Those Linked by Darkness

A/N: Hey guys! If you read the original version of this story, you will notice that some things are different now that I am doing this little rewrite. After all this time, my writing has become a little different and I have tried to fix this chapter accordingly. And I made a few small changes while I was working on the chapter. Therefore, it will not completely go together with the other chapters and therefore I will take those down while I work on them. I hope you will forgive me for that and that you will like this new version of the story! Have a nice time reading!

Disclaimer: Don't own this. Never have, never will.

Summary: Davis first trip to the Digital World wasn't with Kari and TK. He had been there before, with Ken and Ryo, fighting against the greatest evil there was: Millenniummon. How will the "new" group change from having an experienced fighter on their team, someone who knows the Digital world inside out and who have seen both its Light and Dark side?

Chapter One: Return to the Digiworld

'Man, I'm so late!' Davis thought as he ran down the corridor towards his classroom. Just what he needed: first day in school and he was sure to get detention first thing. Well, not that it really mattered but still, he had better things to do than sit around in a classroom, reading something he already knew. He turned around a corner and spotted the door that was listed in his schedule as his first class of the year. As soon as he reached it, he slammed it open, accidentally hitting the bench that stood closest to it and tipping the poor student sitting there over. Silence followed for a few moments, before the teacher finally regained her composure.

"Mr. Motomiya... my office, after this class." she said quietly, doing her best not to snap at the young kid who she still had bad memories about from last year.

Davis nodded and bent down to help the student he had knocked over. He heard a few of his classmates snicker slightly but it didn't bother him. He was used to it.

"Sorry about that. Guess I kind of panicked." he said as he lifted his classmate off the floor and onto his feet.

With that, he looked out over the class and immediately spotted a free seat next to a brown-haired girl, dressed in an outfit that was mostly pink or white. Not being one to enjoy too much unwanted attention, he quickly made his way over to his long time friend. Kari didn't say anything as he sat down beside her. This didn't bother him much as he knew Kari disliked disrupting a lesson and he was pretty sure he would hear it from her afterward. He didn't mind, it was more than a routine than an actual scolding. It just showed that she cared about him, even though he didn't really get how missing half a session of math would dis-benefit him since he rarely did anything even if he was present. As soon as he had placed himself in the seat, he looked forward to see a boy he didn't recognize stand in front of the class. The boy in question was about Davis height and had short blonde hair and didn't look very special in any way. Two and two quickly clicked together in Davis head and he sighed.

'A new student? Great, now I got detention AND made a very bad first impression.' he thought bitterly. As soon as everything had settled down, their teacher spoke up.

"Well, as I was saying before Mr. Motomiya once again decided to show you what happens when you don't set your wake-up clock, we will be getting a new student this year." she motioned for the boy to step forward.

"Hello. My name is Takeru Takaishi, but everyone calls me TK, so just go with that. I hope I get to know you better later on and that I will have a pleasant time here in Odaiba." he said and bowed to the class.

Davis snorted behind his hand as he leaned his head on his arm for support. What a show off. He sounded like the kind of guy who got higher grades because they were "well mannered" and "educated children". What a bother. As if there weren't enough of those around this place already.

The boy, TK, made his way over to the seat that was free in front of Kari and sat down. As soon as the teacher turned towards the black board, Tk turned around towards Kari and smiled.

"Together again, huh?" he said and grinned. Kari returned the smile and bent forward to greet him.

"It seems that way." she said, careful not to draw any attention from the others in the classroom.

Davis raised an eyebrow. It wasn't like Kari to talk to strangers and talking during class was definetely out of character for the otherwise so well mannered girl he had known since pre-school.

"You know this guy Kari?" he said with a frown.

Kari nodded. She cast a glance around to make sure no one was listening, but thankfully none of their classmates seemed to be interested in their little coversation and their teacher had already turned to write something on the blackboard. As soon as she was sure no one was listening, she leaned over towards Davis.

"Yeah, we go way back." she said and smiled sweetly at the blonde boy.

Davis, who had already lost interest in the matter, just turned around to look the other way and tried to get back to the sleep that had been interrupted earlier that morning. TK frowned.

"What's his problem?" he asked Kari through a whisper.

Kari just shrugged, but cast a worried glance in Davis' direction. He had been acting weird lately. While sleeping in class was nothing new for him, he was a lot less cheerful and energic than he used to be. Something within these last weeks must have really taken a toll on him for some reason, but Kari couldn't for all she was worth think of anything that would have caused her childhood friend to become so withdrawn.

"He probably had trouble sleeping again. He have had that for quite some time now, I'm actually starting to worry a little." she said with a hint of worry in her voice as she peeked at the goggle-headed boy out of the corner of her eye.

Davis pretended to not have heard what she said and just gave a low grunt of drowsiness. But she was right, he had trouble sleeping at night. This entire month had been one big nightmare with memories of his past resurfacing during nighttime hours. A past he had hoped to forget but he knew he would never escape. He knew that someday he might be called back again to complete what he and his friend started all those years ago. And it was something he didn't look forward to.

-X-X-X-

Chaos. That was the best word to describe the state the digital world was in at the moment. Ever since the Digimon Emperor made his entrance into this world, things have gone badly out of control. Digimon from all over the world got enslaved by the Emperor's dark rings and he always appeared when the area's inhabitants least expected it. And that had been the case in this once peaceful forest as well, in which most of the digidestineds digimon had lived since the separation from their friends.

"Run for your lives! It's the evil Digimon Emperor!" a Gazimon shouted in panic as all the forests inhabitants ran away in the opposite direction from where the Emperor's signature Control Spire had appeared seemingly out of thin air.

Agumon was, like all the other digimon, running as far away as he could from the spire. He had seen Gatomon take off earlier and desperately tried to find her to make sure she was alright. Then again, he was probably worse of for wear since Gatomon was a Chamtion level digimon, while he was only a Rookie. Not looking where he was going, he tripped on a root that was sticking out of the ground in front of a tree and fell. He hit the ground hard and even though he had learned to take care of himself, in that moment he really missed his old partner.

"Tai! Help me!" he shouted. Unknown to him, his partner had received his distress call through his digivice and was already on his way to help.

-X-X-X-

Davis wasn't very energetic as he made his way to his locker after his last class of the day. Just as he had thought Kari had scolded him during lunch break for being late again, but afterward she had made a complete 180 grades turn around and asked if she could somehow help him with his nightmares. Davis had patiently told her it was nothing to worry about and it was probably just all the stress from being back in school that was haunting him. It hadn't taken his genius to see that she didn't believe him for a second, but he had quickly made sure to be put in one of the teams playing soccer during the break to avoid further questioning.

After sitting out his detention hour, he had finally made it back to his locker and began looking for the books he would need for his extra homework. As he pulled out a book he didn't needed from his bag, something else dropped to the floor. He looked down and quickly scooped it up in his hand. Looking around, finding no one was there, he drew a sigh of relief and looked down on the object in his hands. It was a small digital object with a green screen and a shape to make it fit perfectly into his hand. It was dark grey with blue outlining and details and from the top of it an antenna stuck out. It was his digivice. For some reason, he still tended to carry it around wherever he went. The object just contained so many memories, both good and bad, and represented so much for him. He still remembered the day when he had gotten it.

/Flashback/

Davis was sitting in the family computer room, laying a puzzle while his older sister sat beside him, reading a book and was obviously annoyed that she had been tasked with looking after her little brother. He was 6 years old for god's sake! She had managed to care for herself at least a few hours at a time when she was 6, why couldn't he do it?

Davis didn't seem too happy to have Jun breathing down his neck either, but he tried to ignore her. It was way more fun to be playing with the puzzle so as long as she didn't stick her nose into his business he wouldn't complain. They kept on doing their own things until Jun looked up from her book and noticed Davis had placed one of the pieces in the wrong place and was now getting frustrated that the next piece wouldn't fit. She sighed as she put her book down and crept over to her brother.

"Look here Davis. That piece doesn't fit there. You have to put another piece in that spot if you want it all to make sense, like this one." she said and exchanged the wrong-placed piece for the right one. However, Davis did not take kindly to this.

"Don't touch my puzzle! I don't want that piece there!" he shrieked in sudden rage and Jun fell back from the shock of his sudden outburst.

"Geez, calm down crybaby. I was only trying to help!" she said as she crept back towards her book.

As soon as she sat down and leaned towards the wall again, she noticed that Davis was still glaring at her.

"What?" she asked, a little irritated at her brother's behavior.

Davis kept glaring at her and pointed at the piece she had place in his puzzle and then held out the one she had removed.

"I don't want that piece there, I want this. Put it back!" he demanded.

Jun sighed and turned back to her book again. This was going to be a long day.

"It doesn't fit there, it's as simple as that. I won't put it back there cause if I do I might break it." she said as she turned a page in her book. A second later, she had a very angry kid on top of her, doing his best to hit her in the head with his small fists.

"I want it to fit in there, you big meanie!" he screamed as he kept trying to hit his sister in all available spots. Jun however, had had enough.

"Get off me, you spoiled brat!" she shrieked and threw him off her. He landed in a heap on the floor.

Jun could see tears streaming down his face but she was too angry to care. She just stood up and walked over to the door. But just as she threw the door closed behind her, she heard the computer start up. She felt her blood boil, but she had been given strict instructions not to let Davis touch the computer. Already angry at her brother for his assault on her, she turned on her heels and threw the door open again.

"What's wrong with you?! Mom and Dad told you not to play with the computer!" she shouted, but then she froze.

Davis was still in the heap on the floor where he had landed after she threw him off her. The only difference was that he had peeked up when the computer had buzzed to life. His teary eyes were fixed on the screen that flickered in different colors. As she watched the computers strange behavios, her anger began to fade and the adrenalin leave her blood. She too stared at the screen. What was going on here?

As if to answer her question, the computer suddenly beeped and the screen gave off a bright white shine. The blending light cause Jun to cover her eyes. When she opened them again, the light had faded and on the carpet on the floor lie a small light blue object. She looked at it for a moment and then at the computer. Had the computer dropped this object? How was that even possible? As she thought about this, she spotted something move out of the corner of her eye.

"Davis?"

Her question answered itself as Davis crept over to the strange object. Seeing this, Jun panicked as she had no idea what it was.

"Davis! Don't touch it!" she shouted at him but he either didn't hear or didn't listen.

He picked it up and the moment he did, the computer screen began to shine in that white light again. Jun had to cover her eyes again, but this time the portal didn't leave something with them, it took something with it. As she lowered her arms again, Davis was gone and so was the strange device. The computer had shut off again. She blinked for a moment, thinking it was just a side effect of the blending light but as her sight cleared, it dawned upon her that this was no joke.

"Davis!" she shouted, hoping sincerely that he would answer. When no answer came, she raised her voice.

"Davis! This isn't the right time to play hide and seek! Come out!"

Still no answer.

"Davis, this isn't funny!" she shrieked, very close to panicking now.

"Davis!"

/End of Flashback/

According to what Jun had told him afterward, she had kept screaming for him for a whole 10 minutes before she accepted that he was really gone. Thankfully, she hadn't called their parents and Davis had returned home later that evening, even though he had spent several months in the digiworld. They had spoken of their sides of the tale afterward and decided not to tell their parents, though Davis had confided in Jun some of his adventures in the digiworld and meeting another kid the same age as him. Even though she had hardly believed him back then, her belief in it had gotten an extreme increase 2 years later when Digimon began invading their town in search of what they called "the 8th digidestined". He had been at the mall when they attacked and though he had wanted to fight them, he had realized that it would have been futile without his friend or their digimon friends. Soon after, the invaders had somehow disappeared and everything had slowly returned to normal.

Davis sighed as he closed his hand around his digivice and put it into his belt. He still carried it around for some reason, even though it hadn't been activated since that attack on Odaiba. And that had been 4 years ago...

"Hey Davis!"

Davis snapped out of his thoughts and looked up to see Kari and TK walking towards him. The blonde boy smiled friendly at him and Davis did his best to smile back, though it was a strained smile.

"Hey Kari. Hey TP." he said and re-focused his attention on gathering the stuff he would need this afternoon. He figured he might as well get their homework out of the way quickly so he wouldn't have to deal with it on a later date.

"It's TK." Kari said a little reprimanding.

Davis just nodded and grabbed his math book and put it in the larger space of his school bag. He didn't really care. Why was he just being called two letters anyway? He could understand it if they had been his initials, but then he would be called TT, not TK. Where did that "K" come from?

"I don't think I got you 2 properly introduced before." Kari said, trying to get Davis attention. It worked, as the goggle boy sighed and closed his locker to look at the other 2. He once again did his best to smile, but judging from Kari's expression of trying to stiffle a giggle and TK's amused grin, he was failing miserably.

"Davis, this is TK, a friend my brother got to know during summer camp about 4 years ago and we have been in contact ever since. TK, this is Davis Motomiya, one of my oldest and best friends." she said with a smile.

TK perked up when she referred to Davis as "one of her oldest and best friends".

"Really? How long have you 2 known each other?"

Davis did his best to suppress a smirk. It seemed like someone was a little... interested in Kari. Kari herself was oblivious to the hidden meaning of the question and answered it casually as if she was talking about the weather.

"I think about for 6 or 7 years. He joined the older kids once for soccer in the park when Tai had brought me out to get some fresh air and my brother got so impressed by him that he asked him to keep coming down to play and even invited him over once in a while."

Davis nodded to confirm what Kari had just said. He was pretty glad that she had left out the part about him looking up to Tai more than the international soccer stars. He had made that statement once without thinking and Kari had teased him about it on every occasion given ever since. However, TK looked impressed and gave a low whistle.

"Wow. You must be pretty good if you could impress Tai in a game of soccer. He usually only praises himself." he said with a grin.

"Believe me, Davis takes after Tai in that regard." Kari added with a giggle, causing Davis to sweatdrop.

Just as he was about to retort, another girl with lavender purple hair walked up to them. Davis recognized her as Yolei Inoue, from the computer club.

"Excuse me, you're Kari Kamiya right?" she asked Kari.

Kari looked a little taken aback and suddenly, Davis got a funny feeling in his belly, as if he knew something that was to come would not go well over with him.

"Well, do you happen to be related to Tai? He sent this e-mail and I figured it might be yours." Yolei said and held out a note. Kari took the note and read it over quickly before saying:

"My brother needs us!"

And with that, she handed the note to TK and took off down the hallway. TK soon followed suit with Davis and Yolei hot on their tail. And as TK flashed the note in front of Davis face as they ran, one word stood out to Davis among all of them. Digital World. He felt his blood run cold at the mere thought of it. Tai knew about the digiworld? And better yet, Kari and TK did as well? What was going on here?

It only took them a few minutes to make it to the computer room. On their way, they met up with Koushiro "Izzy" Izumi, an old friend of Kari's and Tai's. He said he too had gotten the distress signal and made his way here as fast as possible. This day kept getting weirder by the minute and Davis was starting to wonder if he hadn't dozed off at detention and was dreaming all this. It just seemed so bizarre. Yolei seemed to be head over heels for finally getting a chance to talk to the "legendary former president of the computer club" in person. Davis however, was more focused on what was happening at hand. Izzy had immediately occupied the seat in front of a specific computer and began typing away at it. Meanwhile Kari and TK reached behind their backs and pulled out two all two familiar objects: digivices. Davis' eyes narrowed as he silently and subconsciously reached for his own digivice.

"So, what's the digital world? Is it a new amusement park or something?" Yolei asked right up into the face of Kari who had to lean backwards if she didn't want to hit forehead to forehead with Yolei. However, the answer came from the one person in the room they had least expected it.

"It's a digital dimension, parallel to our own world. It's geographical structure is a complete rip off of this world and it's inhabited by digital creatures known as Digimon." Davis voice rang throught the room. He hadn't raised his voice, yet it felt to them like he had shouted it out loud. The only one who seemed unaffected by this was Yolei, but that may as well be because she didn't understand the seriousness of the situation. The first one to snap out of their stupor was Kari.

"Um, Davis? How did you know that? Did Tai tell you or something?" she asked a little carefully. It wouldn't be unlike her brother to just mention it without thinking to a friend, but a quick mention wouldn't give the inside information that Davis had just mentioned about its structure and its life forms. Not to mention that had Tai said what Davis had just said, with that much detail and understanding of its structure, then tomorrow both worlds would meet their end. And just as she thought, Davis shook his head. But what she didn't expect, was for Davis to reach behind his back and slowly reveal a dark gray and blue small digital device that bore a striking resemblance to...

"A digivice!" TK exclaimed as he stared in awe at the object in Davis hand.

"It's a different modle than the ones we got though." Kari said after studying the object for a second and then looking down at her own digivice. This brought Izzy back to reality.

"Prodigious! I didn't even know that another model existed! This is a golden opportunity to..." but he was cut off by TK.

"Whatever it is a golden opportunity for, it will have to wait until we have saved Tai." he said as he pointed his digivice to the screen of the computer and got sucked into it. Kari soon followed suit after being reminded of the danger her brother was currently facing.

After one more glance at Izzy, Davis turned to the screen. Could he really do this? He had spent so long time wishing this day would never come in his life time, yet now he stood there with his digivice in hand. He closed his eyes. Would it be worth it? Would it be worth it to return to the digital world? Was he ready? No, was the answer. He wasn't ready to once again face the danger that world held. But then again, Tai was in trouble. The one person he looked up to was in danger and Davis might be the only chance he had to be saved. And now, Kari was in there too. What kind of friend would he be if he just turned his heels and walked away when his two best friends needed his help? Not a very good one, if he would even be able to call himself their friend at all. He wasn't ready for this, but this was the only right thing to do. Without opening his eyes, he held his hand out like Kari and TK had done and felt a tingling sensation in his belly from being dragged into the computer.

Yolei stared at the computer screen with eyes as wide as her glasses. When Izzy turned to the screen, she grabbed his arm.

"W-what in the world just happened?"

Izzy swore slightly under his breath. If he went through now, Yolei would probably run away and scream about what she had seen and that would pretty much blow their cover.

"Uh... why don't you sit down and I'll explain it to you." he said.

-X-X-X-

Davis opened his eyes to find that he was standing in the clearing of a forest. It all looked so familiar. Just like he remembered it from before. The trees and plants, they all looked so tropical and unusual compared to the ones on earth, but he knew what all that beauty really hid underneath its abnormally large leafs. He shuddered at the memories from his last visit here. Even though not all of them were bad, the good ones usually turned into bad ones somewhere down the line, just like he knew these plants could turn out to be an evil digimon. He spotted TK and Kari standing a little further down the clearing and walked over to them. When he reached them, he noticed Kari had out her digivice and tried to track down her brother's signal. While she was busy trying to locate her brother, TK turned to Davis.

"So Davis, how come you got that digivice? Have you been here before?" he asked with an innocent look of curiosity. Davis just snorted.

"None of your business TC." he said and threw a check on the device in question. As soon as he had checked the screen, he confirmed that there was another digivice signal further up ahead. He frowned when he noticed Kari was still trying to locate her brother. His signal was pretty easy to locate, at least to him. Then again, he had to remind himself how hard it had been to use his original digivice for tracking.

"Tai is further down this path." he said and pointed into the forest. Without another word, he began walking down the path he had pointed to.

The others followed him without another word. Davsi felt TKs gaze on his back but he didn't bother turning around to glare at him. Kari seemed to feel the tension between the two boys and decided to stay quiet as well, instead turning her thoughts to Gatomon, hoping she was alright. She didn't have to wait long to find out, cause after they turned around a corner they spotted a white cat-like digimon running up to them, closesly followed by a flying orange pillow with bat wings for ears. Davis immediately recognized them as Gatomon and Patamon, two rookie level digimon. Judging from the looks of joy on TK and Kari's faces when they saw them, Davis would say those were their partners. Behind them, a human with brown hair came into view.

"Hey Tai." Davis greeted his friend casually.

"Huh? Davis, what are you doing here?" Tai asked wide-eyed at seeing his protege in the digital world.

"Long story short, he is a digidestined just like us." TK said as he walked up to them with Patamon comfortably rested on his head.

Davis didn't say anything. He just wanted to get back home as fast as possible, but it seemed that would not be the case here. Instead, the orange lizard at Tai's side, an Agumon, lead them to a nearby cave where he showed them an egg that had a horn sticking out of it. On it's front, the crest of courage was ingraved. Davis only half heartedly listened as their digimon explained about the Digimon Emperor and his dark rings and control spires. He then looked on with amusement as TK tried to lift the digiegg but failed and fell on his butt. He sniggered behind his hand, causing Kari to glare at him.

"Out of the way, this is a woman's job!" she said as TK stepped back. However, she too failed to lift it. However, as Kari turned to Davis to ask if he wanted to try it, Davis felt a cold run down his spine and froze as he was overcome with an all too familiar feeling. He looked over his shoulder to see a Dark Ring fly in through the opening. The other's couldn't feel it but the ring radiated with a dark, all to familiar aura. It was his aura.

-X-X-X-

Meanwhile a kid dressed up in a suit that clearly showed he had no fashion sense and covered with a dark purple cape sat in a chair in a monitor room, looking at the many different screens. His sun-glass covered eyes darted between the monitors until he froze at a certain screen that was showing 4 kids in a cave with 3 digimon. However, his eyes were glued to the auburn-haired boy with a pair of goggles holding his hair up. Even though the boy couldn't see it, the Emperor stared at him as if he had seen a ghost.

"It's him!" he growled. How did he get here? This could ruin everything. He had to do something before this got out of hand! He pressed a button and a list of all the digimon he had in the nearby area appeared out of nowhere. He checked over it. Blast! Not any of the stronger ones was near. He would have to do this the hard way. He pressed a few buttons in thin air and one of the screens showed how a group of dinosaur digimon was released from their resting place.

"Attack Monochromon!" he shouted to no one in particular.

The Monochromon marched towards the position of their targets, the Emperor stood up and went out of the room. This was not a good development for his part.

-X-X-X-

After a few minutes of arguing, Davis had finally given in and was about to try and lift the digiegg. He had been very stubborn about it, but Kari had managed to convince him by saying she would tell his mom how many hours a week he slept through classes. As it was now, Davis was just bending over to move the digiegg when suddenly the ground began shaking.

"Wha-what's going on?!" TK exclaimed.

Davis stumbled back as he felt his blood run cold. It was happening again! They were under attack! He looked around frantically looking for the exit, but half way through he stopped and took a deep breath. He had to pull it together. He had survived this world when he was 6 years old, surely he could manage it at age 12! He looked around to see Kari was trying to lean against the wall for support while TK had fallen on his butt and Tai had knelt down to try and stay steady through the quake. After a few seconds, the earthquake ended and they were all covered in dust but, as Davis saw it, everyone was alright.

"Is everyone alright?" Tai shouted over the rubble.

"Yes!" came a collective answer from the other three.

"I think I'm alright." Agumon said as he shook his head to clear it from the dust.

While the others tried to dig out Patamon and Gatomon from under some gravel, Davis shook his head to clear his thoughts. The digiegg of courage laid forgotten among the rocks.

'Pull youself together Davis!' he mentally reprimanded himself. 'You've done this before, you can do it! For Kari's and Tai's sake!'

He looked over to where Kari stood. She was brushing some dust off Gatomon's fur. Davis smiled. He had known Kari for a long time and he couldn't even imagine how life would be without her. She was his best friend. In fact, she was probably his only real friend, along with Tai. Most he hung out with only liked being with him because of his soccers skills or because he was smart and were at the top of his class. But Kari knew him beyond that. She had known him before all that had started, she had even known him before his first trip to the digital world. A smile began tugging at his lips. Even if he had to come back here for all of his life, he would do it if it meant being able to protect Kari.

Suddenly, a red-orange light glowed up and a pile of rocks got blasted away, revealing the temporarily forgotten digiegg of courage. At the same time, Davis digivice gave off a similar glow from it's screen. Davis stared at the egg, then at his digivice and back again.

"Davis! I think it wants you to try and pick it up!" TK shouted over from his spot close to the exit where he was standing with Patamon on his head.

"Yeah, just get it over with so we can get out of here!" Tai shouted.

Davis nodded and ran over to the digiegg. The sooner they got out the better. If they got attacked, the inside of a cave wouldn't be a good place to fight, even if they had the power. They would be cornered, so the faster they got out, the better. Without much thought, he grabbed the egg and lifted it up and was just about to turn around when a pillar of orange light rose from a hole underneath where the egg had been.

"Now what?" TK asked as he walked up to Davis.

However, Davis didn't hear him. A silhouette had appeared within light. And Davis froze on the spot when he recognzed the shape. It was silhouette that brought back a lot of memories. But he thought he would never see it again. It couldn't be... could it? How could he still be alive? He had died right in front of Davis' eyes!

"Veemon?" he whispered, shocked as he recognized his old partner.

As soon as the light faded, the little blue digimon jumped with joy as he was released from his long slumber. As soon as he had been released from the pillar of light, he looked around and upon seeing Davis, his eyes widened with surprise and joy.

"Davis! You're here!" he shouted with joy and knocked the aubrun-haired boy to the ground as he jumped to hug him. As Veemon landed on his chest, Davis didn't know what to think, but he couldn't do anything else than hug him back. After a moment, he felt the emotions that he had locked away after his loss during his last visit to the digital world build up in his chest and his grasp on his partner grew in instensity as happy tears appeared in his eyes. He didn't understand how Veemon could still be alive, but he didn't care. He was here, and that was all that mattered.

Kari smiled as she looked down on the two. She didn't know who the blue little creature were, but it was obvious Davis knew him somehow. Speaking of which, how come Davis knew about the digital world and knew a digimon? She had to remember to ask him later. Now was not the time.

Davis seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as he swallowed and broke the hug, looking down at Veemon, who looked back up at him with shining eyes.

"I don't understand how you can still be here, Veemon, but we'll save that for later. Now, we need to get out of here."

The others just nodded and the group ran for the exit. However, as soon as they reached the exit, the ground began to shake again as the herd of Monochromon closed in on their position. And Davis digivice reacted accordingly. With a high pitched screech, the digivice caught Davis attention.

"Guys! I think we are under attack!"

"Huh? What makes you think that?" TK asked as they came to a stop in a clearing.

Davis was about to reply while waving his digivice but their attackers beat him to it. With a collective roar, a herd of about 20 Monochromon stormed out of the woods.

"Told ya." Davis said, rolling his eyes. Without another word, he grabbed his digivice from his belt and held it out.

"C'mon Veemon, digivolve!" he shouted as he held out his digivice. But nothing happened.

"Didn't you listen? The Digimon Emperor's dark digivice keep digimon frmo digivolving!" Tai shouted while he and Agumon back closer to the middle of the group as the Monocrhomon got closer.

Just as the charging digimon got withing too close range, Davis shouted: "Split!" and they all dove for cover in all possible directions. Tai went off to Davis left while TK ran of to the right. But just as Kari was about to take off in the opposite directions, she tripped on Gatomon's tail and fell to the ground. As she looked up, she saw a Monochromon was about to hit her square on.

"Tai! Help!" she screamed.

"Kari!" her brother's shout came from the other side of the herd.

Davis heard Kari's scream and came to a sudden halt. Everything seemed to slow down as he realized her brother wouldn't get to her in time. Biting his jaws together and cursing under his breath, he turned around and dove towards the immobilised girl. He reached her in the last second and pulled her in close as he rolled out of the way from the closest Monochromon.

"Davis! You've got to open the digiegg! If you do, i can armor digivolve! Just say "digi-armor energize"." Veemon shouted to his partner as he jumped to left and right to try and reach them.

Davis was quickly on his feet as the next Monochromon closed in. He clnched his fist around the digiegg. Well, what did he have to lose?

"Digi-Armor Energize!"

The egg lit up with the same glow that Veemon had appeared from and covered both itself and he little blue digimon.

"Veemon! Armor Digivolve toooooo... Flamedramon! The fire of Courage!"

As the light faded, it revealed what looked like a taller version of Veemon, covered in flame patterned armor on his claws, head, chest, knees and feet. From the front of his head, the knife-like spike from the digiegg stuck out like a horn.

As the Monochromon got in closer, Flamedramon descended upon the herd and tackled the closest to the ground. He didn't rest as he quickly jumped off the ground and fired a "Fire Rocket!" at his enemies. His right fist ignited with power and he fired off a barrage of fireballs that rained down like a meteor shower.

"Armor...digivolution? Well that's a new." TK said.

Davis looked up in awe as Flamedramon fought off the herd of Monochromon. He wasn't even close to the power they had last time, but Flamedramon made a good substitute for Veemon's champion form.

"Destroy the dark ring!" Gatomon shouted.

Flamedramon narrowed his eyes as he focused in on the first dark ring. He then took a deep breath as he jumped into the air and covered himself with flames.

"Fire Rocket!" he shouted as he dove for the dark ring. Upon impact, the ring disintegrated.

"Way to go Flamedramon!" Tai shouted as he, TK and their digimon ran up to where Kari and Davis were standing.

Flamedramon repeated the process until only 5 were left. Then he copied the first move he had made and let out a rain of fire from above that destroyed the last dark rings. When he was done, he glowed white and de-digivolved back to Veemon and the digiegg of courage went into Davis digivice, only for it to spit out a new device. Davis spared a surprised look at the new device, but decided that he could examine it later. For now, he just wanted to get back to the real world.

As they made their way back towards the computer, Davis found himself walking slightly behind the others, not wanting to let them out of his sight, in case something happened. If their partners couldn't digivolve, then Veemon would be their only line of defense. He didn't know how much energy Armor-Digivolving consumed compared to normal digivolution, but Veemon didn't seem to be tired in the slightest so he assumed that another call to the digiegg would allow him to digivolve without any problems.

Looking down at his partner, he found his mind racing with questions. How could Veemon still be alive? He had seen his partner sacrifice himself during that last battle... the only one who had come out of that battle with their partner still alive had been Ken. Well, technically at least. He guessed Ryo could be counted as still having his partner around, but not in the same way. Monodramon had not been... well, he hadn't really been Monodramon anymore.

"Hey Davis?"

The sound of Kari's voice brought him out of his musings and he looked up to find that they had already made it back to the TV-screen that apparently would take them back to the real world. TK and Tai had obviously already gone through and it was only him and Kari left, along with the digimon. Gatomon, Agumon, Patamon and Veemon were all chatting happily to the side. Davis allwoed his eyes to rest on Veemon for a moment, silently wondering how he could be so carefree despite what had happened the last time they saw each other, before he turned to meet Kari's eyes.

"Yeah, what is it?" he answered his friend.

Kari gave him a calculating glance, pondering if she really should dig into this right now. It all seemed so confusing at the moment and Davis was porbably even more confused than she and the others were. And Davis had enough on his plate as it was, with his sleeping problems and whatever it was that was bothering him since a few weeks back. She swallowed, feeling a little nervous about how he would react.

"How come you know about the Digital World? Up until today, we thought we were the only ones who had been here."

For a moment, Davis didn't give any indication as to what he thought about this. What did he really feel about this? It all seemed so surreal to him at the moment that he still wasn't sure if this was just a dream or if it was real. Veemon had died, yet now he was still alive. And Tai and Kari, two people he had thought he knew almost everything about, had been to the Digital World before and had partners. After trying to make sense of it all, Davis looked away from Kari, not sure about what to think.

"I've been here. Once." he said. "Maybe I'll tell you some other time Kari. I need some time to think."

And with that, he walked over to where the digimon was standing and bent down to talk to Veemon. Left behind was a very distraught Kari. She had thought that Davis had already reached the bottom of the pit with his trouble, but now he seemed even more distant than before. This was really starting to worry her. She wasn't used to seeing Davis so distant and his behavior right now suggested that something about the Digital World didn't sit right with him. Had something happened the last time he was here? She felt her conflicting emotions build in her chest, but decided to swallow them down for the time being. Perhaps he just needed some time to take all this in. After all, she was pretty shocked about today's revelations as well, so she could imagine that this was confusing Davis just as much.

Meanwhile, Davis was deep in thought. There were so many questions he wanted answers to right now, he didn't know where to start. He still didn't know if it was really possible that this was the same Veemon that he had gotten to know during his last adventure or if it was a completely different one. Veemon had known his name, but then again so had his old partner when he first met him. Should he ask him about it?

And then, there was that little matter about the digital world itself. Why had the digiworld called him back? Should he tell Jun? Would she be able to help him? And what about his friends, the other digidestined that had been with him that time? Where were they now? Ken had isolated himself from everything and everyone when his older brother Sam had died and Ryo... well, Ryo had gotten lost in between Space and Time. Would any of them be coming back, now that the Digital World was evidently facing a new danger? A new threat? Would they even be needed? Despite the fact that their strenght had lied within their teamwork, Davis had been the strongest of the three, having been the only one to ever reach the Mega Level between the three of them. Both Ken and Ryo had made Ultimate through different means, but only Davis had reached Mega. If he could just find a way to get around this Anti-Digivolution nonsense that the Digimon Emperor had set up, he was confident that he could handle this by himself.

But then again, nothing was ever easy when it came to the digital world, which made him once more question: why had he been called back and why only him? And what was Kari, Tai and their friends' role in all of this?

A/N: So that's the new first chapter of this story. Mainly the same, but with some minor changes and, I hope, better grammar. And yes, I did change it so Veemon died the last time he was there, the reasons being that my picture of how I want this story to go is different now from before. It also serves to make it more understandable that Davis is kind of terrified of the Digital World, as he lost his best friend and Partner there the last time.

Anyway, I hope you will forgive me for the time it took for me to get back to this. If you read the original version and think it is better, then I'm sorry you feel that way. If you didn't read that one and think this one is good, then welcome! :D

I am open to critique, as long as it is valid and got a solid ground to back up the opinions you might have. If you want to flame me, then please do so using an account so I can report you and get you banned from this site. I hope you enjoyed reading and that you liked the new direction this fic is taking, the new story picture and that I am back in Digimon writing and have enough time to leave a review about what you think about it all! I'll see ya when I have fixed up chapter two! MrOakzzz, signing out.