LIFE AND DEATH

By milesprower06

Chapter 3 – Transparency

ANCIENT TOMB

4 MI. OUTSIDE CAIRO, EGYPT

7 DAYS AFTER MEMORIAL

Takato quickly replaced the tin in the hole, buried it, and restored the memorial. He ran out of the tomb back outside, where the storm had died down considerably. He got the sat phone out of the backpack and called Yamaki.

"Takato?" the Hypnos director answered.

"Yamaki. It's gone," Takato quickly said, not wasting any time.

"What?" he asked, taken off guard by what Takato had just told him.

"The items that were in the tin; my drawings of Guilmon, stats, and Rika's Digivice, they're not there" he said. Yamaki certainly wasn't expecting this, and Takato knew there wasn't anything more they could do there, so they traversed back through the desert back to the airfield outside of Cairo. During the flight back to Shinjuku, Takato went over and over in his mind what could've possibly happened to it.

"Don't worry, Takato. We'll find it" Renamon reassured him.

"What could've happened to it, though? It didn't even look like it had been disturbed. It was exactly how I left it last week." Takato said.

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Renamon didn't really know what to say to him. He seemed to be more concerned about the whereabouts of Rika's D-Arc rather than his drawings. However, she assumed that wherever they were, they were mostly likely together in the same place. But Takato did have a point – she watched him bury the tin last week and put the tile over it. She had a decent memory, and it didn't look like it had been disturbed. If anyone took it, why would they go through the trouble of placing the tin and tile back the way they found it? Surely, if they had any respect for the memorial, they'd leave it alone entirely. How would a D-Arc and a few Digimon drawings be of any use to someone who wasn't a Tamer?

The thought of her former Tamer's Digivice being in the possession of some thief angered her. Even if they knew what it was or what it did, it would do them no good, so why not just leave it alone? After her and Takato became partners, Renamon had given the Digivice to Rika's mother and grandma, seeing it as kind of a memento for them to remember her by. When Takato announced his plans to go back to the altar to make a memorial, they felt it was appropriate for her Digivice to be a part of it. Part of her wanted to be angry at Takato. If he had left the Digivice in the care of her family…

Renamon dismissed that train of thought. It wouldn't have been right to blame him. It wasn't his idea to take the Digivice as part of his memorial; her mother insisted, and he couldn't have helped what happened to it anyway.

It was late when they got back. Yamaki suggested they go get some rest, and that they'd continue another time. Definitely tired from his hike through the desert, Takato agreed, and they two of them headed home. Walking back through downtown Shinjuku, Takato was still puzzled about what had happened today. 'Who would be down in that tomb looking for trouble anyway?' he wondered. He arrived home, went up to his room, and was asleep barely a second after his head hit the pillow.

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He was in the same endless white room. He looked around. Still; nothing around, but the pillar wasn't there – it had been replaced by a larger altar. He approached it. On the altar, there was a glass case. Inside the case, there was a fist-sized rock. Takato reached for the case, and it was then he realized something was different this time around – something with him. His hand was…transparent. 'Could that mean I could reach through the case?' he wondered. He was ready to test that theory. He reached towards the case, and prepared to make contact with the glass.

He didn't. His hand went right through as if there was nothing there.

'But how am I going to get the rock out?' he wondered. Wait – how did he come to that conclusion? Was getting the rock out of the case the goal here? What was the supposed 'goal' of the last time he was here? He moved his arm further into the case, and got a firm hold on the rock. Then, he saw the rock itself fade partly away, becoming transparent as he grabbed it. He blinked.

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When he opened his eyes, he was in his room. 'Hey, I wasn't done!' he thought to himself. He glanced over at the clock down on the desk. It was 4:30 AM. He spent the next half-hour puzzled over why he woke up early. But did he wake up from that dream 'early'? Maybe the transparent rock was the point. But what did it mean? Was it connected at all to the last one?

Then, for some reason, his mind drifted to the dream he had about Rika, when he had first become a Tamer. She and Renamon were facing off against a Lynxmon. After he had tackled her, Rika used a Speed card, Renamon slid out from under him and jumped up, almost right next to Takato as he was suspended in the air.

Then she had glanced at him.

'How did she see me?' Takato thought to himself.

So many questions…no answers.

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Renamon wished that Takato would talk about these dreams he had – even the bad ones. It was a way to get it off his chest. He never did though – and she never pushed him otherwise; if Takato wanted to keep it to himself, she would allow him to do so, and forcing him to talk about it certainly wasn't going to do any good.

But that didn't help things…just like it didn't before…

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MATSUKI BAKERY / RESIDENCE

3 MONTHS BEFORE MEMORIAL

It had only been a day since Takato had accepted her offer. It was 12:30 AM. Takato sat on the floor of his room, with a blanket draped around his shoulders. Renamon came in the room with a steaming cup of tea. He had just woken up from another nightmare – and according to what his parents had told her while she was downstairs getting the tea, it had sounded like one of the worst ones yet.

Tears pricked the corners of his eyes as he accepted the cup from Renamon. She knelt down next to him as he sipped from it. "What am I gonna do, Renamon?" he asked his new partner, his voice almost hoarse. "How am I going to get them to stop?" he asked.

The intricacies of the mind were beyond Renamon's knowledge. How could she help? Then, she realized – she didn't need to be a psychologist; she needed to be a friend.

"You could talk to me about it" Renamon said softly. Takato closed his eyes briefly, as tears ran down his cheeks. He opened them, and took a sip from the cup he held in his shivering hands. "I…I can't" he told her. "Takato, keeping it inside won't help. It'll only hurt you in the long run" she advised. He continued crying. "I can't even think about it without…" he got chocked up in his words. "How can I talk about it?" he asked. He took another sip of tea in an effort to soothe his sore throat.

Renamon put an arm around him. "Now's not the time to be strong" she said to him, as tears continued to stream down his face. Takato remained silent, thought for a few moments, after which he shook his head, stood up, set the teacup on his desk, and got back in bed. "What's to say? I'm losing them again and again…" he said, laying down, drawing up the covers around him, and turned towards the wall, crying softly.

Renamon said no more. She didn't think it was right, but it was his choice. She wasn't going to force anything out of him – it would've done no good. She walked over to the wall switch and turned off the light. She walked back over to his bed, and gently placed a hand on his shuddering shoulder. "If you ever want to talk, just know that I'm here" she said, and faded from view.

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MATSUKI BAKERY / RESIDENCE

8 DAYS AFTER MEMORIAL

Renamon glanced up at Takato, as he shifted in bed. She glanced at the clock – 4:45 AM. His traumatic nightmares were being replaced by puzzling ones, 'weird' was how he put it, but still he wouldn't talk about them. Eventually, everything he was keeping inside was going to collapse, and leave him emotionally ruined. Maybe not in a few weeks, or months, or even years, but it would happen. Renamon didn't want that. It was beginning to deeply trouble her.

Three months ago when she became his partner, she was afraid she would not be able to help him the way Rika did. She would be willing to try her very best though. But if he wouldn't talk, how could she ever hope to help him? She began to see that her initial fears were starting to be realized.

"Don't feel that it is your burden alone to bear, Takato" she said from the corner. She believed he heard her, but if he did, he offered no reply.

Renamon needed some advice.