Hi once again, been a while! This time, we're gonna check on Takato for the first time in forever, and see what's going through his head.

Data Fragment 32: Happenstance

...Everything's falling apart, thought Takato, as he lay on his bed in Hypno's quarantine cell. His only contact with the outside was through the speakers, where Yamaki had updated him on everything. Willis and the others were hunting for both a cure and the Legendary Warriors, the Monster Makers were still trying to repair Hypnos, and...the sun was gone? Did Takato really hear that right? He's wasn't sure if he could trust his mind, not after that bizarre breakdown he had. This collar he wore was supposed to prevent any more ill effects, but...Takato didn't have time to ask for more details. Apparently something happened to Shibumi and Yamaki was called to investigate.

So Takato was left alone with his thoughts. Guilmon was still sleeping, and it was starting to worry Takato. Both of them had collars, so they should be fine. They should be fine. They should be..

Just as Henry was supposed to be fine, it was just the flu. He even said so himself, over the phone, even though he sounded miserable. If anyone would know, it would be Henry, right?

Just as Jeri was supposed to be fine. Takato rescued her from the D-Reaper, and he even saved the whole world too! Jeri was finally happy again. She and Takato even dated. It didn't happen right away, not when aftereffects of the Juggernaut forced their Digimon partners to retreat into the Digital World for a while. But by the time Guilmon and the others finally were able to return...

...Jeri was in the hospital. Still smiling, but sick. Takato hadn't rescued her from the D-Reaper after all. It was gone, but the damage its possession had done to her, the things it had weakened or outright destroyed in her...because of course it had. Jeri was possessed in the Digital World, where everyone, including humans, were converted into data, data easily manipulated or deleted...

Why hadn't Takato thought about that sooner? Why hadn't at least Yamaki or one of the Monster Makers thought of that sooner? If they had...

...No, that wasn't fair. The damage was already done. No one could have stopped it. Her death had been inevitable. Happenstance, but inevitable. It had been nearly five months ago...why did it only feel like yesterday?

The D-Reaper could have possessed any of them! Why did it have to possess her?

...No, that wasn't fair either. Wishing for someone else to be possessed meant wishing for someone else's death. He did not want to lose anyone else...and now Henry was gone too...and now the world itself was falling apart...Everything's falling apart...

Takato's thoughts kept looping like this, not always taking the same path, but always reaching the same conclusion before starting again. As if finding the past error would fix the present pattern. As if he could prevent something that was mostly happenstance in the first place.

"It's not fair."

Takato jumped at Guilmon's voice, so full of sadness. He turned to see the red dinosaur still tightly curled up on his bed. His eyes brimmed with tears, but his pupils were thin slits.

"Hey Guilmon. You...feeling okay?" asked Takato.

"It's not fair," Guilmon repeated. "It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not fair..."

"H-Hold on buddy," said Takato, sitting up. "C-Calm down...It's-" He yelped when he put one foot on the floor. It...shocked him? Why did the whole room feel electrically charged?

Guilmon rose up and snarled at the ceiling. Takato saw the Digital Hazard mark on his chest pulsing red, even though the color of his collar was the same as Takato's. "Everything's changing, Takato!"

Takato didn't even have time to question it. Suddenly everything flashed with numbers, and they both fell through the floor, lurched from place to place in the numerical nothingness until Takato had no idea what direction anything was anymore.

When Takato finally regained his senses, he found himself and Guilmon in a vast green field, littered with random chunks of displaced buildings and vehicles. Some of them were half-buried in the ground, while others were floating. Still others, somehow, seemed perfectly intact.

W-What just happened...thought Takato in shock. Is this...the Digital World? Or the real world? Or...both?

IIIIII

Because of all the time-hopping going on both here and in Concurring Overwrite makes things confusing, I'd say this fragment is the furthest ahead time-wise. There's been a lot of flashbacks and/or things going on at the same time, but hopefully we'll start making significant progress forward in a few drabbles.

Slowly but surely an endgame is forming...but there's still a lot of things to be figured out, so it'll still be awhile.