DISCLAIMER: The following story contains various themes and subject matter that may not be suitable for children under the age of thirteen. Viewer discretion is advised.

Digimon

GODFALL

By. Sonfaro

Chapter 6

I don't know what the hell we're dealing with.

But I don't like it.

I let my revelation settle among us. Above me, the image of the Digiworld continues to float unabashed, it's colors blotted out by the huge stain of black wires reaching beneath. This should have been something we heard about: something we stopped long before it got to this point. But we didn't. We trusted our elders to do the right thing and now we're paying the consequences.

"Let me get this straight," Tai folds his arms with a frown. "These guys snuck into the Digital World three years ago, woke up some ancient alien thing at the bottom of admittedly 'forbidden' ruins, and we're only hearing about this now!"

I nod slowly. "That's what it looks like," I mutter through clenched teeth.

"That's sneaky!" Agumon growls. "Why would they keep something like this a secret for so long?"

"They probably had no intention of telling us," Gabumon notes. "I'm guessing this would have made the MAGAMI Corporation a lot of money, right Matt?"

"No doubt," I nod.

Rei looks between us, a look of puzzlement on her face. "Um… what is it the black wires are supposed to do?"

"We don't know for sure," I tell her. "But we know it affects humans severely and somehow your Gizmon are connected to them."

"If it keeps spreading the Gizmon could keep spreading too," Tai explains. "And if they're willing to attack us just for moving close to them, I don't think they'd be too keen on sharing with the rest of the Digiworld."

"B-but what good would letting the Digiworld be swallowed like that do?" Rei asks with a hand to her chin.

"I don't know," I admit. "It could be they just didn't want to get caught and were so arrogant that they'd be willing to let an entire world choke to death."

Rei's face distorts with disgust. "How despicable."

"You're telling me…" I nod.

Tai frowns. "Go back to the last entry. Let's see what happened to them."

I return to the computer and scroll down, reading over their notes as quickly as I can. "Their last entry is the discovery of wires under Neo-Delhi. It looks like they didn't think it was spreading that far that fast. They realized that they had lost control of the life form… It's weird. It's like they were betrayed or something. Like they had made some sort of deal with the creature and by expanding under Neo-Delhi it broke the deal."

"What kind of deal?" Asks Gabumon.

"I don't know. Something about a… quantum accelerator? I'm not sure what that is. I just know there are a lot more curses used in this entry than in the one I read before. A lot of talk about being found out…" My frown deepens as I read further, my own sense of dread growing within me.

Tai leans over my shoulder, trying to understand what I'm seeing. "What is it?"

I frown, turning to the Digidestined of courage. "It wasn't a research team MAGAMI sent. It was an extermination team!"

"Nn?"

"They had decided to 'end the program' and had brought along codes for some kind of antivirus software that was supposed to kill it. This camp was supposed to evacuate while the team from Neo-Delhi dealt with the problem. This research business was just a company cover."

"That would explain why no one's here right?" Agumon asks.

"Not exactly," I tell him.

"Nn? Why not?"

I frown, looking over the notes again. "This camp was ordered to leave no trace. But we're here, and we've got their name plastered on every tent we've seen."

Gabumon's eyes widen slowly. "Something got to them before they got away."

"That's what I'm thinking. Something must have kept the extermination team from doing their job."

Tai straightens with a sigh. "Do you think Mina and the others knew about this?"

I shake my head. "No. It looks like kept the Tamer guard pretty much in the dark. Heck, it doesn't even look like the team they sent stepped foot out here. They made an immediate beeline for the ruins from Neo-Delhi."

"…Which means they could still be down there!" Agumon shouts.

Gabumon frowns. "If they're still alive…"

The four of us bow our heads.

"Um… Is there anything else about the guards?" I turn to face the girl, who fidgets under my gaze. "Eh… maybe one of them was me?"

"Matt?" Tai asks. I sigh and take a look.

"There isn't much," I explain to them. "No names. Just that they were joined by a group of experienced Tamers for protection till they shut down the program. Nothing else."

"Oh," she whispers, defeated. "I hoped that maybe… They'd know me or…"

"Know of you," I finish. "Sorry. It looks like these guys only cared about their own assets."

She nods, unhappy but accepting. "Okay."

I don't wait to respond. Quickly, I reach for the metal briefcase we brought along with us and unlatch the thing. Tai stands over my shoulder, curious. "What the heck is that thing?"

"Some sort of trans-dimensional cell phone."

He makes a face. "Why is it the size of a small dog?"

I roll my eyes. "I have no idea."

He frowns, leaning closer to me. "You're planning on calling Izzy with that thing?"

"It's all we've got." I bite out as I try to dial Izzy's number from memory.

"You could text him," Tai mumbles, but by then the phone is on my ear. I glare at him anyway.

It takes a while, but amazingly I begin to hear the ringing of a human phone at the other end. It takes three rings for Izzy to pick up. "Hello, Koushiro Izumi speaking?"

"Izzy?"

"Oh, Matt! Prodigious, the phone works. What kind of reception are you getting? Professor Kogure suggested that the signal strength could handle the output at that distance, but I'm not so sure that the entanglements would give way to-"

"In a minute Izzy," I halt his techno-speak. "You've got some explaining to do."

"Me? What did I do?" There is hesitation in his voice. "Is Tai alright?"

"I… he's fine."

Tai blinks and leans into me. "Is he talking about me?"

I push his face away. "We've got some things to discuss."

"What things? Are you sure Tai's alright? I saw his signal fluctuate earlier. Were you two in a battle?"

"Uh, something like that."

Tai snatches the phone from me. "Let me see the phone. Izzy?"

"TAI!" I make out from the receiver.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Are you alright!"

"I'm fine Izzy, I told you not to worry."

"You told me Matt was okay with you staying behind!" I hear Izzy shout on the other end.

Tai pouts. "What is he my mom?"

I snatch the phone back from Tai, glaring at my brunette friend. "Izzy, stay on topic!"

"I don't know what the topic is. What did I do?"

I sigh. "It's about MAGAMI."

I can almost hear Izzy's frown on the other end. "What did we do?"

"For one you guys weren't being honest with Mina." I bark a little harsher than I intend. "This wasn't a research team, and the wires aren't new. MAGAMI's known about this for years."

"Years?"

"Three of them."

"Impossible. I would have heard something by now."

"It's very possible. We're standing in their campground staring at their reports. We've got paramilitary grade machine guns in the back and a report about something alive growing in the deserts. What is going on Izzy?"

His voice disappears from the loud earpiece for a moment. When it returns, it is quieter, and far more hesitant. "I...I don't know. I hadn't heard anything like that, honest. We had a company meeting and everyone here is very nervous. I don't know anything about what happened three years ago, I wasn't here then." There is a sigh at the other end. "That's no excuse. I should have looked deeper. It's my fault."

I blink, then relax, realizing I'd come across too strong. "It isn't your fault; we just need you to tell us what you know."

"I've told you. A team was sent in and they've been missing for a few days and everyone is worried about them. We were told they were investigating wiring, and that's all."

I frown. "That's not a lot to go on."

"Sorry," I hear him sigh on the other end.

I set the phone to my head for a minute, trying to focus. If they were able to sneak something like this past Izzy it must have been deep. Izzy's managed to hack into Government run programs within a few minutes – just for the sake of proving it could be done. For MAGAMI to have stumped Koushiro Izumi is something else. That's a level of deception we haven't dealt with before. Still, now that he knows what we're dealing with he should be able to find more information. And that information might include what we're looking for.

"Hey. We've got a couple of favors we need on your end," I say when I bring the phone back to my ear.

"What is it?"

"First, we'd like you to get in contact with someone with free time today and tomorrow. We think we're going to need backup"

Tai frowns beside me. "We?"

I ignore him and wait for Izzy's reply. "Okay. I think Davis is finished studying. He can be there later today.

"Do you know if Ken's out of his open house German thing?"

"Not sure. I can look into it. You think you'll need Imperialdramon?"

I sigh. "I hope not, but it would make things go by easier."

"Alright, I'll give them both a call. If all goes well they should be with you in a few hours. I'll stick around the lab just in case… I'll tell them I'm pulling an all-nighter. It's clear something is going on around here. I'll start lo-king into it right n-."

"Izzy you're breaking up."

He makes a confusing sound on the other end. "Cr-p. The Trans-dimensi-nal phone still has some kinks to -ork out. Probably not a strong enough anten-ae. I'll h-ve to amp the fr-quency and play w-th the recept-rs some m-re. I told them we should go milit-ry grade, but n- one listens -o me…"

"Izzy?"

"I'll get to the bott-m of this. In the meantime, please try and find s-rvivors. Call me when you find an-thing!"

"Wait! Izzy? I've got another favor… Izzy!"

But by then the dial tone is dead.

Tai yawns beside me. "Did he hang up on you just now?"

I groan for an answer. He laughs.

"Well, looks like we're on our own for a while. We shouldn't worry. Let's see what else we can find."

I nod and return to the laptop, hoping to find more. Unfortunately the grand revelation of MAGAMI's secret discovery was probably the penultimate find. My English is pretty good (I can read it well, but I can't really hold a conversation) but little else seems to be of concern to us. Fiddling around with the computer causes the map above us to simmer out of sight, but nothing comes up to replace it. Just a few photographs of various members of the team in various locations around the Digiworld.

"We've got pictures of the wires. Pictures of people poking the wires. Pictures of people in the tent after poking the wires."

"They look terrible." Agumon notes.

"A couple of sketches of that quantum thing."

"It just looks like a circle to me," Gabumon frowns.

I shrug. "That's science for you. They can build anything."

"What's that?" Tai points to a section labeled 'location' in English. I click it.

"A photo of the hub I think. Big computers, a console, lots of brick… Eh… What's wrong?"

Tai's face is pale. He shakes his head. "Nothing. More déjà vu is all."

I frown. "I can assure you we've never done this before."

"No, I know it's just…" He doesn't answer, clearing his throat instead. "Never mind. Probably just my imagination."

"…I was there."

We blink and turn back the girl, whose own face is as pale as Tai's. She stares at the computer screen with a bewildered expression, as if she'd just realizes some terrible thing. I clear my throat. "…Where?"

"There," she says as she points to the photo. "Inside the control center… hub thing. I was there. I saw it!"

"When?"

"I… I don't remember when I just… I know I saw it. I know I've been there."

"How do you know?"

"I just know! I… I mean, I don't remember how I got there but… I know okay? You have to believe me!"

"Hey, hey! C'mon guys." Tai finds his way between me and the girl. "Let's take this nice and slow. Okay?"

She nods slowly. "Okay."

He leads her to a cot and has her sit down. He knows where I was going with this at least. I clear my throat and sit on the cot opposite her. "I think it would help if we tried to piece everything together now."

She frowns, suddenly defensive. "You mean you want me to remember."

I sigh. "Only what you can… if you can. I don't think we'll be able to piece everything together at once." She bites her lip at this, and I feel for her. I clear my throat and let a hand run through my hair. "Still. If you were a part of the Tamer guard, maybe we can help jump start your memory."

"Ooh! Like how we jumpstarted Tai's PlaySystem?"

I sigh. "No Agumon. That might kill her."

Agumon frowns and stops chopping the air in preparation. Gabumon giggles.

She makes a face at me, and for a moment I wonder if she can tell how nervous I am around her. Finally she nods, wary but determined. "I can try."

I nod back. "Alright. Let's start from the beginning. What's your first memory of the Digiworld?"

"The sky," she says first. "I remember staring at the sky."

"Nothing before that?"

"Mm… I don't know if what I remember before that is real. I could have been dreaming."

"Can you try?"

"I…" She shifts in the makeshift chair, nervous. "This… may take a little while."

"We've got time." I tell her simply. "Servers desert storms can last hours."

She nods slowly. "Okay. I remember a little. Just images really. Nothing connecting. Nothing solid enough to tell me if they're real or not."

"Tell us what you can."

She bites her lip. "There not great memories… just flashes of things."

She's stalling. She really doesn't want to do this. "It's okay," I tell her. "What are they?"

She fidgets on her cot looking from me to Tai. I think it's his smile that loosens her up. She blushes and looks to the floor. "I… I remember being with people."

"People?"

She nods. "People and Digimon. I… I don't see their faces but I hear them. We're traveling in a group in the desert. Searching for something… and we found some ruins. I remember crossing them. Someone is communicating with something at the bottom of the ruins and we all think we've found it."

"That lends credit to her being with the research team." Tai says.

"Extermination team." I remind him, and Tai shivers with disgust.

"My memories skip after that." She continues. "Next thing I know we're inside a corridor somewhere. It's dark. I don't remember how I got in, but I'm there. Theres a couple of us… I remember we keep running into enemies. I think they're Gizmon but I can't really… All I ever remember is a purple/gray blur. I must be with some pretty strong people, 'cause they never last long in my memory… the Gizmon I mean. While this is happening though, I'm… arguing with somebody. I remember being mad."

"Do you remember what you were arguing about?" Tai asks.

"Nn... Something was supposed to be found, and the Tamer I was arguing with wasn't taking it seriously."

"You sure it was a Tamer?"

"His Digimon was on my side of the argument... I think. It's all so fuzzy."

I sigh. "Keep going."

She nods. "Before we arrive at our destination, something grabs me and pulls me away… Then I go blank for a while. The next thing I know I'm on a… on a…"

Her voice is rising in pitch and her breathing is becoming harder. She's on the verge of a panic attack. I shush her to try and keep her calm. "Take it easy. You don't have too-"

She shakes her head. "Mnn… This is important. Right?"

I'm silent for a moment. I look to Tai. He nods. "Okay."

She grips the side of the chair, but continues. "The slab. I'm on the slab." The way she spits it out is hateful and frightening. I can only imagine. "I'm cold and tired and hurt. My partners hanging from a wall. Except I don't remember what she looked like. Just claws, restraints, and the color red…"

"Was anyone with you?"

"I don't remember. I don't think so. I remember feeling alone, and sad. Wait! I remember seeing hands… cold hands. They're probing me… Testing me for… something. Oh God…"

I frown. "What's wrong?"

"They wanted what makes me human." She brings her arms up and crosses her chest, her face a wash of shame. "They touched me everywhere…"

I blush, my stomach wrenching for her. She's fighting back tears, but it's a losing battle. The sides of her eyes are already building little drops that will fall across her face. Whatever was done to her was part of her repressed memory and now it's all flooding back at once. Things she'd willfully forgotten are suddenly being remembered. That's a lot to handle. I feel like such a jerk.

Suddenly Tai is sitting beside her, an arm wrapped around her shoulders. His voice is low and soothing. "It's okay. We're right here. We won't let that happen again."

She nods. She takes a few deep breaths to stop the crying before she continues; weakly, but pointedly. "T-that goes by for a while… I lose track of time. I… I could have been there for days. Weeks. I don't know. T-then… Then they stop one day. Just stop and I… I struggle out of the bonds after a while I guess… I don't remember how I did it though. Just… I'm back in the corridors and my hands are bleeding black stuff and there are screams… The next thing I know I'm staring at the sky and the sun is shining and I'm hot and alone. I'm outside the ruins. But however I got out was not the way I came in. And that's when I realized I couldn't remember anything anymore. Then the Gizmon show up and chase me away. And I make it… here."

"Back to the campsite."

She nods, pieces coming together for her. "Mmm! After that my memory starts back up and I can tell you everything, but. That's as far as I can think." She slumps back in the chair, disappointed. "I'm sorry. I'm not being helpful."

"You did good," Tai says with a smile.

I ignore him. "You said you had a partner."

"I think so… I don't remember what she looked like though." She frowns at this. "I don't remember my own partner…"

I raise an eyebrow. "What do you remember?"

"Her voice I think. And her pain. They had her braced to a wall. I think they were experimenting on her as well."

"MAGAMI?" I ask.

She shakes her head. "I don't know. I don't think so. I remember the metal hands. Three fingers. I think we may have been ambushed by Digimon."

"Maybe it is a Digimon," Tai says.

"Nn… Maybe." I respond.

He ignores my disbelief and turns back to her. "What happened to her? Your partner"

The girl looks at him with those big brown eyes. "I don't know. I lost her inside."

"Inside?" I blink.

"The ruins. When I ran I…" A light bulb seems to flash over her head then, for her face scrunches in determination. She catches Tai by the collar and grips tight, her eyes shimmering with desperation. "I must have left her there. I don't remember seeing her when I got away. I don't know, maybe they moved her? We have to find her! I can't leave her in there with those things I have to-"

Tai holds up his hands, asking her to calm down. "Easy, easy! You can't just run out to the desert by yourself. We'll go together. We can cover more ground as a team, and you'll be better protected. We just have to wait out this storm first. Okay?"

She's quiet for a moment before her face matches his smile. "Right."

"Moreover, we've got an idea of what we're dealing with now; though I'd be lying if I said it was ideal." I cross my arms. "Still, what little info we have now is better than where we started."

"Mm!" Tai nods. "And now that we know we aren't dealing with a normal threat, we can bring on the big guns, right?"

"Okay!" Smiles Agumon.

Gabumon nods as well. "Should be fun."

Tai turns back to the girl. "Rei, do you think you can lead us back where you came from as well?"

"I… maybe. Why?"

Tai holds her hand tighter. "If we can get inside that lab, maybe we can shut this program off before it gets any stronger. Upload the vaccine or something. Finish what these guys were trying to do."

"And maybe find my partner?"

"Definitely find your partner." Tai assures her, and she smiles.

I eye them coolly. They're still getting along well.

"Hey, we're in luck everyone," Gabumon smiles. "The storm is starting to clear."

He's right; the winds have lessened considerably over the last few minutes. We're lucky. When we were younger we encountered storms that seemed to last forever. At best this one was about an hour.

"I say once this storm is over we sneak down there and meet this thing face-to-nucleus," says Tai as he hammers his fist into one hand.

I frown. "We don't know how many of these Gizmon things will be out there."

"So we be prepared. We have to do something."

"I know."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

He frowns at me, an eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Isn't this the part where you help me come up with some genius strategy?"

I glare at him. "Why do you care what I think? You're the fearless leader. Right?"

"Yeah. But you're my XO, and I want your advice. C'mon."

I grin. "You're suggesting we-"

"Make out a plan. Yeah, yeah. Can we move on now? You're like my Grandma's record player."

Agumon blinks. "What's a record player again?"

"It's like a terrible ancient CD player that never works right." Tai answers with a sideways glance.

"You have any ideas?" I ask.

He stares blankly at me before a sheepish grin creeps onto his face. I feel a headache coming on. "Eh… Just the sneak in, beat the bad guy, save the day thing I was talking about. I'm open for suggestions. We gotta be quick about it though, we don't have time to waste."

I cough. "We really ought to wait for Davis and Ken. Coordinate with Izzy."

Tai glares. "No time to waste, remember?"

"We'll make time." I put my foot down. "This situation has already gotten way out of hand!"

"And it'll get worse if we don't nip this in the bud right now!"

"Boys?" Rei's voice cracks. "Umm…If you're right, the program will overwhelm Server in a matter of months. You've got to do something."

I look into her pleading eyes and sigh. It's a look Sora's gotten down to perfection: a kind of hopeless deer in the headlights sort of look that tugs my heart in an attempt to get me to do anything. Except this isn't Sora. And the stakes are far too high to ignore. "Just promise me you're not going to run off an abandon our strategy at the drop of a hat."

"Yeah, yeah," he waves me off, then glares playfully when I don't believe him. "What? You want me to pinky square or something?

I frown. "I'm not Sora."

He blinks. The girl is staring again, a frown stuck on her thin face that would be cute if it wasn't so troubling. She scrunches her lips to the side, eyebrows furrowed. Deep in thought. Me and Tai both let out nervous laughs to kill the tension. It doesn't help. This is too unnerving.

She looks –

No. Stop it. Quit dwelling on it. People look like other people all the time. Davis looks like a young Tai and this girl just happens to look like Sora. It doesn't have to mean anything. You can't judge a person by appearances.

And besides, we have bigger things to worry about than why she looks the way she does.

Outside, the storms winds are dying down, and the sand taps lightly on the tarp of our tent: beating out a rhythm that calms my nerves. There is a growing thing spreading like a virus underneath us. There are missing people who need our help. And we have a world to save. That's our job as Digidestined. We have to be on guard, and we have to do it quickly.

We could all be in trouble if we don't make this work.

GODFALL

6

Digimon