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Digimon Trinity

Chapter: 37/ Interlude 5: Comfort in Arms

Defeat.

Mephistomon gazed into the glowing orb in his massive hand, considering the situation. Lucemon's plan to reclaim the Digital Hazard was a failure, as he expected it would be.

You're too prideful to expect defeat, he thought. And too far removed from the present day to understand what the humans are capable of now.

Mephistomon dismissed the orb and turned toward the black landscape. Like all digital worlds, the Celestial Kingdom boasted a diverse series of landscapes, many of which drew their inspiration from the Earth. Sprinkled with refuse of human data and the world became…interesting. Deserts with pyramids standing on their tops instead of their bottoms; industrial cities spiraling up a mountainside, producing nothing that made sense and despite being made for people were empty and devoid of life… And this place, the Continent of Darkness – the edge of the map that humans would refer to with the words, 'here there be monsters.'

It wasn't quite the land of Mordor, but it was appropriate all the same. Even here there were terrors.

Grinning, he raised a hand and opened it, revealing a lion-shaped sculpture.

"Time to put you to new work, Warrior," he said, encasing it in blackened flame. "The future of darkness depends on you."

Depends on you since the Princess may not be up to it anymore. Summoning his orb again, he glanced into it, focusing on Rika Nonaka as she sat at her table, alone in appearance as her partner, Renamon, watched from the shadows. He had watched her encounter with the Hazard Tamer, curious as to why she didn't battle him. Even more curious was that she went so far as to help him recover his partner.

She knew the risks of Hazard digimon, and yet changed her attitude toward both this one and its partner. And then, at the very end before she parted ways for home…when the two Tamers had looked at each other…

They're connected in some way, he mused, claws curling into his palm. He didn't know what that connection was, but there was definitely something there between them. Some unrealized spark. Perhaps something to do with the Trinity Effect?

Mephistomon grimaced, wondering if perhaps he should deal with the situation more fully. Apocalymon had hoped to create a powerful ally within the Digimon Queen, much like Ken had been during his run as the Digimon Emperor.

Perhaps IceDevimon was right after all, he thought. He dismissed the thought. He had one more card to play. While he set into motion events here in the Celestial Kingdom, he would have another move to deal with the Hazard Tamer.

Color shifted in the orb until four, blood-red eyes stared back at him.

"Devidramon," he began. "You have a new mission."

###

Another wild night, Yolei sighed heavily as she dragged herself home. She resisted the urge to look up at the night sky. She didn't like doing so anymore, not for years. Looking up only reminded her that the digital world was up there, and while she loved the dimension as it was the source of many of her fondest childhood memories, past events had certainly soured her on the topic.

Chief of which, at this point, involved Takeru.

The pressure is really starting to get to him, she thought, hugging her purse closer to her side as she entered her apartment building, relaxing a little upon seeing the familiar lobby. He never would have threatened my job just because I questioned him before.

Even when they were kids, Takeru had never had the kind of pride that would cause him to lash out at someone for voicing an opposing opinion. True, there had been the odd clash with Davis, but as a kid and teen Davis had a way of getting under one's skin, leaving an argument an inevitability. This time… This was different. Try as she might, she couldn't get rid of the worry from earlier that they had destroyed the Digital Zone with Digidestined inside. The signals had been that similar…

I'm in denial, she thought in quiet realization reaching the elevator and hitting the call button. I keep telling myself that there's nothing wrong with Takeru. He's grieving, stressed, not getting enough sleep, smoking too much… I kept finding excuses for him.

Yolei sighed, the elevator doors opening with a ding. She stepped inside and hit the floor for her and Ken's home.

What am I going to do? We went from being allies in the war against the darkness to… I don't know. It's like he doesn't even see himself as a Digidestined anymore. He's just… Hypnos. All he is now is Hypnos.

So what are we…his friends…to him now? Are we still even friends at all?

Reflecting on the last few years, it seemed to her incredibly unlikely that they were friends at all. Just…coworkers at best.

The door opened once more and she stepped out into the hall. Her heels clicked on the floor as she made her way to her apartment. Pulling out her keys, she pushed it into the lock and entered her home.

"Is that you, Yolei?" came Hawkmon's voice from within, bringing a smile to the woman's face as she locked the door behind her. Hawkmon. Her partner and best friend for life; the one life form, digital or organic besides Ken that she could count on to put up with her any day of the week.

"Yeah, it's me," she said, spying a brown-feathered, bird-like digimon no more than three feet tall approaching her. Reaching up for the feathered bandanna on his head, Hawkmon tipped it to her respectfully.

"Did you have a good day?"

"Ugh," Yolei groaned, taking off her coat and purse and setting it on their hooks. "More like a wakeup call in the day in the life of my boss."

"Oh my… Was it that bad?"

"Well… It would have been just another, average day if not for some government suits showing up to tell him that he needs to get his butt in gear about bio-emergences, and then right after we get this weird…I don't know. Something just popped out of nowhere and he decided to blow it up with an unapproved program that risked causing widespread network damage…"

"Yolei, are you sure you should be telling me this?"

"I don't care." Yolei walked past him into the living room and flopped herself down on the couch. "I saw a strange signal enter the anomaly right before we were about to hit it. I could swear that they were digivice signals! They…" Yolei's eyes widened slightly as a thought occurred to her. "Hawkmon! Where's Ken? Is he here?"

"No Yolei. He hasn't come in yet. It's rather uncharacteristic of him. If he was going to be late, he would have called by now."

"Oh God…" Whipping out her cell phone, she immediately began scrolling through her contacts list for her husband before she heard the door start to open, interrupting her. Hope springing within her breast, she rushed toward the door and sure enough her hope was rewarded by the sight of Ken entering their home, looking only a bit on the weary side.

Upon spotting her, a smile drew across his face. "Hey Yolei. You won't believe the day I had…"

Ken didn't get a chance to finish as the scarlet-haired woman crushed her lips against his and pulled him into a powerful hug. Ken twitched in surprise, but allowed her to have this moment as it seemed, from the intensity of her kissing him, she really needed it.

"Oh my…" he heard Hawkmon say distantly as Yolei withdrew from him.

"Um… Nice to see you too?" Ken said with an uncertain, yet happy grin. Returning it, Yolei wrapped his shirt in her fist.

"Our room. Now."

"Wait, wha…?"

"Hawkmon? Wormmon? You guys are on your own for a little bit. Ken and I have some quality time to spend together first."

Behind Ken, Wormmon sighed. "Fine, but don't break the bed this time."

"No promises," Yolei giggled, already dragging the hapless man in the direction of their room. The two digimon approached each other, watching as the door to their partners' bedroom slammed shut with a mixture of amazement and uncertainty.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again," Hawmon began, "humans are strange creatures."

From behind the door there was a loud shriek, followed by immediate laughter from Yolei. "Ken!" she exclaimed happily before they heard the sound of something heavy hitting the bed. Wormmon's antennae wilted at that, already expecting the mess that would need to be cleaned up when they were finished.

"Kuwagamon cause less damage than those two," he remarked, crawling toward the living room. It was time to throw on a movie and turn the volume up.

###

Yolei traced a fingertip along Ken's chest, a happy smile on her face. "Well…" she whispered happily, her breathing finally relaxing from their happy tumble. She could feel his heart beating against his chest. It made her so happy to know that it continued to drum on. He was alive and whole. "I'm glad to see that you're all right."

Taking her hand into his, he brought it up to his mouth and kissed her finger. "Everything all right?" he asked, rubbing her hand gently in his own. "That was…a bit abrupt for you."

"Had a terrifying thought right before you showed up," she said. "There was some stuff at work. An anomaly. Takeru went to extremes to handle it."

Ken furrowed his brow at that. "It didn't happen to involve something in the storm tunnel, did it?"

Yolei looked at him carefully, her heart skipping a beat. "How did you…?" Her eyes widened in horror. "You mean… We detected unusual data entering the anomaly. You…?"

"It seems we have some stories to tell," Ken said, turning himself to face her more fully. They spoke quietly to each other as they exchanged the details of their day, though Yolei struggled to keep her temper under control when Ken revealed that yes, he had been in the digital zone. Not just him either, but others as well. Some of those others being their friends.

"That…bastard!" Yolei growled, one hand tightening against Ken's shoulder. The dark-haired man winced but said nothing. Yolei's temper had been legendary when they were children, and even today it could be a bit difficult on occasion for her to rein it in. Ken was so far impressed by the amount of restraint she was showing.

Cupping her hand with his, he massaged it gently with his thumb. "It's okay. Neither of you knew…"

"I warned him! Told him that we should study the phenomenon, but he couldn't do that! After everything we went through together, he decided to just blow it all off because some stupid suits upstairs who know nothing…!"

Pulling her close to him, Ken kissed the top of her head. "I should have called," he interrupted quietly. "You guys would have picked it up and been working on doing something about it. I didn't think."

Reaching behind him, Yolei clasped his back so she could push her head against his chest as tightly as possible. There was the thud-thud of his heartbeat; strong and relaxing. She felt the heat of his body against her skin. He was alive. This wasn't a dream. She wouldn't wake up and find that he never came home – that he died in that digital zone by her hands. By Takeru's order.

Oh God… I nearly killed him…

She wanted to hit something, but she restrained herself. She didn't want to spoil this moment – this feeling. Ken was home, in her arms, and wasn't going anywhere without her say-so.

"I'm mad at you about that too," she said after a minute. "But you had other things on your mind. Takeru… He's got a bigger responsibility. He knows better too. We've had to deal with so many people who didn't know anything about the digital world giving stupid orders that wouldn't have worked and got a lot of people killed."

Ken was silent on that mark. Running a hand through her hair, he was content to just lay there, holding her.

"So what should we do about it?" he asked after another minute. "I assume you'll want to read him the riot act."

Yolei snorted. "Only because punching him would only end with me being fired or thrown in jail. Or both." She adjusted herself within his grip before sighing against his chest. She thought about that, thinking on his threat toward her job. Could they, as Digidestined, afford to lose one of their number in such an important position?

Could Takeru?

"I don't know. For now I just…want to hold you."

Ken ran a hand along her shoulder blades, kissing the top of her head once more. "I'll hold you as long as you want," he promised her.

###

Tai entered a forest, glancing at the screen of his digivice every so often in the hopes of spotting a signal. His hopes of locating one soon had declined considerably since landing in…wherever it was he was in.

Gennai's digi-positioning signal must not be able to reach all the way out here, he thought glumly. But at least I haven't been attacked in the last… How long has it been again?

The clock function of his digivice wasn't working either for some odd reason.

That crash must've hit everything hard, Tai thought. Groaning, he pocketed his digivice and looked around him. The sky had turned into a deep, glowing orange color. He was going to have to set up camp and bed down for the night.

It didn't take him long to find everything he needed. Long experience with surviving in the digital world made it so that he now no longer had to think about it. He had a mental checklist and knocked down the chores as he went. Locating food and water was a snap. The Celestial Kingdom was essentially a paradise. Food and supplies were readily available, and concerning the food…

Meat apples, he thought, picking one off a nearby tree and taking a bite. Oooh… Bacon.

Taking off his shirt, he quickly piled more and carried them back to his campsite. He grinned to himself, remembering the first time he had tried the strange, meat-tasting fruit. He nearly spat it out, taken off guard by the taste – made worse by the fact that his first apple had been raw meat. Fortunately cooking had changed the taste for the better and now he found them as something of an enjoyable delicacy whenever he was in this area.

The digital world was a strange and mysterious place to say the least.

Darkness fell, but the orange glow remained, courtesy of the fire Tai lit to keep warm and cook his food. In spite of lighting the fire being Agumon's job, Tai had made sure that he didn't become lax on the duty in case of events such as this. Piercing the meat apples, he lay them over the fire and then sat back, watching them cook. He thought back to the first time he tried cooking over a fire and had to have Matt show him how it was properly done.

I wonder how he's doing, he thought as the apples began to sizzle, juices sweating through their skin and dribbling into the fire below.

###

Time passed, and soon night found Tai sleeping, his shirt serving as a makeshift pillow, several meat apples cores surrounding him. His breath came out softly, and the fire continued on with consuming its fuel. Not much remained of it, save for one particular branch that had been thick and heavy when it went in. Now however it was little more than a skeletal bone of what it once was. As Tai rolled over onto his side, a portion of it drooped and collapsed; its weight now far too great for its diminishing structure to maintain. Tai didn't respond to it, save with little more than a light grumble.

Light fell across his face from the darkness surrounding the fire, and long, fin-like arm waved in front of him.

There followed a giggle, and in the next second, the fire was soon crackling to an empty campsite.

5