Not much to say, this chapter actually begins on the same night the previous one ends instead of being the next day straight away, but I let you know when the next day comes, don't worry.

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Catherine sits up, clutching the covers to her chest. She's now ungodly tired, but she slips out of the bed nonetheless, and proceeds to make a show of searching the room for her clothes. They're scattered everywhere, she notices, as she pulls her jacket out from underneath the bed. Her battered, beaten and bloody gymclothes she inspects before tying it at the proper location on her chest, and then pulling on the pleated skirt-pants above the shorts. She pulls the jacket over her chest, glancing into a mirror as she pulls her hair into a tight braid, more out of a lack of things to do with her hands. "I should wash them," she mutters, before grabbing her digivice and one of the two sets of keys - as well as Uryx's socks, and leaving the room. Before she closes and locks the door, however, she pulls the socks on over her feet, and proceeds to slide down the banister using aforementioned socks, landing neatly on her feet in the lobby.

Lisa held up her D-Arc and pressed her communication button, hoping that Catherine wouldn't ignore her, "C-Catherine?" she asked as she waited nervously for the response.

Catherine glances, with some surprise, towards her Digivice. "Heya?" She asks, pressing the communication device. "What do you want, Lisa?" Her stutter was gone for the time being, left with her sounding highly amused.

She pressed the communcation button again, "I just wanted to say that... I made up my mind... and if its alright with any, or all of you, if I could join the group again...?" she asked nervously, still waiting anxiously for the response.

Catherine considers briefly, closing her eyes and exhaling sharply. -I don't want to deal with this right now.- "I'm sure," she replies, calmly, "that Uryx would be willing to welcome you back to the group. We're in the hotel in Subterra now, if you want to meet there."

Lisa laughed a bit, "I'm sorta staying here too... and I'm not so sure about Uryx... I don't think he exactly liked me..." she said.

Catherine lifts an eyebrow at the laugh, rolling her eyes, although there's a slight smile on her lips as she does so. "He'll get over his personal dislike of you, if he has any. We're all professionals here."

"Ok... and I'll try and make myself more useful... for your sake..." she said.

"Don't worry about it. We've all got roles to play here," Catherine says somewhat automatically, a little annoyance seeping into her voice. She's been so disconnected from Lisa for the past...forever...that it's hard to have any empathy with her. Although she'll be damned if she's going to let this group fall apart again.

"O-ok..." she said, not sure if what she considered her "role" would be useful enough for the assault on the Dark Master's castle.

Catherine sighs deeply, stepping over to what seems to be a small cafe located in the side of the lobby. She requests coffee in a quiet tone, and thoughtfully partakes of it, twirling her braid about in her other hand as she briefly considers their options. After Uryx recovers, they're going to be heading to the Master's Castle. The thought makes her freeze and set down her coffee cup with a gentle tinkly thud. There's no small amount of dread in her mind when it comes to that inevitable confrontation.


The next morning:

Uryx slowly awakens, the pain in his stomach now constant, but not nearly as painful as he remembers. He slowly gets up and rubs his eyes, wondering if last night was a dream, but certain evidence proved that it was not.

Catherine is sitting in one of the chairs provided by the room - she likely came back sometime after her leaving last night. She holds, in her hands, a coffee mug, and occasionally sips from it as she gazes out the window to the subterranian city. She's fully dressed in her Kendoka uniform, save the jacket being open slightly, revealing the gym shirt she uses as an undershirt. "Morning," she says, blandly, before taking another sip of coffee. "If you want to keep being bedridden for a bit, I wouldn't protest."

"No, I'm feeling much better now, really," he says as he grabs his clothes and gets dressed under the covers. When he emerges from the covers he asks, "So, are we actually going to go to the hospital and get my coat today?" and chuckles a little.

Catherine blushes a light shade of pink as she sets the coffee mug down, standing. She winces slightly - various muscles of hers are in some pain - then nods. "Yeah, if you want to go do that, we can." She picks up her armour and proceeds to buckle the tare, chestguard, and gloves around her form. She doesn't let her eyes leave Uryx as she pulls hood over her head and mask over her face. "Want me to carry you?" She asks finally, stretching out arms.

Uryx stands, the pain in his stomach growing slightly more intense but not nearly as bad as the previous day, -I must heal quickly,- Uryx muses. "Na, I think I can handle walking on my own," he says.

Catherine inclines her head, rearing backwards on her heels as she does so. She forces a slight grin behind her mask as she spreads her arms wide, shrugging. "Suit yourself," she says, turning to unlock the door, and open it.

Squall still sleeps in his room with Griever and Ryoko.

Uryx walks out the door, smiling at Catherine as he passes and out into the hall. He stretches once he's out, which does nothing to help the pain in his stomach but does wonders for his joints.

Catherine follows Uryx, closing the door shut behind them. She makes a face at his stretching, although her expression doesn't show behind her mask. "L-let's go to the hospital," she murmurs, moving to grab his hand. "Get your coat back."

Uryx takes Catherine's hand and together they leave the hotel and make their way over to the hospital. When they arrive at the hospital, Uryx walks up to the Pucchiemon and says, "I think I left my coat here when I left the other day, do you know where it is? It's brown with a greenish tinge to it, and it smells like it's never been washed, and it's full of stuff." "Please, no more," the Pucchiemon begs, "I know what you're talking about, unfortunately, when you disappeared yesterday, we went ahead and burned it."

Squall wakes up to find Ryoko devouring a bowl of rice. Griever hands the man an equal sized-dish, then begins to eat his own food.

"You're kidding, right?" Catherine asks, giving the Pucchiemon an icy glare. "You burned it. Okay. But did you burn all the cra-," she glances at Uryx, and corrects herself, "stuff inside?"

"Stuff? We thought it was just an old fur that was kind of heavy, we didn't realize it was used to hold anything," Pucchiemon replies, Uryx's eye twitches, -it's ok, it's not like I kept anything important in it... JUST MY WHOLE LIFE!!!-

"Even the guitar?" Catherine deadpans. In her mind, she's wondering how you can't notice all that sound when the coat moves. Good Lord.

"It's ok," Uryx says, his eye still twitching, "I'll just get a new one..."

Catherine glances over to see Uryx's eye twitching. She looks back to the Pucchiemon, and says, somewhat dangerously, and somewhat sultrily, "Are you sure you burned that coat?"

After ther meal, Squall decided that the three should take a walk (mostly because he was hoping to run into either Catherine or Uryx...he loves kids but damn).

"Oh, no mistake about that," the Pucchiemon says, either not paying attention or downright ignoring Catherine's tone, "It was by far one of the most disgusting things we've ever seen or smelled, even worse than a wet Gabumon. And then he disappeared and we figured it must not have been that important, so we burned it." Uryx said nothing about this, his expression was a somewhat solemn one, as if he were paying the last respects to his now gone coat.

"Uryx," Catherine blandly, but firmly says, "Maybe you should go outside. I'd like to talk," one of her gloved, armoured hands is now resting on the hilt of her sword, "to this Pucchiemon in private for a bit." Her green-blue eyes firmly rest on the Pucchiemon's figure, and her tone is still extremely dangerous.

Uryx walks back outside the Subterran hospital, too sad to think about why Catherine had asked him to leave.

Karen slowly wakes up and looks at the sky before scratching her head. She slowly goes outside of her room and starts to wander off

Catherine's sword is out in an instant, and she's idly tossing it from hand to hand. "I'd suggest," she mildly murmurs to the Pucchiemon, as she takes a step towards him, "that you see about procuring a new coat for Uryx, seeing how you burned his old one. He's got no fur, you see." She pauses, her tone spiraling towards demure when she speaks again, "...Terrible thing, really. I also suggest you compensate the losses of whatever was inside that coat." Her fingers rest on the wood of the kendo blade, and she pulls slightly - revealing, to the Pucchiemon, that there is an actual metal blade in there.

Squall's walk took him to the hospital. "Hey, Uryx. What's up?" he asks upon seeing his depressed expresion.

The Pucchiemon gets the point, and quickly nods and says, "Right away, ma'am," and runs into a room behind the reception desk. Meanwhile, outside, Uryx sees Squall approaching and says, "Nothing... I just lost my coat forever is all..."

Karen slowly walks down the street and slowly reaches the hospital and looks at them " hey guys, are you feeling at least 80%" she asked them

Catherine slides the bamboo back over the metal sword, as though nothing happened. She leans against the reception desk, waiting the Pucchiemon's return.

Lisa was out and about for the day, looking for the group since she had now returned unofficially, and managed to see Karen, Uryx, and Squall.

Squall stood thinking about the ratty old coat. He even had it back at the orphanage. Most kids had toys or blankets that were inseperable...well he had that coat. "Well this might cheer you up," said the man as he ruffled through his pouch at his waist. He then tossed to Uryx a ninja garb.

When the Pucchiemon returned it was with a heavy black coat, "This was all we could find, it comes from one of our nicer patients that doesn't seem like he'll ever fight again, so he said you could have this coat." The coat was big and black, the previous owner was obviously BantyoLeomon. Uryx grabs the ninja outfit and smiles a little, "It's... nice, thanks Squall..."

Catherine takes the coat, but remains standing. "And the compensation for the priceless valuables left inside the burned coat?" Catherine asks, still statuelike in her leaning against the reception desk.

Karen turns to the left and sees lisa "hey..."she said as she smiles sightly and waves at her

Lisa slowly walked over to the group, and looked at Karen, returning the wave and smiling.

Squall pats Uryx's back consolingly. He turns to both Karen and Lisa. "Hey girls."

"W-We're a nonprofit hospital, we treat patients for free, we don't have any compensation, but all of us extend our deepest sympathies and apologies. The previous owner of that coat says that it's priceless, if that's any consolation..." The Pucchiemon was trying its best to get through this event without becoming a patient at that hospital itself.

Catherine pulls the mask down, exposing the scowl on her lips, only intensified by her icy gaze. "Get a guitar. Now."

"well i say it looks nice...." Karen said as she looks a uryx before turning to squall "hey squall...still giving him a hard time?"

"Umm... hi..." Lisa said rather quietly as she finally made it over to the three.

"R-Right away!" and the Pucchiemon runs off again.

Catherine rolls her eyes, tapping her foot somewhat impatiently as she waits for the Pucchiemon to come back. -I'm glad this place doesn't treat mental patients,- she thinks to herself in dull amusement. -Otherwise I'd find myself in a straightjacket.-

"Do I ever stop?" says Squall, jokingly. "Speaking of 'hard time'" says the man, turning around and lifting the moonmon following him, "This belongs to you,"he says handing her to Uryx.

The Pucchiemon returns with Uryx's old guitar, smiling, "As it turns out, this fell out of the coat before we burned it, pretty lucky, huh? So we won't have any trouble, will we?" it asks hopefully. Uryx takes Ryoko, and she sees his sad face and gets a solemn expression too, as if Uryx's feelings had a direct effect on her, like she knew to mourn the loss of something dear without him saying a word.

Catherine takes the guitar in her only free hand, glaring at the Pucchiemon for several seconds before turning around and moving towards the exit. "Very lucky. Thank you for the excellent treatment that you gave myself and Uryx. I hope you've giving Cyberdramon the same respect." She glances over her shoulder and hesitates. "I'll pay you back for these. Promise." Then she passes from the hospital's portal, holding out the coat and the guitar to Uryx. "It might not be as good as the original," Catherine says with a small, pained smile, "but it's the wearer of the coat that imbibes the good properties."

Uryx looks up at Catherine and sees the new coat she's offering him, he blinks twice, "You're seriously giving me THAT coat?"

Lisa looks over at Catherine and gives a slight wave, smiling nervously.

"Um, yes," Catherine says, nodding over towards Lisa before looking back down at Uryx. "...Why?"

Squall steps back, not sure if Uryx really liked or was repulsed by the coat.

"IT'S AWESOME!!!" Uryx shouts, with a big smile crossing his face, as he drops Ryoko and the ninja garb to grab it, "This looks like, it is, BantyoLeomon's coat, I can't believe he would part with it, least of all for me! This is one of the greatest gifts I could ever receive!" And with a flourish, Uryx dons the new coat, his time of mourning over the old one officially at an end. The coat suits him perfectly, as if when it was made it was meant to someday be owned by him, it also made him seem bigger than he was. He immediately afterward gave Catherine a great big hug, ignoring the pain in his stomach, "Thank you so much for this."

Catherine's expression immediately shifts from concerned and mortified to relieved. She grunts as Uryx hugs her, before lifting her hands. "Merry Christmas," she says, coolly. "Or was it happy birthday? I'm glad you like it. Just don't stink up that one, and we'll call it even." -Besides,- her mind thinks before she can stop it, -I owe you something for all that fun.-

Lisa stood there, watching Uryx go crazy for the coat, 'They sure do care for each other...' she thought.

Squall calmed, seeing their leader did like his new coat.

"But, what about my crest?" he said, realizing that was also in his coat. At the moment he said that, however, a glowing came from the inside of his guitar. When Uryx took it from Catherine, he shook the source of the light out, sure enough, his crest had survived as well ,-Did it know that it was in danger? Strange...- He put the crest in a pocket and attempted to put the guitar in it as well, but was disappointed to find that it just didn't fit, so he said, "Well, I guess I'll just have to keep it on the wagon from now on..."

"I suppose so," Catherine replies, dusting herself off neatly. "At least it won't be crushed in combat, though."

Uryx then looked around to see who all was there with him, he hadn't taken the time to notice earlier. As he looked around, his eyes stopped on Lisa and went cold, "Have you decided to stick with your allies this time?"

She closed her eyes and nodded slowly, "Yes... I will aid you with what powers I do have, I promise," she said.

Squall stood ready to break up another fight if he needed to.

Uryx nods, and then looks up and smiles, "Good enough for me, welcome back to the team." Maybe it was the previous night, or maybe it was the elation from this new coat, but he was feeling particularly forgiving that moment, "but you have to promise not to abandon us again, deal?"

"I wouldn't try," she said, with a slight smile on her face.

Catherine remained still whilst Uryx and Lisa spoke to each other, her blue eyes hooded, her lips lightly pursed. In time, she says, "Uryx, when are we going to m-move the Caravan again?" The mere idea of it makes her shake slightly, but she manages to hide the dread she feels well enough.

Seeing that everything was fine, Squall turned to walk off with Griever. He hadn't had a chance to fully explore the town.

"Not yet," Uryx replied to Catherine, "We're still on vacation, remember? Let's just take things easy for now. Then we begin to prepare the team for the oncoming battle, I don't intend to leave this city until we're a coordinated force to be reckoned with!"

Jex and Deedramon have since emerged from the hotel to walk about. They pass near Catherine and the others, but have no intention to stop untill Deedramon opens his big mouth. "Hey Catherine...*sniff-sniff*...you smell funny...Hey! You smell like U--" Jex stomps on the little Digimon's snout. Jex looks at Catherine apologetically, "Sorry..." he says. "Deedramon! It's impolite to say people smell bad to their face!" The baby looks at Jex sadly, and says, "Sorry, Catherine...."

Catherine blinks her blue eyes a few times, then shakes her head. "I know I've not showered recently," she says, somewhat apologetically, "But I'm always careful when I go to the bathroom." It appears as though she's misinterpreted what that "u" sound meant. She seems to be honestly sorry though, her mood spiraling back to dispair as she turns to face Uryx again. "Maybe I should go do that."

Jex walks off, repremanding the little baby, but not really being harsh. They vanish behind a few buildings, off on a little sightseeing trip.

"Now that I think about it, I should get a shower myself," Uryx says, he then sniffs his armpit and winces, "Yeah, that's ripe... but you're welcome to go first, just get me when you're done."

"Or," Catherine mutters very softly, only for Uryx to hear, "We could be kind to the environment and save some water."

Uryx gets the idea, "Ok, I'll catch up with you guys later!" he waves as he grabs for Catherine's hand. Ryoko grabs the ninja garb Squall had gotten for Uryx and stows away in his new coat.

Catherine grabs Uryx's hand, and promptly follows him, she glances to Ryoko in Uryx's coat, "Damnit, can't we shove her off on Squall again?" She hisses through her teeth.

After a while of walking about, Jex realizes he han't seen or heard anything from Sayori. In a hurry to get back to the hotel, he also realizes he is lost. Not good....

"Don't worry about her, I have an idea," Uryx says, grinning as they head back to the hotel.

Catherine merely clings to Uryx's hand, partially letting him lead her. Of course she's going to worry, she thinks - although the stupid grin on her face doesn't reflect those thoughts at all.

As Jex wanders the streets, he sees several things; a vendor selling toy Digivices, a shrunken head salesmon, A Burgermon stand with three golden arches above it, and a fur salesman, among other things he wished he hadn't seen...

Squall and Griever aimlessly walked through the streets. The two turned a corner and came across what seemed to be a weapon store. Upon closer inspection he noticed a pair of chrome digizoid metal knuckles. He looked down at his own iron bands wraped around his hands and made his way into the store for a new purchase.

Uryx thinks, -I really hope they offer some sort of babysitting services at that hotel...- as they walk through the door into the lobby. He immediately asks the Gotsumon at the front desk, "Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to offer daycare services to patrons of this hotel, would you?"

Finally, Jex finds himself in an alleyway. As he walks down the dark corridor, Deedramon's muscles tense. "Jex," he says, "I smell Digimon...Following us!" Jex whips around to find a pair of Mushroomon weilding knives, pointed at Jex's stomach (as they can't exactly reach his neck). Deedramon jumps from Jex's arms and in a brave tone says, "Leave my Tamer alone!" The slightly smaller Mushroomon looks at the tiny dragon and laughs, kicking him away. The bigger one looks at Jex threateningly and says, "Your money, or your life!"

Catherine lifts her eyebrows and nods distantly to what Uryx is saying to the Gotsumon. Her mind, however, is elsewhere, coming up with a somewhat complex plan. There's dread eating away in the pit of her stomach, though she does her best to dismiss it.

In a burst of energy, Jex kicks the knife out of one of their hands, but the other quickly stabs him. Deedramon looks at the two muggers and angrily yells "Bubble Blow!" spewing bubbles at the aggressors, who laugh at the pathetic attampt to defend his tamer.

Squall joyfully left the store, the knuckles already on his hands, and dieing to test them. Walking by an alley he sees someone in trouble and two mushroommon. He rushes in attempting to smash one's skull in.

The two muggers move towards Deedramon. "You know, kid, since the Primary Village was destroyed...if we kill you....you don't come back!" The two approach slowly, laughing as Deedramon stands tall. "No!" Deedramon says. In a burst of light, Deedramon Digivolves to Badramon and fires a burst of flame at one, while Squall, seemingly from out of nowhere, smashes the other in the skull.

"Certainly not!" the Gotsumon says with an odd look on his face, "but I don't mind looking after a little one if you're going to be busy." "Great!" Uryx replies, -everything seems to be going just my way today!- "Ryoko!" Uryx says into the pocket Ryoko was in, "This nice digimon would like to play with you." "Oh! Really?!" asks Ryoko excitedly, she jumps out of the coat and says, "Hullo new friend, I'm Ryoko! or at least that's what daddy calls me!" As Ryoko introduces herself to the Gotsumon, Uryx is already starting toward their room.

Catherine continues to cling to Uryx's hand. What she's planning will go behind his back, and possibly piss him off greatly, she thinks as she absently trods after him, absently shaking red hair from her eyes. It'd also require Echomon's help, if he ever re-evolved.

Badramon and Squall run the mugger off successfully. Badramon runs to Jex, takes him by the collar of his shirt and dragging him around the corner, which, ironically, leads right to the hospital.

Squall, although worried about Jex, grinned, seeing the effectiveness of his new arsenal. He left the alley seeing what else there was to see.

Uryx and Catherine return to their room and Uryx removes his new coat, hanging it on a chair, and leaving the guitar against the wall.

Catherine, meanwhile, busies herself undoing the buttons on her jacket, absently running through the motions as she continues to think. Her eyes turn to the floor and she stares at her bare feet for a moment, and her plotting is interrupted, briefly, by her wondering if she'd ever be able to tie a lace when next presented with shoes.

Badramon drags Jex into the hospital, completely ignoring Squall. The attandants quickly began to aid the injured Tamer as Badramon looks on. They take Jex to a room, where they patch him up. The wound wasn't bad, so with a bandage and some nasty medicine that he didn't intend to take, Jex walks out on his own. As the duo try to find Squall to thank him, they realize he has already galavanted off. Oh well, they think. Jex and Badramon make their way back to the hotel, eager to put their adventure today behind them for now.

Uryx begins to take his awfully filthy shirt off, for the first time noticing just how awfully filthy it is, -huh, I suppose this shirt IS all I have to wear... except- Uryx then remembers the ninja outfit Squall had gotten for him, -heheh, that Squall, he takes everything I say too seriously... a lot of people do...-

Catherine absently pulls off her jacket, and then proceeds to untie the gym shirt that serves as a bra from around her chest. Standing there in her skirt pants, she looks over to Uryx with a curiously bland expression, grabbing her jacket as she comes up behind him. -Maybe,- she thinks to herself, -I won't need Echomon's help at all.- She stares at Uryx's backside for a moment, trying her best to be indifferent.

Uryx looks over at Catherine and smiles, the entire world revolved around her to him at that point, and he wouldn't change it for anything.

"Sorry, Uryx," Catherine says, standing still for a few moments, then drawing her sword. "I'm really, really sorry." She moves as though to smack him upside the head with the flat of her blade, aiming to knock him out.

All that crosses Uryx's face is a look of shock as he's knocked out, not knowing at all what was going on.

Catherine closes her eyes and exhales sharply, picking up Uryx's digivice and putting it on the bedside table, then putting one of the sets of keys there as an afterthought. Quickly, she lifts Uryx's limp body on the bed, and ties him down, kissing his cheek when she's done. Turning around and starting to get dressed, she begins to talk in a quiet tone, not certain if he would come around for it or not. Oh well - it made her feel better. "I'm sorry, Uryx," she chatters as she shivers, starting to button the jacket with shaking hands. "B-but I c-c-can't let you go after the Dark Master. You mean too much to me." She begins to unlock the door, then glances back over her shoulder. "I'm r-really sorry. I just d-don't want to see you get killed." She shuts the door after she leaves, hurrying down the stairs and pulling her gloves on as she does so, looking about to cry.