Disclaimer: Do I really have to say this every chapter? I'm doubting I really have to say it at all, but for whoever's sake this is for, I do not own Digimon.

Chapter 6

Tai glanced down briefly. Good, he was still headed in the right direction. And best of all, the blip on his digivice showed that he had almost reached his partner.

"Finally," he said with a smile. He had been losing hope of ever finding Agumon when Davis left him. "I never realized just how much I'd miss hearing Davis' mindless babble until he left. I mean, sure, it was kind of, well, very annoying, but at least he kept me company. Now the only thing to do is listen to myself talk. How pathetic is that?"

"That is pretty pathetic, Tai."

The digidestined's eyes went wide. He frantically ran to the end of the hallway and looked to his left, a large smile appearing on his face.

"Agumon!" he cried as he ran up to his partner. Well, as close as he could get to him, anyway. Cold, metal bars kept him from reaching his friend. "What happened? Are you alright? Who put you in here? Whoever he is, I'll make him sorry he ever messed with one of the Digidestined!"

The yellow digimon smiled, but it soon faded as he began to answer Tai's questions. "To be honest, I have no idea how I got in here. I was just wandering around the Digiworld when I came across a strange black oval hanging just off the ground. When I got closer to find out what it was, it sucked me into it, and I'm guessing that's how you got here." Tai nodded and waited for his partner to continue. "I suddenly appeared in this world, and I decided to try to look around. The only thing was that it was so dark out there that I couldn't see anything. And that's when I was attacked. I tried to fight whoever it was, but they just ended up knocking me out and bringing me here. When I woke up, I was in this cage."

Tai frowned. "Well, at least we know for sure that we aren't alone, though that's apparently a bad thing. This place seemed so empty that I didn't believe Davis when he said he thought he heard something."

"Davis is here too?" asked Agumon, "Why isn't he with you?"

"He told me to keep following your signal while he checked out the noise he heard," the boy explained, "We had better find him and soon. If whatever got you is what he's chasing, he could be in a lot of trouble. I don't suppose you remember if you heard wings flapping when you were captured."

"Come to think of it, I do remember hearing something like that," answered the digimon thoughtfully.

"Great," mumbled Tai, "We gotta figure out a way to get you out of here. Davis is in trouble, and you're the only one..." The digidestined trailed off as he slowly turned around, listening.

Coming closer was the unmistakable sound of something flying.

"Tai, get out of here!" Agumon whispered harshly, "This space is too small for you to help me digivolve, and I don't want you to get caught."

The boy shook his head instantly. "Not a chance, Agumon! I wanna find out just who did this to you and teach them a lesson! Besides, I took all that time looking for you, and I won't leave you when I've finally found you."

Knowing it was hopeless, the digimon turned his attention back to their oncomer, ready to let his Pepper Breath fly if whoever it was so much as laid a finger on his partner. He didn't have long to wait before the creature came into veiw.

'Wait a minute,' thought Tai, his eyes widening at the hideous sight before him. Hovering just a few feet off the ground was a small, grey creature. It was covered in fur with a small tuft of orange on the top of it's unusually large head. On it's back were two pairs of dull grey wings beating slowly. It's claws were flexing as it studied the two with it's slanted red eyes, it's large, toothy mouth curled into an evil smile. 'That's a...'

"It's a digimon!" exclaimed Agumon, readying himself for an attack.

The digimon suddenly dove at Tai with a shriek, his claws outstreched. At the last second, the boy jumped out of the way, causing the creature to run headfirst into the bars of Agumon's prison. Shaking it's head, it let out a low hiss as it turned to stare at his prey. Tai watched it closely, preparing himself for the next attack when something around the creature's wrist caught his eye. Noticing that he was distracted, the digimon lunged at the digidestined.

"Tai!" cried his partner.

The boy hadn't been fast enough and now lay on the floor, the horrible creature pinning him down by his shoulders. He struggled to get free, but to no avail. The grey digimon laughed as he raised a clawed hand into the air. There, hanging from his arm was a single silver key. With a cry, Tai used his free hand and with as much strength as he could gather, he punched the creature in the eye.

With a cry of pain, the creature released his hold on his prey to grab his injured eye. Using the opportunity, Tai reached up and grabbed at the silver key.

'Yes!' he thought as his hand closed on the small object. With a yank, he pulled the ring it was on off of the digimon's arm. Realising what had happened, the angry monster snarled and immidiately made a lunge for the hand that held the key. Moving his arm away, Tai used his free hamd to shove the small creature off of him.

"Agumon, now!" he cried as he ran away from the disoriented digimon.

"Right! Pepper Breath!" shouted the little rookie as he released his attack. With a shriek of pain, the grey digimon disolved into tiny bits of data.

Tai sat on the floor, panting. "Man, remind me not to do that again!" he moaned as he stood up and walked back to his partner. "Let's hope this key works. When I saw it, I figured he must be some sort of guard. Let's hope I was right." The boy put the key into the lock, turned it, and heard a soft click as the door swung open. "Alright!"

Agumon hurried out of his cell and looked up at his partner. "Are you okay, Tai?" he asked, worried.

His partner winked and gave him a thumbs up. "Hey, no one messes with my friends and gets away with it," he said with a smile, "I'm just glad I didn't get killed in the process."

"Oh, Tai."

His face suddenly turning serious, the digidestined searched his pocket for his digivice. As he pulled it out, he immidiately saw Davis' light flashing. It wasn't moving.

"Come on! We have to hurry!" he shouted as he took off, running back the way he had come. Agumon hurried after him.

'Why?' thought Tai, troubled, 'Why did that digimon look so familiar? And why do I have this nagging feeling that things are only going to get worse?'

"...giant killer slugs, aliens from another planet, man eating bugs, no wait, I said that one already. Hey, you okay?"

Davis watched as the cloaked figure slowly rose to his feet. The man grinned down at the boy, but the digidestined had the feeling that it wasn't as pleasant as it had been a while ago.

"Don't worry," the man said calmly, "I assure you, I am just perfect. Would you like to hear a story?"

Davis blinked. "Uh, sure, why not?"

"Once upon a time, there was a great and powerful digimon."

A gasp from the back of the hall made the boy turn around quickly. There stood Tai and Agumon, looking in horror at the man in front of him. He looked back at the figure and saw him lift an arm to his hood.

"He was supposed to rule over all of the Digital World, but some human brats banished him to a world of nothingness."

The man lowered his hood. The mask Davis had seen was half black and half white with a small red heart above one of his eyes. Long, orange hair stood out straight behind him, and a cruel smile appeared on his blood red lips.

"But one day he returned and took his rightful place as ruler. The end."

Confused, the younger boy turned to the older. To his surprise, Tai's face had gone white. And as he stared at the masked man, Davis heard a single word escape his lips.

"Piedmon..."

to be continued...

A/N: Heh, ok, I realize that most people will be like "What???? He's DEAD!" but I ran across an arguement a while back concerning Digimon Frontier. There were rumors going around that an old baddie would show up at the end of the season and (even though they weren't true) some of the ideas people talked about intrigued me. The idea of Piedmon being banished through MagnaAngemon's Gate of Destiny rather then getting deleted was definately a fun idea. I always loved Piedmon as a bad guy and thought it would be so cool if he could show up again. More will be explained in later chapters, though. To all those who are 100% set on the fact that Piedmon has kicked the bucket, well, tough. It's fanfiction and that gives me liberty to do what I want! MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!! ... Anyways... Hope you liked that chapter! ^_^