Chapter 111: Time is Ticking Part 3

Hi there. I hope that you're all well.

Many thanks to Gadget30thAnniversery and Sakura0410 for your reviews of the previous chapter and I'm glad that you really liked it. Some of those theories about Metalseadramon might pop up again soon.

Also, thank you so much for your understanding about why I nearly had to skip this month's chapter. As you can see, I've managed to write and edit this short chapter in the time that I had, so thankfully I do have something that I can share with you and progress the story a bit more. I hope that you'll enjoy this chapter even if it is the shortest one that this story has had so far.

Kari turned the page of her book before reaching over and picking her drink up off the bedside table. She took a sip before placing it down and glancing at her husband. TK was laying with his head on her lap, reading his book too, as Kari was sitting there with her legs stretched out on their bed.

The couple had decided to relax for a while after their breakfast and before they had to meet up with everyone else for the daily briefing. Today was going to be slightly different than normal because they were going to be testing some of the ideas that Gennai had suggested when they met him yesterday. The Digidestined were going to do these experiments before starting their usual patrols around the city to get their daily readings on Dragomon's location and ambush groups of Deep Ones.

A smile spread across Kari's lips as she watched her husband for a moment. He seemed to be really into the story that he was reading and she wondered if it was inspiring his creative urges. Her focus returned back to her book but it was quickly pulled away again as Gatomon jumped up onto their bed. Patamon landed beside his girlfriend before the feline Digimon cleared her throat.

"Kari, TK, we need to discuss something." Gatomon gazed straight into her partner's eyes as she continued. "It's very important."

Kari shared a glance with her husband before he shifted and sat up, moving to sit next to his wife. They slipped their bookmarks in between the pages of their stories and put them down on their bedside tables before Kari returned her focus to their Digimon. "What's the matter?"

"It's about how long we have left before we have to stop fighting," Patamon sighed as he put his arm around Gatomon. "There isn't that long left until we won't be able to join the others anymore because Gatomon will be having our baby too."

"We said that we were going to try to time things so that our baby hatches around the same time as you have your baby," the feline Digimon took over from her boyfriend. "For us to do that, we'll need three or so months for our baby to hatch. You're just over four months pregnant, so there isn't that long until we need to start trying for our baby as well."

Gatomon paused and shared a glance with Patamon before she returned her attention back to their partners. "We discussed a few things and we think we'll have a month or so before we're going to have to stop fighting alongside the others."

"I don't want us to be anywhere near the battlefield whilst our baby is inside Gatomon or while we're waiting for the egg to hatch," Patamon added with concern lacing his tone. "There's a lot of risk when a female Digimon is pregnant, especially if she's fighting. I don't want to put Gatomon into situations where we have to take that risk. To be honest, we're also not very comfortable letting Kari go out on patrols because of the risks."

"On top of that, I want to protect my egg once I've laid it." Gatomon looked Kari in the eyes again as she continued. "I think it's some kind of maternal or parental instinct that shows in some Digimon that makes us very protective of any digi-egg. It'll be even stronger in me though because it will be my digi-egg. It will be defenceless and we have to keep it safe from any evil Digimon who might come after it."

TK sighed. "Given the amount of evil Digimon and Deep Ones currently here on Earth, there's quite the high chance of that happening. Heck, even if Dragomon's army don't come after us or we defeat him beforehand, there's still a chance that other evil Digimon might try to find us if they find out that Kari and I are having a baby and you both are having a baby too."

"Exactly." Patamon nodded. "It means that we'll have to move somewhere safe and away from all of the fighting. As Gatomon said, that gives us about a month before we will have to go somewhere safer than this base."

Silence fell over the group as Kari glanced down and she placed her hand over her baby bump. The young mother-to-be gently rubbed it, thinking about her own baby and their safety. Her bump was getting bigger and her daughter was growing, so she knew that this talk was going to happen sooner rather than later.

"Honestly," TK broke the silence and gazed at his wife. "I've been thinking similar things about Kari and our daughter. It won't be long until we have to stop going on patrols because we need to prioritise our baby's and Kari's safety."

Kari sighed and gave her husband a nod. "Yeah, I've also given it a lot of thought recently. It won't be long until I'm going to start losing a lot of mobility and that would put all of us at risk. I guess that I have a month or so too until I'll have to move to a safer place to make sure our daughter isn't in danger. It'll also be quite some time until we can return after that."

"We're really up against it then, huh?" TK pursed his lips before running his hand through his hair. "We'll have to come up with a way of sorting everything out soon or we're not going to be able to help out the others when they really need us."

The two couples went quiet again as they started thinking over their situation once more. How should they approach this? It was the main question that kept running through Kari's head and there were only a few answers that came to mind. However, she wasn't sure if they were ready or not to carry out the obvious solution.

"Let's speak to Tai later." Kari took a deep breath. "I'll tell him how long we have left because he needs to know. We also need to see if we can get our plans finished in time before we have to retire, so to say."

TK rubbed the back of his neck as he stared at the bed. "I think it would be our best option. I just hope that we're not rushing things and running into this battle too soon."

"It was the timescale that we originally planned for when I came up with this idea," Kari replied before thinking for a few moments. "I feel that we now have enough help from our friends to fight back, especially after the Megadramon, Gigadramon and Airdramon defected. Also, Tai, Matt, Yolei and Sora have returned to action to boost our numbers, and we've got Digidestined and their Digimon from around the world offering to help out."

Gatomon nodded. "Now might be the best time to put our plans into place. Who knows what might happen if we keep dragging this out? Metalseadramon has found a way to find us through the barriers and it might only be a matter of time before that becomes a huge issue for us. What happens if this sense of his that he's using allows him to find your baby? I'd hate to know how he'll react."

TK gulped and glanced at his wife. "I didn't even think about that. It's a real possibility too. Gatomon's right that Metalseadramon might be able to use his sense to discover our daughter in the same way that we can sense the light coming from her. I remember when some of Dragomon's forces were able to sense the light of our baby. All of them started behaving erratically like everything was over and they were doomed before they lashed out at us."

"Yeah, that's true." Kari frowned. "Metalseadramon might lose it too because, after all, Dragomon wants me and I guess that he wants to use me to fight back against Daemon. With me being pregnant with your baby, TK, it seems like that's one of the conditions that ruins all of Dragomon's plans. Well, it at least looks that way based on how his minions have reacted when they've found out."

"Metalseadramon might go on a rampage and, instead of looking for you both, he and Dragomon might change their plans." Patamon gulped too. "They might focus on trying to take over Japan or the rest of the World instead of searching for both of you like they have been doing for the past few months."

"Or he might just try to kill us both." TK glanced between Kari and their Digimon. "Remember how Murmukusmon reacted when he found out? Metalseadramon reacting that way would be a million times worse and imagine if Dragomon acted that way too."

"We'd be in a lot of trouble," Kari sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I'll try and pull Tai aside later and let him know that we need to talk. I feel that this is something that we can't keep putting off."

"Yeah." TK nodded along with Patamon and Gatomon. "We're going to have to start sorting things out soon. The sooner we tell Tai, the quicker we can get the ball rolling on this."

Sorry again about the length of this chapter. As I said at the beginning, I hope that it's ok and that you enjoyed it. This scene felt important enough that I could publish it on its own like this because it still moves things forwards.

I've still not got as much time to edit and write as I'd like to have, so it's something that I think will affect the next chapter too. That being said, it won't be as short as this one was. Hopefully things will start getting back to normal in a couple of months.

On a different note, I noticed that Toei announced a new Digimon Adventure 02 project. I've not seen much information on it but, knowing how Toei like to work, I guess that there aren't many details out yet. I wonder if it's something that follows Kizuna or if it's something that follows on from the Adventure 2020 reboot.

Please can you let me know your thoughts on this chapter by leaving a review? :D

Stay well and stay safe :D