Peril in the Pyramid

by Schnickledooger

S2. Digi World Tour arc. Slight AU. Tai goes with Ken to Mexico instead. Ken decides it's a good opportunity to clear his conscience about what he did to Agumon. Tai would have appreciated the gesture if you know, they weren't currently being chased by rogue Digimon in this death trap of a maze. Oh and the pyramid ghost too.

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Toei Animation does.

Peril in the Pyramid

They had been waiting an hour and there was no sign of Gennai, or one of his copies, or whoever was supposed to meet them there.

Tai wiped the perspiration off his forehead with the back of his hand and licked his dry lips. The night wasn't just hot, it was humid and suffocatingly warm enough that his clothes ending up sticking to his skin from the sweat. Tai had already removed his coat and jacket, rolled up the sleeves to his shirt and was thinking about doing his pant legs the same way. Winter clothes were definitely a no-no in Mexico during any time of year probably.

"How do we even know there are any Digimon inside anyway?" Tai asked, his eyes scouring the area.

The pyramid seemed deserted, a desolate ancient ruin in the middle of the jungle with no sign of life anywhere.

The beam of a flashlight shone in the darkness roving across the grounds. Tai ducked and turned his head away so his eyes wouldn't catch the light and betray their hiding spot in the bushes. Yeah, aside from the security policemen on patrol, absolutely no signs of any other life.

"Gennai sent us the email," Ken said, his voice barely above a whisper, head bowed, hair falling around his face, his D-Terminal clutched tightly in his hands as he stared down at the screen as if willing another message to pop up.

None came.

"Wonderful," Tai muttered. Just his luck. He finally gets a chance to actually do something, not just sit back and watch helplessly as the younger kids handle the full brunt of the burden of what being a Digidestined entailed, and on his assignment nothing happens.

"Aaaah," he let out a small sigh, rolling over and laying with his hands behind his head. "I guess we could wait another hour for ole Obi Wan to show himself. If not, we can always go charging in, Jurassic Park style like old times, huh, pal?" Tai smiled fondly rubbing the top of Agumon's head when the orange dinosaur came over to rest it on his chest.

"But they have… guns," Ken said, jerking his head up sharply, blue eyes wide in alarm.

"We've dealt with worse before, haven't we?" Tai said. Agumon made a contented little grumble in the back of throat when Tai touched a certain spot between his eyes. "Besides, one look at a giant T-Rex stomping towards them belching out fire, and I don't think they'll be firing off bullets for too long."

"One of us could still get hurt!" Ken cried, his voice rising dangerously high. His hands were balled into fists and he was breathing in harshly.

"Hmmm?" Tai blinked at the sight. Beside him, green eyes cracked open curiously to see what had made his partner pause his hand.

The color fled from Ken's face. "I-I m-mean…" he stammered, floundering under the twin stares. "We shouldn't take any unnecessary risks."

"If there really are Digimon in the pyramid then we need to send them back to the Digital World so they don't cause any more trouble. I don't think that's 'unneccessary'," Tai said.

Ken averted his gaze and refused to look back up. Next to him, Wormmon's antennas were curling and uncurling in worry.

The silence that stretched between them was thick and strained.

Tai hadn't questioned or protested when he was paired up with Ken to go crusading around the world taking out Control Spires. He had been a bit surprised but everyone had been in such a hurry to get going to their destinations there hadn't been much time except to go along with the decision. He had nothing against Ken. Ken, overall, was a good kid, a bit haunted by his past as the Digimon Emperor. Yes, he had made some bad life choices, but hadn't they all? Tai thought briefly about SkullGreymon and pushed the image away quickly. He wasn't going to pass judgment on the kid for thinking the Digital World was some virtual reality game. There had been a short time in Datamon's pyramid when he had believed that too. Of course, his friends had been there to knock that delusion out of his head fairly swiftly. Until only recently, Ken hadn't had any friends at all.

He had nothing against Ken, really. It was just that he had absolutely no idea how to make normal conversation with him.

He wasn't like Matt, Tai could see that instinctively. Matt you could poke with a stick, say a few ribbing words and Matt would turn around with an even bigger stick and try and whack you across the head all the while shouting about how deeply he had been wounded. It didn't take much to draw Matt from his shell. But then despite how hard Matt had tried to be a loner, others just flocked naturally around him. Maybe Matt hadn't been accustomed to being friends with a great many people at first, but he hadn't been isolated from them his whole life either. Not like Ken. Tai was certain if he poked Ken with a stick and said something in jest, the boy would break down and cry right in front of him. And they wouldn't be the childish tears that T.K. used to shed; those could easily be wiped away by a pat on the head, a hug, or a funny story. Ken had years and years of pent up hurt and emotions inside ready to be set lose with a few wrong words.

Tai wished Davis were here right now. He would know how to talk to Ken. He would know what was bothering him and how to cheer him up.

A flaring flash of purple light erupted from the pyramid scattering his thoughts.

"What is that?" Ken cried leaping to his feet.

The grounds surrounding the pyramid glowed with an eerie purple color that seemed to be emanating off the stones at the base. There were shouts of confusion from the security guards as they rattled off rapid sounding Spanish into their walkie-talkies and swung their flashlights around crazily.

"What are they saying?" Tai asked. Davis had chewed his ear off for hours bragging about how smart Ken was who could speak more than ten languages. Of course, he could have been exaggerating.

"They…" Ken hesitated. "They said it's the ghost of the ancient Mayan king buried underneath waking up."

"G-g-ghost?" Wormmon piped up, clicking his mouth-pinchers nervously.

A low haggard moan spilled forth, reverberating throughout the air and in tiny, miniscule tremors along the ground, echoing deep from within the pyramid's interior. The security guards took off running in the opposite direction, the crunch and bramble of the jungle floor as they trod on it frantically grew fainter as they got farther away.

"I think that answers the question of whether or not there are any Digimon inside! Let's go!" Tai shouted dashing forward.

"Wha—wait!" he heard Ken call from behind as he scrambled after him,

The entranceway of the pyramid was dark and ringed in shadows. A few feet inside and it was pitch-black completely. The loud moaning had stopped and the silence was so deafening Tai could hear the beat of his heart pumping in his ears.

He felt slightly better when Agumon joined him breathing heavily through his nostrils from the short run.

"Whoooo!" Tai forced out a laugh to ease away the uncomfortable feeling of being watched. "No more cheese omelets for you, Tubbymon! Gotta be in top shape for whenever the next battle is."

Growling in displeasure, Agumon head-butted him in the stomach and Tai fell over backwards, but not before dragging Agumon down with him in a headlock and together they rolled about mock-wrestling.

A throat cleared awkwardly above their heads. Tai looked up to see Ken rubbing one finger to his cheek as he politely stared off to one side appearing to find the side of the wall quite fascinating.

Wormmon came shuffling up beside him in a stiff, determined manner wearing a fierce expression on his usually gentle face… and twin glow sticks tied to his head with a bandana, what?

"Found these outside. The guards must have dropped them," Wormmon explained. "If we're going to go head to head with a ghost, I'd just prefer to see it coming first, that's all."

"Pretty sure we're dealing with some Digimon that wandered in here lost and now are trapped and kicking up a ruckus, but hey, thanks for the light," Tai smiled.

"Yeah, good thinking!" Agumon said. "Now we can see where we're going."

"Oh, y-you're welcome," Wormmon flushed slightly under the praise.

"Some Digidestined we are, huh?" Tai voiced aloud as they walked along the narrow pathway of the pyramid illuminated only by the pale light of the glowsticks. "We didn't even bring a flashlight on this road trip. Even back in the Digital World we had that in the emergency bag."

Tai trailed off leaving an opportunity for the conversation to be picked up, but when glanced over at Ken, the boy was staring down at his feet. Maybe Ken wasn't good with making small talk. That was fine. Tai was familiar with talking to himself. He did it so much his mom often worried about him sometimes.

"But hey, this brings back memories," he chuckled. "We often were wandering around like this without a clue of where to go or what we were supposed to be doing. Gennai wasn't too particularly helpful back then either."

"Do you think something happened to him?" Ken asked, finally speaking up.

"Maybe he arrived here before us and the ghost got him," Agumon said with a lopsided grin, causing Wormmon to stop in his tracks and sputter wildly

"Agumon, stop," Tai laughed. Normally, he would have gone along and elaborated the ghost part more, but Wormmon seemed even more sensitive than Gabumon about things and he wasn't sure how Ken would react to him goading his partner. He knew Matt certainly didn't care for it.

"It's alright, he's kidding," he said throwing a comforting gaze over his shoulder at the poor frightened Wormmon. "Gennai likes to go off and pretend he's Obi Wan Kenobi over mysterious omniscient things he cannot speak of. Believe me, there is no ghost haunting this pyramid, ok."

That was when he tripped over something camouflaged into the darkness ahead and crashed face first into the ground. And when he lifted his throbbing forehead up to get a sense of his surroundings, a pair of floating golden eyes was staring directly back at him only a few mere inches away.

Tai didn't scream. Nope, not all. It was more of a manly shout of surprise.

He struck out with one arm instinctively, trying to ward off whatever it was away. He hadn't expected to actually hit anything—he couldn't see any physical body, just the eyes. But his hand smacked into what felt like pure rock and he fell backwards howling in pain.

Several things happened at once.

"G-g-g-g-hooooooost!" Wormmon cried hysterically.

"Tai!" Ken shouted in alarm, rushing forward and gripping him by the shoulders.

"Pepper Breath!" Agumon shouted, blasting out a ball of fire at the unseen enemy.

"Ouch!" came a pained cry of whatever lay hidden in the shadows.

"NO!" a second high-pitched voice shrieked angrily as a small figure bowled into Agumon from the side and began beating him with tiny fists. "No, no, no, no, no!"

"Hey, stop it!" Tai yelled forgetting the ache in his own hand. Seizing the person by their thin wrists, he pulled the small figure away from his partner and thrust them into the pale light of the glow sticks.

It was a girl. A child with Latino features no more than seven or eight with her hair done up in twin pigtails. She glared up at them defiantly, pointed at Agumon and cried, "¡Mala dinosaurio!"

Tai understood enough Spanish for that. "He is not!" he said indignantly. "He was just protecting me."

From what though? He still didn't believe in the pyramid ghost story. He turned around in time to see a Gotsumon sidle into the light rubbing its forehead sheepishly.

"Lo siento si te asusté," the Gotsumon apologized blinking wide golden eyes.

"He says 'sorry if I scared you'," Ken translated. "See, it's alright, Wormmon."

"Who was scared? I wasn't scared at all, not one bit," Wormmon protested, his fore claws still quivering slightly.

"Nos alegramos de que no es un fantasma," Ken said bowing his head towards the girl and her partner.

The young girl's face brightened at her language being spoken and she laughed at whatever had been said. "Fantasma!" she giggled clawing at the air with her hands and baring her teeth. "¡Somos fantasmas terroríficos!"

"Yes, you are both very scary ghosts," Ken smiled at her, seeming at ease for the first time since they had left Japan.

"¡Buenos nochas!" The girl said. "Yo soy Rosa. ¿Quien eres tu?"

"Yo soy Ken. Ellos son Tai, Agumon y Wormmon," Ken replied pointing to each of them as he said their names. "This is Rosa, everyone."

"Ken… bonito," Rosa murmured his name dreamily as a pink hue spread across her face. Then leaping forward, she grabbed his hand in own two small ones.

"Hey, what does she think she's doing?" Wormmon squawked at the sight.

"Careful there, Wormmon, I think you got some competition," Tai snickered. He knew that star-struck expression anywhere. He had seen it enough times on Matt's countless fangirls.

"Ken, Ken, Ken," Wormmon chanted in a distressed manner. He made a movement to latch onto his partner's leg only to miss and fall when Ken was tugged forward a few feet by his chibi admirer.

"Oof!" Wormmon grunted popping back up with a small bump on his head. "You're a very rude little girl, Taco!"

"¡Rosa!" Rosa corrected angrily recognizing the last word. She looked ready to slug Wormmon right in the mouth.

"Por favor, cálmate," Ken said waving his hands back and forth between the two of them.

As interesting as it would have been to see what would have played out next, Tai really wanted to spend Christmas at home with his family and they already wasted a few hours earlier doing absolutely nothing waiting for Gennai who was a no show. The other Digidestined were probably already done with their tasks. They had a tight schedule to keep and he didn't want to be the team responsible for holding everyone back.

"Come on, we have to return the Digimon who escaped back to the Digital World and who knows how long it will take to find them in here," he said stepping forward. "We should keep moving."

"Yes, of course," Ken said looking relieved.

"You're right," Wormmon agreed, a familiar determined expression drifting across his face. "Let's go, Ken." Scuttling forward he bumped into Rosa, shoving her to one side away from Ken. "Oops, excuse me," he said sounding quite smug.

"¡Gusano!" Rosa spat at him, shaking one fist.

"What?" Wormmon frowned at her.

"Ah, let's go, hurry, this way!" Ken said in one breath turning around a narrow corridor quickly.

Tai and Agumon raced past Rosa and Wormmon who were holding some kind of intense staring contest between them to catch up with him.

"Hey, what did she just call him?" Agumon asked curiously.

"Fishbait," Ken said, his face a picture of defeat and his shoulders slumping.

"I wouldn't tell him that if I were you. He might Sticky Net her into a cocoon," Tai whispered. "The little guy is really overprotective of you, have you noticed?"

"It's because he's a Virus type."

Tai started at the comment not sure what to say to that.

Ken sighed, tilting his head back to stare at nothing as he explained. "I'm not judging him. But Virus types, they have this inbuilt possessiveness coded in their data. I'm not sure how to explain it. But while in some Digimon this can grow into greed and a lust for power and control, in Wormmon's case, I'd say it evolved into constant worrying about me and trying to keep me safe. And maybe, a bit of insecurity when I give too much attention to someone else," Ken hesitated a couple of seconds. "I did abandon him before… before when I…" he swallowed hard.

Tai laid a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I get it," he smiled reassuringly. "All our partners love us and want to keep us safe. And we feel the same way about them, right?"

A shudder raced throughout the boy's frame at his words. Ken jerked away from his touch with a gasp like he had been doused with cold water. Tai caught a glimpse of his pale face and wide violet eyes and wondered if he was having a panic attack of some kind.

Mildly alarmed, he reached out towards him…

Rosa rushed past him and latched onto Ken's arm. "Ken le gusta mi mejor ¿no?" she gushed excitedly as she swung to and fro from it.

"I don't know what she's saying, Ken, but it's not true!" Wormmon cried scurrying around to move to Ken's other side.

Tai watched as Ken beamed down at Rosa, his face filled with nothing but warmth, completely void of any despair it had shown moments before. "Ambos son preciosas para mí," he said.

Rosa puffed her cheeks out in a small pout at his words, but soon enough she was chattering away in Spanish as she gazed up adoringly at Ken.

"Hmmph," Wormmon huffed dropping behind them slightly. "Who does she think she is?"

"In her mind, hopefully the next Mrs. Ichijouji," Agumon teased him.

"We'll see about that," Wormmon said, his twin antennas curling into little horns.

Tai stared after Ken as they walked along wondering what it was he had seen before. Something was definitely bothering Ken. Something had been bothering him ever since they had left Japan. But Ken didn't appear to want to share with Tai what it was. So the only thing Tai could do at the moment was be grateful for Rosa's presence and how she seemed to make Ken relax.

"Hey, Wormmon," he spoke quietly. "Is something the matter with Ken that you know about? He seems… upset."

"Oh, that," Wormmon said fidgeting awkwardly. "It's why he asked Izumi-kun to be paired with you… he wanted to talk about it…"

"Ken asked…?" Tai echoed more confused than ever.

"Straight ahead, look out!" Agumon exclaimed, running past everyone to stand stiffly in place, his pupils narrowing to slits as he stared into the inky darkness ahead.

"What is it?" Tai asked in a hushed undertone.

Everyone had stopped in their tracks. The only sound that could be heard was the low growling coming from the small dinosaur's throat.

"¿Un fantasma?" Gotsumon voiced out loud.

Wormmon whimpered, recognizing that word.

Heavy footsteps crunched down on the stone floor ahead along accompanied by an odd sort of scuffling.

Slowly the two hulking silhouettes of a bull-type of monster and a giant hairy spider slid into view of the light.

"Well, there you go, see?" Tai said with a forced laugh. "Not a ghost in sight."

Minotarumon threw his head back and roared menacingly as Dokugumon opened her pincers wide and released a thick purple spray.

"Pepper Breath!" Agumon retaliated, the heat from flames disintegrating the effects of the attack.

"Watch out, that purple spray is poison!" Ken warned, shielding Rosa's face with one hand. "Don't let it touch you and try not to breathe it in!"

"Don't worry, Ken, I'll protect you!" Wormmon cried, the faintest glow of digivolution beginning to seep off his skin.

"No, Wormmon, stop!" Ken shouted sounding horrified. "You digivolve in here and you will be destroying a valuable historical site and a centuries old civilization!"

"Uh, not to mention we'll all be buried alive if you do," Tai corrected, eyeing the low-ceilinged, narrow corridor they all were crowded in. "Then we can all meet that ghost king and become his loyal subjects in the afterlife. Priorites, Ken!"

Ken turned red in embarrassment.

Minotarumon lowered his horned head, snorting twin puffs of hot air from his ringed muzzle, and unleashed a challenging roar. Dokugumon leaped onto the side of the wall and scuttled upside on the ceiling shooting out a thick sticky web at her prey below.

"¡Cuidado!" Gotsumon cried out, pummeling both rock fists against the passageway's wall with swift ferocity that caused a tremor to travel up the stones' surface where it reached Dokugumon. The shock waves disabling her to cling to the ceiling any longer, the spider digimon dropped down from her webbing and scuttled forward, snapping her pincers menacingly.

Minotaurmon punched the end of his arm that was encased in a metal binding to the floor of the passageway. Clumps of centuries old stone and dirt flew into the air as he drove his drill deeper. Zigzagging cracks suddenly appeared from the impact and extended quickly outward as the ground beneath them threatened to split into pieces.

"Plan B! Run!" Tai shouted.

They took off racing into darkness, the only source of light coming from Wormmon's glowsticks which allowed a few feet a visibility ahead of them. The whole pyramid shook, causing pieces of stone to rain down upon them. Throwing up one arm to shield his eyes from the falling debris, Tai struggled to keep running—and everything plunged into chaos.

A pained cry split the air and Rosa pitched forward as she tripped over a jagged upturned rock.

"Rosa!" Ken yelled, pausing to scoop the crying young girl into his arms.

Dokugumon bore down upon them mere inches away.

"Ken!" Wormmon shouted rushing to his partner's aid.

But Agumon was closer.

The small dinosaur barreled into Dokugumon, strong jaws of sharp-pointed teeth fastening somewhere behind the vicinity of her horned helmet and bristly hair and crunching down. The spider digimon gave a furious, agonizing screech and scuttled sideways madly where she tried to dislodge him by slamming her opponent harshly against the passageway's wall. True to his tenacity, Agumon refused to yield, although the battered bruises he was already sporting proved he wouldn't last much longer.

"Agumon!" Tai cried making a mad dash towards him—because screw ancient civilization's crowning accomplishments! They were plenty of other pyramids in the world, one less wouldn't hurt. Wormmon and Agumon could both fly in their higher forms. They could all escape this death trap of hell that blasted no-show Gennai had sent them into.

The light from Wormmon's glow sticks was dim. In his longer human strides, Tai tripped over the small insectoid digimon who was doing his best to hurry to Ken's side. He toppled over and crashed into the ground, feeling the breath get knocked out of his lungs. Wormmon, pinned underneath his weight, was squirming and howling wildly.

The heavy stomp of boots echoed in Tai's ringing ears, drawing closer and closer until they came to a stop right before him. Dizzily, his vision swimming, he looked up in time to see Minotarumon bringing down a well-muscled fist with every intention to smash his head in to a pulp.

The fist was caught fast between the rock-strong grip of Gotsumon who had placed himself between them. "¡No dañan mis amigos!" he growled, his small body shaking with the strain of arm-wrestling the power-built digimon.

Minotarumon bellowed angrily, swinging out his metal arm to catch Gotsumon full-on in the chest and sent him careening backwards into Tai and Wormmon. The brute force of the attack threw them all three of them back, where they rolled over each other in a human-digimon tangled ball of limbs until they collided into the side of the passageway in a dogpile.

… where a panel directly behind them suddenly gave way and then they were tumbling, tumbling down a tunnel faster and faster and then falling through empty space into pitch black darkness that not even the light from Wormmon's glow sticks could pierce.

oOo

Rosa's crying had all but lapsed into quiet sniffles as she dozed lightly on and off. Ken shifted his grip on her legs as he carried her piggy-back style. The small girl's head lolled against his shoulder as she mumbled something about "pastelitos" in her sleep.

Ken was glad she wasn't awake. If she was, he would have to answer her questions about what had happened to Gotsumon and even he wasn't sure. He let his gaze drift to Agumon who was keeping pace beside them, firing off a Pepper Breath every now and then to light up the path ahead. He didn't dare even speak to him.

He couldn't believe his eyes. Tai, Wormmon, and Gotsumon had just disappeared right in front of him. The pyramid had opened its stone mouth and swallowed them up.

The sight was enough for Agumon to finally release his lockjaw from Dokugumon. Leaping from her back, the small dinosaur tucked his head between his claws and rolled head over heels where he came to a stop before Rosa and Ken. Uncurling himself from a ball, Agumon crouched down in front of the two humans protectively, baring his teeth and snarling out a warning.

It was not heeded as Dokugumon rushed to exact revenge, purple mist spilling out of her throat in a poisonous cloud. Their saving grace came from Minotarumon, who drove home his metal arm drill into the passageway's wall. The ancient structure heaved one final groan before giant chunks of rock came crashing down as a portion of the passageway collapsed.

Ken glanced back the way they had come, but they darkness was too thick to see where the cave-in had happened. All he could do was hope it was enough to put some distance between them and the two digimon that lay on the other side.

Ken didn't know what to do. They were underground too deep to get a signal on his cell phone or D-Terminal to contact anyone and tell them of their predicament. Gennai had never met them like he had promised. He had no idea what had happened to the others. What if Wormmon was hurt? What if Tai was hurt? What if they were waiting to be rescued and here Ken was probably wandering around in circles with absolutely no clue.

"I'm sure they're ok. We'll find them."

"Huh?" Ken blinked, turning to Agumon who had spoken.

"You seemed worried," Agumon explained. "This wouldn't be the first time part of the team got separated before. It's kind of taken for granted actually that it will happen."

"Part of the team," Ken echoed wondering if he had heard wrong.

"You're a Digidestined," Agumon said. "And so is Rosa too. So what if you haven't been with us from the start. You're here now, on our side, that's all that matters."

Ken walked in silence for a short while, wrestling with emotions. Don't talk here, don't talk here, he chanted inside his head. Now wasn't the right time. He had meant to talk to Tai first, although he had changed his mind on their journey and decided it would be better if he were to talk to Tai and Agumon both at the same time.

Agumon mistook his silence for more worry. "It's alright. None of us are alone. As long as we have each other, things will work out fine. I'll protect you like I know Tai will protect Wormmon."

Ken stopped in his tracks.

"Hmm, maybe that should have been the other way around," Agumon mused out loud about his choice of words. "Tai is so much taller though. Ah, not that I don't think Wormmon isn't strong!"

"Don't you… don't you hate me?" Ken asked bleakly, whispering his fear into the darkness.

"Hate you? What do you mean?" Agumon seemed genuinely baffled.

"How can you possibly stand to be this near me after what I did to you?" Ken choked. He swallowed hard. "I forced you to digivolve against your will." Bile rose at the back of his throat as the image of SkullGreymon flashed before his eyes. Back then, he had felt disgust and frustration as the Digimon Emperor: one of his experiments had gone wrong. Now that he understood the concepts of Crests and Davis sharing some of the past adventures of the team, he could only imagine the horror Tai had felt upon seeing his partner like that. "I put the Dark Spiral on you and turned you on your teammates." He had thought it was a game. He thought it would be amusing to see some of the other 'players' get destroyed by one of their own. And he remembered now: how Tai had struggled so hard to get his partner and Davis had wrestled him to the ground. "I… I…"

I'm sorry, he wanted to say but the words wouldn't come. What did they matter? How would they help? The damage had been done already and no amount of apologies could change what he did. And for Agumon and Tai both, to just willingly come along on this expedition and treat him like nothing had happened, like he was their trusted teammate, their friend—it was maddeningly infuriating and Ken thought he might drown in the guilt.

He never found out what Agumon had to say. The ground beneath their feet shuddered violently as a familiar ghostly moan spread throughout the pyramid.

Rosa jerked awake at the sound. "¡Fantasma!" she shrilled, clutching the back of Ken's shirt in her tiny fists.

A few feet ahead, a panel on the floor slid back to reveal a hidden flight of stairs where a purple light was faintly emanating from the bottom.

Ken really did not want to go down there.

But a hidden passage was what Tai, Wormmon, and Gotsumon had inadvertently stumbled upon. Perhaps this would lead him to them.

Ken moved towards it.

"¡No, no, no!" Rosa cried, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Gotsumon podría estar allí abajo," Ken said quietly.

"¿Gotsumon?" Rosa said looking around and noticing her partner's absence. "¡Vamanos! ¡Vamanos!" she yelled, the fear having vanished from her voice as she pointed to the stairway and patted Ken's arm impatiently.

Slowly they descended into the underbelly of the pyramid, Ken ever aware of the burning intensity of Agumon's gaze boring into him from behind.

oOo

The horrible sensation of nothingness beneath you, of spiraling wildly out of control into black abyss, of falling into an empty void and knowing sometime you have to meet the bottom and even though you brace yourself, you still are not ready for the—

IMPACT.

"¿Está muerto? ¿Los roncan personas muertas?"

"I don't know what you're saying, but if he wasn't breathing before, he certainly isn't now with you sitting on him!"

There was a heavy weight on his chest making it difficult to draw in air. Tai cracked open his eyes, groaning when he saw a pair of gold ones peering back at him curiously.

"Gerroff!" he mumbled, trying to shove Gotsumon and his solid-rock body off of him.

"See? What did I tell you?" Wormmon chastised him, waving his fore-claws in a shoo-ing motion. "Humans are delicate, fragile creatures who need their space!"

Raising himself up to a sitting position, Tai clutched his aching head and tried to piece together what had happened. The wall… the passageway's wall… one minute it was there and the next it wasn't, and neither were they. There had been a tunnel and they had all fallen down it like Alice and the rabbit hole. Then they had fallen through the air for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality must not have been that long since he hadn't broken anything, until they landed here, wherever here was.

Somewhere deep underneath the pyramid in a secret chamber that probably no one knew about. Wonderful. Happy Freaking Christmas to him.

"I could be back home drinking Mom's matcha egg nog and eating her natto bean fruit cake right now," Tai moaned dropping his head against his knees. "And as bad as that sounds it still would be a hundred times better than this. Damn you, Obi-Wan Kenobi," he cursed Gennai. That guy had a lot of explaining to do when he saw him again. If he saw him again.

"We have to get back up there and quick!" Wormmon cried, his antennas doing that worried curling and uncurling thing. "Who knows what that Taco is doing to Ken!"

"Rosa," Gotsumon corrected, recognizing who Wormmon was talking about. "Rosa es un buena chica."

"She's a carnivorous little beast who wants to devour Ken whole and eat us for dessert!" Wormmon howled, his separation anxiety hitting its peak. "And that's if there's anything left when Dokugumon and Minotarumon get through with him!"

"Come on, show some moral support. Agumon's up there with them. He'll protect them," Tai reminded him.

This fact seemed to have the opposite effect of the intention to raise Wormmon's spirits. The small insectoid digimon now looked to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown at the thought. "Oh, oh, ohhhh, noooo," he whimpered. "Ken, please be alright."

"Hey," Tai said, not liking his tone at all. "You wanna tell me what's going on with Ken right now? You said he asked Izzy to be specifically paired up with us, but he's been walking around on eggshells all night."

Wormmon looked absolutely miserable. "I really shouldn't say anything before Ken does…"

"He wasn't exactly the most talkative kid earlier, you know," Tai pointed out. "And who knows how long it will be until we get out of here. There might not be time to talk later."

"Fantasma," Gotsumon supplied helpfully.

"Yes, you're right," Tai agreed. "We might all become ghosts before we get out of here."

Gotsumon shook his head. "¡Fantasma!" he said a little louder pointing to something behind Tai's shoulder.

Wormmon's eyes had grown the size of saucers as he stared and his entire body started to quiver all over. His pinchers opened wide and snapped shut several times but no sound came out.

"Please tell me that it's Gennai doing his best Force Ghost imitation as an apology for arriving fashionably late," Tai said without turning around.

"Do you bring Light into the world or Darkness?" a low, gusty voice uttered behind him.

"I'll take that as a 'no'," Tai said in an undertone as he craned his neck backwards to see…

A giant, floating head. There was no physical form, just vaporous wisps that enveloped the head in their folds. The head was glowing with a kind of ethereal purple light that must have been the source of the pyramid lighting up earlier.

"So… you're the big guy that's been causing all the ruckus," Tai spoke ever-so calmly.

"DO YOU BRING LIGHT INTO THE WORLD OR DARKNESS?" the giant floating head boomed more demandingly, expanding ten times larger. It looked big enough to eat them if it wished.

Wormmon gave a frightened screech and leaped onto Tai's back, clinging to his shirt with tiny, trembling legs. Then the giant ghostly head swung out of focus as Tai found himself grabbed around the waist by two rock hands and hoisted up into the air as Gotsumon lifted him above his head and took off running in the opposite direction.

"What are you doing?! Put me down!" Tai yelled, kicking his legs out and hitting nothing. Gotsumon never slowed his swift pace, continuing to run straight into the pitch blackness. He couldn't possibly see where he was going. They were going to smash into another wall at this rate and this time something would probably be dislocated—like his head. Gotsumon's arms held him tight and secure, never staggering under the weight he was carrying. Dang, but the little guy was strong!

Wormmon bit off a strangled scream, causing Tai to throw his head back and look. The giant ghostly head was bearing down on them, mouth gaping wide like it was going to suck them in. This was it: they were going to be chewed into tiny bits of ectoplasm and spat back out on the ghost's next victims. They were going to be the pyramid's new unwitting tourist attractions.

"Never mind, don't stop, keep going!" Tai urged Gotsumon, changing his tune. Maybe if they were lucky they would spring another hidden passage and escape.

"DO YOU BRING LIGHT INTO THE WORLD OR DARKNESS?" the giant ghostly head kept up his persistent mantra.

"Light! Light! We bring the Light!" Tai shouted. Seriously, he had no idea what this ghost's problem was—maybe too many centuries being cooped up here. But he opted for what sounded like the best answer. "We're the good guys, I swear!"

"YOU MUST PROVE IT!"

Fire from sconces on the walls suddenly flared into life illuminating their surroundings, revealing a high-ceilinged chamber, bricks decorated with a shining coat of gold and turquoise, and the floor encrusted with what looked like shimmering golden Egyptian hieroglyphics. An enormous gold sarcophagus engraved in the image of a long dead king stood upright in the center of the room. As they stood gaping, the ghostly purple head zoomed past them and disappeared inside it. A second later, there was an ominous creaking as the lid to the sarcophagus swung open and out stepped a twenty-foot tall mummy adorned in golden armor and garments of white silk.

"I AM PHARAOHMON AND YOU WILL PROVE THE WORTH OF YOUR WORDS OR LIVES ARE FORFEIT," the ancient ruler commanded brandishing his scepter—of a snake devouring itself by the tail—at the intruders.

So the rumors were true of a dead king buried under the Mayan pyramid. It just so happened that he was Egyptian and a digimon at that. It wasn't entirely surprising to Tai who knew the Digital World had a bad habit of meshing locations together. He recalled the city where they had gone to find Kari medicine had several different wonders of the real world all jam-packed in one place. What was making him truly apprehensive was that Pharaohmon's appearance fairly screamed Mega-level.

They held the attention of a Mega-level digimon whose temper was probably spiked because they had desecrated his tomb. Neither of all three of them had their partners to help them out here, and even if they did, none of them could digivolve that high. They were so screwed.

"ANSWER!" Pharaohmon ordered, an orange-red ball of power beginning to emanate threateningly from the empty space in his scepter where the serpent's twisted body made a loop.

"Tai!" came a familiar voice suddenly.

"Agumon!" Tai shouted, his heart soaring at the sight of the small dinosaur at the foot of a stairway that led into the chamber.

"Ken, Ken, Ken, Ken!" Wormmon chanted overjoyed.

"¡Gotsumon!" Rosacried waving from her perch on Ken's back.

"¡Rosita!" Gotsumon whooped in delight tossing his burden to one side without a second thought. Wormmon and Tai found themselves dumped unceremoniously on the floor as the Gotsumon made a beeline for Rosa. A second later, Wormmon was in pursuit crawling non-too graciously over Tai's face in his haste to get to Ken.

"Argh!" Tai flailed at the tickling sensation of so many tiny feet treading over him. Finally managing to get to his feet, he was immediately bowled back over by an overly-enthusiastic dinosaur.

"Tai! You're alright! I knew you would be!" Agumon exclaimed, thrusting his snout into his chest and nuzzling his partner happily.

"Good to see you too, buddy," Tai smiled despite their predicament, stroking the top of Agumon's head.

"DO YOU BRING LIGHT INTO THE WORLD OR DARKNESS?" Pharaohmon repeated his relentless tirade.

"What's going on? Who is that?" Ken asked staring at Pharaohmon, coming to step almost cautiously beside them. Rosa had been set down and was doing some kind of elaborate handshake with Gotsumon. Wormmon had taken her place and was currently wound around Ken's shoulders, rubbing his cheek affectionately against his partner's looking very content.

"One very pissed off mummy," Tai said before calling out to Pharaohmon. "Look, we told you, we bring the Light! We don't mean any harm and we didn't mean to break into your tomb and wake you from your thousand year old beauty sleep! Just let us go and we'll be on our way! We won't bother you anymore!"

"Such false words you speak," Pharaohmon said narrowing his crimson eyes. "You cannot hide the darkness carried in your hearts. It is here in this room. It encases us in its suffocating presence."

"What are you talking about?" Tai asked more than frustrated at this point. Who knows how long they had been stuck in here in this pyramid. It could be daylight outside for all he knew. Their parents were expecting them to be at home Christmas morning and here they were being spun riddles at.

"If you will not come to terms with the darkness within yourselves, I will tear TEAR IT OUT!" Pharaohmon roared, firing off a high-pulsing energy beam from his scepter at them.

"Look out!" Ken cried and they all scattered every which way. The attack drove itself into the wall sending a fine wave of debris rolling over them. The sound of a child crying reached their ears and distantly, throughout the cloud of dust, Gotsumon could be seen hunched protectively over Rosa.

"That's it! We're done talking!" Tai yelled angrily. Maybe they couldn't win in an outright fight, but they could escape from this chamber if they held Pharaohmon back long enough to run up the stairway. The chamber was huge enough to host one giant digimon. A couple more wasn't going to send the ceiling crashing down on them. "Get him, Agumon!"

"With pleasure," Agumon growled, the orange light of digivolution bathing his small form. MetalGreymon burst through the bright light a few seconds later, opening the hatch on his chest and firing his Giga Blasters straight at Pharaohmon's face.

They missiles passed right through the digimon winking out of existence the moment they appeared to touch him. Undeterred, MetalGreymon launched his metal arm in a Mega Claw attack. It struck Pharaohmon in wide sweep across his torso but only seemed to phase through his body like a ripple on water. The attacks were hitting their target but causing no damage.

Wait, so was Pharaohmon already dead then? An actual ghost digimon? That couldn't be harmed?

"Oh, come on, that's not fair," Tai said, feeling the faintest verges of panic.

A blast from Pharaohmon's scepter sent MetalGreymon sailing backwards into the ground, kicking up tiles off the floor in his wake. A green blur shot overhead as a Stingmon fired down a storm of Striking Spikes at the enemy. Pharaohmon stood still letting the spikes pass through him like a shower of raindrops.

"Ken!" Tai shouted turning to the boy. "What are you doing? Take Rosa and get out of here! It's not safe!"

"Then why are you still here?" Ken asked, his face a shaken, pasty white but a determined expression upon it. He wasn't going to leave it looked like.

"Being the decoy!" Tai shot back. "Look, me and MetalGreymon have him right where we want him, ok? We don't need any help!"

Behind him MetalGreymon struggled to his feet only to stagger sideways as Pharaohmon dealt him a stunning blow across his helmet with that cursed scepter. Stingmon dived headfirst in an attempt to snatch the weapon away before it caused anymore havoc, however his hand made no contact with the scepter—as if it weren't there.

"Agumon said earlier that I was part of the team, but he was only saying that for my sake, wasn't he?" Ken was babbling now, his voice hitching slightly in the middle by some restrained emotion. "If it was Matt here, if it were anybody else except me, you would fight alongside them without hesitation, right?"

"What?" Tai said half-distracted, his mind trying to come to some solution on how they were going to survive this. Was this some illusion trap they had fallen into like the one Devimon had set up on File Island? Did they have to break the spell in order to finally land an attack? Was there some point of origin for the illusion? Wait, maybe it had something to do with Pharaohmon's sarcophagus—he had changed forms inside.

"It's because of what I did!" Ken shouted, the anguish in his tone bringing Tai's full attention back to him.

The boy's chest was heaving in short, quick breaths, his hands balled into fists at his side. Violet-eyes filled with shame, perhaps a bit too overly-bright, locked gazes with him. "For what I did to Agumon as the Digimon Emperor," Ken choked out before inhaling deeply and squaring his chin resolutely. "For the pain I caused you both… I know I can never be forgiven, but I am truly sorry." Ken bowed deeply, as steadily as he could, but the spiderlike tremors that broke out across his shoulders betrayed him.

Oh, Tai thought at the sight, everything suddenly clicking into place: Ken requesting to be paired with him, Ken's odd behavior all night, and Wormmon panicking when he realized Ken had been left alone with Agumon.

"Ken," Tai said, his mind still reeling at how simple it should have been to figure out, how blind he must have been in hind sight for not coming to the obvious conclusion himself. "Ken, I appreciate the gesture, I really do, but now—"

Pharaohmon reached out and grabbed Stingmon by the ankles as he zipped past and swung him around in a wide arc before letting go. The insectoid digimon went slamming bonelessly into MetalGreymon. The two of them were shoved backwards into the now-crumbling remains of the wall, sending gold and turquoise stone shards flying into the air. The entire chamber vibrated precariously at the collision.

"Now is not a good time," Tai finished.

Ken wasn't done however. "I enjoyed it!" he cried, and then the ugly confessions were spilling from his lips, one horrific act after the other. "I enjoyed seeing Agumon suffer every time I forced him to digivolve into SkullGreymon again and again. Even if he wasn't digivolving the way I wanted him too, just the fact that I was in control, that I had the power to make one of my trophy pieces stronger… it gave me satisfaction." And he honestly couldn't meet Tai's gaze now. He couldn't bear to see the expression of hatred and disgust that must surely be upon his face. "And then I finally figured out a way to get around the undesirable digivolution and I set your own partner on you." A shudder raced through him head to toe. "And I understand now. I understand how it is to have your own digimon attack you without a hint of recognition in their eyes and the horrible helplessness you feel." Memories of Arukeniemon and her flute that controlled insect types rose up. "I would have laughed if MetalGreymon had destroyed you back then. I would have thought I was winning because I had eliminated one of the players from the game. That's all the Digital World was to me: another platform to be the greatest out of everybody. The supreme victor of all things virtual and real."

Regret was a sharp ache twisting inside, causing his throat to constrict painfully tight, and breaking bitterly across his tongue. "But I never was in control in the first place. The only thing I was ruler over was fear. I tortured innocent creatures and was deaf to their cries of pain. The Digimon Emperor was just a pawn in someone else's game plan, but I was too stupid and foolish and to see the truth around me."

Ken squeezed his eyes shut and tried to repress the raging storm of emotions that threatened to overpower him. He had finally spoken his mind and apologized like he had wanted for so long, yet no peace came to him. That was alright, he didn't deserve it anyway. He didn't think Tai or Agumon would want to even be in the same vicinity as him after this. He pushed away the brief twinge of pain at the thought. They had given him their company, their friendship, this one night and that was enough.

Tai stared at the boy who refused to look at him, still a bit dazed from the long-winded apology that had been sprung unexpectedly. Ken stood stock-still, spine taunt, head lowered, eyes shut, and shoulders hunched like he was trying to detach himself from reality, no doubt locking himself away in his own guilt as punishment.

If it had been Matt all it would have taken was one hard-packed punch to the face to knock him to his senses.

Ken was not Matt. His heart was softer, more fragile, easier to shatter and harder to piece back together.

Tai took several steps forward, wrapped his arms around the boy without a second thought and hugged him like he had done with Kari so many nights when she had awoken from nightmares.

There came a small gasp of shock as Ken seized up at the contact, then slowly, ever so slowly, Tai felt him relax into the embrace. Ken had his face pressed into Tai's shoulder, his frame shivering slightly.

"When we get back to the others, remind me to get them to tell you about that time in Datamon's pyramid when I was certain absolutely nothing could harm us in the wicked cool video game we all got sucked into somehow," Tai said, rubbing soothing circles into Ken's back.

Ken lifted his head in disbelief, eyes wide. "What? You—?"

"I was a bit of a blockhead back then," Tai admitted, grinning ruefully. "Izzy and Matt still won't let me live it down."

"But you never tortured digimon for sport, did you?"

Tai could feel him slipping away again, trying to build a wall to hide behind. He gripped him by the arms firmly, determined to tear it down.

"Who you were then and who you are now are two completely different people. No one is perfect, not you, not me. Quit beating yourself up about past mistakes that you can never undo. Believe me, I know—it wouldn't be the first time Agumon has been forced into digivolving unnaturally and wound up as SkullGreymon." Ken's eyes even widened further at. Tai nodded. They had much more in common they either of them had realized. "We both have done things that we wish we could change, but we can't. What we can do is keep moving forward and helping others. It's our duty as Digidestined. You are part of the team, you are one of us, Ken, don't you ever doubt it."

And there it was. A tiny part within himself that had been hidden away that Tai hadn't even been aware of—some small grain of resentment and anger he had blamed upon Ken. Not big enough to outright hate the boy, but enough that he had subconsciously shunned him. He had looped him in with younger team as a whole in his mind so he that he would avoid thinking about him as an individual. Ken had mended his ways and was one of the Digidestined, focused on helping them with their goal? Fine, Tai could accept that. It wasn't like before when they were all stuck with each other in the Digital World and had to learn to live with each other. It's not like he would see Ken on a daily basis. As long as he was on the right track now, as long as he was no longer their enemy, let the younger kids accept him into their fold. And he had buried down any lingering ill-will he had harbored towards him and never looked at them again. Except those feelings had still existed and he hadn't even noticed until now.

And he had to face them, had to face Ken right now who had opened himself up not expecting any forgiveness at all on his part, Ken who was looking at him with vulnerable, violet eyes filled with a faint, dim hope.

"I forgive you, Ken," Tai said feeling the last vestiges of resentment melt away. "I forgive you, but that won't mean anything if you don't forgive yourself."

Ken sucked in a shaky breath as he searched Tai's face and found no lies there. He could feel the corners of his mouth slowly curling upwards in a watery smile even as his vision blurred at the moisture collecting in his eyes. Then he was pressing his head back down against Tai's shoulder to hide the tears that spilled forth—the spot on his shirt growing steadily damper as Ken cried softly into it.

Tai reached up a hand to tousle the boy's hair fondly. They would both be alright given time.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh," came a long, drawn-out exhale from Pharaohmon. Then the sound of mischievous, bubbly laughter echoed throughout the chamber as he morphed back into his ghostly floating head form. Although this time it was significantly smaller and looked less like it was going to eat them all.

"Bravo, bravo," a new voice spoke up and suddenly Gennai was there in front of them clapping his hands, sporting the ponytail, white-robed Jedi padawan look. "Que era magifico!"

"What?" Tai said, feeling like he was missing some piece of the game he hadn't even realized he was playing.

"Well, I figured you two would never reconcile past grudges anytime soon by yourselves, so I decided to give you an ample opportunity to do so!" Gennai explained with a heavy accent Tai swore he didn't remember him having before. Giving them a thumbs up, Gennai winked looking quite proud. "And Pharaohmon here was all too gracious to help me out! He hasn't had this much fun in a long time, have you, amigo?"

Pharaohmon chortled in ghoulish laughter, his face crinkling in amusement as he did loop-de-loops in the air.

"So, what you're trying to tell us is…" Tai said, slowly figuring things out. "You didn't show up on purpose so me and Ken would have time alone and your idea of us 'bonding' is trapping us inside a pyramid filled with monsters and having us run around in a twisted maze trying not to get killed."

"¿Qué?" Now it was Gennai's turn to look startled. "Whatever are you talking about, muchacho? Pharaohmon was not going to harm any of you. Though he might have unintentionally roughed some of you up a bit," Gennai laughed as his eyes slid over MetalGreymon and Stingmon who had finally extricated themselves from the rubble of debris from the wall they had crashed into. Neither of them looked amused.

"Just for your information, Obi Wan Kenobi," Tai bit out. "Pulling stunts like this is what causes people to go over to the Dark Side."

"I'll hold him and you punch," Stingmon said, slamming his fist into the palm of his claw.

"Gladly," MetalGreymon growled, lifting his armored claw and taking aim.

"¡Espara! ¡Espara!" Gennai shouted flailing his hands in front of him wildly. "I believe you have mistaken me for someone else. My name is Jose! I am a counter-part of Gennai, your comarada, ¿no?"

"If he was in on this little therapeutic scheme of yours, then no, he's not," Tai said. Not that he wasn't grateful that he and Ken and patched up grievances but this wasn't exactly the best way they could have gone about it. It was just a miracle no one had gotten hurt so far.

"No, no, Gennai only read the message that young Izumi sent explaining the situation and passed his request that I help you both out onto me," Jose admitted. "Pharaohmon was all my idea. And he only passes judgement. He never acts mindlessly. You were never in any real danger, prometo!"

Pharaohmon bobbed his ghostly head along in agreement.

"Okay, but what about Dokugumon and Minotarumon, then?" Ken asked. "They seemed pretty intent on reaping bodily harm."

"¿Quien?" Jose blinked in confusion.

They didn't have to go into detail. Dokugumon and Minotarumon decided to make their appearance right then and there, stampeding down the stairway into the chamber where everyone was gathered, drawn to the loud ruckus the brawl earlier had caused.

MetalGreymon and Stingmon reacted too late. In the end, it was a black and grey horned digimon that charged into both of them and knocked them both back forcefully into the wall, pinning them there with his massive weight, and roaring out a victory cry.

Rosa skipped over and patted Monochromon's side. Monochromon who was obviously Gotsumon's Champion form. "¡Bueno dinosaurio!" she giggled at her gaping audience.

oOo

"Why was I even worried about being trapped in that pyramid? Of course, we would be missed! Imperialdramon can't be himself without Wormmon! If we got stranded, everyone else would get stranded too!" Tai crowed gleefully.

He was honest to goodness certain they had been stuck inside that pyramid for more than day at least. However, when Jose had finally lead them outside, the night sky still hung over Mexico. Dokugumon and Minotarumon had been sent back to the Digital World. They had said their goodbyes. Tai didn't know whether to be amused or disturbed that Rosa had seemed more besotted with Stingmon than Ken in the end. What counted, he guessed was that Wormmon was no longer grumbling "cannibal" and "taco" under his breath anymore. He had looked genuinely sad to leave Rosa behind, especially since they had discovered that Jose's presence meant being able to understand each other without the language barrier intact. They really could have used him there beforehand, but Tai had decided grudges were not worth holding. Jose seemed like an ok guy—he possessed a sense of humor that Gennai did not and had them all in stitches laughing as they played a game of charades before they took Rosa home. Then they had headed back towards the plane and the poor pilot who they had left waiting for so long to meet up with Davis back in Miami.

Now they were inside the clear protective bubble the Mega digimon used for transportation and had picked up everyone except for Sora and Yolei who they were heading towards in Russia.

"Homeward bound! Alright! Gimme some!" Tai whooped holding both his hands palm outward to Ken expectantly.

And though Ken flushed red at this show of companionship and his hands shook slightly with nerves, nonetheless he still carried out the secret handshake Rosa had showed both of them before they had departed, a small smile of delight stretching across his face from ear to ear.

"So I take it that it wasn't an uncomfortable experience being with Ken?" Matt asked Tai as he wandered over to him.

Behind him, Davis could be heard shouting scandalized, "You and Taichi-sempai have a secret handshake?! Even I don't have a secret handshake with Taichi-sempai! Teach me, Ken, teach me!"

"Oh, it was uncomfortable, awkward, you name it," Tai admitted. "But we got past it. He's a good kid. You and him ought to bond some time. I think he'll feel a lot better once he realizes just how much we all screwed up when we were his age. So, how'd it go over in France?"

"Ooh-la-la!" T.K. sung out, sidling up next to his brother and nudging his shoulder playfully.

Tai's eyebrows shut up as Matt's face exploded in a bright pinkish hue and he sputtered for words.

"Shut up, T.K.!" Matt hissed.

"Matt, are you blushing?" Tai asked incredulously.

"No!" Matt snapped, and all the pink in his face turned to red.

"He's just embarrassed because there was this really cute French girl we saved that he may have felt a slight attraction to and now he's kicking himself because he feels like he betrayed Sora," T.K., ever the helpful little brother, explained.

"Ooh! Details, details!" Tai demanded keenly interested.

"Well, for one, she's around my age," T.K. laughed as Matt buried his flaming face into his hands and moaned. "And two, he gave her a kiss on the cheek before we left!"

"Matt, you cradle-robber!" Tai snickered elbowing his friend in the ribs.

"IT'S HOW THEY SAY GOODBYE IN FRANCE!" Matt shrieked, lifting his face up furiously. "IT'S A CULTURE THING! AND YOU GAVE HER A KISS GOODBYE TOO, T.K.!"

"Hey now, shhhh," T.K. put one finger to his lips looking distinctively uncomfortable as he darted looks off to the side where Kari stood next to Izzy. Kari cocked her head curiously at the outburst.

"Izzzzzzzzzzy," Tai drawled out, his attention abruptly diverted. "How's my best buddy, my fav computer geek friend?" He smiled sinisterly as he stalked towards him.

"What are you doing?!" Izzy yelped as Tai got into arms-reach and snatched his laptop out of his hands.

"Just a few whacks, that'll do the trick!" Tai cried, a fiery glint sparking in his eyes as he gave several hard swats to the laptop's surface.

"Stop! You're going to kill the hard-drive!"

"Fine by me! See how many more helpful emails you get to send then to omniscient Jedi Masters who pass it on to their Padawans to do their dirty work!"

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!"

Ken had managed to disentangle himself from Davis' deathgrip on the promise of showing him the secret handshake later.

"Weren't we supposed to pick up Sora and Yolei before Kari and Izzy?" he asked. "It makes more sense geographically."

"We can't seem to get in touch with them via D-Terminal," Joe explained. "So we're going there now to see what's going on."

"Maybe their Gennai-copy was a no-show too," Tai called over his shoulder as he and Izzy wrestled back and forth over the laptop. "Poor girls, I hope they're ok."

oOo

"I don't have any more change," Sora murmured out of the side of her mouth.

"Gotcha covered," Yolei said, flinging down some coins on the table's surface with enough force that they went scattering every which way over the table-top and spilled to the floor. "Oops, my bad, my bad!"

Yuri rambled something off in Russian, rushing out of his seat and bending over to pick up the loose coins helpfully.

Sora and Yolei leaned forward for a better view of the boy's fine backside outlined by his slacks.

"I could do this all night," Yolei hummed, her eyes sparkling behind her glasses.

"Aren't we supposed to meet up with the others soon?" Sora asked in after-thought.

"Hey, we did the job on our own without any help from Gennai. We deserve our reward!" Yolei said.

On the other side of the table, Anna and Lola tittered behind their hands as if understanding.

Yuri finished picking up the change and placed it on the table. Beaming a pearly-white smile at them, he raised one hand in the air motioning for a waiter to come over.

"Yay!" Yolei and Sora squealed in unison as the steaming dishes were set down before them. "Piroshki! Borscht!"

The End

A/N: This fic is dedicated to Cyclone5000 who loves a good Tai/Ken bonding story. Also, if there are any fans of No Girls Allowed reading this, I want you all to know that if Tai hadn't been hospitalized during that arc, this probably would have happened there too.

I changed some facts around. Like how Tai and Ken traveled from Miami to Mexico in a helicopter. No way. Even if they took a plane it would have taken them several hours to get there. Imperialdramon just dropped them off at their destination. He's fast so it was no problem for him. Now picking them up, that presented a problem, haha. As Tai said, Imperialdramon can't be himself without Wormmon, lol, so whatever, look there's a plane I guess!

Forgive me if any of the Spanish is bad. I used goggle translate and tried to keep the sentences simple. Please let me know if any translations are wrong or sound awkward. And the punctuations. I tried my best, but I'm pretty sure I flunked. Sorry, I don't know how to do the accent marks.

I'm not sure if it was ever made canon, but here, Gennai and his copies act as translators/mediums for the Digidestined so they can understand each other. I have this theory that in the Digital World there is only one language. It's not Japanese or whatever country the kid is from. They just hear what language they were born speaking, not realizing it's another language entirely. So of course, it's a shock to the Digimon when they come across others from other countries and they cannot understand one other. Because, whoa, different languages? Who knew? The real world is so messed up. Anyway, it's just my headcanon here.

Pharaohmon is from Digimon Xros Wars. I quite enjoyed the episode he was in and thought he would fit pretty nicely in this fic. And I am quite fond of ep 42 in Adventure 02. It's one of my favs and it always seemed to me the perfect place for Tai and Ken to have reconciled if 02 had given them a chance. Maybe in 03, they'll have some Ken and Tai bonding, hmmm?

And if ya'll are wondering why Tai didn't do the usual digidestined smack across the face thing, watch the show again and realize that when the children usually throw punches, it's to people their own age. The younger team can hit each other all they want because they're on equal footing. The older kids, though it's usually down to Tai and Matt, can slug each other within their ranks too. But they never attack the younger teammates. I mean the closest we had to that was in ep 8 where Matt clearly was resisting the urge to hit Davis, but he held back. There's a time for hugs and a time for slugs, my friends, and I love how the children are aware of that^^

I'm so excited for 03 in the spring! X3

It would give me great joy if you reviewed and told me your fav parts. It's the only reward a fanauthor gets! I hope you all liked this. It's so nice to get this AU out of my head. It was driving me crazy!