The Message

T.K. was sitting in his college history class. While he was supposed to be listening to the professor, the cherry blossom trees outside the small second-story window were, at this point at least, far more interesting.

He looked around the larger, elongated classroom. Kari was sitting slightly across the lecture hall, also looking very distracted. As his vision shifted, he caught a glimpse of Ken, taking notes on the extremely boring speech, and then, a little farther towards the front, Davis, who was on the verge of snoring.

He sighed. It had been quite a few years now since his last encounter with MaloMyotismon, and since then, the digital world had been quite. Now 18, he had been thrust into the real world as a college student. Sticking together at college had been all they could do to stick together.

It had been Yolei's idea. She had gone off to college a year before all of them, and had suggested the idea halfway through her second semester, saying that college was very lonely.

Yolei was currently in her history class, which was a little farther ahead than the current class. She did have most of her other classes with the Chosen Children, but she was spared the boredom of this class. Cory had not started college yet. He was a year behind the others, but both T.K. and Yolei made honest efforts to keep in touch with him.

A note slipped in front of his face. He looked up to see one of the many errand runners the college had walking away, quite and unnoticed. Shrugging, T.K. looked down at the note. It simply read:

Meet me in Rm. 57 at the first available time. I have a new class for you.

Looking around, he saw Kari staring at him, her eyebrows furrowed, seemingly questioning the note. All he could do was shrug and continue to look out his window.

After his history lecture hall, T.K. made for room 57. Being like most kids, he was not exactly sure where room 57 was, or even what building it was in, but he simply assumed that the building referred to was the one he was in when he got the note.

After a lot of asked questions and missed turns, he arrived at the room. After knocking, he received only a short response. "Door's unlocked, kid."

Opening the door, he saw a young teen sitting by a computer. Thinking it odd, he was about to leave, but the teen stopped him.

"Takeru Takaishi, please come in and close the door behind you. We have a lot to discuss and very little time for conversation." T.K. looked at the young man and saw his first observation was slightly off. Although he did indeed appear like a teen, he had a mature look to his face, and hard, grey-blue eyes. His face was slightly elongated, and he had a small hooked nose. He was, T.K. judged, about 5'7". He wore a simple black polo shirt, jeans, and a necklace chain. What the chain held was impossible to see because the man wore it under his polo.

T.K. quickly closed the door and sat down. He looked at the other man and was about to ask who he was, but the other man stopped him before he could speak.

"I understand that you still have your D3 with you, if not on you. Am I correct?"

Speechless, T.K. could only stare.

"Well, this isn't helping much. Let me try again. Are you able to get in touch with Patamon? This is very important."

This time, T.K. managed a nod, and asked "How do you know about this?"

"No time. But very good, at least we have our means done..." The other continued to mutter softly to himself, obviously in deep thought. He finally looked up and said, "Well, I cannot explain much now, I need to be going. The digital world is in deep trouble right now, and I need to keep checkups on it. Hand these..." he handed T.K. a stack of papers, "Out to the rest of the chosen children. It is their application to change classes. This spot will be filled as your last class of every day. All the work for those classes have already been added in to be A's. I will try to inform you on more later. For now, though, I must go."

T.K. watched as the other man quickly disappeared with a gust of wind. While most people would be shocked, T.K. had grown used to things randomly happening that should and could never happen by physics. He knew that there was no windows opened, but he never thought to think of where the wind came from.

Looking around the room, T.K. saw a few desks, a chalkboard, projector, and one computer. The computer was a new model, pristine and white, but off. He turned to leave, but an object caught his eye. In the corner of the room, a small engraved piece of wood read:

Nothing is true. Light blinds just as well as darkness. Trust not what you can see through eyes, only what you hear through your soul.

T.K.'s brow brow furrowed as he frowned, trying to comprehend the plaque.

What could the strange man mean by this? Was it even intended for him? After placing the note back in the corner, he left the room quickly without any more delay.

"You really put a nice touch on the exit, there," a voice said, invisible to all but one, "But I do not see what you wish to accomplish with that note that you could not accomplish by just telling him. You need to develop some trust before we can continue."

"You know as well as I do that he will think far longer on that note than he would if I had just told him. Now, come. We have work that is calling us. Wasting any more time here would be a grave mistake." The man's voice said, still invisible in the room. Wooden sounding footsteps echoed as he walked away.

"Hey, T.K.! Where were you?" Kari asked as T.K. walked into the large cafeteria. She walked over to him and gave him a quick hug, made short by the fact that everyone was watching. They both still had feelings for each other, and both new the other loved them back, but love has this crazy way of making people nervous. So, for now, they enjoyed each other's company.

"Its a long story. Here, I have some papers to give you guys before I start." T.K. passed out the papers around the table. He hadn't had a chance to look at them yet, but everyone had a paper titled to them, so he grabbed his and explained what the man had told him.

"And he wants us to drop our last period class and join a false class?" Ken asked, reading through the class-change application. "We do need account management, its a good class to have."

Davis, who had been listening intently while eating a cheeseburger, decided it was time for him to comment. "I'm not to concerned with my future, and trading that boring class for an adventure sounds like a more than fair trade to me."

T.K. looked down at his form, and was surprised to see two more papers sitting there. He quickly grabbed them and scrolled through the first one. "Look at this, guys, there is a form for Cody here! It says that he is to take classes at the university because he is considered a 'higher level thinker'." As the others looked at the form, T.K. continued, "Well, I know the digital world has never cared much for our 'real' lives, but the man who gave me the papers seemed like he wasn't even considering our normal lives. He was focused on the digital world, and that alone."

"Can we trust him?" Kari asked. She had been deep in thought the whole time. As the Child of Light, it was understood, though never mentioned, that she was probably the most powerful of the Chosen Children, and she naturally tried to be a thoughtful leader on the team. "He randomly shows up, tells us the Digital World is in trouble, asks us to change classes and leaves. We don't know anything other than the Digital World is in trouble, which doesn't surprise me at all."

"Well, why don't we just contact Gennai and ask him what's up?" Yolei asked. She wasn't looking forward to leaving on another quest. She was taking classes to be a software engineer, and was at the top of her class. She and Ken had now been going out since the end of the last Digital Adventure. She was slightly worried that another long quest would tear her away from her career path.

They would've continued discussing options, but they had to get to their next class, the last of the day. Although this was the last class, it was only once a week that the class was so late, they mostly had the classes earlier, but Friday's schedule could get hectic. They all headed off to their separate classes, Ken to investigative technology, Yolei to computer tech, T.K. to literacy and writing, Kari to a teaching course, and Davis... Well, Davis had a home cooking class.

When T.K. reached his literature, he realized that he had totally forgotten about his second paper that he had so recently discovered. Taking it out, he found it was very elaborate notes on his literature class. There was a short message at the top, T.K. figured it was from the mysterious man. As he started to read, he realized that he was correct in his assumption.

Takeru Takaishi, I know that you have a lot of questions. Not all of them can or will I answer. The notes taken are all on today's class, as I realize you won't be able to focus well, and I understand how important this class is to you.

Now, let me explain what I most likely missed. Daemon is back, and stronger than ever. The choice to send him to the Dark World was not the brightest choice you could've made. His powers multiplied, and he can now rival Azulongmon in power. And he has.

I will not be there at the class tomorrow, but that doesn't mean we can't get something accomplished. The computer in my room possess much of the hardware that the computer with the digital port did at your old high school, because i took the computer apart and rebuilt it. It works. Go to the digital world. You will find I was not lying about the trouble. But be careful. I still need your help.

Cody received tickets for the train today, he should arrive before tomorrow's 'class'.

Lastly, the digimon are free to digivolve to their ultimate and mega forms, for Azulongmon has lost his power.

Well, not to sound ominous, but have fun.

"Patamon, I'm back!" T.K. shouted into his dorm. His trusty bat-pig digimon flew into him, semi-tackling him, giggling with joy.

When T.K. was able to get up, he looked around his dorm room. It was made for two, but how could he room with someone and manage to stay with Patamon? Ken and Davis roomed together, they had become best friends, Davis drawing Ken out of his shell, and Ken stopping Davis from doing something he would terribly regret. Kari and Yolei roomed together, the two of them had been good friends, maybe not as good as Ken and Davis, but the two of them supported each other, and that was enough.

Patamon stared at him as he thought, but finally drew him out of thought, saying, "T.K., I've been thinking. You spend about 4 hours every day at college, 8 hours sleeping, and about 2 hours eating. Then you spend an hour or two studying. This all adds up to me not being able to play with you enough!"

T.K. looked at his smiling digimon, and couldn't help but smile himself. Patamon was always so easy to be around, and generally very simplistic. "Patamon, how long did you think about this?"

Patamon looked thoughtful, and landed on T.K.'s head, "About 6 hours... why?"

T.K. laughed, "I was just thinking, it isn't hard to keep you occupied, so you shouldn't worry about half of the hours we aren't together, and the other half, you sleep through. Now, I don't have any work to do, let's go find Kari and Gatomon."

"Yay!" Patamon laughed. Gatomon and Patamon, or at least Patamon, wasn't to the point of thinking about dating, and the two digimon's still childish play pleased their best friends.

Kari walked into her dorm room to find Yolei already home. Hawkmon and Gatomon were both sitting there, listening to Yolei explain the digital world's trouble. When Gatomon saw Kari, she waved and walked over. Though the cat-like digimon didn't show her affection so excitedly, Kari and Gatomon were pretty much sisters.

Gatomon jumped on the small counter in the dorm, "So, the Digital World is in trouble? Any idea what the problem is?"

Kari shook her head, "Yeah, apparently the Digital World is in trouble, but T.K. talked to the stranger, not me. Ask him when he comes over."

As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. T.K. and Patamon walked in, and Patamon flew to Gatomon and almost knocked her over as he attempted to land on her head. She playfully punched Patamon and the two of them laughed. The Chosen Children only got together on the weekends, because studying could make life difficult. Therefore, Patamon didn't get to see any other digimon unless T.K. was helping Davis with a project.

"Kari, I came across another paper that the stranger gave to me," T.K. said. He handed her the note and she read it over.

"Daemon? Well, though I disagree that sending him to the Dark World was a bad idea, I could see the truth to this," Kari said after she looked up.

"I don't believe a word he says," Yolei said. She had stood up and walked to stand next Kari. Continuing, she said, "I tried to contact Gennai multiple times and I can't get in touch with him. I think he's lying to us."

"What!" Kari and T.K. exclaimed. They talked with Gennai often enough, and the thought that Gennia was absent was unthinkable.

After in sank in, T.K. spoke up. "I don't know if we can trust him, I've doubted that. But I think he is telling the truth. He said that Azulongmon lost his power." He handed Yolei the note and waited for her to read through it.

"Well, I guess we just go tomorrow and see if he was telling the truth."

The Chosen Children soon made their way to meet Ken and Davis at a local park. The campus courtyard was large, but on Fridays, it was often busy. T.K. showed the other two boys and digimon the note, and Ken agreed with Yolei and T.K. when they said they didn't trust the mysterious stranger.

After agreeing to make no further mention of the man, they proceeded to walk in the park. The digimon played tag, which was rather one sided, seeing as Patamon and Hawkmon could fly, and Gatomon was a great climber. This left Wormmon and Veemon it quite a bit, but eventually the others started to play 'fair'.

T.K. was holding Kari's hand, and they were enjoying the calm walk. Ken and Yolei also held each other as they walked, wrapping hands around their partner's body. Most people in Davis's position would feel awkward, but Davis didn't understand the meaning of the word. He walked slightly ahead, with his hands behind his head. The small group walked in a peaceful silence, watching the digimon frolicked around them.

"So, what do you guys want to do?" Davis asked. He was still walking, but now was stretching his arms out in front of him as though he had just woken up.

The small group stopped, and the digimon joined them. They stepped off the main path, and stood in a tight circle.

"I think that tonight may be the last normal night for a while. Why don't we go get something to eat, and then we can all get some sleep," Ken said. The others agreed, and so they headed out to eat.

They decided to dine at a small pizzeria. The place was quiet, and the chosen kids were basically on their own. Again, T.K. and Kari sat next to each other, but both kept decent respect for the other's space. Ken and Yolei, on the other hand, snuggled freely and even fed each other. T.K. looked at the other couple with the slightest envy, but he sat next to Kari, still holding her hand. Occasionally, their eyes met, but both would quickly look away, blushing.

Again, Davis saved the meal from being awkward. He ate so much, he even caused Ken to laugh as he cowed down piece after piece.

"Hey Davis, if you don't save any food, we won't be able to defend you," Veemon joked, as Davis plowed through his eighth piece.

"Or we may just choose not to," growled Gatomon. They had enough pizza for everyone to be satisfied, but Gatomon was slightly discussed by the amount of pizza that Davis was eating.

"Davis, I do think you should stop," Ken suggested. He had just finished his second piece and pushed his plate away, not a spot on his shirt, "We may end up doing a lot of walking tomorrow. I wouldn't want to see you fall over after the first few feet."

Everyone laughed as Davis looked up from his plate, tomato sauce on his face, and blushed. He pushed his plate away, embarrassed.

They finished up dinner, and T.K. payed for the pizza. They were about to head their separate ways, but before Kari could leave, T.K. said, "Wait, Kari! I'll walk home with you!"

The words had been unplanned, but Kari turned around and smiled. The two of them walked home, happy and content, walking a little closer than they had when they started the day.

The darkness was everywhere. All consuming. He tracked through it anyways, seemingly alone, but another voice talked to him in whispers while he walked on.

Finally, the figure stopped, in front of a tombstone. He took out a small grey book and some dust, and started spreading the dust around the tombstone.

"In darkness you be, from darkness you come, to darkness you arise." The voice resonated calmly throughout the darkness, breaking the silence momentarily, until the words were eaten by the nothingness around him.

Deep breathing could be heard, rasping out and coughing. Finally, the invisible voice spoke again, "You have done well. The time has come, let's move on.

Quick A/N: This is a re-edit of this chapter again. It was rather unreadable, seeing as all the lines got deleted. Also, I caught five or ten misspellings. A bit late, yes. Anyways, please do feel free to rate and review.