Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Cursed in the Name of the Lord ❯ Cursed in the Name of the Lord ( One-Shot )

To reiterate what was in the summary, this is an AU fanfic. That means it does not follow canon, nor does it pretend to follow canon. Don't be fooled by the familiar aspects that do follow canon, because you'll only be jolted when the story deviates. If you want to think of this as "Daisuke gets his revenge for Mistakes," feel free, but it should be obvious that this story does not take place in the same universe as Mistakes.

This is also a complete and self-contained fanfic. There are no further chapters coming, and no sequels that will be posted. Begging for more will not change this.

This is my only fanfic yet with no sex in it! I'm still rating it R, though, because the lack of sex doesn't necessarily make it a nice story.

Oh, and I also don't own Digimon yet. And haven't gotten permission to mangle their characters the way I do.

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One of the last volleys thrown by the Kaizer's Ringed Tyrannomon mount winged Raidramon as the smaller Digimon leaped to the side. The ball of flame scorched the side of Daisuke's face, and he heard something crash behind him. He didn't have time to worry about that, though, because Halsemon and Digmon had the Tyrannomon boxed in, and it was up to him to shatter the Ring before the other Ringed Digimon being held off by Pegasusmon and Nefertimon broke free.

This was their best chance. They'd forced the Digimon Kaizer into a corner and cut his fortress off from the rest of the empire and his lines of supply. The Kaizer had done the only thing he could do : he'd come forth with all his might, in a last desperate attempt to smash his harassers before he was starved out and his forces were too weakened with hunger to fight. The Kaizer wasn't stupid, but he was prideful, and Daisuke had judged accurately that he would come out to lead the fight himself rather than hide like a coward in his stronghold while his empire was brought down around his ears.

He'd been a bit off in his judgement as to when the Kaizer would attack, though, and they'd been caught by surprise at midday, rather than at dawn as Daisuke had anticipated.

Slapping Raidramon lightly on the neck to gain his attention, Daisuke then pointed up toward the Ring. The explosions of energy and Digimon screaming out their intent to attack frequently made it impossible for the human to be heard, and Raidramon usually understood now what Daisuke's corner-of-the-eye gestures meant. The armored dragon nodded slightly, gathered himself while Daisuke got a good grip on the shoulder spikes, and leaped snarling into the air to cling to the bigger reptile and tear at the Ring with his fangs.

"Damn you, no!" Daisuke heard, and an instant later the crack of a whip filled his mind and world. His shoulder went numb a moment before flaring into white agony, and it was all he could do to remain in contact with his Digimon. Raidramon's spikes cut into his arms through his jacket, and his knees and thighs ached with the effort of holding on so tightly after the long battle. But it was worth it, because he felt the crack of the Ring through Raidramon's body.

"Yes! Up!" he called. His Digimon obediently scrambled higher on the Tyrannomon, the now-dazed creature ceasing its resistance and offering no further hindrance, although Raidramon's hold was precarious and his great white claws dug deeply into the other Digimon's flesh. Daisuke raised his head, trying to spot the Kaizer, and ducked down just in time to avoid a vicious whip-slash to the face. The weapon grazed the top of his head instead and, and he felt it break the band of his goggles.

"Got him!" he heard Miyako call, triumphant. Looking up again, Daisuke saw the blue-clad boy being lifted off the Tyrannomon's shoulder by his cloak, which Halsemon had grasped in his claws. The Kaizer's free hand came up and did something with the clasp on his throat, presumably trying to loose himself from the garment, but Halsemon dipped quickly to the ground. The Kaizer hit hard, and went rolling.

Tapping Raidramon again on the neck, Daisuke pointed at the Kaizer, and the dragon instantly launched himself from the Tyrannomon toward the ground. On his feet again almost immediately, the Kaizer was already pelting toward the rest of his forces when Raidramon's chest hit him hard in the back, sending the slender figure skidding to his knees. Daisuke leaped off his mount and, angry and blood-hot, yanked the offending whip out of the Kaizer's hand and twisted it quickly around the boy's throat.

"That hurt!" he shrieked, and gave the ends of the whip a vicious yank that sent a simultaneous twinge through his shoulder. "And you broke my goggles! How dare you break my goggles!"

The Kaizer just choked and clawed at Daisuke's hands with his fingertips. Disgusted, Daisuke threw his victim to the ground.

"Call off your Digimon," he commanded. "We have to take you back alive, but that doesn't mean it has to be one piece."

The Kaizer coughed on his hands and knees on the ground, and Daisuke's rage was such that he was about to send a tremendous kick into the other boy's ribs when Halsemon landed on the ground on the Kaizer's other side. Daisuke lowered his foot, and tried to look like he hadn't been just about to brutalize a fallen enemy. He was a Chosen Child, after all, the glory of the Digital World. He was the leader of this group of young warriors, and he had a reputation to maintain.

With his hands in the pockets of his flame-painted jacket, he ordered again, "Call them off. Or better yet, free them from their Rings." When the Kaizer again did nothing except pant for breath and cough, Daisuke raised his voice and said, "Come on!"

With no warning at all, the Kaizer's hand snaked out and grabbed Daisuke by the ankle, spilling the smaller boy to the ground with a deft twist. In a flash of blue and gold, the Kaizer was up again, dashing toward the knot of Ringed Digimon. They spotted him, and surged forward against the golden bands that held them, trying to save their master.

Heat again rose in Daisuke's skin, as he gestured Raidramon forward without him and then ran after as soon as he got back to his feet. Why wouldn't the damned Kaizer give up? He was beaten. He should surrender gracefully.

The Kaizer was fast, but Raidramon was a lot faster. In five leaping paces, the dragon had caught the boy, and knocked him down again. Digmon had by now joined Pegasusmon and Nefertimon at the Kaizer's still-enslaved forces, and was busily breaking Rings. In a few minutes, the fight would be over. Why didn't he just give up?

Panting now with exertion, Daisuke caught up with Raidramon and the Kaizer, and found that the Kaizer was attempting to fight off the Digimon bare-handed while on his back on the ground. The sheer tenacity was inspirational, even if it was ultimately pointless - Raidramon's armor was more than sufficient to protect him from such unarmed attack. Wiping sweat from his forehead, Daisuke walked up to the pair, and uncoiled the whip that he still carried in his hand.

With Raidramon's help in pinning the Kaizer down, Daisuke got the Kaizer's wrists tied behind his back with the whip and hauled the boy to his feet. Covered with dust from the barren plain on which the battle had taken place, his clothes torn and blood trickling down his forehead from somewhere in his hair, bound now and held by his enemy ... still the Kaizer fought.

"Let me go," whispered the Kaizer suddenly, as Daisuke was forced to pull the other boy close and hold him tightly to control him. "Please, let me go. Don't take me back."

"Yeah, right," said Daisuke, shoving the Kaizer roughly to his knees and standing behind him. "After I went to all this trouble to gain your charming company?"

"Hey, Daisuke," said Miyako, and Daisuke glanced around Raidramon to see her approach on foot with Halsemon walking beside her. "Guess what?"

"What?" asked Daisuke, cheerfully. He was cheerful deliberately because the look on her face was murderous.

"That bastard broke the Gate."

The implications of this didn't sink in immediately. Daisuke gave the Kaizer a cuff in the back of the head to warn him to stay on his knees, and moved a little around Raidramon to check it out. Sure enough, about half a kilometer away, he could see the smoking crater where the Tyrannomon's last blast had finally hit ground, and understood.

Rounding on the Kaizer, Daisuke said, infuriated, "You did that on purpose!"

The Kaizer's defiant glare was all the answer he needed. Daisuke couldn't help it this time, and backhanded the Kaizer with one clenched fist. He would have done it again, and harder this time as a punch, except that someone grabbed his hand from behind.

"Daisuke, what are you doing?" It was Takeru, damn him.

"He destroyed the Gate!" screamed Daisuke, throwing the Kaizer to the ground again. He tore his hand free of Takeru's shocked grasp and said, "Do you know what this means? Do you have any idea how far it is to the next Gate?"

"The Gate's gone?" asked Takeru in disbelief. Daisuke glared at the Kaizer, resisting the urge to kick him in the back for this. That last blast hadn't been aimed at him at all, that was why it missed after coming so close.

"Why'd you do that?" he demanded. When the Kaizer remained silent, Daisuke did kick him, although it was in the thigh and not the ribs or back like he wanted. Less chance of bone breakage that way. "Answer me! Why'd you destroy the Gate?"

"Don't take me back," said the Kaizer softly, so that only Daisuke could hear.

Iori estimated that the next Gate was a couple hours away as the Digimon flew, or maybe as much as two days as Digmon and Raidramon could run. Had the Chosen been alone, they would have set out immediately and been back home and aggravated by the delay before the weekend was over. The Kaizer complicated things.

Nobody trusted him enough to carry him on their Digimon's back; even bound as he was, he was tricky and dangerous, and there was no telling what he might do. They argued back and forth, standing in a circle around the sullen, kneeling Kaizer, for almost an hour, each of them coming up with reasons why they didn't care to give the Kaizer a lift. It took Daisuke this long to find the wreckage of his goggles in the dirt and walk back to where the other children were.

He came within earshot just in time to hear Takeru say, "We could get one of the Digimon to carry him. Like Halsemon or Nefertimon could carry him in their claws."

"Convenient that Pegasusmon has hooves," said Hikari acidly.

"What's the problem?" asked Daisuke. He was pretty annoyed at finding his goggles scratched and dirty with the strap broken, and was ready to blame anybody for anything.

"He's the problem," said Miyako, pointing at the object of contention where he knelt in the dust. "How are we going to get him back to the Gate?"

"Someone carry him?" suggested Daisuke, shrugging. It was really hot out, and he was anxious to get moving.

"Oh yeah? How about you carry him?"

"I don't want to get that close to him," said Daisuke. Then it occurred to him that this was probably the problem. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh," said Hikari.

"I say we make him walk," said Miyako.

"What? Two days to the Gate?" Daisuke spit on the lenses of his goggles and began to polish the dust off onto the hem of his shirt. "No way, that would slow us down too much."

"Well, what do you suggest then?"

They tried carrying the Kaizer in Nefertimon's claws, but the white Armor Digimon was too awkward when flying to do it, and dropped the captive after only a few meters. They tried again, but Nefertimon's heart wasn't in it, and she expressed a wish to separate the Kaizer from his spine. Nefertimon was the sort of Digimon who might actually do it, too, so that ended the experiment with her.

Next it was Halsemon's turn to try carrying him, and while Halsemon was more dexterous with his foreclaws, Miyako was less inclined to the spirit of the endeavor. She complained on Halsemon's behalf that the unnatural pose was uncomfortable for him, and that he could never keep this up for two days. Halsemon agreed about five kilometers into the journey, and whether this was due to genuine suffering on his part or just a wish to please his partner was unclear. By this time the group had reached the first line of trees in the forest whose heart concealed the nearest Gate, and the evening was beginning to advance.

Daisuke called a halt not far into the forest, disgusted by Miyako's complaints and the Kaizer's continuing silence. Why had he destroyed the Gate anyway? This all could have been over by now. Why was he so adamant about not wanting to go back? Did he enjoy his barbarous ways that much? But when they stopped for the evening and began to camp, the Kaizer still said nothing.

In fact, all of the fight seemed to have gone out of him, but the other Chosen didn't trust this. Daisuke found himself sitting through yet another argument after Iori got the fire going and some of the Digimon had moved into the forest to find food.

"I don't like it," said Miyako, as she fed sticks into the fire. "He's up to something."

"That's a given," said Takeru.

"If he doesn't murder us in our sleep, he'll make noise and keep us awake all night," said Miyako.

"Oh, Miyako," said Hikari, exasperated. Her mood had mellowed somewhat during the journey, and she seemed almost happy again. "He's not going to kill us, look at him!"

Indeed, the Kaizer looked rather pathetic to be a murderer, rumpled and bedraggled with dried blood on his forehead. Daisuke's shoulder throbbed, though, a constant reminder that this slight young boy his own age could be deadly. The whip hadn't gone through his jacket, but he was pretty sure he had a nice nasty bruise under his clothes.

"Probably not," said Daisuke, "but let's not forget about Dev Null. We have to keep an eye on him. He probably will try to keep us up all night if he can, anything to slow us down."

"How about this," said Takeru after a short silence. "We all sleep here near the fire. He sleeps out in the woods, tied to a tree."

"Yeah," said Miyako. "And then he gets loose during the night and comes and murders all of us."

"So we'll watch him," said Daisuke. He liked this idea. "We'll take turns. Three of us will lose some sleep, but we'll all get some, and everybody's paranoia will be happy. How's that?"

He didn't find out how that was, though, because Digmon and Pegasusmon returned then with some fruit they'd found. The next little while involved a lot of passing around fruit and figuring out how to get through the thick rinds. Nobody thought to offer any to the Kaizer, who lay bound just outside the circle of light.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea," said Iori finally. This sounded somewhat ridiculous from him, since his lips were stained with dark red juice, but Daisuke was used to Iori's habitual gravity. Iori was very quiet, but when he cared about something, he was passionate about it. "I don't think any one person should be alone with him."

"Why not?" asked Takeru.

"He's ..." Iori broke off and glared a bit at the Kaizer before saying, "I just don't think it's a good idea."

"Well, too bad," said Daisuke. "Unless you have a better plan."

Iori didn't. So, after dinner, as darkness began to fall, Daisuke hauled the stumbling Kaizer out further into the forest, having delegated himself to take first watch.

The Kaizer did not resist when Daisuke untied the whip, nor did he fight back when Daisuke tugged the ends of a rope onto wrists already bruised and swollen from the stiff leather. Daisuke had originally intended the ropes to be used to haul the Kaizer crossways across Raidramon's back, but that was when he'd thought the Gate would be the same one through which they'd entered the digital world and nearby. There was no way he was going to carry the Kaizer like that for two days, but they would work just fine for keeping the Kaizer in one place, and were far more suited to the task than the whip. A tree branch grew higher on the trunk just above where Daisuke placed the Kaizer, and Daisuke tossed the rope over this in order to bind the boy's wrists above his head. The Kaizer's gloves came off now, because it was necessary to ensure that the captive was made fast.

The second rope went around the base of the tree and kept the Kaizer's feet down, just in case he got any ideas about becoming athletic in his escape attempts, or about kicking Daisuke. Daisuke didn't fancy another deep bruise to keep the one on his shoulder company.

When he stepped back to make sure he wasn't missing anything, the Kaizer looked up and tested the ropes around his wrists for just a moment before leveling his gaze back at Daisuke.

"Let me go," he whispered, but the words were not a plea as they'd been earlier in the day.

"Why?" asked Daisuke hotly. "Why should I? And why did you destroy the Gate anyway? We could have had you back to the Holy Beasts hours ago and this would all be over. Why do you insist on dragging it out?"

"If you take me back, they'll kill me."

Daisuke leaned back against a tree, sticking his hands in his pockets. The whip lay on the ground between himself and the helpless Kaizer, coiled like a snake in the leaf litter. "They just want to know why you've been doing this, and stop you from doing it any more. They're not going to kill you."

"Ahh," said the Kaizer, and his eyes closed. "You believe in them."

"You're damned right I do! They gave me a hell of a lot. What have you ever given me other than headaches and nightmares?"

"Less than nothing, I suppose." The Kaizer sighed. "Nevermind. You're a lost cause."

"No. I want to know. What the hell possessed you to start trying to conquer the digital world anyway? Don't the Holy Beasts do a good enough job for you?" What the hell possessed you to do what you did at Dev Null? The last question, however, caught in his throat.

"The Holy Beasts serve themselves, and no-one else."

"Well, they're entitled to." Daisuke wondered how this conversation had gotten around to the Holy Beasts, or why. "They protect the digital world and keep things running. They watch out for everyone. What's wrong with that? They're using their power for something constructive, unlike some people I could name."

"You enjoy being a Chosen Child," whispered the Kaizer. "What part of it do you like? Is it the part where you're the hero of the digital world, or the part where you're at the Holy Beasts' beck and call? Is the reward worth the price?"

"There is no price, and I'm not in this for rewards," said Daisuke.

"There is always a price." The Kaizer went quiet then, and Daisuke did not continue to press his questions. He'd been put far out of his way by this boy, and his attempts to find out why weren't being answered. Kill him, indeed! What kind of fool did this self-styled Kaizer take him for?

After maybe half an hour, Daisuke tired of standing and slid down the tree to first squat, and then sit in the clutter of the forest floor. He kept a wary eye on the Kaizer, but glanced around a great deal as well, trying to find something to occupy his attention and keep himself awake. He'd designated two and a half hours for himself to watch the Kaizer, and that two and a half hours was going by very slowly.

"All right," he said finally. "Yeah, I like being Chosen. Is there something wrong with that?"

The Kaizer didn't answer immediately, and Daisuke wondered if maybe he'd gone to sleep. But then Kaizer cleared his throat and said, "I suppose it's normal to expect you to enjoy having something to do that feels significant, and being praised and lauded for doing it."

"You don't approve though. What's your problem with it?"

The Kaizer shrugged, and the motion was somewhat stiff. Probably from having his hands tied above his head, Daisuke mused. The Kaizer was very slightly-built, for all his wiry strength, and he was badly bruised and cut up from the battle and everything that had happened since. He looked ... frail. And tired, Daisuke suddenly realized.

"I'm not willing to sell my soul, if that's what you're asking."

"I haven't sold mine!" said Daisuke, angry again. "I know what I'm doing!"

"Do you? When you're sent here and there, to build up this and tear down that, do you really know why you're doing any of it? Or do your masters not trust you enough to tell you?"

Daisuke folded his arms, scowling. At least the Kaizer was keeping him awake by pissing him off. "Some Digimon are just evil. We have to do something about them to keep the peace."

"Mmmm. Keep thinking that." The Kaizer sounded amused by this, and Daisuke had to fight down the urge to walk over and punch him again. The heat of battle-lust had left him, though, and violence that was acceptable while the sun was beating down and bright pain was lancing through him was not acceptable in the cool darkness when his muscles ached and his blood was sluggish. The urge seemed uncivilized now.

What right did this boy have to judge him like this? Judge the Holy Beasts? What did he know anyway? Daisuke scowled out into the darkness, wishing he were home snug in his bed instead of out here in the woods with someone he hated. His parents would probably start missing him tomorrow night, if they weren't home by then. Given the spectacular failure of today to make good time, they probably wouldn't be. There would probably be a couple more nights here, with his prisoner sitting in judgement over him.

Daisuke struggled to his feet, and the Kaizer slowly opened his eyes. Although Daisuke's goggles had become a casualty and he had to carry them in his pocket, the Kaizer's glasses had survived all the battering mostly unhurt, and they still shielded the boy's eyes. This struck Daisuke as monumentally unfair, and he yanked the glasses off his captive's face.

In the darkness, the Kaizer's eyes were almost black. His face was very white by contrast, and he stared coolly back at Daisuke with ... what? Daisuke saw no hatred there, no humiliation that he'd been caught. The emotion in the Kaizer's eyes was inscrutable.

Daisuke stepped back with his prize, raking his gaze down the slender form bound to the tree in front of him, clad in tattered blue and framed by the graceful cloak. It wasn't fair, any of it. It wasn't fair that the Kaizer should maintain such dignity in his position.

"I hate you," said Daisuke.

"Mmm-hmmm," agreed the Kaizer, closing his eyes again.

Daisuke was wakened the next morning to an ungentle, but not unkind, kick between his shoulderblades. "Get up," said a voice that he didn't recognize as belonging to any of his family, and he rolled over to find out what exactly was going on. Or rather, he tried to roll over; the attempt made him whimper with agony as every muscle in his body made it known to him that they would much rather not move just now, thank-you-very-much.

"Come on, Daisuke, get up," said another voice, and by now Daisuke's head was clear enough to place it as Hikari's. He remembered then - they were still in the digital world, camped on the ground in the cool summer-morning air, and it was a damned good thing it wasn't winter or this wasn't the tundra because they didn't have so much as a single blanket between the lot of them. Although the first action of each muscle screamed like fire, further motion seemed to lubricate whatever had gone rusty inside his limbs, and slowly Daisuke managed to get up.

He remembered something else then. "How's our delightful guest doing?"

"Iori's watching him," said Hikari, and Daisuke reflexively caught the round of fruit that she tossed him. "Miyako's at the stream right now rinsing off, but you can go once she's back."

"How are the Digimon?" he asked as he peeled the rind off.

"Doing good." Takeru gestured a little toward the dog-pile of small monsters attacking the rest of the leftover fruit. "They don't seem very bad off at all. I feel like crap, though."

"Yeah, me too." Daisuke ate the fruit, wishing it was something else and wanting a bath very badly. He remembered now why he hated staying overnight in the digital world - sleeping in his clothes made him wake up with the most disgustingly dirty feeling. Miyako still wasn't back yet by the time he finished, so he stood up, dusted himself off, put on his shoes, and went to find Iori.

"Well, well, good morning!" he said cheerfully, as he neared the place. Iori glanced over, looking murderous, but the Kaizer did not move. He was still bound to the tree, and was sort of hanging by his wrists now, and his eyes were closed. During the night, bruises had darkened on his cheek and chin where Daisuke had struck him, and the rest of his skin was stark white.

Iori, who had been standing close to the Kaizer peering up at him, stepped back as Daisuke approached, giving Daisuke room to roughly grab the Kaizer by the chin and force his head up. "No more napping now," said Daisuke. "It's time to get moving again soon."

The Kaizer made a soft, throaty sound of pain, and then murmured, "I see."

"Just think, in a couple of days, this will all be over with."

"Yeah."

Miyako called his name then, and Daisuke grinned and let the Kaizer go. He'd be ecstatic when this was finished.

Fifteen minutes later, with cold water damp in his hair and feeling almost human again, Daisuke told Iori that he could take his turn at the stream and began to organize the march. First the Digimon were Digivolved, the smoldering ashes of the campfire extinguished, and the Kaizer retrieved. When Daisuke unbound him, the other boy just fell to his hands and knees on the ground and panted, as if starved for oxygen. Forcing his arms behind his back again obviously pained the Kaizer, and Daisuke felt mildly guilty about that. It hadn't occurred to him that being held immobile for hours like that would stiffen the Kaizer's joints so much.

The ache in his own joints and muscles, though, especially his shoulder where the whip had gotten him, made his twinges of guilt very easy to shove aside.

Daisuke tied off the rope around the Kaizer's wrists and left the long end dangling, with the intent to use this as a leash of sorts. After picking the dew-damp whip off the ground, he said, "Time to go." The Kaizer came quietly, and didn't look at him.

By the time Iori returned from his rinse in the stream, everyone else was mounted and ready to go. Daisuke had knotted the other end of the Kaizer's tether to one of Raidramon's shoulder spikes and had looped the whip around another. He gave the Kaizer a little kick in the shoulder once Iori was seated up on Digmon and said, "That way."

The Kaizer began to walk.

At first, the march was quiet but for the susurration of leaves beneath their footsteps and the unhurried breathing of the Digimon. Daisuke found a pace with Raidramon that was neither too fast for the Kaizer to maintain nor too slow to chafe his nerves (overmuch), and the other children soon matched it. As soon as the Kaizer learned to keep ahead of and to one side of Raidramon to avoid being stepped upon, the group's rate was steady and not too bad.

Daisuke leaned back a little, letting himself sway in time with Raidramon's long strides as he fiddled with his goggles in an attempt to repair the strap. The rip in the elastic fabric that held them around his head was total and ragged, but had fortunately occurred at the long part of strap rather than the short bit that held the lenses together in the middle. He finally managed to knot the strap tightly without too much loss of length and put the goggles back on. They felt strange on his head, tighter than before. Not so familiar. He was annoyed.

Once this was done, his attention went back out into the world, and his irritation followed. The Digimon soon found a long, diagonal cut through the forest, where high-tension power lines crossed from places unknown to other places unknown, and began following it. It was taking them slightly out of their way, Daisuke judged after a glance at his compass, but it was faster than picking their way through the trees. He sent Takeru up into the sky at one point, hoping that there was another, similar cut that would take them more in the right direction, but Pegasusmon couldn't spot one.

The Kaizer remained stubbornly silent, walking where he was bid to walk and not complaining about it. Daisuke thoughtfully contemplated the Kaizer's blue-clad back as the kilometers were slowly measured out one step at a time. He really doesn't want to go back. Does he really believe that the Holy Beasts will kill him?

A sudden wave of pity filled him. It was so sad that this boy, who couldn't be much older than himself, was so deluded.

Daisuke broke the silence. "Hey, Raidramon?"

"Yo," came the Digimon's immediate reply. Daisuke noted with approval that the Kaizer's back stiffened at the word. He sensed more than saw the other children straightening up, brought back from wherever their own thoughts had been taking them.

"How many Digimon died at Dev Null?"

"Four-hundred and twenty-eight," said Raidramon cheerily. He knew this game. All the Digimon did. The Chosen played it often.

"And how did most of those Digimon die?"

"They killed each other."

Daisuke took off one glove and began to nonchalantly examine his fingernails. "Why did they kill each other, buddy?"

"Because the Kaizer locked them, two by two, into small enclosures and starved and tortured them until they went insane and attacked each other."

"And when one in a cage was dead," interjected Nefertimon, "he would move them around and pair them back up again so that it would keep happening."

"What happened when there were only twenty-two Digimon left alive?"

"The Kaizer Ringed them and sent them to fight against us," said Raidramon. "They were the most vicious and mad of the lot."

"And when we finally freed those Digimon from their Rings?"

"They turned on us and themselves and each other in their madness, from what the Kaizer had done to them."

"Why do we hate the Digimon Kaizer then?" asked Daisuke finally.

"Hell if I know," answered Raidramon brightly.

All of Daisuke's pity was gone. Secure again in his anger, he rode on, with the Kaizer forced to walk ahead of him all the way.

As the sky began to turn late-afternoon-gold and the burble of a stream grew louder, Daisuke called a halt. As soon as the order was given, the Kaizer dropped to his knees where he stood, the dark spikes of his hair like blades. Miyako made a point of shoving him over on "accident" as she moved from Halsemon toward where she intended to light tonight's campfire, and Daisuke frowned a little upon seeing it.

"We could get in another couple of hours," said Takeru, pulling Pegasusmon alongside Raidramon.

"Yeah, but this is the first water we've seen since this morning. I'd rather not camp dry, would you?" In truth, Daisuke's rear end was numb from sitting on Raidramon's back, he was thirsty, and had to take a piss, all of which were splendid reasons to stop for at least a little while. And if they were going to stop for a little while this late in the day, they may as well camp.

Takeru shrugged and moved off. A moment later, Pegasusmon flashed and devolved, and Daisuke slid down Raidramon's side. Hitting the ground was painful.

"I'm going to go get a drink," he called to the world at large, slapping Raidramon fondly on the neck. In a lower tone, he asked, "Watch the Kaizer for me, would you buddy?"

"Sure," said Raidramon.

The Kaizer made a strange sound then, and it took a moment for Daisuke to figure out that he was clearing his throat. "Take me with you," the boy whispered.

"Why?" asked Daisuke, frowning at the idea, but as soon as he asked the question, he wondered at how stupid he could be. Grabbing the Kaizer by the collar, Daisuke hauled him up a little so he could get a good look at him.

"Dammit," he muttered, for the Kaizer's lips were dry and cracked, and his eyes dull. "Why didn't you say something before now? Come on." Untying the end of the rope from Raidramon's spike, Daisuke hauled the Kaizer toward the stream. The captive's steps were uneven and his gait clumsy, but when they reached the water he knelt by the side of the stream and dipped down to drink with a grace that belied the fact that his wrists were still bound behind him. Daisuke lifted water to his lips by cupping his hand, and watched the Kaizer drink for a long time.

I forgot that he's human too.

When the Kaizer finally straightened and sat up, some of the clouds had left his eyes, and a few drops of water clung to the bruises on his chin. They stared at each other, and Daisuke's flare of hatred, brought about by reminding himself of the Kaizer's crimes, flickered momentarily. It seemed impossible that someone so thin, so defeated, could have engineered such atrocities.

"What's your name?" asked the Kaizer softly.

Daisuke saw no reason not to answer. "Daisuke. Motomiya Daisuke." He paused a moment, and then dared to strengthen this illusion of humanity by asking, "What's yours?"

The Kaizer looked away. "Ichijouji Ken."

So the beast had a name, and it was vaguely familiar to Daisuke. He chewed his lip as he summoned the memory forth. "Aren't you that ..."

"Yes," said the Kaizer quickly.

"Your parents are looking for you."

"I'm not surprised."

"Don't you think it's kind of cruel on them? They don't have any idea what happened to you or where you went."

"I know," said the Kaizer, staring at the water. "It's not my choice."

"Right." The thin veil of humanity that had briefly covered the Kaizer was whisked away by Daisuke's anger. "You could at least tell them that you're safe and not laying dead in a gutter somewhere."

The Kaizer looked like he wanted to say something about that, but subsided when the sounds of someone approaching broke between them. Daisuke was on his feet and attempting to drag the Kaizer up to something resembling a standing position as well when Takeru became visible through the trees.

"There you are," he said. "Halsemon went downstream a bit and found some fish. He wants Raidramon to come help him catch some."

"Sure," said Daisuke, and he dragged the Kaizer back to camp so the others could watch him. "Give me a minute to take a leak first."

The fish turned out to be either carp or something that resembled carp, and although the smell of them while cooking was delicious, the flesh itself tasted vaguely muddy. By the time this disappointing meal was prepared and eaten, the sky had gone full dark and the stars were beginning the come out.

Daisuke had always loved the stars. He lay on his back, looking up at the sky between the power lines while Miyako and Hikari softly talked on the other side of the fire. The skies over Tokyo were too bright and hazy for him to be able to spot any but the most brilliant stars and planets from home, but he had memorized the constellations from books and tried to pick them out of the digital night. The arrangements were foreign, however; the digital world was not a true copy of the real world. He'd known this from before, of course, but realizing it anew was crushing.

This was not his world.

Exhaustion overtook him before he got any farther than that.

He was wakened long before dawn by Hikari shaking his shoulder. "Daisuke," she whispered.

"Hmm," he grunted, wanting more sleep.

"Wake up, it's your turn to watch the Kaizer again."

"What?" He said this rather more loudly than he'd intended, and Hikari shushed him.

"Don't wake up everyone. Come on, get up, I'm tired and I want to go to sleep."

Daisuke lay there another few seconds, hating the Kaizer, hating Hikari, and hating the world for making him have to open his eyes. Once he finally got himself moving, though, and stretched a little and cleared the mist out of his mind, it didn't seem so bad anymore.

He had dreamed about Dev Null, and the horrors that they'd found there, and he wanted some answers out of the Kaizer.

Hikari directed him toward the spot where Takeru and Iori had bound the Kaizer, and then curled up next to the low-glowing fire to sleep. Daisuke crept through the forest until he found the captive.

His hands had been tied over his head like before, but the other two boys had crossed his wrists and then thrown the rope around the trunk and over a branch on the opposite side from where the Kaizer rested against the tree. As he had the morning before, the boy sagged against his bonds, but at Daisuke's approach, the dark eyes opened.

"Ahh," murmured the Kaizer roughly. "You again."

"Yeah, me again," said Daisuke. The Kaizer shifted a little, his hands closing into fists for a moment before relaxing, and standing up straight. Daisuke put his hands in his pockets and looked out into the forest. Why'd you do it? he wanted to ask. The stench of blood and madness from Dev Null, which had come back to him in his dreams, was fading from his nostrils but he knew it would haunt him again in the future. How could anyone do something like that, even to creatures they hated?

Looking at the Kaizer, though, he couldn't bring himself to ask and invite more evasive non-answers. The damnable boy still looked almost elegant, with the rips in his cloak and all the dirt on his knees concealed by darkness, standing like a pale blue and white willow against the tree. Once Daisuke had glanced that way, he found the patterns of the Kaizer's clothes, the splashes of white against the inky blue, and the edging of gold, far more interesting than the dull and monotonous forest.

"Are you a killer, Motomiya?" asked the Kaizer softly.

"Of course not!" said Daisuke immediately. He didn't even think of the answer; it came as if attached to the question.

"I didn't think so." The Kaizer tilted his head a little, and continued, "You want to be a hero. You're only ruthless when your brain is turned off."

Daisuke felt himself flush at the oblique reminder of what he'd done during the fight. "I am a hero," he said. The Kaizer's bruises, however, were accusations. To silence them, Daisuke said, "And we already know that you're a killer."

"Do we now." It was not a question.

"Are you denying it?" The idea that he might was ludicrous.

The Kaizer shrugged a little ... stiffly, painfully. "No." His gaze went downward, yielding ground to Daisuke's reproach, yet there was no shame in it. The downcast look was thoughtful more than anything.

The Kaizer's non-repentance should have been outrageous. There he stood, all but dripping with blood, and he was not apologizing, not begging forgiveness. In Daisuke's mind, he should have been begging forgiveness. The Kaizer was the defeated one here, after all. He should be attempting to excuse his actions in any way he could. Instead, he quietly did as he was told, didn't attempt escape as far as Daisuke had seen, and asked for nothing.

This very quietness seemed off to Daisuke. He wondered if the Kaizer were insane.

"You can touch me if you want to, you know," whispered the Kaizer.

"... What?"

The Kaizer's gaze had lifted to him again, deceptively gentle. Daisuke felt his skin flush with blood. "You keep looking at me," said the taller boy. "I felt you watching me for hours while we were walking, and now you're staring. What is it? Do you want to make sure I'm real? Or do you just think I'm pretty?"

Daisuke was fairly certain that neither thought had gone through his mind (at least not in those terms), but the sheer audacity of this statement stole the words from his throat. The Kaizer gazed calmly at him for a few seconds before adding, "You could if you wanted to, you know. I don't know why you're holding back. I can't do anything to you. I can't stop you. If I told your friends, they wouldn't believe me anyway, would they?"

"Of course not!" said Daisuke. None of them were prepared to believe anything the Kaizer said.

"Then what's stopping you?"

Daisuke could have replied any number of ways. He could have denied watching the Kaizer for any reason other than wanting to ensure that he didn't escape. He could have questioned the Kaizer's observational skills. He could have ignored the question altogether, or curtly asked for the identity of the weeds that the Kaizer must be smoking.

Instead he heard the implicit challenge in the words and soft tone, and reacted by wondering the same thing. The Kaizer was secure and helpless, and there was no way for him to retaliate, and yet he remained so cool and collected. Fearless.

The Kaizer's poise was a challenge in itself.

"Nothing is stopping me," he said, and stepped boldly forward. At first, he reached up to grab the Kaizer roughly by the chin, but a slight flinch stopped his hand before making contact with the bruise. Upon pause and reflection, he took off his glove, and when the contact was made, it was light and painless.

He didn't question whether or not he should be doing this. He only questioned how.

The Kaizer stared into Daisuke's eyes, and the emotion they held now was easily named as dare. Daisuke was equal to the dare, and so his fingertips traced the childish curve of the Kaizer's cheek, passed over the plane of jaw and chin. It was a violation of a completely different caliber from his earlier violence, the quick strike that had left its mark in the Kaizer's flesh. This touch lingered.

The Kaizer said nothing, and the dare remained. With increasing confidence, Daisuke's fingertips moved down the Kaizer's throat to where the high, layered collars of his cloak and jumpsuit thwarted him. He glanced down, away from the indigo-black eyes in order to unclasp the garments; before the lack of light could frustrate him, the Kaizer murmured soft instructions on how to undo them. Two hands were needed, and Daisuke's second yellow glove dropped to the ground with the first.

A whisper of a sigh escaped the bound boy as Daisuke's fingertips resumed their exploration, drifting over throat and collarbone and flat pectoral muscle. The Kaizer's skin was very pale, and glowed in the thready light around Daisuke's darker fingers. The softness of the Kaizer's skin beneath the dried sweat and oil was surprising - somehow, Daisuke had expected different.

This moment belonged to him, and in this moment the Kaizer also belonged to him, tethered and vulnerable as he was to whatever Daisuke might want to do. The regularity of the Kaizer's breaths was reassuring and steady ... but when Daisuke rested his hand flat on the Kaizer's chest, he was startled to feel the pounding heartbeat that raced beneath the breastbone.

The weirdness of this situation, that he would be touching his sworn enemy so ... intimately ... suddenly registered with Daisuke, and he drew back his hands. The Kaizer's eyes closed a little with what Daisuke could have sworn was disappointment ... except that that didn't make any sense. There was silence for a moment, and Daisuke's gaze drifted along the clean lines of the Kaizer's torso, displayed now within his open garment in the same way a flower's heart was displayed by the folds of the petals.

Why had he done that? Why did he want to keep doing it? What did this mean? Daisuke felt betrayed, although he didn't really understand why, and he realized abruptly that the prickly feeling in his groin meant that he'd become hard. He really didn't understand that at all.

The silence was broken with a quiet whisper. "Iori wants to kill me."

"What?" The statement had a hard time finding purchase in Daisuke's reeling mind, and he looked back up toward the Kaizer's bruised face. The other boy's expression had not changed.

"Iori wants to kill me. He told me so yesterday morning." While Daisuke's stunned brain groped for a response, the Kaizer continued in low tones, "He won't, though, so you don't have to worry about finding me accidentally dead. The Holy Beasts promised him that they'd make me suffer, and they'd let him watch."

"How dare you!" hissed Daisuke between his teeth. Enraged, he leaned closer to the Kaizer, who looked back at him, unruffled. Daisuke's fury did nothing to dispel the desire to touch the other boy. "How dare you say that! Iori isn't like you, you animal!"

"That's what your little comrade thinks of me too," said the Kaizer calmly. "How did he phrase it? Mmm ... he said I should be put down."

Daisuke couldn't stand any more. He wanted ... what did he want? He acted without thinking, thrusting his hands between the Kaizer's slender body and the sheath of his clothing, his fingernails digging deeply into the flesh of the Kaizer's hips as he pulled the other boy closer to him. To his utter shock, he found himself with his lips pressed hard against his prisoner's, and the Kaizer's head was forced back against the tree while his body was crushed against Daisuke's. A small sound, like a strangled gasp, came from the boy he was mauling, and Daisuke instinctively dug his fingernails in harder to punish him for the noise.

He wanted to master this infuriating child, make him start behaving the way a defeated foe should. He wanted to humiliate him, hurt him, see him grovel and beg for forgiveness, for mercy.

And that was when he threw himself backwards, away from the Kaizer, and turned sharply around to stare off into the forest and wipe his mouth with his sleeve.

No. I'm better than him. I am a Chosen Child, I don't do things like that!

Furious shame burned deep within his belly, and his erection twitched. Its existence was mortifying.

He heard soft sounds behind him, of cloth scraping against bark as his dark-haired captive shifted upright again, recovering from Daisuke's assault. After a moment, the Kaizer whispered, "Why did you stop?"

"Shut up," said Daisuke. The words came out clipped, hard.

"I know why," said the Kaizer, and Daisuke's fists clenched at the sound of his voice. "You're not a killer."

"What does that have to do with it?" ground out Daisuke.

"Everything."

Daisuke whirled to face his enemy again. "Why did you do it? Tell me that! Give me one good reason why you deserve any human consideration."

The Kaizer, looking far more rumpled and wounded than he had since his defeat, twisted his wrists a little within their bonds. "I don't have any reasons to give you."

"Well say something then! Are you nuts? Are you just psychotic, is that why you enslave and kill Digimon?"

"That's what you'll believe no matter what I say." The Kaizer closed his eyes, and Daisuke, in unbelievable fury and being thus dismissed took a step forward and nailed him across the cheek again. The Kaizer gave a little cry and fell sideways, hanging from the rope around his wrists.

"Just answer me," he said.

"Why?" asked the Kaizer thickly, and then he spent a moment licking a trickle of blood out of the corner of his mouth. "You believe in the Holy Beasts. You won't believe anything that I tell you. Why should I bother?"

"I'm listening! I want to know. Did you know that I had nightmares for months after Dev Null? What gave you the right?"

The Kaizer eyed him for a long thirty seconds, licking blood off his lip. Dark circles like extra bruises beneath his eyes became visible in the slowly improving light, standing out against his cheeks, and Daisuke had a sudden, uncomfortable idea that made him wonder if the Kaizer had slept at all since they'd caught him. He'd been upright practically the whole time ... it couldn't be very comfortable to be tied to a tree after all. Could a person sleep like that?

When the Kaizer closed his eyes again, Daisuke didn't become angry. He was ashamed of himself, ashamed of everything he'd done since he'd started this haphazard interrogation. He should have kept his hands off the Kaizer.

"I want to go home," said the Kaizer softly.

"I just bet you do. And avoid having to face the ones you've hurt."

The Kaizer tiredly shook his head. "I've wanted to go home for months. I haven't told my parents where I am because I can't. I can't open the Gates anymore. The digital world won't let me go."

Daisuke didn't understand immediately. "What are you saying?"

"I'm stuck here. The digital world won't let me go. My Digivice won't open the Gates anymore, and nothing I've tried has changed that. I can't go home."

"You have a Digivice?" asked Daisuke, dumbstruck. But that meant ... and what did he mean, couldn't open the Gates? "What are you talking about?"

The Kaizer spoke listlessly, with his eyes closed. "The digital world Chose me the same as it Chose you. The Holy Beasts wanted me to do the same thing you're doing now, be their little errand boy, their thug. I refused. I told them I bowed to no-one. And that's when my Digivice stopped working in all the important ways and I haven't been able to go home since."

Daisuke paused. Was this true? Even possible? Then he frowned. "I don't believe you. You'd say anything to get me to turn you loose."

The Kaizer gave a minimal shrug. "I told you that you wouldn't believe me."

"Why should I? You'd say anything!"

The Kaizer only said, "I suppose there's no reason, except that it's the truth." He licked his lip again, and then said, "They'll kill me when you take me back. I'm too dangerous to them, I won't follow their orders like a good little soldier. I hate them, and they know it. They won't send me home because that's what I want, so they'll kill me instead."

"Yeah, yeah," said Daisuke. "Whatever. None of this gives you a right to do what you did!"

"Doesn't it?" One of the dark eyes opened again, and some animation entered the Kaizer's voice. "You asked me what I'd ever given you except headaches and nightmares. What have the Digimon ever given me except orders to obey? What has the digital world ever done for me except hold me prisoner?" He shifted then, pulling on his wrists and twisting them. "I'd kill them all if I could. Maybe if I kill enough of them, they'll cut their losses and let me go home."

This was ludicrous. Daisuke stepped back, scowling. "You're a monster. You torture and kill living things because you're angry?"

"Isn't that what you're doing to me?" asked the Kaizer, closing his eyes once more. "I'm no more the monster than you."

"I'm nothing like you!" But although Daisuke's fingers itched to deck the Kaizer again for this impertinence ... he refrained. He would not prove the boy right.

"Maybe," said the Kaizer, with a tired little smile and a whimsical lilt, "maybe you'll kill me with your death march to the Gate. Then the Holy Beasts won't get a chance. Wouldn't that be nice?"

"Nobody's going to kill you! What the hell is wrong with you?"

But the Kaizer didn't reply, just hung from his bonds, and in the slowly creeping light of dawn Daisuke could see just how bad the boy looked, covered in cuts and bruises and dirt and blood. An uneven line of reddish crescent-moons were just visible on his hip around the edge of his open jumpsuit, and Daisuke flushed a little. He reached forward and began to zip up and re-fasten the Kaizer's clothes.

As he finished with the cloak, he said grudgingly, "Sorry about before."

"Which before?" asked the Kaizer.

"When I ... you know." He bit his lip.

"That's all right. I wanted it."

Daisuke's hands stopped their motions. "What? Why?"

Silence stretched out into a long moment, during which Daisuke noticed a faint, raspy wheeze in the Kaizer's even breaths. Then he said, "You're the only one of them that doesn't hate me."

"I do hate you."

"Not the way they do. You only hit me when I've said something to irritate you." The Kaizer smiled a little.

Daisuke shot him a dark glare, but the Kaizer's eyes were still closed. "Just shut up, all right?"

"All right."

When the morning brightened further and Takeru came pushing through the undergrowth to tell Daisuke that breakfast was ready, he found the two of them, Chosen Child and Digimon Kaizer, studiously ignoring each other.

Once the children broke camp, they set out at an oblique angle toward their goal, following the stream now instead of the power line cut. It meandered a little out of their way, as the cut had, but it was reassuring to be within easy earshot of cheerfully singing water at all times. The children detoured back to the stream several times during the day; they didn't have any food other than a little bit of sticky, cold, muddy-tasting fish, and so they drank the bright water to forget how hungry and exhausted they were.

Daisuke watched the Kaizer closely throughout the day, and thought about offering him a little food, but didn't. That wouldn't go over very well with the other children, who seemed to begrudge the Kaizer even an occasional sip of water, much less some fish that none of them wanted anyway. He spent a lot of time chewing a raw spot into the inside of his lip, and wondering how righteous he could consider himself under these circumstances.

The Kaizer seemed all right at first, and walked without complaint through the morning at the same pace as the day before. He looked terrible, but looks didn't count anyway. As the morning became afternoon, however, he began to slow down, his steps becoming more shuffling, and he ceased to watch where he was going. When Daisuke called a pause to drink a couple hours after midday, the Kaizer went down next to the stream and didn't even bother trying to sit up to drink at all. He just lay on the moss with his eyes closed until everyone was ready to go again, and then he had to be yanked up to his feet by his "leash."

"Quit acting like that," said Daisuke, irritation masking his worry when the Kaizer stumbled into Raidramon's shoulder. Raidramon snorted in annoyance, and Daisuke nudged the Kaizer in the shoulder with his toe until the other boy was heavily swaying on his own two feet again. When commanded to walk, he did ... exactly nine paces before he went down on his knees with his head bowed so that loose spikes of hair hung around his face.

"What the ..." said Takeru.

"What's he doing now?" asked Miyako, as she turned Halsemon around and rode back. Daisuke slid down off Raidramon's back and tried to pull the Kaizer up again. It was like trying to lift a sack of rice.

"Just let me sleep," murmured the Kaizer dreamily. "Or kill me, I don't care."

"Let's get moving again," said Miyako, with disgust in her voice.

"I don't know if he can go any further," said Daisuke. As soon as he let go of the Kaizer's shoulders, the other boy crumpled again.

"Of course he can. He's being a big baby on purpose to keep us from getting to the Gate and out of here. I want this over with so I can have a decent dinner, and I'm sure we can make it before midnight. I bet Taichi will get us some take-out once he hears about this disaster."

"I'm not so sure," said Hikari, and the same doubts that were chewing away at Daisuke were in her voice. "He looks pretty tired."

Daisuke thought that the Kaizer looked a lot worse than "pretty tired," but he was glad he wasn't the only one who believed that the Kaizer wasn't faking. "Let's stop here for the night. We'll get to the Gate tomorrow."

"What!?" Miyako jumped off Halsemon's back as well and stalked toward Daisuke, kicking the Kaizer in the leg as she passed him, as if by mistake. "We're not stopping!"

"Yes we are," said Daisuke. Any indecision he might have had about this vanished in the face of Miyako's protest. She had no right to question him like this, particularly in front of a prisoner.

"No way! We could be done with this tonight!"

"I'm not going to do that at the expense of killing someone. Or would you prefer to be the one to explain to the Holy Beasts why we didn't bring the Kaizer back alive as instructed?"

Miyako pressed her lips together defiantly, but then Iori dropped from Digmon's back and said, "Daisuke's right. He doesn't look very good, and we don't want to kill him."

The Kaizer said nothing, and merely lay with his head pressed to the ground and his eyes closed. Miyako frowned venomously at him while she said, "It's only been two days! Anybody can walk for two days without dying."

"I don't think he's been sleeping at all," said Daisuke. "We've been keeping him on his feet for days, doesn't that seem just a little bit cruel to any of you?"

He glanced from child to child, and even Miyako looked away. However, she did mutter toward the bushes, "When did you join his side anyway?"

"I didn't. But I want to be able to tell myself that I didn't sink to the Kaizer's level, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah." Miyako turned toward Halsemon and said belligerently, "We're going to go find something to eat, if that's all right with His Royal Highness, the Digimon Kaizer."

"Just shut up, Miyako," said Daisuke wearily. He turned to his own Digimon with the intent of untying the Kaizer's rope from Raidramon's shoulder spike, and was shocked to find that his hand was shaking. He didn't know why.

After Miyako and Halsemon had stalked off, Takeru said, "I'm not sure that was a good idea. She looked really mad."

"Well, I don't care how mad she is. She's not in charge here."

"That's not what I meant. It's her turn to watch the Kaizer tonight. First watch. You really want to leave her alone with him?"

Daisuke paused. This was true. "Damn."

"I'll take her watch," said Hikari.

"No, that's all right. I'm the one who pissed her off, it's not fair to make you lose sleep over it." Daisuke's bones ached just thinking about it; he hadn't gotten a full night's sleep since this whole thing started, and sleeping on the ground wasn't exactly his favorite activity in the first place. He couldn't wait to get back home and into his own bed. Even getting to Skip Phase and the sterile, cold room kept for him there by the Holy Beasts sounded good. In a way, he could sympathize with Miyako because he was at least as fed up with this adventure as she was.

The prospect of another few hours alone with the Kaizer, though, both thrilled and frightened him.

"Are you sure?" asked Hikari.

He looked down at the Kaizer, who had not opened his eyes at all. "Yeah, I'm sure."

Miyako's outburst of temper produced good results, as she and Halsemon were successful in finding more of the round, hard-shelled fruits that they had dined upon the first night. These were far more likeable than the carp-like fish, and all the children and Digimon ate a great deal. She had mellowed somewhat by the time she returned as well, and apologized to Daisuke for yelling at him. She did not apologize for wanting to continue on, though, and the glare she leveled at the Kaizer was murderous.

After dinner had been eaten and the Digimon were laying in a devolved heap, napping, Takeru hauled the Kaizer back up to his feet. Daisuke looked a question at him, and Takeru said, "No use taking chances." Daisuke nodded, and stood up, brushing himself off.

Miyako opened her mouth, but Daisuke said, "No. You're not watching him tonight. I will."

"You're kidding," she said. Her jaw dropped a little, and when Daisuke didn't agree that he was, in fact, only kidding, she said, "You don't trust me!?"

"I trust you completely to keep him from getting away," said Daisuke evenly.

"Daisuke!" she said, the shock and betrayal clear in her eyes. Daisuke shrugged a little, grabbed a fruit and dropped it into his pocket, and followed after Takeru.

"I wonder if we'll have to break up after this," said Takeru softly as they moved through the forest. He and Daisuke guided the stumbling Kaizer around trees and over fallen branches; the boy seemed almost out of it and barely reacted to his surroundings, swaying as if drunk as he walked.

"I don't know," said Daisuke. "I kind of doubt it. There aren't a lot of other Chosen they could put us with. Can you imagine trying to fight with someone who doesn't even speak Japanese?"

"The Digimon could always translate," said Takeru breezily.

"Oh sure, I want to wait around for my Digimon to translate what's happening around me. That's efficient."

"Well, I can't see Miyako forgiving you for this one anytime soon."

"It was her own fault! She shouldn't be questioning me, and she shouldn't be acting like she wouldn't mind beating the Kaizer up a bit." He wouldn't mention doing something very similar himself, since he had no intentions of doing it again.

"I'm not arguing," said Takeru. "I'm just saying."

Daisuke had to concede that, and so he changed the subject. "This is far enough, don't you think?"

Takeru looked around and nodded. "Yeah. How's this tree here?"

The tree in question would have been fine, had Daisuke been of a mind to bind the Kaizer upright again as they had for the last two nights. He shook his head. "No, I'd rather let him sit or kneel or something. I meant it, you know. It's cruel to make him stand all night."

Takeru stared at him. "Daisuke, this is the Digimon Kaizer we're talking about here. We can't take a chance on him getting away, there's no telling what he might do. I mean, I agree it's got to be pretty rough on him, but come on."

Frowning, Daisuke scanned around for a better prospect. He hadn't expected Takeru to want to torture the Kaizer further. "Don't you start too."

"I'm not. Oh, hell, fine. But let's at least make sure he can't stand up, okay?"

They found a tree with a sufficiently low branch, and made the Kaizer kneel down with his back to it. Going down all too readily, the Kaizer winced a little and moaned when his wrists were unbound and then forced over his head again. He did not, however, fight them. Daisuke also gave in to Takeru's insistence that the Kaizer's ankles be bound around the trunk, so that his knees were spread and he couldn't rise up to possibly loosen the rope around his wrists. Through all of this, the Kaizer did not even open his eyes.

Daisuke had gotten his wish. The Kaizer's poise was gone.

Then Takeru slapped Daisuke on the shoulder (which made Daisuke wince, since it was the one the Kaizer had whipped), and left.

The sun must have been near the horizon now, because the forest was cast in a shadowy gloom that seemed to increase by the moment. Daisuke sat down opposite the Kaizer and just looked at him for a little while. He remembered what it had felt like to touch him the night before, and he was confused and not a little embarrassed when he felt his erection return. Bringing his knees up and together and wrapping his arms around his legs, Daisuke cradled and concealed it and went on remembering.

It just wasn't fair.

And speaking of not fair ... Daisuke pulled the fruit out of his pocket and began to peel the rind off. There was a trick to it, he'd discovered tonight, a quick twist of the wrist that would split the rind and make it easier to take off in large chunks. As he stripped off bits of hard rind and threw them into the shrubs, the Kaizer's bruised eyes opened.

"I'm so tired," he said, and he sounded it.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't really think things through before. Here." Daisuke took off his gloves and broke the fruit along its sections, like a large orange, separating one from the rest. He held this out in offering toward his captive.

The Kaizer regarded him mistily for a moment, but then his gaze seemed to sharpen and focus. Daisuke, reassured by the return of that cold intelligence, scooted forward and held the fruit closer so that the Kaizer could bend his head slightly and take it into his teeth. There were no seeds in the dark red pulp, which had struck Daisuke as very odd at first, but now he was simply grateful that he didn't have to seed the thing too.

He fed most of the rest to the Kaizer, but stopped suddenly about three-quarters of the way through when his finger got a little too close to the Kaizer's lips and he felt something warm and soft brush against it. Glancing up at the Kaizer's eyes, he found that the other boy was staring at him.

It was all quite deliberate. Daisuke knew it was deliberate the instant he froze with his fingertip just barely in contact with the Kaizer's tongue. He even had a vague suspicion of why for an instant, but that all went away when the Kaizer reached out a little further, leaned a little nearer. Still watching Daisuke closely, the Kaizer took the tips of Daisuke's middle and ring fingers into his mouth, which was as far as he could lean without freeing himself. Then the lids slid down over those indigo eyes, and Daisuke shuddered a little with the feeling of the Kaizer's tongue caressing his fingertips. The uneaten portion of the fruit dropped into the leaves.

His erection, which had gone away during the mundane task of feeding the Kaizer, returned quite suddenly and in full force. Daisuke bit his lower lip at the chewed spot, unable to move for a moment, paralyzed with shock and desire and indecision. Should he withdraw? Should he reach forward and give the Kaizer more to lick? Was this even something that ought to be happening in the first place? His fingers twitched a little, and he felt the tips of the Kaizer's teeth.

Just like that, he'd snatched his hand back and hidden it in his lap, his skin prickling over his neck and arms, and an unfamiliar strength of desire gathering in his groin. The Kaizer slowly looked back up at him; there was no shame visible there.

"Why do you keep pulling back?" whispered the Kaizer.

"Why do you keep doing these things to me?" countered Daisuke in a low, matching whisper.

There was no answer for several seconds, and Daisuke wondered if the Kaizer would answer. Then the boy said, "Would you like to kiss me?"

Daisuke trembled. He understood now, what the Kaizer was doing. He was offering himself, although why was unfathomable. Had the Kaizer maintained the separation between them, maintained their respective roles as proud prisoner-of-war and soldier, Daisuke would not be feeling this. He knew that. But the Kaizer had deliberately bridged the gap, and Daisuke had no idea of the purpose.

"I sort of ... already did," said Daisuke. "Didn't I?"

The Kaizer shook his head a little, seeming far more alert now than when Daisuke and Takeru had bound him. "You were trying to hurt me. That's not what kissing is."

Daisuke was unsure about the logic of this statement, but he didn't press it. Instead he asked, "I know what you're about. You want me to, don't you?"

The Kaizer blinked languorously. "Yes."

"Why?"

"I've never been kissed before," he said, and Daisuke heard a soul-deep weariness in his voice. "And no, what you did yesterday doesn't count. I've never been kissed, and I never will be, because I'm going to die in Skip Phase and never see another human again. Unless you kiss me here, then at least I'll have that."

"Why me?"

"I told you already. You're the only one of them who doesn't hate me. Well," amended the Kaizer thoughtfully, "maybe that one girl doesn't hate me. The one with the brown hair, not the one with the purple hair."

"Hikari," supplied Daisuke automatically, before it occurred to him that maybe it wasn't a good idea to give out their names to this cut-throat child. He'd given out his own, but that was different because it was his to give.

"Yes. But I don't want to kiss a girl."

Daisuke didn't know why not, but it seemed unimportant really. He wasn't sure he was up to kissing a girl himself. One final question came. "Why should I do anything for you?"

"No reason at all," said the Kaizer. "Except that you can."

That had been good enough for Daisuke yesterday, and that made it easier to accept as sufficient reason today. And perhaps that was the whole point. He rose up onto his knees and crept forward until he was on a level with the Kaizer and close enough to feel his breath. "All right," said Daisuke, perhaps unnecessarily. "What do I do?"

"Lean forward a little."

So Daisuke did, and at the last second he screwed his eyes shut; he didn't know why, but he could feel his heart pounding in his throat and in his wounded shoulder, and he felt a little bit afraid. He waited.

Not knowing what to expect, Daisuke imagined that the Kaizer might kiss him on the cheek, or forehead, the way his mother used to before he'd become a young warrior and began to brush off her attempts at affection. After all, he'd crushed his lips against the Kaizer's yesterday, yet that wasn't really kissing, apparently. So when he felt the Kaizer's lips gently contact his, Daisuke was more than a little surprised. He did not, however, pull away.

With slow, tentative movements, the Kaizer grazed his lips over Daisuke's, and gradually leaned further forward. It felt ... very strange, as the Kaizer's lips were still dry and somewhat chapped from inadequate water, yet the sensation was so electrifying. Daisuke didn't really know what he ought to be doing, so he remained very still while the Kaizer gently explored the contours of his lips with his own; when the Kaizer's lips parted slightly, Daisuke did not react, although his erection certainly did. That was very frustrating, and not a little discomfiting. He was glad that the Kaizer was not in a position to notice.

After what felt like a very long time, the Kaizer pulled back a bit, and Daisuke sat back on his heels. They just looked at each other for several seconds.

"You were right," murmured Daisuke at last. "That's not anything like what I did."

The Kaizer said, "Thank you."

The words jolted Daisuke back to himself. "It's nothing," he said, shrugging casually. He folded himself back up where he'd been sitting before, his knees raised concealingly.

"How old are you, Motomiya Daisuke?"

"Why?" But the Kaizer just shrugged a little, so at last Daisuke said, "I'm eleven and a half."

"You don't act eleven and a half." The Kaizer's gaze was fixed on him again, and there was something else clouding his expression now. Daisuke frowned, thinking this to be an insult, but then the Kaizer said, "You act a lot older than that."

"So what?"

"So I do it too. Why aren't we back home, tucked in bed asleep right now?"

"Because you destroyed the Gate," said Daisuke mildly.

"If I hadn't, I'd already be dead, or maybe wishing I was dead. But that's not what I meant. Why are we here at all, doing these things? When I first came to the digital world, I saw a tree and climbed up into it, because I'd never climbed a tree before and I wanted to know what it was like."

"Yeah, me too," said Daisuke, smiling with fondness at the memory. "I first came through with Takeru, and the world was so big and empty. We played in a field for a few hours, pretending to be rival pirate raiders and hunting each other."

"And now you hunt for real," said the Kaizer softly. "No time for games anymore."

Daisuke just shrugged. It was true, but he didn't have to admit that to his enemy.

But the Kaizer wasn't finished yet. "What right does the digital world have to shorten our childhoods like this? A year ago, the most important things on my mind were getting good marks on my tests and wondering what my parents were going to get me on my birthday."

Daisuke frowned a little. "I don't think growing up is a bad thing."

"I've grown up too soon, and so have you."

Scoffing, Daisuke said, "Well, just go home then, if you don't like it."

"I can't. I told you that yesterday. The Gates won't open for me."

"Well, I don't believe you. It's the Digivice that opens them, and if you actually have one, which I also doubt, and it still works, it should be able to open the Gates."

"I have one. It's in my pocket."

Frowning more, Daisuke came forward again to pat the Kaizer down. He found the Digivice right where the Kaizer said it was, clipped to a clever loop within the pocket to keep it from falling out. Finding it at all was something of a shock to Daisuke; pulling it out and squinting at it in the dim light shocked him further.

"This thing's black!"

"I already knew that."

Daisuke sat back on his heels again, looking up at the Kaizer with mixed horror and awe. "I've never seen a black one before. They're always white." Then he scowled again. "Is this a real Digivice?"

"Yes. It used to be white, but the color changed when it stopped working on the Digital Gates." The Kaizer sounded very tired, and he closed his eyes.

Weighing the Digivice in his hand, Daisuke said, "Where's your Digimon partner then?"

"I'm not telling you that," said the Kaizer with his eyes closed.

"Why not?"

"Because I sent him away and I want you to leave him alone. If you don't know where he is, you can't go harass him very well."

"I wouldn't do that anyway!"

One eye cracked open. "Not even if the Holy Beasts told you to?"

Daisuke paused, and then elected not to answer that. Instead he tucked the unholy Digivice back into the Kaizer's pocket, taking care to clip it the way it was before, and then sat back to fold his arms around his knees.

None of this was the way he'd expected it to be. His victory over the Kaizer no longer seemed like winning.

"Motomiya?"

He glanced up at the pale shape of the Kaizer again and said, "What?"

The other boy took a moment in continuing. "I'm afraid," he whispered, in a very small voice.

The quiet, fragile quality of the tone broke Daisuke's heart, and he said in an unthinking rush, "They're not going to kill you. I promise. They're really pretty nice, and they care about all of us. If you're actually Chosen, they'll care about you too."

"I've had enough of their version of caring," said the Kaizer desolately. "I have a scar on my leg because of their caring. I don't need any more."

"Um," said Daisuke, because he hadn't expected that. Floundering, he said, "Whatever happened to you and all, I'm sure it wasn't intentional. And I swear to you that I won't let anything happen to you in Skip Phase. Okay? I swear on ... on whatever you want. Nothing bad will happen to you."

"Just let me go. Please. That's the only thing you can do."

Daisuke wanted to, sort of. Over the past three nights, he'd watched the proud, inhuman Kaizer be ground down into this wretched boy with the lowered head and ache in his voice, and he knew that he was responsible for it. He'd done this, however unintentionally. With his thoughtless cruelty, he'd done it. The guilt that chewed at him over this would be alleviated if he let the Kaizer go, he knew this.

He wouldn't, though. He already knew that, too. The commands of the Holy Beasts were clear, and Daisuke was a good and obedient boy.

Rather than simply say no, though, Daisuke asked, "Why should I? After what you did?"

"I already told you why I hate them."

"Okay, and I can dig that if it's true, and I'm not saying that I believe you. But I think you believe it, and if I thought something like that I'd probably be pretty mad too. But come on. You have to have limits. You can't do like what you did at Dev Null."

The Kaizer's eyes opened now, and fixed on Daisuke with a dark glitter. "You don't have any idea what you're talking about."

"I was there, I know. I saw what you did."

"You didn't know what you were seeing." The Kaizer's eyes closed again, but Daisuke wasn't having that this time. He reached over and tapped the boy on one curved cheek.

"No, none of that now. I want to hear your explanation." Not excuse, Daisuke noted with distant interest. When had that changed?

The dark eyes did not open again, but the Kaizer sighed heavily and said, "Why do you think that place is called Dev Null?"

"I don't know ... it's just a name."

"Motomiya, nothing in the digital world has just a name. It's all meaningful. Do you even know what 'dev null' means?"

Daisuke shrugged and looked around, preparing to prevaricate to conceal his ignorance. "I, um ... "

"I thought so. It's where you put things on a certain type of computer to get rid of them."

"Well then, that's a perfectly fitting name, isn't it?"

"It was called that well before I ever knew about it, and it wasn't named that because of some kind of prophecy that some day I'd find it. Dev Null is where the Holy Beasts have been sending unwanted Digimon to die for as long as the digital world has existed."

Daisuke was on his feet in an instant, and glaring down at the top of the Kaizer's head. "You take that back!"

"Why? It's true."

"It is not! You're lying, just like I bet you've lied about everything else. You're a sick, sick, horrible person!"

"Think back to when you were sent there. How did the Holy Beasts tell you where you were going? Did they say, 'We want you to go to a place in the desert,' or did they say, 'There's this place in the desert called Dev Null and we want you to go there'?"

"Shut up!" said Daisuke, because he didn't really remember how the task had been phrased at all, so it could have been either.

"The Holy Beasts didn't name it anyway. None of the Digimon have that power. The digital world itself named the place according to what the Holy Beasts were doing there, and it did that a long time ago. Four hundred-odd Digimon haven't died at Dev Null. There have been thousands."

Without thinking, Daisuke drew back to kick the Kaizer for saying such evil lies, but somehow the boy sensed what he was going to do and flinched back a little and trembled, cringing as far as his bonds would let him. Seeing this pulled Daisuke back to his senses, and he turned around instead, putting his back to the Kaizer. "You may as well stop lying about it. We were there. We saw your Rings on the Digimon we fought."

There was silence at first - He's composing his lies, thought Daisuke bitterly - and after a few moments, the Kaizer resumed speaking.

"I didn't say I wasn't there. I was. I saw what the Holy Beasts had done, and it made me queasy. But it also gave me an opportunity, because they couldn't possibly let me capture their extermination camp. What would they do with their unwanted Digimon if I did? So after Dev Null was secured, I gave the surviving Digimon their only chance by making them defend it."

"If you're so righteous, you could have just let them go."

A soft chuckle, punctuated by a cough, came from behind Daisuke. "I didn't say I was righteous. I hate them all. But really, I did those Digimon a favor because if I'd let them go, the Holy Beasts would have just caught them again and put them back at Dev Null, or somewhere similar. So they had to fight."

"You Ringed them," said Daisuke stiffly, unwilling to believe any of this. "You forced them to attack us."

"Yes. Some of them were too insane, some were just too cowardly and wanted nothing more than to get away. I couldn't trust any of them, especially not the ones who agreed with me, knowing who I was. So of course I Ringed them. I'd do it again, too. If you think my objective here is to win the affections of the Digimon, you're badly mistaken. I just want to go home, and I don't care how many of them I have to go through to do it. It was just good luck that time, that what I wanted and what they needed were the same."

"And just how was this an opportunity for you?"

The Kaizer's voice was still weary, but some animation re-entered it as he said, "I knew they would attack. I strongly suspected that they would send some Chosen to do it, and it would have to be soon after I took the camp. I considered my chances for capturing one of you to be excellent."

That made Daisuke turn to face the Kaizer again, and he found the other boy smirking crookedly at nothing. "Why would you do that?" he whispered, horrified by the possibility of one of his group being taken by this insane child.

"You all have working Digivices," said the Kaizer. "I think I could trick the digital world into letting me out, if I could force one of you to open the Gate."

"How would you do that?" Daisuke knew that he, for one, would never have agreed to aid the Kaizer in anything had he been captured, and he knew that none of the others would have either. He also rather thought that, had their roles been reversed, the Kaizer would not have explained his delusions out as completely as he had under these circumstances.

It seemed that the Kaizer was also aware of these things, because he said, "In any way I could."

It was a long time before Daisuke could say, "You're horrid."

"I'm desperate."

Composing himself again, Daisuke said, "Well, we'll be at Skip Phase tomorrow I think, and then you'll see how stupid you've been all this time. The Holy Beasts ..."

"Will kill me."

"No they won't," said Daisuke stubbornly. "They're not like you, Ichijouji Ken."

"You're right. They're far worse than me, because I do things with the purpose of returning home. They hold me here for no reason other than spite."

"That's not true!" Daisuke was becoming exasperated now, but there was no violence in it this time. "How can I make you see that?"

"You can't."

"I'm going to try." Daisuke, with his back still to the Kaizer, clenched his jaw. He felt full of Purpose. "Really, it's not bad, being Chosen. The Digimon look up to us. The Holy Beasts are kind and wise, like they know the whole world."

"I've met them. I know what they're like, better than you apparently."

"Shut up. You'll see, once we get you there. Nothing bad is going to happen to you. I promised, didn't I? Even though you're a cruel, heartless monster, I won't let anything happen to you."

Something sparked in the Kaizer's voice then. "Would you kiss me again, if I asked?"

"... You're weird too."

The extra-long evening had revitalized the children and their Digimon, and the next morning, everyone was ready to set out again.

Everyone except the Kaizer, of course.

Even beyond his understandable reluctance to make haste toward the Gate, the dark-haired boy didn't seem at all rested, and he swayed on his feet beside Raidramon with his eyes closed. Daisuke watched him with a mild sort of concern that only increased after the group got underway. He saw how the Kaizer stumbled and tripped instead of walking steadily, nearly running into things and unable to keep to a straight course. It seemed impossible that the other children could not notice this, but if they did, they were all successfully ignoring it.

About two hours into the morning, when Miyako happened to be in the lead at that moment and was out of sight scouting ahead, the Kaizer tripped one last time and went down into the leaves of the forest floor. Tossing his head like a restive horse, Raidramon growled and came to a halt, forced to stop rather than drag the captive behind him across the ground. The other Digimon glanced to see what the blue dragon was growling about, and so the entire company turned and returned to where the Kaizer lay, unmoving on the ground but for a fierce trembling.

"What's the matter?" asked Hikari, in a tone that said that she knew very well what the matter was.

"Come on," said Daisuke, kicking at the Kaizer, although his feet came nowhere near reaching the ground when he was mounted. Raidramon obliged him by shifting one massive claw to nudge the boy on the ground. "We're not there yet."

The Kaizer did not respond, but his shaking increased, and Daisuke realized with a shock that the child was struggling not to cry. Daisuke felt like he'd been stabbed in the gut; was it really that bad? Because he couldn't imagine anything that would make him want to weep in front of anybody, much less a pack of enemies. So how could the Kaizer, whose arrogance outstripped Daisuke's by a factor of ten, be behaving this way?

Icy certainty dripped down through Daisuke's bowels. He's suffering, and I did this to him.

Takeru and Hikari seemed at a loss, their winged Digimon fluttering with indecision. They glanced from the Kaizer to Daisuke and back again, and he knew that they expected him to either explain or eliminate this baffling turn of events. Iori remained silent, but looked thoughtful where he crouched on Digmon's shoulder, expressionlessly watching the Kaizer's humiliation.

A crashing of leaves announced Miyako's return. "Hey, I found ... Where did you all go?" Halsemon bulled his way through a stand of briars, and it was with surprise that his rider asked, "Why are we stopped again?"

"I'm not sure he can go any further," said Hikari, and she sounded worried. There was no need to clarify who he was.

"What? Why not? Of course he can." No anger colored Miyako's tone; all of that seemed to have been expended the night before. She slid off Halsemon's back and stalked toward the fallen Kaizer. "Hey, get up. Stop acting like this, we all know you're faking."

The Kaizer only curled up on his side, bound and defenseless, and shaking violently. Because Daisuke was on the left side of him, he could see the effort the Kaizer was making not to break down into tears, and he chewed the raw spot on his lip some more. Miyako, seeing nothing but another delay, attempted to pull the Kaizer back on his feet and had only limited success because the boy was just too heavy for her to lift without aid. And nobody was aiding her. They all just stared, disbelieving, and the Kaizer himself seemed unable to get his legs to support him.

As the Kaizer fell to the ground again, Miyako said, "We have to get moving. Where's his whip? What did you do with it?" She went up on her tiptoes to search Raidramon's back with her eyes.

"Why?" asked Daisuke suspiciously, and shifted his knee to conceal it where it lay coiled around another spike.

"I'm not going to hit him hard, just enough to get him moving again."

"No," said Daisuke flatly.

"Oh, come on!" said Miyako, frustration rising now. "He'll keep us here until school starts again if we don't get moving. Now, obviously he thinks that he can get away with this, but he can't, and I'm going to make him move."

A bubble of fury burst within Daisuke, and for the very first time it was directed at a member of his team. "We're not going to make it at all if it means whipping him all the way there! I expected better of you, Miyako. I really did."

She flushed at this oblique insult, but did not back down. "Then how are we going to get there? Tell me that!"

"Simple," said Daisuke, kicking Raidramon lightly to make him sidle closer to the Kaizer while he untied the rope from the spike. "I'm going to do what we ought to have started out doing. Pick him up and get him up here."

"You're going to carry him?" asked Iori, dubious.

"Yes."

So it was that they set out again a few minutes later, making far better time this way, with the Kaizer sitting sideways in front of Daisuke on Raidramon's back. Daisuke put an arm around his waist to keep him from falling, because his wrists were still tied behind his back, while he leaned exhausted against the Chosen's shoulder.

Ignoring the looks that he got from the others, particularly Miyako and Takeru, Daisuke nudged Raidramon into the lead, and soon found the scant path that Miyako had discovered and had been coming back to show to them. Iori did some fiddling with his D-terminal and said that the path ran straight toward the Gate, so they began to follow it.

Perhaps fifteen minutes after they began a rapid, half-loping pace down the trail, Daisuke became aware of two things almost simultaneously. The first was that the Kaizer had fallen asleep leaning against him, although he seemed to rouse slightly whenever Raidramon's gait changed for any reason. The second was that Raidramon was shaking his head and snorting a lot, flicking his blue ears backward toward the two children and lashing his tail.

"What's the matter?" asked Daisuke after observing this for a bit. He kept his voice low, and not to keep the Kaizer from overhearing; there was little chance of that happening. Rather, he preferred not to have the others listen in. If there was a problem with his Digimon, there was no reason for the other Chosen to know.

Raidramon did not answer immediately, but quickened his steps a little until the three of them were well ahead of the others. Takeru, who was second in line behind Daisuke, did not speed Pegasusmon to catch up.

Once Raidramon judged the distance sufficient, he slowed to his former jogging lope and said, "I don't approve."

"Of what specifically?"

"Of carrying him. Remember when Nefertimon said she'd like to rip his spine out? I kind of feel like that right now."

Daisuke felt the Kaizer stiffen a little, and knew that the other boy was awake. He tightened his grip on the captive's waist. "We've got to take him back alive, buddy."

"I know. But I don't have to like it, and I don't know why I have to carry him. He makes my skin crawl, just knowing that he's touching me."

Daisuke frowned. "You're being stupid now. He's not touching you anyway, he's sitting on your armor."

"But it's the Digimon Kaizer sitting on my armor, and I don't like him."

"I'm not his best friend either, but it has to be done. Stop complaining now. The faster we get to the Gate, the faster this will all be over with."

"Right," said the Digimon, and no more was said for a long time. After awhile, Daisuke knew that the Kaizer was asleep again, peaceful against his shoulder.

The Digital Gate sat in the middle of a perfectly round circle of automobiles, which had been tilted up on their hoods and then sunk a little way into the ground, so that they resembled a druid's circle. Like all such Gates, it best resembled an old-ish CRT, and what powered it was a mystery to Daisuke.

There was no time to ponder that, though, because he could feel that the end of this farce was in sight, and he was anxious to reach it. Once they were all in Skip Phase, everything would be all right. Miyako would stop acting like a harpy. Daisuke would forgive her, and she would forgive him for being an autocratic bastard, and they'd be best of friends again. He'd finally get a proper warm bath (and how he wanted one!) And the Kaizer, of course, would see that he'd been mistaken about the Holy Beasts all along, and would come to his senses.

This thought cheered up Daisuke quite a bit.

The Kaizer roused somewhat as Raidramon slowed to move between two of the up-ended cars. There wasn't really a clearing, per se, but no trees grew within the circle, and the branches overhead weren't knotted together quite as tightly as elsewhere in the forest. So when the Kaizer woke, it was to a light somewhat brighter than what they'd been travelling by for the past two days, and he blinked against it as Daisuke pushed him upright.

"Down you go," said Daisuke, easing him down the Digimon's shoulder. The other children came up behind them, stretching and looking alert for the first time in days, now that the long journey was almost finished.

"How do you do this?" asked the Kaizer softly. "I never used the Gates in such a way."

If the other Chosen looked startled to hear the Kaizer speak, Daisuke paid no attention. "Simple," he said. "We pass through into our world, reprogram the Gate on the other end to target a different Gate here, and then pass through again. We'll be on the other side of the digital world before you know it."

"Where do you come out?"

"In our school in Odaiba. Everyone's gone right now for summer break, so nobody will notice."

The Kaizer made no further comment and asked no further questions, and presently all the Digimon were de-evolved and assembled in front of the faintly glowing CRT screen. Daisuke maneuvered the Kaizer in front of it as well, and then pulled out his Digivice. So did all the other Chosen.

"Digital Gate open!"

There was always disorientation when passing through a Gate. The Gate itself was heady with power : winds that blew right through a person, speed that seemed limitless, a headlong sense of direction. It never failed that Daisuke wanted to spread his arms like wings into the not-wind and laugh, but he never really had time. The Gate sucked them in and spat them back out in the space of an endless heartbeat, with a rush like nothing else in Daisuke's scant experience.

Re-entering a world, be it the digital world or the real one, was a jolt like diving into cold water on a hot day, and Daisuke invariably tripped. This had embarrassed him quite a bit at first, until he saw that everyone else did it too, and now it was simply a part of the routine of his commute to and from Skip Phase.

The dizziness that always came upon exiting, however, was not aided at all this time by a sense that something was missing. Untangling himself from an annoyed Hikari, he glanced around and got a bad shock when he didn't see the Kaizer's dark-blue-and-gold anywhere nearby. In fact, the feeling when he failed to spot the color was akin to panic.

That was when a figure dragged itself out of the heap of children and went running toward the door. Daisuke got a glimpse of dove-grey clothing ... and ink-blue hair ... just before the unidentified person crashed past one of the chairs and ran out the computer room door.

Some part of Daisuke's brain was wired like a predator, and something inside him that was quite separate from his conscious mind equated running away with prey. Daisuke was also up on his feet and out the door in under two seconds, calling, "Come on! Catch him!" He was barely conscious of the clatter behind him as children and Digimon struggled to respond.

He wasted no breath for speaking after that, simply running full-tilt toward the sound of sneakers on tile dashing down the length of the building toward the main stairs. Once he turned out into the main hallway, he caught sight of the fleeing figure, and was certain now that it was the Kaizer after all. His clothes were different, and the spikes were gone out of his hair, but Daisuke was certain anyway. There was no-one else it could be, after all.

Reaching the main staircase, the Kaizer threw himself down it so fast that it seemed impossible to Daisuke that he didn't trip and break his neck. Daisuke didn't dare take the stairs at such a speed, and he lost ground in the process. He could hear the others behind him for a moment, and then he was off again, racing the length of the building in the other direction toward the brilliant sunlight lancing in through the main doors.

If the Kaizer got outside, into the safety of the company of other people, they would lose him.

But the Kaizer hadn't eaten properly in days, was probably dehydrated as well, and although he'd gotten in a long nap while riding in front of Daisuke it hadn't been exceptionally restful. Three-quarters of the way to the doors, Daisuke caught up to him, and tackled him to the ground.

"No!" screamed the Kaizer, and he clawed at the floor, trying to reach the doors. "Let me go! Let me go! Damn you to hell!" Daisuke had to hold tightly to the thin hips to keep him from wriggling free, and then the other children were there as well and Takeru and Miyako and Iori were helping to hold and control the prisoner. This wasn't easy, because he'd obviously been educated in at least one martial art and he kept twisting unexpectedly free, and he didn't mind hurting them at all. Miyako gave a strangled little cry at one point when the Kaizer found a pressure point in her wrist to make her let go of him, and Daisuke never managed to figure out what exactly it was that hit him in the lip and sent sudden black pain shooting through his face.

Hikari, who couldn't fight at all, went to the doors in an effort to block them, and perhaps she even made herself useful by making sure nobody had noticed the commotion. Daisuke didn't have time to ask. The Digimon, however, joined in trying to hold the Kaizer, and they all leaped on to hold and hinder him.

Had the Kaizer been rested and well, he probably would have made it to the doors in spite of everything. As it was, he continued to tire and weaken, and finally the sheer weight of the children and their Digimon bore him to the ground and pinned him there. Daisuke sent Poromon back to the computer room for the rope, and once it was retrieved they bound the dark-haired boy's arms behind his back again.

Takeru and Miyako got the Kaizer by the arms while Daisuke picked himself off the floor and discovered that he'd split his lip and knocked a tooth loose. His shoulder throbbed as well, where the bruise left by the Kaizer's whip had been knocked around, and he ached all over.

"Damn," he muttered, licking the blood away from his lip as fast as it could drip out. "Come on." This was louder, to be heard over the Kaizer's shouts, and directed at the other Chosen. They all followed, dragging the shrieking, kicking Kaizer with them. The Digimon bounced happily along in their youngest forms all around them in a cloud.

"Let me go!" the Kaizer was demanding, although there was a distinct note of hysteria in the words. "No, let me go, let me go home! Don't force me back, please don't, let me go!"

Disturbed, Daisuke nevertheless lead the way back up to the computer room, where he took over from Miyako in restraining the Kaizer so that she could redirect the Gate. The Kaizer looked a lot different here, he noted. The spikes were all gone out of his hair, and it hung loosely around his face, and the clothes he was wearing resembled a school uniform more than anything else. Wracking his brain, he tried to remember where Ichijouji Ken had attended school before his disappearance, but couldn't. Although it had been all over the news, Daisuke had had other things on his mind at the time, such as his new secret status as a Chosen Child, and he hadn't paid much attention.

The bruises on the Kaizer's face stood out very dark against the unhealthy pallor of his skin, and his struggles weakened. He continued to murmur, "Don't, don't take me back, let me go," over and over under his breath, until his voice broke and he began to hiccup. He looked up and glanced around, and said, "At least let me call my mother!"

"Done," said Miyako, standing up and backing away from the computer. The Gate glittered on the screen, active, ready to be opened, and the Kaizer looked at it with terror. Daisuke nervously licked the blood from his lip.

"No!" said the Kaizer, and he pulled desperately against the two boys holding him. Daisuke's misgivings, however, didn't stop him from pulling his Digivice out of his pocket with his free hand and holding it up toward the Gate. Chibimon scrambled onto his shoulder at the last second.

The Kaizer's anguished scream, as they were all drawn once again into the digital world, would surely haunt Daisuke for the rest of his life.

"How'd you get loose from the rope?" asked Daisuke.

The group was underway once more, making good time now toward the shining city that lay sprawled out like a silver lion across the hot plain. The Kaizer rode in front of Daisuke, bound again, dressed again in his blue jumpsuit and armored cloak, his head down.

"You tied them here. The knots didn't exist there, so they fell free."

Daisuke considered this for a little while. If this were true, the Kaizer would have been able to make his escape attempt whenever they passed through the Gate into the real world, no matter which Gate they'd used. "You really screwed yourself by destroying the first Gate, then, didn't you?" he said finally.

The Kaizer was silent for a long moment before saying, "Yeah, I guess I did." Then they resumed riding quietly, all the fire having drained back out of the Kaizer upon their return to the digital world.

After a little while, though, Daisuke asked, "So why didn't you destroy all the Gates?"

"Hmm?" The Kaizer raised his head a little, but he didn't seem very alert in spite of that.

"If you can't use the Gates, why leave them for us to use? I'm sure you noticed that we do use them."

"Yeah," said the dark-haired boy. Then he was quiet for a few minutes, and leaned his cheek against the side of Raidramon's middle spike. Finally he said, "I wanted to find out how they worked. I've been trying to change something ... the Gates, my Digivice, whatever ... to make them open for me again."

"You didn't need them all for that."

"No. But if I broke them ..." He paused, for a long time. "It would be admitting defeat," he said eventually, quietly.

Daisuke had nothing more to say about that.

Although Daisuke would let nothing deter him from bringing the Kaizer back, he was seriously wondering whether or not they were doing the right thing. The Kaizer had seemed so determined to stay in the real world ... if he were really the bloodthirsty would-be conqueror that the Holy Beasts claimed, wouldn't he want to stay in the digital world instead? There were no Digimon to torture and kill in the real world, no territory to take. It was a mystery.

As they rode toward the city, Digimon loitering or working in the fields that surrounded it spotted them and came forward to greet the returning heroes. When they saw that the Chosen really had the Digimon Kaizer with them, their friendly greetings became excited, and some raced ahead to inform the Digimon within the city. By the time the five Armor Digimon and six children reached the gates, they were surrounded by a throng of cheering Digimon, and the gates swung ponderously open to welcome them.

Daisuke was pleased at first. He was appreciated here, valued. As they made their way through the winding, dusty streets toward the palace, he saw admiration and joy in every face that turned toward him. He heard his name mingled in with the cheers and chatter. Each alien face, none of them fully human and most not even partially so, held nothing but respect for a boy who was really nobody special in his own world. Twisting around, Daisuke glanced over his shoulder and saw that his team reacted much the same way, drawing themselves up straighter, riding with more dignity. The Digimon, too, stepped a bit higher and smiled at everyone around them.

Then he turned back around and saw the Kaizer in front of him, helplessly tied, head bowed. Being paraded like a spectacle through the streets of Skip Phase, displayed like a war trophy to the citizens of the capital. Daisuke's good mood vanished in an instant, and he felt uncomfortable and dirty.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, not sure that the Kaizer would be able to hear. There was no response from the Kaizer.

Finally, they reached the palace itself, and passed through the gates to the vast courtyard that surrounded it. There they dismounted and their Digimon de-evolved and were lead away by the Elecmon who served around the Holy Beasts. This was nothing new, and Daisuke knew that they would be looked after well, given a solid meal and a chance to nap before they were reunited with the Chosen.

Before the Chosen were offered the same, however, they had to report to the Holy Beasts themselves.

Daisuke entered the palace and started toward the vast indoor audience chamber, but was met only a few paces into the palace by a pair of Monochromon. They swung their great heads from side the side, and then one of them spoke.

"Chosen Children," it said, and its deep voice resounded down the marble hallway. "You are to remand the Digimon Kaizer over to us immediately, and then proceed to the audience chamber for conference."

Because he had a hand on the Kaizer's arm to guide and control him, Daisuke felt the boy suddenly tremble. "Why?" he asked.

"The Holy Beasts command it."

Daisuke chewed on the sore spot on his lip a little, but there was no reason to believe that anything untoward would happen to the Kaizer. Probably he was just going to be taken away to a secure area, where he couldn't do any damage and couldn't escape, before the Holy Beasts talked to him. He ignored the sick apprehension in his belly as he handed the Kaizer over to the pair of Monochromon, and he pretended not to see the despondent, hopeless look that the Kaizer cast him as he was lead away.

"Good riddance," muttered Miyako after the Kaizer was out of sight.

Unencumbered, the Chosen continued on.

The audience chamber of the Holy Beasts was quite unlike anything else Daisuke had ever seen or imagined. It was huge, seeming to be far too big to fit within the palace, yet somehow it did. It was less like a chamber, in fact, than a park. The floor here changed into ground, and trees grew high into the air. They surrounded a small lake, whose surface was perfectly flat and still, like a quicksilver mirror. The light that illuminated the chamber came from everywhere and nowhere, a gentle suffuse of crystalline glory that shimmered from every leaf and every blade of grass. The roof, if there was one, was invisible within the soft glow of this directionless light. The air was warm, and fragrant with the delicate scents of flowers and fruiting trees.

Within this realm of unnatural perfection, the Four Holy Beasts waited.

They were everything one should imagine when one brought to mind a Holy Beast. Animals in form, they were like the essence of each species, the archetype, everything that every beast strove to become. Their perfection was such that it was difficult to call their appearances to mind afterward, and it was impossible to be in their presence and not be awed. Upon entering into the presence of the masters of this world, each Chosen Child went down onto one knee, and as one they gazed up at the beauty of their lords.

Hovering sinuously over the other three Holy Beasts, it was Qinglongmon who spoke to the Chosen first. His voice was like the wind in the reeds, and in appearance he was a wise blue serpent dragon. "Chosen Children," he said. "You have completed your task, after much tribulation. You have captured the dangerous Digimon Kaizer, and returned him to the capital city. You have done well."

"You have the thanks and gratitude of every Digimon within the city, and every Digimon without," said Zhuqiaomon. When he spoke, there was a warm crackle in his words, for his form was that of a beautiful, flame-feathered bird. "I'm sure some of them will want to meet you, speak with you, and express their thanks personally."

"The crimes of the Digimon Kaizer were great," said Qinglongmon. "Many have suffered because of him. Those who have been freed from him now, or who knew his victims, will be especially grateful. Be warned, and do not be surprised by it."

"I am surprised," said Xuanwumon, the massive rock of a turtle who rested beside the lake. Whenever the Chosen were received here, he was always in the same place, and Daisuke secretly wondered if he was capable of moving. "I thought it would be far more difficult to take the Digimon Kaizer alive. I expected casualties. Yet I see that all of you are present, and I have been informed that all of your Digimon are present."

Daisuke felt a little cold at that. I expected casualties.

"That is because we have a fine group of Chosen Children here," said Zhuqiaomon. "Possibly the best we have ever had."

"We should have a festival in their honor," said Qinglongmon.

"Yes," agreed Xuanwumon. "That is a good idea. And we must hear the brilliant strategy that kept everyone safe and yet still captured the Digimon Kaizer."

Glancing away from the radiant beings before him, Daisuke looked over at his team. He was inordinately proud of them, they were a fine group, who never let their personal differences get in the way of their teamwork. Yet as they gazed up, mesmerized by the Holy Beasts and the lavish praise being handed out, Daisuke wondered if he was the only one who heard the hollow ring to the words.

This was like spun sugar - it was pretty and it tasted sweet, but there was no substance in it. He wondered that he'd never noticed this before.

He surprised himself then by calling out, "What will happen to the Digimon Kaizer?"

There was a pause in the Holy Beasts' commendation, and Daisuke felt discomfort in it. Then Qinglongmon, who was often the spokesman for the Four, said, "He will be questioned, Courage and Friendship."

"And after that?" Daisuke quivered a little with his own daring.

"If he is incorrigible, we may need to exile him permanently to his own world."

Daisuke grinned. "Good, he'll like that. All he talked about on the way here was how much he wanted to go home."

"The Digimon Kaizer is clever and manipulative," said Qinglongmon sternly. "You should not take seriously anything he may have said to you."

Zhuqiaomon squawked a little, but unlike a real bird squawking, the sound was pure and musical. He looked like he was about to say something after that, but Qinglongmon interrupted. "What exactly did he tell you?" asked the dragon.

Suddenly aware that he was the center of attention, not only for the Holy Beasts but also for his own incredulous team, Daisuke grinned disarmingly and moved his goggles aside to scratch his head. "Oh, he said a lot of crap about how you all are going to kill him and how he wants to go home but can't for some reason, and a bunch of stuff like that. It was all pretty wild."

Qinglongmon smiled a most benevolent smile. "Nothing terrible is going to happen to him. He's clearly not right in the head, but you already knew that, from the things he's done." Daisuke nodded agreeably.

"I know he's kind of a jerk and all, but I don't want him to die or anything. You know?"

"Of course, of course. I understand completely." And nothing more was said on the matter.

The Chosen were praised a bit more, and then dismissed to do as they liked for a few days. The palace was secure, and they would be safe from the throngs of Digimon until they were rested and ready to face their admirers. They made their bows to the Holy Beasts and then departed from the audience chamber.

"So what was that all about back there?" asked Takeru, sidling up to Daisuke once they were making their way through marble hallways toward Chosen territory.

"All what?" asked Daisuke.

"All that about wanting to know what was going to happen to the Kaizer. What do we care? Our job is over."

"That wasn't very nice of you either," said Iori. "Implying that you didn't trust the Holy Beasts to do the best thing for everyone."

Daisuke shrugged and folded his arms atop his head as he walked. "There's nothing wrong with asking."

"You should have more faith in them." Daisuke glanced at his youngest teammate, and nodded.

"Yeah, you're right, you're right. Still ..."

"I knew it was a bad idea to leave people alone with him," Iori muttered. Daisuke stopped suddenly, forcing the other four to stop as well.

"What do you mean by that?" he demanded.

Iori planted his feet square and put his hands on his hips. "You know what I mean. You're going soft on the Digimon Kaizer!"

"I am not!"

"I don't know," said Miyako. "Whatever happened to last week's Daisuke, the one who was all about avenging Dev Null? That Daisuke wouldn't have offered to give the Kaizer a lift on his Digimon's back. Wait, I'm forgetting, that Daisuke didn't."

"I'm not going to torture someone just because I don't like him! I'm better than that, and I thought you were too!"

"We weren't torturing him!" Stepping in front of Iori, Miyako continued, "He was delaying us on purpose, and you believed him the whole way. You are such a sucker, Daisuke."

Disbelieving, Daisuke looked from one child to another. Iori and Miyako both glared back. And although Hikari and Takeru seemed a bit more unsure of their moral superiority over the past few days, they just glanced away and didn't speak up to agree with Daisuke.

"I can't believe any of you. You're all sadists."

"Oh, Daisuke," said Miyako, her anger visibly dissipating. She even smiled somewhat. "I just don't know what's gotten into you."

She patted him on the shoulder then, and moved off toward her room. The others followed, with Hikari trailing behind and giving Daisuke the oddest sympathetic look. Iori's stone-faced frown never faltered.

Daisuke stared after them, abandoned in the broad, cold stone corridor, surrounded by veins of gold running deeply through the marble.

"Courage and Friendship," said a low, rumbling voice behind him.

Having bathed and changed clothes, Daisuke had wandered the palace until he'd found one of the many terraces that overlooked the river. Where the river came from, and where it went were both unknown to him, because it certainly didn't flow at all through the plains that surrounded the city; it seemed to begin and end entirely within the palace itself. It was pleasant, though, lending a coolness to the summery air, and it was filled with tiny flashing fish that distracted him with their mindless motion.

It was turning toward evening now, and the other Chosen had all gone home, slipping swiftly out of the city toward the Gate on the plains. Daisuke knew that he should be going too; his parents were probably frantic by now, and he'd be grounded, at the very least, once he got home. But, of course, that knowledge made it more difficult to start back rather than less, and anyway he didn't feel right about leaving the digital world until he knew for sure what was happening to Ichijouji Ken.

Qinglongmon's glib assertion that the Kaizer was simply a smooth liar who could not be trusted in anything sat sourly with Daisuke. He was being asked to take the word of the Holy Beasts at face value, and he didn't much like that, although he was aware that he'd done it before. It would explain everything if it were true, but Daisuke was not convinced that it was.

The low words roused Daisuke out of his morose thoughts, and he turned around to find that he'd been cornered by Baihumon, the Holy Beast who had not bothered to speak during the audience proper. Despite his current state of disillusionment, Daisuke couldn't help shuddering slightly in the presence of the powerful tiger Digimon, whose fur glowed with all the subtle hues of the rainbow within the orange and black stripes. The tiger's yellow eyes were full of wisdom and kindness as they regarded him.

Having no precedent for meeting a Holy Beast outside of the audience chamber, Daisuke stuttered. "Um ... h-hello. Wh-wh-what ..."

"Your discontent has been noted, Courage and Friendship," said Baihumon gently, and a soothing purr was in every word. "This task of capturing the Digimon Kaizer had disturbed you, has it not?"

"Well, um ..." Daisuke scratched the back of his neck, which was prickling fiercely with some unnamed emotion akin to shame. "Sort of, I guess."

"Tell me what it is that paces in your mind." The Digimon lay down on the terrace, stretching his great body out on the stone. "What poison has the Digimon Kaizer given to you? I am listening. I want to help you set your mind at ease."

Motomiya Daisuke was a veteran of many battles, some of which had nearly cost him his life. He'd been wounded by enraged Virus Digimon more than once; the healing whip-mark on his shoulder was nothing new to him. He'd deleted Digimon in both anger and in need, and as he'd proven to the Kaizer, he was more than capable of lashing out in shocking violence when enraged. He was a good commander of the Chosen Children, rough but fair, and ruthless when need be.

But at that moment, with Baihumon's ancient eyes shining with love, and speaking to him in a voice filled with compassion, Daisuke was simply an eleven-year-old boy who had been forced to grow up far too fast.

He did not rush over and embrace Baihumon, bury his face in that warm fur and cry and confess everything; although he was still young enough to want to, he was old enough to put his pride first. Instead, he simply sank down to his knees, keeping distance between them that he wanted so much to close.

"He told me that he's kept here against his will," whispered Daisuke, as he stared down at a hairline thread of gold in the marble. "He said that he was Chosen and refused it, and ever since then his Digivice wouldn't open Gates. It's funny though," he said, frowning. "He never really said that it was you, the Holy Beasts, that were holding him. He always said it was the digital world."

"What else?" asked Baihumon softly.

"He said that you would kill him here. That you'd torture him to death, basically, when all he really wanted was to go home. He said that Dev Null wasn't something he'd created, but something the Holy Beasts had created, and he'd just sort of pounced on it." Looking back up toward those devastating yellow eyes, Daisuke asked, "Is it true that it was called Dev Null before he got there?"

"As Qinglongmon said, the Digimon Kaizer is as wise as a serpent, and very sly. He told you these things to prey on your sympathy, hoping that you would weaken and free him to continue his terrible games. You were strong enough to resist this, but I see that he has still damaged you by attacking through your most commendable attribute."

"But is it true?" Daisuke insisted.

The Digimon's long tail, tipped with white and black, curled up and then down again, over and over. "I could tell you that these things are not true, but I can see that the telling would not be enough for you. You have lost faith, Courage and Friendship."

"I have," said Daisuke, looking down again. "When we took the shortcut through the Gate ..." He paused to draw in a shaky sigh. The Kaizer's scream as he'd been drawn back into the digital world rang in his ears and turned his stomach.

After a moment's pause, Baihumon prompted gently, "What did he say when you did that?"

Daisuke wiped his hand over his face. "It wasn't what he said so much as what he did. He tried to escape, but we caught him again. He was pleading with us to let him go home, or call his mom or something like that. He really, really wanted to stay there."

"He was only pretending."

"It was a good act," said Daisuke bitterly, not believing that at all.

Silently, Baihumon rose to his paws and approached the kneeling boy. Near at hand now, his presence was overwhelming; he was just so big, and so majestic and beautiful. Daisuke could feel the tiger's warm breath in his hair. "Courage and Friendship," said the Digimon, as if his heart were breaking, "you have a good and solid heart, and I am proud of your wishes of mercy toward the Digimon Kaizer. But you are honest and straightforward, and you assume that the whole of the world is equally as honest as you. I can tell you now that it is not.

"Consider this ... What had the Kaizer to lose by behaving in the fashion you describe?"

Daisuke thought about it for a few moments. "Well, he pretty much humiliated himself by begging us."

"And what had he to gain? If he'd succeeded in escaping, he would have been able to re-enter the digital world at his discretion, returning wherever he wished and having the clemency of time to rebuild his empire's strength. If he were re-captured, he would maintain the façade he had presented to you, and strengthen your belief in him, weakening your faith in us. And so it has happened."

Tears were standing in Daisuke's eyes now, obscuring part of his vision because he refused to let them fall. "That's true. That's all true. I don't know what to believe anymore."

Baihumon nuzzled the top of his head, and said, "My poor child. Tell me what will restore your faith."

"I want to see him," said Daisuke immediately.

"That's not possible."

"Why not?" Daisuke scrambled out from under the Digimon's shadow, feeling the weight of his shame lift slightly as he removed himself from that protective, smothering presence. He pressed himself back against the stone railing that overlooked the river and dashed the nascent tears from his eyes. "If he's being treated well, there's no reason why I can't."

"No reason," said Baihumon, "except that it will give him more opportunity to poison you with his clever lies." The great head shook with kind regret. "Don't you see? You already believe in him more than you believe in us, and now you require proof of my words."

"But you could give me proof! It would be easy, and it wouldn't take any time at all. Just give me five minutes. I ... I'll laugh at him, I'll say Look, you told me they'd torture you and they haven't, so there. I swear, I just want to see him."

Baihumon was quiet for a little while. Then he said, "No. I am sorry, but it is not possible."

"But why?" asked Daisuke. "Unless you really are torturing him and you just don't want me to see that, there's no reason why not!" His throat closed up with the possibility, not really seriously considered before Baihumon's refusal, that the Kaizer was right.

Again, Baihumon silently regarded him for a long moment, and Daisuke finally had to look away. He was arguing with a god. What right did he have to question the Digimon's word? Yet he had to question it, because doubt was in his heart.

"Very well," said the tiger sadly. "If this is the only way we may regain your faith, I will arrange it."

"Yes!" said Daisuke, happy again. He jumped up off the railing, prepared to follow Baihumon that instant. But the Holy Beast shook his head a bit.

"He must be fetched from the place he is being held," purred Baihumon. "It will take a little time. When all is ready, I will send a messenger to fetch you."

"How long?" asked Daisuke, disappointed.

"I am not certain. Perhaps a few hours."

"Hours? Why?"

"To take the time to explain that would only further delay this meeting you so desire. I will go now to arrange things, and you will be sent for when all is in readiness. You may wish to return to your own world in the meantime. I understand that your companions have already done so."

Daisuke kicked the stone of the balcony with the toe of his shoe. "I'm sure I'm already in deep trouble. It can't get any worse than it already is. I'll just stick around here, okay?"

"As you wish," said Baihumon with equanimity. "You are very valuable to us, Courage and Friendship. Understand that."

"If you say so."

The giant tiger padded silently back into the palace, and after he was gone Daisuke turned around to lean against the railing again. He wasn't looking down at the river and fish, though. This time, he was looking up at the glorious darkening sky.

In a few hours, he'd be able to go back to being a Chosen Child with a light heart and a clear conscience.

Daisuke did not really expect the necessary arrangements to take the hours Baihumon had promised. After all, what could possibly be needed? No doubt he'd been told that just in case of unforeseen complications, like if the Kaizer had escaped from wherever and had be located again within the palace. Or if he were asleep or something ... he'd needed a good solid nap, and no doubt the Holy Beasts would be reluctant to wake him up again so soon.

But, whatever the reason, hours and hours did pass, creeping by so slowly that Daisuke had to check his Digivice against his watch to make sure that one of them wasn't broken. After awhile, he wandered away from the terrace and back to his room, but he didn't stay there long because it was so boring, just a square stone box with a bed and a window. The window looked out on the gardens, which were pretty interesting to be in, but not so interesting to look at, especially when it was dark outside.

He eventually went outside and climbed up onto the roof of one of the outbuildings, laying on his back on the warm tile and trying to pick out familiar constellations. He couldn't do it, of course, and anyway he kept thinking about the Kaizer.

Was he "poisoned," as Baihumon put it? He couldn't stop thinking about the Kaizer's smooth skin, and the questing motion his lips had made when they'd kissed. Daisuke spared a little thought for wondering if it was somehow wrong to kiss another boy; he hadn't been told that it was, but then again he hadn't heard of it happening either. He decided after a little consideration that it wasn't, after all it wasn't like he was kissing a girl, which he already knew from prior experience was unacceptable.

With that settled, he was left only with wondering if he were wrong and foolish to put even a little credence in what the Kaizer said. Daisuke tried to imagine himself putting up a false front of being terrified for a span of several days, and he decided that he wouldn't have been able to do it. Besides which, it had almost seemed like the Kaizer were putting up a false front of being unafraid, at least at first. Was the dark-eyed boy that good of a liar, to pretend to pretend to be brave? It made Daisuke's head hurt.

And anyway, it was no lie that the Holy Beasts were definitely not everything he'd previously believed. Was this the way things had always gone? A successful mission, extravagant praise, a brief time to rest, and then a new assignment? Going over his past career as a Chosen Child, Daisuke determined that yes, it was. Before now, that was all he'd needed to continue - a proud smile and an ego-stroking. He got little enough of that at home, with his barely-passing grades and his disinterest in any extra-curricular activities that didn't involve violently kicking something around. At the beginning of the past three trimesters, his parents had attempted various methods of motivating him, up to and including cash bribes for high grades. And Daisuke had tried, he really had, but he just didn't have it in him to become a star pupil.

His efforts hadn't been prompted by the promise of money, although that would have been nice too. He just wanted someone to be proud of him for once. And then he'd barely scraped by, yet again, and it was only the Holy Beasts who had admiring things to say about him, things that were justified because he actually had pulled off what they'd wanted him to do.

Why wasn't that enough anymore?

And what was taking so damned long?

He had just checked his Digivice again to make sure that time actually was passing when he heard a deferent little cough from the ground. Scrambling to his feet, he walked to the edge of the roof and looked down to see the round face of a small Koromon peering up at him.

"Chosen Child!" it piped, and Daisuke nodded a little in the dark. "Baihumon, the Water Tiger, summons you! Follow me!"

Daisuke climbed down off the roof of the outbuilding and followed the Koromon, who hopped ahead of him at a speed that was surprising for something that lacked legs. He could barely contain the anxiety within him that demanded that he race headlong toward the child he'd captured and ensure that he was all right. Unfortunately, he didn't know the way, and so he trailed after the Koromon at the pace the little Digimon set.

They moved deep into the palace, and then took a flight down, into areas that Daisuke had never seen before. The Koromon lead him through a confusing series of rooms, and past a locked door guarded by two Devidramon who stared stiffly ahead and did not move. Then they took another set of stairs downward, and although they were broad and high to accommodate the largest Digimon, they spiraled down into the rock at a vertiginous angle. The type of stone changed here, from the veined marble that characterized the rest of the palace, to an uncompromising granite gray that Daisuke did not care for at all. The golden lamps shaped like fireflies standing on their heads, which lit the rest of the palace, gave way as well to angular iron torches.

Daisuke had never even suspected that such a place could be within the palace.

At the bottom of the staircase was a long, broad corridor with many doors on either side of it, all closed. It was as silent as death, but for the faint plish-plish of the Koromon's hopping and the soft sounds of Daisuke's sneakers.

The Koromon chose a door about a third of the way down and opened it. Beyond was a short hallway with another closed door at the end, occupied by the stately form of Baihumon.

Daisuke bowed to the Digimon, who responded warmly by snuffling into his hair. "I am granting your wish," said the tiger. "Beyond this door is the Digmon Kaizer, and I will allow you to see him and reassure yourself that he is unharmed.

"However," Baihumon continued, his tone becoming darker, "the Digimon Kaizer is a crafty and untrustworthy individual, and it is likely that he will try to convince you that he is being treated unfairly. I warn you of this ahead of time, so that you will not be deceived. As soon as he was told why he was being moved, he began to practice his deceit, and so I think it is very likely that he will continue it once you are with him."

"What do you think he'll do?" asked Daisuke softly.

"Pretend to fear us, pretend to be injured, similar things I expect. He is a clever child, and it is a shame that his cleverness is put to such ignoble use."

"Is it true that he was a Chosen Child, like me?" asked Daisuke.

"It is true," said Baihumon.

The door was opened then, and Daisuke was escorted inside.

The room beyond was unexpectedly human-sized, and not scaled for the enormous Digimon who roamed the palace. There was a rough-hewn wooden table in the middle of it, waist-height and unfinished, with trestle benches on either side. Daisuke looked around, wondering where the Kaizer was, but then something leaped out of the far corner, where the walls met the floor and which was concealed by the angle he had on the table. There was a metallic rattle and a flash of blue and white, and then the Kaizer stopped short in his dash for the open door, yanked back again by the long chains that held his wrists to that corner.

Daisuke had to stop where he was, startled by the sudden, brief flurry of motion, and by the time it all registered the Kaizer had crumpled to the floor again. He moved around the table, and as soon as he did the boy on the floor whimpered and huddled, pressing his back into the corner.

"I warned you," said Baihumon from the door, and his beautiful voice was tinged slightly with disgust. At the sound, the Kaizer gave a strained little sound and pulled his knees in tighter.

It took a few seconds for Daisuke to process all of this. It had been less than a full day; was that even sufficient time for someone to be legitimately reduced to such a state? Daisuke didn't know, but it seemed like an awfully short period. Unless they'd been doing something truly horrific to him.

Approaching the Kaizer, Daisuke saw that he was missing his cloak, and he wondered what had happened to it. Touching the Kaizer lightly on the hand, he said, "Hey. It's me, stop that now."

The Kaizer flinched from the touch, but he did look up, and for an instant Daisuke saw wild, blank incomprehension in the midnight-blue eyes. Then they focused on him, and the Kaizer whispered, "Motomiya."

Daisuke nodded. Aside from the yellowing bruises on his cheek and chin, there were no visible injuries on the Kaizer as far as Daisuke could tell. His cloak was gone, but he looked a lot cleaner than he had when Daisuke had last seen him being taken away by the Monochromon, and he was even wearing his gloves again. Taking off one of his own yellow gloves, Daisuke reached up and ran his fingertips lightly through the blue spikes at the Kaizer's temple, and was not surprised to find the hair slightly damp.

"I see they gave you a bath," Daisuke said with a little grin, which the Kaizer did not return.

"They're holding me at the end of the cell block," whispered the Kaizer, and the intensity of the tone took Daisuke's breath away. "Please come get me, please get me out. They showed me what they're going to do to me, and please, I'm so afraid." Dark-gloved hands grasped Daisuke's jacket, and he pulled back in surprise at the assault. The chains that held the Kaizer rattled, and Daisuke could hear Baihumon clear his throat in the hallway. "It's ... it's not what I thought ..."

"I don't know what you're up to," began Daisuke, uncertainly, as he began to pry the Kaizer's fingers loose. There was more in this thought, but the Kaizer interrupted.

"You have to believe me. We're from the same world! Ahh!" The Kaizer snatched his hands back, and Daisuke frowned. Had he pinched the boy's finger that hard? He backed away, out of latching range, and stood up again.

"I don't know what to believe," said Daisuke, and although he didn't mean for the words to come out so coldly, the Kaizer flinched again and then buried his face in his arms. Conscious of the Holy Beast outside, Daisuke went on, "But I do know this. I'm a Chosen Child, and you ... you're a murderer."

There was no reply, and after a moment, Daisuke walked back out. The door was shut behind him, and Baihumon paced beside him down the short hallway that lead to the long, broad corridor.

"I'm proud of you," purred the tiger, and he blessed Daisuke with the very tip of his tongue on Daisuke's forehead.

As night advanced, Daisuke began to feel somewhat sleepy, but instead of going to bed or going home, he returned to the cool rooftop where he'd waited for the Holy Beast's summons. Once again, he stared up at the starry sky, and wondered what had become of him.

He still had doubts. He was troubled, for example, by the Kaizer's gloves. Why was the boy wearing gloves again? Daisuke had left the last pair out in the forest on the other side of the digital world, and aside from the Kaizer's conceit there was really no need for them. He concluded, therefore, that the Digimon had put the gloves on the Kaizer's hands to conceal something, and he wanted to know what that something was. And his hair had been damp. He'd been cleaned up, then, but only recently before Daisuke had seen him. If the Digimon were concerned about the Kaizer's cleanliness, why not let him bathe sooner? Also, if the worst thing that could happen to him was simply exile to the real world, why would the Kaizer behave that way? The child he'd captured had been dignified, graceful. There was no dignity or grace in begging shamelessly and confessing fear.

Daisuke chewed his lip and had doubts about all of these things, and yet he had told a lie to Baihumon with his manner and his words to the Kaizer. He had lied to Baihumon, pretending to be still unsure but more inclined to believe the Holy Beasts than the Kaizer, when in fact the reverse was true.

He reached into his jacket and fished around for the inside pocket where he had tucked the Kaizer's glasses. Pulling them out now, he turned them over in his hands, running a fingertip over the angular emblem embossed on the bridge. Then he sat up and put the glasses on, glancing around at the world and trying to see it the way the Kaizer saw it.

The glasses turned everything dark, as he'd expected, but they also gave things a certain sharpness and clarity that wasn't normally there. Daisuke had once had a pair of sunglasses like that, but he'd eventually outgrown them and the newer ones had never been quite the same.

Taking them off again, Daisuke resumed fiddling with them. He couldn't go home now, he knew that. He believed, almost without doubt, that the Kaizer was suffering in the depths of the palace, down deep where his screams would never be heard, and Daisuke would never be able to live with himself if he just went home and went on with his life like nothing was happening.

Yet at the same time, he did not move to do anything about it, because as much as he doubted the Holy Beasts, he also doubted the Kaizer. It was equally possible that everything the Kaizer had said really was a lie, and that everything the Holy Beasts had said was the truth. He was ashamed of his lack of faith, really; he wanted so badly to believe the Holy Beasts, to put his trust completely in them as he had before, and do as they asked without question. His shame would permit him his doubts, but it would not permit him to act on them.

Caught between the sick feeling in his stomach and the disgrace of not trusting the Holy Beasts, Daisuke did nothing.

Because he was sitting so still and because the night was calm and empty, the motion at the edge of Daisuke's vision caught his eye immediately. Glancing up, Daisuke spotted someone crossing the courtyard from the palace gates, and he wondered what someone would be doing running around at this time of night. He put on the Kaizer's glasses, and the polarized lenses sharpened the image for him : it was a great yellow beetle, Digmon, with Iori perched on his back.

A moment later, Daisuke had scrambled down off the rooftop and was running toward the side entrance to the palace that he'd used to come out. He felt like throwing up, and his fingers were cold and trembling, but he had no time to indulge himself. Iori had gone home, all the Chosen had, and there was no reason for him to be returning, alone and in the dark, to the palace.

Unless, as Ichijouji had said, the Holy Beasts had promised him that he could watch as they tortured him.

Moving with determination through the palace got Daisuke a long way. Not many Digimon were up and about this time of night, and those who were only nodded respectfully to the first among the favorites of the Holy Beasts and did not detain him. He got turned around in the downstairs rooms a few times, and fretted that he was going to be too late, he was going to take too long and wind up finding Ichijouji already dead. At last, though, he spotted the big doors that opened upon the spiral staircase, and the Devidramon who watched it.

Concealing himself just around the corner, Daisuke wondered how to get past the Digimon. Devidramon were none too bright, but they were vicious and tenacious, and followed orders exactly. If he'd had his own Digimon with him, Daisuke could have fought his way through, but Veemon was elsewhere, and anyway he wasn't sure he could trust Veemon anymore. Veemon had been bound to him by the Holy Beasts after all, and no doubt he was ultimately answerable to them.

Checking the time on his Digivice, Daisuke suddenly wondered if Iori had already passed this way. It was possible that he hadn't; Daisuke had taken a somewhat shorter route, and for Iori there would be Armadillomon to see comfortably cared for by the Elecmon. He switched the Digivice to tracking, and discovered that Iori was still on the ground floor.

So he still had time. And if the Devidramon were expecting one human child ... well, they weren't really bright enough to tell the Chosen apart.

Straightening his clothes and smoothing his expression, Daisuke walked out toward the Devidramon like he belonged there. They eyed him as he approached, but made no move to either greet or hinder him. He stopped a few meters away from the doors and said, "Open the doors. I'm wanted downstairs." His heart was slamming against his ribs so powerfully he was sure the Digimon could hear it, but his voice remained fairly even and steady.

No answer came; Daisuke wasn't even certain that Devidramon were capable of speech. But one of them did move to open the door, and he passed between them and through unharmed.

Skipping down the steps as quickly as he could, Daisuke tried to formulate some sort of idea as to how he would rescue Ichijouji. He wasn't even sure where Ichijouji was - was the long corridor of doors the cell block, or was it somewhere else? How much time did he have? If there were locks, how would he get through them?

With no solutions, Daisuke decided to worry about those problems when he encountered them.

He was out of breath by the time he got to the bottom of the stairs, but he tried to control his panting and look carefully around the last curve of stone to see if there were any watchers in the corridor. There weren't - it was as silent and empty as before. He took off running again, although he could feel fatigue building up in his legs, because he figured that the best place to start would be the far end of the hallway.

When he neared the end, he discovered that the hallway took a sharp, unsuspected turn to the left, and he slowed as he neared the turn to peer around the corner. There were Digimon down there all right, a half dozen squat Gizamon hunkered down in an uneven semi-circle around one of the doors, which was open. He recalled that Gizamon were far more intelligent than Devidramon, and knew that he wouldn't be able to brass his way past them like he had before, and there were really too many to fight on his own. The only thing to do was wait, hope they finished their business and went away, and didn't come toward him because there was nowhere in the corridor to hide and he would never be able to run to the far end before they reached the turn.

Time ticked by slowly, and Daisuke felt more and more exposed. Anything could come out of any of these doors, and he would be spotted immediately if something did. He was considering the merits of creeping back down the corridor to see if any of the doors were unlocked when he heard a sound that made the hairs stand up on the back of his neck.

It was Ichijouji's voice, shrieking in terrified rage.

The Gizamon all crowded forward, and a huge horned lizard Digimon unlike anything Daisuke had ever seen emerged from the doorway. It had Ichijouji in its grasp, its powerful hands holding him by the wrists. The dark-haired boy had his feet braced against the motion, but was being forced inexorably forward by the big Digimon. He was tearing violently to free himself, but the Digimon didn't seem very impressed by this.

It threw him forward into the corridor, and he stumbled and went down; the Gizamon gibbered and swarmed him, clawing at him and clearly trying to herd him away from Daisuke, deeper yet into this underground complex. After a few false tries, Ichijouji pushed himself weakly upright, but rather than let himself be driven by the Gizamon, he turned and attempted to fight them. A well-aimed kick sent one of the Gizamon tumbling, but the effort made him reel to one side.

It occurred then to Daisuke that every Digimon out there must be a Virus ... certainly the Gizamon were, and that big lizard thing must be too. Wherever they wanted Ichijouji to go, the lizard could have just carried him, but instead they preferred to goad him into going himself.

Anger overcame both shock and common sense then, and Daisuke raced around the corner and took the Gizamon from behind, dashing right under the massive horns of the green lizard Digimon. Thrown into sudden confusion by this unexpected source of attack, the Gizamon scattered; another one went into the wall as Ichijouji took advantage of their disorder just before his strength left him and he went down on his knees. Planting himself between Ichijouji and the Digimon, Daisuke glared up at the giant lizard, and kept half an eye on the Gizamon that surrounded the lizard's feet.

Scales scraped against stone with a dry, hollow sound like dead leaves as the giant lizard shifted its weight and lashed its tail. Daisuke knew he'd never be able to stand against it - just one swipe of its clawed hands or a single gore from those enormous horns would do it - but he wasn't going to give up. He'd promised Ichijouji that he wouldn't let anything happen to him, and he'd already broken that promise enough.

As the seconds passed, though, punctuated by Ichijouji's hoarse breathing, Daisuke began to wonder if an attack was coming at all. The Digimon continued to shift its weight, and the motion seemed uneasy, as if it were unsure what to do now. It finally took a half-hearted step forward, but stopped immediately when one of the Gizamon squawked in surprise. The lizard glanced at the smaller Digimon, but they seemed just as unsure as it was.

Daisuke didn't know what their issue was, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one. Backing up a little, not taking his eyes off the Digimon, he said, "Come on," and tried to help Ichijouji up.

As soon as he touched the other boy, Ichijouji shrieked again and half-crawled backwards. The motion seemed to spur the Gizamon, and they moved forward again, their dark glittering eyes on their prey, but Daisuke shouted at them and sprang forward to fight them off, and they hopped away again. He crouched down next to the shivering boy and murmured, "Come on, we have to get going. I don't know how much longer they'll wait." He grabbed Ichijouji's wrist when swatted at again, and held him until something like sense came back.

"Motomiya," said Ichijouji, wondering, and Daisuke knew that he was recognizing him for the first time. He had never hated anything so fervently as he hated the Holy Beasts right at that moment.

"Come on," he said for the third time, and this time Ichijouji accepted the support of Daisuke's arm. He got them both upright, with Ichijouji leaning and swaying on his shoulder and his arm around the boy's slender waist to steady him, and they moved cautiously toward the Gizamon and the giant lizard Digimon.

The Gizamon hissed with disapproval, but they kept glancing from Ichijouji to Daisuke and back again, and there was confusion in it. They parted to let Daisuke pass, and coincidentally Ichijouji as well, and the big lizard did nothing as they moved beneath its horns and claws. Their progress was slow, and Daisuke began to move backwards once they'd passed the knot of Digimon to keep them in sight. They did not pursue.

Once they'd turned the corner, Ichijouji said softly, "You came."

"I told you I wouldn't let anything happen to you. Can you walk? We need to get moving before those Digimon decide it's okay to come after us."

"Maybe." Ichijouji tried, and got himself into a stumbling half-walk with only one hand on Daisuke's shoulder to support him. This was a lot faster than Daisuke mostly carrying him, and they tripped inelegantly up the corridor toward the stairs. Daisuke was not looking forward to the stairs.

"I wonder what got into them," he mused aloud. "Do you think it was ..."

Daisuke halted, and perforce so did Ichijouji. Coming down the broad, sharply sloping stairs, was a small blue dragon Digimon.

"Daisuke!" shouted Veemon happily upon spotting them, and he bounded off the last stair and ran down the corridor toward them. Daisuke stiffened, and disengaged himself from Ichijouji so that he could stand protectively between him and Veemon. "I've been looking all over for you, and finally I smelled you coming down here! What are you doing down here, anyway? And why do you have the Digimon Kaizer with you?" Veemon skidded to a halt blinking with hurt incomprehension when Daisuke just glared at him. "Daisuke? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"We're leaving," said Daisuke. "And you're not going to stop us."

"... Okay," said Veemon uncertainly. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere other than here. And you had better not follow us!"

"Daisuke ..." said Veemon again, and he sounded seriously hurt now.

"Wait, Motomiya," murmured Ichijouji. "It's all right."

Daisuke dared to take his eyes off the Digimon to look back at the swaying Ichijouji. "Why?" he asked.

"It's all right," said the other boy again. "He's bound to you. He can be trusted. I know."

"Are you sure?"

Ichijouji nodded minimally, and Daisuke supposed that he would know.

Turning back toward Veemon, Daisuke said, "Okay, we're going home, and we're taking Ichijouji with us. Got it?"

"Why?"

"I'll explain later. There will probably be an alarm or something soon, so we have to get moving. Do you think you can Digivolve?"

"Sure!" Veemon hopped apart from them and fisted his claws in preparation.

A few minutes later, the Devidramon at the top of the stairs were startled when the doors burst open to eject a leaping black-and-blue Digimon. They reacted almost immediately, firing at the escapee and roaring their rage, but Raidramon and his riders didn't pause to fight. The nimble dragon evaded the blasts and bounded off through the maze of rooms that lead to the upper world.

The alarm did go up then; Daisuke, Ichijouji, and Raidramon left chaos and not a little destruction in their wake, crashing through doors and gouging out claw-holds in the flawless stone. The Elecmon who had been moving through the palace, preparing for breakfast and doing minor maintenance on the building, came running to see what the noise was about, and were surprised when Raidramon simply ran by like a racehorse and jumped them if they were in the way. Some of the Elecmon instinctively bristled and prepared to fight, but none of them could stop the big Armor Digimon. The fleeing trio soon found a window that was wide and tall enough to fit through and were in the courtyard; a moment later, they had sailed over the decorative wall and were pounding through the city itself.

Daisuke clung to the base of the shoulder spikes, swaying with each stride in a practiced motion, the wicked tips slashing the air over his head. Ichijouji sat behind him with his arms around his waist, resting light against his back, and the feeling was incomparable to anything else. He'd protect Ichijouji as long as necessary, fight anyone that came between them and the Gate, and he knew that he could do it.

The gates to the city were closed, and so Raidramon sprang to the roof of a low building, and thence to a higher one, and from there to the top of the wall. Someone shot at them from deep in the city while Raidramon paused to gauge the distance to the ground, and then they were outside the gates and racing toward the Gate. Daisuke whooped with glee.

"We'll be home in no time!" he shouted over the rush of the wind and the pounding of Raidramon's clawed feet against the ground.

Ichijouji just clung to his back and did not reply.

Pursuit from Skip Phase was slow to organize; not even Iori came after them before they were well away. The plain in which the Gate rested was empty, though, and offered virtually no cover, and so Daisuke kept Raidramon running at a ground-eating lope. Before an hour had passed, he could locate the low, dark spot of the Gate, and it wasn't long after that before Raidramon was trotting to a halt beside it.

Daisuke slid down off Raidramon's shoulder, pulling out his Digivice. "Come on," he said, and when he heard nothing behind him, he turned around.

Ichijouji was still sitting on Raidramon's haunch, his arms wrapped around himself, and making no attempt to get down.

"What's the matter?" asked Daisuke. "I thought you wanted to go home."

"I do," said Ichijouji softly.

"Then what's wrong? Come on, I'll open the Gate and we'll be home."

The dark head shook. "Open the Gate first. I don't think I could get back up on Raidramon if I come down."

Daisuke paused, and scratched his arm. Was this some sort of trick? Was the Kaizer a liar after all, who would steal his Digimon as soon as his back was turned? "I don't understand," he said finally.

"Just try it. Try to open a Gate. I'll come down if it works."

"If it ..." Daisuke stuttered then. If it works. Suddenly dreading what was going to happen, Daisuke extended his Digivice toward the Gate.

"Digital Gate open!"

For an instant, his heart believed that it would work.

Then the instant passed, and the Gate sat there, silent and dark. Daisuke tried it again and again, with increasing agitation, while Ichijouji just moaned and slid down to lay along Raidramon's armored back.

"I don't get it! Why won't it open?" Daisuke kicked the side of the Gate, but it didn't so much as flicker.

"Just let me go!" screamed Ichijouji at the sky. "I swear on my life I will make you bleed if you don't let me go! I will make you burn and suffer so that you cry at night from it! Let me go!"

"Is it you?" asked Daisuke. "Is that it?"

"It's both of us now," said Ichijouji miserably, slumping down again, his energy spent. "You won't go back to the Holy Beasts after this, will you?"

"Of course not!"

"It sees into your heart. The digital world. It knows that you won't serve it now, and it won't let you go either." After a little silence, he added, "I'm sorry, Motomiya. I did this to you."

"It's not you," said Daisuke. Then something exploded in the distance, and he turned that way. "Damn, we'd better get moving again."

"I'm sorry," said Ichijouji again, shakily sitting up.

"It's all right." Swinging up onto Raidramon's back, Daisuke said, "Let's go back to your empire."

"... Yeah. That's a good idea. We'll be safe there, as much as we can be."

Raidramon began to wolf-lope across the plain again, and said, "You're really going to have to explain this to me someday, Daisuke."

"I will." He patted his partner on the neck, and then settled in for a long journey.

~fin~

Final Note : Although this sketch (http://kerika.tripod.com/sugah14.html) was not drawn for this fic (in fact, it was drawn well before this fanfic was ever a tiny story sperm swimming madly toward the ovum of my brain), it still fits really well. So well, in fact, that I was shocked to see it. It is by Sugah (whose writing is well worth reading) and is posted on herongale's site.