Here is my fic Candystore from Fanfiction.Net. For those of you who are familiar, all five previous chapters are here, plus brand new Chapter Six. As far as comments go, since I posted this all at once, just let me know which chapter you are commenting on.

Summary: Brief moments in the lives of the Digidestined. Secrets are revealed, trusts are broken, and nothing will ever be the same again. 01/02 centric.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Digimon.

Chapter One

T.K. stared out his bedroom window, a million thoughts going through his mind. Four years ago, his life—and the lives of his brother and friends—had inadvertently changed. In many ways, it was for the better. But there was one particular incident that hung over them like an ominous cloud, threatening to resurface the storm.

Today it would no longer be a secret. They had decided to finally tell them—Davis, Cody, Yolei, and Ken—what happened.

And it wasn’t going to be easy.

Scene Break

Everything was Peachy-Keen at Gennai’s house. When Mimi and Izzy announced that they were vampires, and in fact, two of the Original Digidestined, Tai thought they were joking. They weren’t.

“Why didn’t you say anything before, I thought we were done keeping secrets from each other,” Matt said.

“We wanted to tell you, but doing so would compromise our position,” Izzy explained, grinning and revealing two sharp fangs that gleamed like knives. “Not even our parents knew.”

“How can that be,” Joe argued. “You’re only ten years old, and if you were the Original Digidestined, wouldn’t you be much older?”

“Actually, we’re 210 years old,” Mimi confessed. “We assumed new identities as orphans, and were adopted into families after we defeated Milleniummon. Both of us took on the persona of young children, and grew up as any normal kid would—except we retained the memories of our old life.”

Sora frowned. “I still don’t understand—why did you take on new identities?”

“Gennai wanted us to come back and help the new Digidestined—you guys, obviously,” Izzy explained. “He wanted a bigger group than last time, and volunteered us to go back to the Digital World.”

“I see,” Tai grinned. “I always knew there was something strange about you two.”

“Hey,” Mimi said warningly. “We’re no stranger than anyone else.”

“Except that you have fangs and you’re immortal,” Tai countered. “It all makes sense now, because no offense, there’s no way a ditzy girl like you, and a computer geek like Izzy could survive a day in the Digital World, let alone fight off huge enemies.”

“That’s profiling,” Izzy said accusingly. “But you do have a point.”

Joe looked a little nervous. “If you guys are vampires, why didn’t you ever bite one of us?” he wondered.

“Oh, we did,” Izzy grinned suddenly. “You can’t expect a vampire to go all that time without blood, can you?”

A nervous silence settled around them. Izzy got a sick pleasure out of watching them all squirm. “Okay then, who did you bite?” Tai demanded, pulling a protective arm around his little sister, Kari.

“We nibbled off each one of you at different times,” Mimi said, watching as hands instinctively reached up to touch their necks.

“I never saw any marks,” Joe protested.

“You wouldn’t,” Izzy laughed, unable to contain himself any longer. “Usually when a vampire bites someone, they lick the wound to heal it. The only way you would end up with a wound is if you come up against a psycho like Myotismon, he never learned the healing technique, nor would he care to.”

“You sound like you know him personally,” Gatomon said; her voice filled with dislike for her old master.

“I guess you could say that,” Izzy said vaguely.

T.K looked confused. Part of him wanted to run screaming out of the room, but deep down, another part of him said that Izzy and Mimi were trustworthy. They were his friends, after all, and just because they were vampires didn’t make them evil, did it?

Somehow, he wasn’t so sure.

Chapter Two

As if being one of the Digidestined weren’t burden enough, Matt was also very different from the other kids his age. At fifteen, he tried to live as normal a life as possible, but that was hard when you had to stick yourself with a needle everyday.

Matt remembered it all very well, like a movie that played itself over and over in his mind. How his mother had struggled to learn how to manage his disease while caring for his two-year-old brother; how his father had been too busy to take the time to learn, and how he himself had taken up the responsibility at the young age of five.

That’s when the fights started—the blame that his parents pushed upon each other consumed their lives. Matt was to this day pretty sure that his Diabetes was one of the biggest factors that led to his parents’ divorce when he was seven.

For his mother, all hope for a perfect first child had been cruelly shattered. For his father, it was a constant reminder that somehow, he had failed as a parent. Both of these beliefs were severely misguided. A five year-old was too young to be saddled with the task of following a restricted diet and sticking to their shot schedule, but neither of his parents could find the strength to carry it for him.

His parents’ feelings were one of the reasons Matt decided to keep the truth about his disease from his friends—it wasn’t until he could no longer hide it that they ever found out.

It was not shame or fear that distanced Nancy and Hiroaki from their son—it was guilt. Eleven years had done a lot to assuage that guilt, their family had come to terms with the hand they had been dealt. But still, what remained of Matt’s carefree childhood had been forcibly taken, and acceptance was no comfort for someone who had to grow up too fast.

Chapter Three

March 2004

T.K was eager to start the seventh grade. A lot had happened in the last two years, but finally, it seemed like things in the Digiworld were settling down. He decided last Friday to skip basketball practice and hang around with his brother, something they hadn’t been able to do for a while.

What he hadn’t expected was for his brother to open up to him.

They were taking a walk to Highton View Terrace, and stopped by the bridge where Izzy had fallen during their time back on Earth five years before.

Both of them stood in silence for a while, watching a seagull catch fish in the water below. “Dad wants me to try an Insulin Pump again,” Matt said suddenly.

T.K sensed his change of mood instantly. He recognized the irritated tone in his brother’s voice, and inwardly felt guilty that he hadn’t been around sooner to drag whatever it was that was bothering Matt out of him. This time, he guessed it was their father and the ongoing struggle between the two of them about ‘what was best’.

“Why’s that?” he wondered.

“Well, since I’ll be starting High School in a few weeks, dad thinks it will make things easier,” Matt sighed. They turned away from the bridge and walked down the sidewalk, trees rustling around them from a gentle breeze.

“What did you tell him?” T.K asked. He remembered the last time his brother, a Brittle Diabetic since he was five, had tried one of those Insulin Pumps. The memory was still vivid in T.K.’s mind, the day he walked into his dad’s apartment and found his brother convulsing on the floor.

He’d ended up in the hospital three times in one month because of seizures. It had been especially hard on T.K, who struggled to balance his time between fighting their enemies in the Digiworld, and being with Matt.

Sometimes he wondered who needed him more.

“I told him no,” Matt said, jerking T.K out of his thoughts. “And he told me to think about it—I don’t want to think about it, damn it, I know what I want.”

They were at Highton View Terrace now, where old memories still lingered. Their old apartment, the balcony where they watched their first Digimon battle unfold… and the candy store their parents used to take them to when Matt and T.K were little, before the divorce…before the Diabetes.

“I remember you telling me about this place,” T.K said brightly as they stood in front of the colorful window display. He had been too young back then, but T.K knew that for Matt the store represented a link to their old life, something none of them could ever get back.

“Yeah,” Matt smiled. “Sometimes I wish things were like they used to be. If mom lived with me she’d help me make this decision…I wish I didn’t have to make it at all.”

“I know what you mean,” T.K insisted, his hand pressed to the pane glass window. “I wish things were different too.”

In more ways than one.

They stood in silence once again, the air around them filled with the scent of peppermint and roasting nuts. From a nearby apartment, they heard kids screaming and a dog barking.

“I’ll go halfsies with you on a piece of fudge,” T.K spoke up, watching a woman inside cut up a pan of freshly baked chocolate.

“T.K,” Matt said sternly.

“Yeah, I know, you shouldn’t eat stuff like that, but why not just this once? We deserve to indulge a little,” T.K insisted.

As much as Matt longed for a taste of their old life, both literally and figuratively, he knew better than to dwell on the past. “I better not,” he said finally. “I’ve been kind of sketchy lately, up and down and all that.”

“You’re right,” T.K said. Together they turned away from the window, and walked away from the temptation, leaving old memories to rest.

“So, what did you decide?” T.K asked once they left Highton View Terrace, and walked across the bridge into the noise and life of the city.

“I think I’m going to tell dad I’ll do just fine on my own,” Matt said, grabbing T.K.’s hat off his head and running off with it. Even if it meant the usual routine of daily shots, he felt confident in his decision.

“Hey, give that back!” T.K shouted, chasing after him.

They raced down to the stoplight, crossing the road back to home, which was still home, no matter how it had turned out.

Chapter Four

T.K. flipped through his dad’s college yearbook, looking at pictures from the days his father had a crazy, long hairdo and wore bell bottoms.

“Those were the good old days,” Hiroaki said, sitting on the couch beside T.K. and cracking open a beer. He wasn’t a heavy drinker, but did enjoy a beer or two in the evenings.

“Oh, really…the styles sure have changed,” T.K. smiled, turning the page. The centerfold was devoted to a list of names and photos. A scanned newspaper clipping read: ‘Massacre at Tokyo University Leaves 48 Dead’. “What’s this?”

Hiroaki read over his shoulder. “There was a school wide attack by one of the students, Minoru Dakan. He murdered three people in front of me—and he almost killed me, too, before his girlfriend, Kyoko Pevensie, stopped him. It was horrible—bodies were mutilated and burned, their throats ripped out. He went through my dorm with a machete, the halls were covered in blood,” he shuddered from the memory.

“Minoru and Kyoko—what happened to them?” T.K. wondered.

“Rumor has it that after the killings, Minoru and Kyoko committed suicide together, because they were never seen or heard from again,” Hiroaki explained.

“Minoru Dakan and Kyoko Pevensie…I’ve never heard of them,” T.K. said, jogging his memory for stories that he’d read over the years.

“The media never released their names to the public,” Hiroaki said. “They kept to themselves, mostly. Nobody really knew them personally. Although, I remember having a few classes with Minoru—he was brilliant in mathematics and physics.”

Brilliant, T.K. thought. Could it be…?

He suddenly remembered Izzy and Mimi telling them about the multiple identities they assumed over the years while on the run from their parents. College students were one of them.

The front door slammed, and Matt came into the living room, home from band practice.

“Did you eat?” Hiroaki wondered, rising from the couch. “If not, I’ll order us some Chinese.”

“Sounds great,” Matt said. “What have you two been doing?” he asked, noticing the old yearbook open in T.K.’s lap.

“Just talking about dad’s college days,” T.K. said while his father was in the kitchen trying to find the Chinese Restaurant number. He dropped his voice down low/ “Did you know dad was almost murdered?”

“No way,” Matt protested, setting down his guitar case and joining T.K. on the couch. “Are you talking about the shooting at Tokyo University?”

“Yeah, how do you know about it?” T.K. asked.

“Dad told me years ago,” Matt said absently. “There was this kid named Minoru…”

“He was one of those misunderstood genius types—the only reason he didn’t try to wipe out the whole school was because his girlfriend stopped him,” T.K. whispered.

“No, Kyoko was involved in the murders too,” Matt corrected him.

“Really?” T.K. asked in disbelief. “It sounds like they might have planned the whole thing. But something sounds strange; dad said they burned people alive, and their throats were ripped out.”

Matt frowned. “You don’t think…”

Both brothers fell silent. Mimi and Izzy never spoke much about their past lives, but they wouldn’t have killed so many people at once, would they?

“Nah,” Matt and T.K. said together, laughing.

Chapter Five

T.K. still couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea that Izzy and Mimi were possibly murderers. Sure, they killed other vampires, but PEOPLE? Living, breathing, innocent people? They never killed anyone through biting them and drinking their blood that T.K. knew of—they always licked the bites and healed them.

“I have to see the stories for myself,” he muttered. “Hey, Matt, do you think we’d be able to find some old newspaper clippings about the Tokyo U massacre?”

Matt was busy tuning his guitar. “You’re still going on about that?” he groaned.

“I need to know,” T.K. said seriously. “I want to know what they’re capable of. If it was them…how can we trust them as our friends?”

“T.K.,” Matt sighed. “Izzy and Mimi would never—,”

“How do you know?” T.K. demanded. “Look at everything that’s happened to us, you and I both know that Izzy had plenty to do with it!”

“Fine,” Matt gave in. “I’m sure the library has the information we need; now let’s get this over with.” He stood up and went down the hall where their dad was on his computer. “Dad, Teek and I are going to the library; we’ll be back later, okay?”

“Sure, boys; be careful,” Hiroaki called as they left the apartment.

Two hours later, as they walked home in the darkening night, images of carnage haunted T.K. He had seen more than enough on the microfiche reader, read more than he needed on the Internet. He couldn’t believe it.

Scene Break

After they got home from the library, T.K. still felt unsettled. He couldn’t imagine Izzy or Mimi as murderous psychopaths, but everything seemed to point in that direction. The fact that Minoru Dakan had been a certified genius, and kept to himself was enough to qualify him as one of Izzy’s identities. And he had dated Kyoko, like Izzy was dating Mimi. It was the bloodthirsty personality that threw T.K. off.

He had always known Mimi as sweet and caring; Izzy was the computer geek, who was better with computers than people.

“Dad’s just over exaggerating,” Matt insisted, trying to calm T.K.’s nerves.

“Let’s call Izzy and ask him. I mean, he did say he disguised himself as a college student in the 70’s. That might really have been him!” T.K. said, hoping he was wrong.

“Right,” Matt took out his cell phone, dialed Izzy’s cell number, and handed it to T.K. “You talk to him, okay?”

T.K. clutched the phone, waiting for someone to pick up. Izzy answered on the third ring.

“Hello?”

“Yeah, Izzy, it’s T.K.—Where are you?” T.K. asked.

“I’m at home, defragging my computer. Why?” Izzy wondered.

“Are your parents home?” T.K. pressed.

“No, they went out for the evening; what’s up?” Izzy asked curiosity evident in his voice. T.K. usually never called him.

“Well, Dad was showing us his college yearbook, and he said there was this massacre at the University…” T.K. trailed off.

“And you’re wondering if it was me?” Izzy finished for him.

“Um, yeah,” T.K. said, slightly embarrassed. “Dad said the murders were committed by Minoru Dakan and Kyoko Pevensie.”

“Those were our identities in the 70’s,” Izzy admitted. “My disguise as Minoru wasn’t as ‘innocent’ as some of the others. You have no idea how hard it was for us to act like a normal people around all those kids. My father had sent spies to find us; we didn’t have much time to figure out where we were going to go. One day, we just snapped.”

“Dad said you almost killed him,” T.K. said.

“What?” Izzy demanded. “Oh, I remember now…he walked in on one of the murders, but all I had to do was give him the evil eye, and he ran off,” Izzy shook his head. “By that time, I couldn’t risk killing anymore people—Mimi and I had to get out of there…she’d killed twenty girls in her dorm, and I had nearly thirty; people were getting hysterical.”

“Dad said that Kyoko stopped Minoru from killing him,” T.K. spoke up.

“Well, yeah, I guess that’s true,” Izzy confessed. “Mimi has always been the one who made me realize when to stop.”

T.K. got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He noticed that Izzy hadn’t said Mimi prevented him from killing anyone, she just told him when to quit killing people. “You guys weren’t caught?” he said out loud.

“No—we took off that night, and staged out deaths,” Izzy explained.

“But how come the police didn’t see you? Why didn’t anyone turn you in?” T.K. demanded. “There were witnesses…”

Izzy sighed. “T.K., there’s a lot about being a vampire that you will never understand,” he said. “We can do things normal people can’t.”

“Wow…okay,” T.K. said nervously. “Um, thanks, Izzy,” he hung up the phone, feeling very unsure about Izzy. If he and Mimi killed so many people, what was to stop them from killing their friends?

Here's the new chapter!

Chapter Six

April 2004

The clock was ticking. T.K. stared at the minute hand, wondering if the longer he looked the faster time would go. His first week of junior high had gone off so far without a hitch, and he could safely turn his attention to basketball tryouts, which were being held after school.

T.K. wasn’t insanely hyper like Davis, but playing basketball helped him release some of the pent up energy he carried around. And it was something just for him. No one else shared his love for the sport—Kari had her photography; Cody, his Kendo; Davis and Ken played soccer, and Yolei had the Science Club.

“What are you daydreaming about?” Kari’s voice jolted him out of his thoughts and he looked around. Everyone had gathered their books, and they were practically pushing their way out of the room, eager to leave the first dreadful week behind them.

“When did the bell ring?” T.K. exclaimed, gaping at the clock. Sure enough, it was three o’clock. He couldn’t believe he had spaced out so much not to notice the time or even hear the bell. I hope I’m not becoming a sports fanatic, he thought, snatching up his backpack and running past a group of girls gossiping at the door.

“T.K., slow down!” Kari laughed, hurrying after him. “Tryouts don’t start until three-thirty, you still have half an hour. And nice of you to acknowledge my question, by the way,” she said jokingly.

“Sorry,” T.K. groaned. “I’m acting like a nut, aren’t I?”

“Maybe a little,” Kari said. “But don’t worry; I’m used to this kind of behavior. I live with Tai, remember? He gets so wound up about soccer that he dreams about it!”

“Oh, well I don’t dream about basketball, so I guess I’ll be okay,” T.K. decided. They walked outside and Kari led T.K. over to one of the picnic tables set up on the grass. T.K. opened his bag and made sure he had his basketball shoes, then quickly zipped it shut when he saw Kari snickering at him.

“You must be nervous,” she said.

“What if I’m not good enough?” T.K. asked. He realized how silly that sounded. While in elementary school he played against the other kids in basketball games during P.E, and really, being on the junior high team wasn’t so different. Sure there were older kids on the team, kids with higher levels of skill than his, but that was all part of the experience.

“T.K., trust me, you’ll do fine,” Kari insisted, reaching into her own backpack and retrieving what looked like a pair of old, dirty socks.

“What is that?” T.K. asked warily.

“The socks that Tai wore to his junior high soccer tryouts,” Kari explained, handing the socks to T.K. “He says they’re good luck, and told me you could borrow them.”

“Am I supposed to wear these?” T.K. wondered, inspecting the socks, fairly certain that Tai had never washed them, probably believing in some weird superstition that they were responsible for all of his soccer trophies and honors.

“I suggest you just keep them in your pocket,” Kari insisted, and, laughing, T.K. complied.

Sometimes, a little luck was all you needed.