For a minute - a really long minute - she just stares at him with the most shocked expression Takeru has ever seen, and he wonders if he's made a mistake. It's only a small memory he has, after all; what if he's got her mixed up with someone else?
She makes an odd sort of choking sound and suddenly, to his surprise she's crying.
"Takeru, you…you remember?"
He blinks. She is Hikari. He was right!
Poyomon is hopping up and down beside him, a constant poyopoyopoyopoyo in the background as he slowly nods.
"I think so? But, why are you crying? You said… said you wanted me to remember."
She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand and nods.
"I did, Takeru. It's just that I'd started to feel like you'd never come back. I know it was silly. I shouldn't have given up hope, especially-"
He stares at her, watching her talk but not hearing anything. All he can hear is the voice of the crying boy, saying 'Come back, Takeru,' and a high-pitched, shrill whining sound.
His head - no, his whole body feels really strange, as though something's been squeezing it all this time, and now it's stopped and he feels huge. Pins and needles race up his arms and legs, starting at his hands and feet and prickling so hard it feels like he's on fire. It's the burning dream turned real, and he screams and screams, because he can feel everything. The cold of the ground, and the little huffs of breeze going past him; the rub of his clothes against his skin and even his hair as it brushes against his head. It's as though he's been numb this whole time and suddenly he can feel again, and it's too much. It's utterly overwhelming: every nerve flooding his senses with a rush of information.
He's not sure when he closed his eyes, but suddenly he can feel the pressure of his eyelids squeezed tightly shut, and for a moment there's something else - a weight to his body which feels alien and not at the same time. His eyes flicker and there's a bright light above him - but then it's gone, and he's lying in a heap on the floor in the building and Hikari's shaking his shoulder, begging him to wake up.
The light has changed. It's dark outside the windows, and the dry, parched feeling in his throat is a lot worse. He opens his mouth to ask what happened, but instead of talking all he can do is cough and choke. Hikari helps him sit up, and offers him a cup of water, which he gulps down gratefully before stopping to wonder where she got it from.
"What happened?" he asks, looking around. He spots something wrong. "Where's Poyomon?"
Hikari looks over to somewhere behind him, and he turns around expecting to see his companion. He does not expect to see a small, white something-or-other with four legs and two longish ears.
"Takeru?" it says, and takes a faltering step towards him. Its face is a mask of worry.
His jaw drops, and for a split-second he panics - it's not Poyomon at all. Hard on the heels of that thought is a second one: No, of course it's not Poyomon. It's Tokomon.
Somehow, he's sure that Tokomon and Poyomon are the same friend. And with that knowledge comes another wave of fleeting memories, too many to take in all at once. But the overall feeling is that he's happy and relieved and excited, and…
Takeru's eyes go wide as one last memory settles over him. He's shouting at Tokomon, arguing with his closest friend and telling him to leave. Why would he do that? Why would he want Tokomon to go away?
Nothing makes any sense. Everything keeps changing, and now there are strange things happening in his head and Hikari is glad he's remembering them but he's not. Everything he's 'remembering' is bad and horrible and makes his head hurt and he doesn't want any of it. Especially because he still doesn't understand what's going on, or why he even has these memories. Aren't they looking for the boy? What has this got to do with anything? Why can't they just find him and let everything go back to normal?
He blinks, and feels tears spill over and roll down his cheeks. No, he mustn't cry. He doesn't want to be a crybaby…
Another memory hits him, catapulted into his head by the feeling of tears. A small bat-like creature talks loudly at him by a lake. He knows that lake, and not just because of the memory. He's seen it, seen it so recently that it hasn't even started to fade yet. They were there just that very morning, weren't they?
Half of him wants to insist this is all wrong, and that these new memories are just dreams, confusing him and scaring him because that's what dreams do. But they're starting to make a strange kind of sense - and he knows Hikari, and she say they met a long time ago. What if he hasn't always been at the cottage? What if there's a before?
If there is a before, and Hikari can remember it, why can't he? Why did he end up on his own?
A multitude of half-forgotten conversations with the man pepper his thoughts. "Can you really be happy in this place, all by yourself?" Takeru freezes. The man knows. He's known the whole time in fact, and never told Takeru anything.
Takeru feels as though the whole world is coming unglued. Everything is too different; it's all changing so fast and he still can't keep up. Why won't anything make sense? Each time he gets a memory it just makes him more confused and upset, and even staring at Tokomon isn't reassuring any more, because while he was certain that Poyomon had always been with him, he's just as sure that he hasn't always been with Tokomon. He's certain he was all alone, and that means he might be alone again, and right now he doesn't want to be alone ever.
He's shaking. His legs feel all wobbly and there's a floaty feeling in his head, and all he can think about is being alone, abandoned - and then suddenly he's not been abandoned at all, he's laughing and telling everyone to leave, that he doesn't need them or want them, and Hikari's there but she looks so different, all tall and sad and scared, and someone's laughing and he thinks its him but it sounds so wrong. And the tall, black creature he knows is Devimon looms over everyone, laughing as well. Black wings spread wide, and something shoots towards the others - familiar faces which he does but doesn't know.
Hikari screams at him to stop, and it takes him a moment to realise that it's not the strange Hikari he can see who's calling him - it's the real one, and he's still in the building in the city, standing in the doorway with Hikari clinging to his arm. It's dark outside, and the fog is so thick it's like a wall, and Tokomon is hanging off his other arm, gripping his shirt sleeve with sharp teeth.
He blinks, and the rush of fear and anger fades, taking the memories with them and turning them into a small, uneasy feeling in the back of his mind. They're not gone - not completely - but they're smaller now, and all he really feels is a little confused.
"What happened?" he asks, looking between Hikari and Tokomon. "Why are we all by the door? It's really dark outside, and pretty cold. We should find somewhere warm."
Hikari lets go of him and takes a step back. She's staring at him with the strangest, most worried look on his face. "Takeru, you…you kept screaming for us to go away," she says. "And then you started to walk over here, and I was worried you'd get lost, but you couldn't seem to hear me."
He stares blankly at her. "I did? So…it wasn't real?"
"What wasn't real?" she asks, as Tokomon lets go of his other arm and drops to the floor.
Without really thinking about it, Takeru crouches down and picks the little creature up, holding him comfortably in his arms as though it's something he does all the time. He's not really sure how to answer Hikari's question, and he's still hungry and a little dizzy, and that's making it really hard to think properly.
"Let's find somewhere to sleep," Hikari says after a minute. "I found the water in the kitchen, so I'm sure we'll be able to find food when it gets light again."
She doesn't sound very convinced, but Takeru is so tired that he doesn't argue. Besides. He's starting to feel like he's been hungry and lost before, and things must have worked out okay then. And if they worked out before, that means there's every chance they will again this time. It's a comforting thought, and one he holds on to while they walk through the building, looking for a room that has something soft in it.
They find a room with sofas and an armchair, and both pick one to sleep on. Tokomon curls up next to Takeru, and it feels so right that Takeru starts to smile. Maybe there are good things for him to remember, and he just has to find them. For the first time since the boy vanished, he finds himself drifting off to sleep in a good mood.
He's burning, burning inside - heat racing through him, setting every part of him alight with pain. He screams and screams, until finally the pain fades away and there's no feeling at all. Everything is numb and heavy, and the world's gone grey and dark.
For a long time, nothing happens, and then a voice he recognises asks if it's all over. He opens his eyes and looks up at a face half masked by a pair of dark glasses, with spiky dark hair. It almost looks a little worried, and that's strange, because this is not a face that has ever been worried before. He feels like laughing because really, it's quite pathetic. Only weak people worry.
Something blurs, and he has the feeling that time has passed. He's standing on a balcony, looking out over a vast indoor space. The intruders are down below, foolish enough to think they can fight off his army and stop him. They'll learn soon enough.
The battle rages, and they are driven back and back, their partners easily dispatched. Half of them can't even evolve here. They're fools, and they deserve to lose. But the stubborn little insects refuse to give up, and make their way towards the generators. He scowls, and turns to his partner.
"Get rid of them."
A tall black figure grins wickedly, and spreads its black wings wide. It dives down, and he can see Hikari and the others on a screen, their faces contorted with fear and shock as Devimon attacks.
He smiles.
Takeru almost screams from cold horror when he wakes up, but he's too shocked to even breathe. This isn't right. It isn't right. It can't be right.
But it is. It's the same inexplicable certainty that gave him Tokomon's name, and it's telling him now that this is real. That it's always been real - every dream, every nightmare he's ever had, they're all things which happened somehow. His heart is hammering loudly in his chest as Tokomon stirs beside him, and looks at him with a worried expression.
"Takeru, are you okay?" his partner says.
He stares back at Tokomon, horrified. He doesn't know what to do. Most of the nightmare doesn't even make any sense - he's lost whatever understanding of things he had while he was asleep. All he can really be sure of is that something bad happened, and it's all his fault.
Tokomon stares at him, looking worried, and suddenly the rush of emotions gets too much. It's not right for Tokomon to be worried about him when he…when he…
Hikari stirs, and that's enough to make the decision for him. He can't be here. He feels too awful to look at anyone. He's a terrible person and he doesn't deserve friends. No wonder he's been feeling so bad - he deserves it all and more. Acting on instinct, he grabs his bag and bolts for the door, not stopping, not lookingbehind him even when Tokomon calls out for him to stop, or when Hikari's voice joins the pleas for him to come back. Pleas which are so familiar that they hurt.
He runs outside and lets the dark fog swallow him up, tears rolling freely down his cheeks. He wishes it could make him disappear as well.
A.N.: So, this was something of a rollercoaster to write. And to read, probably, but honestly I don't think there was any other way I could have done it, due to the fundamental nature of the forces at work in the narrative.
To make sure that everyone is rouughly on the same page - at this point, Takeru has had several of his memories triggered, but they're pretty much all isolated ones; flashes of scenes and feelings without anything to link them together or give them context. And of course, arriving like that there's no real way for him to process them properly, so a lot gets kinda lost again. It's sorta like flicking through a book and reading a paragraph here and there from odd pages at random.
I suppose it will also be clear by now that there is a lot of previous which has so far only been hinted at. I actually have the events written out in (mostly) chronological order in my files. If people are interested in seeing that, I can go back and edit it into something readable and post it as a sort of gargantuan author's note finale. Let me know!
Also! This is not meant to be an accurate portrayal of amnesia. I feel like I have to make that disclaimer, because I know it doesn't match up with any particular form of the condition. I kinda held off saying so at the start, but by now it's obvious that there is an amnesia-like thing going on. It's not that I'm just too lazy to do the research, I promise.