Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Digital Manifest

Keepers

Chapter: 22/ Strange Visions

' Where am I?' Wondered Rika as she floated in the middle of what had to be the strangest place that she had ever seen, beyond anything that her experiences in the digital world had been. A kaleidoscope of colors assaulted her senses, and the strange shapes that floated around her, making her think of something belonging to a child, along with the feeling of weightlessness weren't helping things much either. Feeling disoriented Rika looked around her, gauging her surroundings in an attempt to make a guess as to where she was and hopefully find a portal. Heck, even a landmark would do but something about this place defied all common sense, not a piece of its landscape remained the same and it shifted constantly. A black squiggle shape suddenly morphed into a yellow block before Rika's eyes, and no sooner then it had done that it changed once again; this time becoming something akin to a lamp before transforming into a desk and then vanishing altogether.

Rika grimaced, not liking the situation that she found herself in not one bit, and the fact that she was floating in the middle of it all with no sense of direction at all to guide her left her feeling just slightly queasy. Nothing serious fortunately, as she had always been one to have a strong stomach and hadn't vomited once since she was sick as a little girl. Still, the way that this place was, how it changed and altered into such alien shapes and forms, even when they were familiar and with such rapidity, it had a way of unnerving her.

'That kind of thinking isn't going to help me get out of here,' thought Rika as she turned around, blowing strands of red hair out of her face as she did so. Her hair tie was missing. 'But…how did I end up here? The last thing that I remember was fighting that red colored copycat of Renamon and me and…Renamon!'

Looking around her, eyes wide with worry Rika realized that her vulpine partner was nowhere nearby. It left her feeling better knowing that she hadn't wound up in this strange place, but the knowledge that if she herself had ended up here without knowing how, then Renamon's location could be somewhere even more problematic. Unless that is she was still in Shinjuku in which case she'd be trying to find her wayward partner, but if she wasn't…

'Renamon will be fine,' thought Rika, spreading her arms in front of her and moving them as a swimmer would. Oddly enough, this motion provided the same momentum and direction as if she were actually swimming in water. 'She's always proven that she can handle herself…and so can I!' Rika smirked at that thought, though a feeling of worry still made itself known in the depths of her soul, more over Renamon's safety than that of her own. 'I just hope that wherever she is, she's in a far better position than I am. I hope that I find her soon…'

As Rika continued to swim through the strange place filled with its constantly changing shapes and colors, Rika noted that there was something about it that looked oddly familiar to her even though she had never been here before.

'Could almost swear that I've seen this place before…but where? I never saw anything like this in the digital world and D-Reaper was all a bunch of cables and masses of red blobs.'

As Rika racked her brains for anything that might give her a clue as to why she felt as though this place were familiar, a laugh suddenly rang out on the air, causing the red headed Tamer to draw up and halt her progress, checking her surroundings for the source of the sound.

'Now I know that sounded familiar,' thought Rika as she listened carefully to the echoes, gauging their distance and direction. A second later she chose a direction and began swimming once again.

After a few minutes Rika began to hear more noises replacing the laughter; new voices, and shouts of defiance, each sounding strangely familiar, and growing increasingly so as she drew nearer. Finally figures appeared in her sight and Rika narrowed her eyes, trying to get a clearer view of them. There appeared to be about a dozen or so of them, some of them were quite large while others were little more than the size of children though even their size appeared to vary. It was hard to tell for sure from this distance. However, the much larger forms she didn't need to be close to know that they were not human. In fact, she had an idea…no; she knew what they were. Especially the really large one. She wasn't close enough to see any details, but she recognized the general outline easily enough. Large body frame, two spheres on its shoulders, great demonic wings that looked like a shell, a whip like tail flowing behind it, and a gray colored, plated body armor along with a purple, beak like apparatus attached to its vaguely humanoid face.

Yes. She knew precisely what the larger figures were. Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

'Digimon…'

The large, demonic entity was fighting what looked like a humanoid, blue colored dragon. Even now, the dragon crossed its arms as power focused in the center of its chest, and an azure aura surrounded its body as well.

"Vee Laser!"

The beam shot out of the dragon's chest and smashed into its opponent with tremendous strength, driving it backwards as it struggled against the strength of the blast.

'I don't believe it,' thought Rika, knowing what she was seeing but not at all understanding why she was seeing it at all, or if it was even real to begin with. It shouldn't be! But time had proven to her that digimon were real despite being a game in her world. Even so, that didn't explain what she was seeing. As Rika continued to watch the battle she was slowly becoming overcome with the feeling that there was something else going on here. Something else was watching this battle play out with her. No…there was more than just a something. More like something's. A whole lot of them. Shapes and shadows played at the edges of her vision, but whenever she tried to focus on them they were gone. She knew they were there though. And that it wasn't her imagination playing with her. She felt them. They exuded a presence all around her that was impossible to deny. Power beat upon the air like a living entity, gnashing its teeth and whispering, curious about what was going on.

"What is this?" A voice spoke from out of nowhere, unknowingly echoing Rika's own thoughts exactly.

"What are they?" Spoke up another.

Rika's mind was awhirl with confusion. She had no idea what was going on, and everything that she was seeing…experiencing! It was threatening to overload her senses. Whatever it was that was here with her…with her and the figures that were battling it out in front of her. It was beyond anything that she had ever known! It made her feel so small…unimportant. It was as though she were an insect that would get stepped on if she weren't too careful in this place…

There was an explosion in front of her, and Rika's eyes were drawn back to the battle. Only…there was something in front of her, impeding her vision. It looked like…Rika frowned.

'A white fox?'

The cream colored vulpine smiled at her, vulpine eyes sparkling in this strange place where dreams came to life and thoughts had power.

'Hold on,' thought Rika, trying to grasp that last thought, but was interrupted when the fox spoke to her.

"This is where it all began," the fox said calmly. "This is where our revelation began…and with it our salvation."

And that was when the world suddenly dissolved into a glaring, blinding white light.

"Uh!" Rika felt as though she had just been jolted, her eyes springing open as she sat up, startling the group of people that was gathered around her. Blinking her eyes in confusion Rika took a look around her, trying to find her bearings. Yamaki, Henry, Terriermon, Renamon, and Jeri were with her and she was…Rika frowned as she took in the layout of the bed that she found herself in. The sheets were of a light color, two cage like guards were set up on her side to prevent her from falling out of bed, and a remote control like device was connected to the side. A thought occurred to the red haired girl.

Am I in a hospital?

Glancing down Rika found that her day clothes had been replaced by what looked like a plain blue colored t-shirt, however a slight shifting of her legs beneath the blanket told her that it was a hospital gown.

Oh terrific, thought Rika in slight annoyance but discarded the thought as quickly as it had come. This was not the time for such things…

Renamon placed a paw on Rika's shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze while across from her Jeri beamed with relief.

"Welcome back!"

"You had us worried there," said Henry with a small smile while on his shoulder Terriermon giggled as he placed a paw on his mouth.

"Not me," the dog bunny spoke up. "She's too stubborn. In fact," Terriermon leaned back a little and placed his paws on the back of his head. "I'm pretty sure that she could put a coma into a coma. Well…that is if a coma were a person."

True to form, engrained into him by months of having to live in Terriermon's company and putting up with his jokes, Henry opened his mouth to scold his partner, only to stop as he processed what Terriermon had said in an attempt to decide whether or not his partner was making a joke at Rika's expense or complimenting her tenacity.

Probably both, thought Henry as he felt his brain lock itself into a contradiction.

"Rika, are you all right?" Prompted Renamon from by her Tamer's side. Rika gave a small smile; glad to see that aside from some ruffled fur Renamon was otherwise all right.

"Yeah, I guess so. Aside from a few weird dreams and a major headache I'm fine. Someone care to fill me in on what happened?"

Henry was about to reply when Yamaki took this moment to enter the conversation.

"The Tamer Ryan entered Hypnos and had informed us that there had been a bio-emergence. He accompanied Henry to the scene of the battle and joined with Ms. Katou, Kazu, and Kenta where they found you, Takato, Ryo…"

"Hold on," interrupted Rika as memories began to come back to her. One memory in particular involved a crimson-garbed Sakuyamon tearing Takato out of the armored form of Gallantmon as he was mode changing. "How's Takato? He…"

Dreamer…

Rika halted in her sentence as that word entered her mind, making her blink reflexively and wonder just where it was that word had come from. Yamaki, unaware of this, merely took her lapse in attention as an excuse to take the conversation from there.

"He's in a room next door. Kazu and Kenta are in there with him right now. He's presently unconscious and unable to communicate at the moment but the doctors assure me that he'll be fine. They're keeping him overnight however to make sure that he stays that way. He wasn't in that good of a condition when the others found you…"

Rika nodded in understanding.

"I don't doubt that. He…"

Yamaki raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, Rika?"

Rika frowned as she thought back to the battle, trying to get a more accurate idea as to what it was that had happened there. For some reason she found it harder to concentrate on that particular memory the closer she got to the defeat of the digimon.

"There was something weird about that digimon. It did something to Takato in that fight when he was about to mode change. It…separated him from Guilmon."

Now Yamaki's other eyebrow joined its partner in arching in surprise while Henry and Terriermon mimicked the blonde haired head of Hypnos. Rika heard Jeri's gasp. Rika winced.

Sorry Jeri.

"I see," said Yamaki. "Well, he's presently out of danger and the doctors report that was filed indicated that he was going to be fine. I'm having the digimon that were defeated in that battle analyzed to make sure that they're also fine. I'll have my people take the time to look Takato's partner over a little more just to make sure that there's no irreparable damage to his code…"

"That's the least you could do," muttered Terriermon from his spot on Henry's shoulder. Henry, in turn gave his partner a glare that silenced the little dog bunny. Rika turned to Jeri, who had a worried expression on her face and was rubbing her right arm unconsciously. No doubt she was worried about the Gogglehead. Come to think of it, she was too. It wasn't everyday that you saw one of your closest friends get forcibly ripped out of his partner's Mega form like that. Just hearing it probably wasn't any better either, but Yamaki did have to know what had happened.

At least Takato's going to be okay, thought Rika with a sense of relief in her mind. Reaching over Rika clasped a hand onto Jeri's shoulder and gave a small smile.

"Don't worry about him. Takato's tough. He'll be fine just like Yamaki said. Don't let it worry you too much, okay?"

Jeri smiled back at her friend, taking some measure of confidence from both Rika's words and gesture.

"Thanks Rika…"

"Don't mention it. Now why aren't you keeping an eye on him?" Rika's smile drew into a playful smirk as she tried to lift Jeri's spirits and get her to stop thinking any more negative thoughts as to the condition of her friend. "You never know what stupid thing he might do even when he's asleep. Especially if the dimwit duo is going to be there…"

Jeri's eyes widened slightly and a small blush crept onto the girl's cheeks.

"I…I just wanted to see if you were all right and…and Kazu and Kenta and Ryo were…"

Jeri stopped talking as understanding dawned in her eyes.

"Ah, go on!" Said Terriermon in between bursts of laughter. "You don't have to keep us company and I'm sure Yamaki wants to continue grilling Rika about that battle that she was in."

"W-well…" Jeri paused and glanced over at Rika, caught between the desire to stay and hear whatever else Rika had to say on the matter with checking up on Takato, although she was sure that he was still unconscious and would likely remain so for a good while. After a few minutes of indecision she finally settled on getting up. "Okay. I probably should check on Takato, if only to keep Kazu and Kenta out of trouble. I'm going to want to hear about the rest of this later though…"

"Count on it," said Yamaki as they watched the brunette exit the room. Yamaki turned back to Rika.

"Now. Since neither Takato, Ryo, or Chris have awakened…"

Rika raised an eyebrow before shrugging it off. They too had been caught in that red Sakuyamon's blast and unlike her hadn't been biomerged. Still, it was rather interesting that Yamaki didn't tell her that their condition was any different from Takato's. In fact, he didn't seem to be as concerned for them so there was a good chance that they weren't hurt all that badly.

Sure didn't feel like that would have been the case, thought Rika as she felt the ghosts of her own pains suffered from the battle. But then I was closer to ground zero…

Yamaki continued.

"…I'd like to hear what you have to say concerning the Wild One. Now according to Ryan your digivice didn't go off when it had emerged into the real world, and Hypnos sensors hadn't picked up anything specific…

Looks like this is going to be a long day, thought Rika as she cast her mind back through her memories for anything specific that stood out in her mind about that cerise colored Sakuyamon.

That evening Rika lay in the hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling, sensing the presence of her partner who was currently concealed within the room's shadows. Like the other Tamers who had been involved in the battle with that strange Sakuyamon from earlier that day she had been made to stay the night as a precaution. Not something that she was too happy about but she did understand it. That fight had taken quite a bit out of her, causing her to stumble a little when she had gotten up to go to the bathroom. Nothing serious (though it was something that she should have expected) so it was probably just as well that she took things easy for tonight. Her mother and grandmother had taken the news well…as well as any worried family members could take something like that she supposed. Her mother had certainly worried enough for both of them when she saw her later during regular visiting hours. Rika felt bad that she made her mother worry so much about her, but it was something that she had accepted as a part of her life. Her mother tried to be understanding of course, but that didn't change the fact that as her mother she was bound to worry about anything that happened to her daughter.

Any sane person would be worried, mused Rika as she turned on her side and looked out the window and into the star filled night, the moon's light casting shadows in her hospital room. I'd be worried if Mom wasn't. Grandma too.

Rika reflected on how much closer she and her mother had become since becoming a Tamer, how meeting Renamon had helped open back up to her after so long of simply existing together in the same house but not really knowing each other. Rika smiled slightly.

I'm glad that Mom has Tom to comfort her at a time like this, thought Rika before her mind shifted to the boy who currently slept in the room adjacent to her own. The one who had remained unconscious since arriving here.

I wonder how Takato's parents are taking this? I know that they showed up but I didn't exactly get a chance to meet with them today, what with me being in a separate room and everything.

Rika shifted beneath the blankets of her bed, this time facing away from the window, trying to find a position that was comfortable. For some reason she felt a growing sense of agitation as she thought of the clumsy Knight in Shining Armor that was her friend. And not just agitation. Worry as well. Which was only natural, but this, at least in Rika's mind, felt different.

There was something akin to a sense of urgency to that feeling of worry as well.

But he's fine, thought Rika, sounding as though she were trying to convince herself of that, only to fail miserably at it. Finally deciding to do something about that feeling Rika got up from the bed and quietly padded over to her room's door and opened it softly, stepping out into the hall. She stopped and listened carefully, extending her senses.

That's weird. Would've thought that Renamon would have shown up by now.

After a quick debate Rika decided against calling for her partner and simply walked over to the door to her immediate left, recalling that she had seen her friends go this route when they were checking in on Ryo, Chris, and Takato. Stopping in front of the room Rika reached out for the doorknob.

Don't they normally lock the rooms up at night? Rika's mind whispered but she didn't really listen to it. Instead her hand grasped the doorknob and turned it, opening the door with a soft click.

Guess someone was lazy today…

Rika stepped into the room, continuing to walk softly as she did so, closing the door softly behind her before moving forward. Passing Ryo's bed with a concerned look Rika came to a halt next to Takato and looked at him. He was breathing with slowly, and shallowly, his eyes moving beneath his closed eyelids, gripped as he was in the state of rapid eye movement that was normally called sleep.

Probably dreaming, thought Rika as a small smile crept onto her face. A faint memory whispered to her at the mention of that last word but she mostly ignored it. Almost unconsciously Rika raised her hand and brought it over to Takato's face, settling it gently on the top of his forehead where it sat for a moment, before moving over to caress his hair. A part of her wondered why she was doing that…why she was even here to begin with, but another part told her that it was somehow important that she see for herself how he was and to make sure that he was all right. There was something else too. Rika felt as though she were sensing something radiating from Takato. She couldn't quite tell for sure what it was but it felt…it felt…

As she mulled it over, Rika realized that the closest thing that she could use to describe what she was sensing was what she felt every time she merged with Renamon to become Sakuyamon, only to a far lesser extent. As though it were something that was dormant…sleeping if you would, but still active.

Suddenly a shadow fell over Takato's still form, causing Rika to look up in surprise, giving a small gasp as she saw the dark outline of a cloaked figure standing in front of the window, blocking the moon light that flooded into the room. Rika felt a chill go down her back as she caught the faintest hint of white beneath the dark hood that hid the entities face…and what appeared to be the outline of a human skull to go along with it. She was just about to summon Renamon and demand the identity of the intruder when the cloaked figure began to become transparent, and after a few seconds disappeared all together. Rika stood there for a moment, wondering if what she had seen was simply an illusion or if it had actually happened.

What was that?

No answer came to her in the silence of the room, but Rika quickly noticed one thing. That sense of urgency, agitation, and worry had vanished, and had been replaced with an overwhelming sense of relief. The feeling that she was getting from her contact with Takato was still there…and it had never ebbed once.

Good, Rika thought unknowingly to herself in a voice that wasn't entirely her own. The Dreamer is still safe…

Rika stroked Takato's hair one last time before carefully pulling away. Shaking her head in confusion Rika took one last look at Takato and then turned and left the room.

What was that all about? Rika wondered one last time as she reentered her room and headed over to her bed, her mind awhirl with confusion. Oddly enough however, she didn't feel as though her actions needed an explanation. At least, not to herself.

She didn't notice that her shadow's image had a fox like tail protruding from the edge of her hospital gown…

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