Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You wake slowly to the world. The beeping dragging you from the unconscious hellhole you were trapped in. You felt the waters of the dark ocean compelling you to return. But no, the digimon world had long since been closed off. That was what had started the descending madness, the clogging feeling of nothing be right within. The silence that stretched between you and Daisuke, grown until there was nothing but pain and horror keeping you there...

You snap your eyes open when the thought occurs to you, listening to the beeping of the monitor pick up as your heart races faster. You remember seeing your body in the shadows of the room. You remember...you remember Yamato coming over, Daisuke having skipped another Digidestined meeting. Daisuke having kept you from another meeting, by deciding not to go. You take a breath, closing your eyes against the thoughts. You were so sure that you had died. You were so sure you were dead when you left that room.

"I think he's waking up,"

The words roll over you, an unknown voice speaking to someone else in the room. Everything hurts. You feel the pain throb through you, reminding you that you are indeed alive. And yet....you let yourself sink into the background noise of doctors and nurses moving. The thought of being alive is too much for you to handle and you let yourself slide into the seductive embrace of drug induced sleep.

It's several seconds, or minutes-you're unsure in your cocoon of darkness-when you next wake up, this time more fully. The pain is still there, however dull and you can hear voices speaking, just close enough for you to make out words.

"-leave him like this," the first said and you try to pick out who was speaking.

"Daisuke is currently in police custody. What if he doesn't wake up though Yamato?"

You had seen Yamato when he showed up. You remember walking past him, accepting your fate. You had embraced the relief in finally being set free. Free from expectations, free from terror, the horror. Free from the loneliness. Now, you were tethered once more. Tethered to a reality you did not want to exist in. You had seen it grow in Daisuke, the darkness that you once recall having been in yourself. You ignored it, arguing with yourself that it couldn't be possible, but here you were...

"Doctor said he was conscious, even for a brief moment, this morning." Yamato said, voice sounding tired. "There's still hope."

"I thought Takeru had the crest of hope?"

"Everyone can have hope." Yamato snorted. "I'm worried about a friend, how about that? Besides, what are you doing here? Didn't you have to work today Taichi?"

"Well, I came by to check on Ken," Taichi protested. "I haven't been able to get you to answer your messages. You really should work on that by the way. Have you even left the hospital since...?"

"Of course I have." There's a lull and you wonder if you should move, let them know that you're awake. But you hear the sound of ocean waves lapping against your skin, feel their chill touch you and your heart skips a beat. You don't want to go back under, you don't want to return to the darkness that awaits. You focus harder on the conversation, trying to gather as much information as possible.

"They're going to convict him, even if Ken does pull through." It was Taichi that spoke and you want to cry out, tell them that this was your fault, but the words don't leave your mouth. "He was clinicly dead for several minutes."

"They have his heart going," Yamato replies. "He's going to live. That just leaves...Daisuke then, doesn't it?"

"And the aftermath of what this will do to Ken." Taichi points out and you want to sob, but you lay there, a prisoner in your own body. The ocean pulls you in harder and you succumb to the desire to no longer be present.

It's longer still, you think, before you resurface again, but this time you open your eyes. You stare into the dim lights, listening to the beeping of the monitor and you allow yourself a small, faint smile. There's soft background of music, and when you turn your head ever so slightly, you see a rumpled Yamato sitting in a chair, his eyes closed and his breathing even. The sight relaxes you in a way, and you stay like that before you move your head again, to look up at the lights.

You wonder what time it is. You wonder what happened. When you see a nurse, you raise a hand to them, watching them blink before realizing that you were awake. The nurse comes in, and you nod at her, unsure how to ask your question. So many of them run through your head and with Yamato sleeping in the chair....

"How long has it been?" You ask, voice hoarse from lack of use.

The nurse moves, picking up a file and studying what was inside before responding, "you've been in a coma for five weeks now Mr. Ichijouji. We were uncertain you would wake up. You were declared dead on scene, revived on the ambulance ride to the hospital. They had you pegged dead for nine minutes."

"Thank you," you say, thoughts whirling as you try and take in the information. Your hands twist in the sheets and you want to ask why they bothered to try and save you. Your eyes land on Yamato again, and you think you understand. You close your eyes, listening to the nurse leave the room once she is satisfied that you are okay.

This time, you fall into a restful sleep, nothing calling out to you. And when you wake fully once more, you are nearly disappointed to see that Yamato is gone. You sit up, propping yourself against the wall, moving the pillows out of the way. It feels strange as you look around, wondering where the time went. It had seemed just like yesterday that...

"Ken?"

You glance towards the door, looking at the framed person in there before she stepped in, a relieved smile on her face. "Oh my god! You're awake," she said and you take in the sight of the purple haired girl. You recall having fought against her, having fought against them all, and you question for the briefest moments what you had done to deserve such good friends.

"Good morning Miyako," you say, voice still hoarse. "If by awake, you mean in pain, yes I am quite awake." The words are strange tumbling from your mouth. You're not even sure if it was morning at all.

"I'll let Yamato know you're awake." Miyako says and disappears before you can ask her why. You tip your head back, closing your eyes and try to consider your options. If they saved you, then they knew... The thought turns your stomach and you quickly think of anything else. You close your eyes before reopening them to find a figure standing in the doorway.

"It's good to see you awake Ken," Yamato says, taking a step into the room and nodding at you. Your gaze lands on the small object held in his hands, mouth opening when you recognize Leafmon.

"The digiportal is open?" You ask, watching Leafmon wiggle out of Yamato's arms and hop onto your bed. You move your arms, careful of the wires keeping you attached the machine and hug Leafmon to you, gaze trained on Yamato.

"Yes, as of four months ago. It happened a week prior to when you stopped coming to meetings." Yamato explains, choosing his words carefully and you nod. That was when you noticed something off, but you did not say anything because you were too dumb to. So long, you had been known as genius, and look where that's gotten you now.

"Is Ken going to be okay?" Leafmon asks and you place a hand on his head, nodding.

"I'll be okay," you promise before looking up at Yamato. You see the concern unspoken in his eyes but you shake your head, not wanting to bother your partner. It was so good to have him back after so long.

"You're welcome to stay with Taichi and I, once you're given a clean bill of health. We have a guest bedroom." Yamato offers and you nod, dropping your gaze to Leafmon.

"I would appreciate it, thank you. And Yamato, if the portal is open..." You hesitate, then shake your head. You're still not sure if that's what really was happening. There was no reason to worry them, not now. "Never mind, I will tell you later."

You see Yamato hesitate, but nod after a moment. "Your D-3," he adds, patting his pocket and walking further into the room. He sets it on the table next to you and you nod, offering him a small smile in way of thanks. He takes a step back, meeting your gaze once more before leaving the room. You look down at Leafmon, clutching him tighter to your chest and ignoring the way your body protests with pain as you calculate how long it had been.

Chapter Text

It's been several weeks now since you've woken up in the hospital. And today is the day that you were allowed to leave. Wormmon sits on the bed next to you, a change of clothes having been brought in by Yamato at some point, though you don’t remember him bringing them. He's not there, but Taichi is, discussing with some doctor or another and you were left to gather your thoughts.

You wonder if there would always be the dull pain in your heart, knowing that you couldn’t save Daisuke from corruption.

"Ken?"

"Yes Wormmon?" You ask, turning to glance at him, meeting his bright eyes. He had done so much in the past few weeks, and you are grateful that he was there to help you get better at every step.

"Is everything going to be okay?" Wormmon ask and you frown. You're unsure how to answer his question, unsure of how to explain. It hurts to admit that you don’t know if everything will be okay or not.

"We're going to stay with Yamato and Taichi while we figure things out. There's a lot I have missed since I've been in the hospital. Tonight, we'll meet with the others and figure out where to go from there. With the portal being open..." You hesitate, recalling the day following Yamato dropping on Leafmon. Leafmon was sleeping next to you, when he came in.

He seemed to be in a rush, but he took time to gather his thoughts. He had given you a grimace before taking a seat and meeting your gaze. "I'm sorry to bring this up, but..."

"Is it regarding the state I was found in?" You ask, keeping your voice steady. You had thought about it. You remember leaving the room, leaving it all behind. But yet...here you were. And you had to wonder, if you saw him again, could you forgive him?

"Why didn't you reach out to anyone?" Yamato had asked, concern in his voice and you sighed, shoulders slumping. This was something you didn't think you could explain. You had been unable to voice what was happening behind closed doors. You didn’t have the words to explain the change, so you went with something you could handle saying.

"I was sure I was dead," you say, to break the silence that had fallen. "When you showed up, opened the door...I was sure I was gone. But, I woke up here instead. There are things that I cannot begin to explain. That time is one of them. Several months ago, something changed in Daisuke. I thought that it was the loss of V=mon, even after several years since we had seen them. Maybe, it had been too much for him to handle. It would coincide with the digiportal being open…” The thought lingered and you wanted to laugh at the connections. Why hadn’t you seen them earlier?

“Tell me, is he still in jail?" You ask, recalling the half remembered conversation when you floated in and out of consciousness. You didn’t tell them that you had heard that particular conversation, you hadn’t wanted to. It had seemed too private to mention.

"How did you...?" Yamato frowned at that, studying you with a look you can’t place in his eye before he shakes his head. "He disappeared, a week ago. We've been searching for him, but there's been no sign. Here or there."

"There's something in him, a survival instinct that won't let up. You won't find him until he wants to be found. I am sorry Yamato, I don't know if I will be much help." You say, gaze landing back on Leafmon. "I don't know if I have it in me."

"We aren't asking you to fight, only for you to get better." Yamato said, glancing around the room, looking at anything other than you. There is something unspoken in those words and you wonder what they have been discussing behind closed doors. "We just...I want to make sure that you are okay."

"Ken?"

You let the memory wash away, glancing down at Wormmon with a smile. "I think we'll be okay," you say, to answer his earlier question.

"As long as I'm with you Ken," Wormmon says, and you nod, getting up and changing into the clothes. It felt nice, being in something that you owned, rather than the hospital provided gowns. You hold out your arms, picking up Wormmon and bringing him to your chest. There had been a bit of an argument when the nurse had first seen him, protesting that animals weren't allowed. A few words with Taichi and Yamato got the staff to agree that Leafmon could stay. You were glad that he was there.

You glance up when you see a shadow at the door, turning to look at Taichi with a small nod. "Thank you for the offer of a place to stay." You say, watching him nod in response.

"Not a problem, it's the least we could do. I'm glad that you're doing better," Taichi says, stepping to the side so you could leave the room. You glance at him, returning your gaze to Wormmon as you ponder his question. Were you going to be okay, even after everything? Would it ever be okay?

There were wounds that wouldn’t heal, that you were sure of.

You nod as Taichi leads you out of the hospital, the paperwork having been completed earlier that day. You were glad to be gone, though your memories tumbled back and forth. You remember visiting the dark ocean while you were asleep. You remember everything that Daisuke had done. You had replayed it, again and again, hoping to find a break where you had it wrong. And that is what you were doing as Taichi took you to his car. That is what you tried to consider, again and again, as he drove. A way to have changed it, a way to prove that the Daisuke doing those things wasn't truly Daisuke.

But after all the careful consideration, there was nothing left. There were no answers you could find. And, deep down, you knew it wasn't like a fairy tale. Sometimes, things just happened. And this is what you did while Taichi drove.

***

You glance towards you digimon as you look around the kitchen, trying to come up with something to eat. Taichi had offered to pick up Ken from the hospital, to which you had gratefully passed over to him. You were preparing for the homecoming in a way. You had told the others that you would message them if they were able to come, but at this point, you were unsure. You hadn't wanted to overwhelmed Ken off the bat but now...

"What are you looking for Yamato?" The digimon asks as you close the fridge with a sigh.

"Food, but it looks like we forgot to go food shopping. Or someone ate all the food." You respond, picking up your phone and sending Taichi a message, asking him to stop at a store on the way, if Ken didn't mind. “The others may be coming over as well,”

"We had a meeting yesterday as well. Are we having another one so soon?" Gabumon asks, watching as you head over to the dish rack, putting up dishes for something to do. You couldn't sit still long enough.

"Ken is coming to stay with us for a while. We thought it might be good to have a get together with everyone, if he feels up to it." You say, glancing over at Gabumon. He shuffles over, helping you carry dishes to be put away.

"And if he isn't?" Gabumon asks.

"They won’t be coming over, not as of yet. But, it’s also a good idea to give Ken space." You hesitate, frowning.

"Have you told him what we found?" Gabumon asks and you shake your head.

"We aren't sure what that is. Koushiro is still looking into it, you know." You say, placing the silverware away and holding up a spoon as you spoke. Gabumon shuffles to the side as you put the spoon in its place. “We’re hoping it’s not what it seems like it may end up being.”

"Yamato..." Gabumon drops his hands once they're done, and you can hear Agumon shuffling through the living room.

"Is Taichi home yet? I'm hungry," Agumon says and you laugh, walking over and patting his head.

"Are you the reason we don't have food?" You ask, raising an eyebrow.

"We wanted a late night snack and neither of you were awake." Agumon says, gesturing towards Gabumon. Gabumon shakes his head, shuffling to the side. "Sorry," he adds, looking up at you.

You glance at your phone, reading through Taichi's message before nodding. "Taichi will bring food home with him. I wish you had told us this morning, we would have been more prepared than we are now."

"We're growing digimon," Agumon says with a sniff.

"You're always hungry whether you’re growing or not." You protest stretching and glancing between the two digimon. It had been lonely without them, even living with Taichi. You're glad they're back, and you were going to make sure it was for good this time. You don't think any of you could go through having your partners and friends taken away from you, not again.

You glance up when you hear the bell ring, heading into the main hall of the apartment and peeking through the peephole, opening the door to wave Takeru in.

"What are you doing here?" You ask, Takeru taking off his shoes and heading into the dining room area, the other two digimon having left, a tv clicking on in the background.

"I'm here to suggest not doing the thing that you're planning on doing." Takeru says, taking a chair and sitting down in it. He glances up at you as you raise an eyebrow, looking down at him.

"And what is it that I'm going to do?" You ask.

"You're going to tell him what we found in the Digiworld." Takeru says, and you see Patamon squirm free of his bag, flying to watch whatever show Gabumon and Agumon had turned on.

"He's going to find out, wouldn't it be better if we told him?" You ask, sitting down in a chair and letting out a sigh.

"Yes, he is going to find out, but it shouldn't be right after he gets out of the hospital Yamato," Takeru points out and you shake your head. "Do we even have concrete proof that is what happened to Daisuke?"

"V-mon," you say as you look at your brother. "When Gabumon and I saw him... It wasn't the same V-mon that we knew. He's turned Takeru. Look at what happened between him and Ken."

"Do you think this is the same thing that happened to Ken, before we knew him?" Takeru asks and you stare at him, a frown etched on your features. After everything that had happened prior, after everything that you and your friends had suffered, you had felt hopeless when the digiportal had closed, when you couldn't find your partners. You spent years recovering, years of working through emotional damage. And now, you were back here, about to do it all again.

This time, it had to end differently. You were going to make sure it ended differently.

"I don't have the answers, I wish I did." You whisper. "I wish he hadn't disappeared from police custody, but what more can we do now? Other than be here for our friend."

"Isn't it strange, how the past seems to be repeating itself?" Takeru stands up, looking around the apartment. "I'll be here for Ken, I don't know what will come of it though. He's going to find out what happened, and he may end up blaming himself. There were days, back before, that some of us wondered, what if we had met Ken before he became the Kaiser?"

"We'll see what happens." You turn, heading back to the kitchen. Maybe there was something you could make to pass the time. You doubted it, you had checked everywhere before this. But, maybe this time you could find something to distract yourself from the thoughts running rampant in your mind.

Chapter Text

You look up as the car stops, getting out of it. Wormmon sits on your shoulder as you look up at the complex. Taichi had made a stop for food, wanting to get your opinion on what you wanted, and you had happily agreed, glad to be away from the insistent hospital noises. Away from a room that was dark, away from anything that reminded you of the days before you had died.

And you had died. No one mentioned the brief moment that you had with your parents, where it had been an intense conversation that had gotten nothing solved. You hadn’t spoken to them before that, you wouldn’t speak to them after that more than likely.

You had been clinically dead, that much was true. But they had saved you. It had given you pause, wondering why you had been brought back in the first place.

You help bring in the groceries, Yamato coming out to help. On the couch, you could see the figure of Takeru, his voice soft as he spoke to the digimon about something or another, and you wonder if everything would go back to the way it had been, before the mess began.

But there would be a hole that could not be filled by anything other than the one who had left it. And if he were still himself, could you forgive him?

"Would you like to see your room?" Yamato asks as you set the last of the bags down. It had taken several trips to get all the bags, what with Yamato sending a specific food order from the digimon and Wormmon asking after his own food, when you had encouraged him to do so. Taichi had blanched at the amount by the end of the order, but had paid it without complaint. And you made a note to pay them both back.

"That would be nice, thank you." You say, redirecting your attention to Yamato with a faint smile. "Are the others coming over?" You ask as you follow the older digidestined down the short hall.

"Maybe tomorrow, they want to know how you were doing." Yamato says, pointing out the bathroom before stepping outside the room. "We used this as a storage space, you may still find random bits and ends in there, but we cleared it out as best we could. If there's anything you need, please don't hesitate to ask."

"Thank you, for everything," you say, opening the door and stepping in.

"Yes, thank you Yamato," Wormmon adds from his spot in your arms as you look around the room. You flip on the light, watching it filter through the room.

There's a moment where you can see the old Daisuke, early in the day. In the way he eats and talks. But, as the day gets closer to night, you see less and less of him come forth. That day had started better than most days do now. As you sit at the table, eating the food Daisuke prepared, you can almost sense a change in him. You can't quite put a finger on it but...

"Are you going to the meeting Taichi is hosting tonight?" You ask. Maybe, if you got Daisuke out of the house and with the others, you could keep the darkness at bay. The darkness you saw lurking in his eyes.

"Probably not," he says, glancing up at you. His eyes were clear that morning, but now you can see the darkness starting to spread.

"I was thinking of going, if only to see the others." You say, gaze darting down to your food. You weren't hungry, but you wanted a way out of the apartment. You needed somewhere to go, or you would start going crazy yourself.

"What if I didn't want you to go?" He says and it throws you off guard. He hadn't protested before when you went out but... You see the darkness shift and you wonder what had changed. Most nights, you dreamed of the dark ocean. Most nights, Daisuke spent sleepless, fiddling with an unresponsive D-3.

"I think it would be best to talk about how much you miss V-mon Daisuke," you say, taking a stab at a conversation you had left alone for far too long. Perhaps that was the root of it, perhaps that would help him from sliding too far away from you. That was the first night he had hit you. You absorbed the force of the blow with your shoulder, but it still had shocked you.

"I don't want you to go," Daisuke said, picking up his food as if he hadn't just hit you. And you sat back down, murmuring an apology and rubbing your fingers against your shoulder. Maybe if you just stayed....

"Everything okay?"

You're pulled from the memory, turning to blink at Yamato. You had forgotten he was there, or rather, that you were in his home. You nod, adjusting your grip on Wormmon and offer him a smile.

"Yes, I was just thinking of how nice it is for you and Taichi to take me in like this." You say, swallowing against the lump in your throat. Maybe you weren't ready to leave. Your body still aches, though you know all the bruises, fractures, and broken bones had healed before you left.

"The others may be coming through from the Digital World. We'll be making dinner if they do, would you like to eat with us?" Yamato asks, still hovering and you nod.

"I would enjoy that, yes please." You say. You hadn't seen much of the others while you were in the hospital. Miyako had been the only other one to see you, other than Yamato and Taichi. You hadn't minded in the least. It was nice to know that they cared, but you hadn't been up to seeing them. Now, you wanted to get your thoughts on anyone else but Daisuke.

"I'll let them know it's good to come through here then." Yamato says and takes a step away, heading back into the main part of the apartment. You let out a sigh, sitting on the bed and looking down at Wormmon.

"It'll be okay Ken," he says, looking up at you and you smile down at him. You already felt better, knowing he was here.

"I know it will," you say and glance around the room. You smile, seeing what little possessions you had were brought here, when they knew you would be coming. You had missed seeing Yamato, Taichi and everyone, in those last few weeks before it happened. You push the thoughts away, looking at Wormmon. You two had talked over what he had been doing in the digital world, since the gates had been closed. And you felt a connection to him that was stronger than ever.

And you sit here, even now, listening to things he had done in the digital world. You keep your face pleasant as he speaks about different things he did with V-mon while they were in the digital world. Things he did with the other digidestined digimon, not just V-mon, you have to remind yourself as you pick out names of digimon you recall meeting and helping. You are proud of your digimon for helping the others in the digiworld and you are sick to think of what V-mon would think if he knew what Daisuke had done.

You glance up when you hear a knock, winking at Wormmon and getting up. The smell of dinner drifts into the room when you open the door, surprised to see Takeru standing there, hand raised.

"Yamato and Taichi wanted me to inform you dinner is ready. Everyone is about to come back through. You're looking good Ken." He says, shifting from foot to foot, a hand in the pocket of his jacket.

"I'm doing better than I have been," You admit, Wormmon hopping off the bed and following you out. You can hear several voices from down the hall and your heart picks up at the thought of seeing the others in a place that you weren’t stuck laying in bed. Miyako and Iori were sitting at the table, heads together. You hear the conversation lull as you walk in, and you glance down at Wormmon, wondering what they had been discussing to make them go quiet.

"Ken, it's good to see you walking." Iori says, looking up from a bowl of food. "How are you feeling?"

"Well, thank you." You say, taking an empty seat and nodding at him. "How have you been?"

"We've been busy. There are enraged digimon all over currently and we are not sure what's causing it." Miyako says. "It's one of the reasons that we weren't able to come and visit as often as we wanted."

"We've been hosting the digidestined ever since Koushiro made our home tv a set portal so no one had to go sneaking around." Yamato explains, stepping out of the kitchen and handing you a bowl of food. You take it with a nod, beginning to eat as they continued to talk.

"We haven't been able to find a source for the commotion in the Digiworld yet, but something tells me we're getting close." Sora comments, walking over to the kitchen with Mimi close behind. You see Biyomon and Palmon go join where Gabumon and Agumon had a pile of snacks, the other two happily taking food from Yamato when he passes it over. Hawkmon and Armadimon could be heard as well, and you wonder where V-mon was.

"It seems like you have been keeping busy," you comment, looking around the apartment. It already seemed full, though you figured that several others would be coming in soon. It was nice, to see them all again and you are glad for the commotion all around. You see Wormmon move to talk to the other digimon and you smile, training your eyes on your food once more.

"We have," Mimi agrees, taking a seat with her own food.

"At least we don't have to sneak into a school now in order to get into the digital world." Koushiro speaks up, looking up from where he had been sitting unseen on the couch. "We have more than just this location, of course. We use my office when we can get out there. It's just nice to come to a place that we know where food will be waiting. I believe having this as our home base helps more than my office does."

"What's been going on in the digital world?" You ask, gaze sweeping over the group and you take in the various looks with a frown. Mimi and Sora glance at each other, Iori pausing from his food, Miyako fiddling with her empty bowl while Yamato and Taichi pretend to be busy in the kitchen at the sound of your question. You sigh, sitting your spoon down and meeting the gazes slowly. "This is something I am capable of hearing, even if it is not the most pleasant of news."

"Well, there has been a surge of irate digimon for unknown reasons in the digital world." Koushiro says, hands flying over his keyboard as he speaks. "We aren't sure where they're coming from, but someone is making it difficult for us to even get close to the source of various signals I have found. It's taken us several days to locate just one. And that's not including the time it takes for us to find the signals in the first place."

"Could it he someone creating influencing signals under control of a dark spore?" You ask, your gaze taking in the faces of your friends. You had missed them, in those last few weeks. You had decided, you did die. This was your chance at making things right. For everything, even if you had been forgiven. There was no need to hold information back now.

"We don't know," Taichi says and you glance towards him with a nod. You would bring it up again, later if you got the chance. You hear several more enter, the sounds of Gatomon and Gomamon joining the other digimon giving you an idea of who showed up. You nod towards Hikari and Jou, watching them shuffle in. It strikes you that nearly everyone is there, and your heart aches for a brief moment at the fact that Daisuke is missing.

"What do you mean, we don't know Taichi?" Hikari asks, hands on her hips as she stares down her older brother. You glance between her and him, seeing Iori sigh and Miyako shake her head.

"Exactly what I said Hikari," Taichi says, leveling a stare at her and you clear your throat.

"Perhaps, I can offer a little insight?" You suggest, feeling ten pairs of eyes on you. You shiver at the thought of so many people crammed into such a small space, and you can hear the digimon break off their chatter, turning their eyes on you. Maybe it had been a bad idea, but there was no going back now.

"If you think it'll help," Yamato says and you nod.

"It's Daisuke that is doing this," you say, voice soft. And the silence that follows makes you feel frozen in time. Twenty one pairs of eyes on you, Wormmon making his way over and you pick him up, out of habit. You wish you hadn't said anything, but when you look up, meeting the eyes of those around, you see that they had been trying to save face. And you knew that you had to speak your mind before they could protest, contradict and try to hide the truth, so you speak.

Chapter Text

“When did Daisuke disappear?” You ask, looking up at Yamato. “I need as exact as you can get.”

"He disappeared several weeks ago, two weeks after we found you.” Yamato says, glancing down at the calendar he pulled up on his.

“The night we stopped showing up to meetups, that was the night you wanted to tell everyone that the digital portal was open again, correct?” You ask, wanting to be sure that you had everything as correct as you could make it.

“Yeah, we were surprised that it had opened at all. Koushiro found the anomaly and we decided to try to go through the gate. And it worked.” Taichi says with a nod, his gaze fixed on you.

You almost wish you hadn’t spoken, but the worlds were swirling, needing to escape. “At the same time you were discovering the gate opening, there was something growing in him. It was similar to what had me in its grip all those years ago, before I knew that the digital world was more than a game. Before I had met you." You glance up from where you had dropped your gaze to your food, meeting everyone's gaze. You held it for the briefest of seconds before dropping your eyes to the table, unable to find everything that you wanted to.

“The same thing that happened to you?” Koushiro asks with a frown.

You pause at the question, taking a breath and nodding your head. "Once that change happened, he refused to leave the house. At night, it was worse. When it first began, I thought there was something I could do to stop it, but there was nothing I was able to do, until it was too late."

"We need to find him then," Yamato says and you listen to them begin to talk all at once, speaking to each other and you pick up your spoon, beginning to eat the food once more. You focus on the flood, blanking out the conversations that followed and for that, you are are at least glad that they leave you alone.

And, as you eat, you notice the time slip by faster, and soon the others are leaving, digimon in arms, with soft words to Yamato or Taichi. You have migrated to the kitchen, helping Yamato sort through dishes, and putting away the extra food.

"Do you really think it's a dark spore that's affecting him?"

That had been the popular consensus by the end of the meeting. It had been your original thought, but hearing it being taken so seriously made it all the more real. And made your own pain spike.

You glance towards Yamato, listening to the door shut once more as you nod. "I've thought about it, a lot. It's the only thing that makes sense, when you look at it from all directions. The change in his mood, his behavior... He was working on something the day that the digiportal opened. What, I am unable to say. But, whatever he was working on..."

"Do you think he caused the digiportal to open?" Yamato inquires and you consider the question.

"No, he was not the cause of it opening. But it opening did have an affect on him. When it opened, it made the evolution of darkness harden, spread faster." You tip your head at the thought, trying to consider the possibilities.

"And is that when he first started hurting you?" Yamato asks.

The question caught you off guard and you glance to where Yamato was putting away clean dishes, his back turned to you. "I suppose that would be correct." You say after a moment, setting down the container of leftovers in the fridge. "We were discussing the meeting Taichi had called, I mentioned wanting to go. He did not seem fond of that idea and stated so."

"What do you think we should do with him, when we find him?" Yamato asks and you keep the grimace off your face, despite wanting to do so.

"I don't know," you say finally. "There are things I did under the influence of the dark spore that I was forgiven for. Should we not extend the same branch to him?"

"You-" Yamato begins but you simply shake your head.

"I hurt digimon, I let them suffer under the influence of the rings and spirals. It is the same thing Daisuke is doing now, if there are towers appearing once more. I do not know who is playing what game. But, it looks like it will end the same as it did last time. There will be a fight, and our digimon will have the power to take down those that they need to." You say.

"He nearly killed you." Yamato murmurs, voice softer than you had heard it in a while.

"I was clinically dead, he did kill me. There is a difference." You point out.

"Then why forgive him?" Yamato asks and you turn to look at him.

"How did you forgive me after everything I had done?" You ask, tipping your head to the side as you speak. "You gave me a second change. Is that not what anyone else would deserve as well?"

"Yamato, I do not think this is a conversation best held tonight." Gabumon says, shuffling into the kitchen to look at his partner. You glance at the digimon, thankful for his interruption. The possibility of forgiving Daisuke hadn’t even crossed your mind until then.

"I'll think on it," you promise Yamato after a moment. You watch him, turning to go back to your room. Wormmon was already on the bed, dozing off as you climbed in, careful not to wake him.

***

"Daisuke?"

You pause when you hear your name, your thoughts colliding and bunching together. You're in the digital world, and you had seen the others come and go, though you had kept yourself hidden to them. You recall the police being called, being taken into custody. Something about Ken, something had happened to Ken? Several thoughts try to surge forward, fighting for a hold in your mind but you shove them back angrily.

"V-mon," you say, turning to look at the little digimon. You squat down, the digital world growing darker with each passing second. "What say you and I have a little fun?" You ask, moving your head to stare at the blue digimon, trying to remember what sort of friendship you had together. Trying to remember past the fog that cluttered your mind.

The only image you could bring up was one of a broken body.

Grief clutched at you, but was quickly washed away and you smile at V-mon once more. You see him take a step back, unsettled by what he saw in your eyes before he tries to run. You let him, letting out a hollow laugh before continuing on the path you had set yourself too, further into the Digital World.

***

"What are we going to do?"

You turn, looking at Yamato, your shoulders slumping. "I don't know," you decide to go with.

Yamato sits in a chair while you watch him, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. "Well-" He begins and you cut him off.

"Of course we're going to fight." You say, glancing towards your snoozing digimon on the couch. "That is one thing that we will always do. But, I do not know what we are going to do with Daisuke, if it really is a dark spore affecting him. We'll see what happens as we fight. If it is going to be another Kaiser situation-"

"We fight," Yamato says with a nod.

"The others are more than ready to fight as well." You sigh, rubbing at your temples.

"We'll get through this." Yamato says, standing and taking your wrist, meeting your gaze. "We have each other to fall back on when things get too hard. Our bonds are stronger than ever after…”

Neither of you wanted to remember the last time that something had happened. It had nearly destroyed you all. And you had found something that had been missing, something that you realized that you needed desperately to live. But the cost had been too high.

“There are things that we had to face before. This is going to be no different, understand?" Yamato asks, bringing you out of your thoughts.

"We're facing a friend this time." You point out, grimacing at the thought.

"And we'll keep walking in circles around that point if we keep talking about it tonight." Yamato decides. "We'll have to face what we must when the time comes. And we will figure it out together."

"What did I ever do to deserve you?" You say, leaning up and kissing Yamato ever so softly before pulling away.

"The verdict is still out on that one." Yamato teases, ruffling your hair. "Come on, let's get to bed." He adds, turning off the lights and heading to your shared room. You throw a glance at Ken's closed door, wondering if such a destructive relationship could be repaired. And your thoughts shift towards what would happen when you did face down Daisuke.

Chapter Text

You look up at the skies of the digital world, taking in a deep breath as your teammates sit for lunch. You had been at it since this morning, looking for any signs of something that proved Ken wrong. So far, there had been very little of that in the month of searching. And a lot in the way of finding disturbing evidence that there was malicious intent behind the boxes found.

"Something on your mind Takeru?"

You glance towards Patamon, shaking your head. "I was just thinking that what if are assumptions are wrong?"

"About Daisuke?" Patamon ask and you nod, glancing to where Mimi, Jou, Iori, and Hikari were talking and eating. You kick at the ground, turning your gaze back to the forest around you.

"There has to be something bigger than just Daisuke going rogue." You say after a moment. "I've heard Taichi and Yamato discuss it, but there hasn't been any solid conclusions. It just... It doesn't make sense for the portal to suddenly open. It doesn't make sense for Daisuke to turn."

Your head snaps to the side when you hear a rustle, Patamon flying to the front of you just in case it was another enraged digimon. There had been more of those lately and that had made traversing the digital world harder. But the face that came through was-.

"Chibimon?" Patamon asks, beating you to the punch as the digimon creeps out of the underbrush.

"Takeru!" Chibimon says, bounding over and smiling at you. You kneel down, looking at the digimon in confusion. None of you had seen him since you first got here, and now...

"Hey Chibimon, how are you doing?" You ask, the others glancing up at you when they heard the digimon's voice. You see Gatomon walk over curiously, her tail twitching as Patamon landed on the ground.

"Not so great, Daisuke isn't around." He says, ears drooping. "I've seen him once but..."

"Do you remember when you saw him last?" You ask, concerned by the digimon's reaction. You watch as he shakes his head, looking up at you with wide eyes.

"Maybe a couple of weeks ago? It was after the portals opened again. I was hoping he would be coming through with one of you. And then, when I did see him, he wasn't...himself." Chibimon shifts as you nod, listening to him. He takes a breath, eyes going wide. "Is that food I smell?" He asks and you want to laugh.

"Yes, would you like some?" Hikari asks, having followed Gatomon over to you. She leans down, offering her arms out to the baby digimon.

"Yes please!" Chibimon says, hopping up in Hikari's arms and she takes him over to the others, giving him the leftover food. You watch them a moment later, Gatomon narrowing her eyes in thought.

"If Daisuke is here, I would have expected Chibimon to be V-mon, but he regressed. Before the portal opened, he had no problems staying in V-mon form." She says and you look down at her, taking in the information.

"What do you think that means?" You ask.

"I don't know, but it's not good." Gatomon decides. You nod as you watch her walk back over to the group, glancing at Patamon.

"Let's go," you say and Patamon looks at you.

"What are we going to do?" He asks and you shrug, unsure.

"There has to be some sort of clue, now that Chibimon is with us. Maybe Daisuke will come for his partner. Even when Ken was under the influence of the dark spore, Wormmon stayed by his side." You sift through what this means. The possibility that maybe Daisuke had rejected his digimon enters your thoughts and you want to cringe at the idea. “If he wants Chibimon, it may be our best way to get to him.”

"A digimon like V-mon without a partner is going to devolve if rejected." Patamon says, dragging you from your thoughts. You glance up, nodding at Patamon's statement.

"We'll always be friends," You tell Patamon, hugging him to your chest when he came close enough. "No matter how much time separates us."

"Good," Patamon says, snuggling against your chest and you let out a laugh, calling to the others that you were going to take a walk around the area. They gave affirmatives before you head off, thoughts swirling too fast.

***

"You found Chibimon?" You ask, holding the phone against your ear with your shoulder as you set the bowl down. You grab the phone before it falls, listening to what Takeru was saying on the other end.

"Yeah, it looks like he tried talking to Daisuke and he was rejected by him. Do you want us to bring him back when we head over?" Takeru asks and you frown, looking down at the bowl.

"We can keep him here but..." You glance over your shoulder to the closed bathroom door, debating the idea. "Yeah, bring him back. I don't want to leave him on his own."

"We'll be back soon enough." Takeru says and you nod, bidding him farewell before putting the phone on the counter with a heavy sigh. You hear the bathroom door open, the light being flickered off.

"Is something wrong Yamato?"

You glance up when you hear Ken's voice, turning to look at the young man with a small nod.

"They found Chibimon while they were in the digital world. He's going to come and stay with us for a while. It... It sounds like Chibimon was rejected by Daisuke, when V-mon came across him. I don't want to keep the little guy somewhere he's not wanted." You explain turning back to your baking with a thoughtful look.

"That's understandable. I'm glad they were able to find Chibimon and he’s safe." Ken says and you nod in agreement. You listen to him step into the kitchen, rummaging through the fridge.

"How are you doing today Ken?" You ask, pulling a baking tin close to you and putting the batter into it.

"I am doing well, thank you for asking." Ken responds, finding something to eat and shutting the door. "And how are you?"

"Can't really complain. I'm getting backed up on work, but there's nothing I can quite do about that. I'll probably head out to the office for a couple of hours later. Taichi should be getting home soon." You say, putting the baking tin in the oven and setting the timer.

"And what is Taichi doing these days?" Ken asks and you offer him a smile.

"He does detective work." You respond, proud of what Taichi had accomplished. Your normal jobs aren't often talked about around the other digidestined. You saved that time for the past, and currently the present happenings. Not that you blamed the others for not knowing. "Jou took time off from his doctor position in order to be here. And Koushiro is working on keeping the digital world stable so our digimon can stay with us."

"I would like that," Ken says and you chance a glance at him. He looks better than he had when you first found him. You also note that he seems to be eating more than he had while in the hospital. Wormmon could be heard in the living room, playing a board game with Agumon and Gabumon. You give the thought a smile, glancing at Ken.

"What do you say we join the digimon in playing games?" You suggest, setting the timer on the oven and turning to look at Ken. You have conflicting feelings running through you as to what to do, but at the least, you know everyone here is trying to do what is best for all of you.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," Ken says and he makes his way to the living room, sitting at the short table that the digimon had claimed as their own several weeks prior. You bring snacks for them as well, taking a place next to Gabumon and looking at their current game of Clue.

"Hello Ken," Wormmon says, glancing up from his cards and Gabumon nods at you before looking back at his own hand.

Ken nods in response to his digimon, looking over the game as Wormmon begins to make his guess in the room he was in. You listen, watching the other two digimon glance at each other and shake their heads.

Board games were something that Taichi had started teaching the digimon, when they first came back. Sometimes, there was nothing to do while their partners were at work and it was the best way to pass time for them.

"So, was it Mustard in the Ballroom with the candlestick?" Agumon asks as you pick up the cards and look over them. You glance between the three digimon before nodding.

"Looks like Wormmon is right." You say, Ken patting his digimon's head. "Good job, you guys up for another round with Ken and I playing?"

"Sure!" Gabumon and Agumon says, Wormmon nodding in agreement. Ken collects the cards, sorting them out and allowing each of the digimon to select one of the three types to be the murderer, murder weapon, and room. You settle in to play, keeping an eye on the time.

"Yamato?"

You glance up when Gabumon speaks, Ken making his move on the board. "What's up Gabumon?" You ask, training your eyes on your partner.

"Are the others going to be returning soon?" He asks and you nod.

"Yeah, they’ll be bringing Chibimon with them as well. Takeru found him wandering by himself. It seems like he ran into Daisuke at some point, but..." You hesitate, unsure how to say what you wanted. You spare Ken a glance, the other man's lips tightening.

"It looks like Daisuke has rejected his partner." Ken says, voice soft as he tapped the back of his cards in front of him. "I'm worried about what will happen to the little one."

He glances at you and you raise an eyebrow at him. However, you don't get a chance to ask the question when the gate opens via your tv, spilling out the five digidestined and the six digimon onto your carpet.

"Hey Jou, how did it go?" You ask, turning to look at the older man.

Jou stands up, Gomamon climbing up onto his head before he got a chance to stop him. "So far, there's nothing to indicate anyone else in the digiworld, beyond irate digimon. Usually, these digimon are found within a specific range of...something, but it's not the towers that were used originally."

"What do they look like?" You ask, Jou setting several papers down on the table. You look at the diagrams of the box that Jou had made, frowning.

"It's setting out some sort of signal. Maybe we can get Koushiro to try and jam it if he would be interested in taking a look." Jou explains as he leans against the table. Mimi glances at you, taking a seat on the couch.

"Nothing we do will hurt the boxes at this point. What should we do?" Mimi asks and you set your cards from the game down, getting up when the timer dings. You pull out the brownies, looking over at Mimi as you set them on the counter to cool.

"We'll have to get Koushiro to look into it, like Jou suggested. For now, we'll keep an eye on it." You say with a sigh. Too many things piling up for you to do.

"I can take a look at it as well," Ken offers. You glance at him, caught off guard.

"We'll have Koushiro come in tomorrow, I'll send him a message." You decide, getting up from the table. "Sorry guys, we'll have to continue the game once I get some of the business out of the way."

"That's okay Yamato," Gabumon says and you smile at the digimon. Ken gets up, fetching the papers from the board and walking to the dining room table. Hikari, Iori, and Mimi joined you, Jou heading to the door with Gomamon.

"I have to head out to work, I'll catch up with you later." He calls and you nod.

"Enjoy your night Jou," Ken says, looking at the diagrams that had been drawn. You sit down, rubbing your temples as the others crowded around, discussing different ideas back and forth. Something that seemed like a well chewed over topic by the way ideas were said.

"Maybe it's a specific digimon evolution that needs to break the box?" Mimi suggested.

"Or a specific type," Iori adds.

“Or you can pick it up and move it.” Armadimon offers.

“But we tried that,” Mimi pointed out.

“Maybe if we had someone strong enough?” The digimon suggests.

“Or we use vines to lift it out of the ground!” Palmon grins, holding up her hands.

"We'll have Koushiro check it out tomorrow, and then we'll move forward when we have more information. For now, we'll map out where each of these boxes are, keep track of them. Have you noticed our digimon acting up with the discovery of these boxes?" You suggest. It's getting later than you realized, and you're worried because Taichi is still not home. You slide a glance over to Ken as he pulls the diagrams back over to him.

"Very well, I'm going home and going to bed. Ready Palmon?" Mimi calls, getting up and grabbing her bag. Palmon follows her to the door, both of them bidding everyone good night before leaving.

"Is Taichi going to be home soon?" Hikari asks and you hesitate, glancing at the clock reading ten past ten.

"He went into to work earlier, but he should have been home by now." You admit, glancing towards your phone to see no new message. "You're welcome to stay and wait for him, if you would like."

"No, Takeru and I may as well go home. Who's going out tomorrow?" Hikari asks, gathering her stuff that had been set aside.

"I would like to go," Ken says, looking up from the paper.

"Koushiro, for sure. And I was thinking of going in. Ken, if he wants to. And I think Taichi has the day off, so he might come as well. Sora was looking at being able to come along as well, but I’m not sure about that." You say, ticking off fingers as you name names. "Would you like to come along?"

"Yes please," Hikari says and glances towards where Chibimon was studying the game that had continued by the digimon, disregarding your and Ken's turns.

"We'll head out around nine in the morning then." You decide.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Takeru says, picking up his jacket as Hikari put on her shoes. The couple left with their digimon, leaving Iori at the table, his mouth a thin line.

"I better head out too," he says after a moment. "Let me know if you find anything out," he glances down as Armadimon walks over to him. The two leave the apartment, silence falling over the room before Ken stands up.

"I know these designs," he says finally and you look over to him. "They were designs I was working on before..." He hesitates and you nod, not needing a further explanation.

"Is there a way to get past them?" You ask.

"I never was able to implement them, I couldn't get them to function. If Daisuke did..." He hesitates, then shakes his head. "I don't know how to counteract them. You can destroy towers, but these boxes... I believe I am going to bed for the night. I will see you in the morning Yamato."

"Good night," you call, watching him walk into his room. Wormmon excuses himself from the game, following his partner to bed. You glance towards the three remaining Digimon, walking over and starting a new game with them, staying up to wait for Taichi to come home.

Chapter Text

You sit at the table, glancing up at the oven clock. It's nearly six in the morning and you're tired. But you haven't left since the argument. You had dozed sometime between one and two am, the feeling of the dark ocean lapping at your skin jolting you awake. And still, you never heard the door open.

The door being shut had chilled you. You two had never kept it shut before this started happening.

Finally, you stand from your spot, heading over to the door and knocking on it gently. You tilt your head, listening to the movement on the other side as Daisuke gets out of the bed.

"What?" You hear his voice, tinted with disgust.

"May we please talk?" You ask, resting your hand on the knob of the door. You relax when it opens, Daisuke peering out of the gap he made before opening the door all the way.

"What do you have to say?" He asks, leaning against the doorway and you let out a sigh, meeting his gaze.

"I want to apologize for what I did," you say, hands in front of you. You don't know what had set him off the night before, but the silence that followed had scared you. You were talking about...what were you talking about? Why couldn’t you remember when you needed to remember?

"You're going to leave me, aren't you?" He asks and you quickly shake your head.

"I would never leave you Daisuke," you say, taking one of his hands in yours and looking down at it. "There is nothing I would hate to do more than leave you." You would leave if it meant getting Wormmon back.

"Then why do you keep talk about leaving?" He asks and it clicks into place what he means. You had mentioned about going out. It had been nearly a week since the last time you left the apartment and you were feeling stir crazy. You had wanted to go get something to eat, it would have taken less than thirty minutes. But...

"I didn't mean to sound like I was leaving for good." You promise, bringing Daisuke's hand up to your lips and kissing it gently, keeping contact with his eyes. "I would never leave you Daisuke."

"Prove it to me," he says, taking a step closer to you and pulling you in for a kiss. You feel a tingle run down your spine when you see the darkness move behind his eyes. It was growing worse, it was growing faster. There was little of the man you knew behind those eyes now, but you couldn't leave him.

You lean into the kiss, letting him press as far as he wanted. When he broke off, he raised his free hand to your cheek, touching it ever so lightly before he shoved you away. You kept your footing, dropping your gaze. It was something that you deserved, for having spoken so lightly of leaving, surely? And if it kept him happy, he was welcome to do what he pleased.

Maybe, it was something that you deserved for everything you had done to them before, before you had become friends.

"Don't talk about leaving again," Daisuke says, hands gentle as he pulls you into the room, ignoring the action of the push. And you let him, leaning your head against his shoulder. If you kept him happy, you could gain forgiveness for your previous actions. You just had to keep him happy.

The memories leave you breathless when you wake up in the morning. Outside, birds are chirping and you hear Gabumon and Yamato talking from the kitchen. You get up softly, changing out of your sleeping clothes and getting ready for the day.

“Are you okay Ken?” Wormmon asks and you glance at him. “You seem to have had nightmares last night.”

“I’ll be okay, it was just some bad dreams. Nothing that I can’t handle.” You promise, leaning down to look Wormmon in the eyes. You give him a tired smile, feeling the tension in your body melting. “We’re going to the digital world today. Are you ready?”

“I am more than ready,” he says with a nod and you pick him up, heading out of your room. You can smell breakfast cooking, and the voices are easier to hear.

“The others won’t be able to come.”

“Well that bites,” Taichi comments, glancing at you as you enter the room. You see Koushiro concentrating on his laptop, his mouth pulling into a grimace as he looks over some report or another.

“I’ll need to get a scan on those boxes, I need to figure out what’s controlling the digimon as well. The others can’t find anything internal controlling them. No spirals, no rings, no gears… It just doesn’t make sense.” He grumbles.

“Well, that’s what this is about.” Taichi says and you nod in agreement, taking a seat and accepting the plate of food that was handed to you.

“You’ll be able to gather the data needed,” Yamato promised.

“I can help take a look at it, if you would like.” You offer between bites, sharing the food with Wormmon and Koushiro looks up at you.

“I need all the help I can get, thank you for the offer.” Koushiro says and takes a bite of food when Tentomon pushes the plate near him. You finish your food in silence, Yamato preparing the digital gate for you to start your voyage today.

***

You sit in the small room, hands running over the computer board in front you. You had seen V-mon once since you had been back to the digital world. And you had considered keeping him, making sure that he stayed by your side. But with the diagrams of the control boxes, you had more powerful digimon at your control. And, without Stingmon, you would be unable to use Paildramon or Imperialdramon.

You look over the computer monitor, watching the digimon in the region before flipping to another region. You had seen several of the digidestined, your once so called friends. But they had decided that you weren't needed. Just like Ken had decided to leave you in the end.

He only left because you killed him

The thoughts pained you, a pounding forming in your head. Something was wrong with that train of thought, but you couldn't figure out what, you couldn't pinpoint it. And you smile when you flip to another region, tracking the digidestined through the forest. You see him there, then. And you know he left because he wanted to, not because he was killed.

You settle back in your seat, watching them with a smirk on your face. You didn't need a partner digimon. And now you understood the power that the Kaiser had. You understood what had driven him to this need. But, you had learned from him. You would not be making the same mistakes that he had. No, you would be better than him.

You would take the power that the dark ocean offered and bend it to your will. You would create the perfect digimon.

***

"Man, it's good to be back in the digital world." You say, stretching and cracking your back. You're walking next to Ken and Yamato, both of them keeping an eye out for black boxes while Koushiro trudges behind you, computer being balanced carefully on his arm.

"Stop here," Koushiro says and the three of you do, turning to look at him as Tentomon buzzes down to his shoulder.

"What did you find?" Tentomon asks and you trek back to him, looking at his screen over his shoulder.

"It looks like the signals are the weakest right here." Koushiro says, typing one handed with a frown. "Which means, there should be a black box just ahead....they flash out in a circle, maybe five hundred meters in all direction. But, once a digimon enters the affected area..."

"They stay under control?" You ask, watching the figures on his screen. Yamato stands next to you, Ken looking ahead.

"Something like that. They're easier to break out of, if you weaken them. But in the affected area, they remain under control. There would be no way to break them out without...." He pauses, looking over the code with a frown. "That can't be right, can it?" He asked, turning to look at Ken and pointing at something on the screen.

"I have no idea," Yamato says and Ken drops back to look at what Koushiro was talking about.

"You two are the experts." You say. "I think I'll take Agumon and look for the box itself, if you want to stay behind and figure out the signals."

"I'll go with Taichi," Yamato says and Koushiro sits down against a tree, using both hands as he and Ken discuss something that you can't keep up with, let alone begin to understand. Agumon looks at you and you smile down at him, holding up your digivice.

"You ready to evolve?" You ask and Agumon nods.

"Going in guns blazing?" Yamato asks with a raised eyebrow and you can't help but grin at him. He holds up his own device and both of your digimon evolve. You grin as Greymon and Garurumon appear, you and Yamato settling on Garurumon's back and striding forth.

"Think we'll come across any digimon in the area?" Greymon asks and you glance over at him, offering him a half hearted shrug.

"There's no knowing what we'll face." You say and Yamato nods, face grim.

"The lack of digimon in the area is not a heart lifting thought. They've either all cleared out or-" He's cut off a digimon bursts across the path, Greymon moving forward and blocking the attack, tossing the digimon to the side. You tighten your grip on Garurumon's fur, grimacing.

"There's no time like the present!" Yamato calls and Garurumon surges forward, both digimon working together to subdue the digimon out of the range of the black box. You watch the confusion on the Ogremon's face as he looks back. And you understand the effects of the boxes as he slides back under control.

"There's no...there's no way to free them." You whisper and you feel Yamato tightly grip your shoulder as you drive Ogremon further away, too far to stumble back into the range. You see him shamble off, Greymon reverting back to Agumon. Garurumon reverts back once you and Yamato are off, the four of you exchanging glances before scrambling back to see what Ken and Koushiro have figured out.

You find them where you left them, Wormmon looking over the readings as Tentomon makes suggestions.

"Did you find the box?" Koushiro asks without looking up.

"Yeah," you say, dropping down next to him. "There's not a way to break the digimon out of control unless you drive them out of range."

"Or you destroy them," Yamato murmurs and you feel a shiver run down your spine.

"Then it would be down to destroying the boxes." Koushiro says, snapping his laptop closed. "I got the readings I need. I'll have a meeting with Miyako and Ken. Maybe between the three of us, we'll find a way to be able to destroy the boxes."

"We'll have to put up warnings to keep the digimon from wandering too closely to the boxes for now, and there's no telling what the long term effects of exposure can do to our partners." Yamato says and you look down at Agumon, recalling when he had been turned against you and you grimace. There was no way you would let that happen.

"We'll figure it out, together." Ken says, meeting your gaze with a nod. "There has to be a way to destroy the boxes, without harming anyone in the process."

"Then we head back now?" Agumon asks.

"Yeah, we head back now." You say and he grins up at you.

"Good, I'm hungry." He says and that makes you laugh as Koushiro glances towards where the box would lay in the distance, his face unreadable.

“You’re always hungry,” you protest.

"Before we go, I want to get a good look at the boxes. I trust Jou's diagrams, but I need to see for myself. It'll just take a couple of minutes." He adds and you nod, the four of you setting out to view the box. When you get near it, you feel your body shudder. It was about waist high, looking embeded in the ground. And just being near it, you could feel the pulses of energy coming off it.

You see Ken wrap his arms around himself, Wormmon pressing himself against his leg without a word. Agumon scoots closer to you and Gabumon tugs on Yamato's leg. Koushiro opens his computer, collecting data before taking a step back, happy to be leaving that place behind.

Chapter Text

"Koushiro?"

You glance up when you hear your name, turning to look over the table to Ken with a nod. "How can I help you?"

"I've been reading over the print out and..." He frowns and you understand without explanation.

"It doesn't make sense," you finish for him. "I know, I've been going over the numbers with Tentomon and it doesn't make sense. The boxes, for all intent and purpose, shouldn't be putting out a strong enough signal to harm digimon, but yet... And there's still no data on long term effects of exposure. There may be a chance that our partners could be turned against us if they stay exposed too long."

"That's a chance that we have to take then," Miyako says and you glance at her.

"I suppose that is something we have to risk, but..." You pause, trying to consider the options. "I don't want to risk the chance of losing our digimon to whatever signal the boxes are putting out. If it is only making the digimon irate, and not actually putting them under anyone's control..."

"There has to be a weak spot on the boxes themselves." Ken says and any further conversation is interrupted with Yamato setting food down in front of you three.

"I get that you three are deeply engaged, but you still have to eat three meals a day. There's no way I'm letting you three starve yourselves by getting too lost into this problem." Yamato says, Gabumon handing him plates to set on the table. "So, put the laptops and papers away, and eat."

You give Yamato a hard stare, wondering when he had become such a mother hen as you save your work, closing the laptop. "We'll look it over again when we clear our heads. But..."

"No discussing it, at least while you're eating, please. You're making my head hurt just listening." Taichi calls and that gets a laugh out of everyone.

"There is something I want to discuss with you and Taichi later," you say, meeting his gaze as Tentomon comes over, interested in the smell of food.

"Does tonight work?" Taichi asks from his spot on the couch. Paperwork is scattered in front of him and you feel bad that he is still working on several cases while you clutter up his apartment.

"Yeah, just as long as we talk." You agree and look down at the food, mind running over the numbers again.

***

"Ken, do you want to go out for ice cream with Hawkmon and I?"

You glance up when Miyako stands, Ken looking up from the paper Koushiro had printed out for them.

"That sounds lovely," Ken says, flipping the papers over and getting up. You glance towards Taichi, raising an eyebrow as he shrugs, Koushiro not moving from the work he was doing on his computer. You watch the four leave, Wormmon looking excited before Koushiro pushes away from his laptop.

"Would this be a good time to have that discussion?" He inquires, sounding tired.

"Yeah," Taichi says, getting up and heading to the table. You follow, studying Koushiro carefully.

"Are you making any headway on the boxes?" You ask, taking the chair and sitting down casually. Taichi sits next to you, Koushiro pulling a piece of paper closer to him,and picking up a pen.

"The boxes, depending on size, can run anywhere from one hundred meters to nine hundred meets, according to the data Iori and Miyako obtained on previous boxes. Once a digimon steps out of range, they are still under the influence of whatever signals are being sent out, but being driven far enough away, they seem to be able to clear their heads. We have found ten of these boxes in..." he pauses, returning to his laptop once more and pulling the different regions up, marking out each box with a tap of his finger.

"And as for getting rid of them?" You ask, watching Taichi link his fingers under his chin in thought.

"We would see if Omegamon would be able to destroy a box, but if that's the amount of power it would take to destroy it, I don't think we'll be getting through them any time fast. If we can find the control for the signals... I was working with Ken on a way to jam them, which we think we have. It would mean currently linking a digivice to one of the boxes, to test if it would work..." Koushiro keeps talking as you stare at him, raising an eyebrow slowly.

"So you're saying we just hit them with all the power we have, and hope it works?" Taichi asks, cutting Koushiro off.

"Or we find a way to jam them," Koushiro agrees.

"Or, we find the control center and the person that is playing games with us." You comment, drawing their attention to you. "The boxes are there to mess with us, to distract us for something worse. The digital world opened up at a too convenient time for us to simply deal with this. With Daisuke's disappearance, there has to be a reason behind it."

"I believe Ken along the lines of the dark spore influencing Daisuke's thoughts." Taichi says, meeting your eyes with a hard stare of his own. "It's possible that the boxes are just a distraction. But, what could Daisuke be working towards that we wouldn't be aware of?"

"He doesn't seem intent on enslaving digimon," Koushiro says, shutting his laptop once more with a frustrated sigh. "If he were, he could have accessed the old towers and used that as a way to control the digimon... But, without knowing what his plan is..."

"Why can't it just be a simple, "control the digital world"? Or even just, "destroy earth" like it was in the past?" Taichi groans and you roll your eyes.

"Do you think demon possession is a possibility?" You ask, your face as straight as you can make it. They both turn to look at you, Koushiro quirking an eyebrow and frowning.

"The dark spore is similar, but there would still have to be-." He looks up at you, shaking his head. "Not funny Yamato, this is a friend that we're talking about."

"A friend that cut us off, abused his ex-boyfriend, rejected his partner, and disappeared into the digital world." You say, voice hard. You glance up to the digimon, eyes landing on Chibimon. The digimon was luckily sleeping, Gabumon and Agumon having a discussion over a board game's rules with Tentomon.

"Has Ken said anything?" Koushiro asks and you share a glance with Taichi.

"He won't talk about it, but he has nightmares often enough." Taichi says finally. "I've been up late between what's going on here and work. I don't know what happened, but it's not good enough. No excuse is good enough for hurting another person like he did."

"Then we're back to the question of why is he doing this." Koushiro says. "And I think the only way we're going to get an answer to that is if we get ahold of Daisuke himself. Which means, I'll start working on tracking him. Maybe if he still has his D-3."

You see Koushiro dive back into his computer, making notes and working. You glance at Taichi, standing up from the table and walking over to see what the digimon were arguing about, thoughts running through your head.

***

"Are you doing okay Ken?"

You see him glance up from his ice cream, watching you with a guarded expression as he nods his head.

"I suppose I am as well as I can be." He says and you frown, glancing at Hawkmon next to you.

"I mean... I know we weren't close before this, but I'm worried about you." You try again, brushing hair out of your face as you try to gather your thoughts.

"I appreciate the worry," Ken says and you look up, meeting his gaze. "I am sorry that I lost contact with you and the others, in those last few weeks. I..." He hesitates and you see the way his hand curls just a bit tighter around the spoon he was holding.

"If you need someone to talk to, I'm here for you." You say, leaning across the table and touching the back of his hand. You feel the tremor, and he looks up at you, blinking away tears.

"I am as well," Hawkmon promises, and you feel your heart lift at your partner's offer.

"Thank you, both of you." Ken says, taking your hand and smiling. "I know that you knew Daisuke before me, but I am grateful for your offer."

"Not a problem!" You say, letting your hand drop when you felt like you should. You clear your throat, glancing over as Wormmon watched in silence. You finish the ice cream, glancing down at your watch with a sigh.

"Everything okay?" Ken asks and you nod, smiling up at him.

"I just have to head home soon. Would you like me to walk you back to Taichi's?" You ask and he shakes his head.

"No thank you, I need time to think. Thank you for the offer though." He says and you part ways shortly after, mind full of worry for Ken.

Chapter Text

You open your eyes to the sound of your phone ringing, rolling over in bed to fetch it off the nightstand next to you. You frown when you don't recognize the number, answering it after a moment's hesitation.

"Hello, Ken Ichijouji speaking. How may I help you?"

"Hey Ken, it's Jun. How have you been?"

The voice makes you freeze, for just a moment before you blink, forcing your heart to settle. "Hello Jun, how can I help you?" You ask, thankful for the even tone in your voice. It was the start of December, and none of you had made progress for weeks now within the digital world. And you still hadn't figured out what you would do about Daisuke. Hearing from his sister now....

"I was wondering if you heard from my brother recently." She says and her question brings you back to the conversation. "I've been trying to get ahold of him to discuss holiday plans. But he doesn't seem to be answering his phone. Is he around?"

You shake your head, trying to find the ground that was taken from you as you process her words. "I, no... I haven't seen him since the hospital..."

"The hospital?" Jun asks and you curse your choice of words.

"Several months ago, I ended up in the hospital." You say, figuring out the best way to go forth. "As for Daisuke, I haven't seen him since before then. It seems as if he went to the digital world and disappeared."

"He would be with his partner then, right?" Jun asks, voice full of worry and you bite back a sigh.

"No, Chibimon is currently with Yamato and Taichi. It seems that he saw Daisuke and the digimon was rejected. I'm sorry Jun, I thought someone had told you." Your hands tighten in the sheets around your waist, your heart pounding faster. You hadn't thought about how Jun would...

"I see," she says, breaking into your thoughts. "Thank you for the information Ken, and I'm sorry for bothering you so early."

"It's not a problem. If I see your brother, I'll let you know." You say and hang up the phone without waiting for a response. You look out the small window, watching the clouds roll overhead. Several months had passed without a word from Daisuke. Koushiro had tracked his D-3 to a lake, where it had been discarded. With a heavy sigh, you push yourself out of bed, changing and walking out of your room.

***

It's night when you arrive at your first of several destinations. The wind has a sharp chill about it, and you wonder briefly what your family is doing, before you push the thought away. It had been months, and you had been keeping an eye on your old friends. They are as baffled as you were when you first found the boxes. Before you learned their secrets.

You kneel down in front of one, pressing your hand to the middle of the box. You watch the screen and keyboard pull up and you grin, beginning to select several options listed. If you could just...

Don't you wish someone were by your side? That would make this easier.

The voice catches you off guard and you swing your head to the side, trying to find where it had come from. You twitch your hands on the keyboard, letting out a slow laugh. "The only person that I wanted by my side left me."

That's because you killed him.

"That's not true!"

You had seen Ken in the digital world; you had been watching him just recently. When you had last seen him before here, he had been lying on the floor of your shared bedroom, bleeding and trying to breathe. You had walked out and went to the kitchen, cleaning up discarded dishware. And then Yamato had shown up. You hadn't intended to leave him there.

No, if he were dead, he wouldn’t have been in the digital world at all.

You don't need him, but it would be nice to have him. He is yours, is he not?

"I don't need anyone, only the power from the dark ocean." You wave your hand, wishing the voices would silence themselves. You would almost picture the speakers, but you can't quite place their voices. They were ones you knew, but from where?

There's nothing for you here, it would be wise to go back. Maybe you can clean up your mess after all.

The second voice was softer. It made you think of your mother, when you were younger. Thoughts of your family filtered through your mind and you wondered what they would be doing now. If they even noticed that you were gone.

Of course they wouldn't notice. You are needed here, not there. Your place is here, taking the power that you deserve.

The second voice was harsher. When it had first spoken to you, it sounded like a digimon that you had fought on your first quest to help the digital world.

Yes, you would take the power that the ocean offered you. You would take the power and make it your own. That was the goal here, to see what you could bend to your will. You wanted to bend Ken to your will, but he shattered before you perfected the process. Now, you had other things you could bend. And bend you would.

You let out a laugh, removing your hand from the box. You watch the keyboard and monitor disappear before continuing your solitary walk across the way.

You would find the ultimate power in the dark ocean.

***

"You've recently seen the human we're looking for?"

You glance towards Hikari as she talks to Elecmon, the digimon nodding his head to her words. "Yes, it was the human that had V-mon as his partner."

"Can you tell us when you last saw him?" You ask, turning your attention to the digimon with what you hoped was a friendly smile. Months of searching and this was the first lead that you had gotten. The idea that maybe you could find Daisuke and put this madness to an end was refreshing.

"He was heading to the ocean, and it was... I would say three days ago." Elecmon says, sitting back as he thought about it.

"The ocean?" You and Hikari glance at each other, frowning. "What ocean is around here Elecmon?"

You had gone to the baby digimon village on a whim. Mostly, you and Patamon had wanted to see if there were any newly hatched digimon to play and HIkari had suggested making it a trip to gather information. To actually get something worthwhile....

"The entrance to a place of darkness," Elecmon says and you see a shiver run through Gatomon.

"Why would the entrance be so close to here?" Hikari asks with a frown, picking up and hugging her digimon close to her. "This is such a peaceful place, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is. But there are entrances to the dark ocean everywhere, if one knows where to look." Elecmon shuffles to the side as you walk over, kneeling in front of him.

"Can you give us specific directions to the one this human went to?" You ask. You had seen Ken in the morning after spending nights at your brother's apartment. You had heard him scream himself awake, but always politely explain that it was simply nightmares, nothing more. He had given you apologetic looks for waking you so early. You wanted nothing more than to get your hands on Daisuke and knock some sense into him. Or hurt him, you weren't sure.

"I can tell you the way, but..." Elecmon glances between you and Hikari, shaking his head. "I won't get too close myself. Those that disappear into the dark ocean… They don’t come back, and if they do..."

“They come back changed,” Hikara whispers and you realize that your fears for Daisuke’s sanity were solidified. He was not the person you once knew him to be.

You nod at Elecmon’s response, thanking the digimon and taking the directions down. Hikari looks at you over Gatomon's head and you grimace, shaking your own.

"Should we head back and tell the others what we found?" She asks.

"I don't want to go anywhere near that place without backup. And if it was a couple of days ago, I hardly think he would have stayed there." You point out, chewing on your lip as Patamon rests on your shoulder.

“There’s a chance Daisuke may still be there.” Hikari says. “It’s a lead,”

"Then we'll find the spot Elecmon was talking about and head back for backup?" Patamon suggests and you nod, reaching up a hand to pat his head.

"I suppose we will," Hikari agrees and the four of you are off.

Something in the back of your mind says it was too easy, though you try to push the thought away. And you don't notice the shadow until it was too late.

Chapter Text

You look up at the sky, watching the clouds. It's cold, and you should be returning home but...

"Ken?"

You glance down to Wormmon, kneeling down to offer to pick him up. The digimon moves, climbing up your arm and you touch his head with your free hand. "Are you worried about Chibimon?" You ask, brushing strands of hair out of your face as you begin to walk once more, shivering even in your jacket.

"He's sad," Wormmon says softly and you nod.

"I would be sad too, if my partner didn't want me around... I'm sorry Wormmon," you add, watching your breath swirl in front of you. You recall pretending to breathe fire like a dragon, walking home from a party with Daisuke nearly two years ago. It had made you laugh and you had considered it one of your favorite memories. Your thoughts catch and you press a hand to your cheek, Wormmon pressing against you.

"It's okay Ken," Wormmon says, pressing against your neck. "Are we meeting up with Takeru soon?"

"Yeah, we are. I would have thought..." You pat your pockets, pulling out your d-terminal with a frown. "He and Hikari went to the digital world, but he still wanted to meet up for lunch. We can head back to the apartment to see if he made it back."

You had left the apartment because you felt trapped. Just being able to walk out and in as you please was nice. It gave you something of yourself back. Wormmon shifts next to you, glancing down at your hands. "Let's go back and at least ask if Takeru has returned. I do not think he would forget."

"Yeah," you say and turn to head back to Yamato's apartment. Your heart leaps when your d-terminal pings, and you open up the message, reading the words.

Hey Ken, have you seen Takeru and Hikari?

You glance over the name, confirming that it was Iori who sent it before replying.

They went to the digital world earlier this morning. I haven't seen them since

Your heart thuds as you consider that someone else is looking for Takeru and Hikari as well. You share a glance with Wormmon, quickening your pace back to the apartment.

I'll be back at the apartment soon, I'll ask Yamato if his brother has returned.

Thank you

You put the d-terminal back in your pocket, feeling the start of snowflakes fall on your skin.

***

"Takeru?"

Your head turns towards the voice, frowning. Your head hurts and you can't remember where you had been.

"Gatomon?" You ask. “Are you here?”

"Yes, it would seem that we are here." She says and you hear a hint of disappointment in her voice. "I can't find Hikari, she's not in here with us."

"Well, if you're in here, then perhaps she's with Patamon. Do you know what happened?" You ask, feeling your throat constrict as you try to swallow.

"We were headed to the place Elecmon described, but he wouldn't want to lead us astray, would he?" Gatomon asks. You sit up slowly, pressing a hand to a knot at the back of your head. It feels sticky and when you pull your hand away, you can see streaks of blood on your finger tips.

"I wouldn't think Elecmon would have a reason to. Which means, someone was tracking us after we left." You say, wishing your thoughts weren't so sluggish.

"Or before we left," Gatomon grumbles and you lean against a wall, looking at the digimon. "I remember walking too, and then I heard something. Hikari..." Gatomon touches the whistle around her neck, looking out of the bars of the circular cage.

"We'll figure out what happened," you promise, leaning over and touching Gatomon's head. You close your eyes, pressing your back to the damp bars and taking a breath.

"Takeru?"

You open your eyes, looking down at the digimon with a grunt.

"You hurt your head, it might not be wise to take a nap now." Gatomon comments and you nod, straightening up and keeping your eyes trained on Gatomon.

"So, are you going to help me stay awake then?" You ask. Sleeping sounds good, but you figure that Gatomon was right when it came to sleep.

"What do you want me to talk about?" Gatomon asks and you shrug, unsure.

"Why not talk about what you did when the portal was closed?" You suggest, and you listen to Gatomon talk. It was something that you and Patamon had discussed, but it was always when you had time to converse and in between talking with the others and getting things discussed. Now, you had the time to just listen to her talk.

***

"Hikari, Hikari, please wake up."

You bat your hand at the air, frowning. Normally it was Taichi that was having issues getting up...

"Hikari?"

You open your eyes, looking up at the orange digimon with a frown. "Patamon?" You ask, sitting up slowly. "Where's Gatomon and Takeru?"

"I don't know," Patamon says, landing next to you and looking around. "We were walking, and a digimon attacked us. I didn't see what happened but..."

"No, I remember being attacked. There wasn't a change to evolve and then...this." You gesture to the room, getting up from the floor carefully. There would be bruises for sure, but you could sort that out later. Now, you wanted to figure out what was happening.

"Takeru?" You call, wrapping your hands around the cell door and pushing on it. You frown when it swings open and motion for Patamon to come with you. The digimon follows and you feel a shudder run down your spine as the two of you walk.

"Where do you think they could be?" Patamon asks.

"I don't know," you say as you walk. You cross your arms over your chest, wondering why you were taken here.

"Maybe they're not even here."

You turn at the sound of the voice, looking for the source. "Daisuke, is that you?" You ask, the lights flickering in the stone hallway.

"How cute, you think Daisuke is actually still here?" The voice asks and you shake your head as the lights begin to flicker off one by one starting from the room you came from. "Of course, I came from him. But... Don't you hate what he did?"

"Of course I do, he hurt a dear friend!" You say, hands clenching at your sides. Your heart pounds as the lights flicker above you before going out completely. You begin to move again, needing to keep under the light. Patamon flies next to you, the voice letting out a small laugh.

"Where's Takeru?" Patamon calls and you offer him a smile, keeping pace with the disappearing lights until you hit a fork. The two of you glance at each other, uncertainty ringing in your mind.

"He's somewhere down here, I'm sure." The voice muses. "I think Gatomon is down there too. But that means choosing to enter the darkness."

You glance at the hallway shrouded in darkness, before looking at the one to your left, light filtering ever so gently down to you.

“But you are ever the child of light, are you not Hikari?” The voice teases.

You take an unconscious step towards the light, unable to choose.

"Could you imagine him, laying there unconscious? There was quite a lot of blood that he lost last I checked Hikari," the voice adds, laughter making you wince.

"Daisuke," you murmur and you hear a voice underlying Daisuke's that makes you shudder.

"Didn't I tell you? Daisuke as you know him is long gone."

The chilling laughter sends you scurrying down the dark hallway, Patamon following you the whole way.

Chapter Text

"Okay, we're stuck in a cage, it's kind of dark in here." You look around the area, a frown on your face. "But, I spy with my little eye....something orange?" It had flashed briefly and caught you off guard.

"Well, that-" Gatomon frowns, looking around the cage to the area below. You had been at this game for hours, but it was keeping you awake while the pain in your head subsided. "I don't see anything orange?" She asks, turning to you.

You sit, looking through the bars. You had used everything else in the room, but you had seen something orange, which didn't make sense?

But then-

"Takeru? Gatomon!"

Your heart leaps when you hear the voice and your eyes focus on the speaker. You wave your hand, seeing Hikari stop in the semi-darkness. She looks confused, scanning the room.

"Hey, up here!" You call and you see her look up.

Patamon appears seconds later, hovering by the cage door.

"Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes." Hikari says and you sense something...wrong as you watch her. "What are you doing way up there?"

"I..." You frown, closing your eyes. It felt wrong, but you couldn't figure out why. You feel Gatomon pounce onto your lap and hiss, paw raised as if to attack.

"Who are you?" She demands and you open your eyes, turning to look at the digimon hovering in the air. You watch it move and groan.

"Picodevimon," you say, closing your eyes again. The last time you had seen him, it hadn’t been a very happy occasion.

"Well you're no fun," the digimon says and you see the ball hovering outside the cage, Gatomon hissing and trying to get at the flying ball.

"Which means..." Your gaze falls on the child below you. Hikari from several years ago, not the Hikari from just that morning. The illusion shifts and you see another digimon you don't know rush off, laughter being thrown your way.

"What do you want Picodevimon?" Gatomon demands, tail lashing..

"I'm just here to toy with you. You know, your friends aren't that smart." Picodevimon comments. "They fell right into the trap that the kid laid. It's amazing to know-"

"What kid?" You demand, turning a glare on the digimon. You watch him beat back several steps in the air and you raise an eyebrow, waiting for an answer.

"The one that the dark lord will be making a return through. You digidestined and your idea that we can be destroyed. It'll be your downfall." The digimon laughs and you reach out, making a grab for him. Gatomon bounds off your lap, growling.

"And who is the dark lord?" You ask, though you know.

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know?" Picodevimon giggles, eyeing you up and down. "But, maybe you could ask your friend Daisuke, if you can find anything left of him."

With that, the digimon flew off, snorting out a laugh every couple of seconds. You run a hand through your hair, glad that your head was no longer bleeding, though it still hurt.

"Think Hikari and Patamon are coming?" You ask, glancing down at Gatomon.

"We may be able to break out first." The digimon says, creeping her way to the hinges of the cage. "I won't stay a trapped cat for much longer. That's one ball of digimon that I'm going to play with."

***

You run a hand through your hair, watching Koushiro type away at his computer in the distance. Miyako was kneeling next to him, Sora leaning against the black box. He had been at it for hours now and the other two were growing impatient which lead to….

You turn your attention to the digimon and your friends, listening to the conversation once more.

"You're sure that's what you saw?" Yamato ask and you glance at Elecmon, the digimon nodding his head in response. He looked nervous, his eyes sliding to you and Taichi every couple of words.

"They were walking the way I saw the other kid walk." He shifts and you walk close to Yamato, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll look there, maybe we can find where they had gone." You say, voice soft as you feel Yamato tremble under your touch. "Yamato?" You ask, worried.

"Sorry Ken," Yamato says, pulling away and looking at you. Elecmon is watching your quiet exchange and you want to apologize for interrupting, apologize for everything. Maybe you should have stayed back there instead.

"Let's go see what Elecmon is talking about." Taichi says, glancing at Agumon and nodding. You take a further step back, watching Yamato kick at the ground and shoot a glare at Taichi. "These are our siblings, I know that Yamato. I don't like this any more than you do. We'll find them." He promises. “And I will hurt anyone who hurt them.”

They begin to walk away and you go after them, making a split decision.

"I want to go with you," you say before they could walk any further. They stop, turning to look at you in confusion.

"It may be best if you went back Ken." Yamato says and you shake your head, staring him down.

"I want to go, I feel like I have to go. Like... Like, this is my fault." You bite back more words as you meet Taichi and Yamato's gazes in turn.

"Koushiro is working on hacking the boxes... Why not stay with him?" Yamato says and you shake your head, not willing to let them deter you.

Would this be happening if you had been able to talk to them in the first place? The thought had been nagging you for hours now. And you still didn’t have an answer.

"I won't slow you down," you promise and the two relent. They exchanged a glance with each other once more and then started walking. You followed, keeping Wormmon close to your chest.

"Do you want to evolve Agumon and Gabumon?" Taichi asks and Yamato shakes his head ever so slightly.

"We'll find out what we're going up against, then we'll work on evolving." Yamato says and you see Gabumon look up from his spot next to Yamato, a frown crossing his face. It's a quiet walk from there, and you see the path that your friends would have taken. There’s a track through the bushes, so easy to follow.

And then you're falling.

You see Yamato just ahead of you, Gabumon sliding along his stomach and Taichi tumbling after Agumon. You’re falling down a stone slide, and you tuck your head, not wanting to hit it again. The six of you are deposited at the bottom of the slide in a heap, Yamato grumbling and Taichi struggling to get up. You quickly scramble off the pile, Gabumon and Wormmon following you.

"What is this place?" You ask, voice soft as you feel Wormmon tremble against your leg. You pick him up, comforted by his presence. This was a place you don’t remember ever seeing on the maps when you were first here. The stone castle felt hollow and you wonder how you had missed it.

"Vamdemon,"

You turn when you hear the whisper, seeing Taichi tense even as he spoke.

"He's gone," Yamato says and you clutch Wormmon closer to your chest, releasing him when he let out a noise of protest.

"Who is Vamdemon?" You ask and you see the two older digidestined turn to look at you. You nearly take a step back, seeing Yamato run a hand through his hair.

"He tried to kill Hikari when we were younger." Taichi says, his voice strained. "This was his castle."

"I thought it got torn down," Yamato glances at Taichi. The other shakes his head, looking around.

"It seems not," he says finally. "Or, someone rebuilt it for him."

"If our siblings are down here..." Yamato grits his teeth, glancing down at his digivice. "Takeru!" He shouts and takes off, you, Agumon, Gabumon, and Taichi following as close as you.

It's dark down here, not as dark as it could get in other places. But something feels off as you move. You remember the oppression of your own fortress when you were the Kaiser, the darkness that sauntered the halls and, when you broke free of the influence, made even you shudder at the thought of what had happened there.

You see Yamato and Taichi branch off from each other when they hit a fork, Taichi going up towards the light and Yamato going down into the dark. You glance at Wormmon, the little bug digimon blinking up at you.

"Which way now?" You ask.

"Go down," Wormmon suggests and you nod, following Yamato into the clogging darkness.

Chapter Text

"Okay, you got the door open....how do we get down?" You ask, watching Gatomon look over the edge of the cage with a frown. The hinges had popped off with ease once she began prying at them and you wonder if you were being toyed with.

"Well..." The cat digimon frowns, glancing between you and the ground. "I can jump, but cats always land on their feet. You..."

"What if you go find someone and I'll just stay up here?" You suggest, looking down at the drop with a small shiver. "Do you promise you'll be fast? I don’t know how much longer I can stand it up here."

"I'll be as fast as I can," Gatomon says and you watch her leap out of the cage, clutching at the bars as it began to swing with the motion of her jump.

It settles after several seconds and you slump back down, listening to the receding footsteps.

"Are you sure you want to be here by yourself Takeru?"

You jolt upright when you hear the voice, twisting your head to either side to find the speaker. "Who's there?" You look down, watching the shape walk from the shadows. Daisuke's face looks up at you, goggles long gone. He's wearing a long black coat, his features otherwise hidden.

"You aren't looking too good Takeru," he comments. "And you're all alone, what are you going to do about that? Don’t you wish your partner were here with you?"

"What have you done with Daisuke?" You demand, searching your friend's face for any sign that he was still there.

"Why, I am Daisuke of course." The man looked up and you stare down into his eyes, feeling a shudder run through your back. "I'm merely a better version of him. Don't you want to come out and play with me?"

"Do you know what you did to Ken?" You demand, and you look over the edge of the cage once more, debating the drop to the ground. The heights make you draw back, your stomach turning.

"Of course," the man comments. "He was in the way. He was going to leave me. But now I know, I don't need him in my way for what I am going to do. I think you'll remember me even better my dear Takeru when I take my final form. But, to do that..."

You blink as Daisuke moves. He flies into the cage, coming closer and resting a hand on your cheek. You try to move away, his other arm pinning you to the section of the cage. You hear your heartbeat pick up and when you look into Daisuke's eyes, you only see darkness.

"You see, in order to complete what I must do, I need something from you Takeru. It's nothing personal, I promise." Daisuke grins and your eyes widen when you see the glint of fangs in his mouth.

"What the-" Your question is cut off as he strikes, the fangs sinking into your neck. You feel your heartbeat shudder and begin to slow, the world growing dark.

***

"Pepper breath!"

You let out a cry as you see the ball of fire hit the cage, knocking the cage to the side. Agumon moves forward, letting out another burst of fire, the links melting before the whole thing comes crashing down, knocking the two men apart.

"Takeru?" You call, seeing the other figure try and leave the room. You jolt forward, Agumon swinging his head around to look but the other man is gone before you can catch him, using a side passage to escape from the onslaught of attacks.

"Taichi?"

You turn your attention back to the cage, picking your way across the floor and offering Takeru a hand as he tried to climb out.

"Hey, what happened?" You ask, once Takeru was standing upright. He blinks at you, a hand clasped to his neck, as he searches for words.

"Daisuke was here," he says slowly, blinking at you. "Gatomon went to find Hikari... We were walking, going to check out something Elecmon told us. Then, we were ambushed and, I don't remember anything between walking then waking up in the cage."

"I haven't seen Hikari or Gatomon." You say with a frustrated sigh. "Look-"

"Taichi, I think we need to be moving soon," Agumon says and you glance at the digimon.

"You okay to walk by yourself? It looks like you hit your head." You search your pockets, wishing Jou was here to help with Takeru.

"I think so. I hit my head, but it seems to no longer hurt. Gatomon made sure I stayed awake." Takeru explains and you nod.

"What did Daisuke have to stay?" You ask, the three of you retreating the way you had come from. Agumon stays in front of you, keeping an eye out for anyone that may be coming.

"I think you'll remember me better when I transform." Takeru says, voice soft. "That was the most important detail at least. I don't know what happened to Daisuke but it's not him anymore. Ken mentioned a dark spore. Why does that sound familiar? I mean, besides Ken. Oh, and he had fangs."

"The first digimon we faced, Vamdemon, he used the dark spores to influence children and gain power. That was before Hikari had her digimon. I think he was a vampire digimon?" You run a hand through your hair, thinking back on that fight.

"Before Agumon and Gabumon's mega stage," Takeru grins and you nod.

"Letting two kids' digimon shoot you with arrows and trusting you won't die makes you consider a lot of things in life." You comment, wishing there were any other noise than just your footsteps down the hall.

"It unlocked a great power though," Takeru replies. "We can always have Angemon and Angewomon do it again, see if you get any other cool powers from it."

"Once is enough, thank you." Your voice is dry when you talk, your gaze going to where Agumon is walking.

"I hope Patamon is with Hikari," Takeru says finally and you glance over at him.

"I'm sure he is. If you had Gatomon with you, it would make sense." You pause, looking at the branches in the stonework and trying to decide which way to go.

"How did you find me?" Takeru asks and you shake your head.

"Dumb luck honestly." You admit. "I wasn't thinking, just hoping that you were my sister actually. Ken and Yamato are here too. They're looking just as hard for you and Hikari."

"So Daisuke’s infected by a dark spore, disappeared from Earth without a trace, then reappears on the digital world working for...Vamdemon?" Takeru says and your gaze slides over to him. "He said he needed something in order to transform, then took blood from me. He had fangs and everything. I hated Vamdemon to begin with."

"That's not a comforting thought." You run a hand over your arm, pulling out your d-terminal and looking for messages from Yamato.

I found Takeru. Any luck on your end?

You send the message, pocketing it and pulling out your digivice. "Ready to evolve yet Agumon?"

"I think we have other issues," Agumon says, raising a paw and pointing at the flying ball in the air. You look at it, watching Picodevimon for a brief moment.

"Follow him," you decide, taking the path that the digimon had taken. Takeru follows you, glancing at Agumon, the digimon shrugging back.

"I know you're down there digibrats," Picodevimon says, swinging around and hovering in front of your face. "What do you think you're going to find by following me?"

"Pepper breath!"

Agumon lets the flame ball go, striking Picodevimon with a grin. The flying ball bounces back several steps, shaking itself off and glowering.

"Bat flutter!" Picodevimon snaps, Agumon throwing off several more pepper breaths to combat the bats. Takeru grunts, tracking the ball and running after it when he tries to disappear.

"After that bat!" You shout, running down the hall with the other two just ahead of you.

***

"Hey Ken, do you have any light on you?"

Ken glances up when you speak, patting his pockets and pulling out a small pen light. You accept it, turning it on and using it to scan the hallways.

"Will you tell me more about Vamdemon?" He asks as you walk.

You grimace at the question, glancing down to Gabumon and consider how to answer it. "We were fighting him in the digital world, back when Gatomon worked for him, or was enslaved by him. When he got to the human world, he started to search for Gatomon's human partner, who ended up being Hikari. He used the black spores to influence the thoughts of children. With all the negative thoughts, he gained more power. And, at the end, what saved us was the evolution of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon. Angemon and Angewomon shot us with arrows of light and hope."

“Did you ever think of what would happen if it went wrong?” Ken asks.

“If being shot went wrong?” You inquire, needing clarification.

“Yeah, if it had harmed, instead of helped.” Ken says.

“Then we wouldn’t be the kids from the prophecy back then. We would be up the tree with no way down. And we would have never met you and the others.” You glance down at your d-terminal when you hear the message, glancing at Ken. "Taichi found Takeru, do you want to keep heading this way?"

"Yes," Ken says, looking down the hall. You nod at his determination, feeling proud to be able to call him your friend.

"Can I ask you something?" You ask as you walk, looking at arch ways only to find a wall directly behind it. It was only fair, to trade question for question.

"What do you want to ask?" Ken shoots back and you shrug.

"I guess... At night, I hear you with nightmares sometimes. You know you can talk to us if you have any issues, right?" You ask.

"I know, I have..." He hesitates and you wonder if you made a mistake asking him. "I appreciate everything that you have done. There are things that I have to learn to deal with. That six weeks, it made me realize how messed up I had gotten when I... Before I became your friends. The influence of something to make someone that was....sweet and kind like Daisuke... To make him into a monster, there are things I can't comprehend. But it did the same of me, back before."

You watch as he stops, Wormmon at his side. "I-" you began.

"Have you ever wondered if you deserved something that happened to you?" Ken asks, meeting your gaze and ignoring your interruption. "Like, maybe it is the universe punishing you for the things you have done?"

"I suppose," you say with a frown. "But that's not-"

"When it was happening, that's what I took it for." Ken says, leaning down and picking up Wormmon before he continues to walk, forcing you to walk with him. He keeps his face forward and you glance to Gabumon, worried that you had upset Ken. "It was something that I was sure of, before you came back. People... They can do horrendous things and never bat an eye. When you change your ways, or when I changed anyway, you wait for the other shoe to drop. I waited for the punishment that I was sure to come. And it did, but it came at too high a price. I would rather sacrifice myself than ever want that to happen to my friends."

"Ken," you hesitate, reaching out and lightly touching his shoulder. "It doesn't matter what happened in the past, you don't deserve what happened to you now. Please, at least let me try and tell you that."

"I can try," Ken says and shrugs off your hand, his gaze focusing on the point of light in front of you. "I think I hear someone up ahead."

You turn to where he's pointing, looking for the source of the sound.

"Ken, Yamato!"

You raise your hands, catching Patamon before he could dart past you, Hikari sliding to a stop.

"Hikari, what?" You try to ask as the young woman looks up at you, eyes wide.

"We have to get out of here, fast! Have you seen Gatomon?" She demands.

"No, we haven't." You say with a shake of your head.

"Takeru?" Patamon asks hopefully.

"He’s with Taichi," Ken says and the digimon perk up to know that his partner was safe.

"Taichi and us broke off at a fork. Maybe if we backtrack, we can find them there?" Wormmon suggests and you nod at the small digimon.

"You're not going anywhere."

All six of you jump when you hear the voice, the wall crashing down to block the way you had come. You turn to the way you were headed, squaring your shoulders.

"Go forward?" You suggest.

"It's probably a trap," Hikari comments.

"More than likely a trap," you agree.

"Then let's do it." Ken decides and you begin to move once more, the dark stonework growing lighter with each step forward.

Chapter Text

You follow Picodevimon until you lose him, coming across a fork in the hallway. Taichi groans, running his hand through his hair and glancing at Agumon. The two share a glance and you lean over, grateful for the chance to catch your breath.

"Let's take the right path," you suggest as you stand back up, pointing at it. "We went left at the last one."

"That's because we could see the digimon. I am going to use him for a soccer ball the moment I get my hands on him." Taichi says through gritted teeth, turning to look at you.

"Should we go left then? If he went left last time..." Agumon suggests and you glance down the left wall, the merry lights twinkling. It sends unease through you. "The right one has no lights."

"But if this is Vamdemon's castle, we probably should be going into the dark." You comment. "Have you heard anything back from my brother?" You turn, looking at Taichi.

"Not anything after I told him that we found you. Have you tried contacting Hikari?" He asks with a raised eyebrow and you open your mouth, slowly lowering your hand and pulling out your d-terminal. You’re embarrassed, having forgotten you even had it on you.

"No," you mutter, looking over past messages between you and Hikari but not finding any new ones. "I forgot I had the ability to."

"Let's go down the right then," Taichi says, eyeing the darkness.

"Are you sure you don't want to go left?" You ask, turning to look at Taichi. You had sent out a hastily typed message, hoping that Hikari would answer. "I mean, we could have also stayed and waited to see if Gatomon would come back..."

"You were the one that suggested right," Taichi groans and you turn to face the darkened hall. "Arguing isn't going to get us any faster to that soccer ball."

"Agumon, can you smell him?" You ask, turning to the digimon. Agumon looks at you, blinking and shaking his head.

"No, but I'm sure I would smell food if there were any." He offers and you hear Taichi snort. The three of you head down the darkened path, and you look at Taichi.

"Do you ever regret anything that happened?" You ask, needing to fill the silence.

"What do you mean?" Taichi asks and you frown at him.

"Like… Do you ever regret what we became?" You say finally. "Child warriors on a front line for a world that mocked us?"

"There are times I wish that it hadn't happened, but I would never trade having Agumon as a partner for anything." Taichi says, leaning down and hugging Agumon to his chest. The digimon returns the hug, making you miss Patamon even more.

"I get that," you agree. “I wish we could see them more than just when lives are at stake though.”

"Sometimes, I wonder what life would have been like, without them." Taichi admits as the three of you continue to walk. "But then, I may not have had the friends I do have. There would be less...."

"Yeah, I get it." You say after a moment, turning your head when you hear a giggle. "There's some things that leaves you with invisible scars. But you come out in the end, with better friends."

"But you learn to work with it." Taichi says and you glance at him. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah, it sounded like..."

"Hikari?" Taichi asks and takes off, you and Agumon sharing a glance before chasing after him down the darkness.

***

"I have a bad feeling about this," Wormmon murmurs and you glance down at him, nodding your agreement.

"Do we want to stick together?" Yamato asks, looking at the branching hallways. "We can each pick a path..."

"We're stronger when we're together." Gabumon says and you smile at the digimon, grateful for his presence.

"We're in Vamdemon's castle, stuck in a maze. We already got separated from Taichi and Agumon. And I don't know where Gatomon is. It would be better if we were to stay together." Hikari comments and Patamon nods in agreement. "And remember, they didn't want us going back. If we split up now, we probably won't find each other again."

"Fine, we don't split up." Yamato says with a nod. "But that leads to the decision, do we want to go straight, up, or down?"

"We already went down, wouldn't up be more beneficial to us?" You suggest, glancing at the three paths. "Straight has not done us much good..."

"I went down originally, and ran into you." Hikari offered.

"Do we have a way to mark the paths we went on?" Gabumon asks and the three of you look at the digimon. "If it is a maze, I don't think wandering around will do much help. We may be repeating our footsteps without realizing it."

"Right," Yamato says and shakes his head. The penlight you had offered him earlier had already died out. "I don't have anything, you two?"

"No, sorry." You say as Hikari shakes her head.

"Let's go up!" Hikari says, pointing and you nod in agreement.

"It seems like the most logical conclusion." You say, pausing when you hear footsteps.

"Yamato? Hikari? Ken...?"

You freeze when you hear the voice, dragging your eyes up to look across the hall. You see Daisuke standing there, a hand pressed to his side. Your heart skips a beat, then another and you're taking a step back, feeling the rough stone wall against your back.

"Where are we?" Daisuke asks, and you hear uncertainty and fear in his voice. But, something more underneath it, something you knew personally.

"How do you not know where you are?" Yamato demands, stepping in front of you, blocking your line of sight from your boyfriend-or could you consider him an ex-boyfriend now? Did it really matter now?

"I woke up here," he says, his voice flippant. "Last I remember was-"

He's cut off as Yamato snaps something you couldn't catch. You feel a hand on your shoulder, turning to look at Hikari, your eyes wide as you battled down the wave of rising panic. Wormmon moves, patting your arm best as he could.

"Ken?"

You glance up, realizing that the argument had settled on you, both Yamato and Ken staring you down. "What did I do?" Daisuke asks and you open your mouth, hearing the old Daisuke in his voice, in that question.

"What did you think I would do?"

You stare up when you hear the question, blinking at Daisuke warily. You can't remember what had started the argument, but you hadn't wanted it to continue. You had tried asking him to calm down, but the stinging in your cheek gave you the answer that you deserved.

"Daisuke, please..." You hesitate, raising a hand to your cheek as you tried to sort out the words that you wanted. What had you wanted to ask him anyway?

"Please what?" He demands and you drag your hand away from your cheek, clasping them behind your back.

"I don't want to argue with you." You say, lowering your head. You can't bare to look him in the eyes. You want nothing more than to retreat to your bedroom and hide until it was time for bed. He would leave you alone until then, he would grant you that much peace.

"Come here," Daisuke says and you look up at him. You search his eyes for something familiar, for the kindness and gentleness you had once known. But you don't see any of that now.

You walk over to him when he asks you to, feeling him press a hand to your cheek and offer you a smile, hesitant as it was. He places a hand on your cheek, moving it back to touch your hair, before pulling you in for a kiss, using the leverage of his hand to drag you off balance.

"I'm going to the store, you stay here. Got it?" He says, letting you go and meeting your gaze.

"Understood," you say, tilting your head to him ever so slightly. You feel your heart race and your stomach turn as his hand moves down to your cheek, slowly tracing over the red mark he had left earlier.

"Good," he says, leaning up and kissing you once more before stepping away. He finds his keys and leaves, and you begin your search for your d-terminal, desperate to send out a message to any of the other digidestined for help.

"Ken, answer me,"

Your gaze darts up to Daisuke and you shake your head, feeling Hikari's grip on your arm tighten.

"No," you say, unsure what you were saying 'no' to even.

"What do you mean?" Daisuke asks and you meet his gaze, seeing his eyes widen in shock. "We're partners, aren't we?"

"Gabumon?" Yamato glances at his partner and you hold on tighter to Wormmon, Patamon staring Ken down.

"No, we're not." You murmur and Gabumon evolves, moving forward to block Daisuke's view as Yamato looks back at you and Hikari.

"Go, find Taichi and Takeru, I'll hold him off." Yamato says and you want to protest, but Hikari is already dragging you away, Patamon saying something you can't catch as you wonder what happened to Daisuke.

Chapter Text

You watch Garurumon and Yamato stand in your way, a frown on your face. "Now, why did you have to go and ruin my fun like that?" You ask, eyes trained on the blond. "There were more things I wanted to ask him."

"You hurt him," Yamato says and you raise an eyebrow.

"Well, it certainly wasn't meant to be a pleasure." You comment. "Of course he got hurt. But you should have seen him, in the end. How much he believed it was his fault. That's where the fun lay, Yamato. Breaking someone until they only believe the worst about themselves."

"You think it was fun?" Yamato demands and you lock eyes with him, a smile unfurling across your face.

"Does that make you hate me Yamato?" You ask, arching an eyebrow. "I can work with hate. I thrive off of hate."

"Howling blaster!"

You dodge Garurumon's attack, sidestepping and raising your hands as if to shrug. "Really Yamato, you have to do better than that to hit me."

You step forward, watching Garurumon from the corner of your eye. You smile, raising your hands once more. “This, this is also fun.” You whisper.

You could kill him, you have enough power within you to do it now. Kill him.

You drop your hands as the voice eggs you on, making your head swim. The voice had grown stronger since you fed off of Takeru. The voice was a constant, and now... "Crimson lightning!"

Yamato is stunned as you summon the digimon's power, lashing out with the blood whip towards Garurumon. The digimon side steps, reaching just out of range as you attack again, maddening glee dancing in your eyes.

"Do you understand yet, Yamato?" You demand, voice raising into laughter at the end of your question. "Do you understand what you are fighting against?"

"You-" Yamato began as you lash out once more with the attack, wondering if feeding on Yamato would be good enough to gain more powers. Powers you could use…

It has to be of holy presence, or dark of mind. Ken would make a nice feast of darkness, but the holy brat of light would be even better. Find them.

The voice rarely told you what to do anymore and you turn, looking beyond Yamato and Garurumon to where Hikari and Ken had disappeared.

"Howling blaster,"

You glance up at the annoyance of the digimon in front of you, stepping to avoid and cursing when you realize that they would not move out of your way.

"There is not a point in continuing this fight." You decide and press your hand to one of the archways, disappearing into the stonework and laughing when you hear Garurumon blasting the area that you had disappeared into.

***

"Can we-" you pant, struggling to keep up with Hikari. Your heart is pounding, fear clouding your mind as you try to understand what happened. The girl stops several steps in front of you, turning to look at you with wide eyes. "I need a moment," you say finally, slumping against the wall.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have taken off like that with you." Hikari says, turning to look at you.

"No, I believe I was beginning to panic as well." You say with a frown. "I was not expecting..." You hesitate, unsure of what you were expecting versus what you weren't. You weren't expecting to deal with Daisuke, not here. But you had known he was here. So why shouldn’t you have expected it in the first place?

"Takeru says he's with Taichi," Hikari says, looking up from her d-terminal and watching you, worry in her eyes. "Do you want me to tell him what happened here?"

"It would be in our interest to keep them updated, but we should also get moving soon." Patamon says and you nod at the small digimon.

"Let's just keep moving, we should be able to find the others, hopefully." You say and you feel a shiver run down your spin. Wormmon is silent in your arms and you stand, looking down the way you had come. "What about Yamato?" You ask.

"He'll have to catch up at a later time. He saw the path that we took, I hope." Patamon says and glances down as well before you set out again, wishing that there was more light to see by.

***

You walk through the hallways, touching the back of your paws as you do so. "So many bad memories," you whisper, wondering if it would have been wiser to stay with Takeru. But knowing that Hikari was somewhere close, you couldn't have left her out on her own.

You had to find her.

"Gatomon,"

You turn when you hear your name, raising your eyes to look at the human that appeared. "What do you want?" You demand, taking a step back. Leaving Takeru now seemed like a completely stupid idea.

"I saw Hikari and Yamato down this way," Daisuke says and you see him gesture towards the stairs leading up. The stairs that hadn’t been there moments ago.

"Why should I trust you?" You ask, crossing your arms over your chest. You watch Daisuke, the man scratching the back of his head in thought.

"Well, I am just trying to help." He says and you sniff the air. Something was wrong, that much you knew, but you couldn't pinpoint on what was wrong exactly.

"I don't trust anything here." You say with another sniff, hoping you could smell what was wrong.

"Why not?" Daisuke asks, stepping closer and you raise a paw, staring him down.

"Vamdemon," you say, studying his gaze. "You're hiding in there, aren't you?"

"Never heard of that digimon." Daisuke says, scratching the side of his head once more before he pushes his hands in his pockets. Your tail twitches and you keep your eyes on him, fur on end. He smelled of Vamdemon.

"What have you done?" You whisper. You don't know how long it had been since you left Takeru in the cage. You had hoped your knowledge of the castle would help you, but all it had done was get you more lost than you had been before. You grit your teeth in frustration, unwilling to let Daisuke out of your sight, even as he begins circling you.

"Come on, who's Vamdemon?" Daisuke asks, keeping his distance. "Was he someone you fought before? The older digidestined have such cool stories and I want to hear more of them."

"This is one digimon you don't want to tango with." You say with a small hiss. The back of your neck prickled with unease as Daisuke finally begins to move toward you.

"Why not tell him about me while we walk?" Daisuke asks and you stare at him, pondering over the choice of words.

"Tell you about...Vamdemon?" You ask for clarification.

"Yeah, that!" Daisuke says and you shake your head.

"Sorry, it's not something that I would be able to tell you about. Only that he's one digimon that you don't want to mess with." You glower at Daisuke, ducking under his hand as he reaches out for you. You run down the hall, hoping that Daisuke would not chase you, but fearing he would.

***

"I hear voices," you say and Ken nods, glancing towards you.

"-you don't want to mess with."

You glance up when you hear the sound of feet, watching as Gatomon bounds into the hall, tail twitching and you let out a relieved sigh as you pick up the digimon.

"What's wrong Gatomon?" You ask, looking down at the small digimon as she struggles in your grip.

"I saw Daisuke, that way." She points the way you had been walking and you frown, glancing back at Ken. The digimon calms when she realizes who you are, her eyes wide. “Or something that was in Daisuke’s body at least.”

"Should we keep walking that way, or do you want to turn back?" You ask Ken.

"I say continue down, there's nothing we can lose now." Ken says, glancing at Patamon and Wormmon. "Besides, this way we have a better chance at running into Taichi. If Gatomon came this way, then possibly the other three are this way as well."

"Good point," you say and the five of you head off. You hope that your brother and Takeru are down this hall, and you worry about Yamato. "Did Daisuke say anything when you saw him?"

"He wanted to know who Vamdemon is," Gatomon says, looking up at you. "I'm glad I found you."

"Me too," you say, glancing at Patamon. "We'll find Takeru soon, I promise Patamon."

"Thanks Hikari," the small digimon says and you feel heartbroken that Takeru wasn't with Gatomon. You wish he was here, but you would find him soon.

"Daisuke was just...here." Gatomon says, looking around the hallway and jumping out of your arms.

"We saw him awhile back, but he was blocked from following us by Yamato and Garurumon." Ken supplies. "He could be using passages that we are not aware of to get through the area faster."

"I wouldn't believe Daisuke to be that smart." You say.

"But it's not Daisuke anymore, is it?" Wormmon asks and you turn your attention to the small insect digimon.

"No, he's not Daisuke as we know him. If it's a dark spore, he's going to have intelligence that we would have never suspected of Daisuke. And if it's something else... He could have the knowledge of those that are doing this to him as well." Ken says, voice strained and you watch him, wishing there was something you could do to help him.

"He's our enemy," Gatomon says and you glance down at her.

"Yeah, he is." You agree and you watch as Ken tenses, gaze fixed on Wormmon. "We should send a message to the others. Koushiro and Miyako were still puzzling over the boxes. We can at least message Taichi and Yamato or Takeru, try and meet up. At least let the others know what's going on."

"You've seen Daisuke, is there anything left of who he used to be?" Ken asks Gatomon. You frown at the question, turning your gaze to your partner.

Gatomon hesitates before slowly shaking her head. "He tried to act like it, but I don't think he's human anymore. Nothing smelled human, when he got close enough for me to smell him. There was..." You hug your partner, murmuring a soft thank you and letting her know that she didn’t have to keep talking if she didn’t want to.

"Thank you Gatomon," Ken says and then looks up, beginning to walk once more. "Come on, we should try and meet the others soon. I don't like it down here."

"Neither do I," Patamon comments and you quietly agree, wishing your brother were here.

***

You watch Taichi run down the hall, finally stopping to catch your breath. When you look up, you can't see him anywhere. Your heart thuds in your chest, fear trickling down your back.

"Taichi! Wait up!" You call, picking up your pace. The castle feels cold to you as you move. And you spin when you hear someone call you.

"Takeru, there you are!"

Your heart leaps into your mouth as Daisuke moves into view, the dim lights not doing you any good.

"Hey Takeru, we never got to finish talking last time." He says and you see him smile, even from over here. He's huddled in his jacket, his hair sticking up at odd ends even worse than you had seen it before.

"I think we're done talking," you say as your hand unconsciously raises to your neck while you speak. You can still feel pinpricks from where he bit you, though you had fortunately stopped bleeding before Taichi had gotten a good look at what had happened.

"Come on, how can we be done talking? We had barely started on that conversation before. But, hey, I get it." He says with a shrug. "We’re far from done talking. In fact, I think I still need something from you."

"There is nothing I want to give you." You say, taking a step back. You take stock of what you know, and you wish Taichi hadn't run off. It would be a comfort if even Agumon was with you.

"Oh, I don't need you to want to give it to me." He says with a grin, taking a step closer to you. "I still need power from you. And you are by yourself. Doesn't it feel...wrong to you that the others keep ditching you like this?"

"They aren't ditching me." You snap, free hand curling up at your side. You move your other hand away from your neck, staring Daisuke down. "I can forgive a lot of things Daisuke, but what you've done, that's not something that can be forgiven. There's no hope for you."

"I don't need hope, not when I have power." Daisuke says and you tighten your fists, feeling nails digging into your skin. "I have everything I could ever need. I'm not going to take second place to anyone again." He steps closer to you, closing the distance and you feel your heart thud faster. You can't move as you look into his eyes.

He presses his hand against your cheek, offering you a smile. "See, I always felt like I was second best. None of you needed me, isn't that right? You were always trying to get ahead of me.” His mouth hardens into a line, and you can feel the press of stone against your back. “You had been to the digital world, but yet… I was chosen to be leader, but you were always there, trying to make suggestions. I got a suggestion for you however," he whispers, his breath against your cheek before he kisses you.

You stare, eyes wide, as he kisses you, your body tense as you tried to move. Your head is screaming at your body to move, to push him away. But you feel your eyes close and you lean into the kiss. There's hardly any space between you, and you feel him press up against you, his erection brushing your leg and your thoughts turn hazy.

"Howling blaster!"

You jerk away from Daisuke when you hear Garurumon's voice, rubbing your arm across your lips and glowering at the other man. He grins, licking his lips before disappearing once more. You swallow hard, looking up with wide eyes as Garurumon bounds into the room, Yamato offering you a hand up.

"Thanks," you say, taking his hand and climbing onto the digimon's back.

"Want to talk about it?" Yamato asks, glancing back at you.

"Daisuke is a dick," you settle on. "Taichi ran off, heard something that got him moving fast. I wouldn't be surprised if Daisuke or whatever that is is playing tricks to keep us separated."

"He ran Hikari, Patamon, Ken, and Wormmon off a bit ago. Resulted in me chasing him. I came this way and find you.... Sorry I don't have Patamon." Yamato says and you shake your head.

"We'll find them," you promise, glad to be with your brother and Garurumon once more.

Chapter Text

You search the small room for the laughter that had brought you this way. The sound of your sister's voice had been so clear before, but now you were at a dead end, Agumon by your side.

"We'll find her," he promises, looking up at you with wide eyes.

"I know, I just thought..." You turn when you hear footsteps, looking at the figure in the doorway.

"Do you ever think, Taichi?"

You turn, feeling Agumon tense at your side. "Daisuke, what are you doing here?"

"I'm lost, is all." Daisuke says, hands in his pockets. "I haven't been able to find the others; have you?"

"What happened to you?" You ask, recalling the phone call that Daisuke had simply vanished from the prison. He hadn't even broken out, just vanished one night.

"I wasn't needed there," Daisuke says after a moment, meeting your gaze. "I was needed here though. There was nothing left for me in that world. I was left alone when Ken decided to leave me. Why should I have stayed?"

"You nearly killed him!" You snap, leveling a glare at Daisuke. "You don't deserve to call yourself a Digidestined."

"Me, not a digidestined?" He raises an eyebrow, cocking his head. "Of course, I never was to begin with! I was always useless, there was going to be someone better than me to come along. And, when they did, I was just going to be replaced. The same way you were replaced. But, you all left me alone. No one cared."

"You were never going to be replaced." You say, crossing your arms as Agumon touched your elbow. "I was never replaced either. Two different groups, two different leaders."

"I saw you," Daisuke says, voice uneven as he staggers towards you. "You were always wanting to talk to Ken over me. You wanted him to replace me. A child genius, for the leader of the digidestined. He would have left, in the end. They always leave in the end!" He shouts, chest heaving as he struggles to breathe.

"Chibimon has been asking after you. He wants to know why you rejected him." You spit out. Chibimon had tried to hold out hope that Daisuke would come back, but two days ago, he had devolved further. You had not wanted to leave Chicomon alone in your apartment earlier today, but he told you he felt safer there.

"I asked if he wanted to come, but he didn't want to." Daisuke cries, growing frustrated the longer the two of you speak.

"Agumon, digivolve!" You say, holding up your digivice and watching your partner do just that. You look at the back of Greymon, the digimon standing between you and Daisuke. You move, keeping the other digidestined leader in your sights. "What are we supposed to do with you now?"

"I'm not a problem to be dealt with!" Daisuke screams and you flinch back as a swarm of bats swirl past you.

"Grisly Wing!" Daisuke shouts again and you feel Greymon brace.

"Nova blast!" Greymon lets lose the blast of heat and you flinch, feeling the heat brush past you in such close quarters. You peek around the digimon when it finally subsides, looking at the hole in the wall were Daisuke had been.

"Do we go down now?" You ask.

"Yeah, we go down." Greymon says, letting you climb on his back before he scurries through the hole he created, having revealed a large stairway going down.

***

"Gatomon and Hikari have reunited," you inform your brother, looking up at your d-terminal as Garurumon stares at the conflicting hallways.

"That's good," Yamato says, pointing to a hallway at random. "Any news on if they found Taichi?"

You shake your head, adjusting your grip to make sure you didn't fall off the digimon as he took off. You frown when you hear an explosion above you, hoping that whatever had made it was okay. "Hey, I asked Taichi this, but do you ever feel like we got the short end of the stick?"

"Short end of what stick?" Yamato asks, turning to look back at you.

Over the years, you had never really talked to your brother about how you felt. And starting now... "I love the digital world, but being picked up to be child soldiers for a world that you didn't know existed? The horrors we witnessed when we were younger?"

"The lingering PTSD that comes with the effects of fighting something that can destroy buildings in a blink of an eye?" Yamato asks and you nod, putting your d-terminal into your pocket.

"If it weren't for the digital world, we wouldn't have fought Ken, we wouldn't be fighting Daisuke and dealing with whatever happened to him..." You point out.

"We wouldn't have the friends we have now either." Yamato says, shaking his head. "Maybe there are things I would trade. But, I would never trade the friends and our partners for peace of mind."

"I understand," you say, glancing to the side to watch the ground pass underneath you.

"You okay Takeru?" He asks and you feel Garurumon stop. Your older brother turns to look at you, eyes full of concern.

"I guess," you say with a shake of your head. "I'm worried about our friends."

"If you ever need someone to talk to, someone that understands-" He began and you smile up at him.

"I know, thanks. I think I heard an explosion, that way. Do you want to check it out?" You suggest, pointing down another hall. Garurumon shifts, swinging his head this way and that.

"Towards the explosions," Yamato agrees and Garurumon takes off again.

"It sounded like Taichi," you say after a moment, raising your voice for Yamato to hear you.

"Yeah, it did. I hope it's him, but I'm not happy if we end up running into a fight." Yamato says.

"Do not worry Yamato, you have me." Garurumon says and you smile down at the digimon. You did have him indeed, and you were grateful, ever grateful of Garurumon's presence, with Patamon still missing.

***

"Have you come up with anything in relation to the boxes?" Miyako asks, leaning against a tree as you type away at your computer.

You glance towards the younger digidestined, shaking your head before refocusing on your computer. "I have managed to disrupt the signal, so it doesn’t harm the baby digimon in the area. But, it seems like there is something that is trying to counteract me even as I work on the problem."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Tentomon asks, moving closer to your shoulder.

"Maybe stay out of the range of the waves," you suggest, glancing towards where Hawkmon was. "Actually, that gives me an idea. Hawkmon, can I borrow you for a moment?"

"What do you need Hawkmon for that Tentomon can't do?" Miyako asks, looking up from her d-terminal.

"I want to see how the waves affect other digimon." You say, glancing at Hawkmon. "Maybe using our partners is a bad idea... But, with no..." You turn your attention back to the computer, letting out a grunt as the box's signals suddenly crew stronger. You go back to typing, feeling Miyako touch your shoulder ever so gently.

"I don't think there's much we can do about the boxes." Miyako says, staring down at your computer.

"There has to be something..." You grit your teeth, tearing your eyes away from your computer and looking towards the box.

"We can try attacking it," Hawkmon offers and Miyako shakes her head.

"I think Koushiro just needs a break from looking at code for a while." Miyako suggests.

"Well, I guess I could." You say, closing your laptop and looking towards Tentomon. "Any suggestions?"

"Find out where Yamato and Taichi went?" The digimon suggests.

"They went to go find their siblings," Miyako says, glancing over her shoulder. "Do you think they're in trouble?"

"Probably," you say, looking up at the sky. "But it looks like we're going to have some trouble ourselves. Let's get to it." You grimace, watching the digimon draw closer on the horizon.

***

"This way," Ken suggests, pointing towards a hallway that none of you had seen before. "It sounded like the explosion came from this way."

"Let's go then," you say, exhausted. You don't now how long you have been walking in that castle, in that shifting maze. But you're tired, and hearing the explosion made you wary of treading further into danger.

"Let's evolve then," Ken says, looking down at Wormmon and you glance up, watching the two work together. Stingmon flutters in front of him and you glance down at Gatomon.

"Do you want to go ahead and evolve?" You ask, accepting the decline from Gatomon and taking off after Ken and Stingmon, Patamon struggling to keep up with you.

You're up a flight of stairs when you hear the fighting, someone yelling and a crash and you stop at the top, looking at the collection of people and digimon before you.

"Ken!" Takeru slides off Garurumon and you relax to see Yamato, the older boy glancing at you with a nod. "Patamon!" Takeru adds, the smaller digimon flapping past you and nuzzling against Takeru's chest.

"It's good to see you again," Ken says, Stingmon standing off to the side.

"Are you okay Takeru?" Gatomon asks, and the other looks at you and her.

"Yeah, thanks for asking." Takeru says, wrapping his arms around Patamon before the digimon could get too far from him.

"Sorry for leaving you by yourself." Gatomon says and Takeru smiles at her.

"It's okay, I know that you wanted to find Hikari. I think I would have done the same, if I had been able to." Takeru says, dragging his gaze up to you and you offer him a small, half smile.

"This is touching, but are we still looking for the disturbance that we heard?" Ken asks and you glance at him. He's stiff, standing by Stingmon and seemingly wary of coming any closer while we assured each other we were okay.

"It sounded like Greymon." Garurumon says, turning his head to look at the way all of you had been traveling towards.

There's another sounding boom and you turn, listening to the laughter down the hall.

"There is nowhere for you to go," the voice murmurs and you feel cold run down your spine. You tense as you see the figure at the end of the hall, and you feel your heart sink when you see who it is.

Chapter Text

You stare down the hall, watching the corrupted figure of Daisuke. His movements are jerky, out of sync with the once fluidity you had known him for. The easy laugh that had come from him. Now, he stands as if on strings being moved haphazardly.

"You know you could come back Ken," he says, lifting a hand at you. "There's always a place for you by my side."

You grit your teeth, feeling Stingmon move closer, standing nearly in front of you. The others have gone silent and when you glance their way, you see that they are no longer there. You and he are in the hallway by yourself, fog enclosing around you.

"I will not come back, not after what happened," you say, looking up at Daisuke.

"It wasn't my fault," he says, pressing a hand to his chest. "It was your fault for wanting to leave in the first place." He moves closer to you and you see Stingmon move to block the way. You glance down the hall, wondering where the others went as you step to the side to face down Daisuke.

"Yes," you murmur, crossing your arms over your chest and shaking your head. That's what you had been told, when you had talked with Taichi in the beginning. You had sought out reassurance, when it got too bad.

"You were going to leave," Daisuke says and he sounds pathetic, it makes your heart ache.

"I was going to go to the store, a short walk to pick up something I needed," you say, swallowing and taking a step back. You wonder where everyone else had gone. It didn’t make sense that they could have disappeared so fast.

"You were going to leave me." Daisuke whispers again.

"No, I-" You shake your head, remembering how much pain he had put you through. "You hurt me!" You shout, hands curled at your side. He had hurt you, despite you telling yourself that you had deserved it. You had, hadn’t you? That’s what you believe, but not what the others had thought.

"I never hurt you," Daisuke whispers, stepping back with wide eyes. You look up at him, seeing something of the old Daisuke reflected in those eyes. And then it's gone, replaced by the coldness you had come to associate with him by the end of your relationship.

"Yes, you did." You say, looking into his eyes. "I don't trust you. What happened to you?"

"Nothing happened to me Ken," Daisuke says and grins at you, his eyes gleaming.

"You're not Daisuke," you say. You're sure when you look at him. "Daisuke wouldn't hurt me, but you're not him. You haven't been him for months."

"I suppose you're right," he tips his head, grinning wider than you thought possible. "Then I shouldn't be keeping secrets from you anymore, since you realize that I'm not your Daisuke. Shall I take off the mask then Ken?"

You feel Stingmon rest his hand on your shoulder as the form of Daisuke shudders before you. You feel your guts twist as there is a tearing noise and a ripping sound, and the body of what was once Daisuke falls to the ground, limp and discarded and before you stands Vamdemon, fangs gleaming.

"Ken, why don't you come to me? Your blood is what I need," he whispers, moving forward and you slump against Stingmon, feeling hands grab at you.

***

"Yamato?"

You turn when you hear your name, looking for the speaker. At the end of the hall you see Taichi, looking confused.

"Hey, where have you been?" You ask, walking towards your boyfriend. You weren’t too sure it was him, but you were going to be careful all the same.

"I was up in a room, Greymon and I saw Daisuke." Taichi gestures the way you assume he had come and you frown.

"Where is Greymon?" You ask.

"I'm right here! Well, not Greymon..." You blink and see Koromon bouncing at Taichi's feet. "We were running and then we came into a bank of mist. And when we came out on the other side, I was Koromon."

"Strange, we were fighting too." You say, turning to look for Garurumon. You glance down, blanching when you see Tsunomon at your feet.

"I'm sorry Yamato, I couldn't hold my champion form in this fog." Tsunomon says and you shake your head, picking up the digimon.

"It's okay, you did great. Thank you." You say, looking towards Taichi. "Hikari, Ken, and Takeru were here. But then... Daisuke showed up and this fog came down. I don't know what happened after that."

"Do you know what Daisuke was saying?" Taichi asks and you shake your head. "I'm worried about Ken."

"No, I didn’t hear any of it. And yeah, so am I." You turn when you hear a scream, taking Taichi's hand as he grabs Koromon and the two of your run through the fog to find the source of the scream.

***

"Hikari?"

You feel Gatomon press up against you and you glance down at her. "Yes Gatomon?"

"I'm worried about the others." She says and you nod in agreement, leaning down and picking her up. And you cling to her when you hear the screaming. The two of you brace yourself and you run through the fog, worried what might be on the other side.

***

"They just....left?"

You watch Koushiro nod, glancing between him and Miyako. You had come to the digital world to pass a message on to Taichi, though you had come across Koushiro. Now...

“Have you gotten any further with the other delima?” You ask, glancing towards one of the boxes. It was too quiet in the area, and you felt your skin crawl. You almost wish you hadn’t come.

"The boxes are no longer functioning." Koushiro says and gestures towards his laptop. "Nothing, at all. It’s like they just stopped working..."

"Jou, what did you need Taichi for?" Miyako asks and you turn to her.

"I stopped by the apartment, and Chicomon...." You frown, unsure of how to describe what you saw. "He was fading when I got there. Like there was nothing to keep him attached any longer. So, I took him here and he just..." You make a gesture and Koushiro looks at you, eyes wide.

"Do you think he returned to his digi-egg?" Koushiro asks and your gaze darts to Miyako as she clutches Hawkmon to her chest.

"I'm pretty sure he did. I don't think there is any hope for-" you begin.

"That can't be true!" Miyako shouts and you turn to look at the younger digidestined, surprised to see tear streaks on her cheeks. "Daisuke wouldn't do that, he wouldn't! He couldn’t have hurt Ken either! There’s no way-" She breaks off, sobbing overtaking her words.

"Miyako..." Koushiro frowns and glances at you. You nod at him.

"If you see Taichi, will you let him know? I have to get back for a shift soon, but... I wanted to tell him." You say.

"I will let him know, thank you Jou." Koushiro says and you leave, a sinking feeling in your stomach. Maybe you shouldn’t have come. Maybe it would have been better to stay, be with Chicomon in his last moments instead of dragging him back to the digital world like you had.

***

"Takeru?"

You turn as you hear Patamon's cry, reaching out through the fog and grabbing hold of the small digimon. "It's okay, I got you." You say, pressing your face into the digimon's fur.

"I'm worried about the others," Patamon says and you look up at the fog. "It feels like the first time we fought… Before we had Hikari and Gatomon with us. It’s not good."

"Yeah, I know." You murmur and begin to walk through the fog, wishing that you could see the others and you start to run when you hear the screaming, cold sweat breaking out on your skin.

***

You come to when you hear yourself scream. Stingmon is in front of you once more, poised to attack and you're shaking. Your eyes are drawn to the discarded figure and the digimon is behind the body. There's blood trickling out of the body, from more areas that you can count. And you're running, moving through the fog.

You don’t even care about the danger of Vamdemon being there.

The last six months, you remember Daisuke's voice, you could recall the anger in his words, the hatred. But seeing him there, broken and discarded, you collapse in front of his body, reaching out a trembling hand to touch his cheek, pale as he was.

"Hey..."

You blink when you hear the voice, staring down and beyond, you hear Vamdemon laughing.

"He doesn't have long," the digimon taunts and you look up blankly. "But, if you want Ken, I can offer you a spot by my side. You would fit in quite nicely, don't you think? It’s what you were born to do Ken Ichijouji"

"Ken, I'm..."

And your gaze is dragged back down as you kneel in the growing puddle of blood, staring at Daisuke and you feel the tears course down your cheeks. But you don't move, you don't move even as the fog disappears and the others come running. You realize you're still screaming, but you can't be quiet now. You won’t let yourself stop.

You only stop when unconsciousness reaches up and pulls you down, nestling you in its embrace.

Chapter Text

"Yamato, what are you doing here?"

You look at the older digidestined, watching how he blinks at you, confusion plain on his face. It's early in the morning, and he and Gabumon are bundled against the cold.

"I was looking for my brother.... What are you doing here?" He asks, his fist still raised as if he would knock on the door again and you clear your throat, tucking a strand of hair behind your hair as you search for an answer.

"Well, I..." You glance over your shoulder, feeling your face heat up. It wasn’t common knowledge that you and Takeru were together. In fact, you think only one other person was aware the two of you were dating.

"I think I'm better not knowing. Is Takeru around?" Yamato ask and you nod, beckoning the man and digimon inside.

"Would you like any coffee or tea?" You ask as Yamato pulls off his gloves. Your gaze darts down to the scars on his hands and you wish you had a jacket to hide underneath. You hadn’t expected someone to still be at the door when you got up to answer the knocking. You would have gotten a jacket if you had thought about it.

"That would be nice, thank you. I take it Takeru is still asleep?" Yamato asks and you nod, the pair following you into the kitchen once their shoes were removed. You work quietly to prepare the coffee machine, aware of the gaze on you.

"Ken, how are you doing?"

You swallow, setting the coffee pot down before you dropped it as you turn to look at Yamato, careful of your composure. "I have been doing better." You settle on finally. You see Yamato take a seat, Gabumon hopping on the chair next to him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Yamato asks, voice gentle.

You feel yourself tense and you have to remind yourself that he wasn't expecting you to be there. But Takeru had offered.... Your gaze darts up and you look down the hallway. "I've been living here for about nine months now. And if you are interested in hearing, it is something I would be willing to discuss with you" You say, answering the unspoken question first and Yamato looks startled.

"That long?" He asks, resting his arms on the table and leaning forward in the chair, getting comfortable as you nod. He had left his wet jacket by the door, and you can hear the rain fall outside. It was supposed to clear up later. Or start snowing.

"It was something that I didn't really tell any of the others. After..." You swallow past the lump in your throat, fighting down the urge to flee to the bedroom. Sometimes, you still weren't entirely comfortable here and you would take Wormmon out, just to get out.

It was nice to be able to come and go as you needed. Takeru understood and never questioned when you sometimes left in the middle of the night, though he would often say he was worried about you.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want." Yamato promises and you shake your head.

"Takeru's probably still asleep. I would like to talk about it." You say finally. "It's something I would like to tell you, I don't feel pressured," you assure him with a smile.

"Then I'm here to listen." Yamato promises and he gives you a smile. It's the same smile he gave you, six years before when everything had started. Patience, not pressing, not needing to know, but worry underneath the question.

You get up when the coffee machine goes off, handing Yamato a cup and placing creamer and sugar on the table, setting your cup before you and placing your hands around it. You look into the dark liquid, glad that Wormmon was still asleep for the time being.

It still hurt to think about what you had done to him, when you disappeared.

"After the time in the maze," you say, feeling your memories shift as you picked out the start point. "Do you remember that?"

"Yeah, Vamdemon ripped himself out of Daisuke's body and went after you. We got you home, but you were in shock..." He frowns, biting his tongue when he realizes he had tried to take the conversation over.

You offer him a smile and begin once more. "Yes, thank you for taking me out of the digital world. I never got a chance to tell you. After the funeral we had for Daisuke in the digital world, I was plagued with dreams. It only took a week for Vamdemon to infiltrate my dreams completely. I went back to the digital world, without Wormmon. I felt bad for leaving him, but I believed it had been best at the time." It had been a horrible decision, but the voice had nagged you. It spoke of what you had done, of the fate that you thought you deserved for the things you had done under the dark influence.

You hadn’t wanted Wormmon to see you like that again.

You had missed him so badly.

You don’t regret leaving him behind though, not when you let yourself think about it.

You still wonder if that dark influence hadn't been completely taken out. Maybe there was still a piece of spore left in you, back then.

You wonder if it’s there even now.

"I spent two years under Vamdemon's..." You pause as you search for a word that would fit. You hadn't told your therapist that your abuser had been a digimon, that was something that even the mental institute staff hadn't gotten out of you. You gave them Daisuke's description and name, told them that you had killed him to escape.

They never questioned it.

That much was true.

You had killed Vamdemon to escape.

It hadn’t just been you, the others had helped.

Taichi had found you.

You wonder if you had scared him.

You had given Daisuke a burial in the digital world before you had been taken away by your friends. By Takeru, who had been a rock, your rock, those two weeks between leaving the digital world and Vamdemon finding you to convince you to leave with him.

Two weeks of nightmares and hell.

Even Takeru hadn’t been able to fully help you, but you had shut him out.

"You left Wormmon behind," Yamato says, breaking into your train of thought and you look up. You had gotten better at not drifting off into fragmenting thoughts.

"Yes, I suppose I did. I don't know why I did it at the time. I just..." You purse your lips before offering him a shrug. "It felt wrong to take him back into the darkness with me, after he had suffered so at my hands when I was the Kaiser."

"That wasn't-" Yamato begins and you shake your head, holding up a hand.

"There is a part of me that yearned for the power that the Kaiser had. I wanted it, that was why I was so easily swayed by Vamdemon. I didn't want to acknowledge it. Not acknowledging it caused it to fester and make it an access point for Vamdemon to enter my head again. Being able to talk about it has helped Yamato," you say, raising your face to look across the table at Yamato.

Both of you have your scars. And your missing eye is noticeable, without the glass one in to hide the hole. You drop your gaze quickly, studying the scars on your arm.

They look harsh in the kitchen lights.

"We were kids fighting a war," Yamato says, voice gentle and you nod miserably.

"When we were younger, it felt like no one was there to help us. We were lost, and that sensation of being lost was what took me completely under Vamdemon’s influence. We were children, we were never offered help by adults. I never sought help where I could find it. And it dragged me back under. I won't detail what happened to me under Vamdemon's...." You grimace at what words you want to say, hand absently touching the empty eye socket.

They are so pretty, I just want to keep them in a jar... You'll let me do that, right Ken? Can I take your eyes?

A moment's pain and a whispered thank you as you clutch at the bleeding socket and scream.

"Ken..." Yamato says and you flash him a smile, laying your hands back on the table.

"I'm doing better. Takeru has been very helpful. He's... Kind, and caring. He's patient, and visited me a lot while I was in the institute. He and Taichi was what finally let them break and let Wormmon stay with me. I wasn't in a very good place. But, I am doing better now. There are times when I... When I relapse, but they are very few and far between. Takeru is very helpful." You murmur.

They had grown less and less frequent, even your need to get out of the apartment. You like that about living with Takeru.

"I'm glad to hear that." Yamato says and you glance between him and Gabumon, getting up and walking to the pantry and bringing out several snacks for the digimon.

"Apologies, I didn't think to ask if you were hungry." You say, setting it down and smiling when you see Gabumon's eyes go wide. He thanks you before he begins eating and Yamato sighs.

"I swear, digimon will eat you out of house and home if you let them." He complains. "I guess Gabumon isn't as bad as Agumon... If he even smells food, he complains about being hungry, even if he just ate."

"Agumon is just a growing digimon is all." You offer and are rewarded with a snort of laughter from Yamato.

"Growing digimon indeed." He snorts. "More like a growing pain in the ass."

"Yamato?"

You glance up, smiling at Takeru framed in the doorway. "I'm sorry, did we wake you?" You ask, concerned. Neither of you went to bed early last night.

"No, I heard the talking... What's up Yamato?" Takeru asks, turning his attention to his brother. You take a good look at him, realizing he had neglected to put his shirt on properly.

"Taichi and Sora are hosting a picnic today. I was told to come see if you were able to go." Yamato says, staring Takeru in the eye.

"It's supposed to snow," Takeru says, crossing his arms over his chest.

You get up, walking over to Takeru and touching his shoulder lightly. "Your shirt is both backwards and inside out." You murmur, kissing him on the cheek before disappearing into the bedroom to change, listening to them talk, though it is too muffled for you to make out what they say. You’re okay with that. You come back out when you hear the door shut, Takeru letting out a huff.

"Do you want to go?" He asks, turning his attention to you.

"I would like to," you agree. It had been a while since you had seen everyone. Six years, to the day, since Vamdemon had come back. Six years, to the day, since Daisuke had died. Your stomach is in knots, but you want to.

"Then we'll go," Takeru says and you smile at him, grateful for his presence.

***

"Hey Takeru, Ken! Glad you two could make it!"

You smile, your arm linked through Takeru's. So far, it hadn't snowed, but both you and he are bundled, prepared for the worst. "It's good to see you as well Taichi," you say.

"We're just waiting on Iori and Koushiro." Taichi says, leading the two of you to the tree. "So... You two dating?" He asks as you walk.

"Yeah, nine months now." You say, Takeru nodding in agreement.

"That's good to hear." Taichi heads off when you see Iori in the corner of your good eye. Wormmon and Patamon are with you, though Patamon has taken off to see the other digimon. Wormmon is patient, waiting on your shoulder before you set him down and shoo him off with a promise of not leaving him behind.

It had become a standard between the two of you, the promise.

You look up at the sky, enjoying the warmth of the weak sun. The others are chattering and Takeru is still talking to Taichi, but you take a moment to appreciate where you are.

"Takeru, Ken! How are you?"

You turn, letting go of Takeru's arm as Sora comes over, Jou following. You nod at the two digidestined, talking to them politely. It was the first time since your release that you had seen them all in one place.

It’s almost overwhelming, to see them all now.

You move among the other digidestined, talking to each one about their jobs. Wormmon joins you after a while, and you get to learn what your friends have been doing with their lives. It’s nice to be able to catch up with them.

It's nearly three pm when Taichi calls everyone together and you turn your attention to him. You see the either older digidestined cluster, Miyako and Iori standing off to the side. You walk over to join them, offering a small smile.

"How are you doing?" Miyako asks, eyes brightening when she sees you join them.

You offer her a tight smile, unsure of how to answer her question. "I have my bad days and my good days. How are you doing?" You ask, watching her as she shoves her hands in her pockets. Hawkmon and Armadimon are nearby, Wormmon talking with Hawkmon about something.

"Good, but..." She hesitates, turning when Taichi clears his throat.

"I would like to thank you three, for everything that you have done." He says, walking over and you almost want to flee under his gaze. You feel like you haven't done anything to earn his thanks and you hear your heart in your eyes.

"Thank us, why?" Iori inquires, as polite as he can be. He’s always polite and that’s what you like most about him.

"Without you, the new laws regarding the digimon would have been impossible to get all in place." Yamato steps forward, gaze resting on you.

"All three of you have earned your right to be a digidestined, time and again. I don't want to see a split between us, old and new." Taichi explains.

You listen, glancing towards the older group. Somewhere, deep down, you know that there was always going to be a divide, between the first set of digidestined and your small group of three. But, the more you interacted, the more that small gap grew smaller. You were all working towards the same goal.

"We're all united," Sora says, holding out a hand. "And we want to be all one group. What do you say?"

You glance at the other two, clearing your throat as you look at the extended hand. "It's been years of progress with everyone's help that has gotten us this far." You say, meeting Taichi's eyes, before letting your gaze slide to Sora. "I believe there will always be a small part, and I only speak of myself, that will know there is a divide. I wish all of us were able to be here to accept your offer. What do you two think? Can we be one team?" You ask, turning your gaze to Iori and Miyako.

“That small divide will continue to disappear,” Taichi says, voice firm.

"One team," Iori says.

"Yeah, one team." Miyako says with a smile.

"One team," Sora says and you take her hand, seeing the other two take Yamato's and Taichi's hands in turn. You are caught off balance as you are pulled into a hug. You panic, for a brief moment, as the others join in a group hug but you feel Takeru's hand on your shoulder, reassuring and you relax.

***

"Takeru? Ken?"

You glance up when Taichi stops Takeru as you head out, having said your round of goodbyes to everyone. It's nearly ten, Takeru has work and you have classes in the morning. You almost want to take a sick day from school, but you know it's not feasible.

You want to become a teacher, help others learn.

"Yes Taichi?" He asks, glancing towards him.

"I'm glad you two came, it means a lot." Taichi says and you feel his gaze linger on you.

"It was a good day," you say with a nod. You clutch Wormmon to your chest with your free arm, listening to the digimon protest sleepily and you lighten up your grip just a bit.

"Do you want to come over for dinner tomorrow?" Taichi asks. "I meant to ask earlier, but I forgot."

"Sure, that sounds nice!" Takeru says and you nod in agreement.

"I am done with school by four. Would you like us to bring anything?" You ask.

"Nah, Yamato and I got it." Taichi grins.

"Have you mastered the art of teaching my brother to cook?" Takeru asks, raising an eyebrow. "If so, I'm surprised."

"He's not the best, but I can work with it." Taichi says and meets your gaze. "I'm glad you're doing okay Ken."

"Me too," you say with a smile.

"And bring Wormmon and Patamon. We'll make sure there's enough food to feed everyone." Taichi says with a laugh. "You two have a good night,"

"You as well," you say and you and Takeru leave. It's quiet for a couple of minutes, both of you having decided to walk the short distance from your shared apartment to the park.

"Yamato says you told him some of what happened," Takeru says and you glance at him. “He didn’t tell me any details.” Taichi adds quickly and you’re grateful that Yamato didn’t.

"Yeah, I talked to him a bit for him this morning." You say with a nod. "it was...nice to talk to him."

"That's good," Takeru says and stops, leaning over and kissing your cheek. "I'm glad you're doing better Ken."

"I am too," you say, touching Takeru's cheek and leaning over to give him an actual kiss. "I love you,"

"Love you too Ken," he responds and you link hands once more, walking home with your partners in your free arms.