Questions are Answered and loyalties are questioned in return. The truth behind the events of the human world are starting to come together, but is the team ready for such a revelation?

Max, Fang, Delta, And Duke belong to me.

Digimon belongs to Namco Bandai

---

Key


Max could do little to stop the red dragon at this distance, so carefully, he removed himself from the frightened Delta, who started to calm down and take a seat beside Duke. Likewise, Max and Fang sat opposite of them, his blue eyes shooting daggers at the dragon. "Make your point now. How can we know this isn't an act?"


"Because at this distance I could have shot you dead right where you stood over Delta. Now look..." Duke placed both his hands together, fingers pointed in Max's direction. "You need to understand the seriousness of the situation here. And what this place is. You want to defeat the darkness right? Well attack me here and now and that secret dies with me..."


When Max finally decided to calm down and let the dragon take the stage, Duke cleared his throat and sighed. "It started when you guys came into our base. More specifically...we were warned of your arrival by Daemon, who at the time we referred to as Lord Daemon. A title he no longer has with me. Your friend Flare...that hotheaded pokemon trainer." The red dragon let those words hang there for a second. "Showed exceptional skill...skill that Daemon had anticipated but kept to himself. He didn't even consider clueing us in on his resonance with the spirit of fire."


Max nodded, taking the hint. "And you resent him for it? Is that why you've supposedly denounced your allegiance to Darkness?"


Grinning wide, Duke pointed a finger at Delta, who took to munching on a strange blue apple given to him by Bearmon. "He already knew. Delta planned for every contingency. Even your victory was calculated but he didn't bother to correct the possibility."


"Hold on. Are you saying he threw the fight?" Fang asked, completely caught by surprise by this knowledge. "Why would he have any reason to let himself lose? Wasn't his idea to rebuild our world from scratch after destroying it?"


"Bah! So many questions, you barely give me time to explain! As for your reasoning, it is sound, but lacking in evidence. He didn't throw the fight, he expected a percentage of your victory but not how it would be achieved. It didn't matter though what the outcome would be. If you ended up foiling his plans he still had a plan B." Duke sat back, pressing his back against the seat. "It was a game of chess between both Daemon and Delta...both were trying to topple the other. Part of that plan was to influence Jesse to work with us before Daemon could completely corrupt him. But we hadn't expected that Jesse's bad blood would infect ME, or cause such a drastic change in personality within Delta."


"Watch it! Jesse's not to blame here it's you guys!" Max growled, nearly jumping out of his seat but Duke did nothing to stop him.


The red reptile turned one eye towards Max, a low growl creeping into his voice. "Jesse is by all means innocent...working for his own ends to protect YOU. But I wasn't talking about the boy himself, but rather his lineage. You might not be aware of it, But Jesse's father...heck his entire ancestory is very important to our way of life, and one of the few beings that can dispell and control the Darkness. The grim reaper."
When Max stood there dumbfounded, Duke smirked. "You never knew...You grew up alongside him and yet you never had an inkling about his origins! What his brother never explained how their bloodline came about? And you're supposed to be his best friend? Well..." Duke chuckled, lifting one leg over the other, toes splayed out. "Nobody can fault you for not knowing when the secret was kept even from Jesse himself. But your pal Leo knew. He knew aaaaaall along. He even let it take hold of your friend."


Max's eyes bulged out, immediately materializing his digivice he turned toward the screen. "You knew? This whole time and you said nothing?"


Within the digivice, Leo was propping himself against a set of steel bars, part of his bodily rehabilitation. When he heard Max's comment he sighed. "His brother informed me of this before he took off to be a pokemon trainer. He begged me to look after his kid brother. I was supposed to start tutoring Jesse how to call upon the Darkness inside of him at the age of 13, where he would be more aware of his responsibilities, and wouldn't abuse his power. But...That night changed every thing."


"You two are talking about the night of the great raid set on your island right?" Duke asked with a big grin. "I know about it because of Delta's recon...You can thank him sending Fang for that...while the pup wasn't aware...he was sending information back to us even throughout that wretched disaster. And it was that moment...that we had enough."


Gritting his teeth, Max sprang forward at Duke, grabbing him by the neck but he didn't choke the reptile, but he did hold a fist ready to pound on him. "You USED him. And you spied on our private lives! Fang only ever wanted to meet his family and you two just treated him as a means to an end!!"


Duke pulled at Max's claws, growling with his teeth bared. "You're damn straight we did. And I won't apologize for it. Grow up! The next rampage would have been in Goldenrod if we hadn't stepped in."

It didn't take much for Duke to push Max off, trying to catch his breath. "Daemon wanted nothing more than to prematurely awaken the darkness inside of Jesse. He wanted control over the grim reaper that your best friend is capable of becoming. So...we took Jesse in."


"More like you did the dirty work FOR Daemon." Max spat, only being pulled away by Fang who tried to calm down his twin brother. "What's the difference from him taking Jesse...and you guys?"


"The DIFFERENCE." Duke shook his head. "The difference is that in our care, Jesse was slowly beginning to come into his powers. But at such a young age, he was unable to control it. Reapermon is the manifestation of his powers. He too cannot simply be controlled. The Darkness can only hope that their goal and destination remains the same. Else it'd have a very formidable foe to contend with."



Fang rubbed Max's shoulders, looking over to Duke, grumbling. "So then...Reapermon is a wild card...he can be an ally for good OR evil depending on his own agenda. And what is Reapermon's goal in all of this?"


A low chuckle rose from Duke's chest as that answer was directed at him. "Like Chaos is to Max...so is HE to Jesse. Whatever Jesse's reasons for joining us at the time were...are likely Reapermon's too. He's just better at concealing it." Duke leaned over and poked a claw into Max's chest, careful not to break skin. "You."
Duke crossed his arms immediately after. "You were the main reason Jesse left the island when he did. Despite him trying to burn you alive at the base...I think he may have expected you to survive...No matter how strong you were as a makeshift ultimate WereArcaninemon, without the experience and know how, you couldn't have properly beaten him. My guess is-"


"It was a play..." Max mumbled quietly, his ears perking up. "Are you saying that while he wasn't entirely bent on killing me he dragged it out until he could make his escape?! But why tell me this?"


Duke smirked wide, jumping up and out of his seat. "Why indeed! The answer is because the Darkness already knows. But given the unique circumstance, it can't do anything to Reapermon at this time. Not until he lowers his guard for a fatal attack."


"If that's the case. Then why act so antagonistic towards Jesse? He riled him up back in the South, in Chronomon's church..." Max pointed out matter of factly.


"I would think that was obvious. Why does a mama bird push it's young out of the nest?" Duke asked quietly, trying not to startle the digimon around him, half of which already started snoozing.



That caught Max's attention, his eyes narrowed as he worked around the question. "He's training him...but the question is...does Jesse know that?"


Duke shrugged his shoulders, hands to the side. "The only one that can answer that is Jesse. The fact of the matter is we're on the same side. We don't like the darkness any more than you do. And it's taken all of my will power and wit to prevent Daemon from learning about my treachery."


"You've told me all of this. Then you don't expect to live to act on this information..." Fang looked solemn as he stated this fact. "What will you do?"


"Well...I can't protect Delta on my own anymore. And one of Daemon's henchmen will be here at any time. I want you to take him AND all of these digimon away from here. Destroy this world, it no longer holds peaceful memories for any sort of creature here but those of evil." Duke sighed, forming a red flame in his hand which was sucked into Max's digivice. "A parting gift from me to you. It can't ever begin to make up for the despair I've caused to all of you. Just know that what we did, we did to keep the Darkness at bay."


Max for one moment, looked regretful. "If Delta really did lose his memories I'll take him away from here. But you still haven't told us the key to defeating the darkness."


Duke shook his head, looking amused. "No...no I didn't. Just know that Delta's plan B on dealing with the darkness involves you and Jesse...Teamwork is vital in this final stretch BUT it'll be you and Jesse that will be the difference between victory, or death... And the reason because of that is you were chosen by the Light...The successor to the world and the key to it's reformation. And Jesse was chosen by fate to be the successor of Darkness the one being who cannot be influenced by the Darkness itself but at the same time can rally forces in his favor." He grabbed Max's claws, and smirked. "In the end it will always come to those two driving forces. What will win though?" With that, Duke let go of Max and sighed. "Go. Take that as food for thought and find Jesse. No matter who else you brought with you to this world both of you are our last hope."


Max looked serious, taking all of this in and for the first time, could feel the weight of the world on his shoulders. Then, he shook his head, calling each of the digimon into his digivice until it was full up, the rest of which went into Fang's. "Without even one of us there IS no hope. It's like you said. Teamwork is vital. We'll keep Delta safe, you just make sure you don't do anything wreckless!"


"Oh I think it's WAY too late for that." Came a mocking voice. From Max and Duke's reaction it was coming from every direction, then the double doors burst open, ripped from it's hinges by a pair of purblish blue clawed hands. when the doors came apart, it was revealed that Dynasmon was on the other side, looking onward at the group with distaste. "You would all stage a coup against my new lord?"


Fang raised an eyeridge, glaring at the armored dragon. "Dynasmon...How could you be brought in by the Darkness. Your duty is to Yggdrasil."


"Oh little Gaomon how you amuse me. Don't talk as if you know me, I am beyond you. And the Darkness shall bring forth a glorious rebirth to our worlds!"


Max rolled his eyes as he stepped forward, digivolving right away into WereGrowlmon, his katana's forming in his hands. He gave them a twirl with his wrists. "Want to show me you changed Duke? Prove it by surviving. I promise to protect Delta but now I'm also going to extend that promise to you."


Duke stood to Max's side, raising an eyeridge. "I can still become a digimon so I can fight on my own! But somehow I didn't think you'd run off with danger this close."


"One of Delta's calculations I take it?" Max asked with a smirk as Duke digivolved, though instead of a Devimon like last time, it was a Skullsatamon, waving his staff around just as Max had done a moment ago with his Katana's. "That's a digimon of Darkness, are you sure you can control it?"


There was a low grumble from Duke who held his staff at the ready. "Just keep your guard up. I don't care how strong you are now but we're fighting a royal knight. You sure you shouldn't have digivolved to Mega?"


"Don't worry about that. My training revolved around this form...you'll see what I'm capable of." Max replied calmly.


Fang looked a bit nervous, stepping away to the back of the church, immediately starting to remove his armor, which was kind of awkward of him to do in the middle of a battle.


Dynasmon looked amused as everyone got into their respective positions, then chuckled as both Max and Duke charged into him, knocking him out of the church and into the center of town. "You both dare challenge a royal knight instead of facing your judgement? Don't say I didn't let you surrender!"


"We don't want your mercy!" Max growled, both of his katana's shining a blinding white light. "New attack!! Whirling light!" Max then swung both Katana's forward, creating an X shape pattern as they crossed. Two streams of light fled from the blade, clashing into Dynasmon's gauntlets, bouncing off of them but not without leaving a few dents.


Duke cackled a bit in his new form, pointing his staff toward Dynasmon and grinned wikedly. "Take my Nail bone!!" As he said this, a light of energy fired toward Dynasmon who caught the attack in his palm, laughing as he crushed it. "That attack should have deleted you! It's a stronger version of my Deletion shot!"


"Hmph!" Dynasmon rubbed his wrists and looked at them with a deep throated chuckle. "Two ultimates would and could NEVER be a match for a royal knight! You should have digivolved to Mega Max." He opened both palms, each aimed at both digimon. "DRAGONS ROAR!" He cried out as two beams of energy burst forth from his palms, knocking both Max and Duke in the chest and making them stumble onto their backs. "You're fools to entertain the thought of defeating ME."


Groaning, Max slowly pulled himself back up but was knocked back down as an armored foot was pinned down over him. "No don't get up boy. I'll deal with YOU once I've stripped Duke of the power he's been 'borrowing' " Max looked at Dynasmon in confusion, but his eyes went wide as a veil of darkness enveloped Duke, the cloud starting to be pulled into Dynasmon's claws, reverting the Skullsatamon back into his base dragon form.


Duke growled, slowly picking himself up, shoulders slumped while he lifted his arm up, pointing to Dynasmon's chest as if he were holding a gun, before a single beam of light came out of his claw tips. "Deletion...shot!"


But the shot simply bounced off the knight's armor, barely dinging the plate at all. "Now you're no more of a threat to me than a mouse is to a cat!"


Anger started welling up inside Max as his claws gripped Dynasmon's leg and shoved him off with all his might. "You stole his power!!"


"Don't be so naive, I took back what he borrowed!" Dynasmon laughed, joy apparent on his face. "Just like I'm going to take back your life!"


"You're supposed to be a knight for the digimon...their protector! But you seem to take delight in torturing others!" Max growled, gripping his digivice as the digiegg of Miracles appeared in his claws. "WereGrowlmon GOLDEN ARMOR DIGIVOLVE TOOO!"


Just as the digivolution was about to take place, a loud bellow eminated from the church. "BLOWBACK BREATH!" a multicolored energy beam flew past Max and towards Dynasmon who was knocked into the old tavern.


Stopped in mid digivolution, both Max and Duke looked to the direction of the church, slowly stepping through it's ruined door frame, was what looked to be a Metalgarurumon, except more heavily armored, and a large cannon over it's back. Smoke billowed from it's jaws as it stepped toward the battlefield. "Don't digivolve Max. Let me handle this!" The voice was very gruff, each word placed into a growl and he couldn't place the familiarity of it.


Max put the digiegg back into his digivice and scanned the digimon over his digivice, but it came up without any sort of data. "Who...are you?"


The Garurumon looked at Max with one red eye and growled softly in introduction. "Your brother." Was the only reply he got. "Call me Fang, but you can also call me ZeedGarurumon."


"So YOU'RE the ZeedGarurumon that Baihumon mentioned. And you've been in my brother this whole time?!" Max looked on Incredulous.


"I'll answer your questions later." Fang responded harshly, legs splayed out as Dynasmon emerged from the wrecked Tavern.


Dynasmon tore apart some of the splintered wood and glared daggers at Fang. "The old warrior of the west reveals himself does he? A relic of the past does not belong in the present!"


Fang's eyes remained calm, but his teeth clenched for a moment. "A relic I may be. But a knight that sells out his comrades and takes pleasure in battle is not a knight. You've forgotten your place, why you and the other royal knights were formed. It wasn't to overpower the digimon, or bend them to your will!"


"The Royal knights serve their lord and master. It is the way it has been since the beginning. My master has changed to the Darkness, which is how we should have originally been." Dynasmon retorted, claws at the ready for battle.


"The KNIGHTS Serve the digimon. You cannot be called a knight without the support of those you have sworn to protect. You've lost the title of royal knight and judgement shall be passed down." Fang declared, letting out a deafening roar which Max, Duke and Delta each had to cover their ears for.


"As I've said, relics of the past have no right in the present. Judgement is reserved for those who are strong. Those that are deserving and the Darkness will eventually judge you all." Dynasmon growled as a white aura began to envelope him, the appearance of a giant wyvern surrounding his frame. "Breath of Wyvern!!"


The massive form of the dragon sent chills through Max's spine as he watched it approach Fang, it's jaws agape, Yet Fang's expression did not change. "Full Metal Breath!" He roared out, the laser turrets on the side of each forearm glowed white hot before firing at the giant behemoth, as did the laser sights on his snout as well as it's tail cannon. Lastly the massive cannon on his back fired a mighty blast, all of it concentrated on the great white aura coming towards him. The explosion from the impact knocked everyone several feet in the air, Max had to create a net of light to make sure that He, Duke and Delta didn't get swept away in the blast.


Fang simply snorted the dust away, clearing a path for him to approach Dynasmon. "Where once you were a knight. I can only see despair in your future. I cannot purify you, only hope that when you reawaken in a new digiegg you will realize the error of your ways, and live with the knowledge that never again will you be able to attain the rank of Royal Knight." Fang took in a great breath as the massive cannon on his back fired up, launching a massive blast of energy into Dynasmon who screamed in agony before his body disentigrated, dissapearing along with the Tavern behind him.



Max looked on with shock and dismay. He never imagined that Fang could ever condemn anybody to death. But he could not voice an objection as the great Garurumon nosed the ground, using his claws to paw at it a bit. "Everyone climb on..."


"What do you m-" Max blinked as the earth started shaking around them, as well as the ground crumbling, several buildings falling into a dark pit steadily growing. Without another word, Max De-digivolved into a Guilmon and hopped onto Fang, as did Delta and Duke who scampered over to get on in time.


When everyone was secure, Fang took off, his feet pounding into the ground and forming dust clouds in his wake. It was amazing how quick the newly formed Mega could sprint, ground crumbling behind them only seconds after he passed. This went on for ten minutes, until Fang brought them to a tall cliff overlooking the now empty terrain. There was no dirt, no buildings, heck there was no more earth within a ten mile radius of where they had been previously.


"Fang...are you going to explain to me what is going on? Why did that entire section just...dissapear?!" Max asked with urgency.


"Each of the Royal knights were given power in this realm to stabilize it. The Darkness does not want this world destroyed...so it left keys in the hands of each of the royal knights, as well as the demon lords." Duke responded in place of Fang, crossing his arms. "TO end this charade for good, we must defeat all of the royal knights as well as the demon lords serving the darkness..."


Fang nodded with a low growl. "We need to go find Jesse and the others. I already picked up the scent of RD...we'll start there."


With that, Fang started running once again, the group dissapearing in the distance as they left the western town for good. Eager to regroup with the rest of the team.


(To be continued)