Pre-chapter notes:

[1] It's great not having the pressure to study for a grueling exam, and even better to approach that occasional task of writing a new chapter with the feeling of success and triumph—I passed that exam, after all, and surprisingly did very, VERY well despite studying for half the time it normally takes to pass it.

[2] Prior to this update, I've also rewritten 80% of Chapter 18, "Priorities". Its length has almost doubled, and now contains more intense writing, a few new scenes, better dialogue, and more importantly, a clearer look at the direction I wanted to take the main characters. Please give it a read and tell me what you think. :)

[3] If you may recall, the previous chapter narrated Veemon, Hikari, and Tailmon's intrusion into the DSI M&A Wing, with the presentation alternating between the past and the present. This will continue in this update until the point everything comes around. After all, CH26 and CH27 were intended to be one.

Also, you might've forgotten this bit of detail as it was only mentioned once in the first chapter, but the Modifiers do have ranks, and they're relatively high up on the JSDF command chain. Albert Reeves (the main villain for the first story arc) was a Colonel after all, and Lucille Diaz is a Major, being two notches lower. It's this distinction that separates them from most DSI veterans. Such experience makes them difficult to kill.

[4] Just about everyone in the main cast is going to make an appearance in "The Value of Life". Yes, this also means Christopher will have a turn in the spotlight. Take note, however, that his perspective of the DSI Infiltration mission doesn't move the storyline until a little bit later, so I won't be dwelling on him too much 'til then.

[5] I've decided to split "The Value of Life" because it's getting extremely long. The total length as of this posting is nearly 24K words, and it took that long to close the loop. I still have Yamaki's, Chris', Taichi's, and the concluding story segments left and I'm expecting at least 2K to 4K for each one. This first half you're about to read is about 16K long, so the second half should be around the same length when I get to post it.

[6] To enhance the reader experience, consider listening to Breath of Five V's "Biotech Public Corporation" for the first story segment and Assassin Creed 3's "Frontier Chase and Escape Music" (that one's an 8 min. and 39 second video on Youtube).

[7] Once again, all feedback and criticisms are welcome. Happy reading, everybody!


THE INTERLOPER

STORY ARC: PRIORITIES

CHAPTER 27: THE VALUE OF LIFE I


Veemon, Hikari, and Tailmon left the safety of the break room armed with a confidence that has proven as persistent as a phoenix, poking its head out of the ashes of despair. With the Office of Detection and Containment overreliant on the RFID cards needed to protect the Digital Suppression Initiative's employees and visitors from the devastating might of its security, Veemon felt the pressure and stress of this mission wearing down to a more manageable level.

No longer did they have to hide behind wide and surprisingly solid columns of cement. No more furtive peeks of the area ahead. No need to pinpoint the cameras and demolish them all simultaneously lest the ODC was alerted by the robots monitoring the live feeds or the six-man squads of DSI soldiers patrolling throughout the base.

With Dr. Akihiro's ID in Veemon's baldric and two employee ID's in Hikari's pockets and Tailmon's paws, their real concerns had dwindled significantly. Now all they needed to worry about were the occasional patrol and the miniscule possibility that someone in the Office of Detection and Containment was vigilant enough to actually monitor the live feeds instead of leaving this boring, arduous, and immensely tedious responsibility to the algorithms Veemon was certain the DSI had poured billions and billions of Yen into.

Algorithms that were compromised the second his group dashed into that break room.

Veemon suppressed a happy chuckle. Guess the DSI isn't as airtight as I thought it'd be.

"Shhh!" Hikari cautioned. Veemon's cheer hadn't been so suppressed after all. "We haven't seen any patrols in a while. We could run into one anytime now."

The Digimon of Miracles heard the woman but allowed her words to pass through his ears with little retention, for his scarlet eyes saw the gigantic corridor they were in widen further and further until it opened into a chamber as large and capacious as several Shibuya 109 buildings stacked together, side by side, much like the very one Nefertimon ferried them to in the not so distant future. A chamber containing five floors, not of armaments and other foreboding munitions, but of various shops, outlets, restaurants, and other recreational facilities no sane person would ever expect inside the DSI's own headquarters.

A chamber that branched out into a great number of passages as cavernous as theirs—enough to fit military vehicles and digimon as large as his Adult form, Veemon reminded himself.

Although each path led deeper into the heart of the Military and Administration Wing, there were no signs of mazeophobia gracing either the dragon's ashen muzzle or the faces of the two Chosen of Light. Their confidence remained as high and buoyant as ever and in the face of what should have been an unnerving sight his teeth broke out into a grin.

"It's okay," he said. "It's a-okay. We made it to the First Hub! Too many hiding places to count, plus we know where those other paths go." He glanced at the iPad sticking out of the Chosen Child's waist before he nodded to the white cat standing a couple feet ahead, her azure eyes and indigo-tipped ears alert for the next patrol. "Right, Tailmon?"

The Digimon of Light replied in kind, giving Daisuke's partner a nod of her own. "Right."

Veemon raised a blue hand and, with his index finger, pointed out a corridor slightly off the exact opposite of their position. Or a column of corridors, rather, as the passages diverged in every Hub to permit access to all five floors from any place in the M&A Wing. "We already know that leads to the Second Gate. It'll bring us to the Second Hub and from there we can access the Sixth Gate and find Taichi's cell."

Tailmon's human half had opened her mouth to reply, but the rumble of an engine drowned out her voice. "Next patrol's here," Tailmon hissed and scrambled back. Veemon glimpsed a military Toyota Mega Cruiser cruising around the first level, flanked by two Kawasaki motorcycles. "They're headed this way!"

The woman's hazelnut hair whipped back and forth as her head swished to and fro, those coquelicot spheres seeking out the ideal hideaway among all the choices available to them. Veemon had an inkling of the options weighing on her mind right now. Should they hide behind the facets and nuances of the urban architecture? The pillars, benches, and kiosks installed by the construction team; or the decorative monuments and statues dotting the floor? Or should they duck into the nearest shop or closed restaurant, abusing Kurata's special access privileges as they had done earlier in the break room?

Fortunately for the adult, Veemon already had the answer on hand. A staircase on the side, just a little ways behind their point of entry, had been plaguing his head since his crimson spheres took note of it. It was as wide, as steep, and almost twice as high as the stairs found in subway stations, but it led directly to the first mezzanine level and that was everything they needed.

"Follow me!" he clamored, rushing back to the entrance in a sprint—or the best he could manage without making his feet sound like elephant feet pounding across hollow rock. The digimon hailed them over to his position before approaching the escalator in this ascending corridor. "C'mon, up, up!"

The risers whirred to life as his three-toed feet stomped down the landing platforms housing the gears, the motors, and the sensors that detected the weight and warmth of his body, ascending quietly but rather quickly to the first mezzanine.

Ever since he first entered the Real World ten years ago, Veemon had always marveled at the creativity behind human technology. When he was younger, his fascination was initially a product of the immense, childlike curiosity that had been a part of the blue dragon in all the years that he lived and the novelty of being in an entirely different world. When their little Digimon Adventure finally ended on the deaths of BelialVamdemon and Armagemon, during the Golden Age his fascination with technology evolved into an appreciation for humanity's obsessive need to innovate.

Once he acclimatized to the computer not as a gateway to his homeland but as an instrument of information and computations—a difficult thing considering his default form in the Real World, Chibimon, had oversized stubs for hands—Veemon began following technology blogs on the Internet, if only to satiate that childish curiosity that kept nagging him to learn what new things Daisuke's species recently designed.

In the split second that passed between his first step on the platform and the next on the moving steps, the Digimon of Miracles recalled his first encounter of an automatic escalator. Though he could no longer remember where it took place, even when, his photographic memory brought him back to a time when even the things Daisuke, his friends, and his fellow humans took for granted piqued his neverending interest in the world around him. A time when he didn't despise the innovation that was now costing them the war. A time when he found science and technology charming instead of bestializing, something that had been worth boring hours spent on studying Daisuke's notes while the teenager went to cram school.

He didn't need to remember the memory vividly enough to enrapture his senses. All it took was a reminder and the melancholy hit him like a train. It made him miss the good old days. Four Gods, he also missed the blissful ignorance he and his human half wallowed in for the many years preceding the ill-fated Shinjuku March.

Video games with his partner (among other things he couldn't understand). Sleepovers at Takeru's house or Ken's apartment. Sparring lessons with Iori and his grandfather. Weekly gatherings at one of Odaiba's ice cream parlors. Anniversary celebrations at that cabin on Mt. Fuji. The occasional excursion into a peaceful and serene Digital World.

Yet, even if they win this war, even if they somehow cultivate true coexistence between humanity and the digital monsters, could Veemon forget—truly forget—everything he had been through? Everything he had done? Could he recapture his innocence? Was he stupid for thinking this way? Or was he just naïve, longing for the past?

Veemon clasped the handrail and pulled to maximize the speed of his ascent. A quick check behind him showed Hikari and Tailmon following his lead, with determination adorning their faces instead of raw, unsettling panic. He wondered if either of them shared similar thoughts. How much did Tailmon miss Patamon? How strongly did Hikari feel about the state of humanity now?

He barely understood the depths of their emotions, of how invested the two were in this rescue mission. The Chosen wasn't there when the orange hamster died. He wasn't there when capitalism eroded the social standing of digimon around the world, paving the road for an outright war. He wasn't there when Daisuke was snatched away in the middle of the night and stick around to see how his friends reacted.

The dragon shook his head. With the top of the escalator in sight, he willed the thoughts away, shelved those sinking feelings.

Veemon glanced at the opening ahead, looking back at the First Hub. "Looks all clear on this level." The concrete railing and the higher altitude ensured the patrol wouldn't find them if they didn't make too much noise en route to the passage leading to the Second Gate. "We can slip past every patrol if we're careful," the suggestion flew out his snout when the Chosen Child caught up, dripping in sweat despite the centralized air-conditioning. Her palpitating breaths weren't a good sign. Hikari was not someone suited for a battle of attrition in the middle of enemy territory.

They needed to evade the patrol and push forward. They needed to extricate Taichi and get out of here as soon as possible. But to do so before the next work day began, before the halls were once again filled to the brim with DSI employees…

The junior Yagami beat him to the punch. "Sneaking is much better than hiding and waiting for them to pass," Hikari conceded, hands on her knees, "But that's too time consuming and I simply can't keep this up. I'm not as strong as Taichi." Her gaze fell on Veemon. "Or Daisuke. There must be a better way."

But Veemon had no clue what a "better way" was. He was just going with the flow of things. He was concentrating on the here and now, so that he'd put everything into rescuing Taichi instead of weeping over Christopher's betrayal or the hopelessness of the Chosen Children's peril. Even with a vivid 3D image of the DSI's M&A Wing in the forefront of his mind, there was nothing he could think of at the moment, nothing that would greatly simplify the task of sneaking past every single DSI soldier they come across.

Veemon wasn't good at this thinking stuff. That's the responsibility Daisuke had. It was he who inherited the mantle from Taichi. It was he who was far better at reading the flow of events than the blue dragon ever could. And it was he who was the first to recognize when he was no longer needed, when the goggles belonged not on the Child of Miracles' head but on the tall man who once donned them, courageously so, with an orange dinosaur standing by him.

"I'm sorry, but…"

The more he stood and pondered, the more the blue dragon was at a loss. Despite the fifteen to twenty minute window between each patrol, there weren't really enough alternative passages for them to use. Not enough mezzanine levels such as those populating the three Hubs of the Nine Gates. Even if there were, the difficulty of their job refused to let up; the Chosen had stacked up behind the last pillar in the corridor and cast his scarlet gaze into the First Hub, catching the sight of yet another patrol on the fourth level.

If Hikari Yagami didn't have enough stamina to sustain a long period of crouching, creeping, and hiding like Samuel Fisher from the Splinter Cell series and fighting for her life as soon as the alarm bells begin tolling, then this whole operation fell on Veemon and her partner's shoulders. She was no different from deadweight. A "human battery", as Daisuke dejectedly called himself not long after Miyako was murdered in front of him. Not long before he chose to fight on his own and, by intent or by accident, make Veemon experience the lonesome agony of waiting that all human partners felt whenever their digital halves evolved and fought.

"…but there's no other—

Fortunately, the Digimon of Light had a better idea than a dragon and a cat carrying the weight of the human her own life was attached to. "There is a way," she interrupted. "The Nine Gates are all connected by the underground train. We can slip in and take it straight to the Sixth Gate. I doubt the DSI's set patrol routes through there if they're arrogant to think they can keep most of the complex secure with RFID cards, security cameras, and algorithms."

Hikari Yagami's lips were about to smile in relief, but Veemon cut her off with a penetrating counterattack. "But what if the train's still active?"

"At four thirty in the morning?" Tailmon's tone suggested incredulity. Her head shook in disagreement. "Harmonious Ones, with all the soldiers around us the only way that'll ever happen is if a real emergency crops up and it involves that man or one of the higher ups.

"Even if you're right, the maintenance and utility halls and the elevated walkways will keep us safe." The white cat took point, being the first to step away from the central pillar and enter the First Hub. "Now let's go before another patrol comes here. Veemon, watch our backs."

The digimon marveled at how she noticed this detail so quickly and adapted the plan to suit the Chosen Child's needs. But whatever awe he held for the way Tailmon took command as naturally as she did vanished when he bristled at her reference to Christopher Van Numen. All this sneaking around wouldn't be necessary if he hadn't been so focused on his own priorities, if he looked beyond himself. They should be storming the DSI's front gates, with the blond drawing all the attention whilst the others used the diversion to get in, get Taichi, and get out.

Veemon caught himself dwelling what could—what should have been. He emptied his mind. He brought himself back to the mechanical state he'd been in before the DSI patrols forced them to hide in the break room and elude them by the skin of their teeth.

But unlike before, the junior Yagami was sandwiched between him and her digimon partner. Since destroying the security cameras was no longer necessary, silence displaced speed and became paramount. Both Veemon and Tailmon dropped on all fours to reinforce their stealth and to distribute their weight, reducing sound to an absolute minimum. The blue dragon was no less astounded by the only Chosen Child in their midst when he caught up with her without the woman discerning his footfalls until they were within five feet of each other.

Despite the fact another human or Tailmon herself can do significantly better than this and remain undetected until the point of body contact, this was a great achievement for the Digimon of Miracles and his mouth couldn't help beaming with pride, especially when a third DSI patrol unit descended from the third mezzanine stairs in the passage leading to the First Gate.

Veemon had been following Hikari and Tailmon when several footsteps echoed from the nearby stairs. Their ears twitched and prompted them to rush, but the dragon's position assured he wouldn't make it.

"Hurry!" Hikari was mouthing. Her dainty hands made circular movements, beckoning Veemon to keep going. From the other side of the wide corridor he could already hear her heartbeats, frantic and anxious.

Then her lungs inhaled sharply, alerting Veemon's senses before Hikari's body lurched back. Before Tailmon's paw snapped to her partner's circling arms and scraped across her arm warmers. Before Tailmon's other paw pointed to the concrete divider in the center and a pair of cerulean eyes gyrated across her sclera, glaring at the six soldiers ambling into sight.

Veemon dove beside the concrete divider and curled into a ball of leather, of the brightest blue. His tail had curled tightly around his body in response to the unease gripping his heart. He heard not only their steady paces but also their calm breathing. None of the soldiers were talking. None of them were engaged in small talk.

This wasn't one of the patrols they could slip from as they attended to each other's conversations. This wasn't one of the patrols that would joke and throw friendly banter around like a happy family. That would play around to release the boredom. That would conduct this security detail with the complacency needed for him to evade their line of sight. This was a serious group, intent on business. The Digimon of Miracles had a bad feeling the first thing they were going to do on seeing a bright blue dragon peek out of that concrete divider was cock the assault rifle in hand and open fire before Veemon could shoot back, let alone escape. What'll we do now?

The blue dragon's heart started beating faster when his senses registered the six closing in from the open path in front of him. His sharp hearing recognized the deep and relaxed aspirations of each soldier. He heard their throats gulp down the excess saliva in their mouths as well as the thick grunts that occasionally came with cleared airways.

He couldn't talk his way out of this. He had nothing on hand to distract them. Using one of his magazines wasn't an option either; the mere act of opening a pouch would produce a sound that was comparable to a car flooring its engines in this silence they're in. Had he somehow managed to accomplish this in complete and utter quietude, there was still the strong possibility these soldiers were going to catch a blue blur throwing an object from a few steps ahead.

As blue hands reached for the SIG P239 sitting in his baldric's holster, crimson spheres found their way gazing at the white cat a mere several meters ahead of them, stacked on the other side. Tailmon's mouth was bent upwards in an angry snarl. Her own canines were out in the open, and her sapphire orbs appeared to glow as though signaling her intent to leap right out into the open and hypnotize the soldiers with Cat's Eye. From here Veemon felt the vibrations her body was making. Should he have been close enough to hold her paws, he might have even noticed the sweat pouring out of them.

He knew what was making her anxious, imagined what sort of questions ran through that feline head at this moment. Were any of these soldiers immune to its hypnotic effects, like Kurata Akihiro? Was it possible to catch all six at once and send them all packing their bags to Dreamland? Or would it be better to cease the entire stealth and "shadow of the night" thing and go on the offensive?

Such questions became irrelevant when his scarlet eyes glimpsed Hikari Yagami digging into a trash can behind her, pulling out a half-empty Asahi Super Dry with a look of disgust evident in her countenance, gripped the white aluminum bottle by the neck, aimed into the wide corridor, and tossed the damn thing up at the ceiling well on the other side of the divider with all the strength she could put into it without gasping like a lady in her heated orgasm.

The sound was jarring. It broke the silence so thoroughly Veemon was certain all six patrolmen twisted their heads the instant the bottle struck the concrete. Had he been wrong, he shouldn't have decided to set his hands on the floor. He shouldn't have sprinted as quickly as possible on all fours with dread and alarm bells ringing in his conical ears. He shouldn't have made it without a single gunshot erupting in his ear. In fact, all three of them shouldn't be standing at the lip of the corridor to the Second Gate, panting heavily and looking back at the group of soldiers spreading out, alert, wary, and FN FAL's poised to shoot.

"Ha, ha," the dragon puffed, his head and back leaning against the wall. "T-that… that was... that was so—whhheeeeww!"

To the right, Hikari Yagami slid down the wall, looking a little weary from the rapid scurry. Veemon hoped it was more of the built-up apprehension than a lack of stamina. Even if Hikari had the slightest bit of training these past three years, she wouldn't be this tired already.

To the left, Tailmon edged along the corner and stared at the DSI patrol they barely evaded. Her expression did not belong to someone exhaling with relief nor was it characteristic of a weary runner. It was a look of constant vigilance, of an expert in covert missions, and of someone who absolutely never relaxes until safety was all but assured. "We can't stay here. Too many patrols in the Hubs and—

"It'll be the same for the Nine Gates, huh?" Hikari insinuated.

Tailmon's silence on the matter was disconcerting. "Let's go. It isn't safe."

Each railway platform in the complex had four access points. Two from the Hub and the gigantic hangar itself. Another two to the barracks and armories. The redundant structural design clicked in Veemon's head. Anyone who needed rail transportation can access the underground system from literally every point in the complex save the center that housed the Digital Dive System and the elevators heading up the skyscraper.

If he and Tailmon remembered the scale right, according to the 3D Map, the corridor originating from the Hub wasn't too far off. After they descended the stairs back to the first level, the Second Gate's railway platform should be distant enough for a five minute walk in normal circumstances, when nobody had to worry about DSI patrols or security cameras and the ODC's nasty algorithms.

For Veemon, these were not normal circumstances. He knew for a fact the distance to the Second Gate's platform required nearly three times the expected travel time if they had to worry about both the digital security and the patrols. Eliminating just the former reduced this by half, but that was still time exposed to danger, too much time for his liking.

The Child of Light needed ten seconds to get up, pat the dust off her citrine blouse and auburn pants, take her position between him and the white cat, and start walking. During this time, Daisuke's surrogate brother stretched his arms. "I'm ready," he said when he was done, earning a nod from both Tailmon and her human half in response.

As they left, the dragon lowered his hand to one of the eight pouches on his baldric. He remembered exactly where he stowed Christopher's DITE. For good luck—or a little bit of comfort, he stroked the contours of the collapsed spatha, rubbed his warm, leathery hand on its shape and form and though he couldn't see the ebony blade, couldn't feel the sleek and tough metal through the nylon fabric, Veemon felt safer, more confident about their mission. It was a security blanket to him, yet this symbol of penance—or backup plan, as Tailmon would believe—failed to erase the concerns rising in the back of his mind. Concerns that persisted despite Veemon's attempts at dismissal, that declared the futility of fighting the Digital Suppression Initiative in their home turf and deemed irrelevant Veemon's miraculous luck and his possession of the Ultimate Sword.

Despite his paranoia's insistence, the dragon's luck proved reliable once again. All three of them made it to the corridor without any trouble. They weren't forced to stack up behind pillars, dig in trash cans for bottles and other instruments of diversion, or hide in rooms, for they encountered no patrol at all. "All right!" Veemon muttered a soft whoop as he slipped into the marked hallway fifteen seconds before the first soldier walked into sight, leading a squad from one of the barracks with sleepy eyes and the occasional yawning.

This corridor was slightly larger than the other branching corridors, and only an idiot would overlook the obtuse angle of its downward slope. "So their trucks and bikes can go here too," he observed, recalling how the railway platforms were connected to the Hubs, the Gates, and their ancillary facilities.

Veemon saw for himself how the DSI's architects designed this gargantuan underground base with such immense interconnectivity when he followed Hikari and Tailmon into the Second Gate's railway platform. Support pillars that have been intermittently placed every thirty meters populated this section the way multi-armed Saguaro cacti dotted the landscape of Arizona's Sonoran desert. "Good cover." All four entrances were large enough for vehicles to pass through, and Veemon swore to the Harmonious Ones he could sense the touch of the Digital World permeating the surrounding concrete. "Not only the DDS."

"You feel it, too?" Tailmon asked him while they sauntered to one of the vacant rails. (There were two sides. In other words, two different trains.)

"Yeah," the digimon of the brightest blue shot back. "What do you think it's for?"

"Don't ask me," she stated candidly. "The DSI's got reasons for putting up Digital Fields we can't see."

Yagami threw her own thoughts into the thinking pot. "Well, it isn't saturating the base," she spoke, having been filled in about this peculiar fact earlier during her descent down the secret passage. "That's got to mean something."

"It does," her partner agreed.

Tailmon was the first to arrive at the end of the platform. There were no safety rails and no distinct markings or signs other than a yellow bar six inches before the edge. "Reminds me of Beijing," Veemon mumbled, letting a brief memory of the past distract him for a moment.

The cat did not hesitate and jumped down. A solid, six-foot drop. "Careful," she warned. "It's a steep drop."

Her warning was unnecessary. Hikari slid to the edge and descended with her hands still gripping the platform, waiting until her feet were roughly a foot and a half from the bottom. Her best friend's partner looked like he needed this more than she did, being a three-foot dragon. Veemon defied his short stature and hopped down, scarlet eyes recognizing the sheets of metal running along both sides of the track.

It looked like multiple two-plug outlets installed onto the walls, one after another, leaving no space for even a sheet of bond paper to slide between them. "Whoa, it's a maglev." He marveled at the track's gargantuan width. "And I bet it's huge. The guideway's wider than the one in Yamanashi! It might even be faster."

The Chosen Child restrained her wonder. "I think we should stay away from the tracks—

Veemon disagreed. "We don't need to. Maglevs have onboard batteries. No running electricity unless the train's near."

Whatever fright the woman held within her deflated immediately, as her breathing relaxed and her heartbeat slowing down to a state that could be considered "peaceful" relative to the immense stress she must have been deferring during this infiltration. But before the dragon managed a smile at that, Tailmon soured his mood with a glum, offhand comment. "Passengers aren't the only ones this train's moving…"

"What else, then?" He paid no attention to the dark tunnel they were walking into. "Experiments? Slaves? Glorified pets?" The dragon's muzzle curled into a disgruntled frown, remembering the vagrant Cupimon and that girl's Kapurimon with such clarity that an echo of his horror—at their inability to articulate anything beyond their names or their animalistic behavior—claimed him, sending uncomfortable shivers down his spine. "I don't want to think about the digimon rounded up and sent through here. It's too, too…"

Too depressing, Veemon intended to verbalize, but instead his voice yielded to silence. A silence that reigned king over all three Chosen, despite the fact they were now clear to talk and make as much noise as they want to. Tailmon's night vision was not the pitiful waste it had been during their "urban spelunking" through a raging sewer. Light bulbs flickered above them, giving the tunnel a dim, copper glow.

Walkways for maintenance personnel ran along the sides, elevated at least six feet above ground. They began not long after the mouth of the tunnel, leading Veemon to think these were accessed from the platforms themselves, or the narrower, ancillary halls surrounding it. Propped by solid reinforced concrete, the Digimon of Miracles flung the occasional glance at the white sheets of metal flanking the group. Had he been more informed about the SCMaglev's electrodynamic suspension system—the probable inspiration for this subterranean behemoth—Veemon would have known about the powerful magnets behind each sheet, all arranged to thrum in rhythm of the electricity flowing from car to rail.

Five minutes elapsed, yet the Third Gate remained slightly more than a speck on the horizon. "Let's move it," the white cat encouraged. "We're running out of time here and we still have four more platforms to go." Too bad the tunnels aren't vertical. Veemon thought the way he made a shortcut out of that long climb down the secret passage was a spark of genius, no matter how reckless it was.

Life was about taking risks. Nothing extraordinary could ever be achieved by erring on the side of caution, by being so conservative the mere option of breaking away, of becoming a deviant, caused paralysis. Veemon, mirroring his beloved Daisuke, loved the thrill of risk-taking and greatly enjoyed the rewards reaped from it.

The penalties? Looking back at the past week, or the last three years for that matter, not so much.

"Hikari."

The 21-year old did not reply with her coquelicot gaze, but Veemon knew from the discreet nod of her head and the subtler lean of her ears she was listening to him.

"This leads to R&D, right?"

It was not so much as a question as it was a statement of fact, yet the junior Yagami answered it all the same. "Yes." Only a single word left her mouth, yet the manner that graced her tongue alerted Veemon to a wariness towards whatever came next from his.

He gave her nothing to follow up on, choosing to dwell on the despicable man that had manipulated and deceived him without remorse. If Chris really had his way with the Core Group after Veemon absconded the scene in utter shock and betrayal—just imagining him block the way out and threaten the Chosen Children's relatives made him seethe!—wouldn't he be down here at the moment? Wouldn't he be invading the DSI from its front doors right now?

He was just on the other end of these rails, kilometers away at the R&D Wing—Gods knew where that place actually was. Could Chris, for once, look beyond the mirror and do something about the trains? Destroy this maglev? Completely obliterate it all to the extent it would take the Digital Suppression Initiative no less than a decade to rebuild the entire network? Could he do it for him? For them? For what's right?

Tailmon interrupted his hopeful wishes with a sharp cough. "Veemon." Her verbalization was a sharp blade that cut through rocks. A massive fan blowing away the fog enshrouding his thoughts. "We already talked about this."

Don't get your hopes up.

The unspoken sentence seeped through his system at a speed that would surely leave Daisuke Motomiya in the dust.

"If it can't figure into what he wants, he won't care." Cerulean eyes sent him a fleeting glance, laced with enough pity to compel someone into feeding a homeless person for months. "I understand what you're going through—why you're still dwelling on it, but face it, whatever you're thinking … that isn't happening."

Hikari neither turned to him nor complemented Tailmon's response, but her head bobbed in agreement regardless.

Veemon pouted. There was no use replying. The two Chosen of Light were going to repeat the discussion they've had at the Li household a few hours ago, and their opinions were no more fixed than the stars blanketing the night sky. Yet the blue dragon knew it was as pointless for him to clutch the pouch holding the DITE and hope for something more.

Even if it was a stupid thing to do.

What miniscule probabilities were there for the blond to sorrow over his choices were overshadowed by the colossal odds Chris left the ebony sword with him as insurance. That he did it not for penance, not for disgrace, and most certainly not for the validation of the relationship Veemon held so closely he became a temporary stand-in for the Child of Miracles. Seeing this ruse for what it truly was and catching on to this vile "backup plan" to use the blue dragon's connections and mislead him once again was ridiculously easy.

Veemon preferred being stupid. Preferred to reject the reality around him and choose to uphold his ideals no matter what was thrown at his face. He was not going to change anything for the sake of the world.

I'm an idiot, too, aren't I?

A stubborn idiot who displayed his maudlin heart for all to see and insisted on whatever he wanted with as much persistence and doggedness as an adolescent human.

Brighter, fluorescent lights brought Veemon out of his self-reflections, reminded him to check his surroundings. Scarlet eyes caught on to the Third Gate's platform directly above him, before the gaze made their descent and fell on Hikari Yagami's rear. He stopped instantly, and not a second too soon. He was inchesaway from stabbing his horn through the ridge of her pants. If that had happened, perhaps even Patamon and Takeru would be laughing at him wherever they were as he suffered utter humiliation from an overprotective Tailmon and her paws… least of all causing a disturbance that might've alerted any nearby patrols to their stealth mission.

"Why're we stop—

Tailmon shut him up, her petrifying glare enthralling him a split second before Hikari had the chance to furrow her eyebrows and shush him like a librarian. The digimon nudged her muzzle upward, and it wasn't difficult to get the message, even for someone as dense as the blue dragon.

Another patrol.

Veemon wiped his mind clean of doubts—of wishful speculation—of any insights about himself and the people around him. The Child level lowered his center of gravity, creeping to the opening on the other side, trying hard not to let the soldiers' breathing and the heavy footfalls of their boots bother him. Ahead, Hikari and Tailmon were practically tiptoeing to the tunnel, and the two of them were holding hands. The former's heartbeat was pounding swiftly, her sweat glistening under his scarlet gaze. The latter held her human half, her grip as firm as that of a parent or a significant other, as if she had been holding Patamon by the paw and refused to let go no matter what happened.

"Nearly there," Hikari whispered her articulation. It was too soft, too hushed to be heard by human ears.

Dread filled Veemon every time they had to evade the guardsmen. The experience was no more nerve-wracking than shimmying across wild, uncontrolled storm water in a cramped, slimy, and disgusting sewer pipe, barely inches above the volatile rush. One wrong move, one misstep, one single mistake, and it would all be over. A race against time would begin and they'd have to do everything they could to avoid being surrounded and captured by the Digital Suppression Initiative.

An involuntary twitch tugged Veemon's tongue into the open air. He was too busy concentrating to notice the bright crimson muscle sticking out of his muzzle. Fixing his attention on the six soldiers close by. And we still have to go through this three more times? He blanched at the thought.

Hikari was almost smiling now. They nearly made it! A few more meters—no more than ten long strides and they would be home free, free from another ordeal like this, at least until the next Gate. She was probably thinking how fortunate they were. Perhaps the woman was speculating just how far Veemon's luck went, wondering if it could get them as far as the Sixth Gate regardless of the fact the digimon himself had no idea how to master it if it turned out to be an authentic and uncanny ability within his control.

But in the end, Veemon's own paranoia, Veemon's gut feelings from the First Hub were right on the money. The blue dragon's impeccable luck had finally run out on them, and he realized it as soon as thick sheets of metal collapsed ahead. Slammed right on top of Tailmon, nearly pinning her arm had Hikari's reflexes taken two seconds longer to act. They were cut off from the Third Gate. All three of them.

Crisp and snappy sounds shattered the anxious silence and resonated in their ears. Only because of his training with Commandramon and countless movies and videogames experienced with his surrogate brother did the Child digimon recognize them for what they were.

Safety locks being disabled.

Weapons being raised.

Six shadows clambering across the guideway, accompanying the footsteps.

Other than the dolor introduced to him by the revelation of Christopher's betrayal, Veemon had never known terror and distress as intensely—as intimately—as ever before.

"Don't move."


Hikari's jaw slackened at the sight of six guards standing above them. The light, camouflage gray of their BDU's looked like it blended in with the concrete corridors if they weren't already plastered over with wallpaper and other coverings of corporate design. A whimper with a nervous tremble flew out of her mouth at the sight of six assault rifles trained at the three of them.

How did they know? How did they find out? The DSI's overconfidence in its external security, its supercomputers, and its algorithms ensured there weren't any cameras, any detection systems blanketing the platforms and their tunnels. Weren't the three of them out of sight anyway? The Chosen Child swore they were a full six feet beneath the platform. They shouldn't have been seen. They couldn't have been spotted—

"ODC. This is Sergeant Igarashi."

Coquelicot eyes snapped to the man at the very rear. His gloved fingers hovered next to what looked like a Bluetooth earpiece, the soldier's stern gaze landing on the group and rotating among all three of them. The other patrolmen exhibited impressive self-restraint, despite giving off the appearance they could fire a shot at any time if the way their trigger fingers were fidgeting, if how they swiveled their barrels from Hikari to Tailmon to Veemon to Hikari again indicated anything.

Sweat barreled down the sides of her head and dampened her clothed arms. This wasn't supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen!

"We just confirmed three bogeys in Platform III. They were using the tunnels to bypass the patrol units." The Sergeant gave them a fleeting look, staring at the two digimon with her. "One tamer and a couple SCAI's. White cat and blue dragon." Thankfully ignorant of Tailmon's true level, "Both most likely Rookie class."

Then Igarashi's attention fell on the two handguns on Hikari's and Veemon's persons. "They've got a couple guns. Maybe this group's responsible for the camera problems you've been having at the DDS."

Yagami brought her hand down, inching a little closer to the ceramic gun on her belt. Her coquelicot gaze focused on the solid, black vests on the six patrolmen. Nonlethal bullets weren't going to hurt them unless they were shot in the head, and even then, the best she could manage to do was knock them out.

So much for the Office of Detection and Containment's complete dependency on the RFID system and the algorithms backing it up. Their luck had reversed on them when they least expected it. Unfair as it was to pin the whole thing on the Digimon of Miracles, Hikari guessed the rumors and myths concerning his species were unfounded after all.

Otherwise, the miraculous success the Chosen have had so far wouldn't have evaporated right when they needed it the most. What a time to learn the truth!

Two gunshots suddenly cracked her hearing and compounded the tension, severely increasing the pressure already mounting on her chest. "Eek!" the adult yelped, her hand retreating from the holster. Blood oozed out the edge of her left pinky, having been grazed by the bullet. If the patrolman had aimed a few millimeters further to the right, Taichi's sister might have lost one of her fingers that night.

She wasn't the only one. Hikari barely registered Veemon's pained rumbling and the sight of the blue dragon cupping his right arm.

Sergeant Igarashi focused on the scene in front of him but did nothing, for he clearly trusted the soldiers under him to know exactly what to do without his guidance. Seeing it in action like this would have been impressive if it didn't have to do with their infiltration, if it took place in the movie screen, or if they were fighting for the Digidestined rather than the Digital Suppression Initiative.

Free from the responsibility of controlling their three new captives, the squad leader continued his conversation with the ODC representative. This time Hikari Yagami couldn't catch his side of the dialogue, not with the other DSI patrolmen shouting in her face.

"Damn it," one of the guards grumbled. "We were being nice and this is what we get." He took initiative immediately, stepping forward and training the FN FAL on Hikari's forehead. "ARMS UP AND BEHIND YOUR HEADS!"

A third patrolman fired a warning shot. She felt the bullet strike the guideway dangerously close to Veemon's foot. "We won't warn you again."

Daisuke's partner jerked from the vibration it made through the cement and the pebbles splashing out of it with the violence, velocity, and direction of water instigated with a fist-sized rock hurled into a shallow pond. "Grrrr!" A vicious snarl rippled from his neck, as though threatening the man to try it again.

All it did was reinforce modern society's pervasive fallacy of digimon being mere animals driven by instincts. Dangers to everyday human life.

"ARMS UP AND BEHIND YOUR HEADS. NOW!"

Hikari ground her teeth from pure helplessness. Evolution won't help now, not when the DSI could simply end it all with a single shot not to the white cat, not to a sphinx or an angel, but to the fragile woman standing next to her. Her partner's Cat's Eye wasn't going to work either, not with the number of people watching over them.

She didn't want to reveal the whole setup they had with Kurata and the DDS. If Hikari resorted to that, then was she no different from SkullSatamon during the Ginza incident? How was she any more ethical—any more "good" than a monster that attempted to pacify the Chosen Children with a school bus full of innocent children? Than a vampire who blackmailed a Chosen digimon with the lives of innocents to find her destined partner? Why would a hostage taker, a terrorist deserve something as holy, as angelic, and as pristine as the Crest of Light?

Tailmon's upbringing under Vamdemon might have desensitized her to this hypocrisy, but not Hikari. There was no possible way she could even accept this backup plan.

With that, the immense grief and melancholy of absolute failure ensnared her very being, threatening to set loose all the tears that were now pooling within her sclera—blurring her vision. Hikari's slender, clothed arms quivered and trembled and shuddered at the future the Digidestined received, at the crushing victory the DSI won. Her body resisted as much as it could, but this did not stop the Child of Light from complying with the patrolman's orders slowly.

"NOW! NOW! DO IT NOW OR WE'LL SHOOT!"

Coquelicot eyes panned between her two nonhuman companions. Her gaze shifted from her human half to Motomiya's surrogate brother. The two of them were in the process of complying when Veemon's inhaled sharply. His smooth arms ceased their gradual ascend and in its stead his scarlet eyes dilated in the presence of unparalleled foreboding. "Four Gods," he murmured.

A guard whipped her FN FAL on Veemon. "You've been warned," she said and pulled the trigger.

Tailmon reared her legs and, within a split second, Hikari found her surrogate sister soaring in the air towards the other digimon. She dove in front of Veemon and took a shot meant for his heart. The 7.62mm bullet did not penetrate her feline body. Neither did it sink deep beneath her skin. It bounced off her shoulder, but that did not happen without damage. The bullet broke through the skin with such force the Chosen would have an unsightly bruise within minutes. A shot like that from the FN FAL could have sent Tailmon flying if she was a Child level like her colleague.

But the shock of this realization and the blunt trauma inflicted on her shoulder was the least of Tailmon's concerns right now. Preempting any of the patrolmen's responses, "WE HAVE A HOSTAGE! We have Dr. Kurata Akihiro detained in the Digital Dive System's mainframe and rigged the entire chamber with multiple C4 charges set to our life signs.

"Kill even one of us and it'll all blow and DSI Japan loses its onlydefense against the Digital World AND ITS CREATOR WITH IT!"

We're terrorists. "Why?"

Hikari Yagami didn't know what to feel when her partner decided to reveal the trump card. To divulge the man they have taken hostage and finally—officially adopt the label modern society has branded them with. A source of so much fear in the modern era, popularized by Muslim extremists and clandestine supranationalists.

"Why?"

We're terrorists.

"Tailmon." She wanted to lash out and chastise her surrogate sister for unveiling this, but her anger—her righteous fury was unprepared for the confusion settling within the Child of Light. Why was Tailmon saying this? Why was she doing this now, when—

"Hikari," a childlike voice cast a line through the endless void of her revolted thoughts and frantic emotions. She turned towards it and locked eyes with Veemon, whose muzzle grimaced from an intense apprehension that captivated her. She couldn't break away from his horror-struck gaze. "They just got a kill order."

The Chosen Child of Light froze. Her own countenance yielded to the same emotions, the same overwhelming fear that stunned Daisuke's human half with such strength it became ostensible.

She believed him. She put as much faith in that reason as she would have if Tailmon spoke it herself.

The natural capabilities digimon shared with humanity were significantly more potent than the average human. More powerful. Their line of sight was farther. Their hearing and sense of smell greater and more sensitive than even a dog's. Their faculties of taste and touch were no less than double a human being's, allowing them to explore and experience life at a wholly different level than mankind ever could. Even their memories were impeccable, for they were photographic and very nearly eidetic.

Veemon's testimonial and the contortion on his snout were corroborations enough. The news shocked Hikari Yagami to the core. They're prepared to kill us.

Without hesitation.

Without stopping to think about ending someone else's life.

Without questioning the morality.

Without even considering their identities and the value of their very existence.

Ten years ago, Dagomon wanted her alive. The Lord of the Dark Ocean did not want to kill her; he wanted to violate her and turn her into a reluctant queen, because she was "special" among the Chosen Children, because she represented many benefits for the unseen puppeteer, his power, and his future.

Because she embodied the Crest of Light.

Why wasn't the Digital Suppression Initiative giving her similar treatment? Wasn't she important too? Didn't her status as the human incarnation of Light set her apart just as well as Daisuke's Miracles or Taichi's Courage?


"A kill order?" Mitsuo Yamaki yelled into his earpiece, the rage in his voice capable of scaring the ODC's representative shitless if the person on the other end wasn't its administrator. "What do you mean there's a kill order?"

From the looks of it, the Divine Assault couldn't care less if Lucille Diaz stood beside him. If his expressive shout woke Daisuke Motomiya up despite the borderline anemia, muscle atrophy, and the countless drugs keeping him sedated in his tube. Or if his voice was carried beyond the laboratory's walls.

"Tamotsu, I've had capture orders on the Chosen Children and their partners for months!" He slammed his fist on the wall, forgetting the blue energy circling it, activated on his frustration. Lucy knew the reinforced cement would crumble if it wasn't strengthened by the Zone Emulators and the programs embedded in its structure. "Rescind those kill commands immediately," ordered the Vice-Chair. "I don't care how many men and women it'll take! I want them all alive."

Lucy's titian pools glanced up at the second level of the Digital Modification lab, where all the research, data processing, and hypothesis testing were conducted. The Modifier already sensed the multiple explosions and savage destruction occurring in the upper levels of the Research and Development Wing. I'm sure they're using everything we have on hand, maybe some working prototypes, but Christopher's unstoppable. We can't damage him without dark matter.

If they sprinted all the way with Digital Modification, they were no more than a minute from the bullet train. The more time they wasted here, the more certain Chris would catch them during their escape and eviscerate them both. Lucille Diaz had seen for herself how powerful the blond was. How difficult he was to damage even with the dark matter weapons on hand. "'Divine Assault' or not," the survivor mused, "The DSI can't risk losing its second-in-command."

Diaz strolled closer to the second most powerful man on Earth. "Mitsy." She said, hoping the nickname and its familiar tug to the past had enough pull to quell the Vice-Chair's ferocity. "We need to—

Her suggestion was instantly vetoed by a sheet of white. Mitsuo Yamaki raised a gloved palm towards her and howled into the earpiece. "When did the Chairman override my—last night? While I was meeting with Mr. Abe?"

To think the DSI's Chairman superseded the capture orders literally hours before Hikari and her two SCAI companions inexplicably bypassed the security systems guarding the Shinjuku perimeter. It's as if the person anticipated the Twelve to whip out a daunting rescue mission and cause this unprecedented chain of events. From Hikari's infiltration all the way to Taichi's unexpected jailbreak.

How surprising! The Chairman was known all over the world for his unautocratic approach. His invisible hand was ubiquitous in its multiple programs in Japan and abroad, but not once has he ever shown his face, to the public, to the loyal DSI personnel, to its shareholders, or to its business partners in DSI Global's countless subsidiaries and affiliates. The living enigma favored the benefits of anonymity, leading the direction of humankind's guardian and regulator of self-conscious artificial intelligences through a straw man.

Mitsuo Yamaki, the Divine Assault. Vice-Chairman and de facto controller of the Digital Suppression Initiative.

That the Chairman intervened directly in the face of massive uncertainty and made the right call relayed an abundance of signals pertaining to his ability to read the leylines of the world around him. A true visionary. The SCAI industry's counterpart of the late Steve Jobs.

Lucille's awe for the Chairman was growing more and more during her cogitations.

In contrast, Yamaki was scowling, his lips on the brink of frothing from the recent turn of events. The ODC Administrator heard him seething. Even someone as focused on security and protection as Tamotsu Maruyama might hesitate on obstructing an enraged Yamaki. "Damn the chain of command! Maruyama, rescind—

Disregard the Chairman's override? Toss the organizational structure away? Risk his position? Jeopardize the privileges he's earned through his career at DSI Global? All for the lives of two humans and three SCAI's? No! Vice-Chairman Yamaki had gone too far.

"DON'T!" Limbs orbited by the azure energy of Digital Modification, Lucille Diaz thrust her hand at the executive's head, missing his temple by a hair's breadth, snatching the earpiece, and shutting it down before he pursued this madness to the very end.

"Return that to me." His tone sounded neutral, yet Yamaki's ultramarine eyes burned with a fire known only to his enemies. A fiery glaze he revealed to all who dared stand in his way. "All five mustn't be touched, especiallyHikari Yagami. I refuse to let the ODC kill them off and do nothing about it!"

The Modifier refused his command, believing her close relationship with the man afforded her some immunity at the very least. "I won't," she stood up to him. "Not until you calm the helldown. We don't have time for this. You're being hunted right now and you're dwelling on something else! You can't do anything about the override now. It was made with the best interests of the organization in mind, according to the Chairman'svision. NOT YOURS."

Mitsuo Yamaki's narrowed eyes did not cease their contact with her own, amber pools. Fladramon's gauntlet materialized on his forearm once more, emitting an ominous, orange red, set alight by embers artificially generated by the digivice and the digital particles around them. "This is your last warning."

She tried not to focus on his eyes, not to glance at the fireball enshrouding his arm, and ignore the heat building up from it. A memory of her and the Divine Assault right about to engage in a battle to the death surfaced in Lucy's mind, instigating an odd combination of hatred and apathy, but it was repressed before it could consume her. She was better than that. Better than holding on to the feelings of the past. Better than never moving on, than staying stagnant in one place and obsessing over what was instead of what will.

"Listen to me. You and I disagree on a lot of things. We're always clashing, because of who you really are and what I did. Because both of us are too set in our ideals and beliefs. But I greatly respect what you're trying to achieve and as much as I want to stay out of this, I don't want to see you falling just because you caused an internal scandal big enough to undermine the DSI.

"You're letting your personal feelings get the better of you, Mitsy. If I didn't stop you, you might be demoted later, or lose access to the Digital Modification project along with all the functions you're overseeing. Your position, your accomplishments, and your reputation won't deter the Chairman from stripping it all from you. Everything you worked on. If that happened, if you fell, you'd never have the chance to meet your goals again."

Lucille Diaz peered at the sedated body of Daisuke Motomiya floating in the tube behind him. She swept the locks of her yellow hair as she stepped closer to the second-in-command. Fortunately for her, Yamaki was not hunched over, looking like a madman ready to maul her. His breathing had slowed. Fladramon's gauntlet finally dissipated into the formless digital particles it once was. His anger, shelved away to a peaceful place, or so the Modifier wanted to believe.

Mitsuo Yamaki did not deny the yellow-haired soldier. "I AM taking this personally, Diaz. They're important pieces to the puzzle. Necessary to complete the project, especially the Chosen Children. The Crest of Light can make or break the research we've been conducting in the Digital World. The factors that elevate the Child of Courage can be isolated through the same methodology we used to process Daisuke Motomiya. Their bodies will lead to innovations. Give humankind better chances—better weapons to fight off the digimon the Twelve failed to kill ten years ago when they finally reveal themselves."

"Digimon the Twelve failed to kill?" the Modifier repeated, too astounded to pay any attention to Yamaki's outdated slang. Despite her long career as a soldier, her respected tenure at the Digital Suppression Initiative, and her close relationship with the Vice-Chairman himself, this was the first time she ever heard such information. "You mean, there's still SCAI out there?"

Even though the Chosen Children and their terrorist organization, the Digidestined, were outlawed, threats to the cultured society and peace the Digital Suppression Initiative has established, the Twelve deserved some credit nonetheless. Up until March 2003, they found themselves at the front lines of the struggle to defend human life, alone, obstructing SCAI of such unprecedented cunning and strength that humanity might not have made it to the digital era of the 2010's if their sinister plans followed through.

"SCAI of that caliber?" Were the Chosen Children this incompetent, failing to even finish the job handed to them? "I don't recall anyone—

"It's common knowledge. Anyone who looked up Digimon Adventure on Wikipedia or watched the animé on history channels would know the long-term threats posed by Dagomon and Demon, and believe the DSI can handle them when they decide to act."

"But I—I didn't—

"Lucy, you're too focused with the Digidestined, the Digital Modification project, and above all your sole mission in life. I understand your ignorance of the big picture."

The Modifier opened her mouth to rebut, but the entire conversation was derailed by tremors powerful enough to violently shake the Digital Modification laboratory. Explosions and the other effects of battle had drawn closer as she and Yamaki went back and forth on each other with such intensity neither realized Christopher's progress.

Lucille's warrior intuition kicked in. God, hopefully they weren't too late to get out of this mess yet. "ODC," she commenced communications with the security center. "This is Major Diaz. FLASH. I'm with Divine Assault in a Class VII R&D facility. I have reason to believe the hostile force causing the clusterfuck above us is after the VIP and we need to get out immediately. What's the situation? Over."

Her earpiece crackled with life the second she shut her mouth. "This is Security Analyst Takashima," the representative on the other line responded promptly.

Due to the sensitivity of the projects undertaken by the R&D Wing and their potential impact to both Japan's national security and the Earth's defenses against hostile SCAI and deluded extremists such as the Digidestined and their international counterparts, the DSI has mandated that all transmissions held by the Office of Detection and Containment involving the R&D Wing must be presided by representatives with sufficient clearance.

The ODC's security analysts were among the best in the industry and well-versed with over ten programming languages and years of experience handling Big Data. While much of Lucy's acquaintances and friends in the M&A Wing have denounced the ODC's policy shift to algorithms and high-speed infrared cameras, they were nonetheless competent with their jobs, rather than neutered when it came to visual scrutiny of the security feeds. Worth the hefty price tag they took home each year, it seemed.

They were her best bet on learning the current status and addressing it, having a degree of control in the orders issued to the various guardsmen and patrol units stationed throughout DSI Global's headquarters. The Modifier hoped to hear good news from Takashima, but she wasn't expecting too much given her past experience with Christopher Van Numen.

"It isn't good, Major," the analyst retorted grimly. I knew it. "Our defenses are being smothered and the blockades barely hold the hostile back before they're completely destroyed. Multiple platoons were deployed to barricade all corridors, but they're being overwhelmed. Teams are currently engaging the hostile in a Class III Digital Particle Physics laboratory."

Multiple platoons? Defenses and blockades? How much resistance was the DSI putting up against the blond? She sought clarification. "What's the ordnance for the defense? Tell me everything!"

"Major Diaz, verify your credent—

"It's LIMA-DELTA-INDIA-ALPHA-ZULU, 7-4-0-5!" The Modifier snapped. Damn these protocols! They've wasted enough time already. "Now hurry up and give me all the details."

Thank the Lord for her work with the Digital Modification project. She couldn't have gotten this intel without it.

"Yes, ma'am. We've activated the Kagutsuchi and Raijin turrets and mandated use of 50 Cals, missiles, and other small arms weapons, all fitted with AutoMod attachments. Champion and Ultimate class Combat SCAI's were authorized, but nothing's working on the hostile. According to the live feeds, bullets are ricocheting; explosives, caught in midair and hurled back; electric, flame, and piercing AutoMods, ineffective; and the SCAI's aren't inflicting any significant damage."

"Give me a casualty and damage report."

"DSI fatalities, Major," Takashima emphasized, "amount to one battalion. We've already lost 200 SCAI's, 70 turrets, and 40 TALON's. All numbers rising rapidly."

The Modifier's heart skipped a beat at the reported figures. One battalion—almost one fourth of the guards garrisoned in the R&D Wing—amounted to close to 300 people, each fine men and women with loved ones and dependents, husbands and wives and children. In just one night 300 families were stricken with grief, and knowing how Chris treated her comrades and his so-called "allies", there probably wasn't anything left to mourn over. The 200 SCAI's lost represented approximately 70% of the population stored next to the multiple barracks for immediate access. With the thousands of idle, domesticated SCAI's idling within the confines of another Class VII facility, supply was becoming short.

The danger Christopher now posed to the Digital Suppression Initiative was unprecedented. In fact, far beyond the parameters he himself demonstrated during the Midnight Assault. Last week, the digital modifications they used dealt minor damage, if not negligible, when unsupported by dark matter. Tonight, it seemed as though he'd grown immune. Became absolutely invulnerable. Impervious to any and all sort of damage from weapons that would've caused the swift end of any Chosen Child who dared to assault the R&D Wing as blatantly as he did.

Lucille Diaz couldn't think of any reason that would bless the man with a power-up like this. What could possibly happen in one mere week other than a time of peace, calm, and—

No. Her stomach curled into a sickening knot, and it was evident in her hollow expression. Was this his real strength, restored to Chris by a week's worth recuperating? The stuns and knockbacks he endured in the Satellite Base—these advantages the Modifiers abused on him as much as the dark matter weapons—he was susceptible to them only because his body was weak during the time?

Had he been as well-rested and energized, could Christopher have overwhelmed the fifteen Modifiers as easily and as effortlessly as he was now overpowering the best defenses the DSI had to offer?

"Major Diaz, I say again." The ODC's security analyst pulled the Modifier back to reality, away from another gruesome recognition of the massive role luck had played in her survival that night. "Authenticate your mention the hostile has reason to target Divine Assault. Over."

"I authenticate." Before a response was even formulated, "The details are classified. Takashima, relay to Twin Towers to meet us at the Nine Gates. We're heading for M&A using the maglev. The VIP might need to dive."

"With all due respect, ma'am, the Digital Dive System has been bomb—

"An alternate entry point has been prepared in case of emergency," Lucille verbalized, injecting enough emphasis to hone the fact the analyst was now treading on high-level secrets, known only to the upper echelons of the Digital Suppression Initiative. The soldier locked eyes with the Vice-Chairman, whose indigo stare was as cold and emotionless as the night sky. Intimidating to some, but the message behind it as clear as day. "Takashima, no more questions. How much time can the guardsmen give us?"

If the ODC's representative found her curt opacity frustrating, his professional demeanor did not show anything. An amazing display of character, considering it was somewhere between four and five in the morning and Takashima had barely enough sleep. "At the rate we're losing soldiers, about five minutes. The hostile's just broken through our forces at the Class IV facilities."

"Shit."

Five minutes was not a lot. One was already spent traveling to the maglev. A few more were needed to boot up the electrodynamic system and get the train going. If Yamaki needed to escape from this without coming face to face with that monster, Lucille Diaz had to stay and fight the invader and delay him for as long as she could before the man slew her like all the other DSI guardsmen.

Facing Christopher Van Numen at his best frightened Lucille Diaz to no end. Had she been less deserving of her rank or less experienced in combat, she might have even been paralyzed by the anxiety and pressure that came with the prospect of meeting him in combat.

If she wanted this stupid plan to succeed, they needed to leave now. Chris could only be delayed from his goals for so long.

"Exercise caution. Administrator Maruyama can't figure out what we're dealing with here. The algos flagged him as human, but from everything we're getting here, we've never come across something like this."

"We'll think of something. Major Diaz out."

"Good luck."

Her trepidation must have been tangible for the ODC analyst to answer back, even in verbal communication. Mr. Takashima was a good man. In all likelihood, he was wishing this long and painstaking night was done and over with. But with Veemon and the Yagami siblings wreaking havoc in M&A and Chris leaving behind a trail of annihilation in R&D, there was no end to the madness. Not anytime soon.

His parting words, as sympathetic and supportive as they were, were nothing more than empty platitudes for someone preparing to challenge a God Moder.


Tailmon grimaced at the patrol unit standing on the platform above. They still had those rifles aimed at them, but whatever enthusiasm they had for shooting all three dead evaporated as soon as she revealed the hostage. Thank the Four Gods they didn't kill Kurata! This was exactly the situation they needed him for, the very problem that could doom the situation and result in their deaths or a catastrophic combination of Hikari's imprisonment and her and Veemon's enslavement under the vicious system that drove modern society at the expense of digimon throughout the Real World.

Her cerulean eyes narrowed, striped tail as rigid as it could ever be. Her paws were leaking profuse volumes of sweat, but she balled them into something that passed for fists than strip her façade naked before the Digital Suppression Initiative and show how nervous she was. These people were just grunts. The lowest rung on the ladder. If she could intimidate them into leaving them alone or put them in a position where she and Veemon could take care of them without too much effort, that would be ideal.

Should the Digimon of Light ask her colleague how her persuasive her attempts were at intimidation, Veemon would not hesitate to inform Tailmon how her piercing glare could not possibly compare to Christopher's distinctive scowl.

"Bullshit!" spat a guard. The same one who raised her assault rifle on Veemon. "There's no way you could've gotten in there."

She tapped the dragon's wrist. Veemon snapped to attention—hopefully Hikari had enough information on her hands to know how much danger they were in now. "Show them the card, now."

"O-on it," he mumbled while rummaging through his pouches. The dragon was no less anxious than she was. Perhaps even more so. He was a mere Child level, after all. With his current form, Veemon was weak. Even with the shorter center of gravity, the quicker reflexes, and the denser bone structure, he was no different from a human adult—or a preadolescent for that matter, since he's now as tall as Daisuke was in the old days.

Patamon would've had it easier. The hamster's diminutive size would've guaranteed better evasion from their bullets than Veemon could ever have, plus invisible, rapid fire bursts of air to pester the soldiers with. Such random distractions might have allowed Tailmon to hypnotize them one by one until all were down or the remainder was easy enough to address.

But Patamon wouldn't have wanted Tailmon to go through with this. He wouldn't have wanted them to bomb the Digital Dive System. He wouldn't have wanted a hostage, not with such a gentle nature, even if it was Kurata—even if his human half disagreed on the naïve, idealists' way of doing things.

Then again, maybe they wouldn't have been caught. Maybe they would've had a real scout on hand. Nimble, difficult to see, and hard to shoot. Between him and Veemon, maybe they would have had a real shot at following through with their objectives without a mistake as egregious as this.

Damn it, I miss you. I miss you very, very much.

"Aha." A muted gasp of delight updated her on her colleague's progress.

"Now raise it, Veemon." Raise it so high they won't mistake it for anything else.

At the sight of the Head Scientist's keycard, the skeptical soldier recognized the contours and the various shapes printed on it from a ten-foot distance. "H-hey," she stammered, eyes dilating. "H-h, h-hey!" One of her arms went flailing. "S-someone, somebody verify that!"

This new development did not escape their leader's notice. "Wait. Out." Then a crisp bark, "Toraichi! Snap a pic and relay to ODC."

The patrolman that ordered all three of them to raise their arms behind their head stepped forward and took a smartphone from his pockets. A Samsung Galaxy. The soldier brought his phone to bear and trained it on the group, lens focused on the card in Veemon's hand. He was zooming it in as much as he could, taking ten long, harrowing seconds before a snap cracked the ominous silence.

"ODC," Igarashi reopened his line. "This is Igarashi. Priority. Ack receipt of photograph." A pause. "Verify validity of ID card. Is it a fake?"

The Digimon of Light shuddered, and it was not from the air-conditioning. Their lives—this mission depended on their survival, on their escape. No room for error. If the DSI didn't believe this was real…

"You don't need to do that!" Veemon clamored, raising his voice so everyone heard him. So he had everybody's attention. Loud and clear. "I stole the keycard from him. I curbstomped the nerd and swiped it from his pockets. We got in one of the rooms thanks to this!"

Sergeant Igarashi went about getting validation of Veemon's claims, demanding the ODC representatives to review Dr. Akihiro's movements on the digital records. Tailmon—and neither did Veemon—couldn't overhear his conversation as Toraichi challenged the blue dragon where he stood.

"Then what do you want? If we take you seriously, what're you going to demand?"

A smirk on his muzzle. "Easy!" His tongue slipped in and out his mouth, as though he relished his next words. Progress at last, he was probably thinking. "Let Taichi go and give us a free ride to the surface. If you don't…"

"Then what? You'll off yourselves? Slit each other's throats?" He sneered, drawing amusement from his peers. "Those'll do the world a bigger favor."

"Nnnooooooooooo," Veemon pealed, stowing Kurata's card back in the baldric. "I'm going to take this out"—a cylindrical object appeared in his hands, straight from the pouch stuffed with C4 charges—"And push the BIG, RED, BUTTON." A big grin. "Five points to someone who guesses what this is!"

Any idiot could tell what the object was. None of the soldiers would have taken the digimon and his singsong chimes seriously if it hadn't been for the detonator showing up in his hands, his thumb ready to push down and deprive Japan of its protection from the Digital World. Tailmon couldn't help smiling. Leave it to Veemon to daunt the soldiers in one of the most childish ways possible and actually get it done.

"Good job," the white cat applauded under her breath. She knew, she knew in her heart that Patamon would agree with her if he was still alive.

The blue dragon merely nodded in reply, preferring to keep his crimson eyes trained on the squad above them, watching their movements. His senses marked their bodies, reading them all to the best of his ability. Tailmon was impressed. No matter how stupid Veemon made himself look like, there was a brain under that head of his. A schemer. A tactician hidden in plain sight.

The act had classic Daisuke Motomiya written all over it. Unlike the other eleven, Veemon was not a foil to his human half. He was not a mere complement to the Chosen Child's character. Veemon was both a genuine reflection of the man's childhood self and a distinct person on his own right. He and Daisuke were similar in so many ways yet divergent in several qualities. For them, the term "surrogate brothers" described their relationship—defined their reality, unlike the platitude, the plain synonym it merely was for everyone else around them, even their own colleagues.

In another universe, in another world, in another story, Daisuke and Veemon might have been twins.

"What're you going to do now, eh?" he jabbed, his tone slightly euphoric. Smug. His heartbeat and breathing betrayed him, but the DSI didn't need to know that.

"This is Administrator Maruyama. ODC has considered their demands and verified their identities. The Chosen—tamers and SCAI—are covered by the Chairman's directives and they are final."

Hikari Yagami, however, was not happy about this development. But the frown on her face was tempered by the resignation emblazoned on her countenance. She was angry at their act of terrorism. She was disappointed at the level they've lowered themselves to, for they no longer claimed the moral high ground.

Yet she acquiesced to the truth of the matter: if it weren't for the hostage, for the potential loss of the DDS and its designer, its architect, then they wouldn't be in this position. They'd have been apprehended by now, or worse.

Tailmon didn't want to think about "worse".

If Hikari truly wanted to rescue her brother, if Hikari truly cherished the remaining treasures in her life, if Hikari truly and desperately held on to what few memories were left from the Golden Age of digimon, then she needed to think the way Tailmon did. To accept the fact she must be prepared to do anything and everything, even if it cost her—

Everything went wrong.

"Your orders have not changed, Igarashi. Immediate execute. Shoot to kill."


Veemon sprang to action, sprinting to Tailmon's partner as the sergeant's "Wilco, out" sliced the air. In a split-second he was three feet away from her. In another, he was airborne, arms spread wide open to catch Hikari and tackle her to the cement before someone pulled the trigger in between her surprised, coquelicot eyes.

It was a disgraceful landing, and the Child of Light had blood oozing from an unsightly scrape on her cheek and shoulder. He was thankful for being what he was. For being a digimon. Otherwise, he couldn't have heard Maruyama's order without the heightened senses available only to creatures like him, to his own kind. And Hikari Yagami would've been lying on the guideway, with a bleeding hole in the head and a catatonic feline next to her.

Veemon was reeling, suffering from utter disbelief at the order—the blatant disregard the Office of Detection and Containment had just given them.

Why? They had a hostage. They had rigged the explosives to blow at any one of their deaths. They even presented the DSI with a safe route out, where nobody was hurt, where the only blow to the global organization was the loss of Taichi Yagami from their subterranean torture chambers. Why was the DSI throwing all this away? Why disregard the long-term threat this bomb represented to—

No time to think. "Imai, toss a grenade down there!" Igarashi had commanded. "Everyone else, open fire!"

Veemon dropped the detonator and removed the SIG P239 from its holster, but the Harmonious Ones were unkind right now, for one of the patrolmen was way ahead of him and had the FN FAL aimed at his face. "Drop dead!"

"NEKO PUNCH!"

The platform grumbled from the sheer power infusing the attack Tailmon plowed into the magnets and it quivered violently. To the Chosen's surprise, the cement did not break apart. The Digimon of Light was confounded. She was an Adult, empowered by both maturity and her tail ring. The entire platform should have been destroyed!

Veemon did not find himself questioning this missed expectation as he did with exploiting this sudden fortune. The soldier's rifle released its bullet into the ceiling and all six stumbled for a moment or two. It granted the Digimon of Miracles two and a half seconds to jump a good six feet without breaking a sweat—a feat normal humans were too weak to do—and fire six times in the squad's general direction while running—staying few precarious steps ahead of a trail of 7.62mm gunfire before hiding behind a column.

Four left in the magazine. Fifty-four left on his possession, all in all. He needed another gun.

"Why?" he screeched. "Why're you all attacking? Weren't you listening? If you kill us, the DDS will go kablooey and—

Sergeant Igarashi's rebuttal was loud and clear amidst the chaos. "The DSI does not negotiate with terrorists, SCAI."

"BUT WE AREN'T TERRORISTS!"

"After that stunt with the detonator?" The soldier Imai snorted in reply. "Hypocrites!"

They were going to kill them. She was going to shoot him in the face, because they had standing kill orders on infiltrators like them.

"Like we had a choice." Veemon leaned out of his cover. He managed a couple shots before he retreated, narrowly avoiding twelve rounds in the face.

"Imai, flush it out!"

"Fire in the hole!"

A steel sphere whizzed past Veemon's column, landing on the platform and rolling to a complete stop eight feet away. It was a fragmentation hand grenade, an M67 going by its looks. He paled. These things killed humans within a fifteen feet radius. Child-level digimon, while stronger and faster and possibly more resilient than most humans, were no less vulnerable than they were to weapons like this.

The grenade might just be able to kill him, and like hell was he waiting around to find out if it could. Veemon's feet were already moving, and in a split-second he was out in the open, headed for the far side of another column—

Gunfire burst from the FN FAL's facing him. Veemon returned fire, but his pistol was empty in two pulls of the trigger. "Four Gods!" The Digimon of Miracles did the only thing he could do and performed a leap of faith, somersaulting in the air, hoping his smaller size—a rolling ball of the brightest blue—was worth something.

One of the unnamed patrolmen unloaded his assault rifle back towards the platform as he backpedaled away from the threat unnoticed by the two soldiers focusing on the blue dragon. "Watch out! The cat's—URK!"

The soldier fell to the ground with a loud thud, his body as still as the dead.

"Goggles down, goggles down," Toraichi screamed. "It's going 'Uchiha' on us!" He was scrabbling to put on his tactical goggles, but in his haste he didn't see Tailmon rushing him with a predatory glaze in her shining eyes. The soldier had barely raised his FN FAL when he was forced to abandon it and roll away lest he felt those claws mincing his body into pieces as they did his primary weapon.

Another guardsman opened fire to draw Tailmon's attention. Hollering, "Damn it, Toraichi, say it again! We don't understand your otaku shit!"

Vision impaired by his somersault, the Digimon of Miracles did not see what was going on. If he hadn't been forced to make this leap of faith, this bet on his own miraculous luck—another one in a string of so many he had long lost track—the blue dragon might have seen the same thing Sergeant Igarashi did and witnessed Tailmon sprinting to the other man on all fours, zigzagging closer with an unmistakable carnation lambency suffusing her irises.

The white cat maintained Cat's Eye for far, far longer than Veemon could have expected from her. Anyone who made eye contact with Tailmon ended up no differently from her first victim: paralyzed and unmoving. Virtually dead in all but name. Igarashi would watch her leap into the air as Veemon had just done.

Not to evade gunfire.

Not to get behind cover.

Not to place herself between Veemon and his two shooters.

But to disorient the DSI soldier with her irradiated sight and slam her foot into his knee with the proper strength of an Adult digimon and the sheer power of momentum. The nauseating crack that followed was a distinctive thunder. A crash that masked the pulverized bones and presaged the white fragments sticking out of the leg like a pincushion marred by streams of blood that couldn't be stopped. A resonating bolt that whammed the eardrums of all present, barely preparing the recipients for the subsequent, bloodcurdling scream.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Sergeant Igarashi put on his goggles and screamed his comrade's name, training his rifle at Veemon's colleague. She was flanked by a couple soldiers on the other side, making it difficult to evade the series of bullets bursting from three firearms at once.

Without Igarashi's support, Imai's gunfire followed his path but failed to land a hit. Several rounds struck a large trashcan in between the columns, shielding Veemon as he landed, rolled, and bounded for his destination moments before the M67 exploded into bits of steel and synthetic shards. It was ironic how it had also granted the dragon valuable seconds of rest, having forced Imai into retreating behind her own cover.

Valuable seconds spent reloading his gun.

Valuable seconds put to good use.

Led by quick thinking and intuition, the Child digimon of the brightest blue dashed for the garbage can, sprinting as fast as his feet allowed him to. He knew Imai was coming out any second now, this time undoubtedly used to his speed and more than capable of anticipating his next step and hitting him where and when it mattered.

Harmonious Ones, this better work!


Shot in the head.

If Veemon hadn't pushed her out of the way, she would've been shot in the head.

Killed, just like that. It didn't matter who she was. It didn't matter what sort of thing separated her from even the other Chosen Children. Taichi Yagami's sister. Potential successor of the Digidestined leadership. The Child of Light, coveted by Dagomon and a bane to all the darkness in the two worlds.

None of that mattered for the DSI.

She was just a target to them. A human to kill without blinking an eye. Another body to desecrate and ostentatiously display as an ornament of humanity's triumph.

Because of the astonishment, or more likely the blow she endured during the fall, dizziness claimed Hikari. She almost wretched on the guideway, and if it weren't for the gunshots and shouting occurring from the platform above, for the combat the two digimon were engaged in, the junior Yagami might have huddled at some nondescript corner for a moment's rest.

Whether the Child of Light succumbed to her weakness or strengthened her resolve to face her human enemies, Fate had long stripped her of any right to choose, for the DSI soldier known as Toraichi appeared at the edge of the platform. Intent gleamed in the eyes behind the goggles. Taichi's sister scrambled immediately at the sight of him, her hands reaching for two things.

First, the ceramic gun clipped to her waist, the item of last resort.

Second, the detonator Veemon dropped to commence his counterattack.

Toraichi abandoned the elevated platform and took to the guideway, looking like he was gamboling all six feet down. It struck the woman as odd. Why did he do that? Didn't he already have a clear shot of her from up there? Why give up his advantage—

Then she saw the missing rifle. The crinkled, dirty, and abraded uniform. The disheveled hair. The beads of sweat on his head.

All things considered, Toraichi didn't give up his advantage. He had already lost it when Tailmon's Neko Punch gave the opening Veemon used to leap up and start the gunfight. Their defeat was virtually ensured when Hikari's surrogate sister herself joined in. In fact, by joining the Chosen Child of Light in the guideway, he regained this advantage.

Not only did he escape the two digimon who were presumably taking down his colleagues with ease and efficiency, but also cornered Tailmon's partner. Tailmon's human half.

Everything would conclude in the DSI's favor if he disposed the 21-year old woman in front of him. It would all be over. The Adult Tailmon would permanently enter a state of catatonia in minutes, her body doomed to do nothing except shut down. The blue dragon accompanying them would be easy to dispatch after, as the Twelve's strongest was stuck in his Child level.

With Tailmon and Veemon busy handling Toraichi's colleagues above, Hikari was left to fend for herself. What instincts she inherited from Taichi Yagami were blaring. They shrieked at her, urging her to move, take command, and retake a position of power before it was too late. She only had seconds to spare. Seconds counting down to her death, to their failure, to—

Coquelicot eyes pinpointed the M9 pistol in the soldier's holster and the hands descending rapidly to take it. She did not have seconds. She had merely moments. Fortunately for Hikari, her gun had already been raised by the time Toraichi's fingers wrapped themselves around the hilt.

From the time she began her upward motions, the Chosen Child pulled the trigger thrice, and in rapid succession. Her own meager luck and what little skill she must have had with the ceramic firearm became palpable when her first shot somehow aggressed into her opponent's firearm and pitched the M9 far into the yawning darkness of the tunnel behind him. Her second and third were aimed straight for Toraichi's head.

The former hammered his goggles' straps and knocked the headgear away, while the latter smashed the corner of an eye.

Toraichi staggered in response to three consecutive strokes. Blood splattered from his eye, bursting from the punctured blood vessels lining the organ. One of the ugliest bruises Hikari had ever seen from a nonlethal round was quickly forming and aggravated the injury. The DSI guardsman barely grasped the facts he was just shot in the face and he survived it when the adult woman seized control. "I, I-I, I'm still, alive…"

He eyed her curiously. "Nonlethal?" The curiosity in his stupefied gaze morphed into relief…

Toraichi toddled towards her, closing the gap between them. Yagami speculated why he wasn't charging her this very moment, why he wasn't retreating to retrieve his firearm. Perhaps he was still testing the waters. Perhaps he was still skeptical, still disbelieving that a clean hit to the head—what would—what should have been instant death—left him bleeding but very much alive with swift heartbeats audibly declaring it to all who had ears sharp enough to discern it.

"Stay right where you are!" Hikari aimed down the sights and took a second longer than comfortable to target the clothed, unarmored leg. It wasn't a bulls-eye, but it grazed the target anyway. Toraichi blinked from the pain and flinched at the blunt trauma on his thigh. If her actions called attention to the nature of her weapon, maybe, just maybe she could excogitate his appreciation of life. That the Chosen Child brought a nonlethal gun for the sole purpose of respecting the potentiality of her human opponents, for understanding that everyone deserved a second chance.

If she somehow communicated how lucky the soldier was to be alive, perhaps there was hope they could still get out of this without killing them all. All Toraichi needed to do was convince his teammates to stand down, or let themselves be subdued—incapacitated, at best. They would be rescued when the danger was over. They would be all and well. Best of all, Hikari Yagami wouldn't feel the desolation that the loss of life beckoned within her.

…then the relief in his thankful gaze morphed into glimmering opportunity.

The guardsman's fluctuant toddles became tenacious strides. Purposeful and brimming with confidence.

"Stay back!" Hikari yelled at him. He did not listen. "I said stay back!"

BANG!

This time, the junior Yagami shot him in the head. This time, she got him on the bridge of his nose.

This time, the DSI soldier turned his head at the last moment and let his cheek suffer the blow. When he faced her again, Hikari whimpered at the intrepid leer gracing his rugged countenance. She backpedaled, fearful of his purpose.

The gun went down.

"Don't come any closer!"

The gun went down, and in its place rose the cylindrical object in her other hand. She held it high, so high not even Toraichi could be so blind as to overlook it. He would see how snugly Veemon's detonator fit in her dainty clasp and scrutinize the thumb hovering over the red button. "D-don't, or, o-o-o, or I—I will—I'll push!

"I'll push this button and set the bomb off!"

A part of Hikari was dying.

A part of her was wailing in agony.

Her heart found itself ensnared in the pangs of grief.

Why wasn't the soldier getting the message? Didn't he want to live? Didn't he get his second chance? It was only fair, wasn't it? For him to give her the very same? For him to give them a chance at rescuing Taichi?

But none of that was happening! He wasn't reacting the way a normal person might have in his place. Toraichi kept going, kept walking, while Hikari kept backing away, her coquelicot eyes dilating from the mounting pressure. Only a little more and the pressure would ignite an explosion, and nothing would ever be the same again.

In the end, she had no choice. She had to pull out the trump card. The patrolman stopped as soon as Hikari presented the detonator. "Take one more step and the DDS is gone. My friends in the Digital World will come and you will regret not listening to—

"It'll be over," Toraichi muttered. "It'll all be over soon." He took one more step.

"No! Stay away! I'm telling you. If you take another step, I'll—

He took another.

"I'll push this. I MEAN IT! I will blow them all up if you keep—

And another.

Hikari stepped back, only to feel a frigid sensation on her back. The cold steel passed its chilling feel onto her neck and through her blouse and arm warmers. The slab of metal that had very nearly squashed her digimon partner met her halfway. Blocked her path. The woman was cornered. The woman was trapped and cowering like fraught prey, helpless before a salivating predator licking its chops.

And another.

"Damn it! Why aren't you listening? Why won't you—

"Because you won't."

Then those purposive steps quickened.

All the words, all the rebuttals teetering on the edge of her tongue suddenly vanished. Hikari's mouth twisted with a barbaric whine, her entire body jolting from Toraichi's sudden speed as she squealed pitifully like the soft woman she was. The hand holding the gun shifted to instinct, its index finger pulling the trigger again and again and again. The weapon shot away repeatedly, bullet after bullet pounding the soldier's frame until the only thing remaining audible was a distinct clicking noise.

Click-click-click.

"Wheeeeewwww," the Child of Light breathed. It was over. She opened her eyes slowly, afraid of what her coquelicot gaze would show her. Even if he wasn't dead, at such close range the soldier must have received enough bullets in the face to knock him out. Enough bullets to tear into the skin and tarnish it with grody meat and exposed bones. Enough bullets to perhaps blind him in both eyes or crush the cartilage of his nose.

"Oh my…"

Life couldn't be any crueler than it had been so far.

As a reward for her efforts, as a reward for her desperation, Hikari Yagami received a most frightful mien lacquered against a crimson backdrop, against the purple and bloody bruises of Toraichi's countenance. The man had stood his ground against Hikari's assault.

"No…"

Her body was transfixed. Immobilized by a perfected shock. She could do nothing—she could say nothing but watch the DSI guardsman hawk a broken tooth wrapped in a disgusting loogie before baring his bleeding teeth to her quivering vision. "Because you're too soft."

There was nowhere else to go. "No…"

Toraichi pulled out a knife and rushed in. All he required were a couple steps and he was there, knife swinging and stabbing. Hikari squalled from the impending mortality, shrieked and howled and bickered in undiluted terror and hysteria. "AAAGGGHHHHHH!"

"NO! NO, NO, NO!" Yagami raised her arms in an attempt to bar him.

The hardened soldier was upon her with a face devoid of emotions. Aware of the terrible act, of the heartless sin. Murdering a naïve girl, slicing through her young, supple skin and making her wretch and wail at the experience of the world's unfairness. This was the world of adults. The world of reality. The world where credulity and innocent, childish ideals were displaced—were overwhelmed by conflicting interests, vague morality, and a culture whose historians panegyrized those who committed dark deeds and unforgivable sins for the sake of the greater good, for the progression and utility of vast numbers of people.

"Don't, please, don't—

Without hesitation, Toraichi thrust the dagger in Hikari's belly, found a glaring weak point between the citrine blouse and the slim armor beneath, and dug the blade deeper, slashing through her innards, through her liver and kidneys, through her stomach.

She gurgled. "P, p-please…"

He forced it down, ripping the metal through her groin and out her vagina before whipping the razor-sharp blade straight across those terrified eyes both and in one fluid motion, pulverized her marred face with the tip of his elbow.

In five seconds, Hikari was dead. Her knees buckled. Her body collapsed lifelessly on the guideway and for sure Tailmon felt their connection ebbing away, receding into gelid, inimical nothingness.

.

.

.

What the hell just happened? To be continued in the second half of "The Value of Life".


Post-chapter notes:

[8] Once again, CH27 contains several Real Life references to enhance the reader experience, like every other chapter from CH10 and onward. These are as follows:

- The Toyota Mega Cruiser and the Kawasaki motorcycles Veemon, Hikari, and Tailmon evaded at the First Hub are actual models produced by these manufacturers.

The Mega Cruiser is a heavy-duty 4WD introduced by Toyota in 1995 and exclusively sold in Japan up until 2002, which resembled the Hummer H1 and was designed for military use (infantry transports equipped with mounted howitzers and mobile SAM launchers) by the JSDF. It is currently in use by the Japanese military, but it did not see use during the Iraq War because, unlike the Komatsu Light Armored Vehicle (LAV), the vehicle had inadequate protection from small arms fire. As for the Kawasaki KLX250 motorcycle, it is a dual-purpose bike that began production in 2006 and is a current product of the manufacturer. It is currently in use by the JSDF in real life.

- Asahi Super Dry—the empty bottle thrown by Hikari to distract the second DSI patrol encountered in the First Hub—is the flagship beer of Asahi Breweries, Ltd. It is a leading soft drink company and brewery headquartered in Sumida, Tokyo, with its parent company Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. (TYO: 2502) worth ¥1.2 trillion ($12.1 billion) in market capitalization as of August, 2, 2013 and a member of the Nikkei 225 index. The Super Dry was developed and introduced to the Japanese in 1987, nearly 100 years after the company's inception in Osaka. It had gone viral, initiating a nationwide obsession for dry beer and spearheading Asahi's business performance.

- The Yamanashi Maglev Veemon alluded to in a brief outburst alludes to the SCMaglev co-developed by the Central Japan Railway Company and the Railway Technical Research Institute. However, the Yamanashi mentioned here is actually a test track that was opened in Tsuru, Yamanashi in 1997, with testing of the train carried out since opening until 2011. Testing resumed in June 2013. A three-car train employing the SCMaglev electrodynamic system has reached max speeds of 581 km/h (361 mph) in a manned vehicle run. The Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism has granted permission to commercialize this on the planned 中央新幹線 (Chuo Shinkansen) line, which aims to link Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka by 2045. According to the Central Japan Railway Company's 2012 data book, environmental impact assessments are currently underway.

- The "Mr. Abe" mentioned by Mitsuo Yamaki in passing is a reference to Shinzo Abe, the current Prime Minister of Japan and a right-wing nationalist who returned to official capacities in December 2012 after a five-year hiatus following his resignation in September 2007. Under his leadership, he has taken an aggressive stance against the ongoing geopolitical dispute with China over the Diaoyu / Senkaku Islands and formally offered the SCMaglev system to President Barack Obama in February 2013.

He presently aims to revive the declining Japanese economy by "implement[ing] bold monetary policy, flexible fiscal policy, and a growth strategy that encourages private investment", a strategy that is causing tension in the world as you are reading this and according to economists and other investment professionals, can potentially spark a currency war through the decade as multiple sovereign governments attempt to offset the impact of a depreciating Yen on their economic competitiveness.

- The 50 Cal is military slang for the Browning .50 cal heavy machine gun, which has been in use throughout the world since its first use in World War I. In real life, it is used extensively for vehicle weapons and anti-aircraft armaments, and depending on the model, boasts rates of fire varying from 450 to 575 rounds per minute at an effective range of 1.8 kilometers (a little over 1 mile!)

- Kagutsuchi and Raijin correspond to the gods of fire and lightning, respectively, in Japanese mythology. For Kagutsuchi, his birth marks the beginning of death, as his birth caused his mother's death and compelled his father Izanagi to behead the baby with his sword, with the blood creating a number of other deities.

For Raijin, he is a god of lightning, thunder, and storms in Shintoism and in Japanese mythology, typically depicted as a demonic spirit beating drums to create thunder with tomoe symbols drawn on the drums. His connection to Kagutsuchi is manifest in how he was born through Izanami's death, festering within the rotting corpse. In Western culture, Raijin is usually known as Raiden. (Check Wikipedia for more information on either; they apparently have citations for each.)

- Some of the procedure words used in the communications exchanged between the ODC and DSI personnel (Mitsuo Yamaki included) are used in real life and have been lifted directly from the 5th chapter of the current US Army manual. I would not know if the JSDF's military communications operates in a similar manner, but I assumed the DSI would since it is a global organization in the storyline and thus benchmarks itself against a worldwide standard… which is of course, the United States.

[10] Digital Suppression Technology named and introduced in this chapter:

- The AutoMod: Digital Modification, automated. There is only one modification embedded in the AutoMod's programming and has a finite battery life equivalent to eight hours before replacement is necessary. The attachment basically creates a miniature Digital Field around the barrel and its nuzzle, and any bullets in it not only carry bits and pieces of the Digital Field on its way out, but are also automatically altered to manifest the programming. This is a very deadly combination as it can add secondary effects to bullets with primary characteristics (explosive, piercing, incendiary) or amplify them.

- Combat SCAI: Digimon fitted with dark spirals ("triband suppressors" in DSI parlance) designed to completely suppress free will and speech, boost power by 60%, and emphasize rage, bloodlust, and absolute obedience. The dark spirals are color-coded red to differentiate them from the Service (white) and Pet (black) types seen in Chapter 10, "Culture Shock". 80% of Child level digimon evolve instantly to their Adult forms due to the transformers embedded in the machinery. If the need arises, the DSI handlers can activate program overrides to disable the safety regulators in the dark spirals and force evolution to Perfect level, as Ken Ichichouji had done twice with Greymon using the dark ring and the dark spiral.

However, the dark spirals are taxed while the digimon is in the Perfect stage, with the extra boost of power coming from—I would think—the life force of the digimon itself (rather than the human's as what occurs with the tamers and their digivices). If left in this stage for too long, either the dark spiral short-circuits or, and this is more likely, the digimon devolves to the Child level and is not only sapped completely of energy but literally on the brink of death unless treated by their handlers within five minutes.

[11] I'm still a ways away from "Value of Life", Part II, so please be patient! Thanks. :)

[12] If I get any reviews on this chapter, the truncated version will be posted right below this.

Keeper of Worlds: Your reaction is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thanks. To answer your question, please reread CH26 and CH27 carefully and figure it out for yourself.

Kingveemon: Hey, KV! Thanks for the feedback. Each review you leave helps. As loathe as I am to admit it, unfortunately in a world where people herd together and find safety in numbers, a large quantity of valued things can be considered an indicator of quality. So each comment increases the uptick a bit and helps draw in new readers whenever I update, so thanks for saying something!

Anyway, as for your question re: Hikari and Tailmon, just as I told Keeper of Worlds, you can either reread CH26 and CH27 or scrutinize the pre-chapter notes for CH27 to infer your answer, whichever is more convenient. Figure it out for yourself.

Sacchi Hikaru: Thanks for your kind words on the psychological emphasis I've been putting in my story. I'm working really hard to weave them into all my scenes now, in battle or at peace, so that readers are completely immersed in the characters without losing sight of what's going on around them.

Anyway, you should Veemon's stance in the first eight chapters. Despite the similarities, it's actually different from Hikari's aversion to killing human beings. Veemon's reluctance comes from the hypocrisy of the act, his respect for Daisuke, and his hope for another human to befriend him instead of trying to kill him. Hikari's repugnance stems from the morality of ending another life, one that isn't pure evil and won't be reborn like Digimon. Of course, that they both don't want to kill and avoid it entirely reflects their innocence.

DSI HQ. Please revisit CH14 for a quick reference. Btw, it's nice to see you've paid enough attention to my writing to the extent you aren't fazed by my ending to CH27. Great! Good for you! Since you're wondering about Christopher, he'll have roughly 20% of the chapter dedicated to him, plus he features prominently in a few more chapters after that. No other comments on him though. As for Veemon, well, that's the plan I'm going for. Too bad you didn't focus on Hikari. Ahhh, poor girl.

You don't need to worry about me getting lazy. Just because my story's underrated doesn't mean I'll skimp on quality. Anyway, CH28 has just broken 17K on September 19, with Taichi's POV at the 2.6K mark. I'm expecting that to be as long as Christopher's, or slightly longer, and when I'm done with that, I'll just have to knock out the concluding POV and it's on to posting!