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 12

"The girl you're calling Rei… isn't real."

I frown, my mind racing with the implication. "I'm sorry Izzy… can you repeat that?"

"She isn't real." He tells me. "She isn't human."

I frown, my suspicions confirmed. Behind me Imperialdramon and Davis argue about food, while Ken tries desperately to calm them both down. I ignore them. For the past few hours I've been riding with an imposter. I'd almost started trusting her. It's a nauseating feeling. "So…" I word quietly into the phone. "She is a Digimon."

"No. She isn't that either."

…

Wait… What?

I shake my head in shock. I had been sure that she was a Digimon who wanted to screw with us. Typically when we get pseudo-humans running around they're really Digimon in disguise. There is a whole litany of shape shifting monsters who have crossed paths with the Digidestined before and have come away hating us. I was sure it was a rogue Ninjamon or a Bakemon or something. But according to Izzy she isn't. She isn't either human or Digimon.

Well if she's not human and not Digimon then what the hell is she?

"I don't understand," I spit into the receiver. "How is this possible?"

Davis looks over at me, confused. "How is what possible?"

"Nn… nothing, just..." I clear my throat, focusing back on the Digidestined of Knowledge. "Izzy are you sure about this?"

"Ninety-nine point three percent sure. There's a point seven percent margin for error."

I bring my fingers to my forehead, trying to rub away a stress migrane that's starting to throb in the side of my skull. "What the hell is she then Izzy?"

"I don't know the 'what'. However, if I'm reading her full basecode right, she's -"

"Seriously, what's going on!" Davis interrupts Izzy at the top of his voice.

"We'd like to know," rumbles Imperialdramon in agreement.

Ken walks briskly towards me and opens his palm out to me. "May I speak with him?"

I blink, suddenly remembering I'm not alone. I look around. Davis, Ken, and even the mighty Imperialdramon - are all staring at me. It's only fair that they be as briefed on today's going's on as I am. I clear my throat. "Nn… Izzy?"

"Ken's there?"

"Yeah."

"Can you place me on speaker? I'll explain what I can."

"Speaker?" I frown and look down at this mechanical monstrosity. "Um… Little button on the right?"

"Yeah."

I shake my head. "Okay."

I press the button, and the stupid thing gives us feedback that makes the whine from a digivice sound downright pleasant. I squint, Ken raises his eyebrows, Davis smashes his palms into his ears, Imperialdramon gives an annoyed grunt, and poor Gabumon's sensitive ears make my partners eyes water up.

Tai had better come through with that chocolate; Gabumon's been through a lot today.

"Can you all hear me?" Izzy's voice finally comes through from the speakers.

"Loud and clear Izzy," I grumble.

"Prodigious. There had been some concern that the oscillators wouldn't be able to continue the signal when switching from normal to speaker mode, but I'd always been confident that we could –"

"Izzy."

He coughs. "Sorry. Anyway, about her basecode -"

"Wait a minute Izzy," Ken leans closer, his head hovering just above my shoulder. "Can you go back from the beginning? What's going on?"

"...Alright, here's how things started," Izzy clears his throat."Tai and Matt were contacted about a very specific mission by our digidestined friend Mina Singh. Researchers had gone missing and she was looking for someone to investigate. It was a matter of utmost secrecy."

"Right we got that part," Imperialdramon interrupts him.

"Let's get to the good stuff." Davis crosses his arms. "Who is this Rei chick? Also… is she hot?"

Ken sighed. "Davis."

"What?"

"She was a wanderer," I explain. "We found her being chased by those things on her own. She had a bit of memory loss and was wearing a weird robe that the robots would shoot at – we're assuming that the original researchers wore it, though we're not sure why. She led us to the MAGAMI… eh… A.o.A campsite that eventually led us here. And…"

"She looks a bit like Sora," Gabumon admits sheepishly.

"Not a bit," I correct. "If they walked down the street together you'd have trouble telling them apart."

"That's… rather unsettling," Ken frowns.

Davis, suddenly realizing the implication of what he'd just said previously, raises two very panicked hands. "Whoawhoawhoa, didn't know all that. I take back the hot thing then… I mean Sora's hot but not Kari hot… I mean she is sorta, but she's your girl so… I mean I guess she's not a 'girl' anymore, considering... Not that I'm saying you deflowered her or anything, I don't mean she's... well you two have been together for a while and Sora is hot so you two probably... I mean I don't think Sora's hot like, you know, 'I'm gonna try an'steal her away from you' or anything… not that I think I could, cause you're totally the coolest ever Matt… Er, second coolest cause Tai is the cool–"

A hand flies to Davis' mouth. His DNA partner lowers his embarrassed head. "Learn when to shut up when you're behind Davis..."

"HmmMmmHmmHmmhmmHmHmm?"

I find myself strangely laughing along with them anyway. "It's alright. I get it."

Ken frowns, retrieving his hand from a ticked off Davis' mouth. "So… Who is she?"

"We don't know. Heck, she said she didn't know either. She had some kind of memory loss. She didn't even know what an iPod was."

"Wow." Davis blinks. "That's out of touch."

"Sounds severe," Ken notes.

I nod. "When we found the camp we jostled some of her memories, but not enough. Not enough for her to remember, and certainly not enough for me to trust her," I sigh. "That's why I texted Izzy."

"Matt sent me a message to get a lock on her and see what my computer could tell me. Her information didn't match up to any known Digidestined or Tamer, and when I dug further things became more astonishing."

"She isn't human or Digimon," I finish.

"That is correct," Izzy's voice confirms.

Ken shakes his head again and looks towards the phone in my hand. "How can you know that Izzy?"

"It's in her basecode."

"Huh?"

"Every life-form in the Digiworld has a basic coded structure." Izzy begins. "However, each code has a baseline that is unique to the species. I wrote about it on my blog. Digicarp have a basecode of DotStN. It's a static network - once they're born they remain the same size and shape until consumed or deleted. Digiflora have a basecode of DotLEN, limited evolutionary network. They can grow, but only in predetermined evolutionary routs. A digiapple will always be the same size shape and weight for example. Digimon have a base code of DotPEN, punctuated evolutionary network, ie. Digivolution. Humans however, when they enter the Digiworld, have a base code of DotRGEN - realized gradual evolutionary network. This code converts our physical skeletons into wireframe and tries to simplify our various functions into a digital code. It's slightly more complicated than the typical three figure basecode, but because of that it isn't a recyclable one. Which is why we don't get reborn when we die here. Our data is used elsewhere in the system, but it never converts into an RGEN file again."

"I remember reading up on some of this Izzy," Ken notes. "It was fascinating stuff."

"…Um. Can you explain it again?" Davis asks, scratching his head. "You know… for the people who didn't get it."

"I got it," smirks Ken.

"I know you got it: I'm talking about the people who might not have-"

"Keep going Izzy." I tell him.

"Basically, it's similar to DNA, but placed on a simpler scale. The basecode creates the specific dimensions of the digital organism, and from there produces their image – building from wireframe and filling with data. The second set in our basecode adds limits to us that Digimon don't have though: it's the thing that keeps us from Digivolving instead of just growing naturally and what keeps us from being reborn at a primary when we die here. From here I can see your biomechanical profile listed under 'YmtoIsdaDotRGEN'. That's fairly standard. But when I went back to view Rei's basecode, I found a prodigious anomaly!"

"What did you find Izzy?" My heart is racing.

"This 'Rei' creature has a three line base code. The same as digicarp, or digiflora… or digimon. But it isn't any of the three!"

Davis scratches his chin. "…Okay… Now explain it like you would to a five year old."

"If she came to the real world her DNA wouldn't be human." Ken tells him.

"…Oh…" He says. It's clear he still doesn't understand.

Ken sighs. "I'll explain later."

I ignore them. "What is she then?"

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like it. My computer lists it as a DotGEN file, but I'm not sure of the implications. If it means what I think it does, then her creators have stumbled on something extraordinary. This is completely unrecorded in my research. It shares properties with the human baseline but remains clearly a three lined system. It's utterly fascinating!"

I sigh. "I don't know if that's the word I'd use Izzy…"

"Me either," Davis stretches his arms. "Yo, Izzy? Does this thing know she's a 'thing'?"

"I don't know. I never met her, so I don't know about her mental state. Because she doesn't have either a Digivice or D1 I can't track her emotional responses either."

"I don't think she does," I say with a frown.

Ken blinks. "Matt?"

I shake my head and speak into the receiver. "When you said she wasn't human I thought maybe she knew it and was leading us into a trap. But the more I think about it… the more I think maybe she believed every word."

"How so?" Izzy questions me.

I shrug. "Just a feeling I guess. She's saved my life. Twice now. I can't see any of our current enemies doing that."

"But even if she believes herself, Tai could still be walking into a trap." Imperialdramon reminds us.

"It's possible." I agree. "She could be the bait and not even know it. That's why I told Agumon to keep an eye out, just in case."

"Still, if Tai is walking into a trap, we should do something about it, right?" Davis frowns.

I turn to Davis with a matching grimmace. His face is etched with worry for his mentor - it's the same face Tai made when he came to my rescue only a short while ago. I sigh. Tai's sinking deeper into the ruins right now with all sort of defenses and a girl who isn't anything we've encountered before. He's gonna need help. "Right. Gabumon, can you keep going?"

"Yeah." He grunts. "It'll take more than a few robo-moths to take me down."

I nod and fiddle with my digivice. Gabumon closes his eyes, and lets the light glow within him, forcing the changes up the digivolutionary scale until my giant wolf has returned. "Gabumon digivolve to… Garurumon!"

Garurumon shakes dust from his fur – some of it lands in Davis' face and my young protégé spits obscenities at my partner. Ken laughs, while Imperialdramon shakes his massive head. I ignore them, lifting the digital-phone back to my face. "Izzy, do you think you can find a way to send me a map of this ruins?"

"Nn… I can try. If I bounce the signal through the digital antenna I'm using to speak to you –"

"Whatever you can do," I sigh.

I hear the sound of fingers slamming into keys on the other end. "You should be receiving your map right… hang on."

I blink. "What is it?"

His voice falters, his confusion reading well on my end. "…This map…"

"Izzy?"

"I've seen this before," he speaks with a quiet voice.

I frown. "Izzy, talk to me."

"Hold on," he tells me. I hear the clicking of computer keys in the background again and I know Izzy's gotten into one of his moods. "I have to do some comparisons."

My frown deepens. "Comparisons? Comparisons of what?"

He doesn't respond. Not immediately. Davis Ken and Garurumon crowd around me while Imperialdramon glares off into the night, clearly antsy for action. And through it all, Izzy says nothing, the only sound we hear is the clicking of keys and his breathing on the other end. When his voice returns, it is chilled and quiet.

"…Of course it is..."

"Izzy?" I question. "What is going on up there?"

"Matt you should take a look at this. I'm going to attempt to send it to you now."

I wait for a second, until I feel my D-Terminal vibrating in my pocket. Pulling it out, I scroll down: I see a new message happily blinking in the corner. "Got it Izzy. I'm going to open it up."

I press a few buttons and an image flashes on my lcd screen. I gasp. "…It can't be."

"Notice anything familiar?"

There are several lines on top of lines, forming a kind of maze one would have fun solving if they were in elementary school. Littering this maze are several full squares, likely representing computer hubs. One line in particular connects to a square in the center – this line pings a little lighter than the rest on my D-Terminal screen. And all of this within the outline of a dark triangle.

He's right. I know this instantly.

"Holy crap," I whisper.

"I don't know why we didn't put it together sooner." Izzy laments. "You two should have gotten better warning. That's my fault. As soon as I saw her full basecode I should have-"

My eyes widen. "This is…"

"...Right." Is all Izzy says.

"This is what?" Ken glares in confusion.

"Yeah," Davis joins him, "what gives?"

I sigh, looking up to my two companions with a worried stare. "We've definitely been here before. And paid dearly for coming."

Ken shakes his head. "I don't understand."

"Let me put it to you this way." I stare at him. "The last time we were here MetalGreymon vaporized an evil monkey and accidentally opened a portal home."

Ken blinks, and then puts two and two together. While it doesn't mean as much to him as it does to me, his eyes still widen in recognition. "…Oh."

Davis glares at both of us. "…Still not following."

Ken ignores him. "…This is where Etemon fell, isn't it?"

I nod. "Mm…"

"The rock n' roll guy Tai told me about?" Davis bites his lip in thought "But… you guys destroyed him. Right?"

"Nothing ever stays dead for long here," I remind him. "But yeah, we got Etemon. I'm more concerned about what he left behind - and what these A.o.A guys stumbled across."

"Is it somethin' we can shoot at?" Imperialdramon's voices are practically pleading in my skull.

"Give us a second guys," Ken asks, and Imperialdramon moans like a five year old.

I return to my conversation with the Digidestined of Knowledge. "Izzy, can you still get me inside?"

"With the top half gone, I don't think the hidden entrance exists anymore. However Tai got in is how you'll have to follow."

"Terrific. How did Tai get in?"

"The main entrance will have an eight digit locking mechanism you should be able to get through," he explains very quickly.

I frown. "I don't have the password."

"It's 'password'."

I feel a bead of sweat trickle down the side of my face. "…Seriously?"

"I know. I know. I wanted them to change it too. I thought something like 'prodigious' would work better, but it's an eight key code and some of them didn't even know how to spell–"

"Izzy."

"Sorry."

"Nn… It's okay." I shake my head. I nod towards Ken and Davis and make to mount my partner. "We're going after Tai now."

"Matt. There's one more thing."

"What is it Izzy?"

"Her full base code. It reads: 'Sra2dtmnDotGEN'"

"D-t-m-n…" I fill in the letters. I put them together. My blood falls from my face. "…Does that mean what I think it means."

"I'd tell you it doesn't if I could, but…"

I stand stock still. Things are falling together now. My heart beats faster and faster. The black wires, the mysterious digital organism in the desert, it's hatred for us... I get it now. There will be no reasoning with this. How could we reason with a being who only cares about itself?

"Matt?" Ken frowns.

"What's going on?" Davis worries.

I ignore them both. "…Izzy."

"Yes?"

"I need a favor from you."

"Okay?"

"Can… can you call my girlfriend for me? Tell her… 'I might not make it to dinner tomorrow. But everything's going to be alright.' I want you to stress that to her. 'Everything is going to be alright.'"

"…Matt?"

"If I don't call her she'll worry. And I don't have time to call her. Can you tell her that for me?"

"…Alright."

I fidget with the phone in my hands. I know my girlfriend isn't going to be pleased with this. In fact I'm fairly certain she's going to be on the phone with Izzy all night trying to keep up with where we both are – Sora can be motherly like that. But this is the best I can do right now, and at least this way Sora will know I'm okay.

I swallow spit and gather myself. The wind is nipping through my shirt, and I know I'll have to get going in a few seconds. "Um… I'm going to turn off the phone now Izzy."

"Okay."

"If me and Tai don't email you by six o'clock tomorrow morning call an emergency meeting, bring everyone down here and blow this thing to high heaven. You understand?"

His voice is full of concern. "What are you going to do?"

I sigh, staring off towards the pile of rocks. "I have to go save our leader."

"…Understood."

Izzy sends me a final reply before hanging up. I take a deep breath. My chest thumps with a low hum of pain but I try to ignore it. I can't let it slow me down. Not now. I set the phone carefully back into the briefcase, snapping the latches closed. "Here," I hand the device to Davis. "You two will need this more than I will now."

"What's going on?" Ken asks.

"It's more than just a trap for us."

He frowns. "What do you mean?"

"Yeah," Davis pouts as he limply swings the briefcase back and forth. "This is seriously starting to creep me out."

I sigh, turning my head back to the ruins. "This is where Etemon fell. But there was another monster we never saw again."

Ken pales. "Oh."

Davis' mouth is wide in shock. It's clear he too recognizes the dang-

"…Cockatrimon?"

If I were in an anime right now my head would instantly be on the ground in shock. Instead, I simply groan. Davis blinks, not realizing that he may need to pay more attention when we start sharing war stories. Ken pats his head patiently, earning him a glare from his spike-haired friend. I shake my head. "The other big bad we fought on Server."

"Oh… Oh! Wait that dude was a wimp though, wasn't he?"

"Not as much as we thought," I grumble. "If I'm right he'll have absolute control of the black wires. And if that's the case then he's been in total control over everything that's happened over the last three years. This guy's evil; pure evil. There's no point in reasoning with him.

"And the girl?" Imperialdramon asks.

"The girl…" I trail off. I don't want to think about it. "Whether she knows it or not, she belongs to him."

"We'll have to treat her like she's in on it too then," Ken decides, and I begrudgingly agree with him.

"I don't believe it." Garurumon huffs. "To think he'd wait for us all this time."

"Mm." I nod.

Davis yawns. "Whatever. So we're dealing with one of the enemies from your past. Was he stronger than Myotismon?"

"Nn… No."

"So why don't we just go in there, pull Tai outta the way, and nuke this thing to smithereens right now?"

"Now there's an idea," Imperialdramon's voice bounces around in my ears.

Before I can answer either way, my partner sniffs his giant nose. The expression in his eyes is worrying. He turns to me, a low snarl building in his throat. "M-Matt?"

"What is it buddy?"

Garurumon growls, his dark eyes pointing towards the crater. "We are not alone."

My eyes follow his gaze. Davis and Ken do the same. What we see startles us all.

Wires. They're popping up out of the sands like buds of a growing plant, reaching out into the darkness. It's thanks to the brightness of the sands that we see them at all – they're all starting so tiny. But they're growing.

Singed from Imperialdramon's razing of the desert sands, these wires coil and writhe like blind snakes out of their elements. But they are far from dead – if indeed these moving vines can be considered living things. More than that, with each passing second that the five of us watch with horror, the cables outer shell appears to be regenerating and wrapping around the coils again and again, layering the wires in a black casing. I knew this thing was spreading fast. But seeing it in person sets fear in my heart.

"No way." Davis whispers. "Imperialdramon's Mega Crusher… It's like it had no affect at all!"

Ken pales. "The wires… they're not going to stop until this thing is dead."

I gulp. Our enemy is through playing around. The wires are regenerating at such a pace, and are moving so quickly, that the whole area will become a forest of wires in a few short minutes. We have it's undivided attention now. It's trying to kill us.

"Matt?"

"Yes Ken?"

"How far are the vines reaching?"

"Nn… They're under a lot of Server. Neo-Delhi included. Why?"

He sighs. "I don't think this is a localized event."

I spit. Around us more vine-like black wires rise from the sand, their exposed tips sparking with electricity. They're everywhere, sprouting like flowers in springtime. They're spreading as far as the eye can see, up the dunes and across the horizon. I grit my teeth. "What the hell…?"

"He's unleashing all his wires at once," Ken surmises.

I snarl. "It's never easy, is it?"

Davis looks to me. "What do we do now?"

I take a breath. "Get back to Neo-Delhi! Tell Mina to evacuate. Clear everybody as far away from the Dark Network as possible!"

"What about you?" Davis shouts back.

"I have to go save Tai!"

"That's nuts," Imperialdramon rumbles. "You can't go in there alone."

"The city holds thousands. Our lives are nothing in comparison. You guys are needed there!"

"But…"

"C'mon guys," I shout aloud. "You have to trust me!"

Just shouting that aloud makes me wince, the pain in my side returning sharply with the expansion of my digital lungs. Davis and Ken share a look. For a minute I wonder if they're going to ignore me – both technically outrank me right now since Tai isn't around. Typically, the Digidestined with the highest evolution in a group takes point when we're called in. Right now that's them. They can reach mega. I can't anymore. Not without Tai.

But all Davis does when he turns back to me is sigh. "Alright."

I blink. "Nn?"

"There's obviously no talking you out of this," Ken agrees, "and we don't have time to argue about it."

"Get in there and kick some butt Matt," Davis nods. "I believe in you!"

I take a deep breath, feeling better. "Thanks."

Ken and Davis head back towards the waiting Imperialdramon. Ken calls to me over his shoulder. "You and Garurumon take off. We'll clear you a path!"

"Be careful," says Davis.

I nod back to them. "Understood."

"And Matt?"

"Mm?"

Davis flashes me a thumbs up, his toothy grin visible even in the dark. "Make sure you bring Tai back safely. He's gotta be the best man when me and his sister get married!"

I grin. "I'm pretty sure he'd try to kill you first!"

We share a smile. I can count on them. They're our replacements after all.

I hop on to Garurumon's back, clutching my ribs but ignoring the pain. "Let's go Gaurumon!"

"Hmrgh!"

He takes off into a full gallop, and I feel the wind across my face. Behind me I hear the jet like scream of Imperialdramon lifting himself from the ground and back into the air, and I know that they'll be above us soon. Which is good, because we're going to need there help getting through.

I kip the side of Garurumon and hang on, with each step of his monsterous paws dodging more and more black vines as they reach out for us. They're getting thicker as we go along, trying to trip Garurumon up. Trying to catch us and end us before we can save our friends. They almost succeed.

"Positron Laser!"

I shield my eyes from the blast. Sand sprays in my face, pricking at my skin like tiny needles, but I press Garurumon onwards. Above me Davis and Ken ride high on Imperialdramon and – true to their word – clear a path for us, slamming the sands with a continuous laser blast that parts the desert floor like the sea. With the wires in that direction fried, Garurumon and I have a cleared gauntlet to run. I salute the boys with the arm on my good side. Imperialdramon roars a response.

We hurtle across the sands at Garurumon's top speed, hurtling towards the looming ruins of what was once a great upside down pyramid. I hear Imperialdramon roar across the night once more and I know he's turned around and is headed back towards Neo-Delhi. He will be needed. Our enemy may be the most intelligent villain we ever faced. And now he has the entirety of the Dark Network at his disposal.

If I'm right – and God, I hope I'm not – then we're all in far more danger than we've been led to believe. And Tai is at the brunt of it. I lean forward and urge Garurumon onwards. Towards the ruined pyramid. Towards Tai and the girl who looks like Sora. Towards a creature fueled on revenge. I have to hurry.

If I don't make it in time, she may kill him.

GODFALL

12

Digimon