Somewhere in the darkness of the maze, fifteen Digidestined and their partners felt an encroaching despair. Seven memories flashed back to moments when they had felt their most despair while dealing with Digimon.
Suddenly, each shifted thoughts. As one, they knew they had to have hope to win. With the restoration of their hope, the Crests of Sincerity, Perseverance, Light, and Courage glowed. Resolution to get out of the maze appeared on three faces.
"Let's go, Sylvimon."
"Time to get out of this maze, Agumon."
"Palmon, let's go!"
"Gatomon, let's find the others."
Nik looked at his map. In Ross' area shone a Crest of Knowledge and a Crest of Hope. A cruel look was in his eyes. "Waspmon," he said, addressing his partner. "Let's make sure the Digidestined are crushed if Ross fails."
"Of course."
Tarini's crest glowed dimly on her digivice, but she didn't notice. Izzy did, however. "Tarini! Have hope!"
Her eyes flicked to him, then to Laramon, and finally to the Dark Digidestined. Moments later, her crest glowed brightly.
"Laramon digivolve to...Liwinmon."
Liwinmon held a sword in each hand. Her long blond hair was braided and hung down her back. Two yellow feathered wings stretched to either side. She glared at Luperimon.
Sarran turned as a green light came toward her. "Who's there," she demanded.
"Sarran?"
Sarran breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of Mimi's voice. "Mimi! Boy, am I glad to see you!"
Allison called out "Jihan!"
The younger girl turned to see the older Digidestined. "Hello again." She gestured to the glowing crest around Allison's neck. "What's that light?"
Allison smiled. "The light is from my crest."
Suddenly an orange light appeared. "Tai," Allison asked, remembering the color of his crest.
"Yeah, and I've got Chan, Joe, Vari, and Taki with me."
"That's great," Allison said. From the other direction came a green light. "Mimi?"
As she came into view, she nodded. "Sora, Matt, Sarran, and Ashi are with me."
Tai looked at the others slowly. "So where's Kari? And Izzy? And Tarini? And Glen? And Msaada?" Allison shrugged.
They walked along for a while, careful not to get separated again. Suddenly, Vari said, "Look!" They turned to see a pink light, followed shortly after by Kari. She was accompanied by Msaada and Glen.
Allison smiled at the fact that they were now almost all together. "Let's get out of here." The others nodded.
Tarini watched as Liwinmon prepared to attack. "Go get him," she yelled.
"Swords of Hope!" Liwinmon's swords glowed even brighter. The bright yellow light lit the whole area. The Dark Digidestined was forced to look away from the swords. Liwinmon slashed with her swords. The glow that remained of the slashes hit Luperimon. The Digimon dedigivolved just as the others made it out of the maze.
"Wow," Chan whispered, awed at the appearance and evident power of Liwinmon.
The Dark Digidestined scowled as Liwinmon won. Vulpemon slunk to his side, afraid of his partner's wrath.
His fists clinched, the Dark Digidestined said, "I am the Dark Digidestined of Despair. And I will be back! Come on, Vulpemon." Dark Digidestined and Digimon walked away.
A scowl appeared on Oko's face. "The fool! Despair suits him for a crest! I'm beginning to despair that he will ever be able to handle the power of the Digidestined."
The black birdlike Digimon near her said, "Do you think they will come here next?"
Oko shook her head, setting her black hair swinging. "No. Our territory doesn't border Ross' territory."
Suddenly the fortress began to crumble. "We've got to get out of here," Glen yelled. The others agreed and ran out of the fortress.
Anastasia flinched away from her map as a bright light flared from it. When she could look at it again, the territory that had been outlined in yellow was gone. It was replaced by a wedge of blue and green.
Once the Digidestined escaped the collapsing fortress, they pulled to a halt at the sight of three Digimon. Kari smiled. "Leomon! Centarumon! Unimon! It's been a while since we last saw you!"
Sarran turned to Jihan, a puzzled expression on both their faces. "Who are they?"
Izzy answered their question. "Leomon is a good Digimon. We met him on File Island. He's a Champion Digimon whose Fist of the Beast King is pretty powerful." He smiled. "We know, since we've been on the recieving end of the attack, but only thanks to Devimon."
Mimi picked up where Izzy left off. "Centarumon is also from File Island. He used his Solar Ray to defend the temple ruins we met him in."
Joe finished the statement. "Unimon was under Devimon's control when I first met him, or close enough. His Aerial Attack almost got me and Gomamon."
"I'm glad to see you're alright," Leomon said. "Now I think there will be a chance for the evil in the Digiworld to be destroyed."
"Leomon, what's going on in the Digiworld now? Things just haven't seemed right since we learned of the Master of Digimon," Matt said.
"I'm not entirely sure myself. All I know is that one day, the Master of Digimon appeared and started taking over the Digiworld. After you defeated him and left, things were fine until the ten evil children in the fortresses showed up."
"They call themselves the Dark Digidestined," Sora said.
Will the Digidestined meet up with the Dark Digidestined of Despair again? Now that they have defeated the first Dark Digidestined, will they be able to defeat the other nine? Tune in next time to find out.
