Disclaimer: Digimon, its plots, characters and concepts are not mine. They're belonged to such people as Toei Animation, Bandai and Saban. All are being borrowed and will hopefully be brought back as they were. No profit is being made, so please don't sue. Any quotes from the Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux aren't mine either. The Ghost Roads idea was borrowed from the Buffy Trilogy, The Gatekeeper I think. It's not mine either. Any original characters and this fic are mine.
Takeru felt his eyes narrow as his lips twisted into frown. The object of his sights was a redhead he considered a friend, a boy who had just bolted out of the room once the bell had rung. Quickly zipping his backpack closed, the blonde slung it over his shoulder as he hurried after Daisuke, determined to find out where he was going once and for all. He didn't wait for Hikari, although he remembered later that she must have called his name or something. At the time he had been so sure she'd understand.
Where on earth is he going? he wondered, not bothering to ponder over the fact that he was technically spying on his friend. Daisuke would understand too, he'd spied on other people before against his better judgement. Of course things hadn't worked out and he'd had some amazing situations to talk himself out of, but he'd always managed it. Now he could only hope he could babble insanely like Daisuke could...
His confusion rose as he followed Daisuke through the streets, trying to keep as close to him as possible, to avoid unnecessary traffic light changes or such, but also trying to stay as far away as he could manage so his friend wouldn't see him. He didn't want to have to explain why he was stalking him. That image was just too bizarre, even considering the way his life had been these past few years!
He struggled not to act too obvious, not to alert any passer-by that he was doing something harmful. But the streets were crowded, and no one paid any attention to the redhead making his way confidently forward and the blonde that followed him silently.
At last Daisuke turned left and entered a building, and Takeru nearly yelped in surprise when he read the sign overhead. The library?! Not to be judgmental of Daisuke, but that place wasn't often visited by him. Actually it never was. So why, pray tell, was he going in there now?
Takeru shook his head hard, willing himself to stop acting like such an idiot. There were plenty of valid reasons as to why his friend was going in there. He probably had a school project to do or something, and everyone went to the library for research, although the Internet was a far better and quicker place to explore. And there were other reasons... all he had to do was think of them and he'd be okay. Shaking his head at his silliness, the Keeper of Hope quickly hurried up the steps and entered the building.
It took him a few moments to let his eyes adjust to the dimness of the library after the brightness of outside. But adjust he did, and he was soon wandering the many aisles in search of his friend, mindful to look as ordinary and nonchalant as possible, not like someone who was definitely doing something wrong. But it was so hard!
Ten minutes later and he was still wandering around and he still hadn't found Daisuke. Reaching up he took off his hat and ran a hand impatiently through his golden mess. He'd heard of losing someone in books, but this was ridiculous! There was no valid reason why Daisuke should be hard to find! He'd checked the comic book section, which, at first thought, had seemed to be the most likely place he'd be in, considering his near obsession with them. But he hadn't been there. Now he had only one more logical place to try before he simply started combing the place systematically. The computer section.
The computers were stored in a small section of the library which had been turned into a makeshift room. There was funding going on at the moment to put in a proper room, but for now a flimsy room with equally flimsy walls was the temporary place of storage. Takeru approached it carefully, not exactly sure why. It wouldn't be like Daisuke would know he was spying on him or anything. He could say he had come to work on a project of his own. Come to think of it, he had a History project due in next week. Uh oh...
First things first, he told himself firmly. Try and figure out what the heck is wrong with Daisuke, and then try and attempt your project. Sounded like a good idea to him, although his Mom might have thought differently. The door was open and he poked his head around the door frame cautiously, unsure what he would see. The lack of clanking noises had assured him that there were few in there. But what he saw, even he wasn't prepared for.
As his eyes focused on the only computer switched on in the room, he saw Daisuke disappear into the Digital World in a blinding light. Then the light faded and everything was silent.
The first thing he did when he reached the Digital World was yawn and stretch his arms to their full capacity. Closing his mouth again, Daisuke rubbed his eyes leisurely. He hadn't got much sleep last night. Everytime he had closed his eyes, images of swirling mirrors and himself and Ken had come before him. He'd never drank so much coffee to stay awake before in his life.
"Daisuke!" He looked up to find Veemon rushing up to him, eyes lit up like candles.
"Hey buddy!" he cried, rushing up to him as well. "How've you been?"
"Okay," the blue digimon replied, and unlike Daisuke he appeared to have got a good nights sleep. They stayed in the sun for a while, enjoying the laziness and the warmth, before Daisuke really had to go for his lessons. But they had some time to dawdle.
At last Daisuke knew he had to go. With a regretful sigh he stood up, brushing stray strands of grass from his jacket and straightening his goggles. Veemon made a plaintive expression. "Do we have to go?"
Daisuke raised an eyebrow. "Would you rather Ken become mad and start chasing you?"
Veemon considered this for a moment. "Let's go," he decided, bounding up and bolting in the general direction of Ken's base. Daisuke didn't bother to hide his grin as he followed him.
It was only when they were out of sight, did the port Daisuke had just arrived in light up once more, and a certain blonde came tumbling out.
I don't believe this. He's concentrating! Ken only barely succeeded in hiding his surprise as he watched Daisuke twirl flames around his fingers like an expert, the orange flames changing from red, to blue, to purple and then back to orange again. I knew he had the power. All he had to do was concentrate, Ken thought triumphantly, before standing up and walking towards Daisuke. The boy immediately moved towards the actions to extinguish the flames, but Ken quickly shook his head and held up his hand. "No. Don't stop." His eyes wary, the redhead reluctantly obeyed.
Ken gave him a hesitant smile. "That's very good Daisuke. Have you been practising?" He would never admit it, but he had been realising that what he had done to Daisuke the previous day had been rather cruel. The boy had no idea that Ken was secretly attracted to him, and clearly didn't know that he himself was attracted to Ken as well, however well hidden it was.
Daisuke's cheeks flushed slightly, as the boy sucked his head. "Sort of. I haven't managed to set anything on fire yet anyway."
"Very good." Ken nodded.
"It would have been very hard to explain if I had. I'm not allowed near matches, after I set Jun's hair on fire when I was seven." Seeing Ken's incredulous look, Daisuke grew defensive. "It was an accident!"
Ken swallowed for a long moment. "Whatever you say."
"It was!"
This time Ken grinned. "Sure."
"All right, she flattened my soccer ball and the matches were the first thing I found!"
Ken burst out laughing before he could help it.
What the - what part of the Digital World am I in now? Takeru wondered, as he stood up and looked around. Nothing looked familiar. Absolutely nothing. The blonde began to regret making Patamon stay at home, instead of waiting outside the school as he usually did. Having the flying digimon around would have been good right about now.
"Oh well." With a determined sigh, the Keeper of Hope took a step forward, and into the forest. "Might as well find out where this goes to." Not exactly the smartest thing to do when he had no digimon with him, but he hadn't exactly many choices, had he? And besides, he needed to find Daisuke.
As he made his way through the forest, Takeru found himself wondering absently what he might find beyond this place. This wasn't a part he knew, so when he got back to the real world, he could tell the others what he'd found. They might even be able to destroy a control spire that Ken would never have thought they'd would have found! The blonde's azure eyes lit up at the thought, as he stepped out of the forest. He then realised that he hadn't met one digimon the entire time he'd been in the forest. That was extremely odd... one always met someone. When he looked beyond the trees, he found the reason why.
In front of him, looming dark and forbidden, was Ken's base.
For one very long moment all Takeru could do was stand there and gawk like a complete idiot. He'd found Ken's base. He'd found the new location. His first insane thought had been: Wow, I'm good. Then he'd actually recovered his senses and had decided to go up and take a closer look.
He'd had no idea what he would see. He wasn't prepared at all.
"I guess lesson's over for today," Ken announced, standing up. Since he had first started teaching Daisuke, he was extremely pleased with him. He'd made tremendous progress these past few days, and it appeared the trip to the room of mirrors had done him good. In time Daisuke might actually fulfil his true potential. Ken tried not to think about that... he'd had a brief glimpse of what it was, and it had both amazed and frightened him that someone who seemed so normal could wield such power.
Daisuke immediately yawned and stretched, reminding the Kaiser that he was still just an eleven year old boy who could act incredibly stupid at times. For some reason this amused him... "Great," the redhead mumbled. "See you tomorrow. C'mon Veemon." He gently nudged his digimon, who had fallen asleep at some point. The blue creature jerked awake and glanced wildly around, before memory returned to him.
"Oh. Okay." He hopped up and bolted for the door. This did amuse Ken. It appeared Veemon didn't trust him anymore than when he'd first arrived here. Well, he didn't have any reason to, really.
Just as Daisuke had reached the exit, Ken spoke. "Good work Daisuke. Very good work." The two enemies stared at each other as moments filtered by. Then Daisuke nodded, and gave him the barest hint of a smile, something unreadable in his cinnamon eyes. Then he turned and left the room, leaving Ken to stare unseeingly at the wall opposite him, wondering what the hell was happening to him.
Daisuke found himself humming as he left Ken's base, Veemon dashing off to do whatever digimon did when they met long grass. For some reason he was in a really good mood. It had been a good lesson - a tolerable lesson and that was saying a lot, considering his teacher was Ken - and he had enjoyed it. Maybe the fact he'd done something right for once and hadn't tried to kill Ken was the reason. Without realising it, the Keeper of Friendship grinned.
As he walked, knowing Veemon would eventually catch up to him, he was aware that there was something twinkling at the very edge of his vision, succeeding in annoying him greatly. Finally annoyed too much, he turned and spotted it fully - or spotted the twinkle in gave off in the sunlight. Frowning, he went to investigate, never dreaming of the consequences it would bring.
It was... something silver maybe... Gritting his teeth, Daisuke leaned down and rummaged through the grass, trying to get a firm grip on whatever it was. First there was nothing much helpful and then - "Ow!" he yelped, yanking his hand back and staring at it in shock and wonder. His hand had caught at something and now his glove was ripped. In fact, it was ripped so badly and so deeply that his own palm was bleeding now. Grimacing, he tore off his glove and stared at the scarlet blood that welled up from the cut and spread across his palm.
"Great," he muttered, rummaging in his pockets for anything to stop the pumping blood flow. Finally finding a scrap of cloth, he held it up to his hand, hoping it would keep the flow at bay until he got home. Yelling at Veemon to hurry up, he quickened his pace towards the direction of the port.
He never realised that by cutting his palm and releasing his blood, that he had began something unimaginable. He never once thought that it might have been planned by someone deliberately. As he disappeared into the forest, he never realised he had been seen as well, by a certain blonde who had watched him come out of Ken's base and who wanted answers. He didn't realise any of it at all.
It wasn't until much later that he remembered he hadn't found the object in the grass.
What Daisuke hadn't realised, was that some of his blood had slid out of the cut and down into the grass. It slid down the stems, never once weakening in any way. It almost seemed like it was following some silent order - and there was nothing to suggest it wasn't either.
It met with the earth and sank slowly into it, journey deep into the rot and the darkness. Making it sway down deep below, it followed the call. Down it went... until it finally landed on dead, bloodless lips.
As it stopped on them, nothing happened for a moment - and then the lips moved. They moved, capturing the blood on them and quickly swallowing it. Seconds later, emerald eyes snapped open, searching the darkness around it, in its despairing dungeon.
It had tasted blood. It would taste more.
It moved and its chains were just a little bit weaker, not as strong as they usually were.
It was just a little more free than it had been.
There was still hope.
Someone had slashed their skin against its brooch above... and they would do it again. A cruel smile curling it slips, it closed it eyes and sent out the call.
It would have blood.
It hungered.
Soon...