Disclaimer: Don't own digimon.

A/N: A new chapter finally!

Chapter 13: The Holy, The Unholy and The Miracle

"Koushiro-san?" Iori questioned as the computer whiz fell into a deep train of thought, his feet subconsciously carrying him along with the group travelling down the passages again.

"…" Koushiro kept on walking.

"Koushiro-san…" Iori eyed him. So confusing…

Why would the crest of Kindness be Juri's? The thought continued to segregate Koushiro from the world around him.

This time though, the "genius" of the group wasn't the only one, or the only few who were pondering over the crest of Kindness. Even the Tamers were finding it hard to absorb the idea.

Juri and Dorumon, however, were ecstatic and chatted happily amongst the Tamers.

"So what do you evolve into?" Juri questioned her new partner.

"I'm not sure…"

"Hmm maybe something like Growmon? You do look like a similar species." Jianliang coined.

"Maybe."

"Yay! Another Growmon!" Guilmon cried cheerfully.

The Tamers sweatdropped.

"Moumantai."

Meanwhile, the other Chosen were wrecking their brains out, especially the two of them who haven't obtained their crest yet.

"Hey, Hikari-chan, would we get our crest?" Takeru queried.

"I don't know…" Hikari trailed off, worried about the possibility of losing her crest.

"Hikari." Tailmon called out softly. "Don't worry."

"Yeah!" Patamon exclaimed from the top of Takeru's head. "Both of you will get the crest!"

Takeru shrugged. "Maybe."

Miyako chuckled from behind him. "You know, for one having the crest of Hope, you sure are hopeful."

A chorus of laughter from the group made him blush scarlet.

The group is again in a passageway, heading in search for the three remaining crests. As they reached the end of the corridor, it opened up to a very strange room. From the doorway, the room seemed endless towards the two sides, with only a small straight path, acting like a bridge towards another doorway at the opposite end of the room. To their right, the room is lit in a bright white light. To their left, the room is hidden in pure darkness. The path in between is in a shade of grey and the bright and dark sides of the room are either too bright or too dark to determine if there is a floor present.

"We probably should follow the middle path." Koushiro reasoned. "We don't know what the two sides may contain."

The group agreed and slowly made their way across the narrow grey path which was only wide enough for one person to cross at a time. Taichi was at the head of the group, treading carefully in fear of a collapse of the ground underneath him or activating a trap.

In the middle of the group, Hikari was captivated by the bright light on her right, pausing at times to stare right into the hot glow. To the others, it may be too bright to stare at, but to her, it seemed vaguely familiar.

Near the back of the group, Shaochung shivered as she moved on in front of Jianliang.

"Are you okay?" Lopmon asked.

"It's cold." Shaochung answered to her partner who is in her arms. She looked towards the utter darkness, afraid of what may be lurking behind the shadows.

The room seemed to be of no use as the group passed peacefully through it without any glitches and it got Koushiro thinking. I wonder why there isn't anything special occurring in this weird room… Maybe we're just lucky.

As it turns out, luck would not be on the side of the Chosen and Tamers today. Just as Taichi stepped into the doorway opposite the room, the ground shook slightly.

Hikari became unbalanced, but a hand from Miyako behind her helped stabilise her.

"Thanks…" Hikari trailed off as a sudden fear greeted her as she faced the utter darkness of the left side of the room.

"AH!" She screamed as she backed away from the darkness. Unfortunately for her, the path was not very wide and she stumbled off the path after two steps.

After a short fall, she came to an abrupt stop. She was immediately suspended in a place devoid of gravity. She floated around, before peeking out from her eyes that she instinctively shut when she fell off. The place she was in is pure white, devoid of anything else. The place also felt hot as beads of sweat formed on her forehead.

When the path shook, at the back of the group, Shaochung was sent careening off the edge of the path and into the dark void. Jianliang, who was behind her, was too late to react and helplessly looked as Shaochung disappeared into the darkness.

"Renamon, find her." Ruki commanded as she saw Shaochung falling off.

Similar to Hikari, Shaochung found herself screaming as she fell. She came to an abrupt stop as well. She shivered.

"It's cold…" Shaochung spoke to Lopmon.

"Shaochung…" Lopmon snapped out of her state of shock. "At least we're safe."

Around them, it was in absolute darkness.

"Shaochung?" Renamon's voice gave hope to the two currently in the darkness.

"Renamon!" Shaochung cried out.

Renamon came and embraced Shaochung, slightly warming her from the cold of the darkness around her.

Just as Renamon tried to leap off back to the path, an eerie purple glow appeared. Renamon let go of Shaochung, prepared to fight against what was coming.

At the same time, a light pink glow appeared at where Hikari was.

The purple and pink glow grew respectively and instantly, Hikari knew what was waiting for her in the glow. "My crest…"

The two glows faded. Hikari reached out to the crest of light and gathered it in her hands.

Meanwhile, Shaochung and Renamon were stunned to see both a crest and something that looked like a spirit. It has five red eyes on it, with one at the centre and two at the sides and the last two on the feet of the creature on the small base plate. There are also two horned skulls at the shoulders of the creature.

The crest shined purple and flew straight to the hands of Shaochung, who was stunned.

The spirit flew to Renamon, who gave it a questioning look.

As sudden as the events occur, it ended and they were back in the room. A shade of grey now covered the entire room, acting as a floor. Shaochung was standing towards the left of the room next to Renamon. Hikari was towards the right of the room. The others were still in a single file at the centre.

The groups were stumped beyond words. Renamon quietly held out the spirit and Ruki held up her D-ark to accept it. Hikari and Shaochung both now have their crests miraculously hanging in tags around their necks.

Shaochung, Renamon and Hikari headed back into the group as the group walked out of the room, whilst trying to overcome the shock of the events they have just witnessed.

It turns out the doorway leads to a large empty room, with no visible exits. The group stopped and gathered their thoughts.

Jianliang bugged Shaochung. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Shaochung said for the umpteenth time.

She held out the crest quietly in her hands.

"The crest of Darkness." Koushiro said from behind the group. "And the spirit of darkness." He continued, eyeing at Ruki.

The group nodded silently as Jianliang started pulling on his hair. The crest of DARKNESS?! DARKNESS! Why would Shaochung be holding a crest like that!

"Moumantai, Jian." Terriermon chuckled from his head. "It's not like she's evil."

Jianliang's eyes narrowed. She may as well be, if she holds the crest of Darkness…

"Oops. Sorry." Terriermon muttered.

Meanwhile, the Chosen were all smiles, seeing that Hikari had once again received her rightful crest.

While the groups were chatting, nobody noticed that something was lurking in the shadows of the room. An evil something.

"My my…" The figure said as he moved towards the youths.

The group whipped their heads towards the source of the voice. A low growl came from Guilmon.

The figure smirked. "Nice to see you again."

"Piemon!" Dorumon cried out nervously.

"I see you've changed." Piemon laughed.

"What do you want?" Taichi spoke for the group.

Piemon smirked. He reached his right hand to one of the four swords, unsheathing it.

Taichi's eyes widened as the sword pointed directly at him.

"Your life."

"Agumon!" Taichi cried, his crest shining orange.

"Gabumon!" Yamato cried, seeing Taichi in danger.

The rest of the group prepared for the fight, with all nine crests shining.

Piemon chuckled. "You think you'd defeat me?"

"Don't forget us!" Ruki cried. Her D-ark shone a dark purplish colour. A strange symbol seemingly like an inverted open box covering a number eight with a dot in its lower circle appeared.

"Us too!" chorused the non-crest bearers.

EVOLUTION_

"Agumon evolve! Greymon!"

The giant dinosaur like digimon stood protectively in front of Taichi.

"Gabumon evolve! Garurumon!"

The giant blue wolf leaped beside Greymon.

"Piyomon evolve! Birdramon!"

The fiery bird flew above the two Adult digimon.

"Tentomon evolve! Kabuterimon!"

The giant bug hovered beside Birdramon.

"Palmon evolve! Togemon!"

The weird cactus digimon took up its position beside Greymon.

"Gomamon evolve! Ikkakumon!"

The horned walrus moved beside Garurumon.

Patamon and Tailmon, not being able to evolve, just went forward to join the six Adult digimon.

"V-mon evolve! XV-mon!"

"Wormmon evolve! Stingmon!"

Even without a crest or spirit, Daisuke and Ken managed to evolve their digimon and they joined the eight digimon of the original eight Chosen.

Probably a residual power from Qinglongmon's digicore. Koushiro deduced.

"Hawkmon evolve! Aquilamon!"

"Armadimon evolve! Ankylomon!"

The red bird flew to join its flying counterparts and Ankylomon paced forward to the digimon on the ground.

"Guilmon evolve! Growmon!"

"Terriermon evolve! Galgomon!"

"Renamon evolve! Kyuubimon!"

The three Tamers with spirits evolved their digimon and they clustered behind the Chosen's digimon.

"Dorumon evolve! Dorugamon!"

The darker-skinned Dorumon-look alike with wings moved to join the other Tamers' digimon, albeit being slightly fazed from its second ever evolution.

"Lopmon evolve! Prairiemon!"

The large bunny stood on two legs and had brown fur which is whitish on the front. She held a giant red claw in each of its hands. She slowly moved forth and joined the group of 16 digimon in front of her.

"15 Adult. 1 Child. How boring." Piemon commented dryly.

Irritated by Piemon's taunting, Greymon fired. "Mega Flame!"

Piemon swatted the giant fireball away easily. "Trump Sword!"

The three swords that are still sheathed flew out and headed straight for the group.

The first sword flew by the first row of digimon, hitting every one of them. Greymon, Garurumon, Ikkakumon, Togemon, Ankylomon and XV-mon immediately de-evolved, being too slow to dodge the attack. Patamon and Tailmon, being small in size, easily evaded the sword.

The second sword targeted the flying digimon, swooping by Birdramon, Stingmon, Kabuterimon and Aquilamon, returning them to their Child stages.

The third sword targeted at the Tamer's digimon. Immediately, Terriermon, Guilmon and Renamon appeared in place of their Adult forms. Prairiemon survived the blow, but is badly hurt. Dorugamon is somehow not targeted by the sword.

"13 down. 4 left." Piemon smirked.

Patamon, Tailmon, Dorugamon and Prairiemon stood unfazed by the taunt.

Piemon directed his last sword towards Prairiemon, causing her to de-evolve to Lopmon.

"Air Shot!"

"Neko Punch!"

Two attacks headed straight for Piemon, but he dodged it with ease, using a gloved hand to swipe the two digimon to the ground.

"Grrr…" Dorugamon growled before launching his attack. "Power Metal!"

The iron ball struck Piemon in his side, earning a small grunt from the clown digimon. "Why you!"

With a wave of his hands, four swords struck Dorugamon head on, causing him to de-evolve.

Piemon smirked. No one was there to stop him now.

On the ground, the group huddled close, afraid of Piemon's wrath.

"You have all lost."

No one dared defy him, except a certain blonde. "No."

Piemon burst out laughing. "No? Your precious partners lost. You all lost."

"No, they haven't."

"Takeru!" Daisuke shouted in his face. "What the hell are you saying?!"

"The digimon have not lost. They'll make it."

Daisuke eyed the fallen digimon before him. "But…"

"They'll make it. I know they will. I believe in them."

"I believe in them too… But they lost." Daisuke commented, seeing no way the fallen digimon could beat Piemon in their current state.

"They will." Takeru cracked a small smile. "I trust them to."

"Takeru!" Daisuke shook his shoulders, trying to break his false belief. "It's not like a miracle would happen."

Hikari slipped her hands into Takeru's. "I believe in them too."

"Hikari-chan…"

The crest on Hikari's chest released a pure whitish glow. At the same time, a golden glow came from behind Piemon.

"What!"

The glow hummed as it beamed straight to Takeru. "Hope."

Daisuke nodded. "You're right."

The Chosen and Tamers smiled. Hope came.

"We believe." Taichi commented for the group.

Their individual crests shone their respective colours, orange, blue, red, bright purple, green, silver and pink. The crests beamed at Takeru, fuelling his golden crest. His crest glowed brighter and merged with the white light of Hikari's crest.

"In a miracle." Takeru and Hikari added.

The blinding glows flashed.

"Gah!" Piemon shielded his eyes.

The light dimmed and a new, golden object floated in front of Takeru and Hikari.

"The digimental of Miracles…"

"V-mon!" Daisuke cried.

V-mon grunted as he lifted himself off the ground. He leapt towards the digimental.

"Digimental Up!"

"V-mon armour evolve! Magnamon!"

"Plasma Shoot!" Magnamon wasted no time to shoot a ball of plasma at the blinded clown.

"Argh!" Piemon cursed. "Trump Sword!"

Magnamon swiftly deflected the incoming sword with his fists, before diving straight towards Piemon.

"What?" Piemon stood frozen to the spot, surprised at the head-on approach of Magnamon.

Magnamon collided with Piemon and pushed him towards the far end of the room.

"Extreme Jihad!" A golden sphere burst out from Magnamon, obliterating anything in its path.

"No!" Piemon's last cries faded as the room darkened once again.

V-mon lied on the ground, panting, but was otherwise fine.

The Chosen and Tamers cheered. Takeru smiled at his newly acquired crest. The crest of Hope.

With all ten crests collected, a question naturally came to Koushiro. "So… What now?"

Silence.

A/N: Updates gonna be few the next two years cause guys in S'pore must serve the nation. So I'd be all too busy to write. Sorry.

But still. Pls review!

And thanks to my beta, msvosy!