Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon

I woke to the loud buzzing of my alarm clock. I lay there in bed for a minute or two before getting up, crossing the room and shutting it off. I opened my closet and pulled out my tie-dye Hilton Head t-shirt and favorite pair of khaki cargo shorts. I carried them the short distance to the bathroom down the hall and turned on the shower like I did every day before school. I took my time in the shower thinking about the dream I had just woken up from, it had all seemed so…so real. By the time I had dried off, dressed, and gone downstairs my mom was already packing our lunches for the day. I packed my backpack and clipped my lunch box to it before heading to door to the garage.

"Have a good day at school."

"I will Mom."

I caught the bus at the corner of my yard and as I climbed on something, or rather someone, caught my eye. Standing across the street was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. Despite the heat she wore a simple white long-sleeved shirt and pants. Her hair was straight, shoulder length, and light pink laced with occasional streaks of blonde and tinted purple around the end. Her skin was pale like the moon and she stared at me with her light orange eyes filled with worry and concern. I felt like I knew her, but…there was no way…this was the first time I had ever seen this woman in my life. My bus driver said good morning to me in her Louisiana accent like she did every school day. I was still confused about that woman and my dream so I didn't give my usual response.

"What's a matter hun?"

"Huh?" I said coming back to reality "Oh, it's…it's nothing."

"Mhm. Hun I've been drivin you to school for the past two years. I know when somethin's botherin you."

I gave a small smile "I had a crazy dream last night. The short version of it is that I was part Digimon, was living with the Rika Nonaka, hanging out with The Tamers, had supernatural powers, a sort of 'family group' that also had supernatural powers, and met the Digidestined."

"That is a pretty crazy dream."

"But that's not the weirdest thing. When I was getting on I saw a woman…she was beautiful. I've never seen her before in my life but… for some reason I feel like I know her..."

"Well for once, I don't know what to tell ya. I suppose the only thing I can say is since your head isn't sure, use your heart."

School for the most part was relatively normal and boring like it always was. Except in one class were my teacher was talking about an ancient legend. In the person in the legend had special powers and was able to awaken dormant powers in others. It was…interesting…to say the least, a bit confusing, but interesting. After school I rode with my friend to the nearby park where we held Cross Country practice.

During our warm-up I was thinking about my dream last night and the woman I saw this morning. One of my teammates asked if I was alright. I looked at him and then over his shoulder gaping at the person I saw behind him. Standing on the side walk, arms crossed, and still looking worried was the woman from this morning. She started walking off down the sidewalk. Ignoring my teammate's outrage at leaving I began to go after her, someone grabbed me but I shook them off and pushed past the others as they tried to get in my way. She somehow managed to stay a few feet away from me but why? Why did I know her?

"Onee-chan! Wait up!"

I don't know why I called her that but it seemed to do the trick because she stopped walking. I ran up and stood alongside her, breathing heavily as I caught my breath. She smirked slightly at my actions and crossed her arms behind her back while she waited on me. When I caught my breath I realized where we were and I gasped at the sheer distance we had traveled in such a short amount of time. We had made it to downtown Atlanta, but there was something…wrong with it.

"Do you remember who I am?" she asked in her gentle voice

I thought about it for a moment "You're…you're Dianamon…my older sister, my Onee-chan. Right?"

"Yes."

"Onee-chan, where are we?"

"Well, the simplest explanation is your subconscious."

"Meaning?"

She shrugged "You're asleep and this is simply a dream."

"So then…the 'dream' I had last night"

"was not a dream but real." She finished for me "You can remember it easily enough here. But there is something here, something keeping your memories locked away when you are awake."

"…How do I find this thing?"

She looked a little surprised "Just like that? No, asking me to prove it? No, demanding me if I'm lying?"

I shook my head "No, I figured out what's wrong with here in the city. Why it's not real." She raised a questioning eyebrow "It's not real, because a city…a real city, has people in it."

"Well, the first step is looking for something that's out of place."

I looked around. We were in Centennial Olympic Park, so why weren't there any water jets in the ground? More importantly, since when was it paved over with asphalt? If this subconscious dream world is based off of my memories, then it shouldn't be paved. I knelt down at the edge and glared at the asphalt. Then…it twitched.

It tied to surge away from me, too bad this was my dream world. A slab of stone wall fell in front of it, and then another and another till the three of us were surrounded by a high wall. A small circular portion of the black creature had remained in front of me, still connected to the main portion by a thin length. A single black eye opened on it and looked at me from the ground. I stared right back at it.

An eerie voice echoed through the world "Stay." It said "Stay and see what could have been."

The sky darkened to an odd purple. I held my right arm in front of me. It was plain and unscarred like it was before. I grinned, light appeared on it in patches as my scars reappeared. In an instant my body took on the same appearance as my Perfect Alt-form with some key differences. My wings were now larger and bird like and I had the same tail as when I was last awake. But the most significant difference was that I now had metal covering in the same place that Flamedramon had his armor minus my head. There were no claws sticking out of the metal but were it covered my hands and feet it looked like the basket of a claymore and the open ends had a grey ring around their rim.

My short hair had become longer and billowed behind me like my tail. I had semicircular metal bands in a few places: each one on my forearm, upper arm, quads, back, and three on the top of my tail one at the base, the middle, and near the end. The edges of the bands glowed a dull white. Fire and ice spiraled up my right arm and around my metal fist. I lifted it up.

"Not interested."

I smashed my fist down into the eye and fire and ice lanced through it and across the surface of the mass. It faded away into nothing as the ground and sky turned white. I let myself shift into my Kudamon form, my primary body. Hanging from my Holy Ring was a white card with a light green reading edge to it. In the middle of the card I could barely make out a gray ring surrounded by fire on one side and ice on the other.

"That was an interesting form."

"I think it's like a final form or a Mega level. I know that I normally won't be able to just jump straight to it."

I could sense Onee-chan nodding "Very true."

A swirling blue portal appeared in front of me "Before I go back there are two things I want to ask you."

"Ask away, Oto-chan."

"How are you able to be here?"

"The Gate of the Moon allows me…limited access to the world of people's dreams. And the other question?"

"Why don't you walk around dressed as a human more often?"

"It would draw the…improper, type of attention to me." She said with a smirk

I nodded and walked into the portal. I felt myself sort of falling. The blue light swirled around me and grew darker till it was black. I groaned as my eyes slowly came open. Suddenly the wall was flying by me and I became aware of the fact that someone was carrying me. I looked up and saw Sis in her Alt-form with relieve on her face looking down at me. I felt the white card that had appeared hanging from my Holy Ring in my dream sitting on my chest…my dream. My mind jumped back to the legend my teacher had spoken about and felt tears well up in my eyes and I started to cry.

"Brother, what's wrong?" she asked as we entered the family room where everyone, Tamers and Destined, was waiting

"It's my fault," I sobbed "If…if I hadn't come here…n-none of this would ha-have happened t-t-to you, H-H-Hikari-chan, or T-T-Takeru-c-c-chan."

They all looked at me puzzled "Oto-chan," Onee-chan spoke up "that legend said he awoke only powers that were dormant. The thing with dormancy is that it always comes to an end. This would have happened to them eventually even if you hadn't met them."

"Brother," Sis said in a quiet voice "I'm happy that this happened to me."

I slowly stopped crying as the full impact of what she said to me kicked in "You…you are?"

She nodded as did Hikari-chan and Takeru-chan. I looked around the room at the stunned and confused looks on everyone's faces. They had never seen me breakdown before. Not once in the short and trying time that I had been with them. I sniffed as the last of my tears stopped.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Three days." Jeri said "We were starting to worry about you."

"Whenever she was home Rikamon would refuse to leave your side unless absolutely necessary." Renamon said

I slowly climbed up and around Sis's neck letting my card hang over her shoulder "Yeah Rika-mon seemed really worried about you." Kazu joked only to have a small blue will-o-wisp thrown at his feet

"Only Mother is allowed to call me that." Sis said with a growl

"Calm down Sister Rika." Takeru-chan said "He's just trying to egg you on."

"Hey Takeru-chan, since I've been out for so long have you and Hikari-chan learned what you are Gatekeepers of yet?"

"We think it's a gate of Heaven."

I nodded "Based on her Alt-form that makes sense. If I had to guess I'd probably say it's one of the lower spheres of Heaven." Everyone looked at me in confusion, I sighed "Ever heard of Dante's Inferno?" a few the older Destined nodded "Well its part of a trilogy called the Divine Comedy. The last part of it is called Paradiso and is about Dante's journey through the nine Spheres of Heaven. I know that somehow, he got all his information regarding the Sphere's of Heaven right." Everyone looked a little stunned at that "Hey Sis, can we go outside? I'd like to see Takeru-chan's Alt-form. That is if he can use it."

He nodded and we went out into the garden. He crossed his arms and his clothes became a simple white robe and sandals while his wings spread out slightly behind him. I was rather impressed by the complexity of his change. There was someone clapping, someone in the tree. I young girl with greenish skin, violet eyes, and short brown hair wearing a light pink kimono hopped out of tree, followed by a pair of ravens one normal one albino.

"Rather impressive for a non-perfect form." The girl said "I told the two of you that he would be here." She pointed at me

"It seems you did not lie." The albino raven said in a heavy French accent

"We got lucky Joan, that's all there is to it." Said the other raven in a heavy British accent

"Richard must you be so pessimistic?"

"I'm still dreaming." I said face pawing "Onee-chan, you can forcibly wake me up by pouring water on me or something."

"I assure you Oto-chan, this is no dream I see and hear them as well."

"Um what are you two talking about?" Taichi asked

"Are you telling me you see a little girl in a pink kimono and two ravens one black and one white?"

"We see the two ravens but there's no girl." Koushiro said

"If you can see the girl, raise your hand." Onee-chan, Sis, Hikari-chan, and Takeru-chan raised their hands along with Sora and Yamato

The girl giggled "So we have five Gatekeepers and a pair of Seers. All though he is more like nature spirits. So that leaves the question of whether or not I should consider him family of my own. What do you think Richard?"

The black raven now identified as Richard grunted "Sakura, I think it is a decision for him to make. Especially since he is our new leader."

I cocked an eyebrow at him "Care to explain because this is news to me."

"As the current keeper of The Hub gate you are basically in charge of all the spirits in the world." Sakura said smiling

"Please tell me there's a way out of this job."

"You can die of old age. Trying to die any other way is just a waste of time." Richard said

I grimaced "So there's no way out and I can only die of old age. Terrific, that throws a wrench in plans for my second death being cool." Everyone who couldn't see Sakura looked very confused "Would someone please fill the others in on what's happening since they can't see or hear the bulk of the conversation."

Yamato gave the others a brief summary of what was going on "Since you're our new boss you should get acquainted with what we are." Sakura said

"And in the case of Joan and myself who we are." Richard said

"I am a dryad. You know a tree spirit. But I'm not really important." Sakura said

"I am King Richard the First of England. I have been acting as the Regent for the spirits of the British Isles since the last time we had a leader about 200 years ago."

"I am Joan of Arc, the current Regent for the spirits of France."

"Sakura is this tree yours?" she nodded "Then you're pretty important to me because I'm living in this house. That means you're the closest link I have to the rest of the spirits. But being called Leader sounds to old school, what do ya'll think about calling me Boss?"

"You're giving us a choice?" Joan asked

"Why not? I am in charge right?"

"Right Boss." The three said in unison causing Sis to giggle

"If I need to reach you how can I do that?"

"Just call and we will come to you as quickly as we can." Joan said

"Then spread the word to the other Regents on your way home. I don't want to deal with any little crap. If something really big happens let me know and I'll come deal with it. But, for the most part I'll probably contact ya'll if I need help."

"Understood." Joan said

"And another thing, don't be so formal."

"Got it Boss." Richard said

"Then what are the two of you still doing here? Off ya go now." I said

Richard and Joan took off and flew away into the night sky leaving Sakura behind with us. I still had other questions but looking around I saw that everyone else looked pretty tired. I didn't want to deprive everyone of their sleep and based on the way they looked they needed it. Sis looked especially ragged, even though it was harder to notice in her Alt-form she seemed the most tired. I couldn't have that.

"Hey why don't you guys get some sleep. I've still got some questions I want to ask Sakura."

I hopped down from Sis's shoulders and waited for everyone to go inside before shifting into my animal like Alt-form. Sakura gaped at me for a few seconds before she realized what she was doing. Her mouth quickly snapped shut with an audible click. Her branches seemed to sway a little in what I assumed to be embarrassment based on her reddening face. I couldn't help but laugh at her actions, it was understandable since she had seen my imperfect Alt-form and seen me digivolve before. It was her first time seeing me in a Perfect Alt-form so her shock was kind of understandable.

"It's okay, this is only my second time using this form so I'm not entirely used to it."

"Oh…well, I…I can kind of relate to that."

I raised a nonexistent eyebrow "Can you explain what you mean?"

"It…it would be easier to show you." she said digging in the dirt with her foot "But," she hesitated "I've…I've been teased…by some of the other Dryads for this. I've always found humans to be so fascinating; I wanted to find a way to walk among them at some point. And I truly mean walk among them in such a way that they could see, speak to, and touch me."

As she spoke her body began to change. Her skin lost its green tint and became tan while her hair and eyes both became green. I smiled, but based on her reaction she couldn't tell by my face. I walked up to her slowly and concentrated on my human form and felt myself slowly shifting into it. I was standing directly in front of her as the last of skin took on its natural color.

I knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder "I think you've got a very special talent here. The others are just jealous of it. This human body of mine used to be my primary body but now a Kudamon is. But I have a question for you."

"Yes?"

"How far can you go from your tree when you're like this?"

"As long as I take a small clipping with me I can go all over the city. But maintaining this form requires a lot of my energy."

"Well then what do you say to a night on the town?" she gave me a confused but hopeful look "If you start getting tired you can use some of my energy, okay."

"Sure. But…"

"Yes?"

"You're clothes are different from what you wore on Monday."

I blinked and looked myself over, she was right; I wasn't wearing my school uniform. Instead I had on a grey matrix-esk trench coat with the collar standing up and blue and red belts. I had on a pair of dark blue jeans with a combat knife strap horizontally at the back to compliment my running shoes, and a red sleeveless shirt. Around my wrists were the same colored bracelets from my Kudamon form and around my neck was a loose fitting gray ring. My white card hung from a fine metal chain long enough for me to put it into an inside pocket of my coat.

I smiled "So it seems." I stood up "Now let's pick out a clipping before we talk the night away. Do you have any branch in particular you want the clipping from?" She pointed to one of the lower branches. "Is there anywhere special that you want to go?" I pulled out my knife and cut a small leaf covered twig off.

"Well, Shinjuku Central Park would be nice. I can talk to some of the other spirits and you can introduce yourself."

"We'll have to get you some more things to wear since people don't typically walk the streets in kimonos. All you have to do is pick out what you want to wear and I'll pay for it."

We left the house and went to a nearby clothes shop; needless to say we got a lot of strange looks on the way there. Sakura went through a lot of different clothes and styles before settling on a pale yellow shirt and pink shorts. When it came time to pay I couldn't find my wallet so on a whim I swiped my white card through the credit card reader. For some reason that worked and judging by the look on the clerks he was just as surprised as me. The rest of the journey to the park was uneventful enough except for the odd question or two from Sakura about human culture. We were walking along one of the narrower paths when I noticed that she started breathing more heavily.

"What's wrong?"

"My energy is running out. I don't think I can keep this form much longer." I touched the clipping that she had in her hair and imagined it filling with energy; she breathed a sigh of relief as it glowed dimly.

"Thank you." she said a bit breathlessly

I gave her a smile that quickly turned into a grimace as I heard a sharp whistling in the air. I grabbed her with my left hand and brought her in front of me as I spun so my back was to the sound. The whistling became a sort of rustling sound as something slammed into my back. Something made of…wood? As it impacted I was faintly aware of the fact that it was being blocked by a concentrated area of flames causing it to splinter into burning strands that arced around in front of me. Once I felt it retreat my right hand went to the handle of my combat knife.

"Who is this human?" voices seemed to whisper from the trees

"A friend." Sakura said

"Lies." the trees seemed to shout back

"Your friends aren't very nice are they?"

"They're…they're not all my friends. Like I told you before a lot of them pick on me because of my fascination with humans."

I let go of my knife and took a step back from her shifting into my animal Alt-form "So who should I prune first?"

The whispering stopped as Sakura giggled at my joke. A girl the same age as Sakura with short light orange hair and crimson eyes in a dark green kimono hopped out of the tree in front of us. She gave a deep bow.

"I'm very sorry about what has happened." She said in a rather mature voice as she straightened up "My name is Maple. I saw you the other day when you came through The Hub. I did not know that you were a human that is why I attacked you when I saw you getting so close to Sakura."

"It's alright. I would have done the same thing. Now stop being so formal, there's no fun in formality."

"Unless you really spell it wrong." Maple said with a giggle as I shifted into my Kudamon form

"Well said." I hopped onto Sakura's shoulders and curled up "When you see me I'll probably look like this so don't hesitate to talk to me. For the most part I'm going to let the Regents continue to be in charge but if something big happens I'll take care of it. Would you be so kind as to help spread the word?"

"Sure, and again I'm sorry about…you know."

"Like I said don't worry about it. Now, is there anyone else here that I should be introduced to before we go back?"

The next twenty minutes was a flurry of activity with dryads, tanuki, bakeneko, a pair of oni, and surprisingly enough a kitsune, all introducing themselves to me. Most of the time was spent as a mass Q and A session with it going back and forth between me and them. I had a few problems to sort out right of the bat. First and foremost being no you are not allowed to eat humans no matter how tasty they look, but playing harmless pranks was okay. Second no harassing Digimon or humans with Digimon because the occasional Wild One or fanatic group does enough of that already. Lastly was that there is no super maid or anything of the like so they still need to make sure they pick up after themselves. With the Q and A session done I found that I had become quite tired, so after saying our goodbyes Sakura and I returned home. She promptly changed back and disappeared into her tree which I climbed up into and quickly found myself sleeping once again.

Hope ya'll like what I did there.
Now we start throwing in more of the supernatrual stuff. This chapter was originally going to have Alex, Hikari, and Takeru going to a sort of spirit club where everyone was basiclly partying. But I might do that in a later chapter.
Certain spirits will exist in both The Tamer's world and the Digidestined's world. Don't ask why just roll with it.

Later

^^;