Disclaimer: Simple: Claim I do not =Disclaim =I don't own any of this except my own ideas expressed through the things I do not own.

Chapter 3: The Epidemic of the Prophecy

"AAAAHHHH!!!!"

"That's it, Yolei!" Davis boomed, "If you scream in my ear one more time…"

"What's wrong, Yolei?" Kari asked sympathetically.

"Over there!" Yolei said pointing with wide eyes. Everyone follows her arm to see…a dragon?!

"Am I the only one that finds that creepy?" Joe wondered.

"Well, I don't think it sees us, so we should probably be all right…for now." Ken added as an afterthought. "but I wouldn't bring any attention on us."

"So is anyone here going to tell me what is going on?" Misty asked impatiently tapping her foot on the ground.

"Huh? Why are you still here?" Davis asked glancing over at Misty.

"Oh, so now you want to get rid of us?!" Misty yelled, "Well, I don't know where here is, so it would be pretty hard to know how I got here!"

"What are you people doing here?" A mysterious voice called out to them. A young man ran towards them with raven hair covering his face. He was a handsome man in a red top and beige pants. "Don't you see the dragon? If you don't get out of here, me might kill you!"

"Who are you?" Ash asked saying the question everyone else was wondering.

"Hm? My name is Van de Fanel, King of Fanelia."

"Fanelia? O.K., now I know we're a long way from home…" Kari muttered.

"Hi, I'm Yolei!" The purple haired girl said running up to shake his hands. "Ooo, I hope you're single, cause you know, you're very cute!" (Hey, someone had to hit on Van, why not Yolei?)

"Uuuh…well, actually…" Van's cheeks were starting to color a deep red. "Oh, you guys really need to leave here now; it's not safe out here. Come, I'll take you to my castle." He nodded in the direction he was heading in as the others decided to follow.

Yolei slid up to Kari and whispered, "Wow, first we meet the cutest guy and now we're going to his castle! This dimension traveling thing kicks BUTT!"

Kari smiled, "You're right, but I wouldn't mention it to Davis, he'll explode if there's anyone else he has to compete with." Kari and Yolei share in a giggle together.

Davis looked over his shoulder at the two girls with a clueless expression on his face, "Hey, Ken, what do you suppose they are laughing at that is so funny?"

"Who knows?" Was all Ken's answer.

Tai, who had heard both sides of the story, smiled to himself. He then looked behind him and noticed something he couldn't believe he hadn't noticed before, "Oh no, I just noticed!" He called out for everyone to hear, "Some of the people are missing!" Matt glanced over his shoulder and saw this also and added, "You're right!"

Kari took a look also and went over who was missing, "I don't see Izzy, or Joe…or Cody or Sora!"

"Hey, Brock's not here either!" Misty said.

"Or James and Meowth!"

"AAHH!!" Misty fell over in surprise when she realized Jesse had been standing beside her this whole time.

"Of course!" T.K. exclaimed, "Some of the others must still be in the Pokemon world! When I glanced at Cody's digivice I noticed that his was glowing or shaking at all. They must have not been sent…but why us and not them?"

Van, totally clueless to what was going on and getting more confused by he minute, tried to straighten things out a bit, "Are you people from the Mystique Moon?"

"Where?" Misty asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh," Van tried to think of what Hitomi always called the Mystique Moon, "Are you people from…Earth?"

"Well, we technically are, but not like how you think we are." Tai said.

Van ignored the last part of the sentence and asked, "Do you know a Hitomi Kenzaki?"

"No-"

"Van-Sama!!!"

Everyone turned in surprise when a neko-girl ran straight up to Van and practically tackled him to the ground.

"Merle?" Van said, half surprised to see her, and half glad.

"Am I the only one who sees a girl that looks like a cat at the same time?" Yolei wondered with her eyes practically bulging out of her head. The others shook their heads with their jaws practically to the ground and speechless at the moment.

Merle ignored the strangers and, still holding onto Van's arm, excitedly blurted out, "Van-Sama, you'll never believe who just arrived outside of the castle! And so suddenly!"

Van's face lit up ore bright than it had ever been, "Is it-"

"That's right! Hitomi's returned! Isn't that just so great, Van-Sama??" Merle said with her feet bouncing before Van had a chance to get a full sentence in.

"I guess they've forgot we're hear already." Davis commented rather rudely.

Merle finally seemed to notice the odd group of people for the first time, "Who are all of you? What are you doing here? You better not be making trouble for Van-Sama!" She waited for them to answer back but when they just stood watching her with clueless expressions on their faces she continued speaking, "What is with all of you weird people?"

Yolei, finally snapping out of her trance, said, "Hey, who are you calling weird?" She was about to start giving the neko-girl a piece of her mind when Merle came over and started to sniff her.

"Your clothes are a lot like Hitomi's…Are you from the Mystique Moon as well?" Merle asked with her head tilted to one side.

"Well, if you mean Earth, then yes?" Tai answered unsure if that was the right answer.

"Then you should meet Hitomi! Or do you already know her?" Merle asked, "Oh, never mind, come on!" Merle ran off towards the castle before anyone could say anything else for answer.

                        ~                                  ~                                  ~

Back in the Pokemon world…

"Where are Tai, Matt, Kari, T.K., Davis, Ken, and Yolei?!"

"Where are Misty and Ash?"

"Pika!"

"And where's Jesse??"

"O.K., calm down," Izzy said motioning everyone to calm down with his hands, "They are probably just in another dimension."

"Say what, kid?" Meowth asked.

"Well," Izzy started to explain to them, "We're not from the dimension, we're from another dimension where Digimon are the equivalent to what you know as Pokemon. We've somehow come tot his new world against our will. Our friends and yours are probably just in another new dimension."

"O…K." James said unsure of half of what Izzy was getting at. "So how do we get them back?"

"Hey, I've only figured that much out yet! Give me a break, would ya?" Izzy continued to rummage around on his laptop to somehow find an answer to everyone's question.

"I just know Jesse's going to kill me when she finally gets back…!"

                        ~                                  ~                                  ~

"Wow, not that is one cool looking castle!" Davis exclaimed as the castle came into clear view a few minutes after running behind Merle to stay with her.

"VAN!!!" A girl with short brown hair that looked just about the same age as Van ran as fast as her legs would carry her into Van's welcoming arms. Van's arms wrapped tightly around her and color painted both of their cheeks.

The next five minutes the digidestined stand around uncomfortably waiting for the "special" hug to end and watching to two stand there…not moving…not even breathing…O.K., you need to breathe to live. They both needed to stop to take in deep breaths, finishing their first moment back together in almost a year.

The two fall out of each other's arms with red cheeks and then Hitomi finally noticed the digidestined standing around waiting for them to do…anything.

"Hm? Are you people from Earth as well?" Hitomi questioned looking them all over.

"Yup," T.K. answered, "Are you Hitomi by any chance?"

Hitomi nodded, "How did you know who I was, though?"

"Since we've got here, you're the only thing anyone has mentioned!" Davis blurted out.

Hitomi blushed again as Van turned to her to say, "These people claim to be from a different dimension." He said after being told this on their way tot he castle.

"Yes…that's what I thought, actually." Hitomi said and then seemed to look inwardly, "I had…a vision…recently and I saw people, not from Gaea, or my Earth, coming here and it felt that something very important would come out of this one day. I barely even seemed to think about it before I found my self on the way here, to Gaea. Although, I a happy to have an excuse to come here again to see you." Hitomi said adding a smile for Van and Merle.

"We missed you too, Hitomi!" Merle exclaimed and gave Hitomi a warm hug.

Hitomi smiled at Merle and then turned back to the digidestined, "You all want to know how to get back to your own world, don't you?"

"Yes!" Kari said, "How did you know, though?"

"Well, like I said, I had a vision…and, um,…" Hitomi was about to say more when a wave of dizziness washed over her and she started to sway very noticeably.

"Hitomi? Are you all right??" Van pressed sounding very worried right as Hitomi collapsed and Van caught her and felt her forehead almost instinctively. "She…has a fever!?" Van said more loud than needed and sounding more surprised than anything at the moment.

"What is going on?" T.K. asked. He saw Kari sway right in the corner of his eyes a second before she collapsed as well and he only had a second's notice to catch her before she hit the ground. He felt her forehead, and like Hitomi, she also had a high fever.

Davis shot a glare at T.K. but was cut off when Yolei fell right into his arms, unconscious and with a fever like the other two girls. "Ugh…" His face started to green and  he looked about ready to be sick.

"Oh, not you too, Davis!" Tai said ready to stop Davis from falling and dropping Yolei.

"No!" Davis answered, "It's just…Yolei…" He was cut off again as another one of the girls collapsed. Misty fell over, and Ash, being a little too dense for anyone's good, didn't catch her and let her fall on her back.

"Wait a second," Matt said, "How come only the girls are getting sick?"

"Well, with the exception of Jesse," Ash pointed out, "but she's not much of a woman."

"Hey!!" Jesse yelled, "How dare you say that about me! I'm, …uh, erk…gonna collapse…" Jesse did as she said and fell over into the two nearest sets of arms, Tai and Matt's. They both freak out and drop her, her having eyes as swirls at the moment.

"Follow me!" Van called to all the people, "There are beds inside the castle where we can treat all of them!" Right as Van finished saying that, Merle fainted as well and Van had to find a way to carry the two girls at the same time. He ran as fast as he could into the castle and was followed in by T.K., holding Kari more easily than Van. Davis followed next, reluctantly carrying Yolei and wishing he wasn't. Then Ash, who finally got the clue to carry Misty with help of Ken. And behind them, in last, was Tai and Matt carrying Jesse in because they knew it was just wrong to leave Jesse sick and dying. (Damn those moral values!)

                        ~                                  ~                                  ~

Once everyone had gotten inside and had a bed who needed it, people had a chance to take a breath and try to straighten things out.

"What is going on?!" Matt yelled as the same phrase was heard for about the tenth time already.

"I don't know…but…" Tai looked down at the ground with worry painted across his face before shaking his head and continuing, "…not again."

"Again?" Ash wondered looking at Tai.

"Yes," T.K. answered for Tai, "When Kari was little, she nearly died from a fever and needed to go to the hospital. The same thing happened again when we were stuck in the digiworld once. Both times Tai blames himself for what happened to her."

Van, having given little thought to the past story, took one worried look at Hitomi and said with a heavy voice, "What's bugging me the most is why it is just the girls who are affected by whatever this is and none of us." Van let out a sigh, "There has to be an explanation for this and I don't think we'll like what it is."

With a frown on Matt's face, he pointed something out, "You'd think they would have woken up by now, though…" As if on cue from what Matt just said, Hitomi started to stir and wake up.

Van, obviously the first to notice, was right by her side in an instant, "Hitomi! Are you all right? How are you feeling?"

Hitomi looked around confused for a few seconds, unsure of where she was, then she started to regain her proper mind. She focused on the man with raven colored hair and finally his face registered in her mind. "…Van!!! It's coming!" She screamed in a tone full of worry to match the look on her face at the moment.

After getting over her last remark, Van took Hitomi's shoulders and shook her slightly, "What is it, Hitomi? What's coming? Are you feeling all right?" Hitomi's only response was for eyes to roll up into her head and her to fall unconscious once again. Van couldn't stop tears from swelling in his eyes, but he could stop himself from all out crying, "Hitomi!!?"

"What's coming?" T.K. asked sounding very unsure and doubtful anyone else would have a clue.

"I…don't know…" Van had his hand out shaking in front of him, he couldn't believe what had happened so far this day and it was all starting to catch up with him.

"Hey, where are Davis, Ken, and Ash?" Matt asked having just noticed this for the first time in all the rush.

Van, glad to have the excuse to take his mind off all this for a second, answered, "I sent the three to go get water for towels on their foreheads…they should be back by now."

That's when they heard a clatter rise from outside the room they were in followed by Davis yelling, "Ken! You just spilled water on my shoe!"

"Oh, gomen, Davis." Ken said apologetically.

"Ack, Ken! You just spilled water on my other shoe, now!"

"Uh, it wasn't me that time."

"Oops, that was me, gomen!" Ash apologized. Water dripped onto Ash's shoe and the cold water instantly seeped through to his socks, "Hey, you didn't need to get back at me, Davis!"

"Oh, it was me that time…" Ken mumbled.

The three finally stumble into the room where the others were to find sweatdrops on all the people in the room except the unconscious ones.

"We got the water!" Davis yelled triumphantly with the bucket half raised, or at least as high as his weak arms could raise it. A few more sweatdrops appeared but they had to put cloths on the girls' foreheads. The temperature change on their foreheads seemed to awaken Kari and Yolei and they both instantly sat up at the same time and said simultaneously, "It's coming."

"Oh no, that again?" T.K. said almost dryly.

"Again?" Ken wondered, having been absent from before.

"Hitomi said the same thing before she fell back unconscious again." Tai said almost too simply.

"What's going on?" Yolei wondered looking around the room.

"Maybe you should tell us that!" Davis yelled right at her.

"Huh? Hey, I just woke up here!" Yolei yelled back.

"Ya, I know, like a minute ago."

"No…just a second ago!"

"No, you said that whole creepy 'It's coming' thing after waking up a minute ago."

"What? The first thing I said was 'What's going on?', not whatever you just said!"

"But…"

"What's going on?" Kari asked looking around the room.

"Oh, not all this again!" T.K. said exasperated. "This is getting too confusing."

"And creepy!" Davis added.

"It's coming."

"Aahhh!!" Davis nearly jumped four feet into the air as Misty, Merle, and Jesse all woke up and said the "famous" phrase simultaneously as well.

"Augh, where am I?" Jesse looked around the room and spotted Misty and Ash, "Oh, it's just the twerp and twerpette."

"Hey, you're not much better yourself!" Misty insulted back.

Merle looked around the room, sniffing the air and then rested her eyes on Van-Sama; she leaped out from her bed to tackle him, "Oh, Van-Sama, I had the scariest dream just now! But it's over and you're here so I'm O.K. now." Merle said and finished with a smile.

"Merle! Do you remember what the dream was?" Van asked hoping she could answer some of the questions puzzling everyone.

"Hey, you know what? I actually don't remember any of it!" Merle said innocently.

"So now everyone has woken up, this is better, isn't it?" Davis wondered looking around the room at everyone.

"You've forgotten Hitomi." Van said almost harshly, "She's still asleep, she woke up before, but now I think she has gotten worse. Hitomi's always been…different…that way." Van looked down at the woman who had stolen his heart and took her hand into his, "She has to wake up…"

Everyone was starting to feel uncomfortable after what Van had just said and Yolei decided to lighten the mood a bit, "Hey, Kari? Did I really say that creepy thing?"

Kari shrugged, "I don't know, did I?" Yolei shrugged back at her.

"Oh, this is just great," Misty said starting on a rant, "I always get myself into these messes. Ash said I didn't have to follow, but of course, being as dumb as I am, I  followed. And now all this, how does this always happen."

"You can stop talking anytime now, Misty." Ash said dryly at the red-head.

"Be quiet, Ask Ketchum!"

Kari took her attention away from the two fighting and got up to stretch her legs. She walked over to Hitomi, and seeing the deep frown on Van's face, she placed her hand on Hitomi's forehead. She swiftly took it away as her hand felt as if it had just caught fire. Her head flashed with an image she couldn't make out because it had disappeared just as quickly as it had come.

A moment later, Hitomi woke up gasping for air. Once her breathing settled down, she found Van and immediately wrapped her arms around him for comfort. "Oh, Van…!!" Sobs started to escape her as she buried her face into Van's arm.

"Hitomi, it's O.K. now." Van said, trying to comfort her.

Hitomi shook her head and said, "Phase 1 is complete, it's coming."

                                             -End Chapter 3-

Heh, scared yet? Well, probably not, but anyway, now you're starting to see what my stories all about! ^-~ And as the plot thickens I'd just like to mention one thing—Comic reliefs are the best! Ah, comic reliefs…ahem, anyway, next chapter^-^;;

Comments? Questions? …You had nightmares caused by my fic and want to creep me out by telling them to me?

E-mail me!!! atà dithy_kin@hotmail.com