Hey there! Been awhile….blame puppies, tests, Xmas presents, and sheer lazyness XP.

This is a bit of a mindscrew chapter…well, maybe more than a bit. You have been warned, so please buckle your seatbelts and hang on to your brains. Things get ever complicated….I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: You know, I'm glad I don't own Digimon. Think of all the Digimon I'd have to feed Oo

"Ah great, not you again,' Takuya whined.

Kari's caramel eyes narrowed, letting Gatomon drop to the sandy ground. "What do you want?"

"We're here for the freaks," Rika replied simply.

"Hey, who are you calling freaks!" JP barked, causing electricity to surge all over his chubby body and forcing his hair to stand on end.

"Well, let's see..." Rika began, posing as if in deep thought. "You're half-Digimon, you become full-fledged Digimon when your DNA is manipulated into data, you have Digimon powers when you're not fully Digimon...you know, most humans can't do that..."

"You know, most people can't merge with cyber organisms either,' Takuya taunted, red-orange flames combusting around him.

"Ooh, sophisticated words there, boy," Rika retorted. "You know what they mean?"

"Rika, we're not here to start a fight,' Renamon calmly reminded her auburn-haired Tamer.

She sighed. "Look, our point is that you need to come to us to Hypnos."

"Why should we?' challenged Zoë, a mini-cyclone twisting around her making her hair writhe as if it were a gathering of snakes.

"Don't be stupid!" cried out the other Tamer. "You have to come back with us! We're here to save your necks! You don't understand the risks you're taking! I'm all for sacrifice, but what good can you do if you're dead?"

"We can take care of ourselves, thank you very much," Koji growled.

"Well, if you care to know," spoke up Furiemon, a slight feral hiss to her speech. "Your families seem to be quite certain that you're dead."

This simple comment was greeted by unopposed silence.

"Didn't think of that, did you?" Rika hissed. "No, all you guys could think of was about your own selves. And, you know, we ain't gonna look too good if you guys turn up dead on our watch."

"Yeah, you've spent so much time here that you've forgotten about what you left - your families," stated the other Tamer. "They've been worried sick about you. We were flooded with their pleas when we were on that case involving you guys. Do you know that the kids there are afraid to let their kids walk the streets because they fear them just going up in smoke?"

"You have another life, one that you should be living, or at least remembering," added her dragonized kitsune. "Humans don't belong in the Digital World any more than us belonging in your world. The ones with partners exist merely to keep the two worlds in check."

"But...we can't go back," Takuya stated. "We've tried going through the sky portal a million times! It won't let us through!"

"It probably won't let you through because it can't determine what you are," Rika explained simply. "Our Reverse Juggernaut Barrier was made to both weaken Digimon when they try to pass through and to keep abnormalities, such as, say, the D-Reaper, from crossing over to the real world. There are no records of a true hybrid of Digimon and human, besides the results of BioMerging. If it can't figure out what you are, you're an abnormality. If you're an abnormality, it won't let you pass."

"I see..." Takuya replied quietly. "But Lady Ophanimon, she summoned us for a reason! We're supposed to be helping protect the Digital World!"

"So that's how it is," replied the golden fox, locking her blue eyes onto their gazes of the Legendary Warriors. "All she has to do is snap her fingers and you come running, huh? Well, what if she wanted you to stay forever? What then? Are you just going to forget your home, your family, your world? Are you just going to cast aside your humanity like some useless shell, and become nothing but data, letting your human memories slip away, until they are no more?"

"She'd never ask that!" barked Takuya.

"But what if she did?'

Restless quiet.

"Allright,' Takuya said finally. "We'll go."

Rika let out a small sigh of relief. "Finally."

Emma also seemed to be reassured. "I'm glad you've realized that you still have your lives back in the real world. Furiemon!"

"Ready."

Emma brought out her seagreen-and-white D-Ark, brought out a card, and slashed it through the slit.

"Digi-Modify! Digivolution Activate!"

Instantly her reptilian fox was wrapped in a green sphere. The scaly skin began to melt away, releasing the wiring inside for further shaping. Her snout became longer, her body sleeker, and her arms were transformed into running legs, making her a tetra-pedal creature. Two long horns erupted from the sides of her head, and the claws on her feet lengthened greatly. Her tail grew much thicker and longer.

Silver, leathery skin was painted silver, and soon intricate emerald markings appeared on her. She slashed at the bubble, breaking it.

"Taremon!"

While this was occurring, Renamon had morphed from her humanoid kitsune Rookie form to her sleek, fox-bodied Champion form, Kyubimon.

The redhead climbed onto her dragon Digimon. "Get on."

While the Legendary Warriors did so, Rika turned to the teenage teacher and her Gatomon.

"We'll be sure to get them back home and fix...whatever's been done to them," Rika reassured. "You can rest easy now. Rika Nonaka's got everything under control."

"I see..." Kari replied. While she did not particularly care for the Tamers, she knew that they were more than capable guardians, and felt that this matter was best left to them for now. "C'mon Gatomon."

"Fine..." Gatomon grumbled, as Kari opened a portal to the real world.

Watching the DigiDestined and her Digimon leave, Rika mounted Kyubimon. "C'mon, let's go before anything else happens."

Emma nodded in response, and the two Tamers took off on their Digimon, the Legendary Warriors in tow.

Takuya boredly watched the scenery pass by, noticing how more and more vegetation seemed to be popping up from the ground as they left Sartamon's territory.

Well...guess, it's for the best... thought Takuya After all, I do have a family to think about. I mean, my parents would freak if they found out I was in the Digital World all this time. They're terrified of it! And my bro...Shinya might end up following me here. Not a good thing. So, guess it better end now before things get outta hand...

Oh...but you still have so much to do for me

Takuya snarled inwardly, unconsciously stirring up embers in his hands.

Whaddya want?

Oh, nothing much. I just want to do what I want you to do. Nothing more, nothing less.

Well, I'm going back to normal now, so guess I won't be of much use, huh?

Do you really think it's that easy to escape? You forget what you are

Takuya rubbed at his wrists as they began to grow sore. Yeah, but so what? I know you're not stupid enough to attack the Tamers' tower here, and I'd be easily overpowered anyway.

Ah, but you could cause so much chaos. Even if you are unable to exterminate them, you could wipe out so many of those measly humans...

Takuya quivered slightly, though not enough for anyone to notice. Sure, he despised those Tamers, but he didn't want...

Well, I might as well, leave you alone for now. I'll just wait until you're inside.

With a low laughter, the Warrior of Fire felt the voice's presence die away.

Damn him

"Takuya, something wrong?'

The baseball-capped gogglehead turned to see Zoë studying him worriedly.

"Oh, it's nothing."

Zoë didn't seem convinced, but diverted her attention nonetheless.

Takuya sighed and looked to the scenery once again. Now what was he supposed to do? If he stayed with the group, he would no doubt take things into his own hands. If he abandoned them, the others would follow and get suspicious, and if they figured something out, then that would break the deal, and then...

But they want you here. They need you here

Takuya jumped. That other voice was all too familiar, but this one...this one was distant, and yet so close. It was a very haunting voice, concocted of children's voices, but with none of the innocence, with a hissing voice in the background.

Who are you?

You know me

Takuya paused. Did he know him? Something about the voice he seemed to know...

Why are you leaving?

I have to go back

Why?

Because I have a life in the real world

And what is so great about this life that you would surrender yourself to the Tamers to reclaim it?

Well...I've got a lot of people who care about me there

Do you? It seems humans do not care so much for their companions as Digimon do for their comrades.

That's not true!

But isn't it now? No one noticed you before, in that world. You just drifted through life, making random "friends" to get by, and hoping that you wouldn't be stabbed in the back. And certainly you would have never met the other Legendary Warriors, as they too were too busy maintaining their defenses to form a true friendship.

But how-

I know everything about you, as I should, and as is expected. You humans, you always bury your secrets deep within yourselves: spite, hatred, fear, love. And yet it never really works, now does it? Instead, you have explosions of emotion when you never need them.

It would be so much easier if the human world operated like the Digital World. Nothing is held back here. All that frustration is transformed into energy for fighting. But you humans have to make things so complicated, trapping yourself in elaborate lives, where you can only quiver in fear of those above you. Why must humans make things so complicated?

Takuya remained silent.

But here, here you are a warrior, a hero! Instead of cowering under your fellow human's power, here you are powerful. Here you can destroy anyone who dares to challenge you. You are the one that leads, and you have the power to lead and protect the Digimon. Are you just going to abandon them for your sake, like last time?

The Warrior of Fire cringed at those last words. That's right, the last time he went back, he only ended up returning, because he realized the others needed him.

What will they think, when they heard the Legendary Warriors gave up without a fight to those imposters that call themselves Tamers? Certainly you won't let these weaklings best you and take your glory, will you?

No way

The fact that you, a human, has been gifted with Digimon powers, is amazing to these Tamers, no doubt. In fact, it must be so amazing that they would want it bred into their Tamers themselves. Of course, they would need to figure out how the Spirits work, so they would need you and your friends to find out.

We'd never tell them how the Spirits work!

Who says that you need to tell them? By simply surrendering them to be fully human again, they are gained accessed to them, and then they could do whatever they want with them.

I...never thought of that.

Or maybe they never plan to return you to the real world at all

Huh?

You think the Tamers can be trusted? They could very easily conduct experiments on you and your friends to get the answers they want. All they have to do is say that you were killed by a Digimon, and no one would ever suspect a thing. Why, they could even turn you into mindless weapons! Wires, shocks, operations, needles; sounds like fun, doesn't it? So, you could very well, be walking right into a trap. Are you willing to risk your, your friends, and the Digital World's fate in their hands?

No. Takuya thought, eyes narrowing. He didn't notice it, but flames were circling around him.

So, shall we attack them now, or shall we wait?

...Let's wait. I can damage the Tower then.

Sounds like fun! Oh, and that other one...don't worry about him. He has no idea who he's toying with. We will deal with him soon enough.

Good. Let's do this.

Data Set 19: From Another Side

AeroVeeDramon sucked in the ash-filled air around him, drinking it in as much as he could. Once at full capacity, he held in inside him, feeling the air morph into energy. Throwing his head forward, he swung his fierce jaws open and aimed for Justimon.

"Magnum!"

A brilliant golden light erupted from his throat, slashing through the air and crashing into the red-scarved humanoid.

"Ngh!"

"Arrrrrrwk!"

The dragon Digimon snapped his huge head in the direction of the speeding Phoenixmon, determined to ram into him. She let out another dual-voiced war cry as she blazed through a couple of misplaced Pegasusmon, destroying them instantly.

Using his seemingly battle-worn wings, he shot up out of the BioMerged Tamer's range, letting her rush by below him. Taking another deep breath, he prepared to fire another Magnum attack when Justimon shot up to him and kicked him hard in the stomach. Since the energy blast was ready, the attack shot out of his mouth and crashed into Justimon. Both Digimon landed on the ground dazed for a little bit, then leapt back into the fight.

"That's it, AeroVeeDramon!" Davis cheered behind the unsure safety of a large rock. "You show that Master Tamer Ryu or whatever that he's not so tough!"

"Davis!" Sartamon called, parrying an attack from the BioMerged Boltmon. "Watch out!"

The gogglehead DigiDestined whipped his head around to see a huge fireball, courtesy of one of the Phoenixmon attacks, about to land not so far away from where he was.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, leaping out of the way and barely escaping the explosion and flames that ensued. "Too close..."

"Davis!" AeroVeeDramon called out, flying over to his human partner. "Get on my back. It's safer than being here on the ground."

"No kidding," the brunette answered, hastily climbing on the blue-and-white dragon.

With a couple of mighty flaps AeroVeeDramon was high into the sky, narrowing avoiding another fireball crashing down.

From here, Davis realized the full scale of the destruction caused by the battle. The green grass was now mostly scorched ash, craters, and burning plant matter, thanks to the female pyromaniac of the Tamers. A lot of the front of the white castle had been scorched black also. The attacks of the opposing sides screamed though the air, filling the air with colorful and dangerous displays of power. A steady stream of data particles rose from the site, some being from fallen comrades, while others came from the environment itself as the assaults pounded it into oblivion.

"Man, there isn't gonna be any castle left at this rate," Davis remarked.

"I know,' AeroVeeDramon replied. "Hang on, Davis!"

His partner found himself gripping on the huge dragon for dear life as he nose-dived back into the fight.

High up on a cliff overseeing the castle, far above even where AeroVeeDramon had flown, stood two figures. One was a teen with crazy, chocolate-hued hair and matching eyes, and was standing right at the edge of the cliff. The other, was another boy, a good deal shorter, with slicked down red hair and dark brown eyes, and was sitting on the left side of the cliff. Both showed much interest the intense battle below.

"Shouldn't we stop them?' asked the redhead, continuing to study the chaotic scene below.

"Why bother?" responded the chocolate-haired boy. "Doesn't matter if we separate them or not. They'll just end up fighting somewhere else."

"Guess you got a point,' answered the redhead, turning his gaze away from the struggle. A digital frame of an object appeared in the redhead's lap. A moment later a 'skin' was scanned onto the object, fully materializing it. It turned out to be a yellow-and-white laptop, which the boy immediately began putting to use. "Besides, he's down there anyway. He'll make sure things don't get too out of hand."

"Well, I dunno about that," the chocolate-haired boy growled, summoning a fireball and bouncing it around on his foot. "I mean, it's him we're talking about."

"I severely doubt he's stupid enough to actually try anything," the redhead answered, never looking up from the computer. "I mean, it would defeat his entire purpose of being down there. Besides, at least he isn't bugging us."

"That's true," answered the chocolate-haired boy, now bouncing the fireball casually on his knee. "Well, I'm bored. I'm gonna go harass some other Tamers."

"You do that," replied the redhead, closing up his laptop. "I'm going back."

"Fine. See ya later."

"Later."

Both teleported from sight.

So, whacha think of all the sheer insanity that is this story? Please RR and tell me!

Thanks!

Cya!