A/N: Wow, this chapter is intense! Read to see what I mean. :) Thanks to Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967 and The-Gray-Ninja for commenting on my last chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

The Warrior of Hope
Chapter 7
The Story of the Princess

I awoke to the sound of talking. I didn't focus on the words, but could tell by the way that their voices were raised that they were arguing. I let my body relax on the soft mattress…wait, mattress? I pushed down with my hands and felt them sink into the thick mattress. I heard someone exclaim, "She's waking up!" They obviously notice me moving my hands. I sighed and opened my eyes to see an angel staring back at me. I couldn't actually see his eyes, because they were hidden behind a mask, but his head was turned towards mine, and everyone else was staring at me, so I figured that he was too. He had six wings growing out of his back, and was holding a golden staff. I looked around the room and saw that it was filled with flying orange guinea pigs. There were also some Gatomon and female angels at the back of the room, talking amongst themselves.

"Jade, are you okay?" I looked down to see my Gatomon friend from when I first got my spirit. I started to wonder how I knew it was her, when I realized that she was the only one with a power ring on her tail. "Gatomon, where am I?" I sat up, expecting to feel sore from all my bruises, but to my surprise, I felt fine. "You are in the Patamon Village." She gestured to the flying guinea pigs. I nodded, but my mind was racing, how long had I been here? If my bruises were completely healed, then I would have had to been here for at least a week. I cringed at the thought. "Is something bothering you, princess?" The angel digimon asked. I quickly forgot the question I wanted to ask, but thought of a different one. "Who are you, and who are they?" I gestured to the female angels at the back of the room. He chuckled, "Well, I am Angemon, and well, this should be obvious for you, but they are Angewomon." I sighed, it should be obvious, considering I halfway became one each time that I digivolve. I quickly remembered my question from earlier. "When did I arrive here? What I mean to say is, how long have I been here?" "You have been here for about five hours." Gatomon replied. I gasped, five hours is not enough time for me to heal. I quickly looked over my body, not a bruise in sight. "But, how did I heal so quickly? It's impossible for all of my bruises to heal in five hours!" I was really confused. Angemon laughed, "We all brought our energy together, and used it to heal you."

I sighed, angels that heal people? Why not, I could heal people with my powers too. I gasped; I had almost forgotten the others. I touched the top of my head and sighed when I felt that Koji's bandana was still there. Gatomon gave me a weird look, "Wasn't the warrior of light wearing that the last time I saw you?" I blushed, "Yes, but he wanted me to wear it, for good luck." Gatomon's eyes widened like I had done something wrong, but didn't say anything. Angemon decided to speak up, "The warrior of light? That is not what was written." "What are you talking about?" I asked. Gatomon looked hopefully up at Angemon, and he nodded then left the building, taking with him everyone but Gatomon and a single Patamon. "This is the story of the princess, or your spirit, back before the legendary warriors defeated Lucemon." Gatomon started and I felt myself fall into a deep sleep, where I became the princess.

I was known as the princess of the digital world, the warrior of hope, and DeviAngewomon. I watched out the window of my palace as my ten warriors, the legendary warriors, practiced their battling skills in the garden. I watched as Kazemon and Ranamon, Wind and Water, circled each other in a deadly dance that would have worried me, but I knew that they were best friends, so I let it go. Grumblemon and Kumamon were throwing rocks and ice at each other, each trying to come up with new ways to block the attack. Agunimon and Mercurymon were using the steel digimon's Dark Reflection attack to try to send fire's attack at Beetlemon and Arbormon without Thunder and Wood noticing where it would come from. Last, but not least, Lobomon and Loweemon were fighting with Light's Lobo Kendo and Darkness's Shadow Lance. Their battle was pretty fierce, but they always fought their hardest, it didn't matter if they were against their own brother. I sighed, how could those two be so different? The only thing that they had in common was their loyalty to me and the other warriors.

I flew down from my balcony when the fighting was ended to congratulate them on their hard work. They bowed to me and smiled at my praise. Darkness seemed upset that he had lost the sparring match with his brother. I smiled at their sibling rivalry. "Now, who is ready for dinner?" Arbormon and Beetlemon were the first to cheer, but the rest soon followed. Loweemon was at the back of the line when they went into the palace. I walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry my friend, you are a great warrior." He nodded at me and gave me a small smile before walking inside with everyone else.

It was later that night; I was standing on my balcony looking out at the serene night sky, when I heard a knock at my chamber doors. "Who is it?" I called out, not expecting anyone this late. "Your loyal warrior of the light would like to request to spend some time with you this evening." Came Lobomon's reply. I walked to the doors and pulled them open, to reveal Lobomon's wolf-like form. "Come in, my friend, I was just looking out and thinking about how peaceful it has been since Lucemon stopped the fighting between beast and human digimon." He nodded and followed me out to my balcony. We sat there in silence, lost in our thoughts. "Princess?" He asked. I looked up into his eyes that were visible through his mask. "Princess, I wish to ask you a question." He looked slightly nervous. I was shocked, what could make my warrior of light act like this. I nodded, telling him to continue. He reached out and grabbed my hand and my claw. I was slightly taken aback at his boldness, but I kind of liked it. "Princess, I have admired you from afar for a long time. I would like to know if you would let me court you. You do not have to answer right away; you may think about it, I will give you all the time in the world." He started to turn away, but I pulled him back to me and hugged him. He pulled me close and we cherished that moment together under the moonlight.

It happened slowly, Darkness was pulling away from me. He would not look when his brother would give me flowers. He left the room when Light whispered that he loved me. I was starting to worry. I approached him when he was sitting alone in the garden one day. "Hello, my friend, why are you sitting here all alone?" He looked up at me and sighed, "Just reflecting on my life, Princess." I nodded and sat down next to him, "Yes you have accomplished quite a lot, haven't you?" He shook his head, "All but the one thing that I really wanted to." When I looked at him in confusion he sighed again, "A girl, your majesty, I have not told her how I feel and now I fear that it is too late." I smiled softly at him, "Why would you think that it was too late?" He looked hopefully up at me, "You don't think that it is too late?" I shook my head, "Unless she is married or engaged, then I do not believe that it is too late."

Later that week, I was in the garden, practicing my fighting alone. The others disapproved of my want to help them fight. I heard someone walking up the path, so I quickly sat down and pretended to admire the flowers. Loweemon emerged from the path with a handful of flowers. "Hello Darkness, who are those for, your mystery girl?" I teased him. "Actually, yes." He admitted. "Well, I'm sure she'll love the flowers that you stole from my garden." I laughed. "Gatomon and Patamon said that it was okay. They were happy to help me out." He said proudly. I understood his feelings, Gatomon was a very hard digimon to please, Patamon usually persuaded her to give in, but usually she was only pleasant around Patamon and me. "Okay, if Gatomon says that it's all right, then I guess you can give them to your mystery girl." I smiled at him.

He walked up to me and handed me the flowers. "Um, I said that you could give them to your girl, you don't have to give these back to me." I tried to hand the flowers back, but he just smiled, "They're for you. You are the mystery girl." My eyes widened in shock, "Loweemon, I really don't think-" "Hush, you told me not to give up, right?" He was on the ground next to me, with his hand on my shoulder. "Stop, you have no right to touch me, especially when your brother is courting me." I pushed his shoulder off of me and stood up. I glared at him, "Do you have no respect for me? Are you that caught up in your own feelings that you would look past my own? Do you not wee the joy that your brother puts on my face?" I knew that if I went on, he would probably leave forever, so I just turned around and left.

As I reached to door to the house, I saw Kazemon looking at me with wide eyes. I quickly walked over to her. "Do you think I did the right thing?" I knew that she would know what I was talking about because she had obviously heard us through the wind. She nodded, but her eyes were sad, "I think that you did the right thing, but I don't think that he will ever be close to you again." I sighed, knowing that she was right and that I had let my temper get the best of me. "We can figure this out; I know that everything will turn out okay."

The next morning, we got the news that Lucemon had become corrupted. We all prepared for battle, knowing that we were the only ones who could stop him. Together, we banished Lucemon to the Dark Area. My friends had lost all of their power, and were slowly changing into spirits. I could feel that I, too had lost all of my power, but I knew that one day I would come back, merging with a human, to become even more powerful. Before I faded I turned to my friends Gatomon and Patamon, "Tell Seraphimon, Ophanimon, and Cherubimon that they will protect the digital world now." They nodded. I looked at Darkness, who was the closest one to me of all my comrades. He was fading faster than the others, and I doubt that he could hear me now, but just in case he could I said, "Don't worry, we will be together again one day." I message was meant for everyone, but I couldn't see if the others noticed because I had finally faded into spirit. I felt myself go flying towards the place that I had grown up, Gatomon Village. There I slept until one day I was awoken by a girl's longing to help her friend, the spirit of light.

I opened my eyes to the concerned looks of Patamon and Gatomon. "Wow, were those her memories?" I was in shock, but then I noticed that Patamon and Gatomon were the ones from my memory. They nodded slowly. "And you guys were her friends, her best friends." They smiled, "So, did you see the ending?" I nodded, "But what does that have to do with anything?" They looked at me with shock, "Don't you see? You can no longer love the spirit of light; you made a promise to Darkness!" I jumped at their yelling. I thought about DeviAngewomon's last words to Darkness. "She wasn't just talking to Darkness, she was talking to everyone. Darkness was the only one that she could see because he was right next to her, so she spoke with her head pointing towards him." Their eyes widened in understanding, "Well, then I guess our whole prophecy was wrong." I smiled, "That's okay, now I know what it means for me to be the new princess." They smiled back at me.

I walked outside into the afternoon sun and stretched my arms. "Are you ready for your challenge now?" Angemon walked up to me and asked. "Challenge? I wasn't aware that I had to do a challenge." I looked back at Patamon and Gatomon, but they just smiled at me and waved me on. I sighed, "What do I have to do?" Angemon smiled at me and said, "All you have to do is control your beast spirit." My eyes widened, "Beast spirit? Like when Grumblemon turned into Gigasmon?" "Exactly like that, except you won't have complete control." I winced slightly, but squared my shoulders and nodded, "I'm ready." Angemon nodded his approval.

"Now, we don't want you to destroy this village, so, we are going to send you to where your friends are, and then activate the spirit in a tree close to you." I nodded, and then asked, "Wait, how can you activate the spirit?" Angemon smiled, "We have our ways."

I was teleported to the middle of a forest and I heard J.P. say, "A little bit more? These little bits are killing me!" "Guys, I'm over here!" I yelled and started to run towards them when I felt my D-Tector going off. I pulled it out of my pocket and a new spirit came out of a tree, here we go. I felt myself being taken over by the beast. I felt my hair lengthen and watched as it turned blonde and fell down to my waist. I had a small white mask that only barely covered the area around my eyes. Whiskers grew out my cheeks and my teeth lengthened into fangs that were always slightly visible on my bottom lip. My ears extended to white cat ears with purple tips. I grew a tail, that was white and purple striped with a power ring on it. On my hands were yellow and orange gloves with three sharp claws at the end. I had on a tight purple sleeveless dress that came down to mid-thigh. A white belt hung around my waist with an equally white whip attached to it. Purple high-heeled boots that came up to my knees were on my feet. My transformation was complete, "Gatowomon!" I felt the beast take over my thinking.

I heard multiple pairs of feet running toward me. Seven pairs of feet were running, the owners of the feet were calling out something, "Jade, I know you're out there, come out!" I vaguely recognized the name, but I shook it out of my head. I jumped into the closest tree and watched as five humans and two small digimon came into my territory. They looked around in confusion. "I was sure that her voice came from over here." The human with black hair tied back in a ponytail said. Do I know you? I thought to myself, he looks so familiar. "Look at that huge cat!" I was spotted by the human in a blue jumpsuit. "That's no cat; it looks like a giant Gatomon!" Ponytail boy said. Everyone looked at him in confusion, "When Jade first digivolved, we were in a Gatomon Village." He explained. I was getting bored of their talking, time to attack, while they were occupied. I jumped down from the tree and landed on my feet, naturally. They took the time to look me up and down, "Hey guys, what if this is another evil digimon?" A boy with goggles on said. I smiled at them, making sure to let them see my fangs, "Uh, guys I don't like the way she's looking at us." The little boy in the big orange hat said. "Everyone, get your D-Tector out!" It seems that goggle-head is the leader of this little group.

Suddenly, they all yelled, "Execute, Spirit Evolution!" They all transformed into digimon. Why does that seem so familiar? I stepped back, confused with the thoughts in my head. "I don't think she wants to hurt us." The one called Agunimon said. I hissed at him and pulled out my whip, "Lightning Whip!" I wrapped it around him and used it to throw him at Beetlemon. I laughed at their collision, "Hey, that's not nice. Hurricane Wave!" The digimon named Kazemon yelled. Small twisters formed from her fingers and she threw them at me. I jumped behind Kumamon and the winds hit him, throwing him back into a tree. I grinned, they were beating themselves.

"She's just using your attacks against you! Let me try to battle her on my own." Lobomon said. Everyone gave him confused looks, "You don't have to do this by yourself, we can help you!" Kazemon said. Lobomon laughed, "And get beaten again? I don't think so." Everyone stood aside, obviously wanting to see him get beaten. I laughed; he thought that he could beat me by himself? Fine by me, I hadn't seen his attacks yet, and I was curious. "All right, you think you're so tough? I bet you couldn't even beat Bokomon over there!" I taunted him. He pulled out his swords, "Lobo Kendo!" He charged at me, but I jumped over him at the last second, so he hit a tree and got his sword stuck in it. I turned back around, "Cat Claw!" I yelled. My claws lengthened and I used them to slash his unprotected back. He yelled out in pain and I smirked, "You can do this yourself? I highly doubt that." He turned around to face me, "Howling Laser!" I quickly jumped to the right, so that I was standing right in front of his friends. He fired his laser, and I ducked at the last minute, causing him to hit his friends.

They all groaned in pain and Kumamon turned back into a human, because he was hit straight on. "You really need to perfect your aim." I was really enjoying this. Should I be enjoying this? A small part of my mind asked. What did they ever do to you to deserve your attacks? As I was having this internal conversation, I heard Agunimon say, "Quick, while she's distracted!" I heard Lobomon's laser firing up, "Howling Laser!" I did a back flip and l and landed behind him, "This is how you shoot a laser, Midnight Eyes!" He turned around just as my eyes turned yellow and a beam of light shot out of them. He fell to the ground and turned back into a human. "Koji!" The others yelled.

Koji? I looked down at the human at my feet. I blinked; my warrior of light was defeated, by me? No, it couldn't be! I backed up from the human that I considered to be my best friend. I had caused so much pain, to Koji! I looked down at my claws, the things that I had used to hurt him. I remembered when Koji had helped me learn to fight as DeviAngewomon. He taught me how to use my claw to block rocks. I couldn't take it, I ran into the forest. The others ran after me. Kazemon flew ahead of me, "Rapid Kick!" She kicked me so that my back was up against a tree. She continued to kick me, but I couldn't make myself block it. I slid down the tree and curled up into a ball, crying at how horrible I was. Kazemon stopped kicking me, but I didn't look up. I was numb, I couldn't feel pain anymore. I knew that I was a horrible person, and that they would never forgive me.

I stood up, jumping over their group and punched a tree that was behind them. I knew that once I went through so much pain I would turn back into a human, so I kept punching the tree. Suddenly, the tree fell down. Great, I even kill trees. I looked at Agunimon, "Just kill me, put me out of my misery. Don't let me hurt anyone else." He gave me a confused look, "What are you talking about?" I looked to Beetlemon, "Hit me with your Thunder Fist, as hard as you can!" He backed up, "How did you know that I could use Thunder Fist? I never used it on you." I sighed; these people weren't getting the message. I did the one thing I knew would make Kazemon attack me, "Hey Kazemon, your purple hair is so ugly, it looks like you don't try at all." She gasped and yelled, "Tempest Twist!" She did a hand stand and started to kick me rapidly while spinning. Finally, I felt my digital body give in and I turned back into myself, only to get kicked a few more times by Kazemon, because she didn't know that she needed to stop. I fell back against the stump I had made and sighed, this was going to be interesting.

"Jade?"Beetlemon and Agunimon gasped in surprise. Kazemon stopped twisting, "Jade? Why would you do that to us? You even attacked Koji!" She turned back into a human and slapped my face. The boys were too stunned to do anything about it. Koji! I needed to get back to Koji! I pushed past Zoe and ran to the clearing where he was sitting up against a tree next to Tommy, apologizing for hitting him. He looked up, "Jade! What happened to you? Is this from the battle with Grumblemon?" He rushed towards me and grabbed my shoulders. I shook my head and then burst into tears. How could I hurt him? He was too good for me. I should just leave right now so that I would never hurt him again. "Jade, are you okay? I'll kill whoever did this to you!" His eyes were full of fury. "No!" I yelled and pushed him away, "You don't understand, you can't hurt them, I already hurt them enough!" I ran into the forest, and stopped when I got to a huge apple tree. "I already hurt you enough." I mumbled to myself. I sat down with my back to the tree. "I will never turn into my beast again." I curled up into a ball and put my head on my arms.

That is how they found me hours later; they were looking for the apple tree so that they could eat dinner. Zoe, Tommy, Bokomon and Neemon stopped as soon as they saw me. Zoe glared at me and Tommy wouldn't even look at me. I could tell that Zoe had told him what happened. I sighed, "Okay, I'll just leave then." Tommy looked like he was going to burst into tears, and Zoe just stuck her nose up at me. Then I remembered that I still had Koji's bandana on my head. I brought my hands up and untied it. I walked over to Tommy, "Hey, do you think that you could give this to Koji for me? Tell him that I'm sorry." I said it in a gentle voice. He nodded and stuffed the bandana in his pocket. "You could come back with us, I'm sure that he wants to see you." He looked up at me with half hopeful, half fearful eyes. I had scared Tommy. I felt tears roll down my cheeks. "That's okay, I'll be fine on my own for a while."

I walked away from them, into the woods. I walked for a while, then circled back and followed them back to camp, I wanted to make sure that everyone was okay.

A/N: Do you love it or hate it? Or is it somewhere in the middle? Tell me what you think.