"Equipment?"

"All packed up and ready to go."

"Yamaki?"

"We've prepared for it."

"Right. DigiGnomes?"

A chorus of chirping sounds answered my question. "We're going to help!"

"That's pretty much everything then." I looked at the screen.

The other five Monster Makers, and Yamaki, looked back.

Gorou hovered slightly in the air, his transparent form smiling.

"Guess I'll be seeing you all soon." He smiled.

"All of us, together again." Aishwarya smiled.

"We'll see you soon." I turned to Gorou. "You ready?"

"Not really." He said. "But... it's going to happen one way or another."

He turned to the DigiGnomes. "If... you would..."

They chirped. "We helped!"

For a moment, they glowed.

Then, Gorou began to glow, before he began to fade.

"Thank you." He smiled, before vanishing entirely.

A moment later, and so did I, entering the connection between this dimension and the other, following Gorou's Heart and Soul as they went back to his body.

Which... was in hospital.

Where it has been for over a decade.

And would now suddenly be waking up.

This... would probably take a while.

"Seriously, be careful." I said.

"I'm fine." He stubbornly stated.

"You're not fine. Your body has been laying in a hospital bed for over a decade. Do you have any idea how many problems there are with that?"

"Muscle atrophy, nervous system damage, sores, illnesses..." He listed.

"Exactly. I'm surprised that you can move at all."

"We helped!"

"It's not easy..." He winced as his leg twitched. "But the apocalypse waits for no one."

"Perhaps... you should rest." Janyu helped him settle into a chair.

"I did more than enough of that in the Digital World. And my body has been resting for years." He stated.

"You should be seeing a medical professional." Yamaki noted.

"Later." He waved it off. "I need to make sure everything's in order first."

"At the speed you're moving, I'll be an old man by the time you're done." Janyu paused. "Don't say it."

"If you meant asking how you could possibly get any older, don't worry, I would never say that." Babel took a sip of his coffee. "You fossil."

Gorou laughed "You have no idea how much I've missed this."

"Sure is exciting, isn't it?" Daisy smirked.

"Of course." Rob smiled.

Gorou grinned, and then sighed. "Well, come on, let's get everything in order."

He pushed off the desk next to him, his chair wheeling over to another one. "That's much easier."

He picked up a small, black device and set it aside. "Don't need that."

"What is that, anyway?" Janyu asked.

"Scanner." Gorou replied. "I used it to examine the Digital World in detail, so to speak."

"You built this?" Aishwarya asked.

"I programmed it." He explained. "Though there isn't much difference in the Digital World. I finished the program, and that's the form that it took. Of course, the older models were a bit more... clunky, but once I streamlined the program..." He shrugged. "Well, that. The rest of my equipment is the same. Programs that I wrote, upgraded, streamlined, and which then ultimately took on a form inside the Digital World."

He picked up another one. "And now they're all here, exactly the same. I have to wonder whether that's because of the DigiGnomes, or if it's just how things work when you take things from the Digital World to here..." He shook his head. "Later."

"It wouldn't surprise me if that was just how things worked." I picked up one of the devices, examining it. "Both the Digimon and the DigiGnomes are exactly the same whether they're in this world or not, despite the fact that all of them viciously break the laws of physics."

"And you're one to talk about breaking the laws of physics, aren't you?" Gorou quipped, setting the piece he was holding to the side.

"Clearly." I nodded. "Since I do it all the time, I obviously know what I'm talking about."

I handed him the device, and he smiled as he looked at it. "Ah, one my older devices. Pretty much useless now, but it was great back then." He set it to the side.

"Not... to be rude," Babel began. "But what are you, anyway?"

"Complicated." I answered.

"Oh, we already knew that." Gorou commented. "What with how you're not a Digimon, or a DigiGnome, or any other kind of Digital Lifeform, or a Human, or anything any of us know about. To say nothing of your rather extensive capabilities, and the fact that you know things that you really probably shouldn't know." His eyes shot to me. "Complicated is just the beginning."

"Oh, you have no idea."

"There's also the matter of your... 'speech'." He continued. "Which I am ninety-eight percent certain is bypassing language barriers entirely, not even commenting on the fact that it doesn't have a auditory component. Don't suppose you'd be willing to share how you do that?"

"Complicated metaphysical interactions involving things about the nature of existence that most beings will never know about."

"So that's a 'no', then?"

"Oh, I wasn't lying. That is how I do it- but I don't feel like explaining more than that."

Gorou raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"You're better off not knowing." I picked up another device, staring at it. "Actually, everybody is better off not knowing. Mostly because it only takes one dumbass or idiot with delusions of grandeur to permanently ruin everything for everyone, everywhere, forever."

Like Xehanort, whose actions ended up with a significant amount of all of existence getting omnomnom'ed by Heartless, and himself turned into a ranting, raving Lunatic.

Not... that there was much of a difference between pre-Heartless and post-Heartless.

Nevermind that, then.

He was always a ranting, raving, lunatic. It take a special kind of megalomania to go back in time and turn your younger self into a ranting, raving, lunatic before you even started down the path of ranting, raving, lunacy.

"And I'm not joking there, by the way." I looked up at them. "You really do not want to know, or find out."

Because there are things out there that are worse than the D-Reaper or Megidramon could ever be, and going down that path is an excellent way to attract their attention.