Hey there guys, you won't believe how long we've been working on this. This is a combined effort by myself and my girlfriend FernClaw that has been goin' on for a year today. I hope you guys are ready to see a lot from this cuz we got A LOT written. Alrighty then, have fun.

Chapter One: Awakening

It has been a few months since that fateful day Takuya Kanbara received that compelling message; since he had went on that mysterious train to an even more mysterious world; since he had made five life long friends on his adventures. There isn't a day where he doesn't look back fondly at his time in the Digital World; how he dreamed of being reunited with his companions, to become the Warrior of Flame once more. Little did he know that he would soon get his wish… only not in the way he pictured it.

Takuya sat on his desk by the window, a bored look on his face as the teacher droned on in his speech. The teenager paid no mind to the teacher's ramblings and simply gazed outside the window to the courtyard. He was too busy living in his own fantasy world.

He sighed and gazed at the clock, wishing for the day to be over sooner. To be out and about in the sun and not confined in this room.

"-The principles of the haiku are as scared as the shrines in Kyoto as such..." The teacher's lecture had that effect where if you slipped just a little- you'd be asleep in an instant. Takuya rolled his eyes, checking in on the lesson briefly before returning to his daydreams.

He thought of his closest companions. Kouji and Kouichi were very likely in their last class of the day as well, now attending the same school together to spend more time with one another. Zoe had many new friends in her all girls school now. JP was attending a trade school and he too found a circle of friends. Tommy and Takuya's little brother, Shinya, had grown close as they were both on the same soccer team. Takuya was happy for them, but somehow, felt oddly alone without them.

He sighed again. The summer had lulled them into a false sense of unity- where in reality, they all lived very far apart; and with the different schools, social activities, and family to contend with, he barely got to see them.

Friends forever. That's what they promised to each other back then. He had always thought that their promise would stand strong, solid like stone. He had not imagined that time would erode their promise the way it did.

The teenager glanced over to the goggles that lie idle at the corner of his desk. They had become something of sentimental value to him; a reminder of the good times he had with all of them. He toyed with them for a moment, still lost in his thoughts. How he wished things could go back to the way they were.

Takuya was quickly dragged out of his musing when the school bell finally rung. He exhaled deeply in relief and gathered his belongings, slipping his goggles back on and making his way outside as the teacher dismissed the class.

He made a beeline for his locker, opening it quickly to dump the unnecessary books he had to drag around all day. He wouldn't need them over the weekend, or for the next couple days after- It was a term break after all. He smiled to himself, knowing this would be the best time to see his friends- provided they too had time off.

Takuya shouldered his bag and made his way to the gym locker room to get his gym uniform and bring it home for a well needed wash. His mother would probably kill him for it, but it was hard to bring the clothes home often enough to wash them when you had gym class every other day. He waved to a few classmates in passing as they headed outside into the nice day.

He had figured out his plans for the day in advance. Drop everything he doesn't need off back home, call the guys, and annoy the hell out of them to plan something for the weekend (and if he's lucky, something to do later that evening).

The teen grinned to himself. Admittedly, he was starting to get on everyone's nerves, having called each of them countless times to make plans to get together but it was worth a few scathing glares, a probable smack to the back of the head from Kouji for good measure, if it meant that they could spend time together again.

Takuya grinned to himself as made his way home. He had picked up his pace with eagerness to get the break started off on good terms. He pushed the door to the boy's locker rooms open.

"Where do you think you're going punk!" A harsh voice echoed in the boy's locker room. Takuya froze, the door still wide open. He swallowed slowly, scanning the room. The was a crash followed by a yelp from a younger student.

"I said get back here!" the voice said again. Takuya quickly closed the door, so it wouldn't make a noise and cautiously proceeded into the room. An upper classman had another, younger student cornered in the back by the showers. He recognized the victim as one of his classmate's younger sibling.

The elder, whom Takuya did not recognize, advanced, grabbing the younger boy by his shirt.

"P-please… I-I didn't do anything…" the younger boy pleaded and curled up in a protective ball. The boy was quivering under the upper classman's glare.

Takuya glared at the older boy and charged in without any hesitation, his hero complex kicking in immediately upon seeing and hearing the terror from the younger boy. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

The upper classman stopped terrorizing the younger student. He turned to face the goggle head, sizing him up quickly. He snorted, unimpressed with Takuya's stature. "Who the heck are you?"

"Leave him alone!" Takuya replied evenly, glaring at the older boy. He tossed the younger boy aside, allowing him to escape and hopefully go for help. Takuya braced himself for a fight, which the upper classman seemed to be looking for.

"Oh, Tough guy I see," the boy sneered, towering over the brunette. "Let's see how tough you really are!"

In an instant fists went flying. The older boy had a knack in fighting Takuya realized after barely dodging a punch aimed for his face. Lucky for Takuya he had been used to fighting after dealing with corrupt Digimon who were built to fight.

The older boy had not expected Takuya to put up much resistance but that did not deter him from continuing the assault.

The upper classman managed to grab Takuya by the collar of his shirt to keep him from jumping around and took the chance to strike the goggle head hard, punching him in the face.

Takuya cried out, clawing at the older boy's hand. "Let me go!"

The elder laughed, grinning in a twisted way. "What was that runt? All I heard was a squeak!"

The brunette glared, anger welling inside of him. He gripped his captor's arm tightly, "I said, Let. Me. GO!" the was a flash and a yelp of surprise. The older boy released Takuya and both tumbled to the floor.

"What the hell?!" the upper classman screeched, eyes wide with shock.

Takuya blinked in confusion, before realizing his hand was on fire. Literally on fire. He immediately shook it, making the flames dissipate. "Shinoba! What the HELL are you doing?"

Both boys looked to see one of the coaches standing in the doorway looking beyond pissed. "Fighting? AGAIN!? You are in a world of trouble!" the coach roared, bearing down the the elder student like hellfire. He looked at Takuya briefly, "Get yourself to the nurse." He instructed curtly before hauling the older boy into his office.

It took several moments for Takuya to realize a few things. One, he was just punched in the face and likely had a black eye forming, and two, his hand was spontaneously on fire- but it didn't hurt. He stumbled to his feet, gathering his things quickly before bolting from the school, forgetting the coach's instructions to go see the nurse.

Takuya ran like a madman back home. He was a blur as he made it to the front door. He quickly made his way inside, slamming the door behind him and startling his mother.

"Takuya? What're you…" she started but stopped when he rushed his way up to his room. He didn't even let her finish. "What on earth is going on with that boy?"

The boy quickly locked the door behind him and turned his computer on. "Come on, come on, come on…" he muttered impatiently as the computer slowly started up.

A knocking was heard at his door, his mother no doubt. "Takuya? What's going on? Why's the door locked?"

He flinched, having forgotten his mother would be home early today. "Uh- it's um, nothing mom! I'm fine!" He lied as best as he could. He opened up an internet browser and began to look for a way to hide the black eye from his mother.

"Takuya Kanbara you open this door this instant!" She demanded from the other side of the bedroom door.

"J-just a second!" Takuya answered shuddering from the dangerous tone in her voice. He searched desperately for what could help him as his mother banged on his door. He muttered a curse under his breath, failing to find anything that could give him an immediate solution.

As a last minute ditched effort, Takuya turned his cap forward in an attempt to have it shadow over the dark coloring around his eye. He scrambled to the door and unlocked it, facing his enraged mother. "Uh… hi Mom…" he gulped and laughed nervously. "…is something wrong?"

She stood there arms crossed, looking annoyed as anything with her eldest son. "What on earth was all that about? You're lucky your father isn't home because- Takuya..." She lost her train of thought spying the boy's swelling eye. She brought a hand to her mouth to suppress a gasp. "What happened to your eye? Were you fighting!?"

She reached out and removed his hat to get a better look at the swollen eye. "You march yourself downstairs this instant so I can treat that. You better have a good explanation." She added the last bit after a short pause.

Takuya sighed and nodded, making his way downstairs. "Should have known that wouldn't have worked." He muttered, sitting down at the table as his mother went to get ice for Takuya's eye.

He winced upon feeling the bag of ice come in contact with the bruise but stopped fidgeting when he saw the stern look on his mother's face. "So… I guess you wanna know what happened."

"That's right young man. I want to know every detail." She answered, looking down at him with her arms folded. She was in no mood for any funny business. "So start talking."

He inhaled sharply, "There was this guy- I guess he was an upper classman, but he had a younger student cornered in the locker room. I... I ...he was hurting him... And I got involved... But I didn't fight back! I swear- He hit me!"

It was his mother's turn to sigh, "Oh Takuya... I don't understand how or why you get into all this trouble. It's like something compels you to get into the middle of a situation- You should have gone for help- not get involved!"

"But by then the kid could have really gotten hurt!" Takuya spoke up but looked back down at his hands that were clenched on his lap. "I had to help him."

"Takuya… do you realize how much trouble you could have gotten yourself into? You need to think these things through!" she groaned and rubbed her temples to help her calm down. "You're starting high school next year. You need to curb this impulse of yours before things get any more out of hand."

Takuya opened his mouth to reply, but bit it back, knowing she was right. He was too, to an extent but this wasn't the Digital World- he couldn't protect everyone. "I... I'm going to go lie down for a bit." He retreated from the kitchen back to his room before his mother could start on him again.

The teenager groaned and collapsed on his bed and moaned into the sheets. He wanted so badly for everything to be okay for him. He had helped the kid but in doing so got himself into a heap of trouble.

He looked to his hand and remembered how his hand had suddenly combusted. Takuya sat up in his bed and examined his hand closely. He wasn't burned but the hairs at the back of his hand were singed a little. This was definitely not a fluke. His hand really was on fire.

The computer chirped from across the room. Someone messaged him while he was being lectured by his mother. Takuya stood and crossed the room, sitting before the computer to read the message.

'Do you still want to meet up tomorrow?' - Kouji

Takuya began to write a response but as he was writing he realized that with everything that happened within the last hour he needed someone to talk to. Someone who could understand what was going on with him. Kouji knew him well enough; maybe he could figure this out.

'You free to talk? Something really weird happened to me today.' - Takuya

There was no written reply rather a window came up with the video chat request. Takuya accepted, the webcam started up and Kouji appeared. "You? Weird? Never. What's on your mind?" He said with lighthearted sarcasm. He paused, seeing the other boy's bruised eye. "Dude- What happened?"

Takuya ghosted a hand over his eye and groaned. "I got into a fight with some jerk at school. The guy was picking on some younger kid and I couldn't just stand there and let it happen. But that's not the problem."

Kouji interrupted, "Takuya- that hero complex of yours is going to get you into trouble."

"Dude, I heard enough from my mom I don't need to hear it from you." Takuya barked, still feeling on edge from the lecture his mother gave him.

"Alright, no need to take my head off," Kouji replied, taken a back by Takuya's sudden outburst. He studied the boy for a moment."Are you okay?"

Takuya nervously ran his hand through his hair. "Look… something really freaky happened to me when I got in that fight with that jerk. I know it sounds crazy but one moment the guy's holding me by the collar the next my hand's suddenly on fire!"

Kouji stared at him blankly, not sure how to respond. "Okay... and...?"

Takuya gave Kouji an incredulous look, having expected a better response than that. "My. Hand. Was. On. FIRE. Like… pshhhhh!" he waved his hands to try and simulate fire to further sink the message in.

"You should be in theater Takuya. You're way too dramatic." Kouji replied cooly, before becoming serious, "So what do you think happened with the fire?"

"I don't know. It happened so fast. It disappeared almost instantly." Takuya answered and looked back at his hand. "It didn't hurt… and I know I'm not crazy. The hairs on the back of my hand are completely singed."

Kouji sat back in his chair, thinking about the situation. "This really has you worked up..." he whispered before speaking to Takuya directly "Are you sure it wasn't your imagination? Absolutely positive?"

"Of course I'm sure." Takuya answered. "Freaked the other guy pretty bad too. Unless we were both imagining it I think this is the real deal here." He finished and rested his chin on the desktop. "I have no idea what the hell is happening to me."

"Nor do I- do you think we should get in touch with the others?" Kouji asked, his tone became hushed. "This could be something Digital... Something bad."

"Digital?" Takuya repeated, letting the thought linger in his mind. He hadn't thought about that possibility. It made sense but left so many questions unanswered. He turned his attention back to his friend and recalled the questions he asked. "Uh… yeah. I think so. You said this might be Digital… it could be happening to all of us."

Kouji took Takuya's words to heart, "We should call the others to see if they have. I personally haven't had anything happen to me, But I'll let you know if I glow in the dark tonight."

That got Takuya to laugh a little and ease up a little. "Thanks man. I really owe you one. This is really freaking me out."

"I can tell," Kouji replied, smiling a bit. "You need to relax and rest- and give that shiner of yours a chance to heal."

"Yeah. I hear you." Takuya nodded and sat up straight. "You think maybe we can talk about this when we meet up tomorrow? It'd be easier than calling everyone one at a time to tell them."

Kouji just rolled his eyes, "You truly are a genius, you know that? See you tomorrow." With that, Kouji ended the call before Takuya could figure out his insult.

Takuya blinked, registering what his friend told him. Finally it dawned on him. "Hey!" he growled and tried to respond. "You…" he tried calling a few times but got no response. "Damn coward… I am SO getting back at him for that."

"Takuya! Dinner!" The brunette blinked, when did it get so late?

"Um, I'm not hungry mom!" In truth, he wasn't in the slightest. His nerves made him feel sick to his stomach. He glanced at his bed. "I should try to rest..." he reasoned, going with Kouji's advice. He got up after shutting the computer down and crawled into bed, curling up beneath the covers. He yawned, suddenly tired from the day's events and drama. He closed his eyes thinking to himself 'sleep should do me some good...' and was sound asleep before he knew it.

'Where...' He was hanging midair in a dark void. It was cold and he was all alone. A burst of light and sound exploded before him. Two figures locked in battle fought beneath him. One he recognized all too quickly- ShadowSeraphimon. Recalling the dark angel filled him with dread. The other was one of a far more comforting feeling- Agunimon.

The two clashed again and again, neither backing down in the slightest. Takuya could only watch as the human Spirit of Flame engaged the sinister angel of Metal. Another flash- Agunimon was down. ShadowSeraphimon stood over him, aiming to kill-

Takuya sat upright, panting. 'Just a dream...' he tried to calm himself, glancing at the clock on the bedside table. The numbers read 6:23 am. So early for a Saturday, but Takuya was wide awake now.

Takuya yawned and stretched before getting out of bed. He quietly peaked out of his room and listened to hear if anyone else was awake. He was relieved to hear the faint sounds of his family's snoring.

The opportunity to get ready to head out before his father could wake up and question him became present and so Takuya jumped in the shower.

He allowed himself the leisure to think while showering. His thoughts lingered on his dream. It was so surreal and there was something unsettling about it. Takuya remembered his battle with ShadowSeraphimon. He shuddered at the thought of how badly the battle turned out for him.

Whatever it was, it was similar but it wasn't the same. It wasn't like how it was before. There was something different. He couldn't put his finger on it but it was something that scared him. What scared him even more was the thought that it had some kind of connection with the incident yesterday.

He stood before the fogged up mirror so long the steam began to fade away. Takuya looked up, expecting to see his right eye swollen and blackish-purple from yesterday. He gasped- it was... healed? He touched the skin around his eye carefully. It was as though it had never happened.

Takuya's breathes began short and unfocused- 'impossible. Impossible!' And yet- his eye was completely fine. "Did I... dream all of that?" he wondered out loud, heart racing.

The brunette quickly made his way back to his room and pulled out his cell phone from his pants pocket before dialing Kouji's number. Sure the teen would probably chew him out for waking him up so early but it was important.

He waited patiently for Kouji to pick up before he heard the phone pick up. "Kouji…"

The ringing stopped and the brunette could hear someone fumbling with the phone on the other end. "Damn it Takuya, What now?"

"Dude. Look, I just woke up with a really freaky nightmare and when I checked the mirror. My eye's completely healed." Takuya answered quickly, pressing his fingers around his eye to make sure. "It's like I didn't get punched in the face at all and… you remember the black eye right? I'm not crazy or imagining things?"

Kouji growled softly, "If you a pulling my leg, I'm going to kill you and eliminate any witnesses." The younger twin sighed softly, "What do you want me to say Takuya? I can't see you."

"Can we meet at the usual place so we can talk about this?" Takuya asked with a whine. "I am on the verge of a breakdown and I need someone to tell me I'm not crazy."

The boy sighed, caving. "Alright alright... You already woke me up. I'm assuming now?"

"If you wouldn't mind." Takuya answered sheepishly. "Just come when you're able. I'll probably be there a little early but I guess I need the time to think this stuff over."

"If you're not in that park, at that tree when I get there, I'm leaving." Kouji said flatly, "Let me get dressed and I'll be there soon."

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." Takuya sighed in relief. "I'll be there as fast as I can." He hung up, deciding that he needed to out the door fast if he's going to prove he was serious about everything.

The gogglehead quickly got dressed in his usual attire and came rushing downstairs to leave a note before heading out.