Infection

Part 1

Ice cold wind bit into Kari, freezing the blood in her veins. The sand beneath her feet was unnaturally white, a stark contrast to the dark water she could hear lapping against the shoreline. In the distance a white lighthouse stood out against the stormy sky. Instead of a light shining from the tower, dark black energy cut through the sky, casting misery out along the shore.

Kari's heart sped up in fear as she took in her surroundings. They were frightfully familiar. A place she had visited before. Hopelessness washed over Kari. It was a feeling that went hand in hand with the dark ocean.

She thought of her brother Tai who was strong and brave. She thought of her best friend TK, whose determination to rescue her had saved her the last time she had found herself trapped in this dark place. She wasn't strong like them. She couldn't save herself.

The black light shining from the light house suddenly froze. She could no longer hear the water lapping against the sand. It was unnaturally quite. A dark shadow slowly emerged from the water. It was a giant figure with pointed horns on each side of its hooded head, two leathery wings surrounding its thick body. Memories hit Kari. Memories of a terrifying enemy, too strong for her friends to defeat. One they had, in desperation, locked away in the dark ocean.

The digimon didn't say anything. Its eyes bore down on her, taking her in. Kari wondered what it thought of her, the small child of light alone surrounded by crushing darkness.

Kari thought she heard the echo of a deep, mocking laughter before she woke with a start.

Tai

Tai was late, why was he always late? He could have sworn he set his alarm this morning!

Tai rushed around his apartment trying to collect his things. He wouldn't mind if he was late for school but the last thing he needed was another lecture from his mum, his teachers, or even worse from Sora.

Tai sighed. It wasn't that he didn't want to go to school, he was looking forward to seeing his friends. He just found school so boring. He missed the days of the digital world, having adventures and hanging out with his friends. Six years ago he was the leader of a group of children who saved the world. Today he had maths and history.

Tai almost crashed into his sister Kari. He expected a snarky comment about his time management skills and did a double take when it didn't come. Kari did look a bit pale, like she hadn't slept well.

"Hey, are you OK Kari?" he asked, automatically worried. Worrying about his little sister was a habit from his childhood that Tai didn't think would ever go away. Tai would always put her first.

"I'm fine, I just didn't sleep very well" Kari smiled. She was already dressed. Knowing her she had been ready for hours.

"Aren't you late?" Kari asked, some of her usual humour returning.

"Yeah, yeah" Tai said, rolling his eyes.

Tai sat down on the green grass of the school's soccer pitch. He had just finished training and was stretching his legs. It felt good to be outside playing soccer after a long day of school. The soccer pitch was the one place he had left where he still felt like a leader. If he closed his eyes he could almost pretend he was back in the digital world relaxing on the grass with his friends after an exciting battle.

Tai sighed. It seemed like he was stuck in the past while everyone else was moving on. He had hardly seen his friends today. Matt was busy with his band and extra homework. Sora had tennis, not to mention she was avoiding some of Tai's team mates who had been trying to convince her to re-join the soccer team. Izzy was in a different grade and busy doing some computer thing that Tai only pretended to understand. Joe, TK and Davis all went to other schools.

Tai looked out across the field to where the cheerleaders had also just finished training. His eyes lingered on a girl with long, light brown hair. He'd heard Mimi was back but he hadn't seen her for himself until now, apparently she had joined the cheer squad. Tai laughed feeling a bit sorry for the other cheerleaders. Not everyone was use to Mimi's unique enthusiasm and most of the cheerleaders looked exhausted. Tai picked himself up of the ground and went over to say hello.

"Hey Mimi," he greeted.

"Tai!" Mimi cried with enthusiasm throwing her arms around him in a tight hug.

Tai hugged her back with a grin on his face. He hadn't seen Mimi since her return from America and he hadn't realised how much he had missed her.

"It's great to see you Mimi! Are you back for good now?" Tai asked.

"Hopefully! I loved living in America but I missed you guys so much!" Mimi said. "How is everyone? I can't wait to see them!"

"Everyone is really good. You haven't seen anyone else yet?" Tai asked.

"No, Izzy is the only one in my grade but he's not in any of my classes of course," she said.

Tai smiled, he couldn't help but notice how pretty Mimi had gotten. Not that she wasn't always pretty but… Nope, stop right there he told himself.

Mimi was still talking. "I've been talking to Sora on the phone. We're going to have a girl's night at my new house. Do you think Kari would like to come? We can invite Yolie too."

"Umm … sounds fun," Tai said. "I'm sure Kari would love to come."

"Great! I'll call her! The rest of us really should do something too. I want to see everybody!" Mimi said.

"Yeah definitely."

"Awesome! Well I better go but it was really good to see you Tai." Mimi said.

"Yeah bye Princess," Tai said.

Mimi huffed and gave Tai's arm a gentle slap at the reminder of her time as Princess Mimi but Tai could see she was smiling.

"Bye Tai!" Mimi left, jogging to catch up with some of her friends.

Tai watched her leave before he noticed that some of his teammates were staring. He shot them a glare and headed back to the changerooms.

Joe

Joe pushed his hand through his hair with a huff. He was currently at the library with his school books spread out around him. He's been here since school finished a few hours ago. Despite the extra effort he had been putting into his school work his grades hadn't been improving. He was exhausted, maybe he was coming down with something.

Joe looked across the table to where his friend Matt was sitting with a take away coffee. Sometimes Joe wondered if Matt even ate during the day or if he just survived off an endless amount of caffeine. Joe and Matt had been studying together for a few weeks now and in that time Matt's grades had been improving. At least someone's have, Joe thought to himself.

Deciding it was time to take a break from his own work Joe picked up his younger friends work to check over it. Joe couldn't help but be surprised by how good Matt's work was. He was impressed. Impressed, not jealous … OK maybe a little bit jealous.

"This is really good," Joe said sliding Matt's work back across the table.

"Thank you," Matt said.

"Hey Matt," Joe said. "What's with all the work you've been doing lately? I never thought you were all that interested in school."

"I don't know," Matt shrugged. "Well … I'm not like you, you've always known you wanted to be a doctor but I have no idea what I want to do. I guess I just want to keep my options open."

"That's smart," Joe said.

"Yeah thanks." Matt said. He seemed to study Joe for a moment. "You doing OK Joe?" he asked.

Joe sighed deeply. "I've just got so much work to do and my grades are nowhere good enough. I don't know what my parents will say if I fail." Joe admitted.

"Do you want me to leave?" Matt asked.

"No!" Joe said immediately. He wouldn't admit it, he knew it was childish, but Joe missed his friends. Spending time with Matt, even if they were studying, was nice. He wished he could take some time off and see his other friends more but he had to be responsible.

"You know it's not the end of the world if you don't end up being a doctor right?" Matt said. "There are plenty of jobs you'd be great at, you know being reliable and all that?"

Tell that to my parents, Joe thought.

"Yeah thanks Matt," Joe said instead. Trust the bearer of the crest of friendship to cheer him up even temporarily. Matt looked uncomfortable at the deep turn the conversation had taken. Joe decided to help him out. "So how's TK?" he asked.

When Joe returned home later that afternoon his mind was on the numerous assignments waiting for him on his desk. It looked as though his mum had spent the day cleaning. Joe could smell the bleach in the air and it left an uncomfortable taste in his mouth.

"Where have you been?" Joe's mum asked as soon when she saw him.

"I was with a friend," Joe said. "We were studying," he added at his mother's concerned look.

"Well I suppose that's fine, as long as you're not falling behind," she said.

Joe tried to smile in response but he was sure it came out more like a grimace.

Tai

Tai dumped his backpack on the ground by the front door. He knew his parents were out of town for the night visiting his grandma. He wondered if there was any food in the fridge, any food his mother didn't cook that was.

Tai was just considering calling Matt and getting him to cook something when he almost crashed into his sister.

"Hey what are you doing here?" Tai asked. "Didn't Mimi call you? She was going to invite you over to her house"

"Yeah she did. I didn't feel like going anywhere tonight," Kari said.

"OK." Tai looked at Kari. She looked pale and she was missing her regular smile. "Are you OK Kari?"

"I'm fine," she said. "I'm just tired."

"Kari." Tai took a step closer to his sister laying a comforting hand on her arm. "I'm worried. Please tell me what's wrong."

Kari took a deep breath. "It's … I had a dream last night."

Tai gently led Kari to the couch and they sat down together. "A dream?" he asked.

"I dreamt that I was in the dark ocean." Kari admitted.

Tai felt his stomach drop. "Oh."

"I'm scared Tai." Kari admitted with a trembling voice. "What if it takes me again? I can't…."

"Woah Kari listen …" Tai reached out and held onto Kari looking into her eyes. "It was just a dream OK? And even if it wasn't you know I'd never let anything hurt you again. Neither would TK, Davis, Yolie or Matt. You've got so many friends to protect you."

Kari looked away.

"Seriously Kari it was just a dream OK?" Tai said.

"OK," Kari's voice trembled. Tai could tell she wasn't convinced. He tried to think of something that would cheer her up.

"We don't have school tomorrow. How about you call TK and I'll take you both to get ice cream?"

Kari smiled weakly. "Thank you Tai."

"That's OK," he said. "How about I get you something to eat?"

Tai went to the kitchen and had a quick look through the cupboards. "There's nothing to eat I'm calling Matt."

"Did you only invite me over to feed you? I'm not your mother Tai," Matt huffed as he worked his way around the Yagami's kitchen.

Tai walked up behind Matt and wrapped his arms around Matt's middle. "Of course not," he said, "you're more like my husband."

Matt responded with a sharp elbow to Tai's stomach but Tai could see a small smile on his face.

"I saw Mimi today," Tai said lifting himself up to sit on the kitchen bench.

"Yeah, how is she?" Matt asked.

"She's good. We all should all do something soon, it's been so long since we've all been together," Tai said.

"Yeah good luck getting everyone together, everyone has been so busy lately. I studied with Joe today, you should have heard him talking about how much work he has to do." Matt said.

"Yeah whatever Mr Brainiac, I still say we should do something. We can have a party. Hey! I'll hire your band! What are you called now?" Tai teased.

"Knife of Day," Matt said.

Tai smiled but held back from teasing Matt further. He understood Matt better than most people thought he did and knew when not to push.

"Really though we should do something," Tai said.

"Yeah," Matt said.

Later Tai and Matt were sitting in the Yagami's living room with Kari having just finished their dinner.

"Thank you for dinner Matt," Kari said as she headed back to her room.

"That's ok," Matt said watching her leave.

"Is she OK?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, she's been having dreams again" Tai said

"Dreams?"

"Yeah," Tai said looking at Matt, "like of the dark ocean."

Matt moved in closer to Tai. "Are you worried? TK told me what happened last time."

"Yeah," Tai confessed. "I don't know if it's just nightmares or something more but last time really scared her."

"Well hopefully it's nothing." Matt said looking away.

"You don't miss it at all?" Tai asked. "The digital world?"

"Of course I miss Gabumon and the others, but fighting and the world ending stuff- that I could do without" Matt said.

"I guess," Tai said. "I just miss feeling useful."

"Tai, even if something did happen you know it would probably be the new kids that would have to deal with it anyway?" Matt said.

"Yeah, I know, I still feel responsible though." Tai admitted. "I was the leader first."

"Self appointed leader." Matt pointed out

"Seriously?"

"I'm joking," Matt smiled.

"I get what you mean though," Matt admitted. "I know they're strong and stuff but I don't think I'd be able to just step aside and not do anything if something happened."

"I know," Tai said.

Matt laughed again. "Beside TK and Davis are probably still fighting over Kari."

"They're not," Tai said.

Matt looked sceptical.

"Davis told me! He doesn't like Kari anymore. Why does TK? You tell him to stay away from her!" Tai said.

Matt laughed. "Can you imagine if they started dating! And you wouldn't even be able to give him the big brother talk because you'd be too scared of his older brother!"

"Oh yeah!" Tai chucked a pillow at the still laughing Matt.

"Hey stop it!" Matt cried. He paused and then said in a more serious voice. "Seriously though Tai, you know you're not useless without the digital world. The way you look out for us all even now. That's important."

"Yeah, whatever," Tai said. "Are you staying tonight?"

"No, Dad will be home. I still have time to play a few video games if you want," Matt said.

"Fine. Get ready to lose!"