Daichi: All right, that's one step done, on to the next one!
Verity: We don't own anything, and again, that is probably a good thing.

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The biggest issue, when it came to surviving the world they'd gotten lost in, was a general lack of resources. The group had sixteen mouths to feed, seventeen if one counted Gazimon- which only Ib could, and she honestly had no idea why he was following them- and half of which were bottomless pits.

Suffice to say, none of them thought much of Tai's solution. "All in favor of Tai no longer having control of the food supplies?" Sora asked.

There was, of course, rapid agreement. Except, of course, from Tai. "But if we're fighting things stronger than Devimon, Agumon's the only one who can protect us all!"

If everything they were fighting would be stronger than Devimon, maybe, but Ib was pretty sure that, in an even semi-realistic world, power would be a bit more spread out than that. She sighed and shook her head.

"Even if that were true, you know it's not healthy to eat too much, right?"

Tai waved it off. "He'll burn it off once he Digivolves."

"That's not what she meant…" Joe muttered. But Tai continued off on his power trip without paying attention to a single word the other DigiDestined said.

Gazimon discreetly took a carrot from the pile of food without anyone noticing. "You want me to get something for the others?" He asked.

Ib nodded. She wasn't sure how much good single pieces of fruit would do- or if it was a good sign if their partners would eat food that, to them, randomly appeared out of thin air- but it was better than nothing.

Besides, Tai's antics were even starving the group's humans, and at least half of their little band might as well get to eat.

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Ib had been acting strangely.

This wasn't anything entirely new. Ib wasn't quite the same as most people, hadn't been since before the two of them had met, but it was rare that Joe was as concerned as he was now.

He was used to Ib going quiet. To seeing her freeze up whenever they passed the art gallery, or visibly holding back tears when her parents took them to her uncle's rose garden. They'd learned to work around it, taking a different path to the library and making whatever excuses they could to keep her from going to the garden alone, but the problem still existed.

But it was much less common for her to simply glance at the empty air, or nod at nothing, or to mutter something that Joe wasn't sure anyone was meant to hear. And she'd been doing a lot of that, the past day or so.

Maybe Angemon's death had affected her worse than he'd thought.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, quietly, knowing he'd just hear a large number of Digimon complaining about being hungry otherwise.

"I'm fine." This was definitely not true. Joe knew what 'fine' looked like for Ib, and it wasn't anywhere near this.

He sighed, and adjusted his glasses. It was getting harder and harder to keep them clean recently… The desert environment was only partly to blame for this. "You can say you're hungry, you know." No matter what it would set off.

She shook her head. "I think the heat is more of a problem, really. I can go without food for a bit."

Back on File Island, Ib had basically taken charge of making sure everyone stayed alive. But she'd been quiet ever since the village, quieter than usual, and while that was hardly the strangest thing… it was probably the most dangerous, if she couldn't bring herself to keep Tai in line.

Joe supposed that, if she didn't get any better, he'd have to step up, instead.

And at that moment, the Tag stuffed beneath his shirt took on a dark silver glow.

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The glow of Joe's Tag led the group to what Ib could only call a gladiatorial soccer field. She didn't care much for the sport, and she was sure her friend could find his Crest by himself, so she decided to explore the interior area.

There wasn't much light, which was more than a little unnerving, although there were windows to the outside, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

"What are you looking for?" Lalamon asked, hovering over her shoulder like always. She didn't really have an answer to that.

"I don't know. It just… feels like I shouldn't be there." She was hardly a stranger to the feeling of not belonging. It had haunted her every day of her life, up until she met Joe. And even then, it still came back from time to time.

But it had never driven her from a friend before. Ib shoved that thought out of her mind before she could dwell on it too much.

"Why shouldn't you?" Gazimon was somehow more curious than her own Digimon was. "They seem to like you."

Given how short a time the Digimon of questionable existence had been hanging around, she wasn't sure how he could tell.

Kicking aside a piece of rubble, she decided to clarify as best she could. "It- well, I guess it's like this world, sort of. I don't belong here." Maybe she'd belonged somewhere, at some point, but odds were she'd never get back to that, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. "And maybe there's people who do, but… I don't think I was meant to save the world." Let alone be close to the ones who had little enough baggage to actually be able to do it. "If Gennai was even telling the truth about that."

"You don't trust him?"

"Who's Gennai?" The two Digimon asked at the exact same time. Ib shook her head, feeling for the familiar weight of the lighter in her pocket.

"It's just… why me? Why any of us? I don't even know if he'd give me an answer if I asked. It's not like we were ever given a choice in this whole thing."

Well. There had been. Sort of. But, again, reflexively picking up a small blue device that fell from the sky should not have been as life changing as this.

Or allowed them to keep their lives for so long, but she definitely wasn't questioning that part.

Suddenly, the ground lurched beneath her feet. Running to the nearby window, Ib looked out to see a pair of Greymon facing each other. For a certain definition of the word.

It certainly didn't seem like it would be a fair fight. "Lalamon, can you Digivolve right now?" She asked, getting a shake of the head in return.

"I didn't get enough food today." Right. That.

If Tai managed to get the whole group killed, Ib was never forgiving him.

She wasn't sure if she wanted to find the others or run away. But she didn't get a real choice, either way. She had just reached the ground floor when everything shook again, more violently this time.

Ib was aware of the building collapsing behind her, but other than that, she had no idea how she managed to end up alone in the desert, with nobody but Gazimon and Lalamon for company.

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Gennai didn't notice there was one of them missing. Joe knew this because the man had looked at their group, now down a member, and asked them why they could possibly be so upset. It had taken a few tries for the enigmatic man to even register Ib's name, and he clearly remembered her saying it as clearly as possible.

He didn't seem to care that much, either, apparently taking more offense at Tai's idea of Digimon care- actually pretty understandable- and how none of the others were talking to him anymore. Never mind that they had a reason for that.

They were sure she'd made it out, there was a little dot on the screen of their Digivices which reached the edges and vanished faster than Joe had been aware his friend could run, but… for all they knew, it was just the Digivice.

He was starting to understand just why she'd always been so terrified of the possibility of other worlds.

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Daichi: Okay. Character arc, ready to start. Other DigiDestined, more than a bit mad at Tai. Should be fun to work with later!