Version 2.0 (Feb 6, 2007): Wow, two snow days in a row! Woohoo! lol

Okay, so this chapter ends the introduction. Yeah, long intro, but by the end of this chapter, things will change. (Oh hohoho, buddy! Will they change!) lol

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon! (Give me an I! (cricket) Give me a D! (cricket) Give me…) You…keep doing that…

Old Demons

Chapter 3: In the Night

The past isn't dead. In fact, it's not even past.
-William Faulkner

When Kouji had entered the nurse's office, he had found his twin asleep on the cot. At first, Kouji was going to let him sleep, but as he approached, he realized Kouichi's normally light skin was even paler and sweat beaded his forehead, dampening his black hair. In an instant, he was at his brother's side, gingerly touching Kouichi's arm to wake him. Kouji could feel his brother's hair standing on end, as well as the way Kouichi's muscles were tense, his fists clenched.

"Kouichi!" Alarmed, Kouji grabbed Kouichi's shoulders and shook him awake. The older twin's eyes shot open and he sat up so quickly that only Kouji's quick reaction prevented a collision.

"Kouji!" the Warrior of Darkness gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"Let's review," Kouji said dryly. He could see Kouichi shaking, trying to hide it by leaning back on his hands. "You're my brother. You're sick, or at least sick enough to go to the nurse's office. Do I really need a reason to check on you?"

"Sorry," Kouichi said, swinging his legs off the cot. The shaking had lessened somewhat, and Kouji allowed himself to calm down. "You surprised me. What time is it?"

"Twelve twenty."

"Kouichi?" Both boys turned to the door. Zoe walked in, smiling faintly and hugging herself. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Kouichi smiled back. "Still tired. I think I'm going to bed early tonight." Whenever Kouichi smiled, it seemed to relax his entire face, and his eye color seemed to brighten by several shades. No one had a smile quite like his, and even Kouichi himself could never fake it. That, more than anything Kouichi could have said, eased Kouji's nerves.

"I wonder why you're so tired." The statement was simple, but as she said it, Zoe fixed her eyes on Kouichi's, demanding an explanation.

"Just dreams, Zoe," Kouichi sighed.

"Dreams?" Kouji asked. As Kouichi's smile faltered, Kouji's concern returned full-force. "I thought it was just one!"

"I… had another one just now." At this, Zoe frowned and a small portion of Kouji's internal alarm entered his eyes. "It was probably something I ate. I'm fine. Really. You guys are overreacting."

"Funny," Zoe mused. "That's what Takuya said."

"What did I say?" Hands laced behind his head, Takuya sauntered in. JP followed, snacking on an apple.

Zoe frowned. "That we're overreacting." Hands on her hips, she turned to him. "Speaking of which, why are you here? I thought there was nothing to worry about."

"There's not," JP said with a half-full mouth. "But that doesn't mean we can't come see our friend."

"You shouldn't worry so much, buddies," Takuya reasoned. "You'll make yourselves sick. Then we'll have to take care of you and we'll get sick, and where would that leave us?"

Kouichi laughed. Kouji nearly jumped at the suddenness of the sound, and frowned at his twin. At the same time, the other three exchanged confused glances and blinked at Kouichi. In answer, the older twin said, "Kouji and Zoe are worried about me and you two are worried about them worrying about me. I'm the only one who's not worried. Doesn't that worry you?"

Takuya grinned. "I don't think I've ever heard you say so much at once."

Kouji forced some of his tension out, realizing that Kouichi was probably right. "You're having a bad influence on my brother," he smirked at Takuya. Kouichi smiled once more.

"Alright students," the school nurse said from the doorway. "You need to get to class or you'll be late." As if on cue, the warning bell rang. "And how are you feeling, sweetie?" she asked Kouichi. Shrugging, he stood up. He swayed, pressing a hand to his forehead, and abandoned all pretense of being fine. The nurse caught him, shaking her head. "I think you should go home. Get some rest."

Kouji was about to voice his agreement, seeing as how Kouichi looked ready to protest, but after leaning back against the wall for support, the older twin nodded weakly. As the nurse left the room to call Tomoko Kimura, Kouji moved closer to support his brother. The others stood around awkwardly, wanting to help but not sure what to do. Kouji bit his lip, almost asking his brother what had really happened, but he held back for fear of offending him.

Throughout the last year, Kouji had been afraid that with one wrong word he would drive a wedge between them. The Digital World had showed him just how important his brother was to him, and he figured any relationship, even if it wasn't as close as he would have liked, was better than nothing.

Soon the nurse returned, saying Tomoko would be there in a few minutes. Reminding the other digidestined of the time, she shooed them off to class. Kouji was the last to leave, staring at his brother for a long moment and promising to stop by after school.

When they had all left, the nurse turned to Kouichi. "Looks like your friends really care about you." Kouichi, having sat down in one of the chairs, blushed. His dream came back to him momentarily, but he quickly banished the thought. If a school nurse could tell they were his friends so quickly, it had to be true.

Fifteen minutes later, Kouichi's mother showed up, exchanging a few polite words with the nurse before helping Kouichi to his feet and out the door. At first, he was embarrassed that his mother had to come get him, but his legs for some reason were shaking uncontrollably as he walked, and he found himself leaning heavily on his mother before they were even outside. The trip home passed with him in a trance-like state, staring absently at the apartment buildings they passed.

When he was finally home, his mother guided him to the couch and told him to lie down while she grabbed the blanket from his bed. After adjusting the blanket and stuffing more pillows around him than was strictly necessary, she fetched a glass of water from the kitchen and set it on the coffee table.

"Anything else, Kouichi?"

Kouichi smiled at her and shook her head. "Thanks, Mama. I'm fine."

"You sure? I could stay home if you want."

"I'll be alright, Mama. I'll sleep for a while, and Kouji's coming over after school."

His mother smiled, smoothing back his hair. "Alright. I'll see you tonight."

As his mother's footsteps faded and the door clicked shut, Kouichi stared at the ceiling, reluctant to sleep and invite the return of his dreams. Each time he blinked it became harder to open his eyes again until he drifted into a light doze. Half of the next two hours was spent in a state of semi-wakefulness, preventing so much as a wisp of dark clouds from invading his sleep.

-(--)-

"Kouji!" Zoe hissed, poking him in the ribs. No answer. "Kouji, pay attention or you'll get in trouble!" She poked harder. Still no answer. "Ugh! What is it with twins today? I have to make sure both of you pay attention!" She sighed in frustration, then smiled evilly. The Warrior of Wind grabbed a lock of Kouji's long black hair, pulling gently. She yanked harder.

Kouji whipped his head around to glare at her. "What do you want?"

"You weren't paying attention," Zoe said innocently. "I didn't want you to miss anything."

Kouji grunted. "I can take care of myself."

Yeah, and you're mad cause you can't take care of Kouichi right now, Zoe thought. How was it that Kouichi was the only one who could make Kouji quite this moody? "You may as well put your mind to something else," Zoe said. "You can't do anything for him 'till after school." Kouji scowled at her, and she threw her hands up in defeat. "Never mind."

The rest of the day seemed to crawl by. Kouji was sure his teachers had chosen the most boring subject matter of the year to lecture about for the full hour, adopting a monotone that made Kouji want to misbehave purely for the sake of being sent out of the room. He only remained silent so he wouldn't have to endure detention after school.

The instant the final bell rang, Kouji was out of his seat, shoving his way through the streams of students leaving their respective classrooms. He made it to his locker in record time and slammed the door shut just as Takuya opened his locker, which was next to the kendo student's. Kouji brushed past him.

"What's his problem?" Takuya asked Zoe, who was passing him on her way to her own locker.

"Hel-lo! He's worried about his brother," Zoe said, sounding irritated. "Hurry up and meet me at my locker."

Zoe quickly exchanged her books, turning seconds after Takuya walked up to her. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she turned and led the way down the hall, catching sight of JP as he came their way. For once, Takuya seemed to notice that Zoe was tense, and warily kept his mouth shut. Together, the threesome made their way to the elementary school several blocks away, where Tommy was playing cards with other fourth graders. When he saw the older digidestined, he gathered his things, waving goodbye.

"Where are Kouji and Kouichi?" Tommy asked as he ran over.

Zoe looked as if she hadn't heard, so Takuya answered. "Kouichi went home sick. Kouji's over at his house."

Tommy's eyes widened momentarily and he took off down the street. "Then let's go see how he's doing!"

-(--)-

As Kouji unlocked the door to the Kimura apartment, he was glad his birth mother had insisted on giving him a spare key six months ago. At the time, it hadn't seemed right, and even now he felt slightly guilty unlocking a door he had passed through only a handful of times. But when he found is brother peacefully asleep on the couch, he couldn't help but smile. The younger twin leaned silently against the wall, hesitant to wake Kouichi.

Kouichi stirred moments later, eyes fluttering open. They focused on Kouji. "Hey," the older twin said groggily, sitting up. "How long have you been here?"

"Just a minute," said Kouji, suppressing his smile. "Did you have another dream?" Kouichi shook his head, and for once he seemed to be telling the truth. "Good…What are your dreams about, anyway?"

"Kouji…" Kouichi started to protest.

"Hey." The firm tone, sounding almost like an order, caught Kouichi's attention. Kouji's voice softened as he continued. "Listen, Kouichi… I'm your brother; you can tell me anything."

Kouichi's eyes glistened with uncertainty. "I don't know… I mean…I know I can tell you, but…"

Kouji came over to the couch, hesitantly nudging his brother's legs aside and sitting down. "I want to help you," he said, looking earnestly into identical blue eyes. "Please, Kouichi?"

Kouichi sighed, fiddling with the blanket in his lap. Finally he nodded and looked up. "I don't remember much…" he muttered. "Whenever I wake up it all sort of blurs together…I do remember the darkness, though, and –"

There was a knock on the door. As he got up to answer it, Kouji scowled. He had been so close to finding out the truth, but now that the others were here, he knew Kouichi wouldn't talk about the dreams anymore. As expected, the other four members of the team were waiting on the other side of the door. Tommy called out a 'hi, Kouji' as he dashed into the apartment. Finding Kouichi, the young boy promptly asked him what was wrong.

The others came in a moment later, striking up a deliberately cheerful conversation. After several minutes, Takuya held up his hands for quiet. Tommy looked at him eagerly while the others shared amused looks and humored the goggleheaded leader.

"As you know, I hope," Takuya began, grinning madly, "tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of our trip to the Digital World." He paused for dramatic effect, but before he could continue Zoe sighed wistfully.

"Can you believe it's already been a year?"

"Yeah," JP agreed. "Half the time I expect to wake up to some crazed digimon attacking."

"Or Neemon and Bokomon arguing," Zoe giggled.

"But it feels like so long ago," Tommy said. "So much has happened since then!"

"It's not like we could ever go back," Kouji muttered. "May as well be ancient history."

"History can repeat itself," Kouichi whispered, so quietly that none of the others heard. For a moment he wondered where his words had come from, but an indignant Takuya reasserted his authority in the conversation.

"I was thinking we could get together tomorrow afternoon for a picnic," the Warrior of Fire said, bursting with pride when his suggestion elicited an enthusiastic response.

"Someone should bring chips!"

"And chocolate. Lots of chocolate."

"Maybe some popcorn?"

"I suppose we should bring something at least kind of healthy."

"Since when have you been responsible, Takuya?"

"Y'know, if we're bringing all this food, we might want to consider some drinks."

"Hey, guys? Just who is bringing all this?" Zoe asked flippantly, smirking at the others.

"I guess it would be a good idea to figure that out," JP said, rubbing the back of his head.

Kouichi smiled as they hammered out the details. He managed to focus enough to volunteer to bring chips and hear when and where they were going to meet, but most of the other details fell on deaf ears. Eventually their conversation settled into its normal routine – friendly arguments or debates that were cut short when JP or Tommy brought up a fresh topic that lasted for ten or fifteen minutes before digressing into yet another quarrel.

When Tomoko came home from work, they all realized how late it had gotten and headed home for dinner. After JP and Takuya left to walk Tommy home, Zoe turned to Kouichi.

"Do you want me to stay and go over our math homework with you?"

Kouichi rolled his eyes. "I think math can wait one day."

Zoe laughed. "I know what you mean! Well, I'll see you tomorrow then!" Waving perkily, Zoe turned and left the apartment.

"She certainly is a peppy one," Kouji muttered after the door had closed.

Kouichi laughed. "You say that like it's a bad thing!"

Tomoko came out of her bedroom, tying her hair up into a bun as she walked. "I'm going to get dinner started," she said. "Are you staying, Kouji?"

Kouji shook his head. "Tomorrow is Mom and Dad's anniversary." Even now, Kouji stumbled slightly as he called another woman "mom" in front of Tomoko. "I'm making them dinner tonight. Actually, I should really get going now so I'm not late."

"Alright." Tomoko smiled. "I'll see you later, then?"

"Mm-hmm." Kouji stood up and grabbed his book bag from the floor nearby. Stopping briefly to hug Tomoko, he slipped on his shoes and opened the door. "Bye, Kouichi… Bye, Mama."

Before either could reply, they heard the door shut. Kouichi stifled a laugh as his mother shook her head. "Both of you are so shy," she murmured. "Just different kinds of shy."

"Like two sides of the same coin?" Kouichi teased.

"Exactly." Tomoko disappeared into the kitchen, but her voice drifted back out a moment later. "And I don't care what you say. That's a good analogy for the two of you." Kouichi just chuckled.

-(--)-

He woke up disoriented. Through the blaring of his alarm clock, he could hear his mother in the kitchen. It took him until he was stepping out of the shower to realize his sleep had been interrupted. No dreams. He smiled to himself. They were just overreacting.

-(--)-

Unlike the previous day, Kouichi had no problems concentrating through the half day of school. Afterwards, the five older kids met up and walked together to the park near Tommy's elementary school. The ten-year-old was already there, sitting under a tree in an otherwise abandoned corner of the park. They spread a blanket and set out the food.

"Man," Zoe sighed. "A whole year…" Suddenly she giggled. "Do you ever wonder how we managed to stay friends after everything that's happened?"

Takuya stared at her as if he was expecting her to turn into Ranamon. "Why wouldn't we still be friends?"

A mischievous grin lit Zoe's eyes. "Well, for one thing we know you can't be trusted to realize the obvious… Like that fire would make the Candlemon stronger…"

"Hey! How was I supposed to know?" Takuya cried. "I had been in the Digital Word, what, a day?"

"They're candles," Kouji said. "You generally light candles on fire. At the very least you should have known something would happen."

"You weren't even there, so shut up!"

Tommy smiled innocently. "It's just a good thing I was there to save you."

"Well, you were the one who got all the Pagumon to attack," Takuya shot back.

"Actually, that was JP's fault."

"Don't drag me into this!" JP protested.

"Besides," Kouji smirked, "wasn't that right before you pushed me into a bottomless pit, Takuya?"

Over Takuya's protests, they good-naturedly recalled all their mistakes, laughing at how dumb they had been, especially early on. No one so much as mentioned Duskmon, but the memory hung over Kouichi's thoughts. At one point, he caught himself about to bring it up in the conversation. When Takuya tried to get back at Kouji by saying the lone wolf couldn't control his beast spirit, the Warrior of Light kindly reminded his friend of his own experience getting the Beast Spirit of Fire.

Ha. I beat you all, Kouichi thought bitterly. Remember all that stuff I did as Duskmon? He looked at Kouji. Remember how I tried to kill you? And what about Velgemon? Why are you all still friends with me?

As if sensing his brother watching him, Kouji turned. "What is it?"

Kouichi shook his head, knowing there was no reason to ruin today. "Just thinking about Bokomon and Neemon."

"I am Neemon, keeper of my pants!" Tommy cried, remembering the antics of the tagalong digimon. The group laughed.

The conversation covered a wide range of topics, not all of which dealt with the Digital World. More than one led to a competition, usually between Kouji and Takuya, which left the others in hysterics. JP even dared to bring up Zoe's promise of a date for the defeat of Cherubimon. The three not involved laughed as Zoe, Takuya, and even Kouji (for once loosing his composure) scrambled for a new subject.

Eventually, the last of the food disappeared, and in the long evening shadows, they packed up their things and reluctantly departed, eagerly agreeing to make a tradition of the picnic.

-(--)-

'Fool.'

'Not again,' Kouichi groaned, trying to pass his fear off as annoyance. The moment he had fallen asleep, he had found himself in the dream realm, and this time the voice was waiting for him.

'You are mine.'

It was not a hollow threat. Whoever the being was, he had the power to take whatever he wanted. And right now he wanted Kouichi. The boy swallowed nervously, cowering back as the darkness began to solidify. Just as in his last dream, it took on a not-quite-human form, but this time there was no light to stop it. Soon he could tell exactly who it was.

'Duskmon.' Kouichi backed up several more steps. No! He's gone! He can't be here!

Duskmon laughed. 'Such fear! You provide me with much power, boy. Of course, tonight I do not need it.'

'What do you mean?'

'Today was the anniversary of the day I was created and the day I was banished. Today my power is at its peak.'

'If you're so powerful, why do you need me? Can't you just leave me alone?'

Duskmon's eyes fixed on the trembling boy's face. 'I need you to increase my power. As the days pass, your friends' power will fade, but, with you, mine will only grow. By the time their power returns, I will be unstoppable!'

Unstoppable? It couldn't be possible. There would always be a way to stop him! 'What are you talking about?'

'The Cycle.'

Kouichi paled. I don't like the sound of that. Despite his uncertainty, Kouichi clenched his fists and hardened his voice. 'My brother stopped you before. Once he knows you're back, he'll stop you again.'

Duskmon laughed again. 'Pathetic. You continue to rely on your brother to fight your battles?' The corrupt Warrior stepped forward, looming over Kouichi. 'The Warrior of Light will not hear of my plans; not until I tell him. He will not be able to help you, anyway. That little stunt he pulled yesterday only works through physical contact.'

'It doesn't matter what you do to me. Kouji will find a way to stop you!'

'Didn't you hear me? Your precious brother can't help you! And if you continue to rely on him, you may as well not even fight!'

'You're lying!'

'If you insist on ignoring me, then I think it's time to end this! DUSKMON. SLIDE EVOLUTION: VELGEMON!' Kouichi backed away farther, tearing frantically at the darkness as it grabbed at him once again. His mind screamed at him to get up and run, but his legs continued to scramble along the ground behind him, doing little to aid his desperate flight.

'Dark Vortex!'

Fear froze Kouichi's muscles, leaving him defenseless as the darkness wound around his arms. His mouth hung open, a cry for help caught in his throat. Red light filled his vision.

Then there was nothing.

-Child of Healing

Word Count: 3607