Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodline: Descendents of the Digidestined ❯ "Dark Paladins arrive!! Dominion foothold falls!! The Rise of the Red Lily!! ( Chapter 13 )

Bloodline: Descendants of the Digidestined

Chapter 13: Dark Paladins Arrive!! Dominion Foothold falls, The Rise of `Red Lily!!'

Note: Now that I know the proper evo line to Andromon from Rookie on up, it shall be used properly.

Prologue: Safiirumon recounts, "Hmmm…. Where do I start? Well, there was that food poisoning issue, but that wasn't important… Here we go!! As things went south due to the advent of Yuumei Omnimon, Lewis sealed himself away to ponder solutions to all the new threats to them in the one place any man can go to find enlightenment and a higher wisdom… the bathroom. Three weeks later, he's still there, and now Attorneymon has Western Europe. I happen to learn of this, and plan to do something about it. Sirenamon decides to make the chow and nearly kills everyone, but this event triggers a strange vision for her. Lily has another encounter with Malachimon, but refuses to listen to her about. Lily tries to bring Sirenamon along to find Atlantis, which Attorneymon had found and sat, surprisingly, on the coast of Gabriel's Fjord. Sirenamon ardently refused her, but when Lily made comments about swimming, Sirenamon held her in the air and threatened to kill her. Sirenamon quickly realized what she was doing and let her go. Lily went after him by herself. When she got there, she tore through the corporate façade they erected and got to Attorneymon, whom had found tons of new technology, one of which was a strange sword known as the `Megami's Spade.' He proved his power to her, then sapped some from her as well, learning the dark secrets that drove her. He left then with no warning, sending her on a rampage, trying to draw him back out. At the psychologist's office, five of our heroes had to face a different evil… their anger and high psychiatric bills. When Sirenamon revealed what she had done, they were appalled, and demanded to know why. This inquisition led to a panic attack that forced Sirenamon to admit her greatest fear, the fear of water." <Giggles, followed by sound of a waffle iron breaking over his skull and falling to the ground> "Oooohhh…… My head… This also sparked another one of those trances, before she blacked out. Am I bleeding? It was not until a CNN news crew reported on the mysterious decrease in Dominion influence did the others know what Lily had been doing. They seeked her out only to be ambushed by a group of assassins sent to terminate Laomon. When death seemed certain, either by their blade or Sirenamon's cooking <Another blunt instrument ran an encounter with his skull>, a strange new… a strange new… I think I got a concussion here… a strange new digimon known as Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon came to their aid, running them all through, but the problems weren't over when Lily showed up. Angered over the others' lack of power and desire to help her, she turns on them. Coming from the need to defend themselves as Bonnie tries to open a port home, Keiko finds her Giga form, Luna Lilysapia, and Michaeamon reached his Terra level, Rafaelmon, but both still couldn't subdue Lily. Finally, they escape to reveal what happened to the others. After this, Sirenamon comes along and admits her fear to Sora, Keiko, and Ryo, but then enters yet another trance when she sees a special flower in Keiko's hair, speaking of Tsukitaiyomon, Lotusmon's father, and King of the Digital Moon!!! In the Dominion HQ, Black Tailmon started work on new weapons, and three new super warriors, both her and Attorneymon ignoring the advise of a Hagurumon whom had startling news. That's it. Did I forget anything?" <Blow dart hits him in the neck and he falls to the floor> Vulcan Lilymon goes, "What about us?"

"Everyone has fears. It's natural. It is what defines us. For some it's social. For others it could be absurd, as is the case with Daisuke. Mine is the end of the world. Many learn to live with their fears, and many are consumed by theirs, but is it possible to do the thing one fears the most and not know it?"

Black Tailmon says, "Now, prepare to scream!!" Mechanical arms filled with syringes lower down to each of the three Lilymon. The one on the left goes first. It injects a dark green glowing gel into her left arm. She yells, "What the hell is this!!" Almost immediately, it seems to have an effect. The petals on her head turn green and take on the look of enormously wide palm leaves, which hang off the side of the table and behind. They move around, causing the vines that were her hair to fall out, and take on a pattern that, if it were hair, would look like a normal hairline. They keep growing, and more of them all over the back and areas not her face. Her skin takes on a dark tan complexion all over. She goes, "My eyes… burn!! And my legs… it's like they're swelling!! It hurts so much!!" She closes her eyes for a bit, and when they open, they look human, the irises a bright lime green like color. Between them, she has now a tiny little nose. Those leaves are still growing on her head!! Her wings turn brown and fall out, and lie on the ground. Her legs, which she claimed felt swollen, were indeed so. Her boots tear apart and fall on the ground. Pops start coming from inside her, around her hip, as it widens some. Her legs swell further, now a few inches longer as well, and then, boom, the leg restraints go flying off. Pieces of skin start growing from the legs, many meeting other growths on the opposite leg and fusing together. She screams, "My legs!! What happened to them!!" Shortly after her outburst, most of the two legs have become one big smooth cone-like limb. Her feet become noodley, and more growths came out of them, growing outward as her feet merged, the growths now looking like roots. Those leaves finally stop, the longest of them would reach down to where her butt used to be, and with the part down the middle as it was, her hair (big giant leaves) domed out and made a shape similar to a big heart shape (If you were to look at her from behind). Six long, narrow leaves hang in front of her ears, three on each side of her head. The two closest to the front hung down to her shoulders, the tow in the middle went down to her waist, and those closest to her ears hung down to where her ankles once were and now where the roots begin. On her left side, four bangs curl down and drape in front of her left eye and taper away around her neck, leaving her left eye barely visible from a distance. Then, her clothes began to glow and change. Her dress becomes this off-yellow tweedy off-the-shoulder with deeply dark metallic green edges made of dense metals interwoven with dense fabrics with goes down to two inches above her navel and splits, the edges arcing over her hips and behind her, making what could be called a big long coat tail that hangs down to just above where her ankles would be, if she still had any. Three inches below her navel, a thick white sash wraps around her, hugging her hips, leaving her navel exposed. On it, on her left hip, is a bizarre hourglass shaped object with a circular clamp between the two 30-60-90 triangles, the bases of both triangles parallel to the bottom edge of the sash. On her arms, the trademark gloves extend up her arms to halfway up her upper arm, now the same off yellow as the tweedy suit with dark green petals. Around her neck appears a black necklace with a dark green gem set in the center. From behind her ears, five black beams jut out, and as usual, the top one is the longest. Everything seems to be completed. She asks, "I hurt so much. I'm just glad it's over." All of a sudden, an object forms overhead that looks like a jousting lance, but with a spearhead on either end and three serrated blades running down them. On the pole, near the base of each head, a black ribbon hang down from it, one on the left side, and the other on the right side. In the middle, the pole widens and each side is connected to a red metallic ball with five wide off-yellow slits in it. Just then, it falls on her head, bounces up, lands on her stomach, and she sits there stunned. "Ow…" She mutters. Attorneymon goes, "That was actually kind of funny. Let her loose." The arm restraints are unlocked, and she slides right off the table, holding the lance. She lands on the root-like objects at the base of her lower body. She goes, "This isn't funny!!" She tries to move, begins to lose her balance, flailing her arms, but ultimately falls on her face. The Lilymon on the right gives out a sarcastic laugh. Attorneymon says, "If this is the best you can do, I'm not impressed." Black Tailmon says, "Don't worry!! This also happened to Evamon's patients. I call it `The Jetlag of Rapid Digivolution.' Most digimon aren't used to such rapid change. Her body knows it's different, now the brain has to play catch-up, just like someone with jetlag. Give them a few days or so and they'll adjust." She is still on the floor and exclaims, "Anyone?! Hello?! I've fallen and I can't get up!!"

The process repeats with the second subject, but this time it does not seem so severe. Her eyes take on a humanoid look, but where they should be white, they are a dark green, much like normal Lilymon eyes, but her irises were pure white and her pupils seemed to be silver. As with the first subject, her wings fell out and lay on the floor. The petals on her head split and multiply, changing design as they do, wrapping her head with nearly 60 petals in three rows, 24 on top and 16 on each of the two other rows. Under their size and weight, they fall downward, revealing 12 more petals on the top of her head, all forming four intricate layers of elongated cherry blossoms with the third and lowest row reaching close to the middle of her back. With the petals now clear, flesh around makeshift ear openings grows, making long elven ears which grow out back and away from her, poking out past the new blossoms hanging on her, reaching a length of over a foot long. Her skin starts to take on a deep cherry red tone, starting from the injection site. As it did, it laid a wire frame over her body. Slowly, form came to it, forming loose cobalt sleeves down her left arm, the end trimmed in white. As the red tone took over her face, various white marks and stripes began to appear on her face and under her eyes, giving her face the look of a samurai mask. As the frame continued to take shape, it was now clear it formed a yukata. Around the lower half of her torso appeared a pink sash, tied in the back in a huge bow. On her feet, white `socks' materialized, followed by a pair of huge wooden sandals sitting on her feet. As the skin change reached her right arm, she starts to grimace in pain as vines ripped out of her shoulders and her vessels bulged out. The vines spiraled over her arm, forming a triple helix down to the wrist, where they wrap around the first knuckle of each finger, the vine on top right side of her wrist and the one on the bottom side meeting in the middle of her palm, forming a circle, then splitting on the other side to wrap around. In the new circle, a design formed inside it from the vines that looked exactly like the Tokugawa family crest (Three mushrooms), but at the same time the flesh inside the ring was dissolving, leaving a gaping hole there. On the reverse side, the veins in her hand began to swell, and then a black object bursts out of the skin. It sit in the back of her hand, where ten thin yellow crystal petals grew out from it, as well as a web of strange white crystal vines linking it to the main vines and knuckles. As the yukata finishes and her vessels settle down, two big samurai style shoulder plates take hold on her right shoulder, the top one rigid with many small stubby spikes. Many more plates hang down the side of her arm to her elbow. In the dead center of her torso, a big circle of light appears, becoming a disc with many tiny circular grooves in it. From its sides comes four narrow leather straps, the bottom two twice as wide as the top two and include two small bosses on each side. On the back, just below where the petals hang, they meet at a large leather square. In the center, a white lotus flower with a metallic luster opens up. In 45º angles from it, pale curved silver leaf-shaped beams emerged. Along most of the edges, except near the tips, they were a dark grey tone. Near the tips of each one, there is a golden boss on either side, and from each boss is a set of curved gold beams extending upward. On her left shoulder activity begins again as two large narrow rings wrap under her armpit and extend approximately 2 feet away her shoulder, one mostly vertical and the other nearly parallel to the bottom edge of the table. Both sit there, fused together into one under her arm. On either side, where they first fuse, they bulk up, increasing the thickness of the gold rings in that area, but strangely there is a small hole in the bottom on each side. Directly between them, another, wide ring appears, this one wrapping tight around her shoulder. From the inside edge of the mostly vertical ring, a thick, super-dense pink fabric flowed down, covering the wide ring and connecting to the other narrow ring, creating a sagging area in between. From the outer edge of the horizontal ring, more of the fabric descends down in front of, and behind, her arm, going down to her ankles. Through the holes, small amounts of this fabric is threaded through, wrapping around to her upper right chest and upper right side of her back, where then on each end a golden boss appears, and then a gold chain links them together, leaning on the right side of her neck. The fabric seems to be quite lustrous in the light, like the yukata. Moments pass with nothing else happening. Her clamps are removed and she gets up, a little woozy, but okay. Suddenly, she grips her right arm in agony. She extends it out, and the three mushrooms blocking the hole in her hand open up, allowing a beam of light to come out. She grabs the light, which is now a golden bar. On the end the light takes on the shape of two enormous axe heads, over half as long as the handle. In between them, there is a beam shaped like a long machete. Slowly, it fades, revealing white crystal blades and mid-point blade which looks like quartz. The mushrooms close, and she holds the short-handled battle-axe in her hand. Her legs start to wobble a little. She asks, "Huh?" She flicks it around with ease. "An axe made from crystal?" Feeling tired, she sits down on the floor. Black Tailmon states, "Is that axe a joke weapon? A crystalline weapon would shatter the first time you use it!!" Attorneymon goes, "Actually, no it wouldn't, given the fact you said you used some Lunarian genes in that one." Black Tailmon, "Huh? I don't understand. I know little about the moon and the digimon there. Oh well, let's wrap this up so I can get some shut-eye." The last one on the tables says, "You two are such wimps. Geez!! I've seen old farts tougher than you. I should kick your ass for being so weak!!" Black Tailmon arms the system one last time. The one sitting down in the floor says, "You've been talking tough, now let's see if you can walk the walk."

Shortly after the needle is finished, she starts shaking her head violently, foaming at the mouth. The one in the floor says, "Still can't get up… I wanna see too… Come on… At least tell me what's going on!!" On her face, we can now see a nose. Her petals move up on her head, moving right on top of the yellow stem, now green. Where they once were, and as with the rest of her hair, new auburn red hair grows in place, hanging from the sides of her head and back, all the way down to her hips. Some long hairs in front hang down the right side of her forehead and tickle her nose, causing her to sneeze and blow the hairs to the side. Her petals suddenly turn yellow and wilt downward, drooping over hair down to the base of her skull, with the one in front hanging down over her forehead and stopping above the middle of her new nose. Her fingers stiffened as bone grew from the tips of them grew and became razor-sharp spikes. On her back, her wings began to heat up and convulse, causing tearing and holes in them. Suddenly, they grow bigger and longer when the four became six giant shredded hole-riddled crimson maple leaf shaped wings. The strangest things though had just began to happen. Starting on the sides of her neck, golden scales grew out of her, lining only the sides of her neck in bands about 2½ inches wide, spreading to her shoulders and down the sides of her arms. She begins to grunt and slobber. Under her arms, from the armpits, another set of scales began down the sides of her body, also about 2½ inches in width. As they progressed downward, must like in the case of the first subject, her legs began to swell up, then bust free of the restraints as tissue from each grafted the two limbs into one. This new serpentine limb grew longer and longer as the golden stripes went down her sides until it was laying on the floor and measured 2.618 times the height of navel to the top of her head (So mathematically, she's still beautiful, despite any opinion otherwise… 1:1.618!!). On the tip of it, a long, red, leathery sail of skin extended outward a few inches. Her eyes go all white as she foams from the mouth, series of large crimson serpentine belly scales lining the front of her tail from her hips down to the tip. On her arms, her gloves unravel and turn white, then come back on, now having the appearance of gauze wrapped around her forearms with three giant red petals sticking out the wrist end. Her dress now starts to shrink down, and splits in two, the top turning into a small brown leather tube top, and the lower segment turning into a heavy leather belt on her hips. On the back of the belt appears two scabbards positioned together, making a little X. In them sit two navy blue handled kitanas with 54" blades. Moments later, she calms down, and they release her arms. She stood on the tail on a spot approximately 34.61063 inches below her navel and almost 56 inches (Okay, about 55.997369592 inches) from the tip of the appendage (There's that 1:1.618 ratio again!!). The new digimon looks at the second subject. "You know what? You suck." She sticks out a forked tongue. The first subject whines, "What about me!!" Suddenly, her face is smacked by the tip of her tail, leaving a big whelp on her face. She exclaims sarcastically with the ominous she has, "Will you just shut up!! You whine more than my dog, which I eventually killed and ate because he wouldn't shut up. Do you want me to eat you too?" The first subject quickly shuts up. Black Tailmon responds with an "Eeeccchhhh!!" and some squirming. Attorneymon goes, "I like her. She sounds like the type that gets things done." Black Tailmon goes, "Okay, I won't ask, and you won't tell." They go down to the three guinea pigs. Black Tailmon pulls out a tool shaped much like a tuning fork and run it up and down the subjects. "Well, the genetic bonding seems to have worked better than I had bet, seeing as how I expected that at one of the subjects would have been deleted from the alterations of their data, although…" Attorneymon goes, "What?" She ads, "These bizarre crystal structures in parts her Test Subject #2's arm have me puzzled, as does her skeleton. This says there is an unknown crystalline structure in her arm, and her bones are made of an unidentified metal, but it also says that both are `alive.' Androids have metal in them, but even then it's still an inanimate mineral. I don't know. I'll have to look into it. Right now though, it's just too late (Yawns). I best show you girls to your new rooms." Attorneymon, Black Tailmon, and two of the subjects leave. The first subject whines, "Can anyone help me up? I know you can hear me!!" The lights go out. "Hello? Anyone?! I want a room too!! This floor's really cold…"

A month started going by, and as it did, trying to resolve the problems at hand, with Attorneymon having a now sizeable foothold in the real world and Lily on her mad vendetta, that hope began to break down in the group. Because of Lily's words, vast arguments over the leadership of the group arose, and it seemed nothing could be done until this was resolved. Keiko goes, "I thought we established a chain of command a long time ago!!" Bonnie yells, "She said it herself!! She wanted me to lead!!" Keiko goes, "Of course you'd say that. You attempted a coup once!! You'd say whatever it takes to wrestle power into your hands!!" Bonnie answers, "No I wouldn't… At least not anymore, but that's beside the point. I didn't make this up!! I got a witness too!!" Keiko goes, "Soramon had a concussion!! Who's to say what he says is right? He probably can't even recall half of what went on!!" Ardillamon shouts, "I don't who does what, but just stop shouting!!" Yuuji was just now getting over his punishment, but kept under such scrutiny that he still could be of help, and nobody seemed to hear anything out of Romi. Sirenamon was still seeing a shrink, but not necessarily the same one… Sirenamon, shaking near a public pool, "Doc, I told you!! When I get around water, something bad always happens!! Please, don't make me get in there!! Don't you think we're going just a little too fast?" Doc goes, "Well, one of the steps necessary in order to beat this is to be around what you fear most. Now, I won't ask again. Get in the water. We're inside, there's lots of people here, and it's only eleven feet deep!!" She sits there with her arms crossed. "I don't want to." The shrink thinks, "She can't tell me a thing about why she's afraid… She babbles on about wild visions of crystal forests that has nothing to do with what I'm helping her with… She refuses to cooperate when I try to get her to face her fear… I should stop letting her have sessions with me, but I am making a mint here… She's so damn annoying!!" He says, "Oh well. Here goes!!" He runs at her. She leaps up and grabs a hold of him, the two swaying dangerously close to the edge. With Sirenamon wrapped around him tightly, he yells, "Let go of me!!" She holds on dearly, then begins to scream. "How do you expect me to help you if you won't at least try!!" Sirenamon yells, "If you like the water so much, why don't you jump in and leave me out of it!!" The doc gets a grin on his face. "Okay." He holds her and leaps into the pool. Immediately, Sirenamon goes into a panic. "You cad!! Gotta… Get… Out of… The water!!" She grabs the side, and just as she tries to pull herself out, he drags her back down, screaming all the way. By now, people had gotten out just to watch this spectacle, when out of nowhere, a small, ping-pong ball sized meteor crashes through the roof and hits the shrink with amazing accuracy. The impact and explosion knock people down and blasts Sirenamon out of the pool. The psychologist was dead, killed by one in vast many meteors in a meteor shower that began the night before, generating a strange frenzy from scientists around the world. Therefore, she now has a new shrink. Jun, soon after the disastrous loss against Lily, became preoccupied with trying to restore Andromon. Soon after, with all the fighting and lack of structure, Sakiko decided to take a break from being a Chosen Child to run the `syndicate.' Taichi finally recovered from his coma in early March, when he then received a warm hug and a smack upside the head from Mimi. Finally, as for Lewis, he's still in the john. What is he doing in there?

Saturday, March 17th, 2046: Over at Lewis' house, Taichi and Mimi arrive at the door. Lilymon opens the door. She goes, "I'm glad to see you better, Taichi. What brings you here?" He looks at her and says, "I understand things are amiss. I'm going to see about setting them straight. Iori, Hikari, Takeru, Yamato and, and after some coaxing, Araiya, are on their way as well." Taichi goes up to the bathroom door. "How long has he been in there?" Lilymon goes, "Since January 30th, if I'm right…" Taichi, "And you're okay with this?" Lilymon answers, "Well, kind of, I guess. I think he wanted to be left alone so he could focus and plan ahead." Agumon goes, "You sure he's alive? You can only go so long without food and other essentials. I know I couldn't." Lilymon goes, "I'm definitely sure he's okay." Mimi goes, "He's definitely still kicking in there. In fact, he seems to be stronger…" They say, "Am I missing something?" Mimi puts her left ring finger in their faces. Both respond, "Oh yeah…" Lilymon goes, "Are you sure you didn't lose a few brain cells in that coma, Taichi?" Mimi smacks Lilymon upside her head. She rubs the spot, asking, "Why'd you do that?" Mimi thinks, "Because that wasn't nice. So he may be a little slow at times, but I love him just the same." Lilymon says, "Okay, but you didn't have to hit me so hard." Taichi goes, "Ehh… Okay, let's move to the living room, shall we?"

Into the living room they enter, as Iori, Takeru, and Hikari arrived. In the room, Daisuke and Veemon are walking about, Daisuke carrying a radio against the walls, picking up feedback. "I knew it!! The aliens have been watching us the whole time, watching our every move so they can take our dead skin cells and make undead replicons of everyone so they can rule the world!!" Veemon goes, "Normally, your ranting sounds strange, but I suddenly feel like we're being watched…" They look around, acting very paranoid, when suddenly, they see Mimi and jump. Daisuke goes, "Oh, it's just Mimi and Lilymon." He then sees Taichi and freaks. "It's already begun!! The undead replicons are taking over the world!!" He runs around in circles, then jumps out the large picture window into the yard and runs away. Agumon asks, "What's he smoking?" Mimi goes, "I guess surprises really freak him out." Lilymon's left eye twitches a bit as she grinds her teeth. She growls, "Excuse me…" Sora and Biyomon come in. Sora asks, "What's going… on?" They see the busted out window. Biyomon recites, "Alas, poor Daisuke. I knew ye well…" Lilymon opens the door, speaking with clenched teeth, "Come here, Daisuke…" Takeru, Patamon, Hikari, and Tailmon all stop next to their car to stare at the spectacle. Daisuke goes, "No, because you're going to hurt me… again." Lilymon's eye quivers again as she says, "Oh, why would I want to do that? In fact, there's some warm food just asking to be ate." Daisuke inches over, grabs Patamon, and slowly moves forward. "Okay, but don't try anything because I got a Patamon and I'm not afraid to use it!!" Tailmon goes, "Why is it that in real life the people who are stupid and crazy are always the most fun to watch?" Hikari mutters, "Tailmon, that wasn't nice." Lilymon reaches over to a small nook. Slowly, he approaches the door, holding Patamon in front of him. Yamato and Araiya arrive at this point. Lilymon says, very insincerely, "It's okay…" He steps in, and then she pulls out an umbrella from the nook and beans him on the head. She says, "Now, go fix my window." Taichi says, "Creepy and anticlimactic, but that filled the time." Araiya, in the car, says to Yamato, "See, this is why I don't go here unless I absolutely have to. I can't take that weird crap!!"

Inside, everyone was gathered in the kitchen. Taichi goes, "Hmmm… Just like old times… Now, let's begin here… What's going on again?" Everyone does an anime fall. Sora goes, "Well, in short, Lewis has locked himself away in some scheme to enlightenment, Lily, driven by the vision of the future, has totally lost it and is slaughtering Dominion soldiers by the thousands while trying to find Attorneymon, while Attorneymon has ignored her and taken his invasion to the real world, particularly Europe and Western Asia. In addition to this, he has Arachnemon and is harvesting her hair to make a new army of Dark Tower digimon. Also, due to something Lily said, the power structure the children organized is falling apart, much like what like what happened to us when we encountered the Dark Masters…" Taichi thinks, then says, "Well, I say we get the whole power struggle worked out ourselves, and they can shove back Attorneymon's forces, while we find Lily and talk to her, and then stop Attorneymon. It'll just be another day on the job." Silence fills the room. Tailmon exclaims, "That has to be… THE BIGGEST LOAD OF BULLSHIT I'VE EVER HEARD!!" Everyone looks at her. Koushiro quietly utters slowly, "Okay…" Yamato says, "Are you not thinking? You know it won't be so easy. Even Avalonmon couldn't stand up against Yuumei Omnimon, and he's just one of Attorneymon's lackeys. We've fought him before, and each time we're forced into retreat." Sora goes, "We also have to factor in Lily, whom refused to listen to reason last time, and her power… I'm not sure who to fear more now, Attorneymon… or her." Iori adds, "You also have to factor in those missing in action or unable to help; Miyako, Lewis, Romi, Yuuji, and now Sakiko!! Even when we had everyone, we barely made it from fight to fight. This will take more than just busting down the doors and opening up a can of whoop ass, because Attorneymon has a can a thousand times bigger than ours!!" Taichi goes, "I know… It's just that we never encountered so complicated before, I really haven't had any chance to think this out, and we don't even know where the Dominion headquarters is. I guess the first thing to do is find that, once we stop all the fighting with one another, including the kids. Now, once we do that, and we find where he is, we go in and save Malachimon first. He needs her for something, because he would have destroyed her otherwise. Hikari, although you said something about a rite to restore Obliviomon, I don't know about how accurate that is. I mean, he ceased to be over 40 years ago. That may be some sort of distraction tactic, trying to throw us off his real designs. I think he's using her as a puppet leader, a means to continue controlling many Dominion troops. I say we save her and break whatever spell is over her, and then Attorneymon will lose most of his influence. That's when we him hit with everything, and I mean everything. I know you'll disagree with this, but from how powerful he is, it could very well take the Omega Triad to stop him." Mimi goes, "You can't be serious. You and Sora could die in the process!! We promised never to use them again!!" Sora goes, "He's right. Attorneymon is just that strong. He'll just stop everything else we throw at him." Yamato goes, "He's right. I think this will have to be a special case, but it will still require all of us to pull this off." Taichi goes, "Okay, it's settled. Now, Sora, Mimi, Takeru, Hikari, and Iori, see if you can get everything straightened out with the kids. Koushiro, try to use what information we have on Attorneymon and see if you can find some sort of weakness, and try to contact Safiirumon and Laomon. We may need their aid in this. Veemon, get on the horn to Ken and Yolei and get them to find the others. As for the rest of us, we'll search the old fashioned way… On foot!!" Lilymon goes, "Uh, do we have a choice in the matter?" Taichi answers, "No." Lilymon goes, "Okay, but if Daisuke breaks anything else, you owe me." Koushiro says, "I'll be here to keep an eye out on him." Lilymon, "Oh goody!! While you're at it, could you work your voodoo and get some super-drug to wax his schizoid thoughts, like maybe some kind of über-Ritalin?" Koushiro responds, "No. That would be fraud." Lilymon slouches down. "Aw…" Taichi goes, "Well, let's do this." Everyone gets up… Taichi thinks, "I hope they trust me, because I'm not sure what to do anymore. I'm just going playing it by ear." Yamato thinks, "His plan is so vague, but he has so many points…" Araiya looks at Taichi and thinks, "We're all going to die, aren't we?"

Lily stands in the center of a leveled Dominion base. Everything around her is ablaze, everything is dead. Suddenly, a Dark Tower High Andromon busts out of the rubble, parts of his tower insides exposed. Lily grabs him by the throat. "Where is Attorneymon!!" He says, "You could search this world over, surface, underworld, and all, and you will never find him. You are such a fool." Lily yells, "Not good enough!! Now tell me…" She spots one of the tears in his skin. "What are you really!!" High Andromon goes, "Oh, how you would love to know, but I'm not going to tell you…" She draws back and says, "Don't mess with me, you piece of Dominion crap!!" High Andromon retorts, "What? Will you destroy me? Will that answer your questions? Besides, what makes you sure you know what you are doing? You'll never know." He aims at his head and destroys himself. Her eye twitches badly, and the earth starts to shake. She screams out into the sky. Suddenly, her eyes spot a glimmer from the nearby woods that runs away. Lily turns to it with her spear pointed in its direction. "No agent of the Dominion shall flee my wrath!!" She flies after the light, zooming through the jungle plants, the figure losing ground to her. It slides through a narrow passage. Lily sees the passage and blasts it apart. She closes in on the shadow and prepares to attack when she comes out the other end. She sees a giant tribal village in the trees and on the ground in the middle of a major clearing. "What is this? Is this a joke?!" From nowhere, a Jijimon walks up. The figure, a frightened Terriermon, hides behind him. Jijimon asks, "What would this joke be, little lady?" Lily goes, "You Dominion officers can't fool me!!" Jijimon says, "Dominion?! What are you talking about?" The Terriermon jumps up on his shoulder and whispers in his ear. "Oh, that… What leads you believe we are who you claim to be?" Lily goes, "You were there!! I saw you there, hiding!!" The Terriermon goes, "Only because you scared the living crap out of me!! I was just trying to find some food and supplies when you started blowing things up for no reason, but at least now we can use our powers and digivolve again!!" Lily, "I'm tired of your lies!! I will smite you… NOW!!" She draws back, when four digimon leap out of nowhere in front of Jijimon. The first two looked similar to one another, one in silver and red armor wearing a red cape, and the other in silver and blue armor wearing a blue cape, both toting lances and shields, and had the same strange symbols on them. As for the other two, one was a glowing metal wolf, and the other was a tiny glowing female fairy-like digimon toting a large paintbrush (Compared to her) with metal hair and clothes, opaque purple crystal skin, and a tail. Lily is surprised. "What are these digimon? I've never seen them before… They must be Dominion made…" She takes out her digivice and scans the first one. She reads, "This one is Dukemon, a Mega level Virus type digimon. His attacks are Royal Saber and Final Elysian." She looks at the other one in armor. "Chaos Dukemon... He's also a Mega level Virus type. His attack is Demon's Disaster." She looks at the wolf-like digimon. "This is Ambient Feralmon, an Ultimate level Data type Lunar Wolf digimon. His attacks are Luna Hyperbeam, Force 4 Pack Attack, and Clan Fusion. His skin is made of the same material that makes up Neo Spheremon's body, but it doesn't explain the glowing…" She finally scans the fairy. "She is Chibi Seishinmon, a Giga level Vaccine type Lunar Sprite digimon. Her main power lies in water, but like many Lunarians, dabble in a little bit of the nuclear and gravitational powers as well. Her attacks are Heavy Water Spout, Density Mist, and Seasonal Paint Metamorph. Her clothes are like Ambient Feralmon's skin, and her skin is made of some kind of `living crystal,' and she is only eight inches tall. I don't understand it…" She looks at them. "I don't care how strange you are, you will all be eliminated!! For the worlds!!" She draws back to attack when Dukemon and Chaos Dukemon reach her. She is completely shocked.

"Royal Saber!!"

"Demon's Destruction!!"

Lily barely clears both attacks, avoiding impalement. Dukemon says, "We are the enemy you think us to be." Ambient Feralmon states, "You seem to want to do a great good, but you act blindly and rashly, clouding your judgment." Out of his back arise two turbine jets. His claws doubled in length. The turbines spin, and he takes off, going from 0 to 1500 in less than a second.

"Force 4 Pack Attack!!"

In front of him, a slipstream shield guarded his front half. The top of his ears grew out and became blades. He put out his front legs level to his mouth and tucked in his legs, going airborne. His incisors grew like his ears, becoming massively long blades. He began to corkscrew in the air as he neared her. She tried to punch him away, but when her fist met his shield, the energy threw her into a counterclockwise corkscrew as she flipped backwards. He swerved to the left, and his blades and shield struck her, leaving five deep gashes in her left arm and one in part of her head, and the two wings on her left side were utterly destroyed. As she screamed out in pain, she asked herself, "How? He's only an Ultimate!! He's nothing compared to me!!" They both hit the ground hard, blood running down Lily's arm and the left side of her face. Ambient Feralmon stands there when suddenly the right ear shatters and his claws break. They fall to the ground, making small blue and platinum white puddles that ooze back to him and are absorbed. Ambient Feralmon goes, "That's a first. I've never had my blades broken by a non-Lunarian!!" Jijimon goes, "Amazing…" Lily starts to stand again. "Dirty Dominion dogs… How can you trick my digivice?! He must some sort of new Terra digimon!!" Jijimon goes, "Your scan of Ambient Feralmon is quite accurate. He is an Ultimate level digimon, but he is also a completely healthy Lunarian digimon with years of training behind his talent. The average Digital World Giga digimon would have been obliterated by such an attack. Listen to us. We are not your enemy. Whatever war you are waging, we are not part of it. Even in war, there are those who are not involved, those who do not seek to fight, and those who do not see in black or white. We do not even know who this `Dominion' is, or what they do." Lily stares with a mad look in her eyes, her hair a mess, blood obscuring her vision. She screams, "Lies!!" and hurls a Delta Crash attack at him. Chibi Seishinmon flies up. She pulls out a pale of multi-color paint and her brush.

"Seasonal Paint Metamorph!!"

She dips the brush, draws it out, and swipes at the attack. Three drops, a red, a green, and a light green, make contact with the tetrahedron. The green drop binds it in vines, the red drop turns into flames and ignites it, and the light green drop unleashes an atomic chain reaction inside of it, throwing everyone to the ground, ripping trees from the ground, and collapsing a nearby structure close to the fighting. Lily quickly stands again. Jijimon asks, "How can we get her to see we aren't her foes?" Chibi Seishinmon says, "Well, we will have to subdue her first. If she is too weak to fight, maybe she will be more willing to listen." Jijimon goes, "But how? For an outsider, her power is terrifyingly awesome." Chibi Seishinmon goes, "Then I'll have to use the shield and let her wear herself…" Jijimon goes, "You can't… What if `they' detect us?" Chibi Seishinmon responds, "If we can hide from them for over a million years, what makes you think they'll see us now?" Jijimon goes, "Alright… I guess you have a point. You have my permission." Chibi Seishinmon smirks, "Let's do this then."

The `Bio-Merge' theme from `Tamers' plays in the background as the world around her takes on a glow and she begins a series of hand movements. The moon seemed to glow almost a hundred times brighter for a moment as a beam came down from it to Chibi Seishinmon. Tiny balls of energy come forth from her body, pooling before her, serrated rings of light surging from her body, each one spinning the opposite direction as the one before. Soon there were seven sets of buzzsaw-like rings, the largest outermost rings sitting behind her in the village. She reaches out and puts the fingers and thumb of her right hand on the smallest ring, sitting in front of her. A blinding light forms from the contact, and the ring is pushed outward.

"Big Guard!!"

Multi-faceted transparent white barriers formed inside the rings, angled to all meet with the center of the smallest ring, the facets rotating and facing at an angle, making them look much like super-thick fan blades, to conform with the rotating, serrated rings. The whole thing covered the digimon, the village behind her, many of the trees, and areas around it, a distance of over twenty miles in all directions from Chibi Seishinmon, and over 7 miles behind her. Lily stares at awe at the barrier, the light from it turning everything white. Lily stutters, "What the hell is this?" She looks into it, and like looking into a clear pond that happens to be white, she can still see the digimon and their village, and she can see her own reflection in the barrier. Chibi Seishinmon just hovers there, looking at her. Lily goes, "Your tricks will not save you!! Atlas Bolt!!" She attacks it, but nothing happens. Suddenly, the surface resonates, and not only does the barrier get bigger and badder, gaining two more rings of defense, she finds her own attack coming back at her, but now it's ten times stronger!! Lily sees the attack and tries to hold it back, but must let go of it and let it go, when it explodes, throwing her into the ground about a hundred feet. Persistent and stubborn, she stands back up. Chibi Seishinmon says to her, "Stop it!! You'll only get yourself killed if you keep hitting the Big Guard!!" Lily ignores her.

"Delta Crash!!"

It soars into the barrier, right in front of Chibi Seishinmon, but she does flinch a bit. It crumples on the surface and melts into it. Yet three more rings of defense emerge, the rings rotate faster, and the surface resonates. From the fifth ring, three beams positioned in an equilateral triangle lock on to Lily. Lily looks at this and comments, "What is going on!!" She runs to the right, but the beams stay fixed on her. She continues her attempts to evade the beams, but they will not remove their lock. Energy surges down them, energy so strong it drags Lily in front of the barrier where she was first standing, then lifting her into the air. Walls of light form between the beams, forming a perfect tetrahedron. Lily knew what was next. Another beam locks on to her from the center of the barrier, then bulges of power, each one twenty-five times stronger than original attack that struck the shield, totaling a massive 100 times the power of Lily's Delta Crash, strike all at the same time. Everyone is forced to protect his or her eyes. Dukemon asks, "Is she…?" Sure enough, Lily is still there, and still standing, but very battered. Jijimon says to her, "Listen, calm down, and stop fighting. Fighting will not get you anywhere. That's the point behind Big Guard. Every time you hit it, it'll just reflect your attack back with exponential force, and it gets worse the more you attack it. That last blow hit you with your attack, but with one hundred times more force. Hit it again and it'll hit you back with a thousand times more force!! If you manage to attack again, it'll hit you with ten thousand times more force than you hit it, and so on, so stop it!! Are you that willing to die?!" Lily, now crying and limping, yells out, "Must… destroy… Dominion!!" She draws back and punches at the barrier, but as soon as she does an invisible blast hits her with a thousand times the force she hit it, just as Jijimon said. By now, this had gotten the attention of the villagers, many of whom were strange or had never been seen before. Like a zombie, she rises again, continuing, "Must… destroy… Attorneymon!!" She jabs at it again and hits with ten thousand times said force, throwing her into the ground a hundred feet away. By now, the barrier has 21 rings of defense and twice as big. Jijimon goes, "How does she know of Attorneymon?" Lily struggles to stand, so battered it seems a wonder she's still alive. Slowly, she drags herself back. Chibi Seishinmon yells, "Have you lost your mind?" Woozy, Lily blankly stares at her own reflection, seeing the source of the barrier through it. She takes a step, now only seeing her reflection, and slumps over on the barrier, jabbing her spear into it. She giggles for a moment, until a surge draws back and hits her with 100,000 times the force of her jab. The ground shook and trees were toppled from 6.0 Richter scale readings around Lily as she went airborne, then throwing up dust as she landed on the ground. Chaos Dukemon states, "She had it coming to her. Her need to fight made her forget that not everything is her foe." Dukemon says, "For shame, Chaos Dukemon. She was still a living thing. What horrors could she have been through to drive her to this end?" Just then, there is a commotion. Chaos Dukemon exclaims, "Impossible!! There is no way anything could survive five consecutive reflected attacks like that!!" Jijimon goes, "At least nothing of this day and age. Chibi Seishinmon, I think you should lower the Big Guard now. If somehow she does attack again, I don't know if the area around the village could survive the repercussions of one million times her strength. What worries me the most is that she spoke of Attorneymon." With that, Chibi Seishinmon closes her eyes and shuts down the barrier. What looks like a golden Kokuwamon runs out to Lily and jumps on her, looking around curiously. Ambient Feralmon growls, "Where did he come from? Could someone get Ni-Kokuwamon off of her?" Jumping on her back, he stops and smells, he speaks, and his voice sounds like Gir from Invader Zim, "You smell strange!! You smell like cinder and entrails!! Yay!! Gimme a piggy back ride!!" Lily slowly stirs and rises, with Ni-Kokuwamon sitting on her head. Lily mutters, "I have not begun to fight!! I am not defeated!!" The digimon, sitting in her hair, trying to eat it, exclaims, "Yes you are…" Lily, frightened by the voice so close to her, screams, "Where are you? Show yourself!!" Ni-Kokuwamon, with a mouthful of her hair, drools and exclaims, "It's a secret… Gimme a kiss and I'll tell you!!" Lily finally notices Ni-Kokuwamon on her head. "Get off my head!!" He continues to nibble on the same strands of hair, shuddering. She yells, "Get off now!!" Ni-Kokuwamon answers, "Aw… But I love you!! You taste like barbequed haggis!!" He then proceeds to make strange sounds. Chibi Seishinmon exclaims, "Ni-Kokuwamon, get that out of your mouth and get off her head!! You don't know where that's been, and she's been through enough." Lily, now frustrated, goes, "Are you stupid or something?!" Ni-Kokuwamon answers, "Why do birds suddenly appear?" Ambient Feralmon states, "He's stupid." Chaos Dukemon comments, "My belief opts for the `something else' route." Jijimon smacks them both upside the head. "For shame…" Lily is now furious, as Ni-Kokuwamon sits on her head, munching on a select few strands of hair, drooling on her head, uttering, "The ecstasy…" Lily grabs the strands he is so set out to eat and jerks them, throwing him off her head, but still holding the hair. Lily raises her hands side by side, much like how one would clap their hands together to squish an insect. She claps, but Ni-Kokuwamon slips some, and she boxes her nose. As he swings, she feels the pull on her hair and grimaces, just as he collides with her gut. He rebounds off her, screaming, "Lookee me fly!!" He soars over her head and bounces off her back and back into the air. Ni-Kokuwamon wails, "I'm a tetherball!!" Lily takes a swing at him again, but this time clocks herself in the chin. Lily goes, "That's it!! You will no longer embarrass me!!" She takes her spear out. "I'll get you off and then shish-ka-bob me a robot!!" She swings it forward, trying to cut him loose, but in her fury beans herself in the head. She staggers for a moment, woozy from the concussion she just gave herself, reverts to normal, then passes out on the ground. Jijimon goes, "All that, and Ni-Kokuwamon stops her without a single attack." Ambient Feralmon mutters, "Show off." Chibi Seishinmon asks, "What now? She knows of this place." Jijimon says, "I feel truly sorry for her, only a child. If Attorneymon is back, I can understand how she feels. Let's get her cleaned up before she wakes up, then get power manacles out of storage. She may have a lot of angst, but we can't let her vent it out on us." Ambient Feralmon goes, "Okay… Could someone get him off of her?" Ni-Kokuwamon releases the hair and says, "Wake up… Wake up now!!" He starts to blubber, then just seconds later immediately falls asleep on her head.

Located only a thousand miles away, Vulcan Lilymon and Tamiko have been living with the misunderstood Feral Rosemon for over a month now. Although somewhat paralyzed, she managed to save Tamiko's infected arm. Also riddled with problems, his legs became stiff and soon had to use a cane. Vulcan Lilymon, on the other hand, made a full recovery. The strange thing though, is the personality of Feral Rosemon. She still does not speak, despite coaxing by Vulcan Lilymon, and for some reason is afraid to even move as long as she is alone and Tamiko is around her, sometimes huddling in a corner as though in total dread of him. As such, she only communicates with Vulcan Lilymon. This has been the status quo; Feral Rosemon does her research as long as Vulcan Lilymon is there with her, Vulcan Lilymon fetches the supplies, and Tamiko tries to recover, but something is different about today…

Feral Rosemon looks over a book, pacing before a burning beaker. The white stripes on her now appear to be pink, as are the rose petals. The leaves on her have gone from brown to a light green. The book's cover says `The DMS-V Guide to Psychological Disorders.' Nervously, she thinks, "She'll be back soon… She'll be back soon… Why am I so scared? I've… always been afraid of others… to the point of paranoia… I wish I knew why… This book only seems to cover conditions relevant to humans, and I lack any way of testing myself…" She hears the bubbling. "The beaker!!" She goes to grab her tongs when Tamiko walks in, recently awoken. Feral Rosemon suddenly locks up, drops the book, and goes blank. "Well, good morning to you, too." He comments. Tamiko hobbles towards the fridge. Each step he takes, Feral Rosemon takes a step away from him, completely fixated on him. He pulls a couple of things out and turns to her. In her panic, she crushes the tongs in her hand, leaving just a crumpled heap on the floor. As he steps forward, she begins to hyperventilate. He draws out the objects he held, a sausage and a carton of eggs. "You want some?" Panic-filled, she didn't think of his question. All that filled her mind was, "Please go away!!" Tamiko, getting annoyed, asks, "Well?" In a quick burst of despair, she cries as she shakes her head no, then falls to the floor. Tamiko goes, "Okay then… Don't have to be so dramatic about it." Feral Rosemon looks up to notice the beaker shaking violently, and Tamiko is almost next to it. She leaps up and tackles him, just milliseconds before the beaker blew up. Vulcan Lilymon comes in right about this time, carrying some fish. Smoke rushes out as she enters. "Say, what blew up this time?" Upon hearing her voice, Feral Rosemon leaps off of the floored Tamiko and over to Vulcan Lilymon, where she then proceeds to hug her. Confused and nervous, Vulcan Lilymon goes, "I like you too." Feral Rosemon signals, ["Well, he scared me half to death, then before I could do anything, the beaker blew up."] Vulcan Lilymon goes, "Another little `accident,' I see. I don't get it. How come when you met us, you didn't seem all too fazed by his presence, thought a little sarcastic, but now you're scared to be in the same room with him without in there with you. Why?" She was answered, ["I don't know. That's what I've been trying to figure out as I work. When I first saw the two of you, I was scared of both of you, and I prayed you would never see me, but when I saw you in danger, some sort of rush just…, kicked in, much like a rush of dopamine and adrenaline, temporarily blinding my higher thoughts, much like a `fight or flight' response. I went in and grabbed you, but like all such responses, it would seem it wore off, and my fear of you returned, but it didn't seem so bad with you here, because you could understand…"] Tamiko goes, yolk all over his face, "All I did was ask if you wanted some sausage and eggs. Say, you smell that?" Feral Rosemon sniffs and looks over at the table. She suddenly begins to panic, motioning the others to leave, then, in a rare moment, screams out loud. Vulcan Lilymon goes, "What is it?" Tamiko exclaims, "I understood that!! That's one way of saying `We must flee in terror!!' I'm getting the hell out of here!!" He hobbles as fast as he can. Vulcan Lilymon goes, "I don't get it." Feral Rosemon grabs her by the arm and chucks her out. After a few flips in mid-air, she rights herself and hovers. "What'd you do that for?" Feral Rosemon nabs Tamiko and leaps from her domicile. Tamiko goes, "Don't ask why, just run!!" Feral Rosemon bounds from tree to tree away from her home, a very confused Vulcan Lilymon following in the sky. After going out a quarter mile, there is an explosion, an explosion you'd only get from a volatile reaction. Tamiko goes, "Wait… Was that supposed to happen?" ["Uh… no."] Vulcan Lilymon asks, "Will somebody explain this to me?!!" ["Well, see, that `was' part of my attempt to make a new fuel for space transportation. I had just started my hypotheses last week, and well, let's just say it doesn't mix well with other things."] Another explosion rips loose, almost knocking Tamiko out of the tree. Vulcan Lilymon goes, "I'll just take your word for it." Tamiko goes, "What now? Her place went boom." ["Well, it would foolhardy to try and rebuild without some form of hazardous material cleanup crew, and that could take a while, but at least all my ideas were kept in my head, so I really didn't lose much besides my home, a place to sleep, and my security!!"] She starts bawling. Tamiko, upon getting the English dub, responds, "Well what good would all that knowledge do if you stayed hidden away for all eternity? Maybe this is an omen that you should re-enter society." Vulcan Lilymon goes, "Yeah. We also got others out there worried over us." Tamiko says, "Well, not me…" Vulcan Lilymon goes, "Well, we do. Why don't you come with us?" Tamiko asks, "Where? We really can't be sure where we are!!" Vulcan Lilymon goes, "To Safiirumon's camp, of course!! I promised Feral Rosemon she could see Sigmamon in order to help her reach out with the world, and now that we have a guide and I can fly again, we can get out of here in no time whatsoever!!" Feral Rosemon tries to voice her concerns, but Vulcan Lilymon reassures her. Tamiko says, "I don't know…" Before he can finish, Vulcan Lilymon plants a kiss on his mouth. Tamiko announces, "Well, you convinced me. Let's go!!" Feral Rosemon silently thinks, "Even as friends, they're still stubborn with one another." Vulcan Lilymon grabs up Tamiko and takes off, rising over the tops of the trees. "Here we go!!"

Now, getting back what the others were doing, Mimi, Sora, Takeru, and Hikari were finally able to coax Keiko and Bonnie out and about back to Takeru's place, but now here's the hard part…

Mimi says to Keiko, "Come on. We just need to pick up something from Takeru and Hikari and we'll be off." Keiko, held in the air by Sora's left hand, says, "Something's not right about this. I told you I didn't want to be here." She tries to get Sora to let go, but nothing seems to faze the mechanical limb. They enter, and there sitting in wait was Takeru, Hikari, Tailmon, Patamon, Meramon, and Bonnie. Bonnie exclaims, "What the hell? I've been had!!" She tries to flee when Hikari grabs her by the hair and drags her back. Sora goes, "Now, it is established that no one is to leave until we get this dispute resolved or I shall be forced to shoot you. You got it?" Various military-grade weapons pop out of her left arm. Everyone nods violently. Takeru asks, "Before we start, would shooting us really be necessary?" Sora responds, "If it came to it, yes, yes it would. We're not leaving until we settle this or hell freezes over, whichever happens to come first. We must work together if we hope to end all of this." Takeru goes, "Now I understand that when you guys were enlisted, a chain of command was made by Mai. How did it go again?" Keiko says, "First it was Lily, then me, followed by Ryo, Tetsuo, Masato, Bonnie, Romi, Jun, Sakiko, and Yuuji, in that order." Hikari goes, "That sounds right to me." Bonnie looks a little peeved at her grandmother. Sora asks, "Now, let me understand. A month ago, when Lily attacked you, she told you that you should be in charge since she felt that Keiko was too soft to lead." Bonnie goes, "That is true, and Ardillamon is my witness to that event." Hikari says, "He's not here, so let's not worry about him." Bonnie stares at her. Sora then asks, "Now, what happened that night, just to remind us?" Keiko goes, "Well, we were trying to find Lily when we got attacked by some Dark Tower digimon. Some strange digimon came and saved us and fled just as quickly, then Lily came. We tried to talk some sense into her, but then she lost it and attacked. Bonnie kept telling us to fight back, but I didn't want to hurt her and make her think we had turned on her, but when she wouldn't stop, I finally relented to Bonnie's yells and fought back, buying us the time to escape. If I had just listened, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad…" Mimi goes, "That's right. Fighting is a necessary evil." Bonnie says, "I guess if it wasn't for you playing it safe, we wouldn't be here. I honestly wanted to stay there and knock some sense back into her, but you got us out of there…" Keiko, "It's strange. We're second cousins, but we're not at all alike." Meramon starts fiddling with his fingers, then mutters, "Yeah, that's right…" Bonnie says, "I'm smart, but I guess I'm also a bit rash. You're so… open-minded, and you were also the only one that could have kicked her butt. I concede. It's in your blood. You are the real leader." Hikari goes, "Finally, someone has come to their senses!!" Mimi goes, "What? My Keiko's a creampuff!! She couldn't lead diddlysquat!! Bonnie would so kick her ass!!" Hikari yells, "Oh yeah?! Bonnie is arrogant and stubborn!! She'll get everyone killed!!" Mimi yells, "At least she has a spine!!" Takeru interrupts, "Guys, we came here to resolve their dispute, not start another one." Sora says, "Besides, don't you think it's strange to favor someone else's grandchild over your own?" Both Mimi and Hikari yell, "Shut up!!" and punch out the both of them. Hikari shakes her fist and holds it for a bit, then they light in on one another again. Bonnie stares at them. "Rrrriiight… Wanna get something to eat?" Keiko answers, "Sure." With that, they leave.

For Iori and Armajimon, things weren't so easy…

Iori walks down a hallway. "Now Armajimon, I think it's best for you to stay out of sight. I mean, remember how much Yuuji's dad didn't like digimon? I don't want an incident." He knocks on the door. Kai answers it. "Who are you?" Iori says to him, "Hello. I'm Iori Hido, and I was wondering if I could borrow your son for a moment. We need his help on a matter, and I was hoping you would let me talk to him." Kai goes, "Who are you to come barging in and asking to see my son?" Iori says, "Well sir, we are both mature people, and I was hoping to explain…" Kai pulls out a cattle prod. "Now I remember that name… Get out of here!!" Iori interjects, "But…" But before he could finish, he was answered with the business end of the cattle prod. He screams out loud, and then is bludgeoned again. "Ack!! The pain!! Quickly, we must flee in terror!!" He starts to run with Kai nipping at his heels swinging the cattle prod, with Armajimon in the lead. The younger Kai easily overtook him many times, but repeated jolts of electricity from the cattle prod gave Iori that much needed incentive to stay in front. Armajimon comments, "I guess he don't like people who like digimon either!!" Iori busts through the main entrance, where Kai finally stopped chasing them. Kai, standing in the lobby, says, "Teach you to mess with my kid." Iori stands outside panting, uttering, "Can't… feel… arm… It like… noodle!!" He convulses for a moment, then is scared half to death. "Hi Iori!!" Yuuji was standing in front of him. Yuuji laughs at him. Iori goes, "You think being bludgeoned by a cattle prod is funny? You should try it some time and see how funny you find it." Yuuji goes, "It's not that. It's just that you let it happen to you. You're Iori Hido, a legend. Of course he was going bludgeon you with a cattle prod. Haven't you learned anything from the first time you met him?" Iori goes, "I think I missed that. Now, I came here to tell you that we need you back, because we're going to need everyone if we're going to stop Attorneymon in three days. Taichi, as we speak, is searching for Dominion HQ so we can launch a final strike and end this all now." Yuuji goes, "Well, that could work… I mean, dad doesn't care about me going to school, and it would be a school day, so I could help!!" Iori goes, "Okay, but please meet any one of us out here. I think I need medical attention, but I walk it off. I have to. I don't have time to waste. Bye." Iori slowly walks away. "I don't think I'll be able to sit down for a week."

Iori and Armajimon make the slow trek to the Kabukicho neighborhood of Shinjuku, where Romi lived. Armajimon looks around to see the scum of the earth watching them. "Something tells me we should hide anything of value right about now." Not all that far away, Armajimon spots Ken and Yolei entering one of the better-looking buildings. Armajimon looks over to Iori and mentions, "Say, isn't that Ken and Yolei?" He looks over again to see their car had already chopped up and stripped. Armajimon goes, "Damn!!" Iori goes, "Let's make sure this is the right place. At least out here no one can hit me with a cattle prod." He looks up and yells, "Is there a Romi Temujin living here?" Tomokazu opens a window and calls out, "If there is, you not going to see him!!" Suddenly, he grabs something. Out of nowhere, a brick falls from the sky and beans Iori over the head. He falls back and lands on a parking meter. Just then, a mugger comes up, cattle prods Iori, and takes his wallet and watch. Iori says, "I know I am not supposed to speak ill of people and things, but f*** this, I'm going home!! I need Epsom salt!! The pain!!"

Just feet away……

Sakiko, sitting at the front of a long table, dressed in dark red pants, red low-heeled shoes, a white business shirt, a crushed velvet red vest, tie, and fedora hat, with her blonde hair tied up in back touching the floor and two braids in front of her ears with some bangs in front of them, sits there and says, "Okay, I came back here earlier this month in the hopes that we have managed to at least done a little to further the old boss' plans of going legit with what we got, but apparently we got an incompetent underboss here, not to mention bad accounting!! We're missing ten million!! Sure, these days, it's not that much, but now we got lay off some good people and undersell our asses off to even hope to stay within the original expected fiscal goal set in January." One man cocks his gun and says, "Who do you want `laid off?'" She gets up, her hair sweeping across her calves. She goes over to him. "Gimme that!! I don't mean kill them, dumkopf!!" She holds the gun. "Scarletmon, I thought I said `check the guns at the door.'" Scarletmon goes, "I did!! It looked all right, so I gave it back to him." Sakiko explains to her, "Listen closely. What I mean by check the guns at the door is that you take the guns. Okay?" She nods. One man says to another, "Dude!! What does `dumkopf' mean?" Sakiko goes over to him and says, "Well, it's a term that also applies to you as well. See, it's German. Literally translated, it means `stupid head,' but in recent years has become a slang term for `you moron.' Now, listen closely. How many of you have graduated from a school of higher learning?" All but one of them raises their hands. "A real school!!" Only two kept their arms up. "No wonder we lose money left and right. Our two smartest men are the muscle men. You *She points at one of them*!! You're now the accountant until you die, retire, or I find someone better, whichever happens to come first. As for the old accountant, remove him from my sight." One guy nabs him and drags him out. Sakiko continues, "Now, on to the business of… well, business. Give me a layout of our territory and what we got. One man pulls out a map. "As you already know, our main revenue is restaurants, which in Tokyo proper alone we have 35 of them, and several nice franchises all over Honshu, and we're trying to expand out to Korea with that. As for our other holdings, the Shimatsu Corporation has a great foothold on commercial farming zones all over Japan, which is how we maintain our control over the restaurant business, well, at least the legal reason. We also tend to fire bomb the competition." Sakiko goes, "What? No bribing the health inspectors either?" He goes, "That'd just be wrong." A moment of silence. "Well, in addition to this, we also got our international shipping company, which ships dehydrated produce to 56 different nations, and how we do all our smuggling, murdering, and gambling, which generates over forty times more revenue than damn fruit." Sakiko goes, "Of course!! Do everything on international waters, where there is almost no chance in hell of getting caught!! And you were going to tell me this when?" Suddenly, there is a gunshot and the man comes back in. Sakiko says, "Now who did you just shoot?" He says with a Russian accent, "You told me to remove from sight, da, and I did." Sakiko says, "Okay… You must not be listening to a thing we've been saying. Whacking people BAD. It makes all the bad men in uniforms come and ask questions. Do we like the bad men?" He shakes his head no. "Okay. We're trying to not do bad things, so they won't come and haul us all away to klink. We're trying to clean up our act, and be powerful like Starbuck's, not powerful like CIA." He seems slightly confused. Sakiko goes, "How can I explain this…" She states in Russian, "You kill anyone else and I'll personally mount your ass and you know what on the wall outside for the world to see. Understand, comrade? Good. Now sit in the corner and think about what you did." He quietly gets in the corner. The man by the map asks, "Should I continue?" Sakiko goes, "Uh… No… I think I gave myself one nasty vision there, so here's what we're going to do…" The door opens and in comes a guy with Ken and Yolei. "Yeah boss, these two say they know you and need to talk to you." Sakiko sees them and says, "Well, let them in!! Duh?!" Ken and Yolei come in, and become quite nervous upon seeing her `associates.' Yolei goes, "So, Sakiko, this is where you've been… Who are these people?" Sakiko says, "Now I ask you, have you forgotten who I am? I am the head, the leader, the CEO, of the Shimatsu crime syndicate, and you came at the perfect time." Yolei is surprised. "As I was going to say, I wanted an immediate, and I mean immediate, end to all illicit activities. Since the underboss couldn't do it gradually like planned, we're doing it like this. Now, anyone involved in such matters are to either be liquidated, which does mean go hack them to pieces or some crap like that, or retrained to suit my plan. Any illegal materials in stock are to be sold as though this was a going out of business sale so that we at least get back the money we used to acquire it. Now, if I've done the math right, according to the info stated to me earlier, we will double over the money once used for salaries, materials, and what not from our illegal activities, and use that to start expansion into the land of opportunity, which we basically already own… the US of A. Now, for my comment about perfect timing. I want to incorporate this syndicate. If we're really serious about doing this, we need to get our Articles of Incorporation!!" One man goes, "What's so great about incorporation, boss?" Sakiko goes, "Well… It allows us the ability to indefinitely expand without the limitations without the necessity of altering a deed of ownership and dissolving the company every time someone dies, sells out, quits, or retires. It grants us the power to issue stock. Corporations gain certain tax credits depending on where it is located, and it allows us to take over any company smoothly, without the flaws aforementioned. The only major drawback to incorporation is that legally the company is considered both an entity and a business, so therefore a corporation can be double-taxed and become an easier target for lawsuits. There's a bunch of other stuff to it as well, but I'm only in middle school, so I'm not going to know all this stuff, okay?" Sakiko turns a little toward Yolei, then says, "Oh, and you're all going to night school." They all argue about it. "Hey, don't give me any lip about it, or I will forced to break you. If we're going to do this, I don't it all ran by a pack of baka!!" Yolei goes, "Okay… What does that have to do with me?" Sakiko says, "Once we find an attorney and incorporate, we'll need a broker, someone to watch over our major investments, and you look like the perfect person for the job!!" Yolei panics. "I don't want to work for the mob!!" Sakiko yells, "Are you deaf?! We just sat here talking about ending all that stuff right here before you. Besides, what's the difference? Businessmen are bigger crooks than us, but no one seems to care. This should be no different. How about a Â¥500,000 advance?" Ken goes, "Are you trying to bribe us?" Yolei goes, "Sounds good to me!!" Hawkmon says, "Well you sold out in record time." Sakiko calls out, "Okay people, let's make this happen. You *Pointing at the other burly muscle man* are the underboss until I get back." She turns to Ken and Yolei. "Hold on a moment." She goes to her new underboss. He says, "What is it, boss?" Sakiko bends him down and whispers to him, "Now, once we get incorporated, and she gets us out there on the market, there's a line of convenience stores her sister owns, but she went wacko and left her with proxy power. Forget the expansion crap I said earlier. She may be a good stockbroker, but she sucks ass at running a company, and stock is going way down. When she has fulfilled her usefulness to us as a broker, we'll buy her out!! Now that's how you run a business!!" Ken stares at the two and says to Yolei, "Why do I have this sudden dread?" Sakiko walks back and says, "Okay, let's go." Ken goes, "But you don't even know why we're here…" Sakiko goes, "Listen. If you came all the way out here just to look for me, then it's important enough to merit my attention." She leans over to them. "Besides, I don't know how much longer I can stand these nit-wits, and I think they're rubbing off on Scarletmon." She turns to the gang. "Some pressing matters need to be attended to. I take my leave… Scarletmon, that means you too." And so they leave, but whom is that running off into the alleyway? We'll get back to that in a little bit…

In a shrink's office, Sirenamon sits on a couch, sitting up. The new doc, a much younger person than the original shrink, says, "Well, to date, we seem to have gotten nowhere on your problem with water, but you've claimed to have more of these strange visions and hallucinations, as though you're revisiting some previous life." Sirenamon goes, "It's weird. Everyone thinks I'm crazy because about crystal trees and things I couldn't have possibly been around, but the vision are so… real." The doc says, "Let's try a new approach to this. I want you to try and pull up all those visions and focus on them, try to see details in them that may explain why you are seeing them. Try to think as far back as you can. They may have to do with your phobia somehow." Sirenamon goes, "Okay, but I usually remembering them once they happen, so I don't know how much this will work." He goes, "Don't worry. I'll record every word you say." Sirenamon closes her eyes and tries to focus… focus… focus… "You can start at any time." She snores a bit. "You weren't supposed to go to sleep!!" She jumps a bit, then she becomes entranced. Sirenamon sees a dark icy place with an aurora overhead. She sits there as Nixemon. "Well, this is the place. I'm so hungry… A wave crashes up onto the glacier and she freaks out, seeing hundreds of underwater digimon being destroyed by some powerful digimon as an underwater volcano erupted and then one of them laying on the sea floor saying, "This is your fault. The gods said that those `Lunarians' were agents of evil, and you had to befriend it and bring it here. Now the gods have evoked their wrath upon us for your transgression…" Then he dies. This is followed by strange events seeking her out. "Stupid Eight Million Kami, went and ruined my life. So I talked to a Lunarian, although it did seem strange that he said that the kami were the evil ones… I never liked the sea anyway. It messed up my hair with all that salt." Holding a cane, she uses it to generate a kind of locomotion, and hops on over to a small village. Suddenly, there is a flash, and she is on an artic beach. She says, "Do I really have to? There are so many other great swimmers that could go help you…" A strange digimon with a head that looked like an entire squid and a body like a seal says to her with a heavy Russian accent, "You help now are I garnish wages. I admit, last two jobs locals didn't like you for some reason, and that would make even me, mighty Kurskamon shaken, but this is far away from peering eyes." Nixemon thinks, "I hope no one up here has a vendetta against me either…" They leap in and continue to go deeper into the icy depths, reaching an oyster field. "Now, harvest opal and pearl. No one here, so nothing can go wrong." In the corner of her eye, she sees a ball of light, then a major quake begins. Steam surges upward. The water begins to turn red. Kurskamon exclaims, "How can there be red tide at this depth and location?!" A voice exclaims, "You are with someone who associated with a Lunarian. The Eight Million Kami demand your destruction!!" Nixemon asks, "But why?" It says to her, "Because you know our little secret…" Nixemon says, "Eh, what secret?" Kurskamon asks, "Have you lost mind? No one said anything about secret?" The ball exclaims, "Don't play dumb with us!! That Lunarian blabbed to you!!" Out of nowhere, they heard explosions. Kurskamon looks up to see… meteors?! Suddenly, there is another flash, and now she is Sirenamon, but the Crest of Reliability symbols embossed on her shoulder plates are missing, and she seems to be in rough shape. She manages to bounce herself up a hill to the top, where her cane snapped. She falls onto her hands, but then looks up. She looks upon a bright city. She starts to cry with joy. "I made it!! I made it!! They wouldn't dare hunt me down amongst the millions of other digimon!!" Another flash happens, and she lies on the ground bleeding in an alley, trying to crawl. "They won't leave me be, will they… I'm going to die, just because I met a Lunarian… Is there no place safe?" Then she looks up at the moon, which was almost ten times brighter than a full moon. With a bloody hand, she reaches up at it, but then is stomped in the back. In the shadows, a voice says, "The chase is over, blasphemer. I will send you to the bowels of the underworld!!" Sirenamon closes her eyes and awaits the end, when a brilliant flash of light appears in the alleyway, and out comes a glowing female digimon which looks humanoid wearing a robe made of a strange white metal and a ruby cloak, but unlike metal and gemstones, these articles moved as easily as cloth, but what got Sirenamon's attention was her moonlight white skin that also had a gemstone like shimmer to it and her teal metal hair, which three quarters down the strands seems to seamlessly change over to pure quantum energy. Her glow lit up most of the alley. The mysterious digimon backed off, preferring to stay out of sight. Sirenamon goes, "A Lunarian…" She slumps down. The Lunarian says, "This digimon must have met one of our earlier emissaries. At least I know now the others made it here." The mysterious digimon scowls, "Accursed monster!! The Eight Million Kami will have your head!!" The digimon says, "Your false gods do not care about you. Eventually, just as they have done before, digimon will grow strong and learn the truth, and that will be when they will call upon their messengers of doom to wipe you off the face of the planet." He snarls and approaches, when a sparkling light appears. "Stop!! That's the legendary Kami-killer Tsukiyumimon!! You don't stand a chance!!" Before anything happens, she bounces into the air and drives her foot into the mysterious digimon, then leaps back and brandishes a bizarre object, from which a golden beam of light emerged, widening and becoming flat near the top, and took the shape of a rune blade. She drew it back and threw it, impaling both the light and the digimon into a wall. The light grew brighter and exploded, and the digimon slumped over dead. Tsukiyumimon grabs her sword and kneels down next to Sirenamon. "You look bad. What happened?" She passes out. Another flash moves ahead to a crystal pyramid. The same digimon says to her, "Whoa… Calm down. You need to rest. The Eight Million Kami and their followers cannot follow you here. If I had left you, you wouldn't be alive now. Your people still lack the ability to heal such major wounds." Sirenamon leans back, still very weak. She looks out a door to see most of the clouds below her, and in the openings were what looked like streetlights. Another flash, and it's them in a small field nearby with thousands of glowing, moving eggs with super elaborate designs. All the grass looked like shards of quartz, but as limp as a noodle, and easily swayed in the wind, sitting in the cobalt soil. Sirenamon asks, "I saw bright light earlier. I thought we were in a… city?" She looks around to see thousands of metal trees, their silver bodies shimmering, and on their branches sat partly clear white crystal leaves, the leaves maintaining a white glow around them, illuminating the area around, and every now and then, about a minute or two, all the leaves on a tree would pulse ten times brighter than usual for a few seconds. The pulses from the trees seemed to `dance' from one another. This glow was also present in the grass, as it swept across the plain in waves. Tsukiyumimon says to her, "Now, I find it strange that a digimon so suited for water was on land, and lacked any means of flight." Sirenamon scratches her head. "I guess not… Well then. If you're going to live on it, you need to learn how to move on it…" Things seem to change as Sirenamon sits inside a building made of glowing golden bricks. She falls on the floor. "Hey!! Who turned up the gravity!!" A digimon, a Procaryotemon, said to her, "This is natural. These are Hawkingstone bricks, drawn from deep in the core, the living matter that merged with the inanimate rocks a long time ago can generate their own gravitational field, which is why there are no earthquakes on the moon. On average they generate up to 60 times the gravity you would have known on your world Deji-Chi." Another digimon in robes comes up. "Listen. We are only letting you live here because Tsukiyumimon said to. Now I don't like strangers poking around our temple, so you better be good. Also, you seek out a source of revenue and/or help here. Furthermore, no one is going to help you get around here just because it's 60 times the gravity you're used to, so you can do one of three things. Either you learn to manipulate gravity as we have, learn to deal with it, or move out." There is yet another flash, and there she is in what seemed to be a diner, but was like a hollow crystal orb, booths lining the walls with increased gravity along the walls, which were more like one big floor. Sirenamon bounced all over the place with the greatest of ease, delivering food as a waitress. In one booth, a small silver orb demands, "Would you hurry up, dim one!! I have an important meeting to keep!! Where's my food!!" Sirenamon leaps back to the center on the building. Sirenamon says, "That guy is bossy!! Doesn't he realize that we're working on it?!" The cook goes, "Where is everyone today? They all called in sick… Except for Temujinmon that is." Sirenamon says, "I don't know… I made some sandwiches and we were kicking back last night at Temujinmon's place, then I get here to find just you and him here." The cook says, "I'm going to check this out. Sirenamon, you got the kitchen…" There is yet another flash, and she closes up the building holding a spatula, only to turn around and see digimon lying sick all over the place, flying hospital ships running about. "What kind of horrible plague could have done this?" Out of nowhere, two Jucylotemon carrying banners and the same sphere from earlier comes up. The sphere says, "That plague would be you, or should I say, your cooking." Sirenamon goes, "Huh?" The sphere answers, "I'm Chancellor Spheremon of the Lunarian Royal Court with a royal from the king himself, whom you've also manage to indirectly poison, stating that you are hereby forbidden to prepare food ever again. If so broken, it will be considered a capital offense, and we will then put you to death. Now, please show me to the nearest bathroom. I'm going to vomit." He flees for a bush and hurls a silver slime into it. One of the Jucylotemon says, "Put the spatula down, miss." Her boss creeps up and manages to utter, "You're… *He vomits* fired." Before he fell out on the ground. Soon after, there is another flash. "Stupid temple kicking me out just because the feds say I gave some 50,000 digimon food poisoning. I can cook, it's just nobody appreciates my talents. It's because I'm from Deji-Chi most likely. Those stupid Eight Million Assholes are probably laughing at me as I speak. You know what? I'm going prove them all wrong, the kami and the Lunarians that doubt me, and show them all I can make it here, and then I'll go home one day and tell them all the truth!! Hah!!" She hops along a road carrying her stuff in an over the shoulder pouch. She pulls out a strange device. "Network: Pull up today's classified sections for the City of Artemis. I need to find me a new job." A bar slides out of the side, and a holographic window shows up filled with want ads for jobs, but one struck her eye. "What's this…" A computer reads, "`We need applicants for a vital managerial position. All applicants will be tested in various attributes. No applicant will be denied a chance to be tested. Applications end next week!!' Sounds interesting. Are you going to apply?" Sirenamon says, "Is there any information on who posted it?" The computer, "Well, all it says is that to apply, you must go to Royal Citadel and give it there." Sirenamon says, "Sounds like a government job to me, and I don't think they like me." She stands there for a moment. "Okay!! I got nothing to lose!!" There is another flash, and there she stands in a large chamber alone with Chancellor Spheremon. He screams, "Yah!! How is it that you at of all the others managed to be chosen? Why did the council allow the open search vote to even happen?! It was supposed to be me!! You better watch your back, Sirenamon, because I shall take what is rightfully mine!!" He soars up and blasts through the ceiling laughing all the while. Another flash goes off, this one showing her cutting the ribbon at the same gateway from Lotusmon's memory. Another vision shows her blasting an entire army out of existence with one hand. One more happens where she is under attack, and then the digimon Tsukitaiyomon falls from the sky and saves her. Another flash happens. Sirenamon stands before the gate she opened. She is wearing her normal armor, but not all the silver areas are white and glowing, and engraved into the shoulder plates is the same double crescent symbol that is on Sea Lilymon's spear. She looks back, operates its controls with ease, calls out to go, and she goes through the gate along with a small bahamut-like digimon with red scales and pink diamond feathers on his wings, three Jucylotemon, a Eucaryotemon, and Tsukitaiyomon. At the other end, light sputters, then after a few moments, an unstable gateway opens, and they come out. The three Jucylotemon put three poles around the gate in a triangle, then activate them, turning the tops blue, and the gate stabilizes. It seems they are in some sort of City Park in mid-afternoon under the shade of trees, though it couldn't be told due to the Lunarians' bioluminescence. Sirenamon says, "This place hasn't changed too much since my last day here, but I know I'm a much different digimon now. Hopefully now, they will at least hear the moon's side." Tsukitaiyomon says, "I can't believe you could have once lived in a place with plants that did not produce light or under such a blue sky. How does one see the stars here anyway?" Sirenamon goes, "You have to wait for night here to see any stars. That's also the best time to see our home in the sky. Now, let's leave the questions for a little later. We must make contact." More flashes happen at a faster pace, mostly of mundane things and mildly whimsical moments, kind of like a home movie, then there is one with her in a strange hospital like chamber. A Lunarian digimon dressed like a doctor says, "It's so lucky you carried this one. After five miscarriages, I didn't even think you could carry a child to term outside of water or have one with Lunarian data, but here we are. Now relax, push about every minute or so, and let the ionized neodymium-iron-boron do their job. I'm just going to sit here and watch, just in case something goes wrong." He sits in a chair and pulls out a black substance that glows like a blacklight and drinks it. Sirenamon exclaims, "What the hell do you mean `let the ionized neodymium-iron-boron do its job?'" The doctor goes, "That shot I gave you was supposed to ionize your body with highly magnetic fields, amplifying your own magnetic field, making delivery painless and only a few minutes long, much unlike it was tens of millions of years ago." Sirenamon looks at him like he's stupid. "You're still in medical school, aren't you?" He goes, "How did you guess?" Sirenamon goes, "Any skilled doctor that knows me knows that I have zero metal flowing through me, not including natural iron intake. I'm from Deji-Chi, and that means you just pumped me full of neodymium for no reason!! No wonder I'm stuck to the bed!! You magnetized me!! You were supposed to give some form of nerve block!! Where's my normal doctor?" The student says, "Well… He's busy with other patients." Sirenamon goes, "Well, this sucks. You better hope this fast and pretty, otherwise I might be a little irritable." Tsukitaiyomon, standing at her side, says, "Whoa… Calm down!! This is our first child, you know." There is another flash, and it's just after it's all done. The student doctor says, "It's a girl. Right now, we want to run some tests to make sure she's okay, and now being half and half can or would affect her later on in life. After that, and she gets some rest, you can come and see her." Next came that vision from Chapter 12 speaking of dying plants. Next came a Digital World digimon, running to them, badly wounded. All the plants and digimon in the area seemed to only be half as bright as they should. He comes and says, "Atlantis… and almost the rest of Deji-Chi… wiped out… Seven Overlords… Gate destroyed…" Sirenamon asks, "Did anyone from Deji-Chi flee here or to Kage Sekai?!" He mutters, "I know not…" He then falls down and hits the ground as data flying away. Next came the food poisoning incident she saw in Chapter 12. Finally, she came upon her last, worst vision. Sirenamon looks out on a balcony with a set of high tech binoculars. "Hasn't he learned yet that we'll beat the living snot out of him every time? The Darkside Wars are over… He lost… Why is he attacking again, and by himself… He's different now. That's why. He digivolved. I think I'm going to be sick…" Tsukitaiyomon asks, "What's so nauseating… besides the food that is?" All throughout the castle where she watched from, digimon were falling left and right. A doctor states, "There's no doubt about it. They all got food poisoning." Sirenamon thinks, "Oh no… What if Spheremon was right? What if this is all because of me?" Suddenly, Raijinmon communicates via holoprojector. "We… We can't stop him!! This `Neo Spheremon' seems to just neutralize everything we do. We keep getting weaker, and he just keeps getting stronger!! In your weakened state, I feel it best if we abandon Artemis. Then, when we return to full strength…" Tsukitaiyomon says, "No, Raijinmon. I will handle this myself. We must end this once and for all." He goes downstairs. Eucaryotemon goes, "Raijinmon did have a point. At least you and the Princess must get to safety, because if Artemis does fall, you will be our last hope of stopping him." Sirenamon mutters, "But I can't leave…" She throws up in a planter. "What about the denizens?" Eucaryotemon says, "They're being evacuated as we speak." Sirenamon responds, "I just can't go just yet…" She watches through the binoculars to see Tsukitaiyomon trying to, but failing to combat Neo Spheremon. Tsukitaiyomon leaps over him and fires a plasma beam, but to no avail. All he got for his effort was a blob stuck to him that Neo Spheremon happened to call `Half-Life.' It blasted a major chunk out of him, and Tsukitaiyomon laid on the ground at his mercy. "Must… win… for the moon!!" He points a lemon yellow and cobalt scepter bearing the double crescent emblem with a lotus inside a silver drop in the middle of the emblem and a pink crystal on the end, surrounded in pure quantum energy, at Neo Spheremon. For a moment, it sputters as Tsukitaiyomon tries to focus. Neo Spheremon laughs aloud and snatches it from his hands. Anti-matter incursions assault his body, but slowly, he seems to absorb it. Suddenly, he yelps out in pain as a beam blazes out of him and strikes Tsukitaiyomon, obliterating his data. Sirenamon falls down and starts crying. "No… He's gone… Neo Spheremon just did it…" Eucaryotemon goes, "We have to get out now or our window of opportunity will close on us!!" Sirenamon goes, "No… You go and take the Princess to safety. I must end this madness." Eucaryotemon, concerned, states, "In your weakened condition, you stand no chance against him." Sirenamon screams, "Go!!" She leaps from the balcony, which seems to be over 3000 feet in the air, bounces off a nearby half-mile tall tree, off a tower, onto the roof of a 212-story building, down another 127 stories, then to the ground in just four seconds. All of a sudden, Neo Spheremon spins around.

"Perfect Sphere!!"

In just moments, a massive spherical wave begins to level the whole city in all directions, with mammoth chunks of molten ground and buildings soaring into the air. Sirenamon is thrown clear of the city by the shockwave alone. Neo Spheremon looks over to see Eucaryotemon, Raijinmon, and another digimon fleeing. "We can't have cowards, now can we? I did not come from a nation of cowards!!"

"Half-Life!!"

He fires out at them, and almost immediately, Eucaryotemon, whom took the majority of the attack, reverts to an egg form, a strange green goo sac. The other two were lucky though in the fact that they were outside of the splash damage area, with Raijinmon just falling down and the other being slammed into a tower. They kept on going, carrying away both Eucaryotemon's egg and Lotusmon. He turns back towards Sirenamon. "Now, I shall get to do what I wanted to do when I first met you!!" He comes after and sends her reeling over to a nearby lake. Quickly, she tried to get up, but when she saw the lake, she froze. Her heart started to race, not sure which was worse, Neo Spheremon or the water. "I have to stop him, but… the water… Nehhhhh…" She takes a leap of faith into the water, when suddenly, he shows up from above, slamming her deeper into the waters. She tries to look around for him, but is filled with horrifying images. "Someone… Please help me!!" In the office, she is sweating a lot. In the vision, she tries to swim up, but Neo Spheremon waits for her, and uses a form of telekinesis to hold her. "Don't like the water, eh?" Sirenamon screams out, "Let me go!! Let me go!!" Then screams out. Her screams are silence though as Neo Spheremon says, "Then it shall be your tomb." He uses the same force to start choking her. Slowly, she turns blue and starts to go limp. Other areas start to snap as telekinetic pressure is applied all over her body, much like the way a python crushes its prey. Barely conscious, she hears him say, "Don't fear. Your little bastardized princess will soon join you in oblivion." All she can she is spots and a white light. Suddenly, she feels her limp body being dragged ashore, seeing what seemed to be the blurred faces of Raijinmon and someone else with him. "Now listen…" She speaks to Raijinmon. "Raijin... He used the fabled weapon of legend.... He obliterated the king. I soon will decompile back to data, but I will be reborn on my native Deji-Chi, not here, and I will have no way to return here. I may not even remember any of this, so raise Lotusmon so she can stop Neo Spheremon." Then is when Sirenamon snapped out of it. The doc says, "I was beginning to run out of space on my af3 recorder…" Sirenamon goes, "What… What time is it?" The doc jumps out of his seat when he looks. "It's one in the morning!!" Sirenamon goes, "All I saw was so strange, like I knew it was real. The scariest thing of all is that it felt real too…" The doc says, "Ever consider that is was real? We'll discuss this some more at a later time. One thing I do ask is this. You spoke a lot about `Lotusmon.' You know a Lotusmon. Why don't you talk to her?" Sirenamon says, "But what about my problems with water?" The shrink is already asleep. Sirenamon says, "Fine. I'll just go home then."

Let's flash forward a bit to the next day in the village. Slowly, the sun rises on a new day, and proceeds to blind Lily as she wakes up. "Stupid sun." As soon as her eyes stop burning, she notices that not only has someone or something has cleaned her up and washed her clothes, but there are now strange wristbands on her. She begins to panic. "It was those strange digimon!! Those deceptive fools!!" She tries to power up, but for some reason she cannot. "These bands… They must somehow be blocking my power. No problem. I'll just remove them!! They look simple enough to remove." When she goes to touch them though, she gets the shock of her life. "What the?" A voice says, "She must be awake. Good." In walks Jijimon. Lily screams, "I don't care if you torture me!! I will not… give?" Jijimon goes, "You still think of us as the enemy, don't you? That's why I had put on your arms. It's so you can't raise any cane while you're here." Lily goes, "You can't hold me here!! I must leave and stop the Dominion and Attorneymon!!" Jijimon goes, "That's where you're wrong. Nothing can stop that monster. For nearly a million digital years I have pondered the how and why to his invulnerability…" Lily interrupts, "One million years?! Wait… Something's not right. He's a new digimon. You couldn't have thought about that. You're lying!!" Jijimon goes, "Or so you think. He has been around for a million years, maybe longer. I should know. I am the oldest member of this tribe. We were some of the lucky few survivors of the Atlantis disaster." Lily goes, "I don't get it. What does that… You did say a million years, right?" Jijimon says, "Well, in earth time, about 500,000 years ago, since I figure that's where you're from. I never thought I'd live to see the Homo Erectus/Digimon hybrid theory proven true." Lily goes, "Hate to burst your bubble, but Homo Erectus is gone. Don't you mean Homo Sapiens Sapiens? I learned that in my science class." Jijimon exclaims, "You mean the primates have evolved!!" Lily goes, "Yes. Now tell me what's going on and why you claim Attorneymon is millions of years old." Jijimon is muttering when she speaks, "Homo Sapiens Sapiens… Oh, you want to know about him. Well, it's hard to explain this all without telling about back then. Hopefully, once I explain this, then you will know why we are hidden, and you'll stop your fruitless endeavor and save your strength." He turns and brings up a holographic map. "A million digital years… Excuse me, 500,000 years ago, the Digital World was experiencing the greatest success it has ever known. Massive super cities were abound, the largest one being the fabled Atlantis. Space-time research had given us a direct link to the Digital Moon, whom we had excellent relations with, and found a shadow world, the Earth. To the moon we made 5 gates, and to this new world we built 60 such gateways. Everything was always perfect, and I was still very young, maybe about your age, when about the same time a new prophecy about the return of something called the Megami came to the Digital World after circulating throughout the Moon for many centuries, X Apocalymon and his Seven Overlords came out of the woodwork to reek havoc. They…" Lily goes, "Now it came from the moon!! Where the hell did that prophecy come from?!" Jijimon goes, "I'm not sure. Like I was saying, X Apocalymon was up to his old tricks. Hearing of this, Sirenamon, Queen of the Moon, gave us…" Lily interrupts, "What the hell? Sirenamon, Queen of the Moon? Is this some sort of joke? I thought that race of digimon were native to the Digital World!!" Jijimon goes, "They are. Through a search started after the mysterious demise of their last king though, she got coroneted. Strange digimon though. She's a merfolk type, but yet she was openly and radically afraid of water for some reason. Had a child who just the opposite and just loved the stuff. Lotusmon I think she was called." Lily falls on the floor anime style. Lily thinks, "I don't know which one is harder to believe; that Attorneymon is over a half-million years old, or that Yuuji's whiny partner was once Queen of the Moon. I don't know if I can contain my laughter…" She tries to envision Sirenamon as a queen. "I think I'm going to lose it!!" Beside of her, Terriermon checks her pulse, while Ni-Kokuwamon pokes her with a stick. Jijimon throws Ni-Kokuwamon out. "Is she okay?" Terriermon says, "Momentai!! She just passed out." Jijimon utters, "What does the word `momentai' mean, because it's about to drive me crazy!!" Terriermon shrugs his shoulders and says, "Hell if I know. I just heard someone else say it one day and it sounded neat. If you want to know what it means, hire a damn linguist. I'm just the doctor-slash-social engineer." Jijimon says, "How about social engineering that word out of existence then?" Lily sits up rapidly, laughing out loud, then suddenly stops. "You can continue now." Jijimon goes, "Well, she gave us a new defense, the Big Guard Shield Generator, which covered the largest of megalopolises with a barrier much like the one that subdued you. This made X Apocalymon mad. What point was there of attacking things only to hit himself? It was then things went south, when `they' brought forth a digimon, a digimon, that after those horrid events were done, would be known as Attorneymon." Lily goes, "Who is this `they' you speak of over and over? I think I heard you talk about them just before creating that giant shield." Jijimon goes, "I was young back then, and did not, and still do not, know what in these matters, but a force the Lunarians called `The Eight Million Kami' was said to be behind Attorneymon's creation, and some Lunarian priests even believed they were the source of Apocalymon's near invulnerability. I deeply no other digimon knew what happened besides me, but on the morning of the end of the world as it was known, something switched off that barrier and let the Seven Overlords in, and I'll bet you it was Attorneymon. I didn't see him do it, but I did see him smash the Lunarian gate. I still believe if that barrier had not of gone down, Atlantis would still be standing today. My theory is that the Eight Million Kami made and programmed him to secretly help Apocalymon wipe us all out. For that, I hate him, but I know I cannot stand up to his power. If anyone is to ever stand a chance of stopping him, you must stop the Eight Million Kami." Lily exclaims, "That won't be necessary. A while back, I was hurled into the future, where I single-handedly beat an Omega level version of Attorneymon and a spawn copy of the current one, and my grandparents' friends obliterated Obliviomon, Neo Apocalymon's Omega form, 41 years ago, so I think I'm up to it." Jijimon exclaims, "No you are not!! He will tear you to pieces!! The only way you could have won was if something had happened to the Eight Million Kami!! If you do beat him, he will only rise from the ashes over and over again. I saw it myself!! He was obliterated before my eyes, and before the soul that had done so could turn around, there he was, fully materialized and completely healthy. With the power of the Eight Million Kami, he is immortal!!" Lily goes, "But I must try!!" Jijimon shouts, "I can't let you!! I cannot let you throw your life away!! For your own safety, I must detain you here!!" Dukemon and Chaos Dukemon grab her arms and drag her. Lily goes, "You can't do this!!" After she is done, Chibi Seishinmon enters. "Let me guess. She still wanted to fight him." Jijimon nods. "I remember a particular digimon who felt the same way once. I had to get him to see reason when at the same time I knew I would never see my home again because of them." Jijimon goes, "She does remind me of myself when I was young. Curse those Eight Million Kami!!"

Everything zooms out of the village, where in the sky there sits a sparkle, which then flies away. Quickly, it rushes back to the secret fortress over the soup pond, where it meets the Four Holy Beasts. It says, "Due to recent events, I want all four of you ready to attack Lily when we give the command. She has found a base so secret even we knew not of its existence, and they are just as powerful and uncontrollable as her. Qinglongmon states, "I do not feel the girl's power anymore, or any others like it." It says, "Well…, they got technology that hides energy!! Yeah!! Now, I must consort with my superiors, and wait for our command. We don't want you to jump the gun now." Baihumon asks, "Why not let one of us scout it out?" It says, "It is very dangerous at this time, and if they saw you, it'd send them all into a berserker rage unlike anything ever seen before. Now, wait here and do nothing until I come back." He leaves through a wall. Inside this wall sits a mysterious chamber. All that in this room is a pillar made from the same materials that of a mirror. He flies into the pillar and suddenly is in an all white place with thousands of glowing balls. It says, "It was a wise thing we held off destroying that supposed `Megami Summoner' girl. She inadvertently found those rejects and Lunarians we couldn't detect a million years ago and wipe out, and they are blabbing to her as we speak, and alleviating all that anger from her." Another says, "This is unacceptable. When those inept Holy Beasts she isn't rampaging anymore, they are going to start to question us…" Another, which sounds female, says, "We must enrage her again, but how?" One other says, "Well, let's get Attorneymon to do it!! Let's just do like we did last time!!" The first one that spoke says, "He must work on the ceremony!! He must resurrect Obliviomon!!" Another, which sounds like Dao Kaioushin (Supreme Kai) says, "Attorneymon isn't proving to work out as planned. He pursues his own agenda now. The only way we can still give him orders is in his sleep. Unless we find a better way, he will need to be replaced… Wait!! I know how to do this. First off, we will have him attack the village, cleansing the Digital World of those failures, and since this is Attorneymon, this will get Lily back on her warpath. We use Attorneymon to complete the ceremony, then we toss him to the girl, dispatch the Holy Beasts, and it solves all our problems. We will then be free to herald the dawn of the Sixth Epoch, the return of The Eight Million Kami!!" They all cheer.

Elsewhere in the Digital World, the hapless three lost in the woods finally make it back to Safiirumon's camp. Vulcan Lilymon calls out, "I'm back!!" From under a camouflage cover comes Safiirumon and Lance. Almost immediately, Feral Rosemon ducks behind Vulcan Lilymon. Raijin Lilymon comes out and exclaims, "Great. All those man-hours searching and she just suddenly flies back to us. Now where have you… Isn't that the guy who attacked Fort Wick?" Safiirumon goes, "Yes he is!! What is he doing here?" Vulcan Lilymon goes, "Well, long story short, Dominion said forget him after making Yuumei Omnimon, tried to kill him, he saves my life, wants to defect." Feral Rosemon sneezes, and Safiirumon notices. "Who's this? Wait… I know… F… F… Feral Rosemon!! I heard those horror stories about what she did to Evamon and those who went after her." Vulcan Lilymon goes, "You don't get it. Those are lies, big lies. Yes, she did attack him, but Evamon exaggerated them significantly." Safiirumon goes, "How can you say that?" Vulcan Lilymon answers, "We lived with her for almost two months as she took care of us. She's spoken, in a way more or less, to us, and told us Evamon was jealous of her because she was even smarter than he. You should see the stuff she can create!!" Safiirumon goes, "Okay… It still doesn't explain why she doesn't tell us this herself." Vulcan Lilymon goes, "She can't. For some reason, she can't speak. When she tries, she stutters and forgets what she was saying, and sometimes doesn't even know what to say. The only means that she is fluent in are a system of gestures." Safiirumon thinks for a moment, scratches his head, and then says, "Well, I guess it's nice to meet you then." He extends out his hand, but when he does, Feral Rosemon moves around, hiding behind Vulcan Lilymon, terrified. Safiirumon goes, "What's wrong with her?" Vulcan Lilymon goes, "I'm not sure, but she's extremely timid, especially when I'm not around." Safiirumon goes, "Well, then I guess I'll leave the supervision of the two to you, because even though you may trust them, as our leader, I'm required to maintain my reservations about someone until they prove themselves to ensure they do not endanger the group." Neko Lilymon comes out. "Safiirumon, sir. We just got a request to meet the Digidestined in Tokyo to discuss a final strike proposal. Do you want to accept?" Safiirumon goes, "About time they decided to do something besides twiddle their thumbs!! Confirm our agreement. Vulcan Lilymon and Siva Lilymon, keep watch over the base and our `guests.'" He turns and goes, "After three months, I think we're finally getting forward." Everyone moves out. Tamiko says, "What an ironic twist of fate. As soon as we find a sign of civilization, it runs away." Vulcan Lilymon goes, "Well, we're alone again, like we like it." ["Amen to that!!"] Vulcan Lilymon goes, "Wait… Didn't he say for Siva Lilymon to stay behind too? Where is she?" They hear a voice at the comm. Station, which seems to be that of Siva Lilymon. Vulcan Lilymon goes, "I don't like this. I don't like this one bit. Whom can Siva be talking to?" Tamiko and Vulcan Lilymon inch over to the tent. Siva Lilymon says, "Come in… I have vital information and potential prisoners. Out." A voice on the other end states, "Transmission received, Dark Paladin One. Your reinforcements near your location. Orders are to raze the encampment and bring back your prisoners alive. Starbase out." Vulcan Lilymon goes, "The little… She must have ratted us out in order to get her old job back!!" From behind her, Siva Lilymon grabs her. "How right you are!!" Vulcan Lilymon yells, "Run!!" Both Tamiko and Feral Rosemon flee without question. Siva Lilymon tries to use a chloroform-soaked rag, but Vulcan Lilymon wrestles it away. Vulcan Lilymon goes, "You won't stop me that easily. She whips out her mighty sledgehammer, drawing it to her side, when a charged white blast shatters the handle. The force she was using to swing throws Vulcan Lilymon on her back. About 30 feet away standing on a small incline was the three digimon from the beginning of the chapter along with Yuumei Omnimon. The red skinned one in the yukata stood there, those beams on her back extended out to her sides, bent at the angle the beam came from. Bolts of energy surged between the two on each side, mostly amassed around the golden bosses. The energy stops, the beams twist back around to where arc behind her, and return to pointing at 45º, respectively. Siva Lilymon then grabs the chloroform rag and places it over Vulcan Lilymon's mouth. Not soon after, she is out cold. Siva Lilymon calls out, "Nice work, Sakuramon." She looks around her. "Torch it all. Sequoiamon, you get the fun job of carrying our prisoner here back to base, and please try not to drop her like the prisoner you carried last. It's a lot easier to get information out of someone that hasn't fallen on their head a gazillion times." The tree-like digimon goes, "Why me?" Siva Lilymon goes, "Because I don't like you." Sequoiamon sighs, "Aw… Nobody likes me… Do I get paid extra for this?!" Siva Lilymon says, "No." Sequoiamon grumbles, "Why do I always get the menial grunt labor? What about the others? No… They get the easy jobs…" The naga-like digimon states, "It's your own damn fault. You're clumsy as hell, and nobody's going to take it. I don't even see how you made it into this select little group…" Sequoiamon says, "Oh, shut up Lilydramon." Sequoiamon moves rapidly across the ground using her root-like tendrils dragging Vulcan Lilymon behind her when she drags over some rocks. Lilydramon calls out moments later, "Rock." Siva Lilymon goes, "You idiot… Put her over your shoulder. I want to hurt you, but Black Tailmon sees something in you. I don't know what it could be, but she does." Slowly, they move out. Yuumei Omnimon says, "Wait… I sense a familiar presence." Siva Lilymon goes, "It better be good, Yuumei Omnimon…" Yuumei Omnimon thinks, "Is that… Tamiko?" She waits. "I guess it was your imagination. Oh, before I forget, Lilydramon, do your thing." Yuumei Omnimon goes, "Wouldn't that blow your cover? If you leave the camp intact, it will allow you to continue on as a double agent." Siva Lilymon goes, "We got our orders. Besides, I hope I never have to live in a place like this again. Torch it, Lilydramon!!" She slithers around and rears up, her eyes turning black and black flames burning in her hands.

"Darkside Hellstorm!!"

She hurls her fireballs at the camp, and more follow it, making ten in all, arranged in a pentagram star. Walls of hellish black and violet fire rose up to form the sides of the star and circle around it. Slowly, they started to spin, the circle heading counterclockwise, the star spinning clockwise. Arms of fire were thrown out, igniting the small brush and dead leaves of the forest floor. Inside the circle, dark bolts of lightning flashed wildly amidst the chaos, gradually making their strikes closer to the center, where the earth shook, and from it came fire and magma, and with the magma came dark burning wisps which laughed aloud as they soared out and about, laying waste to all they saw. Tamiko and Feral Rosemon, hiding in some brush about a hundred feet away, watched as soared about, igniting trees with their very touch, and inciting the dying or dead trees to explode, spreading the flames. Soon after, the wisps surrounded the pentagram, now spinning at almost the speed of sound, throwing embers rapidly, and scream, sending a burning sound wave into the column of fire, causing it to expand, the ground in the center crumbling away as lava blasted out of the hole, then the wall exploded, raining down more black flame, and leaving a gaping hole, now almost a mini-volcano in itself, to spew more molten liquid. Siva Lilymon goes, "Shall we go?" They all turn and casually walk away like nothing happened. Tamiko goes, "Oh great…" He crawls out to see the whole area ablaze. "We got to get out of here!! Follow me before the smoke gets to us!!" Feral Rosemon shudders inside the bush. Tamiko yells out, "This is no time to be afraid of me!! I'm trying to save your life!!" Feral Rosemon tries to bring herself to move, but is too scared of Tamiko. "Must I drag you to safety?" Tamiko starts to leave, when an idea hits him. "Listen. After I get out of here, I'm going after them and see if I can save Vulcan Lilymon. It's up to you to trust me and get her back. Okay?" Feral Rosemon slowly rises. "Take my arm if you want." Slowly, she grabs his arm. He starts moving as fast as he can with her on his arm. He tries to run the other way than from where the Dark Paladins came from, but finds himself blocked off by a river of magma. "Damn… Can't go this way." He starts coughing as the black smoke thickens, reducing his vision. He runs to the right, only to meet a wall of flame. Quickly, he turns and runs away, turning abruptly. "Whoa… Almost forgot about that lava spewing hole." He runs in the direction of the Paladins, but finds it too blocked off by fire and lava. "There has to be a way out!! No!! It can't end like this!!" He looks around, but all he can see now is fire and smoke. He growled in frustration, when a strong suddenly blew the two down and cleared out the smoke and much of the fire. "Where did come from?" Then, before his eyes, a man he had never seen before, dressed in a strange glowing metal gi too strange to be normal, leapt down from a tree on the other side of the lava, closed his eyes, put his index and middle fingers before him, and over the lava appeared a light blue and white ball of light. A matching aura surrounds him with the Japanese character for `ice' (kouri) appearing before him. He suddenly opens his eyes, a spherical red glow radiates around him, and he yells,

"Bakuhatsu no aru Kouri… kakeru San!!"

Out of nowhere, amongst all the lava and flames, ice chunks appears in the air, drawing themselves into the ball. Snow blows all around the orb, and small wave of cold surges out as all the chunks super-collide to form a pillar in the lava, that crumbles soon after, but as it came to be, the lava and the ground around it suddenly froze over, coated in thick ice and snow. The man says, "That's your cue to run across the frozen pass to safety, then slip and bust your bum because only idiots run on ice." Feral Rosemon squeezes Tamiko's arm in fear. "I know you're scared, but unless you got a better idea, I say we accept his little proposal. As I see it, we're better off scared of a guy who can ice appear out of thin air then dead from burns and smoke inhalation." Quickly, they run across the frozen lava, and like he said, fall of their butts and slip-slide all the way to his feet. The man suggests, "How about we leave then?" Tamiko says, "Hey, thanks for the help, but that doesn't make you the boss of us. Who are you anyway?" He says, "Well, many know me as the former officer in service under General Fallon, I am Stefan." Tamiko goes, "No. Tell me who you really are." The guy says, "Stefan." Tamiko goes, "You can't be. I've seen your records. You never once possessed the powers I just witnessed." Feral Rosemon takes a gander at the man whom claims to be Stefan, grabbing his clothes, face, hair; looking, feeling, and sniffing him, then steps back and scratches her head with one of those `I'm confused' type faces. She thinks, "Looks like Stefan, but yet he isn't… A conundrum indeed."

They move away from the blaze, where the supposed Stefan says, "I wasn't allowed to show off my magic while on assignment." Tamiko says, "Okay, is this insanity, bullshit, or he's humoring us? Right now I'm leaning towards bullshit." Stefan says, "I guess you won't be satisfied until I blab my head off. Seeing as now my timeline no longer exists, I might as well." Tamiko mutters, "I think I change my vote to insanity." Stefan goes, "Well, as strange as this sounds, I actually come from ten million years in the future, where all life is made to serve a great force that calls itself `The Dominion Amalgamation Unit.' Because of it, all living beings live as slaves to it, which takes orders from another force no one has ever seen before. Combined, our masters can cause great disasters, freeze people and digimon in time, possess humans and digimon, and have even prevented evolution, both human and digimon." Tamiko goes, "As for digimon, if this is true and all, you mean `digivolve…,' right?" Stefan goes, "No… Digimon also evolve like how the humans did from apes. Digivolution is just the rapid extension of this, using power, genetics, and knowledge of that moment to make an immediate evolution based on their current state of mind and situation in order to make themselves stronger, faster, and just more powerful, but over time, just like on Earth, nature, events, certain needs, and time can change an entire class of digimon. I was lucky in the fact that I was found at a young age by a small resistance group and was, with the help of Timemaster digimon, able to reach humanity's next stage of evolution, opening new areas of the mind, and expanding the nature of psychokinetic power to what many of us in my time have dubbed `magic.'" Tamiko goes as they walk along, "Then, why aren't you in your time fighting?" Stefan, in front, says, "Well, even with our evolution to our rightful forms, the Dominion Amalgamation Unit and its master were still too strong no matter what we tried, so we, after much debate over what this would do to the continuum, set out on a mission to go back to the distant past and smash what we believed to be the origin of the problem, the Dominion of the 21st Century. I happened to be the lucky stiff to get sent back to this point. My original parameters to my mission were to kill the leader of the Dominion, but things didn't seem to be as they seemed. As soon as I arrived, which in this time happened to be Gabriel's Fjord, I was attacked by someone called Wicked Lilymon, so I stopped her, and went out to find the Dominion and nip it in the bud. To my surprise, Malachimon did not once seem to be the threat we thought had started that horrible chain of events. After my first few reports though, my orders were changed to that of recon. For 14 years, I watched them as an officer, almost forgetting my home, when suddenly a factor we never factored in appeared, the Digidestined. After their first few fights and that battle aboard the hidden base in the sky, my superiors told me what was necessary for the future." Tamiko goes, "And just how do they figure this out?" Stefan says, "Well, we have a timeline prognosticator which predicts the what and how of our actions, and how it will affect my time. What it said was that in order to end all conflict and save the world from destruction, both sides must die, except for Malachimon, at least 3 of the Elemental Valkyries, and Bonnie. The rest will ultimately cause an arms race that will level the nations of the world and leave Attorneymon and his goons free to take over, but then I suddenly lost contact with my time. Using a portable prognosticator, which isn't as accurate, it says the loss in contact is due to an event in the near future involving Attorneymon, Lily Fallon, and a third, unknown force. It states that if I remove all three, my timeline will return." Tamiko goes, "So, you're saying that everyone involved in this mess has to die… Oh crap." Stefan says, "Don't worry. You two weren't on the list, so that means I don't kill you. In fact, I might need your help." Tamiko asks, "What is it?" Stefan states, "We must save Vulcan Lilymon first. Then I will explain." Tamiko goes, "That's what we were going to do!!" Feral Rosemon thinks, "His future is so bad, but why must we kill? Besides, why is no one asking me how I feel?!!" She gestures ["Do I get a say in this?"] Tamiko goes, "Do you got any idea what she just said?" Stefan says, "Not a clue. I don't think I'll ever understand women." Feral Rosemon seems annoyed, and sighs.

Many miles away, as it approaches sunset, Taichi and his little merry wander aimlessly down a highway. Araiya wipes the sweat from her brow. She turns to Andromon. "Go smack Taichi." He shrugs his shoulders, walks up, and beans Taichi over the head. Taichi exclaims, "What'd I do?" Andromon goes, "She told me to." Araiya says, "Taichi, by now I would have thought you of all people would have thought ahead enough to acquire a means of transport able to convey us all instead of us wandering as aimlessly through the woods as we did 40 some years ago." Taichi goes, "Well, we are following a highway." Araiya goes, "That's nice, but I'd love to be following it in something with four wheels and A/C!!" Agumon states, "She does have a point. Not only does it save us valuable time, but that way we don't get blisters on our feet." Taichi goes, "Whose side are you on? Geez!! The way I figure it, none of us possess a vehicle to carry us all at once, and such a vehicle, if we did run into trouble, would basically have `Come blow us up Dominion!!' all over it because we are all stuck in a tiny sardine can with no escape, so we might as well walk." Yamato says, "Well, if you had some sort of foresight in this plan, you could have gotten something to move us around faster." Andromon exclaims, "What about that ship Lewis made?" Everyone turns towards Lilymon and says, "Yeah…" She states, "Why are you looking at me like that? Something's amiss… It must the stupid sun's fault, drying you all out and making you crazy… What's with your sudden change of emotion?" Behind her stands Yuumei Omnimon, towering over her. "It suddenly got dark… That not good, is it?" Beside him appear Siva Lilymon and the Dark Paladins. "I'm going to get hurt now, aren't I?" The others nod at her. Yuumei Omnimon draws back and punts her into the air, where she falls head first into the pavement. She says, her petals keeping her hoisted upside down, "That wasn't too bad. I won't be able to sit for a month, but I'll live." A car coming over the nearby hill, sees the commotion and swerves to avoid them, but the rear end smacks her anyway, throwing her into Yamato. Fortunately, her Ultimate bod did more damage to the car than it did to her. The driver runs away screaming. Araiya screams, "Get off my husband, you airhead!!" Siva Lilymon says, "You could have done more with that kick, Yuumei Omnimon. That car though… That was just dumb luck." They stare as Araiya and Lilymon argue away. Sequoiamon goes, "I took offense to that!! Our kind aren't airheads you know!!" She joins the argument. Taichi goes, "Listen. I don't think this is the best time to be arguing." He is ignored. Yamato analyzes the three. "The tree like digimon is Sequoiamon, a Terra level Dark Paladin digimon. Her attacks include Mana Crush, Enoki Spirit, Wicked Thorn, Fae Circle, and Gem Seeker. Because of her thick wood skin and wide base, she is almost invincible and almost impossible to move. Next is the serpentine nymph demon, Lilydramon. She is a Terra level digimon, her type bordering between flower nymph and demon. Her attacks include Shell of Damnation, Briar Coil, Fangs of the Manticore, and Darkside Hellstorm. Finally, there is the robed one, Sakuramon. She too is a Terra level Dark Paladin. Much of her armor is made of leather and an unidentifiable metal hundreds of thousands of times stronger than Gigadigizoid metal, and shows signs of being `alive.' Her yukata and cape seem to be made of a complex spider silk that is just as strong as Obsidium!! Inside of her, she possesses some Lunarian genes, giving her amazing powers over gravity, and her bones are nigh indestructible, millions of times stronger than Gigadigizoid metal, as is her ax, both of which are as `alive' as the armor!! Her attacks include Natural Weight, Nexus Flux Cannons, Rising Sun No. 1, Herbal Benefit, and Felling the World. Wait… Also listed are three more attacks. One is called `Big Guard,' another is `Delta Matrix,' and the last is called `Big Bang.' If there was one out the three to watch the most, Sakuramon is that one." Sakuramon asks, "You want me to shoot them?" Siva Lilymon responds, "Sure. Go ahead. They're driving me crazy. Lilydramon, put our dead weight someplace secure. This could get messy." Lilydramon leaves with Vulcan Lilymon. Sakuramon turns to the three making the scene. The beams on her back swivel down and up, two on each side, then spin about, the latter ends parallel to each other, forming what looked like a tuning fork on either side of her. Bolts of energy surged from her back down between the beams in the middle, and from the golden rods on the ends of each beam, in themselves like u's, to the golden bosses where the golden rods extended from, amassing in compact spheres.

"Nexus Flux Cannons!!"

The three women stop their feuding as soon as they hear this. Suddenly, they realize Sequoiamon, who had been arguing with them the whole time, was just inches away from them. Taichi goes, "Let's do it Yamato!!" Yamato nods.

"THE SHARD OF HONOR!!"

"THE SHARD OF TRUST!!"

"Agumon Terravolve to… Paladingreymon, Guardian of Honor!!"

"Gabumon Terravolve to… Dao Garurumon, The Entrusted Gatekeeper of Time!!"

A beam from each mass of power zoomed forth at the fleeing crowd. Immediately, Paladingreymon zips over and brings out his shield, stopping the beams, but they began to shove him back. He falls to one knee to slow him down, but all that does is create sparks and tear up the pavement. His shield was already beginning to liquefy. Suddenly, he slides back to where Sequoiamon stood. "What the?" His foot presses up on her, and the force of the beam sends him airborne. Sequoiamon did not move an inch. The two beams unite and unleash a devastating blast that throws him onto the ground, leaving a crack in his armor. Sequoiamon finally puts two and two together. "Oh yeah… We're fighting!!" She bounds up into the air.

"Mana Crush!!"

The petals on her gloves extend out as she holds her palms out flat, thumbs folded in. Specks of living energy draw to her hands, some forming a large orb, others surrounding the orb. She pushes out her palms, sending the orb hurtling towards Paladingreymon. He says, "What power… Oh no!!" The ball finds its way to the crack, where it begins to crush his armor. Paladingreymon reaches up for the orb, but the mass of energy burns his hands. After only seconds of effort, the armor buckles and is now burning its way into his chest. Paladingreymon screams out as the smell of sizzling flesh fills the air. Unnoticed to him, his armor starts to expand. Taichi screams, "Move it, Paladingreymon!!" The orb releases its awesome power into his chest. At the same time, the stress on the armor is too much, and it shatters under the pressure. He sits on the ground with nothing left to guard his chest, a scabbing wound in the middle of it, when he looks up to see Sequoiamon grab all of the small orbs in her right hand and draw back, wind up, and pitch them at him. Instinctively, he draws his half-melted shield before him. The shots easily pierce the shield, breaking it like fine china, sending balls through his right forearm and out the other side, and a lucky few even strike parts of his torso, with two in his upper abdomen blasting out his back, shattering the armor back there. Taichi goes, "She penetrated Paladingreymon's armor as though it wasn't even there…"

Just behind him, Dao Garurumon was evading each shot fired by Sakuramon. Siva Lilymon goes, "Fast bugger, isn't he? You know what to do." Dao Garurumon goes, "I seriously doubt you can even touch me!!"

"Warp Speed!!"

His movements become faster, and he seems to phase out of the very fabric of space. Sakuramon crosses her arms and doesn't seem to mind. "Is he going to show off all day or what?" Yamato gasps at her comment. Nearing the speed of light, Dao Garurumon charges her, rapidly strafing.

"Lock Down!!"

Everything in normal time freezes. He closes in on Sakuramon.

"Blitzkrieg Claw!!"

He draws back his hands for his mighty attack, when Sakuramon puts out her index finger and puts it right between his eyes. Dao Garurumon is in utter shock. Sakuramon says, "Is that all?" All around them, everyone was stuck in that moment, except for Dao Garurumon and Sakuramon. Dao Garurumon, trying to charge, but being held back by that one finger, asks, "But how?!" Sakuramon says, "I simply reversed the flow of gravity around me." He suddenly notices the reason he moving is that his feet aren't even touching the ground anymore. "Now, time for you to learn why you could be my equal." She puts her finger down, and Dao Garurumon hovers in place. She raises her right hand up.

"Herbal Benefit!!"

Her right arm swells up, then from her wrist comes a barrage of white crystal roots. They grab on all over him, driving into his skin and burrowing into his blood vessels and nerve nodes. She then opens the hole in her hand, and sparkling data goes from Dao Garurumon to her. "That… was refreshing." She kicks him into a tree across the street, and time returns to normal. Dao Garurumon rubs his head, the roots still stuck in him. Yamato exclaims, "What monsters are we dealing with?" Araiya goes, "I don't know, but I'll get them!!"

"THE SHARD OF ZEAL!!"

"Andromon Terravolve to Thor Xaviomon, Asgard's Champion!!"

He immediately opens up all his weapons systems.

"Vengeance of Valhalla!!"

The unyielding might of his missiles, lasers, bullets, lightning, and flares was unleashed at Sakuramon, Lilydramon, and Yuumei Omnimon. Sakuramon goes, "Defend me, guardian token!!" Suddenly, Dao Garurumon floats up. "What's going on!!" He zooms over before Sakuramon, standing ready to take the attack. Dao Garurumon yells, "I can't move!!" He receives the wrath intended for the Dark Paladins full on. Smoke surrounds him, and in the aftermath he still stands, his jacket all torn up and arms soaked in blood. Dao Garurumon shouts, "I will not be your puppet!!" He turns at her.

"Blitzkrieg Claw!!"

He powers up to swipe when he suddenly stops. "My arm… I can't control it!!" He reaches up and takes his claws to his face. He jabs his right hand claws into his forehead and bring them down, hacking through his eye, rendering him blind in his right eye, continuing down his face, over part of his mouth, and stopping after slashing a part of the right side of his chest, howling all the while. Yamato says, "Stop, Thor Xaviomon!!!" Araiya goes, "If we try to attack Sakuramon, she'll just use Dao Garurumon as a living shield!!" Yamato goes, "How can we fight something that can do that to our friends?" Sakuramon says, "You can have the rust bucket. I think I'll go ahead and eliminate this one." Lilydramon flies up, her tail coiled, screeching at Thor Xaviomon, when Paladin Lilymon comes from below and plants her foot in Lilydramon's gut. Siva Lilymon turns to Yuumei Omnimon. "Get ready…"

Back over a few feet from them, the weakened Paladingreymon was doing his best to combat Sequoiamon. Paladingreymon, with sword drawn, circles around, then he does it again… Paladingreymon thinks, "What is she doing?" She looks at her clothes to see a blood spatter. "Oh, why did you have to get blood all over this!! You'll pay for this!!" Paladingreymon charges at her. Sequoiamon adds, "You owe me $279.99, plus tax." Paladingreymon stops and drops. "$279.99 for dry cleaning?! That's what you meant!!" Sequoiamon goes, "I can have this dry cleaned?" Taichi starts to snicker, then laugh. "Pppp… Of course you can!!" Sequoiamon suddenly gets pissed. "Why are you laughing at me? I don't people laughing at me!!" Taichi says, Taichi, your big dumb mouth has done it this time." The ground begins to rattle around Sequoiamon. The asphalt shatters beneath her, the others stop to take notice.

"Enoki Spirit!!"

She takes root in the newly uncovered dirt, ripping up the ground around her as the magnitude of the quake reached 5.0. Near her, the ground was revitalized, new life grew, but just 8 feet away, something strange started to happen. The ground past that radius cracked open, and little muddy doll hands started to bust out from the soil like an army of zombies. Paladin Lilymon, with her shoe in Lilydramon's abdomen, says, "They're so cute…" Yamato goes, "I think they are more than just cute…" Slowly, the doll army moved for Taichi. Taichi started to run away from them, but they pursued none the less. Taichi screams, "I can't believe I'm running from dolls… Wait, why am I running from dolls?" Some split off from the main group and go to Paladingreymon. "What the?" They crawl all over him and hug him. He starts trying to pluck them off rapidly, but they keep crawling on. Suddenly, their eyes glow red. Taichi and the others run down into the ditches on the sides of the road. From the sky, a bright explosion blows the clouds away. All around them for a 3 and a half-mile radius, except for the 8-foot area around Sequoiamon, everything was destroyed sans the Dark Paladins and the digimon. Siva Lilymon, charred black by the burning debris, states, "Damn…" Paladingreymon laid on the ground stripped of everything in convulsions, areas of him burnt beyond recognition or just plain missing. Dao Garurumon stood on his knees, his fur gone, a mere afterthought, areas of skin missing, but the roots on him were finally gone. He too was spitting up blood. Thor Xaviomon, on the other hand, didn't seem too bad off, just bent over and white hot from the heat energy released from the explosion. Siva Lilymon exclaims, "We did it!! We wiped them out!!" Sakuramon goes, "No… It was too easy. They must have found shelter." Siva Lilymon exclaims, "Where though?" From the dirt, Taichi and Paladin Lilymon arose. Thor Xaviomon stood up to reveal Araiya and Yamato. Siva Lilymon goes, "Yuumei Omnimon, you're in." Taichi goes, "Listen Paladingreymon. I know you may not be up to it, but we need you, okay?" He slowly nods. "Okay!! Power Nexus activate!!"

"OMEGA TERRAVOLVE!!"

"Paladingreymon Omega Terravolve, Avalonmon, Avatar of the Light!!"

The refreshed Omega stood up. Yuumei Omnimon said, "Have you not learned your lesson from last time?" Sakuramon whispers, "Listen. Even though he's an Omega, he's still weak. There's no need to drag this out any further. I'll end this all right now, if you listen…" Avalonmon goes, "No more talking!!" He draws his sword out.

"Lumin Sky!!"

The attack headed straight for the fiends when…

"Ætherspace Flux!!"

Out of nowhere, Sakuramon lands ahead of them, performing a series of gestures. Araiya goes, "Has she lost it?" Paladin Lilymon goes, "I don't like the look on her face…" Sakuramon suddenly stops.

"Big Guard!!"

Like with Chibi Seishinmon, a series of five serrated rings, these ones being black, appeared and formed glowing white faceted barriers, spinning opposite to the one behind it, in front of her. The Lumin Sky attack was simply absorbed by the barriers. Yamato goes, "That's the Big Guard?! It swallowed it…" A shimmering light traveled down it as gained two more rings. From the surface the shield sent back his attack with ten times the punch, ripping up and scorching the earth as it went. Araiya screams, "This can't be happening!!" Paladin Lilymon, out to the side, looks at the shield. The attack hits Avalonmon, but does not affect him since he is a Paladin. The shockwave however, hits Dao Garurumon, sending him back to digitama state Punimon, his right eye still slashed out, and a few cracks on his body. He goes, "I'm… so cold…" Thor Xaviomon meets it as he is running with Yamato and Araiya in his clutches away from it. He immediately reverts to Kokuwamon, falling atop Araiya, with a white glowing crack along his back. Araiya, very weak, mutters, "How could she reflect the attack like that?" Sakuramon goes, "Now, soften him up." Yuumei Omnimon leaps over the shield and charges Avalonmon.

"Mithril Claws of the Celestial Order!!"

Like that, Avalonmon is on one knee with cracked armor, holding his chest. Yuumei Omnimon leaps over him.

"Shadow Flare!!"

He blasts a hole into the back of his armor and sets him ablaze. Quickly he leaps overhead.

"Duality of Life!!"

He seers a hole clean through him. Taichi falls to his knees holding his stomach. Yuumei Omnimon swings back around to attack with his sword when Avalonmon musters the strength to hold his sword up, spinning Yuumei Omnimon around and making him land headfirst. He starts to scream madly and grip his head. Lilydramon asks, "What's his problem? He's a big baby?" Sakuramon goes, "It doesn't matter now. Prepare for Delta Matrix!!" As the light grew dim on the horizon, Sequoiamon moved behind and to the right of Sakuramon and Lilydramon went behind and to the left of her, forming an equilateral triangle. Slowly, she rose into the air as Siva Lilymon moved above and behind her, the four forming the points of a perfect tetrahedron. Golden pillars of light interconnected the four of them. Between them, various colors of binary code floated back and forth. Between Sequoiamon, Lilydramon, and Sakuramon there were very dark green binary. Between Sequoiamon, Siva Lilymon, and Sakuramon there were a very pale blue set of binary floating about. Between Lilydramon, Siva Lilymon, and Sakuramon was a wall of deep, dark crimson binary code. Finally, between Siva Lilymon, Sequoiamon, and Lilydramon was an area of pure black binary. Energy formed between the beams on Sakuramon, making a kind of energy dish, with the metallic lotus flower in the middle. Sakuramon raises her right hand up, and the hole in it opens up. Charged energy draws up before her hand, and more is sucked into the lotus. Her pupils turn white, and narrow beams of light shine out, moving around as she moves her eyes, running over Avalonmon, until they become fixated on his chest. She moves her palm to face in that direction. More power came to her hand, and all was dark except for the four, bathed in a bright golden light coming from Sakuramon's back and hand. She shouts,

"Delta Matrix!!"

In an instant, a green triple helixed gold beam soared from the hole in Sakuramon's hand. It goes through the Big Guard, screaming towards Avalonmon. Sakuramon goes, "And these are supposed to be the greatest fighters of all… How pathetic." The beam closes in on the disabled Avalonmon when it suddenly sputters and fizzles. The others gasp at what they see. Sakuramon goes, "What? What happened? Why didn't it hit him?" On her back, in the center of the lotus, was Paladin Lilymon's sword jabbed in her, and behind all of them was she who did it, still bent forward from throwing it. Energy became erratic, lightning bolts surging out of her back, then an explosion came forth from her back, knocking the three down. The Big Guard cracked and crumbled away at the same time. Sequoiamon sits up and worried, asks, "Is Sakuramon…?" Just as soon as she finishes, the dust clouds settle, showing Sakuramon on her hands and knees, the beams and lotus gone, a hole in the leather patch where they sat, a small rip in the back of the yukata, and a little blood soaking the fabric. Sakuramon manages to stand doubled over, propping her hands up on her knees. Sakuramon, her breath heavy, states, "What a time for a fluke." She stands all the way up and turns to Paladin Lilymon. Shining silver and gold goo on the ground begins to crawl up Sakuramon, at the same time the beams on her back start to regenerate. "But no matter. No number of flukes can save you from what is to come." Unknown to them behind the lot, the moon began to rise, and a miraculous glow undertook Yuumei Omnimon. He says to himself, "Why must we fight…" Avalonmon, kneeling next to him, witnesses it all, as does the weak Taichi. The light swallows him up as he rises. He raises his sword in his fist into the sky. In a brilliant flash, the sword was mounted to his arm, and a ring went down from the tip of the sword all over him. Taichi looks at the spectacle. "What is going on?" Araiya watches from a few many feet away as the ring passes down him. "Could it be… Could it be what the children saw… Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon? Yuumei Omnimon is Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon?" As the ring touched the ground, that was exactly what it seemed. Paladin Lilymon even took a glance. Sakuramon goes, "You're about to die, and you're going to look at the moon. You hero types will never make sense to me." Sequoiamon sees Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon and tries to tap her shoulder. "Leave me alone here. I'm trying to finish her off." Sequoiamon taps her again. "What is it?" Sequoiamon only gets out confusing sounds, and continuously points behind Sakuramon. Sakuramon growls, then notices something is blocking out the light of the moon. Sakuramon has a sweatdrop on her forehead. "Something tells me I should have listened the first time, shouldn't I?" Sequoiamon slowly nods yes. With that, the fist of Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon comes down and crushes Sakuramon into the ground. She lets out a terrible scream. He leaps up and kicks Siva Lilymon through four different trees. Lilydramon tries to fly off. "Let's see him get me." She prepares to attack, when to her amazement, he soars into the sky.

"Black Shenlong Flame!!"

Into the sky, the twisting dragon rises up, then, before she can react, it swallows her. Smoldering, she falls to the ground. Paladin Lilymon looks back down after watching him to see Sequoiamon missing. She looks over to find Lilydramon gone as well. Avalonmon reverts to Koromon. Taichi goes, "That was a fluke." Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon lands on the barren ground. Paladin Lilymon goes, "Are you Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon?" He goes, "Yes I am?" Taichi rushes over and asks, "But how? You were Yuumei Omnimon a moment ago." Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon goes, "It is because I was forcefully merged together from a Paladingreymon and a Bakkai Garurumon." Taichi goes, "A Paladingreymon?" He continues, "Yes. As you know, any digimon defeated by a Paladin digimon cannot return as an evil or corrupted digimon, as was the case with Tamiko's Agumon. Upon merging, we became what you know as Yuumei Omnimon, but since that first moment, a war between the dark and light has been waged inside me, as it was with Tamiko. As they fought, the two sides of me grew apart. Eventually, this came to be. It first happened a month ago when I saved those others from annihilation at the hands of some Dark Tower made Ragnarokmon. Now, by day, I am that beast Yuumei Omnimon, and by night I am Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon. Only once this war in me is over will my lycanthropy cease. I must now leave thee so I may see if all is right in this world, and if I can find truth." He turns and begins to walk away when Taichi calls out, "If you are one another, then wouldn't you know where Attorneymon hides?" Tenkurayami looks back, "Nowhere on this plane will you find him, but his home is no secret. All you have to do is look up." Taichi says, "Help us…" Tenkurayami responds, "I'll defend you if need be, but helping you is something I just cannot do." Taichi goes, "Why won't you help us?" He answers, "Only fools dare to rush in without knowing themselves or their enemy. I know neither. Each of me has their own ideas of right and wrong that changes with the clouds. Only with the truth can I ever know." Slowly, he walks off towards the moon. Koromon says, "I guess all we can do now is go home and get some rest." Taichi goes, "I still cannot believe that even now, we know nothing." And so they went along…

Just a few thousand miles over their heads, Attorneymon paces in the R&D lab. "I want to know the status on key projects here…" Black Tailmon says, "Well, we've worked out all the kinks to the pressure bubble technology, cutting weapon heat by 90%…" Attorneymon goes, "I mean the big projects." She goes, "Well, more will come to us as we translate and sort out the useful from the junk, but we do have 3 Dark Tower Planets almost complete, Vindicator One is finally operational, and should be done within 36 hours, a working perpetual generator, and a nexus that is almost 75% complete…" Attorneymon goes, "Where did you get all that Malevicite so readily available?" A Dark Lizamon states, "Well, to be honest, there is zero Malevicite or Obsidium in it." Attorneymon goes, "Then how come it hasn't blown up yet? They used those minerals for a reason, which was to contain the awesome power of the core." Dark Lizamon continues, "Well, last month, I started the project like I was told to, but I suddenly realized it would take decades to form just 1% of it. I went looking around for any hidden caches or minerals with similar properties when I found Black Tailmon doing research on Lunarian cells." Neo Spheremon comes into the room, but stays out of sight. "After she left, I went in and looked at the samples and her notes, where I then found one sample that had me hooked, a Lunarian tree. Amazing to me, what seems to be, to us, healthy trees are actually dying trees, brown because of they seem to almost be `rusting.' I looked about for something healthy when I found this amazing place!! The trees, they were all silver, with mostly clear crystalline leaves, their edges frosted just the slightest white. The grass too was made of this crystal, and everything; trees, leaves, ground, grass, it all glowed so bright!! I checked out the trees, and the registers were off the charts!! It already had 10 times the power of a nexus in it alone!! I decided this was perfect!! I went to cut it down when I suddenly discovered another power of it. The metal areas of these trees can absorb energy attacks, and the leaves can fire it back at you!! It took me a week, but then I found the solution. The only thing can could cut the metal of the tree was the leaf of the tree, but figuring I'd need it healthy, I used the leaf to dig it out of the ground and brought it here to make a nexus from it, and it's going at a speed." Attorneymon goes, "I never expected this. I want units to harvest these healthy `super-trees' and bring them back for construction of new nexuses."

In the hall, Neo Spheremon thinks, "What? The old crooner is still alive?! She must be like… 2.3 billion years old now!! Only Tsukiyumimon could hide the last power of the moon from me!! Now, thanks to those losers, I will have all the power of the moon, and then I can collect my reward." He envisions himself as the ruthless Emperor of the Moon.

Attorneymon goes, "I want to know when the planets are ready. Get as many Dark Tower digimon up and going too. The news is that the Digidestined are going to make some noise soon. I don't want them to interrupt the ceremony in two days. The greatest dark force shall return to us soon." He slowly leaves. In the hall Heramon shows up. "What is this ceremony?" Attorneymon goes, "What point is there to tell you? You still have yet to serve any meaningful use to me other than a mediocre secretary and messenger." Heramon goes, "But I'm in your inner group like all the others. Come on…" She now seems peeved. "Does it involve that stupid Malachimon?" Attorneymon knocks her down. "It is not your concern!! If you did more useful tasks, maybe I'd let you in on these things." He walks off. She thinks, "I know I can make him realize my usefulness…"

As the sun rises on the final full day of winter until next year, Lily awakens inside a large chamber, the manacles still on her. She looks around. "This so sucks. Jijimon has no right." Chibi Seishinmon flies in with breakfast. She goes, "He doesn't want you to die for nothing. He does have the right to care." Lily goes, "He just doesn't understand…" Chibi Seishinmon goes, "Actually, many of us have been in the exact same place as you. Jijimon in fact even sounded like you do, speaking of waging this monumental war on evil, and even trying to as well, just like you, but his anger slowly ate away at him, and it very nearly cost him his sanity. In the end, he was almost as bad as the Overlords themselves. No other life mattered to him anymore. He had let hate become the master of him. It was only after he destroyed a small city for standing in his way that he began to listen, but he went on, fed on hate. More people suffered because they said he was mad. Only after he saw the resurrection of Attorneymon did he learn. It was then he realized what he had become and how wrong it was. He formed this community and managed to keep it hidden so that there would still be those left that knew the truth. He put you here because you are on the same path, but far more stubborn." Lily says, "I know it can be done!!" Chibi Seishinmon shouts, "That's the attitude that put you here!! I wanted to rip out his heart as well for condemning me to live in exile from my homeland, but you can't be enslaved by negative emotions!!" A quiet moment interjects. "I must go now." She flies off. Lily gnaws on some toast. "I don't need to be talked out of this. I need information."

Far away, a familiar figure stands on the horizon. "I reflect on everything, and it really means nothing. Am I to forever live two lives? In one, I am just a mere toy, a weapon for others. In this one, I have a greater, more rewarding purpose, but I am destined to be alone. Which is the greatest punishment?" Slowly, it grows brighter.

As the sun rises many miles from the village, another group of vengeful folk track through a forest when they suddenly come across a base. Stefan goes, "Following the last known direction of the five, and Feral Rosemon's nose, this has to be where they went. I still wish we could have found them back at that battle site. At least then we could have attacked them while they were alone." Tamiko utters, "We must think of something soon!! I can't stand waiting!!" Stefan exclaims, "Keep it down!! We'll get her, but we can't just rush in…" Soldiers suddenly surround them. Tamiko retorts, "Look what you did." Slowly, they are marched along to the base.

Out and about at this early hour, Armajimon and a very sore Iori heads out to fetch Jun. "Why couldn't Ken go? He didn't get bricks thrown at him!! I still can't feel my arm." Slowly, he makes the trek up the apartment building. "Here it is…" He slowly raps, rapping on the chamber door. Slowly, the door opened, Iori seized and threw in arms up in fear. A woman asks, "Who are you, and what's that smell? It smells like burnt flesh." He goes, "Well, I'm Iori Hido, and I'm here to talk to Jun." She goes, "Oh yeah, you're that guy…" Iori screams, "Please!! No more cattle prods!!" She goes, "What'd give you that impression? Oh well. Come on in!!" Slowly, they come in. The woman says, "My girl Jun has been real mopey since she brought that egg home. I wonder where her friend Andromon ran off to?" There is a sudden scream. "Jun!!" They run to her room, where Jun, in some pajamas, has a golden Kokuwamon stuck to her face. Like Ni-Kokuwamon, this one is weird. He screams, "Hello Jun!! Gimme a hug!!" Her mom screams, "What is it?!" Iori scans it, "It's Ni-Kokuwamon, a Rookie level Machine digimon with attributes more along the lines of a strong Champion." Jun's mom picks Armajimon by his tail and swings him around. "Get off of my daughter's head!!" She wallops Ni-Kokuwamon with Armajimon. She beats it relentlessly until Ni-Kokuwamon lets go. While Jun sits laid out in the floor stunned, Ni-Kokuwamon looks at Jun's mom, making exaggerated movements like an imbecile. "Who are you?!" He utters. She beats him again with Armajimon, but he doesn't seem to mind. In fact, he just stares blankly at her as she beats the crap out of Armajimon trying to beat the crap out of him. What seems like drool drops from his mouth. Suddenly, he screams about as loud as he could, "I smell waffles!!" He runs past her waving his hands in the air screaming down the hall. They slowly inch out of her room and look into the kitchen. He opens a batch of cake mix, pours it in his mouth, drinks an entire gallon of milk, and then begins spraying cheese whiz in his mouth. Iori goes, "What's going on?" Jun goes, "Well, about five minutes ago, Andromon's egg hatched, and I expected the same old Andromon. Instead, he shows up and leaps on me asking me to hug him, and then you came in." His head starts spinning around and around, and a swallowing sound is heard as he stops. A soupy batter like concoction seeps out the sides of his mouth. "I made Cheese Whiz Cake!!" He runs over and eats the butter. He looks at Jun and waves, shouting, "Hi Jun!!" Iori goes, "According to this, his digivolutions are slightly different than before. He still goes to Neo Andromon, Xaviomon, and Alcyaid Xaviomon, but they all look slightly different, but this chart says that the Terra is different altogether from Araiya's Andromon. If digimon can evolve like humans can well, I think he just did it." Ni-Kokuwamon asks, "Can we kill all humans now?" Jun shouts, "No!! I don't want to kill all humans!! I wanted Andromon back…" Ni-Kokuwamon goes, "I'm Andromon, but I'm shinier!!" Iori goes, "He got you on that." Jun goes, "What happened to him? He used to have a shy personality, never very emotional, but now he acts like Tom Green on crack." Iori goes, "I guess when we met Andromon, his kind was in the midst of some sort of upgrade or evolution to a new race of digimon, which explains why yours and Araiya's always Meta Digivolved to reach their higher levels." Jun goes, "He seems a little annoying, but he's so cute you can't help but to watch… Where'd he go?" They turn to see him trying to cram Armajimon down his mouth. He shudders, "Southwestern goodness…" Jun goes, "No. Ni-Kokuwamon doesn't eat the armadillo. Armajimon is not food." He spits him out and goes, "Aw……… Can I eat him now?" Jun shakes her head no. "If you're hungry, maybe we can fix you something." Iori asks, "So Jun, you ready to come back yet?" Jun responds, "I'm good to go!!" Ni-Kokuwamon is jumping all over her. Armajimon lies on the floor of Jun's room, black and blue and bleeding. "Medic…"

Morning becomes afternoon, at the Wick house, after their arrival the night before, the great meeting begins…

Safiirumon, "So Siva Lilymon went turncoat on us. They got Vulcan Lilymon too." Lance says, "They're going to see us coming now. We must break up their hold on the worlds while they are busy with this `ceremony' you say he's going to do." Araiya states, parts of her bandaged up, "`Supposed' ceremony, you should say." Hikari, whom looks like she went a few rounds at Caesar's Palace, goes," I know *whistle* what I saw *another whistle*!!" Spit flies from a gap in her teeth where a tooth should be. Taichi goes, "None the less, I think an attack on his main headquarters is still the best plan. The hint Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon gave us can only mean one thing. The base we seek is in the Digital World's orbit." Lance goes, "Are you mad? You would attack the Dominion Orbital Ring Headquarters?! No hostile can escape the atmosphere without it locking on to you!!" Koushiro exclaims, "Orbital Ring?! How big is this thing?!" Laomon goes, "About one million cubic miles, not including the Council Tower, I'd say 7.2836562039471938 miles tall and the same wide, and around 18,849.5559215387594307758602996 miles long, with a circumference of 78,539,816.33974483096156608458 miles, or 25,000,000Ï€ for short." Patamon goes, "And we didn't see this sooner why?" Lance goes, "Classic smoke and mirrors. First off, it was along the Digital World's own Prime Meridian, with the tower, pointing towards the moon, directly over Magnetic North, like a giant σ. It, compared to other objects, was wafer thin, thus mostly invisible unless you were directly under it, in which case we used the hull to project the image of the sky during the day using live feed from the area below we orbited, and exposed the windows at night, arranged just like the stars in the sky, and the world's natural rotation did the rest. A similar, but more complex trick was used on the moon's side showing a film loop of the Digital World." Safiirumon adds, "In fact, when you last went to the moon, I sat there and watched you from the Council Tower, that is how close you came." Taichi asks, "Then just how are we going to get to it without being shot up or seen? If we come at it, we get shot, and we definitely can't make a port in space." Safiirumon says, "It'd be ludicrous to make a move on it anyway without some form of surface to air attack that can escape the gravity of the Digital World and make it past the station's defenses, which I doubt. We should then target ground targets and force Attorneymon into the open." Tailmon states, "Let me take this moment to frankly point out that Lily has been doing the same thing for over a month now, and Attorneymon has not once been seen anywhere else since then. He doesn't care." Laomon responds, "Tailmon has a point. Whatever he's doing must be so important that he could care less if all his bases fall, and that's bad. If it was to devote this much attention from him, it would have dire consequences." Safiirumon goes, "This is madness!! If we take out his bases, he'll lack the resources to continue…" He suddenly stops. "No… With a station of that magnitude, he would very well have the resources necessary to keep this stalemate going for hundreds of years and just wait you out…"

Suddenly, a door creaks open. Ken goes, "You hear that?" Everyone turns to see something that bewilders them all. What seems to be a tall, very skinny, flat-chested woman, to their eyes, with silvery white hair down to their shins with green streaks in the bangs, which went all the way down to the person's hips, but amazingly devoid of hair anywhere else (Not even eyebrows) except for eyelashes, walks in wearing a pearl jacket as long as their hair over a pearl vest, which was worn atop a forest green silk dress shirt, with a pair of pearl pants, and a pair of sandals. Araiya goes, "I know I got suit just like that a week ago…" Suddenly, she sees a sales tag still hanging from the cuff. "Hey, that's my suit!! How did you swipe my new suit before I even got to wear it?!" The person points a finger at her and exclaims with a familiar voice, "Because I'm an ass, I liked it, and your stuff is the only stuff that seems to fit me!!" Kokuwamon says, "This makes no sense…" Araiya leaps up to attack this mystery person, only to run right into their fist, casually held out for that sole purpose. "Stupid." Lilymon looks at the ring that was on that finger. It was then Yamato jumped up and said, "Only one person can Araiya attack like that!!" Everyone did a double take and shouted, "Lewis?" They looked at him, when Mimi started to snicker and bust out laughing. "Lewis!! *Snicker* You look like a woman!!" Lewis grins and says, "Oh, I'll pay you back one day for this." Mimi stops laughing. "Huh?" Lewis continues, "Because of that little misadventure in a little thing the US government recently dubbed `The Bio-Merge Theory,' you managed to irreversibly damage me on the genetic level. In that theory, it says that it is possible that human and digimon can perform their own little Jogression, much like the guy whom made this theory, and was that American ally in our battle 41 years ago, Justin. A perfect fusion of data and genes with no cellular damage and masses of power is the norm, but like a third chromosome in pair 21 ruins the day with Down syndrome, an odd number of participants will result in some damage, mainly to the host, which is the one with the least in common with the other parties, or me. What made it worse was the fact it was a prolonged merge, one of over a month, which meant more fun for me!! First, certain physical or psychological traits are copied, such as scars or impulses. You got off with just that. Second, random non-unique genes merge permanently or are replaced since they are of the universal nature. Next, a whole chromosome is changed in aforementioned way. Not long after, those genes that make you unique come under attack. Very soon, after a year, we would have irreversibly became one person. About thirty-five years ago, I found out I had other traits I wasn't born with, so I started using special supplements to hold off the re-write that was going on in me, but because of the type of person I was and the fact that every breath I took smashed my genes with free radicals, a.k.a. aging, it was a losing battle, one that started sapping away at me, so I lessened up on my resistance, and the side effects went away. It wasn't until our humiliating loss in our last few fights did I realize that not only did I need to understand what was Attorneymon's plans, but why I was not able to draw upon all the power I felt in me, so I went in there to meditate and learn. Thing was, all that change that had been delayed, thanks to certain digital cells in me, acting like a program, came a rushing through me, and out. I think I spent a quarter of my time on a toilet sick to my stomach!! Now, here I am, almost two months later, carrying roughly the equivalent of six of your chromosomes in every cell in my body!! That is why you will pay." Mimi says, "How was I supposed to have known?" Lewis goes, "You weren't. Enough of that though… Wait… There's something else I've been meaning to do." He pulls out the Egg of Tranquility, and then draws his sword and smashes the egg. He rears back and starts to glow, then the glow vanishes. Everyone gasps. He goes over to Daisuke. "Give me your egg." Daisuke, confused, gives him the D-Terminal with the Egg of Friendship, which he then destroys as well. Veemon also rears back, grunting. "I've never felt a power rush like this before!!" Yolei exclaims, "What are you doing?" Lewis says, "When I wasn't sending parts of me to live in the sewers, I sometimes would teleport out and do some searching and data analysis. Comes to find out that the reason why the newbies' digimon always snapped like a wet noodle under stress was that something was inhibiting their power, as it was I. Seems that whomever taught the Holy Beasts and Gennai how to make these things forgot to tell them there was something like the equivalent of digital kryptonite in them. Why do you think it took them so long to learn how to digivolve the normal way?" Takeru says, "The Dark Towers, of course!!" Lewis turns quickly, "Wrong!! All digimon, regardless of modifiers, are created with the instinctive ability to evolve and digivolve. These, on the other hand, worked to suppress that ability. It worked even more so on the newbies because they were under the influence since their creation, and by two for that matter. This is also why they had to draw on the eggs for Terravolution. Whoever made these went out of their way to control evolution itself to make sure they evolved only the way they wanted them to. I also strongly believe this force is also the force responsible for the Overlords, the Dark Masters, Belial Vamdemon, and Attorneymon. More intriguing is the fact that almost all of this knowledge that I found was on the Digital Moon." Koushiro goes, "You kept on mentioning `evolution.' Why?" As he smashes Takeru's Egg of Hope, he answers, "We already learned a while back that digimon did predate the information age and that there are digimon that are eons old, like Raijinmon on the moon, whom is over three-quarters of a million years old. When we first came to the moon, they talked about the ancient common ancestor to Raijinmon and Tentomon, known as Stagmon. That right there they also possess a form of evolution hand in hand with digivolution." As soon as the Egg of Hope breaks, something amazing happens. Patamon floats into the air. "Help!! Get me down!!" An orb of light swallows him, and he descends down to the ground. The light slowly fades to reveal Patamon, but not quite. All his fur is mussed up, his arms and legs were slightly longer, and his wings had three times the wingspan. What was most surprising was that the last eighth of each strand looked crystalline, and the skin that made the flaps of his wings were now metallic and gold. Takeru goes, "What happened to Patamon?!" Lewis says, "A few millennia of evolution held back, and just like me, it caught up all at once. It isn't enough that it made him something new, but it'll make things a bit more interesting." Patamon stood up on two legs and shook his head, his fur refracting the light around him like a mirror ball. Patamon exclaims, "I feel… so great!!" In his surprise he lifted Takeru up by one hand. Everyone was surprised. "I didn't know I could do that." He wrestles Hikari to the floor for her D-Terminal and breaks it over his knee, causing a similar reaction with Tailmon, resulting in her growing a few inches taller, her tail growing a foot, her gloves changing into steel gauntlets with thumbs and retracting clawed tips, and her nose and mouth having a humanoid shape. Tailmon panics, asking, "What happened to me? All this power I didn't know I had is flowing through me!!" Lewis says, "Exactly." Koushiro scans him with analyzer on his laptop. "Amazing!! Their power and strength is almost that of an Ultimate digimon!! But how? I thought each level had a power range?" Lewis says, "As Lily and Keiko have proven, a level is a bare minimum. There is no maximum. If given enough time and power, a Rookie could beat a Terra. The only drawback is that unlike power and speed, defense cannot increase in the same manner, which means the little Rookie will still only have the defensive ability of a Rookie, unless it evolves a defense, and most times that is unlikely, unless it is something like Patamon's wings or fur. This is why you get thine butts handed to you by many of Attorneymon's new creations. He engineers them in order to cause an evolution, or uses more evolved data. He also trains them a lot. Training can also increase power greatly. Now, we should concern ourselves with Attorneymon, his space fortress, the Dark Paladins, and Lily. We should prepare for all-out Armageddon." Taichi goes, "Attorneymon couldn't possibly be out…" Lewis interrupts, "No. It's Lily that we must worry about." Lilymon goes, "You can't be serious… Can you?" Lewis says, "I'm very serious. She is a ticking time bomb. That is what caused her rampage, but I feel something soon will make her tantrum look like nothing compared what's to come."

Inside Attorneymon's chambers, the great fiend tosses in his sleep. Inside his mind, his dreams are disturbing. A little digimon, quite young looking, is in a dark place, voices calling out, "Why were we forsaken?" A dark shadow seeps up on this digimon. It holds a globe and calls out, "Find this place!!" It points on the globe to a specific. "Seek it!!" The latitude and longitude swirl all around in the darkness. "Destroy it!!" The globe starts to burn. Slowly, all the voices begin to repeat it, over and over and over again. The small digimon huddles on the ground with his eyes closed, the chant getting faster and faster. Suddenly, Attorneymon wakes up. "That's it!! I must destroy something!! It must be something important I remembered. It annoys me so. A sacrifice, per say."

In the base, Tamiko, Stefan, and Feral Rosemon sit in a small cell, Feral Rosemon clinging to Tamiko for dear life. Tamiko goes, "At least they didn't execute us on the spot." Stefan responds, "And this is better. I've lived the end of the world, and now I got front row seats to it." Tamiko asks Feral Rosemon, "Could you let go? I think I just lost sensation to the whole left side of me, and I'd like it back." Stefan goes, "It's over unless we can find some way to break out without a big ruckus." Tamiko goes, "If you would have been quiet, this wouldn't have happened." She lets up and backs up a step, and happens to put the tip of her tail in Stefan's face. This shocks the crap out of the bored and focused Stefan. He instinctively grabs it, and Feral Rosemon automatically feels pain all over her and locks up. A constipated look fills her face as he holds it. "Would you please keep this out of my face?" Almost reflexively, she whips her tail to the left, slamming Stefan into the wall. Stefan goes flying through the wall, letting go as he hit. She falls to her knees looking pale and woozy. Slowly, as if in pain all over, she grabs the tail gently, still red and throbbing at the tip. Tamiko looks over at Stefan. He seems to be nursing a dislocated shoulder… two cells away. Suddenly, the Dark Tower fragment over their heads shorts out and crumbles away. "I seem to be having the most amazing luck the last few days." Stefan runs into a wall and manages to relocate his shoulder. "Ah… That hurt!! Hey, look… The electric barrier went down!! We're free!!" Quickly, Tamiko and Stefan run out, but Feral Rosemon had yet to move. "Come on!!" She doesn't move much. Tamiko runs over and grabs her up, trying to get her to stand, but like a noodle, she falls limp each time. Stefan asks, "What's wrong with her?" Tamiko goes, "I don't know, but she suddenly got mega-weak after you squeezed her tail, but we don't got time to play doctor!!" Stefan picks her up over his shoulder, the digimon seemingly only half-conscious. They reach the end of the hall when they are caught by… "Yuumei Omnimon?! What are you doing? It's me, Tamiko!!" Yuumei Omnimon stands there, his cannon pointed at them. He thinks, "What?! He's still alive… My duty is to capture him, but…" A sniveling Flymon exclaims, "You still haven't told CO where you went last night!! Get back here…" Yuumei Omnimon snickers and says, "These losers just don't know that resistance is pointless. Maybe a trip to see the greatest of all digimon will put them in line, once and for all." He grabs them all in his hand. Flymon shrieks, "Explain yourself!! Fill out forms!!" Yuumei Omnimon throws them all into a shuttle and boards it. Flight crews are racing around like decapitated chickens to stop the launch, but before they can get the doors partly closed, the shuttle races down the magnetic track. Stefan says, "Um, what just happened?" Tamiko goes, "I think Yuumei Omnimon just saved us or he really is taking us to be executed by Attorneymon himself." Yuumei Omnimon stands up and says, "Guess I made my bed…" All of a sudden, a radical light show begins as digital code and binary code surrounds him, blackness screaming out of his body in massive orbs. White light crackles across him, forming little squares all over him, which break away to reveal Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon. His hair suddenly changes, as the right side becomes smooth, while the left side of his head stayed quite spiky. His hair reached down to the middle of his back, and then a mass of hair in front of his ears grows down to the same length. His hair was still white, but as it went down closer to the end it gradually started to turn a dark grey. At the tips of the hair, chevrons of crimson red denoted the end of his hair and the tips of the spikes. His ears start to grow and take on a canine shape. The glow continues on as the sword changes. It turns black and broadens out, and the bladed edge ignites with blue-white plasma, and the edge extends halfway down the other side, where large rings dangle from the sword. In the dead middle of his torso an amethyst jewel appears, from which two golden beams extended out at an upward angle, paralleled above the grooves in the upper armor. On the surface of the jewel, a golden pentagram is sculpted into place. As the beams continue to form inches above the surface of the chest plate, they continue up, reaching a height level with the top of his head. From the backside of the beam, another set of beams extends out behind his back. Near the end, a flexible joint forms, covered in the malleable black rubber Yuumei Omnimon wore. On the other end, a long narrow jet manifests itself on the bottom side of each beam. On his thighs new white armor produces itself. His chain mail suddenly goes from gold to a very, very dark, almost black, violet. On his left arm, under the chain mail sleeve, a golden wristband with digital runes appears. In the slits on the shoulder plates, a metal ingot threads its way in, and on this ingot many large rings dangled. On the rings on each side a black fabric grew, masking much of his arms in blackness. They draped on down to his shins, where just an inch above the edge, large white metal studs embroider them. From his more black fabric appears, in the form of something more like an apron, but backwards, starting from next to the trapezoid shape plates, all the way behind him, and back around the other plate, hanging down to the helmets, a.k.a. ankles. The biggest change though happens to the left of his head. On the clavicle between his head and shoulder, a large slot track materializes. Meticulously, a massive engine forms on top of the slots much bigger than his head. On the top of it there are three turbines arranged in a triangular manner pointing up at an angle away from one another. On the very back, there appears a fourth turbine. On the front, there is a short but mammoth barrel surrounded by a rotating track pulled by chains, where evenly spaced out surrounding the giant were three small short barrels. Slowly, the massive cannon, as it seemed to be, moved forward, swiveled to the left, went down the slotted track, and upon reaching his back, a ring with three holes in a triangular design appears attached midway down his back attached to the pre-existing armor shows up. The cannon continues to swivel left, until the barrel is pointing to the right. Three little antennae reach out from the giant barrel and thread their way into the holes in the new back plate, locking it in place. Stefan goes, "What just happened?" The being says, "I… am Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon, Twin Mode!!" A profile appears, which he narrates. "Now that I know that I can have the best of both worlds, my two sides became one almighty force, Twin Mode!! In addition to the Tenkurayami Jin Tachi and Fafnir's Flare attacks I possessed as Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon and the Ætherspace Flux and Shadow Flare attacks of Yuumei Omnimon, I now possess four new attacks, including Yugoth Dark Reactor, Nova Rebirth, and my ultimate attacks, Delta Flare and Wonder Spirit Missile." Tamiko goes, "You sure have changed…" Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon goes, "I've had forever and a day to grow…" Feral Rosemon, now in pain but fully conscious starts trying to communicate. "Where is Vulcan Lilymon? Do you know?" Tamiko asks. Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon goes, "I heard that she was sent straight up to the station, where she will be tortured, then executed." Tamiko scowls, "If anything has happened to her…" Stefan goes, "We'll get her back!!"

As the shuttle ascended, it slowly closed in on the ring station surrounding the Digital World. A voice over the computer says, "Pass code verified, Yuumei Omnimon. Please dock in Hangar #1024." Stefan says, "Guess word hasn't reached them yet…" As the shuttle is drawn in by another magnetic field past the airlocks, alarms go off, and troops rush in. "Maybe not." Tamiko asks, "What are we going to do?" Stefan says, "I got this…" He closes his eyes and starts chanting again. This time a yellow aura surrounded him as he chanted over and over, `Raimei' glowing before him. As his chant before, it ends in a red glow.

"Saji no Raimei!!"

Small static shocks swept across the hangar, hitting all the guards. Slowly, the shuttle touches down. All the guards are still standing, but completely stunned and in shock. Soon after, a few digimon troops bite the big one, and the others, as soon as their muscles lax up, slump over. Stefan walks out and says, "Guess that was to be expected. Evolved human magic and ancient digimon data just don't mix well." Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon goes, "Let's get her!!" Tamiko goes, "No… Wait. If you two come barging down the halls, it'll surely attract a lot of attention. Feral Rosemon and me will go." Stefan goes, "And how would fend off all those goons on your own?" Tamiko grabs one of the higher-ranking officers in the hanger, a man whom looks something like him. "We won't. We'll just walk right on by." He quickly removes the uniform and puts it on. After putting on the hat, he looks at Feral Rosemon. "You too." She looks at him and makes a gesture like, "Who? Me?" He says, "If you're worried about us watching, then just put it on over what you got on, but you will have to do something about those blades and pole…" As he says that, the leaf-shaped blades, wood shoulder plates, claws, gloves, and her blowgun break down into data that she uploads into herself. Stefan retorts, "Impressive, but what about those small little quirks you can't hide?" She goes around from soldier to soldier, finding a female officer. She rubs her face, resulting in make-up rubbing off. She continues this and begins to rub it over the two pink stripes on her face, then put on her uniform jacket and hat, doing most her hair in the back up into a bun, the garments conveniently concealing her other stripes and her ears. She then lifts the pants from her as well and starts to put them on. The top of them hits her tail, when she stops for a moment, then slips it down the right pants leg, coiling it around her leg. After that, she completes the ensemble. She stands there and laughs in victory. She looks the part of a human female officer of the Dominion, except for one thing, which Stefan notices. Hanging down about an inch below the right cuff of the pants below her ankle was the end of her tail. "Uh…" Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon quiets him, whispering, "Time is working against us, and she's already consumed a bit of it. Besides, I doubt no one will notice." Tamiko goes, "Let's go. Seeing as we got some modestly ranked outfits here, we shouldn't get too much Q&A from others." Tamiko tinkers with a wall panel and cancels the alert. They walk out, where a sergeant asks, "Sirs, what is going on in there? General Fenrirmon sent me here to get a status report." Tamiko goes, "Seems some hostiles managed to board a shuttle and slip by security. The men are searching it right now. This one got ambushed so I'm taking her to the infirmary." He goes, "Do the guards need backup?" Tamiko goes, "That will not be necessary. We have the situation under control." The sergeant salutes and speaks, "Yes, sir." He leaves. "Tamiko goes, "Let's motor." He walks down the hall, gimping somewhat, as does Feral Rosemon, whom can't seem to fully move her right leg. Every now and then, she even grits her teeth from time to time. One digimon, an Ice Devimon, says, "She must have some will power if she's able to walk on a bum leg." Onward they move to a computer area. "Now, just act casual." They walk in as though they were real officers. Tamiko finds a terminal, but Feral Rosemon butts in, typing away at the keyboard. A bottle-glasses wearing half-human half Knightmon comes up to them, speaking with a nasal voice, "What are you two doing?" Tamiko goes, "We got orders to escort the new prisoner to the execution chamber. We need to make sure we're getting the right prisoner. Don't want to kill the wrong inmate before they're deemed ready to execute, now do we?" The geeky hybrid says, "N… No we can't… Wow, your friend there sure knows her computers…" Feral Rosemon points out the cell where Vulcan Lilymon is. "There we go. Now, we'll just get out of your way. Carry on, son." They get up and leave. Feral Rosemon has a bewildered look. Tamiko says, "I know what you're thinking, and they aren't idiots. They're arrogant. They are arrogant in the belief that no intruder can pierce the station's defenses, so suspicion amongst the crew is virtually non-existent." They move on to the pneumatic passages without a hitch. Feral Rosemon is in awe at the ingenious wonders she bears witness to as they progress along, unnoticed by all. Finally, they reach the hallway with her cell. As they enter the hall, they spot a sleeping Sukamon. Tamiko whispers, "Is it just me, or is it that the more secure the location seems to be, the more incompetent the guards get?" Feral Rosemon skulks up on the Sukamon, and from behind, leans over him and casually accesses the door commands, unlocking the electric barrier and anodized tungsten/gigadigizoid locks. Just down the hall, Heramon is coming up the other way. "I'll prove my usefulness by torturing and executing that Valkyrie myself!!" She sees the doors open. She speeds up to a trot and shouts, "Hey, you!! Guards!! I'll take care of this prisoner!!" Feral Rosemon starts to panic. Tamiko wonders, "What's Heramon doing?" They go up to her. Tamiko says, "Great Heramon, may I ask why you wish to dispose of the treacherous criminal?" Heramon goes, "It's not your concern…" She steps towards the cell doorway when she stops and looks at them. "You call yourselves officers of the Dominion? Even lowly grunts can dress themselves properly. Let me fix this…" She starts tugging on their uniforms, starting with Tamiko. "If I ever catch this again, it's the brig for you…" As she works on Feral Rosemon's pants leg, something isn't right. She slowly gropes her right leg, squishing Feral Rosemon's tail with each pat. Then she notices the tip hanging out and grabs it. "What is this, soldier?!" Feral Rosemon grits her teeth. "Why don't you answer me?" She jerks on it, causing a reflex response in Feral Rosemon accompanied by a yelp of pain. Heramon says, "Wait, this feels warm… What the?!" It goes out of her hand, uncoiling from around her leg, and busts out of the outside side of the upper pant leg, where it than wallops Heramon in the nose. Tamiko, noticing this, dashes in and grabs the badly beaten Vulcan Lilymon, whom is dressed all in a gray outfit. Tamiko goes, "Oh, nice going." Feral Rosemon shrugs her shoulders. Heramon holding her nose stands up. "I knew there was something fishy about you two…" Feral Rosemon, nursing the tail with her right hand, swings back jabs Heramon in the face again. Feral Rosemon starts to gesture wildly and stutters with great difficulty, "I… I…It… It… h… hu… hu… hu… hurt… hurts!!" Tamiko goes, "No wonder internal security is a bunch of creampuffs!! Monkey see, monkey do!!" Heramon goes, "I am not weak… Before the coup, security was optimum, but Attorneymon does not seem concerned about defense anymore. It is not a standing of my power. I did not become great elite because I am a creampuff!!" She jabs into Feral Rosemon hard, sending her into the floor, denting it, bouncing her up, hitting the roof, then smashing inches into the wall. Vulcan Lilymon slowly rouses. "Tamiko… Am I dreaming?" He goes, "No… I came for you. You saved me before, now I shall be the knight in shining armor…" From her body, Feral Rosemon draws the data of her right glove and claws, which sits under the uniform sleeve. Feral Rosemon then stands up. Heramon goes, "Boy, you are feisty." Quickly, Feral leaps, spinning towards Heramon, and kicks off her shoes at Heramon. Heramon deflects each one with her forearms, but is unaware of her charge, her lips syncing,

"Cat Scratch Fever!!"

The claws all rear up on her hand as she swings at a downward angle. A clear liquid starts to run down the blades. As her fists closes in within a few inches, the claws spring downward. As the punch makes contact in the left side of Heramon's waist, they stab in like snake fangs, injecting load after load of poison into her. After a few seconds, Feral Rosemon lifts Heramon by the claws (Even more painful…) and chucks her back first into the cell doorway hard… Heramon slowly rises, holding her back with her hands. "If I were any less of a digimon, that would have surely broken my back…" Her left leg quivers a bit, the area around the gash a dark blue. "So this is how it's going to be…"

"June Fury!!"

A tunnel of dark clouds works their way down the hall in front of Heramon. Inside this tunnel, Feral Rosemon is nervous. High funnel winds pick up inside the tunnel as lightning and hail start flying from all directions. The activity starts to pound on Feral Rosemon, beginning to hurt her some, when she gets an idea. Quickly, she leaps at one of walls, where it meets the ceiling, gashes a hole open, grabs on to that wall, and hangs on as tightly to the wall as possible. She is perched just millimeters above the swirling clouds. She listens as the lightning and hail picks up to rates far beyond that of any natural storm. The wind alone was deafening, but lightning flashed so fast it sounded like one massive sonic boom. Trying the best she can, she tries to protect her ears. Hailstones were flying so fast and were so massive they were flying out of the funnel and denting and many times blasting clean through walls, with one coming inches from her head. Slowly, the attack resolved as Feral Rosemon leapt back into it. Heramon gloats, "Now that she's gone…" From the collapsing clouds, Feral Rosemon leaps out and lands a windmill kick into her right side, then immediately punches her in the face hard as she goes flying to her left with her right hand, leaving deep claw marks in Heramon's left cheek and nose, where the claw diced through the cartilage, finished up with a fierce backhand into her chest, throwing her through one of the cell doors. Feral Rosemon turns to look at her foe, whom is just lying there bleeding. All of a sudden, Heramon explodes off the floor and sinks her fingernails into Feral Rosemon's neck, trying to strangle her. She throws Feral Rosemon up on the wall. Her mouth bleeds from the left corner. She speaks, blood gushing out from her gums, also slashed in that last attack, "My… beautiful face… ruined!!" She starts kneeing her in the abdominal area. Feral Rosemon tries to fight back, but is growing fainter. With one more effort, as Heramon raises her knee for another blow, Feral Rosemon finally smacks the insides of her arms hard enough, causing Heramon's fingernails to snap off and release her, while simultaneously sweeping her tail around the one leg still on the floor, flipping her into the air, where she then got kneed herself in mid-air, then grabbed like little fingers by the three little pieces on the end of Feral Rosemon's tail and into another wall, putting her inside it. Feral Rosemon then drew the data of the blowgun and used her Entwiner Needle shot to contain Heramon, whom was now mostly blue in the torso, with blood running from her chest, waist, and face. Feral Rosemon reaches up and painfully removes Heramon's fingernails from her neck, causing some blood to run down the sides of her neck. Tamiko goes, "We best flee before Heramon gets free and alerts others." They begin to charge out as the Sukamon finally awakens. Heramon comes around as well and yells, "Guard!! Signal the alert!!"

Far down the station, Attorneymon is speaking to a high-ranking officer. They seem to be in mid-conversation. "Admiral Korsov, as you very well know, I am placing you in command of the now fully functional Vindicator 1. I am giving you this position seeing as how you are proving to be one of the best human officers since the new regime has taken effect. Do not prove me wrong." The admiral, a man in his late 40's to early 50's with graying, balding hair and a beard salutes on the other end of the transmission. "Da, commandant!! Is there more I am needed for?" Attorneymon says, "Yes. As your first mission as Admiral and Command of V1, I want you to obliterate this location. Nothing must be left standing." Korsov asks, "It is not my place to ask, but what is the objective located here?" Attorneymon goes, "It's not important now." Korsov salutes again. "Okay. Hail the Dominion!! Korsov out." Just after that, the alarms go off. "What?! An intruder? But how?!!" He marches out of his quarters.

Elsewhere on the station, Tamiko and Feral Rosemon run down the halls. "Is it just me, but doesn't it seem like we're the poster children for Murphy's Law?" As they continue down the curved hall, they spot a line of troops. Tamiko goes, "Oh crap!! They'll mow us down if we don't take cover!!" All of a sudden, Feral Rosemon whips out the sidearm she had been carrying when she put on the uniform. She remembers the Dominion soldier talking about higher-powered weapons to take down high-powered digimon. Tamiko screams, "What are you doing?!" She takes a shot, absorbs the recoil, takes another, and finally fires a third shot. Three soldiers fall over with large head-sized wounds in their sides, and so does the row behind them. All of a sudden, one yells, "Oh crap!!" and tries to throw away his gun, but his violently blows up, as do two more. Feral Rosemon grabs Tamiko's arm and leaps through the flames unscathed. As they reach the doorway at the end of that section, another explosion goes off, blasting a hole out to space and begins to evacuate the air. The dozens, now trying to flee, are being sucked out. Soon after this, Feral Rosemon really picks up her pace, with Tamiko in hand. Tamiko shouts, "What's happening!!" As they make the next door, the corridor door gives away. With pure effort, Feral Rosemon beats depressurization and makes it to the next section, where she seals the door, which seems sturdy enough to handle it. Onward they run until about an eighth of a mile from the bay, a wall of guards gets to them. Tamiko yells, "Oh hell…" They prepare to fire, when Tenkurayami Siegfriedmon leaps out from behind them and blasts them all. "What took you three?" Tamiko and Feral Rosemon keep running, running into the hangar. "I guess we didn't meet the dress code!!" Stefan, standing in the door of the shuttle, shrugs his shoulders. He leaps inside to get it running. "Someone needs to get us turned around and the doors opened!!" Feral Rosemon runs over and hacks away at the console, bypassing security measures rapidly and with ease. She gives a thumbs up, and runs to the shuttle as it rotates around on a platform. As it finishes, the first airlock opens. The magnetic current comes on and hurls them forward. Just then, the guards bust down the door. Attorneymon appears and screams, "Shoot them down!!" He thinks, "With many of my more powerful units located on Earth and the nature of my foes, I guess I never expected such a bold move. No matter. Their victory shall be short lived, for in just one more day, it will be undone."

Back in Tokyo, the debates rage on about how to tackle the threat at hand. Safiirumon goes, "We must thrust back here, in this world, for his forces have amassed here. Break the force, we break the Dominion!!" Taichi goes, "I still say we need to hit Attorneymon hard at the source!!" Ken shouts, "I think you're both hard-headed!!" Meanwhile, in the corner, Sora, Lewis, Lilymon, Koushiro, and Laomon all sit working. Sora states, "It seems we're the only ones who seem to disagree all around." Sigmamon and Tomoemon join them. Tomoemon proposes, "Just what do you plan to do?" Sora says, "What Attorneymon wants to do is big, and Malachimon and Lily factor in this plan big time. If we can figure out how to remove them from his hand and do enough damage in the process, he would be forced into a situation where he cannot do anything more than defend himself until he can lick his wounds, giving us time to make a better plan." Lewis responds, "Ah, but you forget to factor in his wit. Someone like him will most definitely have a backup plan to go to." Laomon adds, "That's a good point… Think about it for a moment. First, he abducts Arachnemon. Second, he manages to secretly buy huge tracts of land near Gabriel's Fjord without anyone the least bit suspicious. Next, he sits back and lets Lily destroy almost half of his bases, and never lifts a finger. He then charges into Europe with no regard for casualties on either side. After this, new reports of Dark Tower digimon spring up. Finally, in this world, small asteroids have been mysteriously drawn away from the asteroid belt by a gravitational field that did not exist a month ago and has resulted in the meteor storms that have been going on here since the beginning of the month. In the Digital World, I looked at the same coordinates, and all I saw was black. He's building something big, but cannot be seen…" Koushiro goes, "I can only this conclusion… It would seem he is wiping out digimon intentionally with his foolish attacks, attempting to provoke us, all the while using the cold depths of space to harvest millions of Dark Towers for some sort of invincible super-army." Lilymon goes, "Dark Towers are made from Dark Matter, so that explains why Laomon can't see them, just blackness." Sigmamon retorts, "This still does not explain how you plan to deal with the current situation." About this time, Yuuji, Masato, and Lotusmon come in. Sirenamon sees him and is ecstatic. She leaps to him and picks him up, hugging him. "Oh, I haven't seen you for so long!! I was so worried about you!! My how little Yuuji-san has grown!!" Yuuji, his voice muffled in the outfit Sirenamon wore, a berry colored tank top with a white stripe over the chest and a black star in the middle over a loose long sleeved white shirt, exclaims "Yes, I've missed you too, but you're squeezing my brains out!!" Lewis looks back at the others. "Why don't we ask them? They're a part of the group too." All of a sudden, Koushiro gets a most surprising e-mail.

"Dear Koushiro of the Other Universe,

It has been awhile since we met one another and fought the likes of Crimson Knightmon. When the children of your world ended up at our doorsteps, we were amazed by their story. I had made something 18 and a half years ago that Taichi should remember, but forgot to give it to them. I just remembered it a couple of days as I was renovating my ruined house. Thanks to the device Lotusmon rigged up, it gave me the idea for this trans-universal gateway. Now, if you reading this, expect a flash in about ten seconds. The flash will be us coming over.

`Izzy' Izumi

Another Universe"

Koushiro goes, "Now that places an unexpected twist on things." As promised, a flash goes off in Lewis' living room, burning a hole in the carpet. Everyone stops arguing. Lilymon looks over and sees the hole. "Oh, son of a bitch!!" Lewis goes, "Aw, I wanted to say that…" Daisuke cowers and whimpers. "What'd I do?" Standing there is (Dub names and/or (03) used to show difference in origin) Tai, Izzy, Karen, their digimon, and three unknowns with digimon. Lance asks, "And they would be?" Safiirumon says, "Why are you asking me?" Taichi stands and goes, "I remember this…………………………& #8230;…" Sirenamon says, "Obviously, you don't." Taichi says, "Hold your horses!! I know them!! Just give me a moment………………………… ;" A moment turns into a few minutes. Finally, in the silence, Yolei screams, "Give it up, Taichi!! You're going to give yourself an aneurysm before you figure it out!! It's obviously our counterparts from the other universe!!" Taichi, disappointed, goes, "But I was so close… Wait, now I remember!!" Yolei sighs, sweatdrops, and falls, all in that order. Safiirumon goes, "Other universe?" Lewis, Hikari, and Koushiro sit down for the next hour explaining it. Koushiro then turns to the still confused travelers. "I almost forgot…" He trailed off as her noticed all of them except Karen sleeping while standing up, herself counting wads of money, with Lewis behind her, casually swiping the money from her as she pockets it. Lewis then proceeds to take everything and anything of value from the sleeping victims. After this, he then shouts nonsense, waking them up. Koushiro asks, "Why did you fall asleep?" Tai says, "We got so tired of waiting that we must have dozed off out of boredom… Where's my wedding ring and wallet?" Lewis casually steps away, putting a note on Karen's back stating "It was ME!!" Araiya, just now regaining consciousness, staggers up to her feet, quite pissed. "I'm going to teach you to not punch me…" She sees a white jacket… Next thing she knows, she is out cold again. Karen goes, "Teach you not to swing at me…" Taichi goes over to them. "This is Tai, my counterpart, and his Agumon. Next to him are Izzy, Koushiro's counterpart, and his Tentomon. Over here is James Killian and his daughter Karen, the equivalents to their world's Lewis… and Lewis, with their digimon Knightmon, no relation to this universe's Knightmon, and Mavermon. These other two unknowns to ye are Takashi Yagami, Tai's boy, and his V-Dracomon, and Ikue `Ivy' Itou and her Bellosommon." Izzy states, "As I said to… myself, I had made something that can come in handy for you guys, but forgot to give it to Yuuji and Masato before they left." He pulls out three sets of rings and three glowing orbs in glass. Taichi lights up. "As Taichi seems to remember, I was interested in the Power Nexus technology for a while, and wanted to know more about it. The power is quite awesome, but I did discover one fault with them. It would seem your three were so old that the energy was slightly destabilized, and needed power from you just to work. These rings I developed create a field that stabilizes the power a great deal, and these energy balls slow down the drain on the users, optimizing the usefulness of the three Nexuses." Agumon says, "You lost me at `as.'" Sirenamon quotes, "Basically, he's saying that by using these electromagnetic rings with the Nexuses, the alternating flows will realign all ionized forced, restoring the natural energy balance between positive and negative forces that many energy sources contain, reducing energy dissipation and the need for re-routing power via the human equation, using their nervous electrical impulses to replace energy lost from waste. The alternating magnetic also creates a constant energy state, where by which energy lost from a large output, i.e. Special Attack or Direct Hit, can be reduced or not at all. The purpose of the energy balls are for use with the users, acting as a reserve battery to prevent a major nervous shutdown on the human equation, as was the case in January battle of Avalonmon vs. Yuumei Omnimon. Simple mathematics." Even Koushiro and Laomon are dumbfounded. Laomon, "Huh?" Koushiro, "That's exactly right. How did you figure that out?" Sirenamon shrugs her shoulders and says, "I'm not sure…" Izzy says, "Basically, like she said, it greatly reduces the strain on the users, allowing their partners to maintain Omega level for far greater lengths of time. I estimate it can take what used to be an absolute maximum of thirty minutes and stretches it to over 30 hours if not severely damaged. The extra should also increase the digimon's overall power by a factor of 2." Yamato goes, "With all three Omegas' power doubled, we may very well stand a chance!!" Tai goes, "We also came to lend our hands in the matter. From what we were told about Attorneymon from Masato, he won't go down easy. We saw what he could be capable of. Boy, that Omega level Dark Tower digimon was tough!!" Laomon suddenly realizes something. "What did you just say?" Tai goes, "We saw…" Laomon, "No, the part after that." Tai, "What? About that Omega level Dark Tower digimon? Well…" Laomon says, "That's what those dark masses are!! He's making not just one, but the beginnings of a whole army of Omega digimon!!" Everyone gasps. Taichi states, "Why though? Yuumei Omnimon alone was close to his level of power…" Laomon continues, "Unless he found the means to make a Nexus of his own…" Sirenamon continues, "And the only way he could have it is if he found Atlantis… That's why Lily wanted my help!! She somehow knew he found it, and was going to stop him from gaining technology…" She suddenly stops, grabbing her head. Flashes of ideas shone forth in her cranium, then she fell over. Takeru grabs her before she can fall on the floor. Sirenamon grabbed him and stood again. "I'm… okay…" Lotusmon goes, "Maybe you should lay down for a moment." Sirenamon says, "I don't know…" She then remembers the doc, "Ever consider that is was real? We'll discuss this some more at a later time. One thing I do ask is this. You spoke a lot about `Lotusmon.' You know a Lotusmon. Why don't you talk to her?" Sirenamon says, "Okay…" They leave the room. Taichi goes, "With this new development, a plan must be made now!!" Safiirumon goes, "This bureaucracy is getting nowhere. I'm sticking to my guns. Let's go." Slowly, the Valkyries file out. He adds, "We just cannot agree."

In the village, Lily is napping, seeing as there is nothing else to do. In her dreams, Malachimon once more meets her. "Lily, have you finally chosen to stop this mad crusade?" Lily looks at her… "No…" She thinks on it. "I don't know… It's like everything I've done has been in vain. Maybe Jijimon is right. Maybe he is toying with me. Maybe he is unstoppable." Malachimon says, "You know better than that. He can be stopped, but you can't do it unless you place some trust in others. You can't let your blind rage consume you, or else he will win. What you saw was the future, and the future changes with everything we do." Lily says, "I must stop it!! I must save everyone!!" Malachimon says, "Not long from now, Attorneymon believes he resurrect Obliviomon using my body as a host for his spirit energy. I don't know why he thinks this, but if he's right, I've got less than a day to live. You must find me…" All of a sudden, the face of Thanatomon shows. "We're sorry, but this call has been… terminated!!" Lily wakes up violently. In the chamber with her is Ni-Kokuwamon. He screams, "It lives!!" Lily blurts, "What the hell?" Ni-Kokuwamon responds, "Hello sunshine!!" Lily ignores him. "I must save her!! I must save it all!!" She turns to Ni-Kokuwamon. "Let me out!!" Ni-Kokuwamon looks concerned and cocks his head. "I don't get it." Lily goes, "Must I hurt you?" Ni-Kokuwamon takes a good look at her. "You… are a child." Lily answers, "Yes… Seems his Macintosh made brain hasn't exploded yet, but that isn't what I need!! I need to get out!! I need to stop it all!!" He continues, "You are a child, and you look like a child, but you, your spirit, acts like a bitter old person so obsessed with global events that you have forgotten…" Lily is confused. "Forgot what? I know all I need to know, and that is that my life, my world, needs me to save it, and I need to end all the pain Attorneymon unleashes…" Ni-Kokuwamon shakes his head. "No… You forgot what it means to be a child… To be young is to have some of the greatest happiness you could ever have…" Lily goes, "It doesn't matter. I must stop the madness… Besides, how can I forget what I never knew?" Ni-Kokuwamon says, "Just rise above it all." Lily screams, "To hell with my youth!! It doesn't matter as long as he walks the worlds!!" Ni-Kokuwamon shouts, "But I got dinner rolls!! Obey the dinner rolls!!" He squeezes a dinner roll in his hand, then lets up on it, letting it plump back to normal. Lily shouts, "I have had it!! Unlock that door now and remove these manacles before I rip you apart!!" There is an awkward silence for a moment, then he says, "Only if you dance with me." Lily has a sweatdrop run down her face. Slowly, she lets go of some of that rage. She thinks, "I guess I could do this for him. He said he would let me go, and it's… it's something about him that just keeps me from saying no to his face." Lily goes over to him. "Oh, okay." She bends over and begins to dance with him as he hums. Every few seconds, he would sometimes giggle. Ni-Kokuwamon says, "Let's do something a little faster!!" They keep on dancing… Slowly, this keeps on… Five minutes… Thirty minutes… An hour… Doing more stuff and playing around… Finally, after two and a half hours, Lily is actually smiling and laughing with him. "Come on Ni-Kokuwamon!! Try and keep up!!" She thinks, "I… like this feeling… It's so new to me… I can't even remember what I was so mad about!!" She then picks him up and spins him around and around, Ni-Kokuwamon giggling all the while.

Outside, as the sun set, a shadow came down over the village. Jijimon says, "Strange… I don't remember any eclipse for today…" In the wings, the sparkling light watches. It says, "Hurry up!!" On board Vindicator 1, Admiral Kursov sits in his chair. A yeoman calls out, "We have reached the coordinates stated by mission parameters. What should we do now?" Attorneymon's face shows up on a large holographic screen. "Good… Complete the mission!!" The yeoman states, "The only thing here seems to be a forest and a small village…" Attorneymon yells, "Lay it to waste!!" Kursov stands up, his eyes lacking any gleam seen in most eyes, and calmly commands, "Commence destruction." Guns all over the surface of the mighty ship turn at the village. Massive turrets spin around. Whirring sounds fill the sky with sound. Missile bay doors open wide. "Now!!" Everything outside seems tranquil, then it turns red as the flames of ammunition, missiles, and particle powered projectiles rained from the heavens. Many digimon in the village never saw it coming as flaming doom met and obliterated them. Jijimon stood amongst the chaos, holding the right side of his chest, well, what is left of it… Slowly, in the background music, the song from KoRn "Here to Stay" comes into play. Kursov yells, "Fire the railguns!!" The massive turrets unsheathe metal casings to reveal massive engines with turbines and a particle accelerator in place of a conventional muzzle. Air and minerals are drawn into the barrels, fed through the engine, and enter the particle accelerators. Jijimon, barely living, says to Chibi Seishinmon, Ambient Feralmon, and Dukemon, whom seem roughed up, but not seriously hurt, "Go, my children… It seems the dark fate that befell the past is coming again, and it has finally claimed me… You must go on and warn others… This… Fifth Epoch is counting on you now…" The cannons fire… The rounds rip the air to shreds, igniting the sky in flames as the charged particles, surrounding a compressed white-hot steel pole, travel down upon the village at speeds near the speed of light, one striking Jijimon, splatting his insides all over the place as he is blown to chunks, then releasing extreme levels of energy, throwing the shielded three digimon clear away from the hell. Chibi Seishinmon exclaims, "Oh no… Jijimon is gone… Everyone else we know is dead or dying… Where's Ni-Kokuwamon!!" In the cell, the two suddenly stop as the ground shook. Lily said, "Wha… What's happening?!" A missile throws the two apart, then a horrible thing happens. As Lily is thrown in the air, a rail beam goes by her, an energy spike gouging the left side of her head, near her eye, and down to her ear. The rail beam continues and goes clean through Ni-Kokuwamon, the explosion throwing them both through one of the few standing walls left and landing in the center of the village. Blood runs the side of Lily's face, in front of, above, and some even over, her left eye, over her ear, down her cheek, and dripping rapidly on the ground, everything left of the eye now completely soaked in a stream of blood. She crawls over and grabs the limp Ni-Kokuwamon. She holds him in her arms and quietly cries, seeing her life flash before her eyes, with each vision, her inner voice saying no, growing louder and louder until it is outright screaming, and so is Lily. She adds, "I… I can never know happiness. This world can never know happiness… Nothing else will change it. This is destiny… This is the world…" Ni-Kokuwamon slowly fades away, and the earth around her rises. The manacles send out bolts of electricity sporadically, then explode off her arms. She snickers a bit as a malevolent glaze is in her eyes. "And if the world is sad…" The ground rumbles violently around her as a flaming glow surrounded her. "I must make the world… happy." An unimaginable explosion sets off from inside Lily, expanding rapidly. Dukemon exclaims while running, "Such dark power…" Chibi Seishinmon, grabbing them up in a barrier, states, "Attorneymon, the Eight Million Kami, you have just condemned all of existence…" The sparkling light watching, laughs at the three trying to flee, when suddenly he sees the wave. "NO!! THIS CANNOT BE!!" He is swallowed up, the glow of him fading, then he exploded. From the castle, the other lights all gasped. The wave continued to expand. A helmsman shouts, "Sir, that `thing' is going to hit us in seconds!!" A Ragnarokmon shouts, "Not even this ship could survive the awesome power of it!!" Kursov screams, "Fall back!!" It continues to expand, laying waste to all in its path. Chaos overtakes the Dominion HQ as everything goes red, alarms blast all over, and guards run frantically, seeing the wave from space. After over a minute and 240 miles in all directions, the wave stops and fades. Vindicator 1 rocks violently, and the bottom two decks are completely torn off and annihilated. Kursov demands, "What did that?" The Ragnarokmon calls out nervously, "We… We don't know yet!! It couldn't be nuclear, since Vindicator 1 is designed to absorb such an attack with ease, and it cannot be any digimon, and I mean ANY digimon in existence because no digimon could unleash that much energy at once!!" A man on the station, scanning the area, screams. Attorneymon is frenetically screaming, "What did you do? What was that?!" The man next to him says, "Sir, there is still something there at the epicenter…" It goes on a big screen where it shows a figure. The Hagurumon from earlier comes in. "I tried to warn you, dammit!!" Attorneymon growls at him. In the crater stood a figure that looked about the same as Lily, but this figure was not dressed the same and looked to be only nine or ten. Her hair was all in the style of Lily's Terra form, but all red with orange streaks and sections instead of green with yellow streaks. Her skin seemed all white, as though painted this way, with jagged orange marks on her hands going up her arms, on her forehead, and wrapping around her eyes on the outside edges, making her look kind of clown-like. Down the left side of her face and head, a black tarry blood washed down and drips down to the ground from her cheekbone. Her eyes themselves had become orange and dull, though you could not tell from her left, which had thin, deep red blood dripping over it to her cheek. Hovering above her forehead and around her head is an orange halo, energy surging out in surges of static bolts. Around her neck was a bone necklace with seven feathers attached it, each about two feet long and a different color of the rainbow, starting with red on her right side and ending with blue on her left, but the green in the center was replaced by a dull grey, and all the colors were dark variants. Under the necklace was a crimson ruffle collar (I don't know what it's called, but I mean the things most clowns wear around their necks). The top half of her outfit seemed to be a black yukata, but the sleeves were extra loose and the edges only reached just past her elbow. Strapped on her right arm seems to be a gold scaled plate twice as wide as her arm, covered in thick foot long curved crimson spikes. Around her lower torso and hips is a thick crimson sash that is tied in the cutest bow behind her. Below her sash is a black set of silk pants with legs so loose they make it look like a dress. On her feet is a set of pointy black elf booties. In her left hand sits a black cane with a pointed gold bottom tip and a golden phoenix head with ruby eyes on the top. Attorneymon freaked. "Who is this?!" He then saw the golden amulet sway around her neck, jiggling in front of her chest, just above the sash and normally out of view due to the large grey feather, and began to panic. "No…" Hagurumon sarcastically barked, "I tried to warn you, but no, you didn't care… Stew in your own damn mess now!!" Attorneymon quickly turns and blasts him, screaming at the data, "Shut up!!" Lily stands there, snickers and grins in a most scary way, points her finger at the ship like a pretend gun, then, without looking at Vindicator 1, slams her thumb down. She lets out a jovial "Bang!!" Out of nowhere, an invisible force blows a hole clean through the ship. The yeoman screams, "Complete system failure!! Internal ammo explosions everywhere!!" Kursov commands, "Get this thing into space with whatever we got left, then… abandon ship." The force continues through the sky and grazes past the station, ripping apart the lower half of a 20-mile section. Suddenly, the image generators go off-line, revealing the massive ring for all to behold. Lily seems aware of this and turns her head to look at it. Zooming up to the station, Attorneymon looks down at her with the computer screen, and turns pale as he watches her turn and look DIRECTLY at him. On the surface, laugher like that of a giddy little child comes from Lily's mouth. Attorneymon screams helplessly "No!!" as thousands of rays of energy came from all directions from all over Lily's body, all directed in his direction. Black Tailmon barks, "Raise the energy barriers!!" One by one, thousand by thousand, they go right through the barrier as though it wasn't there. Black Tailmon quickly darts out with Attorneymon as thousands of miles of station are reduced to nothing in milliseconds. Black Tailmon grabs on to the faster Attorneymon as he sprints, the shots following his every move. The face of Attorneymon is filled with fear, pure and genuine. Attorneymon shouts, "What have I created!!"

What has Lily become? Is this what the late Hagurumon feared? How will this affect the battle to come, and can the two worlds survive such power? Meanwhile, can Attorneymon actually do what he believes he can do and bring Obliviomon back to the land of the living? Can he even survive? Find out in Bloodline: Chapter 14 - "Return to Power, Our Queen!!" *Sounds of Lily's scary, childish laugher fill the air…*