"Is this it?" asked Anne.

Kobumon, Kraimon, and Mambamon had led the small party consisting of Anne, Jonathan, Matt, and their Digimon to the very end of the jungle, which immediately broke out into yet another desert. Kobumon replied, "This is as far as we have scented the trail."

"Ah. I see," muttered Anne. Jonathan started to groan but was cut off by Anne, who elbowed him hard in the stomach.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"Shut up, Cleese."

"Why? What'd I do?"

"Probably almost get our heads bitten off."

"How?!"

The two continued to argue like this and Kyomon sighed. "This is sad…"

"You're telling me," agreed Matt.

"Anne! Jonathan! There's no reason to fight!" interrupted Penmon, effectively cutting the argument short. The two glared at each other and Jonathan sighed, and said "He's right. Er, Kobumon, are you sure that this is th—" But as he turned around, the three Digimon were nowhere to be seen. "Bugger! Where'd they go?!"

"They have a territory to defend," said Anne. "Maybe they went off to defend it."

"Point."

"Besides, I think I can see something out there…" She caught a glint of gold. "Yeah, it looks sort of like a pyramid."

"D'you think that's where she went?"

"Where else could she go?" Matt reasoned. "I mean, it's not like there are any office buildings out here…"

"D'accord."

"Uh…yeah, what she said." Jonathan peered out into the desert. "How far off d'you think it is?"

"We should make it there by nightfall," said Shedramon.

"But it'd still probably take a while, so we should set off," said Anne.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Kyomon.

"I meant now, wyrm," she groaned. "Come on…" However, as they left, she couldn't help but notice a shadow—a seventh one—following Matt. What could that be?

~:~:~

"Jacquelyn? Jacquelyn, are you there?!"

Dracomon was trying for what must've been the millionth time to contact Jacquelyn, and yet, nothing came through. He snarled in frustration and finally gave up.

She is dead, I'm afraid.

He didn't need to turn around to find the source of the reverberating voice. The Master was here. "Dead? Of what?"

I don't know. I can't exactly decipher the source, but I know that if she were fully human, she'd still be alive.

"And yet, if she were fully human, none of this would have happened."

I know. I have no regrets.

Dracomon sighed. "So, what do we do now? I have attained the Mega level, now what is the second part of our master plan?"

Well, first, I daresay we should rid ourselves of a few visitors.

"Visitors?"

Be expecting them. They are coming soon. I can feel it.

"Who exactly are these visitors?"

Three humans and four Digimon. Two Rookie; two Mega. Not nearly enough to withstand your strength, or mine.

He smiled to himself at the compliment. "Of course, there is always the chance that the two Rookies could Warp Digivolve to Mega level."

Again, no match. But, ah…just be glad that Amonæmon is no longer with them.

"Him? Why should I be afraid of him?"

Because he is the only one who can match your strength, besides the combined power of Allegriamon, Draliomon, and Qidamon.

"Fine then. After I've absorbed the data of these four, I'll just go give them all a nice surprise."

I like your style. But you should still beware Chouwamon.

"Who?"

Chouwamon, the ultimate paladin of the Tai Chi. Don't tell me you've never heard of him.

"No, but…it does sound a bit familiar. And why exactly should I fear him?"

As long as the connection between the Digital World and the Real World is still alive and strong, he carries the fortified strength of the four Digital Guardians.

"Which shouldn't be much now that I have destroyed them all."

I never said they had to be alive.

"So? Tell me, is he a guardian, himself?"

Technically, yes.

"Then he shouldn't currently be in existence, now, should he?"

Amonæmon…

"So what about Amonæmon? He's only ONE."

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

"I realize that. I never said there wasn't. However, the power to Digivolve into him might be buried within some random Rookie Digimon somewhere out heaven knows where, and we all know how vast and complicated Digivolution lines are. Think of it as a blood vein. The vein has dozens of little capillaries leading off to somewhere else. And every vein has them. It's the exact same way with Digivolution lines. So, he might still never exist, or, even better, he might've been pushed out of existence already. Amonæmon was lucky."

Interesting way of putting it.

"I know."

~:~:~

"What?!"

The pyramid they had seen was actually quite small. And that's an understatement. It only reached up to Anne's neck, and even then it was floating in the air. She groaned. "Great. Now what do we do?"

Kyomon thought. "Go inside it?"

Everyone glared at him.

"What? What'd I say?"

"It's too bleedin' small, wyrm," growled Jonathan. "And besides, I don't see a door anywhere."

Penmon, however, differed. He could feel some sort of energy charge from it…but what was it? Was it supposed to transport them to wherever Jacquelyn went? Or was it going to delete them? He shuddered at the thought. But he wasn't the only one to feel the charge. Anne could feel it too, though she couldn't place it with the pyramid. All she knew was that it felt like when she spotted the portal that had gotten them into the Digital World. Then, she realized, too, that it could be a portal. She took a chance and reached out to touch it…and nothing happened. It was cold, smooth stone. That was all. She bit her lip and stepped back. "What are we supposed to do?" she repeated, more to herself than anything. Then she looked back and noticed that odd shadow that hovered around Matt.

Shadows…

"Uh, Anne, what are you doing?"

She was searching through her rucksack. For what? "Jonathan, look for something…a mirror, a flashlight, anything like that!"

"Why?"

"I have an idea!"

"What?"

"If we can get enough light on the pyramid to create a shadow, we just might be able to find something!"

"Can't we just wait for the sun?" queried Matt.

"What sun?"

"…Oh. Right."

"Did you find a flashlight yet?!"

"No, how about you?"

She groaned. "No…" She started looking through her cards for anything that might help. Then she came across the Kyubimon card. Might as well… "DigiModify! Kyubimon's Dragon Wheel activate!"

"Huh?!" yelped Kyomon, bewildered.

"Just do it! On the pyramid!

"Okay…" He darted up into the air and curled up as if to do a Tail Snap attack. "Dragon Wheel!"

As the blue fire smashed against the stone, for one brief moment, she could see a shadow. But only for a moment, and then it was gone.

"If you're thinking what I'm thinking, I can't just keep doing that…"

"I know, wyrm," she groaned.

"Wait a minute," said Matt. Then his eyes widened. "I get it!" Then he pulled out a card. "DigiModify! Shapeshift Digivolution activate!"

At first, Anne was confused. Megas couldn't Digivolve…right? But then Shedramon's eyes blazed red. "Shedramon, Shapeshift Digivolve to…Zhuqiaomon!"

Now she understood. Where Shedramon was, there was a giant, red phoenix. "Phoenix Fire!" he called out, aiming the attack at the pyramid. This time, the shadow was held long enough for Anne to see the details.

It was shaped like a door.

A door…?

"Wait…do it from the other side," said Anne.

Zhuqiaomon switched over to the left side of the pyramid, never once stopping the onslaught. It was rectangular. Again. Anne walked over to the previous side and brushed her hand against it. It was extremely hot, but there was definitely something solid in front of the pyramid. But why was it only there now?

The attack stopped. He couldn't keep it up any longer. Suddenly, the solid thing seemed to cave in somehow…and something black replaced it. A portal, no doubt.

"Whoa…"

After Matt had gotten Zhuqiaomon to "Digivolve" back into Shedramon, the party went through the portal…to be greeted by a swirling, grey and black fog with random numbers and letters flitting about.

"Now what?" asked Jonathan.

"We went through this when we came to the Digital World," said Penmon before she could answer. "Only, we went through it so fast, you could barely notice it."

"What?! You mean we're going back to the Real World?!"

"Not if I can help it," replied Penmon, pointing at a glint of white. "See? There's a rip. It's just like the portal we went through to get here, only…it doesn't lead to the Real World."

"Where does it lead to?"

"I dunno…"

"Well, c'mon," said Anne, a bit irritated. "We're never going to find out if we just stay here, right? And besides, I'm willing to bet that Jacquelyn left that portal when we got to the Digital World, so she must've left this one, too."

"Good point."

"You sound surprised at that. Why should you be?"

It took a bit for Jonathan to grasp the meaning of that sentence. "…Hey!"

She stifled a laugh and headed for the portal. Instantly, she was sucked in. "Whoa!" And just moments later, Kyomon came shooting out after her. "Hey, watch it!"

"I didn't know you were there! …Where are we?"

She looked around. The place was completely white, with no visible walls, floor, ceiling, or sky. She and Kyomon were both floating in midair. [A/N: Think the Internet from the second movie, only without all the weird spirals/designs/thingies.] Jonathan, Penmon, Matt, and Shedramon came soon after.

And yet…she just couldn't shake off this feeling that someone else was there.

"So," said Penmon breathlessly. "This is what the Cyber looks like."

"The Cyber?" questioned Anne.

Penmon nodded. "It's a dimension lying just between the Real World and the Digital World, and it's basically the only thing separating the two. From what I've heard, it was supposed to be really skinny and stretched out…only…this is much different…"

"What's that?" asked Jonathan, pointing at something. Anne looked at whatever it was, and found that it was some black orb…that was rapidly nearing them.

"Oh, God, what is that?!"

But just as the words left her lips, the orb had engulfed them, and everything was black.

~:~:~

They're here.

"Showtime…"

~:~:~

"Oww…where are we?"

They'd landed in a heap in a wide stone hallway. Anne struggled to look up and saw a large, domed crystal skylight. She groaned, shoved Kyomon off her, and slowly got to her feet. Now that she looked around a bit, she saw that the corridor went on for what seemed like an eternity both in front of her and behind her. It would've been pitch black had there not been flickering torches set high up on the wall every ten feet or so. She turned around and saw the others also in a heap. But then she saw something else.

"AUGH! WHO'S THAT?!"

She knew there was someone else in their party. There was another Digimon there, about the size of Shedramon. Matt quickly got to his feet and hurriedly said, "No, it's all right! It's only Cloakmon!"

"Who?!"

"Cloakmon. He's my partner Digimon, also."

"How come we couldn't see him?!" demanded Jonathan.

"He was invisible," Matt explained. "Cloaked. Get it? We share a telepathic bond."

There was a dazed silence for a moment, then Cloakmon said, "Er, pleased to make your…acquaintance…"

"Oh, never mind," said Anne. "We need to figure out where we are."

They started off down the corridor after a short argument on which direction to go, then Kyomon started a Dragon Breeze attack and it was quickly decided. Of course, there was no telling whether they went north, south, east, or west, or anything in between, so I can't really tell you which direction they went. As they went down the hallway, they began to notice stone doors. But all were locked. Eventually, though, they reached a door that was open. Curious, Anne pushed it open—to reveal a white room, looking not much different from a lab. The room sent chills up her spine…somehow, without knowing how she knew, she knew Jacquelyn was here.

She sighed and walked out of the room. Since they had been walking for about ten minutes without getting anywhere, she asked Kyomon to see if he could get any of the locks on the other doors open.

I'm afraid that won't work.

"What was that?!" asked Anne, quickly. The voice had felt like it came from everywhere at once, and yet, it wasn't quite so soft as if it'd been in her mind.

Keep going until you see the light.

What light? But just as she thought that, she thought she could hear a humming noise and saw a very faint light at what seemed like the very end of the corridor. "There!" shouted Jonathan, so she knew she wasn't the only one who heard it. "Come on!"

They almost ran down the hallway, until they reached a high, arched opening into a wide, domed room that had the same skylight as there was when they'd fallen into whatever this place was. The room seemed as big as a house, but might well have been bigger, since there was nothing but shadows at the very end.

"Welcome to Nightmare. I trust you will enjoy your stay."

Anne whipped around to the source of the voice, which was from the shadows. What little light there was glinted off the smooth, scaled skin of a huge Digimon, larger than anything they'd ever seen. It spread its wings.

"My name is Dracomon. Let us begin."