Digimon: After the Fight Series

Part Three: Back to the Digital World…maybe

"What exactly did you hear, Yolei?" Kari asked.

Yolei looked at them; her face looked haunting in the dim light. "A girl screaming 'save me from him.'"

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"Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other."

-Samuel Johnson

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"Sora! Matt!"

Sora opened her eyes. All she could see in front of her were sharp blades of grass trying to poke her eyes out. She pushed herself up, now on hands and knees and brushed dirt from her elbows and tennis skirt.

"That's going to leave a nice little grass stain," she muttered.

"Sora! Matt!"

"Katrina?" Sora called as she took in her surroundings. All she could see were trees and vegetation, almost as if she were in the jungle. But, it had a familiar feel to it…

"Sora! Where are you?"

"I'm right here Katrina!" Sora called back. Within seconds, Katrina emerged from behind a tree.

"There you are! I've been looking for you and Matt!"

"Where are we?" Sora asked. She squinted her eyes. Yup, this seems familiar alright…

"I have no clue," Katrina said. "All I know is, we're in trouble if we can't find Matt."

"I'm right here," Matt said. Sora and Katrina ran to the voice, and found Matt sitting on small rock putting his shoes on. Sora sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness. How'd we end up here?"

"Ask her," Matt said, pointing to Katrina. Katrina chewed on her lower lip.

"Just what is this place?" Sora asked. "And how'd we get here from the school?"

"Sora, use that egg-shaped head of yours for once and take a look around," Matt growled. Sora glared at him, but did take his advice. It clicked in her head.

"No way! You're kidding me, how'd we get here…to the Digital World?"

"Like I said, ask her!"

Sora rounded on Katrina. "Just how on earth…or wherever we are, did we get here? That digiport has been sealed shut for days!"

Katrina took a step back. Sora could tell that she was fighting the urge to run or stay with two very ticked off teenagers.

"If you run, we'll follow," Sora assured her.

"I wasn't going to!" came the reply.

"Good," Sora huffed. "Just to let you know…"

"So, if you brought us here, you're a digidestind?"

Katrina nodded sadly.

"Where's your digivice? And digimon?"

Katrina gasped. "Oh no, I left her back in the real world!"

"What?" Matt said astounded. "You're digimon's in the real world?"

"And my digivice is in the real world too," Katrina moaned, slapping her head.

"What?" Matt and Sora exclaimed, together. "How could've possibly got here without a digivice?"

"Sora! Katrina, Matt!"

Yolei and Kari went up and down the school hallways, hearing nothing except their distraught echoes.

"I'm telling you, they vanished," Yolei said.

"That sure was one creepy call you heard back there," Kari whispered, still shivering.

"It's okay," Yolei said, embracing Kari. "They're alright. After all, it's Matt and Sora gone missing; nothing can mess with that stubborn tag-team."

"You think Katrina was the one who screamed?" Kari asked her with worried eyes.

"Probably," Yolei frowned. "It would make sense. I didn't recognize the voice."

Kari's eyes grew wide. Yolei backed up. "Um, are you okay, Kari?"

"Oh my goodness, I left Gatomon in the classroom!"

With that, Kari took off running down the hallway. Yolei stared after her. "You still have Gatomon?" But Yolei followed after her at a jog. When Kari vanished behind a door, Yolei slid across the slick floor and paused outside the door. Kari was rummaging in desks and drawers.

"How could I have forgotten about her?" Kari exclaimed, close to tears. "The only thing left of the Digital World and I was careless!"

"It's okay, Kari," Yolei crooned as she started to rummage desks too. "At least you still have Gatomon; my digimon is still left in the Digital World."

Kari stopped searching and turned to Yolei. "My gosh, so I am the only one. It's okay Yolei, we'll see-"

"Kari?" Yolei frowned. The expression on Kari's face turned to confusion.

"I thought I just saw her," Kari darted past Yolei and back into the hallway.

"Wait, Kari! Slow down!" Yolei ran into the hallway after Kari. "You're going too fast! KARI!"

Yolei followed Kari back to the "campout" station, and ran past a surprised Izzy, Tai, and T.K

"Where are you going?" Tai called.

"Just follow your sister!" Yolei called over her shoulder. Yolei followed Kari until Kari turned the corner. Yolei slid once again and peeked into the room. It was the computer lab.

"Kari, did you inherit the delusions disease from Ken?" Yolei muttered as she walked into the lab. Kari sighed and turned to face Yolei.

"I could've sworn I saw Gatomon running past the door into here…"

"If she did, Tai and the others would've noticed her."

Kari's eyebrows furrowed. "Unless she's as dark as night."

"What're you-?" Yolei started, but Kari held up a finger to shush her. Besides the growing louder echoes of footsteps coming from the boys, nearby rustling can be heard.

"It's okay," Kari soothed. "You can come out now, we won't hurt you."

The shuffling stopped. Yolei bit her lower lip to keep from her panting in fright. Jumping noises could be heard, and then a silhouette appeared in front of the monitor of the glowing computer.

"Gatomon?" Yolei said, eyebrows knitted together.

The Gatomon shook her head. "Not really. I'm BlackGatomon, but my partner calls me B.Gatomon."

"BlackGatomon?" Kari repeated the word as if it meant something. "You're partner, who's that?"

"And why're you wearing a tag?" Yolei asked, pointing to the tag hanging around B.Gatomon's neck. B.Gatomon held it with her dark blue paw; a symbol was drawn on her paw. Kari stared at it.

"It's the crest of my partner," B.Gatomon said as if she had read Kari's thoughts. "It's the crest of harmony, or peace."

Kari blinked in surprised. "That's the Tao symbol! Don't tell me…Katrina's your digidestined partner?"

"Huh?" came voices from the door.

Kari and Yolei spun around to look at the eerie glow of T.K, Tai, and Izzy's faces.

"Don't tell me Katrina's a digidestined," Tai said, taking a step forward. "I mean, we were trying to hide the secret from her."

"Yeah," T.K said, glaring at Yolei. Yolei blushed and rubbed her head awkwardly.

"Yeah, close call," she said.

Kari's focus remained on the cat. "So, can you tell us what happened to her?"

B.Gatomon looked at the ground. "She must've teleported back to the Digital World. It makes sense."

"Tele…ported…?" Yolei repeated frowning. B. Gatomon looked up at her and nodded.

"Katrina's had this strange power since she was born. She's able to go back to the Digital World and Real World without using the digiport."

"Prodigious," Izzy breathed. "Has she ever used it before?"

B.Gatomon shrugged. "Sometimes, but she can't control it. You see, she can only use it when she thinks she's in danger, she's been practicing it on her own, but usually she gets stuck in the data realm."

"Where?" Tai asked.

"It's like a void between our world and the Digital World," Izzy explained as he walked over to the computer monitor. "Unfortunately, I'm surprised she was able to escape."

B.Gatomon looked at him curiously. "Like I said, when she's scared or in danger she can teleport out. She's terrified of the data realm."

"So, you think she took Matt and Sora with her to the data realm?" T.K asked.

"Why not the Digital World?" Yolei asked, turning to him. "After all, she was screaming something about saving her from 'him', whoever he is."

B.Gatomon's eyes narrowed.

"I take it she knows," Tai pointed. B.Gatomon nodded.

"Yes, it's Demon. He's been trying to get Katrina since birth, but if he managed to escape to the Real World, we've got trouble."

"How come?" Kari asked. Demon sounded familiar.

"Demon is a very power digimon, he's a mix of all the bad guys you 'destined have over the last five years. He can manipulate your fears and make them come to life. He's the most powerful digimon ever."

"Manipulate your fears, huh?" Tai asked his hand on his chin in thought. "So, if he's that powerful, how come he hasn't come to the real world?"

"That's what the data realm is for," Izzy explained again. He was clicking away at the computer again. "Well, the data realm was only constructed a few years ago. Remember when Gennai explained to us that after we left the Digital World four years ago he and his counterparts started reconstructing digital data? They created that data realm as a wall to keep digimon from escaping. Well, as you can see, it doesn't work too well."

"Yeah," Tai said, arms crossed over his chest. "If that data realm really did work we wouldn't have had to have rounded up all those digimon on Christmas Eve."

"But Tai," T.K said, nudging his arm playfully. "If we hadn't had to round up all those digimon, we wouldn't have met Catherine."

Kari and Yolei stared at them. Even Izzy momentarily stopped his typing to look at them.

"Oh yeah," Tai muttered, blushing.

"Who?" Kari and Yolei asked.

Izzy grinned. "Tai's got a girlfriend, T.K's got a girlfriend."

"She's my girlfriend," Tai said. T.K pushed him.

"No, she's MY girlfriend."

"Don't lie about thinks like that," Tai snapped. "It's obvious she likes me better!"

"I'm not lying!" T.K pushed him again. "And she likes me better!"

With that, Tai and T.K were off arguing. The other three guys laughed, then Izzy resumed. He frowned.

"BlackGatomon?" Izzy asked. The cat turned to look at him.

"Please, B.Gatomon," she said.

"Okay then," Izzy replied. "It seems as if the digiport was recently open. How's that possible?"

"With this," B.Gatomon said as she took out a device. Kari gasped.

"That's a D-3," she explained.

"It's lavender," Yolei said, looking at it. "I take it that's Katrina's?"

B.Gatomon nodded. "Yup, and this is her crest."

"The crest of harmony," Kari said slowly.

"Harmony?" Izzy repeated. "You mean, as in peace?"

B.Gatomon nodded. "Mmm-hmm."

"I see," Izzy muttered. "So, Katrina, Sora, and Matt somehow managed to get through the data realm and are now stuck in the Digital World?"

"Wait a minute," Kari said. "I left Gatomon in the classroom."

"I know," B.Gatomon said. "After the blackout, she went looking for you. I managed to get out of that wretched tote bag and we found each other. I told her to go back to the Digital World to help out the others. She agreed and I took her to the computer room and opened the gate."

"What? How?" Tai asked. Kari giggled at him. He and T.K were done beating each other up.

"With the digivice."

"Interesting," Izzy murmured. "Could I use that as a means to get by the data realm?"

"Be my guest," B.Gatomon said, extending the digivice to Izzy. He took it and held it to the screen.

"Digiport," Izzy said, confidently. "Open!"