Warnings: Canonical character death and past parent death. (mention) also slight regression and animal transformation.

Chapter One – Are You Born With Dignity?

People said 'do not go gentle into that good night'. It was in a poem somewhere. One in English.

'Rage, rage against the dying of the light.'

Someday, he might need to hear that poem in its entirety. If he lived. Kouichi didn't think he would, however. You didn't take Light and Darkness into your body and live, especially since technically, he wasn't really living at all.

He'd… never told Kouji that, had he? They all had figured that when a human died it was over, the end. It probably was. Humans didn't have eggs. Humans were born and died and didn't come back though eggs did get fertilized. It wasn't the same idea at all, was it? Not even close.

But he had already been dead or something, hadn't he? He'd already been dead or dying or at the very least comatose anyway so maybe he wasn't really dead or anything.

Was he dead? He probably was. He had given up his digital code, been absorbed, the whole thing that he had been doing to Digimon for all this time. He had almost done it to Kouji as well so maybe this was some kind of retribution? It was awfully specific for retribution. Wasn't he supposed to redeem himself as a plant first? His mother had been the more religious one, not him.

Oh well. At least it doesn't hurt.

No, what hurt was remembering everyone's faces as that moment had come, seeing their horror and fear and how battered they were. That was what he remembered the most. Kouji had screamed, he thought. But maybe that was his brain making up something sentimental and untrue to comfort himself in this second end of days. At least it wasn't his life flashing before his eyes. His brain probably knew that would be desperately short and depressing and not even he deserved that pain.

It was as he thought this that Kimura Kouichi simply stopped thinking at all for a long time and only drifted away.

When you die, you lose something. Nothing can change that fact, no matter how hard you try. That is why we Digimon forget everything and start over. But you, you who are caught in between both sides… what will you do?

What felt like years passed before Kouichi had sensation again. That sensation came about with a heavy wall. He moved anything he could and hit something inevitably solid and recoiled on himself. It was only when he recoiled that he realized something possibly detrimental to his own sanity or lack thereof:

He didn't have any limbs.

As soon as he thought this, the darkness he was sitting in grew lighter in spots above his head. Or, as he looked around to realize, his whole body. He leaned up before he could stop himself, nose pressing towards the warm spots of wall overhead. He froze a bit, letting the heat touch his surprisingly cold body.

Was it just him, or were the walls getting closer?

No. No, that was just him. That was only him and his wild imagination. They weren't getting closer. They were certainly getting warmer, the light spreading from them comforting and close by. He didn't mind this light, no in fact he really liked it. It soothed the beating of his heart or whatever was in his chest. He wanted it to stay, to get as close to him as possible.

Then it started to crack. At first he didn't notice, the heat warming what seemed to be snow white fur. The sound was so soft, he didn't notice until there was one particularly loud cracking sound.

Fear dropped into his stomach.

Where was the cracking coming from? Was something going to hit him while it broke and what would happen if it broke underneath his body? Perhaps it was the panic, but Kouichi didn't realize the way his thoughts were turning. Grim and solemn were a somewhat norm for him sure, but this childish panic was something he did not recognize. Not like this anyway.

He whimpered at the sound as it grew, trying to save himself by shrinking as small as he was able. Before he could close his eyes, however, the light began to grow brighter. It had gone from pleasant to slightly unbearable. But he had nowhere to go, so it was all he could do to be the tiniest fluffball he could be.

As the cracks spread like feelers, another sound reached his now very sensitive ears. It was the sound of a young voice. They were letting out hiccuping little sobs or trying to contain them. Kouichi looked up past the light.

Why is that person crying? What are they going through right now? Where… are they?

If the world breaks, could I meet them?

"Kouichi!"

That voice… That was a very strange voice indeed. IT sounded a lot like his own.

"Kouichi! Wait!"

"No," he said, finding his heartbeat starting to slow, the world beginning to calm. "I can't wait. I think they're calling me."

If they weren't calling him, or at least needed someone like him, he wouldn't be able to hear them, surely.

"I'm calling you! It's me!"

"No, it's not," he finally said, feeling a strange roiling in his insides. "They're crying."

"So am I!"

That voice needed to stop arguing with him. In a desperate pique of annoyance, Kouichi began to bounce up and down, cracking the ground he had been so terrified of losing mere moments before. He was going to get out of here.

"They cannot bring you back like this, Kouichi!"

Back? Back where?

But the cracks were spreading, and the idea of pausing and stopping did not appeal to Kouichi anymore. He continued to bounce until he hit his head on the ceiling and kept right on going until he fell back down again with a frantic yelping bark. When the stinging sensation faded away from his bottom, he opened his eyes.

The room was dark, which didn't really bother him. The air was heavier than he expected, which did bother him. Voices came through thin doors, whispers on whispers and adult mutterings. Kouichi swiveled his body around. That heavy voice from before was gone. So was the sobbing. This time, he could actually think a little.

Kouichi. The voice had called him that. So he was Kouichi. Or that was his name. But who was that? And what was he now? Everything was so blurry.

Well, everything on the inside was blurry. Outside, everything was becoming clearer and clearer, like cleaning off a pair of glasses. He saw shadows moving outside the thin door. After he spun himself all the way around, he had to flop and droop for a moment. Kouichi could never remember finding moving around this exhausting before.

Before you had legs.

Oh. Well, that might explain things..

He made himself look up, black eyes large and taking in all that they can. He saw a small thing huddled half a meter away or so. Tear tracks line their face.

Human, he thought, because that made sense. Humans existed. He must be with humans. Maybe… maybe he even was a human once. That would be bizarre. Imagine that. If he had been, he certainly didn't look like this one. He began to hop closer, to see them better. They flinched and the tears silently rolled down their face.

"Why are you crying?" he asked before he could stop himself. This must have been the voice from earlier, the one that had created the warmth in the world -his egg- and yet they were so unhappy. To his currently befuddled mind this did not make sense, so therefore he had to make sense of it. He didn't know why he felt obligated to do so. He just did.

The human child had no obligation to answer him of course. But she -it was a girl, yes? It seemed like one but he was starting to forget the difference between one human and the next- did seem to be looking at him so perhaps she might tell him the answer to this question, since she probably couldn't tell him who she was .That would be asking too much, more than likely.

She sniffled and yes that sounded very much like a girl. Not like the one or few he had known but definitely a girl. He bounced a little closer. "You hatched..."

Well, that didn't answer his question at all. "I heard you crying," Kouichi told her, searching for a more complicated answer. For some reason, he didn't like it very much. He didn't like that his brain was running without him and going too slow and not saying enough. It felt like he was supposed to be more, much more. "Why?" Because crying made him think of a woman in a bed, clutching his thin human fingers and oh-

He remembered now. At least something.

"You have a brother. His name… is Kouji."

Yes, if nothing else he could remember that and it was very important, very necessary that he remember that simple fact. He had a brother, he knew his name and his brother was related to why he was like this now. Yes, those were certainties.

But so was the fact that he was now about the point where he could hop into this child's lap. "Who are you?" he asked once more. "And why are you crying? You don't have to cry anymore. I'm here now."

"S-" She couldn't even get her name out before she picked him up and bawled anew.

Someone slid open the door. "Oh here's where you've been Sayo." Kouichi's fur fluffed up. "And he hatched… he hatched for you, I see."

The girl could not control her sniffling too well. "Y-Yeah..."

"That's a start, isn't it?" The bystander encouraged. They had a very strange smell. "Your parents would want you to not be alone now."

The girl nodded.

Kouichi chewed on his lip for lack of something to bite. He was here so the little girl wasn't alone.

He thought he knew what it was like to be alone. So… this was fine. He could do this.

After all, what could be harder than dying?

A/N: Couldn't sleep without posting this. Happy Valentine's Day remi! Also I know, stop writing sayo, you say. I say: nooooooooo.

Challenges: February Secret Multichap Advent exchange gift (for a remi!) (first prompt 24, make) Advent 2016, day 25, write a gift fic, epic masterclass (frontier list) 4 AU, Diversity Writing K24, Monthly Restrict 29, write something ending and something else beginning