Chapter 4

Tai sighs as he looks over the rest of the group, everyone was asleep except for him and Serena, along with their partners. Nyokimon had apparently adopted Serena as his/her mother and was curled up in her left arm, fast asleep. The brown haired eleven year old walks over to her, " How truly bad is it at home for you, Serena? "

The twelve year old blonde sighs, " If my grandma hadn't sent me here for my birthday we likely would have never met, Tai, I would have finally succeeded in ending my own life. I've tried numerous things but I always was healed up by morning. I started the attempts when I was six. "

" You feel that unloved and unwelcome? " Tai murmurs.

Serena looks at him, " I do, Molly does her best, she knows something's wrong, but I won't tell her. I won't completely ruin her innocence. "

" Serena, you have to reach out and make more friends. " Tai says.

Serena snorts, " I used to try, believe me, I did. Kids are cruel, Tai, I was accused of being a foreigner because of my hair until I found out I had a really ancient ancestor that had blonde hair, proving I'm completely Japanese. "

Tai winces, gaijin kids had it really rough. He, at least, made sure to be nice to them. Times were changing and the traditionalists refused to accept this. At least Kari could think for herself and Tai was grateful for that, " You have me now, Serena, and I bet you have that little Nyokimon as well. "

Serena sighs, " I know, now, let's try cooking those seeds and see what happens. "

The others woke one by one as they could smell the seeds cooking. Tai and Serena were just making small talk by now. Tai knew she wouldn't want any of the others to hear anything like they had been talking about earlier and he respected that. She didn't trust them enough yet and now he was beginning to truly understand why she didn't. She had been burned too many times, he had just come up to, well, sat by her on the bus to camp and woke her up, and started getting to know her. He hadn't cared about her looks, she had understood what his goggles meant to him as well.

Once they've eaten and stocked up on even more seeds they head out, sometime later they take a break and Izzy tries to get his computer up and running. Serena hands Nyokimon to Renamon and grabs Tai before he can try and whack Izzy's computer before dragging him off to look around the area. Renamon smiles at this, and looks down at the little one in her arms, she couldn't blame Serena for saving the fresh level digimon. What Nyokimon was doing outside of Primary Village was any digimon's guess.

" Why'd you stop me, Serena? "

" Izzy's computer is to him like your goggles are to you, Tai. " Serena says softly.

Tai's brown eyes widen at this, he hadn't thought of it like that before. Izzy's laptop was his treasure like his goggles were to him. He pulls out his mini telescope and then calls the others over as he had spotted a factory. Serena rolls her eyes, " Try not to get either one of us killed this time. "

" You're the one that saved Nyokimon. "

" Nyokimon's a baby, defenseless. " Serena fires back.

Devimon's Lair:

The evil fallen angel champion level digimon snarls as he watches over the children. That girl had saved a Nyokimon without a bit of fear for herself. Oh yes, the blonde human girl and the male with the Agumon had to go. The question was how to go about it. Ogremon was driven off by their partners relatively easily. Whom could he send after them, that was the question, wasn't it. Plus, Renamon was basically a vixen kunoichi, making her extremely hard to beat, and the girl could defend herself too, even though she was currently injured.

Factory:

Serena rolls her eyes as she listens to Joe complain about just about everything, " Joe, we're all nervous, but talking all the time could attract danger to us. " Serena points out.

Joe blanches at this, he hadn't thought of that. He was supposed to be the one taking care of everyone and yet Serena had pointed out a major key to their continued safety just now. Joe was one of the oldest there, he had no idea Serena was already twelve, Joe was two weeks away from his twelfth birthday. The blonde had Nyokimon cradled in the crook off her left arm again and Renamon helped her feed the baby digimon. She curses when Andromon attacks them after being freed. Then her eyes narrow, " Remember when Meramon went nuts due to a Black Gear? "

" Dammit, Andromon has one in him somewhere, doesn't he? " Tai asks as they run.

Serena passes Nyokimon to Tai just before the lights go out and calls upon her spiritual energy, shaping it into a ball and tossing it up before leading the way. Sora and the others are all impressed by this. She hurtles the ball backwards with a thought when the lights come back on. Tai sees a crane and jumps down, managing to knock Andromon aside. The others follow him and he calls out for Matt and the others to run when they come into sight. Andromon then dropped down from above them and in between the two groups of kids. " Renamon. "

The vixen vanishes and reappears at her partner's side with TK. Matt's relief could be visibly seen at this. The vixen sets TK down and then turns to Andromon, " We need to discover where that gear is located within him so we can set about removing it. " Renamon says.

" Wait, he has a Black Gear in him. " Matt calls out incredulously.

" Yeah, because apparently he normally doesn't act like this according to the digimon. " Sora calls back.

Tai is busy analyzing the current situation, " Agumon digivolve to… Greymon. "

" Renamon digivolve to… Youkomon. "

" Gabumon digivolve to… Garurumon! "

" Jaenryu! " Youkomon calls out, attacking. This attack manifests as a blazing red dragon from Youkomon's tails and generally burns the opponent to cinders.

While the three champions hold off Andromon Izzy is busy thinking, when Tentomon speaks up, " Izzy, try that program again, it may just be the key to my digivolving. "

With Kabuterimon's arrival in the battle they managed to drive the gear out of Andromon and he helps them by providing them with a way to leave, which involved going down to the sewers. Tai passes Nyokimon to Renamon, as the vixen would be able to leap down. Serena only had one good arm so she didn't dare jump down. She was the second to go down, Tai had gone first so he could catch her if necessary. Everyone else went before Mimi and it took her four minutes to work up enough courage to drop into a sewer.

Serena sighs at this, hopefully Palmon would be able to get Mimi to see that materialistic things just wasn't the way to go. Renamon hands Nyokimon back to her and they set off, Serena dragging Tai off ahead when Izzy sees if he can get Patamon to digivolve like he did his own partner. This meant Agumon came with them. Sora was impressed with how Serena was able to keep Tai from making an idiot of himself for the most part. It bugged her somewhat how close the pair of them were getting, but then again Tai seemed to be the only one that interacted with her favorably at camp too. Her cabin mates treated her horribly, Sora knew this for a fact and only left her alone when she was with Tai.

Some of it was the fact that she looked like a gaijin, a foreigner, but Tai had never cared about that one bit. He judged a person on their merits not their looks. She had also seen that Tai was careful about what he asked her in front of them, he was doing his best to gain her trust and not betray it. The blonde was mostly closed off, worse than Matt was, actually, and she only opened up with Tai, Agumon, and Renamon, though she was nicer in general to TK.

The digimon start singing and Serena focuses on Nyokimon, trusting in Tai enough to keep her from walking into or off of anything. Tai was careful to keep her directed properly. It was discussion on what they missed from home that brought the other kids all up short with Serena's answer, " I miss the Crown Game Center and OSA-P Jewelry, because at least at those two places, I'm wanted. "

The others were horrified by the revelation that she didn't even miss her parents. She talked about her paternal grandmother with love in her voice, but she had never mentioned her parents or if she had any siblings. Even Mimi was horrorstruck by what that implied about Serena's life back in their world. She didn't really have anything that she truly missed. Except maybe for her grandmother as far as the other kids knew. " Hey, Tsukino, you have any siblings at all? " Matt asks her.

" Not that it's any of your business, Ishida, but I have a little brother. Treasure TK, he's a gem, Sammy's been raised to treat me like garbage. I've actually contemplated killing him after all. Then I decide the gaki's not worth it. " Serena answers.

Tai winces, talking about her family was hurting her. " What are some of the things you like to do with your best friend? "

Serena blinks and then looks at him gratefully, he was changing the direction of the conversation because she was feeling uncomfortable, " Oh, mall trawling, ogling the jewelry her mom has for sale, and chilling at Crown. "

That was when a horrendous stench made itself known to all of them and they take off running from the Numemon. TK finds them a side tunnel and they all celebrate when they reach the surface and sunlight, which drove the Numemon off. Serena and Tai take the time to pass out some granola bars and to feed the baby digimon with them. Then they keep walking and find some vending machines, Serena rolls her eyes as she listens to the others go on and on about them. Then Mimi decides to check them out. This lead to her getting asked out by a Numemon, her turning him down, insulting him, and then all of them having to run from the Numemon. Matt suggests they split up and she stays with Tai, then she motions for them to climb up into a tree.

They were just in time as Monzaemon walked by and he wasn't acting like the friendly guy he normally did either. The pair in the trees, along with the digimon all groan silently, another Black Gear. They settle in the trees for the moment, though Renamon would scout out the situation every so often, letting them know when they could meet up with the others again. It was at this time that Nyokimon digivolved to Yokomon and they learned the little one was male. This meant he could become Falcomon or Mushroomon. Mushroomon happened to be a Virus type but that wouldn't matter to Tai and Serena.

The little guy actually saw them as parents. Half an hour later Renamon gives the all clear and takes Yokomon back down to the ground while Serena and Tai jump down along with Agumon. Then they head in to Toy Town where they learn that Palmon had digivolved to Togemon to save everyone. Monzaemon then gives them a real heart hug.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Digimon.