A/N: Another collaboration from the pair of Aiko and Remi, and this time both our paws went into the one chapter, though we'll let you work out who did what. :)

This is written for the what-if challenge at the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum, for the what-if: What if the one who picked Chosen Children was Kyubey? So we'll be bringing the best of both worlds to you. :D Enjoy!

chiseling
Chapter 1 - Lost in Transaction

Misako hung up the phone with a scowl. More of those creatures apprehended, and yet all the Government considered was the damage caused. Her girls had little to do with it: when bulls were rampaging downtown, destruction of that degree was unavoidable.

But, of course, the Government only considered their own image, and convenient scapegoats. Because it was her job to protect against these damages, they claimed. Her job to catch and deal with those creatures before they reached the public eye.

How could she? She was just an ordinary human who was shunted out of her previous job through ridicule and was "lucky" enough to find a new one that would take her. A job that plucked her from the field like the useless armament her ex-coworkers had always said she was, and put her behind a computer.

It wasn't a terrible job, like that. She could keep an eye on the entire city at once, but the difficulty lay in translating that into action. Because she was not on the field herself, she sent the girls assigned to her instead. But there was a level of unpredictability associated with that. Their reasons for association were often slight, though it was of benefit for them as well to end the battles with as little time spent as possible. That minimised the damage as well. Except in cases like this where those who didn't do a thing to help harped on about the unavoidable.

No-one had been injured. No-one had disappeared. That, in her view, was a victory. Not like the times when everyone was busy and they couldn't catch one of those creatures before something happened. Those were failures - and failures that couldn't be helped because there just weren't enough of them…

'Someone seems to be thinking hard tonight. Is the most favorable course of action unavailable?'

From one corner of the room, as their kind often did, the room went from lacking a creature to having one. Its white paws touched the carpet without sound, large tail swishing with each step. In the darkness of the room, its red eyes glowed without backlight, framed by the darkness until it stepped into view. The permanent cat smile seemed invisible in its fur with the lighting. It didn't speak again until it had jumped onto the woman's desk, then sitting on its haunches and waiting, For an answer? For a demand? No one could say, not without a decent mind reader.

Still, she had to give something, in order to break the impromptu stalemate that would otherwise occur. 'It would be easier if such things didn't exist in the world,' she said. And she hadn't meant for it to sound exhausted, but it did. Tired because she was stuck in a battle she would never win.

'If conflict did not exist, neither would change. Stagnation is the least profitable state for anyone, is it not?'

If it had a tone of its own, the creature would sound amused and curious. Such things for it were a waste, however, as was being smug. Though it wouldn't surprise anyone if it was that way.

'Conflicts exist to be resolved.' But Misako sighed the moment those words were out of her mouth. Conflicts...maybe they did exist to be resolved, but too many went on, without an end in sight. For some, even. it became impossible to find the end...if it ever existed. Such things were tiring. Things that seemed to have no outcome, no destination after a road of struggle. 'They've increased,' she added, after a brief pause. If she didn't, the other would simply spewl more of its poetic philosophy. It was better than unwarranted blame, but she was a woman that stove for results, not the deeper, intangible theories. That was why there were scientists and philosophers. That was why she was an ex-policewoman, and now the commander of the Familiars: that group of girls who chased and apprehended those wayward creatures that wrought havoc in their city.

Though children weren't so noble. They had their own reason for being Familiars: for choosing to fight.

'You humans think of things in such interesting ways. How you coexist...' The creature trailed off thoughtfully before snapping to, looking up at the woman with the same smile as before, if not more amused. 'They've increased,' it mused, curling the words over its telepathic lips. 'Any theories as of yet?'

This creature had plenty of answers, of course, but centuries, nay millennia, of experience had taught them caution on what answers were necessary.

Misako, on the other hand, had mere months, and those from a distance, behind a computer screen watching video feeds and reading reports. 'I am not a scientist,' she scoffed, 'but there is either something attractive about this world for them, something driving them out and ours is a convenient alternative, or there is a barrier between their world and ours slowly crumbling away. Assuming they're from a separate world of course, and not coming out of a black hole or inside the earth.'

She'd heard plenty of those theories from the scientists that liked to dabble in half-truths until they, perhaps, would stumble across an answer. She wasn't patient enough to hang around waiting for such answers...and yet, with the only being in the world that seemed to know being infuriatingly tight-lipped, it appeared she had little choice.

The creature took a moment to pace her desk, expression revealing nothing, for there was nothing there. 'That is plenty to go off of, especially if you can gain anything from such conjecture. For instance, if this world has something attractive, what would it be?'

'Something attractive about this world,' she mused, eyes following the creature's casual pacing with slight irritability. 'Hope. Love...I suppose.'

''From what we have seen, that is more like scraps off of your plate. Certainly, there could be other things in abundance here… but, as you like.' It paced further, almost making a humming sound. 'Those creatures cause a lot of damage to your world. Could something be driving them out? What sort of 'something' would you consider?'

If she could not at least make a theory, then she was little more than a figurehead, when it came right down to it. Her girls, as she put it, would have nothing to investigate on the field if she could not provide it.

Misako felt young and foolish in front of this creature, as though she were a student slow at grasping some lesson and it the teacher attempting to make it sustainable for her. Except its answers were wishy-washy like the air and his questions infuriating.

But they weren't easy questions to answer, despite that. 'War,' she suggested, finally. 'Destruction. Fear.' Insecurity, she almost added, but that seemed like a more feeble answer than the others. Insecurity were the teenagers that fled from their homes, dripping blood of apparent hatred or abuse, but remaining chained to that city, that country. Too often they clung to those roots, not like the asylum seekers that fled in the midst of smoke and death and war.

'Quite,' it agreed. 'Fear is apt. Everyone is frightened of something in this world. And when creatures are cornered and frightened, what do they do?'

It hopped to the floor. 'Thinking that, there's a strategy in that, isn't there?'

When anything with the freedom to act was cornered, they would either fight or flee, or both. She knew that, and she wondered if there was a single human in the world who didn't. But the strategy? That was a slightly more obscure question - or maybe not. She wouldn't put it past the creature before her to say her answer was wrong.

'They fight or flee.' She said it anyway. She would gain nothing otherwise, and entertaining her not particularly welcome guest meant at least she would have her desk back and in one piece by the end of it. 'So they can survive.'

'Quite,' it agreed, stepping towards her chair. 'And how do you counterattack?'

That caught her a little off-guard, but an answer rose to her lips soon after. 'Make sure we survive...despite the cost.'

'Indeed, and to do that, you need strength, more of it than you have, am I correct?' It licked one paw and rubbed a white ear. 'If so, we may be able to assist you, if you so desire.'

Misako bit her lip. 'And what will it cost?' The creature wasn't always so nice to just offer help without expecting something in return. And often those things it expected weren't simple or easy to see. Sometimes she had come to regret the decision to take on another Familiar, because of what it, ultimately cost.

But they'd been lucky, very lucky, that no-one had been injured or killed on the latest rampage. It was impossible for the numbers they had to maintain order if such things happened again and again - and they would happen, because whatever force drove the creatures to their city was spurred on by such successes. And the only way to stop that advance was to reinforce their own defence. And they had precious little ways to do that, particularly when the Government kept their grubby paws on the stipend that could let them be a little less dependent on the Familiars, on those children of the battlefield.

But what funds they got weren't sufficient to do anything beyond surveillance, so another Familiar to join their ranks was all they could hope for.

'If you play the game properly, the cost has already been paid.' It began cleaning its other ear, swipes methodical and casual. 'This is your decision: do the benefits outweigh the losses?'

In the end, this was when they arrived, each and every time: when they were most necessary, when there wasn't a choice at all, if you thought about it deeply enough.

And she'd thought about it, every time. And each of those times, she came to the same, inevitable, conclusion. 'Yes,' she sighed. 'Yes, they do.'

'Then I will set to retrieve them. Another excellent transaction.' Slipping to all fours again, it almost saluted the former policewoman. 'May humans prosper further.' The words were a possible attempt at sounding encouraging, but the creature melted away before that could be proven.

And Misako was left with her now vacated desk and a pit of something dark forming in her stomach.