Hey, everybody! I finally got around to writing chapter four of this fic, lol! Anyway, this chapter is sort of serious, but the story is starting to move along a bit. The next chapter things start picking up even more, except that it's a lot funnier (I can't wait to post it; I've already wrote the beginning of it and it's really fun!). Anyway, this chapter's only got the Tamers, unfortunately (though Tai's talked about a lot), but the next chapter is more of a mix of 01, 02, and 03, although it focuses primarily on Mimi (hence it being fun and funny). But this has some good stuff in it, too; just more serious, like I said! Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Four: The Villain of the Story

Ryo Akiyama sat in the rain late that night, his arms wrapped around his knees as he leaned against one of the walls in an alley. The streets were empty, except for an occasional car that would pass. Ryo's chin was rested on his knees and his eyes were solemnly narrowed. "I should go and find Rika and the others…there's no use in staying here all by myself…" he thought aloud, but trailed off, reluctant to follow his own advice. He shivered and muttered, "It's cold." He was silent for a while more, staring at the rain as it pattered hard on the ground and in the puddles that had already been formed. He lowered his eyes toward his feet. "But say…say if they don't exist anymore either? Just like my father…and the digital world. At least if I stay here then I can still have hope that they're all out there…somewhere…"

He forced himself to hold back his own desperate tears. "How can it all be gone now? And why can't I remember!" he asked in frustration before growing quiet again. "Still…even though I can't remember, I still feel like this is all somehow my fault…that Cyberdramon and the Digital World are gone. That my father is gone…" He shivered again and clutched tightly onto his wet clothes as he pulled his knees closer to him. Closing his eyes, he asked aloud, "And why do I feel so afraid when I don't even know what I'm afraid of anymore?"

"You shouldn't be sitting out here all alone in the rain; you'll catch a cold."

Ryo looked up in surprise to see a man standing in front of him. He held an umbrella, which covered his face and half of his body in a dark shadow. Ryo frowned warily, glancing down the alleyway toward the vacant street and then looked back up at the man; how could he have not heard the sound of this man approach?

"I'm fine," Ryo finally muttered, lowering his head again.

"You're shivering."

"I'm fine," Ryo repeated.

"It's past midnight," the man, however, persisted.

Ryo, growing uncomfortable, stood up now and said for a third time, "I'm fine."

As he turned to walk away, the man said, "It's dangerous for you to be walking alone in the middle of the night. Especially when you're having such bad dreams."

Ryo gasped and turned back to face the man hidden in shadow. "How do you…?" Ryo began, but was interrupted by the man.

"You must be having bad dreams. Why else would you be out in the rain in the middle of the night unless you were afraid to go to sleep? Afraid of what you might see…or remember."

Ryo narrowed his eyes, taking a fearful step back, and questioned, "Who are you?"

"Who are you?" the man retorted back. "That's what you've been really wondering, isn't it?"

"I already know who I am," Ryo snapped back.

The man let out a sharp chuckle. "That's good. Then you must already know that you belong to me." He extended his hand out toward Ryo. Ryo gasped and his eyes widened as soon as it passed out of the shadows and into the poor, pale light of the night - it wasn't a human hand. Instead, it was large gray hand with long fingers and sharp claws. "And then you should also know that only children are afraid of their own silly nightmares, Ryo."

"That voice…" Ryo faded off as his hands began to tremble at the revelation. His eyes dropped back down to the grotesque gray hand. "You're…you're that monster…"

"I'm not a monster; I am Millenniummon - your salvation," the man countered calmly, his arm remaining still and extended forward.

"Millenniummon," Ryo gasped, the name seeming so oddly familiar to him and yet still so foreign at the same time.

"There is no reason to be afraid of me; I won't hurt you as you are the only one worthy to be mine. But you obviously don't remember any of this, do you?" Millenniummon let out a chuckle. "Your memories of the other world, including your memories of myself, were troublesome and irrelevant - so I got rid of them. Now the life I created for you here has become equally inconvenient, so it, too, has been taken out of existence. There is nothing left for you but me. Together, we will reshape all the worlds in this universe, past, present, and future. They will be erased and recreated however I see fit, and you will aid me in my destiny. In return, I will make you like a god."

"You mean, you're the one who destroyed the digital world?" Ryo questioned angrily now. "And you took away my father!"

"You never had a father here; you never existed in this world - but the other one…" Millenniummon trailed off. "And, as I already told you, I will recreate all of the digital worlds, forming one world for me to rule over. You are the only one who is worthy for this task."

"I'm not helping you do anything!" Ryo shouted, but his voice was still shaky as he took a step back.

"Do not try to fight me, Ryo; I have already become one with Time. I exist at every moment in every place of every world. There is nothing you can do to defeat me. After all, you cannot kill what has already fused itself with Time." Ryo's eyes widened at these familiar words when suddenly Millenniummon appeared behind him, placing his gray monstrous hand on Ryo's shoulder. "But tell me, Ryo, can you truly be that afraid of me still?"

Ryo let out a gasp and, on instinct, yanked away and started running with all his strength. He didn't know where he was going as he ran with eyes squeezed tightly shut, his feet splashing through puddles and the rain falling harder as he could hear Millenniummon's laughter echoing behind him. Thunder rumbled loudly and lightning flashed across the sky when Ryo finally lost his balance on the wet, slippery sidewalk and his legs gave way, his body no longer able to keep with them. He tripped forward, toppling forward and hard into a large puddle on the cement sidewalk. He groaned, now even more soaked than before while both of his elbows and knees scraped. But the moment of pain was fleeting as fear kicked back in and his eyes shot open. He quickly jerked around to see if Millenniummon was behind him. However, he saw nothing but the rain and a car passing by him in the street. Ryo, body trembling both from the cold and his fear, got to his feet and hastily made his way to a pay phone. He closed the booth quickly and with shaking hands, managed to dial.

The lights in Rika's house turned on as the phone rang, waking the entire Nonaka household. Rika's mother was the first in the living room, followed by a sleepy Rika and her grandmother. "Who could be calling at this hour…?" Ms. Nonaka muttered, but reluctantly picked up the phone. "Hello? May I ask who's calling?"

Ms. Nonaka could hear the sound of rain on the other line as a long moment of hesitation passed. Finally, a young male voice shakily asked, "Hello…um…does a Rika Nonaka live there?"

"Rika?" Ms. Nonaka asked in surprise that her daughter would be receiving such a late phone call. "Yes, she does, but why would - "

"She does? She really does?" the boy asked excitedly. "That means…that means she really does exist! Can I talk to her? Is she there right now?"

"Hold on a second," Ms. Nonaka interrupted. "Who are you?"

"My name is Ryo Akiyama; please, I really need to speak with her!"

Ms. Nonaka frowned at the sound of the very frightened, very desperate voice on the other line. "Just calm down, Ryo. Where are you right now? Do your parents know where you are?"

"Ryo?" Rika gasped when she heard the name. She darted from the doorway to her mother and the phone. "Please, mom, I need to talk to him!"

Her mother looked down at Rika, surprised to see her daughter looking so frantic and frightened. "Rika…" she trailed off. However, seeing the desperate look in her own daughter's eyes, Ms. Nonaka reluctantly lowered the phone to Rika.

Meanwhile, Rika's grandmother asked Ms. Nonaka, "What's wrong? What's going on?"

"I don't know; but I think one of Rika's friends might be in trouble."

Rika then took the phone and asked, "Ryo? Ryo, is that you?"

"Rika. Rika, something bad is happening. There's this…this monster after me," Ryo said, holding the phone tightly to his ear. "I don't know where he is now, but - "

"I know; it was in your letter. But where are you now? And why didn't you try and contact any of us?" Rika asked. "We were all worried sick about you!"

"I…I was afraid that you might not exist…like Cyberdramon…and my father…" Ryo faded off, closing his eyes tightly as to try and stop himself from crying. Then, he blurted out, "But that's not important now! Millenniummon - he's after me now! I can't remember who he is, but I just…I need to…I just want to get out of here!" His desperate, panicked voice then became solemn and hopeless as he added, "I want…I want to go home…but I don't have anywhere to go back to anymore."

"Ryo…" Then, eyes becoming steadfast, Rika said, "That's not true! You can come back here! Don't start acting so hopeless now! Where's the cocky Ryo I always knew? The one who always knew everything was going to turn out all right? After all, how could things turn out any differently for the Digimon King, am I right?"

Ryo smiled a bit at this. "Well, I do always manage to land on my feet somehow," he said as optimistically as he could, although there was still an audible shaky edge to his voice that worried Rika. "Besides, who's going to take care of saving you all the time if I'm not around?" he then joked, trying to cheer himself up a bit.

Rika laughed and said, "You only wish I was such a damsel-in-distress just so you could play hero all the time."

"Well, what's wrong with wanting to be your knight-in-shining-armor?" he asked with a chuckle. Then, he looked up toward the rain and added sadly, "It's better than…it's better than being a lot of other things, anyway, Rika…"

"I'm telling you, I saw Tai Kamiya, Henry! The Tai Kamiya! It was amazing!"

Henry sighed, reluctantly holding his cell phone to his ear as he turned over in bed. Glancing up at the clock, he groaned and muttered, "You know, Takato, it's almost one in the morning…"

"I know, but I still saw him!" Takato eagerly insisted.

"Don't you think that it might have been, I don't know, a dream?" Henry questioned sardonically. "Especially considering how late it is…"

"It wasn't a dream, Henry! I really saw him!" Takato continued on. "And he was asking for our help! He couldn't get in contact with the digital world either!"

"Takato, this whole thing seems a little farfetched, don't you think?" Henry persisted. "I mean, Tai Kamiya? He's a character in a television show, for crying out loud!"

"So were digimon, right? They were just part of a card game and somehow they were able to become real. So why can't it be the same with Tai Kamiya?"

"Well…I guess you have a point," Henry begrudgingly agreed, sitting up. "And didn't Ryo mention something about being from another world in his letter? Maybe that's the world he's from."

"You mean, Tai Kamiya's world?" Takato asked before grinning. "Wow! That would be pretty amazing!"

"Still, it's all just hunches," Henry reminded Takato and Takato frowned. "And, if it is true, we have no idea how we would get in contact with Tai Kamiya again; we're having enough trouble getting in contact with the digital world, let alone some world that we've never even been to."

"But maybe he'll get in contact with us again," Takato optimistically reasoned. "After all, he's the one who found me - he was looking for help."

"Maybe," Henry doubtfully answered. "We should get in contact with the others. I'll call Rika and you can call the others. She'll be the most difficult in convincing that any of this is true and she definitely won't believe it if its from you - heck, I don't even know if I really believe it. Still, we've got to try believing in something because we're running out of options at the moment."

"Well, there's still Ryo, right?" Takato offered frowning. "Wherever he is…"

"Look at you, you poor thing!" Rika's grandmother exclaimed at the sight of the shivering, drenched Ryo. "You're soaked to the bone!"

Ryo tried his best to smile, but couldn't shake the worried look from his eyes as he kept his arms tightly wrapped around his shoulders. Rika's mother, who had gone to pick him up, still had her coat on as she pulled out some warm blankets from the hallway closet. "Here," she said, handing them to him. "Go into the bathroom, take those wet clothes of yours off, and wrap yourself in this. I'm sorry I don't have much else for you to wear, but as there's only my mother, Rika, and myself…" She frowned, noticing his frightened and troubled eyes, and then said, "When you're done, you can give me your wet clothes and I'll dry them for you. Then you can have a seat in the living room."

"And I'll make you something warm to drink," Rika's grandmother added.

Ryo didn't say anything, but did what he was told. Rika waited in the living room, but even when Ryo came out and sat, they both remained silent, staring down at their laps as they sat. There was a struggle in Rika's eyes as she thought of what to say. Finally, she rose her head and began, "Ryo - "

However, as soon as she did, the phone rang. Both frowned and looked over at the ringing phone while Rika's grandmother came in with a couple of hot cocoas on a tray. Her grandmother frowned as soon as she heard the phone as well and said, "Another call so late?"

"I'll get it," Rika said, rising to her feet. She picked up the phone, "Hello; Rika speaking. May I ask who's calling?"

"It's Henry."

"Henry?" Rika asked in surprise as her grandmother handed an attentively listening Ryo a cup of hot cocoa.

"Here, drink this; it should warm you up a little," her grandmother said with a kind smile. Ryo frowned, but accepted the cup of cocoa as her grandmother left the room.

Meanwhile, Rika continued to question over the phone, "Why are you calling at such a late hour for? Did you find out anything about Renamon and the others?"

"No, not exactly…" Henry trailed off, reluctant to get to the point of his call. "Actually, I'm calling because Takato said he saw someone in his bedroom just a little while ago…asking for help to get in contact with the digital world."

"You mean…like another Tamer?" Rika asked.

"Sort of…"

"Well, who was it? Did he give a name?"

"Takato said it was…Tai Kamiya."

"Tai Kamiya?" Rika repeated as the familiar name registered in her memory. "The character from the television show?"

"I know it sounds crazy, but…Takato really thinks its true," Henry began to reason. "Besides, digimon were once just part of some television show until we realized they were actually real."

"Yeah, but that's different," Rika protested. "And I've got even more important news to tell you, anyway."

"And what's that?"

"I finally found Ryo; he's right here."

"You what!" Henry exclaimed in disbelief. "Why didn't you say something sooner!"

"Because you kept blabbing on about some fictional character that Takato probably dreamt up," Rika remarked offhandedly.

"Well, is he all right?" Henry asked. "Where has he been?"

"Well…I…" Rika hesitantly began, glancing back at Ryo, who was now staring down at his untouched cocoa. She then lowered her voice and said, "He's fine, I guess, but he's pretty shaken up about something. I haven't had much time to ask, but he says that someone named Millenniummon is after him."

"Millenniummon?" Henry asked worriedly.

"Don't worry; right now my family and I are taking care of him…though I don't know how I'm going to explain this whole thing to my mom or my grandma," Rika said. "But tomorrow we're definitely going to have some sort of group meeting."

"Obviously," Henry answered. "Anyway, I'll call Takato and the others. Tomorrow morning we'll meet at my apartment, okay?"

"That's fine," Rika replied. "Good night, Henry."

"Good night, Rika; and try to stay safe."

"You, too, all right?" With that, the two hung up the phone. Rika turned back to Ryo and gave a laugh. "That was just Henry; we've all been pretty worried about you, so he was happy to hear you're okay. But, anyway, he was just calling because Takato had this strange dream - "

"Tai Kamiya…" Ryo cut her off, narrowing his eyes as he stared down at his reflection in the hot cocoa, desperately trying to pull something from the recesses of his mind. "That name…that name sounds so familiar to me somehow…"

And Rika's eyes widened in disbelief.