In-Between-Time
chapter three
a/n: So, I'm sitting on my couch, home for Thanksgiving break, in pink moose-print pajamas with tea, a horrible cold, and a massive mound of tissues as my only companions. I've just blown off the world for about five hours (and the two weeks before today, really) to finish up this chapter, and I hope it turns out to be worth the wait. I've been dying to post for days. Oh, and thank you all so much for your reviews! I'm thrilled to see so many returning reviewers. This is Kari's chapter—she sort-of took over once I started writing. Italics quotes are Agumon and Tai from The Earthquake of Metalgreymon. Oh, and I keep forgetting to add this: Big shout out to EllaJ.W for beta-ing for me. Thank you! You are amazingly helpful.
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, but I'm beginning to suspect that Digimon owns me…
"Okay, Izzy, you're a genius, so…how do we get to the other side?"
The sun was getting low in the Digital World, and the temperature was dropping with it, but they couldn't go forward, and no one was about to suggest going back the way they came. There had been a few ominous crunches in the direction of Primary Village some time ago, and none of them wanted to see what came out at night in this already dark and unsettling place. The walk to the shimmering wall of air had been quick, but as soon as they reached the strange barrier that separated the colorful forest from the gloomy static fields, their progress came to a grinding halt.
Matt glowered, arms crossed over his chest, inches from the rippling curtain that stood between them and the rest of the Digital World. The wonderfully inviting forest waited just out of their reach, and was likely full of shady hollows and less threatening places to rest for the night. He turned to look at Izzy expectantly, and Izzy rolled his eyes.
"Give it a rest, Matt," TK said as he pushed at the rubbery curtain and watched it mold around his hand and extend outward on the other side. No matter how hard he pushed, he still couldn't break through. "Wow, this is strange."
He was up to his shoulder now, encased in the mostly invisible barrier, reaching toward the forest in the distance. Mimi watched him thoughtfully for a moment, and then grabbed two fistfuls of the curtain and pulled as hard as she could in opposite directions, trying to tear a hole to climb through. Her hands shot apart and she tripped and staggered forward, nearly running her face right into the barrier, but no hole appeared.
"That's annoying," she muttered, embarrassed.
TK eased a foot into the elastic span of air and stepped forward. It didn't tear—it just moved to accommodate him and he pushed farther, now standing halfway on the other side, halfway back in the darkness.
"TK, will you quit messing around?" Matt said, a hint of laughter in his voice.
"No, no, I've got this," TK said, distracted, and in one quick movement, threw himself forward and took another step into the other side. He floundered for a moment, looked as if he might topple over backwards, and then steadied.
"It's like trying to walk out of a balloon," he said, voice strained with the effort, and took another step.
"Yeah, but you can't walk out of a balloon," Matt said. TK ignored him.
He was a good three feet into the expanse of green on the other side now, and he had everyone's full attention.
"I've almost…got it…" TK said, his voice muffled. Everyone leaned forward in tense anticipation. TK took another step. Paused. "Just a little…farther…"
He wobbled. "Uh-oh."
Before anyone could leap in to help him, the curtain shivered and then snapped back into its original form, launching TK backwards, tumbling head over heels to land flat on his back at Matt's feet.
"Whoa," TK said, staring up at his big brother with wide, startled eyes. Matt tried to look stern, but his eyes crinkled at the corners, and TK burst out laughing. Matt shook his head in fond exasperation. Sora and Kari's eyes met briefly.
"Maybe if you tried it with a running start?" Mimi suggested.
"Please don't encourage him," Matt said.
Mimi laughed. Izzy lobbed a rock at the barrier and then yelped and ducked when it bounced off and shot back at him.
"Brilliant, man," TK quipped.
"Try clicking your heels, Mimi," Matt said. "Maybe pink slippers are close enough."
"Wrong side of the rainbow," Sora said, gesturing vaguely at their colorless surroundings.
Izzy eyed the barrier suspiciously. "Open sesame?"
Mimi snorted.
"I think I can get through," Kari said softly. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at her.
"How?" Sora asked, but Kari was already walking towards the barrier with calm determination, raising one hand to reach out in front of her, palm forward. If any of them had been there to see him years ago, they would have been vividly reminded of Tai as he faced the electric wall in Datamon's pyramid—the narrowed chocolate eyes, the stubborn mouth.
"I'll do it."
"Are you sure?"
"Not really."
Kari didn't pause. She squeezed her eyes shut for a quick moment and a halo of light blinked on all around her like a light bulb.
"Holy crap," TK said.
Two long, purposeful strides later, Kari had reached the curtain in the air, and the others held their breath. The barrier didn't resist. Rather, it melted away from her the way cotton candy does when it encounters a child's small, pink tongue, and she stepped through the oval-shaped opening, and then looked over her shoulder, still alight and said, "What are you waiting for?"
Sora hurried through the opening and then stepped out of the way for the others, who followed quickly. When they had all crossed the barrier they stood staring at Kari. She shook her head as if to clear it and the light went out. The hole in curtain disappeared with a pop. Sora jumped.
"Well…" TK said.
"What was that?" Mimi said.
Kari shrugged shyly. The sun was setting, and the forest was alive with vibrant reds and oranges. Kari's eyes were like rubies, all framed in thick dark lashes. She looked around uncertainly. There was a long, uncomfortable silence, and then Mimi clicked her heels together loudly and said, "There's no place like home."
Everyone looked at her oddly.
"Doesn't work from this side either," she said, and shrugged. Someone laughed, and the tension eased up.
"Come on, let's go find someplace to set up camp," Matt said, and turned to walk into the forest. TK winked at Kari and jogged after Matt. Sora and Izzy wandered after them.
Kari hung back and Mimi glanced over at her.
"Neat trick," Mimi said.
Kari smiled, "Thanks."
She walked after the others, and Mimi fell in beside her. As they entered the dark forest, Mimi reached out to hug Kari lightly with one arm.
"Kari, you wanna switch back on? It's unbelievably dark up here," TK called from somewhere up ahead.
Kari just laughed.
Matt halted the Digidestined in a dark, intimate clearing not too far into the forest, and everyone sank gratefully to the ground, pulling blankets out of their packs, removing their shoes, or rooting around in their pockets for the last of Kari's cookies. Sora and Mimi slipped away for a few minutes to round up some firewood, and before long they were all gathered around a cheerful fire, chatting amongst themselves and waiting for a pot of soup to heat up.
"I hated seeing Primary Village that way," TK said, doodling in the dirt with the end of a stick. "I mean, has anyone thought about what this means for the Digimon?"
"They're mortal," Mimi said immediately. "There's nowhere for them to go to be reborn."
"Do you think they're all waiting somewhere?" Sora asked quietly. "The ones that have died, I mean."
"I'm sure they are," Izzy said. "Their data is likely trapped in limbo somewhere, stored in some cosmic file."
"What's happening here?" Mimi said. "What's causing…all of that?"
She gestured back toward Primary Village, and the fire cast the moving shadow of her arm against the trees.
"Some sort of virus, maybe?" Izzy said, thinking aloud. "A corrupt file?"
"We have to fix it," Mimi said evenly.
"Well, that would be ideal," Izzy said, "but it's not like there's a Handbook of Digiworld Maintenance I can refer to."
Matt stirred the soup, "Chapter four—in case of horrific bubble of black-and-white, static-heaped land turning the Digital World into a nightmarish death trap…"
"It was always a death trap," Sora muttered.
"Do you think it's spreading?" TK asked.
"Likely," Izzy said.
"Well, then, we'll just have to add that to the list," Mimi said. "Item one—find Tai. Item two—fix Primary Village. Item three…"
She trailed off.
"Bring Tai home," Kari finished.
There was a general sound of approval. Matt dug eight bowls out of his bag; put away two.
"Soup's on," he said, and started passing dinner down the line.
Kari drifted awake as the sun snuck slowly up over the tree line and trickled down to illuminate the cozy circle of sleeping children. She blinked her eyes open, peered around sleepily, and was greeted by a dozing TK's soft smile and blonde eyelashes just to the right of her and Matt's solid presence to her left. If there was one thing she was sure Tai had never worried about over the past three years it was whether or not his sister was well protected. Just as Tai would have done if their positions had been reversed, Matt had stepped in without hesitation, all grim brotherly concern and unflinching warmth.
Kari smoothed down the stubborn cowlick that was standing out from the back of her head and propped herself up on one elbow. No one looked like they would be waking up any time soon, so she stood up noiselessly—save for the soft whisper of her clothing—and slipped off into the forest, sizing up a few trees thoughtfully until she found one that would serve her purpose. She grasped a low branch and swung up into a crouch, balancing on the balls of her feet, and then took a moment to steady herself before reaching above her and starting to climb. She moved steadily upward, her slight frame fitting easily over, under, and in between branches that accepted her weight with little protest. Finally, with her hand braced against the thin, weaving trunk of the uppermost point of the tree, she eased up to her full height and cleared the canopy, taking in the full 360 degree view of the Digital World.
There was something wrong with Infinity Mountain. The high mountaintop where, years before, Tai had drawn a map of the Digital World that even he couldn't make sense of was surrounded in a dark swirling cloud of the same shifting static they'd encountered in the field. All around the mountain the sun was shining, and the blue sky seemed not to notice the ominous storm jutting up against its cheerful backdrop. It looked almost comically out of place, a hive of sickness in the air, and then lightening flashed somewhere inside and Kari caught a glimpse of a tall, tangled structure at the center of all the chaos—a castle. Suddenly, Kari knew exactly where they were headed.
She didn't know how long she'd been poised there, swaying with the wind, staring at Infinity Mountain when a voice hollering her name from somewhere in the forest pulled her back into reality and she called back distractedly, still gazing off at the horizon. They weren't far from the ocean, she realized, and she turned to take in the view of the clean, early morning sun reflecting off of its impossibly blue surface, longing to get closer and stand on the shore, if only for a moment, before all of the world went dark and they had to fight for every quiet moment.
"You're where?"
The voice came from somewhere almost directly beneath her this time. It was Matt.
"Here," she said again, loudly. She could see the top of his blonde head bobbing along far below her.
"Come down!" he yelled. "You're going to fall and kill yourself."
"I'll come down for ice cream," Kari called.
"Kari-"
She laughed. "I'm coming."
Taking one last look at Infinity Mountain, Kari focused her determination into a tight knot deep inside of her and held onto it even as she headed back to camp, walking quietly beside Matt, who ruffled her hair fondly on the way.
"Well, I have to see that," Izzy said, leaping up and cramming things into his backpack at an alarming rate. No one else moved and he paused just long enough to glare around at them. "Come on!"
"Breakfast, Izzy," Mimi said.
"We'll have something on the way," Izzy said, slung his bag over his shoulder and proceeded to fidget, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He looked so comically wired that Matt was tempted to stall just to see if the guy's head would explode.
Kari, however, took pity on him and pulled a sack of energy bars out of her bag. "Here, guys, take one. Let's get going."
Izzy shot her a hugely toothy grin and she smiled, packing up the rest of her things and shouldering her pack. The camp was disassembled in no time, and then they were on the move, Kari walking confidently in the lead.
The walk out of the forest took just under an hour, and soon they were standing at the base of Infinity Mountain, staring up at the swirling mass of energy at its peak. Izzy was beside himself.
"This is unbelievable! The distorted areas seem to be in strategic positions—first Primary Village, now Infinity Mountain...do you know how hard that castle would be to invade?"
"I have a feeling we're going to find out the hard way," Matt said dryly.
Izzy was not derailed. "This can't be an accident. Something terrible has happened here, and I don't think a Digimon is responsible."
"No," Sora agreed. "It wouldn't serve any Digimon's purpose to destroy Primary Village."
"But if it's not a Digimon-," TK started, but Matt clamped a hand over his mouth and gestured for everyone to stay quiet, nodding up at the stone pathway above them. Two voices became distinguishable, accompanied by the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer as they came down the mountain. Matt let go of TK, and the Digidestined jogged quietly back to the tree line and crouched down, barely breathing, their eyes fixed on the area where the owners of the voices would appear.
Two small creatures came down off of the sharp switchback and paused at the base of the mountain, one leaning back against a large rock and crossing his arms over his chest, the other standing to the side and gesturing expressively as he spoke.
"That's the third time this month! If the little monster gets out again, it'll be our heads."
They were both solid black with long arms, round ears on the sides of their heads and enormous eyes that disappeared when they blinked. They appeared to be Digimon, probably rookies. Izzy had already gotten out his laptop to see what information he could pull up on them.
"No kidding," the other said. "A least he didn't made it out of the castle. You remember last year when the Patamon escaped back on Server? It was total hell until we got him back."
Five heads whipped around to look at TK, who looked momentarily like he was going to be sick, and then lowered his head, his eyes squeezed shut and his jaw working furiously. Matt reached over to lay a large hand on the back of TK's neck and looked back at the pair of Digimon.
"Come on," the first one said, heading off to walk around the mountain. "Let's go relieve the guards before they come looking for us."
"Great," the other said, pushing himself away from the wall and following reluctantly. "Another five hour shift of staring at the forest."
"It's that or staring at that obnoxious Gomamon in a damp basement all day. I'd rather be out in the sun."
The second Digimon snorted, loping after him. "I'll give you that."
And with that, the two disappeared around the edge of the mountain and their footsteps faded shortly after, leaving the Digidestined in shocked silence.
It didn't last long.
"Let's go," TK said, and leapt to his feet.
"What? No!" Matt shot an arm out and tried to grab TK's shirt, but TK dodged and jogged off in the direction of the mountain.
"TK!" Matt yelled, and then caught himself, looked around nervously, and ran after his brother, whispering angrily, "TK! Stop. You're not thinking this through."
The others trailed behind Matt and TK uneasily, trying to decide whether or not they wanted to weigh in and get caught in the crossfire.
"We have to go now!" TK said. "There's no one watching. They don't even know we're back. We need to do this now before we lose our chance."
"We do have the element of surprise," Sora said. "We're the last thing they're expecting."
"The odds just get worse from here on out," Izzy added.
"Matt, it's Gomamon," Kari said.
Mimi crossed her arms over her chest, leveling her stubborn gaze on Matt. "We don't need your permission."
Matt shook his head and laughed. "Okay, let's go. But I want it noted that I think this is a bad idea."
"No one's arguing with you there," Izzy said, and turned to take on the first section of the path at a run.
They were all out of breath and red in the face by the time they reached the top of the mountain, but they couldn't stop to rest. The guards were right behind them all the way, and their voices drifted up from the path below, making the Digidestined push themselves to move even faster. The ledge continued for a short distance ahead of them and then dead-ended into a wall of the same rubbery air they'd encountered before, and the stretch of walkway they could see beyond it was gloomy, dark, and colorless.
Kari walked purposefully to the front of the group and exploded into a brilliant orb of light. She didn't miss a beat; just walked straight through the barrier and kept on going. The others rushed after her, and as the last of them came through, Kari's light went out and the hole in the barrier snapped shut.
"That's never going to get old," TK said gleefully.
"Quiet," Matt hissed.
The path came to an abrupt end and veered to the left, leveling out into an enormous stone platform—the summit of Infinity Mountain. One by one they filed onto the flat space and stared. They were in the eye of the storm, and the swirling chaos around them was impressive to see up close, but not half as impressive as the looming fortress in front of them.
It was massive, and seemed to be made entirely of some shining black stone—onyx or the digital equivalent. It gleamed. The intricately carved towers were beautiful, but terrifying, and seemed occasionally to move, though it may have just been an illusion. There was a moat, naturally, but it was filled with a writhing mess of static that splashed over the edges here and there as if there were monsters living under its surface. The drawbridge was down, and there was no sign of life in any direction.
"Now what?" Mimi whispered.
"We can't just walk in the front door," Sora said, but something in her voice was suggesting exactly that.
"How else are we going to get across the moat?" Mimi asked. "I'm not getting in that mess for anything."
There was a quick exchange of incredulous glances all around.
"We can't really be that crazy," Sora said.
TK grinned.
"Yeah we can," Izzy said.
They took off for the bridge at a dead run, crossing the expanse of stone out front in seconds and then hitting the planks that spanned the moat, their feet pounding against its surface briefly before they flew into the grandly arching entryway to the castle, breath coming fast and echoing off of the walls.
"Here," Kari whispered loudly, ducking into an alcove off to the side. They all veered off and squeezed into the small dark space, listening intently. The castle was quiet. There was no sound of alarmed guards yelling or running in their direction, and they assumed they had crossed the bridge unnoticed.
"I'll check it out," Izzy said quietly, and before anyone could stop him, he was gone. A few long minutes later, he poked his head around the corner looking tense but determined and said, "This way."
They followed him down the hallway and into an enormous circular room that looked to be the central hub of the fortress. It had several entrances framed by tall dark columns and was elegantly hung with intricate black-and-white tapestries reaching from the high ceiling to brush the floor. Kari glanced down, saw herself reflected in the black polished floor, and got the unsettling feeling that she wasn't on solid ground at all, but suspended over a dark void that went on forever. She swallowed hard and didn't look down again.
Izzy led them down a hallway to the right that was lined with closed doors and dim torches until they came to one doorway that was wide open. They all stopped and looked inside.
"I found it open like this," Izzy whispered.
There was a stairway beyond the door, and it led straight down, but it was too dark to see where.
"They said he was in a basement," Sora said.
"There are going to be guards," Mimi added uncertainly.
"We'll take care of them," Matt said. "Come on."
They headed down into the darkness.
There was a door at the bottom of the staircase, and TK reached for the handle, counted to three quietly so the others could hear, and then threw the door open. They burst into the room, ready for a fight, wound up and terrified, hearts beating madly—and then skidded to a halt, staring around in confusion.
It was definitely the right place. A large cage stood in the corner, but it was empty and the door was wide open. A set of keys on a big metal ring was lying next to it on the floor. And beyond the keys, slumped unconscious against the wall, were two more of the small, dark Digimon they'd seen at the base of the mountain.
"I don't understand," Sora said.
Just then there was a tremendous roar from somewhere above them that shook the entire fortress. TK jumped, and several of them ducked instinctively.
"This is not good," Izzy said.
Matt started for the door. "We've got to get out of here."
"What about Gomamon?" Mimi said.
"Looks like he's got it under control. Come on!" Sora grabbed Mimi's arm and dragged her towards the door.
They took the stairs two at a time and sprinted back down the long hallway, Matt in the lead, his legs pumping hard. "We've got to get across that bridge before they realize we're…oh my God."
He stopped abruptly at the entrance to the large, circular room and Izzy slammed right into the back of him, nearly knocking him flat, but Matt hardly noticed. Kari managed to pull up short behind Izzy, but as soon as she saw what Matt was looking at, her knees gave out, and TK barely managed to reach her in time to catch her and hold her upright.
"What are we doing?" Mimi said loudly, running up behind them. "We're going to die here if we don't…"
She trailed off with a strangled little squeak and brought a shaking hand up to her mouth. Sora couldn't have made a sound if she tried.
There was a beast of a Digimon filling up the room. It was a mass of shaggy white hair—its long arms dragged on the ground, and its teeth reached well below its chin, but the most horrible thing about it was its eyes. They were solid black and gleamed like the walls around it, dead and empty of life. But that's not what they were looking at.
All they could see was Tai, standing in profile, an exhausted Gomamon clutched protectively in his arms as he glared up at the dead-eyed monster, his hair wild and his feet planted solidly, just as they'd remembered him, but more somehow.
Without even realizing what he was doing, Matt yelled Tai's name and then winced as his voice echoed loudly in the enclosed space. Tai froze, and sucked in his breath in an audible gasp, his expression moving from disbelief to utter desperation, to steely calm, and in one slow movement, he turned to see what ghosts he'd find looking back at him, and found six familiar faces instead, solid and alive and real. Tai's chest tightened, and he was sure he was feeling the entire spectrum of emotion at once. And the shaggy, white monster raised a long arm and swung at Tai, who didn't even see it coming, and knocked him across the room like a rag doll.
Kari screamed.
a/n: Reviews are my life.