Yeah I dunno, just not a fan of what's going on right now. Kinda am feeling ready to move on to the more "random days" portion, but still gotta get through a couple more chapters first before then.

Training was put on hold so Gatomon could give her mandatory report, leading the march to what they were presuming to be their doom. The walk was quiet, almost brooding, until they entered the castle and passed the other henchmen. The atmosphere automatically changed when the first pair of eyes landed on them, and Wizardmon began to expect someone to shout out, "Dead 'Mon walking!"

"Hey, why do I gotta report in?"

Somehow, DemiDevimon broke through the gloom with his complaint. The mage started to rethink on removing the gag, although he was being remained tied up for the time, which made it tempting for him to twirl the bat around by the rope like he was a trinket. (Though because of his size and how he was still squirming, he could just see both himself and Gatomon being whacked.)

The feline's ears twitched from the way his voice bounced off the walls, but didn't bother shooting him a glance. "You're getting questioned for why you were outside of castle boundaries," she responded coolly.

The Rookie sneered at the back of her skull. "Not that you weren't, either," he grumbled.

"I didn't stray as far," she retorted, her tail whipping about as though seeking out her harasser to smack him.

"Well..." He harrumphed in his throat before loudly declaring, "At least no one died on my watch."

Wizardmon almost ran into Gatomon when she spun around to hold her claws up to DemiDevimon's face. "You watch that pie hole of yours," she hissed, "or you're going to join the body count. And that goes for you, too."

Her blazing eyes warily snapped up to the now-slightly stunned Champion, even though he wasn't involved in their little spat. He may have been there to see Woodmon get deleted, however, it puzzled him as to why she only threatened the two of them and not the rest of the group to keep quiet. It wasn't like she had forgotten. Even so, he just nodded in silent agreement, having had no plans to bring it up to begin with.

Despite her threat, the bat couldn't help cracking a comment, "But then guess who's following me to Hell?"

She punched him in the face.

"That's enough out of you two, you're causing a ruckus." The interjector was no other than Phantomon when he materialized out of the shadows. "Arguing on the way to Lord Myotismon's chambers isn't going to help either of your cases."

Something looked off about the specter the longer Wizardmon stared at him. He looked calm enough, but his tone of voice had sounded a little strained, almost like he was holding back something. His eyes even had a mischievous glint to them, and while it was nothing atypical, it felt threatening. The elven sorcerer began to suspect he had expected this to happen, though without any real proof outside of DemiDevimon's word (which hardly anyone really believed), he couldn't say Phantomon had been the one behind everything.

Besides, he probably liked observing the fruits of Myotismon's labor.

"So I guess you know this because you could hear us," Gatomon dryly said, continuing on down the hall.

He nonchalantly shrugged and gestured with his scythe. "Of course. The walls have ears, after all."

With a "tch", DemiDevimon raised his voice once more, "Then mark my words, walls, I'm going to get off easy for sure."

"You had murderous intent," Wizardmon objected, not bothering to look at the bat.

He chuckled under his breath. "There's no proof."

Carefully reaching inside his vest, he pulled out the syringe he still carried with him. DemiDevimon looked like he bit his tongue, but hid it with another smirk. "Well, did it stick you? Yeah, I didn't think so."

"But you were responsible for that Snimon. I can guarantee its data is still on the needle."

"Myotismon's not going to care about that," Gatomon bitterly piped up, her ears lowering. "He's not going to interrogate you with questions for DemiDevimon."

The bat smugly turned his nose up. "You can keep it as a memento."

His hold tightened on the item, but he made the attempt to keep back his rising emotions to put it back inside his vest. Thinking on it some more, it was disappointing to know there really wasn't a cause for such a judgment. Whether or not DemiDevimon was there to get rid of him for whatever reason, as there was no harm done, and he was just more likely to be punished for leaving his post anyway, it was moot to accuse him for attempted murder.

Turning his attention to Gatomon to take in her bandaged torso, Wizardmon had the sinking sensation she was to have the harshest punishment. At best, she could just be demoted and released from her duty to train the recruits, deleted at worst. Regardless, she was willing to face her consequences, and he had to respect it, even if she didn't.

Yet despite setting his mind on the worst possible outcome to work from there, he was finding it harder to accept the possibility of her being deleted. After all, what did she do wrong to deserve such a harsh fate?