The first thing Millenniummon did when he walked back over to them was casually picking Ryo up and placing the human on his shoulder. "Why don't we see if your hypothesis was correct," the mega said, towering over them and looking down at Mimi.

"What hypothesis?" she asked, blinking in faux-innocent confusion.

"Do you really expect that to work?" he wondered, reaching down to grasp her carefully with three claws. "Are other Digimon foolish enough to underestimate you… Of course they are."

Mimi motioned with her hand, shooing Matt away when he looked like he was about to come closer and try to keep her from being taken.

Sora drew in a breath as Millenniummon took her over to the Digimon pens and put her in Palmon's.

"I warn you," he told her. "I'll know if you pretend you can't use your power."

"What power, my crest power? But Gennai took our crests," she said, stepping in front of Palmon. One of her hands went behind her back as she met Millenniummon's gaze.

Ryo turned, a hand on Millenniumon's neck, to look at Izzy. He thought he could make out that the redhead's eyes were narrowed, watching closely. Millenniummon wasn't the only one that had figured out that something was about to happen? So Mimi had gotten an idea earlier, but it wasn't only her friend that picked up on it.

"The crests work by absorbing the power that comes from the Digidestined. Gennai expected Ryo to be able to use his power without his crest, and I heard you noticing that Izzy hadn't lost his ability to read digicode."

"Well, nothing's happening so far."

"You haven't made a real attempt to see if you can remove my black rings the way you countered Myotismon's spells. 'Purity' means the ability of 'Purification.' You might have touched the black ring, but your focus is on me. Do you really think it will matter if you wait until my back is turned."

Shoot. "Hmph," Mimi said, and turned her back on Millenniummon as though he'd incurred royal displeasure. Which might be accurate, from what the Geckomon said when they begged Ryo to bring her back. She dropped to her knees next to Palmon, and wrapped her hands around the black ring.

For a few seconds, nothing happened.

Then it began to glow. A moment, and a moment more.

It vanished.

"Mimi!" Palmon exclaimed, arms wrapped around her partner in an instant.

"It's alright, Palmon," Mimi said, picking her partner up as she got to her feet. She turned around, Palmon's flowered head tucked under her chin, to glare up at Millenniummon. "There, I gave you your precious data, so don't you dare put another one of those on Palmon unless it's just so I can take it off her again right away."

Millenniummon chuckled. "You think you can bargain with me." Or that he'd incurred any obligation to her? He'd given her an order and a threat, not asked her a favor.

"Why not?" Mimi wondered. "We're the ones you want to study, not them. You don't care about our partners at all, right? They're only rookies as long as we don't have our digivices, so what do you care if they've got those rings on them or not? They're not a threat to you, you big jerk. And even if I never managed to get Palmon to mega, I still know that it's our emotions, both of our emotions, that matter. If you lock Palmon away inside her head so her feelings aren't her own, won't that ruin your data on our bonds?"

Ryo could see red eyes narrow. "I've studied your internet. Most humans are just as pathetically ignorant as Digimon."

Mimi's eyes flashed. "I'd think before calling people pathetic if I were you!"

"So you are a fool, if you dare speak to me like that when I could vaporize you in an instant."

"Would you really be any nicer to us if I kissed up to you? Of course not," Mimi said, as though it was ridiculously obvious. "You're the one who makes a big deal about how you're not going to fall for things like that. I know Digimon like you: You're not going to leave Palmon alone just because I beg you, so why should I? You're already going to kill us when you get the data you want, so how I behave doesn't make any difference. You're going to take those rings off the others and leave them off Palmon because that way you can get your data and kill me faster."

"I could remove your legs. You shouldn't need them to exhibit the abilities and traits I'm interested in studying," he told her.

"Don't!" Ryo cried. He wasn't the only one.

Palmon pushed herself away from Mimi's chest. "Mimi, don't! He can put the ring back on, as long as you're okay!"

"No he can't," Mimi insisted, even though she was shaking now. Ryo could see how afraid she was, could see Millenniummon smiling with a monster's hungry mouth, even as she glared up at him. "You can carry me, and…" So they could still escape, if they got their digivices back. "Don't you dare do anything to Palmon!"

"A human couldn't recover that damage… How interesting." Millenniummon sounded pleased. "So it isn't only the Digimon that is programmed to sacrifice themselves for their partner. You're right, I will gain far more interesting data by observing your interactions if they're able to respond."

"Get all the data you want; you still won't learn anything if you can't even see that Palmon's my friend!"

Ryo had to crouch down to keep his balance when Millenniummon threw his heads back and laughed. "Friendship… You think friendship is enough to make a supercomputer given the kind of power over the Digital world the Sovereign possess sacrifice themselves for a mere rookie? 'Friends' will betray each other in the hope I spare their miserable lives just as quickly as strangers. After all these centuries, I know programming when I see it, Child."

There was an emphasis on the word 'child,' even if it was a mocking emphasis. One that made Ryo hear it as a title, that he'd acknowledged Mimi as something rare, unusual, special, and therefore worthy of less contempt than the average human or Digimon. He reached down a giant clawed hand and grabbed the both of them, dropping them onto the table with the humans' cages. As Millenniummon turned away to ponderously step through the room towards one of the consoles, Ryo didn't know if that was a good thing or not, but she was right: even if she flattered him, even if she tried to pretend to be harmless, Millenniummon would have killed her anyway, just to be on the safe side. No, to be tidy about it, ensure there wouldn't be any loose ends for someone else to make use of.

Now the text on the screen was in those symbols Ryo couldn't make heads or tails of – if Millenniummon was doing what Ryo hoped he was doing, then he wouldn't want Ryo to learn how to mess around with that system.

He turned when he heard buzzing to see three of the Digimon flying out the tops of their pens, the white cat swarming up the sides of her enclosure and jumping from the top of one bar to the next, only to be stopped up short by the end of the table.

"Hey, what about us?" The white seal waved a flipper.

Patamon had made for TK like an arrow and Biyomon wasn't far behind, but the bug was the slowest flyer. He didn't have to double back that far to grab the cat, or let her grab on to his feet.

"Get Agumon first!" The other furry one – Gabumon – said.

Kari gasped. "Oh no!"

"Biyomon," Sora said urgently.

"Right!" the pink bird agreed, and as Tentomon dropped off the cat she ran off the edge of the Digidestined's table to fly back over to the one where the pens were. "You're coming with me!"

"But I," Agumon gulped. "I hurt Tai!" the little dinosaur wailed. "I'm so sorry, Tai!"

"You didn't mean to, that b-He made you do it!" Tai yelled back.

"Tentomon, I need some help here!" Biyomon called, her talons wrapped around Agumon's shoulders and flapping as hard as she could. Agumon had managed to grab the bars.

"Everyone away from the bars!" Izzy's partner warned Gomamon and Gabumon. "Electro-shocker!"

"Good thinking, Tentomon!" Gomamon cheered when Agumon cried out and had to let go, letting Biyomon surge upwards and leave him without anything to grab. "Now me!"

"Right," Tentomon said, flying over his cage to grab the seal-like Digimon. "Biyomon, I'll need your help with Gabumon."

"Ugh…" she said, flapping hard. "Right… Just let me… There!" She dropped Agumon on the edge of the Digidestined's table, right in front of a waiting Tai. "Okay, just one more," she told herself, catching her breath. She flew back while Tentomon was still flying over with Gomamon, and perched on top of the bars to wait for him.

Tai started talking just as fast as TK and Patamon were. Gatomon was checking if Kari was really alright while Kari asked the same thing. Izzy stood there with a hand reaching out, clearly wanting to call for Tentomon to hurry but understanding that the others needed Tentomon's help. Sora was biting her lip, glancing at Biyomon but watching Tai and Agumon.

Ryo felt a little strange, watching all the happy reunions. They were friends, partners… the way they worked together like that, Gabumon thinking of Agumon when he had to be worried about Matt… They all really cared about each other, and here he was on the bony shoulder of the digital monster that did this to them, wrapped in the softly glowing aura Kari had said looked like Machinedramon's head and shoulders.

"Thanks," he said quietly, not really meaning it. Wishing he could mean it, that Millenniummon had freed them because Ryo had asked him or it was the right thing to do, instead of so he could figure out Digimon and partners faster. So he could figure out Ryo faster, and once he had him figured out?

He'd kill them.

They loved each other that much and he'd kill them. Once he got what he wanted.

And part of what he wanted had to be what Mimi demonstrated. He'd want to learn how to reproduce that phenomenon.

Would Ryo really end up like that? Willing to end up crippled or dead to shield Millenniummon from anyone who wanted to hurt him? When it was heroes that would want to take down someone this evil?

Millenniummon chuckled. "You know why I did it, don't you?"

"Yeah," Ryo confessed softly, and shuddered. They already knew each other that well, were able to think that much alike. Pull yourself together, he thought, and took a breath. "If you want me to feel that way about you," he said sternly, "you could try being someone worth protecting. Because if I got between you and them? It would be to keep you from hurting them."

Millenniummon chuckled. The words who are you trying to convince hovered in the air between them, all the weightier for not needing to be spoken.

"That was great, Mimi," Tai said that evening, when they were all back in the sample cages, even Ryo. The difference was, Ryo was the only one without his partner in there with him. If only he could lock Milenniummon up like that...

"I was terrified, but, well, the worst that would happen was that he'd put another black ring on Palmon and leave her there to get even more wilted, and that was what he was going to do anyway." Mimi laughed, trying to cover up a trace of hysteria, not quite calmed down from the panic she'd managed to suppress quite yet. "I really couldn't make things worse by trying."

"Wow, Mimi. That was pretty advanced understanding of the scientific method for someone our age, too," Izzy said.

"Yeah, I thought you never studied." Joe looked puzzled.

"Of course I do," she said with a sniff. "Do you know how much physics is involved in color theory? I don't study for my classes, because I've already decided what I want to do, but how did you think I get away with not studying?"

"Physics, though?" Joe asked. "You're only in…"

"What?" Mimi interrupted. "Why is it weird I know how experiments work? You don't think it's strange that you're already carrying twenty kilograms of books everywhere. You and Izzy have it easy, you know! There are thousands more jobs for doctors and computer people than there are top fashion designers! My field is way more competitive than yours! My parents had to pick out the right school for me just as early as yours did for you! So it's a very good thing I already knew what I wanted to do so young. You only have to do what, memorize things? Izzy only has to learn computer languages. I have to be able to impress people in English, French and Italian! And I really should be working on German, but they're already blurring together too much," she said, sounding worried. "It doesn't help that we spent months in the digital world, and even though we're not any older that was months without any practice! That's how I knew Izzy was still weird. I saw you looking through Gennai's files the morning before Millenniummon captured us. You didn't even need to refresh your memory!" Mimi stamped her foot. "Oooh… If I couldn't free Palmon like that, I would be so jealous of your crest, Izzy."

"I'm sorry," Joe said, sounding guilty. "I guess I was a little jealous. Before we went to the Digital World, I didn't want to be a doctor, it was just expected of me by my family. I want to take care of people now, but Izzy learns things for fun and you're, you're passionate about it. So when we got together to catch up, you were always talking about how fun fashion was for you, so it didn't occur to me that just because it wasn't boring like the stuff I have to study didn't mean it wasn't hard work."

"I, I can't stay in Japan much longer," Mimi confessed. "I have to go to the right schools, just like you, Joe, but there are fewer schools. It's all set up: I'm going to be in New York for years. I can try to visit on break, but I have to make connections, too…" She put her face in her hands. "First saying goodbye to Palmon, and next year I'll have to say goodbye to all of you!" she started to sob.

Palmon patted her on the back.

"We're going to miss you, Mimi," Sora said.

"I'll call," another sob, "and write!" Mimi promised, taking a deep breath and rubbing at her eyes. She swallowed, and said, changing the subject, "He's not a nice person, so I wasn't going to convince him by being nice any more than I was going to convince him by crying and begging. I already tried that. Anyway, you gave me the idea, Izzy. You're the one that reminded me that he was a scientist instead of just a creep making us do things just because he can."

"Well, he's that too." Matt was sitting with his back against Gabumon's back, sounding incredibly frustrated.

"Yeah," Ryo agreed, speaking up for the first time since they were put in the cages and the lights turned off. There was still enough light from all the equipment to see, but even if the walls of the stacked cages were clear, it gave the illusion of a little more privacy.

"I'm sorry, Ryo," Agumon said, still sounding sad. "I'm the one who brought you here."

"No, if he's my partner then he was my responsibility all along, I just didn't know it." So he had to do something. "I just don't know what I can do."

"Leave that to me," Kari's partner purred.

"You sure sound confident." Matt crossed his arms behind his head.

"You're not thinking you two are the same, right?" Tai asked, sounding a little worried about his little sister's partner.

Everyone went silent, and they only heard the sounds of the machines around them and clanging in the distance until Gatomon finally said, "I did care about people, not just finding Kari. If I hadn't helped Wizardmon, he wouldn't have died. But…" she rallied. "I do know how to talk to evil Digimon. It'll be okay, Kari, you'll see."

Ryo heard Joe's "Phew."

"She's right," Gabumon chimed in. "We've gotten out of bad spots before, right Matt?"

"Right," Matt agreed. "Don't worry, TK."

Oh. So that was what this was about, reassuring the littler kids.

"Anyway," Tai said, "We've done this before. We took him out once, right guys? We'll have you back before anybody misses you, Ryo, since the time dilation's happening again."

…and he was the new kid.

"Mm-hmm!" Agumon chimed in, backing up Tai.

Ryo could have protested, told them not to humor him, but… TK and Kari. He'd already learned that TK was terrified of having his partner killed again, and Millenniummon had basically promised that would happen. If Mimi's crying wasn't about something that assumed they were all getting out of this, it might have set them off. He didn't want to mess up everyone's attempt to cheer up Kari and TK by doing anything that implied they weren't going to be okay. So, "Sure, I'll be counting on you," was what he said instead.

"Tai… really?" Kari said. Ryo could hear the pout.

"We're not stupid," TK agreed. "We're not little kids anymore, and you're acting like Ryo's a little kid too!"

"Uh… sorry," Matt said. "Big brother instincts."

"I know, I have to look after Patamon," TK said. "I'm sorry my brother's a patronizing jerk, Ryo!" he tilted his head back to call up from the cage two beneath Ryo's, Patamon staying on TK's head by gripping his hat.

"I'm sorry my partner's a digital monster instead of a Digimon," Ryo said, shrugging.