Chapter 2: Fade To Grey
As the bus rolled into the city, T.K. sat reading the paper, his Digimon partner Patamon laying on top of his head. This was something that the orange mammal Digimon had done since the time T.K. was a young kid fighting along side his brother Matt and the other six original DigiDestined children against the evil Digimon that threatened both the digital and human worlds. It was more convenient for Patamon to ride around on T.K.'s head, for though Patamon had large bat-like wings in the spots one would normally expect to see ears, he was not terribly good at flying. Or at least not very fast. This was also how T.K. and Patamon read the newspaper together. Patamon had taught himself to read a few years ago, with some help from T.K. and some of the other DigiDestined. It was not strange for other people to see Patamon as would have been a few years ago. Digimon had started to become a common site in the human world, and most of the Digimon were willing to live in peace with humans, even becoming partners with some. There would occasionally be one wild Digimon that would cause trouble somewhere, but the DigiDestined children around the world would usually be around to resolve any disputes. Generally, most of the human race viewed Digimon as harmless, friendly, and intelligent creatures, which was what most Digimon were.
"Are you finished with this page yet?" T.K. asked Patamon as the bus rolled on. "Almost done. Just a few more minutes."
Though Patamon could read, he could not read fast, and would sometimes take at least two whole hours to read one article. T.K. was tolerant of Patamon's slow reading speed though, he would usually just reread part of an article while he waited for Patamon to catch up. Sometime this would be boring, as T.K. would sometimes have only ads to read, but he would wait just the same. This time though, T.K. had something interesting to read. It seems that scientists had discovered an electromagnetic disturbance in the Bermuda Triangle that they theorized was being caused by a unique celestial alinement. None of the scientists were able to identify the disturbance, but they were able to tell that it was increasing in size. The news of this phenomenon bothered T.K.. He thought that it might be another portal to the digital world. Not that that was unusual, since portals between the digital and human world were popping up everywhere now, but this portal, if it was a portal, seemed evil to T.K.. It was as if the portal led to an evil part of the digital world. T.K. knew such places existed in the digital world. After all, he almost lost Kari in one of those places.
"Okay, I'm done," Patamon chimed as the bus pulled up to its stop. T.K. folded up the paper and put it in the front pocket of his bag. "I guess it doesn't matter now, we're here."
As T.K. got off the bus with Patamon still riding on his head, he thought how good it was to be back after so many months. For the past three months, T.K. had been at an internship with a small town T.V. news station in a town miles away. Now he was back home.
"Where are we going now T.K.?" Patamon asked his human partner. T.K. paused for a moment. He thought about that strange disturbance he read about in the paper, and for some reason he began worry about Kari. "Why don't we go to Kari's place?"
It had been quite some time since T.K. had spoken with Kari. T.K. hadn't spoken with her since he left for his internship. He would think about calling Kari on the phone a few times, but something would always stop him. Perhaps T.K. just didn't want to call Kari only to have Davis answer the phone instead. Davis was T.K.'s friend too, but it hadn't been easy to talk to him for a few years. Perhaps it was jealousy, perhaps it was anger, but for whatever reason, whatever emotion, a rift had formed between Davis and T.K., and T.K. thought that perhaps the time had come to close that rift. T.K. had feelings for Kari too, but if Kari was happy, than T.K. should be happy for her, and Davis too. Fore it was Kari's happiness that mattered most.
T.K. and his trusty Digimon sidekick arrived at the front door of Kari and Davis's apartment. He rang the doorbell, expecting to be greeted by either Davis or Kari. T.K. hoped it would be Kari instead of Davis. Neither of those things happened though. Instead, the cat door opened and out came Gatomon, Kari's Digimon partner. The white cat Digimon greeted both T.K. and Patamon. Patamon hopped off of T.K.'s head to greet his fellow Digimon himself.
"Oh, hi Gatomon. Aren't Kari or Davis home?" T.K. asked the feline Digimon. Gatomon looked up at T.K. to respond. "Well, Kari should be at work right now, but Davis..." Gatomon paused, "He and Veemon don't live here anymore."
"What? Did Kari throw Davis out?" T.K. asked with a certain amount of anticipation in his voice. He knew that there was a part of him that secretly hoped for this to happen. "Well," Gatomon began, " they had this big fight. I don't really know what is was about, but the two were yelling so loud that the whole neighborhood could hear them. The fight got so bad that Kari even punched Davis in the face. I think Davis has been kicked out for good this time."
"What? You mean this has happened before?" T.K. asked with a bit of surprise. Now there was a part of T.K. that was now jumping for joy, and he was a little ashamed of it. "I'm not sure what the other fights were about, human stuff I guess," the cat Digimon continued, "But they were all just little things, or at least that's what Kari told me. Anyway, they'd usually make up after a couple of days and Davis would move back in, but it's different this time though. Kari made Davis take all of his stuff with him."
"Are you sure you don't know what this fight was about?" T.K. asked. "I really don't know, and Kari won't tell me about it. She hasn't been talking to me much about anything lately."
"What do you mean?" T.K. asked. A worried look suddenly appeared on Gatomon's face. "Well for one thing, Kari hasn't been sleeping well for the last few days, and she seems afraid of something. I've asked Kari several times now if anything was wrong, but all she does is smile and say she's fine. I know she's lying though."
Suddenly T.K. was very worried. For some reason he began to think about the weird disturbance in the Bermuda Triangle that he read about in the paper. He had to see Kari right now to see if she was okay.
"Gatomon, where does Kari work?" T.K. asked with an anxious voice. Both Digimon looked up at T.K. with surprise. Than Gatomon suddenly had a look of determination on her face. It seemed that both T.K. and the white cat Digimon were thinking the same thing. Gatomon got down on all fours and began to run saying, "Follow me!"
T.K., Patamon, and Gatomon soon arrived at Javascript, the coffee house and internet cafe that Kari worked at. From the outside window, T.K. could see Kari working at the cash register, and at first glance she seemed okay. T.K. went into the cafe with the two Digimon. Kari immediately noticed noticed T.K. the moment he walked in. Of course it was hard not to notice a young man who had a small orange mammal with bat wings riding on top of his head.
"T.K., is that you?" Kari asked from across the room. T.K. couldn't really imagine how his appearance might have changed in the last three and a half months since he last saw Kari. Kari certainly hadn't changed, she was just as beautiful as ever. Although T.K. did notice a slight change in Kari. She seemed more worn out, but then Gatomon did mention that Kari hadn't been getting much sleep. Anyway, T.K. owed his old friend a reply to her question, "Yeah, it's me."
Kari told her boss Yoko that she was now taking her fifteen minute break, quickly hung up her apron, rushed over to T.K. and hugged him right there in the doorway, saying how good it was to see him again. Kari and T.K. sat down at one of the open tables to catch up, while Gatomon and Patamon went out side of the cafe in order to give their human partners some alone time.
"So how did your internship go?" Kari asked T.K., beginning the conversation. "It went fine," T.K answered, "I think I learned a lot. How have you been doing?"
"Oh, I'm a bit stressed because finals are coming up and I don't think I've studied enough," Kari answered, "but other than that I'm fine." T.K. could tell that Kari wasn't being totally honest. There was something more to Kari's stress than just college finals. Even though it probably wasn't the best move, T.K. went ahead and brought up the subject of Davis. "Gatomon told me you kicked out Davis. What happened?"
The smile quickly ran away from Kari's face. T.K. saw that this was something Kari didn't want to talk about, but the subject was bound to come up sooner or later, and T.K. had to know what happened.
"I caught Davis cheating on me," Kari began hesitantly,"I don't know who the girl is, but I saw Davis kissing her right over there across the street while I was working yesterday." Upon hearing this, T.K. suddenly wanted to hunt down Davis and pound him into the ground. "I don't believe this," T.K. said with a noticeable amount of anger in his voice, "That jerk!"
"I suspected something was going on for a while," Kari continued, "Davis had been coming home later than usual for a few weeks, and I found a phone number on a scrap of paper in Davis's pants pocket while I was doing his laundry. It wasn't a number I recognized so I called it. The number belonged to some woman named Reiko. She might be the same woman I saw Davis kissing yesterday, but I don't know."
T.K. couldn't believe what he was hearing. How could Davis cheat on someone as wonderful as Kari with another, or perhaps several other women? Further more, how could Davis make Kari do his laundry? Was Davis too lazy to do it himself?
"So... is it over between you and Davis?" T.K. asked, a part of him secretly hoping that the answer was yes. "I think it's been over for awhile now," Kari answered, "We were in love, sure, but I think we were just too different from each other to ever work as a good couple."
T.K. didn't know what to say or what to feel just than. There was a part of him that was happy to hear that Kari broke up with Davis, and another part of him that was sad that Kari was hurt in this way. T.K. didn't know which part of himself to listen to.
"T.K., there's something else that's been bothering me." Kari said with a trembling voice. The conflict with T.K. suddenly took a momentary stop. All of his attention was now focused on what Kari had to say. "What is it?"
"The past few days I've been having nightmares about the Dark Ocean," Kari said, her voice still trembling. T.K. knew very well which ocean Kari was talking about. It was that dark place in the digital world that Kari was dragged to so many years ago. A place that had been on his mind since he read about what was now happening in the Bermuda Triangle. "I haven't told anyone about these nightmares but you," Kari continued, "Davis and Gatomon don't even know about them."
T.K. didn't say anything. He knew that the best thing he could do was listen.
"Most of the nightmares have been the same," Kari continued, her voice now trembling a bit more. "In these nightmares, I'm always walking through that abandoned town where I met those Divermon, or a least that's what they said they were before they changed into those things." T.K. knew what Kari meant. He was there when those Divermon transformed into those horrific looking creatures that wanted to mate with Kari in order to produce powerful offspring. "Anyway," Kari continued, "the nightmares usually ended when I got to the beach, but last night it was different. Last night... I saw it!"
"Saw what?" T.K. asked, though he hesitated to. Kari was now so terrified she was stamering, "Th-th-that thing th-that the D-D-Divermon c-c-c-called their g-g-god. It w-was horrible, a-and s-so r-r-real!"
Kari was on the verge of tears. T.K. hated himself for asking what Kari saw at the end of her last nightmare. T.K. started to wonder what happened all those years ago was about to happened again.
"Don't worry Kari," T.K. said with a determined voice,"I won't let anything happen to you!"
At that moment, T.K. grabbed Kari's hand, which was shaking, but that a second later, Kari pulled her hand away. T.K. saw a shocked expression on Kari's face. Kari got up and ran out of the cafe. Only seconds after Kari left did Patamon fly back in and land on the table T.K. was eft sitting at alone.
"What happened T.K.?" Patamon asked. "Is something wrong with Kari?"
T.K. wondered what he did wrong. Was it asking Kari about what happened with Davis, or pressing her about the thing she saw in her nightmare. As T.K. tried to figure out what to do next, he glanced out the window and saw Kari fritzing out and turning grey, like a T.V. channel with bad reception. T.K. saw this twice before, back when Kari was first dragged to the Dark Ocean. Kari was starting to vanish. Gatomon tried to grab hold of Kari, but the cat Digimon's paws just passed through her like she was air. By the time T.K. got up to try to run out and do something, it was too late. Kari had vanished, the ocean had taken her.
