Chapter 2: Recovery
Rika's dreams were dark and tortured, she was tormented by vague, indescribable horrors and visions of someone crying out for her help, she knew that they were important to her, but she couldn't quite remember who they were. Occasionally unintelligible fragments of conversation drifted through her addled mind, but she shied away from them, as each one brought with it a wave of pain. In this state, time was meaningless to Rika, she wasn't sure if days or minutes had passed before she began to regain awareness. The first sensation to return was the pain, a dull, constant ache that seemed to permeate every fibre of her being. Next she became aware that she was lying in a bed, and then that people were talking around her.
"... Are you sure she's okay, doc? she's still not waking up" Rika recognised the voice of her mother.
"The poison's still in her system, but physically there's nothing stopping her from waking up, it's a matter of when she's ready to come back to us" an unfamiliar voice replied.
Rika heard a door open and close, and the sound of a chair scraping against the floor. Distantly she felt a light pressure on her left hand. She didn't move, she was battling against a wall in her mind, trying to remember how she ended up here. The door opened again, and someone else entered the room.
"Do you mind if I join you?" This time Rika recognised the voice of her grandmother,
"No, of course not"
For a several minutes the room was silent. Rika battered against her mental block, she knew that something important had happened before she woke up here, but frustratingly, she couldn't quite remember what it was.
"Do you think that I've been a bad mother to her, Seiko?" Rika's mother asked suddenly
"Of course not, why would you think that?" Seiko replied
"Six years ago I let her run off to put herself in danger fighting those monsters, and now she gets almost killed practically on my doorstep..." Rumiko trailed off into a yawn.
"Go get some rest, I can watch her for a few hours"
"Thanks for the offer, but i'm fine, honest" The tiredness in her mother's voice was obvious.
"As your mother Rumiko, i'm telling you to go get some sleep, I'll call you if anything changes"
"Thanks"
"I'm sure she'll pull through" Seiko reassured her, "She's a fighter, just like you, and she's always had a guardian angel looking out for her."
My Guardian Angel... That's what she used to call...
Renamon!
The wall in her mind burst and the memories came flooding back to her in a painful rush. Her eyes shot open. She tried to cry out for her partner, but all she managed was a croak before her bone dry throat seized up and a coughing fit overtook her.
"Rika!" she heard her mother cry out, and someone pressed a glass into her hands. Between bouts of coughing she managed to force down a couple of sips of the cool water within.
"Thanks" she gasped, then cleared her throat and took a longer drink of the water. Handing the drink back to her mother, Rika tried to sit up, but her head swam and her muscles gave way, and she fell back onto the bed with a groan.
"Take it easy, my girl" Her mother told her, concern colouring her tone "You've been out for a while"
"How long was I...?" Rika asked
"Three days" Her mother replied
Three Days! Rika thought to herself I hope Renamon is okay...
Laying her head back on the pillow, Rika finally examined her surroundings. Judging by the white paneled ceiling and the medical paraphernalia scattered around the room, she guessed that she was in a hospital, which was no surprise, however based on the general quality of the furniture and the fact that she had a private room, it seemed her mother had paid for her to be transferred to an expensive private hospital. The sun was low over city and streaming orange light through her windows, she guessed it must be only a couple of hours until sunset. Rika also took in her mother's face for the first time, she had large dark bags under her eyes, and deep worry lines creased her face, she looked as if she hadn't slept for the last three days. Spotting the empty coffee cups scattered around the room, Rika realised that was probably closer to the truth than she wanted to believe.
At that moment, the door to the room opened and a man entered, he looked to be in his early thirties, and had dark hair, glasses, and a light shadow of stubble on his chin. He wore a white coat and a name tag.
"This is Doctor Nakamura" Her mother introduced him, "He's the top poison expert in the country, he came here especially from Osaka to treat you."
"Thank you Miss Nonaka," he said "As your mother said, I'm Doctor Nakamura, although you can just call me Hiro. It's nice to meet you, Rika"
He held out his hand, Rika shook it weakly, her muscles ached and she struggled to lift her arm off the bed.
"I'd like to take some observations before we begin, if that's okay with you?"
Rika nodded, and he fastened a blood pressure cuff around her right arm, attached a sensor to her index finger, and shone a torch into her eyes, all the while noting down results on the clipboard that hung at the end of her bed.
In a lull in his activity, Rika took a deep breath and jokingly asked "So... can you fix me?"
"Actually," he began, scratching the back of his neck "I have no idea. The poison in your bloodstream... it's like nothing i've ever seen before... it's chemical composition is completely alien to me."
No surprise there, considering it's origin Rika thought.
"Actually," he continued, "I was hoping you could help me out, if you could give me an idea of what did this you you, I might have better luck formulating an anti-venom"
"I..." Rika began, then hesitated, she was going to tell the truth, but then had second thoughts about it. While the doctor seemed friendly enough, she didn't know if he'd keep her secret, and she wasn't sure if the world was ready for the Digimon to return quite yet. Also, remembering her Mother's words from earlier, and seeing the effect her condition was having on her mother, she didn't want to to put her under more stress by knowing that she was battling Digimon again.
"I... I'm not really sure," she lied "I couldn't sleep, so I went out for a walk... and then the next thing I remember is waking up here, I'm sorry" She hoped her lie was convincing enough.
"Don't be sorry" her mother reassured her "It's not your fault if you can't remember"
"It's possible the poison could have a neurological effect" Hiro said, "If you remember anything at all, please let me know"
"Okay" Rika replied
With that, he turned to leave.
"One more thing, Before you go" Rika said, she hoped she wasn't pushing it too far with this
"Yes?" Hiro asked, looking over his shoulder
"How did I end up here?" RIka asked
"Well," he explained "That's the biggest mystery of them all. Apparently they found you lying in the street just outside Nakano General, although nobody can explain how you got there, it's like you appeared out of thin air"
Thank you Taomon, Rika thought to herself, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
"Is that everything now?" he asked.
"Yes" Rika confirmed.
Hiro turned and swished out the door.
For a few hours afterwards, Rika's mother fussed over her daughter, but eventually Rika and Seiko convinced her to go home. Thus Rika was left alone in her room. With nothing else to do, she examined her surroundings more closely. By rolling her head over to the left she could just about make out her clothes folded in a small pile in the corner, however there was no sign of her Digivice or cards anywhere, she guessed they must have been left lying on the ground when she had passed out three days ago. Rika turned on the TV for a little while, but not being much of a fan of TV she turned it off again after a couple of hours. Later, a nurse came into her room and offered her a plate of food, which she politely turned down, her stomach couldn't handle much more than the tap water she was drinking at the moment.
Restless, her mind began to wander, she wondered if she really saw Renamon at all, if it all wasn't some kind of hallucination brought on by whatever poison was rampaging through her system.
No, Rika told herself I know that was real, I couldn't have imagined it.
Try as she might for the next few hours, she couldn't quite get rid of that niggling doubt in the back of her mind.
Eventually, exasperated she turned off the lights in her room and called out to the shadows,
"Renamon?" No response. "Renamon? Are you there? Come to me" The silence was deafening.
Or maybe she just doesn't care about me anymore...
Letting out a defeated sigh, she laid down her head and vainly tried to get some sleep.
Several hours later, Rika had all but resigned herself to never seeing her partner again. She lay awake, quietly sobbing to herself. Suddenly she felt that she wasn't alone in the room.
"Rika"
The voice was the barest of whispers, more of an impression of speech than an actual, audible sound.
"R... R...Renamon?" She asked, her voice sounding pathetically small in the darkness..
A figure separated itself from the shadows, even in the dim light filtering through the curtains Rika recognised the silhouette instantly.
"I'm here Rika"
Rika felt her heart soar hearing the familiar voice again after so long.
Rika surprised the fox digimon by reaching up, wrapping her arms around her, and pulling the vixen closer to her, burying her face in the long fur on Renamon's chest. Renamon hesitated awkwardly for a moment, before gently placing her arms around Rika.
Rika felt a warm feeling suffuse her entire body, "You came back to me!" she said with a smile.
"Of course I did, We're partners" Renamon responded warmly
For a long moment the pair said nothing, enjoying each other's company after so long apart.
However, eventually they separated and Renamon pressed a small, hard object into Rikas hand. "I took care of this for you" she said.
Rika looked down and saw that she was holding her digivice. She felt her emotions swell up within her.
"Thank you" she began "Not just for this, but for taking me to the hospital, you saved my life"
"If anyone should be thanking anyone, it is I that should be thanking you" Renamon replied "If you didn't show up when you did, I would almost certainly have been destroyed by those Dokugumon"
"Yeah, I guess I did save your life there. So, shall we call it even on this one?" she asked.
"Agreed."
Suddenly her tiredness caught up with Rika, her eyelids felt heavy, and she yawned widely.
"I'm sorry Rika, I shouldn't be keeping you awake, get some rest. We can talk more tomorrow" Renamon took a step back from the bed.
"But..." Rika began
"Shhh..." Renamon began, placing a finger on Rika's lips "You need to get your sleep, I'll still be here tomorrow." With that, she took another step back and faded into the shadows.
Despite her protests, Rika was asleep within minutes.
The next day was hell for Rika. From the moment that she woke up, her whole body ached, and none of the painkillers the doctors gave her could get rid of it completely. To make things worse, after just a day in hospital Rika was already going stir-crazy, her mother visited her for a couple of hours in the morning, but she got a call from her agent that couldn't be delayed, and had to go into the city, so Rika was left alone for most of the day. She got some brief respite when her flatmate from university, Annie, came to drop off some of Rika's things. Annie was American, Had bleach-blonde hair, and was quite openly into girls (although, apparently Rika "wasn't her type"). The two of them had quite a simple arrangement, they split the household bills 50/50, took it in turns to take the rubbish out, ate takeout together on fridays, and aside from that they kept themselves to themselves. Despite this, Annie was the closest thing Rika had to a friend at university, and she enjoyed talking to somebody her own age for a couple of hours until Annie had to head back.
Rika watched as the sun inched agonizingly slowly towards the horizon, itching for it to slip below the horizon so she could speak to Renamon again. Almost as soon as the lights in the corridor had gone out, she called out for Renamon and the fox digimon stepped out of the shadows.
"How are you feeling Rika?" the she asked.
"Terrible." Rika grumbled, "I need to get out of here, Renamon. If i'm stuck in here for another day I think I might go crazy"
Renamon surprised Rika by stepping forwards and scooping her up out of the bed into her arms.
"Renamon, what are you..." Rika began, then stopped as their surroundings disappeared, replaced with cool darkness. Seconds later, Rika gasped as the darkness was replaced by a breathtaking night-time view of the Tokyo skyline. Looking around Rika realised that they were on the Hospital's roof.
"Is this any better?" Renamon asked, the vixen's breath warm on Rika's ear.
A breathless "Wow..." was all Rika could manage in response.
Renamon carried her away from the edge, and the two of them sat against an air conditioning unit, the warm air being pumped out of it repelling the chill night air. For several minutes they sat in silence, watching the moon rise in quiet companionship.
"So..." Rika began awkwardly, "Tell me what happened"
Renamon looked at her quizzically.
"After you ... disappeared, what did you do for six years? How did you find a way back into this world? I want to know everything."
Renamon didn't answer immediately, for a long time she was deep in thought, composing herself. "I don't remember much about the days immediately after we... separated," she began, her voice heavy with a multitude of emotions " I was distraught, we all were, me, Guilmon, Terriermon, Lopmon, all of us who had partners. We tried desperately to find a way back to you for so long, collapsing the portal the D-Reaper was using did something to0 the barrier between our worlds, we couldn't simply bioemerge anymore. For almost a year we searched for a portal, but eventually we had to admit defeat and look at what was happening to the world around us. The battle with the D-Reaper had consumed most of the Digimon Sovereigns' energy, they disappeared shortly after the battle."
Rika was stunned into silence, remembering the four majestic digimon that had fought alongside her and Renamon in the battle against the D-Reaper.
You will be missed, great ones. She thought, bowing her head for a moment.
"Their loss had a great effect on the Digital World" Renamon continued, "This, combined with the scarcity of resources caused by the D-Reaper sowed chaos in the Digital World. It was like a civil war, great armies of Digimon fought over the small fragments of the world that had been left untouched by the D-Reaper."
"That's horrible" Rika said, shocked
"The eight of us did what we could to help the weak and advocate peace" Renamon explained "But weak, and unable to Digivolve we could only do so much"
Rika's heart swelled with admiration for Renamon, despite being separated from her partner and being unable to digivolve, she still fought for good.
So what changed?" she asked "How did you find your way back to this world?"
"I'm not sure," Renamon answered. "When you picked up your digivice and spoke to me, I knew that I had to get to you somehow, so I decided to have one more search for portals, and to my surprise I found one, which was also when I came across those Dokugumon."
Rika looked down at her feet. "You... You heard me?"
"Yes Rika, Every word" Renamon said softly, turning her head so her soft blue eyes met Rika's lavender ones.
"I'm sorry Renamon," Rika sniffed, wiping tears from her eyes "You didn't need to hear that."
"Rika..." Renamon began, reaching out for her partner.
Rika swatted Renamon's paws away angrily, "You shouldn't have come here Renamon" she said tearfully "You should be in the Digital World, doing good, not here, watching over some worthless, washed-up failure of a kid, who's still pining over her lost childhood. I'm nobody Renamon"
Renamon placed her paws on either side of Rika's head and forced her to look into her eyes. Her previously soft blue eyes had become hard ice. "Don't you ever call yourself Nobody or Worthless" she growled "You are my partner Rika. To me, you are the most important person in both worlds. The whole digital world could fall to the D-Reaper for all I'd care if it meant saving you."
Rika's mouth fell agape, rendered utterly speechless by her partner's sudden outburst of emotion. For a long time, the two of them stayed locked in position, the only thing breaking the silence was Renamon's angry breathing.
"Do... Do you really mean that?" Rika whispered
"Yes." Renamon answered instantly "I'd throw myself off this building right now if you asked me to"
As the depth of her partner's care for her finally dawned on Rika, she gasped, tears of joy flowing freely down her cheeks, she slipped free of Renamon's grasp and threw her arms around the fox digimon. "I'm sorry Renamon" she breathed "From now on I..." she trailed off suddenly, a hand going to her head.
"Are you okay Rika?" Renamon asked, concerned
"I... I think so," Rika replied, her head ached and the world was spinning around her, "We should get back inside"
Renamon stood up, then knelt down on one knee in front of her partner, "Please forgive me Rika" she asked, solemnly.
"Of course," Rika answered without hesitation "But what for?"
"I've allowed you to suffer needlessly for two days, when i could have ended it at any time, I should have done this the first time I saw you" she said, taking Rika's hands in her own.
"Do what?" Rika asked, confused.
"I can draw the poison from your body into mine," she explained "Without the poison inside you, your body should recover quickly"
"But what about you?" Rika asked, "Won't it harm you as well?"
"It will be... painful" Renamon admitted "But, I'm tougher than you, I will survive"
"No," Rika refused, pulling her hands away "I won't let you put yourself through that, just to make me feel better, I couldn't live with myself if I did"
"Rika..." Renamon began gently, taking her hands again "The poison in your blood is digital in origin, your body isn't able to cope with that, if I don't do this, the poison will keep eating away at you until you die"
"No..." Rika whispered, "There has to be another way..."
"As your partner it is my duty to protect you Rika, and I will not let you leave this rooftop until you agree to let me take the poison" Renamon said firmly.
"I guess i'm not really in a position to fight with you" she said with a forced chuckle "Go on, do it."
Renamon closed her eyes, and for a moment nothing happened. Then a subtle golden glow, similar to the light from the digital portal began to emanate from their joined hands. Immediately Rika felt a warm feeling suffuse her body, washing away some of her aches and pains. Then Renamon began to draw the poison into her, Rika felt the resistance as it was dragged out of every cell in her body, coalesced in her arms, and then flowed out through their joined hands. Gradually, Rika felt the flow of poison lessen, and slow to a stop. Eventually, when she was satisfied that all traces of the poison had been removed from her system, Renamon released Rika's hands and broke their connection.
Renamon let out a small gasp of pain, and Rika reached for her, concerned.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I will be" Renamon grunted through gritted teeth, "Let's get you back inside"
Rika felt better already, however the whole process had left her feeling strangely exhausted, and her eyelids were already drooping as she allowed Renamon to carry her back to her bed.
Author's Notes:
I haven't really got anything interesting to say here this time, so i'll keep it brief:
So we finally found out what Renamon was doing in the digital world, and got our first glimpse into the complex relationship between our two heroines, this was a very dialogue-heavy chapter, so I hope it isn't terrible, and that the emotional stuff doesn't feel too forced.
And as always: Thank you for reading, and even if you didn't like it, please leave a review!
~Superbun
