Here's the Digimon fic that has been plaguing my mind since 9th grade. It's changed a lot since then, but I hope it's for the best. I have a previous draft of the first chapter on my lj, but I'm hoping both the plot and the writing style has improved since then.

This fic was inspired by a friend who introduced me to ToMaTo (and indeed, coined the term). This fic will be pairing, but it could even be read as purely friendship. The focus isn't on their relationship. Another reason is because I have also never written outright romance, but I'll let the characters decide as time goes on.

This fic will be part of a long series, if I get that far. In essence, this world is AU from all the seasons, but it will use characters from the first 5 seasons of the anime. Aside from not never having watched it in full, Xros Wars completely destroys previous world canons, so I will not be considering it or its canon in this story. The references to the different seasons, though, will appear over the series. This fic will focus on characters from season 5 and 1, with a single exception.

I think one of the greatest challenges of writing a complete AU that has extensive plot is the danger of going too far: changing things too far from the original, drifting off from your original idea so you have a never-ending tale, losing track of your storyline, etc. This is what I intend to practice here.

I love the original Digimon mythos, so I'll be working with that. The world will work in a mixture of the anime, games, original V-Pet material, and cards. I intend for this fic to have the same feel as Digimon, so I will be working with references whenever I can.

Because I have not seen the dub or read any subs for any of Digimon, my language and terminology used may be different from what you're used to. I will also not include any Japanese honorifics in this fic.

Note: This is a rewrite of the fic that I had posted in Sept. 2011. Those three chapters have always been placeholders for a "final draft," which I am hoping this is.

Code: 100

In the Dark Void After an Endless Dream

The wind was strong. His hair kept whipping back and forth over his face, and the mantle he was using as a cover continued to flap behind him, not providing any shield at all. Sometimes, he would have to squint just to see. Sometimes, the vague notion of goggles formed in his mind, but the thought was whimsical, and slippery like an eel to boot. It continually slipped from his grasp. He didn't know where the idea came from, and it bewildered him, and so he resolved to stop thinking about such stupid things altogether. It didn't help his situation, it didn't change what had happened, and it certainly wouldn't bring anyone back.

He continued to squint.

It never occurred to him to find shelter, to somehow avoid the gusts that threatened to sweep him off his feet and into the embrace of death. He just stood there on that cliff, day after day, looking off into the horizon as though it were a lost lover.

His notion of time had never been accurate before, and now the days fused with the nights and melded into weeks, months, years. He rarely left his vigil to nourish himself – the fact that it was very hard to die of starvation was one of the perks of a world made of data, 0s and 1s – and when he did, he always returned immediately.

Sometimes, he sensed others beside him. They approached him while he was there. Some were like him, pale-skinned and bipedal, and others weren't, but he never paid attention to them and so the exact details were lost in the hazy fog that was his mind nowadays. They may have talked to him, or they may have not. He wasn't sure. He didn't care.

It was hard to keep track of any thought for too long. His mind chased itself around in circles when he tried, and it always returned to the gaping hole inside him that he refused to acknowledge out loud, picking at the hurt like a scab.

So he shut his mind down, turned on autopilot, and just waited.

And waited.

Until one day, he startled awake to a pain he had only experienced once before. He placed his hand over his chest in wonder.

It was an ache, a gnawing on the tattered edges that surrounded the emptiness in him.

And instinctively, he knew what had caused it.

His partner was calling to him, needed him. Needed him to make the pain go away, trusted him with all his soul because that was what partners did and they were two parts of a whole and he just knew.

It had been so long since he'd last felt it, but there was no doubt in his mind. This was him. His other wasn't gone. He could fix things, make things better and bind it together with super glue and duct tape so that it never fell apart again.

He would do whatever it took.

One foot before the other, and for the first time in many years, the watcher left his post.