Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon

Chapter 3: A few questions answered

Takato woke up to a slight tapping noise, still being half asleep he was unsure of what it was and looked around his room. He noticed that BlackGatomon was still curled up against his side, her head resting on her front paws and her tail lay against her body. She had a content look on her face that made his heart go out to her, her ears flickering every few seconds before she licked her lips in her sleep. He knew from these actions that she was dreaming and was glad that it was a good dream. She didn't dream often but when she did it wasn't normally a good dream, a few nights in the past he had been woken up by her scratching him in her sleep as she tossed and turned.

The soft tapping brought him out of his memories, this time though he could tell that the tapping had come from his bedroom window. Looking at the clock to see it was three in the morning he slowly got out of bed being careful not to interrupt the sleeping cat's dreams and made his was over to his window. He slowly drew back the curtains being as quiet as possible before looking out the window with half closed eyes.

The sight that met the tamers eyes was defiantly not what he had been expecting, Takato didn't know who would want to wake him up this time of morning but the yellow vixen in front of him would have been near the bottom of the list second only to her tamer. Too tired to even create a shocked expression on his face he slid his window open, holding a finger to his lips, before motioning her to come inside.

Renamon was shocked when he didn't ask what she was doing here, he didn't even go to wake up his Digimon, he just asked quietly to wait there before turning away from her and walking towards the bathroom connected to his room. As he walked away from her he pulled of the t-shirt he had fallen asleep in last night, Renamon found herself staring at his now naked back. It wasn't the toned muscles of his back that caught her attention, not even his perfectly tanned skin, (though she had to admit she admired both) no what held her attention was the three scars that ran the length of his back.

Takato slowly entered the bathroom, knowing that the only reason Renamon would be here at any time (let alone 3am) was for answers to questions that had been bothering ether her or her tamer or to attack them. As she had knocked on the window and hadn't done anything aggressive he assumed it was the first one. Knowing that he needed to wake up more before they begun talking he splashed some cold water onto his face before wiping the sleep out of his eyes before heading back into his room.

Renamon noticed the drops of water running down his chest and onto his toned abs causing a slight longing inside her, wondering why she was suddenly thinking this way about a human she decided to think about it after she asked her questions. She watched as he turned the chair in front of his desk towards before sitting down and waited for her to start talking.

"I have a few questions that I'm hoping that you would answer for me" she started quietly knowing that his Digimon were still asleep. Seeing him nod she continued "first is it ok if I ask how you became the partner of three Digimon?"

Takato smiled softly at the Digimon in front of him before answering "Well I might as well answer in the order I was partnered, though I won't go into too much detail tonight, agreed?" Seeing the vixen nod he continued "My first partner was Guilmon, I like your tamer met my Digimon before the D-Reaper attacked. There is a simple reason my D-Ark was the only one that could get data on him, the reason is that before he was my partner he didn't exist."

"Are you telling me that someone created him just for you?" Renamon asked in disbelief.

Pulling one of the notebooks on his desk towards him before flipping through, finding what he was looking for he pulled out a loose pieces of paper. A small smile of remembrance graced his face before he handed them to her.

"Nope I'm telling you my D-Ark created him from the pictures and stats you're holding in your hands" he replied laughing softly.

Renamon stared down at the faded pictures and data in shock, if what he said was true then it was no wonder that no one could get data on Guilmon. Sighing in defeat she handed the paper back to him and waited for him to continue.

"BlackGatomon was the next one I met" he started, looking at her asleep on the bed a sad smile. "She had been injured before making it to the real word, upon arriving he was attacked for being a virus Digimon by tamers that were close to where she emerged. I defended her and brought her to my house to rest, I'll let her explain what happened to her if she wants to but she decided to stay after she attacked and I refused to allow Guilmon to defend me and made no move to defend myself." Takato smiled at the look of shock on Renamon's face "She's actually the reason I'm able to have more than one partner."

"BlackWarGreymon I actually met in the Digital World" he said slowly, a tear sliding down his face as he remembered the reason he had been there at that time.

"You've been to the Digital World?" she asked softly, she didn't know the reason for the tear but she knew that it had to be bad. The boy in front of her was one of the strongest she had ever known, whatever had happened had caused him a great deal of emotional pain.

"Twice," the boy answered "it was the second time I was there that I met him, I wasn't in the best of states at the time but I didn't run from him or attack him like the others he had met. I simply asked him what he was doing in the middle of nowhere, upon hearing his answer I asked if he would like to be left alone or if he wanted some company." Takato paused for a few second and looked where the Digimon in question lay "He joined us not out of some sense of obligation but out of respect" he ended simply.

As Renamon thought about what she had learnt so far she began to choose what question to ask next, taking a deep breath through her nose caused her to remember something that had been troubling her these last two days. Deciding to see if he was able to explain it she asked curiously "Do you know why your scent is that of both a Digimon as well as a human?"

The question caused Takato to laugh "Actually that's easy to answer," he replied "but before I do can I enquire if one of the questions you have yet to ask is about me bio-merging?" His smile never leaving his face.

"Yes I was going to ask how you are able to bio-merge when you turned down the Sovereign's gift," she said a little shocked he knew the question was coming "Alice said it had something to do with an event in your past."

"Well that makes it easier" he stated scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "The answer to both of those questions is the same thing and that answer is that I died." The mixture of shock and confusion on Renamon's face made it clear to him that she didn't understand. "I'm guessing you would like me to explain it a little so you can understand how someone dead can be sitting in front of you" he laughed. Upon seeing a small nod from the vixen he decided to give her the short version. "The first time I went to the Digital World me and Guilmon met a Greymon and upon finding out Guilmon was a virus Digimon he attacked. Guilmon didn't have time to digivolve and I didn't have time to find a card so I done the one thing I could do, I got in the way."

She was amazed at what he had done but before she could say anything he continued. "I had always told him if I died I wanted him to load my data so I could be of a little use to him even if I was dead, but I never would have guessed what happened. Bio-merging it the process of a person being turned to data and then being combined with their partner, me dying and then being loaded by my partner caused us to bio-merge for the first time. Of course the process isn't safe without using our D-Ark so my data was unstable, to stabilise my data when we de-digivolved after deleting and loading the Greymon it used that data as well as other Digimon the used the fire element and combined it with mine to rebuild my body. So your answer is my DNA has Digimon data in it, though that Greymon left a permanent impression on my data that's shown as the scars on my back."

"So your scent is part Digimon because you are part Digimon," she began. It was then that she thought of a new question "does that mean that you are able to digivolve?"

This question actually shocked Takato, he had never even thought about what the data in his DNA would allow him to do he had only ever been glad it had saved his life. "That I actually don't know," he replied slowly "I guess I'll have to wait until I get time to upgrade my omnivice before I'm able to find out."

"What do you mean by upgrading it?" she asked slightly puzzled. As far as she knew his was the best digivice around already, she couldn't understand a way of making it better than it was.

"My omnivice has AI capabilities, it's possible to find out every feature of the device without it but it would take years. The AI allows it to think for itself, help out in battle, give advice and answer questions." He replied, "The only reason I haven't done it already is because I had no reason to until now."

"May I ask why the first time you bio-merged in the real world it pained you?" It confused her and she explained why, "I would have thought being part Digimon would make it easier."

"Well actually that's what made it worse, you see my D-Ark sent electric shocks through every muscle and nerve in my body mapping them out before saving the data it got back along with my new DNA/data pattern before it digitised me to bio-merge me with Guilmon." Takato replied, the memory causing him to wince slightly.

"Why if you could bio-merge didn't you help us out with the D-Reaper?" Renamon asked letting her anger get the better of her for the first time.

"I did," he replied knowing the reason she asked the question "didn't any of you wonder how Jeri got out of the D-Reapers core?" Takato laughed quietly when understanding crossed the Digimon's face before it went blank again.

"So that's why Alice called you Jeri's knight in shining armour" the vixen stated, she had wondered about the comment but wasn't going to bring it up.

"Yeah it was because Gallantmon flew her out on Grani" Takato replied, he already knew that she had been listening in on the conversation at school. "Is there anything else you would like to know? It's just that I need to get a little more sleep before school" he asked, he was still tired and it was still too early for him to be thinking clearly.

"No that's all for now" she replied before turning away and walking towards the still open window. As she reached it she turned back to him before saying "and thank you for answering my questions, is it ok if I tell my tamer what I have learnt?"

Giving her a warm smile that made the longing creep back into her mind he replied "It's ok if you tell Rika. Good night Renamon"

"Good night Takato" she said before disappearing into the night.

Slowly making his way back to his bed after closing the window he climbed in, lying down on his bed he felt BlackGatomon get herself comfortable against his side in her sleep and with a small smile on his face he fell asleep.

When Rika woke up that morning she had found Renamon waiting to talk to her, she was half way through getting dressed when her partner told her that she had gone to Takato's to ask him a few questions. Rika had spun to look at her in shock, her jeans unbuttoned and only her black bra covering her breasts. "You did what?" she had demanded forgetting for the moment that she to get ready for school.

"I went to ask him a few questions which he kindly answered for me" the vixen replied laughing inside at how her tamer had blushed at the mention of him. Decided to tease her slightly the Digimon continued "and allow I must admit that he has a very nicely toned body," pausing to watch her tamers blush brighten "I wasn't expecting the scars on her back."

Rika had frozen again after buttoning up her jeans upon hearing the word scars, she had expected him to have a toned body after how he had defended himself at school but she hadn't expected scars. "Do you know how he got them?" she asked quietly, seeing the vixen nod she added "Well?"

"Unless you want to go to school like that I suggest you finish getting dressed while I explain our entire conversation" she said hiding her amusement at how her tamer had forgotten everything to find out more about the boy.

Looking down at herself she realised that she was still not dressed, nodding to Renamon to continue she went back to getting ready. As Renamon explained the conversation she gasped at Guilmon's creation and listened intently at how he had met his other partners but when she got the part of his death Rika paled. Renamon gave her a minute remembering her own reaction before she explained his death, Rika listened in horror at how he had thrown himself in front of his partner giving his own life to save his.

Surprise entered her features when so heard how Guilmon loading his data had caused them to bio-merge for the first time, of how his D-Ark had used Digimon data to help rebuild his body and that the scars were a permanent reminder of his death. Shock hit her again upon hearing how he can upgrade his new digivice and the reason behind why the first time he bio-merged in the real world it had pained him. But it was hearing how he was responsible for Jeri making it out of the D-Reaper's core that made the most difference. She remembered how when she had asked Jeri why she had talked to him that first day she had told her it was to thank him, deciding to ask Jeri how she had known it was him later she left for breakfast.

Both Rika and Renamon had a new found respect for the boy, not because he had three Digimon or that he was part one himself. No the reason they respected him was because he had given his life to protect his partner not knowing that he would come back and for rescuing there friend at the time she needed someone the most. Both of their thoughts were of the boy for the rest of the morning, both wondering what could have caused the tear when the memory of his own death didn't bother him.

Sorry this chapters a little shorter but don't worry they haven't even made it to school yet, there is still a lot to happen before the day is done.