Nyksmon was in a familiar place. And yet, it had changed. The walls were the same off-white, and the floor had the same lime-green carpet. But there was only one bed, and it was in a different place - opposite the louvre windows, instead of right next to them - and the dresser was closer to the door.
He was aching all over. He could feel his legs shaking, threatening to fail under his weight. But he wanted to be there, to stand in that room. There was no other place in any world he would rather be.
As he'd broken the mental connection with Peladramon (I shrank into myself and pulled him with me. I really am unstable, aren't I?), he, Nyksmon, revealed to Peladramon an ability that they shared.
Being compiled from Nyksmon's data, Porpamon and all his forms had the ability to open doors between worlds, one of Nyksmon's most treasured abilities. It had allowed him to create a world in which he could allow his powers to grow, a world that he had sealed so no one else might happen upon it.
And it was this ability that allowed him to enter the world of humans for the first time, years before. He'd been planning to use it again, to come to this world and destroy it.
His unseen eyes beheld the boy as he entered the room through the open door. "Mark?" Nyksmon whispered out with surprise. "But... you can't..."
The boy hesitated for a second, then said, "No. I'm Nick. His brother."
"Oh." Nyksmon's clawed fingers clenched tightly around a small, hard object. "You look like him." He lowered his head a little, feeling his gills flare along with some emotion he had a hard time understanding. Anger? Sadness? Disappointment...? In his attempt to push all memory of Mark away, and in conjunction with his anger towards his death, he had created the idea that humans were all evil. He would have killed Nick, Mark's family...
Nick's dark, almost black, eyes turned down to the carpet as he said, "Yeah. You're his friend, aren't you? The one who came here from another world. I haven't seen you since he died." He lifted his head back up and said, "You look hurt. Do you need some help?"
"No." Nyksmon said. A lie? "Either way, your doctors wouldn't be able to help a digimon."
"But I can't just leave you like this. Is there anything I can do? Do you need some food?"
Nyksmon turned and looked out the window at the green, sun-drenched grass. He felt his knees fail and he fell into a kneel, painfully, despite the cushioning of the carpet. And Nick was by his side in an instant. It was then that the object in his hand gave off a gentle glow. He opened his hand and saw Mark's digivice, with its small antenna, three blue buttons, and the English digiletters for DIGITAL MONSTER around the screen. And then, he smiled.
"I think this is yours now," he told Nick, placing the digivice in the confused boy's hand. With a sigh, he let go of all that he had been holding in his heart for so long. His entire body relaxed, and he took on a form he had not allowed himself to become in a long time, for hatred of being weak.
Spratmon, now in his second baby form, closed his orange eyes as he felt Nick pick up his small grey, almost circular body. The blue fish-like fin that went down his back twitched a little.
The phone rang from somewhere outside the bedroom that Mark had shared with his little brother. As he heard a familiar voice (Mark's mother, Nick's mother) call out, "Nick! Come here! They found Ken! He's back!" Spratmon settled into his new partner's arms and allowed himself to sink into sweet sleep. And, finally, from deep within his heart, he knew what it was like to feel:
Peace.