Hello.

Those of you have this story on your favorites page probably suspected the reality long before now, but I think I'd best go ahead and put it to bed properly. This is, quite frankly, way overdue. I suppose that's the great weakness of fanfiction as a hobby (as compared to being a professional who writes to make a living): there's always the temptation of resurrecting older works, of reviving a Dead Fic and completing it. That's what happened with Mobile Fighter Evangelion, and in the back of my mind, I always entertained the notion of doing that with Side Stories, and moving on to the next part of the Zero 2 saga.

But that's no longer feasible for a fandom I've not been a part of for nearly a decade now.

I can at least give a brief summary of the story list that's been sitting at the bottom of my bio for years now, and sort of give an idea of what could have been, to the best of my memory. Granted, it's in chronological order, so some of the stories are kind of done already.

Pandora's Box - I honestly don't remember what this was going to be about. It was apparently going to be non-canon and involve the original Digidestined?

The ODs - The tale of the Original Digidestined would have been interesting to write, since one of the first enemies (Orochimon) was actually going to have a comeback of sorts in my version of Tamers. It would have culminated with the battle against Apocalymon, like in canon...but the in-between would have been neat. Though in hindsight, that title would have needed work, since it's way too easy to make a drug joke with.

Past Journeys - Boy. My vision for this one was grandiose, given how long Shaun's life in canon's past was. But this would have likely been a severe overreach on my part, and likely would have warranted a severe reworking of his story in "Zero 2: A Revision", if we're being realistic.

A Revision - Well, this one was quite the fun write. Looking back, there are definitely some things I would have done differently (you couldn't tell I was going through a heavy Halo phase at all in this one...), and some of the expies would have been less hamfisted. All told, as the product of a teenage mind, it wasn't not half-bad. Definitely nostalgic.

Housemates - Heh. This one was really fun, in retrospect. Probably not realistic at all in terms of how adoption laws work in Japan, but hey, there are certain sacrifices that had to be made to bring about the Prank War.

Battle of the Shinobi - A simple two-shot. Probably would have been made a part of a longer story, if I had the choice of doing it again.

The Comeback Tour - I think this one is my most solid entry of them all, thinking back. A fun villain, a good mix of humor and drama and action, and some 'old favorites' from Revision making a return as well. All told, I was quite satisfied with this one.

Side Stories - Sorta self-explanatory. I initially started this to serve as a stopgap when writer's block hit me on other main stories...and then I hit writer's block on this as well. Oops.

Crisis on Infinite Digiworlds - In retrospect, ambition killed this story. I thought it was cool to invite the submissions of readers to serve as original characters, but the sheer volume went way beyond what I thought it would. I also didn't want to disappoint others by excluding any submissions, but trying to fit the plot and narrative around fitting all of the submissions in...well, it basically ruined my motivation to keep writing on it. A regrettable move, in hindsight, because I definitely enjoyed writing this one at the time.

Tamers - This one would have been rather meta, being a story about Digimon Tamers being the TV show this time around, with the Season 1/2 Digidestined actually being the real deal. Of course, Takato, Henry, and Rika would have had Digimon of their own...but they also would have been legit child actors. Of course, nothing would have ultimately gone according to plan. I definitely recall that Infermon and Diaboromon were going to be the ultimate villains.

Katamoni Damacy! - This would have been another non-canon "movie" of sorts, featuring a Digimon trying to roll everything up into a ball. It would have been as humorous as it was catastrophic.

The Digital Deception - This would have been the culmination of certain subplots dealing with human intelligence agencies' work in the Digital World and the rather permanent presence of Digimon in the Real World. There would have been a Tom Clancy-esque take to everything, trying to prevent a Human/Digimon war from breaking out.

Shadows of the Light - The exact details are foggy, but this would have involved the final battle with Dragomon. There also would have been returns of the Gravemon and Darkheart as well. There would have been a very grimdark tone, in my original conception of it.

There would have been more stories after that, believe it or not, but I had not listed them at the time so as not to potentially spoil. Now I've forgotten my overall framework.

Alas...that is the fate of the Zero 2 Saga. Many words were penned down and written, but the past and future stories are fated to be left to the imagination only.

Thank you all, those who read these stories back when I was writing on them regularly in the 2000s. And thank you to those who waited this long, hoping I would update them again.

Sorry to disappoint you, but I figured it was time to go ahead and put this old project of mine to rest.

So long; enjoy the rest of your lives, and may you find better stories.

Tempus fugit, memento mori.

See you later.