Prologue: The Nightmare:
The dream began.
It was similar to all the dreams that the dreamer had had recently: A fifteen year old, blonde haired, blue eyed , sickly looking boy, wearing dull, tattered clothes, was walking across a cold, dark, and barren landscape. The ground was a gray color, incredibly boring. Hills covered the region, but not beautiful, rolling hills, nor even disturbing, steep hills. They were boring.
The dreamer could only see one thing clearly, though, because it was the only point of interest to the figure: A small break in the monotony, a cave cut into the side of one of the hills. The cave was reinforced with charred, burnt bones. The dreamer somehow knew that the boy was saddened by the material used to reinforce the cave walls, even though the creatures who's bones were used for the cave wall had been dead inside before he had had to kill them, and that the bones weren't even the reason he had killed them, but rather in self-defense.
As he walked into the cave, he knelt over a girl with red-brown hair and eyes, the only reason the dreamer knew the color of the girls eyes was because the dreamer knew who she was, from real life, (the dreamer was fully aware that they were dreaming, and this dreamer wasn't in the dream somehow), because she was asleep. A small fire, made of burning flesh, burned in the center of the cave, causing the dreamer and the boy in the dream wince.
This fire was the only point where light and heat met, as far as the boy was aware. There were points of unnatural light in the world, but they were all cold, and there were points of unbelievable warmth, but only in the dark. Here, light and heat met. Here was home, when all home had fallen and the world had broken.
"Hikari." The boy said, and the young women awoke.
"Takeru?" She asked, as she woke up.
"Who else?" The boy named Takeru, who the dreamer recognized as well, asked.
"Well, you might have found Tai." She said, with a single, hollow laugh. The dreamer could tell the laugh was forced; There was no happiness in this world left for this girl, except perhaps the boy standing over here, and the young women was fairly sure that her older brother wasn't alive. The dreamer winced, because they knew Tai, and his death hurt this dreamer deeply, even though they were fully and well aware this was a dream.
"No such luck." Takeru said, frowning.
"Well, you're back, so I'll be happy for now."
"Yeah, eight hours where both of us can be awake." Takeru laughed. His laugh was just as hollow as Hikari, for his world was just as hollow, and the girl he had just awoken was the only reason he kept fighting for survival... Well, that and the hope that perhaps he could liberate the world from The Masters, and then the remaining humans and Digimon could begin to rebuild.
"Don't make me think about the fact that I have to keep an eight hour vigil while you sleep soon." She said, frowning.
"Sorry, love." He said, helping her up.
"I forgive you." She said, and smiled. The girl was truly happy, because the boy was there, and that was all the girl could ever want. Even in this broken world, she still had something to live for, for the boy who held her heart still lived.
"I really wish we didn't have to keep this blasted fire going... What I would do for a lighter!" He said, smiling, "We could explore more than a few minutes away from the cave... We might actually be able to win!"
"'Keru... We're safe here." She said, "I'm not sure if it'd be smart to explore.
"Don't you want to know what happened to Tai?" Takeru asked, "I certainly want to know what happened to Matt... Don't you want to not have to live off the bones and the meat of the creatures that we swore to protect?
"Yeah... But... I don't know if it can be done."
"It can." Takeru said, a strange pendant he wore around his neck as much a sign of his failure as his success beginning to glow, "I have to keep hoping, remember?"
"Yeah." She said, smiling, and moved closer to the boy, "You're right. We can't give up."
"That's what I wanted to hear." He said, "Kari... Thank you. You know I couldn't keep going without you."
"Nor could I go on without you." She said, embracing him.
The couple embraced.
And then, the dreamer awoke.