Chapter 36 is here! Yay! It took this long to post this chapter for two reasons.

1: fanfiction was having some issues for an entire week and it wouldn't let me in to add chapters to either of my fics!

2: because i hadn't updated my other fic, I slacked on writing this one. :P

But the site has fixed itself and i can now finally give you new chapters! Yay!

As I told you last time, this chapter is in Koichi's POV for the most part. I hope you enjoy this latest chapter. Please review and those of you who haven't already, please go to my profile and participate in the new poll I put up a week ago (just after this site decided to be difficult) and vote on the five digimon you'd like to hear from in future chapters for this fic!

Chapter 36: Koichi's Reading

The Digital World: Location: The Eastern Mountain Pass

Koichi woke up beside Koji that morning feeling groggy. He hadn't slept much after he and T.K. had made sure that Cody was all right. Koji was already awake, rolling up his sleeping bag.

"Morning," Koichi mumbled.

"Good morning," Koji smiled back. "Sleep well?"

Koichi made a face, making Koji chuckle.

"Well that's what you get for staying up late with T.K.," his twin said in a teasing tone.

Koichi paused before sitting up, trying to gauge his brother's mood. Koji seemed fine, but whenever T.K. was mentioned, he knew that the Warrior of Light could become… irritable. However that didn't seem to be the case this morning.

"You're in a good mood," Koichi noted.

"Hmm?" Koji blinked then shrugged. "I suppose."

"You're just happy that Takuya's finally awake," Koichi laughed as he caught his twin's "casual" glance in the Flame Warrior's direction.

Koji frowned.

"Of course," he growled. "He's been out for days. I'll be even more relieved when that loud mouth kid, Davis, wakes up and goes back to normal."

After saying that, a worried look clouded his features.

"You're going to attempt reading him today, aren't you?" he whispered.

"I am," Koichi sighed. "Last night nothing showed up in any of the tests that Joe and Izzi ran on him. …I'll be fine Koji."

"You can't promise that," Koji snapped. "You don't know what will happen!"

Koichi stared at Koji for a moment before he got up and hugged his brother.

"You're right," he whispered. "I can't. But look me in the eye and tell me that I won't be. You're the one that can see into the future. Look at me and tell me what you see."

He pulled back and looked his brother in the eye. The pain and worry in Koji's eyes almost made his resolve crumble, but Koichi was stronger than that. He remained calm and stared into Koji's eyes with determination. Koji stared back, allowing the vision to form in his mind's eye, praying that he'd see something, anything that would help reassure him that Koichi would be all right. But what he saw unsettled him, or rather, what he didn't see. He saw Koichi initiate the reading by going into a trance of some kind, but from there the future became enshrouded within a blanket of fog, which meant that anything could happen. His brother's future was unclear, and that frightened him.

"Koji!" Koichi's voice cried out to him.

Koji quickly snapped out of the blank vision and found that he was shaking, clutching Koichi's forearms.

"What's wrong?" Koichi demanded. "What did you see?"

"Nothing," Koji gasped.

"Like hell it was nothing," Koichi said firmly.

"No," Koji shook his head, "I literally saw nothing! Just fog! I can't tell you what will happen once you start the reading."

"But you saw me do it?" Koichi demanded. "I was performing the reading?"

Koji nodded miserably.

"What's going on?" T.K.'s voice called out as he wandered over.

Koji twitched in his arms, so Koichi cast T.K. a warning glance. He was relieved to see that the blond wasn't at all fazed by Koichi's stare. Instead, T.K. gave an understanding nod and backed away, leaving the twins relatively alone. Koichi returned his attention to his younger twin and tried to think of ways to reassure him. He couldn't think of many, but he had to try. All the time that they'd spent in this Digital World had been doing a number on Koji's nerves. He'd lost his best friend in their first major battle against a Zaigou, he'd had to stick up for Koichi against some of the other DigiDestined in the beginning, he was having visions that were often confusingly vague and almost always changing, Takuya had been revived only to relapse into unconsciousness after major fights or sensory overloads, and now Koichi was going to make an attempt to see into Davis's core that could ultimately put his own well being at risk. Yeah, Koji's nerves were shot all right.

"I won't be alone," Koichi whispered. "You'll be there, Tai and Takuya will be there, and Mai will be standing by to assist me if needed. Who knows more about this sort of thing than her?"

He heard Koji sigh and begin to push away, most likely ashamed about his latest little break down. Those were happening too often for the younger twin's liking. Koichi retaliated though, holding Koji closer to him. Koji didn't try to pull away again. Instead, he returned the embrace.

"I know," Koji muttered. "And T.K. will be there as well, right? If something goes wrong, he'll be there to help you."

Koichi blinked. Was Koji actually admitting that he wanted T.K. present?

"Yeah," Koichi mumbled. "He's a good friend."

He felt Koji smile against his shoulder.

"He's all right I guess," Koji chuckled.

Koichi laughed too, ending the embrace to look at Koji. His twin didn't look upset anymore, but the worry was still etched in his features.

"Koichi!" called Tai's voice over.

Koichi and Koji looked up and saw the older boy beckoning him over.

"Go," Koji sighed, gesturing towards Tai and Takuya. "I'll take care of your sleeping bag and join you in a minute."

Koichi gave him a small smile before getting up and heading over to Tai and Takuya. T.K. joined him on the way over.

"How is he?" the blond whispered.

"Worried," Koichi sighed. "He's going to make himself sick if he keeps it up."

"Yeah, well, brothers have a tendency to worry excessively," T.K. chuckled.

Koichi smiled slightly.

"He wants you there, you know," he told the blond.

"Really?" T.K. blinked before grinning. "Nice to know I'm making a better impression on him after all of my terrible first impression. He really wants me with you during this reading or whatever it is?"

"Yup," Koichi sighed. "If you're there, he'll worry less. He said that if something goes wrong you'd be able to help me."

T.K. frowned.

"How'd I be of any help?" he asked.

"Not sure," Koichi shrugged. "I think he's assuming that we can do things that will help each other like what Tai and Takuya are capable of doing as bonded partners."

T.K. raised an eyebrow.

"Well it's not that we haven't had to go to such extremes recently," Koichi said a little defensively. "We haven't been in that kind predicament since I fought Paressemon as Golden Löwemon after you transferred that energy to me. So it is highly probable that we can do similar things that Tai and Takuya can do."

T.K. laughed.

"Yeah, maybe so," he grinned. "But still, how could I possibly help you if something goes wrong with your reading thing? What good would I be?"

Koichi shrugged again.

"Maybe it'll just come to you. You should ask Tai or Takuya."

T.K. nodded, musing to himself as the two of them approached the only other bonded pair of DigiDestined.

"You sure you want to do this, Koichi?" Tai asked.

"As sure as I can be," Koichi admitted sheepishly.

"How does Koji feel about this?" Takuya asked.

"He's worried," Koichi answered. "He can't see how this is going to turn out, so he's not sure if the reading is a good idea."

Takuya nodded.

"Well, it's all up to you," Tai sighed. "It's your choice whether or not to do the reading. No one is going to make you."

Koichi shook his head.

"No, it needs to be done," he said firmly. "Something dark is inside of Davis and we need to know what it is. I don't want us to loose another DigiDestined. Not everyone is lucky enough to be brought back from the dead by the Celestial Digimon like Takuya was."

Takuya nodded grimly.

"I was only brought back out of necessity and because of Agunimon's connections in this world," he agreed. "A Flame Warrior was needed, and, according to Agunimon, I was the best for the position. I am grateful to the deity Digimon for this second chance at life, but I would not wish the life of a Digimon-human hybrid on anyone. In some ways I preferred being dead."

Koichi looked at Takuya in alarm. He'd never heard the usually cheerful leader speak such dark thoughts before.

"When do you want to do this?" Tai asked Koichi, also casting Takuya a worried glance.

"As soon as possible," Koichi said slowly. "Better to do it in the daylight hours than at night when the powers of darkness are at their strongest. Maybe around noon when there is the most daylight?"

Tai nodded.

"Sounds good to me," the leader smiled. "That way we can get some traveling done today."

The other three nodded. A half hour later after a quick breakfast, the DigiDestined were off again. Koichi decided that he should spend this time with Koji instead of T.K. He knew that Koji knew what he was up to, but he hadn't said anything about it. The twins walked in companionable silence, no words needing to be said. By now the other DigiDestined had heard about the reading that Koichi was going to attempt at noon and had decided to leave the two of them relatively alone. Even Takuya and the other Warriors left the two brothers alone. Koichi was grateful for that. As the sun rose higher into the sky and noon approached, he noticed that Koji was starting to get a little nervous again. He still retained his calm persona, but Koichi knew him well enough to spot his younger twin's minor nervous twitches.

"All right everyone!" Tai's voice eventually called out from up ahead. "We'll stop here for today!"

While everyone gathered around and began to set up camp, Koji and Koichi joined Tai and Takuya as the two helped Matt take Davis's limp form off of Garurumon's back so that the Champion Digimon could shrink back into Gabumon.

"Hey guys," Tai grunted as he and Matt set Davis down on a sleeping bag that Takuya had just rolled out.

"Hey," the twins said back in unison.

Takuya looked up at the sky and frowned.

"I don't like the look of those clouds in the west," he muttered under his breath.

Koichi heard him and looked up and saw a few fluffy clouds emerging from over the mountains behind them.

"They're still a ways off," Koichi shrugged. "But it doesn't look like it'll rain."

"I don't know," Takuya mused. "Something's not right about them…"

"Like what?" Koji asked, gazing up at the clouds along with Tai and Matt.

Takuya merely scowled in reply.

"I'm not sure," he muttered. "They just don't feel like normal clouds. Well, as normal as you can get in the digital world anyways."

"Should we hold off the reading then?" Tai asked, glancing around at the others.

Takuya shook his head before smiling.

"Nah. They don't feel ominous, so they shouldn't affect the reading," he sighed. "I just don't like the feel of them. Sorry. Didn't mean to worry anyone."

Koji glared at Takuya, making the other three chuckle. T.K. joined them a little later with Mai, Izzi and Joe. The other DigiDestined were gathered around, but at a distance in case something happened when Koichi was performing the reading. The Digimon also remained on the sidelines. Some of them remained with their human partners, but most of them, like Agumon and Gabumon, stayed with Veemon to lend him their support. When the computer genius and medical student were finally present, Tai gave Koichi a nod and the Dark Warrior kneeled down a little ways away beside Davis.

He racked his brain for a good way to focus his mind and settled on a deep breathing exercise that he had learned from a doctor that had taught it to his mother during one of her bouts of sickness. He closed his eyes and took three deep breaths, focusing on every inhale and exhale. Then he mentally reached out towards Davis until he hit a "wall." Now this "wall" was the outer layer of Davis's core and easy to pass through. In this layer he could sense Davis's pain and worry about his condition and the attacks his body had made on Takuya and Cody. The next couple core layers were also easy for Koichi to pass through, revealing most of Davis's characteristics, giving Koichi a strong impression of what the boy was really like. He could feel Davis's sense of courage and strong will, but he could also sense the doubts and the few fears that Davis actually had. Overall, Davis was a surprisingly strong individual and had more layers to his core than Koichi had originally thought.

After a little more digging Koichi arrived at the final layer, the innermost core. He hesitated before trying to enter. This is where Davis's secrets and most private thoughts would be kept. He had already invaded Davis's privacy by going this far into the older boy's core, but he knew that he had to breach this final layer if he had any hope in finding out what was possessing Davis and causing him to shut down into this coma-like state out of instinctive self-preservation. After re-gathering his determination, Koichi forced himself into the final layer of Davis's core…

While Koichi was getting ready to breach Davis's final core layer, an hour had passed. Koji was sitting beside his brother worriedly. He'd seen it in his vision, but Koichi's trance state frightened him. After the three deep breaths, Koichi's eyes had reopened, but the irises were pure black and were blank as if they saw nothing before or around them. T.K., who'd already seen Koichi in this state once before, wasn't as unnerved as the other DigiDestined, but he had to admit that it was still an eerie sight. The boy of Darkness had remained still, breathing in the same even deep silent breaths. He didn't even blink. Nervous whisperings from the DigiDestined behind them had begun after the first twenty minutes had passed and Koichi still hadn't moved. Now that they reached the hour mark, these whisperings had grown even louder, loud enough for those sitting near Koichi to hear. Everyone was on edge by now wondering the same two things. Should the reading be taking this long and how would they know if something had gone wrong?

Koichi finally passed into the final layer of the innermost core and was instantly bombarded with Davis's most cherished or secret memories and thoughts. Quite a few of them centered around Kari and T.K. He could feel Davis's sadness, bitterness, and anger, but all of these emotions were drowned out by a sorrowful sense of acceptance. Koichi felt uncomfortable seeing the boy's affections that he still obviously held for the pretty DigiDestined of Light, but the further he plunged into the core, the further away he got from these thoughts and memories. When he finally moved on to a more central part of Davis's core, he found a huge source of darkness. Now he was getting somewhere. This was what he'd come for. As he reached out to this darkness an unexpected "wall" suddenly blocked him.

"Well aren't you a nosy one," a familiar voice hissed at him from behind the "wall." "You don't belong in here."

"Neither do you," Koichi mentally responded.

"I do to!" the voice retorted childishly. "This boy is mine! He belongs to me now so get out!"

The mentally formed "wall" suddenly pushed Koichi back, forcing him out of the inner core, but it didn't stop there. It proceeded to force him out of Davis's core entirely…

Koji watched Koichi carefully, waiting for Koichi to come out of the reading. His eyes narrowed when he saw Koichi twitch and shiver slightly. He traded concerned glances with T.K., but Mai spoke softly from the other side of Koichi.

"He's reached the inner core by now," she informed them. "He's probably seeing things he doesn't want to see. Everyone has their secrets. I'm sure Davis is no different."

Koichi's body settled back down and was still once more for another five minutes. Then it suddenly stiffened, the hairs rising on the back of his neck. Mai tensed, and rested a hand on Koichi's shoulder.

"Something's wrong," she muttered, gaining everyone's attention, just before Koichi's body shook with spasms and let out a hoarse cry. His eyes remained blank and glazed over, but the black slowly returned to indigo.

"Koichi!" Koji cried, holding onto his twin's other shoulder.

"Naughty, naughty," a child's voice giggled from the direction of Davis's body. "Sticking his nose where it doesn't belong!"

"Netamashiimon," Mai growled under her breath while staring at Davis's body where a dark shadow was starting to rise up from, making the poor possessed boy arch his back and scream silently. As the shadow emerged it began to take shape and just as it finished molding itself into a shadow version of the Zaigou of Envy, it lunged at Koichi and Koji. T.K. leapt up and spread his arms wide to shield to two twins, but Mai had also risen from her crouched position by Koichi. She quickly stood in front of T.K., making the shadow clone of Netamashiimon halt in mid-attack.

"You!" his child's voice shrieked. "So this is where you've been! Traitor! I always knew you older Zaigou types were weak! How dare you betray the Master!"

Mai didn't even bother to respond to his accusations. She merely stared the shadow clone down.

"Have your clone leave that body," she ordered.

"No," the little Zaigou's clone growled. "He's mine now!"

"Netamashiimon!" Mai barked.

Much to the amazement of the DigiDestined, the shadow being actually flinched at the sound of her harsh tone.

"You will release him or so help me, I will deal with you personally!" Mai growled.

Shadow Netamashiimon blinked and hovered in front of her speechlessly for a second before he let out a shrill laugh.

"Ha!" he crowed. "As if! You're just a puny human now! What can you possibly do to me? Well, Paressemon?"

Mai put her hands on her hips and smiled sweetly. She tilted her head up and looked down her nose at the little Zaigou so that her eyes hooded slightly. She subtly changed her posture and gave off the air of contempt that she once possessed naturally as one of the Zaigou. The small alteration in her appearance sent shivers down T.K.'s spine. Even though she had been a friend and ally during the past week, it appeared that Mai had retained some of her Zaigou form's chilly qualities.

"Do you want to find out?" Mai asked, the threat obvious in her undertone.

Netamashiimon cowered slightly and shrank back from her and towards Davis's body once more.

"You witch!" he screamed hoarsely. "I will get you one of these days!"

And with that the little Zaigou's shadow clone sank back into Davis's body, allowing it to return to rest. Mai frowned as she approached the now limp figure and kneeled down to examine Davis. Meanwhile, T.K. had torn his gaze away from her, deciding that Koichi was the one who needed his attention the most since he was still spasming in his brother's arms.

'What can I do?' he wondered as he stared down at the twitching form of his friend. Joe was by his side a second later and began examining Koichi.

"He appears to be going into some kind of state of shock," Joe said grimly.

"Netamashiimon must have used that shadow clone to force Koichi out of Davis's core," Mai called over from her position next to Davis. "A forceful removal of that sort would defiantly cause some sort of trauma. Especially in Koichi's case. It took him nearly an hour just to reach Davis's innermost core, so a quick exit would defiantly cause him some kind of harm."

T.K. and Koji looked up and stared numbly at the fiery redhead. She had a hand resting on Davis's forehead as if she were checking him for a fever. Seeing this, Tai got up and joined her.

"What are you doing?" the leader asked.

"Deciding whether it's safe or not to impose a seal on the Envy Clone in Davis's core," Mai replied.

"You can do that?" Tai asked, amazed.

Mai gave him a small smile.

"As a Zaigou, I specialized in seals," she explained. "I have retained most of my Zaigou form's sealing abilities even after Koichi and T.K. made me human again. However, because I'm human again, they won't be nearly as strong or permanent as they once were. So if by some miracle I can impose a seal on the clone, it'll only be temporary. Netamashiimon is far more powerful than I am now."

"He seemed pretty scared of you," Tai noted.

"He's scared of Paressemon," Mai sighed, shaking her head. "Not me. Not the human."

"Why is that?" Tai wondered.

"I was assigned as his mentor when he was first created," Mai laughed without humor. "Needless to say as Paressemon I was a rather… harsh teacher. He still fears me because back then I had no problem wiping the floor with him. Now he is far more powerful than I am, but he still fears the memory of my Zaigou countenance. I wasn't sure if acting like Paressemon would work or not, but thankfully it did."

Tai and some of the others who had heard the exchange laughed.

"Do you have an idea of how to help Koichi?" Koji asked, a little irked that the former Zaigou was helping the unconscious Davis rather than his brother who needed the immediate help.

"There's nothing any of us can do," Mai sighed. "The spasms and tremors should lessen eventually. He's not suffering from anything physical. It's all mental. I'm sorry Koji, but you'll just have to wait for Koichi to recover on his own."

Koji looked away from her and back down to Koichi. T.K. did the same.

Mai and Tai however, returned their attention to Davis.

"So can you do it?" Tai asked her.

"I think so," Mai mused. "I just need to find the source of his core. It's almost always within the mind…"

Mai went quiet for a moment and most of the DigiDestined watched as she went into a trance similar to the one that Koichi had been in, except her eyes remained green instead of turning black. Salandermon left the clustered group of Digimon and took his place behind his human partner while Veemon rushed over to Davis's other side, praying that whatever Mai was doing would work.

It was silent in the DigiDestined camp aside from Koichi's groans as his body continued to spasm and twitch. A minute later Mai smiled and let out a sigh as her eyes began to clear. She fell back a bit into her Digimon's waiting arms just as Davis gasped and sat up, clutching his head. He let out a strangled sob, driving Tai into action. The older boy tried his best to comfort the awakened goggle head, but all he could get out of Davis was sobs and one word: sorry.

T.K. and Koji watch this for a minute before returning their attention to Koichi. Both of them felt so helpless and frustrated that they couldn't do anything. T.K. sighed inwardly as he rested a hand on Koichi's shuddering shoulder. Suddenly a shock coursed through his body, making him jump and jerk his hand away.

"What is it?" Koji blinked, confused by T.K.'s action.

T.K. stared at his hand for a moment before looking back at Koichi.

"I'm not sure," he mused as he reached for Koichi's shoulder again. A tingling feeling entered his hand the moment it made contact with Koichi. The back of his neck began to prickle and Koichi's spasms settled down a little. When T.K. removed his hand, Koichi's spasms increased back to what they'd been before. Seeing this, T.K. instantly placed his hand back on Koichi's shoulder.

"What the…" he breathed.

"Looks like you need to perform an energy transfer."

Both T.K. and Koji jumped before looking up at Takuya who had come up behind them while Tai was dealing with Davis.

"H-how do I do that?" T.K. stammered.

"Touch the tattoo of your crest on the back of his neck," Takuya replied, gesturing to Koichi. "That's how Tai does it. The only difference is that ours is on the back of our hands instead of our necks."

T.K. looked back down at Koichi before moving his hand around to the back of Koichi's neck. The prickling on the back of his neck increased, and if anyone was looking at the character of Darkness etched into the back of his neck underneath his hair and hat they would have noticed that it was glowing softly. Koichi's spasms ceased almost immediately and after a couple more minutes his twitches and tremors stopped as well. Now he was resting peacefully in his brother's arms.

T.K. let out a relieved sigh before looking back towards Davis. He was no longer crying or saying sorry, but he looked miserable as he continued to hold his head in his hands. Veemon was trying to cheer him up by making light of the situation, but T.K. could tell that the Digimon partner was doing more harm than good.

Well it's good that Davis is finally up, but is he going to be alright? And what about Koichi? I guess you're just going to have to find out next time on Digimon Digital Monsters!

Phew! glad that's done with. I'm not gonna say who's POV it'll be in for the next chapter this time because it's a surprise! :D

I've been asked this a lot and I didn't want to do a useless poll so I'm just going to ask you all what you think and you can put your answer in your review or something. How many of you would like to see Koichi and TK as a couple? I hadn't even considered that when I started this story and the first time I was asked if I was going to make them a couple I just brushed if off basically saying "feh. hell no! TK's got Kari!" but after more of you kept asking me that i found that I was really starting to actually consider it! now that I look back on past chapters I can see how i might have unintentionally hinted that they could become a good gay crossover couple! So what do you think? I'm not saying that i will make them a gay couple, but it'd make for a rather interesting spin off bonus story. XD

I'm sorry, I know that this chapter is a little one the short side, but this was as far as it would allow me to go within this mind set. I'm finding that I get distracted real easily now so these chapters are going to be coming out less frequently than they have been at least until I reach the end of the semester. I will continue to write, but right now my grades are starting to suffer.