A/N: So this is a really dark story that just kind of came to me as I was driving through the rain today. This is really not a happy fic or optimistic one so if you're not looking to be bummed out I would suggest not reading. I tried my best to keep everyone in character as possible, though they never had to deal with something like this in the canon so I was able to use some artistic interpretation. Please leave a review so I can improve as a writer! It will be very much appreciated!

Poor human heart, in the year of life

All seasons are, and it rests with thee

To enjoy them all,

Or to drape a pall

O'er withered hopes, and to be at strife

With things that are, and no brightness see.

-Arthur Weir

It was an absolutely gorgeous summer day in Odaiba. The sun was shining brightly, the sky was a beautiful shade of blue, and there was not a cloud in sight. As Takeru took this all in, he beamed as it seemed to reflect his current state of mind. He could not remember a time in his life when he had been happier. Just the night before he had finally worked up the courage, after years of secretly pining for her, to ask the love of his life, Hikari Yagami, to be his girlfriend and she had said yes. To add to the overwhelming joy he was feeling today was his favorite day of the year: August 1st, or the anniversary of when they had first gone to the digital world. Every year for the past 4 years since the defeat of Malomyotismon the chosen children gathered in Odaiba Park for a day of revelry. They caught up on each other's lives, though honestly they were all still pretty much inseparable, and reminisced on the days of yore when they and their partners shouldered the responsibility of saving two worlds. All in all, Takeru Takaishi was on top of the world.

Hikari Yagami was busily chatting away with her older brother's girlfriend Sora Takenouchi as they both helped set out the food and blankets for the Chosen's anniversary picnic. Hikari was currently giving Sora all the details about how the previous night Takeru, after years of Hikari dropping hints, had finally confessed his love for her and asked her to be his girlfriend. Hikari in all her life had never felt happier or more content. Life seemed to be full of such wonderful possibilities for her, as she was already excelling at school and was really finding her passion for photography rewarded as more and more school organizations requested her skills to help out. More than anything though the promise of her new relationship with Takeru had her immensely excited as just thinking about it gave her goosebumps. In fact she had barely been able to sleep the night before due to the excitement over the fact she finally knew her love was requited. As Hikari finished her story for Sora she noticed a boy with a messy mop of blonde hair waiting to cross the street that would bring him to the park. Hikari giddily noted in her head that this was not just any boy, but was her boyfriend. The thought brought a huge goofy smile to her face as she looked at him and made eye contact from across the street. Upon noticing her smile Takeru returned it while waving and starting to cross the street. It was only then that she noticed it. Her eyes widened in horror at what was about to play out. Hikari did the only thing she could think of doing. It was his only hope.

Yamato Ishida was feeling better than he had in a very long time this August 1st. The night before he had received a absurdly giddy and frantic call from his brother who had been talking so fast and loud that Yamato could not understand him for the life of him. Only when he had finally been able to calm his brother down to a normal volume and pace did he find out that his brother had finally acted on his long standing feelings towards his best friend, Hikari Yagami, and they had officially become a couple. Yamato was over the moon for his brother and extremely proud of him knowing that this had been something that Takeru had wanted for the longest time and that it had taken a lot of courage to risk the strong friendship he currently had with Hikari for something more. Now as he listened to his best friend, Taichi Yagami, drone on about the threatening speech he had delivered to Takeru the night before after Hikari had agreed to be Takeru's girlfriend, he couldn't help but smirk as he knew that Taichi was just as happy about this situation as he was. Yamato knew that Taichi viewed Takeru as a little brother and that he trusted him to never hurt his precious Hikari. Even on a more personal level things had been going well for Yamato as his band had been gaining in popularity the last few months and was starting to sell out shows regularly, he couldn't help but think, "Life doesn't get any better than this." However, Yamato and Taichi were broken out of their revelry as they snapped to attention upon hearing an ear splitting scream from nearby.

Upon hearing this the blood drained from Taichi's face. He would have recognized that voice anywhere. "NO! Not now! Not her!" He suddenly felt as though his world was being turned upside down. He abruptly abandoned his conversation with Yamato to sprint as fast as he could towards the source of the voice. He had to find her. He would not lose her. Not here not now. However, upon catching sight of his sister stopped dead in his tracks. She was completely unharmed physically, but she was sprinting towards the street screaming something over and over again. He could tell from her voice that she was crying and as his eyes followed her his heart broke in a million pieces for her. If it was possible Taichi felt even more sick to his stomach than before as he saw his sister reach the crumpled figure of a familiar blonde boy and collapse to her knees next to him. For the first time in a very long time he was frozen. His legs would not work. He couldn't open his mouth to say anything. He just stood there frozen like a statue wanting more than anything to reach out to his sister, to make everything OK again, but he knew that was not possible. He felt so defeated in this moment as he knew that the only person who could make his sister feel whole again was lying broken in the street. It was only then that he noticed a flash of blonde hair race past him towards the street screaming with a mix of anguish and rage as he realized Yamato had finally caught sight of the limp blonde body in the weeping Hikari's arms.

Daisuke had been looking up at the sky enjoying the beautiful day noting to himself that it was almost as if the Gods had seen fit to smile down on the Chosen on their anniversary day as a reward for all the hard work they had put in over the years. As he turned to resume his game of soccer with Ken he was interrupted mid-shot a by a blood curdling scream from a familiar female voice. He knew that voice and the happy go lucky girl it belonged to. While processing all this information his mind filled with dread as he realized the implications of her screaming like that could be anything good. Daisuke turned on his heel to see all the other Chosen racing towards the street and he suddenly felt a feeling that he had truly never felt before. It was an almost indescribable feeling except for the overwhelming and crushing nature of it. He was broken out of his thoughts when he heard a second voice screaming, this time belonging to a male speaker. The voice rang out with a sense of wounded all consuming rage as if they had lost the thing they held most dear in this world. Daisuke then upon finally linking the voices of the two screams and the possible reasons why both of these usually cool headed individuals would be overcome with enough emotion to scream like that in public, felt like fainting. He knew who could be the one reason why both these friends of his would be acting like this. He knew that this was a day he had hoped against hope that the two would never have to face, but always knew was a possibility due to their calling as Chosen. However, nothing could have prepared him for it happening like this, so so...ordinary.

Iori had been having a deep conversation with Koushiro about the different techniques and strategies of kendo, as the older boy had recently begun to show an interest in the sport, which secretly thrilled Iori as he viewed Koushiro as somewhat of a role model. However, midway through their conversation the world swam in his vision and he fell to his knees feeling a sudden sense of loss. A sharp, horrific scream from nearby was all the confirmation he would need for what he already felt in his heart of hearts. Iori just knew that it could only be him. Ever since their partners first DNA Digivolved four years ago, Iori had always felt him as a part of his own heart. He wasn't a large overwhelming presence in Iori's heart, but rather he was a small constantly reassuring presence. Whenever Iori began to feel doubts about things in his own life he always knew that all he had to do was reach into his heart and seek comfort in that small presence, and without fail it always made him feel better. Now clutching at his chest Iori could feel that the presence that he relied upon to extinguish doubts in his mind was gone. He was smart enough to know what that meant. Though he tried as hard as he could to push that thought from his mind he ultimately knew his efforts were in vain. Iori just knew, in his heart of hearts, that place where he had always had a special place, ever since four years ago, was now empty. Iori felt as if he was being crushed by an unseen and unknown force. Yet at the same time it was not unknown. Iori knew exactly what this was and it was the antithesis of him the opposite of everything he had ever stood for. Iori started to weep, harder than he even had for his father's death, at this realization. Iori wept out of a mixture of grief for the one he had lost and the shame of letting himself succumb so easily to those emotions that he had always helped him fight against.

The tears came relentlessly from her eyes as she cradled his broken form tighter and tighter to her sobbing harder and harder as she wished this was all a bad dream, but plunging ever deeper into despair as she knew it was all too real. He was always supposed to protect her, wasn't he? "He promised." She knew he would never break a promise to anyone, much less her. "He would never let that happen. He would die before he ever let that happen." This last thought sent a new wave of sadness through Hikari as she knew that she couldn't even take solace in the fact that his current fate was at all meaningful. It was so random. So ordinary. These were not things that befit a Chosen. She finally began to speak to him through her tears,

"I love you Takeru. Please don't leave me. Please don't leave me. Not like this. You can't. You promised you'd always protect me. You can't do this. Please Takeru come back. Please stay with me. PLEASE!"

She started to sob even more knowing that these words were falling on deaf ears and that he would never hear what she had to say again. She would never see his smile again. She would never see those deep blue eyes again. "Never again. Never again" She lay there crying even more gently rocking his ever cooling figure back and forth in her arms crying for all that had been and all that could have been. She could feel herself being swallowed by despair and yet did not even care any more. None of it mattered to her anymore. Nothing mattered to her anymore. Without hope nothing would ever be right again.

Panting Yamato finally reached the crosswalk after sprinting for his life hoping futilely to reach his brother in time to achieve the impossible: to prevent something from happening that had already occurred. He knew deep down that it was too late, but he ignored that knowledge choosing to believe that if he could only get to his brother as soon as possible everything would be alright. Upon arriving and finding the limp form of his brother cradled in an inconsolable Hikari's arms he dropped wordlessly to his knees in front of them. The full gravity of the situation coming to bear on him. He had lost him. This couldn't be happening. Not like this anyway. Not without him even having a chance to intervene. He had always sworn to himself from the day his little brother was born that it was his duty and his purpose in life to protect him. Staring into his brother's pale lifeless face he saw sickening reminder of how badly he had failed in his duty as a big brother. Looked up to the heavens he unleashed a primal scream that was a mix of fury, anguish, and despair. He could not hold back his tears anymore and he began to openly weep in the middle of the street, crying as he harder than he ever had in his life. He felt so cold and lifeless inside feeling as though the one reason for his existence on this planet was gone. He felt this way because he knew it was true, Takeru was gone, he was not coming back. Once again Yamato looked up at the sky and started to vent his feelings to no one in particular.

"WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY NOW?! WHAT KIND OF SICK JOKE IS THIS?! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO HIM?! HIM OF ALL PEOPLE! PLEASE GIVE BRING HIM BACK, TAKE ME INSTEAD! THIS IS NOT FAIR! WHY?! ANSWER ME, DAMN IT! WHY HIM?! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE HIM OF ALL PEOPLE?!"

As Yamato finished his rant he stared back at his brother again feeling the crushing weight of guilt and failure threatening to overwhelm him. At this point Yamato decided that he didn't care about whether these feelings were "right" or "wrong" to feel he just himself feel them and the crushing despair that came along with them. He decided that he didn't care about whether anything was "right" or "wrong" anymore because if that mattered then Takeru would still be with them, smiling laughing, giving them all the hope they would need when times became difficult just like this one. Yamato plunged even further into despair at this thought as he knew that had it been anyone else in his place that Takeru would have found a way to give them the hope to move on. "Without him there is no hope left. Hope is gone, forever."

August 1st, or Odaiba Day, had always been a joyous day for the Chosen Children. Holding a special place in their hearts as the beginning of their adventures in the digital world and the beginning of their friendships. However, now August 1st had taken on a different meaning for the Chosen Children. Gone were the pleasant thoughts. The happy feelings. The fond memories. From now on August 1st would only be known as the day Hope died. The day of Despair.