NOTICE: This was originally put on the last chapter space, but seeing as how I am now updating this story from the ground up, and this particular entry will no longer be updated, it is being moved to the front here so you have immediate knowledge that this story won't be continued here. If you want to read the new version, look at the new "Digimon Tamers: Inner Demons" on my profile page. This old version will otherwise be retained for posterity.

Greetings, all. Infinity Blade here, though my friends call me Ken.

It sure has been awhile, hasn't it? Nearly two years have passed since I've uploaded the "latest" chapter of Inner Demons, and there's been nary a peep out of me on this site or anywhere regarding my own fanfiction, since.

There's been any variety of things getting in my way. Work, a lot of times. I've also been fairly busy, on the fandom end of things, with some role-play at a Digimon themed game I've been helping run for awhile. I've never forgotten about Inner Demons, but since I uploaded that last chapter, there's been something just not quite right, bugging me, and keeping me from continuing forward.

Actually, if you'll go into my reviews, and check one by BenignUser back in February, you'll get a good feeling of where some of my problems rested. The (very well thought out, I appreicate it!) criticisms expressed in there have actually been bugging me for years. I let the story get ahead of itself; I have word documents several pages long just full of plotlines for this series, and I got to where I was trying to cram them all in and keep every character busy all at once.

To the point where things got rather disjointed, and I lost sight of the main plot.

Eventually, here, I had written myself into a corner. To be honest, nearly two years ago, I had produced a little bit of Chapter 21, but could never get much further than that. Because, by all intents and purposes, I had written myself into something of a corner and couldn't quite get out of it.

As of this writing, I've only just looked at my reviews and story traffic for the first time in almost a year. I really do appreciate that people have continued reading what's here, and am glad that new people have discovered and enjoyed it. That's the best part of writing ANYTHING, to know that even just one person enjoyed what you wrote.

But, again to BenignUser's review, as said... I can't just give up on something that I've spent 4+ years on. So, here and there over this past year, I've actually been piecing my plans together for a re-write. Some things will remain the same, some things might be drastically different. And, hey, maybe even a bit more depraved in some instances. That's always fun, eh?

But the most important part is that I want to make the story more cohesive, coherent, and a bit more streamlined. Not just have random crap pop up for the hell of it. I like to think I've improved a lot as a writer over the years, and particularly in the past couple as various friends of mine have forced me to stretch my writing muscles on a more regular basis.

"But, hey, didn't you try rewriting that old 'Silver Lining' story once before, only for it to not go anywhere?"

Yeah, I did. But, eh. That ended up being something of a lost cause, most unfortunately.

ID, though? In terms of fanfic, silly though it may sound to some, ID's my baby. The only thing that killed my momentum were my own errors in plotting, and my immaturity as a writer and person in general.

"Great. So how long are we gonna have to wait for Impmon to evolve THIS time?"

Yeah, there's one criticism that was consistent across the board a lot of times, at least. XD

As I said, I realize my plot got disjointed. I lost my focus on Takato's plot at some point, and even I'll admit, even WITH the Tamers anime's casual approach to evolutions, that sort of took too freakin' long.

FOUR YEARS, MAN.

JUST FOR ADULT LEVEL.

Yeah, that was a bit silly.

"...again, though. You start stuff a lot of times and never finish 'em. This, Silver Lining, Divided Paths, that one Megaman Zero story you only spat out a single chapter of..."

I've gone into my immaturity back then, obviously. I'm a bit more dedicated, now, towards providing a more consistent product and more frequent content. Barring real life, anyway, that's my INTENT.

I'm not going to leave folks hanging, this time. I'm going to wait until I've worked out rough drafts for any number of chapters to make SURE I do have that cohesive story there before I even start posting anything. So I may drop off the radar for another month or so here, but I WILL be back, this time. Promise. For reals.

In the meantime, I'm going to go ahead and show off what I HAD produced of chapter 21, just under two years ago. It's only two scenes, and it's the very last of this incarnation of Inner Demons. I do apologize to anyone who HAD read this story, and got left on such a horrible cliffhanger. This actually won't help that too much more, but... it's something, anyway.

For a few fleeting seconds, Devimon and IceDevimon seemed but blurs of black and white in the air. Then, an instant later, both were halted in mid-air by one another, their Death Claw and Frost Claw attacks colliding. The two physical strikes had struck each other, their claws locked together. There they stayed for several more moments, two pairs of crimson eyes trying to bore holes into their twins.

"Such impudence," IceDevimon growled. "Thinking that you, a newly evolved Adult, can stand a chance against me. All the Digimon I've defeated and loaded..."

"Yeah, well," Devimon said, "that was before Renamon kicked your ass."

Both broke free, and dropped to the dirty ground at the same time.

"I'll give you one chance to forfeit your life. No sense in letting such a proud fighter suffer in humiliation."

Devimon scoffed, grinning madly. "I should do the same for you, jackass! You don't have any of your Field Controller tricks anymore, and your buddy over there already used up two BIG power-ups beating the shit outta me earlier."

IceDevimon's eyes widened a bit, as did Yosuke's. The fact they were down two major Psi Cards hadn't crossed their minds, it seemed.

Devimon jerked a sharp thumb back towards Takato. "But my Tamer's all recharged and primed to kick your asses. That's what you get for tryin' to be flashy. Me? I just prefer to brawl it out."

He punctuated that last sentence with a hard punch towards IceDevimon's face. He caught the punch effortlessly, his eyes turning blue and glowing. He scowled, a cold mist rising from those eyes. "Do not test me. I am still far more powerful than anything you've ever experienced."

Devimon's red eyes grew even brighter in their color, flickers of flame appearing around them as he blinked. "Oh yeah?" he asked, leaning closer. "You wanna test me on that, Frosty?"

"ZERO FREEZE!"

Twin beams of blue light shot out of IceDevimon's skull, but Devimon reacted just as quickly.

"NIGHTMARE WAVE!"

Similar, flaming blasts launched out of Devimon's eyes, striking IceDevimon's attack head-on. The beams met without much distance to travel, each pushing back and forth against the other, until Devimon gave a guttural roar. His beams intensified greatly, quickly overcoming IceDevimon's, striking him full in the face with surging power.

IceDevimon screamed, letting go of Devimon's fist and stumbling back to clutch his face. Devimon didn't give him even a second to recover, quickly, throwing a fist into his opponent's stomach. As his upper body jerked forward from that blow, another fist connected with the side of IceDevimon's head.

His white-clad other fell onto his back, and looked up, still holding one half of his singed face. Devimon stood over him, cracking his knuckles.

"Now," the other fallen angel said, "you were sayin'?"

Digimon Tamers: Inner Demons

Phase 01 - "Rising Shadow"

Realization 21- "Rebirth"

With the explosion of one final Bakemon, data dissipating into nothingness, they had made it. Ruki, Kyuubimon, Jenrya, and Galgomon were standing outside the entrance to the hospital, where they knew the Digital Field had started expanding, and thus where its source likely still was.

"This Digital Field feeds on the pain and despair of those around it," Ruki said. "A hospital's really a great place for that, if you think about it."

Jenrya didn't say anything, he was just scanning up the side of the building. She knew he was hunting the window to Shuichon's room.

"Listen," Ruki said, "you two go in from the bottom, and you can search from there up to her room."

Jenrya blinked a bit, and glanced back at her. "What about you two?"

"We'll take from top to bottom, of course," Kyuubimon said.

Ruki nodded. "Yeah. Though I think we should both be headed in the same direction..."

"Hoshi Yumi's room," Jenrya said, and then sighed. "Right. I just have to make sure Shuichon's okay first..."

"Hey, not arguing with that one bit," Ruki said, and then after a second, added grimly, "just... try to stay prepared for whatever you might see in there."

"Whaddaya mean?" Galgomon asked.

"There were probably a bunch of people on life support when Evilmon made this Field appear," Ruki said, trying not to make eye contact with the other two. "Or others in surgery. With everyone dropping into a sleep-like state once in touch with this thing, and with it likely fragging electrical equipment..."

Jenrya held up a hand. "I- I get it. We'll meet you inside."

Ruki just nodded a little, silently, while Jenrya and Galgomon rushed towards the building. She didn't bother to watch them, only placing a hand on Kyuubimon's side.

"Are you alright?" Kyuubimon asked as the girl climbed onto her back.

"Not exactly," she murmured. "I hadn't really thought about that fact until just now. There's got to be dozens of people dead in there by now... I knew something was coming, but it started building up so suddenly, even if I had told Yamaki, there wouldn't have been enough time to get anyone away..."

"I know you're good at it," Kyuubimon said, "but don't beat yourself up. If you begin to give into that, we won't be able to carry on, you know that."

Ruki again only gave a response of a nod. She knew that her partner was right. Especially in a Digital Field like this, if she gave into doubts, there's no telling how easy it would be for the nature of the place to take advantage of it and start messing with her mind. She had to remain focused.

Kyuubimon ran straight at a wall... and then straight up it, scaling the building's side at a rapid pace. "I know Evilmon's in here somewhere, but I can't pick up where, exactly."

Ruki clung tight to Kyuubimon's back. "Yeah, same here. If I used my Second Stage, maybe..."

"You also know we have no idea what we're getting ourselves into," Kyuubimon said. "For all we know, we'll need everything we have to beat him when we find him. No sense in draining ourselves before we do that."

"Yeah, you're right," Ruki said. "Besides, Evilmon wants us to find him, I think. He wouldn't have done something this elaborate, otherwise."

Or at least, that's what Ruki wanted to think. It was the only thing that made sense, after all, right?

Yeah. That's... about it. It's all raw, rough draft, no fiddling with the content.

I'm thankful to everyone that has enjoyed ID up until now, and stay tuned. I'll be back, and hopefully, Inner Demons will be better than before.