Author's Note: o_O;; wow okay yeah more feedback then I was expecting there... Sorry for the long wait... horrible writers block and trying to put together the Moonlit Nemesis RPG (A Yu-Gi-Oh RPG based about Marik and his little army.. YAY!).

You guys might actually get a GOOD chapter, if I could get this stupid song outta my head.... and kill this urge to go and pummel the stuck-up rich kid in my neighborhood at Dance Dance Revolution.

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YO PEOPLE PASSING THROUGH MY AUTHOR'S NOTES.... READ THIS PART: If y'all got any questions about past chapters and all that still haven't been answered, please tell me so I can answer that before I close this thing for good.

and TEENAGER PEOPLE... READ THIS PART: *sits there in almost disgust at them all* I work my butt off on your friggin' site and THIS is how I get rewarded? I told ALL of you I was posting new chapters on this story and I get NOTHING... not a THING from ANY of you. If Y'ALL posted a story and made a big deal about it, I'd go read and review it for goodness sakes.

JUNK I ANSWERED THIS CHAPTER: Yeah I got a few e-mails from "fans" asking a few certain questions, and I figured I would answer them...

1) "What's going to happen with Henry?"

2) "You're not *really* going to let Suzy go home without Henry, are you?!"

3) "Hey... whatever happened to Ryo anyways?"

4) "Are you just going to end the story with Ryo having a horrible life like that?"

5) "You know... there ARE other digimon characters other than the main 8... where are they?"

Now remember people, ANY questions at all can be asked about this story and I'll make sure that if there are any questions, that the next chapter will answer them for you. I want to make sure EVERYONE understands the story completly.

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I wonder how you sleep, I wonder what you think of me...

If I could back, would you have ever been with me?

I want you to be uneased.

I want you to remember...

I want you to believe in me.

I want you on my side..

Com'on and lay it down.

I've always been with you.. here and now

Give all that's within you.

Be my savior, and I'll be your downfall.

Mm mm, mm mm, mm mm.

Here we go again, ashamed of being broken in.

We're gettin' off track, I want to get you back again.

I want you to trouble me,

I wanted you to linger.

Yeah I want you to agree with me.

I want so much so bad..

So com'on and lay it down.

I've always been with you.. here and now

Give all that's within you.

Be my savior, and I'll be your downfall.

Mm mm, mm mm, mm mm.

Yeah be my savior.

Only love can save us now.

Only love can save us now.

I'll be your downfall..

Love can save us now,

Love.. save me now.

Lay it down.

I've always been with you, hear me now.

With all that's within you,

Be my savior, and I'll be your downfall.

Mm mm, mm mm, mm mm.

----- Downfall - Matchbox Twenty -----

The sound of metal scraping against the wood floors of Rika's house caught Henry's ears from the living room, and he leaned back in his chair to look out in the hallway. Sure enough, there was his little sister dragging out a bright pink suitcase from the guest bedroom. She pulled on it with all her might, and Henry couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. She had packed the suitcase on her own as soon as she was told her father would be picking her up that afternoon, and it was perfectly clear that she had. The sleeve of a soft pink dress dragged along the floor also, hanging out of the side of the suitcase. A shoelace hung from the other side. Tied to the handle of the suitcase that Suzy pulled on was the ears of her favorite stuffed bunny, and it bounced up and down with every sharp tug she gave.

Henry calmly placed his book down on the table and stood, walking out towards his little sister. "Need some help there?"

She looked up at him, glared, and continued silently pulling her suitcase towards the front door.

"Suzy?"

No reply, just a soft grunt as she gave another hard tug on the handle.

A quizzical look passed over Henry's face and he bent down, squating on the floor to become eyelevel with his baby sister. "Did I do something wrong?"

She still didn't respond, a determined little look on her face.

Henry stood back up, silently watching her go. She was almost there now, and with a huff dropped the handle of her suitcase just a foot away from the door, and then sat down on top of it, head in her little hands, staring at the glass window forming a circle in the top of the door.

She clearly wanted nothing to do with him.

Henry hesitated a moment, then walked back into the living room, slumping down in the armchair he had been in before. He picked up his book and opened it to the page he was reading, but couldn't focus on the words. At all. His eyes fell back on the doorway to the hall.

"Something wrong, Henry?"

He looked up at the girl walking in from the door leading outside, auburn haired pulled back into a single braid. Her eyes held a worried look, and she clutched the drawing pad she held tightly with both arms.

Henry sighed deeply and looked towards the hallway again, Rika's eyes following slowly.

"She won't talk to me." he answered quietly, and immediatly Rika's drawing pad was thrust into his lap and she went walking in that direction.

"I'll talk to her." she said just as she disappeared around the corner.

Rika's violet eyes fell down on the small figure of Suzy in the corner of the dark hallway, now clutching her stuffed rabbit to her chest almost for dear life. Soft sobs came from her body, and immediatly Rika gave a sort of smile. It was all too clear what was going on, and she had figured it would happen sooner or later, especially when Suzy was told she would have to go back home on that cold afternoon.

Rika slid her back against the wall as she came to sit next to the girl, and Suzy looked over just slightly, and spoke with a quiet sniff.

"What?" was the only word she said.

"You have to go back, Suzy. We can't keep you here, you know..." Rika said calmly, hugging her knees to her chest as she spoke.

"But how come Henwy gets to stay?!" Suzy burst out angrily, dropping her stuffed toy abruptly on the floor and standing up sharply. "It's not faiwr!!"

Rika was a bit stunned at first by the anger raging through the young eyes of Suzy. She had never seen her that angry before.. Suzy had always been pretty calm like her older brother when it came to anger. The only thing that could sound right in Rika's mind was that this was really bothering the small girl. Seriously bothering her...

"Henry's older."

Suzy slouched down angrily on the suitcase again, sighing heavily, and turning her head in the opposite direction as to not look at Rika. "Yeah.." she whispered, and fought back more frustrated tears that threatened to fall. "You don't love me that much.. that's why..."

With those words Rika was sitting up straight with an alarmed look across her face. Was that what this was all about?

"Suzy that's just stupid..." she felt herself snap like her old ways had always been, and Suzy looked back over slowly. "If I could, I'd have you stay, but I can't. You're still little, you need a mom and dad to take care of you."

"I know.." Suzy sighed and placed her small hands in her lap.

Rika slid across the wood floor a foot or two to sit in front of Suzy, and leaned forward to look into the girl's eyes that had refocused on the floor. "You're lucky you have a dad, alright? I don't."

"You don't have a daddy?" Suzy whispered, almost amazed at what she was hearing, and gently took the stuffed rabbit that Rika had handed her and clutched it once more to her chest.

"No, I don't, and I probably never will.."

All of the sudden Suzy's eyes lit up and she sat up straight. "I know Wika!! You can come live with me!!! Then we can both have a daddy!!"

Rika just laughed quietly and shook her head. "It doesn't work like that..."

"Why not?"

"It just doesn't."

"Oh.."

Both girls gave a sharp jump when echoing through the house the sound of the doorbell came to their ears, and then both looked up at the door they sat just in front of.

The next twenty minutes seemed to rush right by Rika. As soon as she and Suzy had moved out of the way for Mr. and Mrs. Wong to walk in the door, it was a mess of filling out papers in the kitchen and a few tearful goodbyes between Henry and his mother.

Rika tried to savor every last moment she could, but before she knew it, Janyuu looked at the small girl attatched to Rika's leg, and extended his arms towards her with a smile. "Com'on sweetheart, let's go home."

After the long talks Suzy had received from seemingly everyone in the house in the past day or two, Rika expected her to smile back and run into her father's arms, but she just felt Suzy's small arms wrap themselves tighter around her leg, and then she heard the sound of tears.

"I don't wanna go.."

Everyone in the room just froze, especially Mrs. Wong as soon as Suzy's tear-filled eyes fell onto her, and she grabbed onto Rika even tighter.

Rika held her arms above the girl with a helpless look directed towards Henry, and Henry gave much the same look her way.

"Suzy..." Rika laid her hands gently on the trembling girl's shoulders. "You have to."

--

Yeah sure, he was over it. He also was known as the only kid in his school who ever had to get stitches on their face, but for the most part, he was over it. Sure, Henry Wong, the so-called 'peaceful' tamer had been the one to inflict the damage..... but he was completly over it.

Who was he kidding? If he had the chance, Ryo would rip that boy's head off.

Ryo chucked a small coin into the fountain as he passed by. His father offered to drive him to the mall to hopefully make him 'feel better' about all of this... tough luck. He lost his girl and his dignity all in one blow by one man. Nothing could make that feel better.

He pushed his way through the weekend crowds, using his shoulders and elbows and whatever else he could to get people out of his path. Some yelled at him, some grunted, others ignored him, except one.

"Excuse me?!"

Ryo just kept walking, hands shoved in his jeans pockets, eyes focused on the cold tile floor of the mall.

"Hey! You hit me and you're just going to walk away like that?!"

A soft hand which had a surprisingly tight grasp was on his arm now, and he whirled around angrily to come face to face with a girl who looked hauntingly familier.... but he couldn't place the face.

"I was talking to you..." her voice was highpitched and soft, even though anger was filling it. It looked as if she was trying to force all the frustration from a busy day of shopping the after-Christmas sales onto him, and it was clear that she was losing the battle the more she had to look at him. Ryo had never seen a girl look at him like that before, especially with eyes like that--- clear and bright, an ice blue color that seemed to pull him in.

He quickly snapped himself out of his trance, and flipped on the heavy charm, like he did with every pretty girl. But this wasn't just any pretty girl... at least not a normal girl Ryo would flirt with.

His eyes roamed her body up and down once, getting a good look at the girl standing in front of him. Her bleach blonde hair poured across her shoulders and tumbled halfway down her back, seemingly slicked straight, and a few thick strands hung in her face. She wore heavy mascara and her skin was incredibly pale, maybe just looking that way from the tight black tanktop and baggy black pants she wore. A few chains hung from the belt loops of the pants, all the way down to her knees and back up again. Random pins decorated both the pants and the straps of her tanktop, and a single raven-black strand of hair sat among the rest. Ryo still was trying to place where he knew this girl from-- it couldn't be from his school. He, like Rika, went to a private school with a strict dress code. That black strand of hair would be abruptly cut off if she went there also. Then he spotted the one thing that brought a flood of memories to his mind.

The silver cross necklace.

"Alice?"

She sharply drew her hand back from his arm and her eyes grew wild. "Do I know you?"

"It's me." Ryo put his hand to his chest and furrowed his eyebrows in almost confusion at her sudden actions. "Ryo Akiyama..."

The girl shook her head slowly. "I... don't know that name."

"Your digimon... Dobermon." Ryo suddenly snapped off, and her eyes grew even more wide, and he continued. "Remember me now? I was there.. I was one of the tame--"

Without another word said, Ryo was standing almost emotionless with a blonde girl attatched to his body in a tight hug.

"Oh my God!!! It IS you!!!"

With a slight laugh, Ryo pushed the girl back to get a good look at her again, and put on his charm once more.

"You've certainly gotten hotter..."

She blushed deeply and diverted his eyes from his. "Really?" her high-pitched voice asked almost innocently, and Ryo turned her around by the shoulders, then linked his arm around hers, starting to walk with her through the crowds.

He motioned out into the food court, grinning still at the deep shade of red Alice had taken on. "Why don't I buy you dinner, it's the least I could do for hitting you like that..."

"Oh no no... that's not needed... I'm over it, really..." her words came out flustered and rushed, and the deep shade of red was only deepening by the moment.

Ryo just laughed and moved his arm so that it sat over both her shoulders, and started pushing her along, towards a rather crowded small resturant on the other side of the food court. "I insist."

"O-okay..." and with a deep breath, Alice stood upright once more, allowing herself to be guided by the tall boy once she saw the jealous looks she was getting from some of the girls at school that always had made fun of her. She could only imagine the words going through their minds. Here was the 'loser' of the public school that she went to, with Ryo Akiyama... and about to have dinner with him too. She could barely believe it herself.

It was like some weird dream come true.

She looked towards the blue-eyed boy beside her for a brief moment to try and catch a glance at any specific emotion on his face. She was rather good at reading emotions, at least that's what she believed.

Ryo's face just held a weird sort of grin, but he was known for that around these parts, now that his picture was plastered in about every magazine from here to America. He almost constantly used that grin in his pictures, and it had been the one that all the 'preppy' girls had fallen in love with. But no, Alice hadn't fallen in love with that grin.. not like the preppy popular girls that treated her and her friends so badly. No. She hadn't.

She repeated those words in her head over and over again, convincing herself mentally that they were true, but her eyes had a different idea as she realised that they wouldn't come off of the boy. She felt her face start burning with the bright red blush once more...

"This... is weird.." she whispered to herself, and realised that her voice was now shaking, and for a brief moment she swore she was having a heart attack.

Well now she had to think.. had she fallen for that grin like the other girls had? No... she had fallen for every other thing about him.

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