In this chapter, Janyu Wong discusses another, parallel history of "the Thanatos program".

Note: I was never really able to read the supplementary comic about the Monster Makers/Wild Bunch, so I took creative liberties with what went down in 1984 :p

Please, feel free to review!

…..

Chapter 5

Henry's father was looking out of their apartment window as he attempted to recollect the story of how Thanatos came to be. He closed his eyes as he let the familiar sounds and images of university life flood his senses. It would be a difficult task, he realized. Not the technical aspect, no….that was not what eluded him. What was important about the project his colleagues had worked on was not about the command protocol or syntax that was used for creating such a program. No…what he hoped to stress to the young adults that sat in his living room was that the monsters who befriended them and the world that they remembered exploring as children were all the results of a dream that was eventually realized. The dream that a group of kids could spend their time now to create a world that future kids could cherish and love as much as the world they had grew up in.

…..

Janyu Wong sat at his favorite desktop in the lab. It was the year 1984 and he could not wait until the rest of the Wild Bunch could seat themselves and start their secret meeting. Well…the meeting was not exactly off limits for outsiders, but the honest truth was that whenever they told people about what they were doing, they were often written off. It probably did not help their image that they held these meetings on Friday nights. Despite Palo Alto's University's rather prestigious image as a technical school, many students were still reluctant to spend their partying time in the computer lab.

Wong noticed his colleague Gorou "Shibumi" Mizumo walk through the lab doors and greeted him. Before long, Rob "Dolphin" McCoy, Babel, Daisy, and Professor Aishuwarya arrived.

"Well guys, what's on the agenda for today?" asked Dolphin.

Shibumi gently nudged Daisy and motioned with his eyes, asking for approval. The girl nodded and cleared her throat.

"Well, since the group finished up most the code for the "World project" for housing the monsters, Shibumi and I began investigating garbage collecting systems so that way we wouldn't run into the problems of memory depletion. In fact, we already have most of a program completed."

"Really?" asked the professor, "That type of program is an excellent idea, but what made you think of it?"

Shibumi paused and then a smile crept across his visage.

"Well professor, it all started with your cyber defense class that I took back in sophomore year. You gave us a lesson about the 1970's D-Reaper project for the ECHELON division of the US Department of Defense. It was…. intriguing. Daisy and I figured that we might as well design a similar program for custodial purposes. We found some relevant documents and we started from there."

The student named Babel became alarmed at Shibumi's description of the program.

"So um….Shibumi….how exactly does the program know to delete extraneous data? In fact…what kind of data is it deleting?"

Daisy snickered as she answered for her partner.

"Well Babel, since you are a biology major and not a computer science major, I think that this concept might be a little out of your league so we will simplify it as much as possible. The program deletes both monster data and it will be a debugging program for deleting and fixing bits of non-functioning code. As for the monsters, it's programmed to delete older monsters once a certain quota is met, and then newer monsters are generated to keep the equilibrium."

Babel jumped out of his seat, enraged.

"I knew it! You disabled the population control program that we all agreed would be in place. We agreed that the monsters will breed and generate their own offspring and their populations will be affected by programs that would control the birth rates and death rates. We discussed this and came to the conclusion that the monster program was going to simulate what happens to real populations of animals!"

The room was silent. The rest of the Wild Bunch were surprised that such a small hobby of theirs had turned into a heated debate.

"Babel, calm down," cooed Shibumi nonchalantly. "Our program is…similar."

"No. It's. Not. If you have a program that only deletes data on the basis of age, and then creates a balance in the population, then that does not teach children anything about population density! Do you have any idea how long Dolpin and I worked on approximating the monster world's carrying capacity? It took a month! How can we model breeding behavior off of this now? What's the point of asking me for my opinion on biological and ecological matters if you aren't going to use it?"

"I agree with Babel," said professor Aishuwarya, "We all made an agreement, and now, you two decide to undo more than a month of work? What is the reason for this?"

"It's simple," chirruped Daisy, "You guys voted for the monsters to operate on a breeding model, but Shibumi and I never supported it. We wanted to create our own model of the system and then see if you guys liked it better than Babel's."

Before Babel could snap at Daisy, Shibumi spoke first.

"With the utmost respect, Babel, your model is a good idea, but Daisy and I really don't think that children would like the idea of their monster friends…mating…and then dying for know reason other than to show them how the rules of Earth's ecology works. Kids would much rather have a fantasy world than one that resembled their own world too much. Children should be able to form a bond with their monster friend and then understand that all things must come to an end. If we just had their monsters die for no reason other than to show them "the real world", then I feel like we would be cheating them. We would be no better than the carnival attraction owners who give children sickly fish in return for their diligence and patience."

"What's the point of even having the kids create a bond with the monsters if they all have the same personality?" muttered Janyu quietly.

Once again, silence permeated the room. Once Janyu realized that his off-hand remark actually impacted the conversation, he became more aware of the stares that focused intensely at him.

"I believe that you may be right," remarked the Professor, "If we were to give the monsters distinct personalities, then we wouldn't even need a population density simulation because the monsters would be making their own choices and causing deaths and births as direct and indirect consequences of their choices."

"What you are proposing," began Dolphin tiredly, "Is 'Artificial Intelligence'."

"Precisely."

Dolphin McCoy laughed hysterically.

"With all due respect Professor, Artificial Intelligence is the stuff of science fiction for now. The advancements that are being made today are lightyears behind what we want our little digital pets to be capable of doing."

"Not entirely true," corrected Shibumi, "Even most of the arcade games have some sort of artificial intelligence programmed into the enemies. Our problem is that we don't want our monsters all acting nonsensically, but we don't want them all acting in a uniform manner like the enemies in 'Space Invaders' or something."

"Of course you spend all of your time playing games." teased Daisy.

"I think we should reach a compromise," announced the Professor, "Since we are going to program the monsters to have distinct personalities, it only makes sense for them to be able to breed and die. Also, the garbage collecting program will be used, but only for deleting the dead monster's data. It will not, repeat, NOT affect the population of the monsters, it will just work in the background of the world in order to preserve the server's memory. Does that sound good?"

"Fine."

"Good. Now all of you should get to work on changing the program to reflect these changes. Until then, I will have to investigate into our AI problem. Have a good weekend, and I will see you all in class."

The students all sat at their respective computers and began working on their personal projects for the monsters' world.

Babel and McCoy sat behind Shibumi and Daisy to make sure that they were following orders.

"You know Babel," began Shibumi uneasily, "I'm sorry if I offended you with our changes to the program. To make up for it, I'm letting you name it whatever you want."

Babel's face lit up in excitement. He was one of those people who were quick to forget about their anger.

"Really? I can name it anything I want? Aww. Thanks Shibumi. Sorry if I acted like a jerk. Well let's see….the program deals with death….so how about 'Thanatos'?"

"Why Thanatos?" asked Daisy cooly, "What in the world is it and why is it your first choice?"

"Well, I'm kind of a mythology buff. Thanatos and Hypnos were twin demi-gods in Greek mythology. Thanatos governed death and Hypnos was in charge of sleep. What do you guys think?"

"It sounds pretty cool," confirmed Janyu, "I think we should keep that."

…..

Janyu Wong pivoted on his heel away from the window once he finished recalling his story. He noticed that all of the digimon except Renamon was asleep underneath blankets. The children however were focused with rapt attention.

"I guess my story was pretty hard to understand for our monster friends."

"Not for me." Remarked Renamon, "I don't understand all of the details you mentioned but it's…interesting to hear another side to the story. It's…strange to hear about how my home world was created."

"But Dad," asked Henry, "I know that the story was just about Thanatos, but I'm curious; how did the digimon get artificial intelligence?"

Janyu's eyes hardened as he remembered the frustration of years past.

"Well kids. As soon as we finished the programming for the breeding capabilities, the government became involved and took over the research. It turned out the Babel had tipped them off in exchange for money. We…didn't get to find out what was going to happen to the monster project. But then you brought home Terriermon. Then, I knew; the government must have perfected the AI."

"That explains why Hypnos and Yamaki knew about the digimon in the first place." noted Rika.

"And from the sounds of it," said Henry, "They used Babel's ideas regarding Thanatos and Hypnos when they named Yamaki's department."

Janyu cringed as he thought of his former friend Babel, talking extensively about his interests to the groups that he had sold his colleagues out to.

That naïve fool! I can see him now; babbling about his stupid mythology to people who don't give a damn about him. If he had just opened his eyes and stopped being such an egotistical moron, he would have seen that he belonged with us! That he belonged with friends who accepted him for who he was. I wonder where he is now….is he content with himself?

Takato turned his attention to the sleeping Guilmon whose head rested in his lap. He gently scratched Guilmon's webbed ears as he took all of the information in. While scratching Guilmon's ears, the dinosaur became so relaxed that he rolled over onto his stomach for Takato to scratch.

"Whoa boy," exclaimed Takato, "hard to believe this goofball was your leader."

Renamon chuckled at Takato's assumption.

"Actually, Matsuki, Impmon was our leader."

The humans looked at the drowsing Impmon in shock.

"But Renamon," asked Rika as she suppressed a gasp, "He's…so small. Remember what happened in the fight with Indramon? He got his butt handed to him."

"That was before he learned to control his pride," stated Renamon, "After living in the Digital World for a few months as an In-Training, he learned to put aside his arrogance. Once he had achieved that, he was able to think more clearly and strategize. He also became much more perceptive; he could finally see things for the way they were and he could no longer view it through wishful thinking."

"Well that's good." noted Henry.

"It was definitely helpful that he became an efficient leader, but his vigilance has a dark side," lamented Renamon, "his humanity has left him. Living in such a ruthless place made him forget about mercy or faith in others. It is not just him though, we were all affected in some way, but I think the blow was the biggest for him of all. We knew what it was liked to believe in the goodness of humans and other digimon even though we were only with you for a short time. Impmon never had the luxury of tamers or other digimon who displayed these traits to him until it was too late and he left for the Digital World."

….

Impmon traversed casually down the spotlighted streets of the Shinjuku district, much to the confusion of passer-byers. The sun had almost completely set and he found himself feeling apprehensive at the thought of meeting his two tamers. He had been walking for an hour after leaving Henry's apartment.

Why am I so worried about seeing some brats? They probably haven't changed anyways. Probably the same selfish twerps; always fighting over stupid shit.

Impmon paused as he came upon a familiar neighborhood. The purple imp quickly dashed to the front of a small house. His heart skipped a beat as he heard the doorknob of the front door turn. He immediately crept along the side of the house as a middle aged woman opened the door and left the house.

The small digimon sprinted to the end of the house where the children's room was located. He peered in through the window of what used to be the children's room and saw that only Ai must have still resided in the room due to the collection of stuffed animals and feminine objects. The nine-year-old girl was sitting on her bed, reading a book.

Impmon considered tapping on the glass to alert the girl of his presence until he saw a similarly aged boy enter the room.

"Ai, can I borrow your...," the boy stopped in mid-sentence once he noticed the purple creature outside of Ai's window.

"What is it Mako?" the girl looked in his direction and her eyes met those of the curious Impmon.

"I….I don't believe it!" the girl opened her window and the demon creature slipped in through the open window and leanded on her bed.

"Oh my gosh! We missed you so much, Impmon!" the girl hugged the small digimon as he fell limply against her. Mako began hugging him as tears filled his eyes.

"You guys…still remember me?" asked Impmon, amazed at their recognition of him.

"Of course we do, silly." said Mako, "we're always gonna remember you and Silky!"

Impmon pulled away from Mako in puzzlement.

"Silky? Who's that?"

Mako began fidgeting with his hands. The curious digimon examined the room further until he found a crayon drawing hung on the wall. It depicted a brown dog playing ball with two stick-figure children.

"After you left," began Ai, "we got really sad. Our parents wanted to cheer us up, so they got us a dog. But after a few years, Silky was hit by a car and...she died."

Impmon's throat felt dry. He tried picturing Ai and Mako's anguish over their lost pet.

Ai's hand began trembling as tears rolled down her eyes.

"It's your fault, Mako! We told you to tie her up in the yard, but you were too busy playing with your friends!"

The boy felt taken aback as tears began rolling down his eyes as well. This argument was an old one. No matter how many times their parents told them to let it go, Ai would ensure that he did not forget that she blamed him.

"It's not my fault! Stop saying it is!"

Impmon covered his hands over his ears.

This isn't happening! This can't be happening. Why me?

The previous confidence that Impmon had in his leadership skills seemed to fade away as soon as he stepped foot in the girl's room. He normally had no problem telling humans off. He even fantasized about doing it once he spent time in the Digital World and had nothing more to do but obsess over the human condition. But for some reason, watching these particular humans mistreat each other bothered him deeply.

"Kids…stop it. Just stop it!" Impmon screamed while still holding his ears. He just could not take it anymore. These kids…these humans….he needed to escape from their constant hostility.

The digimon sprinted across the room to the bed and squeezed himself out of the window.

"Now look what you did, Ai! You scared him away again just like last time!"

"No I didn't, you stupid dork. I HATE you! It's your fault! Everything's your fault!"

Impmon could still hear them as he scurried into the woods. He did not care if he got lost, all he wanted was to escape those children. Finally, the small imp stopped at a tree and leaned against it while he regained his breath. Soon enough, tears began rolling down his cheeks.

I thought they might've changed. I thought they grew up. But humans never grow up, do they? I'm the stupid one. I should've known that nothing would be different. Humans always fight. The always want to hurt each other….but why do I have to be that way, too? Why do all digimon have to be this way?

The purple creature stopped sobbing once he heard a small rustling in the leaves. A small rabbit nibbled away at a piece of vegetation.

Upon seeing the small creature, Impmon felt seething rage.

How DARE that little runt live. It's just too small. It can't survive like that! Just by living, it's an invitation to be killed!

A fiery sphere emerged on Impmon's finger. He flicked it at the rabbit and watched the life leave its body. Impmon stalked slowly over to it and to witness its body dissolve. It amazed Impmon how even non-digital organisms seemed to be converted into data just by being attacked by a digimon. Impmon always guessed that it was because his powers somehow converted it into data. This observation suddenly gave him an idea. He allowed himself to absorb the data and he immediately felt better. No more crying over weak humans.

This is why I have to be this way. Because they made me like this. Only strength is important.

Impmon heard another rabbit in the distance and shot a ball of flame in its direction. While watching the animal die, Impmon perversely thought if this was how Silky the dog looked to Ai and Mako when he was dying.

I just have to wonder. Were they really seeing their dog dying or were they seeing me? Were they just substituting that dog for me? Because they couldn't own me?

Right as Impmon absorbed the rabbit's life force, he felt another perverse thought enter his mind. Killing this rabbit and taking its data strongly reminded him of when Lopmon died in her In-Training form and he began stealing her's. He cringed as his conscience reminded him of how Terriermon accused him of purposefully killing her.

No! It wasn't like that. I didn't kill her. It was HER fault! She was stupid enough to hit him when she was right in his face! She was too stupid to live! She would've died anyway! She was weak. It…it was an accident waiting to happen.

Impmon felt another sob coming along, but instead channeled it into a large sphere of fire. He jumped to the top of a tree branch and searched for more prey. He finally found the warren that the other rabbits presumably belonged to and raced along the canopy, honing in on his kill.

….

It was a solemn evening at the Wong residence. Parents hugged and kissed their children goodbye. Jeri's parents arrived later than expected; partly due to the shame they felt regarding what happened to their daughter.

Takato's parents handed him his old pair of goggles, knowing how symbolic it was to him. Takato proudly adorned the goggles as he hugged his parents farewell.

"Rika, I know that you'll be fine, dear," Rika's grandmother held her tightly as she stroked her hair lovingly.

"It's good that you're not too worried, grandma."

"How can you be so calm about this, mom?" Rika's mother became hysterical as she pleaded with the elderly matron to understand why her teenaged daughter should stay. Tears lined her cheeks as she grabbed Rika's shoulders.

"You don't even have to leave, honey. This is not your task—this is Takato's."

Rika fought off her mother's smothering but held her hands instead.

"Mom, you don't understand, do you? Takato is my friend and…so is Jeri. The truth is that we all feel responsible for Jeri's health and we want to correct our mistake. Jeri is very fragile right now and the problem with her and Leomon is too big for just Takato and Guilmon to handle. We are all going—right guys?"

Henry nodded in approval as he stopped hugging his parents to grab the first aid bag that his mother recommended they take.

Calumon opened his ears and cocked them towards the door.

"Don't leave too soon, guys. I think Impmon came back. But…he sounds different."

"How can he sound different?" asked Terriermon.

A tired looking Beelzemon entered the room to the shock of the parents.

"Beelzemon….how did you digivolve?" Renamon appeared from the dark hallway to greet him.

Beelzemon shuddered as he remembered how many small animals he had to kill in order to finally change in such a short amount of time. His tail flicked back and forth in uneasiness as he felt the immediate stare of the parents in the room.

"It's…not really important. So when are the brats ready to leave?"

The human trio and their digimon stood up in front of the television while Henry's father ran the program. Beelzemon took this as his cue and took his place near Renamon.

"You know what to do, Dad?" asked Henry tentatively.

"Yes. I already ran it, but I'm leaving the fields blank. That way, the portal will be opened without sucking the digimon back in here. But, I have a confession to make, Henry."

"What, Dad?"

"Your parents and I talked about it and it's been decided. We are giving you guys until the first week before school starts to find Jeri. If you can't bring her back by then, then we will search for your digimon and bring you guys back to this world."

"But Dad—,"

"No, son. We can't let you kids ruin your lives and studies looking for someone who doesn't want to be found. We just won't have it. Now the portal is ready. Goodbye and good luck."

While linking arm and arm to each other, each Tamer and digimon stepped into the television screen and disappeared into the blackness.

"Good luck, kids," Yelled Jeri's parents, "Please find her for us."

"So that's it?" asked Takato's mother, "We just wait?"

"Those kids survived in that place when they were much younger," said Rika's grandmother optimistically, "I think we just need to have some faith. I have a feeling they'll be alright."

"Yes…" sighed Mrs. Wong as she clutched Janyu's hand. "We have a good son on our hands."

"We do," affirmed Janyu, "But the Digital World they traveled to before was an entirely different case. Now, they have to deal with an entire group of who-knows-how-many-kids. It…it could be—,"

"Like Lord of the Flies…" finished Jeri's father.

Mrs. Wong fought back tears and ran to compose herself in her hallway. She found Suzie in the hallway doing the same thing. The two hugged each other tightly as they hoped for the best.

…

Author's Note:

Some people might be wondering how a rabbit could even be converted into data.

Don't ask me!

In the series premiere when Guilmon arrived, he shot a pyro sphere at a rat and he absorbed the rat's "data". I am dead serious. If you still don't believe me, I'm sure that there is a video of it on Youtube.

Also, it might sound weird that I connected the D-Reaper to a US DoDT project, but according to Wikipedia, D-Reaper is in fact related to an actual US DoDT program from the 1970s (then again, it is Wikipedia…).

"I did not hit her. I did NAAAAHT. Oh hai, Mark."

—Johnny

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NOTE: SORRY IF THERE ARE ANY REVIEW ERRORS (MISSING, ETC.) HAD ISSUES WITH DOC MANAGER WHILE REPLACING CHAPTERS.