Never Separated Chapter 1, a digimon fanfic

I know that you guys are probably getting really annoyed with this prequel, sequel, sequel thing. This is the last one! I need to cut it out...Blame...the bathroom muse! Don't ask. But one day I kept thinking of this story I could write, the only problem was that every scene for this story that I saw had reference to Avalanche, Trapped, and Lost! in them.

Then I spoke to Takuya (the reviewer) and as we talked, all the little details started flying into place. That was a few weeks ago, but I saved all the information and decided to write this after organizing my emails. (I found every review I'd ever gotten for the first three)

And now the single became a double became a trilogy became a quartet.

Never Separated

Takuya frowned.

"Are you really going?" he asked, watching as Kouji packed his suitcase.

Kouji nodded and looked to his boyfriend and lover. They were gay and weren't aloud to get married, but they still lived together, because there were no laws against that. Neither of the two were very happy right now.

"I have to. It's my brother's first kid." Kouji gave a small smile. "And it's a boy."

Takuya frowned.

"I'm not even able to go see it." he grumbled, leaning against the doorframe of their room.

"Come on, Akari won't hate you forever." Kouji reasoned and assured him, but Takuya still frowned.

"Kouji, come on. Face the truth. She'll never like me. She only puts up with you because you're your brother's twin." he was still grumbling.

Kouichi had met Akari 4 years ago, 2 years after the elevator experience and the camping trip. They'd been married for 3 years and had decided to have kids after a full one together. They didn't actually conceive one until about a year ago, and the baby was due to be born soon. So Kouji had been asked by Kouichi to come and help him keep his sanity. The pressure seemed to be driving him mad.

Akari was almost a homophobe, and didn't accept Kouji or Takuya. She, as Takuya had said, only put up with Kouji because she was married to Kouichi. She refused to even look at Takuya, and when she did, it was with great contempt.

"Everything'll get better, you'll see." Kouji placed a hand on Takuya's right shoulder, the one in their room, and then hugged him. "And I'm sure that Kouichi will let you visit the baby soon too."

"Just come back soon, ok?" Takuya whispered as he held Kouji tightly. Kouji nodded and they pulled away.

Kouji grabbed his suitcase and gave Takuya a long, love-filled kiss, before he left through the front door. Takuya stayed in the doorframe to their bedroom until he heard the car engine fade away. He then went to the kitchen and made himself some breakfast.

"I'll never see that kid." he said defiantly. He knew that if Akari had anything to say about it, Takuya would never see a boy that, by all purposes, was his nephew.

Kouichi was freaking out. Akari had gone into labor early that morning, and Kouji wasn't due to show up until some time tomorrow! He wished he'd called sooner!

Now, sitting in the waiting room, a 23 year old Kouichi wasn't sure if he could handle this pressure. And he'd be glad when the baby was here and he could calm his nerves, at least a little bit.

It was noon, and Kouji's plane was late. He checked his watch for about the 4th time in the past minute at about the time that he heard a gunshot go off. His head snapped up and he narrowed his eyes, seeing the many men dressed in black with large guns.

For a moment, he wondered how they'd managed to get to this side of the tram station, but then he saw the sparks coming from outside the window and knew that they'd already hijacked the other side of the airport.

Everyone here was now a hostage. And because of airport policies, none of them were armed. Heck, most of them were women. This was not good.

Takuya was sitting on the couch, watching tv. On the tv was a show based off of the book that made digimon merchandise so famous. Takuya hadn't really thought about it, but that book, or books really, meant that some humans had been to the digital world before him and the others.

Apparently, they called themselves, or were called by the digimon, the digidestined, just like the frontier group did. There were actually two full seasons with a ton of adventures with digimon that Takuya had actually met. He now wished that he'd asked about other humans to those digimon.

Another author had written a book about a third season of this book called Digimon Tamers. Where the digimon came to the human world instead of the other way around. Takuya had seen every episode for every series, and he didn't particularly like the idea of humans trying to kill the digimon simply for existing.

He was wondering if someone in their group would write a book on their adventures, but the thoughts were cut short as the digimon episode was cut short by a news broadcast.

"Aw come on. Davis just tackled the Kaizer." he mentally grumbled. But then he recognized the building on the screen. It was the airport; Haneda Airport.

(Note, I'll be basing the layout on what I remember of American airports -I haven't been to one in a long time, heh heh- but Haneda is a real airport and actually one of the world's busiest. It mostly takes care of domestic flights and some international flights.)

A man's voice came over the tv, and Takuya supposed that it was a man in the helicopter with the camera that was showing the footage.

"We are coming to you live from Haneda airport, where several men have just taken the entire airport hostage!" he said. Takuya's mouth opened and closed like a dying fish. "The number of culprits is unknown, but it is estimated to be over 30."

It didn't matter what the man was saying after that, because Takuya had already run from the living room and grabbed his shoes. He stuffed them onto his feet and yanked open the door, shivering when the cold winter air hit him. Takuya grabbed his red and yellow jacket from the hook by the door and took off out of the house.

He pulled out his cell phone and tried dialing as he ran, but he kept messing up. Every tv he passed had the airport on it, and it seemed that the entire city had paused to see what happened.

Kouji, along with every other person in this airport (which is a lot seeing as they service over 60 million passengers every year), had been pushed into a large group. Kouji had managed to stay near the front, ready to protect anyone they threatened. He knew that he probably wasn't any good against over 30 well-built guys, but he had the courage of a legendary warrior on his side, even if he didn't have the powers anymore.

Takuya stopped when he reached a large group of people surrounding the area about 100 yards from the airport. The police had managed to put up a barrier and stop all the people whose families were in there within minutes of learning the situation. He could tell that they were trying to formulate a plan, but Takuya had the sneaking suspicion that they wouldn't make it in time.

After catching his breath, Takuya looked down at his cell phone, the same one he'd had since he was 11 (it had special meaning for all the kids, and they'd all kept those phones.) He dialed Kouji's number and waited as it rang. Every ring made him more nervous.

"All of you are to keep quiet or we'll be forced to shoot you. And don't think we won't." one of the hijackers (would you call this actually a hijacking? A hijacking of an airport instead of an airplane. Heh heh) (I just don't want to say hostage takers cause it sounds so stupid.)

"Hey look, we're on tv." another one joked, much to the enjoyment of his comrades. Indeed, on the tv was an ariel view of the airport. There was a large group of people outside and they knew it was their family members. But no one made a noise.

"I'll be the one!"

Kouji (along with everyone else) looked over to where his bag sat. No one had been aloud to keep their stuff, so it was still over next to the seat he'd been sitting in, about 20 feet away from the large group of hostages.

"I'll be the oonne. Who will make all your sorrows undone. I'll be the light, when you feel like there's nowhere to run."

Kouji silently cursed. Takuya had heard the news.

"I'll be the one."

The ring tone started over after a brief moment and Kouji suddenly made a mad dash for his bag. Everyone in the hostage group gasped and the bad guys all took aim with their guns. Only two actually fired.

Kouji gasped as one hit his arm, but it only nicked him. He gasped because the other one had shot his bag, and the ringing stopped. They'd shot his cell phone! He sat there for a moment, holding his bleeding left arm and staring at the remnants of his cell phone that were visible through the net pocket it'd been sitting in. (My bookbag has net pockets on the side, and that's where I keep my cell phone.) Takuya's face flashed in his mind and he glared. He saw the other's in his head and he felt the anger brimming the edge.

"We all have to promise to keep these phones forever. They're what connect us and what made us digidestined in the first place." Zoe's voice echoed in his mind.

Kouji's hair lifted up into the air a bit and he started shaking.

"Does it hurt?" one of the hijackers asked, walking closer to him. "Get back with the rest of them." he scoffed.

Kouji's shaking reached a pinnacle and he snapped his head to look at the man only 2 feet from him. The man froze.

"What?"

Kouji's eyes were brown with a red tint. But the hijacker could've sworn this kid used to have blue eyes. He gasped and took a step backwards when he saw, along with everyone else, the form of a large human-wolf. It was white with a scarf and a mask that held it's ears and face. It had the same brown-red eyes that Kouji had had.

Then the figure was gone as Kouji launched out of the form and attacked the man. He actually bit him and then moved on to his comrades. The man didn't get up, because he'd gone into shock. The bluenette ran across the room, still looking human but with brown-red eyes, and dodged bullets shot at him. He glared at the men as he heard the other hostages scream, the bullets barely missing them.

"Leave them out of this!" he yelled, and with a howl, he attacked.

Takuya's cell phone fell to the ground as he heard it go dead and Lobomon's howl. Everyone had stopped talking, stopped trying to get to the airport. They didn't understand. On the news, they reported the howl to the city, the country, and reiterated themselves on the situation for those just tuning in.

Takuya took in a deep breath sharply and then ran through the shocked crowd, jumping the barrier and running for the airport.

"Hey! Stop!" the police called, some of them running after him as the rest of the crowd watched him go in stunned silence.

'Why did I just hear Lobomon? Why did everyone hear his howl?' he closed his eyes as he banged into the now deserted side of the airport. He got to the tram port with the police close behind him.

"You'll never get in there." one policeman was saying as they reached him. "So just give it up and come back with us quietly."

"No!" Takuya yelled as he tried pulling the doors open. "If I can't take the tram, I'll run over there on the sides. Kouji's in trouble! He needs my help! His brother's wife just had a baby! He needs to be there!" Takuya yelled in frustration when the doors wouldn't budge.

"Come on now. We'll make sure he gets there safely." the second policeman who followed him assured Takuya, reaching out to grab the brunette's shoulder. He ripped his hand away.

"What?" the first one asked.

"He's burning." the second one replied, holding his hand gingerly.

"What? Like a fever?"

"No. Like a fire."

Just as he said that, Takuya started letting off spurts of flames, causing the two men to back off from the intense heat Takuya was giving off. He flashed to Agunimon, with flowing yellow hair and red armor, and the doors creaked in their try to stay closed. Takuya screamed and the doors flew open, bent in their places. The policemen stared as the human teen ran across the tram's railings, looking nothing like the large creature they'd seen and with no fire spurts.

The first policeman lifted his walky-talky and clicked the button.

"Uh, Karl?" he asked.

"Yea Ichiro?" a voice came back. "You get that guy?"

"Uh...No...But uh...You're not gonna believe this."

Karl looked to his fellow officers outside. The press was nearby, and the crowd was silent and still.

A 20 year old male bent down and picked up a somewhat damaged cell phone in the middle of the crowd, but no one looked at him.

"What is it Ichiro?" Karl asked when the line was silent for a long time.

"The guy was giving off flames." Ichiro began again. "Man, this whole area is charred. And...he looked like...Just for a moment...He looked like...You're gonna think I'm insane." Ichiro laughed nervously.

"Ichiro." Karl growled.

"He looked like one of those digimon things, from the books and tv series. I'm not lying. He was a...a humanoid fire digimon." Ichiro said in an ever-lightening voice.

Karl looked around for a moment. He then turned to one of his men.

"Get me the security cameras' footage. Now!"

Some of the men ran off to the control center for all the cameras. The crowd was silent. Moments later, the men came back with a tape.

"It's this one." they said, handing over the tape. And when they put it in their little tv, the press behind them caught everything.

Kouichi looked up when someone in the room, a little boy, reached up and turned the volume on the tv up incredibly loud.

"Tomoki-"

"But mommy. It's a digimon!" he yelled.

Everyone turned to the screen. Kouichi's eyes widened. Takuya was flashing back and forth between Agunimon and Takuya on the screen as the reporter spoke.

"I'm not believing my eyes here. But this is actual footage from mere minutes ago inside of Haneda airport!" he sounded astounded. The footage showed the doors bursting open, the form of Agunimon faded as Takuya jumped into the tram area and took off running. The footage switched to the man outside the airport. "Moments earlier, a howl had been heard from inside Haneda airport, where there is a serious and large scale hostage situation playing out. Now the crowd is silent and we all wonder what these events mean."

Suddenly, someone in the crowd yelled.

"Digimon! Digimon are real! They're gonna save us all!" a teen screamed.

"It's Agunimon!" another, slightly older male said, and Kouichi recognized him.

"Tommy?" he asked himself. For a moment, his fears left his wife and switched to his brother and his brother's boyfriend. "Kouji. Takuya." Kouichi stood up.

"Who?"

"My brother, my friends." Kouichi said, but it was almost as if he hadn't heard the little boy ask him anything. "But how did they manage to-" he was cut off by the little boy grabbing his shirt sleeve. "Hm?"

"Do you know...the digimon?" the boy asked.

"That boy, he's one of my best friends." Kouchi explained in a soft voice, kneeling next to the boy to talk as everyone else payed attention to the now blaring tv. "The howl, I'm guessing was my brother."

"So...Are you a digimon too?" the little boy asked in awe. Kouichi smiled.

"Something like that." he gave a laugh. He was worried for his wife, but Kouji and Takuya's stunts had solved that problem. Then he was worried for them, but this little boy was solving the problem again.

"That's awesome!" he cheered. "Can you turn into a digimon, right now?" he asked. Kouichi laughed.

"I doubt it."

"Do you?" a voice asked.

"Hm?" Kouichi looked around.

"We've been with you since then. Do you doubt that you could retain my shape?" Kouichi recognized that voice!

'Loewemon?'

"Just concentrate Kouichi. Do you want to help your brother? How much?"

'A lot.' Kouichi thought. 'I want to go there and help him right now! But I can't!'

The little boy, Tomoki, blinked in confusion when a few tears slipped from Kouichi's eyes.

"Open your eyes Kouichi." Loewemon ordered. Kouichi took a deep breath to stop the tears and opened his eyes.

The little boy gasped softly in awe. Kouichi's eyes were crimson and he had just flashed into Loewemon for the briefest moment. It was good that the boy's mom wasn't looking or she probably would've pulled him away.

"You're so cool." Tomoki said in a breath, latching on to Kouichi, whose eyes returned to blue. Kouichi smiled and hugged Tomoki, knowing he would soon be holding his own son too.

(Sorry, went off subject there.)

Kouji had taken out most of the men. None of them were dead, but they were very much incapacitated. Only two of them were left. At that moment, Takuya used Agunimon's powers again to open the locked door on this side of the tram rails. The trams were in the way of the other doors.

Kouji leapt at one of the men, who was aiming his gun at Kouji. But as Kouji went for that guy, the other one aimed at Kouji's back. Kouji took out the guy in front of him in a second.

"Kouji look out!" Takuya yelled, running over.

Kouji flipped around, his eyes flashing to blue when he heard Takuya's voice, then back to the brown-red when he saw the man with the gun. The trigger was pulled and Kouji knew he couldn't dodge.

The blunette gasped and fell to the floor. Takuya laid on top of him, motionless and bleeding.

"You took the hit..." he breathed out. There was a little glow and Kouji flashed into a form that was just his size.

He was like a little human-wolf with long claws drawn in and black-gloved hands holding Takuya tightly. His blue-ish fur was ruffled, yet still looked soft. His ears were laid back in a sign of sadness. His eyes were a light red. Kouji had de-digivolved to Strabimon.

"Takuya?" he asked, looking once more like Kouji.

Takuya didn't answer, his breathing was shallow. Kouji's eyes narrowed, and he gently set Takuya on the ground before turning to the last remaining gunman. Kouji jumped into the air and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Light Slash!" he yelled.

No attack was seen, seeing as Kouji was a human, but the gunman's gun was thrown to the side and he was flung backwards into the wall, severely injured but not dead. Kouji landed on the ground and looked over at Takuya. He flashed to Strabimon again, and howled a long, sad howl, before he became Kouji again and simply cried.

"Mr. Kimura?" a nurse asked. Kouichi looked up. "Your wife has just given birth to a beautiful baby boy. Not 2 minutes ago."

She looked like she had rushed, and she probably had. Kouichi frowned. That meant that his wife had given birth just before the second howl reported on the tv. That couldn't be good.

"Mr. Kimura?" the nurse asked worriedly.

"Can I go see her, and him?" he asked. The nurse nodded. Kouichi looked back to the little boy Tomoki and saw him look over as Kouichi left the room. He seemed to know something was wrong too.

Outside the airport, people gasped as a large group of people walked around from the back of the airport. Upon seeing loved ones, the hostages ran forward to the barrier, which was soon knocked over, and hugged each other. Then they began to tell the audience about Kouji's incredible power. They knew his name became Takuya had yelled it out.

Kouji was in the back of the group. Ichiro gasped, seeing the fire boy bleeding badly. Kouji made his way over to the policeman, giving him a sad look, with tears threatening to fall again.

"Please...Don't let him die!" he started sobbing again. It was very much unlike Kouji to cry, but he was in love with Takuya, and Takuya had taken a bullet for him. Takuya might die.

Ichiro gave Kouji a sympathetic look and took Takuya out of his arms. If a 23 year old man was crying for this fire boy, then that man must be...

"I'll do my best Kouji." he assured Kouji, who was too sad to be surprised. With this reassurance, his eyes closed. "Karl!" Ichiro called.

Karl came over quickly at his friend's urgent call and noticed the situation just in time to catch Kouji as he fell. Kouji's own arm was stained red with blood, and he seemed to have passed out from exhaustion.

"If I can't take the tram, I'll run over there on the sides. Kouji's in trouble! He needs my help! His brother's wife just had a baby! He needs to be there!"

"Hey Akari." Kouichi called softly as he was let into the room they'd put his wife in a few minutes ago. He'd had to wait until she had been put in a room and situated to hold her own baby to let him in. And even now, two nurses were in the room, ready to help if needed.

Akari smiled at him. She had shoulder length brown hair that was currently in disarray. But her almost lavender eyes were smiling wearily at him. She was happy, and proud of herself. He could tell.

"Hey." she greeted in return as he got to her bedside.

"You were so picky about a name." Kouichi laughed. "So, have you picked one yet?"

"Yea." Akari nodded. "Hiro."

Kouichi smiled. He opened his mouth to say something when the door opened and they all turned to look at the same nurse who had fetched Kouichi before.

"Mr. Kimura?" she called in a frightened voice. "You're...you're brother."

Kouichi stood up.

"What happened?" he asked hurriedly, fearful for his brother's life. He turned to Akari. She looked at him, and in her happiness, she couldn't find the will to feel angry at Kouji.

"Go ahead. We'll be here when you get back." she nodded to him. Kouichi kissed her on the forehead and knelt down a bit to kiss his new born son on the forehead too. The baby was sleeping right now. With that, Kouichi left with the nurse.

"All the planes are down. But you can take the Shibuya train to see him." the nurse informed him as they walked.

"What happened?" Kouichi asked again, a bit angrier.

"He was involved in the airport case." she said as they entered the waiting room, where Tomoki still sat.

Tomoki saw him and ran over, crying. Kouichi knelt down and held the boy who clung to him. Tomoki's mother came over to and was about to apologize to Kouichi when her son started talking.

"Ag...Agunimon." he managed. "He's hurt...And your...br-brother..." he pointed to the tv, where they kept replaying the same footage as the reporters reviewed the situation.

"The boy, now known as Kouji Minamoto, seems to have taken out every one of the hijackers. The only casualty seems to be the young man who ran inside and was on the footage. The digimon boy." the reporter was saying.

Kouichi watched the ariel view video show Kouji handing a severely bleeding Takuya over to a slightly taller police officer, and then pass out. The footage started from the beginning with what the helicopter had first gone over the airport, before the howl. Then the view became a small screen in the corner of the television as the reporter came on screen.

"This just in. The injured digimon boy has been identified as 23 year old Takuya Kanbara. Reports say he took a bullet to the chest and eyewitnesses report that he jumped in the way to save Kouji Minamoto. Eyewitnesses also claim that both boys became digimon." the reporter told as he laid the newest paper on his desk.

Kouichi patted Tomoki on the back and stood up, holding Tomoki against his waist, staring at the tv.

"Tomoki." Kouichi said softly, making Tomoki look up at him. "You have the same name as my friend, but we call him Tommy."

"Hm? Is he?" Tomoki asked, but didn't finish, slight awe returning to his eyes when Kouichi nodded.

"Yep. He's just like me, my brother, and Agunimon." he said softly. "My brother's digimon name is Lobomon, and I'm Loewemon." he explained gently.

Tomoki's mom gasped.

"Y-you're related to them?" she asked, pointing to the tv and looking about to cry. Kouichi nodded.

"Tomoki, I need to go to my brother. But maybe I"ll see you again someday, hm?" he gave a small smile, which Tomoki returned whole heartedly, his tears drying.

"Tell them...to get better, ok?" he asked cutely. Kouichi nodded and handed the little boy over to his mother. "Bye Lowmon!" Tomoki had a bit of trouble saying his name, but it was close enough.

"Bye Tomoki." Kouichi turned to the nurse.

'Loewemon...Can I borrow your power? I need to get to Kouji and Takuya.'

Kouichi felt power rising in him and his eyes changed to crimson for a moment, he flashed Loewemon for a moment, the it changed and he looked nothing like anything Kouichi knew.

"Use the power of AncientSphinxmon." a voice said. It sounded kind of like Loewemon, but with more wisdom.

Kouichi nodded.

"Which hospital is my brother at?"

The nurse was too stunned to question it and just told him. Kouichi winked to Tomoki before he was gone, a little spurt of smoke left after he had run off. Tomoki blinked and then cheered.

"Lowemon!" he was getting better at the name already!

Kouji opened his eyes slowly and closed them again. The light was so bright. He noticed that the lights were shut off and opened his eyes again. It wasn't bright this time.

"So we can use the power of our digimon, and any of their forms, in the human world, eh?"

Kouichi's voice drifted over to him from the doorway, and the light switch.

"Apparently. I became Lobomon, but then Takuya..." Kouji gasped and sat up, not feeling tired at all. "What happened to Takuya?!"

Kouichi shook his head.

"I don't know. I just got here." he shrugged. "Heck, you've only been here about 20 minutes yourself."

"Wait, then how are you here? Where am I?" Kouji was confused.

"You're in a local hospital. I got here with a little help." Kouichi's eyes turned crimson red for a split second.

"That's what you meant." Kouji understood now. "But I became someone...someone I don't know..." he thought for a moment. "Strabimon."

"I got here with the power of AncientSphinxmon." Kouichi shrugged again. "It's the evolved form of my digimon, I think."

"Well, then Strabimon is the rookie form of mine. It was only as big as I was." he shook his head. "A little smaller. But I was bent over, so it fit."

Kouji got out of the bed. Kouichi stared at him in confusion.

"I have to find out if Takuya is ok." he explained, just now noticing that his arm was bandaged. "I'm fine." he looked up from his arm to Kouichi.

Kouichi nodded and helped his brother out to the hallway. Kouji actually didn't need help, so Kouichi just opened the door. Kouji hid around a corner as Kouichi went to ask about Takuya.

"Takuya Kanbara?" the receptionist asked. "Oh, I believe that he's still in surgery. They had to first get the bullet out so, I don't really know."

"Oh, I see." Kouichi frowned. "Tell me if anything changes, ok?"

"Of course." the receptionist smiled at him and looked back to her paperwork. Something told Kouichi that she didn't like the 'digimon boy.' But by next week, all but the digimon fanatics would have forgotten all about this incident.

Kouichi rounded the corner and saw the Kouji wasn't there. He looked around and caught sight of Kouji's hair (which was now longer than ever) whipping around the corner. He followed the disappearing hair all the way to the surgery room that he could only guess was where Takuya was

located. Kouji had plopped down on the waiting benches outside the room, and he looked pretty pathetic. His hair was out of it's ponytail, had been since he got there, and was now hanging around his shoulders to his waist. Kouichi sat down next to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Suddenly, the surgery room symbol over the door shut off (do they really have those?) and a doctor walked out. He seemed surprised to see the twins there.

"How's Takuya?" Kouji asked, amazingly sounding as if he weren't too sad. The doctor smiled.

"I think he'll be fine. The surgery went fine. He'll be transported to his own room later, and you can visit him tomorrow." he blinked and looked at Kouji's arm. "For that reason, shouldn't you be in your own room?"

Kouji drew in a sharp breath and stood up, walking away. Kouichi stood up and smiled at the doctor.

"Hello again Dr. J." Kouichi greeted. Dr. J frowned. (See Lost!)

"Hello." he greeted grimly. He still remembered this guy from 6 years ago, seeing as his and his brother's families used this hospital for many doctoral services. Especially since their parents were growing older. He and Kouichi had never gotten along.

"Can you point me to the nearest phone?" he asked calmly, with a smirk. Dr. J pointed to the left, then forward, then right. "Thank you."

"Hello?" Akari asked, holding the phone that a doctor had just handed her.

"Hey Akari?" Kouichi's voice responded.

"Are you there already?" she asked in tired surprise.

"Yea." there was a pause. "Takuya's injured real bad."

"Takuya? I thought you were going for Kouji." her tone became hateful.

"Akari, he took a bullet for my brother." Kouichi countered. "And that's not the first time he's saved my brother. Akari, do you think you could maybe be nicer to him if he recovers? No, when he recovers."

Hiro started crying and Akari gasped.

"I'll think about it, ok sweety? But right now Hiro needs me, so I'll call you on your cell phone later. Ok?"

Kouichi sighed but made a noise of consent. They said goodbye and then hung up. Akari handed the phone back to the doctor and he left, so she turned to the nurse in the room with her.

"If you loved someone, would you take a bullet for them?"

The nurse, who was a girl, turned and smiled.

"Of course. I don't have a husband, or a boyfriend. So maybe my answer doesn't count for much, but I would do anything for the one I love." she seemed cheerful enough. Akari sighed and tended to her baby.

A week later, Kouji had been discharged from the hospital. He hadn't gone anywhere though. Kouichi brought him meals, and he only left the room he'd taken up residence in for bathroom purposes. That room was Takuya's.

It hurt him to see Takuya all bandaged, especially when he knew it had been his own fault.

"Are you really going?" he remembered Takuya asking.

"I don't need to go anywhere Takuya. Not anymore. So please don't go anywhere I can't follow." Kouji asked in a whispered plea.

He heard the door open and close, but no one spoke. The lights in the room were off, as Kouji never turned them on, only the doctors and nurses did that while they were in there. Kouji took a deep breath.

"Zoe and J.P. came by this morning." he started, softly. "They said that the spirits of Kazemon and Beetlemon had told them what happened."

He heard the person shift. They seemed nervous. And Kouji continued.

"They brought Suzie with them. She didn't understand why 'Uncle Taky' wasn't waking up, or what the red stuff on his bandages was..." Kouji closed his eyes, feeling like he wanted to cry, but keeping it in. "Zoe left first, and J.P. promised that they'd be back before taking Suzie out."

There was a pause, and then the other person in the room spoke.

"Akari says that she'll try to put up with Takuya, to treat him nicer." Kouichi was talking softly too. "She says that...she wants Takuya to come see Hiro...as soon as he gets discharged." Kouichi laughed a bit. "She was actually quite demanding of that fact."

Kouji didn't move from his position. He was sitting in a chair next to Takuya's bed, his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. His mouth wasn't covered though. The bandage on his arm was white, and hidden by his jacket. A jacket he never removed, and it was a jacket that Takuya had bought him.

There was a long pause, and Kouichi shifted nervously again. Kouji heard him take in a nervous, shaky breath before he spoke.

"Loewemon's been talking to me lately." he started. "At first, I tried to ignore him, to make him go away. But when I realized that that wasn't going to work, I started listening." Kouichi turned to look at the far wall. "He says that, if Takuya dies..."

Even without looking, Kouichi knew that Kouji had stiffened at those words. He cursed himself inwardly for reinforcing the thoughts and doubts in Kouji's mind.

"He said that if Takuya dies, he'll be reborn. Just like a digimon would. Because we were them at one time, and because we are still the digidestined." Kouichi took a deep breath. "He said it'd be alright, because he'd come back to us."

Kouji stood up suddenly and turned the fiercest glare Kouichi had ever seen on his brother.

"Alright? It'd be alright?!" Kouji asked angrily. "No it wouldn't be alright! If Takuya died, I don't care if he would get reborn, because if he died, nothing would be the same! Nothing would be alright."

Kouichi saw tears on his brother's face, barely noticeable in the dark lighting. But he didn't say anything, and he let Kouji continue. His twin needed this.

"Even if he were reborn...He wouldn't be Takuya anymore. He'd be different! He wouldn't know of any of the things we'd been through together! It wouldn't be the same, because he wouldn't remember! He wouldn't know how much I loved him, how much I still love him" Kouji ranted. "He might not even be a he then! He might be a girl! And then, what happens if the girl him doesn't accept me? Like Akari!"

Kouichi flinched.

"She's getting better at that." he argued half-heartedly. Kouji shook his head and moved his arms as if he didn't know how to respond. Kouichi saw that he was starting to shake pretty bad.

"I don't care Kouichi!" Kouji began again at length. "We'd be different! He'd be a baby again! I couldn't take that Kouichi...I couldn't live through that." Kouji seemed to be losing energy, the emotional strain was finally getting to him. "He wouldn't know about the digital world...He wouldn't remember how we got together at the hot springs...He wouldn't remember the first time I told him I loved him...Do you realize this?"

"Kouji...I'm sorry, I was just trying to-"

"No, don't apologize. It's alright, I know what you were trying to do." Kouji assured his twin brother. "But I can't image living life without him anymore." Kouji gave an ironic laugh. "I used to want to be a loner...because I thought I'd lost mom. And now...I can't remember what that's like...except for the pain. The pain that I couldn't share with anyone until the digital world." Kouji was crying a bit harder now.

"He won't die Kouji. I'm sure he'll be alright." Kouichi assured him. Kouichi reached out to touch Kouji's shoulder, and as his fingertips brushed the sleeve of Kouji's jacket, Kouji heard voices.

"Kouji!" Lobomon yelled, as if in warning.

"Kouji..." Takuya's voice was barely a whisper, and Kouji saw a hand...Takuya's hand, disappearing into some strange watery depths. Air bubbles traveling upwards from where the head should be.

And then a loud beep filled the air, causing both twins to turn to the heart monitor in the room. Kouji felt fear rising up within him until he felt he was about to burst, and then he yelled.

"NO!" He rushed over to Takuya's side and grabbed his hand. "No Takuya! Don't go!"

Kouichi was about to go to his brother, to pull him away, but he couldn't make himself do it.

"Don't go where I can't follow...I don't want to be alone anymore...And I don't want to be anywhere that you're not!" Kouji was bawling now, and he didn't seem to care that doctors and nurses had just streamed into the room. The pulled him off and he gasped. "No! No Takuya! Don't!...Just Don't..."

Kouichi caught his brother after he'd been pushed out of the way as the doctors tried to revive Takuya. Kouji cried harder for every second that they didn't hear the heart beats.

"Can we really just let him die?" a little bear cub asked.

"No, I don't think that's right. They've worked to hard to make this work." a large beetle like creature argued.

"I agree! They've been through too much to let it all end like this!" a girl with wings declared.

"But what can we do?" a water nymph asked. "I don't know how to raise the dead, honey."

"What if-" the two spirits glared at each other, one made of wood and the other like a golem.

"We have to do something, or he'll be gone forever!" a white wolfman said.

"You should use your power to revive him then." a dark version of the wolfman suggested.

"What?" the wolfman was confused.

"Thy holds great power within thy self. A holy light, Saint Amethyst." said a man covered in mirrored armor.

"Hurry and use it on Agunimon. We can't lose him. You can't lose him. Kouji can't lose him." the dark wolfman ordered.

Kouichi held his brother tightly, hiding his face in his own shirt so that Kouji couldn't see what was happening. The doctors were trying to get Takuya's heart to beat again, but the electric shocks weren't doing anything at all!

"Everything'll be alright, Kouichi." Loewemon's voice said in reassurance.

And then the room was silent. One, tiny beep broke that silence, and for a long moment, there was silence again. Then another tiny beep cut through it again. They were far apart and tiny, but gaining strength ever so slowly.

"He's going to be alright." Kouichi and Loewemon said at the same time; Loewemon in Kouichi's head, Kouichi aloud.

Kouji's tears froze where they were and he lifted his head from his brother's shirt, turning to look at the monitors as if he didn't believe them.

Kouji had fallen asleep shortly after Takuya was revived. Well, passed out was probably a better term for it, but he'd still been out cold for several hours. Kouichi had told the doctors that his brother was fine, and that they should set him up on the spare bed in the room. They never doubted that Kouji would kill them if he woke up somewhere else, as Kouichi had promised them that he would. So when Kouji woke up, he'd been lying in the bed next to Takuya's, farther from the door.

He sat up and then got out of the bed, wobbling a bit before he was stable. Kouji made his way over to Takuya's bed and looked at his boyfriend's face for awhile before looking to the heart rate monitor. Takuya's heart rate was normal again. Kouji smiled in relief.

"Sleep well Takuya." he whispered, giving the brunette a kiss on the forehead.

And Takuya slept on, dreaming about times past spent in caves and elevators; in forests and public buildings; in a world that few actually believed existed. He dreamt of regrets and desires; pleasures and pains; and most of all...He dreamt of his friends and his lover. So Takuya smiled in his sleep, and slept on.

I know that this one is a lot different from the others, and I can assure you that the whole 'we can use our digimon's abilities and freely speak to them' thing was not planned. It just happened.

Though, this is a nice wrap up to things.

I played with the idea of killing off Takuya for the longest time, but I knew that you would all kill me if I did. So I didn't, not for long at least. Hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it will be the last...Otherwise, it'll just be annoying.

Note : I wrote this, and after I saved it, my computer unsaved it and put it in some weird format, so I couldn't bring it up regularly. It was all screwed up and I had to go back and fix it. Then I uploaded it, and it was all screwed up again, so I had to fix it again in the 'document' area. But all is ok now...I hope!

Please tell me if anything is horribly wrong, or spaced wrong, or if there is a strange section of letters or something. It'd be very much appreciated. -smile-