A/N: Written for the Crossover Boot Camp, #023 – wandering and for the Advent Calender Challenge at the DFC, day 10 – join a challenge and write a fill (or write a fill to a previously joined challenge).

Wandering Through the Darkness

Ryou was stuck in his mind again. In a place where he could see what went on outside but not affect it.

At least that was an improvement from before, where he didn't even know what his body, with another playing host, got up to.

All those hurt people. Those souls in the Shadow Realm…

But that hadn't changed. Now, he watched them vanish in to the shadows.

And he listened to the commentary of the Spirit of the Ring as it all occurred.

'I need a new host.'

He'd said that before. Lots of times before, but he'd never found anybody suitable or never managed to keep a hold of him and so Ryou was stuck. In truth, he wouldn't mind one bit of the Spirit of the Ring did find another host.

'He looks like a good candidate, don't you think?'

Anyone was a good candidate in Ryou's books, especially if they were made of stern stuff like Yugi and could keep this rogue Spirit in check. But anyone was better than him. He knew he couldn't. He'd tried: one time, many times. He'd failed. He wasn't made of stern stuff like that. And he'd lost a lot of people, a lot of friends, because of it.

Not that the Spirit cared about such things. He just settled down – in darkness? On darkness? – in order to watch.

And so, Ryou watched too. A boy, several years younger than him. In junior high school maybe. Or maybe he was just finishing up elementary. He wasn't in a school uniform. Actually, he wasn't in any sort of human form at all but the Spirit could pick out the human soul nonetheless.

And, thus, Ryou could as well. That smaller, lost form wrapped in the darkness: in black armour and a thousand staring eyes. It reminded him of Thousand Eyes Restrict in a way – but this wasn't the world of Duel Monsters. They were wandering through other worlds now, from the Shadow Realm, wandering until they stumbled back in to their own dimensino.

Of course, the Spirit had an ulterior motive, and succeeding in it might mean Ryou would be stuck forever in another world – but it would be a world where he could start over. Though it would mean never seeing Yugi and Joey and Tristan and Téa again…

But considering all the trouble he kept on putting them through, that was probably for the best.

And surely the new person would do a better job in keeping the Spirit at bay.

Except there was something…off about that boy. Two things actually, but one was obvious. To Ryou anyway, and to the Spirit as well. He was being controlled. Somehow. A little differently to Ryou's situation maybe, since it looked like there was an external force and the soul was smothered in darkness – yep, he could see the darkness wrapping around that boy like chains. Around his eyes so he couldn't see. Around his mind so he couldn't think. Around his heart so he couldn't feel.

He was fighting another boy – a boy who looked just like him inside a man-wolf skin, but the other boy looked more solid. And there was a third boy as well: brown hair but otherwise reminding Ryou quite strongly of Joey and clad in dragon-skin. He was helping the wolf-boy. And then the first boy – the one the Spirit had his eye on – turned in to a vulture and took to the skies, screeching death.

When the other two managed to blast him out of the sky and he fell, looking like a human both outside and in, he understood.

There was a soul without a body. That body he had – it was made from whatever those other forms were. Data, maybe. He thought he could see zeroes and ones running along the surface faintly. They were gone when he blinked.

'Makes you wonder where the body is.'

The Spirit had been waiting for him to come to that conclusion.

'Not in this world I imagine.'

But it would be pure luck stumbling across it in another dimension, Ryou thought. And a soulless body – Tristan had managed to rescue Mokuba and that was the only one he knew.

The Spirit chuckled though. 'Souls have a way of knowing the path back to their bodies. It's just a matter of timing.'

And so they settled in to wait some more. And watch. Watch as the boy, now in a boy form but without his body, told his story. Watch as the puppeteer came for his puppet. Watch as the puppet stood up, as the boy who'd been blank and lost and wrapped in darkness purified it, made it into a perfectly fitting glove. Changed the dark armour into a lion-skin. Changed the vulture into a protective beast.

Changed the chains of darkness into a shield and staff: a protection, and a weapon.

Not like Ryou who just fell to the Spirit over and over again.

The Spirit just saw it as entertainment. Ryou saw it as something else. Something he didn't have.

And it continued. The children fought. They won, against bigger and bigger demons. Against bigger and bigger enemies. Against the biggest enemy of them all – but the soul disappeared. Died, in a sense. Or it would have died without a body.

The Spirit smirked and set off. Ryou, stuck in his own body, could only follow.

They walked through the darkness for a bit, and then emerged. Ryou could make out a hospital room with a fuzzy form on the bed but they weren't quite there. He could make out the scene they'd left as well. A world being put back together like a jigsaw puzzle. A world that had been saved.

They were in between both worlds.

Did the Spirit plan to enter the body from here? Or was the soul that belonged in that body here too, drifting and vulnerable.

It was the first. The ring shone, and by instinct Ryou managed to grab the Spirit leaving his body.

They tumbled in a new darkness.

'You fool,' the Spirit roared.

Ryou didn't think it was very foolish. Being stuck between worlds wasn't very appealing – and leaving the Spirit to inhabit a body that couldn't possibly resist wasn't very appealing either. If the soul was there, he could resist.

In truth, Ryou shouldn't have even been leaving it to somebody else.

The Spirit caught that thought and laughed. 'You can't fight me.' He turned his back. He still wore Ryou's form, though the hair stood on ends as though energy was surging through that form. Energy Ryou didn't have.

He didn't try to fight, but something wrapped around the ring and stopped it from glowing.

'What?' the Spirit growled. 'This body…should be empty.'

'This body belongs to Koichi.' There were voices: two voices. Ryou squinted a little before he recognised them. Those of those big angels that had become eggs and then hatched into a small bat and a puppy. He remembered a rabbit had been with them, controlled but purified in rebirth. The rabbit wasn't there though.

Not that the Spirit cared. He just smirked. 'Your little friend isn't going to be needing it any more. But I will.'

The bat and puppy bristled. The Spirit pulled out his deck. They'd work here. They worked anywhere, when the Spirit was in control. Almost as if he carried the Shadow Realm around in his back pocket.

And it seemed the puppy and the bat realised that as well, because they tensed.

The Spirit selected a card, then chuckled and returned it to the deck. 'I suppose Man Eater Bug wouldn't be quite appropriate in this setting.'

Nobody was laughing at the joke.

'Oh well. Headless Horseman!'

The monster arose from the darkness that surrounded them. Hooves clattered in the air. Metal grinded against metal as the armour moved without its head. The two – what were they again? Digimon? – drew back and further tensed.

Ryou didn't know if they could stand up against Duel Monsters when they looked about as strong as a Kuriboh – but, then again, Yugi's Kuriboh was quite accomplished. They might have a chance.

He wanted them to have a chance.

And they did have one. The puppy yellowed out 'Puppy Howl!' and the bat "Boom Bubble!" and the Headless Horseman was pushed a few paces back. But the Spirit just laughed and urged the Headless Horseman onwards.

Repetitive attacks came, each pushing the monster back less and less. Ryou could see the tide of the battle was in the Spirit's favour. But why were those Digimon fighting? Did they believe the body's soul would return?

And then, quite suddenly, before the Headless Horseman could lift out his sword, he was there and screaming for it to stop. There was a cry of "Icy Wind" as well, but that was not from the boy. That was from the third of the angels. The rabbit now being hugged to the boy's chest like a treasured stuffed animal to be precise.

The Spirit blinked. Ryou might have blinked too – or maybe he did. They weren't technically in his body any more so, in principle, he should be in the same state as the Spirit. He lifted a hand, blinking at it in the darkness. Yep, he was moving it without the Spirit struggling against.

The Spirit was elsewise occupied. And frowning now instead of smirking. 'I'm afraid I've already claimed your body.'

'This is Koichi's body,' the rabbit yelled – just like the puppy and the bat had. 'Icy Wind!'

The Headless Horseman shrugged off the frost and stepped forward. The boy reached for his waist and grasped at nothing. He looked down and blinked.

Ryou thought he knew what the boy was looking for. That strange device that had let him transform into the lion-warrior, in to the lion beast. But it wasn't there.

Did it only exist in the other world?

That meant that boy didn't have any sort of weapon he could use against the Spirit.

The Spirit recognised that as well. 'Hardly sport,' he commented, 'but still. Headless Horseman!'

It raised its sword. The rabbit whimpered and tried another blast. The boy gritted his teeth.

Ryou had to really hand it to him. If it were him, he'd have been running long before that point. Then again, these guys had fought monsters with their bare hands.

Then again, they'd had those suited up forms of theirs.

The boy tried to block with his arms – which might have worked if it was a kick or a punch instead, but a sword is just going to slice through –

Ryou gaped as a shield appeared, blocking the strike. The Spirit just gritted his teeth as the sound of the clash resonated around them. A staff appeared in the boy's other hand as well, and he stared at both a moment before smiling.

'Lowemon,' he said softly.

Ryou recognised the name. It was the lion-warrior's.

Then the boy turned to the Spirit, and his gaze hardened. 'I was ready to die,' he confessed, 'but that doesn't mean I want to or that I'm going to, and that certainly doesn't mean my body's going to become a vessel for someone who attacks my friends!'

He yelled the last bit, and the three little angel turned animal digimon smiled at each other. The Spirit growled. 'I'd like to see you stop me.'

He pulled another card from the deck. Headless Swordsman took another swing. This time, as the shield blocked the blow, the staff parried. It clashed against armour once, twice – and then the third strike pierced through the armour plate.

The Spirit cursed as the Headless Horseman disappeared. 'Try this,' he spat, raising the card – a stronger card, Ryou saw. Too strong. It would destroy everything, perhaps even the body they were fighting over. Everything except the Spirit of course. He had an uncanny way of escaping imminent destruction.

Ryou had tackled his other self before he quite realised he was moving. The Digimon were crying to attack, the staff was pointed at them but the boy wasn't striking with it. Hesitating –

Of course he's hesitating. The Spirit looks just like a human.

And of course there was Ryou on top of him too. Or below him now. The Spirit easily flipped the tables, being stronger.

'I still have need for you, little host.'

But the staff caught him around the middle and knocked him off, and there was a flash of light from the three once angels and he was gone.

Ryou blinked.

'Don't be afraid.'

He blinked again. The three once angels were gathering around him now. They looked…a little sad.

Sad for me?

'We won't hurt you,' the puppy explained. 'Your heart is good.'

Good?

The boy scooped up the rabbit again, and the puppy and bat danced happily around his feet, no longer looking serious as they had just a moment ago.

Good? Ryou thought. My heart is…good?

It was a nice sentiment, but it didn't explain why he was stuck with that Spirit.

'We've sent him back to your body.' The rabbit looked sad. 'We're sorry.'

Ryou shook his head. He didn't know quite what to say to that. Part of him was relieved. Another was a little disheartened – that they were back to square one. Almost.

'You fought it,' he said instead, looking at the boy. At Koichi. 'That spirit inside of you. You made it obey you.'

Koichi shook his head. 'It just wanted to protect. There are different ways to protect the things precious to us, I guess. It was like that before because angry and hurt hearts were twisting it. When I wished strongly enough to protect instead, it became Lowemon.' He looked at the sword and staff he held and they vanished.

Our own wellbeing. And our family and friends…

He didn't look so fierce now. Maybe because the threat was gone.

'I have things I want to protect to, but…' Ryou looked down. 'I'm not strong enough.'

'You have strength,' the bat said. 'You just need to believe in yourself.'

The other two critters voiced their agreement as well.

Ryou let a small smile appear. But they didn't know of his weariness. How many times he'd tried. How many times he'd failed. How many consequences had been paid.

The boy, Koichi, looked at him too. 'Good luck,' he said.

Ryou decided it would be impolite to say anything except for a simple "thanks". And so he did just that.

The rabbit jumped out of the boy's arms and the three digimon stacked their paws. A glow began. The same glow that had blasted the Spirit out. But it seemed more gentle this time.

'Good bye,' they all said.

And the light whisked Ryou back to his own body. The Spirit was strangely silent, so Ryou revelled the freedom, knowing it would be brief. He was still between worlds. On one side, the Digital World was whole again: green and prosperous. On the other, the boy in a hospital room was being helped up by friends. Everyone was crying, but for all of them they were tears of joy.

Ryou smiled. Despite himself, he was relieved. And happy.

He was a good host, wasn't he Spirit?

The Spirit said nothing in reply. Maybe it was unconscious. Or sullenly silent.

It perked Ryou's spirit a little. He had things worth fighting for after all. Maybe he was strong enough. Or would be, one day.

And from that day on, no-one else would have to be burdened by the Spirit again.