The calls to the Digiworld are rare now. Which, Alicia thinks, is a really good thing because most of them aren't recovered from the entire drama regarding the Darkness Zone anyway. Especially her. It still haunts her dreams, the smothering sense of darkness surrounding her, no hope and pain pressing down against her. She wakes up screaming so many times that it makes her feel awful, Brie Bella having enough to deal with right now. But she's a good friend, she sits with Alicia and strokes her hair, whispering to her in a way that always makes Alicia think that whatever children Brie and Daniel may have in the future will be very lucky indeed.
Alicia dreads her first trip back to the Digiworld, only relaxing a bit when she realizes that they're called out to the data section, so they just need to travel a bit east of Luke's area until they find the spot on the digivice maps. Their digimon evolved to fly or run faster, they find themselves at the indicated trouble very quickly, frowning at the fog distorting the air in front of them. "What is that?" she asks, stepping towards it... as if being called to it, something encouraging her to reach out... touch it.
"Alicia, stop!" Miz snaps at her and it does help, her fingers freeze a few inches from the rippling energy. She turns to look at him and that's when it all goes wrong. His face twists in horror and he tries to run forward, stop her, but it's too late- the fog expands, engulfs her. She doesn't even have time to yelp before she disappears from sight.
-x
Alicia Fox. The world she finds herself in is dark. Quiet. But not like the Darkness Zone, this darkness feels... calm. Peaceful. Almost... beautiful. She whimpers and rolls over, finding herself not in an awful, dark zone, but a bright, lovely sparkling ball of a world. She tenses up when she hears footsteps and realizes she's separated once more from Palmon. Her tension escapes her, however, when she spots the creature lost in this world with her. He's tall, almost resembles Alberto's partner. For some reason his name comes to her although she'd never met him before in her entire life. "AncientGarurumon," she whispers.
His chuckle is warm. Gentle. "You remember," he says simply. He kneels in front of her and, although a small part of her wants to lean forward and allow him to touch her, she doesn't want to become something different. Something she's not, and never has been, and would prefer to never be again. But he seems so gentle, so loving, so she allows him to touch her, graze along some of the minor scars she's gotten as a wrestler over the years. "Miz has Shakamon," the wolf type digimon with human features tells her. "You have me." His fingers run through her hair and he smiles. "No worries, I'm not as rough with any tests I may put you through."
He rests his hand on her chest, closing his eyes. "You have done quite well with ridding yourself of the dark energy that filled you just a couple of short weeks ago. There's really very little I will need to do..." But he focuses anyway, ridding her body of the last vestiges of the energy, the strands of darkness wisping away, then disappearing into thin air. "When you were first kidnapped," he explains, some of the threads of energy harder to break apart than others, "dark energy was introduced into your system. Your body couldn't fight it. And thus I had to bring you to me, here." He smiles down at her. "As soon as I'm done, you'll be back to normal. I promise."
She stares at him, not understanding, until the light fades away and she feels... perfect. Better than she has in a long time! "This is not the last we will see of each other," AncientGarurumon promises her. "I just needed to handle it before it escalated any further. Now I will return you to your team." He leans forward and kisses her on the forehead. "Take good care of yourself and your fellow digidestined, Alicia. I will see you again soon."
All she can do is stand there and take his random soft touch against her forehead before he's gone and she's back with the others, trying to debate if she wants to tell them what happened. Ultimately, however, she realizes that she can't, not yet. So she stays quiet and finds some cheap excuse about a digimon lost in the fog who was causing problems in the mess but she was able to talk him down, promising that everything's fine.
When everyone believes her, she feels guilty and exhausted in this world. But she goes through the motions anyway, convinces them all of her story by adding a few random details. "I think everything's handled here then, Miz says. "Let's go home."
"Yes!" the four of them agree, Alicia gladly leading the way back to the digiport.
