Disclaimer: I do NOT own Digimon. It is the sole property of its respective owners and creators.

Quick Author Note: Whenever you see *** this signifies a change in POV. Tread carefully.

Chapter 0: Then and Now

This world....this place I've walked for so long, some of it....I can hardly
believe even now. The miracles, the impossibilities, the knowledge of worlds
beyond our own. Flying through a sky of iridescent blue, electrons flowing
through my lungs when I breath instead of oxygen, and every sound going through
my ears a digital signal of man-made creation. If there was ever a place to
reach a new kind of Nirvana....

This life I've lived since the day I was born, it's been hard, it's been
painful, I've seen my own blood...but...I wouldn't take any of it back. I think
of it...as something most people can't have. A person my age...to know what I
know, to feel what I feel...it shouldn't be possible. Back before it all
happened I didn't care much about the world, about the people, about the
places...just lived in the now. An adolescent without a care in the world.

Then me and seven other people I didn't know got sucked into a place ravaged by
the violence and war you only see on the news you never watch.

We were scared, we were crying, we wanted to go home, but...you don't always
get what you want in life. We stayed....we stood....we fought....we lived. We
saw the dark sides of a living soul, and the shadows of our own spirits deep
inside. We learned what evil really was, what it truly meant, and what it truly felt
like. We also learned what courage, friendship, love, purity, knowledge, faith,
hope and light were all about. We saw death in front of our eyes, we felt the
hopelessness of a battle we knew we would lose, we felt the despair of watching
each other fall....

We felt the light of miracles.

We heard the song of angels, the roar of dragons, the howling of wolves, the
fire of phoenixes, the twinkle of fairies, the rumbling of ocean beasts,
heh...even the buzzing of giant insects.

It's all....such a beautiful thing. We finally knew...at that tender age....what
it meant to be alive.

When we returned, we were something so much more. When we went back to our
lives...I remember...looking around me and seeing the children play. Watching
them laugh, watching them sing, watching be so carefree, watching them...be
children.

Small...naïve...children.

Then I realized....I'm one of them....I realized....to everyone else I was
still a child. We all felt the same thing...the same.... disorientation I guess.
We had grown, our minds didn't fit our bodies...our souls were older.

I can't put it into words really, maybe you understand...maybe you don't.

We came together again, that one night, the night we just couldn't keep it
inside anymore. We went back to the artificial world we thought we would leave
behind forever. Then we sat down, and we vented. We told each other...we confided to
each other...the new things we were feeling...the new thoughts we were
thinking...the dreams we were having. We talked about things...that eleven year
olds don't talk about. We talked about...our lives. ourselves, our pasts,
presents and futures. We talked about what we felt about each other. About the
things that stirred when we were so close together.

We weren't children anymore, and you know what? We weren't sad about that.

Now we had the chance to view more of our lives, more than any other person
alive, from a real perspective. To look at the world through true eyes and ears,
to see what things really are, to understand what words truly mean.

Now...when I speak to my...'peers'...they don't understand a word I say. They
don't understand my feelings and philosophies anymore. Now, I used to think
adults were...fuddy-duddies...and all those other childish words that make no
sense. Now they're all I talk to...my mom and I, we're closer now then ever.
Now I stay after class having idle conversation with people who at least partially
understand the vibrations coming from my mind.

When I talk they look at me and they wonder how someone young can be so wise,
how someone so immature can be so calm. When they look into my eyes they don't
see a eleven-year-old girl anymore, they don't see the immature vibrant child that I
was. They see something a little more, something a lot less mindless, they see
someone who's been thinking about too many things at once.

I've lived. I've learned. I've felt....so many beautiful things....so many real
feelings. I have experienced a thing that a person my age shouldn't...couldn't.
I've felt...I've felt... the deepest form of what I represent. The truest,
purest, kind of love a person can feel. The thing...that can only be done...with
someone you truly want to spend the rest of your life with.

That night...in the digital world. When we came together...when we told each
other...what we felt when we were together...

I can't...it was so... Words can't fathom what it felt like. Today, I wonder how
humanity can take something like that for granted, how we can simply use it so
frivolously.

We came closer together than anyone our age could. We showed each other just how
much we meant to each other. During the times of chaos and violence we watched
other, protected each other, saved each other, fought and killed for each other.
We took all of that, all of feelings, all of our faith, and...well...I don't
think my crest ever glowed brighter than it did that night.

That single night that I will never forget.

Looking up at the stars, with the people I love more than any world out there.

To Be Continued................

Author's Notes:

1). Now I understand that the above won't make much sense. There are alot of things that go unexplained. I assure you everything will be made clear as the story progresses.

2). Hmmmmm......well.........uhhh...........bonus points if you can guess whose thought patterns are portrayed in this chapter.

3). C&C is highly valued and archived for later reference.