Hi everyone.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. It really means the world to me. When I'm writing, I go back and look at them and remember that with work, I can write well enough that you actually like it! Also, I know lots of you are headed back to school or have already- best of luck to you, and I hope you have a great year!

Oh, right, I don't own digimon.

Love waits for me 'round the bend

Leads me endlessly on

Surely sorrows shall find their end

and all our troubles will be gone

And I'll know what I've lost

and all that I've won

when the road finally takes me home.

~Going Home

Chapter Eight: Destiny

T.K. walked briskly down the street, Patamon balanced carefully on his shoulder. The hospital was only a few more blocks, though it was starting to get dark. just ahead of him, the boy noticed a familiar figure, making her way in the same direction. She swung on crutches, though they hardly seemed to slow her down.

"Sora!" T.K called, then jogged forward to catch up.

"Hi, T.K. Hi, Patamon. I was just going to see Matt." She paused, then swung forward again. "T.K.? You look really pale. Are you ok?" Her brown eyes were filled with concern.

"It's what was on Izzy's computer. I don't want to talk about it."

She looked at him sharply.

"I really don't- call Yolei or something. I don't want to think about it anymore."

Sora nodded. "It's ok. I'll call Yolei. But.. just so long as you know that we're here." She left it at that. " Do you like my crutches? I swear, Joe is prepared for anything. He had these right in that closet of his- I don't know how he keeps all this stuff so organized."

She went on, and T.K. was glad to have something to think about besides Matt, besides Izzy, besides the Prophecy. Patamon snuggled his head into T.K's neck, and let out a soft sigh.

"Oh, here we are." Sora said, lurching through a set of sliding doors.

Jim met them in the front. "Hey, guys. I'll be right up, The latest blood work results should be back from the lab by now. you remember the room, right T.K? 413. I think your father's still there." He walked quickly away, calling the last over his shoulder.

T.K. and Sora took the elevator up, and walked down the clean, white and green tiled hallway. Matt's room's door was open, Mr. Ishida stood inside. "T.K." He hugged his younger son. "I was wondering if you'd show up. Your Mom'll be here any minute, I've got to get going. It's good to see you."

"Hi, Dad. You remember Sora?"

"Of course. You came over last week to work on that literature project for school, didn't you? And you came on our "camping trip." Mr. Ishida smiled. "It's nice to see you as well, Sora. I just wish it was under different circumstances."

Sora nodded, lowering herself into one of the hard plastic chairs. "So do I, Sir."

"Well, I've really got to run. Doctor Kido said that he'd be up soon with more results- I'll call as soon as I can. And I'll be back around eight."

T.K opened his mouth to ask, but Mr. Ishida shook his head. "No change since you called earlier. I'll see you in a few hours."

"I love you, Dad."

"Love you too, Son."

Sora sat, looking at Matt's body, his chest that hardly moved, the machines that pulsed and beeped with every heartbeat. She wished she could do something, anything.

Matt had saved her, back during their first adventure, from that pit of.. whatever it was. It hadn't been darkness, exactly, nor had it been Evil. It had just been, a deep void. She'd felt so lost and alone and useless, but then...He's come. He'd pulled her from it. I wonder what it's like, being in a coma. Is he trapped inside a dream, or can he hear this, but not respond? Or is it like that pit? If only we still had our crests- all that light- maybe then we could of done somethi- no. Stop it, Sora. don't dwell on being helpless. It's not your fault, or anyone's, except for Devimon, if it was him. We'll find away to fix this. We will. She turned her thoughts back to Matt. He looked so peaceful, on the bed, an IV in his arm and machines all around him, humming.

T.K. looked up from not doing his Math homework, spread out on his lap. Sora was staring in silence at Matt, who might have been sleeping. At least he wasn't hurting.

Tsunomon lay like a stuffed animal, sleeping in the crook of Matt's arm. He was snoring softly, and occasionally twitching. Jim must have been covering for the little digimon when other doctors came in, T.K. realized, or else his parents had. At least the digimon was sleeping, and not awake and panicking quietly like he had the day before.

There was a knock at the door, and Jim walked in, holing a few papers. He looked around. " Did your father go? I have the results, but-"

Ms. Takaishi walked in behind him. "Oh, Doctor Kido. Excuse me."

He moved aside. "You can call me Jim, Ms. Takaishi. I have the blood work results." He paused. "His vitamin C level is a little low, but other than that- nothing. We thought he might be anemic, but it's like what we said yesterday - there isn't anything physically wrong that we can find. We'd like to do another MRI, in the morning."

She nodded, then sank into her chair next to Sora. Jim Kido left the room with a slight bow.

T.K's mother pursed her lips.

"T.K.? I want you to be honest with me. Matt didn't just fall, did he? This has to do with That, doesn't it?"

Sora didn't say anything, but felt awkward.

"Yes." T.K. didn't bother to lie. He swallowed. "It does have to do with the Digital World. I wanted to tell you when Dad got here, when we were all together."

"Takeru Takaishi!" she said, holding her head in her hands.

T.K. looked down. "It's-"

"And the times you've woken up in the middle of the night, why you aren't sleeping? It's only been these last weeks. That's connected to this too, isn't it- the nightmares?"

T.K. nodded, wondering how his mother had known- he'd only just told anyone but Patamon, and they hadn't had the chance to tell his mother, even if they would have.

His mother's face paled. "That's... Last month. When we were here," she indicated the hospital room as sirens echoed in the distance. "Your head, your rib- that was the- the Digital World, too. You answer me, T.K."

Sora became very interested in the bandage on her leg.

"Yes, but- it was different, it wasn't- it was-" But T.K. didn't know what to say, or how to say it. "I know I should have told you, but-"

"Yes! You should have- you know you can tell me anything, T.K." Her voice softened.

"T.K. I don't want you going back there."

"What?!"

Patamon had gone to sleep( after a night with little rest and a long day) by Tsunomon, and twitched. T.K. looked away from his mother, to his sleeping friend.

"I don't want you going back there. T.K., listen to me. I can't loose you." Her eyes were starting to tear up, and she turned to look at her older son. "When you left, four years ago, first into the fog and then back to that place to fight - I was so afraid I'd lost you. Lost both of you. I was - your father and I both were - terrified your friends would come back and you wouldn't, and they'd tell me that you'd... I saw explosions, and such darkness, I couldn't think.

"Last month, when Matt called and said there'd been an accident, that he was at the hospital, that you'd been hurt - I could have lost you, and now Matt, and I-"

"Mom, I have to." T.K interrupted his mother's monologue, not wanting to hear it. It was scary, to remember, to think about how close he, and Matt, and all their friends had come to death in the Digital World.

Sora had finished fixing her bandage and started to toy awkwardly with her necklace.

"No. You've done what they - whoever they are - called you to do. You said it was over, after that camping trip last month." she put a hand on her son's arm. "Please. I don't want to loose you. I... If those Monsters-"

Patamon woke with a sleepy "Hey!"

"I know Patamon is good, but there are Monsters there, you've told me enough, I remember enough from four years ago. I don't want you to go back, T.K."

T.K. couldn't take his mother's pleading eyes, but he couldn't promise to stay home, not with Devimon, and that Prophecy, and Izzy being captured and Matt's only shot being defeating Devimon once and for all- No.

"I have to go work on my science homework." He said abruptly. " Coming, Patamon?" The orange and white digimon fluttered to T.K's shoulder.

"Bye, Sora, Bye Mom. I'll see you."

And he set off, before either of them could say a word.

Yolei sat at Izzy's desk, typing furiously. Almost got it! She thought.

The program was one Izzy had started work on back when Gatomon had been kidnapped, and he'd continued work on it until Ken had been defeated- then it had taken a backseat to the map he was trying to finish. It was a tracking program, to find people or Digimon who needed to be found. They'd used it to try and find Agumon when Ken was testing his latest evil project, but She wasn't quite sure how- Izzy had explained it, but it had been confusing, and she tried to remember as she typed.

Something chimed, and she cheered silently- this had to be a good sign.

the door opened, and Mrs. Izumi entered. In one arm, she held the sleeping Motimon, in the other, a mug.

"I thought you might like some hot chocolate, Yolei." She said softly. "I don't want to interrupt, but, well, how...?"

"How close am I? Pretty close, I think."

"Oh, thank God." the small red haired woman said as she set the mug down on the other edge of the desk- near enough for Yolei to grab it, but far enough from the computers that it couldn't do any damage.

"Masami and I, we're just so worried. We knew the risks, but we never really thought that-" she cut herself off.

Yolei typed a bit more, and the computer chimed again.

"How is Motimon doing?" she asked softly.

Mrs. Izumi smiled weakly. "Better. Much better. He was a mess when Tai brought him, and told us. He's been asleep for a while now, but I don't want to let him go."

Yolei nodded, not quite understanding the last."We're going to find him. We're going to bring him back."

"Thank you. Thank you, Yolei. If there is anything I can do, just say so."

"Ok, Mrs. Izumi,"

Yolei turned her attention back to the screen- what had Izzy done next? there was the standard map of the digital world, the one marked by dark and light squares to indicate the Control Spires, but- wait a sec, why are all those sections going light? Mimi's army usually doesn't work after sundown, since there's no real rush, and none of us are in the digital world except Izzy, but he can be in two places at once!

It was true, squares were turning from black to white in two areas- one near File, the other past the strip of desert, in the more heavily forested areas.

Yolei turned to her digimon, who'd wrapped his pink wings around his round body and gone to sleep on Izzy's pillow, and considered waking him to ask if he had any ideas. Then she thought better of it- Poromon probably wouldn't know, in any case.

Yolei, at random, clicked the section where Izzy had vanished from, on File. A box popped open.

Enter Code:

Crud. I don't know Izzy's Digi-code.

Izzy had once explained to her that everything in the Digiworld had a Digi-code, and that if you knew the code, you could change parts of it, or trace it. But it had taken hours to even start to pick out the code for their practice- Ken, and that had come to nothing. If she was looking for Motimon, she could have done that- the Digi-codes for Digimon were stored in the digivices- but people? If only Izzy had had his digivice!

Yolei sighed, made a mental note to thank her sisters for covering for her at the shop, and took a long drink of hot chocolate. Then she got back to work.

"Ms. Takaishi?" Sora asked quietly.

"Oh, Sora. I'm sorry you had to see that."

"I just wanted to explain to you, what's been going on, a little. It's not over, we thought it was, but it's not. And we need T.K. You know Izzy Izumi?"

"Yes, why?"

"He's missing."

T.K.'s mother's face went ashen. His poor mother. At least Matt's here.

"He's missing, and there's an evil out there. We think it might have taken him. and it looks like T.K. might be the only one who can stop him. If Devimon wins- everything's going to get really bad. He might even come after Earth. I know you just want to keep your sons from getting hurt, that you love them. My Mom's the same way. But Izzy said, before, that Matt's best hope is if we can beat Devimon. And without T.K... he was the one who beat him before. We're stronger now, and there are more of us, but I've got a feeling that he's stronger too. T.K...It's been really hard for him, remembering what happened before. He hasn't said as much to me, but he's afraid of the same thing you are. Look, I'm not trying to say...I just wanted you to know. What's going on. I should go, I'm sorry." Sora swung to her feet and out the door.

"Wait, Sora!"

But Sora didn't enter the room. Instead, her ex-husband did.

"Hello." he said softly. "T.K. said he wanted to tell us both something, but...I guess I should go."

"No, stay." She wasn't in love with him, but she did not hate her ex. She cared for him, and as she struggled with what Sora had told her, with everything that had happened in the last few days, she realized that she needed someone, not to talk to, but just to sit with, and hope with. And he should know, she decided.

"It's the digital world. Again."

T.K was stuffing things into his backpack- a sweatshirt, granola bars, one of Joe's emergency kits, a water bottle, flashlight. Patamon sat on the bed. "T.K. T.K. T.K."

"What?" T.K. asked at last.

"It's not that I agree with your Mom," T.K. had told Patamon everything, "But I don't think we should go right now. For one thing, it's dark. And we have no plan. And it'd just be us. And... Whatever Prophecy there is, it...Last time..."

T.K. paused, in the middle of shoving a handful of hard candies into the side pocket.

Last Time.

Memories, images, shot through his mind. he couldn't shake them, of that hand reaching for him, Patamon glowing, Digivolving, dissolving into light.

"Then what, we just wait?"

"No, we talk to the others in the morning. We can do whatever we need to tomorrow, it's Saturday. We will beat him, but not alone. I think...I think he must be stronger, this time. I can almost feel it."

"Me too." T.K. admitted. "I'm sorry, Patamon, I just..."

"It's OK. I know. You're just worried. So'm I. But we have to have hope."

"I know." He flashed a small smile. " Patamon, do you.. do you really think we can beat him? really beat him?"

"I do."

T.K.'s D-Terminal let out a small beep, and he pounced on it, opening it and reading the new email.

Everyone,

I almost have it. I just need to find Izzy's Digi-code- I think he finished the program, but I need that? If anyone happens to know it- no, I know. Poromon says to get on with the message. But that's the problem. I'm thinking that the key might be his Digivice, the Code might be linked to that, so whoever has it, I'm at the Izumi's. I can't stay much longer, so whoever has Izzy's Digivice email back and either bring it to me here or get it to me in the morning. Everyone else, good night. I'll let you know the second I find anything.

Yolei.

T.K. couldn't remember who had taken the Digivice- had it been Mimi? Tai? Still, they'd find Izzy, by tomorrow for sure. Maybe things really would be ok.

"Patamon, read this," he said, shoving the device under the Digimon's nose. T.K. pulled out his cell phone, intending to call his mother. Dad'll be at the hospital by now. I should explain.

But he found himself instead calling Kari.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Kari! Yolei think's she's found-"

"Found Izzy?!"

"Not quite. But, Kari, she's close. And Jim, Jim said Matt's blood work is fine, that he's not sick. They want to do another test tomorrow morning. I feel.. I feel good about this. Like we have a chance."

"I should hope so!" Kari said with a laugh. "T.K. it's great that Yolei's made so much progress. And Matt too. I'm so glad." her voice was muffled for a moment, then she said, "Tai's gone, he's running down to take Yolei Izzy's Digivice. So we'll go out tomorrow, and fight." Suddenly her voice sounded heavy. "Oh. Wow. Tomorrow, we'll go fight him, and bring Izzy back, and..."

T.K. too was struck by the words. Even has he had packed, the weight of it hadn't quite sunk in. Tomorrow. there was a long pause.

"Yeah. I guess, we should meet, and... and come up with a plan. See about Mimi's little army, if.. if they'll fight with us."

"Yeah. When..and where. should we meet, I mean." Kari asked softly. there was fear in her voice, but courage too. She swallowed.

" I guess-"

"Hang on, Tai's back, just a second." Kari paused, then said in a rush, " T.K, I don't think it was working. Something about the Digivice having to be in the Digiworld, only it's so late now, and with all the danger, Yolei says we should go when it's light, all together. And- Oh, hang on, she's just sent another email. Oh, people've already responded."

"Right. Um, see you tomorrow?"

"Yes. See you tomorrow."

Kari hung up.

Guys,

Slight Problem. I need the Digivice to be Digitized, and I don't think me going to the Digiworld at this time of night is a good Idea. I'll need to go to the DigiWorld tomorrow morning, preferably with everyone else just in case, and from there I can run the program. with luck, it won't take long.

Yolei

Gang,

Works for me. When and Where?

Davis

Everyone,

Great Yolei! How does Eight sound? Where we left off?

Cody and Upamon

Oh, and Demiveemon says Hi.

Could I meet you a little later than that? Matt's having another test, and I'd like to be there. I'm not sure how long it will take.

T.K.

Works for me.

Cody

Me too.

Davis

Tai and I can be there at any time. But we need to be careful. maybe we should have a plan before we launch the rescue mission?

Kari

Here's an Idea- we go , Yolei get's the Code and program running, then we plan, sound good? T.K, what kind of test is it?

Joe

PS Mimi says she'll muster her troops.

I'm in, at any time. T.K, your mom might want to talk to you. I tried to explain things.

Sora.

What? what's going on?

Davis

Davis, I think it's T.K.'s business, not yours.

Gatomon.

Joe, a MR Test? Sora, thanks.

T.K.

PS Kari's right. We need a plan. A real one. Last time, we rushed into things. We can't make that mistake again.

T.K. I don't know how soon you'll have the results. It's an MRI? I Don't know how long that'll take, but I wouldn't think too long. It's kinda like an Xray, but different.

Joe.

Guys? I'm trying to work.

Yolei.

Yolei's right. we should let her work, and it'a late. We should get some rest, before tomorrow.

T.K.

So how about 10? I know it's late, but Yolei, we can go earlier- 8- and get the code scanning or whatever. you said it might take a while? and meet at 11 to start planning? T.K, you can come later than that.

Kari( and Tai)

Sounds good. See you then.

Joe and Mimi

OK. Let's do this!

Davis

Goodnight

Cody.

Yolei did not bother to respond, busy transferring the program to her own laptop and to Izzy's from his desktop.

T.K. Didn't respond either, because there had come a knock at his door.

"T.K.? It's Mom. Sora... Sora spoke to me. She explained. I'm sorry I snapped at you. I hope you understand. I've just been out of my mind with worry. But I want you to know- I support you. In all of this. With whatever battle you have to fight, whatever... whatever journey you have to take. If you need to go back, I won't stop you. You know thew risks better than I do, and if you've made your choice, I won't keep you. face your destiny, and all. But.."

T.K. threw open the door and hugged his mother.

"But be careful, OK?"

"I will, Mom. I will. I love you."

"I love you too. So much. And I know you can do whatever you've got to 's been so hard, to watch you, but I know you can do it... whatever it is." She smiled, and wiped at her face. She'd been crying, but so had her son.

"You'd better get some rest. Matt's test isn't until nine, but you look dead on your feet."

T.K. nodded. "Goodnight, Mom."

"Goodnight, Sweetheart. Sweet Dreams."

But T.K's dreams were ordinary, if he dreamed at all.

OK, so how did you like it? You did like it?

The real action starts next chapter, Promise. We get talk, but we also get action, and then more action right after. Yay! I know a lot of you have already started school or will be soon, and I'm posting this late in the day, but if you have the time, review, or else read and review later. But please do review. they mean so much to me, and I like to see what parts you like or don't like, so I can make the story more enjoyable in the future. Also, there is a TV Tropes page for A Captive Light! The link can be found on my blog, which is From Hedgis Head (via blogspot.) The link can be found in my profile.

Thanks again, So, So much, for reading. Since I don't start school for another 4 months, I'll have lots of time to write, and I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner than I got this one out.

Hedgi.