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Chapter 1 – The Mysterious Visitors: Wait, I know you!

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Two figures huddled together as they moved through a stark, barren wasteland. Their hoods hid their features from view, as they should have, with the wind blowing a torrent of sand straight into them as they slowly walked forward.

"This must be it," the shorter one stated as they came towards a rocky, deserted cave. In several places, there seemed to be parts of the wall torn away, showing not more rock, but gaping holes staring into nothing but an ambiguous greenish grid. The two tossed their hoods back behind their heads to rest on their necks to fully view what was at the end of the short cave. "It's huge!" the taller man exclaimed in awe.

They were staring at a large mass made up of transparent white and black squares not unlike the other imperfections of the cave, surrounding what looked like a miniature version of a black hole, like a model that would be seen in a science museum. "Is it a… portal? This must be the source… the link we've been looking for," the man continued before turning back towards his comrade. "We won't know what's through there, but it's our only shot to fix this huge mess… are you ready?"

"I never thought I'd have to use this power again… but if it worked once…" he trailed off momentarily as he picked out a small device that easily fit into his palm. "…I'll be ready for it again." He thrust his hand out toward the pixilated hole, the held object glowing a distinct violet along with a spot on his neck, almost hidden by the folds of his hood.

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"So, Takato, anything interesting going on?" Jeri Katou asked the boy beside her as they walked through the park that they'd been walking through since before they could remember. "Well, not really. Sales at the bakery are starting to mellow down, which I'm perfectly fine with right now. It was a madhouse for a really long time," the boy, Takato Matsuki, responded in a genuinely friendly tone. Jeri giggled, moving her eyes away from him toward the setting sun, which was still shining directly in their path. "What about Henry or Rika? Have you heard from them recently?" Takato merely shrugged.

"No, I haven't seen them in the past couple of days. They're probably just busy with their own lives, you know them. Why do you ask?" Jeri flinched at the question, but didn't stop walking. Letting out a long sigh, the smile left the normally-happy-go-lucky girl's face, forcing the same from Takato. She fiddled with her fingers as she spoke. "Well… it's just that… it's almost been a year since… since our partners left, and… well, I… no, it's too silly, forget it," she hastily finished, quickening her pace and blushing furiously. The goggle-head also sped up, reaching forward and grabbing the girl's hand.

"Jeri… come on, it's me here, you can tell me. I won't laugh," he attempted to keep the conversation more light-hearted, but saw it was futile, as he noticed that she was avoiding eye contact with him. "You want us to get together to go and honor them at that field, right? To honor Leomon?" The last several words brought back Jeri's attention, but, still feeling somewhat ashamed, she inadvertently stared at, or rather, through, Takato's feet. "I know they're all right, and everything, but… it still feels like they're gone, you know? Especially him…" Takato then returned with sigh of his own, but one of relief.

"That's not silly at all, Jeri. They may not be gone for good, well, not ALL of them, but… either way, we lost some really great friends that day… I'm sure the others have thought about it, too. I'm sure they'd want to do that too," he explained, successful in cheering his friend up, or so he gathered from the tight hug he received from her, which he gladly returned. "Ooh, thank you, Takatoooo! You're so nice!" she exclaimed in a mocking-childish tone into his shoulder before letting go.

At that point, Takato felt something vibrate in the pocket of his jeans. 'That's… not my cell phone…' he thought to himself, startled. "Oh, a-are you okay by yourself from here, Jeri? I just realized that I have something I need to do," he said, trying not to sound like he was avoiding her needlessly. She nodded, showing him that smile that he had grown to love. "I'll be fine," she shouted to him as he started to jog away. "See you tomorrow!" she waved until he turned the corner, Takato waving back.

'Could it be?' he questioned himself, fishing through his deep pockets to take out his D-Arc, which was indeed the object that was vibrating in a cell phone-like manner. In its months of sitting idle, Takato had nearly forgotten about it, so much so that it almost felt like something foreign to his hands. He hit the arrow buttons until he came across the 'compass' function he used several times before. Its dials were flailing around wildly as he ran along the park's pathway, almost unconsciously running toward Guilmon's old hiding spot. 'Whoa, the thing's going haywire! Where's it pointing to?' On and on he went, still not thinking as to where he was going. The closer he got to the hideout, the less erratic the needle became. In a matter of minutes, he arrived at it, stopping for a second, noting the needle's behavior. Though it was still flailing around quite a lot, it pointed mostly in one direction: the portal he discovered shortly after the Digimon left.

'What's it telling me? Is someone coming through? Is…'

He walked slowly into the hole that Guilmon dug, which had grown slightly wider with the passage of time. There it was, the key to the promise he made to his partner those many months ago. Takato noticed the particles surrounding it were moving around more quickly than usual. 'There IS something coming through! But who?' he thought before yelling out the first person, or rather, creature, that came to his mind.

"Guilmon!"

As if on cue, the portal flashed a brilliant light, startling and blinding the boy, who didn't have his goggles to shield him from it. In doing so, he dropped his D-Arc while he fell backwards, catching himself with his hands on the hard rock floor. As quickly as the light billowed out of the pixilated mass, it dissipated, but Takato wasn't quite able to adjust his eyes yet. All he could hear was voices from the direction of the wormhole, voices he certainly didn't recognize. At least, not at first.

"Well… this doesn't look too bad. It looks a lot like YOUR earth."

"You're right… ah, wait! Someone's there! What should we do?!"

"Calm down… look closer."

'What are they talking about… who are they?' Takato frantically flashed grousome scenarios through his head as he put his arms in front of his face, as if to surrender.

"Ah! Is that a… digivice?! There are digidestined here too?"

"My senses tell me that he means us no harm… he is an ally."

Takato's eyes then shot open. 'I know that voice! But… that's not possible!' He looked up and gasped in pure awe at just who was looking down on him. His straight, navy-blue hair, his sincere facial features, and the simple designs of his shirt that he could see under the cloak he and his companion were wearing were all too familiar to him. He glanced over at the other man, who he didn't recognize. He was somewhat older than either of them, perhaps by about 4 years or so. His short and somewhat spiky brown hair also gave off an air of familiarity, but not nearly in the same way as the other cloaked invader. "W-w-who are you?" he stammered as he shuffled back to the wall of the pen, clutching the D-Arc.

"Please, calm down, mister… er…" The younger visitor trailed off, expecting a response while throwing his hands out to his side to show the sincerity of his actions. Takato swallowed hard, gaining back some of his courage. "Your name first. How can you be here? You're not real!"

"Me? Not real? Uh…" taken aback, he reluctantly took a step backward and looked at his companion, who nodded to signal his approval. 'That's right; this place is different, but still connected to our world. It's all right.' The stranger thought as he closed his eyes and let his arms hang loose, as though he were in a standing meditative state. Wind fluttering from outside blew his hair slightly, almost creating a sort of aura around him while he stood there. In a matter of seconds, the middle of his chest began to glow with a soft pinkish hue. The light gradually took form of a small symbol, a sphere surrounded by two crescent-moon-shaped pieces, like the petals of a flower supporting its nectar-filled cavity. This erased what little doubt remained in Takato's mind as the visitor opened his eyes again.

"That's the… the crest of… but how?! You're… you're REALLY…"

"Yes, Ken Ichijouji," he stated with confidence, allowing the Crest of Kindness on his heart to fade back whence it came. "And you are…?" The younger boy felt a little faint while he slowly picked himself up, still stunned by what he was saw. "M-me? I'm T-Takato Matsuki. This is so weird, I'm talking to an ANIME character over here!" he blurted out, flabbergasted as he attempted to shake the boy's hand without startling him at how much it was shaking. "A-anime?!" Ken asked rhetorically, now just as shocked. "Then again," the tamer chuckled, "Not much of anything should surprise me anymore, not after what my friends and I have been through."

"Enough formalities for the moment," the older visitor spoke, breaking up the lighthearted moment. "Forgive me for the apparent shock, but I need to ask you some questions."

"Uh, ok," the boy answered quickly, still keeping his D-Arc clutched tightly in his palm. "First, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Regan Astrasz. As you might have guessed, neither I nor Ken are residents of your world, rather a parallel version of it. Though now, I suppose those lines run close enough that you could actually, in some way, SEE the other world… but I digress. That device in your hand. Is that a digivice?"

"Yes," he immediately answered, holding it out for him to see. "We call them D-Arc's."

"We? There are more of you? Does this mean you're all Digidestined?"

"Well… yes and no. We sorta USED to be something we called 'Digimon Tamers,' though I guess it was basically the same thing… but after a really big battle, they…" Takato's now-balled fists quivered. "They had to go back to the Digital World on their own. Well… OUR Digital World. They just need rest is all."

"Another Digiworld?!" A small, wavery voice whispered out from what seemed to be under Regan's cloak. "That may be part of the solution to our problem!" Ken laughed, turning back toward Regan. "I think you can let him out now, Regan. It's probably stuffy in that thing."

Regan pushed part of his cloak aside, revealing the hilt of a sword. "All right, then, it seems safe enough," he said, flicking his thumb onto the hilt twice, and immediately, a white sphere popped out of the sword and fell onto the ground. The sphere took shape, and in a span of three seconds, in its place was a small green, slug-like worm. "There, is that better, Wormmon?" Ken asked, picking him up. "Much better, yes."

'Wormmon, too?!' Takato's thoughts raced. 'This is just nuts!!'

"Do you possibly know of a place where we could talk in private more comfortably?" Wormmon politely asked. "I like fertile soil as much as the next Wormmon, but it looks a little cramped in here." Hearing the Digimon speak again snapped Takato out of his daze. "Huh? Oh, yes. My house should do fine, my parents shouldn't be back for a little while." Regan started walking out of the tunnel. "All right. Let's go, then."

'We may be able to talk more comfortably, but… this is still going to be really weird…'

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"So, after that battle, they just started to fade away?" Ken asked, now in his usual springtime attire, his cloak, along with his and Regan's supplies they had brought with them, discarded in Takato's room.

"Right. They were just running out of energy. They spent a little too much time in the human world, connected with other humans. That's what I like to think, at least." Takato explained. The trio didn't talk that much on the way back and he didn't explain much of his battles beyond his first, original fights, before the D-Reaper, before they even traveled to the Digital World. Ken crossed his arms in thought. "Hmm… that sounds good on paper, but in my experience, no amount of time in the human world should have THAT sort of effect on any Digimon. Regan, do you think this might be because of…?" The older teen nodded slowly. "Yes, I'm sure of it."

The lone goggle-head of the group leaned toward Regan, his curiosity peaked. "What, what's going on?" he inquired almost frantically. Wormmon slithered closer to him in response. "I can tell him, Regan. You see, a little over a year ago, several months after our Digiworld was restored, we started noticing some odd behavior from the Destiny Stones that BlackWarGreymon had destroyed. The guardians of the Digiworld were working as best they could to repair them, but there was one in particular that they couldn't touch. The more they tried to fix it, the more it crumbled. Its energy had somehow been changed, altered by some other being that the guardians had never seen before. It simply wasn't of either world." Regan than chimed in to continue the tale. "I trust you're familiar with the purpose the Destiny Stones were forged?" Takato scratched his head, trying to remember that particular arc of the animated series. 'Come on, come on, I know this…' he thought to himself before shortly opening his eyes as he came to his realization.

"OH, right! They held the bond between every other world together, right? So you're thinking something's trying to break through from another world altogether?" Again Regan nodded. "Exactly; The Guardians know all there is to know of the fundamental pieces that make up their world. Over time, the damage has grown worse, and recently, creating portals to these different worlds, one of which being mine and another, which had stronger traces of that unknown energy…"

"…Mine?" He asked rhetorically, already knowing the answer. "Well… what should we do?" Almost as if on cue, the doorbell rang. 'Oh, crud. What should I do about them?!' He thought frantically, getting up and making his way toward the front door without taking his eyes off his guests. "Um… just wait here, I'll make sure it's OK!" he exclaimed before turning around again. Finally, he came to the door, hesitant to turn its handle. 'Please don't be mom, please don't be mom, please don't be mom…' his mind raced while he turned the knob and pushed the frame aside.

"Man, Takato, what's up? You look like you've seen a ghost," a familiar voice said. Takato sighed in great relief and somewhat in frustration as he looked upon the unmistakable visage of his good friend Henry, the tamer who introduced him to taming himself. "Oh, Henry, thank god. Just the guy I wanted to see," he stated, dragging the blue-haired boy inside, quickly looking to see that no one else was coming down the alleyway. "Whoa, hey, seriously, is something going on?" he asked, this time much more seriously, but still keeping his cool. "I'm not sure if even YOU are gonna believe this, Henry…"

This forced a laugh out of him. "Come on, Takato, you know me better than that."

Again Takato sighed, taking heed in his friend's words like the many times he had done before. "All right," he said, before turning his head toward the door to the dining room to yell "It's OK, guys! He's a friend of mine; one that can help!" Immediately, Henry quirked an eyebrow, now more curious than before. "Who are you talking too? A relative you need help telling about… home… work?" he trailed off as Ken, Wormmon, and Regan walked into view, the former waving shyly. "Heh heh… hello."

"You're right… I DON'T believe it…"

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After both Takato and Regan explaining their situation and how the two came to meet, Henry thought for a moment before coming to a conclusion as to how to start this new operation.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea as to what would be attacking your world or any other. However, we've probably beaten worse things than whatever this guy is."

He paused, allowing the others to take in the information. Wormmon tilted his head slightly. "So what do you think we should do? You know your Digiworld better than we do." The boy folded his hands and closed his eyes, speaking somewhat in a manner of giving a lesson in a lecture hall. "There's really only one way TO do it. We need to go there, assess the situation, and if possible, destroy the source of the disturbance," he explained calmly before standing up.

"And we're going to need everyone to come with us. First things first, we need to find our partners. And to do that, we're going to need a few of my dad's friends, too…"

Ken chimed in with "Why is that?" Henry chuckled nervously.

"Let's just say that our Digital World isn't the easiest place to travel through…"