Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. (That's it. Once should be enough, right? )

A/N: Another short chapter, but trust me, I'll be getting back to long ones soon. Not much to say at this point except that I've gotten into the chapters that I suspected all along might be the hardest ones to write. They've been causing me a bit of trouble (I'm referring here to chapters that will come after chapter 154) but as usual I will do the best I can to update regularly. Basically, at this point in the story, I have to be pretty careful with what I write so I don't contradict myself with regards to something I may have written earlier in the story. Hope you all enjoy!

Following the Footsteps of Destiny

Chapter 148: Liberate Sam

Makiya 'Mickey' Takaishi

File Island, Eastern Hemisphere, Digital World

"What was that?" Embermon demanded, backing up a few paces and frowning suspiciously at the forest. Beside the little rookie, Tirimon was crouched at the edge of the trees, and he looked ready to pounce on the first thing that grew brave enough to step out of the forest. Unable to stand the suspense any longer, Mickey slowly stepped up behind the two digimon and stared at the tops of the trees in silent disbelief, his amber gaze focused on the spot where only moments ago he had witnessed a single ray of golden light shoot straight up into the sky, its brilliant glow acting like a shield to push away the darkness. Its sudden appearance had startled the golden-haired Digidestined, but before he had even had a chance to react, the glowing beam of light hovering above the trees had suddenly split up into seven smaller beams, each one so bright and powerful it had been almost painful just to gaze upon their brilliance. Right before Mickey's eyes, the seven glowing beacons had descended back towards the ground, disappearing somewhere within the forest. Oddly enough, it wasn't the presence of something so beautiful shooting out of the darkness that had caused Mickey to stand there with his mouth hanging open and his eyes nearly popping out of his head. It was the fact that what he had just witnessed never should have happened in the first place.

Impossible. That...that was Angelicmon's attack, but...Matty and Angelicmon are still back with Tai and the others trying to hold off Jestermon and Spritemon. If Matty were here, I would know it, but my bond with him is telling me he isn't anywhere near the forest. How can he be when I can still feel his presence coming from somewhere behind me? He must still be with Tai's group.

A quick look at his orange D-Coder confirmed what he had already known to be true. Matty was still with Tai's group, and not only that, Izzy's group had also joined up with Tai's group and both groups were now heading towards the forest.

They're coming to help us.

And yet, if his D-Coder was telling the truth then that left only one explanation for what was going on in the forest.

No, that just isn't possible, or is it? Could that light have come from DarkAngelicmon?

"The darkness has lost some of its strength," Gabrielmon murmured, his sudden words cutting through the uneasy silence that had fallen over the forest. Even the wind had died down until the point where Mickey could no longer feel it brushing against his skin or blowing through his golden hair, and the leaves on the trees had grown quite still and watchful, their voices no longer whispering strange words out of the gloomy darkness of the forest. Instead, the forest was waiting for them, just like the ocean. It was waiting for them to step into the darkness.

Shivering slightly, Mickey wrapped his arms around himself and slowly lifted his chin, his amber eyes coming to rest on his partner's graceful body. Gabrielmon was hovering near the treetops at the edge of the forest, and his sapphire eyes were focused on the spot where, only moments ago, the four of them had witnessed what had clearly been one of Angelicmon's special moves. And yet, despite the obvious lack of evil connected to such a breathtaking display of beauty and power, Gabrielmon had his sceptre held out at arm's-length in both hands, and he looked as if he was expecting to be attacked by something lurking within the trees.

Fearful of the silence hanging over the forest, Mickey glanced uneasily at the trees towering over him and anxiously bit his lip before once again turning to face his partner. "Gabrielmon, you...you don't think that was DarkAngelicmon, do you?"

"I cannot say for sure, but like I said before, DarkAngelicmon is definitely in the forest, only..."

"What is it, Gabrielmon?" Embermon asked curiously.

Mickey felt the cool breeze stirred up by his partner's wings caress his cheeks, and he looked up just in time to see Gabrielmon land beside him on the grass, the celestial digimon's right wings just brushing the left side of his face. After a moment of silence, Embermon quickly moved to stand protectively in front of him while Tirimon remained at the edge of the forest, his icy blue eyes trying to penetrate the darkness hovering menacingly between the trees. Mickey felt Gabrielmon's hand come to rest gently on his shoulder and he gave his partner a frantic look.

Sam...what have you done to yourself?

"I do not think DarkAngelicmon is aware of my presence," Gabrielmon said reluctantly, frowning at the forest.

"What do you mean?"

"It's hard to explain. Deep down inside, he must know I'm here, but it's like the darkness is preventing him from absorbing that knowledge. It's almost like he's in a different place, and yet that place is still a part of the Digital World. It's like his body is in the Digital World, but his heart is somewhere else. I can sense him because I've been actively looking for him, but his mind and heart are focused on what he feels are more important things, so he remains oblivious of my presence. You cannot take advantage of the bond between celestial digimon if you do not allow yourself to feel their presence. To close yourself off from other celestial digimon is not a wise thing to do."

"Why not?" Embermon asked, frowning in confusion.

"Because you may be ignoring them, but they can still feel you."

Mickey frowned and slowly shook his head in denial. "That can't be it. I mean...do you really think DarkAngelicmon would make a mistake like that?"

"Well, if you're right, Mickey, then there is only one other reason I can think of to explain why DarkAngelicmon would ignore our presence."

"What...what would that be?"

Gabrielmon's sapphire eyes narrowed in concentration and he waved his sceptre at the dark forest looming above their heads. "Perhaps he wants us to find Sam. You felt it, didn't you? Deep within the forest, I sensed a small spark of light. Even now, it has not completely faded away."

"You think it came from Sam?"

"No, Mickey. You saw the light shooting into the sky," Gabrielmon said quietly, his lips twitching into a small smile. "As impossible as it might seem, I think it may have come from DarkAngelicmon. I can feel him more strongly now than when we first met him. He is growing closer to us. The closer two angel digimon are, the easier it is for them to distinguish each other from the presence of other celestial digimon."

But...then what about Sam? Does that mean his heart has been completely swallowed by the darkness?

Letting out a gasp of horror, Mickey grabbed onto the shiny stripes of orange armour crisscrossing over his partner's bare chest and pulled the angel digimon towards him. "Please, Gabrielmon, we have to find Sam. We have to find him right now!"

"Mickey!"

Jerking around in surprise, Mickey spotted Dai and Ryoko racing towards him, their desperate cries ringing frantically in his ears. Dai was the first one to reach him, but Ryoko wasn't far behind, and before he could fully grasp what was going on, he found himself surrounded by his two friends and their digimon partners, as well as his own partner. Even Tirimon had abandoned his watch on the forest, choosing instead to remain close to his partner's side. The first thing Mickey noticed were the obvious tear stains trailing down his cousin's cheeks, but that was nothing compared to the look on Dai's face. Not once in his entire life had Mickey ever seen the goggle-headed leader looking so serious before, and it made him feel slightly uneasy.

I wonder what's going on. Ryoko seemed really upset this morning, but now he looks even worse and he appears to have lost some of his usual determination. Those two hardly ever share their secrets, but it looked like, for once, they were having a really serious conversation. I never thought I'd see the day when Ryoko would finally start confiding in Dai. I wonder if this has something to do with what happened between Sam and Ryoko earlier. Could Ryoko have actually told Dai why he's been acting so strange lately? Whatever it is that's been bothering him since this morning must be really bad because I've never seen Dai look so...lost before.

He was curious to know what the two of them had been talking about only a few moments ago, but he didn't want to ask for fear of wasting even more time, time they were supposed to be using to locate Sam. Whatever Ryoko and Dai were hiding could wait. Sam's safety was a different story.

"DarkAngelicmon," Dai said quietly, nodding his head towards the forest. "It has to be him. Matty's still back with the others, and they're only now just making their way towards us."

Gabrielmon sighed and nodded in agreement. "I see you've come to the same conclusion as the rest of us."

"But...how?" Ryoko whispered, gazing in awe at the forest. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe not, but that doesn't change what happened," Dai muttered, frowning at his D-Coder. Although the goggle-headed leader looked calm and cool, his words were unusually subdued, and there was an odd look on his face. He seemed strangely detached from what was going on around him, as if his thoughts were somewhere else. Ryoko, too, seemed unusually quiet, and the fire normally burning in the golden-haired Digidestined's sapphire eyes had died almost completely. On top of that, he seemed unable to look at Dai, and Dai kept turning away from the golden-haired Digidestined, as if unable to stand the thought of gazing directly into his friend's deep blue eyes. It was almost as if the two of them were afraid to look at each other for fear of their expressions accidentally giving away something they wanted to hide.

"What do we do now?" Tirimon asked.

Without a word, Mickey turned his back on his friends and quickly hurried towards the very edge of the forest, intent on finding Sam before it was too late. Unfortunately, he had only taken a few steps before someone knocked him face first onto the grass. Letting out a yelp of surprise, he quickly twisted around and found himself gazing into Dai's intense, brown eyes. "Dai, what are you doing? We have to save Sam!"

"No, you're not going in there!"

"What?" Mickey stared at his goggle-headed friend in disbelief and felt his cheeks turn pink with anger. "Dai! We can't just leave Sam in there!"

"I know that!" Dai snapped, pulling him into a sitting position and shaking him gently by the shoulders. "Listen to me, Mickey, that forest is covered in darkness. If you go in there without any concern for your own safety, you're going to end up just like Sam! Besides, if anything happens to you, Matty will kill me."

"He's right," Ryoko mumbled, gazing miserably at his feet. "Thank about it, Mickey, you're so concerned about helping Sam that you're forgetting to look out for yourself. Don't you understand? If you lose yourself to the darkness, you won't be able to help Sam. You won't be able to help anyone."

Mickey sagged underneath the weight of Dai's hands in defeat and felt his eyes fill with tears. "But...what else can we do? There is no other way. Everyone we care about is slipping away and I don't want to lose anyone."

Matty...are you even still safe or is Jestermon torturing you while I'm standing here doing nothing? And what about Kara? She's still alive, for now, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been seriously injured...

"Think, Mickey!" Dai said urgently, his voice barely above a whisper. "There must be another way to save Sam. At the moment, I don't think any of us are strong enough to enter the forest without letting the darkness affect us. Not you, not Ishida, not even me! Especially after..."

"We must find a way to bring Sam back to the light," Gabrielmon said solemnly.

"Without putting our partners in danger," Tirimon added.

The light...

Twisting out of Dai's grip, Mickey quickly scrambled to his feet and turned to face the forest. He could feel the darkness watching him, but he ignored it and quickly pointed his D-Coder at the trees.

"What are you doing?" Ryoko gasped, staring at him in astonishment.

Mickey gave his cousin a shaky smile and nodded his head towards the forest. "Saving Sam."

He had no idea if what he was planning was even going to work, but they were running out of time and it was the only thing he could think of. The D-Coders had helped Kara wake everyone up when Sirenmon's music had put them to sleep. They also helped destroy the black shadow that had been stalking them in DarkAngelicmon's castle. Maybe, just maybe, the D-Coders could help them find Sam. There was only one problem. He wasn't sure if he was strong enough to make it work.

I have to try. It's our only hope.

Concentrating all of his thoughts on Sam, he held his D-Coder steady in his hands and pointed it in the direction of the forest where he had last seen what could only have been DarkAngelicmon's seven rays of light descending into the trees. He waited in silence, his memories of Sam swirling through his brain at the speed of lightning, and almost immediately his D-Coder began to glow, surrounding his body with bright orange light. To his complete surprise, a beam of light the same colour as the light surrounding him erupted out of his D-Coder and shot straight into the centre of the forest. It was so intense, the light hurt his eyes, but even so he just knew it still wasn't strong enough to help Sam.

"How did you do that?" Ryoko whispered in awe, coming up beside him and staring at the orange D-Coder in his hand as if he had never seen one before.

"I don't know what you're doing, but whatever it is, keep it up!" Embermon cheered, hopping onto Tirimon's back for a better look at the forest.

"The light is beginning to penetrate the darkness," Gabrielmon said softly. "It's opening a pathway that leads straight to Sam."

Mickey quickly shook his head and turned to gaze desperately at his fellow Digidestined. "No, it's not strong enough. Dai, Ryoko, please, you have to help me!"

Dai and Ryoko turned to look at each other, and although Mickey couldn't tell for sure, he thought he felt something pass between them, an understanding of sorts that was extremely meaningful, and yet at the same time it was surprisingly ominous. Without a word, the two of them pointed their D-Coders at the forest, and immediately streams of blue and red light quickly mingled with the orange beam already shooting into the trees. For a long time the three of them stood there in silence, the sound of their own breathing ringing in their ears, waiting for something to happen. Mickey stood in the centre, and he felt unusually aware of the presence of his friends standing on either side of him. Neither one of them was close enough to touch him, and yet he still felt as if the three of them were somehow connected.

It's like they're a part of me...

The sound of a twig snapping caught his attention, and he turned just in time to see Sam stumbling out of the forest, Glowmon hovering in the air behind the raven-haired Digidestined. Crying out in relief, Mickey threw his Digivice into Gabrielmon's hands and quickly hurried over to the raven-haired Digidestined's side. He reached Sam just as the other boy broke free from the trees, but before he could call out his friend's name, Sam stumbled directly into his outstretched arms. The two of them tumbled over onto the grass, and crying out in surprise, Mickey felt the back of his head hit the ground. Ignoring the pain shooting though his skull, he quickly sat up and grabbed onto Sam's trembling shoulders. "Sam! Are you hurt? Did something happen? Where's DarkAngelicmon?"

Sam didn't even attempt to answer him. Upon closer inspection, Mickey realized the raven-haired Digidestined's eyes were glazed over and he was staring at something off in the distance only he could see.

"Oh, Sam!" Glowmon cried, dropping out of the sky and burying his face against his partner's thigh.

"Sam, speak to me! It's me! It's Mickey. Don't you remember me?"

Sam slowly looked up and his dark blue eyes began to sparkle with sudden emotion. "Mickey?"

"That's right. We're here, Sam. We came to help you. Are you okay?"

"Mickey..."

With painful effort, Sam finally looked directly into his eyes, but instead of answering, tears began to slide down the raven-haired Digidestined's face. Mickey stared at his friend in shock, but before he could open his mouth to speak, Sam began to sob softly into his shoulder.