DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon, but I do own the OCs introduced in this story and later stories (except where stated).

As you may have grasped by now, all the chapters in this story will begin with a possessive pronoun (My, His, Her, Their), in a style inspired by Scrubs.


CHAPTER 2

Her Confession


REAL WORLD

Nonaka Residence

10:01 JST

3rd July 2010

Renamon stood, quietly staring at her partner, still lying on top of the futon, silently contemplating something that she lacked any knowledge of. She secretly cursed that she had not followed Rika into the Doctor's surgery, despite not wishing to prey on the edge of her vision as she concentrated on checking Rika's injuries.

Regardless, a lifetime of battling, and seeing her Tamer and her fellow Tamers fight and be injured in battle, had taught her that the injuries Rika received, naturally similar to her own, were hardly a thing to be concerned about. They were mere grazes and bruises, caused by scraping across the concrete of the playground.

Which brought her back to her initial concern: what was wrong with Rika?

Rika was not the kind to be put down by injury, certainly not, she'd normally let it drive her on with vigour and it would normally result in a spectacular win, or, in the case of Kitsunemon, Renamon shuddering at the limited memory she had of that event, at least a win.

Rika was also not the kind to be affected this harshly by her back and forth with her sister before the battle. In fact, the vixen recalled in particular that they reconciled during the battle, and this she would expect to have alleviated the problem. This reaction was also far beyond what she expected from her Tamer for a simple fall-out with her sister, an event that had become a non-event considering its regularity, particular when Rika was in a particularly bad part of her month, when even Takato became afraid of her mood swings, which became far heightened beyond even her normal mood swings, an event that seemed to have died down the previous month when Renamon noted Rika did not try to kill, or at least get revenge on, her sister, by placing water in her cereal, milk in her toothpaste, tying Kudamon by the tail and hanging him from the ceiling, or, in some cases, all of the above.

In fact, the past month had been particularly calm, both due to that factor and the fact that, apart from that morning's bioemergence and that of a Drimogemon in Tokyo University two weeks prior, an event quickly dealt with by Sora, Matt and Izzy (an event later complained about by Tai, who had skipped a class in order to lie in bed all of that particular morning), there had been basically no Digimon attacks for over a month, leading to Rika at one point joking that Renamon would go rusty, and that they would have to keep practicing, pointing out potential practice targets as Guilmon, a target that Renamon had objected to, and Terriermon, one that Renamon had absolutely no objections to, or indeed to limiting it only to non-violent practice, or Rika joining in with a set of frying pans, a convenient threat that, despite the fact that it was never going to actually happen, had kept the dog-bunny generally quiet for a week.

A very strange week, Ryder had noticed, but Henry suspected that Terriermon was using other methods of annoyance when all the dishes, pans and cutlery in Henry's house mysteriously vanished and were assembled into a makeshift castle in the hideout in Shinjuku Park patrolled at night by an ever-enthusiastic Calumon, a construction that Renamon, accompanied by Rika and a power modify card, then used for practice, ironically fulfilling their need for battle, and leading to Terriermon being far more annoying during the following week, until Rika 'borrowed' a frying pan or two of her own during a Tamer's visit to the Wong Family apartment, and accomplished her revenge, thus restoring the status quo, not before Guilmon ate a spoon and had to be given the Heimlich manoeuvre by Renamon, a procedure she was not only happy to give both for Guilmon's wellbeing and her intimacy with him (something particularly lacking thanks to Kristy insisting on playing tag with him and Kudamon or Calumon whenever she insisted on following Rika to the park, which was almost every day), but, due to experience from pretty much every single month since Guilmon somehow developed an allergy of sorts to a particular otherwise indistinguishable type of bread that Takato continued to clumsily place in his bag when he and Guilmon went to the park, well trained to give as well.

Returning to her current situation, Renamon knew that, despite being her partner and having even become one with her (although now since they first became Goddramon, that was now not such an exclusive club), Rika would not tell her what was concerning her when asked, if she didn't even tell Takato when he asked, or her sister for that matter as well. She considered asking Harmony what the problem was, who, thanks to a general agreement between the two who shared the same body, a similar agreement to that which Takato shared with his obsessively destructive (and yet at the same time obsessively caring about pebbles, leading to some odd events when they went to the seaside involving talking to the worn down grey rocks), was freely allowed to switch into and out of control when she felt like it, which was, thankfully for everyone else's sanity, only occasionally. However, Renamon knew that this would at the same time be likely to be seen by Rika as an abuse of their trust and trickery regarding herself, so she decided against it.

Renamon realised that she would not be able to attempt to find out what was bothering Rika, because it would never be a successful attempt. She would merely have to wait for her partner to tell her, be it hours, days, weeks…

"Renamon…" Rika interrupted the Kitsune's musings. "Can we talk?" she asked, her voice lacking its normal determination.

"Of course…" Renamon replied, inwardly hoping that this was her chance to find out what was concerning the redhead.

"Good…" Rika replied, breathing an unexpected sigh of relief. "I have to tell you something…"

Renamon stood fully up from her position on the wall, and walked over to her partner, sitting down cross-legged on the floor near her as Rika sat up somewhat.

"This may need explaining somewhat, as I'm not sure what your familiarity is with human conditions…" Harmony noted, the pair seemingly working in sync, an event that seemed a postcursor to them having a mental conversation, of the type that even Renamon was rarely, if ever, privy to the details of.

Rika nodded in response to what Harmony had said, as Renamon looked to Rika with questioning blue orbs, concerned as to what Harmony meant. "Rika, do you have an illness of some kind?" Renamon asked.

Rika shook her head, laughing uncomfortably once. "No, not exactly…" she replied.

"Then what is it?" Renamon asked, Rika noticing a look of concern take on her features.

Rika breathed in deeply, preparing herself for what she was about to say, as Harmony did a last minute scan for the presence of other sentient life forms in the vicinity. These consisted of Rika Nonaka, Harmony, a weaker signal, presumably the baby, Renamon, and two goldfish in the pond outside, one of whom thought he was called Barry and that he was from Newport in South Wales. He also appeared to be completely insane, and continually tried to consult the other goldfish, who had no idea what he was talking about because he was a regular bog-standard goldfish. (1)

In other words, no intelligent life in the vicinity besides those that Rika wished to hear.

"I'm pregnant…" Rika spoke finally, the words similar to ripping off a band-aid. Rika looked up, eager (but at the same time fearing) to see Renamon's reaction.

"I've heard the word…" Renamon began. "But what exactly does it mean?" she continued.

"It means…" Rika began, coughing nervously. "That about 8 months from now, I'm going to have a child…"

Renamon stared blankly at Rika, realisations dawning on her. "What?" she asked, now completely stumped.

"Well, you remember five weeks ago, when we were in New York…on the night when DarkRenamon attacked you and Guilmon…when I asked you to stay outside…"

"Oh, that…" Renamon said in realisation. "…so…Takato is the father?"

Rika nodded. "Yeah…" she replied, unsure of exactly how to explain it to Renamon.

"Did you intend to…?"

"No…"

"Did Takato intend to…?"

"No…"

"Whose fault was…?"

"Mine mainly, I asked him to…"

"What are you going to do?"

Rika sighed, looking to the ceiling once again. "I have no idea…"

"Can you prevent…"

"Yes…"

"Are you going to?"

"Probably not…"

"So what is your main concern?"

"Coming to terms with the fact I'm going to have a child, and telling Takato as well…not to mention my parents…"

"I see…by the sounds of it, you are expecting to find that to be difficult?"

Rika nodded. "This isn't exactly usual for girls of my age, most women tend to have children in their twenties or thirties…I'm still in school…"

Renamon sighed. "I see…"

"Although, it is going to be interesting seeing my mother's reaction in particular…she had me when she was nineteen…I've always wondered if that was why my father left when I was young…"

"How do you expect Takato to react?"

"That's the reason I told you first…I expect that, knowing Takato, he'll faint for several hours, and then when he wakes up he'll either faint again when he realises that it wasn't a dream, or rather a nightmare, or he'll really struggle to come to terms with it himself…"

"When do you plan to tell him?"

"No idea…I have yet to come to terms with the fact that I'm going to give birth myself…let alone to be able to be confident enough to help him come to terms with the fact he'll be a father…"

Renamon sighed, and looked into the eyes of her partner, as the redhead smiled bravely back and put her hand on her belly.

"This is going to change our lives forever…"

"Rey must have known about this…" Renamon noted, as Rika nodded in response.

"She hinted at it so many times…" Rika replied, the realisation dawning on her. "On the day Takato and I…did it…she said that I couldn't possibly…conceive…oh…"

"And she also told you to go to the hospital on this day…"

"And that is what confuses me the most about Rey..."

"What?"

"She's changing history, but she seems to be a part of it in the first place. Like…she's destined to travel back in time…and cause all these events to occur!"

Renamon nodded. "I am not sure how I can advise you but…I will assist you if I can…"

"Thanks…" Rika replied, truly smiling for the first time in hours, and noticing that Renamon met it with a smile of her own, subtle since Renamon's mouth was hidden underneath her snout. Rika, however, was able to tell Renamon's true emotions through experience, an ability that she suspected Guilmon had, and that Takato was developing.

Rika lay her head back down on the futon's pillow-like top, and sighed.

"Renamon, no offense, but while talking to you got a load off my chest; it didn't exactly help me come to terms with things…"

"My apologises…" Renamon replied.

"You don't need to apologise, it's not your fault…" Rika replied, smiling to reassure the vixen. "But I do need to talk to someone slightly more human…" she added.

"No offense taken…" Renamon replied, noting Rika's glance to see her reaction to that. Rika chuckled lightly. "Who do you have in mind?" Renamon asked.

Rika looked to the door, the light glinting off the pond in the garden, currently dominated by a goldfish that was trying to escape it and creating ripples as well as a gentle pinging noise as water splashed about.

"It'll have to be a woman…" Rika replied. "Dr Imai…" she began, eliciting a confused glance from Renamon. "My doctor…gave me a number to call if I needed to talk to someone…but…I think I'd like to talk to someone else first…"

"Any ideas in particular?" Renamon asked.

"Well…my parents are completely out of the question, as are any other adults…I'd prefer not to be judged thank you very much…"

Renamon sighed, and nodded in response. "Jeri?" she asked.

Rika shook her head. "She's nice, but I'm not sure that she's exactly the person to talk to…particularly if, Goddramon forbid, Terriermon starts blabbing, or blackmails it out of Elecmon…"

"Yolei?"

"Are you kidding?!"

"Mimi?"

"Too fashion obsessed, as well as having her head in the clouds. I get enough of that with Takato…"

"Sora?"

"Too far away, I'm not even sure where her university is, let alone where her dorm room is."

"Mari?"

"Maybe…I guess I could at least visit her, and see if I feel okay talking to her about it…it also depends if Ryder is there or not…"

Renamon nodded. Regardless of her lack of a partner, Mari had effectively become a member of their team of Tamers. Due to her particular circumstances, she had become mature beyond her years, and of all people she was least likely to look down on Rika, knowing how incidents can change someone's life forever. Rika and Mari had, despite their differences, become friends.

But, even with that, would Rika really be able to talk to her about her new situation?


Hypnos, Floor 29, Tokyo Metropolitan Building

10:15 JST

Henry tapped his fingers on the brass bar running around the lift to ease the tension that had accumulated. Any visit to Hypnos prompted by a call from Yamaki was always particularly important, mainly since Yamaki was, despite events since the early days of the Tamers, still uneasy about calling the Tamers out on anything, added to by the fact that the Tamers dealt with bioemerges all on their own regardless. Therefore, this visit could only mean ill, unless it were to be like when they learnt about the New York trip, which was a bright star in a dark night, before being effectively extinguished by the events of that trip.

Terriermon sat on his head, looking over at his Tamer's agitated tapping, while Janyuu, Henry's father and a member of the Monster Makers, stood nearby, similarly agitated.

"What's eating ya?" Terriermon asked bluntly.

"The general feeling that this trip to Hypnos will be for bad news…" Henry replied. "Added to which is the fact that we've seen no other Tamers heading her, nor were we told to call any of them before coming."

"Maybe Rika's gone missing?" Terriermon mooted.

"Terriermon!" Henry complained.

"She deserves it after the frying pans!"

"You built a fort out of our cutlery!"

"Rika threatened that if I continued to make jokes, she'd hit me with frying pans!"

"Sounds like she fulfilled her threats…" Janyuu noted slyly.

"Hey!" Terriermon complained, as the lift reached the correct floor and the doors slid open, Henry's father with a smug look on his face, and Terriermon with an annoyed look. Henry ignored his partner's complaint, and looked out at the Hypnos lobby, expecting it to be busy, but was pleasantly surprised when he saw only a few assistants, and Shibumi.

"Punctual as ever…" Janyuu joked, as Shibumi chuckled.

"The others will be here soon enough…" he replied.

"What's the situation doc?" Terriermon asked.

"Yamaki will explain better…" Shibumi replied.

"Really? He's always come across to me as being a bad-tempered uncharismatic…" Terriermon began. Yamaki coughed, the doors of the main control room sliding open. "Hey Boss!" Terriermon cheered enthusiastically.

"Come in…" Yamaki greeted, a tinge of anger in his voice.

"Got away with that one…" Terriermon whispered to Henry as they walked into the control room.

"Suzie can still do the Princess Treatment on request…" Henry replied. Terriermon shivered, and nervously replied.

"Touché!"

"Getting straight to business…" Yamaki told them. "It appears there is a problem with the Digital World…"

"You've never been, have you?" Terriermon questioned teasingly. "There is ALWAYS a problem with the Digital World!"

Yamaki ignored the dog-bunny. "Riley, bring up the data…" he ordered. Riley nodded, and the monitoring screen was replaced with the map, surrounded by the dynamic data and the graph.

"It's this particular piece of data that is worrying…" Shibumi noted, pointing to the graph. Henry, his partner and his father looked up to the data, analysing it and trying to figure out exactly what it was showing.

"We run a scan about every month…" Tally noted. "And the latest one showed these alarming results…"

"The number of Digimon in the Digital World is decreasing?!" Henry asked in surprise.

"Not only that, the creation rate had dropped to zero…" Janyuu added. Shibumi nodded.

"The red ooze isn't back, is it?" Terriermon asked.

"No, we've checked for that…" Yamaki replied.

"Good, I'm not being sent home by Henry's dad again…" Terriermon replied callously. Janyuu frowned in sadness.

"Terriermon!" Henry told his partner, true anger in his voice. Terriermon promptly shut up.

"So why is this happening?" Janyuu asked, changing the subject.

"We have no idea, that's why we sent for you…" Tally replied.

"Hmm…amount of landscape stays the same, deletion rate fits the pattern, size of the world stays constant, what could possibly cause such a drop?" Janyuu pondered.

"It's puzzling isn't it?" Shibumi replied. "There seem to be no other differences except for the creation rate itself…"

Henry stared at the data; the numbers running through his head as he looked for anything at all that was remotely different. The doors behind him slid open; Yamaki frowned to once again see their newest recruit from downstairs in the experiment room.

"What is it?" he growled, his patience tested by the man's reappearance. "Have you found a link to Digimon?!" he asked, more impatiently, the man literally quaking in his boots at the sight of the imposing boss.

He spoke nervously and quietly. "Another building collapsed sir…"

"Until you find a link, stay out of my sight!" Yamaki told him.

"Yes sir…" the man replied, once again leaping at his chance to escape, practically running through the sliding doors.

"Wow, you've got some serious anger management problems…" Terriermon noted.

Henry decided to return to the subject at hand. "I'm thinking that we should contact Ryder…" he suggested.

"Why exactly?" Janyuu asked.

"He seemed to be very deductive when it comes to things like this…" Henry replied, hiding his actual reasons, namely that Ryder was an Angel, and that he would be likely to know what to do in this situation.

"Okay. Tally, email him…" Yamaki ordered, Tally nodding and beginning to type.

'I hope we can figure this one out…' Henry thought.

TO BE CONTINUED…


(1) – The result of far too much Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy…

An interesting chapter, without much actual progression in plot, but with lots of development of ideas and characters. Please review.

Next time…

Will Rika tell Mari? Will Ryder figure out the mystery? Will Terriermon ever stop making jokes, or will he be subjected to further 'treatment'? Will Barry escape the pond, or will he be doomed to be stuck in Shinjuku as a Goldfish forever? Will this next time ever end, or will I be asking questions forever?

Find out in 'Her Reluctance', Chapter Three of Dimensions Book Five: Demons.