Disclaimer: I don't own digimon.

I'm tired. I should've stopped and wrote this chapter later, but I wanted to get this up for you guys. If it's not a high-quality chapter I'm sorry. A lot of action, though, and sorta cliffhanger. *Insert "thanks for reviewing and please keep reviewing" speech here* Here's chapter 37.

Chapter 37:

He was furious. He was yelling things at Kari that he probably wouldn't say if he wasn't in the current situation he was in, but he couldn't help himself. TK, the big, to put it nicely, dumby, wasn't coming. Didn't he know what happened the last time he left the group? Or did he forget that already? Matt wasn't one-hundred percent sure if his little brother truly lost his memory. Maybe TK just went through so much that he simply was overwhelmed and needed time to recover, and then his memory would come back to him? It didn't matter, though; he should've known that staying by himself again would only lead to more trouble. And they didn't need more trouble.

"Matt," Kari said looking at him with concern but also fear in her eyes. Her voice made him shut his big mouth up and listen. "TK's going to be fine. I'm sorry, but it is his choice if he wants to fight or not, and if he thinks it is better for him not to fight then we just have to trust him. Who knows what he had really been through, anyways? This all has to be overwhelming for him, and, besides, he has Tokomon with him along with the other ultimate digimon."

She said it with such certainty that he just about believed her, but he couldn't. He couldn't shake off the feeling that leaving his little brother behind was a big mistake. As he thought about it, though, maybe it was better if TK stayed behind. It would be safer outside while the battle was taking on in the fortress, and TK wouldn't have to fight any. Matt concluded he wasn't ok with TK's decision, but there was no way he was going to change it now. Especially since Angewomon had just flown through the big hole in the Emperor's fortress, created by MetalGreymon.

He smiled up at Kari out of thanks and saw relief spill over her face just as everything instantly got dark. The only light was the little bit coming from outside which was only enough for him to barely make out Kari who wasn't that far away from him. Angewomon must've been able to see better, though, cause she landed next to the others.

He was able to see a little better as an unknown digimon cast a light from the blade on its head. Davis was sitting on top of the black digimon, so he figured it was Veemon in a new form thanks to the digi-eggs TK had given the new digidestinds. They circled up in the middle of the hallway and Tai started talking.

"Ok, so I think we should split up," he said looking left and right.

"Good idea, this place is huge," Izzy said. Matt looked around and was able to see that he was right. The hallway they were in had to have had at least a ten foot high ceiling and they all, digimon included, could've probably walked down the hallway side by side. That fact didn't exactly comfort him. What exactly was huge enough to need a hallway like this?

He drew his attention back to the group. Sora said, "Good idea, as long as we stay together." He glared at Tai as Sora took his hand and he put her arm around her. Luckily, nobody noticed.

Tai continued, "Ok, so Sora, Kari, Izzy, Cody, uh, Willis was it?, and I will go this way," he pointed to his right, "And Matt, Joe, Mimi, Davis, …. Michael?... and Yolei can go that way. Now, let's go, and if you get in any trouble use the D-Terminal."

They quickly formed into their groups and they started going their own directions. Anger rose up inside him as he realized Tai didn't even notice TK was gone. Did he even care that he was back?

That was something that had bothererd him these past four years. It started out slow, but it kept growing and growing to the point where it made him want to hurt somebody. TK was a part of the group; he was one of the original digidestineds. The others, though, didn't seem to care about TK. None of them even seemed to miss TK since he moved to France four years ago. In fact, once TK left, it seemed like the others were happier. Tai and Sora happily were dating and none of them had asked how TK was, once. And Tai was supposed to be his best friend, and he was a brother to TK on their adventure. Mimi had gone off to America so he couldn't say much about her. Izzy was still the same, way too into computers, but even he had started to become more social and looked like he was happy. Joe was in medical school, and even Kari finally moved on from losing TK. He was glad they all were happy and he may even have been jealous of them, but he couldn't be happy. Not only had he lost his little brother that meant everything to him; he also lost his mother. Did anybody notice how much trouble he had been going through the past four years? No; no one asked him how he was doing or even how TK was doing. In fact, he didn't even spend much time with the others the past four years. The only times he saw them were during school, and maybe they'd go watch a movie whenever Mimi came back from America which was at most once every three months or so. Other than that, he didn't see much of some of his best friends. In fact, his best friend, Tai, he hadn't even talked to the past six months. They must not have noticed it, but this distance was killing him. He missed his friends, and he missed his brother. But now that he was back, maybe all of that would change. Maybe he could have his old life bad.

Which was why he didn't want TK getting hurt. Every day the past four years he wished his little brother would come back home. He had a reoccurring dream where he would open his eyes and he, his parents, and TK would be sitting around the dinner table in his dad's apartment. Gabumon and Patamon were there, and they all were eating, talking, and laughing. It seemed like the happiest dinner a family could spend together. But then it all ended, and he woke back up realizing it was only just a dream.

Maybe it was childish of him to have such dreams that everything would go back to the way it was. That somehow his parents would get back together and all of them would live happily together. But that was all that he could do. He wanted happiness again. He wanted to be around people who cared for him and loved him, and right now he didn't have that.

He opened his eyes and found himself in that dark world he was in the day he became reunited with TK. Everything around him was gray and lifeless, and the little happiness and hope inside of him was gone. Out of panic he closed his eyes hoping everything would go away and would return to normal, and luckily it did, though he heard an evil laughter very clear in his head, though it seemed very distant.

WereGarurumon was walking next to him with a look of determination on his face, but when Matt looked at his partner, he looked back with a look of understanding, as if he was reading his thoughts this whole time.

"Matt, everything's going to turn all right, but we need to focus on the matter at hand. We can worry about the other stuff later."

He nodded. WereGarurumon was right, of course he was right. Matt was letting his worries, his sadness, everything that had been affecting him these past four years get in his way of the mission he had. They were here for one purpose; to defeat the Digimon Emperor once and for all. Only after that was done could he restore his relationship with TK and maybe even the other digidestineds.

As they were walking down the seemingly never-end-less hallway, the walls started changing. Instead of stone, the walls were now iron bars on both sides. He heard whispers coming from the other side of the cages which ceased once they heard the footsteps and voices of their group.

Matt stopped walking and the others followed suit. Mimi looked like she was about to see a ghost as she clung on to Michael's arm. Joe looked just as frightened along with Yolei who was clinging onto Joe just like Mimi was to Michael. Davis moved closer to him, but Matt pushed him away.

"Don't get any ideas, goggle-dork."

"I… I know that voice!"

Matt quickly turned around as he heard loud footsteps coming near him. WereGarurumon moved in front of him and started growling. He was quite happy WereGarurumon was on his side because the digimon could be scary at times.

"Don't worry, it's only me!"

Matt finally was able to spot two round, yellow eyes floating in the air. It was too dark, but he didn't need the light to know who was standing right in front of him. He couldn't easily forget that voice. Memories of the countless days he worked as a slave for that digimon came back to his memory; those were not pleasant memories. And the fact that the digimon was behind bars was comforting to say the least.

"Digitamamon," he said reluctantly. WereGarurumon stopped growling but still looked ready to attack even though the digimon couldn't get out of his cage.

"So you do remember me! I was worried…"

"Digitamamon?" Joe asked, confused. That was right. Joe had worked with him at that time, and he had caused him to work even more days to pay off his debt because of his clumsiness. No, DemiDevimon was causing Joe to be that way; he had almost forgotten.

"That's right!" the egg digimon said happily. Davis's digimon came closer with his lighted blade acting like a torch and lighting up the room. Digitamamon didn't look any different than before, which didn't surprise him. Digitamamon didn't seem like the digimon who'd color his shell like an easter egg.

Yolei was asking who Digitamamon was, but no one paid her any attention. Mimi stood next to him and Joe, watching Digitamamon closely.

"What are you doing here?" Joe asked, moving closer to the cage.

Digitamamon looked to the ground instantly. When he spoke, Matt could hear the anger in his voice,

"The Digimon Emperor ruined everything. There I was, running my restaurant like always. Business was booming until the Digimon Emperor started taking over the Digital World. We kept getting less and less customers because they all were afraid of becoming the Emperor's slaves. Then, one day one of you digidestineds came to my restaurant…"

"One of us? Who was it?" Matt instantly spoke up.

"Umm, his name escapes me, but he looks like you. Blonde hair, blue eyes…"

"TK!"

"Yes, that's the boy's name!"

"What was he doing at your restaurant? When was this? Was he under the Emperor's…"

"Matt," Mimi warned. He was surprised that Mimi, out of all the others, would be the one to make him shut up. Usually she was the one who couldn't stop her tongue, but Matt didn't say anything. He closed his mouth and listened very intently.

"As I was saying, TK came to my restaurant with his partner, a Patamon. The two of them looked famished so I welcomed them with open arms and fed them free of charge."

Matt instantly became angry thinking the digimon had made TK work for his meal like he had so many years ago, but he kept silent and let the digimon continue.

"When they were done eating, I told them how I haven't seen any of you guys since the time of the Dark Masters and that the meal was on me as my way of saying thanks. But then Devimon came and started destroying my restaurant. My loyal waitor, Tapirmon, was destroyed. Angemon put up a good fight, but he too wasn't enough for the demon. Then I tried fighting the digimon, but even I wasn't strong enough to defeat him. I blacked out, and when I woke up I found myself here, locked up. And that's my story."

He finished his story and silence followed. Matt felt bad for assuming the worse of Digitamamon. From what the digimon said, he had tried to save TK. For that, he was thankful.

"Digitamamon… th… thank you for trying to protect TK."

The digimon shook off the praise and continued, "Never mind that, how is the boy? Is he ok?"

Matt couldn't say. He couldn't talk about his brother without remembering the fact he had chosen not to fight and get upset about that. Luckily, Mimi answered for him.

"He was long lost, but now is found, except he has no memory. He was under the Emperor's control for a while, but he finally was set free, and now he is with us," she said happily.

She was leaving out a lot… a lot! But he didn't interrupt.

"I'm glad to here he's ok, and if I ever find Tapirmon again I can have him help TK get his memory back."

Hope instantly arose in Matt. It sounded like this Tapirmon was a digimo nto go searching for. Surely, he was reborn by now. They only needed to find the digimon.

"Yeah, but, Digiatamamon, how many digimon are here?" Joe asked, looking around the hallway. The cages seemed like they were never ending.

"Oh, this hallway goes on for a while. I'm not sure how many digimon there are exactly, but there are quite a bit of us."

"Can you save us?" a digimon asked from behind Digitamamon. He didn't recognize the voice, but apparently Mimi did.

"Otamamon? Is that you?"

The little digimon's voice instantly perked up. "Princess Mimi? Is that you?"

"Princess Mimi?" Yolei said giving Mimi a questioning look. He had almost forgotten that Davis, Yolei, and Michael were there too. He felt bad that they didn't know what was going on because 'Princess Mimi' was a funny story.

"Yes!" Mimi answered cheerfully, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, save for being held captive."

"We need to get these digimon out of here fast, before the Digimon Emperor finds us," Joe stated.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. The Emperor left with his new partner a while ago. He was saying something about 'destroying the Digital World, starting with Toy Town.'" Digiatamamon said happily.

"Awww, I really liked Toy Town," Otamamon said with a frown.

"Well then let's go save it, once we free you guys of course," Mimi said with a wink.

"How are we going to break the cages, though?" Michael asked, speaking up for the first time.

"I believe I can break them in a matter of no time," Michael's partner, a Seadramon- no, this digimon had a horn coming out of its head and was red instead of a greenish-blue- said.

"Ok, let's get at this. Lillymon, do your stuff!"

"Watch out everybody," Lillymon warned.

They all backed away from the cage as Lillymon yelled out, "Flower Canon!" The flower fairy formed a canon and shot a blast at the cage which immediately fell when the attack came into contact. As the bars crumbled to the floor, the whole fortress started to shake.

"Lillymon, you weren't supposed to destroy the place!" Mimi yelled out.

"It's not me!" the fairy yelled out.

The shaking continued, though, and Matt could hear explosions sounding from far away.

"I believe we are under attack," Davis's partner said.

"Then let's get out of here!" Davis yelled.

"No," he shouted as the others got ready to start running for the entrance. "We need to save these digimon first. If we don't save them, they may get destroyed."

The others nodded, though they looked worried as the fortress shook even more ferociously. Matt worried about the others and TK, but right now he had digimon to save.

"So, let's split up and get these digimon out of here as fast as we can!" he shouted.

"Right," they all yelled back over the sound of the explosions.

"WereGarurumon," he said loudly at his partner as the two of them ran to the end of the hallway. The others separated and started attacking the cages, save for Joe whose partner was outside the fortress. Whatever was going on outside didn't sound good, and Joe looked very worried because of it. Matt tried to think of something comforting to say to Joe as he followed him and WereGarurumon down the hallway, but he couldn't.

Instead he watched WereGarurumon destroy cage door after cage door, and when the digimon confusedly walked out of their cages he pointed the way toward the exit.

"Joe, show them the way out of here. Then you can go see what's going on outside."

Joe nodded, liking the idea, and said, "Come on!" to the digimon as they all followed him. Before long, an endless lign of digimon were marching down the hallway. Thankfully some of the digimon were Meramon, so he could see a little ways down the hallway because of the light.

It took them a while, but the cages finally ended. The hallway continued on a little ways and Matt could see a light coming from a little ways down there. WereGarurumon destroyed the last cage and was about to run off for the exit, but Matt continued to stare down the hallway. He felt like there was something important down there.

"Matt, we need to get going," his partner said urgently, but he didn't listen. Instead he went off at a dead sprint towards the light. He heard WereGarurumon yell after him and catch up in a matter of a few seconds- the wolf was pretty dang fast- as he came to a door. He pushed it open, aware of the intensifying explosions, and entered what looked like an engine room. The sound of machines running filled the room. He looked around for whatever it was he was looking for, and his eyes stopped in the dead center of the room. It looked like it was the generator. Everything was attached to it, and he could almost feel the power emanating from the place. That was what had drawn him here. If he could remove the power source, then this fortress wouldn't able to run. Maybe it was the source of the Emperor's power. Maybe it gave power to the dark spirals and rings and the control spires, and if he removed it then they would all stop working. It was worth a shot, but it was only a ten foot drop. As much of an athlete he thought he was, he didn't think he could survive that jump, and if he did, there was no way he could get back up. But then he realized he wasn't alone.

"WereGarurumon, we need to get down there," he said, pointing to the generator-thing.

"Right," the wolf growled as he wrapped his arms around him and jumped. Matt closed his eyes, but breathed a sigh of relief as they hit the floor softly. WereGarurumon let him go and he ran for the generator.

Now that he was close enough, he saw there was a glass encasement with a bunch of pieces of small, rectangular glass in different colors set in an encasement. The shards were glowing, and Matt looked in awe at the seven pieces. They were crests, that was for sure, but he never saw the symbol on them before. There was a pink, cream-colored, orange, dark-blue, black, gold, and white crests all with different symbols on them. Matt was admiring them when WereGarurumon spoke up,

"Matt, we really need to get going."

"Right, could you…"

WereGarurumon punched the glass surrounding the crests. Alarms blared, but he ignored them and grabbed the seven crests. Once the last crest was removed, everything turned pitch black. He felt the fortress suddenly start free-falling. WereGarurumon grabbed him as he stuffed the crests in his coat pocket and as the fortress hit the ground below, the two of them hit the floor hard. WereGarurumon let out a groan, but when Matt got off of him he stood up slowly, seemingly fine. All was silent, the explosions had stopped.

"Now can we get out of here?" WereGarurumon asked hopefully.

Matt let out a chuckle. "Yeah, but I can't see anything."

"I can change that. Garuru Kick!"

WereGarurumon leaped across the room, but Matt lost sight of his partner in the darkness. He heard the wall to his right crumble and his partner landed right next to him and put his arms around him as he leaped again. He set him back down before doing another Garuru Kick. This time, though, when the wall crumbled Matt could see light making its way inside. He didn't take another second before he ran out the hole in the wall right after his partner. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, but when he could finally see again he gasped.

There were two fights going on. MetalGreymon, Garudamon, MegaKabuterimon, Lillymon, and Zudomon were all fighting Willis' two digimon, Michael's partner, the new digidestineds's new partners, and Angewomon. Their partners were watching the fight with looks of horror and they were shouting out to their digimon. He barely noticed Puppetmon sitting up in a nearby tree twiddling his fingers and laughing hysterically. Then there was a digimon Matt had never seen before fighting what looked like MetalSeadramon. The thought of the Dark Masters returning didn't even come to his mind, though, as he saw TK lying on the ground by himself, not moving, and he was deteriorating.