Sylvyr: Ok, here is chapter ten, all ready to go.

Kaiser: Ah, don't forget.

Sylvyr:….      

Kaiser: Don't give me that look, you know you have to.

Yugi: Well you don't have to be so mean about it. All she has to do is say that she doesn't own Digimon.

Ryoko: Of course we do, we're space pirates and evil rulers it's our job. Now go away.

(Blasts Yugi into space)

Ryoko: Don't forget the other thing either.

Sylvyr(looking at hole Yugi made in the ceiling): Right, I don't own the song Early One Morning either, I don't even know it all. I heard it on tv. How am I going to fix that?

Ryoko: I don't care.

Sylvyr: Well I'm off to fix my roof, enjoy the next chapter.

"Miya, are you alright? Please wake up."

She could hear him pleading again and she wanted to wake up, but she could not.

She opened her eyes, she was in the dungeon cell. Ken was hovering worriedly over her.

"Are you alright?"

She wanted to yell at him, to tell him to get away, but she heard herself moan instead.

"Ugh…I think so."

Her body struggled to rise and he steadied her and helped her lean back against the wall.

Why could she not make it stop? She just wanted it to stop, but it would not go away.

"What happened?" he asked, his indigo eyes staring earnestly into her.

They KILLED you, that's what happened! Her mind screamed at him.

But she could hear her voice telling him about the dark spores.

Why was it always the same? Why could she not change it?

He listened to her with a serious expression. She wanted to reach up and stroke his cheek. If she could not stop it from happening again she wanted to at least touch him again, but her body would not move.

"Wormon once told me that my crest was the Crest of Kindness. I guess our crests interacted and interfered with the dark spores.

"Mommy?" queried a small voice.

Miyako glanced around the dungeon, but she could not find that voice.

"That's a pretty good way of putting it 'little emperor'.

Myotismon stood in the doorway of the dungeon.

No, go away! I won't let you have him!

But Myotismon stalked into the room inspite of Miyako's mental denial.

"What do you want from us now?" Ken demanded of their captor.

"Mommy?" came the voice again.

Miyako was holding their daughter, keeping her pressed tightly to her chest, trying to protect her from Myotismon as he turned her husband into a monster.

Ken knelt on the floor dying as the spore took control of his body. He looked up at her and mouthed 'I love you' to them, just before his eyes turned black and he rose to his feet.

Myotismon smirked down at her and her baby.

"Take the child!"

Miyako screamed as the Kaiser turned his black eyes towards her and advanced to try and take the girl from her arms.

"No, no you can't have her!" she screamed as he tried to pry her arms open.

"Mommy?" the voice was getting more urgent.

"Take the child!" commanded Myotismon.

"No, no!" Miyako sobbed.

"Mommy, please wake up!" she was crying this time.

Miyako jolted upright in terror.

"Mommy?"

Miyako numbly released the fat pillow she had crushed to her chest, climbed down from the bed and stumbled over to a window, trying to steady her shaking body. Trying to shake away the terror.

"Mommy?"

Miyako turned back to the bed and smiled wanly at the two year old sitting in the rumpled covers. Her dark hair spilled over her tiny shoulders as she tearfully watched her mother.

"It's ok, Sam. Mommy just had a bad dream."

"Oh," a familiar worried frown crossed her face. She looked so much like her father when she did that.

Miyako sighed and crossed the room to sit next to her daughter. In the pale moonlight, she thought for a second that those deep blue eyes were turning black, but she shook the illusion off.

That would never happen. She would never allow her daughter to be lost to that evil.

"Sing, Mommy."

"What?"

"When I have a bad dream, Uncle Ori says to sing and it makes it go away."

"What should I sing?" Miyako asked, smiling at her daugther's mispronunciation of Iori.

"Early One Morning," Sam told her.

"I don't know. Maybe not…"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" the child bounced enthusiastically with each word. "Pleeaase."

"Ok, but you have to sing with me."

"Ok, Mommy."

"Early one morning, as the sun was rising, I heard…"

As they sang Miyako's terror of the dream faded, but the dream itself remained vivid.

^^^^^^^^^^

Hikari hummed to herself as she began to prepare breakfast. She cracked eggs into the wide glass bowl, then turned her head to where she knew Gatomon was sitting.

"Did I get any eggshells in?"

"Nope, you didn't. You don't ever anymore."

Hikari grinned as she reached into a nearby cabinet and found the pancake mix. She was glad Taichi had been able to find some on his last trip to the real world.

Unfortunately  the digidestined had found it necessary to close off the gates of the digital world. Myotismon and Ladydevimon had proved to be almost unstoppable. The digidestined had closed the gates to prevent them from crossing into the real world and had barely managed to keep a small area of the digital world safe from them. Izzumi had managed to improve some on the trancievers, so that a much smaller tranciever would be capable of blocking the signal of a control spire.

However the battles were getting tougher, and it was no longer an easy matter to free up an area. The Kaiser would shift all his resources to the areas they were attempting to free, on many occasions they were lucky to get away at all. When they did free a section they planted multiple trancievers in the area, if the Kaiser took down one then another could take over.

"Hey, Hikari," Daisuke called as he entered the room. "What's for breakfast?"

"Pancakes."

"Ooh, great! Hopefully they will be better than the time Taichi tried to make pancakes and they turned out green. But since you're making them I'm sure they'll be great."

Hikari giggled.

"But if I made green pancakes how would I know? Maybe all my pancakes are green and everybody is just being nice?"

Daisuke leaned over the counter to whisper in her ear, "Actually, they're purple, but nobody complains because they taste so great."

Hikari laughed, "You silly joker. So what are we going to do about tomorrow?"

"Uh, what's tomorrow?" Daisuke asked.

"Tomorrow is Sam's birthday."

"Oh yeah, what did you have in mind?"

"I thought maybe we should throw her a birthday party."

"Sounds like a good idea, I'll let everybody know."

"Great! Thanks Daisuke. I knew I could count on you."

Hikari heard his footsteps leaving as he left the kitchen and a sly smile flitted across her features.

"Hey Gatomon, I need your help with something…"

^^^^^^^^^

"Are you certain?" Myotismon demanded, indicating one of the many monitors hanging along the wall. The monitor portrayed a small cottage in a shady forest glen.

"Not entirely sir. We haven't actually seen any of the digidestined in that glade, but we have seen the Kaiserin. And it's inside the protected regions that we can't reach, sir," the Bakamon commander reported.

"Would she return to them?" he asked Ladydevimon who was seated behind him.

"I don't know. Without the spore I can't get into her thoughts…she might. We should send a reconnaissance mission."

Myotismon growled, lately it had been harder and harder for him to stand Ladydevimon.

"Yes," he grudged. "Why don't you send 'your boy' to do it."

"What an excellent idea," smiled Ladydevimon.

The Kaiser was kneeling next to her, it seemed he was always at her side these days, and she stroked her hand gently through his hair, "Take a squadron and go investigate, but don't start any trouble if you find them. It's just a recon mission."

"Of course, My Lady."

The Kaiser rose to his feet and strode purposefully from the room.

"Why do you do that?"

"What," asked Ladydevimon.

"Treat him like he's your personal pet. He is after all my slave, and it is of no importance if he is destroyed."

"If you say so," Ladydevimon smiled slyly as Myotismon turned back to the monitors.

^^^^^^^^^^^

"Why was the pancakes purple this morning, Auntie Kar?" Sam asked, tugging at Hikari's arm, trying to get her to go faster.

"It was just a joke," Hikari laughed.

"A funny?"

"Yes, a funny."

"Oh, almost there."

"Good, I can't wait to pick berries."

"Yeah," squealed the young girl.

Hikari could hear Samantha's pail banging into her legs as she trotted along. She could almost envision the youngster. She smiled happily, as they headed towards the berry patch.

^^^^^^^^^^

Hikari hummed happily as she picked, enjoying the afternoon. The warm sunlight on her shoulders was making her sleepy, and she was surrounded by a cacophony of afternoon sounds. Insects and birds buzzed and sang all around her.

It suddenly hit her that she could no longer hear Sam.

"Sam where are you?"

Still she heard nothing.

"Sam, are you playing a game?"

The child did not answer her.

"Samantha, this isn't funny."

But she quickly realized that Samantha was nowhere close to her. She was beginning to regret her decision not to bring Gatomon along. She had felt that it was unnecessary since they were not going far.

"Samantha!"

^^^^^^^^^

Sam glanced up and saw the stranger watching her."

"Hi."

The dark man did not say anything, he just looked at her.

She stood and walked towards him.

When she stood right in front of him he knelt and grabbed her chin fiercely, causing her to squawk as he tilted her chin back and looked over her face.

"Who are you?" she asked with a tremble of fear in her voice.

He ignored her, his black eyes boring into her. The child felt like he could see everything she had ever done with those strange eyes.

"Samantha!"

At the sound of Hikari's voice the stranger released her and stood up.

"Hey! What's your name?" the little girl asked.

"Sam, are you here?"

She could not look away from those eyes.

He shook his head indicating silence and vanished soundlessly into the woods.

"Sam?"

"Auntie Kar, I'm sorry."

Sam trotted across the clearing to take Hikari's hand.

"Wanna go home, now."

"Ok, let's go home," Hikari agreed.

^^^^^^^^^^^

"The mission was a success," the Kaiser stated, bowing to the two rulers.

"Then that is their hiding place?"

"Yes, Lord Myotismon. I personally saw Hikari, and several of the others were spotted."

"Excellent! Now we will finally be able to defeat those fool digidestined and break through this ridiculous barrier of theirs and take over the real world as well."

"You have done well," commented Ladydevimon.

"He has done as he was programmed to do. There's no need to speak of it to him."

"Of course, I am sorry," conceded Ladydevimon condescendingly.

"Do not treat me as a child."

"My apologies," Ladydevimon, rose as she spoke. "Please forgive me. Come along."

The Kaiser followed her as she stalked from the room.

^^^^^^^^^^^

The dark man was standing in front of her again.

"What do you want?" she asked.

He did not reply he just looked at her. A frown crossed her brow as she looked at him.

What did he want?

He held his hand out to her. She looked at him and slowly crossed the room. She took his hand and looked up at him. She grinned up at him as she hugged his hand closer to herself. Together they made their way through the white misty dreamscape.

^^^^^^^^^^^

"Happy Birthday Sam!"

Sam was bouncing off the wall with excitement. Everything had been wonderful, she loved birthdays. Birthdays were so much fun that she wanted to have a birthday everyday.

Mommy had laughed when she had asked if she could have a birthday every day, she did not see why that was funny. Everybody gave you things on your birthday and there was cake. She wanted one every day.

She had forgotten all about the dark man.

Mommy turned the lights off and everybody started to sing as Uncle T'chi brought out the cake Auntie Kar had made. She laughed with delight.

"Ok, Sammie, make a wish," Uncle Ori told her. She leaned towards the cake eagerly.

"You know what I wish?" asked a harsh voice as the door was suddenly kicked in. "I wish there were no more digidestined in the world to interfere with my plans."

Kurama: Well that's it for now.

Sylvyr( has tar and bits of roofing tile stuck all over her): Well I finally got that done. For those of you who are used to being notified when I update, there is a note explaining why I have quit in my author profile.

It suddenly starts pouring rain and water gushes in from the hole Sylvyr just tried to fix.

Heie( pulling out an umbrella ): Well I must say, that was a job well done.

Sylvyr: Oh shut up. (falls down in anime despair)

Heie(blinks): What's with her?