Dear diary.

It's me, Takeru, returning, but I'm not sure what I should start with. I mean, so much stuff had happened ever since we were called back, and when you try to sort them out, your head tend to spin. Maybe I should start with the times when things still looked hopeful for us. Why would I start with them? Maybe because even in these dark times, thinking about them still warm my heart and bring me enough hope to believe that this story will one day get its happy ending.

Our days as the Digidestined weren't easy. In fact, they could be backbreakingly hard, and our second tour was no exception. The war against the Digimon Emperor was no walk through the park, and the later war against Arukenimon and Mummymon was brutally hard, specially when BlackWarGreymon entered the scene. But despite the hardships we faced, times were good. Our digimon learned new evolutionforms, we grew as a group, we met old and new friends, we learned more about the Digital World itself, etc. But my favorite part from these times is when Ken joined us.

You see, Ken was the dreaded Digimon Emperor who ruled the Digital World with an iron fist, and we'd to put our all in order to defeat him, which we finally did after a hard battle. We were all taken by surprise when we saw that behind that tyrannical monster hid a lonely and broken kid who didn't know what he was doing. After that battle, Ken became so wreaked with guilt to the point of suicide, but Daisuke did all he could to make him part of our group and make him feel accepted amongst us. It took time, but eventually, all of us finally accepted Ken as our friend, including Iori. Thanks to Daisuke, we all learned what a great guy Ken actually was, and I'm forever grateful to him for that. For all his flaws, Daisuke really was a sweet, compassionate guy.

Ken became our friend, and he held us deeply in his heart, and we held him deeply in our hearts in return. But sadly, this was the point when things started to go downhill, when Oikawa and Daemon brought chaos and destruction to our world. But even they were nothing compared to the monster that was MaloMyotismon.

I knew that after that brutal...well, "fight" against MaloMyotismon, things would change dramatically for us, and not in the good way. I knew that after we witnessed the torturous slaughter Daisuke put MaloMyotismon through, and how he did it in such a callous way that was so unlike him. Just the sheer brutality he and Imperialdramon showed that day...it was terrifying to watch. It was like if both became possessed by something...dark, but despite that, MaloMyotismon got what he deserved. It was the perfect payback for his deeds, and I, Hikari, Iori and Miyako knew that Daisuke simply did what he'd to do, despite the nature of how he did it.

Unfortunately, the rest didn't seem to think the same. They didn't know what a true monster MaloMyotismon really was, so they'd looked at Daisuke with disgust afterward, silently cursing him as an abomination, and the worst part was that he looked like he knew, but didn't care. For him, avenging Ken's death was all that was importent. He just looked apathetically at them before Imperialdramon suddenly flew up to the dark clouds and disappeared, taking Daisuke to the unknown.

Not long afterward, Gennai suddenly appeared. He congratulated us for saving the worlds from MaloMyotismon, but I couldn't help but notice a worried, disturbed tone behind his cheerful gratefulness. Maybe he knew what Daisuke just did, or how the future would look for us. None of less, he thanked us for our victory and then gave Gatomon her tail-ring back. He mentioned that it was used to make DNA-digievolution possible, surprising us on its true importence.

Though as mentioned before, the battle was a brutal one, and we lost several fellow Digidestined and digimon to MaloMyotismon's bombardment. While the others were mourning their comrades, we returned to that weird dimension. When we came, we saw that Oikawa's body was gone. Where it went, we still don't know. Though the kids he used were still there, completely petrified and huddling in fear. And so was Ken's corpse...

Our group became absolutely devastated by seeing the remains that used to be our friend. Just seeing Ken lying there, with blood and guts everywhere, caused all of us to break down emotionally, with some worse than others; Miyako had a complete sobfest, with Hikari and even Iori soon joining her. Taichi lost all his colours and became as pale as snow. Koushiro could only mutter weakly "oh god". Sora gasped and put her hands to her mouth, and it didn't take long before the tears ran down her cheeks. Mimi cried her eyes out, though not as intense. Yamato looked as shocked as the rest of us, and Jyou like he'd throw up, but didn't, due to out of respect to Ken.

But I think it was worse for the digimon. For them, death was something temporary. They die and then they're reborn, simple as that. But they'd never seen a dead human before and seeing one, who also happened to be our friend, must had been a horrible surprise. I remember that I looked at them, and they all were just as pale as Taichi was. I think that they realized what death really is, and how truely merciless it is, when not even a guy like Ken is spared from its wrath.

Gennai took it better than we did. With a saddened but yet calm tone, he said that Ken's death wouldn't be forgotten, and that he gave his condolences on the behalf of the Sovereigns. When he said that, my grief secretly turned to bitterness. The Sovereigns! Where were they during the battle?! Why didn't they come to our aid?! Why didn't they stop MaloMyotismon before he killed Ken?! Why didn't they do anything?! All those bitter thoughts appeared in my head, and in that moment, MaloMyotismon's argument about them being a bunch of manipulative cowards actually sounded right. I felt the need to say that right at Gennai's face, but I kept my cool.

After we managed to put ourselves together, a portal opened up out of nowhere and we could hear our folks behind it. Our homesickness almost overtook us, but we still thought about Ken. None of us had the heart to carry his body back home, and we were in an emotional stalemate until Gennai gave us his guarantee that he'd take care of Ken until we got the strength to take him home. After some hesitation, we accepted his guarantee. We all bid our last farewells to Ken and promised him that we'd return. Then we walked toward the portal, our hearts filled with bittersweetness, ready to go home.

Through the portal we arrived to the summer-camp there everything started, and right before our folks. They started out elated to see us before they became shocked. I guess we looked rather beat up and all, but most of all depressed and spiritless, as if we returned as losers instead as victors. But it still were a lot of hugging and kissing and general happiness over that we returned alive and safe...until Ken's parents asked us worriedly where their son was. We couldn't tell them that their last son had been killed, less the way how. It'd destroy them, so we lied and said that Ken went MIA during the battle, and that we'd find him later. They believed us, and we felt guilty to give them such false hope.

The first thing I noticed was the darkness around us. Weird, as I though that after we defeated MaloMyotismon, it'd go away, but it still remained. I asked myself why, but there was no answer. All I got was this creepy feeling that this was more than just mere darkness. But I didn't dwell much on it. I was tired and exhausted – we all were – and just wanted to go home and sleep. Unfortuantely, we couldn't. Our parents told us that riots broke out in Tokyo, making it impossible for us return at the time. I couldn't believe my ears. Riots...in Tokyo? How could it be? It felt so unreal to hear that. Wasn't this nightmare already over, I thought angrily, refusing to believe it. But the nightmare hadn't ended, and we'd to stay at the camp for a few days before the authorities could crack down the riots.

When we were finally returning home, our spirits were somewhat stronger than before, but they were quickly smashed when we saw all the destruction and property damages around us. It was like if the entire city went through an inferno, and to make it worse, we'd to deal with a lot of cops and their checkpoints. They were so many and so strict so that it took almost an eternity before we finally were at home. Fortunately, my home hadn't suffered much by the riot. Unfortuantely, I found out through the news that the cops had put down the rioters by using lethal force.

That really surprised and shocked me, and even more by the rather apathetic reaction by society. They were like "whatever, they'd it comming", as if the cops did the right thing shooting the rioters down, without even considering using other, non-lethal ways. It was...I don't know what to say. It was just...terrible to hear something like this, specially since it happened all over the world, with the same results. How many died internationally is still unknown, but here in Japan, it was around one hundred rioters.

Despite everything, we tried to live a normal life again, but failed. We were so traumatized by the battle that we all pretty much got PTSD, as Jyou calls it, and all this remaining darkness around us didn't help. It reminded us how little we actually accomplished, as if we didn't win the battle at all. And then some of us suffered more from the riots, like Sora and her family. Their appartment and Mrs Takenouchi's flowershop were burned to the ground, so they ended up living with Koushiro's family, whose home wasn't left untouched either, just not as bad.

And then things really hit the fan.

After a while, Miyako couldn't keep up the facade anymore, and she told Ken's parents about his death. Needless to say, they became absolutely devastated. They screamed and cried and cursed fate for being so cruel and heartless before they took out all their grief on poor Miyako. They raged at her, screaming at her that if she and the rest of us really were Ken's friends, than we would've not let MaloMyotismon take their baby boy from them. She couldn't handle such direct griving hatred from them, and she ran home crying. Not long afterward, Ken's dad commited suicide by seppuku. On his suicide note, he wrote that everything was his fault and if he'd loved his sons for themselves, not their talents, than maybe they'd still be alive and live as a happy family. Ken's mom became so broken that she ended up in a mental hospital. Last we heard, she spends her days just staring at the walls with empty eyes, not answering to anyone and is just forever lost in the endless abyss of insanity.

You can say the same thing about Miyako. After that day, she became listless, stopped talking with anyone and started isolate herself from both us and her family. The only person she has any form of social contact with is Hikari, and even that ain't much. Hikari tells me that all Miyako does in her company is crying on her shoulders, and all she can do is try to comfort her, to no avail.

Miyako's decision came from the guilt we all felt, but she was the one who carried its heaviest burden. We'd later find out the reason why: she and Ken had appearently been dating in secret around after our first fight against BlackWarGreymon. The reason why they kept their relationship a secret was because of Daisuke. He was very protective of Ken, and he'd definitely become protective of Miyako as well if their relationship was known, and knowing how stressful it'd likely become for him, they kept it a secret.

Then digimon appeared around the world again, causing things to become more complicated, and I'm sure it's because the darkness must had shattered the border between the worlds into almost nothing. Like the last time, almost all of them came to our world unwillingly, and so were terrified and scared like any creature would be if they were suddenly pulled into the unknown, and a terrified digimon equals a destructive digimon. They caused a lot of destruction and property damages in their panic, leading to a lot of innocent casualties. We tried to help them, but we didn't have Imperaldramon this time, so we could only deal with those appearing here in Japan. Fortunately, Koushiro managed to create a contact network with the international Digidestined and recruit them in helping us to deal with the rampaging digimon.

The problem was that the digimon were more aggressive and wild than before, and it made the whole "return them back to the Digital World" much more difficult. Many times, we'd to use extreme force in order to beat them, and trying to do that without killing them and innocent bystanders was like trying to learn karate in just one day. Though the true problem came when we tried to send them back: we couldn't open the portal. It just refused to open and take the digimon back home, no matter how much we pointed our digivices. And according to Koushiro, the others faced the same problem. So now we've to try to take care of lost, confused digimon and let me tell you, it ain't easy.

And it definitely didn't become easier when dark digimon suddenly appeared as well. Around the world they came, causing whatever destruction they tend to do. However, they didn't seem to be organized like before and acted more like "lone wolves", but their thirst for human blood was just as strong as always, and they spread much mayham and chaos wherever they went. It was than the people finally had enough, and decided to fight fire with fire. Troops were sent to deal with the dark digimon, leading to a lot of bloody skirmishes. Unfortuantely, a lot of innocent digimon were caught in the fire, and later on, so were we.

We tried to fight the dark digimon, but somehow, people started to think we were allied with them. We were seen as traitors, or worse as collaborators. We found ourselves ostracized by society, and there were times we were attacked by gun-wielding, digimon-hating people, and we'd to either retreat or fight back. Mostly, we did the former. However, this new development caused our fellow Digidestined to have flashbacks of our bloody fight with MaloMyotismon and that reminder of their own mortality spooked them from keep helping us. We found out that more and more of them jumped the ship, and finally, Koushiro couldn't get contact with any of them besides Mimi. At the end, we were all that were left.

Among the deserters was Iori. He claimed his reason why was because he could no longer deal being a Digidestined, not after the horrors he'd to witness and the post-trauma he's to suffer from afterwards. I can't say that I blame him. He's the youngest among us, barely ten years old, and yet he'd seen things I'm sure could break even the most battle-hardened soldiers. Even with his disciplined, stoic personality, those events would leave gruesome scars in his young mind. Though it hurts that he, of all people, would be the first one to abandon us. He who was one of the strongest among us.

The dark digimon were beaten back, and the politicians and the media makes it sound like the threat is over, but I disagree. They were simply driven underground and forced to adapt a more stealthy approach. And we were forced to do the same as the open hostility became too much for us. Right now, both we and the dark digimon fights a secret, underground war outside the eyes and ears of society, hoping that there's a small victory waiting at the end.

For a time, Taichi managed to keep our ever dwindling group together, and through his leadership, we managed to resist the forces out to get us. That was Taichi alright; the perfect leader you could've during a time of crises, but unfortuanetly, not even he could resist the dark influence, and one day, he snapped...hard.

It happened when he saw Yamato and Sora sharing a kiss. When he saw them kissing, he suddenly screamed loudly at them like a wild animal, taking the dumbfounded couple with complete surprise. When they asked why he was mad at them, he answered by roaring out on how traitorous and false they were and how their so-called relationship was nothing but a sick game they played on him for their own amusement, using his heart and feelings as their disposable toys. Sora tried to calm Taichi down, but all she did was making him focus his rage at her. He screamed that she was nothing but an ungrateful and golddigging harlot who, despite everything he'd done for her, threw herself at the arms of some "emo half-breed gigolo", and only because she wanted to shine under his fame rather than actually loving him. Then Yamato, despite the great insult, tried to calm Taichi down as well, but it just made him even more enraged and it earned Yamato a punch to his face, which broke his nose. After he delivered that punch, Taichi bitterly accused Yamato that since he couldn't take Taichi's leadership, he instead decided to take what Taichi held darest to his heart in a petty desire to hurt him. He finished with that since Yamato always wanted the leadership of our group, he could've had it, as Taichi claimed he was done with all of this. Then he just left, leaving the rest of us in dumbfounded shock.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised of Taichi's breakdown. We all knew that he'd feelings for Sora that went further than friendship, and we all thought they'd end up together, being so close as they were, so imagine our surprise when Sora ended up with Yamato instead. Even if he's my brother, her decision seemed to come out of nowhere. I guess that Taichi, for all the courage he'd facing our enemies, didn't have enough courage to ask Sora out, and when he finally did, it was already too late. He seemed so supportive of their relationship, but inside his envy must had grown and slowly consumed him, and one day, it finally got the better of him.

After Taichi left us, Yamato had to spend a few weeks out of the field in order to heal his broken nose. After it was healed, Yamato decided to seek out Taichi, claiming that he was going to speak some sense in him. But the cold tone he used made us believe he'd a more malicious intent in seeking Taichi out. He left without saying any words of farewell to us. Not even to me, his own brother.

So now we've lost our strongest members, and it really caused our spirits to sink further down. Sora's spirit, however, was shattered into pieces. Taichi's words left a deep, scarring wound in her heart, and she became wretched with guilt and regret to the point of having a nervous breakdown. She started to believe that everything Taichi said were one hundred procent true, and that she really was a harlot. She claimed that she was drawn to Yamato because she subconsciously wanted to enjoy some of his fame for herself without thinking on how Taichi would take it. She actually knew Taichi had feelings for her, and she told us that she also had feelings for him, but, like him, didn't have the courage to act upon them. She blamed herself for the guys going AWOL and Taichi losing it like that, and her depression went so far she actually became suicidal. That was an extreme shock to us. Seeing such a strong girl like her driven to that point was scary, but fortunately, her mom and Biyomon managed to talk her out of that. They also tried to convince her that it wasn't her fault, that Taichi didn't mean what he said and that he only snapped because of the stress, but she still believes it's her fault. Sometimes when I meet her, I can clearly see that she'd cried the night before.

And if that wasn't enough, Koushiro has been acting weird lately. His attempts to gain contact with any of our allies have become an all-consuming obsession that can't be excused as mere devotion. He only sits in front of his laptop almost literally 24/7 desperately trying to contact Gennai or anyone else without success, and the few times he's to get off it, he acts like a junkie desperate for a fix. Hell, he even looks like one. You can't even talk to him anymore, as he tend to shout out that he's busy or don't have time when you try, and all you can do is watch him losing himself to that glowing screen of his. He's so trapped by it that not even Tentomon or his parents can break the hold his laptop has over him. He claims that something is blocking the communication between the worlds, and that he must stay by its side just in case Gennai manages to send a message since it could be the only time it happens, but I think the real reason why he's obsessed is because he wants to escape this harsh reality we're forced to endure, using his work as a drug, but like any other drugs, it's slowly destroying him, and it's sad that despite he's a smart guy, he can't see that (or perhaps he refuse to).

And then Jyou left us, but for different reasons. He didn't abandon us like Iori or Taichi did, but he left us because he became concerned about Mimi, who, from what we could read from her messages, faced the same problems we did, but had only Palmon to rely on. Even Michael has appearently ditched us, leaving her to deal with the hardships herself. Jyou became worried that this would leave her vulnerable from malicious forces, and he felt that he needed to come to her aid, just in case something would happen to her. We were reluctant to let him go, but we accepted it when he promised he'd remain in contact with us, and come to our aid if things would worsen. He kept his promise for a time before he went silent like the grave without any explanation. It's like if he suddenly disappeared into the thin air, and some of us believes it's because he abandoned us and just used Mimi's situation to hide his true intention. I try to think otherwise, because it's Jyou we're speaking off, but sometimes, I'm tempted to believe it's true that he abandoned us like the others.

Speaking of Mimi, she too went silent without any explanations. That really set off the alarm bells. The idea of her going AWOL on us is too incomprehensible for me to believe. There must be another reason why. Perhaps some dark digimon finally got her, and Jyou too for that matter? I don't want to think that could be true, since goodness knows what gruesome fate they'd to face than, but it's better than thinking that they abandoned us. Everyday, I worries that something has happened to them, and if I could, I would've got myself to America and searched for them through the whole nation, but I can't, so I can only hope for the best..

Our digimon haven't gotten it easy either. The battle against MaloMyotismon have scarred them not only mentally but physically as well, with some more than other. Like my partner, Patamon, for an exempel. His right wing is just a ugly and scarred remain formed by burned skin, and he can't use it properly anymore. The damage causes him chronic pain when he flies too fast, so he forced to fly more slowly. This obviously becomes a problem at the field, as even as Angemon and MagnaAngemon he has difficulties with his flying, and his self-confidence has suffered greatly lately due to it. I try to comfort him and convince him otherwise, but sadly, it's helped little.

Hawkmon has become near-deaf, and taking to him is nearly impossible. You've to almost shout to him in order for him to hear you just a little bit, and this's also damaged his self-confidence. The formely proud and boastful warrior is now a quiet loner, no different than Miyako, and it saddens me to see him reduced like that.

Armadillmon's face became misfigured and rather deformed. Last I saw him, his jaw was hanging down at the left side and his right eye was swollen, but he took it rather well, as he even joked about his "new makeover" as he called it, but I don't know if that humour was genuine or forced.

Gatomon is more mental than physical, as she has gotten a semi-phobia for physical intimacy and tend to react rather negatively being touched by others than Hikari. I don't blame her, considering how disgustingly obvious MaloMyotismon was in his...wants for her as Angewomon. Speaking of that, Gatomon has become reluctant in digievolving to Angewomon, as she admitted that she feels exposed to unwanted eyes in that form, and it's through gritted teeth she digievolves at the field.

But I've written mostly about us. Lets write more about what happened to the world itself

As I mentioned before, MaloMyotismon's darkness is still around, and it's cast our world in an everlasting night. The sun hasn't been seen for a long time, and this's affected our world negatively. The plantlife is slowly dying, like a man dying in HIV, and people are scared that one day, it'll die off completely. The temperature has become much cooler than it should be, and at this point, summer is just a nostalgic memory. Everything is covered by an endless darkness, and sometimes, creepy fog tends to envelop all of Tokyo and give the city a haunting feeling. Wildlife animals have been suffering greatly too, as they can't adapt to this new cold and dark world, and they've been dying off, one by one, one species by the next.

And we humans don't have it easier. For the people living in formerly tropic nations, this new world is like a nightmare for them, and it's been said that those places have to deal with lot of people going nuts by the darkness. For the people living in artic countries, life has become much tougher and harsher, and they can barely scrap off a living. For us here in Japan, life has definitely changed.

Before the battle against MaloMyotismon, we -the Japanese people - lived comfortable, healthy and long lives, made possible due to the progresses our nation had enjoyed since the Meiji Restoration, but now all that is history. The economy has crashed almost to the bottom, and our nation is suffering from extremely high unemployment and rising povertry. Businesses are closing down one by one, causing people to lose their jobs. And those who still have jobs can't earn enough money to live by, as corporate corruption has risen to the point that some don't even try to hide it anymore. Labour rights have been gutted to death, and rising corruption amongst politicians makes it all possible. That, and the fact that when people protests this, the cops quickly uses massive force to shut them up.

And one of the reasons to the rising poverty is the rising food prices. You see, with our world in the condition it is, the once gigantic crops have been dying off like the plantlife, and farmers can no longer produce the same amount of food like before. This's caused the food prices to rise way up, forcing people to spend almost all of their remaining money at food that isn't even enough. World hunger is at the rise again, and people are forced to use desperate methods to gain just the smallest amounts to feed on. It's almost like Germany after WWI, when bread was worth like five million marks. We also suffer from the food shortage, and we make cautions in keeping our consumtion as down as possible. Since we already did that at the Digital World, we're rather adapted to it, but many people don't have the time to adapt before they perish in starvation.

And with falling economy comes rising criminality. Crimes have become an epidemic in our society, specifically the serious ones, like rape and robbery. Our once safe and crimefree streets have become paradises for the lawsbreakers, and you can't take a walk without protection. Now, most people likely does this because they're desperate, but some seems to do this for the hell of it. And it doesn't help that the cops not only are corrupt, but also apathetic toward this negative development and barely does a thing. But it isn't just about some low-lives. Organized crime has become more powerful than ever, and those types of organizations have taken advantage of the falling economy to take control of much of the remaining businesses and run them like tributaries and cover-ups.

Homelessness has also become a major problem, as the digimon invasion has destroyed many houses and apartments, and since there're no money to rebuild them, people are forced to live whereever they can. The lucky ones, like Sora and her family, have some friends or relatives to stay with, but most are living on the streets and tries to survive the best they can, but with the hunger, the loneliness, the despair and occasional harassments by dark digimon or low-lives, it isn't easy, and many of them have turned to drugs and alcohol to escape their horrific lives. What's worse is that many of them are just kids, some barely older than me. These kids are orphans who lost their folks during the invasion and have been abandoned by an uncaring system to fend for themselves. And many of them have formed gangs that robs people of their money, or have been "conscripted" by mobsters to do whatever they force them to do. It's things like these that makes me feel like we haven't saved the world at all. Just all the hardships these people have to suffer really cuts deep in to my heart.

In a familiar topic, the kids Oikawa used have been ostracized by their own folks for the roles they played bringing this apocalypse, and this perhaps hurts me the most. The reason why they accepted Oikawa's offer in the first place was because they'd been living lonely lives, and he gave them a chance to gain respect and recognition without telling them the prize they would've to pay. Those kids were so traumatized by the battle that we could barely take them home, and if things became bad afterward, it really worsened for them.

At first their folks were happy and grateful that they returned in one piece, but when it became known that they'd "helped" brining this darkness to the world, they were quickly disowned and kicked out. The parents were ruthless and didn't even allow them to defend themselves. Their contempt was really something to marvel at, and the hateful behaviour they showed toward their own children when they tried to apologize for they've done was astonish. I remember when I visited one of them to see how he was doing, I saw him getting forcefully kicked out, being yelled by his dad and then getting the door slamed before his face as he apologized and asked his parents to forgive him several times before he dejected walked away.

And soon, somehow, everyone knew about them, and they'd to endure harassment, ridicule and open contempt everywhere they went, and finally we'd to give them our protection and a safe haven, but even that it isn't enough. One day, the guilt became too much for one of them, and he slit his own throat wide open. We found his body some hours later, and the gruesome scene awoke memories...it was like Ken all over again...I saw myself looking down at his corpse...his bloody corpse...and blood everywhere...those dead eyes...eyes staring at me, accusing me for failing him...

I couldn't stand being near that scene for even five minutes, or else I'd puke. I felt ill for days, and the feeling of failure turned me into a deeply depressed wreck during those days. I failed him, like I failed Ken, and I was ashamed of myself. Patamon and Hikari did the best they could to convince me otherwise, but I still feel himself responsible of that kid's death.

One of Jyou's older brothers and my dad had to take care of the corpse, and afterwards we're keeping a closer look on the others so that such deed won't happen again. So far so good, but that threat is always present among them, and I fear that all it takes is one minute of distraction or neglect, and we'll have another dead body.

The international relationships have been suffering greatly too, and tensions between nations and other groups have been increasing lately. In some places it's been talks about war in the horizon. To take one example, the relationship between North and South Korea has never been this chaotic, and the border is almost in the midst of an all-out brawl, with both their military forces ready to fire anytime, and almost the entire world are betting on their favorite side. Another example would be Congo, there the ethnic conflict between the Tutsi and the Hutu is all time high. The Congolese government's support to the Hutu has become a sore issue with Rwanda, and a cold war between them is actual, with all of Africa picking their sides, which casues the continent to look like Europe in 1913. The UN tries their best to calm things down, but they've way too much on their hands, and rumors of a coming third world war gets stronger by each day.

Last but not least, a global epidemic has spread across the world, but a different kind of epidemic. Instead of a classic bacterial or viral plague, a terrific mental plague has come, and it's reduced many people into raving, screaming and paranoid lunatics. No one knows why exactly they become like that, all we know is that people have suddenly become insane en masse, and the few mental hospitals still open can't treat them. The symptoms are the same everywhere: people screams and cries about the most disturbing things, and then they become like whispering, curling empty shells or violent, crazed madmen. What exactly they screams about differs, but they're all inhuman stuff that gives you the creeps. I once met one such guy randomy at the streets, and the stuffs he cried about nearly freaked me out. Really nightmarish things.

So yeah, the entire world has gone down the drain, and the future looks even bleaker. So much for a happily ever after, huh. But I still tries to hope that one day everything will be back to normal again, but I've to admit, that hope is getting smaller by each day, and I can feel myself becoming more jaded not just toward our lot, but also toward my fellow men, Digidestined included. It feels like MaloMyotismon was entirely right about humanity, and what evil beings we truely are, because it seems that when the chips are down, we immediately turn on each other like a pack of starving dogs. But I still try hoping, because someone has to. Most Digidestined have given up and forsaken their responsibilities, and those still on our side are off questionable capabilities. I'm disappointed that our team mates would run away when we need them the most. All those talks about friendship and camaraderie, and at the end, when the time comes for them to prove themselves, they were just empty words. Hypocritical, to say the least.

At least I still have Hikari at my side. Without her I probably would've given up too. She's the one who inspires me to keep fighting...the only thing really, and I'm glad that she's at my side through this. I must admit, my feelings for her are also getting stronger by each day. Anytime I'm with her, I feel myself happy and warm, as if her light embraces me with its warmth, protects me, heals my wounds and drives away the darkness threatening to drive me to the abyss.

But I've to give MaloMyotismon this; at least he made sure that if he'd lose once again, he'd drag the entire world and the way of life as we knew it down with him. I bet he's laughing his tail off in his grave, knowing that despite we won the battle, we lost the war.

But lately, I've gotten this creepy feeling that MaloMyotismon might haven't worked alone, but he might have been an agent working for a force far more powerful than him. The reason why is because I get this feeling that something is watching me behind the darkness with hateful and soulless eyes. Something evil that is planning and plotting while observing my every step, and no matter I try to shake it off, I can feel those invisible eyes piercing through my very being.

At first I thought I was becoming crazy like that guy, but then I talked to Hikari about it and she claims that she too feels herself being watched by an unseen, malevolent force, so it can't be that, or I hope it isn't. But I'm scared of whatever it is, because the feeling of a comming dark force more powerful than MaloMyotismon ever had been has become so strong that I almost freak out when I'm alone. Patamon has become more protective of me, as he also has gotten that creepy feeling and fears for my safety, as he claims he feels direct hatred toward me from the darkness.

I hope this's just us being overly paranoid, but what if it's true? What if MaloMyotismon really was just a cog of a greater machine? Or if all our foes were simply pawns of an unknown, mightier evil? What if we've only fought proxies this whole time? I dare not to think it's true, because if it is, than the possibility that this greater force will stop using proxies and pawns, and attack our world by themselves exist, and if that ever happens...

Than goodness help us all.

AN: So here is the fifth chapter of my story. Sorry it took so long, as i've been quite busy lately. Hope you like it. Review or favorite it if you can.

Rewrote a little at the earlier chapters, specially at the fourth, where I added more of MaloMyotismon's thoughts about the Digidestined. Read them if you can.

To Kudaman: Thanks. I will. Thanks again.

To mK: Thanks. I will.

To cheveyo197913: Thanks