DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon, but I do own the original characters introduced in this story and my other stories (except where stated otherwise here or elsewhere by myself).
A/N: Cheers again go to Crazyeight for beta-reading.
DIMENSIONS
BOOK SEVEN
Escapes
By Blazing Chaos
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Phase Two
Clairvoyances
FRIDAY, 13th MAY 2011
Riley Ootori
"Rayleigh has no appreciation of confidentiality," Eiichi said, almost dismissively, upon seeing the pictures cast upon the laptop's monitor, yet an undertone to his voice let his humanity shine through. This was undoubtedly not the first grisly dead body he had seen, nor was this likely to have been the first time he had seen this collection of photos, the latter a situation shared with everyone else in the room. The morbid convenience, as a result, was that they did not need to explain the situation which led to these pictures to anyone.
Riley's throat flared up. "Chiyo," she heard Tally barely utter.
"What are these pictures doing here? What did you do?" Yamaki asked, looking down to Shibumi at the keyboard.
"I managed to crack the password. I was surprised too: it was remarkably easy, the code was far shorter than the cipher length suggested."
"Almost as if someone wanted us to find these pictures," said Rob. "What was the code?"
"'The Tempest'," Shibumi answered.
"The Shakespearean play," Eiichi explained, raising a hand. "I would put money on that quote from him in Hypnos earlier sharing the same source."
"He's playing games with us," Yamaki said, his voice scathing and annoyed. Riley cast a worried gaze upon him. His hair was ruffled from one too many stressful run-throughs, while dark shadows hung beneath his eyes, almost as dark as the night beyond the doors. The laptop's newfound power, somehow gifted by Henry under 'golden goose' conditions, had given them a chance, but with this new development they had not only lost that hope but also had been left with a sour taste in their mouths, as the text bluntly reminded them of their past actions.
How was this man, in his early 20s, doing this? Riley had met and heard of plenty of prodigies in her life – Yamaki, for one, and she herself was hardly stupid – but this man was beginning to compete with the likes of Einstein and Hawking. It was possible, of course, that he fell into that sort of super-genius category, but didn't people like that try to change things for the better? Or did he genuinely believe what he was doing was right, no matter how sick it was? Did something happen to him to make him this way?
The words hung on the screen, flexing to fit within the space available as the images scrolled across, filling the screen.
The Murder of Chiyo Suzume
24th October 2010
If you are reading this, then you have dug too deep, and you have left me no choice but to show you your wrongdoing. This collection of images shows the dark side of your Tamers, the people you rely on so much to keep your world safe, even when they have twice killed humans in order to do so. The Tamers who are backed up by the Japanese Government, a government so afraid of genuine justice and a true solution to the problems that the Digital World poses us that it prefers to fund a group of potential rogues, simply out of its own fear. This situation benefits no-one, and if we allow it to continue it shall kill us all. So I have acted to destroy the Tamers once and for all, and to have them tried for their crimes. Humanity will never need to fall back on the monsters that seek to destroy us again. The governments of the world have failed to protect us, but I will ensure that humans never again have to pretend that murder can be justified. But, I can't let you delve into this system any further. Assuming that your actions, however, demonstrate outsider interference in my work, I regret to inform you that this message will now be released to everyone who tries to access our systems as a warning, and that security protocol 29 has been activated, shutting down the external link into the computers of our organisation. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
That penultimate line left no doubt as to the status of their attempts. Hypnos was locked down. Riley knew just how sophisticated the protocol was, not least because she had a lot of involvement in proofing it against every government, zealous hacker and business from Apple to Zimbabwe, and, in the process, against they themselves. The only way to remove that protocol was to be within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building itself – in fact, one would have to be in the Hypnos control room, or at least have an internal link. The precaution, once the Americans and SDCO caught wind of it, did cause some silent controversy and highlighted questions of trust, but their own hacking, ironically undertaken by Rayleigh himself, demonstrated that SDCO had already undertaken a similar move twelve months prior.
You had to know who to trust, or trust no one.
That reality made this job, a programming job permanently entwined with domestic and international security, a lot less exciting than it should've been.
She knew she could trust Yamaki and Tally at least, and perhaps Eiichi, even if he was about as useful within their organisation as (as Yamaki had put it) a tea towel in an oil spill, but the further she went beyond the confines of her own group. The mantra of not entirely trusting the Tamers had been repeated by Rayleigh enough that it was able to have some impact, enough for her to question their involvement within the organisation even if that question was reflexively dismissed.
The trio of her, Yamaki and Tally had worked together for so long they were practically inseparable, and the relationship between her and Yamaki, not least due to its sexual nature, naturally gave them a tighter bond and trust still, even if it had stagnated at the hands of work and fallen, like their day-to-day work, into autopilot. Ironically, this very accidental and unintentional trip to a very dangerous and worrying world had broken the lock of that autopilot greatly, even if Yamaki's worries about what was occurring by far dominated their conversations.
This was a man used to being in control and understanding things, a man who had been elevated to the top job through his intelligence and planning, who was now being challenged by someone far younger than him. Sure, the Tamers had done the same all those years ago, but in that case Yamaki's thinking was clearly flawed and his intentions were, at the end of the day, good even if his means were not. Rayleigh had been using Yamaki as his toy for months, firing and re-hiring him, and using his job and the blonde himself as a stepping stone. At the time, his end goal was unclear, but now…now everything made sense. And, as much as Yamaki preferred to have control, given Rayleigh's seeming invulnerability to authority's attempts to sanction him (turning a hearing into a promotion) Riley highly doubted there was anything he could've done to stop these events.
This trip to this world, a world she had heard so much of but never been to, certainly was a silver lining, particularly for their relationship, as it injected a certain degree of excitement and discovery in their lives. But she wasn't sure if that made up for the hair-pulling stress that they were currently being crushed by.
"What can we do now?" Janyuu finally asked, breaking a long silence of reading and contemplation.
"I could try to access the system, but I don't think Rayleigh's lying about this one," Shibumi mused. "I don't think accessing Hypnos is an option anymore."
"Who else can we contact?" Izzy asked. "Hypnos isn't the only organisation that'll be working on this."
Shibumi nodded. "I noticed that another IP address from the USA was also trying to connect to Hypnos. SDCO at work."
"Can you contact them?" Yamaki asked.
"Their IP address just vanished."
"I don't think they're the kind to give up just like that," Rob said, sighing deeply. "I guess there's only one conclusion we can come to."
"I hope they're alright," Janyuu, his voice thick with worry, prayed.
"Lindsay is meant to be on that side of the states…and, well, without any sign of the remaining two Monster Makers, I'm just hoping that means they're working together." Rob crossed his fingers for all to see.
"So what's the plan then?" Tally asked, looking up to Yamaki, ultimately the decision-maker here even in spite of the lack of an official organisation to bind all of them.
"I don't know." Yamaki paused, glancing to Riley periodically and across the whole of the group. The admission wasn't exactly the most reassuring thing. "By the looks of it we can't rely on Jeff and SDCO, so…I think we're almost out of options."
"Almost?" Eiichi asked, raising an eyebrow. "Pray, tell."
"Don't get your hopes up. I meant unless someone else has any better ideas," Yamaki answered. The reply was a groggy combination of 'hmm's and a few yawns.
"I think we need some rest," Riley finally suggested. "I doubt we can think like this, and we've been working so hard that I don't think anyone would blame us for doing so either."
"But what if someone tries to contact us, or something comes up?" Tally asked.
"I've got a program installed to play and text an alarm if that happens," Izzy replied, before letting loose a slight smile.
"Your late nights aren't obvious at all Izzy," Tentomon quipped dryly, peering over his shoulder as Shibumi nodded and passed the laptop to the redhead.
"As much as I don't want to let my guard down, I could use some sleep," Yamaki said, looking to Riley. Was he accepting the plan because he was tired, or because she suggested it? She'd seen him working hard in far more tired states. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she was pleased he accepted her suggestion regardless.
"We'll approach this with a fresh eye in the morning," Rob McCoy said, albeit there were still tinges of uncertainty in his voice. "Or whatever the morning is here."
Matt Ishida
Matt took a stagger back as a blast of energy ricocheted off the shield next to him with a loud zap-like noise. It wasn't the first time he had heard the sound, but it was far too close for comfort this time. Sense would dictate he, and the others with him, would be wise to move away to a safer place within the town, but he knew they were the front line of defence once the shield fell – unless they could think of any better ideas. But, sealed within this protective dome, they had barely anything to work with on that front, not without leaving the townspeople (who were at risk due to them) in the line of fire.
He glanced right and up, looking to the funnel, now lying on the town like a fallen pin. They'd had enough trouble keeping it up, let alone lifting it up from scratch. There was another problem too: the shield currently meant that the funnel, as it was lifted, would have to pass through it.
"And breaking that shield could kill us all," he mused, even though he knew it would break in time anyway. That power wouldn't last forever.
Particularly not with the actions of a certain Demon Lord involved.
"Beelzemon, stop it!" Mimi cried in annoyance, as Beelzemon pushed against the edge of the shield with all his might, it flicking and phasing around him, and, more worryingly, all the way up to the 'roof' of the shield too, zapping sounds following in its wake. Matt could feel the hairs on the back of his neck lift up, although whether it was from worry or the electricity in the air he wasn't sure.
"I can't waste any more time here. Ai and Mako could be anywhere by now and I can't leave them to get hurt," Beelzemon insisted, his fists clenched before he turned and threw one into the shield, the energy burning around it.
"You'll get yourself killed," Palmon said.
Beelzemon stopped struggling to have his argument instead. "We're going to fight them anyway, why not start now?"
"We need a chance to prepare ourselves," Kazu explained, the argument they had all been using thus far. Beelzemon shot him a defiant glare.
"How? All we're doing is prolonging the inevitable, and it's your damn fault that we're in this mess!" Beelzemon glared at Kazu, as the boy shied away from looking straight at him. His newfound girlfriend, also to blame, was back safely in the transmission station with the other non-Tamers, so did not have to be subject to the Digimon's cutting gaze.
"I would say it was the fault of all of your clan. And we are taking the weaker members of our society to safer hiding spots before this unneeded onslaught begins," Mercurymon began. "We will not let their survival fall onto your buttered hands."
"Hey, hey, I ain't saying we put them at risk, but we've got the upper hand now, ya know? Ain't you ever heard of the element of surprise?" Beelzemon protested. "And what do you mean it was all of our faults?"
"You all wanted to contact your world."
"Hey, I just wanted to get out of here and search – forget calling ahead. There's got to be a bazillion ways to get back to the real world, we've just never tried looking for them."
"Then why did you not leave when you could, rather than leaving your footprint on our fair town?"
"We stick together as a team and we've got each other's backs – I wouldn't want to end up knee deep in crap like we are now on my own someplace else."
"Hmm…your side confuses me."
"Our side, mirror hands," Beelzemon said, drawing one of his guns from its holster. "And we've got sand-monster butt to kick."
Matt twisted his head back to the view outside, not a single patch of sand visible, and certainly no meadow. This was not going to be an easy battle, and he knew that he and Gabumon, with MetalGarurumon's missiles, would need to bear the brunt of the battle.
"Just have to hope the pub still exists after all this. I'm dying for a drink already."
Ryder Stevens
Ryder was lost. Hopelessly lost. The dark had set in (instantly) and completely changed the 'look' of a route he barely knew to start with. This village was full of identical buildings and passageways, which, while nonetheless beautiful and picturesque, felt like a labyrinth. Surely it hadn't been this big earlier when he looked upon it? He also found it hard to believe this was really a 'village'. He knew villages: this place didn't have a threatened post office and a barely-attended Church, and it was definitely bigger in size.
But, still, as he turned another corner, he once again denied the situation to his partner on his shoulder.
"We're lost, aren't we?"
"Absolutely not. I know perfectly where I am, reality just isn't matching it."
"Next you're going to insist your coma is working against you."
"Wouldn't be the first time."
"I should really stop encouraging you."
"Don't bother with the effort, nothing stops this runaway mind. Not even a bullet to the head," he remembered, cringing at the memory, and the death fantasy that followed. "But the less said about that the better."
Wandering to the end of another passageway, Ryder had that fantastic feeling of the familiar, no matter how remote, that all lost travellers appreciate.
"I know this place," he said, both to MiniDonmon and the steps leading up into the traditional temple above. The sight was, in fact, rather confusing, a bizarre cross between an old Japanese building and some sort of Mayan staircase, albeit rather shorter, placing the home of the Priestess far above its surrounding buildings. "Call it elitism or feudalism or tradition, this place certainly heaves extravagance on the lucky."
"Great…but we were looking for our place, weren't we?"
"Hey, it's a start."
"And asking for directions isn't?"
"Touché. And besides, I want to take a look around. Big old building towering over everything around, how could I resist?"
MiniDonmon gestured with his wing to the staircase, before shrugging. "If you want to climb that, I'm not stopping you." Firmly on the boy's shoulder, everything was an easy ride.
Ryder didn't pause, going up the steps two at a time thanks to his long gangly legs. As he went, he imagined a sunrise casting itself upon them every morning, and pondered staying up to watch it – right up until he remembered where he was. There was something to be said for analogue systems.
Reaching the top, he found an odd satisfaction from sliding aside the bulky wooden door (although it also made it feel like a break-in), before he stepped into what he could only describe as a reception room, except oddly absent of any Digimon at all, or indeed a desk. It seemed to serve no other reasonable purpose. The building seemed even larger on the inside than the outside, a corridor leading off from the main entrance straight through to the back with further sliding doors leading off it, while stairs went both up and down. It was without a doubt the largest building in town, and every wall was graced with perfect handcraft in its ornaments and painting. The air inside was still, yet not stale, while flowers were well placed around to give a sophisticated olfactory mix.
"Hello?" he uttered, taking a step forward. The urge to explore was high, even though he knew Mari and the others were probably wondering where he was, or would at least once they discovered he wasn't still getting a bite to eat.
"No one at all," MiniDonmon eventually said, sounding fairly surprised.
"Feels weird to see not a single security guard. In a place like this, I'd expect to have my bag scanned."
"I guess The Priestess can fend off anyone who might try to intrude. And I can't really see the Renamon stealing the furniture."
"I don't think the Renamon even know what furniture is," Ryder quipped, remembering the room they had. Japan in general left him rather surprised, and he appreciated his Western-style apartment, a reminder of the cluttered homes he was used to. Then again, it was hard to call Mari's fastidious tidiness 'cluttered'.
The thought reminded him of the drawers, the diary and the photo, but he pushed it aside for now. Those were questions to, possibly, be asked another day.
"Wonder what kind of secrets a place this old holds. However old it is," he mused, placing his hand onto the elegant woodwork.
"Wonder if they're worse than what we've already learnt," MiniDonmon mused, fluttering to the stairs and glancing up and down. "Which way?"
"You will end up at my chamber whichever way you go," said a new voice, catching them both off guard as they turned to face the now-familiar form of Sakuyamon Kabuki Mode, lit by both electric lamps hanging from above and burning candles on the walls, a bizarre juxtaposition that Ryder, in retrospect, found hard to justify.
"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to be nosy…just this place looks really amazing."
The Priestess smiled, her soft lips poking out below the edge of her facemask. "It's fine. I thought I would avoid you getting lost in here…it is bigger than it looks."
"Looks big enough already," MiniDonmon quipped. "Do you really need all these rooms?"
Sakuyamon chuckled. "Not in my lifetime," she said, before beckoning with her hand. "I could use some company," she said, her voice not pitching above a certain point even when she was trying to be optimistic, a clear sign that the obvious was on her mind. Ryder wanted to ask her about it, but had a feeling she would be sick to death of the subject by now. Still, as he looked over her body, he still found it quite hard to believe there was a girl inside somewhere. Heck, it was hard enough to believe with voluntary biomerges, particularly ones like Jeri and Elecmon's SaberLeomon which abandoned all elements of human-like appearance in their bestial forms. "Come on; let me show you my room. Although, if you're having difficulty with the size of this place already, I'm not sure you'll be able to take it in."
Ryder nodded, uttering "thanks" before following The Priestess along the long corridor to the back, the depth of the temple astonishing enough. The tips of the Digimon's dress trailed along the floor, and Ryder couldn't help but contemplate that, were it not for the fox-like ears poking out from her silhouette, she could easily have been a woman in fancy dress, albeit a fairly tall and well-endowed woman. The contrast between Digimon like Zhuqiaomon who detested humanity and the mega forms of many Digimon which, bizarrely, tended to imitate humanity in so many ways, was certainly helped by the Kabuki Mode. Perhaps there was something of Harmony in it? After all, it seemed highly likely that the Priestess historically would've aspired to resemble her God.
"Doesn't anyone else live here?"
The Priestess turned her head to look at the teen's bat-like partner. "The Elder Taomon has quarters within here, as does The Warrior Taijimon, but he does not usually occupy them." She came to the door at the end, pulling it aside with a slight smile. Clearly, she appreciated having company. Perhaps she was trying to acquire all the friends she could get? Certainly, Ryder felt the topic of the day hanging unmentioned like an elephant in the room. "And here is my chamber."
"This place looks like it's built for 700, not one," MiniDonmon exclaimed, as Ryder cast his eyes over the vast chamber. It spanned all three floors of the building at the back, and was perhaps the most carefully crafted room he had ever seen. The patterns in the woodwork became more intricate, light shone in through the roof, and a small fountain graced the centre of the huge room.
"My sanctuary."
The floor stepped down gradually towards the fountain, and the Priestess strode towards it, looking into the water briefly as she passed. She paused, looking into it for a bit longer, before taking a glance at Ryder, one that unnerved him. She seemed to shake something off before she continued to talk.
"Don't just stand there by the door," she said, her immature voice returning. All the time beforehand, it felt like she was forcing on more sophisticated words than she wanted to use. If her history was as it sounded, she had been dragged from normality into the highs of importance, and tradition had a habit of coming with such obligations as eloquence and taste.
"A princess who didn't want to be a princess," he mused. "This place is amazing." Images of the homes of the average Renamon still came to mind, nonetheless, although the Digimon seemed to sleep anywhere and with no complaints. This was the first room that he had seen to lack any cupboards around the sides.
"I feel like my predecessors would frown on me bringing 700 in here," she said to MiniDonmon, the 'sophisticated' voice returning for a moment. "Tradition."
"Just imagine the parties," Ryder chuckled. "A disco ball from the rafters, a DJ over there, it'd be great," he said, leaving The Priestess highly bewildered.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said, chewing her lip uncomfortably. "But…I'm guessing it's stuff from the human world."
"Yeah."
"Hmm…what's your name again?"
"Ryder. Ryder Mark Watson Stevens. At your service," he chuckled as he wandered towards the fountain, putting his hand out to be shaken before retracting it in jest. He didn't expect Sakuyamon to know what the gesture meant, after all, and certainly didn't expect her to appreciate the reference.
"Who are you?" The Digimon's head tilted, her look almost one of disbelief.
"I…I just said. Ryder Stevens. Were you talking to MiniDonmon?" he asked, gesturing to his partner as his words became lost in confusion. Hadn't he just answered that question?
"You don't make sense. Who are you?"
"I don't make sense?" Ryder made a mental check, confirming that he had the right number of fingers and toes, and didn't have any wings. Not that sense denied the latter these days, it seemed. MiniDonmon similarly checked him over, as if he had at some point been replaced by a doppelganger.
"You're…like an image overlaid on this world. You don't belong here."
"I'm not from this world."
"That's not it. The coming together of the quadrants brought plenty of extra-dimensional beings here, but none of them feel like you," she said, before pausing and reaching out towards him, hesitating before touching his shoulder. "Sorry…can I?"
"Can you what?" Ryder asked, staring at the human-like hand in front of him. In fact, were it not for its complete lack of imperfections, without a single mole, freckle or hair to be seen, he would've been certain that the being in front of him was human. A fairly tall and well-endowed human woman with long silver hair wearing a facemask, yes, but a human nonetheless. He'd lived in Japan long enough that seeing a 'human' wearing a pair of fox ears wasn't a surprise any more. In Akihabara, people dressed like this were a dime a dozen.
"Touch you."
"Uh…yes?" Something about this felt like what he had always been told to avoid as a child: 'stranger danger'. Then again, those posters hadn't exactly depicted a creature quite like this, and almost universally made the threat out to be a middle-old aged rather-disturbing white man offering candy to children, a long shot from a graceful and beautiful human-Kitsune simply asking for a brief touch.
She poked his shoulder, and he reflexively leant back on his heels before returning to a standing position. A confused look on her face, she placed a whole hand on the top of his shoulder, inspecting it closely as she pinched at it.
"What are you looking for?"
"An answer."
"To what?" While all this was going on, Ryder glanced aside to MiniDonmon, watching intently and with a look on his face like he was ready to defend his partner at any moment. Ryder was pretty certain that he could hold his own in a fight for a few moments, but beyond that there was no chance against a being like this. He saw the 'mop'-like staff she carried laid against the fountain nearby, surprising him that she was not constantly carrying it, even when she came to confront an intruder. It was either a good sign that, if she was playing sinister games with him, she would take long enough to attack him (because of it being away from her) that he could get away, or a bad sign that, to put it simply, she didn't need it with whatever sinister thing she may have planned.
Or he could trust her. She was meant to be one of the most benevolent beings in the universe. Yet, today's news had left him uncertain of the good intentions the village supposedly held.
A finger came to his lips. "Breathing," she analysed.
"What kind of answer are you looking for? What isn't right about me?"
Sakuyamon inhaled, returning her hands to her sides. "You have no destiny."
"Oh. I know, Rei told me so."
"She did?"
"Yeah. I'm not one-hundred percent sure why though. Is it that important?"
"For someone who has so many prophecies revolving around them, I'd say it was."
"Prophecies?"
"Things that'll happen in the future."
"I don't buy that our future is fixed, sorry. Whatever happened to free will, after all?"
"Why are you so cynical? Isn't the existence of two half-Gods in your group evidence enough of the supernatural?"
"Just because one thing doesn't make sense under our 'science' doesn't mean it's okay to generalise that anything's possible."
"You're no fun," Sakuyamon pouted, her serious attitude collapsing and an even more immature one returning, as her hands went to her hips and she took a step back. "Now what's making you so weird?"
"Maybe being stared at by a woman wearing a fox mask. Not exactly normal in my book, sorry."
"I could take the mask off if you want."
"Wait, so you're human-looking under there?"
"No idea."
"You've never taken it off?"
"Why would I?"
"Curiosity?"
"What'd be so interesting about it?"
"I…you know what, on second thoughts, never mind." His view of her as some respectable, amazing and beautiful being might be rather…destroyed if something ungodly were to be hidden beneath that mask. Why did she wear it anyway?
"You know, most people would be more curious about all these prophecies. Don't you want to know what's going to happen to you?"
"Ooh, let's see… you will face many trials this month, but Saturn is in your sign so persevere and you may find companionship in an unexpected place. Call this extremely high priced hotline for a personal reading."
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Horoscopes. Barnum statements by any other name, giving someone gullible something so general that they adapt it to their own lives. Confirmation bias, the Forer effect, the self-fulfilling prophecy, et cetera. Or in English: bullshit."
"Wow, you're talking big for someone surrounded by talking foxes and being followed by a bat."
Ryder put his hands in his pockets and acted defiant. "I can explain that stuff. Please explain how some prophecy knows about my future, particularly since I don't have a destiny to read it from." Not that he entirely believed that concept either. How could their lives be so pre-mapped? Surely his existence, and lack of a destiny (with subsequent free will), meant that he could cause someone else's destiny to change, contradicting the whole idea? What would happen if there were others like him, also altering destinies? Surely that would result in a paradox? Or, maybe he was the only one that could: more evidence for everything here being a coma, with he being the only being able to exact real change in events.
"I don't know. I simply listen."
"Listen?"
"To everything. I sense everything. Every particle, every flick of data, I feel how they all move." The Priestess, possibly unconsciously, reached out a hand to the air, her delicate fingers waving up and down independently, as she gently moved her hand from side to side. "Everything converges and diverges…everything has its destiny. Except you. No-one knows what you will do."
"So you can't predict what will happen to me."
"I can't predict what you will do. But I can predict what everything else will do to you."
"Huh?"
"Prophecies don't predict the actions of the person they're made about. They predict the actions of others, what will happen to them."
"Oh. So…if everyone else's destinies, everyone else's particles, all converge on me, then…?"
"I can know the end result. At least…"
The Digimon left it hanging, Ryder eventually nagging her to finish. "At least…?"
"I think that's how it works. My predecessors wrote about the ideas…I don't think I could work that out on my own."
"She seems pretty smart – I'd be surprised if she couldn't." "Oh. So it could be for a whole other reason then, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Ryder, find out what she's prophesising already. All this talking is so boring," MiniDonmon whined, his head previously switching back and forth between them like he was watching a tennis match. "Get on with the juicy prophecies!"
"Do you have any objections?" The Priestess said, looking in agreement with the bat's sentiment.
Ryder looked to his partner and back, before looking to Sakuyamon again, frowning. "Yeah. One. Why don't you feel the same about MiniDonmon?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"He's in the exact same situation as me. He's from another world. Why haven't you said he feels super-displaced?"
Sakuyamon turned her head to look at the bat-like Digimon, cocking it slightly in a surprisingly childish way. "You…you have a good point there. I mean, he looks…not from here, but he has a destiny and everything. And I don't sense any particularly important prophecies about him either...although the world does not feed me them all at once."
"See. Something else is definitely afoot then."
"By the tone of your voice, I think you know."
"Huh?"
"Well, if you completely disbelieved what I said based on that, you'd simply have said that, but you didn't – so what else do you think is afoot?"
"Damn, she's good." Ryder increasingly felt like he was in court with how his words had been used against him. "I'm not sure. I don't think the world is as…clear-cut as it seems."
"Just now you were championing the side of logic, and now you're saying things aren't so simple?"
"I…think there's an explanation. For why I've got all these prophecies about me, and why MiniDonmon doesn't."
"Ryder…" MiniDonmon objected, fluttering in front of his face. "That can't be the truth. It just can't."
"What other reason is there? If you have a destiny and I don't, I have to be the one controlling this dream. It all adds up."
"But it's not a dream. I can think, I can feel, I can remember what happened before. Why don't you believe me? Didn't we just talk about this?"
Ryder's face dropped sharply into a frown, as The Priestess watched much like MiniDonmon had before, a confused look building on her face. "I know but…what else could be going on?"
"What is going on?" Sakuyamon asked finally. "Or at least, what do you think is?"
Ryder turned, going to open his mouth, before MiniDonmon interrupted him. "Ryder believes this is all a dream, and that he's in a hospital in the 'real world' somewhere facing death," he explained. "Which doesn't make sense as I came with him to this world too."
"So you think he's not real? And I'm not real either?"
"Well, you put it in a really harsh way but…yes."
"Oh. Nice."
"Sorry. It's just a theory, after all, even if it has still managed to drive me insane." And so, while MiniDonmon's objections hadn't caused him to back foot on his idea, offending a stranger did. Ryder cursed his double standards, and made a mental note to apologise to MiniDonmon, someone he knew he should've trusted far more. But…it wasn't necessarily even the real MiniDonmon, so what was he so concerned about? Surely this was the last proof he needed for his idea, and in which case it didn't really matter how he treated them?
Or Mari. And yet, he couldn't contemplate treating Mari so harshly, the mere idea made him sick to his stomach. Why would it be so okay to put down MiniDonmon, his own partner, but not Mari? Was he so hopelessly in love with her that that was the case?
"I get it…if you're the one in the coma, of course anything I tell you will come true, because it's just part of your mind telling you what's up next in the dream. And us talking right now is just trying to make you believe this dream world is real. Right?" The Priestess finally spoke again, still looking unnerved and offended by the idea.
"That was my line of reasoning, yes," Ryder answered, again surprised by how the seemingly-immature Digimon was keeping up. Had she naturally been smart beforehand, or did becoming this Digimon make her so? "Or…" he mused, looking over her chest and stomach. That made the situation even sicker. Gaining advantage through kidnapping those girls and treating them like nothing…it made him shudder.
Like nothing. Just like how he treated MiniDonmon, Mari…everyone he knew right now. The irony wasn't lost on him.
"Hmm."
"Ryder, that's…" MiniDonmon began again.
"Do you want to hear them?" The Priestess interrupted, seemingly satiated by the explanation and, remarkably, quite accepting of it. "The Prophecies, I mean," she corrected herself with all the grace of a teenager presenting an assembly to his or her whole school.
"Uh. Yeah. Shoot."
"You see, that's where the problems begin."
"Huh?"
"What kind of problems?" MiniDonmon narrowed his eyes, his avid defence of his partner just making Ryder feel even guiltier for thinking he wasn't real. But this world…it could be trying to do that to him on purpose. A form of torture from his self-conscious, although for what reason he wasn't sure. He did know, however, that his mind was far from being the most stable in the universe.
"Ryder, there are so many prophecies revolving around you that I couldn't discern any of them from a distance. I thought if I got a bit closer to you, I might be able to work them out. But you still burn so brightly with them, a star of blazing chaos…and I still feel so many prophecies about so many other things."
"So what are you going to do, get inside me?" he asked cynically, not speaking the other half of the sentence but knowing it was there. "Or will you take me inside, like with that poor girl?"
"I need to close off all other stimuli so I can just focus on you, and how the universe relates to you. There are so many minds here that the potential revolving around them is like a constant background chatter…I need to take you to a pocket dimension. Alone."
"No way, I want to come with," MiniDonmon objected.
The Priestess assertively shook her head. "I need to be able to just analyse Ryder here…you'll create interference," she said to the bat, frowning. "I'm sorry, but for this to work, it just needs to be me and him. You can stay here and make sure no-one tries to break my spell, if you want?"
"Uh…Ryder?" MiniDonmon called, evidently having problems with the idea of leaving his partner behind to such a situation.
"I'll be fine, trust me." "Even if I don't seem to trust you…" he mourned. "But I do want to know one thing. What on earth is a pocket dimension?"
"A closed space, separate from this world, where I can focus on just isolating what is so important about you."
"And how do you make that?"
"I cast a spell to fold reality around us for a short period of time. It uses a lot of energy though, so we'll have to work fast."
"Okay, okay, so let's say I go with you to this…closed space. What do you get out of it?"
"Huh?"
"You're so interested in these prophecies about me, but the only person they can possibly help is me."
"Oh. I…I'm curious."
"Curious?"
"You don't make any sense Ryder. I've never met a single being like you. Rei felt displaced in time, but she didn't feel like she shouldn't be here at all. But you…you are just…wrong. Plain wrong."
"Oh, thanks."
"Hey, you can't complain about insulting after insulting us," she pouted, putting her hands on her hips. "And if we are your dream creations, what have you got to lose?"
"You're taking me to another dimension. You could murder me, or rape me, or steal stuff from me, or god only knows what."
"I already know you can't die…I take in enough about the universe to know that. I've got an army of adoring Renardmon for sexual company, and I think they've probably got a lot more than you've got to peddle. And finally, what on earth do you have that's worth stealing? I've never seen such horrible clothes in my life. So garish and 'modern'."
"My wit and charm?"
The Priestess shook her head in disbelief, and raised her hand. Like a magnet, it pulled her 'mop' away from the fountain and perfectly into its grip, and in the process completely destroyed Ryder's ideas of how he could escape from this Digimon should she try to attack them.
"Let's go," she ordered. He had the feeling he no longer had any decision about this matter.
"Oh well, looks like I'm stuck now anyway. I hope this pocket dimension isn't too small…I enjoy being able to breathe…"
"We're here."
Ryder blinked, his eyes flitting from side to side, as he realised that his scenery had changed before he saw the Digimon even doing anything. The space immediately around them was still there, as was the view…almost. Almost because, where before the world had stretched off to the edges of the chamber in all directions, here only the fountain and part of the wooden decking existed – he couldn't even see the ceiling any more. The dimension was like a rather large bubble, and where there was nothing to exist but air he saw nothing but darkness, resulting in the odd effect of an entire world simply consisting of a circular 'stage' of floorboards and a fountain. The fountain had stopped since the dimension had been formed, however, with water no longer reaching it. The sound around him was dead, leaving him rather conscious of his breathing, while the floral scent had vanished, leaving him rather conscious of his scent, and whether the Digimon in front of him could smell it.
He whistled a long, impressed chirp.
"So what does this look like from the outside?"
"A bubble, but everything reflects outwards."
"So the reverse of this?"
"Exactly. I just took the area we were standing in and folded it in on itself."
"You make it sound so easy."
The Priestess took a sharp, deep breath, before shaking her head. "It isn't. We haven't got long before I can't sustain this anymore, Pandora."
"Oh, okay, we'd better work fast t…wait…what?"
"Pandora, that is your name, right?"
"No, it's Ryder."
The Priestess put her hand on her head, on the fox-like mask, her mouth quivering. "Sorry, sorry, sorry…the prophecies are starting to come through to me…the whole world is calling me…telling me things…"
"So Pandora is a prophecy?"
"Oh…I guess it is."
"Meaning…?"
"I don't know."
"Can't you listen a bit harder?"
"I'm trying as best as I can. The world doesn't make these things black and white, you know?"
"Okay, I'll try and help. I'm guessing you're referring to Pandora's box, right?"
"Pandora's box?"
"Oh, you've never heard of it."
"I don't think so. I never paid too much attention to the teachings when I was just a Renamon. I was too busy staring at all the Renardmon and getting piggy backs from Renamon and Renardmon."
"And yet now you're The Priestess. How did that happen? I mean, you're nice and all, but…what were they smoking?" "The story goes like this: Pandora found a box, and opened it out of curiosity. All of the evils of the world came out of it, from plague to death to pestilence, and she closed it as quickly as she could. But there was this voice, one last voice that called out from within, 'let me out'. Pandora wasn't stupid, she wasn't about to let out another evil, but then the voice said 'I am hope…even with all those evils in the world, I will make you able to fight them and survive, and live happily and prosper.' And she opened the box, and a beautiful butterfly flew out." "I should have got a job on kid's TV." "So what's that got to do with me?"
"You're an Angel, right?"
"Yeah. The First Angel of Time."
"First Angel of Time, Pandora, Ryder, Mark, Watson and Stevens – you sure get a lot of names," her hand was on her hip again. "I only have two, and only one of them is unique."
"True. Do you think that my names are important then?"
"I don't know. Do you know about the Demons?"
"Of course. I've fought two of them before…I've…um…"
"Killed two of them before?"
"How are you doing that?" Ryder promptly retorted, his eyes glaring at her with at least half of the intensity of Rika at her worst.
"Doing what?"
"Knowing stuff I haven't told you so easily."
"Ryder…I can feel everything…I notice everything. When you said that…your fingers moved, ever so slightly," she mimed, reaching out like she was holding something before pulling a finger back, and making a "pow" sound. "You were remembering. Did you shoot them?"
"Yes…I didn't want to! I really didn't! I didn't think I had any other choice though," he rushed to explain himself. "They were going to hurt people…I had to stop them. Chiyo almost killed Mari."
"Mari means a lot to you, doesn't she?"
Thanks to her changing the subject, Ryder took a few moments to reply. "Yeah. She's probably what's been keeping me sane. Without her…I don't know where I'd be. Dead, probably, and with me that means endlessly agonising about being 'stuck' alive.
"So why don't you believe she's real then, if she's done so much for you?"
"I…I don't know. I want her to be real. But all the time I'm thinking: what if she's just another part of my mind? A part that's charitable enough to try and help me keep my sanity, even in this coma. My mind can't be all self-torturing, right? You see, I had this thought recently: what if everyone in here is like, a different facet of me? A huge case of schizophrenia, but…I just don't know what else might be going on."
"This could all be real?"
"Then how do you explain MiniDonmon's lack of destiny?"
"I…uh. I'm not sure."
Ryder frowned, going to apologise for pushing it too far with someone who was, after all, simply trying to help, before realising he'd done that enough to her already. She knew he didn't mean it, she simply had to. But, still, a long silence hung between them for a while, impenetrable by even the sharpest knife, before Ryder finally opened his mouth to speak again.
"So what did you start talking about the Demons for?"
"Maybe…maybe by coming here, you released the demons. Like Pandora released the evils into the world."
"How though? I didn't wake them up or unlock them or anything."
"I don't know Ryder. But did any of them attack before you arrived."
"…no. But…that doesn't mean they couldn't have."
"Are you sure you're not just disagreeing with me because you know I'm making sense?"
"Possibly…" Ryder guiltily admitted.
"You do that a lot."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't apologise. Whether 'Pandora' means that is another question. But we're running out of time, and I have so much more I need to know about your prophecies. So…bear with me…"
Ryder was about to speak again, but paused, nodding. Now was not the time to ask questions or interrupt the mega level Digimon, her mouth now firmly closed as her human-like hands gently twitched below, before grasping at the air. He stared at them, trying to take in the new concept he'd just had launched at him. Just what else might he uncover?
Was this a bad idea?
He'd already found something to suggest that everything that was going on might be his fault. That hardly seemed like the worst possible thing he could find out from all this, which simply left that still to come. And, at the same time, he began to worry just how deep these prophecies went. He didn't want…certain things to be uncovered. And, finally, there was one thing that was particularly bugging him.
"How can I prove your prophecies actually come true?"
Sakuyamon shook, jumped from her trance. "Excuse me?" she said in an annoyed voice.
"Oh, sorry, forgot what was going on. But still, how can I prove these prophecies actually mean anything? Have they ever come true before?"
"Yes."
"Such as?"
She paused and nervously glanced away, as if it were some kind of guilty secret, a look he'd been rather hoping to see a bit more with her earlier revelation about the biomerging controversy. "I predicted the death of Yggdrasil."
The answer unnerved Ryder, and he took a step back. He'd expected something small-fry: maybe predicting good fortune or the weather, or a nasty fall – not a death of such importance. Was Yggdrasil's death fated from the start? "Oh."
"I did not want to believe it myself until I saw what your group did. What Chaos did. 'cause that's what he does, he goes in there and destroys, always upsetting the balance. Yggdrasil was far from perfect, but he was a stabilising force. Every day now, we get stories in from all over about the fallout from his death. This whole world was built around his roots."
Ryder couldn't help but feel partly responsible – Yggdrasil's actions were against them, not the poor Digimon caught in the crossfire. But still, he felt the need to negate what he was hearing. "The Digimon Sovereigns though…can't they help?"
"Don't make me laugh. Yggdrasil was a godly being even if he wasn't a god. The Sovereigns are just caretakers. Without his influence, our world descended further into anarchy. Everything since has been a sticking plaster – I mean, look at that program one of you made that swept across our world, giving us all these alien parts and roles. I anticipated that too. I mean, I'm not denying it's fun, but it doesn't work - Digimon are still dying out. Most societies are too small to reproduce properly – we're just lucky here that enough of us are alive to breed properly."
"Then maybe that's what the Digital World needs…a reason to choose life over fighting and death. If the survival of the species relies on surviving, Digimon won't be so nihilistic and destroy each other needlessly."
"I want peace too Ryder, but…you come from your overcrowded world and, then feed me your morality about life and death? Digimon and humanity are not alike. The smallest of digital events now threaten the entire population with extinction, save for a few larger species. The diversity of the Digital World will be lost, and the harmony we once had will be destroyed. Yggdrasil ensured that there were the correct quantities and types of Digimon…without him, we are lost."
Ryder's arms crossed, as he seemed to not even notice her comment. His distracted mind had already picked up on something else, to the detriment of the rest of her speech being given a proper hearing. "There."
"What?"
"You did it again."
"Did what?"
"You constantly seem to switch between formality and informality."
"Oh." She looked like she already knew, and her lower lip may as well have been gum as she tried to string together a response. "I am, um…"
"In two minds?"
"Sort of."
"Do you think the girl has anything to do with it?"
Sakuyamon frowned, as if she did not want the subject brought up, yet her hand went unconsciously to her stomach. "I don't hear her voice, if that's what you mean. It's just…becoming The Priestess…" she began, looking at her hands and frowning. "It changes you so much. I want to go back to be that little Renamon again, without all this pressure, without all this thought, and without all these prophecies running through my head. Renamon and DarkRenamon went off to see the world…they came back so different. I want to do that too some day! But I'm stuck here, doing this job until the day I die, with my mind slowly changing until I become like every other Priestess. Everything that makes me, me is going to die."
"Can't you resist it? Can't you change it?"
"I don't know. Nobody knows. All the Priestesses wrote about it. I make them out to be amazing…but…they were all as scared as me, they all mention it in their writings. But they matured, and changed, and…became just like every other Priestess."
"Literally? The same personality and everything?"
"I don't know. But I'm worried that's the case. I'm not trying to put on a more sophisticated voice…not all the time. I can't help it. And I can't even tell anyone either…I'm meant to be here for them. The Elder would pour scorn on me if I put down the old ways, and The Warrior already thinks I'm weak enough without me giving him more ammo. Praying to Harmony never helps either. And with all that happened today, I don't know what to do anymore. All I can do is live like every other Priestess. I didn't even want this job."
"That…really sucks Priestess," was all Ryder could think to say, as he saw the Digimon's head dip in worry. She stood there for a long while, staring down at the floorboards, before eventually Ryder put his arms out, anxious that he was completely useless at trying to comfort her right now. "Hug?"
She finally broke her silence and chuckled. "I want to find out more about you. Because if I do, things might get more interesting, and change, and people might think I'm worth something. That's why I'm doing this Ryder. You seem important, and I need something important to change."
"Let's hope I can give you that then. So come on, what's this prophecy?"
She looked irritated, her hand on her hip again. There was the informality again. "Hey, you're the one that interrupted me," she argued. "Now shut up."
Her mouth locked closed, and Ryder held in his apology as she reached out her hand to the air again, her fingers making intricate shapes as her ears twitched. "Listening to the symphony of the universe," he thought, before promptly correcting himself as he glanced around the rather cramped pocket dimension. "The other universe," he thought, before pondering if the dimension had gotten any smaller since they had arrived. Did it have something to do with the level of energy she had to feed into 'folding' it? Was this even a proper separate dimension to start with, or was it just like making a snowball in the middle of a plain white field?
And then he noticed. The fountain was gone. This world was definitely getting smaller by the second, a hugely frightening concept.
"I hear it."
There she was, 'looking' at him again. He imagined that beneath that mask her eyes would've snapped open, but he really couldn't tell: instead, his curiosity was plagued by wondering what would be under there. Would it be rude to ask?
He was about to ponder such questions, but then it hit him that perhaps it would be rather more appropriate to listen to exactly what he was in this dimension for to start with. "What is it?"
"It comes from everything and everywhere, every time and everyone…it is sung on the wind, in the hearts of all in this all so different world," she paused, her hands wide open at her sides, although whether it and the pause were for dramatic effect or a part of the prophecy-telling he could not be sure.
"What is?"
"The four black ships. The four black ships are coming."
"Four black ships? What are they?"
"I do not know Ryder. All I know is that they are coming."
"I got that impression." "What for?"
"I am not…" she began, before hesitating, her hand reaching out to grasp a 'point' in the air. "Wait…I feel it…"
"Yes?"
"The four black ships are coming, and they will bring the end of your story, Ryder Stevens. And I am sorry but…she is going to die."
Silence fell, total and utter silence. Ryder's face froze, his eyes wide open and his mouth drooping slightly like it could not decide whether to touch the floor or hug his gums. Opposite him, Sakuyamon paused briefly before her mouth hung open, her hand going to it, first in surprise and then in guilt.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she pleaded. "I didn't expect that…I didn't think about it before I said it."
"But is it true? Is it one of the prophecies?" Ryder barked back, the revelation setting his mind into overdrive and leaving him wanting answers. Who was 'she'? Mari, Ivy, Rey, Sora, Rika, Mimi, a multitude of fellow classmates and adults he knew, along with half of the human population, not to mention all the Digimon. A death that would have something to do with him, by the sounds of it, and…the black ships. Just what were they?
"Yes, I am afraid so." The formal voice returned, but Ryder did not interrupt this time – bigger things dominated his mind, as he broke from their stare and began to wander back and forth in front of across the constricting space at right angles to the holy mega. His hands twitched, and his mind tried to conjugate what he was thinking. Finally he turned and pointed a finger sharply at her.
"Do you know who?" It was a long shot.
"I'm afraid not." The response was to be expected.
"So someone I know is going to die?"
"I don't even know if you'll know them. But they will be a woman."
"A human then? Not a child?"
Her informal voice returning, she stuttered out a correction. "Okay, a female then, happy? All I know is they're going to die."
"Then I have to stop it. I mean, it'll be simple, I'll just work out who's at risk, and keep them out of it, and…"
"Ryder."
"I mean, there's no damage to me if…"
"Ryder, there's more to it. This prophecy is about you. So the death has to do with you."
"Is it my responsibility?"
"I don't know. Do you have any idea what these four ships may be?"
"Not a clue. Four horsemen of the apocalypse, directions on a compass and countries in the UK, maybe, but black ships? Am I meant to know that? I'm guessing you don't have a computer to hand, right?"
"Sorry."
"Damn it, so much for Googling," he cursed, clenching a fist as he continued to wear a trench in the floorboards. "What's the next prophecy you can find? Does it have something to do with it?"
Even from just a glance, Ryder could tell The Priestess was worried for him, and that only made him feel guiltier for being so short-tempered like this. "I…I'll see…one moment," she replied, bowing her head and putting her arms out again, those hands now far more likely to touch Ryder by accident now he was striding at right angles to them.
He didn't interrupt this time, but his mind failed to show the same consideration for his sanity. "Maybe I kill someone again? Maybe I kill a Demon? But I don't want to, I really don't want to. Will I have met them yet? Oh god, and what if it's one of us? That'd be really horrible…that'd be pretty par for the course. I couldn't kill a close friend, I found it hard enough to kill Chiyo, and she hated us. Wait…if it could be a Digimon, maybe it's just your run of the mill biomerge? Or maybe it's just going to be collateral damage? I fall on a building, or push a Digimon on a building, or trip a gas line, and boom, some poor girl loses her life. Tragic, but not as bad for my conscious as killing on purpose someone I know."
"You will lose a loved one."
"Bugger."
"I'm sorry," she apologised again, putting her hands together. "But that's the next prophecy."
"Is the loved one the same female that dies?"
"I can't say."
"Can't say, or don't know?"
The Priestess now looked rather irritated by his questioning and being angry with her, and snapped. "Obviously I don't know!" she bit back in her 'teenage' voice. "I want to know what this means just as much as you do. And also, wow, you're such a fantastic chap, your prophecies are all death, loss, gothic ships and unleashing of demons upon the world."
"That's not my fault." "Even if it is my usual luck."
"So who do you think you'll lose?"
"At my hands…I don't know. Do they have to be in this universe to be included in a prophecy?"
"I'm not sure. I only hear this universe, but…I also learn from destinies, and MiniDonmon has one even though he came from outside…I could hear whispers of a future destiny, or the imprints of one destiny upon another, and…"
"So can they?"
"Possibly."
"Damn it. So if they have to be in this universe, it can only be Mari! If it's a girl who dies, it has to be Mari. Or, it's MiniDonmon who I lose, and some poor girl loses her life too, maybe even Mari. If it's outside, Ivy dies, and maybe someone else does too. How fantastic!"
"I'm sorry I can't be of more…"
"JUST MAKE SENSE! FOR ONE BLOODY TIME IN MY WHOLE STINKING EXISTENCE, JUST MAKE SENSE!" Ryder screamed, The Priestess taking a step back and pulling her shoulders up in fear, before it seemed to register that he was not shouting at her. Instead, the black sky above was taking the torment. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" he continued, throwing his hands apart in a beckoning gesture. "IF THERE'S SOME SICK, TWISTED FREAK UP THERE, EVEN MY OWN MIND, PLAYING GAMES WITH ME, THEN I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE…WE NEED A LITTLE TALK!"
"Ryder."
"IT'S ABOUT BLOODY TIME, A…oh…it was you…" Ryder's now-hoarse voice finally came down to a reasonable level, as he looked across to The Priestess near him. "Sorry."
"You have some anger issues. No, scratch that, you have issues full stop."
Ryder nodded, frowning. "I feel like I'm constantly being played with, and like everything in my life just goes from one bad to another. This is exactly the kind of treatment my own mind would give me."
"Oh. Hug?"
"Huh?"
"Earlier on, when I was worried, you offered a hug. Whatever one of those is."
"Uh, it's…" Ryder began, before realising the best way was to demonstrate. He wandered over to the Digimon, and, with a high degree of discomfort and embarrassment (in addition to going on tip-toes to avoid an even more embarrassing situation), put his arms round her. She didn't copy the gesture back, and the world's most uncomfortable hug ever ended within seconds. "That."
"Oh. Is that meant to help?"
"It's meant to make you feel better."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Wait…what were you saying just now? About how your own mind would give you this treatment?"
"Oh, right. Yeah – if I'm in a coma, this is exactly the kind of thing that…"
The Priestess' face suddenly flashed with alarm, and she took a step back away from where they stood close together, her eyes flung upwards before to behind her. "This place hasn't got long left. Sorry, but we'll have to do counselling later – I need to finish making my prophecies about you."
"Oh…okay…" Ryder noticed for the first time just how much the place had shrunk. The orb around him had contracted, and the circle on the floor below now contained a far smaller amount of floorboards than it had when they started. Outside, MiniDonmon would surely be panicking by now for his Tamer's safety.
The Priestess put her hands together, closing her eyes again, as Ryder pondered just how long he had left before he would have to start crouching. At least The Priestess would have to do so first, giving him a bit of clue as to what might happen. "Out of curiosity, what happens if…" he began, before realising that she was deep in her trance, and that she wasn't about to listen to his interruptions again. "…the edges of this place catch us. Actually, for that matter, what happens if it closes completely on us?"
Reaching into his pocket, he found a tissue, and bunched it up into a ball, before twirling on his feet and chucking it towards the edge. Before his eyes, it disintegrated. He mentally hoped that was just what things passing through the edge of a dimension looked like. Turning around, and silently laughing nervously, he saw The Priestess, and even though he could not see her eyes, he could tell she was glaring at him.
"I have a prophecy for you, and looking at this place, it'll be my last."
"Which is?" He became very conscious all of a sudden of the fact this orb only contained so much oxygen. Did Sakuyamon have to breathe it? He rather hoped not.
"Four is coming."
"Huh?"
"Four is coming, like I said."
"Well, I think you mean four are coming, but do you mean the Black Ships? Isn't that something you already said?"
"No Ryder, I meant what I said. Four is coming."
"What the heck is four?"
"If I knew, I'd be telling you. Now, take my hand," she quickly replied, reaching out as she began to duck down slightly, gripping the 'mop' tightly in her other. Ryder, despite knowing he had a few inches to spare, did the same, while taking up her offered palm.
And then, suddenly, sound returned. Beautiful, quiet, echoed sound, in the far distance and questionable to whether one was actually hearing it, but sound nonetheless, all made into melody by the trickling water from the fountain. The chamber seemed so lively compared to the deadness of the pocket dimension.
Feeling returned too, as MiniDonmon practically leapt at him, grabbing his neck and face and clinging on. "I was worried you were gone!" he exhaled. "The dimension started shrinking!"
"It was fine," Ryder replied, smiling at the prospect of having MiniDonmon back. The words of "you will lose a loved one", spoken by the Priestess, flashed across his mind, but he tried to suppress them – up until he noticed the distinct absence of a tissue by the side of where the orb had been, and gulped. "Close one."
"Come on then, what did you learn?" MiniDonmon quickly asked, flapping back away from his face. "Are you going to become rich someday? The king of something?" he grinned.
Ryder frowned, shaking his head sadly. "Nothing at all like that." His head dipped, while Sakuyamon, looking surprisingly tired all of a sudden (no doubt thanks to maintaining the pocket dimension), decided to break the bad news to an already worried-looking MiniDonmon.
"Ryder is like Pandora…he has opened the world to nightmares…but we can't say for certain what."
"Four black ships are coming to end my story, and 'she' is going to die," Ryder continued.
"She?" MiniDonmon was taken aback by the waves of prophecies now launched at him. "Four black ships?"
"I'm going to lose a loved one."
"The same one as 'she'?"
"I have no idea. I might even lose you," he said, this particular part pushing tears to the edges of his eyes, and leaving Sakuyamon to read the final prophecy.
"Four is coming."
"Four? She? Black ships? What does this all mean?" MiniDonmon asked, looking back and forth between Ryder and The Priestess, his eyes moving so much in his balls that they looked ready to drop out.
"I have no idea. That's the worst thing," Ryder explained, wiping back the few tears that had manifested themselves. "And I don't know if I can even change it."
"But I can help," The Priestess said, stepping towards him with a hand out, her 'mop' now laid down by the fountain, its water springing forth with life again much like it always had, and hopefully, always would. "I…I may not be able to ever prophesise for you like I can for everyone else, but…I know what I'm looking for now. I know what to sense, what you 'feel' like, and what the world feels like when its events affect you."
"You know what he feels like?" asked MiniDonmon, before quipping. "What were you two up to in there?"
Ryder looked rather surprised. "You couldn't hear? I screamed at the top of my lungs!"
"About what?" MiniDonmon's eyebrow was now fully raised, and Ryder realised he had yet to dispel whatever twisted thought was now circulating through his mind.
"About how this world seems to torture me. The only being in this entire universe that could hate me enough, and that would have enough power, to do that to me, is me. So I'm sure of it now. I must be in a coma. Only a coma would be sick and twisted enough to kill Mari. To make me kill Mari."
"Kill Mari?" MiniDonmon's eyes looked set to bulge out.
"It makes sense. I'm going to lose a loved one, and a girl is going to die – and it has to do with me somehow. It has to be Mari, she's the only girl I truly love in that sense in this universe, and while we're not sure about it, I can't see who else will be able to get here. Ivy hasn't had any success, and she's basically vanished now. Me and you, we're the only ones from that other dimension here. And what's worse is that this prophecy has to do with me – so I have to be the one who kills her!"
"Ryder…Ryder…stop it!"
"What, because I'm making sense?"
"Because you're not making sense!" MiniDonmon complained. "This can't be a coma, it just can't. And the loved one doesn't have to be the girl who dies."
"Then I'm going to lose you. You're the only other being I love in this universe."
"Well…they might not have to be from this universe. Right, Priestess?" he asked, hopefully looking to one side to the red-clad 'woman'.
"I do not know."
"That's all she can ever say…no-one knows how this works enough. Heck, maybe I'll wake up and lose you all. That'd satisfy all the prophecies."
"Not the black ships. And four. What are those about?" The Priestess asked, her teenage voice back again. "I can't work them out, Pandora…I mean Ryder. So you're going to have to work them out yourself."
"What difference does it make?"
"You didn't believe this stuff before Ryder, and now you're believing you can't change it? Ryder, I don't know how this works, but I know that you can only be better off for knowing it all," The Priestess explained, as Ryder's lines of anger and panic across his forehead began to subside. "You can try and stop things happening Ryder! I don't know if you'll manage it, but you can be one step ahead of the game now. No-one has to die, you don't have to lose a loved one, and as for the other two…well, I don't really get them, but they don't have to come true either."
Ryder paused to compose himself, taking in breaths. "You're right…you're right," he said, sounding not yet completely convinced. "I can do this, I can fix things. I must be able to. If this coma world can play games with me, then I want to take that challenge head on. I'm going to prove that I can play games with it."
"This coma thing, Ryder. Why are you so certain that it's the case still?"
"Because everything seems to be pointing its way. The fact MiniDonmon has no destiny, the fact that I have so many prophecies about me, and…"
The Priestess snapped, evidently having had enough of this, and interrupted. "Ryder, you're talking to a Digimon you've never met before, who you just went in a world like nothing you've seen before, and standing in a village you never even knew existed."
"And you live in a country you've never been to," MiniDonmon chipped in, knowing where this argument was going.
"How are you having all these experiences you've never had before in a dream? Dreams can't contain new things," Sakuyamon explained. "Our dreams are our memories being recycled."
"But I could be imagining it all. I could've made this all up. How would I know?"
"Uh, because everything here is real?"
"When you're dreaming, you don't know that you're dreaming. Even biomerging – I could just be imagining what that might be like. And as for all the weird and wonderful things I've seen – well, I bet a big purple flying spaghetti monster could appear out of nowhere, and I wouldn't question its ability to exist. That's what a dream's like. But I've been in here too long, become too conscious, but I'm stuck here until I recover and wake up, so I'm endlessly just fighting it out with my subconscious. An endless battle to create something convincing enough that I believe it, and…"
Slap.
Or more of a backhand. Either way, Ryder was brought back from his thoughts by a painful feeling on his cheek. "Ow," he mumbled, rubbing it and looking to The Priestess, who looked completely unapologetic about her actions as she seemed to contemplate the intactness of her hand, looking closely at it. "What was that for?"
"You're boring me!" Hand-on-hip again, she pointed out her other hand directly at him. "Ryder, I've heard you talk so much about this, but everything can be explained away. You like to pretend you have, but you have no definitive proof – either that this is a dream, or that everything else isn't real. You challenge me for being logical! And yet, without any certainty, you go around hurting people by telling them about it. Look at MiniDonmon, he's crying! Haven't you noticed yet? And you all call me immoral and emotional for neglecting things that should be so obvious to me."
Ryder barely heard the last sentence, his eyes now meeting MiniDonmon's, who wiped the tear from his eyes with his wing. "I'm fine," he obviously lied. The boy reached out, pulling the Digimon into his arms, and feeling the tiny arms and wings clutch back.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he apologised, wiping more tears from his partner's eyes. "Is this world just trying to keep me here? I really can't refuse…"
"So that's what a hug should be like, huh?" he heard The Priestess mumble, before he and his partner's eyes swung back in her direction, MiniDonmon now returned to his pride of place on his partner's shoulder. "I'll admit this could be a dream, but you have to prove it."
"How?"
"You need to prove that this is real, and you need to do or see something you couldn't possibly imagine. You need to make sure you know whether you're really alive Ryder, because I think you're being so blind to other explanations," the Sakuyamon reasoned.
"Like what?"
"I don't know. But that doesn't mean they don't exist."
"Oh."
MiniDonmon looked assertively into Ryder's eyes. "Ryder, you have to tell her."
"Tell me what?" The Priestess asked, looking confused.
"He means Mari. I have to tell her about what I think is going on. I've been so cruel to her keeping it back all this time…I didn't want to 'break' her world."
"So don't tell her then."
"I love her, Sakuyamon. I really do. I don't want to lose her by accident thanks to some prophecy, so I damn well don't want to lose her by breaking the world either. But…I know that she trusts me…and I trust her, and I feel I'm being so wrong by doing this all around her, and by lying to her about what's on my mind. I keep so much back from her already that this just isn't fair. She's already wanted to know about what I saw when I died…so this is the time to tell her."
"If you're sure?" MiniDonmon affirmed.
"I haven't a clue, but this seems like the time to do it!" he said, clenching a fist. "Priestess…thanks. Thanks ever so much. I'm going to try and change what happens. But I'm also going to try and avoid hurting too many people in the process. And I want you to know that, dream or no dream, you've been a real friend today."
"Thanks. Maybe that'll just go a small way towards making up for what I did," she said, her head drooping.
"Hug?"
"Better not, I don't think they go that well with me."
"Ah. We'll be leaving you in peace then."
"I think I'll need that to take this all in. I can't work it out yet Ryder, but you are important, and I hope that one day I'll understand why," she said, looking at Ryder before reaching for her face, removing her mask finally, leaving the pair of them speechless.
"So…you're almost completely human…looking?" MiniDonmon stuttered, looking as surprised as his partner at the sight. A pair of beautiful blue eyes sat below, yellow and white fox ears still pointing out regardless. Her skin was pale yet flawless, and her smile finally made sense with the whole face visible. It was a face like that of an older teenager or a young woman, even if her silver-grey hair suggested age, while a few purple streaks across her cheekbones reminded them of her Renamon origins.
"You look…amazing," Ryder stuttered. "Why would you ever cover that up?"
"I don't look Renamon," As she began to gaze down into the water in the fountain to see herself, the water stopped without explanation, the flat and reflective surface left like the most perfect of mirrors. She frowned as she gently tweaked one of her fox-like ears, still poking out from the sides of her head. "This is a village of my kind…this mask is my identity…my history. It reminds me of the Renamon I once was," she said, turning to face the Angel and Digimon. "So…as curious as you made me about it…and as much as I like what I see underneath…I'm not going to stop wearing this mask," she said, looking at it in her hand closely.s
She replaced it to her face.
"Thank you."
And the Priestess smiled.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Feels like ages since I last wrote this, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter. This last scene is something I've been building up to, anticipating and worrying about for a while, so I hope it's been worth the wait. It didn't end up exactly how I imagined it, but none of my scenes ever do perfectly. I'm now back from holiday and finished with exams, so I'll have a lot more time to write, and therefore should be able to get through the next few chapters in a jiffy. That's the theory at least. Whether it applies in practice too…we'll see…
Until next time,
B.C.