A/N: Happy Monday! Wow, I never thought I would get to update on a Monday. I guess small stuff like this is okay once in a while.

Thanks go to Xros-Hero for reviewing! Just so you know, the ending has already been decided. I just have to get there. Thanks for enjoying it!


III. Fear

"Cowardice is a virus within us all."

"Nene, it's going to be okay."

"…"

"Nene…"

The brunette didn't look at her this time and Akari sighed softly. It was not a noise of irritation, but sympathy. "Yuu will be all right," she tried again. Still, Nene's silence remained even as she paced restlessly through the small place they stayed in. The redhead turned herself toward the black entryway only feet from where she sat. "He's got Zenjirou watching for him, and Sparrowmon too."

They were empty words and Akari knew it. She looked at the dark entrance to the outside world and sighed gently. Cutemon wriggled in her arms, the pink rabbit trying to hug her in his own futile way.

Nene finally stopped after a moment of quiet, going to sit beside Akari in the dirt. Once, Akari would have doubted she would dare do that. That was before they were friends and before she had ever seen the world-worlds, rather- fall apart like a house of cards. She wrapped her free arm around Nene's shoulders and let her tremble.

"This is wrong," Nene finally whispered. "It was only a few moments. We were only separated for a few moments. What happened to him? Taiki-kun…"

Akari cringed. Her best friend… was he still in there? In that smiling shell? "We… we have to believe that he is," she said. "That's what he would do right now."

"And what if he's not, kyu?" Cutemon looked at her, beady eyes hard with something, an emotion she would consider wrong for any member of their ragtag band. "What if he's not there anymore, kyu?"

The redhead hesitated before shaking her head. "Then we do what he would do… and defeat him."

"You say that like you can do it," Nene murmured. "You say that like you would do it."

Akari hesitated at the look on her face, at her friend's anxiety. Taiki would kill Yuu, would kill Nene's baby brother. He had no reason not to now.

He had nothing left to lose.

Then she smiled a bit, a weak smile. "I'm the one who's been taking care of him all this time, you know?" She stroked the fur on Cutemon's head. "I've helped bandage him, energize him, everything I could think of that could make his life even a little easier. If it would help him to be beaten… or even to die, I… I would do that."

"Why?"

Tears dripped onto her smile. "Because I'm scared of turning my back on him, too."

She was afraid. Nene was afraid. Just how far would it go… until they all were?