Author's Notes

My goodness, this was a long chapter. It's because I accidently left the first part out of my plan. Then I had to revamp the rest to fit it in properly. Can't have stuff happening out of the blue of course.

Up next: Chapter 7 – Hostage: Great, now they're split up, they can't tell friend from foe, and to top it off, their enemies have managed to gain an advantage. But that's only going to make them fight harder…right?

Enjoy, and tell me what you think.

Achilles' Heel

Sequel to Butterflies' Flight. It is a fatal weakness in humankind, an enemy they themselves created and fuelled with each step towards defeating evil. Because evil always exists; it cannot be defeated, as does much else...a broken balance needing repair.

Takuya K & Kouichi K

Genre/s: Drama/Friendship

Rating: T

Chapter 6 – The Price of Jealousy

'We should try to fix this up,' Takuya offered, looking at the knocked down trees and the tree-houses they hadn't even noticed. 'That bastard sure did a whole lot of damage.'

'Great,' Junpei said sarcastically. 'We should start by regrowing the forest in five seconds.'

'We could start with the school,' Izumi, more reasonably, suggested with a look of reproach towards the older brunette. 'Remember, the one with the Togemon?'

Kouichi nodded and Junpei didn't say either, but everyone else looked confused.

'Oh right, you guys weren't with us then. It was about the same time you wound up on that toy island.'

'It'll be faster if we split up,' Kouji pointed out. 'I doubt all of us are needed for a school. We could rebuild the treehouses as well.'

'Good idea,' Takuya agreed, before looking at Junpei and Izumi. 'You two knew the school, so it's probably best if we leave that to you.'

They nodded.

'Now…we don't need four people for the treehouses,' Takuya mused. 'Bokomon, any other places where Digimon used to live near…of course. The Nature Spirits village. And the Gottsumon village. And that Fortune Telling place' He thought for a moment, staring at the twins. 'Neither of you've ever been to the Nature Spirits village, so you two might as well go to Gottsumon-'

'I have,' Kouichi interrupted. 'But the Nature Spirits village and the Fortune Telling one are larger than what two people can handle, especially if the Digimon have fled. And there are a lot more places too that have been hit.'

They frowned a little, thinking.

'Let's go one area at a time,' Takuya sighed finally. 'The closest places are the school, the treehouses…' He looked at Bokomon.

'There's a nursery,' the white gnome answered. 'The Village of Beginnings where Digimon are born is located on the continent of light, but there are smaller nurseries in the other continents to raise the baby digimon beyond the first couple of days they spend with Swammon. It's right over there, but at times of danger it envelopes itself into a protective orb and vanishes from view, so most of the surviving Digimon probably fled there.'

'Well, if that's the case, the place should be fine…right?'

'Well, yes, but now the protective layer is disappearing, so someone's going to have to babysit the kids if all the Digimon get started trying to rebuild their homes, and that's probably what they're going to do.'

'Don't the nurseries have someone taking care of things?'

'Well, yes…normally. But Mikemon would sooner fight and sacrifice her own life than run away and stay in the safety of the nursery. She believes in cutting the problem at the source.'

The four looked at each other, all of them at varying degrees of awkwardness and a sadness for a digimon none of them had met, before the other three pointed at Kouichi.

'Me?' he asked, pointing at himself.

Three nods.

'I'd probably make them cry,' Kouji muttered.

'I can't handle them,' Takuya agreed. 'I have enough of a time with Shinya.'

'They wouldn't listen to me,' Tomoki pointed out. 'I'm the one who gets baby-sitted.'

'And you used to babysit sometimes,' Takuya finished, much to the other two's surprise.

Kouichi shrugged. 'Can you three handle the treehouses?'

'Sure thing.'

'There-ouch.' Takuya pulled his thumb away, sticking it in his mouth before hammering the last nail home.

The Dorumon couple thanked him and leapt into their rebuilt home, scampering on the floor and showering him in acorns.

'Easy!' he yelled up, dropping to the ground and almost landing on Tomoki. 'Oh, whoops. Sorry buddy.'

He looked up and smiled at him. 'No problem.' He held out his arms, wherein a baby Dodomon was in his arms. 'Look who I found buried under all that wood.'

'Dodo,' the baby said cheerfully.

'Hmm, maybe we should-' Takuya began, meaning to hand him over to the nursery and Kouichi, but the two Dorumon leapt down and began chattering excitedly.

'Thank you,' one of them chirped, bowing on its hind legs (it was kind of hard to distinguish between the male and female), before all of them shot up again.

'Oh, what a happy family,' Tomoki exclaimed, before almost getting run over by a J-Mojyamon.

'My apologies,' he said, before running off for more wood.

'Wow, everyone's so enthusiastic.' Takuya grinned. 'It's great.'

'Look at them,' Barbamon snarled, staring into the water reflection. 'Makes me sick.'

There were three humans rebuilding tree-houses, two working on the hut that was the main part of the school and one occupying a bunch of baby digimon in some sort of game.

He especially snarled at that boy, who had a Poyomon on his lap. The one who had dared to destroy two of his brethren and who had barely an atom's worth of greed in him to even make him useful. Of course, the spirits of Darkness were powerful in themselves, and human data had its power, and greed as he was, anything would be worth his while in terms of power.

And no-one could begrudge his claim. After all, there was little sloth in him to appease Belphemon (and it appeared he had found his own target; fine, he could have the fat one, the bearded man found he much preferred the little one) and gluttony? Hah, Beelzebumon wouldn't even get a two second appetizer from the kid.

'Easy Barbamon,' the formless being on the throne uttered. 'You'll get your fill of him I promise. But it bothers me how he was able to defeat two of our brethren with barely any cost. No human has the will to defeat more than a singe of their sins, otherwise your existence would be nothing more than formless dust.'

There was a loud echoing bang as the staff hit the ground. He was angry and greedy at the same time. What he wanted was to make that boy pay then leech all his data and power and then just be rid of the problem in its entirety.

'And you'll get your chance,' the formless master agreed. 'But he is useful in other ways. He knows more about the Digital World than those other children, thanks to that fool Cherubimon and that fallen angel guard. He seemed to know how to weaken Envy. He might know too much.'

'Then we kill him,' the impatient demon exclaimed.

'Perhaps,' the other mused. 'But he might know more about the prophecy than we do. In any case, it would be imprudent not to find out exactly how much he knows before destroying him. If anything else, it will help us with the rest of the problems. And surely one human is easier to catch than six.'

There was a sigh of annoyance. 'Fine.' Greed wasn't exactly known for his patience.

'Beelzemon, have your way with the others,' the shapeless mass ordered.

The demon man frowned slightly. 'They're hardly worth a full fight.'

Barbamon scoffed, but feeling the gaze of his master upon him, said nothing.

'Poyo! Poyo! Poyo!' The Poyomon was still relentlessly bouncing, hence why he was bouncing on Kouichi's lap. He'd managed to organise a game of soccer with most of the babies, but there were a few that didn't seem to want to. He was telling some of the stories that he had read about in Cherubimon's gigantic libraries as well as all the books he went through back home, and they were all listening attentively…including the bouncing Poyomon.

'More! More!' they all cheered once he finished another and paused for breath.

Kouichi really wasn't used to talking this much.

'Give me a few minutes,' he panted, but before he could get them, the area suddenly started trembling.

All the babies started whimpering, and a few burst into tears.

'Poyo!' the Poyomon that had previously been situated in his lap shrieked, leaping up. The human attempted to catch him and succeeded, setting the hyperactive baby down before staring at the nursery…that was being engulfed in light.

'What's going on?' he asked aloud, starting to feel a little panicked himself with all the panicking baby Digimon around him.

'The protective field is reactivating,' a Tokomon answered, running after another Poyomon. All the others huddled in the middle of the large floor.

'There must be something outside then,' Kouichi muttered, looking outside. Already, the buildings were glowing with protective power. If the orb completed itself before he got out, he would be trapped in safety…with everyone else still outside.

'Stay here,' he ordered, running for the door.

The bouncing Poyomon ran after him, but was stopped when the other shut the door. Closing his eyes, he forced the latch in place before sprinting for the main door.

The babies would be safe, if nothing else.

Or so he thought. The Poyomon had actually made it through before the door slammed shut.

'What's happening?' Takuya asked aloud, watching the Digimon fleeing in terror.

'Why aren't they going to the nursery?' Bokomon wondered aloud, watching them scamper in the other direction. 'They won't all fit in the hiding tree.'

He was wrong. They would, if only because the rest of their numbers had died in the first massacre they hadn't been in time to prevent.

'Hmm, maybe we should go too,' Neemon said, joining the flock.

'Get back here you dolt.' Bokomon chased after his companion.

Tomoki bit his lip, before giving a small cry of alarm at the large bullet that flew over them, incinering several trees and almost all the houses they had managed to rebuilt. 'Takuya, look!'

A very familiar digimon flew above them, stopping just over the two humans.

'Right.'

They both pulled out their D-scanners, evolving in one fluid motion to their beast forms.

'Execute, Beast Spirit Evolution! Vritramon!'

'Execute, Beast Spirit Evolution! Blizzarmon!'

Beelzebumon aimed his twin guns at the pair.

Where the heck is Kouji? Takuya wondered. And everyone else for that matter?

Kouji had actually been on one of the treehouses but had immediately leapt down upon seeing the projectile. At that particular point he was buried under the refuse from his hard labour.

He cursed once he realised he couldn't worm his way out from under the timber. And he could hear Takuya shouting. He tried worming his right hand into his pocket where his D-scanner was. He was stopped by another wooden barrier. Cursing again, he tried the more awkward left hand, and luckily, he was able to scan his code through…barely. And he was certainly going to have a sore arm for his pains.

'Execute, Beast Spirit Evolution! Garrmon!'

A quick Speed Star took care of his little prison. Of course, Garrmon couldn't exactly move on such uneven ground, and he could hear clashes in the bushes.

'Takuya, you better not have caused any trouble,' he muttered under his breath, before summoning his human spirit instead. 'Slide Evolution, Wolfmon.'

He leapt up into the trees before jumping onto Beelzebumon's gun, poised to fire.

'Nice timing,' Blizzarmon commented.

'Who's the thug?' Wolfmon asked, leaping down as the other made a swing of him.

'It's Beelzebumon,' the other snarled, readying his gun again. 'The Demon Lord of Gluttony.'

'They just keep on coming,' Kouji muttered, before firing a laser shot into the gun barrel. It didn't really accompany all that much except messing up the next shot. Beelzebumon just switched guns.

Kouji attempted to aim another shot, before being knocked aside by the claw. It game enough time for Takuya to aim his Corona Blaster and do the same as the other had, while Tomoki aimed his Gletscher Torpedo as a diversion.

'So, you think your smart,' the digimon growled, tossing both guns aside before readying his claws. 'So, you want hand to hand contact?'

Blizzarmon roared, showing off his own empty fists.

'Somehow I don't think that's so smart Tomoki,' Kouji muttered, glancing a little anxiously around. 'I hear something else.'

The others listened, just before Beelzebumon roared a challenge, before jumping into the air and flapping his wings to avoid the sudden gust of wind.

'Geez,' Izumi exclaimed. 'Don't we get a break from these guys?'

There was a sudden scream that further validated it.

Kouji's head shot up. 'Kouichi,' he muttered.

Beelzebumon flexed his wings again, rising higher. 'About time,' he muttered.

Wolfmon snarled, but he didn't get a chance to do anything when the Demon Lord suddenly appeared behind him.

'You're staying right here.'

'Poyomon!' Kouichi cried in alarm as the little baby scooted into his hands.

'No!' The Poyomon shrieked, sneaking into his inside jacket pocket. 'Papa no go.'

Oh boy. First there was that Pupumon, and now this Poyomon. It was certainly…nice, those innocent baby hearts attracting to him like that in a familial way. It was a reason he was always willing to babysit for neighbours' children; there was just something about them that made him happy, in no matter what small way.

But with that came responsibility, and no way was he going to let him get hurt.

He quickly picked the baby up. 'You can't stay here,' he hissed, turning back to the vanishing nursery. 'You'll get hurt.'

'Papa get hurt,' the baby wailed.

'No! Go back-oww.' The Poyomon bit him sharply, but the other managed to pry him off his finger and push him through the little bit of the nursery he could still see. Whatever the baby said next went unheard as that too vanished.

Then he screamed suddenly as something hard slammed down on his arm, knocking him down.

'How sentimental,' a semi-familiar voice cooed in his ear, poising his staff for another hit. The other made to spring up, but hissed in pain when he put weight on the right arm. Having no time to think about it, he simply threw his weight the other way and rolled, biting his lip to muffle the pained scream that tried to escape as the wounded arm momentarily bore his weight.

He made to scan his code, then realised he wasn't holding his D-scanner. He had it when he left the nursery, which meant he must have dropped it when Poyomon bit him…several feet from where he…and Barbamon he realised, who had floated above him and was ready to strike with his staff again.

Kouichi felt around desperately, taking care not to move too much as not to alert the other. Hopefully the other didn't see the D-scanner fall, otherwise he would be in even deeper trouble.

He couldn't find it, but his fingers did enclose over a branch. Really hoped Picollomon's training worked as well as it was said to work, he swung the left arm under and up the other's third swipe, twisting onto his right arm to avoid the staff as his own makeshaft weapon dug into a gap in the armour.

The digimon shrieked, giving the human enough time to crawl to his feet, clutching his right arm. It didn't feel broken but that didn't really help with the pain, he thought wryly, faltering slightly. The branch he had found certainly wasn't long, or sturdy. As the staff came down again, it snapped like a twig when he raised it in defence. He fell against the tree, before quickly darting behind and letting nature take the brunt of the blow and his mind to take the few seconds respite to think.

First thing that occurred to him was why he was still alive. After all, Barbamon was a demon lord and extremely powerful. One particular attack, Pandaemonium, released energy equalling that contained in the Dark Area, and the Dark Area was fabled of leeching the energy from all evil Digimon trapped within its confines, including notably Lucemon. Seeing as he hadn't evolved by that point, an attack like that would reduce him to simple formless packets of data at least ten times over…and that was a rather gross understatement. And there was no hope of dodging that, unless one could travel the speed of a quantum particle (ie. faster than the speed of light). After all, dark light travelled much the same speed as light did.

So why hadn't Barbamon used it? If he wanted something from him (his spirits immediately came to mind; he couldn't think of anything else that was of value), why didn't he do the norm (for him anyway) and just kill him. Not that he wanted to die or anything, but still!

But seeing as all the other had tried to do was hit him with the staff and break a few bones, it didn't seem like he was in a hurry to kill him. So the next thing that occurred to him was how he was going to save those bones. What he needed was a weapon a little sturdier than a fallen branch. Perhaps the timber the others had been using to build, though that would put the Digimon, not to mention the hard work, in danger.

He couldn't come up with anything else though…except the staff he used as Lowemon. And that was a no dice now that he had moved so far from where the D-scanner had fallen. The only choice he really had…except waiting for the tree to fall on him seeing as Barbamon was still hammering away at the trunk.

He just hoped he could outrun the Demon Lord.

He sprinted away. He wasn't unusually fast, but dodging through the trees and bushes slowed the other down. Apparently Barbamon couldn't float too far off the ground and he doubted anyone dared to twist the other through a labyrinth and not risk getting blasted into smithereens.

To say he was startled at the sudden bullet that burst out of the trees was an understatement. It hadn't even occurred to him to dodge, but as luck would have it, he had run straight into Shutumon's back while she was in the process of ducking herself.

The result left them both half sprawled, an enraged shriek from Barbamon, one surprised warrior of Thunder and a glare-off between the warrior of Light and the Demon Lord of Gluttony.

'Beelzebumon!' he roared. 'Watch where you're aiming you incompetence.'

Beelzebumon looked away from between the warriors of light, fire and ice. 'You can't handle a single child?' he remarked coolly, with a hint of mocking, before scowling as another barrage of bullets from the fire warrior dug into his back with no effect. 'Enough of this,' he growled, masking Takuya's response of 'drat'. 'You first.'

Barbamon took the opportunity to strike Kouichi, who noted the shadow and lifted his arm to protect himself…forgetting there was no shield strapped to the right arm as well as the fact that it was already injured. Of course, in the position he was in, against Shutumon, he couldn't exactly have dodged out of the way.

He cried out in pain as the staff struck the already injured arm and fell against Shutumon who immediately whipped around and retaliated with her Gilgamesh Slicers. Unfortunately for the Legendary Warriors, that served as a distraction of the wrong sort as the others turned their attention away from Beelzebumon.

Big mistake. The Darkness Claw slashed through the armour and evolution with a single stroke.

'Takuya!' Tommy shouted, before spotting Barbamon readying his staff again. 'Guys, watch out!'

Izumi whipped around and let loose another Gilgamesh Slicers. Barbamon easily parried with the staff and Blitzmon flew in to lend a hand at Kouji's yell to split up.

That left Junpei and Izumi to fight Barbamon (which was unintentionally lucky), Kouji and Tomoki (who'd actually never paired up before) against Beelzebumon and Kouichi to try and crawl with one arm over to the incapacitated Takuya without getting hit by anything.

'Get out of here!' Kouji yelled, trying to hold off the claws with his twin blades and Blizzarmon's…hair?

Kouichi made to argue with that, but reconsidered when realising he was a liability, no matter how much he hated that. Despite the fact that the four fighting warriors were getting slowly beaten back, he wasn't going to be any help except getting Takuya, completely unconscious, out of harm's way.

No-one had actually noticed the fact that he still hadn't evolved. Of course, with an arm which was now wavering on broken (he supposed it was adrenaline to the rescue again because he was under the impression that his arm should hurt a lot more than it was so long as he didn't move it), it was pretty pointless at that stage. He wouldn't be able to hold his shield nor fire his Endlich Meteor, nor would he be able to even move in KaiserLeomon's form. Essentially, all he could do was fire dark energy bullets on a lame leg (which meant he wouldn't be able to dodge anything) or tarry with a one-armed spear (not that one arm could take that force). In other words, neither of those ideas were plausible.

Now, he could get to his feet without too much trouble, but how was he going to carry Takuya.

'Hey,' he tried, shaking the other. 'Wake up.'

The other didn't even twitch. Luckily, the scratches on his chest weren't too deep.

Giving up on trying to carry him with one hand, he resorted to slowly dragging the other a little way before using the tree to help. To his surprise, the tree stretched out his limbs and helped, alerting him to the fact that it wasn't a tree but a digimon pretending to be a tree and attempting to live.

Not such a bad idea, except the trees were taking damage simply by being there. Only problem was, everyone would notice a runaway tree.

Of course, it wouldn't be too long before they noticed the missing pair as well, Kouichi thought, slowly edging away. It might have been a better idea to run, but it would be loud, uncoordinated and short-lived. So long as the others' attention were sufficiently diverted, they'd get somewhere safe.

Where to go for that matter? The nursery was sealed off and out. The hiding tree would be a distinctly bad idea, seeing as they had felt Leviamon's tremor while safely within. The only option left was the Dark Network, but it left an awful not to chance.

It was a chance they were going to have to take.

He lay still, trying to force away the shadows trying to cloud his vision. His arm was literally killing him. Half under his other side (thank goodness) was Takuya, now groaning slightly. Wind buffeted his face, howling in his ear.

Hold on a sec. He frowned mentally. Where were they?

'Takuya?' he tried, slurring slightly in pain before forcing it away. Then a muffled shriek escaped as needle-like bolts of pain shot through his arm.

That woke Takuya up.

'Oww,' he moaned, hissing as the scratches on his chest tasted the cold air. 'What happened?'

'Beelzebumon,' Kouichi responded, before quickly adding: 'Don't!'

Takuya, who had been in the process of getting up, immediately stopped at the other's panic. 'What is it?' He certainly sounded better than the warrior of darkness.

'My arm.' The other gritted his teeth. 'Just go slow. Please.'

Takuya gently warmed himself out sideways, but even that didn't stop the pained whimper.

'Yeah, it's broken,' he muttered, looking at the other's arm.

'That's just great.'

'Yep.' A pause. 'Hold on a sec, or am I missing the sarcasm?'

'Well, Barbamon is known for killing just for what he wants so it's a surprise he didn't try to kill me.'

Takuya shook his head, looking at the scratches on his chest before simply pulling his jacket tighter around himself. 'I don't think a bandage is going to help, but maybe we could splinter-' He broke off, staring at the ground. 'What's that?'

Kouichi tried to prop himself up with his good arm, letting the old-school friend help. 'What's what?'

Takuya pointed at the shadow snaking through the trees, before turning around. 'Oh no. We're at the edge of a cliff. Literally.' There was about two centimetres between his jacket tail and the drop.

Kouichi turned around, realising the other was correct.

'Roulette,' he mumbled under his breath, before using the other to try and push himself to his feet.

Takuya, having known the boy's odd way of thinking out loud for longer than anyone else except the boy's own mother, picked up the point. 'What sort of gamble are we talking here?'

'Dark Network,' the other explained, still somewhat leaning on the brunette. 'It's like random selection. Can wind up anywhere.'

'Well,' Takuya muttered, pulling out his digivice while keeping both eyes on the shadow snaking through the trees. 'There could have been worse places. Where are the others?'

'Diversion or fighting,' the other mumbled, but not ashamed. He knew he would have been useless in that fight. 'Not sure which.'

'And how'd you wind up with that arm anyway?'

'Barbamon snuck up on me.'

The shadow snaked on the flat land towards them, and much to the onlookers' surprise, there was no body following.

'Reminds me of Wizarmon.' Takuya blinked. 'Oh well, Execute-'

A startled gasp escaped as it touched his foot, and the D-scanner fell. 'What the heck?' he exclaimed, picking it up again, before Kouichi fell to his knees as the shadows crept up his legs. 'Hey, show yourself you coward!'

There was a low laughter that seemed to echo all around them, though it sounded oddly…stretched. The warrior of darkness picked up on that point, seeing as shadow was a part of his element. Shadows had their limitation in worlds of light. It was slowly snaking up, but it couldn't quite reach his throat unless he wavered…which he was. Takuya seemed better off; the shadows had only reached up to his knees.

'It's impossible to defeat me, for as your wills wane, mine grows. As for where I am, I am everywhere. I am fighting your friends right now, and now I have the two of you as well. For all your faults, you humans can never stop me.'

'Oh no you don't,' Takuya cried, ready to scan his data again, but Kouichi halted him. 'What? Why?'

'You owe me, remember?'

Takuya's face suddenly dawned an awkward look. He owed the other quite a bit actually, what with not giving any contact details, forgetting about him, not to mention all those times the other saved him a detention. But he couldn't fathom why the other was bringing it up at that point in-

The air suddenly left his lungs as the good hand shoved him back. He took a step on instinct, staggering…straight off the cliff. At the same time, the other fell forward, and the shadows snaked over the unmoving form, before another shadow appeared, this time a body actually following. Barbamon.

They hadn't gotten far after all.

Roulette. Just as Kouichi had said.

Then the cliff obscured his view. Then the water. Apparently it wasn't a cliff they had been on but the opposing face of a waterfall.

Blurrily he wondered how he was still holding on to his D-scanner. A reflexive breath, and water rushed into his mouth and nose.

Then he was out of the water again, coughing and spewing and head spinning. Whatever happened to the water being breathable?

Then he panicked when he realised his numb fingers weren't holding his D-scanner anymore.