"Wizardmon?"

The mage sighed as the sarcastic voice began again. "Yes?"

"Still mooning over your lost love?"

"She isn't lost."

"I wasn't talking about the damned cat."

"I know. But your words grow tiresome."

"Tiresome? As tiresome as being shackled to a third-rate Champion such as yourself?"

"It has been no pleasure outing on this end either, vampire."

"Of all the digimon to approach!" The voice paused. "Why *did* you let me in, knowing who I was?"

Now the wizard chuckled. "What better way to keep an eye on my adversary than to have him close by?"

"Knowing that I would be powerless to leave!" the voice ground out bitterly.

Shrugging, Wizardmon smiled a little behind the upturned cowl of his cape, but it was a gallows smile without real humor as he answered: "I wasn't sure. There was always the possibility that my magic would not be strong enough."

"You could release me. Be free to take her in your arms again."

"I could."

Silence between them. Wizardmon was grateful for the respite. It often seemed that Myotismon was trying to wear him down with sheer unending banter. Not that he ever would surrender the spirit of his old foe: there was too much at stake.

Like keeping Gatomon's peaceful world safe for as long as possible. Oh, there would come other enemies; however, they at least would not be him: the vampire that had hurt her so. He would endure anything to keep her from having to face Myotismon again.

"She would be happy to see you, you know? Positively ecstatic, I'd wager. She'd rush forward and leap into your arms.

"Hmmm." was the noncommittal reply.

"Then after long moments of close hugging, you'd be pulled to her bedroom. She'd drag you onto her plush floor and start to undo your clothing; slowly at first.

"Enough."

"But she would be unable to resist for long," the voice ignored the command. "Claws would snag that moon-shaped zipper clasp and pull it downwards. Soft, silky paws anxious to reach down inside to the bottom to rub and caress-"

"I said that is enough!" Wizardmon screwed his eyes shut as his hands gripped the brick wall of the roof top.

Damn the vampire! But he was NOT going to give him any satisfaction by reaching down and dealing with what those words had wrought upon his flesh. He was not going to-

"It would weep and she would wipe it away with her rough tongue."

Clamping down on the roar that wanted to burst from his throat, Wizardmon violently pushed himself away from the wall, away from the roof, pivoting as he took flight to put as much distance as he could between himself and the two figures he had been watching through the distant patio doors of the HighView Terrace Apartments building. He flew straight for the ocean bay near to where he had one time fought the vampire with Gatomon at his side and where Myotismon had had him thrown into the water. This time, he willingly dropped into the cold depths.

He emerged a minute later, cold, wet, and in control again if only for the moment.

It was hard, so hard not to go to Gatomon and let that scenario Myotismon had painted for him become reality. But the fact of the matter was that keeping the vampire locked away within his mind meant that he could not indulge in anything that would involve Gatomon. Would he have his enemy within be a necessary voyeur to any relationship with his love? The monster who had sought to destroy her privy to every unguarded word and caress?

No. No, it was better to let her think he was still dead. Let her make a new life for herself with her partner.

He would bear this for her. And she would never know about it. He would not stoop to troubling her serenity with this dilemma.