Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or X-Men Evolution. So sue me. No wait…don't.

The X-Evolution - Memories

Chapter 2: Kinetic/Connections

Kouichi stumbled through the near-darkness of the storm, the sudden squall of rain that had risen up the moment after he had left the institute sending a bucketful of water right into his face. The darkness was nice - his eyes were finally relaxed, the only light being a soft overcast from the setting sun that was managing to fight its way through the thick clouds - but he could hardly move for the rain and the wind pushing against him.

He'd lost the road in the torrent of the storm, wandering off the path and away from the burning, painful lights of the city. There were things blocking his way in some directions, tall, hard things - tree? They felt like they had bark. So he was wandering in the forest…? Where had the van gone, where had…?

Suddenly, the ground seemed to slide out from under his bare feet, and he fell face-forward into a plot of earth that was more liquid than solid with the rain. He groaned, lifting his head, and found his eyes blinded by the mud.

He coughed a few times, rubbing his eyes, then paused. In the sudden complete lack of vision, he could see something. It was something important. He knew it was.

It was a boy, his age…no, younger, but not too much, maybe a few years? He had long black hair pulled into a ponytail and a bandanna that was tied around the base like a girl's ribbon. His eyes were dark blue and held the aura of being cold, and yet they seemed to radiate a bit of warmth as he looked down at him.

It was him. Nobody.

Nobody was next to him, partially covered by blankets - it was like they had been sleeping beside each other, in a large bed. The room was familiar somehow, but it wasn't the room that he had been in before, it was smaller and there were more lights outside - they were in the middle of the city, a city, any city. Nobody was raised on one elbow, looking down at Kouichi where he lay, gently brushing hair from his eyes to clear his vision in the same way.

He was whispering something, something soft. Kouichi couldn't remember what it was, but it looked as though it had been soothing. Almost as if…he had been…

Before Kouichi could get a grasp on the thought flitting through his mind, a flash of light pushed through his pupils and burned his eyes painfully. He wrenched back from it, covering his eyes, and once he thought it might be safe, he cleared the mud away and cracked his eyes open to see.

There was nothing there. Just him, in the middle of a forest of trees and earth and rain.

Kouichi blinked a few times, trying to get the light out of his eyes. What had caused it? Had been…lightening?

But no, it came again, closer this time. A burst of light in the depth of the forest, flashing between the trees with all the fury of a bolt of lightening, but it sprung from the ground. This time, one of the trees was caught in the heat and literally exploded, the flames that it would have spread being doused by the pouring rain.

Kouichi let out a cry and stumbled back, covering his eyes. Another explosion echoed through the woods and he ran from it, his bare feet slipping on the mud and catching on the roots that rose above the surface. He could hear them coming closer and closer, each blast sending a little bit more heat in his direction, a little bit more light flooding from behind him. They were chasing him, the explosion were chasing him…

"L-Leave me alone!" He begged, stumbling with his arm over his eyes. "Please, just leave me alone! Go away!"

His foot caught on a root and fell again, tumbling head over heels down the slope of the hill. He crashed against the trunk of a tree waiting for him halfway down, throwing the breath out of his body. At that moment, a flash of fire and light burst just above him, illuminating the entire grove, and he dove to cover his head with his arms, quivering in fear.

Booted footsteps made their careful way down the muddy grove, pausing just a few feet away.

"'Eh now, there's no reason thus be scared, boy."

The voice was male, older and unfamiliar, without even the twinge of familiarity that came with all the people at the Institute, and it sported a heavy accent that he couldn't have recognized for the life of him. Kouichi uncurled from his fetal position just slightly, looking up to find the source of the voice.

It was, as he had originally assume, an older man of at least 21, with fiery red hair and dark eyes that he couldn't quite tell what color they were, except that they weren't normal. He wore a black headband that shadowed his face like a mask, and there was a likable, but mischievous, smile on his attractive face. He wore a long brown trench coat, currently pulled tight around the rest of his outfit to guard against the rain, and there was a small playing card in his hand that was glowing only just bright enough to illuminate his face. A brown duffle bag rested on his back, almost empty.

"There now, yeh see?" he said, his words heavy, accented strangely, and slight slurred with the dialect. "There ain't no reason tuh be scared a ol' Gambit. Ah ain't gonna do nothing' tuh hurt yeh."

Kouichi hesitated for just a moment, then slowly put his hand on the ground and pushed up to get a better look at the man. Both of them were soaked through. "Who…Who are you?"

"Ah already told yeh, didn' I? Gambit's the name." The man winked at him, the mischievous grin adding a bright glint to the depths of his dark eyes. "Yeh don't have tuh worry. Ah'm a friend, yeh know."

"A…" Kouichi hesitated a moment longer, then a hopeful expression spread over his face. "A friend? Really?"

"Really really." Gambit flashed his grin again, knocking on the orb of darkness that had surrounded the boy, locking him in to a little protective cocoon. "Now how 'bout you get rid of this thing and let ol' Gambit in tuh give yeh a hand, huh?"

Kouichi blinked several times, looking at the wall of darkness. He had no idea how it had happened - it had simply kicked in out of defensive instinct, to protect him from the explosions and the light. He reached out, trying to get a feel for it, to understand what had happened, but the instant he touched it from the inside, the bubble of protection shattered and vanished.

Instantly, he was soaked in the pouring rain, and he drew back suddenly from the cold. Gambit chuckled, pulling the duffle around where he could reach it, and undid its fastenings. "Look at yeh, in yer jammies and everythin'. Not really up tuh thinkin' ahead, are yeh?"

Kouichi looked up at him, somewhat helpless and at a loss for words. The rain and his hair was falling into his eyes, and his relatively thin flannel pajamas were sticking to his skin like saran wrap to a sandwich, the water suctioning it to reveal exactly how thin and small his body really was."

Gambit chuckled again and pulled a smaller jacket, black and waterproof, from the bag to set around the boy's shoulders. "There yeh go. Much better, am Ah right?"

"Y-Yeah…" Kouichi pulled the windbreaker more tightly around himself, looking down at the mud he sat in. "Thank you."

"Ain't nothin' to it, buddy." The man stood, got his footing, and reached down to hoist the boy to his feet. He put his arm around the smaller figure's shoulder, offering a little more cover from the rain. "Now com'on, let's git. We gotta bit of tuh go from here."

Kouichi allowed himself to be lead along, guided away from trees and mud slicks and other obstacles easily. He turned his eyes from the glowing card, shutting them - even though the light was very faint, little more than a bright aura, looking at it felt like he was being stabbed by a needle, right in the eye. "Where are we going?"

"It ain't too far," Gambit said, his voice reassuringly confident, focused on a goal, though the smirk remained constantly and made his words sound almost ominous. "Don'tcha worry, boy. Meh friends and I are gonna make sure to take real good care a yeh…"

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

"Professor, are you sure you can't locate him anywhere around?"

Xavier sighed at Storm's question, though he knew very well that it was more than justified. It was worrisome enough that the Institute's private generator was having power problems - more so because the wires that had snapped appeared to have been cut or seared away - but in the midst of all the confusion, Kouichi had vanished, practically into thin air. The Professor knew very well that the boy was not in his right mind, having examined him personally just after returning from Siberia, and the idea that he was wandering the streets of the city by himself in such a vulnerable state…

But there was nothing that he could do.

"No, Storm, I'm not sure," he sighed, folding his hands in his intense, concentrated expression. "He may be around here, it is a very distinct possibility. But if he is, I'm having trouble…recognizing him."

Ororo looked as though she wanted to scream, but forced herself to remain calm. "What do you mean, Professor? How can you not recognize him?"

"His mind has changed, Storm." Xavier whispered patiently. "Without Dusk, it's not the same as it was. It's not even the same as it was the last time I looked into it. It is constantly changing, trying to rebuild itself, and because of that, I'm having trouble getting a lock on him."

"But…But Professor…"

"I'm doing everything I can, Storm." The Professor soothed, patting her arm warmly. "Just be patient."

"But we don't have time to be patient, Professor," The woman wrung her hands in frustration, biting her lip. "Hank and the students will be home soon. What are we going to tell Kouji? He's already under so much stress, after what happened in Siberia and Kouichi's amnesia and his powers just vanishing so suddenly…I'm afraid of what he's going to do when we tell him that we've lost his brother again, I really am. What if he does something…?"

"That won't happen, Storm." The Professor assured her, and began to turn away towards the door. "Just have faith. We'll find Kouichi soon enough, and until then we have to have faith that Kouji will hold out as well. Whatever you do, never loose faith in them."

Ororo sighed as the Professor left, aiming his wheelchair for the hall which lead to Cerebro. He really was going to do an all-out search - world-wide, if he had to. Even if the black really had been sabotage, and Kouichi had been spirited away by someone else, the Professor had to be able to find him…hadn't he?

A light rumbling noise drew her attention to the window. The Institute's white, mutant-resistant, safety-modified travel van was rumbling up the driveway, full of kids who were laughing and talking happily about their day in town. She sighed slightly - Kouji was there. He was coming back already.

She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself and ready her heart for what was ahead. Then she made her way to the front hall, already planning her mind how to break the horrible news.

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Kouichi pulled the windbreaker more tightly around him, watching uncertainly as his new benefactor poked and prodded around the earth of the otherwise abandoned clearing. After about ten minutes, he finally decided that it was time to ask what he wanted to ask: "What are you doing?"

"Just tryin' to find the front door, don'tcha worry." Gambit glanced at him and winked brightly. "Yeh just hang out there fer a moment, and I'll get us set up real quick."

He poked and prodded a few more times before finally finding what he had been looking for - a seam in the earth, just a small line that had neither earth nor grass. Gambit grinned again, this time more to himself than to anyone else, and pulled another card from the deck in his coat. He held it between his fingers just a moment, focusing his power on it, and the card began to glow as kinetic energy pulsed through it. The man slipped it into the seam and stepped back. There was an explosion, but not a large one, just enough to throw open the trapdoor that had been imbedded in the ground, the false grass that had covered it remaining firmly stuck to the top.

The door revealed a long set of metal stairs, rough and unfinished, but easy to walk down. They looked as though they had been welded together from old construction equipment or railroad tracks, but the craftsmanship was remarkable, there wasn't a seam to be seen. Even the walls were lined with the roughly-made metal, leading down into the darkness of an underground base.

Kouichi felt himself drawn to the darkness. Cool, crisp, innocent darkness, with no pain, no rainwater, no cold…

Gambit turned back and winked at the boy. "Home sweet home, at least for now Looks nice, eh?"

"Y-Yeah…" Kouichi took a step forward, his feet sinking a bit further in the mud.

"Well, com'on, then, don't be shy." Gambit reached back, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder to pull him to the edge of the stairs. "You first. Ah got yeh back."

Kouichi hesitated, out of instinct, but he the hand on his shoulder gave a bit of comfort and he moved forward. The metal was rough against his bare feet - he could feel it rubbing away at the calluses and blisters that had formed on the soles after his long walk from the Institute.

He bit his lip against the pain and moved forward, Gambit just behind him to close the door. The walk down was dry, and dark. Kouichi liked that part, even if his feet were leaving a few splotches of blood behind as he stepped.

At the base of the stairs, there was suddenly a light - a small one, a lamp, but it was bright enough that Kouichi pulled away from it, hiding his eyes in Gambit's jacket as he instinctively looked for shelter. From the direction of the light, a deep voice chuckled. "Looks as though Dusk's little visit had more effect than was assumed."

"Ah, he'll be good in a minute." Gambit chuckled, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Tough kid, though. Wandered a good eight miles on his own a'fore Ah found 'em. An' even when Ah did, 'e put up ah good fight. Ain't seen a defense 'at good in quite ah while."

"Of course." Kouichi pulled his eyes away somewhat hesitantly, slowly adjusting through the light that pushed through his eyelids as the voice spoke again. "After all, his body held the soul of one of the most powerful mutants of recent generations. It would have to be that strong in order to survive the experience at all."

Finally, Kouichi's vision cleared. He blinked through the light and finally got a good look at the mysterious speaker.

It was a man, much older than Gambit, with white hair that was pulled back sharply at the temples. His skin and eyes were exceptionally pale, as though he had been the one hiding himself from the light of day these past long weeks, and his body held the memory of amazing strength even though his muscles had withered a bit with age. He was dressed head to toe in royal purples and dark blood reds, covering every inch of his body from boots to gloves to a high-collared top. He was seated at a stern-looking metal desk, without decorations or even paper to be worked on, his gloved hands crossed coolly over the smooth metal.

The crystal blue eyes scanned from Gambit's face down to the boy. They made eye contact for just a moment while his expression remained blank. Then a cool, conniving little smile slide over his face.

"Hello, young one. Welcome home."

TBC…

To all of you having dirty thoughts because of Kouichi's memory…You aught to be ashamed of yourselves! Kouichi was staying over for the night, and he had a nightmare. Honestly, some people…

If you're not familiar with X-Men, Gambit is a character from Louisiana whose power is to put pure kinetic energy into an object, causing an explosion when he wishes it to. His weapon of choice is playing cards, and his accent is very distinctly Cajun. For those who do know X-Men, I'm well aware that Gambit it a good guy in the original version, but in Evolution, he works for Magneto. Sorry, but that's how the cookie crumbles. He's still an awesome character. They hinted several times that he might change sides, along with the equally-awesome Colossus, but the series was canceled before that came to pass.

The base in this chapter is based on the one that appears at Alkali Lake in X-3.