The sun crept into the horizon, like a predator searching for its prey, but within the green zone, its light didn't penetrate its vast grassy landscape, there was a light though not coming from the sky, the sun's warmth laying way out of reach for anyone to get embraced by it. It had been a cold night for the digidestined, not just in heat, but it emotional standpoint, because none of them had gotten any sleep what so ever. Because they felt eyes had been watching them all night and they probably had been watching them, Ikelosmon and his sentinels watching every move they made, hoping that one of digidestined would just walk out and surrender. Things were not looking good for them, and would likely get worse from here on in.

Lilithmon watched down on her digidestined, with one of her mirrors, she had regained some of her strength, but her complexion was still pale as a corpse. She needed to help them somehow, and soon. She entered the chamber that the digi chips had been made in, she was going to search through her sister's notes hoping that she would have any idea on what she would do.

Digimon Sync Episode 43 "Further into the Grey"

Ankou was the last one to join the others for breakfast, and like them he puffiness under his eyes from lack of sleep, except for Kiseki, who seemed to gotten some sleep. He looked out into the void that was the green zone, but quickly turned away from it hoping to forget the other night withal that had happened to them.

Kiseki handed Ankou some bacon and eggs served on a wooden plate "I dreamed of one day seeing the world, it's heart breaking to see this place like this after all that I have heard about it" sorrow creased her expression and made her look older than she actually was.

Sorami Yagami yawned, and attempted to rub the sleep out of her eyes that were fighting to close on her, she slapped herself light on the cheek to wake up.

Kiseki fumbled in her satchel at her side, and showed everyone a weird root "it's an herb that grows in primary village, we brew it to make tea, mainly used as a cure for Narcolepsy" she said smiling "I took some myself this morning" she then boiled some water with the help of her digimon partner who rubbed two sticks together to start a fire to heat the water, then handed everyone a cup of tea.

Sorami hesitated and took a sip, and immediately started gagging before force herself to finish it "its horrible but it works, I feel a lot better now" she said seeming more alert with each word. She watched the other drink there, knowing how bad it must taste for them.

"It's usually mixed with other things but I knew it needed to be more potent for what we have to do, we need to be wide awake for it" Kiseki said as she closed her satchel.

"I heard at the end of this trail, is a beautiful oasis with what I heard is the most breathtaking waterfalls, would that be protected from this too, it's supposedly the tears of the great old ones, when they to seal away their brother the two sisters wept for days" Sorami asked as they were all just about to leave.

"Yes it is, and its right after the last obelisk, you know when you close is when you see a huge mass of blue, the water is that pure" Kiseki said, "my uncle traveled there once and brought me back some of its water"

"I have only heard legends of it I would like to see this, I can't wait" Sorami said sounding very excited, and picturing herself immersed in the oasis's waters, with Soichiro.

"This water talk is making me thirsty" Ankou said pulling out the water skin, and taking a sip before offering it to everyone else, and the only one to take that offer was his digimon partner.

They continued through the now nightmarish, green zone, till they reached it borders, and into a much worse looking forest, all the trees seem to have scary faces, it was like they were watching them. The forest let up in time as soon as another monument appeared, with an obelisk at its very center, it was filled with wild, this time they made it just in time, nightfall was happening again, and they set up camp again, Ankou wondered off toward the obelisk while everyone was busy. He say in front of it and its light bathed him, till he was in the white room again, she turned to face, she wore a worn smile this time. "I have found something I can do but it's not ready yet" she said sweetly, her skin was a grey color, even she did sound better than the last time.

"Please be careful I don't want to lose you" Ankou said putting his arms around Lilithmon, and looked her right in the eyes "The world means nothing if you're not in it"

Lilithmon pulled away "I'll be very careful, but what you're doing is the most important thing I'll ever do for humanity and digimon kind, I need to follow through with this" then she vanished as the white room faded leaving Ankou in front of the Obelisk once again.

Ankou returned to the others, this time getting firewood on his way back so they didn't ask him where he was even though Sorami, Soichiro, and Damien eyed him suspicious because it was weird for him to do manual labor without being badgered to do so.

Morning they hadn't slept a wink either, and they drank Kiseki's disgusting tea once again, it wasn't as bad as the first time, since they knew the horrible taste was coming, after they drank and eat breakfast they continued on with their journey, they entered a tunnel, it was the creepiest thing they ever entered, there was another monument and obelisk, but this time Ankou couldn't separate from the others, he would have to wait till the next one, they rest for a few minute before they continued onwards. Something weird started to happen, the ground felt mushy and oozy. That's when Sentinels started forming around them. They were surrounded them and it didn't seem good at all their chances of escape.

"It's not even nightfall yet how are they active now, that woman, and her family transformed into them but they all vanished right after?" Soichiro asked, he was confused about their current situation.

That's when the sounds of rain started at the tunnels exit, its sounds echoed through the tunnel, and their Ikelosmon stood. He smirked down at them "it's over digidestined, now prepare for your end, after you are gone I'll free my father, and my brothers" he said through his oil dripping fangs. "They are waiting for me now that I am strong enough to take out that fox girl for good this time…" his sentence was cutoff when an electric slammed into him from knocking him into the wall, and something happened some of the sentinels. And at the end of the tunnel someone shouted run, it was girl's voice. And the digidestined did what they were told, and made a run for it towards the origin of the voice. At the end they were joined by a boy and a girl, that highly resembled each other from hair, eyes, dark complexions, to the way they were dressed all were identical. They lead the digidestined to a monument, same like the others with an obelisk at its center.

"Why the hell did you guys go into the tunnel, the shadows are controlled by him they are a substance of nightmare, and they are called an in-between, are you that stupid?" The girl shouted at them almost getting in each of their face, it was like she was their mother scolding them for being bad. While the guy stood there wordlessly twiddling his thumbs like he didn't want to be there. The girl calmed down suddenly "ok it's over and you are ok I am Rei Mishima, and this is my brother Kazuma, from your presence here I am guessing your digidestined like us" she pointed at her guy and he doesn't speak at all. "Sorry he is a mute"

"No I am not" Kazuma said "my actions speak for me"

"We are from Digitopa, we were on a pilgrimage to the oasis, when we got our digi chips, and Lorrimon explained what was going on, and Lilithmon directed us to where you were" Rei said pulling out her digivice and chip "I am the virtue of hope and my brother is the virtue of kindness" she looked them and sighed "No one told you that Ikelosmon controls in-betweens, we learned the hard way ourselves and were lucky to get away… Why was I yelling at you, you wouldn't have had this information!" she slapped herself in the forehead. "Why did I expect you to know this stuff?"

"isn't it over, you defeated Ikelosmon?' Sorami asked trying to muddle through everything that just happened. She knew she was grasping but was hoping for the best, she wanted to go home.

"Nope" Kazuma said crossing his arms.

"Yes my brother is right, I caught him off guard, he is far from being defeated, and did you think it would be that easy an electric blast from my Tentomon?" Rei said nearly breaking into a shout. She was around the same age as the rest of them but she acted like a den mother.

"What are we going to do now?" Soichiro asked already annoyed with Rei's shouting at him and his friends, he kind of liked Kiseki, even with her bizarre nature of leaping before looking. But she was already growing on him, and he didn't know if he would ever like these two at all. One was loud and bossy, and the other was quiet and spoke very little.

Rei pulled out a map, and which was marked severally leading to an X "this is where Ikelosmon's base is located, we were given this map, it was drawn by a digimon named Kitsumon, and given to us by Lilithmon but we had to rescue you guys first" she said with ambivalence, knowing had been done, and not liking teaming up with amateurs, her brother and herself were raised as hunters by trade out the outskirts of Digitopia, they were the youngest to gain that title, and were proud of it.

Kazuma's digimon partner Floramon sat quietly as stone at his human partner's side, he was observing what was going on around him, making note of all the new acquaintances, so he could remember this stuff later like his human he believed actions spoke louder than words, and he barely spoke himself.

While this was all happening, Ankou wondered off from the others, and headed towards the obelisk in the center of the monument, he couldn't wait to see her again, he sat in front of it, and the light whisked him away to the white room, and there she was once again, as lovely as he remembered.

She ran up to him, and smiled "They found you" she said "I did everything I could to guide them, it was lucky they were from Digitopia, as they tend to carry mirrors with them for good luck "she placed her hand on Ankou's shoulder, and brought him close to her, she kissed him on the cheek again just like when they first met. They then stared into each other eyes, hers a very stunning purple.

That was when Ankou pulled in and kissed Lilithmon right on the mouth, and they kissed passionately, they continued like this for several minutes before she pulled away from him her face turning a slight shade of red.

"What was that for?' Lilithmon asked slightly confused, but was knew the answer she was going to get from him but just wanted to hear it.

"I wanted to do that since the day we met, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever met and I fell in love with you when you first kissed my cheek" Ankou said, his face turning a matching shade of red, and then Lilithmon interrupted by kissing him this time. Both their heart were in sync with each other. She pulled away again "sorry you have to go, I'll see you at the next monument, I'll have something more to help you then"

"Sister I helped all of them, and given them their digivices" Lorrimon's voice said as it echoed from behind Lilithmon.

Then the white room faded, leaving Ankou in front of the obelisk, but when stood and turned around he came face to face with Kiseki "This was where you were sneaking off, were you talking to Lilithmon?' she asked "Either that or you were learning the history of our world, I won't tell anyone"

"Yes I was talking to Lilithmon, she will be sending more help at the next monument" Ankou leaving out the part about him making out with her. Because it was none of Kiseki's business, even though wouldn't be that rude about if he actually mentioned.

"That's good, the next monument is right before the base of Ikelosmon, we need all the help we can get" Kiseki said not trying to go deeper into the Lilithmon matter, and she wasn't going to mention the face he had been making when had been in contact with Lilithmon. "We better head back before they start wondering where we are"

They returned, and told them about being in contact with Lilithmon, without mentioning the previous times, he had talked to her at the other monuments, it seemed to lift the mood of the others hearing that Lilithmon was working on a way to help them defeat Ikelosmon.

"And you had doubted her" Ankou said looking directly at Soichiro, who looked rather embarrassed that his friend had just brought that up.

Soichiro rubbed the bruise on his cheek from where Kiseki had slapped him "I said I was sorry about that and I didn't mean it, if I hadn't been clear on that I have now" he said hoping that this was the end of that.

"Do we have an attack plan, actually I think we have to wait to see what Lilithmon does before planning anything everything does depend on her" Damien said looking in the direction of the last monument "All we have to do is survive the trip there"

The moon once again raised into the night sky while the sun retreated to the other side of the planet, even though it didn't matter what astral body was above them, the only light that was allowed in was the eerie one that let them all see, even though they had just met Rei and Kazuma, they had helped set up camp, and sat around the campfire with them, Rei still found ways while setting this up to tell them off and told them the right way to do something. Ankou recounted the tale of how they became digidestined and up until they met up with Rei and Kazuma.

"That's horrible" Rei said standing up as she spoke "That poor family, I should say poor families as that probably was what happened to that entire village"

"And exactly we need to stop from spreading further by defeating Ikelosmon" Damien said "it will take everything we have to do so"

"Once we are done, lets visit the oasis to celebrate if we defeat him" Sorami said clapping her hands together jubilantly once but wary of their situation. Knowing it's not going to be easy.

"I have a question for Rei, if Ikelosmon can control shadows, why couldn't he control any of our shadows or those of the trees in the forest?" Ankou asked confused about the whole, and it just hit him there that he wanted to ask that question.

" He can't control those of living beings, when you were in that tunnel you were in a major In-Between, you were lucky he didn't notice until you were leaving it" Rei answered, "Now you know and now you can't be that stupid again"

When morning came once again, they left the shelter of the obelisk, and the monument, they had to hurry and get to the final, and they would communicate with Lilithmon there, and make their plans for the final conflict with Ikelosmon, the way was dotted with twisted landscapes, they grey sky above them that looked like an impressionist painting made them ever so home sick, the only ones not affected by this were Rei, Kazuma, and Kiseki, who seemed fine. Soichiro seemed the worst for wear, the bags under his eyes had bags of their own, and he most likely hadn't slept since they started this quest. Sorami watched him and she was very worried about his state of mind. Even though she herself was marginally doing better than him herself.

"According to Rei's map, we have several hours before we reach our destination, we need to pick up speed but we might need to rest up. We are like the walking dead in our present condition, Kiseki needs to boil up some of her wake up juice" Damien said with Kiseki nodded in response to what he said, but her expression said they were running out of the stuff needed to make the tea they were drinking to stay awake. After several minutes Kiseki was once again handing everyone the bitter tea once again, they drank and then continued on forward towards the final monument.

Even with the tea to most of the digidestined this whole thing started to feel like a death march, one that led them to the very thing that was going to take their lives, the sun a grey colorless messenger of death above them as it moved across the sky threatening to slipped into the horizon. They had been lucky so far on this quest but their luck could run out at any moment.

"I want to see a sun full of color, seeing it this way makes me sad" Sorami Yagami shouted, and then crumpling to her knees, and started to sob uncontrollable "the sun should light the day and the moon should light up the night" she had been using the thought of the oasis to drive herself forward, but now she had finally snapped from homesickness, and missed the beautiful skies of Lilithia.

"Please hold it together, till we reach the final monument" Soichiro helped her to her feet. "I see it right ahead now" and there it was right in front of them just an hour or two walk.

"Great this quest is almost done" Ankou said as he was almost as homesick as Sorami, also in front of him was another chance to see Lilithmon, the only thing that had been holding him together, she was his rock, the one that held his sanity from drifting away. Her kiss still warm in his memory, this made his pulse race like it was going to rip it way out of his chest. A smile forced its way on his face. He pictured in his mind the first day they had met, it was his way of holding onto his composure, and then the moment they first kissed on the lips.

They now entered a landscape that looked like skeletal fingers sticking out of the ground, when in fact they were dead trees, the lack of sun had killed them, and they had deformed themselves trying to find the sun again, they had fought and failed, dying in the process. This was by far the creepiest place, something reached out from one of the dead trees, and grabbed Sorami by the leg, and dragged her away from the others, and since the trees were dead their shadows were in-betweens. She screamed as the sentinel hand dragged her to her.

Soichiro had frozen up, he grasped his digivice, hoping to force it to activate so he could save his friend, and he couldn't make himself move from the spot he was rooted on. That's when courage flooded him his digivice glowed, the light of courage made the sentinel let go of Sorami. "Digi synchronization, Courage chip activate" him and his partner were encased in spheres of light, when they dissipated Patamon was now Angemon.

"Hand of fate" Angemon shouted as charged at the sentinels, they shrieked as it touched them, and cowered before coming back renewed and now attacking Angemon. "Omni Typhoon" he called out and then creates a glowing tornado, that envelopes all the sentinels in the area, and drives them away. When they were finally one Soichiro dropped to his knees the whole thing had taken quite a bit out of him. Last thing he remember before passing out was the other digidestined running towards him.

In a makeshift gurney, Ankou, and Damien carried Soichiro, the rest of the way towards, while avoiding shadows of dead trees, after getting there they gently laid him on the ground, and covered him with a blanket, they were going to let Soichiro sleep it off.

"Take us to this obelisk, you contacted Lilithmon with" Damian said, turning to look at Ankou.

"You guys go I'll stay here with Sorami, and Soichiro I need to tend to their injuries" Kiseki said, she had more of wary expression than usual, this was the first she ever had this expression when they were at a monument.

Ankou guided them to the Obelisk, it was just like the previous ones, but someone was waiting for them there, was it another digidestined, they walked up to the newcomer.

"Greetings fellow digidestined I am Liam Orion, I hold the virtue of friendship" the guy said as he turned to face them.

"We are here to talk with Lilithmon, these obelisk let us contact her, she said this will be the one where she will have something to help us" Ankou said walking toward the obelisk, he walked up to Liam, with Rei, Damien, and Kazuma following suit. It seemed like the others but something felt odd about, he couldn't put words to the vibe it was giving off. Liam moved aside so Ankou could stand in front of the obelisk, and then a light shot from it, and all of them were encased in it, but instead of a white room it was crimson, and a warped, they were surrounded by trees with rictus grins on their faces.

"You feel for it" Liam said, with his head turning, and his head now backwards on his body "The digidestined of friendship was dead I got to him first and killed. Believe me you are going to die as horribly as he did, I hid the real monument" tears of old pours from his eyes "Welcome to my forest of nightmares, enjoy your visit it will be your last!" he then melted into a puddle of black oil.

Suddenly laughter echoed from all around them, it was like they were in the mouth of a giant monster, who was having a wicked belly laugh, it made every hair on their bodies feel like it was standing on end. And it got louder and louder till they all had cover their ears, things had just gotten worse, one they weren't at the final monument. It had been a trap, and they had fallen for like poor Liam had probably did, one of the digidestined had died without them having a chance to meet up with him.

"Now how do we get out of here?" Ankou shouted, finally losing his nerve "Please Lilithmon we need you! Come on Lilithmon we need your help I am scared please don't let us die!"

"She can't hear you!" Said a voice that echoed from all around them loud enough that it caused a ringing in all of their ears.

-To Be Continued-

What will happen now to the digidestined, which one will parish next, to answer this questions and more please tune into the next Digimon digital monsters