Hi again! Judging by current plans, there will be a couple slower chapters to wrap up and explain some loose ends, before moving onto bigger stuff. This is one of those chapters. This chapter actually needed quite a bit of streamlining to fit everything in under 800 words.

Data Fragment 34: Frenzy

This whole encounter felt off. Shouldn't this Davis be more...confident? TK was shocked to have any kind of feeling from this person he was supposed to know. Still, mixed in was a feeling of...distaste? Maybe he didn't want memories of Davis after all.

TK let his attention wander back to the many copies of himself playing with the new Saint Tommy. He already felt more of a connection to that kid instead of this person from his past life.

Then suddenly Davis looked spooked. His moist eyes stared straight past them.

Cody noticed the intruder first. "Oh. a ghost," He didn't bother drawing his sword. "Please don't scare the guests. How can we help you?"

TK turned to see a flickering, transparent boy with dark hair and a sour look. No wonder Davis was so nervous! Humans were notoriously scared of spirits. "Hey there! Joe can probably help you with the being dead thing. Or at least help you find your Digimon partner. Being a ghost doesn't keep you from being a Digidestined."

Yolei was surprisingly quiet, studying the spirit. "...Wait don't I..." His eyes literally lit up, flashing red. "Oh hey, you're...uh...Kevin right? Yeah, Kevin! It's been forever, y'know! You should've stopped by sooner!...Well, you are dead, so maybe...anyway, congrats on making it back!"

TK's stomach sank a little. Oh great, another person he was supposed to know already. And, just like most cases, he felt and remembered nothing. At least he wasn't alone this time, judging by Cody's frown.

"...Ken," said Davis quietly. "His name's Ken." Another long pause. "...You guys aren't real, are you?"

TK was more hurt by Davis's defeated tone than the actual words. "No, we're..."

"No, they're real," said Ken, his voice crackling like an old radio. "But they're no longer the people you knew. They stopped being those people as soon as they died from the virus."

"Hey now-" Yolei growled, red feathers poking out of her back.

"No, that's fair," said Cody, before turning to Davis. "Most of us lost some of our memories when we became Saints, so we are different. Our bodies are different too, a mix of human and Digimon." He briefly sprouted golden metal scales on his arm. "These are all important things for Davis to know."

"You also want to merge the worlds and spread your sickness to the rest of humans and Digimon," Ken added. "That's also important for Davis to know."

You guys what?" asked Davis. "Everything's happening because of you? Guys, we're Digidestined! We're supposed to protect both worlds!"

Damn this Ken, riling Davis up. Then again, TK had a feeling Davis was prone to frenzies.

"This is the best action," said Cody, tone still perfectly neutral. "Izzy has done the calculations. The real and Digital Worlds were destined to merge regardless. That's because the Digital World needs soul to exist, and souls come from the real world. That's why there are Digidestined - to harvest soul for the Digital World."

"What are you even talking about?" growled Davis. "The Digital World calls us to protect it from threats!"

"It calls us for self-preservation, yes," said Cody. "That includes a need for soul. How do you think Digivices provide such quick digivolution? It's linked directly to your soul. How and when your Digimon digivolve depends on your development. With each digivolution, with each burst of soul, extra is channeled to the Digital World. Think of it as "payment" for your Digimon's power. The higher the level of the digivolution, the more soul it costs, and the more the Digital World receives. The more soul the Digital World gets, the more real it becomes."

"So what you're saying is that the Digital World wants more and more soul?" asked Davis.

"Yes," said Cody. "If you look at recent incidents, it becomes clear. The Digital World of the Tamers had every Digimon desperate for Tamers, because the soul level was so low because of the D-Reaper. It also invented the Biomerge Digivolution, temporarily fusing human and Digimon together. Soul is spent not just for the digivolution itself, but to maintain it. Soon after that another Digital World developed a similar technique, where Digidestined became Digimon by themselves, the Legendary Warriors. Like the BioMerge, it also costs soul to maintain. More importantly, the soul harvested was enormous even for the lowest forms of it."

Davis scowled.

"And then there's us, the Saints, human-Digimon hybrids that are always providing high levels of soul to the Digital World," Cody went on. "Our course was accelerated by a virus, but it's still the natural course. The Digital Worlds' soul frenzy will never stop. They must absorb the real world and all its souls in order to become real themselves."

IIIIII

This chapter veered off quite a bit from the original idea, but I realized that the whole soul thing had never been properly explained. So this is here to help clarify some of that. Also we finally have some time with Yolei and Cody!