Disclaimer: I do not own digimon!

Soooo, I'm really sorry about not updating for so long. The good news is that I am done with this semester and am on summer break, meaning I can finally finish this story and maybe start a new one too! Ok, so this chapter is not so great, and I'm going to blame that on not writing in a long time, but maybe you guys will like it? I am excited to see if there are still some people out there who will still read this story. Hopefully it won't be too long before I update again.

Chapter 8:

"TK, you gotta talk to me!"

Patamon had been trying to get through to him for the past fifteen minutes or so, but he wasn't ready to open up just yet. Even though it was his digimon partner, he still wanted to process all that was going on before he started talking about how he was feeling.

So he kept on ignoring his partner as he kept on walking through the forest. On a normal day in the Digital World there would be many digimon moving through the woods. It wouldn't be uncommon to hear a twig snap by a roaming Mushroomon or hear a bush rustle by the movement of a Floramon. That was not was he was hearing. All he could hear was complete silence. Well, except for his partner trying to get his attention. Other than that, there wasn't a noise to be heard, almost as if they were all alone. He looked around the woods at all the trees, flowers, and bushes crowding the area, and it seemed as if they were alone. Yet, he couldn't help but feel they were being watched.

He returned his gaze back to in front of him and nearly jumped out of his shoes when he saw his partner's face not more than three inches away from his face.

"TK!" Patamon said harshly.

After regaining from the initial shock of Patamon's sudden action, he regained his composure and snapped, "Patamon. What was that for?"

"It was the only way I could think of to get your attention," his partner said innocently before returning to a strict but not harsh tone, "Now tell me what's going on or else."

"Or else what?" he asked amusingly, his temper quickly calming.

"Or else… this!" Patamon yelled before lunging right at his chest. The impact caused him to leave the ground and land on his back. Luckily the grass behind him was really soft and the landing hadn't hurt at all. But then he released loud, uncontrollable laughter as his partner started tickling him. He wriggled around and squirmed trying to get the orange guinea pig to stop, but it was to no avail. After what seemed like forever, Patamon finally stopped and he panted trying to regain his breath.

Once his breathing was finally under control, he noticed that his jawbone was sore. It then dawned upon him that he hadn't laughed or smiled genuinely like he had in a long time. Why?

Well, for one he was dealing with a lot of crap. His mother and grandparents were dead, he had spent a long while in the Dark Ocean- which still haunted him in his dreams to this day-, he had completely lost his memory due to the dark spiral that was on him, he was saddened how he could only remember certain bits and pieces of his memory and that he always wished he would've done something to change how things went- like his parent's divorce-, his brother was trying to be his mother, Patamon had been seriously injured twice recently, Kari was date… no, he was happy for them, and then his girlfriend had just dumped him. Thinking about all that wiped the smile right off his face.

The smile on his partner's face faded away too. "TK?" Patamon asked worriedly.

"I'm sorry Patamon," he said. He sat up and continued, "Lots of crap has just been going on lately."

"It's not just about me getting hurt is it? I'm fine TK! Watch!"

Patamon then started doing random flips and maneuvers in the air. When his partner was finished, the flying guinea pig looked at him expectantly with a smile on his face.

"See?" his partner asked.

He chuckled a little bit before responding, "No, it's not that Patamon."

"Then what is it?"

"I just… Patamon?" he asked, as his partner flew up, his ears twitching as if he were focusing on listening to something.

"Do you hear that?" his partner asked him.

"No…?" he responded, but Patamon was already flying off in some random direction.

"This way TK!"

He tried calling after his partner but it was no use. He ended up chasing after his partner through the woods. At times he thought he had lost the orange blur that was his digimon, but then he would eventually spot the streak of orange dart through the trees. Then he finally caught up with his partner who had stopped behind a bush and had his eyes widened. When he finally caught up with his partner he dropped to the ground behind the bush and he asked, "Patamon?! What in the world…" but he was cut off.

His partner put his paw on his mouth silencing him. He was annoyed but then he heard footsteps coming from the other side of the bush. Taking a deep breath, he held in the air so as not to create a sound. The footsteps kept getting louder and the ground started to shake as well.

Then there was silence. He waited in anticipation, not knowing what to expect, but then he heard an unrecognizable voice from a little ways off.

"Sorcermon! What are you doing all the way over there?"

There were a couple more moments of silence that seemed to last forever before he heard a different, much closer voice reply, "I thought I heard something over here, but it seems I was mistaken."

"Well get back over here before the boss sees you slacking off," the other voice called back. He then heard the footsteps again, but this time they were walking away from his and Patamon's hiding place. He shared a confused glance with Patamon, but they didn't dare speak until they were sure the coast was clear.

After a couple of minutes with no voices being heard, they mutedly decided it was safe to talk.

"Who were those digimon Patamon?" he asked his partner.

"One was a Sorcermon, sort of like Wizardmon except Sorcermon uses icy magic, and the other was a Mermaimon."

He decided to sneak a peak over the bush and saw that the coast was clear.

"Well, the two of them are gone now. What do you think they were doing?"

"I don't know TK. It sounded like they're working for some other digimon, though."

"But who could that digimon be?"

He thought about that for a little while, but no particular digimon came to his mind. He did think about the new evil Gennai promised would show up, and he was afraid that these two digimon were mere minions of this bigger power.

"TK, look over there," his partner said.

He followed his partner's pointed paw and gasped when he saw what his partner was talking about. Tied up around some of the distant trees were his friends. He clearly identified his brother, Tai, Sora, Kari, Davis, Joe, and a couple of the others. He counted nine digidestineds total and saw that their partners were tied up as well. He was just starting to wonder who had been the cause of this when he saw a huge digimon appear. He immediately recognized the digimon, it hadn't been too long since he had seen him; it was MarineDevimon.

He listened hard and could just barely make out MarineDevimon's deep, rough voice. "Seems like the mighty digidestiends aren't that hard to defeat after all," the digimon said with a laugh.

"You'll never get away with this," Tai fired back. Leave it to the holder of courage to not give up to the face of danger.

"But who's going to stop me? I already have the nine of you. That only leaves four more to rescue you, and to do so they'd have to go through me and my little army of mine. Do you really think they stand a chance?"

He was met with silence as the other digidestineds looked to the ground, hopeless as they realized there was nothing they could do to help their current situation.

"TK, do you want me to digivolve?" Patamon asked him.

It was very tempting. He wasn't one to back away from helping his friends, but he remembered that Patamon had been through a lot lately and may not be at his best performance level. That and MarineDevimon had mentioned something about an army of his. He wasn't too keen on having Patamon face MarineDevimon on his own let alone face this "army" as well. He had faith in his partner but he wasn't about to act foolishly.

"No, I think we need to go find the others who haven't been captured yet and get together with them. Then we can form a plan of strategy and rescue our friends."

"That sounds mighty brave of you, but I don't think it's going to work out that way. Evil Wing!"

He was completely caught off guard by MarineDevimon's sudden appearance. He grabbed Patamon and dove out of the way of MarineDevimon's tentacle crashing down on the ground where they were. He then got up to his feet releasing his partner and starting to do what he was yelling out, "Run!"

They weaved their way in between trees and bushes, but they could hear MarineDevimon following from behind. The digimon used his "Evil Wind" attack to knock down some of the trees in their path causing them to jump over and avoid them.

"Get back here you pests," he heard MarineDevimon hiss from behind.

"We need to get to a portal and fast," he told Patamon.

Patamon nodded, but they didn't have any idea where the nearest portal was. Just then his digivice started beeping. As he was still sprinting he pulled his digivice out of his pocket and saw a blue dot moving along the screen. There also was a flashing red dot not too far from where they were. He prayed that it was a portal and he yelled out to Patamon, "Turn right now!"

Patamon obeyed and they started sprinting off in another direction.

"Now where do you think you're going?" Marine Devimon asked.

He was a polite person, but he didn't feel like answering that question.

They were getting closer… closer…

"There!" he shouted out. He outstretched his arm towards the television that was sitting on the ground ten meters in front of them. He grabbed his partner with his other arm and held him tight wishing on his lucky stars that they would get there in time.

"No! Dark Deluge!"

He didn't take time to see what attack MarineDevimon had sent. Instead he just focused on the television. They were almost there. And then.

"Digi-port open!"

A bright white light flashed from the television and he and his partner were engulfed in the world-travelling light. He closed his eyes holding his partner close hoping they'd make it in time.

There was an explosion coming from behind him, but then he landed hard on the floor. He looked around him and saw that he was in the school computer lab. They had made it.

Sweat was pouring down his face. His muscles ached, his breathing was shallow, but he had been in this sort of position before. He watched the older man standing across from him who also looked tired as well, the old man though had a better way of hiding his tiredness. But he wasn't looking to see how tired his opponent was; he was waiting to see what the next move would be. And just as expected the opponent lashed out his shinai on his right. He went to counter the attack and knock the bamboo sword out of his opponent's grasp, but it was the wrong move. The old man had only seemed to be attacking when in reality it was a feint. With a quick jerk, the old man drew his shinai swiftly away from his attack and the old man then struck down on his extended shinai. He had been reaching out as far as he could with the sword and did not have a strong grip on his weapon. This caused the shinai to be knocked down to the floor with a loud rattle. He had lost.

"I think that is enough for today Cody," his grandfather said after his shinai had come to a stop.

He nodded his head and removed his helmet. He followed his grandfather and they took a seat with their backs to the wall. They regained their breath and he took a sip out of his water bottle. His grandfather, on the other hand, pulled out a juice packet and drank away.

"Prune juice?" his grandfather asked him like he always did, as if his answer would change after the hundreds of times he had been asked.

"No thanks grandpa," he replied politely.

"Your loss." They then were met with silence as the thoughts of everything from his life came to his mind. The Digital World was in trouble that he knew for sure. Their group, though, was struggling to keep it together. Even the younger ones were having some disturbances amongst them. He may not know a lot about why each one had to disagree with the other, but he did know that nothing good was going to come out of it.

"You did well today Cody, but you have to realize one thing," his grandfather said, pulling him out of his thoughts and back into the world of kendo. As much as he loved the physicality and sort of escape he received from his kendo sessions, nothing pleased him more than learning the little bits of wisdom his grandfather told him when they were done.

"What is that?" he asked, setting his water bottle to the side.

"Things are not always as they seem Cody. What may seem like an attack could really be a way of defense, and what may seem as defending could really be an attack. You have to evaluate each and every situation and see it for what it really is, or else you might end up being deceived and left behind."

His grandfather returned back to his prune juice as he thought on that little bit of wisdom. It made sense. One strategy of kendo was feinting; make a move so as to trick the other into a reaction you can take advantage of. Detecting these feints was difficult. If you act like the foe's move was intentional and you defend it, then you end up losing like he had to his grandpa. However, if you act like the foe's move was really a distraction and in reality it wasn't, then you end up getting struck in the side. There really wasn't a fail-proof strategy regarding feints; you simply just had to anticipate the other's moves and fully evaluate them.

As he continued to think about what his grandfather had told him, his mother came into the room talking on the phone.

"Yes… yes… he's… here he is. Cody, there is someone on the phone for you and it sounds very urgent," his mother told him.

He quickly got up to his feet and hurried over to his mom. He didn't know what to expect, but he didn't have a good feeling about it.

"Hello?" he asked, as he took the phone from his mom.

"Cody! It's TK!"

"Hey TK. What's…"

"Listen. The others are captured and tied up in the Digital World. MarineDevimon captured them somehow and they can't escape. We need to go get them now!"

"TK! Calm down. Whom does he have?" he asked calmly, though in reality he was not calm at all. He was worried out of his mind, but he had to find out how to best handle the situation.

"Sorry. I didn't get a good look to see who all was there, but it seemed like most of us. I also got a message on my D-Terminal from Kari telling everyone to meet at the computer lab, but that was an hour ago."

He walked into the living room where he had laid down his book bag. He looked inside until he found his D-Terminal and saw the message TK was talking about.

"I got it too," he said, then a thought came to his mind, "Hey TK, you know how Kari said she was worried about Tai seeming to have disappeared?"

"It seems like MarineDevimon definitely has Tai. It also would make sense if he had my brother as well. And Sora, since the three of them are inseparable."

"And if Kari was going to the Digital World, Yolei, Davis, and Ken would definitely be with her since they were hanging out after school."

"I also think it would be safe to assume Izzy and Joe are there too. I swore I could see their blue and red hair from even as far away as I was."

He added up the numbers and came to a disheartening conclusion. "It seems like there's only us two and then Mimi, Michael, and Willis."

"I think we should go get them and then face MarineDevimon."

This was all happening too fast for him. He hated attacking without carefully thinking out a strategic plan. This, though, was all spontaneous. And he was afraid that if they didn't go about this the right way that they might end up losing. But, seeing that what TK proposed was their only option he reluctantly agreed.

"I think you're right TK."

"Ok, meet me at my dad's apartment as soon as you can."

"I'll be right there."

He then hung up the phone and grabbed his digivice and D-Terminal. His mother asked him many questions about who was on the phone, why was he running around the house, stuff like that. He ignored it though.

"I got to go… uh… study at a friend's house mom. I'll be home in a couple of hours."

He heard his mother call out after him, but he ignored her. As he went to shut the door, he saw his grandfather watching him with a smile on his face. He locked eyes with the old man, and his grandpa nodded his head, as if he knew what he had to do and was wishing him luck. He closed the door and started running out of the apartment complex and towards TK's apartment shaking his head. He sure didn't understand his grandfather.

This was not a good situation at all. It was bad enough that he and Tai had been captured, but now over half of their team was here. The only ones still out there were TK, Mimi, Cody, and the other two Americans. He didn't like those chances as it was, but just a few moments ago MarineDevimon had run off in pursuit of one of them, which one they were unsure of. He looked around at the others and they all had their heads downcast; there was no hope in any of them. This was worst than fighting the Dark Masters; at least then they had the, maybe misguided, mentality that they were invincible and always looked on the bright side. Now, however, they were grown up and realized that they could get hurt and that they more than likely were not going to get out of this situation.

"So what's the plan guys?"

They all looked over to Kari who was looking back expectantly. When no one responded, she looked confused. Finally Tai said, "We don't have a plan Kari."

"What do you mean you don't have a plan?" she asked, "We aren't giving up."

He decided he should speak up. "Look at our current predicament," he started telling her, "Over half of our numbers are being held prisoners, and I'd say it's the stronger half at that."

"What do you mean?" Kari asked, a hint of anger in her voice.

"He means that the others aren't as strong as us Kari," Davis said cautiously. Davis wasn't cautious enough.

"You mean to say you don't trust the others to have our back? After all we've been through you don't even trust your own friends?"

Everyone looked away from her not being able to hold her accusing glance. He had to say that Kari offered a fair proposition, one that he should examine more. Who was it again that was still free? Mimi was one of them. Did he trust Mimi? No, she was too… but wait, there was that time before facing Piedmon the first time around where she showed up with an army of digimon to fight the Vilemon. What about TK? TK let his emotions rule him too much, but he did come through when they were battling Dracomon, and without him they would not have won all of the battles that they did. There also was Cody, Michael, and Willis, and although he did not know them too well he had to admit that they were pretty strong and were always happy to help their friends.

The others must have been thinking something similar because Tai smiled back at Kari.

"You're right sis, we need to trust the others to help us. Even if it seems unlikely, we have to have hope they will come through with us."

"I don't think TK will come back to save me…" Matt muttered under his breath. The others didn't seem to hear Matt, but he did since Matt was tied right next to him. He decided not to say anything, though, because the others were all agreeing with Tai.

"So, I ask again, what's the plan guys?"

At that time MarineDevimon returned to the scene. They all looked to see if the digimon caught whomever it was he was pursuing, but MarineDevimon was empty handed. That was a good sign.

"Why are you prisoners making all that rufus?" MarineDevimon asked suspiciously. Suddenly he had an idea. Prodigious. It might just work too if MarineDevimon was stupid enough.

"We were talking about how amazing of a digimon you are to have captured us. You must be the strongest and smartest digimon in the entire Digital World!"

He felt the others' glances as they must have been confused by his comment, but he paid them no attention.

"Izzy, I thought I was the smartest and strongest digimon in the Digital World?"

"Not now Tentomon," he told his partner. Luckily MarineDevimon hadn't noticed.

"At last someone recognizes my ability!" MarineDevimon exclaims.

"You mean other digimon don't respect your strength and knowledge?" Sora asked disbelievingly. She must have been catching on with his plan. Hopefully the others did as well.

"No, Master Daemon, General SkullSatamon, and that witch LadyDevimon pay me no respect at all," the digimon replied with clear hatred in his voice.

This was going better than he expected. With just a couple of planned comments he was able to find out who MarineDevimon was working for, but he had never heard of those digimon before, save for LadyDevimon. He had to find out their identities.

"Why don't you fight them? Surely with all your talent you would be able to easily overcome them."

MarineDevimon just laughed. "I am not a fool! SkullSatamon and LadyDevimon would put me in a good battle, but Master Daemon could destroy me with a swipe of his hand."

That didn't sound good. He hadn't seen those other digimon, but he wasn't too eager to go out and introduce himself to them either.

"But, if you work for this Master Daemon then why are you here?" Joe asked.

"I am going to prove myself to them. Once I destroy you and the other digidestineds, I will be able to return as a hero. Master Daemon will then put me in charge of SkullSatamon, LadyDevimon, and the army and I will lead the attack on the Digimon Soverign!"

At that time a Divermon ran up to MarineDevimon and said, "Sir, we need to prepare for the other digidestineds. They should be here shortly."

MarineDevimon smiled an evil grin. "Alas, the last of you digidestineds are about to fall into my possession and I will destroy you once and for all. Enjoy the short time you have left to live."

MarineDevimon walked away with the Divermon laughing evilly the entire time. They all just looked at each other. His plan had worked and they had found out a lot of information, but this only led to more questions. And none of this mattered unless they were able to get out of here, or else they were about to be done for.

He sighed as he looked up at his ceiling. He was all alone and bored out of his mind. He had texted Michael and Mimi yesterday asking to hang out, but neither of them responded so he had just gone home. Terriermon and Lopmon had stayed back in the Digital World so it was up to him to entertain himself. Yesterday he had watched some TV and this morning he had played some video games, but now he was just lying on his bed.

The number of thoughts that were running through his mind was insane. Some of them were stupid, some of them were painful, but none of them were happy. After all that had gone on this weekend he had felt completely alone. Usually he had Terriermon and Lopmon by his side, but right now they were in the Digital World recovering. When they weren't around, he usually could be found hanging around with Mimi or Michael. None of them wanted to hang around, though. Besides them he didn't really have any other friends. The older digidestineds treated him like an intruder on their perfect little group, and he never was able to hang around the ones his age because of how far he lived away. He just felt like he was on his own island and no one was there with him.

He looked outside to see that it was a beautiful day out. How ironic, inside he felt a gloomy rainstorm, but Mother Nature seemed to want to mock him. All of a sudden there was a bright flash of light and he moved his arm to cover his eyes. He then heard two distinct thumping noises and a couple of groans. He hesitantly moved his arm away and looked around his room only to spot two people and two digimon lying on the ground.

"That was a… nice landing."

"Easy for you to say Patamon, you're not the one on the bottom."

He instantly recognized his unexpected guests; it was TK and Patamon and Cody and Armadillomon!

"Hey what are you guys doing here?" he asked.

"It seems that the others have been captured and are being held captive by MarineDevimon," Cody said.

"And we need you, Mimi, and Michael's help," TK added.

He let his mind process this information before he nodded.

"Let's go find them then!"

They left his house and ran towards Michael's house, well, mansion- his father was extremely rich. He then realized that Patamon and Armadillomon didn't have any costumes on. It was too late now, but he did smile at the confusion some of these people may have be seeing a flying guinea pig and a talking armadillo.

They finally reached Michael's place. TK and Cody gasped in shock at the size of Michael's place. It really was a huge house.

"Why can't you have this nice of a place Cody?" Armadillomon asked.

"Well, his father probably isn't a star actor getting paid millions every year," he responded.

At this Cody looked down at his feet. He didn't know why his comment had bothered Cody, but he decided to let it go.

When they reached the front door he turned the knob and, after seeing it was open, entered the house. They were in the family room and on the couch was Michael and Mimi. Their faces were really close to each others, but after hearing them enter, they quickly drew back, alarmed. He didn't want to know what they were about to do.

"Willis? TK? Cody? What are you guys doing here?" Mimi asked, her face turning a bright red.

"We need to go to the Digital World right now!" he told them.

"Why is that?" Michael asked.

Mimi added, "Are the others in trouble?"

"Yes, but we don't have time to explain. We gotta go!" he told them. He also was still mad at them, and if they were doing what he thought they were about to do… ah, he didn't want to think about it.

Michael and Mimi looked at each other and nodded.

"This way," Michael told them. Michael led them up stairs and into his bedroom. Michael ran to his bed and quickly opened up his laptop.

"All right, let's go," he said, "Digi-port open."