My heart broke writing this chapter and I felt I was in a Psychology class cause dang, that hurt.

Davis: You chose to write it!

It's part of the plot, but I can still feel bad doing it, can't I?

Tai: You better feel bad, maybe it'll keep me from killing you when I get my hands on you.

I feel very bad, I promise. So, before Tai decides to murder me, I am using Japanese names for the attacks as well. Given I write characterisations based on their Japanese versions and only use English names for ease/convenience, it makes more sense. That said, enjoy and please read & review.

8. Survival of the Fittest

Agumon cried out as he was thrown in the cage, back hitting against the cold, metal ground. Being captured didn't hurt. He had been captured once before, and the others had rescued him. But this time was different – and in a way he wasn't sure he would be able to recover from. Things in the digital world had been bad before but at the same time, they had never reached this height. Even in those moments, they had each other that they could turn to, but it was as if, no one existed for one another anymore.

Agumon had always hated hiding. Being the digimon of Courage, he wanted to be able to fight back but without Tai, he could not digivolve. The Hollow had Omnimon and Imperialdramon as it's key targets to capture so the other digimon had asked him and Gabumon to find a safe place to hide.

He had trusted only the other chosen digimon with what his hiding place was. It was odd – even after being betrayed by Gennai, he had never thought for a moment that he couldn't trust the other chosen digimon and maybe that had been a mistake.

He had just been getting ready to go to bed for the night in the small cave he had been hiding in when he had been attacked by some of The Hollow's creatures.

"Baby Flame!" Agumon tried attacking the creatures – there was no darn way he would let himself get captured without a fight. Omnimon was not made for this purpose, damn it. He had been made to defend the universe – to keep Diaboromon from destroying everything.

Tai and Matt had not brought forth their courage and friendship for Omnimon to be used as a weapon of destruction. He was managing to push the creatures away too and he might have won if a set of familiar vines had not come and caught him in stranglehold.

He couldn't even bring himself to fight those as his breath caught in his throat, eyes locking with Palmon's who immediately tore her gaze away. She…she had given him away. She had known where he was hiding because he had told her and the other chosen digimon and she had told the enemy.

His heart sunk into his chest – despite what she had done, he could still not bring himself to fight her so in that moment, he stopped, allowing himself to be captured.

Three hours had passed since then and there was silence. No word on what was going to happen to him. His stomach growled and he curled into himself, still feeling the vines of one of his closest friends trapping him. Palmon had helped the enemy capture him – she was the reason he was here.

He could handle the enemies; he could have fought them off but not Palmon. She had been his friend – she had fought by his side against Devimon, Myotismon and all those enemies in the first adventure that they had. And now the enemy had become so much more important for her that she was acting in a similar manner to Gennai?

Speaking of the digimon, she padded over then and opened his cage. Was she letting him go? Had this just been a hoax? Did she have another plan? His hopes were quickly dashed as quickly as they came when she spoke.

"I'm sorry, Agumon," Palmon said softly. "But you need to come to the experiment room."

Agumon scowled, his heart racing. "Why did you do this, Palmon? We're friends. How could you sell me out like this?"

Palmon refused to respond to that, simply gesturing with her hand for Agumon to come out causing him to scowl further. She wasn't even going to answer him after what she did? He didn't know what would happen to him the moment he stepped into the experiment room. His entire body trembled at the thought – didn't he even deserve this much? Didn't he deserve an answer on why he had to go through what he was about to go through?

"What would Mimi think if she knew you had sold out one of your friends?" Agumon snapped, knowing he was hitting below the belt – knowing it was unkind, but he didn't care about kindness anymore. Not after this.

Palmon rounded on Agumon, her own expression which had been blank up until now changed into fury. "Don't talk about Mimi! If she cared, we wouldn't be where we are right now!" Her voice trembled and if they were in any other circumstance, he would have felt sorry for her.

He would have felt guilty for snapping – he would even now if he wasn't about to head to his torture. He could fight her – but would Tai forgive if he attacked a fellow teammate? Or would he prefer it so he could live to fight another day? He didn't have this much time to think about it. He needed to act now.

"I'm sorry, Palmon," Agumon said softly. "But nothing excuses what you did. And nothing's going to excuse what I'm about to do either. Sharp Claws!" He struck Palmon down with his claws, heart giving a brief tinge but if this was the digital world was becoming then he had no choice either but to defend himself.

He managed to push Palmon down, knocking her out but he was surrounded by the other creatures. Being weakened from three hours of hunger and lack of sleep from the night before, he was easily overpowered though and grabbed by the shadow creatures.

He had to try though because if he had just let Palmon hand him over, he didn't think he would be able to face Tai either. The two of them together always had the courage to push down any obstacle no matter how difficult it was.

As he was dragged across the metallic floor, he felt his skin being scraped, digital blood seeping out and he winced. He had been through some tough battles over the years but this time with every inch he was dragged, he felt as if he was being drained. Had they really come this far just to lose? Had it been worth it in the end to have Omnimon come to existence if it was going to lead to enemies like this?

As he was thrown roughly into the experiment room, the voice of the enemy sent a chill down his spine.

"You've put us through a lot of trouble trying to find you, Agumon," The cold voice said. "But the experiments will teach you not to fight."

Thin plastic tubes wrapped around his arms and legs, holding him still in place. His attacks had no effect on the tubes even as he attempted to escape – it was as if the tubes were designed to block them but as a thin syringe entered his neck, he felt bile rise up his throat. He hadn't even eaten anything – so he couldn't puke, right? It was just a feeling – just a bad feeling.

"Let me go!" Agumon managed to crack out, voice straining to talk because everything was becoming a little blurry. "My friends will come for you!"

The Hollow's laugh echoed through the experimental chamber that he lay in, and he heard one last thing before his world faded to black.

"What friends?"