Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Digimon Adventure 02
Title: Invisible Flames
Character: Takuya
Word Count: 5,078||Status: One-shot
Genre: Angst, Drama, Friendship||Rated: PG-13
Notes: This is an alternate version of Takuya's trip back to Earth. This was sparked by the what-if of What if Takuya were invisible on his trip back in episode 22? While the events are somewhat the same, I tried to put my own spin on it, not just for the invisibility factor, but the tale as a whole.
Challenge: Written for the 2014 Advent Calendar Challenge, day #10; Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section H, #3, a one-shot; Written for the What-if Challenge; Written for the Collect the Legendary Warriors challenge.
Summary: [one-shot, Takuya; Advent Challenge Day #10, Diversity Writing Challenge; What-if Challenge, & Collect The Legendary Warriors] On Takuya's return home after Duskmon's attack, he finds something about himself that's nearly as odd as being a Digimon on Earth: no one can see him.
Takuya curled around himself into a tiny ball, wishing that he could close out the memory of Kouji in front of him, Kouji with Duskmon's sword slamming into him, Kouji's eyes widening even as he transformed into his human form back from Garmmon, Kouji's eyes closing as he fell, and the sudden howls from Duskmon that were a twin to Takuya's own.
He didn't want to remember any of that, and yet it lived in vivid recall, burnt onto the back of his eyelids, where it would always be whenever he closed his eyes.
Dark Trailmon was taking him somewhere. He didn't know where, and at the moment, he cared even less, so long as he could somehow make this all right again.
I'm going back home. That was what he wanted. Even if he couldn't change the past, he could at least not hurt anyone else, because he wouldn't be there to get them into trouble. Kouji would be better at taking care of everyone else than he was.
If Kouji could do it after this...
Takuya drew in a sudden sharp breath as a strange fire lit with him. This wasn't Agnimon's fire; he knew that very well, but this wasn't it at all. Nor was it Vritramon's, not that wild, passionate storm of fire.
He would almost call this a campfire in comparison to the other two. If Agnimon was a burning fireplace and Vritramon a raging firestorm, then this was a small blaze, something to keep warm by.
Slowly he opened his eyes and stared downward at his hands. This... what happened? These weren't his hands. The skin was darker than he was used to, even in the summertime. There were greaves on his arm that reminded him a little of Agnimon, and there was something off about his hair.
Before he could try to figure this out more, Dark Trailmon came to a halt, and spoke. "We're here. In your world."
The doors slid open and Takuya stumbled to his feet, aiming for the nearest one. His head spun as he moved. It was almost as if he didn't know how to walk anymore. He stumbled, hand gripping onto the door, and stared once again at his fingers.
They weren't human fingers. This wasn't a human hand. Nor was it that of a Digimon. Takuya swallowed, his thoughts thick and confused and unmoving.
Then he looked up and saw where he was. I didn't think I'd see this place again. At least not like this. He'd only been here once before, but he recognized it nevertheless: the mysterious underground train station where they'd all left for the Digital World.
"Why am I here?" He wondered, glancing around. He didn't know why Dark Trailmon brought him here, of all places. Couldn't he have ended up somewhere else? Or was this the only place a Trailmon could arrive or leave? The Digital World had always been so confusing.
He turned, wanting to get some answers from Dark Trailmon, but before he could shape the words themselves, the doors closed, and a strange black smoke began to pour into the station.
Again he wanted to ask something, to find out what was going on. And once again the words stuck in this throat, but this time out of sheer, absolute fear. Because out of the smoke there strode Duskmon, multitude of eyes staring at Takuya, with that same slow, measured, deadly stride he'd had every other time Takuya saw him. The stride that said he was there to kill, he existed to kill, and for no other reason.
As he'd wanted to kill Takuya. As he may have killed Kouji.
Takuya couldn't stay there. He didn't know how Duskmon had followed him, but he stumbled back, slipping and falling, his limbs once more not seeming to work in the way he was used to them doing. The door wasn't that far away, yet it seemed to take forever for him to get to it, and Duskmon advanced, one step at a time.
Takuya scrambled until he was on his hands and knees, racing forward without thinking about anything but getting away from Duskmon. Noises crawled their way out of his throat, harsh whimpers of fear that didn't make any sense and didn't need to.
He banged his fists on the door, wanting it to open, too terrified to think of anything else but escape. Whimpers slipped between his lips as the dark shadow approached, far too familiar, far too close! Takuya flipped over, determined to be like Kouji, to face death as head-on as he could.
Duskmon stepped closer. He said nothing. Takuya tensed, fingers clenching into a fist, but unable to move beyond that. Was this really it? Had he made it home only to die now?
Behind him, the doors opened, and he fell backward into the elevator. Still with nothing coherent making its way out of him, he scrambled back, hoping to put as much distance between them as he could. The doors would close, he knew it, and then he would be taken away from here. Duskmon couldn't follow him after that, could he?
If he hadn't been so terrified, he might well have laughed at the idea of the Warrior of Darkness standing in the elevator trying to follow him. As it was, his heart sank and more incoherent noises came out of him as the doors slowly closed. Only began, because Duskmon shoved his hands in there and began to press them open again.
No! No! No! Takuya didn't want to die. He threw his head back and screamed, expecting any moment to feel Duskmon's sword piercing through him. Perhaps he'd even see Kouji on the other side. Kouji would probably tell him this was all his fault, and he'd be right.
He didn't want to die. He didn't!
"Shibuya, Shibuya." The familiar sound of the train announcements, the movements of people, the sound of conversations...Takuya slowly dared to open his eyes and look around.
He wasn't in the underground station anymore. There wasn't any sign of Duskmon. He swallowed. What was going on here?
The doors opened, revealing people going about their business. He'd seen this happen so many times, but he stared as if it were completely new to him.
Slowly, Takuya scrambled to his feet. People glanced toward him, but no one seemed that surprised to see him there. Remembering what he'd seen in the underground, he looked down at himself again.
"What in the - " He wasn't human. He wasn't a Digimon, either, at least not one that he'd ever seen before. He ran his hands through his hair, stopping when they encountered short, stubby horns. His feet were bare, and he realized something he'd only vaguely noticed before: he had a tail. "What happened to me? What am I?"
Flamon. The word sounded like his own voice, at least mostly. Something like how he sounded as Agnimion, but not as deep. As if the fire wasn't as big.
His head snapped up and he stared at the people, expecting any number of looks and confusion and worry because if he was this strange to himself, who'd spent months not just fighting Digimon but living beside them and being one, then what must he look like to them?
Only they didn't. Everyone kept going on as if he weren't even there.
Takuya swallowed again and slowly reached out to the nearest person. "Uh, excuse me?" The businessman he'd tried to stop didn't so much as glance in his direction. Takuya's heart stopped when he realized his fingers went right through the man. "What... I..."
There was a little boy and his mother a short distance away. Takuya leaped forward, somewhat stunned by how quickly he did this, far more so than he'd ever been able to when he was human. He put that out of his head as he landed in front of the boy and got down to try to talk to him.
"Hey, kid, can you tell me - " And the boy walked through him, as if Takuya were nothing more than a ghost.
Takuya staggered back, stumbling out of the throng of people and breathing hard, trying to figure out what was going on. Can't they see me? He shook his head, closing his eyes. This had to be some kind of a horrid nightmare. There had to be someone who could see him, somewhere.
Shinya? Shinya! Shinya, and mom, and dad! They would be able to see him; they were his family. That would make a difference, wouldn't it?
Takuya leaped into the air almost as soon as the thought formed, soaring over everyone. He wasn't flying, he realized as he landed in a clear spot of floor. But his leaps were so great he might as well be. He surged forward again, trying to avoid places were people might pass through him or he'd go through them. He'd already decided that he didn't want that to happen again.
It took only a few leaps before he was outside. No one looked up as he passed over them, with no more effect than if he'd been a leaf on the breeze. Takuya shuddered as he landed on a tree branch, clawed hands closing around it to keep his balance. He slumped down as best that he could, trying to work this out.
Dark Trailmon had said nothing about him being invisible. Though Dark Trailmon hadn't actually said much about anything. So maybe he didn't know? Takuya shook his head.
I need to get home. That would answer everything.
He'd just begun to tense his muscles to jump again when that dark mist swirled all around him. Takuya's heart lodged in his throat. Not again. Not now. Not here. How? How had Duskmon gotten out of the station? Why wasn't anyone reacting to him, either? Something wasn't right at all here and Takuya had no idea of what it was.
He cast a quick glance over his shoulder, not certain what he expected to see, and felt no shame at all at the sudden high scream that tore itself out of his throat as Duskmon appeared within reaching distance.
"No! No!" Thinking didn't matter at all. Takuya leaped away, landing on top of a car -noticing with the very back of his mind that he made no more impression on it than a leaf would have – and jumping again and again, hoping that he left Duskmon behind. Surely he couldn't track him everywhere, could he? Couldn't he just...not?
Takuya didn't look behind him anymore. He just kept moving, running, jumping, coursing along until he realized he was back in his own neighborhood. Every house here, every turn of the streets, all of this was as familiar to him as his own hands.
Well, his human hands. Not the ones that he had now.
He had no idea of what time it was. From the way the sunlight fell, he thought it might be early afternoon. A few cars rolled here and there, but there wasn't often heavy traffic around here anyway.
He started toward his house, then stopped, making a sharp sort of yelp when a familiar yellow car pulled right through him. He stumbled away from it, shaking his head and staring after it.
That's... His neighbor and her daughter. They kept on going, never seeing him, never even slowing down. Takuya trembled before he leaped back up into a tree, yanking out his D-Scan as he did.
"Come on," he muttered, stabbing at it. Maybe if he became human again people would see him? He couldn't imagine what it would be like if he were human and no one saw him. He'd probably lose it completely! "Turn me back! I want to be human again!"
But no matter how much he stabbed at the buttons, nothing happened. Not a sound, not a flicker, nothing at all. He groaned, leaning back against the trunk of a tree. Why was this happening? Couldn't one thing go right for him today? Just once? Was it that much to ask?
Something caught his attention and he peered into the window of his own home. He hadn't even realized how close he was. And what he saw now... no...how...
He saw himself, sitting down at the table, and... on the table was Shinya's birthday cake.
That's not right! It shouldn't have been there. Shinya's birthday had been months ago! The same day that he'd left for the Digital World!
Slowly the answer came to him, his mind unsticking bit by bit. "I...don't tell me...I came back to the same day I left?" How was that possible? He didn't understand it at all, but the proof was right in front of him.
Silent as a shadow, he dropped down so he could stare in the window, eyes hungrily drinking in every sight and sound. He barely paid attention to himself; his mother and brother took up everything. His mother, talking to his father on the phone about Shinya's present, his brother coloring and laughing...
He'd missed this. He hadn't even realized how much he missed all of it until it hung there in front of him, impossibly wonderful. He wanted to yell at his younger self to treasure it all, to stop sitting there trying to steal frosting off the cake, to enjoy the party for itself and for his brother instead of just for the food.
Uncounted memories surged through him. He'd overslept that day and his mom had had to wake him up. He would've been late for school if she hadn't. He hadn't even had time for his usual morning argument with Shinya. That would throw their system off for certain. And his father had promised to go to soccer practice with him that Sunday.
How could he have left all of this behind for something that he hadn't even understood when it happened?
Could he ever get it back? He'd come back to this world on that same day, but he wasn't human now. He couldn't even be seen. His heart twisted and his mouth dried up as he wondered.
"What if I hadn't gone to the Digital World that day?" he murmured to himself, not taking his eyes off the scene before him for a single moment. He knew the answer: he would've been there for his brother's birthday party. He could go to soccer practice with his dad. He could enjoy his mother's excellent cooking.
He could have his life back.
Footsteps rushed by and he looked up just in time to see himself rushing by, phone in hand. That could only mean...
He had a chance. If he stopped himself, then...then everything would be all right again. He would be with his family. And even better, Kouji would still be alive!
But he couldn't do it sitting here watching his family. He leaped upward and over the wall, looking for his former self. He didn't know how he could stop himself, when he couldn't even touch anything, but he had to try!
"You can't go!" He shouted, hoping against hope that maybe this time would be different.
His other self stopped and looked around. Takuya wasn't certain of what to think. Had he heard him? Would he listen if he had?
And then the younger him kept on going. Takuya groaned. Why was he so stubborn? Couldn't he listen to himself?
He had to hurry. He leaped through the trees, keeping up with the younger him easily enough. Being a Digimon did have its perks, after all. He would miss it...
No. He couldn't think like that. He had to keep himself focused on what he was doing, on saving himself! On saving Kouji!
Why hadn't he paid more attention to what was going on when he'd left? He couldn't remember it all now. Hadn't something happened here?
A soccer ball rolled into the street and his younger self stopped it automatically. Takuya took the chance, leaping and landing in front of his still human self.
"Don't go! You'll regret it!" He declared, reaching out one hand to the other, even knowing that his fingers would pass through. "Stay home!"
The human Takuya's head turned toward him, and Flamon-Takuya wondered if he actually saw him. Could it really be...
Brakes squealed and he reacted before he thought, shoving himself out of the way as a van tried desperately to avoid hitting him. Flamon found himself on top of the van a heartbeat later, while Takuya struggled to his feet and stared at his phone in shock.
If I'm always this stubborn no wonder Kouji gets mad at me all the time. He groaned as Takuya started to run again, completely ignoring how he'd almost been run over and killed.
But now that he thought about it, he remembered something else. I remember what I was thinking. If I stopped then, then nothing would start. He'd wanted something to do with his life that wasn't the dead dull boring it had always been. He'd wanted to do...anything. Anything at all.
He'd found that something. Only he'd screwed it all up and he didn't deserve it anymore. Kouji...
Dark shadows. Cold eyes. Flamon's blood ran cold. Duskmon had returned.
Flamon backed up, feet slipping and sliding underneath him, no longer certain if he were on the van or on the street. Duskmon's shadows wrapped all around, concealing everything from view except the two of them. Flamon's head fell back as he tried to get away and a gout of flame erupted from his lips. He hadn't even tried to make an attack; he was just too terrified to think clearly at all.
In between one breath and the next, Duskmon vanished again. Flamon's clawed hands clenched at the pavement beneath him as a truck trundled by. Everything was normal again. At least as normal as it could be. He could see Takuya running off, as focused as ever on his goal of reaching the train station.
What is this? Why does Duskmon keep turning up? He shook his head, trying with all of his heart to understand and failing. "What am I supposed to do?" If he wasn't supposed to stop himself, then what?
He didn't know. He couldn't guess. But he couldn't just sit here, either. He knew where Takuya was going, and he could get there at least as fast as he could. Maybe being invisible wouldn't be so bad. No one would try to call the authorities to chase down a strange fire-breathing boy.
Flamon started running. He wasn't ever certain if he ran more on his legs or on all fours, nor did he care. He just wanted to make it to the train station in time.
He caught glimpses of himself, the other Takuya, as he raced along. He didn't remember now if he'd seen himself as he was now that day or not. Everything melded together into a muddled set of images that told him nothing. He decided he'd think about it another time. When he wasn't as confused as he already was. If such a time ever existed.
Once safely on top of the train, he glanced back to the huddle of houses where his family continued to kill time until dad came home and the birthday party started. "Mom," he murmured softly, trying to ignore the scorching tears that slipped down his cheeks and failing to do so.
In an effort to keep his mind off what he was leaving behind, he swung downward and peered into the train car he was riding on top of. It took a little effort to look past the other commuters, but he spied Takuya, slumped against one side near the doors. A hint of blue caught his attention and his heart wrenched as he realized Kouji stood on the opposite train.
That was where I saw him for the first time. I never knew... Never knew how important Kouji, and all of the others, would be to him. Or that Kouji even lived close enough to him that they could take the same train. How long had they been so close and not realized it? Once he changed things, could he still find Kouji? And everyone else?
Another blue flicker drew his eye and he frowned. "Huh?" This couldn't be right. "Another Kouji?" How could there be two of him? But there stood someone who looked enough like Kouji to be his mirror image, though dressed differently, with a maroon shirt and green jacket and wearing a cap.
His expression was different, too. While Kouji looked indifferent and distant, this other-Kouji looked... sad? Flamon frowned, wishing he could get closer and find out what was going on.
"That's not Kouji," Flamon murmured as it sank in. He didn't know who it was, but they just looked a lot like his friend. Too much for it to be a coincidence. He just didn't know what it was! "So who the heck is he?"
The train pulled to a stop and Flamon watched as Takuya got off, looking around in confusion for where to go next. He knew what would happen, and just as he'd known, his other self saw Kouji in the elevator and ran right there.
But now he saw what happened after they left. Kouji's look-alike threw himself at the doors only moments after they closed, banging on them in desperation. Flamon ignored the fact that no one could see him and dropped down next to the stranger. His old self had seen something. Maybe this one would too.
"Um, hi?" Flamon had never tried to do this before. "Is something wrong? Do you...do you know Kouji?"
The stranger didn't even look at him. Flamon started to reach out for him when the other whirled and ran off to the side, heading down a flight of stairs and out of sight.
"Just who are you?" Flamon wondered, torn between going after him and going after himself. He hesitated at first, then turned back to the doors. Stopping himself, if he could stop himself, was more important anyway. Besides, once he'd stopped himself, he could find this guy and get his answers then.
He knew that as a human, he stood no chance of being able to pry the doors open. Trying not to think about how Duskmon had done it not all that long ago, he dug his claws in and started to pull them apart. He needed to fix this and the only way he could make it all right again was to stop himself from going to the Digital World.
Flamon wasn't used to thinking about things very deeply and that came in very handy at the moment, as he leaped downward, grabbing onto the elevator cables to guide himself. Down below, he knew Takuya and Kouji stood, not talking to each other. Kouji was probably still giving him that look, the one that read to him as 'why are you breathing my air?'
He hadn't seen that look in so long. He couldn't wait to see it just once more.
As the elevator came to a stop, he slid the emergency entrance open and peered down just in time to see Takuya and Kouji standing in the doorway, marveling at the multitude of trains and people.
If I can't stop him here, then I can't stop him at all. This was the pinch point. Now or never. Whatever other cliches cropped up. Flamon dropped down to stand behind Takuya. If the other had heard him before, then maybe he would again.
Kouji darted forward, determination in every line of his slender body. Flamon could not help but remember the last time they'd actually talked to one another, when Kouji raged at him with a fire fully the equal of his own.
What are you doing here? What are you fighting for? Questions he'd never asked himself until Kouji did it for him. Questions he didn't even know if he knew the answers to.
The clock struck the hour. People began to get into the trains. Flamon's eyes were drawn inexorably to the one he knew would become Worm Trailmon. He could see them all there: Junpei and Izumi, Tomoki, all looking worried, and none of them with a clue on what was going to happen to them.
Flamon choked up. Everyone...
More memories surged through him. That first awkward conversation. Arriving in the Digital World and meeting Bokomon and Neemon. Finding out about this world being in danger and how they - they, just ordinary kids – could save it.
Kouji's fierce, heart-piercing demand to know why he was fighting. The plan he'd made, that had seemed so wonderful and perfect, and which had failed so miserably against Duskmon. He'd brushed them all off as if they weren't even worth the attention one would give a fly. But they'd all tried anyway. They'd tried for him.
What if... this didn't change anything for them? They were still getting on the train, heading to their destiny. But he wasn't. If he could hold himself back, then he would be spared, and safe.
But would they?
He could see it all in his mind and he didn't want to. They would die. They would die horribly, with or without their spirits, and it would be all his fault. It wouldn't be a sacrifice, not like Kouji. It would be a slaughter.
Without being aware of it, he'd reached out to stop himself. Now he pulled his hand back. I can't do it. I can't let that happen to them.
"Go!" He shouted at Takuya. "Go, get on it! Run!"
And as his younger self leaped onto Worm in the nick of time, Flamon knew he'd made the right choice. Some things could not be changed: and should not be.
Again the mist. Again Duskmon. Flamon stood where he was, heart racing still as he stared his enemy in the face. He started to move back, to flee once again.
No. I can't do this. He put his foot back down. "I'm not going to run away from you any more!" He didn't know how they could beat Duskmon. Maybe he couldn't be beaten at all. But he would not keep on running, and if he died, he would die doing his best to protect other people.
Just like Kouji.
"My friends are waiting to see me again!" He didn't know what kind of trouble they were in, but he'd find them, and help them if they needed it. "I'm not running away, and I'm not going to lose!" Just because he didn't know how to win didn't mean he would lose. It just meant he didn't know what he'd do to win.
Fire wrapped all around him but didn't burn him. Flames as bright as Agnimon, as hot as Vritamon's, blazed upward and he leaped ahead, aiming a punch directly at Duskmon's face.
The face that faded away into nothingness even as he did so.
And in that moment, as the shadows fell away, Flamon looked up to see Dark Trailmon there once again.
"What is this? I thought you returned to your world out of fear."
"I did." Flamon looked down at himself, then back up at the Trailmon. "But now I understand why I turned into this. Something that's not a human or a beast. And why no one could see me."
Dark Trailmon's scarlet eyes did not move. But Flamon could feel his regard all the same. "Is that so?"
"I didn't know who I was. Or what I was. But now I do." The answer fell into place in his mind so neatly that he wondered how he could have ever not known. He knew what he fought for, and why.
He fought for his friends and for the Digital World. Not for the thrill of doing something unusual, not anymore, or because someone attacked him. But because people who couldn't defend themselves were being hurt, and he was one of those who could protect them. He didn't know why he'd been chosen, but he had, and he would do what was right.
And until he'd realized that, he hadn't had a place in any world. So he hadn't been anything at all. Neither human nor beast nor Digimon, not visible to anyone save himself, and he still wasn't certain on that.
That would be different, starting from this moment on. "Take me back to where and when I came from, please."
"Are you certain? Is this truly what you want?" Dark Trailmon asked as Flamon strode closer, determination filling him from the very depths of his soul. He nodded, once. "Are you willing to say good-bye to your family for this?"
Flamon did not falter. He glanced behind him just once, to what he was leaving behind. Shinya, happy birthday, he thought. Mom, Dad, I'm sorry. He wished that he could've told them this in person, that he could've explained that he was doing something very great for a very good cause. They might not have understood, but he wished he could've tried.
He would explain it all when he came back. When he could bring his friends with him and they could back him up.
He entered Dark Trailmon and the doors closed behind him. Once again, the world outside faded away and he could feel the strangeness that was the crossing into the Digital World. Ahead lay enemies and danger, not just Duskmon, but Mercuremon and Ranamon as well, and Cherubimon, and maybe others along the way.
Energy and flames burst all through him as he crossed, and he could feel himself growing larger and stronger, the fires within flaming into full brightness. Between one step and the next, Flamon was no more, and Agnimon stood there before Dark Trailmon's doors.
Outside lay the Continent of Darkness. He stepped out and looked around, ready for anything. "Kanbara Takuya has returned to the Digital World, of his own will," he declared. He had so much to do, and the sooner that he got onto it, the better.
He wanted to find Kouji and make sure he was all right first of all. And maybe ask him about that strange double of his. Maybe Kouji knew him.
With that thought in mind, he started off to find his friends.
The End