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 11

"Is there something you're not telling me?"

I blink. "What do you mean?"

She makes a face at me. "You're being really quiet."

I sigh and place my hands behind my head, stretching my back out as we sneak our way through the dark corridor. Across the walls, thankfully, are strips of lights that at least provide us some illumination, though we can't see more than a few meters in front of us at a time. We've been walking this way since the door closed behind us, trying to find our way through what has quickly become something of a maze. And during all that time I hadn't said a thing. "Nn… Sorry," I tell her sheepishly. "This place is giving me the creeps. I feel like I've been here before."

"Yeah?" She pauses. "On an adventure with Matt maybe?"

I blink. "Huh? Uh, yeah. Well not so much this part…"

"Do you and Matt go on lots of adventures?"

"Nn… Not like we used to. Usually we let Davis and the others handle things. Today was a rare treat."

"Ah." She nods. "Well, he's a nice boy. I'm glad you have a friend like him."

I nod. "Mm… So am I."

She smiles as we keep down the corridor, clearly going deeper as we go. Somewhere deep below there must be an opening to the outside, because there is a breeze blowing cool air up the corridor. Rei blows through her lips, feeling the chill. She wraps her skinny arms around herself. "It's so cold in here."

Without a word, I unwrap my school jacket from around my waist. After shaking it once, I hand it to her just over Agumon's head. "Here," I say.

"Eh… T-thank you."

She reaches for my coat. For the briefest of moments our fingers touch: she gasps lightly. I blink, fighting a blush, and she finally takes it. She giggles to herself – it comes out as a series of low, soft hums in the darkness while wrapping the jacket around her slender frame. Agumon snorts between us but says nothing else, letting us have this moment of… what exactly? I'm not sure.

But the air is full of something: a kind of heavy tension that needs breaking somehow. Nervously, I bring a hand to the back of my head and laugh, searching for the right conversation starter. "These hallways… did you really… walk around… you know, without-"

"Eh?"

Not the right conversation starter. Definitely not the right conversation starter!

"S-sorry!"

"Taichi!"

"Sorry!"

"That's a bit dirty!"

"Nevermindnevermindnevermind!" I swing my arms wildly in the air.

"I don't get it." Agumon brings a claw to his nose. "Walk around without what?"

"Agumon!"

Rei pouts. "I didn't think you could be so perverted Taichi…"

"I'm not, honest! I-"

"Jo-king…"

She smiles lightly, eyes pleasantly closed. I sigh with relief. "Oh… heh."

"I'm not. Walk around without what Tai?"

"Agumon!"

"Hehe… ow!"

Agumon grumbles between us while I retrieve my fist from his nose. "S-sorry about that."

"It wasn't like I had a choice," she says sadly. "And I wasn't walking so much as I was running."

"That must have been... strange."

"Running naked in a dusty maze with robots shooting lasers at me? Yeah, that's strange."

"S-sorry."

She smiles, and eyebrow raised teasingly. "Are you this forward with all your girl friends?"

"Girlfriends?"

Now it's her turn to blush. She stammers and waves her hands about in the air, assuring me that I have it wrong. "Ah! I mean girl friends! Friend-girl… I mean… A girl who is your-"

"Friend." I finish for her. "Ah. No. Not really. Most girls would slap me if I was. Thank you for not slapping me -"

She slaps me, lightly and playfully across the face. I laugh.

"What about Sora?" She asks when we've calmed ourselves.

I cough, fighting the saliva that has betrayed me and rubbing my cheek. "Mn! N-No! No way, that would be… no."

Rei frowns at this. "Why? Is she not…?"

She trails off, and it takes a moment before I understand her completely. "Nn! Eh… Sora is… um. Well she's a girl. And she's my friend. My best friend-girl I guess. That's about it." I sigh, facing towards the ceiling. "Besides, Matt would get mad."

"Matt?"

"Uh… Yeah."

"Oh." She sounds surprised.

We walk in silence again, but the tension isn't as warm as it had been. I try not to face her so that I bring attention to myself. I try to sneak a glance over to her… and catch her doing the same. We laugh nervously and some of the tension finally dies away.

"So… um… do you have a girlfriend?"

"Wha? Eh…"

"Sorry! Too forward. Umm…"

I shake my head. "N-no I'm happily single."

"Happily?"

I nod. "Uh… yeah."

She sounds almost… disappointed. "Hmm…"

Agumon puffs smoke. "Eck. Get a room. Ow!"

I rub the base of my knuckles while Agumon nurses the lump on his head. "Can it buddy…"

Agumon grumbles some more, but manages to steer clear of playing the innocent – he's seen what's under my bed before. He's no innocent.

We walk until we come to the end of the line. The corridor we were walking along branches off into two different sections, giving us choices on where we can go.

"A fork in the road," Rei notes.

Agumon snorts. "Which way Tai?"

I close my eyes, getting a sense of the winds around me. "Mm… The breeze is coming from over there," I point out.

"MmHmm."

"We should go the opposite direction. The breeze would be coming from an outside exit. This things at the center, right?"

"Mm."

I nod and head down the hallway to my left. Behind me, I hear Agumon bump into Rei. "Hmphf… After you," he snorts. I shoot him a glare and he lets her through.

We walk along in silence, getting a little warmer as we go. Rei's face looks worried.

"You okay?" I ask.

"This place."

I blink and turn back at her. "Rei?"

She's frowning, her brown eyes staring off into the distance. "It's like I'm dreaming again."

"You remember this place too?"

"Mm…" She nods.

Before I get a chance to ask further, Agumon stops where he stands. His nostrils flare wide as my orange dinosaur buddy takes great big intakes of air. He growls, not liking whatever it is he smells. Before I can stop him he takes off running.

"Agumon what is it?"

"I smell something!" He says as he trots off on his own.

I grunt and take off after him, with Rei close behind. "Agumon, wait up!"

He turns a corner and we follow suit. I'm just around the wall when I see him standing still, looking shocked. I slow my approach. He doesn't notice. I take a deep breath, a scowl on my face, and take a few steps towards him while Rei trots behind. Agumon just stands there, looking dumbfounded.

"Agumon, what is –"

What I see shuts me up. Rei steps behind me. "Oh man…"

There isn't a body. That would have been nice: if there were a body it would be alive. All we get is a smear of black tar on the side of the wall – the discoloration of real world iron digitized in the Digiworld that's been burned into the details of the wall. Below are various items that once belonged to one of our illegal friends: a combat belt with various non-essentials, as well as what appears to be a baseball cap. And a machinegun. That's one out of six.

Somebody was here once. Right up until something caught up with them. They're gone now.

Rei fidgets, her voice almost a whisper. "Something happened here. Didn't it?"

I don't tell her what it means. I can't tell her what it means.

"Let's keep walking," I suggest. She doesn't respond, staring at the mark on the wall with morbid attention while tugging at my jacket around her shoulders. My eyes follow her gaze back down to the objects on the floor. She's looking at the gun.

Before I can say anything a growing sound begins to become more prominent down the halls. Like rotating gears on a toy, the noise approaches us from whence we came. I frown, turning back into the darkness. "What's that sound?"

Agumon sniffs the air. "Gizmon?"

At their name, Rei pales, shifting beside us. "No…" she fights her frustration. "Not again…"

I blink. "Rei?"

"M-Matt said that… that they wouldn't follow me."

"They're following us." I remind her. "We're on the inside now. No matter how they treated us outside, now that we're in they're bound to be more defensive. Things are gonna get personal."

"Taichi…"

I give her a warm smile. "Don't worry. I'll pr-"

"No." She says: politely but with an edge. "It's time I… I protect myself."

"Rei?"

She reaches for, and retrieves, the machinegun from off the floor without a second thought. I frown. She hoists the butt-end under her arm, looping the strap across her shoulder and neck. One hand goes to the barrel, the other to the trigger. If she didn't already look like a military otaku with all that get up...

I sigh. "Look Rei…"

I don't get a chance to scold her. Agumon raises a claw to us both. "Shush… They're coming."

We keep close, staying silent and facing the oncoming sound with a determined silence. The three of us are prepared to face the worst, our imagination running wild with what could be just beyond the light. And then we see them. And we're all unimpressed.

In fact, Agumon looks like he's gonna laugh. "That's it?"

I frown. They sort of look like tiny purple spiders. Granted, spiders with bulbous heads made of metal, but purple spiders nonetheless. They clink towards us en masse, the little gears turning inside their frames and shifting their little legs forward. They share a similar makeup with the Gizmon we fought outside, but they're smaller. Small thin wires poke up from their bodies like antenna on a toy car, unconnected to any main hub but clearly doing something. Despite their number, they don't look particularly menacing; a fact which my partner is quick to catch up on.

"They're unattached Gizmon," Rei blinks.

"Unattached baby Gizmon," Agumon corrects her with a snort. "Look at them they're so puny –"

A laser lights up Agumon's foot. "Ack! Why you little…"

"Agumon!"

But he's already a step ahead of me; his jaw wide open with the flames leaping from his throat. "Pepper Breath!"

The ball of fire from his digital gut erupts from his jaws and slams headlong into the pile of mini-Gizmon. There is a high pitched squeek from them as they fade away into nothingness, with my partner thoruoughly satisfied. "See that wasn't so hard."

Rei however, doesn't look so impressed. "…Um…"

The glow from Agumon's fire has given us a little more light than we had before, which would have been great, if it didn't reveal all the mini-Gizmon that have been following us.

They line the walls, their disconnected wires swinging everywhere. The little critters shift and move in a sea of parts, clicking and screeching with every step of their tiny legs. With the light on them, they all turn to us as one: as if they wouldn't have known we existed before.

Great. As if it couldn't get any worse.

"That's… a lot of spiders." My partner gulps.

I fidget. "You'd think with them being disconnected they wouldn't function, right?"

"Ah!" Rei points at the end of one. "Look!"

I frown, then gasp when I see it. At the end of each severed wire is a small round tube of metal, clipped neatly at the end of their severed wires. At the top of each tube sits a blinking red light. The implications are troubling. "These things are…"

"…remote controlled," Agumon finishes for me. Neither of us is happy.

The little Gizmon things look up to us, one after the other. Things are still between the two of us. And then their tiny little eyes begin to glow.

"Okay. Gotta go. Gotta go!"

We high tail it away from the spiders as fast as we can, ducking out heads as their lasers fire. A few of them actually hit, but their attacks aren't as severe or accurate as their relatives outside. It feels like being pinched, over and over again. A couple and we'd survive. Of course there are more of them in here, and more of that would be enough to drive a man crazy. Thankfully, though they out number us a hundred to one, we're a lot faster.

We round another corner and find time to take a breather. At least we know we can out run them. The problem of course is that, being machines, they don't need to rest. We hear their gears working as they continue to advance. I frown. Agumon growls. Rei clutches tightly to the machine gun.

I blink. "Why are you still carrying that thing?"

"I'm almost out of grenades," she says as if that's a worthy answer.

"Have you ever used one of those before?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe!"

She shoots me a dry look. "I don't remember. Remember?"

I frown. "I'm just saying it's dangerous."

"I know it's dangerous. But Agumon can't handle these things by himself!"

"Says who?" My partner yelps.

Rei ignores him. "You said I could help you."

"I didn't say you could lug heavy artillery around with us!"

"Guys!" Agumon snaps.

I turn back and hear the oncoming sound of our pursuers. I shake my head. "This w-"

Before I know what is happening, Rei catches me by the collar, her scarred hands pressing tightly above my chest. With a look of determination she takes a step inside and hurls me with all her might towards the opposite wall. Agumon gasps and I stumble, watching as the wall rushes to my face as I…

Fall right through?

I land in a heap in a darkened room. I shake my head and look back towards the outline of the gap in the wall. You can see through to the other side. I gasp. I know what this is. I look up to say something to Rei's silhouette but before I can a large shadow grows in the dim false wall. Before I know it I'm joined by a flying Agumon - who lands hard on his chest – and Rei, who keeps her gun close.

"Hey," Agumon shouts. "What was that all ab-"

"Shh!" Rei silences him. He shoots me a look but I'm with Rei. For now at least. I lean against the wall of our hiding place and close my eyes.

"A hiding wall," I shake my head. "You've pulled us into a hiding wall."

"Is that what it's called?" She asks absently. I nod, but I get the feeling the question was rhetorical.

Every once in a while the Digidestined have run into something like this: sections of a tree or a stone or even a wall that appears to have been hollowed out once you press past a hologram. Izzy called them a breach in the system: a line of corrupted or altered data used by smaller weaker Digimon to hide from their enemies. I was forced to slip inside a tree on my first day inside this world. I didn't understand it then. I don't really get it now either but that's not the point.

The point is, Rei knew where this one was.

Whether by instinct or some other power, Rei knew where the wall would give way for us. She'd caught me without hesitation, she'd tossed me without warning. She apparently kicked Agumon in the tail and flung him inside. She knew we'd be safe here. Whether she knew it consciously or not, she knew this shelter would exist. I can't help feeling a little conflicted by that.

You're a mysterious thing of beauty Rei.

Outside, we watch as the unattached Gizmon spiders crawl past us. Agumon breathes a sigh of relief, nursing his sore tail. I turn to say something to her, but she has her eyes closed. And she's counting.

"Three, two, one…"

"What are you doi-"

"Zero!"

"Rei!"

She doesn't stop, and before I know it Rei has slipped outside the wall. Agumon growls and the two of us scramble back to our feet. We're almost at the edge of the hidden wall when we hear it: the rattatattat of machine gun fire. My heart stops.

"Rei!"

Agumon and I pop outside to see her with gun a blazing. I have to duck to avoid a laser to the eye, and I catch to the back of my coat resting across her shoulders. She looks over to me and I can see her eyes. They don't look right anymore. They almost look red.

"Rei?"

She snarls. "Run!"

I grit my teeth but double back and head down the opposite corridor, Agumon right at my heels. The rattle or Rei's borrowed gun rings down the hallways as we spring away from our miniature pursuers. And then she starts running with us; just behind, but I can hear her labored breathing.

We turn another corner, once again presented with a fork in the road. I turn to give instructions. Rei is staring towards our pursuers.

"What is it?"

"...Burn!"

Her voice terrifies me. She unclips a grenade, pops the pin, and hurls it like a softball into the mass of metal spiders. I barely have time to flinch when the explosion rocks the corridor, sending digital dust and debries everywhere. I shield my eyes. I can hear the shrieks of tiny metal insects as they burn away into nothing.

Smoke pours our way after a few seconds. I put a hand to my mouth and Agumon buries his nose under his claws. Rei just stands there. Waiting. All is deathly quiet for a moment and we aren't sure if that was enough.

The sound of small gears churning from across the corner sends us into a brief panic, and Rei brings the machine gun up to bear. It's in vain however. What baby-Gizmon survived are retreating, for the sounds of their gears drops lower and lower, until at last, we are once again alone.

I take a deep breath and approach her. She looks like she's gonna lose it.

She flinches when my hand reaches her shoulder, but she doesn't really pull away. She's breathing heavily, her shoulder blades rising and falling with each intake of breath. The machinegun hangs in her left hand; she won't let it go. But she isn't happy about what she's done. I take a cautious step forward until I'm beside her, staring at the dying Gizmon. Their bodies fade erratically into the darkness. "Rei," I speak quietly. "It's alright now. It's going to be –"

Before I can get the final words out she turns into me, her forehead crashing into my chest, her body pressing into mine. I tense for a few seconds, then turn my eyes towards her. She's shaking, her whole body vibrating against me. I take a moment, then let my arms gently wrap around her shoulders. She's fighting tears again.

"I w-wasted a lot of bullets. D-d-didn't I?"

"Mm," is all I say.

"W-why is this happening to me?"

I don't have an answer. Instead I let her go, glancing down at those big brown eyes of hers. "C'mon. We've got to keep moving."

She nods slowly. She cradles the machinegun and starts walking, her body language tearing my heart. I frown and turn to Agumon. He's watching the last of the Gizmon spiders data disappear.

"Hack me…" he whispers.

"Agumon?"

He turns and nods. "Coming."

We catch up to Rei, still sulking with the gun in her hands. Every step we take echoes along the dimmly lit corridor, the only sounds we hear are our own. It's a long time before I can bring up any subject: the silence has overtaken us all. But it's definitely hit her worst. Her eyes stare blankly at the floor before her, the hazel browns dark beneath her gloom. Gathering my courage, I raise my voice above a whisper. "You okay?"

After a moment she nods. "Y-yes. I'm just remembering things again."

"Like what?"

"...The person I was arguing with." She whispers. "I think we were… close."

"Close?"

She blushes and looks away from me. "MmHmm…"

I frown. "Oh."

"And we were moving apart while we were down here."

I look at her, trying to find the words to say. Finally I sigh. "I'm sorry."

"No," she shakes her head. "I'm the one who should be sorry."

I blink. "For what?"

"For being so…" she pauses, trying to find the words. "For not being myself. I'm letting my anger get to me and… and it's making me fight with you. I don't want to fight with you."

"Neither do I," I tell her. We cross through the corridor and down a flight of steps. The air about us is warm – though I don't know if that's just me or not.

She looks to the floor. "Taichi?"

"Hm?"

"If… If we find out something in my past… no matter how bad… would we still be friends?"

"…Why?"

Before she can answer, Agumon's growl interrupts us. "They're coming."

We turn and look up the stairway. We can't see them yet, but we can hear the little automaton spiders clicking that claws down the brick flooring. They won't be much longer.

"But we're close," Rei says with a tone of worry. "Can you feel it?"

I nod. "It has gotten warmer."

"Something's definitely down there," grumbles Agumon.

Rei fidgets with the gun. "The hub can't be far, right?"

Agumon frowns. "Neither can they."

I bring a hand to my chin. "We have to find a way to slow them down."

"We have a way."

I blink and turn to her. "Rei?"

She faces the entrance to the corridor we just passed through. She looks determined. "Cover your ears!"

I blink and, realizing what she's going to do, I turn my head and drop as low as I possibly can. She grabs the grenade – the last on her strap – and hurls it into the ceiling. The explosion behind me is near deafening, though it only lasts for mere moments. What follows is the sound of crumbling rock. I turn back to see that Rei's final grenade has sealed us from our attackers – for the moment at least.

"That won't hold them for long," she sighs as she waves dust from her face.

"Good thinking," I tell her as the dust settles.

"Not so good," she sighs. "I've locked us down here. And I think my gun's almost empty. A few more rounds and I'll be out for sure."

"Mm. You bought us some time." I place a hand on her shoulder and she smiles.

"Tai!" Agumon shouts from the end of the stairs. I frown. Motioning to my pretty companion, we sprint down the flight of steps and to the floor below.

Behind me, I hear Rei's gasp. "What is that!"

I ignore her, my mouth agape, staring blindly at what lies before us.

The electric gate of my childhood.

I take a deep breath. It just sits there, traveling from one side of the wall to another, buzzing with an electrical current. I've had nightmares about these fences since I was eleven years old. Izzy called it a firewall. They're a final defense mechanism, steel mesh crackling with the buzz of electricity. They always have a hidden doorway in between them. Usually off left… or was it off right? Either way, there's a lot of danger. One false move, one mistake, and I'm fried.

Mazes, hiding walls, and electric fences: three things I've seen before, a long time ago. Which means this place is –

A boom from up the stairs jerks me from my thoughts, and I know they're still coming.

"That's not going to hold them much longer." Rei says as she backs away from the stairs.

"Not by itself." Agumon growls. He bears his claws, his teeth gleaming maliciously in what little light the room provides. I frown.

"You can't stay here partner."

"Sure I can!" Agumon snorts, a puff of steam flowing into the air. "You know we have to get through this. If I go with you they'll just follow us in anyway. This way I can hold them off long enough for you to shut it down."

"It's too dangerous." Rei hisses. "Those things will completely overwhelm you!"

"Don't underestimate me!" Agumon barks back. And then he looks to me. His emerald eyes are on fire. "I can do this Tai."

My eyes turn from my partner to the blockade. I hear them just beyond; their beams eating away at the stone data. I look back to my partner. I know he can handle it. "Go get 'em buddy."

Agumon shoots me a grin. "I won't let you down!"

There is an explosion on the other side of the blockade. Rei shifts uncomfortably on her feet. "Tai, we have to go."

"Hurry up!" Agumon snarls at us. "If we're gonna have a chance to stop this thing you need to go. It's up to you!"

I smile. The sounds of the approaching Gizmon rise with each passing second. I look to Rei, then to the fence of my nightmares. I've done this before, I remind myself. I can do it again.

"Tai?"

Rei looks to me. Worried. I take her hand in mine. "We can do this!"

She looks back at me. Those pretty brown eyes gazing in wonder, before she smiles back. "Okay."

The explosions come ever nearer. "Go!" Agumon shouts. I squeeze Rei's hand and take off towards the fence. Rei is forced to keep up. With a loud shout I leap into the fence, tugging Rei along with me. She screams in terror behind me, but I can't help her. I close my eyes as the mesh collides into my face…

And we slip through, unharmed.

We reach the other side in a lump, tumbling into one another. I groan, open my eyes, and realize that I've landed hard right on top of her. Her eyes are shut and she isn't moving. "Rei!"

She stirs. "Nn… Hi, Tai."

I stare at her. She stares back, a grin creeping across her face. I start laughing, deep gusts of wind filling my lungs with each boyish giggle. Pretty soon Rei's laughing too. We're alive. Tired, but alive. After all that we've finally done it. Together. What a fearsome twosome we've become. I look down at the laughing girl beneath me. She looks just like her in this light.

"Um… Tai?" She asks through a smile.

"Y-yeah?"

"You wanna get off me?"

It takes me a moment to register. "Huh…Oh! Right… Right!" I shoot to my feet like a rocket. I mumble out apologies while cursing myself for not savoring the moment. Rei giggles and dusts herself off, rising to meet me. She gives me a knowing glance, and I'm sure my face is red. "So sorry." I finally manage to make a coherent sentence.

"Stupid Tai." She says with a smile.

I blink and watch her move. Things are falling together now. My heart beats faster and faster.

"You okay?" Agumon's voice from the other side interrupts my thoughts.

"W-we're fine." I hesitate. "Both of us. We're fine."

"I knew you still had it!" I can practically see Agumon bouncing for joy.

"We're not out of the woods yet." The girl tells him. "We've still got to reach the hub."

"Then you'd better hurry." Agumon says with urgency. "They're almost-"

The sound of an explosion outside interrupts him, and I know the Gizmon have breached the blockade. I call out to Agumon, but it's no use. I hear the same mental call of Pepper Breath echoing in the corners of my mind, and I know he's buying us much needed time.

I look around at the control center. It's exactly as I remember it. The walls are lined with computer consoles and terminals of alien origin. I never really appreciated how out of my element I was in this place. Izzy would love it.

"There!" The girl points upward. I follow her gaze.

"Holy crap…"

I count eight of them, floating inside some sort of green liquid like dead animals in some mad scientists display. Humans. Their ages are varied – The youngest looks to be twelve or thirteen and the oldest looks like he could die from a cough. They're hooked up to all sorts of black wires that vibrate beneath their tanks. I think they're alive though, as their bodies are moving a little. So this is it. This is what we've been looking for.

Survivors.

"We found them." The girl adjusts her redish brown hair out of her face.

I eye her. "You sure?"

"Yes that's them. I know it's them."

I nod. "Alright. We found them. How do we get them down?"

"Here," she points to a computer console, then frowns. "Everything's turned off though."

"Hmm?"

"We'll have to turn this moniter on, activate the vaccine program and we'll send the whole network crashing down. That'll release them for sure!"

I look at her. Really look at her. "So what are we waiting for?"

"C'mon." says the girl. She leads me to the main terminal, determination on her face. She presses a few keys like she's an expert, and in seconds a module rises from within. In the center is a hole – especially shaped for a digivice.

My digivice.

"Alright. This is it." She looks up at the massive glass hub, the screen pulsing with light. "All we have to do is activate this console, plug in your Digivice and D-Terminal, and end the menace before it begins."

"No."

She blinks. "…What?"

"No. I won't activate the console."

She laughs nervously, her face the mirror of confusion. "This isn't the time do get cold feet Taichi. We have to deal with this threat now."

"Like you dealt with those researchers?"

She stops in her tracks. It's all out in the open now. "W-what are you talking about? They're right there!"

"I'm not talking about the extermination team. I'm talking about the research team. The ones from that campsite."

"I don't understand."

"I'll make it simple. When you killed them, did they even have a chance? Did you feel no remorse? Or were they killed in cold blood?"

"Taichi, y-you're not making sense."

"No?"

She takes my hand in her own, and I feel the warmth of human skin. "Look, we can argue about what happened to them later. All we have to do right now is insert your digivice and set the program in motion!"

I pull away from her. "I'm not going to do that."

"Taichi, it's our only shot at saving the Digiworld!"

She looks just like her in this light. But she's not her. She never was. "I'm sorry Rei. I'm not going to help you."

She stares at me in confusion a moment more, before she drops the ruse entirely, gazing at me with cold, unfeeling contempt. "…Why not?"

"Because," I say as I slowly reach for my digivice. "You're not real."

GODFALL

11

Digimon