A.N.: (Chapter & A.N. edited March 2016.)

Okay, so Hope's Fire kicks off in May 2004, and counts the events of the first, second, and fourth films as part of the continuity. (I'm handwaving M03 because it won't come up. Feel free to include it or not as you wish.)

I've gone with the Japanese names over the dub ones simply because this fic has a somewhat grittier tone than the dub offers, and the dub characterisation of certain characters doesn't really fit what I'm going for. The compromise is that I'm leaving out honorifics because I am not overly familiar with them, and this way I can't screw them up. (Also, to go back and add them to a story that's almost 100k is a task I am not prepared to undertake.)

When I first started posting this I wasn't sure how long it was going to be, and erred on the side of pushing out shorter, more regular updates. It has grown a lot since the beginning, so if 1-2k is too short a chapter for your liking, fear not! I'm currently aiming for roughly 5k per chapter. Although I'm tweaking the first few chapters a little, I can't really add to them without things getting fillery. They do get longer further down the line.

The ocean. It had been dark before; all grey and washed out. The image of despair and hopelessness. Now it was different. The same beach, but filled with colour – too much colour really. Like an oversaturated photograph, too rich to be real. And yet that same despair filled the air. That same fear and dread.

Since when had this been his nightmare? This was the sort of thing Ken and Hikari talked about, not him. He'd only even seen the Dark Ocean because he'd followed Hikari there, desperate to bring her back. Desperate to keep that promise he'd made to Sora, all those years ago.

And now it was haunting him. The same, and yet completely different. For the first time he could remember, he was glad that he only lived with his mother – who worked hard enough that she slept through the yelling when he woke. Even now, his older brother was overprotective enough that he would have made a fuss.

No, it was best to just keep this to himself. It wasn't as though there were any real problems in the digital world any more. It was just a nightmare. A really, really annoying nightmare, given that he had studying to do, and the broken nights' sleep were starting to catch up on him.

School was a trial of endurance that he scraped through. Barely. He'd probably started to doze off in Maths, because in flicking through his notes he realised he didn't really understand any of them. Still. That was what friends – and weekends – were for.

"Takeru, are you okay?"

Hikari's question caught him off-guard, and he almost tripped over. He rubbed his forehead, cursing himself. Of course she would notice. They'd been walking for a good five minutes now, and he'd spent the whole time staring off into the distance like some sort of zombie.

"Ahh... yeah. Course I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" It wasn't the first time that he'd had to improvise when faced with a slightly too-personal question. There was always the chance he sounded like his usual flustered self, instead of this new kind. For once he actually hoped so.

"It's just you've been awfully quiet today. It's not like you at all, Takeru. I... You know you can always tell me if there's a problem, right?" Her eyes bored into him.

Normally, this was the part where he would feel himself either turning red and quickly looking away, or making a joke so he had an excuse to change the topic. But he felt frozen to the spot. All he could think of was how she was the last person he could talk to about nightmares of an ocean. He knew firsthand how some bad memories never left you. And he was too just too tired to think of anything else to say. It had been how long – a week or more since he'd had a decent night's sleep?

Forcing himself to blink hard, and wake his eyes up, he rubbed his head again. He made sure to avoid her gaze as he replied:

"I'm just a bit tired, is all. Stayed up too late last night." With any luck, mixing in a bit of honesty would make her believe him.

"Hmm."

He didn't look at her. He knew that tone of voice. She hadn't bought it, not remotely.

"Listen, I'm gonna skip on the park today," he said eventually, hating himself for ducking out of the one day a week they had the afternoon together. Normally it was the thing he looked forward to the most. "I should probably get back home and have an early night."

He forced a smile to his face before walking quickly away, trying not to worry about what she would think. This was a terrible idea if he wanted her to think he was fine, but what else could he do? There was no way he could keep up a façade for as long as he would need to, anyway.

The door closed behind him with a click. He was already yawning as he put his shoes by the door, and made his way to his room. Dumping his bag by his bed, he heard his phone start to buzz. Naturally, by the time he had fished it out, he'd missed the call. Hikari. Damn it.

Groaning, he flopped back onto his bed. Now what? If he called her back, she would have him cornered and she would know for certain something was up. If he didn't call...

He closed his eyes. What did it matter? He'd said he was going to sleep – he could just explain in the morning that he'd nodded off. The nightmares always seemed to wake him at the same time, so if he slept now perhaps he would actually get enough rest. Hopefully then he'd be awake enough to do a more convincing job of covering it up.

The phone dropped to the floor with a quiet thunk. He was asleep moments later.

The ocean was there again. It was too bright, and he squinted as he looked around. Was he somewhere different this time? Things looked that way.

Water lapped around his ankles. So far, so familiar. The shore was a short way off, to the right. To the left, across the water, there was a line of distant, bright green. He frowned. That was new.

The water was cold, and he splashed his way to the shore, wincing as he walked up the short beach. Pebbles poked at the soles of his feet, and he realised he had no shoes. Odd. Normally in dreams, you were fully dressed for wherever it was that you ended up. And if you weren't, it was usually the focus, not a side-note.

He looked down at his clothes. They were what he'd been wearing when he crashed out. Down to the worn patch on one elbow. He'd never noticed before, too busy walking along the shore instead of up it. Too busy hoping that they wouldn't be here this time.

The wind picked up. It was eerie. Trees he could only just see beyond a steep bank at the beach's edge began to rustle. Countless leaves all sighing. The sun went in.

He clenched his teeth, waiting, as the thick grey clouds billowed out of nowhere, mopping up the bright blue sky. Without the sun, the too-bright colours around him took on a different tone. No less rich, but darker. Menacing.

The tree branches started to creak and groan. Takeru put his hands up over his ears, pulling his hat down firmly on his head. The howling would start any moment now. He had to get away from the water.

Ignoring the pain from the sharper pebbles, he forced himself up the bank. The wind was getting much stronger now, and the grasses were bent low. Behind him, the ocean was whipping itself into a frenzy.

He topped the crest of the bank, and looked out over the landscape. It was hillocky grass, with trees a short way beyond it. Staring at them, he wondered what was wrong. Why was he feeling so scared of a sudden?

It hit him. This was different. Normally, he walked along the seashore, still in the water, until the wind reached a howling crescendo and he turned to see a massive wave headed straight for him. The shock had woken him every night for over a week. Now he was stood on the grass, away from the water, and there was no wave.

The wind began to howl in his ears, the sky growing ever darker. There were wildflowers in the grass. They almost seemed blurry at the edges, so rich was their colour. As he watched, the petals on one were torn away by the wind, and were lost beyond the tree-line.

He knelt down. The wind was buffeting him so hard that it was getting difficult to stand. Was this some kind of storm brewing up? A wave crashed loudly on the shore, sending up billowing clouds of spray. A few drops even reached him where he stood on the grass.

Something hissed beside him, and he looked around sharply. There was a small patch of black nearby. Something had singed the grass. His eyes widened, and he stood back up. Was there someone – or something – nearby?

Something burned into his hand. He yelped, and brought one arm down from his head to look at it. There was a red, circular mark on his skin. He just had time to start worrying before he felt another stinging, this time on his arm. Looking around, he began to panic. What was going on? There were more black specks in the grass now.

All too quickly he realised. It was raining. Raining something which burned everything it touched.