DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon, but I do own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories (except where stated).


CHAPTER 5

His Realisation


REAL WORLD

Hypnos, Floor 29, Tokyo Metropolitan Building

11:03 JST

3rd July 2010

The silence of many minds thinking had descended on the chamber, the rest of the Monster Makers having arrived by now. The deathly silence was interrupted only by Terriermon's jokes about it. The waiting was unbearable, despite all that Henry had asked, Terriermon refused to tell what the disc contained, and Ryder seemed to be taking a while. Then again, the fact that they were eager for him to arrive was making time drag somewhat, a fact proven when Henry glanced to the time on his D-Arc.

"Henry, that's the fourth time this minute, give it a rest!" Terriermon complained. "Unless you're trying to alter time with your mind…although…on Heroes, that guy did…you are Japanese…"

"Half Chinese…" Henry corrected.

"Same difference, potato potato!" Terriermon replied.

"Henry, tell your partner to be quiet or else…" Yamaki snapped, the agitation getting to him as he clicked his lighter.

Henry turned his eyes upwards, glaring at his partner.

"Hey, I'm only making conversation; everyone else has gone quiet…geez, computer geeks really are unsociable…" he complained.

"This couldn't possibly get any worse…" Yamaki muttered to himself, and then frowned as the man once again arrived through the sliding doors. "For the last time, give us a link to Digimon or go away!" he complained, the man literally shivering with fright.

"But sir…another building collapsed, and they're all in a line…" he replied, his voice quaky and scared.

"I said, give me a link to Digimon or…" Yamaki began to reply.

"In a line?" Terriermon asked.

"Yeah…" the man replied, noting the unexpected source, a small cream dog-bunny, a creature whose existence he still found incredible. He was also thankful, since it gave him a chance to look away from Yamaki's glare without seeming insolent.

"Isn't that a bit too perfect?" Henry asked.

The man nodded. "That's what we thought, and then we noticed that they were every half hour…"

"So?" Yamaki asked angrily. "What does this mean?"

"Um…we don't know yet sir…"

"Then find out! Send a team to the next building that fits the pattern!" Yamaki scolded.

"Yes sir!" the man replied, quickly making his leave.

"Well, you certainly aren't a people person type of boss…" Ryder replied, stepping aside at his place at the sliding doors as the man rushed past.

"What took you so long?" Terriermon asked.

"Terriermon!" Henry complained.

"Your stupid disk!" MiniDonmon complained in response. "Henry has got to have the most untidy bedroom ever…"

"MiniDonmon, compared to Takato's or mine back home even, his is positively sparking…" Ryder told his partner.

"I'm sorry, but we haven't got the liberty of time to make jokes. Ryder, we need you to look at the data…" Janyuu told the boy, who nodded, stepping forward to get a better look at the information displayed across the panoramic screen.

"So give me a quick summary…" Ryder asked.

"Basically…" Riley replied. "The number of Digimon being created in the Digital World has dropped to zero, and the number of Digimon in total is dropping dramatically…"

"What?!" Ryder asked, looking to Riley, and then back to the data.

"At this rate, there'll be just one Digimon left eventually that has absorbed the data of all the others…" Henry noted.

"What's causing the drop?" Ryder asked.

"That's what we need you to figure out…" Yamaki told him. "And you better figure it out soon, or that world will destroy itself…"

"Since when did you care?" Terriermon asked. "Last time I checked, you weren't exactly our biggest fan!"

"Terriermon, don't look gift horses in the mouth…" Henry told his partner. "He's helping, that's all we have to care about."

Ryder looked at the data, his mind wandering about. 'What would possibly cause such a drop?' he thought. 'Okay, let's go through this logically, first of all, how are Digimon made?'

Ryder's eyes widened as the truth dawned on him, his realisation bringing a shocking result.

"Oh crap…" he cursed.

"What's wrong?" MiniDonmon asked.

"I figured it out…"

"So, what is it?" Terriermon asked. Ryder paused, checking his idea was soundproof before continuing. "Come on already!" Terriermon added, annoyed at his pause.

"Well, five weeks ago, we destroyed Yggdrasil…" Ryder began. Henry's eyes widened as he began to get the idea.

"You're not suggesting that…" Henry began.

Ryder nodded, and Henry stopped talking, allowing Ryder to continue. "Yggdrasil created all life in the Digital World; any decrease in Digimon was met by an increase in creation rates, any increase in Digimon met by a fall, creating a steady amount of Digimon in the world."

"Good method it seems…" Janyuu noted.

"Yeah, shame he was a complete arrogant b…" Terriermon began.

"Terriermon!" Henry complained.

"What, it's true! He tried to kill us Henry, don't you remember?! Geez, I thought you were the one with all the brains around here…"

"Terriermon is actually right; the presence of a being like Yggdrasil would probably always lead to the same ending, the one we've seen. The very position is inevitably going to create insecurity about powers, primarily since he wasn't a God but everyone believed he was, and to maintain that particular belief he had to eliminate all other Gods that could usurp him, and take as much control as he could, such as that over the Royal Knights, who in turn created fear about Yggdrasil, increasing his status" Ryder explained.

Henry nodded. "But still the problem remains, how can we get the Digital World back to normal?"

"No idea…" Ryder replied.

"Ryder, pass me the disc…" Terriermon instructed. Ryder nodded and span it through the air, somehow perfectly landing between Terriermon's ears, which he raised to catch.

"Wow, that was pretty impressive Ryder…" Henry noted, echoing the surprise of the others in the room.

"Thanks, I've been working on my probability manipulation…" Ryder replied. "So what's on the disc that's so important?"

"The solution…I had a hunch what the problem was, so I asked you to get it…" Terriermon said to Ryder.

"What exactly is it?" MiniDonmon asked.

"I need to check its working first…" Terriermon replied. "Hey Yam! Any chance we can go use a computer somewhere?" he asked, getting a glare in return from Yamaki at the name.

"I can show you to one…" Shibumi said. "But what exactly is it?"

"Top secret…" Terriermon replied, winking. Henry sighed, as Shibumi nodded, and the blue-haired Tamer followed the Monster Maker out of the room, through the sliding doors once again, which let a brief blast of sunlight into the chamber.

"So what do we do now?" MiniDonmon asked.

Yamaki was about to reply, but was interrupted by the telephone on his desk. He walked over to it, and picked it up.

"Mitsuo Yamaki of Hypnos speaking…"

"Sir, we have now got a serious problem…"

Yamaki frowned, although he was thankful that it wasn't the youngest of the team downstairs once again, and instead one of the more senior members, it still annoyed him because of how irritating their youngest member of the team was.

Yamaki tapped a button, and the call began to be played out over the speaker, allowing all in the room to hear.

"What is it?"

"The difference between the buildings seemed to increase by 1 each time, so it went 1st building, 4th building, and then 8th building. Based on this, we assumed that the next building would be the 13th, and that it would collapse 30 minutes after the previous one."

"So what happened then?"

"The team arrived at the 13th building, but it was too late, and the wrong building too. The thing is, only 25 minutes separated the latest two, the rate appears to be increasing."

"So what building collapsed then?"

"The 9th…"

"Huh? That doesn't fit a pattern…1, 4, 8, 9…" Ryder noted.

"Any ideas sir?"

"We'll work on it; send teams to the next few buildings in the line…" Yamaki ordered.

"Okay…"

The phone hung up, and Yamaki turned to the others.

"Looks like this is our problem now…" he said gruffly.

"The regularity suggests it is something to do with Digimon…" Janyuu noted.

"A very sick and twisted Digimon…" Rai added.

"Hmm…" Ryder pondered. "Riley, can you plot out all the points so far onto a map of Tokyo…" Ryder asked. Riley nodded, and began to type away, the map soon appearing.

"Can you add a line running through each of the buildings and extend it to create a map of where could be attacked?" Yamaki asked, in response to which a long line appeared.

"Guys, not to worry you or anything, but that line passes through this building…" MiniDonmon noted in alarm.

"Whoever is playing this sick and twisted game has us as their final target…" Ryder said.

"So what do we do?" MiniDonmon asked.

"We have to figure out the pattern so we can confront whatever is doing this…" Ryder replied.

"But what kind of a pattern is 1, 4, 8 and then 9?" Yamaki asked.

"Hmm…" Ryder pondered.


Shinjuku Park

11:32 JST

Rika lay on the sloped grass; eyes closed as the air calmly blew through her hair, occasionally making her need to sweep away the stray hairs sweeping across her face. She heard Kristy stomping around nearby, the laughter of her and Calumon resounding through the air as Kudamon moved gently along the ground and Calumon floated with his ears through the clear summer day. White clouds floated through the blue sky above as Rika watched, the world seeming so peaceful, despite what she knew about the chaos erupting elsewhere in Tokyo. Her inner turmoil also clashed with the calm, as she noticed she had once again placed her hand on her belly, a move that only Renamon sitting silently on the branch of a tree nearby knew the significance of.

"Rika…" said the sister of the redhead, attracting the girl's attention.

"Yeah…" Rika replied, looking round to see her sister.

"I'm going home now, are you coming or…"

Rika shook her head, sighing. "I'm going to stay here for a while…okay?" she asked. Kristy nodded, waving goodbye as she turned to her partner, who leapt on her shoulder.

"Aww…everyone's leaving…" Calumon complained. "I'm going to go find food!" he cheered, his sadness immediately vanishing as he raced away.

Rika sighed; she was alone with her thoughts once again. Naturally, Renamon was still there, but she sat silently on a tree, eyes closed, a pose that would look like sleeping to anyone else, as she silently contemplated the situation.

'I wish I could help her, but I am not sure what I could possibly do. I do not wish to stand back and simply watch, but it looks like I do not have a choice…' the yellow fox thought sadly.

"Rika?" came a voice from nearby, and Rika glanced to the side to see her fellow Tamer, Jeri, approaching along the path at walking pace, a tired Elecmon following quietly behind.

"Hey Jeri…" Rika replied, her voice lacking any enthusiasm.

"Are you okay?" the brunette asked, sitting down on the ground next to the redhead, who sat up in order to be better able to talk to her friend and fellow Tamer. Her partner closed his eyes for some shuteye.

"Yeah…"

Jeri frowned; Rika seemed to be acting odd, not particularly moody, but just…depressed was probably the word that best described the way she looked. Her expression was neither happy not particularly sad, simply blank, without a look of contemplation, rather a look of resignment.

"What's wrong?" Jeri asked, concern dominating her voice.

"Nothing…" Rika replied.

"It doesn't look like nothing, are you sure that you're really okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…"

Jeri frowned, glancing into her friend's eyes. This wasn't normal Rika, although she could be moody at some times occasionally, right now this was far more than that. She glanced behind, to Renamon standing on the tree, nodding to her. Renamon seemed quiet, simply nodding subtly, a move that wouldn't register on most people's minds. Renamon was normally subtle, but this was far more than that.

"I heard about this morning…" Jeri noted. "Does it still hurt?" she asked.

Rika frowned, and lifted her shirt slightly, displaying some bruises running along the bottom of her torso, along the right hand side and part of her front and back adjacent, where her shirt had been lifted by the grazing across the ground before. "BigMamemon…he threw a bomb at me…Renamon pushed me to the ground, but I landed on my side…if she hadn't, the bomb would've hit me…"

"Wow, that looks like it hurts. What did the Doctor say?"

Rika frowned, recalling what she actually said, which was far more surprisingly than what Jeri would ever imagine she would say. "She said that it was nothing major…just that I needed to rest up…"

"So what are you doing here?"

"Resting…well, actually Takato and my sister were here earlier, but they each went home…"

"So why did you go to the hospital?"

"Rey told me to…"

"Really? Is she back?" Jeri asked, looking around eagerly.

Rika shook her head. "No…she told me it a few weeks ago…when Takato and I were stuck in the Digital World…"

Jeri nodded, understanding, but still having a question. "So why did she tell you that then? Seems a bit odd…"

"No idea…it was nothing in the end…nothing at all…"

"So why are you upset?"

"I just…am…it's that time of the…"

"No it isn't…" Jeri interrupted.

"Huh?" Rika asked.

"We can tell, it's when you go insane…Terriermon has cottoned onto the fact, and normally shuts up for a few days now…"

"Hmm, shame, I should leave him guessing, shut him up all the time…"

Jeri chuckled, glad to see elements of the old Rika within this new façade she seemed to have.

"So what is causing this then?" she asked.

Rika frowned. "Look…Jeri…you're my friend, but I just…can't tell you…"

"Why, what is so important that you can't tell me?"

"I really can't tell you…"

Jeri frowned. "Well…if you feel like talking, contact me, okay?" she asked. Rika smiled and nodded. "I'm going to Hypnos…I presume you've heard?"

Rika nodded, frowning. "Yeah, two buildings collapsed…"

"Four…it's increasing…"

"What?"

"Yeah, I heard about the latest one on my way here…Henry contacted me and told me to come to Hypnos…it must be about the collapsing buildings…."

Rika nodded, the crisis attracting her intrigue. "Hypnos is involved?" she asked.

"Yeah, they suspect that something Digital is involved by the sounds of it…do you want to come?" Jeri asked.

"No…" Rika replied, surprising the brunette, who looked at her inquisitively, looking for some explanation for her friend's odd behaviour.

"Who are you and what did you do with Rika?" Elecmon asked, yawning as he got up, and looked to the redhead. Jeri chuckled.

"I just…don't feel like it…okay?" Rika replied, frowning once more.

"I've never seen you back down from a potential fight before, something must be up…" Jeri commented.

"I said that it's nothing!" Rika snapped. Jeri looked on in surprise at Rika's rash reaction.

"Sorry…" she apologised.

"No, I'm sorry…" Rika replied, realising that she had let her temper get out of control. 'And so the mood swings begin…' she thought, frowning. "I'm just not in the best of moods…" she replied.

Jeri smiled to reassure her friend. Whatever Rika was going through, it was clearly nothing that she would be able to find out about. She simply hoped that the girl would be back to her normal, Terriermon-beating self soon enough. Until then, she had to see Henry; she had to find out about these buildings, before more people got hurt by whatever was causing it. She hated seeing people get hurt, it was part of her nature, and led to her disgust at the D-Reaper and how it used her emotions to hurt people even more. Some wounds had healed, such as Leomon, but that event in her life would always remain with her, regardless of what she did. And she had faced it, she had passed it, and she had decided to help everyone in order to make up for the pain she had caused to so many. She wished that she could help Rika, make her feel better, heal her wounds. But she knew she couldn't, she couldn't heal everyone, but she would try to heal as many as she could, to the best of her abilities.

"Don't worry…" Jeri replied, smiling with her eyes closed to reassure her friend. "Bye…" she replied, standing up and walking away, Elecmon promptly following.

"Bye…" Rika replied, watching her friend leave, heading down the same path that Kristy had left via, and Takato before her.

Everyone had tried to get through to her, everyone had tried to help. And she rejected them.

Rika had never hated herself as much as she did at that moment. Knowing that Jeri was out of earshot, she screamed with frustration to herself, no sound escaping her mouth as she put her hands on the sides of her head and pushed her head down into her lap.

"Frustrated?" a voice asked.

"Rey…" Rika replied, her voice angry and full of malice. She turned to one side; to face the girl bending down to talk to her who had caused almost as much frustration as she felt right now. She looked up and into the surprised girl's eyes, Rey unexpecting Rika's reaction. "Why don't you just piss off?!" Rika told her in anger. "What the hell do you get out of tormenting me like this?"

"Rika…" Rey began.

"Who the hell are you Rey? You don't exist, what the hell does that mean? I'm sick to the back teeth of all this crap; tell me who the hell you are…Rey Matsuki, who are you?!" Rika replied, standing up with fists clenched out of anger.

Rey frowned, looking to the ground, before returning a glance equally as angry as the other redhead's trademark one. "Why should I tell you who I am when you can't even tell Takato that you're pregnant yourself?!"

Rika's fists loosened, as she quaked. "I'm…scared…"

"Of what?"

"Of losing Takato…"

"What?"

"All through my life, I've lost people and Digimon who I care about due to my own fault…I lost Renamon once because I wasn't strong enough to stop Hypnos…I stood there when Kazemon was stripped to her very core as she screamed in pain and joined the mass of data floating above Domain because I wasn't strong enough to stop their deaths in time…I let my anger control me, and I almost lost Renamon as well…even my birth, my very birth, caused me to lose my dad…I haven't seen him since I was a little girl, I can't even remember his voice for God's sake!" Rika said, scrunching up her eyes in pain as she clenched her fists again. Tears welled in her eyes, and Rey looked in the girl's eyes in sadness, seeing her pain and misery.

Rey pulled the girl into an embrace, Rika's head going over her shoulder as she put her arms around her, and she began to cry, trying to hold it back as much as she could. She felt Rika quaking in sadness.

"I don't…I don't want to lose him too…" she said emotionally.

Rey frowned sadly, pulling Rika closer in her arms. Seeing her of all people crying was strange enough, as a teenager increasing that oddity far more, and that only heightened the sadness of the scene.

"You have to tell him…" Rey told her.

"But I don't want to hurt him…I don't want to lose him…"

"You'll hurt him more if you don't tell him…"

Rey felt Rika nod, and then she pulled away, violet meeting azure as each stared into the others eyes.

"Rey…can I ask you something?" Rika asked emotionally.

Rey frowned slightly, anticipating that Rika would once again ask for her identity, and that she would have to deny her that information once again, an act which hurt her every time she had to do it, not least when Rika was this emotional, her logic and sense gone. She didn't understand the timestream exactly, but she didn't want to anticipate what would happen if her interference were to cause Rika to do, god forbid, something that she wouldn't have done otherwise. Rey nodded in response.

"Am I a good mother?" Rika asked inquisitively.

Rey looked on in surprise, blindsided by Rika's question that she had been unable to anticipate. "What?"

"Am I a good mother when I'm older? My son or daughter, are they okay?"

Rey nodded. "You're the best mother in the world Rika…" she replied, smiling to reassure the redhead.

Rika was slightly reassured by what the redhead had said, but she felt that, even if Rey was from the future, she wouldn't know exactly how much of a good mother she would be, since only her actual son or daughter would be in the position to know that. "Thanks…" she replied.

Rey looked into Rika's eyes, and made a decision that she never expected to make. She reached into her pocket, grabbing around for what she needed. Rika looked on in curiosity as Rey pulled out a piece of paper, and then a pen, which she pressed against her D-Vice and began to write on. "Look…if you ever need me…this is my cell phone number…" she told the girl, handing the piece of paper to the surprised girl with the white and pale blue shirt in front of her.

"Wow, this is a long number…" Rika noted.

"Yeah…" Rey replied. "It'll let you contact me, even when I'm travelling in time…in which case, I'll be pulled out of the warp into your time in order to answer it…"

"Huh? How does that work?" Rika asked curiously. "Surely when you're travelling in time, you're ahead of us in terms of events, so the call couldn't possibly be answered by you in the future to a time now?"

"It's…complicated…" Rey began, pulling out another piece of paper and mounting it on her D-Vice. She began to draw some lines, a creating small band running across the paper in the centre, and larger bands either side to top and bottom. She wrote Future in the top part, Present in the middle, and Past in the bottom. She drew arrows above the Present band, pointing up into the Future band.

"Wow, you're a really good artist…" Rika noted.

"Thanks…I had a good teacher…" Rey replied, smiling, as she began to explain the image. "How it works is that where we are now is the Present, which slowly progresses along at normal speed, taking events from the future band and leaving events behind it in the past. But the present band never changes, it always moves at a constant rate. I may be from the future, but this is still the present technically, despite feeling like the past to me. Therefore, if I am…" Rey drew a cross in the Future area. "…here, then if you call me from the present, you can still contact me, since my reference point on my time device is the present day."

Rika looked at the girl, nodding. "I think I understand…what happens when this present band reaches the future though, surely when you do come back then, this won't be the present band?"

"Time isn't that simple…it's not completely linear, you can jump probability tracks like that…" she replied, clicking her fingers. "Just like Ryder does with his retconning abilities. As the Tenth Angel of Destiny, I can feel the flow of destiny, the flow of events towards what will happen if the present probability is continued…which it will inevitably unless altered by someone outside of the destiny flow, such as myself, or Ryder."

"Huh? Ryder is outside destiny?"

"Yes, he was born outside this universe, he has no destiny in it, and hence he truly has free will. He can change events in the future and past with no personal effects; he has no grandfather in this universe to kill. Sure, he could kill Kazuya's grandfather, but destiny in his universe would still insist on throwing him into this universe, that's how this all happened. Despite the results, his destiny in his universe ended with him being thrown out of it and into this one. That's what makes him such an important figure amongst the Angels, everyone has free will naturally, but he has free will far beyond that, beyond probability, time, anything. Everyone else is affected by time's effects; the flow of time will take the straightest course possible that it can, altering events, perceptions, even thoughts and the ability to put clues together, in order to ensure that. Ryder is free of this; he is the only one who is resistant to this flow, an ability that will serve him well in the future."

"Doesn't that make him a huge threat?"

"Both that, and an asset. I have the same ability, being outside of my own time means I am also free of the effects, although to less of an extent than him, since if I were to provoke my mother into suicide, or into abortion before I was born, I would be eliminated, creating a paradox, which would waste my single chance I have to make a paradox that will not destroy itself. I have to stop an event in the future Rika, and then activate the device built into this time device that will prevent the paradox from taking effect. And that event is…something I can't tell you…"

"But why do you want to prevent it in the first place?"

Rey frowned, wind ruffling through her red hair. "There's a war…in my time, there's a huge war raging, people are being killed and there is seemingly nothing we can do…it was Ryder's idea for me to travel back in time, to try and fix things. He built this time device, and then he altered it to install the paradox prevention device, but it is only usable once. You see, everything that happened, all this war, all this torment, all this bloodshed, was caused by an event back in your time, an event that caused something that you didn't even notice until it was far too late."

Rika frowned; she had learnt some things, but not enough. "Please…tell me…who are you?"

Rey frowned. "Look Rika, I promise…I'll tell you…as soon as the time is right…"

"But what does that mean?"

"Rika…you have to tell the others about the baby…"

"Huh?"

"Rika, please…you have to do it…"

"But…I'm scared…"

"Once you tell him, you'll have him by your side, and then, you'll face things together. And then I'll tell you the truth…if I can get my time device homed in on the right point, that is." Rey told her, gesturing to the device on her arm. "I have to go now…" Rey told the other redhead.

"Thanks…for the talk…" Rika replied, smiling bravely.

"No problem…" Rey replied, smiling and nodding, as she pulled Rika into a quick kiss that lasted less than a second, her pulling away quickly after when she realised what she was doing, but would surprise Rika until she learnt the truth.

Rika's eyes widened afterwards, looking on in shock as Rey.

"Oh…crap…" Rey cursed, turning red in embarrassment as she tried not to look at Rika in the eyes. "Sorry, force of habit…"

"What?!" Rika asked. "What the hell kind of habit would make you kiss me randomly?!"

"Got to go…" Rey replied, quickly tapping the buttons on her time device.

"Wait!" Rika called, putting her hand out, and touching thin air as a flash of light forced her to use the other hand to cover her eyes. She frowned, putting both hands down as she saw that Rey had gone. "You always leave Rey…I want to find out who you are…I just hope…that I'll find out soon…"

TO BE CONTINUED…


An emotional chat between Rika and Rey that will either add evidence to your suspicions, or throw you completely for a loop, particularly the ending.

On top of that, a talk between Rika and Jeri that shows Rika's holding back of her secret, and also some more information on Hypnos' problems. Please review.

Next time…

What the hell is wrong with Rey? Who is she anyway? What is on Terriermon's disc? And what is the pattern?

Find out in 'His Pattern', Chapter Six of Dimensions Book Five: Demons.