It's, like, actually a miracle that this is even just a week late. I'm taking a break from a lab report (that's going to be at least 10 pages by the time I'm done) to finish this. You all have been very understanding about all the information dumps and the number of times their story has had to be rehashed to fill in someone else… This is another one of those chapters. I tried to minimize any repetitiveness, but I also want to keep the conversations feeling… organic, I guess I'd say. I don't want to just cut to 'So they filled him in' a million times. Thank you all for your patience!

(And a quick little note to avoid confusion, 'Hiroki' is Cody's father. Not to be confused with 'Hiroaki' who is Matt and TK's dad.)

Thank you for reviewing the last chapter: Fruitloop Trooper, Berry Doyle, Guest, and dnofsunshine!

Chapter Twenty: Sacrifice

Henry was beginning to regret rushing out so recklessly. Perhaps he should have at least called first. He had made his way to the address Cody had left for him without any major bumps… and walked into the most awkward stare-down he'd ever encountered.

Kari and Davis were already there, standing in the front yard with mixed expressions of confusion and horror on their faces. In the doorway stood a distressed woman who had to be Cody's mother. His heart sank into his stomach as he continued forward. (He was beginning to wish he'd thought to grab a backpack for Terriermon to ride around in like Kari had; he was going to look even stranger, strolling up with a stuffed animal in his arms.) But it wasn't like he could just walk away now.

The sound of his footsteps drew everyone's attention. Three pairs of eyes snapped his way, and he tried to find the right words to insert himself into this situation, figure out what was going on without igniting the tension in the air. From this distance, he could see just how tightly Cody's mother was gripping the doorframe.

"Can I help you?" she asked shakily. Henry could see how her son had ended up so polite. In this state, he would have thought she was past the point of pleasantries.

He did his best to smile. "My name's Henry Wong. It's nice to meet you, ma'am. I'm a friend of Cody."

"Do you know where he is?" she asked desperately.

He exchanged a wide-eyed look with Davis, who seemed equally lost. Kari looked like she was still struggling to form a response. But the silence continued. They were saved by an older man—Cody's grandfather, Henry assumed—who joined Cody's mother in the doorway.

"Fumiko," he said softly, even his quiet words jarring in the current atmosphere. "At least invite the children inside. We can get to the bottom of this over tea."

Cody's mother made room for them to pass… if only so she could turn to stare at the old man's retreating figure. But she didn't object when the three filed stiffly past her into the house.

"Is that really all you have to say?" she demanded, sounding like she was just a step away from the edge. "Your grandson is missing!"

Chikara paused on his way to the kitchen, looking back with a sympathetic expression. "I do not mean to mock your fear, Fumiko. Perhaps I'm just a superstitious old man… I can't explain it, exactly, but I have faith that Cody will be all right. It benefits no one to cripple yourself with worry."

She seemed to deflate a little as he walked away, turning back to the three in the hallway. "And you… You really don't know anything?"

They all exchanged hesitant looks, which she grabbed hold of immediately. "What? What is it?"

"It's just…" Kari began.

"Yolei's gone too," Davis jumped in. "That's why we're here. To see if Cody knew anything."

This explanation was both vague and impulsively overshared, but Kari nodded. None of the children were prepared for Mrs. Hida's reaction though. Far from being reassured, her face crumpled. She sagged against the wall, seeming unable to hold herself up any longer.

"Oh, god…" she whispered. "It's happening again, isn't it?"

Kari shivered at her tone while the boys exchanged more quizzical looks. Mrs. Hida just pointed towards the sitting room down the hall with a weak finger. Slowly, the children made their way into the next room, where the TV had been left on the local news station, though muted. Their current story was an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Ichijouji, the boy genius's parents. They all must have seen a dozen set ups just like it—the family always seemed to be in the news for something. But it was immediately apparent that this one was different. Kari read the line of text scrolling across the screen and couldn't suppress a gasp. That made three local kids unaccounted for.

"I thought so," Henry murmured in the stillness. They both turned to look at him. He glanced towards the doorway, but there was still no sign of Cody's family. In hurried, hushed tones, he relayed what he'd learned from his conversation with his father. Finally, he finished with, "What are the chances this disappearance is unrelated?"

Kari turned back to the television with thoughtful eyes. "You think Ken Ichijouji is the Digimon Emperor?" But her words were not terribly skeptical. It was hard to believe that another mysterious disappearance—of a boy so close in age, too—could be a coincidence.

And if that was the case, it was no wonder he'd gone missing now. She tried to take that as a good sign. If the Digimon Emperor had holed up in the Digital World more permanently, that had to mean Yolei and Cody were all right—and setting the Digiworld back in order—right? But if Henry was right, and the real test was to win Ken over to their side… she would have preferred to confront him here, in their world. There was some force out there, working to ensure the story played out the way it was meant to… But nothing had gone off without a hitch yet.

They didn't have time to brainstorm this before Chikara joined them. Cody's grandfather placed the tea set carefully down on the low table in the middle of the room, glancing at the news story on the television as he did so. The four settled themselves around the table, and he cleared his throat. "Cody's mother has gone to lie down. I don't think she's ready for this discussion just yet. But I would like to hear anything you three have to say on the matter."

There was a moment of silence. The old man seemed entirely open… but he was a little intimidating, too. Kari knew Cody greatly respected his grandfather. Much of the way the younger boy viewed the world had come from his lessons with this man. So she knew he valued manners, tradition, and above all else honesty. She sensed that they could trust him. But she needed more information first.

"Mr. Hida," she began, "what, exactly, happened tonight?"

Chikara took a sip of his tea, reflecting. "Cody had been acting a little off ever since he returned home this afternoon. He seemed… impatient throughout dinner. And as soon as we were finished eating, he locked himself away in his room. But when Fumiko went to check on him, he was gone. Vanished into thin air. I was in here the whole time. If he'd left the house again, I would have noticed."

He didn't need to say the last part. Cody never would have snuck out of the house without telling anyone where he was going in the first place.

"And now you say Yolei is missing as well?"

"Yolei's been missing for a few days, actually," Davis interjected, a touch of guilt bleeding into his tone.

"Sir…" Henry said haltingly. He was unsure where to start, but he'd gotten the same impression of this man that Kari had. "This is probably going to be hard to believe…"

He trailed off, but the man's expectant expression did not change. So he started at the beginning—the least incredibly part.

"When my dad was in college, he and a bunch of his programming friends started experimenting with AI—uh, artificial intelligence. They put together the code for a video game world and set the parameters for the story, but then their funding ran out, and they had to abandon the project. But the AI was more complete than they'd realized. It continued to develop even after they walked away, and… we don't know exactly how it managed this part, but it created an actual Digital World out there in cyberspace… capable of transporting people from our world over to its world—converting life into data and vice versa."

"Is that so…" Chikara murmured. His tone was not mocking, just a little hard to read.

"Yeah!" Terriermon chimed in as he jumped out of Henry's grasp, unable to stay silent any longer. "And I can prove it. Well, I guess I am the proof, actually…"

Henry's sound of protest faded into a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Oh my…" To his credit, Chikara's only reaction was to widen his eyes. When a more explosive response did not appear forthcoming, Gatomon lithely climbed out of Kari's backpack and came to sit in full view beside her partner. Cody's grandfather swallowed, composed himself, and asked, "And Cody… You all believe he has traveled to this other world?"

There was still no trace of disbelief on his features, so the three nodded slowly. Henry went on, "Um, but, sir? If Cody was accepted by the Digital World, that means he has a Digimon partner too. And a lot of friends already there to look out for him."

Chikara surprised them all by chuckling. "There's a lot more to this story, isn't there?"

Kari thawed out a little, matching his smile with her own. "Yes… But we're going to be here a while."

…

"Fascinating!" Izzy exclaimed once Wormmon was finished. "So the Digimon Emp—I mean, Ken has a Digivice and crest as well… I suppose it's no wonder he can't get his crest to activate if his Digivice has been tainted. We're all proof enough of that. And then there's the part where he's not even trying to use it on his actual partner…"

If possible, Wormmon's antennae drooped even further. Izzy hurried on. "Anyway, Ken's trying to hack into the system to bring his crest to life?"

Wormmon nodded. "Yes, but he hasn't had much success yet. I think the dark energy is spread too thin. First he was only using it to infect the other crests. So he could see how they worked. Ken was going to see what made them malfunction and then build them back up. He was going to use that as a guide for his own crest. He really wasn't going to hurt anyone…"

"Well, he didn't do that part too well," Tentomon commented lightly. (He appeared oblivious to Izzy's reproving look.)

Wormmon's eyes welled up with tears again. "I told him no power from the Dark Ocean could be trusted. That no one had ever gotten close enough to understand it. Ken said that was all the more reason to experiment with it… But it slowly started taking him over… And then it was too late. The Ken I knew was gone, and all the darkness left behind was the Digimon Emperor," he finished sadly.

Izzy had taken a seat at the desk, listening quietly while the news report continued to play on a loop in the background. Now he ran a single finger lightly over the keyboard. "As much as I hate to say it, I kind of understand where Ken was coming from. Can you imagine having that much data at your fingertips and being told not to use it? That everyone was afraid of it simply because no one understood it… What greater incentive is there to be that person to explore it and uncover the answers to all those mysteries?"

Tentomon buzzed up to hover in Izzy's line of sight affectionately. "Yes, but you would never use that information to hurt people."

"Maybe Ken wasn't planning to hurt anyone either, not at first," he murmured. He never would have said there was a down side to curiosity… But in light of recent events… he now understood all too well that too much of a good thing could be dangerous. He finally tapped a key, closing out of the news story window. Whoever—or whatever—Gennai was, he was at the center of this world. He was excited to get a look at his operating system.

"Ken sounds like a smart kid," he commented as he clicked around. Wormmon nodded fervently.

"Do you think he could have done it?" Tentomon asked, interested. "Manipulated all the crests through their data?"

"If the darkness hadn't taken him over? Yes. I do." His fingers began moving faster and faster over the keyboard until they were practically flying over the keys, windows being opened, observed, and closed faster than anyone else's eyes could follow. "And we're going to track the other crests down the same way we got here."

"Right. Um… how did we do that again?"

Izzy's fond smile did nothing to stall his movements. "The crests—like Gennai—are a part of this world, which means they have their own code. It's not a perfect method, obviously—Gennai's code led us to his house but not to Gennai himself—but I'm going to try to track down the crests the same way… Assuming I can make sense of these programs…"

His brow furrowed; he sounded like he was starting to get frustrated. Tentomon scrutinized the screen and saw row after row of numbers. "What is all of that?"

"Do you know anything about how you were programmed?" Izzy asked, fondly skeptical.

"Not a thing," Tentomon confirmed cheerfully.

"Well, computers run on a binary code—basically, sets of numbers that tell the system what to do. But I can't find a translator anywhere… These days, the binary code is only one of the early steps. By the time these programs are fine-tuned and completed, developers are working with a much simpler system—there are translators built in so the values can be read as a human language, in words. But I don't see anything like that here—on any level." Slowly, Izzy removed his hands from the keyboard, appearing a little aghast. "It's not that I can't translate it myself. But we'll be here for days, looking for something of use to us."

"Well, you did say you thought Gennai was another AI. He probably can read this code like regular words," his partner pointed out.

Izzy hummed in agreement but didn't seem cheered at all. Wormmon had remained quiet while the boy worked, but now he scuttled forward. "Ken was able to translate it using his Digivice… but I'm not sure how."

Izzy looked at Wormmon for a long moment, his expression impossible to read. Then, all at once, his energy returned. He pushed his chair back from the desk and pulled his own laptop out of his bag. He was soon tapping away at those keys, pulling out his Digivice as well in one fluid moment.

"All right, I'll bite," said Tentomon. "What are you doing now? …And why do I feel all tingly?"

Izzy glanced up confidently. "When we first got to this world, I managed to hack into its core to get you to Digivolve. The first time—when your system started overheating?—it's because I had some of the properties wrong. All Digivolution starts out with the same code." As if on cue, Wormmon shuddered as he began feeling the same sensation. "But each Digimon's code has slight changes that dictate what form they end up as. And a Digidestined's partner is directly connected to their Digivice. So if you can just bear with me for a moment, Wormmon, I should be able to connect you two through the Digivolution code, then run through the connection the opposite way and hack into Ken's system through you."

For a few moments there was silence but for the furious tapping of the keys or the two Digimon shifting uncomfortably every now and then. And then, all of a sudden, Izzy was crowing triumphantly and the prickling sensation was abruptly gone.

"You're in?" Tentomon asked.

Izzy made a noise of confirmation. "I'll have to be quick about copying his code, though. If Ken is as good as I suspect, we won't have long before he realizes he's been hacked."

They lapsed into silence again, Wormmon glancing at Tentomon for cues every now and then. Finally, the red Digimon waved a claw in a reassuring manner, stating, "Izzy gets like this sometimes when he's working. Just try to relax. He'll explain it all once he's done."

Wormmon tried to do as he suggested and settle back a little more on his back legs. But he couldn't seem to stop his eyes from moving—this time between the two partners. Even if Tentomon's role at the moment was just to sit back and watch, their dynamic was vastly different from the one he was used to. He knew there was no going back from his own actions today. He had firmly aligned himself with the people Ken was working against. He could only hope the other Digidestined had the power to save his partner… and that Ken was not past the point of being saved.

…

"Well. This is quite the mess, isn't it?" Chikara had closed his eyes in thought. The story as they knew it was over, the tea long gone. Cody's grandfather sounded grim, but still not disbelieving. They hadn't lost him yet.

Kari cleared her throat, glancing at the TV. The station had long since moved on to show a weather forecast for tomorrow, but she couldn't get the image of Ken's parents out of her head. "Mr. Hida… There's one other thing. The other boy who went missing recently—Ken Ichijouji—we think he's mixed up in this too."

"As the villain," Henry added quietly.

"As the last member of our team," Davis corrected.

But Chikara didn't seem to hear them. He sighed. "They've been through so much already…"

The boys had been shooting looks back and forth, a silent argument taking place in their eyes. But now the old man had drawn everyone's attention back to him. He rose stiffly to his feet, taking the tea tray with him to deposit in the kitchen as he left the room. The three kids glanced at each other in confusion, but they soon heard his footsteps returning to them.

Chikara reentered the room with a complicated expression, something grasped in his hand. He carefully sat back down, placing the small blue device on the table before them all. For a moment, the three kids could only stare, speechless.

"Is that…?" Davis asked.

Kari nodded slowly. "It's a Digivice. That's what mine looked like before I traveled back through the Dark Ocean."

"Mr. Hida," Henry said, sounding breathless. "How… I mean when… Where did you get a Digivice?"

The man sighed again. "I don't know what Cody's told you about his father. I know he can be a bit reserved." He took a deep breath. "My son was called in with the emergency services that night. He was in one of the buildings that got hit in the attack. Anything… supernatural was gone by that point, but the damage was already done. The police were evacuating all the structures in danger of collapsing."

"And he was in one of those buildings?" Kari asked softly. Her fingertips were tingling, so she gripped her hands tightly together under the table. Something terrible was coming; she could feel it.

Chikara nodded. "He'd heard movement on the floor above… He was supposed to wait for backup. He shouldn't have gone into the building alone in the first place… But he'd seen a light in one of the windows, so he rushed in."

"From a flashlight?" Davis asked curiously.

"He thought so," answered Cody's grandfather. "He thought maybe it was something trapped, signaling for help. But when he got up there… It was a boy, standing in front of a computer."

Henry's brows furrowed. "But… the power was out that night. The buildings right in the middle of it all… They would have lost power first."

Chikara nodded. "I know. Hiroki told me all this on his death bed later that night. At first I thought the pain medicine the doctors had given him was messing with his head."

Henry shifted uncomfortably, and Kari realized that he likely hadn't know how this story ended—that Cody's father was dead. He swallowed. "What… What happened to him?"

"Hiroki said the boy refused to leave. He was glued to that computer screen, a little device of some sort in his hand. He tried to get to the boy… but it was too late. The wall fell in, and they both got caught in the debris. His backup officers did come up and were able to get Hiroki out of there, but… Many of his internal organs had been damaged beyond repair, and the boy had been too close. They believe something struck him in the head—that he was killed instantly…"

Chikara took a deep breath. "The doctors kept him comfortable until I could get there, but he was fading fast. He was really broken up over not being able to save that boy… It was hard to get him to tell me what had happened. It was… awful. The boy's device had landed near Hiroki in the destruction. He couldn't save the boy… But he was adamant that I take care of the device that he'd stayed behind for…"

"So there was another Digidestined this whole time?" Davis whispered. "Guess your dad's memory isn't what it used to be."

He got elbowed in both sides for his trouble, and Kari bowed her head. "I'm sorry for your loss. And I'm sorry if this makes me a little dense, but… I'm not sure what this has to do with Ken."

"That boy was Sam Ichijouji."

"Sam?" she repeated. "Ken had an older brother?"

Chikara nodded. "I'm not surprised you've never heard this part. As Ken got older and started making a name for himself with all his accomplishments, no one wanted to reflect on the tragedy in their past.

"But back then, Ken was just a sad little boy who'd gotten separated from his brother that night. The Ichijoujis came to Hiroki's funeral, and we attended Sam's. Cody was very young, and both boys were rather out of it. I'm not sure he even remembers meeting Ken."

"He never mentioned it," said Kari softly. "But you're right; he doesn't talk about his dad much. He never brought it up when we started talking about what happened to Tai and TK and all the others… I didn't even know he died the same night."

This revelation sat amongst them for a moment. At last, Davis asked, "So you kept his Digivice all this time?"

Chikara's eyes came to rest on the device on the table. "At Sam's funeral, I tried to give it back… Ken had wandered off into an empty room, away from all the mourners. I was hoping it might cheer him up, to be reunited with something that had been so precious to his brother. But he wouldn't talk to me. All he would say is that he didn't want it."

Cody's grandfather picked up the Digivice, holding it lightly aloft in his hand. "You've all seemed surprised that I haven't questioned your story too severely. It's not just that I was raised with certain superstitions. I've seen things…

"I left the device on the table that day and remained outside in the hallway to keep an eye on Ken. Eventually, he did go over to it. The entire time it was in my possession, I could have sworn it was a toy. Just a lifeless piece of plastic. It had a screen, but I couldn't see a button to turn it on. But that day… When Sam's brother got close to it, it began to glow, just as Hiroki had described. And then, right before my eyes, it… duplicated itself."

"What?" said Davis, eyes wide.

"When Ken Ichijouji touched that device, a second one formed right beside it," he repeated. "Out of thin air, it seemed. Ken took the new one with him, and I later went back and retrieved the original. And that was the end of it. Until now. This 'Digivice,' as you call it, has remained lifeless as I ever saw it since that day."

"Well… I guess that confirms it," said Henry, sounding a little shocked. They all seemed to be having a hard time processing it.

"Maybe we shouldn't be so surprised, though," Kari said at last. "We've already seen the Digiworld replacing Digidestined to restore the crests. I hate to say it, but maybe Sam was meant to be the original Digimon Emperor. I do have to wonder what he was doing that night, though. How did Sam get his computer working with no electricity?"

Henry nodded thoughtfully, but Davis just groaned at all the complicated questions. "Is that really so important right now? We were coming here to find a way to get Yolei back, and now we have to find Yolei and Cody. Let's worry about all this other stuff later."

Kari frowned. "Without Cody, I'm not sure how far we'll get anymore."

"Actually, I have an idea," said Henry. "Mr. Hida, does Cody have his own laptop?"

…

"And… done!" Izzy announced. And just in time. Half the screen went black as they watched, its perfect copy remaining intact on the other side. Ken's system had booted them out, but Izzy had everything he needed. Wormmon helped him navigate, pointing to the things he'd seen Ken click on.

And there it was, Laid out before him, Izzy saw all seven crests he and his friends bore, as well as an eighth and a ninth he was unfamiliar with. The crests of Sincerity, Hope, and Knowledge were shining brightly. He clicked around and was amazed at the depth of the program that Ken surely must have designed himself.

He looked through the data available on his own crest and was stunned to see a list of all his movements. It sent a chill running through his stomach. Ken had their exact location at his fingertips, if he only cared to look. One of his pointer fingers twitched over its key. His immediate reaction was to get in there and mess with the code—mask their position.

But he stopped himself at the last second. If Ken was watching, this program would only tell him where they were. He may not know that they were onto him yet. And if he did something rash, gave that piece away, there was no telling how Ken would respond. Izzy wasn't willing to take that chance. Not until he had a better lay of the land, so to speak. So he took a deep breath… and clicked away.

TK's crest was showing coordinates he couldn't put a name to. According to Cody, TK was back in the Digital World right now. (His heart clenched at the thought of the little kid he remembered, alone, fighting a battle meant for all of them.)

The history listed for the crest of Sincerity was a little more interesting. Its location had not moved in quite some time, but he could see a history of each time it had been activated as well. The crest of Sincerity had been involved in a Digivolution recently, but… After he'd uncovered the code himself, Izzy had looked into all of his friends' coding too. And he may not have memorized them all, but he was confident that the code on the screen did not represent the change from Palmon to Togemon.

But this was also in keeping with Cody's information, and he supposed that solved the mystery of where Yolei had ended up. He explored the program a little more, and the results were disheartening. None of the other crests showed any signs of life… not since they'd first gone dark from Ken's interference. But one did look a little… off. Frozen in a way the others weren't.

Izzy's movements slowly began to pick up speed again. Yes… The program keeping track of one of the crests had been tampered with. By Ken? He doubted it. How would Ken benefit from inaccuracies in his own data? No. Some other force must be at play here.

The two Digimon remained quiet as Izzy worked… and worked… until finally he was able to uncover the original file. His eyes scrolled through the activity log, taking note of the recent dates, and finally coming to rest on the slightly warped symbol of a heart at the top of the screen.

Review please!

I don't own Digimon.

Well, at least I can say that these information dumps are moving the story along. And that makes twenty chapters, guys. I can honestly say… that I still don't have a good feel for how long this story is going to be. The only fic I've completed was 25 and an epilogue, and I knew leading up to the end exactly how many more chapters there would be. Here… We've come so far, but there's still so much awaiting them. I hope you'll stick around for the ride!