Chapter 12
"How long does it take to get a program running again?" Sora cried in panicked frustration as Izzy hit the Enter button for the fifteenth time.
"I don't understand it!" Izzy snapped at the monitor. "It won't load! It's like there's a hidden firewall there that I can't get around..."
"Then *break* through it! Izzy, you have to get me in there!" Sora shouted, leaping to her feet.
"Sora, that's the last thing we should do!" Izzy shouted back, trying to make her see reason. "You can't help him, you can't even talk to him! He couldn't hear you even if you were right in there next to him, and I'm not going to let you kill yourself trying to pull some stupid stunt for his sake! Now sit *down*!"
Opening her mouth to tell Izzy exactly what she thought of him, Sora was cut off by a grim-faced Joe.
"He's right, Sora. There's nothing we can do for Tai right now. The least we can do for him is to keep you safe."
Ashamed, Sora sat, her head throbbing with hopelessness.
Izzy paused, thinking. "I have to call someone," he said quickly, and stood, hurrying out of the room.
"Hold on!" Joe said, but Izzy was gone. Shaking his head, Joe followed at a run.
"You guys, wait-gahh!" Sora cried, slamming a fist into Izzy's desk and making the keyboard dance. Her gaze moved to the monitor, and she swallowed. "It's not fair!" she wailed, gritting her teeth. "Tai's *dying* in there, and there's nothing I can do! I can't help him, I can't talk to him...I can't even *reach* him!" The black globe of virus pulsed silently, oblivious to her anger and fear.
The sight of it seemed to hypnotize Sora, hateful as it was. Her eyes lingered on it, and then...something happened. Her vision...*shifted*, somehow, and suddenly the screen filled her eyes, blotting out the room around her. Slowly, she stood, and took a step toward the computer. Her hand stretched out, and her fingertips grazed the screen...
And then, in a moment slower than syrup, yet faster than light, she was *there*.
The virus-globe floated before her; a shining window into Izzy's room was behind her. To her left, a carousel hovered, human and Digimon figures huddled together on it...but Sora didn't have time for hellos. The virus held her gaze, and she moved toward it steadily...
"Sora!"
The voice was Joe's, coming from the window behind her. Izzy's voice joined in a second later.
"Sora, how did you...oh, never mind! Get out of there, now!"
She ignored him, continuing her calm, slow trajectory toward the virus.
"Can't you hear us? Get out! You're going to get killed!"
As she reached the great black sphere, Sora stretched out a hand. The virus shrank away from her, leaving a hole in the curved wall through which she quietly passed. Then it closed again behind her, blotting out the boys' frantic shouting.
Frozen darkness glowered around her in every direction, but it was a hollow globe, and no virus touched her. She floated in midair, looking around...
And saw him. At the very center of the virus.
"Tai?" He lay silent and tense, his body still. Floating toward him, she settled next to him on nothingness. Lying there on air, his eyes were squeezed shut, his teeth and fists clenched tightly. Sora's heart wavered at the sight of the pain on his face.
*Knowing someone forever teaches you a lot about their body language,* she thought, remembering a tree and a hidden secret, *but no one could miss how much he's hurting...* She took a deep breath.
"Tai, I don't know if you can hear me. Izzy said you might not be able to, and he's usually right. But you know, you always understood me better than anybody when it was important, even if I did confuse you sometimes...and if you can't now, then you sure picked a lousy time to break the habit." Sora smiled weakly. "Of course, I guess my timing wasn't that great, either. If it was, then I would have told you a lot of things before now...but it seemed like you would always be here. You were invincible. Nothing could touch you.
"Like back there with that Tortomon. You saved my life, Tai. I'm alive because of you. I don't know if you realized it, but that makes you responsible for every beat of my heart since then." She swallowed, hard, and looked down at his face, still torn with pain. "My heart doesn't feel much like beating right now," she said, her voice trailing off to a whisper. "But if you listened real closely, you could hear it breaking..."
Tears began to run down her cheeks. "Best friends forever, remember? Well, when I said forever, I meant *forever*. As in, today, and tomorrow, and the next day..." Choking back a sob, she looked down at his face, his closed eyes... "Sure, you saved my life, Tai, but what good is it to me without you to share it with? Who am I supposed to confuse if you're not around?" She laughed, bitterly, through her tears.
"You said you could take care of yourself..." Sora reached out, hesitantly, and touched his cheek. "I should have known better. I should have come with you; I could have done something! Neither of us can hold out on our own, Tai. We're Digidestined, but that doesn't mean we can stand alone!
"You can't leave, Tai! I need you. We all need you! You're too strong to let it control you, I know that, but you've got to keep it from taking you with it! Hold on, Tai. You've got so much to live for, and so much life ahead of you. Please, hold on..."
She crumpled then, crying, letting her face fall into her hands as her tears fell silently through the empty space she knelt on, like precious rain. As they touched the globe of fog, it hissed and dissolved in the places they touched, quickly trying to heal itself. Suddenly, Sora clenched her teeth, anger filling her, and sat up, crying out at the unfeeling data of the virus surrounding them.
"How could this happen? How did this happen to him? He thinks he's a man, but he's not, he's just a kid like me! Like all of us!! Things like this aren't supposed to happen to kids! He's a good person; he didn't do anything to you! Why couldn't you just leave him alone?!"
An arm of the virus snaked towards them, but Sora whirled on it.
"Don't touch him!!" she screamed. "Don't you dare touch him!!"
To her surprise, the virus shrank back from her. She stared at it as it slurped back into the wall of the globe that surrounded them, and then began to shake.
"If I have the power to command a deadly virus..." Sora turned to look back at Tai, his face twisted in anguish. Her voice dwindled to a whisper. "Then why can't I help you?"
With a soft sob, she curled up next to him, pillowing her cheek on his chest. Her tears trickled down her cheek and dampened the front of his shirt, and she curled her fingers in the damp fabric, trying to hold on to him with her hands and her heart as she felt him slipping away...
"TK..."
TK looked up, startled. "Kari! You're awake!"
Her face was pained. "TK...the virus-" Her voice was cut off by a fit of coughing. TK's eyes widened, and he grabbed her hand.
"Kari, don't talk," he said quickly, holding tightly to her hand. Kari shook her head, getting her coughing under control.
"No...you have to...listen!" She gave his hand a little shake, and TK nodded, fighting back tears.
"I'm listening. Kari-"
"Shh," she said, silencing him. Her eyes were grave as she struggled to speak. Something was wrong with her chest...it hurt so much, and she could barely breathe, but she had to tell him what she'd figured out! She had to make sure the others didn't make the same mistake that TK and Davis had made!
"But Kari," Davis began, looking as worried as TK.
"I said shh," Kari repeated, turning her head with difficulty to look at him. "That means...both of you." She smiled slightly, and then became serious again. "TK...before you came, I...realized what the...virus uses to stay...strong." She felt another bout of coughing coming on, and stifled it with her free hand as TK held desperately to her other hand, feeling helpless and frantic.
As both boys knelt on either side of her, Kari took a deep, shaky breath.
"Hate."
"What?" TK and Davis said at the same time.
"It feeds on hate...and fear. And sorrow," she added, giving TK's hand a squeeze. "You can't keep...fighting! You're making...it stronger, and...it won't be stopped...until you stop hating."
"But what about sorrow?" TK said, blinking hard. "How do we deal with that?"
Kari smiled at him, tenderly. "Rise above it, TK. You're strong...both of you. You can defeat...this thing." Her fingers moved in TK's, and her gaze locked with his. "Don't mourn, TK."
"Kari..." he moaned, tears filling his eyes. "I'm so sorry! I tried-"
"I know you did," Kari said, gently. "I...forgive you. It wasn't...your fault..." *He doesn't understand. I have to tell him, or he'll let sadness take him!* But her chest squeezed, as if in a vise, and she couldn't breathe any longer. "You've...got...to...reconcile," she gasped. "Both...of...you. Promise..."
"I promise," TK said, a sob hanging in his throat.
Davis swallowed. "I promise."
"Thank...you," Kari whispered, her breath almost gone. "It....can....."
Her sentence hung unfinished in the air between them, as she gasped for breath.
"Kari, hang on!" TK cried, but as he watched, her eyes closed, and her chest stilled...
"Kari..." Davis breathed, horrified. He lifted his head to stare at TK. "You did this," he growled.
"No," TK said, tears choking him. "No...she forgave me." Then, suddenly, Kari's words asserted themselves. "Davis, she forgave me! She told me not to mourn her..." He swallowed his tears. "And she said to reconcile. I promised...and you did, too."
"I..." Davis began, and then stopped, looking at the tear-streaked face of his longtime rival. *My rival, yes...but my enemy?* He frowned, remembering his promise...and doing some deep thought for once in his life. *TK's not my favorite person...but I definitely don't hate him. He could be a good friend, if I would let him.*
Solemnly, TK held out a hand over Kari's body. The symbolism was not lost on either of them as Davis slowly reached out and clasped TK's hand in his own.
"I don't hate you, TK. In fact, I guess I'm okay with you."
"You too," TK said, nodding. "Friends?"
"Friends," Davis agreed, tightening his grip as they shook on it.
With a burst of sound and light, the air above them lit up like a neon sign.
"Ack!"
"Whoa!"
Letting go of each other's hands, Davis and TK scrambled backward, staring at the symbol hanging in the air, traced in bright green light.
"What is that thing?" TK sputtered.
"The crest of Friendship," Davis murmured, thunderstruck. "But how..."
Another flash of light blinded them for a moment, and when their eyes cleared, three more symbols shone brightly around Friendship.
Golden Hope. Pale-pink Light. Red Courage.
"I don't understand..." Davis said, confused. TK looked around, trying to find an answer...and then let out a whoop.
"The virus!" he shouted. "Davis, look!"
"Huh?" Davis said, looking... "How the...?"
The virus was...vanishing. Wherever the light of their crests touched it, it sizzled and disappeared. The light ate through the darkness like Tai through a large pepperoni pizza, destroying it before it even had time to recover.
"Incredible!" TK yelled. "I bet Kari knew something like this would happen!"
"But what's Kari's crest doing up there if she's...." Davis murmured to himself, but TK didn't hear him.
"I've got to call the others!" He reached for his belt, charged with the sudden distraction from his shock and grief, but his D-Terminal wasn't there. "Shoot...I bet I lost it while the virus had me." He frowned. "Oh, whatever. I can find it later. Davis, where's your D-Terminal?"
Davis held it up.
"Give it here," TK said quickly, snatching it. Flipping it open, he hit a few buttons, hoping the virus was no longer interested in blocking signals...
*dee-deep, dee-deep, dee-deep...*
"Huh?" Joe said, tearing his eyes from the dark ball of virus on his screen to stare at a D-Terminal, still lying on his desk. "Huh? What's Cody's D-Terminal doing here?" he said, reaching for it and opening the lid.
"Hello? Somebody, anybody, please pick up!"
"TK?!" Joe cried, hitting the button to reply to the transmission. TK's face appeared in the little window, as Joe knew his had appeared on TK's terminal. "TK, what happened? Where are you?"
"It's a long story," TK said, his face falling for a second. Joe frowned; something was very wrong... "But there's no time to explain," TK continued, forcing back sadness for later, when he could afford it. "I know what the virus feeds on!"
"What?!" Izzy yelled from his seat at the computer. "Joe, let me see that thing, quick!"
"How long does it take to get a program running again?" Sora cried in panicked frustration as Izzy hit the Enter button for the fifteenth time.
"I don't understand it!" Izzy snapped at the monitor. "It won't load! It's like there's a hidden firewall there that I can't get around..."
"Then *break* through it! Izzy, you have to get me in there!" Sora shouted, leaping to her feet.
"Sora, that's the last thing we should do!" Izzy shouted back, trying to make her see reason. "You can't help him, you can't even talk to him! He couldn't hear you even if you were right in there next to him, and I'm not going to let you kill yourself trying to pull some stupid stunt for his sake! Now sit *down*!"
Opening her mouth to tell Izzy exactly what she thought of him, Sora was cut off by a grim-faced Joe.
"He's right, Sora. There's nothing we can do for Tai right now. The least we can do for him is to keep you safe."
Ashamed, Sora sat, her head throbbing with hopelessness.
Izzy paused, thinking. "I have to call someone," he said quickly, and stood, hurrying out of the room.
"Hold on!" Joe said, but Izzy was gone. Shaking his head, Joe followed at a run.
"You guys, wait-gahh!" Sora cried, slamming a fist into Izzy's desk and making the keyboard dance. Her gaze moved to the monitor, and she swallowed. "It's not fair!" she wailed, gritting her teeth. "Tai's *dying* in there, and there's nothing I can do! I can't help him, I can't talk to him...I can't even *reach* him!" The black globe of virus pulsed silently, oblivious to her anger and fear.
The sight of it seemed to hypnotize Sora, hateful as it was. Her eyes lingered on it, and then...something happened. Her vision...*shifted*, somehow, and suddenly the screen filled her eyes, blotting out the room around her. Slowly, she stood, and took a step toward the computer. Her hand stretched out, and her fingertips grazed the screen...
And then, in a moment slower than syrup, yet faster than light, she was *there*.
The virus-globe floated before her; a shining window into Izzy's room was behind her. To her left, a carousel hovered, human and Digimon figures huddled together on it...but Sora didn't have time for hellos. The virus held her gaze, and she moved toward it steadily...
"Sora!"
The voice was Joe's, coming from the window behind her. Izzy's voice joined in a second later.
"Sora, how did you...oh, never mind! Get out of there, now!"
She ignored him, continuing her calm, slow trajectory toward the virus.
"Can't you hear us? Get out! You're going to get killed!"
As she reached the great black sphere, Sora stretched out a hand. The virus shrank away from her, leaving a hole in the curved wall through which she quietly passed. Then it closed again behind her, blotting out the boys' frantic shouting.
Frozen darkness glowered around her in every direction, but it was a hollow globe, and no virus touched her. She floated in midair, looking around...
And saw him. At the very center of the virus.
"Tai?" He lay silent and tense, his body still. Floating toward him, she settled next to him on nothingness. Lying there on air, his eyes were squeezed shut, his teeth and fists clenched tightly. Sora's heart wavered at the sight of the pain on his face.
*Knowing someone forever teaches you a lot about their body language,* she thought, remembering a tree and a hidden secret, *but no one could miss how much he's hurting...* She took a deep breath.
"Tai, I don't know if you can hear me. Izzy said you might not be able to, and he's usually right. But you know, you always understood me better than anybody when it was important, even if I did confuse you sometimes...and if you can't now, then you sure picked a lousy time to break the habit." Sora smiled weakly. "Of course, I guess my timing wasn't that great, either. If it was, then I would have told you a lot of things before now...but it seemed like you would always be here. You were invincible. Nothing could touch you.
"Like back there with that Tortomon. You saved my life, Tai. I'm alive because of you. I don't know if you realized it, but that makes you responsible for every beat of my heart since then." She swallowed, hard, and looked down at his face, still torn with pain. "My heart doesn't feel much like beating right now," she said, her voice trailing off to a whisper. "But if you listened real closely, you could hear it breaking..."
Tears began to run down her cheeks. "Best friends forever, remember? Well, when I said forever, I meant *forever*. As in, today, and tomorrow, and the next day..." Choking back a sob, she looked down at his face, his closed eyes... "Sure, you saved my life, Tai, but what good is it to me without you to share it with? Who am I supposed to confuse if you're not around?" She laughed, bitterly, through her tears.
"You said you could take care of yourself..." Sora reached out, hesitantly, and touched his cheek. "I should have known better. I should have come with you; I could have done something! Neither of us can hold out on our own, Tai. We're Digidestined, but that doesn't mean we can stand alone!
"You can't leave, Tai! I need you. We all need you! You're too strong to let it control you, I know that, but you've got to keep it from taking you with it! Hold on, Tai. You've got so much to live for, and so much life ahead of you. Please, hold on..."
She crumpled then, crying, letting her face fall into her hands as her tears fell silently through the empty space she knelt on, like precious rain. As they touched the globe of fog, it hissed and dissolved in the places they touched, quickly trying to heal itself. Suddenly, Sora clenched her teeth, anger filling her, and sat up, crying out at the unfeeling data of the virus surrounding them.
"How could this happen? How did this happen to him? He thinks he's a man, but he's not, he's just a kid like me! Like all of us!! Things like this aren't supposed to happen to kids! He's a good person; he didn't do anything to you! Why couldn't you just leave him alone?!"
An arm of the virus snaked towards them, but Sora whirled on it.
"Don't touch him!!" she screamed. "Don't you dare touch him!!"
To her surprise, the virus shrank back from her. She stared at it as it slurped back into the wall of the globe that surrounded them, and then began to shake.
"If I have the power to command a deadly virus..." Sora turned to look back at Tai, his face twisted in anguish. Her voice dwindled to a whisper. "Then why can't I help you?"
With a soft sob, she curled up next to him, pillowing her cheek on his chest. Her tears trickled down her cheek and dampened the front of his shirt, and she curled her fingers in the damp fabric, trying to hold on to him with her hands and her heart as she felt him slipping away...
"TK..."
TK looked up, startled. "Kari! You're awake!"
Her face was pained. "TK...the virus-" Her voice was cut off by a fit of coughing. TK's eyes widened, and he grabbed her hand.
"Kari, don't talk," he said quickly, holding tightly to her hand. Kari shook her head, getting her coughing under control.
"No...you have to...listen!" She gave his hand a little shake, and TK nodded, fighting back tears.
"I'm listening. Kari-"
"Shh," she said, silencing him. Her eyes were grave as she struggled to speak. Something was wrong with her chest...it hurt so much, and she could barely breathe, but she had to tell him what she'd figured out! She had to make sure the others didn't make the same mistake that TK and Davis had made!
"But Kari," Davis began, looking as worried as TK.
"I said shh," Kari repeated, turning her head with difficulty to look at him. "That means...both of you." She smiled slightly, and then became serious again. "TK...before you came, I...realized what the...virus uses to stay...strong." She felt another bout of coughing coming on, and stifled it with her free hand as TK held desperately to her other hand, feeling helpless and frantic.
As both boys knelt on either side of her, Kari took a deep, shaky breath.
"Hate."
"What?" TK and Davis said at the same time.
"It feeds on hate...and fear. And sorrow," she added, giving TK's hand a squeeze. "You can't keep...fighting! You're making...it stronger, and...it won't be stopped...until you stop hating."
"But what about sorrow?" TK said, blinking hard. "How do we deal with that?"
Kari smiled at him, tenderly. "Rise above it, TK. You're strong...both of you. You can defeat...this thing." Her fingers moved in TK's, and her gaze locked with his. "Don't mourn, TK."
"Kari..." he moaned, tears filling his eyes. "I'm so sorry! I tried-"
"I know you did," Kari said, gently. "I...forgive you. It wasn't...your fault..." *He doesn't understand. I have to tell him, or he'll let sadness take him!* But her chest squeezed, as if in a vise, and she couldn't breathe any longer. "You've...got...to...reconcile," she gasped. "Both...of...you. Promise..."
"I promise," TK said, a sob hanging in his throat.
Davis swallowed. "I promise."
"Thank...you," Kari whispered, her breath almost gone. "It....can....."
Her sentence hung unfinished in the air between them, as she gasped for breath.
"Kari, hang on!" TK cried, but as he watched, her eyes closed, and her chest stilled...
"Kari..." Davis breathed, horrified. He lifted his head to stare at TK. "You did this," he growled.
"No," TK said, tears choking him. "No...she forgave me." Then, suddenly, Kari's words asserted themselves. "Davis, she forgave me! She told me not to mourn her..." He swallowed his tears. "And she said to reconcile. I promised...and you did, too."
"I..." Davis began, and then stopped, looking at the tear-streaked face of his longtime rival. *My rival, yes...but my enemy?* He frowned, remembering his promise...and doing some deep thought for once in his life. *TK's not my favorite person...but I definitely don't hate him. He could be a good friend, if I would let him.*
Solemnly, TK held out a hand over Kari's body. The symbolism was not lost on either of them as Davis slowly reached out and clasped TK's hand in his own.
"I don't hate you, TK. In fact, I guess I'm okay with you."
"You too," TK said, nodding. "Friends?"
"Friends," Davis agreed, tightening his grip as they shook on it.
With a burst of sound and light, the air above them lit up like a neon sign.
"Ack!"
"Whoa!"
Letting go of each other's hands, Davis and TK scrambled backward, staring at the symbol hanging in the air, traced in bright green light.
"What is that thing?" TK sputtered.
"The crest of Friendship," Davis murmured, thunderstruck. "But how..."
Another flash of light blinded them for a moment, and when their eyes cleared, three more symbols shone brightly around Friendship.
Golden Hope. Pale-pink Light. Red Courage.
"I don't understand..." Davis said, confused. TK looked around, trying to find an answer...and then let out a whoop.
"The virus!" he shouted. "Davis, look!"
"Huh?" Davis said, looking... "How the...?"
The virus was...vanishing. Wherever the light of their crests touched it, it sizzled and disappeared. The light ate through the darkness like Tai through a large pepperoni pizza, destroying it before it even had time to recover.
"Incredible!" TK yelled. "I bet Kari knew something like this would happen!"
"But what's Kari's crest doing up there if she's...." Davis murmured to himself, but TK didn't hear him.
"I've got to call the others!" He reached for his belt, charged with the sudden distraction from his shock and grief, but his D-Terminal wasn't there. "Shoot...I bet I lost it while the virus had me." He frowned. "Oh, whatever. I can find it later. Davis, where's your D-Terminal?"
Davis held it up.
"Give it here," TK said quickly, snatching it. Flipping it open, he hit a few buttons, hoping the virus was no longer interested in blocking signals...
*dee-deep, dee-deep, dee-deep...*
"Huh?" Joe said, tearing his eyes from the dark ball of virus on his screen to stare at a D-Terminal, still lying on his desk. "Huh? What's Cody's D-Terminal doing here?" he said, reaching for it and opening the lid.
"Hello? Somebody, anybody, please pick up!"
"TK?!" Joe cried, hitting the button to reply to the transmission. TK's face appeared in the little window, as Joe knew his had appeared on TK's terminal. "TK, what happened? Where are you?"
"It's a long story," TK said, his face falling for a second. Joe frowned; something was very wrong... "But there's no time to explain," TK continued, forcing back sadness for later, when he could afford it. "I know what the virus feeds on!"
"What?!" Izzy yelled from his seat at the computer. "Joe, let me see that thing, quick!"