Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Summery: AU, very AU and dark, with mentioning of torture, violence and blood drinking.

Revealing his identity to Gennai and Catherine at last, the master turned out to be Osamu Ichijori, the older brother of Ken Ichijoji, the former Digimon Emperor. And with only one temple remaining to be looted and its core capture, the forces of evil are close to winning then ever before. And what is the secret of Witchmon, and how is she connected with Taichi

Special note: 'Thoughts'

Watching the evil digimon as it advanced on them, both Stingmon and EX-Veemon took a step back just to see how big the digimon really was. "This is not good is it?" came the slightly less confident voice of EX-Veemon as he gathered up what strength he had left at the moment.

Shaking his head shortly, Stingmon held up his arms in front of him. "Now that we can agree on."

Behind them, both Ken and Davis simply stared in shock at the new digimon to have entered the fight.

Until Davis eyes narrowed a bit as he gripped his D3 harder. "Don't give Ex-Veemon, it doesn't matter how big he is, you can still beat him!"

Almost as if he had been fueled by the words from his partner, Ex-Veemon soared into action, crossing his arms in front of his chest as another attack powered up. "I hear you Davis, and I'll never give up!" Letting the Laser blast fire off form his chest, Ex-Veemon didn't waste his time to see if it was doing any damage at all, as he was already rushing forward to attack again. "Vee Punch!"

Behind him, Stingmon flew in fast as well, two small glowing stingers emerging from his wrists as he came closer to the much larger insect digimon. "Spiking Strike!" Each of them simply bouncing off the digimon as their barely had an effect on its hard shell at all.

Hovering in the air as well, Ex-Veemon had to grumble as he saw his own attacks had barely done any damage either. "Just how powerful is that digimon, Vee-Laser!" Watching as the insect digimon battered his attack away, Ex-Veemon was left open for a second as he turned to see where the laser would impact.

An opening the large insect digimon took advantage off as it took off flying, impacting the dragon man like digimon harshly in the back. "Beetle Horn Attack!" The attack sending Ex-Veemon flying out of control down into a sand dune that covered him completely. "Double Scissor Claws!" Striking out with its arms at Stingmon as next, it missed as the fast moving digimon pulled back to safety.

"Vee-Laser!" Exploding upwards as the attack was fired off, Ex-Veemon emerged standing the middle of the sand dune as he watched the attack get battered away again. "Davis, got any ideas, my attacks can barely scratch him." Rushing forward again, the dragon man like digimon jumped up over another swipe of the those arms and lashed out with his leg in retaliation right into the lower part of Oukuwamon's face. "Vee Kick!"

Roaring in annoyance over the attack, Oukuwamon pulled up and grabbed Ex-Veemon with an arm before he could react, using the blue colored digimon as a throwing weapon when Stingmon came flying in to attack once more, this time knocking them both down.

Biting his lips slightly, Ken turned to face Davis next to him. "Why are you still here, hurry up and stop the fortress from blowing up, me and Stingmon can keep him busy." Turning back, he sopped as he felt Davis grab his arm. "Don't think about changing my mind, you know its the only way."

Facing Ken with a slightly annoyed expression, Davis didn't remove his hand from Ken's arm. "Why do you want to do this on your own, we stand a better chance of winning if we worked together, like a team." Almost yelling out the last word, Davis's face softened up a bit as he looked over at Ex-Veemon and Stingmon. "You're one of us Ken, a digi destined, and together we can win this."

"How can you say that? After all I did, you should hate me!" Ken yelled back as his finally pulled his arm free from Davis grip. "I'm the cause of this, she's using my control towers to make her digimons, so it's my problem not yours"

Grabbing Ken's arm again, Davis's eyes flashed as he stared right into Ken's face. "Will you stop that, I'm helping you because its right, because you do that for a friend, and I'll be your friend if you'd only let me!" Yelling out the end of the sentence as loud as he dared, Davis face Oukuwamon as he tried to swat out Ex-Veemon and Stingmon from the air. "We can handle this Ken, as a team, as friends, so what do you say."

Watching Davis as he smiled at him, Ken felt a large part of his resolve about working with the digi destined, and the young messy haired boy faded away. "You, but why?" Seeing Davis grin, Ken gave a small smile back at him. "You think we can beat him as a team."

Smirking at the question, Davis merely gave him a thump up in return. "I know we can." Holding out his and, he watched Ken intently as the other boy seemed to be having some internal struggled about it. "You want to give it a chance."

Slowly reaching out, Ken took the offered hand and smiled a bit. "Maybe just once." Smiling a bit as he saw Davis grin beam even brighter back at him, his brightening mood suddenly vanishing as a bight light emitted from his digivice, as well as Davis's. "What is that?!"

Narrowing his eyes a bit to see through the light, Davis merely stared helplessly as Ken as the light grew a bit bright still. "Not sure, but I think its a good thing."

Feeling a sudden rush of power, Ex-Veemon blinked as he saw Stingmon glow as well, the insect digimon moving closer to him as the power increased. "Ex-Veemon!"

Almost unsure of what was happening, Stingmon felt his body drawing closer to Ex-Veemon's while a wave of power swept through him. "Stingmon!"

"DNA Digivolve too!" Spiraling around each other, both Ex-Veemon and Stingmon felt their bodies merge together, their power mixing together into a much more powerful form. Armor covering their front, back, shoulders and head as well, with large twin cannons forming at their hips and four wings sprouted out of their back. "Paildramon!"

The now bigger and more powerful looking digimon yelling out his name in a mixture of both Ex-Veemon's and Stingmon's voice before it moved to face Oukuwamon.

Watching them, or him now, Davis nearly dropped his digivice from shock. "They, became one?"

Ken didn't reply or make a comment to it, far to shocked by the sight of the new digimon to even say something about it at the time.

Reacting as fast as he could, Paildramon spun around to face Golemon, the two gun cannons at his hips snapping up into attack position as soon as he got a clear view of the large stone man like digimon. "Desperado Blaster!" Several bullets of white energy ripping lose form the gun nozzle into the air before impacted with Golemon's back.

Each of the hit getting a cry of pain from the digimon as the rocky surface broke away to reveal the black, clear surface of evidence that it really was nothing more then a group of transformed control spires. And then that surface even shattered, reduced to nothing more then a cloud of black colored digital data that faded away in seconds.

From her safe spot, Arukenimon snarled as she saw another one of her creations simply brushed away, and this one by a fusion freak of a digimon. "You." The word dripping with venom as she jumped off the sandy ground, slamming all six of her legs into a badly prepared Paildramon. "You will pay for that!!"

Tossing her off as her scream died down, Paildramon huffed a bit as her saw the insect woman look at him. "Give it up lady, you are no match for us now." Snapping his gun cannon into place again, he tensed up as he saw the confident smirk on Arukenimon's face. "What?"

Less then a second later, his answer came as a powerful insect leg smashed into him form behind, its force enough to send him forward through the air, and right into an attack from Arukenimon, her web lines smacking him back again, but with a lot less force then the Oukuwamon's attack had.

Shaking his head, Paildramon groaned as he found himself facing two powerful foes, rather then one as he had briefly thought. "I can't believe we forgot about Oukuwamon." The words spat out as the two digimons fused into one ducked a follow attack from another one of Oukuwamon's insect legs.

Smirking as her arms lifted up to attack again, Arukenimon allowed her smirk to grow even smugger. "Too bad loser, and with Oukuwamon on my side, I'll take you down with no problems what so ever."

Getting even more tense, Paildramon prepared himself for his first major battle, wondering just how he could stand up to the two digimons at once.

The walk so far had been done in silence, something which was starting to get on Tai's nerves, even if he did prefer the silence sometimes, this was not one of them.  "So, you live with Gennai, right?" It was a dumb question, but at least it could hopefully break the ice between him and this Catherine girl.

Looking up in surprise at getting talked too, when the last fifth teen minutes had been nothing but silence, the blond haired girl took a single look to see that the messy haired boy was indeed a where of what he had asked her, even if he didn't even know what the words had made her think about.

Still debating why Gennai had opted to have her help Tai, she frowned a bit before answering him. "Yes, he took me in after a rather, final event." Her voice telling him that it was a subject best left alone at the time, if not forever. "He became the father that I had lost, and I decided to became his apprentice when he asked me."

Next to her, Floramon gave a small shrug as Agumon cat a curious look over at her, somehow hoping that the plant type digimon would tell them some more then what the blond haired girl would. Not getting anything more then a shrug, Agumon turned to face Tai. "Say, you have any idea what was up with that crazy digimon we met earlier, she seemed to know you from some place."

Slowing down a bit, Tai shook his head as he was once again reminded of the way Witchmon had spoken his name, as if she had known him a longer time then just the fight they had with her. And once again he had to leave it unanswered as he simply lacked to many clues to successfully figure it out. "No idea, maybe I met once, maybe I didn't."

Turning her head slightly, Catherine stared at the messy haired boy as he talked with his digimon partner. "You two mind speeding it up, we don't know how much damage this rampaging Imitamon can cause." Sounding a bit more snappish then she had intended, Catherine ignored the annoyed looks getting shot at her.

"Man she's bossy." Tai mumbled out as he focused on staring at the forest path before him, Feeling Agumon walk next to him as they kept heading towards this so called evil fake digimon.

Stepping over a tree root, Tai cast a quick look over at the blond hair girl as she did the same, lingering a bit as he saw just how those blond hair locks of hers framed her face when she moved it to the side a bit, a small smile of appreciation forming on his face before he shook his head viciously, banishing the thought. He liked Mimi; he had chosen her as his queen, so why did he find a bossy blond-haired French girl interesting. He had already picked the queen of his heart.

Noting the strange behavior from Tai as he shook his head while muttering something about blond and cinnamon colored hair and queens, Her face turned rather pink before anger clouded it, both of hands clenching up at her sides. "Hey! Will you focus on the task?!" Her voice rather heated as she turned to regard Tai with a mixture of tiredness and anger. "Gennai is trusting us to do this, and I for one won't fail him."
 
Looking up with a start, Tai grinned a bit in embarrassment as he noted that all three of them were staring at him. "Sorry, I was just, thinking a bout something." Turning to regard Agumon, Tai smirked a bit. "But I think I know a way we get to this evil Imitamon a bit faster."

Getting a slightly scared expression as the other three focused on him this time, Agumon gave his best smile. "Uh, you don't expect me to carry you all, I'm not strong enough for that."

Holding up his digivice as a more wider smirk formed, Tai nearly grinned as he noted Catherine and Flora brighten a bit as well as they got on to his plan. "Trust me Agumon, in a moment, that won't matter, Digivolve!" A bight column of light filling the air at Tai's command, the light covering Agumon perfectly a split second later.

"Agumon, Digivolve too, Greymon!" Towering up over them, the giant dinosaur like digimon with a bone like helmet gave a slight growl of disagreement as he focused on Tai below him. "Is this wise? What if I need my full strength to fight this digimon? I'll be tired if I have to carry all of you through the forest."

Giving his partner an annoyed expression, Tai simply placed his digivice on his belt. "I know, but look at it this way, we have some help with us this time, so I think we can allow ourselves to cut a corner of two."

Eyes narrowing a bit at the words, Greymon would have snorted at the explanation. "I still don't think its a good idea, and you three are the only ones cutting a corner, I'm one who has to walk through the forest, with all three of you on my back."

Rubbing a hand over his eyes, Tai briefly wondered where his digimon had picked up that attitude form, and how he could have put up with it all those years ago. "Let's just go Greymon, and I'll find you something nice to eat when we're done."

The promise of food, and very good tasting food, worked like a charm as Greymon took off running as fast as he could with all three on his back, pushing several tree branches out of way in his haste to reach their goal.

Turning his head slightly as he felt a pair of arms sneak around his waist, Tai blinked as he saw a rather determined looking Catherine holding onto him as Greymon rushed forward. "You okay back there? Shall I tell him to slow down a bit?"

Not looking up at him, Catherine kept her arms firmly locked around his waist as they continued towards the area Gennai had told them about. "Non, I will be fine in a bit, I am just not used to riding on digimons so it will take some time to get used to this form of transport."  

Giving a faint nod in response, Tai focused his sights on where they were going, while trying to ignore the fact that a rather beautiful girl were holding onto him, finding it rather hard to do so for some reason.

Winching slightly as Paildramon got hit but yet another attack, Yolie bit her lip before turning to stare at the two boys looking at the fight a bit off, both of them yelling out encouragements to the fused digimon up above. "We have to help them Cody, we have to."

Getting a slightly stiff look to his body, the youngest of the group looked over at them as well, a hesitant look in his eyes as he saw the blue haired one of them yell out a warning to Paildramon. "But Ken, he did so many evil things, I don't know if I can help him."

"You must!" came the harsh reply from behind them as TK and Kari reached them, both of them cradling their partners protectively.  "You can't keep on blaming him forever Cody, nothing good will ever come of that."

Nodding in agreement, Kari looked up at the fight above them, Paildramon firing off a desperado blaster that both Oukuwamon and Arukenimon ducked. "He's right you know, everyone deserve a second chance, even Ken." Holding up Gatomon as she spoke, Kari gave a slightly weak smile. "Even Gatomon worked for someone evil once you know, but she changed her ways and is now my partner and best friend."

Focusing on Cody, her eyes hardened a bit. "And don't forget, my brother was also evil once, and he was just as bad as Ken was, but you don't seem to complain about him."

Winching a bit at that comment, Cody quickly looked away from the older girl. A bit of a pain filled emotion running through him, as he had to admit that her comments were true. He hadn't complained as much over the older messy haired boy's quick forgiveness by the others, but he seemed to resent giving one to Ken.

Was it fair to anyone if he acted that way? What would his grandpa say about it? Did he only resent Ken because he had seen the things he had done, rather then just getting told about them?

Turning away from the others, Yolie looked over at Hawkmon as the bird type digimon began to glow. "I'm, I'm going to help them, cause its the right to do." Placing both hands over her digivice, she smiled at Hawkmon as he looked back at her with a feeling of pride. "You're going to help me as well, aren't you Hawkmon?"

Lifting up a wing in a determined way, Hawkmon blinked one eye at her in a teasing way. "Of course Yolie, I'm your partner digimon, no matter what you decided to do, I'll support you decision 100 percent."

Smiling a bit as a single tear ran down her face, Yolie grinned and held out her digivice. "Then lets do it Hawkmon!" The device giving out a loud screeching sound as it began to glow brightly. "What, what happening?"

Glowing with the same light, Hawkmon smiled as her as he felt his body get flooded with power. "I, I think I'm digivolving Yolie, you did it!" At his last comment, his body faded away as a bight column of white light filled the air. "Hawkmon digivolve too" Body expanding, Hawkmon felt his wings grow even bigger, a more powerful and sharp beak forming on his face while two large horns grew out of the sides of his head and curled to aim their tips in a forward direction. "Aquilamon!"

Over at the battle, Arukenimon was busy laughing her head off as she had successfully managed to wrap up Paildramon in a few think strands of webbing, the dragon man like digimon getting spun around by her as she lined up to send him flying right into Oukuwamon's snapping pincers. "I can't believe it, I'm finally getting my revenge on you brats for all my humiliations."

"Blast Ring!" The insect like digimon fun getting broke as Aquillamon shot in and fire doff a massive purple colored ring of power into her side, the force of it distracting her from spinning Paildramon around over her head.

Taking the opening as it came, Paildramon flew backwards, ripping the web holding him out of Arukenimon's hands, shredding it just in time to avoid Oukuwamon's pincers as they snapped together right behind them. "Thanks Aquillamon, and now for you!" The last spat out as the guns at his side snapped into place. "Desperado Blaster!"

Screaming loudly as each attack hit her, Arukenimon seethed, as she was thrown backwards into a sand dune, her whole body getting covered in it. "Bastard!" Screaming out the word as a curse, she tore back out of the sand, just in time to blink as a massive yellow ball with spikes on it came flying right at her. "What is that?"

Watching as Arukenimon took the full attack of his newly digivolved digimon's attack, Cody smiled as he looked down at his digivice, a small amount of pride rushing through him at the knowledge that his digimon had been able to digivolve the normal way after all. "Ankylomon, help Paildramon and Aquillamon against Oukuwamon."

Nodding in confirmation, the large digimon rushed off to help face the massive insect digimon hovering in the air above the battlefield.

Turning to face the others, the young boy frowned before looking over at the crashed fortress. "Shouldn't we be doing something about that explosion?"

Up ahead of them, Davis and Ken manage dot pick up that comment form Cody and silently stare da tone another, sharing the same thought. "We'll do it." Davis yelled out as he turned to face the fortress. "You others stay here and contact Izzy, try and find out how much time we have left."

Nodding TK placed Patamon on his head and pulled out his D-terminal, already punching in the message for Izzy. "Davis, Ken, be careful over there, and don't worry about Arukenimon, we'll keep her away from the fortress as well."

Watching the two boys run off, TK turned back to see the battle overhead, smiling as he noted how the three digimons were already working together like a team to take down the other digimon. Then a beeping sound drew his attention back to the D-terminal, a puzzled look forming on his face as he read the message Izzy had sent. "What the! Davis, Ken wait up!!"

"Too late TK." Kari commented as she saw both Davis and Ken had reached about halfway to the fortress, then her eyes moved to face Tk as her face grew tense. "It's good news is it?"

Sporting a dark frown, TK just stared down at the D-terminal as he closed it. "The fortress is not going to blow up, but Izzy picked up the traces of activity from the upper parts of the fortress." Turning to face Kari, TK sighed as he looked over at Davis and Ken as they vanished into the fortress. "They're most likely heading right into a trap."

Moving silently through the ship, both Davis and Ken kept looking around them, expecting someone to jump out and attack them at a moments notice from one of the deep shadows of the ruined fortress. "I don't like this, it's too much like one of those sci fi movies with the face ripping monsters."

Merely rising an eye brown in response to the messy haired boy's comment, the former digimon emperor kept an eye open as well, but for a different reason. The fortress had crashed all right, but who was to say all the digimons he had been keeping prisoner at the time had escape, or even left the place.

And right now, he didn't have time to come face to face with his past, to get attacked by a digimon with a good cause to wanting his death for the enslavement and torture he must have forced it to endure. No, they had to find out what had happened, and why the ship wasn't going to explode anymore.

Stopping at the emergency staircase, the blue haired boy looked up at the many floors above, mentally groaning at the thought of having to walk up every last one of them. "I wish there had been at least enough power left to make sure that at least one elevator had been working."

"I agree." Davis muttered out as he began to walk up the first set of stairs. "My muscles are so going to be complain about this later on." Not really having much more to say after it, Davis cast a discrete look back over his shoulder to see Ken walking right up the staircase behind him. "So, what was that deal with Arukenimon about earlier?"

Slightly tensing up, Ken kept his eyes on the wall of the staircase, one hand gripping the railing harshly as he was flung back mentally a few hours, once more listing to Arukenimon mocking him from his computer, telling him that he was simply a poor fool that had been controlled all along.

Forcing the thought away, Ken instead settled for leveling a firm look on the messy haired boy before he became to lost in that memory to focus on the present completely. "Nothing, it's just something between me and her." Picking up the pace a bit, Ken suddenly stopped while grabbing onto Davis's arm. "There's someone in the data storage room."

Blinking a bit at the sudden panic in Ken's voice, Davis turned his head around as he planted one foot on the next set of stairs, freezing as he noticed the small line of light coming from a door built into the wall, a line of light that was moving a bit. "You think there's a digimon in there, or someone else."

Shrugging a bit, Ken slowly moved forward, planting his left hand on the door, carefully pushing it open a bit to stare in through a small crack, eyes moving from side to side in order to spot anything that might be dangerous. "Looks like its safe, but we should still be careful."

Pushing the door completely open, Ken walked in and stopped almost at once as he saw just what state the place was in, several chairs overturned and a desk nearly ripped open by the looks of it. "What happened here?"

Breaking his concentration as it started, Ken turned his head to see a familiar figure walking out from one of the side rooms, a small lap top held in one hand while she cradle a whip in the one free hand she had left. "How nice to see you again, and you too little brother."

Smirking widely, Jun left her whip uncurled into its full length while she worked to secure the laptop if she had to get into a fight them. "I guess Arukenimon's stupid trap failed then?"

"You got that right!" Davis yelled out as he walked up past Ken, one hand snapping out to point at Jun while she grinned slightly at him in the same superior way as the last time. "What are you doing this time Jun, looking for something else to give you power, besides selling off your soul?"

Eyes flashing a bit at the accusation, Jun tighten her hold on her whip, a sharp outtake of breath leaving her mouth as she got her slight build up of anger under control. "My soul, I'm not sure I know what you're talking about Davis, I'm merely picking up something we felt could be of use in the near future."

Moving his eyes down to the laptop, Ken narrowed them as he moved up to check the sign over the data storage room she had walked out from just a few minutes ago. "So, you want the data I used to create Kimeramon with?" Clenching up a fist, Ken got ready to tackle the older girl if she as much as tried to move. "That data is going to stay right here, I'm not going to let someone else construct a monster like that."

Smirking slightly as she pattered the lap top secured on her belt, Jun smirked a bit as she saw just how much it got on the blue haired boy's nerves. "Kimeramon, you think we'll build another failure like that, no, my master got a much more brilliant plan in mind for you fools, and that is why we need this data."

Snapping her finger in a commanding way, Jun grinned a bit as her trusted digimon partner Penmon came waddling out of one of the other rooms. "Well, it's been fun, Davis, try not to get yourself killed before I can do it." Lifting up her arm, she stopped as Davis moved forward and grabbed onto it rather painfully. "Hey, let go of me!"

His eyes close to smoldering with anger, Davis kept staring into his big sister face as she glared right back at him, one hand lifting up the whip she had been holding in order to hit him with it. "I know the real you is still in there Jun, you can't tell me you gave up your soul just to become a slave to someone else."

"I am not a slave!" Came the rather heated reply as Jun spat out each word, ripping her wrist free of her younger brother's grip, ignoring the slightly stinging feel of her skin beneath the glove she wore. "I'm the first general of Babel's army, and the one who will rule the world along with him."

Moving forward at those words, Ken narrowed in pity his eyes as he stared at Jun. "You think you'll rule the digital world along with your master?" Each word dripping with sadness, and sympathy as he saw her eyes flick over to him in surprise and building hate. "Trust me, if your master is as evil as I was, there'll be no room for your opinion, or leadership once he has gotten what he wants."

Stepping back a bit, Jun froze as she felt Penmon reach out a flipper to stop her from moving any further, the fading hate coming back in full force as she felt her digimon lend her support to stand up to them. "You lie, he told me I would rule beside him, along with that traitor Yagami of course, but now that he's gone, it leaves more power for me once we have complete control over this world."

Lowering his eyes to hide the amount of pity in them, Ken felt Davis step forward this time, the young messy haired boy simply snorting at the words coming from his big sister. "Listen to yourself will you Jun, you saw how easy he tossed Taichi away and declared him a traitor, who's say he won't do the same to you and replace you with one of those fake digimons you use?"

At her side, Penmon hissed in anger as he could feel just what those young boys words were doing to his partner, and the one he had been made to keep watch over by the great Babel. "Jun, we must get out of here, use Megadramon to break down the wall, and then blow up this place once we get way." As he spoke, the digivice in Jun's belt began to glow a dark purple color, barely seen by anyone in the room but Penmon who smirked at the sigh of it.

Smiling lightly at the advice from her partner, and along the sudden surge of a superior feel of her importance to the master filling her, Jun began to giggle a bit in a way that rapidly moved into a insane laugh as she began lifting up her digivice, the dark purple glow around it suddenly expanding to cover her whole lower arm in a glaring dark purple glow. "You're both liars, Master Babel promised me that I could rule part of this world, and he would never lie to me, never."

Opening his mouth to fire back a comment, Davis blinked as he felt Ken grab his arm and pull on him. "What are you doing, we're getting through to her."

Not answering until he had dragged the messy haired boy a few steps back, Ken shot a quick look back at the laughing Jun as the purple light kept on shining bright and brighter. "We got to get of here, or didn't you hear that they're going to bomb the place."

Eyes narrowing a bit for the untold time, Ken nodded in Jun's direction. "Besides, it won't matter what you say, she's being controlled by darkness right now."

Staring at his sister as she continued to laugh, Davis finally saw the distant look in her eyes and shivered a bit, the look very much like the one he had seen on dark ringed digimons, well, what could be seen besides the red glow coming from their eyes in most cases.

Turning around before following Ken's lead in running or jumping down the stairs, he ignored the echoing laughter haunting them along the way, or the sudden violent crash from above breaking off the laughter, the sound most likely caused by Megadramon ripping through the fortress walls in order to reach his sister.

Clenching up one hand as they reached the ground floor and began to race towards one of the many opening in the fortress, he couldn't help but look back over his shoulder and through the door leading to the staircase. 'Kari was right Jun, you can still be reached, but can I really get rid of that darkness controlling you permanently? After all, it remove any progress we made so easily'

Then he was forced to blink his eyes as he was pulled off the ground, getting carried through the air as a powerful arm moved to secure him. "Paildramon?!"

"That's me." Came the reply in that odd mixture of Stingmon's and EX-Veemon's voice as the large, armor wearing, dragon man like digimon took off flying as fast as he could. "The other's spotted Megadramon approaching the fortress, so we felt it best if we came by to give you two a lift."

Grinning widely as they put as much distance between themselves and the fortress, Davis finally turned his head to stare at Ken who had a rather troubled expression on his face. "Hey, what's wrong Ken?"

Looking over at Davis, Ken's face ha a very serious expression on it. "She escaped with the data I used to make Kimeramon with, and the complete description on how to do it." Facing the horizon as he finished the sentence, Ken eyes narrowed as he noticed the sky darkening along with his mood. "Who knows what evil they will use that information for."

Falling silent after that, Davis looked back over his shoulder as the large fortress finally went up in a rather large explosion, the force of it sending the lower parts of the wreck even further down into the sand and dirt of the badland region.

The upper parts of the fortress spreading in all directions before some of the broke up into digital data clouds or fell down to land on the desert floor.

Closing his eyes as the explosion was over, Davis slowly felt a bit of his normal go happy mood die away again, he had seen that Jun could be reached, but it had to be done carefully, and without that partner of hers around, it had been able to remove all of those doubts they had awoken in her, and brought her back to the side of evil.

Moving through the forest, Witchmon grumbled as she failed to find any more traces of the digimons he had been tracking for the last hour. Her mood darkening since there hadn't been any signs of it, not even a broken tree to clue her in on which direction it could have gone off in.

Finally giving up on finding him, she reached down a hand and lifted op the device hidden away under her belt, a small buzzing sound going off as she activated it. "Master, there is something wrong with the Imitamon you gave me, he has broken out and refuses to follow my orders to return."

On the other end of the line, Babel smiled darkly as he listen to her, one finger tracing a circle motion in the air as he toyed with his digivice in the other hand. "Amazing isn't it, these digi cores, with three of them, I am now able to not only tamper with the digital world's code, I can also improve the imitamons."

Ignoring Witchmon's confused look, He sat up straight and gave her his full attention as his eyes grew completely cold and devoid of any emotion. "There is no problem with that Imitamon my dear Witchmon, it is simply an improvement I gave him as a test, he can now trace the traitor if he is within a given range of 50 KM, now find him."

Moving to turn off the device, he stopped as he gave her a closer look. "And Witchmon, have you found yourself feeling anything strange about Yagami?" Still devoid of any emotion, in both eyes and voice, he still made Witchmon shudder a bit as she shook her head in a negative way. "Good, now go and find your lost Imitamon."

Watching as the device switched off, Witchmon sighed from frustration before replacing the device and urging her broom to take her up a bit more, the small hope that maybe she could spot him from the air more effectively then by tracking him from just above the ground.

Tracing a finger across the evening sky as she moved above the tree line, her eyes refocused on the ground below after shutting off the faint feeling of having watched it before, or something like it, but with a strong, and friendly person talking to her.

But it couldn't be, she had awoken in her master's lair, her body stiff and cold from the floor she had been lying on at the time. But it was the feeling of pain and loss sweeping through her that had nearly made her panic, until he had embraced her, told her who she was, and what had happened.

She was his creation, she lived to serve him, and her job was to find the one who had betrayed the Master, the one who had cost him his home and hers as well.

This Taichi Yagami would pay for the humiliation he had caused the Master, and she would make him regret everything he had done to the one who had given them both life, the one who had saved his life when no one else could.

Still Moving through the forest on Greymon's back, Tai cast a small look back at Catherine as she began to ease up on her death grip like hold on his waist. "Feeling a bit more comfortable riding like this?" Trying to keep the question from coming off as a hostile one.

Looking a bit suspiciously at him, Catherine finally settled for nodding a bit in response, her eyes drawn over to stare at something in the distance. "There, its over there!" Snapping out an arm, she pointed at the growing shape in the distance that she had managed to spot.

Turning his head, Tai nodded as he saw it too, briefly narrowed his eyes as a frown settled on his face. "Doesn't look like that much of a challenge to me, what can it really do?" Titling his head, he saw that Greymon had already gotten the hint and had begun to change direction to advance on the enemy digimon. "You ready for this pal?"

Rumbling a bit in response to the question, Greymon's mouth filled up with fire as he picked up the pace a bit. "I'm always ready Tai, you know that." Cutting of the conversation after that, Greymon focused on the digimon as it too turned to head directly towards them. "Nova Fire!"

Getting a dark roar in return as the digimon saw the large fireball flying towards it, it seemingly became quiet clear to the two humans on Greymon's back as the fire lit up its perfectly. The digimon looking like a normal reptile like digimon, but for the two other heads it had for hands stood out a bit too much alone with the two tails. "A Deltamon?"

Blinking her eyes a bit, Catherine cast a quick look over at Tai as he finished muttering out the name of the attack fake digimon. "How did you know what form it had taken? None of us ever told you that." Her question turning into a demanding tone in the end while her eyes harden to match her voice.

"I'm not sure." He mumbled out before focusing on Greymon as they continued to charge towards the digimon. "Try another Nova Fire attack, the first didn't seem to do much!"

Not replying to Tai's yell, Greymon simply did do as he was ordered, or were rather advised to by his partner as another volley of fire began to form in his mouth, taking careful aim at his opponent's chest area. "Nova Fire!"

Both sensing and see the second round of fire heading towards its, Deltamon eyes seemed to glow in a sickening yellow color as power surged through its body, the mouth of all tree of its heads glowing with the same light. "Triplex Forces!!" The attack fired off as its roar filled the air.

About two thirds of the way to Deltamon's body, the Nova Fire impacted the Triplex Forces, the Fire ball shuddering for a brief second as it was torn apart by the yellow beam of energy, a beam that didn't even gave the hint of slowing down after that, but rather continued right towards Greymon's surprised, and shocked head.

Kicking out rather harshly to snap his digimon partner out of his shock, both Tai and Catherine watched as Greymon seemed to snap out of it in time to move back violently to avoid getting hit. "That was too close, seems he's a bit stronger then the normal Deltamon should be." Came a slightly shocked comment from Tai as Greymon stopped moving again.

"Seems that Babel has improved on his fake digimon designs." Catherine voiced out as she lifted up her digivice into the air with a single hand, the other one still wrapped around Tai's waist. "Digivolve!"

Behind her, Floramon had already begun standing up when the order from her partner reached her, along with a rush of power filling her body. "Floramon, digivolve too." The plant body twisting a bit as a bright light covered it for a second, a light that wend it receded showed that Floramon had become a slightly taller, wingless bird with a small helmet covering the top of her head. "Kiwimon!"

Running forward on Greymon's back, his beak snapped open as he got clear of Tai and into a position for a perfect shot at Deltamon's head, the fake digimon charging at them with a roar of pure and absolute rage. "Pummel peck!"

Stopping and shaking his head from side to side, Deltamon's eyes closed as more and more of the smaller birds head projectiles kept on hitting him, then he gave another roar and twisted around, lashing out with his tails to knock away the bird heads hitting him.

Narrowing his eyes as he saw Deltamon turn his back to them, Tai grinned as the digimon had left his back wide open for a sneak attack. "Greymon!"

Not wasting time, Greymon once more filled his mouth with fire, this time aiming it right at Deltamon's unprotected backside. "Nova Fire!"

Screaming in pair as the fire hit, Deltamon slowly turned back to focus on Greymon, each of his tree heads slowly snapping their jaws shut in unison.

Losing a bit of his confidence, Tai looked back at Catherine, a slightly apologetic expression taking the place of his otherwise confident expression. "I think it would be best if you got of, this battle won't be an easy one to win."  

Mouth becoming a thin line, Catherine stared at Tai as her eyes narrowed a bit. "Whatever, you just have to make Greymon digivolve again." Seeing the puzzled expression on his face at her comment, the blond haired girl sighed loudly. "Tell me you have that crest your sister got from Gennai? The one that belongs to you, the crest of courage."

"Um." Came the reply from Tai as he turned his head away, one hand going up to where the crest would have been if he had worn it. "I didn't feel comfortable wearing it, not yet."

Rubbing her free hand across her face Catherine sighed loudly once more as she turned to face Kiwimon firing off another volley of bird heads at Deltamon, slowing down the large fake digimon once more. "Gennai, I'm doing this for Gennai and no one else."

Feeling a bit more confused at her sudden mumbling, Tai blinked as something glinted from her around her neck as she slowly pulled out a gold chain with a square, pink colored object in a tag case attached to it. "You have a crest?"

Ignoring Tai's question, Catherine took a deep breath as her hand closed down gently on the crest. "Please, Kiwimon, Digivolve!" Snapping open her eyes at the end of her sentence, she smiled as a loud, screeching sound filled the air while her digivice started shaking in its place on her belt.

Up in front of them, Kiwimon jumped off Greymon's head as a strange yellow beam of light shot down from the sky, hitting Kiwimon, as she was halfway down in her jump. "Kiwimon digivolve too." Body twisting rather savagely for a second, the bird like shape expanding as it became much larger, several vine like objects shooting out to the sides of it. "Blossomon!"

Staring down at the plant digimon before him, Deltamon simply grunted in an insulted kind of way before opening all three heads, light forming inside each set of jaws as they had fully opened. "Triple Forces!"

Docking under the beam of light as it shot towards her, Blossomon snapped back up in her full height as the beam had passed, several glowing points of light forming in the center of the small flowers at the tip of each vine as they began to spin. "Spiral Flower!" At the yell, the vines snapped out harshly and sent each flower flying forward with a sound very much like a buzz saw.

Moving his head back a bit, Deltamon roared out in pain as he got hit by the spinning flower heads, several lines getting drawn across his body as the flower heads circle him and headed back to Blossomon's vines, the lines glowing faintly as bits of digital data seeped away from them.

Still sitting on the back of Greymon with Catherine, Tai cheered at the damage done to Deltamon. "Alright, Greymon, hit him now with everything you have!" Snapping out a finger as he spoke, Tai grinned as Greymon began to charge forward, fire forming in his mouth.

Then it faded away as a powerful, blue colored tornado like attack hammered into the forest floor between Greymon and Deltamon, the sheer force carving a small crater into the earth. "Aw, how could you start without me Deltamon? I wanted to kill them as well."

Snapping his head up, Tai blinked as he instantly spotted and recognized the digimon hovering in the air above the battle field, her red robe giving her away along with the witches hat and broom. "You, Witchmon!"

Waving her hand at the messy haired boy in a friendly manner, her face lit up with a smile as she lowered her broom down a bit with her on it. "Aw, I see you went and replaced the brown haired one for a blond girl. What happened? She got too smart for you so you had to find a blonde one to feel like a human again?" Giggling darkly at the comment, she opened one eye to see Catherine glaring death at her. "And what's wrong with you Blondie?"

Left eye ticking rapidly at the last comment from Witchmon, Catherine felt her fingers crack a bit as she released her hold on her crest. "Stop calling me stupid!" The volume of Catherine's yell causing Tai's ears to ring as he took the full brunt of it being so close to her at the moment.

Smiling smugly at the girl's outburst, Witchmon simply settled for rubbing one of her hands on her chin in a thoughtful manner. "Well, I didn't really call you stupid, I just said he needed to find a blond girl to feel human." Grinning smugly as she finished talking, her eyes suddenly turned ice-cold as her hands snapped up into attack position. "And now, it's time to pick off where we left off last time Yagami." The sentence ending as two blue spheres formed in the palm of her hands. "Ready!"

"Triplex Forces!" Ducking back quickly to avoid the beam of light, both Witchmon and Greymon glared at Deltamon as the large digimon began to advance forward, more and more digital data seeping away from his body as the lines left by the flowers began to grow larger and larger with each passing second.

Mouth opening at the sight of what was happing to Deltamon, Witchmon quickly turned to face Tai and the others again as they were staring smugly at her. "What? How did you two manage to hurt Deltamon like that? He should be stronger then a mere champion digimon."

Holding up her crest for Witchmon to see, Catherine was now the one who wore the smug smile as she noted the slightly confused look on the witch like digimons face. "This is the crest of trust, with it I can digivolve my partner into an ultimate level digimon."

Clenching up one hand as blue light began to swirl around it, Witchmon le tout a cold snarl as she focused on the blond haired girl. "So you have a crest do you, well, you can't take on both of us at once Blondie." As she spat out the insulting name, Witchmon noted that Greymon mouth were filling up with fire again, fire that wasn't aimed at her but at Deltamon moving towards them slowly. "Hey? What do you think you are doing you oversized lizard?"

Not listing to Witchmon as she ranted at him, Greymon focused on the struggling Deltamon, aiming his attack right at the point were more then two line of fading data were meeting. "Nova Fire!" The attack hitting right were it should despite Witchmon screaming in anger at him.

Letting out a final roar as the fire hit him, Deltamon body twitched a few times as it crashed into the ground, each of his tree heads letting out a final moan, as the lizard like one closed its eyes before losing all color like the normal imitamon's do before apart into digital data

Watching her back up digimon break apart into a cloud of data, Witchmon growled as her hands curled up into fists as a fire of rage formed in her eyes. "You will pay for this, all of you, mark my words." Yelling out the comment, Witchmon began to fly off, her broom picking up speed as Blossomon turned her attention to the witch like digimon.

Staring after her, Tai shook his head a bit as he finally let out a small breath of air that he had been holding. "You know, I thought we would have to fight her as well." Then he stopped talking as he noticed Catherine simply staring at him with a frown. "What?"

Replacing her crest back down under her robe, the blond haired girl picked up the hood and placed it over her head as she moved to slide down Greymon's tail, stopping only to look back at Tai from under the shadow of her hood. "You may be so bad as I thought Yagami, but it will take more then this to make me forgive you for what you did to Floramon, and all of those innocent digimons you killed as Babel's servant."

Losing all of his confidence, Tai turned his head away from her, hiding the fact that her words hurt far more then he wanted for her for anyone to see. "I never asked for your forgiveness, nor did I plan on ever getting it." Sliding down from Greymon as the large digimon settled down, Tai shot a look over at the blond girl as she picked her digimon when she dedigivolved. "It was nice meeting you."

Opening his mouth to reply in an offended way, Tai shut it as he thought better of it. "Yeah, likewise." Looking down at his digivice, he stared at the map on it. "There's a digi port a away form here Greymon, we should able to reach it before nightfall."

"What do you mean we?" Greymon rumbled out as he stood up again, taking one step forward into the forest. "I'm the one who will be doing all the walking."

Grinning a bit at his complaint, Tai settled back down on Greymon's back. "Well, I could walk as well, but we'd miss out on all the food that mom's making." Below him, he could feel Greymon stiff a bit. "And I'm sure you would love to have nice big meal after all you've done today."

Stomping off, Greymon felt Tai laugh a bit behidn him. "You're evil Tai, you know that right?" His voice showing just how hungry he was.

Giving Greymon a pat on the back, Tai looked down at him as he gave a real smile at him. "Hey, if it will make you feel better, I promise the next time you won't have to carry us all around."

Standing in the clearing, Catherine watched as Tai and Greymon left, her eyes softening up a bit as she felt Floramon plant one of her arms at her side. "You were right Floramon, he isn't so bad after all, but he still needs to do a lot of work to earn my complete trust."

Accepting the collection of data from Jun, Babel smirked in a cold way as he unfolded the lap top and began to read the data stored on it, each line making his smirk grow just a bit wider. "Good, very good." Looking up form it, he closed it and then turned to face Witchmon standing in the corner of the room with a feeling of despair to her. "It's nice to see that someone can actually do the job they were sent to do."

Slipping further into a sulking mood, Witchmon turned her head away to stare out the window and down at the city below, her eyes hardening as she saw a small group of human children walk past, each of them looking rather happy as they talked about something.

The sight of it making the magic using digimon sick to her stomach, how dared they be happy when she was just a failure to her master and creator. Twice she had failed to kill the traitor Yagami, and she still hadn't figured out why her soul and heart twisted every time she saw him.

But none of that didn't matter, soon it would all be over one way or another, and she could serve her master to all time, as she had been created to do. For it was her only reason to exist. And no matter what her heart or soul had to say about it, she wouldn't believe it.

The next time she met Taichi Yagami, she would be the winner, or die trying.

TBC: BlackWargreymon.

AN: Arukenimon's recent losses make her create a new trump card, and with his great power, she will be sure to win over the digi destined once and for all, or will she. And in the shadows, Oikawa and Babel begin to plot against each other as the location of the temple of Azulongmon is discovered and loyalties are tested.