Author's Note: Sorry it took so long to get this posted, but I did say it would be up by New Year's, didn't I? Anyway, this is obviously the sequel to my other story Digimon Adventure: Dark Uprising. If you haven't read that yet, you'll probably want to read that before this one to avoid confusion. I have some other notes, but those can wait until the end of the chapter. So, enjoy the story!
Zoe cursed as her nap was interrupted by a burst of static from her D-Tector. Six years ago, she would have jumped at the chance to get her D-Tector back, just so she would always have a tangible souvenir of her time as the Legendary Warrior of Wind. Now, she had regained the ability to Spirit Evolve, but not under any circumstances she would have liked. Zoe quickly got dressed and ran out the door. Glancing around to see if anybody would see her, she ducked into the alleyway behind her apartment complex. Now that she was sure there were no witnesses, she pulled out her D-Tector. While she wasn't too happy about the circumstances forcing her to reclaim the title of Legendary Warrior, Zoe still couldn't help feeling a bit of a thrill every time she did this. After all, it was something she never got to do on her first adventure. "Execute, Fusion Evolution! JetSilphymon!"
After the DigiDestined had barely managed to prevail in their battle in the Dark Ocean, Lilithmon had needed to come to Earth in order to prevent Lucemon from obtaining the Code Key of Lust. However, nobody was sure of a good place for her to live until Cody remembered Oikawa's former hideout. Back when he had been possessed by Myotismon, Oikawa had obtained the land entirely off the record. After his death, nobody except the DigiDestined even knew it existed, which made it the perfect place to hide a Digimon from a world that had experienced a new surge of anti-Digimon sentiment after the latest Digimon invasion.
Once Lilithmon had settled in, Cody had arranged for the Legendary Warriors to meet with her. After overcoming the initial surprise after being reunited after six years for the humans and hundreds of years for the Digimon, Lilithmon presented a gift to her former protectors: six new D-Tectors complete with their spirits. While most of the teens were just happy to have their own spirits back, Takuya was quick to notice something missing. "Hey, not that I'm not grateful or anything, but do you think we could also get the other Spirits too? From what the DigiDestined have told me, we're going to have to fight Lucemon by the time this is over. We could take him down as Susanoomon, but we'll need all twenty spirits for that."
Lilithmon merely shook her head. "Well, sorry I didn't have all the spirits on me. I only took your twelve spirits because they gave me a reminder of much happier times. I didn't bother taking the Spirits of Wood, Water, Steel, or Earth. Besides, even if I had them, you wouldn't be able to use them anyway. Your upgraded D-Tectors only have enough storage ability to cover your own spirits as well as some loose fractal code. You wouldn't be able to become EmperorGreymon again, let alone Susanoomon."
"Okay, so our new D-Tectors have fewer capabilities than our old ones. Why exactly are they upgrades?"
Lilithmon smirked. "Simple, Koji. These ones will allow you to Spirit Evolve here on Earth. With the old model, you had to interface your fractal code with the Spirit in order to evolve. You can be my guest and try to do the same thing here. Good luck manifesting your fractal code when you don't have one. And before you say Koichi managed just fine last time, there isn't any reason to think that could carry over. What Koichi did shouldn't have been possible, but the Digital World occasionally breaks its own rules. I don't think we can expect the same thing to occur in this world where the laws are more absolute. However, because I had to focus on using only two spirits, I was able to ensure you would all be able to at least Fusion Evolve this time around. Be happy that I could at least manage that."
When they had first relocated Lilithmon from the Digital World, the DigiDestined had hoped she would be granted political asylum for two reasons. The first of these was simple: if Lilithmon were granted refugee status, she would be allowed to legally live within Japan, and would not have to worry about the government hunting her down as a threat to society. The second reason was more of a long-term goal: if a refugee from the Digital World would be officially recognized, it would amount to the Digital World itself being viewed as an official power, which would be the first step to setting up a form of peaceful coexistence between the two worlds. Tai had been entertaining the dream of having the Digital World join the United Nations, and getting Japan to recognize the Digital World would be a key first step.
At first, Tai's dream seemed close to becoming a reality. As soon as Lilithmon had settled in, he redoubled his efforts to get people to accept Digimon, focusing on one person in particular: his classmate Rei Saiba. Even though Rei was only 20, she was already working on her senior thesis for a Political Science degree, and she happened to have the perfect combination of knowledge, connections, and motivation for this task. Her father was a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and she had always dreamed of following in his footsteps. Not even a tragic accident when she was 16 that left her paralyzed from the waist down would deter her, and she merely put more effort into her studies while confined in her wheelchair. Thus, despite studying for only two years, she was almost ready to receive her degree. Since her thesis was about restructuring the refugee system to prevent people from falling through the cracks, Tai knew she would be a perfect person to convince in order to start convincing the government. However, just telling her about the situation posed a huge risk. While Tai had always been vocal about supporting Digimon, he had never revealed himself as a DigiDestined. Keeping that a secret had been a deeply ingrained habit, and with the latest Digimon attack it became a practical measure as well: public feeling was deeply anti-Digimon, and saying you had a Digimon was inviting discrimination at best and violence at worst. However, this wasn't something he would be able to keep secret if he expected her help.
Despite being the DigiDestined of Courage, Tai found himself struggling to gather the nerve to talk to Rei. It was a feeling he could only remember experiencing once before: when he had been struggling with asking Sora out in the weeks before the World Tour. He supposed he couldn't help making the comparison: both times involved him agonizing over revealing a personal secret to a close female friend with her reaction having drastic consequences. Tai quickly tried shaking those thoughts out of his head: it's not like he had any problems with Sora turning him down. Obviously, it had hurt at the time, but he was over it. Sora and Matt were happy together and had been for almost six years. It just hadn't worked out for him, and he had long since accepted that and moved on. Suddenly, Tai smiled to himself. He had needed that little reminder: he had done this before, and even though it had initially backfired, it worked out okay in the end. He didn't have to worry about this nearly as much as he had been.
Of course, being resolved to do something the night before often doesn't translate into being ready to do it when the time comes. Tai once again found himself struggling with doubt throughout his next lecture, to the point where he wasn't really paying attention at all. He didn't even notice class had been dismissed until he felt a hand being placed lightly on his shoulder. Snapping out of his daze, he suddenly found himself staring into Rei's eyes. The auburn-haired girl smiled at him before speaking.
"Earth to Tai, you okay? Usually, you stop staring into space when the bell rings instead of staying in your chair for a minute. What's on your mind?"
"Oh, sorry about that. I've just got something big coming up that's really worrying me. I actually need your help with something, and I just wasn't really sure how to ask. Would you mind swinging by my place tonight, say around six? I don't really want to talk about this in public."
"What, a nearly empty lecture hall isn't private enough for you? Did you do something illegal?"
"No, no, nothing like that. Just something personal I need some help with."
"Alright, fine, I'll do it. Though you have to promise you aren't going to be using me as a replacement for your roommate's girlfriend. I know Sora and I always joke that we look the same, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Also, since I'll be missing dinner to come over and see you, you better make something good for me to eat. Nothing from the dining hall, and especially nothing your mom made for you."
As time wound down to his arranged meeting with Rei, Tai couldn't help feeling more and more nervous. He supposed his nerves weren't helped by Sora catching him cooking, something he never usually did, and assuming he was having a date over. A guy could invite a girl over, cook a meal for her, and then talk about personal stuff without it being a date, couldn't he? Sora merely shook her head before informing Tai that she and Matt were heading out tonight and wouldn't be around. Matt didn't do a very good job of hiding a surprised look on his face; however, giving Tai the distinct impression that Sora was just doing this to mess with him. He tried asking them to stay and help him explain the whole DigiDestined thing, but all he got in response was an apology from Matt and a snide comment from Sora that he'd have to figure out his own girl problems for once.
After failing spectacularly at his cooking attempt and being ditched by his two friends, Tai had been forced to resort to plan B. He quickly went to the Digital World and picked up Agumon before returning to his apartment and whipping up his trademark omelets. They might not be fancy, but at least he could guarantee they would turn out well. He then had Agumon hide in his room as he heard a knock on his door. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door to let Rei in. As the girl wheeled into the room, she noticed the table and immediately started asking questions.
"Wait, why is the table set for three people? I know Matt lives here too, but don't he and Sora usually spend just about every meal together? Did they have a fight or something?"
"No, it's nothing like that. Matt and Sora conveniently decided to go out to get dinner tonight. There is someone else here that I want you to meet, but you have to promise not to freak out when you see him, okay?" Rei looked at Tai skeptically, but trusting her friend she nodded. Tai then called somebody in from the next room, but instead of a person walking in, what appeared to be a miniature orange tyrannosaurus came out of his room. Recognizing what this creature was, Rei immediately reacted.
"Okay Tai, whatever you and your Digimon need help with, I'm in."
"Listen, I know he looks scary, but he's really—wait, did you just say you'd help us? You're not freaking out about this?"
"Why would I? I've been helping out with your Digimon awareness group ever since we met, remember? I can't believe I never guessed you had your own Digimon before now, but it really explains why you're so involved in getting Digimon recognized. Besides, I feel like I sort of owe Digimon- you haven't met my brother, but he never had any real friends until he started playing the videogames. Now that I think of it, his first friend had a Digimon in the game that looked a bit like your Digimon- did you say his name was Agumon? Anyway, how can I help?"
With how easy convincing Rei to help had been, Tai was certain that he would be achieving his goal of recognition for the Digital World within a few weeks. From Rei's updates, she had managed to convince her father, who slowly managed to convince other members of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the importance of establishing some form of official communication with the Digital World. However, such progress reached a grinding halt when the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shinobu Akiyama, found out about the proposal. A former member of the military who had been awarded numerous medals of honor for going above and beyond the call of duty in order to save victims of disasters both natural and Digital, Akiyama was perhaps the most well-revered member of the Diet. As such, his opinion held the most sway, and Akiyama made it clear that there would never be interactions with such monsters while he was in power. Far from approving the proposal, he began suggesting the government implement stronger measures to protect the country from threatening Digimon by creating a specific task force to hunt down and eliminate any invading digital life form. While such a step had not yet been taken, laws against Digimon sprang up, leaving any DigiDestined suddenly worried about losing their partner or being arrested for harboring a fugitive.
By the time Zoe flew into the latest battle, she saw it was a much bigger invasion than usual. With Lucemon's activities destabilizing the Digital World, it wasn't uncommon for a few Digimon to accidentally stumble through a dimensional rift and end up attacking, but the Demon Lord of Pride also seemed to enjoy sending small portions of his army to Earth on occasion just to harass the DigiDestined. This seemed to be the latter case. There were too many different Digimon of Champion or higher level to be a random occurrence. And, the location just further made this seem like Lucemon was trying to be annoying- random portals tended to open in areas where there was a presence from the Digital World on the other side, so they usually occurred in places where the DigiDestined were nearby. However, Joe wasn't even in the Shinjuku District this weekend, but a virtual army of MetalTyrannomon as well as a few other Digimon had decided to come calling.
Since the attack was so far away from everybody else, Zoe wasn't even sure who was even here. She wouldn't be surprised if she was one of the first even with her leaving later than the others, because her Fusion form was incredibly fast. JetSilphymon was an appropriate name, as even with the giant pinwheel causing massive amounts of drag she could move faster than the eye could follow. She took a split second trying to decide where she should start fighting when a blast of lightning made the decision for her.
As Zoe managed to shake off the electrical attack, she saw the source was a giant green bird. Still, the Parrotmon had made a bit of a mistake by attacking her. True, she might still be one of the weaker Legendary Warriors in terms of pure destructive power, but she was still approximately equal to a Mega level. Brandishing her pinwheel, she unleashed her Ultra Turbulence attack, blowing the Ultimate level into the ground and nearly crushing it into oblivion with the air pressure. She only stopped when Parrotmon's Fractal Code started to appear, allowing her to quickly fly down and scan it. This was perhaps the biggest advantage the Legendary Warriors had over the DigiDestined: their D-Tectors allowed them to absorb data from opponents even in the real world, meaning they never had to worry about permanently killing a Digimon. The DigiDestined would use lethal force as a last resort, but in situations like this it was better to act quickly and minimize the damage.
After taking care of Parrotmon, Zoe quickly scanned the skies for more aerial foes. She was the best aerial combatant the group had, not counting Sora who was away in Kyoto, but it looked like she wouldn't need to put that into practice here. She turned her attention back to the ground, and started flying through the town hoping to contain the damage.
As Zoe was flying into more battles, a couple other Legendary Warriors were in the middle of their own fights. JP and Tommy had luckily been in Shinjuku when the attack started, and had done their best to thin the numbers. They had split up after Fusion Evolving, but Tommy wished he had gone the way JP had after he ended up with his current opponents. On paper, they shouldn't have been too difficult: Kinkakumon and Ginkakumon were both only Champion levels, but Ginkakumon was a silver-armored colossus who had fire attacks while Kinkakumon was much smaller, but made up for it with lightning attacks and a giant spiked club. Neither of which were the best matchups for Daipenmon, the Fusion Warrior of Ice. Tommy wasn't particularly happy with turning into a giant fluffy penguin who used popsicles for swords- it probably would have been better if he unlocked this form back when he was eight instead of fifteen- but at least he was the go-to fighter whenever little children were in danger. Unfortunately, his relatively cute and non-threatening appearance backfired in this situation.
Kinkakumon seemed to be smitten with the Legendary Warrior of Ice, but she had a- well, Tommy supposed the polite term would be enthusiastic- way of showing it. As in, she reacted by violently attacking him with her club. Tommy was glad he could easily reform his blue Kakikaki-kun and red Kochikochi-kun swords, as she had already smashed two of each to pieces. And that was before her 'little' brother got involved. Apparently, Ginkakumon was fiercely overprotective of his 'big' sister, and between his Kiendan fireballs and Ginkaku Tokkan rushes Tommy had lost count of the times he had to remake his swords. At least his Strawberry Death and Blue Hawaii Death were strong enough to repel incoming attacks, but he wasn't making a lot of progress in terms of doing damage. He was reaching his wit's end when he heard a sound similar to a jet, but at a much lower altitude. Knowing the likely cause of this, he shouted out, "ZOE!"
Hearing her name, Zoe turned back to the source to see Tommy fighting two opponents. A quick scan of the two Oni Digimon showed them to only be Champion levels, leaving her to wonder why Tommy, who had about as much power as she did, was struggling. However, looking closer at Kinkakumon, Zoe got an idea of what could be the reason. The smaller of the two Oni Digimon looked like the kind of videogame character a fifteen year old boy would design- only wearing armor above the shoulders and below her elbows and knees, an impossibly well-developed figure, and no other clothing except for a cape and fur underwear that looked like it came straight from a lingerie store. So, of course this would be the Digimon that got in a fight with the resident fifteen year old boy. Still, now wasn't exactly the best time to let hormones cloud his judgment.
Landing next to her friend, Zoe got straight to the point. "Tommy, you need to stop holding back so much. You should have no problem taking down two Champion levels. Just ignore her appearance and hit her!"
Zoe almost had to laugh at the blush that came to Tommy's face. Daipenmon may have looked cuddly before, but when he was blushing he was downright adorable. Not that Zoe would ever say that out loud, because she knew Tommy was embarrassed about his Fusion form as it was. Still, Tommy seemed to get her accusation, immediately stuttering out some excuses.
"Why would you think this has anything to do with that? These two are a lot tougher than their level suggests. Besides, I seem to remember a Rookie level punching us into a moon hard enough to destroy another moon. Level doesn't mean anything. Besides, she's a Digimon! Why would I get all flustered by her appearance?"
"Uh, because you're a teenage boy and she's rocking some serious assets? Nothing to be ashamed of- puberty happens to everybody. Besides, we're all practically half Digimon anyway thanks to our bond with the Spirits. Something like this was bound to happen eventually- and if we had been any older our first time in the Digital World, I'm sure everybody would have been drooling over me when I became Kazemon. She's hot, so you're attracted to her. Perfectly natural, especially at your age. Though, we do have the misfortune of fighting a war right now, so you might want to put a lid on those hormones until the battle is over."
Tommy wasn't sure how to respond to that, but the battle gave him a perfect excuse not to answer. When Zoe had landed, Kinkakumon seemed to go into a state of shock, only staring at the new Digimon that seemed to be moving in on her next true love to steal her territory. Ginkakumon, who was incredibly strong and had a great heart but not too much to brag about in terms of brains, could only try to puzzle out what the sudden appearance of a fairy meant. Still, this state of confusion only lasted until Zoe finished her talk when Kinkakumon smashed her club in the ground, shattering the street like it was made of porcelain.
"You whore! How dare you come in and steal my boyfriend! Any you! Did you purposely lead me and tell me you loved me when you had this tramp on the side the whole time! I HATE YOU! Brother, we have to crush them!"
Kinkakumon started emitting an electrical current that could rival Beetlemon's output, while Zoe could only glance towards Tommy, who immediately starting defending himself. "Don't listen to her- she's completely psychotic! Apparently, her way of saying 'I love you' is hitting you with her club. So, when I attacked back, she took it the wrong way!"
Zoe couldn't help letting out a small laugh. "Well, since you hitting someone involves giving them free ice cream, is she really taking it the wrong way?" Tommy's resultant glare would have immediately caused her to shut up, if it weren't for the fact that Daipenmon couldn't pull off an intimidating look. Still, she knew better than to keep pushing her friend's buttons, so she turned back towards her opponents. Unfortunately, she and Tommy had already wasted too much time, as they only had time to see Kinkakumon riding inside a strangely pleased looking Ginkakumon before they were bowled over by an electrified tackle.
Zoe managed to pull herself out of the nearest house with some measure of dignity, which she almost promptly lost by laughing at the sight of Daipenmon using his two swords like wings to fly out of a pile of rubble. She supposed being caught off guard was her punishment for laughing at her friend, but since this was her first time fighting alongside Daipenmon in person she wasn't quite prepared for the sights she had witnessed. Still, if she wanted to tell Tommy to get over appearances, she would have to take her own advice. Flying to Daipenmon's side, she quickly outlined a plan.
"Alright, I think I've got a way out of this. Do you have any ranged attacks? We could hit them with a combination of our own. Sure, I usually do that with Takuya, but Wind can drive Ice just as well as it can drive Flame. If we can't take them out with a blizzard, I do have a plan B, but you probably aren't going to like that so let's make sure plan A works out."
"I have one ranged attack, but I'm sure whatever your plan B is would be better than the alternative." The sudden arrival of Ginkakumon cut short any further conversation. Daipenmon quickly launched his Kakikaki-kun Blast attack, breaking apart his blue sword and shooting the chunks at Ginkakumon. JetSilphymon added her Jet Winter attack, blasting cold air from each of her arms. The two attacks combined to create a blizzard of Blue Hawaii flavored ice cream that completely encased Ginkakumon and froze him solid.
Tommy and Zoe both let out sighs of relief, only for a crackle of electricity to start destroying Ginkakumon's tomb. The Silver Oni Brother may have been frozen solid, but that didn't extend to his big sister. She was using her Doki Doki Dokyun attack to start breaking her brother out of his prison. Unfortunately, she was also protected from retaliation by both her brother's armor and the icy prison, so there wasn't anything Zoe and Tommy could do to stop her. Well, nothing obvious, but Zoe thought her plan B might have some merit now. Flying directly in front of Kinkakumon, she landed and undid her Spirit Evolution, facing the Oni Digimon as a human. As Zoe expected, this was surprising enough to stop Kinkakumon in the middle of her attack. Using the opening, Zoe went into her plan B: trying to reason with the Oni Digimon. On the off chance that she wasn't directly working for Lucemon and was just randomly here, it might get them out of the situation without having to fight any further.
"Hey, Kinkakumon, is it? My name is Zoe, but you might know me as the Legendary Warrior of Wind. I've bonded with the spirit of AncientKazemon, which allows me to Spirit Evolve- which is why I was JetSilphymon earlier. That Daipenmon back there is just like me- he's actually my friend Tommy, who inherited the spirit of AncientMegatheriummon. So, just like me, he's actually a human who takes on Digimon form."
Zoe had intended this speech as an easy way to let Kinkakumon down easily from her attraction to Daipenmon, but that didn't seem to get through to the love-crazed Digimon. "What, so he doesn't like me because I'm not a human? Well, fine! If the Legendary Warriors can merge with humans, than so can I! If we can use Bacchusmon's gift to turn Digimon into alcohol, then I'll just deconstruct a human and merge with them like I do with my brother!"
Zoe gulped, but quickly came to a decision. If she had to choose between giving false hope to someone who would quickly become her friend's obsessive, alcoholic stalker with a brother complex or releasing said terror onto the rest of the world, at least Tommy could handle himself better. "That's not what I meant at all! All I meant was, humans have a bit of a different way of showing affection. I'm not sure how it is for most Digimon, but most humans don't like it when someone attacks them or constantly forces their presence on them. And Tommy's a bit younger than I am, so he's new to the whole romance thing. If you just give him some space for a while and try being his friend, you might just have a shot with him."
Zoe winced as she heard an undignified squawk and crash from behind her that sounded suspiciously like Daipenmon doing a faceplant, but Kinkakumon's angry glare was replaced by an equally disturbing smile. "Really? I would have never guessed. You mean you and him aren't an item?" Zoe let out a nervous chuckle, careful not to push any wrong buttons. "No, not at all. He's great, but I decided a long time ago not to date within the Legendary Warriors anymore. Not that it ever went badly, but it was too much like dating a family member." Zoe winced at bringing that up, especially with Kinkakumon's close relationship to her brother, but the Oni Digimon didn't seem to notice.
"Alright, brother, let's get out of here. I've got something much better to do than just going on a joyride here. That cowboy can take care of his own mission." When Ginkakumon didn't respond on account of still being frozen, Kinkakumon sighed. "Fine, I'll just do it myself. Raikou Kishou!" Charging her foot with electricity, she unleashed a powerful kick that blew right through the cockpit in Ginkakumon's abdomen as well as the ice covering her little brother. The sudden pain seemed to awaken a primal strength within the Silver Oni, as he managed to easily shatter his icy prison, though all he managed to do afterwards was curl into a ball and whimper pitifully.
Kinkakumon didn't seem to feel any sympathy at her brother's plight, as she started scolding him while she started unstrapping the red gourd he carried on his back. "Oh, man up and walk it off. We're heading back home." Turning to Zoe, she took on a much calmer tone. "Would going back to the Digital World be enough distance for now? The Beni Hisago that Bacchusmon gave us is supposed to turn things to alcohol, but its connection to an alternate dimension allows us to use it to head home."
Hoping to just get this whole scenario over with, Zoe only nodded. Thankfully, the two Oni Digimon must have done whatever they needed to activate the gourd, quickly being sucked within the guard which then winked out of existence. Zoe let out a sigh of relief, only for a giant blue popsicle to suddenly obstruct her field of vision. Knowing the cause, she turned to look into Daipenmon's face which bore an oddly calm expression.
"Not that I'm not thankful for getting rid of them, but I feel like I owe you. Sounds like you set me up with a stalker, so I may as well return the favor. I'm sure the Toucanmon would be happy to—" Tommy never got to finish his threat, as two MetalTyrannomon went flying through the houses on their street. The cause of this was immediately apparent, as RhinoKabuterimon was standing through the gap with his horn glowing. JP must have used his Ultimate Thunder attack to send them flying, but unfortunately Zoe and Tommy were now in a position to be caught in the crossfire, and Zoe didn't even have the time to Spirit Evolve again judging by the still-charging Nuclear Laser attacks on their left arms.
Luckily for Zoe, Tommy and JP were still Spirit Evolved and reacted quickly. Without anything distracting him, Tommy could use his full power, and his Storm Hammer Breaker crushed one of the attacking Digimon. At the same time, JP used his Condenser Storm attack to release all of the power of the Legendary Warrior of Thunder in a lightning storm that blasted the second MetalTyrannomon to pieces. Letting out a sigh of relief, Zoe quickly Fusion Evolved again and the three Legendary Warriors split up to maximize their coverage of the city.
Author's Note: Well, there we have the first chapter of this story. I know last time I didn't do such a great job of getting into the action and ended up taking a whole chapter just to set things up, so I hope this is better. Unfortunately, I have some bad news. I know I updated the last story really quickly (around 4 or 5 chapters a day), but this one will have to go a bit slower. The reason is my beta reader hasn't gotten back to me yet, so I'm the only one who has looked the story over at this point. So, I'm hoping the slower updates will give her time to get back to me and let me make any needed changes to the main action before I post them. Still, I promised to upload by New Year's, so I had to start now.
Since this hasn't had anyone else look over it yet, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. So, feel free to leave a review or send me a PM with any comments, criticisms, or questions! Obviously this is only the first chapter so we haven't gotten too deep into the plot yet, but there are some things revealed here that will be important for this story and the next, which concludes the trilogy. Thanks for reading!