Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction. Thanks and enjoy!
Within Dreams—Chapter 7
Joe sat atop the roof of his apartment building and let out a quiet sigh of relief. Only moments ago, he had watched the burly man leaped out of his open window and down to the street below. He had noticed with a feeling of intense dread that the man was carrying a very large and certainly dangerous-looking knife and thanked his lucky stars when he didn't think to look up.
There was definitely
something weird about that man. A
normal person doesn't jump out of a sixth-story window then run off like
nothing happened, he thought. And
what was the meaning of the phone call? Why is it so important that I go to sleep?
He ran the conversation through his head again, remembering how insistent the voice had sounded when advising him to go off to dreamland, threatening to put his lights out permanently. Joe had a pretty good idea what was mean by this and he didn't want to find out if he was right.
And the next thing the voice had said was definitely the most puzzling: "you'd better go to sleep if you want to help your friends, you'd better go to sleep so it can continue correctly…."
He went over the possibilities in his mind. Were his friends in danger? If that was the case, he should warn them. He should go to them. No. That would be dangerous. What if somebody was waiting for him to do just that? How could going to sleep help his friends if they were indeed in danger? It seemed to him he should do quite the opposite. And what had the person meant by "you'd better go to sleep so it can continue correctly?" It made absolutely no sense to him.
He decided he would call his friends, not only to advise them to be careful, but to reassure himself that nothing was going on at the moment. Unfortunately, he'd left his cell phone in his room and he was wary of returning there; what if there had been more than one person after him? But an insistent voice in the back of his mind was screaming: call them! Tell them what's going on! They need to know!
After a brief debate, he decided he would return to his room, but bring the cell phone back up to the roof with him in case the man came back while he was making his calls.
Very slowly, he walked to the edge of the roof and looked down to the street far below. His stomach turned—it was a long drop. A very, very long drop. But the man was nowhere in sight, which meant for the moment it would be safe to return to his room.
Joe climbed down the fire escape quickly, not daring to look back down at the street below and was in his room in a matter of seconds. He found the small, compact phone near his bed and was glad to see it had escaped harm. His bed however was destroyed. Mattress foam and cotton littered the sheets and floor around the bed and springs from the mattress stuck out helter-skelter all over the bed.
He tore his gaze away from the ransacked bed and walked to the window. But the idea of taking a cell phone up to the roof presented a problem: while carrying the cell phone, Joe would have to climb up the fire escape ladder with one hand. He definitely wasn't going to do that, as the chances of his falling were very good.
That was when he realized he was still in his pajamas. Quickly, he changed into his favorite outfit: a white shirt with a vest over it and cargo shorts with red sneakers. Now his problem was solved: he could simply put the cell phone in one of the pockets of his shorts.
He did so and was soon back up on the roof. He looked around as he punched in Tai and Kari's phone number, half expecting to see the huge, hulking man lunging for him. But the man was quickly forgotten when the telephone rang. It rang…and rang…and rang….
Pick up, please pick up, he thought. But there was no answer. After eight rings, he pressed the call end button and punched in Izzy's phone number. Once again, the phone rang and once again, there was no answer.
Desperately, Joe punched in every one of his friend's telephone numbers, but every time there was no answer. Except for in the case of TK's house. But, much to Joe's dismay, Mrs. Takaishi told him that TK was visiting Matt and his father and would not be home until the next day. And Joe had already called Matt's house.
He angrily clicked
the cell phone off and sighed. Something
was wrong. What were the chances of all
of them being out of town on the same day? He knew that was a slim to
none possibility.
And that was when Joe heard somebody
breathing right behind him….
~*~
"So let me get this straight: we're
all some experiment for Malign?" Matt inquired of Rea once she had finished her
explanation.
Rea nodded and replied: "he's been obsessed
with the idea of humans being able to enter this realm and stay here. Permanently. Quite personally, I never expected him to be able to do it, but
apparently, he's done it."
"But why would he want to bring
us here? What's his purpose?" Izzy
asked, still not entirely understanding why they had been forced
into the convergent dream.
"Well, I'm not totally sure if this
is the truth, but there's been a rumor circulating that he wants to build his
own empire. Apparently, he wants to
transport everybody from Earth here, where his power is pretty much what
controls this world."
"What? What do you mean his power controls this world?" Sora
questioned. Rea hadn't said anything
about Malign controlling the world.
"He can pretty much make this world
do whatever he wants. Kari getting
dragged into the ocean was no coincidence. Neither was the change from the ship you were all on to this
building. Everybody here has abilities
like that—"
"Even you?" TK broke in.
"Yes, even me. But Malign is far more powerful than I
am. My control over this world is
limited. Very limited. But his…I can't even begin to describe it."
"But how can we get out of here?"
Mimi demanded, not caring at all why they had been brought to this new world.
"The only way you can get out is to
wake up. And unfortunately, Malign has
complete control over your abilities to wake up."
"You have got to be kidding me,"
Izzy muttered.
"What?" Rea queried.
"So we have to beat Malign to get
out?"
"That is correct. Unless somebody can wake you up, which I
strongly doubt."
Mimi's eyes lit up and she cried out: "Joe
could wake us up!"
"Assuming he's awake and assuming he
has reason to see us," Matt added.
Rea shook her head and replied: "I don't
think that's going to work all that well. Trust me, it takes a lot to wake somebody from a convergent dream. Then again, he could just as well wake you
all up."
An unfamiliar voice cut through the room:
"that's all well and good, but none of you will be going home any time soon."
Kari saw Rea's eyes harden for a moment and
whispered: "what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Rea gruffly replied. "All of you get back against the wall."
"But—" TK protested.
"Now!" Rea hissed.
The six children backed against the far
wall and Rea shouted: "come out, Vitriol. I know you're hiding."
"Oh, but it's so much more interesting
this way," came the voice. Rea suddenly
screamed and brought her hand up to her face just under her eye. When she removed her hand, it had blood on
it. Vitriol's voice came again: "don't
you agree?"
"Make this a fair fight," Rea
growled.
The outline of a young woman with curly
dark hair and fair skin shimmered into existence directly in front of Rea. From her vantage point at the back wall,
Kari noticed that Vitriol's eyes were familiar. Something about them…the intensity, the depth, and the sapphire blue…it was very familiar. She'd
seen it before in…Rea's eyes.
She watched as the outline became solid and
the fight began. It was intense, both
side lunging for the other with lightning-fast movements and both glaring at
the other with those intense blue eyes….
Vitriol suddenly surprised Rea and knocked
her flat on her back before pinning her to the ground. She drew back her fist and Rea flinched as a
nasty punch was delivered to her left eye.
Vitriol beat on Rea for a good five minutes
before Rea gasped: "stop…p-please. Vitriol…st-stop."
To everyone's amazement, Vitriol did stop
hitting Rea. Kari wasn't completely
sure, but she thought she'd seen a brief flicker of guilt in Vitriol's
eyes. But if there had been any doubt
in her mind before, it was covered by the ferocious glare that replaced it.
"It doesn't matter. Either way, we win," Vitriol sneered.
"W-what…do you…m-mean," Rea stuttered,
still in pain and still breathing heavily.
"I'm sure those nasty little snots
back there" (she motioned to the group of children) "told you about their
missing friend. Malign figured out how
to send people from here to their world and Nocuous is after him. He'll be dead very soon."
Rea's face paled and she whispered:
"N-nocuous?"
"That's right," Vitriol
replied. "Oh, and about the other one,
the one that's still lost here…we have him. If you want him to remain alive, I advise you don't upset Lord Malign,
as he is already in a fragile condition." She punched Rea again, hard in her already tender left eye before
getting to her feet and delivering a harsh kick to the stomach. Then she shimmered and disappeared.
The moment Vitriol vanished from sight, the
six children ran to Rea's side, concerned for their newfound friend.
"I'll be fine," Rea muttered,
sitting up slowly and rubbing her left eye tenderly. She winced, but knew that it would heal.
Kari was trying very hard not to cry. She had heard what Vitriol announced and
knew only one thing: her brother was in danger. And he was hurt. She was
very worried for him and she choked back the tears that were welling in her
eyes….
~*~
Mrs. Kamiya hadn't moved from her spot
between her two children in the hospital. She was too spent to move and she refused to eat. She insisted she wanted to be the first
person they saw when they woke up…if
they ever wake up, she bitterly
thought, looking first from her very pale son to her daughter, who was still
breathing with the help of the tube.
Something about Kari caught Mrs. Kamiya's
attention and she saw something glimmering on her daughter's cheek.
Quickly, she rose from her seat and went to
her daughter's side. It was a tear. Tears were flooding from behind Kari's closed eyes.
"Kari, I'm here," Mrs. Kamiya
whispered, taking her daughter's hand. "I'm right here, baby, I'm right here."
Tears dropped from Mrs. Kamiya's eyes,
mingling with the ones trickling down her daughter's cheeks….