In-Between-Time
chapter two
a/n: All right, so here we have chapter two. Bit of a TK focus here, so that's fun. The italics bits are lines of dialogue between TK and Patamon from Digi-Baby Boom. Oh, and thanks very much to everyone who's reviewed so far! I really appreciate it. (The usual disclaimer applies.) Enjoy!
There was a flash of bright light and a rushing sensation, almost like falling and flying and being caught in the undertow at the beach, and then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped, and they found themselves standing still. Sora stumbled and Matt caught her arm. Mimi, however, toppled right over and then laughed, blushing lightly. Izzy fought down a wave of nausea, took a quick look around, and immediately saw what both Kari and TK were already staring at, mouths open, eyebrows disappearing into their hairlines. He froze. Mimi, sensing that something was wrong, looked up and gasped.
"Oh my ears and whiskers," she breathed.
"Whoa," said TK.
"Yeah," said Kari.
Mimi got to her feet slowly, and then turned in a halting circle, her hand covering her mouth.
"Izzy?" Matt said.
"Yeah, Matt?"
"Where the hell are we?"
Izzy laughed in one short burst through his nose and shook his head. "I have no idea."
Matt ran a hand through his hair, leaving it sticking up oddly, and blew out a long, slow breath. "I was afraid you were going to say that."
They were standing at the edge of a field, a forest at their backs, the sky up above, and not a single speck of color anywhere. All of the trees were twisted outrageously, devoid of leaves, thick-trunked and dark. The sun was shining white-hot in the sky, but none of the light seemed to reach the ground, and it was twilight in every direction. The air was bitterly cold, and an occasional wind howled by, rearranging the piles of what looked like static that covered everything in nebulous, shifting heaps. The tufts of tall, sharp grass that sparsely populated the field in front of them dipped and weaved like bouquets of ribbons underwater, glowing starkly white far off into the distance.
Wordlessly, the Digidestined edged closer together. Sora backed into Matt's front and reached behind her to grab his hand. Mimi, feeling panicky, stared hard into the dark woods until she was sure she saw large lumbering shapes dragging themselves slowly between the trees.
"Guys," she whispered, "I know that field looks just downright cheerful, but if I have to stand next to this forest for one more second…"
"I motion that we-," Izzy murmured, staring into the trees.
"Second!" Matt cut in.
"And it passes," Izzy said. "Let's get out of here."
Matt took the lead at a fast walk and Sora jogged to catch up, walking evenly with him up front. Mimi followed close behind, and then TK and Kari. Izzy adjusted his bag on his shoulder, took a deep breath, and brought up the rear.
The wind bit through them, and the ash-like static creaked uncomfortably under the soles of their shoes, but everyone was relieved to be putting some distance between themselves and the forest. Mimi took a deep mauve sweatshirt out of her bag as she walked and tugged it over her head. She pulled her long, soft hair into a low ponytail and tentatively said, "Ah…Izzy?"
"I don't know!" he burst out, and then sighed gustily, shaking his head. "Sorry, Mimi. I didn't mean that. I just…I was sure I had it right. I don't know how this happened."
"Don't sweat it, man," Matt called over his shoulder. "We made it this far. We'll just have to go the rest of the way from here."
"Wherever here is," Izzy muttered.
Just then, the wind died down, and for a moment they could just barely make out a slow, rhythmic sound up ahead. Matt stopped, listening hard.
"Does everybody hear that?" he asked.
"It's a bell," Kari said, eyes closed, head tilted to one side.
"It's horrible," Sora said, shifting uncomfortably as the sound persisted, hollow and tinged with decay. It sounded like it was reaching up from the bottom of a well.
"Guys?" Mimi said.
Picking up on the note of panic in her voice, Matt turned to see Mimi backing slowly away from a clump of the tall white grass as it writhed and stretched, reaching for her.
"Mimi, hold still," Matt warned, but Mimi ignored him and kept going, stumbling into a heap of static-ash and sitting down heavily. The long ribbons of grass flew at her, wrapping around anything they could reach. Mimi shrieked and tried to pull away, kicking up the static so it filled the air, making everyone cough as they rushed forward to untangle her.
"What the hell is going on?" Izzy cried, dodging a few grasping stalks and flipping open a pocketknife.
"Stupid grass is trying to eat me, that's what!" Mimi yelled, tugging a handful of the stuff straight out of the ground and effectively freeing one hand. "Now, either use that thing or give it to me!"
Matt had tackled the majority of the flailing strands to the ground and was trying to hold them as Sora and TK pulled them off of Mimi. Izzy lunged for the base of the plant and started sawing it off at the roots while Kari caught them and held them for him. For a few, panicked minutes it seemed like the plant would replace every stalk Izzy cut off with a new sprout, but soon the white strands dwindled in numbers, lost their strength, and fell limply away from Mimi to flutter to the ground like so many party streamers. No one moved.
"Is it dead?" Kari said finally.
"I think so," Matt said, nudging one long bit of grass gingerly.
"Seems dead," Izzy added.
Mimi, flushed red, hair escaping in wild disarray from her tidy ponytail, flopped onto her back on the hard-packed earth, breathing hard.
"I hate this place," she said.
Sora snorted and offered Mimi a hand up.
"Since when do you have a knife?" Matt asked Izzy, and he started to answer, but whatever he was about to say was drowned out by a deep reverberating roar, so loud that Kari felt it in her teeth. This was accompanied by the sound of trees splintering and three tremors—footsteps. The grass came alive, twisting and growing, whipping about frantically. It flew at them from all directions, reaching out to grab them and hold them so that whatever was coming could…
Matt said the only thing that came to mind.
"Run."
Frantic and without a touch of grace, the Digidestined surged forward, feet flying, and sprinted in the direction of the strange bell that was still tolling in the distance.
"I'm sorry," Izzy said breathlessly. "This is a disaster."
"That's officially the last time you get to apologize for this, Izzy," Sora called over her shoulder. "We're here now, and we'll deal with it. Not your fault."
There was another roar, more earth shattering footsteps. They ran faster.
"I'm glad you feel that way," Izzy said, his bag bouncing against his side as he ran. "I have a feeling I'm really not going to want to get blamed for whatever's about to happen."
The bell was getting louder as they got closer, and Sora began to wonder whether they should be running towards it at all. It made her stomach turn over. Goosebumps broke out on her arms, and she threw a look over her shoulder at Kari, who looked decidedly ill. This made Sora even more uncomfortable. Kari was their resident canary in the mine—if she was feeling uneasy, that meant something.
"You okay, Kari?" Sora asked.
"This place is all wrong," Kari said. "It feels…sick."
"What's that up ahead?" TK said suddenly.
Matt squinted into the darkness. He could make out some sort of moving shape, like waving arms. His step faltered and Sora almost ran into his back.
"Don't stop!" she gasped, putting an open palm against his back. "Just run!"
The bell was deafening now. It filled up everything, came from everywhere, got faster and faster until Sora thought she would scream.
With a surprised intake of air, Matt skidded to a halt, and Sora almost yelled at him to keep going, but then she saw what he was looking at and forgot why they were running.
"Holy…" said Mimi.
It was a train crossing—two posts with striped Xs under two flashing lights, the angry bell, and the two wooden halves of the gate opening, closing, opening again.
"I've been here before," TK said.
"Hey! I hear a train coming! I bet you we could jump on and ride the caboose all the way back to summer camp!"
"I thought I felt something."
"Um…maybe it's an invisible train."
"Did a train go by?"
"If it did, it's the most silentest most invisiblest train ever..."
"I've been here before!" he repeated, and then took of running again. "Come on!"
"TK!" Matt called.
But TK didn't wait, and the others tore after him. They flew down the hill beyond the train crossing and across the small clearing beyond it, the monster in the field momentarily forgotten.
"TK, stop!" Matt yelled, trying to catch up to his brother, but he was already too far ahead.
Some sort of dark structure loomed in the forest ahead, and TK ran right up to it without hesitation, and then finally stopped, looking up and breathing hard. One by one, the others ran up beside him, and soon they were all standing in a breathless knot, staring up at what looked like a giant entryway, cobweb strewn and crumbling, made entirely of enormous toy blocks.
"Primary Village," TK said, his voice tight and soft.
Kari walked up to a large block at the base of the entryway and reached out to brush the dust away, revealing a picture of a teacup done in black and white, "We're not in the wrong dimension at all. We're here. This is the place."
Mimi felt her eyes well up and whirled to beam at Izzy, and Matt reached out to clasp his shoulder. Izzy shifted uncomfortably and blushed.
Sora lost all sense of composure and pushed past Matt, throwing her arms around a surprised Izzy and hugging him tightly.
"You did it," she said, and Izzy realized she was shaking. Tentatively, completely overwhelmed, he raised his arms and hugged her back.
The inside of Primary Village looked no better than the outside. Some of the block towers had toppled over, lying about in confused heaps. The bouncy ground creaked ominously, as if supported by rusty springs, and the once colorful haven for young Digimon looked old and tired in black and white, peppered with the same strange static they'd seen in the field. It was completely devoid of life. A ghost town.
Kari leaned down to pick up a small, cracked crib and set it upright, and then straightened and locked eyes with TK, who smiled at her sadly. Sora, who had run back up the hill to check if they were being followed, came calmly through the entryway, and everyone looked at her expectantly.
"I don't know what it was, but it didn't follow us past the train crossing. It's too dark to see, really, but I think it headed back into the woods," she said. There was a collective sigh of relief.
"Well that's good at least," Matt said. "We should probably move on soon, just to be safe, but let's take ten. We might as well rest while we have a chance. I'm going to go keep an eye on the front door."
Matt walked out through the entryway, and Mimi sat down on a large block that had rolled away from the pile. It had a rubber duck on one side and a jack-o-lantern on another. She finger-combed her hair and retied her ponytail. Izzy sat down behind her, his back not quite touching hers, and tucked his legs up under him, pulling out his laptop and setting in on his knees. Mimi took out a bottle of water out of her bag, took a sip, and then handed it over her shoulder to Izzy.
Sora looked around to make sure everyone was settled in, and then quietly followed Matt outside. She found him leaning against the wall of the village, arms crossed over his chest, one knee bent, his foot propped against the wall behind him. He was staring up the hill towards the train crossing, but she doubted whether he was seeing anything that was in front of him.
"Hey you," she said quietly. He jumped and then relaxed when he saw her.
"Hey," he said.
She watched him for a long moment, the way he was holding himself, the firm set of his mouth. "What's wrong?"
He didn't say anything. He just turned to stare up the hill again, crossing his arms a little tighter.
"Don't do that," Sora said. "Tell me what's wrong."
Matt shook his head. "Sora, I don't want to talk to you about this."
"Is it Tai?" she asked.
"Sora-," he started, but she cut him off, walking to stand in front of him, forcing him to look at her.
"You're worried about Tai. Me and Tai."
Slowly, he unfolded his arms and let them fall to his sides, and then nervously shoved them in his pockets. He stared at the ground for a while, and then looked up to talk to her directly. "Tai was my best friend. I'm worried about him; I want to find him and bring him home. But…I can't help being afraid of what's going to happen next. I hate feeling like that. I hate that some small part of me doesn't want to…Sora, please-"
Sora quickly closed the distance between them, grabbed him by the ears, and kissed him hard, pushing him backwards into the big, soft building block. She pressed her small, tight body close to his, and they locked together like puzzle pieces. His hands hovered inches from the soft curve of her back for a few surprised seconds, and then he pulled her close, desperately, one hand burying itself deeply in her auburn hair.
"I'm yours," she whispered close to his mouth. "Understand?"
Matt didn't say anything. His hand roamed lower and he kissed her thoroughly and for the next short while they both forgot about Tai completely.
When Matt and Sora wandered back into Primary Village looking mostly cool and unruffled, though perhaps a little flushed, TK spared them a wry glance, and Izzy drawled, "If you're done being somehow turned on by this complete nightmare world, I think we should go that way."
Izzy pointed at one of the village's many exits.
"What's that way?" Matt asked.
"A better vibe?" Izzy said, and then shrugged.
"Good enough for me."
They moved warily into the cobweb hung wind-tunnel Izzy had indicated, sinking halfway to their knees in static, but slogging forward steadily.
"Are you kidding me with this?" Mimi said, jerking free of a sticky clump of web that really could have been made by any kind of strange, colorless monster. "How is this the less creepy route?"
"He's right," Kari said. "Just wait."
Everyone was quiet after that, and less ill at ease. Before long, it looked like they were coming to the end of the long passageway. A few blocks were clogging up the exit, but Matt easily scaled the pile and then stood at the top with Sora close behind him. While Matt was reaching down to offer Mimi a hand, Sora turned to look at the expanse of the Digiworld waiting for them on the other side.
"Oh," she said, and sat down abruptly on the wall of toppled blocks. Matt turned to see what she was looking at, caught a glimpse of what was waiting for them in the distance, and got stuck between several warring emotions. Eventually he gave up and just grinned.
There was a line running along the ground parallel to the wall of Primary Village, about half a mile away, reaching as far left and as far right as they could see. It stretched from the ground straight up into the sky, like an invisible curtain in the air, or some sort of partition. On their side of the line, everything was dead, drenched in static, devoid of light and color and warmth. But there, past the divide?
Technicolor.
"Oh," Mimi sighed. "It's beautiful."
"My brother's out there somewhere," Kari said.
Matt slid down the other side of the block wall and landed lightly on the ground. He reached up for Kari, and then set her on her feet. Izzy handed down his laptop and then jumped down after it, turning to watch out of the corner of his eye as Mimi climbed all the way to the ground slowly, carefully. He smirked. Sora came next, and walked ahead a little ways, hands on her hips. That left TK standing alone on top of the wall, scanning the horizon, eyes taking in the far off reflection of what must have almost seemed like a dream to him—that adventure he'd had once when he was just a baby, really. Back in that beautiful place with his big brother and Patamon—and Tai, who seemed so big back then, but really wasn't any older than TK was now.
TK glanced down and found five pairs of bright expectant eyes looking up at him, strong and steady and only a little bit scared, waiting for him to come down so that they could crash off into the Digital World again.
Off in the distance, the soft pastels of the forest shimmered in the sun, and even though the rules had changed, looking past the colorless void and into that far off stand of trees, TK felt like he was coming home.
"TK?" Matt said.
"I'm ready," TK said, and jumped down to join them.
"…Come on, let's go."
"Go where?"
"Not sure. But I guess we'll know when we get there."
a/n: Chapter three is on the way, and with it comes the introduction of one of our absent Digidestined. Probably. Stay tuned! Oh, and please leave me a review. I live for feedback. Thanks guys.
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