"I can't believe you're actually considering this!" yelled the politician to the rest of the United Nations council. "Drafting digimon into the military is totally immoral! They shouldn't be forced to fight if they don't want to!"

"Mr. Kamiya, please calm down," said the United States representative. "We understand that you have a unique perspective when it comes to digimon, but you know as well as any of us that we are heavily lacking in resources. The cost to fund troops, technology, and maintenance is far too high for most of my colleagues to maintain. However, we all know that digimon possess the power to strengthen themselves naturally via digivolving, with the use of only digivices. If we were to take advantage of this, the cost to fund all aspects of the military would dramatically decrease."

"That may be true, but you can't force digimon into the military!"

"Mr. Kamiya is correct!" shouted the representative from Japan. "Digimon have the right to choose their own fate!"

"If they are sentient beings, then they are subject to the same laws and responsibilities as humans," said the representative from Canada. "Besides, the draft is necessary if we are to compete with the Digimon forces in Iraq."

"It is rumored that they have several digimon capable of combining to become a Mega-level digimon," said France's representative. Tai's eyes widened.

"That's impossible!" said the German representative. "Nobody can do that!"

Tai frowned. Nobody has been reported to have a Mega-digimon, and the only DNA digimon that existed belonged to his friends. No "true" Digidestined had surfaced since the days that the second team was still fighting. Everyone with a digivice could enable a digimon to digivolve to the Champion level at the highest, but nobody could go higher. If Agumon and Gabumon could digivolve to their Mega-forms, then none of this "digimon drafting" would even be considered. Even Paildramon, Ken and Davis' DNA digimon, had lost his ability to Mega-digivolve. That was something that worried Tai immensely. The power of the Digicore that Gennai had given the Digidestined during the battle with the dark forces had worn off a long time ago. By then it wasn't necessary since nearly all of the evil forces in the Digital World had been dealt with, but it still would have been nice to have that power still in case something turned up. Tai couldn't help but think that the world was left wide open.

"Drafting digimon without drafting humans is nothing more than racism!" yelled the English representative. "Even if doing this would save lives, forcing digimon to fight in the place of humans is nothing short of hypocrisy!" A few other representatives, including Tai, cheered their support.

"The digimon were created by our Internet!" yelled the Belgian representative. "They are a creation of our technology! It is our right to use them as we see fit!" More representatives cheered in agreement.

"Racist!!" shouted yet another representative. At this point, a general melee of shouts and angry words ensued, until finally the council leader called for order.

"I will not allow another outburst in this council! This is your last warning!" Everyone remained silent. "That's better. Now, we will begin voting on this matter tomorrow. Is there any other business to attend to?" Nobody called anything forward, so the leader swung his hammer twice. "Then this meeting is closed."

Tai gathered his papers and headed out the room as quickly as possible so that he didn't blow up in anyone's face. This whole matter had him fuming! Ever since the American ambassador had suggested using digimon in the military to save human lives and resources, the controversial issue of whether to allow digimon the same rights as humans had been raging for months. After months of work, it had all come down to this, and Tai was sorry to say that it didn't look good.

Tai went to his car without talking to anybody. Usually he would hang around the building to chat with fellow ambassadors, but today's meeting made him especially edgy. During the short drive to the hotel he was staying at, Tai thought about what the various representatives had said about digimon. It was crazy to think that they would consider digimon to be their property rather than living beings. Even though they had digimon of their own, they considered them little more than smart pieces of human technology, like a toy robot dog or something. Every now and then Tai would see people like that in person, and watch as they disregarded their digimon's thoughts and feelings in favor of their own. Tai would always have to resist punching the person's lights out, especially since he's an ambassador and was expected to live by certain standards.

Tai got out of his car and entered the reserved hotel used by many of the ambassadors during meetings with the United Nations. He nodded to a friendly bellhop, who did the same. Tai nodded to the bellhop's digimon, a Gazimon who enjoyed his work just as much as his human friend.

"How's it going today guys?" Tai asked as he got some quarters from his pocket and inserted them into a vending machine.

"Not to bad Mr. Kamiya," the bellhop answered.

"I can't complain," the Gazimon added, stifling a yawn. "And you?"

Tai groaned. "It's been a long day. Playing soccer for three hours straight doesn't make me this tired." The vending machine dropped a Pepsi in the bin below, and he reached down to grab it.

"Agumon's had a long day too," said the Gazimon. "All day long he's been going back and forth from the Digital World."

Tai looked at him curiously. "How'd he do that? He can't use my digivice without me."

The human bellhop smiled. "I had some spare time, so I helped him out. Gazimon and I enjoyed the breaks."

Tai smiled too. "Thanks guys." He reached into another pocket and pulled out two American five-dollar bills (he had some foreign currency for the trip) and handed one to each. The bellhop and his Gazimon smiled brightly and bowed as Tai went up the stairs to his room. He knocked a few times, since this hotel had auto-locks on the doors.

"Agumon, it's me."

"Okay, just a second," said the digimon inside. A few moments later, the door opened to reveal a sleepy looking Agumon. Tai smiled at the digimon and walked into the room, closing the door easily behind him.

"You look beat," Tai said as the digimon walked back to the room's one big bed that the two shared.

Agumon jumped onto the bed and lay on the bed, already half-asleep. "That's because I am beat." He looked over at Tai, who was undoing his necktie. "You look beat too."

Tai laughed at some inside joke. "I still can't believe that meetings are making me this tired. Maybe I'm just getting old."

"Boring stuff always made you tired." Agumon folded his large claws behind his head and stared up at the ceiling fan. "Are they still talking about that draft?"

Tai angrily tossed his jacket across the room. "Yes! Those goons still haven't given up on that!"

"Relax," Agumon said as he yawned. "Thing's will work out."

"I hope you're right," Tai answered as he fell onto the bed as well. He looked at the digimon curiously. "How can you be so calm?"

"I'm too tired to be worried about anything right now."

"Why are you so tired? What've you been doing in the Digital World all morning?"

Agumon rubbed his eyes. "I had a bunch of messages to deliver."

"Couldn't you have just used the computer for that?"

"...I had a gut feeling. I needed to be in the Digital World."

Tai looked at him with concern. "What?"

Agumon shook his head. "It's probably nothing. Maybe I'm just homesick."

"Maybe." Tai too started to yawn then looked at his watch. "I think I'll take a quick nap before giving the others a call. What do you think?"

*snore*

Tai smiled. Agumon's answer was pretty clear.

****

Kari frowned while she listened to her brother's words. Even though Tai didn't actually tell her what was said in the meeting that he had this morning, she could tell from the sound of his voice what was happening. Her dream of a world with digimon and humans coexisting peacefully was becoming less and less a reality.

"This whole thing has really gotten to me. I wish I could just punch the other representatives' lights out."

Kari giggled. She may have been 36, but her laugh still sounded as petite as ever. "I can imagine. 'Tonight, on CNN, Digiworld Ambassador KO's the UN council.'"

Tai laughed too. "Yeah, that would be a little embarrassing."

"Just a little," Kari replied sarcastically. "Anyway, politics aside, how are you and Agumon doing?"

"Not bad. We don't get to relax that much sense we both have a lot of work right now, but we're still cheerful."

Kari could hear the sound of steady snoring in the background, but the vid-phone didn't allow her to see the bed. "Agumon must be really tired. He never snores."

"I know. He's been running around all day, delivering messages. If he had just used his e-mail he wouldn't be out like a light."

"Why didn't he use it?"

"I don't know. He said something about 'needing to be in the Digital World'."

Kari grew a little worried. "That's strange. Gatomon was talking like that too. Every chance she got, she tried to get me to take us to the Digital World."

"Really? Did she talk with Agumon at all today?"

"No, she was with me. It may be a holiday because of those-"

"DON'T say it," said Tai sourly.

"Sorry. Gatomon was with me doing paperwork for my class next week. We didn't get a call from any of the digimon all day."

"Not even on your D-terminal?"

"Nope."

"Weird...I wonder if the other digimon were anxious like this too. If they were then we might have a problem."

"Do you want to call them?"

"Definitely. You call TK, Davis, Cody, and Yolei. I'll talk to the others."

Kari loaded her address book and started flipping through the pages. "I hope they're not busy."

"I don't care if they are or not. This is much more important. Oh, I'd better hang up. *beep*"

"Bye T-" she started to say. But before she could finish, he had disconnected.

****

"Yeah, Gabumon was acting the same way. He was real jittery."

"Is he there with you?" Tai asked.

"No, he's in the simulator. He'll be done in a few minutes."

Tai groaned. "When he gets out, ask him what's going on. I'm going to call Izzy."

"Okay, see ya." Matt disconnected, and Tai instantly started linking to Izzy's address.

Over on the hotel bed, Agumon groggily sat up. "Mmph...What time is it?"

"Four o'clock," Tai answered. "You sure were tired, weren't you?"

"Staying in the Real World too long does that to you," Agumon said as he stretched. "One day we're going to have to take a long break in the Digital World."

"I could go for that," said Tai with a smile. The vid-phone connected, and Izzy's visage appeared on the screen.

"Hi Tai, this is an unexpected pleasure," he greeted.

"Izzy, I need to talk to Tentomon! Is he there?"

The other man looked confused, but shook his head. "No, he's not."

"Well where is he?!"

"He wasn't feeling to well, so he went home. He was saying something about being really tired."

"Him too huh," said Agumon as he yawned.

Tai's eyes half-closed, as he became more intense. "Why was he tired? Did he do anything today?"

"Not really. He went to the Digital World to get some samples for me, but other than that he's been taking it easy." Tai and Agumon looked at each other.

"Maybe he's not tired like I am," said Agumon.

"Maybe you're not tired like you think you are." Tai turned back to Izzy's image. "Izzy, we might have a problem!"

"What kind of problem?"

"Something weird is going on; I can feel it. The digimon aren't acting normal."

"I haven't been reading anything strange on my systems. The Digital World seems to be fine. Why would the digimon be acting up?"

"I don't care what your machines say Izzy!" said Tai. "Remember what Gennai told us? The data on the Digital World can be changed from the inside."

Izzy's eyes widened. That had slipped his mind. "That might be true, but we don't know for sure."

"There's only one way to find out," Tai said. "Tell the others; we're heading to the Digital World!"

----------------------------------------------------------------

(A/N): Ugh...short chapters. Oh well, it's not that big a deal; I'm just used to longer stuff I guess. Anyway, next time, the digidestined reunite for one last mission, and Naki discovers the truth about her digimon and herself.