The three digimon-human pairs each had different reactions to the aftermath of the battle. Tai and Wizardmon were both relieved when Wizardmon reverted to Candlemon only a couple of minutes after the battle. Tai was now pacing around the clearing, occasionally glancing at the others present.

Sora was sitting on the ground with Labramon at her side, gently stroking his fur. Both had pensive expressions, and both made occasional glances at the leg which Gazimon had injured. Sora's expression conveyed her relief at how Labramon had healed her, but Labramon's gaze held guilt. But neither made any attempt to talk.

Ken was also sitting on the ground, fiddling with his digivice, while Patamon watched inquisitively from atop his head. Ken was the first to speak, looking up from his digivice, "We probably should come up with some sort of plan or something."

"Huh?" Tai paused his pacing, and stared at Ken, "What do you mean?

"Well," Ken expanded, "if more digimon are coming, and they're as hostile as Thundermon was, then we need a plan."

"But Sensei," Patamon protested, "I don't want to fight!"

Ken plucked Patamon off his head, and held him in his arms. "Don't worry Patamon," he reassured his partner, "That's why I want to plan things out. So we can avoid fights in the future."

"You're not going to be able to avoid the fighting," Labramon spoke up, a defeated tone to his voice, "It's enviable."

"No it's not!" Patamon countered, "Sensei and I will just keep away from all the mean digimon!"

Ken sighed, "I'm not sure that'll be possible Patamon," he told him with resignation in his voice.

"What!" Patamon exclaimed, sounding betrayed, "Why?!"

"Because Ken's digivice is the only one which seems to track other digimon," Candlemon explained when Ken seemed reluctant to continue, "And further, it seems to give him information about any unknown digimon we come across. Without that ability, it would mean increased danger for the rest of us. And a greater chance that one of the mean digimon will attack innocents."

"But-, but!" Patamon spluttered, "I'm not a fighter!"

"But what about those who get hurt by rogue digimon which we could have prevented?" Ken questioned. Holding Patamon out in his arms, Ken gazed into his partner's blue eyes. "I know you don't want to fight," He looked away from Patamon, "And neither do I. But I'm the only one who can track these digimon, the only one who can give the others the information they need to keep everyone else safe." Ken hugged Patamon close to his chest, before continuing his declaration, "You don't have to come along if you don't want to, but I will still be going."

"Sensei," Patamon murmured, his eyes brimming with tears.

"Hey," Sora interrupted, a reassuring smile on her face, as she stopped petting Labramon, and stood up. "Don't worry little guy. I'm sure that Tai, Candlemon and Labramon can keep you and Ken safe. You don't have to fight if you don't want to."

"Yeah, anyone wanting to hurt you will have to get through us first!" Tai added, jumping up and pumping his fist, "Right Candlemon!"

"While I wouldn't be quite so enthusiastic about it," Candlemon hemmed, with an arched wax eye ridge, "Yes, I would do everything in my power to keep Patamon, Ken and anybody else safe. It is my duty."

Labramon stood, but did not join the others. He looked solemn and tired. "It is my duty to protect Sora," he spoke without emotion. With that he trotted out of the clearing, ignoring everybody else.

"Huh?"

-

That evening, Sora was worried. Labramon hadn't come back to the clearing after he had made his strange declaration. Sora had tried following him through the trees, but the dog-like digimon had easily given her the slip, and didn't respond to her cries of his name. She had spent a couple of hours searching the park for him, but even Tai, Ken and their digimon's assistance the search was fruitless. She only stopped searching after Tai had reminded her that she had promised her mother that she'd be home by a certain time.

Once home, Sora had exchanged brief pleasantries with her mother and rushed to her room to quickly change before begging permission to resume her search. Only once she had reached her room, she discovered the object of her search lying on her bed, with his head between his front paws and a depressed look in his eyes.

Sora's first instinct was to berate Labramon for worrying her so much, but something in his eyes held her back. Instead she closed the door, walked over, and sat at the edge of her bed. She gently patted Labramon's head. "So do you want to talk about it?" She asked softly.

"No."

"Alright."

No further words were exchanged between the pair, as Sora sat stroking Labramon's fur for the rest of the evening.

-

Over the next couple of days, Sora and Labramon kept to Sora's normal routine. Although neither brought up the subject of the battle in the park, or its aftermath. Fortunately, no new digimon bio-emerged, and it looked like no new battles would be happening soon.

Sora, Tai and Ken had met up a couple of times, and tried to work out a system of communication. All three agreed that it was vital that Ken could get Tai or Sora anytime that a new digimon appeared, but the how was a sticky point. Ken's parents had given him a cell phone, but both Tai and Sora were only allowed to use theirs in emergencies. Ken had wryly pointed out that a digimon emergence was almost certainly an emergency.

Neither Ken nor Tai asked about Labramon's incident. Although in Tai's case that was because Candlemon had cut in just before he could ask. Their meeting had ended shortly after that.

-

It was almost four days after the battle that Sora first noticed Labramon following her even when he wasn't supposed to be. It had been rather disconcerting to look out of the window while her math teacher was droning on, only to notice her partner digimon near the base of a tree outside the window. After that first sighting, she had kept a better watch out, and was able to notice Labramon hiding nearby at almost all times.

She resolved to talk to Labramon as soon as she got home. Hiding in the rose bushes like that couldn't have been very comfortable.

-

Sora walked into her home. After a quick greeting from her mother, she made to go to her bedroom. But before she got far, an image on the television caught her eye.

There was a reporter, standing in front of Tokyo Tower, talking about some film stunt or another, but superimposed over the normal image was a strange faint outline of a human's head. Sora could almost swear that she was hearing something underneath the droning of the reporter.

Her heart started pounding. Something about the strange face was disturbing her, and she didn't know what. The faint outline grew clearing. That low noises grew louder.

The head was definitely a man. He was obviously wearing glasses, but most of the other details of his face were obscured. She could just about make something out of the noises.

It almost sounded like a name.

Like, S- something.

Like, Sora.

Sora.

The voice was saying Sora.

Sora

"Sora!"

Toshiko Tokenouchi was shaking her daughters shoulders, standing between Sora and the Television. "Sora, dear," She asked concerned, "Are you alright? You've been standing there for almost ten minutes. Are you feeling sick?"

Sora snapped out of the trance. "No, I'm alright," She reassured her mother, "It's just something on the TV caught me by surprise."

"Really," her mother questioned in an unbelieving voice, "They've been going on about the stock market for almost seven minutes now. I doubt that's very interesting for a girl your age."

"No it's not that," Sora protested, "It was that strange face."

"Strange face," Concern laced Toshiko's voice, "Sora it went straight from a report about Tokyo Tower to the stock market, the only strange faces are the reporters."

"What?" Sora questioned, "But-," She cut herself off, if her mother hadn't seen the face, then there were two possibilities.

Either she had zoned out, possibly sick like her mother thought, or it had something to do with the digimon.

Which meant that she needed Labramon. Right now.

-

Sora practically burst into her room. Labramon immediately jumped up in alert as soon as he saw Sora's panicked expression.

"Sora," He asked, "What's wrong? Is there a digimon?"

"No, it's not that," Sora managed to get out, before giving in and hugging the digimon. "It was the TV. It was calling my name. I couldn't move, I couldn't think. It was terrifying!" She sobbed into Labramon's fur.

Labramon didn't relax a bit.

-

All through the evening Labramon remained at high alert. As her panic subdued, Sora began wondering just what about her experience had put him at such caution.

Gathering up her courage, she asked, "So, I noticed you at school today. Aren't there more comfortable places to watch rather than the rosebushes outside the library window?"

Labramon doubletaked. "What are you talking about?" He protested, "I most certainly did not follow you to school."

"Oh really?" Sora asked with a raised eyebrow, "Then what's this?" She reached into his fur and pulled out a small thorn which she had noticed while petting Labramon.

"Umm…" Labramon blushed, before regaining composure, "Hey, there are plenty of places that could have gotten in there!"

"Sure," Sora agreed readily, "But that doesn't change the fact that I saw you in the rose bushes. And under the cherry tree. And behind the trash cans. And-"

"Alright, alright," Labramon admitted, "I was there. So what?"

"So you've been following me. Normal dogs are not supposed to follow their owners everywhere. People are going to be suspicious."

"You're my partner," Labramon protested, "Not my owner!"

"That's beside the point," Sora countered, "You can't just follow me everywhere. It's not right!"

"It's my duty to keep you safe."

"That goes both ways," Sora retorted, "It's just as much my duty to protect you as it is yours to protect me. Or have you forgotten Liollmon?"

"But you're-"

"-I'm what, just a human?" Sora interrupted, "We're partners!"

"I'm supposed to protect you," Labramon almost shouted, "Not Tai, not Wizardmon, me! It's my duty!"

"Is that all this is to you. All I am to you," Sora questioned, her heart breaking, "A duty?'

"Duty is all I have left," Labramon replied, "They took everything else. My honor, my home, my family. They took it all. I have only my duty left." With that, Labramon left the room.

Sora broke down sobbing.

-

The next day, Sora couldn't find Labramon anywhere.

She went through school in a daze, almost drifting off in between classes. Why was she feeling this way? She hadn't known Labramon that long, but their argument, the idea that she was nothing more than a duty to him, hurt and it hurt bad.

Sure, Labramon had saved her life, and sure, she had been willing to give her life to save his. But was that really the basis of a long-term relationship? In the heat of the moment, would he have been willing to shield anyone from Liollmon's attack? She fingered the digivice around her wrist. What did she really mean to him?

-

After school, Tai practically dragged Sora to the soccer field for some practice. Sora had only put a token resistance. The mindless kicking of the ball was pretty appealing to her at the moment.

Only ten minutes in, Tai's cell started ringing. Immediately, Tai rushed to pick it up. On the other end was Ken, his digivice had detected a bioemergence at a currently unused construction site. Tai quickly told Ken that both he and Sora would be there right away.

Tai didn't give Sora a chance to protest as he grabbed her hand and started pulling her with him.

-

Labramon sighed. He didn't know what to do. He knew he could go back, Sora would probably take him back in right away. She would take him back, and would be happy to pretend nothing had happened. Just like she would have.

But he didn't want to go back. The expression on Sora's face when he told her that his duty was all that kept him there haunted him.

Damn duty. Damn love. Damn loyalty.

Tears slid down Labramon's eyes. Damn himself.

Labramon fell asleep.

-

Tai and Sora arrived at the construction site to find Ken and Patamon waiting at the edge of one of the freaky fog banks.

"Hey guys," Ken greeting.

"Glad you could make it," Patamon chirped.

"Well, let's get ready," Tai ordered, before pulling out his digivice, "Digi-realize!"

Candlemon appeared in a burst of light, and stretched out a bit.

"Ready, buudy?" Tai asked.

"Indubitably," Candlemon affirmed, before looking around, "Although, where is Labramon?"

"Huh?" Tai questioned, before looking around, "You're right, where is that dog?"

"He's busy." Sora told them flatly.

"Well tell him to unbusy himself!" Tai ordered, "We're about to get into a fight, and we need him here!"

"I can't."

Ken spoke up before Tai could, "I'm sure that Labramon has a good reason. But we should probably to check out the new digimon now. Who knows what sort of chaos they could have caused so far."

"They?" Candlemon questioned, "How are you certain that there are more than one digimon involved?"

Ken shrugged, "Well so far the two emergences have been your own, where at least five digimon emerged, and that Thundermon-Gazimon pair. So it's a fairly safe bet."

"That is a fairly limited data set," Candlemon hemmed, "But I see your point."

"Whatever," Tai interrupted, "We need to get moving!" With that he headed into the fog.

"You think he forgot that Sensei's the only one who can lead us to the digimon?" Patamon questioned.

"Probably," Ken agreed.

"Idiot," Sora breathed, rolling her eyes.

-

The wild digimon were actually fairly easy to locate. They only had to follow the founds of metal clashing with metal.

They found two nearly identical digimon. Both were round heads without bodies, with feet attached without legs, armored arms, swords slung across their backs, metal stars in their hands, and bandanas covered most of the upper half of their face-bodies, leaving only holes showing their eyes. The only difference between the two digimon was their coloration, the one of the left was purple and the one of the right was red.

Ken immediately pointed his digivice at the pair.

The purple one was:
Name: Kogamon
Level: Champion
Attribute: Data
Type: Mutant

The red one was:
Name: Ninjamon
Level: Champion
Attribute: Vaccine
Type: Mutant

"Two champions, joy." Candlemon replied dryly after Ken read out the digimons' stats, "And it doesn't look like either are going to stop fighting anytime soon."

Indeed, both of the rogue digimon had continued their fight, throwing metal stars at one another, clashing fist to fist, and constantly moving.

"Well then, you better digivolve!" Tai slammed his fist down on top of his digivice.

Nothing happened.

"Oh dear," Candlemon muttered, to the agreement of all present.

Ninjamon and Kogamon noticed the interlopers.

-

Labramon woke with a start. He could almost swear he heard a voice.

Help.

It was faint, he could almost hear it. It sounded feminine.

Help!

It was clearer that time. It almost sounded like-

HELP!

Sora!

-

Sora screamed as she scrambled out of the way of yet another one of Ninjamon's attacks.

As soon as the pair of fighting digimon had noticed the three humans present, they had broken up their fight, and started targeting them in unison.

Candlemon had done the best he could to defend them, but even with Patamon's help, he was barely able to divert the worst of the attacks away from Tai, Ken and herself. And it was plainly clear that the pair of digimon wouldn't be able to keep up much longer.

"Common!" Tai grunted as he slammed his fist down on his digivice for the umpteenth time, "Why won't this stupid thing work!"

"You don't have that ring anymore," Ken pointed out.

"What ring?" Tai questioned, "I didn't notice anything like that."

"Ken's right, when you punched Gazimon last time, an orange ring appeared around your hand," Sora told him, "Maybe that has something to do with Candlemon digivolving?"

"What, so I've got to punch one of them?" Tai asked incredulously, "Are you nuts!"

"No, but we're getting kind of desperate here!" Ken ground out as the trio dodged yet another wild attack.

Just then, Kogamon jumped up, landed on the flying Patamon, slamming him into the ground, before jumping back up and targeting Sora. "MAKIBISHI!"

Dozens of small iron spikes shot out directly at Sora.

Sora covered her face.

"RETRIVER-BARK!"

A sound-based attack intercepted the deadly metal.

Labramon jumped to the ground in front of Sora.

"You came," Sora whispered as she lowered her arms.

"Of course," Labramon nodded, "It is my duty."

"Duty," Sora whispered, "Duty! DUTY!" she finished shouting, "There's more to life than duty! There's your friends, your family, heck anybody who cares! Sometimes you need to let us take up the duty of protecting you!"

"I know," Labramon smiled.

"You know?" Sora questioned.

"Yes," Labramon sighed, "I was mad at Candlemon for taking out Thundermon. I was mad at Tai, for protecting you. I was mad at you for protecting me. But most of all, I was mad at myself for not being able to protect you."

"You don't have to protect me on your own," Sora protested, "We have our friends we can count on. But no matter what anyone does, I'll still be in danger. Even if I kept out of these fights all together, than there's a chance a rogue digimon could destroy the city!" Sora's gaze softened, "And besides, we're partners. That means we share the risk."

"Agreed."

Sora's digivice started glowing. A beam of light shot out of it, and enveloped Labramon.

"LABRAMON DIGIVOLVE TO-" The light around Labramon rippled, and a new form emerged. This new digimon was almost double Labramon's size, but still dog-like, with short black fur and brown belly, paws and jaw, it had a metal spiked collar around it's ridged neck, and a thin, almost bony, ridged body with a short tail. "DOBERMON!"

Name: Dobermon
Level: Champion
Attribute: Vaccine
Type: Beast

"Well," Dobermon chuckled, "Looks like I just got an upgrade." He smirked at Sora, "What do you say I take care of this?"

Sora gave a slight giggle, "I guess I say, 'Sic 'em boy!'"

"With pleasure."

Dobbermon made short work of Kogamon and Ninjamon, a quick Grey Noise attack from Dobermon blocked their special abilities, and then it was a simple matter of picking them off one by one with Dobermon's Black Beam.

After the battle was over, Sora smiled, and hugged Dobermon as he reverted to Labramon.

-