Something had happened last night after Takuya had left him. Koichi could feel it; he knew it the moment he'd woken up to Koji slumped in a chair by the bedroom door. He knew it when Izumi had greeted him stiffly in the kitchen area before returning her teeth to her nails, most of which were already chewed back to the quick. And he knew it when both had tried to delay his departure for Dorian's room, where the five Digidestined had been checking in every morning. But perhaps the biggest sign, the thing that prevented any sort of "poor nights sleep" dismissal, was finding Takuya awake at 6:00 AM and at Dorian's side.

The Warrior of Flam looked ragged, face and frame both wired with uncharacteristic strain, black bags hung under his eyes like badges of suffering. He didn't smile when Koichi walked in, didn't respond with anything more substantial than a grunt to his ritualistic morning inquiries. Takuya didn't look or act like himself; all traces of the friend who'd come to comfort him the night before were gone. This new Takuya was all wrong, rage and panic drowning out any other empathic readings the dark twin might've gleaned. All of which brought fear into Koichi's gut, souring any chance at eating breakfast.

"What's going on," he asked, trying and failing to sound casual. Gingerly, he reached out with his mind, probing for the nonverbal/visual cues in which he'd grown fluent. Worry was normal, but what saturated the room was past worry. Even Dorian, who was usually quite good at shielding himself, leaked a concerned giddiness.

"Nothing," Izumi answered too fast, wiping her hands nervously on her lilac skirt. Koichi frowned at her, his searching eyes passing over her face, taking in the tightness in her jaw and general fatigue of her features. His gaze moved to Takuya and Dorian as the two exchanged meaningful stares, then settled on Koji. Only his brother met his eye, giving him the resolve to press forward.

"I thought we agreed not to keep any more secrets," he tried, feeling the warmth crash out of the air. "Whatever it is, you can tell me."

"Well…" Once again Izumi tried tact, starting off awkwardly as she searched for the right words and something other than Koichi to stare at. She didn't seem to have much success in either endeavor. "The rest of us, well, we didn't want to disturb you, but we… talked."

"About," Koichi pressed, unsure if the tightness in his stomach was his own or the result of the room's toxic air.

"There's been a development," Dorian interjected, extracting himself from whatever silent conversation he'd been having with Takuya to meet the dark twin's inquiries. "The details are unimportant."

"Unimportant," Takuya repeated in a malevolent undertone. Dorian continued over him.

"However, it did force us to reconsider our options with respect to gaining insight into Tache's operation."

Fear made Koichi pale. His breath went shallow and sickness gnawed at his stomach as he met that ice blue gaze, and found he couldn't hold it.

"Koji," he tried, forcing uncertainty into his voice. "What happened?"

"Nii-san," Koji sighed, unfolding his arms and approaching his twin. "We have no leads, no idea what Tache's plans are or how it's going to carry them out. Whereas Tache knows everything there is to know about us, our strengths, our goals, how to exploit our weaknesses. This isn't like the Digital World; we can't fight with force, we need knowledge. I think you understand that."

"No… You can't mean… Koji tell me what happened! Something terrible must've happened to make you all like this!"

"It doesn't matter what happened," Takuya spat with a venom that didn't belong in his voice. "What matters is that we're flying blind and that's just not good enough any more. What matters is that we need information and you are the only one who can get it!"

"Takuya…" Koichi shrank away from him as if struck, backing to Koji's side. The Warrior of Flame met his soft, navy eyes and his wrath faltered. He ground his teeth, taking a deep breath.

"I'm sorry. I didn't have an easy night," he offered, looking away. Play it cool. Koichi's like a cat: if you scare him off he will come back, but only if he thinks it's both sufficiently safe and worth the risk. A forced grin twisted his lips as he squeezed out a laugh. "It's still to early for me."

"It's a little early for all of you," Koichi responded after a moment of consideration, guarded, but hopeful. He didn't want to feel under attack. He didn't want to fear his friends. There was a short silence in which they could almost hear the dark twin swallow. "Is whatever happened last night really unimportant? Or are you just trying to spare me something?"

"You don't need to hear it," Izumi tried softly, slipping over to Takuya's side and placing her hand on his shoulder. "Really, you don't. It literally was just a spark that got us talking and…" She trailed off, looking around for some assistance. Koji pursed his lips, coming around to face his brother.

"Koichi, this is your choice," he said decisively. "I don't want you to feel like we're pressuring you into anything."

The stillness was deafening. Everyone held their breath, waiting for what came next. Waiting for the world to fall apart.

"Don't ask me to do this." His voice was barely more than a whisper, his navy eyes wide and gleaming. "It scares me, Koji. Don't put me through this."

"You make it sound like we're asking you to walk into Tache's lair itself," snorted Dorian, rolling his eyes at the dramatics. Izumi shot him a reprimanding look, but he brushed her off. "When all we want is for you to take a look into its mind. We'll all be there, watching, ready to pull the plug at the first sign of trouble because we don't want to see you out of control any more than you do. Hell, I'll even hold your hand myself if that would make you feel more… comfortable."

Koichi didn't dignify that with a response. He kept his eyes on Koji, pressing against his will, trying to communicate his meaning as cohesively as possible. He couldn't go back there, he just couldn't.

"We know it's a lot to ask," Izumi added, trying to calm both Koichi's nerves and the tension she could feel building in Takuya's muscles. "But people are suffering, Koichi."

"I know that," he snapped, moving his gaze to Izumi and side stepping his brother. "Better than any of you."

"We have to at least try!"

"Don't you think I want to! I wish you could just hook me up to some magical machine and solve all our problems, I really do! That's not how this works. I see what it wants me to see, then I do what it wants me to do. I can't not, I can't fight what's already inside me, I won't even try to deny that anymore. If you'd asked me when this began my answer might've been different but now I know better. I don't like being locked up in here behind iron bars and chicken mesh but I understand that this is the only way. I don't enjoy telling you no again and again, but someone has to stop this madness before it starts!"

"Nii-san, please! Just think about it a little; we would all be there and, like Dorian said, we could shut it off in an instant if things start to get out of hand. Three times now Tache has tried to get to you and three times now you've fought him off, and that was without any help at all! I don't like Dorian's machine either, but at least it gives us a say. At least it gives us a chance."

"I am not disputing that," Koichi murmured, so that really only Koji could understand him. "I'm saying that, if I go in there, if I see that ocean again… I can feel it eating away at me, calling me, whispering at the edge of my mind when I sleep. If I give it what it wants one more time, I may not be me anymore. If I use that chair, I might not come back."

"Okay," Koji nodded, biting his lip and placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Okay."

He looked back at the rest of the Digidestined, all clustered around Dorian's table, and gave his head a small shake. No. Takuya tore away from Izumi and slammed his fist into the table, so hard it made everyone jump. Dorian raised his eyebrows and looked off at the wall, running his tongue over the front of his teeth. Already scheming. Izumi made eye contact with Koji, giving him a defeated, warning look, her hands pale balls at her sides. The light twin nodded again, turning to his severely shaken brother and grabbing his shoulders. Koichi, for his part, was trying to keep a blank face and a brave façade. He just didn't understand the question or the consequences. Didn't understand why the only people he really trusted had accosted him all of a sudden. But he'd given the wrong answer, that much was obvious. Koji steered him out of the room and down a floor to the apartment directly below, his presence like a lighthouse in the mist, guiding him to safety.