H-4-T: Hello again! How are you all? Yes, I do care about you. You're good? Oh that's ok. Me? Oh, I'm fine thank you. ?

Well, actually, no. I'm not fine at all. I have a short story to tell you.

Hikari: I don't think they care...

H-4-T: Well I think they have a right to know that gorse bushes are dangerous and should be burned!

Daisuke: Ooh! Tell me! I want to know!

H-4-T: Well, anyway, it happened the other night. I was coming back from basketball practice and mum had to drop me off at the school so I could pick up my bike because I cycle to school and she has to take me straight from that hell-hole to the practice. Anyway I wanted to take my hair down and I couldn't be bothered stopping so I tried to tie it around my wrist using my teeth which I have done so many times before but I leant too far towards the road so I tried to counterbalance myself and ended up riding straight into a gorse buch. Because of many severe scratches on my leg and waist and arm I am dedicating this day to writing more chapters for Courageous Light! Yay!

Hikari: Have you rambles enough yet?

H-4-T: No. Not really. Oh and don't worry Jillie, it's going to be whatyou want it to be.

Disclaimer: You know it by now! Ok, you've only had two chapters to memorise it so I'll say it again. I don't own digimon. The prequel is by Fruitloop Trooper. LEARN THE WAYS OF THE DISCLAIMER BECAUSE I'M GETTING TOO TIRED TO TYPE IT!

Oh and I'm only using Ryo's name, not his character.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Her alarm clock was different that morning. She had woken up confused at the sound of the phone going, which had confused her because her alarm was usually the radio.

"Hello?" she asked groggily.

"Sora…can I…uhm…talk to you?" It was Takeru, and he sounded extremely troubled. She sat up and ran a hand through her hair.

"Yeah, course," she answered, stifling a yawn.

"Well, it's about Matt," he said. Sora woke up a little more. "Obviously you know about the car incident he was involved in yesterday. Well…he's gone into a coma. The doctors think he…They think he might not survive it." Sora's eyes widened.

"Oh my gosh, no way," she whispered.

"Yeah," the other replied, although his voice sounded like it was cracking.

"I'm…I'm really sorry," she said quietly. "T.K…if there's anything I can do…"

"Thanks, Sora, I really appreciate it," he answered. "I'm sorry if I woke you or anything but I just…I had to talk to someone."

"Well I'm always here for you, ok?"

"Yeah, thanks Sora," he almost whispered. "I'll see you later, ok?"

"Yeah," she said. "And T.K?"

"Yeah?"

"It's good that you talk about these things," she said. The other let out a little laugh before the two said their goodbyes.

Sora stared at the white, cordless phone for a few seconds before putting it quite heavily onto the bedside stand and collapsing face-first into her pillow.

And then her phone rang.

Again.

She glared at the offending, noisy object before pushing her face into her mattress and placing her thick, pink pillow over her ears.

But she could still hear it.

Finally it got the better of her and she sent it a final glare before picking it up and answering. She had barely got a word out when Taichi's frantic voice came on the other end of the line.

"Hikari's gone!"

---

She woke up with a pounding headache. She was hungry as hell and prayed that, if she wasn't going to get any food, she could die. Her arms were bound behind her back by a rough, coarse rope. There was a gag in her mouth and a blindfold over her eyes. She could only hear what was around her, her other senses were incapacitated. She had been there for a year now, and she was used to these daily routines. She had been bound and gagged for a year now too and she only kept her voice alive by screaming and talking, although it was muffled against the dirty cloth in her mouth.

A door, most likely wooden and with rusted hinges, creaked open and closed again and the footsteps neared. Someone crouched behind her; she could feel the person's breath on her neck.

"You've got a new friend," the person, a male, whispered. She growled at him. "Be nice, Will, you wouldn't want to give her the wrong impression, would you?" Her eyes narrowed, but it was impossible to tell. "I would have put her in with someone else, but you're the only one on your own. I know how you Americans hate being alone…" She tried to say something, but it came out muffled.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" She tried to say it again, louder this time, but it was still unintelligible. The gag was removed and she gulped air in through her mouth.

"You'll never get away with this!" she yelled. "I'll kill you, you bastard! I'm gonna kill you!" He smirked at her before replacing the gag over her mouth.

"You're going to kill me," he repeated. "Good. I look forward to it. Bring her in!" There were more footsteps and someone was thrown down next to her. "I'll leave you to get acquainted." With that he left.

There was silence and darkness.

She had become acquainted with the two, and she was also close friends with apathy, angst and depression. A day didn't go by when she didn't wish that she could just kill herself to end it all. She was always alone. She always was and she always would be.

There was suddenly a soft glowing light that peeked through the small holes on her blindfold. It was a soothing white and she was almost fooled into thinking she had reached death at last; her dream come true.

But the light died and she was surrounded in darkness again.

The girl next to her was moving. She was to the left, slightly infront of her. She heard the girl move a lot, as if she was standing up, and then softened footsteps – like someone wearing socks on a coarse floor – walked behind her. She tensed herself and mentally thought of what she could do to defend herself.

Her mental list was scarily short.

"Don't worry," the girl said quietly, "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. I'm going to untie you, ok?" Will nodded. She felt the bonds around her hands loosen and her gag was removed. Her blindfold followed so that the only things left tied were her legs.

At first she couldn't tell that the blindfold had been removed as the room was so dark. To begin with she saw the shades of light that were somehow in the room and, after a few seconds, she could see well enough to untie her legs.

"Are you ok?" the girl asked. Will nodded. "What's your name?"

"Will Vandom," she said.

"It's nice to meet you, Will," the girl said, moving to sit infront of her. In the dim moonlight she could make out the girl was about her height – quite short – with two long strands of hair that fell infront of her face and the rest of it was taken back into what she could guess was a low ponytail.

The other girl stuck out her hand.

"I'm Hikari Yagami," she stated. Will accepted the handshake.

"Sorry if this is rude or anything, but aren't you like Chinese or something?"

"Japanese," the other corrected, "but yeah. I'm fluent in a lot of languages, though." Will nodded.

The two spoke for a long time, getting to know each other, but then Hikari started glowing slightly, illuminating the room.

"Oh great, I'm a flipping nightlight," she muttered. The pair then heard footsteps and the glowing stopped.

Hikari glanced at the redhead next to her and sighed.

"I bet you think I'm a freak right now, don't you?" she said softly.

"Actually, no," she said. "You just untied me and I can move again. You basically just saved my life. I'm in no place to call you a freak." Hikari nodded. "Um…actually…there's one more favour that I would like to ask you. Um…could you help me to walk again?" Hikari smiled.

"Of course I will," she answered softly. "Do you want to start now or wait until tomorrow?"

"Well it won't really make a difference to me," she said. "I don't actually have a regular sleep pattern, I just sleep when I can and want. And it's not like we can do anything about the light situation." The brunette laughed slightly and rolled her eyes. She closed her lids and cupped her hands infront of her.

An orb of white light started to form, strings of white light surrounding it. She parted her hands and it slipped into the air. With a flick of her wrist it flew to the ceiling and, when she concentrated harder, the light intensified slightly, illuminating the room more. Will looked completely astounded.

"How…how did you do that?" she asked. Hikari looked over and noticed that she had blood-red hair kept back in a neat bun. She was pale (although that could have just been the pale light) and thin with old, dirtied clothes almost torn to rags, but she thought that they might have been a pink t-shirt and pale jeans.

"I…it's an ability I've only recently learned to control," she answered. "I'd rather not talk about it though." Will nodded.

"Ok, well, here's what I was just thinking of," the brunette continued, sitting next to Will who had shuffled to lean against the wall. "We're going to start with some muscle toning on your legs because you look like you haven't even eaten in years, never mind walking. When you feel comfortable we'll try and get you on your feet, ok?" Will nodded.

"You know what?" she asked. Hikari looked at her, confused. "I think this friendship is going to work out nicely."

---

Taichi was frantic.

No.

He was insanely worried.

Even that was an understatement.

The group were in an abandoned news station chosen for the fact that Izzy could hook up his computer and send out a tracking signal for a wider radius that if he was only using his computer.

The worrying thing was that they still had no reply from her digivice.

"Where could she be?" Taichi muttered.

"There are no clues," Koushirou replied, still looking at his laptop screen as his fingers rapidly danced across the keyboard. "There's been no ransom note, and we can't exactly go up to the police and say 'oh, hello officer, we'd like to the kidnapping of a dead person'."

"But Hikari was never assumed dead," Taichi replied. He then noticed that the group around him started looking quite nervous and they started avoiding his gaze.

"She was," Sora stated. "After you…died…Hikari disappeared. Your grandparents sent out a search party for her, they searched all over the world and, in the end, the police found a note that stated she was dead. After that they found a body. That's why we were so shocked when we saw both of you back. We thought you were both…dead."

"But…how could they have found a body?" Taichi asked, his face pale. "They couldn't have. It would be impossible."

"I don't think we've got the whole story," Miyako muttered. They looked over to where she was leaning over Koushirou's shoulder, reading the screen with a mixture of shock and interest.

"Listen to this," Koushirou started. "'Recently, at the Odaiba Morgue, the body suspected to be the deceased Digidestined Yagami Hikari disappeared. No traces of the body were found and there was no note. With no family alive and all friends assumed to have moved on, there are really no suspects as to who the criminals were'. How odd is that?"

"When was that article dated?" Taichi asked.

"August 20 2004," he answered. "That's odd. It's only a month after they found the body."

"But it's the exact day she said she remembered waking up in the Digital World," Taichi whispered to himself. "Did you ever find my body?"

"No," Sora said, a little bit of remorse in her voice. "The castle collapsed soon after our battle. We assumed that you were still in there and we wanted to get you out, but the government wouldn't give us the funding or the people to do it." He inclined his head to show that he understood.

"Let's forget about that," he then said, suddenly, "and get down to getting Hikari back. Who knows what's going on with her."

---

"So what did you do to him?" Will asked.

"Who?"

"Him," Will stated. "You must have done something to wind up here."

"Does killing him count?" Hikari asked, more seriously than Will realised. The redhead laughed.

"Seriously."

"I'd rather not talk about it," the brunette stated, lying on her back. "It's…it's not something I like to revisit." She winced as a flashback hit her, but she pushed it to the back of her mind and let out a tense breath.

"I understand," Will stated. The shorter rolled onto her front to stare at her cellmate.

"So what did you do?"

"I turned him in for murdering someone," she stated. "It was about two years ago…"

---

She was walking down the road, humming a quiet tune to herself, when a shot went off. Then another and another. Soon she had counted a total of five gunshots and, by now, she was at the end of the alleyway where the killing was happening.

A short, thin brunette lay on the ground looking dead as the man stood, the gun pointed at her chest.

Then, as the man turned, Will gasped loudly and took a couple of fearful steps backwards.

Standing tall with Asian features and long, shaggy black hair was Ryo, his dark eyes menacing. He glanced up at Will and aimed the gun at her now. She closed her eyes in anticipation of the shot.

The gun was fired, but she never felt anything. Looking up she saw that the brunette – who should have been dead – had tackled Ryo to the side and the gun was skidding along the floor towards Will's feet. She looked at it for a few seconds before glancing up at the two at the other end of the alley.

Ryo was glancing at the brunette with a pale face and he was shaking with fear. Without hesitating or stopping to pick up his gun, he ran from the alleyway, leaving the two teens alone, one dying and one too scared and shocked to move.

After a few seconds Will pulled herself together and quickly whipped out her cell-phone to dial 911. She left the alleyway quickly to scout for which way Ryo had gone, but she couldn't see him anywhere.

By the time she had finished the phone call to the emergency services she walked back into the alleyway only to find the girl gone. At first she thought it was only the face that it seemed to have gotten darker and she might not have been able to see her, so she walked forwards. But, in the place of the young brunette, six bullets lay innocently, although covered in blood and a little dirt.

---

"…I couldn't believe she was alive enough to stop him killing me," Will stated, "I wonder if she's still alive…" Hikari nodded sympathetically.

"That must have been really mentally disturbing for you," she stated, still lying on her front on the cold, stone floor. Will nodded.

"I turned him in shortly after when I had the courage to explain what I had seen to the police who arrived. At first they didn't believe me," she explained, "but I soon convinced them. After he escaped prison he tracked me down and brought me here. There are a lot of other women here too for similar reasons."

"Is it just women?" Will nodded.

"I've never seen any men," she stated. "Except the members of his gang, the vile, hideous lot. Not everyone here is in from Ryo; there's Kurt, James, Ian, Jamie and Matt. They all brought the girls they wanted revenge on here too. It's sick really. Be thankful you've only had Ryo. Ian and Jamie…rape people here. Ryo's never let them do it to me, so I think you'll be safe." Hikari nodded, Will's words shocking her to the core. Who could think that such a vile thing could be going on right under everyone's noses?

Her powers, which had been dormant through the explanation, suddenly flared up and the room silenced. Straining her heightened hearing she heard footsteps approaching and she quickly quelled her powers and the light illuminating the room disappeared.

The heavy metal door opened and six muscled figures stood in the doorways. The one in the front walked forwards and approached Hikari. He grabbed the brunette's chin in his hand and stared her in the eyes, daring her to defy him. But she, not wanting to show a weakness, refused to look away.

"Well, well, well," he stated, "you try to kill me so I guess escaping a few bounds wouldn't be hard for you, would it?"

"What do you want, Ryo?" she hissed. He moved his lips to her neck and planted a hard kiss there before whispering in her ear.

"I want to finish what I started all those year," he stated, and Hikari felt suddenly weak. He had always had a way to entrance her as a young teenager, and he had not lost that ability. She was also out of practice at resisting his hypnotic charms, so she could do nothing. It was almost as if she went unconscious.

He noticed the sudden lack of resistance and smirked at her.

"You will be mine," he whispered before picking her up and carrying her out of the room. He had to admit that she wasn't stupid. She was staying still in his grasp and giving no opposition.

'This will be easier than I expected,' he thought to himself with a sadistic grin upon his features. He dimly heard Will calling out for the girl in his arms but he soon heard a dull thud and then silence, and he assumed that one of his boys must have knocked her out. The door clanged shut and it was locked before there were hurried footsteps to catch up to him.

"What are you going to do to her, Ryo?" Kurt, who was tall and lanky with mousey-blonde hair, asked.

"Oh she and I had an acquaintance just after the Myotismon incident," he stated, "and she lead me to believe she wanted me like I wanted her. Of course I only wanted one thing and, when she realised I was going to get it, she damaged a vital organ of mine before running away. Then her friends heard about it and came for round two. Now I want to finish what I started."

"Just you?" Ian asked, his blue eyes dancing with merriment and icy hope.

"Well you can al have a go if you want," he stated, "but I call dibs, plus ten quid that says she's still a virgin." The others laughed with him as they entered a large room. Hikari, who had slipped unconscious during the short walk (most likely due to a lack of food recently as she had not been eating), was tied to the bed after being removed of her clothes. The men then stepped back to look at their work.

"Now what?" Jamie asked.

"We wait," Ryo replied.

---

'Show me, Hikari, show me where you are,' Taichi mentally begged, his eyes closed as he sat in the darkened room with his fingers on his temples. 'Come on, sis, you can do it.'

"Help…"

The request was faint but he could make it out and he knew the voice instantly. Glancing over her saw a beaten and tired Hikari looking back at him. His room had been replaced by complete darkness and a nothingness hung around them like a quilt, but he didn't care. They were talking via what they called the 'Thoughtscape', a blank landscape (hence the name) where they could mentally communicate as if they were talking in person.

"Hikari!" he exclaimed, running over to her. She smiled weakly. "What happened? Where are you?"

"Tai, Ryo's back," she stated softly. "There are some things that I never told you that I should have, and I'm sorry for blowing up at you at the hospital. But Ryo's got me and I think he's going to…I think…" She let out a deep sigh. "Tai he's going to rape me."

Taichi snapped. No one did that to his family – or anyone he knew – and got away with it.

"Hikari, keep your mind open," he instructed. "I'll try and find you. I promise."

"I don't think you'll get here in time," she replied. "I think I'm in America, or somewhere in the UK. If you did manage to get here, you'd be far too late."

"I'll find you," he repeated. She smiled and was about to say something when her image started flickering like a bad TV signal.

"I'm waking up."

"Hikari, no!"

"I can't help it," she apologised, "he's bringing me round."

"You have to fight him."

"You think?" she asked, sarcasm in her voice. He wanted to reply, but she was already gone. And, with no one to connect to and his energies leaving him, he was thrown back into his physical body in the room he now shared with Mimi again.

He looked up to find his wife staring at him, leaning against the wall with her arms across her chest and her hazel eyes fixed on him.

"Explain."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

H-4-T: Well, slightly shorter than usual, but I hope it was good. I'm sorry if anyone is offended by the way I've used Ryo's name, but I just liked the name for the bad guy so it's nothing again the character.

Oh and the beginning of the next chapter may be a little more adult, involving – you guessed it – rape. I've limited the details though so I should be able to keep it a teen.

Well, R+R please!