I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.
(Danny)
I had been taking care of the ghost for four day now. I had more than enough equipment left over from when my parent's had occupied the condo to take care of him.
But it was painful. More for me then the unconscious ghost. Every time I picked up a beaker full of ectoplasm I could hear the dying cry of my mother and sister, the anguished apologies of my father as the police took him away… see the lifeless and disgraced bodies of my best friends.
It didn't help that I had to give him a bed in my sister's old room. It looked almost exactly like the one she had back home. The pain of it was sometimes too much to bare.
The days of treating the ghost felt like hell to me. But I continued. Even if there had been someone to ask me way I did I wouldn't be able to tell them. I watched as the ghost slowly began to stabilize, but something still seemed off about him. His body was barely solid and his glow was weak.
Most ghosts would have been fine after one or two hours of care, but this ghost seemed extra weak. It was almost as if he was never meant to be a ghost.
But on that fifth day, he began to awaken. "I… I still exist?" Were his first words, not exactly the first words I would have picked, but who knows.
"You're awake then." I said sounding harsher then I meant to. He turned and stared at me in bewilderment. "Good, as soon as you're well enough to go, I want you out." I said going and bringing him some leftovers from my own dinner. "Here."
He blinked as if blinded by the meager light in the room. Then his stomach growled and he quickly began to eat. I was a little surprised at the speed and quantity that he ate. It was out of the ordinary for a ghost to eat much, even one that was recovering like this one.
The finally swallowed the last gulps of soup and sat back in the bed. "Thank you for the meal." He said gratefully.
"I suppose you must have been starving." I said taking up the plates.
"That is the first time I have eaten in three years." He admitted.
"Three years? That is an impressive amount of time to spend in the human world." I said thinking about how long most ghosts could spend. Few could stick around for more than a week without feeling some effects of withdraw from the Zones abundant supply of ectoplasm.
"I suppose it is. But I had to look out for my friend." He said putting his head back against the pillow. The word 'friend' hit me like a punch to the gut. He looked at me. "Where are my manners, I am Wizarmon." I hardly heard him.
I turned and began to leave the room. "You can stay as long as you need to. Just leave me alone." I said sadly and closed the door before he could ask any questions.
I went to my own room. 'What are you doing?' I couldn't help asking myself. 'If you feel again… they you will have to feel loss. Just protect yourself from it… slip into the emptiness.'
I was just starting to drift off when the computer in the room started to freak out. Static flew across the monitor and speakers. I sat up covering my ears from the sound until it stopped. Then slowly, out of the computer screen came a black ball that flouted over to me before slowly disappearing.
I didn't know what to think as I sat there staring at a small black device with a green side grip that had appeared from the black orb. I cautiously lifted up a hand and grabbed it. It was rather light and I turned it over in my hand a few times wondering just what it was.
The monitor for my computer came alive again. A window opened up on the screen. 'The light is in danger. Child lost in darkness, you must rediscover your will. Use your digivice.' The message was short and didn't explain anything to me. I looked down at the device in my hand. "Digivice." The word rolled of my lips. I lifted it up and pointed it and the computer.
There was a blinding flash of light and I felt like I was being pulled through the computer and into the cables and being squeezed and thrown around. I closed my eyes from the discomfort, but when I opened them I found myself lying in the dirt in a dark forest. I looked around startled before looking again at the small device in my hand. "Wha… what is going on? This isn't… the Ghost Zone is it?" I pocketed the digivice. I didn't know what it was, but maybe it would be my ticket out of this mess.
I started to walk through the forest and found that there were monstrous creatures all around, but I could tell that they weren't ghosts. I was starting to wonder what I could do when I heard something that sounded like a cry of rage. I looked in the direction that it had come from and a strange creature passed by. It had a human like shape, but a metal head in the shape that one would associate with that of a dragon. It had metal claws and was about forty feet tall.
It didn't even notice me as it barged passed. "What… was that?" I couldn't help but think. I didn't feel afraid. I didn't feel much of anything anymore. But for some reason the creature made me feel… lonely.
I tried to shake of the feeling as I kept moving. But something about the creature had seemed so… sad. I couldn't shake the thing out of my head until I had finally noticed that the forest was much darker then before and that I hadn't seen another living thing in a while.
I didn't mind the darkness. It didn't bring back any of my painful memories. I kept walking until I reached a rift in the earth. I didn't really have any plans so I decided to take a small break. Sitting there on that ledge in that dark world, I thought I could hear the calming sound of waves on the beach.
I sat there for a little while enjoying the peace of it all when three humans show up with three of the creatures that populated this world. They stumbled out of the thicker bushes and into the clearing between the forest and the ledge of the rift. I stared at them hardly interested, but then I recognized one of the human girls, it was Hikari. Right beside her was the cat like being from back at the gym.
The other two were rather uninteresting. There was a boy whose black hair came down to his shoulders and was not exactly acting very brave. He was wearing a school uniform, and he had a bug like creature of some kind with him. And the last person was another girl with really large glasses and a pilot's cap on over her long purplish hair. She had a birdlike creature with her.
"Danny?" Hikari said surprised to see me. "What are you doing here?" I didn't respond and tried to shy away. Her presence was not as luminous as it had been in the human world, but it still burned through the shadows that I had put up around me to protect myself from the emotions.
The other girl looked closer at me. "You know this guy Hikari? Is he another Digi-destined?" The girl asked. I didn't recognize the term but I didn't want to talk to them. I could no longer hear the peaceful sound of the waves. I tried my best to ignore them searching for the sound of the calming waves. "He isn't much of a talker is he?"
"How is he here in the first place?" The boy asked. "Not just anybody can get into the Digital World."
''Digital World', is that where I am? Whatever it is, I don't want anything to do with it. I don't want to be drawn in to its problems.' I thought to myself, and the sound of the waves began to return.
"Whatever the case, we can't just leave him here." The boy said.
"You got that right." The girl said walking towards the edge next to me. "What are you even…" She said looking over the edge but then stopped. "Hey there's something down there, I think it might be Tailmon's holy ring." The girl said excitedly looking down at a small glitter far below us.
The cat came over and looked down. I was not surprised when it spoke. "It might be, but it's too dark to tell." I looked at the cat. It carried itself in a rather proud manner and seemed to give off a little of that light that Hikari had.
I then noticed that the girl with the glasses was starting to try to climb down the side of the cliff. "Miyako what are you doing?" The bird said terrified. "Get back here it is dangerous."
"I'm going to climb down there and get a better look." The girl said stubbornly. I can't believe how stupid she is considering that she could have just let the bird fly down there.
She hadn't gotten far when she slipped. Hikari grabbed onto her but ended up falling as well. The boy that was with them began to freak out screaming about an ocean. My eye widened. 'They can't survive that fall.' The thought horrified me as an image of Sam and Tucker's bodies came into my mind. I grabbed the edge of the cliff and threw myself after them.
Diving fast I quickly caught up to them, I grabbed Hikari first throwing her onto my left shoulder before I grabbed Miyako by her belt. I turned to that wall and tried to grab onto something but all the rocks were too slippery as we flew past. 'I will not let them die!' I screamed in my mind. Focusing ghost energy into my left hand I plunged it straight into the face of the cliff digging my hand into it. Even then I ended up being pulled another half foot before we were thrown against the face of the cliff where I could get my footing.
I sighed as the tension started to leave me. I looked to find that both girls were unconscious from the fall. I couldn't climb will carrying both of them. I glanced around and spotted an outcropping. I swayed a bit building up momentum and threw Miyako onto the out cropping, then with my hands now free I started to climb over to it myself and laid Hikari on it as well.
I looked over them and found that they had nothing more than some minor scrapes and bruises. I let out a held breath that I wasn't aware I had been holding. The emotions came flooding back at this action. All the emotions I had been trying so hard to forget. Worry, relief, fear, desperation, anger, hope… loss; all of them brought along with them a cyclone of memories and pain. I choked back the tears when the memories of those I had lost came back.
I started to struggle to push the feelings away again. One by one I stopped letting myself feel them, stopped letting the memories return. I let them all wash away in the calming sound of the ocean. Leaning back against the face of the cliff and close myself off from the world.
That is when two of the creature arrived. The cat had climbed down towards us and the bird flew next to it. I just watched as they checked on the girls. Hikari was the first one to wake up. "What happened?" She asked looking around. She checked on her friend before turning to me. "You hand, it's all cut up." She said in concern.
I looked down and sure enough my left hand head been damaged when I drove it into the wall. I tried to hide it from view but she grabbed my arm and began to scold me. "Don't be shy about thing like this, we need to bandage it or else it won't be able to heal properly." She said seriously.
I stared with wide eyes as she pulled my hand towards her and started to wrap it in a bandage that she got out of a small first aid kit she had been carrying. She was so gentle and careful that I couldn't help but to remember when my older sister Jazz had done the same thing when I would come home with scraps and cuts. The tears came to my eyes.
"I'm sorry was I to rough?" She asked with a look of concern on her face.
"Please… stop… I don't… I don't want to remember." I whimpered and tried to push myself as far away as I could on the outcropping. "I don't want to remember." I repeated over and over. I slowly started to get control over myself again. "I… I'll be fine… so please… don't worry about me. Just… just pretend I am not here." I stuttered my words.
Hikari looked worriedly at me for a while until her friend began to steer. "You ok Miyako?" Hikari asked her friend.
The girl with the glasses shuck her head a little and then looked up. "We sure did fall a long way." She looked up and it was true that he had fallen what would be about five stories. "How did we survive that?" She wondered in amazement.
"That young boy caught you both and grabbed onto the cliff, he save your lives." The bird said pointing a feather at me. I tried harder to drown them out, but it was no good.
"Wow, that is amazing. Thank you so much." Miyako said getting closer to me. I turned my head away trying to get away. She scold at me and began to shout. "Hey I said thank you, the least you could do is acknowledge me! How rude." She said turning away scoffing.
"Miyako, don't take it personally. He doesn't talk to anyone." Hikari said assuring the girl but was throwing me worried glances herself.
"He's taking shy to a whole new level." She said stubbornly as before when she suddenly switched topics. "Did we find Tailmon's holy ring?" She asked. Did this girl have ADHD or something?
"No, the only thing down here was this." The cat said pulling out a large broken black ring that had a little metallic shine to it.
Miyako's shoulders fell. "I was so sure it was your holy ring. Sorry Tailmon." She apologized. So the cat was called Tailmon. I thought back to the ghost back in my house. I wonder if Wizarmon know these people.
"No, you thought it was the real thing, and you tried really hard for me." The cat said shaking her head. "Thank you Miyako." The girl started to cheer up.
"Alright then, let's get out of here, Hawkmon!" The girl shouted cheerfully. I saw the girl bring out a digivice, though hers was white and red instead of black and green. "Digi Armor Energize!" She shouted, but nothing happened. She looked dumbfounded as if something was supposed to have happened. "I said, Digi Armor Energize!" She shouted again. She looked at Hawkmon.
"It seems I can't Digivolve." Hawkmon said worried.
Miyako went through another mood swing to panic attack mode. "What do you mean you can't Digivolve do you mean that we are stuck here!?" She said in a frenzy shaking the bird.
"Please calm down Miyako, we will figure things out." Hikari said still gently as her friend was panicking.
"No we won't we are going to be stuck down her forever, and never even got a chance to…" Miyako's complaining was starting to give me a headache and I started to drown it out. Then to my surprise Hikari slapped her, shutting her up.
"Brutal yet effective." Hawkmon said also surprised. "Come on Tailmon, we can probably find something we can use as a rope." The bird said and left with the cat.
"Sorry." Hikari said looking away guiltily.
"No, I deserved that." Miyako said rubbing the cheek.
"You just bring out the worst in me sometimes. Probably because we are so different." Hikari said still looking away. "You are so free about your emotions. I always keep them bottled up inside." These words caught my attention. "Just like Ken, and Danny. We keep it all to ourselves. It's what makes us vulnerable." She said sadly.
But before it could continue a vine swung down in front of so. We looked up to see Hawkmon and Tailmon waving down at us. Miyako threw the rope like vine over to me. "You go first, I don't want you looking up our skirts the whole time." She said.
"You're not wearing skirts." I said in confusion.
"Huh, so he can talk." Miyako said as if she had won some kind of challenge.
"No one ever said he couldn't." Hikari chuckled a little but it sounded hollow after her decoration of loneliness. I started to climb and was quickly at the top despite my injured hand.
Once we had all gotten to the top the boy how was by know over his panic attack tried to apologize. "Sorry I didn't help when you… fell." He said timidly.
"Oh it's no biggy Ken, we all understand that you were scared and all. You probably wouldn't have been any help anyways and just gotten pulled down with the rest of us." Miyako said in a way that was supposed to cheer him up but didn't come across well. Ken was clearly embarrassed. "Oh, but do you know what the funny thing was, that thing I saw wasn't Tailmon's holy ring at all, it was one of those Dark Rings that you used to make when you were the evil Digimon Emperor."
Danny didn't know about any of it but it seemed like it was as if someone said 'remember that time with Freakshow when you almost kill Sam'. But she just kept on talking as if completely oblivious to the effect her words were having. Finally Hikari broke out laughing.
"Hi, don't laugh I was trying to be serious… I just made everything worse didn't I?" She said and then all of them started to chuckle a little, forgetting the kind of place they were in. I simply was there, the laugher barely registering, as if I was hearing it over a vast distance. I was trying to stop it from bring back the memories. The memories of people who were no longer there to laugh with me.
But then Hikari stopped laughing and her eyes widened with fear. "I can hear the ocean." She said. I glanced at her wondering why that was a bad thing. I have been hearing the ocean for a while. She got up and started running, the rest of us following her.
We were not running for long before we came to another clearing followed by another cliff. And out past the cliff was a pitch black ocean. "The Dark Ocean." I heard Ken say as if he was gazing upon death itself.
"I already almost lost Hikari ones to this accursed ocean. I will I know what it wanted." Tailmon said with hate in her voice.
"Hikari, you've been here?" Ken said surprised. "I thought I was the only one who had ever gone to the dark ocean." He admitted.
"I don't know what any of you are talking about. I don't see any ocean." Miyako said staring out over it. "I wish I could see it to!" She shouted and then stood there shocked. "I take it back."
"Miyako, what have you done?" Hawkmon said also staring.
"I… I don't want this. I can't take it anymore. Why can't the world of darkness leave me alone?" Hikari said going down on her knees. The others looked worriedly at her.
I didn't understand why they were so upset. "It's peaceful." I murmured and they stared at me. "Why are you so afraid of the dark? Light and dark are not the same as good and evil… or life and death. Mankind first ventured into caves out of fear of the light, not the darkness."
They all stared at me as if I was crazy. They even backed away a little. Why are they so afraid of the dark?
But then a giant flower like creature seemed to materialize out of thin air. Every backed up. "It's Blossomon!" Tailmon said standing in front of Hikari as if to protect her from the much larger creature. The creature attacked willing a large plantlike arm that Hikari and Tailmon had to jump out of the way to dodge.
"It must be a dark tower Digimon. Hawkmon you have to Digivolve." Miyako shouted.
"I would if I could, Miyako." The bird said looking like it was struggling.
None if it really seemed real to me. Was this even my fight? The human's creatures tried to hold back the giant plant, but they were too weak. Then the plant turned its attention to Hikari. It opened its mouth and light started to gather. It was going to fire something at her.
I blinked rapidly, in my eyes Hikari had changed into the shape of Sam. The fear and desperation took over my body. I dashed forward in front of her and spread my arms wide. The bullet like seeds of light hit me hard in the chest and I began to fall down.
(Hikari)
It's was no good, Tailmon and the others couldn't beat a Perfect level Digimon like Blossomon, not without being able to Digivolve. They were being beaten back and there was nothing I could do. I wish my brother was here. He always knew what to do. He was always strong and brave.
I froze up when I saw Blossomon turning towards me. He was preparing to attack. I closed my eyes and waited for it to be all over. But the end didn't come. I opened my eyes and for a brief instant I thought I saw the dark blue cloak and hat of Wizarmon, the Digimon who once saved mine and Tailmon's lives by standing in front of an attack for us. But as the figure fell I realized it was Danny.
"Danny no!" I shouted the tears coming to my eyes. Again someone is going to die protecting me. Why does this always happen. Why am I so scared and weak.
"I… I… I will not let anyone die… not as long… as I still have strength in my body." Danny said struggling to get back up onto his feet. I could see the large wound on the center of his stomach.
A light came from his pocket and out of it fell a black and green Digivice. Behind me there was a bright green glow and as I turned I could see a gateway out of the world of Darkness. And it the center of the door was a crest, like the ones we had in the old days. Then out of the Digivice formed a tag. The tag floated up in front of Danny and the crest flew to it and slipped in. Then the tag fell around Danny's neck and began to glow even brighter with the green light.
"I can feel my strength returning." Wormon said. "Wormon Digivolve to… Stingmon!" Wormon Digivolved to his Adult form and rejoined the fight. Hawkmon also Digivolved to Aquilamon.
"Come on Hikari, we need to help to." Tailmon said coming up to me. Even though she was right next to me I could hardly hear her.
I started to pull out my Digivice but the sound of the waves was too loud. I dropped the Digivice and clapped my hands over my ear. "No! I can't." I said feeling the fear washing over me like those black waves. Tailmon and Miyako were around me trying to help me but I could even hear their voices. "I… I can't do it. I want my brother." I could help myself. "Don't leave me alone in the dark."
I felt the sting on my face as Miyako's slap brought me back to reality. "Wake up, you aren't alone. All of us are here with you!" Miyako shouted at me. "We can conquer the darkness together." She took my hands and I realized she was right, I was not alone. Light came pouring out of my Digivice, the light gathered around us.
And then I could feel it. It was just like how Daisuke had described it. I could feel Miyako's heart beating along with my own in harmony. Tailmon and Aquilamon began to glow and it all began. "Tailmon… Aquilamon… DNA Digivolve to… Sylphmon!"
Sylphmon had a more human form then Tailmon or Aquilamon, but still had qualities of both. Sylphmon was covered with bird like feathers and had legs like a bird's, but also the ears of a cat and claws. Sylphmon had a metal belt and a visor over the eyes.
"Now the real fight begins." Both the voice of Tailmon and Aquilamon could be heard as the mouth moved. The giant flower tried to attack and Sylphmon jumped up and over it give a little turn in the air she put her hands together. "Top Gun!" A burst of pinkish red energy came from between her hands and it the long arms that had what seemed like mouths on the end. Both the arms were destroyed.
Sylphmon landed behind the dark spire Digimon and moved her hands in a wide arc pulling in energy as they went. She created a much stronger ball of energy. "Top Gun!" The energy shot off and hit the dark tower Digimon and the outer coating was blasted off showing the dark spires that made it. Cracks formed and the Digimon shattered.
I looked on in awe of mine and Miyako's Digimon for a moment until I remembered what had happened. "Danny!?" I shouted as he fell to the ground.
(Danny)
I had a hole in my stomach, but it wasn't going to be enough to kill me. I could hardly feel it over all my built up tolerance for pain. But in truth… I almost wish that it could have killed me. "Danny!?" I heard the question.
I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked around. The darkness had gone way. I couldn't hear the ocean anymore. I almost missed it. "Danny are you o…" I looked to see Hikari's face standing over me. Her question had died on her lips.
Look down I realized way. The wound looked bad but I have had worse. And that fact was open for all eyes to see since the front of my shirt had been destroyed in the attack. I noticed the tag around my neck, its green glow dying in the new lighter world.
"Hikari!" Out of the corner of my eye I could see a boy with blond hair and a white cape running towards us. I knew he was in our class… but I didn't have a name for him. Once he got to us he put his hands on his knees and started to pant. "Hikari you just disappeared and…" Then he saw me. "Danny?" Then he saw my scars and looked like he was going to throw up.
'Don't look. I don't want your pity.' The thought stuck to me. 'It isn't the scars that I regret.' Slowly black sand formed out of thin air and covered my upper body. It turned into some kind of black ninja suit and had a zipped up area that covered my mouth from view thought the crest was still in plain sight. I blinked a little in astonishment but I just accepted it like everything else.
All except for one thing, the symbol, that symbol of a hero that Sam had made for me so long ago. That symbol that I didn't desire to wear. It was right over my heart. It felt more like a dagger. 'Forget it…' I reached up one hand to tear it off but… I couldn't… it was Sam's gift to me.
I looked up to see Daisuke and a smaller boy I didn't know. "Hikari are you ok?" Daisuke said before he saw me. "What… how is Danny here? Wait, is that a Digivice?" He said and I looked down and saw my Digivice right next to me. I picked it up and pocketed it. "You got to be kidding me. Danny's a Digi-destined?"
"Well, if he has a digivice, then he must be." Miyako said leaning over me. I jumped and backed away from her.
"Where is his Digimon partner then?" a larger version of the blue dinosaur thing I saw in the gym said. It was standing next to Daisuke. Something inside me told me it was the same creature… Digimon. But the word partner stung. 'I used to have partners… but never again. They are just people that can hurt you when they die.'
"Well I'm sure we will meet him soon, welcome to the team Danny." Daisuke said putting out a hand. I shrank away even more. 'The light… it hurts.' The memories and emotions that the day was bringing back to the surface were too much.
"Why doesn't he talk?" An armadillo like Digimon asked the smallest of the humans there.
"Is that a crest?" The kid in the hat said pointing at the tag around my neck. The symbol that was inside it was a crescent moon opening right wrapping around another crescent moon that was opened left.
"The crest of spirit." Said the pig bat Digimon another that had been in the gym that day.
I was starting to get dizzy. 'Too much… it's too much.' I thought as they all crowded around me. "Please… just get away… I don't want to remember." I whimpered and they all fell back at my words.
The crest around my neck went dark than a familiar feeling passed over me as I was dragged though a portal that appeared out of nowhere and landed upside down on my bedroom floor. 'I'm back.' The thought helped drowned the other emotions as my stomach turned and the room spun around me. Daisuke's voice was still ringing in my head. 'Welcome to the team…' It made me feel like I was standing in the middle of Clockwork's tower with every clock going off at once.
"I don't want a team… I don't want responsibility… I don't deserve it…" I moaned as I crawled to a waste basket and threw up. "The light… it hurts."
(Hikari)
Danny disappeared into a dark green portal right in front of us before we could even move. And then the portal closed as if it had never been there to begin with. "Where did he go?" I said in surprise.
"I guess he went back to our world." Ken said standing next to us.
"His crest… it was the crest of spirit." Tailmon said sadly. "To think that when he was first chosen that spirit would be his strongest quality. It's even more unbelievable than Ken's crest of kindness."
"He seems so… scared." Miyako said shivering. "Like his very soul was crushed."
"But he still had enough fight in him to throw himself off a cliff to save you and jump in front of Blossomon's attack in order to protect Hikari. And he had enough spirit to call on the crest." Hawkmon said with wings crossed.
"I don't think scared is the right word for it. It was more like empty." I said thinking about how calm he was the entire time. He wasn't scare of the darkness or of the monsters or death, he was only afraid of… of us. "The only time he freaked out was when I tried to bandage his hand. He kept saying that he didn't want the memories to come back." 'Who are you Danny?' I couldn't help but think as we all decided to just return home for the day.
