“So,” Felina said, coming up behind Matt. “I guess Nathan decided to let you stay with us after all.”
Matt turned, and slowed down.
“What are you talking about?” Tsunomon asked from Matts arms.
Felina looked at the digimon, then gave off a small smile. “I heard that you beat Deathramon in the digi-battle. Is it true?”
Tsunomon grinned. “You better believe it!”
Felina smiled slightly at the Digimons reaction. She then turned back to Matt. “He wouldn’t have let you stay if that thing…whatever it was…hadn’t said that.”
“What? You mean after Jennai left?”
Felina nodded. “Yea. That’s exactly what I mean.”
“That voice said something about the Silver and Gold Tags…what are those?” Matt asked.
Felina sighed, then pulled her tag and Crest off. She held them in her hand, and said, “You eight have the Gold tags. And,” she opened her hand, revealing her tag and crest. Her tag was
silver in color, and her Crest was red-pink, and had what looked like the Sincerity sign on it, only it was upsidown, and had something else in the center. A small circle, with a squiggly line on the left side of it. “we have the Silver Tags.”
“What’s your Crest mean?” Matt asked as he looked at it.
“Sensibility,” Felina said with a small smile. “Val’s is Spirit, – even if she doesn’t act it; Kyle’s is Belief, because he believes nothing isn’t possible; Justin’s is Survival, having the ability to survive under almost any conditions; Alana’s is a Combination Crest, a special type of Crest, allowing the Digimon that she’s taming to go an extra level. Hers is Protection, Imagination and Healing. It fits her, because she likes to be the protector, and has a shocking imagination. No one is quite sure what the healing part’s about. Her other Crest, the one that transformed Horkamon into Deathramon, is Hatred, because she has such a hatred for man-kind.
“Nathan also has a Combination Crest. It’s known as; Effort, Strength and Endurance, because he has to do everything that contains some effort, and is quite strong, and he has the ability to endure things that would kill a normal human.” Felina sighed.
“Does he have another Crest too?” Matt asked.
“Not that any of us are aware of. But if he did, it would most likely be Leadership. He’s a good leader for our group.”
Tsunomon’s eyes were glowing. “Wow…” he said.
Felina nodded. “Yea…our group is really strange…”
“No, not that,” the Digimon said. “You’re really long winded.”
Felina turned slightly red in the cheeks. “I guess…but I don’t talk much, and well…Matt wanted to know stuff about us, so I told him.”
“Uh huh. Sure,” Tsunomon said.
“I--”
“Felina! Help me! Nathan’s being the all-mighty army-boy again!” Keelamon yelled. She then winked.
Felina’s head shot up, and she said a quick ‘talk to you later,’ then ran over to Keelamon.
“She’s cuuute…” Tsunomon said, looking up at Matt.
“Yea…” Matt said in a sort of dreamy voice. He had a far away look in his eyes as he watched Felina begin to explain to Keelamon that Nathan was just like that. But, Keelamon wasn’t paying attention. She was looking back at Matt and Tsunomon, and smirking.
“Ha!” Tsunomon said, snapping Matt from his trance.
“Huh?”
“I knew it!”
“What?”
“You like her! As in LIKE!” Tsunomon said, grinning.
Matt turned red in the face, and shoved his fist into Tsunomon’s mouth. “I do not!” he growled.
Tsunomon wasn’t able to answer, for there was a gloved fist in his mouth. But, he did manage to make a strange noise that sounded like; ‘uh huh!’ only not.
A few moments later, the group came to a fork in the road.
Nathan blinked, stumped. Alana walked over to him.
“That tree, and this fork weren’t here before,” she muttered.
Nathan nodded. “Yea, I know.”
Suddenly the tree came to life, and a two of the branches on either side moved.
“Who’s that?” Felina asked.
“No Digimon I’ve ever seen!” Dayakyumon and Tentamon said at the same time.
“I am no Digimon, humans. I am a tree. I was born here, and here I shall die,” the tree said.
“He’s lying,” Keelamon said.
“How do you know?” Sora asked.
“He’s a Digimon. He is known as Opisatirimon. He likes to mess with peoples minds, and tell them the wrong thing one minute, then the next he may be telling the truth. He’s a data type Digimon, and his attack is Leave Swipes,” the pink fox-dog Digimon said. “He also can’t move.”
“Hm…so Opisatirimon, which way to the Bladeramon Village?” Horkamon asked, crossing her arms.
“My name’s Chris. And the Village is that way,” Opisatirimon (Chris) said, pointing down the right hand path.
Alana smirked. “If I’m right, you’ll expect us to take the second path, but then you’ll expect us to take the one you’re pointing down.”
“What?” Justin asked, scratching the back of his head.
“He thinks we’ll think he’s lying, then expect us to go down the path he doesn’t want us to go down, but then we’ll think he’s telling the truth, so it’ll back-fire on him, so we go down the opposite path,” Izzy explained.
“I still don’t get it.” Justin replied.
“It’s ok Justin. We understand you have a small brain,” Metamon said, placing a hand on his DigiDestends arm.
“Quit insulting me. And, I don’t have a small brain.”
Metamon sighed.
Alana smirked. “So,” she said. “We go down that path,” she pointed to the path that Opisatirimon was pointing down.
Izzy nodded. “That’s what I got.”
Opisatirimon sighed, and disappeared into the trunk of the tree.
“How about this,” Joe suggested. “We send two DigiPairs to check it out. If they come back saying it’s good, it’s good. If not, we go the other way.”
Nathan and Tai nodded.
“Sounds good, Joe,” Tai said.
“But, who’ll go?” Mimi asked.
“How about Justin and someone from your team?” Nathan suggested.
“No,” Alana said. “Justin should stay here. We may need him. How about Matt and…” Alana’s eyes scouted the group. “And Felina. She’ll know how to get back, and Keelamon’s pretty strong when she DigiVolves if they need help.”
Felina blinked, then said, “How about Kyle going. Anthylamon’s stronger than Keelamon.”
“That may be true, but we need someone who can do this that we can have make it back. No offense to Anthylamon, but she’ll try to stay and fight, even if she’d half dead,” Nathan said.
“No pun taken,” Anthylamon said with a smirk. “Cuz it’s true.” She winked.
Felina sighed, then nodded. “Ok.”
Alana smiled slightly, then her face became sharp again. “We’ll wait an hour. If you’re not back by then, we’re coming after you.”
Felina nodded, and headed down the path followed by Matt.
After they had gone, the other DigiDestened began to seat themselves about the fork, and talk.
Kyle took Alana down the second path a ways, then began to talk to her.
“Are you ok?” he asked.
Alana nodded. “Like I said, I’m fine.”
“Alana, the others can’t hear or see us. You don’t have to act hostile toward me.”
Alana smiled slightly. “Sorry. I guess I just feel like…like I had a bad day—night.”
Kyle nodded, then pulled her into a hug. “If anything ever happened to you, I would loose it…” he whispered into her ear.
Alana didn’t answer, she only hugged him back.
The two pulled away after a few moments, then began to talk.
“You remember those other DigiDestened?” Kyle asked.
Alana nodded, her face had become sharp again.
“Somehow, I wonder if they were the second group to come here, because they arrived after us…”
Alana shrugged. “Perhaps. But, they could also have been the third group. Remember that my parents were here, too. And it’s sorta funny, but when I got here, Stunomon seemed to know me. She hopped up to me and said, ‘Alana! I’ve been waiting for you to show up! Your parents said that you’d be here sooner, though!’ I looked at her like she was crazy.”
Kyle nodded. “Yea…hey, do you think we should tell them…you know, about the Darkness?”
Alana seemed to go sour. “Not until we know if it’s them or not.”
“But, we fought Shantamon, and Gathomon yesterday! Then your Crest changed sides! It happened that way with your mom too. It has to be them.”
“My…mom…I remember that she used to tell me about an opposite world, where most of the monsters were kind…”
Little did Alana and Kyle know that they were being watched from the trees. “Not all of them, filthy child of Saturn. Your mother and father were stupid, and were killed just after they left this world by my faithful Digimon,” the dark shadow smirked, and the Digimon beside her whispered something to her.
She nodded, then went into the clearing, and cleared her throat.
Kyle and Alana turned to see an orange-gold haired girl who had a pail face looking at them with blue-green eyes. She was dressed in a black leather shirt and skirt, and knee-high black boots, with black fish-net stockings. Her hair was pulled back into a pony-tail. She also had on black gloves that were elbow long.
A Digimon floated beside her in the air. He had red eyes, and was a transparent smoky gray and black. His hands were large, and were attached to long arms. He had no legs to speak of. It was Shantamon.
“Who are you?” Alana asked, her voice hard and unrevealing of feeling.
“My name’s Jessica. Jessica Rekino. And my Digimon’s name is Shantamon,” the girl said in an almost sweet tone.
Kyle growled, and suddenly Anthylamon burst onto the path, hissing. Horkamon also appeared.
“Oh,” Jessica said. “I’m sorry if I frightened you. I had heard from other Digimon that humans were in this world, and I have been searching for them ever sense.”
“Well, you found us,” Anthylamon growled, her fur standing on end.
Jessica crossed her arms. “Can’t you be a little nicer to a person who has been looking for other DigiDestened for almost three months?”
Horkamon narrowed her eyes. “We’ve been here for nine years.”
“Oh, but I’d heard the about seven…no eight humans had shown up in this world around three months ago.”
Shantamon smirked, though it was hard to tell. “Yes,” he said, his voice sounding like ice. “and we have been looking ever sense.”
Alana glanced down at Horkamon. “What do you think?” she murmured.
“They…” she shook her head. “I can’t tell.”
“A telepath won’t help you,” Jessica said. “We don’t lie.”
“Fine. We’ll see what Nathan thinks,” Kyle muttered to Alana.
The blond nodded in response. “Yea.” She turned to Jessica and Shantamon, then said, “Follow us.”
Kyle, Alana and their Digimon headed back toward the group.
Jessica turned and looked at Shantamon, as though to say, ‘what idiots.’
Shantamon gave off an evil smile, and nodded.
When the three DigiPairs had exited the left side of the fork, Nathan stood up. He narrowed his eyes at Jessica.
You again…he thought. I know it’s you. He kept his eyes narrow, then he said, “Hello, Jessica.”
Jessica’s face paled by a few shades. Damn it! Not him! Not now! She thought angrily.
Matt and Felina walked in silence down the dirt path. Suddenly, Tsunomon spoke;
“We’ve gone for about twenty-five minutes. Why don’t you two stay here, and we’ll go ahead a little further?”
Keelamon nodded, getting Tsunomon’s idea.
“Yea, that way, you two can talk and rest and--”
“Yea, so, we’ll be back in a few minutes,” Tsunomon said cutting Keelamon off before she’d said anything embarrassing. He jumped out of Matts arms and they two of them continued down the path.
Felina stood, stunned. She sighed, and crossed her arms. “Well, I guess that’s that…”
“What?” Matt asked, turning to look at the blue haired girl.
“Huh? Oh. It’s just like Keelamon to do something like that…”
“Like what?”
“Run off with another Digimon, and leave two humans of the opposite gender alone. She did that with Val and Justin. When Justin got hold of her…” Felina shuddered.
Matt blinked, then smirked. “Yea, I guess you’re right.”
“How sickening,” a voice said as the eyes of a person watched the two humans talk. “No love should exist in this world. Only darkness. Isn’t that right Zach?”
A boy came out of the dark shadows and into the light that was in the center of the room. The person who had spoken was seated on the other side, in the dark.
The boy had dark brown hair, and brown eyes. He was in baggy tanish zip-off jeans, and a green tank-top that was partially covered with a button-down over shirt that was green. On the back it had a tiger.
“Yes, Nikajo, it is correct,” his voice was slightly heavy, considering that he looked to be about twelve or thirteen.
“And, that is why you have the black Crest of Darkness, isn’t it?” the person said in a sort of board voice.
The boy bowed slightly. “Yes, mistress, it is.”
“Go, now. And take Ninjeriamon with you. I want to take that blue haired girl, and her Digimon. Do not fail me, or I shall kill you and have Jessica take your part!”
The boy bowed, and walked backwards into the shadows, then disappeared.
Suddenly a Digimon appeared behind the person that had been watching Matt and Felina.
“Is it truly nescicary to do this, Judi?” he asked in a low growling voice.
“How many times must I remind you to call me by my rightful name? And yes, it is. If I am to rule this world, I want to rule it in darkness.”
“Don’t you think that Zach is the one who was meant to do this? After all, his Crest is Darkness. And yours is Cruelty.”
“If he were meant to do what I am doing now, he would have done it a long time ago when those wretched DigiDestened were here.”
“Which ones?”
“The ones that gave birth to Saturn.”
“Must I remind you that her name is Alana? She is rumored to be the lost mistress of the DigiWorld.” The Digimon said.
“Lost mistress! Bah! I could kill her with one move, and you know it.”
“Then why don’t you?”
“You know that I must wait. Do not tempt me, Gathomon.”
“Yes, master,” the Digimon disappeared.
“Soon all of this world will have a darkness that shall suit it. And, then, there will no longer be the great Silver and Gold tagged digidestened. There will only be the Dark Digidestened,” the girl laughed coldly as the scene faded into black.
