A/N: Hi everyone! I know I haven't written in a while. Blame in on the writers block, plus trying to get started on a Star Wars fanfic (will be called Author on the loose! Plug plug plug!). Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter. As always, 'Kari' and 'Gatomon' are the names for the fake Kari and Gatomon, unless being referred to by someone else, anything between *cute little stars* is a thought, and anything between //double slashes// is something projected psychically.

Dark Enchantress

Chapter Seven
Past and Present

TK looked up as he heard someone scream. He thought, at first, that something was attacking, but the scream was as if someone was shocked by something. And then he saw who screamed.
Kari.
But he was kissing Kari. Kari was lying in sitting by him, her arms around him, staring at the person across the room. But she was also across the room, standing, staring, her eyes boring holes in him. Shocked, bewildered, confused, and hurt. But there was one difference that he could see--the Kari across the room--she was glowing. Bright white. Was she an angel, in Kari's form? That would explain it.

'Kari' snarled. Just as everything was going so well, the real Kari had to come and spoil things. She got up, and walked over to Kari.
"Who are you?" 'Kari' said, the picture of innocence, "You look kinda like me."
Kari looked at 'Kari'. She saw this... this impostor in full light. Everything she was... but all wrong. Like someone had grabbed her and twisted, until she was utterly unrecognizable. Except this person looked exactly like her. It was the inside that was twisted. The mind, the loyalties. This person was devious, cunning.
A thought hit her. She had the crest of light. She was the one who was glowing. And if she was light, this twisted, wrong, copy of her was--
The clone was darkness.
"So you've finally figured it out," 'Kari' said, sneering, "We are the same, but we are different."
*What?* Kari thought, *How could she know?! Unless--she can read my mind.*
//And what if I can?// It was 'Kari' saying the words, but 'Kari' had not spoken. No-one in the room had said a word.

Davis looked up. He immediately did a double take. Two Kari's! And--unless Kari had a twin that he didn't know about, one of them must be fake. And if it was the Kari that had been kissing TK that was fake, that might mean that the real Kari really did like him! Oh, joy of joys!

Yolei was afraid. There shouldn't be two Karis, it really didn't make sense!
*I feel like I'm going to wake up now, and this is all a nightmare,* she thought, *but it feels so real.* She stared in awe and fear, wondering what was happening.

Izzy was, of course, shocked that Kari was standing across the room, glowing, but also standing next to herself, looking threatening. But his analytical mind was beginning to take over, thinking about the strange occurrence and forming theories, like it had done so often in the days when he had first come to the digital world. 'Izzy's Theories' his friends had called them. Well, 'Izzy's Theories' were back with vengeance.
*Now, let's just think about this logically,* he was thinking, *It's impossible for Kari to be in two places at once, so one is Kari, and one isn't. Kari doesn't have a twin sister, so one of them is probably unknown to the other, because if Kari had met someone who looked exactly like her, she would have told someone. Unless she told Tai and asked him not to tell, but then, surely she would know she could trust us. Besides, the glowing Kari looks like she's never seen the other in her life. But-- the non-glowing Kari is wearing Kari's pink D-3, and has her D-terminal. Kari would never let them go, would she? Unless--unless they were taken away when she was captive, then the other could have found them easily. After all, Gatomon neads them to digivolve, and any villain who knew that would be sure to take them away, wouldn't they? Unless they put Kari and Gatomon in different rooms...*

Ken looked and thought? Was this possible? It didn't seem likely that this could be happening, but then, this was the digital world. And they had seen a lot of things happen in the digiworld that they had thought could never happen. Everyone had thought that the digital world didn't exist, but it did? So just because they thought something was impossible, that didn't necessarily make it impossible? Didn't it?

Cody bit his lip. He felt that there must be something dark, perhaps whatever had been making them feel bad about these corridors, that was causing this. But what?

Amelia came rushing in, Plutomon following her. And Amelia was immediately displeased. It would be right then, just when her clone was poised to strike, that the real Kari came in and ruined the illusion.

//I can speak with you through your mind,// 'Kari' thought to Kari, //No-one can hear me but you. But I don't know why I'm telling you. You'll be too dead in a minute for it to matter.//
*No.* Kari thought.
//What did you say to me?// 'Kari' was shocked.
*She heard what I said,* Kari thought, astounded, *So that means... I can talk to her through my thoughts.*

"She knows how to mind-speak," Amelia said, forgetting that she shouldn't say it out loud for fear of spoiling her plans, "She's figured it out! She's getting close to finding her true power... too close."

"Wha--?" Kari turned her head, and noticed for the first time that Amelia was there, "DON'T LISTEN TO HER!"
"What?" almost everyone was asking, "Don't listen to who?"
"AMELIA!" Kari screamed, "SHE'S EVIL! DON'T TRUST HER! SHE'S THE ENEMY WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE FIGHTING!"
"That one must be the impostor!" Amelia shouted, pointing at the real Kari, "I'm on your side, guys, she has to be the impostor if she's telling you I'm the enemy."
Yolei listened to the words. Amelia was her friend. She had liked and trusted Amelia. Amelia couldn't be on the side of evil. Then Yolei noticed something about the words Amelia had spoken after she called out that the glowing Kari was the impostor It wasn't what she said, but how she said it. Her voice had a silky, hypnotic tone to it--sort of like the way the non-glowing Kari had talked to TK. Yolei shook her head.
"How do we know you're not lying?" she asked Amelia, surprised at her own daring.
"What?!" Amelia took half a step backwards.
"I've trusted you, Amelia," Yolei said, "and I think of you as my friend, but think about it. She could be lying, or you could be lying, or both. I don't know whether to believe you or not."
"But you have to believe me," Amelia said, smiling wolfishly, "What choice do you have?"
"We could believe you, or we could not." Kari said, "It's that simple."
Yolei turned to Kari, "That reminds me, I don't know whether to trust you either. Prove that you're the real Kari, tell us something only Kari would know."
Kari thought hard, then thought of something, "When we were fighting MaloMyotismon, and he made us think what was in our hearts had come true, the dream he showed me was digimon and humans living together without anyone trying to destroy them"
"She's right!" Davis and Veemon piped up, "That was her dream."
"So what?" 'Kari' and 'Gatomon' said in unison, "She could have picked that up anywhere. Besides, she doesn't have her digivice, and I do."
"No," Kari said, indignant, "I never told anyone about that. Davis and Veemon came to get me. They and Gatomon are the only ones who knew my dream."
"Well she never told me atleast." Cody piped up.
"And as for the digivice," continued Kari, "Eterna took it from me when I was held in her prison. If you don't believe me, ask HER!!!" She pointed at Amelia.
Amelia looked shocked, "What are you talking about, Kari? I just couldn't be Eterna, whoever she is." Her eyes flashed red, and for a moment, Kari stared at her. Amelia couldn't be Eterna. She had been wrong the whole time. Amelia was innocent. She wasn't CAPABLE of being evil.
"Kari, look away!"
The voice was urgent. Something important. But Kari kept on staring. So did the others. What were they even in this place for? They were all together, nothing was wrong? Why even explore there? And why had they come to the digital world?
"Please, Kari! Gatomon! You have to look away!"
Whatever the person talking was saying, it sounded important. Important. There was an important reason for them to come to the digiworld. Something was wrong, something needed help. Important...
"Don't look at the eyes, Kari! She's making you forget!"
Forget, forget, forget, forget, forget...
The word forget echoed around the room, as their surroundings began to fade...

Kari's eyes opened. She was in her bedroom, at home, lying in bed. But something was different about the place--her bedsheets, for a start. Pink with little rainbows. She hadn't used those sheets since she was a little girl! All the things she knew were hers were little-girlish, and most were things she had thrown out or stuffed in a closet. She yawned and stretched, and her hand brushed against a small lump underneath her top. Surprised, she fumbled and pulled it out. Her whistle, hanging on it's chain around her neck. She hadn't worn her whistle in years! What was going on? But she had a suspicion that she already knew. She climbed out of bed and looked in a mirror. Staring back at her, was a small girl around eight years old, with brown eyes and scruffy, chin-length brown hair, wearing pink pj's and with a whistle around her neck.

So, how do you like it? Neat new twist, huh? Well, R&R, people!