I don't own digimon! These characters don't belong to me and I'm not claiming them as mine! The story line however, IS mine. Hope you enjoy it.^_^ Sorry about spelling and grammar errors. If you find them, let me know and I'll fix them. Read and review!

Quarantine

Chapter XIII

"Yolei, wake up."

Yolei slowly opened her eyes with difficulty. It felt like she was trying to fight her way back to consciousness, like heavy blankets were covering her eyes. Sitting up was just as hard, like she had been laying still for a year. Looking up, she found that Gennai was standing at her left shoulder and was looking down at her.

"Gennai?" she said weakly.

"You're getting weak Yolei," Gennai said, and for the first time, there was a cold tone to it. She looked up at him, confused. Her head gave a sharp throb and she lowered it into her shaking hands.

"I was beginning to wonder when it would start to take hold," Gennai said, continuing to look at her with his piercingly cold stare. Yolei froze at these words and slowly looked up.

"What…" she whispered.

Gennai seemed pleased at her confusion because he laughed a cruel and harsh laugh.

"The virus that is slowly infecting your inferior body. It's written into your very digital code."

"But you said that our crests were protecting us."

"For a short period of time. I knew they couldn't protect you forever. Your crests are falling. It was inevitable."

Yolei gasped and tried to stand. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her legs folded under her weight and she collapsed back onto the ground. Yolei looked back at Gennai when she heard him sigh, like he was becoming bored by her.

"You lured us here, didn't you?"

"We knew the digidestined couldn't ignore a distress call from a group of helpless digimon. All we had to do was wait."

"But why?"

"Even though you are humans, which are weak, the group of the digidestined is a very powerful force indeed. Your crests are surprisingly strong. At least, some of yours are."

Yolei hesitated. "I don't understand…"

"Apparently you didn't know your friends as well as you thought. Some were very dark indeed. All it took was a little shove and their crests fell. Their hearts were consumed by their own darkness. Now their power is ours to control."

Yolei reached out for Ken's hand and felt tears stinging her eyes because his skin was ice cold.

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Kari was speechless. She felt embarrassed being bowed to.

'I wonder what Tai would say about this," she thought. The Scubamon remained silent on their knees. She wasn't quite sure what she was going to say but she knew she had to say something.

"Um…" she started and was surprised when her voice echoed back to her in the vast openness. "Hi. I'm Kari."

Again, there wasn't any response from the Scubamon.

'Ok, enough bowing already,' Kari thought to herself. She started down the massive white steps toward the priest who first spoke to her. He kept his eyes adverted to the ground which annoyed her even more.

"Look, stop bowing already. It's embarrassing," Kari said while she reached a hand out toward him. Ignoring the hand she offered, the Scubamon stood up at her request.

"I am sorry we displeased you your majesty," he said.

'I am not a queen!' Kari thought furiously to herself.

"What is it you wish us to do, my queen?" the priest asked, misreading Kari's expression.

'Fine,' Kari though to herself, her temper is rising, 'If it's a queen they want, then that's what they'll get.'

"You," she said pointing to the priest, "Come with me, inside. The rest of you…" she hesitated, trying to think of something. "Do whatever you were doing before."

The scubamon looked around at each other, looking confused. But Kari didn't wait to see if they went back to doing something or not. She spun around and headed back up the massive white steps, the priest following along in her wake. When she reached the large entrance doors to the castle, she started to reach for the handles but the two guards stepped in front of her, stopping her. They bowed and then opened the doors for her. Kari grumbled under her breath as she and the priest stepped into the entrance hall. Waiting for the doors to slam shut, she glanced sideways at the Scubamon priest to her right. He was gazing at the floor with his hands crossed in front of him.

Finally, the doors shut with an echoing bang. The priest kept his eyes adverted when Kari turned to face him.

"What is going on," she asked. "What is this place? Why do you call me a queen?"

The priest bowed very low and said, "This is the Crystal City and you are the chosen one. We have waited for you."

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"Sora…" Joe whispered as he looked up at her from where he was kneeling behind part of the broken counter.

Her school clothes had burned away like Matt's had and had been replaced by new ones. Her shirt was now a black tank top edged with bright red. She was no longer wearing the plaid school uniform skirt but instead, a short black mini skirt with stripes of red running down both sides. She was wearing tight fitting, black leather, high heeled boots that went up to her knees. Her D3 was in shards at her feet.

Matt and Sora were glaring at each other, their eyes glowing in the dim light. Matt scoffed and started to walk around Sora toward the main entrance but she grabbed his arm. Matt snarled and swung his free hand backwards and backhanded Sora across the face. Sora's hand instantly tightened on his arm and her nails sliced into his skin, splattering blood on the floor.

They broke apart, staring at each other as they slowly circled around the room. Joe was powerless to do anything and could only watch two of his friends, who had loved each other, fight with such severe loathing.

Matt grabbed one of the waiting room chairs and whipped it at Sora, like it was weightless. Sora did a back flip up onto one of the remaining counters to avoid it. The chair exploded against the back of the counter with an ear shattering crash. Splinters of wood and fabric flew all over the room. Joe ducked behind an over turned table to avoid the flying pieces.

"Vile minx." Joe heard Matt say. He could hear Sora's boots click as she walked along the counter top. There was another loud crash and part of an IV stand came hurling over his head. It collided with the wall behind him and the glass bottle attached to it shattered, sending glass flying everywhere.

Joe dove sideways to avoid most of it but in doing so, he slide out from behind the table. Sora was standing next to one of the vending machines and Matt was on the other side of the room, across from her. Matt picked up a stretcher and swung it, smashing through a TV set on the coffee table. Sora grabbed a hold of the vending machine's cord and ripped it out of the wall, disconnecting it from the back of the machine. She swung it and it cracked like a whip.

'I've got to get out of here before they kill each other, and me while they're doing it,' Joe thought silently. He looked toward the door. It wasn't far but he couldn't move without them seeing him. Even though it was hard to think of Matt or Sora hurting him, he couldn't be sure what they would do when like this. Joe looked back at them just in time to see the electrical cord crack across Matt's face. It cut into his pale cheek, causing blood to spatter across the white ceiling tiles.

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"What are your orders my lord?" Tk asked. He and Cody were kneeling in front of one of the TV sets that connected the real world with the digital world. Their digimon were standing behind them, like great stone statues. The image on the screen was dark but there was still a visible silhouette of a person.

"Track down the remaining digimon of the digidestined. They need to be contained until they have completed their transformation," the silhouette answered.

"What of the remaining digidestined?" Tk asked.

"They are defenseless. Without their digimon, they are powerless. The virus is taking hold and they will be mine soon. However, the child of light has vanished. Find her and detain her. Her crest is powerful, she will be useful."

Tk bowed his head and said, "Yes my lord."

The screen crackled and turned black. Tk and Cody stood up.

Tk turned to Cody and said, "Track down the digimon and capture them. They fled, but being that they were so weak, they can't have gotten far. Take them to the complex. I'm going after the girl."

Cody nodded and leapt onto Ankylomon's back and they vanished through the trees.

Tk turned back to the TV and stared at the blank screen. There was movement behind him and a reflection rippled across the screen. Tk looked at it, and saw that it was Angemon.

"You are troubled," he said.

Tk only sighed in response and turned, heading out of the clearing. Angemon spread his wings and followed after him.