A/N: Hi everyone! Working in ED this year, so trying to align my work schedule with anything else is a doozy, but we'll do our best. And Light is gorgeous for putting up with me and it. :) I almost said a saint, but given the fic...

Anyway, enjoy!

Concurring Overwrite
Data Fragment 41: Estrangement

Davis was at his noodle cart when he saw the sky in the distance be slowly coloured grey.

He left the noodle cart and took off on Raidramon's back. That was the fastest way, even if he was getting too tall to sit comfortably and they made more than a few heads turn. Better than something happening because he was worried about the small stuff.

He still wasn't fast enough. Or, maybe, he was just in time to get the perfect snapshot of an eight-year-old Kari holding the hand of her three year older brother, reaching for Takuya Kanbara with her other hand.

'You've lost someone, haven't you? We'll help.'

Raidramon closed the remaining distance in the time it took the girl to say that, and Davis could see what else he'd missed – or hadn't looked at. The still smoking building. Wisps of data dissolving into the sky. And the small body – eight, nine? Either way, covered in soot and ash.

And Takuya wasn't looking at Kari, or Tai, but that body and it didn't really matter if it was a stranger or someone important right now, did it?

'Don't think that's a good idea,' he interrupted.

Kari turns to him. Turns to Raidramon, shrinking back into the bipedal Veemon. "Davis," she chirped. 'Are you coming too?'

'It'll be a regular party,' Tai agreed, looking skyward. "Looks like Willis might be joining us too. Or he might not. Depends on whether Cherubimon's quality time includes infinity, I guess."

Kari and Willis…

He was the only one left, then. Him and the pendant Ken had entrusted him with, and anti-virus programmes of Willis he could now easily dismantle from the other side should the fancy strike him.

His heart sunk. He and Veemon were going it alone, now. But he couldn't quit, yet. He still didn't understand why Ryo felt the need to rewrite the world. Why Ken had given the pendant to him. Where the Ichijouji brothers were now – and hadn't it been too long since he'd last seen their ghosts?

And what about the kid right in front of him?

'No can do,' he said. 'Davis' noodle cart takes care of the kids, first. Besides, I've still got something to do.'

The siblings looked at each other, then shrugged. 'Fair enough,' Kari says, 'but when you transform, it feels like it doesn't matter anymore. The past, present and future: they all melt together. I know when I'm sad that I just need to speed up or rewind – ' And she does, at dizzying speeds that Davis who'd known Kari for years can barely keep up, '- and poof, it's gone.'

'You're only in the present,' Tai nodded. 'You don't realise how limiting that is, yet, but you probably will. But don't take too long. Ryo's almost ready to move into the endgame and I don't think he'll let you slip in on a technicality.'

'Probably not.' Davis winced. Ryo had more than one reason to not like him, and only half of them were related to Ken.

But at least the pair left after that, and he turned to Takuya.

Then followed his line of sight again and thought it was better to at least check the other kid, first.

But he needn't have, except to extinguish the last bit of hope in him. The kid was quite plainly dead. Still, he did the responsible adult thing and covered him with the apron he was wearing, and then lifted him into his arms. He considered for a moment, then took off back in the direction of his noodle cart.

It wasn't like they had anything set up for when it was just one of the three survivors, after all. And he wasn't exactly equipped to have a dead kid and a traumatised one in his apartment.

Luckily, the other kid followed with only a little help from Veemon. Luckily his workers were more sensible than he was and sat the kid down with some hot noodles while they called the police and got some things sorted.

He didn't know what magic they worked, but by the time the sun was setting, the grey had bled out of the sky a little and a grey haired man with bandages on both hands was leading the pair away from the police station.