Chapter 36: The Sky Turns Black Part 7
Hey everybody. I'm back from my travels and the Mediterranean to bring you this chapter. I'd like to say thanks again to Atariel Tsukai for your review and feedback on the last chapter.
I don't own Digimon or any other copyrighted things that I might mention in this chapter or the story as a whole. So Digimon Adventure Tri has been delayed again ...
Kari's breathing was getting heavy as she swung her fist at another Deep One, slicing through its body with the light surrounding her skin. She ignored her drenched hair from the heavy rain of the thunderstorm, the fact that she was beginning to feel cold and the water running down her face. Her mind was focused on taking out the evil creatures attacking Tokyo and protecting TK. Her sixth sense told her that she and TK were being successful in their plan and were holding the invasion force in Yokohama because everything appeared to be attracted to their light.
She glanced to her right at her boyfriend and noticed his chest rising and sinking quickly with his deep breaths. Kari could sense through the link formed between their minds by their crests that he was starting to tire too. She didn't know how long they had been running through the masses of Deep Ones and killing them but it had definitely been a while now. The fitness training that the two of them had been doing over the last few years since that Neodevimon incident had helped them to fight with their own hands for well over an hour.
The Digimon continued to fight the evil forces around them too. Angewomon, Magnaangemon and Silphymon kept dealing with any enemies in the skies while Zudomon, Grapleomon and Shakkoumon fought those on the ground and protected the other Digidestined. Kari glanced back at her friends and noticed that they were panting too. They had been running behind them in the space created by her and TK as they cleared a path.
Kari refocused on the fight and sprinted at the wave of Deep Ones trying to escape from her and her boyfriend. She lifted her right leg into the air and kicked straight through three of the shadow creatures, cutting them in half. Another two were on the receiving end of her next punch and their bodies dissipated into nothing because they had no defence against such a powerful source of light energy.
Looking at the mass of black amphibians, Kari wondered if they would be able to finish off or stop this number of enemies. Her extra sense told her that there were more and more of the evil beings coming in their direction. She hoped that this fight would end before she and her friends became too exhausted to continue fighting.
"I wonder how much longer we can keep going." She heard TK's voice and glanced over at him. He kicked straight through several Deep Ones before giving one an elbow to the chest.
"I don't know," Kari replied and he glanced in her direction.
"Did I just say that out loud?" She could hear TK's voice but his mouth hadn't moved.
"What the heck is going on?" Kari pondered as she and TK stopped running and turned to face one another. "How's he speaking without moving his lips?"
"You're lips aren't moving either," TK replied as his eyes opened wide and Kari could feel his confusion through the link between their minds. "You're doing it too."
She gulped as she stepped forward towards her boyfriend. "If you can hear this then reach out and take my hand."
TK moved over to her and she watched as he reached out and took her hand in his. They entwined their fingers as the couple lifted their hands up so that they could look at them. Kari stared wide-eyed at her boyfriend when they both came to the same conclusion. She hadn't opened her mouth and those words had definitely not been spoken.
"You can hear my thoughts and I can read yours," Kari gulped again as the couple continued to stare at each other. "We're telepathically linked."
"Yeah, so it seems," TK mirrored her actions before taking a deep breath. "How long have we been like this?"
"I don't know," Kari thought in reply as she felt her chest tighten and her breathing becoming unsteady at the thought of someone else being inside her mind. She could hear and feel TK reacting the same way as they both shifted uncomfortably. That was when they both realised that it might have been longer than they had thought. "It might have been for quite a while. I've been sensing your need to protect me and keep me safe, and the love mixed in there, for some time. Now I think about it, I heard your voice every time when I felt it."
"Our crests have never been connected for this length of time. Could that be part of the reason why this is happening?" TK suggested the idea. "We've only ever been able to sense what one another feels before, but that could be because we were only connected for a minute or two. Could our bond have not fully formed in that short time and this is what happens when our powers are joined for longer?"
"What's the matter?" Cody's words brought the couple out of their thoughts.
They glanced at the younger boy before looking around at the rest of the battlefield. The other Digidestined still had to shield their eyes from their light, but they appeared to be able to adapt enough to follow them. Zudomon, Shakkoumon, Grapleomon and Silphymon had formed a barrier around the humans to protect them even though the evil creatures were still running away. Angewomon and Magnaangemon continued to fly around above the group to give them aerial cover.
"Just give us a minute," the couple replied in perfect unison. They turned to face each other again and wondered if their synchronisation was because of the link.
Panic began gripping Kari and she knew that TK was feeling the same way about their situation. Her thoughts were private and hers, but now someone else could read them. It felt like a huge invasion of her privacy and she couldn't hide anything. She noticed that TK felt as violated by this as she did. The only crumbs of comfort for the couple were that they both shared the same thoughts on the matter and that they had always been able to trust each other with private things and secrets in the past.
"What happens if you can take control of my body?" Kari felt herself tense up even more at that thought.
"What if you can enter my mind and read my memories without me being able to do anything?" TK's contemplation of the idea accidentally suddenly opened the floodgates and their brains began sharing their memories.
Kari couldn't help it as her mind brought up memories of their love making. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks as she cursed herself for thinking of those moments. TK's face had turned an equal shade of crimson as she accidentally gave him memory after memory of them in bed amongst other places. He began thinking the same thing, inadvertently sending Kari his thoughts and memories of the many times when they had made love. The feelings, sensations, what they liked, their love for each other, what they saw and many other things from so many different times in bed were all exchanged between their minds in a matter of seconds.
The chain reaction continued as their minds began accidently recalling other things that they didn't really want others to know. Several embarrassing memories and thoughts ran through their minds, sharing it and making their discomfort grow further. The couple's faces turned even redder despite both of them already knowing about most of those moments. It was the fact that they couldn't hide it that caused them issues. Other things like how much they enjoyed certain things or their love for each other sprung up too as their minds went into overdrive, sending memories into one another's minds.
"Look, Kari," TK's clear thought cut through the constant stream of memories as he reached out and took her other hand. Kari received a mental image from him of the day his parents split up as he continued. "I trust you. If there is anyone I trust with my memories it's you. I trust that you won't just reach into my mind and take something and if you really want to know my memories or thoughts on something then I'll give them to you. You probably can sense that I'm telling the truth here through our link but, just to prove it, I'll give you these memories."
Tears started to well up in Kari's eyes as TK remembered the arguments between his parents and the day that they divorced. The image of TK's father and Matt walking away from him and all of the pain it caused in his heart was there for Kari to feel. She already knew just how much it had hurt him, but being able to feel the emotional pain he had been through took it to a whole new level. A tear escaped and mixed in with the rainwater running down her face from her soaked hair. She released his hands and pulled him into a tight hug.
"Ok TK," Kari whispered into his ear as she placed her right hand on his head. Her left arm wrapped around his back and held him against her. She wanted to help him, to be the one to ease the pain that he felt and she wanted to make him feel better and happy. He returned the embrace, holding her just as close as he finished thinking about one of the worst days of his life.
"There. You can now use that to cause me so much pain, but I know that you won't," TK thought as they clenched each other's soaked jackets in their fists. "That's how much I trust you. You know my biggest weaknesses, but I know that you'll never use them to hurt or upset me."
"You didn't have to do that," Kari sighed as she decided to return the gesture. She began recalling the painful memories from three years earlier of that final battle with Neodevimon. "Let me show you that I trust you just as much."
Kari remembered her desperation to save TK's life after he saved her that day. Her mind ran over the memories of her giving blood to keep him alive after the main artery in his arm was severed. She shared her pain, both physical and emotional, as she recalled staring at him on the operating table while the doctors tried to save his arm. The couple's grip around each other tightened further as Kari didn't hold back anything. She thought about her argument with her mother over her determination to be by TK's side as he recovered.
"Guys, this isn't the best time to have a lovey dovey moment," Yolei shouted over the sound of the rain as it pounded the ground. The couple were brought out of their thoughts and they tilted their heads to face her.
"We've got a problem," they replied in unison. "Just give us a minute."
"What is it?" Noriko asked as she glanced around, expecting something bad to come their way. "It's not Metalseadramon, is it?"
"No," Kari and TK responded with a shake of their heads.
"Then what is it?" Yolei asked sounding somewhat agitated. "Why have you stopped and hugged like that?"
"You probably won't believe this," the couple's voices remained perfectly synchronised as they continued. "We're telepathically linked. We can read each other's thoughts and memories. We can feel what one another is feeling. Our minds are becoming one."
"You're kidding, right?" Yolei's eyebrows rose as she tried to look at her friends to see if they were telling the truth, but she couldn't because of the light coming from them.
"No," they sighed. "It's true. We need to sort out our heads before we continue so please just give us a minute."
"Take as long as you need," Joe answered calmly. "If what you're saying is true then I can understand that there are things that you will probably need to address right now. The Deep Ones and evil Digimon are still keeping their distance so you have a bit of time to, no pun intended, get your heads around it."
"Thanks," the couple replied. They offered their friends a grateful smile even though the others couldn't actual see them because the light coming from the two teens. They turned their heads so that they could stare into one another's eyes once more.
"I always thought that you were telepathic," Yolei chuckled as a smirk spread across her lips. "And this also makes it official. You two are definitely the weirdest couple ever."
"I knew I'd get distracted by the bond between our minds." TK ignored Yolei and recalled his thoughts from earlier in the day. "It is really difficult to concentrate on anything other than you when the powers of our crests are joined like this."
"We do have to concentrate on the powers of each other's crest to create this bond." Kari renewed her focus on the light coming from the Crest of Hope inside her boyfriend as her thoughts continued. "I guess I do kind of become single minded and end up only thinking of you too. In this situation we should probably be thinking of the others more than we currently are."
"Exactly. It kind of makes me a bad leader for only focusing on you," TK sighed as he continued to gaze into his girlfriend's redwood eyes.
"I told you to stop worrying about your ability to lead us. You're a good leader," Kari made sure that he felt her annoyance at his continuing doubts. "Besides, concentrating on and caring about me is a trait you share with Tai. I guess that you shared it with Davis too when he led us during our second adventure."
"I guess you're right," TK smiled for a moment before a serious expression formed on his face. "We need to concentrate on this battle. I know neither of us is comfortable with the idea of having someone else in our heads, but we managed to go for quite some time without noticing that we're telepathically connected. I think we just need to concentrate on defeating the Deep Ones, and protecting one another and the others. We were thinking the same things earlier and that's probably why it took so long for us to notice, so if we focus on those thoughts again then we'll hopefully be able to do this."
"I'll try," Kari gave him a nod of her head. "If there is anyone I can do this with then it's you. I'd hate this situation even more if my mind was joined with anyone else's. I don't want to know what would happen if I was linked like this to Davis or Yolei. Imagine what they could do with the memories we've accidentally shared already."
"Yeah, I know. At least we know most of each other's secrets already," TK took a deep breath and readied himself. "Ok, now focus. We have a job to do. Let's finish this here and now."
The couple released one another from their embrace and turned to face the Deep Ones. They both concentrated on defeating their enemies, protecting their friends and keeping one another safe. Unifying their thoughts made it easier to focus on their task and they knew that they could deal with their telepathy after the battle.
"We're ready. Let's go," Kari and TK spoke in unison before leading the charge once more. They sprinted into the mass of Deep Ones, using their combined powers to slice the demons apart. They knew that they could do this together. They knew that they had to do this to save the world.
So what do you think to the twist of having Kari and TK become telepathically linked when the powers from their crests are joined for a long time? I needed to create a reason for them to avoid using the powers of their crests most of the time besides the chance of them hurting Ken. I figured this would be a good reason for them to not want to use their crests since, even for people as close as they are, TK and Kari still don't like the idea of someone being able to read their thoughts and memories. I don't think anyone would like it.
As always, I'd really appreciate it if you leave me a review with your thoughts on this chapter :D