Chapter 1 ~ 1 A.D. (After Digimon)

A lone figure stared blankly into the night sky. The others had already gone to sleep, she knew, and normally, she would be along with them, trying to get all the sleep she possibly could get before the arrival of the next day. After all, there were plenty of killer Digimon waiting to nibble on them.

But then again, they were no longer in the Digital World. They were home. Yet home no longer looked like home, but almost like a reincarnation of the world they had just left, except without the Digimon. She snuck a look back at the other chosen children, who were hidden in the inky blackness of the trolley, the lone light ceased shining and leaving no artificial light. The moon was not out, and the only source of light was the small brilliantly shining stars, tiny flickers of light that usually could not be seen because of the city’s many artificial lights.

The city was gone. There was no other artificial light to heed the brightness of the stars.

She was trying to be brave as she gazed at the stars. She was trying to look at the best of the situation. Trying to be the happy, joyful girl that everybody expected her to be. Trying to shed light on the positive aspects of this horrible place, but she was finding it very hard. What positive aspects, pray tell? There is nothing left… nothing! No buildings that have not yet been overgrown with ivy and weeds, trees taller than the tallest skyscrapers. No signs of human life because there were no humans. Except them.

They had gone to sleep, but not because they were tired. They had slept because they were trying to escape into their dreams, to an alternate reality where they were either in the Digiworld or their real home, not this desolate place that seemed to be the worst parts of home and the Digiworld put into one. They were trying to deny bitter reality, and she wished she could do that as well. But a part of her was telling her that she needed to stay awake and try to find the truth of the matter, shine the light that was truly hers.

It was so hard. It was just so hard! The truth was there, but she didn’t want to accept it! Who would? Who would want to accept that a world that she had fought so hard to save could be so changed by the time she got back? Any of them? Why did this have to happen? The people she fought for, the place she fought for, they were all gone. There was nothing left of the world that she had grown up in.

Oh, if only they could have stayed in the Digital World! Then they would never had to come back to this place… for it was a place, no longer a home. In the Digital World, they had their Digimon friends. In the Digital World, they had a place in life where they didn’t have to question it. In the Digital World, they never would have learned about the deaths of all these people. Six billion people, all wiped out. Could that be possible?

"Hikari?" a voice interrupted her musing, her thoughts, her pain. She didn’t turn to face the one who had spoken to her because she knew that she wouldn’t be able to see him anyway.

The child of hope sat down next to her on the rugged cliff, overlooking the abandoned city or rubble and lost memories. He too was suffering, although he did not wish to tell her that.

"Takeru… Takeru, I’m trying to find the light to brighten this place. I’m trying to keep the light shining in me… in all of us. But… the light’s just flickered out of me. It doesn’t exist anymore. Somebody turned it off, and I can’t turn it back on," Hikari looked at the other, the tears in her eyes reflecting slightly in the flicker of the star’s light, "Why is it flickering like this, Takeru? Why is it being turned off? I don’t understand… I don’t understand any of this. I’m sorry."

"You apologize too much," Takeru replied, trying to sound cheerful. But not succeeding at all, "You don’t need to apologize. There’s nothing to apologize for."

"Yes there is. My brother hasn’t lost his courage, has he? Yamato’s still trying to be friendly. Sora’s still loving. Jyou’s still being reliable. Koushiro’s still being intelligent. Mimi’s being sincere. And you still have your hope, don’t you? So why can’t I have my light on too?"

Takeru didn’t reply. He didn’t want to tell the brown haired girl that Taichi was steadily losing his courage as he tried to bravely tell the Digidestined that they would be all right. He didn’t want to say that his own brother was curling up into a lonely little shell, uninterested in anybody else. He didn’t want to explain that Sora was beginning to do the same thing, shutting herself from the others. He didn’t want to inform her that Jyou was not being at all reliable. He didn’t want to show that Mimi was blocking out the truth. He didn’t want to acknowledge that Koushiro was trying to banish the knowledge of their situation. And most of all, he didn’t want to admit that he could no longer be hopeful, for he had absolutely no interest in smothering the flames of hope that his companion had.

But he didn’t know that he was already too late.

He didn’t know that the flames were already gone, lost to the darkness that consumed the world.

~*~

Eventually, light must eat away at the darkness. The sun did just that, peeking over the distant horizon and shining its rays of light across the land. It didn’t make anybody feel too much better, as once again, they had to face the truth of their situation. All the humans were gone, most of the animals were as well, and any trace of civilization was erased from the canvas of life.

Hikari was beginning to detest the light. It only reminded her too much of how her own light was seemingly gone.

Breakfast was a silent affair. Nobody seemed keen to admitting that they had a problem. And it didn’t help that nobody was sure about how to light a fire. After several moments of simply staring blankly at each other, the female Digidestined volunteered to find something to eat while the male Digidestined got some firewood. After that, there was a ten minute process of trying to light the fire, which didn’t get properly lit until Taichi nearly burned his fingers off. Another problem occurred that the girls couldn’t find anything except a couple handfuls of berries. Then there was a brief argument on eating a rodent like creature that Jyou (of all people) had caught, and it ended up with a bitter conclusion and several empty stomachs, causing rotten dispositions for the rest of the morning.

Things were not going well. It seemed that they had all forgotten the previous months of working together, living together, fighting together, and being together. Suddenly, they were acting as if some great being had gotten a crazy idea and thrown eight absolutely unrelated kids into one giant deathtrap that could only be escaped from with a miracle.

Miracles aren’t things that you can buy on sales, so there were no miracles that morning. Nothing much except glowering at each other, the only exception to this being Koushiro, who spent the entire morning staring at his blank computer screen because he did not want to waste the batteries by turning it on. It was probably a good thing though because it was likely that one of the other Digidestined would have smashed the laptop if they were forced to listen to the continuous tap-tap-tap of his fingers racing across the keypad.

By afternoon, moods had improved slightly, and they finally managed to get into a big circle without glaring at each other, although none of them seemed eager to look at one another.

After several moments of awkward silence, they all started talking about something yet nothing at all (to be cliché).

"If you hadn’t killed it…"

"Why did you have to go do that?"

"What is wrong with you?"

"That was just so cruel!"

"Couldn’t you think of something better…"

"Give me a break, I’m only…"

Only Hikari and Takeru remained silent amount the insane arguing of their elders. There seemed no end to the arguing, flinging half hearted accusations and angry statements at each other. Takeru turned and saw that Hikari was trembling, her eyes tightly shut. Nobody else noticed though, too caught up in their accusations. Takeru understood quickly what they were trying to do. By blaming their tragedies on each other, they wouldn’t have to deal with it. By saying that it was somebody else’s fault, they wouldn’t have to face it. Yet couldn’t they see that this wasn’t helping anything? That after they had gotten each other angry at one another, it would only result in being alone? For ones that were supposed to be so responsible and intelligent, they certainly weren’t acting like it.

The ruckus was steadily growing louder and louder, and Takeru had to resist the strong urge to clamp his hands over his ears. Nobody seemed to care what they were saying as long as they could get it said.

Then she started to cry. She couldn’t really help it, but the tears just wouldn’t stop and the sobs wouldn’t either. It was so small at first that nobody was really able to notice it, for they were too wrapped up in their own little lies at the moment: Taichi yelling heatedly at Koushiro to get off the stupid laptop and get a life while Koushiro yelled back that at least he was doing something instead of sitting like a lump and staring at the sky; Yamato yelling at Jyou about allergies while Jyou yelled back about his own rebellious nature that had gotten them into so many messes; Sora yelling at Mimi about caring more about her nails than the others while Mimi yelled back about her being a heartless fool and how the heck did she ever get the crest of love; Takeru watched the six sadly, sometimes opening his mouth to try and break the argument up, but never able to get the words out.

However, he was the first to notice Hikari hunched up and sobbing, unable to stop. It was just too overwhelming, it all happening at the same time! The screaming, the arguing, the death, the reality… she wanted to get away but she couldn’t. Takeru could only hold her awkwardly in his arms (as he had never held a girl in his life… and he was still under the small belief that girls had cooties), and he looked desperately at the others, knowing deep down that if they would just stop, everything else would be all right.

Mimi was the next to notice Hikari, and she immediately stopped screaming at Sora, looking guilty. The sudden silence caused Sora to also look at Hikari, and she quickly ran over to the two and tried to stop the crying. Jyou noticed Mimi’s silence and stopped as well, and Yamato had to as well now that there was nobody to argue with. With the sudden silence and the fact that Hikari’s sobs could now be heard, Taichi quickly took heed and stopped as well. The sudden silence allowed Hikari to get her words across, the words that she had been muttering at the start of the tears but could not be heard because of the screaming. She didn’t seem to notice as she continued to mumble through her tears, although the seven other Digidestined were watching and listening to her closely.

"Stop… just stop… this isn’t helping anybody… we’re supposed to be a team… not arguing like this… that’s enough… why won’t you stop? Why won’t anybody…"

"We have stopped, Hikari," Taichi interjected softly, and Hikari lifted up her tear streaked face to look up at them, all of which had varying degrees of guilt written on their face.

"We’re sorry, Hikari," Sora finally apologized, and a murmured chorus followed.

"Hikari’s right though… we seem to have grown so far apart that we can barely see each other anymore. What kind of teamwork is that? We need to work together if we’re going to find a way to survive this," Koushiro added, "It’s time to act our own age, I suppose."

"Yes," Yamato agreed, "It’s time we started embodying our crests."

"No more of these silly arguments?" Mimi questioned, and everybody nodded.

"No more arguments," Jyou confirmed, "No more acting like everybody else is to blame because it isn’t. No use finding out that we need everybody working together only to remember that nobody will speak to each other."

They’re finally beginning to act with a sense of intelligence and responsibility, Hikari smiled, and for the first time since they’d come back, she let the sun warm her.

And inside, she also felt a gratifying sense of warmth filled her as she felt the light that had been dimmed for what seemed like ages, finally stop the flickering and glow a steady, beautiful light.

Ah, I’m drunk. I started this chapter today and finished it today, and the reason why it has taken so long is because I had a different version of chapter 1 (which has now been kindly deleted) which I told myself I would get to editing, but never did. >.< So I ended up rewriting the entire thing today (July 10, 2001). The purpose of this chapter, I suppose, is to show how they all overcame the pain… well, at least accepted their situation. That’s about it, I guess. Chapter 2 will probably be just as slow as this one as it is a lot longer than this chapter (or maybe it won’t be… --;), but I haven’t started it yet. TK Takaishi, your suggestion is indeed a wonderful and helpful one, but since I jump from story to story (I’m working on about six different stories right now… a medieval Mimoe, a vampire Yamajyou, a love triangles story, this one, a humor story for X-Men: Evolution, a Jyouto, and other things that I do not even remember), and the fact that I remembered I’ve really kept you all waiting too long, I decided to go ahead and publish it. My apologies for this extremely long delay, but I really have been having trouble for this story, and I only just got the idea on how to present this chapter (this is becoming even harder than my other X-Men: Evolution fic! -_-’). But I’ll stop blabbering. HOPEFULLY, the next chapter will be done by the end of summer, but I honestly can’t make any promises… >_<

Pikachumaniac (a very apologetic Pikachumaniac… gomen, but I am failing chemistry horribly)