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"A truth that's told with bad intent, Beats all the lies you can invent."

- William Blake

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"So the portal opened up in the air?" he asked, dumbfounded.

Takato winced as he recalled. "Yeah. That one uh…" he stammered before he grinned. "That sucked."

"Sounds like." His friend murmured. A moment passed. "Takato?"

"Yeah?"

"How did you survive?"

Takato stopped smiling at the question as he seemed to think very deeply.

--

Takato didn't usually remember his dreams, but the one he had then he remembered quite vividly. The reason he remembered it was because it has all really happened. A scientist had turned a man into a monster with a virus. The monster had hunted its daughter, a sixteen year old Rika Nonaka. But the monster doesn't catch her: he instead infects the seventeen year old boy, Ryo Akiyama who was protecting her. Takato seeks to aid Ryo, but some people disagreed in the value of the action. A heated debate leaves Jeri Kato, Takato's long-time friend, with a bullet in her stomach, comatose. Takato wanted to stay by her side until she woke up, but he didn't have the time, and he went after Ryo, as Rika had. He finds and saves him before the facility in which he was held collapsed. Takato had stayed behind to open the doors for Rika and Ryo to escape, and by the time it had been done, his exit had been cut off. Takato found a computer through which he could open a portal to the digital world, and he did.

Takato even knew he was dreaming as it happened. He wasn't sure how to explain it, but the helplessness he felt in it, knowing what was going to happen, was so intensified. He wasn't even sure he was done dreaming when he finally woke up.

He jolted upright, looking carefully at his surroundings. He was in a poorly decorated building. The floors appeared to be stone, and he couldn't identify what the walls were made of, though they weren't covered in anything. There was a grey blanket hanging over what he assumed to be the door. He was sitting in a small bed, probably big enough for two people, and he had a green blanket covering him. He pulled the blanket back to look at the wound in his leg.

Too good to be true?

The hole was still in his jeans, but there was no new blood. And it didn't hurt. He hopefully turned to put his leg on the floor. He slowly applied his weight to it, wincing out of instinct rather than pain. He sighed noticeably when he realized he was okay. He almost didn't notice the voices coming from outside.

"I still don't understand why you brought him here." The voice belonged to a girl, probably in her teens. "You're wasting your time."

Me?

"We've been over this." a boy answered. He too sounded like a teenager.

"How much more time are you going to waste trying to help him? He's not getting better." the girl was getting more irritated.

So this is the guy that saved me.

The boy didn't answer, but instead offered a question back to her. "What are you so afraid of? He might be able to help us."

Help with what?

Takato headed for the door.

"Bull!" she snapped, causing Takato to stop instinctively. "What you're doing here—this guy—he isn't going to change anything for the better."

"Aren't you even a little curious to how he got here? Where he came from?"

"You're an idiot, Cronus."

Cronus. The guy's name is Cronus.

Takato knew the voices had been coming from very close, but he hadn't realized from just how close. As he stepped through the curtain, his foot touched what turned out to be the foot of the girl, which earned him a squeak and an elbow to the forehead. He nearly dropped, but the boy steadied him.

Things were a little spinny for a few moments after, but Takato was still able to assign faces to the people he had been eavesdropping on. Cronus looked to be a few inches shorter than Takato, had short, dark blonde hair, and light brown eyes. He was dressed in a green shirt, a brown jacket, and some dirty blue jeans.

The girl who had given Takato what was sure to be a bruise was noticeably shorter than Cronus, had light brown hair put up, green eyes, a black t-shirt, jeans, and would be found really cute by Takato had she not just caused him an immense amount of pain. She snickered at her actions and turned to leave.

"Aren't you even going to apologize?" Cronus asked indignantly.

"Nope." She replied firmly as she left.

Geez.

Takato climbed to his feet, staring resentfully at the girl as she walked away.

"I'm sorry for her." Cronus said. "Are you alright?"

"I've had worse." Takato said, rubbing his forehead.

"You're Takato, huh?" Cronus asked.

How the hell's—

The look Takato had shot him must have been indication enough.

"I looked through your wallet." He said, a little embarrassed. "Sorry. You were really out."

"It's alright." Takato said, not really caring, but still rubbing his forehead. "How long was I unconscious?"

"At least three weeks."

Goddamnit.

Cronus went on. "You were found out there," he indicated the forest behind the house.

"And you're the one who saved me, huh?"

"I guess you could say that." The boy answered sheepishly.

"And you looked out for me while I was out?"

"Yeah…"

"Thank you." He said sincerely.

"I'm Cronus."

"Yeah, I overheard." Now it was Takato's turn to be embarrassed.

"Are you well enough to walk?" Cronus asked suddenly.

"Yeah, through no work of my own."

"Alright, there's someone you should meet." Cronus headed down a path adjacent to the one the girl had left on, indicating for Takato to follow him.

Takato was very confused. But none of his friends were around, not that he'd been able to seek help from them lately anyways. At least this Cronus seemed trustworthy, but Takato wasn't prepared to let his guard down. He still had no idea where he was. Cronus and the girl were human, and he was supposed to be in the digital world. He didn't think he was in danger, though. He'd heard Cronus say that he might be able to help them.

Them?

How many people lived where they were? Takato asked, but Cronus wouldn't give him an answer, he just asked him to wait a few minutes until they got to the person he wanted Takato to meet. Takato agreed to put his questions on hold.

The two walked by several houses that looked similar to the one Takato had found himself in. Colorless, and appearing to be made of something resembling logs. They soon came to a house that looked no different—at least to Takato—than any of the others, and Cronus pushed the blanket aside and walked in.

Takato followed him inside, and he heard another voice, belonging to a girl who was doing something at the counter facing away from the two.

"Cronus, I swear if you do not start knocking—" It was then the girl turned and saw that Takato was there.

"He's got some questions." Cronus said to her.

"Yes, I'd imagine so."

Cronus turned to leave, but before Takato could ask him where he was going, the girl was already talking.

"You're Takato, right? My name is Mala. It's nice to meet you." Takato turned to her. She seemed about the same age as him, maybe a year younger. She wore a simple yellow dress, had dark brown hair which was in a ponytail that went a little lower than her shoulders. She had a natural beauty to her.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too." Takato said hurriedly. "Where am I? What is this place?"

She frowned, and Takato was a little worried that he might have offended her, but not very much, as he wanted answers.

"So you don't remember anything?"

What?

"Since when?" Takato asked, confused.

"Since ever? Do you remember anything at all before today?"

She serious?

"Well yeah, I remember things, why wouldn't I?"

"You do?" She asked, her eyes lighting up.

Takato was getting a little bit uncomfortable, but he nodded.

She began to laugh, loudly.

This girl's crazy.

It wasn't until Takato took a step back that she realized he was so very confused.

"I'm sorry, it's—it's just that nobody else here remembers."

"What do you mean?"

"The village, here. Nobody but very few of us remember anything about life before living here."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know. But only I, Cronus, and now you, remember anything about life before here."

She's serious.

Takato's mind was boggling. First he finds himself completely healed, no wounds—from the fall or from before: Great. Then he meets someone who seems to be a pretty cool guy: Also great. Now he finds out that there's a whole village full of amnesia-ridden people who may or may not require his help.

Takato finally worked up the courage to ask, now careless of whether or not it made him sound crazy. It couldn't make him sound any crazier than she did a few seconds ago. "Is this the digital world?"

"I don't know." She answered.

Damnit. Where the hell am I?

"Then where are we?" He asked cautiously.

"I don't know."

Takato raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"I mean, I don't know exactly how I got here, not specifically, I mean. I remember I was supposed to be going somewhere, I just don't think it's here..."

"I'm sorry, but I'm really not following you." Takato said, trying to mask his frustration.

"This place kind of—plays with your memory."

Takato sighed again, causing Mala to speak apologetically. Takato really wished she stopped caring so much about which words she was using. "The people here used to remember. They have no idea they even forgot."

"What? How do you know that they forgot something?"

"Because there aren't people in the digital world." Hearing her say 'digital world' made Takato realize that she didn't seem surprised at all when he mentioned the term to her. She was like Takato. She must have thought she was going to the digital world, but wound up in this place. Wherever it was.

"So are we in the digital world?" Takato asked, a little more annoyed with his not getting any answers.

Mala sighed. "I told you, I don't know. I've been here a year, and I haven't seen any digimon at all. But the people here—Takato, they're not normal."

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More to come, please review.

-N