Well, first I'd like to note that I started writing this a looooong time ago and put aside. And then I randomly notice, "Holy Rusted Metal Batman, they have a writing forum!!!" So, I'm gonna try and revive this sucker, but I need the attention all authors crave if I'm gonna. I have two chaps in the waiting if I see some business, and if not, that's k too. Anyway, here's the first part, so enjoy. Review if you feel like it, but make sure you let me know you read it at the very least some how, be it a PM or a post here (preferable a PM if its lengthy).

Also, I want to say that this is LOOSELY based off of the events following Tamers. There were some holes I didn't realize until after I started writing, but I'm not gonna let it interfere at all.

Without further ado!... wink

_________________________________________________________

Prologue: Part 1 - Re biggrin iscover

Even though I thought I'd never be the same, the world soon went back to normal. And after a while, so did I.

"But Guilmon is meant to be with me! He's a part of me! I promised him we'd always be together, I promised!"

Life became exactly the way it was before I met Guilmon. Kazu still made bad jokes and Ms. Nami still gave too much homework.

"No! This can't be! I won't let it happen!"

Sometimes I go by our old hangouts just to see if he's there. Don't know why I bother…'cause he never is…

"You knew, didn't you! You knew this would happen when you scanned Terriermon!"

Most times I'm ok, but there's this one thing that bugs me.

"Remember Takato! You promised! You promised! Takatooo…. "

A promise I made to a friend…a promise…I don't think I can keep.

________________________________________________________

Takato awoke with a jolt from his bed, breathing with long deep gasps and his pj's drenched in sweat. It took him a moment to realize it was only a nightmare, despite the fact that this had to have been the umpteenth time he had the dream. Under normal circumstances, he might have recovered a little bit more quickly from his nightmares. But that memory was forever burned into the crevices of his brain and into his eyes, the same eyes that had been crying so much after that fateful hour.

"Geez…" Takato whispered to himself, "who knew such a cute and innocent little voice could be so…" Takato couldn't finish the sentence, his thoughts trailing back to the memory of that little voice and its beholder. It was, quite literally, mortifying to him. He hoped that he had been hiding these feelings well enough from Rika, Henry and the rest of the gang. Although sometimes he wondered if maybe they thought the same things he did.

Takato wiped his forehead of the beads of sweat before looking at his alarm clock. It read 6:30, and while this wasn't too early to the time he should be getting up for school, it was still too early for Takato. He cupped his face in his hands before slowly and groggily crawling out of bed…and then promptly fell onto the floor. He arose quickly, his tiredness disappearing, hoping his parents didn't hear the loud thump in the night…er, morning now. He went to the wall and flipped on the lights, revealing a disturbingly messy room. Granted, Takato had kept his room messy for most of his life, but it had recently undergone a transformation for the worst, and it was just pathetic now. Even more pathetic was that his clothes were somewhere in this mess, so it might as well have been his closet too.

"Someday… I AM going to clean you up, bedroom," Takato pledged to himself with a clenched fist before diving into the mess to find his clothes. He found his blue t-shirt and his jacket, thankfully he didn't find any undergarments or socks. He was cleanly enough to keep them in a drawer. He eventually found his pants too and went to throw them onto the bed with the rest of his discovered wardrobe when something hard hit his hand. As the pants fell onto the bed, he saw that the hard thing had turned out to be his old gold and red D-Arc digivice clipped onto the belt loop.

Takato paused as he stared down at the powerful device. Again, heartfelt and warming memories from nearly a year ago came rushing into his mind, only to stab him in the back when he realized that there was probably no way on Earth he could ever experience those feelings of pure happiness and exciting adventure ever again. Takato wasn't hesitant as he began to cry. He just let them flow. He sniffed as he wiped them away. "Oh…Guilmon…" he sobbed in the dark. He turned his teary eyes back to the D-Arc and reached for it. Again, like he had many times before, he looked at its screen hoping for a clue, any hint of anything about his old digimon partner's whereabouts. But like it had all times before, all it showed was a static screen. Truth be told, it was the same for each D-Arc of every tamer from Takato down to Ai and Mako. It was not unlike what Jeri's digivice had displayed right as Impmon in is Beelzemon form regrettably destroyed her partner, Leomon. And all the tamers thought the worst had happened because of this.

Takato was being pulled deeper and deeper into these dark thoughts until the sound of his parent's bedroom door opening broke him out of his trance. Takato quickly shook his head hoping to shake away the thoughts as well and wiped away any remaining tears before beginning to get dressed. Besides, it was Friday! Nobody should be sad on a Friday! "Gosh, I'm glad I don't have to go to school on Saturdays like I did in Kindergarten back a few years ago," he whispered to himself. He had successfully stopped thinking about Guilmon for the time being, and soon he had his backpack full of texts and ready for school as he ran out his bedroom door and down the steps.

His mom spotted him if not heard the ruckus he made as clambered down the small flight of stairs into the bakery. "Good morning honey! You want some breakfast before you head out to school?" Takato shook his head as he went for the bread store near the back and began to take quite a lot of their supply.

"No thanks mom, I actually have to be somewhere really soon, so I'm gonna skip breakfast this morning," he told her hastily as he filled his pockets. His mother closed her eyes and tried to hide a little bit of anger. 'As if this robbery wasn't enough to tell me that…' she thought, suppressing a lecture with all her power. No doubt "somewhere" was at the playground with the rest of his friends.

"Well…alright. But I expect you home for dinner as usual alright! No staying late after to school to play cards with Kazu and Kenta."

"Yeah, sure mom! I love you!" Takato ran passed his mom and out the door stuffing bread into his mouth as he went. She sighed and then giggled to herself.

"I'm beginning to wonder whose stomach all that bread went into before, Takato's or-" Mie stopped as she remembered the sad ending of the D-Reaper incident many months ago. After it and after Takato had gotten over his loss more or less, he confessed that his parent's store of bread had depleted recently due to his partner's dietary needs. Mie smiled sweetly. She didn't ever know the little red dino so well, but from the stories Takato told her and of course the titanic battle her son fought with him as Gallantmon, she was sure that he wasn't so bad. Eh, so they lost a few months supply of bread and materials. So what? "I'll let it fly, but if there is ever a next time, you'll be paying for his food out of your own pocket!"

__________________________________________________________

Takato smacked a card down on the play mat. "I digivolve WarGrowlmon into Gallantmon and attack to win the game. " Kazu's mouth was gaping at his loss.

"G-ge…GAAAAHH! How many times are you going to beat me before I start holding winning streaks Takato, huh, huh!" the hyper-active boy asked his friend loudly. Takato grinned sheepishly. He really couldn't help it. He just liked to play the card game, but after his…experiences, he seemed to be able to observe a battle-field with more cunning than he had before, whether it was a ruined city or a simple card game. Still, Kazu was losing that challenging status he presented months ago.

Plus, a very kind Digimon Queen had showed him a few tricks and given him plenty of good power ups as a birthday present. He grinned at those memories, where he and his friends had all come together again. He wasn't saying that the ol' gang never saw each other anymore, but their visits had become much less frequent. Rika was beginning to spend more time with her mother and Henry was often unavailable to hang out with for some unknown reason. Henry had changed a lot after the D-Reaper it seemed. Takato sighed heavily.

"Phhbt… oh look at Takato, all disappointed that he WON EPICLY at his last card game AS USUAL!" Kazu said waving his hand at Takato as if to gesture him away. "No need to be modes- AHCK!" A small but firm fist crashed down on Kazu's head and shut him up immediately. "What was that for Jeri!"

Takato looked up to see a frowning Jeri glaring at Kazu, her fist still resting on his head and her other hand controlling her dog puppet to look somewhat like it was snarling at the boy. "Kazu, be a little more mature why don't you! Takato won this round fair and square. You won before only because you misplayed the game and sometimes cheated a little!" she said still glaring at him. She then used her excellent ventriloquism skills to make a growl sound for her dog puppet. She then glanced at Takato before smiling warmly.

Takato's heart rate immediately started to increase. Although she had changed dramatically as well after the events of the D-Reaper (And boy was it dramatic! When she's assertive she's much better than her father was before…and he agrees!), Takato definitely still had a thing going for her. He adored how sweet she could be, but now it was plain to see that Leomon's dying words were anything but untrue; she really did have a lion's heart.

Takato responded to Jeri's smile with one of his own. Kenta laughed at Jeri's remark. "Come to think of it Kazu, she does have a point. " He said between giggles. Kazu stuck his tongue out at Kenta, only to be bonked on the head by Jeri a second time.

Just then, Takato heard a small beep and he reached into his pants to pull out his new cell phone, yet another present for his birthday. He had 10 minutes until school started. "Ah! Everyone, we have to scoot, vamoose, now! We have-" he looked up to see that everyone had already left him inside the play-hut, the cards still strung out.

"Oh, c'mon guys, again! What if I'm late; Ms. Nami will make sure I burn in some fiery pit of torture if I'm late for the 10th time in the last 2 weeks!" Takato shuffled all the cards back into the box and hid it before quickly scurrying after the rest of his friends.

After school…

Takato waved goodbye to Jeri and the rest of his friends as he left for home. He decided to take a different route this time, so he was walking alone tonight. That was fine for now. There was something he had to do anyway. And besides, he needed to be alone and "think about what he had done or so help me…!" as quoted by an infuriated Ms. Nami for being late for the 11th time apparently in two weeks. As punishment, he got a small amount of detention and an extra homework assignment.

Despite this, Takato used the time wisely to finish that homework. This impressed Ms. Nami and in the end acted very warmly to Takato as if it hadn't happened. It was because now that Takato didn't need to save two worlds every afternoon and weekends, he was spending more time studying. He wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to pursue in education, but he knew he wouldn't get much further if he had the grades he did back when…*gulp* Guilmon was still around.

Takato couldn't help it. He let another one of his sorrowful groans at the memories, but he was able to successfully push them aside. He again started thinking about some form of career. For a 14 year old kid, it wasn't all too uncommon. But for Takato who couldn't help but live in the here and now, it was a rare occasion. He started to think. "Hmmm…maybe, a manga artist!" he exclaimed out loud. "Or maybe a designer for a video game!" Takato blinked as his mind started to click together in all the right places.

"Maybe I could get a job with the company that franchises Digimon and help create a new game! Then everyone could enjoy digimon!" Whether or not Takato realized it, he was definitely subconsciously filling up a big empty hole inside of him. And besides, Jeri did ask him a long time ago if he would ever stop thinking about digimon… Takato thought about this.

"Nah…"

Takato then realized that he had reached his destination…which was not his home. Instead, he looked up at the sweet golden autumn maple trees of the Shinjuku park. And in the midst of the spectacle, he saw a sight that brought back memories more beautiful than all the trees in the park and more horrifying than the battle with the D-Reaper and the Devas had been combined. It was the sight of the old cement bunker which was Guilmon's hide-away. Takato was proud in being able to not cry this time. He looked through the foliage and everywhere else in the area for something, a glimpse of blood red against the orange and gold. When he didn't see anything, Takato squinted his eyes closed and took in a deep breath. He let it out with a powerful yell. "GUUUIILMOOOOON!"

Takato opened his eyes and ears trying to perceive his scaly digital friend. But alas, as it had been time and time before, there was nothing. Nothing at all. No trace of Guilmon at all. Takato frantically double checked everything around him, but to no avail. No response came to his call. There was no Guilmon. Now Takato was crying, and he had each time he came and was thoroughly disappointed by the nothingness he found there. Not like some pretty maple trees could replace his best bud. Takato frowned angrily amidst his sorrow.

"Damnit!" he cursed silently, something he rarely did. He turned around and began walking away towards home with heavy, stomping steps. "Damnit…Guilmon, where are you? Will I ever see you agai-"

"Hahehaha!"

Takato whipped around at the sound of laughter. His vision darted from one place to the next. He knew it wasn't Guilmon…but boy, was it creepy sounding! "Hello!" Takato asked loudly, "Somebody there?" No reply. Again, Takato thought he heard giggling, this time coming from the bunker. Takato really didn't want to go back there. It was just too memorable for him. But still, not only was he curious about the laughter…but something was calling him. A compelling…force much stronger than just curiosity. He had felt it only one time before, a sense of need to be somewhere. He felt it the night he searched and found Guilmon. Takato, putting his thoughts behind him, ran up the hill towards the bunker.

As soon as he approached the entrance, he peeked inside. Nothing but dirt and darkness. Takato took one last look before turning back around and starting to walk down the hill.

"Heehahahaha!"

Takato ran back to the bunker and looked inside for the source of the laughs. "Ok, whoever's in there this is not funny anymore!" he yelled. On top of bewildered, Takato was just plain spooked. "Kazu? Kenta? You in here?" Still nothing. Takato looked around inside again and finally noticed something out of the ordinary. Coming from the tunnel that Guilmon had dug during his stay here was a faint glow. What it came from, Takato didn't know, and didn't know if he wanted to find out. Still, if there was one thing he learned as a tamer, do NOT ignore odd glows. They are indefinitely significant. Slowly and shakily he approached the tunnel and looked inside.

There, at the very end of the tunnel, was an odd anomaly of a sight. It was glowing white, and small fractals and shapes kept forming and deforming themselves on its surface as it bathed the small tunnel in light. Takato was very curious, and he kept telling himself that he had seen this somewhere before. It was frighteningly familiar. Takato continued to stare at the pixilated light trying to figure out what it was when it hit him. He remembered what it was.

"No…cou-could it really be a. . . portal?" Takato's hopes were beginning to sky rocket as he now again heard the child like laughter, undoubtedly originating from the light now. He felt a small vibrating and beeping against his leg. Takato took a few moments to reach into his pocket for his cell phone. But when he grabbed it, he discovered that it was not what was vibrating. It was his D-Arc, still clipped to his belt loop.

Takato clumsily fumbled with the clip, his logic and thinking now to hyped to control his own body. Finally taking of the clip, Takato looked at the D-Arc in his hand…and smiled. On the screen this time there was no static. Instead, there was a small red circle and a red arrow pointing directly at the light. Takato couldn't believe it, he had actually found what he thought was a portal into the digital world. Still beaming with untold happiness, he again began fumbling in his pocket for his phone. He pulled it out and then dialed in Henry's contact. Takato waited impatiently, hearing the laughs again which he thought now must have been digielves.

The tone stopped ringing on his found and there was a shuffling on the other end. "Hello, Takato?" Henry's voice asked gloomily on the other end. "What's up?" Takato was breathing heavily. "Henry, get out of your house and grab Rika as soon as you can and meet me at the park bunker!"

"Huh, why what's wrong?" Henry asked curiously on the other end. "What is it Takato?" Takato sniggered before answering.

"You are not going to believe what I think I just found!"

____________________________________________________

Actually…scratch that. I think I'm gonna keep that promise after all...