Warnings: major character death, non-graphic violence, animal transformation

Chapter One - What There Is and Isn't

In 1999, Digimon were nothing more than rumors and hearsay. Even if the world was watching through the barrier, it was quickly forgotten as a nightmare or a mass hallucination.

In 2000, they were just a story from childhood.

In 2002, they turned off the lights, destroying the electricity. It was argued as a power outage, this time only weaker. There was less destruction, true, but more people died than lived from the lack of power to their homes and hospitals.

In 2005, it was no longer an illusion.

The world was hacked. Factories burned. Flash floods and heat waves and power outages went rampant as the two worlds went to preemptive strikes. Each struggled to survive, at war with the very ideals they both shared.

Eventually, an uneasy peace, headed by those known as the Chosen Children, began to settle between the two groups.

It lasted six months.

Then, in 2007, Chosen Children started dying.

Silence.

Blissful, detrimental silence filled the empty street.

Yagami Hikari barely dared to breathe. Above her head, her precious partner's ears swiveled and twitched, claws buried in the grooves of the wooden shelf to keep herself from making any noise.

Her tail swished. Then, bullets rang out, peppering a house away.

Hikari sank her teeth into her bottom lip and Tailmon hopped back to her arms. For now, they remained safe inside this room, in her hiding spot far from the windows. But that wouldn't be for long.

Somewhere, glass shattered overhead.

Hikari bit her lip harder, held back a sob. Tailmon shifted to her arms to cover her mouth.

They had gotten Taichi like this. They had gotten her parents like this. They would not get her. Not without-

Hikari cut off her own thoughts, her cat ears twitching themselves now. She tried not to look at them and the slim brown tail by her leg, shame filling her stomach. If only they had…

No time for 'if only', light bringer. If you want your pack to prosper, you must make it back to them.

Hikari tried not to roll her eyes. It wasn't like the voice was wrong. It was still very sure of itself. Even so… Thank you, Taiki-kun.

There was no response, but she didn't expect one. When the Chosen Children, partners be damned, had started dropping like flies, like family, like friends, one had risen up. The power of the Digital World had thrummed in his hands, steady and clear. Guns had been trained on his person, soldiers screaming orders.

And at that moment, with the world watching, Kudo Taiki had wished on the Code Crown and then stabbed himself with its diamond.

Hikari knew despite being in hiding like so many chosen ones and unable to see that day, because the Code Crown, dull and grey, had found her next.

Then, the pain had come. The pain that ran through every nerve and broke her spine until it remade things. Until she woke up, and like, all the chosen ones, was no longer entirely human. And a voice that was unmistakably the boy on the television danced in her head. It didn't feel quite right, not human enough. Then again, she had never met him so she had no idea.

Chosen were dying less after that. Though without question, she knew that they weren't much better off.

Her grip tightened on her satchel and she continued to wait. Then the footfalls of heavy boots faded away. After a few extra moments of waiting, Hikari moved cautiously about her temporary safe haven, jumping at every creaking floorboard. It was some well-off family's vacation home, she could tell by how the windows and only cracked, not broken, by the pet bed in one corner. Her eyes flickered to it. It was too big for a typical pet, perhaps even for a large dog.

Iori-kun?

Of her remaining friends, those that survived had been captured. Some of them, like Iori-kun, had been young enough that those who escaped said that they thought of brainwashing them. She wanted to hope that Iori-kun wasn't one of them, but she wasn't going to try very hard. There were no tools that were usually present for containing a Chosen pet, and no traps to capture one.

There were, after all, monetary rewards for it.

Hikari pressed her finger to the refrigerator door, easing it open and shutting off the light. "Tailmon, she hissed. "Freezer."

"Understood."

Freezers were the most valuable, frozen food and cans. It helped that one of Koushiro-san's last inventions had been a bag for hyperspace before he'd just flat out vanished. Miyako-san had yet to build it back up.

Shoving everything reasonable that she could into the bag (she couldn't take everything, that would be too obvious), she moved onto the cans.

Two years ago, most of her would have balked at the idea of stealing from other people. But this was the only thing she could do. If they were going to get to the digital world, they had to survive to make the trek.

Even if it meant inconveniencing other people for the time being.

Finishing in the kitchen, she blinked her eyes to recover to see in the dark. Her head cocked to the right, listening hard. Silence. Not even the wind.

"I don't like this." Her voice was a puff of air.

Tailmon nodded and then, pointed to the other rooms.

Right. Keep it quick then.

Forward. She eased open closets, ignored the entertainment devices that weren't portable, grabbed clothes from boxes and emergency kits. Anything that could prove useful. Anything necessary.

Then, just as she reached the hall one last time to exit, there was a loud bang three doors down.

Hikari ran to the back of the house. Good. There was a fence. She wriggled the door open and Tailmon let out a sharp sound.

"Now," she hissed.

Hikari threw the door open, leaped the fence and started to run.

Once, the gunshots would have frozen her, let her be caught. Her arm burned at the memory of the one time they had.

Now, they just said, keep running. Keep going.

Hikari kept running, even when her body screamed and her heart hurt.

She heard the sirens, the cars. There were air horns too she was sure, but they didn't matter. All that mattered was that she continued to move.

Then, a bullet struck her in the leg.

"You should have sent me in."

Tohma didn't deign that with a response. He knew better than to try. Ichijouji Ken, however, was aggravated enough to let out a long-suffering sigh and get the wrath of Masaru onto him.

"I could keep them off her back!"

Not that that wasn't wrong but that wasn't the point.

Tohma took pity on Ken, who out of the corner of his eye he could see starting to twitch. "And then get us all caught," he said. Masaru glowered at him which wasn't hard to make happen. They'd been fighting since before this, they probably would never stop.

"It's been three days." Masaru crossed his arms. Then he deflated under the withering look Gaomon gave him. "I'm just worried."

"You and the rest of us." Tohma did understand. Every keystroke he made was a little more aggressive than it should be. Hikari was one of their youngest members. Her, Ken, Ikuto, Chika… Relena. They were so young.

"She is still the best thief we have, Masaru." He said because that was a fact. "She has to be the one to go. We just have to hope that she'll make it back."

Somewhere across the room, a tea mug cracked.

A/N: And there's the second. Thanks for your patience! Happy belated birthday too, Tomoe! Thank you, all readers for your support! It means a lot.

Challenges: Commission for Tomoe Mami, Three Sided Box, crossover boot camp - suffer, Novella Masterclass (interseason) prompt 7, interseason boot camp - testy, Mega Prompts - sentence prompt 25 (should show up next chapter)