Koji's POV:

At the moment I was wandering on a beach trying to find the others. I was alone and all that surrounded me was darkness… it didn't weaken me though. It was probably something to do with the fact that Koichi held the spirits of darkness, but I didn't ponder over it for long. I may not be weakened here, but Kari - and probably Kai too - would be.

Suddenly, I whipped around, hearing a loud splash. The ocean stood proudly behind me, dark and lethal, but about two dozen metres out was a flash of brown, pink and white…

My eyes widened, Kari!

I quickly pulled out my D-Tector, but none of my evolutions other than MagnaGarurumon could fly, and at that stage, he was out of the option. Growling, I shoved it back into my pocket again before running towards the ocean and beginning to swim towards Kari, only to freeze as she suddenly disappeared.

Something wasn't right. I know I'd seen her, so where had she gone? She couldn't have gone underwater; that would be pretty much suicidal, considering how long it would take to swim back to shore, and it wouldn't benefit her in any way.

Unless… my eyes widened again as something grabbed my ankle and dragged me underwater.

Whatever had pulled me underwater had an extremely strong grip, and unfortunately for me, I couldn't risk spirit evolving in case I dropped my D-Tector, so that didn't help me whatsoever, and I was running out of air.

Black spots began clouding my vision as I kicked at the thing that had grabbed me with my free foot, but it just dodged and punched me in the stomach, causing me to let out the last of my breath and within a minute, I gave into darkness.

JP's POV:

I groaned as my struggles to make a fire proved seemingly useless. Marcus and Takuya were still unconscious, so I couldn't ask Takuya to make one as Agunimon, and Tommy was soaking wet and shivering constantly, having fallen into the ocean when we landed… wherever we are.

"It's like the Dark Continent," I murmured under my breath as I pulled out another match and struck it on a branch, only for it to die out a moment later. "Aw, come on!"

"I-I-I'll be fine," Tommy shivered, sneezing several times a moment later.

"We need to get you warm, kid," I growled, pulling out another match and a cloth from my pocket, setting the cloth on fire before putting it on top of the sticks, sighing in relief as the fire started, "Finally!"

"T-t-thanks," Tommy stammered as he moved closer to the fire, sneezing again as he did so.

Sighing, I pulled out my D-Tector, staring at the screen, I hope that the others are okay…

Kari's POV:

My eyes slowly crept open to find myself in a snow-globe like room, unrestrained due to the fact that there didn't seem to be any doors in the room. Noting that I was resting my head on something, I glanced sideways, blushing when I noticed that Koji was beside me, awake although barely so, and that I was resting my head on his shoulder with him resting his cheek on my head.

"Uh… Koji?"

He glanced down at me groggily before blushing when he realised the position we were in and pushing himself a few centimetres away from me, "Sorry!"

"It's fine," I smiled, before looking around. "So how are we going to get out of here?"

"Leave it to me," Koji narrowed his eyes. "Execute! Beast Spirit Evolution! Lupine Laser!"

The intensified beam of light hit the glass wall and when we saw a large crack, for a moment, we thought that we were free. Then the crack just fixed itself and the beam of light was fired back at KendoGarurumon, blasting him back into the far wall and forcing him to de-digivolve.

"Koji!" I gasped, running over to him. "Are you okay?"

"Never better," he muttered sarcastically, as he struggled to his feet.

I said, "I can tell that you're being sarcastic."

"Really?" he growled even more sarcastically, falling to his knees again.

"Here," I sighed, offering him my hand and pulling him up. When he just placed his hands in his pockets afterwards, I frowned. "I kinda of getting sick of you lone wolf attitude. You need to work with friends to save any world."

He said, "Oh really; then tell me about why you plan for Kai to spend his life here. You can't protect him forever."

"I never said that I could!" I replied. "Is it so wrong that I want to keep someone as I see as a younger brother with me?"

He said, "No but, wanting him to take your place is."

I said, "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"You want him to become the child of light so that he won't be able to leave," Koji accused, his eyes narrowed. "If he gains all of the powers of light, he won't be able to go back to his world, will he?"

I said, "I… you don't have any proof about what you're accusing me of."

"I'm not the only one who thinks it," Koji's eyes narrowed even further. "Even Koichi agrees that's what you're doing and he tries to see the best in people."

I fell to my knees crying and said, "I… I know, it's just that…"

"Just that what?" Koji pressed, not willing to give up until he had learnt why I wanted Kai to stay; the real reason. "Just that you want him to make you feel better about yourself? To make you feel that you're not the weak eighth digidestined that people almost gave their lives to protect?"

I said, "Koji, someone did give there life to protect me and Gatomon."

Koji's eyes widened briefly and he said in mock concern, "Who was that exactly? Was it one of the rulers of the digital world, with whom you would have easily won a war and saved millions of innocent lives? Was it your best friend? Was it YOUR OWN BROTHER? If you want to feel less useless, maybe you should start risking YOUR life to save others and not just watch nervously from the sidelines!"

I said, "I'm sorry that I don't have a spirit to fight with!"

"IT'S NOT ABOUT HAVING A SPIRIT!" Koji yelled, eyes blazing with unvented rage. "IT'S ABOUT HAVING COURAGE AND KNOWING WHEN IT'S YOUR TURN TO DO SOMETHING FOR SOMEONE YOU CARE ABOUT!"

I would've yelled back but he had a point; I remember Tai telling me about when he had to save Sora from Datamon.

"And you know what?" he continued. "Even if you tried to understand, you couldn't! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT'S LIKE TO ACTUALLY FEEL LOSS AND PAIN!"

I said, "I'm sorry Koji."

"DON'T SAY THAT!" by that stage, he was just yelling to get anger out of his system; anger directed at himself, Mercurymon, me and past digimon who had tried to take over the digital world and caused him so much pain. "YOU THINK THAT ACTUALLY MEANS SOMETHING TO ME? It means NOTHING when you can't even BEGIN to understand what ALL OF US WENT THROUGH! IF YOU DID UNDERSTAND, YOU WOULDN'T BE DOING THIS TO KAI! You CLAIM that he's like a younger brother to you, but you want to keep him here when he probably misses his family and wants to go back to them! He may be your incarnation, but that doesn't mean that you're his whole life, Kamiya! He has to go home while he still has a chance!"

I clapped my hand over my mouth to stop myself from sobbing, but that didn't stop tears from leaking out of my eyes. Before I could reply, Mercurymon appeared behind us, an evil smirk on his face.

"What do you want with us this time?" I yelled angrily.

"The same as last time; power," he replied smugly, arms crossed as Koji glared at him.

"In case you haven't noticed," he snarled, "Kai's not here; you won't get his power."

"Not yet," Mercurymon's smirk grew. "Mark my words, by sunrise, he will be here, and you… will be dead."

"Not going to happen!" Koji grabbed his D-Tector, not noticing Mercurymon preparing to teleport. "Execute!"

At that moment, Mercurymon teleported behind him, knowing that he was too far into the evolution process to react. He then whacked Koji over the head with one mirror, watching indifferently as the boy crumpled to the floor with a slight grunt of pain.

"Koji," I mouthed as I took a shaky step away from Mercurymon. Unfortunately, that obviously wasn't enough as Mercurymon teleported behind me and then… darkness.

Marcus' POV:

"Where… are we…?" I slowly opened my eyes to find myself lying flat on my back beside a fire, in between a shivering Tommy and a semi-conscious Takuya while JP was adding fuel to said fire.

"No clue," JP sighed, glancing sideways at me. "Is it somewhere in your digital world?"

I sat up, looking around. The area seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite place it.

"It's fine if you don't know," JP smiled slightly before pulling something out of his pocket and tossing it to me. "Here; eat this."

Blinking, I looked down at it only to realise that it was a chocolate bar. I opened the wrapper as JP handed one to Tommy and Takuya before taking one himself, staring at its smooth surface for a moment before taking a large bite; I had forgotten how hungry I was.

I asked him how we got here.

He said, "I don't even know."

"There was that earthquake…" Takuya pondered before suddenly letting out a slight gasp and falling sideways, revealing a stocky figure that the others had missed in the darkness.

"Arbormon!" I leapt up and grabbed my tri-tector only for him to aim a 'Blockade Seed' at my hand, causing me to drop it.

"Execute! Spirit Evolution!" JP roared, using the time that Arbormon took to attack me to his advantage. "Lightning Fist!"

"Roundhouse Punt!" after dodging Beetlemon's attack, Arbormon grabbed Tommy by the throat, holding him in a position in which he could easily snap the boy's neck. "You sure you want to keep going?"

Beetlemon froze before de-digivolving as Arbormon nodded as best he could, "Now put the D-Tector on the ground."

Slowly and reluctantly, JP dropped his D-Tector and backed away a few spaces.

"Lemme go!" Tommy yelled as Arbormon took his D-Tector from his pocket.

Slowly, I crept around Arbormon until he couldn't see me anymore and I picked up my tri-tector, "Execute! Spirit-"

JP spoke up, "NO! Marcus he'll hurt Tommy think of him as your brother." This caused me to stop immediately. Arbormon quickly grabbed my Tri-tector and said, "Will you come quietly?"

JP said, "Fine; we'll come quietly. Just put Tommy down." He did as asked and we went with Arbormon when all of a sudden, a mirror appeared and we went through it with him.

Zoe's POV:

We were all still exhausted from when Greymon attacked us and were just trying to regain our energy by sharing one of the chocolate bars that Tyson had stored in his pocket.

Sky asked, "Does Marcus know that you store chocolate in your pockets?"

Tyson said, "Uh... maybe."

I said, "How often is 'maybe'?"

"Some of the time…" came the quiet response.

Sky and I just shook our heads but we were glad we had something to eat.

Suddenly, Sky's head whipped up and she stared straight ahead of us, "Did you guys hear something?"

Tyson shook his head and said, "No, I didn't hear anything."

She continued staring ahead for a moment before shaking her head and looking down, "Must have been my imagination."

"Roundhouse Punt!"

I gasped as a large, wooden hand whipped around Tyson and chopped the back of his neck, causing him to flop backwards.

"Arbormon," I growled, jumping up with my D-Tector in hand. Before I could use it though, something grabbed my shoulders and repeated the procedure that had been used on Tyson. Although I fell, however, I was somewhere between unconsciousness and consciousness, so I was forced to watch as Arbormon held Sky in the air by her shirt collar before punching her in the gut.

"K...ai…" she gasped, her voice cracking as she fell to the ground.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled my D-Tector closer to me, praying to the Celestial Angels that for once it would do what I wanted it to. Thankfully, Koichi's symbol of darkness appeared on the screen just as Arbormon noticed that I was still conscious, "Koichi, Kai; you have to be careful. Arbormon-"

Then the warrior of wood whacked me over the head again and darkness filled my vision.

Koichi's POV:

Zoe's symbol appeared on my screen and I heard her say, "Koichi, Kai; you have to be careful. Arbormon-"

I said, "Wait Arbormon is what?"

Although Zoe's voice disappeared, her symbol remained on screen, leading Kai and I to believe that Arbormon was still listening.

"Arbormon," Kai took a deep breath before taking my D-Tector, his eyes flickering between their normal blue colour and the pink colour of his crest. "If you let our friends go now, there'll be no trouble. You won't get hurt and we'll leave you alone. But if you don't…" he paused and the pink colour dominated in his eyes. "I will kill you."

There was a long pause before Arbormon replied, "Good luck." Then the symbol of wind faded.

Koji's POV:

Kari and I were just sitting there, wondering about what Mercurymon meant when he said Kai will be here by sunrise.

"It has to have something to do with the others," I muttered, rubbing the back of my head where Mercurymon had hit me. Just as I said that there was a flash of light and Takuya, JP, Tommy, and Marcus appeared, along with Sky, Zoe, and Tyson. I said to no one in particular, "Just as I thought."

"What do you mean?" Kari gave me a weird look.

I said, "I mean that the way they are going to lure Kai here is by bringing his friends here and trapping us."

Lina's POV, Kamiya Residence:

A week. A whole week and there was still no sign of either Kari or Kai, and Marcus, Tyson and Sky had disappeared two days ago as well.

I was bouncing up and down nervously on one of the beanbags in the Kamiya's living room, my usual, happy expression on my face, but inside, my nerves were eating at me.

"Onii-san," I whispered to Izzy, who was sitting beside me. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Izzy shook his head, not giving out to me for calling him 'big brother' for the third time that day. That worried me even more. I said, "Do you think we should go to Gennai's and ask him if he has had any contact with them?"

"We need to figure out who Mercurymon is first, and how he's here," Izzy contradicted. "If we can do that, we might be able to figure out where he has the others."

I bit my lip slightly. I really thought that going to Gennai would be the best thing to do. I get that Izzy doesn't like accepting help much and that none of the others do either, but if we didn't, we might lose them.

"I need to go to the bathroom," I quickly stood up and walked down the hallway, going past the bathroom and into Mr. Kamiya's study, where I knew he kept his computer. Taking a deep breath, I held my tri-tector up to the screen and yelled, "DIGI PORT! OPEN!" (cue 02 music)

Before I was sucked into the computer though, I turned to see Maya, Joseph and Tyler run into the room and I smiled slightly as they grabbed my arm, "Thanks, guys."

Still Lina's POV, Digital World:

Maya said, "We knew you would try eventually besides we know who Mercurymon is and we have to save the others."

"We're the only ones who can," Tyler added as Maya nodded in agreement.

"Besides, Mercurymon always seems to find us, no matter where we are," Joseph put in with an annoyed sigh. "So even if we stayed in the human world, we'd be dragged back here eventually."

"Good point…" I smiled softly before pulling Tyler and Joe into a hug. "Still; thank you."

"Hey, what about me?" Maya whined as I laughed before releasing the embarrassed boys and pulling the DigiDestined of Sincerity into a hug as well.

Suddenly, Joseph stiffened before lunging towards us and pushing us into the ground, "Get down!"

A second later, a dozen bullets flew over our heads, "Dark Reflection: Blockade Seed!"

"Lina!" Motimon yelped as he made his way over to me. "Are you alright?"

"M'fine," I muttered as I stood up. "Thanks, Joseph."

"Sure," he nodded as he helped Maya up and I turned to glare at the digimon behind me; Mercurymon.

"So you've finally stopped getting other digimon to do your dirty work?" Tyler growled, glaring at the smirking warrior of steel.

He answered, "I suppose you could say that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I growled, my heart pounding.

Mercurymon smirked. "I have what I need. Now I just need to get rid of nuisances."

Tyler growled angrily, "WATCH IT YOU WALKING MIRROR!"

"Such insolence," Mercurymon sighed.

I ground my teeth together. He's playing with us…

Everyone that had gained their spirits already shouted, "EXECUTE SPIRIT EVOLUTION!"

Agumon said, "Lina get out of the way. PEPPER BREATH!"

I quickly ducked and his attack flew over my head. Unfortunately, Mercurymon absorbed the attack, but it distracted him enough for the others to attack as well. The attacks hit.

A cloud of smoke surrounded Mercurymon and for a brief moment, I actually thought he had been hit. Then I heard a quiet laugh and looked up to see Mercurymon crouched in a tree just above my friends. "Guys, above you!"

Tyler growled, "Now you're running?"

"Not at all." Mercurymon smirked. "Dark Reflection!" The others got hit.

Only Marcus managed to stay in his evolution while the others were forced to de-digivolve.

Tyler groaned, "Ow...We need to train more."

"Agreed," Marcus replied as he forced himself to stand in front of the others in a defensive position. Marcus growled. "You guys get out of here."

Tyler said, "No way I'm leaving this to you Marcus. Lets go Agumon."

"He's right," Joseph agreed as he shakily stood up. "Gomamon!"

I stood up as well. "I'm not going either!"

Tyler said, "Lina you get out of here at the very least. You can't fight."

"He's right, Lina," Mercurymon mocked. "What good will you be? What good have you ever been?"

I flinched slightly and gripped my shirt tightly. "That's not true! We never said that!" Maya yelled.

Tyler said, "Maya is right. You're just as helpful as anyone else on the team."

"Of course she is," Mercurymon agreed sarcastically. "'I wonder why the others hang out with Lina. She never does anything useful'. Am I right, Marcus?"

Marcus' eyes were wide in horror. "That was years ago!"

My breath hitched in my throat and I felt my stomach harden. A purple coloured light appeared just in front of me. "T-that… That was true at one stage…" I whispered, hanging my head momentarily. Then I clenched my fists and glared at Mercurymon. "But I've changed now! I'm sick of sitting around and letting everyone else fight for me!"

Tyler said, "Go for it Lina. Let him have it."

I didn't respond to the comment, still slightly confused about Marcus' reaction to Mercurymon's comment. Instead, I pulled out my Tri-Tector. "Spirit!" The purple light grew brighter and a yellow and purple figure shot into my Tri-Tector. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" A cocoon of purple electricity surrounded me. "Beetlemon!" I glared at Mercurymon and took a few steps forward. "Step. Away. From. Them."

Maya cheered, "YOU GO GIRL!"

I grinned slightly beneath my armour before flying up to meet Mercurymon. "So, the weak thread edged away from the scissors," he muttered with a scowl.

Tyler said, "You always underestimate us Mercurymon."

"I wasn't underestimating your young friend when I put his friends through all of that pain," Mercurymon taunted.

My eyes widened. "What did you do to them?"

Maya said, "If you hurt them, I swear-"

"Swear what?" Mercurymon sneered. "That you and your boyfriend will hurt me?"

Both Maya and Joseph blushed noticeably. "He's not my boyfriend!" Maya yelled.

Tyler said, "Finish him off Lina!"

I grinned slightly. "My pleasure. Thunder Fist!" However, the attack just went straight through the branch. Mercurymon had teleported while we were talking. "Son of a Numemon…" I muttered under my breath.

Tyler said, "DANG IT! He got away, but you did good Lina."

I blushed slightly at the compliment, thankful that my armour hid the blush. "Thanks, Tyler," I called before flying down and de-digivolving with a sigh. Marcus de-digivolved as well and he and the others ran over to me.

"Well done, Lina!" Tentomon said happily.

"Thanks, Tentomon." I smiled and hugged my partner. Then I blinked. "You know, your names are a mouthful to say. We should have nicknames for you guys."

Maya said, "Good point and also we might get you guys confused with the older digidestined partners."

"What nicknames though?" Marcus asked. I avoided looking at him, still a bit hurt about Mercurymon's comment. I'll make sure Marcus never actually said that later.

"How about Yuki for you, Agumon?" Tyler suggested.

Agumon said, "I like it."

"Great!" Tyler gave Agumon a thumbs up.

"Hey, what about Wolfy for Gabumon?" Joseph suggested, looking at Marcus.

Marcus smirked, "Amazing." Gabumon just grumbled.

"That's so cheesy…" He muttered under his breath.

Maya said, "I think your nickname should be Hana, Palmon." Palmon nodded happily.

Joseph looked thoughtfully at Gomamon for a moment. "How about Umi?" He asked. Gommamon said, "Sounds good to me."

I grinned at Tentomon. We had already agreed on a nickname in case something like this popped up. "Raimei!" I cheered.

Tyler said, "Thats all set. Lets go talk to Gennai."

"What for?" Maya asked.

"We need to find a way to get our partners to digivolve as well instead of just us," Marcus replied.

Tyler said. "Our best bet is talking to Gennai about this."

"Would he even know what to do?" I asked. "I mean, if Mercurymon's here, then it's likely that he came from the 04 world."

Tyler said, "True but he's our only choice."

I nodded in grudging agreement and we began to walk towards Gennai's house. They arrive.

Gennai asked, "What do you need help with?"

"Our friends," Tyler instantly replied. "We know that Mercurymon took them somewhere and we need to know where. Without riddles or any kind of cryptic answers."

Gennai said, "They are in as you would know it as the Frontier world. I've been trying to contact them."

"And?" Maya pressed hopefully.

Gennai sighed, "No luck so far." All of the sudden there was a fuzzy video messages and a familiar face appeared on the monitors.

"Kai!" Tyler yelled happily.

Kai wasn't so happy his face said that, "Guys I'm happy to see you guys alive but DON'T come looking for us. Mercurymon has kidnapped Sky, Tyson, Marcus and the entire frontier gang. I don't want you guys getting captured. I was told by a voice to spirit evolve you need your partner nearby."

"That makes sense, but we're coming to get you! We can help!" I insisted.

Kai said, "No Mercurymon will kill them if I get help fighting."

"Have you even got your spirit yet?" Maya asked, concern evident in her voice.

Kai said, "I…. can't….. hear you I have to go." The video disappears.

END OF CHAPTER!

Icy: Hey guys long time no post.

DD: Mostly my fault. Sowwee…. :(

Icy: Its not your fault DD. Blame time zones. We live on the opposite sides of the Earth.

DD: Yeah… but then I started the resistance and that didn't help matters.

Icy: Its fine. Also the next chapter will be up in an hour its all written. Not sure about the next one. Also new OC coming soon. DD give them a hint. Leave in the reviews who this new character is an incarnate from.

DD: All I'm going to say is that they have a crest that is in the anime… and they come in later than every other character. Now who is that like from the show? I wonder… *stares off into space* Ducks.

Icy: Right. Read and review