/ \ / \

"She's flat-lined!"

"What?!" T.K.'s head shot in Joe's direction, and immediately looked to Kari, reaching up to feel for her heartbeat. None. He tried to conceal his grief as he went on to check for a pulse on both her wrist and neck, but also was stunned into shock as he again found nothing. His eyes filled with tears as he called out her name. "Kari! Kari, can you hear me?! Oh no…no, no, no, this can't happen to her! Can't you do anything?! Do that Defibrillator thing they have in America?!" He looked to the nurse and doctor-in-training, and they both averted their gazes, signaling to the boy that there was nothing they could do. He leaned his now tear-streaming head down on her bed as he still held her hand tightly and cried himself to a wreck, his shoulders wracked with his sobs. Matt and Cody did their best to comfort him, while Tai, in a similar state, had his vision and mind blurred with more tears than he'd thought possible to have. Sora hugged him and told him that they'd get through this, but she herself cried, and on the inside, she wondered if her own words could even be true.

'I don't know if we really can get through this. Tai and T.K. are total messes, along with Tai's Mom and Dad, and the rest of the team…oh, man, it's going to take a lot for us just to stay a team after this! I wonder if the Digidestined will make it…?' She buried her head into Tai's and cried, but only a little, trying to be strong for this normally tough and unfazed boy who had such a vibrant love for life…and soccer, of course.

"You can cry if you want, Sora." She lifted her head and wiped her eyes quickly as she stared at him with fake questioning eyes.

"What do you mean? I'm fine." He smiled slightly and shook his head.

"No, you're not. You know I know you much better than that, and I can tell when you're upset. You are my best friend, after all." She sniffed as she wiped her eye while smiling softly.

"When we were younger you wouldn't have been able to tell anything at all. As Joe said once, you did have the "'attention span of a gnat.'" They chuckled half-heartedly, and Sora stared at him apologetically.

"I-I'm sorry, Tai," He looked at her strangely.

"For what?"

"For being doubtful this whole time! I was wondering if we were going to make it through this just now, and I find myself thinking if we're even going to stay a team after this, and I just-"

"Shh…" Tai soothed and affectionately wiped away the tears that were soaring down her face. "You have to know we'll stay a team, no matter what happens. And I'll always be here for you too, whether I'm…grieving over my sister, or trying to catch a train or flight to another country, I'll always be here, so you don't have a thing to worry about…okay?" She nodded as she blushed at his soft touch on her face, and she quickly leaned in and gave him a kiss on the lips before anyone could see what was happening. Tai stared at her, bewildered that she'd done that, and was about to find his voice again when they all heard T.K. whispering to the dead girl quietly.

"Kari…Please wake up. You can't leave us like this. Do you know what happened to me while you were in the Dark Ocean for the first time? I completely cracked down; I lost it. I thought I'd lost you for good and that it was all my fault. Then, when you called us for help and Patamon, Gatomon and I were teleported to that place as well and you came running, I was so relieved that you were all right. When those traitors who turned out to be Dark Digimon had you, I was afraid they'd really take you away from me, and I knew I couldn't let that happen. After we got back to the real world, I remember being so happy that I was able to save you in time, and that was actually one of the first times I remembered the day you and I were almost captured by Piedmon…remember? That was the first time Angemon Digivolved to MagnaAngemon…" He looked up at the ceiling wistfully. Matt watched his little brother remember deeply about past events.

'He used to love telling this story…now it's so empty… Poor kid, he really is heartbroken…'

"That was one of the proudest days of my life. I'd had faith in him all along, and so did you, but no one else. Our encouragement and belief finally paid off, huh?" He peered down at her with closed eyes, and it did not go unnoticed by single person in the room that his face was red as he tried desperately to keep his tears inside. Mr. Takashi left his crying wife in the care of Mimi, and then went over to do his youngest son a favor. He knelt beside him, and the boy looked up as he put a stern, yet loving hand on his shoulder; the boy's mood changed instantaneously. He leaped onto his Father and finally broke the seal of his emotions, crying harder than anyone else in the room. His Father held him firmly, letting a few tears fall for this girl he didn't even know.

"Oh my God…!" Yolei whispered as she was finally hit with the full force of what had happened. She turned her head away as tears ran down her face and she hugged herself, needing the comfort of something, anything right now. A boy appeared at her side again, and she knew that it was Ken. She turned from the scene and went straight into his open arms, and they wrapped around her in a comfort she'd never known. She sighed and finally allowed herself to let the walls come down completely. Both of their parents watched on, and the Mothers smiled understandingly at each other, while the husbands sent nervous grins across the room, talking in their 'overprotective Father' code. Tai and Sora's parents did the same, having seen the interaction between the two, even when no one else had. When T.K. had finally eased himself from his need of comfort from his Father, he turned back to Kari and strongly took her hand again. His Father never moved; he simply stayed there beside his traumatized son and stared at this girl he'd fallen for.

"Kari…Kari, please…please wake up. Can't you see that we're wrecks with you not here? You are the Chosen Child of Light for a reason, and I know that reason wasn't, couldn't have been, for you to die at the young age of twelve! Genai wouldn't have chosen you as the Eighth Child if he had known that would happen; I know he wouldn't! Please…you have to wake up! I'm losing my sanity in this place, and you know you're the only one who can bring me down to earth again! We all believe in you, and…I can't lose you just yet. Please come back to us. I'd give anything to get you back here. If anyone up there is listening, please help us." He said the last part in monotone as he stared despairingly at the bed sheets on which she was laid, and let out a kept-in sigh as nothing came. A few more tears dripped from his eyes, and he hung his head as nothing happened.

'You're not supposed to expect things to happen immediately, you know.' A laughing voice called out, and he snapped his head up to shout back,

"Yeah, well, who are you…to…" He stopped short, and his eyes widened as he thought for a moment that he was in the same field from before, only…the field was gone, and he was standing on a bridge above a clear, gently-flowing river. "Wait! I know that voice! Kari?!" He called her louder than he'd ever yelled in his life, and when he heard her melodic laugh behind him, he turned. "K…Kari…?" He asked as he saw the face of the young girl, but instead of her usual outfit, she wore a flowing white silk dress with thin brown sandals; beautiful white wings sprouted from her back, and a golden halo tinted with a pearl-like tinge rested just above her head. She smiled and nodded. She ran the few steps it was to reach him, and hugged him stronger than ever before, as he did the same, crying tears of joy at seeing each other again.

"Where are we?" He asked as he pulled away. She took her head from his shoulder, and gazed at her surroundings with an emotion T.K. had never seen in her eyes, something he couldn't decipher.

"I don't know."