Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Digimon 02: The Road Not Taken ❯ The Widening Gap Between Us ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Digimon 02: The Road Not Taken
By Robster80

Episode Five: The Widening Gap Between Us


Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon 02 or any of its characters. It is owned by Toei Animation, Saban (or whatever it’s called now) and Jetix.


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Last time: TK stayed home from school at the insistence of his mother, who worried about TK facing Kari and the others after the previous day’s events. Unable to sleep the night before, and after barely getting through school, Kari found herself outside the apartment complex TK, Yolei, and Cody lived in, as if on instinct. However, she hid herself after catching Matt and Mimi, who had just arrived from America, and remained hidden as TK dumped a large sealed box into a garbage bin outside the building, which she then took back to her apartment. Later that day, Sora confronts TK about his promise to protect Kari, which nearly earns her getting hit with a basketball. Then, as the older kids held a meeting discussing the current problems with TK and the newer kids, all the Digi-destined receive an urgent email revealing a new enemy named Arukenimon…
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“What brings you out here, Davis?”

Davis spun around to see Tai walking towards him in front of the Kamiya apartment. He smiled, even though he noticed that Tai was frowning at him. “Hi, Tai. I just wanted to talk to Kari about… our life science homework, yeah!”

“Nice try, kid. All of the Digi-destined got that email about Arukenimon earlier tonight. Everyone knows, including Ken and TK.”

“How do we know Ken didn’t send that email,” asked Kari as she opened the apartment door. “I heard you two out here, in case you were wondering.”

“That’s just what I was thinking, Kari. He and DJ-.”

Just then, Tai grabbed Davis by his arm, squeezing it hard to shut him up. “Davis,” Tai said, “I don’t care if you’re Kari’s boyfriend now, you don’t ever talk that way about TK or Ken in my presence! Got it?”

Kari’s jaw dropped. “How’d you know about-?”

“I know everything that’s happened since last week, from you two dating in secret to yesterday’s fight with TK and Ken. So does Matt, Sora, and the other older kids. In fact, our meeting tonight was about this whole mess you two started.”

Davis pulled his arm free before he found his voice. He held the place on his arm where Tai had grabbed it, shocked that the one person he looked up to and whom he thought would accept him as a good boyfriend for Kari had done this to him. “I thought you’d be happy about Kari and I dating. And who told you, anyway?”

In a calmness that sent chills down Davis’ back, Tai folded his arms in front of him and closed his eyes. “TK did, but not until after I gave him my blessing to ask Kari out.”

“You what?” Davis almost shouted, stunned. “Why that loser?! He doesn’t even have the same interests as you do, like me!”

“Nevertheless, I chose TK.” Tai then looked over at Kari, who flinched a little as his eyes fell on her. “The reason why is because he kept Sora’s promise to protect you no matter what far beyond our battle with Piedmon, at least until now. I’ve released him from that promise, and even though Sora tried to make TK re-promise her, he said that either Davis can protect you or you can protect yourself from now on.

“There is one more thing,” Tai said as he gently shoved Kari back into the apartment. “TK’s made it clear that we older kids shouldn’t get involved with his problems with you. We’ve agreed to honor his wishes for now, but if it ever comes down to it, Matt will be by TK’s side. Think real hard about this, Davis, on your way home. Good night.”

Kari watched as Tai shut the door and then locked it, not giving Davis a chance to talk back. However, all she could think about was what Tai had said about TK. “Did he really say that,” she asked in a slightly trembling voice. “Did TK really say what you told us?”

Tai didn’t look at her. “You’re to keep away from TK. You and Davis are not to go near him and/or Ken until we can figure out how to resolve this without anyone else turning on each other.”

“But… but you said you and the others weren’t going to get involved like TK said.”

“As long as you younger kids focus on restoring the Digital World and go after control spires only, we won’t.”

Giving a nod, Kari walked away, heading for her bedroom. She didn’t notice Gatomon sitting on top of the couch, almost glaring at her as she closed the door behind her.

[It’s as if Tai’s already decided who he’s going to help,] Kari thought, […And I know he’s not choosing his sister and her boyfriend.] She pushed a large box under her bed. She had taken it from a garbage bin outside TK’s apartment, where she had somewhat seen TK dispose of it. Subconsciously, she decided to hide it for now and open it another day.


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“Climb up, Kari! Hurry, he’s coming!”

Obeying, 8-year-old Kari started climbing up the rope into the black sky. She and TK were the last of the Digi-Destined now that Piedmon had turned the others into key chains, including their Digimon. Now she only had TK to protect her from the final Dark Master.

“Sorry, kiddies, but gym class is over!”

Looking down, Kari saw that she had climbed up faster than TK. Piedmon had just grabbed him by the legm but he was holding onto the rope tightly. “TK, hang on, I’ll save you!”

“Forget about me! Save yourself!”

But Kari had already started to climb down. “I won’t leave you, TK!” However, she felt a pair of hands pulling her up.

“Leave him, Kari,” Davis said to her, pulling her back up the rope. “He doesn’t matter, remember?”

Kari looked back down, and saw that the rope had started to wear at one point between herself and TK. TK also saw this, and made a decision. The look on his face, Kari’s eyes widened at the sight of it: it was no longer that of an 8-year-old, but of his and her current ages. She tried to call out, but he spoke first. His words took the wind right out of her.

“I loved you,” he said, tearfully. “Goodbye.”

Having said this, TK pulled hard and the rope snapped. Together, he and Piedmon fell back towards the ground, Piedmon laughing maniacally. “I guess he really doesn’t mean anything to you, ‘Child of Light.’”

At that moment, Kari said up in bed, gasping for air. Her eyes took in the stillness of her and Tai’s bedroom, and the morning sunlight coming in from her bedroom window. Leaning over the side of her bunk, she saw Tai’s bed was empty, and Gatomon was nowhere to be seen.

What was with her nightmare? Why did it change from what she actually remembered? Kari then recalled what Tai had said before, and she felt guilty. That was the day the day TK made his promise to Sora to protect Kari no matter what, and now he had been released of that promise by Tai for Davis to keep as Kari’s boyfriend. While she knew Davis was more than up for the task, deep down, she knew that it was TK’s promise and his alone.

“I should have just told him the truth,” she said to herself, sitting in her bed. “It didn’t matter if he was watching us at the time. I was supposed to be his best friend. But what kind of friend flirts with her best friend when he mistook it for something more? Was it his fault for not realizing it, or… or was it mine for doing it in the first place?”

Kari then swung her legs around and jumped down from the bed. Now wasn’t the time for this, she knew. Davis and the others would be waiting for her to go and help restore the Digital World, and maybe destroying more control spires would help her forget about TK. She just hoped he wouldn’t be in the Digital World today, or that he’d keep far away from them.


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“Just in time, guys,” Ken said with a smile of satisfaction as TK and Matt entered his room, Patamon perched on TK’s shoulder. “What I call the ‘D-Stealth’ program is finished and needs testing out. Do I have any volunteers?”

“Is it just D-3 compatible?”

“That’s part of the test, Matt,” TK said after rolling his eyes. “Try to keep up with the conversation.”

Ken suppressed a snicker as stuck out his hand. “And thanks for volunteering, Matt. Your Digivice, please?” Ken took the device from Matt’s hand and plugged a connector into it that was also attached to his D-3. “I already downloaded the program into my Digivice. This should only take a moment,” he said while punching in the download command on his D-3. It took a minute before Matt’s Digivice gave three beeps, signaling that the download was complete. Once this was done, Ken did the same to TK’s D-3.

“All that’s left now,” Ken said after returning TK his D-3, “is to give these the acid test. Anybody up for a trip to the Digital World?”

Wormmon raised several of his front legs. “I am.”

“Hold it, guys,” Matt said before he moved to Ken’s computer and opened the file for the Digi-Port. “First thing’s first: we gotta check if Davis and the others are already in the Digital World. If they are, we need to find an area that’s far enough away that we won’t accidentally catch their attention.”

“Sure, use Ken’s computer for him,” Tk said in a sarcastic tone. “He doesn’t mind.”

“It’s alright, TK. Matt’s just looking out for us, or at least you since you’re his brother.”

“Ken, I told you, you already earned my trust. It’s Davis and Kari that I’m worried about. Here!” He pointed at a section of the grid that showed four red blips. “That’s gotta be them. So let’s go over here. They’d have to cross this lake, and it’s huge.”

Patamon fluttered over to look at the screen. “Good thinking, Matt. Veemon’s armored forms can’t swim or fly. And I doubt Davis has even considered trying to get Veemon to Digivolve normally. Let’s get going.”


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Davis and Raidramon joined the others around Yolei. “What’s with the sudden meeting?” Davis asked.

Yolei held up her D-Terminal to show an email she had received from Izzy. “Izzy detected some sort of signal in a part of the Digital World a good distance form here. The thing is he can’t make it out if they’re signals from a Digivice or not. He’s tried sending emails out to the other Digi-Destined, checking to see if they’re also in the Digital World.” Yolei closed the screen protector on her D-terminal rather quickly. She didn’t want to mention that Izzy had gotten responses from all but two of the other Digi-Destined: TK and Matt.

However, Kari had already figured it out. “It might be Ken, again, trying to hide from us.”

“Yeah,” Davis said, his anger rising. “And I think I know who’s with him, too. Let’s go check it out!”

“Hold on, Davis,” Cody said quickly. He pulled out a printout of a map and pointed to a picture of a lake. “We have to cross this lake here in order to get to where the signals are coming from. It’s a long journey for even our Digimon.”

Armadillomon then spoke up. “Actually, that lake is where Whamon is pulling duty as a ferry, transporting Digimon from one side to the other. Only costs 50 Digi-dollars for a group of eight, like us.”

Cody didn’t look at Armadillomon. While he still didn’t trust Ken, he was reluctant to pick a fight with TK. Despite what happened a few days ago, he still considered TK his friend, and didn’t like what Kari and Davis had done to him.

Raidramon was also hesitant to check out the area, if TK was really there. “Let’s not worry about that right now. Like Yolei said, Izzy doesn’t know what exactly those signals are. We came here to fix up the Digital World, right? Let’s get back to that.”

“But that’s why we have to check it out, Raidramon. There’s no telling what sort of mischief TB and Ken are up to, and we need to make sure they’re stopped. Kari and I are going, with or without the rest of you. Let’s go, Kari.”

“R-right. Come one, Gatomon.”

[I’d rather kiss a Namemon full on the mouth, but somebody’s got to make sure you’re okay, Kari; and I don’t trust Davis.] Saying nothing, Gatomon joined her partner with Davis atop Raidramon. Yolei, Cody and Armadillomon got on Halsemon and flew off after them.

[I want to warn TK that we’re coming,] Yolei thought sadly, [but there’s no way I can with Cody watching me. Please let them get away before we show up.]


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TK’s group decided to take a break from destroying spires, resting on some rocks nearby. Matt and Gabumon were impressed; Ken’s program had allowed Matt’s Digimon to become Garurumon without worry about the effects of the control spires. This made destroying the structures a lot quicker, though they still had a few more to lay waste yet.

Earlier, they had a surprise visit from another Digimon that hadn’t been seen in years: Ogremon. The Viral Digimon had been living quietly since the death of Apocalymon, awaiting for Leomon’s return. He had been in hiding when Ken first appeared as the Digimon Emperor, not wanting to relive being a slave like he had been to Devimon. When TK and the others told him Ken had reformed and was now helping to fix things, Ogremon gladly accepted him.

“I know where you’re coming from” he explained. “I had trouble convincing others that I had changed, but give it time and you’ll be accepted like I was. Hey, how come it’s just you three out here today? I heard about new Digi-Destined; where are they?”

“…Let’s just say we’re not on good terms with them right now,” Patamon said.

As if on cue, the D-3’s and Matt’s Digivice started beeping. Ken was the first to grab his and look at it. He paled. “Davis and the others, they’re closing in on us! They’re only a few miles away!”

Matt jumped to his feet. “They’re that close?! How come our Digivices only just picked up their signals?”

“The stealth program,” TK said in horror, “it must have shortened the range of our signal trackers by accident. We gotta hide!”

Wormmon started towards the remaining control spires. “Maybe they won’t destroy these if we hide among them.”

“Any port in a storm,” Ogremon said as he and the others followed Wormmon. Within minutes, Davis and his group had arrived at the scene, but they didn’t see any sign of TK or Ken, or any of their party for that matter.

“There’s nobody here,” Cody said, dismounting from Halsemon along with Armadillomon. He looked at the destroyed ruins of spires nearby. “Though, from the looks of things, somebody was doing our job for us.”

“Then perhaps Ken and TK are working together only to undo Ken’s mistakes,” Halsemon said. This earned him a death glare from Davis. “Or maybe not.”

Kari looked at her D-3. “Hey, the weird signals are gone. I’m not picking up anything.”

From their respective hiding places, Ken and the others realized that the stealth program now seemed to work when they were within a close proximity of other Digivices. Ken mentally swore that he would correct his grave miscalculations when they got back to the real world. That is, IF they could get away without causing a fight.

“So they’re not here,” Davis said, disappointed. Then, he got an idea. “Well, since we came all this way, let’s finish off the rest of these control spires.”

“Hold it,” Yolei said suddenly. “Ken’s a genius. Maybe they’re hiding among the control spires from us using some sort of stealth program Ken invented.”

Davis liked this possibility. However, he wasn’t sure that Ken was that smart anymore, given the fact that he created Kimeramon and it went out of his control. “Get real, Yolei. Nobody would be that dumb to hide in a patch of spires. Let’s get wrecking, crew!”

Cursing under their breaths, TK and his team overheard Armadillomon and Gatomon Armor-Digivolve just before Raidramon fired off his Blue Thunder attack. They scattered, trying desperately to avoid being seen and getting hit with debris. However, Ogremon was too bulky to prevent himself from being seen by Davis.

“Hey! There’s a Digimon hiding in there!”

“No, I’m a Digimon trying to get the heck outta here!” Ogremon cried while jumping from Digmon’s Gold Rush attacks.

Three flashes of light came within the batch of spires before Angemon, Garurumon and Stingmon appeared. Stingmon flew to Ogremon and carried him out of Digmon’s line of fire while Matt and Ken hopped onto Garurumon and raced out into the open.

Kari saw them, and gasped. “Yolei was right; they were hiding from us!”

This was enough for Davis. “Get ‘em! Don’t let any of them get away! Raidramon, attack!”

Raidramon did fire his Blue Thunder, but he purposely missed, aiming instead at a nearby spire. However, TK suddenly came running out and under the path of the collapsing spire. “Oh no! TK, LOOK OUT!”

Stingnmon had dropped off Ogremon and was on his way back when Nefertimon flew in front of him and blocked him. However, hearing Raidramon call out TK’s name, they both looked to see TK about to be crushed and flew to try and reach him in time.

“TK!”

TK suddenly felt himself shoved out of the falling spire’s path. Landing on his side, he looked up and his eyes widened in terror; Angemon had saved him only to be caught under the spire’s weight.

“Yeah, nice work, Raidramon! Finish Angiemon off!”

Rushing to his friend, TK waved his arms at Raidramon, who had rushed up to the fallen Angemon. “NO, LEAVE HIM ALONE! GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

“But, TK, I-!”

“ROSETTA STONE!”

Everyone was shocked that Nefertimon had attacked Raidramon, knocking him away before she landed beside Angemon and tried her best to lift the fallen spire off of him. TK joined her, not caring why she was helping as long as they could save Angemon.

“Keep them back; I’ll go help Angemon and TK!”

Stingmon and Garurumon attacked Davis’s group while Ogremon rushed to the fallen spire. Using all of his strength, he lifted up the spire just as Angemon started to glow, signaling he was changing back to Patamon. “TK, grab him, quick! The weight might crush him.”

Kari had joined Nefertimon just as TK managed to safely pull the unconscious Patamon to safety. She watched as TK cradled his partner in his arms, and then he looked right at her. His eyes were filled with disbelief and anger towards her, and a part of her knew he had every right to feel this way. “TK, I’m so-.”

“I’ll never forgive you for this,” was TK’s cold response. “You, or Davis, or any of your group!”

“No, wait! Listen to me-!”

“FIST OF THE BEAST KING!”

Leomon’s battle cry took everyone by surprise as he joined the fray. Watching him fighting with Davis and the others, Ogremon quickly told TK “Take the others and get lost! I’ll help Leomon cover your escape!”

“As will I,” Nefertimon declared, shocking Kari before she turned to go and attack their friends.

TK joined Matt and Ken just as their Digimon reached them. Together, they all ran into a nearby forest towards the monitor they had used. As they ran, Matt sent emails out to his mother and to Joe. “I’ll have mom open the Digi-port at my place,” he stated, “and hopefully Joe will meet us there to look at Pata. And then, we’ll plan our next move. Davis and them better watch out!”

Both Ken and Stingmon felt their hearts sink. Each of them blamed themselves for Patamon being injured – Ken for failing to work out the glitches in his stealth program, and Stingmon for suggesting they hide amongst the spire. They silently prayed that Patamon would be okay, and that they would be forgiven.


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Davis was rather pleased with himself. Despite having escaped him once again, TK and Ken had been dealt a severe blow with Patamon being injured. Even Nefertimon’s turning against them at the end wasn;t much of a big deal to him. “Great job, everyone,” he told his friends and their Digimon. “Especially you, Demi-Veemon. Too bad TJ didn’t get hit-.”

“It was an accident.”

Blinking, Davis looked at his partner. “Say what?”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen!” Demi-Veemon said, tears in his eyes. “I struck that spire on purpose so nobody would get hurt, Davis. How was I to know TK would suddenly get in its path? And then I tried to help save Angemon and everyone thought I was going to hurt him some more when I wasn’t.”

“I’m sure Angemon knew you didn’t mean it,” Gatomon said, trying to comfort her friend. “And I’m sorry for attacking you-.”

“How could you do that, Gato?” Kari said suddenly. “TK’s the enemy.”

“But he was your friend,” Gatomon replied, looking up at Kari. “But I guess that means nothing to you now that you’ve forsaken him for Davis. You deserve his contempt, Kari, and worse!”

“It was their own fault for hiding from us in the first place. Angemon wouldn’t have gotten hurt if TK hadn’t ran right into the falling spire’s way.”

“Kari,” Yolei said, trying to get between the two. But Gatomon raised her voice.

“They wouldn’t have hid from us if they trusted us! But why should they? You hid the truth about your relationship with Davis from TK-.”

“He already knew! He was spying on us-.”

“He didn’t mean that-!”

“Hey, whose Digimon are you, anyway – mine or his?”

“Kari, stop it-!”

But then Davis finally spoke up. “I’ve had all I can take! Gatomon, either you start listening to Kari and know your place, or else Kari can find a new partner. TC and his-.” He was cut off as Gatomon jumped right at him and knocked him onto his back.

“His anme is TK, you idiot! T-K! Get it right!”

“Leave him alone!” Before anyone could stop her, Kari kicked Gatomon off of Davis. The feline Digimon rolled until she hit the wall. There was a dead silence as Kari and Gatomon then stared at each other in anger.

“So you’d choose your boyfriend over your friends-?”

“Get out of my sight, you furball!” Kari exclaimed. “I never want to see you again! And you can tell TK the same!”

Slowly, Gatomon got up as Cody raced over to her. She heard him try to talk to her, to tell her Kari didn’t mean what she had said. However, the damage had been done, and Gatomon was hurt, possibly beyond repair. Saying nothing, she raced out of the computer room and down the empty school halls. Tears flew from her eyes and face as she ran.

[How could you, Kari? How could you?!]


To be continued…


Author’s notes: Well, here I am again. Never thought I’d come back to this series, did you? Thanks to a dream I had where I found a publication of Digimon stories that made me think of TK being heartbroken, I decided to attempt a return to this series.

However, things have changed since I tried to do this redo of a fanfic series. I’m not sure I’m going to keep the “Mimi’s got a boyfriend in America” subplot anymore. Heck, I dunno if I’ll even try to get TK’s parents back together as well.

You want to know why my interest in finishing this series waned for so long? It’s because 02 is hardly on anymore. Before some of you say anything, yes I do know that it runs as part of the Jetix blocks on ABC Family and Toon Disney, but who has time when you’re 25 and have a real job to do? I’m praying somewhere along the line the first two seasons of Digimon and the 4th movie will be released on DVD eventually. And while I really want to see the original, unedited Japanese version with subtitles (and my search for that has gotten me nowhere), I’d even take the US version only on DVD at this point.

Well enough ranting. Please read and review, and I apologize for taking so long to post this. –R80