Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. That's what they'll say to me, say to me, say to me...

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

Also written for July's Camp Nano. This chapter brings me to 13,636/40,000. Some of you were actually able to guess what was going to happen, so I think this may not be a huge surprise to a few of you. Hopefully, it's still entertaining none the less. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I'm not very nervous about it, which is weird for me. I usually get a little uncertain about battle scenes, but this one was pretty easy. This is also a little odd, because it turned out nothing like how I originally planned it would. And yet, I'm cool with it. Also, I've gone back and edited a few spots where I called Takato the tamer of the biohazard instead of Tamer of the Digital Hazard. Yeah... embarrassing. And totally unintentional. Anyway, I hope you all...

Enjoy!

Chapter Forty-Five

Naturally, that was when Davis decided to do something extremely stupid.

Davis wasn't sure when he started to move, but he just let instincts take over. A dull roar sounded in his ears. He thought the others might be shouting, but he couldn't make out their words. He just focused on reaching Takato as quickly as he could. He could feel his feet sinking into the earth with every frantic step, threatening to send him stumbling over his own feet as he tried to run across an earthen waterbed – clumsy and uneven.

The staff started to glow as it remained pointed at Takato's chest. Davis wanted to shout at him to, "Move, you idiot!" but Takato looked frozen. Davis would have seen the irony in the situation had things not been so dire. Takato had expended all of this energy to stay alive, and now, in a single moment of freezing, boom. He was just going to sit there helplessly while the Demon Lord of Greed barbequed him.

Well, Davis wasn't going to let that happen.

Then two things happened at the exact same time: fire exploded from Barbamon's staff, and Davis threw himself in front of Takato.

Time seemed to slow down. For a moment, Davis thought it was the result of seeing his life flash before his eyes right before death, but then he realized it was more than that. He could see the fire coming toward him in slow motion. Over Barbamon's shoulder, he could see the others, seemingly frozen in time mid-run as they tried to reach him and Takato. They weren't going to make it in time, but it was the thought that counted.

Davis figured right about now – as he quite literally stared death in the face – was when he should start to feel afraid or panicked, but instead, a strange sense of calm overcame him. Everything was going to be alright. He couldn't explain how or why he knew that; he just did.

Time restarted. Davis flinched away from the fire, but instead of turning him and Takato into crispy goggleheads, the fire rebounded off of a golden barrier of light and slammed into Barbamon. The Demon Lord was thrown right off his feet and slid down into the pit. The light continued to sweep across the clearing, engulfing everything in its path and pushing back the flames.

"Davis," Takato said, sounding a bit stunned, "you're… glowing?"

Davis looked down at his hands, but he quickly saw that he wasn't glowing – it was the little trinket around his neck. He gingerly picked up the crest and stared at it in shock. That little thing had started its own personal light show and had somehow done all of this?

"Takato, what's happening?" WarGrowlmon asked. "I feel… re-energized."

"And healed!" Takato gasped.

Davis turned and saw that he was right. The shattered armor had been magically repaired. WarGrowlmon pushed himself to his feet, his energy completely renewed.

"Kari," Gatomon's voice said, "I feel like I could throw Myotismon a hundred yards!"

"Try two hundred!" Armadillomon said. "Armadillomon digivolve to… Ankylomon!"

Aquilamon and Stingmon returned to the battlefield. Yolei rode on top of Aquilamon, looking bruised and battered with a twig in her hair but no worse for the wear.

"What is with all the glowing—!? Oh."

She came to a sudden stop and stared at Davis with a bit of a slack-jawed expression. He would have been embarrassed if he wasn't so confused.

"It's the power of Davis's crest," Kari said. "It's given our digimon their energy back."

She still sat with her brother at the edge of the clearing. Cody had left them in favor of following Armadilomon. Tai stared at Davis with an awed expression. Agumon sat next to him, awake and alert for the first time since they'd arrived, and he couldn't seem to decide whether to fret over Tai or stare at Davis in shock.

"Davis?"

Davis could hear the sound of his own heart beating in his ears. Every other sound sounded strange, like it was far away, and everybody was speaking through cotton. But this new voice sounded as clear as day. He turned toward it and found himself facing ExVeemon.

"You ready?" his partner asked.

Somehow, he knew immediately what he was asking. He closed his hand around his crest and gave a firm nod. "Let's do this."

The light dulled as it concentrated all of its power on ExVeemon. His skin started to glow, and then he disappeared completely in the light.

"ExVeemon digivolve to… AeroVeedramon!"

Then the light was completely gone, and all that was left was a dragon about as large as Greymon. Davis was pretty sure his heart skipped a beat as he stared up at ExVeemon's new form – AeroVeedramon.

"He did it," Cody gasped.

"Ultimate level," Ken added.

Davis couldn't speak. His jaw remained slack as he stared up at the dragon digimon. He stood on his white hind legs, and the white scales continued up his underbelly and under his long tail. Blue scales covered his back and head. A blue V decorated his chest. He had three horns, one on his snout and two on top of his head. His upper jaw and horns were covered in chrome digizoid, and he had two large red wings. His eyes were also red, but they were kind and completely ExVeemon under his new rough exterior.

"Davis, behind you!" Kari called.

Her voice startled him out of his shock. He spun around just in time to see Barbamon pointing his staff toward him when Ken tackled him off of his feet, and the flames shot over both of their heads.

"Aquilamon," Yolei ordered, "aim and fire!"

"Blast Rings!"

The rays of energy caught Barbamon in the side, and he roared in anger. Ken stared up at Yolei while still on top of Davis with a bit of a dazed expression. Davis followed his line of sight to try to see what had him so mesmerized. Yolei's hair was smoldering. Her face was smudged with soot. She had a cut on her arm. Her new pink jacket was torn. She had leaves and twigs in her hair. Her glasses were cracked. Oh, and she was missing a boot.

"Beautiful," Ken murmured.

"You've lost it," Davis decided before pushing his best friend off of him.

AeroVeedramon shot into the air and swooped around the clearing. His wings were so large that every beat of them sent gusts of wind through the clearing, feeding the flames.

"AeroVeemon or whatever your name is—!" Davis shouted up at him.

"That's AeroVeedramon, thank you!" AeroVeedramon said. "You're my partner. You're supposed to know that!"

"I just met you," Davis complained. "Dude, just do it already before you bake us all!"

AeroVeedramon dove toward Barbamon. "V-Wing Blade!" Energy formed along the horn on his snout and connected to the energy forming on his wings, creating a V-shape of energy. Just as AeroVeedramon was about to crash into Barbamon head-on, the energy was let loose, and AeroVeedramon pulled up at the last second. Barbamon disappeared in a cloud of debris as the entire area exploded, knocking Davis right off his feet.

He wiped his goggles clean and looked down the crater. Barbamon was struggling to rise, but he was still very much alive. He managed to get to his feet even as the data along his chest destabilized and reformed.

Shakily, he bent down and retrieved his staff.

"Good try." The Demon Lord winced. "But I cannot be beaten."

As Davis watched, Barbamon's data knitted back together and mended his wounds. Even the scuffle marks from his previous brawl with ExVeemon and WarGrowlmon were now nothing but a long lost memory.

Davis cursed. "What is with this guy!? Just die already!"

Takato ran up to them and stared down at the Demon Lord. "We have to attack together – all at once."

"It's our only chance," Cody agreed.

"You will not live long enough to try!" Barbamon said, but there was something new in his eyes – something close to fear. The amount of damage AeroVeedramon had managed to do to him had left him uncertain about whether or not he could survive this. Which meant they had a fighting chance.

"Alright!" Davis called. "Let's do it!"

Ankylomon leaped down into the crater toward the Demon Lord.

"Foolish, digidestined," Barbamon growled. "You cannot win against me."

"Barbamon!" Gatomon called out, her eyes starting to glow a hypnotizing pink. "You might want to look behind you."

It was an obvious trick, and her Cat's Eye Hypnotism wasn't enough to fully control Barbamon, but her voice was so compelling that even Davis bought it. The Demon Lord had a moment of confusion as he asked, "What?" and turned like there was an enormous spider on his back.

Ankylomon tackled his legs at just the right moment. Barbamon toppled over, slamming into the crater and sliding back to the bottom. When he tried to rise, Ankylomon used his body to keep him pinned. Aquilamon and Yolei dove into the crater and snatched up his staff before he could reclaim it.

"NOW!" Davis cried.

"Blast Rings!"

"Lightning Paw!"

"Tail Hammer!"

"Multi-Moon Shooter!"

"Atomic Blaster!"

"Dragon Impulse!"

AeroVeedramon surrounded himself in an aura of energy in the shape of a dragon before shooting the energy through the air. Ankylomon leapt out of the crater as all of the attacks shot toward Barbamon. The air grew thin with the amount of digital energy in the area.

Davis yelled to his friends, "Hit the deck!"

And every hair on his head stood straight up as he threw himself to the ground, away from the crater – but he never hit the dirt. The attacks landed and sent a shockwave straight through Barbamon and into the ground. Davis was thrown clear. When he regained his bearings, the crater had grown almost twice in size, and he was sliding down its slope. The attacks had split open the mountain itself; the earth rumbled and tore apart as the crater cracked open. Barbamon's legs slid into the chasm. He clawed helplessly at the glassy sides of the pit, and just for a moment managed to hold onto the edge.

A voice rumbled from within the chasm, a voice that Davis recognized all too well. Return to me, Barbamon. It seems you need an upgrade.

Barbamon fixed Davis with a look of hatred. "You've won nothing, boy. The seventh is rising, and the others are ten times as strong as I. We will destroy the worlds at their cores. You will die, and the Digital World will die with you."

Barbamon let go and fell into the crevice.

The earth shook. Davis lost his grip and started to slide with greater speed toward the rift.

Join us, Davis Motomiya, the rumbling voice from the depths said. It has been so long since we last sat face-to-face.

"Yeah, no thanks!" Davis turned onto his stomach and clawed at the glassy slope. "Little help here!"

"Hold on!" Ken cried.

Davis's feet were at the edge of the chasm when Stingmon snatched him up, and they landed at the edge of the crater. The six teenagers and six digimon stood together, exhausted and terrified, as the chasm closed like an angry mouth. The ground stopped pulled at their feet.

For now, Huang was gone.

The mountainside was on fire. Smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the air. All around them was carnage. Loose data continued to swirl around the area as the Devidramon tried and failed to reform in the hazardous zone. It was probably too much of a mess for them to return right now, but Davis figured they would re-digitize soon enough. The ground was scarred and blackened.

"Davis," AeroVeedramon said, almost hesitantly, "…I'm hungry."

Takato cracked a smile, and Davis couldn't help it – he started to laugh. It probably sounded a little hysterical, but it was such a relief to be alive, he didn't care.

Then Tai made it to his feet across the clearing. He staggered forward.

"Kari?" he called.

Kari whipped her head toward him and took off in a run. She crashed into his arms and hugged him tightly, and Tai held her just as tightly back.

"Wow, we're alive," Yolei said.

"For now," Cody said darkly.

"We need to get out of here," Ken agreed.

Davis pulled at the collar of his shirt. "Yeah, it's getting a little hot." He glanced up at AeroVeedramon and felt a grin spread across his lips as he finally allowed himself to appreciate what he and Veemon had accomplished. Holy crap, that's my partner. "AeroVeedramon, think you can fly us out of here? I promise, you'll eat when we get home. But we have a Digital Entity to save first."