Tai stood in the park where his best friend had just been standing. He was dazed and confused from the events that had just passed by. He didn't understand what was going on but he knew he had to find out. This was his best friend, not just some random person who'd gone through a vortex. Dark clouds had been gradually forming over the morning and little droplets of clear rain splashed onto Tai's face. He took the book in his hands and hid it under his jacket as the rain started to fall more and more violently. It fell onto the ground and softened the cracking skin of the grass.

Tai's feet were now taking him in the direction of a person who he knew would be able to figure this out. If anyone knew Matt as well as he did it was TK. He ran as fast and hard as he could, the rain beating down onto his supple body. His hair became more and more tangled as he ran but he didn't care. All that mattered was Matt. After running for quite some time he finally made it to TK's apartment. He stopped at the foot of the staircase and took a few moments to catch his breath. He finally finished running up the staircase and rang the doorbell of the Takaishi residence violently. He could hear muffled rumbles of "Yeah … I'm coming!" through the pine door before it swung open.

"Yeah what do you…" TK stopped immediately as he was faced with a soaked and tired Tai Kamiya. "Tai? What the hell are you doing here?" Tai was too tired to speak, so TK took action. "Tai, you're soaked. Come inside and get dry." The weary boy walked into the apartment shaking his hair dry and running a hand through it. The two boys walked into the main room of the apartment and sat down on a couch. Tai pulled the book out slowly from under his orange hoody.

"I need … to find out … what this means." Tai spoke between short, jerky breaths.

"Well … what is it?" Tai shrugged handing him the book. "Why is it so important?" Tai had finally caught the majority of his breath back and could talk normally again.

"Matt just followed an evil Digimon into a vortex by a Digimon and I don't know what's wrong but something is and I need to find out. This is the only thing he left when he went through the vortex." TK sat stunned for a moment.

"Matt did what? We need to help him and… and…" TK stopped for a moment to regain control over himself. "Wait … I thought this was all supposed to be over? Didn't you try and stop him?"

"I DID TRY AND STOP HIM!" Tai snapped back exasperated. "but he disappeared before I could do anything." Tai pondered for a moment. "I thought this was supposed to be all over too … but apparently it's not so for Matt."

"Did Matt say anything before he left? Anything that could be useful?" TK interrogated the boy thoroughly.

"Yeah." Tai took a moment to remember the exact wording. "He said 'I told you at the beginning of all this Tai, I'm no saint. It's over, everything is over.' That isn't the weirdest thing though. The weirdest thing was what the Digimon said that came through the portal. He said 'It's time to pay your debt.' What the hell could that mean?" TK sat in thought, staring out the window for answers.

"I don't know Tai but we sure do need to find out, otherwise Matt may be gone forever." TK opened the front cover of the book and looked at the print. It was like no language he had ever seen before; he couldn't make any sense of it. He showed the books pages to Tai. "Do you have any idea what language this is?" Tai shook his head.

"We know someone who might though!" The two boys nodded and said together. "Izzy."

"Look. We need to work fast so here's what we'll do. I'll ring around everyone and start asking for their help, while you go to Izzy and ask him about this text. I'll ring ahead and tell him you're coming."

"Right." Tai got up, shoving the book under his vibrant orange hoody once more. He moved towards the door.

"Tai wait." Tai turned to meet TK's worried, innocent, eyes. "Be careful and … take a coat, it's still throwing it down out there." Tai smiled at his friend and nodded.

"I will TK, I promise." With those words Tai was heading for the door of the apartment once more but as he closed the door he heard the faint whimpers of a young boy. Tai couldn't bare to think about TK being in pain and just ran to the train station as fast as he could.

Izzy lived a fair distance away from TK and it took Tai forty minutes to reach his apartment. It was still raining, badly, but it didn't slow Tai Kamiya down; nothing slowed Tai Kamiya down. The huge apartment building stood before Tai and, once more, he paused to catch his breath for a second before running up the long staircase. He rang the doorbell of Izzy's apartment frantically but the door was opened within seconds. Tai didn't waste time explaining he just threw the book in the direction of Izzy and followed the boy in.

Tai flopped down onto Izzy's bed for a short break; it had suddenly dawned on him that he hadn't eaten yet.

"TK explained everything to me over the phone. I'll see if I can find anything online that looks remotely like this text in the book." Izzy flipped through the pages one after another to see if there was anything that looked remotely familiar; he was well versed in many languages. He stopped suddenly. "Tai … there's something here in English." Tai hopped up off the bed quickly and ran to Izzy's side. He read the words aloud to himself.

"Dear journal. It's been a while since I last wrote in here and I am too tired to code this, just.too.tired. It's not that Earth shatteringly important anyway. I miss my friends, yah know? It's been so long … but I can't talk to them now … after what happened. I wish I could though … I'd trade anything to see Tai again and to here him laugh … and to make me laugh. I haven't laughed in so long. I haven't slept either, I feel like the un-dead. Ever since it happened I just can't seem to sleep. Your pages don't give me much comfort but it'll have to do. It's all just a waiting game now. Just… time…" The writing finished there, and it was signed with Matt's signature. All the pages were signed with his signature.

"I am too tired to code this." Izzy thought to himself aloud. "This isn't written in a language Tai. This is a code that Matt made up. There is no point in me looking for it online … the only way to figure this out is to find the code reference sheet. Matt must have one, if he gave you this book. I could try and guess his secret language but it wouldn't be anywhere near accurate, I wouldn't even know where to start."

"He missed us, didn't he?" Tai spoke in a whisper.

"Yeah … I guess he did." Izzy looked at the leader of the digidestined. He seemed so … weak now. Izzy remembered all the times when Tai was making decisions back in the digital world; he never once looked weak. Izzy often didn't agree with the logic of his choices but he stood by what he thought and if it didn't work Tai would always come through for them. This wasn't the Tai Kamiya that Izzy knew, this was something else.

Tai snapped out of his coma like state.

"We have to move … I'll ring TK and ask him to ransack Matt's apartment to see if he can find that code reference sheet. We have to know what this book means otherwise … Matt may be lost forever." Tai shook his head at the thought. He wouldn't accept losing his best friend to some Digimon creep. He ran to the phone to instruct TK on the plan, only hoping that he was still at home.

*******************************

Matt walked through this strange world. There was no colour here. It was just darkness. He felt it in the pit of his stomach, all the sadness that was here; it was overwhelming for any person. The centipede Digimon that had led him into this realm of the dark was eyeing him closely, making sure he didn't do anything stupid. Matt was too absorbed in his own thoughts to be bothered about the pathetic Digimon watching him. He couldn't help thinking if Tai would be able to decipher the book, would he understand? He cursed himself inside. This wasn't Tai's problem; this was his. He'd got himself into this mess and it wasn't Tai's, TK's, Izzy's or anybody else's responsibility to get him out of it. It was his.

The passage that the two walked along was small and formed from walls of jagged rocks that crept up to form a ceiling. The rocks weren't rocks though; they were lavish, beautiful, crystals. In this world though, they were blacker than the night sky. Matt felt un-easy as he walked past them, they sent shivers down his spine and he felt the cold hand of evil stroking his soul.

After several minutes of walking in silence they finally reached their destination. Matt looked around to see a large room made out of the same crystals that coated the walls. The fires that burnt on the walls were grey and gave off a subtle tone of grey light. The room was still very dark and the floor soil. The centipede type Digimon slithered into the large room. In this room was a table, a few doors, a fireplace, some comfy chairs and some decorative paintings on the walls. It was very eloquent for an evil Digimon's hide out.

"Master! I have brought him!" The centipede shouted. His voice was deep and threatening, in a subtle way. Matt's eyes glazed around the room at the doors. One of them flung open and standing in the doorway was … Tai?

"Hi Matt!" Tai called bubbling to his friend. Matt stared at the boy with scorn.

"Stop IT! STOP IT NOW!" Matt shouted out across the darkness. Tai just cackled with delight and ran over to Matt, to stare him in the face. Matt's face held a look of pure hatred.

"What? You no like seeing your best friend?" Tai talked in a baby voice and it scraped against Matt's heart.

"Stop it Mimicmon! I'M WARNING YOU!" Matt shouted into the face of his so-called best friend. Tai cackled back into Matt's face starting to transform from the small boy into a giant, slim, hooded figure. This was what Matt had feared for years. The Digimon standing in front of him was shaped as a human but he was very thin and had a long black draping cloak covering his body. His hands were dangling out of the cloak for a second and Matt caught a glimpse of the thin, bony fingers. They had small rings on, with enormous jewels encrusted onto them. Mimicmon took his hands and placed them inside the opposite cuffs of his long robe.

"It's been a long time Matt, glad to be back?" Matt shook his head in disgust.

"I've never been glad to see you since the first day I met you Mimicmon."

"That's what I always liked about you Matt, you were feisty and stood up for yourself." Mimicmon's real voice was scathing and high pitched. It grated against Matt's fragile eardrums. Mimicmon noticed the bag on Matt's shoulder. "Oh take that silly bag away Centimon, Matt won't be needing such things now." If Mimicmon had a face, Matt was sure he would be smirking. Mimicmon didn't have a true face. It was shaped like a face but was flat and smooth as porcelain; like an un-painted china doll discarded from the factory.

Centimon took the bag from Matt with a little resistance from the Digidestined. He scuttled off into a near by room slouching under the weight of the bag. Matt and Mimicmon were left, facing each other. Matt stared at the dark shadowy hood of Mimicmon; not showing his true un-measurable fear.

"You have a few days Matt. After that, you repay your debt to me and we re-work the prophecy's of the Digital world!" Chuckling to himself at the prospect of changing the digital world's fate, he escorted Matt to one of the doors. "You will stay here until I call for you. You will not ask for anything, you will not disturb me. You know the price if you break these rules." Matt nodded his head with sorrow and was thrown through the door into the room.

It was a small room, all it had was a bed, a shelf with one or two books on and another door leading to a wash room. How had Matt got himself into this mess? What had he done to deserve this kind of torture? He thought of his friends … he closed his eyes and pictured the smiling faces of his brother and Tai. He was doing this for them, that's why he was doing it … but at what cost? He didn't know if what he was doing was right but there was a chance that he would save his friends and that's all that mattered now.