Silver Angel: Hello peoples! Sorry for making you wait and all, but to
make it up to you, I made this chapter quite long (by my standards
anyways). I have to announcements to make:
To Jesse Matsuda: Gomen! Gomen Nasai! ^_^;;
And to everyone else: Thank you for the reviews! Please continue! ^_^
Oh! And ~ ~ ~ means a dream sequence.
Chapter 4: A Hunted Soul
~ ~ ~
"Are you sure you want to do this?" A voice asked him quietly, concern evident. "Once you go, you will not be able to return for some time. You'll lose most, if not all of your powers, and if you die before the appointed time, it will be for good."
He smiled reassuringly, already set I his decision, and unwilling to change it. He had always been the stubborn one of the two, and that wasn't about to change now that he was taking a 'leave of absence'. "Yes, I'm sure." He told his companion. "If I want to gain full understanding of my powers, I'm going to have to live without them, and ths is the only way."
The other frowned worriedly; still unconvinced. "You have to promise me you'll be careful." The man admonished. "You will be able to die now, and you won't have the benefits of being reborn like other mortals do if you die too soon." He grimaced. "I don't want to lose you!"
Touched by the concern he felt, he reached out his arms and hugged his friend. "You worry too much." He whispered in his ear. "I assure you, I'll be fine; though I can't promise on being careful, as I won't remember it once I'm reborn." He paused a moment, as if searching deep within his mind for something. "I won't forget you though. I might not realize it, but some part of me will always remember you as long as I'm a mortal."
As he stepped towards the glowing blue light, his companion took a last step towards him. "Here," the man told him, thrusting a small blue gem into one hand. It glittered brightly, reflecting the strange blue light, and intensifying it. "Take this with you when you go. I promise; I'll do my best to protect you always."
Before he could protest that bringing anything was forbidden, his friend shoved him towards the portal, and he felt himself fading as the blue light enveloped him in warmth, and carried him away.
~ ~ ~
TK awoke with a start, the bright light from his dream fading, to be replaced by a waning light that filtered through the trees above his head, one of which he smacked as he sat up. 'I really wish there was something I could do about those dreams and quick wake-ups' he thought. 'One of these days, I'll do more then just hit my head on a tree branch.'
"Wait a minute! - trees?" Shooting to his feet, he swung his head back and forth frantically, trying to figure out what had happened to move him from his comfortable nest of blankets at home, to the middle of a forest in who knows where.
"It doesn't look like the Digital world," he murmured quietly, remembering that first time all those years ago, when he had went to camp and had woken up with Tokomon looking down on him. Moaning, he placed his head into his hands. "Why is it always me? I thought my life was weird enough as it is! I really don't need this!"
"Hey TK!" a high-pitched voice interrupted his brief bout of self-pity. Whirling around, he came face to face with a certain hovering orange Digimon.
"Patamon!" he shouted in surprise and relief. "Am I glad to see you! At least I know there's one familiar face I can count on." His partner Digimon flew over and settled on the blond haired boy's head.
"I should hope we stay together! Do you happen to know where here is TK?" The child of hope frowned, glancing around at his surroundings once more. As he had already figured out, the two of them were in a large forest, the foliage so dense, that only a small bit of light made it through; just barely enough to see by.
"I have no clue Patamon," Takeru told his partner, trying to gaze through the fog, which had come up and dimmed the light even more. He shivered. The cold - not just from the fog - and the steadily darkening forest, both told him that night was fast approaching. Not only that, but something told him this forest was not the safest place to be. The fog around him also seemed to give off a feeling of 'wrongness'.
"I don't like this." He said. "Something about this place just doesn't feel right."
"I agree with you there TK. This place gives me the creeps."
"It's settled then," he said, picking a direction and walking that way. "We get out of here right away." While a seemingly random direction, he did have his senses to guide him. As one of the Digi-destined children, and the and the bearer of the Crest of Hope in particular, he had always been somewhat attuned to the distinction between good and evil. Along with that came some ability at reading the auras of people and places. The direction he was heading in seemed to give off a warmer, more welcoming feeling that the rest; though it was somewhat faint, as if blocked by the darkness of the forest.
"TK. . ." Patamon whispered worriedly. "Does there seem to be something wrong with the fog? It feels kind of. . . evil." The orange Digimon trailed off, uncertain of a better way to describe it. Even as TK was about to answer, the 'fog' began gathering together, taking on an almost human form, though it remained mist.
"I think now would be a good time to run," TK said almost conversationally, before taking off at high speed in the direction of the 'warm' feeling he had noticed.
Harry frowned, a strange feeling coming over him, as if someone familiar were near by. What was odd, was that although friends and other people he knew surrounded him, he was certain that the feeling didn't originate from them.
". . . like we got a large batch of new kids this year, eh Harry?" Harry blinked, realizing that Ron was talking to him. He roused himself from the almost trance that he had gone into, and smiled agreeably, pretending nothing had happened. "Yeah. It's actually kind of surprising, that so many parents would let their kids leave home in light of all the attacks."
Hermione looked thoughtful. "Maybe they feel their children will be safer here? Everyone knows that Dumbledore is the only one You-know-who really fears. There's also all the protections placed on the school."
"You're probably right about that," he said, rising to his feet and giving a loud cheer along with the rest of his new housemates for a new girl who had been sorted into Gryffindor. "We'll just have to hope that it's enough to deter any Death Eater attacks."
"Awfully serious tonight aren't we Harry? Do you know something we don't, or is it just one of those 'feelings' of yours?" Ron said, with a genuine, but nervous grin. His red hair had grown longer over the summer and fell slightly into his eyes now, Harry noticed. It made him seem older - though he wasn't sure that it might not be his eyes, which, like Harry's, held a lot more of knowledge painfully gotten the they should have at the age of sixteen.
"It's not really something you don't know Ron. Mostly the whole nightmare thing." Harry smiled sheepishly.
"Did you remember something you forgot to tell 'Mione on the train?" his friend asked. Hermione straightened at her name, and the thought of more knowledge to add to her already vast store.
"No, that was pretty much it, though the dreams in themselves were pretty weird." He stopped for a moment, reaching up to touch his scar, as if reminded of what normally happened in the nightmares and how the new 'presence' almost seemed to protect him. "Actually, what was bothering me is this weird feeling that something important is going to happen soon - not necessarily bad, but important."
Ron grinned at Hermione. "I don't think he's talking about OWLS either 'Mione" The girl frowned, and made as if to hit him upside the head, causing Harry to sigh. Ron just kept trying to bait Hermione.
'If I didn't know any better, I'd say that he has a crush on her.' The black haired boy smiled privately, hiding it behind one hand as Hermione finally managed to land the blow, and turned back towards him with Ron nursing the back of his head.
"So everything is fine then?" she asked, still seeming a little worried. "I know things have been hard over the summer, since, well. . . but you know you can talk to us if you need to."
Harry smiled. "I told you I'm fine Hermione. I can talk to Dumbledore about my dreams, and there isn't really anything wrong anyways; despite the fact that they've changed. It's actually nice to be able to wake up with out a headache for a change."
"Okay Harry, but if something does happen, we want to hear about it right away." Their conversation ended for the time being as they all stood up to return to the Gryffindor tower after the summer away.
TK ran; his pulse beating almost painfully in his temples, and his breathing erratic as his lungs strained to force more air in and out. Patamon zipped through the air behind him, having moved off of Takeru's head to lessen the burden. It was painfully obvious, even to TK's distracted mind, that his partner was almost as tired as he was. Neither of them would last much longer.
A morbid joke flashed through his mind, and he fought the urge to chuckle, knowing it would use more breath than he had at the moment. 'It's just our luck that after defeating vampire like monsters trying to take over the world, and demons and evil clowns that wanted to destroy everything, that Patamon and I would end up running for our lives from evil fog-monsters.'
A dim glow of light - the first he had seen since the sun had gone down - brought a feeling of relief to him. He turned around to gasp back a small message to his friend. "Patamon! Look up ahead - it's some - place safe!" As they neared, he found it was a small cottage, the windows lit up from the inside with a cheery glow.
'Hurry TK, Hurry!' he yelled mentally to himself, trying to encourage his legs to continue pumping for just a little longer. He looked back again, and felt his fear grow, when he realized that this *thing* was gaining on them. With a last burst of effort, he managed to increase his speed just a little more as they exited the forest and reached the doorstep of the cottage a minute or so later.
Takeru raised his fist and pounded on the door. "Open up!" he yelled, the sound being choked off abruptly, as the human form of the fog wrapped long gray fingers around his throat, trying to strangle him. The Child of Hope coughed and spluttered against the painful grip, fingers scrabbling at the creatures hands in an attempt to loosed the grip enough to breathe.
'Can't let it kill me. . .' his muddled thoughts decided. All his efforts seemed in vain, however, as he gradually began to feel the effects of his oxygen deprivation. His hands, which had been clawing at the others' grip, now only batted weakly at them, and then fell to his sides. Takeru's vision began to blur, and black spots danced before his eyes. Dimly, in the background, he heard Patamon yelling "Boom Bubble!" and trying to fight the monster off.
'I promise I'll do my best to protect you, always' A voice fluttered up from the dim reaches of a memory long forgotten. In TK's mind, a vision of a crystal blue gem, the color of his eyes, began to glow. 'I won't give up!' he vowed.
Suddenly, with a flare of light, his body was covered with a golden aura, as bright as a flame, with sky blue streaks crossing through it. TK cried out as power shot through him, the tight hands around his throat releasing him abruptly. The symbol of Hope appeared in gold on his forehead, overlapped with a bright blue symbol that looked like a spiral with wavy lines radiating outward from it.
The light continued to grow, causing the fog creature to real back from his with a screech, as though burned. Before it could run, however, the glow engulfed it, causing it to be completely obliterated within seconds.
TK's eyes, which had for these few moments shone an incandescent blue, the pupils lost in his fiery inhuman gaze; drooped shut in exhaustion. With a sigh, he fell to his knees, then to a prone position, his face pressing into the cool relief of the hard packed dirt. As he spiraled away into unconsciousness, he heard shouts of alarm and confusion in the distance.
To Jesse Matsuda: Gomen! Gomen Nasai! ^_^;;
And to everyone else: Thank you for the reviews! Please continue! ^_^
Oh! And ~ ~ ~ means a dream sequence.
Chapter 4: A Hunted Soul
~ ~ ~
"Are you sure you want to do this?" A voice asked him quietly, concern evident. "Once you go, you will not be able to return for some time. You'll lose most, if not all of your powers, and if you die before the appointed time, it will be for good."
He smiled reassuringly, already set I his decision, and unwilling to change it. He had always been the stubborn one of the two, and that wasn't about to change now that he was taking a 'leave of absence'. "Yes, I'm sure." He told his companion. "If I want to gain full understanding of my powers, I'm going to have to live without them, and ths is the only way."
The other frowned worriedly; still unconvinced. "You have to promise me you'll be careful." The man admonished. "You will be able to die now, and you won't have the benefits of being reborn like other mortals do if you die too soon." He grimaced. "I don't want to lose you!"
Touched by the concern he felt, he reached out his arms and hugged his friend. "You worry too much." He whispered in his ear. "I assure you, I'll be fine; though I can't promise on being careful, as I won't remember it once I'm reborn." He paused a moment, as if searching deep within his mind for something. "I won't forget you though. I might not realize it, but some part of me will always remember you as long as I'm a mortal."
As he stepped towards the glowing blue light, his companion took a last step towards him. "Here," the man told him, thrusting a small blue gem into one hand. It glittered brightly, reflecting the strange blue light, and intensifying it. "Take this with you when you go. I promise; I'll do my best to protect you always."
Before he could protest that bringing anything was forbidden, his friend shoved him towards the portal, and he felt himself fading as the blue light enveloped him in warmth, and carried him away.
~ ~ ~
TK awoke with a start, the bright light from his dream fading, to be replaced by a waning light that filtered through the trees above his head, one of which he smacked as he sat up. 'I really wish there was something I could do about those dreams and quick wake-ups' he thought. 'One of these days, I'll do more then just hit my head on a tree branch.'
"Wait a minute! - trees?" Shooting to his feet, he swung his head back and forth frantically, trying to figure out what had happened to move him from his comfortable nest of blankets at home, to the middle of a forest in who knows where.
"It doesn't look like the Digital world," he murmured quietly, remembering that first time all those years ago, when he had went to camp and had woken up with Tokomon looking down on him. Moaning, he placed his head into his hands. "Why is it always me? I thought my life was weird enough as it is! I really don't need this!"
"Hey TK!" a high-pitched voice interrupted his brief bout of self-pity. Whirling around, he came face to face with a certain hovering orange Digimon.
"Patamon!" he shouted in surprise and relief. "Am I glad to see you! At least I know there's one familiar face I can count on." His partner Digimon flew over and settled on the blond haired boy's head.
"I should hope we stay together! Do you happen to know where here is TK?" The child of hope frowned, glancing around at his surroundings once more. As he had already figured out, the two of them were in a large forest, the foliage so dense, that only a small bit of light made it through; just barely enough to see by.
"I have no clue Patamon," Takeru told his partner, trying to gaze through the fog, which had come up and dimmed the light even more. He shivered. The cold - not just from the fog - and the steadily darkening forest, both told him that night was fast approaching. Not only that, but something told him this forest was not the safest place to be. The fog around him also seemed to give off a feeling of 'wrongness'.
"I don't like this." He said. "Something about this place just doesn't feel right."
"I agree with you there TK. This place gives me the creeps."
"It's settled then," he said, picking a direction and walking that way. "We get out of here right away." While a seemingly random direction, he did have his senses to guide him. As one of the Digi-destined children, and the and the bearer of the Crest of Hope in particular, he had always been somewhat attuned to the distinction between good and evil. Along with that came some ability at reading the auras of people and places. The direction he was heading in seemed to give off a warmer, more welcoming feeling that the rest; though it was somewhat faint, as if blocked by the darkness of the forest.
"TK. . ." Patamon whispered worriedly. "Does there seem to be something wrong with the fog? It feels kind of. . . evil." The orange Digimon trailed off, uncertain of a better way to describe it. Even as TK was about to answer, the 'fog' began gathering together, taking on an almost human form, though it remained mist.
"I think now would be a good time to run," TK said almost conversationally, before taking off at high speed in the direction of the 'warm' feeling he had noticed.
Harry frowned, a strange feeling coming over him, as if someone familiar were near by. What was odd, was that although friends and other people he knew surrounded him, he was certain that the feeling didn't originate from them.
". . . like we got a large batch of new kids this year, eh Harry?" Harry blinked, realizing that Ron was talking to him. He roused himself from the almost trance that he had gone into, and smiled agreeably, pretending nothing had happened. "Yeah. It's actually kind of surprising, that so many parents would let their kids leave home in light of all the attacks."
Hermione looked thoughtful. "Maybe they feel their children will be safer here? Everyone knows that Dumbledore is the only one You-know-who really fears. There's also all the protections placed on the school."
"You're probably right about that," he said, rising to his feet and giving a loud cheer along with the rest of his new housemates for a new girl who had been sorted into Gryffindor. "We'll just have to hope that it's enough to deter any Death Eater attacks."
"Awfully serious tonight aren't we Harry? Do you know something we don't, or is it just one of those 'feelings' of yours?" Ron said, with a genuine, but nervous grin. His red hair had grown longer over the summer and fell slightly into his eyes now, Harry noticed. It made him seem older - though he wasn't sure that it might not be his eyes, which, like Harry's, held a lot more of knowledge painfully gotten the they should have at the age of sixteen.
"It's not really something you don't know Ron. Mostly the whole nightmare thing." Harry smiled sheepishly.
"Did you remember something you forgot to tell 'Mione on the train?" his friend asked. Hermione straightened at her name, and the thought of more knowledge to add to her already vast store.
"No, that was pretty much it, though the dreams in themselves were pretty weird." He stopped for a moment, reaching up to touch his scar, as if reminded of what normally happened in the nightmares and how the new 'presence' almost seemed to protect him. "Actually, what was bothering me is this weird feeling that something important is going to happen soon - not necessarily bad, but important."
Ron grinned at Hermione. "I don't think he's talking about OWLS either 'Mione" The girl frowned, and made as if to hit him upside the head, causing Harry to sigh. Ron just kept trying to bait Hermione.
'If I didn't know any better, I'd say that he has a crush on her.' The black haired boy smiled privately, hiding it behind one hand as Hermione finally managed to land the blow, and turned back towards him with Ron nursing the back of his head.
"So everything is fine then?" she asked, still seeming a little worried. "I know things have been hard over the summer, since, well. . . but you know you can talk to us if you need to."
Harry smiled. "I told you I'm fine Hermione. I can talk to Dumbledore about my dreams, and there isn't really anything wrong anyways; despite the fact that they've changed. It's actually nice to be able to wake up with out a headache for a change."
"Okay Harry, but if something does happen, we want to hear about it right away." Their conversation ended for the time being as they all stood up to return to the Gryffindor tower after the summer away.
TK ran; his pulse beating almost painfully in his temples, and his breathing erratic as his lungs strained to force more air in and out. Patamon zipped through the air behind him, having moved off of Takeru's head to lessen the burden. It was painfully obvious, even to TK's distracted mind, that his partner was almost as tired as he was. Neither of them would last much longer.
A morbid joke flashed through his mind, and he fought the urge to chuckle, knowing it would use more breath than he had at the moment. 'It's just our luck that after defeating vampire like monsters trying to take over the world, and demons and evil clowns that wanted to destroy everything, that Patamon and I would end up running for our lives from evil fog-monsters.'
A dim glow of light - the first he had seen since the sun had gone down - brought a feeling of relief to him. He turned around to gasp back a small message to his friend. "Patamon! Look up ahead - it's some - place safe!" As they neared, he found it was a small cottage, the windows lit up from the inside with a cheery glow.
'Hurry TK, Hurry!' he yelled mentally to himself, trying to encourage his legs to continue pumping for just a little longer. He looked back again, and felt his fear grow, when he realized that this *thing* was gaining on them. With a last burst of effort, he managed to increase his speed just a little more as they exited the forest and reached the doorstep of the cottage a minute or so later.
Takeru raised his fist and pounded on the door. "Open up!" he yelled, the sound being choked off abruptly, as the human form of the fog wrapped long gray fingers around his throat, trying to strangle him. The Child of Hope coughed and spluttered against the painful grip, fingers scrabbling at the creatures hands in an attempt to loosed the grip enough to breathe.
'Can't let it kill me. . .' his muddled thoughts decided. All his efforts seemed in vain, however, as he gradually began to feel the effects of his oxygen deprivation. His hands, which had been clawing at the others' grip, now only batted weakly at them, and then fell to his sides. Takeru's vision began to blur, and black spots danced before his eyes. Dimly, in the background, he heard Patamon yelling "Boom Bubble!" and trying to fight the monster off.
'I promise I'll do my best to protect you, always' A voice fluttered up from the dim reaches of a memory long forgotten. In TK's mind, a vision of a crystal blue gem, the color of his eyes, began to glow. 'I won't give up!' he vowed.
Suddenly, with a flare of light, his body was covered with a golden aura, as bright as a flame, with sky blue streaks crossing through it. TK cried out as power shot through him, the tight hands around his throat releasing him abruptly. The symbol of Hope appeared in gold on his forehead, overlapped with a bright blue symbol that looked like a spiral with wavy lines radiating outward from it.
The light continued to grow, causing the fog creature to real back from his with a screech, as though burned. Before it could run, however, the glow engulfed it, causing it to be completely obliterated within seconds.
TK's eyes, which had for these few moments shone an incandescent blue, the pupils lost in his fiery inhuman gaze; drooped shut in exhaustion. With a sigh, he fell to his knees, then to a prone position, his face pressing into the cool relief of the hard packed dirt. As he spiraled away into unconsciousness, he heard shouts of alarm and confusion in the distance.