I do not own Digimon.... I do not own Ruki... I do not decide whether Ruki ends up with Jen or Takato or anyone else in the whole universe called Tamers... You can try to influence my decision by telling what couples you would like to see though.

In a city of crossroads
That never lead home
Where secrets unravel
And fates intertwine
Someone was calling my name in the night
As I ran
From a voice that was echoing mine

Dreams did not come easily for Ruki. They never did and they never would because she refused to be blinded by them but sometimes when her mind was weary and her soul was lost in the depths of chaos. A sliver of always desperate and often futile hope filtered into Ruki's sleep and became her painful temporary refuge from the world. Painful because it could never be and she would never let it grow true.

The world in her dream was not perfect, Ruki never believed in perfection as a reality but rather an eternal struggle and journey one must forever fight and traverse. Those who faltered or fell in that journey were obviously her inferiors because they could never see the truth of it all. Life is short and it was cheap as hell. Emotions could be bought and sold like so much trash that accumulated in the depository called a heart. A heart that was warm, a heart that brought the pain of loss, a heart that refused to stop beating. Ruki was not afraid of that warmth; she simply did not want it. She built the shields of her short life to hide it and perhaps end it from making her feel. It was always for naught and she could never understand it all. To feel those emotions was like taking a drug that she couldn't stop herself from taking. It was there for the taking, there for use and always there no matter what.

Further more the world in her dream was not warm nor was it cold. It was neither but more of a mild feeling of contentment. That contentment of course was what truly bothered Ruki the most. It seemed that the struggle was forgotten and the journey had ended all too early for her taste. In the dream was everyone she had befriended and came to accept in her life. Hell her own mother was there in the dream and Ruki felt as though her own mother was no longer trying to change her but let Ruki grow at her own pace. It was as if Rumiko had finally accepted the fact that Ruki was not an identical clone or attached appendage but a daughter that was both beautiful and ugly. Ruki could never kill the feeling of love for her mother even if Rumiko did drive Ruki insane at times. Even if Ruki was trying to stifle her emotions there some things she just could not abandon, like so many other things in life in fact. Next to Rumiko was Hata Seiko and Ruki turned to face her.

Seiko, Ruki's grandmother, ever loving and ever accepting smiled at Ruki. Seiko was one that always rose to meet life's challenges and sights. That made Ruki respect her more than anything but what bothered Ruki was her grandmother's intense and lucid wisdom. Seiko had come to accept the contentment and sought no more on the road perfection. It attracted and repulsed Ruki all at the same time. How could anyone like Ruki come to rest in the middle of a battle that would never end? Not when there were places to see and things to do. Not when you know you can become better and stronger than anyone else. Not when you realize that you what you wish is impossible and possible.

Laughter rang out from a far away place. Seiko and Rumiko faded away from the dream and left only emptiness. Then arising from the ground was all whom Ruki had come to accept and perhaps befriend.

There was Juri smiling unaware of her own strengths. The one who had achieved her near perfection through the rigors and tragedies that life had thrown at her through the loss of Leomon, the subsequent torture and cloning from D-Reaper and the final battle for her soul and sanity. Ruki couldn't help but look at the girl with a sense of pride knowing that there was someone as uplifting in the world like Juri and she trusted Ruki. They were diametrically aligned when compared in temperament but they were the same in their end result whether Juri realized it or not. The late Leomon stood by Juri like a guardian, strong, proud and dead. Ruki had to remind herself that the price had been steep for Juri. It was not a price that Ruki would like to pay.

Next to Juri stood the ever confusing and frustrating original goggle head of it all. Takato Matsuda, a person she could not help but despise and admire at the same time. How could anyone not struggle through the life that fate had thrown down? He had suffered but he never chose to take the path that promised the most pain and power. He cried, he depended on others and he never abandoned those dopey goggles or his friends. Yet when forced to face what the world had to throw at him, he never wavered and never ran away. Didn't he realize that if he pushed himself that he would be better than her? As displeasing as the thought was to Ruki, she had to admit it. Guilmon was by Takato's side and gave his tamer a ludicrous mix of a strange childlike mind and undying companionship that would stretch into the end of time if Takato could live that long. How could the goggle head create something like Guilmon?

There standing by Takato was the final two component to the 'Three Goggle heads". They were lazy, they were annoying and they were loyal to a fault. Hirokazu and Kenta smiled proudly like two people who had just won the lottery. Marine Angemon flew around Kenta's head like a buzzard making a downright annoying sound. How Kenta could stand Marine Angemon's constant pi-ping sound was beyond her. Kenta, to Ruki's mind, represented something that she found grating about a certain word, it was called 'normality'. It was written all over Kenta, he was anonymous like almost everyone in the world. As hard as Kenta tried to garner recognition he always seemed to be doomed to remain nameless. A blessing and curse, being nameless meant that no one expected you to be great. Being nameless meant everyone left you alone. Being nameless would drive Ruki insane and sane by the twin requisites that they possessed. It gave privacy but it also gave the word mundane a new angle.

Hirokazu suffered from a symptom that was completely different from Kenta. He suffered from an incredibly large ego and inability to simply shut up. He was made to be remembered but not always in the most pleasant of light. Guardromon was probably the only living thing, if you can call a machine a living thing, in the world that could possibly put up with Hirokazu's mouth. As much as Ruki would love to shut Hirokazu up, she couldn't help but note how people simply paid attention to him. It didn't matter if it was incredibly stupid and people could not get it or if it was downright brave and admirable. People would remember him and his usually idiotic attempts at greatness. Who needed greatness when you become immortal in the minds of everyone you meet? If he failed he would simply mope about for a few moments and then spring back with an another pathetic attempt to tackle the problem. If he succeeded he would never cease to shut up. But it wasn't what she was looking for. Recognition was on the bottom of the list of priorities Ruki made.

Jen stood amongst the group with his youngest sister Shiuchon. He bore an ever-present look of patience and Terriermon was in running away from Shiuchon while Lopmon tried to make himself scarce. Ruki never had siblings and would probably never would. Jen's sister was an innocent not yet aware of the harshness of the world. In fact now that Ruki thought about it, Shiuchon would never suffer from its harshness. The Lee family was loving and whole. Not fractured like Ruki's nor were the relationships misunderstood like Ruki's. It seemed strange to Ruki that Lopmon, formerly a deva, would be partnered to such an innocent. Lopmon had the weight of many years and many struggles; the fact that he was partnered to seven-year-old Tamer seemed a little outlandish. It made no sense but life seldom did.

Jen managed to grab Terriermon before Shiuchon could get him. He held Terriermon aloft on his head and tried to get Shiuchon to stop. Jen was the understanding one, the quiet one, the one that would simply not leave her alone. No matter what Ruki tried to do or how she would do it Jen would be there to remind her of the 'moral' path. He never tried to change anything; he never bucked the system. He was stubborn, as hell when it came to what he believed was right. Admirable but it was also quite frustrating and furthermore, to add insult to the wound, he was usually right or close to being right. She cared about Jen as a friend but she sincerely wished he would stop. So what if the decision harmed her? So what if it pushed almost everyone away that could be her friend? If they could not accept her for who she was then don't bother trying to understand her. Jen could not accept that and he believed that he could change Ruki. Terriermon usually made the tactless comments on Jen's attempts to change or understand Ruki. But then again those tactless remarks were quite accurate on the success ratio of Jen's attempts to change her.

Ruki's mind began to hurt. Why was she thinking about her friends? Friends? When did she regard them as her friends? They were... they were merely acquaintances that she had met over the year. Or were they all just something more?

In a far away corner were Ryou and Cyberdramon. Ruki felt ambivalent when she thought of Ryou. There were however a few glaring facts that she disliked about him. Specifically the fact he acted as if he was so damn perfect. The perfect hair, the perfect teeth, the perfect tan, the perfect everything. He had a 'here I come to save the day!' fixation that never ceased to provoke her ire. She knew he was not perfect, far from it but it didn't change the fact that there quite a few things that got her mad at him. She did not want Ryou's help; she was perfectly fine by herself and with Renamon.

Renamon was nowhere in sight. Ruki realized it when she began to look around to find her. The familiar and elusive fox-like digimon was nowhere near. Ruki's best friend and partner, she was not afraid to admit that Renamon was her best friend but there was just something that hardened Ruki's reluctance to embrace it all. All that had happen, all that was laid bare in front of her for her eyes only. The thoughts of the past swirled around Ruki in a confusing barrage of images and sounds. Was this what she had to look forward to? It was so... beautiful, so ugly and so strange. It was nothing like what Ruki had envisioned for herself. The future she set down was far lonelier and she never expected everything that had happened. She was never supposed to get close to anyone, she was never supposed to feel these emotions.

Everyone began to crowd around Ruki. Ruki felt claustrophobic with everyone crowding around her. Laughter, talking, jokes and smiles greeted her at every turn. Ruki wanted to do something, she wanted to say something but words and actions were lost upon her addled mind. She wanted to talk to them and laugh with them. A unfamiliar feeling of belonging pressed upon her psyche and a desire to stop her journey finally crossed her mind.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Ruki shouted. The unfamiliar emotion of belonging past her mind and it actually frightened her. She didn't want to stop, to stop meant to drown in your emotions and regrets. Ruki tried to push away the crowd but instead of pushing them away, the images of her friends began to shatter when she touched them. She pushed Takato away and he broke up into little bits of data. Takato's 'death' was the catalyst of the shattering effect. Ruki accidentally tripped and landed a large group of the digimon. The digimon all shattered and the data coated Ruki like black nightmarish blood. Ruki's purple eyes dilated in realization of what she had done.

"No!" Ruki shouted. She got up and watched her friends seem to shatter into dust. A strong wind blew and scattered the dust into the air. Ruki looked down at her hands and saw the data drip down like blood. Then noticed she dressed in a now dirtied white robe similar to Kaho's. The once pristine robe was stained by the data of her dead friends.

Ruki felt unimaginably cold and dread began to set in her heart. She hadn't felt this cold since Ice Devimon had kidnapped her and tried to convince her that Renamon was unworthy of her attention.

Something warm touched her back and draped itself over Ruki's shoulders. Ruki couldn't see what it was but she could see a human arm cross around her waist. Something was embracing Ruki from behind and the other arm wrapped itself around Ruki's chest. It was warm but Ruki couldn't see what it was. Then Ruki felt pain, she felt sharp teeth bite into her shoulder. The arms gripped Ruki tightly and refused to let go. A tail swung between Ruki's legs.

"Renamon!" Ruki screamed in the cold darkness. She tried to struggle out of the grasp of whatever was biting her.

*****

Renamon awoke in a start and looked around to see what had just woken her. She could have sworn that she heard Ruki calling out her name. Ruki's bedroom was empty and quiet however. Everyone else was sleeping in the guestrooms and nothing was moving around in the house. Yet Renamon knew she heard Ruki call out. Renamon got up and walked out of the bedroom.

The garden looked especially beautiful for the sun was just dawning. The dew that had gathered from last night rested on the leaves of trees and the light from the sun caused them to sparkle. Much to Renamon's surprise everyone was up and watching the sunrise. Even the lazy Hirokazu and Kenta were up and in the garden. Shiuchon looked ready to fall asleep and Juri let the young girl rest on her lap. Takato and Jen seemed to deep in a conversation of sorts. Lopmon, Guilmon, Terriermon, Guardromon and Marine Angemon seemed listless and tired. It looked as if all of them were drained of their strength but they were all up at five thirty in the morning.

"Am I missing something or am I hallucinating?" Renamon asked in shock. This was probably the first time she had ever seen the dubious duo awake so early without complaining.

"Ha Ha. Very funny... the truth was I couldn't sleep, I had this freaky dream..." Hirokazu said.

"Tell me about it... I had the same weird dream too;" Kenta went on but stopped. He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I had this weird dream where everyone was in it. Ruki was in it too..." Juri managed to say.

"Really?" Renamon asked. Now Renamon was becoming interested.

"We all had the same dream. I saw Ryou and Cyberdramon even but... Renamon where were you? I didn't see you anywhere in the dream," Takato explained.

Renamon paused for a moment unsure what to say.

"I didn't have any sort of unusual dream last night." Renamon answered. She slowly recounted last night's events in her mind. The entire group had spent an hour reassuring Rumiko that Ruki was not dead but by that time everyone was tired. It was Ruki's grandmother, Seiko's idea to have everyone sleep over at the Makino household since it was so late. Everyone agreed and decided to plan everything out next morning. Renamon fell asleep fitfully and had no dreams to her memory.

"Well then you weren't that weird fox lady then," Terrier commented. Renamon simply blinked not understanding at all what Terriermon meant. Jen decided to save Renamon from confusion and explained.

"It's weird... Ruki was in a white robe and behind her was a fox. At first I thought it was you as Kyubimon but the color was wrong. The fox was white and then morphed into a fox headed woman with a tail," Jen began to recount the dream, "we all tried to get near Ruki but she seemed to panic and pushed everyone away. Then it ended..."

"Are you sure you didn't have a similar dream Renamon?" Takato asked earnestly.

Renamon shook her head.

"No, I had dreams last night but I thought I heard Ruki scream out my name," Renamon answered.

"Well that was odd... Maybe we can call Ryou up and ask him if he had the same weird dream," Lopmon suggested in a slightly bored voice.

"That's a good idea... but there's one slight problem... Does anyone even know what Ryou's phone number is?" Hirokazu asked.

Silence reigned in the garden for a moment before Takato finally broke it.

".... Ah... That's going to be a problem," Takato finally stated.

"Gee I didn't realize that," Terriermon commented sarcastically.

*****

Ryou stared hard into the mirror and looked at his dishevelled and tired face. Last night he had the strangest dream. He dreamt of Ruki and the other Tamers last night.

"Whose ever heard of a white Kyubimon?" Ryou asked to no one in particular. Talking to no one but himself was a side effect that he had picked up over the year in the Digital World when he was by himself. He closed his eyes and then opened them.

"Guess I'm off to save her again... She's going to be pissed."

*****

Kaho paused for a moment in the middle of her prayers to the Gods of many paths. She sensed something wrong in the wind. Kaho stopped her prayers and immediately got up from the floor in the cave. She closed her eyes and spread her mind over the distance and found the disturbance.

"Ruki," Kaho whispered. Kaho forced her old body to run to the temple. She past the old doors of the cave shrine and ran down the steep stone steps that lead down to the temple. The forest blurred around Kaho as she ran faster and faster. If anyone had been observing Kaho they would note that she was moving too fast. So fast that Kaho was nothing more than streak of white to the naked eye of the observer. It was impossible yet Kaho was running that fast and quickly arrived the temple exhausted but without even resting her body Kaho opened the doors to Ruki's room. Inside was Ruki bleeding from the right shoulder with her eyes wide open in shock. The normally hard purple eyes where now dull and glassy. What really shocked Kaho at about the situation were not Ruki's condition but what was standing over her.

"Ah, the keeper arrives," a silky voice said. The owner of the voice was not human. It wasn't even mortal.