AN: "Hey, he said this story would be updated quickly. Let's kick his ass!" Yeah, about that... sorry. To find out why I took forever to write this look at the bottom.

Also, know that this story will not have Takato know about the Adventure/02 universe, as re-watching the series doesn't make direct references to the anime. Not to mention that he refers to himself as a Tamer instead of a chosen. So yeah.

Jureimon knew that there was no way he was going to win; that was a given. But here he was, facing of against one of the Royal Knights in a one-on-one fight. Correction: he was fighting against somebody who defeated one of the Royal Knights, which, somehow, made the situation much more frightening than it already was. Duftmon, still in his leopard mode, was just standing still, not caring what the situation meant; life and death seemed like a game to the knight. Then again, why should he? He was not, in any shape or form, in danger of anything. His opponent was a weakling; just another fool who thought they were doing the right thing.

The right thing...

With Duftmon still stuck in his train of thought Jureimon saw an open opportunity and stretched out his vines hoping to ensnare the imposter knight. But Duftmon was too fast. Since his guard was down the vines were able to get close to him but, still, he was able to feel them coming and jumped out of the way before they even had a chance to wrap him up. Charging in forward Duftmon saw that Jureimon had anticipated the action and already had an attack waiting. Attacking with his 'cherry bomb' attack Duftmon took the bombarded head on. However, the smoke the attack created now blinded the knight. But the attack was weak, and he was sure he knew Jureimon knew that. Instinctively, he jumped up.

Looking at where he was standing he saw that Jureimon slammed his vines where he was standing a moment ago. Again, to Duftmon's surprise, Jureimon anticipated the action and again attacked him in midair. As the cherry bombs, once again, hit their mark, the smoke again blinded Duftmon; his instincts were preparing him for what was coming. He just stayed there, letting gravity bring him down. But he could sense that Jureimon had once again sent out his vines. Feeling them coming he used his front paw to step on the edge of the vines that were lunging towards him, used them to jump up, dodged them, and landed on top of them. Gaining his balance Duftmon ran on top of vines, charging towards Jureimon.

Trying to drop Duftmon Jureimon began to wildly shake the vines. But as Duftmon jumped off them Jureimon managed to make contact with the knight and slammed the knight towards the ground. As he hit the ground the force from the attack managed to send Duftmon below the ground. Retracting his vines Jureimon just stood there, knowing that the battle was not over.

"Get up," said Jureimon. "No proud member of the Royal Knights, impersonating them or not, would go down so easily."

Hearing the comments Duftmon arose from the ground, looking as healthy as he was in the beginning. Out of nowhere the quadruped knight began chuckling maniacally. "You are such a character! You-You actually managed to entertain me. Look at me; I am actually exhausted. Well, not really. But you get what I mean, right?'

Jureimon was disgusted with the knight in front of him. "Do you take anything serious? You disrespected a great leader. Someone who sacrificed his lives for the sake of someone else."

"If he was such a great leader then why is he dead?"

"Show some respect, you imposter."

"Why should I? You think he's the only one who has ever sacrificed himself for someone else? Think he's the only one who has ever died for some greater good? You live too much of a sheltered life. You need to get out more, friend."

He had gotten to him. Jureimon launched out his cherry bomb attack. But Duftmon had anticipated this. He easily dodged the incoming attacks by moving left and anticipated Jureimon's plan to use his vines again. Maneuvering through the vines Duftmon made it through without getting hit and struck Jureimon with his claws. Hitting the mobile tree Duftmon pushed him back and knocked him down.

"Come on, now," Duftmon said. "You were doing so well not too log ago."

Jureimon wasted no time. Standing up Jureimon once again began attacking. Extending his vines he attempted to tangle up the knight, only to have Duftmon treat the situation like child plays. Switching his strategy to just trying to hit him by switching his actions to simple smashes and swings, Jureimon was becoming more reckless. Duftmon was enjoying himself. He was easily dodging the attacks and was not at all worried about being hit. And the grin on his face was further pushing the vegetation digimon to the edge. But after a while of simply dodging everything Jureimon was throwing at him Duftmon was becoming bored. Eventually, the holy knight digimon decided that he was done playing around with him. Rushing in he, once again, slashed at him sending the tree digimon back. As Jureimon was about to stand Duftmon decided to finish it now.

"Wolkenkratzer!" Out of nowhere several rocks rose from the earth and were sent directly towards Jureimon. As they hit him the rocks pierced Jureimon's tough exterior and caused enough damage that they brought the tree digimon down and, from his appearance, he appeared to be unable to stand. "And that is how the fight is won."

Jureimon looked up to see that Duftmon walked up to him and was now standing over him. His body, along with his voice, was not responding, and he knew that his life would soon be over. Continuing to watch over the victorious knight Jureimon saw that Duftmon had relinquished his leopard mode and switched back to his regular knight form. However, he was not looking at him with an intent to kill; no, he was just studying his body. He was inspecting the damage he had caused very closely; Duftmon's eyes were barely a few inches from Jureimon, inspecting him closely.

"You seem to barely be able to stand." Duftmon said, stepping back while doing so. "You appear-You appear to be just what I'm looking for. You are alive; yet you are unable to defend yourself, not that it surprises me one bit. But let's get philosophical for a moment. Can something be considered alive if it cannot defend itself in someway? I mean, even babies cry when they fell threatened and flowers can produce a certain scent to either kill or repel certain insects. But, now, look at you! You can- You cannot defend yourself with your strength and you can't scream for help. You are defenseless!

"I could burry you alive, six-feet under, and there would be nothing you could do about it. I could kick you and kick you and there'd be nothing you could do. I could decorate your fallen body with the flowers around you and dress you up all frilly like. You want know why I am allowed to do so?" Duftmon, once again, walked up to Jureimon and placed his face directly in front of his and whispered. "Because you cannot defend yourself. You have now become lower that...lower than the filth that crawls on the dirt. Your life in now so meaningless."

Steeping back Duftmon looked up at the sky. He seemed to be lost in thought, and actually seemed to have calmed down. But that idea was soon ended. As he lifted up his right hand a similar orb to the one he had used on Sleipmon materialized. "I do believe that the orb is perfected, at least in controlling some of you weaker level fools. Perhaps not strong enough to control a Royal Knight, but it should be more than enough to control someone like you." With the orb safely secured in his palms Duftmon thrust his arm forward, sending the orb deep into Jureimon.

Barely managing to get a weak shriek in, Jureimon's body was penetrated by the orb. As it slowly made its way into his body the vegetation digimon was losing control of himself. With the orb finally completely inside him Jureimon stood up and had a soulless, robotic look in his eyes. Now standing motionless Duftmon was about to see just how well Jureimon's obedience was. "Jureimon, destroy those trees."

Like he was told Jureimon extended his vines out and began destroying the trees he was ordered to. His strong and extendable vines easily cut through the trees and piled them on top of each other. When Jureimon was done destroying the surrounding area Duftmon approached him once again and reexamined his body. "Your body is past its limits by several fold, yet you-you are fighting at 100 percent! Still, should look into being able to control stronger digimon. Also noted, he appears to be able to move much more gracefully, especially when compared to Sleipmon's robotic gestures. Still, his movements are not as fluid as they were a while ago. Must make a note to work on that, eventually."

Turning to his right he looked at, what appeared to be, nothing. But as he signaled with a snap of his fingers it was revealed that there was something there under a cloaking device. A small, round, robotic, flying device, with a camera lens up front, had been following Duftmon. "You serve no more purpose to me, but, still, I should continue to watch you, just in case something interesting happens. As the flying device turned invisible Duftmon remembered one final thing. "Oh, and if anything comes your way... just kill it. Needs to have some sort of field test, anyway. Science isn't cheap, you know. Duftmon mode change to... Duftmon Leopard mode."

Once again in his faster form Duftmon ran off towards the fortress that he had seen earlier. When he left Jureimon just stood there, waiting to do his objective. The conscience of the digimon had since been destroyed.

Takato's body felt the pain as the water pushed him directly into a wall. Realizing that the water was pushing him towards it, and not actually moving him anymore, he extended his arm above the water and found something to grab onto. Lifting himself up above the water he realized he had a hard time getting up. Digging his nails into the ground he was pulling himself up using the remaining strength he had left. Finally getting a good enough grip he managed to pull himself up but had a hard time standing up now that he was safely on the ground. Attempting to stand up he found it quite difficult to stand up on two feet and soon found that he was coughing uncontrollably. Getting on his hands and knees his coughing was making him throw up some water that, while it was somewhat bothersome to his throat, was allowing him to breathe easier.

Just as Takato spat out most of the water that had gotten inside of him he saw that the other boy who helped him escape was just lifting himself out of the water. Much like Takato, Daisuke began coughing up water that he had inhaled while fighting the current. As the four digimon also came out of the water Takato saw that, unlike them, they did not have trouble breathing after they came out of the water.

Huh, thought Takato, I guess the water is real here. I need to tell Jen about this later. If I manage to get home, that is.

Still having a hard time trying to breath Takato decided that he should at least thank him for helping him get out of that place, not to mention making a proper introduction.

"Thanks for the help back there," he said as he approached Daisuke, who was still trying to catch his breath. "By the way, the name it Matsuda Takato. Oh, and this is my partner, Guilmon, and that's Gotsumon."

Takato attempted to signal for Guilmon to come over, but the red digimon was to busy noticing the other semi-conscious digimon. Daisuke, however, had finally managed to empty out his lungs of the water that he had inhaled during his swim.

"Man, I can't believe that I'm still tired from those sprints coach made us do." Daisuke had completely ignored Takato's introduction. "I really hate losing sometimes."

While thinking of him as a little bit rude Takato was more amazed that he was talking about sports after what had just happened. Not knowing what to say he just decided to put a hand on his shoulder and thank him.

Daisuke finally remembered what had happened. "Oh, sorry about that," he apologized profusely. "I almost forgot how I came to be here. I'm Daisuke Motomiya and that little blue guy there is V-mon, my partner and that little green turtle over there is Kamemon. He's not my partner, though. Um, Takato Matsuki, right?"

"Matsuda, actually," he corrected him. "So, at what point did your plan go wrong?"

"Plan?" Daisuke did not know what he was talking about.

"Yeah. Those were your digimon that helped free Guilmon and Gotsumon while you pretended to be captured, right?"

"Well, I don't know how much of that was planned seeing as I winged the whole thing. But you're welcome, anyway."

"Wait, so you really were captured?"

"Yeah, and I have Kamemon to thank for that. Hey, speaking of which," Daisuke said as he turned his attention away from Takato. "Kamemon, why did you ditch me and V-mon when we got off the ferry? We could have used your help back there!"

"Because you were drawing attention to yourself. " the Digimon replied swiftly. "And if I had stuck with you I, too, would have been caught and not allowed us to make our escape."

Daisuke realized that Kamemon was right. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

The turtle digimon turned to Gotsumon. "Have you heard about the Royal Knights?"

Gotsumon, who was just minding his own business while the humans talked, answered. "What? No, I haven't heard a thing."

"Royal Knights? What's that?" Takato asked.

"I'm guessing they are knights who serve royalty?" Daisuke remarked. "You know, as their name implies."

"You really are from another world." Gotsumon replied while looking at Takato. "But yeah, as he said, they are a group of knights who once served the God of the Digital World."

"God?" Takato said emphasizing the singular.

"You mean like Qinglongmon?" Daisuke added.

"Qinglongmon?" Gotsumon looked confused. "No, I'm talking about Yggdrasil."

"Yggdrasil?" said both humans with a confused look on their faces.

"Yeah. A few years ago he ordered an attack on the real world carried out by the Royal Knights."

"Ah, so the chosen of this world failed to do their job and so now it's up to us to save it, right?" asked a confident Daisuke.

"A Chosen?" asked both Takato and Gotsumon.

"Yeah, you know, I'm a Chosen Child. I was chosen to use my digimon partner to save the Digital World." Both were still confused. "Okay, just forget about it."

"But he did bring up a good point, though." The three of them turned to look at Kamemon. "If they are from a different world then why go through all the trouble? Why not just have DATS take care of the problem?"

"Oh, great, now he decides to be talkative," said Daisuke.

"Maybe there is something happening in the real world that is preventing humans from entering?" responded Takato, trying to be productive.

"The gates haven't been opened in five years and we haven't had contact with the real world since then." Takato was looking at Gotsumon when he remembered what he had told him earlier.

"Wait? What about Masaru?"

Gotsumon looked at Takato. "Masaru might be able to help you in mastering your digisoul, but he also hasn't had any contact with the real world, either."

"So there are other cho... other humans with Digimon still in this world, then?" Asked Daisuke, deciding that he would be useful to the conversation for once. "I guess we should look for him, seeing as we don't know what to do."

"Speaking of Masaru, maybe we should try to get our digisoul to work properly just in case another Digimon attacks us," suggested Takato as he took out his digivice. "That escape probably would have gone a lot smother if we could have fought them off."

"Yeah, that's probably the only thing we can do right now," said Daisuke, realizing that practicing was the only option. "Oh, yeah, and I guess we really haven't had a proper introduction with all this confusion. Hey, where's V-mon?"

"Yeah, Guilmon was complaining about being hungry not too long ago."

Both humans' eyes eventually turned to their digimon, who had been indulging themselves in fruit while enjoying each other's company.

"Takato!" Guilmon turned to his partner.

"When did you decide to walk away from us?"

"You four were talking about something boring so we decided to eat."

"So this is your partner, eh?" Daisuke asked as he examined the red digimon. "Strange, I don't think I've ever seen a digimon like this. Then again, I don't think I've ever seen some of the digimon we've encountered so far since arriving."

Takato knew he would have to do some explaining. "Well, you see, I sort of created him from drawing when I was a kid." Takato was thinking how crazy it would sound that he actually got to create his own personal digimon.

"You mean you actually created him?" he asked. "Just by drawing him?"

"Uh-huh."

Daisuke remained silent for a while. "That's pretty cool. I just got stuck with this old guy."

"Daisuke!" V-mon scolded his partner, managing to put down the food.

"Well, you are an ancient lizard type, with the emphasis on ancient."

Guilmon approached Takato. "Takato, is this guy a tamer, too?"

"Huh?"

"The goggles means that he is a tamer, right? That's why you put them on?"

"Goggles?" Takato had just noticed that Daisuke had been wearing them on his head. Looking at the Daisuke's clothing Takato guessed that they shared very little fashion sense; while he wore decent street clothes the person in front of him was dressed as if he were going to the gym. He decided to talk to him about that. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah?" he responded.

"About your goggles?"
"Goggles?" Daisuke stopped what he was doing and noticed that Takato had also been wearing goggles.

While he was curious as to why someone else would choose to wear goggles (though finding it too coincidental that someone else with a Digimon from another world would) he was attempting to at least break the tension between the two that he had been sensing- or at least show some cross-dimensional diplomacy.

"Hey, you're wearing goggles, too! Just noticed that." Daisuke realized that he was not being very attentive today.

"Same here," Takato responded. "I'm curious as to why you'd choose to wear them."

"Why? Because they were given to me by a friend, that's why. After I met V-mon he told that the leader should always wear them, even though I was only the leader for about half the time."

"The leader should wear goggles?" Takato placed his hand on his.

"Yeah," Daisuke continued. "He lead the generation before me and thought that it would only be fitting for me to wear them. Hey, wait; does that mean that you were the leader in you world?"

"The leader?" Takato pondered that question. Upon realizing during the talk about leaders and goggles he just now figured out that between Ruki, Jen, and himself none of them could truly be called the leader, even if it was him that thought about the idea of going to the Digital World. "Well, no. Not really."

"Wait!" Daisuke said in a surprised tone. "Are you telling me that you were just a follower? That is so... so unbefitting."

"No, no, no" Takato responded sharply. "It's nothing like that. We all mostly did our own thing."

"Well, then why wear the goggles?" Daisuke asked.

"Because I saw it on a video game."

"A video game?" Daisuke had a confused look on his face.

"Yeah, um, a video..." When he remembered that he had mentioned the term chosen child Takato was certain that it was the term humans with digimon partners went by. Now the brunet-haired boy was curious just how different both of their worlds were. "Um, tell me, Daisuke, what exactly are digimon in your world?"

"What are digimon?" Daisuke put him left hand on his chin and began thinking about that. He had no idea where to begin. "Hey, V-mon."

"Yeah," the blue digimon looked at his partner.

"What exactly are digimon?" Daisuke asked, not knowing whether to expect an answer or not.

"Digimon are digital monsters! You should know this by know, Daisuke."

"There, straight from the horses mouth," Daisuke said, actually being proud that he managed to answer a question. "Digimon are digital monsters!"

"No, that's not what I meant!" Takato did not know how to explain why the answer was incorrect.

"But Takato," Guilmon interrupted, "digimon are digital monsters!"

"But that's not what I was asking?" Even his own partner was turning on him.

Daisuke decided that another voice was needed here. "Hey, you, Gotsumon!"

"Yeah?"

"Digimon are digital monsters, right?"

"Yeah!"

"See, five on one!" Daisuke seemed even more proud of himself.

"Look!" Takato was not liking his overly energetic personality. "The origins of your digimon- the origins of the digital world- I'm asking how they came to be."

"How they came to be?"

"Yeah. The real world did create them, right"

"Create them?" Daisuke was now attempting to find the right answer, even though he wasn't too sure of it himself. "I've never been on the loop about that, and if Koushiro ever said anything about it I'm pretty sure it went in one ear and out the other."

"So your group has no idea what exactly the digital world is?"

"Well, I do remember something Miyako told me. You see, she said something about the spirit world combining with the digital world that us humans were creating. She thinks that the digimon were the results of the spirits finding the network as a dwelling."

Takato was dumbstruck.

"Yeah, I don't know where she gets her crazy ideas from sometimes." Daisuke looked all to eager to agree. "So, does this mean that people in your world all get to create their own digimon partners? Man, why didn't I luck out and ended up in your world?"

"Daisuke!" V-mon felt that all he had been doing today was scolding his partner.

"You know I'm just joking, V-mon. You're the best partner ever."

"It's not like that, though," Takato said. "I was the only one who got to create my own digimon."

"Wait, so out of all the chosen... so out of every one with a digimon you were the only one allowed to create your own?"

"Um, yeah?"

"What makes you so special?" Daisuke was rather curious.

"That's not important!" The conversation had been getting derailed long enough. Takato decided to be a bit more straightforward. "Look, in my world digimon were the result of an artificial intelligence design program that eventually learned how to self-evolve, leading to digimon becoming real living things."

Daisuke had been confused with everything he had said. "That's, um, strange. So, where do these video games come from?"

"Well, eventually a company decided to used the same program that had created the original digimon to turn it into a franchise. Manga, video games, and a card game were what became a multi-billion dollar franchise."

"A... a... a franchise?" Daisuke's world had been turned upside down. There was just something about hearing that digimon was a children's franchise, something about hearing that in some other world small children were playing through an adventure similar to what he had to go through, something about the mysticism of the digimon and the Digital World being made into something people did not take seriously- though knowing that it was a franchise, he was hoping that people were not taking it seriously- that was awfully flattering. "Aw, man, that's so cool!"

"So cool?" Takato said, surprised at Daisuke's reaction after he had just dropped a bombshell. Not the reaction that he was expecting.

"I so wish I could go to your world so that I could rub it in people's faces that I, who has never even heard of the franchise, can rub it in their faces! Wait, only a handful of people have digimon, right?"

"Just mostly me and my friends." Takato was still not over his unduly energetic response.

"That's awesome! So does this mean you get to like battle your friends in digimon fights?"

"Look, that's not important right now." Takato was at least glad that there was less tension between the two of them, though. "If we came to this world to save it then we as might as well just do what we came here for."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Daisuke was now realizing that he must have looked a bit foolish talking about it like that. "I guess I did get carried away there again, huh?"

Both humans pulled out their digivices knowing that without the ability to digivolve they would be useless in fighting anything stronger than a child level digimon.

Takato decided that the two native digimon might be their best chance at figuring out their current problem, even if they did not know exactly how the digisoul worked. "Gotsumon?"

"What is it, Takato?"

"Is there anything that causes the digisoul to stop working? Or is there maybe something that we have to do that we are not doing anymore?"

"Like I said, I'm not to certain. However, Kamemon might know a bit more seeing as his partner was able to make him digivolve using his digisoul."

Kamemon approached the human. "I'm sorry, but I won't be of any much use. Hiroshi was the one who activated the digisoul. I was just a receiver. If I did do anything it was solely on instinct."

Daisuke knew that they would have to at least try before they knew if they were doing anything wrong. "Maybe if we attempt it a few times we might be able to figure out just what exactly we need to work on to get it working. After all, practice makes perfect!"

"I suppose."

"You suppose? Come one, we'll never achieve it unless we're enthusiastic about this."

Takato did realize that he had been acting a bit glum lately, and maybe a pertinacious attitude towards the situation might just make a difference. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Ready to give it a try, Guilmon?"

The dinosaur digimon put down his food and laughed, signaling that he was agreeing.

"You ready, too, V-mon?" Daisuke asked.

"Right!" the blue lizard said enthusiastically.

"Okay then!" he responded.

Both humans concentrated hard on their digivices. "Digisoul charge!" they both screamed as they put their hand on it. "Overdrive!" Both were surprised that it did not work once again.

"Oh, come on!" Daisuke complained.

"Hey, we can't give up after one failed attempt, right?" Takato gave a reassuring smile.

Daisuke was surprised. "Huh, were did this new optimistic persona come from?"

"Hey, one of us has to be productive, right?"

"Is that so?" Daisuke saw what he was trying to do. "How about this: a small wager. Whoever activates their digisoul first wins."

"Wins what?" Takato was willing to agree.

"Not sure yet. I left my wallet back home but I'm certain we can figure out something."

Takato had an idea. "Our goggles!"

"Our goggles?"

"Yeah. We both have a pair and it's an even trade. What do you say?"

Daisuke thought long and hard about this. "Well, with the stakes never reaching an all-time high I suppose that might just motive me. After all, Taichi would kill me if he knew I lost them in a manner like this. You're on!" But before Takato could even shake his hand, signaling the deal, Daisuke went ahead of him. "Digisoul charge! Overdrive!"

Nothing happened.

"Hey, you tried to get a head start! That's not fair."

"I'm not going to lose these to you, you got that?"

"You're saying that now."

Both humans placed their hands on their digivice. "Digisoul charge! Overdrive!"

Long story short: Life got really busy during my second year. To top it off I was training for several marathons along the way (managed to do four so far) and working job-to-job didn't allow me to have the freedom that a stable one kind of allows. Eventually, writing fanfiction took a backseat to other things. As of right now my schedule doesn't allow me to say when I'll have the time to work on stories, but I've found a system that allows me to sit long enough that writing is a possibility. Also, upon reading through the earlier chapters I've come to realized just how horribly written they were; from show don't tell to basic grammar and spelling mistakes, to story flow and pacing problems that need to be addressed. I plan to at least fully edit the first seven or so chapters to make this story up to standard (and not the standard, mind you- as that would mean a good portion of this story would be above par- but mine). And, lastly, since I haven't done too much fictional writing as of late (or, heck, much writing that requires proper paragraph structure, really) constructive criticism is strongly asked for, as I am feeling rather rusty. Point out small grammar errors or writing style- I don't care which, really. All-in-all, please review. And again, sorry.