Disclaimer: I don't own digimon.

Author's Note: Hi everybody! Good to hear from you all. This is a really good chapter. I like it. Lots of things happen and it's long. I felt bad for giving Rika such a short chapter last time, so this one is her's too. For the things that I don't remember, I found a short way too explain it all. Here's the Final Law of Storytelling, courtesy of my favorite author: "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story."

Hope you like it! Please review. Enjoy.

Strange Circumstances

When night fell, Rika left her house again and headed off back toward the park. She walked through spots of light that were cast on the sidewalk by orangish streetlights. It reminded her of the night before, except for the feeling for anxious excitement in her stomach. She tried not to think too hard about it, because it made her feel sick if she did, and she wasn't too happy about the prospect of throwing up just because she was going to meet some people. Special people, but they were still only people.

She walked for a while, focusing her thoughts on other things. Every time the anxiety came back, she pushed it away. Soon, she came to the park and started heading down the path that came close to the rip. Suddenly, she experienced vertigo and felt faint. Wobbling over to a park bench, she sank down onto it as blackness overtook her vision.

The feeling came first. It was a strange calling feeling, drawing at her heart and leading he toward... something. Something important. Her eyes opened to a strange alleyway. Overhead, a violet street lamp lit the area, which was packed with three large dumpsters, overflowing with random bits of garbage. She walked behind the last one and saw a rip. Through it was a whitish lavender wall. Numbers flashed before her eyes as she stepped through the anomaly. 648. Then she headed down the hallway, following the calling feeling up three flights of purple lit stairs to a door. She pulled it open.

Rika's eyes snapped open again. She sucked in air and struggled to get away from the spot where she had awoken. But something was holding her back. She kicked and shoved and grunted as her elbow connected with something soft.

"Rika." Renamon snapped, wrapping her arms more firmly around the struggling girl. "Rika, wake up."

At the sound of her partner's voice, she stopped attacking and relaxed slightly, still breathing hard. "Renamon?" She whispered. "Did I hurt you?"

The fox looked down at her. "It takes more than your elbow to hurt me." She let the girl slide out of her arms back onto the park bench she had been crouched on. "What happened?"

Rika blinked and wrapped her arms around herself. "I had a dream."

"But you were awake."

She nodded. "That's why I fainted."

The digimon stepped off the bench and stood in front of her partner. "What did you see?"

"I," she shook her head. "I don't know. Something about a hallway. And there's another rip somewhere. I'm not sure where."

Renamon stood silent for a while, considering what had happened, until she looked off in the direction of the rip. "Someone just came through." She whispered.

Rika breathed in as the anxious feeling resettled in her stomach. She stood, arms still wrapped around herself, and walked off toward the rip. Renamon paced up to walk next to her.

"What are you going to tell the others?" The fox questioned.

"Nothing." She snapped back. "They don't need to know this."

The digimon blinked to invisibility and Rika continued down the path. She turned into the trees at the appropriate spot and walked through the greenish shadows, following the same way she had taken the night before. She heard the others talking quietly up ahead.

"So, where's everybody else?" Takato asked.

"They're still back there, waiting till we come through." A familiar voice said. "They're setting up some gadget to analyze the rip or whatever."

Still hidden by the trees, Rika smiled. "Davis." She whispered, and then frowned at herself for the warm feeling she got inside.

"So, where's Rika anyway?" He asked. "The longer we stay in this world, the longer they have to wait for us."

"I'm here." She said, stepping into the clearing. "Sorry I'm late. I, uh, fell asleep for a while."

Henry looked at her strangely, but didn't say anything.

"Well, let's go." Davis said, turning to walk back through the rip. Jeri was the first to trail him through it, and the other three quickly followed, their digimon slipping in behind them.

"Took you long enough, Davis."

Rika looked around the area. It was mid afternoon now, though she doubted it was the same day as the sunrise she had seen yesterday. Sitting on a big boulder near the tree line, Tai was looking over the newcomers, his finger holding a spot in a thick paperback."

"You could have come through." Davis told the older boy.

He raised his eyebrows and pointed a finger at a spot to the left and slightly behind them. Rika turned and saw a bunch of scientific instruments set up analyzing the rip. Kari sat in a chair, staring blankly at a laptop that was hooked up to the equipment. Izzy gazed at the screen over her shoulder.

"You're paranoid, Tai." The genius replied. "Nothing would have happened."

"Doesn't mean I can't be here. Almost got my Lit homework done."

Kari smiled and then pointed at the screen, whispering something to the boy standing over her.

"Well, anyway," Davis said loudly, catching everyone's attention. "This is Takato, Rika, Jeri, and Henry." He pointed them out as he said their name.

"I'll be the courteous one and greet them all." Matt said, obviously to Tai, getting up from where he had been leaning against a tree. He held out his hand to Takato, who shook it awkwardly. "I'm..."

"Matt. Yeah I know." He replied.

"Huh?" Both Matt and Tai, who had gotten up and come over, looked confused.

"Well," Takato answered uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his head. "You see, in our world..."

Not really wanting to hear him explain the whole thing, Rika walked away to stand next to Izzy. The screen of his laptop was garbled with data and fluctuating graphs.

He looked over at her. "Rika?"

She met his eyes and nodded.

"Do you really know all our names and everything?" Kari asked, glancing up at the other girl.

"Yeah," she replied. "There's a TV show with all of you on it."

"Freaky." Izzy whispered. They were quiet for a moment until his arm shot up and pointed at a large wavelength graph. "See. It does repeat. It's starting over."

"I don't see it." Kari said, shaking her head and rubbing her eyes.

"It's stable." He said. Then, standing up strait, he shook his head too. "I don't know. Maybe it'll close next time the pattern finishes."

Rika gave him a fearful look. "The how will we get home?"

Kari smiled. "Don't worry, Rika. We've got that one figured out."

"Well, I haven't really tested it, but it should work." Izzy said. He looked over at the boulder Tai had occupied before. Davis was now sitting there, carefully inconspicuously watching the three of them. "Davis, Give me your digivice."

The younger boy frowned uncomfortably and then fished in his pocket to pull it out. He threw it over and Izzy caught it.

The genius turned back to Rika and showed it to her. He pressed the buttons in a certain order and a number popped up on the screen. Zero.

"It tracks the worlds it's been in." He explained. "This is world zero," he pushed another button and three numbers came up. 677. "And this is your world. When you press a different button, it should be able to cut through into the world you have plugged into the direction."

Kari pointed to the button. "But it hasn't really been tested."

Rika pulled out her own digivice and stared at it. She pressed the buttons a few times, and when nothing happened she passed it to Izzy. "How does it work?"

"It's probably different. The D-3's and the originals have different activation codes." He pressed the buttons and then looked at her. "Can I keep it till you go back?"

She nodded.

"Izzy." Kari called, turning back to peer at the screen.

He turned toward her, handing Rika Davis' digivice, and looked at the laptop again. She watched him for a second, and then walked over and sat on the boulder next to Davis. She handed him the digivice.

"They seem like they like each other." She said.

"What?" He turned and met her eyes.

She shrugged. "Doesn't seem like they're doing it just to spite you."

He stared, mouth slightly open. She rolled her eyes beneath closed lids and pulled her knees up to her chest. Blowing a stray strand of hair out of her eyes, she looked over the clearing. Henry, Takato, and Jeri sat on the grass with Tai, Matt, and a newly arrived Sora. Tai was smoking, taking deep drags on the cigarette, and Matt was picking out chords on his guitar.

"This isn't all of you, is it?" She asked the boy beside her.

"Uh, no." He replied. "Ken and Yolei went somewhere after I came through to get you guys. You know that for those two minutes in your world, it was an hour and a half in this one."

She turned and met his auburn eyes. "Wow."

"Yeah." He said, holding her gaze. "TK got in trouble with his mom for ducking out at three in the morning. Cody moved to India with his mom. Joe and Mimi got jobs in other countries. She's a model in America and he's a doctor in Spain."

"Spain." She whispered, looking at her shoes. "They're so alike."

"Hmm?"

"Our worlds. How does that work?"

"I don't know." He shook his head. "It's all too weird now."

Neither of them spoke for a while. Rika watched as Kari got up and walked over to plop down in her brother's lap. She grabbed his cigarette and ground it out on a rock, yielding an unhappy look from Tai. After a minute or so, Ken and Yolei stepped into the clearing. Davis stood up.

"Come on." He whispered to her.

Rika stood and followed him over to the two newcomers.

"Where'd you guys go?" He asked Ken.

"Well, uh, we..."

"We found a collapsed control spire." Yolei cut in. "Ken wanted to check it out."

Davis stared at his best friend. "You should be careful around those things."

Ken sighed. "He's not coming back, Davis. I won't let him."

Cutting through the tension between the two boys, Yolei came over and shook Rika's hand. "I'm Yolei. And you're?"

"Rika."

"Okay. So how different is your world from ours?"

"Well, I really wouldn't know. I haven't been to your world."

"Hey," the plum haired girl stood up straighter, eyes shining. "That's a good idea. You guys should get shown around our world. Hey Izzy!" She shouted, moving off to talk to him.

Rika went and sat down near Henry. All three tamers looked very excited. The large group was talking about battles. Ken walked off toward Yolei, and Davis came and sat next to Rika.

"Why are your eyes purple?" He whispered to her.

She turned and stared at him. "What kind of question is that?"

"Are there a lot of people with purple eyes in your world?"

"Not that I've seen." She whispered back.

"So, it's just you?"

She blinked. "Maybe."
He looked at her. "So why are your eyes purple?"

Having no answer, she stayed silent.

"Hey guys," Izzy called, coming over to stand by the large group. "Yolei suggests that you take these four to our world for a while. Show them around a little."

"Yeah!" Takato yelled, a little too loud.

Ken and Yolei came over as everybody stood up.

"All right, so what do you wanna see?" Tai asked.

Jeri and Takato piped up with a chorus of places.

Ken touched Izzy's shoulder. "My mom only let me out for an hour. I think I want to stay here."

"Sure." The older boy replied. "Take two days of free time."

"What about you?" Kari asked, coming over and taking her boyfriend's hands.

"I'm coming. I don't have to watch it for it to record data."

She smiled. "Good."

"All right people," Izzy called, "Ken and Yolei are gonna stay here. Everybody else move toward the portal."

They all moved off. Rika fell into step at the trailing edge of the line, feeling anxious about seeing their world.

Post Script: Well, there you go. I just love it. Hope you did. Dunno what else to say, so please review. Next chapter is even longer.

Thanx to everybody who reviewed. You guys rock.

neoKOS-MOS