Stupid, annoying, papers and finals… So much delaying and distracting… School is evil and is trying to prevent me from writing. I'm sorry about the extremely long wait. I've been working on this in my free time, but I seem to be having less and less free time around this time of the year. Plus, my brain got dragged away again temporarily, but I yanked it back to this story finally.
I know some of you have been looking forward to this chapter. I hope it doesn't disappoint you. If nothing else, it will entertain me somewhat. The majority of the chapter goes over the same event, but from two very different viewpoints. One is mostly focused externally while the other is paying more attention to internal events (complete with lots of really long sections of flashbacks). Hope it isn't too confusing.
And, finally, you get a new chapter. Enjoy.
It was almost ready. A new, perfect body that he would use to destroy Willis was forming beneath the concealing and deadly mist-form of the Guardian program. He was already able to create low-level drones out of the material. The champions and ultimates were designed to be even more durable than his normal unusually-powerful forms and could actually remain intact against a mega's attack for a time. Of course, creating the numberous weak rookies and lower drones currently scurrying around was easier to mass produce and were intended to overwhelm in numbers instead of overpower. Besides, the small creatures were enough to deal with humans. Now, he was cutting back on producing Chrysalimon and Infermon in order to focus on the new mega form.
The number of megas attacking his drones was interesting. In addition to those individuals he had used to assist him, there were those strange digidestined who combined with their digimon. Instead of only three or four megas that he had assumed to encounter, he could detect twice as many of those combined megas. He would have to take that into account.
The DADP building, the central hub of the spreading blue fog, might currently limit his ability to spread upon the internet because of the isolated nature of the computer systems, but it also offered protection. With the type of planning that allowed him to survive his last encounter with the digidestined, he also decided to prepare a back-up plan. He would be ready in case the worst should happen and he was defeated. No one, not the digidestined, not the strange combining pairs, nor the human woman still inside the building would stop him. He would destroy everything in both worlds and he would personally destroy the boy who was rightfully his partner. He would not fail.
While the white avian digimon knew her partner was somewhere inside, she didn't know where exactly. The bird wanted to find her partner quickly and best way to accomplish that was, unfortunately, to split up.
"You know, I think we've been splitting up all day," grumbled Impmon. "We can't seem to go five minutes without our group growing smaller."
"But it isn't too bad this time," Ai pointed out. "She's just in another hallway. We're not really that far apart."
"If someone gets in trouble, it won't take long for help to show up," added Mako. "So we can rescue her."
Currently, the trio was creeping down a darkened hallway while avoiding the river of blue fog that ran down the middle. Whenever they encountered a doorway to an office, they would peer inside and find only another trickle of mist pouring out of the computer screens as if the piece of technology was bucket of water dumped on its side. If they had to cross the streams of blue fog, the rookie watched carefully as the young twins jumped over the obstacle. As they moved towards the center of the building and away from the limited light that made it through the covered windows, it grew darker and darker. Eventually, the virus was forced to light a small flame on his finger tip so they didn't accidentally stumble into the fog blindly.
"I'm not sure how much help that bird would be to us in a dangerous situation anyway," remarked the purple rookie. "At least, not until we find her kid. Maybe afterward, if she can digivolve, she'll be better back-up. Until then, we can take care of things ourselves. And even take care of her if she starts freaking out about something."
The young pair nodded in agreement, their eager expression illuminated by the flickering flame. The activation of their crest seemed to have boosted their confidence about everything. Impmon had to admit that having some new item of power available did appear to improve the odds.
Ai did momentarily frown, "But how old is her partner? Is she our age or like the big kids? What does she look like? What if we don't recognize her partner when we see her?"
"Munchkin, I think we'll know," grinned the virus teasingly. "There isn't exactly a surplus of people here so far, so she'll probably be the first kid we run into."
The girl was about to answer her partner, her expression twisted into one of amusement and mild indignity, but all three paused as they heard a faint scratching sound further down the hall. Frowning, Impmon increased the size of the portable fireball and illuminated the hallway further. A quick movement at the edge of the lit area confirmed the rookie's suspicion.
"More of those stupid Kuramon," he muttered. "They better stay out of our way."
The small, blue creature scrambled down another hallway, away from the trio and out of sight. The group relaxed slightly, not because they feared a single baby level digimon and were glad it was gone, but because it didn't look like they would have to deal with a new swarm of the creepy beings scurrying at them. Before they could start moving again, a pained squeal erupted from the direction the Kuramon vanished.
Debating mentally between investigating the sound or moving the twins away from it, Impmon quickly decided that looking into the situation would be a better idea as long as he kept the pair behind him. If some multi-headed monstrosity was slinking around the building, it was better to find out quickly. Carefully, he edged his way closer to the hallway junction. Undoubtedly, the glow from his fire was alerting whatever was with that Kuramon to their presence, but it was too late to fix that problem and he might need the flames momentarily.
Preparing himself for a possible fight, Impmon leapt around the corner and readied his attack. A second later, he felt his jaw drop in an undoubtedly comic fashion. Out of all the possible scenarios he could have considered, what he was actually seeing was not one he would have devised.
In addition to the Kuramon from earlier, he could see two more scampering around without any concern for the blue fog flowing down the middle of the hall. More startling was the fourth individual. Though her blond hair had nearly completely escaped from her earlier bun, Impmon could recognize the woman who'd been in the Kamiya household with his partners. Even in the flickering light, he could make out places on her clothes where she hadn't managed to remove the batter Mrs. Kamiya splattered across her before it stained the dark fabric. In her hand she held a length of computer cord that she was currently wielding like a whip against the three baby digimon while her other arm was held rigidly against her chest. It wasn't a skillful or even accurate display of fighting, but the woman was putting a lot of effort into her attempts to combat the Kuramon. The earlier squeal of pain gave proof that she did occasionally hit her mark. At no point did she get near the mist or the creatures themselves.
She glanced over at the rookie who was intruding on her fight. She didn't look relieved at the arrival of possible help or frightened of another possible enemy. The grey-eyed woman simply looked angry and determined. Which was perfectly fine with Impmon since he wasn't that happy with the person who tried to take his twins away anyway.
"Impmon, what is…?" whispered Ai, edging around the corner too. She stopped when she spotted the adult. "Uh-oh."
"Get away from that child," the woman snapped suddenly, whipping the cord sharply and successfully striking another Kuramon hard enough for it to squeak in pain. "I won't let you cause any more harm. Especially to innocent kids, digimon."
The rookie shot her a glare, "Are you completely stupid?" When she didn't receive an immediate response, he turned towards the closest baby digimon. "Badda Boom!" he announced, hurling his fireball before summoning another one to keep the area illuminated. His attack destroyed the Kuramon, shattering the creature into data. Turning his attention back to the now slightly-distracted-from-the-baby-digimon human, he continued, "I'm not going to hurt them or whatever is going on in your head. I'm not leaving them either, especially if they're somewhere this dangerous. Actually, you shouldn't be here either, toots."
Mako, edging into view and joining his sister, asked carefully, "We're looking for someone. Do you know if anyone else is here?"
"Don't bother, munchkin," the child's partner advised. "I doubt we'll get anything useful out of Ms. Crazy."
Right after the words left his mouth, he recognized that the woman was not in a joking mood at all. All of her attention suddenly focused completely on the purple rookie, ignoring the presence of the twins and the two Kuramon still present. Instead of the earlier general hatred, her glare described a very specific hatred and fury. She no longer just despised him for being a digimon or because of her belief of the danger he posed to his partners for some reason, but because of some new and stronger reason. Impmon briefly wondered if this woman was going to display a reaction of rage similar to Rika on her bad days.
"I am not crazy," she shrieked, snapping the cord in her hands like a whip again.
This time, it was in his direction instead of towards the remaining Kuramon. Her aim was still bad enough with her improvised weapon that he wasn't hit, but her fury-fueled attack towards him set the rookie's teeth on edge. The blond-haired lady was already fairly unpopular with him and she wasn't helping her case. The idea of letting some random digimon take her out or throwing a fairly large fireball at her head (or maybe tossing her out a window) was sounding much more appealing. On the other hand, the act of attacking her would only provide some mild enjoyment and wouldn't solve any of the bigger problems. Still, she seemed determined to express her current feelings fairly clearly and aggressively.
Continuing, she snarled, "How many times, from how many people, did I hear the accusations of insanity? One dream and my childhood becomes nothing but therapist, pills, and whispers and snickers from everyone. It was all fake and I know that, but that dream is still haunting me since no one will ever let me forget."
She jerked her electric cord again, coming close enough this time to make Impmon yank back instinctively and to urge his partners silently backwards. Her rant was only making a little sense, but he was beginning to think she was a little sensitive about being called "crazy." It also sounded as if she planned to unleash all her pent-up anger on him.
"I was fired, not because I failed at the job I was given, but because they could call me 'insane' and no one else would have to get in trouble if they blamed 'Little Crazy Tamiko Mizutani.' I was used by a monster to change my creation into a nightmare, turning me into a fool as well as the local lunatic. Memories of the stupid dream keep popping into my head. I know it is fake and I've spent so long trying to forget it…" She gave a wordless snarl and snapped the cord at one of the Kuramon. "It isn't real. It was never real. It's just a dream. This is reality. That was a lie. The place, the events, and everyone were fake. It isn't real. It isn't real and never was. It was a dream."
"Toots, if you're trying to prove you aren't crazier than Calumon on a sugar rush," remarked Impmon, eyeing the increasingly unstable-sounding woman, "you're not doing that great a job."
"Impmon, I think she's crying," whispered Ai, staring at the adult uneasily.
Even with the unreliable lighting, the purple rookie could make out a hint of angry tears in the corner of the woman's eyes. She jerked her improvised whip again, actually succeeding in landing a glancing strike on the closest Kuramon. The burning fury in her expression was dying down from the earlier raging flames to mere glowing embers. To replace the lost emotion, she seemed to be adopting a mixture which included the remaining anger, frustration, confusion, and despair. Unfortunately, her rant and general behavior up to this point made it difficult to tell if her array of emotions were directed towards him, the Kuramon, the world in general, or herself. Either way, she was expressing her negative feelings with violence against anyone in range.
"It was never real; never anything more than a dream. None of them existed," she recited stubbornly, her gaze staring unfocused away from Impmon and his partners. It was entirely possible she wasn't even aware of their presence anymore. She hadn't responded to his last words. The viral digimon began to consider the idea that she really was crazy and her mind had completely snapped. "This is reality. That was just a dream. I can't live in a fantasy, believing in something my mind invented that isn't true. It is fake." Her voice was becoming almost frantic, "Why can't I forget? Everything is dragging that dream back."
"Takato said he had a couple dreams come true," Mako mumbled, causing the lady's head to snap to attention at the child's voice. "He said he saw Rika and Renamon in one before he met them. Then, Rika told him to stop bringing up that weird dream. But he said it was proof dreams are important. Maybe your dream is important too."
She shook her head, "Not mine. It ruined my life and took forever to get past." She snapped her cord again in frustration, the improvised whip failing to come close to any target. "I was too stubborn to admit the impossibility and tried to convince people it was true when anyone could see it was fake. I can't go back to that. I have to remember what is real. I have to."
"Cutting Wind!" a semi-familiar voice announced before a sharp blast of air streaked by Impmon and the twins to strike one of the Kuramon. The jellyfish-like creature produced a pained squeak and shattered apart, seeming to exist in two separate halves before breaking into pure data. The speaker swiftly created another slicing gust of air directed towards the remaining baby digimon, shouting, "Cutting Wind!"
With the final Kuramon destroyed, the speaker glided into the illuminated section of hallway. The white avian rookie landed carefully, avoiding the mist, and stared at the woman anxiously. The feathered digimon cautiously studied the adult, her honey-golden eyes finally coming to rest on the blond-haired individual's face.
Slowly, almost timidly, the bird whispered, "Tammy?"
The jellyfish-contact lens hybrids, so similar to those that flooded the city a few months ago, had begun to start to bother her when she began ripping cords out of the computers in other offices. First, just one was after her. Trying to discourage it with one hand still semi-numb from the blue mist was a challenge, but she managed to pick up the technique for using her scavenged computer cord. As she progressed down the hall to other offices, another one of the one-eyed digimon showed up. By the time the third appeared, her efforts to move towards her final goal were essentially halted.
Fighting one-handed against three scurrying creatures in the nearly-complete darkness with a river of deadly fog flowing across the floor wasn't exactly an easy task. Some flickering idea or memory in her mind tried to suggest this wasn't the greatest challenge she'd ever faced, but that thought came from the dangerous realm of her brain where the pills and years of therapy banished the dream and everything connected to that event. The struggle to keep that part of her locked away was becoming harder and she knew that allowing a single thought connected to the dream to escape could open the floodgates.
She barely noticed, in her distracted state, the faint glow until its source rounded the corner. He was small and purple with bright green eyes she could almost recognize. He held a flame easily with his gloved hand and seemed to be staring at her oddly. When the child, Ai, rounded the corner, she realized the being was another form of the black-winged digimon whose arrival at the residence had resulted in her job being taken away, along with the lion-like creature and the armored reptile.
Tamiko Mizutani, seeing a child in danger because of a digimon, responded automatically and snapped an order at the purple monster to get away. She was met with a firm refusal. He destroyed one of the creepy jellyfish things and continued talking. Annoyed by the creature's presence, she tried to ignore his presence and to deal with remain creature who were actively trying to hinder her. She could attempt to rescue the twins after she gained control of the situation and handled the current crisis she helped create. But his voice suddenly caught her attention painfully.
"Don't bother, munchkin," the purple digimon advised Mako. "I doubt we'll get anything useful out of Ms. Crazy."
One word, so simple, sent jolting flashes of memories racing through her. They were real flashbacks of real events, but they were of hurtful events that were better off forgotten.
… "What are their names?" asked Kimiko. "If those kids were really there too, why don't you call them and invite them over?"
The grey-eyed girl blushed, "I don't know their last names. One of them might have mentioned it once, but most of us didn't. All I really know are their first names, so I can't look up their phone numbers."
Sighing, her friend put her hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry, but it can't be real. What you're talking about doesn't exist. It's a neat idea, but too strange to really occur. Even ignoring the most impossible stuff, there's the time issue. You're talking about stuff for months, but I saw you yesterday. Remember? You were showing me some tricks on the computer and you had to sneak out before Mom saw you since I'm not supposed to be on it anyway?"
"But it did happen. It was real. I'm not lying."
"Please, stop playing around like this," she begged. "I'm your friend, but you're starting to scare me. You're starting to sound crazy. Can't you pretend you never had this dream? It's silly to get this worked up over a dream like a baby when you're almost thirteen now."
"A real friend would believe me," she snapped, frustrated at the dark-haired girl's refusal to accept the new view on the world. "And I have a real one. She promised we'd see each other again too. So, if you think I'm a liar or crazy or something, you aren't really that loyal a friend."
"Tam…"
"No! I'm not listening to you. I've faced more than you can imagine. I've seen things that were incredible and terrifying. And when I tell my family or you, no one will listen. Unless you will accept what I'm saying is true, I'm not talking to you."…
… A group of teenage girls sat giggling across the cafeteria, occasionally glancing over that the blond one who sat alone with her lunch and her class notes. The group didn't even try to conceal that they were talking about her. They had learned about her going to a therapist due to a careless slip on her part. Now, the entire school knew. Already, the blond girl had to listen to the sharp little comments about how she was only a step away from becoming a crazed murderer and that she would probably start talking to voices in her head soon. Stubbornly, she ignored their remarks and focused on her math homework.
One of the girls sitting with the group, her black hair pulled back in a ponytail, was her old friend Kimi. She wasn't laughing with them, but she wasn't defending Tamiko either. She was just sitting there, listening to the jokes about the blond teenager's sanity. The only positive thing was that Kimi hadn't shared the story that caused the need for therapy. Why give the spiteful group more ammo? They wouldn't believe the truth and would just twist it to suit their needs. If Kimi didn't believe it, why would they? Her "real" friend would come soon anyway…
…The girl was curled up on her bed, trying to fight back tears. Kimi was having a sleepover and, for the first time since they met as little kids, she wasn't invited. This utterly proved that she was alone. She had no friends left and the knowledge hurt.
If only she had someone to talk to. Someone who understood and actually believed her. There was one person she could think of that she wanted to be there more than anyone. But she wasn't here.
"You promised," she wept quietly. "You promised that we'd see each other again. I know it was real. Wasn't it?"
It was getting harder to believe it was real the longer it took. Her faith was only earning her heartbreak and loneliness…
…He looked at her, his face fixed in a permanent expression of understanding concern as he peered through his glasses at the blond girl. He looked exactly how a therapist should. The way he portrayed pure professionalism and compassion for his patients was exactly what had won over her mother.
She hated him.
His soft voice, his constant understanding nods when she tried to explain that it was all true, and the quiet pity as she attempted to defend her position against his calm logic: all of them proved that he was willing to listen, but never to believe. His efforts, no matter how hard she resisted, were beginning to have an effect too. The way he pointed out the different problems with her story was making too much sense. It could be just a dream, right?
No. She promised. Even after all this time, Tamiko held onto that hope. They would see each other again.
"I think we need to try something else. We've been meeting for some time now and you seem to not be making much progress," he explained in that infuriatingly soothing voice. "You're having difficulty still separating dreams from reality and you're being particularly resistant to the idea that this delusion of ours could be anything except for pure fact."
"So, I'm delusional?" she glared slightly. "I know that's just another word for 'crazy,' but I'm not wrong. It was all real. All of them were real. And not just Riku, Jay, and the other kids. All of them."
He shook his head slowly, "Miss Mizutani, I don't think you're crazy at all." His tone was soothing and understanding, but she could see that he did think she was crazy. His obvious disbelief was one of the reasons she insisted he address her as formally as possible. He wasn't her friend and she wanted him to be aware of that. "You're just a little unwell. Your mind is stressed out. Being a teenager is hard. Grades, your social peers, teachers, and even your parents can all mount heavy burdens of stress on you. And everyone was disturbed by the events at the Highton View Terrace."
"The battle there, you mean?" she muttered.
"All of this can make a fantasy life more appealing," he continued, pretending not to hear her correction. The last time he tried to remind her of the "official" explanation for the destruction, he'd been met with a near explosion on her part as she insisted not only was it caused by a giant parrot and dinosaur fighting, but that she knew the reptile's name. Her reaction might have been a little excessive, but she felt the event could have been the final proof she needed to demonstrate she wasn't wrong and no one else seemed to have noticed the giant creatures fighting. It was frustrating. But, since he apparently didn't want a repeat performance, her therapist avoided that topic for the time being. "After experiencing a particularly vivid dream, you latched onto it. You subconsciously developed the events and characters in the dream until you created a perfect refuge from the stress. Unlike some patients who do this, you didn't try to live in your fantasy. You merely believed you were once there and contented yourself with the memory of your adventure. During the heightened stress of the Highton View Terrace event, you almost returned completely to your refuge and thought you saw characters from your dream."
She gave him a particularly angry glare, but remained silent. He'd explained this theory at various points in other sessions, but she generally ignored this as being nonsense. Her life may be stressful, but she also knew it wasn't just a dream. Even if it was taking years for her to keep that promise, Tamiko knew it had to be real. She couldn't have just imagined such an amazing place or such wonderful friends.
He began scribbling on a small notepad, "I think we should try some medication for a while. It will help keep you calm and help keep you from being overwhelmed with stress. In addition to this, we'll be working on less harmful ways of dealing with reality than delusions of imaginary places and people." He gave her a nauseating smile, "We'll get you better, Miss Mizutani. You'll be able to understand again that this is real and your dream was fake. There is no such thing as a dig…"…
…Sighing, Mr. Konishi pulled up an e-mail on his computer and hid the image of the destroyed living room. As Mizutani scanned the letter, key words caught her attention. The grey-haired man began to explain.
"This was sent not long after the digimon began their attack. It was a warning sent to all the Digidestined about DADP and instructing them to go into hiding. Someone also fixed it so it can't be easily traced to the source or the other receivers. The only reason we have it is because a parent in PAD found it on her son's computer and forwarded it to other PAD members, including some of our employees. The police are already receiving reports of missing kids. And if I don't take steps, they're going to blame us and try to shut us down."
A sense of deep foreboding began to form. She could tell something bad was about to occur. She could almost guess the next words that would come out of his mouth.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Mizutani. Someone must take the fall for this disaster and you've placed yourself in that position. We will explain to the media that it was your decision to take this rash and completely unwelcome action against the Kamiya family. You stole DADP resources, lied to personnel in order to fulfill your own agenda and acted on your personal vendetta against digimon," he described in a calm voice. "You have a history of mental health problems and apparently took on too much responsibility. The stress of your job at DADP, a company with a purely neutral stance on the topic of digimon, led to a re-emergence of your delusions and causing your actions. You will be relieved of your duties here and shall no longer be our employee. For your own good, of course. And finally, a full investigation of how you could have lost so much progress in your recovery of your mental health, and what else you might have done because of your problems, will be conducted. Do you understand?"…
She felt disconnected from her body. She wasn't in that hallway anymore, facing jellyfish-like digimon. She was in a whirlwind of anger in her mind. She wanted a target and that green-eyed creature would work.
"I am not crazy. How many times, from how many people, did I hear the accusations of insanity?" Her body was still moving, lashing out with her improvised weapon, but she was barely aware of it. "One dream and my childhood becomes nothing but therapist, pills, and whispers and snickers from everyone. It was all fake and I know that, but that dream is still haunting me since no one will ever let me forget. I was fired, not because I failed at the job I was given, but because they could call me 'insane' and no one else would have to get in trouble if they blamed 'Little Crazy Tamiko Mizutani.' I was used by a monster to change my creation into a nightmare, turning me into a fool as well as the local lunatic. Memories of the stupid dream keep popping into my head. I know it is fake and I've spent so long trying to forget it…"
She gave a wordless snarl and her arm gave another frustrated jerk. She was losing it. The memories of the dream were trying to press their way into her awareness. Each one was a potential crack that could break her shell of sanity. If she started believing them, she would be that poor delusional child again. Trying to fight back the tide of memories of something that never happened, she frantically recited to herself the truth.
"It isn't real. It was never real. It's just a dream. This is reality. That was a lie. The place, the events, and everyone were fake. It isn't real. It isn't real and never was. It was a dream."
…She was confused, disoriented by her new surroundings. She'd been at the computer and now she was in the middle of a forest. The trees towered above her, far taller than those in the park.
A tired groan caught her attention. Climbing off the ground was a boy close to her age. The most unusual trait about him was a pair of goggles with a green strap was strapped to his head.
Unable to stop herself, she asked bluntly, "Planning on going swimming?"
He jerked in surprised. Somehow his huge head of hair added to his expression of shock. Blinking slowly, he stared at her for a few minutes before taking a cautious step forward.
"Who are you? Where are we?"
She gave a shrug, "I don't know where we are. Your guess is as good as mine. I was at home and… now I'm here. What about you?"
"I was riding my bike home, passing an electronics store when…" he indicated our surroundings. "It was so weird. And you still haven't told me your name."
A new sound interrupted them. It was the type of branch-cracking, leaf-shaking noise that preceded the arrival of monsters in horror movies. Both of them froze and stared towards the source in fear. A strange creature stepped into view…
…The small group of kids was still watching the unusual beings they had met. None of them were certain of what to do about the other yet. When certain pairs met, the kid received a small electronic device. What it was and what it signified was a mystery. All they knew was that they were all strangers to one another and they were meeting beings from another world.
But the odd thing was that she could feel a connection to one of the odd creatures. It was like she'd found something essential to her life that she'd never even known was missing. The moment she saw that white-feathered being with the honey-golden eyes and that grey rectangle appeared in her hands, she felt complete…
…Around the nightly campfire, she cradled the drowsing little boy. She'd pulled off his hat and smoothed out his black hair. She'd never had siblings or ever baby-sat, but she'd essentially become Jay's substitute mother in the weeks since they arrived. His blue partner was lying on his back, snoring rather loudly. The little pest had been the first to nod off, but the kid hadn't been far behind.
Everyone else was curled up around the heat source, relaxing and enjoying the calm. Undoubtedly, some new crisis would arise in the morning, but that could wait a while. Soon, sleep would overcome them and they would join in on the snoring
She turned to look at her partner. The white-feathered creature was watching the sleeping boy and her. They were on watch for the first few hours, but that didn't mean they had to remain stiff with watchful dread of the things that crept through the night. They could handle anything that came their way.
For the moment, it didn't matter to the blond-haired girl that she was in another world, far from home. The fact this world was populated by beings far larger and more powerful than she wasn't important. As long as she had her partner and her friends, she could manage…
She was vaguely aware that someone was talking, but she didn't care. Her hand moved in another attack, but she barely noticed her actions. All her firm denial and determination concerning the dream was breaking. So many memories had reappeared in just the last day or two… And so many were occurring now. It was too hard to remind herself of the falsity of those events that were part of the dream. Even worse was the fact that the desire to remember which was reality and which was fantasy was weakening. She wanted these events to be true. She wanted those people to be real. Especially that golden-eyed one that seemed so important to her. Only years of practice kept her trying to retain her grasp on reality.
"It was never real; never anything more than a dream. None of them existed," she recited stubbornly, her gaze staring unfocused. "This is reality. That was just a dream. I can't live in a fantasy, believing in something my mind invented that isn't true. It is fake."
…"What a show-off," muttered the blue creature, shooting a glance at Ren and his partner who were galloping across the landscape.
"Hey, we'll race you," Hiro shouted, indicating his black-shelled friend. "I bet we can out do your acrobatics and still be faster. Just give us a second to change."
Ren, laughing as he rushed by on a blur of purple fur, shouted back, "Even flying, you can't win. But you're welcome to try."
"All of you guys are crazy," Jay's partner declared in disgust. "If you are our only hope, we're completely doomed."
The black-haired child reached over and took the hand of their spiky-haired leader. The young child gave him a questioning look and Riku smiled reassuringly.
"He's wrong. We can take on anyone and anything. Don't worry about it, Jay."…
…Fire and wind raged across the open field. Large monsters spat out deadly attacks against other beasts. The chaos and destruction mixed together in a frightening display of power.
Through it all, her eyes were locked on a single figure slashing her way through the opponents. The blond girl tugged her hat down more firmly on her head, unflinching at the proximity of the fight. Even the explosive fireball fired by one of her companions did not disturb her. She wasn't a stranger to these events anymore.
Still, she gripped her small piece of technology tightly. Jay was the closest to her currently and if they needed more power, he was the one she would be working with. They might need to digiv…
…"He might be bigger, stronger, smarter, and more deadly than us or anything we've run into before now," the goggle-wearing boy stated, giving every one of the kids and impossible beings a determined look. "But we're creative, adaptive, and too stubborn for our own good. And we can work as a team better than anyone while he's alone. If we've survived all this time on our own, we must be doing something right. If we can survive that little blue pest of Jay's," he jerked a thumb at a small creature that couldn't exist, but she knew that he was as real as the feathery being beside her, "then this creep will be back across the Wall of Fire in no time."
"Well, if I'm such a pest," the blue creature sneered, "I guess you don't need my help on the whole 'save everyone from evil' thing. I'll just start taking a few bets on the outcome, Riku. That way, I can hang out on the sidelines instead of getting my face pounded in."
"Oh, give up the 'don't care' routine," Hiro laughed. "We're all in this together. Saving the world: it's what we do. At least, when we're not having races, looking for our next meal, or testing our patience by dealing with you."
"You'll help us, right?" asked Jay quietly, looking at his partner hopefully.
Sighing dramatically, the little being grumbled, "Fine, I'm in. It's not like you'd be able to do anything without me."
The black-haired boy grabbed his blue partner, gave him a hug, ignored the protesting of his friend about the treatment, and remarked, "Thank you. I knew you would."…
…A group of men appeared not long after they won. They looked human, but they weren't really. They said they knew a way for the kids to go home. At first, it sounded like the best news they'd heard in a long time. But then they explained this would be good-bye.
Everyone was getting a little emotional about dividing apart. Even that annoying blue pest looked upset, though he was trying to be aloof. Jay, however, was being emotional enough for the both of them about the coming separation. He was clasping the small creature tightly and refusing to let go. For once, his partner wasn't complaining about being hugged.
The older boys were restraining themselves from reaching the nearly-crying state that Jay was in, but there was still quite a few hugs being exchanged. Riku trying to comfort his unusually large partner was especially distracting. Hiro was trying to treat the whole thing like a joke, like he didn't actually believe they'd somehow managed to find a way home, but he couldn't manage to get more than a half-hearted chuckle.
The blond girl wasn't even bothering to hide how upset she was by the idea of leaving. She was holding tightly to the creamy-white figure, crying softly into her feathery shoulder. The child knew her partner was crying too. The boys refused to cry about losing their friends because of some weird "male" thing that guys were taught early on: real men don't cry. Neither of the females was bound to that restraint.
She felt tears rolling down her face, "But I don't want to go home. What if we never see each other again?"
"I promise," a soft voice whispered. "We'll see each other again. You're my friend, Tam…"…
Her voice was becoming almost frantic as the memories kept coming, "Why can't I forget? Everything is dragging that dream back."
"Takato said he had a couple dreams come true," Mako mumbled, causing her head to snap to attention at the child's voice as it broke through the waves of dream-related images and memories. "He said he saw Rika and Renamon in one before he met them. Then, Rika told him to stop bringing up that weird dream. But he said it was proof dreams are important. Maybe your dream is important too."
She shook her head at the child's attempt to help, "Not mine. It ruined my life and took forever to get past." She snapped her cord again in frustration, the improvised whip failing to come close to any target. "I was too stubborn to admit the impossibility and tried to convince people it was true when anyone could see it was fake. I can't go back to that. I have to remember what is real. I have to."
Her mouth might be still trying to regain control of her mind, but her heart knew it was too late. She wanted the memories to be true. She could no longer press that part of her mind shut. She had to resign herself to more long sessions of therapy and bottles of pills that fogged up her brain in order to ever lock them away again. The delusions were winning again and she was on her way back to being "Little Crazy Tamiko Mizutani". Everything she had worked so hard to accomplish, everything she'd gone through to try and have a normal life, would be lost. She might still realize it was a dream, but her growing desire for it to true would soon overcome that knowledge.
"Cutting Wind!" a familiar voice announced before a sharp blast of air streaked by the purple digimon and the twins to strike one of the jellyfish things. It produced a pained squeak and shattered apart. Her mind wasn't on the creature's destruction, however. The voice, the soft and wonderful voice, and the words spoken were all too well known to her. But it was also impossible for her to be hearing it. The origin of the voice and words was her imagination; her delusional dream sparked by stress and a creative imagination. If she admitted that she'd just heard it, she would have to admit that it wasn't a dream. As if to prove that her senses weren't lying, the speaker created another gust of wind to destroy the remaining blue jellyfish, her sweet voice shouting, "Cutting Wind!"
She was afraid. Either she had fallen so far back into her past delusional state that she was actually reliving the dream… or it hadn't been a dream after all. Could she believe that or was it just her mind tricking her into insanity? Could those memories of a dream be real memories of real events?
The owner of the voice, the voice that she'd spent so much time believing to be fake, glided into view. Her appearance struck a chord in the blond woman's mind. Every hazy memory and not-quite-clear face that had been plaguing her lately began to sharpen. The creamy-white feathers and the honey-golden eyes were reflected upon the comforting presence of her dreams that she could never completely identify. Everything suddenly made sense. Her anger towards digimon, her instinct to keep that "electronic toy," the odd sense of familiarity when viewing the image of the pink bird digimon, and even her lack of fear in her current situation. It was as if someone had turned on a light and illuminated the darkened corners of her mind.
Slowly, almost timidly, the bird whispered, "Tammy?"
There it was. The name she'd stopped using as a child. No one called her Tammy anymore. It was a name she allowed only her true friends to call her and it had been years since there was anyone she was willing to call a friend. But this individual was her friend. She was more than just a friend too. They were partners. She was her missing half and she was back.
Throwing away every doubt, every sentence her therapist spoke in an effort to cure her, every shred of logic that she'd used to block out her childhood delusion and to be a normal person, the DigiDestined smiled, "Hatomon."
Man, that was a lot of work, but I couldn't stop. There wasn't a good stopping place before here. Oddly, the longer I go between update, the longer the chapter ends up being when I finally get to write.
Yes, they are finally back together. And, yes, you finally get to hear the bird's name. "Hatomon" came from the word "Hato" which is Japanese for 'dove" or "pigeon." She's my creation, as is Tamiko "Tammy" Mizutani.
I wanted to demonstrate how so many memories were hitting her rapidly and were essentially battering down her defenses. That was why Tammy's section was so much longer to tell than Impmon's half. All those years of medication, therapy, and general denial have just met the ultimate proof that she wasn't crazy.
I don't know if this ended up as good as I hoped, but it was definitely longer than I expected. Your feedback is deeply appreciated. Thanks.