16 Months Earlier

A full minute passed, nobody moved, nobody reacted. Eight teenagers and eight small creatures stood in a stunned silence, unable to believe what they had just witnessed.

It was 14 year old Yagami Hikari who would disrupt the spell that hung over the group.

"Oni-Chan?"

The others stirred slightly.

"Oni-Chan, don't leave me…" She repeated this time giving way to a sense of despair.

A few of the others had finally snapped out of their stupor, only to find that Hikari had traveled almost fifteen meters away from them and towards the chasm.

Takaishi Takeru moved first, though still slower than he would have liked. Putting the exhausted Patamon down onto the ground, he started walking ahead to catch up with Hikari. Having barely started moving when he noticed that Hikari had begun to emit an ominous dark purplish energy. Hikari's partner Nyaromon was following helplessly behind her. Takeru then picked up his pace, recognizing that they still walked slowly towards that open ravine.

"Koushiro, what the heck is happening?" Called the stunned voice of 17 year old Yamato Ishida, Takeru's older brother, who still had a protective arm around Meiko after pulling her away from the collapsing ravine.

There was a long pause before the young computer genius could even give a response. "I don't know, I've never seen anything like this…but I'll try to find out." Pulling out his small travel laptop, he began furiously typing away, seeing if the network had any answers about the phenomenon in front of them.

Sora, Mimi, and Jo remained still and silent; weighed down by a cacophony of confused and unpleasant emotions.

"Taichi…" Sora whispered under her breath. A quiet but pained sound as though the word had been forcibly extracted from her. She was so out of it, so broken by the apparent death of her best friend, that she did not notice the strange phenomenon occurring around Hikari and now her digital partner as well.

Before Takeru could catch up to his friend, the eerie glowing around Hikari increased, as strange lettering of an unknown script took shape all over her body. These letters shifted and changed rapidly before lashing out at Nyaromon; it was as though she was being attacked by some kind of virus.

Hikari, as though in a trance, was not aware of the impact that her current mental state was having on her digital partner.

Nyaromon began to shudder and convulse violently. "Hikari, what should I do?"

Hikari muttered something then, so quiet that Nyaromon could not make out the words. By the time Takeru finally made it to them, Nyaromon was glowing as if she were about to Digivolve. But it was different…twisted somehow. He was about to speak, to try to get his friend to snap out of it, when he noticed a large shadow had just cast them in darkness. Looking up, he realized that he could no longer see the Digital Worlds sky and sun, the entire area now covered by a kilometer long twisting black circle that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Takeru gazed up at it in a wide eyed terror, he could observe twisting shapes and an almost electric discharge on the surface of this unusual object. Whatever this thing was, it looked imposing and dangerous.

This cataclysm was enough to finally get the remainder of the Digidestined mobile again, sensing danger, they swiftly made their way across the canyon towards Hikari. It was too late however, as Nyaromon's body, with an explosive start, suddenly was thrust high into the air below the strange object. The Digidestined could do little but watch in awe as the small tailed creature rapidly evolved through her phases swiftly reaching her mega form. She did not stop glowing however, as dark energies from the disk were drawn through her body.

"Koushiro, what the hell is happening?!" Yamato demanded, this time much more impatiently.

"I have no idea, it's just…chaos. Billions of disassociated bites of random data compiled seemingly without order or reason. I have no idea where it came from, what its purpose is, or why it is here; but its energy levels are off the charts. Is the data is reacting to Hikari or perhaps drawn to her? Maybe even created by her, then again I'm not sure if it's even strictly speaking alive."

Yamato clenched his teeth in frustration. Unsure of whether or not they should attack the object, or if they could even destroy something of that magnitude even if it was an enemy. As he weighed giving Gabumon the order, their attention was drawn to the recently defeated Meicoomon, Meiko's partner who had been losing control of itself. The Digimon laying on the ground and bruised from combat, began to roar in rage and pain. They too started to glow with dark energy.

" This is bad." Jo exclaims, breaking his silence. "What should we do?"

"Maybe we should attack before this escalates." Yamato suggests, yet his voice is full of doubt.

"To what end? Kill our friends Tailmon and Meicoomon? I won't stand for it, there must be another way!" Insists Mimi.

"Mimi's right." Koushiro continues. "Besides, the Digimon are hardly in a condition to jump into yet another battle. And even if that weren't the case, who knows what effect that mysterious object might have on them, just look at what it's doing to Ophanimon."

Yamato clenched his fist in frustration. He knew that his friends had a valid point, but also felt that they needed to do something.

"Hikari, you have to snap out of it, you are harming Tailmon." Takeru begs, grabbing her upper shoulder.

Hikari does not react to her friend or even flinch at physical contact, simply staring blankly towards the sky as Meicoomon continues to cry out. Seconds later the enraged Digimon is propelled into the sky next to Ophanimon. The two creatures swirled around one another as if caught in a vortex.

"Do it." Hikari states without emotion. "Take control."

An eruption of pure energy produces shockwaves that make the hair of the Digidestined stand on end. The group watches in horror as Ophanimon and Meicoomon begin to combine, contorting into a twisted eldritch looking new form.

"Why is this happening?" Meiko asks, clearly in despair. Nobody answered, nobody knew, with even Yamato frozen in fear beside her.

The new creature birthed before their eyes was colossal and nightmarish. A boney deformed humanoid body, with twisted limbs and several mouths upon its head but no eyes. Upon its back there were two massive black wings the size of skyscrapers.

Mimi gasped loudly and fell to her knees. There was a palpable sensation of sorrow, hatred, grief, and rage emitting from the being now floating before them. It did not simply feel evil, it felt wrong. One thing was certain, If this new creature turned to attack them, they would not stand a chance in their current state.

"Disappear…Make everything disappear." Hikari ordered in the same lifeless tone.

The creature, later known as Ophanimon: Falldown mode screeched horribly in response, a noise so piercing that the other teens had to cover their ears. It then flew even higher into the sky, upwards until it reached the black disk and seemed to almost dissolve into the object.

Sora, who had not even spoken to the group at this point, collapsed under her own weight. Shaken, she covers her mouth, as she feels if she doesn't she would scream.

Jo, who was also terrified, snaps out of it when he sees Sora collapse nearby; he runs over to place a hand on her shoulder. He was so overwhelmed himself right now, that he could hardly imagine what Sora, Yamato, or Hikari were going through at that moment. Having just witnessed a best friend and a brother die in front of them.

Once Ophanimon passed entirely into the object, Hikari suddenly collapsed, fortunately Takeru was right there to catch his childhood friend. The young blonde observes that the color seems to have returned to her eyes, as she looks up at him suddenly.

Then, like a collapsing neutron star, the circle above them seemed to fold in upon itself. Crackling and spouting discharges of dark energy as it warped and buckled. Finally it cracked and began to dissolve away into individual bits of data again. This gave way to the sunny skies above, yet it brought little comfort to the Digidestined after what they just witnessed.

"I'm…sorry." Hikari says finally, whilst looking up at her friend. "I don't know what…" She whispered sadly, trailing off into silence. Suggesting to Takeru that she was at least somewhat aware of what just occurred.

"Koushiro, can we at least figure out where this thing is going." Yamato calls out, still shaken.

"Already working on it." Koushiro says, while keeping his vision fixed on the computer screen. "That Digimon is living a massive trail of power and corrupt data in its wake, I should be able to track it, I just need a moment."

Yamato was tempted to tell him to hurry up, but realized that it was hardly appropriate at the moment. Koushiro was doing his best. He took a deep breath, then realized his arm was still around Meiko, but the danger seems to have passed, for now at least.

"Sorry" He says bashfully, while removing his arm from her.

"Thank you for protecting me. I just hope…" She trails off not wanting to finish the thought. Meiko had only known Taichi for a few days, and despite that, he just took a fall in order to protect her. The rest of the group had know him for many years, Sora had known him since they were four years old, and Hikari had known him literally all her life. Her conscience weighed on her now; feeling that whatever she was feeling in the moment, the others must have experienced tenfold. Eventually coming to the conclusion that it would be out of place for her to verbalize her concerns.

Yamato doesn't respond, instead turning his attention to the rest of the group. Koushiro is focused on his computers, but the others…They look lost and broken. Mimi alone sheds tears, her muffled sobs quite audible amongst the team's silence.

Usually Sora would rush to Mimi's side in a moment like this; yet when Yamato looks at her several meters behind Mimi, he can only describe her expression as being shell shocked. Jo stands next to her, clearly trying to offer support. There is little emotion on display, but her skin has gone pale and her gaze vacant. It hasn't really hit home for her, not yet. In truth, he was no different, Yamato's mind could not wrap the idea around it, he had to still be alive. He could not just die like that.

Jo, always trying to stand up for others as the oldest of the group, is by Sora's side with a hand on her shoulder. He looks overwhelmed and probably would not be much help in terms of group decision making either. It is as though he is funneling all of his remaining energies into supporting his friend, yet hesitant to actually embrace her in such a vulnerable state. Yamato realized that he would be hesitant to do so as well. For Sora to lose anyone she cared about would impact her deeply, but this was Taichi we were talking about, the two grew up together and were practically inseparable. What would she… What would any of them do without him? Not wanting to give way to any emotions, he forces himself to drop this line of thinking.

'Taichi is alive!' He thought to himself. 'He has to be…'

Hikari's state was not much different from Sora's, except for the fact that there was a deeply careworn grief written all over her face. She looked haggard, as if she had just been possessed, and well as far as he knew, perhaps she had been. The young girl always seemed to have a special connection with the Digital World, but this was different, he had never seen her like this. Yamato was proud to see Takeru there by her side, taking care of Hikari in her time of need. He was sure the incident was impacting his brother as well, but he was putting his feelings aside for her sake; Yamato believed he needed to do the same, no matter how hard it might have been.

He was about to speak to the group when Koushiro closed his laptop, placed it in his bag, and sprinted a few feet over to Mimi, putting his arms around the crying teen. Yamato suspects that he had wanted to do so for several minutes now, but was putting the mission first.

"Koushiro, do we have a location?" Yamato asks as calmly as possible.

"Yes, that Digimon is headed to Tokyo." He says with a quiet confidence. "And there is something else too. That power we felt, that emotion, it seems to be altering the behavior of many Digimon, perhaps even most Digimon. Whereas before we had a few dozen Digimon attempting incursions on the human world, we seem to be looking at some kind of mass exodus. Hundreds if not thousands of Digimon are appearing across the globe, and I doubt their intentions are peaceful. It's as though they are in a trance, just like…"

Koushiro realizes what he is about to say and stops himself. But the others understood his meaning. Just like how Hikari seemed momentarily possessed and how Tailmon still is. There was a lot the Digidestined did not know about what had just occurred, but that mystery was the least of their current worries.

After Koushiro had finished speaking, Yamato looked around at the again silent group of teens and Digimon. Half the group on their knees, reeling from the results of their recent battle against Alphamon and Hackmon. In truth, Yamato was at a loss, not knowing what to do. The only thing he did know was that if the group fell to pieces now, the human world was doomed.

"What would you do Taichi?" He muttered at a tone that only Meiko would have been able to hear. Looking down, he finally realized that a small object was lying near his feet, covered in a thin layer of dust and debris.

After a brief hesitation, Yamato bent down to pick up Taichi's goggles. Dusting them off before placing them over his head, finally letting them rest around his neck.

"Everyone!" He announced, trying to channel their leaders' energy. "Stand up, we have to go."

The rest of the team looked at him in surprise, as though they had been woken up from a bad dream.

Sora is the last to look at him, her eyes become fixed on the pair of goggles. "To do what?" She asks, her voice still heavy with sorrow.

"To fight obviously! What's sitting around going to do? What's feeling sorry for ourselves going to do? None of that is going to help anyone. You can save your tears for later! It's time to stand up and get moving!"

Yamato recognizes that this is almost certainly not the speech that Taichi would have given, but then again he was not Taichi. All the same it seemed to work. To his genuine surprise Sora was the first to stand up. She still looked dazed, and nearly stumbled as she did. Locking eyes with him as she rose. Soon the others followed, trying to ready themselves physically and emotionally for the battle to come.

"We still have each other, and we still have hope. We have not been defeated!"

The others were rallying. Then Koromon spoke for the first time since his partner fell, now being held by Meiko who must have stopped to pick him up.

"But what about Taichi! We have to go look for him, I was supposed to protect him."

Yamato is surprised by the anger he feels at this moment. Unsure if it was truly aimed at Koromon or at himself.

"Enough." he commands. "We have to keep moving."

"I'm Sorry little one." Meiko tells him.

"Don't apologize." Yamato responds with ferocity. "Taichi made his choice, now we have to make ours. Come on everyone, back to Tokyo."

Narrator:

The Digidestined tried to fight, fight for two worlds they love, and for the leader they lost. But at the end of the day it was of little use. Though they hoped for a miracle, Taichi never returned. Without him, Agumon could not Digivolve, and without Agumon there was no Omnimon. They did everything that they could, but missing their strongest fighter they were simply no match for Ophanimon: Falldown mode. It broke his heart, but Koushiro was left with no choice, it was either reboot the two worlds as Hackmon suggested or risk losing both worlds and the rest of the team forever. One death was more than enough. To his credit, even under such dire circumstances Koushiro found a way to minimize damages, rebooting systems while designing a slap-dashed backdoor route to power them on and reconnect the worlds once again.

Thanks to him and computer experts from around the world, the total collapse of computer systems and the internet never came to be. Nonetheless, there were damages and regrettably lives lost. Many planes' flight navigational computers shut down and they were lost on route, while vital hospital systems the world over went dark, nevermind the loss of online communication hubs. These vital systems remained offline for over three months, while experts from around the world joined the young genius in the rebuilding of these systems. Even after this, it was a slow road to recovery for the world. There was mass confusion, shortages, and disruptions in just about every aspect of everyday life.

There were international searches for blame, and while some held these terrible events against the Digimon or even the Digidesitned themselves, for once much of the world banded together in order to recover. While there were mass protests and pushes for shifting power in the early months, the international community was able to reassert a seemingly stable order following systems recovery. People pitched in to help those who could not help themselves. There was for once, a broader sense of a unified humanity during the crisis.

Celebrating the eventual return of internet technology, citizens across the globe better understood the tools that they for so long had taken for granted. Now almost a year and a half after these events, a sense of normalcy has finally returned to the lives of citizens across the globe. Technology had become more of a luxury than it had been before the system reboot and there are no longer new models of phones, tvs, and computers bombarding the market, however, most people in developed nations had some access to the internet once again, and there have been renewed efforts to help those who had not been so connected before the incident.

For the Digidestined on the other hand, life would truly never be the same again. A bond between the worlds was technically re-established, however at the behest of the United Nations, code was written to keep the two worlds locked and separated, perhaps forever. They were understandably tired of the risk it posed to the human world, and their citizens demanded action. The worlds shared a bond that needed to exist, but world leaders now held the keys to unlocking that gateway from the human side. That gate could only be unlocked if all keyholders were present and in truth most of them had no plans of ever doing so.

To their dismay, the group of teens was now known across the globe for their role in these events. Some loved them, some hated them, while others still were indifferent and presumed their role to be greatly exaggerated. The Japanese government, after much public and private debate, moved to support and protect the children from international scrutiny. Government agent Nishijima Daigo, who was also presumed dead, had previously vouched for the teens. The team suspected that even after his passing, it was his support that kept them out of legal trouble. They simply had to check-in with and remain monitored by federal officials; Koushiro felt it was getting off easy compared to what might have happened. The Government allowed their Digital Partners to stay with them if that was what they desired, giving the creatures a choice. In the end, all of them decided to stay with the humans, except for Agumon who, without Taichi's presence, felt no reason to remain among the humans. This despite protests from Hikari and the other Digimon. He never verbalized it, but some of the teens felt he blamed them for Taichi's death. Perhaps he was right, but it hardly mattered now.

Any remaining Digimon which found their way to children were rounded up by the U.N. to ensure international safety and to avoid them from becoming weaponized against each other. They were each sent back to the Digital World, the Digidestined felt this was incredibly cruel to sever that bond, ripping Digimon out of the arms of hundreds of children the world over. But there was nothing they could do, they had no authority in the matter. There was some backlash to the eleven children from Tokyo getting to maintain hold on theirs, but a deal was struck that they could remain in Tokyo, so long as they were never caught interfering with international affairs.

At first, a few of the Digidestined held out hope that Taichi was still alive, unfortunately, after the kidnapped team of younger Digidestined reappeared in the Tokyo Bay alone, the margins for his survival became slim to none. Koushiro posited that, as the younger team was unconscious, someone had to have been there to send them back to the human world. This was very likely Taichi or Mr. Nishijima. Further, the Digital World was restarted to its point of origin, and while nobody ever admitted it out loud, it was presumed impossible for either human to have been able to endure such an event.

Despite their immense grief, it brought the Digidestined some joy when the citizens of Odaiba voted to erect statues to honor Taichi and their former sensei. They were occasionally criticized, but most locals opted to pay the teens respect, even a degree of gratitude.

After the world faced the anniversary of the incident, the Digidestined told themselves that no matter how much it may hurt, they each needed to move on. They were no longer Digidestined, there would be no more Adventures. Even if they did not admit it, they felt that they had all failed to save the world, constantly wondering if they could have done more. If things could have been different. This guilt weighed heavily on the teens, wondering how things might have turned out if Taichi were still alive. Today they do their best to bury those thoughts, keep their heads down, and go about their lives.

But soon they would come to learn that their adventures were far from over.