Argh…the only problem with chaptered fics is that they are SO hard to start a new chapter…And my stupid computer is screwing up with the spell check, so I have to re-input all of the DigiDestined's names, and the Digimon's and everything else! Ugh…

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, but if I ever do, the 02 DigiDestined will return to the air and Elvis will marry Bigfoot with Frankenstein's monster as the maid of honor…

The Grass is Greener

Chapter 6: String

"I see…" Izzy put his hand on his chin, reading an e-mail from the others. "So Sorceressmon's Master put a spell on Kari…Brainwashing…"

"Well?" Tai demanded impatiently from the bed. Figuring the others would need help, Izzy had begun calling the older DigiDestined home from college for this little trip. Tai and Sora were the only ones to have arrived so far, but Matt was on his way, Mimi would be called via Digiport and Joe just had to finish something at his internship and he'd be right there. "Spit it out, Izzy! Is my sister alright?"

"She's fine, Tai." the red-haired prodigy sighed. "Just a little tired, that's all. Just a sec, lemmie check what they're planning for the evening…" he crouched over the keyboard, muttering quietly. A minute later it popped up with a message from Ken, saying they'd stay on Modem, but outside the castle walls, for the night.

"Looks like our best shot would be a rendezvous tomorrow morning." Izzy leaned back so he could look at the other two. "Then the whole bunch of us can attack at once."

"What about T.K.?" Sora asked. "Didn't you say that charm only works once? What'll he do?"

"Apparently he's staying at the Champion level." Izzy shrugged, but a worried look was crossing over his eyes. "He'll stay that way all night…"

"But won't that be awfully hard?" it was Tai this time. "I mean…the only one of our Digimon that stayed in the Champion level that long was Gatomon, and it was natural for her."

"It'll be a strain, yes." Izzy sighed, none to comfortingly. "But…I'm sure he can do it. If he can just hold on, one night…everything'll be just fine."

~ * ~ * ~

T.K. was having trouble sleeping. Being stuck as Angemon wore him out, but he couldn't change back. And he just couldn't sleep, no matter how exhausted he was. But he still had to hold on…for their battle tomorrow…

"Can't sleep?"

T.K. looked down, startled. Kari, who had been curled next to Gatomon, was now standing in his lap, smiling up at him sleepily. "Kari!" he gasped in a whisper. "I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"Nah…" Kari yawned. "It's hard to sleep here, anyway."

She sat up, stretched a moment, then turned to face him with a worried look on her face. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

"I'm fine…" he muttered, none to convincingly. "I'm just a little…tired…"

Kari sighed, looking down guiltily. Something about the brainwashing spell had kept most of her memories of the others intact, especially of him, so she was about at the same level as T.K. was. But besides all that, her short-term memory was lacking, and she remembered nothing about being LadyDevimon or anything.

"I'm sorry…" she muttered. "It's my fault. You had to Digivolve early because of me…"

"Oh, no!" he insisted. "It's not that at all! I'd have to Digivolve sooner or later, and besides…" a gentle blush crossed his cheeks. "…We had to save you…somehow…"

Kari was taken aback, but then she smiled. "You're so sweet." she cooed up to him, curling up again.

She looked out over the others, all asleep. She noticed that Gatomon was curled up against Patamon once again, holding his arm. Patamon was blushing in his sleep. "Oh dear…Gatomon's flirting again." Kari sighed. "Shouldn't we stop them?"

"Nah." T.K. shook his head, smiling.

"But it makes Patamon so uncomfortable!" Kari exclaimed.

"Well, it's just 'cause he likes her, too." T.K. laughed. "Gatomon's just pretty forceful, that's all."

Kari nodded quietly, understanding. She yawned slightly, then curled up in his lap. In a few minutes, she was fast asleep. T.K. smiled, stroking the small animal. It still seamed so amazing to him…This creature…this sweet little cat…was the girl he'd secretly been watching for years. And he loved her just as much as ever.

He gave a little half-groan, his body tensing under the strain. Every single mussel in him ached, and his head was splitting in a killer migraine. It felt like elephants were crashing about in his head, fighting and banging on the walls with hammers. With the silence, he could hear it better than ever. The noise in his brain was deafening, and multicolored spots were appearing before his eyes. He felt desperately like he was going to be sick, and really might have felt better if he had.

"What time is it?" he groaned over the noise. He glanced over at Ken's watch, illuminated a bright green in the dark. 4:36 AM, and he still hadn't slept a wink. If this kept up much longer he could pass out and just forget about the whole thing.

T.K. closed his eyes painfully, trying to relax, and leaned against the tree he was by. If only the charm worked more often…if only it wasn't his humanity that was at stake here…if only…

There was a snap from the trees like a gunshot. T.K.'s eyes flew open. Someone had obviously tried to sneak up on them carefully, but had stepped on a twig.

Carefully trying to wake Kari or the others, the champion Digimon reached cautiously back and gripped the golden staff he'd been equipped with. The noise of footsteps grew closer…closer…

Before he knew what was happening, the attack snapped around the tree two feet away like a huge, thick whip, and something dark wrapped around his wrist. He felt something cutting through his skin, long slices, but thin, like very long, very deep paper cuts.

T.K. yanked at whatever it was that was holding him, but somehow it lifted him into the air. His free hand snatched down to try and catch Kari, but the force suddenly crashed backwards, knocking T.K.'s head into the tree with a sickening thump. Everything went black for a few moments.

He was conscious again a moment later, looking up into Kari's worried face. "T.K., what happened?" she asked fearfully.

The human-turned-Digimon sat up with a gasp, then realized he'd only been out for a few minutes. The others were sitting up, rubbing their eyes, except for Patamon and Gatomon, who were leaning over him with Kari.

"Something's out there." he said seriously. "Something strong…"

There was the CRASH! of trees being ripped from their roots, and three of them were torn up right in front of the DigiDestined. Sorceressmon stood there, holding her staff cockily. "I knew we'd find you here." she laughed. "Master was right, just like Theseus and the Minotaur."

"These-who and the Mini-what?" Davis asked, confused.

"Theseus and the Minotaur." Ken explained in a calm voice, but he still sounded scared. "It's an old Greek myth. Theseus was a hero who killed the Minotaur, a monster that looked like a bull. The Minotaur lived in a maze that nobody knew how to get out of, but Theseus used a ball of string to find his way out…"

"String…" T.K. whispered, suddenly understanding.

Kari turned to look at him. T.K.'s eyes were wide, looking closely at the cuts on his left hand and wrist. They were long, and deeper in some places than in others. It was like his hand had been bound tightly with rope…or even…

"She and…her master…" T.K. whispered. "They use string as a weapon…and it's sharp…"

Sorceressmon laughed a bit, holding her hands up like she was holding a rope. It took a minute of looking, but there was a thin, clear, almost invisible piece of thread. "This lead us right to ya."

"But…how?" Patamon whispered, following the glimmer of the string. How is it they wouldn't have noticed something so sharp? It must have attached itself to someone…

There it was! He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and looked again. It was gone again… no, it was still there! Intertwined between all those other strands…just a little glimmer in a sea of white.

Patamon suddenly reached forward grabbed a hold of Gatomon's hair. The Digimon/Girl let out a bit of a scream. "Patamon, what are you doing?!" she shrieked.

Patamon reached in to the hunk he'd grabbed and plucked out a single hair. It came loose easily, Gatomon didn't even feel a tug, and he held it up to the moonlight so they could see. "This what you're talking about?" he growled, clutching something in his hand.

Sorceressmon smirked, then tugged on her string. Patamon let out a bit of a shout and opened his hand from pain. There was a long cut across his palm, bleeding red. "Clever, you are." the spell caster laughed.

"What the…?" Yolei gasped.

"Her 'master' tied the string to one of Gatomon's hairs." Patamon muttered, stemming the blood from his hand with the sleeve of his shirt. "We didn't notice it before because it's so pale, it blended in."

"You got it, you little pest." Sorceressmon laughed, pulling the string up. They could see the tiny red beads of Patamon's blood on it. "My master's thread is the most powerful force in the universe."

"That's what you think!" Veemon growled.

"No, you little pest!" Sorceressmon swung her staff forward, knocking Veemon back. "That's what I know!"

There were several quick flashes after that, and soon the five champion Digimon stood ready to fight. Kari had wanted to Digivolve, but T.K. wouldn't let her until the Master had shown up.

"Vee Laser!" ExVeemon cried, firing his attack. Sorceressmon dodged the slow blast easily, and it knocked down a couple of trees from behind her.

"Is that all you've got?" she taunted. The ball of purple energy started to form in the top of her staff. "This'll give you a thrashing! Sorcerer's…"

She was stuck from behind by rings of gold energy. Aquilamon was hovering behind her. "Less talk, more fight!" he shouted back.

Sorceressmon growled. "Why you…" she hissed, pulling something out of the pouch on her waist. "Take this!"

She threw some strange sort of powder into Aquilamon's face. The hawk-like Digimon coughed, blinded by the cloud of purple dust, afraid to breathe it in. "Aquilamon!" Yolei called, "Get away, hurry!"

Her partner killed his own speed and dropped like a stone, crashing underneath Sorceressmon and into a couple of trees. The spell caster Digimon laughed, tossing her head back as she watch Aquilamon try to recover. "What fun!" she giggled. "Squashing the flies that get in my way…"

T.K. was on her so suddenly no one could tell how fast he'd been. Soon the two humanoid Digimon were wrestling in mid-air, the others holding back so as not to hurt their comrade.

"You think you're so tough?" Sorceressmon exclaimed, suddenly throwing T.K. off of her. The angel righted himself in mid-air, grinning some strange sort of stupid grin. "I'm more than a match for you!"

"You were." T.K. grinning, holding something up. It was another piece of string, but this one was thicker, more like kite string than the invisibly thin thread from before. Sorceressmon's eyes widened as the boy snapped it in half. "Without this little guideline from your 'Master', you're nothing."

Sorceressmon stiffened, suddenly frightened. T.K. pressed on, looking more vicious than he usually did. "He was giving you your instructions through this, wasn't he? And what about your 'magic'?" he threw the string away, understanding it all. "I bet you don't have any real magic at all. The only power you have is your lame attack!"

Sorceressmon growled, but the others had caught on. They were closing in on Sorceressmon, circling around her. "So her 'master' is the one we're really after, isn't he?" Ken smiled. "He's the one with all the power, so we don't have to worry about getting rid of a puppet, now do we?"

"Guys?" Davis glanced at the Digimon.

"You got it." ExVeemon nodded. "V Laser!"

"Grand Horn!"

"Tail Hammer!"

"Spiking Strike!"

"Hand of Fate!"

With the final attack, Sorceressmon crashed to the ground. She stumbled away, badly wounded, clutching her staff as she disappeared into the trees. "You'll pay for this!" she yelled back at them. "No one will fight against master Jumon! NO ONE!"

She vanished from sight. The Digimon landed near their partners. "Well." Patamon sighed. "She's gone."

"What'd she call her master?" Gatomon asked. "Jumon, wasn't it?"

"Yeah…" Cody sighed quietly. "But what's a Jumon?"

The ground around them suddenly began to shake and rock. They struggled to keep themselves on their feet, looking up. The black castle was glowing red with the 'master's rage and furry. "I think we're about to find out…"