Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. Even if I want it bad.

Author's Notes: Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "rat".

Nope. This chapter is also not part of Camp Nano. Like I said, I was a bit ahead. My Camp Nano journey starts with Chapter 41. This chapter, on the other hand... I like it. It's interesting. I hope you like it too.

Enjoy!

Chapter Forty

Ken wasn't sure what he was seeing at first. The central section of the temple was a large mostly empty room as big as a cathedral with a soaring sandstone roof. A gigantic tree with a thick trunk and a huge bush of leaves overhead sat in the middle of the room. A mote surrounded the tree, a steady stream of water that ran around the tree and exited into four small reservoirs around the otherwise sealed room.

The whole room felt damp with moisture hanging in the air, and the walls glistened with moss and condensation. Ken tried not to be reminded of Sirenmon's underground palace, but it was hard. The only similarity was the humidity hanging in the air, but it enough to set the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. The last thing he wanted was to be mind-controlled again; he was tired of that being the story of his life.

Yolei came to a stop next to him as she let out a sigh. "I sure hope this isn't another trap."

"Yolei, I don't think jinxing us is a good start," Hawkmon said.

"Yeah, thanks," Davis said. "At least we know who to blame if we end up having to run for our lives again."

"Oh, shut it, Davis!" Yolei snapped.

Ken reached out and gripped her hand. He hoped he wasn't blushing. "Don't worry. We'll be okay."

Davis raised an eyebrow at him. "I agree with you, dude, but I'm not holding your hand."

"What is that?" Cody asked, interrupting their banter.

Ken followed his line of sight to see a small digimon standing on the edge of the mote. He wasn't quite sure what kind of digimon it was at first, until the digimon lifted his head. He had white rat head and a golden mechanical body with thin spindly legs, golden wings, and green metallic claw extensions on either side of its body.

"That's not Lord Ebonwumon, is it?" Elecmon asked.

Vajramon shook his head. "No, that is Kumbhiramon. Another one of Ebonwumon's devas."

"Three devas," Cody murmured. "Just like Baihumon."

Vajramon nodded. "We devas serve the Holy Beasts. There are twelve of us, four of them."

"One for each animal of the zodiac," Takato muttered.

"What do you mean, Takato?" Kari asked.

Takato grimaced. "I… I don't know."

"Where is this Lord Ebonwumon?" Gatomon asked, glaring up at Vajramon suspiciously. "Are you actually taking us to him?"

"Yes," Vajramon said. "Follow me."

He led them toward the middle of the chamber to the edge of the mote. Kumbhiramon barely glanced up at them, but he seemed more interested in getting a drink than dealing with them. Ken decided that was probably for the best. Vajramon stomped his hoof at the bank of the river, and sandstone rose out of the ground, creating a land bridge for them to cross. They ended up standing in front of the large tree at the center of the room.

The tree, as weird as it were to realize it, was the only source of light in the room. Twelve digicores floated around the trunk and pulsated with light. The digicores in Ken's backpack seemed to hum in response; he could practically feel the heat of the light they were emanating through the fabric. And they seemed to be arguing in hushed whispers.

Ken blinked.

Wait… that wasn't right…

He realized that the arguing was coming from in front of him – from the tree itself. Vajramon stepped forward and bent his two front legs to crouch into a bow. "My Lords, the digidestined have arrived."

"The digidestined?" One voice said, muffled as if speaking from the other side of a wall. "Who the blast are the digidestined?"

"The human children who saved the Digital World, you clueless toad!" a second voice said, sounding just as muffled.

"Humans?" the first voice huffed. "Why would we give a blast about humans?"

"…Good question," said the second voice.

The tree suddenly shivered, and Ken waited for the digimon hiding in its branches to jump down – until the entire tree itself lifted off of the ground. Ken's eyes grew in surprise as four legs and then two heads emerged beneath the trunk, and he found himself staring at a very large two-headed turtle with a tree for a shell.

"Oh my!" Kari gasped.

"Whoa," Davis deadpanned.

"That's one big fella," DemiVeemon agreed.

"What?" the first voice said, which belonged to the head on the right. "What are these things?"

"Humans," the second voice answered coming from the left head. "What did you think they were?"

"Some sort of mutants," Right Head said. "They sure look funny."

"We look funny?" Yolei huffed. "Have you seen a mirror lately?"

Kari nudged her roughly in the side. Luckily, the two turtle heads didn't seem to have heard her and were still debating about whether or not they were actually humans. Vajramon stepped forward and bowed once more.

"Lords Ebonwumon," he said, "these digidestined are here to—"

"Digidestined?" scoffed the left head. "That one there isn't a digidestined." He nodded right at Takato. "That there's a tamer. So, how'd it go?"

Takato blinked. "Um, sorry? How'd what go?"

"The thing… with the pink stuff…" Left turned to look at Right. "What was it called again?"

"What was what called?"

"The pink stuff!"

"Cotton candy?"

"No, the other stuff! The bad stuff!"

"Oh!" The Right Head paused thoughtfully. "Something bad… like… chaos?"

"Chaos!" Left repeated. "That's it. So, how'd it go? You get rid of it?"

Takato tilted his head to the side as he regarded the Holy Beast with nothing but confusion. "Um, what? Are you sure you have the right guy?"

"You are Takato Matsuki, aren't you?" Left asked.

"The kid with the Guilmon partner," Right added.

Takato and Guilmon shared a surprised look. "Um, yes, but… I… I don't really remember…?"

"Wait," Kari said. "You know Takato?"

The right head laughed, completely missing Kari's question. "I guess it wasn't very chaotic!"

The left head gave a long sigh. "Why do I ever let you talk?"

The right head pouted. "I'm the witty one!"

"You wish," the left head said.

From the way that the two heads were going back and forth, Ken had a feeling that they could go forever if he let them. They seemed to only barely have even a margin of their attention; it wasn't exactly the greeting he was expecting, but at least they weren't trying to kill them. Ken shrugged off his backpack and unzipped it before stepping forward to show off the digicores held within.

"Lords Ebonwumon." Ken presented the open backpack. "We brought you these digicores."

"Oh, did you?" Left seemed mildly interested, but Right just looked at the backpack like it was a gift from a fan – something he really didn't want.

"That's… nice…"

Ken looked back at the others with confusion, and Davis nudged him to try again, so he did. "Lord Baihumon sent us to reclaim these digicores for you. We hope you'll accept them on behalf of the other Holy Beasts and hopefully assist us."

"That Lord Baihumon," Left sighed. "Always sending others to do his dirty work."

"Yeah, not like us," Right said.

"Never!"

Vajramon gave a quiet snort, which Ken took to mean "yeah, right".

"Ah well," Left said. "At least they're back. Kumbhiramon, will you take these digicores and add them to our vault? We'll give them back to the others when they issue a formal apology."

"Formally," Right added.

The rat deva skittered across the room and stopped in front of Ken, waiting expectantly. Ken gave a nervous smile as he plucked the three digicores out of his backpack and placed one in each of his mechanical claws. Kumbhiramon took the last one between his two skinny front paws, and skittered out of the room on his hind legs.

"He's… kind of cute," Yolei said. "In a weird mechanical mouse sort of way."

"Actually, now that I think about it, I have heard of these humans before," Right said suddenly. "We were mad at them, weren't we? For screwing up the Digital World?"

Left blinked. "That's right. It was almost like a voice was telling us that they were bad. A little… cold tingle on the back of our shell…"

Ken tensed. A voice telling them what to do…? What did that sound so familiar?

"A, um…" Cody started uncertainly, "…voice in your head, my lords?"

"Yes, how odd," Left mused.

"Vajramon, should we kill them?" Right asked.

"No, my lords," Vajramon said patiently. "They just returned the digicores. They're our friends."

"Oh, right," the right head said.

Ken looked at Yolei and Davis, but they seemed just as confused as he was. What was going on? It was like Ebonwumon had two completely different personalities competing for control, and perhaps a third if the voice to be believed. Ken wasn't sure how he felt about this.

Wormmon maneuvered his way onto Vajramon's shoulders and whispered, barely loud enough for Ken to hear, "Are they always like this?"

"In a word: yes," he answered. "Having two heads sharing one body can sometimes lead to a certain amount of… instability."

He said instability, but Ken had a feeling that he knew what he'd really wanted to say. Insanity. Ebonwumon, both heads, were completely insane.

"About what you said about the chaos," Takato said suddenly. "Have we met before? Was I… here before?"

"Here?" Left laughed. "No, you've never been here."

"And we've never met," Right said. "I don't think. Have we met?"

"No," Left answered. "Of course we haven't. How could we have? He's from elsewhere."

"Oh, right," the right head said. "Elsewhere."

"What is… elsewhere?" Takato said. "What are you talking about? How do you know about me if we've never met?"

"We're connected to the other one, of course," Right said. "We like to stay in touch. He has interesting stories."

"All secrets flow through our waters," Left said. "We know everything. More than we should, some may say."

"So much more," Right murmured.

"But!" Left cut in, cutting off Right's musings. "You brought us the lost digicores. So, we are humbly grateful."

"Not really humbly," Right said.

"Shush, you," Left said. "Anyway, what else do you want? Humans always want something, right? That's what they do? Constantly ask you for stuff?"

Davis huffed. "Hey, wait a second!"

"He's not exactly wrong, at least for this occasion," Ken murmured to him.

"Well?" the left head continued. "Spit it out."

"Well, you see, your lordnesses," Armadillomon said, doing a sweeping bow for show. "We're on a very important quest to save a friend or two, and we need your help."

"Of course you do," Left sighed. "Always with the help!"

"My Lords," Vajramon said, "this is the first time the humans have ever come to you for aid."

"Did we ask for your input?" Right snapped. "Can't you see we're trying to make a point?"

"We just want information," Kari said in her most calming voice. "We hear you know everything."

Both heads straightened up, looking complimented and slightly less miffed. "Well… that's true, of course," they agreed before the left head continued, "For instance, we know this business here—" the left head gestured to the group as a whole, "—this harebrained scheme of Gennai's to bring you all together is likely to end all four worlds."

"As for you, Kari Kamiya," the right head took over, "we know that your brother and his partner Agumon are in serious trouble."

The right head ducked down and then picked up a scrap of paper and threw it through the air where it landed in Kari's hand. It was a photo of Kari with Tai in front of Tai's college. Kari's hands shook so bad that Ken had a hard time making out the picture at all. "This—this is from his wallet."

"Yes," the right head said. "All things lost in the Digital World eventually find their way to us. That photo was lost when the Demon Lord of Greed captured him."

Left narrowed his eyes at Takato. "Now, you, Tamer of the Digital Hazard… Yes, we see where you come from." The left head tossed a small handheld notebook through the air that Takato caught. It landed open on an old tattered drawing of Guilmon done in marker.

Takato stared at it as if it might be coated in poison. He staggered backward.

"Takato?" Davis asked. "What is it?"

"I… I drew this…" Then he quickly fumbled to shove the notebook into his pocket. "It's nothing. It's just something I drew as a kid."

The left head laughed. "Really? Just something you drew? You hear that, Guilmon. You're just something he drew when he accidentally drew you into existence! You know something about creating digimon, don't you, former Digimon Emperor?"

Ken's eyes widened, his mind immediately flashing back to Kimeramon. He tried to look at Takato, figure out what Ebonwumon was hinting at, but Takato refused to meet his eye.

"So, you want information," the left head continued.

"Are you sure about that?" Right said. "Information can be dangerous."

The two heads smiled down at them as if issuing a challenge. Even Vajramon looked uneasy beneath their dual stares, but Davis just stepped forward bravely.

"Yes," he said. "We need to find the lair of Barbamon."

Left grimaced. "The demon lord? Why would you want to go there? He's a terrible digimon."

"And he smells bad, too," Right complained.

Kari held up the photo. "Barbamon has my brother. We need to rescue him and find out where Gennai is being held captive."

Left snorted. "That's impossible. Even we don't know where he's being held, and trust us, we've tried. There's a powerful digimon blocking that information from reaching us – he's impossible to locate."

Cody looked up at Yolei. "Datamon," he whispered.

"He's at some place that only I and Gatomon know," Takato said.

"Hold on!" Right said, closing his eyes contemplatively. "I'm getting something… Yes! He's at a place only you and Gatomon know. Sadly, we don't know where that is."

"Smart alec," Gatomon muttered.

"But Barbamon does," Yolei persisted. "If you help us find him, we could get the location of Gennai from him instead."

"So all you want is the demon lord's location?" Left asked.

"Well, if you could somehow get us there too," Davis added, "that'd kinda be cool."

Both heads raised up and tilted, as if they were listening for something.

"Well… Azulongmon approves," Left muttered. "Not surprising. He always was a human loving digi-pet…"

"Baihumon's in, too," Right murmured back. "Something about it probably being for the best, and even if it's not, we're all doomed anyway. Cheery guy."

"Zhuqiaomon says he doesn't care either way," Left continued. "But just you wait… the second we make a choice, he's going to complain."

"The south is always so unreasonable," Right whined.

Ken shot a hopeful look toward his friends. It sounded like whoever they were consulting – the other Holy Beasts it sounded like – were mostly on their side. This was the first stroke of good luck they'd had on this entire trip.

"Okay," the left head conceded. "You'll find Barbamon on Mount Blue Screen."

"A mountain named after the blue screen of death?" Yolei asked. "Oh, great. That doesn't sound good."

"Now, as for that ride to get you there—" the right headed started to say when suddenly both of their faces went slack. Both of them tilted their heads as if they were listening again. When they looked back down at the digidestined, all four of their eyes were wild with fright.

"He has spoken!" Left gasped.

"He hasn't spoken to us in centuries," Right said. "Why now?"

"We can't question him," Left said. "It doesn't matter why now, we have to listen."

"Yes, yes, of course."

Their attention returned to the digidestined. Left looked almost regretful, but Right just regarded them like they had all just turned into giant cockroaches. "I'm sorry, digidestined," Left said. "New orders. You all have to die."

"My lords!" Vajramon protested. "The other Holy Beasts… Azulongmon said to help them! And Baihumon! You can't—!"

"Vajramon!" Right snapped. "Do I need to fire you!?"

"There are some orders that transcend even the wishes of our fellow Holy Beasts," Left explained, "especially when it comes straight from the Digital World's core itself."

"Are you talking about Huang?" Davis asked. "The other Holy Beasts are going to be pissed if you don't help us!"

"Not to mention Gennai!" Elecmon said.

The heads glanced at each other before shrugging simultaneously. "Doubt it."

Ebonwumon raised his left hoof and stomped on a hidden switch. Something in the temple suddenly rumbled. The entire pyramid shook. Dust rained down upon them from the roof.

"The other Holy Beasts understand the order of things," Left said. "And if he is waking… He cannot be denied."

"Goodbye, digidestined," Right said. "We're terribly sorry, but we'll make it quick. I kinda want to go back to my nap."

Left rolled his eyes. "Of course you do. You lazy bum."

Ken turned slowly toward the back wall as the rumbling got louder and louder. He reached down to clutch his D-3, and Wormmon leapt to the ground in front of him, ready to attack. The others turned around as well as Ken's heart pounded in his chest. Then Vajramon – out of nowhere – jumped over all of them, landing on the other side of the mote, and raised his swords.

"Terra Blade!"

He drove his blade deep into the sandstone earth. Something big, furry, and brown came crashing through the wall at the back of the room just as an earthen barrier jutted up out of the ground in front of Vajramon. The stampeding bolder (which was actually the digimon that Ken had seen earlier, he realized) crashed into the erected wall, cracking it on impact. Vajramon threw his body against the barrier to try to stabilize it as he glanced back at the digidestined.

"Run!" he shouted.

"We can't just leave you!" Davis said.

"You must! Now go!"

Ken's stomach clenched, but he knew that they were in a lose-lose situation. He grabbed his best friend's arm. "We don't have a choice! Run!"

"Incoming!" Guilmon shouted just as Vajramon's wall crumbled. Vajramon was tossed aside like a ragdoll, and the stampeding pig digimon just kept coming. Ken dove out of the way, pulling Davis with him as he did. Their only saving grace was that the pig had a hard time slowing down to turn back around, so he disappeared to the other side of the room.

"Hey, wait, come back!" Right said.

"Vajramon, you are fired!" Left shouted.

"Is everybody okay?" Takato asked.

Ken did a quick sweep of the group, and they had all miraculously managed to jump out of the way before they were flattened. Across the room, Vajramon was slowly getting to his feet.

"Digidestined," he struggled to say, "Go! There's a TV on the shore where you came in. Use it! Save your friend! Save the world."

The rumbling of Vikaralamon's return started to get louder. Ken could see Davis still struggling with the idea of leaving him behind, so he yanked his best friend to his feet and grabbed him by the shoulders. He stared into his eyes.

"For Tai," he reminded him.

Davis glared at him for a second before cursing under his breath. "Fine. C'mon!"

He took off running into the impromptu tunnel that Vikaralamon had made, and the others followed. Ken picked Wormmon up into his arms as he rant, and he used his years of soccer to run as fast as he could without leaving the others behind. Speaking of behind—Ken glanced over his shoulder.

"DIVE!" he screamed.

Everybody jumped to the side just as Vikaralamon came stampeding through the walls. Dust and debris crashed down around them, but just as before, Vikaralamon kept going, unable to put on the breaks. Ken wiped sand out of his eyes and glanced down the pig-made tunnel to see where Vikaralamon had gone. He was nowhere to be seen, but at the end of the tunnel, Ken could see grass and trees in the moonlight. His eyes widened. "He created an exit for us!"

"Let's go!" Davis shouted before leading the way through the tunnel.

They were nearly at the exit when Vikaralamon's terrible red eyes suddenly appeared, his face taking up the entire archway. He snorted in anger. DemiVeemon leapt out of Davis's arms.

"You want a piece of me?" he said. "You don't scare me! DemiVeemon digivolve to Veemon! Vee Headbutt!"

Veemon, newly digivolved, charged toward the pig digimon and head-butted him right in the snout. Vikaralamon snorted with laughter. Veemon landed on his feet and stumbled away, clutching at his head.

"That didn't go as planned," he whined.

"It was a good try, buddy," Davis said. "Glad to have you back."

"I'd say it's glad to be back, but I don't think it's going to last very long," Veemon said.

Veemon was right. Vikaralamon was pawing at the ground, getting ready for another charge. Ken knew that they couldn't run forever. Vikaralamon knew this maze better than they did.

"Deva Blade!"

Something – or someone – slammed into Vikaralamon, topping him right over, and sending him rolling out of the way. Vajramon landed in front of the entrance, the moonlight shimmering off of his armor. He glanced into the newly made tunnel toward them.

"Go. I will hold him off as long as I can, but you must escape this place. You must save Gennai. It's the only way to save my lords from whatever influences they are under," he said. "GO!"

Ken grabbed Davis's arm, seeing that reluctant look on his face again, and dragged him out of the temple. Vikaralamon had carved out a path all the way down to the beach, and Ken didn't waste a moment before he started to follow it. He could hear the others behind him, following at a fast pace. Somewhere off to their left, he could hear what sounded like a roar, and he could only hope that Vikaralamon couldn't guess where they were in the thick of the jungle.

"We're just leaving him!" Davis said, finally running on his own. "He's giving his life for us, and we're just leaving him!"

"We don't have a choice, Davis," Cody said. "You think this is easy for any of us?"

"I mean, he might be okay, right?" Yolei asked. "I mean, there's a chance?"

"He's a tough digimon," Gatomon said. "He could escape once we're gone. But we've gotta be gone first. So stop dragging your heels and hoof it, people!"

Ken's chest burned by the time they exited the jungle out onto the beach. His eyes did a quick sweep up and down the shoreline before he saw the TV at the end. He pointed. "There!"

The others took off running, but Ken hesitated as he heard something behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and felt his heart skip a beat as he came face-to-snout with Vikaralamon. The boar digimon grinned, and Ken took off running, knowing it was probably futile. He fumbled for his D-3, seeing the others in front of him doing the same.

"Digi-Port Open!" Yolei shouted. "Take us to the eastern edge of Folder!"

He saw the TV light up as it sucked her and Hawkmon in. One by one, the others were sucked through the digiport.

"Fusion Ball!"

This time, Ken didn't turn to look to see what was following him, but he could hear it. A high-pitched whistle of a projectile heading his way. He dove through the air, his D-3 pointing at the TV, and was engulfed in its light. Then the TV exploded as the ball of dark energy collided with it, and Ken blacked out.