DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon, but I do own the OCs in this story and my other stories (except where stated otherwise). Zach Strafer is the property of Fireblast123. I don't own Fuji TV either.

Thanks to Crazyeight for beta reading this chapter.

DIMENSIONS

Stratagems

By Blazing Chaos

CHAPTER 5

The Feather

"So, who are you?" Alice asked, continuing their conversation as she looked at the pair of humans and the digimon who currently seemed in a state of shock at recent events. She couldn't blame them; she'd only been in the area for a short while, and it was already a horrific sight. She'd seen worse, but that was to be expected.

Zach grinned widely, returning to his usual form as he introduced himself. "I'm Zach Strafer, and it's always nice to meet an older woman…"

Alice simply gave him a blank look, not even bothering to convey any emotion.

"Zach, do you flirt with everyone?" Asuka asked, looking to her companion with bewilderment dominating her features.

"Well, everyone who's a girl and not too old or too young, yes."

"Hmm…I think I'm a lot more out of your age range than you think Zach," Alice muttered.

"Huh, what do you mean by that?" Zach asked, his grin dropping as he eyed this new girl with a look of confusion. Heck, she may have been a few years older than him, but he'd heard of couples with bigger differences than that.

"How old are you?" Candlemon asked, looking with curiosity at this new girl.

"Nineteen, now, it looks like we've got trouble," Alice answered, holding up her weapon again, after reloading it in a manner akin to a shotgun. She held it to the sky, as two dozen Artmon came out from behind some buildings, advancing on them from all sides. The reinforcement call had clearly been heeded, and fast.

"Meh, it's only three years," Zach noted, shrugging.

"Not the time!" Asuka argued.

"I am going to get so sick of doing this, thanks a lot guys!" Alice complained, bitterness in her voice, pressing the button on the gun. The prongs lit up near-instantly before deploying a wave that ripped through space effortlessly, wind chimes ringing in its wake.

"Hey, I'm a girl!" Asuka complained.

"Not the time!" Zach argued, as the Artmon disintegrated into nothing. Alice frowned, lowering the gun again as it deactivated. "What the hell is that thing?"

"It's a gun Zach," Alice answered.

"Not like any I've ever seen," Asuka noted, stepping up to look at the weapon in awe. As she reached out for it, Alice pulled it back.

"I don't know if it's safe," she quickly uttered. Zach grinned, shrugging as he walked up to the weapon, Alice trying to stop him but in the end failing.

"Lady, it's a gun, it's hardly…YEEEEEOOUCH!!" Zach screamed in pain as he touched its side, immediately retracting his reddened hand. "What is that, a thousand degrees?!" he asked.

Alice shrugged, gripping the gun tight in her hand, as Asuka eyed her oddly.

"Hey, why doesn't it burn you?" she asked.

Alice shrugged. "I don't know…um…what's your name?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You never told me your name."

"Oh, right. It's Asuka…Asuka Kumiko," the girl greeted with a smile.

"I see. I think it's time we got to safety."

"Why, does that weapon run out of power otherwise?" Asuka asked curiously.

"Well, let's just say I only just got it, and I don't want to find out," Alice answered, beginning to walk. "Come on, this way," she said, gesturing along one of the various streets.

"Huh? Who gave you it?" Asuka asked.

"Yeah, I'd love to have one, and, you know, stay alive because of it," Zach commented.

"It doesn't matter."

"I think I prefer Candlemon being obvious to you hiding everything," Asuka noted.

"Hey!" Candlemon complained.

"It's true," Zach said as an aside to his partner.

"What, he states the obvious all the time?" Alice asked, a bewildered look on her face.

"Yeah, sorta," Zach answered.

"Well, that's a new one," Alice answered. "Heh. And here was me thinking this world was full of bland, boring people with very little difference."

"Hey!" Zach complained.

"You baka, she just complimented you as being different," Asuka argued.

"Didn't sound like a compliment to me," Alice noted.

"What?" Asuka asked, now thoroughly confused.

"You don't make any sense, you know that Lady?" Zach commented, a single eyebrow rising sarcastically.

"Look, do you want me to save you or not?" Alice asked, stopping and turning on her heels to face the pair of children and the Digimon. "I have my own far more important task to do, but I'm helping you kids because I don't want you to end up the same way I did, okay? Those Artmon will butcher you to the ends of the Earth, and this planet is going to boil, so what I have to do is paramount, okay?" she argued. "So stop asking who I am, what I'm up to or whether I'll go out on a date," she finished, frowning.

"Okay!" Zach and Asuka both said together, surprised at how this woman had ranted at them like that.

"Good," Alice answered, turning and continuing to walk. She crossed her arms, frowning. "Nonetheless, I'd like to know a bit more about you two," she noted.

"Oh, well I'm Zach Strafer, I'm 16, I'm from Denver, Colorado in the US of A, I'm single, my interests include Digimon and…"

"Zach is flirting again," Candlemon pointed out as Asuka groaned.

"…and my Digimon partner is the unbeatable Candlemon!"

"Okay, from now on, you don't talk," Alice ordered, causing Zach to frown. "Now, Asuka, what about you? Where do you live, and all that? Loving family, or arguing all the time like realistic families do?" she asked, Asuka catching up and standing next to her.

"I live here in Tokyo…and my parents…well, I don't know if they're alive," she said sadly.

"Oh, sorry," Alice answered, her voice saddened at the concept. "Hey, I noticed Zach has Candlemon, or maybe it's the other way around, but…do you have a Digimon?"

Asuka frowned even further, making Alice feel even worse about asking. "I did."

"Oh," Alice answered. Asuka tried to put a brave face on things, looking up to the older girl curiously.

"Do you have a Digimon?" she asked. There wasn't one in sight, but then again, it could always be something like Renamon. How else would she have known the Artmon were coming before she could see them?

"I did have," Alice answered. "Well, kind of," she added.

"Oh…what happened?" Asuka asked. Alice frowned, biting past the tears. "Oh, you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Alice looked to Asuka, the younger girl seeing a deep sadness in her elder's eyes. "No, I'll answer. His name was Dobermon, and he died to save the world. I guess that's better than him being killed in some battle," she answered, before noticing a saddened look on Asuka's face. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean it that way."

"No, that's okay," Asuka answered. "I know you didn't."

"Yeah, it's a minefield of tragedies in this new world," Zach noted, a half smile coming to his face.

"Zach, don't joke about this!" Asuka snapped at him. "I mean, look at you, your parents could be dead and you haven't even shed a tear. You must be the most unemotional person I've ever known, you're so dense! You're lucky to have never had anything like this happen to you. Zach, when you lose someone important to you, you'll know the pain! The bloody pain of having a part of you ripped out while your heart still beats!" she screamed, her eyes welling with tears.

A silence fell, only broken by Asuka gasping for air. Zach looked shocked, before breaking into a frown.

Alice frowned. "Poor kid," she contemplated, before putting out her hand to Asuka. "Don't cry," she wished. "Come on, we have to find somewhere safe to hide," she added.

"Okay," Asuka answered sadly.

"Close the doors!" Alice yelled.

"What?!" Zach and Asuka panicked, looking at their newfound ally in confusion as she stood outside the stuck-open automatic doors of the hotel they had found. Zach, Candlemon and Asuka had raced through first, but Alice had stopped to face their enemies, now numbering in the hundreds by Zach's reckoning.

"DO IT!" Alice blasted.

"Come on Asuka," Zach said to the girl, who looked at him with bewilderment. "Look, whatever she's doing, she knows what she's doing, so just trust her, okay?" he added.

Asuka nodded unsurely, the pair each running to one of the two glass doors. They gripped onto the frame, Asuka looking up to Zach for confirmation that this was really a good idea. He was having none of it though, giving up on convincing her to help and instead just barking orders.

"Now push!" he said, before the pair began to strain at the doors. Candlemon looked over the situation with horror at the surreal nature of it all, being brought back to reality as the doors slammed together. Zach and Asuka paused, looking up at Alice as she busily adjusted her gun to cope with the vast numbers of Artmon now rapidly approaching. She finally completed the adjustments, raising it and pointing it in the Artificial Digimon's direction. Blasts had begun to fire, striking the edges of the building and making the windows vibrate. It was now clear why they'd closed the doors: without them, they would have no defence at all against the blasts if one were to head straight for them.

Wind chimes rang once again on the streets of Tokyo, albeit the group having reached the edge of the 23 Special Wards by now, as the gun fired. The vastly increased size wave once again ripped through the Artmon, reducing them to nothing, with no pain. The Artmon couldn't feel pain.

Silence fell, a silence of relief, as Alice turned, facing the window of the door and raising the gun again. "I hope this is the way it works," she noted, as she fired, to the surprise of Zach and Asuka who shut their eyes.

Whilst their initial surprise at being fired at quickly dissipated when it became clear that they were the target, when they opened their eyes to the sound of wind chimes they witnessed Alice somehow replacing the window again on the other side, having stepped through effortlessly as if it were not even there.

"Whoa…how did you do that?" Zach asked.

"Magic," Alice answered, wandering over to the reception desk as she began to search around for something. Zach's eyebrows raised in surprise, was she being serious?

"Really?" he asked, as she popped her head up from fumbling around the desk.

"No, but you wanted an explanation," she answered, looking down and continuing to search.

"What are you looking for?" Asuka asked, looking with bewilderment at the sight.

"A key," she answered. Zach and Asuka looked over her shoulder to the variety of card keys in piles behind.

"There's no power, they won't work," Asuka noted.

"Not those keys," Alice answered, lifting up another key instead, a standard Yale key. She strode over to the door, turning it in the lock and sealing the automatic doors together, before she breathed a sigh of relief.

"What was that for?" Zach asked.

"Won't the Artmon just smash through the glass?" Asuka asked, worried about the concept.

Alice paused, looking to her blankly before answering. "They may seem to be designed well, but they're not. This place is locked, and they know it has been already scanned for life, so they won't bother to check it."

"But they're after us!" Asuka blurted, hoping that Alice would remember the hundreds of Artmon that had seemed to be chasing them just moments beforehand.

Alice paused again before answering. "They were only after us because they saw us, I don't think we're that high profile a target to be continually pursued."

"So we're safe?" Asuka asked.

"Hope so," Alice replied.

"So, a hotel?" Zach asked bewilderingly, looking around at the modern ground floor. A few powerless elevators stood, the normal way up to rooms. Over to one side, a restaurant, or at least a buffet, began, whilst some emergency stairs and a conference room door could also be seen.

"Well, at least we can eat whatever hasn't gone off yet," Asuka answered. "It'll get dark though when night comes," she added.

"I can make a fire?" Candlemon suggested.

"That might get out of control," Zach noted. "We'll just use you as a Candle."

"Aw, shucks."

"Hmm, I have an idea," Alice pondered, glancing about at the room curiously, noting the lights dotted about. "Okay everyone, I want you to close your eyes," she advised.

"Huh?" Asuka asked.

"Please, just close your eyes," Alice repeated, Zach, Asuka and Candlemon reluctantly doing so. Alice wandered over to the nearest light switch, looking curiously at it. She flicked it to the off position. "Okay, now I want you to assume the lights are off, but there is power. We've just turned the lights off, okay?"

"What help will assuming things do?" Asuka asked, keeping her eyes closed.

"Please, just trust me," Alice asked.

"Fine," Asuka answered.

"You really have to believe it," Alice continued. "Like when you're a kid, and you're with your…family…" she paused, a saddened tone gripping her voice.

"Alice, you okay?" Zach asked, noticing the girl's silence.

"I'm fine," she answered. "When you're a kid, you can imagine things so much they become real."

"Yeah, I used to do that with Digimon. Then again, they were real, I just really wanted one. And then I did, and then…" Zach rambled.

"Zach, we get the idea," Asuka snapped.

"Oh, sorry," Zach answered.

"Right, I know this sounds improbable, but I want you all to believe that there is power in the system of this hotel, and that, if I flick the lights on, it'll work, okay?" she asked.

"Right," the three replied, preparing to open their eyes.

"Wait, don't open your eyes yet!" Alice advised. "I haven't done it yet," she added.

"Oh, right, sorry," Zach replied. Alice gripped the gun tightly, dearly hoping this plan would work.

"Okay…Alice turned the lights on," she said, flicking the switch and smiling as she opened her eyes to light. She smiled properly for the first time in ages, looking around as Zach, Asuka and Candlemon did the same, not believing their eyes.

"How can there be…" Asuka began.

"No!" Alice yelled. "Don't question it!" she blurted.

"But how did you do that?" Zach asked curiously.

"It relies on the gun, and on your perceptions," Alice explained, holding up the weapon and pausing as she appeared to contemplate something. "The gun can manipulate reality and dimensions, but it needs you all to believe that it'll work. It can only alter things when you all think it should be altered, and when you don't simply assume that the building is without power."

"So, do we have to keep believing this?" Asuka asked, still amazed at the concept. Their whole world was thrown for a loop, how could such a weapon exist? Then again, they lived in a world where huge monsters were relatively commonplace; it was hardly a long shot to consider such a device. Hell, even time travel seemed to be possible.

Zach pondered the concept: there didn't seem to be any other real life way to explain how Rey was both here and in images from Digital Watch in 2010 at the same time at what seemed to be the same age. Then again, the pictures weren't exactly all that helpful, the last fifteen years of sever transfers, corruptions, virus attacks and government intervention had had a habit of messing up a lot of Digital Watch's data, and the loss of date stamps on a lot of (seemingly) older images (which were themselves usually taken secretly in less than advantageous lighting conditions) made it pretty hard to tell if she really had travelled in time or if the one or two pictures that featured her were simply the victims of various mix-ups.

"Well, given that it exists and I've proved it does, I wouldn't be too worried. You don't have to think it constantly, just forget about it and take it as fact," Alice answered, walking over to a hotel computer and smiling lightly as it booted up. Everything was going rather well.

"Zach, can we go get food now?" Candlemon asked, looking up to his partner curiously.

"I think we should check the hotel is safe first," Asuka disagreed, before her stomach rumbled as she looked rather embarrassed. "Then again, I am pretty hungry," she noted.

"Candlemon's already gone," Zach noted, Asuka noticing the absence of the ornamental Digimon. "We better get there before he eats everything even remotely edible."

"Could he just eat things that are gone off?" Asuka asked, following him through into the restaurant.

"Suppose so," Zach answered. Asuka paused, noticing Alice now busy with starting the computer.

"Um…I'll catch you up," she noted to the teenage boy, before turning and walking over to Alice. "Hey, aren't you hungry or anything?" she asked curiously, pondering why Alice was accessing the computer.

"Not really," Alice answered. "Hmm…never even thought about that," she added, pondering to thin air.

"You've never thought about eating?" Asuka asked, bewildered. "Aren't you hungry?" she asked.

"Oh, I didn't mean that," Alice reiterated. "Never mind, I might have something small later," she added.

"Oh, okay…I'll make sure there's still something to eat," Asuka answered, unsure as to why this woman didn't even seem to have an appetite, when even she herself, a rather modest eater compared to some, was starving by now. Running for your life had a habit of making you exhausted.

"Thanks," Alice noted, watching the girl head for the restaurant before a frown dropped onto her face once she had gone out of sight. "Hmm, why does she change so much? She was really sad just now…" she pondered, frowning. "I'm depressing myself now…well…I think I've been as far as that allows," she contemplated, before looking at the computer with a frown as it rebooted for the hundredth time, the disks continually turning on and off. "Power fault," she said in an irritated tone, climbing down under the desk and looking behind the tower with a frown. She reached for her gun.

Candlemon practically poured food down his throat, Zach doing pretty much the same but with the courtesy of getting a plate first, while Asuka sat, more moderately eating as she watched the other two.

"Like Tamer like Digimon…" she thought sadly.

Alice destroyed the last screw with the gun, pulling the frame off and looking at the various chips and technology inside the tower. A superconductor whirred away, more or less effortlessly powering the computer, but she spied the problem. She reached for the power supply, ripping the case off and looking curiously at the smouldering inside, a few cables burnt out with their copper showing by the previous power cut. She reached for the key from before, before reaching around in the box for an unbroken wire. Cutting the ends off with the key, she checked it for length against where it was due to go. She then grabbed the broken cable of the power supply unit, pulling it loose before casually glancing to the still plugged in system.

"Wow, that could've killed me," she muttered, the prospect oddly not fazing her at all, as she continued to work.

"Okay, three, two, one!" Zach counted down, before gesturing towards the wooden door. "Fire!" he called, grinning as Candlemon threw a bomb made of flame at the door.

"FLAME BOMBER!" he roared, Zach and him grinning as they burst the door down. Zach wandered into the hotel room, glancing around curiously at its size and its bathroom before jumping across the bed, landing on it and sitting still for a bit before lying his head down on the pillow. He sat up straight away, frowning.

"Nope, this room isn't up to my standards. Next one," he added, looking to Candlemon with a grin as they rushed outside. Asuka rolled her eyes, walking over to the television. Out of pure banal curiosity, she turned it on, looking with a frown at the static that filled the screen.

"Well, I can't say I didn't expect anything else," she noted, before curiosity caused her to reach for the remote. "Hmm…" she pondered, flicking through the channels in the hope that they'd find someone trying to make contact with them.

"And now on Fuji TV Kids, we have another episode of Digimon Frontier," the enthusiastic announcer said eagerly, but it was clearly a pre-recorded voice. The program was pretty old by now, of course, but as the titles rolled, a slim smile came to Asuka at the familiarity of it all.

"Phantasmagoric Sakkakumon," she recalled from the first bits of the opening sequence, nodding in agreement as the titles showed up in their flaming style and agreed with her. She stepped back, falling back onto the bed. "This room'll do. I'll get changed in the bathroom though, I don't want Zach walking in through that open door when I'm getting changed," she mooted. "Not that I have any other clothes anyway," she added, sighing at reality hitting her again.

Candlemon walked, or rather, hopped along the corridors, his curiosity plagued by the extent of the hotel, and his fear excited by the square-shaped shadows passing the windows every so often. The Artmon obviously hadn't figured out yet that the fact the lights were on meant someone was inside, something that they all had to be thankful for.

"It is very weird here. Zach is being insensitive. Asuka is being emotional. I do not know what Alice is doing. I think I should find out," he reasoned, his thoughts as obvious and stated as he had a habit of doing with his words.

"I found a really cool big room, so, goodnight," Zach noted, looking into the room where Asuka was finishing watching the episode, a grim frown on her face.

"Yeah, goodnight," she said sadly.

"Um…are you alright?" Zach asked, as Asuka switched off the television with the remote and slid down to lie down in the bed.

"Yeah," she answered sadly, turning her head over to face away from him as she pulled the blanket over.

"Oh…okay," he answered, not really sure how to deal with the situation. He wandered away from the doorway, heading down the still-lit corridor towards his room a few doors away.

Now that Candlemon had gone walkabouts, he had been forced to kick the door down himself, cursing the "stupid card keys" in the process. He hadn't seen Alice in a while, but he presumed she could take care of herself. She certainly didn't seem to want his help, and…

"Is that crying?" he pondered, hearing a muffled wail from the room nearby where the door had been so elegantly bombed. He paused in his tracks, listening to Asuka as she began to cry, torn between leaving her be and going to comfort her. He was about to turn, but he paused, frowning. "What help would I be? I just irritate her…she's right in saying I'm insensitive, but…I have nothing to be sad about," he pondered, turning back to face towards his room as he contemplated the other option. "But…she did save my life, and I can't just leave her…" he thought. "I never saw this coming when the world started to end," he reflected sadly, making a final choice and turning to walk back towards the room.

He paused in the doorway, tapping on the doorframe to show he was there. She paused all of a sudden, opening her eyes from where she lay under the blanket, crying.

"You're not alright, are you?" Zach noted with a frown.

"Just…emotional…hard day," Asuka said, trying to dismiss him. She wasn't the kind who'd avoid showing weakness in front of someone at all costs, but she had always thought of crying as a silent thing, a release when the world got to you.

"Wanna talk about it?" Zach asked, wandering into the room and sitting on the other bed.

"Not really," she answered, still under the covers. Her voice still held much sorrow, and Zach really wasn't sure how to continue pressing the point without irritating her.

"You know, my mum always used to say the easiest way to get over something that's bothering you is to talk about it all," he noted. "I talk about it too much I suppose, but you know what I mean," he added.

She frowned, sitting up and displaying her reddened eyes and wet cheeks. "I don't even know you Zach," she said, not wanting to sound harsh but nonetheless coming out that way.

Zach nodded, shrugging. "I know, but, Candlemon can't make a proper conversation without pointing out every little detail, and Alice is downstairs and she doesn't want to talk about all of this it seems. I was there, I saw it. And, you both saved me and Candlemon, and I really owe you for that," he thanked. "And, I kind of want to repay the favour," he added. "So, do you want to talk?" he asked.

"I guess so," she answered, although neither could really think of how to continue the conversation.

"Hmm…well, how did you and Hawkmon become partners?" he asked, looking to her curiously.

"I got caught up in a bioemergence, like most other Tamers. And then, he appeared, and then he protected me from another bioemergence, a Goblinmon, that tried to attack us. That's when we became partners."

"How long ago was that?" Zach asked.

"Two years," she answered with a frown. "And now it's over…everything's over," her head drooping sadly.

"Now, come on," Zach encouraged. "Don't think that way…you will get through this, I promise you," he noted, before being surprised as she leant onto his shoulder. "Okay, this is weird," he pondered, uncomfortably putting an arm round her upper back.

"Thanks," she said with a tinge of sadness in her weeping voice. Zach continued to raise an eyebrow at her actions.

"O…kay…I think this is a friendly hug…oh, who am I kidding? I don't have a clue, people rarely hug me…I'm so unloved…wait, one problem at a time…" he insisted to himself.

"So, what about you?" she asked, sitting up again on the edge of her bed to face him. "How did you meet Candlemon?"

"Well, in the Digital World, the Southern Region to be precise, they thought he was a bit of a weakling, which is pretty typical for there. But, one day, he's just summoned out of the blue to this world…well, he says summoned, I think he just fell through. Anyway, he biomerged, landed on top of me as I ran home from school, and we've had a connection ever since. That was about a year ago I suppose."

A half smile came to Asuka's face. "So many Tamers, it's odd. Hard to believe that at one point we numbered in the single digits."

"Yeah," he pondered. "Look, can we just try to get along?" he asked, looking at the girl curiously. "It's going to be difficult from here on out, and it doesn't help if we bicker, so…I promise I'll be less annoying if, in return, you promise to kiss me," he said cheekily, grinning.

"Not on your life," she answered, a smile coming to her face.

"Cheered you up though," he noted, continuing to smile.

"I always used to find clowns hilarious."

"Hey!"

"Yeah, well you try rewiring a flipping PC sometime…no, I am not making a mountain out of a molehill," Alice muttered to herself, as Candlemon hopped into the room. She stood up, kicking the computer into gear as it started up, smiling as it started as she intended. "Finally…" she said, sighing in relief.

"Hmm…" Candlemon pondered, not making himself known just yet.

"Okay, there we are…Digital Watch," she noted. "Anything new? No, nothing," she continued to ramble. "I think that everyone's still recovering from the initial surprise, but I hope they pull through. If they're alive, that is. No, I am sure they're alive," she muttered.

"Alice is crazy," Candlemon stated to himself.

"At least I've got what I've been searching for," Alice noted.

She reached into her pocket, pulling out a curious item as Candlemon cocked his waxy head. It was a feather, like a bird's feather, albeit slightly larger than the average bird's feather. It wasn't a natural colour though (except maybe for a parrot), with red and orange patterns running along it, a beautiful fiery colour. The candle looked oddly at the item, as she carefully placed it on the desk, pausing as she did so.

"It was easy to find, maybe too easy…it's weird, and I don't even know what it is needed for. I'll find out sometime, and then…then I just hope I can get my reward," she supposed, sighing and yawning. "God, it's late…but," she wondered, looking at the computer. "I can't just leave them here when I go…I have to save them somehow…wait, that's it!" she muttered, beginning to explore the site. "Now just to guide me through it…" she began.

Candlemon yawned, turning and hopping away. He'd think about it at some other time, it really didn't matter right now.

"Hmm...Glad that wasn't Zach or anyone, they might actually suspect something. Candlemon doesn't seem the type to think about things all that much," Alice contemplated, watching the ornamental Digimon leave with a slim smile on her face. "Odd that he didn't realise I noticed him though. Oh well…"

30TH AUGUST 2026

Silence. Utter silence for the first time in more than a hundred years befell the area around the hotel room, allowing Asuka to wake peacefully from her sleep. She yawned, looking around at the odd calm before sitting up, and then standing up out of bed, noting how she still wore her dark blue top and grey skirt, her line of midriff and the creases in her clothes far more substantial than usual thanks to a troubled sleep. Adjusting her clothes as best as she could, she stood up, contemplating how to break the endless wearing of the same clothes she could find a washing machine in the hotel or something to clean them.

"Then again, what would I wear whilst waiting? I mean, Zach was nice and all last night when he talked to me and all, but, I don't particularly trust him to keep his curiosity at bay. I suppose that isn't all that fair though, he may flirt a lot but he's not really a pervert. He just really needs a girlfriend."

A troubling thought crossed Asuka's mind.

"I hope he doesn't want me to be that girlfriend," she contemplated. She had enough on her plate right now, with the death of her partner and probably of her parents too to deal with, and, although it was good to have a friend who could lend an ear to talk and a shoulder to cry on, she really didn't want anything further than that until she at least had some semblance of normality in her life.

"Um, Asuka?" Zach greeted, knocking on the doorframe nervously. He wasn't sure if she would be changing or something. Then again, what would she be changing into?

"Yes Zach?" she asked, standing up and picking up her navy D-Arc from the side table, before clipping the now-useless device onto her skirt.

"Isn't it a bit too quiet?" Zach asked, Candlemon's hopping being the only noise to break the silence.

"Who's meant to be making the noise then?" Asuka asked.

"Yeah, I know that, but it's a bit too…quiet…"

Asuka paused, listening out. It was a bit eerie, even before they could hear the sound of Alice's muttering and her occasional trips to get food or whatnot from the restaurant, but now there was basically silence.

"I'm going to go have a look," Zach said, glancing to his partner who nodded in agreement.

"I'll come with, I don't think we should get split up," Asuka answered, following Zach away as they tiptoed down the corridors and down the stairwell, contemplating the worst. Could Alice be dead? Were they just walking into a trap? Or were they just answering a non-existent question?

Asuka and Zach paused at the bottom of the stairs, glancing at each other when they encountered the stairwell fire door separating it from the reception of the hotel.

"If you're game, then I am," he whispered. She nodded, both pushing a door at once and stepping out into the lobby.

"Shh…" Alice hissed, putting a finger over her mouth at the slight squeaking noise the doors had made. The pair walked across the room to where Alice sat by the computer, Candlemon's hopping making more noise than the pair of them put together. "I said shh…" Alice repeated, glaring at the ornamental Digimon.

"What's up?" Zach whispered, wondering what on earth was going on to prompt such silence.

"Trouble," Alice answered, glancing to the doors. A look of fear crossed Asuka's face.

"Are they coming?" she asked softly.

"They've changed their tracks, and they now go right past the front of the hotel. It's only a matter of time," Alice answered.

"So what? You just shoot them and we're safe," Zach asked, everyone still whispering.

"I have to go," Alice said.

"We'll come with then," Asuka insisted.

"You can't," Alice insisted.

"But you can help us."

"You really can't come with me. I'm sorry," Alice apologised. "I am going to get you out of here alive though."

"How?" Zach asked.

"One second," she procrastinated, turning her screen around to face the centre of the lobby. "Move," she whispered, Zach and Asuka creeping aside. "Now, I'm sorry, but this is going to make a lot of noise," she said, clicking the mouse as the screen glowed. It bulged, energy flowing off it and beginning to settle in the centre of the room, warping reality around it as the other three stared on in shock. Alice frowned, noticing how it wasn't working. She held the gun to a part of the still-opened computer tower, pressing it and disintegrating a component that was restricting power use. Suddenly, waves of data pulsed out of the screen, generating a surprising sight in the centre of the hotel floor.

"A portal?!" Zach questioned, having seen the odd anomaly in pictures on Digital Watch many a time. Asuka was similarly surprised, but Alice looked with a frown towards the window, a series of Artmon approaching.

"They're coming," she noted forebodingly, standing up from the desk and standing behind Asuka, Zach and Candlemon. "You have to go to the Digital World!" she insisted.

"Come with," Asuka encouraged, turning to the woman, who frowned and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but I can't," she insisted.

"Please!" Asuka asked.

"They're going to kill you," Zach added.

"I know," Alice answered.

"I don't want to see another person die," Asuka cried, grabbing Alice's hand.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to die," Alice insisted. "I'm sure we'll meet again, I have other tasks to complete, but I've been glad to help you here," she noted. "Please keep yourself safe, I hope nothing happens to either of you," she added. "Be very careful," she advised.

Zach glanced to Candlemon, nodding in agreement. "Ready bud?" Zach asked.

"Yeah boss," his partner answered. Zach nodded, looking over to Asuka who was still pleading with Alice.

"Please," she asked.

"I'm sorry, I really am," Alice apologised.

"Asuka, we have to go," Zach noted.

"I'm not leaving her behind," Asuka insisted to him.

"I will be fine," Alice insisted.

"So why can't I stay and then we can leave together?" Asuka asked.

"You'll be killed!" Alice insisted. "Trust me on that, you're only safe by leaving."

Zach's eyes widened as he saw the hundred or so Artmon approaching outside. Their notoriety as targets was obviously increasing, and they had to get away.

"Asuka, we have to go, now!" he insisted, his voice alarmed and panicky.

"Go!" Alice insisted, as cannon blasts collided with the hotel.

"No, I won't…" Asuka began again. Zach grabbed her hand before putting his arm round her.

"I am not losing you," he insisted. "You have lost so much, you have to survive!" he insisted, Alice nodding in agreement.

"Let me go!" she yelled, trying to pull herself free.

"I'm sorry," Alice muttered as Candlemon, Zach and a struggling Asuka stepped back into the portal, vanishing in a flash of light.

Alice frowned, holding the gun ready to aim as the Artmon swarmed into the hotel lobby, hesitating. "They're more tactical than I gave them credit for," she contemplated, considering she had a weapon in her hand that could eradicate them all. That wasn't how she planned to use it right now though.

She turned the barrel, frowning as it faced herself.

"Erase," she muttered.

Alice McCoy was no more.

Zach coughed as he looked about his crater, rather sizable and proving that in the Digital World someone could survive a lot more than they could in reality. He sat up and then stood up, rubbing his sore head as he glanced around at the desert-like environment he had ended up in, on his first trip to the Digital World. A grin crossed his face, but was short lived.

"You bastard!" Asuka yelled, leaping at his neck and throwing him to the ground, the pair brawling as Asuka desperately tried to get revenge for what Zach had forced her to do. Tears began to pour down her face, as she punched him in the gut. "You let her die!" she added.

"She escaped…she said she would…"

"She was lying!" Asuka insisted. "You could've helped me force her through the portal, why didn't you?!" she asked, having come to a stop on top of Zach with her hands firmly around his neck. He choked, forcing his words through.

"I'm…not…" he began, before being thankful as she loosened her vice-like grip. He coughed and spluttered before continuing to speak, his mind too oxygen-deprived and in shock to contemplate how she was on top of him, something which he was rather surprised Candlemon hadn't pointed out yet. Where was Candlemon anyway? "I'm not that strong," he finished.

"So why did you drag me through?!" she asked, her eyes red with emotion as she glared at him bitterly.

"I didn't want to see a friend die," he answered, frowning at the concept. She paused, not sure how to reply.

Cannons clicked.

"Um, boss…little help here…" Candlemon murmured, as Zach and Asuka looked around at the dozen Artmon now surrounding them.

"Crap…" Zach cursed.

TO BE CONTINUED…

A lovely action and emotion-packed chapter there, as I create a ton of mystery concerning Alice. I was originally going to put the end bit in the next chapter, but I think it makes a nice ending and it's always good to have two friends at each others' throats, particularly literally.

I've only got one more chapter left that I'm able to do until it rests on some Book Seven plot elements, and it is going to be very interesting indeed.

Until next time…