A/N: We're still not really diverging from canon with this chapter, but we will, I promise!

––

That night, Wormmon lay curled up in his small underground burrow with his usual array of nightmares.

It was always the same. He'd be running away, just like he always did in real life, except he wasn't actually getting anywhere no matter how hard he tried. He was stuck in one place, and so was powerless against the laughing form that suddenly rose up from behind him to tower over everything, blotting out all light… the Digimon Emperor.

Of course, Wormmon had no idea what he looked or sounded like, so he was always just a formless shadow with piercing red eyes and a low laugh that no human or Digimon could possibly make. In his dreams, Wormmon would balk in terror at the sight of him and try even harder to run away, but he just wouldn't make any distance. He'd have no choice but to brace himself against what the towering shadow was about to do to him… but he'd always scare himself awake before he could find out what it was.

Just like always, then, Wormmon's eyes flew open and he gasped, flailing around inside his little hole before calming down, forcing himself to remember that it was just a dream, that he was safe… for now. Anyway, the Emperor never came out at night; everyone knew that. He had no reason to be afraid right now.

With a melancholy sigh, he turned over and curled up as tightly as he could, trying to go back to sleep, but sleep wouldn't come so easily. He was just too preoccupied with what had happened to him that day.

He still couldn't figure out why he'd been so drawn to those humans in the first place… but the more he thought about them, the more certain he became that they hadn't been a danger to him, and that maybe he shouldn't have run away. If they had been fighting against the Emperor, what reason could they possibly have to want to harm him?

And that Monochromon… he'd actually helped defeat it! He'd never in a million years have guessed he was capable of something like that… and if he hadn't run into those humans, it never would have happened. Did this mean he was stronger than he thought he was? That maybe there was something he could do against the Emperor's slaves after all?

His heart started pounding in excitement. Those humans must be coming back to the Digital World at some point… they'd been talking about fighting the Emperor like it was an ongoing thing. If they came back, did that mean he could help them again? Maybe they would need him… they'd needed him today, after all. Maybe it was his responsibility to help them again, however he could, for as long as it took…

Wormmon was surprised to find his resolve suddenly growing steely as, for the first time that he could remember, he came to a firm decision that didn't involve running away.

He would find those humans again.

––

Wormmon did a lot of running in his life by necessity. There were some nights when he couldn't even make it home; he'd be driven miles away by onslaughts of the Emperor's ringed slaves, forced to run for hours until he found himself quite hopelessly lost. Those nights he'd be forced to camp out in unfamiliar areas of the Digital World, and it wasn't until the following morning that he'd be able to begin the long trek back… just so long as he wasn't attacked again.

One of those nights had brought him here. It was a large clearing that contained a brick laid ziggurat, with a tall staircase leading up to a small interior chamber. This afternoon, Wormmon found himself returning to this spot, having set out at the crack of dawn to make it here.

He'd come back for a very good reason. The night he'd been forced to sleep inside the ziggurat, he'd seen two stone pedestals standing side by side, each one with a strange egg-shaped object resting on top of it. Yesterday, for the first time since then, Wormmon had seen something else like that – in fact, it had been the object that Davis, the fiery human boy, had used to make his Digimon digivolve.

If Digimon need these things to digivolve, he reasoned to himself as he crawled up to the base of the staircase, then maybe those humans will come here looking for them? Then I can meet them again!

It was as good a plan as any, and so he settled off to the side of the staircase, curling up to make sure he wasn't a visible target for the Emperor's army… and started to wait.

As the minutes ticked on by, Wormmon sat diligently where he was, waiting for the humans to appear. He had to be right, didn't he? Surely they would have to come here eventually… these strange objects seemed to be the only things that permitted digivolution so long as the Emperor was in control…

Eventually he started to let his mind wander, wondering what he'd say to the humans when he saw them again. He was determined not to run this time, no matter how scared he got; he wanted to learn more about them. He wanted to find out what they were doing in the Digital World, and why they all had Digimon with them. He would stay here, no matter what.

But as time dragged on longer and longer, it grew harder and harder for him to keep his focus, and he started growing tired. It occurred to them that even if the humans did come here eventually, it might not be today… it might not be for weeks, or months…

He snuggled up, deciding he might be in for a long wait… really, he had no idea if he was right or not… maybe this was all a mistake. Maybe he shouldn't be wasting his time waiting here… maybe… he should…

CRASH!

He jolted upright, flying several inches off the ground, just then realizing he'd drifted off to sleep. He looked frantically around for the source of the noise, then realized it had come from a large flying Digimon who'd just burst a hole through the roof of the ziggurat.

"Careful, Halsemon!" cried one of the two human girls riding on its back.

"My apologies, Yolei," it replied.

"Davis must be this way! Let's go!" shouted one of two human boys being held in the grip of a large yellow insectoid Digimon as it flew off after the other one. Wormmon jumped backwards, staring up in fascination as the two of them soared off into the distance along with the humans in their charge.

They came here! They came and I fell asleep and missed it! he cursed himself. Well, he'd made it this far; he wasn't about to give up now, not when he might not get another chance to meet them.

Still, he realized with a sinking sensation, those two Digimon were going much faster than he was able…

It's a good thing I'm so used to running, he thought resignedly, quickly scampering off after them.

––

By the time he caught up with them, the action had already begun.

They were battling inside a large canyon; Flamedramon, along with the two Digimon he'd just seen, were each engaged in a one-on-one fight against one of the Emperor's slaves. Flamedramon was facing off against a Mojyamon, the yellow one was going after a Drimogemon, and Halsemon was locked in an aerial battle against a Snimon. The Emperor himself was nowhere to be found, for which Wormmon was quite grateful.

He scurried to the edge of the canyon and peered out at the battle unfolding before him. Halsemon was gracefully zooming back and forth with a funny-looking purple-haired human girl (Yolei, wasn't it?) riding on his back. Wormmon watched, overcome with awe and jealousy at how lithe and powerful Halsemon looked as he battled. Both he and the Snimon were firing attacks at each other in rapid succession, though each was flying around too quickly for the other one to hit…

Though that couldn't last forever.

"AIIYEEEEEEE!" Yolei shrieked as the Snimon's Twin Sickle attack struck Halsemon directly in the side, sending him flying backwards and crashing into the stone wall and causing Yolei to slide off his back, plummeting toward the ground below.

"Oh my goodness!" Wormmon reacted too quickly for his mind to catch up. "Sticky Net!"

Halsemon was too dazed and injured to help her, but Wormmon wasn't. An enormous sticky web, the biggest one he'd ever produced, shot out of his mouth and plummeted down past Yolei, catching itself between a large group of pointy rocks at the bottom and forming a thin, but strong and durable net.

"Ack!" Yolei gasped as she landed right on the net, which bent inward under her weight but didn't break. Once she realized she was safe, she turned over, looking at what had just saved her.

"What in the… what just happened?"

She didn't get to ponder that any further before a loud buzzing noise told her the Snimon was flying down after her. She gasped, but before it could do a thing, it was suddenly struck from the side by two bright red beams of energy from Halsemon, shattering the Dark Ring around its midsection.

"Phew… thanks, Halsemon," she sighed in relief as the Snimon came out of the Emperor's control and returned to its docile state. "What… what happened just now? I was just falling and… did you save me?"

"I'm afraid not, Yolei," Halsemon said as he landed on the ground next to her. "I believe that was someone else."

And with that, he glanced up at the top of the canyon. Yolei followed his gaze, and with a thrill of fear, Wormmon realized too late that both of them were staring directly at him.

"Oh… oh, dear."

––

Several minutes later, after the Digimon had finished releasing the Emperor's slaves and sending them on their way, everyone was gathered at the bottom of the canyon… including Wormmon. Yolei had insisted on bringing him down to the others to find out just who he was and what he was doing here. Wormmon recognized three of the humans who were here now: Davis, the blond boy, and the brunette girl. He'd never seen any of the others before.

At any rate, it was a good thing he'd already promised himself he wouldn't run away; as he looked around at every single person present staring at him in interest, he was finding it very, very hard to resist.

"So, Hawkmon says this little guy saved me when I was falling," said Yolei, looking down at him with her hands on her hips. "You guys don't have any idea who he is, do you?"

"Hey, I know you!" Davis exclaimed with a delighted smile on his face. "You're the little guy from yesterday! You helped me and Flamedramon!" He looked very impressed. "And you saved Yolei just now too, huh? Well, I dunno why you bothered doing that, but – "

"You wanna say that to my face, meathead?!" Yolei snarled, grabbing him by the collar.

The brunette girl shook her head and knelt down next to Wormmon. "Just ignore them," she said. "Anyway, it's nice to see you again. What's your name, little guy? Why'd you run away before?"

Wormmon stared back up at her, forcefully reminding himself she wasn't going to hurt him. "Oh… well… my name is Wormmon," he said timidly, glancing at the ground and fidgeting around. "I guess I ran away because… well… I was scared." Of course, he was still scared, if that wasn't obvious.

"Aww, there's no need to be scared of us! We're the good guys!" Davis boasted. "We're not gonna hurt you, we just wanna sock that Digimon Emperor!" He swung his fist demonstratively at the air.

The brunette girl giggled. "Well, you already met Yolei and Davis. My name is Kari, and this is TK and Cody," she said to Wormmon, gesturing to the two other boys at her side.

"I'm very honored to make your acquaintance, Wormmon. Thank you for helping my friends," said Cody, the youngest of the children, giving a respectful bow. Wormmon was quite taken aback; no one had even shown him that kind of respect before. He didn't exactly merit it.

"Oh… er… you're welcome," he said uneasily. Though he knew it was impolite, he blurted out the next thing before he could stop himself. "If you don't mind my asking… you're all humans, aren't you? What are you all doing in the Digital World?"

"Ah, well, see… we're what's called the Digidestined," TK spoke up, his orange winged Digimon perched happily on his head. "Not just any humans can go to the Digital World, but, well… this place is kind of our responsibility. It's our job to protect it, whether it's from evil Digimon…"

"…or jerks like the Emperor," Davis muttered. "Where does that guy get off, trying to turn Veemon into one of his slaves?! The next time I see him, I'm gonna…"

As he kept muttering to himself, Wormmon felt his nervousness around these children ever so slowly fade away, to be replaced by curiosity. "So… who are all these Digimon with you, then?"

"These are our partners!" Kari said cheerfully, stroking her Digimon on the head and earning a contented purr in response. "They're the ones who do most of the fighting, really. We humans don't really have any special powers like you Digimon, but we can help our partners grow and get strong through the special bond we share with them."

"That's right! Hawkmon and I only just met, but I can already tell we're gonna be the best partners ever!" Yolei declared, happily squeezing her Digimon to her chest. "Isn't that right, Hawkmon?"

"Er… absolutely," said Hawkmon, looking like he was having trouble breathing.

Wormmon gazed at them all in fascination. Digimon partnering up with humans to become stronger… he'd never heard of something like that. But if they were able to digivolve thanks to these humans, then maybe they stood a chance against the Emperor after all…

"Anyway, it's getting late. We should get going," said one of the two older humans who had been hanging back, a redheaded girl with a pink avian Digimon at her side. "I think we've all had enough excitement for one day."

Wormmon immediately grew concerned. "Wait… you're leaving?" he asked plaintively. "Where… where are you all going?"

The kids had been preparing to set off, but now Kari turned back to face him. "Back to the human world," she said. "That's where we live. We can't stay in the Digital World forever."

Wormmon frowned deeply. He'd just started to open up to these humans, just started to feel like he could trust them… and they had to leave already? "But you'll come back… won't you?"

"Of course we will. As long as the Emperor's still out there causing trouble, I feel like we're going to have to come back here quite a bit," TK said with a chuckle. "But it really is getting late. We'd better hurry back."

And just like that, all the kids and their Digimon set off through the canyon toward some unknown location, talking eagerly amongst each other and seemingly forgetting all about Wormmon. Only Davis turned to wave at him as they left.

"See ya around, Wormmon! Don't be a stranger, okay?"

Wormmon said nothing, just staring after them, rooted to the spot, as the entire group walked away without him, leaving him standing there all alone. Within a few moments, they'd all vanished into the distance, and yet still he was there, without anyone left to care what he did.

He kept on staring after them, his mind full to bursting with everything he'd just learned.

Human children… the Digidestined… protecting the world from the Digimon Emperor… with their Digimon partners…

He'd wanted to help them, and he had. And they'd thanked him, but… that was it. When all was said and done, he wasn't one of them. They'd left him, left to go be with their precious friends, their partners…

…and leaving him, for the first time in his life, feeling very much alone.