Millennium

Summary: Two years after a mission to the Digital World that ended in tragedy, the surviving Tamers receive a visitor they never expected to see again. But something about him is different — wrong. And what's with these strange enemy Digimon that keep changing shape? [Ryo/Rika, Jeri/Takato]

A/N: This thing's been in my head since I rewatched the third season a while ago. I've only ever watched the English dub, so the story will use that canon, including ages and names. The story is set five years after the events of season three. Also, this story will feature some references to the Wonderswan games, but those references will not necessarily be game canon-compliant (and the show doesn't match up with the game canon, anyway).

Cheers!

By now, Takato was used to never getting a full night's sleep. Ever since he'd started working for Hypnos, he'd been busy, but for the past month or so, his pager went off at least three times a night. The rogue Digimon never bothered to show up at a reasonable time, either — it was always somewhere between two and four a.m., and they spaced themselves out so nicely that he had to wake up for another one just as soon as he drifted off again.

But it was a dream job, really. Except without any actual dreaming. Or sleep.

With a strange, hissing cry, the anomaly lashed out with a dark limb. It had been a wing a second ago, but now it was a hand that ended in sharp, deadly claws.

Takato dodged the limb and swiped a Speed modify card at the same time. A red and white blur zoomed past him, knocking the thing over with a headbutt. The blur and the anomaly circled each other for a few seconds, exchanging blows, until the blur caught the anomaly by the neck and discharged a fire blast into its chest.

The anomaly twitched, went still, and then dissolved into data.

Takato sighed and slipped the Speed card back into his deck. The red and white blur slowed down and became a red and white dinosaur, still growling at the place where the anomaly had been seconds before. Its growls were interrupted by a huge, jaw-cracking yawn.

"Nice work, buddy. Now let's get—"

Groaning, Takato looked down as his Digivice sounded another alarm. Another anomaly. This was all too weird — the anomalies had been fairly quiet the past couple years, one popping up every now and then, but nothing like five years ago. Hypnos had almost dismissed the matter as just another normal evolution taking place in the Digital World.

Now, about a month ago, they'd started showing up again. A lot. And that couldn't mean anything good.

"Takatomon, why are you making that noise? Are you hungry? Can we go get some bread? And doughnuts? It's almost morning — we could get the tastiest ones."

Takato, despite his fatigue, smiled. This is why it was a dream job — he had Guilmon back, and as long as he was careful, he wouldn't have to say goodbye again.

"Nah, buddy, just another anomaly." He sighed. "I was so looking forward to a few more hours' sleep…"

"Digimon?" Guilmon asked. He sniffed the air, and his hackles rose as he growled. "It's strong, Takato."

"Yeah, I'd better page Henry and Kazu," Takato said, punching in both of their numbers. They were on-call tonight, just like him.

The streets were quiet, nearly empty. Five years ago, right after the D-Reaper was destroyed, there had been a period of peace. No Digimon wreaking havoc on the city, no rogue program trying to delete everything. People celebrated in the streets for days before things went back to normal. Even after Takato found the new portal that linked the real world to the digital one, there wasn't much crossing over between the worlds — just the Tamers visiting their Digimon every now and then.

But then things started to change. Digimon started crossing back over again. They could never stay for long — the effects of Juggernaut still remained, for the most part, although some Digimon started to show a resistance to it, began to be able to stay longer. After studying the Digimon resistant to Juggernaut, the Tamers had programmed their partner Digimon to have the same resistance, only stronger, strong enough for them to stay in the real world indefinitely. That was one good thing that had come out of all of this.

Even with Hypnos' rebirth, it became more dangerous to stay out. These Digimon were a type that Hypnos was still trying to figure out, and they liked to show up at night. Nothing just materialized out of nowhere anymore — they needed to use portals — but these new anomalies could hack into large systems, like security systems, and enter the real world by using those networks as portals. The programmers at Hypnos had yet to find a solution, other than to tell people to leave their properties unsecured, which didn't work very well.

Even though the United Nations had long since ordered Hypnos to shut down all known two-way portals between the real and digital worlds, the anomalies kept finding their way in — which was made worse by the fact that no one, still, knew exactly what they wanted.

No matter what they wanted, the Tamers were all too familiar with these new, anomalous Digimon and what chaos they could wreak. They'd first encountered them two years ago, back when everything went wrong.

Up above, the sky of the Digital World roiled a violent orange and red. The Digimon — or whatever they were — kept pouring out of a rift in the sky like rain, falling down to the ground in ever-increasing numbers. Whatever was creating them was behind that rift, but the Tamers couldn't get close, not with hundreds of these weird enemies blocking their way.

One of the enemy digimon — dark, its shape constantly shifting — swiped at Gallantmon's chest. He gasped and dropped to one knee, swiping up with his modified lance just in time to pierce the creature's neck and scatter it into data. But its blow still stung. He wasn't sure how much of this all of them could take.

They'd been fighting these anomalous Digimon for weeks — they kept spawning all over the Digital World, and it was only recently that they found this, the source. But the anomalies were extra-dangerous — they could leach the data from a Digimon, so any Digimon that was beset by even a few of them would be reduced to data in seconds. They were hard to pin down, too — it was difficult to land a blow when they kept shifting shape.

Next to him, Justimon leapt into the air, knocked three of the Digimon down in quick succession. He landed next to Gallantmon.

"We have to do something about that rift. We can't keep this up."

"I know. But how can we get through them all?"

"The same way we always do," Megagargomon said cheerfully, "By using excessive force and ignoring our impending doom!"

"He has a point, actually," Justimon said. "We can't keep knocking them down one by one. We won't ever keep up, and they'll overpower us."

"So what do we do?"

Gallantmon thought for a minute, but he was interrupted by Sakuyamon, who floated by Justimon's shoulder.

"You know what we must do, Justimon."

"I do," he said. "Are you up for it?"

"Wait!" Gallantmon said. "You can't! You'll be too weakened afterward. They'll destroy you. If you don't destroy yourselves."

"As long as we destroy whatever's in that rift, it'll be worth it," Justimon said. "And we didn't destroy ourselves when we were fighting the D-Reaper. We're even stronger now."

"You know very well that the Digital World cannot handle much more of this," Sakuyamon added. "And our current approach is not working."

Gallantmon hoisted himself up and slashed through another couple anomalies. Their forms went out of focus and then scattered into data. It was and wasn't like the D-Reaper program — the creatures absorbed the data instead of deleting it. That much the Tamers and Hypnos, back home, had been able to determine. But as for where the data went — that was the mystery. The Digimon themselves didn't seem to keep it since they didn't get any stronger after absorbing data. But it had to go somewhere.

Panting, Gallantmon looked over at Megagargomon. "Back me up, Megagargomon! We can't let them do this!"

But Megagargomon remained silent.

"He knows we must do this. For all we know, that rift is where the data goes. We have to stop them from feeding it." Sakuyamon said. She and Justimon exchanged a look and then began fighting their way up, toward the rift.

"Well, just try not to die, you idiots!" Gallantmon yelled, frustrated, as he stomped another anomaly to data. "Please," he added to himself, earnestly, as he watched them both go. The past few weeks had been incredibly dangerous, and it brought back all the trauma from the D-Reaper battle five years ago, back when he wasn't sure any of them would survive.

The biomerged Digimon and the other Tamers redoubled their efforts, doing their best to support Sakuyamon and Justimon as they rose toward the rift. Near the opening of the rift, Sakuyamon lent her power to Justimon, whose blade shone even brighter than the sickly-neon sky.

With a cry, Justimon charged right into the rift.

For a second, it seemed as if all the air had been sucked out of the world. Then, with a horrible thundering sound, the rift began trembling, and the sky changed from orange and red to a blinding white. A high-pitched sound grew louder and louder until everything went dark.

When Gallantmon and the others came to, the sky was back to normal — no sickly colors, no rift or horrible vortex. The anomalies had disappeared.

But so had Justimon and Sakuyamon.

The Tamers searched the surrounding area for days, but they never found Rika, Ryo, Renamon, or Cyberdramon. They expanded their search, fighting smaller amounts of remaining anomalies along the way, but they never found even so much as a reborn Digiegg.

By that time, they didn't have much hope, but Takato secretly wondered if the four — or at least Rika and Ryo — had somehow been transported back to the real world and would be waiting for them.

When they'd made no headway about finding out what might have been behind the anomalies' creation — and since no more massive rifts had appeared — the Tamers and their Digimon returned home to Hypnos, to go over what they knew so far and make a plan. But neither Rika nor Ryo were waiting for them. And soon after, the United Nations ordered Hypnos to close every known portal.

As the weeks passed with no news of either Tamer or their Digimon, the surviving Tamers' hopes of seeing their friends again dwindled into nothing.

They were gone.

Guilmon's growling had simmered to a low rumble, which meant the anomaly was near. Takato pulled out a few modify cards and scanned the area. The compass on his Digivice was swinging wildly in a circle.

"Come out, come out, little Digimon," Takato muttered. "Well, actually, probably not so little. But hey, a guy can dream."

Suddenly, Guilmon rushed forward, making a straight line for a medical office's front courtyard. But then, just as suddenly, he stopped.

"Guilmon, what's wrong?"

Then Takato heard it — a human voice. Male.

That's just great. If he'd been woken up just because some guy was messing around with Digimon he couldn't control…Takato understood why someone would want a Digimon partner — just look at Guilmon! He'd never had a better friend — but a lot of these wanna-be Tamers ended up seriously injured, if not dead. And it made even more work for Hypnos.

Takato walked up next to Guilmon. They exchanged a look and then moved closer to the courtyard. Takato could see the guy now — his silhouette was outlined by the medical office's security light. There was another, much larger, figure standing next to him.

Nothing was out of control — they were having a conversation. Takato paused. If it wasn't a wanna-be Tamer or an anomaly, what was going on?

Lost in uncertainty, and sleep-deprivation, Takato jumped when Henry and Kazu sidled up next to him.

"Morning, Takato," Kazu yawned right in Takato's ear as he jumped.

"Geez, guys, give a guy a little warning," Takato whispered. "I'm half-asleep here."

"So where's the anomaly?" Henry asked. Terriermon was in his usual spot, perched on Henry's head. Henry had tried to stop the practice, determining it 'undignified' for a senior Hypnos employee, but Terriermon refused to stop. If anything, he demanded more head-riding privileges.

Takato nodded to the courtyard up ahead. "There. But I don't think it's an anomaly. There's a man in there."

"One of ours?"

"No," Takato said.

"He smells funny," Guilmon added.

"So it's just some weirdo hanging out with a Digimon he programmed? Okay, let's go back to bed now," Kazu said.

"Just some weirdo!" Guardromon echoed.

Henry sighed. "You know we can't do that. We have to check it out."

The three looked at one another and then moved forward carefully, their Digimon partners close by. They were cautious, but they didn't bother trying to sneak — it was impossible with Guardromon, anyway.

As they got closer, it became clear that the man and Digimon were waiting for them. Both were still silhouetted, but the man was leaning casually against the courtyard wall. He gave a little wave.

"Well hey. Been a while. Or has it? The timeline tends to fluctuate a little now," the man said. His partner Digimon growled, which was the closest it got to saying hello.

Takato was too stunned to say or do anything. He could tell the others must have been feeling the same way. The silence stretched on eerily.

Just when the silence had stretched too long to be comfortable, Kazu whooped and ran forward, laughing. "What the hell, man! I knew you couldn't really be dead! Holy shit!"

Ryo laughed. "Nice to see you too, Kazu. Guardromon."