What Dreams May Come
A Digimon Fanfic
By Andromon X
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I wish I did. Don't we all? ^_^
Now, story time. And sorry that I ignored time zones just to make part of this more convenient. ^_^
**
These twelve young people are different. Every day, they run with monsters. Adventure rushes through their veins. They are the digidestined.
Ah, but we know what they see by day... For now let us turn our attention to what images dance before them when they slumber at night.
I warn you that this may not be a pleasant journey. Considering what fills their days, you needn't expect their nights to be especially pleasant either. But if you're ready, let us take a closer look at these chosen children.
First, let us take the leader of the original eight, Taichi Kamiya. What drama is unfolding behind his closed eyes?
Two masked figures stand on opposite ends of a field, one dressed all in red, the other all in black. They draw their swords, and prepare for battle.
The red one strikes first, and his obsidian foe barely manages to block the strike. A fierce battle ensues, and, though he fights valiantly, the black swordsman ultimately falls. The scarlet victor reaches down and removes his opponent's mask, revealing the face of Matt Ishida. The victor then removes his own mask, revealing a smile on his face. It is the dreamer's own face. Offering no words to the dead, Tai simply walks away, smiling.
But down the hall lies another dreamer, the sister of this fierce warrior, and very much in love with the fallen enemy's brother. Her name is Hikari Kamiya. She fights side by side with her love against a new menace. With her days full of war, she dreams of peace. Or does she? There's only one way to know for sure. Let's have a look.
Behind those innocent young eyes, a drama unfolds. Two young lovers stand face to face with their families in the England of centuries past. TK is Romeo, and Kari is Juliet. But instead of the plan Shakespeare scripted, these two young lovers have decided that they prefer a more direct approach.
It does not go well, with both families ready to kill their own children. And just as a familiar sword, in fact the very sword of the black warrior we thought fallen, reaches TK's heart, the dreamer awakes, letting out a scream that could wake the dead.
Miles away, the one she loves hears this scream, not with his ears, but with his heart. So close is Takeru Takaishi to her that they can practically read each other's thoughts. He wakes up with a gasp.
And yet his brother slumbers miles away. Yamato Ishida lies much as we left him, except that he's merely sleeping and not slain. After all, his death was only a dream.
And if dreams of the dead should give us pause... Dare we see what this dead man dreams? Well, why not?
He never ran from anything in his life, or so he tells himself. Yet in this dream he can do nothing else. He runs from a horror we get no chance to see, sometimes looking back in terror, but never slowing down, not until he hits a dead end. He turns to face his pursuer. Is it the face of the one who slaughtered him in another dream so far away?
No. This is the face of Jun Motimiya. She stands over him with a net, and brings it down upon him. He is her property now. She has caught him like a butterfly, and he will never fly freely again.
Perhaps this is the price of fame, days of glorious music unfolding from his hands only to give way to such nightmares as this. He doesn't think about this, only about how afraid he is of Jun as she brings down the net. A tear creeps out from beneath his shut eyelid, but by morning it will have dried. There will be nothing left of this dream when he returns to trying to fend Jun off during the day.
She sleeps across town. But this is not her story. She wasn't chosen. And so we look not at her dreams, but at the dreams of her brother.
Davis does not dream of Kari tonight, although it's rare that he can think of anything but her.
Tonight he faces his sworn enemy on a field in his mind. The field is not a battlefield, but rather a soccer field.
Ken Ichijouji shoots. Davis swiftly leaps to block, sliding into the path of the soccer ball Ken wields like any other weapon he could use. The ball passes through Davis as though he were not there. And the tears of humiliation he cries don't roll down his face, but merely drop to the ground. He doesn't even look up as the black collar takes its place upon his neck.
It's almost as if the Digimon Emperor was trying to tell Davis not to even dream of defeating him.
But what does the tyrant dream?
He looks like an angel when he's asleep. His actions make it obvious, however, that appearances can be deceiving.
But in his dreams he walks alone. The world is so small. He's passed this street before, but even if he hadn't, one street's just like another.
He is alone. And yet he smiles even as the tears roll down. Everything but Ken himself is monochrome, but he can see himself in living color. Not that it matters.
He wanders these shades of gray every night. He thinks he sees someone sometimes, but it vanishes just as it came.
Even in his dreams, Ken Ichijouji is alone.
Koshiro Izumi is alone by choice. He sleeps not in the comfort of a bed but basking in the glow of his screen saver. He's fallen asleep in front of his computer again.
And, as he sleeps, through his mind races 1s and 0s. From these digits springs a world. And Izzy stands in this world. Others pass by. None see him, which suits him fine. He has his laptop. It's all the company he needs.
Then the unimaginable happens. Someone waves to him. He is startled, and, laptop in hand, he runs to a deep, dark cave. He thinks he's safe there. But he feels the barrel of a gun pressed against him. He turns around, and he sees the face attached to the weapon. It is his own. And no amount of processing power can save him from himself.
And yet a group of six others can. He doesn't need to see them to know who they are. They are the other six he first came to the digital world with.
In their own dreams, however, Izzy's saviors are not quite so grand. Halfway across the world, Mimi Tachikawa sleeps. And her dream world is a blur. She looks around, but can understand nothing. None of it makes any sense. And then someone steps out of the chaos. She recognizes him immediately. He's not who she thought she'd fall in love with, but he comes, bathed in light, the shine reflecting off his glasses. As the two wrap their arms around each other, Mimi's world becomes clear, and everything is beautiful. Flowers, butterflies, and the beautiful love they have for each other.
But it is not to last. An unseen hand picks her up, and though he tries to follow her, a mysterious force holds him back. The unseen hand drags her into a land of gray. Colorless people walk by, and nondescript buildings tower into the sky. Without him, the big apple tastes rotten to the core.
A tear falls from her sleeping eye, and, as if in response, another tear falls, halfway across the world. This tear falls from the eye of Joe Kido. What's behind this eye?
A lovely couple dances in his mind. Her dress is a lovely shade of pink, and he wears the most elegant tuxedo the dreamer could robe him in. Her long pink hair falls over her shoulders, and their eyes meet, his glasses not getting at all in the way of their loving gazes. They close their eyes, and begin to kiss. Alas, they never get the chance. Two tall people grab her, and drag her away.
He lets a tear fall, and he is suddenly in a MASH unit. He is going to finish closing up the last patient of the day when he falls, gasping for air, his scalpel clattering to the floor. He's going into cardiac arrest. Two of the other doctors open him up, only to find his heart is not there. But an angel bathed in pink light gently places it in, and he smiles. He tries to thank her, but she's gone.
Though a world apart, it's obvious these two are still very close. Which brings us back to TK.
Takeru has fallen back to sleep. Ever since he was young, monsters have terrorized his dreams. He's grown up a lot now, but still the monsters rampage through his head, playing on his darkest fears.
Tonight the beast in his dreams is VenomMyotismon. He gives chase, and all TK, or anyone for that matter, can do is run. He's not afraid, not with her by his side, but there's nothing else to be done.
They split up, TK trying to lead the monster away, but a shock comes over him as he realizes he's not being followed. He backtracks and tries to catch up to Kari, but all he finds is the Crest of Light, mangled almost beyond recognition.
He awakens with a scream. The monsters in his nightmares always manage to find a way to frighten him, even after all these years.
Across the city, Kari drops the glass of water she left her bed to get as a horrible feeling comes over her. She wipes it up, but can't shake the awful sense of worry she feels for TK.
Another young woman in love lives across town. Her name is Yolei. Recently, she found out that the one she gave her heart to is the one she'd sworn to destroy. But even though she knows his dark secret, she hasn't had the heart to take down the enlarged photo of Ken that she sleeps beneath, and he hasn't left her dreams. As she sleeps beneath his watchful gaze, they are together in her mind. Recently, her dreams of him have become more frightening. In fact, the Ken of her dreams smacks of the Hannibal Lecter to her Clarice Starling.
In her dream, they are walking hand in hand into a movie theater, dressed in the best clothes they own. They sit down next to her former obsession, Izzy, and he skitters away like a frightened centipede. She doesn't quite know why. The movie starts, basking Yolei and Ken in a warm, romantic glow. And as the two onscreen lovers kiss, Ken holds Yolei's hand, then reaches over with his other hand. Only too late does she see the knife. She has no time to scream as he drives it through her heart.
He has betrayed her in her dream, just like he did in reality. And still she can't stop dreaming of him.
The last thing she sees before waking up in tears is that one of his hands has six fingers.
He didn't betray her, he didn't even know her. Her mind knows this, but he heart still insists he betrayed her by being the Digimon Emperor. She ignores both and closes here eyes again, pretending to sleep.
Ah, but so far what we've seen is visible on the surface. What lies beneath the still waters of the two digidestined we've yet to look at? Still waters run deep, and Cody and Sora run perhaps deeper than any.
We'll find out soon, for now we come to Cody's dream. Cody, always so disciplined, so calm. What could possibly trouble his serene sleep?
He is in kendo practice with his grandfather. This practice has become somewhat of a ritual for him, one from which he draws the strength he needs each day. But he still has not surpassed his grandfather. Not until today, that is. Today, he will show his grandfather just how much he's learned.
They begin their fight. The heavily padded suits they wear protect them from any harm that can come of this practice battle. Cody doesn't have to worry about hurting his grandfather, even as he sends the old man to the ground. But then he hears the sickening crack, and sees the red stains on the suit.
Cody kneels over his grandfather, crying. The old man says it's okay, that he knows Cody was only trying to show how much he had learned. But the fact remains, the old man is gravely injured. He asks Cody for a glass of prune juice, and then shuts his eyes. These are the old man's last words. Cody feels like he did when he lost his father, only worse. Dream or not, this seems all too real. He can't shake this feeling, even as he wakes up in tears, resolving never to lose his calm.
This leaves us to the final dream, the dream of Sora Takenouchi. Calm in any circumstance, even to the point of seeming like a statue. She seems so tranquil. That is, until we look into her dreams.
Sora has kept her anger bottled up. Tonight it finds violent release in her dream. She stands in the flower shop where she and her mother work, and all seems normal until Sora lets out a deafening scream of rage. She picks up a flowerpot and tosses it in a random direction. She leaps around, knocking over displays, toppling plants, and roaring at customers like a monster. Her mother approaches her, begging her to calm down, but the only response Sora bothers to give her is to smash a flowerpot over her head.
The customers have all fled, and Sora's mother lies bleeding on the floor. But the rampage isn't over, not until every pot has been smashed and every petal trampled. Only then does Sora see what she's done. She's shocked, but not entirely appalled. In fact, a part of her is quite satisfied.
Sora keeps that part of her buried deep. In her dreams, however, it manages to escape. Invariably she wakes up in a cold sweat. She tells no one about this. Only you and I know.
And that brings us to the end of our journey. Each child's nightmares tonight play upon their own worst fears and pains. As for you tonight, dear reader...
Sleep tight, and mind what dreams may come.
A Digimon Fanfic
By Andromon X
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I wish I did. Don't we all? ^_^
Now, story time. And sorry that I ignored time zones just to make part of this more convenient. ^_^
**
These twelve young people are different. Every day, they run with monsters. Adventure rushes through their veins. They are the digidestined.
Ah, but we know what they see by day... For now let us turn our attention to what images dance before them when they slumber at night.
I warn you that this may not be a pleasant journey. Considering what fills their days, you needn't expect their nights to be especially pleasant either. But if you're ready, let us take a closer look at these chosen children.
First, let us take the leader of the original eight, Taichi Kamiya. What drama is unfolding behind his closed eyes?
Two masked figures stand on opposite ends of a field, one dressed all in red, the other all in black. They draw their swords, and prepare for battle.
The red one strikes first, and his obsidian foe barely manages to block the strike. A fierce battle ensues, and, though he fights valiantly, the black swordsman ultimately falls. The scarlet victor reaches down and removes his opponent's mask, revealing the face of Matt Ishida. The victor then removes his own mask, revealing a smile on his face. It is the dreamer's own face. Offering no words to the dead, Tai simply walks away, smiling.
But down the hall lies another dreamer, the sister of this fierce warrior, and very much in love with the fallen enemy's brother. Her name is Hikari Kamiya. She fights side by side with her love against a new menace. With her days full of war, she dreams of peace. Or does she? There's only one way to know for sure. Let's have a look.
Behind those innocent young eyes, a drama unfolds. Two young lovers stand face to face with their families in the England of centuries past. TK is Romeo, and Kari is Juliet. But instead of the plan Shakespeare scripted, these two young lovers have decided that they prefer a more direct approach.
It does not go well, with both families ready to kill their own children. And just as a familiar sword, in fact the very sword of the black warrior we thought fallen, reaches TK's heart, the dreamer awakes, letting out a scream that could wake the dead.
Miles away, the one she loves hears this scream, not with his ears, but with his heart. So close is Takeru Takaishi to her that they can practically read each other's thoughts. He wakes up with a gasp.
And yet his brother slumbers miles away. Yamato Ishida lies much as we left him, except that he's merely sleeping and not slain. After all, his death was only a dream.
And if dreams of the dead should give us pause... Dare we see what this dead man dreams? Well, why not?
He never ran from anything in his life, or so he tells himself. Yet in this dream he can do nothing else. He runs from a horror we get no chance to see, sometimes looking back in terror, but never slowing down, not until he hits a dead end. He turns to face his pursuer. Is it the face of the one who slaughtered him in another dream so far away?
No. This is the face of Jun Motimiya. She stands over him with a net, and brings it down upon him. He is her property now. She has caught him like a butterfly, and he will never fly freely again.
Perhaps this is the price of fame, days of glorious music unfolding from his hands only to give way to such nightmares as this. He doesn't think about this, only about how afraid he is of Jun as she brings down the net. A tear creeps out from beneath his shut eyelid, but by morning it will have dried. There will be nothing left of this dream when he returns to trying to fend Jun off during the day.
She sleeps across town. But this is not her story. She wasn't chosen. And so we look not at her dreams, but at the dreams of her brother.
Davis does not dream of Kari tonight, although it's rare that he can think of anything but her.
Tonight he faces his sworn enemy on a field in his mind. The field is not a battlefield, but rather a soccer field.
Ken Ichijouji shoots. Davis swiftly leaps to block, sliding into the path of the soccer ball Ken wields like any other weapon he could use. The ball passes through Davis as though he were not there. And the tears of humiliation he cries don't roll down his face, but merely drop to the ground. He doesn't even look up as the black collar takes its place upon his neck.
It's almost as if the Digimon Emperor was trying to tell Davis not to even dream of defeating him.
But what does the tyrant dream?
He looks like an angel when he's asleep. His actions make it obvious, however, that appearances can be deceiving.
But in his dreams he walks alone. The world is so small. He's passed this street before, but even if he hadn't, one street's just like another.
He is alone. And yet he smiles even as the tears roll down. Everything but Ken himself is monochrome, but he can see himself in living color. Not that it matters.
He wanders these shades of gray every night. He thinks he sees someone sometimes, but it vanishes just as it came.
Even in his dreams, Ken Ichijouji is alone.
Koshiro Izumi is alone by choice. He sleeps not in the comfort of a bed but basking in the glow of his screen saver. He's fallen asleep in front of his computer again.
And, as he sleeps, through his mind races 1s and 0s. From these digits springs a world. And Izzy stands in this world. Others pass by. None see him, which suits him fine. He has his laptop. It's all the company he needs.
Then the unimaginable happens. Someone waves to him. He is startled, and, laptop in hand, he runs to a deep, dark cave. He thinks he's safe there. But he feels the barrel of a gun pressed against him. He turns around, and he sees the face attached to the weapon. It is his own. And no amount of processing power can save him from himself.
And yet a group of six others can. He doesn't need to see them to know who they are. They are the other six he first came to the digital world with.
In their own dreams, however, Izzy's saviors are not quite so grand. Halfway across the world, Mimi Tachikawa sleeps. And her dream world is a blur. She looks around, but can understand nothing. None of it makes any sense. And then someone steps out of the chaos. She recognizes him immediately. He's not who she thought she'd fall in love with, but he comes, bathed in light, the shine reflecting off his glasses. As the two wrap their arms around each other, Mimi's world becomes clear, and everything is beautiful. Flowers, butterflies, and the beautiful love they have for each other.
But it is not to last. An unseen hand picks her up, and though he tries to follow her, a mysterious force holds him back. The unseen hand drags her into a land of gray. Colorless people walk by, and nondescript buildings tower into the sky. Without him, the big apple tastes rotten to the core.
A tear falls from her sleeping eye, and, as if in response, another tear falls, halfway across the world. This tear falls from the eye of Joe Kido. What's behind this eye?
A lovely couple dances in his mind. Her dress is a lovely shade of pink, and he wears the most elegant tuxedo the dreamer could robe him in. Her long pink hair falls over her shoulders, and their eyes meet, his glasses not getting at all in the way of their loving gazes. They close their eyes, and begin to kiss. Alas, they never get the chance. Two tall people grab her, and drag her away.
He lets a tear fall, and he is suddenly in a MASH unit. He is going to finish closing up the last patient of the day when he falls, gasping for air, his scalpel clattering to the floor. He's going into cardiac arrest. Two of the other doctors open him up, only to find his heart is not there. But an angel bathed in pink light gently places it in, and he smiles. He tries to thank her, but she's gone.
Though a world apart, it's obvious these two are still very close. Which brings us back to TK.
Takeru has fallen back to sleep. Ever since he was young, monsters have terrorized his dreams. He's grown up a lot now, but still the monsters rampage through his head, playing on his darkest fears.
Tonight the beast in his dreams is VenomMyotismon. He gives chase, and all TK, or anyone for that matter, can do is run. He's not afraid, not with her by his side, but there's nothing else to be done.
They split up, TK trying to lead the monster away, but a shock comes over him as he realizes he's not being followed. He backtracks and tries to catch up to Kari, but all he finds is the Crest of Light, mangled almost beyond recognition.
He awakens with a scream. The monsters in his nightmares always manage to find a way to frighten him, even after all these years.
Across the city, Kari drops the glass of water she left her bed to get as a horrible feeling comes over her. She wipes it up, but can't shake the awful sense of worry she feels for TK.
Another young woman in love lives across town. Her name is Yolei. Recently, she found out that the one she gave her heart to is the one she'd sworn to destroy. But even though she knows his dark secret, she hasn't had the heart to take down the enlarged photo of Ken that she sleeps beneath, and he hasn't left her dreams. As she sleeps beneath his watchful gaze, they are together in her mind. Recently, her dreams of him have become more frightening. In fact, the Ken of her dreams smacks of the Hannibal Lecter to her Clarice Starling.
In her dream, they are walking hand in hand into a movie theater, dressed in the best clothes they own. They sit down next to her former obsession, Izzy, and he skitters away like a frightened centipede. She doesn't quite know why. The movie starts, basking Yolei and Ken in a warm, romantic glow. And as the two onscreen lovers kiss, Ken holds Yolei's hand, then reaches over with his other hand. Only too late does she see the knife. She has no time to scream as he drives it through her heart.
He has betrayed her in her dream, just like he did in reality. And still she can't stop dreaming of him.
The last thing she sees before waking up in tears is that one of his hands has six fingers.
He didn't betray her, he didn't even know her. Her mind knows this, but he heart still insists he betrayed her by being the Digimon Emperor. She ignores both and closes here eyes again, pretending to sleep.
Ah, but so far what we've seen is visible on the surface. What lies beneath the still waters of the two digidestined we've yet to look at? Still waters run deep, and Cody and Sora run perhaps deeper than any.
We'll find out soon, for now we come to Cody's dream. Cody, always so disciplined, so calm. What could possibly trouble his serene sleep?
He is in kendo practice with his grandfather. This practice has become somewhat of a ritual for him, one from which he draws the strength he needs each day. But he still has not surpassed his grandfather. Not until today, that is. Today, he will show his grandfather just how much he's learned.
They begin their fight. The heavily padded suits they wear protect them from any harm that can come of this practice battle. Cody doesn't have to worry about hurting his grandfather, even as he sends the old man to the ground. But then he hears the sickening crack, and sees the red stains on the suit.
Cody kneels over his grandfather, crying. The old man says it's okay, that he knows Cody was only trying to show how much he had learned. But the fact remains, the old man is gravely injured. He asks Cody for a glass of prune juice, and then shuts his eyes. These are the old man's last words. Cody feels like he did when he lost his father, only worse. Dream or not, this seems all too real. He can't shake this feeling, even as he wakes up in tears, resolving never to lose his calm.
This leaves us to the final dream, the dream of Sora Takenouchi. Calm in any circumstance, even to the point of seeming like a statue. She seems so tranquil. That is, until we look into her dreams.
Sora has kept her anger bottled up. Tonight it finds violent release in her dream. She stands in the flower shop where she and her mother work, and all seems normal until Sora lets out a deafening scream of rage. She picks up a flowerpot and tosses it in a random direction. She leaps around, knocking over displays, toppling plants, and roaring at customers like a monster. Her mother approaches her, begging her to calm down, but the only response Sora bothers to give her is to smash a flowerpot over her head.
The customers have all fled, and Sora's mother lies bleeding on the floor. But the rampage isn't over, not until every pot has been smashed and every petal trampled. Only then does Sora see what she's done. She's shocked, but not entirely appalled. In fact, a part of her is quite satisfied.
Sora keeps that part of her buried deep. In her dreams, however, it manages to escape. Invariably she wakes up in a cold sweat. She tells no one about this. Only you and I know.
And that brings us to the end of our journey. Each child's nightmares tonight play upon their own worst fears and pains. As for you tonight, dear reader...
Sleep tight, and mind what dreams may come.