“I honestly don’t believe that little fucker,” Dorumon muttered, unable to do much but go along with whatever Examon had in mind at this point. 

“Knowing Examon, he might have something in mind just in case. Let’s give this Orci a benefit of the doubt. After all, if he starts acting up, we can always skewer him,” Alphamon replied with a faint maniacal laugh and a shrug, the effects of Digital Hazard’s influence on her overall psyche still evident. 

“That’s the plan,” Examon replied, keeping a close eye on the white Hazard Dataform in front of him as they were lead further and further away from the battlefield, “One wrong move and we can just take him down before he can blink.”

A few minutes passed, and they landed. There was no sign of the remaining Knights anywhere, though there were some telltale signs of destruction, likely from their movement.

“Far as I’m aware, this is where they were,” Kappa started, “Parasimon was in a pretty bad state after his fight with your friend, and some weird crystal shit started growing on him. I guess they moved somewhere else whilst I was gone.”

Through Examon’s eyes, Zei surveyed the area, but noticed something off about how Kappa described what he allegedly saw. She couldn’t put her finger on it and he didn’t appear to show any signs of hesitation, but something about his explanation didn’t roll off in her mind. She looked back on the ground around her, noticing dirt marks from sudden movements and possible explosion, but no indents that would otherwise confirm Kappa’s story about crystals growing out of Parasimon’s body for unknown reasons. “Be careful. I have a sinking feeling about this,” she warned the fused group.

In response, Examon nodded and spoke up to their ‘friend’.

“You sure about that? Seems a little convenient to me.”

“Tch,” Kappa hissed, before continuing with, “Excuse me for not being omnipotent like those fucking Ancient Spirits. Dad might have woken up and headed off somewhere, I don’t know. God only knows where Sleipmon and Darkdramon headed off to.”

Standing still, Kappa seemed to expand his own senses as Examon had done earlier, and after a delay of about five seconds, smiled and withdrew his spear from the hammerspace in which he had stored it.

“That way, I think,” He said, pointing over to the west with his spear, “A few kilometers, probably.”

With that, he spread his wings to lift himself into the air again, and headed in the direction he had pointed.

Examon glared at him for a few seconds before he did likewise, hoisting himself up into the air and slowly following after him. 

While Examon carried them to the location Kappa had pointed, Dorumon quickly felt something stirring within her. It felt as if she was slowly starting to fade away, then quickly expanded to feeling pushed back as if she was being pulled again. 

Zei felt it as well, but unlike Dorumon, she felt herself being pulled towards Alphamon.

The female Mega realized that their fusion time might be up soon, though she didn’t know when, and turned to Examon and Siggy. “I think time’s almost up.”

“It feels like forever since we fused,” Siggy muttered randomly, obviously disorientated and undergoing some kind of sensory confusion due to the sensation in the mental link.

Examon was too focused on Kappa for him to really pay much mind to the others; but as he moved further onwards behind Kappa, he began to feel the same sensation as Dorumon and Zei, the feeling of being pulled towards Siggy. 

A few minutes passed, and Kappa descended once more. Following suit, Examon also descended, and began to look around.

“I still don’t see them anywhere, you asshole,” He started, calling his spear and raising it up to point at Kappa-

Before it disappeared in a flash of light.

“It happened quicker than I thought it would happen,” The Orci said in a dubious tone of voice as he watched the spear dissipate into the air again, “Though I’m not complaining; certainly makes things easier for me.”

“What the f-” Examon began, before his words were cut off by a flash of light enveloping his body.
In a few seconds that felt like eternity, he felt his body be torn in two, down to mere fragments of data that began to rearrange themselves. The sensations of Zei, Dorumon and Alphamon, strong just a few moments before, were now completely gone; and as the light cleared and his senses returned to him, he realized why.

“No hard feelings or nothing, you’re just a whole lot more manageable like this,” Kappa snickered towards Examon Mordred and Alphamon, now both separated into their own separate bodies once more. 

“I knew it. Once a bastard, always a bastard,” Alphamon said with a hint of tranquil fury in her voice, still disoriented and recovering from having her body and mind altered. From how she acted and spoke, she seemed to have finally rid off the Hazard side-effects. “I’d say we finish this now, Kappa.”

“Finish what, exactly? Deal’s still on, dumbass,” The Orci snarked back, shrugging his shoulders as he returned Alphamon’s show of defiance with the shit-eating grin to end all shit-eating grins.

Though anger stirred in her, Alphamon finally had her more rational mind back to not jump into battle straight away. Looking at Examon Mordred, she asked, “Any suggestions?”

“I’m going to goddamn kill you,” Examon Mordred said, the disorientated Mega not even paying attention to Alphamon as he glared at Kappa.

“Yeah yeah, you’re a psychopath, I get it. You want me to take you to the remaining Knights or not? Again, deal still stands~”

This time, Alphamon decided that, if there was a time she should act on her own, it was now. Standing in front of Examon in a protective stance, she said to Kappa, “Lead us, but any funny business and you can say hello to my sword.”

“This way, Mr and Mrs Psychopath,” Kappa snarked back, offering the two a sarcastic salute as he lifted himself into the air again and headed back the way they’d came. Evidently, the Orci had lied to them in order to stall time until they defused.

“... I can’t fucking believe it,” Examon Mordred growled, evidently tired and pissed off as he turned to Alphamon, “Are we actually going to follow this guy?”

“Either that or blindly searching for them ourselves. Given that we’re in this position, he would feel a lot safer, not to mention a lot more confident, so I doubt that he would squander the chance. You do realize that I still have your back, as incompetent as my leadership skill was, right?”

“Yeah,” Examon simply replied, evidently too stressed to give a more developed reply as he took into the air after the Orci ahead of them once more. 

“No hard feelings, right?” Kappa fired back towards them, “Just figured letting a psychopath with that much individual power near the others wouldn’t exactly be the best decision I ever made.”

“I will break you, little man.” Examon replied.

“My point exactly,” The Orci snickered. 

“Easy, Examon,” Alphamon said to try and defuse the situation, though aware that it’s useless to begin with. Turning to Kappa, she said, “All things considered, I’m surprised that you seem insistent on keeping your end of the deal.”

“What can I say? I’m a mon of my word,” Kappa replied, before the group descended back into silence. 
________
"Oh, give over," Wisemon snarked towards EmperorGreymon with a roll of his golden eyes as his appearance caused the Mega to jump in his skin, "You firespitters haven't got much room to talk here."

Watching the Rookie drift over to his comrade, the Ultimate expanded his senses; and sensing Baihumon still nearby, he prepared to rise into the air towards his direction before he was cut off by EmperorGreymon's further reply to him.

"After her little ordeal earlier, I suppose she would be. I hope he gets back to her soon," Wisemon replied, strangely warmly, before he drifted up towards where he could sense Baihumon.

There was something... out of the ordinary in the signal he could pick up. Something only he would sense, amd as of that, something that intrigued him all the more.