Chapter 23: Start

It was dark all around; just the way he preferred it, hiding even his own hand from view and leaving everything in darkness.

Rhythmic tipping of his finger on the hard arm rest of his throne carried through the chamber, signaling his impatience to the poor soul kneeling on the other, far end of the hall and he, in turn, heard the shallow uneven breathing of his servant, who was chocking on his own nerves, and shaking just by being in the same room as the one he served.

"Report."

His voice, colder than ice, echoed through his throne room, resounding from unseen stony walls, elegant columns, making the lowly servant tremble and the air heavy with building fear.

It was the smell he despised the most.

The stench of a lowly creature; reeking with incompetence and cowardice, hardly worth to even breath the same air.

Disgusting but useful if taken advantage of properly; and that he did. It would not do to rule or control simply with pure power, for power can be sidestepped, overthrown with nothing more than an excellent brain. Naturally not his power, but it would still not do to forget the value of a good strategy and be it simply as a matter of his entertainment.

"It has been taken, just as Milord intended," the servant stuttered, rightfully afraid for his live, "Currently its location is being sought out and pinpointed. Results shall be presented to your Lordship within the day."

"No need. Begin when the time comes. The culprit? "

The air turned almost tangible with fear. Bad news it is then. "Well?"

He heard a strangled gulp for air and took a satisfying amount of pleasure in it. "The traitor, Milord, is dead."

Deliberately stopping the movement of his finger and quieting his breathing, he let deadly silence fall, making the creature experience the terror indicated by literally nothing.

"Dead?" He repeated, highlighting with just the right amount of disbelieve it was not what he had wanted.

"My lord," the spineless being squeaked, teeth clattering as if from cold and limps shaking so hard he could hear them through the chamber and layers of flesh, "the Hunters reported suicide before they could subdue it. They extend their endless apologies, expressing –"

"Leave."

The sound of teeth snapping shut repelled from the walls, added to by shaking knees as the being stumbled blindly backwards, bowing to him all the while even in the blind darkness he so preferred. A wise choice; as it was the only thing keeping him alive, as the creature doubtlessly knew.

Oh, crap.

That was the first and most accurate thought when Tommy suddenly sat up on his bed.

The second one was more along the lines of 'don't have a panic attack'.

The third one was that he still had no idea what to say.

Especially now that the Light girl was here and there were certain things she and her kind did not need to know. At all.

"Hi, Tommy," he greeted, a stretched smile plastered on his face as he got up and walked over to his friend, pulling his chair along.

"Takuya." Tommy did not smile.

With an eerily vacant expression and unsettling sharp eyes Tommy gazed around and Takuya struggled not to look away when their eyes met.

Then the younger boy's brow settled into a confused frown, the corners of his mouth dropped slightly and his pale green eyes got a spark they had missed.

Well, that was better.

"Uh, Kari, would you mind leaving us…?"

The girl startled, jumping slightly in the chair she still hadn't left, and took her eyes of Tommy as she got up, moving slightly less fluid than before. She waved once with what she probably intended to be a friendly smile before the door fell shut behind her.

No self-control.

She cared.

Takuya felt a headache coming.

Slumping back into his chair, this time next to Tommy's bed, his fake smile fell off his face in a split second and reality came crashing back. The reality of them all changing, of them all being just something short of dead from a certain point of view.

And to Tommy it would probably and sadly be most visible fact.

"How are you feeling," he asked, his seriousness hopefully more than enough to alert his friend that something was most definitely up, and it was, because Tommy chose to forgo the typical reply and settled right for thinking about a honest answer.

Takuya had never been one for strategy, which was why even now he didn't plan, didn't think much about what to say -which was not to say that he wouldn't like to know it anyway- and just went along as things came and improvised at the right time. He hoped it would be enough this time.

Tommy's frown deepened with every minute he mused about an answer, making Takuya fidgeting in his seat. "Strange. Like I'm…,"he sighed, "Sorry, Takuya-oniichan, I don't know how to say it."

Takuya just barely stopped himself from raising an eyebrow at the choice of address. Normal was nice, normal was good; no need to discourage it. "How about feeling like being split in two? Or thinking double?" He suggested in stead.

Tommy shook his head slowly, thinking again. "No…, I think it's more like….. there are two directions and …I want to go both. Yeah, that sounds about right."

Well, that was fine and all, even if a bit different from how Takuya would describe himself -perhaps it had something to do with the choice of Spirit?-, but now he was free to poke directly at the problem. Which he'd rather not. Really not.

He wasn't even sure it had sunk in with himself. "Do you remember why you feel like this?" There he had asked it.

"Sure. Lowemon was fighting and I…," he trailed off, his eyes widening to round orbs. "Oh."

"You didn't use a D-Tector," Takuya filled in needlessly, really not wanting to say anything more about the subject and hoping Tommy and his Spirit came to an accurate conclusion on their own.

"Yes," Tommy mumbled, clenching in his fists, till his knuckles turned white and Takuya wondered, amused if the situation would be anything else, if he noticed the frost settling at the window's rim next to his bed. "What happened to me?"

Takuya swallowed, wishing he hadn't heard the undertone of fear and pleading that Tommy always tried so hard to hide when he did feel it, because he didn't want to be the child of the group, the baby, the one needing protection; always fighting for recognition.

"Well," just get over with it, he told himself, looking determinately at a spot just over Tommy's shoulder, "you fused with your Spirit. We aren't human anymore." And in a much softer voice he added, "we can never go home."

Tommy's breathing hitched, but that was all outward reaction he showed, falling back into his pillows and hesitantly Takuya risked a look at his friend's face. It was blank like a mask, eyes fading from chestnut brown to pale green and back every few seconds.

Takuya could only imagine what kind of conversation was going on inside him, because unlike himself and Koichi Tommy didn't have any prior knowledge of what would happen should he not use a D-Tector; Tommy only now found out what he had given up.

On the other hand Takuya was immensely glad that it wasn't him who had to explain the finer details of the outcome. That was not to say he was bad with emotions; it's just that this was way over his head.

"I see," Tommy said tonelessly after a while getting up from his bed and Takuya supposed he should be grateful that Tommy had chosen Beast Evolution.

Moving aside to give Tommy some space he turned his eyes to the next bed, seeking out Koichi's limp form, wanting to know when he was going to wake up, only to be met by very much awake and open dark blue eyes.

Damn him. How long had he been awake and done nothing but listening to Takuya struggle?

"Hey, Takuya can we go wandering around a bit? I'm bored. And I still don't know where we are."

Interrupted from glaring at Koichi, Takuya looked back at Tommy, seeing an eager and small, but honest grin.

He resolved to thank all deities the next opportunity he had, that the younger boy had preferred using his Beast Spirit.

Mimi stomped her foot angrily, feeling like a ten-year old again.

"I'm going!"

"You are not!"

"Yes, I am!" Vaguely aware that her voice had become shrill and that she was still in a hospital she attempted to take another step to the side, attempting to sidestep towards the hospital's exit, having made it to the lobby before she had run into the two people she had wanted to avoid most.

The not tall, but sturdy figure of her father, backed by her mother had moved to block her path.

"But darling, look at you," her father begged, "you are hurt and need your rest and not leave the hospital unsupervised to do this Digimon stuff!"

"I'm fine daddy. These are nothing more than scratches: They don't hurt. And besides, I needed." She wanted to do something.

"Then someone else can go help! There are plenty of you who aren't in the hospital! You need your rest, sweety."

"No! No others, Dad! I, we were chosen for this and I won't run away and have others do my work!" Even as she said it, Mimi noticed how strange it sounded, hearing it from her own two lips.

"You were chosen by this Digital Man! It doesn't mean a thing," her mother argued, not giving an inch, her face shadowed with concern.

"I was chosen because of who I am! They need me!" It was also a first time she said something like this, probably.

"Then they can need others; You. Are. Not. Going. Young Lady."

Mimi released a frustrated breath, something between a snort and a sigh. "Back me up here, Palmon," she said turning to her green plant partner, who was holding on to her new jeans. Jeans her parents had brought for her when she had still been unconscious.

She stomped down the swell of guilt.

She couldn't falter. She just couldn't.

Even if she was hurting her parents, who were only worried sick about their only daughter.

Because if she did, if she didn't try her best, then…

Mimi didn't want to think about it. All the terrible, countless possibilities. For her, Palmon, her friends, her parents, the Digiworld, this world.

She hadn't felt this helpless and powerless since all those years ago when she had been scared, spoiled and more often than not useless.

When a hastily aimed beam of light blazed over clear blue water and struck down Whamon, incurably, deadly…

When Leomon was lying on gray stairs in a gray world, speaking reassuring words filled with hope till the end…

Those sacrifices had marked her, turned her and she was still turning now, continuously changing with each death she saw or heard of; human and digimon alike.

Even though in her darkest hours she considered the Purity she was chosen for a curse; cursed to care about everything and everyone she came across, from the stranger on the street to a picked flower on a random windowsill, it gave her a reason to move forward, to fight, so to speak, despite the pain she brought onto herself with it. She did it, because she couldn't be like Tai and just move passed every lost life.

Especially now since she was beginning to see another reason why she mustn't stop fighting beside her friends.

"Um…,"Palmon stammered, pulling her out of her thoughts and trying to disappear behind Mimi's legs, "We will be really fast and it's not dangerous?"

"No!"

Shrinking back deeper into her shadow, Palmon looked up at her green eyes wide and apologetic and Mimi decided to change tactics.

"Mom, Dad, why can't I," she whined, using her pleading skill perfected during shopping trips with her parents. "Palmon can protect me and I'll be back in an hour," she lied without blushing.

"Like she protected you before you ended up here?" Palmon's hands dug deeper in her jeans, but Mimi forced herself to ignore the insult at her best friend.

Because there really wasn't anything she could say to that; should her parents find out exactly what kind of danger she had been in they'd never let her leave their sight again.

"We are in the human world, mom. It's not like we'll be ambushed just by rounding a corner. And I'm not even a target." An idea sparked in her mind.

"But here in this hospital are children who are targeted. Children who were just at the wrong place at the wrong time and who have no family to worry for them or come to visit," she sniffed, "they are all alone here and are you saying that I can't help them? They have no one else."

Jackpot.

When faced with her tears, her parents had always been helpless, and now she guilt-tripped them with poor orphans and her big heart and their parental instincts and their kindness that she had inherited.

So what if she might have twisted the truth a bit to fit her circumstances? Point was that her parents were scrambling to reassure her and that they were already halfway turning away from her and already planning how they could possibly help the poor orphaned children.

Using a chance when she saw one, she strolled past them with a pronounced air of causality; almost humming to herself as she made for the exit.

Takuya may or may not have her head should her parents actually decide to mother-hen him, though. He most definitely wasn't the type to appreciate it.

It was cold outside; her breath left fine clouds of white behind that dispersed in a short breeze and after she had picked up Palmon, who was, as something resembling a tropical plant, sensitive to cold, she tugged her stylish, but not really warm jacket tighter around herself and her partner.

"Sorry about what Dad said just now," she told her as she walked away from the hospital grounds on which Digi-Evolution was forbidden, "he is just worried."

"I know," Palmon said, her voice barely more than a whisper, "but he was right. I didn't protect you."

"No, you did protect me," she pointed out kindly. "I'm fine. I can walk, talk and think. These few scratches I have could have come from anything. I might just have fallen down some stairs. Don't you worry about it."

"Mmmm, but I'm still sorry."

Sighing Mimi let the conversation drop and continued walking in silence; moving across the parking area and waving politely at a reporter team that was still waiting for some material to publish. The camera turned on her and Mimi hoped that her leaving the hospital was nothing worthy of the evening news; quite ironic considering that she had dreamed of being a star when she had been young.

Setting Palmon down she dug out her Digivice, making it glow green and not even a second later Lilimon lifted her off the ground, heading first towards Odaiba where a group of Digidestined was waiting for one of them to open a Gate to push a stranded Digimon back to its own world.

Tai grinned, infected by Koromon's joyous laughter as he threw the little pink ball up to the ceiling, catching him as he fell down, with long ears spinning like a helicopter, and throwing him back up in a modified game of catch.

"Again!" Koromon giggled, this time ears flapping like a bird and Tai grinned a little wider, wondering amused when, or rather if, Koromon would ever accept that he wasn't built to fly.

A knock interrupted their playing and Tai caught Koromon again, setting him down in his lap as the door opened.

Blinking surprised as Takuya stepped inside, a boy Cody's age and Koichi following, Tai noticed even more surprised, considering it had only been a few hours ago that Takuya left, that all three of them appeared to be in a good mood.

"Hi there," Takuya said, smiling.

"Hi," he replied, figuring just to go along with whatever was going on rather than opening a can of worms that they should deal with soon, but having no idea how to do that.

"I thought you'd like to know we are all awake now," Takuya said, needlessly gesturing to his friends, who were flanking him. "This is Tommy, by the way."

The boy extended a hand grinning widely and somewhat impishly. "I'm Tomoki Himi, but call me Tommy. I'm thirteen. I like my friends, everything cold, big hats, goggles and soccer. I don't like bullies and crazy and or evil people or Digimon fixated on World Domination. And you are?"

"Taichi Kamiya and this is Koromon," Tai said, overwhelmed by so much information, but despite himself he asked, "you like soccer?"

He seemed to have missed out on something because the boy broke out into laughter, making Takuya huff while Koichi smiled.

"You were right," the youngest in the room said between stifled giggles, "he really is just like Takuya-oniichan."

"Told you so." Koichi said, talking over Takuya's head, "and you haven't met the other yet."

"I'll have you know," Takuya huffed, "that I'm a perfectly fine individual. Completely different from them."

"Yeah?" They seemed to be getting way to much amusement out of this, Tai noted, feeling somewhat left out as Koichi challenged, "then name a difference. I'm listening."

Opening his mouth to argue, no word came out and Takuya closed it again, restarting a moment later and repeating the process a few times, before he finished lamely: "We have different hair color."

The boy snorted and Tai caught discreetly as he had been apparently forgotten.

"Oh right," Takuya said embarrassed, remembering that Tai was present and turning a bit red. "So how are you feeling, Tai? Do you already know when you will be released?"

Tai sighed, prior amusement ebbing away and watching as Tommy moved to play rock-paper-scissors with Koromon. "Not really. If my rehabilitation goes as planned, then perhaps, perhaps in one and a half weeks. And is only with pressure being put on the doctors. They'd like to keep me here for at least a month."

"I see, well… that's great. Do you know about the others?" Takuya mused, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Tai frowned. "I don't know. Why don't you go ask them yourself? I mean it's not like you have much to do while we are still here in the hospital."

"Huh? Oh… yeah. I guess you're right."

Tai narrowed his eyes. "You aren't planning anything again, are you? We still aren't finished with what happened last time."

Eyes widened a fraction, Takuya quickly shook his head. "Don't worry. Koji is there now; we don't need to be that desperate."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean," Takuya repeated, turning pointedly to Koichi, "is that this guy here somehow built a connection to our dear friend."

Tai blinked, not getting a word.

"What he is trying to say is, "Koichi elaborated kindly, "that I somehow managed to talk to my brother telepathically and I know that he is now probably able to keep our friends alive for a while."

"Telepathically? Wait, with your brother?" Tai felt both is eyebrows raise.

"Yes. We think it is a twin-thing, because our Spirits said they don't have that kind of ability," Koichi replied smiling a kind understanding smile, though Tai wondered if he really understood whenever smiled just like that and he repeated, "Twins," just to be sure.

"Yes."

"Koji is the one who contacted us with the help of that Shisamon?"

"Yeah," Takuya confirmed grinning somewhat amused.

"You shouldn't tell Yolei this," Tai told Koichi, winching just at the thought. Yolei hadn't appeared to be able of rational thought, so he doubted she would make a difference between twins.

Kochi sighed, resigned. "I already heard. But I don't know what Koji did."

"I don't either," Tai answered, "but Yolei was downright furious, so I wouldn't do anything more to upset her or draw her attention towards you."

"Yeah," Tommy piped up, sitting on the ground by now and rolling Koromon back and forth between his hands, "woman can be really scary if they want to be." He threw a meaningful look at his two friends, who had become as still as stone while Tommy himself grimaced at a particular thought.

"I hope the girls here aren't like Zoe." He stressed the name in a way suggesting that more words were not needed to define the girl.

Takuya gave a hollow, anxious laugh. "Don't worry," he whispered conspiratorially, "they aren't."

"At least not as far as we know," Koichi added helpfully.

"What is this Zoe like," Tai asked, his interest quirked. He had a vague recollection of Izzy mentioning that Takuya had a single female Teammate and his curiosity spiked further when he saw the other three trade ominous glances.

"Well", Takuya began, suddenly unsure, "she is nice and all, but-"

"-and beautiful," butted Tommy in again, smirking at Takuya.

"-and beautiful," he admitted, glaring at the child, "but dangerous." Takuya stressed, his eyes quickly hushing through the room as if he expected the girl to jump out any second.

"Usually she is perfectly nice to get along with," he told and Tai listened curiously as the three of them attempted to describe a woman that sent them scrambling for cover when ticked off and Tai told some stories of his own in return that he had with females that are better left in peace.

Kari joined them sometime later when the conversation had somehow ended up being about the questionable competence of teachers and time went by fast, the sun sinking below the horizon within a few hours, which Tai only noticed when the earth trembled and emergency lights flashed.

Koji was thinking hard.

Which sadly was the only thing he could do, still trapped in a prison that tried to absorb him by erasing his sense of self, emotions, memories and desires. He felt sick just thinking about how close he had come to becoming just that, but it also prompted another thought; what about the others? He had been saved -though he hated to admit it- by first his brother's presence and then that strange place where he had been free of anything else; even his Spirits. It had been a place where he could remember who he was, focus his thoughts, gather his emotions and make his resolve.

It was what he had done and as a result he was no longer just being now that he was back.

It had come at a price, of course, but he wasn't to bothered by it for now, if ever.

The problem was, however: what about the others?

They didn't have a twin, or even a drastic polar opposite that could allow conversation, motivation.

Which meant they were pretty close to dying and surrendering to this tasteless hourglass, that he had only caught a glimpse of when he had been running as fast as he could as Shisamon.

And that naturally meant that he couldn't rely on help from the outside; there was no time anymore. Hours only, perhaps only minutes, if it wasn't too late already.

So all in all he had precious little options.

Possessing another body was no good; he had already tried freeing them with that, not to mention that he had no energy for it anymore.

Other than that he could only try reaching out with his mind, just as he did when Koichi had been fighting here, and...

And nothing; he'd have to see what he could to then.

The chapter for October and I finished just in time to publish it on the first. :)

This was a lot easier to write for some reason than the last chapter.

It was interesting to pose Mimi's thoughts as she had comparably little screen time in the anime and there is little to base her character on especially since she did complain most of the time. So considering how spoiled she had been in the first season and partly in the second i thought it'd be appropriate that she was still growing up. I think this situation is something of a wakeup call to her.

Next i have to warn you that I'm starting university and that i have no idea how much I'll be able to write. Or if i maybe even have to go on hiatus till the semester is over. But details will be written on my profile.

Other than that please leave a vote at my poll about Gatomon's evolution.

Please review and feel free to criticize so that i may improve. :) Thank you for last chapter's comments.