I feel like my updating has really fallen apart. I haven't been too late yet but… I hope no one minds the wait too much. Your reviews have all been lovely still. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on the last chapter. My intentions with Shibumi and why his mindset was so creepy seem to have gotten across clearly, which I was so glad to see. I worry about those vague characters and plot points sometimes, but I don't want to ruin the effect by overexplaining it in my author's notes either.

Thank you for reviewing the last chapter: dnofsunshine, Sweet Cari, and Berry Doyle!

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Ryo

Cody sighed, staring into the void of the Dark Ocean before them. He swore he could feel the anxiety leaking off of Armadillomon as his partner scuttled up to his side again. The Rookie's steps had gotten slower and slower the deeper they'd plunged. Cody could tell he was relieved they'd stopped completely. He could still feel something else out here—it was as if all his senses had been heightened—but he couldn't pinpoint it well enough to find it.

"Maybe we should just turn back," Armadillomon suggested, just a little too hopefully.

"No," Cody said quietly. And then more firmly, "I need to do my part. I will do my part."

The sudden glow at his side made them both jump. Cody held up his Digivice to see an unfamiliar symbol aglow on the screen. It was a similar sight to when Armadillomon had first Digivolved, but this wasn't the crest of Knowledge he now possessed. This one resembled a cross, and he didn't have the time to scrutinize it more closely before the glow overpowered the image and encased his partner as well.

It was a much different experience than the adrenaline-fueled focus of battle had been. This time, Cody found his mind wandering as Armadillomon morphed into another Armor form. Perhaps the crest inheritance wasn't quite as one-to-one as they'd thought. Now that those barriers had been broken, maybe they were able to channel all the crests, given they were exhibiting the right virtue. Of course, this theory would be easier to prove if he knew which crest he'd just activated.

But he'd have to revisit this question later. The glow had died down, leaving the least-linear evolution yet in Armadillomon's place. The Digimon hovering in the gloomy air of the Dark Ocean was what Cody could only describe as a submarine. His partner's body had taken on a blue and white color palette—with some of his armadillo scales decorating the underside of his fish-like body. The long spear sticking out from his nose was reminiscent of a swordfish… But the motor on the back and the clearly-visible cockpit made this Digimon look more machine than animal.

"Wow…" Cody murmured, running a hand over his partner's smooth side. "You look amazing…?"

"Submarimon," he supplied when Cody trailed off. And one more change became apparent as the Digimon propelled himself forward a bit, turning this way and that. There was a gleam of confidence to his eyes that bolstered Cody's courage as well.

He closed his eyes, briefly, and took a deep breath. He could still feel that spark of something out there ahead of them—like a pinprick of light beneath his eyelids. And when he opened them again, Submarimon was back at his side, cockpit hatch open in invitation.

The change in his partner was so evident, no words were needed to sum it up. Cody just jumped in, and the two pushed onward.

…

Janyu sighed, hunching forward at his desk and running a hand through his graying hair for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Brings you right back to Palo Alto, doesn't it?" came Babel's laughing voice. "Rushing to get a tricky program finalized before the grades have to be in."

"Tell me about it," Daisy chimed in.

"Tell you about it?" Dolphin shot back. "Some of us never left!"

The computer helping to bridge the distance between them all gave their voices a tinny quality. It was something Janyu might have tinkered around with if this had been a casual meeting—if he didn't have quite so much on his mind. But, just for a second, he did stop to reflect on all those late nights they'd spent together in the computer lab—nearly as many take-out coffee cups as notebooks crowding their workspaces. It did feel almost like no time had passed. He'd fallen so easily back into using all their old nicknames. And some things truly had not changed.

"Let's not get lost," Curly spoke up, ever the one to keep them on track. Her voice sounded perfectly level, but Janyu knew her well enough to hear her frustration. They were all established in their fields. It was frustrating that something from their early days was giving them so much trouble. But then, they were down one of their best minds.

"…Has anyone had any luck getting in touch with Shibumi?" Daisy asked after a few moments of hearing nothing but the clicking of their respective keyboards through their connection.

It was really enough of an answer on its own when she received no immediate replies. Shibumi had always had the most eccentric mind of the bunch. He was often the one to see a solution off in the distance when the rest of them were all stumped. And they were definitely feeling his absence now.

"I've got a private investigator friend over on your side of the world, Tao," Babel answered at last, clearing his throat. "I'll reach out, see if he can make some headway on that mystery while we focus on this one."

Their teamwork had always faded in and out like this, trusting each other to do what they each did best and touch back only where assistance was needed. Somehow, the separate pieces always came together. But they were really struggling now. As much as their personal chemistry had resurfaced so effortlessly, Janyu could also feel the distance—both the physical distance separating the five of them from each other and the distance of time, separating them from this project. They'd come back to find that it wasn't quite where they'd left it.

"I always was better at things I could see and touch," Daisy sighed after another moment. "This whole crawling through cyberspace thing… I always left the theory part of things to you guys."

"That's exactly why we brought you on," Dolphin replied. "The goal was to make something more real."

"Cyberspace was always where Shibumi was most comfortable," Janyu commented.

"I think I found something," Curly said suddenly, before any of them had the time to linger on that.

They were all just a click away from each other's screens, and Curly was swift about redirecting them all to what she was looking at.

It was like they were all holding their breath, scanning the wall of data before them. Janyu spotted the sequence first. Just a blip on the screen to an untrained eye. But he'd kept all his old notes from the Digimon project and had recently become almost obsessively familiar with Shibumi's evolution code.

It had been their last big development before the university had cut them off—and it had truly been major. Evolving the little digital creatures they'd crafted for the game was just one tiny part of Shibumi's breakthrough. A code that could alter other codes… They'd hoped to use it to further develop the world itself. And ultimately allow the creatures to grow until they could think for themselves, apart from their programming.

He heard the murmurs and gasps as his old friends recognized it themselves. Babel finally spoke up, "But… I don't understand. This is definitely Shibumi's work, but where is this? Did someone leak our old files?"

"Maybe they didn't have to." Curly's tone was grim enough to make Janyu shudder—even if he hadn't really considered the implications of her words yet. "Maybe Gorou continued to develop it after the rest of us moved on."

"He must have," Dolphin confirmed. "The base code is the same, but the whole thing is more complex than it used to be. I'm running a search now to see if it appears anywhere else."

"Sorry, Curly, where did you say you found this one?" Daisy asked.

"I didn't," she responded, just a little hesitant. "I have my friends all over the world too. One of whom has ties to the Japanese government. …Did you know there's a branch that keeps tabs on all digital activity?"

"…You know… We're just gonna leave you to that," Babel said after a moment. Apparently some things had changed. Curly had never been one to stretch the limits of rules. Or laws…

"Right. Anyway," she went on. "Tao, you haven't seen anything suspicious? The signal's right around your area."

"Me?" he asked in surprise. "No, I didn't see anything. Though I guess I can't claim to have much of a track record, now can I?"

He followed this with a dark chuckle, and he could tell his friends weren't quite sure how to respond. He was a little glad no one tried to reassure him. There had been a shard of ice lodged in his chest ever since learning of Henry's disappearance. In hindsight, his youngest son's sudden interest in his work seemed decidedly suspicious. The possibilities were enough to freeze him in place. So Janyu threw himself into his work. He couldn't bear to linger on this problem, and if he found a way to fix it, he wouldn't have to.

"Uh, guys?" Dolphin spoke up, breaking the awkward air. "We may have a problem."

"What's wrong?" Janyu asked, eager to refocus.

"I narrowed my search to Japan, after hearing what Curly said, and Shibumi's code is all over the place! More than that, it's often stemming off of a different code. I think I've found the portals linking the two worlds!" Dolphin's voice had risen with his excitement. It was a stark contrast to what came next.

"Oh shit," Babel whispered suddenly, just loud enough for his microphone to pick up.

"What? What's wrong?" Daisy asked in response, sounding too loud by comparison.

"We, uh, don't need to look for Shibumi anymore."

"What, already?" Dolphin exclaimed. "Your guy's good!"

"Nothing a simple Google search couldn't fix, apparently. We were all so caught up in trying to find someone he'd stayed in touch with…"

"Okay, so where has he been all this time?" Janyu asked.

Babel's pause was a little ominous. "In a coma. There was a car accident a few years back…"

There were a few exclamations of surprise and remorse. To think that they'd drifted so far as to not even hear of the tragedy that had befallen their friend. Janyu noticed Curly's silence alongside the squirm of guilt in his chest. Just moments ago, they'd been demonizing him for being irresponsible with his passion.

"That's not the worst of it," Babel interrupted quietly. "This morning, there was a power surge in his wing of the hospital. They're still not sure what caused it, but, well… It zapped his life support machine. It was down long enough to… They couldn't revive him."

Silence but for the buzzing of their respective machinery. At last, sounding a little choked up, Daisy said, "I… I can't process this right now. Dolphin, what was the 'problem' you found?"

"Uh, right." He cleared his throat, trying to follow her lead. "There are records of numerous digital disturbances in your area lately, Tao. Up until now, they've been brief… Up until around the point we estimate the last of the children journeyed over to the other realm. The children must have been actively shutting them down. Now they're remaining open for prolonged periods of time. Luckily, they seem to break down on their own after a while, but they're staying open long enough to cause problems—electrical disturbances and the like. No one seems to have connected the instances yet, but I expect the damage will only get worse the longer these disturbances continue."

"Janyu…" Babel said after a moment, "I hate to be the one to suggest this…"

"We need to find a way to subdue the more immediate threat first," Curly cut in, taking the reigns in her usual efficient manner. "Or we may not be able to do anything about the bigger issues."

The silence reigned again for a moment, and Janyu could tell they were all waiting to see how he would react. He took a deep breath, steeling himself against his emotions.

"I know. Let's start brainstorming."

…

"I don't suppose I ever told you about my irrational fear of being trapped underwater?"

"But Cody," Submarimon answered, sounding quite calm, "there's no water here."

No. But suspended here in space, the gloom of the Dark Ocean pressing in on all sides, was basically what he'd always imagined it to be. He knew it to be irrational, because it wasn't like he'd been able to see the ground beneath his feet before the new Digivolution. He'd plunged into nothingness of his own free will—against his partner's advice—and now he was having second thoughts?

But thankfully, Submarimon wasn't one to rub this in his face. They were gliding along in the darkness now, though he had to look closely to see that they were moving at all. But that feeling that had spawned this journey was continuing to grow stronger, making it easier to push down his doubts.

"Cody, look," his partner prompted after another moment.

He leaned forward in his seat, squinting ever so slightly. Submarimon's pace had slowed due to, Cody could see now, obstacles in his way. They slid by a shadowy brick wall, and he glanced down to see that some shimmery surface was now visible below. The dark nothingness was morphing into something a little more tangible.

"Can you feel it now?" Cody asked, his voice hushed.

"Yeah… Whatever's out there, it's close."

They began to move at an incline, leaving the ground beneath them behind. Most of the brick fixtures they'd passed were crumbling and just a few feet tall, but he saw now that there was one he couldn't see the end to. Submarimon used it to guide the last stretch of the journey, pointing almost straight up… until they finally found what they'd been looking for.

The path the bricks were supporting was almost too bright to look at, but he could just make out a boy standing in the center—a single dark dot in the landscape. They hovered over it for a second, as if looking for a parking space, until Cody felt Submarimon shudder.

"What's wrong?"

"This place… It feels…"

He didn't have a chance to finish that thought before they were falling. Cody was shocked into silence, the breath gone from his lungs. The bright light seemed to engulf them as they fell towards it. He was just able to see a small, pudgy winged creature falling beside him.

The impact… wasn't as bad as he'd feared. It stunned him for a second, but the ache was already fading as he got to his feet. The boy he'd spotted from above wasn't far away.

He was turned away from them, staring at something off into the distance. But he turned to face them without any prompting when he heard Cody stand.

And anything Cody was about to say was swallowed up by a gasp when he finally got a good look at the boy they'd been drawn to.

Parts of his face were missing. Not in a gory way, thankfully. More like in a digital way. The blank parts were all perfect squares—like he was watching a scene where the anti-aliasing had been skipped entirely—and the spaces behind them were fuzzy and pixelated.

But once he got past the fact that he was missing his right eye, three fingers off his left hand, and his legs kept flickering in and out… the boy was rather ordinary in appearance. The most distinctive thing about him was the little red scarf tied around his neck.

But, as dire as he looked, the boy didn't seem to be feeling any pain. He smiled at the newcomers. "Cody Hida. Partner: Armadillomon. Current form: Upamon. Second-string Digidestined. Inheritor of the crest of Knowledge. Though I'm sure you've noticed by now that they're rather flexible."

His words were stiff and measured until that last note. Even his smile seemed softer. "The crests' codes are designed to resonate with whoever is exhibiting the according trait. It was one of my favorite changes, personally. Of course, not all of the Digimon have the ability to use all the crests. I was unable to predict just how far out of place our story would fall…"

"You are the one adjusting the world's code?" Cody clarified. He couldn't afford this struggle to make sense of the boy's cryptic words. Just in the time they'd been speaking, the boy's right knee had flickered out of existence.

"I am. I'm glad I got to meet you, Cody. My name is Ryo. Had things gone differently, we would have been team mates. I do think it's fortunate you were the one to find your way here. I always thought you showed the most potential. Though Yolei's been a pleasant surprise. And I suppose it's too soon to judge for some of the others. Kari turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, though…"

"What's happening?" he interrupted the strange monologue. "Why are you disappearing?"

"It would seem Gennai's finally managed to hack through my barriers. My own code is being deleted. I don't have long now. I came here hoping to make a difference… only to find that I don't have the strength left."

The deletion had crept from just three fingers all the way up to his elbow. Cody tried to focus. "What is this place?"

Ryo cocked what was left of his head to the side. "Can't you feel it? This is the bridge that connects this world to yours. And hence, connects all of you to each other." He fell silent of his own accord, eyes roving over Cody for a second. "Perfect indeed."

"What?" Cody asked, a little nervous about his sudden vague murmuring.

Ryo was quickly gesturing him over with his intact hand. "Come here. This bridge doesn't have long left either."

Cody meant to ask after this, but Ryo was already placing his hand atop his head. "I cannot use my own powers, but I can grant them to you. The opportunity will be brief, but it will allow you to guide your friends in my place."

A second later, Cody was frozen in place, nothing but an endless whiteout behind the data now flashing before his eyes. It was like all of his senses were on overdrive. He could feel the energy of the bridge buzzing beneath his feet, through the soles of his shoes. He could hear water running across the ground far below that—and tell which direction it was moving. That pinprick-of-light sensation he'd experienced when they were tracking Ryo had multiplied tenfold. He had the feeling he could sense out just about anything in this world, if he only took the time to focus.

He was brought back to his own location very abruptly as the pressure above his head suddenly disappeared. His eyes snapped open to see that Ryo had lost his other arm as well. And the rest of him wasn't far behind. The last that he saw of Ryo was one final mysterious smile.

Endings are inherently sad, if not absolutely so. But Cody didn't have time to sort out his own feelings. The clock was still ticking.

His partner—weakened by being so close to the human world, he understood now—was hopping up and down at his side. "What is it, Cody? What did he give you?"

"I think…" he said slowly. "Admin powers. To put it simply."

"Admin… powers?" Upamon repeated.

"I can feel them," he said, letting his new abilities flow through him once more. "All of the Digidestined. The ones in the Digital World are a little hazier… Whatever's coming, I doubt I'll have the time to reach out to them. But the ones here… in the Dark Ocean…"

He could feel them so clearly, it was almost like a visual image appeared before his eyes. He held up one hand, fingers poised like they would be over his computer's keyboard. "There's Kari…" He held up his other hand, at a different angle. "And that one's Davis. They've both got someone else with them… Another of the new Digidestined, I'm sure. The specifics are a little harder with the two I don't know. I think one of them is Takato. The other is probably that girl Henry and Takato mentioned… Rika?"

Upamon stared with wide eyes. Cody barely saw him, his face scrunched up in concentration. His ability to put his experiences into words slipped away. He just felt.

When he looked deeper, he could see the different lights inside each of them… And the corresponding energies deeper into the world. The crests, he knew.

The power to guide them… This was what Ryo had meant. So he closed his eyes altogether, reached out, and pulled.

…

This place was awful. Guilmon was whining nervously at his side and kept bumping into him, trying to walk too close. And Takato was hardly about to tell him to back off. He was trembling himself—a constant shiver.

He wasn't sure how many time Kari had made this journey now, but she seemed totally immune to this in-between world's influence.

"The path is getting brighter," she called back, sounding far too chipper for the circumstances. "We must be close!"

Indeed, a literal doorway forged from light appeared before her a second later. His heart skipped a beat. It was totally unreasonable… but for a split second, he was more afraid of the danger ahead of them than the hell they were currently in. But a second was enough.

Kari shouted something else back to him in her excitement as she bounded forward at a jog. Takato lagged behind, freezing entirely for just a second.

But in the duration of that second, the ground beneath his feet seemed to fold in on itself, and Takato was swallowed into the darkness.

…

Rika was finally growing fond of Davis's gung-ho attitude. At any rate, it allowed him to follow her unquestioningly into the darkest depths of this Dark Ocean.

Her instincts were at war with themselves. The self-preservation side of things was insisting that they must be going the wrong way. But her battle-honed mission instincts knew they were on the right track.

There was no light anymore. They were creeping forward at a snail's pace. But she found that she could sense Davis and Veemon behind her and Renamon at her side. They'd fallen into total silence as well, but her nerves had settled.

"Hey, can you guys feel that?" Davis asked suddenly. And unnecessarily too. Rika could feel something as well, and what that something was became apparent a second later.

The sudden light was blinding at first, but once their eyes adjusted, they could see that it was a path lit up beneath their feet. And an arched doorway nearly touching the edge of Rika's sneaker. The end was already upon them.

It was a good thing they'd already left all their doubts behind.

…

"Tao, it has to be done."

Babel's words were firm and had enough force behind them to feel as though he'd somehow reached through the internet connecting them and taken him by the shoulders. He'd hesitated just a second too long. But he still couldn't seem to find the words.

"Tao, I know it's not fair to ask this of you, but we don't have a choice." At least Dolphin sounded appropriately remorseful about this idea. He remembered suddenly that his old friend had recently lost his granddaughter—how far had they drifted that he wasn't even sure how she had died?—and likely knew exactly what he was facing.

"I'm seeing more and more accounts of people who claim to have actually witnessed the monsters in their streets. And some of the worst encounters have caused physical damage, not just electrical," Curly reported in. "We've located the gate they're passing through. It would be irresponsible not to shut it down."

Curly, with her coldly practical work persona, managed to completely ignore the fact that they would also be cutting off the children's connection to home. But he knew she was right. Whatever damage was occurring now, it would be nothing compared to the mass panic that would erupt if word got out that there were real monsters roaming the streets.

"Tao," Daisy spoke up, her voice sad and gentle but resolute too. "It'll be all right. We didn't design this game to be unbeatable. I believe in the kids."

Janyu didn't point out that things had changed greatly since they'd had their hands on it. He had to hold on to this little sliver of hope that she'd tried to give him. He forced the words out. "Do it."

He didn't stick around to see the deed done. Janyu muted their connection and laid his head down on the desk before him.

"Henry… I'm so sorry."

…

Cody slumped to the bridge below them, drained. He could feel Ryo's gift slipping away, but that was all right. He'd accomplished his mission. All his lost friends were where they needed to be.

And just in time. A second later, Ryo's other prediction came to pass.

The bridge connecting the Digital World to Earth disintegrated beneath them.

And Cody and Upamon were in freefall once more.

Review please!

I don't own Digimon.

Well. Speaking of ambiguous characters… I'm honestly not sure I explained everything I should have in regards to Ryo. So many of the explanations throughout this story so far were second-hand accounts of things… I have to wonder if anything got lost. Feel free to ask any questions you may have! As far ahead as I can see, Ryo's played his part in the story, so if you're still wondering about something, there's a good chance it won't come up outside another author's note.