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 Ichijoji, older brother of Ken Ichijoji, the Digimon Emperor. And with only one temple remaining to be looted and its core capture, the forces of evil are close to winning. And what is the secret of Witchmon, and how is she connected with Taichi

Special note: 'Thoughts'

Standing on a flat rocky outcropping in the middle of a medium sized mountain range, Arukenimon seethed as she once again had to accept another defeat, each one more bitter tasting then the last one. But this time there would be no defeat, for even as her anger were still burning hot, her mouth had moved into a dark smirk.

Behind her, Mummymon rubbed one bandage hand on his chin as he saw Arukenimon's smirk, his whole body tingling at the knowledge that she had already come up with another brilliant plan. "So, what is this time, another ambush?"

"No." Came the reply as Arukenimon turned to face him, her face lit up with glee as one hand ran through her hair, each of the strands reflecting the light around them. "We will face them head on, but with a monster not even they can defeat with their new fusion freak of a digimon."

Laughing the spider like digimon turned to stare out over the endless seeming field of black towers. "It will cost a lot of my pretty toys, but to see the digi destined defeated, it will be worth." Unleashing her power, she twisted until she had assumed her human form. "Come Mummymon, we must prepare for the arrival of the greatest digimon to date, after me of course."

Rolling his eyes a bit at her last comment, Mummymon began to follow after her. "So, what kind of digimon are you gong to create this time?" Not a single one of them paying any attention to the two shadows keeping an eyes on them from the top of a cliff. "Come on Arukenimon, at least give me some kind of hint."

Turning around as Mummymon began to pester the digimon in human form, the first of the shadows sighed as she lifted up a hand to her chest. "Gennai, it is as your feared, Arukenimon and Mummymon are on the move again, and this time they are going to go all out on the digi destined I fear."

"Well done Catherine." Came the reply from Gennai as a small device on her wrist began to glow. "Return to base, we have to make own plans for the coming events."

"Yes sir." As she was done replying, Catherine turned around to leave, stopping only to gaze harshly in the direction that Arukenimon had left in. "How can a digimon even wish to harm the world they're from?"

Sitting calmly in his chair, Oikawa stared across the room and right into the face of Babel as he toyed with that homemade digivice of his. "Care to explain your recent actions one more time, as I still fail to see why the sabotage of a perfect trap was needed in the first place"

Barely showing any reactions to his threat, Babel sighed a bit and turned to look out the window. "Oikawa, as I told you once, we have different goals, and while we are allies, my final objective demanded that I got my hands on that data from the fortress."

Standing up at the rather insulting tone of voice form his guest, Oikawa felt his fist clench up from his anger. "Then you could have gotten it earlier, you didn't have to wait until it became a hindrance in the plans." Getting his anger under control, Oikawa turned his back on Babel and marched over to the door. "The next trap will not require your help, or that of your servants, understood."

Simply nodding, Babel stood up as well, pocketing his digivice and giving off a simple smile. "Of course, Witchmon and Jun won't be a problem, I have given them strict orders to find the last temple." Facing the window and looking out of it, he crossed his hands on his back. "The gateway will soon be open to me again."

Not uttering single word as he stayed in the door opening, Oikawa silently went over the last sentence, one hand clenching and unclenching. "Do not forget, it is us both who will enter the digital world Osamu, not just you." Walking out of the room, he ignored the dirty look he was given by Babel. "Hiroki, I wish you could be here, to see the moment when we enter the world of our dreams, to see the place we both dreamed of visiting."

Sneering a bit as the door shut, Babel returned to his own thoughts as he settled back down in his chair, one hand reaching out for the laptop nearby while making one last check to ensure he was really alone. "Oikawa, for a human of your determination, you can really be stupid from time to time."

Hitting the on button, he silently stared as the screen buzzed for a bit before showing a small view of the digital world before him. "Jun, Witchmon, answer me!" A few seconds after his demand, the screen split to show both of his servants staring at him. "How goes the construction of my new base of operations?"

Jun giggled a bit as she stepped back, showing off a bit more of her then just her head. "It will be complete soon, Lord Babel." Turning her head to side, she grinned as she held up one hand and signaled someone of screen. "You will also be glad to hear that I have completed my own trap for the traitor, one that will shock him to the core."

"I don't care about Yagami right now." Watching as Jun shrunk back a bit from his harsh words, Babel allowed a cold smirk to fill his face as he turned to stare at Witchmon. "What I want to hear is this, how much longer until the base is ready? And if you have found the temple?"

As he finished talking, He sighed as noticed that both of them looked more nervous then they should have. "You haven't found it?" Frowning, he held up a hand in front of the screen as they both open their mouths to answer him, their nervous expression slipping into a scared one instead. "Witchmon, Motomiya, I suggest you both pick up the pace, and complete the orders I gave you, or there will be a harsh punishment for each minute I deem you both to be overdue on them."

Shutting off the link before they could reply, Babel sank down in the chair some more and sighed loudly. Good help was so hard to find, and create for that matter.

Looking off to the side, one hand clenched up as he gave a small smile into the emptiness of the room. "Soon, Gennai, very soon I shall have my revenge, and the same goes for each of the blasted soverns who dared to take away what was mine." The thought of it making the smile a bit wider as he fought back the urge to laugh manically. "I'll take everything from them, their world, their friends, and then, I'll take their life."

Lifting up his homemade digivice he stared at it as the screen flickered to life briefly, numbers floating across the screen randomly as he pushed the buttons on the device. "Just as I planned so long ago, back when I was searching for the means for my revenge."

Smirking as he grinned, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath of air. "Yes, the virus, the simple program that gave me the means for revenge, the means to carry out my vengeance. And the best part of it, is that there is no cure for it, no cure at all."

Laughter filled the room after that, a laughter that lasted several minutes and left the only other human in the building slightly unsure of why he had even considered letting a maniac like that into his home.

The air was still a bit damp and cold since the sun had only just recently risen, the feeling of approaching winter in the air making him shiver a bit as he pulled his coat in closer to his body. "Taichi, what are you doing here?" Lifting up his head at the sudden question, Tai smiled a bit as he saw a slightly familiar blond haired boy staring at him as he had stopped just outside the local park, a purple haired girl and a younger boy with a bowl cut.

Then his smile faltered a bit as he saw the uncertain looks he was given by the other two with the blond haired boy and sighed as he leaned his head back a bit and stare dup into the cloud free sky. "Nothing really, just thinking about something, not much to worry."

Snapping his gaze back to the kid, he gave a more real smile as he began to walk with the three younger ones. "You're Takeru right, the one Kari always mentions, well along with Davis that is." watching how the blond haired boy simply nodded, Tai turned his head back to look at the street ahead of them. "Look, do you think we could meet later, and talk, it would mean a lot to me."

Staring at Tai with a lightly confused expression, he cast a quick look at Yolei and Cody as they too had noticed the urgent note in Tai's voice. "Sure, but are you sure it can wait, if it is important, we can talk about it right now." Making a motion with his hand, he invited the older boy to walk with them to school.

Looking briefly at Cody and Yolei, Tai smile faltered a bit as he put a hand into each coat pocket. "No, not that I wouldn't mind talking with all of you, it's just, I would prefer it if we could talk in private." Giving a nod of apology to Yolei and Cody, he blinked as the youngest boy stiffly accepted it by a nod back at him in a very formal manner, while the simple motion only earned him a more confused stare from Yolei.

Slowing down his walk, TK cast a quick look over at Cody and Yolei. "Go on ahead, I'll catch up with you later okay." Not waiting for the reply, he turned to face Tai as they both slowed down their walking a bit more. "So what is it?"

Giving a deep sigh as he checked to see if anyone else was nearby, Tai lowered his gaze to the ground. "I need you to do me a favor." Seeing TK's gaze harden at his words, Tai bit his lip before he continued. "Look, what I want you to do, is tell me about Kari, what's she like right now, how's she been since I, since I was."

"Since you died?" TK continued in a stiff voice, one hand clenching up a bit as he didn't dare to look at the older boy, already knowing that it wouldn't help him if he faced him and saw that expression he was sure to have on his face. "Look, I don't think you should be asking me this, why don't you talk with her about it? She is your sister."

Shaking his head, Tai looked even more off to the side as he allowed his rather depressing thoughts to come out. "No, I don't think she is anymore." Ignoring the gasp from behind him, the messy haired boy stopped walking and clenched up his hands inside his coat pocket. "She's always tense around me, always smiling, and acting cheerful. It's like she afraid of letting me see the real her, the one my death helped shape her into."

Having stopped walking as well, TK cast a flat stare on the ground, knowing only how well it felt, he too had faced it four years ago, at that summer camp when he saw his brother for the first time without their parents around. And how scared he had been when he saw his brother, barely anything remaining of the friendly and happy brother he had know, instead he was acting so differently from the one he had know, refusing to have fun with the other kids and always brooding by himself whenever he talked with another kid at the camp.  

Taking a deep breath, TK turned to face Tai as the messy haired teen looked at him as well. "You know, I'm not really the one you should talk too, about a year after the digital world, my mother moved away and I didn't see Kari again school started again this year."

Stuffing his own hands into his pants pockets, TK narrowed one eye as he studied the older boy before him more closely then before. "Why are you even asking me this, what brought it on?"

Letting his eyes moved over to TK, Tai didn't answered for a good while, enough to make TK look rather impatient and narrow his other eye as he began to tap one foot on the ground. "It, it happened five hours ago."

Just staring at Tai, TK finally gave a deep sigh and shook his head a bit as he could feel sympathy for the messy haired boy's emotional stress over finding out something like that the hard way. "You know, I'm not that good at this kind of stuff, but really, does it matter if you couldn't help her with her problems in the past?"

Seeing Tai open his mouth to ask him what he meant, TK continue on with what he wanted to tell him. "Everyone changes you know, and you can't blame yourself for not seeing it seeing as you weren't there, it's possible she would still be this way even if you had been there." Noting a slightly confusion on Tai's face, TK quickly hid a small grin. "She told us you know, of what she knew had been wrong with you, why you had done what you did."

"Why?" Tai managed to mutter out as he felt a slightly stab in his heart, knowing that his sister had told others of what he had told her, and only her after his return. "I thought she wouldn't tell anyone else about my time in the digital world."

Picking up the muttered out words, TK felt like slapping himself as he groaned. Of course he would see it in the wrong way, not guessing why she had opted to share that information with them. "Look, it wasn't like that, we couldn't understand why she wanted to help you, especially after what you did to Michael and Mimi."

Hearing the names, Tai felt like he had just gotten slapped emotionally, remembering clearly just what he had done to them while holding them prisoner in his castle, no, it had been Babel's castle, he had only lived in it to be ensure it's protection against attacks, and that it was prepared for Babel's arrival. "I, I couldn't, I didn't know at the time, I, I killed him."

Quickly stopping the messy haired boy, TK sighed once again, wondering if he would be like that if he had been in Tai's position. "No, you didn't, but he's still not feeling that well, but at least he was able to return to earth again." The words having an effect on Tai that made him seem to calm down. "Listen, I really isn't the one you should talk to about this, I'm not that good at this. You want a good opinion about this stuff, you should talk to Sora, or maybe Matt, trust me, both of them know how to handle these things."

Not waiting to hear what Tai said after that, TK took off running as he waved back at him. "I'll talk with you later if you want too, but I'm late for school right now."

Just looking after the younger blond haired boy, Tai sighed and took off walking again, one hand running through his hair as he stopped outside a shop and stared at his reflection in the window. "Michael, the blond haired boy, is still alive after all I did to him?"

Lifting up his hand, he stared at it for several minutes, tracing each of the lines on the skin and the blue lines made up his arteries. "All of what I did, all those digimons, and those two, how can they even stand being around me." Walking off as he brooded on the new information he had just gotten, Tai kept looking down at the street, stopping as he reached a small computer store that was in the process of finishing their opening.

"I should... apologize to him." Lifting up his digivice, Tai felt it activate the digital gate program for him, the light switching to green as he closed his eyes. "Digi port Open!!"

A somewhat weak wind blew through the digital world as Arukenimon found herself standing in a tall rock before a mountain, her finger moving slowly through the air as she used it to count the number of control towers before her, a dark grin filling her face as she stopped counting. "Yes, there is a hundred towers here, more then enough to carry out my plan."

Turning around, she stared down at the small TV set she had dragged to her current location, the image on it giving off a static buzz before changing to show the real world, or rather the inside of a computer class as a red haired boy blinked in shock over her interruption of his lesson. "Hello, Koushiro Izumi."

Mock sweetness in her mouth, Arukenimon moved back and ran a hand through her hair. "Well, before you start to ask to many questions, just know that I wanted one of your rotten brats to witness this, you just happened to get selected." At her last word, she hovered up into the air. "The birth of my perfect pawn."

Sending out a hail storm of hairs from her head, a dark laugher filled the air as each one impacted a spire perfectly, a faint glowing filling the air as each tower responded to her, all except one that had a large crack in it, barely standing up right, it only gave off a weak flash that quickly dulled into a dark blue color rather then the normal purple one the spires gave off as they transformed.

Still hovering in the air, Arukenimon focused her attention on the TV screen, and on the red haired boy's scared expression as she simply smirked at him. "Now watch, and tremble. Spirit Needle!!"

At her yell, a forceful tremble ripped through the ground as each of the towers lifted up into the air, shattering into a dark colored cloud of digi dust that began to pull together rapidly, the whole time more and more towers lifted up and joined the digital dust cloud.

After what seemed like an eternity to Arukenimon, the cloud began to take on a shape, arms and legs looking as powerful as she had wanted them, the whole body giving off a dark feeling as it fully formed into a dragon man like digimon, it's eyes glowing red as it looked up while roaring out in defiance of the world it had been created in, before dulling into a sharp yellow color.

Turning back to the screen, Arukenimon lifted up her arm as she shifted into her digimon form, eyes glinting with amusement as she began to edge closer to the TV set. "Tell your friends, I expect them to show up within one hour, or I will let my new partner destroy as much of the digital world as I command."

Having finished talking, she didn't wait to get a response as power already flowed through her body, letting her fire off an attack as soon as she saw him move to answer. "Spider Tread!!" The lines knocking the small TV set away from her and down into a small ravine. "One hour, and if you don't."

Behind her, still standing on the mountain top, the dragon man like digimon growled as he lifted up his hands, yellow eyes blazing as he felt confused, unsure of why he had been created in the first place, even as Arukenimon's preprogrammed command to obey her, destroy all he saw, and delete every digimon he met rose up to answer him, he still found himself wondering if that was the only reason he existed?

And if he had these feelings and doubts, didn't that mean that he wasn't just destined to obeying Arukenimon loyally, could it mean he had a different reason to live, to carry out some other great part? Could he use the great power flowing through him to a goal he wanted, rather then what she wanted?

As all of these thoughts wandered through his mind he simply continues to gaze at the world around, finally deciding that he could afford to wait a bit, think these things through and decide once he had met these digimons she had challenged if she was worthy of his time.

In another part of the digital world, Taichi Yagami popped out of a TV set, landing on his feet with the graze that only years of practice could bring, his eyes quickly moving around to scan for any dangers to his well being.

Standing up as nothing showed itself, he sighed and flinched as his hands came in contact with the cape attached to each of his shoulders. The material a constant reminder of his past, and what he had come face to face with late last night, and the depression he had been suffering form since then.

His talk with TK hadn't helped, in fact, he had only felt more rotten after getting told to either talk with the one Kari had decided to trust more then him, or the blond haired boy with either glared at him or outright avoided him at every chance he got.

Moving away from the TV set, Tai cast a quick look back over his shoulder and took in the area once more, forcing himself to fully remember the location of it, just in case he had to return in a hurry. "At least, I brought his with me." Reaching down a hand, Tai gently lifted up the crest that Kari had once given him, almost afraid of losing it, he stared at its surface as the sign on it glinted in the light.

"Courage."

Spinning around to face the one who had spoken, Tai nearly dropped down on his backside as he found himself face to face with a person he had only seen once. "You, you're." Holding a hand, Tai blinked as the elder man laughed in a carefree way. "What?"

Not answering, the man held out a hand to grasp the one Tai pointed at him with, pulling the messy haired boy up before he could even blink. "Now, as you surely remember, I am Gennai. I act as a sort of human digimon and try to protect the digital world from harm, both from the inside, and the outside."

Having gotten his heart back under control, Tai snorted a bit as he moved the cape away from his arms so they could be better crossed over his chest. "So, what do you want? Going to lecture me again on how I should control my temper and not give in to the darkness of my heart?"

Simply rising his eyebrow, Gennai slammed Tai over the head with a finger, the force of it sending Tai's head down a little bit with as he gave a slight grunt. "Kids theses days, and no, I am not here to lecture you." Turning around, Gennai looked over his shoulder at Tai as he began to walk forward. "Well, do you want to come along and hear what I have to tell you, or do you want to stay here."

Standing up, Tai looked over at Gennai as the elder man walked away, shrugging a bit before he fell into a walk right next to him. "Hey, I thought you were a kind old man who helped everyone, not one who'd beat up on defenseless kids?" Rubbing his head as he spat out the last, Tai stopped as Gennai gave him a tired look. "Uh, sorry."

Breathing out heavily, Gennai looked up at the sky above them. "No, I am sorry, my temper got the best of me, and I took it out on you." Lowering his eyes, Gennai smiled as he looked down at the lake before them. "Now then, shall we enter and continue this talk under more pleasant circumstances?"

Just nodding in reply, Tai shuddered as the lake parted before them, a staircase leading down to an old styled Japanese country house. "You know, I'm not sure how you can stand living down there, under all that water?"

"Practice boy, practice." Gennai replied with a good-natured laugh as he took the first step down the stairs, several fish swimming away from them as they walked downwards. "Bringing the crest with you was a good thing, as what I have to talk with you about will involve that."

Reaching the bottom, Gennai pushed open the door and looked over his shoulder at Tai as he stepped in. "And if you please, take your shoes and cape off, I don't want you tracking dirt and mud into my home."

Smiling a bit despite the words of the old man, Tai did remove his shoes and walked into the house, casting a lightly bored look around the place. "Say, you happen to have seen my partner anywhere, he didn't show up when I entered the digital world."

"Your partner is here." Gennai replied as she walked up to Tai, casting a look down at him. "But we have more important things to discuss then him." Pressing a single button on the tea table, Gennai watched as the room dimmed and a computer screen lit up. "Now, I did a few tests on Mimi once and determined that the virus in her was in standby mode, however, it seems that a direct exposure to the main source will re activate it, so I've been doing a few experiments to find a cure for it."

Rising an eye brown, Tai cast a deeply concentrated look on what he saw on the screen. "So, I can become fully human again? No longer hunting down digimons or humans someday just to survive?"

Nodding in response, Gennai pressed another button and held a finger into the complex diagrams and formulas. "As you can see, the virus is far more complex then some random disease, in fact, it looks so complex, I would almost say it was a digimon's basic program code having been made to work with a human body in its organic state outside of the digital world."

Running the words through his mind to make sense of them, Tai gave a deep humming sound as he at least got a basic idea of it. "So, what you're saying is that I might have a digimons code in my blood." Tai nearly yelled out the last part as he cast a demanding glare at Gennai, nearly knocking over the table to get closer to him as a feeling of raw panic filled him. "But how."

Snapping hand out and hitting Tai over the head, Gennai looked down at him, as the young boy was busy rubbing his head. "I said it look like a digimon's code, I didn't say it was a digimon." Couching gently to get back on track without any other interruptions from the messy haired boy Gennai smiled at him. "Anyway, I am working on finding a way to protect both digimons and humans alike from this virus."

Pushing another button, Gennai stared as the screen image changed to a map of File Island. "And the best way to combat a disease is to prevent it from striking someone in the first place." Turning to face Tai, Gennai smacked one finger at the map and grinned at Tai. "Therefore, I am proud to say that I have finally unlocked the where about of the final temple, where the digi core of Azulongmon resides."

Not answering right away, Tai just blinked a single time before standing up. "You know where it is, but how?" Turning to face Gennai, Tai narrowed his eyes as she clenched up one hand. "Never mind it, as long as getting that digi core will slow down Babel, I'm willing to allow it to be removed."

Turning halfway around, Tai stopped and looked over at Gennai who seemed to be about to say something. "Look, I know this is important and all, but I did come here for a different reason. Though it seems it will have to wait until this whole mess is over with now."

Nodding at the words, Gennai sat down at the table, one hand patting it gently. "Come, sit down, tell me about it. I may not be the one you want to talk to it about, but I might be able to offer you some advice." Coughing as he finished talking, he gave a small smile at Tai.

"Tai asked you about what?!"

TK winched as bit as he stepped back out of Kari's range, the girl's voice still running in his ears as she had given him her full attention, the light brown eyes demanding him silently that he tell her everything. "Well, he wanted to talk to me about you, how you had been these last four years?"

Frowning as she ignored the fact that the other in the classroom were looking at her, Kari stared hard at TK. "But why would he do that, what could." Then she froze as her mind brought up a small incident that could have triggered it, as well as the lack of her brother in the apartment that morning. "Oh no."

Opening his mouth to ask her what she meant, TK closed it as he saw her rush out of the room, nearly knocking the teacher over in her haste to leave. "Kari!"

Standing up to leave as well, he froze as he saw the very angry look on the teachers face, clearly he did not want a repeat of what had happened the last time Kari had caused him to at strangely.

Outside the classroom, Kari kept moving towards one of the few places she knew she could be in peace, a place where she could figure out what to do about this new event with her brother.

She wanted to have the same close brother and sister relationship back that they once shared, but it had become a habit for her now to seek out the comfort of the one who helped her through the period of grief and morning after Tai's death. And last night, all she had been able to do after that nightmare, was go to her.

But it hadn't been right, he had been there, she should have remembered that he wasn't dead, that he was sleeping on the floor and would have heard her. She should have remembered it.

Slamming her right hand down on the bench as she settled down on it, she leaned back her head and gave a deep sigh of tiredness and regret.

"You okay Kari?" Gatomon's concerned voice came through the cloud of dark thoughts, succeeding on making Kari open her eyes and stare into Gatomon's blue ones as the feline digimon looked at her from the back of the bench. "Still concerned about your brother?"

Halfway closing her eyes, Kari nodded, as she still wasn't sure how to respond or speak of what was going through her heart at the moment. "I'm, just confused, and sorrow for what I did last night."

Tails stiffing a bit, Gatomon stared at Kari a bit hard. "You did nothing wrong, you did what you are used to, it takes time to break a habit." Holding up a clawed glove at Kari, she gave a rare smile at her. "Besides, you still haven't talked with him have you? He's not the same brother you once knew, he's changed as well, so before you blame yourself for failing you brother and sister relationship, try and get to know him again."

Smiling weakly, Kari nodded as she stood up, ready to on and find her brother, and at least hear his side of the story, she could do that before telling him what she had gone through since he had been though to be have been dead. She also needed to know what he had been doing for those four years, now matter how cruel and evil it was.

Next to her, Gatomon's ears shot up as the sound of feet hitting the pavement was heard by her, the feline digimon turning and rushing into a nearby shrubbery to hide just in case it wasn't one of the other chosen children.

Running past the corner, Davis stopped and looked over at Kari, an urgent look of hurry in his eyes as she quickly changed directions and rushed up to her. "What are you doing here, didn't you get Izzy's mail?"

Staring confused at the huffing Davis, Kari blushed as she quickly pulled out her D-terminal and looked at it. "Sorry Davis, I forgot to turn it on when I left this morning, must have been all that stuff I had on my mind." Switching it on, Kari stared at the number of messages rolling a cross the screen. "Okay, here it is."

Turning to face Gatomon as she emerged from the shrubbery, she looked up at Davis with a determined look. "Arukenimon again?"

Face growing a bit dark, the young messy haired boy nodded at the feline. "And some other digimon as well, Izzy said we should be extra careful with this one, and that he going to arrange some kind of surprise for her."

Closing her D-terminal, Kari held up a clenched hand in front of her. "Okay, let's go then, the sooner we beat this digimon, the sooner I can talk with Tai."

Watching her run past him, Davis rubbed a hand through his hair, wondering just what was going on with Kari. Then he shook it off and followed after her, wanting to get into the digital world and see what kind of digimon Arukenimon had made this time.

And of course, to see if his sister was there, He still needed to try and get through to her one more time.

Sighing loudly, Arukenimon glared down at the small, cheap wristwatch she had strapped to her arm, one eye having a heavy tick to it as she once more cursed under her breath. "Where are those brats, they should have been here long ago, doesn't anyone take their jobs seriously anymore?"

Her answer came the form of a foot slamming into her face from the side, the force of it sending her flying backwards to land in a undignified heap before Blackwargreymon.

Looking up as her extra legs helped her back into a standing position faster then they should have been able too, she glared at the digimon hovering in the air before her, several others rushing towards him as well. "Paildramon, how nice to see you, I hope your feeling rather bad today."

Lifting up his arms as the two stingers on them shot out, the fused digimon narrowed his eyes as he focused on Arukenimon with a calm look. "At least I'm not feeling as bad as you look, and just so you know, it took a while for us to get here since we wanted to get some help!"

Snapping her head around, Arukenimon cursed as she saw just what he had meant by that as several more digimons then she was used to facing showed up. "The old timers?" Her voice a bit meek sounding as she could clearly see Garurumon, Birdramon, Ikkakumon, Kabuterimon, Angemon, Nefertimon, Aquilamon and Ankylomon.

Shaking off the momentary fear that had gripped, Arukenimon giggled as she rose up her arms, watching as the shadow of her new digimon fell over the battlefield. "Impressive collection of losers you brought with you, but against my creation, it won't matter how many friends you bring with you."

Snapping her finger, the spider like digimon allowed a grin to fill her face as her new digimon warrior jumped over her to land in front of her, those yellow eyes of his burning with bloodlust as he wasted no time in lashing out at Paildramon with his a right hook. "Yes, kill them all, Blackwargreymon!"

Almost as if answering her call, Blackwargreymon shot up into the air, his hands held together over his head as a dark red sphere formed between his gauntlets. "Terror!"

Narrowing her eyes behind her mask, Nefertimon shot forward through the air, her power rising up to help her in fighting off this dark digimon. "Come on, we got to help them!"

Her words reaching the other digimons who had all began to move forward, each of them powering up an attack to be used on the dark digimon who switched from aiming at Paildramon, to aiming at them in less then a second. "Destroyer!"

Rolling to the side in mid air, Nefertimon stared in horror as the attack hammered into her digimon allies; the ground locked ones barely escaping the sheer explosion ripped up by the attacks force. "What strength." Then she blinked as a black blur rushed past her, a faint glint filling the air before she screamed in sheer agony, her armor cracking from where Blackwargreymon had ripped his claws across her.

Looking up in shock, Ikkakumon could only mutter out a curse as the black blue began to right towards him, before he powered up his favorite attack in his champion form. "Harpoon Torpedo!" Several missiles like torpedo's firing off from his head and heading right down towards Blackwargreymon.

Glancing up to see the attack, Blackwargreymon stopped moving and simply held up his arms to shield himself with, letting each of the missiles hit him right on, and growling as no pain could be felt. "Weak, so very weak." Uttering out the words like a curse, he shot around and swatted Garurumon backwards casually, grabbing Birddramon with his other hand at the same time, letting a small smile fill his face as he used the orange bird dragon like digimon as a living missile to send Garurumon flying even further back the way he had come from.

Turning back to Ikkakumon, the dark dragon man like digimon snorted as yet another round of weakling rushed at him, Angemon and Ankylomon double-teaming him as well. "Is there no one worthy of my time." Muttering out the words as he dodged the beam of light and tail hammer attack, he held his hands together in front of him. "Black Tornado!!"

Ripping forward, he noted that while he only brushed past the digimons only giving them several surface cuts, they still fall back as if he had hit them right on. The sight only making him more convinced that they were simply a waste of his time and therefore not what he had expected to be created to fight.

Aiming upwards while still spinning around, he flew right through the electric attack from Kabuterimon, this one at least giving him a small tingling in his arms as they took the full attack head on, but it was still not enough to even concern him more then a second. "She really needs me to fight such weaklings?"

Roaring out in pain even as Blackwargreymon continued to talk with himself in what could only be described as a whisper, the badly cut Kabuterimon fell from the sky, crashing into Ikkakumon harshly. "Arukenimon, she do not deserve my help, I see that now." Turning around to face the spider like digimon, the dark dragon man like digimon found himself hit head on by an attack from Paildramon, an attack didn't even dent his armor. "Worthless."

Batting him out of the sky, Blackwargreymon added injury to insult as he stepped on Paildramon's head in order to launch himself further up into the sky above them. "Terra Destroyer!" The sphere of dark red energy ripping into the ground once more, sending digimons flying in several directions along with a good deal of dirt.

Up on a hill, the digi destined, or rather the newer ones, gasped as they could see everything from their vantage point, some of them feeling more then glad that they had been convinced to stay here where they were safe. But no matter how safe it was, it was still hard to watch their partners and friends get beaten around like that while they were hiding in a safe spot.

"We have to help them." Yolei spoke out the thought they all shared as she saw Paildramon take yet another beating, this time getting kicked in the stomach with enough force to make him stop advancing. "Kari, TK, Ken Cody, Davis, doesn't anyone of you have a plan?"

Shaking her head sadly, Kari bit her lip as she saw Nefertimon struggle to get back onto her feet, the once polished and beautiful body armor on her digimon partner now looked like it could fall apart at any second. "No, please don't" Standing up, Kari felt the memories of the past rush through her.

Losing her brother and the death of Wizardmon, both of who had been at the hands of one of their worst enemies. And now, her best friend would end up like them if she continued to fight. "Gatomon!" Screaming out the name, she gasped in horror as Nefertimon gave a sudden start, her armor cracking completely as streams of light shot out from her body.

As the light faded away, a smaller white feline digimon stared at her front paws in shock as she tried to figure out why she had de-digivolved back into that from, despite having felt that enough energy was left in her body to try another attack before it should have happened.

Turning her head slowly to see her partner standing up from the hiding spot, Gatomon felt the reason for her sudden return to her weaker form clearly. "Kari, no, don't lose your light now!" Looking back, she gasped as Aquilamon impacted the ground harshly right next to her, the biff type digimon looking more worse then she could remember him ever looking.

Snapping back around as she heard Paildramon roar out, she stared as she saw the only ultimate level digimon on their team at the moment lift up his machine guns. "Yes, destroy him Paildramon, crush that fake digimon!!" Yelling out her cheer first, Gatomon then turned around and rushed over to check on Aquilamon who still hadn't made a move yet.

As if having heard Gatomon's cheer for him, the fused digimon poured everything he had into the attack, letting lose with several high-powered shots that ripped into Blackwargreymon and the ground itself, dirt flying up from the sheer force of each impact.

Stopping the attack several seconds later, he smirked as he saw nothing but a large dust cloud where Blackwargreymon had been just a few seconds before. "We got him!!" Yelling out the words, he allowed himself to relax as the thought of having won rushed through him

Then it was lost as a black colored arm covered by a clawed gauntlet whipped away the dust cloud, letting the upper part of Blackwargreymon become visible again, the fake digimon not saying anything as he lowered his arm down to his side and simply scanned the battle field, taking in the state of the digimon either knocked out or moving in to attack again.

Returning back to see Paildramon rush at him with the glowing hand spikes out again, the dark digimon quickly slammed his arms out, blocking the attack and looking right into the eyes of the attacking digimon, letting his disgust at fighting such weak enemies take over. "You two are worthless." Spitting out two words, he used their distracting of getting spoken to by him to throw them down onto the ground. "You are all worthless, is there no one in your group worthy enough for me to fight against?"

Pushing himself up, Paildramon blinked his eyes as he took in the angry, nearly closed into slits eyes of Blackwargreymon as he looked back at him. "You can talk?" HIS surprise coming from the fact that none of the other creations of Arukenimon had even bothered to utter more then an attack phrase at them when they had battled.

Giving a sound of anger and annoyance, Blackwargreymon small growled turned into a scream of utter rage as his whole lit up with pure power that shot out over the battle field, the force of it smashing into Paildramon, then the few advancing digimons before washing over Gatomon and Aquilamon and hammering into the digi destined hiding place.

As it died out, Blackwargreymon just looked down at the two puny digimons before him, his eyes still narrowed as he kept watching their beaten moans of pain. The thought of how easy it would be to just lash out and kill them running through his mind, along with feeling of disgust at having been made just to fight someone so weak, and to think that his creator hadn't even been able to do it on her own.

Even with those dark thoughts running through his mind, he still picked up the sound of Arukenimon moving towards him, her laughter filling the air as she stopped just short of passing by him. "Well done indeed Blackwargreymon, now finish them all off."

Her shrill voice making his head hurt as he just kept on gazing down at the digimons before him. A new even more puzzled and strange though forming in his head, would they become stronger if he gave them time, would they become someone he could fight against without feeling like a bully,

Allowing a smirk to form, Blackwargreymon turned around and took a step forward, the decision having already been made even before he had thought about it. They were not worth his time and energy in a fight, but someone had to be, and while he looked for that digimon, it wouldn't hurt if these digimons got strong enough to earn the right to a fight with him, if they failed to live up to what he expected from them, well, he could always finish what he had started.

Sadly, someone else had another idea about that, As Arukenimon hissed out in anger and moved to block his retreat. "Where do you think you're going?" Pointing her arm at the digimons still whimpering over their defeat, Arukenimon's eyes almost glowed, as she got no response from her creation. "I gave you an order Blackwargreymon, finish them off now!"

Moving his attention to her fully, Blackwargreymon felt another wave of disgust rush through him, the sickness caused at the fact that this weak worthless digimon had been the one to create him, was beginning to leave him with a bad taste in his mouth. "I will take orders from no one, why should I do what you say, when you're so weak, you need me to do your fighting for you?"

Mouth nearly hanging open at her creation's outright refusal and insult at her, she felt her blood reach boiling point as her arms snapped up into righting position. "You will do as I say, you are my creation and I will not tolerate this king of disobedience!!"

Lashing out in anger as well and sending Arukenimon flying backwards into a distant sand dune with a scream of raw pain from her, Blackwargreymon would have grinned if he didn't suffer from having to deal with such worthless digimons for so long.

Looking up the sky, Blackwargreymon lifted up his arms in front of him, feeling a new determination wash through his body as he began to hover up into the air. "Such weaklings, it is clear now, that I must find someone more worthy for me to fight with."

Flying off, he ignored the sight of digimons and humans staring after him as he increased his flight speed, rapidly leaving the battlefield behind in his hunt for a more worthy opponent to fight.

Arriving back in Odaiba, Tai blinked as he found himself standing in the middle of LAN gaming center, several younger and older kids and even an adult or two were staring at him with shock all over their faces. "Great, just great." Muttering out the words, Tai moved quickly and ducked out the first door he found, taking a deep breath as he found himself in the entrance hall.

Walking past a puzzled attendant and a few other kids, Tai stuffed his hands into his coat and entered the outside, a puff of chilly air hitting him as he did his best to avoid looking at the more shady characters hanging around outside the LAN gaming center.

Moving out on the nearby main street, Tai cast a look around and nodded, as he was able to notice several places that looked familiar to him. "Okay, better get home." Yawning a bit as he stopped talking, Tai began to move towards the apartment complex, his pace a bit faster then normal.

Entering in through the main door, Tai stood completely still as he was met by a silent and dark apartment, a silence as thick as it had been when he had left it to think. no one wa sthere to greet him or scold him for returning so late.

The only one who seemed to notice him was the family cat, and she only gave him a passing glance from her cat bed before returning to her sleep.

The living room was just as dark and lonely as the rest of the apartment, the soccer trophies still drawing his attention as he went over each one. This time seeing Kari's name on the small plate beneath each of them, each one a small sign of how good she had become at it.

Falling back onto the couch, he stared into the darkness of the apartment. For the first time, he realized how much his family must have moved on after his 'death.' His parents focused everything on Kari, that's why she played soccer; he always loved soccer so she must have started playing to fill that 'hole." Sora became Kari's older sibling; she did everything he should have done during the past seven years. He suddenly felt very guilty. They must have moved on and put his 'death' behind them, and now he came back. He thought he was confused, how were they feeling?

"Tai?"

He looked up and saw Kari standing in the doorway to her room. "I... I didn't want to wake you."

She walked over and sat next to him. "I guess you heard me call Sora, right?"

He nodded slowly. "Yeah."

She stared forward. "Do you know what bad dream I had?"

He shook his head. "No."

"It was a dream of you dying again."

He was speechless. "I... I...I..."

"You don't know how much I cried when you were gone. I missed you every day since then. I would sometimes stay up late at night and wish with all my heart that you would come back. After a while I stopped, but I always did hope." She turned to him, "Please don't go."

"H... how did you know...?"

She shrugged. "Call it intuition, but I don't want you to leave. You're my older brother, and you'll always be."

The two reunited siblings hugged each other.  

TBC: The Final Temple Part 1

AN: A great thanks goes out to Fruitloop Trooper for letting me use some of his writing for the flashback, and the ending part where Tai and Kari begins to become more like the brother and sister they were in the past.

And as for Blackwargreymon, while he may have seemed like a minor character in a chapter that has his name for a title, he will play a bigger part in future chapters, but first, I will deal with the final temple parts, and then begin to move towards the final arc.