Description:
'See how much family means to him" she says to the child like thing by her side. "He would not abandon us. He would fulfill his duty."
She drifts over to them, watching, unnoticed as Yamato and his brother wave good bye to the other siblings and the children part ways.
"We shall have him as a brother for you," She croons "Won't you like that my love? '
Yamato is being haunted by a mysterious nightmare that's more than it first appears to be. Before his friends and family figure how to help him overcome it, he may not make it.
Notes: So to those of you that know me, sorry for posting this instead of working on my numerous works in progress. They aren't forgotten but this past summer I decided to introduce my kids to the original Digimon as something to do together during quarantine since I loved it as a child. Then I found out about the 2020 reboot and Kizuna and needless to say I was smitten hard by the nostalgia bug. I turned to fic to ease my pain but alas, I couldn't find what I needed. So I wrote some.
This is set in season 02 but the 02 kids wont be making an appearance except perhaps cameos. Sorry.
All mistakes are mine. I tried to do my best to honor Japanese honorifics but im just learning so if i butchered anything please forgive me.
I have a 7 chapter backlog and intend to update every two weeks. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I've enjoyed writing it and if you do, drop me a word.
Enjoy
Prologue
" He's such a nice boy," she says, wistfully watching the four children again as they stand outside of a movie theater in downtown Odaiba. Having observed the children for weeks now, she's familiar with their names and relations, the places where they gather and the mannerisms that draws her attention to them each day.
She hears Yamato insists Taker zip up his winter coat before he catches a cold, while he stuffs his own hands in his pockets and hunches down against the chilly breeze. Taichi says something about the movie they've just seen and the other two boys erupt in laughter. Hikari makes a face and folds her arms, but it's clear she's not really offended.
A gust of wind knocks her hood off for the second time since leaving the theater and her brother directs her to stand closer to the building, out of the cold. Yamato makes a face at his younger brother about the coat again which he still hasn't fastened yet.
The winter evening lighting makes the children all appear unearthly and innocent; almost soft and collectable, but the auras that surround each of them, are bright and impenetrable. Still, she knows that will change as the night wears on.
"See how much family means to him" she says to the child like thing by her side. "He would not abandon us. He would fulfill his duty."
She drifts over to them, watching, unnoticed as Yamato and his brother wave good bye to the other siblings and the children part ways.
"We shall have him as a brother for you," She croons "Won't you like that my love?"
The young one nods without much enthusiasm, looking sullenly on as his mother circles the object of her obsession, "All will be well again, my dear. You shall have your due."
The child-thing watches the children passively. But when his mother begins to follow a pair of them down the mildly bustling street, he dutifully drifts along beside her.
"You know you don't actually have to walk me to my door, Onii-chan."
"I know" Yamato answers amiably "but it's on the way anyway and I want to."
Takeru sighs without much heat "I know you always want to look out for me, but really I'm ok and I really am old enough to look out for myself now."
"I know you are Takeru, but it doesn't stop me wanting to watch out for you. Doesn't mean you can't, I just like knowing is all. Ok? I know you're not a little kid anymore, I just worry sometimes." he looks earnestly at his little brother's face fearful of having offended him again but unable to completely relinquish the urge to protect him.
Takeru smiles and shrugs good naturedly "Ok, Onii-chan, just remember that you don't have to alright? Besides it goes both ways you know; sometimes you'll need me to take care of you."
Relieved, Yamato grins, stopping at the elevator in Takeru's building "You already do Teeks. You're a good brother."
"Good night Onii-chan," Takeru answers affectionately, stepping into the elevator "and thanks for the movie."
As Yamato waves good bye and makes his way the three extra blocks to his building , the mother-thing drifts persistently behind him, observing his interactions intently. When he reaches his door and pauses to lets himself in. She tenderly addresses the child-thing dutifully next to her again. "Leave me here, my love. I feel the apex of the night drawing close and my strength will be enough to overwhelm his. He is unusually strong but no matter, we will have him soon. Go back and replenish your strength and let Mother work, I will return shortly."
The small thing with his gray sallow translucent face and hollow black eyes, barely resembles a child. His clothes were obviously finely made at some point, but are rotten and torn throughout, his feet seem to not exist, fading to nothing somewhere about the ankles and his features are sharper and more hawkish than they should be with stringy damp hair plastered across his forehead. Altogether he looks every bit as lifeless and otherworldly as his mother, but without her maniacal and driven energy, all his movements embody the meaning of the word 'drifting'.
He nods, marginally more animated than he has been thus far, "Of course Mother" He responds.
He stays behind as she enters the home, rapidly becoming less substantial, until he seems to melt away into the frigid air.
"Gabumon I'm back" Yamato calls into the dark apartment, unconscious of the entity that has followed him in.
"Hello, Yamato," Gabumon enters the living area "How was your movie?"
"The movie was garbage," Yamato laughs, "but we had fun anyway." He hangs up his coat and takes off his boots by the door, roaming into the kitchen in his sock feet.
"What do you mean it was garbage?" Gabumon asks curiously
"Oh, I just mean it made no sense and wasn't at all believable," he answers rummaging through the fridge without success "Hey, you hungry?"
"Oh yes," Gabumon enthusiastically pulls out a chair at the small table the three of them eat and hopping up onto it . "Unfortunately the leftovers Mr. Ishida mentioned leaving for me were not at all tasty, I much prefer your cooking."
Yamato has a good laugh "Yeah, Dad isn't the best cook." He agrees when he recovers "How about some gyudon?" he offers . He grabs a skillet from the shelf and sets rice to cook.
"Sounds lovely" Gabumon answers
"Okay, grub will be up in about 20 minutes" Yamato announces getting busy.
The mother thing watches the strange creature wonder around seeming to look for something while it waits to eat. She wonders if it can somehow sense her presence. She does feel a slight discomfort when near it, but as the minutes pass, she can feel the drain on her power from being near the veil of this world lessen and she is delighted to see that the pesky blue aura around the child, has thinned considerably. The creature doesn't matter even if it can sense her, she decides turning away from it.
She floats over to where the child is stir frying beef, oblivious to her presence as usual, yet for the moment still untouchable. It would have been easier, she supposes, to have targeted one of the myriad of other flesh and blood humans roaming about in this world, but most of them are almost completely closed off to her. So much so, that she has to concentrate to even see them properly. It's exhausting and fruitless. But this child and his brother and the companions they spend their time with, are all so bright and visible that she can almost smell and taste them. She has watched them for some time now, her current existence being as dull as it is. But it wasn't until about a week ago that she decided she would procure this one as a replacement long overdue.
She realizes they must all be special in some way, for someone like her; from the realm of the dead, to be able to observe them so. There could be no better addition to her family.
She smiles at him, "You will fit in nicely."
"We should do something together, tomorrow" Yamato announces thoughtfully "we haven't hung out much lately."
"That sounds excellent," Gabumon agrees "Maybe we could go fishing, we both really like that."
"Yeah I do like fishing but it's a bit too cold for that. Maybe I could bring you to the studio."
"That sounds great." Gabumon grins
When they finish eating a few minutes later, Yamato tosses his dishes in the sink. "Let's leave the dishes until later," He suggests " I have a bit of studying to do any way."
"Wow, Yamato" Gabumon exclaims depositing his dish in the sink as well "You sound like Jou, I'm impressed."
"Not that much studying Gabumon"
Gabumon snickers quietly as Yamato stuffs the leftovers in the fridge and writes a note to his Dad about them.
"I just need to go over this math a bit more so I don't flunk is all" He explains as they retreat into his bedroom.
"Sure," Gabumon teases
Not a lot of studying actually happens and eventually Yamato gives up the pretense and they have fun until its late. Then Yamato check the doors and windows as he always does before turning in to bed. The mother thing finds it cute that they think they will be safe from anything malevolent with such simple measures. She follows the child tauntingly close, noticing how he's beginning to feel her deathly chill, shivering as he passes her, but still he cannot hear her voice.
As he settles down into bed for the night, she knows it will be at least two more hours before she is powerful enough to pierce through his protection. But she can be a very patient creature.
When the zenith of the night is accomplished, bringing her realm and the realm of the humans together so closely that they nearly overlap, she surges from her world fully into his and enshrouds him, taking hold of his soul to bring it back with hers. Then the work of securing it will begin.
The child only slightly struggles as the darkness increases around him neither does he wake. There is no one to see, as his creature is asleep as well and when his heart beat suddenly quickens in fear, she know he has tasted of the shadowy hell she has had to inhabited for the past twenty years since her death.
The sensation of falling comes out of nowhere. Yamato doesn't recall doing anything at all prior to this. He just suddenly finds himself hurtling towards the ground in a void black space until, without warning, he slams into what feels like a bundle of leaves, twigs and moss. He opens his eyes to see his surroundings but it's so impossibly dark, that he can't see anything but a hazy grayness in the distance.
He sits up achily, looking in all directions for any clue to where he is, but nothing makes sense in the dark. Suddenly, something large and furry scurries over his hand and he yanks it back scrambling to a standing position. He feels mildly dizzy once he's standing so he instinctively stretches out his hand to keep from falling again and ends up grabbing hold of a tree trunk.
Realizing that he must be in a forest of some sort, he looks up to what should be the canopy. The tree tops are almost impenetrable with only specks of dark gray light filtering through. He wonders how he could have fallen through that with no sign left behind whatsoever.
After a second longer, his head stops spinning and he takes a tentative step forward. His eyes seem to grow accustomed to the dark and he can begin to make out the silhouette of the trees around him.
The world around him is eerily silent yet feels so oddly real that he's not completely sure if he's dreaming or not, he's afraid to think too much on that, in case it isn't a dream.
He walks forward a bit and calls out for Gabumon tentatively, afraid to break the silence, but there's no answer.
When he emerges from the trees, the dim, sad light is slightly stronger and he can more clearly see where he is, but he isn't completely sure that's a good thing.
Around him is nothing but haphazard chaos. It reminds him of the first time they went to the digital world, and would often find random structures in places that made no sense, but this is so much worse.
Every visible surface is black and the sky is an unending gray. Beyond the relative protection of the trees behind him, a silent freezing rain is falling making every surface cold and wet. There are all manner of abandoned debris everywhere; ladders stuffed into the ground leading to nothing, overturned and rotting cars, kitchen tables and children's toys and clothes and dishes, strewn about the soggy ground as far as the eye can see. In the distance are giant rotating gears that reach up to the sky with weird platforms and levers protruding from them.
And worst of all, is a sense of being watched and a feeling of impending doom, along with the moving shadows that seem to suggest something is just out of the corner of his eyes yet never actually there when he looks.
He trudges along in the biting rain, calling Gabumon and hugging his arms around himself to stave off the cold.
He can't describe how creeped out he is and he wishes he could just wake up. Gabumon doesn't answer and by now Yamato is soaked through. The landscape is endless and doesn't really change except he has now noticed more sinister debris lying about; large bones and beartraps and giant insects parts. He diligently watches his step to keep from getting caught as he walks along pointlessly in the general direction of the gears.
He stops calling Gabumon after a little while, he doesn't think he's in this awful world nor does he want him to be. On the other hand he really wishes he weren't alone right now.
After what feels like days, while at the same time feels no longer than a few minutes, he finds himself in what probably used to be a walled garden. It doesn't make sense how he's gotten here but it seems he's either lost time or the world changes like a channel around him.
The walls are covered in vines and ivy and there are twisting paths that lead further in to the garden with patches of gray grass on either side of them.
To the left of one of these paths close to him, he notices a woman sitting on a bench. Her clothes are tattered, muddy and black like everything else in the forsaken place, yet fancy in some way. Her hands are a light grey while her hair is a straight pitch black curtain. Both are hiding her face and she seems to be sobbing into them; her shoulders are hunched over and shaking.
She and her surroundings seem to have appeared out of nowhere and Yamato suddenly realizes he can hear her as well although everything has been silent so far. He can't say with certainty that sound only just appeared though. His mind feels fuzzy and he can't fully trust his senses. She may have been crying all this time.
"Hey, are you trapped here too?" he asks after a moment , but she doesn't acknowledge him at all.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" He cautiously walks up to her and calls again,
"Hey, hey, you're not alone anymore." He tries "Come on, maybe we can help each other."
She still doesn't stop or answer and he begins to think she can't hear him, when he realizes she isn't just crying, she's mumbling something as well.
"What's wrong," he raises his voice. "I can't hear what you're saying"
"He's gone" she seems to answer
"Whose gone?" he asks more gently
"My son" she sobs louder "he's gone."
Yamato takes pity on her while still trying to shake the feeling that something is off. If only he didn't feel so loopy he could know for sure.
Despite the feeling, he decides it must be horrible to lose anyone in a place like this if that indeed happen. In either case, its possible she may know something he doesn't about this place.
"Did you and your son get transported here like me?" he asks more urgently
"He's been gone so long," she sobs "So, so long."
She puts a strange emphasis on the word 'He' and Yamato is confused and frightened without knowing why. "I don't understand, have you been here a long time? Has your son been here in this world for a long time?"
She doesn't answer for a long time even when he asks again and still her face remains buried in her hands
Then out of nowhere, she asks, "Will you be my son?"
"Huh?" Yamato takes a few steps back surprised. Something really isn't right here, But he just doesn't know what yet. "No, you have to find your son, I can't replace him." He explains cautiously
He wonders not for the first time what he has stumbled upon and why he can't seem to just wake up.
"My son!" She wails louder "He has no one, no brother to look out for him, he's all alone."
Yamato isn't sure what to say anymore, he feels badly for her and her son, but he really, really just wants to go home and she doesn't seem to be making a lot of sense either.
"I'm sorry about your son miss," he says politely "But I don't know where he is," he finishes awkwardly. He wants to get away from her because …. He doesn't know why, but he just wants out of there.
"Would you hold my hand?" she asks instead.
"Um I'm sorry," he begins, backing away again, but she cuts in
"Please hold my hand, I'm so alone in this place and you're such a nice boy. Please."
She still hasn't moved her hands from her face and Yamato is starting to be really certain that he should not touch her. "No miss, I have to go," he begins to turn to go.
She suddenly looks up at him with large, red frightening eyes "Why not?"
He's momentarily speechlessly frightened at the look of her. "Because I just cant" he answers fearfully. He simply knows now that he should get away from her as fast as possible.
"He'll come for you if you don't." She argues darkly
Yamato pauses in his retreat "Who will come?" He gets the feeling she isn't talking about her son anymore.
"Just He."
Yamato suddenly feels as though he's been drenched with a bucket of ice water. The sense of dread that's been constantly present, starts screaming at him. At the same time he hears a demonic gurgle from behind him.
He whips around only to find nothing there.
"You should just hold my hand. It's not a hard thing to do and if you don't He will rip you up."
Yamato turns back to her in dismay, but he is even more sure that he shouldn't touch her.
"He's almost here." She says in a sing song tone when he still doesn't obey.
Yamato tries to run but he can't move. He tries to turn but something is holding him firmly in place. The gurgling sound has become louder and a shadow is moving across the walls of the dilapidated garden at a dizzying speed.
"No!" Yamato screams fighting against the invisible restraint.
"Now your bones will be everywhere too." She says matter of factly "All because you wouldn't listen."
"No!"
The shadow slowly starts to coalesce into dark mass of wickedness in front of him. But the woman has disappeared.
Yamato begins to scream uncontrollably for Gabumon and just as a horrible black claw emerges from the darkness to strike him, he wakes up.
"Gabumon!" Yamato screams rocketing out of bed. "Gabumon!" he can't gather his bearings and he's not sure where he is. The darkness of his room isn't helping matters nor can he see Gabumon anywhere, so for an agonizing few seconds he can't be sure if it got him or not.
Gabumon touches his shoulder and calls him. Yamato flinches violently before he realizes who it is and that his partner has called his name for the third time now.
"I'm here Yamato, I'm here, what's wrong?" Gabumon has never seen Yamato so frightened before.
"It was so real," he whispers "I thought… I mean it felt like…"
"Are you alright Yamato," Gabumon insists worriedly
"It was so real, Gabumon" Yamato finally looks at him but doesn't seem to hear his question. "It didn't feel like a dream, it felt like I was there."
Gabumon notices that he's trembling and he's very, very cold to the touch.
"Yamato, what happened?"
"There was this horrible, black, cold, wet, place and a woman was crying but… something was wrong about her," He runs his hands through his hair in agitation "I wouldn't help her and she made this demonic thing, this horrible, terrible thing…." He pauses and shivers violently "It was going to kill me horrendously Gabumon and I couldn't move."
"It's ok Yamato, you're alright now," Gabumon urges him "It can't get you, I'm here. I'll protect you."
"I hope you never see it Gabumon" Yamato declares vehemently, staring at his clenched fists "I hope it was just a dream and you never see that horrible thing."
"I'll keep you safe from anything Yamato, " Gabumon insists "No matter how terrifying."
Yamato hugs him close for a long moment before laying down again somewhat apprehensively. Gabumon settles down next to him.
"Don't worry Yamato, I'm not going anywhere," Gabumon declares determinedly
"Thanks, Gabumon,"
The mother- thing watches them in frustration for over an hour before the child finally succumbs to sleep and even then the strange creature that protects him won't sleep.
"Stubborn child" she hisses venomously, watching how the creature surveys the room as though he knows there is a supernatural cause to the nightmare. "No matter," she smiles darkly, fading back into her own world again. "I will come every night until he is mine, and my beloved family will be whole again."
