I can't believe how fast I wrote this chapter compared to the last one! I'm glad I got it out quickly because I have some explaining to do. But I'll save that for the end of the chapter. For now, read on!

Davis watched the mountain path waiting for T.K. and Kari to return. He was starting to worry that something may have happened to them. They had been gone too long.

"Still nothing?" Yolei called over, sitting at a campfire they had made.

"No, not yet," Davis sighed in frustration turning back and approaching the others.

"Don't worry about it Davis," Ken said reassuringly as the maroon haired boy sat down, "They may be alone but we'd know if something went wrong."

"Although if there was a problem, it would be cool to try out that idea you had Davis," Cody told him, trying to raise his spirits.

Davis grunted, "You sure you want to try another one of my ideas? The last one worked out so well…"

"No the idea was good Davis," Ken responded, "Acting obnoxious to get T.K. angry and talk about what was bothering him did technically work."

"We just underestimated how big of a deal it was," Yolei said sadly.

Davis just nodded his head and stared into the fire. Despite all the times he tried to get under T.K.'s skin, he was genuinely worried. He had really come to respect and admire his blonde friend over the past few years. Davis sometimes wished that he could be as calm and collected as T.K., and that he could be the same sort of great guy that T.K. was. True, he did resent T.K. a little for being the obvious centre of Kari's affection. Even if Kari and T.K. didn't realise what they felt for each other, everyone else saw it. But Davis knew that if he were to lose Kari to someone, T.K. was someone he respected enough to let him have her.

"Well, hopefully now we can all help T.K. together," Davis said firmly, "And if there's a problem on the island, then we'll make sure we deal with it."

The others started nodding in agreement when they heard a crash in the distance. Everyone spun around to look down the path, where the sound was coming from.

"Kari and T.K. must be in trouble!" Gatomon cried out as she began running off.

"We've got to help them!" Patamon shouted as he flew after Gatomon.

Davis jumped to his feet and turned to the others, "Let's go! And Cody, I think you're right. I think this might be a good chance to try out my new plan…"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH"

T.K. and Kari screamed and landed with a thud as they fell off what they thought was a tree. T.K. got unsteadily to his feet and quickly moved to help Kari get up.

"Sorry to disrupt that little moment you lovebirds, but it is rather uncomfortable having someone sit on your head."

The two friends looked up to see a large tree Digimon towering over them. T.K. put his arm in front of Kari and pushed her back a couple of steps.

"Besides, what fun would having all this extra power be if I didn't use it to squash a couple of DigiDestined when I got the chance?" The Digimon asked with a smirk.

"Who the heck are you?" T.K. shouted.

"And why on Earth would you want to squash us?" Kari added.

"Me? Why I'm just a simple Cherrymon!" was the response, "And as for squashing you, it was part of the promise I gave to my benefactor. In exchange for power, I kill DigiDestined! It's a great deal really."

"Who gave you the power?" T.K. asked.

"Unfortunately, you'll never know," Cherrymon smirked, "Now, stand still and I'll make this quick. VINE ATTACK!"

T.K. tackled Kari to the ground just in time to dodge the attack. He stood up but before he could do anything else, Cherrymon swung an arm and caught T.K. in the chest knocking him several metres away from Kari. He grunted in pain as he slowly got to his feet again. He looked around to see Kari rolling around as Cherrymon smashed his arms on the ground, toying with her.

"Now, now my dear you can't keep this up forever," Cherrymon taunted, "Why don't you just lie still so I can end your life quickly!"

"T.K. help me!" Kari cried out in fear.

As Cherrymon smashed the ground again, T.K. did the first thing he thought of. He ran towards the Digimon and jumped onto one of his arms, ran up it and started punching and kicking him. He knew it wouldn't do much good, but he had to buy Kari time to go get the others.

Cherrymon grunted in annoyance as a particularly strong kick knocked some of his bark off. He stopped hitting the ground and snatched T.K. off his shoulder.

"Kari run! Go get the others!" he yelled at her, while dangling upside down.

Kari stayed laying on the ground, frozen with fear. She wanted to move but her body refused to obey her commands, as she watched on helplessly as Cherrymon began beating her best friend.

"You little fool!" Cherrymon shouted as he smacked T.K. again and again, "What did you plan to do? Kick me to death? You should know when there's no hope!"

"No hope…" T.K. muttered suddenly much more afraid then he had been a moment ago. He watched as Cherrymon raised another arm preparing to strike again, and closed his eyes tightly, not wanting to witness the killing blow. He heard Kari scream and waiting for the impact.

"FLAME FIST!"

Cherrymon screamed as he was hit with a ball of fire, and he dropped the blonde. Kari quickly rushed to T.K.'s side and they turned to see Flamedramon standing on the opposite side of the grove.

"Kari, T.K. stand back! You don't want to get in the way," he called to them.

Kari helped T.K. get gingerly to his feet and they moved into the trees as quickly as they could. They looked around, trying to see everyone else, but to no avail.

"Where are they? Flamedramon can't do this on his own!" Kari cried out.

Cherrymon had dealt with the fire and was now trying to land a hit on the Armor Digimon.

"Vine Attack! Gah, stand still! Make this easier on yourself," he threatened, "You don't stand a chance all alone!"

"Who says he's alone?" came a voice, as Digmon erupted from the ground behind Cherrymon, "Gold Rush!"

Cherrymon was hit from and stumbled forward. He looked back and forth between his two opponents.

"So you think this is all it will take to defeat me? Come and get it!" He shouted as he attacked.

"Gold Rush!"

"Flame Fist!"

Cherrymon laughed as both attacks hit the ground in front of him, leaving him completely unfazed.

"How pathetic," he said mockingly. He took a step towards Digmon when suddenly, the ground began to rumble. Without warning, a hole appeared beneath Cherrymon and he fell in, colliding with the walls as he did so.

"Well, it looks like someone didn't mind their footing," Digmon taunted, "And now he's just lumber waiting to be burned! Flamedramon, would you do the honours?"

"It'll be my pleasure," Flamedramon smirked, "Fire Rocket!"

Flamedramon charged into Cherrymon, landed and charged again. After four attacks he finally stopped next to Digmon as they watched Cherrymon try to extinguish the flames. He cried out in pain, as a faint trickle of black dust floated away into the smoke.

T.K. and Kari stood up and approached Digmon and Flamedramon, just as they heard a shout to their left.

"Hey, you guys are alright!"

They turned to see Davis and the others running towards them. Gatomon and Patamon quickly overtook the others and leapt into the arms of their partners.

"Never do that to us again! We were worried sick!" Gatomon scolded the two of them.

"Davis your idea worked perfectly!" Cody cheered, as the others joined them.

"I told you, having Digmon hollow the ground under someone would do the trick," Davis laughed.

As everyone continued celebrating, T.K. approached Cherrymon, who had finally extinguished himself, but was severely damaged, and obviously weakened.

"Come to gloat," he asked in a weak voice as T.K. reached him.

T.K. ignored the question.

"Who's controlling you?" he said in a demanding tone.

"Controlling me? Who says I'm being controlled?"

"Is it Puppetmon?" T.K. questioned further, once again ignoring what the Digimon said, "I know of a Cherrymon who served him in the past."

"He is Puppetmon, and yet he is more," Cherrymon replied, "I myself am not entirely sure. I know only of the dark cloud that spoke to me. It was a voice I didn't know. And yet a voice that was all too familiar."

"And what did it want?" T.K. asked angrily.

"To give me strength," Cherrymon explained, "More strength than I had ever known. Strength that I may use as I see fit. The only promise I had to make was to destroy the DigiDestined should I see them."

"Why? Why would you agree to that?"

Cherrymon laughed, "There are powers and desires you will never understand. I could spend a year explaining to you why I did what I did, but it would make no difference. Now do what you will with me."

T.K. watched Cherrymon for a moment before turning around and walking back to the others.

"Sorry for the delay. Let's get back to the base of the mountain and make camp," he told them.

Everyone nodded in agreement and slowly followed T.K. out of the grove.

As they walked back to where the mountain slope began, Kari once again found herself near the back of the group. She had meant to lag behind a bit this time however, because she needed to talk to Yolei.

The bespectacled girl listened as Kari recounted what had just happened with T.K.

"And then, he made a comment about how romantic everything was," she said, "That's when Cherrymon revealed himself."

"So? What's the big deal?" Yolei asked, "It just seems like he was upset and you cheered him up like you've done a dozen times in the past."

"Well, there was a bit more to it," Kari replied shyly.

"Oh? What else?"

Kari blushed slightly, "Yolei, I think you're right."

"Right about what?" Yolei asked with a confused expression on her face.

"About T.K." Kari replied, "I think he likes me."

"What? Why?"

"And I'm pretty sure I like him," Kari continued as though Yolei hadn't said anything.

"WHAT?!" Yolei shouted, causing everyone turn to look at her.

Kari smacked Yolei's arm as both girls blushed, trying to ignore the curious expressions on the faces of the four boys ahead of them.

"Way to be discreet," Kari scolded.

"Sorry," Yolei replied guiltily, "I just really wasn't expecting that! What changed your mind?"

"I don't know exactly how it happened. But just before Cherrymon attacked, T.K. and I, we almost kissed."

"Really?!"

"Well, I think so. I wasn't thinking, I just started to lean towards him instinctively. And I think he was as well."

"Oh I knew it! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!" Yolei squealed as quietly as she could.

Kari smiled at her friend's excitement, "Not that I want to rain on your parade, but I could be wrong about all this."

Yolei rolled her eyes, "Come off it Kari. He's into you. And if you've finally realised that you're into him, then anything's possible."

"He could still be interested in someone else. Maybe it was just a spur of the moment thing. Or maybe I just misread what was happening," Kari replied.

Before Yolei could say anything else, Davis called that it was too late to keep going, and they should stop to make camp. They spent a few minutes making preparations to sleep, and T.K. volunteered to take the first watch. Kari thought of protesting but yawned widely and decided that she should just get some sleep, and work on worrying about T.K. in the morning.

As everyone started to fall asleep one by one, Yolei turned to Kari, and spoke to her in an eager whisper.

"Forgetting about what T.K. wants, I'm just glad you're finally able to admit you like him."

Kari smiled and shook her head a little bit. She looked over at T.K.'s back and felt warm inside.

Yeah, I really do. She thought to herself.

Across the makeshift campsite, T.K. was thinking about the same girl who had just closed her eyes while thinking about him. Despite everything that had happened over the past couple of days, he couldn't help but feel happy about what had almost happened when they had been sitting together.

A week ago, he wouldn't had given it a second thought. But ever since his birthday T.K. had been thinking about Kari more often than normal. Much more often. He relived the events of that night for what seemed to be the millionth time. When she showed up to take him out for their traditional birthday hang out. Everyone surprising him at the restaurant. The smile that didn't seem to leave Kari's face the whole night. The two of them walking home, teasing Davis. And Kari kissing him on the cheek.

T.K. rubbed his face where her lips had touched him and smiled. He had never really been interested in a girl before, and he always assumed it was because he was so close with Kari that he didn't feel the need to have a girlfriend. But now he was starting to wonder if it was because he had always really been interested in being with Kari.

He had always thought she was the most attractive girl he knew, and he loved spending time with her. He hated any day where he didn't get to talk to her and couldn't stand the idea of her being upset. The fact that he had caused her pain earlier didn't make him happy with himself.

But does it mean that I have feelings for her? He thought to himself.

T.K. looked over at Kari again and sighed, wishing he could figure out how he felt about her. He turned back, and made himself comfortable to sit out the duration of his watch.

A couple hours later, T.K. felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Davis standing over him.

"You look exhausted man, you should get some sleep. I'll take over for a while," Davis said.

T.K. shook his head, "No, it's fine. I can keep going. Besides, I owe you that much."

Davis examined his friend for a moment. He knew T.K. probably did feel quite guilty about his breakdown earlier, but he assumed there was more to it.

"You're scared to go to sleep aren't you? You think you'll have another nightmare."

T.K. hesitated a moment before nodding. Davis sighed and sat on a stump next to T.K., trying to figure out what to say.

"Look T.K., I'm sorry for what I did earlier. I'll admit that I was trying to get you to open up, but I went about it totally the wrong way," he said softly, "We're all worried about you, and there was just such a change in your attitude."

"I know," T.K. sighed, "That's why I wanted to start on the North side of the mountain instead of the South. I want to climb to the top but I knew we'd pass that spot on this side, but we'd miss it on the Northern path. I was too scared about what would happen. Especially with whatever other power is at play right now."

"Don't worry about it. It's okay," Davis responded as he grasped T.K.'s shoulder, "Tomorrow, we'll start up on the far side of the mountain and when we get to the top, we'll figure out what to do about this new enemy."

"Or maybe I could just see what happens in my dream tonight," T.K. said despondently as he stood up.

"Oh don't be like that," Davis smirked, "Just go curl up next to Kari and sleep it off."

"Yea-WHAT?!" T.K. cried out in surprise.

"I just meant that Patamon's over there sleeping near Gatomon," Davis said with his eyebrows raised, "I don't know what you're thinking of. Although I'm sure she could keep the bad dreams away."

T.K. blushed and nodded at Davis as he turned away. He heard Davis chuckle as he made his way across the campsite to where Patamon was. He settled down and found that he was within inches of Kari and he couldn't help but smile. Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, he felt her shift and he opened his eyes to see that she was slightly pressed into his body.

He resisted the urge to wrap an arm around her, and closed his eyes again. He fell asleep with a large smile on his face.

Several hours later, he woke up screaming in fear.

First off, I hope you all liked that chapter!

I also hope that clears somethings up from the last chapter. Such as Davis being an idiot, and why T.K. changed his mind amount climbing the mountain.

I know that sometimes things happen that don't really make sense, and it bugs some of you. I knew I was gonna get some flak for making Davis lash out at T.K. All I can say is that everything I'm doing is intentional, and even if it doesn't make sense now, it will later on. So I just ask you to bear with me and keep reading!

As always, let me know what you think! I love you all for your feedback, and I hope that I'm still writing a story you're enjoying!