Chapter 11

Tai was holding Izzy's hand and dozing off when he suddenly collapsed and screamed as pain, stronger than anything he'd ever felt, rushed through him.

Matt, Kari and Joe ran to him.

"What happened?!"

Unable to answer them Tai closed his eyes, images of Izzy flashing through his mind as he cried out before the pain suddenly disappeared just as quickly as it had arrived.

"He...he's back at that cave. Or at least his spirit is. I dozed off...they were hurting him...oh god. Joe how do we bind his powers?"

He rose to his feet hurriedly.

"You want to bind his powers without him knowing?"

As Tai merely nodded Matt let out a low whistle.

"And how do you want to explain that one to him?"

"I'll see when the time comes; right now we need to hurry."

"Why Tai?" Kari pulled on his sleeve to stop his pacing and as he looked down to her he was suddenly aware of just how young she truly was, how young Izzy was.

"He gave up."

That was all he needed to say to get them to hurry in getting ready to travel to the Digiworld again and Kari wiped out her Digivice.

"Digigate...open!"

"Be careful."

They all nodded and disappeared while Kari sat down in front of the computer while facing Izzy's motionless body.

"Bring him back home."

Appearing in the Digital World, Tai, Matt and Joe looked around.

"Where are we going?"

"To Gennai, he'll know what to do."

Nodding at Joe's logic they hurried to where they knew Gennai lived and didn't stop running until they'd reached the lake, not surprised to see the hidden stairs already in view.

Hurrying down they saw Gennai was already waiting for them.

"Welcome Digidestined, I was unfortunately expecting you."

"We need to bind Izzy's powers," Tai didn't bother with proper greetings.

"Where do you want to bind them in?" Gennai sighed and Matt was shocked by how much like his older self he suddenly looked.

"In ourselves."

"You want to bind the power of Faith inside the three of you?" Gennai asked shocked.

"Yes."

"Why don't you ask for the help of the others as well? After all, twelve vessels are better than three."

"We don't want to involve them into this. They wouldn't understand..." Tai began but Joe interrupted him.

"Izzy doesn't fully trust most of them. He wouldn't give them up to anyone but us three without fighting it."

Gennai nodded. "When do you wish to do it? I assume you have to get Izzy?"

"No. Arukenimon has him again. We need to act before he hands them over."

Gennai blinked, surprised on how they could have lost him so quickly again, but didn't waste time asking more questions and walked them to a table.

"This place to bind his powers is the same temple you used to get back to the real world the first time."

"With those big spider Digimon?"

"Great, just great," Joe whispered at Gennai's nod and Matt had to bite his lip to keep from laughing as it was common knowledge how much Joe hated spiders.

"Let's get going then, shall we?"

They quickly made their way to the temple, happy to see it looked deserted.

"Can you still feel him?" Matt asked as Tai bit his lip.

"No, everything stopped when he gave in."

He closed his eyes for a second before they walked to the table where several Digimon cards laid and Tai smiled despite himself.

"Remember that you all chose me as your leader here?"

"Yeah, and the first thing you did was forcing Izzy into finding a pattern in those cards."

"And he did so without any trouble," Joe laughed before they turned solemnly again and followed Gennai.

"Here it is, Digidestined."

Matt looked up to see a small sacrifice table and eleven pillars in a circle.

"I think we may need the other's help after all."

"Izzy will be pissed," Tai sighed before typing a quick message to the others.

Need everyone at the temple where we first travelled back home. ASAP! Questions, ask Kari and hurry up. Tai.

"Now all we can do is wait," he said as they all turned to look at the circle...