What's up. Sorry if I updated this a little too late. I'm coming closer and closer to the end of the fic. Please remember to Review, I need a confidence boost.

Disclaimer: Digimon isn't mine, everything else in this fic is.

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Chapter 8

The Haunted Woods of Despair

Fido's Secret.

Tai and co. arrived back at Tie early the next morning. It was now June 7th, nine days until Operation Rip Apart. When they got back to Tie, they met Mimi at the University. She had finished her folk dancing course and was now ready to cause an Org to go into chronic crapping disorder. According to her, Homo wasn't behaving suspiciously. They told her that they had to venture far into the haunted woods to get some Gas-X. That was the only way that they could stop the Orgs from farting.

Kari told them that Sora was on her way with help from Aros. Izzy didn't like the fact that he was working with two girls from Aros, but due to the current situation, this was hardly a problem. Besides, he kind of liked Mimi.

Unknown to all of them, they were being closely followed by Joe and an Org. Joe had been sent against his will by Harry Penis with the order to kill Mimi. The Org was simply there to make sure that Joe carried out his job.

Once they were all back in Tie, Tai asked Izzy to tell him everything he knew about the haunted woods of despair.

"Well, I don't know a lot. Legend has it that an evil Phoenix attacked the woods once and turned all the birds into her evil slaves. The Phoenix's nest is nestled deep into the woods guarded by the fiercest eagles she could muster. The Phoenix has special powers of her own too. Many brave warriors tried to vanquish the evil bird, but none of them ever returned. And remember, Phoenix's live forever."

Tai bit his lip, "So how are we supposed to get the Gas-X if it's guarded by an evil Phoenix with slave birds?"

"We have to try! The Phoenix has one weakness, it will fall to a bird more worthy than she." Izzy told them.

"Do we have a bird more worthy than the Phoenix?" Asked Tk.

Mimi looked at Fido perched on her shoulder, "No." She said.

"Well, I can't put all of you at risk." Said Tai. "Mimi, Matt, Kari, and Izzy will come with me. Tk will stay here. You don't have any weapons and I don't want to take any chances." Tai said.

"But-" Tk was about to protest.

"No buts! Go back to the palace and stay there! We'll come back after we have found that Gas-X."

Tk stamped his foot but he did as he was told. Tai was right. What could he do in the woods except get in the way? Mimi was an ASS Investigator, Tai was a Knight, Kari had a gun, and Matt could hold his own in melee combat. He shrugged his shoulders and headed back to the palace.

***

"I don't like this place." Said Mimi as they entered the woods of despair. The trees were so thick than only about 10% of the sunlight shone. It was dark and damp. The ground was littered with millions of tiny bugs and spiders. Most of them were poisonous.

"I don't like it either, but the sooner we get the Gas-X the sooner we can get out of here." Tai said.

"Shh!" Izzy hissed, "do you want to announce to the hole world that we are here? If we're quiet then maybe the birds won't hear us."

"Don't worry, I've got my gun, I can shoot them." Kari said pouring some gunpowder into her gun.

"Hey, what are you doing here? I thought I told you that you had to stay invisible!" Tai snapped at her.

Kari groaned but she slapped her ass anyway.

"Will you guys be quiet? I'm trying to look for Gas-X!" Matt shouted.

"Shh! You can look here till the day you die, but you'll never find Gas-X here! It's much deeper in the forest." Izzy retorted.

"Something strange is happening to us." Mimi said. They all looked at her, "it seems that since we've walked into this place, we're all being a lot meaner to each other."

Izzy nodded, "it must be the work of the Phoenix. Let's all be calm down and try to chill out. If we start making a racket then the birds will hear us." He said.

Everyone nodded and they started walking quietly deeper and deeper into the forest.

"Uh oh." Whispered Matt after about fifteen minutes of walking, "did you hear that." Everyone stopped to listen. There was a faint rustling of leaves and flapping of wings. But the sounds were getting stronger. At that point, Fido began going crazy.

"What's the matter?" asked Mimi.

"He must sense a disturbance here." Said Izzy.

Then, suddenly, a white pellet fell from the sky and grazed Tai's face.

"THE PIGEON'S ARE ATTACKING! RUN!" He yelled, and they all ran with hands over their heads into the heart of the forest while the pigeons were hot on their pursuit dropping little white bombs from their rectums.

***

While Tk walked back to the palace, he met someone he didn't want to meet.

"Joe." He said as Joe and the Org approached him. The Org was squeaking, disguised as a migrating cockroach.

"You're the guy who tried to kill Mimi, you also tricked Matt into trying to kill me! What do you want?" Tk asked with real anger in his voice.

"I don't want anything, but I struck a deal with this Org here. He said he would promise to take you to Harry if he let me go to Mimi alone. I don't want to kill her you see." Joe said.

Tk nodded angrily, "so instead of killing Mimi you've decided to kill me, nice trade off!"

"Sorry Tk." Joe said. There was something about the way Joe said that. It wasn't in a mocking tone. It sounded like he really felt sorry for Tk.

The Org was about to grab Tk and bring him back to Harry but a voice surprised them all.

"Too bad for Tk. It seems like I'm not the only one who wants to kill him." It was Carl, Homo's messenger.

The Org farted, "Get away you dumb human. The kid is coming with me."

"Not so fast." Said Carl, "The reward is 100 pounds of gold to whoever kills that boy. I need the money, so I'll kill him."

Tk shrank in fear as the Org and Carl each cornered him. That was when Joe decided he had enough. Enough of his life and enough of terrorism. If this was the last thing he was going to do, let it be a good thing. If I'm going to die, he thought, at least this way I'll go to heaven.

"Leave him." Joe said at Carl and the Org, they turned around surprised. Joe spread his arms out in front of Tk as if he was protecting him. "If you want Tk, you'll have to kill me first."

Tk was shocked, Joe was putting his life on the line for him. All he could do was watch with terror as Joe fought off Carl and the Org

***

Meanwhile, Tai and the others had reached a dead end in the forest. They were covered from head to toe in bird waste.

"This is the most disgusting, vile, putrid thing I have ever done!" Mimi said trying to string pigeon crap out of her hair.

Matt spat out some bird shit, "Yuck! Well, at least we lost them." He coughed.

Kari made herself visible again. She was shaking off the poop from her clothes, even though she had benn invisible, the birds still got her. Crap had fallen everywhere.

"Hey, is it just me or is it a lot darker here?" Izzy asked. They all nodded in agreement and they looked at the dead end. It wasn't really a dead end, it was a black void. Tai stepped into the void, and suddenly the whole forest was illuminated in hell-fire. Tai gasped.

At the heart of the flames, there lay a huge throne with which there sat a gigantic bird. The bird was guarded by three eagles. Behind the throne, in a shrubbery, there lay a vast amount of little pills: Gas-X.

"Who dares venture into the heart of the woods of despair?" The bird said in a voice so loud that it made Tai's ears ring.

"It's the Phoenix!" Izzy gasped in horror. The Phoenix's feathers were tattered and worn, her beak was crooked and her talons were black, stained with blood.

"Fools! You have come to the end of you're life! Now you belong to me. Get them!" The Phoenix yelled to the eagle guards. Before they knew it, Tai, Mimi, and Matt were wrestling with the eagles. Although Tai was stabbing with his sword, Mimi was slashing with her knife, and Matt was delivering clobbering blows, they were losing.

Kari had to do something, she took out her gun and pulled the trigger. The explosion echoed through the forest. She shot the evil bird in the eye. The Phoenix's scream was so loud that Kari thought she was going to go deaf.

Izzy wasted no time, he darted past the throne and ran towards the shrubbery. There, he began to fill his pockets with Gas-X.

"You fiends! I'll kill you all with my magic. HELLFIRE!" The Phoenix yelled with rage. A black flame shot out of the bird's mouth and went straight for Mimi. She screamed but Fido flew in front of her. The flame incinerated the bird completely.

"Fido!" She screamed. Then the Phoenix turned on Tai, but a voice was heard in the forest.

"Stop you foul beast!" Four flying figures whizzed past Mimi's eyes. Three of the figures attacked the three eagles, they were sprites. The fourth flew in front of the Phoenix, it was Sora. Sora had come with help from Aros.

"You won't curse this forest with you're presence anymore." She said. With that, she began to recite the words of a very powerful spell:

"Spawned from the powers of evil I can only tell,

It's because you're a demon that I cast this spell,

Devils, and demons, and other horrors that you know too well,

You were once an angel who from Heaven fell,

Be gone from the earth, be damned back to hell!"

After she finished, a powerful light erupted from the sky and opened a fissure in the ground. The light was so bright that Tai had to shield his eyes. When he could open them again, the eagles and the Phoenix were gone.

"Wow Sora, that was pretty cool!" Said Matt.

"You have an uncanny knack for showing up at just the right time." Tai said.

Sora nodded, "Thanks...I'm sorry about you're bird Mimi." She said. Mimi was kneeling next to the pile of ashes that were once Fido. She was crying:

"He saved my life." She said between sobs, "the silly blind pigeon saved my life!" She closed her eyes and a tear rolled down her cheek and fell into the pile of ashes, then something amazing happened.

The ashes began glowing and then, a beautiful bird rose out of the ashes and began to grow.

"Oh my God!" Said Izzy, "Fido is a Phoenix!"

"But how?" Mimi said shocked.

Sora explained, "It must be some sort of magic. Whenever a corrupted Phoenix kills a bird, the bird will rise out of the out of the ashes and turn into a Holy Phoenix."

"Wow, cool." Tai said in amazement.

Fido's appearance had changed. He was as big as a dragon and his wings were made up with all the colors of the rainbow. His body burned with white flames which could heal all wounds. He could also shoot Holy Fire from his beak to burn up any fowl creature, such as an Org.

Mimi climbed on top of Fido, "I guess you won't be riding on my shoulder anymore." she said and they laughed. They all mounted on top of Fido and his flames healed their wounds.

"Cool!" Said Matt, "This white fire doesn't burn."

"Holy Fire, it cures ailments.." Explained Sora.

They were about to take off but Izzy slapped his forehead, "Wait! What about the Gas-X?" He said.

Fido heard and he picked up the shrubbery in his talons.

"Ok let's go to Ti!" Kari said.

"Ti? I thought it was Tie?" Mimi asked.

"No, Ti is the military outpost of the Kingdom of Ty." Kari explained, "they'll know how to turn the Gas-X into a weapon."

"Oh." Mimi understood, "Onwards to Ti then!" She told Fido, and the Phoenix took of and headed towards the military outpost. But Kari spotted something below.

"Look isn't that Tk?" She said. They all looked and saw Joe wrestling with the Org, Carl was dead.

Fido arched around in the sky and swooped down. He landed and they all got off, "What's going on here?" Tai asked. At that very second, the Org punched Joe so hard that he flew into a tree.

"Joe." Mimi screamed. She jumped off of Fido and ran to Joe, he was wounded badly.

"Mimi." He said, "I'm glad you're here. I tired to protect Tk, I really did. I did something good, just like you told me too."

"Don't worry, my bird, he's a Phoenix, he can save you-" She began

"No, I've suffered long enough, let me die here and put me out of my misery. Just know one thing Mimi, I've always loved you."

Mimi was crying again, "Joe, I, I love you too."

"Then at least my death is not in vain." He smiled. Then he bowed is head and died.

Mimi looked up at the Org, "you fiend! I'll kill you!" She took her knife out but the Org grabbed Tk.

"Don't move or he dies. The kid is coming with me!" The Org said.

"Let him go!" Kari yelled, she was frantically pouring gunpowder into her weapon.

As Tk saw what was happening, he finally realized what he had to do. He knew his fate, his destiny. Joe had saved him for a reason, and now Tk knew his own purpose. Tai unsheathed his sword but Tk stopped him.

"No." Tk said.

Tai looked at him shocked, "what?"

"No, let him take me. I have a score to settle with Harry."

"But Tk-"

"Please. This is hard for me too, but I have to go. You'll all understand why someday. But I need to go back to the Kingdom of the Rancid-Orgs now. I have a mission of my own to complete."

Tai tried to convince him, but Tk wouldn't hear it. Kari looked helplessly at Tk. He looked back at he and for a moment, their eyes met. He smiled and winked at her. Her heart melted.

"Ha ha ha." The Org laughed, "Stupid kid. Well come on then, Harry is waiting." With that he grabbed Tk and began to fart. The gas propelled them into the sky and rocketed them towards Blackball.

"What do you think Tk is going to do?" Said Mimi in a worried tone.

"I don't know, but I have faith in him." Said Matt, "He's my brother and I can feel that he has a plan. He is returning to the Org that kidnapped him out of his own free will. I think he know what he is doing."

"He sure is brave." said Kari with admiration and sadness in her voice.

"Yes he is." Said Sora smiling.

Mimi nodded and smiled, "Right, we shouldn't worry about him. He wouldn't want us to worry about him. And Joe wouldn't want us to grieve for him either. Now, I believe we were headed towards Ti."

They all nodded and climbed onto Fido. He spread his wings and was airborne in three seconds, lifting them higher and higher into the sky.

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How was that? What will happen to Tk? Find out in the next chapter: Tk's trial.

I'm having a lot of fun writing this story. I hope you guys enjoy reading it.

Well anyway, don't forget to review! Ciao.