Inevitable

Lyra and Lance

I wandered slowly along the railing, tailing him as was my habit. I knew it made him feel paranoid and insignificant… and somehow, while normally I wasn't one to abuse power, I found it fun to annoy him. The setting sun set an orange glow to everything around… I walked softly, wanting to see how long it took him to acknowledge my presence. He already knew I was there… He just hoped that if he ignored me long enough, I'd leave. Never happened before, and he'd have to ignore me all week for me to leave. I had no place to go to, anyway… Nothing but an empty house.

In the 3 years since we'd defeated the D-Reaper, we Digimon wandered in and out of the real world, coming and going as we pleased through the portal in the bunker. But a few months ago, A virus on the internet wiped out half the programming on the Earth… and destroyed the portal in the process. Those of us in the real world at that time were trapped there, until the portal could be re-opened. Which, we were warned, could take up to a year. I'd taken it in stride, moving back in with Rika and her family and becoming a regular at the local karaoke bar. The others had taken it varyingly hard… Lopmon was, of course, glad to be with Suzy. Gaurdromon was an odd sight around the city, but he too was as happy here as in the Digital World. Impmon however… Although his Tamers were now 8, they were still young, and he in fact was left in charge whenever Ai and Mako's parents were out. Which was often. A week ago, the whole family had left on a month long vacation to America, leaving Impmon behind. He was reasonably happy about it, though I knew he truly missed his twin Tamers.

As for Rika… in recent months, even since before I was trapped in the real world, she had started dating Henry. Which kept her relatively… distracted. She was often at his house, and sometimes spent nights there, rooming with his older sister as I understood. Those nights I would spend out in the city. But now… this morning she's left with his family on a vacation… I'd found out from her grandmother. The shock was still setting in that Rika hadn't told me herself… I knew she and I hadn't been as close as before, I'd figured that out when she started senior high school the previous April, but now we'd grown *that* distant… We were no longer needed to be Tamer and partner, all threats gone, but she'd taken it too extreme… So I planned to break it entirely today. I'd found myself an abandoned condo building, and planned to begin living there…

So why was I following Impmon right then? Maybe it was habit, but I guessed that it was more wanting to talk to someone who could relate, someone else who'd once left his Tamers, another who preferred to live alone.

"Alright, fox-face, I get that you're not leaving. What do you want?!" he insisted, spinning around and jumping up on the roof of the building I'd been pacing the balcony railing of. He stared me straight in the eye, and moments later, he just began laughing.

"Yes? May I ask what you find so funny?"

"She left ya, didn't she? You're Tamer's gone, so the poor chatty canine is gonna go cry!"

"How do you know Rika left?" I smirked at him, knowing I had him cornered on this one. Only the Wongs and Rika's family knew they were leaving.

He seemed shocked for a moment, then started laughing again. "I didn't. You just told me."

"Alright, you got me there… but I was wandering where you stay, what you do when your Tamers leave… or long ago when you left them. Other than terrorize innocent bystanders…

"Eh? I got plenty a' other things I can do. And where I stay is my own business," he snapped in response.

"That it may be. But I have a hunch you just stay in the twins' treehouse…"

"What's it to you? And how would you know, anyways?" With a silent smile I disappeared from where I was standing and reappeared, sitting on the edge of the roof beside him. "Yah! Yeesh, I hate it when yous do that… You and your invisibility and yer teleporting, just gives me the creeps."

"Oh… little Impmon's scared by the big bad fox…"

He looked up at me and smiled. "You wish, fox face…" he just starred at me for a moment, then shook his head and started twirling a fireball on his finger, walking slowly away. "I, ah, better get back to the house… Look, eh…" he stopped, back still turned to me, and turned slightly to the side before continuing. "If you need someplace to stay until yer girl comes back, you know where I'm stayin…" he crushed the fireball in his palm as he finished the statement.

"Likewise," I smirked and stood up, crossing my arms and teleporting away.

If I was welcome anytime… I would wait. I would get my answers… But what I didn't realize is that I was to get answers to questions I never even knew I had.

Next chap will be done by Lance… from Impmon's P.O.V. … tell us what you think, please.