Hey there everybody! Welcome to the inside of my head. Its a strange place.

Stutter will be a collection of AU oneshots, AKA none of what follows is canon to the show, or to my Skittles Universe (Skittles, Strobe and Misunderstanding).

Starting off: This story follows canon up until midway through Adventure 02. After Ken became good again, there was no Holy Stone or BlackWarGreymon story arc. This psycho digimon came in and started messing shit up instead. Enjoy.

We never should have split up, Daisuke thought wildly. It had been a disaster, a complete ambush. He had never seen such an overpowered enemy before. Daisuke had faced digimon controlled by evil rings and false digimon created from dark towers, but never any creature like this. He was used to digimon that fought with their fists, with knives, with fire and ice.

Kyojinmon had blindsided them, knocking Wormmon out with one shot. He never even had the chance to evolve. Tailmon had done her best to distract him while V-mon evolved, and the rest of them ducked for cover. She was doing all she could, but Daisuke was sure that even with the addition of Ex-veemon they didn't have a shot in the dark at winning. With Tailmon's holy ring missing, and Ex-veemon being so young, it was all they could do to defend themselves.

Daisuke thought that with the right distraction, their digimon might be able to land a hit or two, giving them the chance to escape and regroup.

The boy had thrown himself from behind their cover, running headlong towards Kyojinmon and yelling every insult under the sun. Hikari and Ken screamed frantically for him to come back, but with his heart pounding in his ears, they might as well have been silent.

He ran, and for a brief moment Kyojinmon turned, shock at Daisuke's audacity written across his face. Had it actually worked? The chosen child's heart stuttered when the expression on the evil digimon's face changed to manic glee. Attempting to backpedal, Daisuke felt a pang of regret.

Kyojinmon teleported without warning, appearing mere feet from where Daisuke skidded to a stop. The boy stared in eyes lit with insane laughter and felt the world slow to a crawl around him. Kyojinmon was swinging a large syringe straight for his chest. Hikari was screaming, Tailmon running at him full tilt. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Ken frozen in terror, arms tight around Wormmon's unmoving body. There was a moment where Daisuke felt some semblance of peace. At least he would die doing what he did best, being a brave, well-intentioned idiot. He closed his eyes and exhaled…

And was immediately hit by a truck. Or a minivan, or a vehicle of similar mass. He tumbled ass over teakettle, mouth full of dirt, elbows and knees scraped for a good fifteen feet before rolling to a stop. His ears were ringing, head throbbing in an incredibly disorienting manner. It took him a few long seconds to figure out which way was up. When he did, he struggled to pull himself to his knees and gazed around blearily.

Kyojinmon was cackling madly, rolling over himself in midair and holding his stomach in amusement. Daisuke frowned at him. Why was he laughing like he'd won something? Daisuke gave himself a mental once-over. He was probably one big bruise, but he was one hundred percent not dead. And he was pretty sure that was what the digimon had been going for.

He looked to his friends for confirmation that this digimon was indeed a loony. The identical expressions of horror on their faces made his skin crawl. They weren't looking at him though, not exactly. Daisuke followed their gaze to a huge, blue mass crumpled a meter or two to his left.

Ex-veemon.

The syringe stuck out of his back like a massive porcupine quill. Daisuke tripped to his feet and stumbled to his downed digimon. Ex-veemon lay in a loose ball, trembling and twitching. His eyes were screwed shut in what Daisuke could only imagine was severe pain. The dragon digimon did not respond when Daisuke reached out and gently laid his hand on his wing.

"What did you do to him?" Daisuke whipped around, teeth bared at their attacker.

Kyojinmon continued to giggle, but stopped his spinning to look at the chosen child.

"Could have just let me kill you ~!" He singsonged. "Now you get to watch your friend die instead!"

Daisuke blanched, taking a defensive stance in front of his partner.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He retorted fiercely. There was no way Kyojinmon could actually mean that Ex-veemon would be deleted, right? This was… this was different than when Wormmon had given up his energy voluntarily. To see his partner struck down like this…?

Kyojinmon was immediately inches from his face, the same unsettling smile never wavering.

"I mean your friend here goes bye-bye. All his energy sucked dry, his coding slowing falling apart, glitching out all twitchy twitchy!" The digimon pulled back slightly and Daisuke scrambled away from him in disgust. "This stuff's like digital poison!" He tittered, snapping his fingers. The syringe vanished from Ex-veemon's back, and his form blurred momentarily. "Have fun!"

Kyojinmon teleported away.

This time it was Daisuke who was frozen as Ken and Hikari raced towards him. Daisuke couldn't look away from his partner's sporadically pixelating form. Hikari was yelling, grabbing him, calling to Tailmon. She was a blur of sound and motion to him. He dropped to his knees as his partner's form contorted suddenly, a bright flash momentarily blinding him. V-mon now lay before the chosen child.

Daisuke's heart was pounding like he was running a marathon, but he could not move. His whole body was screaming to fight! Fight this somehow! Win! Do something!

But there was nothing to do. No digimon ambulance to call, no doctors to heal his partner. He had gotten his best friend killed and he would have to sit here and watch.

Ken fell to his knees beside him, eyes full of remembered grief. Daisuke did not want to look at him. Leaning forward, he tenderly scooped the twitching V-mon into his lap. The digimon made a soft noise, but did not open his eyes.

Hikari and Tailmon were frantic behind him. They sounded like they were arguing, but it hardly mattered. Nothing mattered. Would V-mon end up an egg in his arms, or would he have to watch his digimon's data float away to be reconfigured somewhere else? Another flash of light sent a jolt of terror though him. Was V-mon devolving again so soon? No. The dragon digimon was still at child level, though the glitching did look like it had intensified.

Daisuke raised his head sluggishly and searched for the source of the light. Hikari was flying away on the recently evolved Nefertimon. Oh. A dull pang of loneliness thudded in his chest. It made sense for her to leave. Why stick around with someone who had gotten his friend killed? Ken was probably only still here because he was lost in his own memories. More things to apologize for.

He sat and cradled his partner's limp form for some time before the poison forced another devolution. At the sight of Chibimon unconscious in his arms, the first tear rolled down the leader's tanned cheek. He did not remember starting to speak, but when the ringing in his ears finally died out, he became aware of the litany of sorry's that were flowing from his mouth. A hand on his shoulder gave him comfort he felt he did not deserve. Ken was too kind. The former emperor had once admitted in a moment of bluntness that Wormmon dying had felt like someone had ripped a chunk of his heart out. That he hadn't even been that fond of his partner at the time, and he couldn't imagine how much it would hurt a chosen who had properly bonded with their partner first. Daisuke couldn't feel Ken's pain to compare, but he did not want to guess. As Chibimon shrunk down to the round form of Chibomon, Daisuke felt a chasm open in his chest. It sat, patiently waiting for the moment to consume him.

Next to him, Ken's head jerked upwards. There was shouting coming from a distance. Huh, he thought mildly. Hikari was back, and she had brought the others. Daisuke couldn't quite decide of that was good or not. On the one hand, he would not be alone when Chibomon passed. On the other, they could be furious at him for causing such an atrocity and would kick him out of the digital world. A familiar voice startled his out of his contemplative stupor.

Taichi-sempai was with them.

If possible, Daisuke's heart broke further. He did not want the boy he looked up to so much see his worst moment.

Nefertimon suddenly dove for the ground, and her unexpected impact nearly sent her remaining passengers tumbling off her back. Halsemon touched down a second or two later with much more grace.

Belatedly, Daisuke realized that Nefertimon had dove because one of her three riders had fallen…or jumped when they were still a good ten feet off the ground. And that person was Takeru. Who was now sprinting in his direction like a man possessed. As he got closer Daisuke saw a desperation on his face that he didn't quite understand. The two of them had never gotten to be close friends, so it would not make sense that Takeru wanted so badly to be near Daisuke now. He would have assumed that the blond boy was angry with him, but there was no trace of anger in his eyes.

The whole group of new arrivals was chasing each other, yelling and gesturing about what, Daisuke couldn't guess. Maybe they were split on whether or not to kick him out of the digital world.

Miyako and Iori jumped off Halsemon's back, looking more bewildered and scared than anything else. But Taichi and Hikari, for the first time Daisuke could recall, appeared to be fighting.

"You little idiot! Come back!" Taichi called, his voice laced with a mix of fear and irritation. He was running, but Hikari was hanging on to his arm, trying to slow him down.

"Onii-chan, please!" She dug in her heels.

Takeru was almost upon him, Patamon clinging to his shoulder and shouting.

"I don't know, Takeru! It might not-"

"Just try, Patamon!"

Daisuke lost them in two blindingly bright flashes of light. Lunging to his feet, Daisuke clutched the shuddering Chibomon to his chest. What on Earth was going on? When he opened his eyes they nearly popped right out of his skull.

Towering over him and shining like a beacon was an eight-winged angel. Before he could process what was happening, the massive digimon crossed his arms and a deep, powerful voice rang out.

"Holy Antidote!"

Daisuke was engulfed in rainbow light. It swirled around him, obscuring his vision for a few long seconds before beginning to fade. The boy stood, stunned. His scrapes were healing in front of his eyes, his headache clearing. His sight returned to normal and he immediately glanced down to the creature in his arms.

Two bright eyes blinked curiously back up at him. No blurred lines, no twitching, no pixels.

"Daisuke, what's wrong?" Chibomon chirped.

Daisuke wanted to whoop with joy, but all that came out was a croaky,

"Nothing, buddy. I'm just happy to see you."

The little digimon snuggled into his chest and made a purring like sound. Relief flooded Daisuke's system. Chibomon was okay. The angel had sav-

Daisuke jerked his head up and gaped at the Perfect level digimon that stood before him. That was Patamon?

The angel smiled serenely down at him. Then he disappeared in a final burst of light and Tokomon flopped into the grass, exhausted. Daisuke looked around wildly when Iori came over and picked him up instead of Takeru. What had happened to Takeru?

Ah, there he was. The blond boy was laying down on his back a dozen or so feet away with an irate Yagami standing on one side, and a concerned Yagami kneeling on his other. He was awake and appeared to be making weak jokes at his former leader. Daisuke, with Ken following, hurried over.

"-and you guys said I was reckless! You had no idea that would work, Takeru. I'm overjoyed that it did, of course, but attempting a Perfect level evolution without the tag and crest-" Taichi cut himself off, looking suddenly stricken. "What if it hadn't worked, and something terrible happened to you? What then?"

Takeru had the nerve to reply, "Pessimism isn't really my thing, Taichi."

Daisuke planted himself next to Hikari in the grass. She appeared torn between fussing over Takeru, telling her brother to can it, and asking about Chibomon. He decided to give her a hand.

"Hey, Taichi. Lay off," He said, voice still shaky. "He kinda just saved my partner from dying, so how about we not yell at him?" Daisuke looked to his idol semi-apologetically. For once he hoped he made a rather pathetic sight, he knew there were still tear tracks down his cheeks and his eyes were most likely red.

Taichi opened his mouth, but ultimately shut it before saying anything else. He sat down with a grunt next to Takeru's head and buried his face in his hands.

"Yamato is going to kill me," He whispered, sounding so disappointed in himself that Daisuke almost got up to comfort him. Takeru did his best anyway.

"Sorry," He muttered honestly, flopping a rather limp hand upwards and awkwardly patting Taichi's sneaker. "I can tell him if you want. I can even start off with 'Taichi tried to stop me, but I wouldn't listen'."

The others settled down a few feet away, looking apprehensive. No one, except for Taichi, Takeru, and maybe Hikari seemed to have a clue at what had happened. Daisuke was damn sure Taichi had told the new team that all the original chosen children have given up the power to reach Perfect. And what had the high level digimon even done to heal them?

Iori shyly shuffled over to them and held out the sleepy looking Tokomon to Hikari. She smiled warmly at him and placed the little digimon on Takeru's stomach. Takeru's face lit up when he saw his partner, and stroked his long pink ears.

"Good job, buddy. Knew you could do it," He said softly. Tokomon grinned at him and promptly curled up for a nap.

Iori stood beside them expectantly, but when no one was forthcoming, he pushed a question they had all been thinking.

"Was that Patamon's Perfect level evolution?"

Takeru smiled, his eyes glittering with pride.

"That's HolyAngemon, yeah."

"How is that possible?" Iori frowned. "I thought Gennai took the crest powers away?"

Ken and Miyako scooted closer, obviously just as interested. Wormmon was awake and looked as healthy as ever, while Ken held him close to his heart and looked shaken.

Taichi, Takeru and Hikari exchanged unsure glances. Taichi shrugged and shifted positions on the grass.

"He did… Well, I mean it's a complicated story," He started. "The power of the crests comes from inside of us, so it can't really be taken away forever. The tags and crests were given to us to help channel the power from inside us, to the digimon. Without the tools to channel the energy, it just sort of comes out in an uncontrolled burst. It's not good for you," He looked pointedly at the boy on the ground.

Daisuke turned his gaze to Takeru as well, feeling suddenly guilty. He had kind of thought that Takeru had just run too fast and gotten lightheaded… But upon further inspection the chosen of hope was definitely looking under the weather. His face was flushed, his breathing rather shallow, and looking even closer, Daisuke could see that Takeru was trembling slightly. He could feel the heat radiating off the blond boy even without touching him. Takeru was burning up, absolutely running a fever.

"Dude, are you okay?" He half shouted. Why had Takeru put himself through such a debacle to help him? Logically they all knew that the digimon would be reborn when they died, and of course it was horrible to experience, but they would come back. Daisuke could understand wanting to avoid the death of a friend, but to go as far as to hurt yourself? He was reminded uncomfortably of the day he had received the Digiegg or Friendship. Takeru had almost been killed trying to help rescue Patamon and Agumon, and only Taichi tackling him to the ground had saved him. What was it that drove Takeru to such lengths?

Takeru smiled weakly up at him.

"I'm okay, I just feel like I've got the flu or something. How's Chibomon?"

Daisuke held up the now dozing baby digimon.

"Wait," Miyako interrupted. "Didn't you all use your crest power without the physical tags and crests in your fight against Apocolymon? Why didn't anyone feel sick after that?"

Taichi frowned at his shoes.

"We're not sure. I… I think it had to do with the fact that we had been deleted at the time. Like our physical bodies probably could not handle a tagless Perfect level evolution in the real world. We would probably have to go to the hospital, its just too much stress, too much adrenaline. In the digital world, we're made of data, so there's less of a physical reaction… because we're less substantial I guess. But after we got deleted we hardly existed. The world we were in was… barely there. Just a big white void. I don't think it hurt because there was no real body to feel pain…" Taichi trailed off, looking to his sister for confirmation. She shrugged.

"If you thought that, then why were you trying so hard to get Takeru to stop earlier?" Miyako asked curiously.

Takeru tugged at his shirt, looking anywhere but Taichi.

"Because I didn't think that until just now. We had no idea if nothing would happen, or if Takeru would conbust or god knows what," Taichi hissed.

Daisuke gulped. It felt rude, but he just had to ask.

"Takeru why would you risk that for me? For Chibomon?"

Takeru looked him straight in the eye and Daisuke was shocked to see tears filling them.

"I promised myself I wouldn't let anyone else know what it was like to lose their partner. I already failed Ken, so I wasn't about to fail you too."

If anyone was grumpy that Takeru and Daisuke didn't actually get a heart to heart, don't worry. I have many a version of that to come. Also if anyone can tell me who Kyojinmon's speech pattern sounds like, I will dedicate a chapter to you. It was unintentional, but now I can't stop thinking of his voice in a specific way. If anyone cares, I am lazy and Kyojin is Japanese for "mad man".