Author's Notes: Sorry everyone. I know at the end of my last fic I said I would write a Joe/Mimi. And believe me when I say that I am working on one. It's just that it is coming along a lot slower then I had planned. In the mean time, I came up with this one. It was inspired by a Star Trek: Voyager episode and a day of working in the freezer section at my job. This is also kind of similar to my last fic. As always, reviews and opinions are much appreciated and wanted. If you don't want to leave a review, you can always write to me at [email protected].

Dedication: This one is for Ink Jet. She wrote the very first review of my first story when I started posting here on Ff.net. And I thought writing this would be the perfect way to thank her and show how much it meant to me.

And now, on with the fic.


Trapped
By Melissa


The weather on the digital world had been acting very strange for the past several days. One moment the sun would be shining and the next it would be pouring rain. There had even been some hail at one point. The digidestined were making their way across a wide open plain when snow flakes began falling from the sky.

"This is great, just great. It's bad enough we had to go through this on earth. Now it's followed us back to the digital world," Joe complained.

"Calm down, Joe. A few flurries never hurt anyone," Gomamon commented.

As if responding to what the aquatic digimon had said, the snow flakes increased in size, number and speed.

"You just had to go and say something, didn't you?" Joe harshly asked his friend.

No one had minded at first when it had started snowing. Now they were being bombarded by snow flakes. The temperature had also dropped very rapidly.

"We need to find some shelter," Matt said, wrapping a protective arm around TK.

Tai brought his mini telescope up to his eye. he saw a very large object not very far away. He squinted, trying to figure out what it was. A moment later, he grinned.

"I think I've found your shelter, Matt. There's a mountain not too far away from us. We can take refuge there."

"Well, we better hurry up or we'll be buried alive under all this snow," Izzy commented, brushing off the mounds of white stuff that had accumulated on his shoulders.

The digidestined and their digimon began making their way towards the mountain very slowly. The wind was blowing furiously, impeding their progress. During the first 15 minutes of walking, the snow had reached above their ankles. After another 20 minutes, the snow was a little below their knees.

"We have to get out of this!" Mimi yelled above the howling of the wind as they reached the base of the mountain.

Tai shielded his eyes and looked to his right. He saw nothing. He turned to his left and scanned around. He was about to turn away in defeat when he noticed something. Not far away there was a small patch of ground with hardly any snow on it. Tai started walking towards it. As he got closer, his eyes lit up. The small patch of ground was at the entrance to the mouth of a cave. He motioned for the others to follow him.

"Judging by how excited Tai is, he either found us shelter, or he's trying some new, interpretive dance," Joe commented, wiping off his glasses.

Everyone waded through the snow to the entrance of the cave and filed in. They all started making their way to the back of the cave, wanting to get as far away from the snow as possible. As they walked, every couple of feet or so, Izzy would stop and pick up something.

"Izzy, this is no time to be adding to your pet rock collection," Mimi chided.

"For your information, I am gathering up pieces of dried wood and grass in hopes that maybe we can start a small fire," Izzy replied, bending down to pick up another small stick.

After finally reaching the end of the cave, everyone settled down. Izzy placed some of his collection in the middle of floor. He nodded to Agumon, who set the pile ablaze with his Pepper Breath. Everyone sat around, warming themselves by the tiny fire.

Izzy looked at the fire and then at the small pile of twigs and grass next to him and sighed. "The snow better stop soon. We don't have much left to keep this fire going."

"That, or we'll have to start burning our clothes," Tai said sarcastically.

"Oh no, I'm going to freeze to death first," Mimi replied, not picking up on the fact that Tai was not being serious.

Everyone else rolled their eyes slightly. They all sat in silence for a little while, watching the fire slowly die. When the last little flame winked out of existence, Joe spoke up.

"That's it, we're doomed."

Everyone looked very depressed. Kari turned around and squinted towards the mouth of the cave. She broke into a big smile. "Look! It stopped snowing!"

"How about that, Mr. Doom and Gloom," Matt said to Joe. "We're going to survive after all."

TK and Kari broke into a run, laughing and giggling the whole time. They were followed by all the digimon, Mimi, Joe, Izzy, Matt, Sora and Tai. Tai only made it a few steps before he tripped on a jagged piece of rock.

"Ooff," Tai grunted as he hit the floor of the cave pretty hard.

Sora turned around as she heard Tai fall. A look of worry creased her brow as she saw him lying face down.

She rushed to his side. "Tai, are you OK?"

Tai got to his knees and then shifted to the sitting position. He rubbed his knee and his ankle and gave her a weak smile. "Yeah, I'm OK. I think I need to take more lessons in walking though," he said, slightly embarrassed.

Sora smiled at him and offered her hand. Tai gladly took it and stood up. As he put weight on his right foot though, he grimaced in pain. Sora looked at him with concern.

"I think I may have sprained my ankle," Tai said as he held his foot gingerly off the ground.

"Here," Sora said as she placed Tai's arm around her shoulder. "I'll help you, just lean on me."

Slowly they started to make their way back to the entrance. Everyone else was all ready outside.

Outside, the sun was shining bright and glinted off the freshly fallen snow. There wasn't a cloud to be seen in the sky. Also on the plus side, it was also significantly warmer. So much so that the snow was all ready starting to melt.

All the digimon and digidestined, except Joe, were having a snowball fight. Joe sat by the entrance to the cave. He did a count in his head and realized two people were missing. He turned and peered into the darkness of the cave.

"Tai? Sora? Are you guys OK?" Joe called.

"Yeah Joe, we're fine. Tai hurt his ankle and I'm helping him. We'll be out in a few minutes," Sora called back.

Joe nodded and turned back to watching the rest of his friends. As he did so he was pasted in the face with a huge snowball.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared, most with their mouths agape. Gomamon hid his snow covered flippers behind his back.

Joe's face had grown so red and hot the snow practically melted right off of it. He slowly lifted his hand and wiped off the excess snow. He looked about ready to kill someone.

"WHO THREW THAT?!?!" Joe yelled at the top of his lungs.

There was absolute silence.

Izzy gulped nervously. "Um, Joe? I don't think you should be yelling," he said, rather quietly.

Joe walked over to where Izzy was standing. "AND WHY NOT?!" Joe yelled loudly, right in Izzy's face.

An extremely loud rumble was the only answer to Joe's question.

"That's why," Izzy said, looking towards the top of the mountain. Just as he did so, large amounts of snow began falling of and racing towards the bottom at an incredible speed. "Avalanche! Everybody run!"



From inside the cave, the rumble could not only be heard, but felt.

"What the heck was that?" Tai inquired.

Sora looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'm not sure. Maybe an evil digimon is attacking the mountain," she said with a grin. "Or," she continued, "it could be an earthquake, or possibly....," she trailed off as a look of horror replaced the grin she had on moments before.

"What? What's the matter? What is it?" Tai asked frantically.

"....an avalanche," Sora finished as all of the color drained out of her face.

Tai and Sora looked at each other for a moment and then started hurrying for the entrance. It was still slow going due to Tai's injury. They still had quite a ways to go.

Everyone outside tried to run, but that wasn't an easy thing in the deep snow. Still they pushed on, fear and adrenaline helping them along the way.

Sora and Tai were about 15 feet away from the opening when they saw large clumps of snow falling. First it was just a few, then it was more and more. With a thundering roar a wall of white fell down and completely covered up the entrance, plunging the two into complete darkness. The snow was pushed so far in that when it finally stopped moving, it was touching the tips of Sora's and Tai's sneakers.



The rest of the digidestined and digimon had made it far away before all of the snow hit the ground. They had watched the whole thing happen.

"That was close," Palmon said, wiping her brow with her vines.

"Too close," Gabumon agreed.

"Is everyone all right?" TK asked.

As everyone was checking themselves over, a light went on inside of Kari's head. She looked around nervously for a moment. "Hey, where's Tai?"

"What are you talking about?" Matt asked. "He's right......" Matt looked around but didn't complete his statement. "Hey, you're right. Where is Tai?"

"And Sora for that matter." Mimi said.

Joe suddenly came to a sickening revelation in his mind. He felt his knees go out from under him. He sat down in the snow and held his head in his hands.

"What's the matter, Joe?" Izzy asked.

"Tai fell and had hurt his ankle while we were leaving the cave. Sora was helping him," Joe said, his voice trembling. "I don't think they made it out in time."

Everyone turned slowly and looked at the huge mound of snow that now occupied the space where the opening of the cave had been.



Tai and Sora could only stare at all the snow that was now blocking their path.

"Please tell me that did not just happen," Tai said, weakly.

Sora couldn't bring herself to answer him. She just shut her eyes and hung her head.



"What do you mean, you don't think they made it out in time?!" Mimi asked frantically.

"I had just talked to them. They were on their way out. That's when someone hit me in the face with a snowball," Joe said.

"And you had to go and scream your head off. Let's face it, Joe, you caused the avalanche," Gatomon hissed at the eldest digidestined.

"Back off, Gatomon," Gomamon shot back.

"Oh, that's right. Let's put the blame where it really belongs. This is really your fault, Gomamon. You're the one who threw that snowball at Joe. You set off the chain of events that caused the avalanche," Gatomon growled back.

"Everyone, stop it!!" Matt yelled. Fighting isn't going to solve anything. We have to focus on getting Tai and Sora out of there."

"You mean, if they weren't crushed to death first," Mimi moaned.

"Don't talk like that. C'mon, we have to go back. As long as there is a chance that they are still alive, I'm not going to give up," Matt said with finality.

With that, everyone began quickly making their way back to the mountain.



Tai and Sora stood there, completely bewildered. They were now trapped.

Tai finally broke the eerie silence. "This has got to be some sort of horrible dream. I must have hit my head when I fell."

Sora knelt down and scooped some up and made it into a ball. She then turned and gently placed the ball into Tai's hand.

"Does it feel like a dream?" Sora asked.

Tai looked at the snowball. He could feel the coldness through his gloves. He crumbled it in his hands. "No, it doesn't," Tai said dejectedly. He lowered himself to the floor of the cave, unsure of what to do.



Everyone stood at the base of all the snow that had fallen off the mountain.

"All right. We need to come up with a plan to get them out of there. Suggestions?" Matt asked.

TK spoke up. "Couldn't Agumon and Biyomon digivolve and then melt the snow with their fire attacks.?"

"I'm sorry TK. We can't digivolve without the help of Tai and Sora. And my Pepper Breath isn't going to do much good against all that snow," Agumon replied sadly.

"Well, what about the other digimon? They can digivolve and use their attacks to blast away the snow," Mimi said.

"We still have a problem though. The attacks could just cause more avalanches. We can't risk burying them any more then they all ready are," Izzy replied.

"What are we going to do then?" Matt asked everyone.

In response to his question, Kari walked over the mound of snow and picked up some in her hands. She then flung it over her shoulder. She repeated the process over and over again.

"Looks like we dig," Matt conceded.

"We may not be able to use out attacks, but we can still digivolve and help you guys dig," Palmon put in.

Everyone nodded their consent. Gatomon, Patamon, Gabumon, Palmon, Gomamon and Tentomon all digivolved to their most powerful states. They were all about to start when Izzy spoke up.

"Guys, I think there is something you should be aware of. I've been doing some calculations and if they're right, we don't have much time to get them out of there. I hypothesize that they only have a couple of hours worth of oxygen left. And that's if they don't freeze to death first," Izzy said, sadly.

"And that's assuming that they are inside the cave, and not crushed under all this snow," Joe added, belatedly.

"Stop it. We're going to get them out. Now let's get moving," Matt said with a lot more confidence then he felt. He feared that this was turning into a recovery mission, rather then a rescue one.



Sora went over and knelt next to Tai. "Let's move away from the snow a little bit," she suggested, as she rummaged through her first aid kit. Finally she produced a small pen flashlight and clicked it on. Helping Tai they moved away from the snow.

After selecting a spot they both sat down. Tai was still in a sort of stupor. Sora decided some conversation might help, while she worked on bandaging his ankle.

"Earth to Tai," she said with a small grin.

Tai blinked a couple of times and then stared at Sora.

"Welcome back. Did you have a nice trip?" she asked playfully.

"Ha, ha. Very funny," Tai said sarcastically. "We're trapped in here and all you can do is joke about it."

A hurt look flashed across Sora's features. Tai saw this and immediately regretted what he had said.

"I'm sorry, Sora. You know I didn't really mean that. I'm just kind of stressed out at the moment."

"I know. You don't have to apologize, I'm not mad at you," she replied.

"You're wrong, I do have to apologize. If it weren't for me you wouldn't be stuck in here. I'm so sorry," Tai said miserably.

"Look, Tai, I made the decision to help you. You're my friend and I will always help you, no matter what. This is in no way your fault, so I don't want you thinking like that," she said. 'I would never leave you,' she thought quietly to herself.

After finishing wrapping his ankle, Sora took a seat next to Tai. They both leaned against the stone wall, wondering what was going to happen.



Moving all of the snow was extremely slow going, even with the help of large digimon like Zudomon, MegaKabuterimon, and MetalGarurumon. Everyone was working as fast as possible, but they also had to be very careful. The threat of more avalanches was their primary concern. Also, if the digimon used up all their energy, they would reverse digivolve to their rookie forms. No one spoke, there wasn't any need to. They were all thinking the same things as they furiously worked to free their trapped friends.



Tai broke the eerie silence. "What are you thinking about, Sora?"

Sora seemed to snap out of a dream like state. "Lot's of things, I guess."

"Like what?"

"Mostly how scared I am," Sora said, avoiding Tai's eyes.

"It's OK to be scared, Sora. Everyone has to have some fear in their life. And to be honest, I'm scared too."

"Really?" Sora asked, lifting her gaze to meet his. "I thought you weren't scared of anything."

"Yeah, I think this is the first time I've been this afraid since Kari was in the hospital with pneumonia," Tai replied, sadness evident in his voice.

Sora took Tai's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

'And now, like then, I'm faced with losing someone I love,' Tai added to himself mentally.

Tai had been at war with his feelings for Sora for a very long time. When they had first met, he thought she was OK, for a girl. But throughout all of their adventures they had grown a lot closer. At first he tried to convince himself that it was just a silly crush and that he would get over it. He couldn't have been more wrong if he tried. He wanted so desperately to tell her how he felt, but fear had kept him silent. If she didn't feel the same way, it would absolutely kill him. He would rather keep their friendship the way it was rather than risk it and lose everything. Not very characteristic of the child of courage, but this was one thing Tai was not willing to lose.

Sora inched closer to Tai and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm not as scared as I could be. I'm glad you're here with me, Tai."

Tai responded by putting his arm around her.

Sora too had been raging with some new found feelings for Tai. It was weird, in a way. One day your friends with someone, never giving it a second thought, and the next day you are seeing them in a whole other light. She couldn't remember when she had starting feeling more for Tai than just mere friendship. Truth be told, she was having a hard time dealing with it. How do you tell one of your closest friends that you're in love with him? A million opportunities had presented themselves, but each one had passed on by. What if he didn't feel the same way? What if she told him and he just laughed? It was questions like those that had kept Sora silent.



Everyone kept on digging, but it seemed like they were hardly making a dent in the huge pile of snow. The precious seconds continued ticking away.

Izzy had stopped for a moment to check something on his computer. After a few key strokes, he spoke. "I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear right now, but we have less than an hour left."

No one had acknowledged what Izzy had said, but they all had heard it. Everyone had a mixture of sadness and fear etched on their faces.

They were facing the most powerful foe to date. The enemy they were now up against was time, and this was a battle no one was sure if they could win.



Sora began to involuntarily shudder. Her lips had also turned a light shade of blue. Tai saw this and was immediately worried.

"If I had known it was going to snow, I would have done a better job of clothes packing for summer camp," Sora said through chattering teeth.

Tai gave her a small smile. "I think I've got an idea. Lie down on your side on the floor of the cave," Tai said, in a concerned voice.

Sora looked at him quizzically, but did as she was told.

In response, Tai also laid down on the floor of the cave and spooned himself around Sora. He wrapped his arm around her midsection and rested his hand on top of hers.

"I saw something similar to this once in health class when we were doing a section on hypothermia. We can keep each other warm this way," Tai said.

Sora nodded, her shivering had greatly reduced. They lapsed in silence for awhile.

This time, Sora spoke up. "What are you thinking about, Tai?"

"Hmm? Oh, I guess I was just thinking about life. Mostly about living life to the fullest and taking risks, even when we don't know the outcome. That's pretty much the story of our adventures here in the digital world."

"Is there anything in your life that you regret not doing?"

Sora had just given him the perfect opportunity to express how he felt, but he let it get away. "No, I don't think so," he lied.

"I believe not knowing is the worst part. Even if things don't turn out the way you planned, at least you know. And that's better then wondering what might have been. I think that sometimes, if you aren't sure about something, you just have to jump off the bridge and grow your wings on the way down," Sora said as she yawned.

Tai yawned then too, it being contagious and all. He was about to close his eyes when he shook his head violently. He gently nudged Sora. "Don't you go and fall asleep."

"But I'm so tired....," Sora whispered.

"I know, I'm tired too. It's because of the cold and I'm pretty sure our oxygen is running out. You can't close your eyes though. If you do, you may never open them again."

"That's going to happen anyway, Tai. Everyone dies sometime. Our time just came a whole lot sooner than I had expected," Sora replied.

Tai's mind raced furiously. He had to do something, he couldn't let it end like this.

Screwing his courage to the sticking place, he spoke. "Sora, I kind of lied before. There is something in my life that I regret doing. But I'm going to take care of that right now."

"And what is that, Tai?" Sora asked quietly, her eyes barely open.

Tai took a deep breath and then spoke the words that had been in his heart for such a long time. "I think sometimes that destiny made a mistake. That maybe I shouldn't have gotten the crest of courage. I've been a coward about my feelings for such a long time." He paused, took another deep breath, and then continued. "Sora, you are one of the best things that's ever happened to me. You're my love and my best friend. And every day that goes by, it seems like I discover something new about you to love. It's incredible to me how one person can make such a big difference in my life. You've touched my life in a way no one else ever has and given me so many reasons to smile. I've never been so happy.....and I've never been so much in love. To me, love is breathing. Inhaling and exhaling and realizing with every breath I take I fall in love with you more. After every breath I can't imagine how much more I can, but I do. Every single time. After every single breath. Love is sleeping. Before I go to bed every night, I know that when I wake up I'll be more in love with you than I was before I slept."

As Tai said this, a tear traced it's way down Sora's cheek. She began crying softly.

"I'm sorry. You know I would never purposely hurt you. I wouldn't never have forgiven myself if I didn't tell you. And eternity is a long time to regret something."

"No, you don't understand. You're not the only one who's been afraid," Sora said with a shaky voice. "I've been a coward about my feelings for a very long time. I......I love you, Tai. I just never knew how to tell you. I guess the most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish them, words shrink things that seemed timeless when they were in your head.......to no more than living size when they are brought out. I think that's part of the reason I was so afraid to tell you that I love you. Saying it just doesn't seem enough when I feel so much more," Sora said through her tears.

Tai tightened his embrace around Sora, now too having tears in his eyes. "I'm just sorry it took us so long to tell each other how we felt."

"Better late than never," Sora replied through a yawn. The oxygen was getting so low that she could no longer stay awake. "Until we meet again, in the after life, my love," she said as she closed her eyes.

"Sora? Sora!!" Tai said frantically as he shook her. She didn't stir at all. Tai pressed his fingers to her wrist, trying to find a pulse. He sighed in relief when he could still feel her heartbeat, but just barely.

With tears in his eyes he gently kissed her on her head. "Until we meet again," he said softly. Holding onto Sora, he settled down and waited for the end to come.



Outside, everyone was absolutely exhausted. All of the digimon except MetalGarurumon had reverse digivolved. And even the giant wolf digimon was rapidly tiring. Izzy looked at his computer and sadly shook his head.

"Time's up," he said with tears in his eyes. "Their air has probably run out by now."

"No!! I refuse to accept that they're gone!!" Matt yelled. He was obviously trying to hold back tears.

"Please, Matt, try to understand," Mimi said as she wiped tears off of her faces. "We tried to help them, but time was against us. They didn't have much of a chance. They could have frozen to death before they ran out of air, for all we know. Also, who knows how many more feet of snow we have to go through. There's some things you just can't change."

"Aargh!!" Matt cried out in frustration, punching the snow wall in front of him. To his surprise, his fist went trough it. His arm went through the wall, right up to his shoulder.

Everyone stared in shock.

"Give me a hand!!" Matt called out as he frantically dug at the snow. Everyone else pitched in too. It was only a few moments before there was a good size opening to the cave. Matt and Joe went inside to see if they could locate their friends.



Tai thought he saw light flood the cave. 'Angels must have come for us,' he thought as he saw a figure make his way towards him. 'At least, I hope they're angels.' As the figure got closer, Tai got a confused look on his face. 'Wow, I didn't know angels had hair that look like bird nests.....'

Matt knelt next to Tai and shook him. Tai looked at him with groggy eyes.

"C'mon Tai, wake up. We have to get you out of here."

"Are you an angel? Are you here to take us to the after life?"

"No, because you're not done with this one yet," Matt said as he hauled Tai to his feet. Matt put Tai's arm around his shoulder to support his weight. Joe picked up Sora and they all made their way out of the cave.

Outside, fresh air and sunlight greeted Tai, as well as the rest of the digidestined and digimon. He was slowly beginning to realize that he wasn't dead. Everyone was surrounding him as he laid on the ground.

Kari knelt next to her brother and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I was so worried about you," she whispered.

Tai smiled and hugged his sister back. After they let go Tai moved to try and stand.

"Are you sure you should be moving? You've been through an awful lot," Mimi said.

"I have to see how Sora's doing," Tai replied, trying to avoid putting weight on his injured leg.

As soon as he got his bearings about him, he slowly went over to where Joe was tending to Sora.

"Is she going to be all right?" Tai asked, worry evident in his voice.

"I think so, now that we're out in some fresh air and it's a whole lot warmer. She's just sleeping right now. She should be just fine when she wakes up," Joe replied.

"Thanks Joe."

Tai smiled as he gazed at Sora. For he knew that nothing was ever going to be the same between them again. And that suited him just fine.

"Better late than never," he whispered to himself.


The End


Author's Notes: Did you like it? Please, let me know. I love to hear from you guys. Until next time:)