Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.
A/N: Only three chapters left to go!
One World Away From Darkness
Chapter 17: The World Of Darkness
Ken Ichijouji
"Yolei!" Ken gasped, his heart pounding with terror. They said they wanted me!
"Come on!" T.K. shouted, grabbing his arm and dragging him into the street. "We have to help them!"
"T.K.! I think we should digivolve right away!" Patamon insisted.
T.K. nodded, and Patamon turned to look at Wormon who was still in his arms. "Are you ready?"
"Ready," Wormon replied.
"Patamon digivolve to, Angemon!"
"Wormon digivolve to, Stingmon!"
"This way," Angemon said quietly, flying forward.
Ken followed after T.K. and the digimon feeling frightened. What if the shadows have hurt them? What if they're dead?
They came to the centre of the village, and Angemon put out a hand to stop them. "They were here," the angel murmured. "Yolei and Cody."
A group of digimon stood huddled near the edge of a large fountain looking frightened.
"What happened here?" Stingmon asked, crouching in front of the group of rookies.
"Those shadow things took them!" a Floramon gasped. "We were playing a game of catch with Yolei and Cody when those things appeared out of nowhere."
"They grabbed your fellow Digidestined and disappeared through this portal that led to a world filled with darkness," a Gotsumon added, shuddering.
"The Dark Ocean," Ken whispered, sinking down onto the edge of the fountain.
Angemon sat next to him and placed a comforting arm around his shoulders.
"It's like the dream I kept having," T.K. said in a shaky voice, almost to himself. "In my dream, those dark shadows kept trying to grab me, but the light from my crest would always drive them away. This person comes out of the forest and tells me that they're in trouble. I think he meant my friends. That's when I hear this horrible laugh. It belongs to him, their master, the one that the shadows answer to. It all makes sense now. The other guy tells me that I'm too late, and it's all coming true! Those shadows and their master have captured our friends!"
Ken stared at T.K. and stopped breathing. Suddenly he understood. T.K. had not been reading a book on dream interpretation because the blond had discovered that he had been having nightmares. His friend had been reading that book because T.K. himself had been having nightmares. Not only that, T.K. had been having the exact same nightmare that he had been having, one of his nightmares anyway.
"T.K.," he whispered, his heart pounding and his eyes filling with emotion. It was obvious that the blond had not meant to speak those words aloud.
T.K. slowly turned to look at him, and they stared at each other for a moment. T.K.'s eyes filled with recognition, and the blond sank to his knees in front of him.
"It was you," his friend whispered in shock. "You were the person that was in my dream warning me about the others. You were the one that warned me about the darkness." T.K.'s eyes sparkled with sadness. "Ken, you said that you couldn't do it alone. You said that you weren't strong enough. You said that the darkness had gotten control of something...what was it? What is it they have managed to manipulate?"
Tears filled Ken's eyes, and he placed his hand against T.K.'s cheek. "Me," he whispered.
"No," T.K. moaned, shaking his head in denial. "They haven't. You're not like them."
T.K. bowed his head, as if in prayer, and Ken knew. T.K. was the boy who had offered to take his hand in that dream. T.K. had been the figure surrounded by light who had told him that the choice was his. How could I not have seen it sooner? The figure had talked about hope. The figure had offered to help me...With all the commotion last night, he had completely forgotten about the book, and his dream.
"T.K.," Angemon whispered, placing a hand upon his partner's head.
T.K. looked up and his sparkling blue eyes were filled with tears. "It's not too late, Ken," the blond whispered. "I won't let it be."
Ken allowed T.K. to take his hand and gazed into his friend's eyes. The light from his dream that night had been the Crest of Hope. "I know," he murmured and smiled.
"Ken, look!" Stingmon shouted.
Ken jerked around to see a group of digimon running towards them.
"They're gone!" an Otamamon cried. "The shadows took them!"
Ken scrambled to his feet and pulled T.K. up with him. "You mean Davis and Kari?"
"That's right," a Mushroomon replied, gasping for breath. "They pulled them away into this creepy looking world!"
Ken's heart filled with rage. "They're trying to lure me in by using my friends as bait! This wasn't part of the deal!" he screamed in hopes that their dark master would hear him.
"Ken," T.K. said slowly, wiping his eyes. "What are you talking about?"
Ken's whole body quivered with anger at the injustice of it all. "They wanted to take you from me!" he shouted, not caring what he said anymore. "But I wouldn't let them! When you saved me from the darkness last night, it broke the deal I had made with the shadows. They told me that if I was to protect you then I would have to give myself up to the darkness! They never said that they were going to go after my other friends!":
"Ken," T.K. whispered, the expression on his face turning to one of awe.
"I'm right here!" Ken shouted at the town. "If you want me then come and get me because I'm not going to let you hurt my friends!"
"Ken, don't!" Stingmon cried, grabbing hold of him and hugging him tightly.
The back of Ken's neck exploded with pain and suddenly the shadows were everywhere. They seemed to have materialized out of thin air, but instead of coming for him, they went straight for T.K.
The rookie digimon started to scream with terror as one of the shadows latched onto T.K.'s arm.
"Let go!" T.K. shouted, trying to pull his arm free.
"You're coming with us," one of the shadows whispered.
"I don't think so!" Angemon snapped, leaping into the air. "Let go of my partner this instant! Hand of Fate!"
The blast slammed into the shadow who squealed and disappeared. Unfortunately there were many others to take it's place.
"Get off!" T.K. cried, as three more shadows latched onto him and started to drag him backwards.
"Stingmon!" Ken gasped. "Help him!"
"Right! Spiking Strike!"
Stingmon shot forward and sank the stinger on his arm straight into one of the shadows which had a hold on T.K.'s shirt. The thing staggered, but it did not loosen it's grip.
"Why isn't it working?" Ken gasped, his heart filling with fear.
"It won't work unless you believe in yourself and your digimon," T.K. mumbled, his eyes falling closed.
Ken watched in horror as T.K.'s body began to fade away in a swarm of static.
"No!" Angemon shouted, diving out of the sky and making a grab for T.K.
At once the shadows leaped on the angel and pinned him to the ground.
The rookie digimon went scattering in all directions screaming at the top of their lungs.
"We have to do something!" Stingmon shouted, landing beside him.
Ken reacted without thinking. He raced forward, knocking one of the shadows out of his way, and grabbed onto T.K.'s arm. "Give him back!" he screamed. "I promised T.K. I wouldn't let you take him, and I'm not going to break my promise!"
"Ken, no!" Stingmon gasped, streaking forward through the air and grabbing for him.
Angemon managed to break free from the shadows and flew over to him and Stingmon.
"Ken, you don't know what you're doing," the angel said, grabbing him around the waist. "If you do this then you're just going to end up captured like the others!"
"I don't care!" he snapped. "I'm not going to let them get away with taking my other friends either!"
"You're mine!" one of the shadows hissed in his face.
Ken looked down at himself and let out a shriek. Like T.K., his body was fading away in a mist of static.
He felt himself being pulled away from the reality of the Digital World and everything went black.
Ken slowly opened his eyes and found himself gazing up at a cloudy grey sky. The ground beneath him was hard and his head ached.
"Where am I?" he mumbled.
"Ken, are you alright?" a voice said softly in his ear.
He turned his head and discovered Angemon kneeling next to him. The angel had a hand on his arm, and he looked concerned.
"I think so," he replied.
Angemon helped him into a sitting position, and he glanced frantically around at his new surroundings. He was lying in the sand next to what looked like an ocean. The water appeared dirty, and the air felt clammy against his skin.
"Where are T.K. and Stingmon?" he gasped, his fingers tightening on Angemon's wing. Please don't let them be dead...
Angemon shook his head. The angel's eyes were filled with fear for his human partner. "I don't know. When I regained consciousness, you were the only one here."
"Ken! Angemon!" a sudden voice shouted.
Ken jerked his head up and spotted T.K. racing towards him with Stingmon. He almost sobbed with relief.
"T.K., you're safe," he whispered.
T.K. sank to the ground in front of him, and he felt the blond slip an arm around him. "Ken, I thought something might have happened to you. I was so worried," his friend said softly in his ear.
His lip trembled, and he hid his face against T.K.'s golden hair. "Same here," he whispered back.
Angemon moved quickly to T.K.'s side and hugged his partner from behind. "T.K., you should be more careful," the angel murmured into his partner's hair.
"Ken, I thought I lost you," Stingmon said quietly.
Ken put a hand on his partner's arm and smiled. "Not today. Where are we?"
"We're in the world of the Dark Ocean," T.K. replied, stroking Angemon's wing in reassurance. The blond nodded towards the large body of water in front of him. "This is where Kari and I ended up the first time she was pulled into this world."
"The girls and I ended up in a forest," Ken mumbled. "T.K., I don't understand how they managed to pull you in here."
T.K. smiled slightly and sighed. "I may be strong, Ken, but even I can't stop over a hundred of those shadows by myself."
Ken's eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you."
"No, Ken," T.K. said firmly. "Don't feel guilty. You have enough things to worry about. Right now we have to focus on finding Davis and the others."
"Right."
They all stood up, and Ken glanced anxiously at the landscape. T.K. and Stingmon had come running up from behind a wooden fence that appeared to lead away from the beach. Obviously his blond friend had not spotted anyone out there. So where could they be?
"Looking for someone?"
Ken spun around at the sudden voice and let out a cry of terror. The dark shadows had decided to make an appearance. Hundreds of them swarmed out of a cave opening that had been carved into the side of a rock wall, about fifty feet away from him. The shadows were not alone. Hanging over their shoulders were the unconscious forms of Davis, Yolei, Cody, Kari, Veemon, Hawkmon, Armadillomon, and Gatomon.
"Let them go!" T.K. shouted, his eyes sparkling with anger.
"Stay back," Stingmon instructed, moving in front of him and T.K. with Angemon.
Ken felt sick to his stomache. Please don't let them be dead. Please don't let them be dead...
"No," he whispered, tears falling silently down his cheeks. We're too late. The darkness has won. His friends were dead, and it was all his fault. He would never be able to forgive himself. Not for this.
"They can't be dead, they just can't be!" T.K. said, his voice harsh. "I know it."
"How?" Ken said dully, not really caring what the answer was. Nothing mattered anymore. The darkness could have him. He was nothing without his friends.
"Does anyone else have a feeling that we just walked right into a trap?" Angemon said slowly.
Ken felt Stingmon's hand close around his arm and watched his partner digimon nod in agreement.
"I must admit, you've all caught on pretty quick for such a pathetic group of fools," a new voice said with a harsh cold laugh.
Ken knew that laugh. It was the same one that had been in the dream that he and T.K. had shared. On no. Not him again! Anyone but him!
His heart filled with icy dread, and he slowly turned back towards the cave. A dark figure had emerged from the cave's entrance. A small whimper of pure utter terror escaped his lips, and he held tight to his blond friend's body.
The digimon that had come before them was not just any digimon. He was standing face to face with something straight out of a nightmare. Daemon.