A/N: Well, chapter five is almost done, so it's okay to post this I think. Anyway, will be replying to reviewer comments after I write a review. And update Light. And Toll. Happy MLK day! Enjoy and please let me know what you think!

Fair warning: I kind of wrote Hikari like Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, except I didn't have enough vague creatures and curses to choose from. Luna is awesome, no argument.

Chapter Two: To Be Strange

"Hello!"

The cheerfully voiced greeting in her head caused the white cat to trip and nearly crash into a nearby tree. She shook her head, trying to clear it, as well as looking around. That was not normal, not right. It was an enemy, had to be. One of that thing's accomplices, she would bet her Holy Ring.

"What's 'that thing'? And you shouldn't have tripped, dust could fly into your ears and nose and brain and then you would be in a bit of trouble."

Tailmon pulled herself to her paws and took off running again. She doubted the mental voice, as... distant as it sounded, was going anywhere. It was probably a taunt, to remind her she wasn't safe anywhere she went, so it would be better to just give herself up for punishment and not be such a coward.

"That person seems very unkind, for you to think of them like that. You should keep running from them, whoever they are."

"Seem to be doing that, in case you hadn't noticed!"

Why was she talking to it? That wouldn't get her anywhere. Or maybe she had finally lost her mind. Too many knocks down those damn stairs, probably.

"No, no. You're wrong. I'm the crazy one, everyone says so. You just are listening to me. That's very nice of you. It's like having a friend. Are you my friend?"

She listened to the voice again, and it, as odd as it was, seemed no more than curious. In fact, it didn't really seem to know who it was talking to. "Who are you?"

"Me?" it said. "I'm a person. Are you a voice from the air? Or were you on the TV? Because they talk on the TV, all roaring and sad because something is wrong. I try to talk back, but I can't do it when my family is home because they will get scared. Isn't that silly? To be scared of something they don't even see? Well, you probably think that's okay because you aren't like me."

She didn't stop running, but Tailmon found herself listening still, listening to this strange, high voice babble in her mind about things that were rather rare, like families, and televisions, and insanity. Digimon were not insane. No, they always acted on impulses from their cores, and while that didn't make morality any more verifiable, it certainly destroyed the idea of therapy being a necessary evil.

She thought this voice, or person, whoever they were, needed some therapy.

"I do," the voice assured. "But explaining that to Mama and Papa and Onii-chan won't work. Where I live, these things are supposed to be settled at home and not given to another person. It's some pride thing. Very strange. But... hey, maybe you can be my therapist. Then you won't cry anymore and I won't cry anymore and we'll both be over here."

"Well, it would help if I knew where you were," she muttered, before shaking her head. Tailmon could not believe what she was doing. She really just had no clue what was wrong with her.

There was a small chuckle from a foot behind her. "Talking to yourself already, Tailmon? It's only been a few days."

Tailmon hissed, rising to her back paws and raising her fists near her face. "Stalking me already, Wizarmon? It's only been a few days!" A few days, her tail. It had been almost a month.

"Oh, you two must not like each other," the voice said, continuing to sound merely interested. "Or maybe he likes you and can't show it to you because he's a boy."

Tailmon crouched back down, ears back and tail lashing at the air. She didn't bother to answer as the broken sun on the man's staff was pointed at her head. "What can I say?" he said through a once-sewn shut mouth. "You're enchanting, my dear."

"Cut the charisma," she spat, crouching on her hind legs, which wobbled from exhaustion. "Am I going to get to kill you now, or do you have a lengthy anecdote I can use to get out of here?"

The man chuckled, adjusting his violet hat. His staff hand remained trained on her, glowing and sparking gold. "There is the third option..." he began.

Tailmon merely moved, slashing claws down the elbow and ducking from the free gloved fist coming towards her head to kick him straight in the throat. Is that a clear enough answer for you? She snapped at his mind, not caring if he could read them or not. Not waiting, she took off into the nearby bushes.

Too soft, she cursed herself. You could have killed him right then and there and been safe for a while.

"But they would notice when he didn't come back, so then you would have more people after you. Why are people after you?"

Crazy kid. Wait... what? "I'm absolutely terrible at sticking to protocol and being an absolutely horrible living being. My boss didn't like that, so I left. He didn't like that either." She leaped to a tree and pulled herself to jump from one to another. Cloaked bastard could fly so she really had to scat.

Shame. He had seemed so nice the day they had met in the castle.

"Everybody looks nice until they pull your tail."

"Okay, seriously, are you okay? Do you need help or something?" She really shouldn't be so concerned about a disembodied voice when she was fleeing for her life, but all things considered, it was better than being afraid. Which she wasn't.

There was only a pause before the voice answered. "I have a cold."

Tailmon wanted to stop and facepalm. "What does that have to do with this?"

"Well, you asked if I was okay..."

Tailmon bolted back to the ground and sighed. "Forget it... where are you?" Wherever they were was probably better than here... but there were a lot of places that were better than here.

"Not near you. Unless there are lots of giant buildings and a lot of humans walking around you."

"You're human?" Well, that explained a lot.

"And you're like Koromon!"

"... Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

…

Hikari sat up a little straighter on her bed, and her cat mewed its irritation. Sorry, Miko. She reached out and stroked her head, allowing the cat to rest back in her lap. What was so strange about knowing what Koromon was? Or what Koromon was like? She had been very easily able to communicate with Koromon back then. Was that a bad thing? Probably, since Onii-chan didn't remember.

"Miss who is like Koromon?"

"I'm not a Koromon."

She found that the speaker seemed a little sensitive. Or maybe unhappy. Considering that person was chasing her, it was probably unhappy. She wondered what she could do about it.

Hikari thought and thought, and there was no answer in her head. Rather depressing, if she did say so herself. This was a person that needed help, and though she was sick and trapped in orange pajamas, she should be able to.

How?

There was a mental shriek of pain, and now she really wanted to know how, because there was a burning at her toes and fingers and it did not feel good.

She closed her eyes and thought, thought to a time when she could only speak with a whistle, a time that had a big pink blob and ate a lot of food. She thought she remembered being different then. It was before being crazy, but after being someone else. Someone who cried a lot but still went on a fun adventure.

Something had been different then. She just didn't know what that difference was. It was very strange.

She thought she could remember being that way... but had she ever not been that way?

Hmm... now she had gone and confused herself.

Hikari pouted to a silent room, then opened her eyes. "Miko, do you know how I am crazy?"

Her cat mewed. The animal had been around since she was born. She probably did know, but couldn't explain it. No one could explain crazy. And no one should, unless they were like her. Which was sad. People should not be like her. They should be strong and brave and cool like her Onii-chan. Well, he wasn't that cool. He was just strong.

There should still be more people like him, though.

There was a sudden jolt in her chest, and the jolt of energy ran from her chest to her limbs and to her head and it hurt. She didn't cry, or panic, because that could scare the Miss-who-was-like-Koromon or make her even more sad and she wasn't sure either of them could handle more sadness.

Her brother often thought her timid. She was. Timid didn't mean weak. It didn't mean dumb. She could do things her Onii-chan definitely couldn't.

So she did.

Hikari, with her own tiny, mental hands, grabbed onto the pain. She clutched it between her fingers and began to tug. She did this very often, when her Onii-chan was sad and she felt it, or when a friend had hurt herself and she could feel it. So while beneath her image of her tight hands, the pain and the person in pain wriggled, she clutched it like a tug-of-war rope.

It didn't instantly give, of course. There was no fun in one of those games if it was just over.

But in order to win, she knew she had to do one important thing:

"Miss! Miss, you need to be strong right now! I need to keep tugging and to do that, you need to let me. This will help! It really will!"

…

Through the pain, Tailmon hadn't been able to hear the high little voice anymore.

She had to admit, for a third-rate dropout of a mage, the guy was good at lightning magic.

"I'll have you know I was kicked out(1)," Wizarmon chuckled at her thoughts. "I was just too curious for my own good."

She coughed and pulled herself up to her hind paws again. Good thing the guy was easy to kick around. He was just as stubborn as she was. "I don't know much about educations," she muttered. "But isn't that something to be ashamed of?"

"I used to be," he admitted, smiling. "But when you're alone long enough," he raised his staff and electricity wrapped around it once more. "You really learn to not care anymore."

"I'd sympathize if you stopped zapping me," Tailmon said dryly, and threw herself forward, sinking her claws into his stitched mouth. He screamed as she clawed at her face and she only scowled, leaping towards his staff and snatching it. "Thanks for the present!" Turning to run, she only made it a few steps before a ball of lightning struck her in the back.

She hit the ground, hearing him tsk through bleeding lips. "You are incredibly stubborn."

"Birdramon of a feather," she croaked as his boot stamped down on her back.

"Cute. Now, why don't we go make a plea bargain?" His blue eyes twinkled at her as he spoke, moving his foot back to hold her by her tail. "Let's face it, between you and chibi-bat back there, I think I know who I would rather see alive." Wizarmon almost smiled with sympathy. "It's not like you're leaving out of a sense of justice or anything. I know you. You take pity, but that's as far as you go. You left me there, you know. I saw you walk past, just like everybody else."

Tailmon hissed and laughed. "Guilt tripping already? Just cut the banter and kill me. Seriously, I know already that I'm a bad hero, but you're a worse villain."

"He won't kill you! I won't let him!"

She went still, a look of surprise on her face, and a shudder wracked her small, white frame. Then, his foot touched nothing but air as her body turned to static and disappeared.

For a moment, Wizarmon stared at where Tailmon had been. Then he laughed. "You just never stop surprising me."

With another chuckle and a sigh, he turned back to the darkened castle. "He's really not going to be happy with me, is he?" Twirling his staff, the man began to walk. "Suppose I should take my time. He's probably going to need a few new soldiers anyhow." He laughed, rubbing the red off of his face. "Never heard of a ruler of darkness so afraid of the light before..."

Whistling a merry tune, the mage began to stroll to what was now his home, back to his master.

A/N: Thanks for reading guys!

(1) According to the Digimon Adventure novelization (credit goes to onkei-kun for their translations of the first two volumes that I need to purchase), Wizarmon was banished from his original Digital World, Witchelny, because he read (and stole!) the forbidden Book. His form was changed to what he is now, as a result, which is Wizarmon. I have no idea what his original form was, unfortunately. If anybody has an idea or wants the link to the site where I found the translations, please drop me a PM.