Ch. 12

"Hey guys!" Ryo called down to the beach, where the remaining Tamers were sitting in a circle.

Takato leaped to his feet, "Rika and Ryo are back!" he cried.

Smiles broke out on the faces of Jeri, Kenta and Suzi, followed by a chorus of: "Hi!" "You're back!" "Is everything alright?"

The pair wandered over to the other Tamers, sitting down in the soft grey sand. "Where's Henry?" Suzi asked immediately

"That's a bit of a complicated question." Ryo muttered as he ran his fingers through his truly disheveled hair.

"The thing is Suzi," Rika started gently as she dropped onto the sand next to Ryo, "we don't know where he is right now. He sort of just disappeared." she glanced around at the others, checking their reactions.

The younger girl stared at her, strong disbelief written on her face. "That's impossible and you know it Rika Nonaki. He's not that kind of person and he wouldn't just leave us here!" Glaring, Suzi stood and clenched her fists at her sides, obviously she was just as protective of her brother as he was of her.

Surprised that someone so much younger than them could argue so strongly, they were stunned into silence. That's when, as if on some freaky cue, Henry and Terriermon came out of the woods, grinning like a pair of idiots and thrilled to have found the others. "Hi, we're back!" Henry smiled.

"Momentai!" Terriermon squeaked.

Suzi turned her head towards the two figures on the tree line, completely stunned. "H – Hen… ry?" She stammered weakly.

"Terriermon!" Lopmon cried, dancing on the spot beside Suzi. It was only then that the others truly realized the little digimon was there, they stared, confused.

Monodramon wandered up from the foamy surf behind them, "I though I heard you Terriermon, how in the name of Deva's did you get here?"

Terriermon grinned widely. "Henry did some poking around, we can bring all the digimon back, and we know some more about figuring out the riddle Uemari gave us." That brought real stares from the Tamers, Terriermon hadn't been around when that had happened, none of the digimon had.

"What?" Monodramon asked, puzzled.

"What riddle?" Lopmon turned to Suzi.

Calumon peeked out from Jeri's lap. "What's he talking about Jeri?"

Henry held up a hand. "It's alright, I talked to Terriermon on the way back, we can explain it all to you guys, and then we'll pull the other digimon out." Nods circled the generally disoriented group, Suzi sat down, and they all made some room for Henry and Terriermon, waiting expectantly for the no doubt confusing explanation that would follow.

(& )

"What are they doing in my D-arc?" Suzi asked, apprehension clear on her petite features as she looked at her brother.

He grinned. "Remember the swirling thing down the beach? That was the beginnings of a portal, still little, couldn't really be used, and it was the need to have the digimon with us that opened it in the first place. So when you – " he nodded at Suzi " – pointed your D-arc at it, there was a way for the digimon to be with us, still being data in a real world though, they were stored in your D-arc."

Kenta nodded, looking pensive. "What do you mean 'data in a real world' ?"

"The digital world is made of data, everything is data, information." Henry started, thrilled to be the one who knew it all again. "Our world, the real world, is… well, real to us. When we're in the digital world, we're data; when we're in the real world, we're real. This world, the Dark Ocean, is like a splice of both, we're living organisms, and the digimon are still data." The others looked at him like he was completely mad. "Bringing them back just means changing them from data to living things."

"Ok," Takato said slowly, a smile beginning to spread across his face. "lets do this then, how do we get Guilmon back?"

"This is the weirdest part." Henry confessed, "The digidestined before us had these things called crests, the crests resonated with something in them, and made it possible in part for their digimon to digivolve, and travel back and forth between their world and the real world." He paused, letting the others absorb this information for a minute before he continued. "We have the equivalent of crests, we've just used them without knowing of them, like when Rika defeated Landersmon."

Everyone turned to look at the red-headed girl, despite Ryo's blatant hints, it had resumed its normal spiky ponytail, and she made direct eye contact with Henry. How did he know about that? "Oh?" Was all she answered she said.

"You were loyal to us, you were loyal to the Tamers, in effect, you deleted him without him having a snowballs hope in hell of coming back." Henry got a little crooked smile on his lips, amused vaguely by the snowball analogy.

The group looked back and forth between Henry and Rika, the familiar violet glare and the pacifistic grey watching it. "You're loyalty, Rika." He turned to the others, addressing them around the circle. "Takato, innocence of course, and Jeri's change." The pair nodded, and he looked at Suzi and Kenta. "You're vision Suzi, Kenta you're life." Kenta turned pensive again, almost immediately completely lost in thought. "… and Ryo is valor. I'm harmony."

Ryo had noticed Henry's attitude towards him and backed way off, something about the boy was starting to agitate him, but he couldn't place his finger on it. It worried him. "How does this get the digimon back?" He asked finally.

"I'll show you, Suzi come stand here." Henry stood up himself and gestured to his little sister that she should stand to his left, just in front of him. "Kenta, you need to be there." Kenta moved to stand a little ways from Suzi, Henry facing them. They formed a relatively even triangle. "Ok, point your D-arcs up here…" as soon as they were all pointed at one-another, light burst forth from the screens and met in the center, making a three-sided pyramid with white light at the area where the three colours met. Kenta and Suzi nearly stepped back and broke the pyramid in surprise. "It's alright!" Henry called, "Don't worry."

A few seconds later, a small, round thing floated down towards Kenta. When the boy caught it in one arm, he watched carefully and confusedly as it unfurled itself into Marineangemon, sleeping contentedly and snoring slightly. He let the arm holding his D-arc out to collapse down and help hold his digimon up. He could hardly speak he was so glad. "Thanks Henry." He got out.

The Chinese boy nodded. "No problem."

They spent half an hour pulling Guilmon and Renamon from Suzi's D-arc, and another hour explaining to their digimon everything that had happened from the beginning. Throughout the whole process, not one of the little data creatures said a word, staring at their Tamers open-mouthed and a little stunned. Some details were left out, such as how Ryo got Rika to come back, and the exact circumstances that had made her leave. Over all, everything was tucked under the rug. They split off into their smaller groups, Jeri and Takato sitting quietly by the surf, Guilmon beside Takato and Calumon in Jeri's lap. Kenta lay on his back, looking up at the grey sky with Marineangemon resting on his stomach, Suzi joined him after a while, Lopmon sitting between the two as they made small conversation.

Rika, Ryo and Henry sat together, Rika leaning against Ryo as if to declare to Henry quite firmly that she had no interest in him, and was still apprehensive of anything having to do with him. Ryo wrapped an arm loosely around her waist, Renamon and Monodramon were behind them, Monodramon napping contentedly on Renamons stomach. Terriermon didn't bother to hide his confused look at Henry, since when does Renamon let anyone, much less Cyberdramons de-digivolved Monodramon, near her? They kept up civil conversation for a while, until Henry abruptly ended it with:

"Ryo, would you mind if I talked to just you?" The two boys locked glares, the hairs on the back of Rika's neck stood up as she watched them glare at each other.

Ryo had to work not to grind his teeth together, couldn't this guy back off? "Anything that needs to be said can be said here." Subconsciously, he tightened his grip slightly on Rika's waist, Renamon's fur bristled slightly, and Monodramon opened one eye to watch the Tamers.

"Cut it out you guys." Rika interjected evenly. They continued to stare each other down as if she hadn't said anything. Abruptly, Ryo let go of Rika and stood up, careful no to let her fall over from his sudden change in position. "That's enough from both of you!" She hissed, but before she could say anything else, they'd disappeared into the trees.

Takato looked up from where he'd been sitting with Jeri on the surf. "Where are they going?"

She turned to face him. "To 'talk' " She muttered, clearly disliking the situation. Takato said something quietly to Jeri and Guilmon, standing up and starting towards the trees after Ryo and Henry. As he passed Rika, she whispered a very soft 'thanks'. Takato smiled at her and nodded, clamoring up the embankment and heading into the woods after them.

Takato caught up to Ryo and Henry maybe 5 minutes after entering the grey forest, and joined their silent trek without a word. Almost 20 minutes later they stopped just before a clearing, not very big, it looked like a little bit of no where. Henry whirled around to face Ryo, obviously mad about something. "Will you stop seducing her!" He hissed viciously, grey eyes flashing,

Ryo was a year and a half older then the other Tamers, now 17 to the scattered 15 almost 16's, and he drew himself up to his full height, looking down at Henry with extreme dislike. "I don't know what your problem is Lee, she chose to have nothing to do with you."

Takato watched, his jaw slack. Henry's hands were balled into fists. "If you hadn't gone to her on the beach, what makes you think that she wouldn't have wanted me there instead of you?"

Ryo smirked. "Maybe it's because I showed I cared, and didn't just slink around and spy on my team mates. I went to her, I found her, I helped, and she didn't mind."

"Didn't mind?" Henry cried. "You're acting like it was love at first sight or something Akiyama! It's her choice and you shouldn't interfere damnit!"

Ryo cocked an eyebrow. "I didn't lead her off into the forest and then tick her off, like you said, it's her choice, she's made it, and you should just leave it at that!" As they stood arguing, a fog had been settling itself comfortably around them, cutting them off, isolating them. Behind Henry, Tueno slid out into vision, slinking up to stand on his hind-paws beside the Chinese boy. Ryo's eyes snapped to the black creature. "You!"

"Me." Tueno replied, a smirk playing on his weasel-like features, fluffy tail swishing silently behind him. Ryo looked back at Henry, whose eyes seemed to retain the fire in them, but… there was something missing, or something added. Either way, Henry was now even less himself then he'd been on the beach. He was also painfully aware that not only was Cyberdramon inconveniently a Monodramon at the moment, but he was with Rika and the others, not there.

"What's going on!" Takato yelled; he'd never seen Tueno, only the destruction left in his wake. Faced with the sleek, dangerous feeling creature, he was rightly terrified.

Ryo was lost in thought and slight shock, his head was spinning, he couldn't think, what's going on… ? A line from the riddle Uemari had given Henry rang through his fuzzy consciousness: but when innocent blood has dampened the soil… He reeled, his head was ringing, it was pounding, everything hurt, he was going to be sick. That's important though, I don't know how, but it's important! Innocent blood… he dropped to his knees, his bad leg sending up a shot of pain to remind him of its presence.

Henry stood apart from the terrified Takato and the incapacitated Ryo, observing everything through strangely blank eyes. Detached, the Chinese boy watched as Ryo collapsed to his knees, hand on his temples, and as Takato turned to run back towards the beach. Why… don't I feel anything about this… ? He asked himself. Aren't you pleased? A voice whispered in his ear.

Tueno had taken three short bounds and caught up to Takato, catching the young boy easily before covering the distance back towards the other two Tamers. "Can't have you going off to warn people, now can I?" Takato's mouth hung slack in a silent scream of absolute terror.

Ryo looked up, head still being smacked by some invisible mace. "Takato…" He trailed off, innocent blood… and Takato is innocent… and… Rika… shit why can't I think straight? "… blood…" He was knocked off his knees abruptly and the pounding in his head increased as he hit the grey grass of the forest floor. "Ow!" He gasped sharply.

Henry was standing over him, eyes black instead of their usual grey, and filled with malice. "I've hated you so, so long." He grinned, fists resting on his hips with a smirk on his face.

Ryo rolled himself over backwards and brought himself to his feet, aware of his bad leg, aware of his headache, and very aware that Cyberdramon wasn't there. "It's nice to be wanted, not sure what I did to bother you so much – " He ducked as the other boy threw a punch at him. " – as this. Before this whole thing, I thought you were a pretty good guy."

Henry's face contorted in anger. "Guess you left a different impression on me!" Both ended up on the ground in a cloud of dirt and flailing fists; the little clearing had become a place of chaos.

( & )

s/k: Hey! I posted! Don't expect anything else new right away though, I'm off to Italy and Greece for two weeks! Completely awesome! Ahem, anyway, R & R and I will return with a tan! (well, I wish, it's probably not all that warm this time of year there…)

P.S. I found the freaking information on Ryo's partner finally, Monodramon, to Cyberdramon, to Justimon. -.-' It's all fixed now… glares at wood grain on floor It's you fault wood grain!