Another wave crashed, interrupting the otherwise silent shore. There was no movement other than that of the black waters. No wind blowing. No one talking. The sky had never seen a star. Time seemed to never pass.

Scubamon looked at the shore. It was the only thing he could do. He was surrounded by his brothers, but he had nothing to talk with any of them. They were shadows. Shadows that he barely recognized, and none of them meant anything to him. He looked at his own hand. A long time ago, his hand was covered in scales, but he didn't remember how they were. He knew they had been there, but all that was left was something dark, something shapeless. He had been a Digimon in the past, but no longer.

He looked at the sea again. The dark, endless sea. He had been living there for as long as he could remember, but he still didn't know anything about it. Once he swam for what seemed days, and when he looked back, the shore hadn't moved. How long ago was that? He had stopped caring about concepts such as days and months once there was no difference between them. The only thing he knew was that in the deepest part of it, in the dead city, his Master slept.

The Master was all Scubamon had left. Once his memories abandoned him, only the Master remained on his mind. His curiosity had been long forgotten, for all the answers he would ever get came from him. His body was stripped away from him in the name of him. His sanity had been slipping away for some months, or some years, because he no longer needed it.

His Master was all powerful. His mind couldn't conceive something bigger, something more powerful, because the Master was inside his mind as much as he was outside. He had control over everything he could see.

"Liar"

The voice was one he didn't remember he had. It wasn't a voice coming from his lips, but his mind. In his mind clouded by dark there was a light. The light contained a human, a strange human, who raised a monolith in their Dark Sea. With him there was the winged serpent, whose purple flames burned the sand. But they weren't alone. With them there was that girl… the light came from her. And with the girl, there was an angel. The rest of his being told him the Master was perfect, but the light inside him hadn't forgotten about the angel who brought light to the darkness.

But the light existed in a void. He remembered the angel and the girl, but he couldn't remember where they came from, when they appeared, or even if it had actually happened, or was merely an image he had conjured to escape from the endless Sea. Aside from the Master, the Sea and his brothers, the light was the only thing he had ever seen.

Until the Cloaked Stranger came. He would never forget that day, even if he didn't remember how long ago it happened. It began with a thunderous strike that tore open the sky. Engulfed in flame and light, the Cloaked Stranger disrupted the peace of the Sea when the world cracked to allow his entrance. But then the flame and light disappeared, and the world didn't break. The sky returned to its ever grey state, and everything was as it had always been, except for him.

He didn't touch the sand or the sea, but stood in the air thanks to his wings. He looked like a human, but his entire body was covered in that terrifying red cloak. For a time, he didn't move. His brothers looked at him every day, because they didn't know what he was, and their Master was asleep. None of them ever uttered a word, and none tried attacking him.

But then, one day, the Cloaked Stranger dived into the water, faster than anything he had ever seen. The Dark Sea trembled, and the few times he tried to go into it, it was boiling. The Scubamon were worried, because they were afraid the Stranger could harm their Master, but that never happened. The Master never left their mind, and the world went back to normal.

He looked at his hand. His hands had no scales, even though he believed he had them at some point. He wasn't sure. The wave crashed, as it had always done, and he thought about the light again. Whether real or fictional, it was there. Maybe if he thought about it enough, it would come back.

But then something unexpected happened. The waves had always broken the silence with the exact same difference between them. He had long forgotten how long a second was, but he knew perfectly how long it took for a new wave to appear. And now many waves crashed in the timespan only one usually would've. His head went back to the Sea, and he would've stood, had his legs not forgotten how to do so.

He felt paralyzed when, emerging from the Sea, the wings of the Cloaked Stranger revealed his appearance. The figure walked, unflinchingly, until he walked among them, and then behind them. He walked close to him, and he felt his body burn. Two great horns served as a crown. His mental image of the Stranger had no horns, and they only made him more threatening.

When the Stranger stopped, so did Scubamon's heart. He was looking at nothing, and from his position, Scubamon could only see his great wings. But then, the world cracked again. In front of the Stranger, there was light.

Scubamon's eyes couldn't believe it. His legs wouldn't respond, but his arms wanted to reach the light no matter what. He crept towards it. Even if it meant getting closer to the Stranger, he needed to see the light. It was all he wanted. But then, a sound, a terrifying sound stormed him. It was something he had never heard before, something powerful and evil that came from the Stranger. Fear overwhelmed him, and it was followed by pain. His body didn't respond. He stretched his arm, but the Stranger was too far away. The Stranger walked and entered the crack. He cried and begged the Master, the angel and the Stranger to let him go with him, but no one replied. As the crack closed, and the light disappeared, so did his strength, and when there was nothing left of them, he collapsed.

He felt nothing for a time. He heard or saw nothing for a time. But then, he did. His Master was moving. Dragomon had awakened.