Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or anything associated with it. That honor belongs to Toei Animation, Saban, and Fox. I'm just a fan who needs an outlet, so please don't sue me.

Chapter Seven:

"Are we really back?" Tai looked around in amazement. It sure looked like the Digiworld. Felt like the Digiworld. But after a month back in the real world, believing that he'd never be able to come back to this place, it was strange to finally be there.
By then, Izzy had already taken out his laptop and started tapping away at the keyboard. "Yep," he replied unnecessarily to Tai's question. "This is most definitely the Digital World."
"Wow!" Mimi marveld. "I never thought we'd be back. It's almost like a dream!"
"Hey!" T.K. said brightly. "I wonder if Patamon's around here somewhere. T.K. started to take off, but Kari stopped him.
"Wait, T.K!" she said. "We're on a mission, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. Right," T.K. stopped. "We've got to find Izzy's Digivice. And your sister too."
"We've got to find those kids and teach them not to mess around in the Digiworld," Tai said with determination.
"Just great," Joe muttered to himself. "We're going to get ourselves into another mess..."
"How are we going to find them, Tai?" Sora asked.
Tai pulled out his digivice. "Well," he answered. "All we can do is walk, and hope that one of our digivices picks up the signal from Izzy's.
"Right," Izzy echoed. "Gennai said that he didn't know where they were hiding, only that they had entered the Digiworld, and they did come in through this gate.
"So which way do we go?" Matt asked.
Tai thought for a moment, then pointed to the trees. "That way."
And so they walked.....and walked.....and walked....and found nothing.
"I'm so tired!" Mimi whined.
"I know, Mimi," Sora said. "We're all tired. Maybe we should stop, Tai."
Tai halted at the front. "You're right, Sora. We'll stop here for a little while and then move on again." He sat down at the base of a tree and closed his eyes.
After just a moment, Kari came up and tugged on his shirt. "Hey Tai?"
"What is it, Kari?" Tai didn't open his eyes.
"Where's T.K.?" Kari asked.
At that, Tai's eyes snapped open. He saw Matt looking wildly around. The two boys looked at each other in panic. T.K. was nowhere to be seen.

T.K. had been walking behind the others when he heard a flapping noise from behind some bushes. "Patamon?" he asked quizzically, and turned off the path to investigate. As he approached the bushes, the sound stopped.
T.K. frowned and prepared to go back to the path. But then he heard the noise again, from a tree, a little ways off. Curiousity piqued, he followed it. The sound kept jumping from tree to tree as T.K. unwittingly wandered deep into the forest.
Suddenly, he heard the flapping sound right above his head. He looked quickly up, only to discover the source of the noise was just a spastically flapping bird. Disappointed, he turned around in a circle, trying to find the path that his friends had taken.

Tai put his hand to his forehead. Everything was falling apart. First Izzy's digivice. Then Anni. And the bunch of troublemakers in the Digiworld. And now T.K. was missing. What else bad could happen?
"Well if it isn't the great Tai Kamiya," a voice said out of the darkness.
Tai snapped his head up. "Who's there?"
"And the rest of the Loser's Society as well," the voice commented.
"Show yourself already!" Matt snapped.
Marc Immiri stepped out into the beam of Tai's flashlight.
"Marc! It's you who's been making all this trouble!" Tai glared at him.
"Naturally," Marc looked smug.
"What do you want?" Tai growled.
"To see the great Tai Kamiya fall."
"This is crazy!" Sora commented. "Marc, you have to stop this now!"
"Yeah!" Kari chimed in. "Give me back my sister!"
Marc just stood there and laughed.
"We don't have time for this," Matt said, pushing past Marc. "I have to find my brother."
"Where's Anni, Marc?" Tai demanded.
"I'm not gonna tell you," Marc smirked.
"Fine then," Tai said, fed up. "Matt, take Mimi and Joe and go look for T.K. Izzy, Sora, Kari, and I will go look for Anni." He walked up to Marc and grabbed the boy by the shirt collar. "And you..." he started, giving Marc a shake.
Something fell off Marc and down to the ground. Izzy bent over and picked it up. "Hey! It's my digivice!"
Tai let go of Marc. "If you're not going to help us, you can stay in the woods and see how well you navigate without a digivice."
And with that, three groups split off into the forest. Matt, Mimi, and Joe took off in one direction, calling for T.K. Tai, Sora, Izzy, and Kari took off in another direction, hoping to trace back Marc's path to wherever Anni was. And Marc went off in a third direction, without Izzy's digivice, but still smug over his percieved victory.

Tai led the way as well as he could, but the trail was faint and the sky too dark to see well enough to make a clear path visible. Before long, the tiny band was suffieciently lost.
"I'm sorry guys," he admitted. "I don't know where we are..." He shined his flashlight in a circle around the clearing they had come to. And right into...a face?
"Gatomon!" Kari exclaimed.
"Kari!" the white cat ran up and jumped into the little girl's arms. "I'd hoped you were here!"
"What do you mean by that?" Sora asked Gatomon.
"I saw some other humans not too far from here. When I saw them, I thought maybe Kari had come too, and I came to look for her."
"Other humans?" Tai gasped.
"It must be Marc Immiri's gang," Izzy commented.
"Can you show us where they are?" Kari asked her Digimon.
"Sure!" Gatomon leaped down to the ground. "Follow me."
They followed Gatomon to a small encampment. The last light of a dying campfire revealed several sleeping boys, in and out of the tents, but no Anni.
Tai walked up and kicked one of the sleeping boys. "Hey, you!"
Donny snorted and woke up. "Wha?"
"Where's my sister?" Tai demanded, standing menacingly over him.
"I-in the tent," Donny pointed shakily.
"Try again. She's not there," Tai said impatiently.
"She escaped? Oh, boy, is Marc going to let us have it!"

T.K. wandered through the trees for what seemed like hours. Finally, he saw a landmark he recognized. "Hey!" he said to himself. "I'm almost to Primary Village! I should go there and maybe the others will come and find me!"
T.K. took off with renewed hope...until he tripped over a lopsided orange rock.
"Hey, watch where you're...T.K.?"
That was no rock, that was Patamon!
"Patamon?" T.K. said in wonder. "What are you doing here?"
"I was trying to sleep!" Patamon replied. "What are you doing here?"
"Trying to find my way to Primary Village," T.K. answered. "So I won't be so lost anymore."
"Well, come on then!" Patamon said. "We'll go together."
So Patamon and T.K. set off toward Primary Village. But as they approached it, they nearly stopped in their tracks. They heard Elecmon, and he was angry. And they heard another voice, too, shouting in pain. But instead of stopping, they ran up to see what was happening.
They found an indeed angry Elecmon chasing around local Odaiba bully Marc Immiri. Every time the Digimon got close enough, he zapped Marc for all he was worth.
"That'll teach you to come into my nursery and mess with my eggs!" Elecmon was shouting.
"Wow, deja vu," T.K. said to Patamon.
Elecmon zapped Marc one more time. The boy fell to the ground, gasping. Elecmon turned around with a snort, and saw T.K. and Patamon. "T.K! Patamon!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" I just found this tresspasser here...
At that moment, another human face appeared in Primary Village. Elecmon bristled, but T.K. held him back. "Wait!" he said. "She's a friend! That's Anni!"

"T.K!!" Matt shouted into the darkness. He and Mimi and Joe had searched for a long time, but there was still no sign of his little brother.
"Oh!" Mimi gasped. "It's dark, and I'm scared!"
Instinctively, Matt reached out and took her hand in his own, squeezing her fingers to reassure the girl. "It'll be all right, Mimi."
Suddenly, Matt heard someone calling his name. "T.K?" he cried, running of in search of the voice. As he got closer, he realized the voice wasn't his brother's it was Gabumon's. Finally catching up with his Digimon's voice, he ran up to Gabumon.
"Matt!" Gabumon exclaimed.
"Gabumon! Have you seen my brother?" Matt asked.
Gabumon shook his head. "No, but someone else probably found him by now!"
"Huh?" Joe asked.
"Biyomon! Gomamon!" Gabumon called. "I've found some of them!"
Biyomon and Gomamon came running over.
"Gomamon!" Joe exclaimed happily.
"Hey, it's Joe!" Gomamon cried. "Wow, you managed to survive without me?"
"What's going on?" Mimi asked.
"Well you see," Gabumon explained. "Biyomon, Gomamon, Tentomon, Agumon, Palmon, and I were all together. And we came across Anni in the forest. And we knew you'd all be here somewhere. So Tentomon went to take Anni to Primary Village. The rest of us split up to find you."
"Is Sora with you?" Biyomon asked hopefully.
"No," Joe answered. "She's with the others."
"We were looking for T.K." Matt said.
"He may already be there," Gabumon assured him.

Following an energetic Agumon, Tai, Sora, Kari, Izzy, and the entire bunch of Marc's rather dimwitted cronies marched toward Primary Village. Palmon brought up the rear, to keep the "troublemakers" in line. Sora and Tai were walking hand in hand, and Kari stuck close to her big brother.
From behind them, Izzy sighed. He was happy that Anni was safe and sound, but he couldn't help but remember the last time they'd been together. There had been so many angry words, so many accusations. Izzy wondered how he could have been so foolish as to blame her for the death of his parents. Kay Tyler or Anni Kamiya, it didn't make any difference to him anymore. He only wanted her by his side. But would she ever forgive him?
The march went on. Soon, they had come to Primary Village, just as the other group arrived. Joe carried his lighthearted partner. Matt and Mimi arrived the same way Tai and Sora had -- hand in hand. Izzy smiled. It looked like Matt had discovered something in the woods other than trees and dirt.
They spotted T.K. first. The little blonde kid ran out with shouted greetings to hug his brother, and then Kari. He then started into his story, of where he'd been, and how he got there. Sora and Biyomon were happily reunited, as were Mimi and Palmon.
Izzy looked out in the direction T.K. had come from, and saw Anni coming cautiously down, followed by Tentomon. Suddenly, she broke out into a run, not stopping until she crashed into Izzy's arms. Izzy hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry," they both said at the same time. Then they broke apart, giggling over their comical timing.
Elecmon came down last, parading a slightly singed, exhausted Marc Immiri before him. Marc gave Tai a defeated look and sank to the ground beside his gang.
"Hey, the sun's coming up!" Kari pointed out. And everything was getting brighter.
"Great!" Tai said. "Now we'll be able to find our way back to the gate!"
"The gate..." Izzy said. "Is it wise, or safe, to leave it open?"
"After what happened already..." Matt trailed off.
"That gate should not be left open. Think of how much more trouble could come about!" Joe said, wringing his hands.
"Does that mean we have to blow it up?" T.K. asked.
"I think the Digimon will have to destroy the gate once we're all through. Just to make sure nothing like this happens again," Tai decided.
So the whole bunch hiked back up to the gate. After another round of tearful farewells,the humans stepped through the gate and back into the real world.
"Now stand clear!" Tai ordered.
And with a flash that rippled through to the real-world side, the gate was destroyed.
Marc and his gang immediately took off, leaving the nine remaining kids sitting there, staring at the place where the gate used to be. They sat there for some time. Joe fell asleep with his head on his ever-present bag. Mimi fell asleep leaning against Matt. T.K. and Kari yawned at the same time, then curled up in the grass to take a nap of their own. Sora and Tai bent their heads together and whispered in low tones. Izzy reached out and squeezed Anni's hand. Their gate to the Digital World was gone again. But as far as Izzy was concerned, he'd brought the best part of the Digital World back with him.

The End.