Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Alternative Factor ❯ Shattered Reflections ( Chapter 6 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Toei Animation does.

 

Summary: AU Season 01. In a world that has co-existed with Digimon for the past twenty years, humans and their partners battle against the Virus type Nightmare Soldiers set on casting the world into darkness. Eight kids will help reshape the future.

 

Title: The Alternative Factor

 

Ch.6 Shattered Reflections

 

T.K. and Tokomon had fallen into a slumbering doze, a result from spending over an hour's time in the same position, unmoving and having to remain quiet lest they reveal their presence. Even Koromon kept nodding in and out beside him, but Tai remained awake and alert, spellbound and fascinated by the proceedings that carried out in the room below. Wizardmon had not spoken to him since telling him to stay. The meeting had been adjourned. It had taken some time to get back under way. Oikawa's theory on the digivices had caused a mass division among people and Digimon alike. However, the original point which Oikawa had been trying to make—that the gateways' destabilizations were in sync somehow to the digivices—had been brushed aside for the far more alluring idea of unlimited evolution power.

 

“Fools, the lot of them!” Oikawa swore as the doors slid shut behind the last officer to leave and he and Captain Ishida and their partners were all who remained. “I pity the future of this country if its defenders refuse to listen to reason and fall prey to their own avarice! To think that you willingly joined these corrupt totalitarians—”

 

“One does what he has to provide food and shelter for his family,” Captain Ishida said pulling out a cigarette carton out of his front jacket pocket and tapping it into the palm of his hand until one cylinder fell out. “Especially when your family gets extended unexpectedly. And I must say, the opportunity of shooting Nightmare Soldiers with a gun instead of a camera played a key factor in my decision as well.”

 

The captain's last words were stated casually as the man idly twirled the cigarette between his fingers but did not light it, and there was silence for several long minutes as Oikawa eyed him suspiciously, his whole body coiled and tense as if waiting for some outburst or attack that never came until finally the man relaxed and spoke out loud. “I ran into the younger Kido brother on my way here… very fascinating piece of jewelry he was wearing too.”

 

In the captain's hands, the cigarette's twirling had come to a stop.

 

“I wonder if it's some trend kids are setting these days. They always choose the most peculiar fashion statements,” Oikawa remarked, continuing to watch the captain closely. “Of course, I didn't have a chance to see if your newest addition was following scope, but perhaps the enthusiastic young escort you've assigned me would be gracious enough to give me a guide in the inner sanctum of this base before I leave?”

 

The captain's knuckles had become as white as the cigarette his hands were clenched tightly around.

 

“No? Well, I could always have a nice chat with the computer technicians to see what I've missed out on. Unlabeled, unregistered shipments in the cargo hold… withheld names on the Hikarigaoka Incident… more anonymous, untraceable emails containing cryptic inscriptions needing to be deciphered?” Oikawa inquired sharply.

 

“I'm afraid we're all out of those materials at the present moment,” Captain Ishida said smoothly, taking out a lighter and igniting, making no move to light the cigarette but instead stared distantly within the flame as if seeing another fire.

 

“Dammit, Ishida, don't play coy with me. I know what I saw. Are you really telling me after thousands of hours that the Digital Researchers have put into cracking down pages and pages of gibberish hieroglyphics your people sent us and then following the instructions they turn out to be, you give the very Tags we painstakingly crafted to children?!” Oikawa demanded. “You don't even know what purpose they serve and you hand them out like they were toys!”

 

“I am not allowed to divulge military secrets—”

 

“Don't think I don't know what you're doing, Ishida,” Oikawa interjected coolly. “The Self Defense Forces don't have prior claim to those slabs. The only reason you're head of this little pet project at the moment is because you're father to two of these `Chosen Ones' as you call them and guardian to another. But the Izumi kid comes from my sector and since I have no knowledge of your most recent acquisition, I doubt his family has a background in either of our workforces. The numbers are not tipping in your favor, Ishida, if there are really two more children out there going by your theory. One day the odds will unbalance your seat and you'll lose control of the reins.”

 

“And I suppose you think the general will entrust you with the job then?” Captain Ishida asked.

 

“With one of the heads of their biggest nemesis? Ha!” Oikawa laughed. “They look down on people like us you know,” he said bitterly. “People whose Digimon have never digivolved…” he cast eyes briefly upon Pipimon and Wizardmon who had remained in respective silence thus far. “They think us ineffective, weak. We're little higher than Numemon on their scope. All they desire is for their partner to obtain the next level until he reaches Mega… they're obsessed with power… and I fear I have only fueled their fires now.”

 

“You were only looking out for the well-being of the whole,” Captain Ishida stated with a sort of faded sadness, his tone oddly hollow. “At least you tried. You can't help if circumstances backfire on you…”

 

Tai saw an expression resembling pity pass over Oikawa's face. The man reached out as if to place a hand on the captain's shoulder then think better of it and turn away.

 

“Joe looks much better off than I saw him last,” Oikawa remarked off-handedly. “I suppose your other two boys are doing well also?”

 

“They're getting to be more like their mother every day,” Captain Ishida said as if commenting on the weather and only now did he at last light the end of his cigarette and inhale deeply.

 

Oikawa's body grew taut. His head was tilted at an angle, locks of dark hair shielding his face from sight, but he stood rigid for several moments as if the captain's words had been a two-edged blade. “Hear me now, Ishida,” the man said his voice sharp and somber. “I will find out what the objective of those Crests and Tags is before you, I swear it.”

 

With a hiss of the doors opening and closing, the man was gone and the captain was left alone staring absently at nothing, flakes from his cigarette falling to the floor unnoticed by him.

 

Tai drew in several gasping breaths and the air weighed hot and heavy upon his tongue that he imagined it was thick enough to almost swallow.

 

Darkness threatened to veil his vision, but the towering pillars of fire that loomed overhead burned brightly enough to chase the shadows away.

 

A grayish-white speck floated down from the sky wreathed in flames to land upon his cheek, soft enough that it felt like a fleeting kiss.

 

It was joined by another, then another, until the air was full of them, swirling, blowing, and raining down a gentle storm of the miniature flurries that fell upon the destroyed city block until they covered the ground like a soiled, lace handkerchief.

 

Snow?

 

But snow was white.

 

And he watched the sky cry tears of ash over the destruction it saw on the earth below until the shadows came back and dragged him into their murky depths.

 

“Oi, how long are you going to stay in there?”

 

Tai jumped, the captain's voice startling him. Had that been directed at him?

 

There are no secrets between Hiroaki and me, Wizardmon said inside in his head. I told him you were here. Come on down.

 

Feeling a bit betrayed yet admiring the unwavering loyalty Wizardmon showered on his partner, Tai shook the rest of the air duct's occupants awake.

 

“Mmm?” T.K. yawned, rubbing his eyes. “Is it over?”

 

“Your dad found us out,” Tai explained fiddling with air vent's cover. “We're busted.”

 

“Is he mad?” T.K. asked hugging Tokomon close to his chest and looking for the world like a kid whose hand had been caught in a cookie jar.

 

“Dunno,” Tai shrugged. Truthfully, he thought Captain Ishida must be unbeatable at playing cards for he could put on a magnificent poker face when the need arose. Pushing the covering open, he eased his body out slowly and dropped to the floor. A few seconds later, he felt his hair being flattened by Koromon's crash-landing. “You need help?” he called up to T.K.

 

Fervently shaking his head, the boy swung his legs forward and slid out feet first.

 

“T.K.,” Captain Ishida said, blatant surprise imprinted across his face.

 

T.K. was here all this time? Wizardmon questioned, mirroring his partner's shock.

 

You didn't know? Tai asked wondering how that was possible. But then T.K. had been asleep for awhile. Maybe his mind in that state hadn't registered to the Digimon's extrasensory perception.

 

No, I would have still sensed his dreams, Wizardmon said, staring intently at Tokomon.

 

“We're going to have a nice, long chat later, young man,” Captain Ishida said to his son who smiled sheepishly at him. “Ah,” the man sighed, leaning back against the table and rubbing the bridge of his nose wearily. “You kids are going to give me grey hair before time. You,” he said addressing Tai and pulling something out from his pocket. “I believe the last opportunity I had to give these to you before went afoul.”

 

In his hand lay a digivice, the chain of a golden Tag and familiar-looking Crest entangled about it.

 

“Oh, wow, it's a sun!” T.K. exclaimed catching sight of it.

 

Tai reluctantly took them stared down incomprehensively.

 

You don't even know what purpose they serve and you hand them out like they were toys!

 

“How can you be so sure these are really ours?” he questioned.

 

“They're yours,” the captain said with absolute confidence. “I'm afraid I can't be more informative about the Tags—under orders, but all your Digimon came from those marble slab and those marble slabs transformed into those Crests that fit into Tags. Who else would you think they belonged to?”

 

“But what are they supposed to do?” Tai asked recalling Oikawa's words from before.

 

“That's your job to find out, isn't it?” Captain Ishida said evasively, taking another drag off his cigarette.

 

“You promised you'd stop smoking, Daddy,” T.K. said looking disappointed at his father, his lower lip trembling.

 

Captain Ishida looked appropriately abashed as he swiftly stubbed out the tip in an ashtray on the table. “Harrumph, so I did. Sorry, kiddo. Wizardmon…”

 

He must spoken mind-to-mind with his partner, for the next instant, Wizardmon had drew T.K. aside and soon had the boy's attention caught fast by his own private viewing of magic tricks the Digimon conjured up.

 

“You're being released today,” Captain Ishida said and Tai started.

 

“What? But what about those `extenuating circumstances due to my unique bonding' you told my dad earlier and how I wasn't allowed off-base?” Tai asked.

 

“Your Crest was being fitted into your Tag. We couldn't allow you to leave before receiving it,” Captain Ishida explained. “And besides,” he said, blue eyes narrowing, “It would be best if you left quickly. The less you're under the general's scope the better.”

 

All they desire is for their partner to obtain the next level until he reaches Mega… they're obsessed with power…

 

Tai thought he was the one being held captive here, but the captain was obligated to perform and carry out his duty as a Self-Defense Forces officer regardless of his own personal opinion on the matter, whether he believed in the cause or not, and T.K., Matt and Joe were little more than pawns kept close to ensure the man walk the intended path. But he and his family had no ties to the military at all. Perhaps he had more freedom than anyone here.

 

Captain Ishida's eyes glinted as he watched this revelation unfold in the boy's eyes and then suddenly he was in front of Tai bending over so that his mouth was scant inches away from his ear and one sentence uttered in a hushed whisper:

 

“Talk to Mizuki Kishimoto at the Fuji TV station. Tell her Hiroaki sent you. Tell her to look up the building's security video files of the months of July and August of 1995. Tell her the answer to what you are seeking is what manner of Digimon were present in the network during that time frame. She'll understand what that means.”

 

Then just as quickly as the man had appeared in front of him, he was gone, leaving Tai shell-shocked to the core, and striding towards the doors making his exit.

 

“Come, T.K., let's go visit your brother. I hear that sullen temper of his has finally landed him in the infirmary.”

 

“H-hey, wait!” Tai cried, rushing after him, his mind reeling wildly. The months of July and August of 1995… that was when the Hikarigaoka Incident had occurred. What connection did the Fuji TV station have anything to do with that?

 

He reached the captain just as the man stepped outside the room and nearly collided into his own father and the soldier that was his escort.

 

“Tai there you are!” Susumu shouted grasping him by the shoulders. “I've got it all planned out! Gotsumon will create a diversion, then we'll hijack one of those military vehicles and bust out through the front gate! We'll pick up your mother and high-tail it to America! See if these brainless SDF soldiers can try and condemn innocent people there, haha!”

 

Tai felt beads of sweat break out across his brow, fully aware of T.K. and Tokomon gawking in awe and Captain Ishida and Wizardmon's amused expressions. He didn't even bother to ask how his dad expected his plan to work when he had just blurted it out in front of two so-called “brainless SDF soldiers” and ignored the painful fact that it sounded much like his own plan that he had concocted on his first trip to B-11.

 

“Don't misunderstand, kid,” were the captain's departing words. “Think of our releasing you as a temporary furlough. You'll be called back soon enough. And keep the Tag and Crest on you at all times—they may be your salvation as well as the chains that bind you to us.”

 

oOo

 

The Kamiyas found themselves riding in the company of the Izumis in one of the Self-Defense Forces' jeeps that would be their transportation to take them to separate cars that the military was providing to escort them home. Tai rode in the back with Izzy while their fathers and partners sat up front.

 

There was a heavy kind of silence that made the atmosphere uncomfortable until Susumu could not take it anymore and started talking to fill in the awkward void.

 

“So, you're a computer technician, I hear?” he remarked off-handedly to Izzy's father.

 

“That's right,” Mr. Izumi said adjusting his glasses. “You a PC man yourself?”

 

“What? Oh no, I'm just your average salary-man. I know how to use them, but I don't understand a thing about their inner workings,” Susumu said.

 

“I see,” Mr. Izumi stated quickly losing interest.

 

“We have one at home, don't we, Tai?” Susumu said trying to keep the conversation rolling. “But it doesn't work at the moment.”

 

“Virus-infected?” Mr. Izumi questioned.

 

“No, one night on one of my midnight snack expeditions, I accidentally bumped into the bookshelf next to it and it fell over and crashed on top of it. Smashed it to smithereens!” Sususmu explained cheerfully.

 

Mr. Izumi gaped at the man as Susumu laughed heartily at the memory finding it extremely funny.

 

Tai smacked the palm of his hand to his forehead and opted to distract Izzy from listening to the rest of his father's embarrassing tirade.

 

“Hey, Wizardmon didn't turn your laptop into pineapple slush after all,” he said, noticing the boy clutching the yellow laptop firmly to his chest as if someone might rip away by force. Motimon was glaring jealously at the sight from his partner's other side.

 

“He had words with Mr. Izumi,” Izzy said. “I'm not to bring it on Self-Defense Forces grounds anymore.”

 

Mr. Izumi? Tai thought surprised by the form of address. Who calls their parent by their last name?

 

“I'm adopted. The Izumis are distant relatives,” Izzy said in a dead-tone, eyes straight ahead, as if he had shared this information countless times before. “My real parents died in the Hikarigaoka Incident four years ago.”

 

The Hikarigaoka Incident again. Would he never be free from it? Tai turned his head away and stared out the window, his appetite for conversation dimming all of a sudden, and Izzy didn't appear to be in a hurry to resume talking either.

 

The rest of the ride passed in uneventful silence for the two boys; the only sounds filling the vehicle were the low tones of their fathers and their partners.

 

The Izumi kid comes from my sector…

 

Were the computer technicians a branch group of the Digital Research Team?

 

Tai glanced sideways out of the corner of his eye and tried to see the chain that signified that Izzy was wearing a Tag, but his shirt collar obstructed his view. Had the captain even given one to the boy that was under the wing of the military's arch-rival?

 

Izzy had known about how a Digimon would emerge out of a marble slab and that the Digital Research Team had created the Tags, but did he know that the marble slabs turned into Crests and fit into them?

 

But then their jeep had reached the company cars where the two families quickly separated and the time for asking questions was lost.

 

As Tai watched the gates of the Self Defense Forces roll past, a tremendous weight felt lifted from him. He was finally free.

 

oOo

 

“Honey, we're home,” Susumu Kamiya called out they crossed over the threshold of the apartment complex. “Hello, anybody home?”

 

The only reply to his inquiry for a few seconds was the sound of their cat, Miko rubbing around the ankles and demanding her supper with loud meows. Then a small bundle of white fluff bobbed up and down upon the air in a beeline straight towards them.

 

“Oh, Susumu! Tai!” it cried, wiggling its slender, pointed ears and curved tail happily. “You're back! You're alright! I was so worried!”

 

“Hey, Puffmon, Miko didn't eat you again after all?” Tai laughed as his mother's Digimon cuddled against his cheek in greeting.

 

Miko gave a disgusted, affronted glance as if she had understood and stalked back in the direction of the kitchen, brandishing her tail like a banner and presenting everyone a clear view of her backside, which had several suspicious patches of fur missing.

 

“She tried, but I taught her a thing or two!” Puffmon said, taking a deep breath and swelling herself up to twice her size before letting loose a rush of air that knocked Miko squarely off her feet and sent her scrambling under the dining table where she proceeded to yowl her head off at the unfairness of it all.

 

“Oh, pipe it down, you two. The neighbors will complain about the racket again,” Susumu said, wandering into the kitchen to see if dinner was ready.

 

“Ah—” Tai heard his father's strangled exclamation and followed him to behold the sight of an utter mess that the kitchen had become with bowls and cups full of unidentifiable mixtures turned over and their contents spread across the floor like some modern art painting.

 

“Yuuko wasn't feeling well, so I tried my best, but…” Puffmon trailed off, water welling up in her big, black eyes.

 

“No, no, it's all right,” Susumu said hastily, waving the Digimon aside. “Gotsumon and I will clean this up and order take-out. Tai, why don't you go show your mother your new partner, hmm?”

 

“Your new partner?!” Puffmon exclaimed, finally noticing the Koromon tucked under Tai's arm. “You have a partner now! I-I-I'm so happyyyyy!” she shrieked in delight, rapidly inflating to the size of a one of their couch's throw-pillows, before releasing the trapped air and blowing crazily around the room like a popped balloon.

 

Koromon followed her every movement bug-eyed and slack-jawed in amazement until he covered his eyes with his ears to ward off the dizziness from watching the spectacle. A tiny twitch in the corner of his mouth threatening to turn upwards was the only reaction Tai had. He was far too used to Puffmon's hyperactive tendencies to be surprised by them anymore. Instead, he glanced down the hallway to the door that was his parent's bedroom. It was shut without the barest hint of noise coming from beyond it.

 

Maybe he shouldn't disturb her. She might be sleeping.

 

“Yuuko would want to know you're back safe and sound,” Puffmon said, her mad spinning coming to a halt and settling softly upon his shoulder.

 

Well, maybe he could just peek in on her real quick.

 

Tai slowly approached the door, each footfall closer making his legs feel like lead, and hesitated briefly before grasping the doorknob and pushing it open slightly.

 

It was like looking at a distorted picture of a fairy tale where the princess laid on her bed awaiting the prince's kiss to awaken her to life once more. But no magic spell held Yuuko Kamiya captive in euphoric slumber, only the throes of illness that fed on her health and drained her of energy. The pallor of her skin was a pasty grey; her hair laid strewn out on the pillow behind her and matted and sweaty across her brow, its once-shining shade of brown now dulled.

 

The only sign of life that came from the body on the bed was the slight rise and fall of the chest beneath the covers.

 

The phone was ringing.

 

“Kari-Kari and Tai-Tai are slow! You can't catch me! You can't catch meeee!”

 

Atop of the refrigerator, Miko glared down upon the antics of the three who had stolen her food and disturbed her peace and hissed her displeasure.

 

Ring. Ring. Ring.

 

Koromon tripped over one his own ears in his game of chase and crashed into the table, knocking the phone off the hook to the floor.

 

“Hello? Hello, Tai, Kari, are you there?” their father's familiar voice floated out of the receiver.

 

A small figure in pink koala pajamas picked up the phone and blew her whistle in one sharp burst into it.

 

“Owww! What the—Kari? Kari, be a good little girl and give the phone to your brother, okay pumpkin?”

 

Whistling two more times in confirmation, Kari trotted obediently over to where Tai and Koromon were playing a game of tug-of-war with Tai's goggles, and held the phone out to him.

 

“Gimme back my goggles, you overgrown marshmallow!” Tai shouted pulling with both hands.

 

Koromon curved his mouth in a wide grin around one of the plastic eyepieces and growled as he shook it playfully.

 

“You're getting drool on them!” Tai howled.

 

“Tai, quit pestering poor Miko and listen to me!” Susumu yelled and Tai started so badly at his father's panicked, frantic tone that he released his grip on his end of the goggles and Koromon went flying backwards with propelled motion.

 

“What's wrong, Dad?” he asked.

 

“Your mother's had an accident. I'm at the hospital right now. I might not—we might not make it back home until late tonight.”

 

“Mama?” Kari said blinking large brown eyes, the whistle dropping out of her mouth to swing to and fro like a pendulum across the front of her chest.

 

“W-what happened?” Tai said, glancing at the clock that read 5:05.

 

His mother had said she was going out for groceries that morning. He realized that she should have been back long ago now, but he hadn't given much thought to the time all day with Koromon around.

 

“I don't know exactly.” Their father sounded worried. “The doctors think its anemia or something…”

 

“Anny-me?” Kari tried to repeat, not understanding.

 

Tai was confused as well. “She's got an underwater plant growing inside her?” he asked wondering how that was possible. His class had learned about it in science just the week before.

 

“What? What do you—no! No, not anemone! Anemia!” Susumu shouted frustrated. “Just never mind. I'm staying here until they release her. It might take awhile. They're going to run some tests, so Tai, look after your sister until we get back, okay?”

 

Look after your sister until we get back…

 

“I'm sorry,” Tai whispered standing at his mother's bedside and reached out one hand as if to touch her pale cheek but stopped.

 

As if sensing another presence in the room, Yuuko Kamiya opened brown eyes that slowly focused on the figure next to her bed. “Tai,” she said, a smile spreading across her fatigued features, “you're back.”

 

“Hey… Mom. I, uh… have a partner now,” was all Tai could manage to think of to say, holding out Koromon who gazed down at upon the woman curiously.

 

“Pink,” Yuuko said staring at the Digimon in her son's arms. “Kari will like that. It's her favorite color.”

 

Tai stepped back in alarm. So, it was one of her bad days then.

 

“Yuuko needs her rest, that's all,” Puffmon defended her partner, floating down to land her pillow and sounding distressed. She had said this phrase so many times in the course of four years that she was beginning to sound like a broken record.

 

“Rest, right,” Tai said, turning away and not bothering to say good-night. In this state, his mother wouldn't even notice if a hurricane blew through so wrapped up that she was in her own fantasy world.

 

“She'll be better in the morning,” he heard Puffmon say before he closed the door behind him and then came the sounds of quiet, stifled sobs of the little Digimon from beyond it. “Please forgive me, Yuuko. I wasn't strong enough to protect you…”

 

oOo

 

Tai only picked at the Chinese food his dad had ordered and gave his portion to Koromon who devoured it eagerly. Then he retired to his room early declining the offer to watch tv with his father and Gotsumon.

 

“Well, this is it,” he said, setting the Digimon down on the single bed that presented Koromon a clear view of its messy interior with its hazardous sinkhole of clothes and soccer equipment strewn about the floor. “I guess you'll have to share the bed with me. We used to have a bunk bed, but…”

 

The sickening crack of splintering wood as it collapsed under the weight of a rapidly growing creature…

 

“Well, we don't anymore,” Tai finished lamely.

 

Kormon sat on his bed gazing at him with round, red eyes. In the darkness of the room they looked like two pieces of glowing coals from a fire. It unnerved him.

 

“Hey, aren't you ever going to say something?” Tai asked because he hadn't really thought about it until now, but the Digimon hadn't uttered a single coherent word since his transcendence into the real world. He wondered if the other children's' Digimon had done the same at first. They had had their partners longer than him though. Maybe it just took a little time, like how a human baby learned and absorbed his surroundings during the first few progressive months.

 

Koromon's left ear twitched in response as he blinked up at his partner, opened his mouth widely… and emitted a gigantic yawn.

 

Tai chuckled at the sight. “Well, I guess it is getting late,” he said lifting his arms above his head and yawning himself. “I'll start teaching you first thing in the morning...”

 

He flopped face-first onto the bed, too tired to even change into his pajamas. This had to have been the longest, strangest, most hectic twenty-four hours of his life if he didn't count that night four years ago. And tomorrow… tomorrow it all would begin again.

 

Talk to Mizuki Kishimoto at the Fuji TV station…

 

And Tai slipped into a feverish sleep that did not allow him peace even in his dreams.

 

To Be Continued…

 

A/N: Ah, finally, new chapter at last! Plotage runs rampant here, you just won't be able to see it until hind-sight several chapters later, unless you picked up on the hints.

We get to see Yuuko's Digimon, yay! I spent some time on Digimon Wikia searching through the Digimon's databanks because my card collection is rather small. (Yes, I still have a trading and game card collection of Digimon—Digi-fanatic freak alert, lol)! Puffmon is the English spelling of the Japanese Romanization of “Pafumon”. I tried to describe her as similar to the picture shown as I could, but I gave her her own unique personality. She's a Baby Digimon partnered to an adult human. In case you haven't picked up on it, not all Digimon evolve as their partners age. In fact some never do. Can they? Yes. Why don't they? This is explained in further chapters—more plot devices!

Next chapter: things will heat up. Literally. You don't want to miss it! In fact, should I say it? I will, some reviewers' questions and fears will at last have an answer! Muwahahaha! Stay tuned!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this! Please review and share your thoughts. I love hearing what you liked best and it's the only reward a fanfic author gets. Favoriting and story alerting my story are nice too, but I like knowing what my readers think and feel. It makes me feel as if I'm actually connecting with you guys; even if it's just one word or a whole page long, I appreciate each and every one. If you have any questions just ask, and I'll try to answer to the best of my capabilities without giving anything away. Thank you!^^