Digimon Adventure: Connections

Chapter 8: Breaking Away

The small apartment filtered with soft giggles as the two Tsutsumi twins were getting ready for bed. Yuki and Skyy wriggled underneath their father's tickling fingers and laughed until their sides ached. When their dad had gotten his fill he leaned back and smiled lovingly at his two angels. Yuki and Skyy's laughter died down but they still jumped with energy.

"Daddy we don't want to go to bed! We're not sleepy!" Skyy said impishly.

"We want to play more!" Yuki squealed, tugging on her father's shirt sleeve. He smiled and waggled his finger at them.

"Ah, ah, ah, it's past your bedtime already, you two have to go to school in the morning," their father said. Both brown eyed girls scrunched their noses in distaste.

"But we don't like school," Yuki started

"No one understands us," Skyy finished.

"And why is that?" their father said, concern lacing his tone ever so slightly. Both girls shrugged identically.

"We don't know,"

"But we don't mind really,"

"Yeah, it's more fun by ourselves!"

"Well then don't complain," their father said, poking them both lightly on their noses. Both girls smiled and let small giggles escape. As if on cue both girls yawned and their father quickly tucked them into their beds and shut off the light in their bedroom.

Skyy's eyes were just starting to droop shut when she heard familiar footsteps on the wooden floor. A second later her sheets moved and she felt her sister climb in next to her. Skyy snuggled closer to the warmth and Yuki did the same.

"It is more fun by ourselves right?" Yuki whispered, so as to not be detected by their parents. Skyy nodded quickly.

"Yeah, we only need ourselves," she agreed and Yuki nodded once. Skyy put out her pinky finger in front of Yuki's face.

"We'll be together forever, right; those silly kids at school who can't tell us apart are dumb."

Yuki immediately linked her finger with her sister's

"Of course! We are the same! They just don't understand us like we do. We'll always be together!"

But this simple statement made by two children reached much deeper within both girls. Much deeper.

To them, it was understood that all Skyy needed was Yuki, and all Yuki needed was Skyy. They were each other's most important person. They weren't just identical twins. They were linked much deeper and no other person could penetrate their barrier. They thought the same, spoke the same, understood the world through the same eyes, and understood each other on a much deeper level than anyone else. They were born together, so they were meant to stay together. If something separated them, they would do everything in their power to return to each other's sides.

Both twins drifted off to sleep that night with silent vows etched into their hearts.

Silent promises.

She sat staring blankly at her notebook splayed out in front of her. The bell had rung shrilly and all the students quickly bustled out to their lockers and to their lunchboxes. They filtered back in to the room in groups chatting obnoxiously and it made her head hurt. But they didn't care. They never noticed her anyway. She was the silent new student who never looked up from her shoes and never spoke to anyone. A few confident students had approached her during her first week at school, but she disregarded them completely. Eventually they stopped trying to talk to her. If she wasn't going to bother talking to anyone they weren't going to bother with her.

Just like usual she slipped up silently from her seat, packed her books away and silently floated out of the room unbeknownst to any of her classmates. That's the way it always was. She'd rather not be noticed.

She put away her books and took out her lunch box and locked her locker as silently as he could. The halls were empty now as the students had gone back into their classrooms to eat. It was different here. Back home at school people went out around the school campus to eat, but here they weren't allowed to leave the classroom during lunch unless they needed to meet a teacher for something. She didn't like it; it forced her to be surrounded by people. She didn't want to be with people, she didn't want to hear them talk and laugh and be happy. She stared blankly at the floor for a few moments before turning on her heel and wandering down the hall.

She walked through the halls passing the classrooms with the student's voices filtering out into echoes in the hallway. She wandered until she came to her usual spot just tucked away under the stairwell. She crouched down slowly and folded her legs, placing her lunch on her lap and silently started to eat. She'd started eating here after the first day and hadn't once been found out. This was her place where she could just forget the world and the reality she now had to live in.

A year.

A year without Yuki.

It was torture. How could she be expected to live in a world with no Yuki in it? It was physically choking her.

But it was only a matter of time before her own disease claimed her as well. She just had to hold out until then. Then…everything would be fine.

Skyy had told herself that after she had realized she would die, that she would make no more worldly connections. She wanted nothing to do with this world that took Yuki away from her and she wanted out of it as soon as possible. Living used to be enjoyable and a special thing she got to share with her twin. But now it was almost laughing at her. Saying "look how happy I can make you, too bad I can just take it all away in a second and watch you suffer."

Life sucked, living sucked. Life was worthless, just a plaything to some higher being.

Cruel.

Unbelievably cruel.

She clenched her fork in her hand so tightly the plastic almost snapped.

Suddenly a figure plummeted down next to her without her realizing and she immediately snapped to attention. She peeked over in annoyance as a boy older than her stretched out his long legs in front of him and settled down about a foot from herself. She scowled to herself and returned to eating. This annoying boy, she would just ignore him if he tried talking to her.

Silence. He sat silently munching on a sandwich beside her with his eyes lightly closed. A group of students walked up the stairwell, not noticing either of them and laughing loudly. Both were still quiet even as the laughing students faded into nothing.

Finally when the boy swallowed the last bit of his sandwich he spoke.

"You're not supposed to be out of class you know," he said simply. She didn't look at him, she didn't answer him. She could feel him quietly looking at her, but she didn't bother looking back to see what he looked like. She could see his legs from the corner of her eyes but that's all.

He was quiet for a moment longer before suddenly reaching out and lifting her curtain of hair from her face. Skyy jumped in surprise a reeled away from him, hiding her face in her hair once again, but the damage had already been done.

"Wow! Your really quite pretty, I would love to see what you look like when you smile!" he laughed boyishly. She frowned. When she said nothing in response he laughed lightly and leaned back against the wall.

"This is a nice little spot you got here, nice and quiet and no one can see you," the boy wondered aloud. Skyy wished he would go away, she wasn't going to talk to him, and his efforts were useless. She resumed eating and the boy suddenly leaned over and craned his neck so he was peeking at her through her hair. Skyy glanced up at him silently.

He really was very handsome. He wasn't like the other kids, he looked like her. His hair was long and straight and just managed to touch his shoulders. It was brown and matched his warm brown eyes. His smile stretched to show the most good-looking smile she'd ever seen on someone and his eyes smiled along with his mouth. His skin was spotless and very well taken care of. He had a thin frame but his clothes hung on him nicely. He was obviously older then her.

"My name is Jeremy, I'm in grade 8! How about you?" he said cheerily. Skyy turned her head away from him. Jeremy pouted slightly and leaned back.

"Alright, your shy, my good looks do that to people, I get it," he sighed dramatically. Suddenly he peeked at her lunchbox and saw something scribbled in permanent marker on the side. His mouth stretched into another grin and he perked up excitedly. "Skyy! Your name is Skyy right! That's what your lunchbox says!" he said happily.

Skyy glared at her lunch and quickly put it to the side of her, away from Jeremy's view. Jeremy laughed his boyish laugh again. "You must be in grade 7 because I haven't seen you around anyone I know," Jeremy said. Just then the shrill school bell that she hated rung out signaling lunch was over and she began to pack her garbage back into her lunchbox. Jeremy jumped up and stretched.

"Well! That was fun!" he sighed. He spun around and waved even though she wasn't looking at him. "I'll see you tomorrow Skyy! Here in our spot!" he grinned and sauntered off around the corner over to the area of the school where the grade eight classes were. Skyy stared blankly at where he once stood.

Stupid boy.

She would never talk to him.

Skyy stared fuzzily into the dark distance as old memories played back in her mind. She wasn't paying attention to anything around her and her body had felt an odd numbness ever since she had returned from the doctor a few days ago. She felt cold hair blow her hair around her face and suddenly her vision seemed to return and her mind came back to reality and she blinked as she registered the local park structures that stood empty in the dark night. The park was empty save for eight figures.

"Alright, so we've all been called here today to discuss or next few moves in the Digital World," Izzy started. All the digidestined stood, or sat on other park structures and listened intently. Izzy had called them all out with big news. Apparently he felt they were almost ready to attack the mega darkness in the Digital World and it was time to set a date of attack. Izzy took a deep breath.

"So we've been fighting these seekers for almost three months now, and we've been studying how they work, as well as how to defeat them very closely," Izzy explained. "We've defeated a massive number of them and we know that Skyy and Pleomon's power is necessary to defeat them. I've decided that now is as best a time as ever to defeat the enemy once and for all, if we wait any longer it will be too late and the darkness will recover and take control. The longer we leave it sitting there the stronger it gets and harder it will be for us to get rid of it."

"What makes you so sure we're ready?" Sora asked quietly. Izzy grinned confidently.

"Don't worry, I have every ounce of confidence we can do this," he smiled and Sora couldn't help but smile back. Izzy then pulled out a tube of paper from his bag and splayed it out on a picnic table; everyone leaned in closer to see what it was. Izzy pointed to the map of the digital world, right in the middle where a big black blob was concentrated.

"This is our enemy, and I think I have a plan we can use to defeat it," he said. Tai smiled wickedly.

"Awesome! Spill it!" he said excitedly. Izzy circled the blob with his finger.

"The enemy is here and unfortuanly we still haven't met it face to face and we don't even know what its physical form looks like. It's surrounded by multitudes of multi-level seekers that are guarding it like a bunch of walls, with the strongest seekers being near the middle," Izzy pointed out the different sections of seekers on the map and everyone studied it seriously. "There are five waves in total and we must come all together and take out the seekers as fast as possible so we can expose and defeat the darkness directly."

"So like we did the other week?" TK asked, referring to their last major battle when Skyy and Hotarumon sped through the army of seekers at the speed of light. Izzy nodded.

"Exactly. We'll need Skyy and Pleomon to make all the first moves and purify the seekers," Izzy turned to look at Skyy, who was not looking at any of them. "You'll have to keep moving forward, don't think about us and just get as many seekers purified as fast as you can, we'll meet up with you at the end and battle all together," Izzy said. Skyy didn't make any movement that she had heard or recognized what he said and Izzy paused for a moment, confused at her lack of participation.

"Uh, but yes, I'm still not 100% positive that Hotarumon will be able to battle such a strong opponent just as is. Skyy, you'll really have to get in tune with your crest of Life and help her to Digivolve further, you're the only one of us 9 who still has their crest," Izzy said seriously. Skyy glanced up at him with empty eyes and Izzy was taken aback. She looked at him for a moment with no apparent expression before her eyes flickered downwards again.

Izzy blinked stupidly for a moment and Tai was shocked as well. What was wrong with this girl? Had she completely changed over the past few days or was it just him? Whenever Tai called her on the phone like usual she never seemed to be home or available. She disappeared during lunch at school and never talked to him or anyone else during classes. One day she came to first period then skipped the rest of their classes and wasn't seen until the next morning.

Everyone had noticed her change but never said anything, assuming it was family business or something else. But her complete lack of verbal or physical responses that night was getting a little unsettling. Was she even listening to anything they were talking about? Tai clenched his teeth together and told himself to calm down. Losing his temper all of a sudden wouldn't help anything; it would probably just make it worse. But he really wanted nothing more than to yell at her and ask her what the hell was wrong with her.

So he resulted to silently glaring at her from the side. Izzy seemed to remember himself and quickly shook off his surprise and found his voice again. "So, the plan is to attack in a few days time, this way we can get prepared and find excuses as to why we won't be home. I feel like this is going to be a longer battle," Izzy said tiredly.

Everyone nodded once and Izzy quickly wrapped up the meeting. As everyone said their goodbye's and dispersed, Izzy approached Skyy but before he could open his mouth she turned and walked away from him, pretending that she never noticed him walking up to her. Tai saw some resemblance of a pained look flash through her eyes but it was quickly masked by the empty expression that she had been adorning all night. Izzy stood still for a second before snapping his mouth shut and looking at his shoes, somewhat hurt. He shoved his hands into his jacket and trudded off to pack away his map.

Tai frowned and turned to look at Skyy, who was walking down towards the direction of their apartment. He twisted his mouth to the side. He glanced at his watch for the time for some reason and noticed the date instead. A smile suddenly spread across his lips and he turned and bounded over to Izzy.

"Hey Iz!" Tai said exuberantly. Izzy jumped in surprise at the brunette's sudden presence but smiled.

"What's up? Got questions?" he wondered. Tai shook his head and shoved his watch into Izzy's face. Izzy paused and raised an eyebrow. "That's quite a nice watch, I have one myself if you didn't notice," he said sarcastically. Tai rolled his eyes and pointed to the digital screen.

"No! No look at the date!" he said and Izzy looked again.

"It's July 3rd…so?" he said. Tai grinned.

"I've got an idea; we've got some planning to do!" Tai said excitedly and Izzy just looked at him curiously.

Skyy lay on her bed quietly and stared at the blank ceiling.

She was spending most her nights like this now. She didn't mind, she was starting to enjoy the comfort of silence.

Tai had only tried calling once today.

Usually it was more.

Of course she didn't care whether he called or not. She ignored his calls and told her parents not to pick them up. They were confused but never answered when the Kamiya residence was calling.

Skyy closed her eyes and greeted the darkness. She had sent Pleomon home a few nights ago and the confused digimon hadn't been there for a few days now.

She raised her arm slowly and pulled down the long sleeve of her shirt. She grimaced at the flowering bruises that patterned her forearms. It was almost as if there was more purple then natural skin colour. It was a side effect of her leukemia. Her skin was incredibly delicate. She remembered her and Yuki getting bruises like these where they were little. When Skyy'd visit her sister in the hospital she'd always have new bruises somewhere on her body because she didn't listen to the nurses and snuck out of her bed. Skyy remembered laughing with her and saying she would have done the same, and that staying in a bed all day was too boring.

Skyy lowered her arms and pulled her sleeve back down.

She missed her.

She missed her so much.

Their games, their pranks, they're stories.

Her hair, her face, her eyes, her laugh.

Though they looked completely identical, despite having different hair lengths, Skyy could never look in the mirror and see Yuki, she was only reminded of the half of herself that was forever missing.

But she was sick again now. She went to the hospital everyday now for check-up and tests. If she got even slightly worse, she'd have to be admitted. But at least that made it easier to avoid the mistakes she had made. She had only gone out yesterday because Tai literally picked her up and carried her there. That damn boy was too strong.

She sighed and cleared her brain of the previous night. She was forgetting, she had decided.

But as if Fate was secretly Satan and had other plans, the doorbell to her apartment suddenly rang out loudly and Skyy listened as her mother's slippers padded across the wood floor to the door. She heard the door creak open and her mother greet someone in surprise.

"Is Skyy home?"

Skyy suddenly bolted upright, wincing at her bruises as a side effect.

What was he doing here? She sat still and listened like a hawk as her mother mumbled something and started to pad towards her bedroom. Her door creaked open and her mother poked her head through.

"Um, Skyy, a boy named Izumi is here to see you…do you want to speak with him?" her mother asked hesitantly. Skyy hesitated before frowning and rolling over onto her side.

"No, I'm not home" she said simply and her mother paused.

"Are you sure?" she asked. Skyy made a noise as if to say yes and a moment later her door clicked shut. Skyy sighed into her pillow and closed her eyes lightly. If she didn't meet with them it would be easier to forget. Her only concerns now were Yuki, and nothing else.

Skyy tried to will herself to sleep simply for the sake of passing time. It was until she heard her bedroom door open for a second time that her eyes snapped open and she groaned inwardly. What did her mother want now? She rolled over to ask her mother what she wanted but her mouth froze before she could even begin her sentence.

There in her doorway stood one maroon haired boy with his head peeking around the open door. He smiled sheepishly when she caught him and opened the door a little wider. "Hi Skyy!" he said cheerfully. Skyy so badly wanted to tell him to leave but a weird twisting of conflicting emotions that rose in her gut seemed to be stopping her from doing that. She resorted to glowering at her sheets as she waited for Izzy to announce why he was there.

Izzy sensed her unwillingness to speak first and quickly cleared his throat nervously. "I figured you were home despite what your mom told me, she did go and ask you after all," Izzy started, then paused, looking at the floor. "I came because me and the others have a surprise for you! I know its a little last minute but we planned it all pretty quickly and we sensed that you were feeling a little down recently so we thought, well Tai thought, that it would cheer you up," Izzy fumbled with his hands. Skyy looked him up and down curiously. She sighed and sat straight up.

"I'm sorry, but I can't go out, I'm…kind of tired," she lied. Izzy bit his lip, thinking. He did that a lot, Skyy noticed. She quickly pushed that from her head though, scowling slightly at herself.

"Well, it would just be for a little while, we spent a lot of time getting things ready," Izzy persisted. Skyy frowned.

"What is it?"

"See that's the catch, it's a surprise," Izzy replied. Skyy lolled her head to the side.

"Sorry, I don't feel like going, maybe some other time," Skyy said blankly. And for some reason, the look Izzy gave her really made her regret what she said. He looked defeated and nodded once.

"Ah, of course," he said tersely and turned to leave. Skyy watched him leave and her chest felt like it was tearing. Why did she feel so torn about this? If it had been Tai she would have turned him away without a second thought. Why did Izzy get to her so much? She heard Izzy quietly say goodbye to her parents and slip on his shoes. Skyy's fingers twitched on her covers and as soon as she heard the door click shut she pushed the sheets from her legs and sped out of her room. She raced to the front door and opened it just to see Izzy making his way to the elevator.

"U-um!" Skyy spoke up and Izzy turned in surprise, his face brightening. Skyy opened her mouth but then seemed to lose her words.

"Skyy! Did you change your mind?" Izzy asked hopefully and her mouth snapped shut. She gritted her teeth. He stepped closer and Skyy hugged herself lightly.

"No...I...I'm sorry…for not coming," Skyy muttered and Izzy's face feel slightly.

"Oh, no, that's okay, you don't have to come if you don't want to, it is pretty last minute and all, we don't want to force you," he plastered on a smile and shrugged lightly. Again Skyy's chest felt like it was tearing.

Why was he so nice and polite to her? Why did he affect her so much? Why did she feel like this? Skyy bit her lip and avoided his gaze. She shifted on her feet and felt awkward. Now what should she do?

Just then, breaking the silence like butter, Skyy's mother popped her head out of the front door and looked back and forth between the two. Skyy jumped in surprise and Izzy looked taken aback. Skyy's mother blushed bashfully.

"Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear you two," she confessed and turned her attention to Skyy. "Sweetie? Why don't you go out for a bit? As long as your, um, careful, you should have some fun! You've been inside all the time the past few days and surely being with your friends will help make you feel better!" her mother said quickly. Skyy gave her the best glare she could, filling it to the brim with venom.

"Mom, I said I didn't want to go," she said. Her mother looked at her for a moment, as if deciding what to say. Finally after a long pause she answered.

"Well then, you're not allowed back in," she said and swiftly slammed the front door in Skyy's face. Skyy heard the lock click and her mouth dropped.

Skyy glanced from the door to Izzy and he looked just as shocked as she did. Skyy quickly shook her head and grabbed the door handle.

"Mom! Mom! Let me in! This isn't funny open the door!" Skyy yelled angrily whilst shaking the door desperately.

"Not until you go see your friends! I'm sick of you moping around! Go do something!" she heard her mother yell back determinedly. Skyy glared at her front door. She stood long and hard before kicking the door with all her might, which wasn't that much, to vent her anger and she huffed loudly.

"Fine!" she yelled and stomped towards, and past, the dumbfounded red-head. Once she got to the elevator and he still hadn't moved Skyy whipped around.

"Well! Are you coming or not!" she snapped and Izzy quickly snapped back to focus and darted over to her with a smile tugging at his lips.

"Yes! Yes, coming!"

The way over to the school building had been no less then completely awkward. Skyy fumed the entire time whilst Izzy was too scared to talk to her for fear of being unintentionally yelled at. They managed to sneak into the school building and Izzy led her up to the second floor computer lab. Skyy frowned. Why was he taking her to the digital portal? She wasn't going to go back to that place if that's what he wanted. He slid open the door to the classroom and it was dark. He stepped to the side so she could go in first and she looked at him suspiciously. She hesitantly stepped forward and as soon as her foot entered the room the light flickered on and yells and cheers filled her ears.

Skyy froze like a deer caught in the headlights as Tai and Sora and everyone else popped out from under and behind desks and set of confetti poppers, cheering loudly. Skyy stared at them with wide eyes and Izzy chuckled behind her, sliding past her to join everyone else.

"Hey Kiddo! Don't think we haven't noticed your mood lately! So we've made an official party to welcome Skyy as a digidestined! Though it's a bit late," Tai laughed and wrapped his arm around Skyy's shoulders. Skyy blinked stupidly.

Sora skipped forward and grasped Skyy's hand. "We got you presents and a cake and everything! To be honest Tai only told us about it last night and we had to get everything together really quickly! You've been quite depressing lately so we wanted to cheer you up! Despite it being so last minute," Sora explained.

"We really wanted to give you a nice surprise!" Kari smiled sweetly. Everyone nodded.

"Yeah, it was all Tai's idea," Matt grinned. Tai grinned triumphantly and looked down at Skyy. She stood and gave them all long looks.

What...was this? They had done all this for her?

"We know we all haven't known you for a long time, but we were all really glad to meet you," Sora began. "I mean you were a little distant at first, but we've really come to get to know you!" she said sweetly. Skyy hid her face in her bangs. Sora glanced at everyone's faces and stepped closer to Skyy.

"I know it's sudden, but welcome to the team!" Sora said and patted Skyy on the shoulder. Just then Skyy let out a quiet laugh. Sora blinked in surprise. Skyy's laugh was dry and not genuine.

"Me? You think you know me?" Skyy muttered. She still had time. She shouldn't have come in the first place. But if she acted now…she could push them away and it would be easier to let go.

Confused looks passed over everyone's faces and Sora looked a little hurt. Tai frowned. "Hey. Skyy...that's…we put a lot of effort into this for you, couldn't you just—" he began and Skyy shoved off his arm and the motion made him unable to finish his sentence.

"You guys…with your easy going ways and your happy memories and your stupid Digital World and your stupid digimon," Skyy spat, the ball of emotion she had been gulping down rising with a force in her throat. Everyone's jaws dropped. Tai looked at her incredulously.

"Excuse me?" he hissed. Skyy chuckled again, but as she spoke her voice cracked.

"You guys don't know anything about me…and you don't need to…because this was a mistake…" she forced the words out. Izzy stepped closer.

"What do you mean a mistake?" he asked, the hurt in his voice coming across very clear to her. When Skyy spoke again her voice was a sob and it seemed clear to everyone that she didn't completely mean what she was saying.

"Everything! I'm such a fool I shouldn't even be here with you people, I don't need any of you and I don't want any friends!" her voice rose and her body began shaking as her emotions fully surfaced. Tai moved to touch her shoulder but she swatted him away and backed out of the room as tears spilled from her eyes. "D-don't touch me…don't talk to me…d-don't…." she stuttered. Tai's words were lost as she looked at him with a look of absolute fear on her face.

"J-just….just please disappear!" Skyy sobbed out and in a blur she bolted from the room. In a second Izzy bolted after her without even thinking. Everyone stood in surreal shock, digesting what just happened. Kari looked as if she was about to cry.

"She…I didn't…know..." Kari whimpered in shock. No one could speak and all stood stone still. Tai stared in the place where Skyy once stood and his chest felt empty.

Scared. She looked so scared…and so…so sad. Tai's chest clenched painfully and without a second breath he ran from the room in the direction he saw Skyy and Izzy go and Sora let out a whimper and collapsed into a nearby chair. Everyone stayed still.

She ran….she heard someone behind her but she didn't care so she ran. Every fiber in her mind told her to fun, get away, as fast as she could.

Her words hurt her, what she said to them, she didn't want to do it. But Yuki was more important. She had to get rid of those people. And shoving them away was the best way.

"Skyy!"

Go away.

"Skyy please!"

Just go away.

"Stop running!"

No. Please. Go Away.

Skyy squeezed her eyes shut and she tried with all her might to just run. Finally a hand caught her wrist and she lurched to a stop, breathing heavily.

A warm hand, very warm.

"Please, just explain to me," Izzy pleaded. Skyy sobbed loudly and collapsed to her knees. Izzy stood for a moment.

It was raining, when had it started raining? Skyy's clothes stuck to her body and her hair was plastered to the sides of her face. Izzy's voice was barely audible against the rain.

"Just tell me…what's wrong?" he pleaded again and fresh tears sprung to Skyy's eyes. It was a minute before she could grasp her breath and form words.

"I told you! I don't need you guys," she spat loudly through the rain. Izzy pinched his eyebrows together in concern.

"I have a hard time believing that," he said.

"This is pointless," Skyy muttered.

"What is?"

"Everything! Just everything! Living is so pointless, I'm so sick of it! This is all such a waste of time! I don't want to be here anymore," Skyy sobbed loudly. Izzy's eyes widened. What on earth...had happened to her to make her feel like this?

"Skyy, if you just-… I can help you…all of us will help you," Izzy pleaded. Skyy let out a dry laugh that didn't match the tears streaming down her face.

"Help me? Why?"

"Because, you're our friend, you're the digimons' friend; we all care about you, if you're like this…then…" Izzy tried but Skyy didn't seem like she was really registering his words.

"You want to know?" she croaked. Izzy's breath hitched.

"Yes, please…tell me what's hurting you so much…" he said, kneeling down so he was at eye-level with her.

"Gone," Skyy said simply. Izzy blinked.

"Pardon?"

"Gone…all gone…she's gone…"

"Who's…?"

"My sister…Yuki, she's all that matters to me, and she's gone!" Skyy cried, slamming her tiny fist into the gravel. Izzy didn't know how to respond. Gone…did that mean? Her sister was dead?

"Why? How can something like that happen…? She was…everything to me!"

"You're..." Izzy breathed. She had mentioned her sister only once…so this…this was the truth?

Izzy didn't have siblings, being an only child. But from watching Tai and Matt with their younger siblings…he knew it was a connection that an only child could not understand. A connection that remains very precious in someone's heart. And when something like that was broken, or taken away so suddenly…Izzy didn't want to even imagine the unimaginable pain that would cause someone. He wouldn't wish it on anyone.

"I….I'm sorry…about your sister," Izzy said carefully. "But...how can you say you don't need us? You're lonely aren't you?" Izzy said softly. He hesitantly touched Skyy's shoulder as she cried. He had to try and comfort her and make her understand. His efforts were in vain though and she swatted his hand away.

"I am lonely…but you won't help, Yuki and I were born together as twins, two of the same…we are meant to be together," Skyy continued. Suddenly she fell silent and Izzy thought she was saying something and leaned closer to listen. But she wasn't speaking. She wasn't moving and Izzy started to get concerned until she finally lolled her head upwards to look at the bleak, raining sky.

She looked like a lost soul. Broken to the bone and not seeking any help. She slowly, and achingly, closed her eyes and breathed in deep.

"Y'know…" she stated in a ghostly voice. Izzy watched her, almost scared to speak. Skyy paused, feeling the rain hitting her face like tiny tear drops before she continued to speak.

"I'm dying," she turned and looked at Izzy and it wasn't so much her statement that shook him but the look her eyes. Her eyes were completely blank. Void of any emotion or personality at all and it ripped his heart in two. He couldn't move...he didn't know what to do. He was lost, lost in shock, in pain, and in, utter loss.

"D-dy…dy—"he stuttered and his voice came out hoarse.

"I have leukemia, and I'm dying…it won't be long now….Yuki…" she mumbled in that same ghostly voice. She looked at him blankly as he gazed at the ground. "That's why I don't need you," she said. Izzy glanced up at her, a new wave of hurt flashing over his face.

"That's why…" Skyy's voice hitched and finally a look of utter and complete anguish crossed her features. "If I don't need you then…I can leave you and it won't hurt," she breathed heavily as she cried and Izzy couldn't do anything but just stare at her. Huge sobs ripped through her body and she crouched and hid her face in her hands. The two stayed like that until Skyy was able to shakily wobble to her feet. Izzy was too numb to do so and sat in his knees, the muddy ground soaking into his shorts.

"So please…don't try to fix me...don't follow me…just…don't…not when I'm so close to her now," Skyy whimpered and before Izzy knew it she had turned and run from the school property.

The rain hammered down around the young boy but all of his senses had long ago shut down. All sounds had left and the world became quiet. It became nothing. Nothing but shock. Nothing but her words ringing in his ears and his heart completely braking apart.

A few meters away behind a tree and out of view, another young boy with his damp brunette hair hiding his face was crouched down and shedding tears that blended in with the rain.

…

So that was it.

Oh gawd.

So dramatic.

And so awkward to write…huuuuuughhh

I don't know if I might go back and make revisions if I can...whenever I read over I feel like it's going too fast.

Anyway, please review!

Next chapter: Determination