I have forgotten the year in which season one took place.  For purposes of this story, Tai, Matt & Sora are 17; Izzy & Mimi, 16; T.K. & Kari, 14.  Gennai, as usual, appears quite old.

9


Tai lay comfortably between soft sheets that were not his own, curled up against the pillow, trying not to panic.  He had stirred, at first, with that slow and comfortable stretching that happens after you've had a good night's sleep in a comfortable bed.  But then he had realized it was not his own bed that he had slept in.  With half-awake logic, he had known it was the first day of the year 2001, and he was waking up in someone else's bed.  This time, he swore, he wouldn't open his eyes, and never wake up next to the person he had woken up next to, and wouldn't have to pressure his father to move to Okuchi –

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to a rather stupid evening!"

"What?" Tai murmured quietly, covering his ears against the scream.

"Tai?" again someone screamed, but this time it was a familiar voice.

"Izzy," Tai rolled up into a sitting position, eyes still closed, ears still covered.  "You don't need to scream."

"I'm not," Izzy shouted. Tai rocked back and forth – the bed was gone, and he was sitting on a non-descript floor.  The comfortable feeling of being asleep had been replaced with an awful headache.  (Matt and Sora felt the same way, though only Matt recognized the feeling as similar to being hung-over.)

"Tai?" Izzy asked, not so loudly this time, "Are you okay?"

"Not…really," Tai replied.  He clenched his teeth and pushed himself up. For a second he didn't think he'd be able to stand, but the dizziness was starting to go away. He had forgotten why he had been so terrified of opening his eyes, though the feeling itself hadn't entirely fled.  He couldn't focus on his personal problems now, not when he didn't know what happened.  "Who else is here?"

Everyone," Izzy replied, "T.K. and Kari were here when myself and Mimi got here.  You, Matt and Sora arrived an hour or so ago, but we didn't want to wake you.  It seemed rather pointless.  There's nowhere to go."

Tai finally opened his eyes, and realized that Izzy was right.  He was in a grey void that seemed to stretch out in all directions, with nothing discernable in it besides the rest of the digidestined in various states of unease: his little sister was pacing impatiently, and Matt was curled into a ball muttering something about 'saki.'

"Oh."  Tai stared around for a few more minutes.  "It's been like this the whole time?"  When Izzy responded with only a blank look, Tai asked how long he'd been there.

"Not long.  My watch isn't functioning right, but it can't have been more than a few hours."

Tai felt the headache starting to come back.  "You disappeared almost a week ago."

Izzy nodded and ran his fingers through his dark red hair in concentration. "There must be some sort of time dilation in effect here, because from my point of view, your school was hit by that missile less than two days ago."

"Okay," Tai sighed, "We're all here now and we'll just have to deal with it.  Sora, Matt and I were … beamed here, I guess you'd say.  From that ship in the Yellow Sea."

"The Korean one?"

"No, no, the spaceship."

"I thought it was a satellite," Izzy's eyes widened.  "You mean it was a spaceship…"

Tai nodded, "With aliens and everything."

Izzy blinked.  Then grinned.  "I knew it!  I KNEW IT!"

"Oh, no," Tai moaned, "I forgot about you and the aliens."  Tai curled back up into a ball and rolled over, intending to stay there for at least a week.  Even when Izzy stopped – eventually – Tai stayed on the ground.  He didn't have his goggles.

Tai stayed on the ground, curled up.  Matt had a similar ground-bound strategy, but his involved more of a stretched-out-on-his-back variation.  Sora took over the impatient pacing detail so Kari could take T.K. aside and talk to him in quiet, urgent whispers about the statute they'd found in the temple.  Izzy looked busy on his laptop, but he was playing solitaire.

Mimi had wandered off on her own, and she spotted the old man.

"Gennai!" she exclaimed happily, and her shout brought the others racing to meet them.

"Gashi, children," Gennai said, sagely, after they had all assembled.

"Konnichi wa, Gennai-sama," Tai stepped in front of the others, "Can you tell us how we got here?"

"Takeru and Hikari know how they got here, and I imagine they will tell you what I do not have time to."  He flashed the younger ones a look of indulgent disapproval.  "I will tell you this: When the captain of that ship attempted to transport you, Matt and Sora to her home world, she was not aware of your true nature.  You do not have the mental discipline and training her crew would have had, and were unable to make the trip. Because you were not trained or prepared, you ended up here."

"Where is here?" Matt asked bluntly.

"In a moment.  I was not able to prevent you from coming here.  However, I was able to bring Izzy and Mimi here as well – you are more likely to find your way home as a team.  T.K. and Kari found their way here as well, though I did not intend that."

By now, the digidestined had sat in a semi-circle around Gennai, listening intently.

"When you visited my house in the Digiworld, I told you that I have a form in many worlds." Gennai paused. "This world is another world that runs parallel to your own. However, this one is new, and only beginning to form."

"Gennai-sama," Izzy began to raise his hand, then reminded himself this was not a classroom. "You told us that the digital world was created by the internet, and all the other computer networks on earth. I can't believe humans have created anything else with that much potential in their entire history. But if that is true, what created this world?"

"You are right, Koushiro-san. There is no greater accomplishment in human history than the internet, and certainly nothing else with the power to create a world – except for the worlds you imagine, and those of their own rules.

"But you must understand that parallel worlds are created with great frequency by the natural flow of the multiverse. It is one of the most fundamental principles of creation."

"So this world," Tai said, "is new, and not formed."

"Correct, Taichi-san," Gennai nodded to him, "The laws that will govern this world are not yet set. The form it will take is still unknown."

"Gennai-sama," Izzy asked, "Are you saying that the laws of physics may not apply here, as they do on our world? That those laws are a creation of our universe?"

Gennai smiled a very small smile, "Of course, Koushiro-san. It would have been many eons before the laws of this world were formed, had it been allowed to develop naturally."

Matt leaned forward, "Would have been?"

"Yamato-san … you must understand that your presence here will change the formation of this world.  You will cause things to happen quickly, and be unstable."

"How, Gennai-sama?" asked Izzy.

"Your thoughts, Koushiro-san," Gennai replied, "will form this world. Your consciousness will cause this world to take shape. It will be created from your minds."

"Gennai-sama," Tai began, "This is all fascinating, but what about our world? It is in trouble, and I don't think we want to stay here. Can you take us back to our world?"

"No, Taichi-san," Gennai shook his head, "I had the power to bring some of you here, but this world has already begun to take shape. I no longer have the power to bring you back. Indeed, soon I will no longer be able to communicate with you.

"But rest assured, children, that there is a way back to your world from this one. However, since I do not yet know what form this world will take, I cannot help you find it. You must do that on your own."

Gennai was beginning to lose his form, to disappear.

"Kentou, children, and remember, do not fall asleep!"

"What?" asked Izzy, "Why, Gennai? What happens when we sleep?"

"The world will end," Gennai replied.

"Then will we return to our own world?" asked Matt, hoping for an easy out.

"No," Gennai said, just before he vanished entirely, "Then you die."