This was one of those chapters that made me wonder what you all think of the pacing. I think I mentioned in my author's note a few chapters ago that I'd gone back and reread what I had up to this point and found that it actually flowed better than I'd thought while writing it. In case it was not clear from the last chapter, the kids will all (finally) be in place in the Digital World by the end of this one. It might just be a numbers thing. I definitely didn't think that milestone would take 24 chapters when I first set out on this journey. But I also knew Kari would return home after her first visit, and I didn't want that step to feel pointless either. I wanted her to actually accomplish something before going back, and I think I can say that at least. Anyway…

Thank you for reviewing chapter twenty-three: Fruitloop Trooper, MatarasBloodKnight, Sweet Cari, and TaitanoRules555!

Chapter Twenty-Four: Arrival

There was not actually much she wanted to take with her, Kari realized, taking one last look around her room. Like Takato, she'd only packed a small bag: a change of clothes, two water bottles, a handful of non-perishable snacks, and her Digivice, of course. At the last second, she grabbed her old whistle off her desk and slipped it over her head. She used to wear it everywhere. She'd had it the night this had all started. It only felt right to have it with her now.

When she emerged from her room, her parents were still huddled together on the couch. Her mother had her head in her hands. The sight made her insides clench. Takato, standing awkwardly behind his chair, glanced at her worriedly.

Kari turned abruptly into the kitchen and grabbed the pen and notepad from the counter. She jotted down a few things as legibly as possible and returned to crouch down in front of her parents.

She met her mother's weary eyes. "I'm sorry. I really do wish I didn't have to do this to you. I remember how awful it was, sitting around, not knowing what to do—or if there's anything you even can do—to help. I've written down a few names and addresses. Hiroaki Ishida knows almost the whole story. Maybe all of you could get together again, calm down some of the other parents who are new to this mess."

She knew her words bordered on ridiculous and insensitive, but she meant well. And she hoped her parents were able to derive at least a little comfort from having something to do—maybe even her own show of confidence. She stood back up and nodded to Takato. They began to make their exit, her parents still quiet and resigned, but she turned back about a foot from the door with one more last-second thought. "If it's not too much trouble, maybe you all could find a way to get in touch with the Ichijoujis as well? Their older son died that first night Tai and the others went missing, and now their younger son has disappeared… Cody's grandfather had some information too, and we believe Ken is in the Digital World too."

She paused, taking one last, long look at her beleaguered parents. "I'm sorry. I love you."

The front door shutting behind her had never sounded so loud.

…

Rika hated to admit it, but she kept her eyes shut tight throughout the whole journey. She thought she'd thickened her skin against the chill of danger in the weeks since she'd met Renamon and they'd begun their fight to keep those rogue Digimon out of her world. But all her muscles had frozen upon being sucked into that light.

It had been the strangest sensation. Like she was being turned inside out, as much of a cliché as that sounded. She only unfroze and opened her eyes again when she could feel solid ground beneath her again. (And was a little embarrassed to note that Renamon was still crouched over her protectively.)

She immediately got to her feet, forcing Renamon to back away, but her partner didn't miss a beat. (And more notably, she didn't make the mistake of trying to ask Rika if she was okay.) She spotted Davis a few feet away. He looked dazed too—like he was also just coming back to himself. Or maybe it was just the presence of his brand-new Digivice still clutched tight in his hand. He didn't notice when she sighed aloud. She was going to have to start rethinking what exactly it meant to be Chosen.

She turned her eyes to their surroundings instead and found that the cold stone she'd been pressed up against—what she'd thought was some sort of cave—was actually carefully-lain beige bricks. If it had been smaller, she would have assumed they were in some sort of fancy cellar. But the corridor stretched on in both directions farther than she could see.

Rika pulled out her own Digivice and scrutinized the screen. In her own world, she'd gotten used to searching out the red dots, indicating a foreign Digital presence that needed to be eliminated. Now, the only dot on-screen was a white one, but it pulsed brightly in the dim lighting, and she wasn't exactly in the habit of ignoring the things that demanded her attention.

She met Renamon's eyes, and they started immediately in the direction of that dot. They were only a few feet away before Renamon cleared her throat—the softest of prompts, really—and Rika sighed, turning back to the awestruck boy she'd almost left behind.

"Well?" she called, and he jumped at her voice. "Are you coming or not?"

…

"So is the plan to just walk forever, or…?"

Henry grinned wryly at his partner, still draped over his shoulders. "I haven't seen you doing any walking?"

Gomamon laughed—a loud, sharp sound—and Terriermon huffed, but Joe just gave a tired smile, and Henry was right there with him. It did feel like they'd been walking forever. He'd never thought of forests as the sort of landscape that could get monotonous, but he'd grown tired of all these plants, no matter how exotic.

None of them had felt the need—or perhaps the drive—to backtrack and try to search Puppetmon's house. Worst case scenario, crossing through that doorway would have spit them back out into the Dark Ocean. And no one had the energy left to stress over that decision.

So they'd plunged into the woods surrounding the house. And now he just had to hope this hadn't been a mistake as well.

"You know," Joe said after another moment of silence, "I hope this doesn't sound rude, but from what you've told me about your friends, I'm kind of glad it's you who found me."

Henry laughed a little. (They'd begun walking up an incline, and he was almost embarrassed to note that it came out sounding a little breathless. He'd blame Terriermon's added weight, privately.) "Sounds like a compliment to me."

"It's just…" (Alright, Joe sounded a little breathless too; it wasn't just him.) "When all this first started—when we were all still together—I was never not stressed, you know? I was the oldest, and there was just this constant pressure to look out for everyone else. I didn't feel like anyone else saw the dangers that I did. Tai was always the first to charge into battle, but it felt like I was the one who always needed to save the day. …I guess we can both see how well that worked out."

Henry shook his head, trying to shake away some of Joe's guilt. "You haven't failed yet. And I know what you mean. I don't know how I became 'the responsible one' in my house, because I'm not the oldest… My mom has always been really big on family. I guess I really took that to heart, whereas Jaarin and Rinchei kind of brushed it off. I get left to look after Suzie more than anyone else… And I've already seen it translate into all this. I didn't want Takato to get involved, because I didn't think he was ready… But then Kari and Davis and Cody showed up, and I realized I didn't really have a grasp on what was going on either."

It was quiet for another moment. They'd given each other brief accounts of their stories, and Henry had to wonder if he'd lost the older boy, throwing all these names at him. But Joe was just mulling over his answer.

"Maybe it needed to happen. I didn't understand what it really meant to be a team before. I thought I was being responsible, trying to shield everyone else from ever getting hurt. But I can see now that I was limiting them too. We all have to be at our best to get through something like this, and that's not possible if you take away their opportunities to grow."

"Well said," Terriermon chimed in.

It was Gomamon's turn to huff indignantly. "All this time I spent trying to get you to loosen up and he waltzes in here and an hour later you're all reformed… That's cold."

Henry felt Terriermon puff up pridefully from his shoulder. His attempt at sounding casual was almost worthy of an eye-roll. "Yeah, Henry tends to have that effect on people."

But Joe just leaned down and scooped Gomamon into his arms. Henry could tell that the other boy's partner was surprised; whatever retort he'd been preparing fizzled out on his lips.

"I know," he said softly. "You were right all along. Mostly. I think I just needed something to shock me into listening."

Gomamon huffed as Joe continued to hold him close. "Hmm. Mostly…" But it was clear he'd been appeased.

Henry couldn't help smiling softly at the other pair. But before anyone else had a chance to comment, the hill, which had steadily been growing steeper, suddenly crested, and they came to an abrupt halt.

They were looking down into a picturesque little valley. Henry spotted a small pond and mountains enclosing its other three sides, but both boys' eyes were drawn immediately to the little cottage at the center of it all. The two-second glance they shared was completely unnecessary. They were already on the same page. There was nowhere to go but forward.

If the hill up had been steep, the climb down was downright treacherous. (And took them almost as long.) They eased themselves over that edge… and slid nearly halfway down almost immediately. They steadied themselves in unison too, hearts racing, fingernails full of dirt. Terriermon's grip on him had tightened, and he could see Gomamon's claws digging into Joe's shoulder.

They started again, practically on hands and knees this time, much more slowly. Both were grateful when their Digimon partners got down to continue the journey themselves. It kept their mouths shut, at least. No one was up for any of their usual prodding quips until they'd reached the bottom, where the ground was stable again. They took a second to glance back at how far they'd come before moving closer.

The cottage only got less flattering the closer they got. It looked like it had been a long time since anyone had cared for the appearance of this place. A layer of grime seemed to coat every inch of the outside.

"Doesn't anyone ever clean these windows?!"

They all jumped at the sound of a girl's voice from the other side of the house. Henry didn't have time to confer with Joe before the older boy had taken off in that direction, eyes wide with what Henry knew was recognition, and he could only run after him.

"Maybe no one lives here," another female voice suggested.

The first girl groaned. "I swear, if we just climbed a mountain for nothing…"

The two boys burst around the corner at that point, and Henry saw a human girl and a plant-like Digimon struggling to peer in through one of the cottage's dirty windows. He still didn't recognize her, but Joe and the girl had frozen at the sight of each other. They unfroze at about the same time, and her shout of "Joe!" was almost drowned out by his "Mimi!"

He couldn't tell which one initiated the embrace, but a second later, the two collided, holding each other close. There were tears and laughter, and the two Digimon partners had rushed forward to hug out their time apart as well.

When they finally broke apart, the two turned to Henry, who Joe introduced a second later. Mimi wiped away a stray tear with a smile. "Ah. More reinforcements. Glad to hear you're on our side, Henry."

"Likewise," he answered. "I think the door is around the other side."

But there was a surprise waiting for them there, too. Once again, voiced reached their ears before they turned the corner.

"Are you sure? This place is pretty out of the way. I didn't hear anything."

"Well, perhaps if you ever looked up from your laptop…"

Mimi and Joe shared a look and took off again almost before Henry could even process what was happening. Standing just outside the open door on the other side of the house was another boy, his red hair sticking up at odd angles, and the red bug Digimon who could only be his partner.

"Izzy!" Mimi and Joe shouted as one, and he jumped, barely having time to take in the sight of his two friends before they'd converged on him as well, and he was swallowed up in the hug.

Henry had to smile, faced with all these happy reunions. This was certainly promising, running into more friends than enemies. Together, their chances of finding the others and getting everyone home were far better than they'd been even just moments ago.

…

"What is this place?" Rika griped as they turned yet another corner into yet another brick corridor that looked exactly the same. She was getting really sick of beige.

"It's like some sort of labyrinth," Renamon commented, not sounding nearly as bothered. "I've heard about places like this in the Digital World, but they were never my domain."

"I think it's cool," said Davis. "Besides, we're still on the right track, right?"

He had his Digivice out in front of him still and had managed to find the screen that sought out targets. He appeared very pleased with himself. It was starting to get on her nerves, honestly. A lot of things about this journey were.

I know it'll be hard at first, but it's essential that you learn to work as a team. It has to be more than just a business partnership.

The voice of that girl—who was apparently called Sora—rang through her mind, and she gripped her Digivice a little tighter. She was one to talk, if Davis's information could be trusted. The only reason they were in this mess was because her team had fallen apart.

There was nothing to do but continue on. Gradually, their surroundings stopped being so monotonous. Rika caught sight of strange symbols etched onto the walls, plant life sprouting from the cracks in the floor. And then, very suddenly, they turned one more corner, and the corridor opened up into a wide room. They all crowded through the doorway and stilled for a second.

Rika slowly moved to place a hand on the wall with the big… painting? Mural? Neither felt quite right, and she was briefly rueful for not paying even a little attention to those art appreciation classes her mother had dragged her to in an attempt to make her more cultured. She wasn't sure what sort of 'culture' this place boasted, though. These wall carvings looked pretty primitive. She was just able to decipher what it was even trying to portray.

Nine stick figures, attached to nine Digivices and nine symbols—one of which she recognized as the crest of Love, so she assumed the others were the other crests that she had yet to see. Six of the nine seemed to have eggs emerging from them as well… And there were two other lines, seemingly encircling everything else that she followed to a tenth figure, far off to the right.

But there was something weird about it. (Well, the whole thing was weird, though she was pretty sure it was trying to tell a story similar to the hypothesis Davis and his friends had formed.) Some of these carvings looked like ancient cave art, some like they'd just been etched in yesterday. And some of the crests looked practically worn away.

"I think I know where we are after all," Renamon spoke up from over her shoulder. Rika tried not to flinch too visibly. She'd stopped paying attention to her surroundings.

"Well, where are we then?" Her question had a bit more bite to it than the situation called for, but her partner had long ago grown used to her brusque manner.

"This must be Centarumon's lair. He is known throughout the Digiworld as being a sage of sorts. He stands guard over the various legends this world holds."

"I don't know how much guarding he'd been doing," Rika muttered. "Some of these look like they were just added on."

Renamon cocked her head to the side, gave Rika one of those looks that she hadn't yet learned how to read. "Do legends not grow and change over time in your world?"

She didn't really have an answer to that. But she didn't need one. Davis had moved on to explore deeper into the room. The only thing denoting the move into the next room was a patch of darkness. The cracks (placed almost strategically) throughout the rest of the ceiling kept the rest of the place surprisingly well lit.

"Whoa!" She turned at Davis's exclamation to see a shadowy figure emerging out of that darkness.

"Renamon," she said in alarm.

Her Digimon put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "It's all right. This is the guardian I spoke of—Centarumon."

The big Digimon stepped a little further out into the light, and she could see that it was a centaur, of sorts. (She couldn't help being a bit wary of that glowing eye peeking out from behind what was surely a war helmet.) When he spoke, his voice was deep and weary. "So the reinforcements have arrived at last… Welcome, children. Someone has been waiting for you."

He stepped aside, and the three filed past him into the next room. It was much like the first room, albeit smaller and without the big picture denoting the legend. But one corner contained a pod of sorts, made entirely of light. Logic told Rika that it couldn't possibly hold any sort of weight—as it clearly wasn't solid—but it was supporting the creature inside just fine.

A small blue Digimon she didn't recognize was slumped over inside, its chin resting on its chest. Its skin looked leathery, a little reptilian. She would have to see some of its later forms to know whether to liken it more to a dinosaur or some lesser lizard.

She glanced back at Centarumon, the sound of hooves echoing around the small space, as he came up to join them. "This one appeared this morning. He must have known you would find him here. He has yet to awaken, however."

Appeared, huh? Rika turned back to scrutinize the odd light-pod. She knew Digimon were crafted from data, but she was pretty sure this wasn't usually how the lifespan began. Though she supposed that bubble in the middle did look a little like an egg… She turned to Davis only to find that his eyes were still locked on the comatose Digimon before them. He was still moving towards it at a snail's pace, as if he was afraid it was going to disappear.

Perhaps the stress of the day was getting to her. When the connection that he'd made instantly finally sank in, she felt a little foolish at how obvious it was. When Davis was just a few feet away, his Digivice started to react, lighting up with the fiercest glow she'd seen yet.

Gradually, the rays of light seemed to disintegrate, gently lowering the Digimon inside to the ground. There was a moment, when the light had disappeared and the air was still, when they all seemed to be holding their breath. And then… Davis's Digimon partner opened his eyes.

…

"What exactly is this place we're going to?" Takato kept his voice low, almost becoming suspicious in his effort to be inconspicuous.

The train car wasn't too busy anymore. It had slowly emptied out as they'd gotten farther and farther from the city. But when they'd first gotten on, at the peak of the rush hour, she'd been a little stressed too. They'd gotten a late start—the two had spent nearly an hour trying to puzzle out how they were going to transport Guilmon, coming to no real solutions. Ultimately, the problem had solved itself. Gatomon had been putting Takato's partner through some warrior training. (She didn't seem to have much luck; for all his beast-like characteristics and appearance, Guilmon wasn't shaping up to be much of a fighter.) At last, moaning pitifully about the length of time since his last meal, Guilmon had de-Digivolved to his in-training form, fitting nicely into Takato's backpack.

"I'm not entirely sure what makes it special, to be honest. But it's the summer camp where TK appeared when he came back the first time. And it's where we went the first time I… made the journey." Kari kept her voice down too, glancing around ever so subtly to double-check that no one was listening. "It's connected somehow, and I'm sure we'll be able to get through again."

Takato nodded, accepting her gut feeling without question. She had to admit, it helped her confidence, to have someone else so confident in her leadership.

By the time they reached their stop—that out-of-the-way little country town—they were the only ones left in their car. They took their time, letting the few other passengers get a head start. The doors slid shut and the train pulled away just seconds after they finally jumped off.

"So this is it, huh?" said Takato, looking around at the sleepy little cottages.

"We've still got a ways to go on foot," she answered. "The camp is past the town, up in the mountains. But yeah… This is it."

They stopped in the convenience store on the outskirts of town first, loading up on snacks that they then fed to Gigimon as soon as they were out of sight. Energy restored, Guilmon was back in no time, and she could tell Takato was pleased. She'd forgotten just how steep this climb was and was pleased herself that Gatomon was up to the task.

But they did make it up the hill and were strolling through the old abandoned summer camp before the sun had even set. She was aware of Takato behind her, a little awed as he took in their surroundings, just as she'd been the first time. She had no trouble finding her way back to that field where TK had opened up the gate to the Digital World.

Kari stood there for a moment and closed her eyes, letting the light breeze waft over her. Gatomon, at her side, said softly, "Can you feel it, Kari?"

"I think I can…" She pulled out her Digivice and felt it begin to glow even before she'd opened her eyes again to see it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Takato pull out his Digivice as well.

It also started to glow, prompting whatever weak point there was in the barrier between the worlds to react as well. The portal began to grow before their eyes, and she smiled.

It was time. She was going back.

Review please!

I don't own Digimon.

I have to say, my favorite scene to write was definitely the reunion one in the middle. In part because it was just a fun, happy scene. But also because the bigger the groups are, the easier it is to keep track of everyone. ^^' We're getting somewhere now.