Hey, guys… ^^' So this is where I'd apologize for yet another delay… But while I know it was especially long this time… Just trust me: we're all better for it. I wrote this whole chapter… And then I basically sat down and rewrote this whole chapter. I just couldn't get it to come out the way I wanted, and I started falling back into some old bad writing habits… By the time I realized I wouldn't be able to bring myself to put it up as it was, I was just too far in and decided I would do some aggressive editing afterwards… The format of how it ended up may seem a little… different? But it is intentional, shouldn't be too hard to follow, and hopefully isn't too off-putting for anyone. Anyway, I'll get out of my own head here. I thank you all for your patience!

Thank you for reviewing the last chapter: IanAlphaAxel, hirowriter, Staria's Light, Berry Doyle, Vigatus, Sweet Cari, and Soapy130!

Chapter Thirty-Three: Remnants

The youngest of the Digidestined was still lost in the fractured remains of the Dark Ocean. At some point, he'd become aware that the route he was drifting along had shifted… He was being pulled towards the mysterious source of energy that had been calling to him out here in this empty space. When he finally arrived, he imagined it looking the way he'd seen such things in cartoons—a lone living being in the darkness, drifting down to envelop a ball of light with both arms in a protective sort of hug.

In real life, it was nothing quite so poetic. His senses had been dulled almost to nonexistence. He only knew he'd reached his destination when he started existing again.

He couldn't be sure what he was seeing at first. A whole lot of nothingness was what it looked like. So… more of the same, just a little brighter. He was standing in a wide, empty field. Ryo's gift had faded from his consciousness, but he still felt connected to this world's inner workings somehow. He could feel that there was nothing else around for miles.

And then there was a flash. For just a second, his surroundings lost all their colors and textures. He was standing on grid lines and could see the digital ones and zeroes that underlay those surroundings rush along by him. If he had any doubts he was still in the Digital World, they were gone now.

Existence…

He jumped as a voice rushed, not past, but through him as well. It was something he felt rather than heard. And it was familiar… Though he was jarred out of his own thoughts before the recognition could set in. Cody had tried to take a step forward only to be bumped back almost immediately. When he'd been four or five, he'd visited his cousins on his mother's side for the first time. Their house was much more modern than his own, and he had vivid memories of running right into their sliding glass door and being knocked back. This was basically the Digital World equivalent of that memory, except he still couldn't spot the barrier that was keeping him back.

Existence… he reflected. He recognized Ryo's voice now. Perhaps what he'd found was not what was left of the Dark Ocean, but rather the remnants of the existence once designated as Ryo.

Trapped in his invisible little fishbowl, Cody could do nothing but watch. And as he watched, the world around him fleshed out. The land became dotted with caves and mountains, split by rivers. A shock of fear went through him as, just for second, water flooded everything. But then it receded to where the Digital World's oceans lay, leaving behind sandy beaches on their outskirts. As the first—suspiciously manmade—buildings began popping up, he realized he was seeing the creation of the Digital World itself.

Understanding this fundamental detail shed light on the individual steps of the overall process. The way it came together so quickly… (dozens of species of Digimon that he'd never seen but could suddenly name appearing before him…) and then dropped off almost completely. But by the time the Monster Makers had to step away from their project, they had managed to bring life to this world. It continued to move without them.

He watched Shibumi add the finishing touches to the world itself—a puff to the clouds, singular blades to the grass. But most of his post-Monster Makers work was focused on Cody himself. Or, at least, the role Cody now understood he was experiencing. He was seeing this process through the eyes of the AI. Ryo.

Once everything else was finished, there was little else to focus on but his own limitations. This fishbowl he was sequestered in. He could see all, and his mind was racing independently of the thoughts of his creator. But how much could that count for when he remained stuck in this tiny space?

It went on…

And on…

And then…

Then…

One day, the glass shattered. His prison was not a physical thing, of course. But when it broke, it felt like something he could hear. He was suddenly free to explore the world he'd watched come together. But this freedom was not absolute. He could feel he was still tethered to something. But he was now able to go in search of that something. Like he was walking around with a metal detector, he would wander this way and that, gauging in which direction the signal felt strongest. Ultimately, he ended up standing before a tiny cottage, humming with the same power that had given him life.

Autonomy… Restrictions… Destiny…

Cody could no longer tell where his existence ended and Ryo's began. It was only every once in a while that he'd hear snippets of Ryo's thoughts like this, as if the AI was speaking to him directly.

The door opened before he had a chance to knock. Standing on the doorstep was the first being he'd seen who resembled him. Almost. The figure of the stooped old man was undeniably human, but the feel of his energy still had a different energy to it than Ryo's own. He took in the sight of the younger boy for a moment with a strange smile before backing away from the door. "Well? Come on in. I've been waiting for you."

Ryo stepped through without hesitation. It didn't occur to him to question the old man. Something about this course of action just felt right. He followed the man past the first room, overflowing with papers and books on every available surface, into another room, hidden by a fake wall. This one was even smaller but clearly a laboratory of some sort. The old man appraised him, head to toe, one more time and then made a single mark on a notebook open on a table beside him.

"Excellent. That you've made it here without assistance is proof enough that all your programming is in order. We shall call you Ryo. And you may call me Gennai."

He mouthed the new words, the movement feeling foreign, but didn't give voice to them. However, Gennai continued to watch him expectantly, so he answered, "What is this place?"

He was surprised to find that speaking came naturally to him as well—though the words took an extra moment to string themselves together in his mind—and Gennai's smile grew wider. "Consider this headquarters. It's a humble little place, but it's out of the way and is more than enough to suit our needs."

"Needs?"

"Indeed. You have a destiny we must bring to life."

Gennai led him deeper in, to the real focal point of this laboratory. In ten pod-like containers were ten large eggs. Each had a different symbol patterned across it, and Ryo could feel a similar energy as the one he'd felt around the cottage radiating out from them.

It was here that Gennai explained that there was a terrible darkness encroaching on the beautiful world he'd recently become a part of. That he was soon to be joined by nine other human children, just as soon as he could find a way to connect their worlds. That it was Ryo's destiny to work alongside those other children to save this world.

In some faraway part of his mind, he couldn't help but think that this destiny restricted his newfound freedom, after being trapped in his invisible prison for so long… But this wasn't such a problem yet. At this stage, his destiny, gifted to him by the strange old man within the cottage, provided him with the purpose his existence had lacked thus far. He felt an immediate connection to this 'Gennai.' Later, he would wonder if this was a natural reaction, or just another thing built into his code.

"And now, what you've really been waiting for…"

Ryo felt the skin above his eyes draw together as he struggled to make sense of these words. What he'd been waiting for?

"Much as I'd like to give myself the credit, this is who really drew you here…" Gennai still had that mysterious, expectant smile on his face as he stepped aside to reveal the little purple dinosaur Digimon looking around curiously behind him. He couldn't truly comprehend the tingle in his chest at the sight of him, but it made Cody sense of separation between his current two selves was something he felt he should try to hold onto… but it was useless. A distinction that only came in flashes.

But he felt it again soon after. Ryo's life soon slowed to a halt, but his mind was no longer one meant to stand still. The digital days continued to pass, but the Digidestined never appeared. When he questioned Gennai about this, he was assured that everything had its proper order. But… Where Ryo had only ever known a world of data and hard facts and absolute truths… Cody recognized the frustration in the old man's voice, the unsteady lilt of a lie.

The darkness had always been there, in the background of it all. There was no means to mark his days until it suddenly made itself known. A heavy, looming presence always just out of reach. It made the Digimon in the vicinity act skittish, occasionally clouding over the sky in a way that cemented in their collective dread.

At first, he simply catalogued these aberrations in a mental database… But as the incidents continued and his team still did not arrive… Well, Ryo had been programmed to act.

Monodramon tilted his face up to his partner when he felt Ryo's eyes on him. Gennai was out, but they had remained in his cottage, almost in a state of meditation. They could both feel the darkness gathering and condensing. It had reached a new peak today, and Ryo could no longer sit still. With a single glance at his partner, who he already trusted to follow him anywhere, he got to his feet. "Come on. We may be without a team, but the darkness is still our responsibility."

Monodramon didn't ask any questions. In fact, he perked up at the promise of action. They followed the feel of the darkness as if they had a built-in compass… out of the valley and into a village of Yokomon. Monodramon sniffed around at the huts, where they found the little radish-like creatures huddled together in fear.

"Please!" one of them squeaked. "You have to help us!"

"What are you hiding from?" Monodramon asked. Ryo could feel the chill wind sweeping through the village, but this was nothing out of the norm for these incidents.

"Just look! Down there!" One of the cowering Digimon gestured to the hill acting as a wall for their campsite, and Ryo and Monodramon walked over. On the other side they found a Biyomon, infected by the dark energy swarming around them. There was nothing much in its way to destroy, but it was rampaging around the empty field, and the village didn't stand a chance if its focus was redirected somehow.

"Monodramon!"

But his partner already seemed to have an instinctive knowledge of what to do. The dinosaur charged forward, tackling and pinning the pink bird to the ground. It squawked in outrage, but Monodramon's weight kept the other Rookie from throwing him off. Ryo rushed closer, close enough to see that the dark energy had materialized into a hazy sort of collar around its victim's throat.

He didn't really understand the sudden, overwhelming desire to reach out and touch it, as if to confirm what his eyes were already telling him was real. Ryo didn't think he'd been programmed to be an overly tactile being. But he did. And immediately cried out in pain. For the cool air that preceded it, the actual darkness felt like a flame, but something kept him from pulling his hand away. A glow rose up between them, and when it finally died down, the darkness had dissipated, and the Biyomon was lying limply—but now safe—beneath them.

His partner slowly backed away, and Ryo was left to eye his shaking hand. The pain was fading to a lingering tingle, but he was more concerned with the light that had emerged from him. Had he always had that sort of power? And more importantly… What power did the darkness wield? The Biyomon had begun to shrink, until a Yokomon was left in its place. Had the darkness given it the power to Digivolve? The thought made him… uneasy.

Ryo and Monodramon continued to seek out these hotspot areas, getting closer and closer to the origin of the darkness each time. The first time he got close enough to peer into one of these dark portals, it jolted Cody back into his own, separate mind space. He was looking straight through to a street corner a few blocks from his school. The details were so clear… Like they were separated by a sliding glass door and not some dark abyss.

It wasn't the one run by Yolei's family, but he recognized the convenience store they were looking at. As he watched, a boy about the age of his friends came strolling down the street. Headed down the block for cheap snacks like Cody was sure he'd done a hundred times. But as he watched, the boy faltered. Something made him hesitate and then walk a few steps further—into the alley alongside the shop. Cody could sense an ominous energy emanating from this weak spot between the worlds… but whatever the boy was feeling just served to draw him in.

If only it had ended there… A blond girl who drifted down to her school's boiler room when the struggle to make friends overwhelmed her. A heavyset boy who got lost in the woods while trying to avoid his bullies. A sullen boy who crept up to an old, abandoned summer camp, just looking for a place to be alone. There were six of them in all. Six kids about the age of Cody and his friends, all inexplicably drawn to these weak spots between the worlds. He had no idea why these specific kids were affected. He wasn't sure it really mattered. But one by one, he watched as they stumbled their way into this space between the worlds… and had the life slowly drained out of them before they were able to find their way through to the other side. Ultimately, their physical bodies were spit back out in their own world, their story left to be picked apart by another group of kids, theorizing over a mystery the police could never hope to solve. The first group of kids to go missing… the ones attributed to a serial killer no one had ever seen a trace of.

While the Ryo personality remained standing in the face of this horror, struggling to make sense of the growing sensation of despair he'd never experienced before… Cody's side of their existence wanted to crumple to his knees. So it had all been connected. A part of his mind knew this had all taken place many years ago. There was nothing that could be done for Shibumi's earliest test subjects. But this distance didn't make it any easier to watch. And so it felt like a conscious decision this time to let his and Ryo's consciousnesses fuse back together.

His last thought before they again became one was that perhaps Ryo was more human than he'd originally thought. Because he doubted Shibumi had purposely programmed his AI's mind with defense mechanisms. And that was the only way he could describe Ryo's response to this awful, foreign feeling—the way he threw himself into closing up these portals, solving the closer-to-home problems first… and addressing the unpleasantness… only if he had to. But the denial was not absolute. His obsessive new work ethic doubled as an excuse to avoid Gennai whenever possible. That connection had been made and could not be un-realized.

He and Monodramon had been camping out in Centarumon's ruins for a while now. It was largely a matter of convenience—close to the source of these dark aberrations. But he'd begun to feel another undeniable pull back towards Gennai's cottage. And he knew his partner felt it as well. So without a single discussion on the matter, one morning they simply got up and headed back to the place they had first been united.

Ryo brought a hand up to his chest as they neared the front door. Whatever lay behind its cage of skin and bones was beating with a ferocity that made his frame shake. He had had failed to stop all those other children from exploring the darkness… he had subsequently watched their own bodies wither, the light in their eyes dry up. And a terrible part of him had understood… as he saw Gennai creeping around these dark portals, mumbling tensely to himself in his workshop… that the wise old man who'd imparted such wonderful purpose onto Ryo's existence was likely responsibly for the horrors he had been powerless to stop.

Ryo's brain was primed for logic and calculations, cause-and-effect scenarios. He was not so well-equipped for this hazier, emotional side of human behavior. He trusted that Gennai was just as passionate about saving this world from the darkness as Ryo himself was. And he was sure these experiments were being undertaken to that end. But there was some crucial piece to these events that he couldn't understand… and he wasn't sure he wanted that understanding.

"Ah, perfect! Come in, come in!" Gennai greeted them at the door with an unusual energy, hardly waiting to make sure his guests were following him before he turned and walked swiftly to the back room. But Ryo and Monodramon did follow, finding him at one of the messiest worktables.

"I believe I've finally found the missing link! We needed some sort of connecting agent… the last light in the darkness. A device impervious to the energy of the Dark Ocean." Turning back to his protégé, Gennai brandished a small, metallic device—just the first completed prototype of many—and handed it out to Ryo.

The part of him that knew the horrible crimes Gennai was committing didn't want to acknowledge it, but he could immediately feel the truth to his words. As he held onto that first Digivice, he could feel a bright sort of protective blanket settle over him. He knew at once what its primary function would be—at least for now. A bridge between the worlds.

And it did make his task considerably easier. Now as he stood at the edges of those gaping holes in the fabric of their worlds, he no longer had the impression that he was about to be pulled into an abyss. But there were some wounds their creator's new miracle device could not undo.

Monodramon began acting erratically. He continued to perform his duties like the good little soldier Ryo asked him to be. But too much exposure to the spores in the Dark Ocean began to poke holes in his mental state. Ryo had never quite grasped the emotional responsibilities of being someone's partner. The Cody side of their brain could attest that he definitely felt the connection to his Digimon, but he hadn't managed to make sense of that feeling yet. Thanks to his experience with Gennai and the Dark Ocean experiments, it wasn't an exaggeration to say he was running from anything with that emotional, human tinge to it.

They were back in the ruins. Centarumon was nowhere to be seen, but that was not so strange. He was the solitary sort, happiest when analyzing the legends etched into his walls. Ryo and Monodramon were left to themselves, camped out just before the space where the Digital World dropped off into the Dark Ocean.

He glanced over at his partner. Monodramon had been speaking less and less… But that was normal, right? His partner had been witness to the same horrors he had, after all. It would be unreasonable to expect his early wide-eyed eagerness would remain. Ryo had once felt a similar enthusiasm. They had both been hardened by their experiences. Such was the way of every world.

"Let's go," he directed. But all he got in return was an animalistic grunt. There was an obsessive gleam to his eyes now… Like he was looking forward to another battle. But he tried to push this to the back of his mind.

But this worry forced its way back to the front of his thoughts not long afterwards. It wasn't often that another creature made it this far out into the darkness. These days, Monodramon was usually just surrounded by shadows while Ryo used his Digivice to seal up the cracks threatening to break open across the worlds. But this time, as he turned to head back, Monodramon suddenly stiffened and reared his head. Before Ryo could say a word, his partner's limbs began to shift. His spine and tail lengthened, a metal helmet appeared to cover most of his face, red hair sprouting out from underneath, brighter red tattoos etching themselves in spiral patterns across his chest… Once the transformation was complete, that chest heaved with the exertion for a few extra seconds, the pants he was voicing a little deeper now.

Strikedramon…

Digivolution was meant to be a wonderful, celebratory occasion. It signified the bond between partners, that some sort of breakthrough had been reached. But Ryo and Monodramon's relationship had remained quite stagnant since their early days… If anything, that connection had begun to peter out as the focus had shifted to job accomplished almost entirely by Ryo's Digivice.

No, this power-up had been fueled by something out there in the darkness, and it didn't leech out of him as they left the 'battlefield' behind. The rules as they'd been explained to Ryo stated that his partner should revert back to his Rookie form once the fight was done, but Strikedramon remained.

This left Ryo undeniably shaken… and it would have been something to worry about more… if not for the next big thing.

Gennai was still conducting new experiments. This knowledge still set his teeth on edge, but they had a different feel to them now. Like there was a little more light out there in the darkness these days.

But it turned out that his intuition was not as foolproof as he'd thought. Because that light came, not in the form of a sagely old man with a kind but firm guiding hand, but with a simple message from a human boy.

'I know you're out there.'

He'd been trawling through cyberspace again… not looking for darkness this time, just a bit of a respite. He missed the simpler days of watching this world being pieced together. Before there was any darkness or danger or destiny. It calmed him to retreat to this space just outside the world's atmosphere. Separate but intricately linked.

'I know you're out there.'

It was a jolt to see this message typed out, one letter at a time. No one had ever joined him in this place before. He even had to leave his partner behind to access it. Outside communication… It sent a thrill through his ones and zeroes that even his creator might have been surprised he was able to feel. There were only two beings who could have possibly received this message. Gennai, usually so tuned into all the goings-on of this place, would have been the most likely recipient. But through some stroke of luck, it had found Ryo instead. And with his trust in their guide growing ever more fragile, he wasn't about to let this chance slip away.

He stared at the message in wonder for a moment, before sending back all he could think to. "You're right."

He watched his words materialize in the air before evaporating, slipping away to the one who had contacted him.

Their correspondence was faster after that. Ryo's new acquaintance was one Sam Ichijouji, twelve-year-old boy genius from an ordinary Japanese family back in the human world. But few details of his everyday life meant much of anything to Ryo. What stuck was Sam's grasp of his world's functions.

Ryo explained his situation in his technical, succinct way. And in what felt like no time, Sam had blocked all records of their communications from sight. That strange, electric feeling—what Cody recognized as a thrill of excitement—ran through him again. He'd put so much faith in his actual creator only to have it slowly worn down. And here was a kid whose intelligence seemed to rival his own, who possibly could have created this world himself, given the time and equipment.

Sam Ichijouji was nonplussed by the details of the Digidestined and their story. But he grabbed onto the notion of a human travelling over to the Digital World and refused to let go.

The Digivice was the linchpin—as he'd known it would be, ever since he'd been given the first prototype. Ryo was allowed to take it out into the field for work, but it was always returned to its keeper, both for safety and for further research purposes. Sam had stressed how important it was that Ryo find a way to get this device to him. If the young programmer had a chance to analyze it… The possibilities were endless.

Ryo hadn't yet found a way to manage this. But then one day… he arrived at the cottage, and Gennai again met him at the door. The old man wore a smile reminiscent of the one he'd been sporting the very first day they'd met.

"The code has been cracked!" he announced by way of greeting, ushering him in. "A Digivice's nature makes mass production near-impossible, but I was able to isolate the components they all have in common. The personal touches… Well, they'll have to be added by the children themselves. Once they're bonded to their Digivice, its functions will be complete…"

Ryo began to tune out his rambling. It was hardly for the AI's benefit anyway. But he followed the old man over to a table in his workshop, where he found crude-looking Digivices taking up nearly the entire surface. But Gennai picked up the sole completed one and held it out to his other creation. "Here. It's yours."

Ryo reached out for it slowly. "For keeps?" The words felt foreign on his tongue, and he worried for a moment that Gennai would question it—it was most certainly a phrase he'd picked up from Sam. But the old man was too preoccupied with his own gift.

"Of course. I just needed it as a reference. It was always meant to be yours."

The sparkle in Gennai's eyes showed such trust. Yet another emotion he couldn't quite recognize coiled in Ryo's stomach, knowing what he was about to do with that trust.

And he did run straight to Sam with this key, just as soon as he could get away undetected. This was the turning point. It was with an eager font that Sam announced all his preparations were now complete. All he needed was the key, and Ryo stepped obligingly back out to the edge of the darkness, to the ocean separating their worlds, Strikedramon's hulking presence just over his shoulder. The boundary had been weakening for some time, and he knew now that Sam was the culprit.

In fact, he was not unlike Gennai in how singularly focused he was on his task. Cody latched onto this connection, while simultaneously feeling Ryo shy away from it.

For the first time, he could feel Sam's presence, just on the other side of whatever thin veil separated them. Ryo held out the Digivice like an offering and felt energy begin to buzz around his hand. It continued to grow in intensity until his survival instincts were telling him to pull his hand back, but he persevered. By the time he felt the tension around his partner snap like a string, it was like the energy was holding him in place. He couldn't move as Strikedramon suddenly charged past him, his form expanding again just before he disappeared into the darkness.

He tried to call out, but only a pained gasp escaped his throat. This was the climax of the pressure. His heart fell once he lost sight of Cyberdramon—somehow, he knew his partner was now lost in more ways than one—and as soon as the Digivice disappeared from his grip, it was like the ground below him went with it.

The darkness swallowed him, and it didn't lend him any of the power it had given his partner. He just felt numb, all the emotions he'd started to feel gone. He was just starting to wonder if his data would be absorbed back into this realm when Sam came through.

"Done!" It was the first time his communication came through as a voice and not typewritten words separated by an invisible screen. But he barely had a second to marvel at this before a light lit up the darkness, spreading out below him like a bridge. It caught him, and a warmth spread through him. It was almost too easy. As soon as he'd caught his breath and gotten to his feet, all he had to do was walk forward.

He walked until the light enveloped him and he emerged out on the other side… into chaos.

It was dark here, too, but crowded. And loud. Ryo watched in a daze as other human figured rushed by him in all directions. Many of them were much bigger than he was, yet not showing the signs of age he recognized from Gennai's stooped form. He would have been tempted to simply stand back and observe for a while longer, but someone bumped into him, her angry shout mixing with all the other noise. It was only then that he remembered that even regular humans were programmed with some sort of survival instinct. This crowd must be running from something.

So he angled himself in the opposite direction, swimming upstream. Now that he was focusing again, he could feel that familiar hum of digital energy in the air. This wasn't how he'd imagine the human world would feel. Perhaps… it wasn't how it was supposed to feel. But then, had something gone wrong? And where was Sam in this mess?

The crowd began to thin as he neared the less desirable part of the city. And when he arrived around that last corner, he understood immediately that anyone who was not a part of that initial rush to escape was likely in no condition to run any longer. He saw other humans in bulky coats and strange hats arriving on the scene. Two ran over to a woman stuck under a pile of rubble, and the sight filled him with a sinking feeling—something he'd never experienced while watching the darkness-infested Digimon vanish into bits of data once his partner was through with them. He kept going.

He only had to go another block before he began to hear something he recognized—the clamor of battle. He got close enough to see a Parrotmon take a swooping dive toward a Greymon… before it sunk in that he was partner-less. Just moments ago, the portal he'd traveled through had felt carefully crafted… Now he got the feeling Sam had just smashed it open. Other Digimon were making the journey… being tainted in the process… and he had no way to combat them.

Where was Sam? Ryo's heart began to pound. Was it a flaw in his programming? Perhaps the trip was only meant to be taken one way? But the Digimon didn't seem to be experiencing any negative effects…

"Come on! The shelter is this way!"

A shout broke him out of his thoughts. He whirled around to see a ragtag group of seven children, huddled together, facing the battlefield.

"Are you crazy?!" one of the girls, clad entirely in pink, exclaimed, pulling up short. "I'm not going through there!"

"One good hit and those buildings will collapse!" one of the boys asserted with an ornery expression. "There's gotta be another way around!"

The boy in front turned back to the blond with an equally stubborn look. "Finding a way around will take too long! We'll just be crushed by something else!"

Ryo watched them from a distance for a moment. Already, a calm was settling over him. He took confident steps towards the boy who'd spoken first—the one he'd already designated as the leader.

"There is another way."

They all looked up, startled, so absorbed as they'd been in their budding argument. The other girl recovered first. "Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter," the leader interjected before he had a chance to answer. "It's dangerous out here, kid. You'd better come with us."

"Yes…" Accepted into the group so naturally. He felt reaffirmed in his initial assumptions. He held out a hand before the boy could turn back to the others. It interrupted his train of thought, and he shook Ryo's hand, completing the gesture on reflex. As soon as contact was made, the space between their hands began to glow. Ryo knew as soon as he pulled away, a Digivice of his own would left in the boy's palm. And not only that—pinpricks of light appeared in front of the other kids, growing until they each had Digivices of their own. And not even all Sam's interference could completely overwrite the preparations that had been laid for this very moment.

The second enough Digivices had been collected together, they triggered a new portal between the worlds. It exploded into being in the sky above them, sucking the fighting Digimon back through. Before the kids could even complete their exclamations of shock, they began to glow as well. And then… like they were being beamed up to the mothership in some cheesy alien movie, Ryo watched as they were converted to data and sent through to his world. He paused to look back at the ruined landscape one more time… to wonder what had happened to Sam one more time… before he allowed himself to be sucked through the portal after them.

…

It was a more natural process for Ryo. He'd felt the pull of his own world from the moment he'd crossed over into the human world, but as soon as he was on his way back, he began to feel… adrift. He could see the way back clearly enough, but it was like something was calling to him out in the darkness here. He knew he should return to the Digiworld… The new Digidestined would need guidance that he was meant to give… But he couldn't bring himself to turn away from this sensation.

So he veered off into the darkness, towards whatever was calling him. Ryo had never been tempted to test his limits out here. On one of his travels, he'd run into a wise Centarumon who'd tried to explain that darkness was an entity necessary for balance… but Ryo knew without a doubt that it was an entity incompatible with his own being. He could simultaneously feel his surroundings sucking away at him and the familiar pull of something that signified security and homecoming.

His partner.

The realization left him feeling like he was sinking. He could tell the darkness had not succeeded in actually pulling him under. But the thought of Cyberdramon… lost to the darkness out here…

…

It was this sensation that finally pushed Cody back into his own mind, closed tight against the realm of Ryo's memories—and more importantly, his grief. But he had not escaped quite quickly enough. He was left with the lingering memory of the moment Ryo realized what his partner meant to him… and also that he was lost to them… imprinted on the underside of his eyelids.

He tried to resist the urge to crumple to his knees but ultimately failed. He wasn't sure where his own partner had disappeared to in this strange void and couldn't drag himself back up to go look for him. Crushed under the weight of Ryo's experiences and knowing the futility of what came next… Cody remained where he was and wept.

Review please!

I don't own Digimon.

Damn, that ended up being a long one. There came a point in this story where I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with Cody… And somehow, the solution became, "Let's make him this super important, almost omniscient figure in the Digital World." And the rest of my mind was like, "Yeah, that sounds good." ^^' This should be the last we really see of Ryo, but Cody will always carry his essence with him now. He should finally be joining up with the rest of the group again in another chapter or two.