Did you think only the children felt the pain of battle?

That only they fought for their world?

Have you ever considered that maybe there was someone working behind the scenes?

A pair, sometimes more, behind each and every child that saved us all?

...

I didn't expect you would have, but then again, that's just the way we like it…

Kari…

"You can do it Koromon!"

"Tai, stay with me! I'm so sorry! Your right… I know you have to leave… Please be careful…"

"Bye bye Tai! Don't forget about meee!"

Mr. Fujiyama…

"Who in their right mind would hike up an unchartered trail just to throw away 7 stuffed animals?"

Yuuko Kamiya…

"Of course I am. What's this all about son?"

Even Miko…

"Mreoow!"

"I'm glad your back. I missed you when you were gone."

Yoshie Izumi…

"But sometimes I wonder if he doesn't sense it. He's smart… I have a strange feeling that he knows he was adopted. That he's not really our child…"

"I never thought we would be so lucky to have a son like him…"

Masami Izumi…

"You're right about that honey."

Keisuke Tachikawa…

"Mimi? Is that you? Mimi, what are you doing out here? You should be inside."

Hiroaki Ishida…

"Everyone! Get in the car!"

Nancy Takaishi…

"Alright then, we'll go together. Get your coat son."

Susumu Kamiya…

"Ergh… poor kids…"

"Station! To try and find something to communicate with the outside world… smoke signals, anything! You'll be safe here. Stay with Gabumon."

"Never mind how! Just be safe!"

Toshiko Takenouchi…

"We'll follow them and find out where they've taken her. …We'll see."

"I can't stand it, I can't stand not knowing!"

"Calm down dear…"

"How can I calm down?! For all we know that monster could have devoured the children by now!"

"What's that mean?"

"Just do what she says, alright?!"

Satoe Tachikawa…

"I mean it."

"There's no time now honey, you've got to get out of here! Hurry! Get moving, I'll be fine!"

"Dear, maybe he knows what he's doing. Let's trust the boy. The kids seem to know more about this than we do."

"You're right."

"Go for it son."

"Please stop, I don't understand!"

"Oh no… I've lost all of them now…"

"…You've grown so much now and it's obvious you can take care of yourself, but you'll always still be my little boy. Be careful."

"I was so afraid I would never see you again. I'm so proud of you, thank you son!"

"Let him go. We've made some… selfish decisions of our own, remember? We have to let them do this. It could be more important than we realize."

Jim Kido…

"All though it's hard to believe the fate of the world is in the hands of a bunch of kids like you, I guess if the sun doesn't come up tomorrow you messed up!"

"Stop it! You have to have faith in your brother and his friends; what they're doing is incredibly brave!"

"Sora! I love you Sora… please come home soon! I'll be waiting here for you."

A home away from home… It doesn't really matter that they have all found one. In fact, we're happy they did.

But…

…as they say…

…Home is where the heart is.

Suzie…

"I wish you weren't my brother…"

Yoshie Matsuki…

"Stupid phones not working and I can't find Takato! I don't care what the police say—I'm not leaving without him!"

"But… my son never came home."

Rumiko Nonaka…

"Oh Rika… if anything happened to you…!"

Tao…

"Seeing something you dreamed about becoming true… It's really a pleasant surprise. I wonder if you understand."

"I'm working with my friends all over the world... so children don't have to fight anymore. In the meantime, stay out of trouble. I don't want to tell Suzie that her big brother got hurt."

"I'll listen when you're ready to talk."

Seiko Hata…

"Please, don't go. I've always known you have a Guardian Angel… but in my wildest dreams I never thought it would be a talking fox! Ah well, you've always been a special girl."

"But why Rika, where are you going? You really should tell your mother."

"She'll be worried about you, but I'll do what I can Rika."

"I thought it was a spirit in the shape of a fox that was protecting you. I wasn't completely wrong."

"You'll protect her?"

Riley…

"So, you just gonna sit here and mope?"

Ms. Asaji…

"Is this supposed to be funny?! How do you think this makes me feel? You're all… You're my responsibility! Those creatures could be dangerous! And who will take care of you? For goodness sake, you're only kids!"

Takehiro Matsuki…

"Honey, what's wrong? …Gah… is that what…!"

"Let's hear what he has to say."

"Nonsense… why can't a grown-up deal with this?!"

"Out of the question! You're not racing into goodness-knows-where with these monsters! Honey… say something!"

"Let him go. Obviously... Takato has been able to take care of himself so far."

"But he's… just a baby!"

"No he's not. And it's time we learn to trust him."

"Tewwiermon! I knew you were real! You'll come back soon, won't you?"

"Oh! Rika! You look beautiful in anything. Well, of course you do, you're my daughter. You don't know… what this means to me… Thank you."

Who would have thought Yamaki too...

"…So, are you kids taking off? I can't let you go. Not without this anyway. It's a com device so you can stay in touch. Now go get 'em."

"Daddy… what's that?"

"A bad idea."

Hirofumi Shioda…

"Wait, wait, what?! They're here and they're not here? Look, just tell me where this digital world is and I'll go get Kazu myself!"

Takako Shioda…

"Yah, what's the big secret?"

Akemi Kitagawa…

"Oh-hhh my poor Kenta…"

Shiyunsuke Kitagawa…

"It'll be okay honey. Trust me, or trust Janyu, or trust someone I guess."

"You were saying something about why it had to be children… what does that mean?"

"Hey, it's from Takato! …He says he's fine… he says their fine. They're fine… they're fine!"

Odd fellow, Shibumi…

"Digimon and humans will never be able to separate themselves from each other, they live in the same world really! And it's only when that's recognized when the next evolution will begin…"

"That is all I can tell you now. The rest you must learn on your own, I'm afraid."

"No… No, Suzie!"

"You see… her father said she left on her own… so she could come back on her own… We could send one of our operatives to take her there, but to be alone… the poor thing."

"But… Takato that's so far away…"

"Honey… let it go. Well, it's not like we won't know where you are this time! Besides, we trust you!"

"My little boy's all grown up."

Tadashi Katou…

"Argh… Thank you… for bringing her back home."

"Come on young lady."

Shizue Katou…

"Jeri! …I've been so worried about you… but you're safe now!"

"Well, one good thing has come of it. At least we can be together as a family again."

Ryo's father from the Tamers Universe…

"Please, Ryo is very tired! Why can't you all just leave us alone?"

"You think this is funny? I just… worry, you know?"

"Takato? Takato, is that you? I know you want to go out there and save the world, but it's just too dangerous! Please just come home!"

"You two are going out there… aren't you. You know, back when I got married, everyone tried to tell me I was too young. But I didn't listen. Turns out my daughter's as stubborn as I was. You should be allowed to make your own decisions… like I did. But… be careful! Oh, I hope I've done the right thing…"

"She would have gone anyway, but now she goes knowing you love her."

"I know… heh, I know. But… do you think that love is enough to keep her safe?"

"Mhm. Yes."

Henry's sensei…

"Very few things are absolute Henry. Not even our own existence."

Mayumi Wong…

"So what are you going to do?"

"No choice? Of course you have a choice Henry! The choices you make affect other people… sometimes it affects them greatly, like when they have to sit home, worrying about what might be happening to you, Henry!"

"…So I guess I can't fault you for wanting to help your friends… But we just got you back… and I don't know if I can stand the thought of losing you again!"

"Henry… if you have to go… then go…"

"I hope so Henry. I really do…"

"Maybe I can help. Let me see… 'Impmon, we've gone to see our grandmom in Hongo' and it's signed Ai and Mako."

"That's Hongo. You'll be there before you know it."

"You're welcome… Yes?"

"The answer is simple. Your outer form is unimportant. It's your inner life that defines your true nature and not a misperception of malice."

"Good luck, my little friend…"

"Am I too late to help?"

Mako…

"Oh…"

…And Ai…

"It's Impmon… hi."

"Yay, Impmon's back! Impmon came back to us!"

"Do you remember our teddy bear Impmon? He's all fixed up now…"

"Mommy sure did a good job on him, huh…"

"You remember, don't you…? Mako and I decided we're going to share all of our toys from now on Impmon…"

"It's because of all our fighting that you left, isn't it? That's why we decided to stop fighting and share so that way you'd never leave again!"

"We're so sorry Impmon! …Will you forgive us?"

"You're really gonna leave us again?"

"But you just got here! I don't want you to go, did we do something wrong?"

"Whatever we did we're sorry… please don't go!"

"…Will you come back?"

"Here, this'll help. It's my favorite… Now you can blast all the bad guys with it!"

"…We sure love you."

"He's coming back, isn't he?"

"Of course, he said he would!"

"You know, someday the network will no longer be a free world. It's unavoidable. And there will always be someone trying to control it… you just happen to be the first one to try."

"This may be just the lucky break we've been looking for!"

"Hey, welcome home!"

"Well, go on already! Aren't you hungry?"

"We've discussed it… and we've decided we don't want you to go. The fact is, any other kid wouldn't be allowed to rush into danger like this and you know it! But… you're not any other kid. You're all very special. And whether we like it or not, you're free to do what you think is right."

"I almost lost you once, Henry, and the thought of losing you again is too much! But this is just too important for me to stop you."

"I wish you had nothing to do with any of this! I wish you were still a baby I could keep safely at h-home…! …But you're not… are you?"

"Take care of yourself, dear…"

"With all our worrying we probably haven't told you how proud we are of you. Well we are. But, if you don't come home in one piece your all in big trouble! Got it?"

"There's gotta be some way we can help them… think guys!"

Dolphin…

"How'd a bunch of hackers get mixed up in so much trouble? …Or cause so much trouble for our children… Sorry Alice."

"Janyu!"

"I've gotta do something!"

"Like what?!"

"I can't just stay here!"

"Janyu, you can't help them now. You always said that each person has things they must do, things only they can do! They're the only ones capable of fighting the D-Reaper."

"You've already done more than you think Janyu. You helped create the digimon that are out there fighting! Without your creation, there'd be no hope at all. Your son and his friends are living out what you always talked about. Digimon and humans, both of them working together in harmony; trust in them to win the fight!"

"I do believe in them, it's just… he's my son, Yamaki."

"I know. So use your weapons as a programmer to help him!"

"Thanks… Yamaki."

Jaarin, Suzie's and Henry's sister…

"Oh… Suzie… thank goodness! Suzie, you okay? What's going on?"

"Jerrriiii! Jeeeerrrriii! JEEERRRRRIIIIII! JEEEEERRRRIIIII! Jeeeeeerrrrrriiiiiiiiiiii-he-hehe…! … … … What have I done?"

"…I'm not very good at this. 'She has to learn to take responsibility for her actions! I'm doing this for her own good.'"

"I'll do anything you want… Just give her back to me. Please give me back my little girl…! Take me instead, take me! Please!"

"No, wait! Give me back my daughter!"

Daisy…

"My family… what will they do?"

"This is madness! We give it everything we've got, we put our children in danger, and for what?!"

"We don't have any other choice. There's no plan B, so we have to fight! And besides, as long as we're here there's always hope. That's a lesson I learned from working with your sons and daughters, Mr. Matsuki. They don't give up, and they fight with their hearts and souls. And now it's our turn!"

"Well… it's now or never. Right! Take off!"

Takato's fellow classmates…

"Ms. Asaji, what's going on?"

"Look, it's Takato!"

"Takato!"

"Takato, you can do it!"

And finally, Takato's cousin, Kai…

"Hey, I couldn't just stay in Okinawa while my cousin was dukin' out with that thing."

"You like her, don't you? She's your first love, dude! Go on, admit it!"

"That's why you're in so much pain. She's a part of you."

"You're everything to us Takato, please be careful…"

And this is the story told… from our perspective.

Yes, from our perspective… From behind the scenes.

After all…

"Remember… We love you."

…Home is where the heart is, right?

Author's Note:

I know, I'm supposed to be working on my other stories and I am, but... I couldn't help it! The idea had me gripped and I just couldn't get it out of my head until I wrote it all down! And dang, did that take a while... it's 2:30 in the morning where I live!

Ah, well, I hope it was worth it and that you guys enjoy my little tribute. You see, I was inspired by one of Shara Raizel's stories... if you haven't read any of them READ THEM NOW! Seriously, she's awesome! One of (if not the) most popular people on this site, Digimon wise!

So, uh, with that out of the way, I'm gonna get some much needed shut-eye... *yawns* 'Night all, and happy late Odaiba Day. :)