Digital Manifest: Keepers Chapter 28: Manifest, a digimon fanfic

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Digital Manifest

Keepers

Chapter: 27/ Manifest

It was almost time now. The gateway, those artificial products that enabled easy movement between the various worlds and dimensions that were connected to each other via the Great Tree, despite having been blocked off at first had still been fully functional. He had followed the spore of the Mjolner digivices for some time now after having been made aware of them by a surprisingly chance encounter by one of his servants in the digital world's desert. Two key fragments to the greater piece of the puzzle, and the hope of many for the future and for survival, held in the hands of two witless, human children who didn't have a clue as to the nature of the power that they now possessed. Limited? Yes, but that was due to their fragmentation from the greater whole, and it would take some time to piece them all together. Certain…events had seen to that, and had insured increased difficulty in repeating the process by which the Mjolner code had been made. But that was neither here nor there right now. For the time being, the trail of these two particular pieces of the Mjolner code have been tracked down to this world, and this time there would be no escape for them.

It was rather peculiar that they had evaded capture for as long as they had, even in the face of odds that should have overwhelmed them, and the Keepers of the Mjolners had gained allies along the way as well. The digimon, the Centaur, the Guardian, and now…those Tamers. It was perplexing. Enough to say that is that one might wonder if the Fates had had a hand in the string of luck that had been aiding those two humans lately. Of course, as with all things, luck would dry out sooner or later, fates or no fates. The final Manifestation would occur, but who was able to claim creations sweet embrace or that of oblivion and be able to design the new world order depended entirely on who was able to move the fastest and who was aligned with who.

The portals exit drew nearer, and with it the Mjolners. It was almost time now…

Henry placed the phone back on its hook and stepped out of the phone booth before looking at his little sister and their two digimon partners, Lopmon and Terriermon. Terriermon stood across from Henry with his tiny arms folded over his chest and his eyes set in a frown as though he were attempting to imitate Rika. Given his rather diminutive size and comical appearance this didn't work so well as one would think, but then that was just Terriermon being Terriermon, and right now imitation was not what he was trying to do.

"No luck, huh?" The long eared, white and green furred dog-bunny asked, though from the way that Terriermon sounded it was more like a statement of the obvious rather then an actual question. Henry shook his head.

"No luck. I haven't been able to get in touch with Dad, Hypnos, or any of the others ever since you and Lopmon first noticed that digital zone." Henry frowned and looked up at the sky. "It's quite possible that its digital nature is disrupting the technology in the area…"

"Disrupting it enough where even your fancy piece of plastic wasn't able to pick it up?" Asked Terriermon rather pointedly. "I'm finding it increasingly weird that those things haven't been much help this past week."

"You and me both," said Henry nodding. "But we can't worry about that now."

"Henwy?" Asked Suzie tugging on her older brother's vest. "What do we do if we can't reach the others?"

Henry looked down at his little sister and his expression softened.

"Well Suzie, we don't really have much choice except to investigate this ourselves and hope that the others have picked up on it by now…"

"Given how Ryan and Chris's digivices tend to work a lot better then your guys' that doesn't seem to far fetched," piped in Terriermon. Henry ignored him, while Suzie clapped her hands together excitedly.

"Yay! I get to go with you and Tewwiewmon this time!"

Henry frowned and his tone hardened.

"No, Suzie. This kind of thing is much too dangerous for you at your age." Henry's face became gentle as he saw Suzie become crestfallen at his stern decision. "Look, I know that you're a Tamer too and that you want to help, but you know how worried Mom and Dad get whenever I go out to help handle a wild digimon, Mom especially. She worries a lot, and she would be upset if something happened to you…"

"B-But I have you and Tewwiewmon and Lopmon here to pwotect me…" began Suzie, only to be interrupted by Terriermon this time.

"Yeah, but what if whatever's coming to the real world is really strong Suzie? Lopmon can only digivolve to Antylamon…no offense…and if Henry has to worry about keeping you safe from harm he might not be able to be at his best if he has to fight it."

Henry turned towards Terriermon, his eyes somewhat wide with surprise, and he cocked an eyebrow at the little dog-bunny.

"Isn't this where you try and override my family sense of protectiveness and say that she has to fight sooner or later?"

"You've been watching too much TV if you think that Henry. Sure, I think that she'll do good on her own. I mean after all, she and Antylamon did do their fair share of butt kicking during the D-Reaper invasion, not too mention that she was all right after you left her alone at the train station during the Parasimon incident…"

Henry frowned. He hated being reminded of that, but there just wasn't enough time to take Suzie home personally when there was a digimon problem to take care of, and he didn't want to take her with him if things became even more dangerous then they looked on the news report. The best that he could do was buy her a train ticket for her to use and hope for the best. He had certainly heard about it from his mother when she heard about it later on, though he had berated himself enough for that even before then. He didn't want to make the same mistake this time, but…what was he going to do?

This really isn't the best of timings is it? Wondered Henry sarcastically.

"Okay then," said Henry, interrupting Terriermon in the middle of his ramblings. "This is what we're going to do. Suzie, you're coming, but I want you to stay close to me. Terriermon will digivolve to Rapidmon and we'll monitor his progress with my digivice."

"What about me?" Asked Lopmon. Henry hesitated for a brief moment contemplating whether or not he should have Lopmon remain behind so that Suzie could have ample protection in case he himself wasn't enough against anything that decided to aim for her be it digimon or human, but previous experience from this past week suggested that Rapidmon was likely going to need assistance in this battle, and without biomerging or having any of the others handy (on the off chance that none of their digivices detected the breach between the worlds like his hadn't), even with all of Rapidmon's advantages in speed and power he was still only one against an unknown.

"You'll be backing Rapidmon as Antyllamon," said Henry finally, a small smile growing on his face that belied how he was really feeling on the inside. "And try to make sure that he doesn't do anything that's over his head…"

"Oh sure!" Exclaimed Terriermon a little heatedly. "As if I ever do that!"

"Says the digimon who fought a Sovereign even when he knew that he was badly injured…"

"That was just a…uh… ploy Henry, to get us to biomerge. Takatomon wasn't figuring it out fast enough the second time around and Rika and Taomon were a little preoccupied with keeping you guys from being roasted."

"Right," said Henry, feeling a little bit of his nerves fall away from him from Terriermon's joking, but only a little bit. "Anyway. Are you ready?"

"Anytime! Anywhere!"

Henry pulled out a card from his pants pocket, a familiar blue color already materializing on it before he even got around to raising it to his digivice's card scanning slot. Similarly, Suzie held up her own pink trimmed digivice and a white light began to emerge from its screen.

"Then let's go! DIGI-MODIFY! MATRIX DIGIVOLUTION ACTIVATE!"

Sparks flashed and light suddenly burst forth, illuminating the area around the two children as their two, long eared partners were surrounded by a sphere of data and began to grow.

Somehow…this doesn't look good, thought Takato as he took in the blue and silver garbed form that was completely different from, yet disturbingly similar to Rika and Renamon's regular biomerged form of Sakuyamon. The Mega level shaman that had identified herself as Kuzuhamon after biomerging returned his look in a way that made Takato feel strangely nervous. He supposed that he had every reason to be. After all, this was a sudden alteration to the form that Rika and Renamon took when biomerging, yet somehow, for a reason that Takato couldn't even begin to understand, when Rika and Renamon biomerged they wound up digivolving into…well, as stated…something else. And with darker colorings and a cold looking appearance that did not at all fit the Rika and Renamon that he knew.

Well, except maybe Renamon, thought Takato sarcastically remembering how unnerving the vulpine digimon could be even when she wasn't trying to be, but after a quick moment of reconsideration he came to the conclusion that not even Renamon could be like this. This…Kuzuhamon was looking at him as though he were more of a thing rather then a person, and even when they were at their worst Rika and Renamon hadn't given him such a cold, empty stare. Or maybe that was because the fox mask obscured her abnormally pale features.

Had Takato been just a bit more observant and less caring about the well being of his two friends that were now joined in the tall shaman digimon, he probably would have wondered why it was that Kuzuhamon was focusing on him, and solely him. However, it could easily be said that he had more important things on his mind.

"Rika?" Asked Takato as he took a step forwards. "Renamon? Wha…? Are you two all ri…?"

Takato didn't get a moment to finish his sentence. Kuzuhamon, her voice strangely different from the mixed tones of Renamon and Rika that he was used to overrode his questions. As she spoke, Takato noted that Kuzuhamon sounded rather mature, if not distant, with a voice befitting an older woman closer to his mother's age then the teenage girl who had fought by his side this past year. Takato found himself feeling all the more disturbed by that, and what she had to say really didn't do anything to make him feel better. And her voice…it sounded as empty as the desert that he and his friends came across when they first entered the digital world.

What the…? What the heck happened to them?

"The Dark One descends upon this world," Kuzuhamon intoned, her voice taking on all the harsh edge of a cold winter's wind. "He has come, searching for the Heart of the Dreamer so that he can remake the world in his image…"

The rings on her silver vajra staff jingled as Kuzuhamon took a step towards the Tamers.

"…This I cannot allow…"

"Hey Rika?" Called out Kazu from his place next to Guardromon. "You want to clue us in on what's going on all of a sudden? You're starting to creep us out…"

"That's not Rika," said Leomon as he took a step forwards, positioning himself in front of Jeri protectively.

"Huh?" Kazu cocked an eyebrow at the lion warrior, honestly befuddled. "What're you talking about? Of course that's Rika! Where've you been dude? We all saw her biomerge with Renamon…"

"That is not Rika, Kazu Shioda," growled Leomon as he let one hand drift towards his sheathed sword. "Look at her stance, the way that she sounds and carries herself! Say what you believe, but whatever happened when Rika and Renamon biomerged, that creature is not the resulting union of those two partners! Or have you forgotten that something happened to Rika's digivice before Kuzuhamon appeared?"

"He does have a point Kazu," said Kenta. Takato looked over Kuzuhamon before nodding himself in agreement. Voice aside, there was definitely something more that was off about Kuzuhamon then just looks. He had fought along side Rika and Renamon, both merged and apart, more then enough times to be able to recognize their patterns in the way that they went about their daily business on and off the battlefield. But…a small voice inside of him whispered if…possession (as it appeared to be) was the case.

Dark Biomerge? Wondered Takato as he furrowed his eyebrows, remembering the expression on Rika's face followed by her change of mood before Renamon had arrived to inform them about the digital portal. But then…she also claimed to have sensed something…and then there was how she was acting now. Takato shook his head as his thoughts began to tangle themselves in confusion. He didn't know what he was supposed to believe, and Rika wasn't talking.

Rika… thought Takato, feeling a mixture of confusion, frustration, worry, and sadness for his friend. Worry standing out most prominently…

"Rika?" Asked Jeri tentatively as she now stepped out from behind Leomon and towards the female shaman priestess, hoping that she could somehow reach her friend despite what she was hearing. It just seemed too bizarre to believe that Rika and Renamon were…possessed, as that was how Leomon was making it sound. The way that her friend was acting and the fact that she had transformed into this pale reflection of her normal Mega form certainly told her that something was definitely not right. Concern welling up in her heart Jeri raised a hand towards the dark priestess. She wanted to try and get to the bottom of this but Leomon, picking up on her movement once more placed himself directly between the two.

"No Jeri."

"But…"

"Jeri. Whatever this being is, it could be dangerous, and I have sworn to protect you with my last breath…"

"You would do well to heed the advice of your partner, Katou-san," said Kuzuhamon coolly as she continued to walk towards the Tamers. "After all, he knows better then all of you how dangerous one such as I, or the being that even now prepares to enter this world. He has seen beings like us in action before, even if he doesn't recall it…"

Jeri's eyes widened in surprise at that.

"W-What do you mean?"

"That is not your concern at the moment," continued Kuzuhamon as she continued to approach the Tamers. The children and their digimon, with the exception of Takato, Guilmon, Jeri, and Leomon began to cautiously edge away from her, unsure as they were about what she was going to do. Takato frowned and shook his head angrily.

"What have you done with Rika?" Takato demanded hotly as he clenched his fists together tightly. For the first time Kuzuhamon's expression changed, becoming more of a cold smile that was almost completely void of emotion. Almost.

"Concerned about her aren't we, Dreamer? I suppose you would be given the link that you and her share. No need to fret. Your princess and her partner haven't been harmed. I'm just borrowing their combined form until I'm able to rebuild my own after she so callously destroyed my old one during our first encounter while she was protecting you."

Dreamer? Blinked Takato bewilderedly, trying to find some sense of coherency to his thoughts with the sheer amount of information and emotions that he was being bombarded with. Link? First encounter? Wha…?

While the Tamers were left trying to figure out that bit of information all the while still reeling from the knowledge that Rika was suddenly…not in possession of her own faculties (although with Kazu, he would have taken it to mean that she had gone insane), Chris's eyes narrowed as certain things that Kuzuhamon said began to click in his mind. For some strange reason, when he had heard the dark shamaness speaking, he had been overcome by a feeling of familiarity and déjà vu. It was as if he had heard Kuzuhamon's voice before but for the life of him he couldn't quite explain the where or how of it. That is, until she had mentioned 'their first encounter'. Now Chris knew that he wasn't aware of the totality of the adventures that the Tamers had had since knowing them, and he sure hadn't been there for any of them outside from what he had experienced this past week, but from what he did know, and from what he experienced, he had a sudden, sneaking suspicion as to what was going on.

"You're the red Sakuyamon!" Chris exclaimed loudly, pointing a finger at Kuzuhamon. Takato's eyes flew wide as he suddenly remembered his battle with the crimson-garbed shaman warrior. He had heard her voice quite clearly that day, and after seeing her defeat his friends the way that she had he was rather surprised that he hadn't remembered sooner.

"He's right," whispered Takato as his hand snaked behind him and brought out his gold trimmed digivice, his expression hardening in a second. Next to him, Guilmon crouched down and began growling, his pupils dilating as his viral instincts took hold.

"What?" Exclaimed Kazu, surprise plainly evident in his voice. He was about to say something more on the matter but then Kuzuhamon suddenly reached out and knocked Takato's D-Arc out of his hand and promptly hauled him up from off the ground. Guilmon reacted instantly, his instincts overriding his concern about possibly hurting his comrades. Leaping at Kuzuhamon, Guilmon's claws began to glow with a fiery aura as he prepared his Rock Breaker attack…

…Only to be knocked aside viciously by a well timed blow from the shaman's silver staff.

Guilmon's attack wasn't the only one that had to be repelled. Leomon was on her within seconds after Guilmon had been dispatched, his sword already out and the flat end of the blade swinging towards the demon woman's head. Leaping backwards, Kuzuhamon dodged the blade before leaping up into the air, Takato still held tightly within her grasp. Despite his best efforts to escape from her, Takato's strength as a human was as nothing in comparison to Kuzuhamon's. He might as well have been trying to fight a brick wall with his bare hands.

Jeri gasped as Kuzuhamon began to fly away with Takato, her mind a flurry of unspoken questions as to what was going on, what Kuzuhamon's intentions were, and why she had grabbed Takato and was making a getaway with him. Everything so far had been focused on the two, new Tamers that had arrived a week ago and now this digimon that Chris claimed to be the Red Sakuyamon (apparently in possession of Rika and Renamon) had drastically altered the perceived target to someone completely different and unexpected. Why? The word Dreamer whispered through Jeri's mind like a feather on the breeze, but she soon found that she didn't have the luxury of asking questions. This digimon meant to capture Takato. She had to be stopped!

But what about Rika and Renamon? Jeri's mind whispered before she dug into the pockets of her dress for her cards, hating that she didn't have the time to work that out either. The situation was rapidly racing out of control. Jeri quickly brought out her cards and began to look through them as rapidly as she could for whatever would be useful in a situation like this, but she didn't have enough time for that either. She wasn't going to make it. She wasn't going to…

Multiple bright lights burst to life beside her and a second later, two voices rang out as they shouted their evolution for all the world to hear.

"RICHOEMON! DIGIVOLVE TOOO…MEGATERRADRAMON!"

"CARAMON! DIGIVOLVE TOOO…METALDRACARAMON!"

A massive orange colored, humanoid dragon with wings and twin, fang-like, metal blades fixed to his forearms along with a quadruped, cyborg looking reptile with twin laser cannons mounted on his shoulders leapt into the air as one, followed swiftly by Guardromon, Beelzemon Blast Mode, and MarineAngemon, with Leomon racing after them on foot. MetalDracaramon flew ahead using a pair of built in jet engines on his back and placed himself above the shaman in an attempt to prevent her from gaining any more altitude then she already had. Snarling, MetalDracaramon dove down towards Kuzuhamon and slashed at her with his claws, taking as much care as he could to avoid hitting Takato (an admittedly difficult task as she now had him practically pinned against her body with just one, blue-gloved hand). Kuzuhamon gracefully dodged the attack with little to no effort before slashing with her staff and sending a stream of dark, violet energy at the mechanized digimon.

"Womb Realm Mandala!"

MetalDracaramon screamed in pain as the energy wave crashed into him, knocking him to the side. His distraction, however brief, fortunately had given the other digimon the time that they needed to catch up.

WHAM!

Guardromon, aided by the effects of a high speed card slammed into Kuzuhamon, the force of the blow dislodging Kuzuhamon's grip on Takato just enough for the goggle-wearing boy to force his way free and grab onto Guardromon. With a speed and care that almost seemed to defy the way that Guardromon was built, the android grabbed hold of Takato and with a move that spoke of almost well practiced ease tossed him behind him and into a waiting heart bubble courtesy of MarineAngemon.

"Fear not Takato…!" Began Guardromon, only to be interrupted by the enraged cry of Kuzuhamon.

"You…IDIOT!" Guardromon turned around and his mechanical eyes bulged comically in their sockets as Kuzuhamon slammed a fist home into Guardromon's face with enough force to send the heavily armored android spinning in the air and off to the side. "Do you know what Ahuramon will do to him if he finds out that he's HERE?!?!"

The sound of electricity sparking and something mechanical separating caught Kuzuhamon's attention.

"You know," began Beelzemon as he powered up his Death Slinger cannon and aimed it at Kuzuhamon while behind him MarineAngemon negotiated his heart bubble with Takato inside down to the ground. "Instead of attacking us, possessing one of us, and out and out trying to kidnap one of us, you could have tried answering our questions…"

"There…is…no…TIME!"Kuzuhamon roared as she slashed her staff to one side. "Ura Izuna!"

Suddenly a white, flaming fox materialized from behind Kuzuhamon and lunged at Beelzemon, brushing off the Corona Blaster attack that he fired at the fox spirit with almost contemptuous ease before slamming into the Demon Lord. As Beelzemon grappled with the fox spirit, Kuzuhamon was immediately faced with yet another opponent, this time in the form of dragonic MegaTerradrmon as he flew in close, his right fist drawn back and glowing with an orange aura. Seeing this, Kuzuhamon swiftly defended against the oncoming attack with her staff, only to be caught off guard as she realized that the first blow had been a feint, and a second one quickly flew into her solar plexus, knocking the wind from her lungs. Not to be outdone, Kuzuhamon flipped backwards in mid air and brought her foot into contact with MegaTerradramon's chin before once more slashing her staff to the side, this time summoning a storm of black, crystal shards.

"Obsidian Rain!" Kuzuhamon shouted as the crystal shards were thrown towards MegaTerradramon on a gale force wind. MegaTerradramon was too close to the attack to be able to dodge or even defend effectively, and he cried out in pain as he felt his data being torn from his body. He knew that the attack wasn't meant to kill him. Given the vast power difference between himself and Kuzuhamon, not to mention the distance from which the attack was being launched, he had a feeling that he should have been dead, but for some reason Kuzuhamon had held back. Something that he was presently grateful for. Growling in anger, MegaTerradramon flapped his battered wings and flew upwards, dodging the remainder of the attack.

"Laser Discharge!"

And simultaneously, allowing MetalDracaramon to follow up with an attack of his own.

Green colored bursts of energy bounced deftly off the Obsydian Sphere that Kuzuhamon had raised against it. Like she had even needed it, given that MetalDracaramon had fired his attack at a low level intensity due to his worry about harming Rika and Renamon, but it was a prudent choice. A choice that made a whole lot more sense when the said shield began radiating outwards and slammed into both Ultimates, eliciting grunts and cries of pain and surprise from both combatants.

This isn't going well…thought MetalDracaramon ludicrously.

Kuzuhamon

Stage: Mega

Type: Data

Special Attacks: Womb Realm Mandala, Ura Izuna, Obsidian Rain, Obsidian Sphere

-Manifestation Detected-

"This isn't going well…" remarked Ryan sarcastically as he looked up from the halo circle that hovered above his digivice. "We're not going to win this one going easy on her, and as much as I hate to say it I don't see how we can help Rika without hurting her in the process. Most of us here aren't even on her level!"

Ryan looked at the other Tamers, hoping that they at least had some kind of plan, or perhaps some kind of trick that they could use to put an end to this battle without harming their friend, but so far he was drawing complete blanks from the ones that were gathered here. Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta were busy looking through their cards, searching for something, anything that could be used to restrain their friend, but judging from the looks on their faces things weren't going well for them on that front either. Looking up, Ryan saw MarineAngemon floating over with his heart bubble, bearing Takato inside. Once the Goggle-wearing Tamer was of appropriate distance to the ground, the bubble popped and deposited him back with his friends. Takato was about to say something when he was immediately tackled by Guilmon.

"Aaaah! Guilmon! This really is not the time for that!"

"Well, at least we know that he's not down like Guardromon," said Kazu, indicating his disabled partner behind him. The iron-armored digimon had a massive dent in his front armor just below his eyes and he was presently making groaning sounds, all the while striving to get to his feet. Ryan knew that he wasn't going to be standing any time soon. The digimon's initial damage report to Kazu mentioned something about his stabilizers and some gyros being damaged, and while Ryan didn't know what those were precisely he did get the idea that they were important.

"Okay," began Chris as Takato climbed back to his feet and reclaimed his D-Arc from Jeri, who had picked it up after the fight began swinging into full gear. "We're in something of a fix here. Kuzuhamon's out there mopping the floor with MegaTerradramon and MetalDracaramon, and Beelzemon and Leomon are presently occupied with keeping that fox spirit from mauling them. Given the amount of effort that they're both putting into that I don't think that we can expect any help from them anytime in the near future…"

"What about Rika?" Asked Jeri. "I mean, I know that we now have to fight her, but is there any way that we can get her to stop herself…or rather stop whoever it is that's controlling her?"

Takato looked up at the battle, and he clenched his hands into fists as Kuzuhamon sent a flurry of crystal shards flying towards the two Ultimates that were fighting her. Words flashed through his mind, bringing forth recollections from his memories of what Kuzuhamon had said to him…

"Concerned about her aren't we, Dreamer? I suppose you would be given the link that you and her share. No need to fret. Your princess and her partner haven't been harmed. I'm just borrowing their combined form until I'm able to rebuild my own after she so callously destroyed my old one during our first encounter while she was protecting you."

Dreamer…link…

Takato frowned, not quite hearing what Chris was saying about Kuzuhamon and the deific Kuzunoha of Japanese folklore that Rika had told them about after she had been shocked by the blonde haired boy's digivice.

"I'll face her."

The others turned to him, though none could say that they were at all surprised by this. Takato and Guilmon were the only ones left who could digivolve to Mega, plus Gallantmon was a Virus type (and a heavily armored one too) giving him type advantage. Never mind the fact that Takato, being the sort of person that he was, refused to sit on the sidelines when a friend was in danger. But this time, the only thing that gave them pause was the recollection that Takato had been the main target of Kuzuhamon upon her appearance. Takato could see it in their eyes, even though none of them were willing to say it.

"Look, I know that she went after me. I don't know why she did, and even if going up there to fight Kuzuhamon is what she wants, I'm the only one who can handle her at the moment. Besides, Rika's my friend…our friend, and if there's anything that I can do to help her…to reach her, then I'll do whatever it takes to do that."

Takato blinked his eyes as an image of Rika, possessed by Parasimon flashed across his vision.

The situation is almost the same here, thought Takato as he gripped his digivice. Why does something like this keep happening to my friends? First Jeri…and now… Rika…

Jeri looked at Takato with a thoughtful expression on her face, remembering how Takato was whenever a friend was in danger. Each time he had reached, struggled for something that was seemingly impossible, and surmounted the odds no matter how difficult they were. He had emerged from the shadow of Leomon's death and the creation of Megidramon, reborn as the Exalted Knight known as Gallantmon. He had helped bring Grani into the real world when D-Reaper pushed him and his friends to the wall, and later transformed into his Crimson Mode during the last battle with D-Reaper. She hadn't seen it then, as she had been unconscious at the time, but she definitely saw it on the news during Rika's birthday when he Mode Changed the second time and wiped out the Parasimon army. Something about it seemed to Jeri as the ultimate expression of how Takato was, and how nothing seemed to be out of his reach. If anyone could reach Rika and help her when Renamon was around, Takato would. He seemed to have that gift of making miracles when all hope seemed lost.

As Jeri thought about this, the memory of Kuzuhamon calling Takato the Dreamer came to mind, followed by her claim that Takato and Rika were somehow linked. She didn't know what Kuzuhamon meant, but all of a sudden, intuition flared in Jeri's mind, and she knew that what Takato intended was the right thing. Perhaps the only right thing.

Softly clasping her hand over Takato's, the one that held his digivice, Jeri looked into the boy's crimson eyes. Takato, somewhat startled (and a bit embarrassed) by the act, met Jeri's gaze, his cheeks taking on a dull, red color to them as the corners of the girl's mouth drew up into a smile.

"If you believe that you can do it Takato," said Jeri in a soft, calm voice. "Then I know that you can do it. If anyone can, it's you."

Takato gasped softly as Jeri squeezed his hand before withdrawing. Nodding to the girl, Takato looked over at Guilmon.

"You ready boy?"

"Yeah!" Guilmon exclaimed and together the two friends turned and ran in the direction of the battle. Light burst forth from the gold trimmed digivice as Takato brought it over his head, shouting a fearsome battle cry as the light enveloped both himself and Guilmon, merging them together in one, blinding burst of power.

"BIOMERGE ACTIVATE!"

A/N: The attacks Obsidian Rain and Obsidian Sphere are of course my own additions to Kuzuhamon (unless someone else can claim ownership of them), as I thought that she needed something a little bit more in her arsenal, and Digimon Wiki and the DMA Digi-Dex don't give very good descriptions on all her attacks (which aren't as numerous as Sakuyamon's). 'Till next time then. Later.

-Crazyeight