And...that's it. This fic is finished. It took a year and a quarter too...longer than I had expected. But there you go; I tend to get distracted by other ideas.

Thank you to everyone for sticking through this and the irregular updates. Don't forget to drop a comment and tell me what you think once your done. I want to know what you got out of all that philosophical waffle that slipped in. Anyone agree? Disagree? Couldn't really care less? Anything?

Chapters remaining after this: 0

Up next: The sequel...check the post note

Enjoy.

Butterflies' Flight

AU. Like butterflies, they followed the flame, drawn to his light, despite that fact that following so blindly could potentially lead to corruption. And yet they shy away from the dark, the one thing that may save them yet...

Takuya K & Kouichi K

16 – Epilogue

The water was entrapping; icy cold, strong and with a dragging force that quickly sapped his strength. But he fought against that. Against the icy claws that threatened to drag them both down, clutching his unconscious brother, hoping almost against hope (or a fool's hope as he called it) that wrath was gone from the fall, hoping that Takuya and Junpei were right and that his brother still loved, and hoping that they would both get out of this situation so that hope could be rectified...or crushed.

Three minutes was all he could hold his breath for. Luckily, or perhaps there was an unseen force helping him, he managed to pull them both up to the surface within two and a half...but the force of water dragging him back down was a temptation too great to resist; he was exhausted. His grip was slipping. He was swimming for now...barely. His head just wouldn't stay above the water.

Before he slipped completely, someone was dragging him...Izumi actually, and as embarrassing as it was to be dragged like that by a girl, he let her. He was just too tired and cold.

But he had to make sure of one thing first.

And Izumi seemed to know that. 'Takuya and Junpei have him,' she whispered, setting him down at the safest edge of the embankment and stepping back so the medics, having gotten there so promptly thanks to Tomoki's cell phone, could wrap him up warmly and check him over for any injuries.

'Is he okay?' he asked, feeling starting to slowly crawl back as he followed instructions to move his body, finger and toe at a time.

Izumi said nothing...but the sudden sound of hacking coughs answered the question for him.

The paramedics took the unmoving boy from the other two, shooing them away, and so they rendezvoused a short while away, close enough to see both twins clearly but far enough so as not to be in the way.

One man leaned forward, checking pulse, then tilting the head and rearranging the limbs and beginning with the motions of resuscitation. The onlookers held their breath after the first cycle...but it wasn't till a few minutes when results were yielded.

The eyes, blue, mercifully blue, shot open in something akin to shock, and water spluttered from his mouth and nose from the deep coughs as he attempted to expel the foreign fluid from his lungs. One hand twitched closer to his head as the medic helped him sit up, making the passageway for expulsion easier, closely examining the pupils dilated in pain, and the reddening area, a reminiscent scar of a head injury, heating under his touch.

The coughing fit subsided with a thin trail of blood stemming from his mouth, but the pain grew, and he closed his eyes with a whimper, breathing still too rapidly for comfort. The paramedic forced one open to examine closely, before gesturing for a stretcher.

'What hurts?' he asked, gently, yet firmly.

'Head,' the other gasps, voice thick and hoarse.

The medic frowned, examining the swollen area. 'Have you had a concussion before?'

'He has,' Junpei affirmed from a few feet away. 'About a month ago.'

The man nodded absent-mindedly, before fitting the oxygen mask that sat beside him. He had refrained from its use earlier, seeing as the coughing up of fluid rendered the contraption essentially useless.

'We'll need a CT,' he commented aloud, helping another place the boy on the stretcher with little resistance, the leader firing questions along the way, each answered shortly and briefly, but answered all the same.

The other, a woman, nodded to the command, before turning to the two huddled groups. 'Contact details?' she asked briskly.

Kouji relayed them, before pulling the blanket a little tighter. 'Is he okay?'

She thought for a moment. 'Seeing as he's still conscious and coherent, I believe so.' After all, many lost conscious in the first thirty or so seconds...and more than half of those never woke up. Hence where the myths of concussions arose, but those first few minutes were always the most crucial. As well as the twenty-four hours that followed. 'But we're taking him to the hospital for a more thorough prognosis.'

'Can we come too?'

'In the other van,' the one who had been checking him over replied. 'We wouldn't want you all to be in the way if something changes, but you'll need your parents to come and get you.'

The twelve year old nodded, knowing that was the best he was going to get. He hoped that this would be the end, that they could now live like a family split as theirs' was could.

But something beeped in his pocket, and his D-scanner slipped out of the folds.

'What's that?' the medic asked, curious. 'Those latest gadgets you kids are into?'

'Sure,' Tomoki answered, as all of them were distracted by their own D-scanners being set off.

The five showed the same symbol, glowing black as the ring around it showed white. Taking them back to the day they had received the message.

And Ophanimon was calling them again. In a voice only they could hear.

This is a game to determine your future. Are you willing to play?

The End

Post Author's Notes

Here's the info for the sequel.

Achilles' Heel

Sequel to Butterflies' Flight. It is a fatal weakness in humankind, an enemy they themselves created and fuelled with each step towards defeating evil. Because evil always exists; it cannot be defeated, as does much else...a broken balance needing repair.

Takuya K & Kouichi K

Genre/s: Drama/Friendship

Rating: T

Length: 16 chapters

First chapter: Prologue