*blink, blink* the queen of multi-tasking is back!! I've been writing this by hand and finally got around to typing it up, when I'm not working on one of the other... 6 stories I'm currently on? No, it's more, I've got to remember my Christmas specials... Well, here it is though...

REDEFINING=RE@L

Lyra of Destiny

"What do you mean, they still know I exist?!"

"Exactly. They think you're at summer camp. And then, we'll put in a program extension to replace you." Kat stared blankly at Henry after hearing his explanation.

"But..."

"Well, you can't very well just disappear or die, can you?" She blinked a few times.

Rika sighed. "Look, like it or now, it'd have a bigger effect than you might think if you suddenly just disappeared Get it yet?"

"Um... yeah... Sorry, I had just thought that, well, I'd never existed in this world since in reality I don't anymore."

"It's not reality..." Renamon reminded Kat coldly.

"Sorry, it doesn't work like that!" Takato said, a bit more hyper than usual, and patted Giulmon on the head.

Lopmon blinked and gave Kat a skeptical look. "But, if you didn't exist, why would Hannah have recognized your voice?" he questioned her, regarding her earlier phone call to her best friend besides himself.

"Oh, don't bug me on details!!" Kat whined and set him on the ground rather roughly so she could pout. Lopmon sighed and shook his head, before looking dreamily off at the cloudy sky.

"What's that noise?" Giulmon glanced around.

"Sounds like something Rika'd listen to on her headphones," his Tamer suggested.

Kat, on the other hand, looked up and glanced around. This place... is so familiar... I think I know it... and that sound... she listened carefully to the music, a heavy beat that sounded out above the faint noise of an electric guitar and keyboard. There was far too much strength in the beat for it to be from a stereo... it was clearly being played on drums that very moment. A sudden flash of a deathly shade of black, accompanied by a red spark and glow in the form, went by so fast that only a Tamer, Digimon, or eagle could have spotted the form. This confirmed Kat's suspicions. She's out there... "She's here..." she said in a low tone.

"Who? What?" the guys questioned.

"Don't you feel it?" Renamon scolded them.

"There's an edge in the air, and how silent it all feels, although we can hear the beat of that drum set...?" Rika finished. The two guys closed their eyes for a moment, then slowly nodded. Kat took a step forward.

"Demomon! I know you're here!" she called into the growing darkness caused by a brewing storm. Wind rustled and raced silently through the trees, causing leaves and petals to move almost as if alive from one location to another on the ground, in what appeared to be organized forms. "These people are Tamers too! Show yourself, I request!"

A black blur raced past a few times before halting in the midst of a fog of dust and leaves. The drum in the background felt like a heartbeat as the debris settled.

"I don't like this..." Henry whispered, pulling a card from his pocket. Giulmon scooted behind Takato, and Renamon flexed her claws anxiously.

"Yes?" the black wolf asked in a voice that was almost silence. /her red eyes glowed fiercely, yet in a way that seemed only to be in the mind of the viewer. She scanned the row of humans and Digimon doubtingly, her tail twitching in a manner that gave a sense of foreboding to most of the onlookers. Even Kat, who had encountered the Rookie, easily a match for most any champion, many times had to shudder at the aura that Demomon gave off. But she knew quite well that this was not by any means an evil Digimon. Her Tamer had once said, that 'maybe if people looked at Daemons, and Demomon, like glass, they'd see that the darkness is only a reflection of themselves.'

Kat inhaled deeply, reciting the simple phrase in her mind to remind herself that Demomon was only a threat if you saw her as one. "We would like to speak to Oniyami..."

"Very well, I will ask..." and with that, she was gone once more, nothing more than a black tome in the otherwise clear wind as she raced towards the half collapsed building in these woods. The silence seemed to be cut short as the sound of the music refilled the area, radiating from the building, and the rest of the stillness was lifted as leaves once more drifted on the wind.

"What. Was. That?" Henry demanded, obviously more than slightly shocked.

"That was Demomon, " Kat said slyly. "The digimon equivalent of the Guardian Daemons, and the only one of her kind..." [A/N: More about the Guardian Daemons when Adrie and I release MultiVerse sneak peeks!]

"Thank goodness!" Terriermon and Lopmon chorused.

"She *will* hear you..." Kat reminded them harshly.

"So... who exactly is this Oniyami person?"

"The human equivalent of Demomon, a Tamer who hates everyone but Demomon... At least she's willing to even occasionally talk to me... she normally shuns all others," Kat explained. "Oh, she's the drummer in the band... and has a tendency to wear all black... the only perk in her personality is the fact that her shirt says 'Penguin' in Katakana..."

"Ouch..." Takato winced. "This is fantastic. A Goth demon Tamer."

"Oh, she doesn't sound so bad to me..." Rika shrugged. "Sounds like me in my darkest hour."

"Much worse, believe me...." Kat trailed off as the stillness filled the air again. But this time, there was no Demomon... just silence, except for the synchronized beep from all four of their digivices. "She's gone..." Kat said silently. "Damn her, she ran off to the digital world!"

"No..." Henry said. They all looked at him. "No, she didn't. there's no activity on the barrier any time in the last half hour... she had to have gone somewhere else..."

"well, she's most definitely not on Earth, so where could she be?" Takato demanded.

"On Earth?" Renamon suggested.

"Oh, yeah... sometimes, I forget that we're in a computer program..."

"But that's just impossible... she always seems to be here, hidden in these woods... and wouldn't you know about her if she was in the true world?" Kat complained.

"We'll run a scan," Henry snatched a cell phone from his waist, flipping it open and dialing a number quickly.

"Operator?" came a voice on the phone. Henry tossed the phone to Rika.

"Yes, this is Nonaka. We need a data search."

"Got it. Name?"

"Oniyami..." she looked up at Kat. Who shrugged. "Oniyami is all we know for the name. Goth girl. Lives in the Colorado area in the Matrix..."

"Positive identification... Oniyami Mitsuyo... but only one can be found anywhere in the Matrix files with that name... says here she died at least 4 years ago, though... attacked by a wolf, evidently."

"That's all we needed," she flipped the phone shut and handed it back. "Evidently she was killed by a wolf..."

"Far from it..." Kat mumbled. "Damn her, why does she always have to do these things...?"

**********

"I'm not sure whether or not to warn you about this one..." Kat said solemnly, reaching up and ringing the doorbell of the house they were at. "You would have all been better prepared, had you met Bri... but concerning you know Takato... you should be fairly well off," she rolled her eyes.

"What? This one is a wild one too?" Renamon said quietly.

"You know, I wish you wouldn't use that phrase!" the accused whined.

"She's just stating the obvious, goggle-head," Rika added.

"I've got enough of a headache after dealing with Demomon..." Kat growled. The others all looked over to her. "Lopmon knows too, don't you?" Lopmon looked up at her from his spot in her arms and nodded. "She can probe your mind. Find whatever she wants. If she and Oniyami didn't know about the Matrix already... they do now..."

"Then she can intercept the programming? Read what your thoughts are within it?" Henry asked.

"Yeah, what he said," Terriermon chimed.

"I guess that's really what it is... but I'm betting she'd be able to do that in the real world too..." the door creaked open behind her, and she immediately looked floorward at the Digimon who she'd known would answer the door.

"Hi, Kat!" he said happily. "Who are your friends?"

"A Gomamon?!" all three of the other humans were stunned. They'd expected something else exotic, what with Demomon, talk of Dashumon, and their own two, with Lopmon and Terriermon being rare species as well.

"What?! I'm not good enough for you?" Gomamon asked, staring up at his prosecutors. "I could always digivolve to Dolphmon if that'd help!"

"No, that'll be quite alright. You'll have to forgive them, they just met Demomon, you see, and... well, you know. Hey, where's William?"

"Oh, he'll be right down. He wanted to get his sunglasses. I don't see why he'd need them, though, concerning the storm... Demomon caused it, didn't she?" Kat nodded. "Thought so. But I still don't know why he thinks he needs..." Gomamon took a good look at Kat again. She was wearing her own shades, and had been. "Oh, yeah, eye protection... gotta love it, wouldn't you agr-"

"Hey, Kat!" Everyone's eyes went up from the small Digimon on the ground to the face of a tall, deep red-haired boy standing in the doorway. He grinned and slipped his magenta-framed shades over his eyes, walking out the door and closing it behind him. "What'sup?" he gave her a high five and then gave Lopmon one too. "Whoa... Tamer party, huh?" he laughed. Kat was, by this time, cracking up, mostly do to the fact that he had obviously purposely left one end of his outer shirt tucked in... to his sleeve.

"Hey, ya know what?" Terriermon whispered to his friends. "He looks like Willis!" [Puts in little ding-dong transition effects...]

"Only you would know that, rabbit..." Renamon rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall.

"What's a Willis?"

"William, these are my new friends, Rika, Henry, and... Takato... and their Digimon, Renamon, I think you can recognize the Terriermon, and Giulmon," Kat pointed them out one by one.

"Cool. Give me five, everyone! And a kiss for the lady," he kissed Rika's hand after she had reluctantly high fived him.

"Act's like him, too..." she growled under her breath and shook her hand off.

"Hey, is there some place in your house we and some other stuff can all fit into? Because we have a lot of explaining to do..." Kat mumbled, as William immediately opened the door and led them all in.

**********

"I wonder why Hannah hasn't gotten here yet..." Kat paced nervously by the window. Rika stood in the other corner, talking on the phone with headquarters, arranging something... All the Digimon were playing hide and seek, and Renamon had only joined because she was able to teleport out to the roof, allowing herself peace from the male Digimon... The guys were playing a three-way game in the middle room, hoping that at least some of the information they had given him would sink in through William's head... Apparently, it actually had, but he didn't care. That was the good thing about him... he took everything in stride. It would probably take the world getting blown up to even make him flinch. It wasn't that he wasn't observant... he noticed everything, it was just that... Somehow *anything* could be perfectly normal for him. Him and his Gomamon. The partners that could get through anything. It was almost chaotic, actually... William had been crazy enough to try to teach Gomamon to rollerblade one day... Obviously it hadn't worked...

A phone beeped and clicked shut, drawing everyone's attention back to Rika in her corner of the room. "It's all set up. Do you have a computer we can use, William?" she rubbed the back of her hand on her jeans as she said his name.

"Oh, sure..."

"Shouldn't we be waiting for Hannah and Dashumon?" Kat wondered, looking out the window again.

"No. it'd be easier to take them one at a time. They won't get shocked seeing the other one go, either, this way. Luckily, this building can act as a port..." she sat down and started typing away quickly, entering so much program code in less than a minute that Kat was shocked the computer could keep up.

"Dang, girl... I've never seen anyone type that fast..." William stared over her shoulder. "and it's all binary, too... how did you memorize that sequence?!"

"I didn't," she said firmly. "Now, sit down, put on this head set, and hang on..." she tossed the headset to him. "It's gonna be a bumpy ride..."

**********

"Hello? Someone? Anyone? Oh... hi, Lopmon..."

"Hannah! Dashumon! Come up stairs, it's your turn!"

"Our turn? For what?" Hannah halted at the door.

"Kat!" Dashumon went running up the stairs and jumped into the girls arms, fairly much forgetting her own Tamer as she and Kat's actual Digimon as they came wandering up the stairs behind her. "Katmon, whatcha doing?" she questioned, looking around the room over her shoulder.

"Oh... you'll know soon enough. And you still call me Katmon? Why is it only me you have to do that too?"

"Because Hannahmon and Williammon don't make sense!"

"She's got a point there," Lopmon nodded, jumping into Kat's arms as Dashumon tried her best to float down to the ground. She resembled a cat with a large, squirrel-like tail instead of a normal one, and tiny wings, though they weren't good for much except slowing her down a bit if she fell. In these occasions they could, however, expand involuntarily... but much like Calumon's ears....

"Hi guys, whatcha up to?" speak of the little cute thing.

"Oh, just great, there's one here too..." Rika mumbled, looking at the tiny white digimon who'd just climbed in through the window.

"You mean there's another one of you Tamers in Japan?" Kat asked her.

"No... Calumon and Impmon just sorta wander around on their own..."

"Oh... well, this Calumon *has* a Tamer... but he's out of town a lot, so I couldn't get a hold of him... yet..."

"He's at a skateboarding competition in Miami," Hannah corrected her, looking around the room. "And what have you done to William's room? And where is he? And who the hell are these three?!" Now that she'd stepped out from the shadows of the staircase, her near-white blonde hair shone, with what little daylight was now seeping through Demomon's dying storm, and looked actually quite elegant as it fell over most her left side, including her eye. The eye left uncovered was an almost metallic shade of steel gray... And though these things, combined with the deep tan and midriff clothing, gave her a look of someone who faded into the background, or of your average beach or outdoor mall crawler... this was Denver. A place that... wasn't exactly near the ocean. So that knowledge, combined with and intensified by the sharp expression on her face, and her pose as she held, with a hand still wearing a wrist guard, her frame-less sunglasses to the side of her face, made it clear that she was one to stand out from the crowd. She propped her skateboard against the wall and walked over to Kat, glaring sharply down at her. [for once my character *isn't* the tallest! Even though I am in life!] "What, the hell, is going on here, Kat?"

Despite how threatening Hannah looked to even Rika at the moment, Kat merely smiled at her and pointed to a chair by the computer. "Yo, girl, chill! We'll tell ya!"

"'Chill'?"

"'We'll tell ya'?" the group of more... foreign Tamers sweatdropped at the skater lingo the girls were using freely. Kat sat down and slowly started explaining and introducing everyone, while Hannah paced across the room, spinning her skateboard in her hands occasionally. Calumon was sitting on the windowsill, having the look of paying more attention to Kat and the Japanese Tamers than Hannah was, until Terriermon and Lopmon challenged him to a poking contest.

"You're expecting me, to just *believe* you, and these three kids who just happen to be Tamers, that this isn't the real world? And all this other junk? For all I know, you could have just introduced some of the new kids in your Japanese class to Lopmon, and they ended up with Digimon, just like Andrew did a few months back, and then you watched The Matrix too much, and made this whole pile of shite up."

"Wait a second," Henry stood up and looked between the two. "You introduced a friend to your Digimon, and he ended up a Tamer?" the two girls nodded.

"He's the one who has Calumon..."

"Hey, Takato, I think you need to call your buddies and girlfriend then!" Henry handed him the phone with a laugh.

"She's not my girlfriend. And I dunno about the guys, but... But we all agreed, that Jeri shouldn't be pulled into this yet!"

"Oh brother," Rika sighed. "Goggle-head, you're getting more pathetic by the day. We could of used her help, strange as she is, and I-"

"I just think you're jealous..."

"Renamon?! Now you've turned on me too?! Fine, then..." Rika walked out of the room, William's portable phone held up to her ear as she faded away in the same manner characteristic to her Digimon. The phone fell to the ground behind her.

"Ok, now *that*, that was freaky..." Hannah commented finally, breaking the silence. "Don't tell me that she... went to the world you were talking about?" she brushed her hair from her face, picking Dashumon up and staring hard at the remaining people and monsters in the room. "I'm taking the silence as a yes. Great. So, when do we leave for Odd World?"

"It's not odd... it's real. Unlike here. And anytime you want to is fine," Henry started to type the programming into William's computer again, placing the phone onto the proper location.

"Or don't want to. It doesn't matter, anytime right now is good," Kat grinned, convincing Calumon to leave for the time being.

"Impersonate your drafting teacher again and die."

"We'll have plenty of time for that later," Kat shook her head and helped Hannah out with the headset and other equipment, recalling how it had been used on herself and on William. "For now, I'll see you when you wake up... in a couple of centuries..."

"What?!"

**********

It had been all of a week since William and Hannah had been added to the growing list of freed Tamers. It had been found, back in Japan, that Kazu, Kenta, another guy, and Susan, much to Henry's dismay, as well as obviously Jeri, could soon be added to that list. But all were recently proclaimed Tamers... It would be too much strain on the average one of them to have this thrown onto the load they were having to deal with, so for the time being the six that *were* already freed would have to do.

"She's here somewhere, isn't she?" William said casually as the Japanese Tamers led the American ones through one of the cities.

"Who?"

"The demon girl. She's been here for a long time, I'm betting. That's why she disappears, in the way I've seen Renamon do since we've got here."

"I always thought she was just a walking Digiport or something like that..."

"*Lopmon!*" Kat hissed. "I really don't know... But, we'd have to tell you sooner or later, that she was, in fact, out here somewhere."

"That's a real encyclopedia there, Kat," Hannah sighed.

"Sorry we don't have more information on your friend. But it is very difficult to find people here in the real world, though it's not like we do it on purpose," Rika decided to comment.

"Oh, it wasn't that. It was partially the typical sense of fear and foreboding I get when I know Demomon is nearby, and partially the *really* weird signal that just showed up on my Digivice that made me think that..."

"oh... right," the rest of the group responded sheepishly.

Behind them the shadows moved with life, pacing silently in a circle around the small group. The same voice like silence filled the ears of anyone who cared to hear, which was no one at that moment. "They're here..."

I realize how much shorter this one is than the last chapter, but writing two extremely dark fics at once is stressful... *one of her Christmas specials scares herself* And yes, Oniyami is a product of Adrie's mind... I don't know which dark corner of it, though... Review, please. Thank you.