-6-

For the first time ever, Taichi didn't object to them taking the motorcycle, even if it was for just a couple blocks away. He wanted to get there as soon as he could. Takeru was waiting for them at the entrance with Hikari. It was weird seeing them so flustered because usually Takeru was always cool as a cucumber and Hikari was never nervous for anything.

Yamato had barely parked the motorcycle when Taichi jumped from it and ran to the younger chosen at the door. "What's going on?"

"We were with Jyou-sempai and his brother while they were checking the guys. And suddenly, Daisuke is awake and trashing in his bed" Hikari explained while they were moving towards the room.

"Yeah, it was really weird because no one expected it to happen. Jyou's brother was just telling us the results from the test this morning were just the same and it was a waiting game" Takeru was trying to put everything into words.

"Where are the parents?" Yamato asked and Taichi was also wondering the same thing.

"Some guy in a suit came by earlier and asked both the Motomiyas and the Ichijoujis to accompany him" Hikari added and made them all stop in front of the room "I tried to ask what was going on but, he didn't tell me anything. He was dressed like Nijishima-sensei, onii-chan"

"And just Daisuke woke up? What about the others?" Taichi was wondering if they were all awake already, because that would mean that part of the misery would end.

"Miyako-san and Iori-kun wake up from time to time, but the doctors don't let them stay awake too long because of their injuries. And there's no change with Ken-kun"

Taichi couldn't wait any longer and opened the door to the hospital room that was so familiar to him already after these days spent there. He knew the rest were following him inside. There, on a chair next to Ken's bed, curled up on himself, was Daisuke. He was in his hospital robes and holding Ken's hand, or at least his fingers since it was the hand wrapped in a cast.

"Daisuke?" Taichi wanted to hug the guy. He didn't realize it in those moments, but he had missed the guy. He had missed all of them. "How are you, Daisuke?"

The younger chosen didn't even acknowledge them at all, just kept holding his partner's hand and watching him closely. It looked like, if Daisuke stopped watching Ken, the blue-haired teen would suddenly disappear.

"Daisuke, we… we are worried…"

"Now you are worried, Taichi-san" he put so much venom into the honorific following his name that Taichi flinched. He didn't expect that from the kid, just as he didn't expect him calling him anything but sempai "Funny"

"Daisuke… don't be like that" Hikari tried to speak but a look from the younger leader shut them all up again.

"It's too late… it's just too late" Daisuke turned his head again to look at Ken's face "I failed… I couldn't protect them. My team. My partner. We were waiting for you guys for a long time, and you never came to help us! We were supposed to be in the digital world together; instead we found the four of us just staring at each other without knowing what we should do… and NOW you worry?"

Taichi didn't say anything else; the guilt he felt was increasing with every word out of Daisuke's mouth. Because he now knew the dream he had was actually a memory resurfacing to his mind. They were supposed to be with them in the Digital World; instead they disappeared for a month.

"Why is he still unconscious?" Daisuke's whisper made the rest of them look at Ken "He should've been safe. I wanted to make sure of it"

"Daisuke… what happened to you guys?" Yamato asked softly while moving to get closer to him.

"Why should I tell you guys anything? You guys should have been there!" he was getting agitated and Yamato seemed like he had enough

"We know that, Daisuke! But things went wrong and we want to understand what happened to you guys so we can fix things as much as possible!"

Daisuke just sniffled and kept staring at Ken. Taichi didn't think he was going to answer them but suddenly he started taking quietly "We were in the digital world, walking for days. Trying to find food, water and shelter every day so we wouldn't starve. We thought you guys were transported to a different gate than us so we found the digimon and tried to find some signals to find you guys. We tried so hard to find you. We found several digimon that acted really weird on the way. Purple sparks and all that came from them. We managed to avoid confrontation as much as we could but still had to… fight some of them. Miyako and Iori were still against it all but they adapted to the situation… Ken wanted to think we could do better. He thought we should be able to deal with those digimon in a different way, not just deleting them"

Taichi remembered the conversation he had with Hikari and Takeru about the younger chosen not liking to destroy any digimon, no matter how awful it was. It wasn't until Belialvamdemon that they saw that, sometimes, you didn't have any other choice. "He wanted to believe there was some good still in them"

"Yeah… that's Ken, right. Kindness all around" Daisuke laughed lightly without humor and they instantly knew this was where things got ugly "Then, after so many days of just walking around and avoiding stuff, the sky suddenly turned red. The air was so stuffy it was so hard to breathe… and then… he appeared"

Taichi wanted to interject and ask who, he wanted to get the whole story out of Daisuke in one go. He was that desperate. But in that moment, Jyou appeared at the door and stared in horror at Daisuke "You shouldn't be out of bed! What are you doing, Motomiya-kun?"

"Jyou…" Takeru tried to explain but the oldest chosen didn't let him.

"You must go back to bed immediately! You should be in a lot of pain right now! Come on, back to bed!" Jyou tried to make Daisuke go back to bed and he started trashing trying to get out of Jyou's hold of his arm and screaming his heart out "Motomiya-kun! Stop this! You're going to injure yourself even more!"

"I don't want to go back to bed! I want to stay here! Let me go, Jyou-sempai!"

"Jyou, he's fine if he stays still by Ken's bed. He's going to injure himself more if you keep pushing him" Yamato tried to conciliate with Jyou but the oldest of them didn't listen.

Until Hikari's voice made them all stop "Ken-kun?"

They all turned to the other chosen still in the bed and Daisuke gasped and managed to get free from Jyou's hold and came closer to his best friend "Ken-chan?" The blue-haired chosen had his eyes open, staring at the ceiling without blinking. He wasn't moving or reacting to anything, not even Daisuke. "Ken? Hey, we're back in the real world now. Everything is going to be fine now" Daisuke's voice was a caress, like someone would speak to a scared child.

Shun, Jyou's brother, decided that moment was as good as any other to come inside the room "What are you all doing inside the room? You must leave, now. Only two can stay inside" No one was paying any attention to him, they were all focused on Ken still "Oh, he's also awake. I need to check his vitals before my dad asks more studies now that they are awake" he went to Ken's side checking his eyes "Hello, Ichijouji-san, my name is Kido Shun, I'm Jyou's onii-chan. You're in the hospital because you were injured. But now that you're awake everything will progress and be more than okay" as he talked he checked Ken's pulse and eyes and the stitches in his face, but Ken didn't move and didn't blink. Didn't react at all. Shun frowned at that and turned to look at them, Taichi froze. "He's not reacting to the stimuli of the light or sound"

Jyou blanched and Daisuke kept whispering stuff in Ken's ear but Yamato was the one who voiced his concerns "What does that mean? Is he going to be okay?"

"I don't know for sure. He's awake but maybe his concussion is far worse than we thought. I'm gonna call my father so he can order more studies for your friend. We'll know what's happening in a short while. I will make sure of it" He smiled at them, put a hand in Jyou's shoulder for comfort and left the room quickly.

Taichi went to Daisuke's side and put a hand on his shoulder "Daisuke-kun, I know we failed you. I know that, I as a leader didn't do a very good job at all. I let you and the others down. But we want to help you" While Taichi spoke, Koushiro entered the room with Mimi, Takeru and Hikari whispering that they were going to stay with Miyako and Iori. "We will do all we can to help you overcome this…"

"And whoever did this to you will pay, we'll make sure of that" Yamato added from the other side of Ken's bed. Daisuke lifted his eyes and made eye contact with Yamato, who nodded "I promise, Daisuke. We'll put an end to this and figure out what happened. Be sure of that"

"Alphamon attacked us when we got to that weird place with the red sky. He kept coming back for us even when we tried to hide. The digimon evolved. Miyako and Iori tried to help Imperialdramon with Alphamon but… much too soon; it was just Imperialdramon standing there" Daisuke had tears in his eyes and he picked Ken's hand up again even if their casts were in the way "It was so hard to see their particles floating in the sky… they were gone and we didn't even know why we were fighting. I told Miyako, Iori and Ken to run. We needed to hide and find shelter from Alphamon. But he kept attacking and… we were running and I looked behind me and… Ken had stopped"

"What?" Taichi was following Daisuke's story and he didn't understand why Ken would have stopped if they were being attacked and didn't have their digimon "Why?"

"He saw something… I don't know what but, I wasn't going to leave him there. So I ran back and grabbed his hand. He didn't move and looked me in the eye. We turned around when we heard Miyako scream. Then Iori… then they went for me. I couldn't leave Ken by himself. But, they attacked me and, since our hands were joined, we both fell" Taichi wanted to stop Daisuke. He didn't want him suffering. But he knew it was important they all knew what happened "He went to attack Ken. I got up and got in the way, so he just threw me in the air. The sand felt like fire on my skin when I fell. I could hear Ken trying to figure out what Alphamon wanted, but then a voice interrupted him"

It was in that moment that a whisper interrupted the story "Daisuke…" Ken didn't move his eyes or body at all, but he whispered his best friend's name. Daisuke forgot his line of thoughts and everything else.

"Ken-chan!" Daisuke moved so he was in line with his friend's eyes "Ken, you're okay. We're all okay. Hey, look at me"

"I… can't"

Daisuke looked at everyone, trying to understand what was happening. Jyou was the one who tried to make sense of everything "Maybe he has blurred vision because of his concussion? I've read that has happened before with strong concussions. I'll tell my father to make that study as soon as possible" and with that he left the room in a hurry.

"Ken-kun, everything is going to be okay. Everything is fine" Yamato tried to intervene because Daisuke was too frantic to try "We're all here with you guys. Are you feeling okay?"

Ken made an affirmative noise and blinked, his eyes filled with tears "Sempai?" Yamato acknowledged that with a low sound "We lost…"

"That doesn't matter now. You're all okay"

"But… Wormmon"

"We brought their eggs from Primary Village. They're here with you guys. Waiting to hatch when you're ready for it" Yamato tried to soothe the younger chosen "You don't have to worry about anything right now, you just have to get better"

"I couldn't protect you, Ken-chan. I tried but…"

"Stop…"

"But…"

"You couldn't have done anything… it was after me"

"Who was, Ken-kun?" Taichi asked from behind Daisuke, dreading the answer

"Alphamon… and Gennai-san. They wanted the seed. And I don't know what else. They wanted to hurt me to get what they wanted…" Ken's voice was no more than a whisper but they all heard and Yamato watched Taichi in the eye and frowned, he was wondering too if the missing digivice had something to do with all this.

At that moment, the doctors and nurses entered the room claiming Dr. Kido sent them for both Daisuke and Ken, they were wheeled away before they could ask anything else. But Taichi wanted to keep looking until he had an answer for all this mystery. So, with a nod, he and Yamato went to Koushiro.

"We need to talk…"

"Yes, Taichi-san. I might have something I need to show you"