Digimon do not die. Their data is only reconfigured, and they return to the egg they hatched from. Some Digimon live to be hundred of years old, even longer, before they are finally returned to data.
Humans, however, are an entirely different story.
It's been so long. Whole lifetimes have passed since those days, but the memories are still there. So many hard battles, so many losses. There were victories, too, hard won victories that came at too high a cost.
It wasn't all fighting. There were the quiet times too, some of them lasting years at a time. They were filled with long talks late at night, trips to the park, picnics, and food-so much delicious food!
But none of it-the victories, the fun, the food-none of it could compare to the friends we made. It was never about the evolutions. It was never about the fighting. No, it was only ever about the Chosen Children and the bonds they formed along the way.
Nothing could have prepared us for what we would go through. Nothing would compare to the deep and profound love we found in ourselves and in our Partners. Only time and many years together would reveal that.
For the better part of a century, we stayed at their sides. We watched them grow from children into adults. We watched them graduate, buy houses and cars, and travel the world. We watched them find themselves, launch their careers, marry and have children.
We watched their children do the same, and then their grandchildren. We watched our Partners live out their lives and we shared in their sorrows and joys. We stayed by their sides through it all.
And then, as time would have it, we would watch them grow old and die.
There was no greater loss. They weren't just our friends and companions. They were a part of us, just as much as we were a part of them. We were certain that we would live out the rest of our lives without them.
Then, much to our surprise, we felt the calling. We knew the feeling the moment it struck us. We had felt it before, before we met our Chosen Partners.
After nearly half a lifetime, we had been called upon again. Strange as it was, we bonded with new Partners. We learned new ways to evolve, formed new friendships with new Chosen Children and fought new enemies. We created peace once more, and we lived through another lifetime of happiness, sorrow, pain, and joy.
And so the cycle would continue. On and on, over many lifetimes, we would continue. We would lose those closest to us, we would mourn, and then we would make new friends and meet new Partners. Each generation would come with new struggles, new evolutions, new friends.
Ours is not an easy life. There is danger, considerable and great. There is unimaginable loss, unendurable pain, unending struggle.
There is also joy, and friendship, and love. We find it in ourselves, in our Partners, in the Digital World we work so hard to protect. We continue, because we are Chosen, and we would not ever change that for all the world.
And though it has been so long since we were with them, we will never forget our first Partners.