A/N:Hello and good morning! Early update because I happen to be up and going to be about soon, so I may not have time. Ours might be a little later than usual because of this, but I will have it up. :D To all readers of this, enjoy! Welcome back Vigatus! Just in time for the end of arc 3!

3-12

She wakes to wind in her hair and the knowledge that she is moving. Takeru's face is close to hers and his eyes widen. "You're awake?"

"Y-Yeah... Tailmon?"

"I'm here." Her partner's voice is weak, brimming with rage underneath the pain. "A-Are you all right?" Hikari listens more closely and recognizes the change in pitch as Plotmon crawls to nestle at her neck. "It was him, Hikari. It was. His bats were screaming." She giggles, and it's the hysterical laugh that is unintentionally frightening. "I heard them. It was them. It was. It was!"

"Plotmon," she murmurs, wishing she had the strength to even move. A mere twitch of her fingers sends fire through her body and without realizing it, she rolls to the side, against the back of a large hand. She doesn't notice this part, as the fire is still running through her body and eventually she manages to roll onto her back, the cool air suddenly burning her skin. "The demon..." she croaks, trying to look at the others. "It's him... what was it?"

"He was creepy!" Mimi announces, though the statement lacks all of her perky cheer. She looks very solemn, almost disgusted. "He had blue skin and kept staring at you and laughing!"

"He threw a red whip at you," Koushiro said, typing quietly and trying to decode... something. It seems like that's what he's doing. Koushiro types faster when he's trying to figure things out. "We're lucky it didn't kill you." He frowns. "I guess my theory was incorrect."

"It should have killed me," she coughs out, sitting up with Yamato's faint assistance. Hikari coughs. "Feels like he tried." Not that she remembers getting hit in the first place, but it is probably a relief.

"If Sora hadn't given me strength, he would have killed us all." Above her ears rasps the voice of a great bird. There is a bit of Piyomon in that voice, the unquenchable faith in a partner that made even Patamon seem disloyal. So Hikari relaxes, and lets her gaze wander. Sora is sitting near her, and there are tears in her eyes again. "Sora-san?"

"I was wrong," she says in a voice so low it's almost nothing. "I was wrong. About mother, about me. I was wrong..."

Hikari smiles. "It's good to be wrong sometimes. Especially since you managed to save everyone by being wrong."

Plotmon forces herself up to her paws and pads over to plop herself in Sora's lap. "You're dripping," she notes.

Hikari snorts. Her partner doesn't understand crying. Probably never will.

Sora giggles a bit. "I'm all right."

Maybe she is, Hikari thinks. At least for the moment.

Yamato looks back at them. "What now?"

Hikari gives him a cold, if not dangerous smile. "We get some answers."

And kill that bastard.