Chapter One - The Stolen Light
Tear's streamed down Kari's face as she lay on the desolate beach, the wind and sand whipping about her face as she watched the terrible storm come to land. The Dark Ocean seemed to be ripped asunder by the great and terrible power of the approaching gale- a maelstrom of roiling debris flecked with dark smoke and red sparks of electricity. As she watched it shred the beach before her- all Kari could do was cry. Not from simple fear or grief, but instead from sheer unimaginable terror overwhelming her every sense and thought. Because she knew that against every logical bone in her body that what lay at the centre of this storm would not stop with its destruction of The Dark Ocean's dimension. No, it would continue on. It's churning rage would continue on to The Digital World, The Real World…to all worlds. And with every life crushed beneath it's all-consuming power, it would feel a satisfaction that only increased its destructiveness. It was Death, and death was coming for everyone Kari Kamiya loved.
Kari awoke with a start, her sleep shirt soaked through with sweat and the remains of tears drying on her cheeks. The alarm clock beside her bed read 4:55 AM. Silently, she hugged her own legs in bed and stared at her bedroom wall for what in her groggy state seemed a long time. Her dreams were getting worse. At first her nightly returns to The Dark Ocean had seemed to her to only be lingering memories rising from her subconscious. She had consoled herself that since MaloMyotismon's defeat all was right with the world, and a few bad dreams were a small price to pay. The year since she and her friends had finally destroyed the Digimon vampire and brought peace to the The Digital World had been probably the happiest in Kari's whole life. She was succeeding in school, she got to spend all her weekends and many of her afternoons with her friends exploring the Digital World, and best of all- she and TK had finally plucked up the mutual courage to admit how they felt for each other, and and to both their surprise Davis didn't even seem to mind very much, shifting almost instantly from TK's love rival to his supportive friend and biggest advocate. That was something Kari truly loved about Davis, he didn't sweat the small stuff and he didn't let rejection get to him. More and more as time went on, she wished everyone could be more like Davis, though of course she would never tell him that.
But why then did she feel this increasing dread with every passing night? Why were her dreams telling her that something horrible was about to happen? She resolved to finally get the gang together and tell them about her dreams after class tomorrow. Whether they were a creation of her subconscious or not, she knew her friends deserved to know what was bothering her. She didn't want to cause them any distress or make them worry, but keeping this from everyone had been difficult, especially from her bother Tai and especially TK. At a time when she should have been over the moon Kari's mind was elsewhere, and if anyone would sense that it was TK.
Getting up slowly from bed, she looked down at the curled-up form of Gatomon sleeping in her cat-bed near the foot of Kari's bed. Rising to her tip-toes and stepping lightly so as to not awake the lightly snoozing cat digimon, Kari made her way out of her room and down the hallway to the kitchen. Passing Tai's room she could distinctly hear the sound of Tai and Agumon's snoring, only slightly out of sync with each other. She couldn't help but smile. Tai had been so much more himself lately, every bit the courageous happy-go-lucky goggle-head who had shepherded her through the Digital World when they were children. She supposed it was being able to spend so much more time with his partner Agumon. They brought out the best in each other, maybe more than any other pair amongst their friends. Every night at dinner Agumon would sit next to Tai and tell bad jokes and anecdotes about nis day while scarfing down whatever food was put in front of him, and afterwards he would stand on a stepladder in front of the sink next to Tai and Kari's mom and help with the dishes, and in truth their family dinners had never been happier.
Entering the kitchen, Kari approached the sink and began running the cold water. In her sleepy state, it took her a few seconds to realise she needed a glass to drink from. Turning from the sink she reached down to the lower cabinet where the Kamiya's kept their glassware. That was the moment a burst of fiery red energy collided with the window of the Kamiya's apartment. Kari's ears rang as she watched the burnt remains of of wood, brick and shattered glass fly over the kitchen countertop above her head. Rising slowly on shaky legs, Kari had to dare herself to turn her eyes towards the new gaping hole in her apartment wall leading out to the open air and streets below. She slowly crossed the living room, where the cushions from the Kamiya's couch smouldered and their TV lay facedown on the hard wood floor. Rising slowly, Kari began to walk towards the hole, carefully dodging the broken glass on the floor with her bare feet. For a moment, she could hear her mother screaming and Tai falling out of bed down the hall, and past that- Gatomon calling her name. She turned to shout back, and just then an impossibly long black arm reached from the blackness of the night and curled it's pointed fingers around her throat.
Kari knew the arm instantly though she couldn't yet see its owner. Trying her best not to look scared, she met the glowing red eyes of LadyDevimon as the leather-clad fallen angel digimon floated outside the gap in the Kamiya's wall. "Hello human", the despicable digi-witch intoned as she drew Kari closer to her. "My apologies for dropping in unannounced, but you have a date with my Master, and he hates rejection." At that moment three shallow vertical slashes cut their way down LadyDevimon's masked face. Gatomon followed this up with several more attacks, her clawed paws raining slashes down on the evil Digmon's face and chest. Crying out in pain and rage, LadyDevimon dropped Kari and turned her attention to the diminutive cat Digimon. "Pest!" She screeched, bringing her clawed arm around in a wide arc which caught Gatomon squarely in the chest. The champion-level digimon was sent flying, colliding with the far wall of the apartment with such force thar the dry wall was shattered, exposing the brickwork beneath. "Gatomon!" Kari cried out. She struggled to her feet to get close to her partner Digimon but yet again her captors horrible claws grasped her, pulling her out into the night. Just then, she saw Tai and Agumon enter the room.
"Kari, no!" Tai screamed, diving across the room to reach for his sister. LadyDevimon laughed with manic glee as she carried Kari into the night. "Let me go!" Kari yelled with as much courage as she muster as she and the vile digimon flew through the cold night air, rising higher and higher until Kari could see the whole city buzz beneath her feet. She suddenly felt a rising fear in the pit of her stomach, and against every instinct she held dear Kari actually began to cling tightly to the evil digimon for fear of falling. "Don't be afraid little girl, if I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead" announced LadyDevimon mockingly. "Soon you'll be with my master, and then the real fun will-"
"AGUMON- WARP DIGIVOLVE TO…WARGREYMON!"
Those booming words cut through the night air, and in a flash the gleaming metallic form of WarGreymon came gliding into view in front of LadyDevimon, with Tai sat on his shoulder. "Hey ugly, you give my sister back right now, or you'll regret it!". In response LadyDevimon only drew Kari closer to her body, Raising her shorter, unclawed arm, she pointed at Tai and said "Back off human, before I destroy you both!" It was WarGreymon who spoke next, voicing what clearly everyone but LadyDevimon was thinking "You may be able to defeat a Champion Digimon, but you cannot defeat me!" In response LadyDevimon gave a sly smile before intoning "No, I can't…but I know someone who can". Raising her hand, she snapped her fingers.
"CORONA BLASTER!"
An intense blast of energy struck WarGreymon from behind, so powerful that is sent him barrelling out of the sky with Tai falling behind. Kari screamed wordlessly as she watched her brother fall, pounding her fists against LadyDevimon's body as the dark digimon flew on. As she screamed Tai's name and tried to wriggle free of her captors iron grip, she saw a second Digimon descend from the clouds, WarGreymon's unseen attacker. He looked like some kind of angel biker, covered in leathers with two dark wings sprouting from his back and an incredibly large gun attached to his arm. His face was obscured by a sort of purple visor, and all Kari could really make out besides a shock of blonde hair were three glowing red eyes. "Well done, our master will be very pleased." said LadyDevimon softly. The Mega Level digimon said nothing in response.
Turning to look at Kari, LadyDevimon said "Now my pretty, for this next part, I think it would be better if you took a nap". Kari felt an intense weight overtake her whole body, and in moments she was asleep.
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Tai was falling to his death. At least, he was pretty sure that's what was happening. WarGreymon had impacted into the side of a building from the strength of that blast and with his best friend out of commission, Tai was pretty sure this was it for him.
20 seconds left.
He thought about his parents, he felt guilty for what was about to happen to them.
15 seconds left.
He thought about Kari, how afraid she must be, and how her big brother wouldn't be there to save her.
10 seconds left.
He thought about his friends. He'd miss them.
5 seconds left.
Sora, all he thought of in those last moments was Sora. Tai Kamiya closed his eyes.
He felt a great rush of wind and his body impacting on a hard surface, but not concrete. Metal. Opening his eyes he realised he was still moving through the air, but horizontally. A Digimon had caught him. Or rather, Tai had landed in its back. As they flew Tai could only discern a metallic body and many gleaming white wings. They were slowing down now, coming to a halt on an empty city intersection. A red and white armoured arm reached back and took a hold of Tai, before placing him gently on the ground. "Are you ok?" Two voices spoke in unison from the Digimon. "Who…who are you?" Said Tai. "Well, uh, that's a little complicated…" replied the digimon, who Tai could now see was a tall knight clad in gleaming armour. "Right now we're Gallantmon…but…" In a flash of blinding light, the knight digimon suddenly disappeared, and in his place stood a boy with brown hair and a pair of goggles and a red dinosaur. "You can just call us Takato and Guilmon."
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