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gerjomarty
Author of 6 Stories |
DARK LIGHT
Chapter 4
The team was moving according to the speed of the two feline digimon, which was slow considering that Kari was still having some trouble walking on her hind legs. At one stage she even tripped over her own tail, to which Gatomon replied with a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
While Kari was busying herself with the task of putting one paw in front of the other, she remembered how the whole fiasco started in the first place…
"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind Davis."
With the rest of the group looking on, Kari just walked on through the force field, while everyone else pressed up against it. Not even Gatomon could get through it to accompany her partner. Kari started to walk slowly on down the path, as there was still no light source and the path was fairly rocky.
'I hope whatever's down here in friendly,' she thought. Her heartbeat was getting quicker and harder as every step brought her closer to the end of the tunnel. She shivered.
'I wish Gatomon was here. Or Tai. Or TK. Or anybody for that matter.'
As the Child of Light continued to walk slowly down the dark passageway, it seemed that the path was becoming brighter. Kari spied a light at the end of the tunnel.
"Well, here we go," she said to no one in particular.
The small speck of light became larger and larger as Kari, shaking all over, reached closer and closer to the innards of the cavern. Within a few seconds, Kari stopped.
She found herself in another room, much the same size as the entrance cavern to the temple. This cavern was much brighter than the entrance and the corridor, but it was unclear where the light was coming from. Kari's attention, however, was instantly drawn to a small table in the middle of the rocky room. On it were two strange looking things indeed.
"Gatomon's… paw gloves? That's what the artefact is?"
She picked up one of the gloves and examined it. It certainly has the same design as Gatomon's paw gloves, but they were different in a sort of way. While Gatomon's were a yellow-ish colour, these were more of a dark purple colour. They were also slightly larger.
"What am I meant to do with these?" she said to herself. The wind whistled through the temple. Apart from the draft, there was no sound to be heard. Kari stood, staring at the two paw gloves in her hands. She shivered.
"Put them on." A soft female voice came from nowhere.
Kari dropped the gloves on to the table with a clatter.
"Who's there?" she shouted in a terrified voice. She frantically looked all around the stone cavern, searching for the owner of the voice.
"A friend," the voice said again. It seemed to Kari to be coming from all around the cave. "Put them on," the voice repeated.
Kari stopped looking around and focused on the paw gloves. Her hands would be the perfect fit. Her eyes were unmoving from the artefacts sitting on the table.
The voice compelled her, and the world disappeared in a haze of darkness. She collapsed.
Kari started to rehearse the back-story they had created for her earlier on that day…
Even though classes weren't going on, the actual building was still being used, so it was kept unlocked. If anyone came in, the digidestined could always use the pretence that the computer club was having a meeting. In any case, the real reason the team was here was to come up with a plan of action for Kari's mission into the Domain of Darkness. Present were Davis, Yolei, Cody, TK, Kari, Ken, and their partners.
"Well, what did Gennai say? He just needs information?" TK asked the collective.
"Looks that way. We wouldn't want to put Kari in a more dangerous position than she's in already," Ken answered.
Kari sighed. "But why did it have to be me?" she said, in her husky voice.
"well it was, and there's not much we can do about it now," Yolei stated, crossing her arms.
The group fell silent. The other digimon looked up, frowning. This situation was far from ideal, but it was their only chance. Kari had to take it.
"So," Kari started, "all I have to do is walk around, find out what's going on and come out again? That doesn't seem so bad."
"But what if you have to talk to whatever's in there? You need a cover story in case someone asks who you are," Cody said.
The rest of the group lurched into thought.
"You… were just born?" Davis said, unconvincingly. The others looked sardonically at him. "OK, OK, bad idea."
"Well, we could just say you're an evil digimon," Ken suggested. Kari shuddered.
"It'll need to be deeper than that," TK added.
"Well," Davis began, "how about forgetting coming up with your own and using Gatomon's!"
The digidestined all simultaneously looked up in thought, trying to find flaw with Davis' plan.
"Minus the switching sides part, umm…" Davis suddenly felt uneasy andf looked in the direction of Kari's partner, who was sitting on the chair opposite, coolly looking back.
"Don't feel like you're walking on eggshells, Davis," she simply said. Davis appeared less hesitant.
"Minus the switching sides part, I think it could work," he finished.
Kari looked over at Gatomon. She could see her much better now that they were the same height. Kari looked on with doubt. Gatomon has already told her the whole story, but now she would have to live out the part for real. That was of course, if she had Gatomon's permission.
"I don't see why not," Gatomon said, moving slightly. She smiled. "I'm glad my past will finally be used for something good."
Everyone exhaled a sigh of relief.
Kari turned around and looked up at her friends.
"I guess this is it, then," she said, slowly sighing.
The emotion running through the group was almost visible to see.
"We know you'll do great Kari, don't worry," Yolei said, trying to sound reassuring. "Good luck!"
"Just play cool. You'll be fine, Kari," Cody gave her a comforting smile.
"You know we'll be cheering for you!" Davis shouted. The optimism was clearly infectious as Kari smiled back. Her amber eyes glowed warmly.
Ken stepped forward a little, squinting in the grey mist, and spoke more quietly.
"Please be careful, Kari. The powers of darkness are strong, believe me I know, but you have to be stronger. For all our sakes." Ken nodded as Kari stared up, taking in and heeding Ken's warning.
"Yeah Kari, I don't know what I'd do with myself if you didn't come out of there," TK said, gloomily.
"Please don't worry TK, I'll try my best," Kari reassured. It did little in placating TK's anxieties.
Tai stepped forward and knelt down in front of Kari's feline form. He spoke quietly, avoiding her mesmerising gaze.
"Come home safe, sis. You know mom and dad'll go nuts if they find out you're missing for too long. Just… just watch yourself."
"Oh, Tai," Kari looked away, unable to watch the towering figure of her brother. "I'll try…"
"But what if trying isn't good enough? This is you life, Kari!" Tai interrupted. He fell back on to the grass, and exhaled.
"This is our best chance, Tai. I have to," Kari said, solemnly. As she looked round, she met eyes with Gatomon. The very glimpse of each others eyes managed to set tears rolling.
"I can't believe… I won't be able to protect you," said Gatomon, sobbing.
Kari sniffed, and smiled, "But you are! Your past is going to help our future."
Gatomon smiled. "I'll see ya later, Kari."
She turned, and the group took a collective step back. The moment had arrived. Kari started to slowly pace forward, feeling the separation between her friends more with every inch of distance between them. She was leaving that behind. She was different now. Letting the instinct take over, she dropped down on to all four paws and made her way through the thick grey wall.
Kari didn't have any expectations about how the Domain would look from the inside, but now that she was here, the realisation hit her all the harder. She was still on the same path as before, but this side of it had a ghostly grey hue to it. The trees around her were dead still and devoid of any sort of colour. She looked over her shoulder. The wall of darkness still stood, but the outside world was faintly visible from this side. She saw her friends walk away, and stayed until they were only a faint grey dot on the barrier.
She sighed. 'So what now?' she thought.
There were no digimon guarding this path into the Domain. None that she could see, and also none that she could sense. But Kari didn't even know how to interpret these wild, new senses yet. The world looked so much larger than before. She stared at the red pattern on her deep purple paw gloves and her dark black fur.
'The digidestined of Light as a virus digimon, who could've planned this one?' she sarcastically thought to herself. Unsurely, she started to step forward. While it was at a snail's pace at first, she eventually gained more confidence and built up a steady pace, her tail swishing around behind her.
'Maybe it'll be OK after all.'
