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 10 - Reset

Matt, Sora, and Mimi sat quietly in Izzy's bedroom as he typed away furiously at his keyboard. He'd connected his laptop to a monitor in his room which itself was connected to an array of servers and other desktops wired together on a rack in his room - all for the benefit of letting them see what he was doing. Not that it would help since none of them could even pretend to understand the complex level of coding that he was doing, all for the sake of saving their digimon from the infection. As he typed away, Izzy's mom came in with a tray of iced tea and snacks which Mimi happily and all too hastily accepted, helping herself to it as Izzy's mom closed the door behind her.

"Your mom always makes the best snacks, Izzy!" Mimi said excitedly as she munched on the freshly baked cookies. She excitedly held one out for Sora, "Sora! You've gotta try this!"

"Aren't you even a little bit worried?" Matt asked her, his tone sounding more sour than he intended. Mimi didn't even seem perturbed as she munched on another cookie hanging from her mouth, then hurried over to Izzy to bring an ice cold glass of iced tea to his lips.

Izzy was so focused on what he was typing that he didn't even notice Mimi tilting the glass for him so he could drink it. Otherwise, he'd be blushing beet red and coughing up all the tea in a stupor. It was cute to watch in an adorkable sort of way. Once Izzy finished, he let out at a refreshed sigh and returned to his work uninterrupted - all without losing his place in the code.

"Not even a little bit. Have you seen how hard Izzy is working on this? He'll figure it out!" Mimi cheered him on excitedly.

"You know he can't really do all of this on his own, right?" Sora asked Mimi nervously, uncertain that Mimi had thought this out all the way through.

"I know. But there's not much any of us can do when it comes to all this computer stuff. That's why I'm going to support Izzy as best as I can! I'll be his own personal assistant and cheerleader! I've even got a uniform ready in case I have to start cheering!" Mimi said happily. Those words finally caught Izzy's attention as coughed and stopped typing - trying to play it off and failing as he ended up mashing several keys at the same time. But Sora couldn't fault the guy either - Izzy probably would've found a cheering Mimi flustering and distracting. Something she thought she'd definitely have to try on Matt later, if only to tease him.

At times, she wondered just how close the two of them actually were - but she still couldn't wrap her head around it. Mimi and Izzy were close that much was certain. And seeing them like this, she was sure they were happy with the way things were. At the very least, Izzy was enjoying all of the attention he was getting from Mimi. However, part of her wondered when these two had gotten that close.

The nerd and the popular girl - who'd have thunk it?

Then again, she could say the same of her relationship with Matt. Who would've figured that the popular band boy would get together with the tomboy?

She was snapped out of her thoughts as Joe hurried into the room, "I'm here! Sorry I'm late. My rotation ran longer than I expected."

"Hey Joe! You finally made it," Mimi said, running over with the cookies and tea. "Have some! You look like you haven't eaten in days!"

"Thanks, Mimi. I haven't had anything all day," Joe said, happily helping himself to a cookie and shoving it into his face. He grunted happily with each chew, before swallowing an entire glass of tea in one go. It would've been fascinating to watch if it weren't so disgusting. Mimi especially appeared to be regretting giving him anything. Once he finished, Joe let out a satisfied sigh. "You have no idea how literal the starving college student is. It's not that I can't afford to eat, it's that I don't have time to eat."

"What took you so long, Joe?" Gomamon asked, a window popping up on one of the monitors so he could see his partner.

"A lot of people got hurt from those digimon attacks," Joe answered, taking another glass of iced tea and guzzling it down. "I know I'm still a student, but that doesn't mean I can't help volunteer at my dad's clinic. Anyway, where's Meiko? I figured she'd be here with you guys."

"She wanted to be alone after what happened with Meicoomon," Sora said quietly, recalling the horrified and ashamed look on Meiko's face. In truth, Sora wasn't sure if Meiko wanted to be alone because she was horrified by what Meicoomon turned into or if Meiko blamed them for what happened to Meicoomon. And in truth, Sora wouldn't be able to blame Meiko if that was how she felt - there was no way to for certain just how Meicoomon became infected or if she would've been infected at all if she never encountered them.

"I see. That's probably for the best - give her some space," Joe frowned, crossing his arms. "I wish we could have space from this."

"Aw come on, Joe! Where's your sense of fun?" Gomamon asked, starting to poking his head out of the window so that he was hanging out of the monitor.

"Gomamon! Izzy said not to leave the quarantine!" Biyomon's voice snapped at him, her window popping up along side Gomamon's.

"That's right! Now get back in there!" Mimi said, pushing Gomamon's head so that he went back into the monitor. Gomamon fought back for a moment, but Mimi eventually won out and Gomamon tumbled backwards into the monitor.

"Hey now! We don't need two sticks in the mud!" Gomamon complained, prompting him and Biyomon to start bickering.

"Stop it! Both of you! I need as much processing power as possible to finish coding your quarantine program! Try not to take up too much of the pipeline by keeping the windows minimized!" Izzy said, raising his voice at the two digimon, before minimizing their windows and returning to his work. His scratched his hair furiously as he buried his face into his desk. "I just need to keep working on this. I can make it work. I can save you guys. I just have to keep going."

His voice became quieter with each word and he sounded more desperate than they'd ever heard him before.

Mimi quickly shoved the tray into Joe's hands as she hurried back to Izzy, wrapping her arms around him and patting his head affectionately.

"It's okay, Izzy! You got this," Mimi assured him - although whether or not Izzy heard those words was another thing. He merely kept his head buried into his desk, leading to Mimi to rest her head against him.

"That's right! If anyone can do this! It's you!" Palmon's voice added.

"And if the pressure's too much, you could always ask Ken for help! He's good with computers, too. Or at least, he was," Wormmon's voice offered to Izzy. Izzy made something like a mocking laugh as he kept his head buried on the desk. In fact, Izzy seemed to be sinking lower into his chair as he added.

"Sure, I'll just have Ken jump in and try to analyze over ten thousand lines of code to find any bugs or flaws in the logic that would prevent it from working against a computer virus that no one has ever seen or encountered before," Izzy grumbled. It should've sounded sarcastic. It probably was sarcastic. But Izzy was so defeated and tired that his words sounded more hopeless.

"Okay, maybe it's time we take a break. It's not healthy to get too focused on something like this," Joe said, turning to Mimi with an expectant nod.

"Not healthy? Our digimon could die! I have to keep working!" Izzy snapped, going back to work on his laptop only for Mimi to spin him around in his chair.

"KOUSHIRO IZUMI!" she snapped at him, grabbing a hold of his face between her hands and forcing him to make direct eye contact with her. Izzy's eyes were despondent and bloodshot, outlined by bags that Sora hadn't noticed before. A small flicker of life returned to them, although Sora was certain that was more because of his sudden proximity to Mimi. "You are one of the hardest working people I know! And I want nothing more than for our partners to live! But you're not going to do anyone any good by working yourself to death! For our sake. For the sake of our digimon. But more importantly, for your own sake, TAKE A BREAK!"

That seemed to finally snap Izzy out of his stupor. And he finally reclined backwards in his computer chair. "Okay…you're right. You're right! A small break won't hurt right now."

"Good! Then let's go for a quick walk!" Mimi said, taking Izzy's hand and helping him up to the door. Izzy was now beet red and his mind was completely off working on the program now, his eyes firmly on Mimi's hand holding his.

Mimi guided Izzy out the door and closed it behind them. Matt breathed a heavy sigh and pulled out his D-Terminal. "I better message Ken and get him over here. We definitely need to get someone else looking at that computer program."

"So…not to be the one to bring this up but were they always that close?" Joe asked, gesturing towards the door that Mimi just closed.

"No idea. Wait, Joe! Do you mean you don't remember this at all either?" Sora asked in surprise. Joe nodded and sat down in Izzy's vacant chair.

"I was trying not to think to hard on it. But the longer I dwelled on it, the more it became clear to me that something about all of this didn't add up," Joe said glumly, sinking back into his chair. His eyes darted up towards the ceiling blankly - lost in whatever thoughts he was having. After a moment's silence, Joe sat up and stared straight ahead at Sora and Matt. "Like this: I have memories of a girlfriend I don't know and have never met."

"What?" Sora and Matt said flatly. Sora wasn't sure if he was mocking him while Matt just plain didn't believe a word he was saying.

"Weird, right?" Joe said calmly, putting his hand to his chin. "The memory is so vivid. But I also don't recall ever meeting her. The memories are there…but there's also no evidence those memories are real. It's strange, isn't it?"

"Are you sure you're not just imagining this girlfriend of yours, Joe?" Matt asked skeptically.

Joe smiled, barely stifling a chortle of his own at Matt's joke. It was a good thing too or Sora would've have to elbow her boyfriend for that remark. As hard as it was to believe, Joe was perfectly capable of engaging in relationships with other people. He was, after all, a year older than them and in college. On the other hand, Sora had to admit it was a bit of a stretch to even imagine Joe was capable of dating someone.

"I'm pretty sure she's real. Or was real?" Joe paused again as he considered this words.

"It's okay Joe! I totally believe in your made up girlfriend!" Gomamon said excitedly from Izzy's laptop.

"That's right! If you see her in your dreams, then maybe one day you can make her real!" Palmon added just as quickly. Joe spun in his chair to see the windows of the many assorted digimon staring up at him excitedly. It seemed that was what it took to finally take Joe off guard as he finally stammered.

"I'm not saying she is or isn't real. Just that I have these memories that don't really correlate to the world around us!" Joe stated quickly, turning towards Sora. "Just like you and how you remember Tamer dying in the Digital World on New Year's. Or how Kari doesn't remember when she and Davis got together!"

He became more flustered with every word, desperately reaching for anything to save him from embarrassment.

"What do you think it means though?" Sora asked. Before Joe could formulate another answer, there was a flash of light from Izzy's laptop. Matt cursed and pulled Joe out of the way as Tamer's familiar armored figure emerged from the screen and landed on the floor beside Agumon.

"It means someone very powerful has been altering the very fabric of reality. Right under my nose," Tamer answered matter of factly.

Sora panicked, afraid that he might be here to hurt Kari again or, worse, attack them.

Reacting quickly, Matt threw the tray of cookies at Tamer - knocking him in the the helmet to disorient the boy before rushing him. Matt pressed Tamer against the wall, using his arm to keep Tamer in a choke hold. "What are you doing here?"

"Were you just waiting to pop up with that answer?" Joe asked.

"We're not here to fight!" Agumon said quickly.

"That's! Right!" Tamer gasped out, as he tried to pry Matt's arm away.

"Fat chance!" Matt growled through grit teeth. "Give me one good reason why I should believe you? You already put a gun to Kari's head!"

It was hard to see what kind of expression Tamer was making through his helmet - but Sora was certain he was trying to think of some way to talk his way out of this. Instead, Tamer dropped his digivice to the ground, raises his hands, and calmly said, "There…I'm unarmed. I have no way to protect myself. Agumon, you too."

"Come on, really?" Agumon asked. "This isn't like you."

"I'm desperate," Tamer replied. "And we're running out of time."

After a moment, Agumon groaned and reluctantly raised his hands above his head too. That was hardly as reassuring as it could be, since Agumon's claws could still rip through them if he did turn feral. Sora could see Matt ease his hold on Tamer but he still kept him pinned against the wall.

Tamer cleared his throat, "You could be a little relaxed."

"Just say what you're going to say," Matt growled, trying to prepare himself for whatever Tamer could throw at him.

Seeing that Matt wasn't going to ease up on him, Tamer finally spoke, "Someone or something is messing with reality. And until the virus is dealt with, there's nothing any of us can do about it. I know you guys might not like it, but allowing Homeostasis's reset is the only way to undo the virus."

"You want us to just watch our digimon die!?" Matt asked.

"Of course not!" Tamer fired back quickly, pausing briefly to shake his head. "Sorry. I can feel it now. The virus. I need to focus. We need to cure the virus. And reseting the Digital World and all the digimon in it is our best bet to accomplish that. The big thing we need to consider is that whoever is doing all this has the power to alter reality. And there aren't many who can do something like that."

"How do we know it wasn't you?" Matt asked.

"Why would I?" Tamer replied. "I want destiny to stay on track. I want things to play out the way they're supposed to. In what world would I ever willingly choose to steer things off track?"

"Who else could?" Joe asked.

"Another one of my people…another Ethereal…another…I don't know. But whoever they are, we have to assume they counted on this," Tamer stated quietly. "And there's nothing we can do but allow ourselves to be reset."

"You'll be reset, too?" Sora asked.

"I presume so," Tamer said. "I was asked to leave behind a message. Well, a message for all of you. But I can't be sure it'll trigger after the Digital World resets so I'm giving it to you now. All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream-"

"Seriously? You're quoting that at us?" Joe asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You know what he's going to say Joe?" Matt asked, still keeping his attention on Tamer.

"It's rude to interrupt you know," Tamer stated only to be ignored by everyone else.

"It's a quote from T.E. Lawrence," Joe said to a pair of blank stares from Matt and Sora. "Lawrence of Arabia?"

Sora looked at Matt who gave her a confused look. Joe sighed, "Never mind. All you need to know is he's a famous British colonel who was also an archaeologist and writer. But why are you quoting that quote at us?"

"Can I finish?" Tamer asked, gesturing with his hands as he patiently waited to be allowed to continue. After a moment's silence, Tamer took that as his cue to continue. "-those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find that it was vanity; But the dreamers of day are dangerous men. That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible."

"Okay, are you going to tell us what's up with the quote?" Matt asked.

Tamer shook his head, waving his hands. "Sorry, I can't. Whoever is messing with reality is most likely messing with all of us. This coded message is for after the reboot. To make sure the next versions of us know what to do."

"You're saying that like the reboot is going to happen. But we…that is Izzy has been trying to stop it with his quarantine program to protect our digimon," Joe said with a frown. He scooted Izzy's chair backwards towards Izzy's laptop, resting a hand on it protectively while his eyes darted from Agumon to Tamer.

Tamer gave no answer, and his helmet tilted slightly as if he were looking at something on the floor. "I thought I timed this right."

"You never time it right. It says five seconds," Agumon said, gesturing towards the digivice. Sora's eyes darted towards it and notice the screen displaying what appeared to be another countdown. A different one from the one to the reset.

Matt cursed and pushed his arm further against Tamer, "What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But it has to be done," Tamer answered softly, his voice becoming just as whisper. The timer reached zero and a flash of light exploded out from the digivice's screen - blinding everyone and making Matt curse. Sora covered her eyes to block out the blinding light, but could hear the unmistakable noise of a fight. Matt grunted and she felt something fall against her, knocking her onto the bed.

"Asshole!" Matt shouted as Sora regained her vision to see her boyfriend on top of her. He hurried off her to help her up. It took another second for her to orient herself but she witnessed Joe sliding across the bedroom floor towards the door, slamming against it and falling out of Izzy's chair.

"How did he do that?" Joe asked, dazed and trying to adjust his glasses. Sora glanced back towards Izzy's desk and saw Tamer with Izzy's laptop under his arm. Izzy's bedroom window was open and Agumon was already hanging off the ledge while Tamer had one foot on the windowsill.

He only stopped to look back at the digidestined and apologize, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Then without another word, he and Agumon leapt out of the window. Matt cursed and Sora rushed to the window, peering out to see that Tamer and Agumon landed on the bushes several stories below. That had to be the second time in her life that she'd seen the pair of them make a running leap out of an apartment window that was several stories above the ground. Yet again, both of them appeared unharmed as they ran towards the park.

"Where are they going?" Sora asked aloud.

"This doesn't seem right," Joe said.

"It's not! Come on! We need to get after them!" Matt shouted, rushing for the door. Joe and Sora hurried after him, although had to slow her pace so that Joe could keep up since he was the least athletic of the three.

"No! That's not what I mean! I meant Tamer could've opened a digiport to go anywhere he wanted. If he wanted to get away from us, why didn't he just go to the Digital World?" Joe asked, gasping for breath as he tried to keep up.

"You think he wants us to follow him?" Sora asked Joe.

"I think there's more to whatever he's planning than what he's telling us. So nothing new there," Joe gasped back.

Mimi walked along with Izzy, relieved to see that he was at least a little more relaxed than he was at the beginning of the day. In truth, she'd seen how worn down he could let himself get when he got too wrapped up in whatever work he was doing. And she hated seeing him burn himself out like that. The fresh air did Izzy good as he seemed less tense than he was in his office.

"This was nice…thank you Mimi," Izzy said calmly, the smallest of smiles creeping onto his face. They approached a bench beside some vending machines, which Mimi excitedly dragged Izzy towards.

"Come on! Let's get some drinks!" she said excitedly, sitting him down on the bench. "You've been drinking your mom's oolong tea all day! How about something refreshing…like a melon soda! Ooh! How about mango nectar!"

Izzy's expression was definitely more lit up now that he was away from the others for a little while on a break. She passed him his drinks and watched as he drank the whole thing in one go. He breathed out a relieved sigh and smiled, "I guess I was thirstier than I thought."

"I bet. You've been working so hard lately. You needed a break," Mimi said. "And someone had to drag you away from your computer!"

Izzy stared up at her sheepishly, his smile still there but it looked like he was struggling to get something out. After a moment of his contented smile, Izzy finally spoke. "Mimi…thank you."

"Of course, don't mention it!" she said back.

"No, really…thank you. For everything." He paused again, his mouth hanging open as he struggled to get out the next few words. "I don't know what I would've done without you here."

Mimi felt her face flush, and she looked away quickly to avoid making eye contact with him. "Don't mention it! Besides, you would've been fine without me. You're smart after all! You probably would've noticed eventually."

"That's the thing. I didn't," Izzy said. "And if you hadn't been there cheering me on, I don't think I would've been able to keep going for as long as I did. So…thank you, Mimi."

Before Mimi could say anything else, Izzy took her hand in his - holding it with a firm gentleness she never would've expected from him. Then again, she'd seen how he held his electronics - especially that old laptop of his. She would've expected it to the be the most precious thing he held. But holding his hand felt nice and, before Mimi knew it, she found herself interlacing her fingers with his. It was nice to hold his hand like this.

The moment was only ruined when she saw the unmistakable appearance of Tamer in his white armor running past with Agumon. She blinked in disbelief, and just a little bit annoyed that Tamer ruined their moment. "Was that who I thought it was?"

Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw Sora and Matt running after Tamer, with Joe lagging just behind them. She sat up on seeing Joe, "What's going on? Where are you guys going!?"

"Tamer has our digimon!" Joe shouted at the top of his lungs.

Mimi's eyes widened in shock, and she grabbed a hold of Izzy's hand before chasing after them again.

"Come on Izzy!"

"Mimi! Wait!" Izzy protested only to get dragged along. She was sure he wouldn't mind - after all, he'd get to hold her hand again. Not that Mimi herself minded - she quite enjoyed holding Izzy's hand. And with her dragging him along, Izzy would definitely have a better chance of keeping up. She'd have to be sure to get him started on a work out regiment to offset how much time he was spending sitting at his computer.

Kari sat silently and watched as Davis tried to wrestle his way out of the hospital bed. His dad leaned over him with his arms folded, "The doctor says you need another day to recover, son. Just stay back and rest."

"How can I rest when I just found out my best friend is going to die!?" Davis said furiously, grumbling as Jun continued to pin him down.

"Will you stop!? Veemon's not going to die!" Jun snapped back at him.

That's right. Veemon wasn't in any danger. But it was hard for Kari to feel the same way when she could look down at her D-Terminal and see the countdown progressing. Davis's eyes hung on his own D-Terminal, staring in anger as the number crept closer towards zero. She could see he was shaking with anger, something she wasn't sure he was ever really capable of. Then he cursed under his breath. "It's not just Veemon. It's all our partner. It's the Digital World. All of them are in danger. And you want me to just sit here and do nothing."

"We want you to get better!" his father snapped at him. "Dammit, Davis. Why can't you understand that?"

"Because my best friend is in danger! This isn't about me! This is about them!" Davis fired back. Kari should've known. He wasn't angry about losing his partner. He was angry that he was expected to do nothing about it. For Davis, this was the worst kind of hell - to watch helplessly as the ones he cared about the most suffered. Especially knowing that their digimon were on the line.

"Well you're not going to do anyone any good in your condition! The doctor said rest! Now rest!" Davis' mother scolded him, helping Jun to push him back down onto the bed. Davis scowled but resigned himself to the bed, sticking out his lower lip and pouting angrily.

"I can have Izzy bring over his laptop. That way you can still see Veemon," Kari offered. For a moment, she could see Davis' face light up. But that glimmer of joy vanished the moment his parents protested.

"One of them mauled Davis and you want to bring more of them in here!?" his mom protested.

"No, of course not! It's just a way for them to talk to each other," Kari explained, although it appeared that neither of his parents were put at ease. His mom and dad looked at each other nervously, communicating with unspoken words in just a few seconds.

"Are the other digimon, alright?" Davis' mother asked. "They're not going to maul him are they?"

"I don't know," Kari said sheepishly, wishing that Davis' smile didn't disappear from his face. She wished she could've given a better answer than that. There was no way of knowing at this point who else was infected and who wasn't. She could've lied to get Izzy's laptop in anyway. But there was a very real possibility if they brought Izzy's laptop that one of them could leap out and attack Davis in another fit of madness. Kari wouldn't be able to live with herself if Davis was injured again because of her. No, not again. Never again. She wouldn't allow it if she could help it.

Davis' frown turned to one of disappointment, as he turned his head away to avoid having to look at any of them. Something out the window was holding his attention, or perhaps he was just trying to distract himself from how things had turned out. Kari wished she could distract herself that way as well.

But her attention kept coming back to her D-Terminal and timer counting down the time until the Digital World reset. There was a little over an hour left now. Kari would've wanted nothing more than to be with Gatomon right now, but there was no way for that to happen since Gatomon's abduction. At the very least, she could be here for Davis since he couldn't be there for Veemon. However, she was pulled from her thoughts by a beep on her D-Terminal.

A message from Sora.

"Tamer has our digimon…get to Shizoake now!" Kari's face paled as she reread the message and was left with a singular question - what was Tamer doing? The replies started to come in from the other digidestined. Cody answered first, followed by Ken and Yolei. Kari began typing away, hearing Davis groan as he read his own D-Terminal.

"No way! I gotta go!" Davis said, trying to climb out of the bed only to be thrown back in by his sister.

"I don't care what that message said! You are staying in this bed and not moving another muscle mister!" she protested.

"Tamer has our digimon!" Davis finally blurted out, catching Jun's attention and easing her hold on her brother. Jun snatched the D-Terminal out of Davis's hands and looked at the message herself - eyes disbelieving but growing wider with each word.

"It's not Tai…it's Tamer," Kari said quietly, trying to reassure Jun. But Kari didn't personally believe there was much of a difference at all between her brother and The Digimon Tamer. Jun wasn't put at ease and frowned quietly as she returned the D-Terminal to her younger brother. Davis leaned back in his bed, staring down at the D-Terminal and making no attempt to get up himself.

"I'll go meet up with the others. Hopefully we can stop Tamer from doing…whatever he's going to do," Kari said, typing a message away into the D-Terminal. She could see a small glimmer of hope in Davis's eyes, although Jun's expression didn't chance as she sat on Davis's bed.

"Okay, but please be safe. I mean it, Kari. No matter what, don't put yourself in danger," Davis said. The pair locked eyes for a moment before Kari nodded and hurried out the door towards the park.

Kari ran as fast as she could towards the park, racing until she could see the tall trees and the grassy field. Hopefully, she'd be able to talk to Tamer and convince him not to do whatever he was going to do.

As she finally caught up to the others, she bore witness to the surreal sight of Tamer and Agumon running back and forth, while the digidestined scrambled to catch them. Matt, Sora, Mimi, Izzy, and Joe each took turns trying to tackle Tamer in what could only be called the most twisted game of tag.

"Kari!" Cody shouted, waving his arms to get her attention as he ran to join her. "What's going on? And what're they doing?"

"Playing tag, I think," Kari stammered out, not really sure what else to make of what she was seeing. If Tamer was trying to escape, why didn't he just open a DigiPort back to the Digital World. Or anywhere else for that matter? Why here? Why this park?

"GIVE BACK PATAMON!" TK shouted as he ran in from the side and tried to tackle Tamer to the ground, only to be dodged as Tamer spun around TK's charge. TK stumbled onto the grass just as Ken and Yolei appeared. Yolei stopped to help TK onto his feet while Ken ran into a slide to try and trip Tamer. It almost seemed like it would work if Tamer hadn't leapt over Ken and continued running.

"This isn't going to work. We'll never catch him!" Cody pointed out. "He could outrun all of us if he wanted."

"But it's not like we can out think him," Kari reasoned. Cody gave no answer and grit his teeth, watching as Tamer continued to run around the open park and evade the others. Tamer only came to a stop when his digivice started beeping.

"Ten minutes to the reset, Agumon!" Tamer shouted, beckoning his partner to rejoin his side. Tamer extended his digivice outwards away from the others. "Digiport Open!"

A crack appeared in front of him, splitting open a gate into a dusty black field that looked nothing like the Digital World. Rather, it looked something akin to the Dark Ocean. And yet Kari didn't receive the same bone chilling terror that she normally received from being near the Dark Ocean. So if not then, what was it.

Just as the others were about to surround Tamer, he held out the laptop in his hand - holding it through the portal and staring at each of them. "Stop! I'm sorry. I wished it didn't have to come to this, but it has to happen. You can say your good byes, but I promise it will only be temporary. When the reset happens, you'll all be together. Hopefully clear of the virus this time!"

"NO! YOU'RE NOT TAKING PATAMON AWAY FROM ME!" TK roared, taking a step forward. Tamer answered by loosening his grip on the laptop so that he only held it with two fingers.

"Takeru! I really need you to stop and think about this!" Tamer pleaded. "If your partners aren't in the Digital World when the reset happens, they'll carry over the virus with them to the new world. This is the only way to contain it! Please, don't spend these final moments with your partners fighting this! Use it to say goodbye. At least for now."

"Go to hell!" Matt said. "You're not even giving us the chance to save our partners!"

Before Tamer could even try to argue with him, Agumon suddenly leapt onto Tamer. Agumon ripped his helmet off and was furiously gnashing his teeth at Tamer's armor, digging his mouth into his arm while scratching away at his armor. "HUNGRY!"

It was just like Gatomon. The infection had finally taken full control of Agumon's mind - driving him to attack whoever he laid eyes on. Only Agumon was far more savage in his attacks. Agumon tackled Tamer through the portal, slamming him onto the ground as the laptop slid out of his hands and landed open. Agumon's claws dug into Tamer's armor - chipping away at it with each strike as it drew blood. In that moment, all of their remaining digimon fled out of the laptop and hurried towards the open gate in reality.

"Hurry everyone! Through the gate!" Sora shouted towards their partners.

"We're coming! Anything to get away from that brute!" Hawkmon said, leading the rush to get as far from Tamer and Agumon as possible. It took Tamer a moment to finally wrestle Agumon off of him, by which point he looked over to see the others fleeing away.

"NO! DON'T!" Tamer shouted, trying to get onto his feet only for Agumon to leap onto him again.

"SO HUNGRY!" Agumon roared. "KILL! KILL!"

"Agumon's completely lost it!" Armadillomon said, glancing back over his shoulder to see him barely managing to keep Agumon from ripping his armor off. Just as Armadillomon turned his attention forward, a loud cry from above caught his attention and he saw Biyomon swoop down to carry him away. "Biyomon! What in tarnation!?"

Biyomon answered with a violent growl, pecking at Armadillomon's shell with her bill. Armadillomon flailed his legs to break free, but Boyomon's grip held firm.

"Biyomon! NO!" Sora called out to her partner, hand over her mouth in shock as she watched her partner turn on the others. But despite her pleas, she was unable to reach her partner in the throes of madness.

"I'll get her!" Hawkmon said, turning in the air towards the two and tackling Biyomon. With that smack, Armadillomon came free of Biyomon's talons and curled into a ball as he braced for impact with the ground. Hawkmon dove to snatch Armadillomon, only to be tackled in the air by Biyomon.

"THAT WAS MINE!" Biyomon roared.

"Biyomon! Get a hold of yourself!" Hawkmon fired back, only to be ignored. Seeing as words were failing him, he resorted to fighting back and the the two birds entangled in the air as they clawed and pecked at each other.

Armadillomon continued to fall downward, landing with a thud as he hit the ground and bouncing back up into the air towards Gabumon

"I got him!" Gabumon said with his arms out stretched and hobbling back and forth to catch the falling ball. It was a picture perfect catch as Armadillomon landed safely in his arms. Unfortunately for Gabumon, Armadillomon unrolled and lashed out immediately. "DON'T TOUCH ME!"

Armadillomon's angered response revealed the vacant look in his eyes as his words devolved in to snarls and hisses.

"Armadillomon! No!" Cody gasped as he watched his partner turn on Gabumon.

"Super shocker!" Tentomon shouted as a blast of electricity arced out along the ground to strike Armadillomon. The digimon convulsed and fell off of Gabumon, leaving an opening for Palmon to pull him away with her vines.

"Gabumon! Are you alri-WAAGH!" Palmon began, only to be tackled by Gabumon gnashing his teeth at her. One by one, each of the digimon lost control of themselves as the virus over rode them. And there was nothing any of them could do from this side of the gate. Mimi tried to step through the portal to aid Palmon herself but was stopped by Izzy.

"Mimi! Don't!" he said to her.

"But Palmon-" Mimi said back, only to be cutoff.

"If you go into the middle of that, you'll end up like Davis. Worse, you'll die if you don't make it back before the reset!" Izzy explained to her, despite Mimi's continued attempts to pull away. She was desperate to help her partner, and he was desperate to keep her from hurting herself.

"I gotta do something!" Mimi shouted.

"Mimi! Help!" Palmon cried out, turning Mimi's attention back into the ongoing fight inside. Palmon had used her vines to entangle Veemon and Patamon. And the little plant digimon leered at Mimi. "Help me eat! I'm so hungry!"

Mimi's mouth fell open as she watched Palmon shoot another vine towards her. Mimi froze as the vine almost came through the portal, disbelieving of the fact that Palmon would turn on her. But she was saved as an arc of electricity struck Palmon's vine - traveling up to her body and shocking her before she fell to the ground. Her vines freeing both Veemon and Patamon. But it was too late for them as well, as both digimon rose from the ground and bore their fangs at each other. Their violent growls against each other stopped only when they noticed the portal behind them.

They charged forward, only to be crashed into by both Gabumon and Biyomon - the digimon having lost themselves to the infection were now turning on each other in a free for all. They continued to turn feral one after another until only Tentomon was left hovering high in the sky as he tried to stun the others if they came too close to the gate.

"Tentomon! Protect the portal! I'm going to try and close it!" Tamer shouted, rushing for the gate.

"Don't you talk to me! We're not on speaking terms right now!" Tentomon snapped at him.

"There's one minute left. The gate needs to close now!" Tamer shouted. "Or else the reset will hurt their world! Don't do it for me! Do it for-"

He was interrupted as Agumon and Veemon tackled him at the same time, both breaking apart more pieces of his armor. Tamer cursed his luck as he tried to wrestle the two Digimon off, and was saved when Tentomon finally shocked them both with his electricity. "There! I helped you! Now close the gate!"

Tamer stood up and pointed his digivice back towards the portal, "Digiport Cl-cl-clo-"

Tamer stammered, hand shaking as he tried to do it while his head began jerking violently. Everyone froze as they watched Tamer twitch violently under the helmet. "Dam-mit…not…n-now!"

With his free hand, Tamer ripped his helmet off his face, revealing the twisted drooling expression underneath. His eyes were barely focusing on the gate and Kari could see the beginnings of the blank emptiness that was on the infected digimon's face. Tamer convulsed as he tried one last time to point his digivice at the gate and shouted, "Di-digiport C-c-close!"

And just like that the digiport closed, trapping all of their digimon in the Digital World. A stunned silence followed as their final moments seeing their digimon sank in. How they mindlessly and angry ripped and tore into each other - just like Gatomon before them. A moment later, their D-Terminals all beeped at the same time to convey a single message:

Reset Complete.

Author's Notes: The Digital World has been reset. But what was the meaning of the Tamer's coded message and who or what is altering reality to their ends? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v1.3 - The Other Tamer due out in six weeks on October 20th at 8 PM CDT! Let me know what you guys think in the reviews section. And don't forget to follow the story to keep up with all the latest updates and to favorite to show support! That's all for now, until next time this is leonardo1123581321 signing out!