Voices surrounded him in the darkness. He shook and trembled as he tried to force his eyes open. It was no use, he thought. He was surrounded by darkness now. It seemed to be eating away at his heart and his soul. He screamed out in pain and agony; it was useless. No one was there to save him this time. Not his mother, father, or even his older brother, Yamato.
A bright light seemed to conquer the darkness he was immersed in. His vision was restored, but all he could manage to see was the bright blue hues of the skies above him. Breathlessly, he closed his eyes once again, only this time to wake up to a different place and time.
His body jolted up at the sound of his alarm clock.
"Takeru, are you awake?" His mother's sweet but alarmed voice chimed through his bedroom door which was shut and locked. "Yes, mom!" He assured brushing his hair into place. It was his first day of being at a new school. He'd hoped to see a few familiar faces, even though his brother would be entering a different school instead.
His head was throbbing as he continued eating his oatmeal. He mumbled a few words under his breath before he heard his mother's voice from her office. "You're going to be late for school, TK! Hurry up and finish your breakfast." Her sweet voice made his cheeks form his face into a wide grin. The new apartment was nice, he thought, but it could be a little better. He wished that his brother would come to see the place, but it was no use. He hadn't spoken to their mother in what felt like forever. He placed his dish in the sink and started walking towards his mother's open office door.
"I'm done mom, I'm leaving." He smiled peering into the small room. His mother sat buried in her computer. "Sorry I can't drive you to school on your first day, but I have to finish writing this article before the deadline; it's all about the historical significance of toilet paper." Her face flashed back to the computer. TK laughed at the thought of reading such an article, but he wished his mother luck as he walked out the door of the apartment.
He walked in silence to the elevator. He was surprised to see that it had actually stopped on the eighth floor, the one he lived on. "What's the odds of that?" He laughed as the doors opened to reveal two figures standing inside of the compartment. "How's it going?" He smiled eagerly for a response. "Fine, thank you." A shy girl with large glasses turned away as the shorter figure, a small boy, looked up to the blonde haired boy in front of him.
"Great! My name's Takeru, but you can call me TK. My mom and I just moved into this building. I'm in seventh grade class A, nice to meet you!" He smiled entering the elevator. The girl's face, which was framed by her long, pale purple hair, lit up. "Oh, hi!" She smiled back. "My name's Yolei, would you like to walk to school with us? It takes exactly-" TK cut her off with his response. "Of course!" He smiled. "Oh, and this is Cody!" She smiled as the younger boy's face lit up. His dark brown hair caught a small amount of the light which was illuminating the area around them. "Hey, TK. Welcome to the building." The shy boy smiled innocently. "Come on, we don't want to be late on our first day!" The boy smiled as the elevator door finally closed behind them. TK nodded and smiled.
Yolei and Cody seemed to talk the entire time they were walking. TK listened closely to their conversation, but not enough to actually understand what they were talking about. Something about Yolei coming over to help him fix a computer, it seemed innocent enough. As they walked through the gates of the school, TK saw what seemed to be a familiar face. TK stopped to take a closer look in disbelief. A pair of goggles reflected light into his eyes from across the field. As the light receded, he saw the outline of a soccer ball coming towards him. He jumped up quickly and caught the ball.
The boy approached him smiling. "Thanks, great catch!" TK was too caught up in his thoughts of how much this boy reminded him of his friend from the past, Taichi. His sapphire blue eyes piercing through the boy's inner layers. The boy just stared back for a second before raising one eyebrow. "Huh?" He said as the ball was swiftly thrown into his stomach. "Sorry, you just look familiar!" TK smiled pointing to the top of the boy's head. "It must be the goggles." He laughed.
"Hey, Davis! You're holding up the game!" A boy's voice boomed from across the field. Davis stared at the ball in his hands and then back to the new boy's face. He sighed and turned back around, kicking the ball back onto the field. "What am I thinking?" TK laughed to himself. "That can't be Tai, he's a much better soccer player than that kid!" He continued to laugh to himself as he started walking towards the school building. Davis quickly turned back to where the boy had been standing, but quickly realized that he was no longer there.
Davis walked over to a girl wearing a pink and white tank top. "Alright! With luck, you're in my class again Kari!" The boy smiled endlessly as the girl turned around. She smiled back at the boy and responded to his previous comment. "I wouldn't call that luck." The girl giggled before returning to her seat. She placed a red hair clip in her hair to make sure her bangs didn't fall in her face. "Hey, the weirdest thing just happened!" Davis exclaimed. "Some kid told me I reminded him of someone, he probably thought I was a movie star!" The boy's eyes gleamed with pride.
The room went silent as the teacher walked to the podium in the front of the room. "I'm Mr. Hamisake, I'll be your new teacher. I would like you all to welcome a new student. Davis and Kari's eyes shot to the blonde boy entering the room. Kari's look was that of intrigue and happiness, while Davis' was more of disbelief. It was the boy who he had just met in the school yard.
TK's blue eyes shot in Kari's direction. His heart began to pound as he introduced himself to the class. "Please take a seat to the girl with the... the camera around her neck." The teacher turned to face the board as TK took his new seat next to Kari. "Together again!" He smiled sitting down beside the girl. "Just like old times." She giggled.
Davis' eyes lit up with fury as he saw his Kari talking to the new boy. He couldn't believe someone was actually trying to make a move on his Kari! "Our teacher looks like Ogremon!" Kari laughed at the vision of Ogremon teaching a class.
"Agumon!" Taichi's voice echoed throughout the digital world. "Tai, you're here!" Agumon exclaimed in disbelief and pain, but mostly pain. Tai looked to the small device in the palm of his hand. "Agumon, you have to digivolve!" He turned back to Agumon who stared back at the older boy. "That's why I need your help, I can't digivolve!" His tone turned more panicked with every word.
An evil laugh emerged from a crooked smile. "There's no way they can digivolve." The boy spat from behind tinted glasses which covered all his emotion except for his wicked smile. "As long as I have the black digivice, no one can digivolve!" He exclaimed and laughed once again, pushing part of his black hair away from the front of his glasses.
Tai screamed as he saw an incoming digimon. He scooped up an exhausted Agumon into his arms and started running. Agumon jumped from his arms and began running beside him. Gatomon popped out from behind a tree and screamed at the two to move faster. Gatomon led the group to a small cavern where they hid from the evil digimon. Tai quickly grabbed a way to contact the others from his pocket. He sent a message as soon as he could to whoever might be able to read it. He knew that only his friends, the digidestined, would understand what it was asking.
TK and Kari had been together for the entire day catching up on what had happened in the past four years. TK joked about some things, but was serious on others. They talked about the different adventures they'd had with the digimon they'd grown to love. They decided to change the topic as the conversation went from joyful to depressing. They were walking into the library when Davis walked up behind them. "Hey, TJ, I don't see why you've been with Kari all day!" Davis' head was steaming with rage as he grabbed onto her shoulder. She was his Kari after all.
TK's eyes were wide. Was he really that jealous of him spending a little time with Kari, the girl he hadn't seen in four years? The girl he was sworn to protect so long ago, but now that the Dark Masters were gone, he really had no reason to protect her from anything. TK was getting really tired of Davis trying to slit him and Kari up. They'd missed each other, wasn't that explanation good enough for him? They heard rushed footsteps behind them. TK turned around to see Yolei behind them "You're Hikari Kamiya, aren't you?" She stepped past TK and Davis and went strait to Kari. She nodded. Yolei handed her a piece of paper with a printed out email on it.
Her eyes shot to TK. He knew that look, the one he'd seen so many times in the past. He'd missed it. He nodded as she explained the note.
They were on their way to the school computer lab when they ran into Koushirou. Yolei smiled as she saw him. "You're Izzy Izumi, right?! The old computer club president!" The girl's eyes widened. His eyes looked past her to TK and Kari. "We have to get to the digital world, Tai needs our help!" Kari exclaimed. He nodded and told them how he'd gotten the same email. They all rushed to the computer lab and booted up one of the computers.
"I remember Tai talked about the digital world a couple of times." Davis was talking to himself. TK looked to him in shock. "You know Tai?" He questioned, Davis nodded. "They played on the same soccer team." Kari explained. He shrugged as Izzy finished loading up the computer. A weird screen expanded itself on the computer monitor. "We have to go!" Kari screamed approaching the computer only to be trapped in TK's arms. "We can't just rush in there without thinking!" He tightened his hold on the small girl. Kari turned around and placed her hands on his chest, trying to push him away.
"Will you too stop fighting?!" Yolei screamed from behind them. Kari stopped struggling and looked TK into the eyes. It took them a few seconds to realize that they hadn't moved from the spot. TK then unwrapped his arms from around her and turned away. "I'm sorry, TK. You're right." Kari placed a hand on his shoulder. He took in a deep breath before turning back around. "Of course I'm right." He joked. Kari smiled, always enjoying his humor.
"Yolei, you promised to come and help me fix my computer!" Cody peered his head through the door of the computer room. She tried to tell him that she just couldn't, but when his eyes started tearing up, she sighed with defeat. "I'll see you guys later." He gave a semi smile and walked out the door with Cody.
"Well, Izzy, what do we do?" Kari asked with her innocent eyes. "Well, wherever you guys go, I'm going too!" Davis exclaimed. "It's not that easy, Davis." TK tried to explain. Instead of taking his words without a fuss, Davis instead started steaming. He clenched his fist together, about to hit TK, as Kari stepped in between the two. "He's right, Davis. You need a digivice to go to the digital world. Izzy, any ideas?" Kari turned to face the boy who was standing over by the window, thinking. As Izzy approached the computer, a bright light spiraled out of the screen. Bright blue, red, and yellow lights spiraled out of the room, one landing in Davis' hands.
"What's this?" A white and blue device appeared in his hands. Everyone's eyes beamed at the device before Izzy finally opened his mouth. "It's a digivice!" He exclaimed, walking over to examine it closer. Kari and TK's eyes met before shooting once again to the device in Davis' hand. "It's a different model than ours." Kari pulled her digivice out of her pocket.
"I just can't wait any longer!" Kari stepped towards the computer, holding her digivice out with one hand. "I'm with you!" TK exclaimed and did the same. A bright light began to surround them. Davis soon followed, and they were all sucked into the digital portal.
"What just happened, Izzy? What was that light?" Yolei burst back into the room. Izzy looked at her and then back to the computer. Her eyes met his and narrowed even more. "Where are they?" She screamed.
"Wow, nice. I look totally rad!" Davis admired his new outfit. He reached to the top of his head with a sigh. He still had his favorite goggles. "Davis!" Kari's voice came from behind him. He turned with a smile which then turned into a flat expression as he saw TK running next to her. "We have to find Tai and Agumon!" TK exclaimed as they began running towards Davis. "Agu...mon?" Davis' eyes narrowed and turned to the path that weaved through the trees.
"TK? Kari?" They'd been walking for some time before they heard Tai's voice from down the path. "Tai!" Kari screamed as she began to run. TK and Davis followed. As Tai turned the corner, they saw him, Agumon, and two more familiar faces. "Patamon!" TK exclaimed as the small orange digimon flew into his arms. "TK! I've missed you!" He snuggled into TK. "Gatomon!" Kari screamed as tears began to form in her eyes. "Kari!" She ran and jumped into her arms and wrapped her arms around the girl that she hadn't seen in what seemed like forever.
The group found their way to a cave as Tai explained what had happened to the digital world. Gatomon and Patamon helped with his explanation. "So the Digimon Emperor has these dark rings that can take control of digimon?" Kari asked, leaning against the wall of the cave. "He came with this black digivice and ever since then it's been one dirty litter box around here." Gatomon peered over to Kari with her words. "Like this?" Davis showed her his device that had come out of the computer. "That's it! You must be working for the Digimon Emperor!" Gatomon exclaimed. TK stepped between the feline digimon and Davis. "No, it came out of the computer just before we came." TK defended the boy, which surprised Davis.
"You mean, a dark ring like that?!" TK exclaimed as he spotted a black ring-like structure floating in the air. Everyone's eyes shot to the dark ring, which seemed to be just floating there. Everyone paused for a second. "Run!" The ring shot forward towards Kari. She let out a scream as she felt herself being pushed to the side. TK let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground. "TK!" Kari screamed rushing to his side. He quickly pushed her away and screamed at her to run. She noticed the dark ring closing itself on his neck. Gatomon grabbed her and forced her to run away as tears rolled down her face.
"TK!" Kari fell to her knees and punched the ground with her fists. If he had just let her be the one who got attacked, he wouldn't be hurting. She could still hear her friend's screams coming from the cave. He forcefully covered her ears to tone it out.
Tai put his hand on her shoulder and assured her that he would be fine. She uncovered her ears to find that he was no longer screaming. She looked to the entrance of the cave. Her eyes narrowed as she saw a figure emerge. A shadowy figure came from the cave. It looked like TK, but Kari knew that there was no way that thing, whatever it was, was TK. His blonde hair seemed to be flat and dull. His eyes were no longer that shocking blue. Patamon flew from behind Kari towards TK. As he landed on the ground before him, TK simply kicked him out of the way. That was when Kari noticed the black ring still around his neck.
"We have to get back to the cave!" Tai exclaimed pulling Davis off the ground. Kari and Davis looked at Tai and nodded. "Davis, you go with Tai. I'll distract... whoever that is." She turned once again to the darkness that came from TK.
"Hey!" Kari shouted from behind TK. He turned to face her with an evil smile. His glare made her heart pound with anger. She turned to Gatomon who was standing by her side. The small digimon nodded and started to run towards the boy. As she jumped towards him, he, as if it was no problem at all, swatted her out of the way and into a tree. This made Kari's blood boil.
In the heat of the moment, she started to sprint towards him. She nearly missed his face with her fist. Sure, she may be a girl, but when she got mad she knew how to defend herself. "First you take over my friend." She threw another punch, grazing him across his left cheek. He snickered as he stepped back. "Then you hurt his digimon partner." She screamed as he took a swing at her. This caught her off guard, TK would never swing at a girl, especially her. "Then you hurt my digimon." She kicked at his knee which sent him to the ground. She jumped on top of him and punched him once again in with her right fist. "And now, you're trying to hurt me!" She threw another punch at the boy, but this time he caught her hand.
Tears began to form in her eyes as his grip tightened against the outside of her hand. She tried to swing with her other hand, but he just caught that fist too. A crooked smile appeared on his face. "TK!" She let out a yelp as he rolled over on top of her, pinning her to the ground. "Kari!" Gatomon screamed running towards the two. The boy freed one of Kari's hands and pushed away the white cat digimon. Kari managed to flip them over once again and punched him once again. Tears streamed down her cheeks as he grabbed her hand once again. His red eyes glared up evilly at her before softening. A few tears managed to fall to his cheek. His mouth gaped open as he saw Kari's amber eyes in front of him. His once blue eyes were now a deep, bloody red. Something inside of him felt cold, but Kari felt something forming in his cloudy eyes. He let go of Kari's hands and his eyes began to become tearful.
Kari's heart seemed to stop beating at the sight of his tears. Kari pulled her head to his chest and sobbed. She then remembered the dark ring that was still around his neck. She lifted her head up and heard the boy scream. "TK!" Her voice echoed inside of his head. He tried standing up but only got to his knees before wrapping his hands around his head and pulling on his hair in an attempt to make the throbbing stop. He screamed at the top of his lungs in pain. TK, that's who he was. Visions of him, Kari, and even his brother ran through his head.
"Kari?" His eyes turned to to the girl who was standing a few feet in front of him. He stood up slowly, stumbling towards the shaken girl. She closed her eyes in fear only to hear the loud thud of TK's body hitting the ground. Her eyes shot open as she saw Davis standing behind him with a large egg with what seemed to be a spike through it. She saw the dark ring that was once around his next fly off into tiny pieces before disintegrating into the air. She quickly rushed to TK's side, taking him into her arms. She sobbed into his chest once again, pulling her head up when he placed his hand on her shoulder.
He opened his eyes first, those wonderful blue eyes, then his mouth as if to speak before passing out once again. Patamon rushed to his side as well and Gatomon stood beside Kari. His hand dropped from her shoulder and his body was limp, but she knew that he was strong and would be just fine. Davis helped her pull him to the cave where the ring had taken control of him.
"So what's that?" Kari said as they laid TK down on the ground. "That's the DigiEgg of courage!" A small, playful voice chimed. Kari turned to face the voice to see a small blue digimon. "Oh, he's Veemon by the way." Davis smiled pointing to his new little partner. "He's Davis' digimon." Tai finished walking around a crook in the cave. Kari's eyes widened, but then narrowed as she nodded.
TK leaned up in shock, his blue eyes sparkling. "You should rest." Kari smiled, trying to force him to lay back down. "What... what happened?" He asked groggily. He felt his cheek which was throbbing. "I'm sorry about that." Kari said as she removed his hand from the swelling part of his face. "It's ok, I know you had a good reason." He smiled as he felt her warm hand against his. His eyes widened and he tried to turn away. "Don't move, TK. You're just going to hurt yourself." She pulled him back to the same spot.
Suddenly, they heard a sound coming from outside the cave. Tai, Davis, Agumon, and Veemon rushed once again to the mouth of the cave while Kari, Gatomon, and Patamon stayed at TK's side. TK jumped up once again. "It's Monochromon!" He screamed, attempting to get to his feet. "No, TK! Lay back down!" Kari pleaded with the boy but it was no use. When he finally stood up, his feet collapsed under him smashing his face into the hard rock of the cave floor. "TK!" She grabbed him once again and dragged him back to the spot she'd laid him in the first place.
"It's a Monochromon!" Tai exclaimed. Agumon attempted to fight him, but it was no use. Agumon wasn't powerful enough without being able to digivolve, not to mention being at half strength because of the Digimon Emperor's control spires. The Monochromon's red eyes stared back as he began chasing the four. "Davis!" Veemon pleaded. "Use the DigiEgg! Use your courage to open the egg!" Davis stopped and turned to face Monochromon who was a few hundred feet behind them. "I'm not afraid of you!" He screamed as the egg in his hand began to glow. Veemon was right behind him as he exclaimed for the first time, "DigiArmor, energize!".
Veemon successfully digivolved into Flamedramon and successfully destroyed the black ring from around the large digimon's body. When Flamedramon returned to Veemon, they all rushed back to the cave where TK was now lying, unconscious, next to Kari. "We have to take him home!" Kari pleaded. They waited a little for TK to wake back up. He ground his teeth as he tried to stand up on his own. Kari found that he had to help him up as well as that her and Davis had to help him walk.
They heard Izzy and Yolei's voices nearby. They'd been walking in the forest for a while before they came across what appeared to be a television set. On the screen they saw Izzy sitting at a table with Yolei and Cody, stuffing their faces with brownies.
"Hey, what does it mean when the light on that thing goes on?"
"What thing?" Izzy looked at the computer screen. Yolei pointed to the screen. Her eyes were wide as she saw Davis, Tai, TK, and Kari on the screen staring back at her. Davis' face soon filled the tiny screen on the monitor. "Hey, guys! Let me in, it's Davis!" He screamed as the computer began to emit light. The four were piled onto the other three, TK unfortunately groaning at the bottom. At least he was already numb, he thought. "Get off you guys, you're crushing my brownies!" Everyone laughed as Izzy pushed everyone up.
Everyone got up and brushed themselves off. TK was still on the floor, obviously in pain. "We'll help him get home." Tai assured pulling him up off of the floor. Kari nodded and wrapped his other arm around her neck. He first turned to Tai to thank him, then back to Davis for helping him in the digital world. Finally he turned to Kari. As he faintly blushed, he thanked her as well. "For everything." He added, making the girl shift underneath his arm.
They'd decided to take him to his father's and Matt's house instead of taking him to his mother's. It was safer that way, his father already knew a little about the digimon, though he'd forgotten most of it over the past years. TK passed out on the sofa while Tai was explaining what had gone on to his older brother, Matt. Matt crossed his arms and agreed that bringing him there was the best thing to do, there was no need to make his mother worry.
Tai and Kari left soon after seeing that TK was safely asleep on the couch, hugging a pillow to his chest. Little did they know what was really going on in his head.