AN: Again, sorry for taking so long. Either way, enjoy!

There was a certain feeling that only came when one thought he was about to lose someone. Running through the halls, while trying to keep his balance from the shocks, Touma was still only able to concentrate on his sister. In the background he was easily able to hear the sound from the helicopters rotors that told him they were ready to attack. As predicted, he heard as missiles the were launched and heard them explode when they made contact.

If that is Dynasmon, like I think it is He thought. Then these guys do not stand a chance. But why would one of the Royal Knights attack now of all reasons? Could it be that he is looking for me? I'll just have to figure that part out later.

Hearing more explosions he was sent flying forward, landing on his face. Looking back he saw that a helicopter had crashed landed right through the wall. Remembering his oath he ran towards the crashed helicopter and attempted to pull the pilot out safely.

So how do I do this?

Looking at the doors he could tell that they were jam and, to make it worst, the metal would burn him if he attempted to grab him. Studying the room, he saw a fire extinguisher not to far from him. Grabbing it, he aimed it at the door, shooting it with the inside context. When he ran out, he threw it to the side and began kicking the door. After about three kicks, the door managed to crack and he was able to open in.

"He's only unconscious," Touma thought out loud as he saw the pilot. Removing his seat belt, Touma dragged him out and carried him far away from the collision. As he put him on the floor, he saw some guards approaching."Hey!" Touma called out. "We have a man down over here."

Seeing that they were coming to the pilot's aid Touma once again ran towards his desired location. The journey was short but a difficult one, with the main obstacle being that shock waves from the helicopters missiles. Eventually, his persistence to save his sister was rewarded when he made it to the center of the lab. However, though he did reach it, he was shocked to see that where his sisters' room once was, was now nothing more than fallen debris.

"Relena!" Not wasting anymore time, he jumped atop the ruble and began using his hand to pull the large pieces away. Though they were heavy and sharp he continued to go at it regardless of the strain. He was using his legs at full capacity and, when they were not strong enough, he began putting his back into it though he knew it would later cause him problems. "Damn it!" He screamed as one of the pieces cut his hand. "Relena! Are you okay?"

"Big brother!"

The voice had not come from below, but rather from behind him. Turning around he saw his sister running towards him with the woman from the recording room closely behind. She embraced Touma in a hug.

"I'm sorry to have caused you trouble, big brother." Relena said, pointing at his hands.

With that, Touma became a bit calmer. "It's okay. I'm just glad that you're alive."

With them still hugging, the woman from earlier approached them. "I hate to interrupt such a touching moment, but we need to get out of here! It is not safe with that thing attacking the lab."

Realizing what had to be done, Touma let go of his sister and stood up. He once again looked at the woman, "Please, take Relena out of here."

"But big brother?" Relena said worriedly. "You don't plan to fight that thing without Gaomon, do you?"

Touma placed a relaxing hand on Relena's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm not reckless. I just want to see why this is happening."

"But what if you get hurt?" She asked.

"Remember what I said earlier; I still have to take you to Japan so we can eat a nice, authentic lunch. I promise, Relena, I won't let that digimon do harm to me."

With that way Touma spoke Relena felt secure with his word. In the end she knew that he would come back after this was done, regardless of what stood in his way.

"Okay," she responded knowing well that he would keep his word.

With his sister being taken care off Touma knew what he had to do. As he ran off to solve the reason why he turned around and gave his sister a reassuring look. However, what he was not aware was that, while he had tried to remove the debris out of his way, he had dropped the CD that he had picked up from his room. The only one who had seen this was Relena, who picked it up. Knowing that her brother would later come back she kept it with her, hoping to give it to him when he returned.

Truth be told, there was another reason as to why Touma had left his sister with what he considered a hired gun. Besides being one of the best medical labs in central Europe there was nothing in the lab that would specifically call for the invasion from a member of the Royal Knights. However, he was there and, since he was one of the more knowledgeable members of the now defunct DATS, he would be a prime target for anyone seeking information on the digital world.

Reaching outside he saw who he suspected all along. Dynasmon was, at the moment, fending off against three helicopters. When all three of the helicopters fired a barrage of missiles Dynasmon crossed his arms in an X and easily absorbed the impact from the missiles. Looking at his armor Touma could tell that the attacks from the helicopters were not leaving a dent on Dynasmon. Since he knew what he was after Touma decided to grab his attention before he attacked the helicopters.

"Hey!" He screamed.

Looking down Dynasmon saw Touma trying to grab his attention. Since he, at the moment, held to particular interest to the armored knight, Dynasmon ignored the lone human, and focused his attention back on the helicopters.

Needing to get his attention, Touma tried once again, "Hey, Dynasmon! I am Touma Norstein, Former member of DATS." That last word, it held an interest to the holy knight. Looking that the helicopters were out of ammunition he looked down at Touma. "You have no business attacking this place!" Touma stood firmly against the knight. "Why is it that you attack?"

Not wanting to look down on one who could help him find his desired item, Dynasmon place his hand on the floor telling Touma to climb on. Though he was somewhat unsure, Touma decided that since this could end the attack, he climbed on letting the knight bring him to eye level. "Why did you attack this lab?" Touma asked.

"I am searching for a device that holds memory." Dynasmon said. "I am looking for a way that will allow me to put an end to it."

"And this thing that you are looking for, what is it meant to find?"

"If you are a member of DATS, as you claim you are, then you should know what I am seeking. You can either help me find it, or die trying to defend its location."

Touma was now certain he knew what he wanted.

"So you seek that DATS computer database. Sadly, the computer is nowhere here. You wasted your time attacking here."

"I am well aware of the computer being separated, as that is why my allies are seeking those parts as we speak."

Touma had just found out something from the Royal Knight. He knew that he had to continue asking questions to find out more.

"Why is it that you seek an ultimate level digimon?"

"That does not concern you." The digimon responded. "Now, tell me; where might I find the data for the computer."

Though he did not want to admit it Touma knew that he had no choice but to hand over the CD. There was nothing anywhere near that had the punch to damage a Royal Knight, much less destroy one.

Touma was faced with a conflict that he wished he were not in. By handing him the CD with the data he had been seeking he could make a bargain for him to leave without harming anyone. The consequence would mean that they would lose the last connection they had with the digital world. For his other choice, by not handing him the CD, Dynasmon would continue the attack harming several of the civilians there. The consequence could be the death of everyone there. He had no choice; he would have to give it to him if he wanted to avoid having all their blood on his hands

"Okay...you win."

"Now where is it?" Asked the knight, looking at him in the eyes.

"Relax. I have what you seek with me."

Reaching for his pocket, Touma was shocked to find that the CD was not there anymore. Searching his other pocket he began scanning his pants by patting them, hoping to find them.

Nothing.

"Well..."Dynasmon said. "Where is it?"

"I know that I put it in here, just give me a second."

Dynasmon began to get impatient. "Listen, you either have it or you don't. So give it to me or else!"

"Wait up! I know I have it."

"You have wasted my time."

Angered with Touma's inability to produce what he asked for Dynasmon dropped the former DATS member and watched as his body hit the ground. But Touma was not a weakling. Seconds before he hit the ground he tucked his body and managed to roll before he hit the ground. However, there was a slight miscalculation in his timing and, when he hit the ground, he put too much pressure on one of his knees, causing a slight injury.

But he was being watched. He knew that Dynasmon would kill him if he knew he was still alive. Keeping his pain inside of himself he just laid there, waiting for the knight to leave. He wanted to let out the pain but doing so would lead to his death, so he continued to just lay there in a pool of his own shame, biting his lip.

When Dynasmon finally left, Touma attempted to stand up but soon found that the damaged caused by the fall was currently preventing him from walking. Falling back down he began crawling, trying to retrace his steps. Each of his attempts to crawl back seemed futile, as he was only making very little progress.

He was not going to give up. He began putting more and more energy in each one of his attempts to find the CD. As his nails imbedded themselves into the dirt he continued to make his way forward, even though it seemed like had only made very little progress. After about a few minutes of having his stomach being dragged through the dirt Touma saw some supplies up a table that he knew would help him in getting where he wanted to go faster. Without the use of one of his legs,Touma lifted his body up using his arms, and retrieved some items lying about.

After wrapping some bandages around his damaged leg he managed to build a makeshift leg bracelet. What he built was, by all means, not the most convenient way to travel, as the metal bars he used to construct it prevented him from bending his knee at a good enough angle to run. But he did not care.Managing to stand on both his legs he was using his good leg to move, while the bandaged leg was simply being dragged along. The run was hard. Every time he dragged his leg he felt that the part still holding it together was about to break.

With all the death and destruction going on Touma knew that the only way to stop it all would be to give Dynasmon the disk. He knew that he was personally giving him an important list, but there was no other way to stop him. Without the use of digimon on their side stopping the Royal Knight was as unreachable as the stars themselves. Continuing to retrace his steps he feared that the disk was with someone, more specifically, with Relena.

Attempting to run Touma fell to the ground when the self-made leg bracelet began cracking. As he made another attempt to get up again, he was knocked out by an explosion that was not too far from where he was. Examining the damage he found several walls now destroyed that would allow him to reach his desired location faster. Making it past the first destroyed wall, Touma was soon stopped in his tracks by a certain voice.

"Big brother!"

"Relena!" Touma screamed.

Running towards each other Relena easily noticed her brother's broken leg. The state of her brother dragging his leg the way he did was damaging to the young girl. She was so use to seeing him in all his glory, whether it be a sparring match or performing surgery. But, in this state, her older brother seemed...human.

"Big brother... Your leg?"

Touma ignored his sisters' question." Relena, I told you two to find shelter. It is very dangerous to be here."

Relena appeared to have a sadden look on her face. "But big brother, the way out of here was destroyed. We came back here trying to find an alternate route."

Knowing this, Touma shifted his attention from his sister to the woman who had been accompanying his sister. "Why did you come back here, unguarded?" He asked her.

"The soldiers protecting us were ordered to the attacking side. Obviously, I have no control over those who your father has not yet paid personally, so they just left us there for death."

Rather than responding back Touma looked back down at his sister at put himself and eye level with her. "Relena, are you hurt in any way?"

"No. Miss Haider made sure that she went first to make sure the hallways were clear."

"Just doing my job." The woman responded.

Touma looked at the woman and gave her an agreeing smile. After that, he once again shifted his attention to his sister. "Relena, I need you to find shelter. Do not come out until I say so."

"But big brother..."

"Relena, please. I will not be able to do my job if I think you are in harms way."

"But what is your job? Big brother, why is it that you have to do this? Why can't someone else handle this job?'

There were now tears in the girls' eyes as she began clinging to her brother. "It is because no one else can do this job."

"But you don't even have Gaomon with you. Why must you still fight even when you are injured?"

"Because I'm the only one who has faced off against one of them. I need to find a way to make him go away."

"Do you promise to come back, big brother?"

"Of course."

"Thank you," she said as she reached in her pocket. Pulling out a CD, she handed it over to him. "You dropped this when you ran off. I'm only giving it you because you are promising to come back."

Not sure how to feel about it, Touma reached for the CD, deciding that he would thank her later. Just as he was about to take it from her another nearby explosion caused Touma and Miss Haider to fall down. As he fell, Touma screamed in pain as the leg bracelet he had made broke.

"Big brother!" Relena screamed. Running towards her brother Relena felt light headed as she looked at the broken leg.

"Relena, are you okay?" asked Touma.

"Yes, but what about you? Your leg..."

"I'll be okay." He said, trying to hide his pain from her. "Now give me the disk."

"Wait, you're not planning on still trying to talk to the digimon are you?"

"It's the only way to get rid of him."

"But now you are really injured. How do you plan on walking towards him?"

"He will not have to worry about that." Said an unknown voice

As Touma and Relena began searching for the source of the voice, they both looked up at the roof as it began to fall apart. As the roof above them was lifted up, Dynasmon appeared, looking down at them.

"Relena... Run!" Hearing those words, Relena knew what she had to do, but the mere sight of Dynasmon had prevented her from running away. She wanted to run, like her brother told her, to but she could not.

Realizing that his body was to large for the structure Dynasmon began making his body glow. The glow was slowly making his body shrink to the size of a tall human. When his body stopped glowing he was now slightly taller than Touma, and would now have the ability to easily maneuver inside the building.

The first thing the newly sized Dynasmon did was approach Touma, who was still on the floor injured, and lifted him up from the neck. "So you have managed to stay alive," Dynasmon said as he began chocking him.

"Big brother," Relena screamed managing to move.

"Relena... Stay back!" Touma said, barely mustering the strength and air to do it.

"Ah, I see why you were so willing to hand over some thing as important; you do not want her to get hurt. I've always had a hard time understanding humans; many scream out the greater good only on put the lives of many just to save one person. Tell me; why are humans so complicated?" Not answering right away, Dynasmon gripped harder sucking whatever air was left in Touma. "What, do humans not understand the concept of being human? Like always, you humans are an interesting bunch."

Feeling light headed Touma looked around the room hoping to find a way to escape the predicament they were in. Miss Haider had been knocked unconscious from the earlier explosion and, even if Relena was not scared, he was still not willing to put her in harms way.

"Wait a minute." Dynasmon said, stopping Touma's train of thought. "Is that the disk?"

The disk. He had forgotten all about it. If there was going to be a way to protect the people inside the lab, that was going to be it. Luckily, Dynasmon had dropped him, but he knew he had to act fast. Unfortunately, he was still injured, preventing him from moving and being chocked like that had caused some damage to his vocal chords.

Within seconds, Dynasmon had approached Relena. "Give me that CD, little girl! Unless you want to end up like your brother."

"No! This belongs to him and I am not going to let you have it."

"I do not think that you have a say into what will happen."

Watching the knight approach his sister Touma was desperately trying to do something, but his body was telling him otherwise. He wanted to tell her to just hand over the CD to him, but he could not.

"Now hand it over!" Dynasmon said, reaching for it.

He had missed. Instead, he caught onto her wrist when she tried to prevent him from getting it.

"This belongs to my big brother! You have no business with it."

"Is that so."

Crushing Relena's wrist she let out a loud yell that awoke Touma from his trance of injury. Using his good leg to stand up, he attempted to run only to fall when he stepped on the injured leg. To Dynasmon's surprise, Relena was still holding on to the disk. However, the pain he had caused to Relena made her become unconscious. Without much force the holy knight digimon was easily able to remove the CD from her hand. Now that he had the item he had been seeking, the only objective left was returning. But he was left with one dilemma in mind; what to do with the defeated?

They had caused him far too much time, with the way they had hid the disk from him. Either way, he had to make them pay. Looking around he saw that Touma was immobilized and that he had already suffered enough. The lady that was with them was unconscious but, since she did not interfere with his goal, she would be spared.

But then there was the girl who had caused him trouble. She was a human yet she showed little fear, which also showed a lack of respect, in front of him. She would have to pay. Still being held in the arm that crushed her wrist, he slapped her lightly across the face, sending her flying.

For Touma, he now found that the pain in his leg had ceased. Watching what had just happened to his sister a feeling of hatred began accumulating in his right fist that awakened his digisoul for the first time in years. With Dynasmon hovering closer to Relena Touma stood up, dashed at the Royal Knight, and delivered a side uppercut to his opponent's head. Since it caught him by surprise Dynasmon made no effort to block it, thus knocking him to the floor.

Ignoring the fallen knight Touma went directly towards his sister and made sure that she was okay. Relieved that she was only out cold, and not dead, he knew he had to take her to a medical unit. But, before he had a chance to carry her to safety, an armored arm pulled back his shoulder and hurled him across the room. Hitting the nearest wall he saw that it was Dynasmon who had launched him, and who was now approaching him.

"So you think that you can take a cheap shot at me?" Dynasmon said, throwing Touma across the room again. Becoming somewhat accustomed to the pain Touma managed to stand up, but had no means of defending himself. "You think you can embarrass me like that?" Said Dynasmon once again, tossing him around. "Well? Do you?"

Even if Touma had the strength to talk he knew that doing so would end in his demise. Instead he attempted to standup, only to have it end in failure when he collapsed. Everything seemed to go slow for him at that point. He saw that Relena was still lying right were he last saw her, still in the same defenseless position. Dynasmon was slowly approaching him and Touma knew that, within a few seconds, he would once again be tossed around. Not wanting to look foolish by taking on the appearance of a lifeless doll, Touma made every effort to try and move, but his efforts proved futile when his arms were not responding to his command.

"You made me look like a fool," said Dynasmon as he kicked Touma on the side ribs. Feeling the kick, Touma wished his body had become numb, just so the kick would have just passed. "You think you can just hit me like that and be left alone? Well then get up and fight me so I can give you a proper death." At that point Touma did not know whether he wanted to get up or not. "So you are not even going to answer back? Killing someone as pathetic as you would waste my precious time."

Securing the disk in his hands, Dynasmon flew upwards, but not before turning around and having one last look at the carnage he had created. After examining his masterpiece he once again focused his attention on Touma. "Remember this day, human." Dynasmon began. "I chose to spare your life, not because you were a worthy adversary, but because killing you would forever label me. You suffered, not because you were willing to fight me, but because you showed a lack of respect in my presence. If you think it is an honor to have lived after fighting me then so be it. But know this, you only lived because I said you could live."

Seeing him fly off, Touma made one final attempt to reach his sister, but his body was refusing to listen to him. With the world around him seemingly disappearing Touma cursed his fragile human body one last time before falling to a deep slumber.

In the realm of an unknown world a foreigner and his partner realized that, just because certain food looks like something of an eight-bit video game, it did not mean that it did not taste what it was supposed to represent. As Daisuke and V-mon continued to stuff their faces with what appeared to be an unlimited amount of fruit they did not seem to have a care in the world. In deed, they did not.

Swallowing a large amount of food, Daisuke began speaking. "You know, V-mon, I usually don't go for this organic stuff, but since I haven't eaten all day..." Stuffing his mouth before finishing his sentence, his last words were not explicably clear.

"Daisuke," said V-mon, "what do we do about getting back home?"

At this, Daisuke was not certain about what was to happen next. He was not too worried about it, seeing as things always seemed to resolve themselves after everything was done.

"Relax, V-mon." He reassured his partner. "We are just going to go look for some friendly digimon and maybe they might be able to tell us about some evil terrorizing the digital world. Once they tell us we'll defeat it and something is bound to take us back home."

"You seem to be very sure of this plan, Daisuke." V-mon responded.

"Well, we have nothing to go with, so let's just hope that, once we reach the next digimon village, they can tell us if there is some sort of digimon, or something, that is attacking."

"But Daisuke, don't you find it strange that they would call someone from another world and not use chosen of their own?"

"Huh, good point." Daisuke realized that his partner made a fair point and summoning someone from elsewhere would be pointless if the world they were currently in had their own set of chosen. "Maybe they have lost access to come here from the real world. I mean we arrived directly here without going through the real world. This digital world, it can't be the same as ours, and I can only assume that it has different human world, too."

"Maybe you're making this more complicated then it really is, Daisuke."

"Could be. I just wished I had known that I would be spending an X amount of time in a digital world. That way I would not have come here, dressed in my soccer training attire. These shorts don't even have pockets to carry this thing!" He finished, pointing at the blue and gold digivice.

"So do you have any idea as to how it works yet, Daisuke?"

"Not a clue. Could be that it is just an upgraded version of the D-3's, seeing as you were able to armor evolve without the need for the Digimental of Miracles."

"Daisuke, when I evolved into Magnamon it did not feel like I would normally feel when I use the digimentals to evolve. It sort of felt like evolving to Imperialdramon, and the strength they both have were very similar."

"So, you saying that you had the strength of an Ultimate when you fought Spinomon?"

"I think so. But..." V-mon said, picking up another fruit. Taking a bite he began talking with a mouth full that made Daisuke have a hard time understanding. Finally, swallowing the food, his speech was understandable, "but that's just me."

"...Is that so? Anyway, I say we continue going in the same direction we were headed. We're bound to run into something."

Gathering some of their remaining fruit V-mon got up and joined Daisuke as they left.

"Hey, V-mon..."

"Yeah?"

"I just realized that, if I spend enough time here, Taichi and the others can finally stop all that talk about not having it as rough as they did, spending all that time in the digital world."

"...You do realize we have a world to save, don't you?"

"Just thought I'd bring it up."

Signed: GuitarDude Two-One-Five

Word Count: 4749

June 2, 2008 4:09 pm PT