Disclaimer: I don't own digimon or the idea of an external soul.

Author's Note: Well, here I am again. Sorry it took me so long to update. My e-mail isn't working and I didn't get your reviews so I stopped writing. But I went online and found them. You guys rock. And then I heard about that whole DAMAGEPLAN incident and got really bummed out. But anyway, this is a long one, and I like it. Hope it's not too sappy or anything. The Final Law of Storytelling: "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story."

Review and enjoy. Thanx!!

Soul Searching

Rika pulled herself out of bed at the sound of her alarm. She'd set it for seven in the morning, which was too early for someone who had more than ten hours of sleep debt. She yawned as she stepped outside and went to the bathroom to shower. After a good fifteen minutes of letting the steamy hot water wake her up, she got out and pulled on a fresh set of clothing. Torey shook himself partially dry and licked at his fur as she got ready to leave. She stuffed her pajamas and some other stuff into a backpack before tying up her hair and stepping outside again.

Torey jumped into her arms and she headed off into the city. Her path led her into the park again, but she didn't walk toward the rip. Instead, she set Torey down and followed him, letting him feel for the right place to cut through.

"Here." He eventually whispered, sitting down next to a large oak tree.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded, so she pulled out her digivice and stared at the blank screen.

"Okay, let's see if we can get it to work again." She whispered to herself.

Torey looked over his shoulder at her as she fiddled with it. Eventually, she remembered what she had done before, back in the alley. She punched some of the buttons until it let her plug in the three numbers of Davis's world. 683. Then, she hit the button that was spaced out a little from the others, and the top of it erupted with a knife of bluish energy. She held it out in front of her and made a swiping motion, watching as a new rip appeared where she had cut through the air. She smiled and carefully stepped through, Torey leaping in after her. She found herself standing in another alley, this one more clean and better kept. Turning back to the rip, she inserted the blade of energy back into it and hit the button again. The edges snapped shut around the beam as the blue light faded.

"Come on." Torey urged, leading her out of the alley and onto the street.

She quickly recognized where she was. They were standing about a block from Davis's apartment. Retracing the way to the building, she came to the door and scanned the resident's doorbells, poking the one labeled Motomiya. Torey pushed out his claws and scratched them along the door frame, only stopping when Rika lightly kicked him away. He sat there and looked up at her innocently, until someone from inside pushed the door open. She looked up and saw Davis standing there, holding the door open for them. Stepping inside, he closed the door behind them before speaking.

"I didn't think you'd come." He said, leading the way upstairs after rebolting the door.

"I told you I would." She returned.

"Yeah, I know, but I was thinking you wouldn't."

She rolled her eyes and scooped up Torey as he tried to race past her up the stairs. They headed up until Davis stepped onto his floor and pulled the door open, letting Rika step inside.

"You cleaned up." She whispered, looking around the combined kitchen and living room.

Earlier in the day, there had been clothing and other odd bits of clutter strewn all over the room. Now it looked relatively clean and orderly, with things set back in place and other things removed.

He shrugged. "They don't pick up anything when no one's around. I didn't want to look at it all. Conjures up scenes in my imagination."

She frowned at the last sentence, looking over at him. "That's gross."

He nodded. "I know."

Demiveemon stumbled into the room, dragging a tangled knot of clothes behind him.

"Hey!" Davis said, running over and picking up the mess. "I told you to leave my room alone."

"It's been long overdue for a cleaning." The little cynodont said, turning back to go bring more stuff out.

The cinnamon haired boy looked back at Rika before disappearing after him. After a second there was the sound of a door closing, and he came back out, empty handed. Rika let Torey down to the floor and set her backpack next to the couch.

"Are you hungry?" He asked, yawning. "I already ate, but I can order you something if you want."

She blinked, glancing at the clock. It was 11:47. "Is anyone even open."

He shrugged and pulled the door of the fridge open, poking around inside for a while. She paced over and looked over his shoulder. There was nothing inside but a half head of lettuce and two empty bottles of ketchup and mayo.

"Why is it so empty?" She asked absentmindedly.

"Well," he explained, "when you drink and do crack and marijuana all at the same time, anything looks good to you, I guess." He reached in and took out the two empty bottles. Kicking the fridge closed with a heel, he stuffed them into the garbage.

Rika paused, taking that in. "So that's what you were getting for them."

He nodded and jumped up to sit on the counter, next to the phone. Pulling a phone book out of the cabinet above him, he set it open in his lap and leafed through the pages. "So, what exactly do you want to eat?"

She licked her lips and then jumped up to sit next to him, looking at the book. It was open to R, for restaurants. "Is there anything we don't have in my world?"

Davis looked over at her. "Rika, I've been in your world for a total of two minutes."

She smiled and looked back at the open pages. "Right. How about pizza. You can't go wrong with that."

"'Kay." He said, poking his finger at the ad while reaching with the other hand for the phone on the wall.

Rika tried not to laugh as he held the phone against his ear with a shoulder and awkwardly dialed on the receiver, still on the wall. He ordered and then hung up, stuffing the phone book back into the cabinet. Then he jumped down and headed off to his room to look for some money. Torey followed him, so Rika did the same. The door to his room stood slightly ajar as she pulled it the rest of the way open.

"Hey." Davis protested as she saw the mess in the room.

Torey looked around, staring at the clutter as Rika fell into a fit of laughter. The boy ignored them and grabbed some money off his dresser. Then, before he could protest, she headed into his room and started helping Demiveemon pick up some of the stuff.

"Rika, you don't have to do that." He said, watching her.

Torey jumped up on his unmade bed and surveyed the scene. "You should help too, Davis. It'll get done faster."

The boy frowned, but after a second, he pitched in too.

The food came in about half an hour. Rika was starving, since it had been seven hours since she had eaten anything. Davis's room now matched the rest of the house. It had been put back into a livable order. She sat down on the couch while he got the door and paid the delivery boy. It was 12:15, and the poor guy seemed very unhappy to be called out so late. Davis closed the door and came over to her with the pizza box, setting it down on the table in front of the couch.

"So," he said, sitting back sideways and leaning against the arm of the sofa. "You were gonna tell me about Torey and why everybody's soul doesn't want to be seen."

She took a slice and sat against the opposite arm, looking at him. "No, you were gonna tell me why you hate everything."

"I already told you that."

"Davis, I want to know about Jun and Mark, and why it bothers you so much."

He sighed and slid down until he was laying on the sofa, his head resting on the arm. "I don't want to talk about it."

Chewing, Rika looked over at him. He had collapsed into himself, thinking over the topic and unresponsive to the rest of the world. She swallowed and set the slice of pizza back in the box.

"Davis," Torey whispered, having jumped up to sit nest to the open box "The best way to find out how you truly feel about something is to talk about it."

He blinked and rolled slightly onto his side, so that his body was facing into the back of the sofa. He threw an arm over his eyes and stayed silent for a moment. "I just know that if I try talking about it, I'll start crying like a school girl."

Rika bit the side of her lip and stared at him. "So?"

He looked at her, arm lifted a few inches.

"I won't tell anybody, Davis."

He set the arm back down and thought for a moment. "I don't know where to start."

"Start at the beginning, Davis." Demiveemon said, sitting on the floor next to the table.

"Too complicated. I don't wanna think about how it all started anyway."

"Then why do you cry at night when you think I'm asleep?" The cynodont asked.

"Veemon!"

Davis sat up strait and stared at his partner, looking embarrassed. Demiveemon's expression didn't change from sincere questioning worry. The boy sighed and slumped against the back of the sofa.

"I hate it." he whispered. "That's why. It's overwhelming. I feel like I should be doing something, but I can't."

He stared across the room. "She was getting scholarships to go to med school. She wanted to be a surgeon. It was all looking really good for her, and she was going to be successful and have a good life. Sometimes I hear her crying in her room at night. She hates that she's lost it all now, but she's stuck." He blinked his eyes several times.

"I don't know how she got involved with Mark. Whatever happened, she's stuck now. He uses her to sell his drugs and for other things too. She's in his system, and there's no way she can get out without something happening to her. He'll make sure something bad happens if she tries." He sniffed. "Or he'll kill her."

He wiped his eyes, but then seemed to give up the macho act. He slumped down and curled up, arms thrown over his head. Rika waited for him to go on, but then he quietly sobbed.

"Davis." She whispered sympathetically, moving forward and setting her hand on his shoulder.

It took him a moment before he could go on. His eyes were red when he let his arms down and wiped tears off his face.

"He pulled a knife on me once. I told him to leave, and he pushed me up against the wall and held it to my throat. He told me that I was nothing to him. I know he would have killed me if I had given him a reason. People are nothing to him. I know he's capable of killing Jun."

He wiped his eyes again and fell silent, chewing his bottom lip as he gazed blankly at the floor. Rika let him compose himself. Eventually he looked up at her and smiled, trying to pass it off as nothing. But it wasn't nothing.

Torey nodded. "No wonder she seems so sad."

Rika blinked, knowing exactly who she was. His soul.

"What?" Davis asked, a shadow of understanding in his eyes.

The lynx said nothing as he met the boy's eyes. They watched each other until Davis looked away, staring at the same spot as he had been before. Except this time he seemed to know something was there. He glanced up at Rika, and the look in his eyes made her heart jump into her throat. He knew his soul was there, but he had no idea how to get her to acknowledge him.

"Say her name." Torey whispered.

"But," he hesitated, his voice barely audible, "what is it?"

"You know it." The lynx replied. "Look inside of you. It's there."

Davis continued to stare at his invisible soul, thinking and concentrating on finding her name.

"I don't know." He finally whispered, burying his face in his hands in sad frustration.

Torey leapt off the table and landed on the floor. Davis sucked in a breath as he watched the lynx walk up to the spot he had been staring at. Rika felt a strange communication pass between the two souls. He jumped up on the sofa and settled himself in Rika's lap as an eerily silver flickering form seemed to solidify where the soul sat next to the table. The translucent foggy form became visible, deer-like in shape.

Davis gasped, and then whispered. "Roxelle."

The gazelle's head snapped around to meet the boy's gazing eyes. She stood, the ghostlike body stepping silently forward until she set her head in his lap. As Davis's hands touched her, he started crying again, silently. Rika knew it was with unquestionable happiness.

The girl stood up to leave them alone, but Davis caught her arm.

"You can stay." He said, taking his eyes off his soul for a second to look up at her.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "I," His eyes fell back to the gazelle. "Thank you."

Rika smiled and sat down next to him, her arms wrapped around Torey. She watched the two of them for a moment.

"Can you solidify?" She asked.

Roxelle looked up at her and then closed her ghostlike eyes, concentrating. Slowly, her coat faded to a tawny brown and her colors stood out. Davis ran a hand over the fur, but it soon faded back to the foggy swirling color it had been before.

"Not for long." The gazelle whispered.

Rika and Davis looked at each other for a moment, before he turned back.

"Why? And why did you never show yourself to me before. And..."

"Shhh." She said kindly. "Spend time with your friend, Davis. We'll talk later."

With that she dissolved back into the air, invisible once again.

"Wait!" He cried out. "Roxelle!"

"I'm still here, Davis." The voice came from the same spot she had disappeared from. "Touch me."

He reached out and laid a hand on her invisibly tactile body, grinning as he touched her. "Will you always be like this?"

"No." She said as his hand suddenly fell through where her body had been. "I control my tangibility."

"Wow." Rika breathed, looking down at Torey. "Can you do that."

The lynx shook his feline head. "I'll always be like this. It's one of the factors, remember?"

She nodded, and he leapt out of her arms, landing gingerly on the back of the sofa.

"But Roxelle is right." He said. "You two should spend some time together. We would rather not be questioned all night. I have the perfect thing."

He jumped behind the couch and struggled around with the zipper of Rika's backpack for a while. She refrained form peeking over the back to see what he was doing, and was surprised when he came around the side and set a DVD case in her lap. It was digimon, season two, episodes one through six.

"Cool." Davis said, and snatched it up out of her lap. He studied it for a while before looking back at her. "Can we watch it?"

She nodded, slightly confused, and he got up off the couch to stick it in the DVD player.

Where did you get that, Torey? She asked him mentally.

I know everything about you, Rika. Did you really think I wouldn't know you had it, and where it was?

Do you really think he'll like it?

Why not? Just watch it with him. I told you I didn't want to be questioned all night.

The lynx jumped down to sit next to the invisible Roxelle as Davis fell back into the sofa, remote in hand. Rika moved over slightly and sat next to him as Demiveemon crawled into his lap. He started the first episode. After watching a few minutes of it, he only had one thing to say.

"I'm kind of a moron in this."

She laughed and rested her head on his shoulder.

It was about three in the morning, and Rika lay awake on the couch. The room was dark and she could hear the clock ticking from where she lay, stretched out beneath a blanket. She chewed her lip and tried hard to fall asleep, but it wasn't working. She wasn't tired enough.

Torey, why can't I fall asleep?

The lynx yawned from where he lay on her chest. How should I know? I don't have all the answers, you know.

But you know so much more than me.

Not really. There are just some things a soul knows. Besides that, I know only what you do.

She sighed and stared up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what was bothering her. Maybe it was this room, this place. She felt paranoid that Mark was going to come in the door and find her there. What would happen then? What would he do to her?

Davis wouldn't let anything happen to you. Torey whispered.

But he's even more afraid of him.

The boy has taken a liking to you, Rika. You wanted his trust. I think tonight you got it.

She swallowed, excited. Really?

Yes. Now go to sleep.

I love you, Torey. Good night.

Good night, Rika. He said with a smile.

Post Script: Aw. Well, that was good. But what happens next guys? Give me some suggestions. More anyway. I need to plan this out a few chapters ahead. We'll have to have them go fight something, and then they can go to Primary Village or something before Ken runs away. Anything else I should add?

Thanx to my reviewers. You have no idea how happy I am to get your reviews. It keeps me writing this. Do you mind if I e-mail you to answer any questions you ask in the reviews?

neoKOS-MOS