DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon!

A/N: I use the Japanese forms of Digivolution, sorry if it's confusing! (Baby = Fresh), (In-Training = Baby), (Rookie = Child), (Champion = Adult), (Ultimate = Perfect), (Mega = Ultimate)

Part One: Excursion

A harsh wind blew the sand into her eyes, and she raised her arm to protect her face. This world had been trying to discomfit her all day, almost as if it knew her purpose and was attempting to thwart her. She wasn't about to give up now; her search was not over. No insignificant sandstorm would hinder her.

And with the Digidestined still complacent and confident from their victory over MaloMyotismon and his pet Oikawa, even they would not be able to oppose her once she found what she was searching for.

Something hard met the tip of her shoe and she stumbled, nearly falling forward. She dug mercilessly at the sand with her foot, determined to find the offensive object and destroy it. The sand gave way easily, and she slowly unearthed the piece of debris.

To her surprise, a grayish cylinder poked out of the bottom of the hole she had created. The object looked vaguely familiar, though she couldn't quite place where she had seen it before. Reaching down, she tugged it out of its burial place and examined it, a sadistic glee settling over her. Neither time nor the elements had damaged it much; the sand he protected it for the most part. It was a whip, long and supple from frequent use.

Smiling complacently, she tucked it in her pocket and continued forward. Her hand caressed it as she walked.

^~^~^~^~^

"Stupid night crawler. I don't need you; I don't need anyone!"

I startled awake, breathing hard. The last remnants of the dream became hazy but didn't fade. They remained like fog in my mind, not substantial enough to grasp yet still hazy enough to draw my attention.

The blankets around me constricted, momentarily frightening me enough to elicit an alarmed cry from my mouth. Warmth brushed my stubby arms, and I relaxed slightly. Ken's gentle fingers wound around me in a lattice of reassurance and security. I sighed slightly.

"Daijoubu, Minomon?" Ken whispered as he leaned down to rest his chin on the top of my head. He must have already been awake, for I hadn't felt him sit up beside me. Had I really woken him up because of a silly dream?

No, it wasn't silly… it was terrifying.

Forcing those thoughts away, I nodded hesitantly. "H-hai. It was just a dream."

Ken shifted behind me, sitting up fully, and wrapped his arms more securely around me. "It sounded more like a nightmare."

"Ee, I guess it was," I said, attempting to recover some of my composure. It didn't work; Ken nuzzled my head and whispered in my ear.

"Tell me about it." His lips brushed my ear, and I shivered. Unconsciously, I sidled away from him. The dream, though fading, was still strong in my mind, and I could not banish its effects so quickly. I felt his sadness at having me rebuff him, though I didn't know how to apologize for it. This wasn't the first time I'd had a nightmare, but it had never felt this real.

I pressed my short arms against Ken's arm. "Gomen, Ken. It's just- this one scared me," I said quietly, forcing the words past the lump in my throat.

Ken pulled me around so that I was facing him. Darkness cast his features in shadow; only his eyes were visible in the pitch-black gloom. He studied mine, searching, probing, until he frowned slightly. I knew he descried the details of my dream, for the same emotions shone in his features as in mine. Words were not necessary between us; our bond went deep enough to bypass such trivial expressions.

Ken's brief role as the Digimon Kaizer was the cause of many nightmares for us both. They had begun to abate as time passed, but this one was more distressing than any of the others had been. Not because it had been graphic, but because of the sheer reality of it. I had truly thought Ken was going to leave me, broken and bleeding, to die. He'd whipped me several times as the Kaizer, but never to the point of death, and he had never left someplace where I could not heal or be healed. Ken may have been ruthless, but he wasn't heartless.

Except in my nightmares.

"Gomen nasai," Ken murmured, withdrawing his arms from their cradling position around me. I stopped him by squirming forward until he had to place his arms about me. "It's my fault. If only I'd realized sooner-"

"It wasn't your fault," I interjected, resting my head against this chest. "The Dark Spore prevented you from realizing the truth about the Digital World. You're not to blame." I'd said those words so many times that they had begun to sound redundant even to me, who knew they were true. Knowing I'd never truly convince him of this, I sighed. "Go back to sleep, Ken."

Ken absently rubbed his neck. His piercing blue eyes met and held mine for a long moment before he nodded slowly and released me, then lay back down. I closed my eyes but, despite Ken's warmth surrounding me, could not keep out the images, the glimmers of the dream.

^~^~^~^~^

Flashes of light bombarded him, creating a display of color over his face. Completely engrossed in the program on his computer screen, Izzy never heard the appeals of his partner. Only after he had beatent the trigonometry game did his attention turn to the Digivice on his desk and the voice coming out of his computer.

"Tentomon?" he asked, quickly bringing up the Digital Port on his monitor.

"It's about time!" the Child Digimon exclaimed, his insectoid face pressed close to the TV screen. "I've been calling you for almost half an hour!"

The redheaded boy grinned guiltily. "Gomen. I was, ah, doing homework. Doushitano?"

"Check your map," Tentomon said. "We've got trouble!"

The red-haired boy deftly pulled up the map on his screen, scanning it with his eyes. Hundreds of red lights appeared over the mottled blue and green area, totally obscuring some areas. "Nani? What are they?"

"Dark rings!" Tentomon replied shrilly. "They're twice as powerful as Ken's. They've been sprouting up all over the place lately!"

^~^~^~^~^

I blinked as the picture on the monitor changed again, this time to a profile image of Noriko's favorite singer. Other such photographs had been scanned onto her laptop and complied into a vacillating screensaver; Noriko scoffed it often, saying that it was a banal ploy used to occupy her laptop's memory and reassure her mother that she was an "ordinary" teenager.

She was lying.

I'd seen her gaze at it intensively, questing, searching the pictures for some hidden meaning. They reminded her of what she could have been, the life she could have had. They were relics of an existence that never was, nor ever would be. She was correct in stating that those pictures did not depict her; they depicted the 'her' that had never been given the chance to live.

They were the dreams of a shadow that had long ago been forgotten.

All because of him.

The so-called 'boy genius', Ichijouji Ken. His existence had been the catalyst that sent Noriko's life into its downward spiral, and the orchestrator of my birth into that maelstrom.

I despised him for it.

Noriko's excursions into the Digital World had been growing ever more frequent, and she never deigned to take me with her. Thus, I'd had quite a large amount of time on my hands, and nothing to occupy it with. In my Child form of Dokunemon, I had neither the power nor the ability to do much on my own. So, I spent the hours thinking about and hating Ken Ichijouji.

A blinding light blazed from the computer screen. I closed my eyes, opening them again to the familiar scene of my partner standing before the computer desk, head tilted to the side, eyes narrowed slightly in frustration.

Only this time, she was smiling.

She clutched something in her left hand; I didn't ask what it was, for Noriko would tell me in due time if I needed to know. I watched impassively as she dropped it on the dark wood of the desk and exited the room, sparing not even a glance in my direction. When the sound of her footsteps had faded, I scuttled over to the desk and peered up, but I was unable to see more than a narrow sliver of metal.

Oh, Noriko. What toy have you discovered this time?

A/N: Well? It wasn't too bad, was it? It's my first attempt at a chapter story. If it seems confusing, everything will be cleared up in later chapters. I promise!