Dreams and Nightmares

Shadow- "Hello again, faithful readers. I just noticed something about the editing system: if you have more than one sybol at the end of a sentance (eg a question mark followed by an exclamation point) it deletes the first symbol. Oh joy. The system screws up the format once again..."

Renamon- "And this is a surprise to you... how?"

Shadow- "I don't know... I thought the system was supposed to help you..."

Renamon- "Apparantly not. Regardless, you don't own digimon."

Shadow- "Yeah, I know... oh, and please R&R!"


mainframe

The dragon continued to plod along slowly, to the increasing aggravation of the digidestined. Finally, Rika could stand it no longer.

"Can you move any slower?" she shouted. "We've been walking for hours, and I can still see where we started at!"

"Patience, digidestined." the dragon replied. "A few hours is precious time to wait for your friends."

Jeri, who had fallen asleep and was being carried by Leomon, woke up as the dragon finished speaking. She yawned.

"Are we there yet?" she muttered sleepily. "I just had a really weird dream..."

"It's okay, Jeri." Leomon said. "You can go back to sleep if you want."

Jeri yawned, muttered something about puppets, and went back to sleep.

The dragon continued to walk in its infinitely slow manner, and everyone sighed. This is going to be a long day...

dark ocean

Kari still hadn't gotten used to the idea of walking, and breathing, underwater. She shivered, and a cloud of bubbles escaped from her mouth as she spoke.

"W-why can we breathe?" Kari asked.

"This place is digital, right?" Henry replied. "Everything is just data. We can breathe because we think we can."

"But how do we know this place is digital?" Kari asked.

"We're breathing, aren't we?" Henry replied.

Kari looked around, then sighed. "I guess..."

"That isn't important." Tai said. "We need to be looking for this 'dark lord' guy."

"Do we even know what he looks like?" asked Matt. "It's not like we're going to find some huge sign saying 'Dark lord this way; digidestined welcome', or something. We're just wandering around in circles right now."

"Well," said Tai, "Do you have a better idea?"

"Yeah, actually," replied Matt, "How about we camp here for lunch? It's been a few hours."

"Yes! Lunch!" shouted Kazu

"Dibs on the rice balls!" shouted Veemon.

"No fair!" said Patamon. "You got those last time!"

"Do we have any food left?" asked Yolee. "I'm all out."

The digimons' faces fell. "We're gonna starve..." whined Kazu.

"Hold on a sec!" said Takuya. "I think I still have some food."

Takuya was quickly tackled by the digimon, and Kazu, all trying to rip off Takuya's backpack. While Takuya cried out and tried to fend them off, Henry pulled out an energy bar, and started eating. He sighed.

Jeri... Rika... where the heck did you two go?

mainframe

Zoe sighed. We just keep walking. Walking and staring at that dragon's ass. Walking and trying not to scream. Walking and... she sighed, resolving not to say anything. Then, realizing this would get her nowhere, asked "How long is it 'till we get there?"

The dragon did not even look back to respond. "A while. Be patient."

Zoe growled. "Look, dr... n..."

Kouji looked over at her. "'You okay?

"...I just realized something..." Zoe said. "We still don't know that dragon's name."

About time you asked... thought the dragon. "My name is Huanglongmon."

"That's kinda a stupid name." said Efremon.

"No worse than Azulongmon...or Efremon." replied the dragon.

As Efremon looked like he was about to attack Huanglongmon, Zoe asked "How long till we get there?"

The dragon stopped moving. "We're here."

The digidestined looked around the dragon. In front of them, the ceiling swept upwards, displaying an imitation of clouds. Below, in a vast crater in the floor, stood a giant forest, complete with enormous mountains, rushing rivers, and immeasurable oceans. In the center of it all stood a colossal spire, glinting in the sunlight radiating from the ceiling. The dragon smiled at their shocked reactions. "I think you can understand now why I spend most of my time here."

mainframe, sacred crater

After experiencing an exhilarating ride into the crater on top of Huanglongmon's back, the digidestined were dropped off in front of the spire, which, from where they were standing, seemed to extend upwards forever. Up close, they could see the spire was made of a shining silver metal, with flecks of gold and precious stones thrown in for variety.

"Before you ask," said the dragon, "Yes, that is really silver, gold, and precious stones."

Justin looked to his left and right. "So... where's the door?"

"There isn't one." the dragon replied. When everyone looked at him oddly, he quickly finished "...not yet, anyways. It won't open until you've collected enough energy to safely revive your friends."

"Is that why you took six of us here?" asked Rika.

The dragon nodded. "Yes. In order to remove them from their current bodies, and create new bodies for your friends, your wishes are needed. Since the process is draining, it can only be safely done with two people reviving one person."

"And... what about Takato?" Rika asked.

The dragon sighed. "I knew this would come up eventually. I... do not know where your friend's data is now. If we knew, and could find him before he receives a new body, we could revive him without effort. Sadly, though I have scanned the human, digital, and dark worlds for him, he was nowhere to be found."

Rika's face fell. She frowned. Something didn't seem right. If he wasn't in any of those places... then where could he be? Before Rika could ask anything, Kouji asked "How, exactly, do we 'collect enough energy'?"

"Simple." the dragon said. "A period rest recharges human's ability to wish by dreaming..."

Justin sighed. "In other words, we need to sleep."

The dragon nodded. "Exactly."

dark ocean

"Can we please stop walking?" Kazu whined.

"Fine!" yelled Tai. "But if we don't find the dark lord, it's your fault!"

Kazu wasn't listening. He had already fallen to the ground, and was asleep.

Henry sighed. "We might as well stop here."

As everyone set their things down and began pulling out sleeping bags, Kari shivered.

TK looked over at her. "Is something wrong?"

Kari shivered again. "The... darkness... it's..."

A nearby explosion interrupted her. Fire shot out of the ground. The earth cracked in half. The air (A/N: Okay, water, but still...) began to whirl into a cyclone. Kazu, unsurprisingly, didn't wake up.

He was finally roused by a fireball exploding on his backpack, which he was using as a pillow. As Kazu ran frantically about, trying to extinguish the fire on his head, a black dragon rose up through the smoke and fire, growling at the digidestined.

"You have trespassed on my domain..." the dragon growled as he walked out of the cloud. "...now you shall suffer for what you have done." The dragon bared its knife-like teeth, then roared loud enough to rattle their bones.

The digidestined pulled out their digivices. There was work to do.

mainframe, sacred spire

The six digidestined paused as they prepared to go to sleep. They felt a rumble through their feet, and the trees swayed lightly. They wished that Huanglongmon was nearby to tell them what was going on.

Rika sighed, knowing that what ever was going on, they were powerless to help.

As she got into bed, she thought back to a conversation she'd had with Justin earlier.

flashback: sacred forest

"Rika..." Justin said, "could I talk with you for a minute?"

Rika looked over at him. She had been staring off into space, thinking about Takato. "What's up?" she asked.

Justin hesitated. "Rika... are you okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've been staring off into space a lot lately, and you've been avoiding the others. Is something wrong?"

Rika heitated, then sighed. "...it's Takato..."

Justin nodded. "Yes, but... we're all concerned about him. I thought you'd be the last person to go to pieces."

Rika smiled slightly. "Well... he and I were really good friends..."

Justin studied her expression for a moment. "You love him, don't you?"

Rika quickly answered "O-of course not!", but was unable to keep from blushing. Stupid goggle-head...

Justin nodded his head. "I understand..." he said as he walked off.

mainframe, sacred spire

Thinking back on what had happened, Rika still did not know why Justin had asked, or what his last comment meant. She sighed. Stupid goggle-head... making me blush like that...

She heard a voice that she couldn't tell if it came from the forest or from inside her head. "Rika... don't call me that..." it whispered.

Rika sat bolt upright, and quickly looked around. Everyone else was asleep, and the forest was quiet and empty. She lay back down. Stupid goggle-head... making me hear things... she shivered, though the night wasn't cold, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

rika's dream

Rika found herself back in Shinjuku park, near the shed that the tamers had always hung out at. She looked around to find someone she knew, but the park was deserted. She turned back to the shed, and saw a dark aura emanating from it. It reminded her of Icedevimon, except that this aura was colder. And darker. She shivered, wanting to get away from it, but felt drawn to the shed. As she got closer, she suddenly felt like the evil was not the shed itself, but rather something inside it. She slowly entered, and gasped at what she saw.

Inside were a broken red and gold D-terminal, a piece of a silver, red and gold shield, and a rare Wizardmon card, covered in blood. She shivered, having no idea what they meant.

She turned to leave, but found her path blocked by shadowy figures, all whispering her name. Though they seemed familiar, she found herself backing down the hole Guilmon had made. She heard Takato's voice, trying to tell her something. The shadowy figures boxed her in. Takato was yelling in her ear. The figures were coming closer. Suddenly, she understood what Takato had been trying to tell her. The shadowy figures grabbed her, and began shaking her. She felt her back hit the end of the tunnel, and knew that the portal had closed. She heard the shadows speaking to her, shouting her name...

mainframe, sacred spire

"Rika! Rika! Wake up!"

Rika opened her eyes, and saw that Koichi had been shaking her, trying to get her to wake up.

"C'mon!" he said. "Huanglongmon's opened the gate for us. We're just waiting on you."

Rika sat up, turned to face everyone, and said "I know where Takato is."