Better the Devil You Know

Chapter 10: Sunrise and New Plans

Kari felt a freezing wind blow through her clothes, making her shiver. She found the ground she was lying on was cold, hard, unforgiving rock. The Digidestined of Light could sense darkness all around her as she attempted to figure out where she was. Everything felt vague and fuzzy as her senses tried to register what was going on. She could hear the explosions and roars of a battle raging above her as sounds finally registered in her ears.

The brunette had no idea how she got there, her memory being as blurred as her vision when she opened her eyes. Everything appeared dark, like daylight tainted by the evil darkness only a demonic Digimon could create. Kari's eyesight slowly returned to her. She made out several figures running around, trying to get to cover. She then saw other figures already in cover behind large rocks outcropping from the ground or behind the remains of the Greek-like marble temples. Her eyes then noticed there were bodies lying still on the ground of what she now recognised as the Plateau of Infinity Mountain.

She had no idea when or why TK had allowed the Digidestined into the Digiworld to fight Neodevimon but she put that aside as the prone bodies told her they were definitely in a rough fight. She turned her head up to the sky to try and locate her Digimon partner amongst the many combatants in the battle raging above her. Her mahogany eyes located the eight white wings of Angewomon as well as the orange metal armour of Wargreymon. She mentally noted there were less Digimon than humans, something that seriously worried her.

Kari suddenly became aware of a person next to her. She turned to face them and found TK's sapphire eyes staring back at her. His face was full of pain and anxiety. Kari attributed this to the battle not going the way they had intended.

The Digidestined of Light then sensed the darkness they were fighting. Her sixth sense located it right above her and her boyfriend and it was now homing in on them. Kari, for reasons she still couldn't remember, believed the source of this evil was Neodevimon and he was now diving down towards them. She could feel his presence getting closer and closer without even turning to look at the devil. Fear gripped the teen girl's entire body as she froze on the spot. She tried to force her legs to move but they just wouldn't. It felt like they belonged to someone else or they were concreted to the ground. Neodevimon was right on top of them and she realised she was going to die.

Suddenly someone pushed her to one side. The force of the shove lifted her off her feet and sent her flying several metres through the air. It was more like she had been thrown than pushed. She landed hard on the front of her body as her sixth sense told her who had thrown her to safety. Kari's sense recognised the light from TK's body that was emitted by the Crest of Hope. She always sensed it in his body every time they were close. He had pushed her away in an attempt to save her. The brunette's extra sense sent a wave of horror through her body as she felt the warm light of TK collide with the cold dark evil of Neodevimon. The darkness won.

Kari lurched forward, her eyes now wide open and her lungs gasping for air. She began panting heavily as her soft brown eyes refocused, telling her it was night time and she was safe in her bedroom. She was sweating heavily as she threw her pink bed covers to one side.

"Kari, what's wrong?" Gatomon asked with her concern clear in her voice.

"Nothing, I hope. It was just a nightmare," Kari sighed in relief and wiped the sweat off her face with the pink sleeve of her pyjama top. She turned to look at her alarm clock that read 4:28 in deep red numbers. Her eyes then caught on the pink flip phone next to it.

"Do you mind if I ask what it was about?" Gatomon asked as she watched Kari reach over to the phone sat on the pine bedside table. "It appeared really bad from the way you were constantly moving."