"So, someone is killing us?"
Izzy shook his head slowly.
"I don't know, I don't know. It seems like it, but then…I don't know."
"How did you come up with that theory anyways?"
"Well, you see," Izzy turned towards the hall windows and stared out of them, "when Yolei saw the face of Matt 'x-ed' out, we kind of just figured…" he trailed off, leaving Tai very frustrated.
"Izzy, come on. Your holding something back."
"Uhh…what makes you think that?"
"I've known you pretty long; I know your ways."
Izzy turned around quickly.
"Okay, your not going to like this, I mean, I know you don't care about Matt, but…"
"Out with it."
He sucked in a deep breath.
"When you came in, I looked back at the computer and…Sora's face had been 'x-ed' out."
He looked at Tai, maybe expecting him to explode with grief and anger. But nothing like that happened at all. Instead, Tai chewed at his lip thoughtfully.
"Izzy, your positive that they died? I mean, maybe they just went somewhere or did something, and the computer is counting us down. You know, like if we go there or do that then we'll be marked out too."
"Perhaps your right Tai, we could be making a big deal about nothing."
"Right. But just in case, I'm going to go check out the digiworld; see if anything is wrong. Do me a favor and watch Kari, okay?"
"Can't I come too? I'm always stuck with watching the computer and letting you guys know if anything is wrong."
"Just watch Kari and them. Maybe something will happen over here while I'm gone. Then you won't be so bored."
"Not likely."
Stupid Matt. Shouldn't he care at least a little about me? After all, I am his girlfriend.
Sora stopped. What was she doing? They had to stay together. Her live and his might depend on it.
She turned around.
What have I done? I've got to go find him again. What have I done?
"Matt! Matt!" she started to run back the way she had come, but to where? There were no landmarks to remember, just light.
Oh God.
"Matt!? Matt please hear me!"
"Looking for someone?" and evil laugh sounded as the light instantly went into darkness.
There it was again. What was that sound? The completely lost Matt walked around some more, trying to find the origin of the sound he kept on hearing. It wasn't getting louder, that was for sure. Yet now and again it was clearer than before. Clear to the extent he still couldn't tell what it was. It was extremely nerve-racking, because he didn't know if he was going in the right direction or not. Matt stopped walking. The sound had changed into a steady clinking noise. As if two chains kept banging into each other. He felt panic flood through his body; it was getting louder. Not again…if it's water, I'm-
Chains flew from all angles around him and wrapped tightly across his body; tightening with deadly grips.
"Shi-" he felt one of the chains tie around his mouth, cutting off his swear. Soon he was held tight in a standing position, fuming at being off guard again.
I've got to find
a computer; I've got to get to them.
Matt! Sora! Oh God, Sora! Tai accelerated his already blinding speed as he tried
desperately to find a computer. The
thought of them actually being dead had hit him after he had left Izzy. He stuck his head through open doors and
peered through windows. Finally, he saw
one of the teacher computers used on the classroom for keeping grades in
check. He ran towards it, extending his
arm with the digivice in it. He prayed
to all the Gods in the world that the digiport would appear. If only the computers in the lab weren't all
destroyed…yes! the digiport did appear!
Don't worry Sora; I'm coming for you…
"T.K.?" Kari placed a hand on his shoulder, "T.K. you can wake up now." She shook him lightly. When he didn't budge she felt the tears gather at her eyes. Kari let them role down freely, trying hard to take the attention away from everyone else and have it rest on her. But no one was there to pay a whole lot of attention. She looked back down at T.K.
"T.K.?"
Kari pushed hair out of her eyes, and sat back, rocking herself back and forth.
Cody sat and stared. T.K. had gone crazy, and Kari was trying to wake him up? Why is she doing that? Cody wondered. Maybe there's something about those two that doesn't meet the eye at first glance. Maybe they share a love of some sort; a love that can bond them so closely- he paused. What am I thinking? They're still kids, they can't be capable of love like that yet.
"Uhh…" T.K. stirred.
Tai's heart raced. Am I really ready to fight without Agumon there beside me? What if worst comes to worst and- he shook the "what if" thoughts out of his head. Only a coward thinks like that. Do you want to go back on your crest, Taichi? Pull yourself together. They need you; Sora needs you.
The digiport allowed him in, and in seconds he was in the digiworld. Or was he?
Sora's breath was ragged.
"Matt? If you're t-there, p-please stop acting l-like this."
"Acting like what?"
The response chilled her to the bone.
"Am I scaring you? Oh, I'm dreadfully sorry my dear, but you see, scaring is just my thing."
Another evil, wicked laugh. She was beginning to despise it entirely.
"L-look, this isn't funny-"
"It's not meant to be. Just about now your friend should be landing in that lovely little trap I set for him. Although I'm so sorry I had to make you two lovebirds fight."
Sora sucked on her breath. Wait, I know that voice…that's-
"Piedmon? I can read your thoughts, you know. And you hit the clown right smack on his nose!"
I'm trapped, thought Matt. Standing upright, no friends in sight…and with that damn noise still there. What the hell is that? He couldn't help but swear, you would too if you were in his situation. It didn't seem like it could get any worse; when his world suddenly plunged into darkness. Then he found out what the noise was.
Footsteps.
Footsteps? Who could that be?
"You're the one behind all this?! Okay then, maybe you can answer my question. Why Tai?"
"Why Tai what?"
"Why did you choose to have Tai cloned or copied or whatever you did?"
"That wasn't me. That was the work of your darling friend Matt. Which reminds me…"
Piedmon snapped his gloved fingers, and the lights flashed back on.
"You can ask Matt
yourself how he made a copy of Tai. Oh,
that's if he can talk."
There was Matt; standing
upright with chains crawling all over his body. She could tell he was mad, angry at being captured in such a way.
"Let him go…he…he never did anything to you."
"Or did he? Let me tell you something: your precious Matt used to work for me. That's a happy thought now isn't it?" Piedmon's words suddenly grew bitter. "But that traitor betrayed me. Unfaithful-"
"How did he betray you?" Sora shot Matt a look, one that Matt couldn't tell what she was thinking.
"I thought you would never ask! Well you see, when you digidoofuses fought me for the first time, I had gotten a hold of one of the most rebellious in your group. At that time he completely despised your leader, that Tai character. I don't blame him. Well, I told him to kill Tai off. He was going to go through with it when something or someone stopped him. Right when your leader was the weakest, thanks to me, he should have killed him. But instead, he held him. Comforted and healed his worst enemy. It was sickening. I still don't know what went wrong with my plan. But that doesn't matter now! I have a new plan! One that will rid the digital world of all you older freaks!"
Sora rolled her eyes. "Oh brother."
Piedmon shot her a horrible look. "What? Do you think my plan will fail? Well it's already underway. No one can stop it now! That Tai that you think is a clone was actually dreamt up by Matt. A dream about his mortal enemy brings to life his mortal enemy. Now, tell me my dear, who did you dream about?"
Kari lifted her hand from T.K.'s shoulder.
"T.K.? You okay now?"
"Huh?" T.K.'s eyes opened slowly, seemingly lost and confused. "What happened? Wait," he grabbed Kari by the hand, "Kari, the freakiest thing happened. I saw Devimon."
"What?! Devimon! But how? He didn't come or anything. T.K., what are you talking about?"
T.K. struggled to his feet.
"I swear I saw Devimon."
Izzy slammed open the door. "Okay, here's what we'll -, oh, T.K. your awa-"
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!! It's Devimon!"
T.K. turned his head to avoid looking directly at Izzy. Everyone looked confused.
"Uhh…T.K…I'm not Devimon."
Takeru slowly looked back at Izzy, blushing deeply.
"Oh, sorry, it's just…I guess I'm just a little freaked out right now."
"Yeah, just a little, T.K., just a little."
Izzy eyed him curiously as he walked over to one of the computers; his hate for T.K. growing more distinctive.
The light was blinding at first, but soon Taichi's eyes grew accustomed. There was nothing but light around him, and no sign of Sora or Yamato. How do I even know that they ended up here? Taichi walked around slowly, looking in each direction, hoping to find someone or something. The light would be broken even if the person was at some distance. He peered at suspicious things, then, finally, he found what he was looking for.
"What the?"
A bundled up blob was just visible. It was standing erect and with odd lumpy things at odd intervals. Taichi started towards it. Then the noise started. It sounded like someone talking; the same voice droning on and on about something or other. After standing there for a few minutes, he caught the voice saying his name. There it was again, and again. But the third time someone else said his name. A familiar voice. Suddenly, his world turned black with a 'thud'.
Sora kept her mouth shut. I don't have to tell him anything. Play stupid, Sora, play stupid.
"I never had a dream."
"You lie!! How else could you have gotten here?! Now tell me, who did you see in that dream?"
Tears threatened to fall.
"What dream?! I didn't have any dream! I just came through the digiport and-" she shut her mouth quickly. Does he know about the digiport? She caught a fleeting look of curiosity pass by his face, but nothing more.
"You know exactly what dream I'm talking about! Now-" he stopped dead. A boy was walking towards him. He had a massive quantity of hair that stuck up, and his silhouetted hands were clenched tight in fists. When his face became clear, a look of dead seriousness was on it, not showing any signs of fading. A stabbing pain of fear ran through Piedmon's body, but passed shortly. The boy wasn't headed for him; he was headed for the chained up Matt. Matt's eyes became wide, and muffled words escaped through gaps in the chains.
"Mmf phmffmf! MMFPMHPF MNPFFM!!" Yamato wriggled uncomfortably under his blanket of chains.
The figure of the boy kept his pace, and never got off of his track. It was set straight for Matt, that wiggling teenage boy, and by the look on his face, he hadn't come to set Matt free.
Mimi's plane had landed at Odaiba that morning, now it was late evening. Where was everyone? She had gone to all of her friends' houses, Jou had a really important test he was taking at school, and then everyone else was missing. Maybe they were all at the school? She quickened her pace; it was freaky out here in the dark…alone. Back at New York she had always had her group of friends to walk with. You could never be too safe there; there was always some guy high off drugs that was hiding in the shadows and-
Someone grabbed her arm.
"Huh. I've never seen the digiport button light thingy that color before."
Yolei walked over to Izzy wiping sleep from her eyes. She had obviously fallen asleep at the window.
"What color?"
"Black."
"Black?" Cody got up from his position on the floor to stand by Izzy, "what does that mean?"
"I don't know. Maybe something bad is happening that shouldn't be."
"Like Devimon," T.K. stepped forward, "he's the one behind all this. He's the one who killed my brother."
"Umm…excuse me T.K., but who's Devimon?"
Koushiro stood up, a bewildered look on his face. "What makes you think that it was Devimon? It could be anything or anyone T.K."
Yolei's face went bright red with anger.
"Excuse me, but who is Devimon?"
"Because I saw Devimon. I had this dream and-"
"Just because you saw him in a dream doesn't mean anything. You were probably just having a nightmare of some sort."
"WHO IS DEVIMON?"
T.K. shook his head thoughtfully. "But it seemed so lifelike. And what he did…it…it just scares me."
"What did he do T.K.?"
"Well, he…never mind. Your right Izzy, it probably isn't Devimon. I was just over reacting."
Tai groaned and rubbed the back of his head.
"What the…?" he watched himself walk towards the bundle in the distance. There were other bundles too, now. One really tall one with pointy shoes, and one that looked remarkably like- Wait a second! How could he be walking towards that bundle when…
"Umm…what the…?"
He got up and followed himself. Wait, how can that be me? Unless I'm dead or something and I'm floating as an angel following myself. He snickered at his own stupid remark. Yeah, that's me, and I'm dead. Right…when did I lose it? And second of all, when did I die? Then suddenly his thoughts did seem extremely stupid. IF he was dead, then how come his body was still moving? He remembered his conversation with Izzy earlier.
"Izzy, your positive that they died? I mean, maybe they just went somewhere or did something, and the computer is counting us down. You know, like if we go there or do that then we'll be marked out too."
"Perhaps your right Tai, we could be making a big deal about nothing."
What if the thing that they did to get counted down was duplicating themselves? But how?
"Mimi, what are you doing here?"
"My God, Davis, you scared the hell out of me," she sat down on a bench close to them, "what are you doing out here?"
Daisuki scowled.
"Stupid T.P. threw me out a window. The fall almost broke my leg."
Mimi looked up at him. She was about to ask him if he was okay, when she noticed that they were by the school. And on top of that, a light was on. She started walking towards the school, when the full affect of Davis' words hit her.
"Wait, he threw you out a window?!"
Yolei, who had finally given up on finding out who Devimon was, turned her attention to the computer.
"Umm…Izzy, I think you missed something when you looked at the screen."
"Hm, like what Yolei?"
She rolled her eyes. "Well, now you listen to me. You overlooked this: T.K.'s face is x-ed out."
"What? How?"
"There's a picture of your head, with a big, red x through it."
T.K. frowned. "You know that's not what I meant."
Izzy took a part in the conversation.
"If you're x-ed out, and your still here, then that means that Matt and Sora aren't really dead."
"Here's a question Izzy: when did Sora's face get x-ed out?"
"That's not important right now, Yolei, what's important is that they're okay."
"Tai! What are you doing?!" Sora watched on, horrified, as Tai approached Matt. She looked at Piedmon. He had a faint smile hovering around his lips.
"HA! My plan begins!"
They watched as Tai ripped the chains off of Matt, Piedmon happily and Sora being freaked out.
"Oh my God! Tai! Stop! Stop, Tai! STOP!"
Matt sucked in the air he had been deprived of. But not for long. Tai punched him hard on the jaw, making a sickening sound. Matt spit out a tooth disdainfully.
"You little- that was a permanent."
He tackled Tai to the ground. Suddenly the scene around them changed to a lake. But not just any lake; it was the one that had been in Matt's dream. Matt stopped fighting long enough to wonder if this lake had no water in it either. Then, Tai picked him up clear off the ground and started walking towards it.
"No! Stop! Tai! Stop it! HEEEELLLLLLLLPPPPPPP!!!!!"
Tai braced himself for a sprint. Even though he hated Matt, he wasn't about to let him get killed by a copy of himself. No one was looking directly at him, so he could surprise everyone with a grand entrance. But instead he was surprised himself when he splashed into icy cold water.
"GAH! Oooooo…cold! Cold!" he heard Matt screaming about ten feet away. Luckily it droned out his own shouts. Still, no one paid attention to him. He sighed relief and made for the bank that was in front of him.
Davis walked silently along beside Mimi. In his mind he was planning ways to kill T.K., not actually knowing if he would go through with them are not.
"Hey, Mimi? What kind of death do you think would be more painful? Slowly being dipped into acid, or being stabbed multiple times, or being shot multiple times, or-"
"I get the point Davis. You want to kill T.K. I don't see why you two can't be friends."
Daisuki refrained from picking the school lock.
"Why? Why? One word…uh, I mean name: Kari."
Mimi sighed.
"You two are still gaga over her? Seriously Davis, what's so great about her? Hurry up, I think I hear a car coming."
The door popped inward.
"What's so great about her? Mimi, if you were a man you'd understand."
"Too bad you're not a man, Davis. Now move out of the way so we can go in."