Slowly, as one, the seven tamers followed after Chromon as he edged forwards, one step in front of the other. The gaping doorway loomed overhead, passing over them in utter silence. Not one of them turned round. They just kept walking, staring at the dot ahead of them.

Minutes seemed to pass. The view remained muted by the goggles, the impossible colours just hinting at crawling into their vision, scraping at the edge. There was no heat here, and yet no cold either. Just an intense numbness under the layers of uncomfortable clothing. Step after step. The silence of their surroundings was oppressive, with only their own breathing and heartbeats to keep them sane. And even they were starting to accelerate, the fingers reaching out around them, clawing at their skin, their vision, their-

“Is anyone else’s mask smelly or is it just me?”

Lonnie’s voice penetrated the ears of everybody around her, and they all practically jumped as one, with multiple calls of “GEEZUS!” running around everybody’s earpieces. Lonnie was caught off guard as well, and she staggered, twisting a wheel on her headset and apologising profusely. “I didn’t think it would be that loud. I’m so sorry.”

Inez let out a long breath, rubbing her finger around her own ear. “At least we know they work, I guess?”

“It’s probably no bad thing,” came Kai’s voice as he stood calmly. “If we keep talking to each other there’s less of a chance this place is gonna get to us. Good thought, Lonnie.”

“Uh...yeah, that was definitely my intention.”

There came the sound of chuckling, before Kai cleared his throat. “Everybody recovered? Everybody still here?”

“My ears have popped.”

Jack groaned, tapping the device beside him, before looking forwards. He let out a yelp, staggering backwards. “ Oh god, you’re all sideways.”

He scrambled around, grabbing hold of Grace and holding her close, trying desperately not to look at his own feet. But he failed in that regard, and found himself kicking at practically nothing but the endless void beneath him.

“Crap! I’m drifting! I’m drifting!”

“Don’t pull me along with you!”

Nicholas stood at about a forty-degree angle, watching the two twist around in front of him. “I thought you two were supposed to have done this before.”

“Not like this! We took the expressway last time; not the friggin’ zorb track!”

There came a whistle, and Jack forced himself to stop kicking enough to look upwards, seeing the others looking up (down?) at them from their own non-existent position. Eloise clicked a finger.

“Jack, stop kicking. You’re walking, remember. The floor is just beneath you.”

“The floor isn’t there!”

“Focus on where we are, not where you are. Come on, man; you want to be here with us. On this plane. Got it?”

It took what felt like several minutes. But, with Grace’s help, Jack managed to walk forwards, using the others as a reference point. After another minute, taking steps upwards against nothing, he found himself at a sort-of-right orientation, with the light of the corridor still ahead of him. He scratched behind his head.

“Sorry about that. I’m bad enough with my legs as it is. This is just freaky.”

“Jack, couldn’t you fly at one point?”

“That’s different.”

The members of the group took a moment to re-orientate, each of them sounding off and making themselves known. Then, holding to one another, they turned, and began to take step after arduous step towards the light once again.

Chromon kept at a steady pace, walking across the threshold with an expert footing, as if he’d done it many times before. Jack found himself wondering more and more about the little dinosaur; for somebody so constantly nervous he gave so little away in his movements. Perhaps that was why he was so good at working behind the scenes, he thought. Although looking closely, the dinosaur’s body seemed to be shaking a little. Perhaps it was his nerves, or perhaps the interface was calling him as well.

The dinosaur seemed to sense him staring, glancing back with a vivid red eye. Jack looked up again, focusing on the light in front of him. But even so the walls swirled in the sides of his vision, threatening to pull his attention away at any moment. He let out a breath.

“No wonder Nithhogg was sent mad by this place. It’s crazy.”

Nicholas looked down at him. “Nithhogg?”

“Long story,” said Grace, holding the young man’s hand. “You might have seen it on TV. It was the thing that destroyed the digital world four years ago; that’s what we had to save it from.”

Nicholas snorted. “What is your life?”

“Terrible. Next?” Grace tilted her head slightly, unable to stop herself from looking at the spiralling infinity either side of her. “ Whatever it was, it came from here.”

“Not originally.”

The three looked at Chromon, who kept walking, his head tilted just slightly. Even as he spoke his eyes were fixed ahead; a focused, almost blank gaze, completely unaffected by the madness around.

“Nithhogg ended up here, but n-nothing can come from here originally. No life, at l-least. The Interface just has that effect, as y-you’re seeing.” He lowered his head. “You l-lose track of time. Of space. Of self. N-n-nobody’s supposed to live here; you c-can’t live life stuck between t-t-two physical planes of existence. Nithhogg was an an-n-nomaly. Warped into a destructive force.”

Grace held her arm, her throat tightening at the words. The dinosaur could sense the people shuffling behind him, and he shook his head.

“It was in here for years though. Alone, and with no r-r-reference to get home. You’re not in danger.”

The tamers didn’t seem convinced. But, after coming this way, they carried on regardless, eager to reach the digital boundary. Eloise and Kai stayed at the back, watching the younger tamers in front of them. Kai noticed his girlfriend looking sideways, and he pulled her closer. “ Eyes front, soldier.”

“I know, I know.” Eloise took in a breath, her eyes hidden by the goggles. “It’s something we never thought about, was it? What Nithhogg was. What any of this was. We...we were just so focused on surviving back then.”

Her hand gripped Kai’s even tighter. “It must have been hell. All that time, all alone. I can’t help but feel sorry for it.”

Kai gave a half-smile beneath his mask. “ It’s over now, at least. It’s free of this place.”

A thought crossed his mind, and he glanced sideways, just for a second. The infinite space looked back at him, stretching out, beckoning him closer. He didn’t look for long, focusing forwards again.

But for a split second he was sure he could hear something. The tiniest tapping, or the faintest static.

Then he because aware of his own breathing again, and the feeling was lost. He looked back, finding Eloise staring at him.

“What was that? Do I need to get you to focus now?”

Kai shook his head. “Nothing. It’s not important.”

“Everybody slow down.”

Chromon’s voice echoed through everyone’s headpieces as they slowly gathered together, forming a line behind him. The dinosaur turned around.

“This is as far as we should go. The boundary between worlds is here.” He raised his head. “Look forwards, and focus on the plane. You should be able to see the Digital World beyond it.”

The group watched, squinting against the colours. For a while it almost seemed to just be a vast, vertical wall of water, or a living film, spiralling back and forth. It was only interspersed by the occasional burst of energy; a flash, a spear in the wall, bursting out or in momentarily. Hundreds at a time; potential gateways between the two worlds. Hundreds that would never open.

As the spears moved, so the film began to ripple. The group looked, focusing on any points they could as they held onto each other. One spear shot in, and reality warped around it, revealing something beyond. A forest. No, a castle. A beach.

Fragments in reality. Pictures of a new world, one after another.

“Can you see them?”

Some of them nodded. Others kept watching. Chromon swallowed.

“R-r-remember where you’re standing right now. You are in one point in space. Pull your minds back, and look at the whole world.”

As each tamer looked, the pinpoint scenes seemed to spread out in front of them, each focusing on a different area. And as they watched, the light expanded, coming into focus and pulling back, turning into something more coherent. Although the visions kept cropping up all around, getting clearer. Getting worse. The rounded walls of Silicon City. The fragments of the Stone Halo. Great ravines. Collapsing cities. Screaming. Running. Falling.

Eloise saw it first, and she stepped back, holding her hands in front of her mask in horror. Inez was next, and she stared, her eyes wide and her mouth agape.

“Oh god...no...it can’t be...”

One by one in their eyes, the picture grew clearer. Islands locked together. Continents shifted into place. Seas flowed and mountains rose, forming the whole world spinning before them; a parallel to their own.

Or at least...what was left of it.

It wasn’t like the scorched lands from four years ago, nor the damage from Nithhogg. Back then, the world had been swallowed up, blinking from existence. When it had healed, the fragments that remained had been reconnected, the frame reforming and rebuilding beneath them. Restoring a new earth from some old files.

But the world before them was not a world, or at least, not like one they’d ever seen. Not a sphere, but a wrenched, twisted structure, fluctuating and bending every which way. Biomes that had been newly formed were slammed together, crumbling everything on them beneath their surfaces and shaving away everything to reveal the twisting mainframe beneath. Plains had been opened up, with huge trails scrawled across the surface, some of them ripped open to reveal blackness beneath. The mainframe twisted constantly, the grid being pulled back and forth by some maniacal force even as they watched it, pulling apart everything on the surface in great fractures. It was ragged, and ripped, and straining against its own very existence.

And if the outside was bad enough, all the tamers could still see the flashes of the life down on those cosmic rags; glances at otherworldly life as it tried to survive. Metal mountains folding together, crushing a group of settlements between them. Holes opening up in the belly of the world, draining the ocean away and leaving inhabitants gasping in black space. Fields of ice and fire strewn in a criss-cross pattern, racing across the arid deserts towards whatever foliage they could find.

And even closer, the individual Digimon running, tripping, colliding, dying in the blink of an eye. Life after life after life, ravaged by the twisting structure.

Chromon could hear the distress in his earpiece, even though none of the others said a word. He looked away, a couple of tears falling from his eyes, and getting lost in the Interface.

“This is what everybody’s been running from. This is our reality now.”

“But...but...how?”

Chromon looked back at Grace, who had her palms crossed over her mouth, her voice pitifully small. “ How did...how did it get like this? Did we do this?”

The dinosaur looked back at the twisting world, his voice sounding more distant than ever.

“For s-several years it was fine on our side. There were issues. There always would be. But the world kept m-moving, and shifting as it always had. B-b-but then...we don’t know. I don’t know what it was but...there was s-s-something hidden deep away within the layers of the Digital World. In the depths of the Dark Area.”

“The Dark Area?”

Chromon nodded. “B-buried within the mainframe of the world itself, there...there are monsters. W-world eaters. Destroyers. Living c-cataclysms, old gods and t-titans. But they are trapped in a void. A chasm, buried deep in the layers of the D-Digital World, where the very w-worst of our kind are held. The w-world protects itself, even through catastrophe and conquest. Every new l-layer adds to the barrier.”

Kai shuffled, holding a hand to his mouth. “ Except...that Nithhogg destroyed the layers...didn’t it...”

He looked at the dinosaur, who shuffled. “Not...not all of them. But it must have scraped away enough of the w-world to w-weaken it. And to alert one of the m-monsters residing inside.” Chromon looked up. “It still can’t reach our w-world; by its very design it would reject the creatures in the deepest layers. But...but our world isn’t the only one in reach anymore.”

As if in response, the world twisted beyond the wall, a whole section wrenching sideways as if throttled by some cosmic hands. The group watched in horror as great waves of data were flung away, spraying into the void all around them.

One wave struck the wall, and it flexed, the void rippling all around them with a horrific tearing sound. They clung to each other, barely able to stay in one place as the world was turned around them.

Then the ripples calmed, and they watched, floating in the midst of the void and watching the spinning structure. Lonnie looked sideways.

“You mean whatever it is, it’s coming for us?”

“It’s t-t-trying.” Chromon padded against nothing, trying to re-stabilise himself. “I d-don’t know whether it can s-s-sense your world, or if it’s j-j-just moving erratically, but whatever the case it’s t-trying to break through. The D-Digital world is fighting back. But that’s causing the damage. It’s a prison d-desperately trying to mend itself, and it has been for many of our years.”

He pointed with a front leg, at a section of the world which had peeled away. The surface seemed to be shimmering, with new data stretching out over the wound. A new world, patching up the crack. But the flashes told a different story; it was a patchwork world at best. Dead soil, still water, ragged rocks. And no Digimon to replace those who had been lost in the void.

“That’s...that’s horrible...”

Chromon nodded glumly. “It’s f-failing. The world can’t h-heal itself fast enough. And as it f-fails, so the defences between our world and y-yours are failing as well.”

Nicholas held his hand out. “So all the new rifts, the weather patterns, the Digimon coming through; they’re all down to this?”

“And it’s all g-getting bigger.” Chromon turned around, his eyes locking onto the others. “The a-ambassadors came on their own out of desperation. But they are right. The D-Digital World is falling apart and those...those who survive this will have n-nowhere to go. So they’re running.”

Grace looked around. “But...but if your world fails...and this...whatever it is comes through to our world...”

Chromon bowed his head. “Then it all begins again.”

He ground his beak, and looked up at them, his eyes wide and desperate. “Our world has f-failed once more. We d-don’t even know what we’re dealing with. But we know we can’t deal with it on our own. We need your help again. For...for b-both our worlds...”

Another horrendous crack. The Digital World groaned, twisting itself into a new shape, and a whole chunk of the surface broke away, spiralling away into the chasm. The wound pulsed. It juddered, causing more ripples. Then the surface crusted over; another scar. Another desperate healing, leaving the misshapen world floating once again.

“I...I...I can’t watch this anymore.”

The group turned around, seeing Eloise drawing backwards, her head in her hands. She turned away, her breath juddering through the earpieces as Kai held tightly to her. Jack held his hand in front of him, pressing his eyes shut beneath his goggles.

“This isn’t fair. We saved it. We...we went through all that to save the world...and...it’s all just...”

He crouched over as well, and Grace knelt down next to him, holding a hand on his shoulder. Nicholas, Inez and Lonnie looked between themselves, unsure what to say. Eventually Lonnie stepped forwards, crouching down next to Jack and Grace. She held a hand out, comforting them both in turn.

“You’re heroes, right? You did save the world once.”

She looked back, the world beginning to fade into the void behind her.

“Surely we can do the same again. We have to. That’s...that’s who we are, right?”

Neither Grace nor Jack responded, merely holding onto each other. Lonnie couldn’t see beneath the boy’s mask, but she could see his shoulders shaking, and hear the soft sobs in her ear. Not just his, either. Looking up, she could see Kai and Eloise still embracing, her face buried in his shoulder.

Lonnie stood up, and looked down at Chromon, who was looking more fragile than he ever had. She reached out behind her, grabbing hold of the tether holding her to the human world.

“I think we’ve seen enough.”

The rain had fallen in waves, splattering against the ground and the sand, and collecting in puddles in the cracks in the pavement. Not that Mark had been paying attention. Water trickled down his hair and the sleeves of his coat, seeping into his shirt, but he was so caught up in his own head that he didn’t even care where he was going anymore. Occasionally he muttered to himself as he walked, playing over the same scenario again and again in his head.

But as much as he tried to make head or tail of it, his mind was just clogged up with nothing. Just an empty pit, churning up the same hollow thoughts again and again. He couldn’t think up anything. He just kept walking.

Consequently he found himself looping far back around, ending up on the promenade, with the waves whipping beside him, disturbed by the high winds. He looked up slightly, and noticed that the rain had eased off, just spitting against the sodden ground now. He pulled his shoulders in, the chill finally getting to him. His socks were wet as well. He briefly wondered just how far he’d walked, but decided it was worthless trying to think about it. He’d only been distracted.

Mark turned, for a moment deciding to aim for his house, or at least some familiar and neutral place. But then he turned his head, something catching his ear. It was slightly muffled with the spitting raindrops and the high winds, but it was definitely nearby; the sharp, mournful sound of a violin being played.

Mark wandered forwards, and found her, sitting in a decorative archway inside one limb of a twisting sculpture. She had her legs folded, and her eyes closed, but she played as if in front of a vast audience; her fingers running over the frets like water. Mark drew closer, hands in his pockets as he listened to the scale descending slowly, ending on an icy, low note, chilling him again to his spine.

Lyra opened her eyes, and turned her head towards him, one bang falling out over her shoulder. “You look like you’ve been on a trip.”

“I hadn’t noticed.” Mark grunted. “Why are you camped out here then?”

The girl rolled her head back, gesturing with her bow at the leg behind her. Tsurumon stood completely straight, half blocked by one leg of the structure.”

“It was all very wet. This guy doesn’t like the rain. He gets all floppy if he’s out in it too long.”

Tsurumon raised an eyebrow, with an expression of embarrassment and irritation that Mark didn’t usually see him make. He spread a wing open, and shook it back and forth, the papery feathers letting off a shower of drips.

“I try my best not to point out your shortcomings, you know.”

“I do know. You’re very good.”

Tsurumon huffed, and the young woman stuck her tongue out, before going back to her instrument, plucking at the strings of her violin. Mark shuffled forwards, sitting down on another curve of the sculpture and squeezing his coat sleeves out.

“Are you not going on miraculous discoveries with the others, then?”

“Not me.” Lyra stuck her bottom lip out, and spun her digivice in her hand. “This thing apparently isn’t the right kind of device. I’m not necessary.”

Mark smirked. “I should be so lucky.”

“So, well, I thought you might want some company.”

“That’s very considerate of you. Thank you.”

“They’re probably missing you, you know.”

“Can we just...not? Please?”

Mark held his hands up, running them over his face and feeling the cold on his skin. “I don’t need another person telling me how everything’s alright actually or everything’s going to turn out for the best. It’s all bullshit. It’s all just somebody else trying to make themselves feel better. Be it Alasdair, my brother or my own partner.”

There was a tapping behind him, and he looked up to see Tsurumon, preening beneath one wing. He looked up, and his eyes were more narrowed than ever.

“You know...far be it for me to get involved in your relationships, but I would like to think that Chromon is a caring individual. It’s only right if one is partnered to a human.”

Lyra stuck her tongue out to one side. “It’s a nice thought, but not everyone’s as conscientious as you are.”

She ran her bow over the lowest string, before curving it up with a harsh flourish. “So...what now then? You giving up on all this? You giving up on Chromon?”

Mark sent a deadly glare in her direction, and she whistled in response, “Hey, no judgments, it’s your life. I’m just asking. What do you want to do now?”

Mark tapped his feet, holding his hands in his lap. Then he leant back, sighing.

“I have no idea. I probably never did. I...I think I still care about him. I have to.” The young man’s eyes twisted sideways, but Tsurumon was no longer paying attention, his head beneath his wing. “It would be wrong of me to have spent so long with him and not to care about him. But...how can I honestly believe he ever cared about me? That I wasn’t just his means to an end?”

He gritted his teeth, his voice on the verge of cracking. “I thought I had control. A place. Some meaning behind me being a Digimon tamer. But if...if the only reason I’m here is as a part of some big plan...from my brother or Chromon or Alasdair; whoever’s behind it...if the only reason I was made a tamer is that I was useful then...how can I believe a word of it?”

He leant forwards, his hands gripping together and trembling just a little.

“They only think I’m convenient. They don’t believe I have a purpose of my own, so...so why the hell should I believe it?”

The violin had stopped. Mark looked over his shoulder, and saw Lyra looking down at him, her face twisted in a thoughtful expression. He just huffed, and looked the other way.

“It’s a funny thing really.”

Lyra rested the instrument down on her lap, and swung the case round, flipping open the old leather clasps. “At least you were chosen. You have a point in being here, whatever the reason. I just came across you people by accident, and I tagged along for the ride.”

“Exactly. You weren’t tricked like the rest of us. You don’t get it.”

“Oh I don’t, do I?”

Lyra pulled the lid of the violin case down with a thud, her face flashing in anger. “You think I don’t know what it’s like to be used? To have my life turned into somebody else’s plaything? My entire life I’ve been ‘useful’ to somebody else, and they just took it and twisted me into something I never was, just because it’s what they wanted. That goes for Rhyncomon, and that goes for the people I once called parents.”

Mark turned, looking hard into her eyes as she held out her violin in one hand, and her digivice in the other.

“I was stuck in somebody else’s plan. But I got out both times, and both times I kept the things that mattered to me. That made me-“ She swallowed, and shook her head. “No...that I could make a part of me, not a part of someone else. Even if I never found it...I had to try and become someone I was proud of.”

She turned round, and slid off the arm of the structure, balancing on the rail below with ease.

“I don’t have a place here, but you guys still accepted me. You made yourself into a family for somebody who didn’t deserve you. Who still doesn’t deserve any of you...” She put a hand in her pocket, looking down.

“Look, I...I can’t tell you what to do; it would be wrong of me. But from where I’m standing, it sure looks like you have a place with them. Doesn’t matter who brought you together or why. You’re all one great big family.” She tilted her head, giving a half-smile. “I’m kinda jealous, okay?”

Mark looked up at the girl as she hopped sideways, swinging the case around her back. He shook his head, and held up a hand.

“I wish I could believe you.”

“Well...then...pwft.”

Lyra leant against the structure with her arms folded, pouting as she tried to rack her brain for something else to say. The three sat in silence for a few seconds, the words still going round all of their heads. Mark stared forwards, watching the waves roll back and forth in the distance.

“Look...Lyra-“

Boom

Mark blinked, feeling something tremble beneath him, ever so slightly. He frowned, holding the structure, before looking back. “Did...anybody else-“

He didn’t need to finish; Tsurumon had unfolded himself in an instant, gaining a little height as he stared forwards, his wings now crisp and nearly dry. Lyra looked up at him, her head tilted to one side.

“Just something falling from the shelf somewhere?”

The crane tapped his claws on the wooden struts beneath him. “That wasn’t just a noise. That was something bigger.” He shivered. “I can feel something.”

Mark stood up, looking around him. “The others. Do you think there’s something up at the facility-“

“Look. Over there, out to sea.”

Lyra pointed, and Mark followed her arm, staring out at the rough waves. They seemed to have shifted slightly, moving from side to side more than in and out. And out through the grey clouds, a flock of gulls was gathering. A huge one, hundreds strong, flying low above the water’s surface. The clouds seemed to be moving as well, shifting around at a point far out to sea.

Mark narrowed his eyes, and pointed. “Over there...isn’t that where Inez was taken...?”

“You think that Xiphactimon might be back?”

“I...I don’t know...” Mark drew back, and looked down at his side, only to find nobody was there. “I just have a bad feeling...”

“You’re not the only one.” Tsurumon hopped down to the ground, stepped out a little way, before looking up at Lyra. She rolled her eyes, kicking herself away from the wall.

“Honestly, most of everybody’s on digital world vacation, the other one’s having a crisis of confidence, and who does that leave to clean up all the crap, I wonder?”

Mark furrowed his brow, looking rather hurt. “I’m allowed to have a crisis of confidence...”

“You do you. I’ve said my bit already.” Lyra scowled, before spinning her digivice in her fingers, looking at Tsurumon. “Come on then, let’s see who’s breaking the world this time.”

“Tsurumon, Tamashi no Oto! Shinka!”

The tamers were silent as they were slowly pulled back through the interface. The cables swayed gently left and right, keeping their movement steady. Without their feet moving the surroundings were more disorientating than ever; even the cables behind them seemed to just stretch out into nothing, the gateway to the human world shrouded in mystical mist. But they didn’t let it get to them. They just stayed quiet, waiting for the whole experience to be over.

That is, until a sudden noise burst through their earpieces; a groan, reverberating throughout the whole area. Nicholas looked up, tapping his ear.

“Anybody else getting some weird feedback?”

“I don’t think that’s feedback...”

Lonnie pointed forwards, and the others looked in the same direction. They were too far away now to clearly see the Digital World, or at least, they should have been. But the barrier seemed to be moving in and out more viciously, bending space as the world tore itself apart behind it. Inez raised a hand to her mask.

“Something else has happened. It’s...it’s broken again...”

“It’s going to move the Interface even more!” Chromon turned sideways, his eyes wide. “ The aftershock! It’s g-g-going to hit us!”

He was right; the edge of the waves were already spiralling out from the new tear in reality, and everybody stuck there could hear a rushing in their ears, like the slow approach of a wave. Lonnie turned around, her voice cutting through the static.

“Everyone hold onto someone!”

She’d barely gotten the words out when the waves struck the corridor, sending the whole area into turmoil. The tamers were caught by the ripples, and sent churning back and forth, all sense of direction lost as they were swept up in the energy. For those who’d been here before, they recognised it; the same infernal tornado which had first swept them away to the other world, completely out of control. They held onto anybody they could, eyes shut and ears unable to hear anything but the rushing static, interspersed with the muffled sound of screaming.

Red lights blinked through the control room as the partners rushed the deck, Aaron keeping up behind them. “What was that? What the hell happened?”

“I...I have no idea...” Alasdair gritted his teeth, looking from screen to screen as Perez and Dominic cleared each error frantically. “There was just some kind of surge which knocked everything out. We have to reboot.”

“Let me see!”

The man wheeled backwards as Vulpimon jumped up against the counter, before being pulled back by Dendromon, who barged forwards instead. “Oh god, are they alright?”

“Let...me...check!”

Salma reached forwards and pulled both frantic Rookies back by the collar as Dominic cleared the final alarms, bringing up the status screen once again. They all crowded round, seeing the lights blink into existence, one by one, revealing where each of them was. Alasdair’s eyes traced the screen.

“They did get hit. They’re all scattered a bit, but they’re all still in the corrid-“

He took in a breath. “Shit. Someone’s gone wide...”

One of the beacons was significantly away from the others, drifting left and right far away from the corridor, the light flashing rapidly. Aaron looked over the man’s shoulder. “Who is it?”

“...it’s Jack...”

The static subsided, being taken over by groans as the tamers and Chromon tried to re-orientate themselves. Chromon looked left and right, at the others currently clumped in various different angles.

“Are we missing anyone? Sound off?”

Everybody did, save for one voice which just came through as a bunch of static. This was swiftly followed by a gasp from Inez as she looked around. “Where’s Jack?”

“Shshsmmmsmsffshzzzhs...”

Grace looked around, hearing her own panicked breathing, and saw one of the cables bent sideways, wobbling dangerously as it poked through the wall of the corridor. She quickly rushed forwards, grabbing hold of it and holding a hand to her earpiece.

“Jack? Are you here? Can you see anyone?”

“Zzzhs mmmshszh.”

She gritted her teeth, looking at Chromon. The dinosaur shook his head. “I told you this place messes with the s-s-senses. If you can’t see him you probably won’t b-be able to hear him.”

“Well stop telling me things and help me pull him in! All of you!”

She tugged at the cable, but only succeeded in pulling herself forwards. Lonnie and Eloise joined her, but it was the same issue, and the more people grabbed it, the more the cable swung wildly. Eloise looked behind her, seeing the cable drooping loosely around as Grace heaved her shoulders.

“Get the others to reel him in, quickly.”

“Er...somehow I don’t think they can.”

“Well...well then...”

“Zzzmsh zhhzsmsmsh! ”

Kai held up a hand, before pulling hard on his own cable, twice as per the signal. The others did the same, each of them slowing to a stop. Kai looked around, watching the others regroup.

“He’s out there and he can at least hear that we’re here.”

“Yeah, but you saw he wasn’t handling walking around here particularly well.”

“But if he has someone with him we can come back on one cable.” Kai sighed.“Hold onto him and don’t move anywhere. I’m closest. I’ll go fetch him.”

Eloise tilted her head sideways. “What, and get you lost as well?”

“I’ll be careful. And we’ll be quick. I just need a bit more freedom. ”

He reached out for his own cable, and pulled once more.

“Get him out of there!”

Dominic tapped the buttons again and again as Perimon hovered frantically over his head, very close to pecking him on the head. “Didn’t you hear me? Pull him out!”

“We can’t!”

“What?””

Perez rolled back, pointing at a flashing alarm on her own screen. “The motor’s jammed. If we pull him it’s gonna wrench itself from the socket.”

“Well let me in there then!”

“Do you want to get sucked out to your home world?”

“Did I stutter?” Perimon flapped up in her face, his eyes blazing. “You maniacs have just lost my partner!”

“Perimon, calm down.”

The bird whirled round, glaring at Aaron. “I am not calmed up-“

“Indoor voice. Please. We can’t shout our way into a solution.”

Perimon clamped his beak together, but swallowed his fury, forcing himself to stay silent as Aaron leant forwards. “What about the others?”

“All stopped. As requested.” Salma folded her arms. “Should we pull the rest of them in first?”

“Hang on,” said Perez, adjusting her glasses, “Kai’s giving us a loosen signal.”

“Kai?” Aaron looked at the map. “Where is he?”

Dominic pointed; a single dot blinking slowly at the upper right of the cluster. “He’s closest to Jack by the looks of it. Do you reckon he’s going to bring him in?”

Perez looked nervously up at Salma, who quickly checked her phone. “Kai’s motor’s fine. It could reel them both in. What we don’t want is to pull them all through as they are and then have something break off inside the gate.”

“Ack.”

Perimon squawked, but was stopped from talking by Velocimon’s claw over his mouth, the dinosaur peering up at Alasdair. “Well, they are closer than we are right now.”

Alasdair ran a hand over his chin, and nodded. “Lock everyone else in place, but loosen Kai off. Just slowly.”

Perez did so, and the group watched as the dot slowly began to traverse outwards, heading towards the fast blinking dot at the edge of the screen. Alasdair sighed, holding the bridge of his nose.

“How bad a sign is it that we all seem to be thinking on the same stupid wavelength?”

Aaron bit his lip. “Yeah...I’m gonna say that’s all your fault.”

“Why not? So’s everything else today.”

Jack held his eyes shut, his body crouched as he willed the world to stop spinning around him. He felt as if he were spinning, but with no frame of reference he couldn’t tell, merely being tossed by the waves of the interface.

Then his cable jerked, and his body lurched sideways, causing his limbs to fly every which way. He found himself hitting something hard, and rolling against it a few times, before seeming to come to a stop. Not that he could tell at first, as his head kept spinning as always.

He hung there, clenching and unclenching his fists to try and make sure he still had some semblance of feeling, and all the while trying to work out whether vomiting into the spatial void would cause some horrific unseen butterfly effects on some distant land. Although as the marbles in his brain slowly slotted back into the right holes, he figured that it would probably have more immediate horrific effects to the inside of his mask, and with more effort than he intended, he forced his stomach to behave.

Jack slowly opened an eye, but it did little to help him. Just another abstract mess in front of him; no landmarks, no reference, and most worryingly, no other people. He felt the strain kicking in, and shut the eye tightly again. He called out, but his voice merely echoed around his own earpiece, melding with the mess of static. No...on closer listening, he could make out slightly more rhythmic pulses, and the faintest hint of voices. Not enough to be legible, but definitely present.

Eyes still closed, he kept talking, trying to respond to each of the garbled messages in turn, until they too slowly petered out. It gave him some comfort at least; the knowledge that somebody was listening. Although as he felt himself gently swinging back and forth, it would probably be helpful to try and get himself out of his current position.

Jack felt around himself, knocking his knuckles more than once against something rough and hard, until he finally found his cable, twisted awkwardly around him. He was about to give it a tug, when something clicked in his mind.

Gingerly he reached out with a foot, swinging it slowly back and forth. It knocked something on the path back. A large, hard, rough surface. He held his hand back, and felt it again, running over it carefully so as not to accidentally cut himself.

“I thought...Chromon said there was nothing out here...”

Jack held his teeth together, and ever so slowly opened his eyes again, ignoring the pain in his head. He bent over, looking down at where his limbs were. He hadn’t imagined it. There was a large, flat plane just behind him, made of some kind of jagged material; possibly metal, or rock, or something else entirely. It was roughly square, and several metres across. A black monolith in a world of kaleidoscopic colour.

“Okay then...”

After a few attempts, Jack managed to tilt himself forwards, willing his feet down until they hit squarely with the surface. Instantly his body seemed to be sucked downwards, happy for some form of gravity, even if it was only imaginary. His eyes only half-open, he looked around, and saw his cable stretching out behind him, caught on some kind of outcrop from one corner.

He made his way backwards, untangling it, but found himself looking down over the edge. The structure carried on downward; definitely leading credence to the idea that this was a real – or at least a tangible thing.

Slightly more bizarre was, in the middle of the surface he was looking on, there was a single panel flapping back and forth, small floppy items stuck to it as it caught in the non-breeze. It had what looked like a flower print on it. It had two transparent portholes.

For all intents and purposes, it looked like a door.

Jack stood back, closing his eyes to try and give his brain a break from the busy colours around him, as he consulted his teenage conscience. He had the cable, not that he could see where it was going. The others were probably coming for him. The best thing would be to stay in as obvious a place as he could.

On the other hand, this was something unexpected. And with the current situation, the likelihood of any of them being allowed back inside the void in the near future was looking bleak.

And, moreover, his curiosity was tickling the back of his neck, as it was wont to do in bad situations.

He swallowed, and, with a few attempts, swung himself over the edge, making sure to keep a tight hold of the cable. Ever so slowly, he made his way forwards, the sounds of the Interface pulsing in his head. He stopped just at the lip of the door, and peered inside.

It wasn’t just a plane. It was a box. And inside the box there was a room. Furniture, shelves, so many bits of paper floating about, and all an utter mess.

“It...it can’t be...”

Jack felt himself slowly tilting forwards, even as his entire body screamed at him to stop.

The room was even messier from the inside; rows of metallic tools rolling about in the waves, jugs and jars in various states of breakage, ream after ream of some paper-like substance with masses of scrawls all over them. He gently walked forwards, brushing the top layers of particles aside as he tried to read some of them. Most of it was illegible. Scratchy code, rough diagrams. But there was the occasional word which floated around on the paper, forming something his eyes could understand.

Worlds.

Gates.

Destruction.

Experiment.

Love.

Something awful clicked in Jack’s head.

He took a step back, and his leg wobbled beneath him as something hard and cylindrical silently rolled away; a metal tube knocking against the leg of the desk. The boy reached out, turning another page over. Even more text. More pictures.

The Interface reaches out.

The Interface brings together.

Entities of the perfect world.

Jack swallowed, his own heartbeat deafening, blocking out the bursts of frantic static that were coming through his earpiece.

“It can’t be you...”

He brought his hand back, and saw the edge of the paper; blotted and marked, as if stained by coffee. Something fell down, making him jump, and he looked closer, seeing some of the stains swimming. It was fresh. Dripping from the ceiling.

Too terrified to close his eyes, Jack felt himself looking up, up at the ceiling of the dreadful place, already knowing what he was about to find and yet unable to stop himself.

It was clear as day. He knew exactly who would make a place like this. He could still see him now; tumbling backwards out of the digital world as he let loose the nightmare that was Nithhogg.

And even knowing this, it was like something out of a bigger nightmare than he’d ever been in before.

Cracked, scaled skin. Gnarled claws. A ragged frill, torn with holes. Bulging eyes staring down at him, and a vast, twisted grin, stretching across his entire mouth.

Jack’s scream caught in his throat, all his senses going into overdrive. He staggered back, knocking off jars and paper and tools alike, but unable to stop himself as the leering figure of Rinkhalmon lunged down towards him.

“I’ve got you!”

Kai yanked Jack back, holding him out of the way as the serpent crashed into the ground in front of them, rolling sideways. Jack reached out, gripping Kai’s chest as he babbled through his hurried breaths.

“You...we...have to get out...it’s Rinkhalmon, he’s here, he’s doing something oh god we have to run!”

Kai held the boy firmly, looking forwards as he tried to catch his own breath. Rinkhalmon rolled sideways in front of them, grinning up at the ceiling as he lay in an awkward, almost leisurely position.

“I...don’t think we need to...”

Slowly Jack unfurled himself, looking back into the room and at the figure of the serpentine commander below him. The movement had rucked up Rinkhalmon’s skin even more, tearing it at one shoulder, like old paper. One hand was missing; a dark stump, barely covered in decaying bandages. The bulging eyes were shrivelled, and the tongue was lolling out to one side, split along its length.

“...he looks remarkably dead...”

Jack gently reached out, tapping the ex-commander’s body with the end of his foot, pushing him to one side. There was no response. Although from this angle the two tamers could clearly see his chest, and the gaping hole which had been torn open from his abdomen all the way up to his ribcage, with absolutely nothing inside the crevasse. The skin and muscle appeared to sag in a little; only slightly damp.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Well, one way to check.”

Kai hummed, walking around towards the snake man’s legs. Then, without warning, he drew a foot back and slammed it, as hard as he was able, into Rinkhalmon’s groin.

The body wafted back and forth a little, but made no response. Jack looked up at Kai.

“You happy now?”

“Well...no. It is Rinkhalmon we’re talking about.” Kai looked around. “Still, what...what was he doing here? You said he’d escaped into the Interface but this...is all very ambitious.”

“Chromon said there was nothing out here though.” Jack straightened up, holding his shoulders. “ Do you...think the Interface killed him?”

He found himself looking at the hole in Rinkhalmon’s chest again, feeling the nausea returning. “Or...or was there something else...”

Get Out

The noise made both of them jump. No...not a noise. A feeling. A presence, instantly pulsing through their heads. They looked at one another, stunned from the event, when the entire room seemed to tremble, and the presence shook them again, rending the room apart.

Intruders

Devastators

World Breakers

This Place Is Protected

Get Out

Send Your Own Worlds To Oblivion

Kai held his teeth as the room shook, and grabbed Jack close. “ We have to get out of here right now!”

Jack nodded, unable to speak as the pulsing grew ever more intense in his head. The room itself seemed to be swaying, objects flying left and right, and even Rinkhalmon’s body shuffling across the floor. Kai stepped back, stumbling to the edge of the door, and gave his cable a hard, decisive pull.

For a moment, there was no response. The young man closed his eyes, feeling the room shaking around him, and the pulsing growing ever closer, screaming at him to leave.

Then all of a sudden, he was airborne, floating through space as the cable pulled against him, dragging both him and Jack backwards towards the corridor. Kai held his arm around the boy’s waist, feeling Jack’s body convulsing.

“Are you alright?”

“My head hurts...”

Kai couldn’t help but agree; he glanced backwards, seeing the cable stretching out towards the light, still surrounded by the oppressive colours of the Interface.

Despite himself, he looked forwards again, the pulsing in his head seeming to grow fainter.

But as he looked forwards, there was nothing but endless space spanning his vision once again.

The room had disappeared.

“Thirty metres...”

The control team huddled around the desks, staring through the clear plastic as the cabinets flashed beyond them. The gate was swirling, seeming to ripple back and forth as the cables flexed beneath it.

“Ten metres...nine...eight...”

Perez kept her voice steady as Salma vaulted the fence, marching towards the door and peering through the viewing port. The cables were shuddering now, causing smoke and particles to billow out. Through the mist she could see shapes within the gateway; clustered at first, then getting larger, more defined,

“They’re coming through!”

The motors juddered as one by one the tamers and Chromon fell outwards, landing on the starting pads and falling backwards. Four...then six...Salma watched the final motor struggling, the cable stretching out.

With a final burst, Kai and Jack tumbled out, falling to their knees as the gateway resolidified itself in front of them. Alasdair leant forwards, pointing sideways. “Seal the portal again! Now!”

Dominic typed furiously, as Salma waited impatiently next to the entrance, key in hand, with the partners clustered around her. The lights went green, and she opened the area, the seal back over the digital gateway as she rushed in towards the tamers, the partners gathering at the entrance behind her. Aaron sighed, sitting back on a desk as he looked down at Alasdair.

“That was rough to watch. You are not sending them back in there again.”

Alasdair ran his nails over the desk beside him, clearly exhausted himself. “It’s the only way we have. There’s nothing we can do to make this situation easy. The more we do this, the more we’re going to put people at risk. It’s unavoidable.”

“You say we as if you’re not the one who put them in that situation in the first place.”

Alasdair turned around, his eyes narrowed. “The Digital World is in danger. So is ours. I can plan all I want, but at the end of the day, we need soldiers. We need people who can save us all.”

Aaron had no response, but he didn’t back down, returning Alasdair’s glare. They were interrupted by Dominic, shuffling sideways and clearing his throat.

“Um...Alasdair? We’ve got a message.”

The man turned around. “From the Digital World? How?”

“No, it’s...it’s anonymous. It just came through as the gate was opened.”

Alasdair leant forwards, squinting as he tried to read the screen. There was a message; blinking and glitching a little in its message box, but legible.

Get Out False Beings.

Lyra shivered, feeling the chill of the sea mists against her skin as Orizumon flew high above the waves. She leant forwards, squinting against the spray.

“Are you sure you can do this?”

“I can manage a little water in this form.” Orizumon hissed as a wave spat up at him. “I’m more concerned about what’s out there.”

“You think it’s a Digimon?”

“I don’t know. I can feel it though. Something big. More than ever. ”

Lyra looked up, watching the clouds turning above her, something flashing between the clusters of black and grey. The birds were still gathering, struggling against the wind below them both. She swallowed, pulling her body in all the more.

“Maybe...maybe we should turn back...Orizumon, I don’t want you to get hurt just because-“

“Lyra, look!”

Orizumon twisted, turning himself side on and hovering in mid-air, his entire body bristling. Lyra sat up, and gasped, looking down at the ocean.

Much like the clouds, the waters below were spiralling, racking up in great swells around an epicentre over a hundred metres in diameter. At first glance, the waters seemed to be still beneath the waves; a great void of blackness like an underwater cavern. But as the two looked further, they could see it wasn’t water. Particles of data drifted up, being caught by the waves and dragged away. The faint gloom of the surface waves did little to hide the endless hole that lay just beneath; frighteningly wide, and impossibly deep.

“Oh. Shit...”

Orizumon rose up, hovering just below the spiralling clouds as he and Lyra stared in horror. The young woman could feel her digivice screaming at her belt, demanding they get away from the colossal void beneath them.

But at this height, there was no mistaking it.

It was the largest digital gate Lyra had ever seen.

Turning slowly.

Biding its time.

“Something’s coming...”

Lyra held a hand up, gripping the strap of her violin as she gritted her teeth.

“...this is bad...”