Relena kept running, pushing her legs as hard as she could. She didn't know if Metal Greymon was following her or not, but even if he wasn't this wasn't something that she could leave to chance. Not now. It was obvious Takuya was hurt, and while she didn't know how badly, she did know that Yuka's partner's attack was powerful...

"What did you do to him!?" a woman shouted, blasts of water speeding towards her as.

"Stop attacking!" Relena shouted as she jumped out of the way. "You might hurt him even more than he already is!"

The water-nymph hybrid landed on the ground in front of her. Relena could see the angry scowl on her face. "What did you do?"

"I decided to leave with him and DATS didn't agree," Relena spat, but let down to let Chiaki get a better look over at Takuya. "Yuka pulled an evolution to perfect out of her ass and Metal Greymon blasted him point blank."

Chiaki frowned at that. "He should be okay... but missiles to the chest probably hurt like hell." She ran her hand over Takuya's face for a moment, staring down at him sadly. "Let's get him on the ship."

Relena nodded and Chiaki started walking down to the water at the edge of the beach, where she saw the group's ship waiting. It didn't look like much compared to the types of boats she was used to seeing, but she reminded herself that just because she was rich didn't mean everyone else was.

Teppei was standing at the beach, and looked over at them as Chiaki devolved. "What the hell happened?"

"Giga Destroyer to the chest," Chiaki answered. "Now evolve and get him off Relena's back and into bed."

Teppei just nodded and quickly evolved into his gnome digimon form. Without another word, Takuya was lifted off of her back and Relena allowed herself to finally relax... immediately devolving and falling to her knees, panting heavily. If Teppei noticed this he didn't say anything, he just leaped into the air and landed on the deck of the ship, Takuya slung over his shoulder.

Chiaki looked over at her, frowning. "Come on, get on the ship."

Relena struggled to her feet, making sure to keep any scowls or frowns off of her face. After everything that happened, she really couldn't afford to piss off Takuya's friends. She quickly walked onto the ship's boarding plank and then the deck and sighed. She could tell that her choice meant that now her life was never going to be the same.

.o0o.

Broken Dreams

Written by Custom-Magnum

Chapter 14: Aftermath

.o0o.

Ikuto grunted as he blocked Wolfmon's Licht Seiger with his boomerang. This fight wasn't going as well as he had hoped. As it was now, Ravemon was busy fighting the other three hybrids while Wolfmon stayed occupied with him. He was just glad that Ravemon came back down to him in time, otherwise things would've been much much worse. The young man concentrated, his violet digisoul flaring around his body. The young man focused his digisoul, actually managing to push his opponents energy blade back with his willpower alone.

Ikuto certainly wasn't going to waste this chance.

He swung his boomerang forward at Wolfmon's chest, knocking the hybrid back a bit.

Wolfmon snarled at him, and swung the blade at Ikuto's head.

The young man just ducked under the blade and this time threw the boomerang at the hybrid's chest.

Wolfmon howled as the force of the blow sent him flying backwards.

Ikuto grabbed his digivice and looked over at Ravemon, who seemed to be having some trouble with the three hybrids. It was time to finish this, but Ikuto knew that he wasn't going to have much time to help his partner before he was attacked again. The young man slid his hand over the front of his digivice, willing more of his power over to his partner. "Digisoul Bur-"

Ikuto felt himself punched suddenly and the next thing he knew he was on the ground, his power not reaching Ravemon as his digivice fell out of his hands. He saw Wolfmon panting as he brought himself back up to his feet, the hybrid having a smirk on his face. "Sorry, not today."

Ikuto scooped up his digivice off of the ground and jumped back, avoiding a sudden slash to his neck. His boomerang hadn't come back, and now he was at a serious disadvantage.

Wolfmon charged forward and slashed down at Ikuto's chest.

This time Ikuto only barely managed to get out of the way. The young man ran forward and threw a punch at Wolfmon's chest, but his arm was knocked away and suddenly an energy blade was going to go through his neck. He moved slightly to the side, feeling the heat of the blade scraping against his skin. Whoever this Wolfmon hybrid was, he was a good fighter. It seemed like he was fighting one of Kurata's elite soldiers, possibly someone at the same level as Kouki himself.

Wolfmon didn't follow up with his attack on Ikuto though, a humanoid flying digimon slammed into him and kept him from trying that. Ikuto looked in the direction that the female hybrid had come from, and saw that Ravemon was now winning against the two hybrids that he was still fighting.

Ikuto turned back to the other two hybrids, clenching his fist. He needed to find his weapon, but the way things were going he wasn't going to get the chance. The winged female hybrid was already making it to her feet and launched a blast of wind at him. Ikuto easily dodged it, but then felt the burning sensation of an energy blast slamming into his chest. He slammed into the ground, knowing that he had underestimated those four and was now probably going to pay the price for it...

"DOUBLE CRESENT MIRAGE!"

At that shout, arcs of energy slammed into the four hybrids. Ikuto jumped to his feet and looked over where the blasts hand come from, Mirage Gaogamon floating in the air with an enraged Touma standing on his shoulder. It looked like everything was going to be fine.

"Where is Relena!" Touma shouted.

Ikuto turned back to Wolfmon, and saw that he and the other hybrids were getting ready to attack again... but then there was a beeping noise, and Wolfmon grabbed something that looked like a digivice. There was a frown on his face. "We're done here!" he shouted.

"Not yet!" Touma shouted as Mirage Gaogamon crossed his arms over his chest, energy gathering around his claws.

Ikuto saw Wolfmon's eyes widen in shock just before Mirage Gaogamon launched his attack at them. "I won't ask again! Where is Relena!?"

The hybrids jumped back, the bug-like tank digimon gathering lightning in his two arm cannons, two balls connected together by a pulsing string of lightning. "We're not going to tell you guys anything! Ultimate Thunder!" And with that shout, the digimon fired, the blast of lightning headed straight at Mirage Gaogamon, who did not look worried or impressed.

Wolfmon readied his laser and fired at at Mirage Gaogamon also... or rather at the the tank-digimon's attack. Before Ikuto or any of the others could react, the two attacks collided and exploded brightly. Ikuto had to turn his eyes away because of it, and when he could finally look back all four of the hybrids were gone.

Mirage Gaogamon landed on the ground and Touma jumped of his partner's shoulder. A look of pure anger and rage was on his face, and Ikuto realized that he had never seen Touma look like that before. Touma quickly looked away from them, his fists clenched. Ikuto was sure that profanity was going to leave the older man's lips at any moment.

Ikuto turned around to Ravemon, who devolved at that very moment. "Are you alright?" he asked Falcomon.

Falcomon nodded. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop the one who attacked Yuka."

Ikuto just smiled at him and shook his head. "Yuka's fine though..." He heard Touma yell followed by the sound of a foot hitting the wall. "I just hope she found Relena..."

"I just hope Relena's come to her senses..." Falcomon said.

.o0o.

Takuya's chest really hurt.

The brown haired boy opened his eyes, wincing as he thought about trying to sit up. He'd have to remember next time to not get hit by two Giga Destroyer's. Those things hurt...

"Takuya!"

Takuya turned his head to see Relena, Chiaki, and Teppei over by his bed. The two girls looked happy, smiles on their faces, while Teppei just looked like he was bored. Or at least that's what the other boy was trying to do, but Takuya could tell that the other boy was worried about him. "... Thanks for getting me here Relena."

Relena shook her head. "Don't worry about it." Takuya could see that there were tears forming in her eyes, and he felt horrible for making her feel that way. He smiled at her, hoping that it would maybe calm her down.

It didn't seem to work, as the tears started trailing down her cheeks. There was no way that he was going to have her cry because of him, so he tried to sit up again.

He needed to give up even before his back got off of the mattress at all.

Chiaki didn't looked too impressed with him. "You idiot! You just took two missiles to the chest!" He saw her clench her fists and gulped, not caring that she had probably heard it. He knew how she could get when things were like this... he was probably going to be strapped to the bed for weeks.

"Chiaki, its not like any of us haven't taken perfect level attacks more than once," Teppei said.

Now Chiaki was glaring at Teppei. "I can't believe you're encouraging him!" And with that, she grabbed Teppei by his shirt and dragged him out of the room.

Takuya just laughed softly. "I'm going to hate finding out what I owe Teppei for that."

Relena just stared at him blankly, but at least the tears seemed to be gone for now. "Chiaki can really rant if you do something stupid. At least I don't need to hear it now." He paused for a moment, wondering if talking about this was really smart. Either way... "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Of course I am," Relena said, moving closer to the edge of his bed. "I'm not the one who got blasted by missiles."

"That's not what I meant."

Relena frowned at him, turning her head away from his eyes. "I know..."

Neither of them said anything for a moment. With everything that had happened, what could they say, really?

After what seemed like hours, Relena turned back to him. "Where are we going to now?" Her voice seemed cold, not having the warmth and happiness that he usually heard in it.

Takuya winced. It seemed like the girl in front of him didn't really care what his answer was. But he answered anyway. "We're heading back to the main base to meet with Seraphimon and the other leaders."

Relena didn't so much as blink. "You going to have me blindfolded or something?"

Takuya laughed, almost not minding the pain that was like a million shards of glass digging into his flesh from the inside. "I don't think we'll need to do that. It isn't' like the Virus Busters main base being at the Forest Terminal is a big secret."

The girl smiled at that a bit, some of the warmth that he was used to seeing in her face returning. "Good. I hate blindfolds."

.o0o.

The first thing that Yuka did when she saw Ikuto heading towards them when the headed back to the hotel was to run up and bury her face into his chest. "You're okay!"

Ikuto wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a deep hug, but he didn't say anything.

"Relena got away," Doctor Norstein said from behind Ikuto, his voice making Yuka shudder.

"Yeah," Chika said. "It's my fault..."

Yuka broke away from her brother and looked back at Chika, who was looking away from Touma.

Piyomon groaned from next to her. "You have to stop blaming yourself for everything!"

Chika didn't say anything, she just turned away from Piyomon. Yuka saw Ikuto walk over to her and place a hand on Chika's shoulder. The woman's entire body tensed at that, and she had no idea why. Ikuto had comforted her with that lots of times, at least when he didn't just hug her outright...

... and Yuka realized that Chika had always reacted like that. Just how long had she been oblivious anyway? She hadn't known anything about Relena at all, and now it looked like she didn't even know anything about Chika either.

"Stop talking like that," Ikuto said. "Piyomon's right."

"Wry do you always try to make everything I've done not my fault!" Chika shouted, slapping Ikuto's hand away. "Even after I treated you like..." she trailed off and walked away from them. "Guys, take Yuka back to the base. I need some time alone." Light violet digisoul appeared around Chika's body and she quickly evolved to BioHolsmon before taking to the sky.

Yuka ran forward, Tsukaimon following behind her. "Chika-neesan!" she shouted.

Chika didn't answer and was soon out of sight.

Piyomon sighed and turned back to them. "She just needs some space. She'll be fine."

"But!..." Yuka began, but was silenced by Touma.

"Go get your things," Touma said. "We leave in an hour."

Yuka turned to him and pouted, but he and Gaomon were already leaving to go somewhere. She let out a sigh, then turned back to her brother. "What did Chika-neesan mean?"

Ikuto blushed, but he still looked worried. "It's nothing you need to worry about."

Yuka glared at him. That didn't help her figure out what was going on at all.

Falcomon looked over at her. "Oh, your combat instructors aren't happy you missed your classes and have you scheduled for a lot of solo sessions to make up for it."

Both Yuka and Tsukaimon shuddered. Takaishi-sensei and Makino-sensei did not go easy on anyone, let alone people who missed their classes. "Is it too late to fight the Virus Busters again?" Tsukaimon asked.

Ikuto chuckled. "Yes. If I have anything to say about it, you two won't be involved in that stuff again."

Yuka shook her head and turned back to Tsukaimon. "Let's go get everything." And with that she dragged her partner to the hotel. It didn't take them long to make it back to the room, but Tsukaimon was blinking at her. "We didn't bring anything here though."

Yuka smirked for a bit. "So? We can still just talk for a bit and decide what to do."

Tsukaimon blinked again. "We're going to leave at the first opportunity and drag Relena's butt back to DATS, aren't we?"

Yuka shook her head. "I don't know. Her joining them just seems off. I mean, I know love is supposed to mess with people's heads, but I wouldn't act like that."

Tsukaimon frowned. "But you can still trust most of the people in DATS," he said. "We just saw Chika-neechan and everyone be stupid. Almost every word anyone said to Relena in the last five years was based on a lie."

"Still, she went with Takuya and the others pretty fast. She's only known them a week!"

Tsukaimon didn't say anything, he just flew over to one of the beds and curled up on it. It took Yuka a moment to realize that it was Relena's. She shook her head and turned away.

... If it came down to it? Would she do the same thing to go after Relena?

.o0o.

Piyomon walked around the hotel's lobby, looking for where Touma was. There was something really important that they needed to discuss, and Ikuto would protest if he heard it.

It didn't take him that long before he found Touma outside, Gaomon standing by his side. He didn't know if they were talking about anything or not, but either way... "We need to talk," he said.

Gaomon looked at him, frowning. "Shouldn't you go be with Chika right now?"

"She can take care of herself and this is important," Piyomon answered Gaomon, the later part somewhat coldly.

Gaomon just turned away from him, and Touma looked down at him. "What is this about Piyomon? Are even you finally convinced that Chika should leave DATS."

Piyomon glared up at Touma. "No, this is about Yuka."

"So, what problem could there be besides sneaking out of the base and getting captured by bandits?" Touma asked.

"I think it's time that we bent the admission rules for promotion to DATS agent."

Touma blinked and just looked at him fro a few seconds. Piyomon didn't know if Touma was thinking about it seriously or just wondering how to tell him he was an idiot. After a few moments, Touma shook his head. "Why would you want to bend those rules? The long training process was only set up after Kurata kidnapped Chika and made her a bio-hybrid to make sure that no one who couldn't handle it would be put in that situation again!"

"You know as well as I do that Kurata would've done what he did to Chika regardless if she was a DATS Agent or not," Piyomon said. "I know you felt guilty for what happened due to your father's actions..."

Gaomon tensed up and shot Piyomon a glare. He acted like he didn't notice the other digimon's attitude. "... but with how the things with the Virus Busters and Kurata are now, we're going to need her on the field. She's more like Ikuto then we thought she would be. She just got Tsukaimon to evolve to Metal Greymon."

Touma's eyes widened a little at that. "But she doesn't have anywhere near the actual experience in battle to pull that off!"

"Guess again," Piyomon said. "But that's not the only reason. We're going to send a team to retrieve Relena eventually, right?"

Touma clenched his fists. "Of course we are."

"Who do we have in DATS that Relena actually would listen to now?" Piyomon asked. "During the fight against Dominimon's forces, Yuka managed to get her to fight against the Virus Busters instead of attacking Chika. If we want to get Relena to come back with us, Yuka's our only chance."

Piyomon stared into Touma's eyes, and he could tell that he would at least have one supporter in this.

.o0o.

Author's Notes:

First off, I want to apologize for the long wait for this chapter. While I have a significant portion of this fic written already, for the most part it isn't typed up and I took a little break from uploading to make sure I actually got a least a few more chapters typed up. As it is, it's only the second drafts of 15 and 16, but hopefully it will be enough to keep it from going another three weeks again.