A/N: Born out the euphoria of writing that I first experienced in the fall of 2006 with Autumn Leaves, the sequel, Promise, was meant to be a short story about love and adventure. It was released in the December of that same year and I never imagined it would make it past the following summer. But I took a break from writing to refocus on academics that following spring… and when I came back I had completely reinvented the story. It became dark and about the sad places I had been in life, about facing adversity alone, with no help from all of the most likely of places. The original version of this A/N was significantly longer and according to my laptop, I finished Promise in November of 2015. However, the story is not complete and so I now present to all of you the conclusion to Promise. Love and be loved. Read… and review!

Homecoming

How many times had The Darkness shocked and startled us? How many times had he reappeared when I thought him defeated? How many more times would we do this dance, of us crushing him beneath our heel, only for him to slither away and strike from behind. Once more unto the breach, I suppose, and I, with fists clenched and tears drying up, raise my head to face the enemy that I born.

I came face to face not with myself, completely blackened by the evils of the real and digital world. Instead, I faced the blue dragon. "Azulongmon!"

We all stood in stunned silence, staring up at the Digimon Sovereign. Slowly I realize that beside him stood a black tortoise and a white tiger. They all loom over us, watching us carefully. Ryo speaks out for us first, "Azulongmon, Ebonwunmon, Baihumon, what are you all doing here? What is this?"

There is a short pause, the three sovereigns look at one another and then Azulongmon speaks out, "We came to thank you, of course. We truly believed all was lost."

"Where were you this whole time? Why didn't you try to help us?" Rika calls out to them.

"If we could have been of some assistance, Ms. Nonaka, we certainly would have." Azulongmon explains.

"What happened then?" Henry asks.

"We lost in our great struggle with The Darkness… but you have set us free, at last." Baihumon responds.

A thought comes back to me of something Impmon had told us a long while ago, "Weren't you all helping the resistance against The Darkness? Didn't Impmon tell us that?"

"Indeed, we were. What Impmon relayed to you at the time was factual, but not for long." Azulongmon goes on. "As you remember, it was not long after your meeting with him that The Darkness attempted to snuff out the resistance as a whole."

It all seemed so long ago, but it's true. When we met with Impmon at first, there was so much to go off of. The Sovereigns were alive and helping and there were legitimate forces opposing it. But as soon as we were secured within the base, that's when he tried to ambush us. Images of the DarkTuskmon on Impmon's screen come rushing back. We flooded that mini-fortress he had deep inside the digital earth, and then did battle with BlackWarGreymon and Ryo and so much more. We'd been on our own since then, and now the Sovereigns were back to help us. "We didn't stand much of a chance against The Darkness did we, huh?"

"Probably shoulda just rolled over for him." Ebowumon speaks with both of his heads.

"Well, what happened to you all after that?" Henry asks. "I mean… I know what happened to us, but did you go through anything," he struggles with his words, "like that? And what was his end game after all?"

"We don't know, and we may never know." Baihumon answered.

"Whatever it was, it was not meant for the Digital World." Azulongmon continues.

"So what? Like, he was staging some sort of coup of our world?" Rika spits back.

That's right. The Darkness wanted the real world too. He made that abundantly clear, that he was going to finish with the Digital World and then go for ours. But was he already planning that? Is that why he was so powerless against me at the summit of Mount Sakuya? Because he had already allocated the three remaining Sovereigns for the real world? He unleashed Kimeramon and BlackOmnimon on me, but if he truly had the powers of Shining Digivolution from Calumon, then he could have done much more to protect himself. If nothing else, buy himself time. But what if he couldn't? What if he had already done himself in by prepping for the next step? He thought we were done for after Kazu died. He thought he was going to be able to manipulate me in any which way he wanted, of course he had begun to move to the next step. But what was the next step? He couldn't get to the real world just because he wanted to, right? How did he plan on proceeding?

"We don't know, as Baihumon said, and now we will never know. He had many powers at his disposal, so his defeat is rather grand." Azulongmon goes on. "Now, we must look forward towards rebuilding the Digital World, after The Darkness."

"Out of Darkness and into Light." Henry says out loud, to himself, but not loud enough for the Sovereigns to hear.

"What will you do?" Ryo calls out. "How will you rebuild?"

Azulongmon pauses before saying, "We believed the D-Reaper was the one true enemy, but The Darkness proved that there are powers at work beyond our measure. We were incapable of stopping it in any regard, and the battle for our world's soul was left to you, the Digidestine, coming to the rescue."

As he calls us 'Digidestine,' there is a hushed excitement from around me. Ryo and Henry have cautious reproach, looking at one another and smiling in confusion. Jeri and Kenta look at them smiling as well. Suzy is confused and apprehensive. Rika looks on in wonderment. She briefly looks up at me with a look of fascination at this. I just smile back at her. The word still doesn't feel right. 'Tamers' fits so much better, in my opinion.

Azulongmon continues, "We certainly cannot rely on that happening if we ever find ourselves caught in such a predicament again. With Zhuqiaomon dead, we will need to discuss with Fanglongmon about how to proceed with how we will govern the South, at least until he can return from the digieggs, someday."

"Fanglongmon? I've never even heard of that digimon?" Rika calls out.

A guilty twinge pulls at my heart as I can't help but think Kazu would have known, and I turn my eyes back to his statue.

"Fanglongmon is the Sovereign of the Center of the Digital World. He resides within the Digital World and supervises us from there." Azulongmon explains.

"He's sort of like the boss, ya know?" One of Ebowumon's heads says.

The other head jumps in, "A little bit of a crazy, ya know? He doesn't do too well at parties."

"Unfortunately," Azulongmon interrupts before they can go on, "I don't believe there will be much for him to tell us. I suspect we will have no choice but to meet with the Royal Knights."

This intrigues us all. The Royal Knights? Why have they never mentioned them before? I know about them only because of the television show and card games. But with the presence of the sovereigns I assumed they didn't exist? I ask, "Wait, the Royal Knights are real?"

"What are the Royal Knights?" Jeri asks to our group, but me specifically.

"They're thirteen of the most powerful digimon in the Digital World." Kenta says without a hesitation.

"Not only that, they're protectors of it. But they're not suppose to assemble until the end of time for the Digital World." Ryo says.

"Henry, why didn't they help us?" Suzy cries.

"Hah, you humans have quite the imagination." Baihumon says smugly.

"What?" I call out.

"So what are the Royal Knights then?" Henry yells out.

"And who are they exactly? And what do they do?" Rika asks as well.

"Enough." Azulongmon interrupts. "The Royal Knights gather to overhear and rule on the Digital Worlds greatest problems. They will not gather at the end of times, they will gather when the Digital World is in great crisis."

"So then what was all of that?" I yell, miffed. "The Darkness enveloping the Digital World wasn't enough for them to step in? Did they need me to die too for them to intervene?"

"That is a question we will have to present to Imperialdramon Paladin Mode. I do know that calling upon the digidestine is a last resort for the Royal Knights, one that they take only when all other options are exhausted."

"Is that what happened then?" Henry asks without missing a beat. "Were we called here? Did the Royal Knights call upon us?"

"You ask many questions that I can not answer. In the meantime, I expect one of the Royal Knights to take over for Zhuqiaomon."

After a brief pause Ryo speaks up, "Imperialdramon… Paladin Mode?"

Ryo asks the question on all of our minds. Imperialdramon Paladin Mode? That was just in the movie from a cartoon show. But I guess, after all that we've been through, what the hell, it's all up for grabs now. I just had to defeat a Dark version of myself to save Rika, all of my friends, and the digital world. What is impossible?

"Yes, he is the founder of the Royal Knights." Baihumon responds, his patience wearing thin.

Our patience has also dissipated, but we're just being stung more and more with each new revelation about the Digital World that we were unaware of until now. Azulongmon interrupts the silence, "I can understand your confusion. There is a lot about our world that we have never fully explained to you. But it is for the best that you don't know. All you need to know is that when we send you back to your world this time, it will be for the last time. There will be no mistake this time, and we will not have a repeat of The Darkness."

This news is crushing, but in a shocking revelation, no one objects. Perhaps the horrors of this trip have taught us better. Almost losing Rika, Ryo, Henry… actually losing Kazu forever… it's all too real now. We can never come back. Never. My Dad will have quite the laugh at this, that now I won't even put up a fight about never coming back. But what of Kazu's parents? What will they have to say to their son? I look up to the sovereigns. "Azulongmon, is there anything you can do f-for Kazu?"

The question hangs in the air and the gravity of it weights on all of us. Baihumon bows his proud head. Ebowumon's heads both look away. "Takato," he starts, but nothing more needs to be said. Rika moves towards me quietly and wraps an arm around me. I drop my head and the guilt envelopes me. "What Kazu did was a selfless act of love for all of you. He was possessed by the one thing The Darkness could never understand. He loved you. He loved all of you. But what The Darkness did to him…"

"No, I understand, I get it. I, I know." I cut him off.

There are no more words exchanged and as the seconds pass by in silence it grows heavier on my soul. Finally, Henry jumps in, "You never answered my question."

"Which was what, lad?" Ebowumon asks.

"How will you rebuild?"

Azulongmon rises to the occasion. "We have been faced with our darkest hour. But we have come through, and now go forth into a bright new chapter in the history of the Digital World. We have been burned to the ground, and we have been turned to ashes." He says. "But from this we shall rise."

Henry nods his head. "Good to hear. Thank you."

"No, thank you, digidestine. Now, if you don't mind, we must attend to our world."

"Yes, of course. Please." Rika says. She turns her full attention to me as the Digimon Sovereigns disappear.

The scattered signal and crackle of the screen went on as we turn on our PDA to a different setting for the first time. I sat beside Rika on my right and Jeri on my left. Henry was behind me, Ryo and Kenta weren't with us. They're standing before the statue of Kazu, examining it. Rika held my hand and squeezed it tight while we waited for the blonde man to answer our call. Henry asks, "What if he doesn't answer?"

Almost as if answering his question the screen clears and suddenly we are looking into the brown of Yamaki's eyes. "Takato, Henry, the rest! Happy to finally see you. We were really getting worried."

"How long has it been there?" I asked, knowing that time goes faster in the Digital World, but I've really lost track of the time we've been here.

"Two days. We expected to hear from you all much sooner. What's happening over there, Takato?"

Two days? Just two days? Beleaguered from the journey I respond, "Ugh, nothing. Anymore."

"What does that mean?"

Rika interjected, "Nothing, Yamaki. We'll just… just send a ship so we can come home."

"You want to come back already?" He asked surprised.

Henry jumped in this time, "Yes. Send an ark. We'll explain everything once we get back."

Yamaki turned his head to a strange angle and gave me a doubtful look. He asks, "Takato, is everything alright?"

Two days. That's all it's been. It's been two days since Suzy pushed me into that portal. I crashed through that black window that would later doom my friends to the Dark Ocean World. I landed in the Valley of the Shadows and proceeded to give priceless information to the enemy. BlackAgumon would betray me soon after and nearly kill all of my friends. And then we escaped and I thought we were safe. But then Dark Rika ripped my heart out and for a day I thought I had lost it all. The Darkness sent his Valley after us, followed by his endless army of troops. We fought against his army. We lost so many friends. I fought against Rika and watched her try to commit suicide. I then found out I was my own worst enemy. Impmon and I nearly died trying to kill BlackWargreymon. I personally killed Ryo. And Henry. And Rika. I watched Kazu die in front of me. And then I defeated The Darkness after Kazu left me at the gates of heaven. And then, to top it all off, I found the Digimon Sovereigns not only could not help Kazu, but also that the digital universe is much larger than any of us ever thought, and they would be promptly sealing us out of it forever. In two days. Am I alright? Am I?

Rika squeezes my hand. I look up into her violet eyes, and then back to Yamaki on the tiny LCD screen. "Send the ark."

It's really bizarre. The reason we wanted to all come back was for a vacation to see our partners. We just wanted to see them again, our better halves. We wanted to just spend a few days of our summer vacation before high school started with the digimon who so greatly shaped our lives. But the journey that presented itself to us when we arrived, it was enough to drive us all to the brink. Now, as we prepare to say goodbye to our partners, forever, there is no remorse. At least none from me. I see so clearly that we can never come back. The digital world must be sealed off forever, and no one can ever come here again. If we had never come back, Kazu would still be alive. But I'm still going to miss Guilmon like hell. There's no doubt about that.

The ark has just landed and so I turn to face him and the other partner digimon. He shows so much sadness in his eyes, he completely betrays him as he tries to speak, "Takatomon, I understand that you have to leave."

I close the distance and wrap him in a tight embrace. I hear the other close in on their partners as well. "I'm sorry, boy. I never wanted it to end this way. I swear."

As we talk, similar words are exchanged all around. Jeri holds Calumon close to the ark. Rika and Renamon separate first and she takes a few steps back to eye up the two-legged fox. "So, how are you going to get by without me?

"I should ask you the same question." Renamon shoots back and they both share a smile.

Henry is crying as he lets go of Terriermon. "Henry, momentai! You've got your best friends and they'll never be apart from you."

Henry stares at Terriermon endearingly, before looking at me and Rika, then slowly to Jeri and Ryo and finally Kenta. He looks at Suzy and we are all invested in this moment. "Hey Suz, you ready to go home?"

She holds Lopmon's ear like the tail end of a blanket, but reluctantly lets go as she approaches Henry. He picks her up and holds her at his waist. We all drink up the scene before us, and our partners do the same. In the distance the digieggs still snow down onto the digital earth and it's scary that that many digimon were killed in combat against The Darkness. It's just another reason to get on the ark. We need to get out of here so we can't cause any more trouble or be hurt ourselves. I pull Rika by the hand and we turn away.

As the others turn with us for the road home a voice calls me back, "Takato," I turn and Renamon has stepped forward. "Take care of Rika for me. I'll be watching."

She gives a wink and both parties have a big laugh about it. We turn back again to get on the ship. I stop at the entrance and Rika does the same. Henry and Suzy get on first. Ryo is next, followed by Kenta. Jeri disappears inside slowly. I look at Rika and with a smile she slips inside the ship. I put one foot inside, but turn back for one last look. Renamon, Terriermon and Monodramon are in the background, all invested in a deep conversation. Guilmon, the closest, stands with teary eyes. Calumon sits on top of his head waving goodbye frantically. Lopmon and Marineangemon are also close by as well, right next to each other. I'm going to miss all of them, so much. My eyes turn upwards to the black pulsating star in the sky, which represents our world, or at least I thought it did? It's still shackled by those red and purple chains. If I had remembered it, I would have asked the Sovereign. But its not my problem. Not anymore.

Finally my eyes return once again to the statue of Kazu. Slate gray his arms are outstretched, his palms to the heavens. Bent knees, head pointed towards the sky, his mouth open screaming out, 'TAKATO HELP!' And I never moved. This is the image that will haunt me for the rest of my life. I turn away and enter the ship. As I do, however, a feel a shudder go up my spine. I turn to see if there is anything behind me but only the exit of the ark, which quickly closes shut.

"Yamaki?" Henry asked the PDA.

"Ready to come back?" He responds.

"Bring us home."

"The landing location will be the same as last time."

"Alright."

With that the call ends. I saddle up next to Rika, who lies against the wall, sitting on the floor. Henry sits in front of the Ark's controllers, to which we have no say, Suzy in his lap, her head gently resting up against his chest. Suddenly the Ark lurches forward and we are off. Ryo and Kenta are sitting together on the opposite wall of us, whispering about something or other.

"You did it, Takato."

I look in her eyes and slowly look away. I want to say something about how Kazu was really the one who did it. I want to say that we did it. I do not feel like we accomplished anything. I only feel like we lost. But I can't bring her down with me on this. She doesn't need me to weigh her soul down with the weight of my sins. She already dealt with so much. She had her own battles to fight. "We got very lucky."

"Almost like it was destined." She says. "Can you believe that? Can you believe that we are Digidestine?"

There is a certain reverence in her eyes. I have yet to publicly fight against the word with anyone. We sit in relative darkness on the ark, isolated, just the two of us. I feel more centered right now than I have at any other point in this trip. I say to her, "I don't know if I like that word. I don't know if I agree with it. We're the Tamers, that's who we are, it's all I've known since this all started."

"Well, if it's all real, if everything was real, then we would be Digidestine. I think we were fated for this."

"But everything we did, before and now, we did on our own. We didn't get help, we didn't-"

"You shouldn't be quick to deny your destiny. You can't ignore it."

I look at her incredulous. We share a brief moment of looking at one another like each of us is crazy. A smile forms on my face and then hers and we laugh.

We give a soft peck on the lips and then she snuggles up against me and rests her head on my shoulder. I stare into the distance and think about how we disagreed, but didn't let it get between us. Jeri, who had been sitting with Ryo and Kenta, now gets up and walks over to us. She sits down without saying a word and smiles at us. "Thank you two, for everything."

"Don't look at me," Rika says. "He did it all."

"I didn't do anything. I couldn't have done any of it without you." I tell her.

"Regardless, it was you two who got us out of there alive."

"Jeri, please, we didn't do anything." I implore her.

"No, I'm serious. Takato, you lead our army from the outside while Rika, you fought The Darkness from within."

I try to turn the tables. "Well, Jeri, it was really you who propelled me to take on The Lightness at the end. Your speech right before that last night is what really put us over the top, I think."

"What speech?" Rika asks, the slightest hint of jealousy in her voice.

"Oh, well, it was nothing. I just said that I wouldn't change anything about what happened between him and I last fall because it led him to you." she says.

Rika blushes at this and looks to me. "Is that true?"

"That's exactly what she told me." I tell her.

Rika buries her head on my shoulder again. "Thank you, Jeri."

"No, like I said, thank you two. You two did it. Together."

With that, she gets up and retreats to her opposite wall with Ryo and Kenta.

"That was really nice." Rika says to me.

"Yeah, definitely."

"Think she regrets missing out on you now?" she asks me.

I let out a small chuckle. "I really doubt that."

"Yeah, me too. I think she and Henry are gonna hook up at some point."

I toss my head back in reproach and look sideways down at her head on my shoulder. "I don't know about that one."

"I guess we'll just have to find out with time, won't we?" she asks.

"Maybe." I respond.

After a few seconds pause Rika snuggles closer, gripping my arm more so and nudging her head further onto my shoulder. "You feel that chill?

"I felt something earlier, but not really anymore."

"Ugh, feels like someone is breathing icy cold breath down my neck."

I wrap my arm around her shoulder and pull her closer. "Guess you'll have to warm up somehow then, right?"

"Oh no, not with you." She says and yet wraps her arms around me.

"No, no, no. Not at all. Opposite sides of the ark, miss. Like we're complete strangers."

We both laugh at this. The ark rocks along slowly and Rika, like the rest of the ark's occupants, is asleep with time. But not me. I can't sleep. I wonder if I'll ever be able to sleep again?

BOOM!

The Ark comes to a thud landing and those who had still been asleep are now awake. Rika has been awake for a little bit now. Suzy finally wakes and so does Ryo, who slept most of the trip as well. Kenta and Henry are the first to stand up. Rika gets up before me. Even Suzy is standing before I am. I feel like I weigh a thousand pounds. I don't want to move at all. We're back in our world, safe and sound. It's been a little more than two days. Relatively no time has passed. But it feels like a lifetime ago that I saw these people last. A slender hand appears in my line of vision. I follow it to Rika's torso and she looks down at me, knowingly. What has she endured? I fought The Darkness while she was enslaved by it the whole time. What do I have to complain about?

I grab her hand and she helps to pull me up on my feet. I go to stand with the others and together we all go out together. The door opens and slowly we all step out into the water fountain once more. We trudge through the ankle-deep water for a few steps before stepping up and out. Almost exactly like the last time, it is pitch dark out. There are flashing red and blue lights. Red and white lights. But most of the light is behind us, coming from the ark. There are so many people, everywhere. My eyes struggle to adjust to the darkness and lightness together. Ironic that it would be both of them that I would struggle with upon my return.

Finally, my vision comes into focus as my friends rub their eyes. But the first thing I see…

I let go of Rika's hand and step forward. I look across the way to eyes that don't meet my own. They are anxious eyes. Eyes that are scanning us, looking for something. They look right past me. They don't even see me. They don't know what I have seen, they don't know what these eyes have witnessed. Four brown eyes focus on me as I close the gap between us. An older, mustached man with glasses looks utterly bewildered at me. A woman with shoulder length hair, his wife, who recognizes me fondly, focuses in on my face. I never stop moving towards her. I throw my hands up around her neck and bury my face in her shoulder. The tears come in hot waves, crashing onto her shirt.

I shudder loudly. I gasp for air and cry unforgiving tears of sorrow.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." I weep and refuse to let go.

"Takato, where's Kazu?" Mrs. Shioda asks me.

I wonder how long it's been in the digital world since we left now? How long has Renamon been without me? If something like a week, give or take a few days, is just two days in our world, then what's three weeks? Like ten weeks? How long is she going to search for me before she realizes she can't get back to the real world? A few days? A few months? A few years? I remember, way back when, watching Digimon Adventure. They came back to the real world to fight Myotismon and when they went back years had gone by. The Dark Masters took complete control by the time they got back. They were home for what? Like a month or something? Maybe two? And a lifetime had elapsed.

Apparently time doesn't elapse that fast between the worlds, but maybe it's exponential? Like it'll get faster the longer we're apart? And if the Royal Knights and the Digimon Sovereigns have it their way, they'll never be contact between our worlds again. And how long can Renamon survive for an infinite time without me? Can she live forever? Does it matter? I'll never see her again.

Yeah, so, three weeks has gone by since we came back. It was so, so hard on all of us to see Takato with Kazu's parents that night. He couldn't stop crying and there was nothing I could do about it at all, which was really the worst part. Knowing how much pain he was in and knowing I couldn't help in any way. I could sense his guilt before we arrived, we all could, but to see him have to confront it, and then to see the Shioda's, having lost their son and having nothing to bury… it was just heartbreaking.

But we've all got to move on with our lives. They had a beautiful services nonetheless because Kazu deserved one. Ryo has gone off the grid socially, more or less, but I keep hearing about him on the card tournament circuit. He's been exploding when he loses, telling his competitors that they don't know what it means to battle Digimon. I can't imagine it's good for his mental state after what the three of us went through. He keeps in touch with Kenta, which is awesome, because I can't imagine what Kenta is going through now. His two closest friends, Kazu and Takato, were basically lost in that two days in the Digital World. Jeri was grounded for an indefinite time after the events of the Digital World. Her father was furious with the way we all took off even knowing he was right there when we left. This time off is probably good for her though, time to collect her thoughts about the whole thing. Meanwhile, Henry checked on the portal and it was, indeed, closed by the time we got back. He keeps in close contact with us, and Jeri has done the same since it ended. We're all trying to rally together after what we went through.

Oh, and Takato? He and I are still madly, truly, deeply in love. I lay on the floor of my room, my hair let down as I stare out the window, waiting for him to arrive. He'll be here any minute. Just another one of our talking sessions, which is probably why we go together so well. We can just talk for hours together, or sit in silence and be comfortable with each other's company. Or maybe just make out for a while, you know, whatever we're in the mood for.

The point is, we have fun together and he makes me so happy. We're about to celebrate nine months together and it's been some of the best time of my life. I don't know, I never thought about teen love before he came around, I never thought about anything love related before he came around, but I don't know. This works. And right now, he's really hurting. He's getting better, but just… sometimes I worry about him. And sometimes I don't know what to say.

Sometimes there are no words. No clever quotes to sum up what's happened to us. Sometimes you do everything right, everything exactly right, and still you feel like you failed. Did it need to end that way? Could something have been done to prevent the tragedy in the first place? The Darkness altered the Digital World forever, and was dangerously close to taking over our world. The thousands of digimon that were killed will eventually be reborn, but not without a long, lost time in-between, not to mention being misplaced. Guardromon will come back, in time, to find his partner died a hero. The death of Kazu is a life which can never be reborn or returned. Suzy will go home and try to recover from this, but she'll never be a child again. Kenta, who gave his closest friend for our efforts, will give the rest of himself trying to accept that he couldn't have done anything about it. All of this doesn't count the surviving digimon of our army and efforts, who had to fight and kill their own family and friends and must live with that blood on their hands. And what about the rest of my team? How many more times will Takato, Ryo, Henry, and Jeri be able to look into the abyss? How many more times before they won't be able to recover the pieces of themselves that the digital world took? Like I said, sometimes there are no words. No clever quotes to neatly sum up what's happened that day. Sometimes the day… just… ends.

The door slowly creaks open, and the limp figure of the boy who has my heart appears, standing over me. "Hey there, babe."

"Hi."

"What are you doing on the floor?" he asks, entering the room carrying a plastic bag.

"Just relaxing. Whatcha got there?"

"Oh, I bought a webcam. You know how you've been telling me to write a diary?"

"Yeah?" I say, sitting up as he takes a seat on the edge of my bed.

"Well, I just don't know that I want to do all of that writing. But with this, I figure I can keep a video log of my thoughts and shit. You know, until I get, um, right."

"There's nothing to right about you, babe." I say, moving to the edge of the bed with him. "But I love that you're trying to understand your feelings about everything. That's important."

"Yeah, I knew you were right so I—"

"I mean, when am I wrong?"

"I—decided to take your advice. And you're wrong all the time."

"Well there you go, you're wrong there. Because if I'm right all the time then I can't possibly also be wrong all the time too."

"You're full of it." He says, rolling his eyes and looking away.

"No, I'm full of YOU!" I yell and jump on top of him.

I crush him under my weight and he squirms to get free. "Rika! Not cool. Let me go, c'mon!"

"Say 'Uncle'!" I demand.

"Uncle!"

I let go of him and slump away, resting on my elbows. "What a wimp."

"I hate you." he says, sarcastically, lying against the headboard of my bed and looking at me from across the mattress.

"You love me." I shoot back, a smile already dawning on my face.

He looks back at me with the same smile and blush. "Yeah, yeah I do."

Somewhere, far away from Rika Nonaka's room, out in the Digital World, all is right. Life is returning to normal in the After Darkness Era, as baby digimon begin to evolve to their in-training forms and get back to their lives. The Digimon Sovereign guard the four directions with the help of Examon, who will wait until Zhuqiaomon returns to the South. The previous partners of the Digimon Tamers have been given special protection from the Sovereigns within Examon's reign, because he is a Royal Knight. The digieggs of Impmon and Guardromon were placed within the partner's protective care. Many of the other important eggs, such as MetalSeadramon, were given the highest security. A monument of sorts has been built around Kazu's statue, where digimon go to honor the deleted. Although the Digital World has moved on from The Darkness War, there is still subdued panic for fear of another uprising, but most are reasonable and know that no such attack will ever come again. The Darkness was a great evil, defeated and never to return again. No evil could ever rival or surpass The Darkness, and so no greater evil will ever come for the Digital World again.

High above the Digital World, a black orb that once represented the 'Real World' spins around, shackled by chains which are colored the same purple red as the D-Reaper. This black light pulsates at random intervals as an even darker light threatens to break free from the chains that bound it so tightly. Suddenly, the red chains crack. The darker light pulsates and the chains that contain the star break apart. They slip off and disappear. The shackles are gone. The black star is unleashed.

—FIN—

Promise

—FIN—

A/N: It is finished. At long last, Promise is complete. To truly understand this story you should read it from beginning to end. To understand it within the scope of Autumn Leaves and Promise as a series you should view Autumn Leaves as the run up to this story. The series has come to be about Promise, but Promise does not exist without Autumn Leaves. Autumn Leaves explains the time lapse between the events of the series and the tamers, or digidestines as some called them in Promise, return to the digital world. The ending of Autumn Leaves is so great because he opens up the gates for what Promise would become: it's exciting and grabs at you that an adventure is the next phase. Promise breaks Rika and Takato apart, both physically and emotionally, at least for a little. That was always the goal of Promise: to break apart and bring back the two lovers. See, Promise was suppose to be just a cute, quick story about love and adventure. The original plotline was the gang goes back to the Digital World, Rika and Takato break up from some sort of severance, everyone gets divided, and in coming back together Rika and Takato realize they need each other. Everyone goes back to the Real World, and they live happily ever after. It was going to be 9 chapters. But, as I've explained in previous author's notes, I realized in those first few months of writing Promise that you can't just go back to the Digital World. When you go back, you face a greater evil than you are ready for. In this case, it was an entity that for the longest time you could not even understand. It was just an entity, and it couldn't be defined as a digimon like Myotismon or The Dark Masters could be. It was just 'The Darkness.' But it wasn't the darkness of the digital world, it was the darkness of Takato's soul that enslaved the Digital World. And although the greater lightness eventually overcame that darkness, The Darkness will always be a part of Takato. It was within him before he came back to the Digital World, and it's a part of him now. He has seen things now. He has experiences, things that will never quit him. The death of Kazu is the most prominent, yes, but there's so much more than that. And what's worse is the time lapse is virtually non-existent. He went to war, saw friends die, killed them by his own hands, and while they came back, doesn't it just make it that much worse? You have to look at Ryo and Henry and especially Rika for the rest of your life and know that when they die someday, it will be the second time. And the first was because of you. And Kazu will never come back from that. How do you live with that? And then to go home to your own bed. To go back to being a teenager. It's an adult's soul Takato lives with now, and he can't go back, ever. And what about the others? If you read Power: A Page Out of Promise you know exactly the prison that Rika and the others lived in. They had their lives sucked out of them, they lost both emotionally and physically. And then they lost everything fighting The Darkness. Kenta will live the rest of his life knowing he contributed almost nothing and watched everyone before him die. Jeri, who has already been through so much, will now live with this horror as well. How do you ever come back from that? My point with "Homecoming" is… you don't. None of these characters, these teens, will ever be the same. The D-Reaper saga had a different affect on them because it was shared with the rest of the world. Everyone saw the D-Reaper and fought and survived against it. These kids, they just dealt with The Darkness alone. It was just them. No one could ever nor will ever understand what they have seen. It's a true horror of the story of Promise. But as a series, you can see Takato starting to come around thanks solely to the events of Autumn Leaves. Jeri's actions in "Just Friends" pointed him down the road that led to "The Golden Gates," so it had to be Jeri who came to his aid at his nadir and showed him the road back to Rika. And, in the end, it is Rika who is there to comfort him after everything, and it is Rika who will be there in the long run. See, Jeri isn't the villain. Jeri isn't the enemy to the Rika-Takato relationship. I made that mistake when I was much younger. If nothing else, she can act as a guide, at least in the scope of Autumn-Promise series, to show Takato the way to the yin to his yang. I've always believed that the reason Takato and Rika works, as opposed to Takato and Jeri or Rika and Ryo, is because they are different and the other pairings are too alike. You don't draw to those who are similar to you, you're drawn to the people who are different from you. It's science, it's a part of us. Opposites attract. We look for the positive to our negative. Rika completes Takato because she sees the world in a different way than he does. The typical analogy that gets associated is fire and ice. And I think Jeri knows that she and Takato would never work, that's why she proceeds down that road in "Just Friends." It's really beautiful, when you consider everything together. Everything about this ending has been precipitated by the actions of the beginning. Anyway, moving on to "Homecoming" and Promise as a whole. To finally get this monkey off my back is a huge deal for me. I can't tell you how much this has weighed on me, for so long. To write the end, to supply you, the readers, with the closure of Promise. That's why I think it took so long, honestly. It became a task, and the fun of writing was lost. I recaptured that fun during the summer of 2012 when I banged out all the chapters from "Keeping A Promise" to "The Lightness" in a couple of weeks. But, as with everything, the rest of my life got in the way and I never finished the final two chapters. Until now. It's been over 13 years since I started Autumn Leaves. It's amazing. I was so different, my life was so different when I started these stories. I hadn't even begun my sophomore year of high school when I started all of this. Now I went to college, grad school, and have been working full-time for 4 years. I belonged here, once. But I'm not sure I belong anymore. If I could do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat. All of it. I'd do everything because the pride and joy these stories have brought me can't be understated. These stories were essential in my life to discovering my own self-worth. They helped me find who I wanted to be, and in the process of crafting them, I can go back now and see who I was. As you can tell from the ending here of Promise, I'm not sure if I'm done telling this story. This doesn't feel like the end. So I'll leave it at that. Thank you for reading, and thank you for everything.

Love Always. Rukato Forever.

"Gentlemen it's time to spread the word, and the word is… Panic!"