Author's Notes: I actually had a large chunk of this written up shortly around May of last year. After Anime North 2007 came and went, my Digimon muse just shut down. It was only thanks to a Digimon RP that I got involved in that the muse started picking up again. So hopefully, it can stay online for a good while.
Disclaimer: I'm just writing this story purely for fun. If I do get contacted from the owners of Digimon telling me to take this down, I'll do so right away. I'm also borrowing other concepts from Norse mythology and some small stuff from Tite Kubo's Bleach.
Unions
Part 4: Dreams and Rehearsals
Every night before Takato Matsuki went to sleep; he would often give a little prayer to Amaterasu to let him have a peaceful dreamless slumber for the evening. Of course, for those who know him and have an inkling of what he has experienced, they would certainly understand that he would want to avoid experiencing nightmares of the old ghosts that had haunted him in the past.
That was only part of the truth. To clarify, Takato wouldn't mind dealing with a nightmare once in a blue moon if that was the alternative of what he had to go through every time he actually experienced a dream during his REM sleep. At times, he wondered if Rika had experienced the same thing during her own REM sleep but he doubted it. She's already used to the Digimon Queen persona while he still struggled to hold down the darker aspects of the Digital Hazard.
The first time that it happened was around a month after the sealing of Daemon and ZeedMillenniumon. To say he was caught off guard was a bit of an understatement…
OOOOOOOOOO
Takato honestly couldn't remember when exactly he had drifted off to sleep but he definitely recognized that he was no longer in his safe warm bed when he came to. In fact, it didn't seem that he was at home at all with his view of his bedroom in his family bakery gone and replaced by a large looming castle with multiple towers in the middle of a dark and stormy night. 'Weird…'
Before he could try and assess what's going on, black lightning bolts that came from one of the castle towers flew towards him, coinciding with a lightning bolt and clap of thunder in the background. He instinctively shielded himself and was surprised to see the Aegis shield attached on his armoured left hand. The shield kept the lightning bolts from hitting its wielder. 'So I'm in my Gallantmon form, huh? Works for me…' With a forceful jerk of his left arm, he redirected the bolts to hit a part of the stone wall built on the left of the large main door.
The knight Digimon quickly looked above at the various towers of the castle in an attempt to find out where they had been fired from. After a moment, his golden eyes were able to spot a figure in black armour and a blue cape fade into his surroundings. 'Him again?!' Knowing that standing around was going to do nothing; he dashed towards the castle and leapt over the gigantic wall to land on the other side.
The courtyard was deserted with empty stalls and dirt being the only things that were around. It was a very wide open space and he knew that by idling here, he's practically a sitting duck. But he continued to stroll casually through the space as he needed to lure the other knight out to answer some questions. Knowing him, he won't be able to resist such a tempting target…
"Obsidian Lance!"
Right on schedule… and he's coming from behind too as usual.
Gallantmon quickly sidestepped out of his dark counterpart's thrust and lunged in for his own attack. "Royal Sabre!"
The free hand that was hidden beneath ShadowGallantmon's black shield took a hold of the Gram lance and was used to throw the other Digimon several feet behind the dark knight Digimon. "Just a bit too slow there…"
As Gallantmon scrambled to his feet, he glared at his dark half. "What the hell is going on?!"
"Oh my… is that type of language appropriate for a Royal Knight of your calibre?"
The other knight's taunts didn't help matters much. "Answer the damn question!!"
"Hmph… very well. At least it would be a little more fun with you partially in the loop. First of all, how familiar are you with sleep physiology?" asked ShadowGallantmon.
"You mean stuff like REM and non-REM sleep? I did that stuff for that science project I had to work on as part of my catch-up studies. What are you getting at?"
"How I can do this…" He gestured with his lance to indicate the castle. "… in the first place. Let's start with the average amount of sleep a person needs a night which is about seven and a half hours. Non-REM sleep occurs during the first two-thirds of the sleep period while REM sleep is predominant in the final third. Dreams occur the most frequently during REM sleep. Of course, they can show up during other sleep stages but it's a lot easier to hijack the dream during REM sleep. Unfortunately, this does give me a time limit on how long I can keep you here and due to the chaotic force known as the Digital Hazard, that limit fluctuates far too much for my liking. Then there's also the fact that it doesn't always let me dream jack as much as I want since your sleep cycle isn't the most consistent…"
Gallantmon waved his lance frantically. "Wait a second!! Dream jacking?!"
"Yes. Basically, whenever you are about to have any sort of dream while you're in your REM sleep period, I can bring you here and seal you away so that I can take over your body. Took me a while to figure it out too," stated ShadowGallantmon in a simple tone. "And just to clarify something… even though this does have characteristics of a dream, the Hazard's properties basically makes trying to wake up before the REM sleep period is complete impossible. Go ahead and give it a try."
The golden eyes that were hidden beneath the white helmet started to rapidly blink as that was the method used by Takato to wake up from a nightmare whenever he had them in the past and got some awareness that he was in a nightmare. The blinking lasted for thirty seconds and the scenery in front of him didn't change. "So much for waking up… but now that I'm aware of being in this dream state, I can control it!"
"Lucid dreaming won't work here as well," interrupted the dark knight.
"… the Hazard?"
"Yup. You're pretty much limited to what you can do in the waking world."
With the facts so far being revealed to Gallantmon, he felt depressed enough to fire a moderately powered Shishi Hokudan like that Ryouga guy did in that old manga his dad used to read. "Is there a particular reason why the Hazard is totally screwing me over?"
"Blame the day you found the blue card for the first time. You essentially gave birth to Guilmon and the Hazard on that day. Eventually, a voice in which your darkness could express itself materialized and you can plainly see the results. If you're going to stop me for good, you're going to have to purge the Hazard from existence and that's quite impossible. Now that you're filled in, let's get down to business… Demon's Disaster!!"
"Aw, nuts…" He immediately teleported out of the way to avoid the lightning bolt but his dark counterpart was a step ahead of him as he also teleported to an ideal flanking position to strike Gallantmon's blind side.
"Spiral Wailer!"
'Crap!' He twisted his body to avoid the fast attack and tried to lock down the enemy's weapon with his own lance and shield. Although Gallantmon was able to succeed, ShadowGallantmon's shield was still free and he tried to position it for a close up shot that couldn't miss. His position was far from ideal and he had a tough time trying to line up the shot.
As the two knights struggled, Gallantmon asked another question. "Is Megidramon in on this too?"
ShadowGallantmon laughed. "Why would he care? As long as his primitive needs are met, the rest of the world can go screw themselves as far as he's concerned. And don't count on Casanova coming to help since he's an extension of your soul's lighter half." After he said that last sentence, he forcefully broke free from the grip of the other knight and fired the charged up dark energy from his shield.
"Final Elysian!" The Hazard symbol on the Aegis shield glowed red before blasting through ShadowGallantmon's move and send him flying into one of the high castle towers.
'He'll recover quickly… I really wish I had Grani with… hold it!' He recalled the battle against Metamormon where ShadowGallantmon had absorbed Grani to mode change to his Chaos Mode. Technically, he still has the data in his body… er, Guilmon's body… He groaned as he started getting a headache from all of this. 'May as well give it a shot…'
"Revive, Grani!" Just as ShadowGallantmon got up from that last move, billions upon billions of data particles broke free from his body and flew towards Gallantmon and reformed together as the glider. "It… worked?! Grani, are you alright?" The red machine gave no response. "Grani!!"
"Don't waste your breath. Even though you can force his data out of the host body and reassemble the glider in the waking world, his individuality is long gone."
Gallantmon gave an angry glare at the other Digimon. "At least you won't be able to go back to Chaos Mode without Grani's help!!"
That last line caused the dark knight to laugh as he came back to the ground. "Man, that's a good one!! Hahahaha!!" At the holy knight's puzzled look, he proceeded to explain. "You really don't understand anything, do you? Grani simply acts as a key to unlock extra stages of evolution to whatever host Digimon it grafts upon. Once the door is unlocked, as long as there is sufficient data and power to reach the evolution, there's no reason why a Digimon can't get up to that level. Don't you remember the psycho bitch queen's red Sakuyamon mode?"
"No…" Shock started to register in the holy knight's golden eyes.
"But let me show you myself… ShadowGallantmon mode-change to…" His black armour shifted around and instead of yellow adornments, he had blue adornments. The lance and shield were replaced by a black staff and sword. Blue demonic dragon wings came out of his back and tore his blue cape to shreds. "… Gallantmon Chaos Mode!"
'What in the world?! He looks a lot different from the original Chaos Mode I remember!'
As if he read the other knight's thoughts, Gallantmon Chaos Mode proceeded to explain as he willed away his weapons. "You can say that these are improvements I made to the code of the original Chaos Mode. I also have a number of new moves that I can't wait to try on you… like this one for example! Dementia Chains!!" Black thin energy chains immediately whipped out at Gallantmon from the other knight's outstretched arms.
Gallantmon quickly leapt on Grani and proceeded to blast off in the air while dodging the chains as if they were large serpents. "Yuggoth Blaster!!" Grani fired a projectile towards the chains and upon contact; the chains lost some of their momentum, buying him some time. 'He's playing for keeps… time for me to do a little evolution of my own!' With that in mind, he leapt off Grani and the glider immediately dissipated into data to graft on to Gallantmon and transform him into Crimson Mode. His evolution complete, he dived down at Gallantmon Chaos Mode with Gungnir and Blutgang in his hands.
"If Gleipnir doesn't do it for you, perhaps Tyrfing will!" Summoning his sword and spear set again, Gallantmon Chaos Mode took off like a bullet towards his holy counterpart to meet his challenge.
"Quo Vadis!!"
"Occidio Tyrannus!!"
OOOOOOOOOO
The first time had been very strange indeed. And it became hard to tell when exactly would these 'meetings' take place and how long they would last because of the Hazard's chaotic tendencies. Sometimes, he only had to deal with it for twenty minutes while at other times they lasted for just over an hour. The frequency of these meetings was erratic so sometimes three times a week to three times a month.
At times, Takato would have trouble sleeping because of the possibility of getting dream jacked by the dark persona and had to resort to using sleeping pills at times. He also spoke to Renamon about this and ask that she keep this a secret and help him make contingency plans in the event that his other half triumphs. As for his other friends, he tried to keep to himself more often and this strained a number of relationships with his fellow Tamers.
Speaking of his other, he had noticed that over the meetings that followed the first, the dark knight's movements became more erratic. It was as if something was gnawing at him inside and gave him a different type of motivation to fight other than his own ambitions. Sometimes when he crossed swords with his other, he could almost hear his opponent muttering something under his breath as if he was obsessed with what he had said.
Nine months after the first meeting, he finally snapped and Takato learned the big question that his other had been constantly asking.
OOOOOOOOOO
CLANG!
The echo of the two blades rang throughout the battlefield but only the combatants could hear it. Gallantmon Crimson Mode's Gungnir was used as his defensive weapon to deflect and block strikes while he kept attacking with Blutgang. His counterpart used a similar approach but his strikes with his sword, Tyrfing, were more precise and because of the sword's properties, the crimson knight had to be really careful as it could cut through his armour rather easily.
He parried a sword strike from his other before hurling Gungnir up several feet to drive one end of the spear into the tower wall. Then he leapt over the dark knight's swing with his own spear and flew to where Gungnir was attached to the wall. 'Finally… a breather…' It would only last for a few seconds but it would have to do. He started channelling energy into his weapons for his next move.
Gallantmon Chaos Mode tossed away his own weapons before he took off in pursuit. "Dementia Chains!!"
The red knight's golden eyes narrowed slightly as he anticipated the timing of his next move. If he was off by even a microsecond, he would be in big trouble as the binding ability of the chains could not be broken short of Ragnarok (Ragnarok here meaning that neither he nor ShadowGallantmon could return to the waking world and Takato would be a brain dead vegetable for the rest of his life). 'Not yet…'
Four metres away… three metres…
'Not yet…'
Two metres… one…
'Now!' He plunged his weapons into the stone and released the energy, causing the stone to explode right between the two knights. Gallantmon Chaos Mode was forced to halt his flight and shield himself from the amount of debris falling from the tower.
"Shit!!"
Seizing the chance to strike, Gallantmon Crimson Mode used the debris as his cover to make his attack. "Final Justice!!" The powerful strike from his weapons sent his dark counterpart to the metaphysical courtyard soil. Dirt clusters flew up as a result of the collision. That last move won't keep his opponent down for long so he landed on the ground to get into a better position.
As the dark knight got up onto his knees, he started mumbling to himself again. "Just how the hell… why…? He's not worthy of that position!!"
"Let me tell you something… I'm weary of this game and I'm getting really annoyed at how you drag me in here at every chance you get… what the hell do I have to do to get you to stop?!"
A maniacal glint could be seen in the blue eyes of Gallantmon Chaos Mode. "You really want to know? Alright… then answer me this little question. How… in the hell… did a weak-willed prick like you... GET TO BECOME KING OF THIS REALM?!" As he finished this question, black chains burst up from the ground to flank Gallantmon Crimson Mode. He looked behind himself in alarm before he tried to fly away but the chains were faster than him and ten seconds later, he was bound to the ground.
"Crap!!"
The dark knight caught his breath. "All this time… I never figured out why you were able to be King. But that's going to change now. From now on, I will be King and you will be the Horse."
He struggled against the chains that bound him. "What the hell are you talking about?!"
"If there are two beings with the same appearance, ability, power and potential, one becomes the King and the other becomes the Horse. The reason is simply instinct. The person who becomes king needs to want to fight, to want power, and to mercilessly crush his enemies. I've never seen that type of instinct from you. You've always had to rationalize to yourself why you had to fight and restrain yourself from making the final killing blow. I'm not letting someone as weak-willed as you ride on top of me…" As he approached the fallen Holy Knight, he willed his weapons, Gleipnir and Tyrfing, to his hands.
"Well, I'm sorry that I don't live up to your expectations even though I already trust my instincts. If I fought purely as you suggest, then I wouldn't understand the hearts of those I fight. I wouldn't understand their feelings of desperation to live...!" He paused at the last statement. "The feeling of desperation to live... so that's it."
Just as that understanding dawned on Gallantmon Crimson Mode, the chains that bound him dissipated to his dark counterpart's shock. "The hell?!"
The red armoured Digimon rose from the ground. "Everything has the will to live. Ever since the beginning of life, that much has not changed. Before I created Guilmon, you were simply a concept without form in my soul. Then... everything changed in their Digital World when you were given a definitive voice and form through the Control Spires. A true existence. And you would do anything to protect it."
"I don't protect," growled the dark knight.
Gallantmon Crimson Mode merely chuckled once. "Yes, you do. Besides the will to live, everyone has something precious they want to protect. An ideal, a friend, a loved one or one's selfish beliefs... it doesn't matter how you look at it. The need to protect is as much an instinct as the will to live. While I can respect your will to live..."
He blurred out of Gallantmon Chaos Mode's vision and reappeared right beside him with his sword cleanly buried in the right side of his black armour. "... my need to protect my friends and my loved ones from the likes of you is far greater. That is why I am King."
The black knight showed no reaction to the sword in his side or the fact that his lower body started dissipating into data. "I guess it can't be helped. You made a damn good case."
"A compliment? That's rare, coming from you."
Over half of his body had dissipated, leaving only the upper torso. "It's not a compliment. Merely a fact. But know this... if your resolve ever wavers, I will bury you."
"It's not like you will fade away as a memory. Not after all that has happened recently."
"I know. Give my regards to the Queen." Those were his last words as his head vanished.
And Takato woke up.
OOOOOOOOOO
"Eeeeuuuggghhh..."
Rika merely rolled her eyes in amusement at her companion's yawning. "I know this is boring but we gotta make sure we know what to do on the wedding day."
In the background, they could hear the wedding coordinator giving out instructions to the ushers and bridesmaids for the rehearsal. "And you will come in exactly one minute after the previous couple has entered..."
"It's not that it's boring. It's just that I had another one of those talks with... him. Regarding KingEtemon that is," murmured Takato quietly.
"Talk as in talk or talk as in a metaphysical death match?"
The young man frowned slightly. "Hey, we can have normal conversations once in a while too. The guy's not so bad once you really get to understand what motivates his behaviour."
"... and I can see that should be enough yapping for today. Let's go through this. The sooner we get this right and down pat, the sooner we can all head to the rehearsal dinner buffet."
A loud "YEAH!" came from nearly every assembled Digimon in the Church along with a few of their human partners.
End Part 4
I guess that's as good a place to end it for now...
Anime North 2008 is coming up so if you want to find me, just keep an eye out for the video gaming area as that's where I will spend quite a bit of time.
