Just a small note: Lucemon in the prologue was the rookie form while the lucemon amongst the seven demon lords is lucemon fall down mode. I'm making him unofficial leader of the seven demon lords even though in the DS game, belphemon is the last one you face. It makes more sense considering, you know, "Lucemon"="Lucifer". That, and according to the great (though often misleading) wikipedia, lucemon is the leader. BE AWARE: these are TWO different Lucemon. Also, neither of the two lucemon sound like a cyborg Izzy. ^_^ The rookie form has a boyish, sort of cool and airy voice while falldown mode's voice is the same tone only a deeper, man's voice. Enjoy! Please read and review!

Chapter One: Eau d' Uncertainty

Twelve years later...

Gennai shuddered, dutifully awaiting an answer. The air about him was thick and heavy, lacking any clear temperature. It wove with the darkness, nearly suffocating him in several different ways. He silently wondered why the humans had often associated their concept of hell with fire when such a thing was often seen as pure and holy, cleansing even. For fire was only a form of light, wasn't it? And the stuff of nightmares only thrived on darkness.

"I do not like this."

All eyes fell on the large alligator-like digimon. The rows of ivory blades he called teeth were on display in a disgusted snarl. Gennai couldn't help the small shiver that ran up his spine at the slit, saffron eyes that glared at him. With a bass growl, the red beast continued. "How do we know that this being will not betray us?"

Atop his lofty throne, Lucemon cleared his throat. Gennai swallowed thickly, unnerved by the odd balance of grace and horror that the digimon seemed to emanate. Leviamon closed his eyes, silently wary of his master. He may hate and even fear the angel digimon, but Lucemon, despite his fallen status, terrified him more than any angel he had ever encountered for the soul purpose that no one, not even Lucemon himself, knew what his warped mind was capable of.

Hands clasped in a gentlemanly manner, Lucemon spoke with an air of majesty that left no question to his authority. "We may be of darkness and we may play dirty when the time calls for it, but we are lords and as such, adhere to honor as any other being." The angelic demon paused, his lips curled a bit as if even he were disgusted at what he was going to admit. "And there is no one more honorable than the digital guardians."

Lilithmon had been oddly silent for most of the affair, her arms crossed and a scowl pursing her painted black lips. Her wings gave an agitated ruffle with her outburst. "I do not approve of his choice in digimon!"

The remaining lords shared a knowing look, but only Beezlemon had the audacity to laugh outloud. The biker demon was relaxed in his seat, his feet kicked up on the riser before him. He opened his saffron eyes, sending the Dark Goddess a leery smirk. "Yea. We could all guess that."

Lilithmon glared at him, tapping her sharp gold nails threateningly. Gennai struck up the courage to intervene, not wanting that anger to be directed at him or his colleagues. "I assure you, we had nothing to do with their pairing. It was fate."

Belphemon gave a low growl, but was cut short by Lucemon. The angel lord carefully looked upon all his subjects, meeting Lilithmon's ire with a silent wrath of his own. "I believe he is adequate. He is very ambitious… or headstrong. But the digimon would require some of both to be able to protect the child."

Lilithmon, unable to quarrel with her master, looked away, allowing herself one indignant "hurrumph," but didn't dare to verbally protest.

Barbamon's eyes narrowed. The old wizard gave her a pointed look. "Silence, child. You do not question fate. No matter what quarrels you may have with it."

Beelzemon rolled his eyes, a bit bored with the whole conversation. He had places to be. "So, anymore complaints?"

Intrigued, Lucemon's eyes fell on Daemon, pointedly choosing to ignore Litlitmnon's uncharacteristic display of impudence and Beelzemon's all too frequent sarcasm."What say you, Daemon? You have met him, face to face. I believe that your opinion would be more... unbiased than our dear Lilithmon's."

Though Daemon was securely hidden in his cloak, Lucemon knew him well enough to be able to tell that a smile twisted the demon's face. "I suppose you could say we have met. He is… very selfish, very prideful," Daemon chuckled," and very stubborn." He gave a full laugh that shook Gennai down to his toes. "I think he represents us perfectly."

Amused at his companion's humor, Lucemon chuckled thoughtfully. "Very true, old friend." He then looked to the patiently waiting, yet visibly shaken, digital guardian. "And you say that they are already connected?"

Gennai shudered at being addressed by the most unholiest being currently in existance in the digital world. "Y-" he cleared his throat. "Yes. It is a very strong bond. Their emotions project onto one another. We speculate that the event happened quite a long time ago, but what with his background and the current instability in Holy City, it is very risky to locate such files on his past." There was no need to mention that he himself knew a few things about the digimon's past that wouldn't be in the Holy City records. But for all he knew, Lucemon might already have obtained that information.

Interest peeked, Lucemon curled a finger to his chin. "Fascinating. Then, you have my blessing, and our aid."

Gennai knew it was a dismissal, but his business wasn't finished yet. He worked up the courage to speak. "I have a request then… Lord Lucemon." The name and title felt incredibly wrong as it rolled off his tongue, but it had the desired effect.

"But of course."

He held out a small object which had been hidden safely in his robes like the dirty little secret it was. "His crest."

The Seven Great Demon Lords each made sounds of surprsie and disgust. Inside the tag was a sickly pink crest that signified doom to their home and their kind.

Lucemon, recovering quickly as always, stretched his great wings and jumped elegantly from his throne, only to land gracefully right in front of the young guardian. Hesitantly, Gennai let the crest tumble into the fallen angel's outstretched hand. Lucemon was a bit shocked that the crest hadn't reacted to his dark side. Then he discovered the problem.

"We are similar, then. Hm. Interesting." He handed the crest back. "I am not sure if there is anything I can do. It is most definately broken, otherwise it would have glowed in response to me. I theorize that when both child and digimon are reunited, the crest will mend itself to its own accord."

Beelzemon, now fully at attention from the chance of a crisis stared in disbelief. "But… boss… ain't that the crest o' light? I mean… ain't that the last thing we want?"

Feeling that his fear was not without reason, Lucemon gave the other lords a reassuring look. "The crest will respond to the pair and take on a new form. The darkness is too prevalent in them both for it to restore itself as such."

Having done what he had been sent to do, Gennai pocketed the crest, not wanting to spend another moment in this forsaken place. "Then I will be on my way. Thank you for all of your help." He gave a respectful bow to the lot of them and quickly turned to make his exit, not waiting for a response.

Lucemon, however, was not to be denied. "Of course… and Gennai?"

Hearing his name fall from such blasphemous lips, coated in some sweet poison, he froze.

Lucemon flashed a dashing smile, as if the guardian were looking him in the eyes. "I would like to meet them sometime in the very near future."

He remained still, listening to the thud of his frantic heartbeat.

Beelzemon's menacing chuckle wasn't the least bit reassuring.

Lucemon's honey-dipped voice did little to ease his fear. "I swear that no harm will befall them. It would be downright foolish and I am no fool. I am merely curious… and I should like to judge him worthy myself."

Gennai licked his lips, glad that he wasn't facing them."O… of course."

Lucemon chuckled, always content to smell a new perfume of fear. "Good day, Gennai."

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

1:53AM

For the hundredth time that evening, Rachael crunched up a sheet of music and tossed it half-heartedly toward the garbage can. The little ball of paper bounced off the rim and landed onto the floor, mocking her. She growled. Here she was, fricking practicing and writing crap and where were the rest of her bandmates? Off partying. Off getting drunk, high, and possibly laid and here she was, half asleep over her beat up little Jackson with a novel's worth of papers scattered across her bed. They obviously didn't give a flying four lettered word about the songs, so why should she?

She sighed. She wasn't being fair. She was hungry, she was tired, and she desperately needed to get out of this apartment. It was slowly driving her crazy. And it's not like they all went without telling her. They had said no practice tonight. Hell, they had even asked her to come. Jay had practically begged her. It was her own fault she didn't go. Truth was, she didn't have the stomach, or the patience, to put up with all the drunk hoochies that were sure to be all over him.

Guitar in tow, she laid back against her pillow, too exhausted to care about the papers fluttering to the floor or the ones crunching under her legs. What did she care what Jay did anyway? He was a big boy. He could take care of himself. She closed her eyes, trying to shove away the image of him staggering out of some bar with some giggling fru-fru covered sleaze on his arm. So what? He could date... or sleep with whoever he wanted. She shouldn't care.

She sighed, her fingers absently touching the scar that started high on her chest. She traced it over her shirt, all the way down to her bellybutton. It's not like she was Jay's type anyway. She was hardly perfect.

Rachael opened her eyes for a moment, scanning her room for her old security blanket. A tuft of purple could be seen peaking out of a drawer. With difficutly, she made it off of the bed, absently setting her guitar against her nightstand. With a slight smile, she picked up the wornout teddybear from the one place Jay was forbidden to rummage through-- her underwear drawer. Plopping back onto her bed, she gently ran her fingers over the loose button eyes, the tufts of matted fur. It was funny how such a little bear had always made her feel safe. She never could remember why or when the teddybear had become so important. With a short laugh, she recalled the bear's name and the many fights she had had with her younger brother. Lucy was a boy and it was not a girl's name. She chuckled, falling back onto the bed with the bear cuddled in her arms. All the people she had heard of being called "Lucy" were definately girls, so where exactly she had concluded that Lucy was a boy was still a mystery. Her eyelids heavy, she just smiled. She had always been a weird little kid.

Still consumed by her current dilema, she snuggled Lucy up to her face like she had done so many times when she was young and needed comfort. She shouldn't care about Jay like that. But she did.

"Damn," she murmured, not really knowing who or what she was swearing at. But the weight of the curse word seemed to satisfy her.

Content, she drifted into dreamland, totally unaware of the small, red-eyed creature that was perched just outside her window.

Hope you enjoyed it! Please review! Warning: there will be small traces of digimon naive cuteness in the next chapter. :)