Disclaimer: Digimon belongs to Toei, Fox Kids, etc Amy Normal Amy 1 2 2001-11-07T11:23:00Z 2001-11-07T11:25:00Z 4 1072 6116 Home 50 12 7510 9.2720

Disclaimer: Digimon belongs to Toei, Fox Kids, etc., not me.

Light in the Shadows

By stormchild

Chapter One: Missing You

Tai screamed.

Kari reached out a trembling hand towards him, struggling to free herself of the slimy grips of the Divermon. Beady eyes leered at him, mocking his inability to help his sister, and a strangled scream ripped from his soul again. But he couldn't move.

"Tai!" she cried, her voice raw with terror. "Help me!" He studied her mutely, noticing tiny details as if they were of great importance. Her brown eyes were wide with pain and fear, her hair spilling free of the pink barrette she was so fond of. He had bought that for her eleventh birthday.

MOVE! he shouted furiously, internally. MOVE! But his feet stood firmly planted to the ground. Tai couldn't even groan with his rage and frustration. All there was to do was watch as Kari was carried out of his life and into the darkness forever. The last things to disappear were her eyes, fearfully asking, Why? Why didn't you help me?

An emptiness invaded him, swallowed him, and he dropped to his knees, finally able to move. And it was too late. Too LATE!

"Tai...!"

The last scraps of Kari's horrified yelling echoed in his brain, over and over, incessantly, and he hunched over trying to block it out. "No," he whimpered. "No..."

"Tai...!"

*****

"NO!" Tai gasped, sitting upright. It took a moment for his confusion to clear, then he slowed his panting, lying back down and staring at the ceiling in his night-darkened room. A dream. That was all.

He frowned, noticing for the first time his sweat-soaked pajamas, and sighed. He must have had the nightmare a hundred times by now, and still it evoked so much pain inside of him. Was it normal? Even two years later, was it normal for the memory to be so vivid, for the hole inside to still gape wide? Was he losing it?

He certainly did feel as if he was losing touch with reality lately. The whole world seemed less and less real every day.

Tai tried to form a rock-solid wall of determination like the old days. Kari was still alive, and she would be found. Yes...

No. The rock crumbled and Tai squinched his eyes shut. He wasn't that old self anymore, not by a long shot. He had overheard a whispered conversation between his parents; his mother had described him as a shadow of what he used to be. He supposed that was accurate, not that he really cared.

He threw off his covers, trying to cool down. Beads of sweat still formed on his upper lip, and his hair was one big wet mass. Let's see... how many nights in a row had he woken up like this? He'd lost count. Kari invaded his thoughts, waking or otherwise.

She was still out there.

Despite his pessimism, he knew this much. He could feel it in his bones. She might be hurt, beaten, half-dead, and he didn't know, but he did know she was alive.

Tai groaned and sat up, idly fanning his face. The glow of his digital clock announced the time, 2:47 am. He had no hopes of going to sleep again, not if he didn't want to relive that day. Yep, he was going to be tired. No big deal though. He was always tired lately...

*****

TK smiled his practiced smile at his mother. A precise, measured smile, that didn't reach his eyes. Nancy Takaishi didn't realize this, though, and gave him an absent grin in return. "I'll see you after school, honey," she said.

Her golden-haired son nodded quietly and left the apartment, door clicking shut behind him. Upon meeting with Yolei and Cody in the elevator, he greeted them with the same emotionless smile. They grinned uneasily, covering it up with false cheer.

TK blinked and kicked himself inwardly, scolding himself. Do a better job, he thought. They can tell you're not same, good ol' TK anymore... somehow.

Upon reaching the schoolyard, an exuberant Davis jogged up to the group, still looking decidedly uncomfortable in his high school uniform. His hair was even more wild than usual, having no goggles to tame it. "Hey Yolei, Cody, TA!" He hesitated a bit at the last one.

Suddenly TK didn't care anymore. He was, after all, not much more than an empty husk. What was the point in going on? Life just snatched your loved ones away when you expected it least, and he figured it would happen to him soon, too. So why bother? Why bother with anything?

He wandered away from the others, earning bewildered looks, which he ignored. He was meant to be alone, or something.

Alone.

Kari...

*****

Davis studied the blonde boy's retreating back with a frown. He was still upset about Kari, wasn't he?

Everyone had been upset, of course. But Tai and TK seemed to be the ones affected most deeply-- two years later, and still they were drowning in their own sorrow.

Davis had scorned this for awhile--he thought they were being weak, letting it get to them. But he had eventually come to realize exactly how deeply they felt about Kari. Both had a bond with her that was unbreakable, or so they had thought.

Inevitably, Davis' thoughts drifted towards his own feelings for Kari. He could remember a time when he thought he loved her, was absolutely crazy about her. He snorted. More like infatuated. Yeah, he'd matured in the last couple of years...

But that didn't stop him from still feeling a pang at the thought of her, smiling and carefree. And now she was gone, probably dead.

They had searched, oh, lord, how they had searched. Tai particularly had wanted to go on, even when he hadn't slept for two days. He forced them to turn the Digiworld upside down in their hunt, and no one really objected. He had been just so... ferocious.

They had never found her, of course. TK mentioned something about a beach a few times, and a look of bitter understanding had come across Ken's face, but whatever it was, they never followed through with the idea. TK had said they couldn't get there, anyway.

And here they were, fallen back into a comfortable life without Kari. Except for the two boys. Davis watched as TK plopped onto a bench. He looked at Davis, blue eyes looking as if they were on the verge of crying, but they didn't. He just...stared.

*****

Izzy raced to the computer room, nearly slipping when he rounded the corner, ignoring his aching limbs. It was a good thing they had all started meeting in the high school's computer room after class. He collapsed into a chair, panting, but waved away the other Digidestined's worried looks. "I... ran... from... the other... side... of the school," he explained. "I just received an e-mail. From Gennai."

The group, which included everyone except Mimi, exploded into surprised chatter, and Izzy had to shush them. "Watch." He flipped open his laptop, and with a few clicks of the mouse, Gennai's face appeared onscreen. Well, sort of. It was fuzzy and disjointed, blurring out at times.

"Kids... Digiworld... Kari... captured... hurry!" The screen went black, and silence lingered.

Cody, who was turning into quite the handsome young man although he was still in elementary school, finally spoke in his quiet voice. "Does this mean there's a new enemy? And he has Kari?"

Sora placed a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "It must."

Matt nodded. "Well, then, we don't have any choice."

Davis spoke up. "We'll have to go to the Digiworld."

Tai, who had been silent--characteristic of his self these days--removed a pair of goggles from his pocket, pulling them onto his head. "Let's go get Kari."