Chapter 1: Six Long Years

A chill wind whistled through the darkening winter sky, rustling the trees in Shinjuku park, and ruffling the the clothes of a lone figure standing silently in front of the monument at it's centre. The memorial was simple thing, an unyielding monolith of white marble engraved with the names of those killed in the D-Reaper invasion, and the simple message "Never forgotten".

The figure brushed a stray lock of red hair aware from her glistening lavender eyes, and rested a hand respectfully on the cool, smooth stone of the monument. It's hard to believe it's been six years already old friend, She thought to herself. While the D-Reaper attack initially devastated the centre of Tokyo, as time passed, the visible scars faded and the survivors returned to their everyday lives, and eventually, a semblance of normality returned to the once shattered district. However, for those who lived through the terrible events, the walls will be forever stained with bitter memories, that no amount of replanted parks and fresh concrete can cover up.

The wind gusted through the streets again, and a shiver rocked her thin frame. Pulling her long, black coat around her, she turned away from the monument and hurried away. As she walked she passed a seemingly innocuous patch of concrete, however even now, she knew this place almost as well as her childhood home. Buried somewhere underneath was the old shed that had been Guilmon's home, and had served as the Tamers' unofficial hideout all those years ago. Not wanting to stir up any more memories, she hurried quickly past.

By the time she arrived at the gates of her family home, the sun had finally slipped below the horizon, and high above the city, the moon was peeking out from behind dark clouds that slid across the sky, propelled by the chill wind. She raised her hand to buzz on the intercom, then hesitated.

I've only been away for a couple of months, why do I feel like a stranger in my own home?

Shaking her head, she fished around in her pocket for her keys, and let herself in. Gently lit by moonlight, the walled garden of her family's traditional home was a tranquil sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of central Tokyo. Taking a deep breath, she let out a long sigh.

Just as it's always been... like she was never here at all.

Kicking off her shoes as she entered the house, she called out to her mother and grandmother. Almost as soon as the words had finished leaving her mouth, her mother rushed out of a side room and pulled her into a warm embrace, her grandmother following behind at a more sedate pace.

"Rika!" her mother exclaimed "It's so good to see you! What took you so long? You said you were going to be here hours ago."

"It's good to see you too, Mother" she replied "There was ... something I had to do before coming here"

"That's okay dear" her mother responded, releasing her from her embrace "Would you like something to eat? We've already had dinner, but i'm sure Seiko could warm something up for you"

"I'd like that, thank you" Rika replied.

Rika followed her mother into the dining room, and took a place at the table, where, a few minutes later her grandmother placed a steaming bowl of food in front of her. The room was silent for a while as Rika dug into her grandmother's hearty traditional cooking.

"So," her mother asked "How's university been so far?"

Hell Rika thought, if the endless whispering and muttering wherever I go doesn't drive me insane, the ceaseless questions about what it was like to be a Digimon tamer will.

After the D-Reaper's defeat, Yamaki and the local authorities tried to keep the Tamers out of the public eye as much as possible, and by the time the anniversary of the attack rolled around, the six of them could almost pass as normal children again. At the time however, still devastated by the loss of her partner, Rika didn't realise it, but now, having to go through the entire process again, she knew just how much they'd done for her.

"It's been okay" she answered.

"That's good to hear Rika, what about your social life? I assume you've met lots of new friends?"

"I hang around a bit with some people from my class, but mostly i've been focusing on my studies" Rika lied

"Oh, That's important too, but remember not to completely ignore your social life, going to university is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" her mother replied, completely oblivious to the lie.

That's easy for you to say, mom She thought, bitterly. This trip was meant to help me get away from my problems, not bring them all up again.

Rika faked a yawn. "If you'll excuse me, mother, I've been travelling all day, and need to get some rest"

"That's fine, dear. We can talk again in the morning"

Pausing in the doorway for a moment, she turned and wished her mother and grandmother goodnight.

Closing the door to her bedroom behind her, Rika threw her coat to one side, and went straight to her chest of drawers. Opening the bottom drawer she removed a metal tin, and blew away the layer of dust covering it. Carrying the tin back to her bed in the centre of the room, she knelt down and placed the tin in front of her. Taking a deep breath, and letting it out as a heavy sigh, she cracked open the lid. Inside was her old collection of digimon cards, untouched for six long years, and sat on top of them was her digivice, Its screen as dull and lifeless as it had always been since the day her partner left.

Rika picked up her digivice and held it, cradling it in her hands like a fragile ornament. For a long time, she simply knelt there, staring at the device in her hands.

"Renamon" she spoke, her voice barely a whisper

"You probably can't hear me, but they said these things were sort of like the Ark, right? A physical manifestation of the connection between us. So if there's even the smallest chance that you can hear me Renamon, I..." She hesitated. "I don't know if you got that message that I sent you all that time ago, or if you even still care about me, but I wanted you to know, Renamon, that I tried. I really did. I did it for you, I tried to make myself a better person, I worked hard at school, and I got good grades, I even managed to get into a good university, but..." She hesitated again, her eyes welling up and her voice breaking "... I don't think I can carry on living like you never happened to me... you were always the best at understanding my feelings, you know that right? You were the closest friend I ever had. I thought that I was coping, that I was strong, that I could move on like Takato and the others. But I'm not, and I can't. You came to me asking me to help make you stronger, but you were always the strong one Renamon, not me. I barely talk to anyone anymore, everyone wants to ask me about being a tamer, but what do I tell them? That the day we won I lost my only true friend? That my only true friend isn't even human, but instead a chunk of data? Do you know how pathetic that sounds? How pathetic that makes me? I..." She choked back a sob, tears running freely down her cheeks, her voice barely audible "I need you back in my life Renamon... I ... I need you to come back to me ..."

"Please come home Renamon"

With her final heartfelt plea still hanging in the air, she let out what air she had left in her lungs. As the breath left her it seemed that it took what remained of her will with it, her whole body deflating into a slumped, defeated posture.

With a sniff, she wiped her eyes, and lifelessly went about the process of getting ready for bed, longing for the dark embrace of sleep to take away the burning pain in her chest, at least for a few short hours.

Her feet beat a frantic frantic rhythm against the baked desert soil. She glanced over her shoulder, searching for her pursuers. All she could see were vague shapes scuttling in the nighttime shadows. Heart pounding in her chest, she forced herself to run even faster. Suddenly a chasm loomed in front of her. Her feet skidding in the dirt she barely managed to avoid the bottomless pit. She risked another glance behind. She'd lost too much speed, the shadows were gaining on her. Suddenly she burst out of the valley onto the plain, dimly lit by the blue-green glow of earth, floating serenely above, shafts of pink light streaming out from it. She scanned her surroundings desperately, looking for something, anything to help her escape. There! A shimmering point of gold light hovered above the ground maybe ten metres away. Close behind her a monstrous voice roared "Poison Thread!". She dived to the side as something rushed through the space she'd occupied a moment ago. Scrambling to her feet she sprinted the last few paces, and threw herself into the light. She was blinded by a white flash, and...

Rika woke with a start, sitting bolt upright in bed. "Renamon!" she gasped.

Seconds later, the silence was broken by a familiar beeping sound. Rika scrambled around for a moment, searching for her digivice, the screen was alive and displaying the compass. She wasn't entirely sure how she knew, but she knew without a doubt that her partner was in mortal danger.

Jumping out of bed, she dressed as quickly as she could, strapped her old deck to her belt, and sprinted out the door. I didn't wait all this time just to watch my partner get destroyed, not if I can do anything about it! "Hold on Renamon, I'm coming!" she shouted.

Rika's lungs burned, and jolts of pain shot up her legs with every footfall, but she ignored the pain and pushed herself onwards, the only thing on her mind was getting to Renamon. She gripped her digivice in her right hand so hard that her knuckles turned white, checking it every few steps.. Looking back on it later, she would consider it a small miracle that she wasn't hurt or killed during her reckless pursuit of Renamon, she lept over barriers and slid down embankments with little regard for her own safety, and more than once cars came screeching to a halt as she darted across the road in front of them.

At last, she rounded a corner and came upon the digital field, spread across the small patch of open land at the end of the street like a cloud had fallen out of the sky. Without slowing down, she pulled her shades out of a pocket and ploughed headlong into the field. The inside of a digital field was like nowhere else on earth to Rika, the smell of ozone was heavy in the air, and the air itself was almost buzzing with static energy, creating a mild tingling sensation on her exposed skin. Seconds later Rika burst through the outer layer of the field and came skidding to an abrupt halt.

Thick strands of a white web-like substance covered almost every available surface, strung between trees and telegraph poles, and almost completely encasing the run-down children's play area at one end of the field. However, the web wasn't what captured Rika's attention, at the centre of the field was Renamon, struggling with a giant spider-shaped digimon, with a skull-and-crossbones emblazoned on it's back, while five more of the creatures circled around the pair. Rika recognised the digimon almost immediately, Dokugumon, She and Renamon had been fighting one the first time Renamon digivolved.

The Dokugumon attacking Renamon had tried to pounce on the smaller fox digimon, but Renamon had caught it by it's front legs, and now the two of them were stuck in a deadly stalemate. Dokugumon was stuck rearing on it's back legs, unable to overpower it's opponent, however Renamon was equally stuck, unable to release her opponent without being crushed. As Rika watched, horrified, one of the other Dokugumon clambered up a tree and reared up to attack.

"Renamon, look out!" Rika screamed.

Renamon's head snapped around to focus on her. "Rika!" she shouted, her voice a mixture of surprise and confusion. With a grunt she managed to throw off her attacker, and spun around to face the second. Without enough time to escape, she froze, sparkling blue eyes locked on Rika..

"Venom Blast!"

"NO!" Cried Rika. Without thinking, she rushed forwards, darting between the legs of the circling Dokugumon. Moments before the attack impacted she tackled Renamon, knocking her clear of the blast, before the purple cloud engulfed her. Every inch of Rika's skin felt like it was on fire. She cried out in agony, then stopped abruptly as the burning sensation spread down her throat.

Rika hit the ground hard, and stayed there, her vision swimming in and out of focus. Distantly, she heard Renamon call her name, then cry out in pain as the Dokugumon converged on her. Renamon's cry pierced through Rika's stupor. With a groan of pain she managed to force herself onto her back. Renamon was crouched defensively over her body, fending off attacks from three of of the Dokugumon simultaneously. "Im ... Sorry ... Rika." Renamon Panted.

"No..." Rika growled.

A flash of blue light to her left caught her eye. Her deck of cards had come loose during the fall, and was spread across the ground nearby, the nearest card had transformed into a blue card. Reaching out with her left hand Rika grabbed the card. She raised her right hand, somehow she'd managed to keep hold of her digivice. She brought her hands together, and began to swipe the card.

"Digi...modify," she gasped, forcing the words out through clenched teeth. "Matrix ... Digivolution ... activate!"

The last thing she saw before unconsciousness claimed her was the light of digivolution engulfing Renamon.

Author's notes:

I'm finally back! It took a while, but I finally found something that I liked enough to motivate me to write fanfiction. For those of you familiar with my previous work, this will follow roughly the same style as 'How do I live' , a relatively short, relationship-focused multishot fick, with a sex scene at the end. However, unlike HDIL I already have the entirety of the story planned out in advance, although there is plenty of room for me to continue the plot beyond the initial plan if I want.

I was delayed for about a week posting this by searching in vain for a beta reader for this fic, until I got impatient to share this with you people, and to work on the next chapter. However, if any of you would be interested in beta reading the remaining chapters of this fic, please contact me via PM.

Thank you for reading, and as always, weather you liked or hated it, please leave a review.

~Superbun