-9-

Taichi was actually nervous about telling them all of what happened. He looked around and saw that everyone was there. Meiko was playing with her hair and pushing her glasses up her nose every few seconds. Takeru and Hikari were behind the younger chosen's sofa, Takeru sitting on the back of the couch. Mimi and Sora were fretting from one sofa to the other with Jyou and Koushirou standing behind the desk, the monitors pushed to the side to see what was happening in the room.

"Uh…" Taichi didn't know where to start "Did you guys meet Meiko-san? She's a chosen child too"

Miyako rolled her eyes but it was Iori who answered "Yes, sempai. She was here when we arrived and Mimi-san introduced us"

"Uh… okay, then" Taichi was conflicted. He knew that whatever happened here today was going to be fundamental for their group.

"I want to speak first, in the name of all of us, that we're so incredibly sorry for what happened and we wish that we could have figured it out sooner than what we did" Jyou announced and everyone looked at him, shocked "What? I'm the oldest!"

"Whatever, sempai" Taichi had the crest of courage, right? He had to start somewhere. But he was so afraid of losing part of his team again, this time because they didn't trust him. Yamato grabbed his hand and Taichi looked at him, making him take a big breath and start the story. "I don't actually know where to start because there are so many memories that feel fuzzy or incomplete, but I'll try… Do you remember the day we were supposed to go to the digital world together?"

"Do you?" Daisuke's voice made him look up at him, the younger leader had a scowl on his face "I thought you forgot everything about us"

"Daisuke!" Ken was there to stop him "That's unfair. We don't know their side, and that's why we're here. So, stop and let them talk"

"I actually remember bits and pieces of that day, Daisuke. We were meeting at Ken's apartment to just hang out and you thought there was not enough food and dragged Yamato to the store" Taichi smiled sadly before continuing "Ken was making a work of art with chopped fruits and we were having a conversation… do you remember what happened when you got there?"

"Yamato told me he was never going shopping with me again…" Daisuke grumbled with his arms crossed

"And you freaked out because I cut my finger" Ken added with a smile. Daisuke couldn't help but give the other boy a tiny smile as well "Then our D3s started beeping and we opened a gate"

"Well, I remembered all this in a dream not a while ago and… it was all so new for me… but then…"

Taichi started to tell them the story about what happened with the real world, how they met Meiko and Meicoomon and about what had happened in the digital world. The reboot and all that, trying not to leave any details behind. Yamato and Koushiro interjected now and then, especially to explain technical details – Koushiro – or to explain the talks with the agents and stuff – Yamato.

They all listened quietly, without interrupting. Daisuke uncrossed his arms and listened carefully but didn't look at Taichi, not even once. When he got to the critical part – where they faced Jessmon and how he found the lab where they were – he wasn't sure having all of them there was the right choice anymore.

"I found you guys by accident. And I couldn't remember anything yet, I just knew you were important and I had to get you out of there. Gennai was taunting me, and cut the life support and then made me choose…"

"He made you and your sensei choose, right Taichi-sempai?" Ken whispered and everyone looked at him, making him blush.

"Uh, yeah. Exactly. But how do you know that?"

"Yeah, Ken, how do you know that?" Daisuke repeated the same question and his partner just looked to the floor, still blushing.

"I was aware the whole time" there was a collective gasp but Ken didn't stop explaining "When Gennai made Alphamon attack us, he waited to finish me until the end. Daisuke tried to protect me but he made Alphamon deal with him and it was just me left. He then attacked me with Alphamon and when I was almost unconscious, he took my digivice and told me that I had a purpose that it was more important than even my life" he looked at Taichi then and sighed before continuing "I saw him recreate the Digimon Kaiser avatar. He made a replica of Imperialdramon to fight you guys. He made you choose between your life and the one of your sensei"

"Why didn't you tell us anything about all this?" Daisuke was mortified and Ken just looked down again.

"Yeah, Ken-kun. We're your friends, we want to help you. We were there too" Miyako put a hand on Ken's knee and tried to make him look at her.

"But thank goodness you weren't aware, Miyako-san"

"But why did he leave you aware of everything, though? Was there a reason?" Yamato asked and Ken looked at him with a shrug.

"I think I can answer that, Yamato-san" Koushirou said from behind one of the monitors "You can look at the monitor behind Meiko-san" they all turned around and saw a graphic on the monitors, similar to the graphic Koushirou showed them about the lack of memories, with the crests and stuff. But only with the younger chosen's crests – including Hikari and Takeru. "When I got your digivices to update them with my new knowledge of them a while ago, I put an energy tracker on them, just in case it was needed. Here's the one for Daisuke's group, including Hikari and Takeru. But I want to focus on those weeks they were missing" The graphic changed and Hikari and Takeru's energy were in waves while Miyako and Iori's were completely flat… Daisuke's was a little fluctuating too but Ken's was in spikes of big bursts of energy used "I was wondering how this could be. Because you were all in those pods. But now that you said you were aware all the time, I can finally understand this. Gennai was probably using Ken-kun's energy to be able to change into the Digimon Kaiser's avatar to leave the digital world, since he's attached to Yggdrasil he can't leave the digital world unless he had a human avatar."

"Okay, but why the Kaiser?" Mimi voiced the question everyone wanted to ask at that moment.

"Probably because he thought we would immediately think Ken-kun would have been dragged to the dark side again somehow… I still don't know" Koushirou was scratching his head trying to tie all the things together.

"Okay… why is Daisuke's energy graphic different from Miyako's and Iori's?" Taichi was curious about that. Even Daisuke had leaned forward to hear the explanation

"Well, probably because of the jogress connection. They draw energy from each other when they do a jogress. So it was probably because of that. See that the spikes on Daisuke's energy are when Ken's dropped. They were probably feeding energy off each other"

"And that's why Ken was hurt the most of all of us…" Iori was trying to understand all of it.

"Pretty likely. After all, we know that Gennai wanted to make us believe our real enemy was the Digimon Kaiser, they even left those memories untouched so we could recognize him quickly"

"He stole my digivice" Ken said and Taichi wanted to hear the other side of the story. Daisuke had told them a little bit but…

"Can you guys tell us what happened?" Taichi asked softly.

Miyako and Iori just blanched and stared at the floor. Mimi and Sora saw all that and got to their feet quickly "Hey, do you want to help me bring some snacks from the kitchen?" Sora asked the two younger chosen and they nodded vigorously before leaving with Mimi. Sora turned around and looked at Daisuke "Do you want to join us, Daisuke-kun? Mei-mei?"

"I'm good right here. I'm staying with Ken"

Sora smiled and left the room with Meiko. Taichi took a seat where Meiko sat a moment ago and Yamato sat on the arm of the couch closer to him. He could see Ken bracing himself to start talking and Daisuke took his hand – the one on the cast – and squeezed it as tightly as he could.

"Well, we were in the Digital World for days, we were waiting for you guys at first and then, when we realized you guys weren't coming, we started to look for the reason we were there." Ken started to tell them, trying to keep his voice steady "We went looking for food and stuff and walked around for so many days. We tried to look for you guys, thinking you were there but in a different location"

"We wished we were there…" Taichi whispered and Ken smiled sadly.

"We found digimon along the way. Some wanted to fight us because I was the Kaiser and they haven't forgotten what I did during that time. Some were just acting weird. There were purple sparks coming out of them and their eyes were completely blank" they found infected digimon, Taichi thought but didn't interrupt him "We tried to avoid confrontation but sometimes we didn't have any other choice but fight them. Poor Iori was so mortified because he didn't want to do it. Daisuke and I took the blame every single time. I wanted to find a different way to deal with them, but couldn't find a better solution."

"They were infected, Ken-kun. That's why they acted weird" Takeru added from behind them.

"Yeah, it was the most interesting thing… you see, in their codes…"

"Koushirou, not now! Let them finish!" Yamato and Hikari said at the same time and the genius just nodded and looked around.

"We were getting tired of just walking around and fighting. We wanted to go home. We tried to open several gates and didn't work. There was a burst of wind and we couldn't stay standing there. We were thrown around and when I looked up the sky was red, the air was hotter than ever and we couldn't see much because of the wind. Suddenly, Alphamon was there… I think Daisuke told you guys what happened there, didn't he?" Taichi and Yamato nodded and he breathed deeply "Well, Alphamon defeated our digimon quickly. And then attacked us too. Daisuke protected me from the first blast, even if we were both thrown away by it. He grabbed my hand and tried to drag me away but I couldn't move. I was drawn to Alphamon and I couldn't even understand why, but I was" Ken sniffed and kept going "I suddenly saw a light. A magenta light coming from one of Alphamon's sides and I understood it. I heard screams, Miyako and Iori probably, Dai tried to drag me away again. I tried to tell him about the light but couldn't before they attacked and we both fell because our hands were linked" he raised his cast, still holding Daisuke's hand and let it fall back into his lap.

"And then you woke up at the lab…" Taichi assumed because no one could stand an attack by Alphamon without digimon there to protect them.

"No, Daisuke was unconscious and I tried to wake him up but, moving just hurt so bad. I tried and tried but couldn't wake him up. Alphamon attacked again and I tried to keep holding his hand but I was thrown away from him. I was in so much pain I couldn't even think straight. Everything around me was spinning and a face was in front of me"

"Gennai" Yamato said and Ken nodded.

"Yes. He was there laughing like a maniac. He had my digivice in his hand and Alphamon just stood there beside him. He laughed and laughed and kicked me around a little" Daisuke growled at that "He told me I should stay awake to see what was going to happen. My head was hurting so bad and I couldn't concentrate but Alphamon grabbed all of us and left flying. I couldn't see the path but I knew we were heading somewhere unsafe, but I was close to the magenta light so I went and grabbed the thing in my hand before they could see me. He took us to this lab, one of the labs I frequented when I was the Kaiser. All the equipment was still there and active. He put us in those pods and connected wires all around us. I wanted to stay with Daisuke but he threw me in a different pod and closed the lid."

"What the hell?" that was Jyou.

"Yeah, I couldn't do anything about it. He then started to send waves of energy out of my pod. I could feel myself getting drowsy, but then I got shocks every time I was fading out. I saw him transform into the Digimon Kaiser and I couldn't stop him"

Taichi could see tears on Ken's cheeks and went to kneel before him on the couch, trying to make the younger boy look him in the eye "Of course you couldn't stop him. He was almost murdering you softly. Little by little. The both of you were fading away. He was stealing your energy"

Ken sniffed again and looked at Taichi "I'm so sorry about your sensei…"

Taichi stiffened and looked away "Yeah…"

"He was so brave…" Ken whispered and Daisuke couldn't take it any longer.

"What are you talking about, Ken-chan?"

"The last day we were there… Taichi got there with an older man. I could hear him calling him 'Sensei'. Gennai made them choose who was going to get out of the lab alive since it was only one pod available. The man was bleeding and cheated Taichi-sempai, making him go inside the pod and staying there himself. He gave his life to save all of us"

Taichi stood up and went to the windows. He didn't want to remember what had happened. The way the life-support stopped working. The manic laughter. Nijishima-sensei making him 'check' the pod. The bloody handprint. Dream big. His stomach revolted and he felt like he was going to be sick.

"So, what do we do now?" Daisuke asked and Taichi turned to look at him, hopeful "I'm still mad, Taichi-san. I'm still angry about everything. But I can understand it was all that bastard's fault. I just don't know how to handle my feelings right now"

Koushirou spoke up again then "We can do two things: track Ken's digivice so he can get it back, or wait until we see what's going on with the digital world and then investigate"

He was still speaking on the background but Taichi turned him out. He was still stuck in that lab on the digital world. He couldn't hear anything else but Nijishima's voice telling him to go on and keep dreaming and never give up. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Ken there with a smile.

"I'm really sorry about your sensei, sempai…"

"I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you guys… what you went through… I know you're keeping things to yourself, and that's okay. I can't even imagine…"

Ken's smile turned bitter "Yeah, Daisuke still doesn't know everything. Those agents that were in the hospital wanted to know everything. They kept pestering Daisuke about it"

"Agents?"

"Yeah, there were agents on the hospital. That's why Kido-san prohibited the visitation. They told him it was in our best interest to be isolated until they could say for certain we weren't a hazard to anyone" Taichi's fist was shaking "They monitored the calls too. What we ate, what we did with our free time. I was so excited to leave them all behind when we went home. But they still check up on us"

"Those bastards…"

"There was a women with Gennai… dressed as all those agents. He called her Himekawa… she was her ally"

Taichi turned to look at the younger chosen then. Ken was looking out of the window, lost in thought "Himekawa, you said?"

"Yeah… I think that was the name he used. They were playing with…" and at that moment, Ken wavered on his feet and almost fainted. Daisuke somehow got there and helped him stand up "I'm sorry… I'm dizzy"

"Here, let's go back to the couch. You're still recuperating" Taichi grabbed one of his arms, and put it around his shoulders. Yamato came to do the same and Daisuke growled.

"I got it…"

"Daisuke, you're still injured. Let me help you"

He relented with a growl but stayed close behind them. They made the younger chosen lay down on the couch and Jyou went to check on him "He seems pretty tired. Maybe he's still feeling the results of the things he suffered on the lab. There's been only a few days that they were rescued"

Daisuke went and sat besides Ken and brushed his best friend's hair "You overdone it, Ken-chan"

Ken smiled and snuggled against his friend's hand "I had to tell them. They needed to know"

Koushirou went to Taichi's side "I might have a solution for Ken's missing digivice. I was programming something but was waiting for some help from Miyako-san and Ken-kun… maybe when they're feeling better, they can help me finish it"

"Good. We need him to have a digivice in case he needs it" Taichi clapped the redhead's shoulder and smiled "At least they listened to us and we got to hear them too" Yamato haven't said anything at all and Taichi was feeling a lot of anger coming from him "Yamato, you need to calm down. I'm angry too, but we can't do anything about it right now"

Ken looked at him from the couch and smiled "You guys are getting along now…"

"What?" Yamato was confused and so was Taichi, they didn't fight a lot when they were together, the four of them.

"He means that you guys are understanding each other better and letting your bond grow" Daisuke explained and, looking at them, sighed in exasperation "And everyone says I'm the slow one! You guys are embracing the bond. The jogress bond. Just as Ken and I have one, you also do now. You just haven't realize it"

"A bond?" Both Yamato and Taichi asked, looking at each other.

"You can feel what the other is feeling… if the feelings are the same, you get an increased version… things like that"

"If you focus enough, you can feel your hearts in sync…" Ken whispered with his eyes closed.

Yamato looked at Taichi then and they both tried to locate that feeling the younger where talking about… Taichi remembered then all those times lately when Yamato finished his thoughts aloud, when he wanted to do something and Yamato just knew it. When he was feeling low and the blonde tried to cheer him up. Also when Yamato was angry and suddenly he too wanted to break something to unload that anger.

They were both shocked they hadn't seen it before. And then, when he closed his eyes and focused… there…

Yamato's heartbeat in sync with mine

Taichi was elated about that… feeling a part of Yamato with him…

Daisuke was right, he wouldn't trade this feeling for anything in the world…