DA-AM-IT!!! *smacks head on the keyboard one more time* YOU STUPID PIECE OF JUNK!!!
*deep breath* The darn computer lost all my files I saved on this one disk. I've got the stuff I saved to HTML format, but this chapter I wrote, as well as the beginning of my fourth chapter to Diamond in the Rough are all GONE! Darn it, now I know how Digicowboy felt.
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Okay? I am not in the mood to be funny.
Mysterious Child
Chapter 7: Kari-Mama
Kari and T.K. ran through the halls as fast as possible, Carie and Gatamon in Kari's arms, while Gatomon and Patamon ran/flew behind them. There were noised behind them, the scoot-scoot scratchity-scratch-stratch, swishity-swish of a small army of approaching Bakemon.
They reached the sewer drain without a moment to spare. T.K. wrenched the metal cover off the circular hole and turned to Kari. "Get down there!" he urged.
Kari quickly obliged, leaping down the latter with Carie clinging around her neck until she reached the bottom and gathered her up again. Gatomon jumped down and Patamon flew after her as the Bakemon grew closer. Kari looked up. "Hurry, T.K.!"
T.K. swung his legs over the latter and started climbing down as fast as he could. But before he could make it down, a hand gripped him by the collar and pulled him in. "T.K.!" Patamon shouted, but either the boy or his captors forced the heavy metal cover back on the hole, trapping them below in the tunnels.
Kari's instincts told her to run, but she couldn't. They just sat there, breathing hard in the dark, as the din above quieted. "T.K.!" Kari shouted after the silence. "Can you hear me?"
The metal cover slid back, and T.K.'s head appeared in the hole. But it was no comfort to any of them.
A black claw gripped his hair, wrenching the boy's head back so his neck was exposed, and to it was held a sharp, silver sword. It was held so close that if T.K. even breathed wrong, it would cut deep.
A devilish form, too big to fit in the hole, appeared behind him, holding the sword. Daemon. Carie hid her eyes in Kari's shoulder. The evil Digimon grinned an evil grin. "Ain't that sweet?" he cooed fakely.
Kari pulled Carie close and took several nervous steps back, trying to keep as much space as possible between the evil Digimon and her future child. Daemon grinned at her again, then made a point of pulling T.K. roughly forward by the hair, making sure they could clearly see the blade pressed to his throat.
"Now then…" he hissed in a devilishly sweet way. "If you just come up now, then Daddy here gets out of this in one piece." his eyes narrowed as he made his point. "Refuse and the next thing you see is his head rolling across the floor."
Kari stepped back again. She was afraid, not only of T.K.'s death, but what would happen to Carie if he died now, before they…
Daemon spoke again. "Tick-tock, dear." he hissed down. "You have…until I count to ten." he positioned the blade under T.K.'s chin.
T.K. locked eyes with Kari and shook his head slowly. It was obvious what he was telling her: Go on…Get out of here…Save yourselves…
"Ready now? One…Two… Three…"
"T.K…" Kari whispered, the closed her eyes, trying to hold back tears.
"Four…Five…"
Carie looked at her mama, fearful, unable to help.
"Six…Seven…"
Patamon glared at Daemon angrily, and gazed fearfully at the blade poised at his partner's neck.
"Eight…Nine…"
"ALRIGHT!" Kari shouted. "We're coming up!"
T.K.'s eyes begged her no, but she once again climbed the latter with Carie hanging on the whole way. Daemon grinned as his Bakemon slaves to the two girls and Digimon into custody. He had the urge to slit the boy's throat right then and there, but Daemon was a mon of his words.
He pulled the blade away and shoved T.K. forward into the other two humans. "Well now." he said, sliding the blade into its sheaf. "I suppose you're wondering about your future selves…"
The two kids stared at him a moment. Was he capturing them or giving them a history lesson? But the realized he was only trying to show off.
The Bakemon that were holding them pushed their prisoners away through the halls. They struggled to remember what it was. Left, up, left, right, and then into a hallway that looked big enough to hold Apoclomon. Then it was through a side door and into a room that baffled the imagination.
All around them hung crystals. Huge, layered structures, like giant flowers, points apon points. They numbered twelve, dazzling structures of might and power, each a different color. But the thing that amazed them most was the dark figures inside.
Kari, forgetting her peril a moment, stepped forward in amazement to gaze upward at a soft pick crystal in front of them, holding a running woman with one hand stretched out. T.K. stared up, hypnotized, at a wounded figure trapped inside a golden yellow crystal. Neither could speak in their amazement.
"Beautiful, aren't they?" Daemon asked, as though admiring a piece of artwork. "My masterpieces…"
Carie wiggled free of Kari's arms and stared up in awe at the pink crystal, and at the face of the woman inside. With a stuttering, winded breath, she whispered one word: "M-M-Mommy?"
Daemon's face spread into a grin. The damage had been done.
Before you could think, the three children and their Digimon were back inside the little green cell. For a few minutes, T.K. pounded on the shield keeping them inside, but to no avail. Finally, Kari sighed. "It's no good T.K. There's no way out."
T.K. let out an exasperated sigh and slid down next to Kari and Carie. "You're right…" he muttered. "But…That was us in there. The whole gang. Frozen. I just…can't believe it."
There was a silence that filled the small room, until Patamon spoke suddenly. "Hey! Where's Gatamon?"
~ * ~ * ~
Despite the short walk there, Ken and Yolei had quite a trip back from their location, and arrived at 4:30. When they got there, they were rather surprised to find only two waiting for them.
"Davis! Cody!" Ken called, coming up the path.
The other two stood. "We were starting to get worried." muttered Cody, deeply disturbed about something.
Yolei brushed back her bangs, also disturbed with what they had seen. They talked it out, and soon all four of them were disturbed and upset, it was 5:18, and T.K. and Kari still weren't back yet.
Davis finally looked up at the lack of two in their group. "Where are they?" he asked out loud. "They really should've been here by…"
"He…el…lp…"
All the heads turned in surprise. Gatamon was dragging herself up the path Kari and T.K. had gone down, panting. About ten feet from them, she collapsed. She wasn't wounded, she'd just run the whole way from the castle, and she was overheated and exhausted.
The DigiDestined and their partners hurried to help her. Yolei cradled her tiny body gently, while Hawkmon fanned her with his wing until she was cool enough to speak, and when she did she explained everything, from finding Carie to Daemon's threat.
"While they were watching I…I snuck down the hall. I had to get help." she whimpered slightly. Part of her worried weither it was right to leave her partner. Yolei scratched her behind the ear until she felt better.
Davis sighed and got to his feet. "Well then." he muttered. "There's only one thing to do."
~ * ~ * ~
"Mama?"
Kari looked down. They'd been sitting there for an hour, and Carie'd been so quite she'd thought she was asleep. But the little girl was looking up at her, eyes in that wondering look people get when they can't figure something out.
"Are you my real mommy?"
Kari felt a stab. "Real…mommy?" she asked tenderly.
"'Cause there two mommies. One here, one there. Here, there. Can't be both." Carie looked like she thought herself quite smart for figuring this out. She had no idea she was hurting Kari's feelings. "So…which one real mommy?"
T.K. could tell Carie's comment cut Kari deep. Real deep. She'd always believed, really, through it all, that she was her real mama. She knew, just as he did, that the woman frozen in the rooms beyond was Carie's real mama. And Kari was too, in a way. But still, she wasn't.
T.K. sighed and pulled Carie over into his lap, for once really taking on the 'fatherly' guise. "Listen, Care-Bear." he said, rubbing her on the head. "Most people only have one mommy, who loves them to death but just don't remember what it's like to be a kid. Now you," he made sure to stress this. "You're very lucky. You've got two: Your mama and…" he stalled as he motioned to Kari, "And…your Kari-mama, who loves you just as much, but still remembers what its like to be a kid."
Kari gave T.K. a grateful smile as Carie wiggled down between them. Carie was smiling broadly. "I got two mommies!" she said proudly. "My mommy and my Kari-mommy. And two daddies, too!" she turned back to T.K. "My papa and my T.K.-papa!"
T.K. was taken aback, but then he laughed. She'd been listening enough to know his name, he guessed. Soon Kari was laughing too, and Carie giggling by her side, with the two Digimon laughing right along.
Within a couple of minutes, the laughter died down, but the feeling was still there. Something about laughter stirs up the cold feelings of despair and throws them out the window. The gently relaxing feeling remained while the artificial glow of the shield, which gave a reflection of what it was like outside, slowly faded.
Soon, Carie yawned and curled up next to her newly-renamed Kari-mama and fell asleep. Kari too, dropped off, leaning her head against the wall. Patamon pulled his wings around him like a blanket, falling asleep next to the curled white ball that was Gatomon.
T.K. didn't really want to sleep. A part of him still insisted he had to stay awake and take care of the girls. But, knowing he couldn't fight the urge all night, he positioned himself between Kari and the shield wall, so that if anything came in or went out, he would know. And here he let his head drop to his chest, the fold of night coming over him, and he slept.
There was a tap on the shield. It had a zap to it, but it was a tap. T.K. opened one eye, then wrote it off as nothing and fell back asleep.
Three more came, and this time it really was more of a knock. T.K.'s eyes flew open and he glanced at the shield. Then he did a double-take. "Kari!" he gasped, shaking her. "Kari, wake up!"
"Mmh? What?" she opened her eyes half-way, then they flew open. "Davis! Guys!"
Davis grinned at them. He'd been the one who knocked, and was now standing by the green field with Gatamon in hand. Yolei, Cody, Ken and their partners stood behind them.
Kari, T.K., Carie and the two Digimon scrambled to their feet as Ken slid the green diamond into its place. The force field slid away, and in a rush so fast no one remembers it anyway, they were in the sewers heading outside. As they walked, T.K. and Kari filled in the blanks of Gatamon's story, while they were filled in on the other's finds.
"Jeez…" Yolei muttered. "So that's why Naomi was so scared of me…they think we're dead."
"I say we get out of here." Cody said. "We've got Carie now, we can go home…"
At the same time, Kari and T.K. said "No."
Everyone did a double-take. "What?" Davis gasped. "What do you mean?"
"I thought you two would want to get out of here the most." said Ken in an awed voice. "After everything that's happened to you…"
Kari glanced up at T.K., then they turned back to the others. "Don't you get it?" Kari sighed. "If we leave now, Daemon'll just send more after her. What we've gotta do is…"
"…Get rid of Daemon once and for all." T.K. finished. "We have to at least try. We can't just let our future selves stay frozen like that, who knows how many more people could die?"
After a moment, the others nodded. They knew what they had to do. "But first…" Kari was thinking. "We should find somewhere safe to hide Carie and Gatamon…"
"No!"
Now Kari looked surprised. She looked down at Carie, who was pulling on her hand. "We fight too." she said determinedly. "Bad thing must go. And if that mean fighting, den we fight too. We fight togeder."