It's been about a week since the last post. So I think this is as good a time as any to post the next chapter :3 I'm keeping these spread out as best I can. I've said this many times but thanks to  Rainbowdragon and  Kiya Drakon For being such awesome friends and working with me all through this :3 you guys are awesome!! Comments are appreciated ^^

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Well kept secret


"Well we're finally here. It's not much to look at but they don't exactly give banished Royal knights big fancy estates." Flare replied calmly, eerily so, he was usually full of energy as he knocked on the front door before heo pened the front door for RD

RD took notice of this "Why are you so calm all of a sudden? You usually are bouncing off the walls" RD asked, switching into Dracomon form to fit inside of the home.

Flare sighed, looking around and flicking the closest light switch he could find "I think Coronamon's the only one that knows this. But I'm a pretty good judge of character, I can't see a person's intentions like a veil like Scavenger can but I can feel it. And my personality changes based on what I feel. I think it's a defense mechanism."

"Are you calm because the guy in here doesn't like energetic guys as much? well in any case we need info"

"I have nothing wrong with energetic guys in my home. I do have a neighboring Triceramon however who isn't the most polite but that's a story for another day. You need info?" A guilmon asked, standing in the front of the hallway, yawning. Based on the coloring of his scales he was quite old, older than Max by a bit anyway.

"Yes, we heard from Max that you were banished from the Royal knights. Were any of them acting...strange...or unusual when they held the hearing for your banishment?" RD asked, trying to be polite to the old Guilmon.

Guilmon rolled his eyes and pointed to the couch for RD and Flare to sit, once they did he made a quick trip to the kitchen, returning with half a loaf of bread, and cut it into thirds, one for each of his guests "It seems like that's all anybody wants to hear about." He took a deep breath as he sat down* "It's not a question of their behavior you should be asking. But rather the reasons behind my banishing and the events that lead up to it. I wasn't close to many of the Royal knights save for Omnimon."

"OK, but still a banishment is something serious, they don't just hand it out just like that" RD continued, but he smiled when he spotted the bread set infront of him and got to munching.

Guilmon nodded "Well I'm guessing Lord Baihumon didn't fill you guys in. But then that's me assuming you've encountered him. Most of the Royal knights serve King drasil, living and protecting the digital world. But many Gallantmon who have become knights followed their hearts instead of orders. I didn't serve king drasil I served the four."

"The four lords you mean" RD nodded at this "Hrmm so something might be wrong with King Drasil again, sometimes he does go off his rocker" RD muttered a bit

Guilmon nodded "He's been known more than once to go over the top in his orders. He'd purged the digital world once of it's original inhabitants. but that was long before my era. Still, I sought guidance from the four lords of the digital world when I first ascended into knighthood. IT was from them that I learned mastery over the light. And it was from them that I learned about the Darkness before it became a threat. It was something even King drasil anticipated but failed to act on."

RD folded his arms "So the question is why did King Drasil not act on it when it got out of hand?"

Guilmon sighed, shrugging his shoulders "Even I don't know the question to that. King drasil's eyes are set on the digital world, not the humans. He probably thought nothing of it until it would become a threat to our world. The four Soverigns however saw things differently. They aren't gods, they aren't in the same league as King Drasil but I followed them because they were sensible to the danger and what it would mean if it got too big to handle. My assumption is that King Drasil thought it was insulting for me to follow the directions of a being lower than himself."

"So you were stripped of your duty just because of King Drasil's PRIDE?!? That's crazy!" RD said irritably biting off the remnants of the bread handed to him.

Guilmon sighed trying to look apologetic. "Like I said it's just an assumption. The Royal knights might know more, and the four won't disclose any sensitive information except by the ones chosen to meet them. You once told me...or rather your spirit once told me that you hate being pulled by the strings like a puppet but everything right now is hundreds of years in the making."

RD was irritated, he hated being used but it seemed like he was being deliberately kept in the dark while everyone else had at least some sort of inkling as to what was going on. That more then anything else was what irked him

Guilmon chuckled, he could see RD's irritation and sighed, he relented with smile "I really shouldn't tell you this but I think you two deserve at least SOMETHING for coming this far..."

RD tried to calm down and nodded when Guilmon mentioned the last part. "What is it?"

Guilmon took out a piece of paper, WHERE he got the paper was the question but he dipped his claw into a jar of ink and started writing down what looked like directions "Go back into town and follow these instructions and you SHOULD come across a strange rock formation...You might even see it from the sky as a digital hazard. Go there and you should find something interesting."

RD tilted his head a bit confused but nodded "Thank you, hopefully it helps"

Guilmon nodded, he wiped his claw off with a napkin and smiled "It should. Just try to be discreet. And I'd refrain from taking my grandson with you."

RD thought that that was a strange request but took the map and nodded "Alright but it's hard to be discreet when you're a big flying dragon"

"If you have too, land a distance away from it. But that's about all I can give you." He took a bite out of the loaf he'd left on the table and swallowed "I apologize as well. Believe me the four see things that continue to still amaze me. They knew about you in particular, though it may have been the spirit. But nevertheless they knew enough about you to plan this counterattack before my grandson was even born. Try not to take it too personally."

RD winced "And yet they don't want to see me for obvious reasons"

Flare sweatdropped "Well in their defense...I think your spirit might rip them a new one for all of this...Even if they could knock you to kingdom come they'd still fear the wrath of a dragon."

"I think.....no I know that because i'm nearly being used as a chesspiece here and being kept in the dark i'm stumbling around foolishly, in the meantime one of their warriors is in one of the tourneys which could either be good or bad depending on what his intentions are, we KNOW myotismon's in the other tourney and to top things off I'm not even sure if I can meet with the royal knights without bringing up everything that's happened in the real world" RD sighed

Guilmon raised an eyeridge, before smiling "No, you're not a chesspeice don't think of it that way. Your actions are your own, they aren't something for any of the lords to use as their own. All I can say is have faith in their plan. So far it's helped squash the darkness in the real world hasn't it?"

"That's true, but in this world we're not ready....well the darkness is planning on infecting the royal knights, I can't imagine WHAT would happen if that was the case!" RD pointed out, taking a deep breath.

Guilmon stood up, judging from his facial expression it wasn't clear if he took offense to it or was about to walk off, but he started dusting himself off "So far everything has gone alright. I'm not nearly as strong as I used to be, heck what light I have left has kept me from my data corrupting. But I placed all of my bets on you all, as did the four lords because at this point there's nothing we can do."

"So at this point their hands are tied, thanks for the info anyways, I was just hoping to find some more leads" RD said nodding as he began to leave

Guilmon nodded "I hope that you find the answers you're looking for." He gave a small bow. "I'm sure Smithy has already made his point about Blade. Despite how he may act he isn't a bad guy. Still, he needs to be shown his place. I know that the four champions were given standing orders to remain neutral until necessary. He stepped over the bounds."

RD nodded "And Smithy's counting on me to fix it, alright let's go Flare" RD was kind of surprised as to how silent Flare had been thus far.

Once RD had digivolved properly into Coredramon, Flare immediately climbed ontop of RD, Guilmon waved to him and yawned "Next time you want answers...come in the morning..."

RD sweatdropped but nodded as he prepared to fly back off to town and look at the map to find the place guilmon was talking about

Flare kept a good grip on RD, looking around and smirked when after a couple minutes he pointed down into the town, it was smaller than Guilmon had mentioned but there was indeed a group of boulders shaped in the form of the same digital hazard found on Max's body

RD nodded and taking Guilmon's words to heart went to land a little ways away from where the boulder's were

Taking a deep breath, Flare climbed off RD's back to stare at the rock formation in the distance. "Erm you may want to return to a Dracomon. No sense remaining so large when we're going to be searching these boulders." from the sky the formation looked small but each boulder was easily twenty feet tall

RD winced as he shrank back down to dracomon form "Honestly though in this form my wings are practically decorations, only good for gliding and not much else....anyways"

Flare nodded "True, but we won't need to be doing any more flying tonight. Let's just hope the lead that Max's grandfather gave us turns out to be big." He started making his way to the rock formation and when they did he started climbing the closest one in their direction

"I'm not good at rock climbing" RD groaned but looked at the one that Flare wasn't currently climbing and tried to start on that

Flare snickered, he couldn't help but check on RD's progress once he made it to the top "That's what you get for being a city person!" He stuck his tongue out then blinked "Or would that be city digimon in this case..."

"City digimon, thing is as a dragon I didn't climb rocks I flew up on top of them, so i'm terrible with rock climbing and things of that sort" RD slipped and nearly fell

Flare cringed, watching RD with a sweatdrop "Well...not all of us can sprout wings. But still..." When RD slipped he heard a clicking sound, suddenly RD's rock started descending into the ground as if he'd flipped a switch on an elevator

"What the.....what just happened" RD checked where he slipped "Weird, it's like this rock isn't natural"

Flare nodded, just watching with a look of shock on his face "I don't think it is...only one way to find out." Flare tried to jump on the rock RD was on but was met with a soft barrier of light, bouncing him harmlessly off "Uh oh. Try not to panic RD!" He then covered his mouth when he heard himself shout, but by the time he finished, the rock and RD had descended nearly completely into the ground, a thin sheet of metal sliding through to replace the boulder that had shrank into the ground, at this point each of the remaining boulders started shifting as if to compensate for their missing companion and reform the marking.

RD blinked wondering what had just happened as he kept going down, seems like max's grandpa really had something big here
For a couple of minutes all there was was just a darkness surrounding RD, until finally, with a 'ker THUNK' sound, the rock had settled onto the ground below, lights immediately popping up in his new surroundings revealing a base. There wasn't anything really special about it, no high tech gadgets or computers hanging around, but there was just a blue floating orb in the middle of the room giving off it's own light, to the side. The walls had a silvery metallic sheen to it. Upon closer inspection to the side was a Growlmon snoring away on it's back.

RD blinked, usually it was best to let sleeping growlmon's lie but then why was he down here, who was he, and why did the elevator lead here? "Hello?"

The growlmon snorted, rubbing one of it's eyes and stared at RD "Ugh...can't a digimon just nap in peace. Wait...how'd you get down here?"

"Honestly I sort of blundered my way in here, who are you?" RD asked as he walked toward the growlmon

"I'm the one asking the questions here!" He sighed, scratching the back of his neck "I...errr don't have a name. Not one that I really go by. You're not exactly who I was expecting to come down here...heck father made a point that I shouldn't be expecting anyone until AFTER the tourney."

RD knew he was getting nowhere like this, he was kinda confused, a growlmon, supposedly sealed underneath a structure, but now wasn't the time for that "Wait did your father happen to be an elderly guilmon? He led us here"

The growlmon blinked, before nodding "Yeah that would be the one. He told me to guard this place until the tournament's end. It's supposed to be the meeting place for the Royal knights to meet up with the winner."

RD grimaced "So why did he send me here ahead of time if he knew this fact" He was liking this situation less and less

The Champion started rubbing his head, letting out a yawn "How should I know...That orb there is a direct link to King Drasil and the knights."

RD's eyes widened, it started making sense to him, so he decided to go for it. "It is, erm....can I see it, there's something I want to know about"

The Growlmon crossed his arms "Not yet. I'm sure you DO want to know. But the minute that orb is touched is the minute the royal knights show up to meet the victor. If you want to touch it you need to win the tournament. But..." He sighed "My dad is known to be very cryptic...he has his reasons. Maybe he wants me to TRAIN you."

RD smirked "How strong are you? I've known there are several people who can be excellent training partners and if they kept YOU here to guard the place you must be tough" RD said with a smile

"Well I was going to be the next inheritor of the light, but circumstances...changed all that, I lost my qualifications when I let the human world taint my heart. Still nontheless I can digivolve all the way to the mega stage."

"That far....wait what does being in the human world have to do with not being qualified for being an inheritor of light?" RD asked now skeptical because as he saw it, him and his friends were all qualified and they've been in the human world for awhile

Growlmon let out a deep sigh "When I was younger I was intrigued by the human race. A little TOO curious if you will...I learned more than I probably should have and grew a distaste for the human race as a whole. My hatred extenguished the light and any chance I had to becoming a royal knight. In any case do you want my training or not?" He asked, tapping his foot.

RD blushed as he realized he was essentially wasting growlmon's time by blabbing "Yes I do" RD said nodding

Growlmon nodded, smiling "Sounds good. For now though you should rest. If you're in the tournament you shouldn't go in sore. If you can win tomorrows match then you'll have at least a few days to prep for the finals."

"Hrmm alright" Looks at the rock "Now the last question is where's the exit here?"

Growlmon shook his head "Don't worry about it. You can rest here for the night. I'd rather wait until all of the digimon are keeping their eyes on the tournament tomorrow before I open up...the front door so to speak."

"Oh ok, well in any case." RD pulled out his digivice and sighed."Wish this thing had a phone option" He began flipping through it's functions, wondering why he never asked Smithy about a call feature, well he'd definitely bring it up to the Leomon when he saw him again.

Growlmon stared at the device before smiling "I wouldn't worry too much. You can explain your absence to your friends when you get out. Just don't let them know about what's hidden in here Afterall, Nobody could think a former royal knight would lead a digimon like you to harm." Growlmon tapped on one of the walls, revealing a button that was hidden within the natural earth and two beds slid from the wall.

RD blinked, where Growlmon found a switch to do such was beyond him. It seemed that this place wasn't as 'empty' as he originally thought it to be. "So many hidden panels but I guess you're right" RD said sliding up to one of the beds

Growlmon nodded, he climbed into the larger bed and sighed "He's my father, I know him and you can trust that he won't bring you to intentional harm. But in any case you need to get your rest. I won't train you if you're not fit to defeat your next opponant. And I expect you to have a bulge when you come back tomorrow as proof." He chuckled, yawning.

RD tried his best not to laugh, apparently the vore aspect of the tourney was attracting everyone

The next moment Growlmon shut his eyes and mumbled what sounded like a 'goodnight'

---

In the North, Lyle and Kiya finally made their way into the Stingmon village, With little hassle except for the gate keepers, they were a pair of blue and red stingmons. "Before we can let either of you in, We'd like to know your buisness. It's not often we get a visitor from the West and another from the East."

"Who me?!" Kiya pointed to himself, he had since reformed Scavenger in the form of a digiegg, he was holding it protectively in his claws since he didn't want to confuse it with Leo's egg. "I'm not from the East! I'm from the real world!"

Lyle lifted his forepaw and waved it. "This Dracomon's name is Kiya, he's on a mission from Baihumon himself to meet with the three remaining lords. As is the one currently inside the digiegg."

The red Stingmon stepped over to the blue,He whispered into it's ear or where the ear was generally located that stood straight again. "Forgive our rudeness. Our lands are known to contian many different feral digimon. Even though you speak rather than act like our wilder brothers we had to be sure this wasn't a ruse. If you're indeed on a mission from Lord Baihumon please right this way." The doors opened with the blue ones touch, and they were guided in by the Red.

It felt very odd, their reasons for being hesitant were understood. The Veggimon they encountered when they hit land were a testament to that. But Kiya still couldn't get over the fact that this felt like some kind of test.

"Relax..." Lyle muttered quietly to Kiya on his back, he simply followed the red stingmon further into the village, hearing the gates close behind them. "They aren't savages, and if they wanted to attack us they would have by now. Our goal right now is to get to Ebonwumon safely without stirring up trouble."

The red Stingmon stopped suddenly halfway into the village. He turned around and gave a short bow to Lyle. "Just wait right here, Flash is dealing with...a situation at the moment."

Kiya raised an eyeridge. "What kind of problem would that BE exactly?" He didn't like the sound of that, then cringed when he heard what was a loud screeching roar, followed by a Kuwagamon smashing into one of the many huts that were located within the village.

"Kiya leave this one to me will you? Watch Scav's egg." Lyle spoke calmly, a growl rumbling from his throat as Kiya climbed off.

Almost immediately, Lyle sprang forth with the speed of a Cheetah on the hunt, he leapt at the Kuwagamon and with his right forepaw he made a hard slashing swipe, leaving a deep bloody scar in the Insectoid's armored head, except instead of blood, strings of data started pouring out of the wound. "I don't care if it's my village, or someone elses. You start attacking the lords sanctuary you get on my bad side." Lyle growled out, teeth clenched.

"Woah..." Kiya muttered, sweatdropping. "How'd I ever manage to BEAT him before?" He watched in awe, Lyle's first attack was just the beginning, he immediately sprang back up and got on the Kuwagamon's back and sank his fangs into it's neck, despite the beings tough shell he could hear a rather horrifying crunch before it dissapeared in a bright light, reduced to nothing but data. Lyle landed safely on his feet with a low thud, dust clouding up the area he fell in. "A bit...harsh aren't you? What if it was corrupted by the Darkness?"

Lyle spat on the ground, using a paw to rub over his tongue. "Gah! Such an awful taste...I prefer smaller prey...and if we tried to purify him I would have had to hold back, and then he could have destroyed more homes."

"He's right." Spoke a dark black Stingmon, heck given how dark it was right now in the night, it was hard to see the digimon. "That Kuwagamon if given the chance would have brought more harm to our village before we could bring it under control. Still you could have left it to ME. I could have taken it down."

Lyle turned his eyes toward Flash, growling in annoyance. "You didn't make a move the entire time. I think you wanted ME or Kiya to take care of the problem for you. Why test us in such a way?"

Flash held up his hands and sweatdropped visably. "I had to make sure you two were the ones Ebonwumon mentioned. If you weren't then I would have taken out Kuwagamon after that initial attack. I'm glad my assumption was correct please forgive me. But now I feel confident in taking you to see Lord Ebonwumon."

Lyle shuffled on his feet a bit, but he shook his head. "Take Kiya. I'll take the time instead to repair the home that ruffian destroyed."

Flash kept his gaze over the Liamon for a moment. Then he bowed. "Of course." He then walked away from Lyle who began making his way to the damaged building. "Your name is...Kiya I assume? Will you accompany me to Lord Ebonwumon's shrine? Bring the egg of your comrad too. He is part of the grand scheme of things as well."

Kiya stared uneasily at Flash. He had been right from the beginning that this was set up. And now he knew that they were being left in the dark. Hopefully Ebonwumon would clear up a few things for him as he followed the oddly colored Stingmon further into the village.

(To be continued)