Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

Another chapter! This one is quite a bit shorter compared to the other ones, but I think you will enjoy it a bit more than the others. This chapter is a back and forth perspective of TK and Kari. A little more action involved in this chapter and it's leading up to, what you all can assume, a big battle between MarineDevimon and the digidestineds. But that's only the beginning. Just wait until... oops, don't want to ruin the surprise. Anyways, enjoy this chapter and please review! Thanks "The Keeper of Worlds" for the review last chapter, plus everyone else who has reviewed. I really appreciate it!

Chapter 7:

"TK, time for school!" he heard a distinctly feminine voice call out.

The blonde teen groggily rubbed his eyes as he woke from his slumber. He woke up confused because he didn't know who had just said his name causing him to wake up. The voice sounded awfully familiar, as if it should have belonged to… his mother!

He quickly pushed his bed sheets off of his half-naked body and quickly threw on a shirt and some athletic shorts over his boxers. He practically ran out of his room, the hope he had been holding deep in his heart quickly emerging to the surface and bringing a smile to his face. As he entered the family room, he said, "Mom!"

He waited for his mother to come around a corner and give him a big hug, but the longer he waited, the more his smile slowly crept off of his face.

"Mom?" he tried again, this time uncertainly.

He waited… nothing. This time he decided to walk around the apartment. He explored the kitchen, the family room, his father's room, the bathroom, he even checked under the couch, but he could not find his mother. Then it struck him, just like it always did.

His mother was dead. He was alone in the apartment this morning. His father was working already, Matt had left to stay at his and Tai's apartment yesterday, and even Patamon went back to the Digital World yesterday as well. He sighed as the realization came to him. He was alone; one-hundred percent, completely alone. And it sucked.

He wiped a tear from his eye, but that wasn't new to him. Ever since he had started to remember bits and pieces of his past, he had been crying a lot. When his father and brother took him to their old apartment in Heighton View Terrace, he had a flashback to when his mother and father broke up. He knew they had lived in France with his grandparents, but he didn't remember the story of how his parents became separated. That flashback to the night of their fight that changed it all haunted him every day. What could he have done to keep his parents from separating? Was there something he did that sparked that fight, or was he the sole reason of his parents breaking up? If he would of done something to keep his parents from separating, would his mother still be alive?

These thoughts brought along such a sense of sadness and shame that he could barely stand it. And what did he do with these thoughts and emotions? He internalized them, and then when they got to be overwhelming he would take them out on his brother.

But seriously, Matt was treating him like a baby. He was fifteen years old; he did not need his brother to watch and worry over every thing that he did, even if he had gotten himself in a couple of rough situations recently. Matt was trying to act like his mother, and he was not about to let Matt take that position in his life.

He knew he had been too hard on Matt, and he knew that some of the emotions he had going on inside of him played a role to his quick temper with Matt, but he couldn't help himself. He loved his brother, don't get him wrong, but he just needs Matt to back off a couple of steps… or miles.

There were some times he really wanted to talk about how he was feeling, but it seemed like everyone always looked for him for happiness. Ever since he had returned three years ago, he saw how much joy everyone had because of it. It almost seemed like when he was around, people would instantly feel better. To everyone else, it seemed that he was a steady beacon of hope, and him being there meant that everything in their lives was going to turn out ok.

But what if this beacon of hope had sadness inside of him? What if he was not able to enjoy for himself the light of hope that he seemed to radiate? No, he couldn't talk about how sad he was to everyone else. They needed him to be strong. They needed him to smile. They needed hope.

But that was what he seemed to lack right now the most.

After realizing he had been dreaming a little too hard and imagined his mother's voice, he decided to take a shower and get ready for school. Mondays sucked, and he really wanted to go back to bed, but his conscious told him otherwise. After he was done showering, he quickly ruffled his hair, threw on some fresh clothes, and walked out the door with his book bag.

He climbed down the stairs of the apartment complex and walked outside to a certain intersection where he usually met up with Yolei and Cody to walk to school. He saw they were already standing there waiting for him and waved, smiling.

"Good morning you two!"

The two of them looked at him suspiciously. "Uh, TK?" Cody asked. "Are you ok?"

He tilted his head in curiosity. "What do you mean Cody?"

"Well, I just was talking about Saturday," the young boy said.

"Yeah," Yolei added, "You know, the day you got attacked by MarineDevimon and then ran off for no apparent reason. We were worried about you. We all are."

He just laughed at them. "Oh, you mean that? Don't worry about it. I really wanted to get to bed and get Patamon to rest. He really took a beating these past few days so I just wanted us to relax as soon as possible."

Yolei nodded her head, but Cody didn't seem to buy it. Cody was about to say something when Yolei interrupted. "Speaking of Patamon, where is he? Is he hiding in your book bag?" she asked as they started on their way to school.

He shook his head, "Nope. He was feeling a lot better last night so I, reluctantly, let him go back to the Digital World. He said it would make him feel a lot better if he did."

"I see! Do you want to hear what I did all weekend?" Yolei continued.

He let Yolei talk and talk about what she did that weekend. He only was paying half attention her and he saw Cody was doing the same thing. They were nearing the school when Yolei was finishing her story.

"… then Kari told me that she likes…" but then Yolei cut off herself.

He then looked at Yolei waiting for her to continue. He and Cody both did. At this Yolei turned a bright red realizing she had said something she wasn't supposed to say, but then she smiled and waved at someone behind them.

"Ken! Kari! Davis!" she called out pushing past him and Cody to get to their friends. He and Cody looked at each other questingly before shrugging their shoulders and walking up to the rest of the group.

"Hey TK! Cody," Kari said with a smile.

He smiled back at his beauti… uh, friend. Just friend, that's all. He nodded at Davis and Ken in greeting when the bell rang.

"Oh, we should head to class. Don't want to be late," Yolei said as she walked swiftly towards the school. The rest of them followed, and then as they entered the building they all split up as they all had their lockers and classes in different parts of the building. He had to go up some stairs and then down the hallway a little bit before reaching his locker. He opened it up and put his book bag inside. He pulled out the books he needed along with a pencil when the locker all of a sudden shut on its own accord. He looked to see Kiyomi, his still current girlfriend, staring at him with an evident bit of anger in her usually calm, peaceful eyes.

"We need to talk," she said boldly, before storming off in the opposite direction. He sighed as he watched his girlfriend walk away. He didn't want to, he really enjoyed being with Kiyomi, but he knew a breakup was going to happen soon, and he knew having another person leave his life right now wasn't going to help his mood get any better.

She didn't know what it was, but there was something about today that seemed… different. She couldn't quite put her tongue on it, but there was definitely something up with today, and not in a good way.

But everything else seemed to tell her differently. All of her morning classes were a blur- and they usually seemed to drag on for forever, especially on Mondays- and she was already walking to lunch where she would meet up with her friends. As she was walking to the cafeteria, she passed by a window and saw that the sun was shining brightly through a clear, blue sky. There were birds perched on the trees in the school's campus. The other students in school were walking past her in groups with big smiles on their faces and laughter filled the hallway. Today seemed to be an awesome day, but it didn't feel like one.

She turned left and entered the cafeteria. Because her class prior to lunch was located near the cafeteria, she was one of the first people to get in line. It didn't take her long, then, to grab a tray from one of the kitchen workers, pick out a milk carton from the refrigerator, and then give the clerk her lunch money. She didn't even look to see what was on her tray until she sat at their regular table. As she sat down, she couldn't help but feel as if her strange feelings about today were completely wrong; they were even serving her favorite food for lunch!

"Hey Kari," she heard a happy voice say. She looked up from her food to see TK sitting down across from her.

"Hi TK," she replied as the blonde started opening up his usual brown bag lunch.

"What's up with you?" he asked.

Confused, she replied, "What do you mean."

"You don't sound as cheery as you usually do, that's all," the blonde said as he stuffed a big bite of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich into his mouth.

"Um, well, I just can't help but feel like…" she started, but someone slammed their lunch tray down on the table- spilling tomato soup all over the table- as they hurriedly sat down next to her.

"Hi Kari!" she turned and saw Davis sit down next to her. Then after a moment he added unenthusiastically, "Hi TA."

"Um," TK said, "My name's TK? But ok, hi Davis."

"Davis, you made a mess," she scolded her boyfriend, pointing to the pools of reddish-orange liquid that had accumulated on the table.

"Oh, sorry," he said as he quickly pulled out a napkin from his pocket and tried to soak up the soup but to no avail.

"Why were you in such a hurry anyways?"

At this, her boyfriend blushed a little bit saying, "Um, no reason. I just wanted to see you really bad?"

She wasn't buying it, but then again Davis could be really weird at times. She passed it off as nothing, and at that time Ken, Yolei, and Cody sat down at the table as well.

After exchanging greetings and starting to dig into their grilled cheese sandwiches- except for TK, whom had finished his sandwich and was now eating some grapes- TK said, "So, Kari, what were you saying earlier."

She inwardly sighed. Everyone seemed so happy today, and she didn't want to worry her friends with some silly feelings she was having. But, as everyone was now staring at her, she started explaining how she was feeling.

"Well, you guys may think I'm crazy, but I can't help but think that something bad is going to happen today."

"Something bad? Like what?" Davis asked curiously.

"I… I'm not sure. I just know I feel very uneasy about today."

"Do you know why? Today seems like a perfect day to me, even though it is a Monday," Ken asked.

Yolei nodded, "Yeah! I mean, they even have your favorite for lunch today."

"Well, for one I haven't talked to Tai since Saturday. I have no idea where he is. Something could have happened to him."

"Kari, Tai is going to college," Cody stated.

"Yeah, I don't think you should worry because you haven't heard from him. I mean, he's probably doing his homework," Davis said.

"Or he's doing my brother's homework," TK chuckled to himself.

Davis shot daggers at the blonde. "What do you mean by that TJ?" Davis demanded.

"Davis, calm down. I just was referring to the fact that my brother usually switches homework with Tai and they do each other's homework instead of doing their own. Apparently it's a lot more fun to do homework that way."

"They still do that?" she asked TK incredulously, and the blonde nodded, smiling. She smiled back and they laughed at their brothers' weirdness.

"And to think Tai is still passing!" she said.

"Matt too," TK added.

"Stop it!" Davis snapped. Everyone looked in surprise at Davis. He blushed a little bit before saying, "I mean, uh… what do you think Tai is doing, Kari?"

Ok, Davis was acting really weird today, weirder than normal. "I don't know Davis, I guess he is fine. I just wish he'd text me back."

Silence followed, as everyone was still a little caught off guard by Davis's sudden outburst. Then TK broke the silence saying, "Well, now that you say it, I haven't heard from Matt since yesterday, but I'm not complaining."

She shot a glare at the blonde. Seriously, Matt only cared about TK and wanted to make sure he was safe. She wouldn't blame Matt if he never let TK leave his sight after what had happened three years ago.

"TK, you have to stop giving Matt a bunch of crap for caring about you," she told him. She was hoping they would have had this conversation after the meeting on Saturday, but TK had run off, ending her chance.

"Yeah TH, listen to Kari," Davis said.

"I agree," Yolei added, "He's just trying to be a good big brother and make sure you're ok."

"Well, he's been doing more than that. He hasn't been letting me breathe!"

"TK, I think Matt has given you plenty of room. You've been in a lot of trouble as of late, and I don't think he has overreacted in the slightest."

"You too Ken?" TK asked. Then the blonde looked at his DNA-digivolving partner with hope that at least someone would take his side.

"Sorry TK," Cody added in their defense, "You've been really hard on Matt lately. I understand why, but it is no excuse to be a jerk to him. You should be easier on him."

"You guys don't understand," TK said, looking down at the remnants of his lunch.

"Don't understand what?" she inquired.

"I don't need him to be my… never mind."

"You don't need him to be your…?" she tried to get the answer out of the blonde, but just then the bell rang signaling the end of lunch.

Instantly, TK stood up and said, "Talk to you later guys," with a smile on his face before turning around and walking away from them.

She absolutely did not get that kid. He just seemed like he was on the verge of tears, finally about to open up, but just like that his usual happy persona came right back and he was gone.

"Guys, I think we need to have an intervention for TK," Yolei said.

She nodded her agreement, and they all watched him walk out of the cafeteria with concern etched across their face, except for Davis, who said, "Nah, he'll be fine. We should get to class. Come on Kari!"

Three minutes.

What was a somewhat quick morning had suddenly turned into a dragging afternoon. It mostly had to do with a bunch of stress he had been holding inside for the longest time, but Kiyomi wanting to break up and then his and his friends' conversation at lunch had pushed him past the state of unease. It had taken him all of his willpower to sit through the rest of his classes and not run off to the Digital World to have some time for himself.

Two minutes.

There was no way that clock could move any slower. He looked around the rest of the classroom and saw that they all were staring at the clock as well, except for one girl who was writing down notes studiously. Their teacher had his back to the class and was unaware of almost his entire class's lack of attention.

Not that anyone paid any attention anyways. This was history class, and, come on, who could honestly find history interesting? Well, he did know one person who was. Izzy was completely obsessed with knowing everything, plus he was a genius, so he kind of had to know and find history interesting.

One minute.

Class was just about over. What was he going to do after school? He was going to… talk to Kiyomi. Crap. He had completely forgot about his inevitable break up that was going to happen. His girlfriend had completely ignored him all day long, going as far as sitting on the opposite side of the class from where he was sitting when they had classes together.

Thinking about Kiyomi had brought his excitement down. He really liked Kiyomi. He sometimes even wondered if he actually loved Kiyomi and wanted to take this relationship more seriously. Kiyomi was gorgeous, she was smart, she was one of the kindest people he ever knew, and she played basketball for their school's women's team. Everyone in the school claimed them the "cutest couple in the entire school"- rivaled with Kari and Davis- mostly because they were both considered good-looking and they were the captains of their respective basketball teams. That was all going to come to an end, though. Now he wished the bell wouldn't ring.

And just like that, the bell rang signaling the end of class. Everyone got up from their seats hurriedly and practically ran out of the classroom cheering happily that Monday was over. He slowly got up from his desk and took his time walking to his locker.

When he got there he opened up his locker and quickly packed his bag with the books he needed to take him even though he probably wasn't going to do any homework tonight.

"TK?" he heard someone ask. He quickly turned and saw Kiyomi looking up at him, her eyes much more gentle and her tone much less harsh than this morning. He shut his locker and faced his girlfriend.

"Yes Kiyomi?"

"Do… do you love me?" she asked.

That was not what he was expecting to hear. He had prepared himself for a harsh session of anger and insults ending with a loud and embarrassing break up. This was the last thing he expected.

"Wh… what?"

"You heard me TK," Kiyomi snapped, but then she frowned. "I'm sorry TK, I… I just need to know."

He thought long and hard on how he should respond, and only opened his mouth when he knew what he wanted to say.

"Yes, Kiyomi, I love you."

"Oh TK," Kiyomi said with relief and she hugged him tightly. He hugged her back. Then they withdrew from each other a bit, tilted their heads, closed their eyes, and kissed. TK had forgotten just how good this felt, but although right now it felt like he had made the right decision, he couldn't help but feel he made a terrible mistake.

Once they were running out of breath, they ended the kiss and Kiyomi looked up at him, smiling brightly.

"I missed you TK," she said, "Where have you been this weekend?"

Crap, he had to come up with something fast. "I… uh… was…"

"TK, if you really love me then you can tell me whatever it was. I won't be mad, whatever it was, unless you cheated on me. But I know you wouldn't do that."

"No, it's not that. It's just… I'm sorry Kiyomi, I can't tell you." He decided. He hated lying, so he did the best he could. Apparently it wasn't the best thing to say.

Kiyomi's smile fell off her face. "What do you mean you can't tell me? You love me, you can trust me with anything."

"Not this Kiyomi. I'm sorry."

The same harshness that was with Kiyomi this morning came back. "I cannot believe you TK! You said you love me!"

"I do love you Kiyomi!"

"Then tell me!" she demanded.

"I… I can't."

"Well then I can't be with you if you can't trust me enough to tell me why you haven't talked to me, your girlfriend, no EX-girlfriend, what you were doing this weekend! I cannot believe I just kissed you. We're through TK!"

By the end Kiyomi was in tears, and when she was done she ran off. Everyone who had witnessed the scene was looking awkwardly at him before going back to whatever they were doing before. He was just left there, standing in shock.

He watched Kiyomi run down the stairs and disappear. Another person in his life, another person he loved, gone. No more. And this time, he had been the one to push her away. He had caused her tears and the pain she was feeling and probably going to feel for a long time. Plus, he had his own pain. Add all of these together, and he was like a volcano just about to erupt.

He grabbed his digivice from his pocket and ran for the computer lab, ignoring everyone's stares and points with laughter. He was aware of the tears that were now falling from his eyes, but he ignored them. He burst into the computer lab, not paying attention to see if anyone was in there, and then pointed his digivice to the computer they usually used for traveling to the Digital World.

"Digi-port… open," he said weakly.

Once he was in the Digital World, he allowed the world travel to throw him painfully to the ground and he just lay there, crying into his shoulder.

School had just got over and she was taking her bag out of her locker. When she closed the door shut, she found Davis on the other side smiling at her.

"Hey Kari," he said.

"Ok, Davis, why are you acting so strange?"

He looked confused and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, what's with calling TK by the wrong name and then snapping at him at lunch? Plus you've been really clingy lately."

"I just want to be with you Kari," he said innocently, ignoring her question.

She smiled at him and pecked him on the cheek. "Just try to be nicer to TK, ok?. He's been through a lot."

"I will Kari, I promise," Davis said, putting his hand over his heat to show his sincerity.

That was one problem solved. Even though she didn't know why Davis was treating TK that way, at least she knew it wasn't going to keep on happening.

Yolei and Ken then walked up to join them.

"Hey you two," Kari said, winking at Yolei. Ken and Davis were both oblivious to this, but Yolei beamed at Kari and winked back.

"Hey," Yolei replied, "You guys ready to head out?"

"What about TP? I mean, TK?" Davis asked.

"I haven't seen him since lunch," Ken said.

"Should we wait for him?" she asked the others.

Yolei shook her head. "No, we meet here every day after school. And besides, it's already ten minutes after school ended. If he's not here yet then he's not coming."

Kari was reluctant to agree upon this, but she had no choice when Davis said, "All right then. Let's go!" and then walking towards the exit.

As they were walking, Ken asked, "But what about Cody?"

"Kendo," Yolei replied.

Kari nodded her head. She knew just how dedicated Cody was to Kendo. It was just about as dedicated- if not more so- than Davis was to his dream of owning his own noodle stand.

Although she had been able to forget about them for a while, her feelings of today going bad came back. And as they were all walking together, her thoughts were finally confirmed.

"What is that noise?" Yolei asked, looking at her.

She pulled out her digivice and looked at the screen, worry suddenly overwhelming her.

"It's Gatomon," she said before running back to the school.

She ignored the calls of the others behind her as she sprinted, and sprinted, and didn't stop until she was finally in the computer lab.

She walked in, panting, over to the computer they used for travelling to the Digital World. She heard the door slide open and looked to see Davis, Yolei, and Ken run in.

"Kari… hold on a second," Davis said.

" I can't Davis. Gatomon is in trouble!"

"And some help you're going to be without having some back up to battle the digimon who attacked your partner," Ken stated.

"We should let the others know," Yolei added, agreeing with Ken.

She, knowing that her friends were right, sighed and sat down in one of the chairs.

"Fine, but they better hurry up or I'm leaving without them."

Time seemed to drag on by as they waited, and waited, and waited for the others to come. Right when she was about to give up waiting and go to the Digital World herself, the door slid open and she eagerly looked to see who was here.

Surprisingly it was Joe who entered the computer lab along with Gomamon.

"Joe! What are you doing here?" Cody asked incredulously. Joe usually never left his room because of all the studying he had to do, especially when it was a school day, so she had to admit that she was a bit surprised as well.

"Well you guys did send us a message saying you needed help," Joe rolled his eyes.

"Don't you have to study or something, though?" Davis asked.

"Nah, I'm taking a break to spend time with Gomamon here," he said, rubbing his partner's head.

Kari gave them a quick smile before standing up.

"I've had enough waiting. It's time to go. Digi-port open!"

She ignored the others' attempts to try and get her to stop and was sucked into the digital dimension. When she finally got over the aftereffects of the world travelling, she quickly noticed her partner lying on the ground in front of her.

"Gatomon!" she cried as she ran to her partner and knelt, cradling the cat-like digimon in her arms.

"Kari, watch out!" she heard a familiar voice say from behind. She looked around to see what looked like a white Gotsumon running towards her.

"Iceball Bomb!" the digimon yelled. She watched as the digimon formed a snow block in his arm and then hurl it at her and Gatomon. She closed her eyes, expecting the worst.

"Stop it Veemon!"

"Vee-head Butt!"

There was an explosion, and she looked up to see Veemon on thr ground, snow-covered.

The digimon stopped his chase and just laughed.

"Hawkmon, let's shut that digimon up!"

"You too Wormon!"

"Ah ah ah, not so fast. Tundra Freeze!"

Wormon and Hawkmon, who were running after the white Gotsumon, were suddenly struck by a white beam of light. The attack had caused a thick layer of ice to from around Hawkmon and Wormon.

"Frost Claw," a digimon that looked like a white Devimon called out before striking the two frozen digimon, breaking the ice and causing them to fly back and land roughly on the ground.

"Gomamon, looks like you're the only one left! You'd better digi…"

"Ice Cudgel!"

She then looked to where the new voice had come from, only to see another digimon, this one looking like an ice-covered Ogremon, charging towards Gomamon, striking the seal-like digimon with a club made of solid ice.

Gomamon flew back and landed on top of Wormon and Hawkmon who were struggling to get to their feet and then slammed back into the ground.

The three evil digimon then moved next to each other and the snow Devimon digimon laughed.

"Looks like we have five more digidestineds for the boss. Come along now children."