In a small room, an alarm clock went off.

Eighteen minutes after it had done so first. A hand scrabbled out from a ball of quilt covers and attempted to press the snooze button once again, only to press another hand.

"Ahem." A voice said.

The hand from the covers tried to press the other hand again.

Sora sighed, and yanked the ball of covers.

"Nya! What the hell?!" Dai yelped as she was dragged almost off the bed, grasping at the mattress.

"You're twenty minutes late in waking up. Again." Sora hissed.

"I was… I was getting up…" Dai protested, ears raised and tail wagging angrily.

Sora grabbed the erratic appendage, and Dai's ears began twitching instead.

Suddenly, the younger cat-girl yelped again, shook the tail away, and grabbed the covers back.

"What?" Sora said, confused.

"I'm in my night clothes!"

"Dai, I'm your sister. I've seen you in far less than your night clothes. Everyone has. Do I need to remind you of all the times you've been underdressed or not dressed at all in the halls or outside?"

Dai paused.

"Yeah, I think I forgot one. I remember stuff like the one about the uniform pretty well, and that one when I couldn't find a mop but I had an older dress on so... but I'm sure there's another one I missed. I remember soap being involved..."

Sora sighed, ears flat on her head and tail drooping in depression

"Yes, you somehow stood on the soap, slid out of the shower, down the hall, out the window and into the fountain..."

"Oh, I remember that now!" Dai beamed.

"...Somehow going downstairs twice. "

"Er..." Dai said, left ear twitching in confusion as she tried to figure out her excuse she used last time... Soap in her eyes? Another bar of soap when she tried to get back? Freak accident? It seemed a good idea at the time... No, wait, that failed with the dress-mop incident. That always failed...

"Anyway, get dressed and get to breakfast." Sora sighed.

"I am dressed." Dai beamed.

"You just complained... Oh, never mind you little brat, just go shower, get into uniform and get downstairs."

"Nya, sure, sis..." Dai smiled. Sora left the room.

By the count of ten Dai was trying to snuggle back up into her comfy ball of catgirl and quilt covers, purring contently.

By the count of twenty Sora had come back and removed the quilts.

"Shower, dressed, downstairs! Or I drag you to the fountain and wash you out there myself."

***

A very reluctant Dai made her way to the breakfast table, with her hair not properly dried and still brushing it, following her customary morning battle with the temperature dial of the shower and the phenomenon of toothpaste turning into shower gel.

Mimi was cooking this morning, while Takeko sat at the table reading a bland and predictable Romance novel (It was always the butler: He did it in murder mysterys, or the heroine marries him in romance) in a way that seemed less designed to read, than to hide her face. Yatsumi and Taira were once more changing hairstyles, and the pair noticed their other sister's bedraggled and damp hair.

"It doesn't suit you." Taira grinned. She wore her hair in a bun just now, with Yatsumi's own hair being braided into a number of small tails.

"Ha. Ha. Do you two do anything but look for new hairstyles?" Dai tried to shoot back.

Yatsumi smirked and pointed to the younger blonde trying to hide herself.

"What? Oh, morning Takeko." Dai said as she sat down.

"No, dummy, look at her hair! Her face!" Taira commanded..  Dai did not, and instead looked at her sister, ears raised in confusion.

"I don't see anything different."

"Look properly." Mimi shouted from beside the stove as she cracked another few eggs into the frying pan.

Dai did so.

"Her book is in the way."

All three of the elder sisters sighed.

"Remove it then." Taira advised.

"No!" Takeko mewed in fearful surprise, tail and ears bolting up straight. Dai missed the small ribbon in the tail.

Dai shrugged and pulled it away from her shocked sister before the blonde realised.

Dai stared.

Dai laughed.

"You look really stupid!" She managed to say between bursts of laughter. She was almost falling from her chair at the sight before her.

Takeko had her hair braided into one ponytail (unlike the many half-done on Yatsumi), but that wasn't the hilarious part. Her blue eyes were framed with a heavy eye shadow, and she had on a shade of lipstick that seemed to be closer to brown than red. Thick mascara was on her eyebrows and even through the natural glow of embarrassment it was plain to see far too much blush had been applied to the unlucky younger sister.

"Wow, someone's been the little guinea-cat again!" Dai smirked. Takeko frowned.

"Yeah, well, at least I got up early enough for them to ambush me like this!"

"Whatever. How come you never try to do that to me?" Dai said, changing the subject.

Taira simply made a noise like "brrrum". Dai stared.

"What was that meant to be?" Mimi shouted from the stove.

"Lawnmower." Yatsumi explained. Dai groaned as she remembered that accident. Worst haircut ever. When was it going to grow back a bit more?

"And... She's a tomboy too." Takeko added, blushing still.

"What's that got to do with it?" Dai said, feeling superior. So what if skirts and dresses weren't really her thing? She was a woman and proud of it!

"You... Kinda seem to want to be a boy sometimes." Takeko said shyly, as if she knew the teasing was too far.

Dai responded in her usual fashion.

"Be a boy?! Ewww! No way! They smell, they wear weird clothes, they like to roll in mud and only ever argue with each other! They fart and pick their nose and seriously, what is with those panties with the y-shape on them?!" Dai ranted.

"They're called briefs for boys, not panties. And that's not the only kind they wear." Mimi said.

"And I should point out you roll in mud, argue with us, fart, pick your nose, and sometimes you smell too." Taira pointed out.

"You smell!" Dai bit back, pouting.

"But yeah, once you have some hair on your head, how about you wake up on time and come here. I'm sure we can do something with your hair... It was pretty nice  when it was long." Yatsumi grinned.

"Of course, waking up on time will be a tough job for her." Takeko jabbed. Dai hissed back her reply.

"Yeah, I know, I sleep in a little! We don't all wake up before the alarm like..."

...Like who?

"...Like ...Sora!" Dai said, glad she knew. That had been strange. Oh well, she was maybe just a little tired still and her brain wasn't warmed up yet.

Yatsumi and Taira grinned.

"She gets up an hour before all of us. She has her alarm set early." Taira said.

"Don't let her know we know but she takes a long time to wake up properly..." Yatsumi winked conspiratorially.

"Don't worry, she won't let me know."

Yatsumi's ears drooped and the colour drained from her face. Taira, Dai, and Takeko all unconsciously shifted slightly further away from their fear-frozen sister.

"She's behind me isn't she."  Yatsumi stated the obvious.

The others simply nodded.

"Can Taira finish my hair before you kill me?"

"She can finish it before we bury you." Sora said simply. Yatsumi began trembling in terror.

***

A few days later, Dai lounged back in the gnome garden, for once not goofing off from her assigned duties. It was a fair-and-square, honest break. And she'd always liked this place.

Good sun. And Takeko always wandered down here and Dai could tease her about something.

Her ears perked up as she heard footsteps. A shadow fell on her.

"Dai... You're meant to stay in uniform even on a break." Takeko scolded.

"I am in uniform."

She'd checked the rulebook actually. It just said 'suitable clothing for your task' and gave a few examples. Sunbathing wasn't listed, and so Dai figured suitable clothing for the task was her underwear.

"Your skirt is meant to be on your legs, not on your face as a sunscreen! And where's your shirt?"

"Pillow." Dai shrugged.

"Argh!" Takeko yelled, tail swishing angrily.

"What's the problem?"

"You know I have the laundry tomorrow! Grass stains and creases? That'll be hell!"

Dai gasped in mock surprise.

"Takeko! You SWORE!"

"What? Oh come on, Dai, you've said much worse."

Dai giggled, sitting up.

"I know, dummy, just messing with you. If you don't want laundry, why not swap it around with... Taira. She likes laundry." Dai said. Takeko hissed.

"I'm not swapping out! And get dressed, it's weird talking to you like this."

"Spoilsport! How can it be weird, we're family?" Dai fake-pouted, but obeyed. Sometimes it was easy to go too far teasing her sister.

"We're also outside you idiot..." Takeko muttered, unheard by said idiot.

"So, did you want to talk to me about something?" Dai continued, her customary joke anytime Takeko got there second.

True, she'd only just thought it up, to imply the blonde was specifically looking for her, but surely even ideas a few seconds old could become customs?

"Actually, yeah, as a matter of fact. I'm a little worried about... Something."

Damn! Joke foiled! But wait...

"Ooooh! What is it? Monsters in the closet? Poltergeists? Zombie Dogs?" Dai said, with exaggerated but real interest.

"It's you." Takeko said bluntly.

"Huh?

"You've been kind of strange sometimes lately. Like... Normally you're quick to compare yourself to us, but you've been hesitating. Like you're forgetting us..."

Dai laughed.

"Forgetting you? Nah, I'm not an old cat with a faulty brain, I'm still a kitten with a fully working thinking muscle! Still under warranty!" Dai said proudly, ears at attention as she smirked.

"Are you sure it's fully working? Sometimes it seems defective." Takeko said in reply.

"You're a detective."

"...No, Defective."

Dai smirked again.

"If you're not a detective why are you investigating me?"

"Dai! I'm serious here. What's up?" Takeko said quickly. Dai noted now her sister seemed very tense.

Dai shrugged.

"Nothing. I guess I'm just trying to... Think it through. Make sure it's right. I mean, I don't want to say something weird."

Was it so weird to not want to be weird? Dai didn't think so.

Takeko relaxed a little.

"Weird? Like what?"

"Uh... We can't all be pretty like Takeko."

Takeko frowned.

"How is that weird? Are you saying I'm ugly?!"

"No, no. But who's the prettiest out of all us sisters?" Dai said, hands raised to calm her sister.

"...Mimi, of course."

Dai nodded.

"See? Weird if I pick the wrong one best at the wrong thing."

"Ow... That logic really hurts my brain. I guess you must be feeling okay then."

Takeko seemed far more relaxed now, and sat down while Dai tried to figure it out. Was it an insult? A compliment? Damn, where did she put that calculator. Wait, what use would that be?

"Anyway, got a question of my own." Dai continued as she dismissed the calculator equation. Takeko nodded.

"Did one of the gnomes get moved or taken away?"

"Huh? Why do you ask? They're all here..." Takeko trailed off.

"Okay, good . I dunno, just had a weird feeling something was missing when I got here."

Takeko sighed.

"Jeez. You'd forget your own name. You sure your brain is under warranty? We can get you a new one... Of course all eleven gnomes are here! Anyway, I'd better head back..."

"Oh, okay... Hey, there's Twelve!" Dai corrected. Damn it, how did Takeko manage to turn it into a way to tease her?!

The victorious blonde smirked and ran off. Dai sighed, and looked at her watch. Her break was over too.

***

Statues.

Freakin'. Statues.

Stupid. Freakin'. Statues.

Dusty. Stupid. Freakin'. Statues.

"How come you dumb hard-asses can't just go shower? Or do you take it for granite we'll keep washing you?" Dai taunted the assembled shapes in the gallery.

She realised it was a pity they were rocks that had no appreciation for comedy. Those puns had been gold, she though. Probably stolen gold, but still...

She didn't have an eye for art, or understand the names.

Wisdom. What was so smart about standing there naked with hands on hips, grinning like a spiky haired idiot? Every time Dai tried it Sora got mad... Then again, Dai was more detailed than these barbie-doll statues so maybe that was the trouble.

Love and Sincerity. Just leaning forward like a servant bowing or something, hands behind her back. Smiling like a dumb idiot too.

Faith... Again, what was so faithful about long-hair and barbie doll anatomy? It looked more proud than faithful. Faith should be praying, or showing trust somehow...

Kindess was weird. It had an unsettling face, even though it was smiling too. It was covering itself up. Maybe that was the kindness. Less surface area to dust...

And Knowledge and Reliability... Hoo, kitty. That was one dumb, dumb, dumb haircut. Dumber than Takeko this morning. And another pose not fitting the name. How was kneeling and covering up knowledgeable or reliable?

She climbed the ladder to dust the first one, which was actually not too bad just now. She liked it already. She'd like it more if it had got no coating of dust at all instead of a light one...

Still, it was kinda fitting given that this statue was called Light. The name didn't make sense to her at all though. It wasn't how easy it was to clean, and it wasn't any more lit up than the others, just more polished to reflect more. Now she looked at it, the way it was standing  helped tha too. It was holding an unlit torch aloft, with a shield in the other hand that was polished to reflect the faint glow of the small bulbs in the ceiling. But as for why it was called Light, it sure wasn't how not-heavy it was. It had to weigh a good two, three hundred kilos including the pedestal and that was not light at all.  

"For something called light you're nearly as heavy as Takeko!" Dai smirked.

She glanced around the room after hearing a small noise, then shrugged. She wasn't a scaredy-cat like...

Like...

Mimi?

Yeah. That was it. Maybe she'd just overdid her sun-bathing break.  Back to dusting.

***

Sora's heart was in her mouth. It was true. She saw Dai was completely unfocused, even for her. She'd barely noticed as her sister had entered. And now, she was staring in confusion at that statue...

At that statue! What was Dai remembering?

Sora went back to lock the door. The click alerted Dai.

"Huh? Oh, hi Sora. I'm just cleaning the... Did you lock the door there?" Dai said, sounding nervous.

"Yeah... Dai, we need to have a talk." Sora said, hand in her pocket, grasping that object.

That object she really hoped she didn't have to use. Not all the way. Maybe she'd been lucky. Maybe there was time to just reinforce her memory... She didn't want to have to lose another one...

"A... A talk?!" Dai's ears perked up in fear as her tail became rigid.

"Yeah..." Sora nodded, walking towards her petri... alarmed sister, hand still in pocket.

"Am I in trouble? Was it the sunbathing?! What did Takeko tell you?! I had clothes on!" Dai babbled.

Sora shook her head.

"It's not that. Takeko didn't tell me anything about that."

"Oh..." Dai relaxed. She then reverted back to fear.

"What did she tell you?!"

Something else occurred to her.

"What did I just tell you?! Oh crap! I... I'm Sora, sorry! Er..."

Sora couldn't help but smile hopefully. Maybe...

Maybe just a quick little boost to her memory.

"Hey, it's nothing. Calm down, sis. I just want to remind you the rules..." She said, edging closer. Dai stood in place. Sora drew her arms out, her hands out of her pocket.

Dai chose that moment to try and dodge. Surprised, Sora's attempt to hug became an effort to avoid stumbling. The object fell from her pocket and in a panic to stop Dai seeing it, Sora grabbed at it and hit the button.

The wrong button.

Pointed at the wrong thing.

"No!" Sora shrieked at her error. The beam was hitting Light full on, and it wasn't the memory beam! Dai was caught in the edge of the glow, but not enough to affect her.

Dai stared in surprise as her sister shrieked, her weird torch-phone-radio thing glowing.  She'd been in the beam's glow for a fraction of a second, not dead centre but a glancing wash away from it, and she felt funny now. And the statue, Light...

...The pale marble was turning pink. It held in place as it slowly stopped glowing, the grey-white fading to pale pink flesh. Then Light groaned, and toppled forward gently. Sora stared in shock, stammering.

Dai however simply had one prevailing thought at that moment, even as a strange muddle of ideas began surfacing.

'I did have way too much sun...'

***

What she could remember was... Hazy, at best. Long-term and short-term memory clashed trying to resurface first, recent and past in a battle to claim importance as all the poking and prodding and pushing that had coiled those thoughts up like a spring had come undone, and the compression on her mind had burst free.

A memory of a childhood party, talking with a grandmother dead at least five years, barely two years old and sitting in her father's lap delighted at some cartoon, playing with the cat, seeing battles and heartaches, tests in school, chores at home. A maelstrom of pointless information not needed now.

Then there was a memory, regret and pain in Sora's face and then…

I'm the prettiest statue…

Light was confident of that. All the rest had horrible poses, ugly shapes and sizes. It was the best! The others had such silly big rocks on their chests, while Light was proportioned well! Its shape let the light flow without making shadows and big ugly black patches.

It was even prettier than the cat-people who came in.  All because it had the right sculpting, and because it had picked out the best pose when it was made! Plus, it had props! The others had nothing nearly as special as a shield! Light reflected her namesake and held something that would make her namesake... But she was prettier with the dummy torch. A real one would cast shadows and shadows were so, so ugly.

There was the one It called Little Blondie, the shorter one with blonde hair She came in to clean the floors and thought Light thought that the uniform would have looked far better in a nice grey-granite than black, it wondered if maybe it would look better on it?

Little Blondie wasn't a very statuesque person from what Light saw. She didn't seem to be doing anything but moving around, cleaning. Never stopped and tried to be a pretty statue, never did anything but mopping. And for some reason Little Blondie had strings coming from her ears and was making a strange noise. Singing, they called it.

Singing was silly. Silence was golden.

Then some of the illuminations in the roof went wrong. One spotlight went out over a far less pretty statue, and Light was pleased. It meant less highlighting of sub-standard rocks when such a wonderful work of art like It was on display!

Two most unstatuesque maids came in that day, Big Blondie, a taller one, and a brown-haired one with triangular ears Light dubbed Pointy. Pointy simply pointed at the broken bulb as if that would do something, making those strange noises the maids made. Pointy held onto a stepladder, and Big Blondie climbed it. The two fleshy ones made more strange noises, and then they put more light in the roof.

The ugly statue was back in the light and Light wasn't pleased at this. Stupid maids! They should have left that light off. Why did living things have to interfere so much?!

And then the short-haired one it called Ranty came. Ranty ranted and raved, talking about showers. Stupid living thing! Showers were for outdoor statues and fountains! Light didn't tell them how to clean or interfere or make strange noises, what gave this ugly little thing the right to tell it what it should be?!

And the thing decided to clean Light first. Well, maybe it wasn't so bad. Clean statues were prettier, far prettier.

But Fire-Hair walked in quietly, making the door click. Fire-Hair and Ranty made odd noises again. Fire-Hair would have made a decent statue, Light figured. Not as pretty as It, but better than these stupid lumps that wasted space in Its gallery.

Then Fire-Hair had waved a small object and suddenly, Light was stunned. It was getting warmer, it was going back! It didn't want to go back! It was too pretty to be a living thing again!

She shook her head, dismissing those brainwashed memories. That wasn't important. Before wasn't important, she realised. Her days as a cat-girl maid were now gone entirely, not even a memory to anyone but her and a few others right now.

She didn't even know if her real self was anything but a memory to them too any more. Her days as a statue, brief though they were, only lingered because they had ended mere moments ago.

And now she remembered. She remembered the most important part. She turned her head and saw Sora standing up, face pale, and Hikari tried to do something, anything.

But she was still stiff. And if Sora was still the little enforcer for that bastard, then she would be stiff for a long time coming.


***

Dai shook her head, but Light was still a Human and not a statue. Sora still stared at it... Her... In horror.

"Oh god... A reverted statue might have to stay fully aware of what they were! Dai, you stupid... " Sora babbled, standing up. Light turned her head.

Sora raised the golden object, and aimed it.

"I'm sorry... It wasn't meant to be this way, you were meant to just have a statue's mind."

Dai didn't know why, but she was across the room and trying to calm her sister down.

"Sora, calm down!" She yelled. She tried to stop her from aiming that weird thing in case they broke more statues with it.

Sora looked at Dai in horror, eyes growing even wider as the younger catgirl slammed into her, misjudging momentum.

Her hand and arm in the middle of the pile. Something was pressed, and there was a glow.

Sora cried out. Dai cried out.

Hikari became a little more lucid, and saw the two shapes. Unmoving. Rigid.

And then Dai rolled off, clutching her head. Sora sat there still, her uniform gone away. All that remained was a marble statue of a catgirl. Her face had twisted into a smile.  The device, and a set of keys, lay beside her.

Shame she'd picked a terrible pose...

Dai rolled around, and then her eyes locked onto Hikari's. The catgirl stared before the silence was broken.

"...Hikari? Is that you... That your name?"

"Daisuke? How much do you remember?" Hikari said, trying to stand. Dai...Suke stood easier, and helped Hikari over to lean on a pedestal.

"I... I don't know. I'm... My head's a mess."

Hikari chuckled.

"Remembering random things?"

"I think so. Why? Why am I..."

Dai's eyes widened. They glanced at the human and unclothed Hikari.

Daisuke blushed and closed their eyes.

"You were close to the beams. And your conditioning must have been breaking down already a little for Sora to have been trying something. Guess the assmaster needs better brain bleach for his brainwashing..." Hikari chuckled grimly, ignoring the fact that her Daisuke and not Dai had surfaced for a minute there.

"I don't get it." Dai said, eyes still closed.

"Open your eyes and grab that golden Digivice." Hikari tried to instruct, but Dai shook her head.

"No way!  You're... Naked. It'd be rude to stare at a girl with no clothes."

"You're a girl too just now!" Hikari snapped.

Dai opened her eyes.

"Oh... Yeah. Heh. Sorry, Hikari. Um, what's... Why were you a statue and..."

"No time for questions, okay? Just pick up that Digivice and revert another statue up close. The beams effect a change, it might have a cure effect it you're only in the beam's backwash."

Dai stared.

"What?"

"Look, Daisuke, do you trust me?"

Dai considered this.

"...I don't trust anything just now. I'm confused and freaked out. Is this a dream?" Dai asked.

Hikari thought for a moment. She had to convince Dai to do this somehow, and though it felt a little cruel to lie...

"Yes. It's a dream. And it can be a better dream if you just pick that up, walk up to that statue there, aim it at it, and press the button..." She said, pointing at Miyako, or rather, Love and Sincerity.

Dai nodded.

"Okay! Um, how will the dream get better?"

"It'll answer questions." Hikari said, hoping she was right.

Dai obediently did so. Hikari tried not to think about how confused Dai was about to get. She'd have a catgirl personality in there shunted to one side and confused while the original personality came back. Hikari was still feeling brief moments of confusion wondering where her tail was, and she had no idea how Dai's two personalities were going to react.

Dai reverted the statue.

Hikari watched as again, the catgirl clutched her head, and another former-statue teetered over and fell from her pedestal. Miyako landed with a grunt, as the catgirl began recovering. Hikari gingerly walked over to her rescued friend, putting a hand on Miyako's shoulder.

"Hi... Hikari... What... Why am I here? Weren't we captured and..."

"Sssh, Miyako. Just sit down and let your mind sort it out. We're getting out of here."

"WHOA! What the hell?!" a third voice cried. Hikari looked at the catgirl.

Daisuke was covering his eyes, and she wanted to laugh, scream, and get angry as she saw her friend still peeking from a small gap in the fingers.

"Daisuke? Why are you dressed as a girl?" Miyako managed to say.

Daisuke looked down.

She froze.

She slowly moved a hand to prod her chest.

The former boy turned very pale.

"W...What the... I'm... I'm a girl..."

"Daisuke, I'm sympathetic with your problem here, I've been one since I was born, but we need to focus." Hikari said, trying not to snap. It must be even more confusing to be the wrong gender all of a sudden...

Daisuke shook hi... Her head and did as she was told again.

"...Hikari, tell me what I'm remembering isn't true."

Hikari sighed, still trying not to believe it herself, but this was the first time in what felt like years she was really herself, and she knew this mind she had now was what she had been before.

"I'm sorry. It is true. We're the only three of us not brainwashed or petrified. And I think we might have been made a little younger when we were all transformed, but like that's a huge problem just now."

"Wait... Am I even younger than my brothers and sisters now? Crap..." Miyako muttered.

Daisuke considered the words of both girls for a moment, then looked horrified.  Hikari suddenly remembered why they had got here in the first place.

The boy-turned-catgirl looked like she was about to burst into tears at first.

"Jun... That guy... He kidnapped my big sister..."

Eyes closed. Daisuke saw two images in her mind. One of a smiling, but sometimes annoying older girl that resembled her, and of that same face smiling in grey stone atop the fountain...

Eyes opened. Sadness gone, anger there.

"That bastard kidnapped my big sister." Daisuke growled.

Daisuke stood, and Hikari wondered what was going through her friend's mind.

"Hikari. Help Miyako wake up properly. I'm going to get you two some clothes and then we're going to get out of here. With everyone else, and back to normal."

Daisuke rushed out of the gallery, leaving the two humans-turned-catgirls-turned-statues-turned-humans behind to try and recover their minds and bodies a little more.

***

Daisuke returned with two uniforms, not including the one she wore. Upon her return Miyako was back on her feet, though there was a problem that Daisuke suddenly recalled.

"Miyako… You're nearsighted, aren't you?"

The purple-haired girl nodded as Daisuke neared.

"Yeah. You're a blur, but Hikari's in focus."

The two humans dressed as the catgirl kept watch. Miyako's movements were sluggish, only fair since apparently she'd been in the same pose for the last three years, so Hikari and Daisuke had to give her a hand.

"Daisuke... We could try the device to fix you."  Miyako spoke up soon after Hikari returned to dressing herself.

"No time to mess about with it. We could be found any minute..." Daisuke shook her head.

"No, I... I remember what I did to get turned into one of the statues. I found that device and set it off. It reverted my memory a little and I freaked out. That's all I remember before I thought I was the prettiest statue in the universe..."

"No you weren't. I was." Hikari teased.

"We can try, but I'd prefer we made sure we were safe before we tried doing anything to fix everyone else... Or this." Daisuke replied, holding up the device.

"Just one go? I think I know the setting."

Daisuke gave in, and allowed Miyako to fiddle with the device for a few seconds.

"Okay... Uh... Hikari, can you try it, I can't aim so well..."

Hikari did so, and Daisuke flinched a little as the beam struck. It didn't turn her into a statue, but... It didn't do anything else.

Well, her hair and fur stood on end but that was it.

"No change?" Miyako asked, seeing the tail still swishing.

"None... Daisuke, any memories changed?" Hikari said, crestfallen. The boy-turned-catgirl shook her head.

"No. Nothing. Just a lot of static. I guess we'd need his to have full power to revert... If we can revert."

Hikari and Miyako flinched. They were normal enough physically except it seemed a slight age regression if Hikari remembered correctly, but everyone else wasn't. Sora was a statue, Mimi was a catgirl, and the boys were variously catgirls or girl-statues on top of any age regression.

"I'm sure we can get back to normal. I mean, we can try to change the settings at least..." Hikari stammered, but Daisuke shook her head once again.

"We can't waste the time. We need to save everyone else, stop that bastard, and then we can worry about things like that. They're less important." Daisuke said.

"What do you mean?" Miyako enquired.

"I'm saying this right now. I'd rather walk out of here like this than not walk out of here at all. "

There was a noise behind them, and quick as a flash, Daisuke had grabbed the device and had tried to wave it threateningly.

However, despite all recent signs of competence and bravery, she was still Daisuke, and a finger slipped.

"Aaaagh!"  Takeko yelped as she was blasted by the beam. The blonde former-boy slumped onto her knees, clutching her head.

"Whoops."

The three watched as Takeko whined, holding her head.

"This might sound weird, but I have to admit I think Takeru made a really cute girl." Miyako said. Daisuke ignored that, and went over to check on her friend.

"Takeru... You okay?"

"D...Daisuke? What did you just... Oh god..." The blonde murmured.

"It's okay, Takeru. Your memories will sort themselves out." Hikari said, not really sure if she was in fact remembering everything yet.

"Oh god, I..." Takeru wailed again. Daisuke wondered how best to handle this. She was a male mind in a female body now, and even if the persona of Dai would have hugged her "sister", well... Daisuke wasn't so ready to hug.

"It's okay. At least you're a cute girl, right?" Daisuke joked.

Takeru looked up, red-eyed.

"...Just run away from here! I'm sorry!"

"Sorry for what?" Hikari asked, on alert.

"Oh crap..." Miyako suddenly said. Takeru began sobbing.

"What? What is it?" Daisuke enquired.

"He... She... Takeru was... Takeko was the one who I told about what happened when I broke my conditioning. I thought I could trust her. But Sora came to me soon after because she'd been told about what I said."

Hikari and Daisuke regarded the unwilling traitor, who seemed to be even more depressed by Miyako's recollection.

"I'm sorry... I betrayed you all..." She sobbed.

Hikari knelt down and hugged the blonde.

"It's okay. You were being controlled into it all. You did it out of worry. We don't blame you for telling Sora about our conditioning breaking down."

"Th...That's not all I did though! You have to run!" Takeru virtually screamed.

At this point, three others rushed into the gallery. Taira, Mimi, and Yatsumi evaded an accidental memory revert as Daisuke managed not to fire.

"Dai? Takeko? What's going on? Who are these humans?" Taira asked.

"Taichi, it's me!" Hikari said, pleased to see her big brother again... Well, big sister.

Daisuke sighed.

"Shut up a second, guys. I'm busy. Takeru, why do we have to run?"

The younger blonde sobbed as the other three newly arrived catgirls stared at who they knew as Dai in surprise.

"Why do we have to run?" Daisuke repeated.

"I told him!" Takeru screamed.

"And a very good girl you were to do so. My loyal maids, hibernate!"

The Master walked in, issuing his order. Taira, Yatsumi, and Mimi stiffened to attention, eyes blank and vacant.

Daisuke tried to use the device, but found she couldn't move an inch as The Master had raised his device first. With a flash, Hikari, Miyako, and Daisuke found themselves paralysed.

"A valiant but foolish escape attempt, Daisuke. Even if you'd got a beam off, my little device has the one and only shield that repels the beam. Call it an ultimate failsafe. I never let this one go...  Just like I'm not letting any of you monsters go."

He grinned as he advanced.

"Now then, my loyal catgirls in hibernation. Ignore my words and forget all that happened. Await my command. I'll need you to clean up all my new statues soon."

The three catgirls in a trance voiced obedience in a single voice. The three paralysed victims tried to struggle. The Master neared them.

Takeru leapt up and tried to attack. The Master simply punched her aside and then blasted her prone form.

"Aaaah!" She cried out. She wasn't turned to stone, but instead was paralysed, and with pain into the bargain.

"I hate little turncoat cowardy cats, you know. Enjoy the suffering for the double betrayal before I figure out something else. Something as ugly as a traitor can't go in my gallery... Maybe I'll do what Piedmon didn't and keep you as a key fob forever. After all, you can't run away this time, Takeru." The Master taunted.

He walked up to Daisuke.

"No sharp witty retorts? No rebukes? No threats? My my, Daisuke. You are a boring little Gogglehead when you're completely paralysed..."

The Master then punched Daisuke in the stomach, allowing the unfortunate living statue she had become to topple.

"How would you all like to hear my evil schemes? How I got this device to do all it can? Where shall we start? "

"First, I made this pocket dimension. The flow of time is faster here in this portion of the Digital World. One minute of time in the main Digital World and Real World is a month of time in this dimension. I slowed my aging to a near stop while I'm here, the same with you and your regressed ages. In here, I'm a god, without limits, and immortal."

He gave the paralysed Hikari a stroke of her chin, and then turned to kick Takeru.

"I hope to extend it all. This dimension is what holds back your real memories, or, is supposed to at least. The physical changes seem to stick out there, but out there your memories would all flow back eventually. I experimented a little on a French Digidestined I caught snooping around the entrance to my dimension. Tried to brainwash her, change her physically."

He sighed.

"Outside for just five minutes, she had remembered her name. I put a copy of her mind on one of my discs, then turned her into a full cat and dumped her in Paris to see what happened for such a drastic change. It's only been a couple of weeks for her though. I've kept track of her, and she seems to be a very scared little cat. Still partly human in mind, I think. She should have reverted from the cat-persona I tried to give her, but... Her brain is so much smaller now. "

He laughed.

"Her mind barely fit onto one portable hard disc. That's a whole Terabyte, and the human head seems to have a capacity for a lot more. There's more copies in my office, but I like to hold onto this one. Her mind and my notes. But that cat brain? It's barely one gigabyte. Like a DVD being stuffed onto a floppy drive... Some information compressed, and a lot just discarded. "

He produced two small portable drives from a pocket, placing them down beside the statue-Sora.

"Still, no point worrying about her. You were the main event! The main tests. I had to make sure conditioning held inside my bubble before I changed the whole Digital World to this. It's the only way. Digimon are dangerous, you Digidestined are dangerous too. And it seems so far it hasn't worked despite my failsafes... Five years of work that seems to not work at all." The white-haired sadist sighed, and sat down on Sora's petrified form.

"A shame really. Unless I can add a way for reconditioning, once it's broken it never sticks again. I'll make you into victory monuments once I have this whole world as I want it to save the Earth from your threat. "

He closed his eyes.

"It's so obvious. People like Ken, they are the prime example. A powerful living weapon at their hands, used for evil. Use that on Earth, what happens? How can we trust you for long? I have to render you harmless and seperate the Digital World from Earth. I could have killed you all, but I'm not a monster. Not like you..."

He opened his eyes once more.

"I want happiness, and I wouldn't deny it to you. Catgirls are harmless, happy, and cute to boot. Statues are even more harmless and even more happy. And since you're all trying to break free and you're all unhappy, as little a danger you present just now it's time to make you more harmless. Maybe even happy again, who knows. But perhaps a few changes are in order?"

He smirked now, stood, and went back over to Hikari.

"Maybe you and Daisuke could be boyfriend and girlfriend as statues? You'd be the boy, of course, Hikari. How about Hikaru? That a nice name for you as a boy?"

He stood back, ready to start his changes.

"I like you as a girl, Hikari, you were pretty. Especially when you were your real age. Still, I'm sure by the standards of a woman you'd be a cute little teenage boy once I'm done."

He never got to fire. He was tackled by a blur of brown, and swiftly disarmed.

Taira paralysed him, and quickly freed the four others. Takeru and Daisuke groaned, Miyako breathed a sigh of relief, and Hikari stared at her sibling, hope and concern in her eyes.

"Taichi... Are you back or..." She hesitated.

"Hikari... I... I don't know what's happening here but... I couldn't let him hurt you. You're my little sister... You're all my sisters..." Taira mumbled. Hikari moved to hug her anyway.

Daisuke stood, clutching her sore stomach, and then cried out.

"Watch out!"

It was too late. The Master had stood, pulled out another device, and had petrified Hikari and Taichi into an embracing statue, their uniforms vanishing away.

"Well, it seems familial bonds are too strong, fabricated by me or as a quirk of genetics. I'll have to remember that..." The Master growled. He blasted and petrified Takeru, who slowly turned to stone screaming. Daisuke guessed the sadistic white-haired bastard was inflicting more pain.

Then as he blasted Miyako, her body shifting her hands behind her back into the servant-pose that had been Love and Sincerity,  Daisuke realised something. She still had a device.

It was worth a try. The shield the Master mentioned was on the first device, and it must have been broken to petrify Taichi and Hikari. It was still in Taichi's hand, not stone.

Daisuke's device was still there as well. Daisuke aimed. The Master was aiming his at her.

Her beam covered him, firing that second earlier. His beam seemed to just melt into her own attack. Equal strengths, for his main device, if he hadn't been lying, was lying in the hands of a statue.

The Master stood, convulsing for a second in the glow. And then he screamed.

His hair turned to stone and crumbled to dust. His skin began to sprout fur and jagged shards of stone in some places, while in others it became softer or alternately wrinkled.. His chest expanded into what seemed to be first a pair of breasts, then another and another, down his torso. They all appeared to be made of solid stone, forcing his back to give a distressing crack as it became overstressed from the weight.

Bones cracked as his leg tried to become a tail even as it began patchily petrifying.  His hand turned to rock and then grew fur. One of his eyes turned to stone and leaked blood. An ear tore itself in half, half trying to become a cat ear, the other turning to stone. Some skin petrified, cracked, and reverted into weeping wounds. One foot became that of an infant. A hand was withered like a centuries old mummy... His left shoulder ballooned, his right hip was shrinking in on itself.

And then, Daisuke stopped the beam, and The Master was for a brief second, a mess. Bleeding from cuts and tears of patchy petrification, he gurgled.

And then collapsed, petrified insides shattering. And then the device he had held glowed.

"What now..." Daisuke murmured. Her device glowed too. She looked around. The others were turning back, and those that had been statues less time were as alert as Daisuke was.

"Daisuke... I think that..." Hikari began, as there was an ominous rumble. Some of the lights began to grow brighter, bursting, and even exploding.

"We have to get out of here now! Everyone, come on!"

"Daisuke... What happened?" Sora said. She wasn't disorientated from her brief petrification, but from the effects of the brainwashing.

"I'll explain later, Sora, just follow us!" Daisuke said, grabbing the two hard discs.

Those who could grabbed a staggering former-statue. Yatsumi... Yamato, and Mimi were both looking very bewildered, but had quickly helped the still dazed and gasping Takeru up. Hikari, Miyako, and Tai helped the three former statues that had reverted to Ken, Jyou, and Iori.

"Wait... The.... the Digimon in the gnome garden..." Takeru said, gasping as the pain from The Master's painful attacks.

Daisuke was ashamed to remember something all the action and chaos had made her forget again.

"Jun... Jun is out there too!"

They were almost out into the garden as the walls began to crack.

"Move!"  Someone shouted. As they ran, they heard the rumble of collapsing stone behind.  And even the garden was in trouble.

Trees were growing, or shrinking back to saplings, or dying. Plants were blooming and withering in seconds, the grass was turning green and tall, patchy and yellow, into mud and patches.

And in the Gnome Garden, their Digimon. All disorientated, all suffering the effects of the long petrification.

Daisuke couldn't see the fountain from here. Had Jun fallen?

"Mimi, hold Ken!" Daisuke said, rushing off.  She neared the fountain, and saw that yes, the statue there had fallen, reverted to human, but it was on the other side of the pedestal and she couldn't see properly.

If it was her, really her... She had to be okay, She had to be okay. She could be annoying sometimes but damn it... Who was it that had always helped with homework? Who had bought that first soccer ball? Who was it paid to go see that World Cup match for a birthday?

Daisuke reached the fountain, and saw a fleshy foot in the water on the other side.

And then everything exploded in a flash of white.

And then there was blackness.

***

Daisuke groaned, waking up. She blinked, and looked around at the emptiness.

There were some scattered objects. A few maid-dresses seemed to be lying roughly where the bedrooms were, and a strongbox seemed to mark where the office had been. The remains of the twisted trees, and some rubble, but it looked less like nearly every scrap of the mansion and grounds had vanished, and more like someone had carved out a barren wasteland in the middle of a Digital World forest.

Other than those few bits that hadn't went away with the pocket dimension, the place was completely bare, not even the grass was left behind in meaningful quantities. The prone forms of everyone else lying off a little way.  The Digimon were sprawled out too, groaning. And nearer to Daisuke...

She rose to her feet, rushing over. Brown hair like hers and an older girl, much older now...

"Jun! Jun, are you okay?"

She groaned, moving stiffly,

"...Dai.... Daisuke? Is that you? Where am I..."

She blinked.

"Wait. you're a girl. You're not Daisuke. Sorry about.."

Daisuke cut her off.

"Uh, I am, sis... Long story..."

Around them in the shattered wreckage of the burst pocket dimension, the other Digidestined awoke. They had reverted from stone, but that was all. Some memories were coming back, but not all. Confusion reigned briefly until everyone was semi-lucid again.

"So, uh... What now?" Ken asked, very concerned at her new body. She wasn't too worried that Miyako was hugging her, but Ken could only see complications ahead.

"Well... I'm not sure how much we all remember or if we even remember anything real at all any more. But I think we're going to have to head home and figure this out." Daisuke said.

Everyone agreed, albeit with some hesitation over the changes that were not reverting...

"Hey guys, cheer up. We can figure this out and get cured eventually, right?" Daisuke grinned.

"And if we can't?" Takeru asked, still a little down over all she had done.

"Well... Jun always said she'd have preferred a sister."

It wasn't a good joke even as somewhat an example of gallows humour, but Takeru managed to smile anyway.

"No, brat, I wanted a cat..."

"Well, you have both! And so does Hikari." Taichi smirked, joining in on the inappropriate humour.

"If you think I'm going to let you sleep on the end of my bed like Miko did you've got another thing coming..."

A little cheered up, the Digidestined went for home, and to try and get on with their lives. Time wasn't a factor, they soon learned. They had only been gone a few hours in the real world.

But in those few hours, they had lived for years that may have changed them forever.