Disclaimer: I don't own digimon. Wow, that's all I have to disclaim this time. Yahoo!

neoKOS-MOS: Hi, hi! Well, this is the chapter that I've been excited about for the last three chapters now. Think back, and that's a pretty long time. First off, they split up, remember? Well, I have to recount the happenings of the other groups, so this one is on Henry's voice. Also, he's affected by something in my version. See how you like it. It's kinda sad, but that's just part of the story.

Read and enjoy, everyone…

Ghost Dog

They had been walking for a long time. Henry walked with his eyes closed, despite the fact that it caused him to stumble over the uneven ground every once in a while. He had finally gotten Terriermon to leave him alone. The rabbit dog had been sitting on his head for the past hour and whispering things in his ear as he tried to think. Finally it had gotten on his nerves enough that he had told the digimon to go away. He had gotten a hurt expression, but hadn't let that bother him. Much.

His toe caught in another of those jagged gaps and he tripped, thankfully catching himself before he fell flat on his face on the spiky ground. The boy sighed and slipped his hands into his pockets, shifting the bag on his back at the same time.

Up ahead, he could see the four figures of Randy, Sky, Yolei, and TK. They were talking loudly, but the words were swept away in the dusty, dirty wind. Terriermon was up there walking next to Chispamon, looking as if there was nothing wrong with his partner. Henry sighed again, glancing behind him to see how far back Izzy and Kari were. Only ten feet away. He walked a little faster to put some space between them and himself.

It was hanging over him. His hands tingled in his pockets, but he was trying with all his might to push that out of his mind. The dusty wind hit him again in the face and he felt the minuscule particles pelting against his skin. He ground his teeth against it.

What Suzie had said to him was haunting his thoughts as well. She was so young. Little girls weren't supposed to say things like that. They were supposed to smile and play, carefree and safe from all the things in the world that they couldn't control. It made him feel guilty, even though he knew it shouldn't have. The boy sighed again.

Remember what the doctor said, Henry. Tell it to go away...

He swallowed. It sounded so easy. What did she know? But that was the thing. Of course she knew how hard it was. That was why she had said it the way she had.

You have to be strong without me...

It was something he should have been saying to her. He was the older one, after all. The one who was supposed to protect her. And that was where the guilt came from, the fact that he was the one who needed someone to rely on.

He tripped again. He didn't catch himself this time. Henry found himself down in the dirt, and he pushed himself up to a kneeling position before he stood again. His green eyes were riveted to the dust coating his palms. They were crawling with it. Something that mimicked a moan escaped his lips, and he hesitated between rubbing them on his equally filthy pants and rubbing them together to get most of the dirt off.

"Stop it," he whispered to himself, the voice in his head. "It's nothing."

But deep in the corners of his mind, it wasn't. Someone as logical as Henry wasn't supposed to have irrational fears like this. And it especially wasn't supposed to happen here. It only happened at home, where he could control it. Why was this happening to him?

They stopped for a while to eat lunch. Randy and the others plopped down in the dust. Henry bit his lip hard as he walked back into the group. Something that tasted like blood but was only plasma filled his mouth as he forced himself to sit down as well.

"It's getting warmer." Izzy remarked as they all watched Sky produce sandwiches from the pack he carried on his back.

"Yeah." Randy remarked, squinting down at his digivice for a moment. "We're getting out of the ice tundra of the Javelin Plains. Don't get too excited, though. Soon it'll get really hot and you'll be wishing for this chill."

Kari sighed and laid back, setting her bag under her head. "Great. I just hope I don't get sunburn, though I guess I should get all the sun I can, since we'll be plunging into a cave soon."

"How far away is it?" TK asked as he paused in biting into his sandwich.

Both Sky and Randy glanced at each other for a moment.

"I thought you knew." The heliophobe said, hand clutching at his own digivice so he could look at it.

"Don't tell me we're lost." Yolei jumped up and scanned the horizon, one hand held over her eyes to shield them from the sun overhead. "I can't believe you got us lost."

""We're not." Chispamon frowned disappointedly at the two ambassadors. "We should get there in a day and a half."

"That's a lot of walking." TK muttered, digging through his own bag before producing a bottle of water.

"Here, Henry." Kari said, holding out one of the plastic wrapped sandwiches to him.

The boy stared at it, jaw set against the reaction he felt in his gut. "Thanks," he managed to whisper as he let his fingers wrap around it.

Those fingers were so dirty. He could see the dust in the creases of his fingerprints, leaving tan smudges on the clear plastic. Hoping his face wasn't showing the emotional distress he was feeling, the boy peeled back the bag and stared down at the white bread. The wind picked up again and dusted the sandwich with particles. Shutting his eyes, Henry lifted it to his mouth and took a bite.

Dirt! What are you doing? his mind screamed, but he shoved it aside and chewed.

They had started walking again. They had separated out into the same groups as before, Henry safely in the middle where no one could ask him anything. His hands were deep in his pockets, clenched into fists to give him some kind of reassurance. He felt sick at the meal he had eaten before. Up ahead, he saw Terriermon had stopped and was waiting for him to catch up. The boy sighed and wiped his forehead with his arm. It had grown hot in the past half hour. He was sweating and it dripped down his arms and face. He felt disgusting, and it made him want to scream.

"You doing all right, Henry?" Terriermon asked as they finally got close enough.

"Peachy," he muttered, balling his fists up even more, fingernails pressing into his palms.

"Henry." The rabbit dog looked up at him as he passed. Then he walked to follow the boy, catching a light hold on his pant leg.

"What do you want?" the dark haired boy snapped.

Terriermon frowned up at him, angry. "Stop it! I know it's bothering you, but you're gonna have to get used to it."

The boy stopped and turned to look back at his digimon. "What do you want me to do? Tell myself to stop being crazy?"

"You're not crazy, Henry."

"Terriermon..." He trailed off as the tears sprung to his eyes. "It's not supposed to affect me here."

"I know." The digimon moved over and crawled up to his partner's head, flaring his ears to shade the boy.

Henry started walking again, watching his step over the spiky ground. "I don't understand what I did wrong. It just started when they came though."

"I know," the dog whispered, shifting his weight. "You should take some of the medication."

"I was at the end of my prescription." Henry whispered back, his body stiffening again. "I only have twelve left. What'll I do when I run out?"

"I don't know, Henry, but you can't go on like this. You look like you're about to scream."

"I am."

After so much walking, it was unbearably hot. When they had started out the ridges on the horizon had been far in the distance, but now they were looming ominously close. Henry's green eyes rested on the deep black protrusion, covered with angular crags and shadowed holes. He had stopped earlier to take one of the small white pills that seemed to keep his mind from driving him insane. Now he could stare up at the rock formation and actually think about it, not just the filth he was covered in.

Next to him, Izzy was talking out loud to himself, doing calculations on how high the cliffs were and how long it would take them to reach the base.

"Twenty minutes," the genius muttered, wiping his forehead with a black sleeve. "Man, I should have realized we'd be walking through a hot desert."

"I told you that it would be good to vary your wardrobe." Kari said, coming up behind him and hugging him.

"Ug. Get off," he responded, pushing her away from his sweat soaked shirt.

"Hey, Patamon," Yolei called, holding her hair in a bun with one hand to keep it off her neck. "Do you think you could give us a breeze?"

"I could do that just as well, Yolei." Hawkmon complained, instantly fanning his partner with his stubby wings.

"Thanks, Hawkmon," she sighed, turning so the created wind fell across the back of her neck.

"You think you're hot..." Sky muttered as he trudged pitifully by, dressed from head to toe in his black lightsuit.

"Oh, cheer up, Sky." Randy grinned at the heliophobe. "Soon we'll be in the cave where it's drafty and cold. Then you'll be glad you have it on."

"Drafty and cold." Terriermon shifted his weight on Henry's head as he depressingly spoke the words.

"Look guys," Chispamon had perked up a little as he peered at the horizon. "There's shade in the shadow of the ridge."

Patamon instantly streaked off through the hot air. "Yay!"

"Patamon, come back here!" the bat-eared digimon's partner ran off after him.

"Shade sounds good to me, too." Yolei took off in a run as well toward the towering rock structure.

Randy stuffed his hands into his pockets and continued walking. "Anyone else?"

The remaining three humans shook their heads, and Sky just grunted.

"Can I, Sky?" Refletamon's wings shuttered in anticipation of flight as she curled herself around to look her partner in the eye.

"Sure. See if you can find us some more water while you're at it."

The little snake took to the air and flitted across the spiky ground. Sky sighed again and let himself slump down, twisting his body at the bag he had tied to his back. Henry looked away across the plains. The wind had died when the heat had come. He was just glad they were almost to their destination.

The sun was still hot overhead, but it was beginning to dip toward the horizon. Henry ignored the blaring light and the still air. He still couldn't tear his mind from the predicament he had been thrown in, even though the medication kept the worst of the thoughts at bay. What was he going to do when he ran out?

"Shade, Henry." Terriermon pointed ahead, just within his line of vision. Sure enough, there was a black splotch of it over the rocky outcropping at the base of the ridge.

"Do you see any water?" the boy asked his partner, swallowing with a dry throat.

"Yeah. I think there's a pond or something."

"Really?" Kari's eyes lit up and she instantly took off for the shade.

Henry did the same. He couldn't help himself. He desperately wanted to wash his hands. The two humans ran over the dusty ground, Gatomon in tow, until that dark lack of sun fell over them. Kari sighed and moved over toward Yolei where the plum haired girl had collapsed on a shade cooled boulder. Henry kept himself walking forward and knelt down in front of the pool of water. It was crystal clear all the way to the bottom, maybe a yard beneath the surface. The smell of fresh water hit him, and he was struck with even more thirst than before. Stiffening against that, the dark haired boy tended to the thing that most occupied his mind.

He slipped his hands into the cool water and watched as dust began to drift off them in the tiny current. Then he rubbed them together, trying to get them clean.

"Don't over do it, Henry" Terriermon said, slipping down from his hat position to stand at the edge of the pond as well.

The boy nodded, cleaning his fingernails. He rubbed his hands together again.

"Okay, stop it," the digimon told him, gripping one of his arms with a tiny paw. He drew his partner's hands out of the water. "I thought you were thirsty."

The boy stared down at his hands. They looked clean, but that irrational fear again told him that they were not. "It's wearing off," he breathed.

"Henry?"

"It's supposed to be full strength for a whole day. It hasn't even been half a day, and it's already wearing off."

"Drink the water, Henry." Terriermon ordered stiffly.

"What am I gonna do? I can't just..."

"Do it!" The digimon grabbed his water bottle and filled it up for him. "Here. Drink it. Do you want to look crazy in front of the others?"

Henry swallowed, his hands trembling slightly as he took the bottle. "Sorry."

The sun set over the ridge, plunging their camping ground into dark prematurely. Sky had set up his light-tent so that he could eat and drink without burning his fragile skin. Randy had set up a fire and he and TK were preparing dinner for the rest of the ravenous travelers. Henry sat with the girls and Izzy, trying to ignore the thoughts that were passing through his mind. The darkness had always seemed to still the thoughts, and he was glad that the same thing was true here.

"Did he really say that?" Yolei was asking Kari.

"Well," the short haired girl sat back against the rock and shrugged. "He didn't exactly say it, but I could tell by the look on his face."

"So, Dai has a girlfriend. Is it Miyuki like you thought?"

Kari traced little patterns on her jeans until Yolei elbowed her in the side. "Ow! No, it isn't."

"Pay up!" the girl demanded, holding her hand out.

"What?" Kari stared at her. "I don't have any money on me. Why would I bring it here?"

Izzy pulled out his wallet and handed Yolei the three dollars she was owed. Then he turned to his girlfriend. "That's why. Now you can owe me."

"Oh, but Izzy!"

"Nope," he teased. "You'll pay me back later."

"Hey," Yolei crawled across to peer over the top of the older boy's open laptop. "What are you doing on there anyway? Taking notes?"

He gave her a confused look. "What? No. I'm logging what we've been doing today."

"Walking. Sweating. Being unbearably hot." The plum haired girl ticked off the points on her fingers. "More walking. Um, yeah. I think that's it."

Izzy laughed. "You take horrible notes, Yolei."

"I thought you weren't taking notes." Kari scolded, stealing the computer from him to read off the screen. "Walking. Kari and I had a nice chat. I think I'm gonna have to rework my paper again. She's right about the crystal matrix of ice on nickel-iron asteroids."

"Do you really think so?" The girl looked over at him.

"Yes. Now, gimme." He lunged over to try and snatch if from her, but she tossed it carefully to Yolei. "Kari!"

The plum haired girl read this time. "...nickel-iron asteroids. Food was great after the all the walking, even though Tentomon ate half my sandwich. Henry was acting a little strange, though that's probably because he's separate from his sister."

Izzy crept around and slammed the screen down over the keyboard. "Give me that," he said, taking it back to where he had been sitting before and carefully opening it again, eyeing each of the girls cautiously as they collapsed laughing.

"That's true, though." Yolei said as she came out of her laughing fit. "You have been acting kinda strange, Henry."

The dark haired boy had stiffened as she had read the sentence, but he was glad it had given him an easy excuse for his odd behavior. "Yeah. I'm just worried about how Suzie's doing on her own."

"How old is she, anyway?" Kari asked politely.

"She's nine. I know she's not that young anymore, but I still worry about her."

The short haired girl nodded. "I understand. Tai feels the same way about me."

"Dinner's ready guys." Randy called from the fire, already eating out of a light aluminum bowl.

"Cool." The rest of them got up and went over to get some of the rice.

Henry hadn't really realized, but he was ravenous. Of course, all of them were, each rushing to get their fill before the digimon devoured the rest of it. They barely even spoke to each other. After their hunger had been satisfied, the exhaustion really hit them. Kari pulled a blanket out of her bag and spread it out over the dusty ground. Everyone laid down as well, and Henry felt his eyes close as Terriermon snuggled up next to him.

"Night, guys." Randy whispered, the last thing any of them heard.

The whole room had been torn apart. The first thing he saw was the door on the carpet, splintered and broken into pieces. The rug was burnt and stained with black. Smoke curled in wisps along the ceiling, unable to find an escape. He stepped onto the broken door and looked into the room, finding furniture thrown aside, his mother's favorite lamp lying shattered on the floor.

"Mom?" he heard himself call. "Dad?"

Only silence met his ears, and he stepped farther into the room, footsteps crunching on a carbonized section of the carpet.

"Henry." The word was barely audible, but he followed it to his parents room.

"Mom?" he breathed again, seeing the bed thrown up against the wall.

He threw the mattress aside to find his mother hiding beneath it. "Mom, are you okay? Where's dad?"

"He went for help after you left. Are you all right?"

"Yeah." Behind him, his sister stepped into the doorway, hugging her digimon to her chest. "Mom, do you remember what happened two years ago? With all the digimon?"

"You have to leave again," she whispered, understanding. "Just be careful."

He nodded and pulled away as she sat up.

...the dream shifted, and he found himself somewhere else...

Deep somewhere in the pitch darkness. Henry looked down over himself to see his body streaked with dirt and grime. Pale skin turned black with it. He was sinking into something horrible and filthy. Panic hit him, and he tried wading through the molasses-thick sludge, searching for something to pull himself out of it. Something touched his palm, and he gripped it, only to cry out and throw it away from him, something slimy and gross. He started sinking faster into the oily gross ooze, almost as if it was pulling him down on its own accord. And then it started climbing up his body, faster and faster with its disgustingly cold and filthy slime. It reached his shoulders and began to rise up his neck. Heart beating roughly in his chest, the boy desperately tried to work his arms out of the goop to push it off of himself, but they were lodged in it.

"No," his mind screamed. "No!"

But as he opened his mouth to voice it, the slime plunged in, choking him with the oily taste of a filthy thick liquid.

Henry came out of the dream in a start, almost a scream escaping him. He slapped a hand over his mouth and crawled away from the spot where he had been sleeping. He crawled over to the pond and sat down next to the edge of the water. He would not throw up. He told himself that. It was only a dream. No reason to freak out. But even before he had realized it, he was washing his hands in the cool water, scrubbing them roughly to get off the feeling. A feeling that wasn't there, but that he still felt he had to remove. Grabbing a handful of the sand resting in the bottom of the pool, he used that to scrub his hands harder. The grains hurt his skin, and he couldn't help but moan as he felt them rubbing his fingers raw. The sparkling clarity of the water darkened as cuts formed in his skin, blood seeping through them.

"That's a silly thing to do," a young sounding voice said in the darkness behind him.

Henry whirled around, his wet hands coming to rest on his dusty knees. "Who's there."

"Shhh. I told you too keep quiet, Welpemon," a female voice whispered.

It was a familiar voice. Henry swallowed, still staring at the place the voices had come from. "Who are you?"

There was the sound of tiny feet scrabbling against the rocky outcropping. "Welpemon, come back here," the female voice called out again.

Bits of rubble tumbled down and Henry saw the hint of something small and furry land amongst the sprinkling of rocks. The creature carefully moved forward, crawling silently over the dusty ground. Henry stiffened and moved back a little, glancing over at the pale form of Terriermon sleeping in the moonlight. Something else landed where the first creature had, something much larger and taller. This one, he could tell, was humanoid and black. It took a step forward and then leaned down, scooping up the small digimon.

"What do you want?" he asked, looking up at the larger one.

"Nothing, Henry," she whispered, sitting down next to him.

And then the moonlight fell across her face, and he realized that the person he was talking to wasn't a digimon, but a human being. "Alice."

Something like a smile passed across her features, and she gazed into the water.

"But..." He stared at her in the soft lighting, her hair the same as it had been last time he had seen her, the same dress on her thin form. "But you disappeared."

"I had grieving to do," she breathed, running a hand over the head of the digimon in her lap.

"Grieving?" His eyes fell to the little creature as he finally saw it's features.

It was a small digimon, the size of a teddy bear, but nowhere as cute. He was canine in nature, with a sharp wolf like head and deep black fur. His black eyes glinted in the moonlight and he looked up to meet Henry's with them. He was bipedal, by the look of his body, with delicate hands covered in thin leather gloves. His feet were bare and his legs were covered in torn black jeans.

"Is that Dobermon?" he asked quietly.

She smiled a sad, amused smile. "In a certain way."

"What does that mean?" the little digimon asked, twisting around to look her in the face.

"Shhh." She ran a hand over his head again. "You've caused enough trouble by talking."

The dog frowned and looked over at Henry. "So, what were you doing, anyway?"

"Welpemon." Alice scolded him, setting a hand over his short muzzle.

Henry had stiffened again at the question, his eyes falling back to the shimmering water. "I..." He stopped and closed his eyes. "I was scared."

"We all do strange things when we're scared." Alice whispered.

"But it doesn't make sense for you to hurt yourself." Welpemon pushed the girl's hand away to speak.

The boy sighed, dull reality slipping into his voice. "Things should make sense, shouldn't they?"

"Are you hurt?" the girl asked, setting the digimon aside to take Henry's hands into her own.

"No, I..." He jerked his hands away, but not before the worst of the scratches left a smear of blood on her palm.

"Hmm." She stared at the dark stain in the moonlight before slipping her own hand into the still water and then wiping it dry on her dress.

Henry watched her almost fearfully. A long silence passed between them, until he couldn't bear it any longer. "Look, it's called OCD. It makes me do irrational things. I can't control it, but it doesn't mean I'm crazy."

"Shhh." He found her fingers pressed to his lips to silence him. "You didn't have to tell me."

Her fingers fell away, and his eyes dropped to the strip of ground between them. "I..."

She moved her hands to a small bag at her side, and pulled out a roll of something. "Give me your hands."

"What?"

"I won't hurt you, Henry." Her blue eyes met his own, and he let her take his hands. Slowly, she wrapped the cuts in a white bandage before letting him retract them back into his lap.

Welpemon yawned at Alice's side, his ivory teeth shining in the dim light. One of his small hands balled up and rubbed his eye. "I'm tired."

She nodded and looked down at him. "We'll be watching you," she told Henry, not glancing up.

"You can come with us, you know. We could use your help."

She smiled again in the bluish moonlight. "Maybe."

Randy sat up across the camp, drawing Henry's attention. When he had looked back, both Alice and the small digimon were gone. He glanced around behind him, but saw no sign of them.

"Henry, you all right?" the older boy asked, standing up and coming over to wash his face.

"Uh," the dark haired boy got up and moved back over to his digimon. "Yeah. Just needed some water."

Randy nodded. "I just realized that we left no one to watch. Is it all right if I wake you up in a few hours to finish up the night?"

"Sure." Henry responded, laying down again as Randy took a seat across the camp on a boulder.

He rolled over and stared wide eyed at the rocks Alice had come over. Had it been real? But the bindings on his hands told him it had been. He fell asleep again, more confused than ever.

neoKOS-MOS: Okay, so there's Alice. Now, I'm sure you're all confused as to why he has OCD. I just always thought he was too controlled. Maybe there was a reason for that? I'm sure you don't remember, but I alluded to this in WWRT. I am not making fun of the disorder. I tried to keep him in character with it, and I hope I did a good job. My beta thought it was okay. Please just don't flame. –hiding-

Dark Qiviut: I hope I'm sticking the dialogue here. Trying, but I may miss it sometimes. And, yes, the tension is definitely building. I think you see some more of that here.

AprikotKisses: Well, it's getting there. As you see here, there's more problems in Henry's life than just him being separated from his sister. I'll se what I can do with Jun and her drugs, but that's not for a while, now that I've added other voices to the mix. –sigh- Oh, and for the typo, that just goes to prove that proofreading twice and having a beta doesn't always catch everything. Haha! We'll all be kinda sad when it ends, me included.

thegreatwhitewolf: Don't know exactly what that means, but I get the picture. Keep up the good work to both of us.

Thanks for reviewing to all of you. Oh, and hi to Dark Dreamer 117, who signed to be alerted about this story. –big wave- You're not invisible any more!