Excitement was a familiar thrum in Yolei's veins. Or maybe that was just the thumping of her heart, so fast and loud that it seemed to block out anything else. She could tell her cheeks were flushed from the rush of blood - her heart overcompensating for the adrenaline funning through her veins, and yolei lifted her hands and pressed them to her face, trying to get the cold fingertips to absorb the heat.

Not a day had gone by where she didn't miss Hawkmon. Before her foray into the digital world, Yolei had always felt confident in her self. It was something that was required with the family she grew up with, in order to not feel lost between her siblings and her parents focus on keeping the store running. But meeting Hawkmon made her realize that until the moment when she had shared a heart with him, feeding off of one another's energy and causing him to digivolve, previous to that she had only ever been half of a person. And then when he was gone, how hard it was to go back to how things used to be, now acutely aware of what she was missing.

"How long do you think the train ride is going to be?" Cody asked, standing next to her. Almost none of the others had taken a seat next, the same restlessness clearly coursing through all of them. That being said, she could see Kari sitting down on one of the seats, eyes beginning to droop as the fact that it was 2 am caught up to her.

"We're going to investigate the other train cars." Davis announced, standing next to Tai, Matt, and Sora. Yolei and TK both hurried over, and Yolei shared a bright smile with the digidestined of hope.

"Be careful you guys!" Joe said frantically, seeming to try to decide whether or not to accompany them. Nearby Ken shook his head lightly and placed a hand on Joe's shoulder.

"Relax Joe, they're digidestined, they're fully capable." He soothed and then gave Davis a motion with his hands, as if telling the small group to go before Joe tried to give them a whole bag of supplies just to check out the other train cars. Davis sent back a broad smile and a thumbs up as they proceeded through the doors.

The next few train cars were almost perfect replicas of the first one they had entered, until they finally arrived at a train car with several large tables, all full of food. Yolei was on them in a second, grabbing a particularly delicious looking mini cupcake a stuffing it into her mouth. Tai was grabbing some turkey and placing it on a fancy looking porcelain plate, smothering it in gravy.

"Dude, I'm going to go grab the others!" Davis exclaimed, disappearing back down to the previous train cars.

"Don't eat anything yet TK." Matt said warily, eyeing the food and placing in arm in front of his younger brother.

"Matt, I think it's fine. Why would it be poisoned?" TK asked, but Matt was unyielding.

"We can't be sure."

"You have got to relax Matt." Tai said derisively through a mouth full of mashed potatoes. "It's free food."

"I guess we could wait a few hours and see if you or Yolei die." Matt said, and next to him TK coughed in a way that made it clear he was covering up a small laugh.

"Hey!" Yolei said, holding a warm pretzel in her hands. "Just because I know when to seize an opportunity is no reason to be so mean." The sound of footsteps announced the approach of the other's and the door behind Yolei slid open. Immediately she heard the sound of Joe squawking like a undignified bird before rushing forward.

"This food should not be eaten! It could have anything in it, poisoned, uh… illusionary."

"Is illusionary food really a concern?" Davis asked, raising an eyebrow. In sync all of the older batch of digidestined replied with a loud 'yes' and Yolei raised an eyebrow.

"Remember what Sora said about there's no reason why the digital world would bring us all if they didn't want us all." Yolei said exasperatedly. "I figure it's the same thing with this. There's no reason it would give us food just to kill us. Or if we didn't need it." She reasoned, and Sora patted Joe on the back.

"Look Joe, we appreciate your concern for us. But we do all have the ability to use logic." Joe bent his head down in defeat.

"I guess you guys are right."

"Although, this does present a rather concerning question." Izzy said as several of the other Digidestined began to eat. "If the digital world thought that we would need food… how long does it think we're going to be here?" The group grew quiet at that, and Yolei put down her food, find whirring at the implications. Just how long was this train ride going to be? She hurried to the previous train cars, opening the overhead luggage areas. Blankets and pillows fell out onto the floor, and she felt her heart sink a little. Maybe she wasn't quite as close to seeing Hawkmon as she had initially anticipated.

"Holy Sh-" Matt slapped his hand over Mimi's mouth before she finish the swear. Yolei couldn't help but to think that Matt shouldn't have bothered - they were all thinking it.

"Well." Tai said, looking at the blankets, glancing back at the food. "It looks like we're here for the long haul folks."

oOo

There was no way into the engine room, and no way to determine how long the trip was going to be. Yolei had to hope it wasn't relative to the amount of food in the dining car, because if that was the case they would be here for weeks, months even.

The digidestined were doing their best to find ways to burn the time. Some of them had participated in a contest of seeing who could eat the spiciest items in the food car. In one of the train cars there was an assortment of games getting played. Not that anyone had a ton of gaming supplies on them - it wasn't really the survival type thing that was typically brought to the digital world - but Davis and Sora both had a few decks of cards they had in their backpacks. Some people were playing slumber party games like the whodunnit style game Werewolf. Yolei would be the first to admit that she let herself get perhaps a little too heated during the games, but Davis and herself were just too good at goading each other on and stoking one another's flames. Several times they had to be forced to play different games just to try and maintain a semblance of peace. . Pretty much anything to try and make time go faster and take everyone collective minds off of their excitement and worry.

Izzy participated in a few games, but he was mostly off to the side, tapping away on his laptop, seeming to become more and more agitated as the hours ticked by. Eventually he excused himself to the caboose train car. After a few looks at the digidestined currently in what had been dubbed the game car Tai followed, and Yolei watched him go.

Most of the group had spread out through the different train cars as the night progressed, the view from the windows showing the navy tones of an evening sky. Yolei had taken to the caboose of the train, the same one that Tai and Izzy had holed up in. They weren't talking, in fact both boys were on opposite sides of the car. Tai had fallen asleep in what looked like an incredibly uncomfortable position, slumped over one of the tables, head pillowed by a blanket, and hand loosely holding his digivice. At some point someone had draped a blanket over his body which Yolei had to assume was Izzy's doing. Izzy himself was still intently focused on his computer, eyebrows scrunched together. Yolei had walked out the back door leaning up against the railing and looking out at the endless sky that stretched out behind them. Down below there was no land, and the light from the moon glinted on the single straight rail that the train car rode on. A scattering of stars shone like diamonds scattered across a dark cloth. Yolei had been out here for an hour or so, just watching, and yet nothing seemed to change.

Reaching into her pocket, Yolei pulled out her digivice, pushing the buttons a few more times. She had seen the others doing the same over the past twelve or so hours. It felt like they had been on this train for ages and yet like no time had passed. It didn't truly seem like they were making progress, and part of Yolei couldn't help but to wonder if they would be on this train forever, growing older and older and dying here. Or even worse, if they were truly in the digital and they never aged. A train not just to purgatory, but a train that was to purgatory.

But if there was any chance this train ride might end, that it might bring her back to Hawkmon… then it would be worth it. Even if she was wrinkled and old with graying hair by then.

A yawn escaped her mouth and Yolei felt her eyelids begin to droop. Maybe she should tuck in for the night. Most of the other's had when she had last walked through the other cars, and if their estimates were right it would be some time before the train stopped. Yolei straightened up and stretched her arms, beginning to turn around when a dark shape caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She twirled herself around, leaning over the railing and serachin with desperate eyes into the darkness that loomed below them.

Just as Yolei was about to write it off as nothing she saw it again - some kind of massive creature, hard to make out as it's lines seemed to get lost in the darkness, making it hard for Yolei to even estimate a size. When it flew by again, causing so much of a breeze that Yolei had to reach out and snatch her bandana out of the air before it fell off into the void below she knew they were in trouble.

Yolei slammed open the door to the caboose car, opening her mouth to shout at Izzy and Tai, but anything she could have said was drowned out by the loud and ear splitting screech the seemed to echo from all around, vibrating her rib cage and making Yolei have to let go of the door frame, hands desperately curling around her ears.

The train was shaking under her feet, and she saw Tai wake up with a snap, eyes wide and panicked. Izzy was forcing his laptop into his backpack as fast as he could, slipping back on his shoes that he had taken off, looking with wary eyes out the window.

"What the heck is that?!" Tai exclaimed as the shadow passed the windows on Tai's side of the train car.

"Yolei, get inside!" Izzy rushed over and grabbed one of Yolei's arms, tugging her in a not giving her an option. She was thankful, her legs were shaking so much she wasn't entirely sure on her ability to move at this point. The lights that had illuminated the train car were flickering, and Yolei could see Tai running to the other train car door, flinging it open with such force that it bounced.

A loud crash echoed from somewhere closer to the front.

The distance between the caboose car and the other in front of them had grown - someone or something had cut through the area that connected them. Yolei and Izzy hurried over to Tai's side. The wind was whipping at his crazy hair and he had put on his goggles, one hand holding onto the frame, the other reaching forward. Stretched out.

There was another crash from somewhere, and Yolei saw one of the other train cars flung off the rail, falling down into the abyss. The shadow was coming back to their train car.

She couldn't see who was in the other train car too many yards in front of them for any of them to try and make a leap, except for one.

Kari.

Kari with her straight her whipping around her face, and tears in her eyes. And she's frightened, so frightened. Yolei's mind is almost blank, it's her DNA Digivolution partner, and she isn't there to help her.

"Tai!" Most of the scream is lost in the wind, but Yolei recognizes the way that Kari's lips form the word. Like she does when she talks about how proud she is of Tai for working so hard in college. When she's berating him for not doing the dishes. Said with a fond tone when she talks about how he and their mother went out for dinner, to try and help her get through the anniversary of Wizardmon's death.

But this isn't right, to see the word torn from her this way. And Tai leans all the more forward. Izzy wraps his arms around Tai's waist, holding him back from falling over the side to the end of the world.

And then there is another screech and this time it hits their train car. The squeal of the wheels before they are completely torn from the track. Tai and Izzy reach out and snatch her in the air as the train car around them begins to fall like a star down into the darkness below. Her throat hurts so bad - how long has she been screaming.

In one of her hands, Yolei still holds her digivice, and desperately pleads for Hawkmon to come and save them. Her partner, who's never let her down before. In her hand, it feels hot, and she can feel it reshaping itself, glowing brighter and brighter, until it seems to swallow Yolei in it's bright white light.

oOo

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