(NOTE: The characters in this story are from the CD-ROM series "MYST." Like most of these chapters, this one is skippable. However, even if you know absolutely nothing about this series, I still encourage you to read on, as I'll explain most of what you need to know. Certain details here are from The Book of D'ni, by Rand Miller and David Wingrove, so only this plot line is mine. As for you Joe fans, I hope you enjoy this.)

SCATTERED, Part 4

"Between the Lines"

Joe looked to the man who'd introduced himself as Atrus. Gomamon hung around his neck and the two looked down to the book. The small picture on the page it was open to was like nothing they'd ever seen. The picture moved, turned and flew, showing different angles of a world so clearly that it looked as if it was right through a window.

Only a minute ago, Atrus had met them on this mysterious island, which Atrus aptly called Myst, and led them inside the small library, where he showed them a book he had hidden. He had barely minced words, but only laid the book open on a table and then told him to touch the panel.

"You want me to touch that picture?" asked Joe.

"That's right," said Atrus. "Don't be afraid."

Joe was afraid, but he took a deep breath and touched the page.

With a sickening lurch he felt as if he were falling and as if the picture on the page had suddenly grown huge to swallow him up. Then, darkness over came his vision and he was engulfed in it.

A moment later, he and Gomamon were standing on a concrete platform, surrounded by people going busily about their ways in the middle of a bustling village. They were back in their bodies, as if nothing had even happened.

"Woo!" said Gomamon, hopping down from Joe's shoulders. "What a ride!"

They got a few stares from the villagers who seemed a little disturbed by the small talking creature. There was a sound behind them and Atrus materialized behind them.

"You're among friends," said Atrus. "This is Releeshahn. This is my home."

Joe was still pale and he only looked at Atrus.

"Linking through those books takes a little getting used to, doesn't it?" asked Atrus with a smile.

Joe responded by falling flat on his face, passing out.

"Aw, Joe!" said Gomamon, shaking his head, embarrassed.


When Joe awoke, he was on a soft bed in a room made entirely of wood. A book case filled with several old-looking volumes was on one wall and a gas lamp stood on a table by the small bed. He looked further around the room and spotted Gomamon asleep on a chair.

"Gomamon!" called Joe.

"Joe?" asked Gomamon coming out his light sleep. "Hey, Atrus, he's awake!"

Atrus and a woman in a dark green dress came into his room. "Ah, so he is," remarked Atrus. "How do you feel?"

"I'm fine," said Joe. "I'm just not used to getting sucked into books is all."

"Well, do you feel well enough to eat something?" asked Atrus.

Joe looked up, then over to Gomamon who was grinning. "Sure!" he said, enthusiastically.


Joe had no idea what was in the soup he was eating, but it delicious, which he supposed was all that mattered. Spending time in the Digiworld had taught him that if something you ate was tasty, it was better to not know what it was. Every time he'd asked, he'd been sorry.

Gomamon was having the same thing and he had no qualms about eating it noisily. Atrus and the woman in the green dress watched them for a while, not saying anything.

Eventually, however, Atrus asked a question. "Well, my friend, what is your name?"

"Joe Kido," he said. "And this is Gomamon."

"Charmed. Mmm!" said Gomamon still slurping his soup loudly.

"As I said, my name is Atrus," Atrus said, "and this is my wife, Catherine."

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Atrus," said Joe to Catherine, bowing formally.

She laughed. "Actually, we don't really have last names around here, Joe," she said. "Atrus' full name is Atrus, Son of Gehn. I come from a society that had no way of separating people by last names, so simply Catherine will do."

Joe nodded. "Okay, well, it's nice to meet you, Catherine."

"Well, tell me about your friend, Gomamon," said Atrus. "I'm assuming that you're from Earth, the planet I was born on. However, last time I was there, no creatures except humans were capable of speech. I'm curious about what he is."

"I'm a digimon," said Gomamon simply, and then went back to eating, letting Joe do the explaining.

"Okay, let me try and explain this in simple terms," Joe began. And so, over the course of dinner, he told Atrus and Catherine about how he and the others were taken into the Digiworld, how they met their companions, how they digivolved, how they saved both worlds and how they had been forced to say goodbye, and finally how they had been reunite only to be scattered to different worlds by Mini Apocalymon.

The two of them listened in fascination and offered Joe more soup as he spoke. When he was done, Atrus and Catherine looked to each other.

"It sounds like you come from a different time on Earth," said Atrus. "It is quite possible that you are from the future of the planet I once called home."

"That's amazing," said Joe. "So tell me, where are we and what's with these books you can go inside?"

Atrus chuckled slightly. "Well, it looks like you're going to get quite a story in return, my friend," he said.


Atrus seated them in his living room. Apparently Atrus usually resided in a place called Tomahna, but they were currently in his residence in Releeshahn. Looking out the window, Joe could see that each house was different, likely built by numerous individuals, and that Atrus had a large and well-furnished house, perhaps one of the nicest in the town.

Atrus and Catherine were seated on a couch that was crafted skillfully out of wood, the cushions stuffed with feathers. Joe was sitting in a chair of similar design. Gomamon was laying down on Joe's lap, happy to have someplace comfortable to relax after dinner.

"Our story begins nearly seventy years ago," Atrus began. "For thousands of years, a race of people called the D'ni lived in a massive cavern below the Earth's surface. They invented an art that involved writing in special books that allowed them to link to other worlds. We call these worlds 'Ages.' My grandmother was the first full human to have contact with them. She had one son, my father. When he was merely a boy, the D'ni civilization came to an abrupt end when revolutionaries overtook and destroyed the whole city.

"My grandmother and father escaped as the sole survivors. Later, I was born, although my mother died in childbirth. Through a... complicated series of events, I learned about the Art of writing those Linking Books and became an author of them myself. Myst, the island you arrived upon, was my home for quite a while. Catherine and I raised two sons there."

Atrus stopped, as if suddenly pained, and then continued. "My sons became ambitious, however, and their imaginations went wild with the thought of what they could do with the Linking Books. They betrayed both Catherine and myself, trapping us both in prison worlds of sorts. Fortunately, a person who I will only refer to as the Stranger freed us both and brought my sons to justice. The Stranger asked that I not mention any details about who they were, and I have respected that, so I will only say that they were a traveler from Earth who came and went with very few words between us. They were quiet, yes, but a clever and loyal friend indeed.

"Once order had been restored, I and a race of people from a world called Averone launched a plan to reunite the remaining survivors of D'ni. Eventually the few thousand remaining D'ni relocated here, to Releeshahn, and here we have been rebuilding our society ever since."

Joe was speechless. "Wow," he said simply.

"So, you guys can make your own worlds?" asked Gomamon.

"No, that's not correct," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "Not at all. The Books we write are filled with descriptions of worlds we would find desirable. The books then link to pre-existing worlds according to what we describe."

"Wait," said Joe, trying to understand, "you're saying that for every possible description you write there's a world that can match it?"

"It's never failed in the thousands of years it has been done," said Atrus. "We call it the Tree of Possibility. Quite simply, all that you can write can be. In all the universe, there are different planets with an infinite history stretching both forward and backward in time. Time and space are all relative in the Tree."

"My head's starting to hurt, Gomamon," Joe said to his small friend. "I'll bet Izzy would be better off here than me." Just then, a thought struck him.

"Hey!" said Joe. "If you can write a book to any world anywhere, maybe you could write a book that would get me and Gomamon back to the Digital World!"

Atrus and Catherine looked at each other, both reluctant to speak. Catherine finally spoke up. "Unfortunately, Joe," she said, "the chances of linking to the exact right place and time are extremely remote. I mean, maybe ten million to one. The description we wrote would have to be exactly right and there's still no guarantee we would be able to get the right time. I'm afraid we couldn't possibly use a Linking Book to get you home."

Joe looked down, his one hope crushed. Gomamon was depressed as well.

"Don't worry," said Atrus. "I'm sure that we will find a way to get you back to the place where you belong. I assure you that I will do all I can to help."

Joe looked back up and offered them a weak smile. "Thank you," he said, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

To Joe's amusement, Atrus pushed his glasses up on his nose as well. "You're welcome," he said.


The next morning, Joe awoke in Atrus' guest bedroom. Sunlight streamed in through the window and he could hear people going about their business outside. He stood and looked out and saw Releeshahn for the first time from the upstairs room.

The place was fertile and covered with hills. Thousands of houses dotted the land. Trees grew among them, giving the area a natural, undisturbed look. Along the hillsides, he could see more houses being built. At the center of the village was the main areas of the community. Shops, a town square, a place he guessed was the main government building, and perhaps a library.

"I'd like to check out one of the books from that library," said Joe to himself, remembering what books were to the D'ni.

Most impressive, though, was the towering spire at the center of the city. Tall as a skyscraper, black as obsidian, it stood tall in the center of the town. Joe guessed that it was there before the D'ni, since it didn't appear to be manmade, but he couldn't imagine how such a large natural structure had come to be.

"Joe?" asked Gomamon, yawning at the foot of the bed. "You awake?"

"Yep," he said. "Come on, let's get dressed," Joe said changing out of the nightshirt he'd been given.

Gomamon looked at his small, quadrupedal body. "I don't think they have anything that'll fit me," he joked.

Joe went downstairs to find Atrus and Catherine. However, to his surprise, neither one was there. He found a bowl of fruit on the table and a note next to it.

"'Dear Joe and Gomamon,'" Joe read off the note, "'Catherine and I have gone to the library to see if there is any mention of the Digital World in the histories. You seemed tired, so we chose not to wake you. Please help yourself to some fruit for breakfast. We have a well behind the house if you are thirsty. Regards, Atrus.'"

Gomamon hopped onto the table and took a small green fruit from the bowl. "Nice folks, aren't they?" Gomamon asked.

"Yeah," Joe agreed. "I have to say, even though we've been banished to a far away alien land, at least we got a nice one. I mean, think about how hard it was to find food and a bed in the Digital World. Looks like we got lucky for once. I hope the others are doing as well as we are."

"Me too," said Gomamon. He took a bite out his fruit and said, "Hey, this is pretty good! We should take these back with us!"

Joe smiled. Gomamon was always an optimist. Even after last night's disappointment, he was still confident that they would find a way home. Joe couldn't stay pessimistic in his digimon's presence. He looked down and noticed a post script on the note.

"'P.S.,'" he read. "'Feel free to explore the house, but please don't touch my books.'"

Joe did do some exploring after breakfast. He peeked inside Atrus and Catherine's room and found it to be ornate without being gaudy. He really admired Atrus' attention to detail. He wondered if it came with being a writer. He felt like Atrus and himself were kindred spirits.

Later he checked Atrus's office. It had a desk with a pen and an old-fashioned inkwell, both, to his surprise, appeared to be made of stone. Stacked on the table and filling the shelves were many books, and Joe guessed that they were probably more Linking books to other worlds, or "Ages" as Atrus seemed to prefer to call them. He heeded Atrus' word, however, and resisted the urge to open them.

He had explored most of the house when he saw a door in the ceiling of the upstairs hallway.

"Where do you suppose that leads?" asked Gomamon.

"The attic, I guess," said Joe. "Let's check it out."

Holding Gomamon up to reach the handle, Joe and his partner were able to open the trap door and slide down a set of stairs. They climbed it and found themselves in the attic.

"Wow," said Gomamon. "Look at all this stuff!"

Joe was also impressed. They were surrounded by old relics. Odd pieces of furniture, strange-looking toys (among them a wind up bird and a "cobra-in-the-box" that scared the pants off Joe), a stack of books that appeared to be burned, telescopes, homemade maps, and several preserved specimens of creatures Joe couldn't even identify.

"Joe, look at this!" Gomamon exclaimed, rushing out from one corner of the room with a small object in his flipper. Unfortunately, he had trouble running that way and tripped, sliding into a pedestal with a book on it, causing them both to fall over.

"Hey, watch it!" said Joe, seeing the book spill onto the floor.

"Sorry," said Gomamon. "But look what I found!"

Joe looked and saw the object Gomamon had with him. It was a small, round marble that glowed like a flame. It was bright enough to light the room like a candle, yet it didn't feel particularly warm. It was perfectly smooth, like glass.

"That is kind of impressive," admitted Joe. He put it in his pocket, deciding to ask Atrus about it later. Then he looked down at the book and saw that it was open.

He bent down to pick it up.

"Joe, Atrus said not to touch those things," Gomamon reminded him.

"Don't worry, we aren't going to use it," said Joe. "I'll just put it back where it belongs."

As he bent down, however, he saw the descriptive panel and saw not a panoramic view of an age, but a man looking out at him.

"Hello?" came the small voice of the man. "Who are you?"

Joe stared at the man curiously. He wasn't sure what to do. He knew that these books were supposed to link to places, not people.

"You can see me?" asked Joe. Gomamon watched curiously from a few feet away.

"Yes," said the man. "But please, tell me, who are you?"

"My name's Joe," he said. "I just got here yesterday. Who are you?"

"You mean Atrus hasn't mentioned me?" said the man curiously.

"No," said Joe, puzzled.

"Oh... Well then," said the man. "I am Gehn, Atrus' father."

"Hey, he did mention you! He didn't tell me you lived a book though," said Joe, who had suspected that Atrus' father was dead. "What are you doing in the attic?"

"The attic?" Gehn asked. "Oh, I came to see Atrus, but he wasn't here. I thought perhaps he had gone to visit one of his ages, so I used this book. Unfortunately, it seems I made a mistake and used one of his trap books."

"Trap books?" Joe asked, picking up the book and replacing it on the pedestal.

"Yes," said Gehn. "They're just a security measure to trap greedy explorers. They're only a precaution, but I appear to have accidently trapped myself."

Joe looked at the man and he did in fact seem to be trapped. He smiled at Joe and looked a little embarrassed by his situation. "Is there something I can do to help?" Joe asked.

"Yes, my friend, there is," said Gehn. "In order to free someone from a trap book, you need only touch the panel yourself and I will be let out."

Joe raised his hand to place it on the panel uneasily, then let his hand drop. "Maybe we should wait for Atrus to get home," said Joe.

"Oh," said Gehn, sounding dejected. "I see. Well, I understand that you have no reason to trust me. It is all right. I can wait a few hours more in here."

"Come on, Joe!" said Gomamon. "Help the guy! What harm could he do?"

Joe considered. It was against his better instincts, but... "Okay," he said reluctantly. He once again raised his hand and pressed his palm against the panel.

Instantly, he felt himself pulled forward and darkness once again overtook his senses.

When his vision cleared, he was in total darkness, save for a small square frame that he could look through like a window. He was staring out into the attic. And there stood Gehn, looking down at him.

"Well, my dear boy," he said coldly. "It appears we've changed places. You've freed me after years of being a prisoner. I hope my warm, heartfelt thanks will be enough to keep you comfortable in there."

That's when it hit Joe: he was in the book now!

Outside the book, Gomamon stared up at the tall man dressed in a proud white coat. His hair was gray and his forehead was a high dome. In his hand, he carried a staff.

"Hey, what did you do to my pal?" Gomamon demanded.

"What's this, a talking seal?" Gehn asked, seeing Gomamon for the first time. "No matter," he said, swinging his foot, kicking him across the room.

"Now then," he said returning to Joe. "Perhaps you'd be so kind as to-"

"Marching Fishes!" attacked Gomamon, summoning a barrage of fish from thin air which slammed Gehn into the opposite wall. Gehn slumped against it in obvious pain. Gomamon leapt up onto the pedestal and looked down at Joe.

"Are you all right, Joe?" asked Gomamon urgently.

Joe, from inside the book, looked up at his friend and was about to respond when he saw Gehn's staff come down hard on the back of Gomamon's head, causing him to drop limply from view, unconscious.

"Gomamon!" Joe cried.

"I believe I'll take this specimen along for further study," said Gehn, picking up Gomamon. "As for you... well, you're Atrus' problem now. I, meanwhile, will see if perfection still holds after all these years." And with that, he closed the cover of the book on to the panel, plunging Joe into absolute darkness and absolute silence.


"Well, that's just great," said Joe to himself, alone in the void of the book. "I get a lucky break and find a nice guy and his wife who offer to help in any way they can and what do I do? I release a lunatic from a book he keeps hidden in his attic and get my digimon kidnapped. Why didn't I just listen to my instincts? But no, someone was all, 'What harm could he do?' and now I'm stuck in a book. I wonder what time it is..."

He tried to look down at his digivice, which was equipped with a watch, but he couldn't see it in the darkness. For that matter, he couldn't tell what direction he was looking in. He tried to search for it, but it was if his hand was nonexistent. In fact, he couldn't feel any part of his body. He was alone with only his own voice. He couldn't even be sure if he was really speaking or if he was only hearing his own thoughts.

Suddenly, the panel appeared once again and he was staring up at Catherine's face.

"Atrus!" she cried. "I found him! Here!"

Atrus came over to the book and stared down at Joe. A look of utter defeat took hold of his features.

"Oh no," he gasped. "Joe, what have you done?"

"Atrus?" Joe asked. "I'm sorry, he said he was your father... I only wanted to help."

Atrus looked to Catherine and then closed his eyes, his face wrinkled with worry. Suddenly, Catherine reached across him and pressed her hand against the linking panel.

"Catherine, no!" Atrus cried out, but he was too late. Catherine disappeared from view as Joe materialized in her place.

"Catherine, why did you do it?" Atrus demanded, pleading with Catherine through the book. Joe only stood there in uncomfortable silence.

"We can't let him suffer in the Prison Book," said Catherine. "We didn't tell him the whole story and he didn't know any better."

"Then let me take his place instead!"

"No, Atrus. You are needed to find Gehn. No one knows him better than you."

Atrus was about to protest, but he reluctantly consented. "All right," he said. "I will return later, Catherine." He shut the book, then looked to Joe, his kind eyes now hard.

"Come with me, Joe," said Atrus. "I will explain things on the way."

"On the way where?" Joe asked, following Atrus quickly out of the attic.

"To find Gehn," Atrus said. "If we don't find him soon, the cost may be immeasurable."


"Gehn is my father," Atrus explained as he and Joe walked briskly to the center of town. "The man is a monster."

"I kinda got that impression, but what do you mean? Why was he in that book?" Joe asked.

"You remember how I told you that the D'ni do not create the worlds within the books?" Atrus asked. Joe nodded. "Gehn is convinced that he is in fact creating those worlds and he believes that it makes him a god. In one way, he admires the D'ni. In another, he despises them. He always talked to me about their power, about their greatness. However, he rebels against the restraining rules the D'ni have set up for writing the books. As a consequence, he has written hundreds of books and is a god to countless civilizations."

"How can he convince the people on those Ages that he's a god?" Joe asked.

"He toys with their world," Atrus said bitterly. "He writes new things into the Ages that causes them to become unstable. Earthquakes, floods, even tears in the fabric of reality. Writing the books is specific. Any contradictions can cause an Age to deteriorate into an unlivable ruin. Catherine's home world was once one of Gehn's Ages. Now, it has been completely destroyed by Gehn's shortsighted egotism."

Joe looked down as he walked alongside Atrus. "I'm sorry, Atrus," Joe said. "I had no idea."

Atrus softened a little. "It is not entirely your fault. I should have told you about him," he said. "You see, the Stranger helped Catherine and myself to capture Gehn in that prison book. It was designed to appear as a Linking Book, but after Gehn had been captured, I couldn't bring myself to destroy it. It would have trapped Gehn inside the Book for the rest of his life, leaving him a prisoner, no longer able to harm any other worlds. Instead, I modified the book so I could communicate with him. He refused to speak to me, but I still kept the book. I should have neutralized the problem when I had the chance."

Joe saw how pained Atrus was by the whole situation. "Everyone makes mistakes," Joe said, offering him a word of consolation. "I think it's great that you were still willing to forgive him even after all the things he's done."

Atrus smiled at the boy, then said, "We're almost there. On the plus side, you get to see something only two other humans have ever seen: the City of D'ni."


The boat Atrus rowed was made of stone. For that matter, so was everything else in D'ni.

Joe stared in awe at the massive cavern surrounding them. The ceiling was high above them and the whole cavern must have stretched for miles on either side. Buildings were carved into the walls forming intricate streets and districts. Everything was in ruins, but Joe could sense the history about the place. The water Atrus rowed across glowed orange, lighting the whole area.

"The water is filled with microscopic life forms," said Atrus, answering Joe's curiosity. "They're active for about fifteen hours a day. The D'ni day revolved around them before the city was destroyed."

"Where are we going?" Joe asked.

"There," Atrus said, pointing to an island a quarter mile away from them. "The great house on that island is K'veer, an ancient nobleman's house. It's where Gehn's library was located. That is the only place he would logically go."


"He's definitely been here," Atrus said.

Joe looked inquisitively at Atrus. They were standing in a huge office, complete with a desk similar to Atrus'. Ten books were lined on a shelf near the desk. About thirty Linking Books lay face up on the floor, not one laying on top of another. They were strewn about chaotically, but, Joe sensed, deliberately.

"He scattered these books to throw us off," Atrus said, sighing. "He could have gone into any one of these Ages. It's too dangerous to pursue him further and we have no way of knowing which Age he used."

"What about these?" Joe asked, indicating the books on the shelf.

"Those are Gehn's first ten Ages," Atrus said. "They are still in order. If he had taken one out and linked, he would have had to lay it face up in order to use it correctly. No, only those on the floor could have been the ones."

Joe looked down. Atrus, too, seemed dejected. "Come," he said. "We'll go back to Tomahna and come up with a plan there."

Gomamon opened his eyes wearily. His vision was blurry and his head hurt. He looked up and saw that he was surrounded by metal bars, caged. Over his mouth a gag was placed.

"Hm!" he exclaimed in muffled surprise.

"Awake at last, creature?" asked a familiar voice.

Gomamon looked up to see Gehn, who was sitting at a desk. He had apparently been writing. The two of them were alone in a room that looked to Gomamon to have been made out of wooden poles fashioned crudely together with ropes. Wherever they were, it was a safe bet that it wasn't Releeshahn.

"I've wired that cage to an electric battery," said Gehn. "I'm going to remove your gag so that you and I can have a little chat. If you call your fish friends again, I or the guards I call will electrify your cage and you, my friend, will be in an inordinate amount of pain. Understand?"

Gomamon nodded and Gehn removed the gag from his mouth.

"Okay, you old geezer," started off Gomamon, "what did you do to Joe?"

"The boy?" asked Gehn. "I left him in the Trap Book. I'm sure Atrus won't leave him, there, though I would like to know how he dealt with the problem. In any case, your friend is likely unharmed. Now I would like to ask a question. How are you able to call those fish from seemingly nowhere?"

"I dunno," said Gomamon begrudgingly. "I just can. It's one of my attributes."

"Attributes, eh?" asked Gehn, rather interested. "Well, tell me, what manner of creature are you? Clearly a sea mammal, of course, but what kind of sea mammal that is so intelligent it can talk?"

"I'm a digimon," said Gomamon. "That's about all you need to know."

Gehn seemed a little perturbed by Gomamon halting that line of questioning. "Very well," he said. "I can come back to that issue later. In the meantime, what is your relationship to the boy?"

"Joe's my partner and my best friend," Gomamon said, proudly adding, "and it's my duty to protect him no matter what!"

"Protect him?" asked Gehn, amused. "Well, you didn't do a very good job, then, did you?"

Gomamon growled as Gehn chuckled hollowly.


Joe laid awake in bed that night back at Atrus' house. It had been discovered that Gehn had stolen one of the Linking Books in D'ni that led back to Releeshahn, but fortunately there were others around that Atrus and he had used to get back. No matter where Gehn was, he now had easy access to Releeshahn.

Joe had never felt quite as alone as he did at that moment. Catherine was still trapped inside the book and refused to let Atrus take her place and Joe sensed that, while Atrus wasn't entirely angry at him, he was no longer extending him the warmth he had at first. Moreover, all the people he really cared about were gone.

The other Digidestined: Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, TK, Mimi, and Kari were all gone, along with their digimon. He worried that they might be in worse positions. Maybe they were okay... and maybe they weren't. And then there was Gomamon...

Joe cringed. That hurt him worse than anything else; that he'd endangered and lost his best friend. Gomamon protected him, risked his neck to save him, respected him when the others may have had their doubts. Even when he had been separated from the others, Gomamon was still by his side. Now, he was by himself, without even his digimon to keep him company.

Joe got out of bed and went to get a drink of water. As he tiptoed into the main hallway, he heard voices coming from Atrus' room. He crept over to the partially shut door to listen.

"So the elders have agreed to help?" he heard Catherine's tiny voice say from the book.

"Yes," said Atrus. "They've arranged to have the Guild of Maintainers look into the situation. They'll assemble a team to inspect each of the Ages Gehn left on the floor."

"I'm sure they'll find him," said Catherine.

"I believe so," said Atrus, "but the other Ages might be dangerous to venture into. And the right one may be booby trapped. You know he's capable of that. He's mad. Remember his rituals, his willingness to discard lives like sheets of paper, the way he named his Ages with numbers, his obsession with the number five? There's the danger that we might lose some brave souls. I've made a Linking Book to Releeshahn myself for the journey. I'm going with them tomorrow at noon. My book is in my office right now."

Joe backed quietly away from the door. So now others among the D'ni were going to risk their lives to correct Joe's mistake.

Joe clenched his fist in determination. He knew what he had to do.


Standing in Gehn's office on K'veer once again, Joe felt a bit guilty for taking Atrus' Linking Book and going to find Gehn on his own. He hoped that the note he'd left explained things well enough.

"I don't know," Joe said to himself. "Maybe, 'Gone to find Gehn on my own. Took some fruit for a snack. Hope you don't mind. Sincerely, Joe' was a little too scant."

He shrugged it off. He believed Atrus would understand and he felt he had to do this, even if it meant risking himself. Even so, he had no idea where to look.

He looked at the books on the floor and couldn't make any sense out of them, then looked to the shelf with Gehn's first ten Ages on them. Atrus had said they were in order. Maybe...

Joe looked at the spines of the books and saw that there was a single character printed on each one instead of a title. He paused to think for a moment. They looked a little short to be words, so maybe...

"They're numbers!" said Joe out loud, realizing it. Of course! Gehn named his Ages with numbers, so these must have the numbers one through ten on them. He wasn't sure why, but he thought it might be useful to learn a little bit about the D'ni numerical system. Perhaps then he could learn something that would help him where Atrus had been at a loss.

He found a piece of paper and noted the symbol for each number. Each one was a symbol inside a box. He noted them down in order: #1- a box halved vertically by a line; #2- a curved line on the left side of the box; #3- a half diamond on the left side; #4- a smaller square in the bottom right corner of the box; #5- a box halved horizontally by a line; #6- a box divided into four equal squares; #7- a curve on the left and a horizontal line through the middle; #8- a half diamond and a horizontal line through the middle; #9- a smaller square in the bottom right corner and another horizontal line through the middle; and #10- a curved line on the bottom of the box.

Joe couldn't help but notice the way some of the symbols repeated. For one, the horizontal line of the symbol for five and the curved line for two were repeated in seven...

"Wait a minute," said Joe, thinking. "The symbols for five and two in the same box equal seven. 5 + 2 = 7, so if two symbols are put into one box, that symbol is the sum of their addition!"

Joe was pleased with himself. Izzy would have been proud, he thought. Still, there was something else he was still missing.

The symbols for a few of the numbers seemed similar. One and five were close, as were two and ten. They were the same symbols except that they had been rotated ninety degrees counter-clockwise, as if the boxes had been turned. There had to be a connection.

"Five!" Joe said out loud. "One rotated is five and two rotated is ten. If the numbers are rotated, they get multiplied by five! One times five is five, two times five is ten! I've got it!"

Joe's jubilant voice echoed throughout the office and reverberated out into the empty cavern, across the water to the ancient city. With his arms raised in triumph, Joe looked ready to take on the world. Then, he put his arms down and scowled.

"Okay brain," Joe said. "That was great and everything, but how does that help me find Gehn?"

As if in answer, his brain pulled out two memories of things he had heard recently. The first was Gehn, saying, "I, meanwhile, will see if perfection still holds after all these years." The second was Atrus, mentioning, "...his obsession with the number five..."

Joe's mind was racing now. Atrus said Gehn wouldn't have used the Age Five book, but he might have used one of the books on the floor with a number that was a multiple of five. He could read the numbers on each of the books and eliminated all but two. Twenty and twenty-five.

What did Gehn mean by perfection? He had a gut feeling it had something to do with numbers, but maybe twenty was a perfect number to the D'ni. But why wasn't Gehn interested in that number instead of five? No, he was convinced it had something to do with five, but what?

Joe closed his eyes and concentrated. He would only get one shot at this, so he had to be sure.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, inspiration hit him: "Perfect square!" he said. "Five squared is twenty-five! That's Gehn's perfection!"

Without further hesitation, Joe opened the Age Twenty-five book and linked.

Joe sucked in a breath as he once again found himself in his body. "That will never stop making me nauseous," he said to himself.

His vision cleared and he found himself in a grove of trees atop a hill. He stepped out to get the lay of the land . . . and was suddenly surrounded by men in ragged clothes, all of whom were pointing spears at him.

"Whoa! Easy! I surrender!" Joe said raising his hands above his head, showing he was unarmed.

Many of the men looked to each other, none of whom were really sure what to make of the small, scrawny boy in front of them. Even so, they kept their spears trained on him every second.

"Tagemah so Rekoha!" said the leader of them.

"What?" asked Joe.

"Tagemah so Rekoha!" repeated the man, not sure of himself. "Rekoha! Rekoha!"

"I don't know what you're saying!" Joe cried as the men began to advance on him. The leader gave up speaking and went to Joe. After a brief search, he found the Linking Book to Releeshahn in Joe's vest.

"Oh, the book!" Joe said. "Go ahead, that's fine. Uh, have any of you seen Gehn?"

Many of the men took a step back at Gehn's name and the leader grabbed Joe roughly. Spears dangerously close to his body, they escorted him down into the village.


"Hello?" Joe called from inside the small prison hut. "Can I please get some water? A sip will be fine, I'm just a little parched!"

Joe sighed. No one was coming. No one was listening. He was trapped inside a cage of wooden poles, padlocked inside, and held in a hut with no windows. It looked like his adventure was over, and he expected Gehn to come through the door any minute to tell him his fate.

"Well, at least I got the right Age," he said sarcastically. Just then, the door to the hut opened. However, it was not Gehn that stood there, but a woman with graying black hair in a simple, but fancy dress.

"Shorah. Terakoi D'ni?" she asked.

"Huh?" Joe asked back.

The woman looked puzzled then tried again. "Can you understand now?"

"Yes!" cried Joe. "I can understand you!"

The woman did not share Joe's enthusiasm. "Who are you? You aren't D'ni, or else you would speak their language. Instead, you speak one of the other languages Gehn speaks."

"My name's Joe," he said. "I'm looking for Gehn."

"Why?" the woman asked.

Joe thought for a moment, trying to come up with the safest answer. "Because he took my friend, Gomamon," said Joe.

"The talking creature?" asked the woman. "The white one with red hair?"

"Yes!" said Joe.

"How do I know you really come from the same place as Gehn?" she asked, somewhat suspicious.

Joe was puzzled. He searched for something to prove that he was from the same place and found something in his pocket, bringing it out. It was the same bright sphere he had found in Atrus' attic.

"A Fire Marble!" said the woman, impressed. Then, her voice quieter, she went over to Joe's cell and began to unlock the cage. "Keep quiet. I'm going to help you out of here."


"Gehn appeared many years ago, but he ceased to come over thirty years ago," said the woman. "It is my conclusion that we are better off without him."

The woman, who said her name was Mora, had taken Joe to Gehn's office on this Age. Gehn was nowhere in sight, nor was Gomamon.

"I was his linguist," said Mora. "And when he appeared and made the claim that he was a god, few doubted him because of his technology, the wondrous devices he brought. However, when some voiced their doubt, Gehn became infuriated. He said that he would unleash his wrath upon us. Soon after, he left and a great series of storms set in. They destroyed many of our crops and left us with barely enough to eat. Our home became more and more harsh as Gehn stayed longer and longer. After he left, we managed to bring prosperity back to our people. Now that he has returned, many fear that he will only bring destruction again."

"Why did he come back here?" Joe asked.

"I believe it was for the Deus," said Mora. "A machine that he had us build years ago. None of us dared to tamper with it in all the years he was away. He came here and told us to disassemble it and that we would reassemble it in a world filled with 'devil people.'"

Joe swallowed. "What kind of machine is it?" he asked.

"A great machine, with powerful weapons," Mora said. "It was built to destroy a whole village and our men have been taking the Deus apart and reassembling it all day yesterday and today. Gehn took them all to the world I spoke of . I believe I heard him call it Releeshahn."

Joe swallowed. "Did he take my friend with him?" asked Joe.

"I'm afraid so," said Mora. "He had a book that led to Releeshahn, but he copied it so that he could build the machine a safe distance away from the devil people."

"Mora," called a guard from outside, one who'd helped Joe escape. "The men are returning. Without Lord Gehn. He said he would return after he dealt with the devils."

Mora, distressed, looked to Joe. She carried a bag with her and took Joe's Linking Book from inside it and handed it to him. "You must get back and warn your friends."

"Come with me," said Joe. "You and the guard might be in trouble for helping me, so come along."

Mora hesitated for a moment, then, with a slight nod, she complied, alerting the guard.


Joe materialized in the heart of Releeshahn. He had made it back. Mora and the guard shimmered into being behind him when a familiar voice cried out, "Joe!"

Joe turned to face the speaker. It was Atrus.

"Atrus!" said Joe, running over to Atrus, who was standing with a group of men, all holding Linking Books. "We've got to get ready! Gehn's coming!"

"Gehn?" asked Atrus. "What do you mean? Where did you go?"

Suddenly, a sound like a horn was heard coming from the far side of Releeshahn. It was high, rolling, and clearly urgent.

"The alarm," Atrus said, looking up. "That would mean we are under attack. But what-"

"The Deus," said Mora, stepping over to Atrus. "Gehn has come to destroy this place."


"By Kerath," whispered Atrus. They were atop the Releeshahn library and Atrus was looking through a powerful telescope at the hills to the east of the city. He saw with growing horror that a massive machine was creeping over the mountain and down toward the city, looking like a low, creeping beast. It was gigantic, with four long legs that moved with hydraulics. The body was armed with bomb launchers, a windshield, and a control panel that Atrus could see was being vigorously operated by his father. Gehn pulled a lever and an object was tossed from the back of the machine. The object hit the nearest houses and exploded, destroying them. Thankfully, most of the town had heard the alarm and was rushing towards the city's center.

Joe looked next. He saw the same thing as Atrus, but also something else, bound and gagged and in a cage behind Gehn: "Gomamon!"

"We must flee," said Atrus to the men with him. "We have no weapons to fight such an enemy."

The men all stared down dejectedly. "And we had only just now gotten settled here in this Age," Atrus said. "Now, we must separate and try to hold on."

"No," said Joe suddenly, almost to himself. "I can stop him."

Before anyone had a chance to say anything, Joe had leapt down the stairs of the library and was sprinting madly towards the machine that threatened to destroy them all. He ran as hard as he could, past the people running in the opposite direction, putting more and more distance between himself and the people who were still calling for him to come back.

Joe arrived at the far end of the village and was amazed at the sheer size of the Deus. The bottom part of the body of it was at least thirty feet off the ground and the ground shook as each one of its massive legs came crashing down. Gehn was at the open-air cockpit, furiously pulling a multitude of levers and switches, piloting the machine skillfully. He used its legs to crush house after house as it moved forward rapidly. The machine hissed as the hydraulics in the legs shifted, raising one leg and balancing on another. For such an enormous machine, its movements were graceful. Again Joe found himself thinking it resembled a predatory beast.

"Gehn!" shouted Joe. "Down here!"

Gehn turned the machine to face the small boy. He smiled and raised a megaphone to his mouth to address him. "Hello, dear boy," he said. "Out of the book, I see."

"That's right," said Joe. "Which means there's room for you inside it!" He hoped that sounded convincing enough.

Gehn grinned coldly. "Brave words from a brave boy," said Gehn, raising one of the machine's legs. "A very brave and very foolish boy!"

The leg came down to crush Joe, but this was what he had been planning on. He leapt back a millisecond before the wide, metal foot smashed into the hard earth, forming a small crater a mere foot from where Joe now stood. Joe took a deep breath and jumped onto the leg, attempting to climb it.

"Sly move, my friend," said Gehn. "But ultimately futile and pathetic." He shook the leg and Joe held on for dear life, but eventually it flung him off, high into the air. Joe landed on the windshield of the machine, only a few feet from Gehn and the controls.

"How revolting," said Gehn, making a face as Joe's face pressed against the windshield. "I can never go out for a ride without having some disgusting insect splattering all over the windshield. No matter." He pulled out a pistol and aimed it levelly at Joe. "I know how to get it off."

Joe rolled just as Gehn fired. To both of their surprises, however, the entire windshield shattered, dumping Joe into the cockpit. Gehn was momentarily distracted as shards of glass flew about everywhere, forcing him to stand up from his pilot's seat and stop the machine. "Those blasted natives! They must have cut corners on the glass!"

"Jmph!" Gomamon tried to cry out, seeing his partner through the bars of his cage.

"Gomamon!" said Joe, getting up and grabbing Gomamon's cage. "Are you okay?"

"Not for long, he isn't," said Gehn as he reloaded another bullet into his pistol. Joe looked to Gomamon and then made a bold move: he leapt over the side of the cockpit and tried to slide down one of the hydraulic legs. Unfortunately, the leg was at a steep angle and the pair of them bounced off and landed hard on the ground, tumbling away from the Deus. Gomamon's cage broke apart and spilled him onto the ground next to his partner.

"Gomamon, are you all right?" Joe asked, the breath knocked out of him.

"Fine," said Gomamon weakly. "But... I can't fight him. I'm too weak and I haven't had anything to eat in a day."

"Hey, why did I get the Crest of Reliability?" asked Joe, pulling out the small piece of fruit he'd put in his pocket last night. Gomamon took it and ate it eagerly.

"Hold still!" Gehn shouted, bringing another leg of the Deus' down, trying to crush them both. They scrambled and narrowly avoided the leg, but the force from it being brought down sent them both flying into the rubble of a destroyed house.

"Joe!" cried Gomamon, seeing him land roughly on top of the wood. And even as he said it, Joe's digivice began to glow.

"Gomamon digivolve to..." Gomamon began to glow as well and Gehn stopped his attack, watching with fascination as the tiny creature seemed to melt, grow larger, and reappear in front of him. "...Ikkakumon!"

"What is this?" Gehn asked, awestruck.

"Harpoon Torpedo!" attacked Ikkakumon, sending a homing missile at the Deus. The missile blew off a leg causing the machine to careen and pitch wildly as scraps of metal flew in every direction.

Gehn struggled to keep the Deus upright, but managed to do so. Compensating for its odd balance without one of its limbs, he maneuvered the Deus to face the champion digimon.

"Impressive," granted Gehn. "But it's my move now." He pressed a button and sent a bomb hurtling towards Ikkakumon and Joe.

"Joe!" Ikkakumon cried, throwing his massive, hairy body in front of Joe's, absorbing the blast. The bomb went off and the digimon let out a cry of pain as he was burned and pummeled by the explosion. Joe moved out of the way as Ikkakumon toppled over.

"Ikkakumon, are you all right?" Joe asked, seeing his partner singed and battered.

"Forget the walrus, boy," said Gehn. "I'm keeping it for dissection later on. Worry about yourself and get out of my sight before I finish you off."

Joe stared hard at Gehn. "No," said Joe calmly. "You're my mistake, my problem, and it's my job to stop you myself."

"Actually, your mistake is foolish heroism," said Gehn, pressing a button to load another bomb. He neglected to notice, however, that a strange cross shape had begun to glow on Joe's chest. He also neglected to notice that Ikkakumon had once again began to glow and reform.

The launcher fired another bomb when a massive, gray clawed hand merely swatted it away, causing it to explode harmlessly in the air. "All right, Zudomon!" Joe exclaimed triumphantly.

"Where did that come from?" Gehn asked, in awe of the enormous shelled creature.

Zudomon said nothing, but merely seized the front leg of the Deus and peered down at its pilot, an angry scowl on his face. Gehn swallowed.

"Vulcan's Hammer!" Zudomon attacked, bringing the tremendous hammer down onto the Deus, destroying it and throwing Gehn from it to land roughly on the ground.

Amid the wreckage, Zudomon reverted to Gomamon and ran over to Joe who stood straight as an arrow.

"Joe!" called a voice. It was Atrus. "I don't believe my eyes. You did it." Joe looked and saw him standing near Gehn's unconscious form. "You defeated Gehn. You and your friend have saved Releeshahn! You've saved us all!"

"Well, don't just stand there, Joe," said Gomamon. "Say something! You're a hero, pal!"

Joe stood there a moment, an odd look on his face. He looked to the wreckage of the Deus. He looked at the rubble of the abandoned houses. He looked to Atrus and Gehn and Gomamon and he opened his mouth to speak.

Then, without a word, he closed it and fainted, falling face first on the ground.

"Aw, Joe, not again!" said Gomamon. He turned to Atrus. "You'll have to forgive him, Atrus. He doesn't handle being a hero well."

"Apparently not," said Atrus, trying not to laugh.


"Catherine and I both owe you a debt of gratitude," said Atrus, with Catherine back at his side.

"Not really," said Joe. "I was just trying to make up for letting Gehn out in the first place."

"Perhaps," said Catherine. "But you risked your life to do it. Your willingness to sacrifice yourself is a sign of great friendship and loyalty."

"And furthermore, Mora's people are better off because of you," added Atrus. "Perhaps they will join with our society someday. In any case, you helped her. She is among friends now, away from Gehn's followers."

"I suppose you're right," said Joe. "I just wish that, amid all this excitement, we'd found a way home for me and Gomamon."

"Cheer up, Joe," said Gomamon. "Something always comes along at the last minute."

"Oh yeah, like what?" Joe asked. As if in answer, the digivice beeped and a voice entered the room.

"Joe? Are you there? Joe, come in," said Izzy's voice.

"Izzy!" exclaimed Joe. "Hey, it's great to hear from you! Where are you?"

"Never mind that," said Izzy. "I know how to get you home. I'll spare you the details, but all you have to do is find a computer screen and, while in physical contact with Gomamon, touch your digivice to it."

"Is that it? No problem!" said Joe happily.

"Good," said Izzy, relieved. "And remember. Unless every one of us gets to a computer, no one can go home, so make sure you get to one safely. Izzy out."

"We're saved!" said Joe, jumping up, tossing Gomamon up in the air jubilantly. "Atrus! Catherine! Where's your nearest computer?"

Atrus looked at Joe, puzzled. "Computer?" he asked. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

Joe looked at him. "A computer. You know, a machine that keeps track of data?" he asked. Receiving blank stares, he went on. "You can type things on it, download music, look up information, write stupid fanfiction, come on you know!"

Atrus and Catherine looked at each other. "I'm afraid that we haven't had any contact with machines that keep track of data in years," Atrus said. "And I have no idea how to build one. I'm sorry, Joe."

Joe sat down heavily on the couch, Gomamon taking a seat next to him. "Great," Joe said with a sigh. "I'm with a civilization of people who can travel to distant planets and bend the rules of time and space but they can't even build an Apple IIe. Just our luck."

Catherine seemed deep in thought. She suddenly looked up and said, "Wait!" Atrus and the others stared at her. "I believe I know where we can find what you're looking for."


The ancient D'ni chamber was covered in moss, but the old machine turned on without incident when Catherine pushed a button.

"Using this machine was forbidden, due to the unpredictable nature of the Ages it linked to," said Catherine, "but the archives do say that it had the ability to remember several Books worth of data. This may be the only computer that the D'ni ever built, Joe."

The machine rattled and hummed loudly. It was a large steel box with many odd buttons on it. It had a screen which was blurred by static. However, it did look remotely like a computer.

"What does it do?" Joe asked.

"It creates a link without the use of Books," said Catherine. "It was thought that it might save on the destruction of the trees used to make the Books, but conservation efforts eventually made the problem obsolete, so it was abandoned. Since it has a screen and it can contain data in a... digital form, if that's the word, I believe that you may use it to return home."

"A word of caution, however," said Atrus, jumping in. "When you touch that screen, don't touch it with your fingers. If you have direct physical contact, you could be sucked into a bizarre world from which there is no visible return."

"Hey, story of my life," joked Joe, cracking a smile.

Atrus and Catherine smiled back and wished him luck.

Joe held his digivice up to the screen and prepared to touch the digivice to it.

"Hey, Joe," whispered Gomamon, "are you sure that this thing won't suck us into another world anyway, even if you don't use your fingers?"

"Sure, I'm sure," said Joe.

"Are you sure you're sure you're sure?" Gomamon asked carefully.

"Nope." said Joe, and pressed the digivice into the screen.

To be continued...