"Oh, no." Jijimon whispered, head hung low. That was not the reaction Tavaras was hoping for from the old man the morning after the funeral. Edward had just finished telling them all about what Devimon said, about how the Lieutenants were almost free. Jijimon cleared his throat. "LadyDevimon, SkullSatamon, MarineDevimon. Three Perfect level Digimon closest to the Demon Lord of Wrath, Demon."

"It makes sense he'd be the one closest to coming free." ROOT mused. Tavaras turned his head; the Keeper of the Chronicles was leaning by the hall's door, arms crossed. "During their final fight with Susanoomon, he resisted the hardest, so I imagine he's a bit closer to the surface of the prison than the others."

Jijimon nodded his head. "His three lieutenants are incredibly powerful in their own right, but what makes them even more terrifying is their ability to corrupt other lifeforms." Cherrymon next to him grimaced.

"Devimon himself possesses that ability; he would have been the fourth, if he was strong enough to evolve."

"Is that why?" Tavaras began.

"Yes." The old tree answered. "Though with pure intentions, the members of my church had succumbed to the darkness within and allowed Devimon to control their hearts, and give them power they otherwise did not have." He bowed his head to Tavaras, Edward, and Imogen. "For that, I am deeply sorry. I wish your two other friends were well enough to join; I hoped to put their minds at ease, for forgiveness is easier granted by others."

Tavaras looked down. Deon had refused to come to this meeting, claiming he felt sick. What he was going through would take time for an adult. For a teenager though? He probably thought the worst would happen. Senna probably felt similarly; they would need time. Time they didn't have.

"Why were they after Iggy?" Edward asked suddenly. "Devimon specifically addressed my sister as he left." Imogen bolted up, shocked from the mention of her name. Tavaras's eyes widened; the older man was right.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, Devimon was fixated on her from the beginning. Even our first day here... I thought it was just a coincidence, but Devidramon attacked Imogen first ." Jijimon looked up at that new bit of information and pondered. Silence lay heavy on them as they watched him take them all in.

"I- I do not know." He finally said. "Do forgive me for saying this, but perhaps they were trying to isolate the weakest one of you?"

"No." ROOT broke in. She walked up, and touched the sleeves of Imogen's jacket. "It's this."

"What?" Imogen recoiled in horror. "My jacket? My mom's jacket?" ROOT looked at her.

"Ah. This belonged to your mother. Things are adding up."

"For fucks sake." Tavaras cut in, staring at the red-eyed being in sheer annoyance. "For once, can you STOP being so cryptic?" ROOT pursed her lips.

"Like I said, easier to show you." She stared back at Tavaras, but sighed. "The short of it is, the woman who wore a jacket just like this one had a large role to play in that fateful battle thousands of years ago. I do not actually know the specifics, which is part of the reason I wish for nothing more than to go to Echo Mountain and use my abilities to show us all what happened."

Imogen and Edward stared at each other. Tavaras could almost sense their shared thoughts. Their own mother was here? No way those two being here was coincidence then. Jijimon stared at them.

"Humans?" He whispered. "Is this not the first time humans came to this world?“ Tavaras stared at him. Did the old man really not know anything? Jijimon caught him looking and chuckled softly. "I was but a young Gomamon back then. I know only what was recorded in the scriptures." He looked at an excited ROOT. "And even that, not everything it seems."

"So what's all this mean then?" Tavaras worked to fit all this information together. "These Lieutenants will be free soon?"

"If they are not already so, yes."

"And they'll be targeting us specifically?" Tavaras intentionally avoided singling out Imogen. Last thing she needed was the pressure of thinking this was her fault. ROOT nodded. "OK, so we have to make it to that giant ass mountain way off in the distance." He pointed north. "And we still have Devimon, and probably three more even stronger than him, after us. And then. AND THEN, we might figure out what happened thousands of years ago. Which may or may not help us figure out how to get back home." He pointed up to the sky.

"It seems to be the case, lad." Jijimon said, sounding sad. "I'm sorry, for everything you have to go through." Tavaras wanted to scream. This was insane. Complete fucking bullshit. He wanted to go home, but no matter how much shit they go through, even that's not a guarantee.

"And to top all this off." He continued, voice starting to shake. "We have no time, because this entire fucking world is falling apart at the seams." Part of him wanted to scream into the abyss and just give up. No. He would fight to the bitter end. Fuck whatever dropped into his lap. He would go home, wake up in his bed, and have the last laugh.

"Will you guys be going with us to this mountain?" Edward looked at Perfects hopefully. For once, Tavaras found himself on the same page as the cowardly blonde. As much as he wanted to be that guy who was strong enough to get them through this, Devimon had shown him otherwise. Edward looked crestfallen when MetalGreymon shook his head.

"We cannot leave this village anymore. With the storms becoming more and more frequent, and now with the new threats on the horizon, Sanctuary needs us around here."

"We will need to be stealthy." ROOT chimed in. "Against one Perfect level, especially a Nightmare Soldier, even all of us together wouldn't stand a chance. If the three of them managed to cooperate and attack together?" She gave a grim chuckle, not needing to say anymore. Tavaras looked around at the three perfects in the room. Were they that much stronger? After seeing their showing against the meteors he could believe it.

ROOT turned to Cherrymon. "I've been meaning to ask, you know ever since your goons trashed my temple." Cherrymon managed to give an apologetic look while glaring at her. "What exactly is this church of yours? I have no record of anything of the sort associated with the Digital World."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

All eyes turned to the old tree as he nodded. "The Church of Nothingness is a relatively new concept. In short, we preach a very hands off way of looking at things. Organically letting things play out as they will, and we oppose any intrusion into the natural order of things." He looked at Jijimon and the rest of the council with respect. "Although our methods may differ, the members of our church want the best for the Digital World, but believe everything needs to happen for a reason."

ROOT huffed, but did not say anything more.

"If you wish to learn more, Oh Keeper of the Chronicles, I invite you to follow me this afternoon. I shall show you some relics that may just interest you." ROOT cocked an eyebrow, obviously interested. Cherrymon turned to the humans. "Although I much sympathize with your desire to get home, you humans are more than welcome to join. For knowledge such as this is not something to be gatekept, and we do not think it wise for you to leave so soon after your ordeal."

Tavaras himself cocked an eyebrow at that, and shared a look with the Keeper. He would be lying if he said he wasn't curious about what caused Kiwimon and his friends to go off the deep end. And if he's already stuck here, may as well.

—

Deon slammed the book shut in frustration. This one was called "Myths of Evolution", but still there was nothing . Absolutely nothing so far about Veemon and the others. He rubbed his eyes and felt the bags beginning to form. He was turning into his mother. Dammit! Where did their partners come from? Why? Why are they so close to their partners? Why couldn't the Digimon remember anything prior to meeting them?

Why is there no record of this phenomenon? He looked at the messy pile of books by his side, and then the shelves along the walls of the library. So much to read, but so little time. For now though, something . There has to be something, anything, to confirm his hypothesis. He looked at Veemon, who sat staring at the wall with a solemn expression on his face.

"Am I right?" The boy wondered out loud. "Are you and I... the same?" Veemon glanced back at him.

"You're inside your own head again, Deon." The blue imp replied. Deon twitched.

"Well I can't go telling the others without making sure I'm right first! That goes against everything!"

"Tell the others what?" Deon's head spun when heard a soft, feminine voice call from the entrance. Senna stood there, the rising sun beating off her light green shirt, and Deon's heart fluttered.

She walked towards him, looking as haggard as he felt, with her pink partner flying closely behind her.

"Oh, um, n-nothing." Deon stammered, looking down. Veemon rolled his eyes.

"He's trying to figure out how we Digimon and you humans are connected." Deon glared at his partner.

"Oh. Okay." Senna simply sat down next to him, cross legged. Biyomon and Veemon shared a glance. Why was she here? Deon wondered as the four of them just sat there for some time. Eventually Veemon nudged him. Deon looked at his partner, who slightly nodded towards the young girl. Oh no, Deon shook his head, still turned towards Veemon.

The Blue imp shot him a glare, urging him on, but Deon steadfastly refused. No way is he gonna bring this up; he'd rather sit in this awkward silence that let him hear his own heart pounding out of his chest. Biyomon looked at them, and exhaled deeply.

"Hey Veemon, I saw Dorumon on the way here. He wanted to tease Chrysalimon."

"Ohh that sounds fun!" Veemon exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Lead the way."

"W-what?" Deon's eyes followed the two Digimon as they rushed outside the library, and he found himself alone with Senna, who still gazed at the adjacent wall. What is he even going to say? At that moment, he wished he was Tavaras. Gulping, he tried calming his nerves. God, why was he such a nerd?

"S-so, what brings you here?" What the hell was that, Deon? The boy cringed at his lame attempt to start a conversation.

"Hmm?" Senna turned to look at him. Too late to turn back now. "Oh, I was just wandering. Biyomon was nagging me to get out." She let out a small giggle, and Deon let out the breath he was holding.

"Haha, Veemon was the same. We just can't seem to be left in peace." Senna's face lit up as they found their common ground.

"Right? She's all like 'you need to talk to somebody'" Senna puffed her lips out like a beak as she imitated her partner, and put on a shill voice. Deon found himself laughing with her. "Turns out she's right." She said as the laughter died down.

"I guess so." Deon thought back to the night before. "I guess our partners really do know what's best for us."

"It's strange. I feel like I've known Biyomon forever." Deon lifted his head. So it wasn't just him then. He smiled to himself.

Veemon was right again.

"I think..." How to word this? Senna looked at him expectedly. "I think our partners are part of us." The girl stared at him with those black eyes, urging him to go on. "I don't know for certain, but it makes sense. How they feel what we do. How they respond to us. How they feel like brothers to us." He looked down, hoping that she wouldn't laugh at him for coming up with that.

"Wow." Senna blinked, then tilted her head and stuck her tongue out. "I have no idea what you mean." Silence hung between them, and they both burst out into laughter again at the awkwardness.

Wiping his eyes, Deon tried elaborating. "I think, when we came to this world, our Digimon were born from us. They are the essence of our own data."

"Like a baby?"

"Um, maybe?" Deon thought about that analogy. "More like we cloned ourselves, and that clone became their own person." Still doesn't explain how we are so linked.

"Huh?"

Deon held his head. How does he explain it better when he himself didn't fully understand? Senna giggled at the look on his face and lightly ribbed him in the shoulder. "I'm just teasing you, I think I get it. Sort of." More silence, but this time comfortable as they both looked ahead. Deon felt a little lighter, despite not talking about what Veemon wanted him to, he felt like he didn't have to shoulder this burden alone anymore.

"Hey." Senna broke the silence this time. Deon's heart fell as he saw tears form in her eyes. "I... I don't know how to face anyone else." She whispered. "I hear the Gotsumon's last words in my head when I try to sleep. I see Valemon - me - killing them again and again." So she was going through the same thing. He glanced at her, glad she brought it up but feeling apprehensive about what to say. How could he possibly fix this?

"It's not fair." As much as he wanted to put on an air of strength, Deon found himself welling up too and the two locked eyes. "We were only defending ourselves, but shit . It hurts. We did what we did, and there's nothing we can do to change that." The Thundermon disintegrating flashed before his eyes. To his surprise, he found himself hugging his new friend, each finding comfort on the shoulder of the other.

The warmth of having someone else to share in his pain, the warmth of just having someone there for him, threatened to overwhelm him. Tears flowed freely from his eyes now as he felt short black hair brush against his cheek. The past two weeks just came rushing back to him. His Mom and his future. Thundermon. Leomon. Like a floodgate breaking, emotion poured out of both of them.

"The worst part... The worst part is that they had lives here. Friends and family. You know how many times I've seen others' loved ones just ripped away? How can I look at Palmon and Floramon again? I killed their friend’s Deon." Her voice still held that disbelief, as if she knew she was dreaming and wanted desperately to wake up.

Crash Deon and Senna both whipped their heads towards the door. Palmon stood there, tray of meat and fruits scattered on the ground before her. Her eyes were wide and fueled with anger and sadness.

"You did that?" Her voice was a hoarse whisper as she stared at them. At Senna.

"Palmon..." Senna released herself from their embrace and looked at her green friend.

"Why? After all we did for you. Why?" Palmon suddenly turned and ran.

"PALMON, WAIT!" Senna shouted after her. She put her head in her hands. "No. Palmon."

"It'll be alright." Deon offered, trying to help. "She'll understand eventually." Senna shook her head desperately.

"No." Suddenly she stood up and wiped her eyes. "I have to explain. I have to go after her!" At that, Senna took off, rushing past their fallen breakfast. Deon stared after her, dumbfounded.

"Hey, dingus!" Veemon's voice from the doorway shook him out of his thoughts. "Let's hurry up and go after them! They're going into the forest."

Right, of course. Deon jumped to his feet and gave chase. Whatever happened, he would not let her deal with it alone.