Till The End Of All
By CyberDracomon
Chapter 4 of 26 - Dream
Hours passed before the four heroes had finished their search through the charred remains of Andromon's dome city. Though they covered most, if not all, of what remained, no other survivors were found. TK wasn't surprised Andromon was the only one that made it through the ordeal, after seeing him go toe to toe with a Dark Master and free himself from a Dark Ring, he was ready to believe Andromon could survive anything. TK wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve, exhausted by the hours of sorting through scrap metal and cinders that remained of the city. He looked over to Kari, who wasn't too far away, also taking a rest break.
"Kari, maybe we should call it a day..." TK said, trying his best not to pant. "It's getting really late and we've covered the whole city." Kari nodded, her own sweat falling from her forehead as she did so. She looked kind of upset, probably because they didn't find any other survivors.
"I just don't believe it, TK..." Kari said, looking toward him. "There were so many Digimon in this city, both above and below ground, and only one survived?" She lowered her head to the ground, not wanting to shoe how upset she was. To TK is was obvious, though, as he walked over to her, placing his hands on her shoulders from behind in an effort to somehow comfort her.
"It just means nobody that stayed here survived." He explained. "Something that big, someone had to have seen it coming and escaped it. They're probably miles away by now, safe and sound." Kari looked over her shoulder, a slight smile on her face.
"I hope so..." She said. Kari looked up at the sky, suddenly noticing how dark it was getting, before letting out a sigh. "It is getting late... This city's bigger than I remember, I didn't think it would take so long to search..." TK was about to agree when Gatomon and Patamon walked up, both looking as beat as their human partners.
"I never thought I'd want to leave the Digiworld so much..." Patamon said, slumping down to the ground. TK held down a small chuckle, kneeling down to pick up his Digimon partner. He felt sorry for his friend, who had been flying around the ruins for hours now. Kari reached down and picked up Gatomon, who looked even more time than Patamon. She was mostly climbing around the rubble and larger debris, looking where TK and Kari couldn't, probably why she looked so worn out.
"Relax, Patamon, I think we're done here." TK said to the Digimon in his arms. "At least Andromon made it out alive, that's one thing to be happy about. And all the other Digimon will be reborn anyway so we really shouldn't worry about them, either." Kari smiled a bit, apparently forgetting that rule. Digimon don't die, they just get reconverted, they learned it so early but it was still so easy to forget.
"That's one relief..." Gatomon said, sounding about the same as she looked. "Right now I could use a good, long catnap..." The feline Digimon curled up as much as she could in her partner's arms, trying to find comfort for her worn body.
"I think that goes for all of us..." Kari said, looking back in the direction the monitor was in. "Let's go, TK, our parents are going to start to worry." TK nodded, nearly forgetting his mom would have no idea where he vanished to for so long. The two turned and began to walk away from the destruction around them, all four afraid that this wasn't the end. They knew whatever did this would return, it was just a matter of time, and until it appeared again, there was nothing they could do to stop it.
**********
Kari opened her eyes, dazed and confused about her surroundings. All she could see was endless darkness in every direction but down, where a neon green grid made up the floor. It extended in every direction, as endless as the darkness. She didn't know how she got here or where she was, but for some reason she had no urge to leave the strange place. She also felt a strange presence, like she wasn't alone, even though she didn't see anyone in the space with her.
"...Is anyone out there?" Kari said, suddenly finding her voice. It sounded unusual, though, like it wasn't coming from her mouth. It sounded like it came out of the darkness, from every direction at once.
"...Child of Light..." A voice suddenly said, also coming from every direction at once. It sounded somewhat familiar, but in her daze Kari didn't recognize it. "The Cataclysm of the Digital World is upon us..." Kari guessed the voice was referring to whatever destroyed Andromon's city, but this voice wasn't of her own mind, how did it know it's name?
"How do you know about that?" She asked into the darkness. "Do you know what it is?" She didn't think Cataclysm was the only thing this voice knew about it, somehow she knew it had more than that.
"I do..." The voice replied. "There is little time, I can not explain it all here. Come to the temple in the western area of the Digital World. All you need to know will be revealed there." Kari was beginning to wonder how this voice knew so much, and what it was talking about.
"...Who are you?" Kari finally asked, suddenly needing to know. She heard the voice chuckle a little, though Kari didn't see what was so funny about that.
"I would hope that you remember me better than that, Kari." The voice said, a little clearer than before. Before Kari could place the voice a pair of glowing eyes appeared in the darkness. They began to come closer to her, as they came they were followed by the being they belonged to, a massive bearded blue dragon, the oriental kind with no wings or large limbs. It was wrapped in chains, though not in a way to constrict it. On each of it's limbs a set of orbs circled around, each giving off a light glow.
"Azulongmon!" Kari said, immediately recognizing the eastern guardian of the Digital World. "...You sent us the e-mail yesterday, didn't you?" She was just guessing that, but Azulongmon nodded, confirming her guess.
"I was hoping to be there to explain, but I cannot leave my post now." He explained. "The risk is too great for me to leave the eastern hemisphere unguarded. I had to contact you directly, though, there is a great deal you need to know and understand before proceeding." Kari didn't know what he meant by that, but she knew Azulongmon wouldn't do anything without a reason. She nodded, trying to prepare herself for whatever was to come next.
**********
The next day TK woke up to the sound of his telephone ringing, which wasn't the best of wakeup calls with it sitting on the nightstand right next to his ear. Still exhausted from the previous day, TK forced himself to sit halfway up in bed before reaching over for the phone, a little dazed to find it right away. Once he did, TK put it to his ear, hoping it wasn't one of Matt's prank wakeup calls.
"...Hello?" TK said, his exhaustion very apparent in his voice. Patamon had apparently woken up from the ringing phone, as well, as he now stood on the bed, listening in.
"TK?" A girl on the other end asked. TK perked up a bit, hearing Kari's voice. "I didn't wake you up, did I?" TK panicked slightly, taking a second to compose himself.
"Nah, not at all." He said, doing his best to hide his fatigue. "Been up for hours." TK hoped that was enough to convince her, but as soon as he said it he let a yawn escape his mouth, making Kari giggle on the other end.
"Sure you have." She said jokingly. "TK, I had a dream last night..." TK noticed her voice suddenly become serious, something she rarely did so early. She never called to tell him about a dream, though.
"...What about?" He asked, no idea what it could have been. TK also didn't want to make any guesses, afraid he might slip and somehow offend her. He found himself doing that a lot, though, watching every word he said to her carefully.
"It's a little complicated, can you come over?" She asked. TK shook his head, trying to jog his alertness a bit more.
"It can't wait?" TK asked. "I mean, it's really early to even be awake." He glanced over to Patamon, who was suddenly giving him a curious look for some reason.
"...TK, it's almost noon now." She said on the other end. TK paused blankly before looking over at his alarm clock, reading 11:43 a.m. on the face of it. He was amazed that he had slept so long but still felt like he needed more.
"...Then I'll be right over." He said in defeat. No extra sleep for him this morning, much to his regret. He heard Kari hang up the phone, obviously in a hurry of some kind, before hanging up his own. It had to be really important if she couldn't talk about it on the phone, why would he have to be there just to hear about a dream?
"I take it we're going over to Kari's?" Patamon asked. TK didn't realize that Patamon might need to come, as well, or even if Kari wanted him to come with him. He figured Gatomon would have to be there and if it was a little too private for them it would be rude to exclude her without any company.
"Yup, soon as I can get myself together." TK said, realizing he probably looked like a wreck after sleeping for so long. He forced himself out of his bed, immediate feeling the effects of yesterday as he stood, and walked over to his closet to find a fresh change of clothes. It was then he realized he was still in the same clothes as last night, too tired from their searching to even change out of them for bed. He quickly found one of his signature yellow and green shirts to change into, pulling his current one off and dumping it into a laundry basket beside his closet. He quickly exchanged the shorts he was wearing for another pair, a little bigger to be more comfortable. After a similar exchange of socks, TK wandered out of his room to the bathroom to get his hair out of it's tangles, leaving Patamon to himself in the bedroom.
"Sometimes I'm glad I'm not human." Patamon said to himself. "I'd hate to change clothes every day like that..." That brought an unpleasant thought of him having to change into new fur every day into his mind, removing any exhaustion that might have still been in the small Digimon. He decided it was better just to wait for TK to finish up rather than let his thoughts wander like that again, not wanting the image in his head any longer.
As he waited, Patamon couldn't help but think back to his experiences with Gatomon in the past few days. From their encounter outside Kari's apartment, which he had since found out was called a kiss, to her revelation about the action the next day. He could still feel a burning sensation inside of him when he thought back to the experimental kiss, but thoughts of Gatomon's words the following day still made that same feeling ache and even hurt. It was too many thoughts for the small Digimon to work out all at once, too many emotions running through him to sort out. He wished he had words to describe it all, or at least part of it, but he couldn't think of any that fit well enough.
"Patamon, you ready?" He suddenly heard. Patamon snapped out of his trance and looked up at TK, who now looked ready to leave, but still obviously tired.
"Yeah, sorry." He replied. Patamon flew up from the bed and landed on TK's shoulder, hoping his partner wasn't too tired to make the trip to Kari's apartment.
**********
An hour later TK was again walking down the open hallway that lead to Kari's apartment, this time with Patamon tagging along. The little Digimon was flying freely this time with no need for the backpack, having memorized every hiding spot on the way to Kari's house long before on their numerous trips to the girl's home. Only when TK reached Kari's front door did Patamon fly over to TK from a hiding spot, landing on his shoulder as TK rang the doorbell, seeming a little quick in his actions. Patamon figured he was still trying to shake off his sleepiness since his face still showed his exhaustion. The orange Digimon quickly snapped one of his wings in front of TK's eyes, making him jerk back suddenly.
"TK, keep your eyes open." Patamon said. "You don't want Kari to think she woke you up calling you, she'll get upset." TK knew this as well as his partner, but he couldn't help it, digging through that city had to be the hardest thing he had ever done.
"Sorry, Patamon, I'm trying my best." He replied, forcing his eyes to open farther, trying to not look so dazed. Before he could manage to gain his full composure the door opened, revealing Kari on the other side.
"Hi, TK." She said, a strange, unidentifiable tone to her voice. "Thanks for coming over so fast..." Kari hesitated, just now noticing TK's dazed expression. "...Are you feeling alright? You look tired..." TK shook his head in vein effort to knock some sleep out of him. He noticed that somehow Kari looked perfectly fine, other than a worried look in her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm alright." TK said, trying to sound convincing. "Just overdid it yesterday I guess." Kari simply nodded in response, apparently not in the mood to argue the point. Instead she started walking back to her room, leaving TK and Patamon to follow. The boy entered, shutting the door behind him, and quickly followed after, unsure of why Kari was being so serious suddenly. Once the two reached her room Kari was already standing beside her computer, with Gatomon sitting on Kari's bed, watching her partner. Patamon flew off of TK's shoulder and onto the bed beside Gatomon, awaiting the next events.
"TK, about that dream I had..." Kari said, getting right to the point. This was really worrying TK, it was rare she was this serious and straight forward, especially about something like a dream.
"Kari, why such a rush?" TK asked, suddenly too curious or worried to wait. "Whatever that dream was, can't you afford to slow down just a little?" TK was doing this mainly out of worry, but he had to admit his own sleepiness was making it hard to keep up.
"TK, this wasn't a normal dream." She replied. "It was a message. Azulongmon came to me in that dream." This caught TK's attention, his alertness suddenly up a step. "He didn't say how, but he knew about what destroyed Andromon's city, he's the one that e-mailed us about it in the first place. He called it the Cataclysm... The Cataclysm of the Digital World." TK was beginning to get worried, but at least it knocked the sleep out of him. This meant it wasn't a Digimon that did it, meaning stopping it was going to be even harder...
"Did he say where it was?" TK asked. "Or at least how to stop it?" TK was asking anything that would make this easier, but Kari only shook her head in reply.
"No, he didn't have time to explain." She replied. "He only had time to get the most important details out. He said there was a temple in the western region of the Digital World where we could get more answers." TK was beginning to wonder if the dream was even that serious, if he knew so little about the Cataclysm except for it's name.
"Kari, are you sure you didn't dream all of this up?" He asked. "You might have just been too worried about it and the whole thing came from that." Kari hesitated, then reached into her pocket. TK didn't know what she was doing until she removed her hand, revealing her D-3. Kari quickly hit a button on it and held it to her side, letting an image project form the small screen onto the wall just above the two Digimon's heads. Patamon and Gatomon turned and faced the wall to get a good look at the image, which turned out to be a map with a flashing red dot in the middle and a smaller, blue one near it.
"That's the western Digital World!" Gatomon announced. "How did you get a map to it, though? We've never been outside the eastern region." Kari didn't have an exact answer, just guesses.
"I just woke up this morning and when I touched my Digivice it started displaying this map." She explained. Kari pressed the button again, shutting the projection off and replacing her D-3. "The red dot was the temple, and the blue one was the closest monitor to the temple. I think it's just under an hour's walk to the temple, if we go now we can see what's going on." The map was more than enough proof for TK, though he wish he knew how it suddenly got onto her D-3...
"That's everything Azulongmon told you?" TK asked, hoping for more than that. Kari shook her head regretfully, wishing there was more she could say.
"Sorry, that's all he told me." She answered. "At least it's something, maybe the temple has a way to beat this Cataclysm." TK hoped so, but that seemed too easy somehow, there had to be more they didn't know.
"So what are we waiting for?" Patamon asked, walking to the edge of the bed with Gatomon right beside him. "We should get going before it has a chance to do more damage." TK and Kari both nodded, glancing at each other before looking at Kari's computer, already online with the Digiport loaded. Patamon and Gatomon jumped form the bed, both landing on their respective partners as they took out their D-3s, pointing them to the monitor. In a flash of bright light the four had vanished from the room, all expecting anything from their trip to the temple.
End Chapter 4
Coming Next: Chapter 5 - Enemy
Personal Note: As I wrote this chapter I was in a state of depression over the sudden retirement of Kale from FanFiction.Net. He was quite possibly the best author on this entire website and to suddenly have him gone is a bit of a mind shock to me as I hold a great deal of respect to him. I will freely admit he is probably the only one more deserving of my title than I am and the only author I looked up to for both inspiration and motivation. He was the best asset Clan Takari had and he's left a pair of shoes that'll never be filled again. For that and many other reasons, the rest of this story is dedicated to Kale, the best of all Takari authors. I wear the crown of King of Takari with pride, but to him, I gladly tip my crown in respect. If any one has any of Kale's fics on file, I'd be eternally grateful if you could send them to me, e-mail me at CyberDracomon@aol.com if you do. Thank you.
Never saw Azulongmon? Check him out here:
http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/873c2b3/bc/Images/Azulongmon.gif?bcp1zv8AswFiQlJt
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By CyberDracomon
Chapter 4 of 26 - Dream
Hours passed before the four heroes had finished their search through the charred remains of Andromon's dome city. Though they covered most, if not all, of what remained, no other survivors were found. TK wasn't surprised Andromon was the only one that made it through the ordeal, after seeing him go toe to toe with a Dark Master and free himself from a Dark Ring, he was ready to believe Andromon could survive anything. TK wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve, exhausted by the hours of sorting through scrap metal and cinders that remained of the city. He looked over to Kari, who wasn't too far away, also taking a rest break.
"Kari, maybe we should call it a day..." TK said, trying his best not to pant. "It's getting really late and we've covered the whole city." Kari nodded, her own sweat falling from her forehead as she did so. She looked kind of upset, probably because they didn't find any other survivors.
"I just don't believe it, TK..." Kari said, looking toward him. "There were so many Digimon in this city, both above and below ground, and only one survived?" She lowered her head to the ground, not wanting to shoe how upset she was. To TK is was obvious, though, as he walked over to her, placing his hands on her shoulders from behind in an effort to somehow comfort her.
"It just means nobody that stayed here survived." He explained. "Something that big, someone had to have seen it coming and escaped it. They're probably miles away by now, safe and sound." Kari looked over her shoulder, a slight smile on her face.
"I hope so..." She said. Kari looked up at the sky, suddenly noticing how dark it was getting, before letting out a sigh. "It is getting late... This city's bigger than I remember, I didn't think it would take so long to search..." TK was about to agree when Gatomon and Patamon walked up, both looking as beat as their human partners.
"I never thought I'd want to leave the Digiworld so much..." Patamon said, slumping down to the ground. TK held down a small chuckle, kneeling down to pick up his Digimon partner. He felt sorry for his friend, who had been flying around the ruins for hours now. Kari reached down and picked up Gatomon, who looked even more time than Patamon. She was mostly climbing around the rubble and larger debris, looking where TK and Kari couldn't, probably why she looked so worn out.
"Relax, Patamon, I think we're done here." TK said to the Digimon in his arms. "At least Andromon made it out alive, that's one thing to be happy about. And all the other Digimon will be reborn anyway so we really shouldn't worry about them, either." Kari smiled a bit, apparently forgetting that rule. Digimon don't die, they just get reconverted, they learned it so early but it was still so easy to forget.
"That's one relief..." Gatomon said, sounding about the same as she looked. "Right now I could use a good, long catnap..." The feline Digimon curled up as much as she could in her partner's arms, trying to find comfort for her worn body.
"I think that goes for all of us..." Kari said, looking back in the direction the monitor was in. "Let's go, TK, our parents are going to start to worry." TK nodded, nearly forgetting his mom would have no idea where he vanished to for so long. The two turned and began to walk away from the destruction around them, all four afraid that this wasn't the end. They knew whatever did this would return, it was just a matter of time, and until it appeared again, there was nothing they could do to stop it.
**********
Kari opened her eyes, dazed and confused about her surroundings. All she could see was endless darkness in every direction but down, where a neon green grid made up the floor. It extended in every direction, as endless as the darkness. She didn't know how she got here or where she was, but for some reason she had no urge to leave the strange place. She also felt a strange presence, like she wasn't alone, even though she didn't see anyone in the space with her.
"...Is anyone out there?" Kari said, suddenly finding her voice. It sounded unusual, though, like it wasn't coming from her mouth. It sounded like it came out of the darkness, from every direction at once.
"...Child of Light..." A voice suddenly said, also coming from every direction at once. It sounded somewhat familiar, but in her daze Kari didn't recognize it. "The Cataclysm of the Digital World is upon us..." Kari guessed the voice was referring to whatever destroyed Andromon's city, but this voice wasn't of her own mind, how did it know it's name?
"How do you know about that?" She asked into the darkness. "Do you know what it is?" She didn't think Cataclysm was the only thing this voice knew about it, somehow she knew it had more than that.
"I do..." The voice replied. "There is little time, I can not explain it all here. Come to the temple in the western area of the Digital World. All you need to know will be revealed there." Kari was beginning to wonder how this voice knew so much, and what it was talking about.
"...Who are you?" Kari finally asked, suddenly needing to know. She heard the voice chuckle a little, though Kari didn't see what was so funny about that.
"I would hope that you remember me better than that, Kari." The voice said, a little clearer than before. Before Kari could place the voice a pair of glowing eyes appeared in the darkness. They began to come closer to her, as they came they were followed by the being they belonged to, a massive bearded blue dragon, the oriental kind with no wings or large limbs. It was wrapped in chains, though not in a way to constrict it. On each of it's limbs a set of orbs circled around, each giving off a light glow.
"Azulongmon!" Kari said, immediately recognizing the eastern guardian of the Digital World. "...You sent us the e-mail yesterday, didn't you?" She was just guessing that, but Azulongmon nodded, confirming her guess.
"I was hoping to be there to explain, but I cannot leave my post now." He explained. "The risk is too great for me to leave the eastern hemisphere unguarded. I had to contact you directly, though, there is a great deal you need to know and understand before proceeding." Kari didn't know what he meant by that, but she knew Azulongmon wouldn't do anything without a reason. She nodded, trying to prepare herself for whatever was to come next.
**********
The next day TK woke up to the sound of his telephone ringing, which wasn't the best of wakeup calls with it sitting on the nightstand right next to his ear. Still exhausted from the previous day, TK forced himself to sit halfway up in bed before reaching over for the phone, a little dazed to find it right away. Once he did, TK put it to his ear, hoping it wasn't one of Matt's prank wakeup calls.
"...Hello?" TK said, his exhaustion very apparent in his voice. Patamon had apparently woken up from the ringing phone, as well, as he now stood on the bed, listening in.
"TK?" A girl on the other end asked. TK perked up a bit, hearing Kari's voice. "I didn't wake you up, did I?" TK panicked slightly, taking a second to compose himself.
"Nah, not at all." He said, doing his best to hide his fatigue. "Been up for hours." TK hoped that was enough to convince her, but as soon as he said it he let a yawn escape his mouth, making Kari giggle on the other end.
"Sure you have." She said jokingly. "TK, I had a dream last night..." TK noticed her voice suddenly become serious, something she rarely did so early. She never called to tell him about a dream, though.
"...What about?" He asked, no idea what it could have been. TK also didn't want to make any guesses, afraid he might slip and somehow offend her. He found himself doing that a lot, though, watching every word he said to her carefully.
"It's a little complicated, can you come over?" She asked. TK shook his head, trying to jog his alertness a bit more.
"It can't wait?" TK asked. "I mean, it's really early to even be awake." He glanced over to Patamon, who was suddenly giving him a curious look for some reason.
"...TK, it's almost noon now." She said on the other end. TK paused blankly before looking over at his alarm clock, reading 11:43 a.m. on the face of it. He was amazed that he had slept so long but still felt like he needed more.
"...Then I'll be right over." He said in defeat. No extra sleep for him this morning, much to his regret. He heard Kari hang up the phone, obviously in a hurry of some kind, before hanging up his own. It had to be really important if she couldn't talk about it on the phone, why would he have to be there just to hear about a dream?
"I take it we're going over to Kari's?" Patamon asked. TK didn't realize that Patamon might need to come, as well, or even if Kari wanted him to come with him. He figured Gatomon would have to be there and if it was a little too private for them it would be rude to exclude her without any company.
"Yup, soon as I can get myself together." TK said, realizing he probably looked like a wreck after sleeping for so long. He forced himself out of his bed, immediate feeling the effects of yesterday as he stood, and walked over to his closet to find a fresh change of clothes. It was then he realized he was still in the same clothes as last night, too tired from their searching to even change out of them for bed. He quickly found one of his signature yellow and green shirts to change into, pulling his current one off and dumping it into a laundry basket beside his closet. He quickly exchanged the shorts he was wearing for another pair, a little bigger to be more comfortable. After a similar exchange of socks, TK wandered out of his room to the bathroom to get his hair out of it's tangles, leaving Patamon to himself in the bedroom.
"Sometimes I'm glad I'm not human." Patamon said to himself. "I'd hate to change clothes every day like that..." That brought an unpleasant thought of him having to change into new fur every day into his mind, removing any exhaustion that might have still been in the small Digimon. He decided it was better just to wait for TK to finish up rather than let his thoughts wander like that again, not wanting the image in his head any longer.
As he waited, Patamon couldn't help but think back to his experiences with Gatomon in the past few days. From their encounter outside Kari's apartment, which he had since found out was called a kiss, to her revelation about the action the next day. He could still feel a burning sensation inside of him when he thought back to the experimental kiss, but thoughts of Gatomon's words the following day still made that same feeling ache and even hurt. It was too many thoughts for the small Digimon to work out all at once, too many emotions running through him to sort out. He wished he had words to describe it all, or at least part of it, but he couldn't think of any that fit well enough.
"Patamon, you ready?" He suddenly heard. Patamon snapped out of his trance and looked up at TK, who now looked ready to leave, but still obviously tired.
"Yeah, sorry." He replied. Patamon flew up from the bed and landed on TK's shoulder, hoping his partner wasn't too tired to make the trip to Kari's apartment.
**********
An hour later TK was again walking down the open hallway that lead to Kari's apartment, this time with Patamon tagging along. The little Digimon was flying freely this time with no need for the backpack, having memorized every hiding spot on the way to Kari's house long before on their numerous trips to the girl's home. Only when TK reached Kari's front door did Patamon fly over to TK from a hiding spot, landing on his shoulder as TK rang the doorbell, seeming a little quick in his actions. Patamon figured he was still trying to shake off his sleepiness since his face still showed his exhaustion. The orange Digimon quickly snapped one of his wings in front of TK's eyes, making him jerk back suddenly.
"TK, keep your eyes open." Patamon said. "You don't want Kari to think she woke you up calling you, she'll get upset." TK knew this as well as his partner, but he couldn't help it, digging through that city had to be the hardest thing he had ever done.
"Sorry, Patamon, I'm trying my best." He replied, forcing his eyes to open farther, trying to not look so dazed. Before he could manage to gain his full composure the door opened, revealing Kari on the other side.
"Hi, TK." She said, a strange, unidentifiable tone to her voice. "Thanks for coming over so fast..." Kari hesitated, just now noticing TK's dazed expression. "...Are you feeling alright? You look tired..." TK shook his head in vein effort to knock some sleep out of him. He noticed that somehow Kari looked perfectly fine, other than a worried look in her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm alright." TK said, trying to sound convincing. "Just overdid it yesterday I guess." Kari simply nodded in response, apparently not in the mood to argue the point. Instead she started walking back to her room, leaving TK and Patamon to follow. The boy entered, shutting the door behind him, and quickly followed after, unsure of why Kari was being so serious suddenly. Once the two reached her room Kari was already standing beside her computer, with Gatomon sitting on Kari's bed, watching her partner. Patamon flew off of TK's shoulder and onto the bed beside Gatomon, awaiting the next events.
"TK, about that dream I had..." Kari said, getting right to the point. This was really worrying TK, it was rare she was this serious and straight forward, especially about something like a dream.
"Kari, why such a rush?" TK asked, suddenly too curious or worried to wait. "Whatever that dream was, can't you afford to slow down just a little?" TK was doing this mainly out of worry, but he had to admit his own sleepiness was making it hard to keep up.
"TK, this wasn't a normal dream." She replied. "It was a message. Azulongmon came to me in that dream." This caught TK's attention, his alertness suddenly up a step. "He didn't say how, but he knew about what destroyed Andromon's city, he's the one that e-mailed us about it in the first place. He called it the Cataclysm... The Cataclysm of the Digital World." TK was beginning to get worried, but at least it knocked the sleep out of him. This meant it wasn't a Digimon that did it, meaning stopping it was going to be even harder...
"Did he say where it was?" TK asked. "Or at least how to stop it?" TK was asking anything that would make this easier, but Kari only shook her head in reply.
"No, he didn't have time to explain." She replied. "He only had time to get the most important details out. He said there was a temple in the western region of the Digital World where we could get more answers." TK was beginning to wonder if the dream was even that serious, if he knew so little about the Cataclysm except for it's name.
"Kari, are you sure you didn't dream all of this up?" He asked. "You might have just been too worried about it and the whole thing came from that." Kari hesitated, then reached into her pocket. TK didn't know what she was doing until she removed her hand, revealing her D-3. Kari quickly hit a button on it and held it to her side, letting an image project form the small screen onto the wall just above the two Digimon's heads. Patamon and Gatomon turned and faced the wall to get a good look at the image, which turned out to be a map with a flashing red dot in the middle and a smaller, blue one near it.
"That's the western Digital World!" Gatomon announced. "How did you get a map to it, though? We've never been outside the eastern region." Kari didn't have an exact answer, just guesses.
"I just woke up this morning and when I touched my Digivice it started displaying this map." She explained. Kari pressed the button again, shutting the projection off and replacing her D-3. "The red dot was the temple, and the blue one was the closest monitor to the temple. I think it's just under an hour's walk to the temple, if we go now we can see what's going on." The map was more than enough proof for TK, though he wish he knew how it suddenly got onto her D-3...
"That's everything Azulongmon told you?" TK asked, hoping for more than that. Kari shook her head regretfully, wishing there was more she could say.
"Sorry, that's all he told me." She answered. "At least it's something, maybe the temple has a way to beat this Cataclysm." TK hoped so, but that seemed too easy somehow, there had to be more they didn't know.
"So what are we waiting for?" Patamon asked, walking to the edge of the bed with Gatomon right beside him. "We should get going before it has a chance to do more damage." TK and Kari both nodded, glancing at each other before looking at Kari's computer, already online with the Digiport loaded. Patamon and Gatomon jumped form the bed, both landing on their respective partners as they took out their D-3s, pointing them to the monitor. In a flash of bright light the four had vanished from the room, all expecting anything from their trip to the temple.
End Chapter 4
Coming Next: Chapter 5 - Enemy
Personal Note: As I wrote this chapter I was in a state of depression over the sudden retirement of Kale from FanFiction.Net. He was quite possibly the best author on this entire website and to suddenly have him gone is a bit of a mind shock to me as I hold a great deal of respect to him. I will freely admit he is probably the only one more deserving of my title than I am and the only author I looked up to for both inspiration and motivation. He was the best asset Clan Takari had and he's left a pair of shoes that'll never be filled again. For that and many other reasons, the rest of this story is dedicated to Kale, the best of all Takari authors. I wear the crown of King of Takari with pride, but to him, I gladly tip my crown in respect. If any one has any of Kale's fics on file, I'd be eternally grateful if you could send them to me, e-mail me at CyberDracomon@aol.com if you do. Thank you.
Never saw Azulongmon? Check him out here:
http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/873c2b3/bc/Images/Azulongmon.gif?bcp1zv8AswFiQlJt
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