Suddenly something caught Taylor's attention in the corner of her eye. Something in the shadows near some rubble from the battle. It had been sufficiently long enough that she had caught her breath and regained her bearings, and she figured that whatever it was couldn't be as bad as what they had just fought. HeatGabumon picked up on her curiosity and tugged on her sleeve. "Don't worry, buddy, I'll be right back," she said, reassuringly as she got up to follow whatever it was she had seen.
The trail was easy enough to follow, as whatever it was seemed to peek up from the shadows whenever she met an apparent dead end. Eventually she came to a wall, the end of what used to be an alley before the destruction. She looked around curiously, not seeing whatever it was she was following.
"Now now now, you're not gonna find me like that..." a voice said.
"Who's there?" she replied.
"Oh, poor little Tay doesn't remember me... How sad..." it responded mockingly. Taylor kept looking around when a knife flew right past her head, narrowly missing her and embedding itself in the wall behind her. As she turned in the direction the blade came from, a figure emerged from the darkness. It was a young man with blonde hair, his figure built more for speed than for brawling. His dark gray t-shirt hung loosely and met similarly colored pants that covered up black tennis shoes. "Perhaps this appearance rings a bell?"
Try as she might, Taylor could not remember this person, whoever he was. "How can I remember that which I haven't forgotten? I know for a fact that I've never seen you before in my life!" she exclaimed.
"Hey hey, no need to raise your voice. And there are plenty of things you may think are fact that in reality are anything but... This knowledge of me, or lack thereof, merely being a single example."
"What do you want?" she demanded.
"Oh I just wanted to talk with my dear old friend Tay, who seems to have completely forgotten her friend Robin and replaced him with a bunch of new friends, that's all," he said, a dangerous glint in his eyes appearing to match the sinister grin that was growing on his face.
"Then why does your expression tell me there's more to it than that?" she asked, summoning the Keyblade for protection. Whoever this Robin fella was, he certainly was dangerous.
"Good to know you're still as perceptive as always, my dear," he replied snidely as he stepped fully away from the wall, revealing the large broadsword sheathed on his back. The little amount of light in the crumbled alley glinted off the chain mail showing beneath his sleeves.
"If you're just here to tease and intimidate me, then I see no reason to continue this conversation," Taylor retorted as she turned to leave. In the blink of an eye, Robin appeared in front of her.
"Going so soon? And I was just getting started!" he said as he grabbed her by the throat and pinned her against the wall. Tendrils of darkness grew from where he stood and pinned her arms back, preventing her from using the Keyblade. "Listen here, girl," he said suddenly, his sarcastic demeanor replaced with a more serious one, the tone in his voice shifting from teasing to hatred. "You may not remember me, but I remember you all too well."
"What... what is it you want?" Taylor stuttered, struggling to speak while being grabbed by her throat.
"Want? Nothing... yet. I really should thank you though. In the aftermath of our last encounter, I managed to gain these wondrous powers of shadow. And now, I'll use these very powers to get what I want."
"You'll never... conquer... RPM!!" Taylor yelled defiantly.
"Conquer? I don't believe I said anything of the sort. Yes, it would be grand if that old fart conquered this miserable planet, but that is far from what I want," he replied. The blade embedded in the wall suddenly vanished and reappeared in his hand. "What I want, my dear, is to see you, broken and bleeding at my feet. What I want is you begging to be spared as the fallen bodies of your friends surround you, some dead, some deactivated, and some deleted. What I want is this futile Resistance to be defeated, and the last hope of RPM's salvation to be extinguished!"
"Then... what are you waiting for? We're all exhausted from that battle, why not just take us out now?"
"And ruin the sport of it? Hardly any fun in that!" he replied with a chuckle. "No, I'll come back for what I want later on. Until then, I'll leave you with a souvenir of our meeting." He quickly slashed Taylor's cheek, leaving a deep cut. "Farewell! And remember, I'll be watching!" he added, and then he used the tendrils pinning her to throw her back where she entered the area.
HeatGabumon saw her flying first, and ran over, breaking her fall near where everyone was gathered. She was even more exhausted than before, partially because of the wound and partially from struggling to break free of Robin's grip. HeatGabumon asked what happened, but she could barely begin to explain before coughing. Her throat hurt from being grabbed as it was, and she had what appeared to be two dark marks around her wrists where the tendrils held on.
HeatGabumon turned back towards everyone. "Someone, help! I don't know what it was, but she went off looking for something and... and she came back like this!"
Taylor looked back up at her Digimon partner feebly. "Th... thanks, buddy," she said weakly before passing out.
(There, introduced Robin, the villain I'm gonna use, and also got a pagebreak too! Cool!)