Ok, this chapter is probably going to be short as well, but at least I got it out ahead of schedule. Wait a minute...what schedule? It's not like I do this for a living...and...oh never mind. Enjoy reading what little I can offer you, and perhaps you will be satisfied by just a bit.

Disclaimer: Insert witty, humorous, yet tacky comment as to why I don't own Digimon here...

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I still could not comprehend what was occurring. None of it was adding up at all. The only conclusion I could draw at the time was that I was thrown into some alternate dimension, like the one where me and the others encountered MaloMyotismon. However, it still looked frighteningly familiar to the real world. Wherever I was, I was sure that I could find answers within the pile of rubble where my apartment building would have stood.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After about an hour and a half of rummaging through the wreckage, I found something I recognized. It was a wooden nameplate that simply read "Motimiya Residence". It was the decoration that went on my family's front door! My scouring became more frantic as I dug deeper into the ruins. After a few minutes I chanced upon a tattered scrapbook. When I dusted off the cover I noticed that it was one of my family's photo albums. At least, it looked as if it was.

If I recall, the first picture in the book is this year's family portrait. We take a photo every year to update the book. When I turned to the first page, the creased photo was indeed there, but something was amiss. I could see my parents and Jun in the picture rather clearly, but there was a smudge over where I was. I cleaned the blotch off with my sleeve...but I was not present in the photo. As I inspected the photo further, I noticed that my family did not look as happy as one would when taking a photo. They seemed to have a look of fear and uncertainty in their eyes. This was starting to make less sense. How could I have not been in the picture, another theory was formulating in my head.

"This is the real world, but not the one I left behind...I must have gone into the future." I uttered to no one in particular. I took another look around at my surroundings. "It looks like I've been gone for years...maybe even centuries. It would explain why I wasn't in the picture. My family must have taken it some time after my disappearance...but where are they. I'm all alone out here." Where was my family? Where were all the people? What had happened? Where had I been? How long had I been gone? The questions began to cause my headache to resurface. I was starting to feel a bit nauseous, so I sat down to rest a bit.

It became apparent to me that I was not going to find anymore answers where I was situated, so I thought about where I should go next. The answer was clear: Tai and Kari's apartment. Surely Tai would know what was going on, and I could see if Kari was alright. Yes, it's true that I still feel bitter and short-changed, but I still harbour deep-seated feelings for her. As much as I tried to deny it over the last two months, a part of me still believes...or more so...hopes, that Kari would reciprocate these feelings if she just knew how I felt. I set off, wishing for a miracle.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Along the way, I saw nothing but devastation. The deathly wind continued to howl eerily across the cracked roads. I just could not believe that the city had been utterly destroyed. What if it wasn't the city alone? What if all of Japan...or even the whole world was like this? I shuddered at the thought. What could have caused all this destruction? As if on cue, an answer literally came to me.

"Spinning Needle!"

I turned quickly enough to see a digimon attack hurtling at me at a tremendous speed. I quickly dived into an alley close by as the ball of energy careened with the ground. The resulting explosion caused a swarming cloud of smoke and ash to billow. I thought back to my time in the digital world. We had to run for our lives a lot, so we learned many methods of eluding the enemy. I used this dust cloud to conceal myself from my attacker.

I looked up through the dirty residue to confirm the aggressor. It was indeed an Airdramon. I knew this kind of digimon quite well. Airdramon were like the sky raiders of the Digital World...but why was there one in the real world? Some of this was adding up, and I didn't like the sum. The giant dragon screeched and opened it's mouth wide to attempt another attack. I quickly looked around for a way of escape. I had to think fast before I was bombarded with the blast.

"Spinning Needle!"

Damn it! Only mere seconds before I get eradicated. I looked at the ground and noticed an open sewer. Success! What luck! I hurriedly fell through the manhole just milliseconds before the assault hit the ground. I landed hard on the concrete and blacked out...

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..."Are you alright"?

After an unknown period of time, I heard that voice, but fortunately...or unfortunately, it wasn't ImperialDramon. It was a young man's voice, and a very familiar one at that. When I opened my eyes, the figure standing before me came into focus. Finally a friendly sight after all this darkness and despair!

"Cody, thank goodness you're alright!" I exclaimed. "Where are all the people?"

He looked the same from when I last saw him, stature wise, but that's where the similarities ended. Apparently I had not gone as far into the future as I previously anticipated. It was probably a couple of years...five at the maximum. Cody looked a little more built physically than I remembered him, though. His hair was wild and untamed like Tai's, but was still fairly short. His clothing was raggedy and tattered, and his face and skin were smeared with soot. What the hell happened to him?!

"Excuse me, do I know you?" He asked, curiously. Did I miss something here?

"Is something wrong?" I asked back. "It's me, Davis, don't you recognize me? Do I look different to you or something?"

"You must be mistaken." He responded. "I've never met you before in my life. You must have hit your head pretty hard, judging from that massive swelling on your head." I felt my forehead and indeed felt a large bruise. "How is it you know my name? I'm not that well known among the resistance." Resistance? What was that? I know Cody was mysterious by nature, but this was beyond even what I'm used to from him.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, confused. "I've known you for several years."

"Alright, you're not making any sense." He stated. "I think you hit your head harder than I thought. Follow me, I shall take you to our local doctor."

What's going on? I think I did miss something here. I know I'm not the quickest to figuring things out, but this wasn't easy to decipher. Rather than inflicting more mystification upon myself, I agreed to follow him. Perhaps he could lead me to some answers. We began our journey through the sewers, which did not smell as bad as I anticipated. I thought of straightforward questions that I could ask Cody that wouldn't end with me scratching my head in a puzzled fashion. I began with small talk to break the ice.

"Well...I...expected the sewers to smell worse than this!" I said with a false sense of humour. It wasn't the best opener by far, but it was all I could think of at the time, given the circumstances. He glared back at me with a hint of annoyance on his face.

"Are you new to this area?" Cody inquired.

"Umm...no, I've lived in this part of town my whole life." I answered. He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Then where have you been living?" He asked.

"In an apartment, of course." I replied. He stopped suddenly, and so I did the same. He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt.

"Are you trying to insult me or something?!" He yelled. His voice echoed loudly in the narrow passageways. I've never known Cody to be this irritable and aggressive. What happened to him?

"No, of course not!" I quickly said. He inspected my clothes, which had seen better days.

"Oh I get it." He sneered. "I thought they just abducted women, but the fact that a man such as yourself would do it willingly...it just sickens me!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, as I fidgeted uncomfortably.

"Stop acting like such an imbecile!" He demanded, as he shook me again with incredible strength. "The digimon that side with the Three take away women as personal slaves...my mother included. My grandfather fought to save her, but was killed in the process. How could you sell your soul like that?!" His mother kidnapped?! His grandfather dead?! Where was I when this happened?!

"When did this all happen? Who or what are the Three?" I asked, yearning to learn more. He loosened his grip.

"Has your mind been damaged?" He asked back. I shook my head. "Then where the hell do you really come from? Tell me the truth this time!" I had to think about how to answer this. Apparently he couldn't remember me for some reason that eluded me. He didn't seem satisfied with the fact that I lived here, so I guess I could make something up.

"I guess you could say I'm from another world and another time." I responded. It was sort of a half truth. Heh, I guess I was using ImperialDramon's logic. He looked at me strangely, as if trying to validate my statement. He took a heavy sigh.

"Come on, let's get you to the doctor before you start spouting more gibberish." He concluded. We continued on through the darkened tunnels. This was getting harder and harder for me to figure out, and surely the answers were becoming farther and farther to reach...

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To be continued...

The plot thickens!

I hope that some of you found my naming of this chapter amusing. For some reason, it reminded me of Dante's Inferno as I was writing it, where Davis is Dante and Cody is Virgil. Just some lame, literary humour on my part! x_x

As always, review and share your thoughts.