Disclaimer: Digimon is a franchise owned jointly by Toei Animation and Bandai, and conceptualized by Akiyoshi Hongo. Doctor Who is a property owned by the British Broadcasting Company created by Sydney Newman. The concept of The Tamer: A Digimon Adventure is a fan fiction idea. Please support the official properties.

Author's Notes: Good evening gentle reader. I hope you're enjoying the show. I want to thank all my readers who left reviews, liked, and favorited the story. Let's also give a big shout out to Ace Spiritwell for doing the cover art for this chapter! They did an amazing job, and you can thank them by checking out their deviantart account and their fanfiction profile. And now! The next chapter of The Tamer: A Digimon Adventure!

The Tamer: A Digimon Adventure

Chapter 37: Aca'dehmia

The digidestined and the digimon looked at the vaguely ruined city around them. The streets were empty and quiet but it felt like it should have been crowded with people or digimon busy going about their days. The city was a marvel of different time periods sitting on top of each other but all of it seemed brand new, as if the builders had no idea what aesthetic to go for as the city was built. Futuristic buildings, modern designs, and antiquated architectures were abundant and made the entire thing a beautiful eye sore. Wizardmon was the most taken aback by the situation, "Aca'dehmia!" The Aca'dehmia!? The heart of knowledge!?"

"What was that about knowledge?" Izzy's interest was peaked.

"Guys! You're forgetting about Piximon! We have to go back and get him!" Mimi scolded them. Izzy patted her back in consolation, "We can't, Mimi. He stayed behind to make sure that we escaped."

"But Piximon!" Mimi pleaded.

"Mimi, he's gone," Tamer said to her, "He's an Ultimate level and those four are Megas! Unless he ran, which he wouldn't have, he's gone."

"I'm not going to let Piximon die like my mom!" Mimi shouted angrily only to be spoken down to, "He's already dead and you will be too if you go back there!"

"I have to try and save him!" Mimi pleaded anxiously, only for Tanemon to call, "Mimi! You'll be killed if you go back!"

"I-"

"Mimi, I get it. I do. But it won't do him any good to go back and it would make his sacrifice in vain," Tamer tried reasoning more seriously with Mimi. He just wasn't the one person she wanted to be talking too at the moment, "Don't tell me what to do!"

"Stop fighting!" Kari pleaded before she started coughing. This fit was worse than the others and it didn't stop. Nyaromon hopped over to her partner, "Kari! What's wrong?"

She couldn't answer as her coughs grew shallow and thin, until she could only gasp for breath between the coughs. Joe and Tamer both separately ran to help her, but she was already sinking to her knees and falling unconscious. Joe placed a hand of her head and said, "Oh wow. She's burning up!"

"That's right! She said she was sick! She passed out when I first met her in the Real World!" Nyaromon said. Wild eyed and worried, Tamer asked, "Will she be alright?"

"I don't know," Joe frowned, "I don't have any medicine and I don't really know what's wrong with her."

"We need to get her to one of the hospitals! They'll have medicine!" Tamer said hurriedly. He scooped up the little girl in his arms, "Come on, let's go! I think I know where to find one."

"What about Piximon!?" Mimi reminded them, "He's still back there!"

"Does anyone even know how to get there?" Tsunomon asked, "It was all kind of a blur."

Mimi looked up and down the many streets around them. There were no landmarks and they had a vague idea of which direction they'd come from. But how far had they gone? How far did they go before they came to Aca'dehmia. It annoyed her but she admitted, "I don't know."

"I do, but I'm taking Kari to a hospital first," Tamer said sternly. Koromon and Nyaromon bounced along after him while he called back, "Joe, I'll need your help."

"Yeah, sure," Joe pocketed his hands and nodded to his partner to follow. Mimi became distraught as one by one, each of the other digidestined and digimon started to follow Tamer. She stamped her foot on the ground, "Guys! Please! We have to save Piximon!"

Izzy stopped in his tracks to look at her, "Mimi, we don't know even know how to get back there. Tamer does and it's obvious he's not going anywhere until Kari gets to a hospital!"

"Then I'll go!" Mimi stamped her foot, "Come on Tanemon."

"Mimi! Wait!" Izzy called after her, "We should stick together! Remember what Piximon said!"

"You guys can stick together if you want! I'm going to go save Piximon!" Mimi shouted back. Tanemon followed along anxiously, looking back at Izzy and mouthing she was sorry for Mimi's behavior. Izzy looked back and forth between the split and pulled Tentomon along with him. He shouted at the others, "Guys! We're going with Mimi to make sure she doesn't hurt herself."

"What? Guys! You cant' just leave! We have to stick together!" Sora shouted after the four, only to find that she was being ignored. She looked back and forth between the two splitting groups - Mimi needed looking after but so did Kari. Who was she supposed to pick? Who should she go with? If she went with Mimi, then the others would quickly fall apart as Tamer grew on their nerves. If she went with Tamer, then Mimi might do something reckless that put them all in danger. She called out to them all, "Guys! Don't wander off! Guys! Tamer! Mimi!"

Tamer stopped in his tracks and asked Joe to hold Kari before coming back, "Hold it! The four of you!"

When they didn't listen, he demonstrated an uncharacteristically high speed of movement when he closed the gap between them and jumped in front of them, "Don't go another inch."

"How did he do that?" Izzy wondered to himself.

"Move," Mimi commanded of him. Tamer stamped his foot on the ground, "Mimi! Running off on your own is only going to cause more problems. Let's stick together for now."

"I'm not going anywhere with you. Get out of my way," Mimi growled. She tried moving around him but he continued to block his path. Tanemon tried again to reason with her partner, "Mimi. Please! He's just worried about you. We all are."

"No he isn't! If he was, he would be doing everything he could to keep these things from happening!" Mimi said with fire in her eyes, "But he doesn't! He just lets more and more people die!"

"He let Wizardmon live," Izzy pointed out, only to get chewed out, "And what makes him so special? Why did you save him and not anyone else?"

"It was a lapse in judgment," Tamer offered sheepishly, only for her to scoff, "Oh, is that what it was?"

"He wasn't supposed to live," Tamer said, sounding like a broken record. Mimi rolled her eyes and pushed past him, "Yeah, I've heard this before."

"Way to blow it," Matt commented from his spot with the others. Tamer clicked his tongue disapprovingly and patted Izzy, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright, I'll go with her and keep her out of trouble," Izzy nodded grimly. Tamer motioned to Wizardmon and asked, "Please go with them. It'll be safer if they have someone with them who knows what's going on in this city. If you don't mind."

"I understand," Wizardmon bowed and joined Izzy who looked up curiously, "Why? What's going on with the city?"

"Hopefully, nothing," Tamer frowned and held up his digivice, "Here, set your digivice to Detect Mode. Option 2. Just push that button there."

Izzy did as he was told and was amazed to see eight red dots appear on the screen, one moving away from the rest to indicate Mimi. He grew excited, "Prodigious. Wait, but will Tentomon still be able to digivolve?"

"Don't worry. That stuff just happens naturally. Like a background process that's always running," Tamer held up his digivice to show he had the same screen and whispered, "I'll be watching you guys from mine. Just keep an eye on Mimi. Okay?"

"Okay," Izzy nodded.

"And no matter what happens. Don't let her know about this," Tamer added, "If she does, it won't end well for either of us."

He, Wizardmon, and Tentomon went after Mimi who had already gone further ahead. Tamer watched them disappear before rejoining the others, "The hospital's this way."

"Was that a good idea?" Sora asked her friend. He shrugged, "No clue."

A tiny wooden spear fell to the stone floor with a rattle while Puppetmon moaned, "That wasn't very fun."

"Hmph, it've been better if you'd let us kill the digidestined instead of wasting time playing with them!" MetalSeadramon grunted his disapproval, "And you! Why were you trying to stop us?"

"Did you forget the prophecy? This is the first step to our defeat! Piximon will sacrifice himself to save the humans and their digimon!" Machinedramon stated matter of factly, "Which is exactly what happened! For the purpose of ending this, I would propose that we finish them quickly but not in the way that was intended."

"I'm intrigued Machinedramon! Do go on," Piedmon mused with his hands clasped together, "What did you have in mind?"

"I'll go out and search for the digidestined. The guards reported seeing the digidestined going in that direction," Machinedramon pointed out into the distance, "There's only one thing there: Aca'dehmia. Now, if things happen as they're supposed to: MetalSeadramon will attack them and fail. However, Aca'dehmia is not in his domain. It is in mine. Therefore, to minimize the risk to ourselves and maximize our chances of success - I would propose that I go to dispose of the digidestined."

"What! Why are you going? If we go together, it doubles our chances!" MetalSeadramon protested.

"According to destiny, you are the first to die," Machinedramon countered quickly, "If you want to further them along and guarantee our defeat, then be my guest! Come along. Just watch out for the Tamer. He and his partner defeat you!"

"Just like he defeats you!" MetalSeadramon shouted back. Puppetmon yawned, "I'm bored. You guys are boring me. I'm going to the forest so that I can play more! Whoever is coming better come soon!"

"I will assemble my army," Machinedramon stated, "We will return after turning that city into a crater!"

"Because it worked so well the first time," Piedmon mused as the tiny wooden puppet and large mechanical dinosaur disappeared into the depths castle. It didn't take long for Machinedramon's legion to march out - Mekanorimon, Guardromon, Tankmon, Megadramon, Gigadramon, and Hagurumon. MetalSeadramon scoffed and departed for his own domain while Piedmon reclined in the air, "Well, this should make for an amusing affair."

He stretched his back and took a relaxed position, made all the more comfortable by the fact that he was resting on thin air.

Izzy followed along just behind Mimi and Tanemon. Tentomon stumbled along weakly beside him, so Izzy would regularly stop to help his partner along. Wizardmon walked briskly beside the two boys in silence as they made they were through the empty city streets. Occasionally, they would encounter a thick mist but this did little to deter Mimi as she marched on. To help pass the time, Izzy turned to Wizardmon, "So…Wizardmon, what can you tell us about Aca'dehmia? You said it was the 'heart of knowledge'."

Wizardmon marveled at the structures around them as he recounted, "Yes, that was its nickname during the height of Tamer's people, The Digital Ancients or the Sages of Data if you prefer. Apparently, there was a gate here similar to the one in Myotismon's castle. They used it to study and learn from other worlds. The history on this detail is vague - either their exposure to this gate over countless generations made them what they were, or they were never from the Digital World and came here to seek refuge after their own world perished. It's hard to tell the fact from the fiction given how old the stories are."

"Is that why you were so excited to learn the name of this place?" Izzy asked inquisitively. Tentomon looked around, "I guess I sort of get it. All the buildings here that don't look like they don't belong…were they pulled from other worlds too or is this just how it was made?"

Wizardmon tipped his hat up with his explanation, "It's hard to say. The city was built around a gate. Who knows what kind of effect that could have on a civilization after generations of exposure. In any case, they kept all of their cumulative knowledge in one facility - all their prophecies, all their wisdom, all their philosophies and discoveries. I thought I'd never have the chance to see it myself but here we are."

"Why wouldn't you? It seems like there was no reason why you couldn't come here any time," Tentomon commented. Wizardmon lowered his voice, "Because the city was lost during the war - gone in an instant. To this day, it's not known what happened or why. It vanished. But here we are. Perhaps there is a record of what happened during the war and we can lear-"

"Will you stop it and help me find a way back to help Piximon?" Mimi shouted at them from a full block ahead. Izzy looked towards her and noticed two figures in white robes walking towards her. He called out to warn her, only for the figures to pass through her like ghosts and continue walking. She shivered when they did and yelped when she saw what happened, "What is that?"

"I have no idea," Wizardmon said, moving Izzy and Tentomon out of the way as the two figures walked past them. The heard a portion of their conversation as the first said, "-eard that it was Gennai who found those two out there in the forest."

"A human and a digimon, out there by themselves. How do you suppose that happened?" asked the second. The first shrugged, "Does it even matter? They're being taken care of at the-"

It was impossible to hear what they said next as the two continued walking, fading into air as suddenly as they'd appeared. Mimi stammered, "What was that?"

"No idea," Wizardmon murmured, "I'd say ghosts, but they didn't look like Bakemon."

"They were dressed sort of like Tamer," Tanemon noted curiously. Wizardmon's eyes widened and tried to usher them along, "I don't know what that was but it'd probably be best to keep moving."

They continued their trek through the city but the encounter with the two ghostly figures weighed on Izzy's mind. He asked, "Wizardmon, you said the city was lost. What did you mean by that?"

"Exactly what I meant. The city was lost," Wizardmon said nonchalantly. Izzy shook his head curiously, "But you said lost. What does that mean? Why not say destroyed or blown up. Instead you said lost. Maybe it's just from hanging around Tamer too much, but that's a weird choice of words. Unless you literally mean the city was lost. But then how do you lose a city?"

Wizardmon could only shrug and offer his theories, "Who knows? Based on present evidence, I would suspect that the Dark Masters had a hand in it. History states that the Dark Masters disappeared some time shortly after the war ended. If the city came back with the Dark Masters, one has to wonder what else could have come back."

Tamer and Koromon busted down the door of the hospital and hurried inside. Despite its outward appearance of a modern medical facility, its interior looked like it came off the set of a science fiction movie. Everything from the chairs to the counters to the walls were a slick, plastic white with screens replacing bulletin boards and full size windows that went from the floor to the ceiling. Several gurneys greeted them and Tamer wasted no time placing Kari on one before hurrying her into one of the patient rooms.

Joe and Agumon helped to push the cart through the hall at a hurried pace while Tamer began reading off the signs, "Emergency, Pre-Op, Surgery, Post-Op, Pharmacy! Here!"

He stopped the gurney and ran in through an open door. Beyond, Joe could make out shelves stacked high with boxes of medicine. He couldn't tell what any of them were as they were all marked with the strange hieroglyphs that appeared so commonly in the Digital World. It took him just that second longer to realize that all of the signs were written in the hieroglyphs. He was amused by the idea of how utterly useless he'd be in a place like this and smiled to himself.

The smile vanished when Bukamon said, "I don't think now's a good time to be smiling Joe."

"You're right, sorry," he put a hand on Kari's head and saw that she was burning up, "Agumon, can you wet some towels and bring them here?"

"I can find a bathroom, sure!" Agumon zipped off down the hall. Bukamon hovered over the little girl and Nyaromon took a few hops to join her, "Is she okay?"

"Her fever's getting worse," he commented of the little girl who seemed redder than she was before. Of course, she wasn't the only one who wasn't looking too good. He could see that TK appeared just as unwell and he said, "Don't worry. We'll take care of her."

"I don't like this," TK frowned, "Did Mimi leave because she was mad at us?"

"No buddy. She just wanted to go help Piximon," Matt offered to his little brother. TK still seemed unsure and asked, "Shouldn't we go with her?"

"We'll go looking for her once Kari's all better," Patamon chimed in, "Besides, they have Tanemon and Tentomon, who can both go Ultimate, Izzy who's a computer genius, and Wizardmon who's as smart as Tamer and not annoying. She'll be fine."

"I still feel bad about not going with her. Or going to help Piximon," TK frowned. Joe opened his mouth to say that it wasn't very likely that Piximon was even alive anymore, but stopped when he saw Matt shoot him death glares. Tsunomon spoke up, "He'll be fine! You saw how he rescued us! I bet you he got out of there himself once we were safe!"

TK remained silent. Agumon returned with several damp paper towels, "I'm back! There weren't any towels but the paper ones are two-ply! That should work, right?"

"Yes, thank you Agumon," Joe took them and rested them on Kari's head. She cringed as the cool surface touched her bare skin, but relaxed when Sora lent the girl her hand. Although she was barely conscious, she clung to that hand as hard as she could and forced her eyes open. She smiled and murmured, "Thanks Sora."

Then she was out again. Sora brushed her hand gently and asked, "What's taking Tai so long?"

On cue, the door opened to let two ghostly figures in white robes come out. Sora felt a chill as they exited the room and passed through her without stopping, immersed in whatever they were talking. The first stated, "I don't like this. I disapprove entirely. What is Gennai thinking?"

"Does it matter? They've both agreed to undergo it," the second answered. The first remained unsure, "They hardly think. Does it count?"

"They agreed."

"It took us ten minutes to get a name out of either them. They're either barely sentient or incredibly slow. Plus, they're both just kids. Can they really give consent?"

The first groaned, clearly tired of the issue, "Who even cares? Can we stop arguing about the morality of this and talk about something else?"

"Okay, what do we do if they live?" the two asked, changing the subject but staying on topic.

"We'll worry about that if that happens. Come on. Let's get them prepped for it," the first hurried his pace and the two disappeared down the hall before fading to nothing. In that last glimpse, Sora noticed that they were dressed similarly to how Tamer was now. Everyone else was taken aback by what they saw, "Ghosts!"

"Agumon, where was that bathroom? Because i think I have to go," Tsunomon whimpered.

"Me too," Joe added, hoping that he hadn't quite ruined his shorts. Biyomon turned her head to the side, "Something's not right. The only ghosts that should exist in the Digital World are the Bakemon. So who were they?"

"She's right, ghosts in the Digital World don't normally look like that!" Bukamon agreed quickly, "What did we just see Agumon?"

It was then that they noticed just how spooked Agumon was. The bright orange lizard's eyes were wide open and his mouth hung low, "That...no, that can't be right. We should get Tamer and go."

"Go where?" Tamer said as he emerged from the pharmacy holding a bottle of a white syrup, a syringe, and antiseptic, "What's with you guys?"

"You didn't see that?" Matt inquired and Tamer raised an eyebrow, "What? Mimi run off with Tanemon, Izzy, Tentomon and Wizardmon? Yeah, I saw that."

"No, the two ghosts. These guys just walked out of there and went right past us. They even went right through us like we weren't even here!" TK said quickly, "They were like ghosts! They even had the long white clothes like you-"

TK stopped when Tamer bonked him on the head, "Did you take a hit when Puppetmon was controlling us?"

"Don't hit my brother Tai!" Matt growled at the boy, calling him that explicitly to frustrate him. Tamer clicked his tongue and hit him right back, "Don't call me that, Marc."

Matt clenched his hand into a fist and took a deep breath to keep from decking the kid in the face. He could be such a pain some times but he had to be careful now. There wasn't much point in getting upset over something like this, especially when Tamer was the one holding a bottle of who knows what and a needle. The boy proceeded to the little girl, "How's her temperature?"

"Still high. I'm trying to bring it down with the wet towels," Joe said sheepishly. Once Tamer plunged the syringe into the bottle, Joe asked, "What is that?"

"Potion," Tamer said without skipping a beat, "Or, an antibiotic if you prefer. All you need to know is that it'll make her feel better."

"Hang on, antibiotic? Won't that just make it worse!?" Joe pointed out, "We don't really know what's making her sick! This could just be a head cold. It'd be like going after a fly with a bomb!"

Tamer looked at him quizzically, "And that's different from what I normally do because?"

"She's a little girl! If you give her an antibiotic she doesn't need, it might hurt her!" Joe pointed out. Sora and Nyaromon were finally both concerned, "You shouldn't do that Tamer."

"Or what? She'll get better all on her own? She's passed out!" Tamer said, filling the syringe with the milky white fluid. Sora urged him to reconsider, "Tamer, we can't just put something in her if we don't know if it will hurt her or not!"

"Well it's a good thing I know it'll help," Tamer reasoned, realizing that this wasn't inspiring confidence in anyone. Joe raised his hands cautiously and walked towards Tamer slowly, "Look, just put the needle down and swear you're not going to put anything weird into her."

"Guys, I know what I'm doing. This will help," Tamer said, still holding the needle in his hand. He tapped it a few times and squirted to get out the air bubbles before smiling, "Trust me."

"Trust you? Are you serious?" Bukamon asked disbelievingly as the others were now slowly surrounding the boy. Matt came around the other side opposite of Joe, while Biyomon and Bukamon were hovering over Kari. Tamer sighed, "That's a good point. Agumon?"

"This is all you buddy," Agumon mumbled, staring off down the hall quietly. Tamer took a deep breath and moved swiftly. He held Joe back with one hand, used his leg to kick the gurney so that it knocked back Sora, Biyomon, and Bukamon. He took the antiseptic and managed to dump some of it on to her arm before Matt tried to rush him. Tamer sidestepped the boy before sticking the needle into Kari's shoulder and plunging the fluid deep into her before anyone could stop him. Sora and Nyaromon were about to hit him when Kari sat up. Her eyes were wide in pain and she screamed, "AH!"

"What did you do?" Sora had never felt this angry. She pushed the boy as hard as she could against the wall and pinned him there. Nyaromon leapt into the air and tackled the arm holding the needle, hitting just hard enough that his grip weakened and it fell to the floor with a crack. The little cat hissed, "What did you do to Kari?"

"Fixed her!" Tamer said with a big smile. Sora traced his line of sight to Kari to see she'd fallen back onto the gurney. Joe put a hand to her head and inspected the injection site. Seeing her like this, Nyaromon bore her fangs, "Tamer! I swear if you did something to her, we'll-"

"Her temperature is going down," Joe said, "She's still breathing. Pulse is there."

"I told you, I fixed her," Tamer grunted, "Now can you let me go? You guys look like you've seen a ghost."

Sora loosened her hold and Tamer massaged his arms, "Ow. You're surprisingly strong for a kid."

She wasn't sure how to take that and resolved to not respond. She was too upset at him to do anything else. Kari stirred and opened her eyes with a tired yawn, "What happened? Why does my arm hurt?"

"It's nothing," Tamer said, "Get some sleep. You'll need to rest."

She looked at her brother carefully, inspecting him closely for some sign of insincerity before nodding and falling back asleep. Joe kept his hand firmly on her head and asked, "What did you do to her?"

"Jump started her immune system. She'll need some rest while her body clears out whatever is making her sick," Tamer said sorely, "She'll also wake up with a hell of an appetite later. Forget about her, are you guys okay?"

"We're fine," Bukamon groaned, "Did you have to be so rough?"

"You were trying to jump me!" was his response, "Did you think I wasn't going to be?"

"She'll be alright, won't she? There's not going to be any weird reactions?" Joe asked. Tamer brushed a hand through her hair, "No idea. We'll find out if something does happen to her. Come on, let's get her into one of the rooms. Then we can go find something to snack on."

Mimi continued leading the way with the others close behind her. The anachronistic buildings made her head spin but no worse than the giant marble temple they encountered at the end of the street. The building was old and in ruins, but there were still hints of its grand splendor in what remained of its facade. The walls and columns were engraved with illustrations of various hooded figures and digimon in such a way that it seemed like a story was being told. As with all the other buildings they encountered before, there were hieroglyphs written into the walls. Izzy ran up excitedly, "No way! It's the Parthenon! But what's it doing all the way out here?"

"What's a parthenon?" Tentomon inquired. Izzy was about to being his explanation but Mimi stopped him before he had the chance, "Who cares? Or did you forget why we're here?"

"Mimi, even you have to realize that's just not goi-" Izzy stopped when he saw the look Mimi was giving him. He should have realized that this was not a line of discussion for her, "I'll shut up."

"By the...I never thought I'd see it with my own eyes," Wizardmon said with awe as he walked towards it, almost ready to sink to his knees with awe, "It's so beautiful. To think that I could have the chance."

"What are you talking about?" Tanemon asked the transfixed wizard. He pointed at it excitedly and trembled with anticipation, ready to forget everything and run in, "That's it! That's the place where they kept it! All the prophecies, the knowledge, the philosophies, discoveries! This is it! The Athenaeum!"

"Really!?" Izzy's face lit up, "What's with that name?"

A bell rang somewhere in the distance and suddenly hundreds of ghostly figures in white robes appeared, going about their business hurriedly. Some were in deep discussion while others were buried with books or scrolls. There were what looked like kids among them, but their robes didn't have the same gray trim as the adults. The trim on their robes were all assortment of colors with no clear reason to why. Some were blue, others pink, red, purple, lavender, gold, orange, gray, and green. Notably, there were more purple and gray robed kids here than there were of any other color. At the entrance to the building stood guards in black clothes beneath thick white armor and helmets. Each helmet had a face shield that came down to conceal the guard's face with a visor that made them appear intimidating and menacing. However, they kept their face shields up and smiled proudly at everyone going in and out of the building. The group looked around at all the passing phantasms and Mimi shook, "Not this again! What's going on?"

"I don't know but I don't like it. We should get out of here right away," Wizardmon said, "Come on, let's hurry inside."

"I am not going in there! We still have to find Piximon!" Mimi said. She seemed adamant about not going until Izzy took hold of her hand and started pulling her inside. She would've resisted, except Wizardmon and Tentomon began pushing her along too. They got all the way to the door when silence befell them. As suddenly as the ghostly figures in white appeared, they vanished. The inside of the Athenaeum was dim but what little light could trickle through the paned glass on the ceiling showed an expanse of library shelves as high as the ceiling and going as far as the eye could see into the darkened interior. They were stacked with all assortment of books, scrolls, computers, hard drives, memory cards, and more. Izzy and Wizardmon trembled with excitement, and it was obvious the only reason they hadn't run off was because they were pushing Mimi along.

"Behold, the greatest supply of information known to exist in the Digital World," Wizardmon proclaimed. Tanemon took a look at Izzy and said, "Geez, I'm not sure which has you more excited. Holding Mimi's hand or this library."

"I'm just admiring..." Izzy tried to answer and was unable to finish as he seemed to realize that he was holding Mimi's hand. They continued further in, accompanied only by the sound of their own footsteps through the massive building. Wizardmon openly marveled at every shelf, able to understand the titles and reading aloud the names of evert article, "War of the Titans, The Magical Teacher Onion, Philosophies of Will of Fire, so many books, so little time!"

After a while of listening to him, Mimi grew uncomfortable with Izzy's hand, "You can let go now Izzy."

"Oh, right," Izzy hastily released her and averted his eyes to avoid making eye contact, "Sorry."

"Don't be," she mumbled, "Can we head back? We still have to find-"

"Gatling Attack!"

A barrage of bullets riddled the ground before them, stopping them in their tracks. They were terrified at first until Izzy noted, "Did that voice sound familiar to anyone?"

"It did! Andromon! Is that you?" Tanemon asked into the darkness. Ahead of them, they could see a single red light and the sound of mechanical stomping. As it drew closer, a vaguely humanoid shape became clear in the darkness and a mechanical voice droned on, "Subjects identified. Digidestined and digimon. Hostile detected! Preparing to engage Wizardmon!"

"Stop wait! He's on our side!" Tentomon said, flying between the two of them. There was another voice with Andromon, "It sure is dark. Can we please have a light in here?"

Something buzzed in the darkness and a single light came from Andromon's shoulder. It illuminated an Agumon standing next to it, "No way! It's you guys! What are you doing here?"

"Us? What are you doing here?" Mimi almost accused it, "Shouldn't you be with Tamer and the others? Why are you with Andromon?"

"Why would I be with the Digimon Tamer?" Agumon asked. Izzy was the first to figure it out, "Koromon are in the Agumon line of digivolution. This is just like when Koromon showed up after we beat Myotismon. This isn't the Agumon we know! It's a Koromon from Koromon Village. Or was. You're an Agumon now then?"

"That's right! I put on some muscle after we started fighting the Dark Masters!" Agumon said proudly.

"That must be some fight. We were only gone for two days!" Mimi pointed out in astonishment. Agumon raised an eyebrow, "Two days? Try a hundred and eight years."

"But we left yesterday!" Tentomon said, "There's no way we were gone that long!"

"Yeah, I think we'd both have aged considerably if we were gone that long," Izzy remarked. Koromon sighed, "There's a lot we have to catch you up on. Come with us! We can explain while we get back to the others."

"What others? Who else is there?" Wizardmon asked curiously.

"Leomon's Freedom Fighters!" Agumon said proudly.

They wheeled Kari into a room on the second floor. Tamer was silent the entire time, content to hold Kari's hand while she rested. Agumon grew bored from waiting around and went off to get some food from the cafeteria. Biyomon, Tsunomon and Matt went with them to make sure they had a bigger haul. If that wasn't possible then Matt could fix something up. Nyaromon stayed with Kari but on the opposite side of Tamer, curling up beside her partner. The two would occasionally shoot glances at each other but neither spoke a word.

With each glance, Nyaromon noticed an uncharacteristic concern in Tamer's eyes that seemed out of place. It bugged her because she'd never seen those eyes look so uneasy - at least, not when she wasn't trying to kill him, "Worried for your sister?"

"I just don't want anyone else to get hurt," he replied quietly. Nyaromon's eyes moved to Sora and the apprehension was clear on her little face, "Good job with that so far."

Tamer didn't have a smart remark, instead waiting silently beside Kari. This took both of them off guard and Nyaromon asked, "What, do you suddenly care?"

"You think I don't?" Tamer said, his tone suddenly growing colder. Nyaromon rolled her eyes at him, "You're the one who's always laughing in the face of the bad guy."

"Not to mention that you never really act like you're taking things seriously," Bukamon added.

"I'm making the best of a bad situation," Tamer admitted quietly, his voice hoarse and grave, "Right now, that just seems really hard to do. All those people who died in the Real World, all the things that should have happened but didn't, all the things that should happen but won't. I feel that. All of that. This isn't like the other headaches. It's worse. My head pounds, my stomach feels like it's trying to crawl out my mouth, it hurts to breathe, my skin is crawling, and every part of me wants to drop to the floor. But I can't afford to do that. I still have to give a hundred percent, up until the very end."

"Wow," Nyaromon's voice carried surprise, "Who knew you had feelings."

"I am just full of surprises," Tamer's voice broke a little, "It shouldn't surprise you guys but Agumon and I have seen a lot of death in our lives - we've lost a lot. Friends…loved ones. When Myotismon was about to kill Kari, and I jumped in the way…I'm not entirely sure what I felt, but I knew it was right. I knew it was my role to look after her. I worried when she collapsed. She's too important in all of this. Too important to me. Don't take it the wrong way, I doubt that we are related. But I don't want to see her die."

He paused again, staring quietly at Kari before apologizing, "I'm sorry for how I acted. I shouldn't have kicked you guys around…but I had to do something, anything to help Kari. You guys were trying to stop me and…I'm sorry."

"So what was that you put in her anyway? Is there more of it?" Joe asked the boy to try and change the subject. He didn't respond, instead falling quiet while he held Kari's hand. Since that line of conversation wasn't going anywhere, Sora tried a different method, "Have you remembered anything else?"

"Like what?"

"About the past," Sora asked, "You remembered Kari was your sister, but did you remember anything else? Like your parents...or me?"

"I'm still not convinced it was a memory," Tamer replied, "I can still see it, plain as day in my head. But it doesn't add up. When would it have happened? Why is it so vivid? There are just too many things in that memory that don't make sense. I'm more convinced my mind made it up in the heat of the moment."

"Will you at least let the rest of us call you Tai?" Sora asked. Tamer looked at her pleadingly, begging her not to ask him that question. But he relented anyway, "Fine. Just...don't get used to it."

"Thanks Tai," she replied. He cringed slightly, which was good as the others finally returned with arms full of chips and wrapped sandwiches. TK appeared with his mouth smothered in ice cream and said with glee, "You won't believe it! There's a machine there that just makes food! I ate a sundae the size of my head!"

"I hope you guys don't mind but we just made sandwiches and chips," Agumon said quietly as he started passing things out. Nyaromon asked hungrily, "Did you get me some milk or fish?"

"Right here," Matt unwrapped two filets of fatty tuna for the little kitty who purred jovially at the sight, "Yay!"

"Dig in guys," Agumon said, "Who knows when we'll get to eat like this again."

As he said those words, they heard a soft rumble come from the window behind them. They all looked outside to see swarms of digimon in the sky. Orange and blue serpents with mechanical claws and wings soared over the city. On the street level, they could see a group of twenty Mekanorimon go marching past, accompanied by floating gears with eyes and tanks with faces. On seeing this, Tamer and Agumon pushed everyone onto the floor, "Get down."

"What's going on?" Bukamon yelped, "What was that for?"

"Be quiet!" Tamer hissed at the little brown seal.

"Is that a parade outside?" TK asked childishly, taking a chance to peak up at the display below. Agumon nodded his head and answered, "A military parade. That's Machinedramon's personal army out there!"

Author's Notes: Will the digidestined survive the arrival of Machinedramon's army? What of Leomon's Freedom Fighters? Will Kari recover? Find this out in the next chapter of The Tamer: A Digimon Adventure, due out in two weeks on September 16th at 5PM CST. Why two weeks? Because next week, I'll be posting the first two chapters of Burnt Leaf Declassified titled 'Hello Mister Prime Minister' and 'Monsters From Another World'. That's September 9th at 5 PM CST. If you loved it, let me know in the review section. I usually respond in a day or two, unless it's a guest review. Then I'll reply in the next chapter's author's notes. I also welcome constructive criticism and speculation on the next chapter of the story! Now for previews for the next chapter of both The Tamer and Burnt Leaf Declassified!

The Tamer:

The lead digimon shouted, "ALL UNITS! MEGADRAMON! GIGADRAMON! ATTACK! DARK SIDE ATTACK!"

"Hang on WarGreymon!" Tamer roared

"Okay, and the part about finding Izzy and Mimi?" Joe asked them

"How can you say that!? Of course he's alive! He's over there waiting for us to rescue him! How do we get there? Back to Myotismon's Castle?" Mimi shouted

Machinedramon bared down on them with his two large cannons, "GIGA CANNON!"

Burnt Leaf Declassified:

Makoto added, "I hate to be the skeptical one, but are we really suspecting vampires here?"

Shizu mulled over a few ideas in his head and asked "Do you think it was The Trickster? I mean, we have readings for a transition between worlds."

"You can make copies of yourself and change your outward appearance at will. Having us around seems like a waste of our time and yours. So why are we doing this?"

"I'll level with you - what we're seeing right now. It's unprecedented. Two worlds are colliding with each other in a way that has never happened. This is the kind of thing Burnt Leaf was meant to handle."

Kino commented, "Vampires, dinosaurs, now ghosts. What's next? Werewolves? Angels? How about pixies?"

Guest Review Responses

Krusa1: Thanks very much for taking the time to read and review. This isn't an issue of not meeting the right people. This is an issue of not planning on doing it - that is, I have no intention of doing it. To put this into context, it's like trying to tell a train conductor to divert the train onto the highway because that'd be more fun for the riders. The analogy doesn't really work, but you sort of get what I mean. Yes, there is fan art but none of it was commissioned. It was done as a labor of love, and I appreciate the talent the artists put towards making it because it tells me just how much they care for this story. I don't want to undermine their enjoyment by asking either of them to begin converting this story into a doujinshi or a webcomic. If they choose to do so, that's their choice. I'd rather they read and enjoy the story at their leisure. If that occasionally leads to them making fan art, then all the merrier. Again, I appreciate your enthusiasm for the story but making a doujinshi isn't in the cards.