I know I really shouldn't be started a new story right now, considering the backlog of in-progress fics that I have, but I just couldn't pass up this competition and the chance to venture into a new fandom. So... don't be mad?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this new story of mine!

Written for "The random AU! Competition" in Digimon Fanfiction Challenges.

Prompt: Age-changing! AU

Note: I will be using Japanese names in this.

Warning: Character death

Thoughts on writing this chapter: ...I feel like a bad person. (cries) I'm sorry, Shiuchon...

Prologue

This was wrong. This was horribly, horribly wrong.

The good guys were always supposed to win, weren't they? That was what the good guys did – defeat the enemy and save the world.

So why were they losing?

The red mass of the D Reaper pulsed grotesquely, expanding and swallowing up buildings as if it was trying to eat up the whole city. With a rather hysterical sob, she realized that it probably was.

High above her, Andiramon was still fighting, but even Shiuchon knew that he wouldn't last for much longer. Not when everyone else had fallen.

She stumbled wildly over the debris, desperately moving towards where she had seen her brother land after dedigivolving from SaintGalgomon. Barely a minute ago, an explosion had shaken the whole area, and she had turned to see her brother falling from the sky. And if that had happened, wouldn't that mean that Terriermon had… She bit her lip and shook her head as if to forcibly rid her mind of the thought. She didn't want to think about what had happened to Terriermon.

Her foot caught on a piece of broken metal that had probably once been part of a lamppost and she tripped, sprawling onto the rough uneven ground. Ignoring the pain of her scraped knee, she pushed herself to her feet again and continued limping towards her goal.

When she finally spotted that familiar head of dark blue hair, she almost collapsed. It took all her willpower to continue forward instead of breaking down right where she was. She almost wished that she had when she reached him. Maybe if she had stayed away, she could still have pretended that he was alright. Then maybe her heart wouldn't be shattering right now.

His eyes were closed, and there were barely any injuries on his body. His digimon form had absorbed most of the physical damage, but…

Her fingers curled around the fabric of his favorite orange vest. The body that it covered was too still and lacked the warmth that she was so used to.

"Jen-nii-chan…" she hiccupped between sobs. "Jen-nii-chan… Please wake up…" Tears were clouding her eyes, blinding her vision. She welcomed it, not wanting to be able to see her brother's lifeless form.

She wanted Jenrya to sit up, to hug her and tell her that everything would be alright. And Shiuchon would believe him, because it was Jen-nii-chan, and Nii-chan never lied to her. Except for that one lie that morning, when he said that he would bring her to that new ice-cream shop after all this was over.

"Jen-nii-chan, you liar…"

Shiuchon was just seven, but she knew that her Jen-nii-chan wasn't coming back.

Another explosion returned her attention to the fight above, her heart in her throat. Where was Antiramon? She scanned the skies frantically. Where!? Where was-

She saw him.

And she ran, faster than she had ever done before, catching her partner's rookie form before he hit the ground. She sank to her knees, clutching him tightly to her body. She buried her face in the crown Lopmon's head as the tears continued to spill.

Soft ears came to wrap around neck, and one reached up to pat her head gently. "Shiuchon…" Lopmon said weakly. "Don't cry…"

Shiuchon shook her head, unable to speak through her tears.

She didn't want to cry either. But what else was there to do? What was there that could be done?

What could one little girl do?

A bright light from somewhere in her peripheral vision caught her attention and she hastily blinked away her tears to look properly at her D-Ark, which had started glowing from where it had fallen beside her. Carefully keeping an arm around her half-conscious partner, she reached out to pick it up. The world seemed to go into slow motion as she took it back into her hand. Words popped out on the screen.

GAME OVER

RESTART / QUIT GAME

"Lee Shiuchon, partner of a Holy One… Are you willing to take the responsibility of starting over again, to guide Fate down a different path with your own hands?"

She couldn't have said where the voice had originated from, or even whether it was a man's or a woman's. She just knew that it enveloped her, and that it was… warm. Even so, she clutched Lopmon closer to her.

"Who… Who are you?"

"I go by many names, but I am the one that you humans might called 'God' of the Digital World. To you, who have gained the trust and respect of one of my Celestial protectors, I give a single chance to change Destiny. However, I cannot truly turn back the hands of time. All I can do is to send you to another dimension, a branch of this one, where Destiny has yet to carve out its course. The people that you know and love will be the same, yet different. But because of that, their fates need not be the same as this world."

Her eyes fell on Lopmon's limp form cradled in her arms. She thought of her brother's unmoving body, and the others who she had not seen but knew had fallen as well. She thought of her family and friends, and the city that was drowning in red. Could she really change their fates? This unknown being said that she could and somehow she believed it.

With shaking fingers, she pressed the navigational buttons on her D-Ark so that the blinking selection indicator covered the 'Restart', and pressed enter.

Confirm Restart?

"It will not be an easy path to walk, Shiuchon, and there are sacrifices that must be made. Even so, will you still make this choice?"

Her answer was plain and simple. "I want to be able to protect them."

A pure white card materialized in the space before her, spinning slowly. As she stared at it, a cacophony of colors danced across its surface as light hit it at different angles.

It didn't even need thinking. Switching her D-Ark to her left hand, she snatched the card out of the air with her freed hand and swiped it deftly through the card slot of her D-Ark. "Card Slash: Restart!"

The world burst into light as she sank into the darkness of unconsciousness.

Shiuchon woozily sat up on her bed, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Her fingers paused as they touched her cheeks, feeling the moisture that clung to the skin. Had she been crying? She frowned. What had she been doing before this? Somehow… she couldn't quite remember.

"Shiuchon, dinner!" Jaarin's familiar call snapped her out from a daze.

"Okay, Nee-chan!" she called back before hopping off the bed.

She had a nagging feeling that she was forgetting something important, but pushed it aside for the moment. There was plenty of time to think of it later.

Shiuchon stopped short at the doorway leading to the kitchen. Something was… off.

Her mother was by the stove as usual, busy with the finishing touches of the dishes they would be having that evening. Rinchei-nii-chan was helping her to ferry the food over to the dining table, where her father was scooping out the rice into individual bowls. Jaarin-nee-chan was standing by the sink, rinsing the cutlery to be used.

And then there was the tiny dark-haired boy standing next to Jaarin-nee-chan, one tiny fist clutching the hem of her skirt.

"Here, Jen, can you take these to the table?" Jaarin passed the child a small stack of chopsticks. "Be careful, now."

"Yes, Nee-chan," he chirped, beaming at being able to help. As he fumbled with the bundle of chopsticks that were just a little bit too large for his hands, an adorable look of concentration passed his face. Once he had achieved a suitably stable grip, he started toward the table.

"Nee-chan?" It took her a while to realize that she was the one being addressed, but the way those grey eyes were staring straight at her gave her no room for doubt. The boy had paused to look at her, tilted his head sideways in curiosity as Shiuchon continued to gape blankly.

"Ah, Shiuchon, will you take this plate over to Mum?" Jaarin, spotting Shiuchon in the doorway after the boy's call, lifted a deep-dish plate in Shiuchon's direction.

Still numb from shock and confusion, Shiuchon complied. Her mother smiled and thanked her as she passed the plate over.

Her task done for the moment, she took a chance to observe the little boy. He was probably no older than Ai and Mako, and several years younger than Shiuchon. The strangest thing was that his presence, which thoroughly baffled Shiuchon, was being accepted without question by the rest of the family.

Jaarin-nee-chan had called him Jen… But Jen-nii-chan was older than her. It made no sense.

"Earth to Shiuchon, are you still half asleep? Your hair's a mess," Rinchei teased, ruffling her hair as he passed, effectively casting it into further disorder. She puffed out her cheeks in mock annoyance at him while patting her hair back into some semblance of order. Her twin-tails must have come undone in her sleep.

Dinner passed in a blur, Shiuchon still caught deep in her thoughts. Her eyes couldn't help but keep straying towards Jen during dinner.

It was all so strange. For all her life, Shiuchon had always been the youngest. She didn't have a younger brother. But apparently, now she did.

After dinner, she dutifully helped to cart some of the lighter plates over to the sink as the family worked together to clean up the table. Everything was so normal, yet so strange.

Before finally leaving the kitchen, she decided to voice out the question that had been nagging at her for a while. Tugging on her elder brother's pant leg, she asked, "Rinchei-nii-chan, what year is it?" When Rinchei raised an eyebrow at her question, Shiuchon pretended to pout. "I forgot."

Rinchei chuckled, no doubt just chalking it up to a quirk of her young age. "It's 1998, silly. Try to remember that."

"Okay." Shiuchon's head was spinning. She may be just seven years old, but she was very sure that it had been 2001. She remembered writing the date in her exercise books for school.

Moreover, a lot of things made sense if she considered that she had somehow gone back in time three years. Rinchei-nii-chan's shorter height, Jaarin-nee-chan's rounder face, less grey hairs on Dad's head…

The only thing that didn't make sense in this equation was her and Jen. Because in 1998, she had been four and Jen had been seven. But by all appearances, they had swapped ages.

Back in the room that she shared with Jaarin-nee-chan, Shiuchon stared into the mirror, seeing the very same face that she remembered seeing the previous morning. She hadn't changed… but everyone else had.

Restart or Quit?

Had she really been brought back to the past and given the chance to do things over again? Change the future?

Her D-Ark sat next to her pillow, where she usually kept it. She picked it up, the familiar weight comforting her. Lopmon may still be in the Digital World at this time, but the device was solid proof of their bond. She wasn't alone.

Strange symbols were printed along the pink edge of the screen, a feature that had not been there before. Digicode. "Second Chance," she read, not knowing how she could understand the characters, but not doubting that there was indeed the message written there.

If events unfolded in the same way that they had in the other timeline, she would be 10 years old when everything would start. 10 years old, like Jen-nii-chan. She would be older, not the helpless and childish little girl that she had been.

Her hand clutched the D-Ark tightly as she stared down at it.

"Can I really do it, Lopmon?" She was just a little girl, used to being loved and coddled by her overprotective older brother. Jen-nii-chan had always protected her. But now she was the older one.

She was the older one. In that moment, she knew what she was going to do.

"I'll protect you this time, Jen," she whispered aloud even though there was no one to hear her. "I promise."

Lee Shiuchon would keep on walking forward. For the future that should have been.

Please review and let me know what you think!