DISCLAIMER: I don't own Digimon.

CHAPTER 7

Taichi and the digidestineds were in the middle of a blazing desert somewhere in the digital world. With such a flat horizon surrounding their every direction, they couldn't pinpoint their actual direction.

"I've never seen such a vast desert in the digital world. Usually you would have seen some sort of cliff or an out of context item from the real world." Koushiro said looking around the desert in search for anything they could use as shade.

Yamato looked around, there was literally nothing that they could differentiate from the desert. It was as if everything that was supposedly there was not there anymore.

"How are we supposed to know the right direction?" Jou exclaimed.

"We don't." Melody spoke. Looking for something around them. Once she noticed the strap of her bag behind Mimi, she bent over and grabbed it happily. Mimi backed away as she yanked her bag from the sand. She also grabbed one other thing from that side of the sands, her tablet.

Pressing the button, she was relieved.

"It's still working." she said sighing in relief.

"H-how did you see that?" Ken asked. "I barely can see anything from the sand!" he exclaimed in shock. Taichi looked at everyone's position and raised an eyebrow. He glanced at Melody who smirked at him.

'So that's how you found out.' he thought to himself and scoffed. Hikari noticed this.

"Taichi?" she walked towards his brother who walked towards Melody. He stood right next to her and looked straight at them.

"Koushiro, walk two steps to your left and bend down." Taichi ordered. Koushiro nodded and walked where Taichi had told him and bent down.

"Okay, now what?" he asked.

"Now look in front of you and whisk the sand away." Taichi said. Hikari noticed that Taichi had a curious look in his eyes, something that told her his brother was on to something. Koushiro gasped and Hikari looked back at him. There buried in the sands, was his laptop.

"H-how did you know it was here? And how did you even know that our devices were here in the first place?" Koushiro demanded an answer.

"Melody was looking for an item in a specific location from where she stood. I assumed that she recreated the layout of our living room and placed her items where she put them before we got here." Taichi started explaining.

"Also noticing her phone was still in her hand-" she pointed to Sora, "I had the assumption that our devices could still be with us even after the transport. And since not all of the items we have are here, like my necklace or Mimi's bracelet-" she pointed at Mimi's wrist, "then only the items that we considered are important were brought along with us." Melody finished explaining.

That moment, Taichi realized he had taken something from his bed before leaving to bring Melody to their house, his whistle. He put his hand in his left pocket and felt the cold of the copper hit his skin.

"No wonder you bare the crest of knowledge!" spoke Sora as the others nodded in approval. Melody scratched her head and try to brush it off by saying, "No, no! This is nothing! I just have a fight or flight reflex for my things. Can't be too careful, I say."

Inori looked at her worried and noticed something in her surroundings and her eyes opened wide. She looked around and found her coat was on the ground behind them. Wearing it, she felt relieved. Taichi noticed this from her peripherals and gasped.

"So, where should we go now? We can't stay here for long." Yamato said after clearing his throat.

"He's right." Koushiro said gripping his laptop tightly. "Any longer here and we could all end up being dehydrated." he continued.

"I supposed it wouldn't hurt to start walking." Takeru said looking around. "There isn't any railroad tracks so that means that there aren't any near residences for digimons here, am I right?" he asked looking at Koushiro.

"From what we experienced when we traveled here in the digital world, that's a huge possibility." he spoke, but upon noticing that Taichi and Melody had started talking in private, he looked slightly annoyed.

"So, where to?" Hikari asked. Taichi and Melody looked at Hikari and Koushiro spoke.

"Survival rules followed in the real world are often followed by the Digital World. And in almost all cases, we always follow north." he concluded abruptly.

"However, Koushiro." Taichi said blocking off Melody who was about to talk to him. He looked at Koushiro. For a split second, a look of spite had locked his features in place but faded away when he heard Taichi speak.

"We are solving the wrong problem here." he said.

"Hold on, what do you mean Taichi? We always go north, we've done it before!" Koushiro exclaimed now looking more annoyed. Melody kept quiet from behind.

"Hasn't anyone noticed it yet?" Taichi exclaimed. "The digital world is in a frozen state!"

Everyone fell quiet. They looked at Taichi confused and some even doubted his conclusion.

"Taichi, maybe you're just tired. You should sit this one out, and considering what happened earlier, you shouldn't be giving out these kinds of theories in the first place. In any case, we should head-" Koushiro brushed Taichi's assumptions completely but was cut off.

"No, listen." Taichi spoke in a deep and threatening voice that caught everyone off guard. His expression was angry and his pupils were pin sized.

"I don't like how you're acting right now. Everyone shut up and listen." Taichi said coldly. Koushiro dropped to the sand and looked at Taichi completely scared.

"Hey, Taichi… calm down." Jou spoke quietly.

"Tell me, Jou." Taichi spoke.

"What?" responded Jou.

"How hot do you think it is right now?"

"How hot?" Jou thought for a moment and froze.

"H-hey… Jou, are you alright?" Ken and Miyako asked all of a sudden.

"Do you get it Jou?" Jou nodded.

"What do you mean Tai-" Melody gasped and backed away from Taichi. Yamato thought for a moment and froze in his place. Koushiro, still scared of Taichi gave his theory a shot and, his expression showed complete and utter shame. Once Taichi saw this, he looked to Hikari and the rest. He asked them a four worded question, "Why is it cold?"

"Taichi is right…" Inori spoke. She said, gripping her jacket.

Everyone gasped and looked at their surroundings realizing something has been off.

"No one realized how cold it was except for Inori." Taichi said pointing at her. "She noticed the moment she started looking for her jacket."

"Eh!? You noticed that Taichi?" she asked not even seeing Taichi glance to her area earlier.

"I'm starting to hate this. What is up with everyone!? This is simple! You should have noticed from the moment we got here that there was a huge discrepancy with the Digital World!" Taichi shouted, now looking more mad.

"Why is it day when we were transported here at night… is what you want us to tell you right? Taichi?" Melody spoke. This time, a lot more timid.

"Finally someone got it…" he responded relieved. His head had been pounding since they got there and with all the things he had observed from the chosen children, he was out of fuel. He sat down and took deep breaths.

"Something has been wrong this whole time." He spoke a little calmer now. "No one even noticed how the clouds in the sky weren't moving or how the sun is at it's peak and yet we don't even feel any burning sensation from the heat."

Everyone except Koushiro looked at him bewildered. It was as if they knew he was lying as he pointed towards the sun above them.

The annoyance inside Koushiro grew to hate as he looked at Taichi and yelled, "WELL IF YOU TWO ARE SO SMART, WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY SO IN THE BEGINNING!? JUST TO SHOW OFF!?"

"Koushiro!" Mimi yelled in protest. He snapped out of his rage and looked at all of them, confused.

"It's true! If Taichi knew from the beginning that there was something wrong, he should have just told us! Instead of leading us to this little goose chase. And if Inori knew that before him, why didn't she say anything!?" Koushiro exclaimed.

"Koushiro…" Taichi said, having a headache from all the screaming.

"And Melody! If you're so smart, why didn't you just spit it all out, instead of making Taichi speak for your sake! It's obviously you who made that theory when you two were conversing alone!"

"Koushiro…" Taichi was about to get up to stop Koushiro.

"Come on! She's obviously just showing off. Giving me that code, acting humble when she found her items, just because you're the crest of knowledge doesn't mean you all tha-" an echo of a slap was heard echoing throughout the desert.

"Melody?" Hikari looked at the one who slapped Koushiro.

"Shut up and listen to yourself!" Melody yelled at him.

"Showing off!? You think anyone would be toying around at this point in time!?" She continued, her red hair encompassing what she felt at that point.

"You have to understand something Koushiro." Inori spoke behind them.

"He didn't toy with anyone… Taichi was just helping everyone." She said, not looking directly at Koushiro.

"How!? How was that helping?" he questioned them.

"Koushiro, haven't you noticed it yet?" Taichi said standing up.

"Spit it out already!" Koushiro yelled.

"I can't!" Taichi yelled back.

"Your arrogance has been the problem this whole time!" he looked towards Melody and she held Koushiro's shoulder. Taichi walked towards them. Melody let go of Koushiro's shoulder the moment Taichi had grabbed it.

Koushiro found this odd. He looked at Taichi who was looking at him directly in… the nose. Why was he looking at him like that? There was no reason for him to toy around with him any further. So… why?

He then gasped. He had been forcing his own blindness this entire time.

"The desert was cold, even in the sun's peak. The clouds aren't moving… wha-!" Koushiro stared at the sky and noticed that there were not, in fact, any clouds in the sky.

"Taichi… you wouldn't tell such a lie to anyone knowing what you know. You saw the place first hand. You should know that there were no clouds in the sky… So why…" Taichi wanted to push Koushiro, but stopped abruptly.

"Unless… You knew that… And have been giving these hints to tell me…" Koushiro's surroundings started turning dark. The desert had started forming into a sea, a forest was forming behind him. That was when he knew.

"Why was it cold Koushiro?" Taichi asked him once again as he saw Koushiro's body forming in front of their eyes, as if he were invisible.

"No desert can be cold with those conditions… unless… we weren't in a desert…" Koushiro's surroundings changed completely. They were in the bus they had seen the first time they arrived in the digital world. Everyone was there looking at Koushiro. All of them stood exactly as they were when they were in the desert.

He sat down in a state of disappointment. Jow could he have missed any of that. Everyone solved the problem faster than him.

"I should have know… I was too full of myself to think that the desert was the only answer I didn't even bother to look at the other aspects… I'm… I'm sorry." Melody looked at him, worried. Taichi nudged her towards Kousiro and she looked at Taichi playfully unamused. She then realized why he did so and sat next to him.

"It's not your fault… That was the void." she said frankly.

"The void?" Koushiro looked at her.

"I wasn't mad at you for reasons being that you insulted me or anything… I was mad because… that's what happened when we were first tricked by it." Melody spoke calmly.

"This happened to you?" Koushiro asked, still sulking.

"Yes… I was so cocky when I found out I had the crest of knowledge. I scolded everyone, including Taichi. Believing I was the smartest, if anyone had their own theory, I would brush them off. I was more arrogant than you." she chuckled. "But then, we were stuck in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the night. I told them to sail where the north star was, like you said, because that was the most logical thing to do. The one who snapped me out of it was… " Koushiro immediately thought that Taichi would have been her savior, but he was mistaken when Melody said, "Ibuka!"

"Ibuka?" Koushiro jumped at the name.

"Yeah, he noticed Inori complaining about the heat and saw that we were still in our campsite. Inori was always sensitive towards her surroundings. We were lucky she was with us. I remembered when Riku told me the reason, I was knocked out cold for days. It was almost as if the void planned this to happen to anyone who failed his task."

"Which is why Taichi couldn't tell anyone any direct answer… He had to make sure you found out on your own."

"I'm sorry I screamed at you…" Koushiro spoke calming down. "I was really foolish. I was jealous because you looked like you had all the answers. I felt like you were barging into my territory."

"It's no big deal. You should have seen Inori when she was challenged by the void." she spoke jokingly and saw Inori blushing behind them.

Everyone let out a chuckle. Koushiro smiled and looked at all of them.

"I'm not letting it get the best of me again! No matter what happens, I'm making sure he doesn't trick me, or any of us again! That's why I was this crest, not as a decoration to brag about… but as a duty to protect and help all of you." Yamato and the others sighed in relief seeing Koushiro back to normal. His computer beeped for a moment and opened the laptop. It was an email, from two devices near them. Melody looked at the laptop.

"Taichi!" Melody yelled moments before they heard something crashing from the forest nearby. Upon hearing Melody, he ran outside and looked at where the sound had come from when his heart sank to a million pieces.

There, burning just a few meters from them, was a plane.

END OF CHAPTER 7