Reviews:

Ackbarfan5556: I'm pretty sure I did. The power of trying to be thorough with stuff :) Glad you're still in love with it.

Lord Jaric: I understand your view, but it wouldn't have been practical for the time period that is being presented. I like to be as authentic to the time period that is being portrayed as I possibly can. In 1999, Phantom Menace was all the rage, so the kids would be aware of it. In the next two stories, the other prequels will not be referenced if that makes you feel better. I just did it to set the table for what this story was going to be about. Thank you for your review.

Here we are with chapter 26. What's gonna happen next with the kids making their way home? Find out.

"Here you go, Miko," said Kari as she placed a bowl of milk in front of the brown and white cat. As Miko lapped up the nutritious, white liquid, the girl gave him a scratch behind the ears, causing the cat to purr in delight.

After the events from that morning where her brother came back from camp almost out of nowhere and strange events started happening, things looked like they were back to normal. All Kari could do was hope that her brother was okay, wherever he was at the moment.

For some reason, the girl could feel his presence nearby. For as long as she could remember, Kari was very sensitive to the presence of others and where they were at a particular moment; such as when someone would approach the front door or if one of her friends was nearby. There were also times where she could tell what people were thinking without even being near them, which explained how she knew about this eighth child that Tai was looking for without him telling her.

Her attention was drawn to the sound of the front door opening and closing.

"Kari, we're back," her mother called.

"Everything all right, sweetie?" her father's voice followed.

Kari left the bedroom and into the living room to greet her parents with an adorable smile. The two of them were removing their shoes in the genkan before moving onto the hardwood floors.

"Everything's fine," replied Kari as her father gave her a pat on the head before heading directly towards the fridge for a drink. Mrs. Kamiya kissed her cheek, which Kari returned.

If Tai looked just like their father, Kari could be considered a younger version of their mother. Mrs. Kamiya was a lovely woman in her mid-thirties with long brown hair that was tied in the back in a ponytail and warm brown eyes that exuded a warm motherly love. She loved her two children dearly and would do anything for them.

Mr. Kamiya was a handsome man also in his mid-thirties, but his youthful appearance made him look younger. Just like his son, he had a goofy grin that almost all Kamiya men seemed to share. One could say that he and Tai were a spitting image of each other, but Mr. Kamiya's brown hair was short and well-kept unlike Tai's gravity-defying mop of hair.

"What was wrong with Grandma?"

"She took a bit of a fall," replied Mr. Kamiya as he popped open a can of carbonated water. "She sprained her ankle slightly and has to stay in the hospital for a day. She's upset about it because it cuts into her dance lessons."

"That's Grandma," Kari chuckled before holding out a glass for her father, which he accepted with a smile.

"Grandma was worried about your cold," said Mrs. Kamiya as she put an apron around her that had a frog sewn onto the front. She then sent a playful glare towards her husband. "Daddy should remember to bring your sweater next time."

Mr. Kamiya returned the glare with a look of mock offense. "Don't put that on me, sweetheart," he retorted. "It wasn't my fault."

"Sure it was," Mrs. Kamiya flashed him a playful smirk before lightly smacking him on the cheek.

"I'm okay now," said Kari.

"You do look much better," Mr. Kamiya replied as he took a closer look at her. Her face wasn't as flushed as it was that morning and her eyes were much brighter.

He placed his hand on her forehead, just to be absolutely sure. After a few seconds, he smiled at his daughter.

"You're as cool as a cucumber," he said before kissing the top of her head.

Meanwhile, back in the bedroom, Miko looked up from his bowl of milk to find a peculiar sight: a long metal object sat under the bottom bunk of Tai and Kari's bed. Moving away from the milk, the cat eyed the strange object with curious eyes. What could it possibly be? Maybe it was one of his masters' toys that ended up being pushed under the bed by mistake.

Tai took in a big breath of air as he walked down the sidewalk past Odaiba Beach. The group had landed near Daiba Park and embarked on their separate ways, promising to meet up tomorrow with their old elementary school address books. They had to find the eighth Jedi quickly before Myotismon did, and there were a limited amount of options as to who the eighth child could be. It might be someone they knew so they needed to leave no stone unturned.

The setting sun turned the sky a peach color as it settled on the horizon in the distance. Tai could hear the waves from the bay crashing against the shore as he neared his family's apartment building. The memories of what happened when he came through the portal were still fresh in his mind. Hopefully Kari had gotten back home safely and was doing okay.

'It's strange that Kari could see Ogremon as well,' he thought to himself before something else crossed his mind. 'Is it possible that Kari's the eighth Jedi? She somehow knew about it, even though I never told her.'

That thought stayed in his mind as he finally reached the apartment building. The elevator in the lobby was wide open and beckoning for him to enter. As the floor numbers ticked by, his anticipation grew and grew until it finally stopped. He couldn't get out quickly enough as he sprinted down the hallway towards his family's apartment.

"I'm home!" he cried as he opened the door and entered.

Miko nearly caused him to lose his balance as he went tearing past him like a bat out of hell. His mother than came to the foyer.

Tai nearly lost it as he finally set eyes on his mother for the first time in months, but he tried to keep himself together as his heart filled with joy.

"Tai?" she greeted him with a confused look on her face. Last she heard, camp was supposed to last a few days, rather than just one. "Why are you here? Did something happen at camp?"

"Camp got canceled because it snowed," he replied.

"Snow? Who would have thought at this time of year. Weather's getting so unpredictable these days."

Her eyes then glanced at the symbol on his arm.

"What's that?" she asked, eyeing the mark with interest.

Tai glanced down at it and used the same excuse that they had used earlier when Mr. Fujiyama asked about it.

"It's just something I drew when I was playing with my friends," he replied with an innocent expression on his face.

Mrs. Kamiya looked as though she wasn't sure whether to believe him or not for a few seconds until her face softened.

"Okay. Give me your dirty clothes so I can wash them."

That was when Tai finally lost it. With tears blurring his vision, he charged into her midsection before wrapping his arms around her waist. It had been so long since he had seen her that he couldn't help himself any longer. Her stomach stifled his wails, but they were still loud enough to be heard.

"Tai, is something wrong?" she asked, confused as to why Tai was acting this way. It was almost like he hadn't seen her in months.

"I'm so glad to see you," he said through his sniffles as his mother stroked his hair.

"What's this all about, sweetheart?"

Mr. Kamiya and Kari came over to see what was wrong, and Tai greeted his father just like he did his mother. The two parents were extremely confused as to what was wrong with their son. What happened during one day of camp that made him greet them this way?

All Sora could hear as she closed the door behind her was her mother's Kyu Sakamoto CD playing 'Sukiyaki' on repeat. She fought the urge to roll her eyes as she took off her shoes because it was something she was used to hearing all the time while at home. It was the only music that her mother would allow to be played in the apartment, much to her daughter's annoyance.

"Mom, I'm home!" Sora called as she got into her house slippers.

There was no response as she made her way further into the apartment. Once she rounded the corner into the living room, she didn't find one trace of her mother. After a few seconds of confusion, Sora remembered that her mother had an ikebana class to teach that evening so she had the apartment to herself for now.

Making her way into her bedroom, Sora dropped all her things onto the floor and looked around. Several posters decorated her bedroom walls; Matchbox Twenty, Green Day, B'z, and all sorts of soccer posters. A CD player sat near the far wall along with a vast collection of CD's; most of them were given to her by her father but she had a few that she bought herself.

Sora planted herself on the floor with her legs crossed as she controlled her breathing so she could meditate.

It felt good to have a few moments of silence alone to herself, which was something she had not had since she went off by herself in the Digital World. She would know when she was ready to confront her mother about the past, but now she wanted nothing more than to feel the Force flowing through her.

At the Izumi apartment, Mrs. Izumi was currently on the phone with one of her friends. A tall woman with long, flowing maroon hair, her looks did not at all reflect her thirty-three years of life. Some would dare to say that she hasn't aged at all.

"I'm telling you, you're so lucky to have a boy like Izzy," her friend said on the other line. "He's the perfect example of a gentleman, and so smart."

Mrs. Izumi laughed bashfully. She was used to these types of praises she and her husband would receive when it came to their son, but it was still flattering to hear them. Everyone they knew loved Izzy, considering him to be the perfect example for how a child should behave.

"My kids are always fighting, and never listen to a word I say."

The sounds of bickering could be heard in the background. Two little boys were arguing over toys while their mother was trying to separate them. Mrs. Izumi listened as the commotion continued, almost thankful that Izzy never proved to be a problem child. Sometimes she wished that she and her husband were able to give him a sibling, but they were happy with just having Izzy.

"I'm home!"

Speak of the devil, Izzy closed the door behind him as Mrs. Izumi turned towards him.

"Izzy?" she greeted, confused as to why he was home so early from camp. "What are you doing here?"

"I came home ahead of schedule," said Izzy, already moving towards his bedroom door before her next question stopped him.

"Didn't you like camp?"

'How am I going to explain this?' he wondered.

He chuckled and scratched the back of his head nervously before replying, "The food was inferior. It also snowed, so they canceled everything."

"Snow?" Mrs. Izumi asked, finding that odd for the middle of summer. The sound of arguing was so loud that it could be heard all over the entryway. "You know, Tai called me earlier and asked if you were home. He said he came back early as well. Did something happen?"

"No, nothing happened," Izzy immediately replied, a little too forcefully he had to admit. "Call me when dinner's ready."

He shut his bedroom door behind him, leaving his mother confused as to what else may have happened at camp.

"I just wish they were as considerate as your Izzy!" her friend finally said, the exasperation clear in her voice.

Mrs. Izumi sighed. "Sometimes he's too considerate."

Tai scarfed down yet another helping of tempura and rice in just under a second. He was so hungry that he felt like he could eat all of Japan out of house and home and still have room for seconds.

His mother watched with her jaw practically hitting the table. Tai never ate her food willingly, so she didn't know how to react. She was so fascinated by what she was seeing that something just dawned on her.

"I left the bathwater running," she remembered as she stepped away from the dining room table.

Tai's father and sister were sitting on the couch watching a show, obviously a comedy because of how hard they were laughing. Tai glanced over at the television out of the corner of his eye as he finished the bowl.

"May I have some more, please?" he asked his mother as she returned from the bathroom.

"Tai, this is your third helping," she replied.

"It's been a while since I've had such great cooking," he said, flashing her his famous goofy grin.

"If you're buttering me up for a raise in allowance, you can forget about it, young man," Mrs. Kamiya chuckled, returning his grin with a smirk of her own as she dumped in another helping.

Once dinner was finished, Tai retreated to his bedroom for some much-needed rest. His head was heavy like a bowling ball and the rest of his body was demanding a break after all the excitement from that day.

He was about to settle in for bed when Kari came into the room.

"I'm glad you're back," she said, smiling softly at him. "I missed you when you were gone, Tai."

"I missed you too, Kari," her brother replied as he hugged her close. "Hey, do you happen to remember what happened in Hikarigaoka four years ago?"

Kari frowned for a second as she dug through her memory. She was practically a baby back then, so it would be hard to remember everything.

"I remember that two creatures fought with funny looking swords," she finally replied. "One of them looked like a lion and the other was like that green guy you fought earlier. That's something I'll never forget."

Tai then took the lightsaber off of his waist and presented it to her.

"Do you happen to have one of these?" he asked.

Kari shook her head. "Don't think so," she replied. "Why?"

"Just curious."

Tai almost breathed a sigh of relief. There was no way that Kari could possibly be the eighth Jedi since she didn't have a lightsaber on her. He was thankful he could put that theory to rest.

Speaking of rest, he yawned loudly.

"I'm tired," he said, rubbing his eyes as he stripped off his shirt. "Good night."

"You're such a party pooper," Kari chuckled with a roll of her eyes.

Tai wrapped himself up in the comforter on his bed, falling asleep in the blink of an eye.

Once Kari saw that there was no waking him up, she turned her attention to the whereabouts of their missing cat. Miko still had not come back after running out the door a little while ago.

"Miko, where are you?" she called. "Here, kitty."

Miko was having quite the adventure.

A simple mission of retrieving the mysterious object that he had found under his masters' bed ended up turning into a wild goose chase. First, another cat showed up with the object in its mouth. Being the good pet that he was, Miko went chasing after the cat to get it back.

What the cat did not expect was getting locked into the back of a truck with no way out and no way of knowing where the truck will stop. Maybe he should have just stayed home; his masters would start to worry about him if he was gone too long.

As the cat stared at the metal object on the floor in front of him, it began to spin around in circles. Miko's eyes widened, confused by its behavior. After a few more seconds, it stopped its spinning.

He had to get home right away.

Izzy's mind felt at peace as he concentrated his focus inward. His bedroom lights were turned off, with not a single sound to be heard throughout the dark room except for the sounds of his breathing, and the pulse of his heartbeat.

Dinner had been a quiet affair, with his parents asking him how camp was and some small things about the upcoming school semester. He had been lucky to avoid letting his adventures slip out when talking about his experiences at camp. His parents probably wouldn't believe him if he did anyway. Afterwards, he retreated to his room to have some peaceful time to himself.

As he continued to meditate, Izzy's eyes suddenly snapped open. Something wasn't right. Izzy concentrated harder to locate what he was sensing. A chill ran down his spine as a presence of dark energy made contact with him.

'An evil Digimon,' he realized.

Without a second of hesitation, he ran for the phone he kept in his room to call the others to let them know what he felt. Hopefully some of them were still awake and could help him fight it off.

He first dialed Tai's home number.

"Hello? Kamiya residence." Mrs. Kamiya answered.

"Hello, Mrs. Kamiya," Izzy replied. "This is Izzy. I was hoping Tai could come to the phone."

"He's sleeping. Would you like me to wake him up for you?"

"No, that's okay. Sorry to bother you," he said before disconnecting the call. He then dialed Sora's home number.

"Hi, Mrs. Takenouchi. I know it's late, but is Sora awake?"

"No, she's sleeping right now."

"Ok. I'll call back tomorrow."

He then tried Matt's number, knowing that both he and TK would be there, but they were also fast asleep. By process of elimination, Izzy guessed that Joe and Mimi were also asleep by now. He was going to have to do this on his own.

Strapping his trusty laptop to his back and putting his lightsaber on his waist, Izzy made his way out of the bedroom door. Just a few more steps and he would be out the door.

"Izzy."

Izzy cringed slightly as he turned to look at his mother. The sounds from the living room told him that his father was still watching television.

"Hi, Mom," he replied, smiling innocently.

"Where are you going?" Mrs. Izumi asked, noticing how rigid his body language was.

It took Izzy a few seconds to think of a good excuse. He couldn't tell her that he was going off to fight a giant monster.

"I'm going over to Tai's really quick. I asked him earlier if I could borrow one of his reference books and now I'm going over to get it. I'll be back in just a bit."

Before his mother could say anything in return, he put his shoes on and made his way out the door.

As the cool night air blew against his face, Izzy couldn't help but feel guilty for lying to her. He had never lied to his parents before, but he didn't want them to worry as he made his way down to the ground floor of the building to flag down a taxi.

Miko meowed loudly as he scratched against the door, begging to be let out as the truck came to a stop somewhere. After a few seconds, the truck was jolted violently. The cat shrieked as the truck tumbled over and over, like a trash can rolling down a hill, until it finally landed on its side.

Miko shook himself out before realizing that the door was open. The cat quickly escaped before the truck could potentially roll over again. He then stopped dead in his tracks as the foul smell of rotting fish blasted him in the nose.

A giant, grey monster with sharp teeth growled at him. It looked like a slug that was buried under an avalanche of sludge. Its front legs were tipped with sharp claws at the end, its eyes wild with intent to destroy with one being bigger than the other. It was the most grotesque thing the cat had ever seen.

As it bore a heavy foot down onto him, Miko quickly escaped with the lightsaber in his mouth. Running as fast as his paws could carry him, the creature stayed with him step for step until the sound of a lightsaber activating echoed through the area.

Izzy couldn't believe the sight before him as he gazed upon the large mass of sludge. His nose wrinkled as he pulled out his laptop to identify what Digimon this was. He quickly searched through the Digimon files until he found it: Raremon.

'If its attacks are just as bad as its smell, I better watch my step,' the boy thought to himself as he engaged the creature.

The creature was still ignorant to Izzy's presence as he used the Force to send a nearby lamppost colliding with its head. It unleashed a displeasured cry before turning to finally look at him. Tilting its head back, Raremon spat a greenish liquid towards Izzy, which he dodged as it splashed against the garbage bin behind him.

He dodged a few more attacks, one almost catching him in the side, before he decided to run away, hoping to draw it somewhere that he had the advantage. It growled loudly as it followed Izzy deeper into the industrial park area.

Everything around Tai was dark.

For someone who was usually never afraid of the dark, Tai had to admit that the darkness made him feel a little uneasy. It didn't take him long to see that he was all alone, floating in a void of nothingness.

As he looked around the void, he couldn't see anything until the sound of two lightsabers activating caught his ear. The sound was as sinister as a snake's hiss, sending a chill down his spine.

Tai slowly turned to see the silhouette of four figures, two of them with red lightsabers in their hands. One of them was a serpentine figure with a long body that almost measured sixty feet long. Another was a hulking menace that looked almost machine-like, while the other two with the lightsabers varied in height: one was tall while the other was short, almost wooden.

The tall figure let out a loud, booming laugh that almost reminded Tai of a maniacal clown in old horror movies.

"Destined Jedi," it said. "The time has come to meet your doom."

Tai let out a scream as the figures charged towards him.

"Tai! Sweetheart, wake up."

Tai gasped as he shot up from his bed. Panting heavily, it took him several moments to gather his composure. After getting his breathing under control, he turned to see his mother beside his bed, looking rather concerned.

"What's up, Mom?" he asked as he let out a yawn. His mind was wrapped in a fog and everything seemed blurry around him, which caused him to rub his eyes so he could see clearly.

"Are you okay?" Mrs. Kamiya asked her son, troubled by his mumbling before she woke him up.

Tai let out another yawn as he replied, "Yeah, I'm fine. What's up?"

"Izzy called on the phone, and he seemed to be upset about something."

That snapped Tai out of his sleep-induced haze almost immediately. His eyes instantly grew brighter and he was ready for action.

"I wonder what's wrong," he said.

A bad feeling instantly came over him. Something was wrong, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

As he stood behind a metal cargo box, Izzy sensed more Force energy coming from a little ways away. It felt just like how the others' Force energy would feel when he sensed them but he didn't recognize it. His eyes went wide.

'The eighth Jedi!' he realized.

He turned to look behind the cargo box to check if Raremon was anywhere nearby. The stench of rotting fish was thankfully nowhere to be smelled, so he took his chance to run towards where he felt the Force energy coming from.

Tearing through the entire area with dogged determination, Izzy followed the trail as he felt it growing stronger and stronger. The eighth child was so close that he could almost taste it. He would have to ask why they were out this late, especially in an area like this.

As Izzy rounded another corner, he was dismayed to find that there was nothing to be seen except for Tokyo Bay to the left and a storage shed to the right.

"That's odd," he said to himself. "I could have sworn that I felt something here."

"Well, well, well. Look what I found."

Izzy looked up to see a familiar face smirking down at him. DemiDevimon floated above him, smiling in sadistic pleasure.

"DemiDevimon!" the boy pointed his lightsaber towards the diminutive bat threateningly. "What have you done to the eighth child?"

"You tell me, short stack!" the bat returned before unleashing one of his darts. "Demi Dart!"

Izzy calmly used the Force to stop the dart's momentum before turning it back towards DemiDevimon, who dodged it just in time.

"Watch where you're throwing that thing!" the bat cried.

"Tell me where the eighth child is!" Izzy demanded, the bright green blade of his lightsaber just mere inches from his adversary.

Something emerged from the water with a loud splash, followed by a menacing growl. The two of them turned to see that Raremon had come back for a second crack at Izzy.

"That's my exit cue," DemiDevimon said, the smirk on his face growing wider as he flew away. "See ya. Wouldn't want ta be ya."

"Come back here!" Izzy cried as he turned his attention back to Raremon, holding his lightsaber tightly against his side in a Shien stance.

It unleashed two more spitting attacks before it tried to slash Izzy's side. The boy was prepared for the assault and sliced off the claws on its foot, earning a roar of pain from the beast.

Izzy dodged one last blob of mucus, as well as its other clawed foot, before leaping onto its foot and then its back. His shoes started to sink into Raremon's sludge-covered body, almost like he was trudging through deep snow, but Izzy did not waste any time by plunging his saber into the creature's back. With one last cry of pain, Raremon disappeared into thousands of small bits of data.

Exhausted, Izzy dropped to his backside to catch his breath. Sweat dripped off of his brow, falling to the ground like little rain drops. He would definitely need a bath when he got home.

'Oh no!' his eyes widened at that thought. 'I better get home. They'll start to worry about me.'

As he ran back the way he came, Izzy realized that Tai had been right: the eighth child lived nearby, rather than in Hikarigaoka. That narrowed the search area down considerably, which would make things easier for them. Hopefully they would find the eighth child before Myotismon did.

They had to.

Mrs. Izumi glanced at the door as she sipped on a cup of tea. She and her husband had settled into their bedroom for the night, but Izzy was still gone. The Izumi apartment was only a couple of floors down from the Kamiya apartment, so it shouldn't have taken Izzy that long to retrieve a reference book.

"What's wrong?" Mr. Izumi asked his wife, noticing her glances at the door.

"Izzy's been gone a long time," she replied.

"I'm sure it's fine. Maybe he and Tai just got so wrapped up in conversation that they lost track of time."

The phone ringing interrupted the conversation. Mrs. Izumi dashed in a beeline towards the phone before picking it up.

"Hello?" she answered, hoping that it was Izzy calling them.

"Hi, Mrs. Izumi. It's Tai," came the response from the other line.

"Oh, hello, Tai. I hope you had fun at camp, I'm sorry it was cut short, and thank you for loaning Izzy that reference book. Could you send him home please?"

"Reference book? What are you talking about? Izzy's not here," Tai replied, which earned a gasp from the woman. "I was just calling back because he sounded like something was up. I'm sorry to bother you. Good night."

The line then cut off as Tai hung up on the other side.

Now Mrs. Izumi was even more worried than before. Not only had Izzy lied to her about the reference book, but she didn't know where he was. For all she knew, he could be anywhere in the area.

"Everything alright, dear?" her husband called from the bedroom.

"Honey, I think we need to have a talk with our son."

Izzy slipped quietly through his bedroom window. After leaping to the second floor from the ground level, he used the Force to open it so he didn't have to use the front door.

As he put his laptop back onto his desk, with his lightsaber right next to it, he was about to settle down for bed, he heard noises coming from the other side of the hall. It sounded like his parents' voices. Rather than open the door to listen in, he closed his eyes and concentrated. His symbol began to glow purple as their voices entered his ears.

"Ever since he got back, it seems like he's hiding something," his mother said. "I just can't put my finger on it. He's keeping something inside, and he doesn't want to tell us what's wrong."

"Even if he is, you can't blame him," his father replied. "After all, we're keeping something from him."

A wave of guilt overcame Izzy as he heard his parents talk. He didn't mean to worry them this much, especially after all they had done for him during his life. They didn't deserve to be lied to, but he didn't know what else to do.

"I'm sure it's just a phase he's going through, but I'll try and talk to him."

"No, don't," Mrs. Izumi said forcefully. "Everyone thinks he's perfect, but that's too much to expect of him. We've got to let him become his own man. He has to make mistakes. That's what it means to be a kid."

Izzy heard his father sigh in defeat.

"You're right, hon. But that doesn't mean we can't try and get him to open up with us."

"We'll let him come to us when he's ready. We just have to trust him."

Izzy's symbol stopped glowing, but he had heard enough of the conversation to understand what was happening. His face drooped slightly as a million thoughts ran through his head.

'I just hope they can forgive me when all this is over,' he thought as he changed into his pajamas, giving a big yawn.

After nestling under the covers, it wasn't long before sleep wrapped Izzy in its comforting embrace. Tomorrow was going to be a big day, and he knew he and the others would need all the energy that they could get.

Will the Destined Jedi find the eighth child before Myotismon does? What happens if the kids' secret is discovered? And who were those figures Tai was dreaming about? Find out on the next Destined Jedi.

Hope you all enjoyed that chapter because it felt a little scatterbrained to me. The episode itself was a little scatterbrained with so much going on that it was hard to put down into a single, linear chapter but I'm sure it turned out alright. Wanted to crank this sucker out now because tomorrow is my birthday. The big double deuce: 22. Man, I can't believe it.

Anyways, be sure to leave a review and subscribe to the story, as always. I want to thank all of you for sticking with me this long, and soon your patience will be rewarded. I may or may not have the next chapter out on time next week because I have midterm exams coming up this week but I will do my damnedest.

See you guys real soon ;-)