Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A/N: I can't believe I've reached over 200! Thanks for all of the reviews. You guys are awesome! Oh, and someone's going to digivolve soon. Who's it going to be?

Following the Footsteps of Destiny

Chapter 34: Lost In The Dark

Ryoko Ishida

Server, Eastern Hemisphere, Digital World

Ryoko Ishida sprinted through the darkness, heading towards the right-hand tunnel that he and friends had passed earlier. The sound of his harsh breathing echoed off of the walls, and he could hear someone coming down the corridor after him.

He glanced over his shoulder and let out a gasp. There was no one within sight of him, at the moment, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before they caught up to him.

I really hope this plan works. It's the only way to stop them from going after Dai. That is, if they don't decide to head back and kill him anyway, just for fun!

His heart filled with sudden fear at the thought, and he jumped when he realized that he was no longer running down a narrow corridor. Instead he found himself in a small chamber and stumbled to a halt. Several large pillars rose to the ceiling, and they looked like they were made out of stone. The rest of the room was filled with large boulders, and he let out a sigh of relief. It was a perfect place to play a little game of hide-and-seek.

All I have to do is distract BlackWidowmon and Gnomemon long enough to give the others a chance to free our digimon. It's our only chance of making it out of this place alive.

He glanced once more over his shoulder and quickly crouched behind a few of the larger boulders, next to the wall. The room was very dark so there was a good chance that BlackWidowmon and Gnomemon would pass right by him without even seeing him. There was another door on the other side of the chamber, and it was important if his plan was going to work. Hopefully BlackWidowmon and Gnomemon would continue on through the other door when they did not immediately spot him in the room. That way he could slip back the way he had come and reach the others in time for them all to make an escape.

I just hope that they have enough time to free Alopemon and the other digimon.

That was another reason why he had offered himself up as bait. Hopefully his friends had gotten the hint. They not only had to protect Dai, they had to save their digimon, as well.

"Come back here, human!" Gnomemon shouted, and Ryoko jumped at the sudden voice.

He quickly flattened himself against the wall, and he held his breath. A moment later, someone entered the room, and it was all he could do not to bolt for the other door.

"I know you're in here somewhere," Gnomemon muttered, moving slowly into the room. "Now quit wasting my time! I have better things to do than follow you around!"

Where's BlackWidowmon?

He held Dai's D-Coder tightly to his chest and put a hand over his mouth, to stop himself from letting out a gasp of dismay. He had been so sure that BlackWidowmon would follow him, along with Gnomemon, because he had Dai's Digivice in his possession. For some reason BlackWidowmon was very eager to destroy the leader of the Digidestined and steal the red D-Coder.

She probably thinks that the rest of us will fall like flies once Dai is out of the picture.

He was not exactly sure when he and the others had started thinking of Dai as their leader, but for some reason it seemed to fit. He was convinced that that was what Piximon had been hinting at. Besides, the bad guys obviously thought that Dai was the leader of the Digidestined, and that had to mean something.

I guess I was wrong about BlackWidowmon, which means...she's still back there with my friends! I'm so stupid! How could I have just abandoned them like that? If anything happens to Dai, it'll be all my fault!

Now his friends were in trouble, and he was stuck all alone in a dark room with an evil digimon who was trying to kill him.

I've really got to stop getting myself into these types of situations! How am I suppose to make it back in time to help the others?

The only answer he received was a harsh laugh as Gnomemon headed in his direction.

Takara Kamiya

Server, Eastern Hemisphere, Digital World

"Takara, hurry! You've got to help us get free!" Halomon cried, glancing anxiously towards the door.

Takara gently laid Dai's head against the floor and gave the goggle headed leader a quick hug. "I'll be back," she whispered softly in his ear.

She got to her feet, glancing once more at Dai, and quickly hurried over to Halomon and the other digimon.

"Why don't you guys just use your attacks to get free?" she asked, tugging on the webs that circled Angelicmon.

"We can't," the angel digimon replied. "It's too risky. We could end up doing real damage to ourselves. What use would we be to Matty and the others if that happened?"

"Good point. I hadn't thought of that."

She yanked hard on the sticky webs that surrounded him and let out a sigh of frustration. "There's only one problem. How am I suppose to free you guys? These webs are really tough. There's no way I'll be able to break them on my own!"

"You have to think of something," Angelicmon replied. "Ryoko and the others are running out of time!"

She glanced anxiously towards the door and bit her lip. BlackWidowmon had left the room about a minute ago, to chase after Sam and the twins, and there was a good chance that the spider digimon had already caught up to them. If she did not do something soon, her friends were going to end up dead.

"Well? We don't have all day, you know!" Ogremon grumbled.

She glanced around the room and frowned.

There must be something in here that I can use to break BlackWidowmon's webs.

Her eyes came to rest on a small rock that was lying near the pedestal. It had a sharp edge on one side, and there was a good chance that she could use it to saw through the webs that surrounded the digimon.

"I have an idea," she announced, leaping to her feet and heading towards the pedestal. She quickly grabbed the rock and hurried back over to the digimon who were watching her curiously.

"Now sit still," she said, taking hold of the webs that surrounded Alopemon. "I'm going to try to cut through these webs. I hope this plan works because I'm out of ideas!"

Hundreds of rocks littered the floor, but none of them looked any more useful than the one that she held in her hand. It was going to have to be enough.

She started to cut through the webs that circled Alopemon, and when she was halfway done, the little rookie was able to break out on his own.

"Now let's hurry and free the others," Alopemon said quietly, ignoring her loud sigh of relief.

It took them several minutes to cut the other digimon loose, but finally Halomon, Embermon, Ogremon, and Angelicmon were able to stand on their feet again.

"Be careful," she whispered, gazing at the five digimon with fear in her eyes.

Angelicmon placed a hand against her cheek and gave her a warm smile. "Don't worry, Kara. We will make sure that Matty and the others remain safe."

Embermon suddenly stepped forward and gazed at her with dark stormy eyes. "Take care of Dai for me," the little rookie said quietly. "I want to stay, but I can't. I have to help the others."

"I know," she said softly, giving Embermon a quick hug. "Don't feel guilty. That's exactly what Dai would have wanted you to do."

Embermon nodded, and Alopemon motioned for the other digimon to follow him. "Come on, let's go find our partners. There's no way I'm going to let anything happen to Ryoko, and I'm not going to let anything happen to the rest of our human friends, either!"

The digimon raced off through the door, and Takara found herself alone in the room with Dai. She headed back over to the goggle headed leader's side, and she gently placed a hand against his heart. I hope it's not too late to save Ryoko and the others.

"Don't worry," she whispered softly, giving her friend a quick kiss on the cheek. "Alopemon and the other digimon will save them."

Dai did not respond, and she gave his hand a squeeze. Despite her words, she still had a horrible feeling that she was going to end up losing all of her friends, including Dai.

Sam Ichijouji

Server, Eastern Hemisphere, Digital World

"This way!" Sam called out, racing down the tunnel with the twins right behind him.

It was extremely dark in the cave, and he had no idea where he was going. At the moment, though, he did not really care. All he wanted to do was get away from BlackWidowmon. They could worry about where they were later.

"Those D-Coders are mine!" BlackWidowmon shrieked, from somewhere behind them.

"Sam, this is crazy! There's no way we'll be able to outrun her!" Matty cried, stumbling over a small rock.

Sam managed to catch the younger twin's arm and pulled the other boy to his feet.

"Come on," he said, taking hold of Matty's wrist. He dragged the younger twin into a side tunnel that disappeared into the darkness.

Mickey followed after them, looking anxious, and they quickly hid behind a group of large boulders.

A moment later, BlackWidowmon ran past them and disappeared around the corner.

Sam sat down on the ground between Mickey and Matty, and he let out a sigh of relief.

"Where are we?" Mickey asked, hugging himself and staring down the dark tunnel.

Matty leaned his head back against the wall and let out a loud groan. "I think we're lost!"

"Ryoko," Mickey whispered, his voice trembling.

Sam put his arms around the older twin in a comforting hug and stared over Mickey's blond head at the tunnel that BlackWidowmon had recently passed through.

"I think we're near the entrance to the cave," he whispered, giving Mickey a reassuring smile.

Both twins were huddled against his sides, and he could feel them shaking with fear.

"How can you be so sure?" Matty asked.

"Keep your voice down!" Mickey hissed, giving his twin a dirty look.

"Sorry," Matty mumbled, his face turning red with embarrassment.

"This is one of the tunnels that we passed by earlier," Sam said quietly. "Don't you guys remember? The first time we came to an intersection, we chose the right-hand tunnel. This is the left-hand tunnel."

"Do you know what that means?" Mickey whispered, his face filling with horror. "BlackWidowmon's going to end up back at the entrance to the cave. She knows that we would never abandon our friends, and that means she's going to come back here looking for us!"

"We have to get out of here, now!" Matty gasped, scrambling to his feet.

Mickey leaped up and grabbed Matty to stop him from rushing off.

"Will you wait a second?" the older twin said, looking exasperated. "We can't just go rushing off without any idea of where we're going. We have to find Ryoko."

"What if Gnomemon has already caught him?" Matty whispered, his eyes sparkling with fear. "What if he's dead?"

"He's not dead!" Mickey snapped, turning away and covering his face with his hands.

Matty lifted his chin and poked Mickey in the back, to get his brother's attention. "Maybe not, but he will be if we don't find him soon! How are we suppose to do that? He could be anywhere!"

Mickey's face was very pale, and the older twin did not answer.

"There has to be a way," Sam murmured.

His D-Coder gave off a sudden loud beep, and they all jumped.

"What's going on?" Mickey asked, moving over to stand next to him.

He glanced down at his D-Coder and frowned in confusion. There were six small coloured dots flashing on it's screen, and it was glowing a faint purple.

"Look! Mine's doing it, too!" Matty gasped, holding up his D-Coder.

"So is mine," Mickey murmured.

Matty exchanged a look with Mickey and frowned. "What do you think it means?"

Sam glanced a Takara's D-Coder in confusion, and then he smiled. "I think I get it! Look! These dots are all the same colours as our D-Coders! See? The green, yellow, orange, and purple dots are all together. Since I have Takara's D-Coder, the green dot's almost on top of the purple one!"

"Then that blue dot must be Ryoko!" Matty said happily.

Mickey nodded and smiled. "Since Ryoko's carrying Dai's D-Coder with him, the red dot is almost on top of the blue!"

"Exactly!" Sam replied. "Somehow our D-Coders have managed to pick up each other's signals. They must all be connected in some way!"

"So as long as we have our Digivices, we'll always be able to find each other again," Mickey said softly.

"I just hope we find Ryoko and not his dead body!" Matty muttered.

"Will you stop?" Mickey shouted, glaring at his twin.

Matty made a face at Mickey, and Sam rolled his eyes. They had to choose now to get into a fight, didn't they! He was convinced that they always chose the worst moments to shout at each other on purpose!

"Let me know when you're finished fighting, and then we'll go find Ryoko," he said, trying not to smile.

"Oh, be quiet!" Mickey mumbled, stalking off down the tunnel back the way they had come.

"Mickey might be pretty quiet most of the time, but it's a whole different story when he's angry!" Sam laughed.

Matty let out a snort and rolled his eyes. "That's for sure!"

Keeping one eye on his D-Coder, Sam quickly headed down the hallway after Mickey, with Matty right behind him.

"This way!" Mickey shouted, racing towards the right-hand tunnel that they had passed earlier when looking for Alopemon.

Hang on, Ryoko! We're coming!

He just hoped that Ryoko still had his Digivice on him.

What if Gnomemon has it?

Whether Ryoko was dead or not, there was still a good chance that the virus digimon had managed to steal the blue D-Coder. If that was the case, then Gnomemon had his hands on Dai's D-Coder, as well.

Their coloured dots were moving slowly closer to the blue one on the screen. He just hoped that they were headed for the right person.