Hey guys. Got another chapter for you and a longer one to boot. We'd like to think that this is as the end of the first section. Things are gonna get intense from now on so I hope you guys enjoy and stick around for the ride. Hope to hear from you guys and see how you like the new chapter. And without further adieu, I give you Chapter 7. Happy early Halloween everybody!

Chapter 7: Fix Me

Zoe cast several glances at Takuya, worry and dread laced with her emotions. She wished there was something she could do to help her friend. To bring him back from the self loathing state he was in.

Tommy lowered his gaze. His 'surrogate' big brother was hurting so badly. He couldn't look too long at the wounds; how blood mixed with mud and sweat on his skin. It was almost too much to bear.

The group arrived at Kouji's house and placed Takuya on one of the clean cots on the floor from when they were sleeping.

Kouichi, Tommy, and Zoe gathered the supplies the needed, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, clean water, towels, bandages, a needle and thread- just in case. Kouji and JP held Takuya still while Zoe cleaned the wounds, dabbing them gently with a towel dosed in warm water. Once they were clean, she went to apply the rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide to disinfect the wounds.

Takuya writhed, howling in pain when the antiseptic touched his skin. "Takuya! Settle down! I know it hurts but it can't be infected!" Zoe cried. Kouji and JP fought to restrain him. She continued, carefully cleaning the wounds. He was shivering and shaking with anxiety.

"Come on now Takuya..." Kouichi coaxed, "we need to bandage them now. Then we're done."

Takuya continued to shiver, hissing in pain once the bandages were wrapped firmly over his wounds. Tears continue to prick his eyes from the measures the group went to clean and dress his wounds.

Tommy watched sadly as his friends tried to hold him down long enough to finish their job. He felt bad enough not being able to do anything. All he could do was watch.

Kouji and JP sighed simultaneously once Zoe had finished wrapping up Takuya's wounds. They gently let their friend go and he pulled away from their grasp.

Takuya was on his hands and knees, his demeanor showing that he was incredibly uncomfortable with the way he was restrained.

Zoe knelt beside him, laying a hand on his back gently. The boy flinched at her touch, trembling still. She carefully rubbed his back in an even soothing motion, hoping it would calm him down enough for him to relax. He closed his eyes, sitting up to his knees, unable to bear his weight on his arms. He found her presence comforting. Takuya found himself leaning into her side, resting his cheek on her shoulder.

She saw the way Takuya was starting to relax. She was making progress in comforting him. She continued to gently rub his back, careful not to make him uncomfortable. Takuya was beginning actually feel comfortable; her presence made him feel safe. A purr couldn't help but come from his throat from the way she rubbed his back.

The others exchanged curious expressions, Takuya was purring like a kitten. Zoe smiled, moving her hand away from his back, instead running her fingers through his wild hair. Takuya's purring grew louder, a slight smile appearing on his face.

"How're you making him do that?" Tommy asked, having not expected Takuya to purr the way he was.

Zoe shrugged with a smile and continued running her fingers through his hair. For added measure she started scratching behind one of his ears, mindful of the earrings. This only escalated the purring and even got Takuya's tail wagging around like a dog would.

The others just watched as Takuya just became putty in Zoe's hands, a lot of the tension just melting off his shoulders.

"At least he's smiling." Kouji said, feeling relieved that despite everything that happened just today alone, Takuya could be cheered up- even if it meant petting the boy like Kouji would pet Wolf.

The purrs began to quiet down, Zoe leaned forward carefully to check on him. His eyes were closed peacefully. "He's asleep," she whispered.

The group sighed softly. "Next order of business- how to change him back," Kouichi proposed.

"If he doesn't go home soon- his parents will freak out." Kouji added, remembering how sullen Takuya had become when his father demanded him home to question him about the fight at school.

"How're we going to change him back?" Tommy asked with a thoughtful look on his face. "I can't really think of anything that could change him back."

JP folded his arms and bit his lip. There had to be a way to change him back. "Well, maybe if we go by how we normally revert?"

"Well… for us it was usually when we were beaten or tired…" Kouji answered though with the look on his face it was easy to tell he didn't think it would be a good idea.

"We have to figure something out." Zoe stated, a little distressed though making sure not to wake Takuya up.

"You have to remember- this wasn't an evolution like ours were- it was slow and progressive over a few days..." Kouji pointed out, "I don't think conventional means will work."

Tommy grimaced at his thought, "What if Takuya can't change back..?"

"We can't afford to think like that Tommy, we have to stay positive," JP replied firmly.

"Maybe we should look for the what caused it or why it happened. You have to treat the source, not the symptoms Mom says," the elder twin suggested, "There's got to be a reason behind this."

"But, where can we find the source?" Tommy asked. "We know it's something to do with the Digital World but we don't have a way to reach them."

"There has to be a way to contact the Digital World somehow." Kouichi replied, pressing a hand firmly on his forehead in an attempt to think. "There has to be something we haven't thought of."

"Well, what kind of digital thing could possibly happen to cause this?" Zoe asked, seeing if maybe it
could provide some way to go on."

JP shrugged. "Digital World in trouble maybe? Though why it doesn't explain why it only effected Takuya."

Kouji's eyes lit up with a thought, "What if it's just his spirits that are in trouble? He keeps dreaming about Agunimon fighting ShadowSeraphimon."

"That's actually a really good theory." Zoe replied, carefully shifting Takuya from her shoulder to her lap.

"We'd still need to contact the Digital World though..." Kouichi pointed out, "Or we'll never know for sure."

"Which begs the question, how do we contact the Digital World?" JP stated, a puzzled look on his face. "We tried everything we can think of; going to the train station, checking our contacts, checking the internet."

"Wait. If Takuya's a Digimon, you think maybe his phone transformed too?" Tommy suggested.

The others looked to the sleeping Digimon. Well, it was certainly possible. Maybe he did have a D-Tector. There was only one way to find out though.

Zoe saw that look in their eyes- the up-to-something look. "Guys let him sleep." She said sharply, "He's exhausted. We can check when he wakes up."

"I agreed with Zoe- He's hardly slept these past few days, or has been plagued by bad dreams. Just let Takuya rest." Kouji added, fully backing Zoe up.

They dropped the issue for the time being, instead addressing one that began a while earlier- Food. Takuya's sudden transformation and flight from the house had let breakfast abandoned in the kitchen- fortunately, nothing had been turned on yet so the house wasn't burned down.

Kouichi dragged JP and Tommy into the kitchen, while Kouji supervised from the dining room table. Zoe remained on the floor, with Takuya sound asleep with his head in her lap.

Within minutes delicious aromas began to waft throughout the house, the trio in the kitchen having cooked whatever was left in the kitchen. They had decided upon raiding the fridge and pantry to create a soup consisting of buckwheat noodles, leftover shrimp, and fresh vegetables. It was perfect after running around out in the cold air looking for Takuya.

Takuya's sensitive nose picked up the scent rousing the boy from his slumber. He slowly blinked the sleep out of his eyes and yawned. He didn't remember falling asleep. Confusion took root when he realized he was laying on something fuchsia. His eyes widened when it finally dawned on him that he was resting his head on Zoe's lap and quickly shot up, face bright red.

Zoe was startled by Takuya's actions. "Takuya, easy! You're still hurt!"

"Z-Zoe… I uh…" Takuya was completely speechless. He had no way to respond, at least not intelligibly.

"Hey, sleeping beauty. You hungry?" Kouji asked, grinning from across the room. He could see the blush splashed across the poor boys face from a mile away.

Takuya glared at the younger twin. Zoe laughed a bit, "Oh relax Takuya. I moved you there. You were leaning on my shoulder."

That news didn't seem to make him feel much better as his blush deepened. Zoe smiled and reached behind the unsuspecting boy's pointed ears and rubbed them gently. His eye lids fluttered and closed as his body went nearly limp. "How're you doing that?" Takuya asked, not noticing the purr building in his chest.

"Hey guys lunch is…" Tommy popped his head out of the kitchen and saw Takuya was awake and in a state of pure bliss with Zoe rubbing his ears. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Zoe's working her magic on him." Kouji stated with amusement. "Zoe, you can stop now. Food ought to keep his mind occupied."

The blond nodded and stopped the treatment, bringing Takuya back to reality. The Digimon snapped out of his daze and got up, face still a little flustered from before but he decided to let it go and went to the dinner table. His stomach was growling up a storm.

They grouped around the dining room table, eagerly digging into a large quantity of some kind of noodles, shrimp, and vegetables in a golden yellow broth. The six inhaled the food with gusto, not realizing how hungry they really were, until nothing but empty bowls remained.

Takuya still looked a little flustered from earlier, but overall was perking up and beginning to smile a bit. They settled back in the living room, knowing a fair bit of time remained before Mrs. Minamoto returned from work. "So Takuya- Where is your phone?" Kouji asked, getting back to business.

"My phone?" Takuya asked, not sure where that came from. Takuya shrugged and reached into his pocket, deciding to ask questions after complying. He felt an object but it wasn't his phone. Its shape felt familiar. He quickly pulled out the object and what he saw shocked him. It was his D-Tector.

Tommy smiled brightly. He was right. Takuya's phone did change back into a D-Tector. "I knew it!"

"Tommy was right!" JP exclaimed with glee and patted the younger boy congratulatory on the back.

"How did…" Takuya examined the D-Tector. It was still the same newer model from before though when he scanned through he found that he didn't have the Spirits within it. Just static on the screen.

"Finally, Progress!" Kouichi exclaimed with relief, "Maybe now we can get a message to the Celestial Angels."

Takuya held up the D-Tector, showing the static filled screen. "I'm not so sure guys... It's just static."

JP took the device carefully, "I might be able to tap into it- kinda like Datamon did with Tommy's beast spirit."

"Maybe later, First we need to see if Takuya can change back to normal." Kouji pointed out, taking the D-Tector from JP and passing it back to Takuya.

Takuya looked down at the D-Tector and cocked his head to the side since he wasn't sure what he could do to change himself back. He started pressing the buttons, seeing if it would do anything.

"Takuya, you sure that's a good idea messing with it like that?" Tommy asked as his friend continued to button mash with little response from the D-Tector aside from the beeping it made.

"Well, there's not much else I can think of doing with it." Takuya admitted before shaking the device to see if it would yield any results despite calls from his friends telling him stop before he breaks it. "Two buttons and a scanner can't really do much."

Takuya growled and placed the D-Tector on the table. "How the heck did I get this piece of junk to work?"

"Oh geez Takuya." Zoe picked up the device, pointing the scanner at him, pressing the button on the side to activate the scanner. Nothing happened.

Kouji raised an eyebrow, "That was effective." She grinned sheepishly before passing it back to Takuya.

"Great- I'm stuck like this..." Takuya moaned, "I can't go home like this! My family will freak out call animal control or something!" He lowered his gaze, staring at the ground glumly. "This is hopeless!"

"Easy Takuya. Look, we have a better lead on how to fix this than we did before." Kouichi stated, looking down at the uncooperative device. "We just need to figure out how to make this thing work."

"Easier said than done. These things have minds of their own." Takuya muttered while spinning the D-Tector on the table. "Man… what the heck am I supposed to do?"

The group looked at Takuya with sad looks on their faces. He was beating himself up again. Maybe not to the same extent as before but with how he had been acting lately, they couldn't help but wish terribly that he would go back to his usual happy go lucky self.

"How did you change back last time?" Kouji asked quietly.

Takuya stopped toying with the device. His expression darkened "Last time- I lost my way... I was a bad leader and you guys paid the price... I was only able to change back after I accepted my responsibilities as a leader and face my mistakes."

"Maybe it's a similar thing then?" Kouichi suggested, not sounding too sure though.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Takuya snarled, taking that Kouichi meant that this whole thing was to teach him a lesson.

"Whoa. Takuya, please, calm down. I'm sure Kouichi didn't mean anything bad." Tommy said to his friend, trying to make sure that he didn't tackle Kouichi in a fit of anger.

JP looked to the older twin. "What did you mean?"

"I think that maybe there's just something he needs to accept. I don't know what but as soon as he does, maybe he can change back like he did before." Kouichi answered with a shrug, not sure if it'd really help or not. "I dunno about any mistakes but there might be something."

Takuya crossed his arms growling softly, "That's not helpful."

"Your temper isn't either, so settle down," Kouji snapped back, making the boy shrink away and stop growling, "Better."

Zoe leaned on the table, resting her chin in her hands. She looked thoughtful as she tried to analyze the situation before Takuya blew another gasket. "What would you have to accept though?"

"That I'm a freak of nature?" Takuya replied in a sarcastic, bitter tone.

"Okay, Takuya, you really need try and chill." Kouji stated, staring hard at Takuya. "We're trying our best to help here but that attitude is really making it difficult."

"Like it's my fault!" Takuya snapped, getting up from his seat. "You have no idea how freaking hard it is to be this… this fire breathing freak!"

Tommy shrank away from Takuya's outburst. Takuya looked dangerously close to losing control; the room heating up with the rise of his anger. "Takuya…"

"Takuya please calm down!" Zoe pleaded with him, "You're scaring us... Just look at Tommy!" She gestured to the younger boy, half cowering behind JP and Kouichi.

The former brunette looked at Tommy- the expression he wore was near identical to the one he had when Takuya had been possessed by his enraged Beast Spirit. Shame clouded his vibrant green eyes. He swallowed slowly, feeling guilty. "S-sorry..." he mumbled, they were just trying to help after all. Sinking back into his seat, the room cooled off significantly and Takuya fell silent again.

"Do you really hate being a Digimon that much?" JP asked curiously, pursuing an idea he had.

"I… I don't know… I just… the last time I was this form… when I was here; I scared so many people… I even scared one of my neighbors… I was just some… some wild beast… I was so afraid…" Takuya explained, his gaze staying low to the floor, unable to look up at them. "And… and throughout all that time… I… I was being hunted by…" he decided to stop, not wanting to bring up Duskmon.

"I see…" JP stated, going off into his own chain of thought.

Takuya shrugged and fiddled with his thumbs, still unable to look up at them. He was still feeling so much shame from before.

"So.. It's just this Digimon bothers you- even though it's part of your Spirits" JP asked after careful consideration of his words. Mostly because his lack of tact in the past earned him an elbow in the gut from Zoe.

The boy nodded slowly. "It carries a lot of negative feelings and memories..."

"Well… um…" JP bit his lip and tried to think his words carefully. "maybe… you just need to… come to terms with your feelings… with this Digimon?"

Takuya looked at JP with a funny look. He wasn't sure what to make of what JP said. "What are you… what're you saying?"

"Well… maybe if you came to terms with it… maybe you can have control over it?" JP answered slowly as if to make sure his words made sense. "You know what I mean?"

"I think so... but... I..." Takuya trailed off, looking away again. "I'm not sure I can..."

Tommy moved to Takuya's side, "You were able to do that for BurningGreymon... and he was a lot worse."

"He's right, your Beast Spirit was far more trouble than this form could have been," Kouji added, trying to make it sound positive.

"Besides, you look so adorable as this Digimon!" Zoe said brightly, hugging him gently.

Takuya blushed furiously. "Zo-e!"

The others proceeded to laugh as Takuya struggled in Zoe's embrace.

Takuya was completely flustered. He was completely caught off guard by the blonde's actions. His face was as red as his clothes as he was kept in her embrace. His blush grew deeper upon hearing his friends' laughter. "Guys… this isn't funny…"

That only made it funnier for the group as they started to laugh even harder.

Takuya groaned. "Zoe… please… this is embarrassing…"

She let go, knowing she'd embarrassed him enough before rounding on the others. "Think that's funny?" she asked, with a mischievous glint in her eyes. They all quickly shut up, much to Takuya's relief.

"So... if I try to accept this form... I can change back..." Takuya said aloud, trying to think of a way he could do such a thing. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes and thought.

Good things... This form must be good somehow. He learned how much he valued his family. He learned how to take charge and be responsible. He stood up to Duskmon, a figure that terrified him, teaching him courage. Maybe... Maybe this wasn't so bad...

Gasps took him by surprise. He opened his eyes, looking around the room at his friends. "What? What's wrong?" he asked nervously.

Zoe dug into her purse and pulled out the compact mirror and handed it to the boy. Takuya felt even more nervous and took the mirror but stopped when he realized something.

His hands… they weren't dusty brown anymore. There were no claws at the tip of his fingernails. He wasn't wearing those bright red gauntlets. They were normal. He quickly opened the mirror and saw his own face. He didn't see Flamon anymore. He saw Takuya.

The gogglehead jumped out of his seat in glee. "I'm me again! I'm me again!" he quickly grabbed the two closest people to him and started jumping around with them in his arms. "It's so great to be me again! No more tail! No more claws! I'm one hundred percent me!"

"Takuya!" Kouji growled, now one of the giddy brunette's hostages, "LET. GO."

Takuya grinned sheepishly, releasing Tommy and Kouji from his grasp. "S-sorry."

"I can't believe that worked!" JP said, astounded that his theory proved to be right.

"Thank you JP- Everyone!" Takuya exclaimed, still excited and relieved to be human again.

Kouichi tilted his head, picking up Takuya's D-Tector, "Well I hate to be a downer. but it could happen again- your phone didn't change back." He passed the device to Takuya.

"That can't be good..." Kouji said softly, "Something else must be happening in the Digital World besides this."

Takuya looked down at the D-Tector, dread filling his being at the thought that this could happen again. "What do you think is happening?"

"We don't know. We're still trying to figure that out." Tommy answered. "If only we could get the D-Tector to work."

"I dunno how I feel about toying with this thing." Takuya answered. "This thing could do just about anything" He sighed and tapped his forehead with the device. How did they communicate before? He remembered Zoe had called him at one point while he was stuck inside Sakkakumon. "Hey, Zoe? You remember what you did with your D-Tector to call mine?"

"Pushed buttons." She replied, "Sorry Takuya- I really don't know."

JP moved over beside Takuya, "Let me take a look- now that your human it might respond." Takuya shrugged and passed it to JP. He sat back at the table, tinkering with it carefully.

"Regardless, we need to figure out what's happening and why. Fast." Kouji stated simply, "Digimon aren't supposed to be in the real world, remember?"

"You don't think I'll go crazy do you? Like what Bokomon said would happen if a Digimon were to enter the Digital World?" Takuya asked, feeling nervous at the idea of completely losing his mind.

"I'm not sure. But I don't want to risk it. Don't worry Takuya, we'll figure this out." Kouji answered and looked over JP's shoulder as he tinkered with the Digivice. "You know what you're doing JP?"

JP stayed concentrated on his work on the D-Tector. "Of course. Try not to worry about it okay?"

Takuya folded his arms. "Uh… easier said than done. I'm connected to that thing."

"Look Takky, you really need to relax. I've been toying with a lot of high tech stuff since I've been in school." JP told Takuya, returning to his work on the D-Tector. "This thing shouldn't be anymore difficult."

The gogglehead sighed and sat down in his seat, deciding to let JP do his thing. "Alright buddy. I trust you."

Tommy patted Takuya on the back. "Don't worry about it Takuya. JP's got this in the bag. He'll be able to make that thing work in no time. Just you watch."

JP smiled at his youngest friend and proceeded to work back on Takuya's D-Tector. "Thanks for the vote of confidence little buddy."

"I still want to know what all this means. These things happen for a reason..." Kouji muttered loud enough for the others to hear.

Kouichi smile, prodding his younger brother in the side, "You need to lighten up bro, you're too serious!"

Kouji glowered at his elder brother. "Kouichi. Stop."

"Stop what?" Kouichi asked as he prodded the boy more, earning a dangerous scowl from him.

"You're making Kouji angry, Kouichi." Zoe commented, backing away from the younger twin.

"It's too easy, isn't it Kou?" Takuya commented, knowing he would set the younger twin off.

"That's it Kanbara!" Kouji tore from Kouichi's prodding and tackled Takuya, intent on choking him or tickling him until he surrendered

Takuya yelped, realizing his mistake and begged for mercy from the bandana wearing teen. "Kouji! Wait…! Stop!"

The others just watched as the younger twin relentlessly tortured the idiot, his hands wrapped around the other's neck. They knew better than to go around calling Takuya by that nickname. Only Takuya was dumb enough to try, Kouichi would try as well when he felt lucky enough.

Takuya continually begged for his freedom from his tormentor. "I'm sorry! S-stop! Please! Kouichi! Help! He's your brother!"

"You kinda dug your own grave there Takuya." Kouichi answered, not wanting to get caught in his brother's rage.

"That is not helping me here!" Takuya managed to bark out.

Kouji sat on top of Takuya's chest, arms crossed. "You are. SO lucky. I value our friendship enough to NOT murder you and pay them off."

"You watch too many crime dramas with Kouichi..." Takuya muttered.

"What did you say?" Kouji asked sharply, tone threatening.

"Nothing! Nothing I swear!"

Zoe rolled her eyes, "any luck JP?"

"Well, I think I'm getting somewhere." JP answered, still tinkering with the device. "It's a little difficult to figure out. It's nothing like I've worked with before but hey, it's not gonna stop me."

Tommy looked over JP's shoulder, seeing that the device was opened up showing the glowing circuits. Of course, he had seen the inside of the D-Tector before when Datamon had opened it up himself when he had them in his possession.

"Uh… you sure it's okay to open it up like that?" Tommy asked, remembering how frightening it was to see Datamon screw around with their D-Tectors.

"Opened up?!" Takuya asked, not liking the sound of that. "You opened it up?!"

JP waved Takuya off. "Easy Takky, I've got this under control." He answered, examining the device closely. He continued to toy with the device when he saw the screen come to life slightly, giving off brief static and showing a faint symbol on the screen. "Hey! I'm getting something here!"

The group gathered around JP and stared down at the small screen. The image was fuzzy with static so it was difficult to recognize the symbol.

"You did it JP!" Tommy grinned happily, proud of his friend's success with the device.

JP grinned, his ego boosting from his progress. "I told you guys I could do it. I'm the man."

"Wa- … war-..." A female voice echoed faintly through the static, garbled by the bad transmission

"Is that Ophanimon?" Takuya asked curiously

Zoe shushed him. "Be quiet!"

They crowded closer trying to understand the broken message. "-orld -ang- shado- war-"

"War? There's a war?!"

"Takuya be quiet!"

"enemies- -ther -fallen" The light from the screen dimmed and it powered down.

"Well that was an unhelpful message..." JP commented, crossing his arms.

Kouji shook his head, "Not at all. Something is happening and it's bad... "

"Did anyone pick up much from that message?" Takuya asked.

The others looked to each other, not sure they could make out much else from the message. What they could make out were the sounds that there was a great battle and that it did not end well for them.

"It really didn't sound like anything good at all." Tommy answered softly and looking down at the D-Tector.

"If the Digital World is in trouble… then… why only me? Sure I was a Digimon but… why am I the only one with a D-Tector?" Takuya asked himself.

JP shrugged and put the D-Tector back together before handing it to Takuya. "Maybe we can try contacting them again when I have better equipment to try and get a better signal."

"Right." Takuya nodded and moved to pocket the device when it started to vibrate. "What the…?"

He took out the black and red device. It seemed to be ringing, like a phone would- which would make sense since the D-Tector started out as a cell phone. He tentatively pressed a button, answering the call.

"Hello?"

His mother's voice bombarded him from the other line. "Takuya Kanbara you come home right now! I have been worried sick about you! I haven't seen you in days! -"

Takuya quickly covered the receiver, "heheh. Guess I better get home before my mom sends out search and rescue."

The others snickered lightly. "You'd better keep in touch," Zoe said with a smile.

"Yeah, and let us know if you turn into the orange furball again." JP added, grinning. Takuya didn't look too amused though.

"Let's try and meet at the park tomorrow- To do something fun this time!" the brunette suggested. They all agreed n a time, and parted ways. Takuya sprinted down the city blocks, not winded in the slightest upon arriving home.