Chapter 18: The Dragon King

It never once stopped being weird having Bridget in our group, a girl who not that long ago wanted our heads on a pike, was now a member of the team, I'm sure it was weird for everyone else too, especially Ross, who didn't seem to trust her as far as he could throw her, and sadly he wasn't the only one.

Commandramon seemed to still hold a bit of a grudge against her, even after all that happened at the factory he was still unwilling to trust her, making it a point to stay between me and her as often as he could. I had a feeling it'd be a while before everyone was willing to trust the former Digimon Queen, but I hoped, with time, that everyone would warm up to her.

But now we had a new problem, "Were the hell do we go next?" asked Ethan out loud, it was a fair point, the king's castle was clearly not in the Metal Empire, logic dictated then that we should head to the only other known King occupied area… the Nightmare Soldiers zone.

I took out the map, it seemed there was quite a bit of land between the two zones, because of course there was, "Well, I think we should start headed for the Nightmare Soldier's territory," I said, it seemed like the next obvious course of action, his castle had to be there, it was our only real lead.

However, someone surprisingly objected to this plan, "NO! We can't go there!" Psychemon blurted from the back, I turned towards the magenta lizard, he was clearly frightened, more so than usual I should say. "His castle has to be somewhere else! I can't go back there! I just can't!" Psychemon said, covering his face with his arms like a frightened child.

Bridget decided to step in, "Rex's castle is on the outskirts of the Nightmare Soldiers territory, we have to go through it to get to the castle," Bridget pointed out, well that settled that then, I sorta forgot we had someone who'd know where his hideout was among the group.

However, Psychemon clearly wasn't having it, "You don't understand! I can't go back there! I won't!" He yelled, it was clear from his body language he was having a nervous breakdown, I couldn't even begin to theorize what his issue could have been, but whatever it was, it was going to be an issue. We had to go to the Nightmare Soldiers territory, if not to reach the king's castle, then to at least free the Nightmare Soldiers from his rule like we had done with the Metal Empire.

Bridget was starting to lose patience, "If you want to stop Rex, you have to eliminate his territories, which means we have to go to the Nightmare Soldiers, whatever trauma you might have with the place, you're just going to have to set it aside!" She said rather sternly, she wasn't wrong, but did she really need to be so… ya know… blunt about it?

Kate seemed to take exception to this, "Psychemon has a hard time overcoming his fears Bridget! And yelling at him certainly isn't going to help!" Kate snapped back, oh no… this was going south very quickly, the last thing we needed right now was even more infighting among the group!

Ethan seemed to share my sentiment as he rushed to put himself between the two girls, "Come on guys we don't need to start fighting right now! Let's just start headed for the Nightmare Soldiers and sort Psychemon's issues out along the way, we're all friends here," he said.

Bridget went to say something, but whatever it may have been she had decided wasn't worth bringing up as she just turned away and began to walk. We all followed suit, headed for the Nightmare Soldiers territory, all the while I couldn't help but keep looking back at Psychemon, he was still clearly unsettled, I kinda wish I knew what his problem was, from what I could guess, it seemed like something had happened to him there that traumatized him, but I had no idea what it could have been.

I felt something hit my leg, I turned to see Commandramon staring up at me, "Permission to speak sir?" He asked me, I couldn't help but roll my eyes, after all this time he still acted like I was his Drill Sargent.

"What's on your mind?" I asked him, sometimes I wished Commandramon knew how to be more casual with everyone, I guess he was just hardwired to be a walking military stereotype.

Commandramon looked back at Psychemon before looking back at me, "I'm worried about Psychemon, I'm afraid he might do something when we reach the Nightmare Soldiers territory, I don't want to have to fight him if I don't have to," He explained.

I felt a chill run down my spine at the thought of Psychemon having a nervous breakdown and attacking us, I wanted to say he wouldn't do that but… fear can make people do a lot of things they normally wouldn't, and I would rather not have to fight one of our own if I could avoid it.

I let out a small sigh, "Hopefully it won't come to that, I'm sure Kate can keep him calm enough so that won't be an issue," I said, more trying to reassure myself more than Commandramon. I hoped Kate could keep him under control, she seemed to know how to work with him better than the rest of us, and he trusted her, hopefully that would be enough to keep him in check.

I looked at the map again, it seemed that there was a territory in between the Nightmare Soldiers and Metal Empire, a faction called "Dragon's Roar", gee… I wonder what kind of Digimon they were… maybe going through a friendly faction would do Psychemon some good, to be in a place where we weren't constantly dodging death at every corner? Not to mention after all the chaos we'd been through lately I think we all could use a break.

One could point out the irony of finding safety and calmness in dragons of all things but hey, I'd welcome the change of pace. "We should maybe look into resting up in the Dragon's Roar territory, I think being in an allied territory for a bit would be good for us," I said, I doubted I'd get much objection from the group, we were all a little worn out from out fun times in the Metal Empire.

I heard a small chuckle from Ross, "Finding sanctuary among fire breathing lizards? This world is ridiculous," He pointed out, well it was nice to know I wasn't the only one who found the irony hilarious.

So our plan was set, we'd head into Dragon's Roar, find a place to crash, recharge, and set out for the king's castle later on. It was nice to finally have a solid plan in place instead of blindly blundering through the Digital World like we'd been doing since we'd gotten here. A nice little feeling of certainty to contrast will all the uncertainty we'd been faced with recently.

It wasn't long before the dead desert of the Metal Empire gave way to a lush green forest, you wouldn't think you'd miss grass and trees, but after spending so long in what amounted to a desert for as long as we'd been, it was a breath of fresh air, both figuratively, and literally.

But the forest didn't last long, as it soon was overtaken by a great city that looked like it was ripped right from Lord of the Rings, with huge towers and stone walkways, I could see several Dragon Digimon either walking through the streets, or flying overhead. It was an impressive sight to say the least, and for being right next to the Digimon King's territory, it seemed to be in pretty good shape.

I happened to notice one of them was rushing towards us, naturally Commandramon took this as a threat and readied his gun, causing the dragon Digimon approaching us to skid itself to a halt, the dragon Digimon itself seemed to resemble a stereotypical dragon, with teal scales and white underbelly and jaw, teal spikes jutted out the back of it's cheeks, he had two red stick like horns sticking out the back of his head, two small red wings on it's back, his eyes were also red, but large and non threatening.

The dragon Digimon nervously blinked as he stood right in front of the barrel of Commandramon's rifle. "Um… I… I mean no harm… c… could one of you please tell him to put the gun down?" He stammered. I put my hand on the barrel of Commandramon's gun, gently pushing it downward in a gesture to tell Commandramon it was okay to lower his weapon, and he did so. The dragon seemed relieved by this, "Thank you, welcome to the Dragon's Roar territories! I am Dracomon, one of lord Examon's loyal servants," He said with a bow.

I wanted to feel relieved, but ever since the Rosemon and Monzeamon incidents, I'd been kinda programmed to be weary of seemingly warm welcomes. Dracomon continued, "Lord Examon has been expecting your arrival, and wishes to have an audience with you at once," He said, and that certainly didn't help my paranoia, he somehow knew we were coming. I tried my best to shake my apprehension, being paranoid would do little to help anyone here, and I wanted to give these people the benefit of the doubt.

Dracomon lead us to the center of the city, a large castle lay before us, with statues of dragons on both sides, almost as if they were guarding it from intruders. Dracomon lead us down the halls until we found ourselves in the throne room.

There on the throne sat what I assumed to be Examon, he was a large red humanoid dragon, he looked like he had been ripped right out of a D&D monster manual, well, apart from the comically large laser gun like appendage attached to his left arm, his horns were long and white with golden tips, his wings were huge and white with red wing membranes, his underbelly was also white, but his chest appeared to have two red eye like designs on it. His shoulders were covered in white spikes, and he gazed at us with two piercing emerald eyes.

The mighty dragon stared at us for what felt like an eternity, before he finally decided to speak, "Ah… Digidestined, welcome to my kingdom, I heard word that you have reclaimed the Metal Empire," He said, how the hell did he know about that? It hadn't been more than a few hours since we took down Datamon, I guess word travels fast in the Digital World. "To what do we owe the pleasure of having you in our kingdom this day?" He added.

Examon seemed oddly friendly despite his rather intimidating appearance, talking to us like we were old friends or something, "Mr. Examon… sir," I began kinda nervously, afraid one wrong word would set him off and make our trip here into hell on earth, "W… we're kinda on our way to… confront the king in the Nightmare Soldiers territories… and well… we were… kinda hoping to… rest a little…" I said, I had always been nervous around people, him being a giant doom dragon certainly didn't make speaking to him any easier.

However, Examon cut me off, "There is no need to be nervous around me human, we would be honored to aid you in any way we can," He said, "Dracomon! Show our esteemed guests to their chambers," added the dragon lord. Dracomon bowed to his king before leading us into the guest chambers.

The little teal dragon opened the large doors to reveal a rather lavish looking room, with beds for each of us laid next to each other, the room itself had an obvious dragon motif, with the beds having dragon wing like bed frames. "Enjoy your stay," Dracomon said before shutting the door behind us.

Ethan wasted no time in flopping onto one of the beds, "Awesome! Not this is how you treat the Digidestined!" He said with a laugh, the fact he wasn't at all worried about Examon's intentions was a touch concerning, I mean, this was making me have Rosemon flashbacks, maybe I was just being paranoid? But something in my gut told me something was up.

Kate sat down on the bed "Hopefully this time we'll actually get to rest without an issue," She said, well at least I wasn't the only one who thought this situation was, uncomfortably familiar.

Ross shook his head, "Please, don't even jinx it man, I'd like to go one minute without fearing for my life," He said, laying on one of the beds with his hands behind his head.

Bridget leaned against one of the far walls, "How many times have you been attacked by Digimon offering room and board?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

It was kind of embarrassing to admit, but, "Three times," I admitted, you know that saying? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me? What happens when we get fooled three times? Whatever…

All we could really do was hope Examon didn't try to pull the same ploy…

Meanwhile…

After so long, I liked to think I had grown beyond my former faction, ever since taking the mantel of Royal Knight, things like faction loyalty kind of took backseat, but here I was, the great knight Gallentmon, returning to his former stomping grounds once more.

The Dragon's Roar kingdom was in quite the precarious position, sitting in between two Digimon King controlled territories, well, one since the Digidestined apparently managed to take the Metal Empire back. Regardless, this only served to endanger the Dragon's Roar territory even more, since the King would wish to take another territory to compensate for the loss of the Metal Empire.

That is what brought me here today, I needed to make sure the territory was safe, the last thing we needed is for the Dragon Empire to fall to the King, I entered the halls of Lord Examon, the great Dragon King. The Dracomon tried to stop me, but were of course unable to impede my progress, it wasn't that I was an enemy, they just had a certain way of doing things, but I had no time for formalities.

Examon lifted his head, looking right at me, "Ah… if it isn't the valiant Gallentmon, to what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked me, Examon had never approved of my defection to the Royal Knights, he demanded loyalty to the Dragon Empire above all else, but he knew he was powerless to change my mind.

I had no desire to linger here, so I cut right to the point, "I wish only to check on the kingdom Examon, after the Digidestined befell the Metal Empire, the king will no doubt target your kingdom to make up for the one he just lost," I explained.

Examon let a small growl escape his lips, "I do not need a babysitter Gallentmon! Especially not one who serves a dead king!" He roared, but he quickly composed himself, "I know full well the Metal Empire had fallen, the Digidestined currently rest in my chambers," He explained.

They were here? It was logical, they must have come here to rest, this being the only friendly territory on the way to the Nightmare Soldiers, however it seemed odd that Examon would welcome them, given how he felt about outsiders in his kingdom.

I would need to speak with them at once, the knights would need to know their progress, "I wish to speak with them, if I may," I said, it mattered not what he answered, I would speak with them regardless, but I preferred to be courteous.

Examon snorted, "You may not, they are weary from travel and I'd rather you not bother them!" He said, I should have expected that, Examon was anything if not stubborn. "Now if it's all the same to you Gallentmon, I'd like it if you left my castle, the last thing I want is to be pestered by one of Yggdrasil's former lap dogs!" He spat.

The Dracomon then began to escort me out of the castle, this was odd, Examon had never liked the Royal Knights, so him refusing to let me linger was unsurprising, but he seemed so… forceful about it, like he was desperate to get me away from the Digidestined as soon as he could, something wasn't right here, and I intended to get to the bottom of it…

Later…

I didn't like sitting around too long given what's happened each time we found ourselves staying with a seemingly hospitable Digimon, so I found myself patrolling the halls, I almost lost Jason at the factory, I wasn't going to risk losing him again, if there was anything suspicious about this place, I'd find it.

Truth be told, I'd never really seen much of the Digital World, being a glorified guard since my creation had limited my travel to the outskirts of the slave camp, so I didn't know much about the world outside it, so the kingdom was an interesting sight for me, but it also meant I didn't know much about it, outside what my internal computer did, which wasn't much since I was never really meant to travel here.

However, I was stopped in my tracks by a large shadow looming over me, "Enjoying the sights Commandramon?" Examon's voice said from behind me, I turned to find myself face to face with the dragon king. "Try not to look so startled, I merely wish to speak with you," He said, I didn't really find that as reassuring as he seemed to think it was.

I knew very little about Examon, at least not enough to trust him, "Sorry, it's just, given our history with Digimon offering us a place to stay, I can't help but… be a bit on edge," I explained. In my position, I needed to be paranoid, I had the lives of the entire group to consider after all.

Examon seemed to glare at me for a split second, but quickly regained his calm expression, "Well, I assure you that you and your friends have nothing to fear here Commandramon, my kingdom is one of the places you wish to protect, is it not?" He said.

I gave him an unsure nod, we were looking to protect the Digital World, not any specific part of it, but I feared that saying this would upset the dragon king, and thus make things much worse for us. Examon let out a small chuckle, "I understand your trepidation Commandramon, I'm not exactly known for being welcoming to non-dragon Digimon, but I assure you, I take your mission very seriously. That infernal Digimon King has been a thorn in my side since he came here, what right does he have to claim dominion over the Digital World? He who isn't even a Digimon himself!" He said.

It seemed Examon's reasons for helping us weren't entirely unselfish, he seemed to be insulted by the King's attempts to take over the Digital World. Whether or not this was a good thing for us I didn't know, but I would like to avoid picking a fight with him if I could.

I went to leave but, "Oh… Commandramon, before you go, I have a question," He said, I stopped and turned to him, "What is your opinion on… humans?" He asked me.

What an odd question, "Hard to say, but from my experience, they aren't too different from us, some are good, some are bad, why do you ask?" I answered.

Examon gave me a blank stare, it was hard to tell if he was satisfied with the answer or not, "Thank you Commandramon, you may go," He said, ignoring the question I had posed to him completely, Examon left before I could push the subject any further.

Something about the way he asked that question still bothered me though, it seemed like he was making sure of something, what it was I couldn't even begin to guess, but all I hoped was that it wouldn't put Jason and his friends in peril.

Meanwhile…

I didn't really like this place very much, the dark castle halls reminded me so much of Myotismon's castle back at the Nightmare Soldiers territory, I debated with myself whether or not I wanted to tell the others why I couldn't go back there, but I was afraid if they knew what I was, what I'd done… No… no couldn't think about that… too painful…

I managed to find myself in the throne room again, I never really stopped to consider how beautiful Examon's throne was, it was made of red velvet and gold, with ornate dragon like designs wrapping around it, it's design reminded me of Rosemon's hotel, I remembered I always found it's contrast to the Nightmare Soldiers territories comforting, a distraction from what happened in my past…

However… "Enjoying the view Psychemon?" I turned to see Examon had found me, my anxiety began to overtake me again, this was the kind of thing Rosemon used to get very mad at me over, so I, out of pure instinct, began to cower back in fear, causing Examon to let out a small laugh, "Relax Psychemon, you have nothing to fear of me," He said.

Examon took a seat in his throne, "It must be uncomfortable to you, returning to the very territories you left behind so long ago," He said, how… how did he know that? "I see you're surprised I know about that, I am a King Psychemon, I know much more than you'd think I would. Like what you are… and what you did," He said.

I felt my heart hit the floor, he knew, I had hoped my past wouldn't hurt the team in any way, but if he knew, he might… oh god… Examon let out a laugh, "Relax, the past is the past, it is who we become in the future that is important," He said, I felt my anxiety ease up a bit, at least I knew he wouldn't throw us out. "Honestly, the Nightmare Soldiers were bound to fall eventually, they'd always been their own worst enemies, but you'd know that better than most, wouldn't you?" He said.

All I could do was avert my eyes, trying to stop the flashbacks from coming in, Examon leaned back in his throne, "Tell me something Psychemon," He began, "What do you think about humans?" He asked.

I was caught completely off guard by the question, it was an odd one to ask of a Digimon who had a human partner, "I… I dunno… Kate's so nice to me, I trust her with my life," I answered, I didn't know what Examon was asking this for, I just hoped it wasn't something that was going to end up hurting the group.

Examon glared at me, "I see, that is all Psychemon, you may return to your chambers," He said, waving it off rather hastily, but I thought it wise not to pressure the dragon king, so I left for the room everyone was staying in.

I watched Psychemon leave the room as I'd instructed him, two answers to my question and both seemed unsure, you'd think that Digimon who'd spent so much of their time around humans would have more solid opinions on them, but still… it wouldn't change much… I was still going through with my plans regardless…

This war was too important, and I'd die before I saw my kingdom fall to that infernal Digimon King, I just hoped when the time came, these Digimon would see things from my perspective…

A/N: Well, that isn't ominous at all, what is Examon planning? What did happen in Psychemon's past to make him fear his own faction? Well, you'll just have to wait and see now won't you?

I know I said I was going to wait until after the holiday season to post another chapter, but I've been playing Digimon Cyber Sleuth lately, (got it as a Christmas gift) and as a result I kinda got on a Digimon kick and wanted to write some more of this story.

Happy New Year btw, see you all in 2018!

Oh god… it's going to be 2018… 2008 is going to be a decade ago… I'm getting old… *dies inside*