Chapter 93

The Sealed Digivice Epilogue

"I can't believe the three of you have been doing this kind of stuff for four years now," Zoe marveled as she reached out and let her fingers brush through a pocket of rainbow energy that was slowly drifting past her in the Dimensional Corridor. "The other stuff sounds crazy, but I have to admit… this part is amazing."

"It's all pretty amazing, and so cool… until we reach the end and fall flat on our faces with paralysis that is," JP laughed, rubbing the spot on his forehead that had hit the dirt when they last Zone Crossed.

"By the way, thanks for the warning on that one Koichi and JP," Tommy growled when memories of the rushed explanation Koichi gave them after the fact.

"Hey, don't look at me like that," JP attempted to defend himself, "That was only my third time Zone Crossing, so the effects are still kind of new to me too. Koichi's the one who waited until after the last second."

"Sorry, but in my own defense, I was pretty preoccupied with the fact that we had finally located my brother and friend," Koichi retorted with a stern look.

"It's not like they were suffering as bad as we thought they were," JP laughed, "Takuya even managed to get himself a super cute girlfriend out of this whole thing…" his voice began to train off when he remember what had just taken place only minutes ago.

In an awkward silence Zoe, Koichi, Tommy, and JP's eyes crept to Takuya who was giving them a questioning look. With an annoyed sigh Takuya shook his head and said nothing as he tried not to not think about it.

"Real smooth, JP," Zoe growled at him as he did his best to hang his head in shame; which was hard to do when one was moving through a space with no real defined up or down.

"It's okay, Zoe. Really," Takuya reassured her, "I'll see Kari again in a few months at most, but right now we should be getting ready for our next stop."

"Why?" Tommy asked with a puzzled look towards their leader, "Aren't we just heading home?"

"Eventually…" Takuya smiled and looked further down the corridor, "but we're going to make a little stop along the way."

"Where?" Zoe inquired, unsure if they would like the little stopover Takuya had planned.

"The Zone I got stranded in," Koji simple stated before lowering his head back down in contemplation.

"Why?" It was JP's turn to ask the question this time.

"Koji, kind of left the Destined there in a bad situation," Takuya stated, sending an agitated twitch across Koji's face.

"I did not… well, not exactly," Koji retorted in his own defense. "And anyway, if I hadn't, you'd have been killed by Lilithmon or done something else really stupid in that fight."

"I also kind of wanted to see Koji's girl," Takuya continued on as if he hadn't heard Koji's retort.

"She's not my girl!" Koji adamantly stated.

"Koji has a girlfriend?" JP awed.

"Like I said, she's not my girl," Koji insisted with an agitated look.

"Really!" Tommy chirped.

"Why does that seem to surprise you?" Koji growled, tightening his fingers around the sleeves of his jacket in annoyance.

"Is there anything wrong with her?" Zoe asked with a sly smirk and a restrained laugh.

"OF COURSE NOT," Koji yelled, but when no one seemed to react to him he sighed and hung his head in defeat. "You guys aren't even listening to me, are you?"

The last few minutes of the trip to the portal exit at the end of the Dimensional Corridor were spent in laughter between friend that had been forged together in the heat of battle and reliance years ago.

"You know… I really hate this part," JP sighed from the flat of his back.

"On the bright side, it does give us some time to think without having to worry about what to do with our arms and legs," Zoe laughed as she calmly waited for her body to regain its feeling.

"So how many times do we have to Zone Cross before we're like you guys?" Tommy questioned as he rolled his eyes back so he could see Takuya, Koji, and Koichi sitting on a rock a short distance away, planning what to do once everyone had recovered.

"It really depends," Koichi answered, his eyes turning up as he tried to remember an actual number.

"Depends on what?" Zoe asked.

"The person," Koichi replied.

"What does that mean?" Zoe further inquired.

"Different people become adjusted and flexible enough after different amounts of times," Koichi explained. "It took me and Koji ten crossings to where he could stay standing and another five after that where it didn't affect us anymore."

"That sounds like the same amount of times," JP noted, wondering where they had come up with the idea that certain people became adjusted faster than others.

"For them it was," Takuya jumped in with a big crooked smile on his face, "but for me it only took seven before I could remain on my feet and another three before I stopped feeling it all together."

"So, Takuya adjusted quicker than you two," Tommy noted with a small smile towards Takuya; showing a measure of pride in his mentor.

"Yeah, by the time these two finally stopped falling on their faces I was coming out ready to go," Takuya victoriously smiled back.

"And he's never let us forget it," Koji slyly added, dashing Takuya's high spirits with a single breath.

"You're just jealous that you're not as flexible as me," Takuya smiled back, having quickly found his confidence once again.

Twenty minutes after their arrival in the Digital World they were moving toward the last location Koji had seen Ayame and the other Destined. They hoped that they would be there, but if they weren't they could always use their tracking skills to at least figure out where they had gone.

Riding on EmperorGreymon they made it to the castle nestled between the Hue Mountains in a matter of minutes and began searching for the Zones Destined.

"Koji, was this place always missing a wall?" EmperorGreymon inquired about the destroyed side wall of the castle.

"No, and it can't mean anything good," Koji answered, having no way of knowing that it had been knocked down days ago in the fight with the ODC's artificial digimon; and had marked the arrival of the rest of the Zone's first generation of Destined.

"It doesn't look like anyone's here," Zoe noted as she looked down over the castle from her spot in EmperorGreymon's arms.

"They could be inside," Tommy noted in an attempt to keep the mood positive, but even he could tell that the castle somehow felt empty.

"We should check," EmperorGreymon stated, "at the very least we might find something that'll help us figure out where they went."

The inside of the castle was eerily quiet, the only sounds coming from the footsteps of the Warriors as they searched each and every room. The fires in the hearths and torches had all been left burning, but there was no sign of anyone being home.

"This is a little creepy," Zoe sighed as she looked around the library where the group had come back together after twenty minutes of searching.

"Nothing's been left lying out and there's no sign of violence or attack inside the castle," Koji commented on how it appeared that everything was in order and had been carefully put away.

"Which means they left at a prescribed time and of their own free will," Koichi explained his brothers thinking for the less experienced members.

"Hisyarumon, the Digital Ruler of this Zone, is also gone…" Koji added, making Koichi's eye widen slightly in interest.

"It's very rare for a Digital Ruler to move. They only leave for a few very select reasons," Koichi said aloud to himself and less to inform the others.

Digital Rulers normally stayed put while they kept an eye on the Digital and Real Worlds, usually choosing to work through others like the Destined, Runners, or different forms of digital servants when they needed things done. Another reason they stayed put was because of how important they were to the Digital World and Zone. If a ruler were to be destroyed or captured, it would negatively affect the whole Digital World and bring about chaos due to no one looking out for the world and its inhabitance, allowing powers to go unmonitored and unchecked. These were the kinds of things that made endangering the Digital Ruler risky and could lead to the kinds of situations that Destineds were usually called to deal with. The sealing of Azlongmon in Kari's Zone brought about chaos and the need of the Digidestined; and Lady Ophanimon being locked away made the help of the Legendary Warriors needed and aided in breaking the locks on Lucemon.

"What would those reasons be?" JP inquired with an interested look.

"War," Takuya announced as he walked into the library before Koji or Koichi could reply, "If they were needed in a serious campaign or battle."

"That's one reason," Koji commented, "but it's nice to see that you finally decided to join us, five minutes late. Five minutes late for the time you choose and insisted we keep to if I might add by the way."

"What made you jump right to war? There are a few less drastic reasons than that," Koichi ignored his brothers rant and hoped that Takuya had evidence to back up his claim.

"This," Takuya exclaimed as he held up a rolled up piece of large, tan, parchment.

Without another word of explanation Takuya walked over to the large table the other Warriors were gathered around and unfurled the paper, flat against the wooden surface. Those gathered around then leaned in and began looking over the document, tracing every aspect with their eyes.

"I found this on one of the tables in what I'm assuming is the dining hall. I think someone was looking over I while they ate and forgot about it once they were done," Takuya smiled at his success.

The unfurled parchment was a topographical map of a section of the Digital World. The different areas were color-coded to signify terrain such as forests, plains, mountains, and water; and a key at the side indicated scale lengths and depths. But what really drew their attention was what had been added to it in red and black marker. Someone had drawn battle lines, supply routes, and detailed possible troop movements in the two different colors, obviously planning out their own decisions and predicting their enemies.

"It's weird to see something so primitive in this much more technological Zone," Koichi commented as he poured over the battle plan, "but considering this is a medieval castle, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised."

"Some of this is Ayame's handwriting," Koji stated, pressing his finger down on some notes scribbled over a black supply route.

"Then that must mean this is recent since she only returned to the Digital World less than a week ago," Takuya recalled from Koji's story, "so we should probably start wherever this is."

"Hopefully, we'll be able to find a map of the whole Digital World so we can figure out exactly where this is," Koji said as he pushed up off of the table and began giving the library a quick scan with his eyes.

"Okay, then let's find that map," Takuya cheered and dismissed the meeting with a clap of the hands.

After an additional ten minutes of searching it would be Tommy who would find a map of the Digital World hidden away on the bottom shelf of an old bookshelf in the back of the library. From the looks of it the map must have been quite old, meaning the more recent one had most likely been taken to the battle site with the Destined.

The group quickly used the full map to locate the selected section indicated on the battle plans and took off on EmperorGreymon, bound for the battlefield once more.

"Unless this battle plan's old, they should be around here somewhere," Takuya noted as he held out the map which he and Koji were looking over.

After another shot ride on EmperorGreymon the six friends found themselves on the peak of a mountain that towered over the Digital World. Spiraling up the mountain was craggy outcroppings and lush green foliage, but at the peak where they stood there was nothing but flat rock. This gave them a three-hundred and sixty degree panoramic view of the surrounding landscape.

"If it's even a day old it could be too late to be of any use," Koichi noted without stopping his visual scan of the sprawling landscape below.

"Do you guys always think this negatively," Zoe growled at Koichi and Takuya as she gave Koji a quick glance.

"No…" Takuya blankly stared back at her, "but I'm depressed right now, so I have a reason. I have no idea why Koichi's being like this."

"Don't mess around Takuya," Koichi barked at him, "This is the same way we always act on a job. Considering every angle and possibility is what we're trained to do."

"Says you," Takuya laughed, releasing some of the groups stress as he did.

Before anyone could say anymore the sound of an echoing blast erupted from the cloud covered valley a distance below them. They could see the flash of an explosion as it reflected off of the cloud cover, but its source was hidden behind a small mountain range which they had written off since it was outside the boundaries of the battle plan.

"They must have either changed plans or gotten attacked before they made it to where they wanted," Takuya stated as he released one side of the map and let it flutter in the wind uselessly at his side.

"We haven't exactly discussed it yet, but what are we going to do once we get there?" Zoe brought up the important issue. "According to Koji that's most likely the ODC and military down there that this Zone's Destined are fighting. I don't know about you three, but as for the three of us," indication towards herself, Tommy, and JP, "we've never fought against humans before… and frankly I'm a little afraid to…"

"It's okay, Zoe, don't worry about it," Takuya smiled as he laid a hand on her shoulder to comfort her worried mind. "You three just concentrate on knocking attacks and weapon fire out of the air and leave dealing with the military and ODC to the three of use," he added, giving the twins behind him a confident smile.

"Damn, this is annoying!" Ayame growled as she used a hillside to shield herself from a mortar attack, courtesy of the military, which detonated only a few feet away. "This would be so much easier if they were still sending those manufactured digimon after us instead of the military. They're just soldiers being forced to follow orders while that jerk that calls himself a General is hiding somewhere in the backlines," she thought about the situation as she waited to make sure no more shells were heading her way.

When it got quiet Ayame took the opportunity to get up from the hillside and back across the battlefield, to the backlines which she had been cut off from. With nimble moves and sore legs she made the first hundred feet and ducked behind a large rock jutting out of the scarred ground.

"Hey, kid," a voice laughed when she slammed her back up against the face of the rock for shelter.

"Mr. Alex," Ayame yelped in surprise.

"It seems that I wasn't the only one that got separated in that last ambush," Alex laughed tiredly, hugging the wall closer when a new mortar barrage started.

"What about the others?" Ayame questioned, sliding closer to the man, guessing that he was probably in the optimal place to avoid shrapnel.

"They're fine. Eaglemon and I, and apparently you and your partner as well, managed to draw the enemy fire long enough for them to pull back outside of this area. They should have made it back to our side by now," Alex explained, motioning for the girl to follow him when the explosions stopped again. "Sometime it just sucks to be the leader, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Ayame tiredly laughed, "Let's hope they've come up with a rescue plan because it looks like we're going to need the help to get out of here," she commented as the two of them dashed across a few hundred foot stretch of the field. Off to her side she could see a few of the digimon partners taking on a mixed unit of artificial digimon and soldiers. The battle situation told her that they wouldn't be able to help them at the moment.

"Over there!" Alex yelled, pointing towards a wall of thick clay and rock in the distance.

Using all the speed the two could muster they made it to the wall before more rockets, man-made and digital, started bombarding the area. In the lulls of the battle that followed they finally managed to make it to their own back lines and tiredly slumped themselves against the thick stone wall where all the others had been waiting for them.

"Are you okay?" Ayaka ran right up to her daughter and clasped her hands on her cheeks, concernedly examining her face and body for any signs of injury.

"I'm okay, mom," Ayame smiled at her mother's worry, glad to have her mother fretting over her again. "There were some close calls, but nothing I couldn't handle."

"I'm fine by the way," Alex tiredly laughed as he slid down the wall in exhaustion onto his butt. "Damn, this was definitely a lot easier when I was kid. I'm so freaking tired," he added as he wiped the sweat that had accumulated from his brow.

"They're moving forward!" Haruka announced as she slid down the angled face of the stone wall with the binoculars she had been using to observe the battle.

"What battle line?" Ayaka questioned the girl.

"All of them. They all just started advancing at the same time," Haruka replied with a concerned look.

"Even the backline?" Ayaka further inquired with an anxious look.

"Yeah, all of them," Haruka answered with a nervous nod. She was picking up on the more experienced woman's concern and starting to worry.

"Why now?" Ayame posed the questions as she bit at her nail and hoped that someone would have a good answer. She would get the right answer, but it would come from a source she hadn't expected.

"They most likely feel that your lines have been broken and are sending in the backlines to break your side once and for all," a voice suddenly appeared to answer Ayame's question. It was a familiar voice that they hadn't expected to hear again so soon; especially not to come out of nowhere and surprise them.

"Koji!" Ayame whipped her head to the left and yelped at the sight of him standing in their midst. He was standing a few feet behind her and between Haruka and Masato, who hadn't noticed him until he had spoken.

"Hey," Koji coolly responded as he forced his big smile down to the small one he was displaying.

"You're back!" Masato and Haruka stepped back and gasped in a coincidental unison.

"Yeah," Koji responded again in one word.

"So this is the infamous Koji," Alex smiled up from his position collapsed against the wall, still trying to relax his tired muscles and regain his breath.

"I really hope that you being here means something good," Ayaka laughed, enjoying the strange air between the boy and her daughter.

"You could say that," Koji smiled and nodded at the woman, showing the proper respect he had shown to her before.

"It's good to have you back, but I have to say I didn't expect to see you again so soon," Ayame smiled up at him, closing a bit of the distance between the two. Koji opened his mouth to reply, but before he could something behind Ayame caught his attention and his look turned slightly pensive with a sigh.

"You know, you're making me really nervous over there," Koji stated with an annoyed sigh as he looked over Ayame's shoulder.

The group of Destineds followed his gaze to a boy with brown hair in a blue shirt and black pants standing out in the open. The wall that was protecting them began ten feet from his location and he didn't even seem to notice that he was being exposed to gunfire and mortar attacks. No, it wasn't that he didn't notice, he knew he was in danger, you could tell by looking at his stance, but it seemed that he had other concerns.

"Aww, are you worried," Takuya teased as he turned and looked at Koji with a playful smile.

"Like I ever do about you," Koji laughed back to the bewilderment of the group.

"Hey, you! Get over here!" Ayaka cried at the sight of a few bullets striking a distance away from the boy. She had no idea who the teen was, or where he had come from, but her motherly instincts were screaming at her to get him to safety.

"If I do that I won't be able to see the battle," Takuya playfully smile at the mother, making the group worry that there might have been something wrong with his head. "Woo!" He suddenly yelped as he quickly shifted his head to the right, letting the rocket from a handheld launcher blaze over his shoulder and into the ground a fair distance behind him.

Okay, now they were all really concerned about his mental state when he simply brushed out a small bit of the shirt that had caught fire at the shoulder due to the exhaust of the rocket.

"Get in here!" Ayaka demand again; this time more forcefully.

"It's cool, I've almost got it," he smiled back.

"Got what?" Ayame questioned with a confused stare.

"A plan," a new, but somewhat familiar, voice answered.

The grouped peeled their eyes away from Takuya long enough to find the source of the new voice. They found it in a familiar looking boy. Besides from the fact that his hair was shorter and he was playfully smiling at them, he looked just like Koji.

"There's two Koji!" Haruka yelped as she switched her vision back and forth between the two.

The others in the group seemed to be having a similar revelation. It was almost like the idea of twins was a foreign idea to them. Or maybe it was just the fact that they were exhausted and Koji had never mentioned having a twin.

"By their surprise, I get the feeling that I never came up any of the times you actually talked," Koichi turned to his brother and sighed in disappointment.

"That's my twin, Koichi," Koji's look turned annoyed and he pointed towards his brother. "There. Happy? You came up."

"Not once mentioning your own twin brother the whole time you were here. That's messed up Koji," Takuya teased, still standing out in the open and staring out across the battlefield.

"I'm kind of surprised you have a twin. And you," Ayame turned back to Takuya with an angry tone, "Seriously! Get to cover!"

"He's not going to do it," a female voice rejoined with a laugh.

Lean up against the stone wall further up was the blonde haired girl who had spoken to them. She was smiling at the brown haired boys attics while shaking her head disappointingly at them as well.

"Don't encourage Takuya to be stupid, Zoe. He does enough of that himself by surviving his stupidity," Koji commented with a slight laugh.

"You really shouldn't call your great and fearless leader, stupid, because only stupider people follow people they think are stupid," Takuya smiled back with a victorious smirk.

"Did you really need the great and fearless part? It just seems like shameless self promoting," Koji sighed back.

"Wow, a rare verbal victory for Takuya," Koichi laughed at the agitated look on his brothers face.

"So you're Takuya," Ayame couldn't help but smile at the two's interaction.

"Yeah… Wait, did Koji actually talk about me?" The revelation was enough to pull Takuya's attention away from the battlefield and focus it on the girl.

"Yes, and I have to say that he was pretty accurate," Ayame smiled warmly at him.

"Somehow, I just can't take that as a compliment," Takuya sighed before he returned his gaze to whatever he saw in the chaos playing out before him.

"Wait! You talked about Takuya, but not your own twin brother," Koichi teased with mock hurt expression.

"Yeah, but I didn't enjoy it," Koji coolly smiled back.

"I admire all three of you, but I've never completely gotten your senses of humor," a new voice cut in.

"We don't get it sometimes either, Tommy," Koichi answered back with a chuckle.

"Okay, stop for a second," Ayame put her face in her palm and held out the other, motioning for them to stop. "Are there any more of you waiting to come out of the woodwork, because I can't take the constant spaced out introductions?"

"Man… that so ruins my appearance…" JP sighed in defeat at not getting the walk-on that he had apparently wanted; whatever he had planned it to be.

"Are you saying that you were just waiting back there behind that rock for the perfect set up to come in on," Zoe glared at JP, pointing at the same rocky wall they had all slide down to join up with the group of native Zone Destined.

"But everyone else got to come in on great lines," JP whined back, obviously feeling down over his weak intro.

"Your friends are a little weird," Ayame turned to Koji and stated.

"I never said they were good friends," Koji replied, pushing down a slight smile.

"I don't want to interrupt whatever this is between you two, but I think we're about to move out," Koichi laughed as he pointed beyond them with a raised finger.

"He's smiling," Koji remarked when he turned and found Takuya smiling wide as he looked out over the battlefield with a renewed vigor.

"Why's he smiling? And what does that have to with us moving out?" Ayame questioned as Takuya turned and started heading towards the group behind the cover.

"He's smiling because he has one of his plans. His special plans…" Koji smiled slyly as he waited for Takuya to make his way over to them.

From high above the battlefield BurningGreymon and MagnaGarurumon scanned the ground below for their target. They paid no mind to the bullets and rockets that whizzed by them or bounced off their armor; the only thing they really had to worry about was the green bolts from the silver guns mounted on the back of the jeeps, which was easy to do from their height.

"We're not getting shot at as much as I thought we would," BurningGreymon laughed to MagnaGarurumon, wondering if either one of them could remember a time when a line like that wouldn't have ever crossed his lips. Those were much simpler and quiet times.

"The others and the partner digimon are doing their job of distracting most of the troops," MagnaGarurumon stated as his eyes continued to scan the ground below.

After another minute BurningGreymon would be the first to spot their target, an old man in a dark green uniform with white hair looking out over the battlefield with a pair of binoculars.

"Military uniform with a lot of medals, scars on the face, and oldest guy out here. That's got to be the General guy you talked about," BurningGreymon laughed, pointing towards the man looking out over the battlefield through a pair of binoculars. With a nod of confirmation from MagnaGarurumon they stopped their flight over the man and dropped from the sky.

With a loud roar BurningGreymon dropped out of the sky and landed right before General Pinheid; while behind him MagnaGarurumon set down with a cool grace. The giant flaming beast, its two feet burying themselves in the cracking earth from the power of the impact, sent the old man's attendants and right hand ODC agent scattering to hiding places among the rocks, leaving the military man staring up at the imposing digimon before him. The man was so distracted by the intimidating fiery dragon that he failed to even notice the cyborg wolf one a short distance away.

To his credit, the General gave no indication of fear as BurningGreymon knelt down and put his face a foot in front of his. The gray haired man just stared back into the big blue dragon eyes with teeth clenched in anger, hiding his concern for his now endangered life. The calm, but agitated, demeanor was probably due to his years of military service and hatred of digimon, not letting him give a digimon the satisfaction of seeing him scared.

BurningGreymon let a low growl out as he lean in close to the man, wanting to see what a man who could lead the human and digital world to the brink of all out war looked like. Besides from a few intimidating scars on his face, Takuya didn't see anything special or of concern to his plan, he also had MagnaGarurumon watching his back and keeping the soldiers and gunfire at bay.

"Koji, you mind if I take care of this?" BurningGreymon looked back over his shoulder to MagnaGarurumon and asked.

"Go ahead. I doubt anyone else could do it like you," with Koji's approval BurningGreymon was swallowed up in a torrent of fractal code as he ended his spirit evolution.

Shocked to the point of speechlessness the General just stared at the teenage boy who had once been a digimon. The reduction in the size of the foe standing before him also made him very aware of the Warrior of Light smiling down at him with his arms crossed menacingly. Never in the old military man's life had he imagined this very moment, which made it very difficult for him to figure out what he should be doing at the moment.

"Hey, old man," Takuya spoke up with as much disrespect in his voice as he could muster.

"…" The General said nothing as he stared blankly into a space between the two Warriors.

"Pathetic…" Takuya sighed as he stepped within a foot of the General and raised his hand up to the man's forehead.

The General was a tall man, so he was about a foot taller than Takuya, but despite the size difference the older man felt small before the boy.

"Hey, old man, you in there," Takuya mocked as he pulled two fingers back and flicked the military man in the middle of the forehead, making him stumbled back a step in surprise and MagnaGarurumon chuckle slightly.

"What…! What do you want boy?" The General shook himself from the shock of seeing a digimon turn into a human and growled at the boy who had just assaulted him.

Without a word Takuya grabbed hold of the Generals collar and pulled him down to his eye level. Then, he gave the man a coy smile before tilting his head back.

"Unhand mphpl!" The General began to demand his release, but it quickly turned to a garbled yelp of pain when Takuya brought his head forward, head butting the General square in the face.

Under the force of the impact Takuya felt the man's face recoil in pain and his nose collapse with an audible snap. Pulling his head back, Takuya let the man drop to his knees in agony, blood running down his face from his broken nose.

"Did he just!" Haruka's mouth fell agape in total surprise as she and the others watched from a distance.

"Simple… very simpleminded, but somehow elegant," Ayame laughed. She had to admit that Takuya was much different from what she had expected Koji's best friend to be like, but despite that, she liked the guy.

"You know, up until now, I thought Koji was one of the scariest people I would meet, but now…" Masato trained off, but his stunned expression remained.

"Takuya…" The Legendary Warriors groaned in a mental unison.

"When he said he had a plan… I really thought he meant it…" Beetlemon sighed.

"He does, trust me," Rhihimon uneasily laughed, "or at least I hope he does…"

"He just has his own style about it," Zephyrmon smirked confidently.

"You broke my…" The General began to cry before Takuya gave him a hard jerk and began dragging him back just as a portal to the Dimensional Corridor opened wide a short distance from them.

"Perfect timing, Lady Ophanimon," Takuya thought to himself as he continued to drag the General past MagnaGarurumon and towards the portal.

Before Takuya and Koji had joined the other Warriors in the fray, Takuya had contacted Lady Ophanimon with his D-tector and asked her to connect a portal to the Dimensional Corridor to his and Koji's location once they found their target; and as if she could actually see what was happening she timed the opening perfectly.

With a final yank Takuya brought the General to his knees before the Dimensional Corridors entrance. "YOU SEE THIS!" Takuya shouted at the man who was cowering at what he saw. Before him an endless pit of light seemed to sink into thin air.

"What is…?" The General questioned while his body violently shook from a mixture of pain and fear.

"This is the Dimensional Corridor," Takuya explained, "It's the path we Runners use to travel to other Zones and dimensions. Each one of those spheres you see running along the walls are the entrances to Zones, or as you would refer to them, dimensions, that this particular corridor passes by and intersects. And most of those Zones have their own Digital Worlds. Digital Worlds that would be more than happy to aid this one in getting rid of you and taking out anyone else who comes after you. I'm not even sure if I could stop them from breaching the real world with how worked up they would be over everything you've done."

Behind him Takuya could hear the soldiers shift and take steps back in fear. Taking on a world of monsters was already a terrifying prospect, but an infinite cosmos of Digital Worlds and digimon, there was no words to describe the other terror of that concept. They were all getting the idea now. They knew Takuya was threatening to bring an endless supply of help to the Digital World.

Confronted with this information the General just leaned back and laughed, "Don't make me laugh boy! You're human… You would never turn against your own kind that badly…"

With an emotionless look Takuya leaned over, bringing his eyes level with the Generals, "Look at my face… Do I look like I'm joking?"

For a moment the General stared back at with a cocky look of disbelief, but as the seconds ticked by it turned into a growing look of shock and utter terror, until the General broke under the pressure. "Why would you turn against your own kind?" He screamed, his body beginning to shake with true fear and anger.

"Because it's what we do…" Takuya gave him a serious look as he continued, "It's what we do as Destined…"

"BETRAYAL!" The General howled, his senses leaving him now that he was faced with an unwinnable scenario.

"No…" Takuya just smiled as he looked away from the General and to his friend and Destined of the Zone standing in the distance. They just gave him smiles in return, telling him they knew what he was going to say next. "Defend those in need of us!" he finished by throwing the General to the ground with a violent yank to his collar, before he walked away to rejoin MagnaGarurumon and return to their friends.

"…" There were no longer any words for the General as he watched the boy walk past the stunned soldier who quickly moved out of his way in fear. His will had been crushed and he had been left an empty shell lying in the dirt. His soldiers who even before the speech were having a hard time believing in the Generals cause had given up and thrown their weapons down. With the fight taken out of them they began starting the long walk back to the portal that would take them back to the ODC headquarters. It was all over.

"So what will you all do now?" Takuya questioned the group of Zone natives.

"General Pinheids actions can't be forgiven, so with his plans and the HQ in ruins it shouldn't be that hard to get him taken off of active duty and away from anything related to the Digital World," Ayame's father noted, an arm over his wife's shoulder as she supported him; time on the battlefield seeming to have taken a bit of a toll on him.

"We also have to make sure to take away the ODC's portal access and get the right safety locks put back in place," Ayame's mother added as she pulled on her husband's arm to restore the height he had lost through slippage. "But right now, we need to make sure all of the soldiers and ODC agents leave the Digital World."

"I've already got Haruka, Masato, and Akito keeping an eye on them. Without any weapons or drive to fight they aren't any trouble at all," Ayame commented to her mother. "As for the four of us, once the army's gone we've got some business to take care of. The Digital Worlds been without its Destined for quite a few years, so we'll probably take some time and make a sweep of it to make sure nothing else happens," she tiredly smiled at the idea of all the work they still had left to do.

"Let's not forget it's going to take a lot of work to repair relations between humans and digimon here," Alex threw in with a depressed sigh; his thoughts turning back to the crimes committed by the ODC over the years.

"It'll be tough, but something tells me that you'll be able to do it," Takuya cheered them on with a reassuring smile.

"We'll certainly try," Ayame nodded back, glad to know someone with experience believed that it would be possible.

"Then it sounds like you've got everything under control here," Koji noted in a solemn voice.

"Looks that way," Ayame answered back with a small smile.

"We'll let you get to it then," Koji smiled back, obviously getting more from the conversation than what was being heard.

"Thanks," Ayame smiled as she reached out a hand and let it run down Koji's arm until her fingers danced across his palm. "Take care of yourself, and make sure to come back some time," were her final words to him as she headed off to help her friends finish escorting the soldiers out of the Digital World.

"Same to you Ayame, and make sure to tell the others goodbye for me," Koji called after her before turning towards Takuya, "Let's get going," he sighed with a relaxed breath.

"Seriously…? That's it? That's all you've got to say considering everything that you two have gone through?" Takuya stared at him with a look of disbelief. Takuya had felt on the verge of crying a few times when saying goodbye to Kari and the Digidestined, but here Koji was, calm and composed; he wasn't even going to say goodbye to the others face to face.

"Yeah," Koji simply replied as he slipped his hands into his coat pockets and waited for Takuya to make the call to get them underway, "we're not overly complicated like you and your new friends," he added as he walked passed him.

"I have a relationship with my girlfriend and new friends that's open and for the lack of a better word, friendly, while you barely say anything to each other and have goodbyes that are equal to what you would have with someone you've only know for less than an hour, and somehow you feel that my side is overly complicated," Takuya looked Koji over in continued disbelief.

"Your point being," Koji retorted.

"Simple, doesn't always mean uncomplicated," Takuya sighed as he hurried up past Koji to make the call and get the others ready to go.

"So what are you two going to do now?" Zoe questioned Takuya and Koji when she was finally able to stand once again after the long trip home to their own Zone.

"You mean about explaining our absence to our families?" Koji replied as he and Takuya exchanged looks of slight concern.

"Yeah," Zoe said with an inquisitive look.

"Were you guys unable to keep our alibis up?" Koji questioned back, wondering if he had a reason to worry about going home.

"No, at times it was pretty tough going, but we managed to pull it off," Koichi answered with a yawn. It was still early in the afternoon, but all the excitement and drama of the last three weeks was finally catching up with all of them. There wasn't one among them that didn't feel like they could sleep for a week after everything that had happened.

Turning back to look at the group Takuya laughed and said, "That's good, but I think you four are the ones who really have to worry," as he gave them a sly smile.

"Why's that?" JP felt his stomach sink at Takuya's statement. Somehow, Takuya knew something they had missed or forgotten.

"I'm assuming that the moment you found the Zone we were in you left for our location, right?" Takuya's sly smile remained throughout his question.

"Yeah, of course," Koichi replied as if he shouldn't have even had to ask.

"Did any of you bother to set up alibis for yourselves before you left?" Takuya teased. "You have been gone for over a whole day."

"Ohh… damn…!" a collective sigh went up from the four when the realization dawned on them.

"It's going to be especially troublesome for you Zoe," Takuya laughed, "Out all night. And I've met your father. He's going to think you were out with a boy."

"I don't know why you're laughing Takuya, who do you think he's going to think kept me out all night," Zoe gave Takuya a stern look.

"Wait! Why me?" Takuya yelped at the idea of Zoe's father coming after him.

"You are the guy I spend the most amount of time with, so my dad already thinks there's something between us," Zoe smirked, "And when I tell him it was you, he'll definitely think it."

"That's messed up, Zoe. Really messed up," Takuya sighed, wondering what excuse Zoe actually planned to use. He really hoped that she wasn't serious about offering him up as a sacrifice to her father.

"The hilarity of Zoe turning her problem into Takuya's aside, we should probably work out our stories before we head home," Koichi laughed before waving the other three back to the prep room.

"So what do you plan to do now?" Koji inquired of Takuya when they were finally alone in the hall.

"Go home and sleep for a few days…" Takuya sighed, "I haven't really though beyond that right now. But I'm pretty sure it'll all work out no matter what I decide to do."

"Your optimism is refreshing some times," Koji gave a small laughed as he shook his head.

"Thanks… I think," Takuya laughed, too emotionally and physically drained to turn it into an argument.

"Tomorrow, remind me to ask them what they told the school we had," Koji noted, unsure if it was a good idea to ask Takuya to remember something like that. He mostly did it as a kind of mental reminder to himself.

"Damn… I forgot we only had a two week vacation," Takuya sighed, "which means we've already missed a whole week…"

"It also means its back to school on Monday," Koji smiled, knowing the reaction he was going to get from Takuya.

"The good news just keeps coming…" Takuya sighed again as he turned to leave.

With the four other Warriors in an emergency meeting, it left Takuya and Koji to make the trek across the field of white flowers outside Lady Ophanimons castle to the Trailmon station alone. They walked side by side, thinking about what had happened to them over the last twenty-three days. The people they had met and how their lives had been changed; and never far from their minds was the memories of those special someone's they had to leave behind.

"It's going to be a great sunset," Takuya stated with a gentle smile.

"Yeah, looks like it," Koji simply replied with a small smile of his own.

"I wonder if I'll be able to see the stars from my house?" Takuya questioned, looking up into the approaching evening sky.

"You won't be able to see much of them because of the lights of the city, but you'll still be able to see the brightest ones though," Koji answered, looking up into the orange sky as well.

"Well, it'll be fine as long as I can see the brightest one," Takuya smiled, letting his mind wonder once again and allowing the silence to settle in.

Silently, the two stood on the platform looking out over the peaceful landscape of their Digital World. The Sealed Digivice was beyond the reach of evil, their friends were safe, and the mission was complete. For now the battles were over, until the next mission at least, which would have to wait a while so the two could get some much needed down time. But even during that time of rest their minds will surely turn to thoughts beyond their world. To what could possibly be awaiting them the next time they went, Crossing Worlds.

CW:TSD Epilogue – The End

And done! Wow, it's been a long trip from the first chapter to this ending authors note. I've really enjoyed bring all of you this story and I hope you've all enjoyed reading it. I also hope that I've turned some of you onto this great coupling. I'd like to thank all of you who took the time to leave a review over the course of this story's run and I really hope everyone who's read it up to this point will leave me one now, especially my long time reviews (Without your suggestions and words of encouragement I never would have had the determination to finish this story, so thanks for keeping it going) and those who haven't given me one before. I just really want to hear what everyone thought of the story since I spent so much time writing it, so indulge me if you can.

Okay, with that out of the way, I'd like to say that this isn't the end of Crossing Worlds, just The Sealed Digivice storyline. From the very start I imagined this as a series of stories that follows the growing relationship of Takuya and Kari, and how they and the others change and interact with the Multi-verse. So what I'm announcing is three things. The first announcement is the Crossing Worlds Series. The second announcement is that in two weeks I'll be releasing, CW(EX): Before it All. EX or EXtension stories are kind of like the anime series movies, short and revolve around a single incident or event. CW(EX): Before it All, is a prequel to CW:TSD which revolves around what Takuya and Kari did before the start of CW:TSD. It'll deal with Takuya stepping into the world of being a Runner and Kari as she adjusts to a peaceful existence after the defeat of MaloMyotismon and Armageddemon. You'll also see some of the events Takuya spoke of during CW:TSD, but never really got into; namely, two events I'm sure people have been wondering about (A certain girl and an angel). The third announcement is the sequel to CW:TSD will be entitled, Crossing Worlds 2: A Runners Prerogative, other than that, you'll have to wait for the epilogue of CW(EX):BiA to learn more.

See you all again in CW(EX): Before it All, out in two weeks (Keep an eye out for it). And thanks again for reading.

Crossing Worlds: The Sealed Digivice …... Complete

Crossing Worlds EX: Before it All … Starting up in two weeks

Crossing Worlds 2: A Runners Prerogative …. Waiting for CW(EX):BiA to finish