Dark and Light: Part One
By: Sakura
Her face was so cold and pale. Her breathing was barely audible and she hardly moved. It was like she was dying… He felt helpless. He didn't know how he could save her. Hearing a growl, he whirled around, coming face-to-face with Virumon, the Digimon that had put his friend in that state. He clenched his fists and before he knew it, Virumon picked him up and……patted his back?
"Hey, T.K. Wake up."
T.K. opened his eyes slowly. It was just a dream. More like a nightmare. He wanted to forget it. Yawning and closing his eyes, T.K. turned onto his side and tried to go back to sleep when someone pulled his arm, making him fall off the log he was sleeping on and landing face first on the grass. T.K. flipped over to see who did that.
Kari giggled. "Time to get up, sleepy-head," she said. Kari offered him a hand, to help him up.
T.K. took the hand and got up. He noted that Kari's hand was cold. It reminded him of his dream, when he saw her dying…Releasing her hand, he banished the thought and dusted himself off.
Looking up, T.K. saw Kari trying to suppress another giggle. He raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, T.K., but you look really funny. You have a lot of grass sticking out of your hair." She stepped up and brushed the grass off his hair. Kari stepped back and picked up her backpack. She also picked up his hat and handed it to him. T.K. was deep in thought and never noticed. He was thinking about his dream…his nightmare. A hand waved in front of his face, bringing him back to reality. Kari's face expressed her concern. "Are you all right, T.K.? What's wrong, you look worried about something."
T.K. took his hat and placed it on his head, but he didn't answer Kari. "You know," she added softly. "If it's about Patamon, don't worry, we'll find him, and Gatomon, too."
T.K. nodded, even though that wasn't what he was worried about. Well, not just that. "You're right, Kari. We will find them." Hearing a beep from his digivice, T.K. unhooked it from his pocket. Kari also unhooked hers from her bag. Both digivices indicated the same direction. Looking at each other, both DigiDestined nodded, and headed southwest from their current location.
Eleven-year-old T.K. and Kari were back in the Digital World. They weren't the only ones. The other six DigiDestined, Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Mimi, and Joe, were there also. It's been three years since they all defeated Apocalymon, and things in the Real World were getting dull again, when all of a sudden, their digivices glowed simultaneously and brought them back to the Digi-World. Tai's glowed when he was at soccer practice and it pulled him to the Digi-World; Kari was brought from the balcony of her home; Matt and T.K. from watching television; Sora from her family's flower shop; Izzy from his computer; Mimi from shopping; and Joe from studying.
All eight DigiDestined had been dropped off at the same place, on the top of Infinity Mountain, located on File Island. After wondering what they were doing back in the Digi-World and where their Digimon partners were, each of their digivices began to beep. Tai and Matt's pointed in one direction, while T.K. and Kari's pointed in another. Same thing with Sora and Mimi, and Izzy and Joe. Izzy theorized that their digivices would lead them to their Digimon, so Tai advised everyone to split up and pair off with the person who's digivice also indicated the same direction. Before splitting up, they all agreed to meet where they landed after they found their Digimon partners within 5 days. Maybe they would be able to discover their purpose in the Digi-World when all sixteen of them were reunited again.
Tai and Matt headed north to find Agumon and Gabumon. Sora and Mimi looked around Infinity Mountain (as indicated in their digivices) for Biyomon and Palmon. Izzy and Joe went in an eastern direction to find their partners, Tentomon and Gomamon. This left T.K. and Kari, who, following their digivices, travelled southwest to look for Patamon and Gatomon.
Thinking back, T.K. and Kari had just spent their first night in the Digi-World, but with no luck of finding their Digimon. They hadn't given up hope, they knew they would find them. But they did wonder why they were brought back to the Digital World.
Walking in silence, T.K. and Kari continued their search for their Digimon. T.K. felt it was his duty to protect Kari. He couldn't help it, maybe it was because he liked…Switching the topic in his mind, T.K. thought about the dream he just had that last night. It had seemed so real. Too real. It scared him a great deal. What if it was to really happen to Kari? And who was this "Virumon"? And how did he know the Digimon's name? Deep in thought, T.K. hadn't been paying too much attention to his surroundings, when the ground collapsed under him.
"T.K.!" Kari cried. Kari grabbed T.K.'s hand to keep him from falling, but his hand slipped out of her grasp. T.K. fell, but caught a nearby tree root and hung on. The ground was still breaking apart and the root may not stay rooted much longer. Looking down, T.K. could see nothing but total darkness. The chasm was growing every second. Kari tried again and had her hand outstretched to T.K. Using his right hand to hold on to the branch, he used his left hand to reach hers. They touched briefly when the ground under Kari crumbled and she fell. T.K. caught her wrist and they hung there for a few moments.
"Don't look down," he shouted to her. "I'll get us out of here, I promise." Kari nodded slowly. As T.K. tightened his grip on the tree root, it split apart. It was so fast, that T.K. hadn't another chance to get a hold of another thing to break his (and Kari's) fall. Both DigiDestined fell into the chasm.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Kari's eyes slowly fluttered open. She sat up and looked around. Where was she? It was nearly pitch-black and she could barely see anything. Kari looked up, then remembered what had happened. Sort of. All she could remember was the ground breaking apart under her and T.K., and the two of them falling into the ground. That was it. Next to her, T.K. sat up, rubbing his head. He also looked around, then turned to her.
"What happened, Kari?" asked T.K. "It feels like Puppetmon bopped my head with his hammer." He picked up his hat and dusted it off before putting it back on his head.
"I'm not sure, T.K.," she answered. "I don't remember much except falling down and landing here." Kari ran her fingers along the wall of dirt surrounding them. It was very smooth, but completely solid. No loose areas anywhere.
T.K. looked up. "That's the only way out," he said, pointing up. "We'll have to climb up to get back where we were."
Kari also looked up. "But it's too high. What if we fall?"
Both of their digivices went off again. T.K. unhooked his. It was pointing upward. Kari got hers out, but her signal was pointing down, further into the ground. This puzzled her. T.K. hooked his back on his pocket and began climbing the wall. He slid down immediately. He tried again, but again he slid down.
T.K. looked at Kari. "It's too steep. We can't climb it. Wish we had a rope."
"Maybe," said Kari. "We can dig our way out."
T.K. gaped at her incredulously. "Are you crazy? We'll just go deeper than we are now!"
Kari shook her head and giggled. "No, silly. We dig up." She shrugged. "It's just a suggestion," she said, looking back up.
"Well," said T.K., "I'm ready to try anything to get out of this hole."
~*~*~*~*~*~
There she was. The child of Light. So sweet, and so innocent. She had the face of an Angel. She belonged to him. It wouldn't be too hard to get her back. For one, he thought, looking at the resting Gatomon, he had her Digimon partner. He smiled evilly. It wouldn't be long now…
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Take a break, T.K., you look tired. I'll take over now."
T.K. leaned against the wall to rest but insisted he wasn't tired. Kari placed her hands on her hips. "Come on, T.K., I'd like to help, too, you know. You shouldn't be the one doing all the work."
T.K. shook his head. "I'm fine, Kari," he said, smiling feebly. "Don't worry about it."
Kari crossed her arms, but didn't say anything. She sat back down with a huff.
The two DigiDestined were attempting to dig out of the deep hole they were trapped in, but unfortunately, the wall was as hard as a rock. T.K. has been working on it for an hour yet, but he still couldn't break through it. The area they were in wasn't very big, maybe about two metres in diameter. It was still dark there, but the sun was shining overhead, and it brought in a little light into their hole, though so high up. Kari looked up and calculated that the wall was about nine metres high, give or take a few centimetres.
She looked back at T.K., who was doing just about every method he could think of to break the wall. He had tried punching it, scratching it, kicking it, even running and banging into it. Nothing helped. He had a guess that if they could break though this outer layer, the rest would be a piece of cake. Kari doubted that.
Kari closed her eyes and thought back. She suspected that it wasn't by chance that both of them had fallen into this hole. She believed someone had set this as a trap. But who? And why? Kari opened her eyes and saw T.K. bang into the wall. He slid down into a sitting position. Hitting the wall had caused no effect. His hat covered his face and he didn't move. Kari stood up and moved next to T.K. before sitting down.
"Are you okay, T.K.?" she asked.
T.K. turned and looked at her. Then he smiled weakly. "I'm fine. Just taking a little break." He jumped back up. "I'll try again."
Kari pulled his sleeve, keeping him from standing up. "You need to take a longer rest than that, T.K.," she said. "Just sit down and take a break. We'll find another way out."
T.K. nodded and sat down. His stomach began to grumble. "Uh, Kari, I'm pretty hungry. How about you?"
Kari could feel her own stomach growling. "Me, too. I'll see if I have anything to eat." She picked up her backpack, opened it, and rummaged through it. "Well," she said. "I have a few cookies and two juice packs." Kari turned to face T.K. "Not much," she added.
T.K. smiled. "Look at it this way, at least we have something to eat."
Kari nodded and sat back down. She handed T.K. the little bag holding the cookies. T.K. picked one up and broke it in half. He handed one half to Kari.
"You know," he said, munching thoughtfully. "We should save these for later, just in case we get hungry again."
"Sure," answered Kari, brushing off any stray crumbs. She put the rest of the cookies back into her backpack.
They sat together quietly, neither one saying a word.
"Kari," started T.K., breaking the silence.
"Yes, T.K.?"
He looked away. "I'm sorry."
Kari looked at him curiously. "For what?"
T.K. sighed. "For everything. I can't find my own Digimon. I can't get us out of this dumb hole. I don't even have any food with me!" He hung his head. "It's pointless for me to be here. I'm useless."
Kari shook her head. "Don't say that, T.K.," she said gently. "You're not useless and I'm glad you're here. I don't feel so lonely with you to keep me company. We will find Gatomon and Patamon. I'm sure of it." Kari smiled at him.
T.K. smiled back. "Thanks, Kari."
~*~*~*~*~*~
It was a little while later. The sun had set and the night air had turned cold. T.K. was walking around, trying to find a way out. Kari was sitting, watching him. It had been a long day. They still haven't escaped their deep cell.
Kari shivered and rubbed her arms when a chilly breeze wafted into the hole. It was an attempt to get warmer. Unfortunately, it wasn't helping one bit. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt because back in the Real World, it had been a very warm day. Kari felt someone enclose their arms around hers. She turned and saw T.K. He blushed and let go of her.
"I'm sorry," he said, still blushing. "I thought you might be cold." He turned and began to move away when Kari spoke up.
"Wait," she started. T.K. stopped and faced Kari. She looked at the ground. "I…um…I…" she said, her face colouring a deep pink. Kari looked back at T.K. "I didn't really mind. It kind of helped." she finished, with a demure smile on her face.
T.K. smiled shyly. He nodded and held Kari close to him, to keep her warm, and himself. The night air seemed to get colder and colder. Kari rested her head on his shoulder. Her eyelids were beginning to drop. She was very tired. "I hope Tai and the others are okay…" she said softly, before falling asleep. T.K. rested his head on Kari's and he, too, soon fell asleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~
His clenched fists struck the table. How dare T.K. hold her! How dare he! In a jealous rage, he hit the table again, breaking it. He took a deep breath and calmed down. He had to remain calm. If he didn't, who knew what would happen to him. He had to execute his plan very soon. "Better savour your last moments with Kari, T.K.," he said, sneering at the image of T.K. "For you'll never see her again when I'm through with you!"
