A.N.: By popular request! I may well come back and tweak this a bit later, as I haven't had so much time to write and double-check it, but oh well. Here we have our first alternative PoV chapter!

Saturday, 11:55am

Takeru was watching the clock still. The textbook he had suggested they occupy themselves with lay abandoned on the table. She hadn't really expected him to be able to focus on schoolwork, anyway. Not with Yamato lying in what everyone hoped was a natural, normal sleep, and Koushiro watching over him.

"I think the waiting is the worst," she said, looking at the worn expression on Takeru's face. "And what's keeping Taichi? I thought he'd be here by now."

Her eyes stayed on Takeru, as he turned from the clock to look at Koushiro. He didn't even seem to have heard what she'd said. How long had it been since he'd slept? And how long would he last if Koushiro's plan didn't give them any useful information?

After a moment, Takeru reached out blankly for the textbook. She wasn't sure if he was actually reading it or not, but before she worked her way up to asking, there was a knock at the door. She stood, wordlessly.

Taichi waited outside. His expression was locked in a grim frown that she recognised from every time something bad had happened in the digital world.

"How are they both?" he asked, walking in to take his shoes off.

"Yamato is asleep," Hikari said, quietly. "Takeru told me they have a plan to see if there's a way to stop us being taken, or find out if we can work around it. I think Takeru is too worried to concentrate on anything at the moment. I've never seen him look so shaken."

The frown lifted. Underneath was the compassion Taichi was all too ready to mask with bouts of reckless courage. He pulled Hikari into a tight hug.

"We'll fix this, little sister," he said, voice muffled by her shoulder. "If Koushiro's on the job, we can't go wrong."

He walked quickly over to Takeru and put a hand on his shoulder. Hikari smiled. It was moments such as this when she really, truly understood how her brother had ended up as the leader of the Chosen Children when they had been sucked into the Digital world. Even as an eleven year old, he'd had a knack for motivating people, and knowing who he had to lend his moral support.

She'd missed those flashes, over the last few months. With no danger to best, no team to guide, Taichi had fallen back into a bit of a rut. His reunion with Agumon had sparked a renewed passion in the Digital world – he'd taken to packing an overnight bag and spending most of his weekends there, these days. Until a couple of weeks ago.

It was obvious, now she knew what to look for. And it worried her sick. Sitting down next to her brother, she returned her gaze to Takeru.

"There was no evidence it was a real world until my clothes got burnt," her friend was saying. He might have been right. She still wished she'd said something. Alone of the four of them, she had known that the nightmares weren't isolated. She'd known that both she and her brother had been having dreams bad enough to wake them, and she had said nothing. And if anyone got hurt because she had kept quiet...

Thud.

Everyone turned to Koushiro. The boy was standing, having dropped his notebook, and staring into Takeru's bedroom. Before Hikari could make the connection, Takeru was halfway to the door. His chair crashed to the ground behind him.

Hikari and Taichi got to their feet too.

"He's still here," Koushiro was saying. "I just thought I saw something." He'd put out an arm to stop Takeru rushing in to his brother.

She didn't hear what Takeru said, but she heard Koushiro's reply.

"Not the room." His arm dropped. "But Yamato... I think we should wake him."

Takeru didn't wait to hear the rest. He nodded once, and ran into the room, yelling his brother's name. Hikari reached the door just as Koushiro cried out for him to stop.

She wanted to scream. Yamato's body was wreathed in black shadows, as though he were fading away. The air around him was growing darker, and Takeru was frozen in the middle of it, moving as though in slow motion. He had tripped, and was falling towards his brother. Shadowy arms reached out from Yamato and entwined themselves around him: arms, legs, all.

She did scream. "Takeru, no! Don't touch him!"

It was too late. The path of his fall brought his hands down on Yamato's back. The shadows rippled over him, and absorbed every trace of his body. When they parted, both boys had vanished into thin air.

Hikari fell to her knees, dropping her head into her hands. They were gone. Both of them were gone, and it was all her fault. Sobbing, she felt hands on her shoulders, which turned into arms that held her. Someone with Taichi's voice pulled her gently, and urged her to get up.

She drifted for a while, disconnected from herself, watching things happen without really registering them. When she came back to herself, she was lying on the sofa. Taichi sat nearby, holding her hand as he had done when she was ill as a girl. It was silent.

"They're gone, aren't they," she said. Taichi hung his head.

It was Koushiro who spoke, from his seat at the dining table. "For now," he said. When Hikari stared at him, he added: "We have to remember that this is something that has been happening already. We just didn't realise. Takeru must have had the same experience last night, as would the pair of you. We know they're in danger, but we also know that so far, it's a temporary disappearance, one which doesn't last much longer than a couple of hours."

"Except that Takeru wasn't asleep," Taichi pointed out. "We don't know if he'll be able to come back the same way as Yamato."

"They could still get hurt there," Hikari added, deliberately trying to ignore what her brother had said. "Takeru is already injured; if anything happens to them, he's not as strong as Yamato right now."

Koushiro nodded. "I think we should call Jou. We know that this world is dangerous. I'm certain that they will come back, but I don't know if they will be injured or not. Yamato told me that he wakes near an apparently abandoned city. He also mentioned menacing creatures which inhabit the place. We know that Takeru experienced some form of abnormal rain. Possibly acidic, although Jou didn't think they were chemical burns. I can't be entirely sure whether Takeru would return to the area he visits while sleeping, or whether he would be transported to the same place as Yamato, but both locations have serious hazards."

"So we might need Jou to patch them up," Taichi said, nodding. Hikari wondered how he could be so calm, then noticed the the pale specks on his knuckles. The hand not holding hers was clenched tight.

With a sudden burst of inspiration, she sat up. "I think we should call their partners. Call all of ours, too." Koushiro and Taichi stared at her. "We've left them out of the loop too long. And... and... now we know that people can get pulled in, it would be good for them to be near."

Koushiro put his hand to his face. "Of course! I'm an idiot not to think of it myself."

"Wait, what? What did I miss?" Taichi asked.

"Well, while our experiment has certainly put Yamato and Takeru in danger, it has also proven that there is more than one way to get into this other world. People who are nearby can get pulled in when someone crosses over. If that worked for Takeru, it would almost certainly work for a digimon. Particularly while injured, it would be a good idea to have your partners there to protect you."

"And if they get stuck there? I'm not taking Agumon anywhere until I know he's got a way home again."

Koushiro faltered, then thumped the table. Hikari jumped. Koushiro was one of the calmest people she knew, next to Iori.

"I need more data!", he said, apparently to himself. "If I could just... see this place, explore it-"

"Don't." They both turned to Taichi, shocked by his sudden outburst, and the anger in his voice.

"Don't you dare wish that," he added, shaking his head. "Trust me, Koushiro, you do not want that experience. And we need you here, in one piece. We need you working on an answer, not getting lost and possibly injured and certainly scared out of your mind."

"I know perfectly well what the dangers are, Taichi. I'm not an idiot. Nor am I a coward. We need answers. It's taking too long for me to get enough useful information as it is."

"Don't care. I won't risk it. You're more important here."

Hikari felt like a fifth wheel. She often did when Taichi and Koushiro argued. It might have been the fact that it always seemed as though there was an extra conversation going on between them that no one else could hear. The two stared at each other, unflinching. It was Koushiro who finally looked away, sighing.

"Very well, I shall remain here. In the short term though, I believe we should call Jou. And at least one of the other Chosen Children, too. Someone else needs to go in search of your partners."

"What about Mrs Takaiashi?" Hiraki asked. "Did Takeru mention what time she finishes work? What if she comes home before they get back, and finds just us here?"

Taichi swore, then took a deep breath. "We'll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it. It's still not long after midday. There's plenty of time. These trips don't normally take too long, right?"

Koushiro nodded, already holding his phone to his ear.

Hikari was pacing. How long would they have to wait, before they acknowledged aloud that something was wrong? It had been almost an hour, now, and nothing. She was sure that her visits to the other world didn't last more than fifteen or twenty minutes. Jou had arrived, having stopped off at the Izumi residence to collect Koushiro's laptop. The three older boys sat clustered around it, while Koushiro copied up notes and explained them.

Sora had offered to go to the Digital world, to bring back Patamon and Gabumon, along with any other partners who happened to be in range and want a lift. No one knew how long it would be until Mrs Takaiashi would return home, to find her apartment full of everyone except her sons.

"TAKERU!"

Yamato's scream made everyone jump. It was followed by a loud thump. Hikari bolted for the door, and found him lying face down on the bed, covered in dust and scratches, shaking with what could only be terror.

"Nonononono..." he muttered, not seeming to see her. Her heart almost stopped. He was alone?

Black shadows flickered and grew from a spot just in front of the bed. Without warning, Takeru dropped out of thin air, hitting his head on the bedframe before slumping to the ground, unconscious.

This time, it was Hikari who screamed.