Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I also do not own Heroes of Olympus. But that doesn't mean a thing!

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

Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Just navigate to the little button at the top of the screen to Forum to Anime to Digimon to Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..."

Also written for July's Camp Nano. This chapter brings me to 21,846/40,000. As you can probably tell, I am not really going to meet my goal. However, my main goal was to finish this story this month. I'm also not going to meet that goal, but I am going to get pretty darn close, so I am still pretty proud of myself. And so, yes, the end is right around the corner. Or should I say... the end is nigh! Nah, that's too weird.

Enjoy!

Chapter Forty-Nine

After the fight on Mount Blue Screen, Ken didn't think he could ever feel more afraid or hopeless.

Now all five of the older digidestined were captured prisoners against the wall. He was surrounded by evil digimon. He held onto his D-3 like he was going to be able to brandish it like a sword. They had approximately five minutes until the Demon Lord of Sloth woke up and destroyed them. Ken figured that they had already pulled their biggest ace, activating Davis's crest and getting Veemon to digivolve to ultimate, and he doubted that they had anymore cards up their sleeves. Which meant their only assets were four champion digimon, two ultimate digimon, and six kids who were too exhausted to hide how afraid they all were.

On top of all this, Takato was barely managing to stay on his feet. He kept clutching at his head and grimacing. Ken knew that look. His worst memories were coming back. And considering Takato's proficiency in battle, Ken wouldn't be surprised if Takato's memories were filled with all of the dangerous things he had probably done in his life to get this good and calm in combat. He wondered if Takato had ever been closer to death than they all were right now. Ken was pretty sure he hadn't.

Caturamon grinned, his ruby red eyes glittering, as dust and dirt was kicked up around him from an invisible tornado.

"What've you done!?" Davis demanded.

"Oh, so many things," the dog deva practically purred. "The digidestined can breathe, if that's what you're concerned about. Barely. They will make fine meals for the Fangmon, though, so I can't promise that they'll stay that way for long. I thought we'd release them one at a time and let the Fangmon chase them down for amusement."

The Fangmon snarled appreciatively.

"Yes, yes, it will be such fun." Caturamon kept his eyes on Davis. "The Child of Friendship almost destroyed their leader. Cerberumon is off in a cave somewhere, no doubt licking his wounds, but he lent us his minions so that they could take revenge for their master. And soon Belphemon will awake, and the world will be ours for the taking."

"Caturamon, how could you do this?" Gennai said from his cage. "You are charged with protecting the Holy Beasts, and now you ally yourself with those that seek to destroy them? You're a traitor."

Caturamon sighed. "Tiresome as ever, Gennai. Do you not see the fool that Baihumon is? To entrust him with the powers of a Holy Beast… to entrust any of them… They don't deserve it. Never have. The only reason they were given those powers is because they were among the first to be created, but there are so many other worthy digimon… ones who would do a better job being in charge…"

"Like you, you mean," Yolei snapped.

Caturmon's eyes flashed. "Yes. Like me. Now, digidestined – and tamer, of course – about your deaths—"

"You could've killed us at Baihumon's castle," Ken interrupted. "Why let us live?"

The Fangmon snarled, the Devidramon growled, and the armor army rustled restlessly, all ready to attack, but Caturamon held up a paw. "Patience. If they want to talk, what matter does it make it to us? The sun is setting, and time is on our side. Now as to your question, Child of Kindness… Messy business, killing you in Lord Baihumon's castle, especially when he has an annoying habit of knowing everything that goes on in his lair. I did try, you may remember. It would've saved me a lot of time had he just turned you into statues. But once he agreed to let you go safely, I couldn't openly disobey him. Lord Baihumon is an old fool of a program that needs to be wiped clean. But soon enough, when my new masters have awakened, I will dispose of Baihumon and take the throne of the West in our new world, but not just yet. Besides, Lord Baihumon did have a point. Your quest was suicidal. I fully expected you to fail."

"You've been watching us this whole time," Gatomon said. "We've been plagued with storms this whole trip. It's been you!"

"You were keeping Barbamon informed on our movements," Cody said.

"And Huang," Davis added. "You told him where we were gonna be and when to mess with our armor digivolution. You got ExVeemon knocked out of the sky over Datamon's mansion and nearly destroyed. That was your fault. You're gonna pay for that."

"It's true," Caturamon said with an uncaring shrug. "Once you made it past Datamon and Karatenmon, I brought Cerberumon and Fangmon into the mix so that they could track you all down to make sure that the Tamer of the Digital Hazard dies here, in this world." He smiled at Takato's disturbed face. "You see, Takato, your death will imbalance not only this world, but your human world. It will destabilize the very fabric of reality. To have a human die outside of their realm, not even in their own digital shadow… And for it to be you of all the tamers in your world… It will be… delicious. It will be the beginning of the end."

Most of the group didn't seem to understand what he was saying, but the look on Takato's face told Ken that he knew. And Ken was starting to have an inkling of how disastrous this could all be as well.

"But why?" Kari spread her hands. "Caturamon, you'll tear this world and all the other worlds apart. The Demon Lords will destroy everything. There will be nothing for you to rule or watch over. You don't want that. Please, call off the digimon."

"I'd listen to her if I were you," Gatomon warned.

"That's assuming he's smart," AeroVeedramon said.

Caturmon hesitated, then laughed. "I am a deva, not a Holy Beast. I don't need anything to control. I just need power, and Huang has offered and shown his hand that he has plenty of that. If we destroy the world, all the better! Digimon are growing weak, complacent, forgetting their place. This world and the other world need to be rebuilt. I will stand with my new masters as we retake both Digital Worlds and then the Human Worlds, starting with the youngest!"

"The youngest…" Ken repeated. Then his eyes widened. "That's from the prophecy. The world that man did birth. You're talking about the Digital World that Guilmon's from."

"Of course, any of the rest of you could join me," Caturamon said. "I can see the fear in your eyes. It would be enough for our plans to only kill the tamer and the Child of Light. The rest of you need not die with them. Reject that ridiculous destiny given you to by the digital entities who leave you in the dark most of the time anyway. Live and be our champions instead. Your skills would be quite useful."

Ken felt stunned. The others looked the same. The digimon glanced back at them, looking a little uncertain about what their partners were going to say. For a second Ken was worried. The silence felt longer than it should. He figured after everything they'd gone through, the supposed guarantee that they would live through whatever was coming next sounded pretty good.

Then Davis laughed so hard, he doubled over. "Yeah, join you! Right! That's a good one." He wiped his eyes of the tears that had formed from laughing so hard. "Look, dude, nobody messes with my friends and gets away with it, especially not some cranky puppy dog on a power trip."

Caturamon's face would have turned red had it had the ability to do so. "Cranky puppy dog on a power trip? You dare insult me? Howl of the Heavens!"

He shot a shockwave of wind right toward Davis, but AeroVeedramon jumped in the way. "Wind Guardian!" He flapped his massive red wings, and a barrier appeared in front of him. The shockwaves harmlessly dissipated.

Davis grinned. "It's not quite fighting fire with fire, but I'll take it."

"That's what happens when you mess with the digidestined," Armadillomon said. "You lose."

"If only more enemies caught onto this fact," Aquilamon said.

Caturamon growled. "Enough of this. Gennai is being destroyed. Belphemon is waking. Kill the digidestined and the tamer. Let them be Belphemon's first sacrifice."

Ken clutched his D-3 – the only "weapon" he had to die fighting with – and the army of evil digimon charged toward them.