Cyber's eyes slowly flickered open. He didn't know how long he had been out, but the cold and the wind had managed to wake him. He was lying in the alley, right next to the garage. He tried - and failed - to sort through his recent memories. He remembered standing at the door, and then a massive blast that had knocked him out. Nothing more...

Shaking his head, he sat up, feeling distinct weakness in his muscles. Whatever that blast had been, it was intense. He was probably lucky to be alive.

With a grunt, he pulled himself to his feet, swaying slightly, eyes closed. Trying to regain full control. It didn't take too long before he was back to normal.

The garage was empty. His quarry had probably escaped. Paris was approaching pre-dawn light. It was time to leave. He would have to report his failure back to her. She probably already knew, anyway.

Tensing his legs, he leapt into the air. It took him five seconds to disappear into the clouds above Paris. He started making his way back to his entrance point - a rusty car abandoned on a nearby railroad. He would be back soon - and the sooner, the better.

Flame followed Gennai down the hallways of the old Chelone complex. Since Gennai had left them the base, Flame had done a lot to build on to it, and the older part was rarely used any more. Eventually Gennai stopped at a wooden-veneered door. It was the door to his old office. Without hesitation, he entered.

His office - strangely - was round. A big brown leather chair sat against the curved wall, opposite the door. The floor was made of some sort of metallic substance - Flame couldn't really tell. The entire ceiling was one big light. Gennai walked into the center of the tiny room, and waved Flame in.

Flame obliged, and the door closed behind him, locking with an ominous thunk. Gennai stood at the other side of the room - less than one foot from Flame.

"Flame," he said. "I've trusted you for a very long time, and I've shared many things with you. You have never violated that trust, and I thank you for it."

Flame nodded, wondering why Gennai was telling him this. Gennai paused for a second, then continued.

"When you came to me, I was a completely different person. My aims and motives were not as wholesome as they are now. Please forgive everything you see - as it belongs to my former life. It will now be used in the service of the Light - as it's been used for the last twenty years."

"Gennai," Flame began, but Gennai waved him down and continued speaking.

"Soon, I will need to leave Chelone again. For the safety of the plane, neither of the kingdoms can know that I am here. What I am about to entrust to you, well ... keep it silent."

Flame couldn't help but smile at the reference. Gennai looked at the ceiling.

"EVA - Activate."

"Good afternoon, General. It's been quite a while." The voice was female, synthetic, and unnerving.

"Who is that?" Flame asked.

Gennai looked at him. "Remember what I said earlier?"

"That there's plenty I don't know about this plane?"

Gennai nodded, and looked up again.

"EVA, bring us down."

Cyber landed lightly in the prep bay. Cindy was already waiting for him. Despite her innocent-sounding name, Cyber knew her as one of the cruelest and coldest human beings he had ever met - and in his lifetime, he had met quite a few. He was basically her slave, though he could choose to leave at any time, if he wanted. But like Damian, he had no other real place to go, and so he stuck around, doing work that was suited to him anyway.

"Report." Cindy said.

"Flamedramon and the General escaped. They must be back in the Digital World."

She gave him a cold stare from behind flawless blue eyes. "I thought I told you tocapture them, Cyberdramon. Correct me if I'm wrong."

Cyber shook his head. "You're right. But they managed to stun me and escape. At the cost of their primary digital gate."

She smirked. "You realise that that is an insignificant compensation for their loss?"

Cyber said nothing.

"If they're back here, then it means that they'll be on to our scent," Cindy said. "Especially since your forces managed to lose the volcano. Get back there and wait for them."

"Understood," Cyber said, and prepped to fly.

Cindy was about to stop him, but then let him go, watching his dark form disappear into the setting sun. Night was falling in this sector of the Digital World, and it would make his task easy. Wait for a bunch of hapless Digimon, and storm them.

Cindy turned and left the prep bay. She had more important work to do.

A red light spilled over the floor. Flame looked down, then back up at Gennai. He wasn't necessarily worried, but what on earth was...

With a jolt, the floor started to move. Downwards. Flame watched as the floor seperated from the wall. There was total darkness beyond - no lights, no sound. However, given the echoes from the lift machinery, Flame judged that this was a very big room. How Gennai had managed to fit all this down here, Flame didn't know.

The floor stopped moving. Flame looked around - but there was nothing. Light from the room above spilled downwards in a neat cylinder, highlighting the lift, and bleeding over to the edges, revealing a metal floor.

Without warning, a yellow light appeared in the darkness, about one foot from the lift. Then another appeared, a foot beyond it. Rapidly, a line of yellow lights appeared in the darkness. Then another line appeared, running parallel to it. There was a three-foot gap between the lines.

"Let's go," Gennai said, stepping into the darkness between the lights. Flame didn't know what he expected to hear. A thunk, maybe, of boot on metal? Maybe sand, or grass, or even water. What he wasn't expecting was the total nothingness which resounded from Gennai's footstep.

"Uh," Flame said, suddenly unsure of himself. "What the hell is this? Why can't I see the bridge?"

"It's a very special material," Gennai said, walking out over the darkness.

"Right," Flame said, tentatively placing a foot between the rows of lights. It was the strangest sensation in the world. It felt as if nothing was supporting him, but there was a force holding him up. He shifted his weight on to his foot, then lifted his other foot. The bridge didn't slip or falter, and soon, he was standing off the platform.

He chuckled nervously, and started walking forward - slowly. He had no reason to distrust Gennai, but the feeling of walking on air was quite unnerving. Gennai had already reached the end of the bridge, and was standing, looking back at Flame.

"Come on, we don't have all day!" he called, and Flame started walking faster.

Gennai turned, and looked at a small point of light embedded in the floor. It was actually a floor this time - a perspex protrusion from the edge of the chamber. Flame joined him on the platform. The yellow lights, hanging in space, flickered out, and the lift started moving back up towards the light. Flame watched it go, then looked back at Gennai.

This environment was very odd. Despite the fact that it was totally black, he could still see Gennai clearly, as if he was being illuminated by the sun. Maybe the walls were made of a special light-absorbing material? Flame couldn't really figure it out.

"Okay," Gennai said. "EVA - online!"

Flame watched as a small dot appeared, hanging over where the floor of the lift had been. At least, he guessed that's where it was. Judging distance was hard, in a totally black space with no reference points. The point grew a little, and then suddenly exploded, breaking up into a profusion of ribbon-shaped streams of light.

They flew out, slamming into the walls of the chamber. The black turned to grey, as the light made it's way through thousands of little canals in the walls. Flame watched the light show, wondering what this could possibly be leading up to ...

With a massive bang, the walls came to life, blinding Flame for a second. When he recovered, he was amazed. He was standing in a massive sphere - probably half a mile in diameter. Every inch of the sphere was covered with displays, and they were all active, showing constantly shifting feeds from the entire Digital World.

He recognised them as they flew past. Chelone, the Server continet, the seperate kingdoms, several forests...

Flame looked at Gennai in amazement. How many more secrets did he have?

"EVA," he called out into the profusion of color. A ghostly white figure appeared, suspended in the air.

"Yes?" it asked.

"Synchronise with Earth Band."

EVA - as Flame assumed her name to be - vanished, and all the screens cleared. They were replaced with a logo pattern that he had never seen before.

"What is that?" Flame asked, pointing at one of the thousands of screens. Gennai sighed.

"A remnant I'd wish was rather not there."

Flame thought about his answer while the screens were replaced with new images. Flame watched in wonder - thoughts interrupted - as the Digital World built itself on the screens before them. It was like looking at a globe map of the Digital World - from the inside. Flame was rapidly getting lost in the infinite space.

"EVA, please check Chelone's anchors."

"On it."

"Anchors? You mean plane anchors, don't you?"

"Yes. Chelone is anchored in four places," Gennai explained. "One anchor is far away from here. Then there's a second anchor in the Northern Kingdom, one in the Southern Kingdom, and one on Earth."

"Earth? Why Earth?"

"Because an anchor does more than simply hold a plane in place. It connects one plane to another. The Digital World itself is probably the best example of this. It's basically a titanic plane, anchored in millions of places to Earth's communication networks."

"So, if a plane has no anchors, then what?"

"Imagine a computer with several hard drives. If the connection cable for a hard drive comes loose, what happens?"

Flame shrugged. "The computer can't pick up the hard drive any more?"

Gennai nodded. "Exactly. It can't find the harddrive. It doesn't know it's there. As far as the computer is concerned, the harddrive does not exist anymore. "

"But it is still there, right?"

"Yes. It might even still be receiving power from the computer, but it is not capable of talking to the computer any more. From the harddrive's perspective, though, it can't find the computer, either. To the harddrive, it's as if it's floating in an endless void, with nowhere to connect to."

"And that's what happens when a plane becomes disconnected?"

"Almost," Gennai said. "Planes exist in the dataspace around the Digital World. For a plane to be properly secured to the Digital world, it needs only two anchors. These keep the plane from drifting out of range. Chelone has four anchors. However, because of the Northern Army movement, I've had to disconnect that anchor. So currently, we're only connected by three."

"So if three and two are enough, what about when there's only one anchor left?"

"The winds of the Digital realm will strain against that anchor. Think of a plane as a very big kite in a strong wind. If the rope is strong enough, there is no problem. But if the rope is too weak, it will eventually stretch and snap, releasing the plane."

"And then?"

"The plane floats free. Contact will never be re-established with it. The truth is that there are thousands of void-planes out there - as I call them - planes that were disconnected by wars and other tragedies. There might be entire civilisations on those planes. If they had the technology to extend their own plane, they might even have grown them into seperate worlds. Worlds without the Sun of the Digital World require artificial lighting and heat, but such things are not difficult to achieve."

"Amazing," Flame said, looking back out over the control room. "But Chelone is secure, right?"

"For now," Gennai said. "The anchors should still be working just fine."

EVA beeped, and they both looked up as her ghostly form reappeared in the air.

"Analysis complete. Earth anchor is online and stable. Server anchor is online and stable. Southern anchor is online and stable, but is likely to experience duress due to the Northern Army movements. The Northern anchor is offline as per your instructions.
Gennai nodded to himself. "EVA, keep monitoring the anchors, and report any change to me."

"Understood."

"EVA, open the authorization subsystem."

A massive blue pane of light appeared in the air in front of them. It had a huge ID badge on it, with Gennai's face, name and other details.

"EVA, add authorized user."

A blank ID card appeared below Gennai's.

"Flame, please say your full name."

"Flamedramon," Flame said, and his name appeared on the card. He looked at it for a second, then back at Gennai, who was holding a small shard of glass in his hands. It was about the size of a baseball card.

"Press your claw against this," he said, and Flame obliged. When he withdrew his claw, there was still an impression in the glass. Gennai looked at, then flung it at the massive holographic ID card suspended in the air. As the glass flew through, it vanished, and the words "SEQUENCING DNA" appeared.

They cleared, and the ID card filled with the rest of Flame's details. Face, height, weight, evolutionary line, voice pattern - they all filled themselves in.

"Save changes," Gennai said, and the card flashed.

"It's done," Gennai said, looking at Flame. "You have full access to this system."

Flame nodded slowly, realising just how much power he had been given. But he knew that Gennai trusted him with it, and he knew that he would not betray that.

"Let's go," he said, stepping to the edge of the platform.

"EVA," Flame called. "Shutdown and lower the elevator."

"Complying," EVA said, as the screens switched off, the elevator started to descend, and the yellow walkway lights appeared.

"Good," Gennai said, as he stepped out. "You always were a fast learner, Flame."

Flame smiled as he walked out. "I learn from the best, you know."