I told you guys you didn't know the half of it. *evil laughter* I just love lots of strange twists and turns…ACK! Settle down!!! I'll get on with it!

I do wish you guys would stop bugging me with all the 'why this' and 'why that' and 'answer your reviews' things. Not everyone does it, but it's my pet peeve. If I'm gonna answer your review, I'll answer your review. If I don't, nothing personal, I'm just busy. So please, give me ideas, but don't bug me about it.

Yes, Laura, this means you.

Disclaimer: I don't, never have and more likely than not never will own Digimon. However, I do have more than a few tricks up my sleeves…but I ain't tellin' yet!

The Future's Course

Chapter 8: Inside Pandora's Box

Once again, Kari was floating through the water-like, humid air. It was just like her dream, and just as easy to move through. For a second she was afraid that she couldn't breath, but then she realized it was all good and soared on her way.

"Wow…" she whispered to herself, and the voice echoed. She gazed down and saw the figures of Digimon running around below her, laughing and seemingly enjoying themselves.

She remembered T.K.'s words in the dream. "They're down there. They obey. They run around free. Or as free as this place gets…"

That should mean she was on just about the right level to find the two…But like Gennai said, it could take days. And this place had no leads, no trails, no nothing. How in the world was she ever gonna find them?

Then she heard a noise. It was weak and low, disappeared in a breath, but it was still enough.

She put a hand to her ear and listened again. This time it was definite: a low groan, like in her dream, coming from about the two o'clock direction. She knew that sound.

"Hang on, T.K.!" she called, switching to the front crawl to increase her speed. "I'm coming!"

~ * ~ * ~

"I'm getting worried now." Izzy muttered. He gazed in through the door of the hospital, where the two figures still lay in bed, Kari beside them. "He's taking a long time."

Carie had been fading in and out of consciousness the whole week Hikaru had been gone. When she was awake, her mind had been actively regressing. Her speech was becoming simpler and simpler, and she was entertained by the simplest things.

During her conscious times, Kari would play easy little games with her, told her favorite stories, and sang lullabies until she fell asleep again. Then the worried mother would go and sit by the bed of their other patient: Her husband.

About two days after Hikaru had left, T.K. had collapsed right outside the hospital. They'd moved him to the bed next to his daughter, and he hadn't stirred an eyelid since.

Also, his body was slowly dissolving from the feet up. It'd almost reached his knees by now. Izzy knew what was going on: T.K. had been put into a potentially deadly situation in the past, one in which he would have died, if Hikaru hadn't gone. If the boy failed, T.K. would disappear too.

Kari would sit by her husband's bed and just hold his hand, as though begging him to stay with her. She herself had developed dark rings around her eyes, and often fell asleep next to one of their beds, slumped in a chair or lying her head apon T.K.'s chest. She was exhausted. But what ever someone tried to pulled her away to take her home, she just shook them off, insisting to stay at their side.

"I know…" Tai muttered. He, Matt and Sora had joined them at the hospital today. "Hikaru better hurry…it may be too late."

Carie suddenly groaned loudly. Kari sat straight up and faced her daughter, eyes wild. "Carie?!" she gasped. "What's…?"

"Hi…Hikaru!" Carie cried out. "Hikaru! Hikaru, where are you?!"

The others were there in an instant. Joe glanced at one of the machines and sighed. "She's just dreaming."

Carie squirmed wildly, still crying for her brother. "Don't give up…Hikaru, don't give up…Please…"

Kari stroked her daughter's hair gently, cooing sweet comforts. After a moment, Carie calmed, and then her eyes opened. "Mama?" she groaned.

"What is it, sweetie?" Kari whispered.

"Where's Hikaru?" Kari's throat tightened. "Mama, where's my brother?"

"He's…He's…" the mother couldn't get it out.

Carie gripped her hand wildly. "Where's he gone?" she sobbed, bursting into big, wet tears. "I want Hikaru! I want my brother!"

Kari tried to calm her down as she cried until her sheets were soaked through. Matt turned to Izzy questionably. "You said she knew when Hikaru left, right?"

Izzy nodded. "Maybe her condition…the paradox, I mean…has caused some of her memories to become jumbled up. She can't make heads or tails of anything. And, at this point, her mind is at the same level as a six-year-old, just the perfect age to have a tantrum like that."

"How much longer will she be like this?" Sora asked, gazing worriedly at Kari and her niece, at the same time holding Matt's hand. "What do you think, Izzy?"

Izzy shook his head. "I don't know." he admitted. "It should reverse when Hikaru wins…but if he doesn't…"

"We'll never be here anyway." Tai muttered. "We'll be stuck in hunks of ice from that time on."

~ * ~ * ~

"T.K.!" Kari called, spotting him through the fog.

It wasn't exactly the same. He looked unconcious, but maybe he was just asleep. And the chains weren't everywhere around him, either. There were small shackles on each wrist, as well as a few chains that just seamed to appear and wrap around him: One each at elbow, knee and ankle, and more ready to appear.

"T.K.!" she called again, swimming towards him.

His head lifted at the sound of her voice. When he spotted her, his eyes widened. "Kari!" he gasped, straining against his chains. "Tell me this isn't just a dream!"

Tears were springing up in Kari's eyes from the happiness. "Not this time, T.K.-papa!" she reached for him. "Not this time!"

Her hand touched his cheek…and she went right through him.

Kari gaped in surprise, then pulled her hand back and stared at it. T.K. gave a weary smile. "Hikaru…couldn't touch me either…" he muttered.

"Hikaru?!" Kari gasped. She got so close to T.K.'s face that their noses would have touched, had he been in his body. "Where is he? What happened to him?"

"She's got him." T.K. whispered guiltily. "Pandoramon…she took him."

Kari let out a stuttered breath and a short, choking sob. T.K. looked back up. "Get me out of here." he told her. "And we'll get him back, I promise. We'll get him back, just like we did Carie."

"How?" Kari moved to the chains. Placing both her feet on the wall and gripping one of the chains, she pulled as hard as she could. But to no avail, the chains gave no heed.

"It's no use." she muttered, dropping them with a sigh. "It's impossible."

T.K. glanced around. "There's gotta be something on the wall that throws it…" he thought hard. "I remember…she touched something on the wall under my arms, and it released before…So there's gotta be a way to throw them down there!"

Kari began feeling below the shackles. Nothing near the elbow, or closer to his body. But when she brushed the edge of the chains around his right wrist, the whole bunch fell off with a clunk and T.K. dropped through her to the ground.

"T.K.!" she gasped, leaping back so he could stand. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, sure." he muttered, stretching his arms out. "I've just been hanging there so long my arms went numb. But we can't think about that now." his eyes held the fiery determination he had when someone he loved was in trouble. "Right now, we've gotta get Hikaru back."

Kari nodded happily, and they hurried in the direction Pandoramon had taken the child when T.K. had seen them before.

~ * ~ * ~

Pandoramon tossed the golden ball to the little boy. Hikaru caught it, giggling at the beautiful trail of gold and silver stars that followed after, glittering on his arms and face before disappearing with a cool breeze.

"That's my darling!" she cried as he pitched it back. "My sweet baby…here it comes again!"

She threw it to him again and the stars sprinkled down. But it slipped from his hands and bounced away. "I'll get it!" he giggled, and ran after his toy.

He picked it up about twenty feet away from her. When he did, he could hear voices in the distance, calling through the fog: "Hikaru…Hikaru…"

He listened. They seamed familiar, and grew louder. "Hikaru…Hikaru, where are you?! Hikaru!"

The boy scooped up his ball and turned back to Pandoramon. "Mama?" he called. She knelt beside him. "Who's that calling me? Do I know them?"

Pandoramon looked up. She could hear the voices to, and would not let them ruin it for her. "No, honey." she whispered, scooping him into her arms. "You don't know them…you've never known them…just ignore their voices…Come now…"