“Glynna-vyre, you know that we cannot interfere,” Mishka told her as they approached the doorway of the garden.
   “I know,” she replied quietly.  Spreading her wings as she cleared the garden path, she took off.  Mishka slowly returned to the centre of the garden, where, next to the circle could be found a pond.
   “Vides, videt, video, omnium et nihil sed angelicae,” he chanted and the pond burst into brilliant light.  There he could watch the movements of Glynna and see what she could see.  He knelt there for a long time, watching her, and thinking.  If only you knew , he thought to himself, if only I could tell you.
   He shook his head to clear his thoughts and concentrated on the words that Glynna was now speaking.  The sky overhead began to change colours, from black to blue to purple and then red.  Finally in a brilliant flash of light, the sky returned to normal.  A short time later, Glynna came stumbling back into the garden, weak and pale.
   “Finem facere,” were her final words before collapsing in the centre of the circle.  A faint glow encapsulated her body and once it had faded only Glynn remained. The angelicae had accomplished their task.
   Mishka scooped up her frail unconscious body and carried her back to her house.  Inside, he carried her through the small one bedroom house to her room and placed her on the bed.  He noticed for the first time that they were both soaked through and that Glynn’s pallor was taking on a blue tint.  He quickly changed her into her warmest flannel pyjamas and drew the covers over her shaking body.  He knew that she would be unconscious until morning and it would take another day after that until she was completely coherent again. 
   Again, he thought bitterly, again and again and again, always again.  But I can’t tell her.             “Ah, Glynna-vyre, you have no idea how much I hate this and what it does to you.  You’ll never know,” he whispered to her quietly, stroking her face, a single tear streaming down his own.
   After some time, shivering himself, he pulled his spare set of clothing out of her bottom drawer and quickly changed.  The rain outside had started coming down harder than ever.  It was pitch black outside. Even the lights from the surrounding houses seemed dimmed somehow.  He threw their wet clothes into the dryer in the living room and returned to Glynn’s room.   He would sleep on the pull-out couch in her room, for tomorrow would be a long and hard day.


   In Glynn’s dreams, she was in another world.  It was a fantastic world filled with beautiful and magical creatures, creatures with endless wisdom, undying loyalty and unwavering trust in the chosen ones.  They helped the chosen ones when they were in danger, while the chosen ones protected their world in exchange.  Glynn felt absolute joy in her heart at all the beauty that surrounded her.  It had been so long since she had felt so much emotion, it brought tears to her eyes.  She was surrounded by so much beauty, she didn’t want to leave.
   “Glynna,” a voice whispered on the wind.
   “Who’s there?” Glynn asked, looking around, seeing no one.
   “Glynna,” the voice whispered again.
   Glynn was beginning to think that she was going crazy, or that her ears were playing tricks on her.  Maybe it’s just the wind, she thought to herself, knowing that it wasn’t really.
   “Glynna-vyre, you know what you have to do.”
   This time the voice had come from behind her and she immediately saw who had spoken to her.  It was one of the mystical creatures from this world that she was in.
   “Hello, little one,” she called to it, getting down on one knee.
   “You know what you have to do,” it repeated.
   Suddenly it was gone, and so was everything else.  All around her was black.  Unfortunately, while she couldn’t see anything, she could hear so much.  She was surrounded by screams and cries of  agony.  These were the sounds of Hell.  All around her she could feel the heat of flames and hear the crackling. 
   “YOU CAN’T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!” a voice screamed through her head, causing searing pain behind her eyes. 
   She could feel the flames getting closer.  Her skin was on fire now.  She rolled on the ground screaming in pain.


   “MISHKAAAAA!!!” she screamed.
   Mishka was already there, holding down her shoulders, trying to keep her from flailing about.  He applied a cold cloth to her burning forehead and spoke soothing words to her.  Slowly she began to calm down.
   The morning had progressed the way Mishka had thought it would.  The high temperature and the hallucinations had begun shortly after dawn.  They would begin to fade before the next night fall, but the day was only going to get worse before it got better.  For now, all he could do was stay with her and try and keep her cool.  He had opened all the windows in the house and was constantly replenishing the water in the cloth he pressed to her forehead
   He remembered the first time that she had gone through this.  He had been scared to death that he was going to lose his best friend.  When the Watcher had first appeared to him and revealed the truth to him, he had thought he was losing his mind.  Now he understood his duty, and was resigned to their destiny.  He only wished he could tell her the truth.  She believed that she was chronically ill, which worked in their favour in regards to dealing with school officials.  Since both her parents had died last summer in a tragic car accident, nobody questioned her prolonged and frequent absences from class, or her strange mood swings.  But he knew.  He knew the truth that she didn’t even know about herself.  And he also knew that he loved her.

---

   “So you’re saying that T.K. remembered the girl’s name and you’re sure that she’s the one the legend spoke of,” Gatomon asked.
   “Uh huh,” responded Patamon, nodding solemnly.
   “So?” asked Demi-Veemon, “she isn’t here yet, they’re only dreaming about her, that means that we still have time, doesn’t it?”
   “I guess,” Gatomon agreed, but her eyes showed her uncertainty.
   “You know that we can’t interfere,” Patamon added quietly, unknowingly echoing Mishka’s words.
   All the partner digimon nodded solemnly, their eyes filled with dread. 
   “I just wish that we could help prepare them for what’s coming,” Poromon said.
   “Well we can’t,” Gatomon interjected brusquely.
   The others were all taken aback by her sudden brusqueness, except Patamon, who knew that she was hurting more than anyone would ever know.


   “What happened to you?” asked T.K. when he met Kari after school.
   Though she and Davis had both scrubbed until their faces and hands were raw, they couldn’t seem to get all of the soot off.  Kari still had some in her hair and in stubborn patches on her face.
   “We set our lab on fire,” she said with a grin on her face.
   “You’re joking!” T.K. asked in disbelief.
   Kari just shook her head, chuckling. 
   Of course, while she was taking this all in good humour, Davis was not a happy camper.  He was walking down the hall with his girlfriend, Koneko, and a glower on his face.
   “–and then, just to make matters worse, we got a new lab assistant,” Davis was grumbling to the poor girl.
   “How’s that make things worse?” she asked innocently.
   “Because it was Ken, that’s why.  He almost died laughing at me and Kari.”
   It was all that poor Koneko could do to keep from laughing out loud.  He was so miserable that she knew it would only make things worse.  But when they reached Kari and T.K. and she saw the soot lining Kari’s face and T.K.’s evident mirth, she couldn’t help herself anymore.  Davis just stood there, glaring at his poor hapless girlfriend rolling on the floor clutching her sides and gasping for air.
   “I’m–I’m so–sor–sorry!!” she gasped out between snorts.
   “Yeah, I’ll bet,” Kari said, chuckling under her breath.  She was sure that Davis would be blushing if it was possible under all that soot.  For some reason, he was hardly able to get any of it off, so his face was still almost entirely black, probably the reason he couldn’t see the same humour in the situation that Kari could.
   “What’s wrong T.K?” asked Koneko, having finally caught her breath and noticing the serious expression on his face.
   “Huh?” he asked confused, his mind having drifted again, “I was just thinking about the dream again.”
   “Oh,” she nodded in understanding.  She wasn’t one of the digidestined, and she wasn’t having the dream herself, but she knew about what was going on.
   “Can anyone remember what the girl’s name was?” Kari asked, growing serious.
   Everybody shook their heads, including T.K., remembering what Patamon had told him about not telling anyone.
   “Hmmm,” she shook her head, “Gatomon seemed to think that it was important somehow.  It’s strange, no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to remember what her name was.”
   Davis nodded in agreement, “Demi-Veemon was acting weird about the whole thing last night too.”
   “The strain to keep quiet in front of his friends was really starting to get to T.K.  He had to get out of there before he let something slip.  He turned on his heel and started walking down the hall.  Davis and Koneko looked at Kari questioningly.  All she could do was shrug and ran to catch up to him.
   “What was that about?” she asked when she reached him.
   “Nothing, I just need to get home,” he answered non-chalantly.
   “Whatever,” she replied rolling her eyes, knowing better then to push.  They continued to walk home in silence.
   About halfway to Kari’s house she stopped walking and was staring at something.  T.K. noticed she wasn’t with him about a half a block later and backtracked to find her staring into space on the corner of the street.  Tears were streaming down her face.  T.K. was immediately concerned, and ran towards her.
   “Kari??” he asked, taking hold of her shoulders.
   “You knew,” she whispered quietly, not looking him in the eyes.
   “What are you talking about Kari?”
   “You knew, and you didn’t tell me.  But that’s okei, really.  Because now I know too, and we can’t say anything, can we?” she continued.  Her face was up, but it was as though she were seeing through T.K.
   “Kari, I’m sorry, but Patamon said that I couldn’t tell you.  Wait a minute, how do you know?”  his eyes sharpened.
   “Because they’re telling me.”