Chapter Twenty-four- Darkness Shows its Face



As the Digidestined and their digimon peacefully slept, a shadow had settled over the forest. The darkness enveloped the entire area like a thick fog.

Kari was laying next to TK, and her body was still hot with a terrible fever. Suddenly she shot up out of her sleep and looked around frantically. Beads of sweat covered her face.

"Where are they!?" She cried.

TK rolled over and opened one eye. "Kari's what's wrong?"

"TK, they're in trouble, it's here! Wake everyone up!"

"What? What's here Kari? Did you see something?"

Suddenly a terrified scream echoed through the forest. The others were awoken by the sound. TK glanced around at everyone.

"Jesi and Ken are still gone?"

"What's going on?" Tai shouted. "What's wrong with Kari?"

The scream was heard again and now everyone was wide awake.

"Tai! We have to find them." Kari grabbed onto her brother's pant leg. Tai reached down and helped her stand up.

"Come on," Tai picked Kari up and carried her the way he did when she was little. He led the way towards the screams that had been heard deep in the woods.

"It's even darker than before," Yolei said as they walked slowly through the woods.

"I know what you mean," Sora said. "It's like, darker than black, if that's even possible."

The only source of light was a torch lit by Agumon's Pepper breath that Matt carried.

"Kari's unconscious again..." Tai said. He looked down at the shaking girl he held in his arms.

"I'm scared!" Mimi wailed.

"Don't worry Mimi, Palmon's here to protect you," Palmon smiled up at Mimi.

"Thanks Palmon," Mimi grabbed onto her digimon's leafy hand.

Suddenly a rustling was heard in the forest, the sound of someone crashing through the brush.

"Get ready to Digivolve..." Tai said to the digimon.

The sound got louder until two figures appeared through the trees and ran head first into the Digidestined.

"Help!! My brain's being eaten!!!" Joe screamed.

"Joe!!" Joe opened his eyes and saw Izzy holding out his hand to help him up. It was Ken and Jesi that had crashed into them.

"What happened!? What were you two running from!?" Matt asked.

"He's... here!" Jesi panted.

"Shadowmon is in the forest," Ken said. "He was right at our heels, we need to get out of here right away!"

"No! We can't run away, we need to stay here and fight!" Tai yelled.

"Tai! It's not the same Shadowmon we fought before. It's huge now, it's stronger than I could have ever imagined!"

"He fed on our nightmares while we slept, Tai," Jesi said.

Tai looked down at the ground then clenched his teeth. "I won't run away!!"

Ken was about to yell back at Tai when a sinister laugh was heard from the trees. The Digidestined looked up. Sora and Mimi huddled together.

"Is that...gulp... Arukenimon?" Mimi said in a timid voice.

Ken's eyes filled with rage. "It's too late to run now anyway...she's here."







Jesi huddled against Ken as Shadowmon's glowing eyes appeared, and two figures stepped out of the darkness. Arukenimon stood beside Mummymon and Shadowmon's looming figure appeared above them.

"Welcome back to the dark forest Digidestined, where all your nightmares come true." Arukenimon grinned as she watched the children shake with fear.

"Think again Arukenimon! Everyone, Digivolve!!" Tai yelled. But then he turned around slowly when he felt Agumon's claw tug at his shirt.

"Tai... We've all been trying, we can't Digivolve!" Agumon said.

"What!? Did you forget how!? It's just like riding a bicycle now start-"

"Oh not that again!" Gatomon yelled.

"It must be Shadowmon!" Izzy said, "The digimon are reacting to him like they would to a control spire."

"Well then let's armor digivolve!" Davis yelled, "Digiarmor energize!"

"Veemon armor digivolve to,"

"Hawkmon armor digivolve to,"

"Armadillomon armor digivolve to,"

"Patamon armor digivolve to,"

"Gatomon armor digivolve to,"

"Flamedramon, the fire of courage!"

"Halsemon, the wings of love."

"Digmon, the drill of knowledge!"

"Pegasusmon, flying hope!"

"Nefertimon, the angel of light!"

The five armor digimon lined up in front of the Digidestined. They faced off against Shadowmon.

"Ken, do you think the five of them are powerful enough to fight Shadowmon? He's stronger than ever before...."

Ken sighed and looked down. "They...don't have a chance."

Jesi gasped and put her hands over her mouth. She looked up at the digimon standing in a row before her. "Hang in there...." she thought.

Arukenimon stared at the digimon for a moment, unimpressed. Then the sides of her mouth turned up and she chuckled softly.

"So, you honestly think you have a ghost of chance? What pathetic fools you all are."

"We'll see! Attack!!" Davis yelled.

"Fire Rockets!"

"Tempest wing!"

"Gold rush!"

"Star shower!"

"Rosetta stone!"

Each digimon fired their attack directly into Shadowmon, but each time the effort accomplished nothing.

"Oh no! Their attacks aren't working again! We have no way to fight!" TK shouted.

"DEATH SHADOW!" Dark shadow hands shot out of Shadowmon's body. Each one struck a digimon, and they fell to the ground as their rookie levels. It was like the hands had snatched the armor away.

The Digidestined watched their digimon hit the forest floor. They were helpless now.

"TK...." Kari said, her voice was barely a whisper.

"Kari!? What is it!?" TK leaned over Kari, who was still in her brother's arms.

"Ange-digivolving... it's... the only way." Kari coughed and gasped for air. "Nothing else can hurt Shadowmon...."

"But, we don't even know how that happened! Kari!?" Kari drifted into sleep again.

"Ange-digivolving?" Tai said.

TK looked up and at Tai. "That's how we beat Shadowmon last time, Kasurymon and Stingmon digivolved into AngeKasurymon and AngeStingmon."

"Izzy mentioned it to me but how!?" Tai said.

"That's the problem, we don't know how they did it! Some kind of light was released from Ken and Jesi's digivices."

Tai thought for a moment. "Here take Kari," he set his little sister safely in TK's arms. Tai went over to Ken and Jesi and stepped in between them.

"You need to make your digimon Ange-digivolve right now or we're all toast!"

"But Tai...."

"Don't but Tai me, just do it!"

Ken could feel himself getting angrier as Tai yelled in Jesi's face.

"Tai we can't make it happen, it just happened by itself!" Jesi said.

"I don't care! Figure out how right now or we're all going to die, do you understand!? My sister's going to die!!"

"STOP IT!" Ken's fist impacted with Tai's face and Tai was flung backwards. He smashed against a tree and looked back up at Ken.

"What the hell was that for you little punk!?" Tai screamed. Tai was about to punch Ken back but Matt grabbed his arm and yanked him backwards.

"Listen both of you! This is no time to be fighting we need to work together!"

"Stop yelling at us Tai! We can't just do whatever you tell us if we have no idea how!" Ken yelled.

Tai tried to hold back but he could feel salty tears run down his face and into the corners of his mouth. How could they not even care his sister might die? "I'm the leader and you'll do what I say!!"

Matt flashed Tai a dirty look and released his grip on Tai's arm. "Don't pull this leader trash again! I'm tired of it!"

"Should we... Do something?" Yolei said nervously.

"No, when those two get started there's no way of stopping them," Izzy sighed.

"Don't start this!" TK yelled at his brother and Tai. "You two always end up arguing and getting in a fist fight over nothing!"

Arukenimon watched contentedly as the four boys quarreled. Then she chimed in,

"Well I don't think you really have to worry about your pitiful little problems anymore children, because the digital world is mine and the Digidestined are now... history." Arukenimon glanced up at her monster.

"Shadowmon, remove them." And with a snap of her fingers, three shadow hands shot out of Shadowmon and grabbed Matt, Ken and TK. They were yanked away into the darkness. Kari's limp body fell to the ground in a heap as TK was grabbed out from under her.

"KEN!!!!!" Jesi screamed. She tried to run after the three boys but Tai quickly grabbed her by her waist and held her back before she was sucked in herself.

"Goodbye!" Arukenimon cackled, and the darkness that was Shadowmon vanished along with his creators.

Jesi and Tai watched helplessly as their lovers disappeared into he night.