Y/N: I enjoyed writing this chapter, even though it was awhile ago. I did not enjoy trying to piece this chapter and the next one together in an order that both made sense and didn't seem too rushed or chaotic. I hope it worked out... Anyway, I hope you like reading it! Please leave a review if you can, thanks. :)

U/N: Sooo I wrote Joe and Kari here, and I think that's it. Due to minor complications this chapter and the next one were a little screwed up, so we had to switch some parts around, but I let my sister do that-Apparently I wrote Yuuko too, and Satoe-Anyway, the point here, is that I hope you like the chapter and leave reviews and whatnot :) Especially criticism... I mean, I like compliments too but I can't get better without criticism.

Also, to address some of the reviews-the reason the children are not as... worried about their parents in this case was because we didn't add the parents plot-lines until later, and that was... well stupid of us. We attempted to pass it off as the Deadly Sins affecting them, but there's really no getting around the fact that it was pretty screwed up.

And-I'll say this, Everything IS happening for a reason... so... yup.

Title: Digimon Adventure 05

By: Yukira and Urazamay King

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or its characters.

Part 2: Shaped By Sin

Chapter 27: Cut Away

Koushiro Izumi:

It was as if someone had thrown a bucket of ice, cold water over my head. I was instantly awake and full of so much pent up energy. What had I been doing with my life for the past week or two? I couldn't remember a moment when I so much as looked at my laptop.

Oh god.

I'd spent all that time on a couch next to…Ken.

I would never be able to live that down. What if he thought we were friends now? Just because I didn't want to waste energy or time on insulting his intelligence did not make us friends. We were just digidestined that were forced to work together far more often than I was actually comfortable with. We clashed almost as badly as Michael and Iori—though I was somewhat inclined to believe that neither of them knew exactly what their problems with each other was.

I cast a quick glance around the church. Yamato had woken up too, and was looking around, confused. And Ken was on his feet, looking around frantically for his wife. The one he'd been ignoring for ages now. I glared at him when he caught my eye. I couldn't find Sora. Or…Mimi. I didn't know exactly where the two of us stood in our relationship, if you could really call it that in the first place. It had been months since it felt like anything substantial. But perhaps, once things settled, she would return to her previous ways. I could only hope. Until then though, I needed to be somewhere that we wouldn't be forced to see each other on a daily basis.

"Koushiro?" Tentomon asked from his place at my side. "Is everything alright? Do you need to lay down?"

"No," I said with a small smile. "I don't. I'm wide awake for once. What happened?"

"Guys!" Takeru yelled, unknowingly answering my question. He was flying through the gaping hole in the side of the church with Angemon, quickly followed by Sora, Neo and Birdramon—who reverted to Biyomon immediately upon landing—with Miyako, Shuu, Aquilamon and Meramon bringing in the rear. "They're gone. Mimi and Jou beat them…well, it was mostly just Palmon and Gomamon that did the fighting. But they fused!"

"That's great," Taichi said dismissively. "But I need to know. Since the wedding didn't exactly end…are we still going to have the reception dinner? Because I'm starving, and it was the only reason I actually came…"

"Shut up, Taichi," Iori growled. "You should've come for Jou, one of your oldest friends, not free food. What kind of leader are you!"

"Uh…a hungry one," Taichi informed him.

"And he's not the leader," Daisuke said proudly. "I am. Because I'm that awesome, and he's not even close."

What the hell was going on here?

I only had vague recollections of the current situation. I remember wishing Sora would stop talking, because she was giving me a headache with all the information she was telling me. There was something about the deadly sins and the digidestined…and probably some digimon were involved. I could only assume I'd been infected by sloth, as I'd been too lazy to remember anything else. It was kind of disturbing to see Michael and Hikari compete with who could drape over their date most completely. And Willis was picking at the broken bits of the wall that the digimon had crashed through, picking up the smaller pieces like he was making a collection.

I needed to get out of there.

At least until I got my mind straightened out. I was behind on work too. How many meetings had I missed? How many things did I fail to discover simply because I was too tired?

"Hey Koushiro," Sora said with a smile, walking over to me. "Good to see you're actually awake for once."

"I've missed so much," I said gesturing to our friends.

"That's not such a bad thing," she said with a wince. "You guys were all pretty crazy. I'm really glad you're back to normal. We have a lot to accomplish, and with both Taichi and Daisuke out of commission, we're going to need you to fill us in on the council's decisions. And Willis is out of it, so we're depending on you to be the brain of the entire operation. We need a plan. We can't keep skating by like we have been. That's not cutting it anymore."

"You're right," I said, letting the words sink in. How much of this could we have prevented? Probably most of it, we were just too involved with our lives that we didn't see the harm in putting forth minimal effort. I shook my head. I'd think about this later, once I'd sorted through the memories of my lazy days. "So…where are you staying?"

"At home," she said with a smile. "Where else would I be?"

"I don't know. I figured that since things with Mimi had escalated so dramatically that you would remove yourself from the situation," I told her.

"Mimi and I are okay now," she said. "Not perfect, by any means, but we're getting there."

"That's…good," I said slowly.

"I take it you aren't coming home," she guessed.

"No," I admitted. "I need to get away from her. I won't be able to process how I feel if I see her so often."

"I understand," she said. "But you should keep in mind, that the envy digimon has been destroyed—along with the sloth digimon, obviously—so she isn't crazy. Well, she's always been kind of crazy, and now she's trying so hard that she's overly affectionate, but she's not so hurtful anymore."

I didn't say anything to that. How could I? I couldn't come up with a logical response. And I couldn't find it in myself to simply fall back into the old pattern. We would need to discuss our relationship like the adults that we were, and we'd see where we stood after that. But I needed some space first.

"Come on," Sora said, rolling her eyes. "I'll walk you home. Mimi's fretting over Emiko right now with Jou and Momoe, so she won't be there for a bit. You can get some things packed and get out of there without having to see her."

"Thanks," I muttered, and she led us to the street where she hailed a taxi—which I hardly consider walking me home, not that it mattered—and gave the driver our address. I was quick, packing only the basics. My laptop. Some papers from work. A couple changes of clothing. A toothbrush. And then I was out the door before Mimi got home. I didn't know how my resolve would last if she looked at me with sad eyes, without the fires of jealousy behind them. And I almost made it, but she was waiting on the other side of the door, fumbling with her keys when I was ready to leave.

"Oh," she said softly, eyeing my bag. "You're leaving?"

"It potentially won't be a permanent solution," I informed her.

"Come on Mimi," Sora said. "We'll pull out the couch and make a bed. He's got a lot of catching up to do. We'll have fun without him."

Thankfully Mimi was so pleased by the idea of Sora not hating her, that she seemed forget about my impending departure, and I was able to slip out the door mostly unnoticed. I walked to my parent's house from there, not wanting to be cramped in the back of a taxi again. I needed to exercise. Wow. That was something I never expected to say. I was usually content with hiding behind my computer, avoiding the sun like a vampire would, as if it would kill me if I found myself in its rays. It wasn't a particularly long walk, but it was nice, especially since it gave me time to talk with Tentomon, learn more about our current enemies and the list of suspicious disappearances. Kae Ichijouji and Natsuko Takaishi had been missing for ages, and Yamato's father had disappeared with Sora's parents. We didn't know who all had been taken in to the Digital World, or why they had been. But now that I had a surplus of energy, I was going to try and compile a list. We needed to figure this out. It wasn't fair for them if we put it off any longer.

I wondered idly just how much of our passive behaviour was due to the sloth digimon's influence, and how much was actual negligence. I didn't like the answer I arrived at.

The door wasn't locked when I got to my parents house. It was unusual. My mother always made sure the door was locked, especially since those digimon attacks three years prior when the worlds collided. She liked the added comfort. And while they didn't live in a particularly violent neighbourhood, it was best to lock it, just in case.

"Mom?" I called.

"Mrs Izumi?" Tentomon chimed in.

"She's gone…"

"Dad? You sound horrible," I said, rushing to the living room, where I'd heard his voice come from. I was met with a disgusting sight. His hair was standing on end, his clothing looked, at the very least, a week old. He had a bottle of some sort of alcohol in one hand and the television remote in the other—though the television was on mute. Judging by the collection of bottles at his feet, this wasn't the first night of drinking.

"She's gone," he repeated sounding miserable. "She didn't even leave a note. Didn't tell me what I did wrong. Where she was going."

"He's miserable," Andromon said, startling me. He didn't look much better than my father did.

"Did you get Andromon drunk?" I accused my father.

"Doesn't matter. Nothing matters," he slurred.

"Mom's gone then?" I summarized.

"She just left. She left me," he cried.

"No note, no excuses…" I mumbled, my brain running over possible reasoning. She loved Dad. I knew that, Dad knew that. Everyone knew that. She wouldn't leave him without telling him why. She was too kind and thoughtful to do something so cruel. My eyes widened as the answer nearly slapped me in the face. Hadn't I been contemplating making a list of people earlier that had left in a similar fashion? "She's not gone. Well. She is. The point is that she didn't leave on purpose."

"What do you know?" Dad snarled at me angrily.

"I know that she was taken into the Digital World," I told him pointedly. "And I'm going to make sure she gets home safe. Now get up, drink some water, eat something and have a shower. Mom's not going to be pleased when she sees what a mess you are. Get going!"

I had never seen my Dad move so quickly in his life. I sighed. I was a horrible son. I hadn't even realized that Mom was gone. I didn't even know how long she had been gone. I grabbed my laptop out of my overnight bag, and headed to my old bedroom. I didn't expect to get much sleep tonight…

Iori Hida:

I was furious. So mad that it was hard to even think. I hadn't thought I would ever be that angry. I was practically choking on the anger in my rush to get it out. Daisuke was still riding that high horse, claiming he was the greatest person ever put on the face of the earth. I'd like to see how he'd fair in a real fight, just him and me. No digimon. He wouldn't be so proud of himself when he lost.

And Taichi! He didn't care about Jou at all. Just food. Jou was one of the only people I could look at these days without being instantly fed up with him. If I thought things with Yamato, Ken and Koushiro would be better once they stopped being so freaking lazy, I was wrong. Now I was mad that Ken didn't seem nearly relieved enough to know that his wife was still alive, and hadn't succumb to the bout of crazy that had taken over her life. I was ticked off that Yamato didn't notice that his date to the wedding was nearly drunk with the amount of alcohol she'd ingested just so she could handle a room full of digimon. He should've noticed that and acted accordingly, or better yet, offered her the chance to not come, so she wouldn't be so stressed out. And then I was mad at her because she was afraid of the wrong digimon. These were the good guys. None of them would hurt her. Even Aimi—Jou's dad's girlfriend—was handling the situation better than she was, and Aimi hadn't known about digimon until mere minutes before the wedding.

I was mad that Hikari seemed to be losing all sense of morals, and was draping herself over guys, and didn't look to be perturbed in the slightest. I had to keep myself from looking at Michael, afraid that if I did, I wouldn't be able to hold myself back. He irked me something terrible on a good day. With this problem I was having controlling my rage, I'd probably kill him before I realized what I was doing.

Where was Jou? How could he have left me to handle this on my own? Right. He was off saving his daughter. Or, he had saved her, because the others were back now. They'd arrived too late, because they were stupid and waited so long before following after Mimi and Jou. That wasn't fair. I shouldn't be mad at them just because they were slightly late. Sora had made me really angry when I'd realized she'd forgiven Mimi without much debate. That was stupid. Almost as stupid as the fact that Koushiro was going to run from that problem, instead of dealing with it in a purely intellectual way. I always knew getting a girlfriend would ruin him.

Stop it, Iori! I shouted to myself. It shouldn't have made me angry. It did once, but I thought I'd moved on from that. I was a different, more mature person…You don't hate girls anymore. You love one. Remember?

Great. Now I was going to be depressed. And angry that I was letting something so simple get to me so badly. So what if Natsuni hadn't called me once since I blew up at my mother. So what if my mother hadn't been seen since then either. I still had Meiyomon, and Kotemon. And Armadillomon.

"Iori," Armadillomon said. "Do you want to get going?"

"Yes," I said instantly. Okay. So I kind of growled it.

"Hey, Iori," Takeru said, holding onto the newly reverted Patamon. "You look like you're ready to kill something."

"I am," I said angrily grabbing at my tie. It was a stupid contraption, and I hated it. I didn't want it on anymore, and it felt like it was getting tighter, trying to strangle me.

"Here," Takeru said with a laugh, and using just one hand, loosened the deathtrap around my neck. "Let's get out of here. You look like you could use some fresh air."

"I thought that too," Armadillomon added.

I grumbled about not liking it when someone told me what to do, but they ignored me, dragging me out of the church anyway. Patamon laughed, and jumped out of Takeru's arms, flying into the sky.

"Don't go too far, Patamon," Takeru said desperately.

"Relax, Takeru," Patamon giggled. "I'm not going to get hurt."

"You don't know that. What if a rogue bird comes and knocks you out of the sky," Takeru asked him. "Then what? No. You better just come back here."

"I died Takeru," Patamon said. "But I'm back now. You can't treat me like I'm going to break. I won't."

"With Daemon's minions wandering the worlds, I don't want to take needless risks," Takeru insisted.

"You're smothering me, Takeru!" Patamon shouted, reminding me distinctly of myself when I screamed at my own mother just before she disappeared.

"I just love you too much to let you get hurt again," Takeru pleaded.

"No Takeru," Patamon said. "I need a break. I need room to breathe. I'm going on a vacation. I'll see you when I get back." He then flew off into the night, leaving Takeru staring after him, distraught.

"Patamon!" Takeru shouted. "Sorry, Iori. I've gotta go find him."

He shot off after his partner, but I didn't really expect him to find Patamon any time soon. He was a small digimon, and he could fly. He could be hiding in any number of places. And he deserved this break. I knew how it felt to be smothered, and it sucked. And I was ticked that Takeru would ever act that way. I was getting so angry at him, and I couldn't handle that too. I shouldn't be mad at him. I shouldn't be mad at anybody—except maybe Michael—but I couldn't help it. I needed to get away too, just like Patamon. But I couldn't, because I had this stupid wedding to go to…

The wedding I'd just finished attending. Which meant it was over. Which meant that I didn't have to wait around anymore. Suddenly I was running too, but in the direction of my house, and not after Patamon. Armadillomon shouted for me to slow down, but I couldn't. I left the doors open for him though when I got to the apartment building. He couldn't open them by himself.

"Iori?" Meiyomon said sounding confused as I burst into the room. "Are you getting attacked? Can I blow them up?"

"Just keep an eye out for Armadillomon, would you?" I asked him. "I'm going on vacation and he'll need someone to help him."

"I'm a real good helper," Meiyomon assured me.

"Good," I told him, rushing into my bedroom without further comment. Kotemon was in there, piling up small, stuffed penguins…

"Where'd you get the penguins," I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"Taichi," he said simply. "He gives them to me when I complete training exercises correctly. Look how many I have! That means I'm doing well on my training. Better than all of the others, since they don't have this many penguins."

Huh. I actually remembered Taichi mentioning something about them.

"Rei really wanted a stuffed giraffe. But I kept missing the final peg, so I only got these stupid penguins. I've got like thirty of them. Maybe more. Rei didn't want them. Only that giraffe that I finally won. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with them all."

I had to force myself from getting angry with Taichi. He was pawning off his failures on Kotemon and his other trainees! But it was making Kotemon pleased…so it shouldn't bother me as much as it did. I shook my head. I had to stop being so angry. I didn't have time to contemplate penguins!

"I'm going on a vacation, Kotemon," I told him. "I'm going to need you to make sure that nobody finds me. Can you do that?"

"Of course! I'm a Knight now, that is well within my abilities," he said proudly.

I nodded my thanks at him, and pulled a large key out of my pocket. I'd been carrying it around with me, just in case things got to hectic and I needed a break. I used it on my closet door, and light started shining from beneath it. With one last look at Kotemon, I opened the door and stepped into the Land of Dreams.

Hikari Yagami:

"Just look at him." Kurayami growled as she stared toward Taichi who was laying in his chair, snoring loudly. He'd invited me over to watch our favourite childhood movie—unfortunately that was all a lie and he actually just wanted me to make him some supper since Yamato refused to continue cooking for him, and was on a date with Katsue anyway.

Kurayami was sitting on the couch next to me, glaring directly at Taichi.

"Easy tiger." Gatomon said from her relaxed state on the back of the couch.

Willis snickered at Gatomon's cat pun as he usually did. I looked to him and smiled as he squeezed my hand tight briefly.

"I just mean…" Kurayami snarled, "Look at him. He has… is that gravy? Is there gravy in his hair?"

I leaned forward and looked to Taichi's mess of hair. Yes. Yes he did have gravy in his hair.

"And I just mean, retract your claws before you hurt someone." Gatomon said, still not moving.

Kurayami shot her a glare.

"Kurayami," Labramon said sternly, as if he were her father and she were a child throwing a temper tantrum. "You remember what we talked about?"

"What did you talk about?" Willis asked when Kurayami refused to answer.

Labramon didn't look to Willis but instead continued to give Kurayami 'the look'. "We told you to calm your anger. It's all just the Deadly sin digimon. You're not really this angry or evil. You're over all of that. Keep it in check or we'll hide all of your things."

"Who is 'we'?" Willis asked.

"Me and Norn." Labramon said.

"Who?" I asked.

"The girl I babysit." Kurayami answere quickly. "She's nice." I had a feeling something more was going on with Norn, but I didn't want to press any further because it could potentially be the work of those sin creatures, and I didn't want to embarrass her by focusing on it. I knew how embarrassing it could get…

"Hikari," Tatum said, sitting me down at the table in Willis' apartment in Japan where the four of us were going to be staying the night. "Michael," She said sternly to Michael who was sitting next to me. "You two are acting slightly more…. Promiscuous than usual."

"What?" I gasped, realizing that my arms were draped over Michael. I snapped back into my seat and looked to her confused.

"So much so that you're reminding me of my stripper cousin." Tatum said slowly.

"I…" I didn't know what to say.

"I don't believe that." Michael said. "We're acting totally normal. Well I certainly am."

Tatum cleared her throat, "Seriously guys."

"Oh my God…" I said quietly, realizing suddenly what I'd done over the past couple of days. My face turned bright red as I tried to hide from Tatum.

"Look," Tatum said, more to Michael than to me. "You barely noticed that Jou's daughter was taken. Jou is heartbroken that his wedding didn't happen and neither of you paid any mind to that. I mean, you're not alone, but Willis won't listen to me unless I get him another apartment because he says he needs two. I just want you both to take notice what you've done and get back on the right track."

"I'm perfectly normal." Michael said as Tatum figuratively punched me in the gut. How could I be such an awful friend?

"I'll stick Jenna on you." Tatum growled.

Michael straightened up quickly, "Maybe you're right."

I'd called Jou right after and talked to him for a full hour about his plans. Apparently he had none, other than to hide from Jun who was both sympathetic and furious over the new development of the wedding progress.

I focused back on the present and saw that Kurayami was now gone from the couch.

"Where did she go?" I asked, releasing Willis' hand and standing up.

"To the kitchen." Labramon said. I decided it would be best to check on her to make sure the wrath wasn't making her to anything crazy.

"Where are you going?" Willis asked, "What are you getting? Get me one too. Get me two."

"Not getting anything." I told him with a sigh. I missed when Willis was… well, Willis. It was a little bit irritating having him so overcome by the sin of greed, but I couldn't say anything. I'd been affected by one of the worst ones… I couldn't even be sure how… I felt my face turning red again… I couldn't wait until all of this was behind us so I could just try to forget the embarrassment.

"Psst!"

I turned sharply to the hallway that led toward the bathroom and Taichi's bedroom.

"Hey…"

The voice was most definitely coming from the hallway… but it was dark. I looked back nervously, aiming to get Gatomon to come along with me to be safe, but she was still laying comfortably on the back of the couch. I didn't need her here… we'd all been growing so independent and strong. So strong and use to danger that we didn't need our digimon all the time. That was probably a bad thing, getting use to the thrill of danger… but according to recent discoveries the Digital World would soon be at complete peace… Just as soon as all of the crests found their proper owners.

And unless we were soon to discover another set of hidden crests, that meant there were only two more to go. So everything would be back in place sooner or later.

Point being, I didn't need Gatomon. And if it turned out that I did need her, she was still in the living room.

I turned back to the dark hallway and stepped slowly down it. I placed my hand on the wall for guidance and balance just in case.

"Hello?" I asked quietly.

"Hey," The voice said casually.

"Who are you?" I asked to the darkness.

"You don't remember me?" The voice asked. "It's me. Yukai." Memories flashed through my head. It was that boy who was following me. It was time to find out more about him. I thought that was fair since he had sat in the washroom while I took a shower once.

After a quick blink he was there. Standing by Taichi's bedroom door, his hair as dark as his eyes. He smiled kindly at me and waved with a childlike innocence. He looked older than when I'd seen him before… he kept getting older which constantly ruined my theory that he was a ghost. Ghost's don't age, but for some reason he couldn't touch me…

"What are you doing here?" I asked, stepping toward him.

Suddenly he was gone, and his voice appeared behind me. "I'm looking for someone." He said. "I keep getting close… but then I get confused. I get so lost and my mind starts getting all jumbled up and numb."

I nodded, looking over my shoulder, "Who is it?"

"I can't…" He said, "I can't tell you."

I spun around but he wasn't there again. "Why not?"

"Because I can't remember." He said slowly, "I can't think about it or—like I said. My head goes all numb." Why was it that nothing was ever easy? Because that would make it boring. I smiled to Yukai over my shoulder and nodded.

"Well, I promised to help you." I said. "Anything you need, just tell me." I said.

"Well… can you ask someone something for me?" He said softly.

"Absolutely." I said quickly.

"Alr—" Yukai disappeared suddenly as Willis started chanting from the living room.

"My turn!" He cheered, "My turn! My turn!"

I spun on my heels and ran toward the living room. "What's going on?" I asked, my hand flying to my mouth the moment I saw what was happening.

Gatomon's hand was on her forehead as she hung her head in shame, Labramon was barking like any regular dog as Willis pumped his fists in the air. Even Terriermon and Lopmon had stopped playing their game to watch what was going on.

Kurayami was standing over Taichi with a pair of scissors in one hand, a large lock of his hair in her other, and then… she just… cut it off.

Everyone silenced as we watched his hair fall.

Willis moved quickly and grabbed the scissors from Kurayami's hand to help in the process. There wasn't much I could do now… they were already going at it like it was some sort of school art project.

"I knew something bad was going to happen." Gatomon sighed.

"Me too." Labramon agreed before the two of them glared at each other. I sometimes just thought they hated each other to follow social stereotypes of a dog and a cat.

"Taichi?" I tried.

Suddenly his eyes popped open, and within three seconds he'd caught on to what was going on and he let out a scream of anguish.

Yuuko Yagami:

I was on a mission. Taichi didn't think I could do it, but I could. Well, maybe. Probably. I was just as adventurous as my children, just as pure as Hikari, just as thick headed and strong as Taichi, and now, since the Digital World inadvertently reverted my age to… whatever age this was. Twenty-five perhaps?

But nonetheless. I had to prove Taichi wrong, and to do it I'd stolen one of his knights who had become my partner. Dorumon. A purple fox-lizard with two tiny black wings. He was very talkative and excitable. He wanted to prove himself as a knight to Taichi, and I was going to help him do just that. So the two of us were heading out to find and destroy the 'Death Knights'. I had absolutely no idea who the Death Knights were, or what I was looking for, but I was sure it wouldn't be too hard. There was nowhere to hide since the Digital World was a dark endless pit of doom.

"So do your wings work?" I asked Dorumon since we'd finally undergone our very first silent minute since we'd met.

"Shush." Dorumon said sharply, "Don't you hear that?"

Suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. What did he hear? Was he tracking someone? Was it one of the Death Knights? Was this about to get dangerous?

"No…" I answered in a whisper.

"It's…" Dorumon stopped and closed his eyes. Suddenly he jerked his head back and to the left and popped his eyes open. I spun around quickly and saw what he was staring at. Floating through the air behind us, flapping his tiny orange wings was a familiar digimon.

"I know that one." I said slowly, closing my eyes and trying to remember where I'd seen him. Multiple times… in the arms of a blonde haired child—Yamato? No. Takeru Takaishi. "Patamon!" I called out, his name flying into my mind.

He stopped flying and looked toward Dorumon and myself, a grumpy expression cast across his face. He stared at us for a moment before deciding to fly toward us.

"Who are you?" He asked.

At first I was offended, but I did look much younger than normal, so I couldn't really blame him for not recognizing me.

"My name is Yuuko Yagami." I told him, "I'm Hikari and Taichi's mother." He smiled brightly suddenly and flew into my arms.

"Thank goodness." He exhaled deeply, "I'm exhausted."

"What are you doing here?" Dorumon asked him. "It is dangerous here little pig friend."

"Ugh." Patamon grunted, too exhausted to care about being called a pig. "It's fine. I'm on vacation."

"And you couldn't think of a different place to do that?" I asked, looking around the emptiness surrounding us. It didn't look like a fun spot to be spending some free time.

"I didn't have much time to think," Patamon admitted. "I'm actually looking for Takeru's mom, do you know her?"

"Natsuko," I nodded, "How do know where she is?"

"I don't." Patamon admitted. "But a digimon back there a bit said she saw a couple of human girls fighting someone over here. But I guess that was just you."

"Can you even count?" Dorumon asked. I waved my hand to silence him.

"That wasn't us." I said. "The others must be around here somewhere." I looked to Dorumon who was already on the ball, closing his eyes and listening for the others. Apparently he had incredible hearing, though I did wonder for a moment how he didn't hear them before, but did hear the tiny orange flying…. Guinea pig?

I looked around too as Dorumon listened. To the left I saw that the bright green gridlines were distorted… almost as if something was there, in their place. Like a big cave in the middle of the grids…

"Hah!" Dorumon grinned suddenly.

"You found them?" Patamon asked.

Dorumon shook his head, but his grin didn't falter. "Something better."

I suddenly knew what it was. It was one of the Death Knights. He'd spotted one of them with his strange ultra-senses. He was excited because he wanted to prove his worth, and although I felt the same, I was still frightened.

And apparently Patamon felt the same.

"Let's get out of here!" He gasped, sensing whatever it was that Dorumon had. Patamon leapt from my arms and set off in the other direction. His panicking was increasing the fear inside of myself, and caused me to set off after him. Dorumon was laughing almost maniacally as he ran behind me.

I did the only thing I knew how to when it came to fighting with digimon. I pulled out my digivice and held it so tight in my fist that my knuckles started turning white.

My heart was pounding which was ridiculous because I hadn't even seen what was after us yet. But that didn't last too long. The moment I glanced over my shoulder I spotted him. It looked like a very tall man in a yellow set of armour with black stripes all over. He looked like a giant bee-man with two glowing blue swords and a red scarf around his neck.

He was running toward us at incredible speed, and suddenly the fear had doubled if not tripled or more. I bit my lip hard to avoid screaming as we ran around the distortion in the gridlines.

As we ran Patamon began taking harsh breaths as he prepared to speak.

"They're… they're close!" Patamon gasped.

And he was right. As we rounded the distortion I spotted who Patamon was looking for. Natsuko, though she too looked younger than normal, Kae Ichijouji, who also looked like she'd jumped through a time machine. The two of them were accompanied by an octopus-man, a wolf-man, a little fire creature and a warrior rabbit.

Just taking in the sight was bizarre, but because I was in the Digital World, it wasn't even that weird. Luckily seeing them was very good news because we currently had a crazed digimon chasing us…

This way we would have help and we wouldn't have to die.

I glanced over my shoulder again and the bee creature was only a few feet away. He growled into his smile and I couldn't help but scream.

Satoe Tachikawa:

It was a long walk back to the restaurant, but it seemed to go by pretty quickly. Mostly we just introduced each other. Kiyoko was related to Koushiro and his partner was Piedmon. Digitamamon had become Yoshie's partner in my absence, and then I explained how Ladydevimon changed for the better. Along with myself.

It was strange, but the more we talked the more free I felt. I felt as though Everything I'd ever done had been wrong, and yet I knew I still had time to make up for it.

It had only been a few days since I'd left Earth, but I couldn't help but miss Mimi and Keisuke. I was so excited to get back to them and show them the new me. I didn't have to worry about whether or not they'd like the new me or not, because I just... knew they would.

Soon enough we were standing in Digitamamon's restaurant and he was sending us off to the kitchen to relax. He wasn't asking us to continue paying for the broken vase by means of payment—and even though it had only been a few hours since I had left, I felt so different that I thought I might even help a little. Maybe doing dishes... or something else easy.

But he didn't ask.

Minervamon, by the time we sat down, finally had true control of her new body which I thought was pretty cool. She was really pretty now—not that she wasn't before, but she was really pure and strong now, along with being absolutely gorgeous. The perfect digimon to be my partner.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the gaudy device I'd received for becoming said partner, but I didn't really care. I was just happy to have moved forward in my life.

I decided to put the device in my purse which I found on the floor near the stove before pulling out a mirror. My hair wasn't very neat, but I could fix that later.

First I had to repay Digitamamon.

I slipped out of the kitchen and into the dining area to the stand where I had knocked over the vase and I set the silver orb there. It looked like it was going to roll off, so I kept balancing it until finally it stayed perfectly still.

"It is perfect." Digitamamon said as he walked up behind me.

"I'm sorry for breaking your vase." I told him.

"You seem to have had a complete turnaround." He pointed out.

I smiled at him and patted his head, heading back to the kitchen. I really had.

Sigma:

I didn't know how to act in my present company. If it were just Piedmon, or just Yoshie, I didn't think I'd feel so out of place. But it was not just either of them. There was a small crowd of people and digimon chatting animatedly in the dining section of the restaurant. I didn't know what to do. Usually at times such as these, I pulled Sigma in front of me, let him take over so that I wouldn't feel nervous or afraid. So that I didn't seem awkward and out of place. It would all be him, his fault.

But he wasn't there anymore. I'd banished him, and he wasn't coming back. During the battle this seemed like the right decision. Get rid of Sigma, and then I could help Yoshie, piece of cake. Now though… I was so alone, I didn't like the empty space in my mind. I'd had to put up with another person inside there for so long that I hadn't even noticed how much space he was taking up. I was alone now…

Yet I could not make myself fully regret my choice. Sigma had been out of control. He was determined to allow anyone or anything to be destroyed in order to reach his final goal…which was still a mystery to me. I couldn't handle it if he actually followed through with some of his more detailed scheming. And he'd done a lot of scheming about all the people and digimon I interacted with frequently. Mari. Hideto. Piedmon. Yoshie. No. He was gone, and they'd all be safe, even Mari, and I didn't particularly care for her.

"This place looks infinitely better," the orange haired lady said. I thought she might be Mimi's mother, Satoe maybe? I didn't know, and Sigma wasn't there to tell me using his seemingly omnipresent intelligence.

"Is that a compliment?" the Digitamamon asked, though he didn't seem sarcastic like I figured he would.

"It really is. I would totally eat here if I was a digimon," Satoe continued. "It could be my go-to restaurant."

"I kind of like that idea," Satoe's partner, Minervamon said with a smile. "I'm finally able to go out with other digimon without them screaming in terror when they set eyes upon me. I could come and eat here someday without worrying."

"Maybe I could just whip something up in the kitchen…now?" Yoshie asked.

"That would be delightful," Satoe said. I had heard enough rants from Koushiro during my spy-visits to know that he thought she was a despicable human being that hated his mere existence. And I couldn't see it. She was a nice and thoughtful individual. He had to be worse at social interpretations than I was. And that was saying something.

"What about you, Kiyoko," Yoshie asked, and I felt myself both shrink from the attention as all the eyes in the room turned to me…but also flush happily at hearing my own name said with such kindness. Before Yoshie, I'd only heard it said in anger and disgust.

But that part of my life was over now. I had a bright future to look forward to—well, if Yoshie had anything to do with it, anyway.

"What Kiyoko needs," Satoe said, picking at my long hair. "Is a makeover. How does he expect to win this boy over if he looks like this? You can't even see his eyes."

"Win…him…over?" I asked in a strangled voice. How had Satoe known there was anyone that I wanted to win over? Had Yoshie told her while I was panicking over the emptiness of my own mind?

"Oh yes," Satoe insisted. "You go make something to warm him up, Yoshie. The poor dear is shivering."

"With fear," I said, and then clamped my hand over my mouth. I hadn't meant to say that. I usually kept a fairly constant internal commentary, while Sigma had control of my actual voice…I hadn't realized I'd have to actively stop myself from speaking. I'd never done it before…

"Now now," Satoe said, picking up a knife from a bucket on the nearest table. It looked like someone had decided to shine the silverware. And I gulped. I didn't take to kindly to someone wielding a knife at my head. "Hold still. This might take awhile. It's really too bad there aren't any scissors…"

She pushed pulled my chair away from the table I was seated at, and circled me like a hawk waiting for the perfect moment to swoop down and dismember its prey. She swooped all of my long hair into one hand, and used the knife to hack off the make-shift ponytail.

I gasped as the weight of the hair was lifted to me, and watched as the strands of hair fell to the wooden floor.

"Hey!" Digitamamon was saying. "This cannot be sanitary! I just passed the inspections, you can't risk this."

But I was too busy imagining each strand of hair as a piece of my old self. The self that was dependent on Sigma. The self that always dreamed, but never set out to accomplish anything, but wasn't allowed to regret it. It wasn't just a new haircut that Satoe was giving me. She was giving me a chance to be a different, better me, just like Yoshie believed I could be.

I took the remaining half of my mask off of my face, and held it in my lap. It was a symbol of my past, the scared little boy that let someone else take over for him, and hid behind Sigma like he was a mask. I shook my head, causing Satoe to scold me.

"I'm holding a sharp knife you know," she told me. "I almost sliced your ear off!"

I chuckled, and snapped my mask in half. I didn't need it anymore. With the confidence that both Yoshie and Satoe had in me and Piedmon by my side…I didn't have to hide anymore, I could show myself to the world, and that felt really empowering.

Taichi Yagami:

I looked stupid.

I was practically a stranger to myself when I looked in the mirror. Hikari was a horrible little sister, letting them hack away at my hair like that. I'd spent pretty much my entire life getting it just the way I wanted it, and now all of that work was gone. My head felt way too light, and everyone looked at me strangely.

"Stop looking at me," I growled at Yamato while eating a bag of chips. Food was the simplest and best comfort in the entire world.

"You're going to get fat, man," he told me. "And you don't have your hair to help hide your fat face."

"Mean," I pointed out, and stuffed more chips in my mouth. He was just making me feel worse. Seriously though, I'd never expected Hikari to betray me like this.

"Who's Mr Tall, Dark and Handsome?" Rei asked as she wheeled herself in the room. We were all hanging out at my apartment, because I couldn't bear to face the world looking as stupid as I did. "Look at me. I've got a boyfriend and all, but I just can't get over how good this guy looks, don't you agree Tatum?"

"If he doesn't try and kiss every girl he passes, I'd say he's a step up from my boyfriend," Tatum answered rolling her eyes. She was walking behind Rei, with Monodromon standing silently at her side. He didn't head over to play with Agumon, Veemon, Pal and Pul. He just sat next to her when she threw herself next to me on the couch. Kind of like Betamon was doing with Michael, only Michael had to hold him down, since he always seemed to want to run away.

Michael also didn't seem to register the jab.

I stared at Rei. Couldn't she recognize me? Or did she regularly just flirt with other people like this? Oh god. Yamato was right. I was going to get fat, and then she was going to leave me for one of these other people. I reached for more chips. I needed comfort.

"Taichi," Rei said. "I was kidding. Stop stuffing your face. You need a new hobby."

I snorted. "Like eating's a hobby. It's a lifestyle choice."

"Dude," Daisuke called from behind Yamato. "It's a bad lifestyle choice. You should be more like me, because I am one fine specimen. Am I right?"

I rolled my eyes. Of course he thought that. Pride was getting to his head. He was becoming almost unbearable to be around. At least my eating was under control. I mean, sure I ate a lot more than I usually did, but the food was so good, and I couldn't help but want it all the time. I might indulge myself more often these days, but I wasn't getting out of control. The thought of being unable to handle it made me anxious. And the best cure to anxiety, I've found, is to gorge myself on food. I needed another bag of chips…or maybe I could get someone to cook me an early dinner…

"Am I right?" Daisuke repeated when no one answered. "Never mind. I'm totally great. I know it, you all know it. It doesn't matter that you won't say it, 'cause I know you're thinking it. You're all jealous that you're not me."

"We sure are," Michael said unconvincingly, while rolling his eyes. He tried to reach over to Tatum, but she slapped his hand out of the way.

"And, my hair doesn't look like a hack job, so I've got that going for me too," Daisuke added proudly.

"Yeah, well what do you know?" I growled. I was not in a good mood. And even my chopped hair looked better than Daisuke's spiked mess.

"I think it looks rather distinguished," Rei said, rolling herself over so she could pat my hand.

"Much more befitting of an ambassador, I think," Tatum added.

"I could be an ambassador," Daisuke said. "A better one that Taichi, because I'm not stupid and fat like him. I'm perfect. The Digital World would love to have me."

"You don't talk to your customers that way, do you?" Yamato asked hesitantly.

"Dude, of course I do," Daisuke laughed. "They need to know how awesome I am, and they agree with me sometimes. Why do you think they buy my noodles over the competitors?"

"Maybe Kurayami should take over until Pride is destroyed," I suggested. I didn't want him ruining his career because of the sin digimon's influence.

"Where is Kurayami anyway?" Rei asked.

"Oh, she's just babysitting. I offered, since I'm the best at babysitting, but she likes to hang around and talk with the kid all day, so I let her, since I'm an amazing boyfriend," Daisuke informed us. It seemed that one of them was always babysitting, yet they'd never once brought the kid to see us. It was weird, but I'd already grabbed another bag of chips, so I didn't bother worrying about it. The food was calling to me.

But I wasn't out of control. I swear.

"Isn't this fun?"

"I guess," I said without looking to see who was talking. That was a big mistake. Rei screamed, and Tatum jumped to her feet, pulling out her digivice. Monodromon followed her lead. Pal and Pul came flying out of my bedroom, coming to a stop in front of Rei. Agumon and Veemon seemed to be racing each other to see who could get here first. All of this happened during the time it took to finish one handful of chips. So, like four seconds.

And I still didn't know what they were all worked up about.

"Get your head out of that damn chip bag, Taichi," Yamato growled at me. I looked up confused, only to see that we had a visitor—which explained why I didn't recognize the voice.

"Who are you?" I asked him. It was obvious he was a digimon. He kind of had what looked like a beak—but might've just been a gigantic nose—and a ridiculously long beard to go with it. His hair was just as long, flowing down his back. He had some pretty big hands, all decked out in gold rings, and gold bangles decorated his wrists. He had a staff with decorative spikes, and a bejeweled poncho paired with puffy pants. He looked hilarious.

"I am Barbamon," he said.

"What are you doing here?" I wanted to know. He was interrupting snack time. Granted it was almost always snack time, but whatever.

"You didn't issue me an invitation, so I decided to crash the party," Barbamon told me.

"Taichi," Yamato hissed. "Don't converse with him. Destroy him."

"But we don't know if he's a bad guy," I pointed out.

"I am," Barbamon informed me.

I sighed and reluctantly put my bag of chips on the coffee table. "Okay, Agumon, let's get this over with."

"I can't digivolve in the house Taichi," Agumon said. I groaned.

"Fine," I said. "But someone owes me dinner after this."

"I'll buy you something from Mimi's if you make sure we get out of here alive," Yamato promised me. I guess he was feeling the pressure more than I was, since Gabumon wasn't there. He needed to depend on others, and it wasn't sitting well with him. But hey, if he was going to buy me food, I could handle anything. It was all the motivation that I needed.

"Let's take this outside, buddy," I told Barbamon.

"Why would I let you leave, when I could more easily defeat you now?" he asked.

That was a good question. I was running through different answers in my mind when Tatum spoke up. "Because you're greedy, and we'll let you fight the others if you beat us, because I know you want to fight all of us. You want to beat us all, don't you? You don't want any of the others to have a chance."

"You're mine," Barbamon snapped. "Not theirs. I won't let them take this away from me. I want to have all of your deaths on my hands. Not just one or two. I want them all."

"Exactly," Tatum said. "But you won't get them unless you fight outside."

"I could find them on my own," he protested.

"But they'll be able to beat you, because they'll know you're coming," Tatum said, changing her tactics. "We can give you inside information, weaknesses…but only if you take this outside, and only if you win."

"I'll win. And then I'll get the secrets, and I can beat all of you," Barbamon promised giddily. For an old looking digimon, he was pretty spry, and burst out the window, jumping to the ground outside.

"What was that?" Yamato demanded. "You can't tell him anything."

"I don't plan on it," Tatum told him wryly. "Because we're going to win. Jou and Mimi took out two at once. We should have enough power here to handle one."

"I have enough power in my little finger," Daisuke bragged. "I don't even need your help."

"Okay," Veemon snickered. "Show me how it's done."

"Not you Veemon," Daisuke whined. "You're my partner. You're part of the pure awesome that is me."

"Yamato," I called. "Watch over Rei, will you? Make sure nothing happens to her."

"I want to fight too," he protested.

"Without a digimon, your best bet is to stay out of his way. If he gets to you, he'll use you as leverage. Pal, Pul you're with Yamato."

"Right!" the two little devils said, saluting me. Yamato grumbled, but let Tatum, Daisuke and I leave.

"Tatum," Michael said slowly.

"I'm just here for backup," she said. "I'll run interference. If he looks like he's going for Rei and Yamato, I'll stop him. You guys focus on the main battle."

"Thanks," I told her.

"I'm happy to help," she said with a grin. "Now let's beat this guy!"

Daisuke Motomiya:

This was going to be awesome. Okay. It was going to be great; I was going to be awesome. But I knew that already. Everyone really should, because I was probably the best person I'd ever seen in my life. Not that I could do it without Veemon though. I didn't know what was up with the others. They were acting like they didn't know just how great I could be. But I could be more than just great.

With Veemon's help anyway.

Outside of battles though, nothing could stop me.

"Let's do this!" I shouted after hearing Tatum's war cry. I contemplated following Barbamon out the window, but decided that a two story drop was too far, even for me. Instead, I ran after Taichi, Michael and Tatum, who'd run out the front door. I beat them outside though, that's how fast I was. Super fast.

"I hope this won't take long," Barbamon complained. "I need to beat the rest of you too. I need all of your heads for my collection."

"Gross dude," I said. Collecting our heads? That's one sick digimon. I thought Piedmon was bad when he wanted to collect us all as key chains.

"Enough small talk!" he shrieked. "Fight me. If you dare…"

"Oh, we dare all right," I said. "Veemon, let's show this old guy what we're made of."

"You got it, Daisuke," Veemon said happily.

"Veemon digivolve to… ExVeemon!"

"ExVeemon digivolve to… AeroVeedramon!"

"AeroVeedramon digivolve to… UlforceVeedramon!"

"Yes! Go UlforceVeedramon. Who's the man?" I shouted. "Okay…so that's me. But you're definitely the mon!"

"Thanks," UlforceVeedramon said. I thought it might just possibly have been a little sarcastic. I couldn't see why though.

"Let's join the team, Agumon," Taichi called. I was so proud of myself. He was following my example.

"Agumon digivolve to… Greymon!"

"Greymon digivolve to… MetalGreymon!"

"MetalGreymon digivolve to… WarGreymon!"

I looked to Michael and Tatum, who were just standing on the sidelines, wondering which one would be next in our game of follow the leader.

"Monodramon, digivolve to Airdramon!" Tatum shouted, acting as Monodromon's voice as he digivolved into the flying dragon that is Airdramon.

"You too Betamon," Michael cheered.

I watched, just waiting. Betamon seemed to realize that everyone was just looking at him, waiting for him to do something. "Oh, right!"

"Betamon digivolve to… Seadramon!"

The funniest part about the whole thing, was that Michael's digivice didn't glow like the rest of ours did. Was he just so far from being awesome, that his digivice didn't even get to glow? What a loser. I was glad mine glowed. It probably glowed brighter than everyone else's, since I was so much stronger than them. UlforceVeedramon stumbled, and I worried for a second. I couldn't do this without him. Thankfully he straightened himself, and looked at tough as ever.

"What a lightshow," Barbamon commented. "Are you done yet?"

"Don't be cocky," Tatum chastised.

"Why not?" he wanted to know. "You're not your whole team. I have every chance of winning. With your members so affected by my team, the young lady is the only one that can think clearly."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I told him. "I'm the best. I can totally beat you."

UlforceVeedramon faltered again. What was up with him?

"You don't think clearly either!"

I looked up to see Yamato leaning out of the hole in the side of their apartment where the window once was.

"I am," Barbamon insisted. "I see me winning, and I want it. That's enough."

"You're clouded by your own greed," Rei agreed. "You're just as disadvantaged as they are."

"I am not!" Barbamon shouted, raising his hand at the building. "Dark Inferno!"

He released a ball of black flame, aimed directly to our nearly unprotected friends. Pal and Pul were there, but they weren't going to be able to handle an attack like that. They were too small. They weren't good enough. They needed someone to help them. Someone awesome like me. But just as I thought to tell UlforceVeedramon to help out, he stumbled again. Seriously, what was up with him?

"Wing Cutter!" Tatum screamed, and Airdramon obliged, flapping his wings hard, causing the wind to form blades that were directed at the black ball of fire.

"Seadramon, put it out!" Michael ordered. Seadramon rolled his eyes but didn't put up a fight.

"Ice Blast!" he called, shooting out a small jet of water that he then used his icy breath on to freeze.

The Wing Cutter pushed the ball towards the ice, and the ice melted on contact, putting out the fire. They did alright, I supposed. Nothing like WarGreymon or UlforceVeedramon could do, but they got the job done. I was pleased to see that UlforceVeedramon stood up again seemingly over whatever it was that was distracting him. He needed to get his head in the game if we wanted to win this.

WarGreymon jumped into the air and threw his hands above his head. He wasn't prepared to wait around for Taichi to get his mind off of eating. Nor was he going to let Barbamon know the plan by announcing it like Michael did. "Terra Force!" he launched his big ball of compacted energy at the old looking digimon.

"Ah, ah, ah," Barbamon said gleefully as he jumped over the attack. It hit the ground, causing the earth to shake. The media was going to have a field day with the crater it caused. Luckily though, it only hit the street, rather than the foundation of the apartment building behind us. But it was close. We didn't really pick the best battle grounds.

"The Ray of Victory!" UlforceVeedramon shouted, trying to catch Barbamon off guard, and sending a V shaped blast of energy at our enemy. He seemed distracted enough by his earlier dodge, but he twirled his staff and hit the ray of energy like a baseball, sending it flying into the sky. I hoped there weren't any birds or planes in its path…

"You really think you can beat me," Barbamon laughed giddily. "I'll have your heads in no time."

"We'll see about that," Taichi growled. "WarGreymon!"

"Oh, we can't have that, now can we?" Barbamon said. "We're fighting with uneven numbers now, and I don't think that's fair. I'll just have to take one of you as my own."

Wait…what?

Was he saying what I thought he was saying? Of course he was. I was awesome, there was no way I would have misheard him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw UlforceVeedramon stumble again. He really needed to stop doing that.

"Oh yes," Barbamon decided with a wicked laugh. "Now which one do I want? The flying lizard? No, he's too weak. I want something powerful. I want the strongest."

"You can't have him!" I shouted, looking at UlforceVeedramon with fear. He couldn't take him. I was sure of it…but just in case…

"Your digimon can barely stand on his own feet," Barbamon snapped. "I want you."

I gasped. WarGreymon.

"Death Lure!" Barbamon called before any of us had the chance to even think of a plan. He raised his staff, which started to glow, and WarGreymon was instantly hypnotized. "Beautiful, isn't it? Soon he'll be locked in an inescapable hell, and the only way to ease the burns of the flames will be to perform acts of my choosing."

"WarGreymon!" Taichi cried in anguish.

"Stop him!" Rei screamed.

But how? I was awesome. I knew I was. But was I good enough to fix a problem this big?

"The staff!" Yamato yelled. "It's the staff."

I knew that much. I wasn't stupid.

"He's right," Tatum cheered.

"He is?" Michael wanted to know.

"Yes," Tatum decided. "We need to take the staff from him. Or at least stop the light from getting to WarGreymon."

"Like a shield?" Michael suggested, downhearted. He couldn't figure out how we were going to get one. But I could.

"UlforceVeedramon," I called. "Michael says we need a shield. Do you think you can do that buddy?"

"On it," UlforceVeedramon said, no longer swaying on his feet. "Tensegrity Shield!" He cast out a barrier of pure light, using it to overpower the light from Barbamon's staff. Then he flew at WarGreymon, tackling him out of Barbamon's range. WarGreymon shook his head. Good. He wasn't evil. I didn't think I could handle having to attack one of my friends. Even if I probably would have won, since I was better.

Damn it. UlforceVeedramon was uneasy again. What was wrong with him!

Barbamon let out a loud, angry cry. He was frustrated. And that was bad. Bad guys were a lot easier to deal with when they were thinking clearly.

"You won't win!" he screamed, and I knew he'd lost it. He was crazy. Desperate. "I won't let you! I will have your heads."

"Dude," I found myself saying. "We're keeping our heads, thanks."

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say. He screamed again, and lifted his hands slowly, holding his staff high above him. "Pandemonium Lost!"

At first I figured he said it wrong, since nothing was happening, but then I noticed the energy that was swirling in from around him. It was like he was taking energy from hell itself. I could practically feel the evil from it where I stood.

"God no," Michael gasped looking at the attack with wide eyes. It was getting bigger, and bigger. I wanted to look away, but it was like it had me in a trance.

"It's too strong," Tatum said. "It'll destroy half of Odaiba."

"Then we can't let him use it," Taichi said simply. "We have to beat him before he can."

"And how do we do that?" Tatum wanted to know.

"His hands are busy," I pointed out.

"So we attack head on; he can't stop us," Taichi suggested, before turning to the digimon. "Use the strongest thing you've got!"

The nodded, and turned back to Barbamon with their game faces on.

"Wing Cutter!" Tatum called as Seadramon decided upon, "Ice Blast!" The two attacks hit Barbamon head on, but he just laughed a cold, deranged sort of laugh.

"That tickles," he said, causing all the hair on my skin to stand on edge.

"Tag-team him!" I suggested to WarGreymon and UlforceVeedramon. Neither could beat him on their own, but they were two of the strongest digimon I knew. They could beat anything if they only worked together.

UlforceVeedramon—who'd now recovered from his last bout of wooziness—was the first one to agree, igniting his skin in a dragon's fire. "Dragon Impulse X!"

WarGreymon chose to start spinning, winding himself around fast enough to create a tornado of flames, before crying out, "Ultra Tornado!"

The two fire coated digimon launched themselves at Barbamon, who didn't look afraid. He was confident in himself, and for a second I was worried. Just a second though. Barbamon was too freaked out over his greedy goal to realize that these two, together, were stronger than he was. He thought wanting to win would be enough to actually do so.

He was wrong.

WarGreymon and UlforceVeedramon hit at the same time, ripping Barbamon to shreds. He didn't even have time to scream before he was nothing but data. I felt myself relax as the giant-ball-of-pure-evil that Barbamon had conjured dissipated.

We'd just saved Odaiba.

No. It was my idea.

I saved Odaiba. I was so awesome! UlforceVeedramon reverted back into Veemon unexpectedly, but I didn't care. I was so much better at fighting then all of the others, and my strategies were perfect. I wouldn't even need WarGreymon next time. I might not even need Veemon. I was the man!

Jou Kido:

"Yes." I said for the millionth time to Jun who was on the other end of the telephone. "Yes, I promise. Yes."

"Are you sure?" She asked again, "I don't want to wait forever."

"Jun." I hissed, "I promise you I will get married. We'll just do it the normal way. As in... we'll give it some time. We'll plan it out ourselves and then we'll be fine."

"Fine." Jun huffed, "Sorry about what happened though. I'm glad you saved Emiko."

"Oh good," I said sarcastically, "For a second I thought you were rooting for the bad guys."

"Don't be that way Jou." Jun scoffed, "You know what I mean. Anyway, I have to go."

"Alright," I said, "Okay, bye Jun."

"Talk to you later."

Click

I put my phone back in my pocket and turned to see who had shown up for the weekly meeting.

Willis was sitting at the other end of the table with Mari and Hikari at either side of him. He was grinning wickedly from ear to ear which was just bizarre. Takeru was next to Mari with Catherine at his side. Next to her sat Miyako, who was nervously brushing her hair out of her face and looking around the table as I was, and finally there was Kurayami, sitting next to me.

What happened to our group? Of the originals there was just Takeru, Hikari and myself. Where was everyone? Were they doing important things that we should be talking about at the meeting? Or did they have nothing, and found it meaningless to show up?

"So," Takeru said looking around, "I guess no one else is going to take charge, so I will." He cleared his throat and stood up after Catherine gave him thumbs up for good luck. He smiled at her and turned to the rest of us, "I don't really have much to report on... other than Patamon is gone."

"What?" Hikari asked. "Where?"

"Honestly?" Takeru asked, "I have no idea."

"I did notice him missing..." Mari said, gazing toward the digimon who were all eating excitedly, one table over. Lalamon, Gatomon, Terriermon, Lopmon, and Floramon sat alongside Hideto's Agumon and Gabumon. "What happened?" She asked.

"He just got mad at me and left." Takeru said. "H-he'll be back though." He sounded more like he was asking for confirmation than anything else.

"Of course he will be." I nodded. I had no way to prove it, but I was sure that he would. Just as Emiko had found her way back to me. Perhaps we'd have to go save him like we did with her, but no matter what, Patamon would be back. He always had before... but Gomamon was a different story.

I'd spent the whole of the previous night—when Jun and Momoe weren't asking me questions about our next wedding—thinking about him. He was right. I was ignoring him. I should have asked him to come live with me. I should have spent more time with him... It was time for me to find him. And that's what I planned on doing; right after this meeting was over.

"I have something to say," I said, raising my hand, and glancing around one last time for Iori. "Though I'm not sure how logical it is. I was hoping Sora would be here..."

"Just spit it out." Mari prompted.

"Well," I said, "There's this tree by Iori's house and it's turning all weird and black and there was a mysterious blonde girl sitting in it with a frilly dress and—"

"What?" Kurayami asked sharply. "Are you sure?"

I nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"No reason." She said quickly with such force that I knew the topic was ended.

"I have something to say." Willis said, jumping to his feet. "Two things." I rolled my eyes. "The first one is that Hikari is very pretty today." Hikari smiled at him as he grabbed her hand from the table, "And the other is that... uhm..."

"You don't have anything do you?" Takeru asked.

"No I do!" Willis said nervously, "Why? Do you? I want it. GIVE IT TO ME!"

"Calm down dude!" Takeru said quickly, raising his hands in surrender. "I don't have anything else."

We sat in silence for a while until Hideto came out with six orders of French fries for Willis. He set them down in front of him and then took his seat next to me.

"Want some?" Willis offered, handing one to Hikari. "I certainly don't need this many. How about you Mari? Takeru?"

Takeru did, but as he reached for it he did it with caution, scared Willis would snap at him again. "You okay?"

"Yeah..." Willis said, rolling his shoulders back and twisting his head. "I feel... free. I think..."

"Someone defeated greed?" I asked, and Willis nodded.

"They must have." He surmised.

"Really?" Terriermon called excitedly from his place at the next table. "Thank God!"

"Willis you were really getting annoying for a bit there!" Lopmon added.

"No I wasn't," He said passively, then, to Hikari, "Was I?" She nodded and his face turned red. "Sorry..."

"Not your fault." Hikari and Mari said together, both comforting him by placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Are your meetings usually more... excitable?" Catherine asked in her thick accent.

Takeru nodded, "Usually there's piles of things to say. Like our parents—" He turned back to us all and slammed his hands down on the table. "I need to say something."

"You don't need to be so angry about it." Gatomon mumbled

"What?" Kurayami asked, ignoring Gatomon.

"Our parents." He said firmly. "They've been gone for so long. Hikari, Taichi said he saw your mother and she decided to go off on a quest. Do you not still find yourself curious as to whether or not she's okay?"

"Of course." Hikari nodded, "But it's really up to her if that's what she wants. She's a grown woman. I have faith that she'll come back."

"Okay, fine," He said, "But my parents, Ken's mother—Sora's parents! They could be in serious danger. Does no one want to help them?"

"Why don't you?" Hideto asked, "They're your parents."

"I have been." Takeru shot. "Not as much as I should've been, I'll admit. But I've been searching for them. I can't find them."

"Ken's been looking." Miyako said quietly, staring down at her hands, folded in her lap.

"That's great." Takeru said, "But no one else is..."

"May I?" Lalamon said, fluttering into the air and landing on the table, staring toward us all. "The Digital World is alive, as is Earth. But the Digital World has more than just living organisms, it has a mind of its own. Perhaps the Digital World is preventing you from finding your parents so they can fulfill their destiny."

"What's their destiny?" Mari asked.

"Well..." Lalamon said, "I don't know. But they're there for a reason. I doubt they were kidnapped or taken. There would be signs of struggle. Were there?" Takeru shook his head. "So it must have been the Digital World's doing. So there you go. The Digital World is taking care of things. Just like it did with all of you."

I felt chills run down my spine. That was creepy. But so cool at the same time. The Digital World had always felt like home to me—well after the first few days and my multiple fits of terror. But if the world was alive, and taking care of us... it was like a parent. The Digital World had always been there, it selected us specifically and now took care of us... so everyone's parents were now being initiated into the family... that was... a much more settling way to look at the issue.

"Can you prove that?" Terriermon asked.

"No." Lalamon admitted.

"Then sit down." Lopmon giggled. Lalamon obeyed and sat next to Lopmon and the two started whispering and giggling together.

"I think it makes sense." Takeru decided. I had a feeling he was just saying that so he could relax a little bit, but there was no way he'd stop looking and I knew that.

"Is there anything else?" Hideto asked, "Or should I go make some more food?" No one said anything, "Anyone have anything? Anything at all?

"I do." Miyako said slowly, looking down to her gloved hands. She looked up with so much fear that even Willis shut up. "I..." She stood up and started rolling down her glove when the restaurant door opened with a loud cheer bursting through. Daisuke, Rei, Tatum, Michael, Yamato and a complete stranger piled through the door with a set of digimon and laughed, high-fiving each other. Miyako's face turned as red as a tomato and she sat down quickly.

"You're the best!" Daisuke laughed.

"No!" The stranger said with Taichi's voice, "You're the best." I leaned forward in my chair, gripping the armrests. His hair was so short! What happened?

"I know." Daisuke's face suddenly fell as he sat down in an empty seat, allowing Veemon, Agumon, Betamon, Monodramon, Pal and Pul to sit down with the other digimon. "We beat Greed by the way."

"I know." Willis said with a grin.

"Oh can I have some?" Taichi asked Willis when he saw some French fries still waiting there.

"Sure." Willis nodded. Taichi shoved Willis right out of his seat and began cramming food into his mouth. I looked to Miyako who shook her head and stood up.

"Taichi?" Takeru questioned cautiously. "What happened to your hair?" Taichi glared at Kurayami and Willis but said nothing.

"I have to go." She said, leaving without another word. Willis took her spot and looked to Kurayami, waving to her with a smile. He dropped his hands as she glared at him.

"Alright." I said. "I'm going too."

I heard a few farewells, but I headed to the door, glancing over my shoulder to see if Hawkmon was there, but he wasn't. Miyako must've left him at home. I stepped out the door into the warm spring air and looked around for Miyako, but she wasn't there...

I figured she'd gotten into a cab or ran off somewhere, but there was no way of knowing where she was, so it was time to revert back to my old plan. I had to find Gomamon and make things right.

Next on Digimon Adventure 05: Sora and Ken narrate a journey to the Digital World with complications, Hiroaki and Natsuni continue to navigate their way through their new surroundings in the Digital World. Takeru has to lead a strange assortment of people in a battle, and Yamato has a very unfortunate meeting with a certain council member.