Kari speaks:

   It’s now a whole week after Koneko died.  I don’t think Davis will ever be the same.  He loved her so much.  We attended her funeral on Friday, it seemed fitting to have it on Friday because it was her favourite day of the week.  Most of the digidestined came, but not everyone, so we could not meet then.  It probably wouldn’t have been a very good idea.   I saw Winter there too, but I don’t think anyone else did.  She seemed so sad, like someone who had watched everyone she loved be taken away.  Sometime’s I wonder if that’s not what happened.
   I had the dream again, several times.  Except it’s different now, because now I see Koneko in it.  Every morning I wake up and I feel more and more sad.  I feel like crying, but I can’t.  I wish that the dream were real, because then we might be able to get Koneko back.  I wonder if Davis sees her there too.
   T.K. and Gatomon and Tai have been as supportive as they can I guess.  I almost feel like we’re all falling apart.  The war with Destiny has not even begun and already we act as though we have been defeated.


   Kari and T.K. were the first to arrive at the park with their digimon partners, under the big cherry blossom tree, which was in full bloom.  Yolei and Ken arrived shortly after with Poromon and Leafmon.  The four sat under the tree, not speaking, just sitting, trying to absorb the shock of everything that was happening.
   “I can’t understand why we’re even involved in this in the first place.  Who are we to try and stop Destiny?”  Izzy said quietly, arriving with Tentomon.
   “We’re not here to stop Destiny,” Kari answered flatly.  T.K. placed his arm around her shoulders, trying to comfort her.  Nothing he did seemed to help escape the dark place her heart seemed to be stuck in.  He was very worried.
   One by one, the other digidestined began arriving with their partners in tow.  First Matt and Mimi, then Cody and Joe.  Finally Tai, Davis and Sora arrived.
   “Sora?” Mimi asked innocently, “where’s Biyomon?”
   “Ask her,” she said, her voice breaking, pointing to where Winter had approached as silently as a wraith.
   Seeing the tears forming in Sora’s eyes, Mimi immediatly regretted asking the question.  She noticed Davis next.  She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.  He had become so thin and pale, he wasn’t even the same person anymore.  She felt so out of the loop, being away from everyone in America.  She hadn’t even known Koneko.  She must have meant so much to him, she thought sadly.
   “It’s nice to see everyone here,” Winter said quietly, looking every person there in the eye, meeting some friendly glances and some decidedly unfriendly ones, and some entirely lifeless, listless looks.  Especially from Davis and from Kari.  With everyone sitting under the tree, Winter immediatly went and sat in Davis’ lap.  He wrapped his arms around her, accepting what little comfort the girl was able to offer.
   “Well?” Sora asked sarcastically, glaring at the girl through her tears.
   “The time for secrets is over,” the little girl said, turning around in Davis’ arms to face everyone.  She directed a look towards Gatomon, who in turn looked at all of the digimon gathered together.  They all nodded.
   “How do you know Winter, Gatomon?” T.K. asked, still holding Kari.
   “As you know, digimon never die, we just get reconfigured,” Gatomon began to explain, “Well in my case, everytime I’ve been reconfigured, I’ve been Gatomon, and I’ve had all my memories.”
   “But isn’t it like that for all the digimon?” Izzy asked, shaking his head.
   “We’re not sure,” Agumon answered truthfully, “None of us have ever been reconfigured, with the exception of Patamon and Gatomon, who are both angel digimon in their ultimate forms.  We’re not sure if that makes them any different when it comes to being reborn, but it definetly makes them different in regards to their nature.”
   “But if you never die, why hasn’t Biyomon come– come back?” Sora choked out.
   “I’m sorry, Sora.  I can’t answer that,” Winter said quietly.
   “I thought the time for secrets was over,” Sora sneered at the girl.
   “It is, but I can’t tell you that because even I don’t know the answer.”
   Sora snorted derisively, obviously not believing Winter’s truthfullness.
   “But how do you know Winter?” Ken asked again.
   “I wasn’t always Destiny’s tool, I was a real child like all of you once,” Winter answered sadly, “and I had a digimon partner too.”
   “Gatomon?” everyone asked at once, with the exception of Davis, who had not moved since wrapping his arms around the little girl.
   Winter and Gatomon smirked. 
   “No, actually, my digimon was Lucatomon.  At least in his in his rookie form,” her face became sad. “Unfortunately, you will all recognize him in his ultimate form, because he became Myotismon.”
   Even Davis let out a gasp at this.  Nobody knew what to say.
   “When Myotismon found me,” Gatomon continued, “he kept Winter around long enough to train me in my duties, and then he sent her back to the real world, saying that he did not need such an inferior being at his side.”
   Tai noticed Winter flinch at the word inferior.
   “I knew it!” Sora yelled, jumping up, glaring accusingly at Winter, “I knew you were evil from the beginning!”
   “Sit down Sora,” Cody said sharply.  Sora glared at him in confusion.
   “What are you talking about, Cody?” Mimi said, jumping to Sora’s defence, “She admitted that she worked for Myotismon, if you ask me, that makes her evil enough not to be trusted.”
   “Then I guess that means you don’t trust me either,” Gatomon said, her voice tinged with hurt.
   “Oh Gatomon,” Mimi said quickly, regretting again having spoken, “it’s different with you, you escaped, he just let Winter go.  How can know why he would have done that?”
   “Shut up, everyone just shut up.”
   Everyone stared up in surprise at Davis who had spoken for the first time.
   “You don’t get to pick your digimon partner,” he continued, his voice breaking, “but you, all of you, accepted the partner you were given, without a question, without a doubt.  How can you believe it was any different with Winter?” he glared at each of them, daring them to challenge him.  Tai was shocked at the conviction in Davis’ eyes.  It was the most sign of any emotion except despair that Davis had shown since Koneko had died.
   “I’m sorry Davis,” Mimi muttered quietly, staring at the grass.
   “Suffice it to say that even I don’t know why I was let go,” Winter picked up, as though nothing had happened, “but shortly after I returned to the real world, there was a tragic incident in which I was killed--”
   “So you’re a ghost?!” Izzy cut her off, eyes wide in amazement.
   Winter shook her head and shrugged, “Not really.  Maybe in the terms that you understand death, but there is so much more to it than that.  I’m am simply one of Destiny’s tools now.  Or God’s if you’d rather think of it that way.”
   “And so we’re not watched over by a loving and caring omnipotent being.  Rather, we’re the pawns of a cold, unfeeling Destiny, which moves us how it wills,” Kari muttered flatly.
   Everyone looked at Kari in shock, for the first time realizing that there was something really wrong with the girl.
   “Kari?”  Yolei asked, concerned, “are you okei?”
   Kari just sat quietly, staring into space, curled up in T.K.’s arms.  T.K. just sighed and shrugged, he didn’t know what to say to them.  He didn’t know what was wrong with her either.
   They all sat there, asking questions, listening to the truths being told to them by their digimon partners and by Winter.  Everyone spoke except for Davis and Kari, everyone striving, struggling to grasp the enormity of what they were being told.  Finally Winter revealed to them the truth about the dreams.  That in fact, they were not just dreams, that the people in them were real.  They were simply from another place, on a different plane, much in the same way as the digital world and real world were different.  Finally the matter of the new crests came up.
   “We know that Davis’ crest is that of Loyalty, because you told us, Winter.  But what about mine?  Or Yolei’s?” Cody asked.
   “And why did we have to create them?” Yolei added.
   Winter sighed, “You know why they were created, Yolei.  You will need them in order to allow your digimon to evolve in to ultimates, as we’ve already seen with Cantusmon.  Cody, your crest is the crest of Truth.”
   “So that’s what you meant,” Sora breathed, her eyes wide in understanding.
   Winter only nodded and continued.  “Yolei, yours in the crest of Music.  The three new crests are not like the others, just as Light and Hope are different from the original six crests.  Music, Loyalty and Truth are all qualities that a spirit is born with.  They are also connected together in such a way that together, their strength is increased.  In Music one can find Truth.  In Truth, Loyalty is found, and in Loyalty we find Kindness.”
   Everyone gasped at the first mention of Ken’s crest.  They had almost forgotten that he had it.
   “Why is kindness important?” Ken asked, shaking his head in confusion.
   “Because without kindness, there is no love, no friendship, nothing, nobody cares, and when nobody cared, nothing matters anymore.” Winter finished, surprised to find that she was crying.  Why would something like this make me cry? she wondered.  It’s because nobody does care about me, she concluded sadly.


   After they had concluded their meeting, everyone had gone home.  Tai went with Sora to her house, Yolei, Ken and Cody brought Davis with them to Yolei’s apartement.  Matt, Mimi, Izzi and Joe all returned to Izzy’s house, where they were up half the night trying to make sense of everything they had just been told.  T.K. went back to Kari’s place with her.  Neither of them able to sleep, they watched a movie, laying together on the living room couch.
   Sometime during the movie, T.K. had fallen asleep, but he awoke abruptly when he felt Kari sit bolt right up, gasping for air.
   “What’s wrong?” he asked her gently, taking her hands in his own. He was surprised at how cold they were.
   “Nothing,” she muttered.
   “Bullshit,” he said, forcing her to look him in the eye.  The pain and despair he saw in her eyes terrified him.  “Kari,” he said shakily, “this has to stop, you have to tell what’s going on.”
   “Oh T.K., I wish I could,” she moaned, “but I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  In my dreams I see Koneko, she’s with Glynna and Mishka, but then I wake up and she’s gone and I want to cry about it, but I can’t.  Do you know what that’s like? Not being able to cry?” she shouted in frustration.
   “I’m sorry, Kari,” he said quietly, “you can’t give up hope.  Not now.  You can’t let Destiny win, then all our pain and suffering will have been for nothing.”
   “He’s right, Kari,” Winter said from behind him.  “You are the light, and without Light, Hope ceases to exist.  Do you understand that, Kari?”
   Kari gasped, realizing the extent of her power for the first time.  And the full weight of responsability hit her square in the face.
   “Oh Kari,” Winter whispered, approaching the two on the couch, “you, like Glynna-vyre only just now realize your importance.  Let him be there for you, you cannot carry the burden alone.  Hope cannot exist without Light, but the reverse is also true.”  Winter touched her hand to Kari’s cheek, and when she drew it back, they saw that it was wet with tears.
   Feeling the first tears fall, Kari felt like whatever had been holding her back for days had finally loosened it’s grip.  Her body was racked by sobs, as she cried her heart out into T.K.’s chest.  He held her tightly to him, helping her to ride out the storm of emotions raging through her.  When he looked up, Winter was gone.  Finally exhaustion won out over the tears and Kari fell asleep.  Wrapped together in each other’s arms, the children of Hope and Light slept peacefully for the first time in a very long time.

---

End of Chapter 11
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