Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. And I'm still here!

Author's Note: Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "unit".

Reminder: I post all review replies on my personal forum topic found right here on this site. Just navigate to the little button at the top of the screen to Forum to Anime to Digimon to Digital Connections. The topic you are looking for is called "Blurring Boundaries: And so it begins..." Or you can go to my profile and use the direct link there!

This is it. The end. Ideally, by the time you finish reading this chapter, the sequel will be up. In case it's not, keep an eye out for it. It will be called Tamer of Hope, and the first chapter will be coming out very, very, very shortly. There's something in this chapter that people have been waiting to see for a while. I have a feeling some people are gonna be shorted, but this was always the plan to do it this way. These last few chapters have definitely been about setting up the sequel more-so than wrapping everything up. So, I hope that this chapter is satisfying, but hopefully if it's not, it's interesting enough to keep you reading into the sequel. I'll see you there.

Enjoy!

Chapter Fifty-Four

West Shinjuku was exactly how Takato remembered it. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but as he walked through the streets, the strangest feeling of déjà vu settled over him. None of the faces struck him as familiar, but that building – that mailbox – that fruit stand. His eyes trailed along the strip mall as they walked past, and he could almost imagine his mother frowning over the quality of cucumbers being sold.

In a way, Takato was grateful that he wasn't making this trip alone. Nobody knew exactly where he was leading them, but he had a feeling that they all knew how important this was to him. Davis and Kari walked on either side of him, as if trying to act as a protection against any bad news. Guilmon walked behind him, "hiding" in a long blue raincoat. He looked very odd walking down the street, but he figured the people of Japan were used to odd as nobody spared him a second glance. Yolei and Ken walked next to Davis. From his angle, Takato couldn't tell if they were holding hands, but he liked to imagine that they were playing the will they or won't they dance every time their knuckles touched. On Kari's other side walked Cody and Tai. Their unit took up an entire length of sidewalk, but people just stepped out of the way as they came through as if they could sense the importance. The closer they got to their destination, the drier Takato's mouth became.

Takato had hoped that this area of Japan would look as foreign as Odaiba had. This was an entirely different world, after all – but it was almost too easy to pretend that when he turned that corner, he was going to get hit with the smell of fresh baked bread and come face to face with his mother. She would brighten up upon seeing him then promptly burst into tears as she ran toward him. His father would rush out of the kitchen, confused, and then elated to see Takato back. Then he'd start to cry too, because everybody knew that Mr Matsuki was actually a big old softie underneath that white apron. The image was so real in his head that he started to tear up himself.

Izzy, Joe, Sora, Mimi, and Matt took up the rear. They dutifully followed along behind the digidestined. Matt hadn't said a word about where they were going, and Takato had been surprised he had agreed to come along at all. He had looked the least thrilled to be back out of all of them, and Takato had been trying to give the guy his distance. But when he'd heard about this little trip, he'd dutifully gotten up to follow without protest.

Davis grinned over at Takato as if he didn't have a care in the world. Kari on his other side didn't look so relaxed. Her choppy brown hair was pulled back into a stubby ponytail. She kept sending expectant glances toward him, as if she were trying to extract information out of him by sheer willpower.

"So," Tai said, his arms folded behind his head, "what's this all about? Where are we headed?"

Everyone looked at Takato. Takato looked at Izzy. For a long moment, they stared at one another before Izzy gave a small encouraging nod.

"I'm sure Takato has a lot to tell you," Izzy said, taking the attention away from Takato, for which he was grateful. "But we should probably start from the beginning. We heard a bit of the story last night, but most of us were too exhausted to take most of it in. Why don't you tell us everything that happened again?"

Davis shrugged. "Alright." He cleared his throat and began the story. Kari and Ken chimed in from time to time, filling in details he forgot. Yolei made sure to keep Davis's ego in check anytime the story went off the rails, and Cody added in the necessary details that nearly slipped through the cracks. Takato just listened in silence.

It only took a few minutes, but it seemed like longer with the impending destination growing closer and closer. The silence after Davis was done was heavy, and for talkative spirits like Tai and Mimi to stay silent for that long, Takato knew that their story must have sounded pretty wild. As Davis's story came to a close, Takato picked up where he left off and added on Gennai's visit on the subway to make the perfect ending.

"Gennai was here?" Matt asked. "Talking to you."

Takato nodded. "Well, not here, but he was on the subway. Or I think he was. Maybe it was just an apparition. Look, I know you're angry with him—"

"For good reason," Matt snapped.

"—but he was right about there being another group of heroes. They were—are my friends. They're from where I'm from."

"Another world," Kari murmured.

Mimi shivered. "You expect us to believe that there's another world of digidestined children just like us, but they have their own Digital World that they've been chosen to protect?"

"Is it really so hard to believe, Mimi?" Sora said. "I mean, it makes sense if you think about it…"

"I don't want to think about it," Mimi whined. "This whole thing hurts my head."

"It would certainly explain why we've never heard of this other group before," Joe said.

"Izzy," Cody said, "you've studied the Digital World and other worlds like ours for years. Have you ever come across anything like this before?"

"Definitely? No," Izzy said. "But there have been many times where I thought maybe… But opening those cracks just to satisfy my curiosity has never been worth it. Gennai has always been very clear. To expose too many worlds to each other only ends in darkness. But we've always known they were out there. I've suspected since the first moment we stepped foot in the Digital World."

"Maybe not the first moment," Sora teased.

"Yeah, I think he was too busy screaming his head off about Kuwagamon to make theories about worlds," Tai said.

A splattering of chuckles traveled around the group, but it quickly died off. None of them were in a very jovial mood.

Izzy settled an unamused look on Tai. "Very funny."

"Back to the point," Ken said, "if we had some idea about them… even if it was only you and Gennai… the knowledge must have traveled both ways, right?"

"Not exactly," Takato said finally. "I mean, it's possible, but… I don't think so."

"Why do you say that?" Kari asked.

"There's this government group that studies the Digital World," Takato said. "They're called Hypnos. At first they were just kind of around to spy on everybody, but then they accidentally discovered the Digital World. I don't know everything that goes on there, because apparently I'm "just a kid" and I couldn't "possibly understand" – like that makes any difference – but somehow I don't think that they knew you guys were… real."

"What do you mean by real?" Matt asked.

"They probably guessed that there was another world out there, but they couldn't prove it," Yolei said. "Right, Takato?"

Takato hoped he didn't look as tongue-tied as he felt.

Davis scratched the back of his neck. "This is crazy. Did the other worlds feel it when ours was completely covered in darkness by MaloMyotismon? I mean, if all of our worlds are connected, wouldn't they have felt something that big?"

"Not necessarily," Ken said. "MaloMyotismon's darkness covered both our world and the Digital World, but he may not have had the power or the time to reach even further across worlds. Takato's world may have been in danger, but they may not have had any idea."

"No," Takato said. He remembered flashes of a day turning to night – a solar eclipse, scientists had called it. He remembered how confused his science teacher had been when it had happened; there'd been no signs of it happening, he said. The charts were all wrong. Then, just a few months later, he'd met Guilmon. "They called it a solar eclipse, but scientists all over the world were baffled by it. I didn't think much of it at the time, because I was just a kid, but now…"

Kari's eyes were as hard as amber. Takato could see her thoughts moving, putting the pieces together. "That means there's got to be a gate, a crack, here… somewhere in Japan. For a world so far away, it's the only way that your world would have seen what MaloMyotismon was doing. It might be close. Where is it?"

Izzy shook his head. "I don't know. Gennai doesn't either – and I believe him when he says that, Matt. The only way we're going to find it is with time, or by creating a new one all our own."

Mimi let out a sigh as she stared down at her laced fingers. Of all the people in the group, she didn't seem too nervous about the conversation. "We're going to be forced to look, aren't we? Is it going to take a lot of walking? These boots are not built for cross-country searching."

"We're not going to start searching right now, Mimi," Yolei said with a small smile before she hesitated. "Uh… are we?"

"No," Takato said. "We're here for a different reason."

"And before we even think about going to another world, we need a way to get there safely," Izzy said. "We don't want to just blindly walk into a portal. It could drop us in the middle of a volcano."

Their eyes all widened.

"Not that it's likely," Izzy hastily added. "We just… we need to be prepared."

"Prepared for what?" Tai asked.

"Everything," Takato whispered.

He'd come to a stop in front of an empty building at the end of the strip mall. Everything about the structure told him that the establishment had been empty for years, but that didn't matter. He still expected to smell fresh baking bread, to see his mother bustling behind the counter, to see his father step out from the back covered in flour. Before he even realized what he was doing, he dropped his head and started to cry.

"T-Takato!?" Davis asked, baffled.

Kari looked from Takato to the store. "Is this what you wanted to show us?"

Takato managed a shaky nod.

"What is it?" Cody asked.

Takato lifted his head as he wiped at his eyes. "It's… it's my family's bakery. We live in the apartment upstairs."

Everybody turned to stare at the empty store with more of an understanding.

"Takato, no one's lived here for years," Yolei pointed out.

"He means in his world," Ken reminded her.

"Oh. Right. That's really confusing," Yolei said.

"No kidding," Mimi whined.

"Wait…" Davis said. "Why is this store even here? I mean, you're from another world, so shouldn't this place not even exist? How'd you even know where to lead us, dude?"

"Unless the only thing missing is… Takato and his family, and everything else is exactly the same," Kari said.

"Is that true?" Joe asked.

Takato swallowed. "Everything is so… scarily similar," he said, looking around his neighborhood. And it was his neighborhood. None of the faces looked familiar, but the buildings and the atmosphere. He could almost pretend he was home. "But nobody is the same. The subway, the streets, the buildings…"

"I bet my den's still there, Takato," Guilmon said.

Takato let out a watery laugh. "Probably."

"So our worlds are exact mirrors," Kari said. "But the people that make up our worlds… they're all different."

"Gennai said that he sent me here so that I could see and understand more of what I was fighting to protect," Takato said. "But it's not hard. It's… almost exactly like home."

"Just without the people," Tai added quietly.

Takato nodded.

"What was that one line of the prophecy?" Davis asked suddenly. "Something about doors?"

"For the Doors of Darkness must be closed with foes side by side," Cody recited.

"Whatever those doors are, Huang's opened them," Davis said.

"Doors to the World of Darkness," Ken said. "Huang is letting the worst horrors of the Digital World out. He's reviving old enemies. Datamon was just the beginning. There will be more, I'm sure of it."

"So we need to close those doors," Yolei said. "But with the help of our enemy. Sounds cheery."

Silence fell over the group as the teenagers let that happy thought sink in.

"We have to go to Takato's world," Kari said. "Izzy, we have to find a way to get there. And when you find it, I'm going."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Takato said. "I have a feeling that you – we're especially going to need you."

"Wait." Davis frowned. "I mean, I'm cool with world hopping and checking out Takato's digs when it's not all abandoned and creepy-looking… But why especially Kari?"

Takato and Kari studied one another, and Takato knew that she had put it together. She saw the terrible truth. At least part of it.

"Gennai said that my coming here was an exchange of hearts," Takato said. "A way for our two groups to be brought together seamlessly."

"Yeah?" Tai said. "So?"

"An exchange goes two ways," Takato said. "When I got here, my memory was wiped. I didn't know who I was or where I belonged. All I had to keep my sanity intact was Guilmon. Fortunately, you guys took me in, made me feel welcome, and… almost at home. You know I'm not crazy, and I know we can work together to figure this out. My home—there are some things that I haven't told you yet. The Digital World there is harsh. There is no Primary Village, no being reborn if a digimon is destroyed. Wild digimon seek out partner digimon, believing that destroying them will grant them passage to the Real World, which is some sort of… Nirvana to them. And the Real World… If they find out who he is, if he tells them, he might not last long."

"Him?" Cody said. "You're talking about TK."

"It makes sense," Kari said grimly. "He disappeared around the same time that Takato showed up here. If Takato showed up here, then TK—"

"Exactly," Takato said. "TK's in my world, but back home, Takeru Takaishi doesn't exist. He's just a fictional character in an anime called Digimon. If he tells anyone who he is, he's probably going to end up in a mental hospital."

TO BE CONTINUED IN TAMER OF HOPE…