A/N: Okay, I have decided to post this now. Yus. Well, this is my DS rewrite, with some hints of Next canon, but if you don't know the DS game, take it as a post-Savers (and NEXT, though you don't need to have read that either) fic, as the canon characters will be making multiple appearances in this world. I promise everything will become clear, fun, and probably full of action!

Challenges: What-if and headcanon, though to not inflate word count, please see the threads for specifics. Also for the Valentine Advent day #29: write a gift-fic for someone you have received a gift-fic from in the past, for a reminiscent-afterthought. Thank you my twinnie!

Warnings: Blood, violence, superpowers, I don't think I need to warn for a deaf/hard-of-hearing character, but I will, slurs in early chapters, some cursing.

Please read and review, if you can!

Prologue: Is There Something I Can Do?

Once upon a time, a world ended.

It ended in not a murmur, but in screams. Its occupants screamed against it. Its heroes tried to fight it.

Once upon a time, a world ended.

Long ago, this world was trapped in a war. Long ago, creatures named Digimon fought for their right to live. Long ago, Digimon fought so not all of them would have to die.

Once before, humans and Digimon worked together to become strong. Digimon evolved and humans fought battles. These humans were called Tamers. However, to the humans, this was nothing more than a game, a past time to play with their friends.

A long time ago, for the world, it became very real.

For the host program, Yggdrasil, it was always real, and, in desperation, it sent its consciousness to the human world to believe once more.

To the world itself, that seemed like it wasn't enough, and thus the war raged.

It continued, on and on, until the heroes allowed themselves to shine.

Their hearts gave them a victory, and from that victory came a new world. It was up to the inhabitants to decide what to do with it.

Once upon a time, a world ended, and a new world began, as it often does...

-From the data archives of Andromon, former overseer of Light City

The weight of the key in his hand kept him grounded.

The angel walked, he did not fly, for to fly would be to bring notice, and so many hungered for the key that he could not risk it, could not risk himself.

His Majesty, the Goddess, would not allow it, no matter his crimes.

So he walked, through the deserted trees and past the tiny river into another portal, and then another. His feathers drooped, but the angel did not falter. He would know his purpose when he came to it.

He would not falter or complain. This was his punishment, for all of the blood on his hands. For all of the wrongs.

The Key shivered in his hands, but he did not drop it, not even when its golden glow hurt his eyes. He raised it, turned it for a keyhole that wasn't there. The surroundings shifted at the imperceptible click, opening to a world of... nothing.

"Am I back at the castle?"

System World had once looked like this, without feature or feeling. But it was long past being like that now. So where was he?

"NEO?" He called. There was no answer. Though why would he? He had returned to sleep.

"Oh, a new face. Haven't had one of those in a long while."

The angel turned, raising his key like a sword. Who he saw was a human, grizzled grey hair falling over his head. The man grinned, expression wizened and worn. He laughed. "Slow down, young sir. Do I look like I could cause you any trouble?"

For a moment, ClavisAngemon kept his weapon raised. Then he chuckled and lowered it. "Forgive me, but I've met humans who look harmless but are quite terrifying."

The old man laughed again, a creak of a sound like a broken door hinge. "Humans can be remarkably destructive when we want to be. As you can be, I presume." His eyes locked on to the key and drifted back to him. "My name is Kogure, or well, that's what everyone calls me anyway."

ClavisAngemon dipped his head. "I would say you can call me an angel of God, but I do feel that would be rather..." He smiled beneath his mask. "Arrogant of me, wouldn't you say?"

"Arrogance is relative," Kogure said, shrugging his shoulders. "Stupidity is consistently blatant."

"Interesting conjecture." The angel shrugged his shoulders. I am ClavisAngemon, Digimon servant of the new Yggdrasil."

"The new Yggdrasil," Kogure repeated with a smile. "I'm afraid to ask what happened to the previous one if you are here and they are there, as the archangel you must be, servant of God."

"As I should ask why you are here, human." His tone teased, but his hand tightened once more upon the key.

Kogure shrugged, his fingers wrapping around an object that wasn't there. A cane, perhaps? "I was working at my computer. I work part-time as a software engineer, likely for your Digimon game."

"Only part?" ClavisAngemon bit his tongue to kep the other words from spilling out of his mouth. To so many humans, it was a mere game, a toy for children. For the children, it had been very real, and perhaps that was why…

No, that had been the mistake, the true one.

Kogure's smile widened. "Only part. I was working on a side project. My granddaughter loves computer games. She's beaten every one I've given her."

"Our game, as well?" Clavis Angemon found his eyes wandering the plane they stood upon. A noise. There was a noise in this void like a winding gear. Looking for its source, he almost didn't see his current companion shake his head.

"She barely had it for a day before a classmate threw it into the nearby river." Kogure let out a sigh. "Never asked for one again, after that. Though she loved it, I think." He paused. "She rather thought it was real."

"We are real." It was a rather childlike statement, but Kogure only nodded at it.

"Oh yes," he said softly. "You are. Your messengers proved that. Made it very clear."

For a moment, they were silent. ClavisAngemon did not like to think of the Royal Knights.

Then ClavisAngemon tipped his head, hearing that sound again. "Would you accompany me for a moment? I wish to investigate that noise."

"Well, it would be better than stagnating here, wouldn't it?" Kogure cracked his back and followed, and ClavisAngemon gripped his weapon tightly.

Perhaps his investigations would feel fruitful at long last.

In a forest full of totem poles and trees, in an area that a certain ClavisAngemon had most recently been, a cupid awoke from sleep. It yawned and looked at the blue sky lined with binary. "At last," he said softly. "At last. It's almost time."

He watched a knight clothed in black slice the air and the Digimon, the children of the area, flock to him. He watched as the archangel and the human appeared from the heavens with a bundle in the angel's arms, and the fear rising in so many eyes.

He watched all of this, and did not comprehend any of it. None of it was truly real for him, none of it was actually of any importance.

For him, time didn't start until they finally met.

Until that second chance.