The rest of the evening remained relatively calm. The friends enjoyed each other, and were abuzz with the excitement of the couple within their group finding each other. Tai found himself fondly reflecting on the past adventures, past insurmountable odds, the triumphs… the losses. He stood silently watching the conversations, the laughter, while he looked deeper into himself. He found it difficult to focus on any one particular moment or train of thought. He watched everything happening in front of him obliviously. He felt slightly light headed and slid down the wall into a sitting position on the floor.

"Tai… Tai?" He heard his name and worked to bring himself to the present. He turned his head to the voice and smirked.

"Hmm?" he raised his eyebrows at T.K.

"You seem a million miles away," T.K. shrugged.

Tai took a deep breath and scratched his head, "Oh, just tired I guess."

"I see," T.K. responded. "How's your arm?"

Tai found he was absently rubbing the injury, "Not bad, actually."

"Good," T.K. replied. "You seem to be in another world."

"Just tired," Tai shook his head.

"Yeah, you said that," T.K. replied unconvinced.

"Yeah, well it must be true," Tai flashed T.K. a brief smile raising his eyebrows and pulled himself into a standing position. He felt the room become a bit warmer than he was accustomed to. He looked around and staggered a little and then clasped onto a nearby kitchen chair catching his balance.

"Woah, Tai," T.K. exclaimed drawing everyone's attention.

Tai smiled thinly, "It's okay, really. My leg fell asleep." The room quieted down, and Tai found all eyes on him. "I'm sorry guys, I just have a lot going on. I will see you later." The heat was beginning to close him in. He felt his head become a bit clearer, as if he had to get used to the altitude of standing and he walked towards the door.

Kari stood and hurried to Tai's side, "are you sure you're okay? You can crash in the bedroom tonight, seriously."

"No, it's fine, I'm just a little warm. I just had a long day," Tai reassured her. "Besides, I don't want to let this affect your party."

"Tai, you're my brother. Ruining my parties is what you are supposed to do," she joked.

"Cute," Tai replied. "Be good, sis. I'm proud of you." He playfully tousled her hair and walked out the door. He took a deep breath and walked slowly down the hall. The cooler outside air provided what he needed for his second wind. He walked cautiously towards the train station taking deep breaths, keeping his head clear. He looked down at his sore arm, pushing up the jacket and shirtsleeve. The cut seemed like nothing extraordinary. He shook his head wondering if anything really happened the way he thought they had. Maybe it was a bizarre allergy that was aggravated by his childhood home. Bizarre allergies that made him hallucinate little men from alternate dimensions. He shook his head.

"Tai," he stopped and turned to see an out of breath Izzy running towards him.

"What are you doing?" Tai asked.

"Kari," he breathed, "sh she asked me to follow you."

"Ah man, no, you should be back there with her," Tai groaned.

"It's okay, people pretty much are packing up and leaving anyway."

"Great, I ruined my sister's party."

"Not really it's been almost 4 hours."

"Really?" Tai frowned. "It seemed a lot shorter."

"You seemed absent the whole time."

"Just lost in my thoughts… or from my thoughts… not quite sure," Tai thought aloud.

"Uh… Okay," Izzy responded. "How's your arm?"

"Wish everybody would just forget about the arm," Tai growled.

"It's kind of hard to, considering the whole neighboring digiworld dimension leprechaun with a long sword, which you left back at your parent's place by the way," Izzy explained.

Tai turned cautiously to face Izzy, "Oh, so it did happen."

"Well, yeah. What's going on?"

"Nothing," Tai turned away. He felt his arm throb. He pushed up his sleeve up again. Blood ran dark and thick down his arm. "Oh," he said and slumped down to the ground slipping into unconsciousness.

"Tai? Tai!" Izzy called to his friend on the ground. He patted Tai on the cheek trying to snap him awake. "Tai!" he called. He chewed on his lip reaching into his pocket pulling out his cell phone. He furiously pressed buttons placed it up against his ear.

"Joe, it's Tai," he paused, "Yes, this is Izzy, but Tai, he's out cold," he frowned. "On the pavement…" shaking his head in understanding, "Oh, right out by the train station, the one close to the Kamiya residence."

He paused, "What and tell them he was sliced with some sort of dark energy from a neighboring universe?" He sighed, "That's what I thought."

"Bring him in and lay him on the bed," Joe directed Izzy and Matt dragging a slumped Tai between them.

"What has he been eating?" Matt groaned while they laid him down onto a futon in an apartment Joe shared with his brother, Jim.

Joe bent down his ear close to Tai's mouth. "He's breathing," he mumbled while he put his fingers on Tai's neck. "Pulse seems a bit fast," he looked at his watch. Joe looked up to see Izzy and Matt stare at him. "Uh, put some pillows under his feet. How long has he been out?"

"He's been out the whole time we dragged him here," Izzy replied.

Joe looked at Tai's arm, "here let's get this jacket off." They pulled off the jacket and then ripped the shirtsleeve away. "Wow, you didn't try to stop the bleeding?"

"It wasn't bleeding, at least it wasn't a while ago," Izzy replied.

"Strange," Joe replied. He started tying gauze around his arm pressing down on the wound.

A quiet knock came from the door. Joe nodded to Izzy.

Izzy opened the door to Kari carrying a large white parcel. "Come in."

"How is he?"

"Alive, but unconscious," Izzy answered softly.

"Here's the sword," she said.

"Be careful," came a voice from lower down. Izzy looked down and saw Gatomon walk in. "It seems to rub off easily, look at the sheet."

They unrolled the sword and saw the cloth that had been in contact with the blade turned a dark shade of gray.

"That pierced his skin," Izzy said.

He and Kari shared a solemn look, "don't worry," Izzy soothed, "we'll figure it out."

Kari's eyes glistened as she nodded.

Kari sat next to her brother, holding his hand in hers. She kept reminding herself to keep being brave. This was her big brother. He was going to pull through. He had to!

"Tai, oh Tai! I need to know what to do! I'm lost without my big brother," she sighed.

Izzy looked in on Kari from the doorway, feeling helpless, not knowing how to comfort her. He thought for a moment. He turned to Joe, "I've got to go get my computer. I'll be back in an hour."

Joe nodded.

As Izzy headed out the door, he met up with a vaguely familiar face as he rushed off. "Joe, your brother's here!"

"I got the supplies you asked for," Jim said placing the box on the floor.

"Great," Joe dug through the supplies.

"Medical supplies?" Matt questioned, "how did you… ?"

"Don't ask," Joe stopped him mid-sentence.

Matt nodded and smirked. "I didn't think you would ever break a rule, Joe."

"Yeah, well, when the circumstance demands it."

"No, I totally agree. Just good to see you reach out from your comfort zone."

"I'm not going to be comfortable for awhile. This is not good, Matt." He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He placed several small glass bottles into his pocket with a couple of syringes. He pulled out an IV bag and disappeared into the adjoining room.

Izzy returned with his laptop, and his satellite connection. Matt frowned at the object, "It's all in who you know," Izzy answered the pending question. By the time he arrived, Sora and Yolei were in the living area looking concerned.

"Do any of you have your D terminals?"

They nodded looking back at him.

"I'm not sure how I'm going to do this, but I'm going to try to contact with Jenai or even Tentamon."

"So you haven't kept in contact?" Yolei asked.

"No, I've been busy," he muttered. He kept silent while hooking up the power and internet connections. He pulled out a cache of wires from his bag, several with electrical tape.

"What's that? Yolie pointed.

"Digimon devices aren't always compatible, regardless of technical guidelines. Yea, they still haven't required compatibility with dimensional shifts in the R.F.C.'s. So, I've had to make some adjustments." He pulled out a spool of a thin copper wire encased in a clear plastic shell, "I'm still making adjustments." He laid out his tools over the table, using the electrical tape when necessary. Yolei helped when she could, holding this and that.

"Cross your fingers," he cautioned as he powered up his equipment. Everybody crowded behind him.

"PRODIGUS!" he exclaimed as the digital world displayed upon his laptop. "Now to track somebody, anybody," Izzy started typing coordinates from memory, hailing his friends.

"Izzy…" Kari cried from the bedroom doorway.

Izzy looked up, "what's going on?"

"He's gone. Tai has disappeared."