Spirit Sojourn

by Kari

A/N: Yay! Finally, chapter two! Chapter one took me forever to write... but it's ALL downhill from here, buddy! YES! *dances around the room* ^_^ Whoo... maybe I should quit that. ;; Oh, and to new readers, if there ARE any... if you haven't read chapter one or the prologue yet, prepare to be THOROUGHLY confused. ^^ So you might want to stop by there first.

Disclaimer: Duh. You all know this one. *looks pointedly at readers*

Dedications: Well, they're pretty much all the same. You know, to my editor, my friends, my family, God... ^_^ If they change, you guys will be the first to hear about it, kay? Also, goodbye and God bless to the Trinity Baptist Church student minister, Brent Warren... he felt a call from God to join another church near Dallas and become their youth minister. We love you, Brent, and we'll miss you! None of us at TBC will ever forget you, and the entire youth group can't thank you enough for all that you've done for us for the past three years as our student minister. Come back to visit us soon!

And one final thing before the chapter begins... MERRY CHRISTMAS!! And a happy new year and all that, too. ^_^ If you don't celebrate Christmas (wish everybody did...), then I still hope your holidays are "merry and bright". (I love Christmas songs...) ^^ Okay, enough talk! Read, read! ^_^

Kari :)

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Spirit Sojourn
Chapter 2: The Evil Attacks
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"So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in His good time He will honor you." ~ 1 Peter 5:6

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~*~ Two months later ~*~

Hikari Takaishi awoke one morning with an overwhelming nausea settled inside her. She glanced at the clock... it was glowing 3:30 AM. With a tired, aggravated groan, Kari climbed out of bed, careful not to wake her husband. She stood slowly to prevent getting dizzy, but she did anyway and held her forehead until the room stopped spinning. When she finally felt like she could make it to the bathroom without running into a wall, she dragged herself straight to the toilet.

Kari slumped to her knees and leaned over the bowl, feeling her stomach start to tense...

"Kari, honey?" TK awoke to the sound of his wife emptying her insides in the bathroom. "You okay?"

In the bathroom, Kari scolded herself for waking him up. "Yeah TK, go back to sl-" She couldn't finish her sentence because at that moment her stomach decided it wasn't finished getting rid of that night's dinner. TK winced at the sound and got out of bed to see if she was alright. He stuck his head in the bathroom to see his wife buckled over the toilet, trembling all over.

"Kari!" The young man rushed to her side and took hold of her shoulders. "Kari, what's the matter?"

"I think it was dinner from last night that made me sick. It didn't really taste right anyway..." she groaned weakly, clutching her stomach. TK held to her tightly to stop her from shaking. "TK, would you get me some watever, sweetie?"

"Sure," he said, getting up immediately and filling a small cup with water from the jug they kept on a small table against the wall. He handed it to her, but she was shaking so bad she couldn't hold it without spilling it all in the toilet. He held it up to her lips and let her sip from it. "You okay now?" he asked her when she had finished drinking.

Slowly, she nodded. He stood and helped her up, carefully so as not to upset her stomach again. When she was upright she swayed a bit, dizzy from throwing up, and didn't move. She didn't even feel strong enough to stand, really. TK scooped up the frail-looking woman off her feel and carried her to their bed, gently setting her in it. "Think you can sleep?" he whispered to her as he knelt by her bedside. Kari, curled up on her side facing him and clutching her pillow, nodded. "That's my girl..." he smiled. He knelt beside her, playing with her hair until he was sure she was asleep. "I'll take her to the hospital tomorrow..." he mumbled to himself as he got in bed next to Kari, and sleep soon overtook him.

**************************

"Mmmmmmm..." Sora hummed as she worked in her mother's flowershop. She had another job at the college, but she still came here and helped her mother out every so often, just for the fun of it. She was bent over a planter filled with various types of carnations, lilies, and tulips, making sure each type was separated so they wouldn't overpower each other.

Sora heard someone enter the shop and looked away from the flowers to greet the customer. "Good morni... Tai!" She smiled brightly when she saw that her visitor was her best friend. He flashed her that old lopsided grin of his and went to her side. "What are you doing here?" she asked him as he gave her a quick hug.

"Just coming to hang out with my best bud," he grinned. "Whatcha doing?"

"Making sure these flowers don't kill each other, that's all," Sora explained. Tai laughed and knelt next to her as she skillfully tended to the flower bed. An eyebrow raised, his eyes followed her fingers' fluid movements, watching like a hawk as she separated each flower species from the other. He was dumbfounded as to why anyone could or would want to do this job.

"How do you do that?" he asked, his dislike of the idea of messing with flowers all day dripping from his voice. She laughed a bit, shrugged, and continued with her job while he just sat and watched.

"Where's your mom today, Sora?" Tai continued with his questioning.

"She wasn't feeling too well today... she hasn't been getting a lot of sleep lately," she replied, not once looking up from her task.

"That's too bad..." Tai said sympathetically, clicking his tongue. "Does she have a cold or something?"

"I think it's just a twelve-hour bug," she answered.

"Oh... so you just came to work for her?"

"Yeah..."

"That was nice of you."

"I guess..."

For the first time in a long time, an awkward silence fell upon the two. Neither knew just why... the last time something like this had happened was when the two had dated for awhile in high school. They found they liked being best friends better so continued on that way and broke off the more 'serious' relationship.

In the silence, a song popped into Sora's head and she started humming while she worked. With sudden realization, Tai's eyes widened and he wheeled his head to the side to face her. She noticed his stare out of the corner of her eye, stopped humming, and met his gaze.

"What?"

"That song... that's the one we heard in the dream!" he exclaimed. Sora nodded slowly, never wavering from her work.

"Yeah, I know... it's been running through my mind a lot lately," she told him quietly. Tai placed a hand on her shoulder, and Sora turned to look at him.

"Did you have another dream or something?"

Sora shook her head. "No, I haven't," she said solemnly, "have you?" He shook his head 'no' as well.

"But I have been feeling something's going to happen soon," he added. Sora nodded in agreement. "And I really wish the guys would return my calls or something. Every time I call one of them, they're either not home, or they're like Matt and make up some stupid excuse for not being able to come over or talk at that moment."

"It's strange," Sora said quietly. "Ever since the wedding, everybody seems to be avoiding us."

"I know. It's starting to make me wonder if we did something wrong... or maybe it was the dream or something. I have no idea what's making everybody act this way."

Sora didn't know what to say at this point, so looked away and remained silent for a moment before continuing to hum and separate the flowers. Tai also said nothing and went back to watching her. Running through each mind were possible reasons for the strange behavior of their long-time friends, yet none of the explanations they could come up with seemed plausible. Things were getting strange in the world lately... things and people were turning upside-down. It was almost as if nothing were impossible anymore...

*****************************

Kari sat in the waiting room, clutching TK's hand. She had just been in the doctor's office for twenty minutes, only to be sent out again to wait for test results.

"Now Mrs. Takaishi, I want you to take this cup and bring it back when you're finished. Try not to overfill it," the doctor instructed. Kari looked blankly at the cup and then at the doctor with a very abashed grin.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna overfill it... but why? Is that how you check for viruses and stuff?"

"One of the ways... we can also take blood, but this will give us a bit more information," she told her patient.

"Kar? What's wrong?" TK asked when he felt her hand squeeze his just a tiny bit harder. She neglected to look at him, but assured him nothing was wrong.

She brought the cup and its contents back out and handed it bashfully to the doctor. "That's good, Mrs. Takaishi. Now if you'll just take a seat on the table while I run a quick diagnostic on a sample." Kari blinked a few times and swung her legs over the side of the table as she watched the doctore take a small, rectangular piece of paper out of a cabinet on the wall and squeeze a few drops of the contents of the cup onto it. "Now we wait about a minute and a half..." the woman told her as she sat in a small swivel chair. Kari looked at her hands and around the room to pass the time while the doctor entered some information into her computer.

"Doctor? Do you have any idea what's wrong with me?" she asked suddenly, about a minute later.

"Well, I do have an idea, but your symptoms could point at three or four different things. I don't want to say what until this test is finished, and then I'll have a better idea." Kari nodded and continued concentrating on her hands. Thirty seconds (that felt like thirty minutes) later, the doctor stood from her chair and examined the piece of paper. Her expression turned serious as she held it up to the light.

"What? What's wrong?" Kari pressed, wringing her hands.

"Ah, okay... that's what I thought."

TK watched as his wife looked between the clock and the floor repeatedly. "Kari honey, you're starting to worry me..." he said quietly after five minutes of this incessant clock-checking. She jumped a bit, seemingly having forgotten her husband was sitting there.

"Oh... sorry," she laughed nervously, "I guess I'm just... a little scared."

"Why? Did the doctor tell you what was wrong?"

"What is it!?" she asked again. The doctor turned back to her and smiled weakly.

"I'm almost positive what the problem with you is now, but I'm going to send it up to a friend of mine in gynecology to make sure."

"Gynecol..." Kari repeated, fading off before she finished. The doctor laughed a bit and comfortingly patted her back before she left to take the sample to another doctor.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Takaishi, I'm sure everything will be fine."

"She didn't exactly tell me," Kari told him, her hand tightening on his again, "but she gave me a pretty good idea."

"Well, what is it?" he pressed. She opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a male nurse coming up to her and TK.

"Mr. and Mrs. Takaishi?" he asked. Kari looked up in dread while TK affirmed their identity. The nurse smiled brightly and handed them a couple papers attached to a few small brochures. "Congratulations! Your tests came back positive, Mrs. Takaishi! We'll be seeing you again soon!" And with that, the nurse hurried off, TK looking after him blankly while Kari hung her head.

"Oh boy..." she muttered, holding her head in her hands. TK looked over at her, obviously confused, and then held up the papers he had been handed. The first two papers showed a series of dates for return check-ups with a different doctor than Kari had just seen. He read over them and noticed that the appointments spanned over about six months.

"Huh?" he mumbled under his breath. "Why six months?" He then took out one of the brochures and all but passed out at its title...

"So You're Going To Be A Daddy..."

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RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!

"Tai, could you get the phone?" Mrs. Kamiya shouted from the kitchen. No answer. "Tai! Phone!!" she yelled again. Still no response. With a frustrated sigh, she put down the knife she was using to cut the peppers for dinner that night and rushed to the phone. She snatched it up just before the fourth ring. "Hello?" she said, her tone rushed.

"Mom? That you?"

"Kari? Yes, it's me! Are you at home, hun?"

"We're at home, Mom..."

"That's nice, sweetie. How are you and TK doing?"

There was no answer on the other end of the phone... just nervous breathing. "Kari? You there?"

"Yeah Mom, I'm here..."

"Well... not that I don't love it when you call, but what's the reason, dear? You don't always call just to listen to silence on the phone," Mrs. Kamiya chuckled. My, she's acting strangely today... she thought as she waited for a response. Again, no answer. "Kari-"

"Uh, she told me to tell you, Mrs. Kamiya," TK's voice said. Mrs. Kamiya raised an eyebrow and cradled the phone closer to her ear.

"Oh, hello TK... tell me what?" she asked cheerfully.

"Uh... that is..." Mrs. Kamiya listened with a highly amused grin on her face as TK tried to find the words to say. They're BOTH acting weird today! I wonder what's going on...

"Just say it, TK," she finally told him in a rush of breath.

"Kari's pregnant," he shouted into the phone, almost cutting her off.

"................"

"She went to the doctor today and they told us we were having a baby," he croaked, expecting Mrs. Kamiya to lash out on him. He waited, cringing, for a few minutes, listening to... well, listening to silence on the other end. "Um... Mrs. Kamiya?" He was answered by a loud thud... Mrs. Kamiya had fainted.

"Kari, your mom just passed out," TK stated stupidly, looking blankly at the phone. Kari just shook her head, still not really believing this all was happening.

"Just wait, Tai'll pick up the pohne in a second..." she said quietly. Sure enough, TK soon heard a male voice shouting into the phone.

"Who is this? Hello? Hey!!"

"Tai?" TK said hesitantly.

"TK? That you?"

"Yeah Tai, it's me..."

"Why is my mom out cold on the floor!?" Tai yelled into the receiver. TK jerked the phone away from his ear until his brother-in-law had finished shouting.

"Promise not to kill me?"

"Kill you, why would I kill you? You didn't do anything to Kari, did you?!" TK shut his eyes and clutched the phone in his hand.

"Well, I... I guess you could kind of say I d-"

"TK, WHAT THE HECK DID YOU DO TO MY SISTER?!?"

"Um..." TK paused when his voice cracked and cleared his throat, and continued, hoping Tai wouldn't go insane. "Kari's pregnant, Tai."

"What? I couldn't hear you, you were mumbli-"

"Kari's going to have a baby," TK said, loudly this time.

"....................." Again, silence ensued. TK covered the mouthpiece with his hand and looked over to Kari.

"Do they always have to go mute whenever they hear something like this?!" he grumbled. Kari shrugged, not having known what her family's reaction would've been in the first place. TK leaned against the wall with the phone to his ear and waited for Tai to come out of his temporary state of shock. "You there, T-"

"M... my little sister's... pregnant?" he finally sputtered. TK nodded.

"Yes Tai, Kari's pregnant." Surprisingly to him, he was getting used to this being-a-dad thing. It was getting easier to say every time he had to drill it into someone's head. Kari looked to him, her expression asking what was going on. He opened his mouth to answer, but jumped a bit when he heard the phone slam down. "Uh..." Slowly, he brought the phone away from his ear and looked at it blankly.

"What happened?" Kari questioned.

"He, uh... hung up on me," TK replied blandly. He set the phone gently on its base and went to sit on the khaki-colored couch in their living room. Kari stood up suddenly when he had sat down and headed into the kitchen. "Kar, where're you going?"

"He'll want something to eat when he gets here... I imagine my mom hasn't even finished dinner yet," she replied, shaking her head.

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Five minutes later, loud pounding startled TK and Kari from their thoughts. They were seated together on their couch, staring straight ahead, thinking of what they were going to do, now being future parents. TK jumped up from his seat and hurried to answer the door. "Who is i-" he began as he opened the door, and Tai burst through it the second he had room.

"Where is she!!" he shouted, he head wheeling around looking for his little sister. He finally spotted her sitting on the couch and rushed over to her.

"She's right-" TK said automatically, pointing lamely in her direction. He watched as Tai ran over to his sister and scooped her off the couch. "-There."

"Kari!! I'm going to be an uncle!?" he exclaimed as he spun her around and around. Kari's horrified look melted as she began to laugh at her brother's enthusiasm.

"Yes Tai, you're going to be an uncle," she giggled, holding tightly to Tai's shoulders so she wouldn't fall. He laughed heartily and spun her around until he stopped suddenly, held her in the air a moment, and then gently, cautiously, set her down.

"Oh... I guess I shouldn't do that... I might, ya know, hurt something," he mumbled, his expression turning both serious and concerned at once. "I didn't, did I?"

Kari grinned at her brother and set a hand on her still tiny abdomen. "Don't think so, although I was starting to get a little queasy from the room spinning," she told him. Tai's eyes widened as he flopped down on the couch. TK finally walked over and wrapped his arms around Kari's shoulders as Tai made himself at home.

"I'm going to be an uncle..." he breathed, as if trying to convince himself that it was true. "I'm gonna be an uncle...!" He remained quiet this time and Kari took the opportunity to get the sandwich she had made for her brother before he had arrived and bring it to him. Thanking her and telling her she shouldn't have done it in her "condition", he accepted it and took a huge bite.

"Oh Kari, did they tell you how far along you were?" TK asked as he and Kari watched Tai munch on his pre-dinner snack. Kari shrugged.

"No, but I'd assume it's about a month and a half," she answered nonchalantly. TK again wrapped his arms around her shoulders and rested his chin next to hers. Tai continued eating, looking up at Kari and TK out of the corner of his eye every two seconds.

"Hey Kari, have you thought up any names yet?" he asked after he had finished. Kari looked blankly at him.

"Names? Goodness no... I mean, we just found out today, Tai."

Tai waved his hand dismissively. "No no no, Kari, you have to decide on a name early on! Then you won't be stuck in the delivery room with no name to put on the little guy's birth certificate.

"Since when did you become an expert on babies, Tai?" Kari teased.

"Since I found out my sister was having one," Tai shot back with a mouthful of turkey sandwich.

"Wait... wait a minute, Tai... little guy??" TK asked, an eyebrow raised. Tai nodded affirmatively.

"Yes, little guy."

"But Tai, it's too early on for even the doctors to tell what the baby will be," Kari laughed. "Besides... I'm not so sure I want to know what it is beforehand. Then what will the surprise be?"

"What he LOOKS like!" her brother insisted, reaching for the phone. TK looked strangely at him, his look questioning what his brother-in-law was doing. Tai noticed him and quickly explained, "I'm calling mom to see if she's awake yet. I put her on the couch, but I left right after that." Kari shook her head and TK chuckled a bit as he hurriedly dialed his home number. "Mom? You okay?........... Good. Oh, guess what? Kari's pregnant!..................... Mom?.......................... Mom, you there?"

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After he bade his sister and brother-in-law goodbye and congratulations, Tai rushed home to see his mother. This was the second time she'd fainted in one day, not to mention in less than thirty minutes... he supposed that she just couldn't grasp that she was about to become a grandmother. Perhaps she felt she was too young to become one of the eldest Kamiya generation of three living. And in all honesty, perhaps she was too young... nevertheless, Kari was pregnant, and going to become a mother in just a short time... Tai hoped his mother would get over the fainting thing real quick.

Soon after leaving his little sister's apartment, Tai burst through the old front door to his parents' apartment. He wasn't surprised to find it unlocked, since, due to the low crime rate in Tokyo (and all of Japan, for that matter), his family never really felt the need to lock it unless they were leaving for an extended period of time. What he was surprised to see, however, was a tuft of red-orange hair sticking out from around the corner leading into the kitchen.

"Uh, mom? Do we have visitors?" he asked before rounding the corner to discover the owner of the hair. Just as he was about to poke his head into the kitchen, Sora's face popped into view. Startled, Tai jumped back a bit. When Sora had decided to face him, he had been so close his lips had almost brushed hers. She apparently realized this as her cheeks were tinted pink and she suddenly found the floor rather interesting.

"S-Sora!" he stammered, trying to recover from his near incident with his best friend. He shook his head with a small, quick jerk to clear his mind and finally smiled a greeting at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I actually came to tell you something," she explained, "and when I knocked on the door, no one answered. I knew you were home, so I walked in... and found your mother sitting on the floor smiling like there was no tomorrow." Tai grinned and then finally joined the two women in the kitchen. There he found his mother already busy with the rest of dinner, almost completely prepared.

"Hey Mom," he said to her. Mrs. Kamiya turned around with a smile, only to quickly turn back around to finish the last few preparations for the meal. "You're not gonna pass out again when I tell Sora the news, are you?" he asked hesitantly. There was no response from his mother for a moment (even though Sora looked utterly confused) until finally she gave a small nod of assurance.

"What news?" Sora questioned. Tai turned to face her, trying to keep the stupid grin off of his face (in vain).

"Kari's pregnant!" he exclaimed happily.

"..........!!" Sora said nothing... only stood before him with a look or pure shock on her pretty face. "WHAT!?" she finally managed.

"Kari and TK are having a baby! I'm gonna be an uncle!" Tai repeated, almost jumping with joy. In his excitement, he had taken Sora's hands in his, as if he were trying to transfer some of his happiness to her. She noticed the gesture, but was too shocked to register any emotion from it. Slowly, a small smile crept onto her face... which grew to a grin... which grew to one of the brightest smiles the young man had ever seen.

"You're kidding!!!" she exclaimed in a hushed voice. Tai only shook his head quickly, so happy he was unable to reply. "That's great, Tai!" Happily she threw her arms around his neck and he around her waist, picking her up and spinning her just as he had Kari earlier. Mrs. Kamiya watched out of the corner of her eye, a sly grin on her face.

"How far along is she?" Sora asked when Tai had released her. He shrugged his reply.

"Kari says it can't be more than a month and a half."

"Are they going to find out the gender of the baby?" Sora continued questioning. He again shrugged, this time saying nothing in reply.

"Can we go over there?" she asked once again.

"After dinner, yes," Tai answered with a quick glance to his mother, "we'll head over there. Are you staying or what?" Sora looked to Mrs. Kamiya, who immediately turned and nodded.

"Of course she's staying, Tai!" his mother piped, motioning for the two to help her set the table. "We have plenty of food! Unless, of course, you eat it all..."

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I have stood watch over this child since he was conceived... along with my twin brother. He is more powerful than I... he wants so much to be rid of the child, but seems not able to do it right now. If I am to stop the birth now, there will be no chance of him escaping my clutches. Yes... no... now is the time I will attack, and kill the child, and his mother. The Holy One and His Son will never be able to stop me if I am to attack now. My opportunity approaches soon... very soon...

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Hikari... Takaishi...the young woman thought to herself as she filled out the small form. Her husband sat beside her, casting several glances from the paper to her hand, to her stomach, to her face, and then back to the paper.

"Kari, how did they talk us into starting this again?" he asked her, leaning back in his chair. The young woman didn't look up as she was filling out the paper given to her, but laughed.

"Who knows... Sora and my brother are very persistent, I suppose."

Takeru tilted his head back and closed his eyes, groaning with impatience. Finding that somewhat uncomfortable, he rolled his head to the side and plopped it on his wife's shoulder and rubbed his forehead back and forth on it.

"TK, stop it," she giggled, shrugging her shoulder underneath his head. Her actions only caused him to shake his head more quickly on her shoulder. Laughing, she reached up and gently pushed his head off of her and continued filling out the form. TK watched her for a moment, then with a girn, promptly dropped his head on her shoulder again. Kari sighed, rolling her eyes, and finished the horrendous task of signing into the clinic.

"I don't know why they make you fill those out more than once a week. We were only here, what, yesterday?" TK commented, not bothering to hide his frustration as he and Kari brought the form to the woman at the front desk. The young-looking technician glanced up at them with a sympathetic smile as she took the clipboard from Kari.

"It's standard procedure," she told him, "everybody has to do it. I do agree with you though... things would go so much faster if we could keep these and only make people change them every week or month or so." TK looked to her, a bit surprised that she had decided to comment on what he had said. He blushed a little and muttered a quiet "sorry" as the tech filed the papers. "The doctor will be with you shortly," she told the two with a polite smile. Kari thanked the woman and dragged the still bashful TK back to their seats. Together they sat and waited only minutes for the doctor to call Kari in, TK berating himself the whole time for letting himself be heard. Kari tried telling him that it was okay, but he wouldn't have it. He hated being rude.

"Hikari Takaishi?" a woman in a white lab coat called into the waiting room, balancing a clipboard on her left arm. Her dark hair was pulled up into a tight bun, and from the looks of the slight wrinkles around her eyes, she seemed to be in her late thirties to early forties. Kari looked away from TK to acknowledge the woman and stood, pulling her embarrassed husband up with her.

"Hellow Hikari, I'm Doctor Shinyu," the woman greeted warmly, shaking both Kari and TK's hands in turn. "Follow me please, and we'll get this ultrasound done quickly, okay?" Kari nodded and, holding tightly to TK's hand, followed in the doctor's footsteps. In a minute or so, the three walked into a dimly lit room. With its head against the wall, a hospital bed stood next to some kind of machine that looked like a cross between a heart monito and a TV.

"Now Hikari, if you would lay on this table flat on your back and lift up your shirt to expose your stomach," Dr. Shinyu instructed. The young couple said nothing in reply to her commands, and simply followed instructions. The middle-aged woman picked up a transducer, a little handheld device with a large ball roller much like that of a computer mouse at the tip. The ball itself acted like a miniature live-action x-ray machine and was able to project an image of the inside of Kari's abdomen onto the monitor. With quick, fluid motions, Dr. Shinyu applied a medicinal gel to the ball on the transducer.

"Hikari, I'm going to need you to unbutton and unzip your jeans so I can view the entire area over your uterus," the doctor kindly told her. She did as told, and as soon as the transducer was lowered onto her stomach, she gasped. "Cold?" Dr. Shinyu asked, grinning.

"Yeah," Kari admitted with a laugh.

"That's what everyone says... the gel's always freezing from being kept in these cold hospital rooms," the older woman told the younger, beginning to maneuver the transducer all around Kari's torso, searching for the tiny sign of life embedded within her young patient. She casually explained what she was doing and pointed out things the girl and her husband might be interested in as she looked. "That's the stomach there," she pointed on the monitor as she passed things by with the transducer, "and your liver... pancreas... no appendix, huh? You must've had that removed when you were younger."

"When she was fourteen," TK told the doctor, who smiled warmly at her patient's husband.

"Have you really known each other for six years?"

"Twelve, actually... since we were eight," TK corrected with a distant smile.

"Wow... guess it was meant to be, huh?" TK blushed and nodded his agreement, smiling down on his wife, whose eyes were fixed to the ultrasound screen. She seemed oblivious to the entire conversation, when in reality, she was simply being lulled to sleep by the gentle whirring from inside her that the machine was emitting. She tried to stay awake, but sleep suddenly sounded so inviting... like some higher power was willing... no, ordering her to fall asleep. She vaguely heard the doctor commenting on how the baby wouldn't be very developed or visible at just eight weeks, and how she and TK would be able to see and hear a tiny heartbeat inside a fetus about two and a half centimeters in length, but that was it.

"Kari... are you okay, sweetie?" TK asked out of the blue. Kari looked up at him to answer, and strangely was hardly able to turn her head to see him. When she managed to face him, all she saw were blurs of color. She could see where his hair and eyes were, but those were the only characteristics she could identify. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, blinking quickly to try and clear her vision.

"Yeah TK, I'm... fine..." she replied, her voice almost too quiet to hear. She fought to keep her eyes open, but they still remained only halfway so, no matter how hard she tried. What is WRONG with me? she thought frantically. Funny... her mind seemed to be in perfect working order, yet her body felt like it hadn't had sleep in days.

"Sometimes new mothers act this way, when they see their child for the first time. It's like they're in awe," Kari heard Dr. Shinyu telling TK. Barely did Kari register this, her sudden need for a nap overwhelming her. Slowly, her eyes closed, and the last thing she heard before drifting off was Dr. Shinyu saying:

"Oh, there's the baby, Takeru, and the heartbe... Huh? What in the world is tha....!?"

**************************

Darkness...

Disturbing silence...

Bitter cold...

With a violent shiver, Kari awoke to these surroundings. "Where am I?" she wondered aloud. She looked around her, pausing only to stare in one direction to allow her eyes to adjust to the lack of light. Only every time she thought her eyes had finally adjusted, the darkness would grow greater and greater. Her eyes were opened as wide as they could go, and by reflex, tried to open even more to allow as much light in as possible. But since there was no light, her eyes just got more and more exhausted witht their efforts. No matter what she did, she just couldn't see here.

"TK?" she called into the vast blackness as she squeezed her eyes shut, tired of trying to open them wider. Fear formed a lump in her throat, but she swallowed it quickly... if she concentrated on her fear, she would never be able to find a way out of... wherever she was. That was one thing she had learned in her lifetime of danger. "TK!!" she called again, her voice stronger and more confident... yet still more desperate. With a forlorn sigh, she came to the realization that no one else was here... she was alone. She needed to find her own way out. Hey, she'd done it before, hadn't she? Why couldn't she do it again? Cautiously, carefully, she took a tiny step.

Solid. At least she wasn't floating on some pedestal somewhere thousands of feet from the ground. Again she stepped out... more solid ground met her feet. A tiny sigh of relief escaped her, and she began to walk more confidently in God knows what direction. She looked down to see what she was walking on, but all she could see were the shoes on her feet. How strange... she thought to herself as she realized that she could see all of herself, just as she could in the middle of the day. But anywhere past her body was... disturbingly black. As she walked on, the feeling that something definitely was not right here grew within her... as did the feeling that someone was watching her. Thoughts and visions of the dark ocean kept flashing through her mind... this was SO much like her experience there. Yet... this definitely wasn't the dark ocean...

A gust of wind blew suddenly, stopping her in her tracks, and her eyes flew open once again. It was so cold. If she wasn't going to find a way out of here, the chill probably would kill her before starvation or dehydration did, as cold as it was. Wrapping her arms around herself, she looked out for a source of the wind, finding none... until...

"Kari!"

That sounded like Tai...

"Kari!!"

"Tai?" Kari called out. She wheeled around and around, searching desperately for her older brother and doing her best to ignore the discomfort she felt from her eyes straining to open even wider than before, now that she was actually looking for a specific thing. "Tai!?" A blast of light appeared from some distance behind her, and, shielding her tired eyes, she faced into that light. There, in the midst of it, stood Tai Kamiya. "Tai!!" Kari cried in relief. She picked up her feet to run to him... except her legs seemed to be weighted to the ground. She mentally screamed at her feet to move, but they just... wouldn't. "Tai, help me! I can't move!"

"Good," he said darkly.

Kari was confused... her brother had never sounded like that before, no matter how mad he got at her... "Tai, what's wrong with you? Why are you just standing ther-"

"The fear is working then. It's weighing you down, Kari. As is the tiny life inside you."

"What are you talking about?"

"He must be stopped, Kari." A new voice caused Kari to spin around to see... Sora standing behind her, in much the same light as Tai was enveloped in.

"Who, Tai? What's he up to now?"

"Not Tai, Kari. He that is inside you," Sora told her, her voice growing just as dark and frightening as Tai's was. "He must be stopped... he will ruin my plans."

"Your... plans?" Kari was baffled at her friend's behavior... as well as her brother's. "What plans?"

"Kari... he has to be stopped," yet another voice spoke from the darkness. Kari immediately recognized it. "TK..." she breathed with a smile, and turned her head quickly to face him. There he stood, in yet another blanket of light. But instead of the smile she usually saw on his face, he had the same dark scowl as Tai and Sora. Kari's stare spun in all three directions - to her brother, her friend, and her love - they were all acting so weird. It scared her, but she refused to back down.

"What do you mean?" Kari stifled a proud laugh. Her voice had sounded more confident than she felt, just like she wanted it to. She hadn't been sure if she could pull that off.

"He... the babe... he must be destroyed."

"TK, you've lost your mind. We're not getting rid of the baby!"

"You misunderstand, young one. The babe is the Chosen One... my sworn enemy. I will kill him before he destroys what I have planned," Tai's voice sounded again.

Then suddenly, it clicked. Kari knew what it was in TK's voice... in Sora's... in her brother's voice... that hadn't been there before.

Evil.

A pure, uninterrupted flow of evil was dripping from their voices. That's when she knew for sure what had been sitting in the back of her consciousness since Tai first appeared.

"You're not here... NONE of you are here..." she announced viciously, her eyes narrowed. At that very moment, the images of her 'loved ones' began to spin around her slowly.

"Kari..." the three called out threateningly, "come here, we need to see the baby... we won't hurt it, we promise..."

Kari laughed sarcastically, folding her arms across her chest and refusing to face any of them. "That's funny, I could've sworn you were just saying how much you needed to kill the baby for whatever twisted reasons you have. Now get lost, I have to figure out how to get out of here, and you're distracting me. Or, you could just show yourself right now and we'll have it out, you coward..." With the sound of an autumn wind, the three images disappeared in a huge flash of light. Kari shielded her eyes, and slowly opened them moments later, only to see what she had originally seen. Nothing.

"Very good, young one," a raspy voice suddenly hissed from the darkness. "Although, I am a bit disappointed that you took so long to figure out that none of your friends were really even here..."

"WHO ARE YOU!?" Kari shouted into the air, her eyes flashing as she searched for the source of the voice.

"That is not of your concern, young one."

"The hell it isn't!" Kari yelled. "You obviously have something against my unborn child, and that is definitely of my concern!"

"It is? Well, child, you have enough to worry about already... allow me to take your mind off of the baby!" the voice growled. It no longer sounded human... or even close to human, as it had before. Now it sounded like something... bigger...

A sound to Kari's left caused her to look in that direction. She waited fearfully to lay eyes on the owner of the menacing voice, but at first, saw nothing. She shivered again, but in anxiety, and only then did she pay attention to the temperature again. Where before it had been painfully cold, it was now growing warmer with each passing second. And just as the first bead of sweat appeared on her forehead, she finally saw something... and it frightened her more than she had ever been before.

A huge, blood-red dragon with seven heads and ten horns was bounding quickly towards her. As it drew closer, Kari noticed, along with how hot it was getting, that each of the dragon's heads bore a crown that looked like that of the ancient Greek or Roman rulers. The leaves of each crown were the same color as the dragon itself, as were its eyes and huge, threatening wings. Kari tried desperately to get her legs to move, but they remained stuck to the ground like concrete. "Please God, make them move!" she prayed fervently as she struggled. She could hear the beast's tail slashing at the air and more than likely destroying anything it happened to come in contact with, if anything. I'm not going to make it out of this... Kari thought as she closed her eys, the realization bringing to her an overwhelming sadness as she had never experienced before. She sank to her knees as the tears came, and she could now smell the putrid breath of the monster as it drew close enough to consume her. She brought her hands up to her face, as if it would protect her from her fate, and opened her mouth to scream...

"KARI!!!"

Kari jerked awake, drenched in a cold sweat and breathing heavily. She opened her eyes and looked straight into the blue, frightened, worried ones of her husband. He was holding tightly to her shoulders, and Dr. Shinyu was beside him, clutching the transducer so tightly that her knuckles had long since turned white. Kari bolted into a sitting position and stayed there for a moment, stock still, until finally realizing that it was all right... it was just a dream. She was here with TK and the doctor in the hospital, and no one was trying to take her baby.

"TK!" Kari collapsed, sobbing, into his arms, exhausted from fright and relieved that she was no longer in danger. TK wrapped his arms comfortingly around her, rocking her slim, shaking frame, and looked to Dr. Shinyu, immense question etched into his features. She looked just as he did.

"Kari, what happened? You just fell asleep on the table and then started shivering like you were laying in snow or somethi-"

"TK, it was horrible!" Kari began, talking quickly without pausing, even to breathe. "First Tai was there and then Sora and then you, but it wasn't really any of you, and then there was this... monster, or dragon, or something that wanted to kill the baby and..." Kari broke off into sobs and once more collapsed into TK's grasp. TK looked to the doctor again as he stroked Kari's hair gently, trying to calm her down. Dr. Shinyu furrowed her brow in concentration... and then slowly walked around the bed to stand next to the ultrasound monitor.

"I think I need to show you something, Hikari." Kari looked up from TK's shoulder, ceasing to cry, and turned her undivided attention to the woman. Dr. Shinyu looked a bit longer before the machine and made quite a few clicks with a mouse attached to the monitor until she found what she was looking for. "Was this what you saw in your dream?" she finally asked, turning the monitor slowly around so TK and Kari could see it. Kari stared hard at the screen, and her eyes widened in fear when she saw what the ultrasound had picked up...

On the screen was a small, fuzzy, yet distinguishable image of the shape of a dragon... with seven heads... ten horns... wings that could block out the sun... and a tail so dangerous it could knock stars from the sky. It was such an extremely small image, granted... but it was there, and Kari could see it. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers as all of the color drained from her face. She slowly, limply, lifted a finger and pointed lamely at the monitor, opening her mouth to respond, but emitting no sound but a strangled, choked, "Tha-...!!!" TK blinked in concern and surprise as Dr. Shinyu lowered her eyes.

"I'm going to take that as a yes..." Dr. Shinyu said quietly, printing out the image at TK's request.

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A/N: I think this is a good place to end this chapter, ne? How do you like so far? Now you get to review! Aren't you excited!? *rolls eyes* But please do review. I guess that's it for now... until next time! Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, whatever you celebrate... happy holidays! (I think that just about covers it, no?)

Kari :)