*SOBS* the second to last chapter. I just want to say thank you everyone for sticking with me for 35 chapters. It's a been a lot of fun working on this and sharing the adventure with you. The final battle has come so for just a little bit longer I hope you all are willing to come with me and the Digidestined. And also a huge thank you to an anymuous reviewer who calls themself Warriorkaala. If you read this i just want to let you know how much your review meant to me. Thank you so much, thank you all so much. I wouldn't write if it wasn't for people out there who actually like to read it. Without readers a writer is just a person who talks to themselves. You readers are the ones who make what I do worthwhile. Chapter 35: Defeated
TK re-shut his eyes and opened them again to make sure it wasn't a dream. Kari really was there, standing in front of him. Her chocolate brown eyes were stained with tears but there was a smile on her face. "Kari? Am I dead?" TK mumbled. Kari shook her head and embraced TK in a giant hug. TK returned the hug and looked up at his Digimon. As Gatomon said, Angemon was back to his normal self.
"TK, I'm so glad you're OK. I was worried about you," Kari sobbed. "I thought I was going to lose you to the darkness."
"Um guys, I know you missed each other and everything but we have a bigger situation on our hands," Susan called out. TK and Kari looked up to see Callismon still trying to stand up to Lucemon and Daemon.
TK watched in shock at the battle before him. No matter what happened, he couldn't let the darkness win. There were too many people counting on them to win this battle. "That's it. This has gone on long enough. Angemon! Let's show these clowns what happens when you mess with the Digidestined! Digivolve!" A brilliant yellow light shone from TK's Digivice and it enveloped Angemon. The Digidestined all shielded their eyes from the intensity of the light.
"Angemon Warp Digivolve to…Seraphimon." In the place of Angemon; there stood a majestic angel Digimon. Ten golden wings folded against his back. A helmet covered his head and there was heavy blue and silver armor protecting most of his body. "Daemon, why don't you fight me?" the angel called out. Daemon stopped attacking and looked at Seraphimon with a judgmental eye.
"I accept your challenge, angel of the light," Daemon roared. He flew forward and soon he and Seraphimon were locked in combat. On the other side of the room, Callismon was having a difficult time fighting Lucemon.
"Crescemon go help out!" Susan called. The rabbit warrior nodded and jumped over to assist in the fight. From the midst of the fight, Abby appeared. She ran over to TK and panted heavily.
"It's pretty crazy out there. Let's hope the Digimon are powerful enough to defeat these two," she muttered.
"So you're Abby? Bearmon told me about you. You're Scott's sister," Kari said in wonder. She was shocked at the similarities between them. Abby looked at Kari and grinned.
"We can get all the formal introduction stuff over later on. Right now, we have a battle to win," Abby said with a smile on her face.
"Oh no! Crescemon!" Susan cried out suddenly. Kari and Susan looked over to see that Lucemon had thrown Crescemon to the ground and was defenseless against any attack. "Crescemon!" As Susan screamed out her partner's name, a purple light shone from her Digivice and the same light covered Crescemon.
"Crescemon Digivolve to…Dianamon!" The rabbit Digimon had vanished and in her place was a much more human like Digimon. She was covered in white armor except for a slit in her helmet. Crystal blue eyes shone and reflected off of the double bladed staff she gripped in her hand. "Your time has come, Lucemon. Arrow of Artemis!" Dianamon pulled out one of the arrows she had on her back and flung it straight for Lucemon's heart. The fallen angel Digimon had no chance, the arrow pierced right through him and he vanished into a millions pieces of data.
"Did we just win?" Susan asked softly. Before anyone was able to answer, an explosion erupted from above them. Everyone looked up to see Seraphimon and Daemon still locked in combat.
"Strike of the Seven Stars!" Seraphimon summoned seven glowing orbs at Daemon and shot one after the other at him. Each orb collided into Daemon's chest and he was thrown to the ground.
"If you think this is the end pitiful humans, you're wrong. I shall return and when I do you will all be destroyed," Daemon threatened weakly. Then he vanished into bits of data that flew up towards the sky.
For a few moments everyone stood there, unsure if what just happened was real or not. Seraphimon came to the ground and stood next to TK. Callismon and Dianamon made their way over to the others and stood tiredly. Just then in a flash of light the Digimon Di-Digivolved into their in-training forms. Tokamon, Moonmon and Wanyamon all sat on the ground looking exhausted. Each of their partners picked up their Digimon and hugged them close.
"Well, now that the world is safe, can we go home?" Susan asked. She looked over at TK and Kari and knew the answer. "So how do we get back to the Digital World?"
"Dragomon made several gates all throughout the Dark Ocean. There's bound to be one here in the castle. All we have to do is find it," Wanyamon said hopefully.
"It's actually a bit more complicated than that Wanyamon," Abby countered. "Dragomon didn't create direct gates to the Digital World. They're more like holes through the world dividers. If we go through one, it could take us anywhere. We have to find a different way through."
TK looked at Kari, whose face was set in thought. "Kari, what is it?" he asked. Kari held up her hand to silence him and took a few steps away from the others.
"Does she do this often?" Abby whispered to Susan. Kari then spun back around, excitement in her eyes.
"Ken," she said simply. Abby and Susan looked confused but TK's eyes also shone with understanding.
"That's a great idea Kari. But, how do we get in touch with him? And we don't even know if he'll be able to re-open the gate. It took all of us to help him open it the first time," TK replied sadly.
"First we should at least try to reach the others, I bet they're all worried about us," Tokamon said looking up at TK.
"I don't think any of us have our D-Tectors. Scott had TK's right before we were brought here but…" Kari's voice trailed off at the thought of Scott.
"I have my cell phone," Susan replied. She pulled out the small phone and showed it to the others. "I don't know if it'll work here but we can try. Susan handed the phone to Kari who opened it up and frantically began pressing buttons.
Everyone looked over Kari's shoulder to see what she was typing. "I'm going to send an e-mail to Ken. I just hope he has his D-Tector on him," Kari said as she shut the phone. Seconds later the room was filled with a ringing sound. "It's Ken! He got the e-mail!" Kari cried happily.
"Read it! What did he say?" Moonmon asked excitedly. Kari opened the phone and began to scan the words on the screen. As she read, her face began to change from excitement to sadness.
"He can't. Ken said there is no way for him to open the Dark Gate," Kari told the others sadly. She watched as their faces fell and realized she was frowning too. Then, the phone rang again and Kari flipped it open. Her eyes skimmed over the words and excitement was growing on her face every passing second. "Guys! It's a message from Gennai! He said he found a way for all of us to go home! We need to stand on Dragomon's throne platform!" Kari cried. She had barely finished her sentence and the others had all taken off running towards the giant chair.
"Now what? How do we get home?" Moonmon asked. Kari looked back down at the phone and read what Gennai had instructed them to do.
"It says here that we need to all join hands and visualize the Digital World and he will take care of the rest," Kari read. She shut the phone and handed it back to Susan. She stuffed it in her pocket and grabbed hands with Kari and Abby. TK took hold of Kari and Abby's hands. Each of the three Digimon held on to their partners hands to the best of their ability.
"Here we go guys, back to File Island," TK said. There was a bright flash of light and the Digidestined felt themselves fly through a corridor of light. Soon, the feeling of flying stopped and there was a feeling of nothingness.
"Well, welcome back my young friends," a voice rang out. Standing on the top of a hill was Gennai. Behind him were the other Digidestined.
"Guys," Kari said happily. "We made it back!" The others all looked around, taking everything in.
"Kari!" Kari turned to see her brother running down the hill to her. Kari grinned ear to ear and ran to meet her brother.
"Tai!" She cried. Kari met her brother in the middle of the hill and threw her arms around his neck. "Tai, we're back." Kari felt her brother's strong arms around her and she knew that their nightmare was over. Kari didn't notice Matt run past them to meet TK. As unusual as it was for Matt to show such strong emotions, he hugged his brother and practically refused to let go.
"Matt, you're squishing me. Matt, I can't breathe," TK coughed. Matt loosened his grip and grinned at his brother.
"Sorry bro, you had us scared. We're just glad to see you're all OK."
"Hey Gabumon, long time no see," Tokamon said to the blue wolf next to Matt. Gabumon smiled and patter Tokamon on the head.
"Good to see you too little guy. Looks like you guys had a rough time out there,"
"Kari!" Everyone looked up to see Davis running down the hill towards them. But, in normal Davis fashion, he tripped and rolled down the hill. The only thing that stopped his fall was Matt and Gabumon. Soon the three of them were lying on the ground in a tangle of arms and legs. One by one all of the Digidestined greeted Kari, TK and Susan. Then, naturally, they asked a million questions to Abby about who she was and where Scott was.
"Perhaps it would be best if we give them some time to rest and then we can all hear the whole story," Gennai interjected. Everyone backed away from Kari, TK, Susan and Abby and watched as the four of them walked away from the rest of the group.
As they walked away TK whispered to Kari, "We need to talk." Kari nodded and the two of the split off from the others. When they were sure they were out of Tai and Matt's sight. TK took a hold of Kari's hand and they ran to the edge of the forest.
"Is something wrong TK?" Kari asked when they stopped running. TK shook his head and sat down on the ground and patted down on the soft grass where he wanted Kari to sit. She sat down on the cool grass and looked at TK. "TK, what is it? You can tell me anything."
TK looked everywhere but at Kari; the ground, the sky, the trees behind her, finally he looked into her eyes. "I saw Gatomon," he said. Kari looked confused for a moment and then smiled. That threw TK off; he thought she would be upset or confused.
"What did she say? She's the one who let you come back to me, isn't she?" Kari said with a smile.
"She told me how proud of you she was. And that she'll be back very soon."
"Nothing she hasn't told me so far. All right, thank you TK, it means a lot to me that you told me." Kari leaned forward and gave TK a kiss. She was so happy to have him back, at this moment she didn't care who saw them.
"We should be getting back, the others might think we fell through another gate," TK said after a few seconds. Kari drew her head away from TK and frowned. "Oh please don't make that face. Frowning doesn't look good on you." TK ticked Kari and she couldn't keep a straight face. She broke out into laughter and soon TK stopped. "That's better, that's the beautiful Kari face I know. Come on, we have to get back." TK stood up and then lifted Kari to her feet. Kari clung to TK's arm for most of the walk back, it was only when she heard the sound of her brother's voice did she let go.
"There they are. What took you two so long?" Yolei called when she saw TK and Kari.
"Are you guys going to fill us in on what happened when that giant Digimon transported you away or not?" Matt asked impatiently. He was sitting cross legged on the ground next to Izzy and Mimi.
"Yeah we're telling you," TK grumbled. He and Kari sat down next to Abby and Susan and began telling the story of what happened since they last saw the others. The other Digidestined hung on every word, hardly making a sound. When they got to the part about Scott most of the others bawled their eyes out. Hours later, long after the sun had set their story was complete.
"I-I'm at a loss of words; the things you all had to go through. I wish we could have been of more help to you," Cody said. The other Digidestined and Digimon nodded in agreement. None of them could have put in any better themselves.
"But what about Liollmon? You guys left him there!" Davis interjected.
"Davis, he didn't want to come with us. He said that he would be useless to us without Scott. When the battle was over there wasn't time to search the entire castle for him. He's gone, and there's not much we can do about it now," TK replied. He wanted to go back and find Liollmon but there was just no way that they could.
"But Liollmon…" Davis repeated.
"Davis, we couldn't bring him back with us. I know it's hard but that's the way things like this work. Not everyone comes home," Kari said sadly.
"I was going to say; Liollmon is there." Davis pointed to two figures walking over the hill. One of them was Liollmon and next to him was a boy with red hair.
"Scott!" Kari and Susan yelled. They both jumped up and ran to their friend. Scott didn't see them coming and ended up being knocked over by their combined weight. Kari and Susan hugged the daylights out of Scott until he started coughing, indicating that he couldn't breathe.
"It's so great to see the two of you. You have no idea what I've been through. Susan, you look normal again," Scott coughed as he sat up. Susan smiled and ran her hand through her once again blond hair. Kari noticed Liollmon standing there and gave the lion cub a hug as well.
"Come on, you can tell all of us by the campsite. And, there's someone who wants to see you," Susan said playfully. She grabbed Scott's arm and led him down the hill back to the campsite.
All of the Digidestined greeted Scott with open arms and there was a lot of hugging and people saying welcome back. The very last person to say or do anything was Abby. She sat on the ground, watching as the others talked to Scott. When the others settled down, she got up and stood in front of Scott. "It's great to see you, Scottie," Abby finally said. Scott looked at the young teen before him and seemed bewildered by her presence.
"Abbs?" Scott whispered. Abby nodded and threw her arms around her brother. Scott stood there for a few seconds but then returned the hug. Neither of them moved for quite a while. "Abby, I'm so sorry. I should have been there for you; I should have gone with you. I should have…"
Abby put her hand over Scott's mouth. "Stop talking. It wasn't your time to travel to the Digital World. I had Bearmon with me the whole time. I was never in any danger, so don't blame yourself for any of this. If anything it was my fault for not trying to contact you and mom and dad to let you know I was all right. How are mom and dad?"
"We'll talk about that later. Right now why don't we all just relax and figure out what we're going to do next," Scott said with a smile. He let go of Abby, but she still kept a tight grip on his arm. As if she was afraid that if she let go, Scott would leave again.
"Scott, how did you get here anyway? TK and Kari told us you were attacked by Lilithmon. How did you survive?" Sora asked as Scott and Abby sat on the ground.
"I don't really know, one moment I'm sitting in darkness and then I hear this voice. It sounded kind of familiar so I listened to it as it told me about how everyone has a purpose in the Digital World and being in the darkness wasn't mine. They also said that it will take time for me to learn the true power of the crest, and then they asked me if I wanted to fulfill my destiny and return to the Digital World.
"Naturally I said yes and there was this bright light. The next thing I know, I'm sitting next to Liollmon. We started wandering around the castle and somehow end up in a destroyed throne room. I was checking out the throne itself when there was this light and the next thing I know; I'm here in the Digital World."
"And we were quite lucky that we found you all so soon," Liollmon added in. The lion cub rested his head on his paws and shut his eyes. Scott reached over and scratched his friend behind the ear.
"It looks like the whole gang is back together again. This is great!" Joe exclaimed. Twenty eight pairs of eyes all fixated themselves on Joe. His eyes opened wide as soon as he realized what he said. "Oh man. Sorry guys, I guess not everybody," Joe apologized. He looked up at Kari and said, "Kari I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. Honestly."
Kari looked at Joe, and then at each of her friends. Each one of them had an apologetic look on their faces. Kari felt tears building in her eyes and she swiftly stood up. "I'll be back," Kari said abruptly. Without waiting for the others to respond, Kari walked away from the others. TK and Tai looked at each other and Tai nodded at TK.
TK then got up and ran after Kari. The rest of the group watched as he faded into the shadows. "Joe…" Gomomon said sadly.
TK quickly found Kari; she was walking down the path along the tree line. She didn't seem to notice TK come up behind her, so when she did realize he was there she jumped in the air. "TK, what are you doing here?" Kari asked.
"Going off alone is what gets you in trouble here, remember? Joe didn't mean anything by what he said. You know that…"
"I know, TK. And I'll know Gatomon will come back soon but her not being here is still hard. She should be here celebrating with us; we wouldn't have been able to win if it wasn't for her," Kari began to sob. TK didn't say anything; he simply pulled her into a hug and let her cry. Soon, even TK felt the tears flow free from his eyes. They rolled down his face and fell into Kari's auburn hair.
After Kari had stopped crying, TK let go and looked into her eyes. "Tomorrow we'll go to Primary Village and look for her. I bet her Digiegg is there waiting for you," TK encouraged. Kari nodded and gave a small smile. Hand in hand they walked back to the camp. By the time they got there, most of the others were asleep. The only ones still awake were Sora, Joe, Izzy and Matt.
"There you two are. We were getting worried about you," Izzy said as they walked up to the dying fire. Joe nodded and put another log on the fire. Sora looked between Kari and TK and smiled. Matt simply stared at them.
"You two want to explain that?" Matt asked, pointing to their hands. Kari looked down and blushed, but she didn't pull her hand away.
"We'll tell you later Matt," TK said tiredly. Matt shook his head and lay down on the ground. Izzy opened his computer and began typing away, as always. Joe continued to stare into the fire, but he couldn't keep his eyes open and he fell asleep sitting up.
"It took you two long enough," Sora finally said after several seconds of silence. TK and Kari shrugged and sat down on the ground next to each other. "Get some sleep, you two need it. It's been a while since you've been able to relax like this." Kari quickly leaned back onto the ground and fell into a deep sleep within minutes.
TK on the other hand, stayed awaked. He looked at the fire, lost in his own thoughts. "Sora, how are we all going to go back to our normal lives after this? Things are so different now," TK murmured.
"TK, our lives aren't normal. We've been different from the rest of the world for nine years. This is normal to me; before the Gate reopened I felt so lost back home. I think things will be easier for us now that the gate is open again," Sora said sweetly. She poked the fire with a long stick and the embers jumped and danced around her and TK.
TK stared at the flames for a few more minutes before lying down on the ground next to Kari. With her on his right and Patamon on his left, TK felt complete, the two living things he cared about most in the world were safe and now he could relax. TK fell asleep listening to Kari's rhythmic breathing. Everything was going to be OK now, he just knew it.