"Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse." – Lily Tomlin

The lock to the motel room clicked as the door was eased open. Matt threw his keys down on a nightstand as he closed the door behind them, then he looked over as TK collapsed on the bed closest to the window. He moved to the opposite bed and flopped down on it, covering his face with his hands.

"You okay?" TK asked from across the room. Matt laughed at that, leave it to TK to be worried about him at a time like this.

"I'm fine. I should be asking you that." He replied turning over and looking at his brother.

"I'm…alright." He said with a sad look on his face. Then turning over: "Just ask me what you've been itching to get out since I got in the car…" Matt paused but shook his head as he watched Gabumon and Patamon move to snuggle next to their respective digidestined.

"Why haven't you told them yourself? You've had years…"

"It never came up…" TK reasoned.

"TK that's no excuse, since when does "hey did you know I was brutalized when I was nine" ever come up in a normal conversation?" Instantly the calm and sullen demeanor of the younger brother vanished as he turned back to face Matt with a hateful fury in his eyes.

"Since when were you a shrink?! You want me to just go up to them and sit them down over a nice cup of tea and explain it to them?! How the hell would I do that?! It was never relevant! It was never prudent! Why the hell should they have to know about it anyway!" He shouted, standing up and moving across the room. "Honestly Matt you think you have everything figured and you're just sitting there judging me about why I haven't told them? My god, what's wrong with you?!"

"Don't sit there and assume you're alone in this TK, in case you haven't remembered, all of the original digidestined were there, and we all were hurt by what happened. And judging you?! What the hell TK?! How can I be judging you when you're sitting there moping like a baby?! Chill out and think for a moment. You've had plenty of opportunities to talk to them about it. Remember when Cody asked me about why you get so pissed about the powers of darkness! There was a damn good time to talk to him about it!"

"I don't want to be fucking judged, I don't want them to pity me, and most of all I don't want them to think I cant do anything without a chaperone again!"

"TK back then, we were all scared, and you weren't making things much easier on any of us. You make it sound like we forced people to follow you around. You're the one who got that weird shadow complex. We had to get dad and mom to agree to let me and you stay together for two months before you finally calmed down. So stop with your ego trip and self pity and get a damn grip kid!"

"I'm not a little kid anymore."

"Oh yeah, well you're acting like it!" The two glared at each other for a while before finally a voice of reason filtered in.

"You both are very tired, you should get some sleep and then you can finish this tomorrow." Gabumon said as Patamon pushed back the covers on TK's bed for him. The younger boy grumbled but his digimon wouldn't hear of it, and literally pushed him into the bed.

The lights went out and within moments Matt could hear his brother's deep breathing of sleep. Silently he slid out of his bed, whispering for Gabumon to stay there. Grabbing his cell phone and his wallet from his jacket, he slipped out of the room and made his way to the Twenty Four Hour Coffee Shop they had passed while making their way to the small motel. He placed went inside, ordering a large coffee and a chocolate cupcake that had eyed him in the window box.

He checked the time on his phone -11:42 - before calling his dad. Five rings hit the answering machine and he took a deep breath ready to explain.

"Umm…Hi dad it's Matt, just calling to tell you not to worry and that TK and I are fine. Umm, we kind of took a road trip, and we wont be home for a while. I know we have school and stuff, but just tell them we got sick okay? It's important…things are just a little hectic right now, but we'll be home soon. Tell mom for me okay?" He closed the phone without another word, and sighed, slumping into a chair and rubbing his face. The brothers had stopped for lunch and dinner on their trip and the near twelve hour drive was the result of a huge traffic jam on top of that. Taking a sip of his coffee he opened the phone once more and called Tai's cell – not surprised in the least when he answered it in a huff.

"Matt!? Where the hell have you been, I've been trying to reach you all day!" He yelled causing the younger teen to move the phone from his ear.

"Sorry man…look we're in Kyoto." He said silently, taking another sip of the coffee he desperately needed. Then he peeled off some of the cake and swallowed it.

"Kyoto?! How the hell did you get to Kyoto!?"

"It's near midnight Tai, you do the math. We drove. What happened after we left? Kari said you punched him"

"Yeah well…he was getting on my nerves." Tai mumbled. "They all came down to my house. They're all here now I can put you on speakerphone if you want."

"No I can't say anything without TK's permission, and he's passed out in the motel..." Matt mumbled.

"You sound like you're passing out. Where are you?"

"Kyoto…"

"I got that, but you said TK was in the motel so you're not? Where are you?"

"Some coffee shop across the street…" Matt rested his head down on the table, he was exhausted and this day couldn't get any worse.

"Look you go back to the motel, and I'll keep them in the dark for now. By the way, did you call your band to let them know you weren't going to practice?"

"No practice for a while our drummer popped a hole in his snare and he needs to get it fixed, but yeah, I'll call you tomorrow." He hung up and shook his head, taking a sip of his coffee before finishing up the rest of his cupcake and heading out the door.

He stood on the street corner waiting for the light to change, watching the midnight drivers go by. Finally it was his turn and he stepped off the curb. The sound of screeching tires around the corner drew his attention to his right as a car slammed on its breaks.

Miles away Tai had turned on his television; and everyone was sitting around it because no one could sleep. They were channel surfing when all of a sudden a picture of Matt popped up on the screen.

"In other news, teenage rock star Matt Ishida was involved in a car accident late this night. There is no further information at this time on the teen's condition, and parents and family members are still being contacted at this time."

It just got worse.

Five years earlier

Izzi nearly fell out of his chair as Gennai appeared on his computer screen. His eyes widened as he clicked open the email. Instantly he was running to the phone, dialing everyone's number as fast as he could.

"Hey this is Tai -"

"Tai! It's Izzi you and Kari get over here right now its' important, bring your digivices!" He hung up and dialed Matt, then Sora, then Jo, Mimi, and TK delivering the same message each time. After five hours everyone had assembled, albeit rather annoyed and frustrated.

"Izzi what's the big idea? Your message was kind of cryptic." Matt said, tossing his cell phone into the air. "Bring our digivices? What for?"

"Yeah, and this better be good, what if we had plans!?" Mimi asked as though she was astounded by his audacity.

"Plans can wait. Gennai sent me an email!" Izzi announced without further adu. Moving to his already open laptop, he opened the file and allowed everyone to gather around as the olden gentleman appeared on the screen.

"Well hello there Izzi!" He said happily waving. "I've recently discovered something and I need some help here in the digital world from you all. You'll be able to travel to and from the digital world at will for a short period of time until this if over. You'll need your crests and digivices and when you're ready to leave, hold your digivices to the screen and say 'digiport open' and you'll find yourself in the digital world. Thanks and see you soon!"

For a split second nobody moved. Then in a flurry of questions and excitement plans were being thrown out as the drawing board was cleared. Spring Break had just started and everyone knew exactly where to spend their holiday. Immediately phone calls home were being made and everyone was rushing back and forth grabbing bags of food and extra items to make it really a vacation.

Sleeping bags, lighters, and hiking packs ready everyone joined around the computer. Taking a deep breath the held up their digivices, and at once they all said:

"Digiport open!" Instantly a blinding light filled the room and everyone yelped in surprise as they fell through the portal reappearing on the other side. They landed with a crash, everyone on top of each other and in a very awkward position. However they were interrupted from assessing their predicament when some very familiar voices started calling their names. Looking up they saw coming towards them their very best digi-friends.

"Tai!" Agumon shouted running towards him and leaping into his arms. His actions were followed to the leap by the others – only the names they called were the names of their own personal digidestined.

"Patamon!" TK yelled as his orange companion failed to appear with the rest of them. Matt looked over at him and then looked around. The little digimon was no where in sight. "Patamon, where are you! I'm back! It's TK!"

"Patamon!" Matt called out, garnering no response. "Don't worry TK, we'll find him." He said trying to smile reassuringly to his little brother.

"You know, Patamon's been acting weird lately." Gabumon said slipping his paw into Matt's hand and snuggling his head against his arm. He and the other digimon sure missed their humans.

"Weird? He's not sick is he?" TK asked moving closer to him.

"Oh no, nothing like that, he's been flying off for long periods of time towards the mountains with Gennai and then they come back together. We asked what they were up to but they wouldn't say."

"You see Gennai on a regular basis now?" Sora asked as they all made a form of mutated circle together.

"Every so often he appears yeah." Tentomon said happily.

"Well that's a lot more convenient then it was when we needed him." Tai mumbled crossing his arms. "Anyway, we're here, what does he need us for?"

"TK!" A high pitched voice full of love and excitement yelled, and instantaneously the young blonde was attacked from behind by the orange blob of fluff before it burrowed it's way under his hat and out the other side to peer into his face. Arms flying up to grab and hug the digimon close to his chest, TK gave a whoop of delight.

"Patamon you're here! You're really here! I thought I'd never see you again!" He cried out snuggling closer to his friend. Little arms wrapped as far as they could around him.

"Well you certainly wasted no time in getting here." Came the cheery voice of the older gent.

"Gennai!" Everybody called out seeing him make his way over to their merry group. He sat down in the deformed circle and smiled at them all, greeting them by name – a feat which took several minutes as small talk had ensued during the hellos.

"What do you need us for Gennai?" Jo asked placing his digi-pal in his lap.

"Usually I try not to bother digidestined who have done their civic duty to our world already, but this time it's serious. Something is keeping the digital world from healing itself."

"What do you mean?" Mimi questioned, her hands absentmindedly playing with Palmon's leafs.

"Well after you defeated the four masters and File Island was recreated, we thought that the digital world would slowly start to heal itself. To be completely frank – it hasn't, which worries me." The man's usually sunny manor had vanished in a complete moment of severity. Something was seriously wrong with the digital world. "The data's restoration no longer is doing its job and there seems to be a dark force that's keeping things from happening the way they should be. What's a mixed blessing – the digieggs are hatching. While it's a grand and wonderful thing they're hatching into a land that's to crowded. There's not enough room for every digimon that ever existed on one island.

Patamon and I have gone to the mountains to see if anything was left from the four masters, or Devimon, or even Myotismon – nothing. Not even one drop or crumb to suggest anything wrong. We keep searching but there's still no result. We need you to see if you can find anything out of the ordinary, because aside from the overpopulation we're experiencing the digimon are getting restless. They've started attacking each other instead of living in harmony. This shouldn't be happening."

"Don't worry Gennai, we'll help!" Tai said looking everyone in the eyes. Everyone nodded; there was no way the digital world was going to be destroyed so soon after they fixed it.

"That's good to hear." Gennai smiled. "Well I had better be going back to the mountains to see if I can find anything, are you coming Patamon?" The orange digimon looked up from TK's lap at the little boy's soulful eyes. They were pleading for him not to leave and he couldn't just say no.

"I'll catch up with you later Gennai I'm going to stay here for a while." The man nodded and they all said their goodbyes as he started back from whence he came.

It was getting late though, and the kids scurried down to the beach where they spent their first night ever at the digital world. They laughed and reminisced on old time. After they built a fire Matt took out his harmonica and started to blow away a new tune and everyone joked around and danced until no one could move anymore.

Patamon snuggled next to TK as he climbed into his sleeping bag. Matt had set himself up nearby but not to close to be considered protective – something he had been working on and was getting increasingly better at. Then when everyone was falling asleep and no one had any intent on waking up until morning everything went wrong.

Far far away on the peak of Infinity Mountain a new evil had been born. Whispering into the night the command that would change the course of the digidestineds future forever was spoken. While two figures behind the speaker struggled to get out of their bindings and warn the digidestined, it was no use.

"Bring little boy Hope to me. Whenever he's out of the picture those digidestined fools fall apart. With just a little push they'll be killing each other for me." The cruel voice said in typical digimon evil style. Back down on the beach Patamon opened his eyes, showing for only a split second they were red – before they changed back to their normal blue.

He sat up pushing TK awake. The little boy opened his big trusting eyes and yawned into the night.

"Patamon? What's going on? 'm tired…" He whispered trying to snuggle back into a slumber.

"I need to leave TK don't you wanna say good bye?" The orange digimon asked gently awakening the boy further before flapping away a few feet.

"Do you have to go?" the blonde asked sitting up and crawling out of the sleeping bag and following his tiny friend into the woods a bit.

"TK?" He turned at the sound of his name. Matt had been alerted to the shifting.

"I'm just gonna say goodbye to Patamon Matt, don't worry." The boy said, waiting until Matt nodded and rolled back to sleep.

"Yes TK. I'm sorry." Patamon answered finally before they walked on for a little bit. TK reached out and plucked his friend from the sky, snuggling him closely.

"Come back soon okay?" little paws against his chest Patamon nodded before looking into TK's big eyes.

"Don't worry…we'll see each other…real soon." However the boy had noticed the change a second before the attack had occurred. Was it something in the voice? The position? Or perhaps it was simply good instincts, but regardless of what alerted the boy – he hardly had the time to react.

Claws dug into his chest as his friend mutated into a large and ugly beast. It slashed through the PJs the boy was wearing and tore through his flesh as though it was paper. What should have been a flawless execution was cut short when heavy teeth bit into it's body and it's prey was pulled out from underneath him.

"Garurumon kill him!" an infuriated voice of a pissed off brother shouted. Matt looked down at the bloody and sobbing mess that was his brother. The boy was clearly going into shock and had started to convulse in his arms.

"M-Matt…it-it hurts!" His small hands clutched at Matt's jacket as his body shook once more.

"Hold on little brother I got you." Matt whispered standing and starting to make his way back to camp when something struck him hard on the side of his head. He crumpled to the ground, TK rolling away from him. Somewhere seemingly far away he heard a familiar voice calling his name, but his blurry vision was solely focused on getting TK to safety. He struggled to his feat, vision threatening to disappear on him in the already dark night. "T…K…hold on…" Matt tried but something grabbed him by the collar and propelled him into a nearby tree.

Garurumon growled menacingly as he advanced on the second creature that was advancing yet again on Matt. He would have attacked sooner to save the boy if it hadn't have been for the first beast, and now with his digidestined completely blacked out there was nothing he could do but follow his instincts on one of the hardest choices he would ever have to make.

"Stand down or the boy will die." The creature nearest to Matt had wrapped what appeared to be something very similar to Palmon's vines around his neck and was promptly strangling him. "Save Friendship or save Hope." Garurumon didn't want to press his luck by asking about the phrasing of that sentence. "Which will it be…"

"Are you going to…kill…TK?" Garurumon dared to ask, though he knew his time was running short. Matt couldn't hold on much longer.

"No." The grip on the vines tightened and the boy chocked unconsciously.

"Let him go!" Garurumon yelled turning into Gabumon and running towards his digidestined. Instantly the vines were released and Matt fell into his friend's open arms as TK was carried off into the night.

Gabumon half carried half dragged the older brother back to the campsite, only to find everyone still asleep. He felt himself grow angry over how easily their fight had been ignored that night. Soon he was yelling for everyone to wake up, and within moments the group was grumpy, tired, and extremely worried. Matt had yet to wake up, and Jo was busy checking his vitals and areas of contact to make sure he hadn't broken or damaged anything.

"I cant say anything about the head or back injuries because I don't have an MRI or an XRay machine, but his heart rate is stable and he's breathing alright. He should wake up anytime now." Jo said looking up at everyone's worried faces.

True to his word, not fifteen minutes later the boy's eyes had started to open and his vision was sliding back into place. Not surprisingly however, the first word out of his mouth was his brother's name.

"TK?" Matt asked groggily, raising one hand to touch the lightly bleeding wound on his head (as well as to massage the growing headache). "Is he alright? Did you…get him in time…?" He mumbled. When no one answered he moved his hand, studying everyone's faces. Kari looked on the verge of tears and was hugging her brother's side for dear life. Mimi and Jo were side by side seemingly ignoring the comment and avoiding his gaze. However the worst look, was that of Gabumon, who refused to look at him, and had gone as far as to turn his back to the boy. Matt pushed himself up, Sora moving to help him so he didn't hurt himself more.

"Matt-" She tried, but it was ignored.

"Where is he?" He snapped. Looking directly at his digimon. "Dammitt Gabumon tell me what happened? Where's my brother!?"

"Gone…they took him." And just then, Matt felt as though his life had just come crashing down.

How could things possibly get worse?

Sirens filled the night, but the worst sound was the harsh banging on the door to his room that had brought the terrible news. Even as TK sat in the waiting room of the hospital he could only think of one thing. Things always got worse.

Windstar: Sorry that took a while. I had an idea running then I redid it half way through. Hope you enjoy.

By the way. If you have the time and energy to sign on and click the alert button, leave a message saying 'nice story' or something too. Because it pisses me off when I get alerted or favorited and that person didn't even bother to leave a message. Honestly.