Prologue

"Beautiful things,
Those scars that tell a life's story,
Don't disregard
The silent warning,
Before you've heard
The hated song."

Year: Unknown
Location: Unknown

The boxes of newspapers were stacked precariously against one wall of the small room, the other wall covered in even more clippings and photos than any one place had a right to be. A single bulb hung from a thin wire in the ceiling, swinging in a slow rhythm above the only visible chair. The ancient, far outdated setup was beyond even what technology the neko packs would risk but it served its purpose well enough.
A teenage boy sat in the chair, his feet propped on the table as he dozed while atop the table watching him was a small mouse digimon.
The mouse digimon raised its head as a young girl suddenly appeared in the room, her age no more than six and a pink rabbit digimon held tightly in her arms.
"Mausumon, good to see you again..." the child scanned the cramped room a moment before turning her eyes to the sleeping boy "Rekke sahōdara, get up!"
The boy startled, the chair knocking backwards and landing him painfully on his back with a box threatening to topple on him. He rolled clear of the box as it fell, dumping its contents across the floor, and finally rose back to his knees before turning to the intruder.
"Samaya! That was not funny, do you realize how many newspapers I've collected in that one box?!" the words were only partly angry though as he rubbed his neck and stood before engulfing her in a hug, "It is good to see you again though sahōdari, what brings you back to our little corner of the world?"
The little girl was barely suppressing a giggle at him but she gladly returned the hug, setting her digimon on the table beside the other. "I came to see you of course, Beḷaku says time is drawing short."
"What does that old wolf know?" Rekke turned from her then and righted the toppled chair before placing the damaged box in it, black lettering across the side reading 2193. He began picking up the displaced newspapers, stopping as an article caught his attention.
"What is it?" Samaya rose to her tip-toes as she peered around him to see the paper, "The Treaty of Cold Rivers, it seems so long ago now…"
"Yeah…" Rekke shook himself of the memory and dropped the newspaper back in the box with the others, "Tell Beḷaku I'll be ready, not much else to do anyway."
Samaya nodded as she retrieved her digimon, patting the little mouse a moment before she vanished just as suddenly as she had come.
Rekke sighed as she left, shoving the box back in its spot on the wall, and turned to regard the mouse digimon, "Guess it's just us again Squeak, sometimes I wish we could go back…"
The mouse digimon shook its head, rising onto its back legs as it returned the gaze, "We cannot go back, we do not exist to return…"

Year: July 7, 2299
Location: New Chester County, Americanus North Neutral

"Get a move on you lazy lumps!"
Ryan took one look at his angry father and ducked out of the room just in time to avoid a magazine thrown at him. He might only have been two but he knew his father's moods as well as Keith, who was actually the cause of the yelling.
Keith was already lean and mean at ten and didn't much care what their father, Carl, thought. He was the only child of Carl's first wife, Vadeous, and he resented his father for remarrying.
He was leaning against the wall opposite the door and watching Carl with narrowed eyes, he didn't even bother moving to retrieve the magazine that had been snatched out of his hands.
"How can you even live in this room? You don't clean up, you don't wash, you don't do anything!" Carl looked ready to beat his older son but was distracted by a shout from down the hall.
He gave one last angry glare at Keith, then turned and shot down the hall, not even noticing Ryan still crouched outside the door.
Ryan peeked in at his brother again, who still hadn't moved, then turned and tottered down the hall after his father.
Before he got there another yell nearly deafened him, a cry of pure pain.
Ryan poked his head in to see his mother laying on her side, her eyes unfocused as she let out another shriek. Carl was beside her, trying his best to soothe her and looking around wildly for the phone.
Ryan spotted it first and snatched it up before rushing to his father's side. Carl just nodded absently though and took the phone before dialing a quick number and retreating to another room where he could hear.
Ryan stayed beside his mother until the doctors came and forced him into the other room, and then the little toddler finally broke down and cried into his pillow.

The next morning he was awoken by crying in the next room and carefully crept over to investigate. Lying in the crib beside the door was a little baby girl that was crying for food but Ryan quickly forgot about her as he rushed to his mother's side.
She was deathly cold and Ryan knew she was dead before Carl came in and told him. His father's eyes were red rimmed from his sleepless night and he cast one glance at the baby before leaving again "Shut her up Ryan"
Ryan gave him a shocked glance then, not wanting to anger his father, quietly went over and quieted the baby "Shh...I'll find you some milk somewhere. It'll be alright Amaya."

Year: January 3, 2302
Location: Digital World

The digital world was in chaos and close to collapse when the three digidestined found each other: the hot-headed Strike with courage, the strange wise girl Crystal with vision, and the former wolf pack member Zev with light.

"Let me go, we have to try again!" Zev's voice was almost desperate as he broke away from Crystal's grip and retrieved his digivice, his partner gabumon right beside him.
"Can't you see we're losing? We should have waited for the others" Crystal's voice was sharp but she wasn't fast enough to grab the wolf-boy again.
Strike leapt onto a crumbling roof as he popped two tokens into his digivice "The digital world can't wait for the others; we fight today or die in the shadows waiting for it to come to us"
A blinding light flashed as the two boys forced the tokens to work, forced a digivolution.
Crystal glanced down at her own digivice and her partner elecmon "I don't guess we have a choice…"
The corrupt digimon were almost upon them now and the one calling himself 'Greed' was in the lead. The battle was brutal but completely one-sided, the forced evolutions timing out far too soon and the tokens crumbling away into dust.
Strike and Crystal retreated then, they had no choice but to give up on the digital world and hope they could protect the real world when the time came. Zev however hesitated, reluctant to give up and unsure what he could do, but he too finally turned and ran as darkness closed upon the digital world.