"Open wide!"

"Suzy, really, I think I'm stuffed!"

"There's always room for chocolate! Shouldn't you know that when your name is Chocomon now?"

"Suzy, leave her alone," Henry told her. "Look at Terriermon: he really did eat so much he passed out. Chocomon can't play with you if she's asleep, right?"

Guilmon was also sound asleep on the floor next to the table, with a dreaming Terriermon chewing on one of his claws. Henry's partner had said something about "Bread Guilmon," or maybe "BreadGuilmon" in his sleep.

"He's still eating!" Suzy pointed to where the yellow top of Hopmon's horn could be seen over the top of a KFC bucket.

"I can't remember the last time I had fried chicken!" Hopmon said, with frequent pauses to take another bite and repeat words that were rendered incoherent by the food still in his mouth.

The Digimon weren't the only ones passed out: most of the Monster Makers and Hypnos personnel had already left to go get some actual sleep, or just crashed on one of the couches around the edge of the room. The end of the world made for one major programming deadline crunch.

"Please don't mention food," Yaamon groaned.

"Agreed," said Pokomon, shuddering.

"The D-Reaper is dead, right?" Ryo asked Dr. Wong. "The Sovereign said it kept reappearing out of nowhere to wipe out whole regions in ancient times, so please tell me it's not going to come back again and again."

"Well, we regressed it back to its original form, a harmless program."

"But it's not dead."

"Well, no, but it's not alive, either. There's no reason it should undergo the same mutation."

"But it could. It could regain its power and end up tough enough the Sovereign can't handle it again."

"Well, theoretically, I suppose."

The Tamer groaned. "You suck," Ryo told him. "You suck so much."

"So?" Rika asked. "If it comes back again, we'll just go back to the Digital World and beat it again, before it gets that strong."

"Tell you what," Ryo said. "You're the Digimon Queen now, I needed your power to fight that thing: you can be the D-Reaper's official nemesis. If it comes back again, you fight it."

"What, you scared?" Rika asked him, more puzzled than accusatory. "The thing that was scary about it was that we couldn't really hurt it."

"Yeah," Impmon said. "I wouldn't mind getting to beat up on a weak D-Reaper. We'll show it!"

"Yeah!" Ai agreed, and Mako nodded, grinning.

"Ok, the D-Reaper is officially Rika and Impmon's job. No take-backs," Ryo warned them. "If I find it in the Digital World, I'm calling you guys."

"And what would you be doing in the Digital World?"

"Dad…" Ryo winced. Busted.

"You missed more than a year of school!"

"Look, I already promised to take the government people and science teams there and back, right? So I'll be coming back to the human world a lot more often, I can take a correspondence course and bring my homework to the Digital World with me!"

"That's not the point, Ryo! You're still a kid: who died and made this your job? So you won some tournaments, that doesn't mean you're obligated to leave home and nearly get yourself killed I don't know how many times!"

"Dad, it's not li…" Ryo looked to the side. "I guess…" He looked around the room. "I'm not the only one who can, right?" He tried to cover it up with a laugh, but it was an honest question.

"Absolutely not," his father told him. "There's a whole government agency, and the UN and other countries now, and those Sovereign in the digital world. Let them do their jobs."

"And what are we?" Rika wondered, glaring at him. "Chopped liver? You promised to show us how to get back when we were still in the Digital World, remember?"

"…Yeah." He ducked his head, blushing. "Sorry about that. Thanks, Rika."

"Ugh, interviews," Rika said.

Ryo nodded in agreement. She was right as usual.

"Have you guys got any tips?" Takato asked nervously. "I haven't done anything like this before."

"Talk about how cute Guilmon is," Ryo said.

Rika looked at the door disgustedly. "Don't worry if you look scared or awkward. People eat that stuff up."

"My dad said that this is practically a screen test," Henry said. "I mean, the reporters are real, but Riley's managing it and we're minors. They'll cut anything you ask them to cut."

From Rika's grimace at the words 'screen test,' that was not something that made having to do this any better.

"If they ask one of you to biomerge, mind if I join in?" Ryo asked. "I need to burn off some of Monodramon's energy before he evolves any further. I really don't want him hitting Strikedramon during an interview because there was a mega nearby, or we're in trouble."

"Justimon looks like something out of Kamen Rider." Henry looked thoughtful. "Gallantmon and Sakuyamon are fine, but MegaGargomon's a big war machine. We don't want them to think that Digimon are only for fighting. It's not like we can hide that Digimon are dangerous, but…"

"But they're our dangerous," Rika finished for him.

"Hey, what about us?" Terriermon asked.

"You play videogames. Guilmon, you probably want to mention Takato's family's bakery. Renamon? You're just awesome."

Rika nodded. Yes, yes she was.

"Oh, I can tell them about Guilmon bread?"

"Is that okay?" Takato laughed nervously.

"Renamon?" Rika said. "You're on shutting up Impmon duty if he says anything stupid." This time it was only the four heroes who went inside the D-Reaper, it wasn't like they could avoid being recognized, but since Beelzemon looked like a demon people were probably going to want to be reassured or something. "Seriously, Ryo, wanting to become a mega in front of the cameras? If you just needed to be a mega for awhile, why didn't you volunteer for that scanning thing?"

"I did, but after I said I didn't know what he was talking about with the Sovereign having something to do with biomerging in the real world, he said that I was doing something different from you guys and he should scan you for a baseline first."

"Wait," Henry said. "You biomerged in the real world without the Sovereign's help?"

"Yeah?" Ryo said, and shrugged. "Why, is it different from biomerging in the Digital World? I didn't manage to biomerge before we left, so I wouldn't know."

"And he said he didn't want to scan you after that?"

"Right? Well not for awhile, anyway."

Henry stared. "Wow. I guess Mr. Yamaki really is on our side…"

"We couldn't biomerge in the real world because we were real matter instead of data here," Rika told Ryo.

"…Huh?" Ryo wondered. "But Digimon turn from solid matter into data and back again every time they Digivolve in the real world. All matter is made up of information."

"Well, technically…" Henry supposed, but frowned at Ryo, because that was really oversimplifying how easy it should be.

"Yeah," Ryo admitted, more complicated than that. "It'd be formatted differently, but translating between different systems and file formats, like human thoughts and the digital world, is what digivices do."

"Or maybe you're weird and staying in the Digital World that long meant that even when you got back you're still data?" Rika hissed. "So nobody say anything about that."

"I really don't think it works that way…"

"And how would you know?" Rika asked him.

Ryo paused. "You're right, I have no idea. I should probably talk to one of the Monster Makers. For now I'll be careful then, thanks Rika."

"You'd want to talk to Curly and Babel," Henry told him. "They're the physicists."

"Not Shibumi? I thought he was the one who made the digivices."

"No." Henry said. "My dad warned me about him. He cares a lot more about what's interesting than about people. I think he did something unethical, besides handing the blue cards out to kids without telling them." Someone could have died. Some kids probably did. "Not that my dad can talk when he uploaded a program into Terriermon without telling him…"

"No telling Shibumi I'm interesting, got it." Ryo said, and shuddered. "My dad already found out I got banged up a bit in the Digital World and I'm going to have to schedule runs to the Digital World around physical therapy as well as turning in homework. If he finds out something else I'm getting kind of worried he might put a hit out on Monodramon." When Ryo's partner was the reason he had to leave home and all this happened to him.

"I'm sorry, Ryo," the little dragon said.

"It's not your fault, Monodramon."

Takato looked sad. "When I designed Guilmon, I thought that having a demon dragon partner who went berserk when he attacked the enemy would be really cool. Cyberdramon is just like the personality I wrote in Guilmon's description. But it's really not so cool when you have to live with it. Seeing you and Monodramon… makes me realize that I just got lucky. I could have really messed Guilmon up because I didn't think about what it would mean that Guilmon would be a real person, and my friend. It feels really unfair that you have to live with what I was dumb enough to ask for."

"Why?" Ryo asked. "It's not like it has anything to do with you."

"It's the Monster Makers' fault for thinking it would be cool for Digimon to kill each other for data," Henry said grimly. "Cyberdramon's fits… that's how they programmed Digimon. I almost want the press to find out about that, so they know that it's not the Digimon's fault. It's what we humans did to them when we created them, it's our responsibility."

Ryo was staring at him like he was speaking in tongues, the same way he had when they told him that there was anything weird about biomerging in the real world.

"What?" Terriermon asked.

"Nothing," Ryo said, rubbing his head. "Maybe I hit my head more times than I thought…"

While Hypnos and Echelon were tracking down other gates, the portal in Shinjuku park was the famous one – and the one with a guide – so once the small war over who got to send what people on the first official trip to the digital world was settled and Yamaki and Daisy had modified their cameras and other equipment so they would probably work in the Digital World, that was where they gathered.

With more cameras set up around the shed, and press camping in the green to watch the actual departure.

Some people had decided to wait after hearing that it would take awhile for a new ark to be built, and for now they'd have to be carried by a Digimon.

Since Cyberdramon would have to carry them through in shifts, Rika and Renamon were going because Sakyuamon could fly, so she would be guarding where they were dropped off while Ryo went back and forth. She'd also be carrying Takato, Henry and their partners, since Ryo didn't think it was a good idea for Cyberdramon to carry them.

Hypnos had borrowed some of the military's tents so they could secure an area for their equipment and talk out of sight of the cameras. "You're certain that Rika and Renamon can stay as Sakuyamon without problems?" Riley asked Ryo for a final check inside one of the tents.

"Cyberdramon doesn't growl at Sakuyamon for some reason. Not sure why, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'm more worried about Monodramon pushing all the buttons on their equipment and breaking something."

"They signed liability forms, you won't have to pay for it if anything gets broken." They were going into a dangerous, mainly unexplored (by humans – well, Ryo had explored much of it, but the D-Reaper had altered the terrain enough his knowledge of its prior geography was practically useless) world. They should know better than to think it would be safe, even if the Sovereign had been warned that they were coming.

Monodramon looked up Henry and poked him in the leg to get his attention, and Terriermon's when he looked down to see what Henry was looking at. "Are you Ryo's enemy?" Monodramon asked Terriermon.

Terriermon's ears stood on end. Monodramon was supposed to be saner than Cyberdramon, but he did not like the sound of that. "No way. I don't even play the card game!"

"It's true," Henry said, smiling to defuse the situation. "The computer games, now…"

"You defeated the D-Reaper, and that makes you the most powerful Digimon. Yes!" Monodramon realized. "I do! I do remember fighting Digimon with humans before! That means that Ryo's enemy may be one of you…"

Ryo groaned and pointed his digivice at Monodramon. A purple band of light whipped out from it to wrap around the dragon child. "Sorry about this," he said, pulling with his digivice to drag Monodramon away from the other Tamers. "And that's why we stay in the Digital World." He turned away, walking towards the flap separating off this part of the tent. "Come on, Monodramon. The Sovereign weren't picky about who they let Calumon digivolve, there are probably lots of evil megas preying on the weak in the Digital World right now. Behave until we're done playing taxi, and once we've dropped everyone off with the others I'll let you go hunting."

"You know, that band of light that comes from Ryo's digivice? It feels like I've seen it before," Henry said, looking thoughtful.

"It's just like the ones the Digidestined used to hold down VenomMyotismon so Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon could finish him off," Takato told Henry. "Only those came from their crests, not their digivices."

"Well, of course you'd know anime trivia," Rika said, tapping her foot.

Henry looked thoughtful. "Since the D-Arc program makes our thoughts reality, I wonder if Ryo can do that because he saw it in the anime and thought it was just something Tamers could do…"

"I would not be surprised," Rika agreed. "But I guess that if I had Cyberdramon instead of Renamon, I'd want a leash too. Or a better partner."

"We're really going back to the Digital World," Takato said, to change the subject just in case Monodramon could hear them through the thin canvas wall. It wasn't like it was Monodramon's fault how he was programmed. "I hope… I hope they're doing okay."

"If the Sovereign created the Devas and an entire level of the Digital World, while they were fighting the D-Reaper on a regular basis, I think that with the D-Reaper gone, they'll be able to, well, do more." Henry said. "Azulongmon really didn't like people fighting when they didn't have to, and even Zhuqaiomon didn't like Digimon fighting Digimon just because they were made that way. I think there's hope that things will be better now. For the Digimon that survived the D-Reaper, anyway."

"Like you guys haven't been wondering about this for the last week?" Rika asked. "You could stay back here talking or we could get this show on the road and find out."

"Right," Takato said, and smiled. "Come on, Guilmon."

"Oh, I hope this time we don't lose all the bread…" Guilmon hoped some of the Sovereign were still tiny, otherwise they'd barely even be able to taste the bread, and he wanted to thank them for letting him and Takato biomerge so he could protect Takato from the D-Reaper in this world. Takato's dad had shown him how to make spicy bread, and it was easier to taste, but what if they didn't like it? Although it was hard to imagine anyone not liking bread.