Chapter 13: The Dark Ocean

When Melissa came to she had no idea where she was. She was lying on a grey beach and there was black water lapping up against the sand a few yards away. It looked like it was twilight, but she sensed it was always this way here.

"I see you're finally awake." a voice said from beside her. "You had us all worried." Melissa rolled over to see Jack looking at her. "Feeling any better?"

Melissa shrugged, "After your little fit I don't have a leg to stand on about being okay." She sat up and shook the sand out of her hair, "How come whenever I'm with you I wind up all sandy?" she asked, "And where are we anyway?"

"Izzy calls this place the Dark Ocean." Jack said. "He says it's a place where darkness is supreme and that it has connections that are beyond the physical." He sighed and leaned back propping himself up on his elbows. "The tides coming in." he noted.

"It means something bad is about to happen." Melissa said, "Don't ask how I know, I just do." Jack didn't say anything. Melissa looked down at her lap.

"You wanted to know who I was?" she said suddenly. Jack nodded so she continued, "My last name is Drake, my parents are Otto and Vanessa Drake." She could tell that Jack recognized the names, it was hard not to. The Drakes had their fingers into everything: automobiles, oil, computers, antibiotics, and others; somewhere along the line everyone was involved with them. "They're complete bastards," she said bitterly, "I doubt they even notice that I'm gone."

"How long has it been since you've been home?" Jack asked quietly.

"Three weeks." Melissa said. "I used to call the butler every other day or so to let him know I was okay, but my cell broke a few days before I met TK." She picked up a handful of sand and threw it down the beach, "I never want to be like them," she said, "and I'm never going to be. You hear that!" she yelled out suddenly, "I'm never going to be like my parents!"

For the first time in his life TK knew what it was like to be in the digital world without someone watching his back. All he had with him was Kari and she was beginning to tire and grow weak. The Dark Ocean was beginning to fray her mind. Already her eyes would dart around like an animal caught in a trap; he hoped she wouldn't try to chew her leg off in order to escape it.

TK looked down at his D3 again, there were still three blips on the very edge of the screen, but now there was a fourth that was nearing them. Across the sand he thought he could see a familiar figure.

"Hey Kari look," he said to the half unconscious girl, "it looks like Ken's her too." Kari mumbled something unintelligible and he put her arm over his shoulder and began to half carry her towards Ken.

Acting on impulse he leaned over and kissed Kari on the lips. It was like a miracle cure, as soon as he had done it color seemed to return to her face and she didn't seem so heavy. "Thanks Takeru." she said with a slight smile.

Ken it seemed had also seen them and begun to veer their way. By Ken's foot they could barely make out the shape of Wormmon. At least now they weren't totally defenseless. After a few minutes of more walking they had met up with each other. "Hello TK," Ken said calmly, "would that by any chance be Kari?"

TK nodded a little, "Hey Ken, yeah this is Kari." Kari looked up a bit and waved weakly before sinking back onto TK's shoulder. "We need to get her out of here." TK said, "This place'll kill her if she stays here much longer."

Ken nodded gravely, "I know." he said, "It's worse here this time. I can feel the darkness at the edge of my mind. It's nibbling away at my sanity."

TK looked at Ken and then at Kari. He really didn't need to know that, all it would do was make him worry more. He smiled sadly as he looked down at Kari; she was so beautiful and so accursed. It wasn't fair that everything evil took an interest in her. He had always wondered how she could take it all and stay so positive; it had taken until a few days ago for him to realize that the reason was him. He, Takeru Takaishi, had been her anchor her rock in life, and he had thrown it all away in a stupid argument over something he couldn't even remember. After that they had both descended into depression; Kari into her antisocial semi-gothic seclusion, and him into the depths of self pity. He found himself unconsciously stroking the lines on his wrists, relics of the worst part of his depression.

"Why did you do it?" a soft voice asked from his shoulder. It was Kari, and as he looked at her she embellished the question, "Why did you slit your wrists Takeru?"

TK looked at her in surprise, "How did you know about that?" he asked.

"I saw the scars." Kari admitted, "Back when we caught Izzy doing the drugs and I found you half dead on the floor." Kari blushed a little for some reason, "I was so worried I was going to lose you but I didn't want to admit it."

"You won't ever lose me." TK told her. "I'm not ever going to let you down like I did before. As for the scars, they're all that's left over from a year of self pity, depression, and despair."

"And when you almost died you realized that you had to try and make life better?" Kari asked.

TK shook his head, "No I was even worse afterwards. Then I got a tongue lashing I'll never forget from a homeless guy, and that brought me out of it."

Izzy, Melissa, and Jack were walking. Melissa was unconsciously reliving her trek through the desert with Jack. In the past week she had walked through more sand than she had in the whole rest of her life. Her thoughts went over to Jack; he was a weird one all right. Jack now knew who her parents were, but he didn't seem to care much; at least he wasn't treating her any differently. Jack was the one in the group she felt closest to too, maybe because they were both American digidestined or maybe because neither one really fit in. She also couldn't stand him at all. Melissa chuckled a little to herself, what a strange combination.

"They should be right over this hill." Izzy said looking up from his digivice. No one had the heart to remind him that this was the fifth 'this hill.'

TK was leaning against a hill of sand. Across from him Ken was asleep with Wormmon curled up beside him. Just how much he missed Patamon suddenly hit him. He and the batpig had been through so much it was odd not having him around. He looked down at the girl curled up in his lap; he would gladly trade Patamon for her any day. Unsure of whether or not she was asleep he gently stroked her long hair; he was still unsure whether he preferred it black or brown.

Kari stirred and opened her eyes to look at TK, "Takeru, I've been doing some serious thinking," she said with a mischievous smile, "and the next time we're somewhere with a bed I'll be ready."

TK smiled and gave her a quick kiss on the tip of her nose. Kari giggled and nestled her head into TK's lap. TK had always kissed her goodnight that way in the old days. "Love you Kari." he murmured before falling asleep.

"Hey TK wake up." It felt like TK had only just closed his eyes when he heard the familiar voice.

TK opened his eyes to see an orange and white batpig hovering in front of him. "Patamon!" he exclaimed grabbing his partner and hugging him.

There were a couple of chuckles behind him, "He acts as if they haven't seen each other in weeks." Gatomon commented.

"I know," Kari said with mock sadness, "he wasn't even this happy to see me."

Kari was completely unprepared for TK to turn on her and hug her so quickly that they both fell to the ground with TK on top. "Oh Takeru you naughty boy." she said before rolling them over so that she was on top straddling his waist. "Of course I know exactly what you want." she stated before her hips into his. All TK could do was comment on the lack of a bed.

"On your own time if you please guys." a voice said from behind them. TK and Kari both turned to see Izzy, Ken, Melissa, and Jack. They both blushed scarlet as Kari got off of TK.

"There's no reason to blush." Melissa teased. "We already know you're doing stuff like that."

TK and Kari were too embarrassed to do anything but mumble under their breaths. All were sure they heard a number of four letter words interspersed in there.

"So now that we're all awake and together what do we do?" Ken asked thoughtfully as he glanced up at the sky.

"So it's going to rain." Melissa stated sarcastically, "You don't need to be a genius to realize that."

Ken ignored the jab and it was Jack who spoke next, his voice deceptively calm. "It's not just going to rain it's going to pour, and it's high tide. We need to find some shelter.

"There's a cave over there." Kari said pointing towards the cliffs, her voice was shaking. "I'm not going in though, not unless I have no choice."

"Pick up your girlfriend Takaishi." Jack commanded. "She has no choice in this."

"I said, I'm not going in there." Kari grumbled. "And Takeru if you try and make me you'll be forever sorry."

TK shook his head, "I know what happened in there, and I won't force you to go."

"But I will." Jack growled. "You have two choices: stay here and probably die or go into the cave and face bad memories. As you've put up with Takaishi this long I think you can take a few bad memories."

"I'm not too keen on going in there either." Ken said. "That cave has an evil aura."

"So what if it does?" Melissa snapped. "Sure the place makes me feel sick, but it beats dying."

"One reason." Kari said softly, the others turned to look at her. "Just give me one reason why I should go in there instead of staying here."

"TK." Izzy said, "You and TK are finally back together. Dying now would be prodigiously counterproductive."

Kari thought about it a bit. Izzy was right and it was a good reason. She decided that she would rather face the cave than lose her love again. She glanced over at TK to see what he was thinking.

"I'll follow you to the ends of the earth." TK whispered his eyes and voice filled with sympathy.

Kari smacked him, not hard enough to hurt but hard enough to get the point across, "Don't feel sorry for me." she commanded. Kari stood up and brushed her pants off, "I'll go."

Ken nodded, "If they'll go I'll go."

The cave was dark, and dank, and musty, but it wasn't wet. This was quite a good thing because no sooner had they entered the cave than the sky opened up. The rain was a grey depressing sort of rain, much like everything else in this world. At Ken's urging they had moved deeper into the cave past the half buried remains of a couple of black collars the Japanese digidestined seemed to want to ignore.

Jack was sitting against the wall of the cave. TK and Kari were across from him asleep in each others arms. Ken was leaning against the wall watching the entrance, a self-appointed guard. Izzy was asleep using his keyboard as a pillow until Motimon pulled it away and shut the laptop down. Melissa sat down next to Jack and rested her head on his shoulder. "What do you want?" Jack grunted.

Melissa didn't meet his eyes it was as if she was embarrassed by what she had to say. "It's kind of weird and I don't really understand it." Melissa began, "This cave makes me feel all cold, and sick, and scared; but when I'm near you I feel safe." She looked up at Jack to see if he would tell her to leave only to see sunglasses. He even wore them in the middle of a dark cave.

"This place does feel pretty weird." Jack admitted. He shifted over to make her more comfortable, "You can stay if it makes you feel better."

Melissa snuggled into Jack's shirt getting comfortable. "I still hate you." she told him.

"Ditto."

Melissa rolled her eyes, "Shut it Swayze."

"Sorry Lis, I'm Collins not Swayze." Jack told her with a smirk.

"Fuck you." Melissa growled.

"Already told you Lis, not in the sand." Jack whispered in her ear.

"Since when do you call me Lis?" Melissa inquired.

"Since five minutes ago." Jack told her. "Now get some sleep."

"Goodnight argumentative bastard." Melissa said.

"Goodnight contrary wench." Jack told her.