Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon

I sat there in Kentaurosmon's hand as I observed the reactions of the Digidestinied to my simple question. Confusion was present on all the faces I could see which was eight since Ken and Sora were behind me, Hikari-chan's back was to me and Joe wasn't there. Taichi and Daisuke looked to be a little mad at what I, probably about the "pain" part. I was pleased to see that Takeru's expression changed from one of confusion to relief; at least he seemed to understand and sense what had happened. Honestly I don't know why they looked so confused, was it really that hard to believe that Ophanimon was Hikari-chan? Especially considering that about a minute and a half earlier I was a part of Kentauosmon.

"Mr. Wong was able to get everything done within the first minute of your dropping me off. The rest of the time was Rika-chan explaining everything to me."

"If you and Sis weren't related now she would probably get mad at you for adding chan to her name."

"I still might. I would prefer it if she called me Rikamon, or at mimic you and call me Sis."

"Give Hikari-chan time, she'll get used to it. The reason you didn't have any trouble with it was because you had spent so much time around Onee-chan and I."

"Hey! Over here!" I turned my attention back to the Digidestined, speciffiaclly Mimi "Would you care to explain what's going on to us?"

I looked at Sis "Can you ask Janyu if we can barrow the house for a little while?"

She nodded before phasing out, returning moments later. "He said that as long as we don't make a big mess that he doesn't mind."

"Kentaurosmon, you and Omnimon will have to ferry everyone over there."

I shakily got to my feet bracing myself against Kentaurosmon's armor and managed to stay standing for about ten seconds. That's when I tried to take a step forward and fell forward onto my fuzzy little face. Ironic that it's only after I'm safe that I can somehow shift, despite my exhaustion. Hikari-chan flew over and picked me up, putting me around her neck. Now I understood why Kudamon always showed up around mine, it was a very comfortable place.

It took some time to get everyone off the building and gather their various Rookie and In-Training Digimon together. Once that was done it was a simple and quick matter to get everyone up to the Wong's apartment. When Ophanimon separated into Gatomon and Hikari-chan I found myself around the neck of my newest sister. When Kentaurosmon reverted into Kudamon I began to worry for two reasons. A, my D-Power didn't appear, and B in order for me to be Kudamon we had to be sharing one body. As soon as we walked in the door Janyu hooked me up to the scanner and after a minute or two of analysis confirmed my thoughts.

"I don't know how to explain this except that when Omnimon stabbed Kentaurosmon and forced you out he broke the bond between the two of you. From what the scan says your body is 75%"

"Janyu," I interrupted "I do find all of this just as interesting as you but I smell something good in the kitchen and I'm starving."

"Got it short version," he said putting a hand nervously on the back of his head "you can still shift into a human form but you wouldn't be able to stay in it for greatly extended periods of time as your body no longer recognizes it as your default form. Your powers are unaffected by the change, at least as far as I can tell."

"What about my cards?"

"Theoretically as long as it's a card that you've slashed you could draw on its effects. Kudamon should be able to reach Kentaurosmon at will now since that's the form he was in when the connection was broken. Now you can go get whatever it was that smells so tasty to you."

I hopped down from Hikari-chan's shoulders and ran off to the kitchen "Thank you." I said over my shoulder

Even with my stature diminished to a little over a foot in height I had no trouble getting open the fridge door. I could hear Koushiro and Janyu begin talking about Digimon and what had happened to Hikari-chan while I searched for whatever it was that smelled so good. I found it, though I don't know what it was or what was in it, and put in the microwave for a minute and a half. I hoped off the counter and examined myself in the stainless steel door of the fridge. Overall I looked like Kudamon but there were a few differences here and there. I had flecks of golden-brown fur, my natural hair color, mixed in with the natural white fur that I now had. My Holy Ring had "Keeper of the three gates" inscribed on it in Digicode and I also had three additional rings. One translucent one on each wrist, orange-red on the left and pale blue on the right and a solid grey one that was about halfway down my tail.

"Would someone please just put all this techno babble into plain Japanese for me?" Daisuke asked as I walked back in with…whatever the dish was

"There is no simpler way of explaining it." I said taking a bite of my snack "Maybe it would be easier if…Hikari-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"Would you please shift into your Alt-form? That's only if you're feeling up to it."

She nodded and stepped away from everyone so she would have enough space and wouldn't end up hitting anyone. She simply stretched her arms out if she had just woken up and a pair of gleaming angelic wings spread out from her back. Her hands glowed as her gloves became full and white while her socks disappeared and her shoes turned into sandals. She put her hands behind her back and flexed her wings gently before folding them. She stood there and I almost choked on my food laughing at the expressions the Digidestined had on their faces.

"Um…"Hikari-chan began to blush "surprise?"

"Hi…Hikari…what…what happened to you?" Taichi asked "What did you do to her?" his tone had now become angrier than I would tolerate

"All we did was stop her from being in a terrible amount of pain. If we didn't create a way for her to Biomerge with Gatomon so she would be digital during her Awakening then the pain could've ended up killing her even if we got her to a hospital in time."

Taichi turned to face me and fixed me with what he thought was a bone chilling glare. Yamato walked up and put a hand on his friends shoulder to call him down. The look of anger disappeared from Taichi's eyes and was replaced with a look more of confusion and fear. Yamato released his friend and looked at me raising an eyebrow. I sighed, this was going to take a while to explain because I would have to go very slowly and answer the questions as we went rather than at the end. It didn't help that the rest of The Tamers showed up at the door right then or in the case of Beelzemon, the Imp Twins, and Justimon the window.

"Terriermon? What are you doing here I thought you and Wallace were staying in America?" Daisuke blurted out as soon as he saw him

"What are you talking about? I live here and I don't know anyone named Wallace, I've never even been to America."

"Momentai Terriermon." Henry chuckled

"Henry's right Terriermon." Lopmon said she and Suzie walked in "You really should take it easy."

"I think I can explain some of this." Justimon said as he split into Ryo and Cyberdramon

Beelzemon set the Twins down next to me on the couch "Now dis I gotta hear." He said and then took a quick head count. "Uh, guys where's Jeri?"

"She's outside on the phone with her dad." Takato informed us

I looked over and saw the looks the Digistenied were giving Beelzemon as they read his data. Most of them looked confused as if they didn't know what he was doing here. Not, here here, but here as in like the real world. A few looked worried about him being here and others just didn't seem to know what to think. It was those that looked worried that bothered me the most. Takeru opened his mouth to speak but I quickly cut him off.

"Yes, we know Beelzemon is a Demon Lord. Yes, we know how dangerous he is…well was since he's only a danger to our enemies. Yes, we know he is considered to be a 'Digimon of Darkness', but without him none of us would be here today. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to take a nap."

I hopped onto Hikari-chan's shoulders and curled up around her neck falling asleep in a matter of seconds as everyone began talking again. Next thing I knew I was being lightly shaken awake by Hikari-chan as she was watching something on TV. I looked up at the wall clock, only twenty minutes had passed since I fell asleep, I highly doubtedthat everything had been explained thoroughly enough in such a short span of time. Then I heard the start of Butter-Fly and had to try very hard to suppress a giggle. Ryo must have gotten to the part where he was explaining the differences between their world and ours.

"Alex, there's something I don't understand about the way you speak." Hikari-chan began

"You want to know why I only use 'chan' when speaking to you or about Onee-chan right?"

"Yeah."

"Easy, I'm American and English is my first language. Kudamon and I still have yet to work out exactly how I'm able to speak, read, and write Japanese but we think that I'm just kinda hardwired for all the word equivalent information. Since there is no equivalent for the honorifics in English, me using 'chan' is like I'm talking to a family member I'm close to by the name I was taught to call them, it just feels…right. That's the only explanation we've been able to come up with."

"Like instead of me just calling my grandparents grandma and grandpa, I'd call them Nana and Pipop or something?"

I thought about it for a moment "Yeah, it's kinda like that. Why?"

"Daisuke thought that you had a thing for me. I don't know why he keeps trying to get me to fall for him. I'm dating Takeru-chan and…" she trailed off "Why did I just call him Takeru-chan?"

I face pawed at that, how could I have forgotten to tell them before I fell asleep! "That reminds me," I looked over to where Janyu and Koushiro were still talking "Janyu, I need you to modify Takeru-chan's D3 so it has D-Power capabilities and then Biomerge him." I looked back at Hikari-chan "I does that answers your question Hikari-chan?"

Yamato walked over to us and scratched me behind the ear. "Thanks for at least giving us a warning about Takeru."

I rubbed into the scratching hand "To be honest I didn't know Hikari-chan was a Gatekeeper until today. The more time goes by the more I new abilities I discover. When I hugged Hikari-chan this afternoon I felt her power stirring and laid down a mist and the only people it reacted to was Hikari-chan, Takeru-chan, and myself so at least no one else amongst ya'll is a Gatekeeper."

He sighed "Takeru…he'll be okay won't he?"

I nodded "Like I explained earlier Biomerging him with Patamon makes him half data. Instead of the process being horridly painful it becomes painless because the body treats it like additional data and it just sort of adds on to you. It's not a perfect process and he and Hikari-chan won't be able to use their true or more accurately Perfect Form unless the need for it actually arises like it did today for me." Yamato looked a little crestfallen "Ah! You don't need to worry about him. He's a part of my family now. I'll protect him, and you've seen what I can do."

"Yeah, just don't push yourself to much. You've got three siblings to look after." he said chuckling

Before I could reply Takeru-chan, Hikari-chan, Sis and I all stiffened followed shortly by the the Digimon.

"What's wrong?" Miyako asked

"Four Digimon are coming…" I hopped off from Hikari-chan's shoulders and went to the window "They're strong…at least Ultimate, but even still they're strong for that level."

"Beelzemon, can you, Jeri, and Elecmon stay here in case things get out of control?" Takato asked

"Yeah just make sure yous guys make it back in one piece. Got it?"

Takato gave a quick nod and they left the building heading for the where ever the Digimon would be Bioemerging. I was still to weak to be able to help, it was…not infuriating but definitely aggravating. I was stuck staying behind as the last line of defense for everyone in the room. I stayed where I was in front of the open window a place I intended to stay until my friends came back. It has now become obvious to me that fate just loves to pick on me because after standing there for all of about five minutes I was swept up by someone as they flew past. I looked up at the person who grabbed me as we flew off to a nearby building and low and behold fate once again decided to pick on me. I was being carried a LadyDevimon, at least that left no surprises as to who two of the other four signals were.

But the fourth signal was still up for grabs since we knew for a fact that Daemon was still stuck in the Dark World. I didn't bother to struggle I knew she was too strong for me to fight; a Rookie versus a high end Ultimate was not a battle but a beat down. I soon learned who the fourth signal had belonged to. He stood a little over seven feet tall and wore a blue pin-striped suit over which he had on a grey trench coat with red trim and cuffs and a red scarf draped over his shoulders. He had on spike topped boots like Beelzemon and in his left hand he held what looked like a Tommy Gun while in his right he had a knife that he was fiddling with. The top half of his head looked like a rat's with a pair of horns growing just above his red eyes. His grey hair reached down to the middle of his back where a small pair of purple bat wings, each topped with a spike, sprouted from.

"Ah," he said in a bored voice "I see you found him without my help." He pointed the knife at me

LadyDevimon gave a shrill laugh "It was so easy to get a hold of him Astamon! He was standing right in front of a window, they even left it open for me!"

"Now all we are waiting on is your…associates."

He pointed his knife behind us and LadyDevimon turned around so I could SkullSatamon and MarineDevimon heading ourway. Once they joined us atop the building I noticed The Tamers quickly approaching from off in the distance. The one known as Astamon acted quickly and began chanting some words in an odd language as a circle appeared around us. Darkness flowed up from the edges of the circle before coming back down atop us and pulling us into, what I was sure was, the Dark World. The last words I heard before everything became silent was Beelzemon shouting out his 'Corona Blaster' attack.

Soon enough the inky black walls gave way to the grey sky of the Dark World as we continued our descent to its surface. We landed on the coast of the Dark Ocean in front of Daemon himself, who looked quite pleased. I felt horrible…like…like I had just been used as a living soccer ball in a 24/7 tournament. The worst part was I could feel my Cu Sith powers tugging at me, wanting me to assume that form. But now was definitely not the time for that, right now I needed to play it safe. I still had no idea why I was brought here in the first place.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you Daemon." Astamon said in his bored voice as he began to walk away.

"What about payment? I do owe you something for this; tell what it is so I may settle my debts now." Daemon said

"No need to worry yourself over that. It will be collected on its own in due time." He replied coolly as he vanished

Daemon led the way, heading off towards the cliffs that lined one end of the coast. The closer we got to the cliffs the harder it became for me to suppress the urge to shift into a Cu Sith, wherever we were going there was something there that wanted to abuse my powers. My paws started to change but I managed to force them to change back…maybe I could learn to control that form like this. We got to the cliff and went into a cave lined with small lamps to provide just enough illumination for us to travel. The tunnel ended in a massive circular room that had stairs lining the wall with openings every few hundred feet. Near the middle of the room was round metal plate suspended from the ceiling, to me it looked like a giant grocery scale. I was tossed onto it and the group stood around the edges waiting, I continued to force myself to change back as they watched with agitated looks.

"Why don't we just force him to change?" SkullSatamon asked

"Such a feet is not possible." Daemon said "If it were then we would still need to bring him here."

I let my entire body shift "Ahhh, looks like he is willing to cooperate."LadyDevimon said and I promptly shifted, I had finally gotten the hang of it, causing here to sneer "Just stay as a Cu Sith!" she bellowed

There was a sudden rumbling and hundreds of shadowy creatures began flooding into the room from the tunnel and the stairs. They made quite a racket and while there were many of them they didn't come very close to the scale instead forming circle around it with an opening leading to the main tunnel. They fell silent as a shuffling sound was heard and a disfigured silhouette appeared in the opening of the main tunnel. I recognized it…well sort of, as Dagomon. He had been badly burned across his face from my Magma Pillar that I threw at him when I had left. I let myself shift completely and shakily stood up on my four legs.

"So glad you could aid us for this momentous occasion Lord Dagomon." Daemon said

"This had better work or else it will be your hide Daemon."

"Just begin the process and I will be able to uphold my end of the deal."

With a grunt Dagomon lurched forward and pinned me beneath one massive…'hand'. I started feeling weird; light headed, dizzy, like my mind was becoming foggy. I felt a searing pain on my tail; the gray ring had apparently carried over into this form. They were trying to either suppres or destroy my memories. Sights flashed before my eyes, people, places, and things I held dear, the gray ring was trying to help me fight. I saw a memory from when I was little and fell in a creek by the house one December. Bro had carried me all the way back up a massive hill and into the house where he helped me change clothes and warm-up. I asked him why he was doing all this he said "I'm your brother I'm supposed to protect you. Who knows…maybe someday you'll be doing the same for someone else."

"Soon we will be free of this world and you can claim your bride." Daemon said with barely suppressed laugh

Bro's words echoed through my head. I couldn't lose here! Sis, Hikari-chan, Takeru-chan, and the others needed me and I had to protect them. Dagomon gave a sudden yelp and released me; I opened my eyes realizing that I had closed them at some point. I got a quick look at myself in the reflective surface of the plate. My fur was sort of fluttering like fire in light breeze, my entire tail included. My fur color had changed to the same glowing pale blue of my Perfect Alt-form and just like that form I was surrounded by a glowing orange-red aura. The gray ring had vanished, I could hear Daemon swearing under his breath as he and his cronies began backing away.

"Daemon! This wasn't supposed to happen!" Dagomon yelled looking over his shoulder at the retreating Demon Lord

"You." I said calmly in a voice that echoed and carried a sort of silent power "I gave you a warning of finality when we last met. You still lust after Hikari-chan and wish to harm her and the others that I hold dear."

Dagomon began to shiver and the Daemon Corps had already fled the cave. Ice large enough to be seen from the floor began forming on the ceiling high above. The air around us began shimmering with heat as the shadow creatures stood rooted to the spot. Dagomon started backing up towards the main tunnel and fell over as he stumbled in his haste.

"This time, you will not survive."

The shimmering heat suddenly burst into a roaring torrent of flames. Dagomon and his minions were incinerated instantly, but I let the flames continue to rage on, reaching down the tunnels and engulfing the ceiling. I watched with fascination as the plate and chains melted away. The walls began to glow and started sliding to floor as the rock turned molten from the intense heat. After a few minutes I was standing atop an enormous pile of molten rock. I tapped it curiously with my right forepaw and watched as it instantly cooled into glass covered in a thin layer of ice.

I had no idea where Daemon and his group had fled to and I didn't really care that much. I was to busy trying to remember what I was doing before I had been brought here. I remembered a room with a small group of people, I knew them all but could only remember the names of two of the people; Hikari-chan and Takeru-chan. I brushed my cloudy confused memories aside for now and focused on the Gates, I could feel three of them now. Muspelheim, Niflheim, and another that felt different; instead of a gate it felt more like a crossroads or hub. It felt like it could lead to any number of places, wherever I wanted to go it could take me there. I focused on the Hub, on making it usable, and watched as what looked like a grey version of MagnaAngemon Heaven's Gate appeared before me.

I instinctively knew how to use the gate to travel and focused on where I wanted it to lead to, a clearing in Shinjuku Central Park. The gate glowed briefly before the doorway covering it slowly slid open revealing the clearing on the other side of it. I leapt through the gate and after landing turned around and watched as the door closed and the gate disappeared. I remembered being there earlier with my "twin" sister Rika and other people, we were showing them something. It was still mid-afternoon but I was tired and curled up on the ground and quickly falling asleep.

When I woke up night had fallen and the stars shone brightly in the cloudless sky above. I stretched lazily as I got to my feet and looked around before leaping above the trees. I bounded through the park, startling the occasional couple, and eventually came across a large reflecting pool. I landed at the edge and took a better look at my reflection as I once again pushed back some of my foggy memories. My features seemed to be a mix of fox and hound, equally lithe and large. What I found the most interesting were my eyes, white rounded rhombuses edged with the same orange-red glow as my body.

"I've got a strange signal." I heard a woman say

"Where?" a man asked

"Shinjuku Central Park, next to the reflecting pool."

I looked around and didn't see anyone…maybe…maybe they were talking about me. I ran out of the park and onto the nearest road, which was thankfully devoid of people as I began to run down it.

"It's moving. It's left the park heading north down the road."

"This is Gallantmon, I see it."

I looked over my shoulder and saw a winged knight clad in crimson armor flying some distance behind me. I started to panic; I didn't know who these people were, why they were after me or how I could hear them. I picked up my pace as the road ahead of me starting to ice over as I did.

"It's picked up the pace and the road ahead of it is starting to freeze over."

I stepped onto the ice and my speed picked up even more as I seemed to flow across it. Flames sprang up behind me melting the ice after I passed over it. I heard Gallantmon say something but ignored it, I was too busy trying to escape. The road ahead dead ended into a T-junction and I took a left, continuing to pick up speed. The ice had shrunk from blanketing the entire roadway to just a thin strip ahead of me and the flames followed suit.

"It's headed your way Justimon."

"Understood, I'll stop it in its tracks."

What did this Justimon person intend to do to stop me in my tracks? I soon found out as he jumped down into the road about a thousand feet ahead of me. He raised his large mechanical right arm and with a yell of Thunderclap brought it slamming down onto the road. The road surface cracked and faulted, parts of it jutting up into the air, including the bit right in front of me. With my footing disrupted I jumped over him and landed about thirty feet behind him in a heap, all that energy I had used earlier had finally caught up to me. Even with the short nap I had taken earlier I was already exhausted again.

"I stopped it. Everyone converge on me."

I lay there on the ground with my back to him too exhausted to rise, as he started to approach me. I squeezed my eyes shut; I needed protection, something, anything. I heard his footsteps stop followed by muttering something about firewalls. I cracked one eye and saw that I was again surrounded by flames, not nearly as hot and large as last time but hot enough and large to protect me. It was a few minutes before I heard more people arrive and begin talking to Justimon about me.

"I can't believe what has happened here. It left no fire damage, not even scorch marks." Gallantmon said

"We have seen weirder stuff before."

"MegaGargomon has a point. What do you think Sakuyamon?" Justimon asked

"Based on what you've told me about the way this thing acts it seems like its scared. Plus there must be something wrong with all of you; I don't feel any heat coming off of this 'fire'."

"Sakuyamon, wait! What are you doing?"

I lay there where I had fallen with my back to the voices hoping theses people would leave me alone. I had closed my eyes again as I lay there on the road shielded by fire. I heard footsteps but dismissed them as just being someone walking around the outside, but if that was true why did it sound like they were getting closer? A pair of strong comforting feminine arms wrapped themselves around me just below my forelegs and lifted me off the ground leaving my hind legs hanging and my tail brushing the ground. I caught her scent amidst the flames, she smelled kind of like Sis. I slowly opened my eyes and looked up into the partially masked face of a strange woman, how could she be standing here in the middle of my protective fire and be unharmed? Unless she was someone close to me, but I didn't recognize her, not completely, I knew I had seen her before but I couldn't remember where or who she was.

"It's okay." She said in a calming double voice "You don't need to be scared anymore. I won't hurt you."

"You smell kind of like someone I know." the flames started to die down

"Oh" she said in an amused voice "and who might that be?"

I closed my eyes and rested my head against one of her shoulders "My sister." I said as the fire died and exhaustion over come me.

What a twist!
Hope ya'll like it

Later ^^;