It was dark.

That was all there is in whatever world he's stepping upon.

Taichi looked around to check where he is or maybe find a way out, but there is only darkness surrounding him, nothing more.

The boy felt his dry throat as he tries to speak but no words nor any noises came out of his mouth.

Feeling confuse, he checked his surroundings again. 'Where am I?' He thought. 'Where's everyone?'

Taichi sighed and decided to walk around the dark abyss. The least he can do at the moment anyway. As he kept walking in the neverending darkness, he realized that he wasn't moving anywhere, or so that's what it felt like. It was hard to tell. Eventually, he stopped, noticing that he wasn't going anywhere.

DRIP!

Taichi spun around and saw something dripping on the cold ground.

DRIP!

It It was...water? Why is there water in here?

DRIP!

He carefully approached the small pond and examined it for any danger, yet he found nothing.

Suddenly, more of those ponds appeared and it abruptly turned into a giant waterfall, quickly filling up the room.

Taichi gasp as he swam up to the surface to get some air but everytime he does it the water waves just keeps pushing his body down the bottomless ocean. Just as he was about to lose consciousness from exhaustion, he saw something in the water.

It grabbed his limp body and gave him an unexpected shock, causing him to scream yet no sounds came out.

'Child of Courage...' A deep voice said.

A giant screen appeared right in front of him, and what it was showing terrified him. It was their own world, but with digimons destroying everything in plain sight. What's worse is that no one seems to notice anything unusual happening right before them. He saw the sky glitching and turning dim, then the screen suddenly disappears.

Taichi felt it let go of his body and let it sink down the dark water. Without any warning, he suddenly felt a huge pain in his body. Taichi tensed and tried screaming out of his lungs, still silent.

The boy hugged himself to try and soothe the burning pain, but it just keeps getting worse every second. Taichi gasps and shot his eyes open. What he saw terrified him.

There were black claws emerging out of his fingers, causing his white gloves to shred apart as it continue to grow and completely replace his harmless nails. The pain didn't stop there however as his ears and legs simultaneously changed shape.

Taichi flail around and did everything he could to comfort himself. He wanted it to end! It was unbearable!

A silent scream came out of his mouth when another round of torment bursts out of his spine and shoulder blades. Taichi didn't know what's happening. He was too focused on the burning pain coursing through his entire body. He couldn't think straight.

Taichi wanted to cry but couldn't. Something in his mind told him not to, he didn't know why yet he obeyed it.

Taichi groaned in discomfort as his lower jaw started to hurt. There was something growing in it but he didn't know why. It was sharp and eventually got bigger that caused it to stick out of his mouth when he try and close it.

Then, he felt something, no...someone. There was someone in here with him. It's presence alone in this dark world made him shiver down his bones. He felt cold and weak. Taichi wanted to close his eyes and wished for this nightmare to end, yet some part of him wants to stay awake.

A loud cracking sound echoed as Taichi groaned and bit his lip to prevent himself from crying out again. He couldn't understand what was happening anymore.

'It is done...' The voice said in a cold tone.

The unbearable pain and torment bursts out even more, causing Taichi to grit his teeth and silently sob. Finally, he snapped his eyes open, revealing his feiry orange cat like eyes. He threw his head back and let out the scream that was building up in his throat, but instead of a horrific human scream, an inhuman roar escaped his pained mouth.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

A loud groan escaped the boy's lips as he slowly crack his eyes open, only to close it again when the ray of sunlight blinded his vision. Using his hand to block the light, he carefully sat up then opened his eyes, in which suddenly widen in shock and surprise when he found himself sitting in the middle of the forest.

The first thing that he thought of was MetalGreymon and Etemon's fight. Last thing he remember was getting sucked into, what seems to be, a black hole with Etemon. He could remember hearing the others screaming his name before blacking out. He must've got teleported somwhere in the island, luckily he's slowly regaining familiarity with the place. They probably walked pass this forest days ago. Sighing, Taichi tried to stand up but failed and fell on his bottom as he yelp.

Taichi hissed in pain. Before he could even make any movement, his eyes widen when he saw his feet -no not feet...paws!

"What is this!?" He chuckled nervously, not believing what he's seeing.

As he stretched his hand to touch his...paws, a loud gasp escaped his mouth after seeing his hand. His usual human five digit fingers were now reduced to four for both of his hands with sharp black claws sticking out of each fingers. He also notice the fur on his hand -no...entire body! He was covered in brown fur!

Taichi's attention turned when he felt something moving behind him. After seeing what it was, he couldn't help but stare at it in both terror and confusion. Behind him is a tail swaying back and forth. He tried to grab and pulling it but stopped when pain rushed in his bottom.

"N-no...there's no way...!" He needs to get a better look of himself! Seeing a small pond nearby, he quickly made his way towards it, stumbling down multiple times in the process. Tai stared down in his reflection and couldn't believe his eyes.

Instead of seeing his human body, what he saw was a digimon! Brown fur covering his entire body, a pointy darker shade of brown ears while it's insides are mute orange. His hair seems to be normal other than the long sideburns on the side of his face, looking almost like a beard or lion's mane with his hair. His clothes were replaced by a black pants and two arm braces with two stripes of yellow of each end. Both of his hands and feet were a lighter color than his normal body fur, he also notice his forearms were slightly bigger than it normally is. Finally, he examined his tail, it was long and fluffy on it's end with a fading orange on the tip.

"How did this happen? Was that dream..." He asks no one but himself, still shock from the sight in front of him. Taichi continues to stare at his relfection for a few minutes, finally noticing the color of his eyes changed into feiry orange, large sharp fangs sticking out of his jaw and his nose changed into what looks like a cat's nose.

The only thing that stayed with him was his goggles on his head and his tag and crest. He felt a small relief when he saw his digivice on the belt of his pants. Well that's one less thing to worry about.

"Am I...a digimon?" He asks no one in particular. A flash of memory of that dream he had in the darkness, him screaming silently and feeling that unbearable pain in his entire body. Taichi hummed, perplexed. "It's probably better to worry about later. I need to find the others!"

It took him a couple of tries to stand up with his new legs and feet. It was like standing on his toes for him. After a while, he managed to adjust himself and took a few steps. A small smile crept his lips as his slow walk turned into a huge leap onto one of the tree branches.

"This...doesn't seem too bad." He muttered as he jumped down and landed on fours. Then he ran deep into the forest, following the familiar road he once took when they were trying to find Etemon.

As he ran pass the area, he turned his head left and right to scout around. His ears flickering at the sounds in the distance, nose twitching at the unfamiliar smell going in his nostrils. He could recognize some of the scents around the forest but it wasn't exactly who he is looking for so he just kept running.

The changed must've enchance his sense of smell and hearing. He can smell and hear things from miles away that he didn't even know that existed in the first place.

Taichi paused. His eyes darted towards the path. A loud beep caught his attention, causing him to flinch and tighten his grip on his ears, but soon calmed down when he notice that it was the digivice that's making the noise.

Slowly, he released his grip from his ears as he reach down for the beeping device on his belt. He brought it up to his face and saw two red dots on the screen. Both dots has a huge distance at each other.

"Wait...Is it showing me where they are?" He raised a brow in confusion. Checking if his theory is true, he proceeds to run a couple of miles, and to his surprise he was right! The red dots represent both him and the others who holds the digivice.

But what got him thinking was why there was only a single dot showing on the screen when there's seven of them. Tai didn't know, but he was glad to have a little help from it.

Taichi noticed that the sounds and smells that was overwhelming him is gone, so he took the opportunity and continue to ran through the thick forest as he keeps track on both the path and the direction in the device. As if on instinct, he started to run on all fours, completely gaining some huge amounts of speed.

The boy slowed down as he notice something in the distance. He then leaped onto the trees and climbed all the way on top of it to get a better view.

"Is that a...theme park?" It was too far away for him to see what it exactly is, the only thing that made him guess was the ferris wheel, at least he thought it was.

Taichi hummed as he pat his pants to get his small binoculars, and to his surprise, it wasn't there. "Must've dropped it after the fight." He groaned in frustration. "Guess it won't hurt to check it out. The others might be there!" Well... he hoped.

Taichi then quickly jumped down and made his way towards the abandoned theme park. On his way, he suddenly heard two voices chattering nearby. At the corner of his eyes, he saw two Gazimons sitting on a pile of mushrooms while laughing at each other.

"Hey!" The two digimons turned to look at him. "Aren't you Etemon's minions!?"

The Gazimons looked at each other then back at Tai, wearing a confuse look on their faces. "Who's Etemon?" Asked the digimon with the sunglasses.

"Huh?" Taichi stared at them, dumbfounded. "Don't play dumb! I know you two worked for him!"

The other Gazimon just shrugged then turned to look at the other digimon. "Wait, who are you? What am I doing here anyway?"

"Who are you?"

"I don't know either!"

Taichu gritted his teeth in frustration. "STOP PLAYING AROUND!" He shouted as he stomped his foot.

"Calm down!" Gazimon took a small mushroom beside him and offered it to Taichu. "Here, have a mushroom!"

Taichi was having none of it and slapped his hand away. "Seriously!"

The two gazimons just shrugged and scooped a handful of mushrooms as they turned to each other and smiled. "More for us!" They both then ate it whole, not a second later their faces changed to be in a more confused expression than ever. They pointed and each other and ask, "Who are you?"

That's when Taichi realized that neither of them are lying about not knowing who Etemon is. "Better stay out of that mushroom." The boy didn't say another word as he quickly sprinted towards his destination.

His nose suddenly twitch at the familiar smell nearby. Taichi checked his digivice and saw that he was almost near one of his friends' location. As he was running, the device's sound suddenly got louder and louder. Looking at it, he noticed that he is only a couple of meters away from them.

"Alright!" Taichi halt to a stop and stared at the theme park right in front of him. His ears suddenly perked up at the familiar voices. He sniffed the air and caught the familiar scent he smelled back on the forest, this time it was stronger than before.

He clipped the digivice on his belt and decided to follow his ears and nose for this one.

"Is this really for me?"

"Yes! Eat as much as you like, Takeru!"

'Takeru?!' That other voice doesn't belong to any of his friends. It sounded so friendly yet he could hear the malice in its voice. Without wasting any time, he quickly followed Takeru's scent until he finally saw him. "Takeru!" He shouted, startling everyone.

The kid suddenly went wide eye after seeing an unfamiliar digimon approaching him. Tokomon and Agumon then jumped into possition to defend Takeru from they deemed threat. "Stay where you are!" Agumon growled, his throat glowing with flames as a threat.

"A-agumon! Hey, it's me-"

When Takeru saw the digimon's goggles on his head, he immediately recognized who it was. "Taichi!?"

"Huh!?...T-tai...chi?" Agumon relaxed and stared at the tall digimon right in front of him.

"Jeez! Who else? What did I miss?" Taichi yelp in surprise as he suddenly got engulfed into a huge bear hug by the three.

"We were looking all over for you!" Agumon cried out.

"We're so glad you're still alive! You've been gone for almost 2 months! Where did you go, Taichi!? Why are you a digimon?" Tai froze after hearing Takeru's statement.

"Hang on! I've been gone for two months!?"

"Yeah!" Takeru looked up to him with teary eyes, sobbing. "Everyone left! Each one of them went their own way and left me!"

Taichi's face went serious. He knelt down on Takeru's level and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Before he could say any words, he noticed the mushrooms Tokomon is holding. He quickly snatched it off of the digimon's hand and threw it away. "Don't eat that! It'll wipe away all your memories!"

The three gasp and threw away all the remaining shrooms.

"See! I told you he was lying to you, Takeru!" Tokomon bared his sharp teeth at the flying digimon.

"How dare you try to wipe our memories away!" Agumon jumped and swipe his sharp claws at the scared digimon and caught him by the wing.

"Tell him you're lying about Yamato! Tell him!" Tokomon demanded. Agumon's grip slowly tightened around his wings.

"Alright! I did! It was all a lie!"

Takeru couldn't believe what he was hearing. More tears threatened to spill out of his eyes, his hands clenched into a fist as he gritted his teeth in both anger and frustration. "Picodevimon..."

Agumon yelp as he stumbled down when Picodevimon forcibly shoved him on the ground. He glided a few feet away from them and chuckled. "I guess I should get rid of you now! Pico Darts!"

Tokomon was quick to react at the sudden assault. "Tokomon digivolves to...Patamon!"

"Air shot!" The syringes flew back towards Picodevimon, who then dodged it in sheer panic.

Patamon, however, didn't give him any time to recover and headbutted him hard. He fired another air shots at him, causing the enemy digimon to roughly hit the rollercoaster tracks.

The orange digimon then glided down towards Takeru, who was looking at him in guilt. "Patamon, I'm so sorry for yelling at you! I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay, Takeru!" Patamon said with a genuine smile. "It was Picodevimon's fault, not yours."

A loud yelp coming from Agumon interrupted thei conversation as the dinosaur digimon was thrown pretty far back by Picodevimon.

"Agumon!" Taichi yelled out and ran towards his friend to check on him but abruptly stopped on his tracks when multiple darts was shot right in front of him.

"Taichi! Agumon!" Before Patamon could even make a move, Picodevimon tackled him and clutched on the little digimon's body tightly, causing Patamon to scream out in pain.

"Patamon!" Takeru cried out and tried to help his friend, but Picodevimon flew a couple of meters away from him.

The bat digimon laughed. "Not so tough now are you?"

"Let me go!" Patamon squirmed around but stopped when Picodevimon's sharp nails tightened even more.

"Hey!" Picodevimon turned at the source of the voice and saw Taichi yelling at him.

"What?" The bat digimon smirked slyly. "Like you can even do anything, Chosen Child! Are you even one? It's hard to tell now that you're a digimon!"

Taichi growled menacingly. Then he suddenly felt something in his throat, he didn't know what it was but decided to release it in instinct. "Flare blast!"

He breathe out a giant ball of fire and successfully hit Picodevimon, making him let go of Patamon as he tries to shake off the embers that caught his eyes.

"Air shot!"

Picodevimon gasp and tried to evade but was too late as it hit him across the water.

After the bat digimon faded into distance, Takeru looked at the surprised Taichi in amazement. "You breathed out fire!"

"I...breathed out fire." Taichi repeated, sounding more shock. "I JUST BREATHED OUT FIRE!" He yelled out frantically, not believing what he had just done.

Taichi looked down on his clawed hands and frowned. 'I...really am a digimon!'

"Taichi?"

The boy of courage snapped out of his thoughts and turned to look at Takeru with a serious face. He knelt down on his size and gently place a hand on Takeru's shoulder. "I need you to tell me what happened. Where did the others go? And why isn't Yamato with you?"

Of course, Yamato wouldn't leave his brother all alone, especially when there's a lot of evil digimons running around. Taichi felt more confuse than ever now that he thought of it.

"W-well..." Takeru sat down on the nearby bench while the others followed his lead then started telling his once human friend the whole story. Taichi listened carefully, not daring to misunderstood any situation.

Takeru told him everything starting from when Taichi disappeared, everyone trying to find him everyday, then they left one by one until it's only Yamato with him, the reason of his brother's disappearance and how Picodevimon tried to decieve him into hating Yamato.

All that happened in the span of 2 months. Taichi couldn't believe it. Everyone broke apart just to try and find him. Taichi didn't know what to feel. Disappointment? Frustration? Anger? Guilt? He didn't know, but one thing's for sure; they need to regroup.

"Hey, Taichi." Agumon called in a low voice.

"Hm?"

"How did you exactly turn into a digimon?"

Taichi frowned as he examined his body, flexing his fingers and opening and closing his palms. "I honestly have no idea. All I know is, I woke up already looking like this in the middle of the forest. Then I tried to find you and here I am."

Takeru noticed the unusual gloomy state of his friend. He grabbed his paws and gently squeezed it, causing Tai's claws to extend. "Koushiro might know what caused your change." He said softly.

Taichi, who was staring at his extending claws in amazement, nodded. "Yeah. We need to find him though. Do you know where he is?"

"I think he said he's gonna find Gennai for help."

"G-gennai!?" Taichi recieved a single nod from each one of them. He sighed deeply and slides his pawed hand down his face. "Who knows where he could be right now! We don't even know where that old man lives!"

"What do we do now?"

Taichi groaned and let himself slide onto the ground. His gaze turned towards the water. His orange eyes widen when he saw an island in the distance. It wasn't far but it still might take them a couple of hours to arrive there. "Hey, you said Yamato went to check somewhere over there?" He pointed.

Takeru nodded. "Yeah, he hasn't come back yet though."

"Well then..." Taichi stood up and turned to look at the youngster in reassurance. "Let's go look for him!"