirt and a green, unbuttoned shirt over it, was the answer to Yamaki's question, which in turn only created more questions.

Ryan McCabe

No file found

"Riley," said Yamaki after a few moments. "When Ryan comes in for his tests with Janyu, have him sent to my office immediately."

"Yes sir," said Riley with a nod of her head.

"MOM! DAD! I'M HOME!" Called out Takato as he opened the side door to his home that also served as his parents business and stepped inside, Guilmon, Rika, and Renamon joining him within seconds. As they took off their shoes Rika took a look around. It had been a while since she was last over at Takato's house. The last time she was there had been back during the D-Reaper crisis when they had fixed themselves bread for their breakfast. Now that she thought of it, she rarely went over to any of her friend's homes. Usually they were content to either hang out at the park or at her place.

I should do stuff like this more often, thought Rika. Though I doubt that I'd want to spend a single moment at Kazu's place. Kid's so annoying… Still, this is… different. A little small now that I think about it, but kind of nice.

"Hey kiddo," said Takahiro, smiling as he poked his head through the doorway that led into the Bakery's kitchen. "Hey Rika."

" 'Morning Mr. Matsuki," said Rika with a slight nod at Takato's father.

"So what're you kids up to?"

"I just stopped by to get something to eat," replied Takato. "After that we'll be heading down to Jeri's for a little bit."

Takahiro grinned knowingly at the goggle wearing boy and Rika eyed Takato with amusement, wondering what his reaction was, but was a little disappointed that Takato took it without batting an eye. Oh well. Maybe he was just too thick headed to notice right away that even his father was aware of his crush on the puppet-loving girl known as Jeri Katou.

"All right," said Takahiro. "Just don't take too long okay? Your mom's climbing up the walls from the amount of business that we've been getting lately, and she could probably use you at the cash register later."

"Sure Dad," said Takato as he headed towards the kitchen, looking over his shoulder at Rika as he went. "You want anything Rika?"

"Might as well," said the red haired girl as she followed the boy with Renamon and Guilmon in tow, Guilmon a little bit more energetically than the kitsune digimon at the prospect of getting food in his stomach, already making excited noises about bread and preparing to sing his favorite bread related song. The one that went 'a loaf of bread shaped like my head'.

Some things never change, thought Rika, as she watched Dino boy rush towards the kitchen with a small measure of amusement at his childish antics.

The sounds of pots and pans crashing filled the now chaotic atmosphere of the kitchen as Takato dumped a steaming pot into the sink with the urgency of a fire fighter while behind him at the kitchen counter. Rika chuckled at the scene, but her mouth was too full to make a comment on the boy's apparent clumsiness in the kitchen. Next to her Renamon sat, calmly watching the situation unfold. Guilmon just sat on the floor, munching on his piece of Guilmon bread, long used to the little things that Takato and his family did around the kitchen. Digging through the cupboards, Takato brought out a plate and began to pile up food on it.

"I was starting to think that you didn't make or eat anything else besides bread," said Rika sarcastically as she finished swallowing some ramen noodles that consisted of her lunch. As Takato sat down across from her with his own plate of food, he gave a nervous, lopsided grin.

"Heh, heh. With the amount of bread that Guilmon eats it seems to be all that we make nowadays. But then, we do live in a bakery…"

"I think you went and took my joke a little to literally," said Rika, smirking a little at the boy as she dug into her noodles again. Takato blushed lightly and rubbed the back of his head.

"Anyway," said Rika. "What has Jeri been up to lately? I've noticed that she hasn't been around all that much, and I know that you were talking about her having a party of sorts to welcome him back…"

"Oh, yeah!" Said Takato, bobbing his head up and down in acknowledgement. "She's making it official tonight, but everything won't be ready until tomorrow. She said something about 'wanting the cake to be just right'."

"She's baking a cake, huh? I'm surprised that she didn't ask you to do it."

"Well," began Takato, smiling a little at his own food as he remembered the last time he had talked to the girl. "I did offer to bake it for her, but she said though she appreciated it she wanted to do it on her own. It's supposed to be a gift from the heart. I just wish that there were something that I could do to help. I mean, baking is kind of my field of specialty…"

"Practically the only thing that you're good at," muttered Rika with a small smile, earning her a light glare from the goggle-wearing Tamer, but he said nothing. That job was left instead to Renamon.

"Rika!"

"All right, all right," said Rika, rolling her eyes. "I just hope that he doesn't act any worse than this around Jeri. I'd hate to see her get embarrassed by Gogglehead."

"Ahhh…" stammered Takato, blushing a little.

"What's the matter Takato?" Rika teased, noticing the ever-increasing redness of his face. "Did your goggles cut off the circulation to your brain or something?"

Sheesh. Can't I just eat in peace?

But before Takato could say anything in response to the girl's question, or Rika could continue with her bantering, Guilmon spoke up in between mouthfuls from his place on the floor.

"Nope. Takato always changes colors when he's around Jeri or thinking about her. Terriermon likes to make fun of it all the time and calls Jeri his dream girl."

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the kitchen became tense as the use of the words dream girl began to settle in on the two children, reminding them of that moment when they had met in the alley almost a year ago. Takato had used them after he had left Rika's home as a kind of joke, and needless to say, Rika didn't react well to them. Rika glanced first at Guilmon with a look of annoyance and then at Takato to see what his reaction was, and annoyance turned to cool amusement as she saw the boy flinch and start to become a little agitated, his face reddening a little more, though this time for different reasons. Rika smirked. A year ago she probably would have made good on her promise to send him to dreamland over this subject, but she had since come a long way from those days. She had nearly forgotten about that dream that Takato had, and now just as she was then wasn't sure what to make of it. But that didn't preclude her having any fun at Takato's expense because of it.

Renamon eyed her partner carefully, wondering what she was planning, and frankly feeling a little worried by Rika's expression. The only thing that kept her from intervening at this moment was the knowledge that Rika was no longer the cold, untrusting, merciless girl that she had been when she first met Takato and Henry. They were all friends now, and Rika had opened up quite a bit since then. That alone granted Takato some measure of safety, so Renamon decided to sit back and see how Rika would play this one out. Besides, she too found Takato's reactions a little amusing, even though the subject matter still caught her curiosity from time to time.

"Dream girl, huh?"

Takato's reactions were starting to remind Rika of a cornered rabbit. Only with goggles and a tomato colored face.

"Uhhh…" was Takato's only response while Guilmon nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah. But that can't be right," said the crimson lizard, tapping his chin thoughtfully, completely unaware of how the situation was making his partner uncomfortable. "Didn't Takato say that you were his dream girl?"

Renamon chuckled under her breath as she took a look at her partner. Rika's eyes had widened slightly in surprise, and now this time a light, pink tinge colored her cheeks and she looked away from Takato and down at her bowl of noodles, trying to get a hold of herself. Takato, in the meantime, took no notice of this as he finally gave in to panic and whirled on his partner.

"AAAH! GUILMON!"

Guilmon's ears drooped.

"Ohhh… What'd I do?"

"Ahhhggg… Guilmon…" Takato's shoulders sagged in defeat. It was too late. The damage was done. All that was left now was for Rika to explode in anger (or at least insult him), but as he risked a nervous glance at the girl he was surprised to see that she was looking… well… about as uncomfortable as he was feeling right now. And that only made him more nervous. He hadn't seen her like this since that day down in the tunnels during the D-Reaper invasion when he had commented on her new shirt.

Okay Matsuki. Take it easy. Deep breaths here…

Coughing nervously, Takato tried to speak in an attempt to break the tension that had settled over the table.

"Um… so… uh…" Takato rubbed the back of his head, searching for inspiration and failing. "… This is… awkward…"

Ohhh… great job at breaking the tension.

Rika's eyes narrowed as her face became just a little bit more red, but still not by much. Crossing her arms, Rika hmmphed before fixing Takato with a glare.

"You haven't told anyone about that stupid dream of yours have you?"

Takato suddenly blanched. This conversation was not going where he'd like it to go.

"Ahhh…"

Rika's glare darkened.

"Have you?" She reiterated, adding a menacing tone to her voice this time.

Takato's face felt like it was on fire.

Why's this keep happening to me?

"AH! No! No! I haven't told anyone about… that. Besides, you told me not to and I don't have a reason to say anything anyway sooo…"

Takato's voice trailed off as he looked at her face for any sign whether or not that the conversation was going to die or he was. Rika sighed as she closed her eyes, her face seemingly becoming thoughtful. They sat in silence for a moment longer, and Renamon had to wonder just what was going through Rika's mind. Once that moment was over, Renamon got her answer.

"Have you ever thought about what that dream meant, Takato?"

Takato scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Um… well, not as much as I did when we first met. A lot's happened since then and I didn't really have time to think about it. But… why are you bringing it up, Rika? I thought that you'd be the last person to want to…"

Rika glared at him.

"You got something better, Gogglebrain? We're not exactly doing much right now, and Dino boy just had to say that dream girl line, which was your fault to begin with by the way…"

"Sorry…" said Takato apologetically. Rika just snorted.

"Whatever. I'm half tempted to drop the subject but we never did figure out why you had that dream."

"Um…" Takato shifted in his seat, his heart pounding away in his chest. "Well… this may sound stupid but back when we were in the digital world to rescue Calumon, Henry, Terriermon, and I met Mr. Mizuno and… uh… he said that our… um…" Takato shifted once again, feeling extremely nervous about what he had on his mind. What Shibumi had said at the time. He had never made the connection between the Monster Makers explanation and the dream before, but now that he thought about it…

Rika folded her arms in impatience.

"Gogglehead…"

Takato cringed.

"But… it just sounds so… so weird!" Said Takato, hoping that that explanation alone would be enough for Rika to want to change the subject. He looked at Rika, hoping that she was willing to do just that, however such was not the case. The expression on her face was more than enough to force the rest of what he had to say out of him as his shoulders sagged.

"Mr. Mizuno…" Takato swallowed. He was sure that he was going to sound like a complete and total idiot now. Rika was going to be justified and knocking him on the ground for sure this time. "…Mr. Mizuno said that our digivices are supposed to…" Takato took a deep breath. "… To bring together like-pairs…"

Takato's face was bright red, and he waited for Rika to say something. Anything. Even if it was in anger. But instead, Rika just sat there, looking a little stunned at the boy. A million thoughts flew through Rika's mind. She didn't doubt what Takato had said. Just as she didn't doubt the validity of the dream that he said that he had about her. He had no reason to lie then or now, but the question was what was she going to do about it?

This… feels awkward, thought Rika, all of a sudden hating the silence that was pervading the room. He's right. That did sound weird. What am I supposed to make of that? What am I supposed to say to that? Never thought that I'd say this, but… I could really use some help here…

As if in answer to the girl's request, Guilmon belched, and all attention was turned to the red dinosaur with stunned surprise. Guilmon blinked at his friends who were sitting at the kitchen table, wondering why Takato and Rika were both blushing, and why Renamon was looking at him with wide eyes.

"Um… excuse me?" Guilmon said tentatively.

"Yes, you are," said Renamon flatly.

Ryan and Henry both entered Yamaki's office, having been ushered up there as soon as they had entered the Hypnos building and checked themselves in. Sitting down in the chairs across from the head of the Hypnos agency, they waited for the man to say something as he flipped through a file one last time before finally closing it and looking up at Ryan.

"Thank you for coming," Yamaki said in the same cool, measured voice that he almost always had. "I have some information that you might find interesting…"

Why do I get the feeling that interesting is not how I'm going to view it… thought Ryan, trying to ignore the tension that was growing in his heart.

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