Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. And I do not own Heroes of Olympus. But that doesn't mean I'm still not awesome!

Author's Note: Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "pick".

I really like writing dream sequences. I've gotten the impression that it's not ya'lls favorite, but they're a lot of fun for me to write. But don't worry, the adventure is about to start. So hopefully all of this information that I'm dumping on ya'll will start to come together in a very satisfying fashion. Enter Tamers Character #3 that I have ever written, and I fear I may be remembering/writing him wrong... but I hope not. I hope you all...

Enjoy!

Chapter Twelve

Takato dreamed of DigiGnomes.

He stood on a path in the midst of a shaded park. In front of him sat a small gated den. Low gray clouds blended with ground fog, and cold rain hung in the air. A flock of flying white creatures darted around him, brushing against his legs, and letting out high-pitched coos like giggles. They gently guided him toward the den.

Takato felt completely at ease and had no reason not to distrust these creatures, so he decided to do what they wanted.

Fallen leaves crunched under his shoes as he walked. Barren trees stood on either side of the stone hut, once full of life, now showing signs of winter having come and undressed all of them. The forest must've been full and green once, rows and rows of trees that never seemed to end, but now they seemed skinny and uninspiring, nothing remaining but a barky skeleton. Takato pulled open a rusted gate and found himself inside of a small unlit room.

Before him was a dug out cave, as if someone had pulled out each stone and pack of dirt by hand. Takato couldn't tell how deep it went, because the light refused to penetrate the darkness within. Disturbed dirt settled all around the entrance, and littered wrappers poked out from the soil and glimmered in the evening moonlight. DigiGnomes danced around the small den, flying around his head as if playing.

"I know this place," Takato said.

"Me too!"

Takato nearly leapt out of his skin. Gold eyes peered out of the darkness of the cave, and the light gradually gathered around his face to reveal Guilmon. He wore a large goofy grin and carried several pieces of stale bread in his arms.

"Look what I found!" Guilmon continued. He picked out one of the pieces of bread and tried to throw it into his mouth, but it evaporated before it ever touched his tongue. His eyes bugged out of his head. "Wha…?" He frantically tried to throw another piece of bread into his mouth, but the same thing happened. The bread turned into vapor before disappearing all together. He tried again and again until he was left empty-handed and heartbroken. The dream-bread just did not want to be eaten. "Nooo!"

Soft laughter seemed to come from everywhere at once until a ghostly figure suddenly walked through to the wall across from Takato and came to a stop in front of him. It was a man, at least fifty years of age. His skin was pale and weathered. His receding hairline fed into long coppery locks with silver streaks that ran down the nape of his neck. He sported a full beard with a peppering of gray. And despite his age, he was dressed like a college student in an oversized sweater and a slapped on pair of pants.

This time Takato did leap away in fright, his back hitting the stone wall as he tried to get away from the apparition that had just appeared. Guilmon walked up to the ghostly figure and sniffed at it before reaching out with a claw to poke at it.

The figure laughed. "Stop that! It tickles."

Takato, despite what his eyes were seeing, felt himself starting to calm down. "Who are you?"

The man grinned, and his eyes twinkled as if he found the question amusing. "I think you know."

Takato started to protest, but he realized that the man was probably right. A familiarity did exist between them. He could feel his brain working, trying to put a name to a face, but it was taking longer than he liked. "This isn't fair!"

This time the man gave him a sympathetic nod. "I thought the same thing too when I realized what was going on, but it's too late to stop it now. Succeed or fail. Those are you only two options at this point."

"We'll succeed," Guilmon said. "Right, Takato?"

Takato wanted to point out that he couldn't exactly succeed if he didn't know who he was or where he was supposed to go. But then something clicked; he did know this man. His name was Gorou Mizuno, better known as Shibumi, one of the Monster Makers. Several years ago, Takato had met this man in a form pretty much identical to this in the Digital World while his body slept in a coma in the Real World. He had helped him defeat a great evil that had threatened to consume both worlds. This was a man that could be trusted.

The information gave him a rush of excitement. "Can you tell me where to go?"

"I have a good idea." Shibumi looked up at the DigiGnomes still flying over their heads. "I know you guys expended a lot of energy letting me do this, but can you grant us one more favor?"

The DigiGnomes cooed and flew in a formation in front of the wall opposite of Takato. The wall shimmered and then dissolved into white like a movie screen.

At first, Takato wasn't sure what he was seeing. Then the white started to swirl into images. The ruins of a stone castle took shape. Stone spires of towers, no longer attached to anything, rose up like totem poles. The fortress was probably enormous once, multi-storied with massive charcoal walls and a soaring gabled roof, but now it was a sad sight with a crumbling doorway at its center.

The movie reel walked Takato through the archway where two dark spires erupted from the cement floor like drill bits of some massive tunneling machine boring through the surface. Takato couldn't tell if the spires were made of rock or petrified vines, but they were formed of thick tendrils that came together in a point at the top. Each spire was about five feet tall, but they weren't identical. The one closest to Takato had a symbol carved into the front that looked like a 'T' with earrings. The other spire had an image of a hollowed out heart with three spikes through it etched into its surface. As he watched, the spiked heart let out a deep red glow, and the spire pushed a little further out of the earth and expanded a little wider.

The two spires were connected via several interweaving tendrils that were more open, like the bars of a cage. Inside, Takato could vaguely see a static-ridden figure struggling, shifting within its confines.

"Gennai," Takato said.

The DigiGnomes cooed in agreement. Shibumi let out a sad breath as he gave a small shake of his head.

"The enemy has chosen that place to awaken a great evil," Shibumi said. "It's a place that I believe you know very well, but not for the reasons that you may think."

"Can't you just tell me what I'm looking for?" Takato complained.

Shibumi smirked. "I'm good. But I'm not that good."

"Do you know who they're trying to wake up?" Guilmon asked. "Whoever it is must be a very deep sleeper!"

Shibumi nodded as if Guilmon had just said something very important. "Exactly."

"What?" Takato asked.

The DigiGnomes started to fly around faster, and their chirping got more rushed. Shibumi raised his hands. "Okay, okay! I hear you. Takato, listen… Those ruins, only one of your traveling companions tomorrow know them, but so do you. It's a place where worlds meet. And it also happens to be one of your favorite episodes."

"Takato, what does he mean?" Guilmon asked.

He could only shake his head. "I have no idea."

"The important thing is that you stop him!"

"Him?" Takato was more than just a little confused. "Do you mean Gennai? The evil they're trying to raise? Somebody else?"

"If Gennai falls, a great evil will rise, and with it… Doom, destruction, end of the world. What's that saying? Don't poke a sleeping dragon? Don't do that. Get there and stop it before it's too late."

Takato saw something else within the movie still playing on the opposite wall. A small lump sat in front of the cell: A dark digi-egg. Takato sensed that if it ever hatched, it would release something that he did not want to meet.

"Who am I?" Takato asked the ghostly man. "Can you at least tell me that?"

He could tell that the question amused Shibumi, as if he'd just asked the million-dollar question. Takato half-expected him to come out with some sort of philosophical reply, like: Do any of us actually know who we really are?

Instead, he said, "You're a kid who really, really likes Digimon and makes a mean loaf of bread." His lips curled as if he had just made a clever pun. "And you're Takato Matsuki."