Chapter 6:

You never know who you love or how much you love them until you hear that they're in danger.

The Little Teenaged Geek (not that he would know anything)

Hunger finally forced Tina out of the bathroom. Her mother was very disappointed in her, and had sent her to her room without dinner. Tina felt awful, and her stomach hurt from all the hunger. She emptied the water she had drunk from the bathroom faucets into her pillow through her eyes. She looked at her Olympic medal with disgust. She was extremely tempted to throw it out the window, but something restrained her from that. She threw it at her dresser instead, and it landed safely in her sock drawer.

All of a sudden, she heard some shouting downstairs. She disobeyed her mother's command to stay in her room and she walked to the stairs, but only caught a glimpse of something camouflage-colored racing out the front door. She looked out the window and saw a military jeep driving away. She barely heard her mother yell, "I knew Ken shouldn't have given that thing to Izzy! That's what this is about, isn't it!"

What on earth? Tina asked herself. "Hawkmon, what's going on?"

"Those soldiers just took your mother away. I told them that she wasn't going anywhere without an explanation, and they ignored me."

"What! Why would they do this?"

"I don't know," she replied. "The last thing Yolei yelled was 'take care of our daughter!'"

Tina put her hands on her hips. "That's not the last thing that I heard her say. I heard her yell, 'Ken shouldn't have given it to Izzy!' What was she talking about?"

"Look, Tina, you need to trust me," Hawkmon said. "I know what it is, but, if your parents haven't told you---"

"She was talking about that thing Dad give 'Izzy' at the airport, wasn't she?"

"You---you saw?"

"And Dad promised to tell me what it was."

There was a pause. Hawkmon hadn't heard Yolei say that Ken didn't want Tina to hear about the DVD. She stood for a moment, wondering. "Excuse me, Tina---I need to think about this."

Tina felt very hurt that the family was keeping something from her. She was not a little kid anymore; she would be able to handle and understand any truth that was being kept from her. Besides, she had a drive for adventure. (It was her drive for adventure that had brought her to the Olympic Games to begin with.) If there was some family secret in this, she wanted to know. Her resentment---not to mention her fear of her parents' fate---squeezed more than a few tears more out her eyes.

Finally, Hawkmon called her. "I've decided that it's time you knew."

She sat down on the living room couch. "Knew what?"

"It's a long story. It all started when your parents were about your age. If you think they can fight now---"

"What!"

"Your father---you get quite a few 'smart' genes from him. But he didn't always use his intelligence for good…he used it for evil when he was about twelve."

"How?"

"He was a Digidestined, and he knew about the Digital World. He used his computer to make himself into the Digimon Emperor."

"The what?"

"He was an evil Digidestined who took control of digimon's minds and made them do his bidding. He fought the good Digidestined heroes and Yolei was one of the good ones."

"What does that have to do with the soldiers taking Mom away?"

"Ken---he got into some deep research when he was trying to control the Digiworld. He found out how to make a digimon from scratch computer data, and---there was something so awful---"

Tina punched her way through the tears that were pouring onto her soul. With a wavering voice, she demanded, "I'm old enough to handle it. Tell me what's going on."

"For a while---he was working on computer code to a digimon that would have the power to destroy the Digiworld."

Tina's mouth dropped open. "He didn't destroy the datacubes that had that code when he converted and became a good guy?"

"No. The research that went into the Doomsday Digimon took a lot of work---he wanted to give it to science when he thought the world was ready for it."

"But it wasn't a datacube that Dad gave to Izzy, it was some flat round gold-thingamajig."

"Back then, people used discs to store data, not datacubes. That was a DVD disc, and it had Ken's entire research on it---including the complete code to the Doomsday Digimon."

"So why did the soldiers take Mom away if it's Dad who's behind it?"

"They made her take her digivice, so…we're guessing that it has to do with the fact that she's a D3 Digidestined."

"D3?"

"They carried a special type of digivice that let them open digiports through computers into the Digiworld. We're guessing that they were going to make them open up digiports to the Digiworld to get everyone out of there covertly."

"Why? If they need to evacuate the Digiworld, then why not just send everyone by space ferry?"

"It would take too long and be too conspicuous is our guess."

"But---that means that the army---"

"---thinks that the disc has fallen into the wrong hands," Hawkmon finished.

Tina's face went pale. If that disc had a doomsday weapon on it, then that could spell doom for the Digiworld. All her friends had relatives who lived in the Digiworld, and she wouldn't be surprised if some of her friends were vacationing there. She leaned forward and buried her face in her hands: her life had just gotten more dangerous and more complicated than ever---and, if it was true that someone could destroy the Digiworld, then everyone's life might be wrecked, too…or, for some, even ended.