Dark and Light: Part Two

By: Sakura

…Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep…

T.K. opened his eyes and yawned. Letting his eyes adjust to the darkness, he could see Kari sleeping, with her head against his shoulder. He could also see the light from his digivice. It was reacting again. Moving his arm carefully, so as not to wake Kari, T.K. unhooked his digivice. The signal was getting louder by the minute. Not wanting to bother Kari, he pushed his digivice into her backpack, to muffle the sound.

T.K. looked back at Kari. She was breathing softly, peacefully even. Her arms weren't as cold as they were earlier. He blushed again, thinking of how he had impulsively put his arms around Kari to keep her warm. T.K. couldn't sleep anymore, so he let his mind drift. He thought about when all of them were brought back to the Digital World. It has been…how many days now? This was the second night they spent in the Digi-World. It seemed longer than that, but he didn't mind. Kari was with him. The two of them had three more days before they were supposed to meet up with the others. That's if they could get out of this hole. If Patamon or Gatomon were here, they could digivolve and fly them out of this place.

Kari began to stir, for the signal from the digivice got even louder. She opened her eyes and looked face-to-face with T.K. For a few minutes, neither of them spoke. It was a comfortable silence for them. Then T.K. smiled and said, quoting Kari from the night before, "Time to get up, sleepyhead."

Kari chuckled. Looking first at the sky and then at T.K., she said, "It's too early, the sun hasn't even risen yet." She sat up and picked up her bag. "Since when did I have an alarm clock in here?" she muttered. Opening the flap, she found T.K.'s digivice, beeping insistently. T.K. took it with a sheepish grin.

"Sorry about that," he said. "I thought putting it in your bag would muffle the sound. I didn't want to wake you up just yet."

"That's all right," said Kari. "Why is your digivice getting louder every minute?"

T.K. shrugged. "I'm not sure at all." He jumped up immediately and looked. Who called his name?

Kari stood up and looked at T.K. "What's wrong?" she asked. T.K. put a finger to his lips and Kari nodded. It was distant yet, but it was getting louder. Someone was calling T.K., but who?

"T.K.!"

Both DigiDestined looked up. Directly above the opening to the hole they were trapped in, a little figure with wings came into view.

"Patamon?" T.K. asked, bewildered.

"T.K.!!!"

The small figure flew all the way down and landed right in T.K.'s arms, knocking him to the ground.

"Patamon!" T.K. said, hugging his Digimon.

"T.K., I've been looking all over for you," said Patamon. "And I'm real glad I found you!"

Kari knelt down by T.K. and Patamon. "Patamon," she said. "Have you seen Gatomon?"

Patamon turned to Kari and shook his head. "I've been looking for her, too. She was with me just two days ago, but then she was taken away."

T.K. sat up. "What happened to her, Patamon?"

"Well," Patamon said. "You see, all eight of us Digimon were attacked three days ago by the Digimon controlled by Dark Wing.

"Dark Wing? Who's that?" asked Kari.

"Even us Digimon aren't sure, Kari. Anyway," continued Patamon. "Dark Wing's Digimon attacked us. We decided to try and split them up, for when Dark Wing's Digimon are together, they're much stronger. So Agumon and Gabumon went one way, with Raremon on their trail. Biyomon and Palmon went another, with Gesomon following them. Tentomon and Gomamon made Mammothmon follow them. That left me and Gatomon. Problem was that we had the hardest Digimon to defeat on our tail."

"Who was it?" asked T.K.

"Virumon," Patamon answered.

The name struck T.K. like a lightning bolt. Virumon was the Digimon that had hurt Kari in his dream. He looked over at Kari and noticed that she was listening to Patamon, still explaining the events that occurred two days ago.

"Virumon," Patamon was saying. "Is a Virus type Digimon at the Ultimate level. We were no match for him. I'm only at the Rookie level and Gatomon's at Champion. He was too much for us to handle." Patamon looked down. "After he wore us out, he used his "Nightmare Sleep" attack on Gatomon. She went out like a light. Then he picked me up by my wings and flung me far away." Patamon looked at Kari. "That's the last time I saw her. As soon as I could recover, I flew back to the spot, but Gatomon was gone, and so was Virumon. I've been looking for her, but I can't find her anywhere. I think maybe Virumon took her back to Dark Wing, but I don't know why he would do that. For some reason," said Patamon, turning to face T.K. "I don't really know how, but I knew you were here. I knew you came back to the Digital World. So I went to look for you. And," he added, hugging T.K. "I'm just so glad I found you."

T.K. hugged Patamon back. Looking over Patamon's head, he could see Kari's dejected pose.

Kari was looking at the ground with her head bent. Tears were forming in her eyes. "Gatomon…" she whispered. "Please be okay. Please…" Kari felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and saw T.K. He could see the tears in her eyes.

"Hey," he said softly. "Gatomon will be okay. We'll find her, no matter what."

Kari nodded and tried to blink away her tears, but they fell anyway. T.K. wiped them away for her and gave her a hug, to comfort her. Patamon took half a cookie from the bag and munched away in silence.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"That does it!" he cried. "I've had it with T.K.! He's gonna wish he never heard of the Digital World!" Opening up his laptop computer, he clicked a few keys. He shut it with a satisfied smile. "Time to teach him a lesson he'll never forget."

~*~*~*~*~*~

A rumbling occurred and both DigiDestined looked up to see a shower of rocks and soil fall on top of them. "Watch out!" cried Patamon.

Right when he saw the debris fall on them, T.K. used himself as a shield to keep Kari from getting hit. Patamon flew up to try to find out what was causing the rocks to fall when he was struck by one of the rocks. He fell and hit the ground. "Patamon!" yelled T.K.

Suddenly, a passageway opened up, revealing a steep tunnel, directly beneath Kari. "T.K.!" she cried, falling in. The opening swallowed her up and sealed itself shut. Kari was gone.

Despite the debris still falling, T.K. sat motionless, staring at the ground in disbelief. What had happened? Patamon slowly stood up. "T.K.," he said. "We have to get out of here, right away! Before we're completely buried!"

T.K. didn't answer him. He didn't even look at him. He continued to stare at the ground.

"Patamon digivolve to…Angemon!" Angemon used his wings to protect T.K. from getting hit. "T.K.," Angemon said firmly. "We have to get out of here, now."

T.K. finally tore his eyes away from the ground and looked at Angemon. "Not without Kari." He said, shaking his head.

Angemon's voice took a softer tone. "T.K., you can only save her by getting out of here first. If you don't, we'll never be able to save her."

T.K. nodded reluctantly. Angemon picked him up and flew to the mouth of the hole and out into the open air.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kari opened her eyes. Where was she? What happened? The lights in the room were very dim. She slowly sat up. She was sitting on a small pile of hay. Just a few feet above her was the tunnel she had fallen down. Well, more like slid down, she thought. In front of her, though far away, was a metal door, with a narrow slit for a window. To both sides of her, there was nothing but barren walls with small windows. They were all barred. Quite similar to what the inside of a jail cell might look like. Kari didn't understand how she got here. She felt confused…and a little dizzy.

Kari looked around, then stopped. It was like someone was watching her. She realized she wasn't alone.

In the far right corner of the room, sat a figure. He had been watching her ever since she had fallen into the room. He slowly stood up and approached her. He studied her closely. "You," he said finally. "You're one of the DigiDestined, aren't you? Kari Kamiya, right?"

Kari nodded slowly. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Name's Dylan West. I'm the ninth DigiDestined." he smiled. "Which would be why I was locked in here by Dark Wing." he said. He paused for a moment, then continued. "Your Digimon partner is a prisoner of Dark Wing, too. He was going to use her as bait to capture you, Kari."

She looked crest-fallen for a moment. "Gatomon…" thought Kari. She stood up. "Is there a way out of here?" Dylan nodded. "Show me," she said. "I have to find Gatomon and T.K."

Dylan clenched his fists for a moment, but Kari never noticed. He pointed at the chute above their heads. "That's the way out. The only way, besides the door." He looked at the metal door, then back at Kari, and said, "There's no way we can get out that way. It's heavily guarded."

Kari looked up at the chute. It was about ten feet above the ground. She looked at Dylan. "How do you know about this?" she asked.

"When you fell through the chute," answered Dylan. "You were knocked unconscious by some gases placed there for that purpose. When I fell through there the second time, I managed to avoid that, and kept sliding down. I noticed that there were several holes on the side of the chute. You could see a ladder and near the end of the chute, a landing. There's probably a way out from there."

"Then why didn't you try to escape through there before I came?"

Dylan shrugged his shoulders. "Merely because I can't reach that chute from here without some help," he said. "The first time I escaped, I got out through the door, but now they guard it heavily because they think I'll try to escape again." He looked at Kari. "Ready to give it a try?"

Kari nodded. Using himself as a stepping stone, Dylan boosted Kari up so she could try to get a hold of the chute. She caught hold, pulled herself up, and found herself on a small landing. She also found a rope, and after tying it to a pipe, tossed it to Dylan, which he used to climb up. He sat panting on the landing then stood up. He indicated to the ladder behind them and the two of them began to climb it.

At the end of the ladder, there was another landing, and a door. Dylan told Kari to step back, and he slowly opened it. Seeing no one, he ushered her in. The room was much darker than the passageway from which they came. After their eyes adjusted to the darkness, Kari spotted something, across the room. Something…or someone.

"Gatomon!" she cried.