Sunday, 29th July 2007, 2:30 a.m.

Tokyo, Japan

Ken woke up with a scream in his futon on the floor and breathed in and out heavily, still having the sense of falling into the void. It was the first time a nightmare had felt that realistic and threatening so Ken knew he might not be able to go back to sleep this night again. His hands were trembling, the skin on his neck was biting and he felt really sick, asking himself what had caused such a nightmare or what meaning it could have. He was relieved none of his friends seemed to have recognized his scream as they lay around him on the floor as well, even Daisuke was snoring loudly as always. It was the end of July, summer break and since Takeru's mother had to go out of town to do some research for the newspaper she was working at the blonde had invited his friends to stay over the weekend.

While the older Chosen didn't meet with the younger that much, Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, Hikari, Takeru and Ken became really close friends after their adventures in the Digital World five years ago and spent as much time together as possible. The gates of the Digital World had all been closed after the final battle against BelialVamdemon and since then none of them had been able to get access to the Digital World again, not to mention that they weren't able to see their partners anymore. They had gotten used to it by now but every now and then they still got sad thinking about their Digimon partners. Ken also missed Wormmon badly, as the small green Digimon always had been his counterpart. Back then, Wormmon hadn't understand that much of what Ken was talking about but for the teen these conversations had been comforting and supportive. In such moments he wished for being able to hold Wormmon in his arms again.

It was much likely that his strange dream had been caused by the horror flick they had watched together in the evening. Miyako had gotten an odd preference for scary movies over the years and pestered her friends until they gave up and agreed to watch the movie just to hush her. Ken didn't like horror and as he knew by now these movies weren't that conducive for his sleep as well. He folded back the futon, got up as silent as possible and without waking Miyako or Iori sleeping next to him he reached the sliding door to the apartments balcony. He opened it without making any noise and closed it again only leaving a small gap. Standing next to the handrail he leaned on it with his arms while watching the night scenery of Odaiba. In the distance he could see Rainbow Bridge, the Ferris wheel and somewhere in the shadows was the shape of Fuji TV's round tower. Ken still lived in Tamachi because even without the dark spore growing inside of him he was doing well at school and able to keep up with the other students in private school but as his other friends all lived in Odaiba they met there most times.

He wasn't a straight-A student anymore but Ken really was okay with that as he had realized it was nicer to be among the other students. He didn't really make friends within his class as Ken was still shy and not able to speak to other people that easily but he had the other Chosen and especially his best friend whom he met nearly every weekend. They got even closer than they had been five years ago and sometimes this even scared Ken a lot. He still hadn't overcome the fear of losing everyone that he was close to which had been caused by the tragic death of his brother so many years ago. Ken was lost in thoughts when his gaze wandered around the scenery in front of him, everything was so quiet, peaceful, a complete contrast to the situation he had to undergo in his nightmare. Suddenly he felt a foreign hand on his shoulder and winced before he turned around and looked into the brown eyes of his best friend.

Daisuke woke up from Ken's scream but he pretended to be fast asleep and waited for a while before he followed Ken out of the apartment without making any noise as well. He knew his best friend sometimes had these nightmares as he witnessed them on earlier sleepovers and the red haired teen had learned to give Ken some time to let the dreams sink in before confronting him. In the beginning these nightmares had appeared on a regular basis and had been really severe but the more Ken moved on from the past, the better his sleep had gotten and nightmares became a rarity. All the more he had been surprised and worried by this nightmare that seemed to come all of a sudden and out of nowhere. Carefully, he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder after following him onto the balcony in silence but Ken winced nevertheless. Daisuke didn't bother about his behavior towards other people that much but when it was about Ken he had the sense that the teen needed to be handled with care as if he would shatter into pieces if not.

He didn't know where this feeling came from, but there was something special between them, a connection he wasn't able to put into words and he could feel it since their Digimon partners had had the Jogress Evolution for the first time five years ago. This connection was still there once the gates had closed and they had returned to their every day lives, this distant feeling of a second heartbeat inside his chest along with his own. The others had had the Jogress Evolution as well but a serious talk about it with Hikari and Takeru had stated both hadn't nearly felt the same with Miyako and Iori as Daisuke had felt with Ken and still was feeling. He now looked into the blue eyes of his best friend and smiled before leaning against the handrail as well and watching the peaceful scenery of Odaiba in front of him. He was curious about the dream, but he didn't want to pester Ken, he knew his friend still had a lot of problems to turn his thoughts and feelings into words.

Ken was looking at him out of the corner of his eyes before he finally started apologizing. "I'm sorry, if I woke you up, I didn't mean to, I...", but Daisuke held up a stopping hand in front of the dark haired teen. "Do I look like I'm angry with you?" Ken shook his head and suddenly looked a bit embarrassed. Daisuke sighed, Ken always was so extremely polite and afraid to annoy somebody, but he didn't waste much thoughts onto his own needs. He understood that talking about the nightmare now wouldn't have much effort so he tried to take Ken's mind off of thinking about it anymore and started to babble. "Who knew Miyako was that obsessed of spine-chillers, I mean she always was tougher than Hikari, but yeah I didn't expect that. Nevertheless she was clinging to you like a crybaby at the end of the movie although you looked like you wanted to run away as well." Daisuke laughed and started teasing Ken slightly as he was sure his friend knew it wasn't meant to be mean. He really liked doing this if it was about Miyako who was clinging to Ken whenever she had the chance to and not realizing that his best friend wasn't interested in her in the romantic way at all. Ken just took a short glance on Daisuke before looking back onto the panorama in front of him and starting to laugh slightly. "She has a lot of siblings, maybe her brother or one of her sisters is into that kind of movies as well. But I would be happy if we don't watch any horror again, I don't like it at all." Ken said thoughtfully and turned to Daisuke again. "I had a really strange dream and I think the movie is to blame."

Ken had been surprised that Daisuke had followed him outside onto the balcony but being honest he was glad to have his best friend around, his presence alone helped him to calm down more and more. Once they stopped bitching about Miyako, Ken decided to tell Daisuke about his nightmare before he started to stare at Odaiba in the distance again. "I had a lot of dreams about our time in the Digital World, but I never experienced something that never happened. I wonder if it matters somehow." Daisuke glanced at him, crossed his arms behind his head and grinned. "Oh, don't be like Hikari, she's interpreting to much into those kind of things as well. It was just a dream, Ken. Come on, let's go back inside and back to sleep. We wanted to go swimming today and I don't have a worthy adversary if you haven't slept enough." Daisuke seemed to be sulking a bit and Ken just shook his head in amusement.

"Sometimes I really want to know what's going on in your mind, Motomiya. Takeru and Iori do a lot of sports as well, don't underestimate them." Daisuke grinned widely. "Iori still is a baby and about Takeru… I'm going to skunk." The competitive rivalry between Daisuke and the blonde only increased the more time Hikari and Takeru spent together. Did he still have a crush on her? Ken had thought, the red haired teen had accepted Hikari to be only a friend but it seemed he had been wrong about that. But Daisuke finally had distracted Ken from the thoughts about the nightmare, he wasn't nearly feeling as miserable as he did half an hour ago after waking up. The dream felt like a dream now, the biting on his neck had vanished along with the feeling of sickness in his stomach. He pushed himself away from the handrail and turned around to look at Daisuke. "Whatever you're going to dream about in the future, I recommend to not jump into the void at the end. If I hadn't been laying on the floor already I definitely would have been falling out of my bed." Ken said and was still wondering why his dream-self felt the need to jump down from that cliff. In silence they opened the sliding door and entered the living room again. The four other teens were still fast asleep and Ken sighed in relief. On the balcony he had asked Daisuke to keep this incident a secret as he was really embarrassed a dream had discomposed him so badly. Carefully they lay down onto their futons again and he smiled at Daisuke. "Good night and thank you." Ken murmured and closed his eyes. None of them noticed the dark shadow jumping down from the roof of the building onto the neighbor house and then disappearing in the darkness.

Sunday, 29th July 2007, 3 a.m.

Unknown place

Everything was according to the plan, first doubts had been cast and it was just a matter of time to let them grow and spread inside the boy. They would atone for the humiliation he had to go through, he would atone for what happened five years ago. But for now he didn't need to do anything, he just needed to wait once he was on the brink. A pleased and spine-chilling laughter filled the air, how long he had waited for this day of reckoning that was soon to come.