Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.

Note: It's really been a while since I last updated. I apologize to anyone who is still following the story, but I do plan to continue with it. This is really rough and not at all proof-read, so please point out any mistakes and I will correct them.

Jenrya's vision faded in and out of a black-orange blur. There was heat, so much heat. And smoke. This much smoke had to be dangerous… and his world changed from orange to black. Out of the darkness he felt tiny hands pinch his cheek.

"Jen!" A high pitched voiced called his name worriedly. White and light green.

"T-terriermon?" Jenrya choked out. It's a dream. It had to be. Letting a sigh escape his lips, blackness crept over his line of sight once more.

"Jen!" This time whatever that thing is shook his shoulders forcefully. With a yelp, Jenrya was shocked into consciousness and reflexively backed away from the creature.

"Terriermon! It's really you! I-" He could barely contain himself, and the diminutive creature grinned happily. Suddenly he didn't know what to say.

"Of course it's me, you dummy! I came through the digital portal with the other one. I guess it's just lucky I found you!"

As much as Jenrya wanted to embrace Terriermon on the spot, his dismal surroundings caught his attention. The alley was utterly devastated and everything was aflame. Burning debris, steel, wood, concrete, were mixed in a pile on the ground, and a putrid fume rose through the air. Before the fire stood an exhausted teenage boy. He was garbed in a soccer uniform darkened with soot, and he was hunched over, his hands on his thighs, panting heavily. He couldn't figure out who that boy was for a split second, then he remembered. The last thing that came to his mind before he blacked out was a terrifying and very real digital field descending upon him, and that boy, trying to warn him.

"Oy, you okay?" The boy felt Jenrya's stare and turned to him, his striking brown eyes genial and friendly. He took a deep breath, exhaled, then wiped sweat off his brows. He had either been working out or… fighting. But fighting whom? What?

"What happened here?" Jenrya addressed both the boy and Terriermon, gesturing to the environment.

"A Parrotmon attacked you and Takuya saved you!" Terriermon beamed at both of them. The boy- apparently Takuya, hit Terriermon affectionately on the head.

"Hey, remember what you promised."

"Fine fine. Be that way." Terriermon jumped onto Jenrya's shoulders, both ears enveloping his neck.

"I should probably introduce myself. My name is Kanbara Takuya, but you can just call me Takuya. I'm fifteen and I live in Shibuya. Um… Where was I going with that?" Takuya trailed off as he ran out of relevant introductory information and scratched the back of his head, chuckling in slight embarrassment. "Well, that's me. And before you ask," he cut in as Jenrya opened his mouth, "I can't tell you. Sorry."

Jenrya could tell there was no forcing the issue, and gave Takuya a reassuring smile.

"No problem. You can tell me when you're ready. My name is Lee Jenrya, and I go to school in Shinjuku. This is my partner, Terriermon."

From afar, a siren wailed, and they both turned in its general direction. Crap.

"Let's get outta here before they ask questions and make us look like criminals. This whole city's going nuts." Takuya grabbed Jenrya's arm and both boys ran out of the alley. Five minutes later, they were slumped against a fence, panting heavily. Out of the corner of their ears, they heard muffled shouts of alarm from several blocks away. They laughed quietly to themselves and gave each other a high five.

"So you're a tamer too?" Jenrya asked, as Takuya displayed none of the shock other people had when they encountered digital lifeforms for the first time. What's more, he had single-handedly defeated a digimon. No human could have done that. He had to be a tamer.; that had to be the only explanation. Only Jenrya never really considered that there were other Tamers outside of his group of friends. Of course there were; how self centered of him that he never thought of that. They had all become tamers by their sheer love for the digimon franchise. What part of that made them special? Digimon used to be the biggest fad around! There had to be more of them.

"Of… sorts. That's all I can say. I'm under a lot of pressure already. I know it's asking a lot but please just trust me." Takuya said. Whatever else he might be, Takuya was certainly charismatic. He was not apologetic, nor did his voice waver. His eyes found Jenrya's, and his entire demeanor inspired confidence. Damn. Jenrya wished he had that kind of effect on people, then maybe Shuichon would actually- What was he thinking letting his mind wander like that?

"Look, I trust you. You saved my life when you didn't have to." Jenrya put his right hand on Takuya's shoulder and smiled. "So why are you under pressure?"

"Since you're a tamer I'll just cut the crap. You've heard about the recent attacks?"

Jenrya looked pained. "Yes. Two of my friends were among the victims."

Takuya's expression softened into sympathy.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Then you know they're targeting digimon tamers."

"That's the most plausible explanation." Jenrya said carefully.

"Oh, come on. It's obvious." Annoyance crossed Takuya's features, but he quickly pressed on. "Anyway. I met a bunch of kids who were being attacked. Some survived, some didn't. I managed to save one of them and rounded up the survivors. We have a group now, and our job is to get potential victims away from the digital field before the enemy can materialize. They all have partners, and some of them have even gotten them back, like you. But digimon aren't the only ones targeting us. The government is spying on us as well, and the group's grown a bit paranoid. Because I'm the de facto leader, they're making a big deal out of why I don't have that D-Ark thing you all carry, or why I don't have a partner."

"But not all of them have their partners back. And you could've just lost your D-Ark." Jenrya pointed out.

"Yeah. That doesn't matter does it? The truth is that I never owned a D-Ark, never had a partner in the same sense. And they're right to be suspicious. Anyone who isn't one of us could easily betray us, because, well, it's all true! If being a tamer means having a D-Ark and a living, breathing partner, then they're right, I'm not one of them! But I wish they'd just understand that I'm really not some spy. And on top of that, three of my own friends have evaporated into thin air! Only one of them left a note on her mother's kitchen counter, a friggin' stupid note, because it said nothing helpful! So you can imagine how her mom reacted when she found out. This whole world has gone insane. I don't know how I can handle any of this anymore."

In this moment, Jenrya really felt for him as Ruki's memory surfaced in his mind. Takuya let his rant die off as though realizing something, and smiled wryly.

"You really are something else, Lee-kun. I just told you more of the truth than I've told any of them, and I just met you. I wish I could tell them the truth. That'd be so much easier. But they'd just react badly."

"I'm sorry. One of my best friends is missing and I know how it feels to not even know if they're alive or dead. I should really be going home. Do you have a number? We should keep in touch." Jenrya said.

"You're right. Here, type your number in my phone and I'll text you." After that, the two boys parted. Walking to the train station, Jenrya's mind swam with theories as well as questions for his father. So there are humans affiliated with digimon who are not tamers? That's interesting. What was even more ironic was that Takuya was not as discrete as he believed himself to be. Although he didn't spell out exactly how, he had said enough. A human with the power to defeat digimon without a partner? The most straight forward explanation felt preposterous to Jenrya, but at the same time it was concrete as the earth beneath his feet. Occam's razor. After all, it's not like it's never been done before, he mused to himself, enjoying the sensation of having Terriermon perched on his back once more.

Walking in the other direction, Kanbara Takuya was in a daze. That talk had taken more out of him than he'd imagined. He was, for the lack of a better word, physically and emotionally drained. Looking at the red-orange sunset, he couldn't help but smile as he felt fire coursing through his veins. I am the sun, I am the fire of life. I have to protect them no matter what, he thought, as he made a single flame in his left palm then snuffed it out. It was his secret, a beautiful, wondrous secret.

His phone beeped, and he fished it out of his pocket, thinking it was his mother telling him to come home. HEY CAP'N U COMIN? The text read. One of his teammates. Puzzled, he looked at his watch. 6:13 pm. He was thirteen minutes late to soccer practice. Takuya looked at the nearest fence and felt a burning need to slump onto it like a pile of goo, then he chuckled at the mental image. Screw that. He just wanted to crawl into his bed and never wake up. Nah. I'm beat. Tell the team I'm sorry. Beep. With a determined long press, his phone shut off. Nobody else was going to bother him tonight.

"Patamon!" Izumi whispered in total darkness. "You awake?"

She heard her partner shuffle slightly.

"Only so-so… I'm bored."

"Me too, me too."

"Izumi, what are we doing?"

"No idea. Ruki's crazy, that's what."

It'd been two hours since Ruki had ordered them to go into the cave and stay there until ordered otherwise. But why? Izumi had protested. Ruki refused to say. She looked at Kouji imploringly, who merely shrugged.

Lying down on her back, Izumi kicked the rock in front of her in frustration.

"Ow!" She yelped.

"Please don't go crazy too, Izumi." Patamon pleaded.

Sigh.

"Sorry. I won't do that again."

It all started that morning.

Izumi was barely awake when she saw her determined cousin walking in her direction.

"Good mor-" She began.

"Orimoto, we need to talk."

"Izumi."

"Whatever."

"Okay. Let's talk." Izumi was puzzled at this sudden change of attitude.

"You're the only tamer in the group right now. If we want to survive, you'll have to train."

"Train how? Who's going to train me?"

"I am." Ruki pointed to herself. Patamon groaned. In his childish little brain, he knew what training had to be: no fun at all. "As I am the top ranking female player of the digimon card game and a tamer with many hours of combat experience, I assure you I'm more than qualified."

A little full of yourself, aren't you? "So what do you have in mind?"

"Simple. You're going to do whatever I tell you for the next twenty four hours."

Izumi gulped. Why does that sound so dreadful?

"Come with me, Orimoto." Ruki gestured for her to come along.

"Izumi."

"Whatever."

Hence the cave.

"Makino, are they holding a seance in that cave? What's this supposed to accomplish?" Kouji asked lazily, leaning against a tree. Ruki sighed. She really didn't like speaking to strangers.

"Since I'm not going to let them out for another four hours, I might as well give you the long version."

"Whatever works for you. I'd be interested to hear the principle behind this. I assume this serves some end, since you claim to be so experienced."

"Well, naturally." Irritation laced her voice. "The goal is to get Patamon to evolve naturally. The Super-Evolution Plug-In S is just a crutch. Evolution is terribly draining as it is; if the partnership is not strong enough, forcing evolution can easily be dangerous."

"For instance?"

"This is only a theory, but since there aren't many tamers in the world to begin with, that makes me an authority on this subject. There are three means to evolution. Natural evolution, tamer-assisted evolution, and forced evolution. Natural evolution is ideal, and forced evolution, like card slashing, can be thought of as a temporary solution, nothing more. Before I became a tamer, a digimon's natural ability to evolve was sealed away. Digimon started to seek out human tamers to override that limitation, and that is tamer-assisted evolution. It happens faster than natural evolution would, but for all practical purposes it is valid and safe."

"What would an invalid evolution be like? Would it lose its sanity?"

"In the wild, it might. It can also mutate. If the evolution goes very wrong, it might even create a glitch in the digimon that it cannot run anymore. Digimon are programs. If they have a glitch or a virus they can cease to exist all together, because the computer would not be able to run it. In Patamon's case, if he is forced to evolve through card slash too many times, he will be in danger of regressing back into his Child, or even In-Training form. Think of it this way. An amateur skier could probably last for a few seconds on an advanced slope, but he'd never be able to keep it up for long because no amount of luck can change the fact that his skills aren't high enough. Patamon probably won't disappear; having a tamer is a safety net. But it's still dangerous for him to lose his evolution in the middle of a battle. With a tamer, digimon grow powerful faster, so they can achieve higher stable forms faster than they naturally would. The only drawback is that they will revert back to child form once the battle is over and the tamer stops giving them energy. If it wants to advance enough remain at a higher stage, it takes the same amount of battle experience as natural evolution. That's one thing they can't cheat. I know this because Akiyama Ryo had a year to train his partner, who is permanently in his Perfect form."

"And the point of the cave?"

"As I said, everything hinges on the strength of the partnership. They have to know each other well and have complete trust. Wordless communication is, in my experience, a prerequisite for the Ultimate stage. All of my friends who can evolve to this stage have an instinctive understanding with their partners."

"So this cave thing is your version of 'getting to know you' exercise?"

"Ye-ah." Ruki said, feeling a bit ridiculous hearing her intentions put in this light.

"Why didn't you explain any of this to her?"

"I'm going to do that after I let them out."

"So- so let me get this straight. Right after you end their six hour imprisonment in a cave, you're going to lecture them."

"What, got a problem with that? I have to teach her the card game. It's made and adapted from actual digimon data, and I can't overstate how important it is that she knows this before starting any practical training."

"Holy… You- Sorry." Minamoto laughed. He laughed. That prick can laugh?! "How do you know they're not asleep by now? What would a normal person do in a dark cave?"

"They're not asleep."

"You sure about that?"

"Absolutely."

"Let's check."

"No!"

Further in the desert, Kouichi and Lopmon walked alongside each other.

"Have you ever wanted to live with your father?"

"I've always wanted to live with him. But after I met him, oddly, not so much anymore. Weird, right? To think I spent so many years wishing I had a dad to help mom out, and after I found out about him, all I wanted was his approval. But when I met him, it was clear as day that he's not really my father. He's Kouji's father, sure, but not mine. So I guess the real answer is not anymore."

"Hehe, you humans are so strange, worrying about stuff like that."

"Hey! Speak for yourself! But seriously, I should apologize. I've been talking about myself for way too long! What about you? How are you getting along?" The "with them" was tactfully omitted.

"There isn't much to tell. We've been getting along great!"

Kouichi raised his eyebrow in skepticism.

"Really?"

"Really! Jeez! I told you you humans make things way too complicated! We used to disagree, and now we don't! It's simple as that!" Lopmon smiled broadly.

"Haha, if you say so!"

"Don't get me wrong." Lopmon was suddenly pensive. "I feel bad for what I did. But they told me it was a-okay, so I didn't want to bother them with it."

"Still?"

"Yeah…"

"You really shouldn't. It was a long time ago."

"Right back at you."

Kouichi paused. He wasn't that easy to read, was he? Lopmon suddenly gasped.

"What is it?"

"Something's coming. He's angry."

A Togemon stepped out of the shadows. If cactus could look angry, Kouichi thought, it'd look like this creature.

"You."

"Eheheh… We didn't mean to be so loud. We'll leave you in peace now." Lopmon explained sheepishly. But Togemon looked past him at Kouichi.

"You humans have the gall to show yourself here after all you've done to our world. Nothing you say will save you now. We'll kill all of you, you 'digi-destined', 'tamers', or whatever you call yourselves."

"I'm sure there's been a misunderstanding. We never did anything to-" Kouichi tried to explain. The Togemon flung a thorn at him in response. Kouichi closed his eyes and readied himself for the pain when Lopmon leapt in front of him, batting it away with Petit Twister.

"If you're going to be like that then I'm going to take you down!" Lopmon said quietly. His fury, however, was evident.

"Tell me what I'm not understanding, boy. The disappearance of that mountain? Or the rain that stopped falling? Or that scores of my comrades died in the process of evolution in the space of months? The arrogance of you humans. Unforgivable! And you! You're a traitor to your kind. I will not let either of you walk away from here alive!"

"Stand down. You overreach yourself, challenging me." Lopmon suddenly seemed to have aged many years, his tone befitting his status as one of the Great Angels. His form glowed purple with a powerful aura. "This is not a threat. I am merely informing you out of good will."

"Insolent little twerp!" With an enraged roar, Togemon charged. Lopmon turned to look at Kouichi.

"Do you trust me?"

"Completely."

Then he was blinded by an orb of golden light descending before his eyes.

"Let's check." Kouji suggested, daring her to refuse.

"No!" Ruki said defiantly, glaring at Kouji who was trying not to laugh at her ridiculous methods.

"Wait. Someone's coming." Ruki pointed out, and they both fell silent. Sure enough, there were footsteps approaching. Two figures emerged from the distance. One was definitely Kouichi, but the other was utterly unfamiliar. It was taller than Lopmon that looked for all the world like a purple rabbit wearing a yellow sleeveless combat uniform, holding blades in its arms.

"What-" Kouji started.

"How-" Ruki was gaping at them both, then she shut her mouth and blushed in humiliation.

"This is Lopmon's Adult form, Turueimon, but never mind that-"

Kouji broke into peals of laughter, stealing glances at Ruki. Kouichi rolled his eyes.

"You know, of all the times you could have shown some human reaction, you go for worst possible time."

"Sorry." Kouji choked out between his merriment at Ruki's expense. "Go on."

"Izumi needs to hear this too. Get her out of that cave."

Kouji finally collected himself, finally understanding his brother was not his usual easy-going and tolerant self. Ten seconds later, Izumi and Patamon hobbled out of the cave flanked by an irritated Ruki, yawning from their recent nap.

"We fought a Togemon just now. Before he died, he said something that bothered me a lot. Makino-san, what do you know about what the human government is doing to the Digital World?"

"I only have theories based on my week in the Digital World, Kimura-kun." Ruki said, mirroring Kouichi's seriousness in an instant. "I wish I could tell you more. For what its worth, I think the whole realm is in danger, and every digimon along with it."

"It doesn't matter because we have no other leads. But two things I can be sure of: one, something big is going down and two, you have far more knowledge about both how the government works and this digital world than we do. From the few days I've spent with you, I can see you're anxious to accomplish something, to prevent something bad from happening to someone you love. Your partner, most likely. That, and you know far more about the government and its intentions than somebody our age really should. I can't even imagine how you have access to that kind of information, but I trust your intuition. You have to tell us everything you know."

It was not a request. Ruki sighed.

"You might want to get comfortable because we're going to be talking for quite a while. Long story short, I think the government wants to destroy the Digital World and every living digimon with it."

Note: I really meant to put more development in, but I wanted to develop the Takuya/Jenrya exchange a bit. Yes, Takuya's going to be a pretty important character in the story, but he's not going to meet up with the rest of the Frontier group until much later. He has a role to play in the fledgling community of hunted Tamers. I particularly enjoyed writing him as a leader, because I think he makes a better leader than most other goggleboys, even Taichi. He's mature, charismatic and magnanimous, with one possible darkside that he loves leadership more than he should. I thought it was evident even in Frontier that he developed a bit of a domineering side in the Dark Area. He wants things his way and refuses to give up his role even when he is clearly unsuited for the role at certain points.

I also took this opportunity to develop some of my own theories about how digimon work, evolve, etc. in Adventure, Apocalymon was made out of the pain and despair of digimon eliminated in the process of evolution, etc. and Ruki's theory of wrongful or forced evolution has something to do with that. It always bothered me in the franchise that not many attempts were made to standardize or explain anything, so I gave it my best shot.

Lastly, I hope you enjoyed what little comedy I'm capable of writing. I've been driving the atmosphere down the deep end lately and I thought it was sorely needed. :) Smile. Enjoy the sunshine. It's SPRING. Oh and don't watch too much Game of Thrones. Else you write stories like this. (Season 4 Premier was SO good)