Daichi: More Digimon, more trauma, what's not to like?

Tsukaimon: You're missing 'more fun'.

Verity: And this is why we don't own things. It just doesn't work out.

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Lalamon couldn't fly very well, over the desert. The dry heat sapped her energy and made her weak. Ib didn't mind. Her partner was small enough to carry without much difficulty. No, it was being in this situation in the first place that bothered her.

The group hadn't meant to go out into the desert. But Tai had rushed out, and the others had followed him without thinking, and now they were lost in the rows of endless dunes.

"Hey, Mimi, you have a compass, right?" Joe checked. The girl in pink pulled out the object in question.

"Yeah, about that…" The needle was now spinning around and around, which probably said something about the contents of the sand, but Ib wasn't entirely sure what that was.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine!" The reason for their predicament shrugged it off. She almost wished she could be so carefree, aside from the fact that she simply couldn't afford it. Someone had to take care of the others, after all.

"Just wait until you're dying of thirst, that'll change your mind pretty quickly," She commented. Thankfully, she hadn't been trapped in the Gallery long enough for it to be a concern- actually, come to think of it, those Eternal Blessings could be used as a source if she'd had to, couldn't they?- but she was reliably informed that it was painful.

"Please don't joke about that…" Joe sighed. "It's bad enough as it is, stop making it worse!"

"Yeah, he has a point," Matt agreed. "Isn't that just a bit… you know… morbid?"

"Maybe a little," Ib admitted. But she'd needed something to keep her mind off of the painful reality that was being trapped in an unfamiliar world. Maybe this time, they'd get through it without any deaths.

...Well, she could dream, anyway.

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The Pyocomon village. A place in the middle of the desert with food, water, and shelter. Ib couldn't have found a better place if she'd tried. Mostly due to her lack of geography knowledge, but that was besides the point.

One of her rules for safely navigating other worlds was to try and avoid being outnumbered if possible. That way, any betrayal could be handled without an immediate disadvantage.

Not that advantage of numbers was a surefire victory. But there was a better chance of her side of the fight having survivors, and that was all she really wanted. Preferably, it'd be more than just her this time.

Unfortunately, Ib realized that advantage of numbers simply wasn't going to happen today, even if she took the partners as automatically being on the same side as their human. And food and water were important, if only because they were in the middle of a desert. Starvation, dehydration, freezing, and heat stroke were all very real dangers there, and none of them had a lot of wilderness survival knowledge.

In her case, it was a terrible oversight that she'd have to rectify as soon as possible. For now, though, she would walk through the village with Lalamon and keep an eye on everything. Just in case.

"So, how did you Digivolve?" She heard a Pyocomon ask. Pausing, she turned to see that Sora and Biyomon were nearby, though the bird didn't seem to notice her partner's presence.

"Well, I'm not really sure. But I think it was because Sora needed me! The two of us have a magical bond."

"Magic, huh…?" Ib shook her head. "No, that can't be it."

"Why not?" Lalamon asked.

"That's just not how it works. I don't get hurt if you're hurt. If I give you power, then why?"

"I don't know," The plant creature in her arms admitted. "I just know that I wouldn't be here without you."

"What do you mean?"

"You're the reason I exist. I'm not sure why, but… I guess that's why we need each other." Ib wanted to deny it, but really, what was the point? They both knew she wasn't anywhere near powerful enough to fight the things that kept attacking her and the others. No, if she made it through this alive, it would be due to Lalamon.

She hated it. She hated having to rely on another for her survival. She hated that she might, one day, have to send her Digimon friend to her death, in order to save herself.

And she especially hated the fact that the little pink thing would likely be entirely willing to go through with it.

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Ib didn't like watching the Digimon fight. Standing at the top of a ship on the bottom of an empty lake was something not many got to experience, and yet, there she was.

It wasn't an improvement over watching Greymon and Garurumon's battles. Meramon and Birdramon were specks at the edge of her vision, and she couldn't even see the fire, let alone reassure herself that Sora's partner was going to be just fine. And that was what she needed the most. Reassurance.

"Um… are you okay?" It was the little kid. T.K., Matt's brother. "It'll be fine, Digivolving's always worked before!"

"It might not, this time," She replied, as quietly as she could.

"What makes you think that?" Patamon asked.

"That's just how life works. Some things work out, others don't. Yes, we've always been just strong enough to win- but only just. One day, it might not end so well."

"What are you talking about?" Gomamon waddled up to them, his human partner not far behind. "Don't you trust us?"

"That's not the problem, Gomamon," Joe said. "Even if I'm not really sure of the answer…"

"She has to trust me, at least!" Lalamon insisted. "I'm her partner!"

"It's not a question of trust," Ib ground out. "It's just… reality. Bad things happen, and you can't always do anything to stop them, no matter how much you might wish otherwise."

"Ib… was hurt, in her past. A lot," Joe tried to explain. Given the fact that she didn't tell him everything, and that their audience was basically a pack of children, she wasn't sure he'd be able to get the point across that well. "She thought someone was her friend, she wasn't, and it ended… badly."

There was a pause, before T.K. spoke again. "Are you sure this isn't about trust?"

Well, he wasn't entirely wrong. But even if it was a question about trust, the exact wording was something very different from what Gomamon had asked.

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Izzy was still trying to get his computer to work. From what Joe could hear as he lay on the ground nearby, he wasn't having much luck. He didn't want to disturb the other boy, instead pushing himself up to look at everyone else, sprawled out around the village. With one exception.

He'd like to say that he knew Ib rather well. Years of being each other's only friends would do that. He knew why she did the things she did, the reason the doodles in the margins of her notebooks unnerved her, how she would react to just about anything mundane life had to throw at a couple of kids who didn't see the need to venture far from home, and preferred companionable silence to drawn-out discussions.

But there was a difference, between knowing something and fully understanding it, which was probably why she could still surprise him.

"You're still up?" He found himself asking, weaving through the tiny houses to join her at the lakeside.

"Someone has to be."

"I don't really know about that." He shrugged. "I mean, you didn't even bring Lalamon with you."

"Do you really think she'd be able to stay up this long?" She sighed, turning over a lighter in her hand. Joe considered saying something about that, but thought better of it. Now wasn't the time to dredge up memories.

"You really should get some more sleep. I don't think this is healthy."

"And your studying habits are?" He laughed, because Ib had a point. He did tend to overwork himself, though he was always stopped before it got too far. And getting into an argument over that wouldn't change things.

Not that he wanted things to change, at the moment. Sure, they weren't great, but… they could be far worse. At least they had a night of peace.

Hopefully, things would start to get better soon.

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Daichi: ...Oh, now I remember why I thought these two would be good friends. She gets him to mellow out, while he can stop her from diving so deep into paranoid planning that she never comes out.

Verity: Admittedly, that's not saying all that much. For either of them. Which is why you usually try and keep the cynics apart. It's just that they're actually willing to put up with each other.