Oh noes! how'll Uryx react to being tied to a bed? Will he be pissed as all hell? Read on to find out!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Catherine Randal glances down to the pure-white digivice hooked about her belt, before dragging her goggled eyes back to the horizon. She's checking her compass, not wanting to lose her direction. The path she's taking is something of a deviation from her final destination - the Dark Master's Castle - but she hasn't forgotten that Arkadimon that had been following her companions. As yet another dusty, wasteland wind starts to pick up, she shivers, pulling the scarf around her neck a bit tighter. Although she's wearing a leather jacket and leather pants - apparently leftover from the data of a Beezlemon, or whatever it was called - the sand still manages to sting through it. The fact that she's getting hair, bleached blonde, in her eyes, too, isn't helping any. Although, thankfully, she's barely recognizable as Catherine - infact, she's succeeded in wiping away everything that made her Catherine - her looks, her clothes, her smell, and the auto-locator on her digivice. Should the others attempt to find her, it'll be as though she was never there. Which, unfortunately, fits perfectly with her grand plans. Even more unfortunately, though, is the slight sickness she seems to have caught - she can't stop shivering, and she reckons, to herself, that she's got a slight fever. It's lead to her sorely regreting not bringing extra water. But oh well, what can you do? She thinks as her booted feet dig into the gravely sands, and she continues treading, dragging the broom that covers her tracks behind her. Then she hears it, and barely manages to whip her head around before the Arkadimon smashes her form against the tower of junk she's been walking beside, constricting her throat. "Catherine Randal. Called Kensei in the Holy Sector. Seventeen and three-fourths. Failed three grades. Above average intelligence. Physically...unremarkable." He sniffs her a few times, running his nose across her face, and down to her abdomen. "Lost her innocence recently. And gained more than she knows. Nice disguise," it says to her somewhat snidely, running pupilless eyes over her form. "My Master's Master will be thrilled. My Master will wish he killed you himself." At her raised eyebrow, he exposes pointed teeth. "Reapermon," he says, to which she dully responds a gasped, "Ah." It is, however, his turn to gasp when she knees him - she wasn't expecting it to work this way - where the sun don't shine, and he falls back enough for her to whip out her digivice. "Execute: Fusion Spirit Evolution!" As he lashes out with a tentacle to strike before she can finish, she, glowing pure, intense white, holds up the taut chain connecting her two kamas in a block. Inannamon's armoured feet dig into the dirt as the Arkadimon's blow comes down. She's pushed backwards, slightly, by the force of the strike, but stands her ground before both shoving the attacker's bladed arm aside and simultaniously ducking under his guard. Her taciturn manner, unusual for the being Inannamon is evolved from, gives her a certain intensity and alertness that even Arkadimon finds unsettling. Even more unsettling is when her face is in his, and she has the chain contorted around his neck, pulling it with a throbbing motion every few seconds. Arkadimon's taloned fingers grab to the chain at his neck, scrabbling as his pupilless eyes drag up to meet her blue-green ones. Finally, he moves, cutting her swiftly across the cheek. In horror, Catherine recoils, dropping one kama and dragging an armoured finger across the injured flesh. She feels faint just looking at it, and her mind sourly agrees: Odd. Before there's time to focus on this, however, the Arkadimon is leaping at her, and she's dancing aside, smacking her leg with her free hand before spinning the chain to bring the other Kama back into aforementioned hand. "Come on," she growls as he rushes her again, digging talons into her utter torso and attempting to rend the flesh. She aims a high kick to his head - it strikes, and he reels backwards. "Come on," she repeats as again he rushes. She turns aside, slashing upward with the kama, leaving a fine crimson line on his chest. He, however, has impaled her through the shoulder with the tentacle, and though she twists away, she clutches the wound. Catherine glances back up, and as he's rushing her one last time, she kneels. Gritting her teeth, She slices her two kamas clean through his neck, throughly decapitating him in mid tentacle extension. His body halts, falling forwards, head sliding to the ground with a sickening slurp. Mindlessly, she glances around, and comes to the broom she had been using. She snaps it after hanging her kamas around her waist, then impales the slow-disolving body to the ground, then the head to the corpse. "A gift for Uryx," she mutters as she steps back to admire her handiwork, then turns back to her ultimate destination; the Dark Master's Castle. Catherine resumes her course on a quickened pace, not bothering to de-evolve or cover her tracks anymore.

Cyberdramon huffs as the nurses try to keep him in bed. His wounds were sufficiently healed, he thought, and he no longer needs to be here. Cyberdramon's significant stature was enough to ward off the entire nursing staff as he walked out unchallenged. He leaps to the rooftops and begins to make his way to the hotel. He considers thanking Catherine for her kind act towards him, but quickly recalls their earlier verbal tradeoff, and decides to "silently" show his appreciation. As soon as he reaches the hotel, Cyberdramon sits outside, waiting for something to happen.

Uryx emerges from the shower he had taken alone. For a while after he had regained consciousness to find himself tied to the bed, he had just thought, mostly about what Catherine had done & the reasons she gave him for doing so (though he was in a half-conscious daze at the time, he had heard Catherine's parting words quite clearly). Once he had decided to free himself (and did so in a scene worthy of James Bond, Harry Houdini, & MacGyver put together; unfortunately, there was no one around to witness it), he had taken the shower after all, working very hard to wash off all the grime that had accumulated for who knows how long. In his thinking, he came to the conclusion that his weak morals & emotions were behind everything, and resolved to abandon them, essentiallymaking himself a new person, Ryu, he decided to call himself from then on. He donned the black ninja garb Squall had goten for him & the black coat donated to him by BantyoLeomon. Ryu sealed Uryx away with Catherine in his thoughts & plunged them both into the far recesses of his mind, a place where they would probably never be seen again, as he grabbed his digivice, crest, & room keys and left everything of Uryx's (the guitar & his clothes) in the room. As Ryu entered the lobby, the Gotsumon immediately ran up to him and forced a smiling Ryoko into his arms. Ryu didn't at all listen to what the Gotsumon was telling him, and when Ryoko looked into her "daddy's" eyes, she realized he wasn't the same guy. He looked the same, certainly, but in his eyes it was obvious that this was not Uryx, or anyone that was at all fun, for that matter, his blank, emotionless eyes. Ryoko's smile instantly went away, and Ryu said to her, "You're going to have to grow up now, there's no place for the weak on the team." Ryoko listened, and she digivolved into Lunamon & adopted a serious expression & a no-nonsense personality. Unlike Ryu, Ryoko was still the same being, but she would never defy her father, and so did exactly as she was told. Still ignoring the Gotsumon, Ryu put Ryoko down & walked out of the hotel, Ryoko following close behind. Once he was out, he got out his digivice & contacted everyone on the team (except for, of course, Catherine, who was unreachable at the moment), "Everyone, meet me in front of the hotel," and he began to prepare the wagon for it's final trip. Ryoko mentally wished for her momma, "Father," she said, "where is mother?" Ryu shrugs and says, "I wouldn't know..." "Then I'm going to go find her," Ryoko tells him, his reply is a shrug and a "Suit yourself." She went to the person she figured would have the information she wanted, Dracomon.

Abyss recieved the message... and happily replied, "Well, damn... It's about time..." and set out for the underground city of Subterra.

Jex gathers his things up quickly with this message. He eyes his Black card a while, contemplating what exactly to do with it. Finally, he puts it in with his other two cards, rationalizing that maybe, somewhere, he'll be able to find out it's true purpose. Badramon looks up at Jex. For the first time, the intellect of Echomon shines through, as he says "That was Uryx, wasn't it? He...sounded a bit different." Jex hadn't noticed, nor does he really care. He only knew that this was it, the final push, and that he needed to be clear-headed for the upcoming battle.

Sitting in his room, Squall considered what he'd just heard on the digivice. -Was that Uryx? He sounded...different somehow. I better go see what's up.-

As the sun finally rises through the land, a girl with purple hair was sleeping on her bed with a blue digimon with two ribbons on his collar. The girl slowly turns to the left and then the right as something was troubling her in her sleep. In her dream she sees a dark figure in the sky and the sky is black and red. There’s a forest covered in blood and shadows. The girl looks around to the left and then the right and sees her friends leaning on the grounds and trees…dead. Her left eye glow black and yellow out of despair as the figure continues to taunt her. The figure then snapped his hand and a black ball appear and was launched right at her. The girl soon wakes up sweating and looks around to see if she was alright. The girl slowly rests her right hand on her face before getting up and taking a shower. She stood up in the shower and closes her eyes as the water was pouring on her body. She continues to think about the nightmare….was it a prediction for what might happen….who knows but all the things that happen so far in her journey was soon coming to an end. After a few minuets in the shower, the girl stepped out and slowly puts on her black T shirt and black leather pants with two chain belts on her waist. She slowly reached for her jacket and slowly puts it on. The blue digimon slowly wakes up and looks at her. “You seam troubled…..did you have a bad dream…Karen” said the blue digimon. Karen slowly looks at the digimon before turning her head “yeah…but it doesn’t matter…we have bigger problems to deal with…gaogamon…let’s go” she said as gaogamon slowly got up from the bed and opens the door with his claws. He slowly walks outside and waits for Karen. Karen slowly walks outside but another quick flash went to her head but she shakes it off and slowly rides on Gaogamon and heads out towards the others in a few minutes.

Abyss made his way across the sun baked land and across the piles of machinery, which was not much of a problem, since he was a shadow. Mauch of the machinery was still working, but he passed it this time, somthing big was going to happen, and he did not want to miss it.

Jex finally exits the front door after putting his key an the front desk without a word. As he sees the others gathering, he realizes what Badramon was talking about; Uryx looked completely different! Jex's thoughts began to run wild. What the hell? Has he lost it? What about Catherine? He quickly regains control, and awaits Uryx's announcment.

Karen and gaogamon cought up to uryx, and karen looked to the left as her hair was in her eyes....she looked like a total mess

Squall makes his way to the caravan. At first glance he didnt notice anything different about Uryx other than his wardrobe change. He had a cool demeaner but something was different. "Where's Catherine? She's not staying here is she?"

Abyss of course, makes a silent entry, jumping out of his shadow, and taking a few steps as it dissapates below him, and takes up its usual place.
"Reporting for duty." he said. "You're different... hmmm... whatever... just give me some orders... I'm bored..." he said. Abyss's eyes flashed a little bit with the demon in him. Obviously a little of the blood lust had surfaced. He pushed it back, and sat waiting.

Ryu looked around at those who've gathered as he finishes with the wagon. When Squall asks him the question he just replies, "Who's Catherine?" and then addresses the team, "I've decided that there's no time like the present, we're leaving towards the Dark Master's castle to end his reign today, if we keep up a fair pace, we should arrive there tomorrow."

Badramon recoils a bit at Uryx's question 'Who's Catherine?'. Something was off. Badramon becomes worried fro the both of them, but faithfully stands by his tamer. Cyberdramon speaks up, however, saying, "So, you've finally rid us that that girl?" he asks coldly. "Good. That'll mean less trouble on the way to the castle..."

Lisa stared out into the distance, "Almost time..." she said quietly.

"SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTHS ALL OF YOU..." said karen as she hits the ground with her right hand, so one of us goes missing and we treat her like we didn't exciste....what's the matter with all you...catherine may have some problems but without her we couldn't get where we are now...heck i would had still been in that darkness if it wasn't for her comming after me and you" she said as she gets up and walks to uryx "Didn't you have any feelings for her...don't you care about her more then this mission...tell me" she said as she grips on his shirt.

Abyss still sits waiting, not asking any questions about Catherine, obviously, it would not be wise to ask, and he wanted orders... "She's gone...and we won't get anywhere just yelling about someone who left... she could even be in trouble, and we not know it... so let's quite arguing and get a move on!"

Ryu ignored Cyberdramon and Abyss and regards Karen with his cold, empty eyes. He then repeats himself, slower this time, "Who's... Catherine?"

Squall stood there stunned by both Uryx's reply and Karen's outburst.

Lisa sighed, 'I knew it wouldn't last...' she thought.

Karen slowly looks down from him and slowly grips her right hand "....why you.....YOU JERK" she said as she punches at uryx "that's not what we should be saying....when a friend is in trouble...no matter what...we should go after them and bring them back but if this mission is too importing for you...then do it without me...i have a friend to look for" she said as she gets on gaogamon

Abyss gives no indication that he sees anything weird... he's seen a lot of things in his time as a merc, and this was one of those things.

Ryu doesn't even watch Karen, Badramon, and Jex leave, "If that's everything, we should be on our way." And Ryu walks to the exit of Subterra, Kuwagamon and the wagon loaded with explosives following him.

Karen's crest of friendship starts to glow light blue as she leaves towards another direction towards the dark master's castle to find catherine. -you saved me from the darkness....now i want to repay you for the favor- " come on gaogamon..let's go" she said as she fusion sprit evolved.

Squall, still confused, followed the caravan, determined to find out what transpired in the underground city and standing by his friend.

Dracomon, meanwhile, has turned his attention in almost desperation to each member of the party, helplessly observing Uryx's transformation. He stays back, mostly, although he regards Ryoko with red eyes, almost coolly as he assists in the packing of the cart. He says nothing to Uryx - now Ryu - judging that something has gone ridiculously wrong.

"Excuse me, Dracomon," Ryoko says, "Do you know where I might find Mother?"

Lisa stares at everybody, slightly spacing out.

Squall began patroling the caravan hoping for something to take his mind off of Uryx's strange behavior.

Dracomon twists his head to the side, before shaking his head. "I didn't know she was going anywhere," he confesses. "She showed up with her Kendoka uniform and bamboo swords and asked me to burn them. I didn't, yet." He goes to the caravan and retrieves the offending garments, then passes them to Ryoko. "If she left, chances are she had a damned good reason. Although this overall lack of care is highly unlike her."

Ryoko takes the things and nods thoughtfully. "Then I need to search for myself," Ryoko says, she then wraps Catherine's uniform in a bundle on her back and holds onto the weapons, "Hopefully, I can convince her to return, Father's changed, I think he needs her..."

Dracomon lifts his red eyes, full of desperation as he attempted to justify Catherine's actions. "Because she loves Uryx," he responds to Lisa with a furious lash of his tail. "I don't think what she's done she sees as being wrong. If anything, she thinks..." -That she's doing Uryx a favour,- Dracomon absently thinks, his teeth gnawing scaled lips. That she's going to end up killing herself so that he can get back to the real world. Dracomon, however, says nothing, and merely goes to attend to the Kuwagamon, nodding absently at Ryoko as he does so.

Lisa held Yukimibotamon tight, "Promise me you won't risk your life to find me, ok?" she asked quietly, so no one would hear her and Yukimibotamon nodded.

Abyss is walking behind Uryx, "Interesting..." he says, but then asks, "do you have orders, Uryx, perhaps I should go get the MOSES and bring it online for battle?"

"Call me Ryu," Ryu says to Abyss, upon hearing him address Ryu by his old name, "If you believe that you can get the MOSES to the castle and use its weapon systems on your own, then very well." Ryoko heads off ahead of the caravan, running as fast as her diminutive legs will carry her, -I must find Mother, before it's too late,-

Catherine has lost all her care in her lurching forward towards the Dark Master's Castle. The guilt of her actions weigh ridiculously heavy on her, and she fights to jusitify them in her mind. Her goals, since slaughtering the Arkadimon, have changed considerably, and came with an earth-shattering realization. The Reapermon is her target now - and she's putting all her energy into locating that Bounty Hunter, who, supposedly, is closer to the Dark Castle than Arkadimon was. The castle is finally visible to her, shrouded by darkness and encased in a valley below. Idly, she rubs her shoulder, covered in her own blood, and continues on. "You're running out of time," she absently chides herself. Where the hell is that Reapermon?

Ryoko is able to find a trail in the dust on the ground outside of the cave. It seems to have been made out of a broom being carelessly dragged across the ground. Since she saw no other clues, Ryoko decided to follow this trail in her personal search for Catherine, she continued running as fast as she could.

"So Ryu...what's your plan..." says Squall listlessly.

Catherine lifts her eyes, and she hears it behind her - apparently, her talking covered the arrival of the beast. She pivots about clumsily, addressing the cyborg digimon as she shakes and shivers. The look on his...skull...is pure contempt as he slashes a chain towards her, not bothering with banter the way Arkadimon had - business before pleasure; she is one of the ones that he's been paid to kill, even if she's not the highest paying bounty. Catherine moves to twist toward the side, grabbing, instead of the long, curved blade at her side, a pistol, which she proceeds to unload at Reapermon's face. Way too loud, she thinks, numbly.

"I've thought for a very long time about that, I realized that no plan we could ever think of that's not right on the spot could possibly succeed," Ryu said, "That's why I've decided the most logical course of action would be to come up with an ever-changing adaptable plan... in other words, wing it, but in a logical way. However, I have also decided that it would be best to do as much damage as possible before we even go in, thus the explosives. Also, it would probably be best if we learn to communicate without talking, that could get us killed once we get inside, that's why I've made up a system of silent hand symbols that represent words." Ryu then teaches the entire team his personal sign language (Now, when the characters talk in the castle, it'll be with this sign language, and would therefore be inaudible)

Okay, Ryu. I'll return to you with the MOSES." he replies and digivolves into his third form, draws his sword, and flies off into the distance. "Let's hope that thing can fly..." he thinks. At near mach speed, he began to fly towards the ocean, in search of the MOSES craft.
Upon finding it, he flies to the ground and begins to work his way into the ship, he had closed it off, so it could not be stolen. He had to re-initiate the thing manually, and bring it up to working status, which took a good while to do. "So where are the weapons systems?" he thought as he searched through the compartments and rooms of the ship, making his way eventually to the command bridge, which was, oddly, located underwater, on the underbelly of the ship. "What an odd place for a command bridge." he thought, as he searched through the lowly lit area for a re- initiation button. In the end, he just decieded to press the big red one. the ship started to shake considerably.
"Oh... damn..." he breathed. "This things gonna blow." but instead, the ship lifted off the surface of the water, and began to turn around.
"What the hell?" he said out loud, as it lifted hundreds of feet into the air. Within a few moments, he heard a small skittering and looked around. "Kokuwamon at your service!" a voice said. But it sounded like many hundreds of voices all speaking in unison. "We live in this ship and were assigned to it to do the work that the captain assigns, we obey you now, since we are captainless."
Abyss was speechless, "Uh... okay... ummm... get he weapons online, and give me control of the steering..." he said a little meekly... but then as the weapons appeared on the screendisplay in front of him, he realized what it meant, and took up the attitude of a captain. "Batten down the hatches, man those guns and set a course for Subterra! Let's move, now!" he commanded. The ship began to make it's way to Subterra, and Abyss called Ryu on the communicator he'd given him.

Ryoko was exhausted, but continued her pace until she saw something in the distance, -is that a digimon? an altar?- she was looking at the Arkadimon that Catherine had left behind for Uryx.

"Why, hello," the Arkadimon says to Ryoko somewhat boredly. It's slowly disolving away into data, decapitated and impaled there. It doesn't so much speak as communicate through telepathy, running pupilless eyes across the rookie's frame. "Why don't you keep your fingers to yourself? Unless you'd like to remove this stake so I can die properly."

"Agh!" Ryoko says in surprise, "Wh-what are you?" She's scared of Arkadimon, but realizes there's nothing it can do to her from that distance, and she approaches it slowly and carefully.

Over the communicator to Ryu, abyss began to transmit the location and status of teh battleship, MOSES, which was apparently flying, and it looked slightly more like a battleship that belonged in space, instead of a ocean-liner with guns.

"I'm Arkadimon. Underling to Reapermon," responds the corpse with some annoyance. "You were that little babe with the group of humans, weren't you? Curiouser and curiouser. Why'd they send you out here?"

"I-I came out here of my own will, I was not sent," Ryoko says, still scared of it, but being brave, "Tell me, Arkadimon, have you seen my Mother?"

"Your Mother? You're a digimon, silly girl, unless you mean that human bitch. Yes, I -saw- her," Arkadimon growls, somewhat annoyed. "And fought her. If you're looking for her, though, you may want to turn back around. If she's met Reapermon by now, she's dead. And even if she hasn't, her body is splitting her strength. She's dying as you're standing here with me, girl."

Lisa continued to stare out into the distance, eventually standing up, "I wonder when we'll get there..." she wondered aloud.

Karen continues to ride with gaogamon in search for catherine, She slowly pulls out her d-terminal and tries to use it's tracking device to find her

A look of horror crosses her face as she imagines her mother being killed, then it returns to normal, "Thank you for your assistance, Arkadimon," and Ryoko ran at her fastest pace, following the continuing trail of Catherine.

Catherine dives and rolls behind another weeping willow tree as the trunk explodes into a million tiny splinter fragments. For the first time, she's thankful that she went and got a leather coat, she thinks as she runs to the next tree. The Reapermon plods behind her, breaking the trunk to pieces, too. She's lost all hope - why digivolve when it's going to kill her anyway? Her hope is to prolong the inevitable now, perhaps leading it away from the direction of Subterra.

Echomon flys as fast as he can. Smelling the battle a long way off, he kicked it into high gear. Now, they can see the beast. "Scarlet Flare!!" Echomon calls as he rains fire onto the beast from above.

Karen continues to ride gaogamon as they pass the forest and soon reaching the willow trees

The Reapermon swipes at the air with its huge, long chain, aiming to bring the sickle on its other arm through Echomon's body. "Ah, hell," Catherine breathes as the Scarlet Flame impacts against the digizoid, unfortunately doing nothing. She grips the pistol again, as securely as she can with one good arm, and turns out to fire more bullets at the Reapermon - - which bounce off of the chrome digizoid "skull" that is its face.

Abyss orders the MOSES to accelerate, bringing it up to over 700 mph, and making it approach top speeds nearing mach speed within a short tim after. It is in cruise mode now, and thus moving as fast as it can, but for a limited time.

Ryu looks up to see the airborne MOSES approaching, -That was faster than I thought it would be.- Meanwhile, Ryoko continues to follow Catherine's trail into the Core of Darkness, -I earnestly hope my mother is ok...-

Abyss radios in again, and confirms his approach, and tells Ryu that he is rady for further orders. The massive ship moves directly above the caravan, and matches it's speed with it.... which makes it seem like it's not moving.

Echomon is undeterred by the ineffectivness of the fireballs. He dives sharply, but is unable to fully avoid the scythe, and is cut good. The two hit the ground hard. Jex rolls out and is fairly inhurt, but since he neglected to equip his gun when he put his armor backon, he finds himself useless. "No..." he says. "Dammit, Catherine's in trouble...Echomon! C'mon, get up!" Echomon is hurt, and is forced to revert back to rookie. Jex stares at the beast, in iron look in his eyes. Alright, this is my chance to prove to myself that I'm useful! Jex thinks. Badramon manages to stand, and the two suicide charge the beast in last-dicht effort to be of any use.

"No!" Catherine screams, lunging forward. It's no use, though - Reapermon has turned his attention to Jex and Badramon - who seem utterly helpless. He lifts his left arm, pointing it directly at the oncoming Jex and Badramon. "Bone Duster!" He declares in a deep, rumbling bass voice, the pillar of fire exploding from him, and hurtling towards the duo of Jex and Badramon.

Jex sees the blast and tries to dodge to one side. The attack misses, sure, but the resulting blast...it rips his armor to shreds, bloodies him up, and further hurts Badramon. They lay still for a brief moment, when Jex, driven entirely by his will, stands, with Badramon lifting himself weakly beside. "You...won't......hurt...her....." Jex barely manages to say, as a faint blue aura surrounds him and Badramon. He wrenches a peice of his twisted armor off with his bare hands, as a make-shift knife, and slowy death-marches towards the towering monstrosity.

"Very good," Ryu says to Abyss, "Just follow until we get to the castle."

"God, Jex!" Catherine hisses through her teeth as she rips her Digivice from where it hangs on her leather pants. "You don't even like me!" She's not helpless, though, and she runs the energy disk from the hand of her limp, injured arm through the port on the pure-white digivice, her crest faintly glowing as she utters something that's impossible to hear over the Reapermon howling victory and spinning about, a terrible fiery tornado that threatens to suck up everything forming about him, his voice echoing, "Burning Cyclone!"

The aura around the two foolish "heros" flares a split second before being engulfed in the flames.

The Reapermon turns back to Catherine, who is still in the middle of a Spirit Evolution. She barely manages to dodge a fiery blast, digging something that's appeared into her hand into the rocky dirt in order to keep her balance throughout the dodge. "Jex!" She screams, rather pissed off now. The Reapermon takes advantage of that brief second of concern, and smacks her upside the head with his chain, sending her sprawling into the nearest willow tree. Ow.

Sprial Twister" said Gaogamon as he shoots a sprial twster from his mouth. " black hell dragon attack" said karen as she shoots out a black dragon from her hand and has the dragon merge with the twister to make a black twister attack at reapermon as they were at range for an attack

The flames break apart, and with a yell of "WARDRAMON", a red Digimon with dragon's wings and a cape burst forth, deftly severing Reapermon's chain. "I thought I told you...YOU WON'T HURT HER!!!"

"MOTHER!!!" Ryoko shouts, not recognizing Catherine, but somehow still knowing it's her. Ryoko runs over to Catherine's side and says, "Mother! Are you ok?" her eyes are full of concern for her maternal figure.

The Reapermon looks torn from butchering Catherine, stopping his spinning and aiming a swift punch with his digizoid fist to slam Karen and Gaogamon away, then turning slowly to face Wardramon. It growls, lashing chain out at him, aiming to drag and pull him forward, then slice down with the huge sickle on its hands. Catherine, meanwhile, blinks her eyes a few times, her Spirit Evolution stopped from a brief loss of consciousness. Dumbly, she turns her eyes up to Ryoko. "There's no light," she says, vaguely, before closing her eyes.

Karen and Gaogamon were blown back from the attack but shakes it off as they run at the reapermon at high speed before pulling off another team attack

Ryoko is puzzled by the statement by Catherine as she was passing out, but took it to mean that since there was no light, she wasn't dying. She sighs and takes comfort in this fact as she stands next to her mother, watching the battle carefully, ready to help if necessary, despite being a simple rookie level digimon.

Wardramon puts an arm up. The chain wraps around his forearm, and he is dragged foreward with a jolt. As Reapermon swings with his scythe, Wardamon simply brings up his free arm and blocks. He feels his arm buckle a little. -Not an enemy to be taken lightly...- he thinks. He thrusts upwards, sending Reapermon's scythe flying upwards again, and Wardamon breaks out of he chains. "Dragonic Edge!" he calls. His Edge Gauntlets energize to hyper-heated levels as he thrusts to drive a blade into the demon monster's heart.

The Reapermon stumbles backwards, cluching at its chest, before barking a mechanical laugh and whirling the chain over its head to impact with Karen and Gaogamon once more. The Mega digimon, having no heart, isn't terribly injured by the attack, although some of the circuitry about his chest has clearly been cut. It slams hand forward to grab, and squeeze, Wardramon.

Wardamon's really stuck this time. No heroic dodge, no super-secret sword technique. Wardramon tries with all his might to break Reapermon's grasp. He won't die because of this, but he sure as hell won't escape easily, either.

Karen and Gaogamon fell back a great distance and karen reverted back to her human form while gaogamon was out cold. Blood started to come out of her mouth as she pucks but she slowly stands up and moves her right hand to the left. "30 seconds....that's all that i can manage" she said as a digital code was wraping garound her right arm. "exicute....Hyper evolution" she said as she reverts to her hyper form

Catherine's eyes open slightly, and she staggers to her feet. Despite one of her shoulders having a massive hole through it, she lifts the hand with grit teeth, and echoes the words Karen just said, but not before lightly and absently patting Ryoko on the head. Reapermon, meanwhile, is bringing his sickle-hand up, intending to slam through Wardramon, and end the dual-lives of Jex and his partner.

"Mother, no, you mustn't overexert yourself!" Ryoko says, "Please let them handle this, if you die, Father may never return to normal!"

Karen now Has a black hair and cat ears, yellow cat eyes with a green necklace on her neck. Two large angel wings on her back. Wears her same clothes but in a knight form fashion except theirs blue orbs on her hands, a dragons mark near her chest, 9 cat tails on her back. The colors now are red and blue, A Blue shied that she has on her arm. She slowly moves her sword towards the ground before chainting some words that surronders her with black and red energy. She soon picks up her sword and moves a bit before launching herself at reapermon at advance speed

-No...If I die here...the others...- the thoughts rush through his mind. The world seemed to go in slow motion as Reapermon brings his scythe up... In a singular eruption of strength, Wardramon breaks Reapermon's iron grip as the scythe comes down. Ducking to one side with lightning reflexes, Wardramon uses his white-hot blades to cleanly cut the scythe from Reapermon's arm. Wardramon darts up to look the beast right in the eyes. "You, sir," he says evenly, "pissed off the wrong dragon." Wardamon kicks Reapermon in the face, not necassarily to hurt him, more just to kick him. But it is an impressive kick, toppling the massive Digimon. "Now," Wardamon says, breaking his even tone with a hellacious "...you get to experience a little bit of Hell."

The Reapermon pushes away Karen before its hand is sliced clean off. It doesn't change its expression as it looks to Wardramon, its skull-head still glaring at him with a sinister smile - the only expression it can show. Even as it is toppled, it is smiling.

Catherine groans softly, one of her knees buckling. She falls to kneel, not managing to run the disk of data through her digivice to complete the transformation anyway. "Uryx," she says, faintly. "I'm doing this so he and the others can go home." She falls forward, fainting once more.

Karen skirts back for a bit before coughing up some blood "damn....my body is damage much worse than i thought but i have to end this Karen starts to spin her blade like a top as it starts to glow "Dragon’s Twister" she said as she sends a vortex of wind at reapermon

"Mother..." Ryoko says softly as she goes over to her fallen body, then says, "Father doesn't care about anything anymore, though..."

"DRAGONIC EGDE!!!!" Wardamon yells. His blades energize again and grow two, three, four times their normal length. Wardramon brings a blade down onto it's skull, cutting throught the Digizoid as if it was warm butter. Seeing the Dragon Twister approach, Wardamon gets an idea for a big finish. He jumps into the whirlwind and spins, his swords and the twister forming a whirling death wind. The force is so great, it picks Reapermon up and drafs him in, ripping him to little peices that fly left and right from the vortex, while the others nearby seem unaffected. Wardramon stops spinning and quickly runs to Catherine's side, standing behind Ryoko. "Are you alright?" he asks in a raspy tone, as one would expect from a dragon.

Catherine says absolutely nothing in reply, being utterly unconscious, flat on her face on the ground. She doesn't move at all, perfectly motionless on the ground. Her wounds are apparent - a clean hole through her shoulder, a cut across her face. Her hair is stained with her sanguine blood.

"yeah...we ...did it" she said smiling but her body starts to shake and she coughs up some more blood before slowly falling towards the ground and reverting to her human form. Her red and black digivice starts to break into tiny little pieces and Karen's eyes start to fade

Wardramon retracts his blades fully as he kneels by her side. He checks to see if she's alive desperately, with an honest look of panic in his eyes.

Ryu looks down at Karen, the caravan not far behind him, "Better take care of her, I suppose," Ryu had just caught up and decided that more allies meant a higher chance of victory. He was willing to ignore Karen's earlier words for that reason alone.

"I'll help," Lisa said, now speaking since she hadn't talked for so long.

Catherine continues to lie motionless, her fingers not twitching, her chest not moving at the provocation.

Lisa went over to Catherine, "Is this... Catherine? If so, I'll help," she said.

"What about mother?" Ryoko shouts over to Ryu. "Might as well heal her too..." Ryu says, not seeming to care about Catherine at all.

"....it turned out just like the visions that i had .....except i'm the one cover in blood instead of you guys....which makes me glad" karen said smiling before puking up some more blood

"Catherine, if this is you, don't worry, I'll make sure you'll be ok," Lisa said as she got her bag and pulled a few bandages out, starting to wrap them around her wounds.

Uryx's voice is what brings Catherine to move, coughing and then inhaling sharply, her eyes opening. "Don't touch me," she says, very quietly, as she pushes herself with her only working arm up. "Don't touch me!" She gives Lisa a vexed look. "Deal with Karen. I've got," she says, vaguely, "to go. For Uryx."

Wardramon sees Uryx. He shoots him a dark look like none before it. -Uryx...what has become of that fire you once had?- he thinks as he realizes that Uryx is dead, replaced by this...this souless monster of a man.

"Mother, no!" Ryoko insists, "Father needs you to be here with him, he may never return to normal if you aren't here. Don't you see what's going on here, look at him!" Ryoko tugs Catherine's arm to get her to look at Ryu.

Ryu just stands there, watching, not seeming to care what happens.

Lisa slightly glares at Catherine as she gets up and walks over to Karen, "Maybe Karen'll appreciate my help." she said as she goes over to Karen, "Ok, where are your wounds at?" she asked.

"well lets see...my stomach...my arms...pretty much my legs...the only thing fine is my head....guess i can't be a tamer now that my digivice is gone" karen said laughing sightly

Catherine lifts her striking blue-green eyes as she turns, looking at Ryu. "That's not Uryx, Ryoko," she says, simply. "You've gone daft if you can't recognize him. I left him," she says vaguely, her stance becoming slightly slouched as she blinks her eyes a few times, "I left him. I..." She drifts off, looking unsettled. "He'll never forgive me. I'll never forgive myself. I hate..." She stops herself, then just turns again, and starts to walk towards the castle.

"Then you are of no use to us," says Ryu coldly to Karen, "We should keep moving, neither of these two seem to need us."

"No... they were partially my fault, I was the weakest link, but now I'm strong, and so I'll show you all," she said as she continued to bandage her, eventually finishing, "All done," she said.

-CATHERINE! She's leaving, I've gotta tell her that I still love her!- Uryx says, Ryu replies -What's the point, she abandoned you. Go back to your corner and let me handle this-

Wardramon sighs. Uryx is gone. Why should Wardramon care if he dies? It wouldn't be Uryx, it'd be someone else. No...this isn't the same man they met seemingly so long ago. Now...the only thing keeping Wardramon from leaving is Sayori. "This is...truly unforgivable. Who are you, and what have you done with Uryx?" Wardramon says without thinking.

"They probably don't want me with them, Catherine, Uryx, they don't need me, they've never seemed to show it..." Lisa said.

"you should go with the others now....i'l just stay here for a while...i'm no use now" Karen says, "we shouldn't be fighting with each other.....we all have our uses to the team and we need everyone to defeat the dark master"

"Then you're coming, Catherine doesn't need me, she has herself, and Uryx, and the other, little Digimon," Lisa said.

"okay" karen said as she looks at lisa until a bright light came from the sky and landed right next to her right hand. A blue and white D-Terminal appered and shown Karen's ledgendary sprit of darkness "well look at that.....it seams that i can fight again..ow my ribs" said karen as she moves her right hand towards her stomach

Catherine stops dead in her tracks and turns around. She's holding her pistol, and pointing it directly at Uryx. "Sonofabitch," she growls, her blue-green eyes intense. "If you leave Karen behind, I'll kill you. Will you be too weak to do something about that?" She doesn't recognize Ryu as Uryx, everything about him being so damnably...alien. "You never leave anyone behind. Ever," she states with a hiss. "Everything has a purpose and a reason. If you're not dead yet, there's still a goddamned chance." She moves her partially limp arm, her face contorted with pain, to wipe blood from her eyes. "Everything I do, I'm doing for Uryx. He's my leader, and I won't have some heartless asshole ruin everything!" She extends the hand with the gun, her finger on the trigger quivering. "Forgive me," she finishes, although she doesn't fire.

The words of Catherine and Wardramon get through to Uryx. "See? She still cares, and she's right! I should never have created you!" Uryx yells, Ryu shrugs, "If you want to be hurt and tied to a bed again so be it, I'll always be here though." "I don't care, stick around, so long as you don't take control again, you heartless bastard." Uryx says. Ryu chuckles, "heartless bastard, you're so amusing, I'm nothing more or less than what you are, you did create me after all, I'm just not tied down by pointless emotions." With that, Uryx's eyes turn back to normal, "Catherine? Is that you? Why are you pointing a gun at me?"

Gaogamon slowly walked towards Karen and slowly rest on her body "...it was an honor serving you.....i wish you tamers luck in saving the digital world....good bye" said Gaogamon as he slowly turns to data and goes inside karen's body

Catherine drops the gun as Uryx speaks to her, starting to sob softly. "I'm sorry," she mutters, miserably - she never would've been able to bring herself to shoot someone anyway, even though she is a fighter. "I'm so sorry. I'd rather see myself dead than Uryx hurt." It's as though she still doesn't recognize him, in his ninja garb and huge coat. She swallows hard, wiping away her tears - it's the first time her facade of cool, calm control has broke in front of the entire group. Catherine falls to her knees, looking about to faint again, her eyes tightly shut.

Wardramon eye's widen at this change in Catherine. He is shocked, mostly, but this was not an unexpected occurance. No...I knew she had it in her... he thinks, satisfied she has fianlly shown her true colors, if only partially.

Uryx kneels next to Catherine, "Then you obviously didn't realize how much it hurt when you left, Catherine, I'd rather be dead than be without you, to be that... THING!" he said putting acid in his voice when referring to Ryu, who simply chuckled again in his head. He begins to hum one of the tunes he had played for her on his guitar so long ago.

Karen slowly moves from the ground and looks at the sky before shaking "no.....don't go....please...i need you to stay....it's no fair.....it's not fair...GAOGAMON" karen screams before hitting her hands on the ground before they bleed. Tears are now comming out of her eyes. "why didn't he run when i was with my friends....why did he chose to stay with me"

Lisa sighed slightly, "Well, we should head to the castle soon..." she said.

Catherine calms slightly, leaning her head against Uryx's shoulder, ignoring the fact that she's still bleeding freely. "I'm so sorry," she says, with utmost sincerity, "I won't leave you again, ever." Her eyes are still tightly shut, but she shudders. "Oh, it hurts," she whispers faintly.

"You guys go ahead, I'll catch up, except you, Lisa, do you have a card that could heal Cat?" Uryx says softly, holding Catherine in a way so that his coat covers them both.

Lisa looked through her deck, "I believe I do..." she said, pulling a card out, "Want me to go and use it?" she asked.

Karen slowly got up and moves straight towards the path towards the dark master castle...

"Please do," Uryx practically begs Lisa.

Catherine says nothing, her head still rested on Uryx's shoulder. She's focusing her entire energy on breathing ragged, laboured breaths.

Ryoko smiles, happy to see that her mother and father are reunited and that her father was back to normal. Oddly enough, despite Ryu's order to her no longer being valid, she remains unchanged, maybe she was meant to become what she now is all along. Either way, all she does is smile again.

"Ok, Digi-Modify! Dream Healing Activate!" she shouts as a purple-ish glow surrounds Catherine, "That should do it," she said.

"Thank you Lisa," Catherine murmurs as she opens her eyes, looking down at what was her injured shoulder, experimentally flexing her fingers. No pain, thankfully, shoots up to her shoulder, and she breathes a gentle sigh of relief. "We should continue moving," she says vaguely - while her wounds have been healed, her blood pressure remains unchanged, her faintness still there.

"No problem," she said, "So we're going to the castle now?" she asked.

Uryx had also taken a bit of the healing energy and his stomach finally ceased its aching. He stood and nodded, "Yeah, let's go," and he waited for Catherine to stand, vowing never to let her leave him again.

Catherine stands slowly, careful not to overwork herself - she's no fool, she knows that if she stands quick, she'll be out cold once more. She partially leans against Uryx, wrapping her arm around him for balance - she wasn't expecting that, and figures it must be a side-effect of the blood loss, or perhaps the healing energy. A slight frown passes her lips, and she looks about to say something, but cuts it short.

Uryx supports Catherine, still holding the big black coat over the both of them, as they walk towards the Dark Master's castle. -So, what d'you think the odds of our victory are?- Uryx asks Ryu, who responds, -I think, if the Dark Master's other minions are anything like this one, you guys are doomed, and that's not even considering the Dark Master's own power. If you're going to win this you're going to NEED my help.- Uryx mentally nods, -Very well, you can stick around, who knows, maybe you'll grow a personality...- -Hmph, I have a personality, unlike you, you're basically an amalgamation of a bunch of fictional heroes.- Ryu says coolly. Uryx says, -Maybe you're right, but maybe that's just what this team needs after all.- Ryoko trails close behind, not hearing Uryx and Ryu's conversation because it's all mental, and so she's happy and confident that her father is back to normal for good. She begins to hum a tune she doesn't remember hearing as they continue to their final destination.