Chapter 3

Tai and Serena are at the front of the group and Serena has Renamon out ahead scouting things out after they had climbed the cliff. The yellow vixen leads them away from the Monochromon fighting over territory, and then gets them back on the correct path to head towards the beach she had found, complete with fish. Serena had tossed everyone another granola bar a piece and she keeps a careful eye on Tai. He didn't mind Serena keeping an eye on him. Sora on the other hand was one of the worst mother hens you could imagine.

Sora just didn't understand that he could easily take care of his own wounds, seeing as how his mother had never forgiven him for what had happened to Kari when they were younger. It was her fault for leaving such a young kid in charge and Kari had seemed fine. Yet she had never truly looked at him or touched him since. His dad at least understood that they the parents were at fault for leaving such a little kid in charge and unsupervised.

It had taken Tai a long time to realize that what happened really wasn't his fault but that of his parents. He hadn't quite come to terms with that realization and his mother's attitude towards him certainly didn't help either. At least he had his dad, it sounded like Serena only had her best friend and her paternal grandma on her side, looking out for her well-being. That just wasn't fair and yet Tai knew she didn't want pity, she just wanted someone who could understand even a little bit of how that felt. He could, since his mother basically ignored his existence since that day.

With Renamon scouting for trouble they at least had some warning and could maybe work their way around the trouble areas. Plus, she could get them back on course as well. Tai frowns when he notices that the sun is starting to set and looks at Serena, " Renamon, how much longer? " Serena calls out.

" Not much, we'll be there shortly. It is the perfect campground. " Renamon answers her partner.

Once they reach the site Serena immediately sets to gathering fruits with the others, putting as many in her backpack as she could. The digimon understood this and helped out by gathering as many as they could as quickly as they could. Serena also gathered up some sticks for cooking the fish they were sure to get. Once they were done gathering food they head back to see Matt and Tai had gotten the fire started. The fruits that were in everyone's arms were placed on the ground, Serena refused to go anywhere near that trolley car that could be seen a little ways off.

She had several blankets in her backpack along with pillows, she'd camp out under the trees and drag Tai with her. He needed rest and he would need another dose of Advil as well. Once they've eaten and Tai has had his first watch Serena drags him over to her and hands him two blankets and a pillow, " Sleep! "

Tai makes his bed and curls up, after taking another dose of Advil. The pair slept through Seadramon's attack and missed Gabumon digivolving to Garurumon. The others let them sleep because they had both been hammered by Shellmon earlier. As they all range around their sleeping acquaintances in most cases and go under themselves they fail to see the injured pair, yes, Serena was still injured, just not as severely as she had been, roll over and curl up together. Nor did anyone see the silver glow that lit up around Serena and the orange one that lit up around Tai before they merged and then surrounded the other. Only Renamon was awake to see this and she smiles lightly. Renamon knew the truth about her partner, which was why she had been chosen as Tenacity's partner.

Tenacity, Serena, was the Moon Princess reincarnated, and Renamon had been the one being that had kept her sane during the Silver Millennium. They had only been friends back then but Renamon understood her partner better than the others did. Lord Fanglongmon had chosen the princess back then and had managed to keep track of her soul. Then there was the fact that Fanglongmon had a tendency of choosing the kids that were at risk, and the princess was at risk, dangerously close to just giving up and ending her life.

Renamon knew all this because Fanglongmon had told her before he had sent her to where she would meet her future partner. It was Fanglongmon's hope that Tenacity and Courage would be good for each other and so far they were. Renamon was glad that Serena was able to confide in Tai so easily. She only knew why her partner had been chosen, she didn't know about the other children.

Infinity Mountain:

Devimon watches over the chosen children, though he was not expecting there to be eight of them, and for the one to have a Renamon for a partner. A Renamon that could digivolve to Youkomon as well. The other boy, the one with the Agumon that had Greymon as his next form instead of Meramon or Centaurumon. If those children were allowed to continue to gain strength then things would get sticky for him.

It was the blonde girl that truly concerned him as she had no problem charging right into battle. She had also created a discus made out of pure energy. She was definitely one that he had to keep his eyes on. Then there was the fact that they were using Renamon to scout ahead, directing them away from most of the trouble they could get into. The boy with the Agumon and the girl with the Renamon needed to go, now.

" Ogremon, go destroy the girl with the Renamon and the boy with the Agumon, they are too dangerous to let them live. " Devimon orders.

Campsite:

Two hours later Renamon freezes and then spins around, charging up her attack at the same time, " Diamond Storm! "

Serena bolts awake and shoves Tai awake before packing up the pillows and blankets around them, and throwing her backpack on. Renamon's attack connects with a green digimon carrying around a club. " Pummel Whack! "

" Pepper Breath! Spitfire! " Agumon was quick to wake and charge up his attacks, sending two out to collide with Ogremon's attack.

" Power Paw! " Renamon uses her speed to get in close and punch Ogremon, sending him sailing. Renamon happened to be a rookie with the strength of a champion. Ogremon gets back up and throws his club at Serena and Tai, the blonde quickly tackles her friend out of the way only to get hit herself. She barely bit back the scream of pain from that, getting back up with Tai's help.

" Why is he coming after just us? " Tai muses out loud.

Serena's eyes narrow, " He must have a boss that is scared of us if he lets us go on unchecked. "

" Of course, get us out of the way before we can become a major threat. That tears it, Ogremon has to be driven back, but how do we pull that off. Can our digimon partners even digivolve again so soon after the last time? " Tai wonders, even as he pulls them out of the way of another attack.

" Good question, we need to turn this in our favor somehow. " Serena states.

" You're right, there has to be a way, he's got to have a weakness that we can use against him, but what is it. " Tai says as they evade another attack and then Ogremon is nailed with another Diamond Storm on Renamon's part.

Agumon looks around, like Tai he knew Ogremon had to have a weakness that could be exploited, it just had to be discovered. He gathers power into his claws and then waits for the opportune moment, " Cross Fire! " Agumon calls out right before the attack lands on Ogremon. Cross Fire was a slashing attack and it connects painfully with the Champion digimon, and then Renamon was there hitting him with another Diamond Storm.

Ogremon is forced to retreat and the partner digimon look at their partners, Serena's right arm was hanging limply at her side and Renamon frowns before going over to her partner and putting her shoulder back into socket. Tai looks at her, " Just think about a sling when you open my backpack and you'll have one in your hand. " Serena murmurs.

Tai nods and soon they have her doctored up. Serena downs some Advil with Tai's help and the twelve year old looks at their partners, " Whomever is the driving evil here on this island fears Tai and myself if we were to gain more experience, and you two were to gain more experience and power. "

" Eliminate the threat before said threat becomes too large to handle, sound planning, only we staved off this attempt. " Renamon admits.

" True, but there are bound to be other attempts, we'll have to stay alert. " Tai points out as he grabs some food for them and they start to eat. They'd have to wait for the others to wake up but for now it was just them. Renamon kept quiet about what she had witnessed. To think her old friend had found her destined soul mate in her next life, and that they had already claimed each other, apparently their guards were down enough while they slept for their souls to do so.

When the others woke up TK was the first to notice that Serena's right arm was in a sling, " What happened? " TK asks.

" We were attacked by an Ogremon, apparently Serena and I make his boss very nervous and he wants us out of the way before we came become a bigger threat. Serena shoved me out of the way when Ogremon threw his club at us, Renamon popped her arm back into socket and we got it put in a sling. " Tai answers and he was now carrying Serena's backpack, just until her shoulder healed up.

" Great, so now you two have some digimon gunning for you so you won't become more of a threat than you already are, that's just fantastic. " Matt grumbles.

Serena grabs on to Tai with her good hand to keep him from sniping back, the goggle wearing boy sighs and hands out food to everyone, and then they were off again. The digimon making sure to keep putting more food into the backpack just in case. Palmon and Gomamon were loving their refilling water bottles as Gomamon happened to be aquatic and Palmon was a plant. They needed the water more, so Palmon would dump a little bit of water on the seal like digimon's back until Joe caught on and did it for his partner.

Tai and Serena were in the lead of their little procession through the forest while Renamon scouted the territory out. That was when they came up to a bunch of road signs and Matt decides to imitate a tour guide, " Up next on our tour is the Forest of Irrelevant Road Signs, please keep to the path and make sure the flash setting is off on your cameras, thank you. "

Renamon reports that there is a desert ahead but if they made it through that there was also a Yokomon Village. Thankfully they all had water and Serena reaches into her backpack to pull out several wide brimmed hats to keep the sun off of them, before handing them out. Mimi was the only human child that didn't need one, but Serena did give one to Palmon.

" Did your grandmother seriously take every type of situation into consideration when she packed that backpack for you? " Sora asks.

" Yes, she did, " Serena admits, " Or at least as many as she could think of at the time. " the blonde girl amends her statement.

" I guess that would make sense considering this is a demon huntress we're talking about. " Izzy chimes in.

They all make sure to drink frequently as they cross the desert and Sora fills Serena and Tai in on what they had missed while they slept. " Not fun getting squeezed like that, is it, Matt? " Tai asks and pulls out the bottle of Advil from his pocket and hands Matt two.

Matt chuckles, " No, it's not, thanks for the painkillers, Tsukino. "

Serena smirks, " Baa-chan packed everything she could think of, thankfully there's also Tylenol for those that are allergic to Ibuprofen and can only handle Acetaminophen. "

" That's really smart. " Joe admits as they continue walking, everyone grateful for the hats and water.

Infinity Mountain:

Devimon frowns as he watches them approach the Yokomon Village, that Agumon and the Renamon had managed to repel Ogremon. He'd need to rethink how to get rid of those two pesky humans if Ogremon couldn't get the job done. Though he had wounded the girl, so that was something. Of course, said girl seemed to be able to heal as fast as some digimon which would make it harder to take her out of the picture even for a short time.

Desert:

Serena frowns when she feels a concentrated wave of malevolence again, it had to be those black gear shaped things. All things negative had an adverse effect on her though she wasn't feeling it as much now that she thought about it. How was that possible unless… her thoughts pause as her empathy notices something she hadn't when Ogremon was attacking before, an almost completed soul bond. She follows the connection back to… Tai? Tai was her other half, then again she did trust him, which for her was very unusual as she only answered questions the other kids directed at her, she didn't start conversations with them.

She knew Tai was concerned about her, he was able to talk with all of them easily though she could tell he and Matt were going to have issues for quite some time to come. It was why she had intervened when she had earlier. She knew being snarky was Matt's way of expressing his fear and concern, but it rubbed Tai the wrong way. She was grateful she was an empath and knew these things, though Tai and Matt would have to have it out one day, just not when they needed to get moving, and preferably when she had two good arms and could knock some sense into the both of them.

Though Sora might do the same thing as well, seeing as how she was used to dealing with Tai's antics. Still, Serena got the feeling that Tai shared more with her than he did with any of his other friends. Not surprising if she was right about them being soul bonded. Those whom shared soul bonds generally were more trusting of the other half than of anyone else. It was similar kind of bond between them and their digimon partners as well, the others probably just couldn't sense it just yet.

It was to the relief of all of them that the village came into sight. Anything to get out of the blistering heat of the desert and they had watched that gear crash into the mountain in the distance. Serena felt that they were going to be dealing with those gears in some way or another in the near future, in what way she couldn't tell. Her grandma was always telling her to listen to her instincts and they were telling that right now those gears were trouble and that they would somehow have to deal with them as well.

Center:

Fanglongmon frowns as he watches over the little princess, she had escaped into the digital world several times in order to get away from her royal duties and all that platitudes she heard all day long. Renamon had been her silent shadow there towards the end, someone to help her keep her sanity. In this incarnation the princess had been very close to actually killing herself off as she basically had no system of support, as her grandmother couldn't be around all the time. At least she had connected with the child of Courage, though he hadn't expected their souls to call out to each other so quickly or to bond to each other just as quickly.

He was just glad that Courage would stick by her no matter what happened. Fanglongmon knew that the time was coming that the hime would have to deal with the enemies from the past that her mother back then hadn't. Tai would stay by her side and truly help her, unlike those ungrateful bitches that viewed her as a means to an end. A Clockmon in his employ had shown some various paths the future could take. The best ones all hand Tai fighting alongside Serena, though Tai looked different, which made sense. It had been a long time since there had been a virtue knight.

Fanglongmon decided that Tai was definitely worthy of becoming the Courage Knight and standing by Serena's side as she fought.

Yokomon Village:

The well and lake had just been discovered dry and a spurt of flame erupted from the well, Serena and Agumon both barely pull Tai back fast enough. Then Tai pulls out his mini telescope and sees a digimon made entirely of flame running towards the village which he reports to the others. Serena frowns as she listens to what the Yokomon are saying and then she curses, " That gear, it must have hit Meramon. "

Izzy's eyes widen at the implications of that single deduction, " Which means that the gears are capable of changing the personalities and perceptions of digimon that have been infected by them. "

" Precisely, I knew they felt like pure malevolence. " Serena mutters and then she and Tai start to organize an evacuation of the village with the help of the others. Biyomon stayed behind in order to see them all to safety and that was when Meramon arrived at the village. Serena had to give the pink bird props and then the female blonde sees a black blob that looked like a sprouted seed in Meramon's path.

Serena tosses the sling off and leaps off the side of the boat, overtaking Sora whom was running back to her partner. All her years of running track and training under her grandmother paid off as she picks up speed and in a move Tai had helped her master, the slide tackle, grabs the little digimon just before Meramon reaches him/her. Then she immediately goes into a forward somersault and leaps up, her free hand grabbing onto a tree branch above her, " Nyo nyo. " the little one says.

Serena smiles, " You're safe now, little one. "

At the same time Meramon has just backhanded Biyomon and knocks her aside. Sora races over to her partner just as Izzy and Tai attempt to help. " Cross Fire! " Agumon calls out, getting Meramon's attention diverted.

" Super Shocker! " Tentomon adds.

Serena leaps from branch to branch until she's behind Meramon and races over to Tai and Izzy. " That was fantastic, how you pulled off that slide tackle, Serena. " Tai says.

" Tentomon, who did I save? " Serena asks.

" That's Nyokimon, a baby digimon. " Tentomon answers just as Biyomon digivolves up to Birdramon.

" What's a baby digimon doing here where he or she can get hurt? " Serena almost demands.

" That's actually a good question, they're generally in Primary Village under the care of Elecmon. " Tentomon admits just as Birdramon drives the gear out of Meramon.

Serena tunes out for what happens next, if it was really important then Renamon would fill her in. She winces subtly as her adrenaline wears off and Tai was there, placing her arm back in the sling. She was still holding on to Nyokimon with her left arm, cradling the baby digimon. She eats the seeds and then stocks up on them as well, knowing that they needed all the food they could get their hands on.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Digimon.