I don't own digimon. That sucks almost as much as FF.net's ban on AN pages.

Preface - Death Sucks

I wonder how long I've been floating here?

Here, of course, is a formless black void. Depthless, eternal, and unchanging. There is absolutely no light here. That means that I literally cannot see the hands in front of my face.

I can't mistake this for the area beyond the wall of fire. There's light there, you just can't see it, if that makes any sense at all. I mean, there has to be some light there, I can see my hands when I'm in there after all. I mean when, when I was fighting him there, I could see everything that was going on.

But that may have been because we were our own light sources. I'll have to think on it.

But I digress. No, this is definitely someplace different…

I mean, there isn't any gravity here. There wasn't any beyond the wall of fire either, but there was still some sense of up and down in there. This is different. I could be spinning faster than high-speed turbine, but without any air or gravity, I wouldn't know the difference.

Or so I've heard, anyways.

~Interesting… Just how are you surviving without any oxygen, anyways?~

"Who the hell are you? For that matter, give me a what, where, when, why and how while you're at it…"

The voice chuckled.

~It doesn't matter really… But I suppose if you must call me something, you may call me Vahn.~

"Hold up a sec… the Vahn?!"

~Yeah, that'd be me.~

"Holy crap…"

~It's nothing to get worked up over.~

"Nothing to get worked up over?! You're him! The @$$hole who got me into this mess!"

~Don't point any fingers at me. I admit it, I screwed up all those years ago. But this mess was entirely and completely your fault!~

"How do you figure?"

~Think back about five and a half years. You should have known better than to defeat someone like Daemon and then just leave his data floating around for a few more years! That could have stopped the entire chain of events right there! What the hell were you thinking Matsuki?!~

"………Oops…"

~Idiot.~

"Jerk."

~…~

"…"

~But back to my earlier question, just how are you surviving without any oxygen?~

"Dunno."

~Idiot. Let me clue you in on something. YOU'RE DEAD!~

"…Kinda figured. Was also kinda hoping you'd say otherwise though."

~Hope springs eternal.~

"Well, that sucks. I bet Rika's pitching a fit down there."

~From what I've seen of her, that's the most probable case.~

"Yeah. I miss her."

~I know the feeling. Keiko was… special. In a kick your ass kind of way.~

"Definitely one of Rika's defining characteristics."

Vahn sighed, and we were silent for a time. Then I spoke up.

"Do you know if BlackGuilmon was reformatted?"

~I hope so. He wasn't the brightest bulb, thanks to a certain someone I won't name…~

"Bite me."

~…but he was still too nice a digimon not to be.~

"Well, look at it this way. Well, when it happened, he was either going to be innocent or a complete psychopath. I like to think my way was better."

~Point.~

"…"

~…~

"…"

~…So… how did you die anyways?~

"You mean you weren't watching?! Why the hell were you yelling at me earlier then?"

~Two reasons. One, I had kind of thought everything was over after you loaded Daemon. I didn't know he'd managed to kick off the prophecy before then…~

"And yet you had the gall to yell at me for not noticing something you didn't either the first time around. Smooth."

~Shut up. And two… He blocked me. I could have looked the normal way, but he was blocking that. His aura tends to do that. While the others could lend power even beyond the grave, your very existence blocked me from looking out through BlackGuilmon's eyes.~

"Well excuse me for living."

~Don't worry about it. In the end it didn't matter, I mean, everything came out for the best, right?~

"Uh, sorta…"

~Just tell me he's dead. That's all I want to know. You did fulfill the prophecy, right?~

"Well, yeah… that part went fine…"

~Then what's the freakin' problem?!~

"I am kind of dead you know… Kari's probably going to need some extreme psychotherapy, and I don't even know if more than half of the others are alive or dead…"

~Well, these things happen. At least all of reality isn't really being threatened any more.~

"…Talk about the long view…"

~That's the only view we can take really. Think about it. But, we're off course again. Just how did you die? I know why I did. I screwed up royally as you already pointed out. But how did you bite it?~

"It's a long story."

~Does it look like either of us is going anywhere?~

"Point. Well, ironically, it started about five and a half years ago, well before I'd even heard the name -"

~Hold it. I already know that you didn't load Daemon, remember? I know you spent several years with the Digidestined before returning home to lay the smack down on Daemon permanently. Admittedly, we both missed Daemon's final creation in there, but the point is I was actually able to watch that part, since he wasn't powerful enough to block me then.~

"Those are good points, but I was actually referring to another small… mistake… that could have cost me everything."

~………And the universe depended on you for help?~

"Shut it. At least I didn't drive the most powerful force in existence insane. No, the snafu I was talking about took place a few days before that."

~Megidramon?~

"No. That was an obvious mistake. No, the mistake I made happened when I destroyed D-Reaper's core without using the C-Ark's ability to use the crystal matrix to purify things first."

~Well, I'll admit that the general anger level in the Tamers went up after that, but it mostly faded by the time you came back, even if that last Megidramon event she saw did snap Jeri's mind like a fragile twig.~

"While that was bad, that still wasn't the mistake I was referring to."

~Huh? Nothing else really comes to mind.~

I sighed. Vahn still wasn't getting it.

"Look, let me just tell you what happened. The consequences of not purifying the core that day didn't catch up with us until after you were blocked anyways."

~And how do you know that?~

"Because I'm pretty sure you would have picked up on this if you were still able to see."

~Oh.~

"Exactly. Let me tell you as it was told to me…"

~You weren't there?~

"No, but the story does have eventual bearing on why exactly I died."

~Cool. Go on.~

"Anyways… this is what I got out of them…"