I was so overjoyed that I couldn't stop smiling. I had relieved myself of the weight of my secret leg.
And the best part was that everyone accepted me and treated no different than before I revealed my prosthetic.
It felt good to not have to hide my leg anymore, and I think Luna was happy too.
We were walking along a rocky path that led to the top of infinity mountain.
"This place could really use a good bus stop." Joe complained, falling to his knees.
"Yeah, but it looks like we're at the end of the line." Matt said.
"We're doomed. Trapped on an island. We'll never make it out of here alive." Joe groaned.
I laughed at his over exaggeration, "Calm down, Joe, we'll get home soon enou-" my words were halted when I felt something whiz by.
Turned around and saw the slightest bit of black fly through the clear blue skies. My hands shook as the black object flew downwards.
"Raya, are you okay? You've been staring off into space." Luna said, tearing me away from the sky.
I sighed and nodded, "Yeah, I just thought I saw something. Nothing to worry about.
I sat down against a rock and closed my eyes, slowly falling asleep. It was strange really, I didn't even feel tired and yet here I was, falling asleep like nothing
But my dreams showed me something strange.
It was sunset, the once beautiful blue skies being dyed with colors of the setring sun.
There was a large digimon that resembled a lion sitting next someone who was very much smaller than him. If the small person could, they would fit on digimon's shoulder.
The smaller person's face was hidden from me, since their back was facing me. But they were also covered by a large white cloak and hood with a strange symbol on the back.
"Leomon, why are you so protective of me?" The smaller figure asked
"I am sworn to protect the digidestined from any harm that may come your way." The newly named Leomon answered, his voice low and rough.
"Is that what I am? A digidestined?"
"In a way, yes you are. But you are also something else."
"And what's that?"
"You are something never before seen in the digital world. You were given a digimon partner long before you supposed to be given one. And you also possess strange abilities that can be unlocked by your partner."
"Do you mean Moonmon and that weird magic thing I can do?"
Leomon nodded, "Yes, that's why I must protect both you and the future Digidestined when they arrive."
"When will they come?"
"Soon, little friend, very soon."
"Raya. Raya wake up." I heard someone say. I opened my eyes and saw Matt in front of me.
"Matt? What's wrong?" I mumbled half asleep.
"There's a digimon here." He said. I stood up and looked over to where he was pointing.
On the it her side of the path stood a large digimon with scars, muscles and a mane of yellow.
I gasped, recognizing the digimon from my dream.
"Dont worry, Leomon is our friend." Patamon reassured.
"With big teeth." Tk said.
"He just uses them for smiling."
Luna gripped the sleeve on my shoulder and shook with fear.
"Raya, do you feel that?" She asked shakily.
I nodded, reaching down and grabbing Tk's hand, "If you're feeling something very cold and scary, then yeah, I feel it."
"I want the children." Leomon said, surprising us all with his rough tone.
He reached towards the sheath behind his back and pulled out a large blade.
"Guys, we need to get out here!" I shouted, pulling Tk along as we all ran away from Leomon.
"Oh, no, my map!" Tai shouted as his garbled mess of a map flew away from him.
He turned around and ran to retrieve it, but stopped when Leomon came closer.
"Pepper Breath!" Agumon shouted blasting his fire attack at Leomon, blinding him long enough for them to catch up with us.
"Why is he acting like this?" I asked.
"He must be under the spell of the Black gears." Luna answered.
Suddenly as we were running down the mountain, another digimon blocked out path.
He was large and green with big ugly teeth and dressed in brown rags. His greasy slicked back hair was colored white and his body was covered in piercings and strange markings.
"And just where do you think you're going?" He said waving his large club around, "Well children, so good of you to stop by."
"He look hungry to you?" Patamon asked.
"We're too small to eat and I'm full of junk food." Tk said.
"Well, he's not against a little snack." Gomamon joked.
"This is no time for jokes, Gomamon." I said.
I turned around and saw Leomon standing behind us, his blade raised high.
"Make this easy on yourselves and give up now or else." He demanded.
"I don't see an exit door." Matt said.
"This just proves the theory that well executed teamwork is efficient even for bad guys." Izzy pointed out.
"But Leomon's always been Ogremon's worst enemy, what's happened to him?" Biyomon said.
I stared at the once great Leomon with determination in my eyes.
I knelt down in front of Tk and handed Luna over to him.
"Keep her safe for a minute." I said, "I'll be right back."
"Raya?" Tk said, watching me as I walked a little closer to Leomon.
Leomon and Ogremon jumped into the air ready to attack, but I closed my eyes tightly and screamed, "Stop this now!"
I didn't know it, but at this moment, a soft glow covered my body. In that instant, all the digimonn except Patamon, digivolved into champions.
Lekismon smiled at me and scooped me up into her arms. I opened my eyes and saw her sweet smile and returned it with my own smile.
"Lekismon, good to see you, but what happened?" I asked, confused as to why they digivolved.
"You don't have to worry about that. Just stay close." She said. I nodded, but something made me look up.
I looked towards the upper cliff and saw someome looking straight at me and my friends.
It was a dark digimon covered in black with large tattered wings. He wrapped his long slender arms around his body as he stared at us with a devious smile.
His eyes wandered from Leomon and Ogremon, straight to me. Our eyes made contact and a frightening chill raced down my spine.
"Come with me, Tk! Lekismon, follow me with Raya!" Matt shouted.
Lekismon nodded and ran behind the blond boy. Rocks tumbled down the mountain as we stopped in our tracks.
I jumped out of Lekismon's arms and ran towards Tk and Matt, wrapping my arms around them as the rocks tumbled closer.
Just then, the same glow from before covered me and Lekismon. Then, the glow spread to the boulders above, slowing them down only a little bit.
The digimon fired their attacks at the boulders, reducing them to rubble.
"Everyone okay?" Tai asked.
"Yeah, I'm good." I said as everyone said the same things.
We all got out of our hiding places and rushed to our digimon. I caught Luna as she went back to normal. She seemed all right, in fact, she didn't seem as tired as the rest of the digimon.
"Hey, where'd the bad guys go?" Izzy wondered. I looked around and saw no sign of Leomon or Ogremon.
"They just, vanished." Joe said.
"Are you sure?" Palmon asked.
"Do you think the avalanche knocked them both off the cliff?" Gabumon wondered.
"Hello!" Joe shouted over the cliff, "Unless those two can fly they're toners."
"Neither of them had wings, so I guess they're not air worthy." Sora pointed out.
"Nothing here makes any sense, amything is bound to happen, including flying monsters."
"For once you might be right, Joe."
"Okay, okay, come on you guys, take a breath and calm down. We're okay for the time being, so let's get back on track." I said.
Everyone agreed and we all walked down the path once again.
We kept walking until the sky turned red.
"I'm intrigued at the fact that our digimon were able to digivolve twice in one day." Izzy said out of the blue.
"Well it was sure lucky for us that they were able to do it." Tai said relieved.
"I think the digimon are growing stronger. I wonder if that's a normal part in their evolution or if we're bringing out something special in them." Sora hypothesized.
"A fascinating hypothesis, if only we could test it." Izzy mumbled.
"I think today was too much for them." Matt said looking at our exhausted digimon.
Even Luna looked a little tired, since she was half asleep in my arms.
"Guys, maybe we should find a place to rest for the night." I said.
"Good idea, Raya. That would be best for all of us." Joe agreed.
"Rest where, I don't want to sleep om the ground." Sora said.
"Look, a mansion!" Joe shouted, pointing past the dense trees of the forest.
We followed his finger and sure enough saw a large mansion past the trees.
Without hesistation everyone ran towards the large building, I was the only one that didn't run right away.
"Raya, don't you want to go and see the mansion?" Luna asked.
I sighed, "I'm not so sure this is a good idea. I mean, what are the chances of a mansion appearing right in front of us?"
Luna hummed, seeing my point, "But even so, we need a place to stay for the night. I promise, as soon as the sun rises, we'll leave."
I nodded, "Okay, Luna. Then let's get going and catch up with the others."
I ran as fast as I could and caught up with the others who stood in front of the mansion.
As soon as I laid eyes on the large door, I felt something cold wash over me.
Everyone ran right inside despite Tai's warnings about danger.
When we walked inside it was completely empty. No people, no signs of life. Just an empty space.
"Anybody here?" Joe yelled.
"This feels weird." I said.
"Well it doesn't look or feel weird to me." We all walked right inside and marvled at the building.
"Wow, that's beautiful!" Tk exclaimed, looking at a painting of an angel praying to the heavens.
"Look it, it's an angel."
"What's an angel, Tk?" Patamon asked.
"Something special that watches over you. Kind of like you guys."
"Does that mean Raya's an angel?" Patamon asked.
My cheeks turned red at the comment, but Tk smiled and grabbed my hand happily.
"Yeah, I guess you're right!" The boy exclaimed.
"Come on, Tk, I'm no angel." I said, my face turning redder by the second.
"Well it's true. You're always looking after Tk ever since we were younger." Matt said, "If anything, you are an angel on earth."
That was it. My entire face felt like it was on fire. I just laughed it off, not noticing that Matt's cheeks were red as well.
After some convincing, we all decided to use the building and went off to explore. We all smelled food and went to go check it out. Sure enough, we found an entire dining hall with a large table co ered in delicious food.
I was skeptical to take a bite, but after everyone dug into the delicious spread, I couldn't help but take at least a few bites of food.
After I ate my fill, I left the room to explore alone. The halls were wide and quiet but didn't give me any strange feelings.
The walls were bare, but as I continued to walk around, only on painting was hanging on the wall.
It was the same size as the picture of the angel downstairs, framed in a gold with intricate designs.
The picture itself was of a child around my age. Their face was covered by their white hood with their cloak flying behind them.
Her lavender dress hugged her body nicely and flowed with the wind, beautiful designs resembling flowers were stitched all over her dress. Although most of her face was covered I could still see her kind and soft smile.
I couldn't stop staring at this girl, becasue she was similar to the child I saw in my dream earlier.
Could it be that this girl and the kid in my dream were one and the same.
"Raya!" Aomeome called for me down the hall. I looked down the hall and saw Luna running down the hall with the girls and their digimon.
"Luna, what's up?" I asked as she jumped into my arms.
"Sora found a bath, let's go and get cleaned up." She said happily. I was relieved to hear that there was a bath. Before I walked away, I took one last look at the wall to see that the painting was no longer there.
Luna directed me to the baths, where I stripped down and placed my clothes in one of the vacant baskets lined against the wall.
I wrapped my body with one of the towels and walked in, seeing the other girls already in the bath.
"Hey guys, room for two more?" I joked.
"Yeah, come on in, the water's great." Sora said.
I laughed, taking off my towel and slowly dipping into the water.
Mimi gasped as she saw my back, "Raya, where did those come from?" She asked.
I was confused for a minute, until I realized what she was looking at. I gently lay my hand on my shoulder, rubbing my fingers against one of the scars on my back.
"These? They're just old scars from the accident." I said.
Sora and Mimi went silent, along with all the digimon.
"Hey, will your leg be okay in hot water like this?" Sora asked.
I nodded with a smile, "Yeah, the material used to make my leg is water proof and resistant. There's no way to get ruin it in water."
"You've really been through a lot, haven't you Raya?" Palmon asked.
"Yeah, but that's all in the past and I don't regret what I did. I don't think Matt would have forgiven me if I was there and didn't do anything to save his baby brother."
Mimi waded over to me and grabbed my shoulders.
"Say, Raya, do you perchance happen to like Matt?" She teased. I gasped, my cheeks turning red in embarrassment.
"W-what?! What do you mean by that?" I stuttered, sinking into the water to hide my burning cheeks.
"I knew it! You do like Matt!" Mimi squealed.
"Stop teasing her, Mimi." Sora said, "But from your reaction, I have to agree with Mimi."
"Come on you guys, stop saying such things." I said, "Sure, Matt's a cool kid. He's kind and protective with a good head on his shoulders and decent looks, but then again... he's a mystery I really want to solve."
I stopped rambling and saw my friends smirking at me.
"Stop looking at me like that."
"Yeah, why don't you guys just relax." Gomamon said, surprising us as he floated in the water.
"Gomamon, what are you doing in here?" Sora exclaimed.
"Get back on the boys side!" Palmon used her vines, grabbed Gomamon and threw him over the wall separating the girls bath from the boys bath.
After we were all clean, we headed upstairs to find a bedroom, which didn't take too long.
We quickly found a room filled with enough bed for all of us.
We each took our own beds and got under the warm covers.
"The only thing better are bunk beds!" Tk said as he jumped into bed.
"The last time I had a bed this soft, I was dreaming." Izzy said as he touched the soft sheets.
"How I've missed sleeping on soft, silky sheets." Mimi said happily.
"I'll tell you what I don't miss, I don't miss hiking through the desert." Joe said, "And another thing I really don't miss is starving in the jungle. Oh, we are a long way from home."
He looked up amd saw our sad faces as we missed being back home.
"Sorry." He said.
"That's okay, Joe. We all miss being home and I'm sire we're all wondering if we'll ever get back there." Tai said sadly.
Matt lay back on his bed, "I bet our disappearance caused a big fuss at school and all over town. But we've been gone for so long, everybody must have given uo looking for us by now."
"Don't say things like that, Matt." I said.
"Mom and Dad wouldn't stop." Tk mumbled into his pillow.
After that, we all wemt to sleep, but my sleep was disrupted by a small hand tugging my sleeve. I opened my eyes and saw Tk standing by the side of my bed with a sad look on his face.
"Tk, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Can... Can I sleep with you tonight? Like how we used to?" He bashfully asked.
I smiled at his innocence and lifted my blankets to let him in.
He and Patamon quickly jumped under the covers, Tk wrapped his arms around my waist and buried his head into my chest.
Matt, who was still awake, saw the entire scene and smiled with a faint blush on his cheeks.
I slept for a couple of hours, when I was jolted awake by a strange feeling of emptiness.
I looked down and saw Tk sleeping peacefully in bed. I smiled and quietly got out of bed.
"Raya?" I turned around and saw Luna wide awake, "Where are you going?"
"I just have a bad feeling. I'm gonna check it out. Come with me?" She nodded and jumped into my arms.
I snuck out of the room as quietly as possible and walked down the halls. It was dark which didn't help the terrible feeling I had.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the little mage of the digital world." Someone behind me said.
I whipped around and saw the same dark digimon from earlier today. He stared at me with his devious smirk.
I backed away in fear, "What are you doing here? Who are you?" I asked, trying and failing to hide my fear.
"Hahaha, foolish little mage. I am Devil in, evil ruler if this world and you're mine now. Leomon take the child." He said.
I felt large arms grab me, squeezing me hard enough that I couldn't breathe and passed out due to lack of oxygen along with Luna.
A little while later, Tai and Agumon left bed to use the bathroom.
"I should have known it was you who was too afraid to go to the bathroom by yourself." Tai complained as Agumon went into a stall.
"Oh Tai, don't be upset with me. I'm not afraid. I didn't have to go to the bathroom, I just came along because I have to protect you." Agumon said.
"Then what are you doing in there?"
"I don't even want to talk about it, Tai. I don't know if that ugly green guys scared you, but he sure scared me. Who knows where he is now."
Just then, the stall next to Agumon burst open, revealing Ogremon in his full ugly glory.
"Now I am going to destroy you both." He said.
Tai and Agumon ran out of the restroom, shouting warnings to everyone.
But as they ran towards the bedroom, they were stopped by Leomon, saying that he had to destroy us all.
"Why do you hate me?"
"He hates you because I commanded him to hate you." Devimon said, appearing across the room.
"Agumon who is that?"
"That's Devimon."
"He looks bad."
"He is, this is the guy who infected the nightmare."
Devimon smirked, "I have no further use this imaginary building." In an instant, the building vanished and revealed itself to be nothung more than ruins.
The others cuddled in their beds woke up as soon as the cold air hit them.
"Wake up everybody, something's wrong!" Matt shouted.
"What happened?" Sora asked, seeing the ruined mansion.
"Hold a minute, where's Raya and Lunamon?" Tk panicked.
Devimon faced towards the beds and raised his hand, making the beds float into the air.
"Because you are strong together, I'll have to scatter you throughout the digital world."
"I hope this is a bad dream." Tai said.
"Tai~" Agumon moaned holding his stomach, "I'm too weak to walk, even after all that food I've eaten."
"The food, the bath, the building, none of it was real. I created all of it from your imagination. Pity, it worked on all of you except for that pesky little digi-mage."
"Digi-mage? What are you talking about?" Tai shouted confused.
Devimon held out his other hand revealed me and Luna, unconscious but still breathing.
"Raya! Lunamon! Listen creep, if you don't give bakc my friends, you'll be in really big trouble!" Tai threatened, but Devimon laughed.
"How amusing." He said, "I have far more important concerns than your friends. And besides, this child is far too powerful to leave her in your hands."
"They're my only concern! You bring them back and let Raya go now!" Tai shouted.
"Bring them back? Let the Digi-mage go? You ignorant brat, you dare order me? Allow me to show you who's really in control here."
The ground suddenly began to shake and tremble.
"You see, I've discovered a secret: the black gears from below. I call them forth to do my bidding, and with the Digo-mage in my possession, I can do so much more."
Infinity mountain cracked and the entire island was split into pieces with our friends being scattered along the wind.
"You and your friends happened upon this tiny island, which is only a fragment of this world, scattered across am enormous ocean. You pretend you are strangers who know nothing of this, but I'm aware that you are the Digidestined, and you have brought the Digi-mage to this world to help save it from my domination."
"You've got it all wrong. We were just some kids at summer camp who got sucked into your world!" Tai explained, "And there's no way Raya is a Digi-mage or whatever you call her!"
"Your little act no longer amuses me. It's time to bring an end to the Digidestined and their mage."
My eyes slowly creaked open, my vision blurry until I blinked it away. I tirned my head and saw Luna sleeping by my side, but the bed I was laying on wasn't so comfortable.
The memories of before flooded back into my mind. I panicked, grabbing Luna and looking down to see Tai face to face with a controlled Leomon.
Leomon grabbed Tai by the neck and was about to deliver the final blow.
"Yes, then the others one by one." Devimon said, "Once those children are out of the way, nothing will be able to stop me. Now, do it Leomon."
"As you command." Leomon grabbed his large blade and held it tightly.
I gulped, taking a risk and jumping from Devimon's hand.
"Leomon!" I shouted, "Break free from his hold! Remember what you said before? You said that you swore to protect the Digidestined. Don't break your vow now! Wake up!"
All of a sudden, a bright glow envoloped me, covering me in bright lavender.
The glow made me feel safe and warm as I slowly descended. My mind was numb as I spoke.
"Power of light that shines through the dark, heed my words. Let thy light shine and pierce through the shadows. Release their hold on one so true. I command you as the Digi-mage!"
My words echoed as another light from Tai's digivice erupted, making Leomon cry out in pain.
The light drove out the dark gear and released Leomon from Devimon's control.
I smiled as my body felt light and was flung across the sky. My vision turned black as my consciousness was lost.
Where I would land, only fate knows.