Digicross Tamers episode 7
'Worlds Apart'

==Stone Town, Wednesday night

June Motomiya opened the door to the kitchen. Looking in, she was about to turn the lights on when she spotted Kyle, sitting in the darkened room holding a large sketchpad, the type that art students bought. Recognizing it, she walked over to Kyle, and put her hand on his shoulder. "Kyle, come on. You need to rest."

"How much more?" June looked at Kyle, not understanding his question. "We saved the world, what, twice, and this is what happens? When is it enough?" Shaking now, Kyle began crying.

June took her husband's arm and let him lean on her, his head resting on her shoulder. She felt his tears soaking through the shoulder of her nightshirt. Sharing his feelings, June let her husband weep. She knew he had been holding back for far too long now. After a few minutes, she led him out of the kitchen, and back to their bed.

[OP Sequence]

==Tokyo, Tamers universe, same time

Sitting on the table in the kitchen, Eevee watched as Hitomi slept. She turned a few times in her cot, gripped in what was clearly an unpleasant dream. Perched over her, Noctowl rested as well, still alert for anything that might attack. Eevee felt like crying; he knew what was wrong, and he knew that there was little, if anything, he could do about it.

Nami walked in, unable to sleep. "You couldn't sleep either?" she asked the pokemon. Then she saw Hitomi. "Is she alright? What's wrong with her?"

Eevee lowered his head. "It's her birthday in a few days."

"Her first one away from home?"

"That, and more. I told you about Kyoko and Ryoko?" Nami nodded. "Well, Hitomi was born only a few hours after the twins were. Ever since they were old enough to walk, the twins kinda adopted Hitomi as their little sister."

"They were close?"

"You should have seen the storm they raised when Izzy moved the family to New Bark Town. I wasn't there, but there were about three days of either the twins hiding at Hitomi's house, or Hitomi hiding in the moving van." Eevee sighed, remembering the stories about the three that his 'father' had told him. "Anyway, when their sixth birthday rolled around, the twins wanted Hitomi there to celebrate with them, and wouldn't take no for an answer. Anyway, the parents caved, and ever since then, they've made a point of visiting each other on their birthday." Eevee slapped a paw against the table. "I'm her partner, for God's sake. I should be able to do something!"

Nami bit back the urge to tell Eevee to relax; popular psychology aside, such things usually made the situation worse in cases like this. "Maybe I could organize something for her? Not a party or anything, just something small?"

"I don't know. Hitomi was looking forward to this just before we got pulled here."

"Well, I should do something. I just can't stand to see her like this."

Eevee looked at the teacher. "You really mean that?"

Nami smiled. "Hey, not all school teachers are heartless. You go get some rest, and we'll figure something out tomorrow. If I can handle Takato being a digidestined, I think I can cheer Hitomi up."

Eevee smiled a bit. "You think you've got it bad? Kari's a teacher, and half her class are digidestined children, all about Takato's age. The other half are ready to go off on a pokemon journey as soon as they get a license."

==New Bark Town, Pokemon World, Thursday morning.

Kyoko Kamiya woke up, rubbing the sand out of her eyes. Beside her, Salamon slept quietly. Still not fully aware, she looked at the alarm clock, then at the calendar. It was one of those small desk calendars, with the pages you could tear off each day. Reaching over, she tore off yesterday's page, and noticed the date on it.

"I'm 11 today." Kyoko smiled a bit. Every birthday, she had a great time. All the digidestined that could come did so. Usually there was music, lots of laughing, presents, all for her, Ryoko-

And Hitomi, she suddenly remembered, her cheer vanishing in an instant. Without her little sister around, there wasn't much point in being happy. She got up, pulled some clothes on, and exited the room.

After a few minutes, Salamon woke up. "Kyoko?" Salamon looked around for her partner, noticing that she had left her digivice behind.

"She's outside, probably in the same place Ryoko is." Sneasel, Ryoko's partner walked in, his expression downcast. "Given everything that's happened, I can't blame them for not wanting a party today."

"Have you heard anything?"

Sneasel shook his head. "Not much. I overheard Kari on the phone with June. I think Hitomi's parents will be here, but in what condition, I can't say. You know how Kyle is about this sort of thing."

"He'll do what he thinks is right, no matter how much it kills him, or how much he insists on taking all the blame for it." Gatomon, golden ring on her tail, walked up the stairs and over to the other two monsters. "I think Kari was trying to tell them to stay home, but June wouldn't have it."

"It's gonna be weird without Hitomi around." Salamon lowered her head. "I wish there was something we could do."

"Hey, she's got Eevee with her." Sneasel grinned a bit. "He's almost as good a fighter as I am. As long as they're together, they'll be just fine. And we can try to be there for our own partners; that's about all we can do right now."

Gatomon looked at Sneasel. "But you're still calling dibs on whoever did this to Hitomi?"

"I'm in line after Kyle and June."

==

Outside, Kyoko walked around the back yard. Living at the New Bark Town labs was a bit of a benefit for the twins. The pokemon there were almost as numerous and diverse as the pokemon at Professor Oak's place. She knew where her sister would be; where she went whenever she was feeling down.

As she approached the lakeside, she could make out the sound of Ryoko talking to someone. After a second, she realized there were several people there, and hurried over. As she entered the small clearing, she found her sister, along with two of the children of the other digidestined there. "Asuka? Takeru? What are you doing here?"

Takeru Motomiya waved. "Dad brought me around; said you two might want some company." Beside him, his partner Veemon waved to Kyoko.

Beside him, Asuka Melin brushed a lock of dirty blonde hair out of her eyes. "My parents said the same thing. How are you doing?" Asuka walked over and hugged her friend. Behind her, her partner Patamon sat on the ground.

"OK. Are the others coming?"

Takeru answered. "I think Sam's gonna be here later today, though he's probably gonna have Mimi and Michael in tow. Hiroki's gonna be here too. You know how he gets when Hitomi's mentioned."

Ryoko smirked a bit at that. "Does he even have any idea he has a crush on her?"

"Probably not." Asuka replied. "That's what makes it all the more fun to watch." Her smile dropped a bit. "Well, it did. How is he doing, Takeru?"

"Miserable, same as the rest of us." the boy answered frankly. "This bites! We faced down WarDevidramon, saved your mom," Takeru looked at Kyoko and Ryoko, "and now we're getting frozen out!"

"Well, there's not a lot that we can do." Ryoko said angrily. "We don't even know where to start looking for her. The grownups are stumped, what chance do we have of doing anything?"

"Grownups are only good at making simple things complicated." Takeru replied. At everyone else's incredulous look, he said, "What? My dad said that to me once!"

"Sounds like something Davis would say." Asuka cracked. Getting serious again, she looked up, asking, "I wonder where she is now?"

"Wherever it is," Kyoko said, "she's probably blaming herself for this. God, she is so much like her dad."

"Got that right." Ryoko said. "Two weeks' allowance says she apologizes first when she gets back."

"You're on." Kyoko replied. She could almost see Hitomi coming through a portal and apologizing for having been gone so long. Easily worth two weeks of allowance money.

"I'm sure she's fine." Veemon said, standing beside Takeru.

Ryoko looked around. "Why don't we head back to the house or something." Nodding, the kids and their partner digimon headed back to the Kamiya household.

==Tokyo, Thursday noon

Since she had found out that digimon were alive, well, and walking around the city (and blowing up small bits of it), Nami had asked that Takato and Henry meet with her on a semi-regular basis. She figured it would help keep the two out of trouble, as well as give them someone they could talk to if something bad happened. Today, Nami had told them about what was going on with Hitomi's birthday.

"Wow, that must be terrible." Takato said. "Stuck here on her birthday. What can we do about it?"

"Well, I'll take her to a nice restaurant I know, Eevee has an idea of what to get her. Maybe something from the two of you? Any ideas?"

"Well, if you need a cake, I can talk my parents into making one." Takato offered. "I'm guessing something not digimon related would be the idea."

Nami smiled, glad Takato had been able to think that far ahead. "Thanks. Maybe a guide to the city or something. I haven't had the time to look for anything for her."

"I know a place to get one." Henry said. "I can get it, if Takato handles the cake."

"It's a plan then. Is tomorrow after school alright? It'll be a day late, but I don't want to interfere with your school work."

"Sure. I can't believe I'll be going to a teacher's house willingly." Henry joked.

"Yeah. Hey, what should we tell our parents?" Takato asked.

"The truth." Nami replied. "Hitomi's homesick, she's staying at my place, and she wanted a few friends over for her birthday. Just leave out the part about giant monsters."

Takato scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, about that."

Here it comes, Nami thought to herself. "OK," she sighed, "what happened."

"Well, Jeri kinda found out about Guilmon. It wasn't my fault, she just kinda followed me."

Nami rubbed her head, trying to massage the headache she felt coming. "Well, at least it was Jeri. You did explain that this was a secret, right?" Takato nodded, and Nami felt the pain subside a bit. "Good. At least someone like Kazu or Kenta didn't find out about it."

"Well..."

"Ah, nuts." Nami said, head hitting the desk.

==Stone Town, Thursday afternoon.

Kyle and June walked in the door. They were smiling a bit, but everyone there could tell how they were doing. Kari got up and embraced both of them, ushering them in.

"Hey everyone." Kyle said weakly.

Izzy put his hand on Kyle's shoulder. "Don't worry. I haven't given up yet. I promise we'll find her, no matter what."

"You better believe it." Davis said, walking over to his sister and hugging her. "Once Izzy tells us where she is, we'll just go in and get her. Just like the old days."

"Where's Melody?" June asked Davis.

"With the kids. We're keeping an eye on them, I think Takeru wants to go find her as much as we do."

"No 'think' about it," TK said, "he's a stubborn as you are."

"What's that supposed to mean? I've mellowed!" Davis joked. After that, everyone relaxed a bit and started talking. A lot of it was directed at Kyle and June, reminding them that they weren't alone, and that they'd find out what happened to Hitomi soon enough. It went like this until Kyle walked over to Kari and asked her something.

"Kari? I don't want to sound dumb, but where are Kyoko and Ryoko? It is their birthday, and we did bring them something."

Kari sighed. "I know, but they refused. They told me they wanted to put off the party until Hitomi got back." Kari's eyes started to water a bit. "They said it wouldn't be right to have it without Hitomi around, and they were prepared to wait as long as it took." She sniffed a bit. "I never could say no to them."

Kyle smiled. June walked over, having heard what Kari said. "Tell them we said thanks, Kari. I don't know how many times we've underestimated them."

"You think we'd have learned after they saved Emiko." Cody said, walking over.

Outside, the children, along with their partner digimon, as well as the digimon of their parents, were talking and playing. Davis' wife Melody was also there, playing a few songs for the kids. Takeru, who had brought his flute with him, joined his mother in playing a few songs, including what the kids called 'Lugia's song.'

Hiroki, Cody and Noriko's son, came running back to the group. "Um, guys? I think we should get the grown ups out here."

Ryoko looked at Hiroki. "Hey, didn't you say you'd be keeping an eye on Emiko? She could wander off into the Tauros pen again!"

"I assure you, that will not happen this time." Everyone looked around, wondering where the voice came from. A field of blue energy appeared, and Mewtwo, one of the guardians of the digital world, stepped out of it, Emiko riding piggyback on the psychic pokemon's shoulders.

"M..Mewtwo." Takeru breathed. As he watched Emiko, Kari and Izzy's youngest child, was surrounded in a field of energy, floated off of Mewtwo, and into his hands. Emiko squealed in delight.

"I have information that may be useful in finding Hitomi. Please gather everyone here, I think you all have the right to hear this." Takeru started to run as soon as Hitomi's name was mentioned, then stopped, remembering he was holding Emiko. He turned to hand her to someone, then realized that Kyoko, Ryoko, and Hiroki had already covered half the distance to the house.

A few minutes later, everyone was gathered around Mewtwo. Kyle and June were at the front, waiting. Mewtwo didn't need his psychic senses to see how badly they had taken their daughter's disappearance. "I apologize in advance if seems unrelated to Hitomi, but trust me, it is." Mewtwo gestured, and a series of oddly shaped creatures appeared, flying around the guardian.

"Unown." Izzy breathed, recognizing them instantly.

"Yes," Mewtwo replied, "they are Unown. They rarely make contact with humans, yet this time, they have a common cause with us. It seems that one of their own is missing as well."

"Missing?" TK blinked.

"Yes. Unown share a group conciousness, as well as having an individual identity. When an Unown is first...'born' would be the best term, it is not connected to the groupmind the way older Unown are. At the same time, the groupmind can connect with it, which can be a terrifying experience; having no privacy, having to adjust to the weight of mental energy it is in contact with."

"What does that have to do with Hitomi?" Takeru asked, receiving an elbow from Asuka a second later.

Mewtwo smiled a bit, remembering how much like his father the boy was. "As I said, the groupmind of the Unown can access any Unown, even those just born. Frequently, new Unown will enter this world, and remain here for a time until they adjust. I discovered one such memory that may prove useful. Observe." Mewtwo held up a hand, nimbus of psychic energy surrounding it.

For a second, nothing happened. Then, everyone gasped as they suddenly found themselves inside a cave. "What...Hey! I see Hitomi!" Asuka said. "But where?"

"It is some time ago. You are seeing things from the point of view of the Unown in question, only a few hours before Hitomi vanished." Everyone watched, seeing Hitomi, Eevee, and Noctowl try to catch the Unown. Then they 'watched' as Unown, now curious, flew into Hitomi's backpack, rode along with her to the pokemon center, and then felt its panic as Hitomi went through the digital gateway. There was a series of confusing images, then the memory stopped.

"What...what was that?" Kyle asked.

"As near as I can guess," Izzy said, going over what he had seen, "that Unown hitched a ride with Hitomi; it must have panicked when it entered the digital gateway."

"Yes." Mewtwo said. "From what the other Unown have been able to gather, it tried to open a doorway back to its own dimension. The doorway interacted with the digital portal, which pulled Hitomi off course."

"Yeah, but where?" Ken asked, stepping forward. "She's not in either the digital world, or the Dark Ocean." Ken blinked, thinking of something. "Hey, didn't Professor Hale say that her dad was pulled into another dimension by the Unown once?"

"She is not there." Mewtwo said, a bit sadly. "I looked myself. But there is one more thing I should show you. Pay attention to this part of the memory." The digidestined watched as the last part of the memory played over again. Then it stopped, as if a pause button had been hit. "Look here, and tell me what you see."

"I see a lot of green," Asuka said, "and...huh?"

"Am I seeing...circuit boards?" Takeru asked.

"There!" Izzy said, trying to point. Just before the image fades, I can see something ahead." The memory shifted, refocussed as Mewtwo and the Unown there helped to sharpen the image as best they could.

"This is only moments before the tear in the digital portal sealed itself." Mewtwo explained. "What do you see."

Everyone strained to look; it was Hiroki who picked it out. "Maildramon! And a Dark Tyrannomon!"

"He's right! But how come digimon are there?" Davis asked. "They couldn't have been pulled through too, could they?"

"I think," Ken said, realizing where this was going, "that they're natives. That bright flash, just before the memory cuts out? I think one of those digimon was digivolving!"

"Another digital world?"

Everyone stood there for a minute, stunned by the discovery. It was Kyoko who broke the silence. "You mean, she might be somewhere where there are other digidestined kids like us?"

Mewtwo nodded, conceding the point.

Kyoko couldn't meet Mewtwo's eyes for a second. Then, tears running down her face, yelled "That...that...BOY-HOG!"

==Tokyo. After school

Hitomi walked out of the school, slowly heading back to Ms. Asaji's apartment. She had managed to make it through the day, but some of the teachers there had noted her depression and had asked if she wanted to talk to one of the counselors there. She had managed to get out of it, saying she was just a bit homesick and all she needed was a bit of rest.

"Hitomi! Wait up!" Jeri came running to where Hitomi was. "Sorry, I almost forgot my recorder again."

"Jeri? What are you doing here."

"Takato told me it was your birthday today." Jeri explained. "And, well, happy birthday." she finished, a bit lamely. Hitomi smiled, a bit sadly, which Jeri noticed. "Are you alright? You don't seem to happy about it."

Hitomi and Jeri walked towards the park, and Hitomi explained a bit about how she always had her birthday parties with Kyoko and Ryoko. She left out the part about the monsters and dimensional traveling, of course.

"That must be really bad." Jeri said. "Do you have any plans or anything?" Hitomi shook her head. Jeri thought for a moment, then said, "I got it! Why don't you come over to my house for a sleepover?"

Hitomi thought about it. "I guess. Would it be OK with your parents?"

Jeri smiled. "I'm sure it will be, I'll talk to them tonight and ask, and I can let you know tomorrow!" Jeri skipped ahead, leaving Hitomi behind.

Hitomi stood there for a few seconds, watching her friend move on ahead, wishing she could be that happy with her life. "Thanks, Jeri." she said quietly, walking on. She caught up with Jeri, but decided not to stop by and visit Guilmon when they saw Takato trying to explain the digimon's presence to Kazu and Kenta. Wisely, they found a park bench and sat down.

"So," Jeri asked, "how long have you had Eevee for a partner?"

"Not quite a year. There was a big fight and all of a sudden, there he was. I'm sure he'd like to brag about his many battles," Hitomi sighed dramatically, getting a giggle out of Jeri, "but he's back at Ms. Asaji's. I don't trust him around the cafeteria food."

"Can he really digivolve?"

"Yeah, I managed to get a digiegg, like they have on the TV show." Hitomi had seen a few episodes of the TV series; they had gotten the first half right, but there was no sign of Kyle in the second season, and June was relegated to a minor role. "I don't know why Henry and Takato got those other digivices." She hated lying to Jeri.

Fortunately, Jeri didn't notice. "Hitomi? Is there any chance...I could become a digidestined?"

==Stone Town, Friday morning.

Kyle and June got up, blinking the sleep out of their eyes. Kari and Izzy had insisted that they stay the night, offering them the guest room. As a matter of fact, several of the families had asked if they could stay over as well, with the result that a lot of the available floorspace had been taken up. Beside the bed, Growlithe, Eevee, and Elecmon slept soundly.

"Well, good morning." June said, sitting up on the bed.

"You too." Kyle replied, trying not to roll off the bed and land on Growlithe. "Where are we?"

"Izzy and Kari's place, remember?"

Kyle thought for a second, then remembered. "Right." Recalling more of yesterday, he went on. "I think I finally understand how my dad felt when I got pulled to the digital world." A pause. "Do you really think she's there? That she found her way to another digital world?"

"You saw the memory Mewtwo showed us. And if there are digimon there, there must be digidestined as well."

"Yeah." Kyle's body shook as he tried to supress a laugh. "Did Kyoko really call our daughter a 'boy hog'?" The two chuckled, remembering the scene.

There was a knock at the door. "Can I come in?" Kari's voice asked.

"Sure." June said, and Kari stepped in. The three exchanged pleasantries, and Kari managed to drag them out so they could have breakfast (No such dragging was required for the pokemon/digimon in the room. Kari just had to let the smell of pancakes drift into the room -ed).

An hour later, all the older digidestined and their partner monsters were in Izzy's lab. Izzy had gotten up earlier, and had been checking what Mewtwo had told them. "I've been going over what Mewtwo told us. I think I know why Hitomi was pulled off course."

"Well?" Kari asked, in her 'I will not strangle my husband. Yet.' voice.

"Well," Izzy said a bit nervously, "As you know, when we open a portal, the digivices act as a sort of guide for the transit. In effect, they home in on the other side of the portal. When that Unown opened that portal to that other digital world, Hitomi's digivice must have mistook that digital world for our own."

"But Hitomi wasn't going to the digital world." Ken said.

"No, but the digital portal does pass through a layer of it, no matter where we go with it."

"That doesn't help much." Yolei said.

"Actually, it does." Izzy replied. "Now that I know what actually happened, and about when, finding where Hitomi went should be a bit easier. We're lucky she was only going from the Ruins to Stone Town; there's way fewer places that a detour like that could have taken her."

Kyle held his wife's hand, not sure if he should start hoping again. "Then...?"

"Well, we're going to have to build a completely new portal, one that can search through different worlds, lock onto Hitomi's digivice, and bring her home. If she really did hit another digital world, so much the better."

"You can count us in." Ken said. Beside him, Yolei nodded. "But we're going to need an Unown to help us; we have to figure out what type of energy it releases when it opens dimensional gateways."

"Mewtwo said he'd help us on that front."

==Tokyo, Friday night

For the first time in a few days, Hitomi was feeling a bit happier. She still missed home, but the impromptu party that Ms. Asaji had thrown for her had cheered her up a lot. The best part had been when Takato and Henry gave her a map book of Tokyo and a 1 month transit pass. After that, they had talked a while, told stories, then the two boys had to leave for home. A few hours later, Ms. Asaji and Hitomi were walking home from a nice restaurant.

"So Jeri wants to become a Tamer too?" Nami asked, a bit worried.

"Well, I tried to warn her off, tell her it was a lot of fighting, and this sort of thing doesn't just happen, but I think she's made her mind up. I think we'll just have to keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't try to adopt the next digimon that shows up. What's aggravating is that I think she'd do OK as a digidestined, at least in my world."

"That's just it," Nami said, "this isn't your world." She saw Hitomi's face fall a bit. "I'm sorry, but you know I'm right. What if she finds a digimon, then that other girl starts coming after her?"

"You mean Rika?" Hitomi thought about it. "I don't know. Takato and Henry have run into her a few times, but she doesn't seem to be picking fights with them any more. It was just that first time. Come to think of it, I haven't seen her for a few days now." The two walked for a few minutes in silence.

"Oh," Nami said, "I almost forgot." The teacher pulled a large rectangular package out of a bag she had brought with her. "Happy 11th birthday, Hitomi."

Curious, Hitomi accepted the gift and opened it. "An artbook? But how...?"

"Eevee told me. He said you like drawing pokemon, so I thought you might like it. I have a few pencils for you too."

"This must have cost-"

"None of that now." Nami said, smiling. "Teachers do get a discount on educational supplies, right?" She winked conspiratorily at Hitomi, then held the girl as she began crying. "Don't worry, Hitomi. We'll find your way home, I promise."

Next Episode:
Yamaki has managed to uncover the identities of two of the tamers, Henry and Hitomi. Henry's father is approached by Hypnos agents to help in Yamaki's quest to destroy all digimon, while Hitomi is forced into a confrontation with Rika and Renamon. An unexpected appearance by Calumon and Unown forces Hitomi to make a difficult decision. Next time on Digicross Tamers:
'The road home'