Hiya guys~!

Ugghh... I swear to god... Colds are going to be the death of me! At least you can sleep through other illnesses, but because I hardly ever get sick I have to suffer through colds that hit 10x worse then normal to make up for it! Blegh!

But although it's halting my writing process, I won't let it stop me uploading schedule (Yes I have a schedule now, woohoo!) *coughcough*

Hopefully March will be a better month...

Hope you enjoy~

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon or any of it's characters. I do own Sophia, Sonamon, her Beast Spirit, the plot changes and any and all digimon that don't appear on the wiki page. I also own the extra bit of the forest scene that will absolutely make sense in future chapters, I promise *nervous chuckling* Bye~! *runs*

The wind stopped when the boat reached the edge of the forest. Zoe, JP, Sophia and the digimon stepped out, and waited for the parachute boys to land. Once they did, and once they'd stripped off their parachute gear, the gang went into the forest, glad to be together again. They walked for a while, retelling their stories of what happened while they were split, which reminded Sophia of something.

"How come you guys were here so late?" she asked. When the boys looked at her with questioning looks, she tried again. "When I fell out, we were pretty close to the forest already. You should've gotten here way before us."

"Well, we were about to land." Koichi said. "But before we did, a freak storm came up."

"Oh yeah." Takuya piped up. "It came out of nowhere really fast. ToyAgumon could barely fly us above the storm clouds. Would've ended pretty badly if he didn't."

Zoe and JP looked at each other. "That sounds like the storm that hit us." Zoe said.

"Yeah! That storm came out of nowhere too." JP added.

"And obviously he couldn't land in such dangerous weather." Koichi explained further. "And we couldn't really use the parachute either with the strong wind. We'd be blown away. So ToyAgumon had to fly above the clouds until it was safe for us to jump."

"That...makes sense."

Bokomon suddenly stopped them. "Look there." he pointed to something.

The others followed his gaze. It fell on the Trailmon tracks way in the distance that went over the forest. It seemed to go or miles.

"I believe the Forest Kingdom begins beyond that track." he said.

"Sure looks big." Takuya pointed out the obvious.

"Hey Bokomon, how much farther do we have to walk to the Forest Terminal?" JP asked the gnome-digimon who, for whatever reason, had his hands stuffed into his waistband.

"Don't worry. You should only have to walk a little bit more." Bokomon told him.

"A little bit more?" JP sighed deeply. "These little bits are killing me."

Without much complaints, they were on their way again. They followed Bokomon's word and headed in the direction of the Trailmon tracks, sticking mostly to clearings. They spend until sundown just talking, telling more of their split-up adventure that they weren't able to tell earlier.

"Man, isn't it time for a dinner break?" JP piped up while the others ran down a hill. "I'm wasting away here!"

"We didn't even get any breakfast yet!" Tommy added.

Well it was true... While Zoe, JP and Sophia had a small meal at the school, the others didn't have anything to eat at Toy Island, aside from candy. Their last actual meal was back with the KaratsukiNumemon.

Takuya thought for a moment. They had walked for quite a while, the sun was almost down after all. And they needed to save their strength to Spirit Evolve, as they'd learned on Toy Island.

He nodded to himself. "I think we'd better stop here and make camp." was his decision.

"It's been a long day for all of us." Zoe agreed.

And Koji? Well, he just didn't care. They went just a little bit farther to a clearing, as to not set the forest in flames with the campfire. They found a spot and turned to face each other and make a plan, but oddly found Zoe running towards them. Hadn't she been standing right next to them just a second ago?

"Look what I found." she said, holding something in her hand. It was an apple. "I hope it's edible." She showed it to Bokomon, hoping he'd know.

"It's called a meat apple." he told the group.

"Meat apple?"

"Yes." he confirmed. "Each one has the flavor of a different meat, quite nutritious actually."

Takuya pointed at it. "Where'd you find that thing?"

"It was just lying on the ground." Zoe told him. "There has to be a tree somewhere nearby." The hungry boys were happy to hear that possibility. "Bokomon, will you help me find some more?"

"Certainly."

"Can I come?" Neemon asked.

"Alright." Bokomon sounded aggravated as he pulled Neemon along by the pants.

Tommy went along as well, leaving Takuya, Koji, JP, Koichi and Sophia as firewood gatherers. They went the other way, picking up big and dry twigs and branches. Time went by fast, by the time Zoe and Tommy were back it was already night. But now that they were back, Takuya and Koji could finally make the campfire. Though, he seemed to be having some trouble with it.

Meanwhile the other kids and digimon were busy sticking the meat apples on some sturdy twigs.

JP looked hungrily at the apple he just poked on the stick. "Apple, you're my best friend." he said, immediately taking a big bite out of it.

"That's pretty sad." Sophia muttered, while JP spat out the apple in disgust.

Bokomon snickered a little. "You don't eat them raw, you know?" He sounded kinda amused by JP's reaction.

"-he Spirit Evolved into that crazy Gigasmon." The others overheard Koji say. They looked over for a moment, seeing him and Takuya deep in conversation.

"But he called it Beast Spirit." Takuya remembered. "Just what does that mean? Any clue?"

Sophia piped in. "Most likely it means a higher level." The two rivals turned around, a little startled. Though, Koji was mostly annoyed their conversation had been eavesdropped on. "Digimon have at least 5 levels." Sophia explained. "Baby, when they just get out of the egg, In-Training, Rookie, like Bokomon and Neemon, Champion, which I guess our Spirit levels are, Ultimate and Mega. Maybe Gigasmon is closer to Ultimate level than Champion?"

Takuya just stared blankly. "I have no idea what that means."

While she tried, and on Takuya's part failed, to explain it in more detail and more clearly, the others came running over with the apples. Except for Tommy. Tommy hung back, having heard something flying by above. When the gang looked, they saw him just staring at the tree tops. JP called him over so they could start eating.

While waiting, Takuya decided he wanted to know more about these Beast Spirits. "Hey Bokomon." he called to the white digimon. "Anything in that book about a Beast Spirit?"

"I haven't seen anything." Bokomon answered. When did he have time to look? Or does he just know the book inside out? Wouldn't make sense if he always had to search for each warrior.

"If it's not too much trouble, could you just take another look?" The goggle-head asked him.

"Certainly." Bokomon was glad to look up information for someone who asked so polite, unlike somebody who irked him whenever possible!

He pulled the book out of his waistband, never seizing to confuse the kids on how that fit, and took a look. He searched the entire warrior section of the book, even taking a quick look at the history section, before ending it off at the Spirit page. Nothing.

"I'm afraid I still don't see anything." He told Takuya. He was disappointed at himself. He, the bearer of the book, the book had held every possible information about history and the Legendary Warriors, couldn't find one little piece of information- Why was Neemon rubbing the page?! "Paws off, baggie!" he snapped at the rabbit digimon.

"But I think I found something." Neemon said. Ha! Neemon finding something? This oughta be good. "This page seems to be folded over. Maybe there's other stuff inside!" ...oh, he's good.

Bokomon opened the folded page, ripping one part off in the progress. "Oh! It's a miracle, you're actually right." He took a moment to scan the two pages, finding the words 'Human-Spirit' and 'Beast-Spirit' that he'd been searching for. "This changes everything. It seems there are two Spirits for each of the Legendary Warriors." This had everyone turn their full attention to Bokomon. Two Spirits? That was a big shocker. "The first is the Human Spirit, like Agunimon, but the second is called the Beast Spirit. That explains where Gigasmon came from." he explained to the group. "But how did he summon the Beast Spirit?"

"I wonder what life would be like as a beastie." Neemon came with another brilliantly dumb comment.

"Let's feed you to one and you can find out from the inside." Was Bokomon's snarky comeback. He was obviously done with him right now. "Don't you realize? This means the children may have the power to Spirit Evolve again."

Spirit Evolving again. It seems like a dream. And beast forms, huh? What would it look like? What beasts could be their forms? Though...Gigasmon didn't look like any type of animal, would it be the same for them? How powerful would it really be? All the questions and no answers!

"Well, then." Koji spoke up after a while. "If Bokomon's right, each of us should be able to get a Beast Spirit."

"But if that's true, then we're only halfway there." Zoe remarked.

JP groaned. "Aw man. It's like starting over."

"Not really." Sophia said "We have the Human Spirits, so it'll at least be a lot easier then no Spirits at all."

"Bokomon. Bokomon. Boko- Ouch!"

"But if we get our Beast Spirits, maybe we can beat Grumblemon!" Tommy said chipper.

Takuya was all for it, being all enthusiastic about it. "Well I'm willing to give it a try! Beast Spirit evolution, here we go!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah!" the others chimed in.

"Bokomon. Bokomon. Bok- Ouch!" Neemon cried out in pain again. After poking Bokomon multiple times and being slapped twice for doing it, Neemon took a different approach to the situation. "Is this a good idea?"

Bokomon turned towards his companion in slight anger. "What is the matter with you?" Wow Bokomon. Did you just really ask that? He stood up, trying to be all heroic. "We have to help you find your Beast Spirits as soon as possible. After all, it may be the only way to save the digital world!" Bokomon went on another preach. "We haven't even made it to the Forest Terminal. We're running out of time! These Beast Spirits must be our number one priority."

'He says now, but when we arrive at the Forest Terminal we'll only have Koji and Takuya's Beast Spirit.' Sophia thought with a soft snort.

"Nope, not good." Neemon said, unfazed by Bokomon.

Bokomon turned to the yellow digimon again, glaring this time. "What is not good?"

Neemon pointed to the fire. "The meat apples." he said simply. "While you're talking, they're burning up."

The group finally took a look at the fire where, true to Neemon's words, the meat apples were steaming and slightly charred. Everyone scrambled to grab them as quickly as possible. Takuya unfortunately tried to fast and ended up with his arm in the fire. He pulled back with a start, but there was nothing on his arm. No burn, no charred skin. Nothing.

Zoe noticed him looking at his arm. "Takuya? What's wrong?"

"Eh- N-nothing." he stumbled. "It's... it's nothing." He examined his arm again, still not seeing anything. In fact, it didn't even hurt. 'Why am I not burned? My arm was clearly in the fire, so why-?'

Instead of pondering about it anymore, he set another meat apple by the fire, following everyone else's example. After that he, as well as everyone else, sat down and took a bite of their, by now cooled down, meat apples.

"Mine's like a meat bun!" JP exclaimed cheerfully. He must like meat bun a lot.

Tommy followed him with exclaiming what the meat apple tastes like. "This one tastes almost like a chicken drumstick."

"I think I'm eating prime rib." Takuya said with his mouth still full.

"Yeah, gingered pork." Koji said, almost cheerfully which sounded odd from him.

"This one tastes just like schnitzel." Sophia said.

Koichi looked at his with interest. "I think I've got onigiri."

Zoe fell back on the grass. "Mine's ossobuco!" she exclaimed like the happiest person in the world.

While they were enjoying the meat apples, it suddenly got dark. Thick clouds moved to cover the moons, clouding the forest in complete darkness. At least for a few seconds. The group noticed a bright glow from beside them.

"Something is happening." Tommy said, noticing the odd glow first.

Everyone turned their heads to see where the glow came from. To their surprise, it came from a group of trees. 9 or more trees had a glowing spot on their bark. The warriors came a little closer for better inspection. It turns out, all the trees showed the human world. There was one with a plane, a mountain, the Eiffel Tower*.

By now, even more trees glowed. They were surrounding the gang. There were TV-trees that showed roads, cities, a group of people, the Arc de Triomphe and so much more places in the human world.

Everyone voiced their awes at them. TV-trees in the digital world that showed the human world? Weird, confusing, sweet and all kinds of awesome.

"Wow! Tree TVs!" JP exclaimed. "I hope it isn't all traffic channel. I wonder if we can get music videos?"

Zoe recognized one of the buildings the TVs showed. "Wait a minute. That's our world." she realized. "Those scenes are from back home!"

"That's right, Zoe." Bokomon had his book pulled out already, reading off it about the forest. "It's called TV Forest, a video gateway to the human world."

"Now that's really weird." Koji remarked.

Sophia nodded. "Yeah, why and how is this here in the first place?"

"I'm not sure." Bokomon said, leaving through the pages. "It says here the forest once existed of only twelve trees, which were placed here for some sort of celebration, but I am not sure what it was they celebrated."

Twelve original trees, huh? While the others gushed over the sights shown in the trees, Sophia went a little deeper into the forest.

'Deeper.' A voice in the back of her mind said. 'Left.'

The voice continued to give her instructions until she apparently reached the place Bokomon spoke of. Twelve trees, separated and surrounded by all others. It showed a continues loop of twelve older teenagers, then skipped to recording of older humans. All except 2, which showed just static whenever it skipped to the older people.

"Why are they showing humans here?" Sophia asked herself.

As she went closer, she realized voices came from the trees. The scenes on the trees were similar to each other. All showed a human with a digimon having fun, followed by them...merging?! It looked the same as Spirit Evolving, with the data cocoon and all. After the cocoon disappeared it showed the Ancient Warriors, as well as two unfamiliar digimon. After that it switched to the human world to older people, around their 80s. Were these the same people?

Sophia looked over at the two static trees. 'Touch...' The same voice in her mind whispered.

Touch? Touch what? The tree? Deciding to test her luck, she placed her hand on one of the static trees. It probably didn't matter which one she'd touch, all of them were connected at the roots. Immediately when she did a bright light shone, blinding her.

When the light finally dimmed everything was different. Instead of the forest, it as more of a meadow area. It wasn't night, but possibly somewhere in the early afternoon. It was quite beautiful, all the flowers in the meadow, the red, yellow, blue and purple of the sky. But what was she doing here?

"Hey! What are you doing over there?" an unfamiliar voice called.

Looking in the direction of said voice, Sophia saw a group of 10 people. Upon closer inspection, they seemed to be the teens shown in the trees. Each held something in their hands. She was about to answer them, when two others ran right through her! With a gasp, she patted herself down. Still one piece. Then what-?

One of the teens, the boy, answered. "Sorry. We were just saying goodbye." He sounded sad.

More curious now, Sophia went closer. The group consisted of 7 guys and 5 girls, including the boy and girl who just RAN RIGHT THROUGH HER!

The boy with goggles, that looked awfully similar to Takuya's, sighed. "I know Wakou. But they asked us to give them to the Celestials for protection, remember?"

"We know, Ryuu." the girl said. "But...our partners weren't even warriors to begin with. They just...sacrificed themselves for...something that wasn't supposed to be their problem." Her voice trembled, like she was close to crying. "We had to apologize for getting them into this mess."

"Suzumi, it wasn't your fault." one of the girls comforted the crying girl. "They were loyal to their world. They told me once, even if you hadn't asked for help, they would've found a way to fight regardless if they were wanted."

That had the two look up. "But-"

"When they asked why they should help they were testing you." Another boy said.

Again another boy stepped forward to the one they called Wakou. "Now cheer up, dude." he said. "Big guys don't cry."

Wakou snorted. "You're crying too, Kurotsuki."

Kurotsuki playfully punched him on the shoulder. "Watch it, Daneven."

Sophia's eyes widened. Daneven? Wakou Daneven?! Her grandfather was in the digital world?! And Suzumi... Suzumi was her grandmother... What is going on?

"Come on, warriors. Let's bring our partners to the Celestials."

That was the last thing she heard before everything became blinding bright again.

Sophia was thrown back from the trees. Still too much in shock of what happened, she just lay there, staring up at the sky. The clouds hadn't moved past the moons yet. But that wasn't what her mind was on.

"Grandpa? Grandma? Warriors? Partners?" she breathed. Tears built up in her eyes in frustration of the inability to figure this mess out.

Why were they in the digital world? Why did they have partners? Why did that one guy call them warriors? Why did they need to see the Celestials? Why were they carrying the Spiri-!

She sat up with a start. "The Spirits! They were carrying the Spirits!" she whisper-yelled. The wheels in her brain were turning, but no explanation that came out made any sense. She looked back at the static trees, suddenly understanding why they were static. "Goodbye grandpa, grandma." she whispered with tears in her eyes, but a small smile was present. "I wish I could've heard this from you. Bet it would've been an amazing story."

She went back the way she came, arriving back at the campsite right when the clouds pulled away. Tommy's cries for his mother were heartbreaking, reminding everyone he's just an 8-9 year old kid. That in turn reminded everyone that they themselves were just kids too. Kids who were in a different world, far away from their parents and other family members. They all sat down at the campfire, hit with a sudden case of homesickness.

"I bet my mom is really worried about me." Zoe said as she just stared into the fire.

Meanwhile Takuya couldn't stand to see his little brother figure sad anymore. He took a glance at his meat apple, and hoped his idea would work. "Cheer up, little buddy." He handed the smaller boy the apple. "Go on." he urged. "Try my apple. It's hot-dog."

Luckily it had the effect Takuya wanted. Tommy reluctantly took the meat apple, but he stared at it rather then eating it. But he looked better, and he wasn't sobbing anymore.

"Tommy could be your little brother." Zoe commented on the small exchange.

Takuya wanted to laugh. Like he hadn't figured that out already. Though, it did seem to make Tommy feel better. The little guy did take a bite from the meat apple with a small smile, so Takuya was happy.

A sudden sound from above made the gogglehead turn around. Though, all there was when he looked were a bunch of falling leafs. He chose to ignore it. It was probably just a digimon passing the forest to get somewhere.

Instead he turned to Koji, seeing him rest against a tree. Now that he though of it, he's been lying there since the TV trees turned off. "Hey Koji, are you falling asleep?" he asked.

The blue clad lone-wolf turned away from him, moving for the first time if a few minutes. "Sleep? Tsk! I'm lucky I'm not bored to death."

Takuya smiled just a little. That's Koji for you. JP didn't take it as well though.

"Hey bud, what's your problem?" he asked, annoyed by his behavior. "He needs a nap."

"He's just grumpy." Zoe said, walking up behind JP. "Hey JP, maybe Tommy would like to see some of your magic." she suggested.

This confused Takuya. "Magic? Since when?"

"Since I was a kid myself." JP answered.

While JP performed his little magic trick, which was similar to the one he did at the digimon school, Sophia wrote a few more notes on her notebook. She wrote the notes about her grandparents having been in the digital world with another 10 people, them having partners and possibly having a connection with the Legendary Warriors. It was all just a big cluster of confusion. She also wrote a small note on the origin of the TV trees, about the twelve original trees and about what Bokomon told her about the celebration.

Nothing new otherwise, so she put it back in her pocket. JP had already finished his magic trick, and the group was just about ready to go to sleep. They started gathering some big leafs to sleep on and use as covers, when Takuya noticed Tommy had already fallen asleep. He put up a make-shift bed for the young boy, and lay him down on it before gathering more leafs for his own bed.

When they were satisfied with their work it was time to decide something. very. important.

"Alright. Who's gonna take first watch?" Takuya asked. Of course no one answered, because frankly...no one wanted to.

"Well, it's not gonna be Tommy." Sophia said. She sat down next to him, softly humming a song to him to ease his obvious nightmare.

But no one else spoke. They just kind of looked at each other expectantly. After another minute of this, Zoe groaned and got up. She went to one of the trees and picked up a bunch of random sticks.

"Alright." she said. "If no one's offering, I guess we'll decide this way." She held out the sticks. There were 6 in total. "We're drawing straws."

"Great idea, Zoe!" JP exclaimed a little too loud. He was quickly shushed by most for almost waking Tommy.

So they drew straws and let me tell ya. JP's compliment to Zoe quickly flew out the window after he drew the shortest stick. Takuya was second, followed by Sophia, then Koichi, Zoe and lastly Koji if it was needed.

Takuya stayed up with JP for a little while, bonding a little while he did. Truth to be told, no one was really sleeping. Koji's head was filled too much with Ophanimon's message about 'all the mysteries that will be revealed', and the others were kept awake by Tommy. Well, more specifically, their worries about the little guy. His nightmare didn't seem to ease up. At one point Sophia abandoned the thought of sleep and sat down next to him again, humming the song from before while stroking his hair.

There was a moment of peace, where even Tommy was silent. But it was quickly disturbed by an unknown presence. Takuya tensed when he saw a shadow from the corner of his eye. He turned toward where he saw it, but there was no sign of it. It was still there, though, he just knew it. And something told him it was the same presence from earlier.

"Did you just see a ghost?" JP asked.

Takuya didn't take his eyes off the area he spotted the shadow. "I saw something, I'm just not sure what. But it feels like we're being watched."

JP, of course, panicked and looked around for the creature. Takuya stood up to get a better viewpoint, but he still found nothing. Even Sophia paused her comforting to look around. But they found nothing.

"Um, maybe it was a squirrel or something?" JP suggested, after a moment of searching.

Sophia shook her head, not that he saw it. "In case you haven't noticed, JP, there are no animals here. Just digimon."

"I can't believe you didn't feel anything just then." Takuya commented.

"I did." JP told him. "But I think...it might have just been gas from eating too many of those meat apples, if you know what I'm saying. And I think you do."

"Too much info, dude." Sophia said.

The trio continued looking around, until Tommy's moaning distracted them. Even Zoe and Koichi woke from their light sleep to look at the youngest member of the group. The warriors dropped the everything to try and sooth the boy, but no one could think of anything that would work.

Sophia went for what she'd done earlier, but before she could. "STO-O-OP!" In a rush he woke up, rushed to the campfire and grabbed a lit stick from the pile. After which he just...stood there, mumbling to himself about not forgiving someone.

"There's something wrong with him." Takuya said. Great observation by the way, no one figured that out yet.

"Hey half-pint, snap out of it." JP called out to him.

But Tommy didn't listen. He rose the stick to his head and got into an attack position. He'd taken a step closer to Takuya and JP, like he was going to attack them. Not even a second later, he did. He swung the stick at Takuya first, then JP. Both luckily dodged the ember-filled stick.

Zoe called him out on it. "Tommy, stop that right now!"

Tommy just looked from JP to Zoe, seeing a new opportunity to attack. He ran towards Zoe, slashing at her. She got out of the way just in time. Koji jumped in front of her to protect her from anymore attacks.

He held the stick out in front of him. "I will not forgive!" he yelled.

Takuya had just about enough of this. "Now cut it out!" he yelled. "This isn't funny, Tommy!"

He looked at- well...glared at Takuya. "I will never forgive any of you!"

Koichi nearly gasped when he saw his eyes. "Guys, look at his eyes." he pointed out.

They were completely glazed over in a sinister way. The others saw it as well. Immediately they knew there was something seriously wrong here.

Tommy eventually threw the stick away. "You're going to pay for what you've done to me!" But instead of giving up, he reached for his D-Tector. That didn't look good. "EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!... KUMAMON!"

After freezing the fire with his crystal freeze he advanced on the others, who stepped back in fear. They didn't understand what as going on, but it was clear Kumamon wasn't gonna go easy on them.

"I'm tired of you bullying me!" he exclaimed, taking a deep breath. "CRYSTAL FREEZE!"

The warrior kids ran away. The ice was on their heels as they ran past a tree. Luckily, the tree caught the attack for them, but it was completely frozen at the trunk. And I don't mean around, but through and through as, soon after being hit, the tree snapped like a twig.

"He's gone completely crazy!" Takuya exclaimed, hiding behind a tree just like everyone else.

"It's not his fault!" Koichi told him, clutching is head as if in pain.

"What do you mean?" Zoe asked Koichi.

Before he had time to explain, Kumamon used his crystal freeze again on the tree they were hiding behind. The tree fell, prompting the group to flee again, JP screaming how sorry wasn't the magic word. But Zoe wasn't fast enough. She looked in fear as the tree came closer towards her, when Takuya swooped in and saved her. He took Zoe in his arms and jumped out of the way of the tree. They landed just beside it, safely.

Takuya looked at Zoe in concern. "You okay?" he asked.

Zoe answered with a simple 'yeah'. But this whole rescue didn't sit well with JP. "Hey! How come Takuya gets to fall with Zoe?"

"Priorities, JP!" "Run you jerk!" Sophia and Koji shouted at the same time.

They fled just in time before another crystal freeze hit them. They grouped back together, staring up the hill at the teammate that was attacking them.

"Looks like the only choice we have is to Spirit evolve and take him out." JP said.

Spirit evolve? And attack their youngest? The little boy most had come to see as their little brother? They couldn't do that!

"I won't do it!" Takuya told the blue-clad boy. "There has to be another way to stop him."

"Right." Zoe agreed.

"Sorry JP, I'm with them." Was Koji's answer.

Koichi and Sophia nodded, letting know they were also against attacking Kumamon.

JP looked away from them, both because his idea was shot down, but also because he was a little ashamed to have suggested it in the first place. There was no way he could fight the short-stuff. "Fine. Well, what do you propose?"

No one could answer before they had to flee once again for yet another crystal freeze attack. They hid a little farther into the surrounding trees, while still keeping an eye on Kumamon. Takuya was watching as Kumamon approached, when a sudden shadow in his peripheral caught his attention. It jumped from the trees onto the ground and back into the trees.

"What was that?" Koji asked.

So Koji saw it too, huh? It wasn't just his imagination. "I know I definitely heard something that time."

Koichi looked over at Koji, still clutching his head for unknown reasons. "Koji, maybe some light would help?"

"Right!"

While he Spirit evolved, Sophia kept her eye on Koichi. "Koichi? Are you okay? You look like you're in pain."

Koichi's grasp on his head loosened a little. "I've just got a headache." He said. "Nothing to worry about."

Sophia gave him a doubtful look. "Are you sure? You seemed fine when we went to bed..."

"It's just..." Koichi looked around. How was he going to explain this? "Remember that I told you about how I could feel that Goblimon and Grumblemon were evil?" Sophia nodded. "That feeling is back, but stronger. It's giving me a headache."

Whatever was left to say about it was cut short by Lobomon. "ANCIENT SPIRIT OF LIGHT!"

His attack send a huge tower of light straight into the sky. It lit up the entire forest, including the fleeing figure of a digimon. Takuya saw it this time. He Spirit evolved to Agunimon and went in pursuit.

Zoe stared as Agunimon appeared in the forest. Takuya was the first to object to Spirit evolving, so why would he be Agunimon right now? "Okay, now something is definitely wrong."

"All I know is that they broke the agreement and we have to protect Tommy." JP exclaimed, seeming angry.

Sophia cut in. "No one is going to harm Tommy." she quickly said. "Koji and Takuya found something and we think it has something to do with Tommy."

"Whatever it is, it has dark intentions." Koichi muttered just loud enough to be heard.

'Dark...' Sophia made a mental note to write this down later.

The four non-evolved warriors looked back at the showdown between Kumamon and Lobomon. Kumamon jumped in the air, using his frozen tundra to pierce Lobomon. Luckily Lobomon was a quick thinker and used his light swords** to deflect the attack.

"Incoming!" came Agunimon's cry from the forest. There was another unrecognizable voice before they heard Agunimon again. He burst out of the bushes, riding a small digimon. "Rotten little warthog!" He yelled at the creature.

"What is he riding?" Zoe asked, as the digimon made a sharp turn, knocking Agunimon off its back and went to hide behind a tree.

"That's Bakumon, a rookie level. They're supposed to be a kind digimon who eats bad dreams. But watch out for his nightmare syndrome, it traps you in a nightmare."

Unfortunately, just like with Warumonzaemon, Agunimon didn't listen and went in for the attack anyway. Bakumon charged as well, but before Agunimon could hit him, Bakumon dodged. He flew a little higher and attacked Agunimon with his nightmare syndrome. Agunimon fell to the ground, unmoving.

"Takuya!" everyone but Lobomon and Kumamon called out in worry.

It didn't take long for Koichi to fall to the ground, clutching his head even harder. Before anyone could ask what was wrong, he spoke. "He's trying to turn Agunimon against us." How did he-? "I can feel it. Bakumon's trying to corrupt him."

Sophia clenched her fist. "Takuya's strong…" she said. "He won't give in!"

"You're right I'm not!" Relief spread through all of them after hearing Agunimon's voice. "It's only a dream! Bakumon has convinced him that we're his enemies!"And moment of relief was gone.

But Koichi was left confused. The feeling from when Agunimon was getting corrupted, for lack of better term, was just as strong as before, but if Agunimon was fine, then how?

"Kumamon…" Koichi whispered, voice barely audible. "He's getting worse. We have to do something."

Sophia nodded, having been within hearing range. "I have an idea." She grabbed her D-Tector. "EXECUTE! SPIRIT EVOLUTION!...SONAMON!"

Agunimon and Sonamon went to where Lobomon was cornered by Kumamon. Kumamon was already pointing his Launcher at Lobomon.

"Kumamon!" Agunimon shouted. "You're under the spell of Bakumon's nightmare syndrome. It isn't real, you have to fight it!"

'Agunimon? You're not my enemy?' Sonamon heard Tommy's voice. "We aren't your enemy, Kumamon! Never were. We're friends." she, unknowingly to the others, answered his question. "You handle Bakumon, I'll help Tommy." she whispered to Agunimon, who agreed.

While Agunimon prepared his pyro punch, which set Kumamon on edge again, Sonamon got ready for one of her own attacks.

"SOOTHING SOUND!" The speakers on her body pulsed with a soothing melody. Sonamon took one of the microphones off her arm and decided to sing the song she'd been humming to Tommy earlier. "How could you promise you always would be there? Why'd you have to go away somewhere? Every morning into every night. Do you watch over me, like the sun in the sky. Am I all alone, or standing in your light. I wish that I could...maybe. Sing you a song...tonight. … You promised that we'd stay for the sunset."

It probably wasn't the most appropriate song for this situation, but it was the only song she could think of with a soothing melody at the time! Besides, it seemed to have worked. While Agunimon was still fighting Bakumon, now with Lobomon's help, Kumamon turned back into Tommy.

"PYRO PUNCH!" Agunimon launched four flaming punches at Bakumon, who finally couldn't dodge anymore. His Fractal Code showed, allowing Agunimon to scan it. "Time for some purification. FRACTAL CODE DIGITIZE!"

"Lobomon? Agunimon? Sonamon? Have you been fighting somebody?" Tommy asked, dumbfounded why three of his friends were Spirit evolved.

"Glad to have you back, Tommy." Lobomon didn't really answer.

Zoe walked up to the young warrior. "Tommy, don't you remember? You just had a terrible nightmare."

"That's right, you gave us quite the scare there young man." Bokomon told him. "Bakumon's dream made you think we were your enemies."

"Yeah, but it was actually Cherubimon's fault." JP supplied with more expositio- explanation.

"Bakumon's better now. He didn't know what he was doing at the time." Well it's just Neemon's smart day, isn't it?

Bakumon flew in from above. The scan had him receive his holy ring back.*** "I'm sorry." he apologized. "From now on I promise I'll only send you good dreams."

With all of that said and done, the group, accompanied by Bakumon, went back to their campsite. While walking, Takuya started up a conversation with Koji.

"Thanks Koji. I'm sorry I ever doubted you. I owe you one."

"You don't owe me anything." Koji said. "Besides, you're the one who sensed something out there." This stopped Takuya in his track, and in turn Koji and the kids behind them. "I've always heard savages rely on intuition."

"You really hate being nice, don'cha?" Takuya countered.

After a few seconds, Koji and Takuya looked at each other, smiling in understanding. They gave each other a fist bump. This was just the kind of friendship these two were gonna have, and they accepted it.

"I'm not sure I'll ever understand them." JP said from behind them.

Sophia giggled. "You'll learn. I'm sure." Then turned her attention to Koichi. "How's your headache?" she asked.

"It's fine." Koichi gave a reassuring smile. "I think your soothing sound helped."

Sophia smiled back. "Glad I could help. But what was going on?"

"I'm really not sure. I felt there was so much…evil around." Koichi tried to explain. "I guess it was overwhelming."

"Not surprised. A digimon tainted by pure evil and then 2 others tainted by that digimon. To me that would be like hearing multiple peoples thoughts at once..." Sophia quickly bit her tongue when she realized what she said.

Koichi stared at her. "You hear thoughts?"

Sophia just nodded. "Since we came to the digital world."

"It could have something to do with our elements." Koichi theorized.

"Could be..." Sophia's thoughts were cut short by a yawn. "Maybe we can think about it tomorrow..."

When they finally arrived back at their camp, they shoved their leaf-beds together to make it easier for Bakumon to send them good dreams. Bakumon took place in a tree just above their new sleeping place. Everyone fell asleep pretty quickly with Bakumon's help. Well, all except Koji of course, who decided to sleep away from the rest again.

"Now that is the way to sleep." Koji told himself. Maybe he should join- No. Don't be ridiculous.

He was watching them, waiting for sleep to get to him, when his D-Tector suddenly reacted to something. He pulled it out of his pocket, hearing the mysterious voice again.

"Your Beast Spirit awaits, Koji Minamoto. But first you have some growing to do."

What does she mean by that? Doesn't matter right now. What matters was his Beast Spirit. If the voice was right, then it should be close-by right? That's usually the case when someones D-Tector acts up.

He got up to leave, but paused in his step. Looking back, he saw the people he'd come to call his friends. He had to get his Beast Spirit, but...those guys.

"Urgh... I can't believe I'm reluctant to leave." he eyed Sophia. He knew he'd seen her with a notebook at least once. Leaving a note would do fine, right?

Making up his mind, he did just that. Although it felt so wrong to search a girl like that in her sleep, he got what he wanted. A quick note, nothing more. They didn't need to know more than what he wrote. He put the paper under a rock where he slept, surely they'd find it here. There, that should ease his mind. They knew he'd left for a reason now. One last glance at his friends and he left.

He hadn't been walking for long, when the forest became dark again. Looking up, he saw clouds had moved over the moons again. He knew what that meant. Oddly enough, even though the moons were completely covered by this point, there weren't any TVs on.

Scratch that. One was on. Curious as to why only one TV was on, he went to it. What he saw in the TV shocked him to the core. There was a woman, calling for Koichi. Asking people if they'd seen her son. Showing a picture of the same boy he'd been traveling with. The shocker was...this was his mother. The woman his father claimed to be dead!

His mind was running. His mother was asking for Koichi. For her son. Koichi is her son, but so was he. So...that means... For the first time, he realized the similarities between them. Same face, same hair-well..color-wise, same eyes, skin tone and possibly so much more he wasn't seeing.

Koichi is his brother... His twin.

Oh-oh! Koji found out~!

*There was one TV that showed a city with a tower looming over it. I know it's not the Eiffel Tower, but I wanna have some creative fun~

**I looked up on the wikia page what Lobomon's weapons were called. They're called Licht Schwerten which is Light swords in German. Just a little trivia for you guys~ But I'll stick to the English name.

***Again going to Japanese for this. Power ring sounds dumb, I'll stick with holy ring.

Thanks for reading!