There was a long, tight silence as everyone considered what he'd said, some with confusion and others with grim certainty. He offered no further explanation, just stared them all down with a coldness that could rival Koji. Finally, with a pained groan, Koichi pushed himself off the wall. His head fell forward into his open palms and he shivered, curling his fingers in his hair. He looked like he was going to be sick.

"It's me, isn't it," he said coolly. There was a forced relaxation in his body that somehow made the situation even more tense. "That's why this is happening. You're saying he wants me, right?"

Dorian's mouth twisted in a cruel mockery of a smile. "I guess you'd know it better than me. What with being Its creator and all."

"That's enough," snapped Koji.

"No, it's not," he spat back, his gaze never leaving Koichi. "Why do you think I came here? You think I wanted to work with you? Please, this isn't about the fellowship of Digidestined; you guys are going to do nothing but slow me down. The fact of the matter is that when your Chosen of Darkness here died, his soul or whatever merged with the Spirit of Darkness on a level that nobody had even thought possible and that caused a fracture in the way Digimon relate to humanity.

"His hatred merged with the corruption of the Spirit and created a new entity, a new intelligence that endured your cycle's purification and the next and the next and absorbed more and more of the Digital World's evil at each step until it was concentrated enough to hop worlds as well as bodies. What may have started as a spat between siblings has grown to encompass the entirety of human depravity and now it's decided it wants to be whole again. You're right, it wants its body back and God help us if it manages to get it! So do not lecture me about what is and isn't enough. You have no idea what's at stake here- hell, you don't even know what we're up against."

"You think we're incompetent, don't you," muttered Takuya resentfully. He pushed off the wall and advanced on Dorian. "You think we should have know this was going to happen, that somehow we should have known Duskmon and Lowemon weren't like the other Digimon, and prevented him from evolving like he did. Why don't you just come out and say it; you blame us for what's happened and you plan on using Koichi as bait!"

"Bait," laughed Dorian, flipping hair out of his eyes. "That would imply we have some measure of control over the situation, which is fundamentally untrue. It doesn't matter what we do or don't do, if we dangle your Chosen of Darkness on a line or lock him away in the safest place imaginable, Tache wants him. That means Tache will get him, if he has to attack a million times in a million ways. Today's little adventure should have proven that to you."

"Then why are you here," said Izumi in a strained voice, looking like she wanted to slap him but, through sheer force of will, held herself in check. "If it's so hopeless, then why are you here! Why did you help us back in that alley!"

There was the sound of someone chuckling softly, the usually pleasant noise slashing through the room like sand on the wind. Koichi's shoulders shook as he laughed, his eyes still buried in his hands, his smile wide and almost manic.

"Isn't it obvious," he said mirthlessly. "If the human brain was as open a system as the Digital World, then he'd already be in me. He would have just possessed me in that alley way and been done with it. But that's not how it works, is it Dorian? That's why they needed a sample of my cerebrospinal fluid.

"In the Digital World he was like a virus, infecting everything, spreading from Digimon to Digimon as if they were cells. And killing an infected cell doesn't get rid of the virus. But here, in the Human World, the laws are different. Here he's just another parasite and all you have to do is wait until he's inside me. Watch the host, watch the parasite. Kill the host, kill the parasite, right?"

Koji shot to his feet, abandoning his brother's side and advancing on Dorian, but Dorian held up his hands in a calming gesture, smiling coolly.

"I won't deny that that's part of it; however, I'm not quite as heartless as you seem to think." His tone was patronizing, but his words were sincere. His gaze settled on Koichi and he spoke candidly. "Letting Tach have you, then killing you may be the easiest way to solve the problem. Based on what I've seen so far, your friends don't seem particularly well equipped to protect you anyway."

Izumi leapt up, putting a restraining hand on Koji's shoulder and shooting Takuya a reproachful look. Both boys had gone taught with indignant anger and looked ready to rip Dorian limb from limb. She had half a mind to let them, repeating over and over that this French ass would probably be helpful in the long run. Dorian's grin widened as his eyes swept the room.

"But keeping Tache out of you would be an equally effective solution. In my experience, Tache's bodies only last for so long before the darkness erodes them to nothing. Keep it in the same body for long enough and it'll kill itself."

"What's to say he-Tache, won't just keep switching bodies when they start to… break down," asked Izumi, still holding onto Koji.

"Tache exists in our world as energy- as a signal, and signals degrade. It's like any transfer in a 'real' system, you loose some in the process. It's in our world, so it has to play by our rules. Assuming it doesn't get into a stabilizing host, eventually there won't be enough of Tache left to body hop. And the only stabilizing host is the mind that created it. Which we have. Right here. In our possession."

"He's not a thing," hissed Koji. His gaze was on fire, his fists clenched. "He's a person and his name is Kimura Koichi. And he's my brother, so you should really start treating him like one."

"Look, I did my research. I know that the Chosen of Darkness is your twin brother and you 'saved' him from the Spirits of Darkness and he gave up what was left of his life for you, yada, yada. But if you want to protect him now, then you- all of you, need to accept the fact that, for our purposes, he's just a signal receiver. Like an antenna specially designed to accept and amplify anything on Tache's wavelength. At the core, that's what dying in the Digital World did to him. That's what his… abilities are.

"Surely you guys have noticed that he knows what your feeling. That sometimes your thoughts overshadow him with out you even trying. And you're all just background noise he picks up because you're close to him. Imagine what would happen if something was actively attempting to take over. If he can't keep you, his friends, out of his head, what chance does he stand against Tache? It's not his fault, but he can't control what suggestions or even personalities are projected onto his consciousness. And his mind is going to recognize anything from Tache as 'self-thoughts' the way the immune system recognizes self-cells because Tache came from him."

"I'm right here," growled Koichi in an uncharacteristically annoyed tone. All eyes turned to him as he lifted his head to glare back. "Don't talk about me as if I'm not."

Koichi rolled back his shoulders and turned his body, his face betraying only a small portion of his anger. Actually, in that moment, he looked a lot like Koji. So much so that both Takuya and Izumi stole a glance ant the twin of light, looking for signs that he might be overshadowing his brother. Koichi's eyes narrowed as he stood up. His skin was pale and damp with sweat, but his face was set in rigid determination.

"Don't treat me as if I'm not in control. I am myself. Me. Yes, sometimes Koji's really loud inside my head and yes, sometimes things slip through. And I'm not going to pretend like I don't know Duskmon's out there calling to me; I felt him pull me into that alley earlier today, I know there's something inside me he still has a hold on."

Izumi's hand instinctively shot to her mouth, as if trying to catch the squeak of unease that threatened to burst from her throat. Koji's jaw, if possible, tightened, his teeth almost audibly grinding against each other. Dorian continued to look unimpressed and unfazed, though there was a spark in his cold blue eyes that was impossible to characterize. Koichi took note of everything before continuing.

"But that's something I can ignore and I won't be fooled a second time! I'm no one's puppet!"

"That's all very well and good," said Dorian, playing with his white scarf. "But clearly it's already started to influence your behavior. And this thing's controlled you before. How can you be so sure it won't again? How can you guarantee it won't lure you back?"

"I was 12," Koichi retorted tersely. His expression was a mixture of indignation, anger, and genuine hurt. "I was 12 and terrified and vulnerable and dead. Yes, it was stupid to accept the Spirit, but I didn't actually have much of a choice in the matter. I did need to be saved, from Cherubimon, but more importantly, I needed to be saved from myself. I made a horrible, world-shattering mistake; I admit that. I wasn't strong enough to resist him then… But I'm not that naïve little boy anymore. And if you think for one second that I'm just going to stand by and let Duskmon take over again, let him hurt my brother and my friends again, then that's just a testament to how little you know about me."

His entire body was trembling and he continued to pale as he spoke, looking more and more like he was going to either collapse or vomit. Koji wanted desperately to stabilize him, to push him back to the floor or at least reach out and hold him up. However, the waves of pride emanating from his twin held him at bay. It hurt, and his body would regret it later, but Koichi was going to do this on his own. He was always stronger than any of them gave him credit for. Dorian looked at him, his expression unreadable. Then, with a sigh, he got up, pushing the chair back under the table and readjusting his scarf and jacket.

"It's late and I have another appointment to keep," he said casually. He moved towards the door, opened it, then paused. Another sigh slid through his nostrils and he turned back, fishing around in his pocket and pulled out a little black box.

"Here, this is the cell phone I found in the alley. With any luck we can use it to track those men, see how involved they were with Tache, that sort of thing. Since you all obviously don't trust me yet, I'll leave it with you. As a token of good faith. We can strategize tomorrow afternoon, when you're all out of school. Saturday's are half-days, right?"

He tossed it to Koji and then turned to leave again.

"Hey," growled Koichi, balling his fists and staring at him through his bangs.

"Don't be so dramatic," Dorian chided, rolling his eyes and glancing back over his shoulder. "I have no doubt you're going to fight it, maybe even with everything you've got. And I'm sure you believe you can do this on your own, but the truth is that ultimately you're going to loose and then the world will be over. Which would be fine with me except that I made a promise to someone very important. A promise I refuse to break. So like it or not, you're stuck with me. Sorry if that hurts your feelings."

And then he was gone. Koichi's balance wavered and he leaned back against the wall for support, releasing the breath he'd been holding. His fingertips pressed against the cool paint with such force they went white, and it was clear that every fiber of his body just wanted to collapse into a useless heap, yet still he refused to let it. Koji made a move towards him, but Koichi held him back with a hard look.

"I'm sorry," he said in a low, deliberate voice. "I didn't mean to cause you all so much trouble."

"You don't have to be sorry, Koichi," chastised Izumi, moving over to Takuya and taking his hand. "This isn't your fault. It's not anybody's fault, just part of being Digidestined, I guess."

"Yeah buddy," Takuya added, his voice returning to its usually bright tenor now that Dorian was gone. "Don't listen to that Dorian jerk, everything's gonna be fine. I mean, we beat Duskmon once, right? We can do it again, no problem!"

"But we didn't beat Duskmon before," whispered Koichi, allowing his eyes to close. "It was arrogant of us to think we had. It was naïve of me to think I'd ever really be free of him…" He shook his head, his lips twisting into a faint, ironic smile. "I guess even after everything Cherubimon told me, all the twisted lies he made me believe, a part of me still thought finding Koji would solve everything."

"It did," said Koji firmly, ignoring the earlier glare and stepping forward, grabbing his shoulders. His twin shuddered under his touch, refusing to look at him. "You're not alone this time, Koichi. I'm not going to let what happened then happen now."

"None of us are," added Izumi. There was a flat note in her voice; his apparent lack of confidence in them hurt her. "We'll call Junpei and Tomoki in the morning and-"

"I'd prefer you didn't," Koichi cut in, staring at the ground. "Please, don't misunderstand; I appreciate you all, your friendship and your support, but I don't want any of you involved. I don't want Duskmon to harm you ever again, do you understand? You three are already here and I know there's nothing I can do or say that would make you leave, but I can still protect Junpei and Tomoki. If they knew what was happening, I know they'd both want to come help me. They'd want to drop whatever they're doing and take the first plane back but they can't. Neither of them has the resources to return right now and telling them Duskmon's back would only be torture."

He licked his lips slowly, focusing very hard on standing up. Koji could feel his brother grow less stable with every passing minute like nails in his mind. He tried to reach out with his thoughts, prop up his brother that way, but the mental hand was smacked away.

"Dorian's right, this is my mess and I would rather clean it up on my own," said Koichi sharply. "I know I can't ask any of you to let me do that, but please don't involve the others. I can only take so many people worrying about me."

Reluctantly, Koji nodded, lifting his hands off of Koichi's shoulders and turning to Izumi and Takuya. The former looked severely deflated, the expressed desire to reject her help hitting her harder than any actual rejection could, and the latter looked thoroughly confused. Koji understood their feelings better than he understood his brothers. Truth be told, none of them could really empathize with Koichi's position or his request. They'd all done things they weren't proud of, created monsters, but their demons didn't hunt them the way Koichi's did. They'd all been able to accept that "evil" part of themselves in a way Koichi never could. Yet they were all still Koichi's friends and, comprehensible or no, that made his problems their problems.

"We should call it a night," said Koji after a long pause. Problems had to be dealt with in order of decreasing urgency. Right now, Koichi's biggest problem was that he was going to pass out. They all knew it. "Our mom's gonna be home soon and it would be great if you guys could not be here. She definitely doesn't need anything else to worry about and the lack of Koichi's 'welcome home' tea and dinner is going to be suspicious enough."

"I can-"

"No," Koji cut his brother off. "I can make dinner. It's nowhere near as good as yours, but I can actually cook. You're going to bed and you two are going to head home. I have a feeling we're digging ourselves into a very deep pit and it would be better to keep this all a secret, especially from our families. We can meet up at the usual place tomorrow: the park by Shibuya station. Dorian can just figure out where we are."

Takuya and Koji exchanged looks and, with a single nod, Takuya turned to leave, dragging Izumi with him.

"Come on," he said lightly. "Koji's got a point; I need to get you home before your dad calls the police on me for kidnapping."

"But," protested Izumi, looking back at Koichi. He met her gaze tiredly, offering a small smile.

"I'll be fine."