Chapter 7

The Master

Sora closed her eyes, her face pressed against Matt's side, her arms around him. They were sitting on the couch together. She should be tired. She almost had fallen of a cliff that day, and the night before, she hadn't gotten that much sleep either, but she couldn't sleep.

She didn't trust herself. She didn't like her dreams.

Maybe Tai was right. Maybe . . .

Thinking about it now, did she regret what happened back then?

Yes. There were so many things she regretted.

But she didn't regret being with Tai. There was something special when she was with him . . . but then it went away . . . and thenthat happened. It wasn't Tai's fault. That was just the way he was. But she couldn't handle him forever. She needed someone to helpher for a change. That's what Matt did.

Matt was so sweet. She never wanted to hurt him. Was she hurting him now? She could hear his heartbeat. She wondered if he was still awake. She did love Matt.

She had loved Tai too, but they had only winded up hurting each other.

Matt never hurt her, so . . . she couldn't be hurting him, right?

"Are you tired yet?" mumbled Matt.

Sora rolled over so her head was on his lap, and she could look up at him. "Why, are you tired?"

"No," he lied with his eyes close.

She smiled and reached up to touch his face. "Why don't you go to sleep?"

"I wouldn't be much company if I fell asleep."

Sora sat up, sitting on his lap. "So, you want to stay up?"

"You're just gonna have to find away to keep me awake. It's for your own good, you know."

Sora raised an eyebrow. "Is it now? I'm not sure what I could do to keep you up." She snaked her arms around Matt's neck.

"I'm sure you can think of something," Matt said with a smile.

She kissed him.


Everyone else was asleep . . . except for TK who could unfortunately hear his brother through the thin walls.

Sometimes, TK would think his brother was so cool, but when he was with Sora, he acted stupid. TK sighed.

He tried to get to sleep, but every time he was almost there, he was woken up by a burst of giggles.

He sat up. "Davis, are you awake?" He couldn't see how anyone could sleep through that.

He heard a groan, but nothing else.

TK pressed a pillow against his head. He vowed, when and if he ever got a girlfriend, he would act like a normal person. After awhile of failing to get to sleep, he went rummaging through his bag, looking for a flash light and a book to read. Going through it, he found his digivice.

"That's weird . . . how did this get in here?" He found his book, and sat back on his bed to read.


Kari woke up with a killer headache. She looked around. Sora wasn't in bed. She heard a beeping sound. She knew what that was. She got up and ripped through her suitcase, picking up her digivice. She stared at it hypnotized, unable to look away.


Eventually, Sora and Matt grew quite. They either went to bed, or fell asleep on the couch. TK decide he could sleep now, but once he put the book down, he saw his digivice start to beep. He stared at for awhile, trying to figure out why it was beeping.

The air suddenly felt cold.

He heard a creek come from upstairs.

"Davis?"

More groaning from Davis.

TK got out from bed, his digivice still beeping. The room above them was Sora and Kari's room. He looked out the window. The wind was blowing the trees around.

Then he saw something fall right in front of his window. He jumped. Then he took a closer look.

He saw Kari pick herself off the ground.

"Davis!" he threw the book at him.

"What!?" Davis cried out, rubbing his head where the book hit it.

"Kari's outside!" TK said as he wrestled to open the window.

"Why?"

"I don't know, but she just jumped from the second floor!"

"What!?"

TK got the window open and swung his leg over it. "Come on!"

They followed Kari around the building.

"What's she doing?" asked Davis.

"I don't know," TK whispered. "I think she's sleep walking."

"Kari sleep walks?"

"I don't know!"

"Shouldn't we wake her up?"

"I don't know. I read somewhere that you aren't suppose to wake someone up when they are sleep walking, but . . . I think we should. She might hurt herself."

They followed her down to the beach. She walked pretty fast for someone who was asleep. Also her walk was graceful, not stumbling like a zombie. She tiptoed across the sand in her bare feet, until she met the water's edge.

TK and Davis caught up to her.

Her eyes were open, blank, staring out into the water.

"Kari?" TK tried.

"Kari wake up!" Davis yelled, giving her a little shake.

"Davis!" TK hissed.

"What? You said we should wake her up!"

"Well, do it gently!"

There was a sudden boom coming from the middle of the lake, and a bright light washed over them for a moment before fading away.

TK and Davis stood there, dumbfounded for a moment. Then Kari started to walk forward, her feet splashing into the water.

"Kari!" They both made a grab for her arms, but she kept going forward. The two of them put together couldn't stop her. Instead, they were dragged forward into the water.

"Kari, wake up! What are you dreaming of, going into a pool!?"

"Davis, I don't think she's sleep walking anymore," TK said as her eyes started to glow yellow.

"AGH!" Davis cried, seeing her eyes, but he didn't let go of her.

They plunged deeper into the water, TK and Davis both trying to drag her back.

"Kari!" TK cried, as her head slipped under the water. Soon TK and Davis were pulled down with her.

Under the water, Kari didn't look like she was swimming forward, but more like she was being pulled by an invisible force, TK and Davis dragging behind her, stubbornly refusing to let go.

Both TK and Davis were starting to need air. They kicked and flared their free arms, but they just sank deeper and deeper with Kari.

At the point where TK didn't think he could keep it up any longer, he saw Kari's hand glow, she was clutching her digivice. His began to glow too . . . and then . . .

All went black.

Davis broke the surface. "Kari?! TK?!" He took a huge breath and dived back under, swimming as far down as he could go, but seeing nothing. The water was too dark to see anything. He surfaced again. "On man, oh man, oh man. KARI!" He went under for the third time, but came up with nothing again.


"MATT! SORA!"

Matt shot up from the couch, knocking off Sora to the floor. "I wasn't sleeping!"

"Kari and TK and gone!" blurted out Davis, dripping water onto the floor.

"What?" Matt still wasn't that coherent.

"The light! . . . and the lake! . . . and the eyes! . . . and sleep walking! . . ."

"Davis, calm down," Sora said, getting up from the floor.

"KARI AND TK DISAPPEARED!"

"What?!" Matt seemly getting it this time, got up, and ran to TK's room.

Sora decided to go upstairs to check on Kari, Davis following her. "What do you mean they disappeared?"

"Well, Kari jumped out of her window,"

"But Kari's on the second floor!"

"I know!"

Sora open the door to her room. Kari wasn't there. "Oh God."

"Then me and TK followed her outside, we thought she was sleep walking and she went to the lake and there was this big boom and light and then she dragged us into the lake–"

"Kari's in the lake?!"

"I . . . think so, but I'm not sure."

She had to wake up Tai. He'd know what to do . . . she hoped.

She slammed Tai and Izzy's door open. "Guys, Kari and TK are gone!"

Izzy popped his head up and stared at Sora.

Tai groaned and sat up. He had fallen asleep with his pants on this time. "I thought you said Kari wasn't feeling well. Why would she go off with TK for?" He fell back down on his pillow.

"Not like that!" Davis cried angrily. "She jumped out of her window-"

Tai bolted up right again. "She jumped out of her window?!"

"Yes! How many times do I have to explain this!?"

Tai glared at Sora. "You were there, and you didn't stop her!?"

Sora looked at the ground. "I didn't . . . actually go to bed."

Tai leapt out of bed and stomped over to Kari's room. As if he didn't believe she wasn't there, he yanked off the covers and even flipped over the bed to see if she was hiding under it.

"TK and me thought she was sleep walking. She went into the lake and there was-"

Tai ran out of the room, Davis tried to keep up and tell his story at the same time. Tai jumped the last half of the steps and headed for the door. Matt was soon following them. They sprinted to the lake, stopping at the edge.

"KARI!" Tai got no answer. He started to dive into the water, but Matt grabbed his arm.

"Tai, they're gone!"

"No!" He turned to Davis, grabbing the younger boy by the shoulders and shook him. "What the hell happened to my sister?!"

"I-I d-d-on't kn-kn-ow!" Tai threw him onto the ground. "Kari's eyes were glowing like she was possessed or something and something went off like a bomb from the middle of the lake. When she dragged us into the water, she and TK just disappeared."

Tai turned back to the water. "KARIIIIIIIIII!"

Only his echo answered him.


"Everybody up!" yelled Tai when they came back inside. "Matt, tell everybody to meet in mine and Izzy's room."

Matt did so without looking at Tai, who stomped back up the stairs.

In his room, Izzy and Sora were staring at Izzy's screen. "Tai, my computer is acting strange."

"Izzy, does it look like I care!?"

"I think it might have something to do with Kari."

That shut Tai up, and he sat down next to Izzy. The screen had what look like waves of an ocean going up and down.

"Izzy, is that a screen saver or what?"

"No," he moved his mouse around. "I don't know what it is."

They stared at the screen for a while, almost hypnotized by the in and out of the waves . . .

Then the screen went black and the computer shut down.

"Izzy," Tai said in a light voice.

"Yeah?" Izzy answered nervously.

"I don't think it's suppose to do that."

"No . . ."

Tai let out a cry in frustration, and collapse onto his bed.

Everyone else began to file into the small room.

"What's going on?" asked Yolei.

"Are we playing a game!?" Mimi asked excited.

Joe looked at Mimi, then at Tai. Then he looked at around and noticed two people missing.

"Kari and TK disappeared . . . into the lake." Tai mumbled into his pillow.

There was a lot of 'what!?'s and 'what are you talking about?!'s

Izzy got his computer to turn on again. "Davis and TK saw Kari leave the building like she was possessed, and there was a great amount of energy coming from the lake. Also, my computer is still acting weird. I think this has something to do with the digital world."

The room was silent.

Then, "But why would Kari just decide to go into the digital world?!" Tai demanded.

Izzy shrugged and began pushing the escape key, over and over again.

"Tai, I don't think she went voluntarily," Sora said.

"So it's like someone's kidnaped her?!" Oh man, he knew she wasn't feeling well. Why didn't he sense something was wrong then?

"Tai, calm down,"

Matt was strangely quiet. He kept staring out the window, where you could see the lake.

"I can open the digital portal, but it keeps closing on me. Also, I don't know how many of us actually brought their digivices," Izzy said as he typed away on his computer.

A sense of doom washed over the room.

"Does anyone have their digivices?" Izzy looked around the room.
Matt put a hand to his head. "Maybe." He left to check.

Tai started to bang his head against the bed post. "Damn, damn, damn, damn."

"You didn't pack your's either?" Izzy asked.

"No, Kari packed most of my stuff for me."

Yolei couldn't help but snicker. "Your little sister packed your stuff for you?"

Tai glared at Yolei.

"Well, do you think that maybe Kari packed your digivice?" said Izzy, tying to keep on topic.

"I don't know," he said, as he began going though his draws, pulling a shirt on, then dumping the stuff that was still in his suitcase. "Probably not." Out fell his digivice.

Matt came back in. "I got mine." Tai was staring at his own digivice. Matt sighed. "Are you coming?"

He got up. "Don't talk to me like that Matt!"

Davis shook Izzy's shoulder. "I want to come too! I can't just stay here, while Kari's in danger!"

"She wouldn't be in danger, if you hadn't let her walk herself into the lake!" shouted Tai.

"Tai, leave Davis alone! It's not his fault!" Matt cried back.

"Whose fault is it then, TK's?!"

"You leave TK out of this!"

"I can leave who I want out of this!"

"Maybe we should leave you out of this!"

"Me? Kari's my little sister!"

"TK's my little brother!"

"Guys stop it," Sora said.

"Crap! It shut down again!" Izzy cried,

"What!?"

Matt turned to Tai. "We could have been in now, if you hadn't made such a big deal!"

"You're the one that started it!"

"SHUT UP!" All heads turned to Cody who was standing in the door frame, not enough room for him to even come inside. "It's like watching a sitcom! It's painful!" For a moment, no one could say anything. They just all stared at Cody. They all kind of forgotten he was there.

"I got it back!" Izzy said.

Matt and Tai looked at each other. "Okay, come on lets go," said Tai. "Hopefully it'll just be a search and rescue mission. Go in and get out."

"I doubt it," said Matt, but he held out his digivice to the computer. Tai did the same.

Matt caught Sora's eyes. She smiled. "Come back safe, kay?"

"Yeah, sure." She kissed him on the cheek.

Tai rolled his eyes at them and heaved an impatient sigh. Sora gave him a dejected look.

"Okay, hurry up, before the portal closes."

They disappeared into the computer.

Moments passed and nobody said anything, until Davis spoke up.

"Wait . . . I remember Kari disappearing like this some years ago. It was kind of like the same thing."

"What did you guys do then?" asked Izzy.

Davis tried to think. "I don't remember, very well. But back then, TK kept insisting she wasn't in the digiworld."

"What!?" Yolei shouted out. "You blockhead, why didn't you tell us that before!"


TK tried to open his eyes, but light shone in his face, hurting his head. He felt something nuzzling his face gently. At first he thought it was the cat . . . until he remembered he didn't have a cat.

"TK?"

He rolled his head to the side to get it away from the sun, and opened his eyes. Staring back at him was a pair of blue-green eyes.

He had to be dreaming.

"Patamon?"

Patamon stretched out his orange wings with joy, then with a flap, bounded into the air. "You're alive!"

"What are you doing here?"

"Silly, I'm a digimon. Where else would digimon be, but in the digital world?"

"I'm . . . in the digital world?" TK looked around. Behind him was the ocean. In front was a jungle looking forest.

"Mm-hmm." Patamon landed back on the sand. "You could be a little more happy to see me." His wings draped over the ground.

TK smiled. "I am happy to see you." He opened his arms and Patamon crawled in. "I've missed you." He looked down at Patamon. "Do you know what happened to Kari?"

"Kari? You're the only one here."

"What?"

"Yep," Patamon flew into the air again, gliding to the water's edge. "You came out of the water . . . all dead like." He landed and sat down. "It scared me." Patamon looked back at TK. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. It's just . . . something's wrong with Kari. Something's-"

"Like last time?"

TK's eyes went wide. "Yeah!" He got up. "We have to find her!"

"But TK . . . we don't know where she is? She might not even be in the digiworld."


Kari pushed herself up from the cold wet stone. She couldn't see. It was too dark. She heard the sound of breathing, and squishing sounds coming closer. She clumsily got to her feet.

Where was she?

Stretched out her arm. She touched more wet stone. She leaned against it, trying to make her eyes focus in the dark. Her breath came out in gasps. It's okay. She'd just follow the wall, and it will lead her to the way out.

Pressing herself against the wall, she stumbled on. She hit her knees against what appeared to be a large rock. She was going to step over the rock, when she saw a pair of red eyes on the other side. She quickly curled up behind the rock, making herself as small as possible, holding her digivice close to her chest.

Then her digivice started to beep and glow. She silent wished it to shut up, to no avail.

The head of the thing with red eyes, looked over the rock.

Queen Kari . . . She has returned?

Kari screamed, and tried to crawl away, getting to her feet, she started to run.

Smack!

She ran into something hard, cold and slimy. It grabbed onto her arms and crowed, She has returned to us!

She will become our wife!

She screamed and squirmed out of the thing's grip.

Wait! Queen Kari, come back!

She tripped as something grabbed her ankle. She kicked out and made contact. She heard a cry of pain, and it let go. She tried to getup, but more cold, wet hands grabbed onto her.

"Let me go!"

All of a sudden, they screeched and let go, cowering away from her in fear. She heard a sound. It sounded like someone walking through mud, with a squishy sound as the put there foot down, and a small pop as the lifted it again. It came closer, and closer. There was a rattling sound too, as if whoever it was, was wearing beads. The air smelled like dead fish.

Is this anyway to treat our Queen? The voice was low, and snuffling.

We're sorry, Master!

We just wanted to say, hello, Master!

Please don't hurt us, Master!

The 'Master' looked around with red eyes as well, but he was a great deal taller, three times the height of a tall man. His eyes rested on Kari.

Don't worry, My Queen, he said as she felt something slimy wrap around her waist. She cried out in fear, till the tip of the tentacle pressed against her mouth. Shh, Shh.

And she was lifted off the ground.


"Hurry up Gabumon! I sense Tai and Matt!"

"Are sure, Agumon?" Gabumon asked huffing, trying to climb over the fallen tree Agumon had leapt over, sweat dripping from his blue striped fur.

"Yes! Yes!" Agumon jumped up and down. "Can't you smell a portal from the human world?!"

Gabumon sniffed the air. "It does smell salty, but I thought that was from the ocean."

Agumon burst out of the trees, and into the sandy beach, then stopped short, his sharp white nails gripping the sand. He stood perfectly still. The only movement was his nostrils flaring from the sent.

Gabumon waddled over to his side, lifted his nose and sniffing the air as well.

They stayed like that for about five minutes, not moving an inch.

Then, the portal opened in front of them, spilling out Tai and Matt, who landed on the digimon.

Agumon wiggled out from under Tai, and placed his large claws on his back, jumping up and down, his little stub of a tail wagging. "Tai's back! Tai's back!" Unfortunately for Tai, every hop, pushed his face deeper into the sand.

Oof! Oof! Oof! Oof! Oof!

Agumon stopped, and went around to stick his noise in front of Tai's head. Tai pushed himself up and wiped the sand away from his face. He looked up at Agumon's smiling face and grinned.

"Agumon!" He opened his arms up.

"Yay!" Agumon jumped into his arms, causing Tai to fall backwards.

Matt pushed himself up also. "Matt!" Gabumon said affectionately.

"Hey, big guy." Matt scratched the base of Gabomon's horn and he sighed with pleasure.

Tai pushed Agumon off of him and stood up, only to be brought back down to the ground as Agumon hugged his legs, making his knees buckle.

"Gabumon, have you seen TK or Kari?"

"Huh? No. We haven't even seen the other digimon either. It was coincidence I ran into Agumon. The forest has been unusually quite."

Tai got up. "Well, lets go look for them!" He started for the forest.

"Tai, Gabumon, says there's no one here!"

"Well, we won't know that until we look!"

"But Tai, there's a huge chance that TK and Kari are on the other side of the digiworld! There's no sense in getting lost for nothing. We should wait until we get contacted from Izzy."

"Oh, and how are we going to do contact Izzy? If you want to abandon Kari and TK, be my guest!" He continued on to the forest.

"Tai! Don't be like this!" Matt went after him.

"Be like what, Matt?!"

"This! You're always acting like you're the leader, and bossing everyone around! If it isn't your idea, it's not a good one."

"What's that supposed to me? I'm just trying to find my sister! Maybe I should do it by myself!"

"Maybe you should!"

"Why are Tai and Matt mad at each other?" asked Agumon to Gabumon.

"Come on, Agumon! Don't talk to the enemy!" He dragged Agumon away from Gabumon.

"Oh, that's mature, Tai. Leave them alone."

Tai went on yelling at Matt, and Matt yelled back at Tai.

"Why am I not aloud to talk to you?" asked Agumon to Gabumon again.

"Apparently I'm the enemy," he replied.

"Oh." Agumon gave him a playful swat. "Take that enemy!"

Gabumon returned it. "And that!"

"Ow!"

"Oh! I'm sorry, Agumon!"

Tai grabbed onto the collar of Matt's shirt. "My sister's out there and she's sick with nothing, but your gutless brother to protect her if she even has him at all!"

"What did you just call my brother?!"

"Well he couldn't stop her from going into the lake!"

"You weren't there! You probably couldn't have saved her either!"

"What do you know?!"

"A lot more then you do!"

"Matt!" Both of their heads turned to the direction to the new voice.

"TK?" TK ran into his brother's arms.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you!" Patamon flew up behind him.

Matt put his younger brother at arms length. "Are you okay?!"

"Where's Kari?!"asked Tai.

"What happened?!" asked Matt

"Were'd you come from?!" asked Tai.

"Why are you in the digital world?!"asked Matt

"Were's Kari!?" asked Tai again.

"Hold on!" TK broke away from his brother. "I don't know what happened to Kari."

"WHAT?!"

"Cool it Tai." Matt looked at TK calmly. "Tell me what happened?"

"I think something's controlling Kari. She was like hypnotized when she went into the lake. Our digivices were activating too. When we disappeared, I ended up here. Kari didn't. I don't know how I got here, but I think Kari's back at the dark ocean."

Tai kicked the sand. "Dammit!"