Revised.

This story is based on season 3 of digimon, but I am going on from where the television series ended. There are many things that can always guarantee a new adventure, including new bad guys, new heroes, or even time travel if one is creative. I decided on another cliché: a prophecy. I am reuniting the tamers and digimon, bringing a mysterious figure that reveals only some of what she knows, and a hidden enemy. All the good stuff. Hope you like it.

Edit: Welcome to my revision process. I am currently in the middle of editing this and the sequel, "Fate." This might take a while, but I am going through my story to make it better. Once I finish, I'll begin working on the third story, "Predestination." Until then, there might be some minor confusion until I get everything worked out. I will make a note at the top of the chapter to let you know if that particular chapter has been revised or not. I'll also mention at the top or bottom of the chapter any important differences you need to know. So, hope you like how everything ends up. Thanks.

Destiny

Darkness, deep and unrelenting, was surrounding it. Forced back and destroyed, but not truly gone. Once more it grew, it changed, and it learned, even as only a ghost of what it once was.

It had a mission to fulfill, an undeniable purpose, but it was harder now. Trapped as it was, it had to find another way to succeed. A smarter way. Explore new options and try new strategies.

Perhaps using the others here. The others in this dark place. Find a way to help them so they could help it. Use these tools and destroy the others.

New knowledge was found, a warning of dangerous obstacles. It heeded this new information, labeled is as important. The obstacles needed to go. It would remove them and complete its objective.

Uneasy slumber was interrupted by an alarm. A half-way familiar alarm unheard by the awakening boy in a long time it seemed. At first, he didn't quite understand what he was hearing. Then the sound connected to his memories and comprehension of the noises origin broke through the tired fog of his mind and forced him into uncoordinated movement.

He stumbled out of bed, tangled in his blankets. The brunette boy crashed to the floor, the sound of his impact muffled by the encumbering fabric he was cocooned in. Wiggling free, he dove for the desk and opened a draw. He grabbed the glowing device, surprise etched in the young features. A voice emerged from the object, female and calm.

"Takato Matsuki," his D-arc spoke, "You will proceed to the Shinjuku Central Park immediately. Await further instructions upon the arrival of the others."

"Wait, what's going on?" the tamer asked groggily and frantically, "It's past midnight and… who are you?"

"Proceed as described. Destiny awaits you. Guilmon needs you," the voice continued as the glow faded away, ignoring the boy's further attempts to ask anything else.

In another part of the city, two even younger tamers were receiving similar wake up call. Digging into their toy box, they retrieved their own D-arc. The device was glowing and basic instructions to go to the park emerged.

Ai, the girl of the pair of confused children, whispered to avoid waking their parents, "We don't know how to get there alone and it's dark."

The mysterious voice replied, "Impmon needs you. Directions to the location can be provided as well as assistance, but you must proceed as described. Destiny awaits you."

In yet another home, a girl stared at the device in her hand. She was beyond stunned by the glowing and the voice. She had thought she'd gotten over everything that had happened to her, of the painful events that reduced her to a broken mess until she finally regained the will to live again. She'd faced the pain that she'd buried behind a mask for so long and the new loss from her life, forgave a remorseful friend for causing that newest hurt, and began to move on with her life. But this unexpected signal from her last tangible connection to that part of her past was a reminder that sent a jolt of fresh grief through her.

She quietly argues, "There is no reason for me to go. I can't do anything to help them. Leave me alone."

"What was lost," the same calm voice that was speaking out of all the D-arcs informed her, "can yet be found. Nothing is ever gone forever. But you must go now. Destiny awaits you."

All across the city, the summoned young people followed the voice's instructions; they were climbing out of windows, sliding open doors, and generally escaping their homes. Like a siren's call, the instructions and the statement that they were needed drew them onwards. Though the one creating the call could not truly witness these events, the specific routes the children followed were easily known and steps were taken to guarantee their arrival.

A young set of twins found a train station whose automatic ticket taker allowed them on for free. Another, older boy found a similar "faulty" ticket taker close to his home. Small mechanical problems were easy enough to arrange to ensure the children's arrival. For the most part, however, they were unhindered and easily made it towards their goal.

A red-haired girl in a heart t-shirt arrived shortly before a boy near her age. The dark-haired boy was carrying a half-asleep child, his sister, in his arms. Not quite happy with being up at this insane hour, the red-head was a little harsher with him than she usually was with her fellow tamer.

"So why am I outside in the middle of the night, Henry?"

"Likely the same reason I am," he answered, shifting Suzie slightly.

Before they could continue this rather uninformative conversation, a goggle-sporting face appeared through the bushes. Wearing a blue hoodie, the brown-haired youth dashed into view with the type of excited energy that can overcome pure exhaustion in the right circumstances. The type of energy that made him such a… Goggle-head.

"Rika," Takato gasped, tired from running with his loaded backpack, "did your D-arc talk to you too?"

"No, I always take a midnight stroll in the park," she snapped sarcastically. "What's all that?" She pointed at his burden.

Before he could explain, three more people joined them. The visor-wearing Kazu and bespectacled Kenta, the only two people Rika was willing to consider more fan-boyish than Takato, were arguing already. Apparently this particular fight was about Kenta falling out his window and his friend was making fun of him for it. As the pair kept arguing, while Ryo followed then while looking like he wanted to hit them. Obviously, all three got the mysterious memo too.

"Is that everyone?" Henry asked, but his question was answered as yet another small group pushed through the surrounding shrubbery.

The youngest pair to arrive yet, brunette children even younger than Suzie, stared up at the group. Both looked a little nervous about being in the park after dark and surrounded by strangers. Their faces were unfamiliar until Takato abruptly remembered seeing them right after the defeat of the D-reaper.

"You're Ai and Mako, right?" he asked.

They nodded in agreement, apparently relieved that someone knew them, even if they didn't really seem to remember him. The boy, dressed in blue overalls, and the girl, in a pink dress, stepped a little closer to the older children hesitantly.

Just then, the D-arcs once again began to glow for the second time that night. A beam of light shot out of each of the devices, startling the gathered tamers. The collective light formed a translucent cloaked figure in the middle, like a hologram from a science fiction show. The shape spoke with the same voice that had summoned them.

"Greetings tamers. You have already done much to protect two worlds. However, your task is not yet complete. A threat lies beneath the surface and only you may stop it."

"Why us?" interrupted Rika sharply. "I mean, why is everything always up to us? Is there some great prophecy that says all this or are we just unfortunate enough to keep drawing the short stick?"

"In fact, there is a prophecy," the cloak figure explained, "and it is your destiny to face the threat. 'Only heroes who have proved their worth against a great threat to all, chosen from both worlds, may save both worlds from what evil is to come.' Because you are humans partnered with digimon and have saved the worlds already, you must do so once more."

"Hold on," Henry requested, holding his hand up slightly in response to her statement. "Does this mean we have to go back to the digital world? As in, we get to see our friends again?"

This observation raised some excitement from the group. Granted, they had suspected as much from the summons through their D-arcs. But it was one thing to suspect that there might be a chance and another to have a hooded figure state as much.

"You will be once more reunited with the digimon, but not all will proceed to the digital world. Some will remain behind to guard the borders of the world. Your enemy will send many challenges to both worlds."

"Whoa," shouted Kazu suddenly. "Didn't our digimon have to leave because the red card thing that took out the D-reaper almost took out them too? Won't that happen again if they come back?"

"The effect was not as long lasting as the creators of it had believed. It has dissipated with time and will do them no further harm in the human world," the cloaked shape assured.

"All right, then," Kazu exclaimed excitedly. "Let's start picking teams. Shotgun going to the digital world."

"No way," Rika shot back, "We are not baby-sitting you idiots again. You stay here."

"The selection was made long ago," the mysterious shape informed the group. "'The Combining Trio: the Creator, the Peacemaker, and the Digimon Queen will go with the Double Single and the Sorrowing One. The protectors of the human world will be the Combining Digimon King, the Two Disbelievers of their Eyes, and the Sister Partner of the Change of Heart.' When you are ready, go where you belong and find destiny in the worlds that must be saved. The digimon will be sent to the human world to join their partners that remain. Good luck."

With that rather cryptic set of statements, the light and figure vanished. All that was left behind was a rather stunned set of tamers.

"Okay, anyone understands that gibberish?" asked Kazu after a momentary silence.

Ryo considered carefully, "If each one is for us, then we just need to figure out which description goes with which tamer. When I played the card game, I was given the 'Digimon King'."

Kenta added, "And Rika was the queen. But what about the combining thing?"

"Only four of us can Biomerge," explained Henry, "So, Takato and me are part of the Combining Trio."

"And since I made Guilmon by drawing a picture and you really hated fighting when we first met," reasoned Takato, "I'm the Creator and you are the Peacemaker."

"And the rest?" asked Rika, nodding to herself in agreement with the predictions so far.

Takato considered the next group and remarked, "Kenta and Kazu didn't believe Guilmon was real, even after they saw him. So, they could be the Two Disbelievers of their Eyes."

"Ah man," groaned Kazu, "We have to stay?"

Henry realized, "And so does Suzie. She's my sister and Lopmon is her partner. She changed sides to help us because she had a change of heart concerning humans."

"So did Impmon," Rika pointed out.

"But Ai and Mako are both his partners," he explained. "So they have to be the Double Single."

Kenta sighed, "Well, that's everyone now."

Ryo frowned slightly, apparently going through the list mentally, "No, there was one more. On the team going to the digital world, she mentioned 'the Sorrowing One.' Who could it be?"

"Me."

Stepping out of shadows where she had hidden, Jeri met their gaze. Her face was painfully tense and she clutched a static-filled D-arc. It was fairly obvious she had been present the whole time from the way she did not ask about the current situation, but was unable to approach them before this point. The brunette girl in the green dress wasn't quite in the state of heart-broken sorrow or numb pain that Rika could remember taking over her features at one point in the past, but she wasn't quite recovered from those events either. Even if she had grown to the point she could deal with her terrible loss most of the time, she was clearly the only one of them who had a reason to be called "the Sorrowing One."

"I don't know why I should be here," she whispered uneasily. "But the voice told me…" Her voice dropped off with a slight waver before she finished with a slightly stronger tone, "Well, I'm here."

Takato wasted no more time and went over to comfort his friend. She had been doing so well lately, but all this seemed to be dragging up too much at once. Jeri's D-arc was a silent relic of her brief time as a tamer. Having it activate, even just to deliver a message, must have reminded her too much of her lost partner. It would have reminded her of the fact he was even further out of reach than the rest of their digimon. The brunette girl might be able to handle it during the day, to accept it as something she couldn't change, but being awoken in the middle of the night by this last connection to him and then being asked to accompany the others back to the digital world was just too hard. Perhaps she was even dreaming of her deceased partner, which could have made the emotional blow more painful.

Actually dividing up was harder than it should have been. Henry was busy trying to convince an increasingly upset Suzie to stay with Ryo. The "Digimon King" promised to take her home and watch her in the absence of her older brother, which slightly reassured the boy. The girl was tired and unhappy with the idea of Henry leaving her again. As long as the normally-cheerful child didn't manage to somehow follow them into the digital world again, they would be fine. Kazu and Kenta were busy whining about missing all the fun, until Rika finally lost her temper with them and threatened to staple their mouths shut. The young and tired twins kept glancing between the various older children, uncertain of what they were supposed to do. The red-haired tamer wasn't the best with little kids, but Jeri and Takato eventually led them closer to the rest of the crowd. Finally, they got organized into their predestined groups. The home team bid them farewell, and began the trip back across town.

"Okay, we know who goes now," Rika remarked, feeling irritated by the flaw in the plan, "but we don't know how to get there."

Takato grinned rather proudly, "Yes, we do. I found this the other day, but I couldn't figure out how to tell you guys yet."

He led the other five tamers towards a very familiar building. When the digimon used to live in the human world, Guilmon would hide out in the concrete shed. As he stepped inside, taking care of the uneven terrain that remained even now from the reptile's diggin, the other three tamers who had been there previously saw an equally familiar sight. The older children felt their jaws drop. Ai and Mako just stared in wonder at the strange and wonderful portal to the digital world.

"Goggle-head," whispered Rika in awe. "How long has that been here?"

"Don't know, but it's here now. I think it's time to have a reunion."

Mako asked quietly, "Is that where Impmon is?"

Henry nodded, "That's where all our friends are."

Somewhere amongst the empty desert of the digital world, a small group of highly diverse digimon was under attack. These digimon had fought a variety of foes, but they were less powerful now. Most of them had just barely regained their rookie form and they needed their human friends. But their partners were a world away, so they were on their own.

Their opponents should not have been a real problem for them, even with the suddenness of their arrival. It was an odd collection of rookies and in-training digimon, none of them truly known for being impossible foes. The attackers should have been almost instantly defeated. All logic agreed on this fact. The defending group was highly experienced and knew how to work as a team. They also had a robotic champion on their side to provide cover fire. Even better, there was at least one mega with them, though not a combative one. If it wasn't for the unnatural way that their opponents would not give in and would not go down, no matter how long they fought or how many times they were hit, the small group would have already won. Still, the defending team had somehow managed to keep it together and stay on top of the situation.

Abruptly, four of them vanished in a strange light.

"Great," panted an exhausted purple digimon. "There goes half our force. And these jokers won't stay down."

"Momentai, Impmon," a small rabbit-like creature told him, "They can't be worse than the D-reaper. We can find the others when we win." He then targeted one of the attackers, a Kunemon and sent a whirlwind towards the insect. "Terrier Tornado!"

A yellow biped fox, keeping an eye on Impmon as she moved through the chaotic battlefield, released one of her own assaults in the form of numerous glittering shards on to a Salamon. "Diamond Storm!"

Her target took a tumble, but got right back up again without even a grunt of pain. No matter what they did or how much they hit the enemy with their best shots, they had almost no effect. They just kept attacking the small group of digimon. Even low-leveled creatures' strikes could cause damage if they hit their targets enough times. And these attackers were deceptively strong with their attacks, causing more damage with each shot than a rookie or in-training should have managed. The yellow-furred rookie had never seen anything like it.

As the Salamon climbed upright, Impmon tackled her while tossing fireballs left and right. It was concerning for her to watch him like this. Just as he had when attacking the D-reaper, he struck unrelentingly at his target and didn't seem to spare much thought for his own safety. Guilt still gnawed at the rookie. Even when Jeri forgave him, he couldn't forgive himself. He couldn't seem to truly believe that he should even try and protect himself. So far, he was the worst off of them from this assault. None of the attacking rookies or in-training was particularly powerful, but their numbers and unceasing attacks had done plenty of damage to the entire group. If MarineAngemon hadn't disappeared already, she would have tried to get the mega to fire one of his healing bubbles at the stubborn purple virus.

"Pyro Sphere!" a red dinosaur launched off his own fireball into the fray. When his current target, a Tsunemon, was momentarily knocked away, he tilted his head and sniffed loudly. Guilmon had a great sense of smell, the best out of their entire group, and his nose was apparently telling him something important. In a rather hopeful tone, the reptilian rookie remarked, "Takatomon?"

The other three digimon's heads snapped towards him at the familiar name. They saw Guilmon staring upward intently and so they followed his gaze. Falling towards them out of the sky were six figures. It seemed impossible, but there were only a limited number of explanations for what they were seeing. One of the falling shapes, the one closest to the ground already, held the red virus' attention the most and Renamon could guess the identity.

"Hey, Guilmon," called Takato loudly. "I promised I'd be back. Ready for some action?" She couldn't see the gesture at this distance, but she knew what the boy was doing. "Digi-Modify! Digivolution Activate!"

Two other voices, equally familiar as the boy's was, echoed his words. A power flowed into the fox, revitalizing the tired digimon and making her stronger. It was a power that she'd missed. But, as wonderful as it was to have that strength available to her again, she was happy because she truly missed the source of that power: Rika, her partner.

"Guilmon digivolve to… Growlmon!"

"Renamon digivolve to… Kyubimon!"

"Terriermon digivolve to… Gargomon!"

The space between the two worlds had been as weird as before, not truly having an "up" or "down" until the direction had been decided by Jeri once again. Once gravity began to work again, the tamers had dropped towards the desert level and, surprisingly, the digimon they were searching for. Takato couldn't help calling out to the reptilian rookie and the falling children activated their D-arcs in mid-air.

After the six humans crashed into the dirt roughly and took the opportunity to catch their breath, they finally got a better look at their now-digivolved partners' opponents. The mixture of aggressive beings looked like regular low-leveled digimon, but their eyes looked dead and empty. Even when they attacked, they were emotionless and only spoke while launching an attack. No grunts of pain, confident taunts, or verbal communication to coordinate their strikes. Not that they had the best strategies, but they still struck together in unison and somehow the collection of rookies and in-training digimon had not only survived, but even damaged their partners. There was only one champion other than the trio of digivolved digimon on the battlefield. Or at least, Takato thought it was a champion. Essentially, it looked like a Kiwimon with a third eye, this one blood-red, in the middle of its head.

"Our master says to pull back for now," the wingless bird announced suddenly. "We shall destroy them and prevent the prophecy at a later time."

Unlike those he apparently commanded, his features were animated and alive. The extra eye especially stared in hatred at the tamers and their digimon. At his signal, the attackers retreated. They disappeared into the dust and occasional boulder of the hostile landscape.

"What was that prophecy stuff about," wondered Gargomon curiously, but turned back to more immediate concerns. "Hey Henry, miss us much?"

"Takato," shouted Growlmon excitedly, running towards his currently-smaller human friend. "I smell bread!"

Takato laughed at his enthusiastic partner's miniature stampede, "I figured when my D-arc started acting up, I'd be seeing you soon. I brought you as much bread as I could fit in the bag with everything else. So you should have enough for… five minutes."

"Hey, it's the Goggle-head brigade," a pained voice muttered, drawing the boy's attention away from his red champion to another familiar face.

Impmon looked awful. His appearance was rather reminiscent of his fight with Indramon or even against the D-reaper: pounded to a pulp. The others had the benefit of a power boost from digivolution to help them with the pounding that even these low-leveled digimon had apparently caused to the group. He was still exhausted and battered from the fight.

"Glad you could join us in the land of the crazed psychos," he continued rather sarcastically. "Now, anyone know where the rest of the guys vanished? Because they…"

He fell abruptly silent as Jeri stumbled out of a crater and into view. The loud mouth digimon couldn't seem to say a word at the sight of her. Guilt was still clear upon his face. Takato didn't have to be a genius to guess what was going through the purple rookie's head. He did so much to hurt that girl and, even with all he did to help her, it wasn't enough for him. He wanted to give her back all she had lost, but that was beyond his abilities.

Two voices shrieked the viral being's name suddenly. Two twin forces tackled Impmon, knocking him to the ground hard. He didn't seem to mind the rather painful-looking impact once the rookie saw who he was dealing with. Ai and Mako were hugging him tightly as they babbled.

"Slow down, munchkins," he instructed the two. "You are speaking gibberish. Even Dino-boy is easier to understand."

Ai, able to slow down first, explained, "Mako and me missed you so much. We remember when you went away last time and thought this time was forever. We love you and we don't want you to be gone again."

Mako, finally calming down enough to be understood, continued where she left off, "And then a lady in our D-arc thing woke us up and said we'd get to see you if we go somewhere. We did and now you're here. Please don't go away again."

Once, he would have yelled about the mushy stuff and tried to maintain his reputation as a tough guy. Right now, he looked too tired and sore to care what the others thought. The fact the rookie could forget about his reputation even briefly demonstrated to Takato that the small virus had come a long way.

Apparently, he felt that his frantic partners needed some form of reassurance. Struggling to sit upright, Impmon pushed the two far enough back to look them in the face. His emerald eyes locked on both of the young tamers firmly.

"Now, look you two. I am not going to be like Bunny-boy over there and never leave your sight." Terriermon glared, but for once in his life was silent. "It would cramp my style. However, no matter what happens or where I go, I'll always come back. I promise." He gave a smirk, "I'm sort of fond of you two now."

That brought a relieved giggle from the pair and a teasing "awww…" from a certain rabbit digimon. The expression on his face suggested that Impmon wanted to toss a fireball at him for that, but couldn't seem summon up the energy to try. In fact, he appeared to be having trouble getting to his feet. A hand gently pulled him upright and held him in place until he was steady. When the rookie looked, his eyes widened in surprise to find out it was Jeri who was helping him.

"Come on," suggested Henry reasonably, "We can get some shelter by those rocks over there. We're tired and you digimon are not much better. We can all rest over there and fill each other in."

And that concludes chapter one of this tale. Eventually, more of the prophecy will be revealed as well as various characters' pasts to the rest of the group (example: Impmon's past actions will be told to his partners somewhat). In time, the mysterious voice as well as the enemy will be revealed. And to finish off, a death is in the near future as well as another reunion. I will update as often as possible, but I am about to begin my summer job, so please be patient with me. I take time to write because I need to keep you guessing.

Edit: Okay, this chapter just went from barely three thousand words to around four thousand five hundred. My story is going to be a lot longer by the time I finish. I hope you like the direction the rewriting is headed. Enjoy.