A/N: And now the stuff that happened before the first chapter…and to prevent spoiling those chapters, I didn't put it as a prologue. Sadly though, I didn't count on the last chapter taking so long. Split scenes this time round, but they're basically random stuff that provide some more information. What happens in the Digital World isn't really the focus of this story after all. I originally planned different scenes, but the first and last scenes wrote themselves and I fell in love with them. They also rendered most of the planned stuff useless.

And I know Greed was the last chapter, but there's a reason for that. Can anyone pick out my reasoning for each prompt in their namesake chapters?

Lines to Cross

The Beginning
Gluttony

Need often turns out to be a great and desperate thing, and brings with it a sense of thoughtlessness. The spontaneity by which it is attempted to be fulfilled often rips holes elsewhere in the fabric of existence, whether this need is large or small.

In this way, all thoughts infer actions and all actions have consequences, but before that the power of thought itself is dictated by actions that precede it.

When Ofanimon had called children from all over the world to the Forest Terminal in the hopes that there would be some who could wield the five spirits that, between herself and Seraphimon, the side of good possessed, she never thought that it was possible there also existed in that cohort children who could wield the other five. Wood, water, earth and steel: these four she found later were strongly attracted to the four children who had refused her bid and stayed behind. If she had known sooner, she could have guided the others to them, the ones who had taken on the spirits she had guided them towards and defeated those who had been born from evil and Cherubimon. Perhaps those five – later six – might have suffered less pain with another four to help them. Maybe they would be suffering less now.

She also didn't know that, by opening the gate between the two worlds, she had let Cherubimon who was normally unable to see the other world have access to a great power. She did know the spirits of Darkness had been cursed long ago by Lucemon, and that every digimon Cherubimon tried to affiliate with it lost their minds in a screaming labyrinth – for her cage hung above that very labyrinth and it was impossible not to hear the mindless cries – but to no avail. However, there was a wealth of humans, and one with a dark soul but a strong mind would be easier to come by. And it was, for a cruel or perhaps fortunate twist of fate brought the perfect person to his doorstep. And it was a child too far away for her to reach.

It complicated things, but it worked out better in the end for it brought two lost brothers together and solidified their bond. And it saved the child as well, for she knew life and death better than anyone, and if it hadn't been for the spirits of darkness and finding his brother, she knew Kimura Kouichi would not have survived that afternoon.

She thought that was the end of the legendary warriors' task and the beginning of a new peace, but she had been wrong. And when she tried to reach the warriors again, she found herself only able to reach five of the six. For not only was the spirit of darkness one that did not come under her jurisdiction, but its warrior had not physically entered the digital world so it was as unfamiliar with him as he was with it. Souls were one thing, but when it came to the fickle gate only bodies mattered to it.

And the gate was so unstable, due to a result of the current issues in the digital world, Lucemon's chaos and her own gambit at the time, she could not afford to dawdle in calling the other five. But even that didn't go as planned, as time warped and the gate slammed behind them.

Kouichi had been expecting Kouji to call after school as he always did, half an hour after the elder twin arrived home if he was coming direct. It just so happened he was that day; there was no meeting of the art club and his library books were plenty and with long due dates. And he had a lot of math homework to crawl through unless he called Junpei later to ask for some help.

Which I'll have to, he thought to himself as he tried to get a start on it. This makes no sense at all.

It should, and it probably would at a later stage, but he didn't have the luxury to wait when the worksheet was due in the next day. It was pointless anyway – he had no intention of going into engineering, unlike Junpei once again, so he had no use for circular functions. He didn't see how they would; they must, naturally, otherwise they wouldn't exist, but he knew no context for them. It was just learning for the sake of learning; he was getting nowhere.

But school was school and he had to tolerate it, even if he wished he could do something rather than lead towards a light that never seemed to arrive. But he lifted his head an unproductive half-hour later to find that Kouji was late in calling him.

Kouji was never late. Especially not when he had the day off from school. Something the Kyoto students had missed out on, but Kouichi wasn't complaining. He'd already had his student-free day after all. But he was surprised to find that Kouji hadn't called. Even if he was in the middle of something, the younger twin had a bad habit of interrupting to make the call.

At that exact moment, his stomach suddenly plummeted into unseen depths before returning to normal, and as he wondered if Kouji had been on a roller coaster (although he was sure he felt surprise in there), the phone rang.

And it didn't stop ringing. But that didn't change the fact that his five best friends had just vanished off the face of the earth.

And they could only be in one place, because he would have known if his brother was hurt or in danger…just as Kouji had felt it when he struck his head against the tiled floor of Shibuya station.

Kouji woke up to a panic. Two panics to be precise; there were Child digimon running about him as though the apocalypse was at their doorstep – and upon seeing the huge shadow threatening to devour them, that wasn't an entirely inaccurate perception. Takuya was already up beside him, yelling for Agunimon. He wondered whether he should yell for Wolfmon. But there was another sort of panic inside of him.

He looked around, trying to assess the situation. Izumi was still unconscious, half slumped over Junpei. Tomoki was stirring, one hand blindly feeling about for something. A slipper or sock maybe, as he was moving the transparent object to his feet as if slipping his toes into them. But that was it.

There was no Kouichi. They were in the Digital World, and he was missing his brother.

'Hey, you!' Takuya was yelling at the shadowy figure now. 'Go pick on someone your own size.'

'I'm not sure it's a good idea to rile him up,' Junpei muttered. 'We need our spirits to fight.'

But Izumi was sitting up, blinking in shock, and they could all run faster than the average Child digimon (Renamon being an obvious exception). And running seemed like the best idea, even if they were running aimlessly – at least until Angemon arrived to lead them to the Great Angels.

And there they leant of the chaos that had been strung into motion by a series of events that had brought the five of them to the Digital World and left the warrior of darkness behind.

They might have managed with five before they met him the first time, but now they knew they were six parts of a whole and that made things a lot more complicated.

Last time, they had been young and naive. Sure, Takuya missed Shinya and Tomoki missed Yutaka…and all of them their parents, and Kouji his dog, and the list went on. But they were still in elementary school…save Junpei who had just started junior high. They had a wealth of time to experience things. It was the perfect age to have adventures and to adapt. And it was okay, because they'd gone to the Digital World looking for things, be that answers to life's questions or curiosity, and they had every chance to turn back if they wished. Even if they didn't, the choice helped.

This time, they were older, less malleable, and they were missing a whole lot more. Things they had gained from their last trip to the Digital world: friends, and family in Kouji's case. All of them were missing a member of their team who had fought at least half the battles by their side. A friend they missed each time they came across a circumstance where his speciality could have made things far easier to them. Like his knowledge about the Dark Continent (and some other equally fickle places) which far surpassed Bokomon's, or the tracking instincts that came with his beast spirit and far stronger than Kouji's inner wolf. Once it had been a joke, how the younger twin got the territorial genes and the elder got the gift of the true hunt, but it would have saved them parading across the Digital World without aim and probably a few close calls as well.

And they missed the things they had learnt to appreciate. On one hand, they felt as though they could accomplish more with greater age and knowledge. Save more digimon from the new enemy, the greedy Barbamon. On the other, they felt as though they were weaker, for their minds drifted back to other things. And when they saw time followed the same pattern in both worlds, they worried all the more. Before, it was five children looking for their place. Now, it was five children who had found them, only to be uprooted.

It was great to be in the Digital World, but it seemed to be costing them too much.

And when Barbamon was finally defeated, they learnt what it truly felt like to be stuck in a place one didn't belong. Not that the world didn't welcome them with open arms, but they were humans in a world full of digimon. Little things that uprooted them: the odd currency, the lack of a junior high school, the people they had gotten so used to being around.

It was difficult to contact the human world, but they were grateful it wasn't impossible. By an odd twist of fate, it was Kouichi's absence that saved them on that front; it seemed only the twins' D-scanners could connect with each other over the distance between the two worlds, and with no-one able to open the gate from their end it would have to be forced from the human side. If Kouichi hadn't still been there though, who knew how someone would have known to try…or find the right world in a large and messy continuum. Even with someone who knew so much about the Digital World, it was by far an easy task, but it was possible, and they cheered up immensely. Ofanimon did too; it wasn't that the warriors had overstayed their welcome, but she worried about the consequences of her own actions. She could not call them mistakes, because it had saved them twice with no ill will, but she could see the children were miserable underneath it all.

Somehow, that first message warped time again: sped it up. It seemed only a day or two had passed before the twins were talking – or shouting over static – again. And they cheered up even more; things were progressing. And then another few days, and things on the other side were almost ready and the five teens crowded around Kouji's D-scanner under the sky of the Venus Rose, awaiting the flash that would tell them the gate was open and ready for them.

Those last few days turned into a vacation, but there was still the worry at the back of their minds that things would fail and they would remain apart from the things they had learnt to love forever.

But even if they went back, they would be missing things they had left behind. It was just the difference between the baby duck who followed its mother and the toddler who crawled about with curiosity, the difference between the world they had lived in for years and the one they visited for months to save. There was no attaining the perfect balance after all, and home with loved ones waiting was simply the closest.