Digital Shuffle
by famirad

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon, this fic is for fun.
Author Notes: Haven't updated in, uh, forever. Will hopefully try to work on the next chapter but since my chapters are generally 20-30 pages, this could take a while. Anyway, here's a Side Story to cover what Impmon's been up to.

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Side Story: Impmon - The False Tamer
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WHEN: Several days before the Shield's earthquake
WHERE: Outside Tokyo, just beyond the barrier

Impmon had lots of time to think things over.

In fact, he was just about tired of thinking and ready to act, but he was stuck doing something really stupid. He didn't know why he was currently armed with a stick and using said stick to poke the unresponsive body lying in the grass. It had seemed like a good idea until he was actually approaching the human, who looked a lot bigger up close than he did from afar.

An experimental poke. Impmon jumped back, raising the stick to give the man a good whack if he moved.

Lucky for him, he didn't.

What's a human doing way out here? Impmon thought sourly. He had it up to here with humans. They were rude, selfish, annoying, stupid and, to make matters worse, smelly. They just had that human stink to them, every last one of their idiot species. Harassing them was fun, but it did get old after awhile, especially since some of them weren't as human as they pretended to be. It did make things touch-and-go. More dangerous than he liked. The Rookie scowled, remembering the goggle-headed boy who gave him the ultimatum. Had he always been like that? Seemed kind of…well, slimy. Kind of a jerk too.

Then again, all humans were big jerks who thought they were better than Digimon. Impmon poked at the human lying face down on the ground.

"Y'think you're big an' tough, I bet!" Impmon said, jabbing the human in the shoulder with the stick for emphasis. He crouched down next to him. Would've thought the man was dead, but it looked like he was breathing. Darn shame, really.

At this point, though, Impmon had to admit he was actually lonely. Even a human looked like a good conversation partner after spending who knew how long wandering around in the wilderness, bored out of his mind, and picking leaves out of his fur for days. The discovery of a human just lying there in the brush had freaked him out, and he was embarrassed to admit he'd jumped back from fear. Been out here too long, Impmon scowled, if he's not dead, I should just put him out of his misery.

He almost did it too, so it wasn't like he wasn't gutsy enough to go that far.

But for some reason, he didn't do anything but crouch down and poke him with a stick. Again.

"Hey!" Impmon shouted, poking harder. "Anyone home in that dumb skull of yers!"

Still no movement.

Impmon threw the stick down, glaring at the human. "Bah, yer not worth my time! See if I care!"

He stormed off into the bushes.

A few hours later, as evening approached, Impmon stormed right back.

The man was still there. Pushing aside the dry grass, Impmon planted his gloved fists on his hip and glowered at the human, suddenly feeling curious to see the face of the idiot who thought it was fun to sleep outside with dangerous monsters like him running around. Feeling a lot braver than before, he marched up to the human. With a lot of grunting and cursing, he shoved at a shoulder and began trying to roll him over in the growing gloom. The human was heavy, several times larger than himself, and Impmon was sweating up a storm by the time he managed to get him onto his side.

Humans tended to (mostly) look the same to Impmon, but something about this one was weirdly familiar. The Rookie rubbed at his chin with one paw, trying to think where he'd seen this one before. This one had a thick head of blond hair and what he realized was an adult face, although he'd be damned if he could figure out the age. He didn't think he'd terrorized this one before, yet the Digimon had a feeling he'd met this one in the past.

It even seemed like he almost knew his name.

Impmon snorted, leaning up against the human's shoulder and poking rudely at his cheek.

"I think I'd remember someone as ugly as ya," he said, sniffing.

The human at that moment decided to suddenly groan. Yelping, Impmon jumped back, stick raised like one of the humans' ridiculous "bat" contraptions, and ready to whack him good. The blond man made another pained sound, but settled back into unconsciousness, leaving the Rookie feeling pretty stupid. And way too curious for his own good. He'd already wasted an entire day with this human – or thinking about him, if you wanted to be all technical about it – and now he wanted answers like who, what, where, and you some kinda joker? Now that he had a goal, Impmon set to work, collecting some sticks and clearing the brush before lighting what humans insisted was a "campfire."

Now he was no expert on human anatomy or how to care for a human, but they did seem to like warmth, especially at night. The stars were starting to come out by the time Impmon came back with a dirty cup he'd picked up full of water (if the human didn't like it, too bad, 'cause that was what he was getting).

Sitting down across from the human with the fire between them, Impmon settled down to wait.

The moon rode high by the time the human (he'd been nicknamed Yellow by now) revived, making that pained sound again. Impmon kept a wary distance:

"Y'gonna sleep there all night too, geez? Might as well get up."

The man moaned, scrunching his eyes shut. Like all humans, this one had very small beady eyes compared to a Digimon, and Impmon couldn't help feeling weirded out looking at them. "W…where am…am I?" Yellow's words was heavily slurred.

Impmon snorted. "Takin' a snooze in some bushes, genius. Y'got some explain' to do, so wake up."

Yellow rolled over after a struggle, clutching his head, and tried to get his wits about him, swaying so much Impmon waited for him to topple over. The man managed to right himself in time to open those beady human eyes of his and look right at his "savior" across the fire.

He froze.

The human's face switched in an instant from confusion to pure hate.

"It's you!" Yellow snarled, and forgot all about his headache.

He went for something in his jacket before realizing whatever he tried to grab, it was gone. Yellow came up empty-handed. A weapon, Impmon guessed, but he had the human covered; a warning fireball sizzled above his hand. So he hadn't been imagining things. The human did know who he was! It occurred to Impmon maybe the human knew him from that gap in his memory, the one he hadn't really worried about too much before, and then he had the terrified thought that maybe Yellow was his "Tamer". Oh no no no.

Impmon stopped at that 'cause if he went down that road much longer, he'd probably have to delete himself out of principle.

"Now I don't know ya, but I'm guessin' we met before," Impmon said. "Didn't think I'd find spare humans lyin' around outside of Tokyo, so ya better start explain' yerself before I get bored."

Yellow glared at him, but grudgingly sat back down, wincing as his headache gave another throb. He was silent for a bit, glaring sullen daggers at the Rookie, before finally answering.

"I'm Yamaki," the man said. He stared at Impmon, as if waiting for recognition. "Does that ring any bells, you worthless scum?"

For an unarmed, helpless human, this Yamaki was definitely pushing Impmon's buttons: considering the fact he didn't have any ground to stand on, and that Impmon could easily fry him where he sat, he was acting real gutsy. Impmon wasn't sure if he should be impressed or just annoyed. Either way, he had the weird feeling he had seen him before, and the name seemed sorta familiar, but thinking back on his life, he couldn't remember being personal with this human.

He settled for a shrug.

Yamaki scowled. Speaking to Impmon must be like having teeth pulled or something. "If you're going to kill me, you might as well get it over with. If 'Nagamora' sent you, you can run back and tell that asshole to do his own dirty work for a change."

Impmon would be lying to say he wasn't tempted. Were all humans this high-strung and angry? He didn't recall the other Digimon's "masters" being like this. Still, Yamaki was only opening up more and more questions and that had some entertainment value, so...

He was about to grill the man when Yamaki exploded.

"You sicken me, you know that?" Yamaki shot to his feet, fighting to maintain his balance and swaying. "You couldn't protect her, so you just ran away like a coward? I can't believe this! Of all the Digimon who should've been deleted, and you're still here, pretending like it never happened!"

Yamaki's face, while flushed with rage earlier, was now growing pale after standing up so fast.

"Maybe I couldn't save her, but I did the next best thing and hunted down the monster who murdered her!" Yamaki shouted. "What were you doing all this time?! She wouldn't have died if you didn't come to her!"

The human looked to have a mind to keep raging, but his body gave out under him: Yamaki's eyes suddenly rolled up and he slumped back down. The humam fell heavily to the ground, cradling his head, panting, the blood drained from his face. Impmon simply stared, shocked at the explosion. What was that all about? Impmon didn't claim to be the most intellectual Digimon to be hatched from a Digi-Egg, but he was pretty sure Yamaki wasn't faking all that hate. And now that he thought about it, didn't that not-Takato Digimon, the one who offered him an ultimatum right before he booked it from Shinjuku, also mention a "past transgression"?

You came into contact with two humans several years ago.

What if Yamaki was one of these humans?

It would explain the way he was acting now and Impmon's own feeling of I know this man.

Impmon hadn't cared about his memory gap before, but now he wanted to at least know some of what happened, even if he didn't remember. But it looked like Yamaki exhausted what strength he had blowing up at him. He wasn't gonna be useful tonight.

"I ain't got those answers," Impmon said. "But now that ya mention it, I wanna hear all the details."

Yamaki glared across the crackling fire at him, his face still deathly pale, even for a human.

"What makes you think I'll be here in the morning?"

Impmon let the fireball in his hand puff out of existence. " 'Cause I'll be makin' sure ya don't get no funny ideas about runnin'. And I'm not gonna kill ya, so yer not goin' anywhere." The Rookie paused. " 'Sides, yer in no shape t'get very far."

Scowling, Yamaki lay back down but didn't go to sleep immediately. Impmon could feel his eyes on him, watching his every move even as the hours ticked away and the moon passed overhead. Impmon made a lot of enemies in the past, but he hadn't ever run up against anyone – Digimon or human – who looked at him like this man. Now he only had to find out why, because this why would explain a lot of things.

Unfortunately, to do that, he had to actually care for this weak, frail human.

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If anything, Yamaki looked to like it even less than Impmon – but, according to the human, he wasn't going to starve himself just to make a point. Yamaki still resisted answering most questions, and what Impmon could get, he had to practically pry out of him. At least he could drink the next time he woke up and, to his credit, the human didn't complain about the water. Obviously he wasn't squeamish about that sorta thing. The next day proved to be just a lot of waiting and wondering how to feed the man without him running off.

It was only when night fell again it finally sunk in for Yamaki that Impmon wasn't faking it. He really didn't remember whatever had happened between them.

The hate was still there – it was permanent, apparently – but Yamaki at least wasn't exploding on him again like a bomb waiting to go off. Instead he lay on the ground, propped up by his suit's jacket, and looked simply drained. Exhausted. Impmon could see the stress lines (yes, even humans had them) on his face, even though he knew by now Yamaki was still fairly young for his species.

Yamaki's voice went flat as he related what he knew.

"I didn't even know about real Digimon until the last few days of her life," Yamaki sighed, closing his eyes. His face was still ashen. "Her name was Junko – my niece."

Junko.

Impmon wanted to say the name was familiar, but it wasn't. The only thing he felt when hearing it was a big hole opening up inside, a feeling of emptiness yawning inside his gut.

Yamaki went on, words as dead as before. "I don't know how you met and I don't care. You were the worst thing to ever happen for her; she wouldn't have been targeted if it wasn't for the fact you two were 'friends'."

Impmon had to butt in. "So waitaminute, yer saying I had a human Tamer?"

"Partner, Tamer, whatever they're calling it now," Yamaki said with a tired sneer. "Doesn't matter. I don't know what you did together, how close you were, or why you chose her to be with. All I know is we were attacked by Musyamon and he killed Junko because of you…and then he laughed about it because you know what? He did it to prove a point and that's that humans and Digimon don't belong together."

Yamaki lapsed into a moment of silence, still nursing the terrible headache he woke up with, and went silent so long Impmon was convinced he'd said all he wanted to say. When he spoke again, he stared up at the night sky, at the stars winking overhead.

"All this time, I've remembered. And you? You not only failed to protect her or give us any warning this was coming, you also avoided having to live with this for so many years," Yamaki said. "The only thing worse is knowing all those years I worked to remove Digimon from my world was a sham."

Impmon didn't know what to say. Yamaki wasn't lying. It still didn't jar any new memories. But just thinking about all these new possibilities opening up was revealing feelings the Rookie wasn't sure he liked. For him of all Digimon to want to be with someone, much less a human…Junko would've had to be special in a way he couldn't even imagine. And whatever he remembered – or didn't remember – it wouldn't matter, because her story had an end. Suddenly remembering everything about this Junko girl wouldn't fix anything.

Somehow Impmon was starting to feel cheated. He couldn't feel sympathy for Yamaki, much less sadness for Junko – a dead human girl who didn't even exist to him and now never would. But Impmon could feel like he'd missed out on something and it felt a lot more healthy to wallow in that than the carefree attitude he'd been parading about back in Tokyo.

Without saying a word, or even caring that Yamaki could escape, Impmon got up and left.

He needed a walk to clear his head 'cause now he was starting to get an idea of the big picture.

He sure didn't like what he saw.

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Dawn broke.

By the time Impmon came stomping through the brush again, he was pretty sure this Junko girl had been targeted by the same group of Digimon who'd given him that threat of join-us-or-die. Try as he might, his memories of her and what happened were a no-go. That hollow feeling still remained, as well as a vague desire to get back somehow.

The problem with wanting to get back was you needed some specific names and faces.

To Impmon's surprise, Yamaki was still right where he'd left him. And, furthermore, the human happened to have those very names and faces Impmon needed.

"Why do you care?" was the first thing Yamaki spat out, this time with more of his old fire.

Impmon crossed his arms. "Who said I did?" he shot back testily. "Jus' tell me what y'know and we call it quits. Ya hate me and I don't like ya, so we're even."

Yamaki thought about it for a moment.

"If I tell you, what will you do with the information?"

"I ain't no fan of humans, but I hate other Digimon telling me what to do even more," Impmon said. "So I'm gonna teach them a lesson."

Yamaki stared. And then, unexpectedly, he smirked. "If you couldn't teach Musyamon, a Champion-level, a lesson, than what hope do you have attacking the big ones? You were pathetic then. You're just as pathetic now."

Impmon just barely resisted the urge to torch Yamaki right there. He hadn't ever felt so angry as he was when this human started baiting him on already-sore spots. He took in a deep breath like he'd seen Renamon do when he was jerking her chain, and managed to rein it in. Surprisingly, it worked.

"Says you?" Impmon said. "I ain't the one gettin' dumped out in the middle of nowhere like yesterday's trash."

The human's eyes narrowed. "I was betrayed. And once I get back, I'll fix the mistake I made.

He struggled to get to his feet as if he intended to go marching back right this very second. Impmon pushed him down, jumping back just barely to miss Yamaki's angry swat.

"Ya ain't goin' nowhere without tellin' me what I wanna know."

Yamaki stared at him. "You better be aiming to delete them entirely. If you fail or don't take it all the way, I'll hunt you down myself."

And the human was dead serious. Impmon might not be as much of an expert on humans as those Digi-Slaves, but he knew enough to know some of their basic emotions. Yamaki wasn't betraying any signs of human nervousness, no avoiding eye-contact, no wide eyes or sweat. He was sure about this in a way that was actually even a little scary, never mind he was the one lying wounded. There wasn't any ifs or ands with this one. If he said he was going to dedicate everything to hunting him down, then he definitely would. A far cry from those Tamers, but he supposed these were qualities that would get him what he wanted.

It looked like he was gonna be stuck with this human, at least for now.

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Yamaki was up and walking within a few days of "care" under his reluctant babysitter. The human still had a hard time walking in a straight line but at least he could stand up and stay up. Impmon didn't know what happened to him: he didn't ask the details. Yamaki didn't provide them.

The trek back to Tokyo took some time, especially with an injured human in tow. Humans were so delicate it was downright ridiculous sometimes. Where Impmon would've just hopped his way through some rocks – or, better yet, blown them out of the way – he had to instead wait for Yamaki to find another way around. Or pick his way through them, which was hard enough to watch, because it was like waiting for a Digi-Egg to hatch. It was times like that when he wondered how humans could ever put the Digital World at risk…but then he remembered that there were millions of humans in the Real World and it just brought it closer to home that humans were still dangerous as a whole.

Impmon still couldn't believe he was even paired up with one, even if it was temporary. He felt positively disgusted with himself.

And no matter how many times he tried to remember anything about Junko, there was nothing at all.

She was just a stranger. He wouldn't have known she existed at all if it wasn't for the death glares he knew Yamaki threw in his direction all the time. For a man who looked like he should be keeling over, Yamaki hadn't made even a peep of complaint. In fact, the only thing important to him seemed to be moving to their destination and glaring daggers at Impmon. He ate what Impmon gave him and didn't ask where it was from; he didn't appear to care, so long as he got back to Tokyo. Nothing seemed to faze him. The human alternated between a weirdly cold mask and hate, depending on whatever he happened to be thinking about.

Whatever it was, he seriously had a one-track mind.

But even he could be distracted. It was when they finally reached the outskirts of Tokyo that Impmon saw the human actually surprised for the first time. Yamaki limped a few feet forward through the shimmering air – a shimmering he couldn't see but Impmon could – and suddenly found himself turned around and back where he started. Trying it again, he found it happening over and over. Impmon snickered at him.

"Still can't walk in a straight line?" he asked and didn't bother to hide the sarcasm.

Yamaki shot him a glare. "It's not me, you idiot."

Impmon smirked. "There's no way you're gettin' through that," he said, pointing at the shimmer in the air. "Your pals got it blocked off."

Yamaki tried again. And once more found himself turned around facing the opposite way. Impmon thought he was lucky, all things considered. This barrier wasn't deadly – but he doubted it was because the Digimon in charge really cared for the humans. Something non-lethal was bound to attract less attention than bodies all over the place. Impmon hopped down from his rock and headed off, staying just beyond the shimmering wall, leaving Yamaki to limp after him, his anger and frustration trailing after him like a solid thing. There had to be a way through this, if only for his own sanity. Yamaki was even more of a pessimist than he was, and he really, really didn't bother trying to cover up his hate for him. Whatever happened to this Junko girl? It was beyond his control and, to be truthful, Impmon couldn't find anything in him to care or even feel sad, assuming she really had been his "Tamer".

If Yamaki was looking for an apology – or any reaction at all – he wasn't gonna get one.

And that just seemed to piss him off even more.

Impmon knew he could easily overpower the human…but he decided to keep his distance all the same.

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It was about a day into the search around the barrier before Yamaki said something that wasn't insulting…well, wasn't as insulting as it could be.

"Maybe I can't get through," he said. He was back in that clinically detached mode of his – Impmon was finding out it was the only way he seemed to deal with things if he got really angry. "But if your kind," said with particular venom, "made this, then your kind can probably get through. You have to lead me through the barrier."

Impmon tossed another twig onto the campfire. He still didn't trust the human enough not to keep the fire between them. "What makes you think that'd work? I jus' wasted the day attackin' it and I got zip and zilch outta it. We don't even know if it's keyed to certain Digimon or what."

He'd thrown everything he could at it. The worst part was that he'd failed not just himself, but also failed hard in front of Yamaki. Not that he even cared what this dumb human thought, but it was still pretty humiliating to have an audience watch you crash and burn. What was worse was that the human made it perfectly clear just how little he thought of him, which was fine and all except Impmon was doing all the dirty work here while Yamaki went about being his weakened, injured self. Basically, being human.

Still wonderin' why I even bothered rescuin' him. Pain in the butt.

It was one of those things he was sure he'd be asking himself over and over when this was all over.

Yamaki gazed into the fire. "We've got to try."

Impon couldn't argue with that. It wasn't like he had any better ideas.

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The barrier was huge. There was no way to walk around it without it taking weeks.

Even through the shimmering haze, Impmon could see the damaged city. Rubble was everywhere, poles lying shattered on the streets. Off in the distance, water shot up into the air in a towering fountain jetting up in powerful surges. If they were gonna make it through, they'd have to head back and try to enter closer to a street – if Yamaki was having trouble with normal terrain, he didn't think it'd be a good idea to drag the human through downed power lines and collapsed buildings. They eventually found a side street that looked clear enough. Glancing at the human at his side, Impmon saw the tic of muscle in his jaw, a sure sign he was trying to suppress his rage and keep calm. Yamaki wasn't doing as good a job as he thought. He was getting antsy just standing next to the guy.

"I ain't holdin' yer hand," Impmon said suddenly.

Yamaki stared at him with such intensity that Impmon felt foolish.

He shrugged and took a step toward the barrier just as Yamaki did. He had a sensation of something cold passing over him in a gust of frost, trying to steal his breath away and almost succeeding. A hand pushed through, grabbing roughly at his paw and jerking him through so hard his arm felt like it'd come off. The next thing Impmon knew, he was lying on Yamaki's legs, wheezing, frost covering his muzzle. Yamaki's face, normally deathly pale, was tinged a slight blue, his hand just as icy cold to the touch as Impmon felt. But even then, the human was still glaring at the Rookie, his mouth a thin line, expression plain as day screaming get-the-hell-off-me. Impmon pushed himself off, more to get away than do him any favors. His fangs still chattered.

But they were through.

Impmon didn't know how he was going to take on their enemies. He was only a Rookie.

But the anger, the feeling of having something stolen from him…it gave him a sense of purpose he hadn't had in a long time. Impmon didn't have to like Yamaki. But he did have to use him and he knew Yamaki felt the same way. They needed each other to get what they wanted. With this human's help, as annoying as the thought was, maybe he had a chance of getting some payback.

To be continued...

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