Challenge: Written for the Digimon Diversity Adventure section E3: one-shot with no dividers and Titles Set Boot Camp, prompt #5.

Summary: [Tamers]. Episode 46, missing scene. Yamaki approaches Ryo and offers him a sanctuary away from fighting the D-Reaper. Co-written with laryna6. Beta-ed by Aiko Isari.

…

The air at the temporary headquarters was tense, but not the quiet kind of tense. In addition to the beep and sounds of computers there was a hum of voices, the Monster Makers coordinating their own projects and passing programs and analyzed data back and forth.

Yamaki reached up to rub his temples. Sleep. There was so much to do, but he should probably get some before someone finally came up with an idea and the pace picked up. "Megumi?" he asked. "What's the status on the D-Reaper?"

"No real changes," she said after a few seconds. Probably spent minimizing windows: the time when they could spare someone to monitor the Digital World and its creatures full-time was long-gone. They needed anyone with the skills, forget the clearance, they could get working on analysis. "Expansion rate is within the estimates: it's got some of its drones looking around for it, but not a lot of activity. Except where Justimon's fighting it."

Apparently a minor battling an eldritch abomination was an afterthought now. "Ryo Akiyama." He'd spent years in the digital world. All the knowledge he had, but there was no one with the time to spare to collect that data. If they could get him to sit still long enough. The other children had gone home with their families, but even they couldn't get in contact with him and Justimon.

Had he ever not been fighting the D-Reaper when Yamaki remembered to ask about its status? He couldn't be getting any more sleep than he was, but the difference was that if Yamaki fell asleep while he was working, they'd only lose time. Ryo would lose his life.

He stood up. Maybe some sunlight and a walk would help him wake up a bit.

"He has to be hungry by now," Yamaki realized. Scavenging for food in an evacuated city: what if he got food poisoning on top of everything else?

"Bring some food with us so he'll talk to us?" Reika asked, looking up from her station.

"We don't have the firepower to force him to go home if he refuses, but we should at least bring him some supplies." He was used to surviving in the Digital World, but apparently humans didn't need to eat there. "If we take one of the vans and someone keeps an eye out for the D-Reaper's agents from here…"

"I'll drive," said Matsuda Takato's father. "I'm used to handling a delivery van, and we just brought in some fresh bread."

Yamaki nodded: that might work. The trio piled into the van and drove off to a location near where Ryo was fighting the D-Reaper. Upon arriving, they got out and were just in time to see Justimon land three blocks away. A light shone from the street and Yamaki turned to Reika.

"Must have devolved," the blonde commented shortly. "Maybe he is trying to avoid us."

"Why?" The woman asked. "We're not here to harm him."

"We are trying to make him stop fighting. He wouldn't know that's only for now."

Ryo staggered, holding the brick wall to steady himself. I've been fighting too long, he realized, feeling weak, before grimacing as his stomach rumbled. And I'm starving. He'd used up too much of Cyberdramon's energy while fighting the D-Reaper and the dragon was paying for it as well, having devolved to Monodramon.

"Hey buddy," Ryo remarked quietly. He took uneasy steps towards Monodramon and placed a hand on his partner's head.

"You look tired, Ryo," his partner said, looking at him concerned. That was part of the reason Ryo hadn't devolved until he was this tired: he wanted his partner to be Monodramon. Cyberdramon would have insisted on going over there to fight even without being merged with Ryo, and Ryo would have had to follow him to use the cards to keep him alive. Strikedramon could go either way, but Monodramon worried about Ryo first.

It was a Tamer's job to make their partner strong, but Ryo wished he wasn't this good at it. If Monodramon would just stay Monodramon… The little purple dragon blinking up at him now would never rip people apart. It was evolving that made him unstable.

"I am," Ryo sighed.

He unsteadily made his way to the start of the street and paused when he saw a blonde-haired girl. She wore a black frilled dress and glanced at him when she saw the pair.

"Hi," she murmured, eyes brimming with unshed tears.

Ryo felt her grief, but was unsure how to answer. The appearance of the adults caught him off guard and when he looked back in her direction, she was gone.

Yamaki's eyes narrowed. "Alice McCoy is still here in the restricted area? Without a Digimon?"

"Should I follow her?" Mr. Matsuda asked, gripping the wheel tightly. Takato was safe with his cousin for now, but…

"Your son said that the D-Reaper tried to take him over, and it needed the victim to have emotions of anger and despair. It took over Katou Juri after she saw her Digimon murdered in front of her: we need to get Alice out of here before the same thing happens to her." If it hadn't already, when Alice had watched Dobermon die. "Reika, call headquarters and let them know."

"She just vanished," Reika said quietly. That wasn't normal.

"According to Dolphin it wouldn't be the first time." It might be an ability she'd picked up through contact with the Digital World. Or the D-Reaper had already possessed her the last time Dolphin saw her. Had it had access to the real world for that long, and just been biding its time the way it had launching its assault on the Digital World?

Yamaki shook his head and opened the door to the van. Ryo first, then he could find out if Megumi had noticed anything when Alice vanished and they had a way to track her.

"Right. Dr. McCoy?" Megumi said, looking up.

"Yes?" he answered after he finished the line. "Is something wrong?"

"Reika and Director Yamaki just saw your granddaughter wandering around the restricted area, but she vanished right in front of them."

"I'm not surprised," he said, trying to smile. "About the vanishing. It's that everyone saw her that was… a shock."

"Alice died a couple of years ago," Babel told Megumi, putting a hand on his old friend's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry!" Tao said, and sighed. "We really were out of touch… But then how…"

"That's what I'm wondering," Dolphin said. "We just… seemed to have enough on our plate. We're already dealing with science fiction without bringing the paranormal into it."

"Are you sure she died?" Megumi asked, hitting speaker. "Sir, according to Dr. McCoy, Alice died some time ago."

"Believe me, if we hadn't buried her I wouldn't be so sure, after so many people saw her."

"Had she already met that Digimon…. Shibumi?" Dr. Wong asked.

"Perhaps… there are a great many possibilities. Since human thoughts could become data, it's very possible for a human mind to survive as data. The children all existed as data alone when they were in the digital world."

"And they got their human bodies back… so a human mind that crossed into the Digital World and had an existence as data, could it transfer back into the human world as a physical body…?" Dr. McCoy wondered.

"Regardless, she's here now, in the Restricted Area, without a Digimon to protect her if the D-Reaper tries to take her over the way it tried to take over Takato," Yamaki said over the speaker. "I'm about to talk to Akiyama Ryo right now, but I want this on the back-burner, Megumi. Keep an eye out for her, see if we can get one of the JSDF perimeter watch to head in to talk to her if she's in a relatively clear area."

"Yes, sir!" Megumi agreed quickly.

"Anything else I should know about?" Yamaki asked.

"We're making progress, but nothing new," Babel said.

"He shouldn't be out there on his own," Dr. Wong said.

"I agree, but I can't do much if he doesn't agree with you," Yamaki reminded him. "Even if I actually do have an army." Not that the JSDF was under his command, but they were willing to listen to him. Much better than those idiots put in charge of Hypnos while he was fired. He took the phone off speaker and handed it back to Riley.

"So she doesn't exist?" Ryo asked, stopping Yamaki in his tracks. The man turned around, watching Ryo. Swallowing his pride, Ryo took a step towards the adults. "Have you got any food? I'm starving. We used too much energy fighting that thing."

Well, at least that part was easy. Yamaki nodded. "We came to bring you some food and supplies, and hopefully a communication device. We're working on a way to actually destroy the D-Reaper. We may… we probably will need the help of you and the others. That's why Matsuda Takato and the others have left: we asked them to rest up and stay out of danger until the time came."

Monodramon accepted the food that was given and handed it to his Tamer. Ryo nodded. "Thanks for the supplies. You want me to get some rest as well?"

"… Is there any chance you'd be willing to join your father? He's found a hotel room relatively close to here." Or one had been found for him: with all the evacuees, rooms were hard to find.

It must have been hard to get a room with everyone fleeing from the D-Reaper. Part of him was worried that his father would stop him from joining the other Tamers later on and that Monodramon would eventually return to the form of Cyberdramon, which would unleash utter chaos. But he desperately needed to rest and couldn't do so whilst fighting. "Can't I just camp out in the park or somewhere, though?"

He'd been finding his own shelter since he ran away from home to join the fight - and probably since he ran away to the Digital World. "We'd prefer it if you slept somewhere outside the Evacuation Zone." If the D-Reaper found him while he slept, there was nothing anyone could do.

Ryo stood his ground. "Do I have to go to him? He's not my…" He left the rest unsaid, knowing the adults would realize the implications.

"We're not child services, we're not going to force you to go home," Yamaki said. Not that they could force Ryo, when he had access to a Digimon like Justimon. His own father had been excessively strict: he hoped that was all it was. He hesitated before saying: "If you're having any… problems at home, there are alternatives to running away to the Digital World when this is over. If it's still there..."

Ryo sighed, reluctantly accepting he'd been defeated. "Alright." Monodramon glanced at his Tamer, looking worried again.

"We're staying at the building we're using for the temporary base," mainly because none of the engineers would go much further from their computers and it was better to just ask the military for cots, "but your father knows where that is. You look dead on your feet," Yamaki told him, and after this many all-nighters he would know.

"Your leg and shoulder are bothering you, aren't they?" Reika asked. "If you don't get enough sleep, your body can't heal up after exercise or keep old wounds from acting up."

Ryo nodded, exhausted. "We've been fighting the longest." The boy staggered again and Monodramon rushed to catch him as he fell.

They'd been fighting the longest because Ryo had left the others before they woke up and hadn't gotten back in contact with anyone, but then Ryo had disappeared before the Hypnos system was activated. Yamaki couldn't blame him for thinking that the conventional army wouldn't be much help. "I suppose we are a classified government agency… Reika, do you think you can find him a room without any of us knowing where it is?"

"You don't want…" Mr. Matsuda sighed. "Right." What was important was getting the young man under a safe roof somewhere, not getting involved in family business that might make Ryo refuse the offer.

"I'll give you a call on this communicator when we've set something up," Reika said, handing the device out to Ryo.

"Oooh, is that the one they had that worked in the Digital World?" Monodramon asked, straightening up to try to get a look at the screen.

"Yes," Reika answered as Ryo turned around to call his 'father'.

"Hi Dad, it's Ryo. I'm with Yamaki; yes, I've been fighting the D-Reaper. No, I don't want to. You can't make me… No, Dad!" Ryo emphasized his point by hanging up and blocking the number.

Monodramon glanced at his Tamer in concern and Yamaki shared a look with Reika, arching an eyebrow in silence. He wouldn't say anything and neither would Reika.

…

A/N: laryna wrote Yamaki, Reika, Megumi and the Monster Makers. I wrote Ryo, Alice and Monodramon.