Hello, welcome to this new story! I'm going to be playing with a fair amount of time jumping so if it gets confusing please let me know in reviews so I can tweak things. This is something I've been working on for over a year now and I finally decided to just post it so I would have more motivation to write. I'll update as often as possible.

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. Characters outside of those from the show are mine.

Light Magic

Chapter 1 - Nightmares

People stared.

It could have been my hair. Which had settled half in and out of a bun. Maybe it was the way my shirt was ripped at the sleeve and hanging slightly off my arm. It may have been the wild look that I'm sure covered my face, or the blood on my lip, and the bruise around my eye.

It was probably that last part.

I found a seat in the corner of the train and people slid away from me, weary of the disheveled traveler. I reached into my backpack and found a sweatshirt, pulled it on roughly with the hood up, wishing to become invisible.

I clasped my hands together to keep them from shaking. I was safe, for now, and I was going home. The day played out over in my head, that morning felt so far away now, but my nightmare felt more real than ever.

I'd woken up to the sound of labored breathing. Not knowing it was mine. I felt so outside of myself that night, soaking wet, but at the same time feeling almost nothing at all. Just cold, so cold. Sensation came back to my toes first, tingling as a reminder that they were still connected to my body and that my body was indeed in my bed.

It was so long ago that I was in that place, and I felt like a child again, wishing to peak up into the top bunk to wake my brother. Or grab my phone and text those preset numbers for him, so he'd know where to go. Now, I was alone hours away from who I used to be, racing to catch my breath.

I got out of bed, grabbed a set of worn tarot cards from my desk and unwrapped them with shaking hands. I shuffled them, asking a question I already knew the answer to.

I drew The Devil.

I drew The Devil again, and again. Even though there was only one Devil in a deck. I dropped the cards as 78 Devils fluttered to the ground, staring up at me, taunting me. I stepped back horrified at the impossibility of what I was seeing. I pushed myself into a corner, muttering words of protection to myself, hoping something or someone would hear me.

I fell asleep like that, leaning against my wall, and woke with a crick in my neck. I dragged myself toward the cards, afraid to see, but they were back to normal. Their archetypal images looked back at me as if nothing was amiss. I shuffled them back together, and as I did one fell out, suddenly looking up at me was The Sun. A vision flashed before my eyes, just for a moment, from my dream the night before. His warm hand as it clutched my arm, pulling me away from the shadows and back towards the light, his blue eyes.

I fell into my bed and curled myself into a tight ball, scared, tired, and alone. I thought of him, his warmth, the way it had felt to be close to him, and the hole my life had without him in it.

Now, on the train, I did the same. I curled my knees into my chest and thought of him, and of home.

I hadn't had a nightmare in years. Therapy, and meds, had put an end to my own demons years earlier. Waking that night though was like being shot. I felt hot, a tightness in my chest, and an empty feeling in my hand where she should have been. Years since I'd dreamed, and years since I'd seen her face so clearly.

She looked different, her face thinner and her hair slightly longer, but I knew it was her.

The urge to call her was so strong, but the sad truth was that I no longer had her number. She'd changed it long ago when she moved away like so many of the others, looking to escape a tragic childhood that some of us never properly dealt with.

Once the gate closed it was like people couldn't scatter fast enough. I'd always thought more kept us together than duty, but I'd been wrong about that, like so much else.

The dream wasn't nothing. I knew it wasn't nothing. I laid back in my bed that night and tried to imagine I was there, wherever she was, protecting her from a darkness I thought we'd banished long ago. I felt warm as I drifted off to sleep, fingers tingling, and a sense that I'd done something right even though I didn't know what.

When I woke up the next morning the unsettled feeling returned, having little sleep and the images of the dream from the night before floating through my mind. I knew I needed a second opinion. I put myself together, throwing on a pair of shorts and an old T-shirt, grabbed my backpack and was out the door. I backtracked as I passed my normal coffee shop, feeling the need for a comfort on what felt like an abnormal day. It feels silly in hindsight, my clinging to some sort of normalcy, but I'm grateful I did it. I'd need the coffee that day.

I walked up the steps to Tai's apartment and started to worry I was being dramatic. Why was I making such a big deal out of a dream? I stood at the door, kicking my shoes into the old red carpet working up my nerve. It wasn't like it would be weird for me to show up, we'd remained close, probably the closest of everyone. As the rest of them scattered and lived their lives away from the digital world, we held on. We continued to grow, went to school, became adults, but we kept the bond that brought us all together. Izzy remained as well, not always physically close, but still in constant inquiry about the world that we were spirited away to as children.

I took a breath, knocked on the door, and waited. I heard some commotion from the other side, some muffled yelling back and forth before the door opened to a wide eyed Tai.

"I was just about to text you, get in here." He grasped onto my arm, in the same place I'd held onto hers in my dream last night. There was a flash of it again, his eyes replaced with hers, searching for the clarity that it was actually me. Gone. Just as quickly as the flash came and I was back in the room with Tai and was surprised, but not shocked, to find Izzy there as well.

It was like being transported into the past, watching him type away on his computer, not even registering my entrance. Tai nervously paced back and forth, leaving me in the hallway with no explanation.

"Here!" Izzy sat back while Tai and I made our way over to him.

"What are we looking at?" I asked.

"Remember the lines, when our worlds were merging together?" Izzy pointed towards the screen showing what I assumed was our world line, flickering in and out with another line popping into the screen, like subliminal messaging. Blink and you'd miss it.

"Yea, but we closed the gate, how would that be possible?" Tai's voice held a bit of wonder, possibly excitement.

"Because it's not the digital world. It's the ocean." Izzy's voice didn't hold emotion, it was mechanical, just the truth. The weight of it hung over the room.

"Guys, we need to talk." They both looked at me, finally giving me their full attention, as I started to tell them my dream from last night.

That morning, when I finally gained the courage to pull myself from my bed I texted a friend who I knew wouldn't ask a lot of questions and got ready to face the world. I walked into the bathroom and turned on the water for a shower but the second it hit my skin I felt burned, afraid. I turned it off and stepped back, taking a breath and getting myself together. I was safe. I was here. I was not in the ocean.

I got ready the best I could without a shower and ran out of my apartment. I felt lighter once I was out, breathing in the fresh air, grateful for the warm day and the feeling of the sun against my skin.

Nadia was the first, and really only, friend I'd made when I moved away for school. She was eclectic but sophisticated. She wore black like the color belonged to her, and a piece of crystal quartz hung from her neck on a silver chain. Her hair was dyed blonde at the ends, perfectly blended into her darker brown roots. She didn't splurge on much, but her hair was the exception.

She'd come right up to me on that first day, "They were not subtle when naming you," her mouth had twitched into a small smile as she spoke, and her hazel eyes seemed to change with the light.

I'd been confused, how she'd even known my name. I'd come to learn about her gifts over time as she guided me into my own. She was a witch, and had all eight Clair senses, and she was guided to me by something larger than us.

I was in disbelief at first, a witch, how could that even be real? Then, sensing my shock she said, "A digital world is within the realm of possibility but somehow being a witch and believing in magic is too much?"

I laughed, she was right, my life experience had been otherworldly. How could this be where I drew the line on believability. Also, the fact that she even knew about the digital world without ever having a partner made it easier to believe in her psychic abilities. The next few years were spent learning, in school, and with her. She taught me to tap into my own Clair abilities, the digital beings speaking through me suddenly became more understandable. She taught me, most importantly, how to protect myself.

"Kari, you ARE light magic," she explained. "Shining so brightly makes you like a homing beacon for darker energy, they want to absorb it, deplete you, and dull your power."

We became, in a sense, our own little coven. By day we went to our classes, I studied photography and she studied history, and by night she taught me all that she knew of the magic that lived inside of us. I felt seen in a new way, in a way that made me feel in control, a person with the power to take care of myself, instead of a girl in constant need of protection.

Then, Kato appeared a few months ago, as if out of thin air. He was handsome, with dark eyes and dark hair, his skin a perfect caramel color. Unlike Nadia, he was always wearing white, it made him stick out, the crisp color against his darker features made him even more striking. He came to us the same way Nadia had come to me, a homing beacon she'd called me and like a moth to the light he was guided to us.

All because of me.

He was powerful, she felt him coming a day before he even showed up. He seemed to know more than her, he said his family had a lineage, whereas she was self taught. He said he wanted to teach us, but she was weary, curious what he wanted in return. I argued back, she'd done the same for me, when I had nothing to offer her. It was our first and only fight, she'd told me I'd never understand what I'd given her, and she refused to explain. I felt angry and left in the dark, again, like I'd been as a child. She finally caved and half heartily accepted that our duo was a trio, begging me to avoid being alone with him.

It confused me. He was kind, to us and to others, and never gave us a reason to expect anything else.

I was naive.

I was always so damn naive.

When I got to her apartment the door was already ajar. I paused, knowing the second my hand touched the knob that something was wrong. I felt a darkness wash over me but at the core it was simply empty. I called to her with no reply. Everything was in its place, her kitchen counter covered in jars of dried herbs, and fresh flowers on her table. I made my way into her living room where she had high ceilings that she adored, and it's where I found her hanging, in the highest point in her home.

I wanted to scream but nothing came out of my mouth. I backed myself against the wall, taking her in, certain that she was already gone. Her body was almost still, but swayed just the slightest bit, her eyes open and looking down at me. The lovely color of her eyes made to look otherworldly by the bluish tone her skin had taken.

"Take the book," I heard inside my head. I wanted it to be her, but it wasn't her voice, it was one of the many I'd become accustomed to over the past few years.

"Take the book," it said more forcefully, jolting me away from her body and into her room. I closed the door behind me and slid onto the floor, feeling my eyes fill up and spill over. I let out a wail and let myself sob. She was my anchor, my teacher, my family. She was all I had left in this world in terms of real connection, and she was gone.

"You have to go," the voice said gently. I shook my head, angry that Spirit was pushing me in this moment. "It's not safe," it startled me then. I took a few breaths and wiped my face clean. I pushed myself up and went into her top desk drawer where her book of shadows was. I looked around and saw her dagger discarded on the floor and picked it up, placing it into my boot, unsure of why, but knowing I needed to take it with me.

As I left her room I heard a different voice, "Keep your head down," and I did, letting myself be protected from the image further ingraining itself into my mind. I wanted to remember her flipping her hair after a joke, her eyes as she crafted a new spell, and the way she always smelled like lavender. I let the door click behind me and I took a seat onto her steps, grabbed my phone with shaky hands and called the police. Part of me felt guilty leaving her alone in there but I couldn't stand to be with her body and not her soul.

When the police arrived they took my statement. They asked if I knew she was depressed, if she'd ever talked about taking her own life or been fascinated by death. As I told them, "no," they seemed unconvinced, I'm sure the items in her home didn't help this cause. She had a healthy relationship with death, and several books on the topic, but she wasn't seeking it. At one point a neighbor came over and quietly confirmed that I had only recently arrived, so if this did turn out to be foul play it seemed that I would not be a suspect.

Once they were satisfied with me they asked if I needed be taken somewhere, but I declined. I told them I just needed the air, and asked them to let me know if they needed anything else.

Once I got back to my apartment I fell to the ground and curled myself there, angry, scared, and confused. She was not depressed. She was not suicidal. Why would she do this? Why would she leave me alone? My dream from earlier felt far away, now that I was truly living in a nightmare.

I grabbed her book and looked through with blurry eyes, her delicate handwriting covered the pages with all she knew of the craft, until it stopped being about that. I looked to the back to see what her last entry was.

"Kato." Was written as her last entry. It was quick, scratched in, unlike the other carefully written pages. I shut the book tight and shoved it back into my bag feeling sick. Sick because I didn't have to wonder if it was true. The voices in my head said yes over and over again until I yelled for them to stop.

5 years earlier

I woke up soaked with sweat, as if a fever just broke, and my hair stuck to my head. I tried to calm my breathing, I was safe in my room, and after checking my phone I saw that it was just after one in the morning.

I got up, pacing a bit, looking up towards the empty bunk above me that my brother use to occupy. He'd been away at university for about a year now, no longer here to bring me back to reality after a horrifying dream. I tore off my sticky clothing and threw on a clean pair of leggings and my friend's hoodie that he'd left behind after a study session a few nights earlier.

It smelled like him, woodsy and earthy, it grounded me back to the world a bit. I quietly opened the door and made my way down the hall, before leaving my apartment and hurrying out into the night. Once outside I let the cool air crash against my skin, I was able to deepen my breath as I made my way down the quiet street, towards the beach. The neighborhood was always quiet at night, it was safe, so I never worried about taking a walk if I had a nightmare that was particularly awful. When I got to my destination I was surprised to see a boy standing in the sand near the water, his shaggy blonde hair swayed slightly with the wind. He had on shorts, a long sleeve shirt, and sneakers with no socks on, like he'd rushed out quickly, or in a panic.

The boy turned towards me, his eyes widening at first, surprised, before they narrowed and a smirk grew across his face.

"That's where my hoodie went?"

I felt my face heat up, I'd been caught.

I made my way towards him, "It was laying on the floor and I ran out in a hurry," I rationalized.

"I'm just teasing," he said. I stopped in front of him and his eyes glossed over me, searching for signs of pain or injury, "Why are you out here?" His hand rested gently on my arm.

"Isn't it the same reason you're out here," I looked up, searching his eyes.

His hand fell, "You dreamed it too?"

"Yes?"

"Shit."

"Shit is right," I sighed.

"How'd you know?" He sat down, digging his sneakers into the sand. I did the same, resting my weight back onto my hands.

"I donno, It's like I could feel you there, in the ocean." I paused, thinking clearly about it and realizing he was the only one I felt. Maybe it was the subconscious knowledge that my brother wasn't as accessible anymore, but I couldn't figure out how TK dreamed it as well, did I pull him in with me somehow?

"Somethings coming?" He asked, and I nodded in response. I'd always had a weird connection to the other world that I never understood. I could feel it differently and something was indeed coming.

"We need to call Izzy tomorrow and see if there was a disturbance, but maybe it was just a dream." TK was keeping his voice even and gentle, trying to keep me calm, always trying to ground me.

"Just a dream that we both had that brought us to the same place in the middle of the night?"

"I mean, this is kind of our place."

"We have a place?" My voice got a bit too high and I felt me face go red.

"Oh hush, you know what I mean."

I felt warm again, as the heat rushed to my face, something that had been happening more often than not lately when it came to him. TK had been my best friend for the past eight years of my life, recently I'd been seeing him differently, but every time I shoved it away. I wasn't ready to battle that, what it could mean, and how it could blow up in my face.

"What was yours like?" His voice was quiet, almost lost with the wind. There was something I didn't hear often weaving it's way through his words, fear.

"I heard them calling to me, telling me it was time, and I could feel you there but I couldn't find you. It was like your aura was palpable, but physically no one was in sight, and then a wave crashed over me and I was washed out to sea. Then I woke up."

He stayed quiet, his fists clenched at his sides, and I could tell he was chewing on the inside of his mouth, trying to stay calm.

"I saw it."

"What?"

"I saw it happening. You, out in the water, those things coming towards you. I kept calling, but you didn't acknowledge it. Suddenly there was a light, I don't know what it came from, but it was blinding, and then I was awake."

We both sat with this. My mind tossing and turning around ideas trying to figure out how and why we were in the same awful nightmare.

"Were we actually there?" He asked the thing I was too afraid to confront.

"I don't know," I pulled my legs tight against my body and wrapped my arms around them. I stared out at the water in front of me, somehow calmed by it, even as the nightmare washed over me. Until the dark ocean I had always loved the water, the ocean, the rain. I felt a connection to it that I could never properly articulate, maybe thats why the ocean always choose me.

I felt his hand against my back pulling me back to the beach, "We'll figure it out."

"Are you still alone?" I tilted my head towards him.

"Yea she is gone until Monday," I knew his mother had been gone this week on assignment but thought she'd come home before the weekend started.

"Do you want to come back and stay at my place?"

"Sure."

He stood up and brushed himself off, reaching for my hand to help me up. We'd had sleepovers since we were little, but they'd obviously dwindled as we'd aged. Over the past year though it wasn't out of the ordinary for him to crash at my place when his mother was gone, now that there was always an empty bed above mine.

We made our way back to my place in silence. His jaw set, clenched, and his eyes weary. It wasn't often that worry was evident when it came to TK. He was naturally cheery and optimistic, it unsettled me when he drifted from that normal pattern and into the darker depths of his mind. They were there though, he could sink as easily as I could if he let himself. Thankfully he never stayed there long, not if I could help it.

We quietly snuck back into my apartment and to my bedroom. He hopped up into the top bunk, and I curled myself back into my own bed, keeping on his hoodie, choosing to stay surrounded by the comfort of him.

"Kari?"

"Yea?"

"Everything will be okay." His voiced betrayed him, a slight waiver, and I wondered if he said it more for himself than for me.

"Goodnight, TK"

"Night."

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