U/N: Uhhh I can't remember TK's chapter. Hold on. Oh right, got it. So Jou's chapter felt really dark to me, and not necessarily in tone, but maybe? It just felt heavy to write and I know that. It was stressful and frustrating, while TK's was a lot more fun actually. TK might not be in the same situations, but they were still just as tense though. It was maybe just easier.

Title: Digimon Adventure 08: Vaccine

By: UrazamayKing

Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.

Part 4: Reunion

Chapter 51: Run and Tell That

Jou Kido:

"I don't really care," Mimi pouted, her arms crossed. We were doing as was asked of us, which was to get the people of Sidhendor out of the city and into a safer place. The problem with this was that none of us knew anything about the world at all, let alone the specifics of where we were going. Mimi claimed to have some idea, but she was just as lost as the rest of us in the end.

We had split into two separate groups, sending Hikari away with Daisuke, Miyako, Kiyoko and Kurayami. That meant Koushiro, Sora, Mimi and I were somehow supposed to convince an entire half of the city to find safety. It was harder than it sounded though. I would have thought that being safe and sound was something people were actually okay with, but most of them just looked to us in disbelief or scoffed or whined and cried and it was just obscene really.

I could see that they were confused, and I did understand why they might not believe us that danger was coming, but if they would just listen for a moment they would surely have understood.

"I said," Mimi snarled, "I don't care." She was complaining to some annoying woman who kept telling Mimi that her makeup was done improperly. "My makeup could be a clown's makeup and I wouldn't care! I just need you to look out of the town for a moment so you can see the war that's going on out there!"

Koushiro rolled his eyes and took Mimi's hand gently, steering her away from the upsetting woman. Mimi tried to pull away, not finished with her attempt, but Koushiro continued guiding her along. Sora looked to me with a big dramatic sigh and I agreed. "This isn't working," she said, frustrated. "They don't see the danger."

"We could show them," I suggested, but Sora shook her head.

"By putting them in danger?" she asked, "Then we're no better than the enemies. We can't force them to want to save themselves."

Koushiro and Mimi had joined us at that point, "She's right," Koushiro said, still holding Mimi's hand tight. "The very fact that these people are brushing us off is enough motivation to let them make their own decisions. At least in my own point of view."

Mimi seemed to disagree, and had finally pulled her hand free of Koushiro. She turned back to the crowd and marched off again, ready to try to sway their opinions once more. Sora's eyes followed Mimi, but she herself stayed put. "If our job is to help these people find safety, maybe we should think of another way to protect them."

"Maybe we should try to understand why we're protecting them," I said lowly. Both Koushiro and Sora had heard me, which was not my intention. They snapped their eyes over to me and I felt my face flush. I didn't really know what to say. It felt surreal and almost fake that we were here at all. Just over one year had passed since we were supposedly 'forever' going to be apart from our partners. Though that seemed to be true still, as Taichi had lost them somehow. I would never blame Taichi for this of course. I knew he would never let something happen to any of the digimon intentionally. He would put up a fight and by the look of him, he had. I blamed Gaia of course, but it was still wrong that we were here somehow. I had woken up that day with the intention to go to a wedding, and maybe head off to work for some late night revisions—not come save the world again.

This had happened so fast—I had never felt more like when I did during my first trip to the Digital World than I felt right then. It was like I hadn't gotten a say, and was just thrust into the world to protect. This time I wasn't going to be so afraid though. We needed to work together and work fast. We had to save this world, just as we had the others.

"What do you mean?" Sora prompted.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm just a little lost," I summed up for her. I then strode past her and began marching down the street, leaving Mimi behind. I heard Koushiro offer to stay behind with her, and Sora agree to follow me as if I needed supervision. I knew she was coming because splitting up only ever worked if you didn't go anywhere alone, but it still felt like she was mothering me. Just another parallel to our first adventure.

When Sora had finally caught up to me—because I was walking quite quickly—she was looking around wildly for anyone to save. That was not my actual intention. I was on my way to the city gates. I had yet to actually take a look at the fighting. I wanted to know what we were protecting the people from. When we finally found some citizens, Sora wandered off toward them.

"Come with us," I shouted to them before Sora could reach them. The group of teenaged—by appearance at least, since I knew people in this world aged very slowly—girls looked up to us and shook their heads as if we were trying to kidnap them. Sora stopped in her tracks and looked back to me, flabbergasted that I had thought it would work. I paid her no mind. "Hey, could you please just come help us with something," I clarified. "We're new here and very lost."

The girls still seemed concerned, but one—the youngest it seemed—flashed a smile to me and nodded her head, Sora looked impressed but I wasn't too surprised. It didn't matter if anyone came, because I wasn't sure if the plan would work anyway. It was useful to have the girl around though because she was able to lead us through the town quickly. Sora asked me twice, in whispered tones, what I was doing, but I didn't answer her. She would find out in a moment.

When finally we had found the main plaza of the town the girl stopped in her tracks. She had seen the war. Just as I needed her to. I looked over the top of her head and saw Winter's colourful toy soldiers whacking different digimon with a variety of weapons. There were also more realistic guards that may have actually been real, unlike the soldiers. They were fighting for the side of Sidhendor, but I was not routing for them. I wanted both sides to simply stop.

The digimon that composed the opposing team were clearly decieved into thinking this was right. I could see several digimon that were typically dark and may simply enjoy the fight, like Dokugumon, Bakemon and Vilemon, but they weren't the only digimon in the army. I saw Frigimon and Monochromon as well. There were so many digimon out there who had to have been fooled by Gaia. From what I had heard, they wouldn't be the first ones, but hopefully they could be the last.

"W-what's going on?" The girl who we had brought along asked in a startled voice.

"The city is under attack," I told her easily, "you need to spread the news. You need to save your people." The girl was frozen in place, staring toward the fight. "If you don't you'll all die." She looked up with wide eyes and nodded before running off to tell her friends. Hopefully the teenagers of this world could spread news as well as the ones on Earth.

When I turned away from watching the girl run away I found that Sora was giving me quite a dirty look. "Jou," she scolded, "Was it really necessary to scare her like that?"

"If it'll help save the people, I don't see why not," I reasoned. Sora still looked upset about it, and I didn't feel great about frightening her, but it had to be done. "Besides," I said, "She has reason to be afraid." That seemed to at least get Sora to see my point and she nodded as we looked out toward the sea of warriors. "If we can't do any more to help we should get back to Taichi and the others."

"Right," Sora agreed, "it's no safer out here for us, and you've got a family to start thinking about."

I nodded, trying to smile but finding that I wasn't able to. I loved my family. I just wished that they didn't have to be roped into this war too. Sure, they weren't here, but that didn't mean they weren't connected. I was the father in the family and I was standing right in the middle of everything. They couldn't help but be connected to the heart of the battle and it was my fault. Renjiro was such a small baby still. He wasn't even a year old yet and he was in a war. I didn't want him to have to sacrifice anything. This was the reason I wanted to avoid any children. The war wasn't over. When we had been told it was, I thought we were safe, and I was happy to welcome Renjiro into the world, but the moment he was born I had a dark feeling, like I had killed the boy before he had even been named.

Along with the danger they were in came a great choice. If I were to be confronted with saving myself to keep them safe, or to save the world, what would I choose? As a father I was required to put my family first, but they weren't first. Not in the spectrum that included the entire universe. They may be the center of my universe, but not everyone's.

I was scared for them.

Sora had taken my hand, and pulled me from my thoughts. She was so good at making people feel better without saying a thing. She nodded, looking straight through my soul and I nodded before we both turned, startled, to the sound of a sharp cry behind us.

For a moment I had thought that someone was in danger, but when I found the source of the sound it was simply a little boy who was curled up behind a wooden counter in the market, crying about the war. Sora took off at a jog toward the boy, and I followed. We couldn't leave him here unprotected. When I caught up Sora had already sat on the ground next to the boy and held his shoulder softly. "It isn't safe here," she was saying. The boy didn't reply, and instead just continued sobbing. Eventually he turned to Sora and reached out, throwing his arms around her. "Can you come with us?"

The boy sobbed loudly and for a moment it didn't seem that we would be getting an answer out of him, but when he finally pulled away from Sora for a moment he looked up and shook his head. "I'm not af-fraid!" he choked out. Sora looked up, confused, but the boy continued. "These monsters have been f-fighting us for ma-many years."

I crouched down next to Sora and the boy and shook my head, "That's not true," I told him softly, "These digimon have only just been told to fight."

"D-d-digimon?" The boy breathed out, and when Sora nodded to him be shook his head. "I read about them in sch-sch-school! They were at w-war with us since the beginning of ev-everything!" Sora looked over to me, confused and I shrugged. I didn't know how true his words were, but I did know that more often than not, biased words found themselves into an education curriculum.

We also didn't have time to be worrying about the history of all the worlds. We needed to get this boy somewhere safe and then find Taichi because the people of this town were in charge of their own fate. We had done what we could, and now we had to worry about ourselves. I couldn't have any more friends die. I felt choked up as Gomamon flashed into my mind.

I tried to push him aside as I lifted the boy into my arms. Sora set off, leading the way back for me, and I followed her. The boy hung tightly to my neck and watched over my shoulder as the fight continued. Sora seemed to have a pretty good idea where she was going because she hesitated only once at an intersection and it had been because the group of teenage girls were fluttering about, warning people about the war and she wanted to know what they were saying. It seemed that they were having more luck than we had in terms of convincing them all that it was in fact happening.

When Sora turned a final corner she let out a soft squeak of fear and was torn away from my sights. My heart jolted before it began beating faster and faster. Where had she gone? I looked ahead and saw a crowd of people all gathering in the palace courtyard. Their murmuring was loud, and it seemed that they were waiting for something.

"Jou," I turned sharply to the sound and saw Sora in a hidden doorway, standing with Koushiro and Mimi. I nodded and slipped in with them. The boy finally slid down my body and stepped back. "Do you know your way home?" Sora wondered. The boy nodded but didn't seem to be going anywhere and instead he simply clung to my leg tightly.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Mimi turned to me, hitting me in the face with her hair, "We were chased away," she sounded quite annoyed by the fact actually. "They hate us." I looked to Koushiro but he actually nodded, verifying Mimi's tale. "They don't believe the digimon will hurt us."

"You convinced them digimon were out there, then?" Sora wondered.

"Actually no," Koushiro said, "A woman validated our story and then took control of our words. For a brief moment I thought she was going to help us, but—"

"I knew she wouldn't," Mimi snarled. "She's my mother."

"What?" Sora and I gasped.

Mimi shook her head, "When I was here before, this lady thought I was her daughter and she treated me nicely and made Michael do all the work. She was horrible. She twisted our words and told us all to wait for our queen."

"Well that's alright," Sora decided, poking her head outside to look to the crowd waiting outside the palace. "Winter will tell them what we did."

"Sure," Koushiro agreed, "but only if we get to her to tell her to do so."

So the people who were waiting outside the palace were looking for advice from Winter, but she wouldn't give them any because she had sent us to do so. Our only real choice then was to make our way to the castle—unnoticed—and admit to Winter that we were failures and that we needed help in convincing the townspeople to get to safety. What worried me was that she had claimed Gaia was present. I hadn't seen her out in the battlefield, so where exactly was she then?

The others didn't seem worried though, as we followed the boy's instructions. He led us to his house and we handed him off to his worried and yet thankful mother. Then we followed Mimi who was obviously making the plan up as she went, but it was better than nothing, and since the rest of us didn't know the world either, it didn't matter who improvised. It just mattered that we got into the castle.

Mimi found a place where ivy and thick vines were hung down from the top of the wall and she acted like she knew it had been there all along. With a big smile she tugged on the vines, deciding they were strong enough to hold us and then she motioned for Sora to go ahead and climb. "Don't worry," she said, "It's safe." Sora glared to Mimi almost playfully, obviously understanding that Mimi had not ever attempted to climb the vines, but was brave enough to go first anyway.

We all watched her climb and when she reached the top—safely, thank goodness—she kept low so the crowd would not see her standing atop the palace wall. She waved us onward and the three of us looked to one another. None of us were particularly athletic, but I decided that Koushiro obviously wasn't going to take the initiative to go next so I took one for the team and braced myself, climbing slowly.

One by one we made our way up, and then kept low as we crept along the wall until we found an arch that led to a garden. The wall was not far down, but closer to the ground than we were, so we slowly made our way down and hung off the arch's smaller wall and dropped the rest of the way to the ground.

"To the queen!" Mimi declared loudly.

Koushiro grabbed her hand, his face suddenly panicked and he ducked back, diving behind some bushes in the garden. Without thinking at all, I followed, nervous about what he had seen and a moment later Sora was crouched down with us all. "What was it?" she asked him.

"Gaia," his voice came out in barely a whisper and my heart stopped. I wanted to ask where he'd seen her, but if she was close I didn't want to risk being heard. Koushiro pushed Sora gently out of his way and began crawling along the castle wall, keeping hidden in the garden behind the bushes that bore brightly coloured flowers. I tried to follow him, needing to escape, but Sora and Mimi were both just as desperate, so of course I urged them to go first. Mimi set off after her husband and then Sora thanked me silently, following in Mimi's wake. I took up the back of our hidden procession, trying to ignore the pounding of my heart.

In a way this all felt like a dream. Like some messed up crazy nightmare that I had concocted the night before Takeru and Hikari's wedding. There had to be some catch. This wasn't really happening. It was all too sudden, too crazy and too dangerous. Yesterday my only dangers were whether Emiko would put my phone in the blender again, or if Renjiro would throw up on another of my shirts. This was a whole different life than the one I had been promised. It was like I had been deceived. Like the universe wanted me to see the life I could have, but was never truly going to live. I wanted to end this war because I wanted to live a normal life with my children and my wife.

In the past, our adventures felt worthwhile, like we were really saving someone. But this time it felt like we had returned to do the same job again. How many times was the world going to need saving? Could we not pass the reigns onto someone more suitable? Surely there were smarter people than I was, or even more athletic. Sora and Koushiro were examples of that, so why had I been forced to return to a fight that I couldn't win without Gomamon anyway? Was the universe even a factor or were we all coming back because we thought it fell in our hands?

This time it was not just us in charge. Everyone in all the worlds was always at war now, so why did the Digidestined have to take control? I would never hesitate to come back to help, because I had promised that I would do my best to seek peace. It was just upsetting sometimes just how often my life was put in danger.

When Koushiro finally came to a stop, after crawling along the rounded palace wall, he fell to a sitting position and Mimi and Sora copied. I caught up and did the same, leaning over to Sora, "Shouldn't we be avoiding Gaia?"

"Shh!" Koushiro hissed, leaning forward to look through the bushes. Mimi looked startled, but Sora mimicked Koushiro, trying to see what had him so interested. Mimi and I shared a nervous look before doing the same.

The first thing my eyes saw was Gaia.

Koushiro had seen her and led us toward her, instead of away from her. Had he done it on purpose? Judging by his curious eyes I knew the answer. He wanted to know more about what Gaia was doing here.

I retreated from the bushes to send a glare toward Koushiro, but Sora elbowed me for making too much noise in my movement. I realized she was right. It didn't matter why we were here—just that we were. Gaia was in front of us and she was ruthless. We had to keep calm and quiet. Slowly I flattened myself against the earth to get a better look at Gaia and the others. She was standing between two glowing orbs, one light and one dark that were each about the size of a bowling ball. Floating above her open hands was a prism it seemed.

I couldn't take my eyes away from it for a moment. There was something familiar about the way that it felt, but when I saw movement to my right my eyes shot toward Maugrim, tall and muscular. He made his way toward Gaia and the white haired lady. "They have gone," he said in a gruff voice.

Gaia looked up, startled and annoyed, "Fine," she sighed, "We'll get them later."

"Then what now?" Maugrim asked.

Gaia turned to the large gates that were closed tight. "I need my new subjects to be gathered," she said in such a warm voice. New subjects? My eyes found the shimmering crown on her head and my heart dropped from my chest. What happened to Winter? What had happened to Taichi, Iori and the others?

Maugrim took the white haired lady with him as they made their way down the beautiful path toward the gates to open them and allow access to the people. Gaia took her chance and turned to the castle doors to return to her throne, but there was someone in her way it seemed. I could not see who it was, but when he spoke I could identify him as Bitoru. "You told me you'd give me what I wanted when you finished your quest," I saw Gaia pout, but my eyes were drawn to Morganna who was being told to leave by Maugirm. She seemed annoyed that he didn't trust her, but began her trip back to Gaia anyway.

"My quest is not completed," Gaia told Bitoru.

"Yes it is," he snapped. "You've got the Digimentals, the Crests and the means to control all worlds." Gaia's smile spread at his words because it was true. Never had we faced a foe who had come so close to winning—so close that I wasn't sure the fight was even still happening. Had she won? "You've used me enough. Give me what you promised." Gaia hummed and then shook her head, "It's for your daughter! Don't you care at all?"

Gaia looked appalled, "Of course I care, dear, but I am not yet finished with you." Gaia stopped talking when she heard Morganna creeping up on her. Morganna was so close to us all now that I could not see her entire form. My heart was beating even quicker now with the realization that our location could be found out at any moment.

"Aw," Morganna mocked, "poor baby feels betrayed." Bitoru came into view and snarled at Morganna.

"She's just using you too, you know," Bitoru snapped. "You've done all you're worthy of. Your ability to take hearts will serve no purpose in the end. You tricked Gaia once, and you think she'll forgive you? She doesn't trust you any more than I do—"

"There has been enough bickering, I think," Gaia said, sounding thoroughly frustrated. "Perhaps if you come with me Bitoru, we could straighten out your payment." He looked surprised, but wasn't sure he believed her. I didn't either, so I didn't blame him for being so skeptical. Gaia floated away with her light and buoyant walk, leaving Morganna behind.

I could practically feel the anger and frustration radiating from Morganna's flesh with her close proximity. It was as though Gaia had just proved Bitoru's point. She was not useful to open the door with Maugrim, nor was she able to come inside with Gaia. I heard her sigh heavily, and then Sora had grabbed my arm.

"We have to go," she mouthed. She pointed back the way we had come and I nodded, turning in place to leave. She didn't have to tell me twice. I knew Mimi and Koushiro were following, but never looked back to see for sure. I simply crawled back along the garden wall until we reached the arch again. We all clambered from the bushes but stayed behind the wall to keep Morganna from seeing. Sora and I lifted Mimi up onto the wall, and then Koushiro.

It was too high to climb alone so Koushiro and Mimi struggled endlessly—with me climbing with my feet—to pull me up to join them. I ushered Mimi aside, and she began climbing to the higher wall as Koushiro and I reached for Sora.

"Oh crap," Mimi gasped from above.

I released Sora's hand in surprise and she let out a startled scream as she fell, barely catching herself on the wall. I looked back to Mimi and saw her staring toward Morganna who was running down the garden trail toward us. Koushiro and I turned back to Sora sharply and reached back for her. Somehow our strength seemed to double in the adrenaline and we hurried toward Mimi who had moved one of the vines around to help us climb.

I made Koushiro and Sora go first, because it was only fair since I'd dropped her before, and then made up the end of the group. Morganna was incredibly fast and skilled at climbing. She was already making her way up the wall near the vines.

Mimi screamed when she saw her and set off down the vines.

"We don't have time to go one at a time," Koushiro informed us, but he hadn't need to. Sora and I were already grabbing the nearest vines to make our way down. He followed, but the moment he had taken his weight from the top of the wall, the vines snapped.

We had already been found, and so our screams were of no issue, but the collision with the ground silenced us all anyway.

I was choking on air, trying to catch my breath, but the wind had all been knocked out of me and I was sure the back of my head was bleeding. I couldn't waste time though. I staggered to my feet, ignoring the dark edges of my vision and I found that Mimi was up too, pulling Koushiro to his feet. Sora looked like she might be out cold, and I found myself checking her pulse instinctively.

"She's fine," I muttered, slapping her face.

"Is that standard procedure?" Koushiro asked.

"Right now," I told him, "I don't really care." He nodded and grabbed Sora's arm, moving away from Mimi. He and I worked together to lift her to her feet, which acted as a stimulant of some kind because she began to wake just in time for Mimi to scream again.

"She's coming!" I didn't bother looking back, and instead focused on following Mimi's footsteps. Again, none of us truly knew where we were going but we had to get out of there.

Mimi didn't run far though, and instead found a rather hollow tree. It was thin and I hadn't expected it to fit us all, but Mimi shoved Sora and Koushiro inside anyway, and as one, the two of us wedged ourselves in sideways.

The moment Morganna raced past us we knew we had to go, but we didn't feel particularly safe. Mimi had led us into a rather thick set of trees and there was no telling where exactly Morganna had gone, but obviously staying put wasn't the best option. If she spotted us, we'd be dead immediately.

So when a hand reached around the tree we all nearly lost ourselves in panic. I saw Mimi take a sharp intake of breath but I slid my hand high enough to cover her mouth to stop her. As the mysterious arm revealed itself more we found it had been Miyako. She was using the tree as balance because she, like most of the other girls, was wearing heels. She turned sharply when she heard us breathing and nearly screamed in response, but laughed when she saw it was only us.

"You guys!" she gasped, "Yo—" We all hissed at her to be quiet, and she was suddenly very serious, looking around. "What's going on?" she waved to someone with her hand, telling them to come to her and a moment later, as we struggled to free ourselves from the tree, Daisuke and Hikari joined us in the woods.

"Morganna is out here," Mimi explained. Miyako's face paled and she nodded.

"So then let's go," she said, sounding all too determined.

Takeru Takaishi:

"You need to go," I told Hikari softly, kissing her hand. She had tears in her eyes, and I felt like I'd been stabbed in the chest. She shook her head, unsure of what to do. "We'll be alright."

"But—"

"No," I cut her off, "Taichi is back. You need to be with him. I love you whether we're married or not. We'll have another wedding someday and hopefully it will go better next time." She grimaced as she looked around the mostly abandoned church. "I'm sorry the day didn't go as planned, but when has anything good ever followed a basic plan?"

"This wasn't good," she tried to reason. "Chiziru, Masa and Michael were almost killed. Chisikimon, Meiyomon and Bearmon were all wounded. We don't even know if they'll be okay yet—"

"This wasn't good," I agreed, "but maybe our next attempt will be better." Hikari nodded, and then looked back to Taichi who was waiting by the door. "Go," I urged her, "he's your brother. We don't know how long he'll be here this time, and you should make the most of your time with him."

A ghost of a smile showed itself on her face as her eyes flicked to the side and she thought of who was waiting for her there. "I love you," Hikari said, moving forward to kiss me on the cheek.

"I love you too," I assured her.

She turned to go, but stopped and looked back, "You be careful," she warned, turning her sights on Astamon who had no weapon.

"I'll be fine," I promised. "I've got Yamato and Ken here too. We're alright. You be careful wherever you're going. And hey—save Patamon if you get the chance."

"Of course," she nodded, promising with ease. She cast me one last worried look and then finally turned to go meet her brother by the door. I watched her go with a joy and satisfaction building up in my chest. She deserved this. Maybe we hadn't had the most successful wedding, but if no one died, maybe this was even better. She got to see Taichi again, and maybe if he stuck around long enough he could actually attend our real wedding. Maybe he could replace Astamon as our secret special guest, and maybe we could actually get to the vows next time.

"Hey Takeru," Yamato said, startling me. I perked my head up and watched as he and Ken paced around Astamon, conversing until now, when they had apparently turned their attention to me. Their pacing did not stop though, as they moved in circles around him. "I'm sorry your wedding sucked."

I shrugged, "It's just a big expensive party," I said, secretly though I was kind of upset about it still. "We can have another."

"But having the first wedding go smoothly is always a good sign," Yamato said, turning to walk backward so he could still look to where I sat in the disrupted pews. "I mean, Ken and Miyako are still married and they did it on the first go."

"Barely," Ken scoffed.

I had a quick flashback to Ken's wedding and shuddered. So much had gone wrong for everyone. "Are you trying to give me a pep talk, or just make the wedding worse?" I asked Yamato dryly.

He threw his hands up. "That's not what I was trying to do," he seemed genuine. "I was just trying to say that I'm sorry things didn't quite go as planned." I nodded my head, thanking him for his words. "I'll help with the next one, and maybe it'll go better."

Ken rolled his eyes, "Not likely," Yamato looked offended. "It's nothing against you personally, just that we as a team have had pretty horrid luck at getting married."

Yamato seemed to agree, "Yeah, I heard about Mimi's, but no one will tell me what happened." Ken and I both shuddered.

"You don't want to know," I assured him.

It was then that a loud groan escaped Astamon's mouth. Ken and Yamato both sprung into action, readying their fists, and Ken even reached for the gun he had retrieved from the trunk of his car. I wasn't sure how legal it was that he carried around a gun, because I'd never looked into it myself, but I understood. Since he was eleven years old there had been monsters trying to kill him and his wife, and much more recently, their daughter. Keeping a firearm on hand seemed logical in my opinion. And that was why, at Astamon's groan, I had instinctively hoisted his massive machine gun up over my shoulder and prepared to shoot.

I had killed a digimon before—with a different digimon's weapon at that—but I didn't want to have to do it again. I was simply in charge of ensuring that if Astamon escaped he would not find his way back to his faithful killing machine and find a way to use it against us. It was a feeble plan at best, but it was something.

"Are you sure you're okay to stay alone?" Iori had asked, looking to Yamato and Ken as they tied Astamon up with some rope they had stolen from a nearby tapestry.

I shrugged my shoulders, "We'll be fine," I tried to reason, but truly we had no way of knowing if we'd be safe here without any real backup. I patted the gun that I was leaning against—since it was so tall—and Iori eyed it up.

"That's what I'm afraid of, actually," he told me, narrowing his eyes at the machine, "Astamon is stronger than you, what if he gets the gun?"

"His gun holds most of his power," I explained, "if he moves, I'll shoot him. He surely can't live through the attack any better than we could."

Iori nodded but still wasn't so sure. He looked back to the doorway where Hikari and Taichi were readying to leave with Kurayami and Kiyoko. "I'll send Chi back here or something."

"Don't," I warned, shocking Iori. "He's already been shot. We don't want to risk putting his life on the line again. Besides, he should be with Meiymon." Iori's face turned rather pale as he thought of his brother. I had once kind of been his brother, but he had never really accepted me. Our parents had divorced, and while I was sad that the two of them were still so unhappy, Iori and I had repaired our friendship quite a lot. As it turned out he liked me a lot more as a friend than as a sibling. "I'm sure he'll be alright."

"Sure," Iori nodded, trying to find enough confidence in my words to convince himself they were true. When Taichi called for Iori to ask if he was coming or staying, he looked back to Astamon, nearly certain he wanted to stay behind. I shook my head and he caught my eye, nodding slowly. "I'm coming," he shouted back. And as he turned to Taichi he said, "I know you're not a liar, Takeru," I nodded, though he couldn't see me, "so don't let me find out that you lied to me. If he moves—"

"I'll shoot," I said flatly, "I promise."

As it turned out Astamon's groan had been nothing more than audible frustration. He threw his head back in anger and while I still had the gun held at the ready, I loosened my grip, and let my heart slow itself. He was no danger to us. I wasn't sure why I was so prepared to attack. He wouldn't move knowing that I could kill him with the flick of a finger.

"Would you all please just stop talking?" Astamon cried out with a loud frustrated groan.

Ken jolted his gun forward and prepared to shoot again, but Astamon did not flinch at all, "You stop talking," Ken ordered.

Astamon rolled his eyes, "If you're not going to cease this infernal dialogue about human rituals, could you please kill me now?"

Ken and Yamato looked quickly to one another but each shook their head. "We're not murderers," Yamato told him.

"Then why am I still sitting here?" Astamon asked slyly, actually kicking his feet out to move to a standing position. I reacted quickly, remembering Iori's words, and pulled the trigger sharply. Yamato and Ken jumped back in fright as the podium exploded. The bullet had narrowly missed Astamon and as the chips of wood flew all around him he nodded his head slowly and fell back to his knees.

"Stay down," I ordered sharply and Astamon nodded his head again.

Yamato looked to me with amusement hidden behind his eyes, but I ignored him and kept the gun pointed to Astamon who finally seemed like he wasn't going to attempt another break out. "When did you get so ruthless, Takeru?"

I let my eyes flick to Yamato and then back to Astamon. "When he came in and tried to kill my fiancé." Yamato seemed to think that was a fairly reasonable answer. "Besides, you've been gone a whole year, Yamato. A lot has changed."

I looked back to him and tried to convey how little I actually resented him for leaving, despite how it sounded. "What did change?"

"Well our lives advanced in the typical way you'd expect," Ken told him. "Aside from Neo of course."

"Right," Yamato said with a hidden laugh. "He's taking over the world."

"He's only the ambassador," Ken insisted, "he's not taking over anything—but he's hired Miyako and she's happy."

"Ambassador Rida left his strings attached to everyone he was using as puppets," I explained to them both, "Neo knows how to use them just as well. I'm not sure what his exact plan is, but he isn't just an ambassador any more than Taichi is. That's their official title, but if we're being honest, I think we all know they're both doing a lot more than what is in their job description."

With Astamon finally resigning to keeping still, I rested the gun beside me, because it was far too heavy to keep up and ready for that long. I also didn't want to have to shoot it again. I had no idea how to shoot a gun. I was incredibly lucky that I hadn't hit Yamato or Ken with the shot. I had been aiming for Astamon and I didn't hit him. I wondered if he knew that.

"That's true," Ken nodded along, "he has so much on his plate that he had to hire Miyako to take a load off of his shoulders. He's put her in charge of his main stance—digimon. If he doesn't have time for his ultimate goal, he must be really busy." Yamato tilted his head back as if to start thinking about what kinds of things Neo might be up to. "Surely he—"

I didn't get the chance to find out what Ken had been thinking because all at once, Astamon had taken action. He kicked out sharply to Yamato and turned to Ken before Yamato had even hid the ground, his knees buckling under him. Ken had his gun out and ready but before he could fire a shot, Astamon had hit Ken in the gut with his knee, forcing him to double over. Astamon then kicked sharply toward Ken's arm and his gun went flying toward the front of the church.

As I was fumbling to get the gun ready, Astamon stretched against the ropes that kept him confined and tore them to pieces with his brute strength and I swallowed thickly. My hands were shaking, and so was the massive gun. I couldn't shoot if I couldn't aim!

He was coming though. He wasn't running which made it worse. He didn't have faith in me to hit him, so he was taking his time, just to show how little he thought of me. I clamped my eyes shut and fired the gun. When I opened my eyes I found that it hadn't hit and I fired again.

I didn't know enough about guns to keep this up. Astamon saw my escape route before I found it myself and he was suddenly moving more quickly as I jumped to my feet. He threw himself in the center of the aisle, blocking my path, so I turned back to the front of the church. I had to get out with the gun so Astamon couldn't have it!

I ignored Ken and Yamato and set off at a run to the door nearest the stage of the church. Thankfully it was still open from everyone's desperate escape attempt, and I flung myself out, heaving the heavy gun over my shoulder and running. I glanced over my shoulder only once, and saw Astamon taking long strides in his chase to catch me.

I slammed into the door at the other end and reached for the knob, but it wouldn't open. It was jammed. I looked down the next hallway and saw an open door, but there was no way I'd be able to make it there before he caught me.

I turned back sharply and readied the gun to shoot at him, and began firing, but none of the bullets hit him. As he came closer I thought maybe I'd be able to get him—but I was just shaking too much in fear.

Then, as Astamon was reaching out to the gun he cried out in pain. I gasped in surprise, thinking I had managed to get him, but the gun was pointed to the wall. When a hand grabbed me, I saw that Ken was holding a gun in his other hand. He was pulling me sharply down the way he had obviously come and relief was seeping through my body.

Relief until I realized I had no weapon. I looked back sharply to Astamon who was cradling his bleeding wrist—where Ken had hit him—and saw him looking to the fallen gun. I had dropped the gun. I had given our opponent his weapon back and now he was going to kill us.

I could hardly see through the clouds of guilt and self loathing, but I knew we could find a way out of the mess if we put our minds together. Part of the issue with that plan was Yamato's missing person. Where the hell had he run off to? I wasn't about to get out of here to search for safety without my brother. Leaving him behind just wasn't an option—but neither was dying. I had promised Hikari that I would marry her, and I was going to. I couldn't break that promise just because a crazed humanoid monster was chasing me with his confusing gun that I couldn't really decide whether it was a rifle or a machine gun—or maybe both.

Ken grabbed my shoulder and pulled me sharply through a doorway and into the room we had been waiting in before, where Yamato was waiting at the side door. I felt relief pour through me again and I slipped from Ken's grip, darting around the seats instead of down the aisle. It probably didn't matter, but I didn't want to give Astamon an easy decision on who to follow, and I knew he'd be chasing us already, so we had to think things through properly.

Yamato grabbed my arm and shoved me through the door and then did the same with Ken before racing after us. This side door led straight to an exit of the church. I could see the large wooden doors, and knew we would reach them before Astamon arrived.

I was right of course, we had all slid to a stop in front of the doors and Yamato and I reached out for them, grabbing the handles ready to pull them open. But we didn't get much further than that, because Astamon's voice rang out clearly.

"I've long since lost any emotional attachment to those I kill," Astamon said, startling us all into turning to face him. Ken was in the front now and had his gun held at his side. I saw his fingers curl around the trigger nervously, but it would do no good. Astamon had his own gun ready to fire again. "My Lady Gaia lost faith in me when I failed to rid the world of your friends. Kiyoko. Rei. Willis. I will not have her lose faith in my again."

"You don't have to kill us," Ken tried to reason with Astamon.

Astamon looked sharply to Ken and then saw his gun and aimed his own firearm to him immediately, "Hands in the air." Ken did not hesitate, holding both hands up gently to show that he wasn't going to use the weapon. "Drop it." Ken did hesitate this time, unsure if it was the right choice. "On the floor—now!" Astamon screamed.

Ken obeyed, holding the gun out and dropping it to the floor in front of us. "I'm sorry," Ken told him. "But it's true. You don't have to be on Gaia's side." Astamon snarled, "She left you in Witchenly, didn't she?"

It was true. Iori had told us as such before they had left. Apparently Gaia was protecting him by leaving him there, but I thought it was a load of crap, honestly.

"She says she was protecting me," Astamon said, still sounding furious. "But I know better. She was punishing me." Ken looked nervous suddenly with Astamon's newfound anger. Yamato grabbed my sleeve and stepped back, trying to push the door open. It didn't budge. It had to be pulled obviously. There were no exits in the hall between Astamon and us, so we had no real escape route. Ken talking Astamon out of killing us was our best option. "Punishing me for not killing the Digidestined..." Astamon was lost in thought for a moment and I thought that maybe Ken was getting through to him, but Astamon's fury reared its ugly head once more. His arms grew tense and he aimed his gun toward us once more. "Kiyoko sat by my cage once, and he spoke to me of Gaia's deceased husband. All I could think... all I could think was that if I moved quick enough I could grab the boy through the cage and I could kill him right there. I would surely have been executed, but Gaia would be proud."

"It isn't healthy to give yourself so completely to one person," Ken said, though his voice was thick now. "She's toxic."

"She is not," Astamon spat. "Now, I may have missed my chance with Kiyoko, but I will not miss my chance with you. I will kill you, then I will find Rei and finish what I started, and then Kiyoko will finally feel my wrath. I will get my revenge on the boy—"

With a loud whack, Astamon let out a wail and began firing his gun like a maniac, but he had spun in confusion and his bullets were tearing through the wall of the church. Behind him stood Hideto with the fallen branch that Taichi had dropped earlier. "Not likely," Hideto growled, and with both hands he shoved Astamon down the stairs toward us. I looked up and thanked him. He nodded his head and set off the other way, giving us time to throw the doors open. Ken, Yamato and I raced out into the cool winter air and flew down the concrete steps but were suddenly at a loss of where to run next.

"Hey!" I turned to the sound of the voice and saw Neo with Rei in her wheelchair. Next to him was Mari and Evelen, but I couldn't take my eyes off of Rei. I set off toward them, sure that Yamato and Ken were following and practically tackled Neo out of the way, grabbing the back of Rei's wheelchair and spinning her quickly. "Hey!" Neo said again, this time much less enthusiastic. I didn't stop though, and I vaguely heard Yamato shut him up, and then they were all following.

A moment later I had half ridden and half pushed Rei's wheelchair between two cars and ducked down.

"What's going on?" Mari hissed.

"Is that Astamon?" Rei asked in a blank voice.

"Where?" Neo asked, sounding like he was ready to kill, but Yamato hissed at them all to be quiet again. Neo ignored him, "My car is this way." He slipped past Rei and I, taking the lead to where his sparkling white Toyoto Highlander sat. Astamon, as I could now see, was searching for us, but looked too confused to actually locate us. Neo opened the car door silently and motioned for Yamato to help him with Rei. He did and together they lifted her into the backseat as Ken folded up her chair and wedged it in behind Rei's seat. Evelen was already climbing into the front seat and Mari was shoving Yamato in after Rei before slamming the nearest seat down and climbing into the back.

"What about Hideto?" I asked sharply.

"What about me?" Hideto asked dryly, slipping past me. I was impressed by how easily he had escaped, but I wasn't about to question him. He leapt in after Mari and I hopped into the seat they had folded back. "You might wanna go now," Hideto said as he spotted Astamon.

I followed his eyes and saw that the digimon was staring toward us now. Neo did not hesitate to start the car and I reached for the sliding door, nearly falling out with the sudden movement. I managed to slam the door shut as Neo drove through the parking lot. The only exit was past Astamon though, and so he set off quickly—for a moment I thought he was going to be foolish enough to hit the digimon, but instead he drove past, but not before Rei had rolled her window down and called out to him. "I'm still alive, Loser!"

Neo snorted but hit the gas and we sped off, and though he wasn't sure where we needed to go, I knew we were on our way to the others. We needed to let them know that Astamon was freed.

Next on Digimon Adventure 08: Now that Astamon was set free, what is Ken supposed to do about helping his friends, and with Koushiro trapped in Sidhendor with the others without any keys, crests or digimon, things could not possibly be worse.