tSorry, didn't think anyone wanted the Database, so I took it down…but it's back up now, with a better layout that supports quick searches, and it's been updated to include everything significant from Crescendo/Atlas Chapters 1 to Code Carter Chapter 27 (63 chapters o' stuff, I think?)

Anyways, in this one the story in the digital world is pretty much at a standstill, but some big developments going on in the real world—got some face-time with some of the digidestined. Wooh!

-N

"Goddamn it." Kazu grumbled to himself, again.

The team was in a very bad place. Takato had taken off on his own. Cronus was crazy and was too powerful for his own, or anyone's good. Henry was out for blood. And most recently, Ryo and Jeri had come down with a bad case of Weird-Shit-Happening—WSH—at least, that's what Kazu had so affectionately named it.

They'd said they'd heard music. Kazu sure hadn't heard anything—and just as well, because seconds later the two of them had started screaming then blacked out. Stranger still, though, was the marks that had appeared on them. Ryo had one under his right eye, and Jeri the back of her left hand. The same marks that Guilmon had in the same places.

Just classic WSH.

Kazu had attempted to lead them to Max's clinic, where he himself had needed to recover once. But all they found there was the ruins of a recent attack by Henry—and a chilling hint from Cronus that Kazu would die.

He was trying not to let it get to him—in the message, Cronus had spewed pure gibberish. And that Kazu was going to die. There wasn't much reason he should have taken it seriously—Cronus'd also said that Ryo was 'already dead', and while he wasn't awake, Ryo was very much alive.

They were still at the clinic. Well, just within eyesight of it—they'd backed off and set up camp. It was quiet—a mix of the sullenness of the situation combined with the fact that Jeri wasn't conscious to start everyone talking.

A short while earlier, he and Rika had decided they wouldn't hesitate if they got a chance to take Henry out. It was something he'd considered before—but not something he'd admit he'd considered before. It had started as a passing thought, but he kept coming back to it. It was all so easy for him to picture—the aftermath of what their battle with Henry would be like. Nobody knowing how to act when realizing that they couldn't restore Henry. Kazu taking matters into his own hands.

It had been a relief when Rika had brought it up. Earlier that day, he'd kind of chewed her out about the fact that they were probably the most distant pair in the group. Then just a short while later, she was—as far as Kazu knew—the only one who was on the same page as he was about how to deal with Henry.

Not the typical company-picnic team-building exercise, but I'll take what I can get.

"We need to make a decision soon." Rika said suddenly from the other side of the campfire.

Kazu cocked an eyebrow. He was curious if she was going to make an effort to hide their plan from the digimon, who were all present.

"About our next move." She quickly reaffirmed, seeming to sense his discomfort about the other topic.

Kazu didn't say anything for a while. Their next move was the more pressing decision, and he'd been avoiding dealing with it because he just didn't know. He stood up, and she did the same. He hadn't actually planned to take a short walk, but he followed Rika's lead.

"We don't know how long Jeri and Ryo'll be out for…" he started, going over the facts.

"So we either bring them with us and move at half-speed…" Rika continued.

"Or one of us goes ahead to warn Thalami, and the other stays with them." Kazu finished with a sigh.

Kazu already figured they'd be splitting up. He wanted to go to Thalami, if only to be doing something. He couldn't handle sitting and waiting and wondering and—

But you have to. You know that.

"You go." Kazu nodded. "With Kyubimon, you can move faster than anyone else."

It was mostly true; Cyberdramon could probably give Kyubimon a run for her money, but it wouldn't make sense to separate him from Ryo. Guardromon would simply be too slow.

Rika looked worriedly at their unconscious friends before giving a slow nod. "I'll head towards there in the morning—if they're not awake by then."

He silently noted that they were planning on the assumption that Mala and Will wouldn't be able to figure out what was wrong with them. The last time they'd heard from Mala, she'd said that they hadn't made any progress. They didn't have any help, hope, or plan.

Meh. Never stopped us before.

Kazu saw Rika shiver out of the corner of his eye—it was still mid-afternoon, and it was getting a bit cold. Rika was wearing a plain red tee—well, it would have been plain if it weren't for all the dirt stains. Kazu reached towards his backpack dumped the contents onto the ground in front of him.

Most of the things were still too damp to use, but he decided he might as well start drying them out while he wasn't on the move—they'd set up a fire overnight, so that'd help. In retrospect, he should have brought one of those giant hiking bags. He'd even considered it, but didn't think he'd have been able to cope with carrying it for as long as he'd have needed to—hell, it probably would have weighed him down when they'd arrived underwater. He'd almost drown as it was.

He started sorting the contents. There wasn't a whole lot, but there was enough—a green hoodie, black and red ball cap, card satchel, notebooks, a black t shirt, a pair of camo shorts, a few pairs of socks and underwear, a three-pack of toothbrushes, tube of toothpaste, and a small bag stuffed with a compressed camping blanket. He tossed the bag to Rika, who looked impressed.

"Wow," Rika said with a guilty smile. "You don't mind if I open it?"

He knew she was asking because after it was opened, they might still be able to roll it back up tightly, but it most likely wouldn't fit into the bag again.

I'm sure Guardromon wouldn't mind wearing it as a cape anyways.

Kazu shrugged. "Good a time as any, right?"

"Thanks." She replied.

He didn't want to seem over-eager to work on their friendship, but he opened the pack of toothbrushes and lobbed one at her, followed by a pair of socks and the hoodie.

"You sure?" Rika cocked an eyebrow.

Kazu nodded. "Yeah, knock yourself out."

Her supplies had been lost on their way back in to the digital world—she'd need something more than what she was wearing.

"Thanks." She repeated.

"Don't worry about it."

Kazu looked over his remaining items, trying to sort out which ones had taken in the most water. The shorts were mostly dry, surprisingly. The t-shirt, socks, and underwear had been in the front or side pouches, and were soaked.

"What's with the notebooks?" Rika asked.

Kazu stared at the books—journals. He'd forgotten all about them. There were five, all with a small monogram in the corner—JK, RA, RN, TM, and KS. He picked up RN and RA, flicking through the pages, which seemed to be dry. He handed them to Rika.

"Will wanted me to pass these out." Kazu explained, before guiltily adding, "Guess I forgot, what with everything that happened since we got back."

Rika looked them over. "Journals?"

Kazu nodded. "He didn't say it out loud, but the vibe I was getting was that we should write down what's going on in case anything happens to us."

Rika glanced at him. "Are you going to?"

His reply was a shrug. "Haven't thought about it."

Journals weren't really his thing—with the crap he went through at home on a regular basis, he generally found himself trying to forget things. Wanting to remember things was a completely alien idea to him.

Rika was digging through Ryo's back before pulling out a pen, which she tossed to Kazu. He fumbled with it before catching it.

"You should."

Kazu smirked, but only for a second.

I spend most of my time trying not to let people know what I'm thinking…now I'm supposed to write it down?

He put his book, KS, along with TM, back in his bag.

Maybe later.

Will had been stalking Davis for an hour and a half. He'd followed the address he pulled from the Hypnos security system, and found the apartment. He didn't dare go inside, of course—he was just staking it out from the café across the street. He'd waited patiently, watching people enter and leave. Old women. Kids. Families.

The time was passing slowly. He'd finished three cups of coffee, but was hesitant to have more because he was hesitant to leave to use the washroom. Between that and a series of angry messages from Mala, he wasn't in a great mood.

Apparently, word had gotten to Yamaki that Will hadn't been going to any of his counseling sessions after losing his arm. Sure, Will had problems. But he wasn't exactly going to spill

them all to some stranger whose job was to take notes on him. If she sympathized with him, she certainly didn't show it. She just reiterated how important it was for him to go—not because she thought he needed to, but because if the shrink didn't report that Will seemed mentally-stable, his clearance was to be pulled.

It was probably the most degrading thing he could have been told.

So, Mala'd told him she'd managed to arrange a session with a grief counselor immediately—she wasn't thrilled to hear that he had gone to Odaiba. He had to talk her out of sending someone to pick him up—he'd insisted he was following a lead, and that she'd have to trust him that it was their best shot at finding out what had happened to Ryo and Jeri. It probably didn't bode well for Will's apparent sanity, but if his lead on Davis worked out, then he wouldn't entirely need official access to Hypnos. He still had his fake accounts if he needed their resources, and Will was assuming Davis had a method of entering the digital world if Reed was working with him.

Mala finally relented, compromising by telling him she wouldn't send anyone after him if he agreed to go see a psychiatrist while he was on the island. When he agreed, she said she'd send the address once she found someone who'd see him on short notice.

He hadn't decided if he'd actually go—everything depended on how his meeting with Davis would go.

Will had no idea what Davis actually looked like; all he had to go on was his voice and a rough assumption about his age.

Maybe that's enough.

He focused on the man who was leaving the apartment. Will was taking a shot in the dark, but he quickly punched the cell phone's number into the nearby payphone—the man reached into his pocket and stared at his phone before dismissing the call

Bingo.

He was about Reed's age, which was to be expected. But while Reed was slim, Davis had a lot more muscle on him. He was about a foot and a half taller than Will, which seemed amplified by the fact that Will was so small in frame. He had brown hair cut shorter than Ryo's, but worn messy like Takato's. In fact, Will couldn't tell if the messy look was intentional—as his own was, or if he simply hadn't slept—Will could safely assume that with whatever Davis's involvement or knowledge of what was happening was, insomnia was a probable side-effect.

He was dressed smartly, or at least classier than Will would have expected from someone whose main hobby was providing combat support to a dimension-hopping babysitter. He wore leather shoes, black jeans, with a white fitted button-up shirt, sunglasses hanging from the top. If Will didn't know better, he might have assumed he was a pseudo-celebrity, trying to get noticed for not trying to be noticed. Will himself was wearing a very similar shirt, but he only chose it because it was very thin, making it easier to tie the sleeve off of with one hand.

Oh damn it…

Davis was heading to the café. Will quickly turned his back to him, trying to busy himself on his phone. He probably looked more suspicious than he would have doing—well, anything, but being incognito really wasn't his specialty.

He watched as Davis stood in line patiently, before taking a seat at a table in the corner and begin to do something in his PDA. Will abandoned his own table, finally summoning up the courage to confront him. He took a seat across from Davis.

"Hello." Will said, silently wishing he'd rehearsed something beforehand.

Davis hadn't seemed to notice that Will had even sat down, as he made no acknowledgement of his presence until Will said something. Brown eyes stared back at him for a moment before Davis replied.

"…Will?"

He looked—kinder than Will would have expected. On the phone he'd sounded so tactical and authoritative—maybe it had just been a character. When Will had met Reed, it had made him uneasy. Will hadn't noticed it immediately, but there had been something that Reed and Takato had had in common—they were so adamant in their goals; they wouldn't change course no matter what. Will could tell right away that Davis was a lot more like Will was. There was an uneasiness he could sense and relate to; a tiredness. Like the mission he was on was something he had been swept up in, not something he chose to undertake.

"It's good to finally meet you." Will said.

"You too." Davis nodded before his attention turned to Will's missing arm. He made no effort to hide his stares.

Will shifted uncomfortably. He wasn't sure what he should have said. Some small-talk?

"How did you find me?" Davis asked, looking around suspiciously.

If Will was to be working with him, he had to be honest. "I traced your phone number."

Davis sighed. "Glossing over how you traced my number—does anyone else know where I am? Hypnos, I mean?"

Will shook his head. "No chance."

Davis seemed to relax a bit, taking another sip of his coffee. "So why the visit? We weren't supposed to meet until tomorrow."

Will bit his lip. "My friends are in trouble."

He fumbled with his bag for a moment before he managed to get it off. He reached inside, and produced a file-folder with the Hypnos logo—and a large red 'confidential' stamp on it.

Davis flicked through the pictures, while Will brought him up to speed.

"Takato started making some—questionable decisions, and Ryo called him out on it. Takato took off, and Ryo took the lead of the team. A few hours later, him and Jeri both say they hear music—they start screaming, and this stuff starts appearing on them."

He watched as Davis silently examined the marks on Ryo's face and Jeri's hand, before flipping to the picture of Guilmon.

"Oh." Davis murmured.

Will felt like Davis was taking ages to respond, but perhaps things only seemed that way because he was so desperate for answers to what was happening—the mission was effectively on hold until Ryo and Jeri were brought back. Rika and Kazu couldn't move on alone if it meant leaving them behind—and Will still had things he wanted to confront Ryo about.

"Did Cronus do this?" Will finally asked.

Immediately, Davis shook his head. "No. I think it was Carter."

Will raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think that?"

Davis carefully replaced all the pictures before closing the folder and sliding it back across the table to Will, who didn't break eye contact. Davis didn't answer, but countered Will's own question.

"Why do you think it was Cronus?"

Will hadn't been expecting it, and was at a loss for words. He believed in Cronus more than most of the others, but what had happened to Jeri and Ryo was a bit much—too much to believe he wasn't involved, intentionally or not. His symbols appearing on the two people that he might have perceived as betraying his partner—it might have been too obvious. So Will attempted to turn the tables on Davis, hoping he'd arrive at the same conclusion on his own.

"The digital world is messed up right now. More than usual, I mean." Will started. "Do you know what happened at Hyperion?"

Davis suddenly looked around uncomfortably, as if someone might be listening in.

"We should talk about this somewhere else."

Probably a good idea.

Davis finished his coffee quickly as he stood up, beckoning Will to follow him. Will's own judgment lately had been as questionable as Takato's, but he still felt like he could trust Davis—someone he knew almost nothing about.

"So, uh, what's the plan then?" Will finally asked. It dawned on him how fortunate he was that nobody was visibly paying attention to the two of them. The situation looked particularly incriminating.

Hello, strange man I've never actually met before. Let's go into your car.

"Let's go."

Davis's car was parked in the apartment's underground lot, and Will hopped into the passenger seat. He'd thought he'd have been more anxious about getting into cars after the accident—and admittedly, he'd taken a few buses to get to Davis's apartment, rather than a taxi.

"What do you know about what happened at Hyperion?" Will repeated once Davis sat down.

"The Destroyer attacked it." Davis murmured. "And we didn't have the shields restored properly."

Will's mouth ran dry as he realized that Davis was even farther out of the loop than Will was.

He might know more about what happened back then, but he doesn't know what's happening now…

"We did restore the shields." Will explained quickly. They had—it had taken hours, but under Davis's—under Delta's guidance, he'd been able to restore the city's defenses with the help of Wisemon and Giz. "Then we went to meet the Guardian—"

"—Angemon." Davis said quietly.

Will nodded. Of course Davis knew. Him and Reed both. That's why they let the Tamers spend so much time pursuing the Guardian that didn't exist anymore—because it kept them out of their way.

"Yeah." Will confirmed. "But Cronus claimed the Guardian's power and ran off to fight Henry. The city—maybe even the whole digital world was powered by the Guardian. The city had no power to defend itself against the Destroyer's attack. That's why everything's in shambles right now. We can barely keep an open communication channel open, our portal generators aren't working the way they ought to, coordinates aren't matching to what we have archived, and bodies aren't disappearing."

The man went silent, looking away as he let everything Will had just told him process. Will could see him making connections, understanding things he hadn't before.

Then, he asked something Will hadn't even thought of.

"Have you heard from Reed?" Davis asked.

Will's stomach tightened. There he was asking for answers about his own team, and Davis himself had lost contact with TK.

He's probably worried he's dead.

"He left the city the day before the attack." Was all Will could offer.

Davis just nodded—he obviously already knew that much, but was still worried. With good reason, too—Reed was probably top-ranking on the Destroyer's hit-list, or was at least just behind Cronus on it.

"We'll head to visit a friend of mine. I think I know how to save your friends." Davis was changing the subject, obviously not wanting Will to know how worried he clearly was.

Still, they sat for a moment, Will still trying to sort out exactly what Davis's involvement in everything was. He believed he was a good guy. But if he didn't trust Will, they'd both be at a disadvantage.

"What happened to your arm?" Davis finally asked, pausing before fastening the seatbelt. "Was that from the Destroyer's attack?"

Will glanced over, noticing that the man was actually making eye contact, rather than shuffling around uncomfortably trying 'not to notice'.

"You know those portals that opened up in Shinjuku a few days ago?" Will started. "One threw the car I was in off the road."

Davis looked pensive for a moment, but said nothing.

"It—It's nothing. I got off easy." Will said, looking away. "The driver was killed...he was nice."

"I'm sorry." Davis said finally.

"Me too." Will nodded before admitting something he hadn't yet. "Just kind of feel like a freak now."

The man cocked an eyebrow, looking at Will as if he were a complete idiot for what he'd just said.

"You suffered a big loss, and are still soldiering on." Davis answered carefully. He had been buckling his seatbelt before asking about Will's arm, and had paused. He let it go back, and reached to pull the sleeve up on his own right arm.

Will's eyes widened at the scars that were exposed, and he couldn't help but stare. They went from Davis's wrist all the way up. Will could tell they were from a burn, but he couldn't tell if they were from fire, chemical, or some kind of digimon's attack. Davis had pulled his sleeve up just past the elbow, but the scars obviously went higher than that.

"That doesn't make you a freak." Davis explained. "It just makes you one of us."

"Again." Renamon ordered.

Kazu jabbed with left hand, and threw a right cross. Renamon blocked both, unfazed. Rika watched curiously. It was clear that none of them were going to get any sleep—too much going on. Kazu had asked Rika to train with him, but she didn't feel up for it. Renamon must have sensed it, and offered to take Rika's place.

Rika assumed Kazu's pent-up energy was from the fear of his predicted death. She figured it would only be natural for him to want to feel alive.

Renamon wasn't actually fighting back, obviously. She merely held up her paws and was catching his punches. He could never actually hurt her, obviously—but Kazu reasoned that if he trained harder, he'd be faster, and that would carry over if he were to biomerge. Rika was impressed with his veracity, and Renamon seemed to be, too.

She glanced to Guardromon, who was sitting on the ground next to them, observing. Giz was perched on a nearby rock, combing through the pages of a novel—Rika couldn't tell if it was well-worn, or if it was just ruined from being dropped in the water upon their return.

The campfire was burning proudly, with Cyberdramon curled up next to it, Ryo, and Jeri. She heard Renamon call out a different order to Kazu, and smiled inwardly when she heard Renamon admit, "Good."

I miss my mp3 player. Stupid portal just had to open under the stupid water.

Still, Rika found herself interested watching her partner train with Kazu. She herself hadn't trained since before the battle at Hyperion—when Ryo was teaching her. She'd certainly fared well in her fights since then anyways, and she sincerely doubted her abilities have dulled in the short weeks since, but she admitted to herself that she wasn't training as hard as she should have been.

However much Rika had changed over the years, though, her quiet cynicism remained—physical training alone couldn't make much difference in their coming battle with the Destroyer—could it? That wasn't how the digital world worked—no matter how hard Renamon were to train, she'd never be as powerful as she was when she was Kyubimon. Or Taomon. Or Sakuyamon. They were each on their own whole levels of power.

And Henry? What level is he on?

Still, she supposed the training had helped during the Hyperion battle…against the dozens of thousands of the Destroyer's agents.

She picked herself up and sat next to Ryo. She looked him over, her vision lingering at Guilmon's mark under his right eye. She smiled grimly.

You always said you wanted a tattoo. I'm assuming this isn't what you had in mind, though.

In her hand, she stared at the pearl-like recording device that contained Max's sessions with Cronus, as well as Cronus's message. Part of her wanted to watch it again, but she didn't dare, after how upset Kazu had been when they'd first seen it.

On her first viewing, though, she'd already memorized what she thought was the most important part. Cronus had looked straight at the camera, and said, 'L-M-L-4-4-5', before asking specifically for Rika and Kazu to help.

Everything he'd said before had been pure nonsense from a broken mind, but when he'd said that, it was with clarity. He knew. And Rika knew, too—maybe it was that she had enough of the Destroyer's data contained within her that she was able to know…or maybe it was something Cronus had warped her into believing—or maybe it was a leap of faith.

But she knew. L-M-L-4-4-5—they were coordinates. Of where they'd find Henry—and Cronus. Where the war would end.

Davis rolled his sleeve back down, buckled the seatbelt, and started the car. He started driving, but Will was still staring at his sleeve, letting Davis's words sink in. He knew it might be a mistake—he'd certainly made them before—but he felt he could trust him.

"Reed..." Will started. "Where is he now?"

"I have no idea." Davis sighed. "I can't get any signals through to the digital world, and my equipment fried itself after the last time I tried."

"So that's why you want access to Hypnos." Will realized. He considered the pros and cons of bringing in Davis. Even though Will trusted him, Mala—and more importantly, Yamaki, probably wouldn't, and they might even limit Will's access for even inquiring.

He turned his thoughts back to what Davis had said a few moments earlier.

One of us.

Will had never assumed that he was the only one to have had a loss directly resulting from the digital world, but he did feel a strange sense of relief seeing how comparatively well-adapted Davis was.

"How'd you get your scars?" Will asked.

"There was a fire a few years ago." Davis answered without any hesitation. "Got it trying to shield the kid."

"An attack?"

It had started to dawn on Will just how much the mission had permeated every part of Davis and his friends' lives. He started to wonder if that's what his own life would become—a cog in some plan he may never live to see fulfilled.

"We didn't realize it at the time, but yeah." He confirmed.

We...?

"How many of you are there?" Will assumed they couldn't be operating so well with just the two of them. When Davis had talked him through repairing the shields, he was reciting instructions, not actually giving them. They must have had some technical support—something.

Davis didn't look over. "There weretwelve of us."

Will shifted uncomfortably. "And now?"

"Four are dead." He sighed. "And another four missing—Reed included, now. So only four of us are alive with a known whereabouts."

Will let it sink in. A dozen of them…all of their lives ruined.

Is that what's gonna happen to us?

Will frowned. He'd been right about Davis, then—the man was tired. Overwhelmed. Will could relate. He knew the mission was worth fighting, but a part of him wished that someone else would do it other than his friends.

"Who are we going to see?" Will asked, trying unsuccessfully to change the subject.

"Someone who can hopefully help your friends." Davis answered simply, before firing Will a glance. "What did Reed—what did TK tell you about Carter?"

Will actually had to think about what they'd learned from Reed, and what they'd learned on their own.

"Reed's nephew, first human ever born in the digital world. Messiah or monster depending on who you ask. Lots of potential power—" As Will went down the list, it was the last item that sparked Davis's attention.

"He's essentially the digital world's avatar." Davis summarized.

Will paused. He already knew all the pieces, but hadn't reached that conclusion on his own. It was an interesting thought.

"Humans have an enormous amount of latent power in the digital world." Davis went on. "It's all just regulated by the digital world itself when we enter it. But Carter was born in the digital world, and it didn't cap his potential. Cronus is just the wrench in the works—when Guilmon was reshaped into a human, the digital world didn't know what to do with his power. And he's a blind spot."

Again, all things that Will already knew. "What does that have to do with Ryo and Jeri?"

Davis made a turn onto the highway.

"Carter is connected to everything in the digital world, but he's mostly tied to Cronus—Cronus is a part of him." Davis continued. "There's a place in the digital world where all the bad emotions you feel can manifest when they get out of control. I'm hoping that's where Carter is."

Will was puzzled at his choice of words. "'Hoping'?"

Davis nodded, however.

"Because if he's not being scared by things he'd see in the Dark Ocean, then it means something real is happening to him that's making him do this." He explained. "Jeri and Ryo—Guilmon's marks—Carter's crying out through Cronus's memories. Just don't know why."

Will didn't reply, and there were several seconds of silence before he got a text on his phone. It was Mala; she'd send him the address of the psychiatrist he was supposed to see.

Tomorrow, 9:00am. 142 Ariake St, Office 1D, it's a private psychiatry practice. Ask for Joe Kido.

Davis looked to him. "Anything important?"

"No." Will clicked his phone off. "It's nothing."

Mala tapped her pencil on the table—the way the room was shaped, the sound seemed amplified. She was on edge. More than usual—because her usual safety network of friends had diminished so much over the last few weeks. She couldn't turn to Henry, or Takato, or even Cronus. She felt almost as she did when she'd been stranded in the digital world—alone. Sure, in each situation she'd actually been surrounded by people, but she also couldn't speak freely about what was going on.

As far as anyone at Hypnos knew, Henry was just missing, and Cronus was just some guy. As many resources as Hypnos had provided, they were just simply not reliable to come down on the team's side when it came to how to deal with them. Not that anybody on the team had openly said how they planned to deal with Henry.

Saving Henry was Mala's top priority—for whatever that was worth. She owed it to him—he'd saved her when she'd been stranded in the digital world for a year. He needed her, and she wasn't going to turn away. Still, she found herself combing through old files for some inspiration, but wound up looking like she was procrastinating. She was, however, able to find a few things that may help the team. Specifically, she found the schematics originally used by Yamaki and the Monster Makers when they made the Ark. She made some notations as possible improvements and emailed a copy to Will.

She was almost certain that Yamaki was going to pull Will off of the project. She could understand why. Will had been acting irrationally, but after everything he'd went through—leaving the States, losing his mother, almost getting killed in the digital world over and over, and then losing his arm…he was holding up better than Mala would have in his position. At least if she emailed him any information, he might still be able to do something with it after his clearance was pulled.

Okay, think here.

As if she hadn't been doing that for days.

The Destroyer was beaten by the Guardian before…but it didn't have a human host then. From what they learned from Reed, the reason that the Destroyer stayed hidden in Henry was because it was vulnerable. It needed Rika—which gave her at least some kind of power over it.

She sat back, going over anything that could have been used as a weapon against the Destroyer. Guns didn't work. So neither would darts, naturally. It would have to be something digital. Or maybe chemical. A virus, maybe?

Mala bit her pencil. It would have to be incredibly complex, a virus that would erase only the Destroyer. It would have to overwrite Henry's mind onto whatever was living in his body—not possible, to erase just the digital part. It could probably be developed if they had a framework for that, but—

She paused.

Erase just the digital part.

"Oh my God…" she whispered out loud. "I know how to bring him back."

Davis had driven him to a modest-looking house on the coast. Will still had no idea where they were, or who they were seeing. He'd simply been instructed by Davis not to say anything unless Davis prompted him to—Will was not to respond to anything the person said.

"It's a volatile situation." Davis had explained.

"I'll bet." Will said plainly. He didn't want to be rude and ask what exactly had gone on between them—Davis seemed like a rational-enough guy. Will was confident the situation was more than some high-school bullshit.

Will fumbled with his seatbelt before finally unhitching it, opening his shoulder bag. "Should I bring anything inside?"

Davis shook his head. "Your phone can record voice notes?"

"Yeah." He'd never actually used it—had never needed to.

"That should be enough, then."

Will pulled Takato's goggles from the bag, and started to hang them around his neck as Kazu had suggested.

Davis glanced over and seemed to do a double-take. "What's that?"

"A good luck charm." Will answered. "Takato's goggles."

It was the first time Will had actually seen Davis smile, but he couldn't figure out what exactly he found so amusing. Davis was chuckling to himself for a few seconds before Will had the courage to ask.

"What's so funny?"

"Tell ya later." Davis shook his head still smiling a bit. "Let's go."

They both exited the car and approached the house. There were no lights on that Will could see—then again, it was still bright outside. Lots of cars parked on the street…maybe Davis knew which one belonged to the occupant.

A young woman answered the door. She shorter than Davis, slender, with medium-length brown hair that didn't quite go to her shoulders. And she was beautiful.

Will guessed she was Davis's age—probably not Carter's mom, then. Her eyes were brown, like Davis's, but a lighter shade. Her hair was a lighter shade than his, too, but Will assumed that dye was a possibility given the amount of effort that must have been involved to make her hair sit just the way it did.

Not related, I don't think…not his girlfriend, the way he said the situation was delicate. Probably just another one of the twelve of them. Well, the four of them.

"Davis?" She seemed surprised to see him.

Must not talk much.

"Hey." Davis nodded, scratching the back of his head. "How you been?"

She nodded but didn't reply, forcing a weak smile.

"Like the haircut…kinda like the old days…" Davis said—he'd started saying it with a smile, but must have regretted his choice of words halfway through, because his expression changed and he trailed off at the end.

"Is that what you came here to talk about?" she asked, still not acknowledging Will's presence. "the old days?"

Davis didn't confirm it immediately. "Please. It's important."

The woman looked worried, finally glancing away from him to Will. She looked at him nervously, her gaze pausing first at Takato's goggles, and second at his missing arm, before she turned back to Davis.

"Okay. Come inside."

Will looked up to Davis, who seemed to ignore him and follow her through the door. The inside was cluttered and neat all at the same time—things weren't in the most seemingly-conventional spots, but carefully laid out all at once. Will recognized it immediately—it was how his own room looked, how he'd left his workspace at the Hypnos building. In the middle of a project.

"So what's up?" she asked curiously, leaning against the back of the couch, hands behind her back.

"I need your help with something."

She sighed, closing her eyes. "Davis, I can't keep—"

"It's important." He cut her off. "TK might be in trouble."

Her eyes shot open, and she stared at him for a moment, her expression the midpoint of looking hurt and betrayed. "You—you know where he is…?"

"No." Davis shook his head. "And I hope I'm wrong but I need—I need you to trust me."

Eventually, she nodded. "Okay. Fine."

A few seconds later, she turned to Will, and offered her left hand to shake his, which he did. Her grip was warm.

He wondered if she'd made a conscious decision to offer her left, or if she was just left-handed. From what he'd observed over the last several days, was that people instinctively attempted their right first.

"I'm sorry." She said, offering an embarrassed smile. "I'm Ka—"

"He works for Hypnos." Davis cut her off.

Her hold on his hand softened and she let go, looking first at Will in disbelief, then Davis in confusion. "Hypnos? You're hanging out with those people now…?"

Will knew that Hypnos had a strange dichotomy in how people perceived it. Only natural, he supposed, for a company that big.

"His team went missing." Davis said, a half-truth. "TK might be with them."

She looked at Will hopefully. "Do you know where he is?"

Will glanced at Davis for approval, who gave a small nod. "No. B—but I'm looking."

Davis seemed to hesitate. "I need you to record a message to Carter."

In a flash, the woman's expression changed to that of sheer frustration. "Damn it Davis!" she protested, hands on her face for a moment. "He's gone!"

The brown-haired young man didn't reply—consequently, neither did Will.

"Have you found him?" she asked, suddenly hopeful and doubtful all at once.

"No."

"Do you know where he is?"

"No."

"Have you found any hint that he's even alive?"

With every question, her tone became more accusatory—as if it was somehow his fault.

"…No." Davis lied.

So she doesn't know he's alive in the digital world…why haven't Davis or TK told her?

"Davis…I loved that kid. And I've cried my share of tears over what happened to him." She said quietly, words aimed like daggers at Davis. It would seem that she wasn't quite done crying, either. "But I'm trying to get on with my life here."

"I know." Davis reassured her. "But I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important. The people Hypnos sent in could die."

She looked at Will again, apparently in disbelief that he was actually working for Hypnos. Will considered going off-script and tell her that he wasn't actually there on 'official business', but Davis had been certain that he should do all the talking—that the situation was delicate. Perhaps he'd been right.

Davis looked hesitant for a moment, before making one more push. "Ryo's on the team."

Her jaw dropped. "Ryo…?"

What's going on…?

Will shouldn't have been as surprised as he was—it made sense. TK knew Ryo 'back then'…if that woman knew TK too, she might have been around then as well.

Does Davis know what happened to Ryo or his memory?

Suddenly, the realization hit Will like a kick in the face. She was the girl in the photograph—the one Jeri had found that first linked Ryo to Reed—to TK.

"We haven't heard from him in years…" she mused. "Is he okay?"

"I don't know." Davis shook his head slowly. "But I really need you to record this message."

Will noted that Davis seemed very particular to avoid the word 'we'.

"But how could a message to Carter help…?" She sighed, lost. Then, when there was no response, "Let me guess—it's classified?"

Will nodded.

Defeated, she sighed. "Okay. What do you want me to do?"

Mala had forwarded the schematics down to the lab in the R&D department. Returning to the office, she paced around for what she'd later learn was a half hour. She felt her heart racing—excitement. Pride. Nervousness.

Complete fucking terror.

There were pretty much three possible outcomes of her invention after it was finished. It would work, kill her, or turn her into a brand-new kind of data-consuming red blob. But she was fairly certain that wouldn't happen…and at least she'd know as soon as she used it.

She glanced at the clock on the wall.

5:19.

It would be night in the digital world. Rika and Kazu were due to check in with her in about ten minutes, as they had been every half hour all day. So far, no change in Ryo and Jeri's condition.

She headed back to the control room and hopped into the chair seconds before their communication came in.

"I'm here, Rika."

"It's Gazimon." The small-digimon's voice came from the other end.

"Oh. Hey, Giz." Mala corrected herself, wondering if the digimon would take offense to her using the nickname despite not knowing him well. "Any change?"

"No, they're still out." He reported bleakly. "Um, I was wondering if I could talk to Will…is he there?

Giz sounded like a small child using a phone. It was cute. Male squinted, however, as she processed his request. "He's in the lab right now." She lied. "But I'll have him get back to you as soon as he's done?" she tried hopefully.

"Okay. Thanks." Giz agreed. "We'll check back in another half hour."

The line went dead, and Mala felt bad about lying. She didn't have much choice though; if Ryo found out that Will had snuck off to Odaiba, she and Will would both be in even more trouble.

I should have sent someone after him. At least just to keep an eye on him…

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard a beeping, and she nearly attempted to answer on the terminal before realizing it was her cell phone, sitting on the desk, the sound echoing in the spherical control room. It was Will.

"Hey, everything okay?" she answered the phone, worriedly.

"Might be better than okay." Will replied. "I think I have something."

Her heart quickened. "Talk to me."

"I found Carter's family, sort of." Will reported. "They think he's becoming even less stable, that it's him that caused this to happen to Jeri and Ryo—it wasn't Cronus. Cronus just isn't capable of doing something so targeted, even with the Guardian's power. They think that if we can get a message through to Carter—from a familiar voice—that it might calm him down, and undo some of what's happened."

"We don't know where Carter is." Mala's hope began to fade.

"So we need to send this message everywhere." He explained. "Hope it reaches him."

Mala scrunched her nose. It was a long shot, but it wasn't like they had any other options. If it was even possible.

"How can we broadcast the message?" she asked. "Just crank up the volume?"

They were entering new territory—this wasn't something that had been done before, as far as she knew.

"We'd never get it to reach far enough." Will answered. When he didn't say anything else, it became clear to Mala that he didn't actually know how to send it through.

She cocked an eyebrow, and remained silent for a moment as she got an idea.

Portals. Lots of portals.

It could work—but they'd need a lot…the digital world was largely unexplored—various analyses of the geographical data the Tamers had obtained on their previous journeys suggested that they'd only been to roughly a quarter of the digital world, with Ryo being estimated to have been to somewhere between a third and a half—but that was on his own, not with any Hypnos equipment that could have harvested any data.

"Can we send the message through portals?" Mala asked.

Will paused on the other end of the line. "That could work… how many do we need?"

Mala punched some variables into a calculator—the range the sound would carry, the estimated unmapped areas of the digital world, the discreet positions the portals would need to open up to minimize anything coming back through to the real world…

Ugh.

"About 195,000." She winced.

"We can cut that in half if we compress the data." Will added. "Carter and digimon would still be able to interpret it coherently."

Not much, but it's something, at least.

"If we're going to do this, we're only going to get one shot at it." Mala warned. "This is gonna shut down almost every power grid in Tokyo."

Will seemed to hesitate. He must have known the risks as well as she did—something could slip in from the digital world, or the systems could fry, and they might lose track of the team entirely, or the portal generators could get overloaded and they might be stranded there, or—

—or maybe we don't have any other options.

"It's your call." Will concluded.

She grimaced. It was her call.

Silently cursing Yamaki for being away—though he'd insisted it was something important, which she believed—she ordered preparations to begin.

"This is Hypnos," Mala's voice came in through the communicator suddenly. "Please respond."

Kazu cocked an eyebrow, and noticed Rika was doing the same.

"Since when have we been so formal?" Rika asked curiously.

Kazu was closer to the device, so he picked it up. "Agent Awesome reporting." He stated.

Mala's sigh on the other end was the only immediate response. "I've been trying to reach you guys for a half hour. Did you change your frequency?"

Kazu shrugged towards Rika, urging her to speak up if she had any idea what Mala was talking about. She just shook her head, however.

"Don't think so?" Kazu answered.

"Must be the digital world shifting again." Mala murmured, probably more to herself than to Kazu or Rika. "Like how the portal didn't open up where we wanted."

Kazu didn't look forward to even less contact with the real world.

"Anyways, we're about to run an experiment, so if you see or hear anything weird, don't be alarmed." Mala explained.

"Gonna let us in on any more than that?" Kazu asked.

Mala paused. "If it works, I'll let you know…if it doesn't, let's just pretend this never happened."

With that, the channel was closed, and Kazu was left wondering—

"—What the fuck?" Rika shouted as the sky became dotted with glowing, humming spheres.

Portals.

There were dozens—hundreds, even. Kazu knew Mala said not to panic, but it definitely made him uncomfortable. Tearing down the barriers between the worlds—wasn't that was the Destroyer wanted?

But then there was something else; a voice. It was barely a whisper, but it was coming out from everywhere—from all the portals, which seemed to be going off in every direction. It was undoubtedly a voice, but Kazu couldn't figure out for the life of him what it was saying—it was so disjointed. Syllables seemed to be intact, but they were either mixed up or playing on top of one another.

"What is it? Rika finally asked.

Giz hushed her quickly.

Kazu tried to listen more attentively, but it was no use—the message was too scrambled to be understood.

Understood by humans…?

He noticed that all the digimon seemed to be understanding the message.

But it was Renamon who spoke up. "It's a woman's voice." She said quickly, obviously still listening to the message as it played. "She's saying—"

A long pause, and Kazu fired a glance at Rika as he waited for Renamon, Guardromon, Cyberdramon, or Giz to explain what was going on.

"She's saying that everything's going to be alright." Renamon concluded quietly.

Kinda going to extremes, isn't she?

"Mala?" Rika asked.

Renamon shook her head. "She's calling herself 'Aunt Kari'."

Before Kazu had a chance to point out the absurdity of doing something so drastic and terrifying to say that everything would be all right, his heart skipped a beat when he heard Jeri stir behind him.

"She's telling Carter that everyone's coming for him." Renamon continued. "And she's asking that he make Jeri and Ryo better…?"

Kazu was at Jeri's side, holding her hand, when he felt her squeeze.

The portals each closed with a rumbling noise, and in a few seconds, everything was as it was before the message had played.

Jeri's eyelids fluttered, and she sat up.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking around.

Kazu threw his arms around her, laughing, and he could see that Ryo, too, was awake.

"So many things." Kazu answered, still laughing.

He knew it was foolish, being so happy over such a small victory. But it was still a win, however tiny.

One battle at a time, right?

Kazu noticed her hand—it still had Guilmon's mark. Jeri noticed it too, staring at it in confusion before looking to Kazu for some kind of explanation. But Kazu was looking at Ryo, who still bore Guilmon's mark under his eye. Jeri too, turned and stared, perplexed.

Ryo, however, obviously had no idea what was going on.

"There something on my face?"

Mala sighed with relief—things were back on track; the team was ready to move again. Only a few hiccups…mainly that the generator had all but overloaded from opening up almost a hundred thousand tiny portals at once—and then sustaining them for over a minute. She had no idea how that message fixed what happened to Ryo and Jeri.

But it worked.

The lights in the building were flickering—less than they had during and immediately after the relay, at least. She headed back to the seldom-used conference room she'd claimed as an office. What she wasn't expecting was the finished product for which she'd sent the blueprints to the lab just a few hours earlier.

She stared at the contents she'd spent all day designing—her own silver bullet.

When she'd been combing through Hypnos's files and resources in the lab, she found something she probably wasn't supposed to see—a sample of the D-Reaper. It wasn't in its evolved form—it was basically just whatever was left over from when they turned it back into—well, whatever that was. But it was enough for her to use some of the source code she'd located in the many, many piles of reports and studies on it. It allowed the nanobots contained within to treat humans like data, without them actually being data.

But while the D-Reaper destroyed indiscriminately, what Mala had designed was targeted.

The case contained two data spikes, and two syringes. They both contained the same thing—a virus—a network of replicating nanobots, that would spread throughout the human host, erase new data, and moderate the activity of existing data.

Essentially, it would weaken Armageddemon, and force it out of Henry's body.

Both contained elements of the D-Reaper, but each was harmless on their own—not entirely a design-by-choice, but it was the only way to keep them stable on such short notice. She couldn't risk having them being volatile in the spikes themselves—the reaction needed to be in the target. In Henry.

The first injection would have the nanos themselves. The second would activate them. It was appropriate that her weapon would require two elements to work—The Destroyer needed two keys itself; Henry and Rika.

They needed to be nanobots, rather than just pure data—if they contained just data, they could just be erased by the Destroyer when it was infected with them.

Mala stared at the needles, nervous. She hadn't been entirely honest in the specs she'd sent to the lab about why she wanted a pair of syringes produced in addition to the data spikes. She sat at the desk, carefully rolling her left sleeve up. They didn't have time for clinical trials—she needed to make sure that it wouldn't harm humans.

She quickly emailed a copy of the schematics to Will—if his clearance was going to be pulled, he might still find the invention useful. The file was enormous—it would take ages to send.

Her teeth were grit. Mala hated getting injections, and she'd certainly never given herself one. Her resolve wavered further as the lights continued to flicker. Taking a long, slow breath, she injected herself with the nanobots.

Her arm felt tingly for a moment, but no more than it did the last time she gave blood. Several moments passed in silence.

Not dead. Going well so far—no, better than well. If the nanobots were unstable, I'd have known right away. They'll work.

Mala jumped suddenly as she heard a loud noise—something hitting a wall hard, or maybe a gunshot. Seconds later, the lights went out. She looked around frantically, but the room was as it was. The way the sound carried, it sounded like it had happened right behind her, but it had actually come from the hall.

The lights began to flicker once or twice every few seconds, obstructing her view immensely. She set the needle down on the table and crept to the door, only to have it swing open and knock her to the ground. Reeling, she shook her head trying to regain her composure, as a figure entered the room, a cold grace in its movements. And the lights flashed just enough to illuminate the face of Henry Wong.

"Henry…?" Mala gasped.

"Not for some time, now." Henry tilted his head sympathetically.

The portals…he must have come through when we—

—No, the data spikes—

They were still on the desk. If she could get to them, she could use them on Henry. She could save him.

"Why are you here?" she forced herself to ask in spite of her terror.

"I'm here because I'm trying to find my friends." Henry smiled innocently. "'Birds of a feather flock together', you know."

Mala tried to dash to the desk, but only made it two steps before Henry was in front of her. He kicked her in the stomach hard, and she went soaring backwards. And the second she hit the ground, his foot was on her shoulder.

"So tell me, little bird." Henry continued, his pretence of being condescending replaced by a menacing snarl. "Where's Rika?"

So, that's that!

One of the underlying things in this arc is to mix up the status quo. Takato and Ryo's friendship has been the backbone of this entire series of stories, and now that's all but disintegrated. They also have since both inherited brotherly characters in Cronus and Will, and those connections too are failing. At least Ryo and Rika are still going strong!

Review, please!

-N