Disclaimer: Yadayada, Digimon aren't mine, yadayada, you know the drill. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~*~ More than Two Worlds Apart ~*~ By Lizeth http://www.angelfire.com/anime2/loft1050/ CHAPTER 2 - Further awakenings T.K. moaned. Someone was calling his name, although he couldn't quite grasp who. His head felt like it'd been picked apart. "T.K.!! Wake up!" "Five more minutes, mom," he mumbled, "I'm not feeling good today." Kari blinked. Brow furrowing, she took a deep breath. "T.K.!!! WAKE UP NOW!!!!" "Aaawww!!! I'm up!! I'm up!!" T.K. blinked. "Kari?" he asked bewilderedly, wriggling a finger in his ear. "Oh, thank goodness," Kari said with relief, "I thought you were never going to wake up." T.K. looked around groggily. "Where are we?" "I don't know." "Matt?" he called. "We're the only ones here," Kari told him quietly. She hugged herself, looking distinctly worried. Watching her, T.K. felt his heart constrict. He had always been the baby of their little group of seven, but now that there were eight, he had someone to look out for. T.K. cracked a smile and reached over to take her hand. "C'mon Kari, I bet they're close by. All we have to do is look. Hey! Maybe we can even use the digivices!" he added hopefully. "They don't work!" Kari cried despairingly. T.K. blinked again, he still felt as if his mind was shrouded in fog. "They don't?" he repeated, pulling out his digivice and staring at the dead, black screen. Staring up at the hole in the ceiling up the cave, T.K. noticed a distinct difference. There were two moons. Shaking his head, he tried to clear it. "C'mon Kari..." he urged, "Let's find a way out of this cave and then we'll figure out what to do." Squeezing her hand reassuringly, T.K. helped the eighth digi-destined stand. She stared at him, her eyes slighly moist with tears refused to flow. Reaching up to brush his bangs out of his eyes, T.K. realized something else. "My hat's gone!" he uttered with surprise. Kari nodded. "It was gone when I woke up. I guess you must have lost it when..." she trailed off, staring blankly at the wall. She bit her lip. T.K. shook slightly. His mom'd bought him that hat. Before she and dad split up... he repeated to himself mentally, unconsciously brushing his hair back in a manner he had seen Matt do countless times before. When he looked back at her, she was smiling tentatively. "You can always get a new one when we get home," she whispered softly. He swallowed. "Yeah, just wait 'til we get home..." he smiled back. Hand in hand, they started to walk, taking comfort in each other's presence. After all, hope was what they were all about. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Are they still here?!" asked Biyomon incredulously. "How can that be?" "Don't tell me you don't feel them pulling us?" Agumon shot back. She winced. "I do! And I shouldn't be! They're supposed to be back home." "I'm glad," Palmon croaked out, face buried between her arms as she held her knees to her chest. "Palmon!" Biyomon scolded, shocked. "Well I am... sorta. I was afraid Mimi'd forget about me," she mumbled, "It's like... I wasn't needed anymore. I know it's selfish, but I glad they're still around!" She raised her head and looked directly at Biyomon. "You can't tell me that you aren't glad Sora's still here, 'cause I won't believe it." Biyomon opened her mouth to say something but promptly closed it again. She bowed her head. "I miss T.K." Patamon confessed softly. "I won't complain," Gomamon added quietly, "but I know Joe will. They really wanted to get home... they wouldn't want to be stuck here forever..." "We can't worry about that now. They're in trouble and they're going to need us to protect them," Agumon stated firmly. "Just how are we supposed to find them?" Gatomon asked as she fingered the whistle Kari gave her, tail swooshing back and forward nervously. "Izzy would know what to do," Tentomon responded with a hint of wistfulness. "Izzy isn't here and we have to find them," Agumon sighed. Standing up, he looked back at them. "Let's go see if we can find Gennai." The others nodded in silent agreement and they were on their way as first light came. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Matt?!" Tai hissed worriedly, "Matt, wake up, man!!" They'd made it back far enough to see better and now the former shadows had shape. They stood in the surrounding woods and blocked either direction of the path. And they were coming closer. "Times like this, I really wish I had a stunt double," Tai muttered half wryly, half nervously. He propped up Matt's prone form against him, holding him up with an arm. His rival's shoulder was at a distinctly odd angle and parts of his arm was scraped raw. He surveyed the enemy critically. Tai muttered a muted curse. "Oh well, so much for running." Reflexively, he reached and gripped his digivice, but it lay cold and unresponsive in his palm. Slowly, he stood, pulling Matt up with him and hooking his unwounded arm around his neck. He cracked a smile. "Ummmm... hi!" he addressed the shapes in general, with forced cheerfulness. He laughed nervously. "Well, see..." he began, "we'd really love to stay for...err... breakfast... umm... but, we really should be going, alright? So... Bye!" He took a step forward and the creature growled louder. Tai stumbled back. "Okay, well, I didn't really want to go that way anyway..." Matt moaned and shivered but stayed unconscious. Tai frowned at his friend with concern. He didn't know anything about fixing shoulders. In soccer, it was more likely that they'd twist an ankle or pull a muscle. He shook his head. First line of business was to escape. And hell, after all their time in the digital world, none of them had ever gotten severely physically injured. Their digimon had always prevented that. Sure, they almost got erased a few times, and had themselves picked apart, pixel by pixel, but that had been solved without any physical side affects or long lasting bodily scars. Suddenly one of the creatures shot forward with a bark, landing not far in front of them as it bared it's teeth menacingly. Tai yelped in surprise and stepped backwards, tripping. Somehow, he still managed to cushion Matt's fall as he found himself back on the ground. He grunted. Matt could loose some weight. The creature was definitely dog-like. Its fur was of earth-ish tones, blending well with its surroundings. Light reflected from its eyes, making them seem to glow with yellowish light. It seemed to Tai that it had a rather big mouth to go with its rather big body. And rather big teeth to go with its rather big mouth. He swallowed. "Nice doggie?" Somewhere, a twig broke and Tai snapped his head around, searching for the source. He strained his eyes in the dim light of early morning, trying to distinguish one shape from another. Suddenly, a bright light was shone at them, forcing Tai to squint. He brought his arm up to protect his eyes, looking back at the source of the light. Gritting his teeth, he repositioned Matt to allow for easier movement. "They're only children!" cried a voice incredulously. Tai gaped. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Great, of all the people, I get stuck with Mr. Computer Nerd again..." Mimi groaned. They'd been walking randomly ever since they'd woken up and found themselves by a clear pond. A little too clear, actually. There had been no life in the waters at all. And that probably meant the water was undrinkable. "Mimi..." Izzy said tiredly. "No! I wanna go home!! I wanna soak in a nice hot bubble bath and drink soda and eat caviar!!" Izzy blinked. "You like fish eggs?" "Well no," Mimi confessed, "But wouldn't you eat caviar too if it meant getting home?" Izzy rolled his eyes. "We will get home, alright? Just hold off the waterworks. We still have to find the others." Izzy looked at his digivice. "Strange... why won't it work?" "Well maybe, genius, we aren't in the digital land anymore." "Then where do you propose we are?" Izzy shot back a bit briskly, "I don't recall any place we're familiar with that had two moons," he gestured to the brightening morning sky. "So unless some wandering aliens decided to pick us up and randomly drop us on another planet outside our solar system, I'd say the some other part of the digital land is our best guess!" That set Mimi off again. "But I'm too young and beautiful to be experimented on by little green men!! It can't be good for my complexion." Izzy grunted and smiled the first real smile he'd performed since awakening. He shook his head wistfully, listening to Mimi rant with half an ear. It still seemed amazing that no matter how ditzy Mimi might seem on the outside, she had a very strange gift for defusing the seriousness of a situation. He blinked as a thought entered his over average IQ of a mind. What if Mimi complained and whined on purpose? To take people's minds off their own problems? The concept was mind-boggling... "Hey, Mr. Brainiac, are you done spacing out now?" Mimi asked him. "Huh?" he said intelligently. "Yeah, earth... umm... unknown planet to Izzy! You back now? You like, totally zoned out," she sniffed, fussing with her hat. Izzy turned to look at her and smiled wryly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Gray." "What?" "The little men are gray, not green." Mimi gaped. Suddenly, she shook her head a laughed. Izzy shouldered his backpack with renewed vigor once more and headed off to find the others, Mimi, still giggling, not far behind. For some reason, it didn't matter that the digivices weren't working and that they were lost, because somehow, the digi-destined were meant to be together, and that meant that sooner or later, they'd find each other again. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author's note: Okay, so you didn't exactly find out where they kids are, did you? But Izzy's right, the digital land is still their best guess. No cliff hanger, this time... sorta... hehehe... **laughs sheepishly** Only Sora and Joe to go! Next time! Ja ne. Comments and criticism welcome at Lizeth_Hal@hotmail.com