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We walked outside and Raia took my hand, as usual, but I shook my head. She dropped my hand.

"We're in no hurry." I said. "We have plenty of time, plus it's a nice enough day to have a walk and talk about things." In actuality, the sky was grey and full of clouds, the wind was cooler than comfort for most, and it seemed the heavens were ready to burst into a torrent of tears. Maybe a dreary day for some, but perfect for me.

Raia sighed, knowing where this was going. I took her hand and we began to walk.

"Raia, I know that you feel more comfortable now that our feelings are out on the table, but we still need some boundaries." I said as we strode through the cool air. "We aren't to that point yet. I'll open myself slowly, naturally, and I hope you do the same. It's easy to, but you have to remember only fools rush in." Mentally, I slapped myself, even though she wouldn't know who I was referencing.

She sighed and blushed. "I-uh, I'm sorry about that."

I stroked down her back, making sure to keep my hand from going too far, lest I make a hypocrite out of myself. "It's fine, really it is. I take it as a compliment, but I don't want to have you wanting that when it won't come for a while."

She stopped walking and turned to me. The air swept around us, holding me in a cool embrace. Her face stood out clearly against the dark gunmetal skies. "How long will I wait?" She cocked her head sideways, a sadness in her eyes breaking my heart. I tried to resist an urge, fearing I'd lose my point, but I couldn't hold the line.

"Not long." I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers and even angels seemed to cry over us as the first drips of a heavy cleansing rain fell upon us.

I broke from her and looked to find a gleam of happiness in her eyes. "Come on, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave."

(Break)

After some searching, we found that parking structure where Terriermon would digivolve. My problem was that I knew I'd be involved, and I had to make sure he did digivolve, or the continuity would start to break on me.

"Alright Rai, we have to be careful, Rika and Renamon are probably in here too." I whispered. We were hiding behind pillars, and I was hoping to God I didn't start a fight before it was needed.

Raia nodded, positioning herself so as to not be seen.

"Guilmon stop! Right now! I need to stop cutting out of gym class." I motioned toward Raia, signaling to be ready.

"It's you again!" Which meant Rika was here.

"Can't get anything past you can I, boy? Are you ready to fight this time? Is your little dinosaur- huh?" My heart skipped a beat. "What is it?"

Very faintly, I heard someone say "I smell something."

"What?"

"That crazy man and his Renamon are here. I can smell her."

"How do you smell data, Renamon?"

"I don't. I smell pheromones."

"Like the kind animals make when they..." That was Takato, and I assumed he made a hand gesture.

I heard an audible slap, probably Rika facepalming. "Yes, gogglehead."

"What kind of whore is she?" Renamon said that. My eyes went wide, my fists clenched, my blood boiled. I was beyond pissed.

I swung out from behind the pillar. "The fuck did you just say?!" Everyone was looking at me now. I started to rush forward, carrying my momentum from the pillar. I was moving pretty quick for a guy my size, so it was no surprise when I managed to take Renamon to the floor when I tackled her.

I started laying into her, not caring where my blows lay, only that they hit. I swung, full force, harder than I'd ever had, filling every violent fantasy I'd ever had. She wasn't just the thing that had offended me, she was every thingthat had ever offended me, all the anger I had was coming out. I couldn't tell you how long I was beating her down, but eventually, she managed to roll me off of her.

I scrambled to my feet, staying low in my stance, ready to charge again. She took the initiative, though, quickly plodding, heavy-footed, straight at me. I resisted my urge to meet her charge, opting instead to sidestep her and come from behind. As I passed her and twisted, I saw another target, Terriermon; my blood ran cold and my rage left me. Henry had just happened to walk in, probably hearing the commotion, and he had Renamon charging him. Before anyone could react, even Renamon, Terriermon launched from Henry's shoulder to meet Renamon, to protect his tamer. Physics told me the little guy never had a chance.

Momentum is mass times the change in velocity. The equation buzzed in my mind. Terriermon was less than a quarter of Renamon's mass, and he sure as hell wasn't going four times faster than her. He took the hit, flying back over Henry's shoulder into the wall.

Everything froze. The dust settled and it happened. Terriermon started digivolving. I watched carefully, noticing the details the series left out. Terriermon was stripped of his skin and raw code was exposed. The code, strings, hooks, variables, expanded and morphed to fit his new form, then the skin rematerialized. As I watched, one thought crossed my mind. I can do that. That would have to wait. I twisted back, looking and finding Raia across the garage. She did the responsible thing and ran to protect Takato and keep Guilmon back. I gestured for her to come to me.

"We have to get him down!" I shouted to... well, everyone. "He's not in control!" As if on cue, the newly formed Gargomon started going nuts with his gats. Bullets were whizzing everywhere, a couple right by my head. My head snapped back to Gargomon and I hit the floor so I wouldn't get hit.

I saw Renamon dashing Henry to safety and I started to crawl to Gargomon. "Christ, man!" I screamed over the blazing machine guns. "Learn to fucking aim!"

Raia ran at me, slid to the floor and pulled me along the floor with her, a feeling I was honestly getting too familiar with. We collided with Gargomon, taking out his legs. Thinking quick, I flipped on top of him, pinning his arms down.

"Stop FREAKING shooting!" I yelled, earning a sheepish grin from Gargomon.

(Break)

Gargomon had gotten a hold of himself, so the chaos died off. Rika was still shooting me dirty looks, but I hardly cared. Takato, and to a lesser extent Guilmon, seemed happy that everything stopped being crazy, and Henry was trying to get Gargomon to de-digivolve. Raia was standing beside me, seeming pretty relieved, probably wanting to head home. Soon, I thought to myself. Just need to finish up here.

Please hurry, then._OK, what the hell? _Mental link. I heard pang in my head.

We'll talk about this later. I saw her smile a bit. Smug little... damn mental link, can't even think freely anymore.

Henry left with Takato, who was trying to help him with Gargomon, but I was preoccupied. Renamon was looking at me rather strangely, and I needed to know why.

"Rika, can you give us a moment?" Renamon asked her tamer. Rika simply obliged her, showing no protest at being ordered by her partner, a sign of just how shaken she was.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, crossing my arms with a bit of irritation.

"You," She said, seeming to act as if were alone, like Raia wasn't there, "Have impressed me."

"Oh really?" I said, caustic. "I am so honored."

She ignored this. "You are a fighter. I misjudged you. Despite what Rika may think, your defense of your partner and your bravery, though perhaps foolish, has impressed me. Not many humans would stand up to, let alone match, a digimon, especially one of my caliber." Well, no one ever said she wasn't confident.

"Well, thanks." I said, somewhat genuine. "I respect your ability to make peace with me. Most wouldn't swallow their pride."

"The feeling is mutual, then." She looked over to Rika, who obviously was badly shaken up at the chaos from earlier and needed to get home. "I have to go. I look forward to fighting alongside you and your partner in the future." I was surprised that she included Raia. Maybe she noticed how strong Raia really was.

"Same to you." I said, turning and leading Raia out.

We walked for a bit and started to talk.

"I think she might be afraid of you." I said.

"She should be. You can kick her ass, and I can definitely kick yours." She said with a smirk.

"Oh, really?" I said with a laugh. "First off, I hardly kicked her ass. I managed, but that's good enough for me. Second, we'll see about who can kick whose ass later. Thirdly, when did you open a mental link with me?"

"After we got home last time." She said flatly.

"Before or after the kissing?"

"After." She said with a smile.

Noticing her smile, I said. "Glad to see you enjoyed it."

"Almost as much as I enjoyed watching you do something very stupid to defend me."

"Hey," I said, "No one insults my friends, and you're a very special friend."

"Special how?" She said, stopping and smiling.

"I don't do this with any of my other friends." I said, and I brushed my mouth against hers. "Seems pretty special to me."

I couldn't see it, but her expression told me she was blushing.

"Come on," I said, starting to walk again, "We have one more stop before home."

(Break)

We stopped by a card store and I picked up several packs of cards so that I could modify Raia if necessary. I looked through the cards briefly as we walked the rest of the way home.

We walked inside and I set the cards in a stack on the counter.

"Raia," I said, questioningly. "Do we have a computer?" She nodded and led me to the one room out of the 6 or 7 in the house that I hadn't been in. I opened the door and saw a welcome sight. First, I saw my desk chair from home, then my desk, my monitor, and finally, my PC tower.

"No freaking way." I said. "Can't be." I walked over, sat down and saw that even my headset was there. I turned the computer on and turned to Raia while it booted.

"What?" She asked, very confused by the look of it.

"This is my computer." Her expression didn't change. "This is my computer, from my home. My world."

"Is that good?"

"Yes," I said, returning to the computer. "Very, very good." Everything was the same, from my desktop setup to my wallpaper cycle. I slid open one of the drawers and found my USB flash drive and opened a fresh Notepad++ file. I turned back to Raia, confused as ever.

I looked at the flash drive and back at her. "Here, touch this." I said, holding the drive out to her, prong first. She touched her paw to the metal prong and spark jumped from her to it. I grinned and turned back to the computer, plugging the drive in and bringing it up onscreen. Sure enough, there was a notepad file and I dragged it onto the Notepad++ window, which quickly filled with lines upon lines of code.

"Is that..." she started.

"Yep." I said. "That's you. That's your source code."

"What does this mean?"

"It means I can reprogram you. I can add functions, powers, abilities, hell, even full-on digivolutions. This gives us an insane edge... but..." I turned to her. "I have to know, are you okay with that? I mean, it would benefit you, but I'd be changing you at the core. You'll still be you, just different in form. I can't access your personality or anything of that sort through this code. This is just the Renamon source code; basically, I can't overwrite you."

She paused for a moment, seeming nervous before reassuring herself. "Yeah. I'm okay with it, especially if it will help us fight."

"Trust me, it will." I stood, closing the window and flicking off the monitor. "But I'm too tired to tackle that right now. Why don't we just go relax on the couch?" She nodded and followed me out of the room.