Small note: Hiroshi's Biyomon and Sora's Piyomon are the same species, but for the sake of avoiding confusion, Hiroshi's partner employs the English name, while Sora's uses the Japanese name.


The morning came quietly on Shimoshima.

Noriko and Hiroshi stood to one side, their eyes aglow with the light spilling from Amphimon's holy rings.

They were in an anterior room to the lab. The incessant messaging and postulating on how to find the others was necessary, but distracting to Amphimon's process. She sat on a chair, her eyes half-closed in a trance and her hands held out in a welcoming, beseeching manner. Two hundred feet of ethernet cable stretched between her body and the main room, one end plugged into the machine, and another plugged directly into the back of Amphimon's neck.

Biyomon looked up at Hiroshi, and broke the solemn silence with his demanding tone. "Will she be done soon?"

Noriko and Hiroshi shushed him sharply.

Biyomon pouted, and made a big show of marching to the door closing them off from the main hall. However, he closed the door gently after himself, barely even eliciting the gentle click of the latch sliding into place.

Amphimon was acting as a conduit. A faux-portal to the digital world that could attract the stray data to their physical location. From here, she could send them through Alice's Door to the digital world with Koushiro's help. It wouldn't do to open such a potentially unstable door many times, so she was calling insistently. Gathering every bit of stray data she could to herself, in the hopes of sending as much of it as she could to the digital world at a time.

It was a tedious process. The data was not sentient, of course, so it was drawn to the nearest gate sites. It was magnetism in essence, and Amphimon had to burn her energy in long stretches to create a pull that was strong enough to tear the data away from the existing gates. If they were moths, she had to be the brightest flame. The time to stop was difficult to gauge, as any data partially pulled to her would return from where it came, or the next nearest gate. She burnt herself out once, but she seemed to have learned her lesson.

Tiny particles of data, fine and bright as powder snow, seeped through the walls. They gathered around Amphimon like fireflies, nudging and bouncing off her skin in a futile attempt to pass through the illusion of a gate she was projecting.

Noriko's shoulders stiffened, and she squeezed her D3.

Hiroshi kept his eyes on the spectacle, but reached out to rest a hand on her head of short, fluffy hair. "It's okay," he whispered. "He'll be back."

She nodded staidly. "Of course he will."


It was time, at last.

Sora's shirt was stiff, covered in ugly patches where she had washed most but not all of Piyomon's blood out, and it smelled a little moldy. Her inner Japanese woman shuddered at the idea of putting it on, but she did it anyway. She had bigger problems than filth or fungus right now, and at last she could get up and do something about them. After three days of duck meat (and just last night a horned white seal that Sora felt kind of bad for eating) and exercise, Piyomon had recovered. She flew around gamely, glad to be back in the air and anxious to get Sora away from the grudge-holding sea dragons that still sent whirlpools to the surface.

"Should it be Garudamon?" Piyomon asked excitedly.

Sora shook her head. "As long as we don't fall into the water again, I think we'll be safe with Birdramon." She avoided mentioning the huge blue bird she had seen the first evening, and strapped her bag tightly to her back. "I also feel like we have a long way to fly…"

Piyomon landed in the sand, and snuggled against Sora's leg with a smile. "Even if it's a million miles away, I'll fly you home, Sora."

A swell of affection washed over Sora, and her crest warmed against her chest. She had no idea where home might be, but she knew she could trust Piyomon's promise. If Earth really was a million miles across, she knew her partner wouldn't bat a lash at flying it all if it meant getting Sora home. With a deep breath, she took hold of her digivice and watched it come brilliantly to life for the first time since their arrival. In a matter of seconds, she was riding Birdramon into the sky.

"Which way should we go?"

The sun still rose in the east wherever they were, or so she hoped. It was their only means of navigation. "North and kind of east. That's the direction of Japan if I'm not mistaken."

"Alright. Hold on tight!"

With a dip of her wings and a self-motivating cry, Birdramon veered off in the direction Sora had outlined. Behind them, not so far away at Cinnabar Island, Agumon looked up from a staryu he'd been investigating. His eyes scanned the sky, and failed to find the source, but he knew that cry anywhere.

"Taichi!" he yelled. "Taichi, come quick!"


"Dammit," Taichi hissed, holding up a pink feather tipped in blue. There was blood on it, but he didn't dare believe it was Piyomon's. Or Sora's.

Agumon nodded and nosed through the lumpy sand. "They must have been here for days, eating chicken or something. Look at all the bones."

"Those are psyduck bones."

They looked up at Nurse Joy. She had insisted on coming along, which was all the better really. Taichi had learned a lot from her, and even shared some things about himself and Agumon, but neither of them thought she should see several tons of bionic dinosaur sail into the air until it was absolutely time for them to leave. They had arrived at the Seafoam Isles on a boat she normally reserved for emergencies instead of MetalGreymon.

"Chan-sey!" her helper called. It was hopping up and down, gesturing to the ground outside the cave.

There were tracks in the sand. Deep, and still so well defined that Taichi could make out the pattern on the soles of Sora's shoes.

"Must be the newest..." Taichi mumbled thoughtfully. A thought came to him, and he began to follow their path. Soon, he found what he was looking for. "This is where they took off from!"

Agumon nodded as he circled Birdramon's huge claw marks in the sand. They were surrounded by smooth drifts created by her wings during takeoff. "Why is this important, Taichi?"

"Because we can assume they flew off in the direction they were facing." He whipped out his trusty binoculars and scanned the horizon. He knew Birdramon would be long gone by now, but maybe if he could make out what they were heading toward…

"There!" he pointed. "Nurse Joy, what's in that direction?"

"Let's see… Straight shot north… The first thing you'd hit is the junction between Route 18 and Cycling Road."

"Alright. That's where we're headed. Thanks for all your help, but you should go back to Cinnabar."

She frowned a little. "Is there anything else I can do for you and Agu-chan? How will you get there?"

Taichi still had to bite his cheek to not laugh at her nickname for Agumon. "You'll see. If you find any more people with digimon, tell them where I went."

"I will." She seemed uncertain for a moment, and handed him a small pearly scale. "That's a heart scale. In other cities, you'll find other Nurse Joys. We're all related, you see. Show them that, and tell them I sent you. They should be willing to help with anything you might need without asking too many questions."

He smiled. "Thanks. Agumon?"

"Ready when you are, Taichi!"

A flash of light, one from his digivice and one from his crest, and they were on their way, leaving behind a shocked, wobbling Nurse Joy. Taichi waved once, and focused on their path to the north. Catching up with Sora while Birdramon was flying would be impossible. MetalGreymon was fast, but he was also bulky. Taichi's only hope would be to cover as much ground as Sora did. If he could figure out where she was going, they might be able to catch her.

If Taichi had adjusted their direction by just a few degrees to the east, he'd have caught up to Sora a day and a half later as she took off just outside Vermillion City.

As it was, he found himself at the bottom of Cycling Road nearly three hours later, and was forced to land by the growling stomach of his partner. They had scarcely touched the ground when a biker approached them. He seemed stunned.

"Hey, man! What the hell was that?"

Taichi felt his stomach turn. He remembered Nurse Joy saying the Pokémon evolved, but de-evolving was probably not normal. That, and seeing a half-metal dinosaur flying in low to make his landing probably wasn't an everyday thing. As he tried to think of a reasonable excuse, more bikers surrounded him. Some were equally shocked, some had other agendas. In the end, he was trapped in a circle of roaring engines and sinister cackles.

"They got over that pretty fast…" Taichi muttered to Koromon, careful to keep his voice low.

"They say only the really smart or really dumb can recover that fast."

"I think it's fairly obvious what end we're dealing with." He kept his eye on the circle. They weren't threatening him. Not yet. This was just the intimidation show.

"Should I digivolve? I bet I could make it to Agumon at least."

Taichi was considering what it would mean to attack a bunch of thugs with Agumon, a whistle blared over the sound of the engines. They all quieted, and Taichi stood in confusion in the middle of the suddenly distracted bikers. He shifted as he fought the desperate urge to push them out of the way and find the source. It had been a long time since Hikari used whistles, but he still had an instinctive reaction to them. A woman's voice accompanied the revving of a different engine.

"Break it up!"

The bikers growled and grunted, but in the end, they disbanded and left Taichi standing in the middle of the road in front of a policewoman. She rolled up to him, and looked him over skeptically.

"What do you think you're doing, kid? This is Cycling road. Where's your bike?"

He felt his temper flare up. "I don't have a bike. I just flew here from the Seafoam islands."

"Well, why the hell would you land here of all places?"

"My ride was hungry. I wasn't about to make him keep going."

"Sure. Next you'll tell me that stuffed animal under your arm is your so-called ride." She reached down and pinched Koromon's cheek, only to quickly draw her hand back when he growled at her. "Well, shit. What the hell is that thing?"

"…You've got a foul mouth for a policewoman."

She rolled her eyes. "You try dealing with this bunch all day." She gestured to the bikers. "It could suck the maidenhood out of a nun." Taichi shifted uncomfortably, and she sighed."Well, I should give you a ticket, but you're just so pathetically harmless I'd feel like a bully. Get off the road and don't let me catch you on it again with no bike."

"Uh, thanks… Which way do I go?"

"Oh, for the love of..." She swerved, making a U-turn around them. "Get on the damn motorcycle."

Taichi didn't dare disobey. Mercifully, she was a sane driver.


"Iori, we are doing our best..."

"Your best is not good enough!"

Miyako frowned dejectedly, and Koushiro couldn't help but feel bad for her. Iori was beside himself on the other side of their connection. He had somehow run aground during his trip through unknown waters. To his horror, he had arrived several feet under the sands of the digital world and Submarimon was held so firmly in place that they couldn't even back themselves out into the oceans of Hoenn. If not for a quick use of Digmon's drills, they would have been buried alive.

According to Iori, others had not been so lucky.

Mere hours ago, Iori had found himself just outside of Full Metal City, surrounded by the bodies of unfortunate people and pokémon who probably didn't even know what hit them when it happened. Here and there, krabby and other water pokémon that had escaped their pokéballs picked the meat off of those who failed to survive as they pondered where the ocean might be. Iori thought hell might look this way: Refreshingly familiar with something small but horrifying to profane the sense of security.

He'd had the presence of mind to contact Miyako, but he was not in the right mind to talk or listen. He was breathing too quickly, and shrill when he spoke. Furious, confused, scared, and sorry for the lost lives he'd stumbled on, and rattled by the idea that it could he could have been dead like the rest if his partner were any different. The news of Amphimon and the real world situation had not improved the situation.

"Iori," Koushiro said sternly. "Remember when everyone was stuck in the oil rig, slowly running out of oxygen?"

"Of course I do!"

"I need you to focus like you did then. There are lives at stake. You're seeing it for yourself."

There was a sniffling noise from the other side, but nothing else for awhile.

"What am I supposed to do?" he finally asked.

"We sent Yamato south to look for you guys. He could be anywhere in your region, but he's definitely there. I know it must be tempting to just come home from the digital world, but meeting Yamato and finding Daisuke should be your concern first."

"What about this place? We can't leave it here. No one else needs to die like this."

Koushiro looked at the long blue cable connecting Amphimon to the other room. He rubbed the back of his neck, and gave the cord an experimental tug. Hiroshi appeared in the doorway, carefully holding the wire such that it could not be yanked.

"Now's not the best time."

"I'm sorry, but this is a major problem, and I don't feel comfortable making a decision without her input."

He scanned the room, looking closely at the slumped postures and strained faces of his predecessors. And he turned on his heel and vanished back into the hall.

Amphimon entered at a slow, trance-like pace, carefully pulling the cloud of data along with her being. When Alice's Door opened, it rushed from her, swirling into the open gate like debris riding a whirlwind.

She pulled the plug herself, and breathed deeply. She seemed as annoyed as she was concerned. "What is it?"

Koushiro kept the explanation as short and factual as he could, and yet Amphimon's eyes grew large and he was certain he could see her white eyelashes clumping together with moisture. She didn't cry, but her silence was heavy with grief.

"Please," Iori's pleading voice said over the speakers. "Please close these gates."

The look in Amphimon's eyes changed. "You cannot close the gates."

"We can't let this keep happening! How many people—!"

The motherly face Miyako and Koushiro had come to associate with Amphimon disappeared and her voiced crashed in their ears like a tidal wave. "You cannot close the gates!"

The only sound in the hush was the hum of the computer and the sound of her holy rings spinning violently on her wrists and ankles.

"You do not know what will happen, and neither do we. If humans got in through that gate, what if they have come in elsewhere? What if by closing the gates you trap the others? Would you lock so many into foreign worlds just to save them?"

The image of the staryu falling silently through the depths of the ocean like leaves came back and sent a chill down Iori's spine. He couldn't imagine forcing people to look at scenery as unsettlingly alien as that had been for him.

"I'm sorry."

The rings stopped spinning, and Amphimon's gentle nature was restored. "Don't be. It is a good thing that this senseless loss disturbs you, Iori. Izumi, it's a good time to try what I intended for Ken, don't you think?"

Koushiro nodded and leaned in so Iori could hear him. "Take your digivice out. Amphimon is going to try mapping that world by connecting to your D3."

He could picture the curious, slightly confused face Iori was making. "Can digimon do that?"

Kyoushiro glanced over and saw Amphimon standing beside the super computer with Miyako's digivice. He cringed as she plunged several cables into her fingertips and connected them and the digivice. Almost immediately, the edges of her gown started to break down into script, but she stabilized just a quickly and gave Koushiro the OK.

"Amphimon can. You ready?"

He heard Armadimon say something to the tune of 'hurry up' and nodded to Amphimon.

Visual came first. Not of the other world, but of Armadimon's face. Amphimon made a self-chastising noise, and the computer buzzed with activity. The visual disappeared.

"Unprocessed?" she suddenly said. "Oh, you poor thing."

"Amphi—?"

Amphimon was busy. "INITIATING PRIMARY DATA TRANSFER."

"10%...40%...90%...PRIMARY DATA TRANSFER COMPLETE. OPENING."

The computer blared with disapproval.

"ACCESS DENIED. ACCESS PARAMETERS FIELD LEFT UNSPECIFIED."

For a moment they stood there in stunned silence. It took Amphimon's eerily glowing eyes turning Koushiro's direction to remind him that he had a part to play.

"Er, right. Reference AD_beta01."

"… … … ACCESS PARAMETERS DEFINED. FILE NOW AVAILABLE ON DATABASES L-12, K-11, AND K-22. OPENING."

Every monitor at every terminal in the table went wild. Raw, unprocessed data scrolled on all of them, even the big screen at the far end of the room.

"PROCESSING COMPLETE. INITIATING PROCESSED DATA TRANSFER."

"What's happening?" Iori yelled. "My digivice is glowing!"

Amphimon shifted, and her holy rings spun quietly, like her own personal cooling fans. "CaLm DOwN."

One by one, the screens switched off, and only the big screen was left. "Data processed and transferred. Accessing function D.3. Calculating location relative to other digivices. Calculating encountered landmass. Calculating likely pattern of un-encountered landmass within 30% error."

"THIRTY?!"

She scowled. "It's geography, and I'm not a satellite. I'm doing the best I can."

The view on the screen split in two. The right had clusters upon clusters of shining white lights that were no doubt digivices. At the far southwest corner of the left was a basic topographical map. The visible edges were of poor quality, where all the guessing had been done before the unknowns became too many. The center, where Iori had actually been, was crystal clear.

Koushiro was highly impressed. "Amazing… This kind of information actually exists on a digivice?"

"On a D3, yes. Iori must have tried the Detect function several times because there were pages upon pages of raw data where the function didn't know how to process that world. I just ran the basic mapping data together with the raw data it couldn't process and used my own form of the Detect function." She gestured to the map with the digivice clusters.

"You can see all of them?"

She smiled. "Just like you can see stars in the night. Unfortunately, digivices of any kind can't make heads or tails of even that processed information, but the D-Terminal will. Iori, you should go now. Find Yamato. The sooner we get you guys back, the sooner we can be done with this problem."

"I'm on it!"

"Iori!"

"Yes?"

"...You should be able to take those creatures back to their world if you try. I won't ask you to deal with the dead, but there's no reason the living should be left to fend for themselves in the digital world. Do what you can."

There was a silence, punctuated by a single muffled sniffle. "I will."

The speakers deadened, and the connection with Iori was lost.

Koushiro sighed with relief. "I'm glad that worked."

Miyako smiled. "Next time we get in touch with Ken, we should do this. His map would be useful, since most of the others disappeared on this side of the world."

"Yeah..." Koushiro was staring at the new maps. Something was off in a way he couldn't put his finger on. "Does this look a little strange to anyone but me?"

Amphimon stopped in the middle of pulling the cables from her fingertips. Her breath escaped in heated hissing rasp far too long for human lungs. The patches on her skin spun like a world out of control on its axis and her eyes bulged from her head.

"Amphimon?"

PRIMARY DEFENSE SYSTEM OFFLINE, her voice blared from her gaping but motionless mouth. SECONDARY DEFENSE SYSTEM FAILING.

"Why now?" Miyako groaned.

A rumble came from above them, strong enough to rattle the chairs dotting the room. They were being attacked. Worse still, they seemed to have a strong computer on their side; one strong enough to down the defense system. They could still rely on the encryption, but a skilled machine in serious hands could eventually crack that, given the time. And if they had gone so far as downing the external defenses, they were probably very serious.

CAUTION, Amphimon warned. UKNOWN PROGRAM RUNNING.

A hot red light shone from the pillar that made up the main computer. Amphimon had managed to plug herself back in, and her digicores were glowing as she overlapped with the computer. Her holy rings clattered, and her whole body seemed to be fading in and out of flesh and binary. The room shook again, more violently this time.

Tentomon flew into the lab in a panic.

"Soldiers! Lots of them!"

Miyako pushed Koushiro. "Go! Hawkmon is still in the digital world so I can't fight! Go help Hiroshi and the others! I'll stay here and try to help Amphimon!"

Koushiro ran down the hall toward the surface. From behind, he heard the alarm bells of Amphimon's holy rings as she made her stand as a surprise defense system for whoever was trying to get in. From ahead, he heard a scream and what he futilely prayed wasn't the sound of heavy fire.