This chapter takes place solely in the Tamer DigiDestined's Earth/world and the main POV is Mie Matsuki's. Enjoy!

Updated: 4/6/21

I DO NOT OWN DIGIMON ADVENTURE 02, TAMERS, FRONTIER OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS!

Chapter 2: Your Worries Are Never Over

Tamer DigiDestined World: Location: The Matsuki Bakery

Mie Matsuki was busy running the storefront of her bakery while her husband Takehiro was pulling out a fresh batch of bread loaves from the oven in the kitchen. Mie frowned after she waved her last customer out the door.

"Honey?" she called to the back room.

"…Yeah?" came his grunted reply.

"Where's Takato?"

"What was that?" Takehiro sighed, bringing the fresh loaves up to the storefront.

"Where's Takato?" Mie repeated. "I haven't seen him in a while."

"Well you know our son," Takehiro sighed. "He's probably out with his friends. …They meet often now, you know. They miss their Digimon partners. It's been six months since the Digimon had to return to the Digital World and they're sorely missed by those kids."

Mie sighed, moving out from behind the counter to rearrange the Guilmon bread rolls on the display shelf. Only Takato's friends ever bought them, but she and her husband just couldn't bring themselves to stop making them. They'd even started to make other treats in the likeliness of Takato's friends' Digimon as well. The Lopmon, Terriermon and Impmon tarts sold the best because they were so cute.

"I know they do, dear," Mie said, picking up a roll. "I rather miss the big guy myself… We never had leftovers with him around."

"That's certainly true," Takehiro chuckled. "I would have made a house out back for him if he'd been able to stay in this world."

"Takato would have liked that," Mie smiled sadly as she rearranged the Guilmon bread display one more time.

"…Why don't we close up early today?" Takehiro suggested. "It's been rather slow anyways and we could use the break."

"I suppose so." Mie nodded.

After the Matsukis closed up shop they situated themselves in the living room with a bowl of popcorn. Mie snuggled up against her husband as the two of them settled down to watch a movie they had found on TV. However, halfway through the flick the screen went blank as if their cable connection had been disconnected. Takehiro was just about to get up to see what was wrong when the picture came back, but it wasn't showing the movie that they'd been watching earlier. The screen was still dark, but they could see the flickering image of a group of kids falling. The muffled sound of screaming filtered it's way through the speakers.

As the image's signal grew stronger, more details could be seen and the sound quality improved. Mie and Takehiro watched with confusion and a growing sense of horror as they saw a group of six kids continue to fall through a dark space. The screen was focused on a brunette wearing a pair of rectangular framed goggles over a green hat that was worn backwards on the boy's head. This boy eerily reminded the Matsukis of their son. As the next few minutes passed by the screams stopped because the boy and the other five children were falling unconscious one after another. Then, to Mie's horror, the other children that could be seen behind the goggle wearing boy started to disappear. First it was the large boy in the blue jumper, then the small boy with the big orange hat. The only girl in the group was next, and soon afterwards the two raven-haired boys disappeared only seconds apart. Now only the goggle wearing brunette was left on the screen.

"Where did they go?" Mie asked, in a small voice.

Her husband didn't answer her. Instead, he reached for the remote.

"I think we've seen enough of this," he told her softly.

Mie nodded mutely, but when Takehiro changed the channel the only thing that changed was the boy. This time they were watching the small boy with the orange hat. Mie's heart unclenched a small bit, seeing that the boy was still relatively fine since he'd vanished from the other channel. As Takehiro flicked through the next few channels, they saw that the other four children that had vanished before were also fine. It was when they cleared the six channels belonging to those children that fear seized them once more with a vengeance. On the seventh channel they saw Henry Wong falling with his little sister Suzie held tightly to his chest. Both were unconscious, but Henry had not loosened his hold on his sister as they fell. Without a word, Takehiro quickly flicked through the other channels, each one now revealing a child that they knew to be a friend of Takato's. But these children weren't just random friends of their son's. They were all children who'd had a Digimon partner like Takato. Finally they reached the channel that they'd feared they'd see.

Takato's.

Mie began to cry. There was no way that the boy wasn't Takato, as much as Mie hoped and prayed that it couldn't be. Somehow, deep down, she knew that the boy on their TV screen was Takato and that the other children on the other channels were Takato's friends that had been involved with the Digimon. The only clear question in her mind was whether the footage was live or not. How long ago had all this started, or had it just happened?

"What's happening?" she gasped. "Where are they?"

"Not at the park," Takehiro said numbly.

"Do you think they've finally tried to go back to the Digital World to see their Digimon?" Mie gasped. "If they have, then something must have gone wrong! This didn't happen last time! We didn't see them on TV!"

Takehiro was quick to try to calm his wife as she began to hyperventilate in her worry.

"It'll be alright Mie," he cooed, running a hand through her hair, saying anything that came to mind that sounded comforting. "Takato came home safely last time and I'm sure he'll come back safely this time too. On the bright side, we've got a way to watch him this time around instead of always worrying about what's happening to him. I'm sure that once he gets to the Digital World again he'll find Guilmon and they'll regroup with the others and find a way home. From the looks of it, there are a lot more of them this time. They'll be all right. Yamaki-!"

Takehiro gasped. Yamaki! Why hadn't he thought of the man sooner? After all, hadn't Yamaki and his Hypnos agency played a huge role in helping bring Takato and the other children back last time? Why not this time?

Takehiro and Mie shared a glance as Mie reached for the house phone, but before she could start dialing, it rang in her hand. Startled, Mie dropped the phone. Takehiro was quick to pick it up and answer.

"Hello?" Takehiro said automatically. "Matsuki residence."

"Takehiro?"

"Janyu," Takehiro sighed, relieved. Mie was doing the same beside him.

"Have you seen what's on TV?" Janyu asked.

"Yes," Takehiro said weakly, putting his phone on speaker so that Mie could listen in on the call. "Is… are those really our children on TV?"

"I'm afraid so," Janyu sighed on the other end. "I was there when they vanished into the ground."

"What?" Takehiro and Mie gasped.

Janyu then explained how the sky had suddenly darkened, lightning flashing, and how the ground seemed to quake yet no trees at the park were disturbed. He described the light that had flashed from a hole in the old empty storage building that Takato used to keep Guilmon hidden in at the park and how the ground had opened up and seemed to swallow the children.

"Yamaki wants all of the children's parents to come to Hypnos HQ," Janyu finally stated. "I suggest that you get here as soon as you can."

"We're leaving now," Takehiro said grimly as he watched Mie rush to the front hall to get her purse and any other important items she thought they would need. "We'll see you soon."

An hour later the Matsukis hurried into the Hypnos building. The programmer, Daisy, recognized them and waved them past security. They followed her directions to take the elevator up to the fourteenth floor, down the hall, and to take the fifth door on the right. The families of the other children and any Hypnos staff member that had been present during the D-Reaper incident six months ago were gathered in the room that the Matsukis now found themselves in. It was a special screening room with a wall that was covered from the floor to the high ceiling with screens and monitors that were all focusing on the ten children Mie knew and recognized. According to Mayumi Wong, Yamaki had ordered some of his staff to prepare live-in suites inside the government building for all eight families. While Mie and Takehiro were all too grateful and eager to accept the offer, they were more concerned for Takato. At the moment all of the children were either still falling through space or had landed somewhere and were lying on the ground unconscious. The children had been separated from each other over the course of their fall except for Henry and Suzie, and little Ai and Mako, who had managed to stay together with their sibling. The first one that had landed and woken up had been Kazu. The Matsukis were standing next to the boy's parents who looked relieved to see that he was alright for the moment. As they all watched the screens, Yamaki could be heard ordering his secretary, Riley, to pull Kazu's channel up on the large main screen in the center of the wall and to air the audio.

To all watching, Kazu appeared to be alone behind what looked like a bunch of old fashioned computer banks from the eighties. Then a boy with auburn hair wearing a pair of round goggles that were similar to the ones that Takato always wore came into view on his screen. Mie didn't recognize this boy as a friend of Takato's or as one of the six other children she and Takehiro had watched before flipping through the channels belonging to the children that they did know. Upon seeing this unknown boy, Mie couldn't help but glance over at one of the screen's airing Takato's channel and was relieved to find that her son was no longer falling. Her heart swelled with joy when she saw his dinosaur Digimon friend, Guilmon, enter the frame and began to nuzzle Takato, trying to wake him. Mie was so caught up in what she was watching on her son's channel that she jumped a bit when she heard Kazu's voice boom out through the room's speakers. Her attention immediately snapped back to the main screen.

"Who are you?" Kazu asked the auburn haired boy, straightening the visor he was wearing.

"Actually I was just going to ask you the same question," the boy said. "I'm Davis."

The boy held out his hand and Kazu took it.

"Kazu." He grinned. "I was beginning to think I was alone here."

A couple seconds later all the watching parents saw Davis' channel pop up next to Kazu's on the large screen.

"Davish?" a voice with a lisp called from somewhere off both the boys' screens. "Who are ya talkin' to?"

Davis was helping Kazu get out from behind the bulky computer banks when a blue waist high dinosaur looking Digimon came into view to meet the boys.

"Davish, who'sh that?" it asked.

"Kazu," Davis grunted as he finally pulled Kazu out.

"Thanks," Kazu said, grinning. "Wow! You have a Digimon too! A Veemon!"

"Davish, who'sh that?" the Veemon asked again.

"Dunno," Davis admitted. "Found him while I was looking for a way to turn off the power."

"Why would you want to do that?" Kazu asked.

"A friend of ours is stuck in the wires and we can't move him until we turn off the power source so that he won't get electrocuted," Davis explained.

Another channel was then pulled up on the big screen with Kazu and Davis'. The boy shown on this channel looked older than Davis and Kazu and was a gangly redhead. It was obvious that he was in trouble, tangled in a bunch of exposed cables and wires. A red beetle insect Digimon was with him, trying to keep the boy from moving and electrocuting himself. Mie and many of the other parents gasped when they saw him. What if that happened to one of their children? It made Mie quickly glance back at Takato's channel, if only to reassure herself that Takato was still relatively safe.

"Wait," Davis' puzzled voice echoed through the speakers and drew everyone's attention back to his and Kazu's channels. "You said 'you have a Digimon too.' What did you mean by that? Are you saying you're a DigiDestined like I am?"

"A DigiDestined?" Kazu repeated. "Well, yeah, of course I am, but everyone in my group prefer to be called Digimon Tamers. I haven't seen him in a while, but my partner is-!"

"Kazu!" a robotic voice cried out off screen like the Veemon's voice had.

The two boys and the Veemon turned towards the source of the voice and soon a vaguely humanoid and bulky machine Digimon came into view on Kazu's screen. Mie recognized this Digimon as Kazu's Digimon partner.

"Guardromon!" Kazu exclaimed. "You're here!"

"Kazu!" the robot Digimon cried. "You have no idea what I've been through! After I returned to the Digital World with the others everything seemed to be fine, but today there was a terrible electrical surge and beams from the core shot out at us and pulled us all into different fields. I arrived here and tried to perform a life form scan but there was electrical interference so I came to the source to shut it down and see if it enables me to perform my scan, but thank the Sovereign you're here!"

"No worries!" Kazu grinned. "I'm glad you're here too."

"Ah, Kazu?" Davis said, trying to catch his attention.

"Oh yeah!" Kazu gasped. "Guardromon, this is Davis and his partner Veemon. They have a friend who's in trouble and needs the power shut off as soon as possible. Can you do that bud?"

"Roger!" the robot chirped, stretching out an arm, shooting out tiny cables that attached themselves to the nearest computer bank.

"Processing…" the Digimon hummed, lights flashing across his eye sockets.

"…Far wall, third switch," he replied finally and pointed to what must have been a wall off screen.

Davis rushed off of Kazu's screen, but his own channel didn't lose sight of him, not even for a second. He ended up tripping over another boy and as this one sat up he rubbed the back of his head staring grumpily at Davis. It didn't take long for Yamaki's people to find this boy's channel and pop it up with the other three. Mie recognized this boy as the boy in the blue jumper that had been on one of the first six channels she had watched with her husband.

"Thanks, kid," the boy grumbled. "The one part of my body that didn't hurt now does."

"Sorry about that," Davis laughed, but that only seemed to annoy the bigger boy further.

"Davish, whatcha doin' now?" Veemon cried exasperatedly from Kazu's screen since he was still with Kazu and Guardromon. "Do ya wanna help Izzi or not?"

"Izzi must be the redhead," Takehiro muttered beside Mie, glancing sympathetically at the poor boy's channel below Kazu's.

"Ah!" Davis panicked, suddenly jumping to his feet and rushing to a wall.

"Which one again?!" he called out.

"Third," came Guardromon's replied.

"Say," the new boy said, joining him. "What are you doing?"

Davis flipped a switch of some kind and instantly all of the screens on the wall went dark. There wasn't even any audio. This caused everyone's heart to sink.

"Kazu?" Kazu's mother, Takako, whispered before breaking down into tears. Mie tried to console the worried mother while Takehiro tried to comfort Hirofumi Shioda, but it was hardly effective. They were just as concerned for the other children as well. Mie couldn't help but glance up at the blank screen that had been monitoring Takato's channel, praying that it would turn back on soon so that she could see her son.

While Yamaki had his technical staff work on bringing the feed back up again, the Matsukis and the other seven families were shown to the floor above where suites had been prepared for them. After a quick tour, many of the families left Hypnos HQ to get some things from home or to call their employers to take time off work, but Mie stayed in the building while Takehiro left to properly close up the bakery and retrieved a few things from home. She had spent the better half of the last hour in the lounge outside the Wong family's suite with Mayumi and Rika Makino's Grandmother, Seiko.

"I can't believe that this is happening again," Seiko fretted.

"Poor Takako," Mayumi said sadly. "She's always been a worrier, but…"

"I can't blame her," Mie sighed, shaking her head. "How many times must this happen? I thought that it was bad before, but this time…"

"…It seems worse somehow," Mayumi agreed, glancing at her remaining son and daughter as they fought over who was going to get which bed in the Wong family suite. "This time we can actually keep an eye on them, but that makes me feel even more helpless…"

"Exactly," Seiko agreed sadly. "Before, we could just pretend that they were off on a trip or something. We never knew or could imagine what kinds of dangers our children were facing, so it was easier to pretend. To resume normalcy when they came home and the Digimon were gone. I know that's what Rumiko did."

Mayumi and Mie sighed, nodding slowly.

"Mom!" Rinchei suddenly cried, rushing out of the suite of rooms, "I just got a text from Dad! He says that the feed is back online!"

Hearing this, the two mothers and the grandmother quickly rose to their feet, rushing to the elevator while calling out to the other parents as they went. Mie was relieved to see Takehiro already inside the monitoring room.

"What's happening?" she demanded.

"That Izzi kid is awake," he commented, gesturing to the large middle screen where the redheaded teenager was typing away on a laptop computer. "And Takato's now a-!"

"Kenta!" Akemi Kitagawa suddenly screamed as she watched one of the TV's monitoring her son.

Yamaki barked out an order of some kind, clearing the middle screen of the four channels concentrated on Kazu, Davis, Izzi, and the boy in the blue jumper. Kenta's channel and four others quickly replaced them. Mie and Takehiro recognized the small boy with the big orange hat. The other three channels were focused on an older boy with indigo blue hair wearing glasses, a curly haired blond Caucasian boy, and a small brunet boy. All five boys were frozen in ice. This startled all those watching. When had that happened? What had happened during that hour that the feed had been off?

Mie glanced at Takato's channel worriedly, once again relieved to see that her son was all right. He was even awake! At the moment Takato and Guilmon appeared to be traveling down a tunnel on their own.

"Kenta…"

Mie guiltily returned her attention to the distraught Kitagawa parents. Akemi wasn't taking it well at all. Shiyunsuke seemed to be faring better, but not by much. The father was just barely keeping it together at this point. Mie glanced up at the observation platform where she could see Yamaki and Janyu working. Yamaki then turned to Shibumi suddenly. A couple seconds later a scream filled the air and Mie's blood froze. It was Takato's voice. Mie instantly returned her attention to the main screen that was now airing Takato's channel.

Takato was falling over a cliff edge, plummeting for the stone floor below. Mie gasped, hands flying to her mouth as tears filled her eyes. She could vaguely feel Takehiro's hand grip her right arm, and a few others hold onto her left, but she only had eyes for her son as his scream echoed around the room and inside her head. Suddenly Takato stopped falling and his surprised gasp whooshed out of the speakers, followed by a grunt.

Another channel popped up beside Takato's and Mie recognized the first boy she and Takehiro had seen on TV when all of this began. The boy with the rectangular framed goggles was holding on to Takato's hand.

"I'm coming, Takato, I'm coming," Guilmon's voice filtered through the speakers. "I'm coming, Takato."

Mie could see that the unknown boy was doing everything he could to maintain his hold on Takato's hand, but even she could see that his grip was starting to slip.

"Hang on," the boy grunted. "Try grabbing on with your other hand."

The Matsudas were relieved when Takato did as he was told so that he now held onto the boy's hand with both of his. When Guilmon finally reached the boys' ledge and grabbed the unknown boy around the middle, Mie nearly cried with relief to see the Digimon lift both boys easily. They then lay gasping on the ledge, their backs against the cliff face.

"Thanks," Takato breathed.

"No problem," the other replied, one hand clutching at his chest.

"Are you ok, Takato?" Guilmon asked softly.

"Yeah," Takato replied with a small tight smile. "Thanks, Guilmon. You saved us."

"There wouldn't have been a Takato to save if the boy hadn't saved you first," Guilmon said glumly.

"It's no big deal, buddy," the unknown boy grinned. "It was you who saved us in the end. I'm Takuya by the way."

Mie felt a huge surge of gratitude for this Takuya boy. He looked to be around Takato's age, maybe a year older, but whoever he was, he'd saved her son, and for that she was eternally grateful as she watched him shake her son's hand.

"Takato." Takato nodded, introducing himself. "And this is Guilmon, my Digimon partner."

He appeared to stiffen after that statement, but whatever kind of worrisome thoughts that had entered Takato's head seemed to be dispelled by Takuya's next comment.

"Ah," the other boy huffed, smiling. "I thought he was a Digimon. We don't see too many talking dinosaurs in our world now do we? I was starting to think that I might have been taken on a journey to the center of the earth until I saw him. So does that make this some part of the Digital World?"

"Not sure," Takato shrugged. "I woke up in a tunnel up there. Guilmon was with me and we are looking for our friends."

Takuya nodded.

"Same here, but I woke up down there," he said, pointing down to what must have been a tunnel entrance below them. "I decided to climb up here to see if I could find anyone. I was taking a break when you fell from the cliff above. Are you a DigiDestined too?"

"Ah…" Takato blinked. "Yes, but my friends and I call ourselves Digimon Tamers."

"I see," Takuya said. "Well my friends and I were called DigiDestined by Lady Ophanimon when we first arrived in the Digital World, although I think I'm the only one who remembers that."

"Don't you have a Digimon partner then?" Takato asked.

"No," Takuya said, continuing to smile. "Not like Guilmon anyway. I have a Legendary Digimon Warrior's spirit for a partner. With it I can transform into the Legendary Warrior of Fire, Agunimon. My friends and I were mostly known as the Legendary Warriors reborn."

Takato appeared to be confused by what Takuya had said.

"So what now, Takato?" Guilmon asked his Tamer. "Do we go back up or do we continue going down?"

"Down," both Takato and Takuya gasped with a laugh, many of the parents agreeing wholeheartedly with the sentiment.

When the two finally reached the bottom of the cliffside safely, Mie was finally able to relax. Takato was no longer alone. He had Guilmon and this boy Takuya with him now. Surely he would be safe now… right?

Poor Mie. The dangers are only going to get worse. How will the parents cope with what is to come? Find out next time on Digimon: Digital Monsters!

Well that's Mie's chapter. Now I've done an Adventure and Tamers chapter. Next one is obviously a Frontier chapter! :D

Ok, some fun facts about this chapter. I had originally planed to stop this chapter where I'd left it off in chapter 20, but I felt that that was too short and that it didn't incorporate Takato in it much at all even though this was in his parent's POV, so (for those of you who've already read UGotD) now you can see time-wise where Takato, Takuya and Tai's story from chapter 10 fits in with everyone else's. If you guys would like to see any particular part of UGotD from the parents side, feel free to let me know what part and what parent and I'll see what I can do to make that happen! ^_^