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Kindness Won't Get You Anywhere	By : Meimi Category: Digimon > General Views: 1801 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon: Digital Monsters, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Kindness Won't Get You Anywhere

Part 3 - The Midnight Hour

by Meimi

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STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon.

SHONEN AI WARNING: This is a shonen ai fic and contains within it
romantic themes and hints of an intimate relationship between two
male characters. If this disturbs you in any way PLEASE do not
continue reading. And yes, I am sick and twisted, thanks for asking.

_____________________________________________________________________

"I don't think this is a very good idea," Ken said blandly as he
reluctantly joined Takeru in the elevator. He had literally fallen
asleep in Takeru's arms the night before and had thankfully had no
more nightmares. But when morning had come, Takeru had still been
quite adamant about going to see Yagami. He hadn't been able to
really argue all that much either. He didn't want to go see her,
then again he didn't want to see any of the other children period.
But he was growing so weary of those damnable dreams that anything
was worth trying at this point.

Ken suppressed a slight shudder when Takeru's fingers brushed up
against his own before gently clasping them. Any other day he
wouldn't have minded the touch, would have even appreciated it most
likely. Today was different though. Ever since waking up everything
had felt unnaturally hot to him. Even Takeru's touch, meant to be
reassuring he was certain, made his skin tingle uncomfortably and he
was hard pressed to not yank his hand free. But that would hurt
Takeru's feelings and he didn't feel like trying to explain something
quite so inexplicable, especially when he didn't understand it
himself.

He gritted his teeth and slid his hand out of Takeru's when the
elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. He walked forward
quickly, as if to make it look like he would rather get this over
with than as if he were deliberately avoiding any sort of contact.
And he would rather get this over with, but for the most part he
didn't want to be touched. It hurt. His skin tingled from where
Takeru had gripped it, almost feeling like needles were being driven
through the fragile tissue and to the very bones themselves. And it
just seemed to be getting worse.

Takeru indicated that they were at the Yagami apartment and he
stopped, abruptly turning towards the balcony and gazing out at the
city. Wearily, he leaned up against the concrete railing and sighed
soundlessly. He paid scant attention to Takeru, otherwise he would
have known that his odd withdrawal had not gone unnoticed, and
instead immersed himself in his own growing misery.

Surely this was just an exercise in futility. Yagami wouldn't be able
to help. No one would. He was the only one who could help himself.
The Devimon's words had only served to confirm that. He just didn't
know how to help himself, or even if he wanted too. His false
bravado in the face of the unknown had been just that, false. Hadn't
it? Deep down he knew he deserved whatever he got. Wasn't just fading
away into nothingness a fitting end to himself and what he had ended
up creating?

Takeru frowned worriedly, easily masking the hurt he felt at Ken
brushing him off with the concern he was also feeling. This was
perhaps the first time Ken had ever acted so standoffish since
everything had started with them. He didn't know what to make of
it, but he did know one thing. It scared him. Badly.

Shaking his head helplessly, Takeru turned around and rang the
doorbell to the Yagami's apartment. Sighing, he steeled himself for
what was about to happen. This was not going to be pretty. But one
way or another he wasn't going to let Ken vanish to that hellish
beach like Hikari had done.

Taichi was the one who finally opened the door, blinking blearily
down at Takeru and not really looking at anything else. The older
boy's eyes widened slightly in surprise at the unexpected visitor
before his lips quirked up into a half smile. "Hey Takeru. Almost
didn't recognize you, you've been such a stranger lately."

"Taichi," Takeru said as a simple greeting before he asked, "Is
Hikari home?"

"Of course, it's... er, what time is it?" Taichi asked vaguely as
he looked back into the apartment. Shrugging after a moment, he
looked back and grinned. "Well, doesn't matter. It's some time in the
morning when I'd probably be sleeping during first period if it
wasn't the weekend. Anyway," he continued as he leaned to the side
and waved for Takeru to come on in, "Patamon spent the night didn't
he? You here to pick him up?"

"Not exactly," Takeru murmured sourly and didn't budge. "Are your
parents home?"

"No," Taichi trailed off in confusion, finally starting to realize
that something was off with Yamato's little brother. "They went out
to the grocery. Why?" He frowned suspiciously when Takeru seemed
relieved at the news. What was wrong with his parents being at home?
Takeru was just there to visit and pick Patamon up wasn't he?

"Good." Takeru stated flatly as he turned around and latched onto
Ken's right wrist. Scowling, he hastily dragged the listless boy into
the apartment after him.

Taichi's eyes widened in complete shock as he instantly recognized
the boy that Takeru was bringing into his apartment. After several
seconds spent sputtering in both surprise and growing anger, Taichi
pointed an accusatory finger at Ken as he heatedly asked, "What is
he doing here?"

"We're here to see Hikari," Takeru answered as he dragged Ken further
in the Yagami's apartment, sounding as if it was a rather obvious
fact and that Taichi should have figured that out in the first place.
He stopped when he reached the living room and turned around to give
Taichi a rather reproachful glare.

Taichi stood stock still for moment and blinked as he digested this
little tidbit of information along with everything else that was
starting to figure into things. Takeru hadn't been around a lot
lately. Yamato had been reluctant to talk about his little brother.
Hikari had been reluctant to talk about her best friend. And now
Takeru was here to see Hikari with Ken. Things were starting to add
up, somewhat. Frowning darkly, he slammed the front door shut and
stalked angrily towards the pair. "We?"

"Yes Taichi, we. More than me," Takeru shot back snappishly. He
didn't want to have to do this again. He just wanted to take care
of Ken. Why did everybody have to argue with him about it?

"Uhuh. And why are you with him?" Taichi asked scathingly as he
finally took a real good look at the former Kaiser. He was taken
aback by what he saw. He had already known what Ichijouji looked like
without the Kaiser's makeover. Thus, he wasn't surprised by the fact
that Ichijouji looked like any other kid. He had also figured from
the other kids' accounts that the Kaiser's fall from grace had
probably broken the boy more than he had already been. So he wasn't
surprised by the shadows under the eyes or the listless expression.
But the glassy-eyed gaze, almost as if the boy wasn't really even
there, was really quite disconcerting. It was somehow familiar, but
he couldn't quite figure out why.

Taichi was so caught up in trying to figure out why Ichijouji's empty
gaze seemed so familiar that he missed whatever it was that Takeru
had answered him with. Instead, he waved his left hand in front of
the raven-haired boy's face in hope that it might get his attention.

Ken blinked dazedly, his mind shying back from where it had been
pondering the hollow sound of those unending gray waves as something
odd intruded upon his senses. It took him only a single moment to
figure out what it had been before he turned a cold, amethyst glare
upon the one-time leader of the Chosen Children.

Taichi grimaced and drew back away from the boy. The look was still
there, though not quite as pronounced as it had been a few moments
before. Still, something was obviously wrong. As much as he disliked
it, something deep down was telling him to help fix this no matter
how much of a sadistic little jerk he might think Ichijouji is.
Sighing in defeat at himself if nothing else, Taichi waved down the
hallway towards Hikari's room and ground out, "Fine. We will all go
see Hikari."

Takeru stared at Taichi suspiciously. That had been far too easy. It
should have taken much longer for Taichi to cool down and listen to
reason, not that he would have waited but anyway. "All right," he
shrugged and dragged Ken down the hallway after him. He could figure
out Taichi's reaction later, Ken needed some help now.

Takeru gave a brief knock on the bedroom door, pushing it open when a
muffled "Come in." drifted out. Hikari looked up from where she sat
at the desk and just stared in abject shock at the three boys who
shuffled into her room. "Takeru... Ken... Taichi..." she stuttered
after a moment spent just staring at them. "What's going on?"

"Takeru!" Patamon crowed cheerfully, halting any forthcoming
explanations. He winged up from the bed and hovered happily over both
Takeru and Ken. This did not go unnoticed by Taichi who frowned in
confusion at it. Tailmon stretched up from where she had been
snoozing in the middle of the bed and padded over to perch herself on
the edge of the mattress.

Hikari resisted the urge to shiver as she looked beyond the trio and
saw that boy again leaning up against the doorjamb. He was glowing
again too. It was very disconcerting. She looked away quickly when he
caught her eyes with his own for a brief moment. Why was he here? Why
was Ken here with Takeru for that matter? And why was Taichi acting
so calm around Ken? Hikari frowned as she looked back at the boys and
froze again when she looked directly at Ken. In the light that boy
was putting off a dead, gray fog glittered around Ken. Her skin
crawled in horror as she remembered the last time she had seen
something of the sort. The beach.

Takeru watched Hikari's reactions to everything, finally speaking
when a look of horror crossed her features, "I think you know why
we're here now. Don't you?"

Hikari nodded jerkily before shakily climbing to her feet. She slowly
walked towards Ken, her steps getting steadier the further she went.
She held his gaze the entire time and what she saw made her insides
go cold. The gray lurked so close to the surface in his eyes, she
could almost see the darkness reflected there, almost hear it he was
so close to it. She stopped in front of him, hesitantly reaching up
to touch his cheek. He felt so cold to her. Too cold. "You're not
really here anymore are you?" she asked helplessly.

Ken tilted his head curiously at her question, a shadow falling
across his eyes, blocking out the light. He could hear the waves now,
quiet and dead and unending. "What do you mean?" he asked her in a
hollow voice, going through the motions but not really caring
anymore. It was too cold now. He was too cold now.

"You're already there," Hikari whispered, feeling only the ghost that
remained beneath her fingers. Between the time of one heartbeat and
the next, she blinked and he was gone. Gone, as if he had never been
there to begin with. She let her hand drop then through the empty
air. She wouldn't have been able to do anything, it was inevitable
for the ocean to take what it had claimed. But that didn't mean that
what it takes can't be taken back.

There was a wounded breath of air to her left. Takeru. He must feel
horrible not being able to do anything, only able to simply stand off
to the side as someone he cared about vanished before his very eyes.
It hurt her to hear it, but not so much as it might have. Ken needed
her, their help right now. He wouldn't be able to get back on his
own.

"Well that was weird," Taichi murmured. He stared blankly at where
Ichijouji had been just a second ago. It was just too strange. His
throat ached, almost as if he were going to cry any minute now. Why
did he feel like crying over Ichijouji of all people though? He
couldn't explain it. "What just happened?"

"The dark ocean," Hikari answered flatly as she turned her attention
to Takeru. He was staring blindly at where Ken had been. He looked
haggard. Sighing, she reached up and gently turned his head until he
was looking at her. "Takeru, there was nothing you could have done.
You can't stop someone from going there once it has them. But that
doesn't mean we can't go get him. Just like you did with me." She
shook him slightly to get him to focus more on what she was saying
before she added, "So let's go get him back."

Takeru blinked, then nodded resolutely in understanding. He didn't
trust his voice at the moment, didn't trust himself to not break down
if he did try to say something. He couldn't allow himself the luxury
of giving in to the maelstrom of emotions swirling around inside of
him right now.

"Uh... question," Taichi said as Hikari walked over to the desk to
retrieve her D3. He waited until she looked over at him to continue,
"How are we going to do that?"

Hikari curved an eyebrow up at the we part of her brother's
question. Now that was interesting. She glanced briefly at the
doorway, noting that the strange boy was already walking away. They
needed to hurry. "We go down to the beach and open up a portal,
Taichi," she answered as she grabbed Takeru's arm and pushed her
brother ahead of her towards the door. Tailmon hopped silently off of
the bed and followed behind while Patamon settled himself down on his
usual perch on Takeru's head.

"And we're going to do that how?" Taichi asked curiously as he fell
into step with his little sister. He didn't actually doubt that
Hikari could figure out how to do what she was saying. There had been
many times during their past adventures where she had pulled off some
really bizarre stuff. But while he had never had the time to wonder
about how she did it back then, things were a bit different now and
he was a bit curious as to how she would go about doing this.

"You'll see," Hikari answered vaguely. In truth, she didn't know how
they were going to do it, but somewhere deep down she knew that
between them and that boy, they'd figure out a way to do it.

~*~

Darkness. He was floating in ice-cold, unending darkness. He wasn't
sure how long he had been here, just that sometime in the past he had
been speaking to Hikari about something and then suddenly, he hadn't
been there anymore.

The air here was heavy in the blackness. Too heavy, in fact. Not air,
water. He was floating in water. That certainly explained why it was
so cold. He could feel his lungs starting to burn now from where his
subconscious had instinctively stopped him from breathing in the icy
liquid. He needed air though and soon. He released a fraction of
breath, hoping that he would be able to feel which way the bubbles
went even if he couldn't see them. He shivered as a faint touch of
warmth slid across his cheeks. Ignoring the panic that was starting
to set in, Ken rolled over in the water and discovered that there was
light here after all.

An enormous expanse of scintillating grayish light stretched above
him. The light was weak and dull, but it was there. It must be the
surface of the ocean, it had to be. Kicking up towards the surface,
he fought against the need for air. He was almost there, just a
little further and then he could breathe again.

Time seemed to stretch again as he fought his way to the surface.
Somehow he knew he shouldn't have been able to make it considering
how long it seemed to take. He should have drowned. He should have...
something... and yet, he did get to the surface. Once there, he
gasped in a breath of prickly cold air as he floated on the gray
surf.

Something wasn't right.

Well, asides from the obvious. Shivering as the cold finally settled
completely into his bones, Ken looked out across the water. The ocean
stretched out as far as the eye could see, gray and dull in the
unchanging light of the overcast sky. Scowling, he squinted and
slowly turned around in the water, searching for the shore. He
couldn't see it. He was too far out. No, a sliver of yet another
color of gray lay off on the horizon. It was so far away though, too
far to swim.

Darkness dwells here.

Ken jerked around, the water spraying lightly against his face as a
rogue wind whipped up the waves surrounding him. Who had said that?
It had sounded almost like...

I belong to Darkness now.

... himself. Impossible. Ken blinked as another image superimposed
itself over the waves in his mind. It was an image of a younger
version of himself standing upon that gray beach. Everything was
gray, always gray, except when Darkness came. The younger Ken bent
down and placed his digivice in the water as the ocean had turned
black as pitch. Once submerged it had changed into the black D3 he
carried to this day. It had been... a present...

Ken screamed then, covering his face with wet hands as another image
came upon the tail end of the last. A vision that shimmered and
glittered with something other than light. Something terrifying. A
dead-black tower that rose above a small island, spearing so far up
into the sky that the top couldn't be seen. Something was sleeping
there. Something he knew very well. Something that knew him very
well. Something that made his mind ache terribly from the knowledge
of it.

... Darkness ...

He didn't know that something had wrapped around his right ankle
until he was yanked beneath the waves. The shock combined with the
fact that he had ended up swallowing a good bit of water going down
instantly pushed the visions of before to the very back of his mind.
He gripped his throat against the incredible burning sensation
searing along it and down into his lungs as he looked down at what
had grabbed him.

A digimon. A Marine Devimon to be exact. And that was as far as he
got on his assessment of the situation before a swarm of what looked
to be black and gold bats swirled around him and down at his captor.
The pressure on his ankle let up immediately and he felt something
grab onto the back collar of his jacket before he was hauled up out
of the water completely.

"You do have a way of getting into trouble don't you?" Lady Devimon
asked conversationally as Ken dangled from her grasp. She frowned
when his only answer at the moment was a hacking cough. Shrugging,
she headed back to shore with her rather unusual catch.

~*~

Takeru fidgeted as he watched Hikari fiddling with her D3. They were
at the local beach now, Hikari with her back to the bay and so close
to the water that her heels got wet with every wave that washed up
onto shore. He and Taichi were both standing a bit further up on dry
sand, watching her and waiting. He didn't know what she was doing
and he was pretty sure that Taichi didn't know either, but he hoped
that whatever she was doing would work. His mind refused to think of
anything else, shying away from both the unpleasant possibilities
that could happen and what he felt about what had happened earlier.

He couldn't do that right now. He couldn't think about any of that
right now. After he, they had gotten Ken back, then he would think
about it. But right now, he would just wait for Hikari to open up the
way to the dark ocean so that he could go get Ken. He didn't doubt
that she would succeed, failure was not an option.

Hikari sighed soundlessly as the boy pointed out another string of
numbers for her to input into her D3. He was getting impatient with
her. He didn't speak to her, most likely couldn't, but somehow he was
making his thoughts known to her. This helped somewhat in him guiding
her through programming her D3 so that it would open up a portal to
the dark world, but for some of what he was trying to show her she
just had to guess. Unfortunately, this ended up making it take longer
than either of them thought it would. She was getting impatient with
herself. He was getting impatient with both of them. And the minutes
ticking by in the growing silence made her want to scream in
frustration at the entire situation.

She blinked in annoyance when he passed his hand through her D3 to
get her attention. Scowling at the interruption, she looked up at him
questioningly. He shook his head and smiled before pointing back down
at her D3. Looking back down at it, she blinked again as she finally
noticed that something was running on the monitor. The program was
finished? Was it going to work? He nodded at her in assurance when
she looked back up at him again. He waved his hand at her D3,
indicating that she should execute the program now and then vanished.

Shaking her head in bemusement at this, Hikari looked up at Takeru
and her brother and said, "Okay, I think we're ready to try this
now." They both perked up at the news, the bleak look on Takeru's
face retreating back into his eyes. This was going to work. This
had to work. She didn't want him looking like that ever again.

"So how are we going to do this?" Taichi asked, confident now that
something was going to happen and hoping that he could finally be
useful for whatever it was they were going to do to get Ichijouji
back. He had been thinking about certain things while Hikari had
been busy doing whatever she had been doing. But those thoughts
were better left to later, now was the time for action.

"Well," Hikari trailed off in uncertainty. She didn't know what to
make of her brother's willingness to help Ken of all people. But, oh
well. Shrugging at her thoughts, she continued, "I'm going to open up
a portal with my D3. It'll hurt when I do it. The program has to draw
on a lot of power and the D3 can't actually handle it. Unfortunately,
there's no other way to do it as the dark world can't be accessed
through a computer. Anyway, Takeru's going to go through the portal,
get Ken as fast as he can and get back as fast as he can." She smiled
weakly up at Takeru as she waved Taichi to come over and stand beside
her. "Taichi is going to stay here with me and make sure I don't pass
out before you get back. So hurry. Okay?"

Takeru nodded his understanding of what she wasn't saying. It was
strange hearing her talk almost like Koushirou. He wasn't quite sure
what to make of that. But it was just one more thing to think about
later. Now, he had something far more important to think about.
Nodding at her again to show that he was ready to go, he waited for
her to open up the portal.

Hikari smiled briefly up at Taichi as he gently grasped her left
elbow to show that he was ready to give her whatever support she
might need. She was going to need it, of that she had no doubt.
Holding her breath, she hesitantly held her D3 out before her and
activated the program.

~*~

Ken lay prone on the gray sand coughing up what seemed like an
endless amount of water. He had collapsed the instant Lady Devimon
had set him down on the beach and hadn't really spared one thought to
her as his body had protested the presence of water within it where
there shouldn't be any.

Shouldn't he have drowned with this much water down in his lungs? He
thought bleakly before freezing at the hesitant touch of a hand on
his back. The hand gently started to rub his back in a comforting
manner. He looked up curiously to find Lady Devimon kneeling down
beside him on the sand and gazing down at him with an odd expression.

She tilted her head to the side at the questioning look in his eyes.
"Isn't this what humans do when another isn't feeling well?" she
asked, almost as if what she was doing was something of a novelty.
"Or is that something else?"

"No. No, that's fine," Ken answered after a moment spent staring up
at her in bewilderment at her odd behavior. This was different. He
had never seen a virus act on their strange observations about humans
before. Then again, he'd never really been in a situation where a
virus hadn't outright tried to kill him before. Shaking his head at
the strangeness of it all, Ken wearily climbed to his feet.

"Are all humans as fragile as you are?" She asked curiously as she
rose fluidly to stand beside him.

Ken cracked a half-smile, attempting to brush sand out of his hair as
he answered her again, "Some more so than others."

"Really? It's a wonder your species survives at all then," Lady
Devimon said matter-of-factly. She frowned lightly and reached up to
help him get the sand out of his hair. She wasn't quite sure why she
was doing this, why she had helped the little human in the first
place. She assumed that it was just simply because she was incredibly
bored and refused to delve any further into the matter.

Ken chuckled at her words. "I'm quite sure that many people have
wondered about that throughout the ages." He stopped brushing the
sand out, allowing her to continue on with it in his stead as he
remembered those mysterious visions, memories, he had had just
minutes ago. Staring out at the rolling gray waves, he whispered,
"I've been here before."

"Well of course you've been here before. How else would we have met?"
She asked him sarcastically as she ran her hands through his wet,
raven-black hair, sliding the grains of sand out with each pass of
her fingers.

"No," Ken shook his head slightly as he explained, "I mean before
that. I was here before we met. I think, I was younger then." He
frowned as the images flashed through his mind again. They didn't
make sense, there were too many hole in his memories. But there had
been something else happening then... something he shouldn't have any
trouble remembering. And yet, he had to struggle against his own mind
to try and find out what that was.

Lady Devimon's hands stopped in their task and instead dropped down
to rest upon his shoulders as she asked, "What were you doing then
that would make you come here?"

"I think," Ken trailed off, looking down as he strained to remember
what had happened. He raised his arms, staring numbly at his
wrists. There had been pain, a great deal of pain. There had also
been blood, rivulets of blood that had streamed down his forearms and
onto the sand below. "I think I tried to kill myself," he mumbled
finally as he drew the sleeves of his shirt down to view unblemished
skin. Why weren't there any scars?

She snorted and shook him briefly before growling out her next
question, "Why would you do something that stupid?"

Ken shook his head at that and sighed, "I don't know." He didn't
know. The memory of why he would do something like that eluded him.
No matter how much he tried to remember it, it just kept slipping out
of his grasp. What could have been so terrible to make him want to
kill himself back then? The memory just wasn't there.

"Hmmph, humans are so strange," she said at last, releasing her hold
on him. She stepped forward, standing beside him and glancing out at
the ocean for a moment before turning her gaze skyward. "And speaking
of which, it looks as if another human came searching for you."

"What?" Ken looked up blankly as she pointed up at a golden speck in
the gray, overcast sky. He focused his gaze upon the speck as it soon
resolved itself into the form of Pegasumon, and perched up on
Pegasumon's back was Takeru. Ken couldn't help but smile at the
relief that welled up within him at the sight. If Takeru was here,
then there had to be a way home. Once he was home he could get dry
and warm again and maybe things would make more sense. At least, he
hoped they would.

A few seconds later, Pegasumon landed a couple of feet away. Takeru
hastily slid off his partner's back and walked towards Ken, eyeing
the Devimon warily. What was a virus of her level doing here with
Ken? She hadn't done anything to Ken had she? He looked Ken up and
down appraising, relieved that he was still in one piece but confused
by the drenched state the boy was in. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Ken smiled weakly and answered, "I appeared out in the water. She
was kind enough to fish me out." He waved towards Lady Devimon in
conclusion. She smirked and waggled her fingers at the blonde human
and his cute little digimon.

"Uh... okay," Takeru mumbled and blinked in abject confusion. A
virus? Being helpful? Now that was just too weird for words. Shaking
his head to clear it, he set his mind back on track to the more
immediate problems. "We need to get going. Hikari won't be able to
hold the portal open for much longer."

"Oh, I see," Ken said as he nodded his understanding. Why did he
suddenly feel so reluctant to go now? He would have to leave her
alone again. That bothered him for some reason. Turning towards
her, he smiled shyly and tried to put some of his feelings into
words, "Thank you."

Tilting her head to the side, she shrugged lightly and explained, "I
was just doing it because I was bored."

"Still, thank you all the same. I would have been lost if you hadn't
found me in the beginning," his smile widened as he tried to put as
much sincerity as he could manage into his words. He did mean them, a
great deal. Giving her one last look, he turned and let Takeru draw
him away to Pegasumon. Why did he feel like crying now? He was
going home after all.

Lady Devimon silently watched them mount the little golden digimon.
She watched the little winged horse rise into the gray sky with its
burden. Sighing as they grew smaller and smaller in the sky, she
reached up and drew the black leather hood back off of her face. She
closed her glittering red eyes as a cool wind brushed up against her
cheeks. She wasn't happy. She hadn't been for a long time now.

"Are you lonely?" she asked at last. Perhaps the question was
directed at the dull, gray surf. Perhaps it was directed at the cold,
dead wind. And perhaps it was directed at herself. She wasn't sure
completely who she was asking, she just knew the answer had somehow
become very important to her in the span of a few minutes.

Opening her eyes, she shook her head and chuckled at her own
foolishness, "An interesting question, isn't it?" Shrugging in
bemusement, she rose above the sand and followed after the little
golden speck speeding along further up the beach. She wanted to know
the answer.

~*~

Hikari bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out at the constant
pain sizzling up her nerves. Her D3 glowed steadily in her hands,
keeping the portal shimmering a few feet before her open. Taichi was
practically having to hold her up by her waist now. She just didn't
have the energy left to support her own weight. Everything she had
was going into keeping the pain at bay.

"Just a little longer, sis," Taichi murmured as he shifted, lifting
Hikari up a little further in his grasp as he leaned back to settle
the weight more easily.

"I know," she croaked out and tilted her head back against his chest,
looking up at him as she smiled. "I'll be all right. I just wish they
were back already," she frowned worriedly as she finished, a shadow
falling across her eyes.

"Ken-" Taichi squinted his eyes as he hesitated. He looked up at the
portal in thought before looking back down at Hikari to continue with
what he wanted to ask, "Ken's the reason Takeru hasn't been around
lately. Isn't he?"

Hikari looked down at the sand, her answer uneasy on her lips as she
replied with a simple, "Yes."

Taichi grunted gently to acknowledge her answer. Silence stretched
between them as Taichi mulled something over in his mind and Hikari
worried about what her brother might be thinking about Takeru and Ken
and the type of relationship the two boys might have. Sighing
unhappily at something, Taichi asked carefully, "We all make stupid
mistakes don't we?"

Hikari looked back up at her brother in surprise. She wasn't quite
sure what he meant by asking her something like that, but he didn't
sound angry about anything. "Yes. Yes, we do," she murmured and
smiled weakly up at him.

~*~

"You came through that?" Ken asked in disbelief as he pointed at
the shimmering pinkish-gray oval of energy pulsing about a foot above
the beach. It was just barely beyond the edge of the surf as the gray
waves rolled up onto shore. It didn't look all that stable to him.

"Yes," Takeru answered absentmindedly as he watched Pegasumon devolve
back into Patamon. Snatching Patamon up into his arms, he hugged his
partner comfortingly and gestured for Ken to go on through the
flickering energy portal.

"Are you sure?" Ken queried and crossed his arms, unconvinced. "It
doesn't look all that safe to me."

"It's fine Ken," Takeru scowled in annoyance at Ken's obvious
reluctance. "Hikari's holding it open on the other side. So just go
already." Why was Ken being so difficult about this? Didn't he want
to go home?

"I don't-" An ear-splitting roar cut off anything else Ken might have
said about the matter. Whirling around, his eyes widened in shock as
the Marine Devimon from before towered up out of the brackish surf.
It must have followed them back to shore.

Takeru took one look at the rather obvious threat looming over them
and whipped around, yelling "Go!" before roughly shoving Ken ahead of
him and through the portal. He swiftly followed a half-second later
on his friend's heels.

The Marine Devimon growled down at the little pulsating portal that
had allowed his prey to escape. Reaching down with his tentacles, he
attempted to stretch the portal open wide enough so that he could get
through. He chuckled as he felt himself being dragged through by the
energy in the portal. It seemed it didn't matter whether the object
was in all appearances too big for the entrance, it would transfer
anything that touched it anyway.

Lady Devimon dropped down to the sand in front of the now crackling
pinkish-gray portal. She had watched the humans flee the other virus
and she had watched the fool follow after them. She wanted to follow
too, but for another reason altogether. She was tired of being alone
and that boy had been kind to her. Why, she wasn't sure, but she
did want to know. It was something worth pursuing. Giving the dark
ocean one last glance, she turned her back on it and hopped through
the portal to another world.

"Goodbye, Lord Piemon."

~*~

The portal flashed, the only warning Hikari or Taichi got before Ken
and then Takeru tumbled out of it. They crashed into the sand,
looking back after a moment spent gathering their wits. Their eyes
held something almost akin to fear as the portal began to crackle
with more and more energy. Takeru urged Ken further up the beach, not
liking what he was seeing one little bit. Why wasn't Hikari shutting
it down already?

Hikari screamed as the power in her D3 spiked, sending pure agony up
her arms. Her fingers convulsively gripped the device. She couldn't
drop it. Something huge materialized out of the portal as Taichi
reached forward, intent on knocking the damned D3 out of her hands.
Something much smaller darted up and out of the portal before he
succeeded. Hikari collapsed against her brother in relief as the pain
finally stopped.

Humans and digimon alike stared up in horror as the Marine Devimon
roared down at them. Takeru blinked numbly up at the virus as Patamon
wiggled out of his arms. Once free, the batpig instantly evolved into
Angemon in response to the threat to his partner.

Taichi unceremoniously hauled his sister up and over his shoulder,
grabbing her sparking D3 up off of the sand before beating a hasty
retreat. He winced as the sparks burned his skin but held onto the
little device despite the pain. Judging that they were far enough
away from the immediate threat, he stopped finally and set Hikari
back down on her feet. She instantly collapsed down to her knees. "I
think it's shorted out," he offered as he kneeled down and handed the
device over to his sister.

Hikari stared down hopelessly at it. "I think you're right. I'm
sorry," she added looking down apologetically at a rather antsy
Tailmon.

"What are we going to do? Angemon needs help now," Tailmon glanced
back worriedly at the battle. She didn't like not being able to help
her friend, but she was useless in this form without her tail ring.
And if she couldn't evolve...

"I don't know," Hikari murmured wearily as she looked back up towards
the battle. Angemon was a powerful adult, but it was an equal match
with a Devimon virus. And by the looks of it, this one was most
likely a perfect.

Angemon was having a good bit of trouble. The Devimon had too many
tentacles to attack with. He'd defend against two of them and get
slapped by another pair an instant later. He couldn't get free long
enough to fire off a Heaven's Knuckle. He didn't know what to do.

"Darkness Wave!"

The yell rose above the roar of the ongoing battle. Both opponents
had only a fraction of a second to process what the sound meant
before a swarm of black and gold bats converged upon them. Strangely
enough, the energy bats didn't attack Angemon, instead they focused
their ire upon the virus.

All present looked up at the source of both the bats and the yell.
Lady Devimon smiled and waved cheerfully down at the other perfect as
she let her bats fade away into nothingness. "Play nice," she called
out before dropping down to face him. "Or not at all," she added as
if in afterthought, following it up with a powerful kick to the
fool's face. The force of the blow threw the other virus out into the
water.

"Ooh," she cooed as he roared at her. "Did I hurt your pretty face?"
Glancing back, she winked knowingly at Angemon before looking back at
the idiot digimon thrashing out in the water. "Well don't worry
honey. We'll make it all better."

Smirking, she twirled around, releasing another volley of bats at the
Marine Devimon. "Heaven's Knuckle!" was yelled somewhere behind her,
instantly followed by a incandescent beam of energy that converged
along with her bats on the hapless virus. The explosion they created
upon meeting was quite blinding, and certainly more than enough to
get rid of the nuisance.

Resisting the urge to giggle at the sight of the now empty water,
Lady Devimon turned around and lazily floated down towards the little
human that interested her a great deal. That had been fun. She
couldn't quite remember the last time she had had some fun. It had to
have been before the dark ocean. That place had been more boring than
hell.

Takeru blinked numbly, not sure what to make of what had happened. He
automatically caught Patamon when his partner devolved out of the
Angemon form and dropped down into his arms. He edged slightly in
front of Ken as Lady Devimon landed in front of them. What did she
want with them?

"Hello again," she said cheerfully, noting the protective gesture the
other human was making. Now that was interesting. She glanced over at
the other humans as they made their way over towards the others. Oh,
the cute little Tailmon was here. This should prove entertaining.
Before she could continue though, a rain of salt water fell out of
the sky drenching them all. "Oh dear," she murmured distastefully.
Perhaps she shouldn't have been quite so exuberant in her attack.
This type of aftershock from an explosion wasn't exactly pleasant.

"Oh yuck," Hikari complained as Taichi half-carried her over towards
Takeru and Ken. She looked curiously over at Lady Devimon as Tailmon
stalked warily between her and the virus.

"Why?" Ken asked finally, shaking his head at his confused feelings.
He didn't know why he was happy she was here, but he did know he
was. But why had she followed them? Why had she helped them? What was
going on? He didn't understand anything anymore.

"I followed you obviously," she answered, smiling winningly down at
Tailmon which elicited an almost imperceptible growl from the little
adult. How amusing.

"Why?" Ken asked again. Her answer only succeeded in making him even
more confused. Why would she follow him here?

"Because I felt like it?" she asked vaguely in return. Shrugging, she
continued as if trying to explain something she didn't understand
herself, "A thank you every now and then is a bit refreshing. Though,
always unexpected."

"Oh," Ken blushed slightly. She had followed him because he had been
kind to her, or at least, that's what she seemed to be saying. He
didn't know how to respond to that.

"Well then, let's go shall we? Don't you need to get dry? You humans
do get sick rather easily you know." She pointed up the beach and
towards the city. The others just stared at her, not really
comprehending what was going on. Sighing, she put her hands on her
hips and asked sarcastically, "I'm here because you're here. Where
else am I going to go but with you?"

The others continued to stare at her until finally Taichi spoke up,
"Uhm, you do... sorta... kinda, stand out."

Chuckling deep in her throat, she waved down at her leather-clad body
and asked sweetly, "You don't like this form?"

Even Hikari turned an interesting shade of red at Lady Devimon's oh
so innocent question. Gathering his wits first, Ken tugged on the
collar of his shirt and coughed, "You do sort of stand out."

"Fine fine," she murmured, tilting her head to the side and resting
her chin in the palm of her hand as she thought on this new little
problem. Shrugging at last, she began to glow with a grayish light.
"Well, I guess there's no helping it." The glow expanded, engulfing
her completely before it began to shrink. After a moment, it winked
out altogether, leaving behind a ball of tan fur and black feathers.

Stretching her black, feathered wings out behind her, the little
ferret-looking digimon shook her fur out experimentally. "I haven't
worn this form in ages," she piped out as she flapped up off of the
sand. "You should feel honored to even see it."

Ken blinked in surprise at this turn of events. How utterly strange.
Stretching his arms out when she indicated where she wanted to go, he
smiled weakly as she settled down into his embrace. "Uhm..."

"Call me Koimon when I'm in this form," she said absently as she
folded her wings up and snuggled down to get comfortable. Finally
content with her position, she looked up and announced, "So let's go
home."

_____________________________________________________________________

Haha, isn't she adorable? *_* And yes, I know that's not an actual
digimon. I wanted to make up something special for an obviously
special digimon. Hope you liked it. I have an epilogue planned for
this fic. All those 'laters' that got mentioned in this part are
actually going to happen, though there won't be many forthcoming
answers. I still have two more major stories planned out for this
plotline. It's going to be awhile yet before everything gets answered
and settled down.
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Kindness Won't Get You Anywhere