(groans) "ok note to self, never try and run at a portal it give you an uncontrolled exit later"
"um who are you?"
"that's my question"
"the name's John"
"John…than that means this place is…how long boss?"
"um what?"
"how long?"
"I'm sorry miss I don't understand the question"
"how long have I been gone?"
"look I don't know who you are but if you don't leave now I'm calling security to escort you out of the building"
"boss look at me, just look at me and think about who I look like"
he takes a good look and then gasps in surprise
"Mary…is that you?"
"yeah boss, it's me, I'm home"
the others are shocked and John butts into the conversation
"you can't be Mary because Mary's been dead for almost five years now"
"five years…I've been gone five years?"
"yes, six months after you disappeared your digivice showed up in my office and glowed green and then broke in half, six months later the war against the newest threat to the digital world went public in the real world and I had to explain why I didn't give up on you being alive until six months after your disappearance"
"so they've been at war with the newest enemy for five years and no one's helped them deal with it?"
"well the older generations of digidestined do what they can but for one thing it's not a lot that they can do and for another the younger generation seems to have in mind that having help from the older generation means a sign of weakness"
"stupid, egotistical, inexperienced idiots! I've told them tons of times before my disappearance that if something major happens they're going to need all the help they can get"
"looks like they never listened to you"
"and in all reality they should've because even though I wasn't with them while they were learning and training in the digital world I so had seniority over them with me being the permanent digidestined"
"look let's just say that things are bad right now and get over it"
"right"
and with that things got back to normal or well as normal as life could be with the entire world at war with a super powerful evil digimon
"so how are the kids today?"
(groans) "they aren't listening to us it's as if they're in a trance that they've been stuck in for five years, ever since they heard about your disappearance and then your death Mary"
"don't tell me let me guess the trance includes but is not limited to evil digimon, people in danger from digimon and any and all references that remind them of me"
"exactly"
"perfect, well is Wizardmon at least there to help them out?"
"yes he's at almost every battle and if he's not at the battle it's because he's either healing from severe injuries from another battle or helping evacuation of the area that the battle is taking place in"
"well that's good to hear"
well suddenly they hear an explosion and see a digimon attacking the city
"great another attack"
"this isn't going to end well because I followed the new kids and their digimon are pretty sure that they saw an illusion in the internet so they still think me dead"
"it'll be hard to convince them otherwise"
"true but maybe Wizardmon can help me convince them I'm alive"
"if we can find him"
"what is that supposed to mean?"
"um remember the internet incident when you came home?"
"yes"
"and remember how Wizardmon wasn't there even though you know he's alive?"
"what about it?"
"um he went missing two days before that incident"
"he's missing, he's missing!?"
"yes he's missing"
"he's missing and you choose now to tell me?"
"sorry but things have been so crazy with your return and actually getting work done that we never thought about telling you"
"you'd better hope that things end well today because I essentially can't go back into battle until it's been confirmed by the kids that I'm alive, the older digidestined should be able to help even if the kids don't want any but not me"
well suddenly the boss came out of his office holding a hat and a note which Mary reads out loud
"Mary it's good to see that you're actually alive, I'm dealing with some complex issues in the digital world right now so I can't help with the battles but I sent my hat to let the kids know that I'm still alive"
with the note having been read everyone actually relaxed a bit because they knew that they'd see Wizardmon would be seen again soon. Three days later the screen in front of Mary glowed so she got out of the way and Wizardmon showed up
"hey Wizardmon it's been a while"
"it certainly has Mary"
"listen I can't join the battle until you help convince the kids that I'm alive because even their digimon believed they saw an illusion when we fought in the internet"
"it should be easy because they listen to me whenever we fight…most of the time"
"that doesn't instill a whole lot of confidence Wizardmon"
"sorry but it's the truth they think that since they've been fighting a war for five years they know everything they need to know to fight"
"I'm about to show them that they still have a lot to learn, but it won't go well if they still think I'm dead"
"well you have been gone for five years"
"I know that Wizardmon but I'm back now and I'm ready to fight with more than just the computer due to strong viruses on computers that need to be stopped"
"we have to wait until the next battle but I promise I'll do my best to convince them that it's really you"
"thanks Wizardmon"
a few days later there was yet another battle but this time it was worse than before because it was where Mary used to work at least according to the kids it's where Mary used to work as for Mary herself she had been fighting both normal and digital viruses all day when suddenly the virus attacks stopped and she looked out the window to see an evil digimon
"great this is so not my day"
"get over it and get to work Mary we have a building to save"
"true it's probably because of all the damage we've been doing lately"
"yeah if another digital virus comes up we'll be able to handle it you just take care of the big guy out there"
"is Wizardmon at the battle?"
"no Mary I'm right here waiting for you"
she looks at her exit door for the roof and sees him
"why aren't you at battle?"
"because I had other concerns and then this came up"
"fine let's just go"
and so she goes to the roof and calls out Pakelamon and then PatAngmon and starts to fight meanwhile the kids that had missed her for five years were having a hard time dealing with her digimon suddenly appearing again
"great it's the illusion again"
"just ignore it and fight the new Devimon"
"right"
suddenly they hear a familiar and welcomed voice
"magical game"
"Wizardmon you're here good ignore the illusion and then if it's still there send it away from our memories"
"I…can't do that…guys because…it's not…an illusion…Mary is…really back…and she's…fighting"
when they hear that everyone on the side of good goes into shock and then fights back with even more energy knowing that they had an old friend back in the fight. Three hours later the battle ended and every digidestined involved in the fight was back together again
"why didn't you come back to us sooner Mary?"
"I'm sorry Josh but I was taken captive by our enemy and put in the space between the digital world and the real world until I made my way to the internet and then I stayed there until I was able to return home with the help of Gennai"
"it's good to have you back"
"it's good to be back even with the blasted war we're in, however there's something I'm not too pleased about"
"what is it?"
"what was my job talking about when they told me you don't accept any help and even with Wizardmon it's reluctant and you don't listen to him very well?"
"look you've been gone for five years so I'll forgive you for that statement but what's going on is that we've been fighting the enemy publicly for five years and even a little bit before that as well, so we know how to fight the enemy a lot better than people think we do and we don't need any help from anybody even you even if you are the permanent digidestined"
and with that the group leaves them having clearly declared themselves solo and not willing to work with anyone
"I'm at an end Mary I keep trying to get them to work as a team like they used too but I can't"
"Wizardmon when exactly did they all start acting like this?"
"three days after you mysteriously disappeared, they said that they were going to find you even if it took them their entire lives"
"Wizardmon, have you ever noticed if they've been under a spell this entire time?"
"what makes you think there's a spell?"
"the reports I've gotten are that they've been in a trance since my disappearance and from what I've gathered it only got worse once they heard of my death"
"I never detected a spell whenever I was with them all these years"
"I understand that but could the spell either be powerful enough, subtle enough or placed in a place that you never expected making it impossible for you to detect?"
"you know you may be right Mary, let's check them again"
and so Mary somehow managed to convince them to meet up with her and then all seven were quickly knocked out by Wizardmon and he actually manages to detect the spell
"you were right Mary they did have a spell on them and it's a combination of the fact that it happened in the digital world, being subtle, and also it's affecting an area of the brain that shouldn't be affected"
"get the spell out of them Wizardmon I want the old kids back"
"with pleasure"
and so he easily takes care of the spell and the kids all wake up very confused and are shocked to see Mary alive
"Mary…but how?"
"I'll tell you later but for now what's the last thing you remember?"
"we were fighting Devimon, a servant of Myotismon when something hit us one by one the next thing I know we're hear"
"wait Josh I vaguely remember the fact that we kept fighting the enemy all these years and that school was closed because of the fights"
"ok why did you guys go to the digital world in the first place when you lost most of your memories?"
"to look for you"
"you never would've found me I was between the two worlds somehow and it took five years for me to be freed by Genai"
"wait there's something else I remember after that fight we started to distance ourselves from everyone except Wizardmon and then six months later when we heard of your apparent death we distanced ourselves even more and lately we've been very argumentative about the fact that we can take care of ourselves having been in the war for five years"
"all of that is true but for now just relax and try not to force yourselves to remember anything you would only do more harm than good"
and so over the next several days they dealt with the war still continuing and also returning back to normal with letting people help them out when it was needed everyone was glad that they were back. Three years after Mary returned and eight years after the war began it finally ended but at a price, Mary was killed in the final battle against Myotismon due to the fact that she prevented Wizardmon from taking a hit and she was buried on earth with honors but she was also honored in the digital world. There never again was a permanent digidestined but it seemed that at times the previous generation or some of the previous generation helped the new generation unless digidestined weren't needed then they were basically forgotten about except in stories and legends until the stories became true again and new digidestined were needed to protect both the digital world and the real world. During all those years though one job never changed, it always fought normal easy to handle computer viruses, but whenever it was needed, whenever evil rose up again they took on a completely new job, they fought virus digimon to keep them from damaging the real world as badly as they good, all because of one person Mary the only permanent digidestined