Everyone was making a mad dash towards the flymon, a horrible scream came from behind them, they turned to see Juniko clutching her arm, which was becoming metallic, and the rest of her apparel was getting darker.

Juniko stood up look at the incoming Kurokami brigade, and then looked at the rest of the Digidestined, she slammed her now claw-like hand into the ground "Nazar Nail" she shouted, and energy wave sliced its way through the ground, it missed the rest of the Digidestined completely but impacted the flymon killing it instantly, the piece of ground the Digidestined were standing on came apart, it was like time stopped, Takajin staring up at Juniko, as the world crumbled beneath him, he watched as Juniko walked on floating rocks, as she made her way towards him, she was now in his face, he stop and stare into her blank eyes, her now pale skin, she opened her mouth revealing pointed teeth, she leapt on Takajin biting into his neck.

Takajin woke sweating profusely, his clothes soaked in sweat, he was in a large bed surrounded by tall red grass, he looked up and saw the sky, why was he in a bed outdoors, this was kind of weird, that's when he noticed he wasn't alone, someone was staring down at him "Hikaru" he mumbled, the person didn't respond, just stared down at him it was giving Takajin the creeps,

It was a few awkward moments before the person finally said something, "Why is there bed in the middle of nowhere, it's a pretty comfy bed too" said the person, from the voice it wasn't anyone Takajin knew, she poked him when Takajin didn't answer her question, and she poked harder the longer he didn't say anything.

"Stop that, who the hell are you?" Said Takajin shoving the strange person's away from him, he was now annoyed, he was now glaring at her.

"You don't have to be rude about it, I am Thania Kole, I found you just lying here, I was just asking about this strange location of your bed?"

"I am Takajin, and this is not my bed as far I know, the last thing I remember is falling off a cliff and fell into the abyss underneath the infinite citadel, how I got here is unknown. He looked at her his vision finally clearing, she had cherry blossom colored, and wore thick rimmed glasses, which she was currently adjusting absent-mindedly, and her clothes , a Tunic, and shorts, were Red, and yellow striped, with a pink trimmed collar, she wore flame colored shoes, around the bridge of her nose was sprinkled with freckles.

Digimon Sync episode 31 "The Pilgrimage"

Hikaru woke up, she was on a bed in the middle of the desert, she pulled back the covers that were dirt covered, but she was untouched by sand, she got out of bed only to fall down face first into a sand dune, she was thirsty, she had to find water before she dehydrated from exposure, she got up and wiped the sand off shirt, and the rest of her clothes. In the distance she could make out something, maybe it was a place she could get water, she walked toward it, behind what she was looking in the distance was a huge object floating, but she needed water she made her way towards the thing she had spotted first, she reached a point where she could see it properly. it was some kind of ruins of a some platform, she climbed it's broken stone staircase, when she reached the top, there was a bunch of strange men in red hooded ponchos, their faces covered by red cloth masks, their scarves trailed on the ground behind lightly glowing with strange glyphs, they were meditating about something but the language they were chanting was weird, but sounded vaguely familiar. One of the people stood up fluidly like he was flowing water, which reminded Hikaru why she came here "please can you spare some water?" she asked politely, having a hard time speaking because of how dry her mouth was.

The man nodded in response, and produced a water sack; from the backpack he was wearing, and handed it over to Hikaru, she drank greedily quenching her thirst before handing it back to the man.

"Why is water wet?" said the red robed man that had handed her the water, he stared at her, his eyes were the only thing that was visible through the cloth mask.

"Because it just is, I don't know" Hikaru replied politely and confusedly at the time.

The man laughed, pulling back the mask to reveal a white haired and bearded man, he was very old around 70 or something, his face crinkled as he laughed like a prune. "You seem out of place, you don't seem dressed for traveling the desert, oh where are my minors I am Damien, and we are the Infinitas Sages on a Pilgrimage, who make you be little girl?"

"I am Hikaru, I am a Digidestined, I don't know how I got, I had fallen off a cliff the last time I remember then I woke up in this bed in the middle of this desert" said Hikaru looks around "can you please help me find my way out of this place?"

"Of course, but you need to dress for landscape, this is all purpose garb for snow, sand, and rain," Damien reached into his backpack "I carry extra in all sizes in case we bump into more people that want to join the pilgrimage" he handed her that a smaller version of the same attire he was wearing but white and orange markings instead of red with orange markings, and Hikaru pulled it over the clothes she was wearing, leaving the mask off for now. "You are Digidestined, the chips have picked new Chosen ones, which one are you, Hope, Courage, Love, Curiosity, Light, Friendship, Purity, or Kindness?" he said like he knew what he was talking about.

"I am kindness" Hikaru said with some hesitation, she pulled out her digi chip and digivice and show it to Damien, he whistled when he saw it. "Question how does this protect you from the elements, it seems rather thin?"

"Um it has Chrome Digizoid woven into its fabric, these garments are probably older than most life still on this planet" Damien answered running his hand across his scarf. "Now let me introduce you to the rest of the sages" he walked over to the rest of his group, and as each of them pulled back their masks, he introduced, they were all white haired and bearded like Damien and all of them with really old. "first there is Reichs, he is easy going and a real lady man" the one he mentioned blew a kiss a Hikaru, the only thing different that stood him apart was his red eyes, "then there is Locke, he is the comedy relief" he pointed to the one with a sinister grin on his face, who automatically gave a thumps up, "Now be careful of Risso, in a previous life he was a pickpocket" Damien pointed at the glasses wearing man now juggling Hikaru's digivice, how he got it off her when she hadn't been anywhere near him, he handed it back apologizing. Now he came to the last member who hadn't removed there cloth mask, they did so when they got close to them to reveal it was a she, but she was just as old as the rest of the group "This is Lila"

"Pleased to meet young Digidestined" said Lila as she gave a very respectful bow, she ran up and hugged Hikaru, and gave a slight kiss on the cheek "I am the overly friendly one"

"Now that we are introduced, now you may want to know where were are going, Hikaru do you see that tower in the distance, it's not hard to see with its glowing top" said Damien as he was gesturing to the thing Hikaru had spotted before meeting this group "that is the Tower of Endings, I hope you come with us all the way, because you will learn so much about this world that might help you as Digidestined"

Hikaru thought about it for a few minutes, looked at the group of people she had just met a few moments ago, before making her decision "Ok Why not, if you try anything funny my digimon, who is presently hiding will devour you" she said gesturing to Moonmon, who came out of her hiding spot.

-Takajin & Thania-

Takajin walk straight trying to ignore his new companion, he wasn't in the mood to deal he had to find his digimon partner Sunmon, he knew he had followed them when they had been running, and was there when they fell off the cliff, but where was her, if he died in the fall obviously he would be dead too as the human connection with their digimon was a symbiotic relationship that one couldn't live without the other. Thinking about this he stopped turned to face Thania "Do you have a digimon, or are you a cursed one or a hybrid?" he asked even though in his present state of mind he didn't really care, he was trying to keep the thoughts of his friends and companions, that had fallen off the cliff edge with him, and did not know their current fate, were they alive, dying or dead, these thoughts haunted his every waking moment. As a brother had he failed protecting his sister was the worst thought of them all.

"No I have digimon partner, I sent her ahead of me, I am looking for her now as she tends to get lost, I really should learn not to depend on her sense of direction" Thania said rolling her eyes upward, like she was attempting to see her brain if she actually had one, at that moment she just took her glasses off and cleaned them, they didn't seem like they needed cleaning at all. "My digimon is Biyomon, if you see a pink bird digimon that looks completely confused let me know, so apparently we are both looking for our digimon partners, yours is a Sunmon you said, does that look like a ball of flame?"

Shaking the thought of his friends from his mind, Takajin nodded to what Thania "He does look like a flame ball, he has a nasty habit of setting things on fire, I never know what he is thinking when he does it, he just does getting me in trouble in the process"

"I am really good at direction I don't know why, shouldn't a digimon and their partner be exactly alike in every way, maybe they represent inner parts of ourselves that we don't know about, just maybe we are more alike than we even realize" said Thania placing her glasses back on her face, their lenses reflecting the suns light as she did so. "Like some kind of deep connection that goes beyond the physical between a digimon and their human partner?"

As Takajin nodded, trying not to lose his temper with Thania's constant talking, hopefully their paths would diverge as soon as she found her digimon partner and left him to find his, and then he would head to the Guardian Sanctum to meet up with Huang, who is he hoped was in in better condition than the last time he had seen him. "Which direction was your Digimon partner heading in" he asked keeping his voice calm hoping not to show his agitation with her dragging her feet about this subject.

"She was heading in this general direction; I did say she was bad with direction a minute, we will find her eventually" Thania answered playing with her glasses again, like she did every time he asked her a question, it seemed like an unconscious reflex action of some kind.

"Ok let's keep going till we find either my digimon partner or yours" said Takajin "they are around here somewhere"

They kept going till it started to get dark, so they set up camp for the night, Thania set up a fire, and helped Takajin cook dinner, as the moon finally set in the sky, they were both in their sleeping bags looking up at the stars.

"Are you a Digidestined?" Thania asked out of nowhere, she turned face Takajin "Which one are you, I am Curiosity, you had some kind of tracking device, I was looking at it I was a blip on it and so were you"

Takajin turned to face Thania "When were you going to tell me this?" he asked with some slight anger in his tone, he wasn't pleased that she had kept something like this from him, and for this long. He calmed himself once again "I am Love, which was the Digi chip I received, I have had mine for a couple months now, and how long have you had yours for?"

"For about a year, I found after I was thrown overboard while I was fishing, it called for me I swam to it, I was curious to see what it was" Thania answered pulling out her digivice out of her pocket, it seemed a lot more worn out than the one he had was.

Takajin pulled his from his pocket, and showed it to Thania, he had only with her for 24 hours but he felt he could trust despite only revealing that she was Digidestined right now, which irked him slightly but not as much as her existential nonsense she had been spouting before about life and how we are all connected, he could see why the curiosity chip had chosen her as a Digidestined. Now he was stuck with her, as she was Digidestined, he would have to get used to her being around, but if he could get use to someone like Mikuni then Thania might be a walk in the park in comparison, she was kind of cute though.

It didn't take long for Thania to fall asleep, but sleep wasn't coming easy to Takajin, he stared up at the sky seeing his companion's faces in the clouds, he had failed at protecting them, he couldn't live with if something bad would have happened to them at the Citadel, or if they had survived and something killed them when he wasn't around, he would pay to higher beings and hope they are protected the ones he loved namely he hope they protected his sister because she was the weakest of the Digidestined as she was so scared of her own mortality.

-Hikaru and the Sages-

Hikaru ran up the side of a sand dune, and slid down the other side, she turned and waited for the others to catch up, they were old but they never complained, when they had to catch up to her, she wanted to get to the tower to find out what Damien had mentioned as something of interest of a Digidestined. They caught up catching their breath as they stopped.

"You are so full of energy you make me feel young again Hikaru, are you sure you're not the Digidestined of hyper energy, your enthusiasm is refreshing" said Reich as he was taking a deep breath and steadying himself. "And you are adorable"

"Yeah I agree with you Reich but aren't you a bit too old to be hitting on her" said Lila giving Reich a harsh look like she was going to hit him.

Damien laughed, which broke up the potential fight that could have happened "Um I know Hikaru positive attitude was infectious but I didn't know it would make you guys act like kids again" he said with a wide grin that made Hikaru blush in reaction. "Save your energy we are nearly at the first stone of the great origin"

"What is the stone of Great origin?" Hikaru asked looking rather confused at the moment, she had never heard about this before.

"Stones, there are more than one and they mark the path we are taking to the tower, they show the origin of this planet, but they are attuned to the world's view and changes according, so the story changes according to popular but it's always the same story at least the important parts never change" said Damien pointing straight ahead to the giant monolith that was appearing in the distance. "Soon we will be there you might know the story you are about to see but not all of it, the point of the journey is to see them all each having parts of the planet's origin"

Hikaru ran towards the monolith, her strange scarf with the same glyphs on in at the Sages trailed behind, her excitement was renewed by the idea of seeing past of her world. She was the first to reach the monument that Damien had pointed out; the second was Damien, then Lila, followed by Reich and then the others. The monolith was violet with weird glyphs, they match some of the on the sages scarves. The ages began to sing

"Looking at the storm above us it doesn't look like we can get through

It won't be easy but I'll make it with you by my side"

"If we always stay together, the lightning wouldn't even stop us

Beyond the clouds, another adventure awaits"

"But you say wow wow wow wow wow

The tears from yesterday will keep us from flying

And I go wow wow wow wow wow

We'll leave all those memories behind and be free"

The Monolith began to glow, encompassing Hikaru and the Sages in a sphere similar to Digivolution, in that instance everything around them was gone, and they were now in a black void with nothing around them, that's when three lights streaked through the void, and the voice that seemed to come from around her, it was the voice of girl, pretty with cadence in pitch, a voice that made Hikaru was slipping into a hot bath, she never heard this voice before in her life, but it still seemed very familiar, it was the most beautiful voice she had ever heard, she wanted to meet this person, she longed for it.

"Three beings traveled through the void, Lilithia, Lumina, and Chaotus, they were three being known as the Great Old Ones, the void was their home, and they were at peace, there was nothing that could have ever made them more content with their existence but there was a longing within each to put something in that void, and the more they traveled the more they wanted to fill with something glorious"

The glow faded, leaving them all sitting before the monolith, they were exhausted "I think we should set up camp here for the night and head to the next stone tomorrow I see the sun is setting" said Damien before letting out an enormous yawn. "Be patient little Hikaru, the next stone will reveal more" he had noticed the look on Hikaru's face, she had been hoping for more than what they got. They all fell almost right; Hikaru was the last to nod off wondering how much more she would discover.

-To Be Continued-

What was all of that, and were they a sign of things to come? To answer these questions, and more, please tune into the next Digimon digital monsters!