A/N: This one was kinda tough! It's for non-flash bingo number 341 - character: Tactimon. I hope you like it!

In the past, he almost obtained glory.

"You are so unfair, Tactimon." His opponent stood back against the cliff, recovering use of his lungs. "I couldn't even see that."

He laughed, returning the blade to his side. "Omegamon, you're the one with the ultimate sword."

His friend snorted, "But mine is not sheathed, now is it?"

Once, he was an inch from Royal Knighthood, sworn to protect the host, to protect god. To heal the world,

It sounded so grandiose when he put it that way.

"If it wasn't in its sheathe, we would have some problems, now wouldn't we?"

"If you say so, old man." The Omega Sword slipped away and Omegamon regarded him from his seat on a rock. "You still thinking over that offer?"

"How could I not?" Tactimon stood back and raised his blade again. The chains rattled on the sheathe and he lowered it, thoughtful. "Fame, glory, knighthood. The songs would sing of a samurai for a change, instead of an ordinary anointment."

"It'd be pretty nice to get Dynasmon off my back over it. Musyamon won't leave him alone about takin' in people. Not since Hackmon was brought around and all." Omegamon sat on the earth now, cracking the ground as he did. "Oops."

Tactimon snorted. "You're impossible."

"So what if I am?"

Once, he had been destined to save the world.

"Why did he call upon me to begin with?"

Omegamon raised an eyebrow. "Who?" Tactimon couldn't show facial expressions over his helmet, or he would have raised an eyebrow. Omegamon shrugged. "Yggdrasil is Yggdrasil. I don't even think Craniummon would be able to tell you why." He snorted. "He would probably say destiny, to be honest."

Tactimon coughed, choking on his next breath out of pure surprise. "Destiny? What does that have to do with it?"

"Everything, according to him." Omegamon shrugged again. "It's his shtick. I've just stopped askin'.

tactimon chortled. "You make such strange friends, Omegamon."

"Present company not excluded. "

"Certainly not."

The thing about destiny, however, is that it only takes a twitch of a dice roll for it to change.

"Who did you say put the chains on that sword for you?" One of Omegamon's big blue eyes rested on him as he spoke. "Last I saw, you had to leave it underground."

Tactimon's fingers curled around the hilt. "Would you believe me if I told you I cannot recall?"

Omegamon rolled his eyes. "Of course not. You don't forget what breakfast you had three days ago."

"Only if it's particularly edible."

They laughed and Tactimon allowed himself to look away and smile behind his mask at the setting sun. He let himself pretend.

"That Bagramon fellow's been seen around here," Omegamon continued. His voice, a dual sound, was slow and easy, as though he had actually dropped his guard. Tactimon knew better. Omegamon had two souls. One would always be aware. He would always be seen through by his old friend.

He supposed there could be worse things. Except now.

"Has anyone risked fighting him?"

A snort. "Course not. You realize how many dead he'd leave behind? Guy's got too much power for his own good, and he knows it. He's been avoiding fighting until he has to." He stretched. "We're still going to have to hunt him down."

"… Indeed."

Yes. They would.

When the army formed, the signal arrived with a sliver of wood. It called for him, and so he went. He had already been beaten once.

Once was enough, for him.

Once was enough for when they faced the fallen angel, he turned on his friend, his back facing honor and glory in exchange for the darkness of death. The darkness which would someday remove the sheathe of his sword and lead him to the end of the world.

If only the angel hadn't fallen. They would have served together, the three of them, in light.

Now, however, the three of them would lay only in darkness.

It was only a matter of time.