Just a quick heads-up: This fic follows the events of my last one, Just a Universe Apart. While I'll be doing my best to make this story stands on its own, some scenes and subplots might not make sense without the prior context. TL;DR versions of relevant events will be given as we go, but reading the actual work would likely do a better job of getting you up to speed. I guess what I'm saying is that it's your choice on how to proceed.

And, of course...

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or any of its characters. This is a nonprofit, fan-based story. Please support the official release.

Chapter 1: Rough Mornings

Nightlife in Shinjuku was not as exciting as it had been promised to be. Granted, Terriermon wasn't human, so there were parts of the city that he wasn't allowed access to. From his current spot atop a three story building, he looked across the street at small tavern, which seemed pretty full considering it was a weeknight.

Not that he had any interest in going in that particular building. If there was one thing Terriermon had learned from all the television he watched during the day, it was that humans and excess amounts of alcohol did not mix. He didn't see the appeal of impairing his judgment, as he liked to have his wits about him so that he could be ready and able to crack a joke when the opportunity arose.

"Hey, you done daydreamin', Helicopta Head?" a voice to Terriermon's left called to him. The voice belonged to Impmon, a small, purple Virus-type digimon and longtime friend of his. "I didn't invite you out here so that you could slow me down." Impmon crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently, causing Terriermon to roll his eyes. Maybe "friend" wasn't the most accurate word to describe Impmon, as the two of them had never been particularly close.

"First of all, how can I be daydreaming in the middle of the night?" Terriermon replied. "Second, all we've been doing is wandering around aimlessly. I don't think you're missing anything."

"For all you know!" Impmon snapped.

"I do know." Terriermon briefly considered giving Impmon the benefit of the doubt. After all, he had invited Terriermon out here, and anything was better than being cooped up in his human partner's apartment. Between his new "job" and his own busy work, Henry had become a bit reclusive lately, which also meant Terriermon didn't get to go outside much either. Still, in addition to not being in the best mood, Terriermon didn't see the point in not sharing what he was thinking. "Seriously, how do you do this every night?"

"Usually wit a lot less back-talk."

"I'll leave you to it then. I'd hate to ruin your busy night." Terriermon turned to leave, not really sure where he was going. He thought about going home, but wasn't enthusiastic about the idea. They were just a couple blocks from the Matsuki's bakery. In Terriermon's mind, Guilmon's reaction to losing his soon-to-be day-old bread was worth the detour.

Having made up his mind, Terriermon turned in the direction of the bakery. His departure was interrupted, however, when the sky lit up. Realizing the center of the disturbance was a block away in the opposite direction, he turned to face it.

"What da hell is dat?" Impmon asked quietly.

"Trouble," Terriermon answered before both digimon ran towards the light show.

Making matters worse was that Terriermon recognized what was happening. The white, crackling energy they were running towards was the direct result of interdimensional travel. Six months prior, the Tamers and their partners had traveled to a completely different reality to fight a potentially world-ending threat. Terriermon knew that only beings as powerful as the Digimon Sovereign had the innate ability to open portals like this one, which meant they were likely dealing with an extremely dangerous opponent.

Within a couple minutes, Terriermon and Impmon had reached their destination. Save for the newly-opened portal, the street was completely deserted. Reaching street-level, Terriermon expected to be met by a Mega-level digimon upon staring through the tear in reality. Instead, he saw something much different.

Through the hole in the world, Terriermon saw what he knew to be a digital field. The heavy fog obscured the immediate surroundings, but not the individuals inside the field. One was a Vilemon, a small, Champion-level digimon that the Tamers had encountered years ago.

The other digimon, however, caused both Terriermon and Impmon to do a double take. Facing off against the Vilemon was a red, saurian digimon who the two would recognize anywhere.

"Pineapple Head?" Impmon breathed, to which Terriermon nodded. The two of them were looking at Guilmon, or at least a Guilmon. Flanking their friend's doppelganger was a third figure, who was definitely human. He wore a dark grey sweater with the hood pulled up and faced away from them. Even though he couldn't confirm the human's identity, uneasiness began to build up in Terriermon's stomach.

Refocusing on the fight, Terriermon could tell it was very one-sided. The Vilemon was injured and breathing heavily while Guilmon simply stared down his opponent. At first, Terriermon assumed Guilmon was in his feral state, but that wasn't the case. The pupils of the saurian's yellow eyes were dilated, but also seemed calm and focused.

Vilemon shrieked, letting off a blast in Guilmon's direction. With speed and precision Terriermon had never seen his friend wield before, Guilmon dodged and moved himself directly behind his opponent. Before Vilemon could react, Guilmon brought his right claw forward and skewered the smaller digimon.

There was a pause before Vilemon staggered backwards and burst into data. Before said data could disperse, however, Guilmon stepped forward and absorbed it. Terriermon felt a bit uneasy looking at the act, as he and his friends had sworn off loading their opponents' data years ago. Besides the fact that their bonds with their human partners made doing so for strength unnecessary, there were some moral issues with doing so. Absorbing another digimon meant their data could not be recycled and that digimon could never be reborn. Loading data meant killing an opponent in every sense of the word.

Neither Terriermon nor Impmon moved a muscle, though Terriermon was considering turning and running. Whether they were looking at their friend or not, he knew there was a possibility that they would be next if noticed. Terriermon also didn't like their chances of winning this fight without their human partners.

Then, just as Terriermon was beginning to back away, Guilmon turned his snout upwards and inhaled. With that, he turned and looked directly at the reality tear. The action caught the attention of his human partner, who spun around to look towards Terriermon and Impmon as well. The uneasiness Terriermon received from Guilmon's stare was nothing compared to fear he felt next, as he found himself looking into a pair of crimson eyes he thought he could never be afraid of.

Terriermon couldn't move as the two took a step towards them. Then, by some miracle, the tear began to flicker. His two would-be attackers took notice and paused. The tear flickered one final time before disappearing, leaving Terriermon and Impmon alone on the empty street.

"What… did we just see?" Impmon asked.

"Something that's going to be keeping us very busy," Terriermon replied nervously. His misgivings about running home were now gone.

Takato Matsuki threw himself upward in an effort to escape from his nightmare. He looked around his bedroom, wanting nothing more than to confirm he had come back to reality. Realizing how much he was sweating and how fast his heart was beating, he took a couple deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself down. Feeling slightly better, Takato resumed looking around the room.

The digital clock next to his bed read "5:23." Takato sighed, deciding it wasn't worth it to try and go back to sleep. He would have to start getting ready for school soon and, more importantly, didn't want to risk falling back into one of his nightmares.

As he started to stand, he realized he had the undivided attention of his digimon partner. Wide awake with a mixture of concern and curiosity on his face, Guilmon tracked Takato's movement across the room. Not wanting to burden Guilmon with his problems this early in the morning, Takato forced a smile as he exited the bedroom and moved towards the bathroom.

Takato closed the door behind him and, after running the faucet for a couple seconds, splashed some water onto his face in an attempt to make sure he stayed awake. He looked into the bathroom mirror, finding a set of tired, crimson eyes staring back at him.

What if they're not just dreams? a voice in the back of his mind asked. It wouldn't be the first time one of his dreams was more than just that, but he refused to consider the possibility that his recurring nightmares could come to pass. Still, he had trouble remembering his other dreams in such vivid detail.

In these nightmares, Takato stood in the ruins of Shinjuku. Not as himself however, but in Gallantmon's Crimson Mode, the most powerful form he and Guilmon could take in combat. The form was different in his nightmares. While it usually represented the pinnacle of the knight-in-shining-armor stereotype in reality, there it possessed tattered wings and cracked and faded armor. The destruction before him was his doing. Not just due to his blind rage, but also the result of his fighting his friends who had tried to stop him.

The nightmare's final moments in particular stood out to Takato. Henry, Jeri, Kazu, Kenta, and Suzie all lay unmoving at his feet. In his left hand he held Sakuyamon's throat. As usual, Rika and Renamon had lasted the longest in the fight to stop him, but the outcome was inevitable. Drawing his broadsword, Blutgang, he impaled Sakuyamon, causing her to separate into her component parts. Renamon was absorbed along with his other friends' partners while Rika's lifeless body fell from his grasp.

Takato closed his eyes and shook his head. The nightmares were becoming more frequent, with this being third night in a row that he had one. The very first one that he could recall had occurred about six months back. The Tamers had just returned from an alternate universe, having been called there to help combat a D-Reaper which had bonded itself to a vengeful Myotismon. One of their own had fallen during the fighting, causing Takato to take on a feral version of his Crimson Mode. He hadn't hurt any of his friends, but he felt guilty for putting them in danger like that.

Takato opened his eyes and turned towards the bathroom door. He assured himself that was all it was, and he wasn't going to let guilt have complete control of how he lived his life. He opened the bathroom, but jumped backwards a bit when he found Guilmon waiting for him on the other side.

"Guilmon!" Takato cried, trying not to yell so that he didn't wake his parents. "Are you trying to scare me to death?"

"Sorry," Guilmon replied, his ears drooping down as he spoke. "I just wanted to check on you."

"I'm fine, boy." Takato collected himself and led his partner back to their shared bedroom. "You don't have to worry about me."

"But you're not fine, so I do have to worry."

Takato sighed. He knew he should have known better than to lie to Guilmon. Like the other Tamers and their partners, he and Guilmon were linked physically, mentally, and emotionally. Their bond was a particularly strong one, as Takato had created Guilmon and brought him to life.

"You're right," Takato finally said. "But you're not going to have to worry much longer. These nightmares are going to pass."

"You promise?" Guilmon asked, perking up as he spoke.

"I promise."

Rika Nonaka paused upon tying her hair into her signature ponytail. She wondered how long she would be able to put off getting to her daily grind. She picked at the sleeve of her school uniform, knowing that she would never be comfortable in it no matter how old she got. The uniform wasn't who she was, nor did it represent anything she would ever want to be. This wasn't a secret, as anyone who knew anything about Rika knew it as fact. She decided to stop fussing over her uniform. At the very least, she had the consolation of knowing that her friends had started wearing uniforms of their own once they moved up to high school.

Rika walked across her bedroom to pick up her school bag. As she moved to pick up her cellphone, the device buzzed and lit up, indicating she had received a text message. The message was from Takato, or as the phone identified him, "Gogglehead." Rika already had a good idea of what the message said. It was likely the message she always received from the Tamers' de facto leader whenever he had no chores or prior commitments: "What are you doing after school today?"

Of course, these messages used to read "What are you guys doing after school?" as it would also be addressed to Henry. The amount of group messages Takato sent would eventually be reduced, as Henry's most frequent response had become "Working." Rika opened her phone to confirm her assumption and immediately closed it again.

"I wonder if Takato ever feels like you take him for granted," a smooth voice said to her from the corner of the room. The voice belonged to Rika's digimon partner, Renamon, who she turned to face.

"I'm sure Takato's fine," Rika replied. "Besides, I can't always be at his beckon call." To her own credit, Rika always replied to his messages eventually. Had it been an emergency, she wouldn't have hesitated to answer him.

"So this is your method of keeping him interested?" the yellow, fox digimon teased.

"And who gave you that idea?" Rika was doing her best to keep her face from turning red.

"Aren't you running a little late?" Renamon asked calmly, causing Rika to check the time on her phone.

"Crap…" Only Takato could make her late without even being present.

"Rika," Renamon said as the pair exited the bedroom. "Don't push your friends away."

"It's just a text, Renamon. I'll answer it when I'm ready."

Renamon phased out of sight as Rika jogged out of her house. She wasn't angry at what her partner was insinuating, as the kitsune always acted in her best interests. Still, Rika liked to think she had come a long way over the years. There was a point in her life when the idea of letting anyone get close to her made her feel physically ill, but those days were behind her. Even if she rarely admitted it out loud, this was thanks largely to Renamon, Takato, and the rest of her friends. That was something she could never take for granted.

Henry Wong massaged his temple as he exited his bedroom. Terriermon had woken him up in the middle of the night, and had not let him return to sleep until the rabbit-dog had finished his tale from the night before. It didn't help that Terriermon was still following him around the apartment, trying to get him act on the reality tear.

"Come on, Henry," Terriermon said as he jumped on his shoulder. "This is important."

"I understand that," Henry replied, trying his best to not sound annoyed.

"Do you? Because it feels like you're trying to ignore me."

"I'm not ignoring you."

"What's going on?" Suzie, Henry's younger sister, asked from the kitchen table.

"Nothing."

"Only if you consider an evil version of Takato nothing," Terriermon interjected as he leapt off Henry's shoulder and onto the table.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like nothing, Henry," Suzie added.

"Okay, enough," Henry said, addressing both his partner and his sister. "Are you sure you saw what you think you saw?"

"You can go ask Impmon if my word's not good enough for you," Terriermon replied as he crossed his arms.

"I didn't mean it like that, but it's a lot to take in. There are some pretty heavy implications if what you're saying is true."

"Yeah, like how we're going to deal with a digimon who's ripping a hole in the universe."

"We don't know that's the cause," Henry stated as he saw Suzie going for her D-Power. She had become a little too eager to jump into a fight in his opinion. "For all we know, this could have been a freak occurrence. I should be able to find out more after school."

"Right, your 'job'…" Terriermon said disappointedly.

"Let's not start this again," Officially, Henry was an intern at Hypnos, a position that Terriermon had made very clear that he wasn't fond of. To Henry, however, it both gave an opportunity to play a more active role in protecting the world from digital threats and gave him access to resources for his own projects.

"Yeah, I don't want you wasting your time on me."

"Look…" Henry considered coming up with a response, but realized he was running late upon checking the time. "…we can talk about this later."

Henry watched as Suzie bolted for the door with her partner, Lopmon, in tow while his own partner wondered off into the living room to find the TV remote. Shaking his head, he left the apartment. As long as everything went according to plan, this would all be worth it.

To anyone who's made it this far, thank you for taking the time.

Leave a review if you feel up to it, and I'll see you next chapter.