Koichi woke up in a large stone chair with no memory of what he was doing or how he got there. More like a throne, really; it had a high, arching back and majestically carved arms, both of which seemed to cup him like something precious. Chains encircled the stone, coiling like serpents around his body and the throne indiscriminately. Loosely binding him in place. It occurred to him that there was no light, yet somehow he could still make out the gleam of the metal against the dull red of rock. Sand stone. As he moved the surface of the throne sloughed off and the chains clanked from far away. The world was a black-grey mass like a frozen pond, cold and completely stagnate. And there was something… else in it.

Kimura Koichi… So, you've finally come. You sensed me, didn't you. I've been waiting for you… Koichi.

He stiffened, eyes sweeping the room quickly. Something about this place-something about this situation, made him nervous. It struck him as rather odd to be chained to a chair in a dark area, yet for some reason, he couldn't understand why. Why was it odd to feel the heavy links weigh down his body and restrict his movements? Why did it make him feel so uncomfortable to hear that voice?

Hmm, why indeed, the voice responded, as if to his thoughts. You were never afraid before. It was only when your will was absolutely subordinate to another that you found contentment. You used to be so comfortable here, Koichi. Away from reason, away from feeling, away from control… This was your sanctuary.

"My sanctuary," Koichi repeated vaguely. His mind felt foggy as ground glass, but his insides continued to twist with growing unease. He didn't like this voice and he didn't like this place. "I don't think so."

No, it was. You escaped your sorrow here, abandoned the pathetic meaninglessness of your old existence. Here, the darkness soothed your heart and taught you strength. You turned you pain into a powerful weapon and swept through the shadows in a terrible reaping. You were so close…

"I don't remember that," he said, shifting. His body scrapped against the sand stone, releasing granules in tiny streams down his back. "I don't remember anything remotely like that. I have no idea what you're even talking about!"

Then let me help you…

Something that felt like fingers hooked lightly on his shoulders and he started into action. His body pitched forward, ready to strain against the chains that bound him. But they gave away easily, sliding into slack coils around his ankles. Koichi tripped, catching himself with his hands and scrambling back to his feet. It was his first instinct to run but, seeing as there was literally nowhere to go, he turned around instead, facing the throne. Fear made his breath shallow.

The throne had grown an additional pair of arms… human arms. Composed of shadows and mist, they reached towards him from the curved back of the chair as if through a portal. Above them, a head pushed through and black lips curved upwards in a mockery of a gentle smile. It leaned towards him, exposing a decidedly female figure made entirely of what he could only describe as darkness. There was no hair, there was no face besides the mouth, and there were no eyes, yet he could feel it looking at him. Sandstone disintegrated as it- she, pulled herself free, collapsing into a pile of red dust and steel links. She stepped forward, moving her hands as if to brush residue from her chest and hips. Her smile was unwavering.

"Why are you running away," she asked in a voice distorted by low frequency noise. Koichi felt it in his mind more than he heard it. A single hand reached towards his face, too far away to actually touch him but curving as if to grasp flesh. "You're not afraid, are you?" She snorted in amusement. "No, of course you're afraid. I can smell it on you like perfume. Fear, anguish, wrath... You used to always ware this scent and so it became my favorite."

She laughed and it sent shivers down his spine.

"Who are you…" Koichi frowned because that was the wrong question. "What are you? How do you know me?"

"I could say I am you," she replied, circling him slowly. Koichi moved with her, turning and sidestepping so she stayed directly across from him at all times. As far away as possible. Slowly, the two switched places. "But we both know that's not true. Well, not entirely true. Not for a very long time."

"I don't understand," Koichi said, as exasperated as he was confused. "I don't understand any of what's happening."

"Don't you?" she stopped and the area that should have been her face turned towards him. Her chin dropped and she seemed to be contemplating something, though that was hard to say with any certainty.

"Look around, Koichi. Do you know where we are?"

"No," he replied flatly, staring back towards the figure with as much intensity as he could muster.

"Look harder…"

A hissing sound came from the pile of sand behind him and he glanced over his shoulder in time to see it drain into the ground. Like an hourglass…

There was a sudden jerking force and the grey world fractured, crumbling and falling away as if someone had cracked reality's shell. Its innards seethed purple and green and black as green light flooded his vision. There was a groaning noise and Koichi looked down as cracks spread under his feet, eroding the platform on which he stood. He sucked in air to scream, but the sudden lack of anything beneath him caught his throat. The earth swallowed him up and he fell into nothing... but didn't. There was the sensation of falling, but he didn't move. His body oriented as if he was still standing, but that was the wrong word. He floated in the emptiness as images and sounds drifted by like ghosts and the purple-green gut churned around him. This place he did remember. All too well.

"This isn't possible," whispered Koichi, looking around. "It's not… I was… I was just going to sleep, I can't be…"

The black figure… giggled. Laughed at his sudden terror in pure ecstasy. Her head rolled back for a moment as if intoxicated.

"I knew you'd recognize it if you looked," she cooed softly. "This world between worlds. This limbo. I was born here and, between manifestations, it was here that I slept."

"This isn't real," insisted Koichi, trying vainly to move back. "I'm asleep and this is all just a dream."

"You're right, you are asleep," affirmed the figure, advancing on him. Her legs worked as if she was walking, but something about the way she moved lent itself more to drifting. "And this is a dream."

"Then it's not real."

"Two out of three's not bad, though I doubt anyone else would approve of that score. This is very real… I am very real."

"No," Koichi breathed, shaking his head in child-like denial. "Dreams can't be real. And if my dream's not real, then you're not real."

Her tone became suddenly cold and sharp, like an ice sickle weighted to the breaking point.

"Do not delude yourself into thinking dreams are private. That they are somehow sacred or that they can't be violated. This is a dream, but it is my dream, not yours. Perhaps you've forgotten and lived a happy life, but I never could! I could never forgive and I could never move on; the hollowness of my own existence was too great.

"Many times I tried to engulf the Digital World and many times I was thwarted by humans like you and yet so infinitely different from you. And each time they sent me back to the abyss I grew stronger- more certain. More determined. I had to become whole and to do that, I needed you. I had to have you, Koichi; I had to possess you once more.

"So I've come for you. I've broken the laws of the universe and I shall continue to break them until I achieve my goal. Until I control your heart again. I brought you here so you would understand that. I brought you here!"

She was definitely smiling now, a gash in her face wide and curved like the crescent moon. Koichi's heart froze, his gut went taught, his mouth dry. For a moment time stopped as the thing he feared most, the thing that made too much sense and yet none at all, slipped unbidden between his lips.

"Duskmon."

"So you do remember me! I'm so happy."

"How could I forget," Koichi spat with contempt. "You're the monster that tore apart the Dark Continent. You tried to kill my brother!"

"You tried to kill your brother, dear friend," she corrected, wagging a finger at him as if to scold a child. "I may be a monster, but I'm your monster. I came form your soul. Anyway, that's all beside the point. I'm not your enemy and I didn't mean to upset you…too much. I just hoped we could talk a little before it starts. It's been so long after all. Hundreds of thousands of years, from my perspective. You may remember time passes much more quickly in the Digital World."

"Before it starts…" repeated Koichi slowly, his pupils dilating as she closed in, bringing her shadow body mere centimeters from his. "You mean before you start trying to take over my body."

"Your body, your mind, your soul," she said calmly, running one finger down his chest. "Everything that you are. But you shouldn't look so angry; I only want what's rightfully mine, Koichi." Her fingertips hovered underneath his left collarbone, pressing against his shirt as if she intended to tear right through it.

"You understand. Because somewhere in here-" Her fist phased inside his chest, her fingers curling around his heart and squeezing. His eyes widened in horror as he let out a yell of agony. Both hands shot up, encircling her wrist but to no avail. Her other arm curved around his waist, pulling him closer so she could whisper into his ear: "You've always wanted the same thing."

"No," he coughed raggedly, reaching out to steady himself against one of her shoulders.

"Sooner or later you'll admit it. And then you'll come to me. One way or another, Koichi, you'll come to me. Because I'm the only one who can fill this hole in your heart. I'm the only thing that can make you complete."