A/N: Little late but here it is.

Guadalupe V27: ¡Gracias! I hope it lives up to your expectations. :) (I don't actually speak Spanish despite having a Spanish fic in my favorites, it's all Google translate, sadly.)

— There were energy discrepancies in the Digital World years ago, about three to four years from now, in fact. Digimons evolved erratically, too much power at once, last week's disputes coming back to their minds and chaos ensuing. If lucky enough, they managed to wear themselves out and reverted into a lower form. Quite many of us searched into it. Then once Angemon and I ended up in the middle of it." Takeru took a deep sigh, "A massive energy eruption right beneath us."

"What happened?"

Takeru glanced at Yamato after Koushirou's question but moved his gaze away before responding airily, "No recollection." And then continued more somberly, "Coma for over three weeks; Angemon reverted into an egg."

Before anyone managed to give him any pitiful or shocked reactions, Takeru pressed on, "Due to our crests we all have a… connection to our partners, kind of a pathway for the energy to transmit. However, it's very small. When we were in the Digital World for the first time, you remember how the Digimons grew bigger closer to the end, the Digimons' higher forms become more powerful, the rest-time needed between the evolutions shortened. That's because we learned to take the maximum out of the connection, maybe even broaden it a little. And with the younger team, they have two connections of which both have stayed relatively small because the energy splits between the pathways. But… for Angemon and I to be subjugated to a larger energy burst at once it caused a …chemical reaction. — Humans can't… we don't have anything to put that energy into, so to not break to pieces, my body did the only thing it could and that was to channel the energy to Angemon. However, because the energy was far beyond anything Angemon could use, his core chose the only possible course of action which is structural changes. Everything in both worlds aims for energy efficiency; and between us and our partners, the biggest obstacle is the narrowness of the link. So, if we started from here," Takeru used the spoon as a model, "We'd be closer to this," Takeru explained replacing the horizontal spoon with his drinking glass.

"A change that has high activation energy but decreases the energy requirement in the long term," Koushirou remarked understanding.

Takeru nodded, "The energy burst triggered a reaction that followed its path even if the energy burst was inadequate to fully drive it through, hence the Angemon's devolution, and my coma."

"So, they managed a data-DNA-merge?" Koushirou mused.

Angemon snorted even louder than Takeru in response.

"Maybe a basis for that at maximum," Takeru corrected lightly and leaned back. "Which is one of the reasons we are in this situation now. The agents are still at rampage, trying to change the world in their favor. And you know the rest, distortions appeared in the future caused by new events in the past. Now the agents are interested in releasing the evils of the Digital World and we are trying to fix the situation."

The teens contemplated Takeru's words in silence before Sora impatiently asked what was atop of their minds, "But why aren't we here to help?"

"Life," Takeru answered simply and picked up the spoon only to let it drop immediately. "We all have a different relationship with the Digital World, different life-situations, and options to help." He hadn't thought this to be such a big question for the teens. "My life has been the most haywire-ish due to all this, so, I had the best possibilities to come here."

"But surely we'd have helped," Yamato commented only to receive a frown.

"It's not that simple. We don't know how time works for certain. And anything can happen, so. I'm not married, or have kids, or have an obligation to sit in front of a desk by Monday 8 o'clock or lose a job. — It's easy for you now, be a kid. A danger of missing out homework or practices, be under others' responsibility, and not be that responsible for others. I remember it didn't feel easy, but trust me, it is. — And with the background, Angemon and I are most qualified to do this, believe it or not."

Takeru let the information sunk in and hoped it would be enough. He wanted to retain from admitting that they didn't have a way home. They had come through the distortions and as their task was to fix them, they would at the same time close their path to the future. Something would come up, it was the Digital World after all, but they didn't know how long it would take, months or years. In the worst-case scenario, it would mean living the years, all 15 years of it. And that had been the main deal-breaker for everyone with kids, to be away from their family for over a decade.

His closest family was keeping guard right behind him.

"But that still doesn't explain why we would go and separate the Digital and the Human World from each other." Joe backtracked fixing his glasses.

"We don't have other choices. The Guard Levels have become too unstable with the excess energy, the distortions can't be controlled if the walls aren't rebuilt from the scratch," Angemon repeated from earlier.

Takeru turned his head arduously to look at Angemon behind him, "The Digital World has this… reboot-system. If the system crashes, so to speak, the whole system will just reboot itself in the end. And when the Digital World is separated from the Human World, it's safer to do so."

"And that reboot, it will work for sure?" Yamato inquired.

There was an extra second before Takeru forced his trademark optimistic smile on his face, "No idea. But we are hoping for it. — Or the merge to succeed. That is what they are hoping for anyway."

"What do they think they could achieve?" Tailmon asked breaking the silence; the adult-Digimon was always alert even if she chose to stay on the sidelines.

"You don't seem to be on too good terms?" Taichi tried to joke.

Takeru didn't have an answer for it, he had spent years with the same question to find a reason why his — and others' — life had been messed up. "There is very little reason in darkness," Angemon answered on his behalf causing Takeru to avert his gaze; he had had a harder time accepting the arbitrariness of life.

The discussion finished, the older teens had left the kitchen but Takeru and Angemon stayed up. However, as the door closed, Takeru's facade fell into heavy tiredness. The conversation had gone well, all difficult subjects avoided and the teens, once again, following their fighting plan. Still, he didn't feel like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders, in the opposite, the problems felt more acute because telling the teens wouldn't be of any real help, he didn't know if anything would.

Somewhere deep down, he was so scared he felt sick.

Angemon had sat close to Takeru and surveyed him.

And as Takeru recapped the evening in his mind, somehow his muddled brain managed to bring him an epiphany from between the clouds. "Ken."

"What about Ken?" Angemon asked simply to spur his partner's train of thought, knowing it wouldn't be too surprising if the thought managed to outrun Takeru.

"Ken knows he's going to die," Takeru replied tasting words as if trying to understand them when they left his tongue. "All this time he has known that he's going to die and not said a word about it."

Angemon looked startled but didn't question his partner's line of thought. Despite Takeru's problems with his memory, the human rarely claimed things he wasn't sure of.

Takeru tried to make his brains cooperate and recollect all the moments he had shared with the boy, the quietness, the fear over tonight, "Himekawa must have told him back in the Human World." And by instant Takeru stood up, leaned over the sink and fought against vomiting. He needed to preserve all the energy he could get, but his body wanted to escape from dealing with this.

Angemon waited for Takeru to compose himself and straighten his back before asking, "And if he had?" referring to his words that Ken hadn't mentioned the fact to them.

It was a characteristically on-point question. But unlike on many other occasions, Takeru refused to accept the tone and looked at Angemon incredulously; his mood changed faster than he could keep up. "It's wrong. He shouldn't deal with this on his own. To suffer as he deserved it." Takeru spat back with his tone rising and a clear objection in his voice. Even if his body was weak and his mind more so, he refused to let this slide. He cursed soundlessly.

Angemon was silent for a long second, before holding back a sigh and looking at him kindly, "So he should have given it to you point black so that it would be on your shoulders?" Angemon kept staring at him before continuing apologetically. "It has already happened."

"It hasn't in here!" Takeru shouted back and smashed one of the mugs against the opposite wall. A tremor of desperation entered into his posture.

It was not even fifteen seconds before a few of the teens knocked on the kitchen door and pushed it open with worried faces — too many of them in Takeru's eyes making him ashamed and angrier at the same time.

"We…" Joe began.

"It's alright. Go to sleep." Angemon ordered his tone reassuring but without an ounce to give.

Takeru breathed heavily and couldn't turn to look at the teens, who, without a doubt, were afraid how abruptly the mood from their conversation had morphed into this.

"But–"

"–Now," Angemon repeated interrupting Taichi this time.

After a small pondering the teens resigned not to fight back and closed the door behind them letting Takeru breathe easier.

Why was he messing things up every single day?

Angemon didn't say anything as his thoughts returned to thinking about the last words between him and Takeru. He knew that Takeru was thinking back to all the accusations by the future Taichi, and all the things they hadn't said, of the threats made to the Chosens' families due to their linkage to Digimons, Hikari's two suicide attempts…

"It's not your fault."

Takeru just looked into nothingness; his posture had fully crumbled when the door was closed.

Angemon watched him silently for a while before lifting one of the remaining mugs aside, "You haven't told anyone either."

The tension returned to Takeru's body in an instant, he had not expected Angemon to open the issue, and he was most certainly unwilling to go there.

"It's different. It's not in their hands." Takeru finally answered, his voice rigid, averting the discussion, only to be once again confronted by his partner's silent observance.

"Or maybe you don't want to face their attempts to turn your head."

At this Takeru faced Angemon's gaze, having trouble understanding the comment.

"You haven't tried to do that either." Takeru finally stated with a reconciled voice. He didn't know why he said it. He wasn't mad at Angemon over the fact, he had preferred the silence for quite some time, but he still knew that in some sense, he had the right to state the fact.

Angemon looked downwards. "True." He answered sounding far-off. "But your life should be your decision." Angemon tilted his head to the right as if giving Takeru a chance to challenge his view.

Takeru knew very well just how upfront Angemon could be at times, but this was going over even his own expectations.

As Takeru didn't reply, Angemon continued, "This war leads to where it leads. But outside it, I can't decide on your behalf what you want to do with your life. You need to reach a conclusion by yourself when the time comes. — I just want you to be at peace with it."

"I don't know what I want," Takeru admitted quietly, "not anymore."

Angemon huffed a tiny smile earning a questioning look, "My younger version seems to think that you do, that you would just need to admit it to yourself."

There was a strong silence between them as Takeru mulled over the words.

"Do you want to talk to Ken tomorrow? Or do you want me to do it?" Angemon asked, realizing that the discussion might be too difficult for Takeru at the moment.

"You can talk to him," Takeru replied.

The following early morning, Angemon looked at the anxious boy in front of him. The rainclouds had passed for now, and they were on the edge of the yard, and out of the direct line of sight.

They had mulled over with Takeru whether they should talk to Ken. In the sense they didn't need to: Ken had been silent over his future, and would probably remain so. And if the agents wanted to bring the news to light, they could say that they didn't know that Ken knew.

"We are already letting him die, least we can do is to take responsibility of it," Takeru had sighed passively.

Angemon didn't fully agree on the fault-part but after everything Ken had been put through from the Dark Seed to the agents stealing the data of his Kaiser-form to replace one of their lost bodies, maybe someone should get answers in all this.

"I guess you know about your fate?" Angemon began trying to soften his stance as Ken didn't seem to know how to be around him. The nervousness of easy to spot after all the years but Angemon had to admit that Ken resembled Yamato with trying to hide his nerves with an act of coolness.

"Fate…?" Ken turned to ask.

"Death." Angemon specified making the boy freeze just like Takeru had last night. "I'm sorry. We shouldn't have left you alone with his."

There was a long silence but Angemon had the nerves to wait it out without babbling on. However, instead of a reply, Ken's eyes started to moisten and the young-teen pressed his first right-hand knuckle against his nose to keep himself from crying in earnest.

Angemon couldn't help but revel in the guilt that followed: it had become an old friend that grounded him. However, unlike with Takeru, he had very little means to deal with the weeping boy, causing small waves of discomfort and panic to seed — maybe Takeru would have been better one to deal with this.

"My parents? Wormmon?" Ken asked trying to steady his voice and cleared his throat.

Angemon couldn't find the words to speak to the boy about his parents' grief, there were no words for it, but for Wormmon, "We all agreed to our cores to be tied to our partners when we chose this role. When you die, we die. — I think we prefer it like that."

"Wormmon's dead?"

"Moved on after you," Angemon comforted.

Ken managed to nod before settling to look into the distance. He felt horrible, he had seen his parents' grief after Osamu's death now he was going to cause the same type of pain.

And he was going to cause Wormmon's death. Again.

His heart felt like it was exploding.

"So this is it?" But as Angemon failed to understand the words Ken asked again with more desperation, "So this is it? This is because Osamu died instead of me? - -My actions as Kaiser? – All that…"

–I did wrong to deserve this.

It was in that split-second Angemon understood the question, he got a flashback of Takeru staring at him stroking his fur and being careful around his wounds from the captivity. And at that moment, he realized that Takeru was still at the very start, being eight under the Infinity Mountain feeling at fault for his decision to die.

Still.

And now Takeru wasn't just feeling guilty about his death then, but everything after it, every single fucking thing. Because Takeru assumed that when you cause your partner to die for you, you are entitled to all the shit in the world because you deserve it. If he hadn't died then, maybe they hadn't caught the agent's interest.

Angemon didn't know if his heart had ever stopped so totally or for so long, he knew, he was neglecting Ken at the worst possible moment but he had to claw himself back to the present. His heartbeat climbed back up, now much faster than before and few feathers fell onto the ground due to the shock.

"This is not your fault," Angemon stressed fighting to keep his voice level. "Nothing justifies this. Nothing." And when Ken didn't react to his words, "Ken, you grew up to be a really good human being. A kind person. Someone who made people happy, feel appreciated. Despite being forced into terrible circumstances you held yourself together and pulled through. You are not the offender, you are the survivor. And that is what the world is going to remember you as."

"If I hadn't done it — with Devimon?" Ken bargained.

This time Angemon understood immediately, "Takeru doesn't hate you."

But Ken didn't look convinced; when one hates himself enough, it's easy to think that everyone shares the sentiment.

"Ken, I'm sorry."

There was nothing else to say.

Angemon and Ken returned inside to join the kids inside who were, once again, packing their bags. They got a few curious stares but Angemon's mind only revolved around Takeru. Not to mention that last night had left everyone so hesitant and unrested that carefree questions wouldn't be heard today.

It was easy to find Takeru who had decided to evade the aftermath of their last night's confrontation as long as possible.

On Angemon's entering, Takeru got up from the bed with an inquiry written on his face. Angemon knew that Takeru was somewhat aware that Ken's death bothered him too but had complied with his wishes to keep the matter to himself. However, the angel-type Digimon let his façade crumble for a minute when he enveloped the human into a hug.

There was an edge of doubt in the back of Angemon's mind over not preventing Ken's death but logically they both knew that they couldn't take risks with the timeline. And he had to go with that, because if he didn't, even if it made him the bad guy, there would be nowhere to draw the line. Every death from here to the present could at some point, in some way, be — if not preventable — delayable, and Takeru wouldn't be able to cope with the responsibility. He, on the other hand, had been constructed with a much more black-and-white mindset.

But now, warning lights were forming inside his head because he had been blind to the aftermath of his actions before. Maybe he was oblivious on how far he was willing to go to save Takeru as well. Plus he knew that however they had approached Ken, the actions and non-actions would stay with them. Angemon's heart hammered in his chest when he squeezed Takeru softly before letting go.

"Are you okay?" Takeru looked at him with worry and he could just nod in return. "How did Ken take it?"

"He'll deal with it. He took it well — kindly even."

There was a lasting look of guilt on Takeru's face, a look that Angemon couldn't make to go away, just like he couldn't open about his insecurities because Takeru, especially now, fed on other people's insecurities. Takeru had normally the intuition to help others by avoiding their insecurities, or attack them with them, but with him… Takeru's trust was such a precarious item, it had taken his self-sacrifice and re-birth to get that trust. Moreover, Takeru was clinging unto hope, became bound by it. Angemon was supposed to know what to do, be the beacon of light and certainty to keep Takeru going. Because if he wasn't, Takeru would become more distressed.

But the conversation with Ken had only stressed the fact that he didn't know how to solve this. He wanted Takeru to be happy and at peace but Takeru didn't know what would make him happy. Angemon couldn't realize Takeru's hope when he didn't know what it entailed.

It was one hell of a muddled mess, and thus, exactly the opposite of how you want to march into a war.

Sensing the angel-Digimon's unease Takeru stopped him before they left the room, "Angemon, thank you."

It was a genuine sentence without a specific reason.

"Of course."

They would all head to the main code sites that controlled the linkage between the worlds. The fledged Digimons would take turns to digivolve and carry them to save time. The sites were far from each other and, in addition to beeline, they'd need to create portals and passes to cross long distances in a blink of an eye.

As the day went on, they had traveled over deserts and forests, vast areas the kids nor Digimons had never crossed on their travels.

"That mountain is the first one," Angemon shouted over the wind. "Taichi, do you have a compass?"

"Yes, why?"

"Find us a direction. AtlarKabuterimon veer us a little bit to the right of the mountain," Angemon instructed.

"But won't that lead us off the mark?" Iori probed wanting to avoid problems that might cause more tension.

"These places are designated to misguide anyone trying to reach them," Takeru explained alert but not overly worried at the moment, "If we headed straight towards the mountain, we'd only get further away. You'll see the effect in a few minutes."

And as Takeru said, the kids and the Digimons were soon perplexed to see that if they aimed further from the mountain they were actually nearing it as it grew in their line of sight.

Eventually, they reached the base of the mountain — or what was left of it. The mountain might have stood tall and proud a long time ago, but its sharp ridges had collapsed into smoother hills.

AtlarKabuterimon helped everyone on the ground before reverting to Tentomon.

"And now where?"

Angemon spared half-a-glance at Daisuke but didn't answer and focused on the hillside in front of them.

"Upwards, right?"

Angemon nodded at Takeru before asking in return "On the right side?" and pointing at the spot with the Holy rod.

"Little bit more up?"

"Could be."

"You honestly don't know?" Daisuke asked incredulously.

This forced Koushirou to step in before Angemon would spare another gaze at Daisuke, and clarify that the code spots had always been hidden and he had just stumbled on them on each occasion

"But you know where it is?" Taichi wanted to make sure.

"We've been here, but it's been a few years, and there are multiple spots, they tend to get mixed up," Takeru explained half-heartedly and focused back on his debate with Angemon. He ignored full-heartedly all the tension within the group just like had ignored Yamato and Taichi's quarrels back in the day.

"Keep a lookout," Angemon ordered before flying off the ground and in front of the hillside with Takeru issuing directions from the ground.

After that, it took good fifteen minutes for the doorway to open, and the group to move inside.

It was a long, albeit, not overly wide or tall cavern. Considering the demolition outside the stone-walls inside were straight and relatively unharmed. It was brighter inside too thanks to the glow from the symbols on the walls.

The kids looked at the walls with wonder as it had been years even for the oldest to see the carvings. Koushirou and Yamato were already setting down their packs before Angemon and Takeru noted that they would go a few levels downwards.

Only one level below, they stopped to wait as Angemon hugged Takeru from behind and lifted the blond-haired man into the air, close to a symbol near the far end, and Takeru carved a small symbol above it with a '┌' -marking before Angemon lowered him back on the ground. A few lines of code later Takeru carved a '┘' marking. The same process was repeated three more times before they reached the bottom level of the structure.

As the group received a nod to start unpacking, Angemon went back up and before the angel-type Digimon had made his way back down, they could all see a spark of light move through the lines and travel neatly from one wall to the next one, and change the color of the marked areas.

A/N: Argh, the second to last scene with Takeru and Angemon was maybe one of the most arduous to write so far. My brain has been its own muddled mess for the past week and trying to write someone else's vague thoughts was not fun.