Disclaimer: Digimon is a franchise owned jointly by Toei Animation and Bandai, and conceptualized by Akiyoshi Hongo. Doctor Who is a property owned by the British Broadcasting Company created by Sydney Newman. The concept of The Tamer v1.3 - The Other Tamer is a fanfiction idea. Please support the official properties.

The Tamer v1.3 - The Other Tamer

Chapter 4 - Escalation

"What are you doing!? Stop this! This isn't you!" Kari blurted out in horror. Was this the madness and insanity Tamer had talked about? Had the infection actually spread that quickly? No, it couldn't be possible. Not to him. But if it did, what could they do? The idea that Tamer wasn't on their side never seriously crossed her mind until now. And yet here it was, playing out right in front of her. And she was powerless to actually do anything about it except stand here as a hostage.

"Let her go!" Angewomon said from in the air, raising her arm to draw a glowing arrow into her bow. "I swear, I will put it between your eyes!"

Kari could see the police trying to surround Tamer and Agumon, but he dragged her - pressing the gun as harder against her temple. And with increased anger, he roared, "This will all be over once you come out Homeostasis! I know you're there! She's the one you love to hop into, remember?"

He was pressing the cold metal of the gun harder against her temple, and she could hear his finger pressing against the trigger.

"Homeostasis isn't here! Tamer! Stop this!" Kari pleaded again, hoping that she'd be able to get through to him. Or at the very least, the dormant personality of 'Tai'.

"Okay, Tamer. Maybe it's time to start rethinking this," Agumon added quickly, eyeing the approaching the police officers. "This is getting a lot more attention than it should."

"LET HER GO!" Angewomon said a little more loudly.

"We saw the Digital World, Agumon! We saw the state it was in! This is far worse than anything we could've foreseen! I'm taking the necessary steps!" Tamer answered. There was hardly any comfort in that for Kari, who felt herself freeze at those words. He was doing because of something in the Digital World? What exactly had he seen? What did Homeostasis have to do with any of this?

"You're holding a gun to Kari's head and we're surrounded by police on one side and the digidestined on the other," Agumon pointed out. "I mean…clearly this isn't working."

"It isn't working yet!" Tamer said with a smile and a wink.

"TAMER!" Angewomon snapped trying to get his attention.

"LET HER GO!" Davis shouted at the top of his lungs, charging at Tamer. He responded by pressing the gun harder against her head.

"Stop right there, Davis!" Tamer warned. Kari watched her boyfriend slide to a stop just feet away, his face torn between anger and fear. And just by that look on his face, Kari finally understood just how serious Tamer was about his plan to shoot her. He really was going to do it if he had to. And that was small comfort for Kari who didn't want to die here.

"Let the hostage go!" the police shouted again, still moving to surround Tamer. One of the police officers grabbed a hold of Davis and pulled him back to the safety behind their line. But that was little comfort for Kari who felt. Even Angewomon hovering overhead with an arrow in her bow didn't mean much - if her partner missed, Kari would be the one to get hit. Her eyes darted to the other digidestined, who were slowly disappearing behind the police surrounding Tamer. But she could also see just behind the police line the other digidestined and their partners getting swarmed by the officers.

But there was nothing any of this was going to accomplish against Tamer. Not in all that armor he was wearing. If he was going to kill her, she was as good as dead.

"Tamer…please…you're scaring me," her voice quaked as she said those words. For a split second, she felt the gun release from her temple and it seemed like Tamer was beginning to rethink what he was doing. Then he pressed it against her head again.

"I'm sorry, Kari. It needs to be done," he said, his voice sounding cold.

BANG!

A single shot rang out that made Kari's ears rings. Her eyes were drawn to a dark haired man in a suit stepping through the police lines. He had a gun raised up over his head, smoke rising out of the barrel as a single bullet fell to the ground. The man smiled as his eyes were drawn to Tamer and Agumon and he spoke calmly, "Now that I've got your attention, how about we talk this out before anyone gets hurt."

"Oh, hello Daigo. Long time no see!" Agumon said cheerfully.

"Daigo?" Kari's eyes darted towards Tamer, and then to the man.

"You got old," Tamer said quietly.

"And you've barely aged. How old are you now? I'd guess somewhere over a hundred thousand years old?" Daigo asked nonchalantly, taking one small step towards them which prompted Tamer to turn the gun on the man. Daigo stopped in his tracks but he did lower the gun down to the ground. "Don't worry. I'm just here to talk."

"Step back, Daigo. Your part is over. We've had this discussion," Tamer warned. "You're free to go and live your life."

"I am living my life. I'm with the National Data Processing Bureau - a government agency tasked with monitoring the Digital World. Well, one of them anyway," Daigo explained quietly. "There were so many times we could've used you in the last couple of years. We should've figured you'd always be in the middle of it. But enough about me. Care to explain why you're holding a Japanese citizen hostage?"

"Just trying to wake one of the Ethereals. You know, the one that possessed Maki for a while? Made her float up in the air! Wanna help? I figure you have a few words you'd like it to hear as well. It's not like you haven't thought about it! You can finally make that fantasy real," Tamer replied. Kari wasn't entirely sure what he was talking about, and could only figure this was one of the many things that Tamer neglected to mention to them. Was it fate? Destiny? Did it really matter.

"Why don't you let the girl go?" Daigo began. "Then we can talk this out at headquarters."

"Can't do that," Tamer answered just as calmly. "I've got the fate of the Digital World in my hands."

"The same Digital World where you let our digimon partners die?" Daigo asked. Kari looked over her shoulder at Tamer, and could see the wince on his face. She knew that it was in his interest to protect the fate of the Digital World - or rather destiny. He'd also let digimon die before - hell, he'd let Wizardmon and Wormmon both die. Kari listened more curiously as Daigo went on, "If you wanted to endear me and the others into caring about the Digital World, maybe you shouldn't have stood by and let it happen."

"Wasn't my call. It was-" Tamer began, only to be interrupted by Daigo.

"-destiny, I know. Okay, let's not mince words. I have a sniper team on stand by. One up there, two over there, a fourth on that corner, and a fifth in the alley behind you. Each with a bullet aimed at your head, brain stem, hearts, and lungs. Let the girl go and we won't have to put you down. How well will destiny fair with you not around to regulate it?" Daigo asked matter of factly.

"You and I both know your weapons won't penetrate this armor," Tamer replied.

"Maybe, maybe not. We've have plenty of time to work out how to make defenses against digimon but we've never tried them against Agent armor. And assuming the bullets ricochet off, they'll just hit her won't they?" Daigo explained very carefully.

She could hear Tamer's tongue click angrily before he finally pushed Kari away. Before she could even turn around, she saw a flash of light and heard several gun shots ring out from around her. Kari dove her the ground, covering her head with her arms as she heard Davis shout, "KARI!"

Something fell on her and her ears rung even louder for the longest time. When she could finally hear again, she perked her head up to see Davis laying on top of her with his arms around her head, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she answered. He rolled off her and helped her, before turning his attention to Daigo. She'd known Davis to get angry whenever she was in trouble, but she'd never seen him get like this.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!? YOU WERE GOING TO SHOOT HER!" Davis snapped at Daigo, pressing a pointed finger at his chest.

"It was under control. We weren't going to shoot, but we were relying on the fact that he wasn't sure we would," Daigo said quietly, pulling a walkie talkie out of his jacket. "All sniper teams, stand down. Target escaped."

"Who are you talking to? Sniper teams?" Davis asked, just as ExVeemon landed beside him. On cue the radio spoke up.

"Sir, are you sure? They are more wild ones present," a voice spoke on the radio.

"It's fine. They're not going to attack," Daigo said into the radio, switching it off. He holstered his gun and pocketed the radio. "You kids should go home. We'll take care of things from here."

"Who are you?" Davis growled with a raised eyebrow. A good question. Honestly, it was one of many questions Kari had after hearing everything Daigo and Tamer said to each other. She'd never heard of the National Data Processing Bureau either - and she wondered if they were at all like that Burnt Leaf guy they'd met in France.

"That's classified," Daigo answered.

"You sound like that Hokage guy. Only you're way more serious than he is," Kari said aloud. In many ways, he was. Including the fact that he wasn't wearing that ridiculous jacket the way Hokage did. Daigo just laughed at her observation.

"I see you've met Hokage too. I hope he hasn't given you any trouble either. Although he still might. Burnt Leaf has always been a headache for us. Anyway, you kids should head home and get some rest. You had a long day and your partners are probably starving. Let us clean up this mess. And don't worry about the police. They've been instructed to leave you and your partners alone," Daigo said nonchalantly, motioning to two of the police officers to give him room to move. Davis and Kari looked at each other nervously, then to ExVeemon who just shrugged. They didn't know if they could even trust this man, but the police did seem to be minding their distance. But that didn't stop Davis from holding Kari's hand and took the first step. After everything that happened, his hand was the first piece of comfort she'd gotten and she never realized his hand was so warm.

"Let's head back," he said, guiding her forward through the crowd. She had to admit, it was hard to ignore the looks the police were giving them. Although they mostly seemed to be giving those looks to ExVeemon. And she couldn't blame them for it either - right now, she just wanted to go home and curl up into a ball. Between battling for their lives against Kuwagamon, the encounter with Alphamon, the infection, and the fact that Tamer just drew a gun on her…

She wanted to just close her eyes and put this entire day behind her. Once they were past the police, they hurried towards the others who were now down the block away from the police and the gathered crowd.

"Kari! I'm so glad you're alright!" Sora said, giving her a great big hug that practically lifted her off her legs. Before Sora could put her down, Angewomon hugged them both and lifted both girls up into the air.

"Me too! I was so worried!" Angewomon said happily, but her mood soured as she cursed. "Damn Tamer! What the hell was he even thinking."

"Thanks," Kari said, voice still shaking as she tried to calm herself down. But it was hard to be calm after everything she'd just gone through. The Digimon Tamer - the person she thought she could trust just tried to kill her. And for what? To talk to something that wasn't going to even show up anyway? What was the point of it all - the cruelty? Was that the point?

Then her mind went back to what he'd said about the Digital World. He sounded so desperate. What had he seen? Was it the fact that he knew he was going to die? No, that couldn't have been it - he didn't seem bothered about the idea of death. Almost accepting of it. At least, if the way she remembered his death going. The death that no one else remembered. Was it destiny? If it was off track, he was really good at hiding the headache. And he'd never been able to do that before. So what was it?

"I can't believe he did that, but I'm not surprised," Ken said quietly. "I hate to say it after he saved my life, but part of me has always been wary of Tamer."

"You and me both," Matt added.

"We're all wary of Tamer, now," Cody said quietly, looking back at the scene behind them. "Look, I don't want to be that guy - but we should get out of here before our faces end up on the news."

"Right, let's get a good night's rest and we can talk about this tomorrow," TK said in agreement. They all went their separate ways after that. Angewomon carried Kari home, escorted by Davis riding on ExVeemon's back. She said she was fine but Davis was insistent - wanting to make sure she got home safe before heading home himself. He outright refused to leave until he was sure she was safely back inside of her apartment.

Once Kari was safely inside with Gatomon, they were both swarmed by her parents who were also quick to give her a hug.

"KARI!" they practically shouted.

"I'm so glad you're safe!" her mother said.

"What happened? Are you okay? Where's Tai?" her father asked nervously. His tone shifted as his next question came up. "Did he take Jun home? He better not be planning on spending the night there!"

No, he wasn't there. Kari wasn't sure how to tell them but she had to. They needed to know. But she couldn't bring herself to say it. Thankfully, Gatomon sensed her unease and patted her leg.

"Get some rest, Kari. I'll fill them in," Gatomon said quietly. Kari nodded, and quietly made her way to her bedroom - closing the door behind her and staring at the bunk bed. The bottom bunk was a mess - left the way it was when Tai had scrambled to get ready for his soccer game. Just looking at it reminded her of what Tamer did. And her mind began to race as she tried to process everything that happened. But just reliving it was enough to make her want to crawl into the bed and sleep. She barely had the energy to climb up the ladder to her bunk, but she forced herself to. Her mattress had never been so comfortable. And she felt herself fall into a deep sleep.

"Love you too, dad. I'll see you when I get home," Matt said as he hung up his phone. He joined Sora on the couch, watching as Gabumon and Biyomon excitedly played on her PlayStation. "Dad says it's alright if I spend the night since he'll be working late. He's not happy about what happened because they're already trying to cover it on the news."

"I'm glad. Although I don't think my parents will be okay with us sleeping in my room," Sora added, earning a cough from her own parents who were busy in the kitchen making dinner.

Matt stood up and bowed towards them, "Sir! Ma'am! I promise I have no ill intentions with your daughter! Thank you for letting me spend the night! I promise I'll sleep on the couch!"

Sora felt herself go bright red and she slapped Matt's arm for even saying those words, while her parents looked up from what they were doing to stare at him. Even their digimon had paused their game to stare at him in disbelief. She couldn't believe he'd just said all of that out loud without thinking. An awkward silence followed as Matt quietly whispered to her, "Did I just say something I shouldn't have?"

"What do you think?" she whispered back, more than a little embarrassed and annoyed that he even had to ask.

Thankfully, Sora's mom answered before her father could. Her tone was a lot more relaxed and playful than her father's who said, "We completely understand that your intentions are pure. After all, I'd have to chop it off if you were thinking with the wrong head. I'll leave out a pillow and a blanket for you."

As her mother spoke, she could plainly see her father suddenly decide to sharpen the knifes in the background. Knives he didn't even need to use since he wasn't chopping anything.

"DAD!" Sora snapped at her dad while her mom giggled.

"Yes! Thank you!" Matt said anxiously, still refusing to lift his head up. Sora had never seen him actually nervous like that and had to finally stand him up straight. She was starting to get second hand embarrassment just from seeing this.

"Honestly, did you have to act like this?" Sora asked him. She saw the smile on Matt's face and realized he'd been faking it to annoy her. That just made her slap him harder. "Really!?"

"Sorry, I just like seeing your face whenever I tease you," he said, sliding back onto the couch beside her and throwing an arm around her. "After today, I think we all need a laugh."

"Well you can laugh at yourself," Sora said, grabbing a pillow from beside her and throwing it at her boyfriend. When he laughed at her, that prompted her to push the pillow down on him. "Stop it!"

Even though she said that, she found herself starting to giggle. Made all the worse by the fact that Matt began running his fingers up and down her sides to tickle her. It was too much for Sora and she finally pulled away from Matt who took a big gasp of air. The two of them burst out laughing while their digimon partners stared at them.

"Do all human couples act like this?" Biyomon asked. "I can't tell if they're fighting or flirting."

"I think it's just them. I've never seen Matt's parents act like that," Gabumon reasoned.

"I thought they were divorced," Biyomon pointed out. Gabumon murmured in agreement, prompting Sora and Matt to laugh harder at their partners. Biyomon pouted, "Hey! What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Sora said, wiping the tears from her eyes as their digimon partners leapt onto the couch to join them.

Kari jolted awake in her bed, sitting up in her bed to see Gatomon had curled up beside her while she was sleeping. She reached for her phone to see it was 11 at night - she hadn't been asleep that long. But as hard as she tried, she had a hard time getting back to sleep. Her mind was immediately back at everything that happened.

Kari took care to not disturb her partner as she climbed down the bed - pausing only when her eyes laid on the bottom bunk. It was insanity to think back on everything that'd happened. Then again, it was even odder to think that she'd woken up one day to find Tai in her bedroom. This was probably the closest things were to normal for her in a while.

She tiptoed out of the bedroom, taking care to close the door quietly and found her dad sitting at the kitchen table. Her mom was in the kitchen busy washing dishes and cleaning up from a dinner. He looked up when he saw her and offered a half smile. "Hey sweetie. We were trying not to wake you up. We left you some dinner."

He slid a plate of fried rice and sliced spam to her seat on the table.

"Thanks," she said, taking her seat and noticing that he had a glass of brown liquid in front of him. She eyed it nervously. "Tell me you aren't?"

"It's just some oolong tea. I promised you guys I wouldn't drink again. Not after everything that happened," he said. "I'm just…processing what Gatomon told us. It's a lot to take in."

Kari sat down at the table opposite him, "And you can't sleep."

"Yeah. Though the tea's not helping. I'm glad you're okay, at least. I just…didn't think we'd have to go through losing Tai again of all people. Not after what happened," her dad said quietly. Her mom finished what she was doing in the kitchen and hurried to join them at the table.

"I'm so glad you're safe, Kari. Gatomon told us everything. I can't believe Tai of all people did that to you," she said, her voice shaking as she said those words. It was the last thing Kari wanted to be reminded of, but her mind went back to the words Tamer had said. He'd done this to get to Homeostasis. What had he seen in the Digital World? Or perhaps it was the virus affecting his thinking? That was entirely possible - they'd seen how it turned a Kuwagamon mindless and rabid. No, it couldn't just have been the virus - Tamer was far too coherent. So what else could it have been?

"I…I'm sorry. I wish I could've done something to stop him from getting infected. Then Tai would at least still be here," Kari said quietly.

"It wasn't your fault Kari," her mom said. "You couldn't have known."

But she didn't feel at fault for it. In truth, she more just felt sorry for her parents. As far as Kari knew, Tai/Tamer literally just showed up a few days ago. If anything, her parents were taking his absence a lot harder than she was. But she nodded and turned to her food. "I'm going to eat, I'm starving. I feel like I haven't eaten anything in a while."

"Go ahead and dig in," her mom said. "If you end up going to the Digital World again, you may not get another meal like this in a while."

Davis showed up first thing in the morning with Veemon poking out of his backpack. Kari wasn't too happy to be woken up so early in the morning but was also confused about the bag. "Why are you here so early, Davis?"

"Hey Kari! Sorry to wake you up but you weren't answering your D-Terminal," Davis said.

"You could've called," she said quietly, rubbing her tired eyes. She could also hear Davis fumbling over himself, since he clearly didn't think about that.

"Yeah, I suppose I could've. Anyway, we're heading over to Izzy's office!" Davis finally spat out.

"This early in the morning?" Kari asked through a tired yawn.

"It was Izzy's idea, not mine," Davis said defensively.

Veemon raised his arm up excitedly, "He said he was working on it all night and that we need to show up right away so it's gotta be important!"

That hardly made Kari feel better and she sighed, "Okay, fine. Let me get Gatomon."

"Grab your bag too! Izzy said our partners should all keep a low profile after everything that happened. Apparently the digimon made the news and now it's all people online are talking about," Davis explained to her. "And it sounds like none of it is good."

"Gatomon is a cat. Good luck convincing her to get in a bag," Kari said, going to get dressed and brush her hair. Who was she kidding though? It was specifically because she was a cat that she'd have no problem climbing into a bag so that Kari could carry her. Which is exactly what Gatomon did once she cleared out her backpack enough for the white cat to curl inside. This prompted their actual pet cat Miko to climb into the bag with her, starting a fight that ended when Kari flipped her bag upside down so that they'd both fall out. It took a bit more coaxing to finally calm Miko down afterwards, before Kari and Gatomon joined Davis waiting outside.

"How'd you sleep last night?" he asked her as they made their way to the train station.

"Not well. I didn't sleep well after everything that happened," Kari said quietly. "Do you think it was the virus that made Tai do those things?"

"That wasn't Tai, Kari. That was Tamer," Gatomon pointed out to her. She was right, that wasn't her brother and Kari had no idea why she'd slipped like that. She reminded herself of what she knew to be true - her brother was gone. The Tamer she knew died years ago at Christmas. And this Tamer simply appeared out of nowhere.

"You know what I meant," Kari said.

"I don't know. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure this isn't part of that whole destiny thing that Tamer always talks about," Davis answered, his eyes turning upward as he lost himself in his thoughts. "If this is destiny and what was supposed to happen, Tamer probably wouldn't tell us so that whatever was supposed to happen would continue to be what happens. And if it wasn't supposed to happen, then we also can't be sure he'd tell us out because he'd rather be focused on getting us to do what we're supposed to do. That's all before we consider the fact that even if he did tell us, we couldn't be sure he was just telling us what we wanted to hear so that we would do whatever needed to be done. And suppose that was supposed to happen - that Tamer and Agumon were supposed to be infected with this virus. Would either of them want us to do anything about it? For all we know, Tamer only pulled the gun on you to be sure that we wouldn't want to help you when the time comes."

Kari just stared at Davis and was reminded of why she fell for a guy like him. Because every so often, he provided an observation or insight that she had missed. Despite how goofy and happy go lucky he could be, the fact was that he was a lot more introspective and observant than he was given credit for. Then she paused as she remembered that she didn't even remember when they'd started dating. Only that she found out they were a couple on the same day that Tai woke her up.

"Come on, Kari - you should be used to this by now. I'm not that stupid," Davis said with a smile. She finally realized she was staring and snapped out of her stupor.

"I'm sorry, I just…I didn't even think about it before. But you're right. For all we know this is exactly what Tamer wants for us," Kari said quietly.

"We can talk about it more when we get to Izzy's office," Davis said, leaning in to give her a small peck on the cheek. "Besides, I'll always be here for you. You know that."

Her cheeks flushed after hearing those words, and she put a hand on her chest - hoping it would calm her heart from fluttering so much in her chest.

Mimi threw open Izzy's office door as soon as Sora knocked. "Sora! I'm so glad you guys made it safe!"

"Hey Mimi!" Sora said, coming inside with Biyomon wrapped in her arms. Matt didn't even try to pretend Gabumon was a doll, instead walking in with the reptilian digimon beside him. Gabumon sniffed the air excitedly as soon as they walked in and charged in.

"I smell snacks!" he shouted, rushing towards the other digimon who were gathered around a pile of chips, candies, and juice boxes.

"Wait for me!" Biyomon said, finally hopping out of Sora's arms to go join them. Mimi closed the door behind them and they finally got their first good look at Izzy's office - a large room with three couches around a central glass table. Cody, Kari, Davis, Joe, TK, and Mei were waiting for them - each of them quietly snacking on their food. One wall was made up entirely of computer screens, while the other side was a glass divider which displayed multiple computer servers. Izzy was at his standing desk with several monitors hooked up to a computer that he typed on furiously. And behind him was a window of floor to ceiling glass which Yolei and Ken were staring out at in awe.

"Izzy! You never said you had such a nice office!" Yolei said excitedly. "I mean just look at this view!"

"I don't get to enjoy it much. I'm always busy working on technical issues," Izzy said quietly, continuing to type away at his computer. "Of course, there's another problem that came up but we can discuss it as soon as I've finished what I'm doing."

"And what are you doing? I mean, we all came here because you made it sound urgent," Matt said, hopping onto one of the couches.

"Finishing up creating a series of isolated computer spaces for our partners," Izzy said, finishing what he was typing and pressing one final button on his keyboard. The monitors on the far wall hummed to life, displaying multiple white rooms filled with toys and snacks. Izzy took a deep breath and stretched. "Okay, Tentomon. Would you care to do the honors?"

"Always, Izzy," Tentomon said, flying into the monitor and passing through into the room on the other side.

Izzy breathed a sigh of relief and went to join the others on the couch, "Finally. It works. Tamer asked me to set these up before he went crazy - isolated digital spaces to act as quarantine zones for our partners to prevent them from getting infected. It took a lot of time to set the encryption and sandbox each space to limit the spread of the virus as much as possible. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how this virus is supposed to work so I'm not sure if any layer of security I set up will be of any use to us."

"It's as good as any," Ken said, moving over to pick up Wormmon.

The worm digimon curled up against his chest nervously, "Ken, you don't expect us to just hide away inside these digital spaces until this whole thing is over do you?"

"I'd rather not…but we saw what this did to Tamer with our own eyes. I don't want to see that happen to you," Ken said anxiously. Wormmon nodded and he crawled off Ken's arm to leap into the screen. At that, the other digimon leapt into the monitors one at a time. First Biyomon, then Gabumon, and on. Takeru was the most hesitant to let go of his partner, but Patamon hugged him hard.

"It'll be fine, TK," Patamon said.

"I just don't want to lose you again," TK said quietly.

"You won't," Patamon said with a smile. TK hugged his partner just a little longer before finally letting him leap into the computer screen. That just left Meicoomon who looked up at Mei anxiously.

Mei frowned and looked towards Izzy, "I still don't understand why you decided to include Meimei and myself in this?"

"You have a digivice and that makes you a digidestined like us! Why wouldn't we include you," Mimi said excitedly.

"This…all just felt so sudden," Mei said, looking around nervously. "And where's Jun? Is she not here?"

"Oh, my sis? Yeah, she's not a digidestined like us. She's just dating Kari's brother, who is a digidestined. Well, was," Davis said. "Besides, I think she just wants to be alone right now."

"Oh…I see," Meiko frowned, realizing she might've just touched on a very sensitive subject. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to-"

Davis waved it off, "It's fine. So…we gonna send Meicoomon into this thing?"

"Y-yeah!" Meiko nodded, looking to her partner. Meicoomon hesitated but relaxed once Meiko gave her a reassuring nod. She leapt into the monitor as soon, and the screen's immediately began to flicker from her entrance. Everyone's attention turned to the monitor as the screen struggled to maintain its image - distorting with static as 0s and 1s occasionally appeared on screen. Occasionally a 2 appeared and that made the screen distort even more.

"Mei! What's happening?" Meicoomon whimpered.

"What's going on?" Meiko shrieked, turning to Izzy. Sora already had an idea of what was happening, but wanted to wait to hear from Izzy before she said anything. But she could see as plain as day on his face what the problem was.

"Fuck," Izzy finally said, rushing back to his computer. "This is what I was worried about. That any one of our Digimon was already infected. I noticed it when the computers started glitching when everyone showed up but I didn't know who it was until now."

"What are you talking about?" Meiko asked.

"The Ternary Virus. The one that made Kuwagamon go nuts. The reason Alphamon and Jesmon were here. The thing that made Tamer do…what he did," Sora explained to Meicoomon. "It must've jumped to Meicoomon while you were separated from her."

"But Meicoomon was around all of us!" Gabumon said. "Does that mean we're all infected?"

"I…I don't know," Izzy said grimly.

Tamer and Agumon landed back in the Hallow Bastion's Medical Ward. Before Agumon could even get a word in, he watched Tamer throw open a medicine cabinet and search through it - tossing bottles over his shoulder as he tried to find what he was looking for. Annoyed, Agumon asked, "So…are we going to talk about what happened?"

"Homeostasis is being really annoying," Tamer replied. "I was hoping we could draw it out by that. And all we did was piss off the digidestined. Not to mention Daigo."

"Yeah…so that wasn't supposed to happen. You realize you're burning every bridge we have, right?" Agumon asked, stepping to the side as Tamer threw an exceptionally large bottle of liquid over his shoulder.

"I know. But time isn't on our side, buddy. We're still operating blind and I don't like knowing what's coming," Tamer answered.

"As opposed to knowing what will happen?" Agumon said, noting that Tamer stopped his search. Agumon sighed, "We both know what happened the day you learned your own destiny. What you will do. What your entire life has been leading towards. Are you saying knowing that will happen is a lot better than not knowing if you'll even make it past this? Besides…knowing that's what you'll do…almost makes this seem like a mercy."

"I considered that. That's been running through my head a lot ever since I found out we were infected, buddy," Tamer said, finally breaking out of his stupor to resume his search. "And you're right. Dying that way is a mercy - for me, for you, and for everyone else. But we have to consider the alternative. What I'll do before the virus gets does to me. There's an arsenal here of scope that the others can hardly fathom - human or digimon. When the insanity finally sets in…and the rabid violence takes over…who stops you or me from using any of it? Who could? The sooner we get a cure, the better it'll be for everyone."

He had a point. And Agumon couldn't argue that, "We could do each other in…before it gets to that."

Tamer didn't answer him that time, instead finally clearing the entire medicine cabinet and moving towards another cabinet. Agumon had no idea what he was even looking for, and could really only blink as he watched his partner continue looking in vein for…something. He could only assume Tamer was doing it to distract himself from the fact that they were dying. And there was nothing either of them could do about it.

Author's Notes: Meicoomon is infected, and potentially shared it with the other Digimon! Meanwhile, Tamer and Agumon appear to be increasingly unhinged at the infection spreads! What else will they do to the digidestined? Is Daigo on their side, or another threat? And where is Homeostasis in all of this? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v1.3 - The Other Tamer due out in nine weeks on Friday, February 10th at 8 PM CDT! I'll be taking a break through December to enjoy the holidays. Until next time, let me know what you thought in the reviews section! And don't forget to follow to keep up with all the latest updates and to favorite to show support! That's all for now, until then this is leonardo1123581321 signing out!