Disclaimer: I own nothing. Well, not digimon or any of the characters, anyways.

Note:

So this is the first chapter. I'm sort of testing the waters with this chapter so if the response is positive I'll keep going with it and otherwise... I guess I'll still keep going with it. So make sure you let me know what you think!

Chapter 1

Taichi stood looking out over a vast forest. Far below him an ocean of green branches rippled in a strong wind and he could hear the distant sound of a powerful river. He was frozen on the edge of a large rock formation that jutted out precariously from the scree cliffs which extended below him to the ground, and above him higher than he could see. His brain was unable to find an object to anchor itself to, causing him to feel dizzy, and his breath came quickly. More quickly than he would have expected, given the serenity of the scene before him. There was a light mist that softened the view from his perch and aside from the distant wind and rushing water, it was utterly silent. Considering his altitude there should have been wind, but instead, silence.

Through this unusual silence, he heard a shifting of the debris to his right. His head snapped in that direction, where he saw a tall blonde boy wearing a severe expression approaching him. He walked with a level of confidence that was at odds with the delicate balance of the surroundings. Unlike Taichi, he seemed entirely sure of his footing, as if he was completely oblivious to the sharp drop off. Instead his focus was entirely on Taichi as he drew closer.

"Yamato." Taichi spoke.

He found his voice to be entirely too loud. It seemed to get louder as it echoed off of some invisible walls, causing him to flinch. His friends face didn't change in the slightest at his greeting, he continued to approach with the same fixation as before. When he was less than a metre or so from Taichi he stopped abruptly, taking a few long, relaxed breaths before he responded.

"You can't blame yourself, Taichi. Everyone knows that you couldn't have done anything to stop it." Yamato's voice was neutral.

"What?" Taichi was baffled.

His friend had never been one for long winded explanations or, really, talking much at all, but this was a bit too concise. He quickly ran through his recent memories for the mysterious event to which Yamato was referring, but nothing seemed to fit. He looked to his friend's face for answers and found that it had not changed from the harsh, concentrated, expression that he had been wearing since Taichi had first looked in his direction. Taichi analyzed the familiar blue eyes for any infinitesimal indication of the meaning behind the statement, but found them to be chillingly vacant. Discomfort settled over him as he looked over the blonde boy, whose appearance was altogether too composed. He wore a simple grey long-sleeved t-shirt and black jeans, without a wrinkle or a hair out of place. Something wasn't right here.

Taichi opened his mouth to ask any of the thousand questions that had now arisen in his mind, but he stopped short, his words caught in his throat, as Yamato took a step towards the boulder's sharp edge. Taichi's heartbeat pounded in his throat as he watched his friend. He was frozen in place, somehow sensing the approach of danger, but unable to move his limbs. Yamato turned back to face him, his expression finally losing its severity. The countenance he wore now was one of pity. He looked Taichi up and down before he spoke again.

"Don't let him use this against you."

Taichi barely heard this message, staring in horror as his friend confidently stepped forward over the edge of the rock. His muscles finally unfroze. He leapt forward, reaching out desperately to grab his friend's arm and missing by a hair. His foot hovered over the empty space beneath him and, unable to stop his forward momentum, he brought it down onto the nothingness, bracing himself for the fall.

Taichi's body jolted as his foot broke through a layer of liquid to land on the solid surface below. Instead of the fall he had been anticipating, he found himself standing securely on an expanse of pebbles. Relief overwhelmed him, overpowering any confusion he might have felt as a result of what had just happened. The breath he had been holding escaped in heavy pants, and he could hear the loud thrumming of his heart bead in his ears. He leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees and letting his head fall forward, his eyes shutting tightly.

As the panic subsided he straightened himself, opening his eyes to take in his surroundings. He faced a large body of water. He could see the opposite shore where a pair of glacial peaks loomed, but in either direction, the water seemed to extend infinitely. Gentle waves lapped at his ankles, but if the water was cold he couldn't feel it. In fact, had it not been for the vague sensation of liquid against his skin, he wouldn't have realized his feet were in the water at all.

Taichi curled his toes gently, disrupting the pebbles that made up the floor of the lake and starting the school of minnows that had come to inquisitively nibble at his bare feet while he had been collecting himself. He turned around to face the spot where there had previously been rocky cliffs reaching towards the sky, but now he saw the edge of a dense forest. He walked forward so he was no longer standing in the shallows.

Yamato was nowhere to be found. This beach had a similar eeriness as that of the mountain, and it had the same unusual silence. He looked around once again, hoping he would see his best friend's blonde hair somewhere on the abandoned beach. To his left, quite a distance away, he spotted something floating in the water near the shore and horror settled over him once more. The form was unmistakably that of a human, lying face down with arms and legs splayed out, being pushed and pulled with the delicate waves. Please let that not be him. He thought, only caring about the well-being of his friend.

He started to run towards the figure in the water, pleading out loud that it was not Yamato's, he didn't make it far though, before he felt a hand grip his wrist forcefully. He hadn't heard anyone approach. He stopped running and turned in one motion, almost falling from the sudden change in acceleration.

He found himself face to face with Mimi. Her amber eyes stared into his own with an intensity that was rarely seen in the bubbly pink haired girl, and she continued to grip his arm painfully hard, preventing him from putting any space between the two of them. She too was immaculately dressed and styled, her hair was sculpted into two loose braids on either side of her head and her makeup done to understated perfection. He tried to loosen her grip with his other hand but soon found it restrained by a larger hand.

He twisted as much as possible to see the person who now held his other wrist. At first he was relieved as he saw familiar blonde hair, but he quickly realized that it belonged, not to Yamato, but to his brother. Takeru's expression pleaded with Taichi for something, but his body language suggested that whatever it was his eyes were asking for, he wouldn't take no for an answer. It was Mimi who spoke.

"Please, you don't want to go there." Her eyes begged him not to continue his pursuit, not that he could now that they had trapped him.

"I have to. I have to make sure he's…" Taichi didn't know exactly what he planned to do, but he needed to do something. He continued to try to escape his captors, becoming increasingly desperate.

"You're too late." Takeru's eyes continued to plead. But his grip, as well as Mimi's, was loosening.

Taichi took advantage of their slackening hands to tear both of his arms free, sprinting along his previous path. Panic now overwhelmed him, forcing his legs to push him towards his goal. As the distance between him and the body narrowed he was able to see it some detail. He was relieved, initially. The body appeared to be a boy with dark hair, perhaps a bit shorter than he, so it couldn't been Yamato. But who was it, then? He realized as he closed the final distance that he had no idea what he was doing. He had been too busy hoping that it wasn't his friend that he hadn't considered that the alternative was that it was someone else. Now, only metres away from the mahogany-haired boy in the water, he found himself frozen in terror and self-disgust.

He forced his left leg to take a step forward, his body fighting back with every muscle movement. Then his right leg. His whole body shook, both from the effort and from fear. He waded into the shallows with the same slow, forced movements then stopped over the body that he now recognized. Tears welled in his eyes as he reached with trembling fingertips to touch the arm of the younger boy.

A hand caught his before it made contact with the body. Not forcefully, like before, but softly. Slender fingers wrapped around his own, gently and supportively. Taichi blinked the tears out of his eyes before he looked down at his sister.

Her warm eyes did their best to comfort him. She had her short, chestnut hair tucked behind her ears, and she wore a soft pink t-shirt and high-waisted shorts. The water reached just below the hem of her shorts, rising and falling gently with the waves.

"Daisuke is…" Taichi barely managed to choke out the words, but he couldn't continue. He still trembled, tears spilling from his eyes as they returned to the boy's body.

"He's gone." Hikari said, her tone surprisingly detached. "The rest of them will be gone soon too."

She gestured towards the tree line where the other nine members of their team stood facing some invisible enemy. Yamato was there, fists clenched at his sides, his once-immaculate outfit dishevelled, and his body slumped from exhaustion but fighting hard to appear strong to the invisible force that was facing them down. Mimi and Takeru looked similarly beat down, in stark contrast to their appearance only a few moments ago, as did the rest of the team.

Taichi took a moment to internalize Hikari's words, but once they did sink in, his heart wrenched yet again. He felt sick to his stomach. He wanted desperately to run to their aid, but as he tried to move in their direction his shaking knees gave out and he crumpled to the water.

"I have to help them. Why can't I move?" It was barely a whisper, his voice failing him as well.

"Because you aren't strong enough." Hikari said simply.

Her words tore through him. If he could only help, they might stand a chance. He wished he could at least turn his head away from the scene, instead all he could do was watch in dread as the unseen opponent drained the colour from each of his friends. He screamed, but the noise seemed to evaporate in the air before anyone else heard it. Taichi fought back his nausea, nearly forgetting the presence of his sister next to him until she suddenly gripped his hand tighter.

His attention shifted abruptly to Hikari. She now had a pained expression on her face, as she looked down at her own body. He followed her gaze and saw fat fingers of water coiling up her legs, over her hips and waist, leaving wet, almost saccharine trails behind them. They darkened the fabric of her clothes, more and more trails working their way up towards her head, where they dampened her hair. She spoke around the rivulets that dripped into her mouth.

"You couldn't save any of us." Tears mixed with the water as the lake surrounded her, trying to swallow her whole.

"No…" Taichi whispered, clutching desperately at his sister's hand as the water forced itself between them, creating a layer of liquid that kept him from her. She was struggling hopelessly to free herself from an enemy that completely enveloped her. She looked at him with her eyes full of fear and despair then suddenly she was jerked down towards the water. Hikari opened her mouth to let out a scream but the water that crept into her lungs silenced her as she was pulled under water.

"No!" Taichi screamed.

He wrenched upright. His heart felt on the verge of collapse and his breath came in desperate, shaky gulps. He sat doubled over clutching his chest and stomach. He slowly became aware of the shift in his surroundings. It was dark but he saw the walls and ceiling that surrounded him, and felt the soft fabric of his sheets against his palms as he leaned his hands on his bed. Someone beside him spoke softly, but urgently.

"Onii-san, are you alright?"

He whipped his head to look at her, so relieved to finally realize that he had been dreaming. The sudden movement made his head spin and his stomach turn over. Eyes suddenly unfocused, he felt around awkwardly, jerkily, for the trash can beside his bed. His hand landed on it and he wrenched it towards his face just in time for his stomach to empty itself. Heaving and sweating, he curled over the garbage can.

As his stomach calmed and his breathing returned to a more normal level, he became aware of the small, cool hand that rubbed gentle circles between his shoulder blades. The coolness of her hand was soothing against his overheated skin.

Finally, the dizziness and nausea subsided and Taichi was able to lift his head to look at his sister. She sat on the edge of his bed in her pyjamas, her hand still resting on his back. She was obviously concerned, but Taichi didn't care. All he cared was that she was alive. He was overjoyed to see her there. Not really thinking about how he must seem to her, he wrapped his arms around her squeezing her tightly for a long time before releasing her. She was visibly startled, her arms hovering, unsure of what exactly to do, and her eyes wide.

"I'm good, Hikari. Just a nightmare." He forced his voice to sound cheerful despite everything.

Although he was far from putting the dream behind him—the sense of dread had still not entirely left his mind—he thought it was unnecessary to worry his sister any more than he certainly already had. The dream had taken on that quality that caused even the most frightening of nightmares to seem distant and harmless. Well, not entirely harmless, but still.

Taichi looked at the clock on the desk across from his bed.

"You should get back to bed, Hikari, I didn't mean to wake you."

Hikari looked understandably dubious at this statement, after all, he had been vomiting into a trash can not 5 minutes ago. Despite her trepidation, she seemed to accept that her brother was now well enough to be left alone, and her sleepiness led her back to bed.

After she left, Taichi laid back on his bed- his sheets wrapped around his ankles- and stared at the ceiling. Sleep was no friend at the moment, so all he could do was lie with his eyes open until the first intimation of daylight peered hesitantly from between his curtains.

Hikari sat at the welcome desk of the science centre spinning absentmindedly in circles on the desk chair she was confined to for the afternoon. The ceiling, high above her head, sparkled with artificial starlight, and the atrium, which would be filled with overly enthusiastic tourists on the weekend, was empty on this Monday afternoon but for a few parents dragging their uncooperative children out of the gift shop. Hikari smiled pleasantly at them, wishing them a nice day as they left, before returning to her very important work of waiting for the phone to ring, or for someone to come into the centre, and trying to push the morning's interaction with her brother from her mind.

This was her least favourite position to work, particularly at the times when no one seemed interested in the science centre, like now. She had been delighted when she had landed the summer job as a science demonstrator at the popular tourist destination. It meant she got to work with children, teaching interesting factoids about the flying squirrel, DNA, gravity, or any number of other subjects. That part of her job, she loved. She did not, however, like being cross trained to work the front desk where she had to deal with disgruntled parents for four hours.

She should probably consider herself lucky that she had a job that payed her to sit around doing nothing, but she would much rather be doing what they had hired her for in the first place. Still, she wouldn't complain.

Hikari perked up when she heard the swish of the revolving doors indicating that someone had arrived. She plastered on her brightest smile and braced herself for an interaction with someone who would no doubt get a generous amount of complaining in as they bought their tickets. Instead she was delighted to see familiar faces approaching her.

Takeru's face was warm and friendly as always and seeing him never failed to lift her spirits, not to mention make her heart skip a beat or two. Miyako was a few paces behind him, also smiling as she approached her best friend at the desk.

"Hikari, hey!" Takeru greeted her.

He stopped in front of the help desk, and grinned at her enthusiastically. Miyako walked straight up to the desk, leaning her elbows on the surface and letting her head rest lazily in her palms. She threw a smug smile in Takeru's direction.

"See, I told you she'd be here. They always put her on parent duty on Mondays, because that's the only day most of the volunteer demonstrators can work because of summer school schedules, meaning they have too many demonstrators and not enough demonstrations so they have to send this one up front to babysit the parents because she can do demonstrations every other day of the week and the others can't." She stopped to catch her breath. "By the way, hey Hikari."

"Hi." The brunette couldn't help but laugh a bit at her purple-haired friend's long winded explanation. It was spot on, of course, but convoluted. She nodded at Takeru as well, her day instantly improving at the arrival of her friends.

"So what are you guys doing here?"

Miyako, who had just finished her first year of a bachelor of mechanical engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, was taking summer courses to put herself ahead of her classmates in the battle for internship positions that would ensue in the coming years. She had an apartment near the school's campus but during the summer her time was divided between that and her parent's apartment where she stayed when she worked at the family convenience store.

Takeru was working as a grocery store clerk to earn some of the money he would need to attend school next year with Hikari at the University of Tokyo. Despite the fact that his job was probably exponentially less pleasant than hers, Takeru hardly ever complained, he had said it was well worth the occasional grumpy customer or unfortunate mess to be able to study alongside his best friend. That had made her blush.

"We both had the afternoon off so we thought we would come kidnap our favourite Yagami." Takeru said.

"Oh, well, Taichi was at home sleeping last I saw, so I guess you can look for him there." Hikari replied mockingly.

"Ha ha, very funny." Takeru jokingly rolled his eyes before throwing her a crooked smile. "When does your shift end?"

Hikari looked at the small digital clock that sat on the desk in front of her, next to the disproportionately large printer, the sole use of which was to print out tickets. She was pleasantly surprised to see that her time immured in the help centre would soon come to an end.

"Twenty minutes." Her attention briefly returned to the doors when she heard then let another person into the building. "In fact, there's my replacement now."

She gave a friendly wave to the short, dark haired boy who had just entered. He sneered at her, apparently determined to put as much sass into the interaction as possible.

"Aren't you supposed to be working Yagami? Or is it 'bring-your-friends-to-work-and-ignore-your-valued-customers' day today?" He pushed his wire-framed glasses up his nose and crossed his arms. He smirked, obviously pleased with himself.

"Good afternoon to you too, Satoru. I can assure you that if there were any customers within a hundred metres of this place I would be giving them my full, undivided attention."

Despite her irritation, Hikari forced her voice to be pleasant and smiled as innocently as possible. She refused to give him any reason to report her to their superiors, but she also didn't want him to get away with being rude to her without throwing some sass back at him. His smirk faded and he uncrossed his arms, grumbling under his breath as the joined her on that side of the counter.

"Whatever. You can leave now, I'll punch you out at 4:00."

Hikari didn't really trust him to do as he said he would, but she also didn't want to spend the remaining time in her shift listening to him comment on her, rudely, so she decided to take him up on the offer.

"Well I guess I'm a free bird. Give me a few minutes to change?"

"Sounds great." Miyako said.

Hikari stood up from her wheeled prison and exited the kiosk through the door in its back wall that led to the staff room. A few minutes later she emerged. Instead of the ugly—though admittedly comfortable—forest green polo emblazoned with the logo of the science centre, that she was required to wear, she now wore a boxy pink top whose bottom hem and sleeves were decorated with neat scallops, and a pair of light denim skinny jeans.

"What did you guys have in mind?" She asked her friends who both leaned casually against the wall across from the help desk.

"Ice cream, maybe?" Takeru said, smiling as he knew exactly what kind of reaction that would garner from the brunette. She smiled back at him brightly.

"The three words every girl wants to hear." Hikari replied, placing both hands over her heart and batting her eyelashes at him.

"Speak for yourself, Hikari." Miyako said, rolling her eyes, but she was smiling as well.

"Ice cream sounds perfect. Let's go." Hikari couldn't keep the smile off her face as they left the building together.

Miyako sat next to Hikari on the bench of a picnic table on the boardwalk, and Takeru sat across from them. Each of them struggled to contain their respective cones of ice cream as the heat of the sun liquefied the sweet frozen treat. Miyako pounced on a droplet of melted sherbet as it attempted to creep towards her fingers. Just when she thought she had dealt with all the renegade droplets, another would sneak up on her. It wasn't until she had almost entirely depleted the upper portion of her cone that struck up a conversation with her friends.

"So, is anyone down for a chosen children slumber party tonight? I'll host." Miyako had only come up with the idea a few minutes ago while wrestling with her ice cream, but it seemed increasingly appealing as the minutes passed.

"I'm in as long as I can leave early for work tomorrow." Takeru responded. He had also neutralized the threat of his vanilla ice cream.

"I make no promises as to your condition in the morning, but that sounds reasonable. Hikari, how about you?"

If the girl next to her had a passion for anything, it was for ice cream. Okay, it was also for teaching, and—though she wouldn't admit it to anyone—for Takeru, but ice cream was comfortably in Hikari's top five favourite things and it didn't look like it was going anywhere. That was why Miyako became very concerned when she saw that her ice cream-loving friend had barely touched her cone. The strawberry ice cream had melted into several small but expanding pink lakes on the wooden surface of the table.

Hikari had a mechanical smile on her mouth as she stared vacantly at the cone, her mind clearly elsewhere.

"Hikari?" Miyako repeated. When the other girl's head snapped towards her, she continued. "Slumber party? Tonight?"

Hikari finally seemed to notice that her hand was covered in melted ice cream. She tried to contain the mess before licking the sweet pink liquid off the back of her hand. The cone finally dealt with adequately, she responded to Miyako.

"Actually, I think I should get home. I'm worried about onii-chan." She returned her attention to the cone, obviously avoiding eye contact with both of them.

"Is everything alright? What's up with Taichi?" Miyako knew better than to let loose the full intensity of her curiosity in her friend, but something was clearly up.

"He might be sick, or…" She trailed off, still looking anywhere but at Miyako or Takeru. "I don't know. But he had a rough morning and I want to check on him. So rain check on the slumber party?"

Hikari smiled in a way that almost seemed genuine. Perhaps there was truth behind it, but Miyako saw worry dancing in and out of the warm burgundy eyes as well. Miyako made eye contact with Takeru across the table and they silently shared their concern for the young brunette. She watched him reach out to gently to shroud Hikari's hand with his own, holding it tightly. She looked at his hand on hers, then up at him.

"If there's anything we can do, just say the word."

Hikari's smile was more sincere than before. "I know. Thank you." She smiled at Miyako as well, understanding that the message had been from the two of them.

Their moment was interrupted by the chiming of Miyako's phone as she received a phone call. She fumbled around in her bag, sifting through layers of unnecessary stuff until she successfully located and retrieved her phone. She glanced at the caller ID.

"It's Ken. Perfect timing, I can pass on the invitation for the slumber party." She pressed the green phone button and raised the phone to her ear.

"Ken. Hey, how's it going? You're home for the summer, right? I was thinking of having a gathering tonight at my place, you know, pyjamas, movies, nail-painting, all that stuff and I was wondering if—"

"Miyako. Something happened." There was a panic in his voice that chilled her to the bone. Her mind ran over the possible things that could make their usually cool and collected friend reach that level of distress. None of the options seemed good.

"Daisuke. He won't wake up."

Note: So I lived in the Yukon for a bit and much of the scenery of the nightmare was inspired by my adventures there (not that it's nearly that creepy, it's actually beautiful). I like the idea of Hikari being a bit sassy under her sweet and fundamentally good-natured exterior. I also couldn't help but include a bit of Takari, though this fic won't focus on them exclusively, but rather the group as a whole.

I know it's a bit of a cliffhanger so I'll do my best to get the next chapter out soon. I do hope you liked it. If you did, let me know, and if you didn't, let me know that too. Thanks so much for reading.

Best wishes.