I don't own digimon.

Characters: Joe/Homeostasis

Universe: Tri

Notes: Yes. I'm revisting this one. Mostly because it hasn't aged the greatest and was written before Tri finished. Though, most of the changes are just minor grammar stuff on top of a new ending. One that I prefer a lot more.

Do have something planned for 99th and 100th chapters of this, though. As for what those will be, you'll just have to wait and see.

Chapter 98

Joe's Girlfriend (Remastered)

Joe Kido had grown used to 'weird'.

While not listed in the 'job description' of a digidestined, it was quite heavily implied. Of course, that still didn't make all the strange happenings that occurred on these sorts of journeys any less confusing or understandable. Quite the opposite in fact - always seeming to make things more complicated than it needed to be.

"Hello, Kari Kamiya."

Joe gazed about the room. Try as he might, the source of the voice eluded him.

"Uh hi?" the digidestined greeted, focus shifting to a still sleeping Gomamon. Currently, his partner cuddling up in the dog bed he had recently bought. It was just the right size, perfect for a noon nap and dreaming about something. "What's your name?"

A ghostly, featureless head 'burst' forth from his chest. While he tried to break free from this strange phenomenon, his body refused to take the orders he was giving it for the moment.

"I am Homeostasis, the balancer of two worlds." the voice explained, gazing about the room. "Wait, you're not her."

Joe made a glance down towards the head and tried his hardest to not freak out. He doubted that freaking out what actually do anything, considering hs body was frozen in place currently.

"Uh… Is there a female body in here that wouldn't mind me possessing them?" Homeostasis inquired, only for Joe to glance down at her one more time. While there was no real pain in having this 'entity' in his body, what would happen if it disappeared from him and headed off for his mom? What would she do to her? Sure, nothing bad had happened when Kari had gotten possessed. Except for getting a cold right after.

So he took a deep breath.

"Um… My mom might be nearby." the digidestined explained, Homeostasis flying out of his chest. She didn't get that far, reaching the door and slamming into the hunk of wood. "Let me get that for you."

He got up from his bed and pulled the door open. Homeostasis rushed right through, banging against the walls as she dashed through the apartment. A few minutes later, Joe's mother came rushing in. She looked all glazed over, as if she had a bit too much drink in the kitchen but at the same time was somehow managing to hold it all together.

"I have returned." Homeostasis announced as she made her way back into Joe's room. "I promise to put her back where I found her, of course."

"Okay…" Joe answered, sitting himself back down on his bed. Sure, his chair was probably more comfortable. But it left him nowhere near the eye level of Homeostasis at the moment. "Would you mind if I ask you some questions?"

Homeostasis sighed, only to follow it up with a deep breath.

"I guess." she whispered and made a glance to the right. There, Gomamon continued to slumber. Looked quite peaceful for the moment. For as cute as he was in that moment, it did little for whatever heart she may have.

"What do you think of the digidestined as a whole?"

Silence fell upon both parties, with neither quite willing to make an effort at breaking through and continuing conversation.

"You are quite unpredictable creatures. You work hard for futile goals in this constant battle, all to have it taken away in the nedfor the greater good." Homeostasis answered and got a deep breath from Joe.

"So we're all just disposable to you?" Joe countered, glaring towards his mom. "What happens when a threat so big that it requires digidestined around the world? Then what?"

Homeostasis stared towards him, a proper answer eluding her.

"At the moment, you are just a standing army in the face of any potential threat that could potentially pop up in the wake of MaloMyotismon's defeat."

Joe just stared at her. On one hand, this was the sort of the answer one would expect from an entity. But to hear it outright. So the digidestined open his mouth. But nothing came out.

In return, he got giggling from this strange entity. Wasn't even good giggling. More the sound of two different people mashed together with no real blending of the voices or any other adjustment to them.

"Such things are meaningless in your heads." Homeostasis responded as it moved Joe's mom towards the hallway. "For the moment, you should savor the time before it slips away once more."

Joe then got up from his chair and sighed. At this point, this conversation couldn't get any worse. Sure, he could think of a ton of ways that things could just go south in this moment. But he pushed those thoughts out of his head. Didn't do any good at the moment to dwell on those possibilities when you're talking with the supposed balancer of both worlds.

"May I ask one more question?" Joe shouted, his guest turning back around.

"I guess." Homeostasis remarked, following it up with a deep breath.

"Can we really trust you?" Joe remarked. "Considering how you answered my first question, after all."

Homeostasis stood silent.

"That is a decision you're going to have to make for yourself."

Homeostasis exited the room. Did make sure to set Joe's mom back wherever she had found her. In retrospect, it was the call to the end of their time with their partners. No goodbyes, not even a note.

The only clue he had gotten that their world had just been flipped on his head was the few dozen messages on his phone, some of which were nothing more than complete gibberish from numbers Joe had sworn he had seen before. But didn't come up when manually called.

So he and his fellow digidestined gathered one more time - eight instead of twelve. The conversation that followed, circled around a couple times. Each round, less and less productive until they were just bickering over something meaningless.

Fast forward two years and everything seemed to flip upon them once more. But at the same time, things felt like they were returning to where they were before. But it was he who had changed. He had allowed his studies to absorb him whole and he was about to pay the price for that.

"Why hello there, Joe Kido."

Once again, he was facing down Homeostasis. This time, the entity had gone for a brunette around his age. Her getup consisted of a seal t-shirt and a pair of tan pants.

"It's been awhile, Homeostasis." he answered and let out a chuckle, only to get a confused look from the deity. "If I didn't know better, I would believe you were hunting me down."

Homeostasis looked away, cheek glowing to some extent. Good glowing or bad glowing, I'm not entirely sure.

"Who is to say I wasn't?" the deity remarked and followed it up with a giggle. Didn't sound as bad this time around. "I had heard you were down in the dumps."

Joe looked away.

"Yeah…" Joe whispered and took a deep breath, as if all his joy had just disappeared. "I just don't know anymore if I can keep everyone together in a time like this."

"You can't keep the group together if you watch from afar." Homeostasis remarked and shook the digidestined "Together you stand, away they fall. Is that clear?"

"Yes Homeostasis." Joe answered and cracked a smile. "I'm guessing I get one question in return though?"

"Of course."

"Why go with a brunette? I always thought you would be more of a blonde." Joe remarked and watched the deity give him a confused glance. Perhaps, she had never put that much thought into it. Or something about brunettes being more attuned or something.

"Just something about them seems to gravitate towards me." Homeostasis responded, blowing a kiss afterwards as she watched Joe head off for his friends.

He saw her everywhere after that, from the halls of his cram school to the catwalk that connected the apartments.

Their next meeting wasn't that long after, just hours after the 'reboot' occurred. Joe wasn't quite how to feel after that. Maybe it was the fact that things had gone so wrong or maybe, the fact that they had all been lied too. Both seemed to make sense.

"Are you happy?" Joe snarled, the door to his apartment right in front of him. Of course that's where she chose to make her move. "I realize you didn't expect any of us to give up our partners willingly, but…"

He didn't even attempt to complete his sentence, tears trickling down his face.

"They are reconfigurable bits of zero and ones that are partially sentient. Their lifespans are theoretically infinite, your interactions a nonexistent whisper in their long-term memories." Homeostasis answered and watched Joe take a deep breath. "Is there something wrong with that?"

All she got was a deep breath in that moment.

"If what you're saying is true, then a digimon retains their memory without any sort of degradation." Joe responded. "They should still be able to recall their time with humans. Even if they die. They just need a refresh... That's it."

Homeostasis gave the digidestined a confused glance, curious about his revelation.

"You do realize that such actions could result in the inbalan-"

Joe pulled his hand back, letting it slam into the entity's face. Normally, he wouldn't go this far, but this seemed best.

"Did it ever occur to you how many digimon have bonded with humans? And how you've just gone and wiped all their accomplishments and memories from them. What happens when the time comes that a foe requires more than the eight of us shows up?"

Homeostasis seemed to follow her friend's thinking as shock filled her within. Somehow, he had managed to get something through to her. A rare possibility, even for the supposed balancer of worlds.

What followed, was a group meeting where the digidestined had put their heads together and managed to come up with a plan. Which was to force a gate open using Kari and TK's D3's in the spot where the reboot had happened. Somehow, they managed to do it without either Maki or Daigo knowing… or possibly caring.

The digital world was in a state similar to how they left it on their first adventure. Just in a higher definition and without those stupid black bars around everything. It was here they had a run-in with an unknown angel digimon and were scattered all about, with Joe finding himself alone on the outskirts of the bakemon temple. Well, scratch the 'alone' part. Since it appeared that a certain brunette had decided to come visit him once more.

"I'm guessing there's no hard feelings about our last chat?" Joe inquired, Homeostasis nodding. After, the digidestined's focus shifted to a girl wearing a white rabbit klobuk with a matching uniform behind Homeostasis. Pink hair and eyes stared cautiously towards him. "Who's your friend?"

"That's a sistermon." Homeostasis explained. "This particular one has named itself Blanc."

"Hi Blanc." Joe greeted and watched Blanc cower behind his girlfriend. "It's alright. I won't hurt you."

Blanc let out a cautious sigh and poked her head out.

"She's one of Jesmon's bitches." Homeostasis explained and got a slap from Blanc. "What? You and your sisters are pretty much that without being called it."

An additional slap for that answer.

"Do you mind me asking you something?" Joe finally remarked and watched his girlfriend give a nod. "Who even were the group of chosen that came before us?"

Silence fell upon Homeostasis.

"I don't know." she finally answered as she followed it up with a deep breath. "No information found."

Joe gave a shrug, only to give her a pat on the back.

"It was worth a shot." the digidestined answered and watched Homeostasis sigh. "Is there anything you want to know of me?"

Homeostasis gave him a confused glance, taking him in.

"What are your plans for the future?"

Joe stared down towards the ground, debating what exactly to tell her. With everything that had happened in the past couple months, thoughts of what he would do after this had fallen to the side of his life.

"Possibly something related to animals, digimon maybe." he finally answered, gaze all about. "How about you?"

Homestasis let out a chuckle. A deep breath followed.

"I was planning on looking into the development of phones."

Joe looked towards her.

"Why phones?"

"Because that's where the future lies, of course!" Homeostasis shouted as Blanc decided to cower behind Joe. "Sorry. I guess I got a little excited."

With that, a portal opened up.

"I believe this is goodbye." Homeostasis remarked and watched Joe make his way over. "Though, I doubt our next meeting will come sooner rather than later."

"Of course." Joe answered, giving her a wave as he stepped on through. In his head he said a prayer, wishing for one last meeting.

And for a time, she seemed to elude his presence.

Her efforts could still be seen to an extent. Usually in the form of the occasional sandwich bag placed in some out of place location. Or a thank you note, a reminder of all the potential he had within.

Their next meeting came when the dust had settled from their final battle and everyone had gone home. There were no deities now, only human and digimons. As far as they could tell.

"Joe, are you alright?" Gomamon asked.

The digidestined looked away.

"No." he whispered and stared up towards his digivice. In a way, it was like chasing after a black cat. Try as you might, the cat is going to get away most of the time. Yet, it's the one time that you do catch it that somehow makes the journey you took all the more worth it. But as luck would have it, a holographic message appeared in front of the digidestined's face.

Do you wish to see her again?

[Yes] - [No]

Without any hesitation, he pressed 'Yes' and watched what could only be described as a hole within the world itself formed in his room. As beautiful as it was terrifying, a familiar ghostly head poked through. Then the torso, with the legs bringing up the rear.

Right after, the ghostly parts gave way to the body of a brunette women around Joe's age. Still dressed in that seal t-shirt and tan pants, with an expression pure joy at the moment.

"There you are!" she called out, arms wrapping around Joe. He accepted the gesture, letting his arms wrap around her. She felt warm and to some extent... real in this moment. "I so many stories to tell you."

Joe nodded, taking a seat in his chair. Homeostasis on the other hand went for the bed.