1. Something Like Willpower

Well. This certainly was awkward.

Agumon looked down at his current human charge. Literally, he had to lower his yellow snout. She was so small. Small, small human. This was not Taichi.

No, this little thing with round red-brown (dried blood?) eyes and hair that wasn't poking him in the face was Hikari. She was staring at him like he had all the answers, and because she was such a small human, who relied on Taichi for answers, he probably had them. Nothing against Taichi, because his Taichi was his Taichi, but he wasn't very smart. He could think of things, but he didn't think of things enough, because it took him way too long. It took Agumon a long time too, but he rarely had to answer tough questions.

"Um... where am I?" Her voice was a sleepy wheeze. She rubbed her eyes.

Luckily for him, this was not a tough question.

"We're back in the Digital World." Then he paused, realizing this was the wrong way to put it. "Well, I'm back and you're here. We're in the Digital World."

Hikari simply nodded. She was very accepting of things, he noticed. Taichi was like that with people. Hikari was just... like that. It was odd, like she knew many more things than Taichi, but she could not say these things. It was like she didn't know how, or was scared to say them wrong.

Agumon found it very weird.

But he supposed humans in general were very strange. Digimon sure seemed to be that way to humans.

Hikari uncurled one of her tiny hands. In it was Taichi's Digivice... or maybe it wasn't. They all looked alike to him. She held it out for him to see and he sniffed it. Smelly gloves. Definitely Taichi. "I don't think you can eat this," she said, smiling a little as she pulled it back. "It's Onii-chan's."

"I can smell him on it," he said with a grin.

She wrinkled her nose. He agreed. His Taichi did not smell very good a lot of the time, especially when he was sweaty. Then Hikari looked around again, lifting one eyebrow in confusion. "He's not here..."

"Nope," Agumon agreed. He would have smelled him by now, even in all of this sand and cacti and stuff.

"Do you think he's okay?" Her voice trembled, though her fists gave a lazy clench, like she would try to make sure he was.

Lucky for her, Agumon was sure she didn't have to do that."Yep."

"Why?"

Agumon shrugged his thick, yellow arms. "Because he's Taichi."

She nodded again, this time with a little less agreement and a little more nodding for nodding. Humans sometimes did that, just nod to nod. It was weird. Maybe it was specific humans, because even though Taichi did that, he did less than others. Very unusual.

"Should we wait for him?" she asked in that odd voice that she had when she was doing more than thinking about the here and now, like she had when they were playing pattycake, or watching the tv. She was probably thinking about sneezing, since she then covered her mouth and squeaked into her elbow. It was much better than one of his sneezes, where he covered the grass or people's clothes... with fire. She likely thought that was what he would do, anyway. Heck, he had done that once or twice.

"We could, but he's probably worried about everybody else too," Agumon murmured.

Hikari clicked her tongue, puzzled. "Everyone else?"

"Un." Agumon nodded in accompaniment to his grunt. "Sora and Yamato and Mimi and Takeru and everyone and their partners. They were all here when we left, but..." he looked around. "I don't see any of them now-" He sneezed. "But with all of this sand..."

"I wouldn't stay here," Hikari said, covering her face with one arm. "It's all... gritty. We need to start looking for somewhere else, I think."

"Un." With that, he picked her up and put her on her back. She squeaked, or maybe that was another sneeze. "It'll be faster if I run with you." When Hikari didn't answer, Agumon added. "It's okay, you're not heavy or anything."

Hikari tapped his cheek. "Is okay." He thought she was smiling at the back of his head. He shook it off and began to stomp through the sand. He had to hurry. Taichi said Hikari was sick. He needed to get her somewhere she could rest. Then he could find the others. Maybe Koushiro. Koushiro would know what to do. Maybe he'd even found Gennai by now.

So many maybes, not enough solid answers.

Oh well. He knew what he had to do right now. That was what mattered the most.

By the time the sun set, Agumon was exhausted. But he had reached a forest and Hikari had managed to fish. Somehow, they had managed to survive together. Now, he was dozing. He had wanted Hikari to sleep. She had never been here before, she couldn't fight. She had insisted she wasn't tired, but she was very small. There was no way that could be true. Not to mention that Agumon was sure that he didn't want to continue. His legs hurt, first from the fight then from the fall and now the walking.

And the last parts had been done without Taichi, and that hurt.

That wasn't Hikari's fault, though. She probably hadn't meant to go through the gate or whatever it was instead of her brother. Still. Taichi was his Taichi. They were just better together.

He wondered if that meant there was someone for Hikari out here. He hoped so. Then she would be safer if he got distracted. Not that he would… right?

Agumon fell asleep thinking of these things, which honestly hurt his head. It was too much work to think of things so complicated. Why couldn't it just be simple like it was when he had hatched? Find the human. Find Taichi. Help him with whatever he needed. Save them. Save everyone.

He guessed he should have known that leaving File meant things would get complicated.

Hikari woke before Agumon the next morning She giggled at the snot bubble rising from his snout. He really showed he was Taichi's when he did stuff like that. She made herself roll and stretch and shift. When she was sick, rest was important, but a little exercise could sweat it out too. Not that Onii-chan would be pleased to see her sweating off the germs, but he wasn't here, so it was okay.

She stretched like she had watched Miko do hundreds of times, ending up, unlike her cat, with her fingers off the ground and falling backwards on her butt. Luckily for her, Agumon didn't do anything other than snore. She put her arms behind her back and pulled them downward, feeling her muscles give a little. Then she flopped back down onto the ground and stared at the sun.

This was the Digitial World. This was where Koromon had come from back then. This was where Koromon- Agumon- was from now.

It was beautiful.

It was also huge, but she guessed it would have to be to have such big creatures running around it and not destroying everything like Koromon had their apartment.

"Neh Koromon, aren't you gonna talk anymore?"

She had made herself remember those events, she guessed. Or at least as she had gotten older, that was what she had figured out. She had made herself remember, made herself see when things weren't just what they looked like or should be. So when the monsters had been on the television and her Onii-chan hadn't seen them, he hadn't been surprised, or even scared. They had been to their world before. They of course, would come back.

So now, Hikari was in their world. She didn't know why and she didn't know what she could do here. She wouldn't be here if she couldn't do something. So she would. And the first step was to find the people her brother had been with and bring them together. Because that was what he would do. They would be smart. They were here long enough. They would know how to work with anything else.

There was a loud grunt. "Hikari?"

Hikari smiled, and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Good morning, Agumon."

And then she'd find the answers. Because, why her instead of her brother?

She had to know.

A/N: So this story has been a long time in coming. short idea. Thought it would be fun and interesting, and probably odd. Well, here goes!

Challenges: Alphabet Prompts challenge, prompt 1: accord, Advent Calendar challenge day 5: start a fic you have yet to post, AU Diversity Boot Camp, prompt "light", AU Devils of Doom: divergent!AU, and the what if challenge.