I don't own digimon and it is very unlikely that that will change.

Chapter 8. Go on and read.

-I didn't believe in destiny,-

-------- C8) -------

----Narration----

Hmmm… back are you? It's been a few days, I was starting to think you where in trouble somewhere. No it's fine, after all I didn't wake up for a few days after that dent in my head. But before I tell you about waking I should tell about something else that started, or rather I started remembering, when that dent was put in my head.

--- Brent ---

"Again!" Brent brought up the wooden sword as another like it in every way slammed down towards his head. Pushing it away he drew in closer and struck out with his own, the upward slash blocked as he had blocked the overhead slash.

A gauntleted fist slammed into Brent's face and sent him stumbling back but it wasn't Brent's voice that came from the brushed face. "Good. Use the gauntlets." It was Fate's voice. That other intelligence and tone twisting what Brent's voice into its own.

Brent blinked and froze as he realized he was facing himself. In the moment of surprise Fate, in the copy of Brent's body, struck, the sword sinking into Brent's shoulder. No blood, no damage, a sparkling wound that vanished as the wooden blade was removed but the pain was still there.

"Dang it. What the hell Fate, what is going on?" Brent jumped back and probed at the vanishing slash in his shoulder as he glared at a fuming Fate. Brent was about to start shouting again as he realized what they where standing on, or rather what they weren't. "Where are we?"

Wide-eyed Brent looked around, not understand what exactly he was seeing. Under his feet was a thick golden light, looking like a giant glowing road paved in sunlight, and on ether side was ocean. One side was black waters that sat still and silent with only the occasional suturing current caused by brief flows of light. The other side was a white glaring brilliance that threatened to tear at his eyes except for islands and reefs of blackness that softened the glare.

The road of gold went on in both directions bound Brent's sight and so did the oceans. Fate waved a hand and the wooden swords vanished, "this is where the power resides. It is inside you and inside the armor and me. This is my world, this is where I train those who wear the armor, some knew of it others never consciously did. It seems your conscious might be learning to accept the truth and you will no longer rely entirely on instinct."

Brent curled his fists, blinking as he relished the gauntlets where suddenly gone from his hands. He razed them to his face and saw the many scars he had acquired over his years, scars he was beginning to miss. "Hands up." Brent looked up in time to see an armored fist connect with his cheek, sending him reeling back.

"Be on your guard Brent. Life is a fight and as such it never ends until death." Fate still wore the gauntlets and the jabbed at Brent, first like a boxer powering his way past half broken defense and then becoming the direct open strikes of a martial artist. "I found in your memory several new forms of combat but many are fictional or would be foolish in battle."

Brent's anger flared and he grabbed Fate's arm and brought him into a crushing hug. "Everything works once" Brent fell forward as Fate tried kicking his legs out from under him. Legs tangled and arms immobilized they fell and Fate took the worst of it as he landed with Brent's weight on him. "And the direct approach works best." Brent shifted his weight, pining Fate and freeing his own arms so he could begin raining blows onto his stolen face.

A flare of light and Brent was lying on his back several meters away while Fate got to his feet. "Mayhap in your world anything will work once but this world, like the digital world, has its own differences." Brent lurched to his feet as the burses over his cheats sparkled and vanished. "Magic is one of the digital worlds differences. Your world has little of this and it is often mistaken for simple tricks." A ball of light sprang into existence between Fate's hands; he tossed it back and forth in his palms without actually touching it.

"Is that what that mist stuff was?" Brent didn't like this place, wherever it was, and he liked Fate using his face even less.

Fate tossed the light away, not caring about it as it faded away. "Yes. I'm not sure how you used that spell but you did call a clarity spell. I haven't yet started your training in it so let us begin." Another ball of light appeared in Fate's hands and it became a piercing red as he pulled back his arm and hurled it at Brent.

The ball never came close; the shock of a spell coming at him was like that of falling in a dream and being frightened awake before hitting the ground. Brent sat up with a lurch, smacking his head off something above him.

A throbbing in his head made itself known to him the moment he stopped swearing. It was unpleasant and strangely without any more pain than a mild irritation. Feeling at his skull with softly probing fingers he found, under the bandages, a soft spot and crude stitching and worse than all of that, to him at least, a shaved scalp.

He was muttering curses under his breath and thinking or causing someone some pain as he felt around him for ether his glasses or anything. He found dirt and trampled grass and a blanket he had been covered with but not his glasses. His hand stuck something and he felt it, the fact he could feel texture through the gauntlets still surprising him, and he realized it must be the wagon wheel; he was lying under the wagon.

Carefully, not trusting his balance and being blinded by dark night and no glasses he crawled from under the wagon and used its side to pull him up. He couldn't see anything around him, there wasn't even enough light to show shadows within the darkness. His nose told him he was still in the woods and his bare feet felt the wet ground from a storm that must have just passed.

Something pulled at him from the corner of his mind, like seeing something from the corner of your eye but it was a strange sensation. Turning slowly he peered in the direction this 'sense' told him to look but he could see nothing in the dark and no sound reached his ears.

He sneezed as a heavy sent of flowered perfume reached him, like a field of flowers after it rains or the inside of a greenhouse in full bloom. He sneezed again and again as it felt like the breeze was covering him in pollen. "MOVE!" Brent shoved off the wagon and dived into a roll as something struck where he had been a moment before.

He tried rolling back to his feet but his balance was off because of the concision, he thumped back to the ground as he tried standing. Before he could try again a foot stomped on his chest, a high heel digging into his ribs. "My, my. What a cute looking host Fate. I hope that he is as fun as the last one. It took almost a week to break him. What was his name? Timor? Taker? Tannin, that's what it was."

Brent griped the foot, finding that it was actually an armored boot rather than an actual heeled shoe, and tried pushing it away. The foot and its owner didn't even move, "what's this? The human thinks he can move me when he barely has any of his armor?" the voice, reminding Brent of a spoilt brat or drama quean, gave a snort, "couldn't find one smarter Fate?"

Brent felt Fate reaching for his voice and shoved him back before speaking himself. "Fate's not here. Can I take a message before you die?" something was happening nearby but Brent couldn't tell what only that something was grinding against stone.

The armored heel lifted a fraction, just a fraction, as she was surprised but it was pressed back down again. "A sense of humor, that's something Fate never liked in a host. Now be a good little soul slave and let Fate speak." Something rough and thick started coiling around Brent, it felt as though a giant constrictor was readying to engulf him.

Brent started lashing at the tendril, whatever it was, with his feet as he tried harder to press the heel away. "Who the hell are you to tell me what to do bitch? Another mind dead girl in a nice tin dress?" the tendril stopped for a moment and Brent could feel the glare on the woman's face with how her heel shook with the restrained desire to Pearce his heart.

"You are a cocky bastard if you don't know who I am. Even the most isolated pockets of human resistance know my name. So you have a sense of humor and are ether very stupid or a cheeky brat. I wonder how Fate found you." With a frightful motion the tendril moved faster than a bolt of lightning as it coiled around Brent's legs. "I will have to find out."

Brent was beginning to hyperventilate as the vine coiled around his legs, moving further up his body with every moment. He didn't even hear Fate's voice in his mind as he imaged a living rope tied around him. His hands glowed around the foot in his grip and with a mighty heave with his agitated strength and the power he pulled from the gauntlets the owner of the foot stumbled backwards. But it was too late the tendril caught one of his arms as he tried tearing it from his legs and within moments he was tied from head to toe in the thick coils.

"Strong, powerful and perhaps a little insane… I think Fate finally found a good host." Brent screamed wordlessly as the tendril squeezed him, the thought of being trapped driving everything from his mind except being trapped. "Sleepy time." A strong scent of pollen was driven into Brent's nostrils as a fine-fingered hand covered his mouth. His eyes started to drift closed but not before he could open his mouth wide and drive his teeth down into the soft flesh between fingers and thumb. He didn't hear the screams and curses or even feel the angry fist that pried open his jaws, loosening several teeth in the process.

-------

"Brent! Brent!" Brent didn't feel like opening his eyes like the insistent voice seemed to want. "Brent!" he lifted one heavy eyelid and hazily looked around, finding everything blurred into shapeless colors.

He turned his head and as he did something around his neck rustled and a fresh scent of flowers flooded his nostrils. His eye drifted closed again as the pollen sent him drifting off into sleep again.

"So your Fate's new host." he sneezed as a harsh odder burned his lungs, like a wisp of gas. His eyes snapped open and he jerked his head away from the hand that the smell was coming from. "Good now I can start training you as a new palace slave." The hand came across his face, leaving a read impression from the slap. "I do hope they let me keep you. The last time this happened with the sprit of Courage they made me kill him."

Brent glared at the brown/green blur in front of him and hoped he wasn't facing the wrong direction. "Go ta hell." He worked a wad of saliva up in his mouth a made to spit but another hand struck him, giving him matching welts on both cheeks.

"Oh I'm going to enjoy this so much. Courage's last host didn't even last a week." The voice, witch was driving Brent mad with its snobbish attitude, stopped and the bandage was ripped from his head. "What's this? Been fighting already. I wonder why Fate didn't teach you how to heal that." something bright came next to Brent's head and he felt the dent in his skull squirming and twisting, like it was full of moving slugs.

Brent tried pulling away from the light but found he couldn't move, worse, that he couldn't even feel anything below the neck. A sudden fear of being paralyzed filled him, "what the hell did you do to me? Why can't I move!" the woman's voice didn't answer as the glowing thing continued to move around his head.

He turned his head and snapped at the glowing object, glad that it pulled back. He forgot that as he gained another hand shaped welt across his face. "I'm going to have to de-fang you if you keep snapping." The glowing was gone but the wound continued to squirm and twist itself, sending shivers across his skull.

He focused his thoughts enough to come up with a scathing reply, "really? I thought a girl like you would like some fangs. After all you did tie me up and stand on my chest in heels."

A hand griped his ear and pulled, making him move his head with it or risk losing it, "oh I do like fun bites." Sharp teeth started to scrap over his jaw, only for a moment, before pulling away and making him want to be sick. "But that part comes later after I house break you."

Brent was thankful his stomach was empty, if it weren't it would be as the thought of being her toy revolted him. The hand didn't release his ear as it started turning his head from side to side. "Something is wrong…" there was a slight gasp, "your eyes! Your blind!" the hand was pulled back like he was infected. That was fine with him; he didn't want her touching him.

"So what? My glasses are here somewhere. But it has a plus side, I don't have to see what an ugly whore you are." Brent 'ouffed' as the air was forced out his lungs; he guessed that she had punched him but he couldn't feel it.

The brown/green blur moved away muttering something, Brent was becoming really worried about not feeling anything below his neck so he didn't care much. "Cat." There was a screech and Brent turned his head towards it, not seeing anything. The woman's voice was low but he could hear it, "tell me kitty. Where are his glasses?"

There was a good deal of gagging and choking and then he heard Fay. She sounded frightened, "I, I… I don't know… they where next to me when I was sleeping in the wagon."

Brent could make out a bit of white that might have been Fay but he couldn't tell. "Fay, who is this woman?"

"Brent! Don't sit there! RUN!" there was more but it was cut off and after a moment of straining his ears he could make out her muffled breathing.

"You really don't know who I am do you, Brent?" the brown/green blur came back towards him, something glinting from its grip. Brent pulled his head back and shut his eyes as something was moved towards his face. "You must be from far off not to know me."

Brent opened his eyes after realizing his glasses had been put on his face, bent and cracked but still useable. The sight that greeted his eyes made his jaw drop before he could stop it. A shapely woman, curved in all the right places, stood before him in form hugging armor made of tempered stone and woven with plant mater.

Her armor was thin and showed of her form and skin in many places, made of metals made to look like granite and plants. A shaped breastplate showed off a good deal of cleavage and navel while shoulder guards and bracers teamed with thorns and flowers. Her legs where covered with knee-high armored high heels while her tapered waist and upper thighs where covered in a form hugging material that Brent knew was armor of some kind.

What really shocked him was her face, her face was stunning, except of course for the evil smirk and the twinkle of foreign intelligence. Her perfect face was framed with silky brown hair held back with a thin circlet of gray stone woven round with gently moving vines.

There on the circlet above her forehead was a small round disk swirled with brown and green with the crest of Reliability standing out on it. "Shit." Brent knew he was screwed now; standing in front of him was another of the Sprit Knights. An evil one.

"And the slowest horse crosses the finish line." She burst out laughing at him, the sound high and nasal enough to make him think of plastic surgery. While she was laughing, busting a gut apparently, he took a look around.

They where on the edge of the woods, a small road nearby, and the field all around was blooming with flowers and shrubs in a way that couldn't be natural. Fay, and the others, where bound to slabs of stone with thick coils of strange vines. Vincent and Shula and the rookies had wreathes of flowers around their necks and appeared to be asleep but Fay was gagged with a peace of cloth shoved in her mouth.

Brent looked down; expecting to see manacles or vines and was rather amazed to find he was simply sitting on a chair of woven reeds. He wasn't tied down on anything, he was just sitting there but try as he might he couldn't move.

"Surprised?" Brent glared up at her, but she nearly burst into laughter again. "Oh I picked the kitties brain and found out that you don't like being tied up. Its not a problem for me." She lifted her hands and a pair of vines grew from her palms and spun together into a thin thorny collar. The thorns excreted a slightly green substance that dripped to the ground. "Paralysis venom. Works real well for capturing slaves that the rings wont work on."

The venom ran across a small red wound on her hand and she cursed as the collar dropped to the ground from her numb hand. Brent saw that the wound was a small crescent between her fingers and thumb and his teeth ached as he vaguely remembered someone prying between his clamed jaws. The coppery taste of blood returned to him and he almost lost his composure, biting was foul fighting.

A chirping ring, like a spring bird amongst wind chimes, broke Reliability's focus on her hand. She reached into a pouch on her belt and then muttered another curse, as she had to use her other hand because her numb on wouldn't grip. She drew out a small portable phone covered in flowers and gems and flicked it open. "Yeah? Oh hi! I got such awesome news, I caught…" she frowned and turned away but Brent could still hear her side on the conversation.

"But I caught him." she was pouting like the worst brat he could imagine. "I can't leave him go. No way. She really said that? For real? He agreed with her? No joke?" she turned back and Brent wasn't sure what was going on but if it involved him getting away he wouldn't worry too much about the circumstances. "Fine. Ill let him go and come home. But you better make it up to me when I get back."

She shut the phone and slid it back into her belt pouch before returning her attention to him. "I gotta go for now love. Don't worry to much, ill be back for you after you get stronger." She turned and started walking away, not bothering to even look at the collar around his neck of the vines binding everyone else.

"Hey! Get this thing off me!" she kept walking stopping at the edge of the road and looking up and down it.

After a moment she smiled and shortly after that Brent could see a plume of dust rise into the air from something moving fast from the woods. Then and only then did she turn back to him, "don't worry. Somebody is coming they should help you. Or rob you blind. Later love."

With that she stepped onto the road and started walking away from the woods. Brent followed her with a glare and considering so many curses when he realized he was looking out over a vast hilly area barren of anything but grass and the occasional tree and rocky outcropping. In this moment of surprise she had vanished and he could no longer find her with his eyes no matter how he craned his head.

After a moment Brent looked out over the hills again, such wide space without trees or buildings. It was so strange to him that it finally made him realizes that this wasn't his world. He had known it and saw so many things that weren't possible on earth but it was this wide-open view with only a dusty road and no other sign of people to make him think what it meant. He couldn't go down the block and talk to his friends, or step over to the story for a pack of gum. And worst of all was that his family was far from him, his mother most likely worrying over his disappearance.

How long had he been in this world yet? A week? A month? He spent most of his time unconscious, as he didn't really know. The roar of a vehicle was heard now coming from the forest but he was lost in his thoughts and didn't even hear it screech to a stop. A pair of hands shaking his shoulders forced him back to the moment and he found that Alex was there looking at him worriedly.

Alex was looking good, the few days on the road letting his wings heal and bringing a bit of color to his light skin. He was free of the dust of the road as only an angle could be after such a fast long trip but his face from under his still cracked helm was of concern. "Brent? Are you ok?"

"Remove the collar." Alex looked at the thorny weed and griped it carefully and unwound it from Brent's neck. He was careful not to cut himself or make any of the small piercing wounds on Brent's neck worse. He dropped the thing with distaste and shook the slimy venom from his hands. "Untie the others Alex. I'll be fine after that stuff wears off."

"Are you sure your ok? You sound like you're in shock? What happened here?" Brent just shook off the questions and turned his head back around to look out over the many hills that faded into the distance. Alex didn't know what could be done so he turned to help Violet and Beelzamon untie everyone.

--- Fay ---

She watched Brent as he looked out over the hills, his face distant and with a slight slackening she hadn't seen on him before. The moment Alex tore the vines apart she pulled the gag from her mouth and moved towards Brent. All her limbs where tingling as circulation returned and she brushed that sickly sleep dust from around her neck.

She couldn't believe she had seen Reliability and lived. The assassin knight was feared worse than anything alive, granted most thought she was some digimon under the armor but know Fay knew better. The crest of reliability combined with an assassin, the thought alone made her shiver.

She stopped beside the living wicker chair and watched, as Brent seemed lost in his thoughts. "Brent?" she carefully jumped onto his lap but he didn't seem to notice, the venom still paralyzing him. It didn't seem right that he would go berserk over ropes or shackles but be fine with his own body betraying him.

"Its so open. So free." Fay blinked at his words and looked out where he was facing. The vast hills covered in tall waving grasses and marred only buy the thin dirt road that wove between them into the distance. "I'm really not on earth anymore."

"Don't you have hills on earth?" she didn't know how to deal with this, after all she never meet anyone from another world before this.

Brent eye pulled in everything, seeing it like it was something he always wanted to see. "Yeah there are hills. But they are tamed." A scowl came on his face as he thought of home compared to this sight before him. "Back home this would be ruined by old scars in the ground or fallen trees. Power lines would go everywhere and houses would be dotted along here as if only they where the best view in the area."

Before her very eyes she could see what he was saying as though his words brought it to terrible realty. Hills gutted for stone or cleaved in two so that a road of blackened tar and stone shot into the distance. Homes and small buildings, each gaudy and expensive but tasteless, jumped into being and clamored for space. Each one brought with it manicured lawns and fences and short walks and driveways of cement. Lines ran every which way before vanishing to every point of the compass.

She blinked away the sight and looked at Brent, "how can they live like that. How can they harm the land and not notice?"

Brent shook his head and looked back over the hills to watch something he wouldn't find on earth. "They see it. But not enough care about it to stop it. The few places that are called 'untouched' are still affected. Weather changes, smog, pollutants, trash, foreign plants and animals. Nothing is left the way it was after man comes by."

Fay found herself disliking his world, and apparently so did he. "Why would you want to go back then?"

Brent looked at her for a moment and then shook his head and that slackness in his face left, bringing back a tension she remembered. "It's the only place I understand. I don't have to like it, just live in it."

"How can you not like your world and still want to go back?" Fay waited and waited for his answer but didn't look like it was coming.

Then Brent turned his head away from the view and studied her. "I haven't been convinced this one is much better. Every time I wake up I get beat to hell and back and then wake up half starved and fearing what will happen next. Can you tell me a reason to want to stay? Back home I don't have to fear anything except what my future is going to be. Here I have to worry about not just my life but also an entire world. I don't like responsibilities."

Fay stepped back as for a moment Brent got that hard look she saw in his eyes when Fate took control, however this was still Brent. Fay's step distracted him and made him blink, "Fay? Why are you on my lap?"

Fay actually turned pink under her fur as she hurried to move off his lap. Laughter followed her as she went off looking for the wagon, and trying to hide. She hadn't thought Brent so crude as to make fun of her for that, she should have stood on his shoulder.

---- Narration ----

Why yes I made that joke. I couldn't keep acting tough to cover my fear so I resorted to humor. What? It wasn't that crude.

Another chapter. Not that great but I had to force myself to work on it. Summer is a pain in my rear.