A/N: Apologies for the delay and the blandness.

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon

Maybe there's a God above

But, all I've ever learned from love

Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya.

And it's not a cry, that you hear at night

It's not somebody, who's seen the light

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Jeff Buckley- "Hallelujah"

Takeru felt as if his lungs were going to explode at any moment. That was if his heart didn't give out first though. As he weaved in and out of the crowds milling along the sidewalk he was seriously questioning his sanity for going along with this clearly insane idea of Taichi's. He guessed maybe the brutal late afternoon sun had fried his brain.

"Remind me again why are we running?!" Takeru called out in between deep breaths as he tried to keep up with Taichi.

"You said it yourself that we have no time to waste so we can't waste time walking around trying to find everyone!" Taichi called back over his shoulder sounding annoyingly chipper. "Besides you're an athlete aren't you?!"

Takeru could only groan in response while cursing himself for believing Taichi when he said that they were only going to have to run a short distance to reach whoever Taichi was trying to reach. He really should've known that Taichi's idea of a "short distance" was extremely warped by his soccer obsessed mind.

"Where are we even going Taichi?"

Takeru had been trying to get this info from Taichi ever since they had left Jyou at the library, but the former leader had refused to answer thus far. His general response had been some variation of "you'll see when we get there," which was starting to get under Takeru's skin just a bit. Knowing Taichi it was definitely intentional, he seemed to take sadistic pleasure in torturing Takeru by withholding knowledge.

"All in due time my dear Takeru." Taichi answered sweetly without breaking pace.

Takeru groaned again even louder this time. His legs were starting to feel like cement blocks and the sun beating down on him from above was not helping matters at all. If he could ever catch up to Taichi he was going to kill him. That was a big if, however, because at the moment he wasn't certain that anything beyond inertia was keeping him from collapsing and taking a nap right in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Stop with the groaning Takeru! How are you going to save the Digital World if you can't even keep up with me?" Taichi scolded while running in place and beckoning Takeru to catch up.

"How can I save the DIgital World if you run me to death before I get there?" Takeru grumbled under his breath.

He noticed now that he and Taichi were drawing many stares and arched eyebrows from the crowds milling through Odaiba. It was a typically busy summer Saturday in the district as people from all over Tokyo flocked to Odaiba to enjoy the various forms of outdoor entertainment it had to offer.

The fact that it was a beautifully sunny day with nary a cloud in the sky only enhanced the temptation for crowds to come enjoy the various attractions that Odaiba had to offer. Takeru sincerely doubted though that two tennagers sprinting through the streets, continously weaving in and out of crowds, was part of many people's plans. The presence of these crowds forced him to constantly offer hurried apologies for bumping into people while trying to keep pace with Taichi.

Takeru slowed his pace a bit as he reached Taichi and tried to recover as much breath as he could before Taichi took off at a gallop again. He noted with some annoyance that Taichi conveniently happened to be wearing a black athletic t-shirt along with khaki shorts and sneakers, thus making him more than appropriately dressed for this kind of strenuous physical activity.

"Take a picture it'll last longer." Taichi cracked while winking at Takeru having noticed that Takeru had been staring at him for longer than was socially acceptable.

"Har har. I couldn't help but notice that you just so happened to be dressed perfectly for something like running on a burning hot day like today, so it's awfully convenient that you'd want to run."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Taichi retorted.

"I'm just saying it's awfully convenient that now of all times you seem to be in a hurry. It's almost as if there's something, or rather someone, that you're dying to see." Takeru mused while grinning like a cheshire cat.

Taichi's eye twitched as he stared at Takeru in disbelief for a second causing the younger boy to laugh at how he must have obviously hit a nerve. Takeru loved seeing Taichi squirm like this because it was such a departure from his usually self-assured disposition. Takeru decided after a moment that in retribution for having made him run so far he was going to really torture Taichi.

"Judging from your reaction it seems as though my theory has some weight to it. However, I do know the old saying about assuming so I think I should try and tease this out a bit more." Takeru started while still wearing a huge grin with mirth dancing in his blue eyes.

"Takeru I'm gonna-"

"Would by any chance the reason you're in such a rush have anything to do with a certain girl?" Takeru asked acting as if Taichi had not spoken.

Taichi's face continued to grow redder from a mixture of anger and embarrassment as he listened to Takeru expertly suss out his motivations.

"I'll take your silence and rather red face as a 'yes'. While we're on the topic of the color red, would this fair maiden, that has you so gloriously riled up, by any chance have red hair?" Takeru continued his line of questioning with Taichi circling him much like a shark circling its prey before going in for the kill.

"Shut up Takeru!" Taichi grunted while reaching out to in an attempt stop the younger boy from circling him.

Takeru merely laughed and dodged all the while taking great pleasure in how much he was managing to get under Taichi's skin. He now saw why Yamato had always taken great pleasure in finding new and innovative ways to annoy the former leader. Taichi's fiery and direct temperament led to him walking into every single trap that Takeru laid out for him.

"Now I believe that I am ready to close this investigation into your strange behavior, though I believe that I should verify the conclusion that I have reached with you otherwise I may very well end up with egg on my face." Takeru started dramatically now having adopted a serious disposition as though he was about to make a major revelation.

Pointing theatrically at Taichi while grinning victoriously Takeru declared, "J'accuse- the reason you have had me run half to death through the hot and sweaty summer streets of Odaiba this afternoon is because you cannot wait to see the love of your life Sora Takenouchi!"

"Are you done?" Taichi asked exasperatedly.

"What? No applause? No 'great job Takeru!'? God nobody appreciates real genius anymore!" Takeru complained causing Taichi to facepalm. "Although, maybe I will go down as a great individual who was far too transcendent to be appreciated by the plebeians of his time. Yes! That's it! One day you'll see how amazing I am."

"Yes of wonderful master Takeru how dumb must I be to have not recognized your true genius by now." Taichi started sarcastically. "Now if you're done with...whatever that was...can we get back to the task at hand, also known as saving the Digital World."

"Fine. Let's go." Takeru answered in montone as he shuffled slowly behind Taichi towards wherever the former leader seemed to think Sora would be, while still worrying that Taichi likely had no idea where she actually happened to be at this very moment and instead was leading him on a aimless march through Odaiba.

The pop of the ball hitting the strings of the racket, the squeaking of rubber sneakers on the asphalt, and the whoosh of the wind rushing past her as she ran to return the ball all melded to form a exquisite melody in Sora Takenouchi's mind. This melody was in her opinion the most beautiful music that could ever be made. Forget grand orchestras, she would take the simple sounds of a tennis court any day.

The Ariake Tennis Park had become a bit of a sanctuary to Sora in recent years because if there was one thing that she could count on nowadays to keep her mind out of dark places she did not want it to wander to, it was most definitely tennis. Tennis was not only her favorite extracurricular activity it also served as her favorite form of therapy. Throughout her life she had always struggled with keeping things in and struggling to express her feelings and emotions in words and actions.

In tennis Sora found a way to deal with her emotions by using them as a tool to drive her beyond whatever physical limits she might usually have. She often found this to be extremely useful when she found herself tiring late in matches, as she would use the frustration, the anger, the self-doubt, and the crushing guilt that constantly dogged her off the court as energy to keep fighting against her opponent.

Most psychologists would probably view this as unhealthy and accuse her of merely using tennis as a way to hide from her issues, and her mother had accused her of this in so many words, but Sora honestly found that she had no other choice. Ever since the events of five years ago she had been extremely reticent to let anyone get close to her, lest they hurt her the way her former friends had.

This attitude led to Sora having many very superficial relationships with people that mostly consisted of exchanging pleasantries and/or discussing schoolwork in an official capacity. Sure she was friendly with her teammates on the tennis team, but even then their relationship really didn't extend to anything beyond official team activities.

"Ready Sora?"

Sora's focus was instantly returned to the court as her teammate Minori was about ready to serve to resume their practice match. Sora had lost track of the score during her musings and considered herself lucky that this lapse of concentration only occurred during a practice match rather than the real thing. Wiping her brow with her wristband Sora told Minori she was ready and the two of them resumed their practice match.

After a few long rallies an out of breath and drenched Sora won the set and subsequently collapsed into her chair on the side of the court. Taking a long swig of water and rubbing her face with her towel Sora began to reflect, as she had many times before, on how things went so wrong five years ago. Thinking back Sora guessed that she should have seen the warning signs, as splits like these did not occur spur of the moment, however her sole focus had been on the increasing tension between her and her boyfriend at the time Yamato.

It was odd to think about now given their long separation and ugly break up, but at one time Sora had been head over heels in love with Yamato. However, in retrospect it was clear to see that their relationship had been headed in a bad direction prior to their final break up. The only thing seemingly keeping them together was ironically enough the same thing that drove them apart: their mutual tendency to keep their real feelings bottled up and shut others out emotionally.

Sora remembered that the true end of her relationship with Yamato came shortly after his seemingly unprovoked assault on Taichi. She honestly would never be able to expunge what happened in the moments immediately following that punch from her mind…

Sora's eyes were burning with tears as she knew what she had just said to Yamato was essentially the final nail in the coffin for their relationship. She was appalled at his violent actions towards Taichi and extremely troubled by the way in which the typically fiery Taichi had meekly taken the punch and skulked away without so much as a word of protest.

Adding to her alarm was the lack of remorse that the typically cool headed Yamato was displaying. Sora was deeply disturbed that her boyfriend showed no signs of guilt about his actions towards his best friend. Even when she had confronted him just moments ago about his actions he had a look of righteous indignation plastered on his face and seemed incredulous that she was not on his side.

"Yamato it doesn't matter what he said! Punching your best friend is not acceptable no matter what he said!"

"Sora you don't understand! If you had heard what he said you would've been punching him yourself! God why is it so hard to get that I wouldn't punch that jerk for no reason?!"

"Yamato listen to yourself! How can you even say that about your best friend in the entire world?! There's nothing he could have said that would justify a response like that! You need to go after him and apologize before this really gets out of hand. Be the bigger man."

"Never. He deserves no apology from anyone. In fact, he should be the one apologizing! He stuck his nose where it didn't belong and got his just desserts. End of story. Maybe if I just tell you what he said then maybe you'll be able to see things my way."

"Yamato I already told you what he said doesn't matter."

Sora watched anxiously as Yamato took a shaky breath seemingly in an effort to collect himself before reiterating whatever Taichi had said to set him off this badly. If she had to guess it was definitely something personal that played off insecurities that only Taichi would know to exploit. She could only hope that whatever was setting Yamato off this badly was something that she could rationalize away.

"He said that I...don't deserve you...and that he does instead." Yamato spat the last part out as if it were some foul tasting piece of food that he had accidentally eaten.

Sora was speechless. She felt was if she had just been cast out to sea and was struggling for air. It just didn't seem real that Taichi would say something so foul, so petty, so out of character for him. She was confused as to what exactly the implications of his words were exactly. Did he mean that he wanted to be dating her? If true then Taichi had feelings for her, which just added to the overall confusion of the situation.

As Sora swirled these thoughts around in her head the prevailing emotion that emerged was anger. She was angry that both Taichi and Yamato thought of her as almost a piece of property with no free will. Didn't Yamato understand that she had chosen him of her own free will? Didn't Taichi understand that he had no right to be the arbiter of who deserved to be dating her?

Gathering her thoughts Sora finally met Yamato's expectant eyes that were waiting for a reply to the information he had just given to her. Sora rubbed her temples in frustration and anxiousness as she was about to give Yamato a reply he would not be expected and would certainly not be happy with.

"It's amazing how both of you can be so god damn wrongheaded. Taichi has no right to be telling anyone anything about my romantic life. That he did shows how little regard he has for my right to have a choice. But the way you acted ironically proved him exactly right. I'm not sure I want to be with someone who treats their supposed best friend that way."

"So that's it Sora? We're over?"

It really hadn't fully clicked for Sora that she was ending her relationship with Yamato until he had reiterated her own stated intentions back to her. The choice ahead of Sora seemed crystal clear to her in this moment. She either could stay in a slowly dying relationship for a few more weeks or achieve a clean break right here and now.

"Yes. I just can't stand to even be around you right now. Goodbye Yamato."

With those words Sora knew that she had definitely turned the page on this particular chapter in her life and would be heading into a scary uncertain future. As she walked past a stunned Yamato and out of the park she began to cry anew for what she had lost just now. The best part of her life to date was definitively over and she knew whatever was to follow would never be able to measure up.

A gentle nudge from a curiously smirking Minori snapped Sora out of her day dream about the past. Sora was befuddled as to why her teammate was suddenly smirking at her and wondered if something embarrassing had happened during her daydream. Minori seemed to pick up on her confusion and began to laugh, which left Sora only more confused.

"What's so funny?" Sora snapped a little more defensively than she had intended.

"Oh Sora you are. You're so oblivious sometimes, but damn I wish I had your luck." Minori giggled.

"What are in the world are you talking about? What's going on?"

"There's two guys who said they're here to see you. They're over by the locker room and if I do say so myself they are easy on the eyes, especially the blonde one." Minori said while sighing dramatically.

Upon mention of a blonde here to see her Sora's heart began to race and she felt as if her heart was going to begin beating out of her chest. She knew it had to be Yamato because what other blonde did she know that would come seeking her out. Sora's mind began to scramble to try to figure out a potential reason why after all this time Yamato would randomly seek her out.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Sora thanked Minori for the information and started making her way over to the locker room where Yamato and god knows who else were supposedly waiting for her. As she walked her stomach was flipping over as her unease at the situation increased. Sora really had no idea what she was going to say to him and how she felt about him coming to see her after all this time.

Nearing the locker room Sora spotted the two guys that Minori had said were asking about her and her heart suddenly began to beat more erractically as she immediately identified one of them as Taichi. She had not spoken to him since she had found out through Yamato that he was in love with her. Sora had been very careful to try to avoid him during school and for his part Taichi never sought her out, but here he was now. This whole situation was truly giving her a massive migraine.

As luck would have it Taichi seemed to spot Sora just that moment and he broke away from his conversation the blonde with who she presumed to be Yamato and started waving her overwhile smiling like a madman. Sora could only weakly wave back in confusion as she had no idea why Taichi would suddenly be acting like this after all these years and why in the world would he and Yamato would be together after the way they had left things

Sora picked up her pace and closed the distance between her and the duo quickly, but was stopped in her tracks when she finally saw that Taichi's blonde companion was not Yamato, but rather was Takeru. This new revelation made her reel with a whole new mix of emotions and questions. She felt a mixture of shock (that Takeru of all people would be seeking her out), disappointment (that it wasn't Yamato), and relief (that she didn't have to deal with Yamato).

"Sora we have something really really important that we need to talk to you about. It's about the digital world." Taichi said answering her unspoken question having seemingly picked up on the confused expression on her face.

"Wh-what?" Sora asked stumbling over her words in an attempt to verbalize the millions of questions running through her mind.

"The digital world is in trouble and we have to go back." Takeru answered with a grave expression that made him look eerily similar to Yamato. "Gennai came to me yesterday and told me that we're needed again. I've been been spending pretty much all my time since then tracking everyone down and giving them the news. As soon as we're all back together we'll need to find a way to get back there. Actually Koushiro is already working on it now, but either way we still need to find a way to get back there as soon as possible."

Sora let Takeru's ominous words sink in as her mind worked overtime to try to process this massive amount of new information. How were they possibly going to be able to make it back to the digital world? Would they even be able to function as a team after all this time and what had happened between them? More importantly did she really want to? These people who she used to adore had been the source of much pain over the last few years.

"Sora?" Taichi prompted breaking Sora out of her thoughts looking at her expectantly seemingly looking for a response.

Meeting his brown eyes Sora saw the intensity and passion burning in them, they were virtually imploring her to say "Yes." However, the memories of his actions from five years ago and the consequences, intended or not, that they had wrought were blocking her from giving him the answer that he wanted. So instead of giving him the answer that he wanted, and the one that she so badly wanted to give him, she instead averted her eyes towards the ground and merely said that she didn't know.

She heard him groan in frustration at her noncommittal reply and felt even worse. She felt weak for not being able to get over the past, but she felt that there were some things that you just couldn't bury in the past. Some actions that weren't meant to be forgiven and Taichi's selfishness in saying that he was the only one who deserved her affection was something that she just couldn't easily forgive.

Suddenly Sora gasped as she felt her hands being taken in another strong pair. Looking up she expected to see Taichi, but was shocked to see Takeru holding her hands with his piercing blue eyes boring into her soul making her suddenly feel so exposed. She was at a loss for words as she just continued to stare into his eyes that were filled with a sort of undeniable hope and desperation.

"Sora please." Takeru pleaded his voice laced with desperation and a hint of hope. "I don't know specifically what happened with you, Taichi, and my brother, but please just say yes. Say yes for me. This doesn't mean that you need to forgive them. No matter what we just need you with us in the digital world. You've always been like a mother to the group and I'm afraid that without you we'd all fall apart to infighting or something worse."

Sora was transfixed merely staring into Takeru's cerulean eyes unable to move or respond as he delivered his plea. As he spoke the outside world melted and all that existed was the two of them. It was an eerily familiar feeling to what she had experienced in the past with Yamato, when he had a particular point he was trying to get across to her.

"Wow...ok...yes. Yes." Sora found herself babbling unable to string together complete sentences. She was so entranced that her mind didn't register that she had answered until she did. Nonetheless it was an answer she wanted to give especially since, as Takeru pointed out, it didn't constitute forgiveness for Taichi and Yamato.

"Yes?!" Takeru's eyes lit up with glee and he suddenly looked much more like the cute 8 year old boy she had first met 9 years ago. Sora suddenly found herself being enveloped in a crushing hug from the blonde and offered Taichi, who was watching the whole situation unfold with a bemused look on his face, a sheepish grin.

Sora found it funny, as Takeru began to whirl her around like a rag doll, that it suddenly seemed as though tennis would no longer be the only good thing in her life, and she could honestly say that she couldn't be happier.

Yamato is next. Please review.