Chapter 4

Part 1-What?

A while later, the children had regrouped in a small glade, sitting or standing in a ring.

- "Well?" Paula asked "What did you hear?"

- "We've been tricked." Michael replied, punching a tree in frustration "It was all just a lie."

- "Okay," Thomas said "Then we've got to think. We don't know where we are, we don't know how we came here, we don't know how much and about what Manuel lied, in short, we don't know a thing. So what are we going to do?"

- "I suggest we put as much distance between ourselves and Manuel as possible." Michael said, carefully checking the condition of his wrist.

- "Sounds like a plan."

- "And then it'll be just like the good old days, won't it." Robin interjected angrily "You and your team, all looking up to you and following your lead. Tell you what, I quit."

- "What?!" All of the others stared in shock at him.

- "I quit." Robin repeated. "I'm sick and tired of you and your superior attitude. I'll find my own way out of this."

- "What superior attitude?" Sophie asked "He's trying to help."

- "Oh please." Robin answered. "Who do you think is going to lead this? Michael. Who's the great scout who knows all about herbs and stuff? Michael. Who's the only thing holding the party together? Michael!" His voice was soaked in sarcasm. "Well not this party. I'll go my own way!"

- "Robin!" Matilda stared at the boy, appearing to be able to explode at any moment.

- "Calm down, Matilda." Michael said, grabbing his sister's arm. "So you want to leave, Robin." he continued, turning to the other boy. "Don't you understand how dangerous it might be here? This is an entirely different world we're talking about."

- "Exactly. Your scouting stuff is worthless here. I might have been pulled in here against my will, but I'm NOT being pushed around by some hypocritical smarmodon. Ever. Period."

- "Hold it!" Thomas almost shouted. "We need to stick together. We can't survive if we split up like this."

However, his words had almost the opposite effect of the intended. As if on cue Paula rose.

- "I'll follow you." she said.

- "What?!" the others said in a strange sense of déjà vu

- "I'll probably have the same chance of survival anyway, and this way I can get away from a certain someone." she shot a murdering glance at Thomas. "And I'd suggest you to come with us as well, Sophie. It'd do you well to get away from Mr Nazi."

- "I'm not Nazi!" Thomas actually did shout this time.

- "Oh yeah?" Paula replied coolly, pointing at Thomas's sleeves, namely, the "hook-crosses" on them. "Explain those!"

- "Dammit, those are swastikas; they mean a load of other…"

- "I agree." Sophie suddenly said.

- "What?" Thomas and Paula, unified by their confusion, turned to the thoughtful girl.

- "I'll follow Paula and… Robin, was it?" after a nod from the boy she continued. "While the reasons Paula stated were not the most relevant, she nevertheless has a point. If we temporarily ignore the fact that Manuel might have been lying to us about us being quite safe here, the grouping is more of a question of comfort than actual survival, something which is anyway quite difficult if Manuel actually did lie about those specific facts. As such, I believe that I will accompany your little group.

- "So you're splitting up the group." Matilda said, somehow having grasped all of Sophie's speech in an instant.

- "In a way, yes, though it was fairly split already." Sophie replied calmly.

- "I think you'll regret this." Michael began. "Buuut on the other hand I don't think I can really influence your decision.

- "Damn straight." Robin said triumphantly.

- "OK. Go." Thomas said to the other group. "There's just one thing I want to know, though." He fixed his eyes on Sophie. "Why?"

- "I've already told you." Sophie replied, with a determined, even steely tone in her voice.

- "Well, goodbye then."

And the two walked separate paths, unfortunately not understanding the aggravation their choice inflicted on a certain other person present, although not in plain sight.

- "Well, this is going to be a mess." Patamon muttered to no one specifically.

Part 2-Bat.

Timothy looked around. The area looked like the dream of someone who's had an especially boring day. The signs, while certainly random, seemed to be fairly normal in comparison to Timothy's own dreams.

"Guess the only thing I can do is look around." Timothy thought. He'd read about stuff like this before. His phone seemed to have vanished so he'd just have to look around. Alien abduction or dimension travelling, he didn't know which one was worse. Anyway, he should probably get going.

After a while, Timothy heard a faint sound from a nearby bush. It seemed that some kind of bat had got caught in the branches. Timothy wondered briefly how it had gotten stuck in the first place before bending a couple branches, releasing the poor thing.

The bat flew up to Timothy's face, looked into his eyes, and nodded, as if thanking him for his help. Wait, nodded!? Bats weren't even supposed to be sentient, much less polite. Well, nobody had said this place would make sense anyway, so one should probably be prepared for anything. Speaking of which.

The bat seemed to have gotten an idea. It had flown a bit to the right, and seemed to urge Timothy to follow. Timothy followed it, not really knowing what else to do.

After what seemed like hours of walking (not that he had ever been that good at measuring time), stopping only to hide as a larger than life cat white ran past them. Timothy thought something was odd with the cat, but before he could get a good look, it was already long gone.

Finally, they stopped at cave. The bat somehow managed to tell him it wanted him to stay where he were while it went into the cave, though how Timothy managed to read this out of it's seemingly random movements was quite the mystery, even to himself.

A couple of minutes passed, and then the bat came out, carrying with it a small trinket of some sort. It cast one look at Timothy, telling him to follow it and make as little noise. Timothy did what it "said", though he was quite tired of walking by now.

This time, it didn't take that long before they arrived at their destination. The bat paused in a small glade, apparently waiting for something, or someone.

A moment later, a tall man entered the glade, and, despite all of the previous events, he was probably the strangest thing Timothy had ever seen in real life (or whatever this was).

The man was easily taller than any normal person, almost twice Timothy's size. He wore an expensive suit and his face, partially obscured by a red mask, was purple, like on a recently killed corpse.

- "Excuse me." The man said, and took a single step towards the little bat that had helped Timothy. What happened then was one of the last things Timothy had expected, even in this world.

The man grabbed the bat, clenching it in his fist until it somehow dissipated into small fragments that in turn flew into his black cloak leaving nothing but whatever trinket the bat had taken out of the cave.

Timothy backed slowly. Suddenly, the trees behind him seemed much less weird and, especially, more safe.

The vampire didn't seem to notice his behaviour, or maybe he just didn't care.

- "You'll have to excuse me for my rudeness, sir." He said. "My name is lord Vamdemon and I am very much pleased to meet you, mister…" He paused, fishing for a name.

Timothy just stared blankly into space. Had this man just called him a sir?

- "Excuse me, I didn't catch that. What did you say your name was?" The man, Vamdemon, repeated.

- "Timothy." Timothy said, looking at his feet. The man seemed so supreme in his appearance and manners that Timothy did not dare to even look him in the eyes.

- "Ah, a pleasure to meet you. Did the plan go along smoothly?"

- "Plan?"

- "Oh, my bad. Sometimes I forget that my bats can't actually talk. What I meant was the plan to steal the crest of light."

- "Steal… wait, your bats."

- "Yes," Vamdemon said, effortlessly pulling a bat, identical to the one Timothy had seen earlier, out of thin air. "My bats."

Dimension hopping, sentient bats, and now a bat-summoning vampire. This was just too much. The forest began to swirl, and moments later, everything became dark.

Vamdemon looked down at the unconscious boy. His lips curled in a slight smile.

- "Well, this simplifies things." The vampire said and picked up the boy, summoned a swarm of bats and flew away, headed straight for the castle.

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Neither do I own any Digimon except for those that are created by me. They are owned by their owners. I do however own any and all characters I have created on my own and they may not be used by anyone else except those who want to (though it would be kind to ask first).

P.S. For those of you who think parts of this don't story fit together, I assure you I have thought out thisthoroughly and, so far, everything that has happened, has happened for a reason. D.S.

P.P.S. Also, since the basic frame for the story is laid out, I would greatly appreciate some constructive criticism. Non-constructive criticism is also appreciated, though. D.D.S.

P.P.P.S. As for things that differ in name depending on localizations (Such as most Digimon and the evolution levels) I'm simply going to take what suits me the most. D.D.D.S.

P.P.P.P.S. I like to put in redundant footnotes D.D.D.D.S.