Disclaimer: I don't own digimon!

Ok, so I didn't get any reviews for last chapter, but I mustered enough determination to write this chapter and continue on with this story. Seriously though, it really means a lot if you guys review and it really does motivate me to keep on writing. You don't even have to sign in to leave a review so I expect every reader to leave a review, even if it is a simple "Good." or "Bad." or "Me no like." or "Me loooove!" Besides, reviews let me know that there are still people out there reading this story, because no one wants to write for an empty audience. It's depressing :'( . Anyways, this is the eleventh installment of Hope's Sacrifice. Plot's starting to get deep! Plus there's some pretty sweet Takari and TKxMatt brotherly love moments as well. There's also the whole action part where TK meets Daemon and Daemon shoots his hell fire at TK :) . Anyways, here's Chapter 11! I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 11:

His grip on the rainbow-colored bird digimon tightened as the digimon unexpectedly changed flight patterns and flew practically straight up into the sky towards a dark cloud. Tokomon- Patamon had dedigivolved earlier in the flight- was cradled in his free hand and was sleeping. His insides were churning, and he knew that the flying was only causing a fraction of the uneasiness. Those things he had saw, though. A digimon in dark red cloaks shooting an intense black fire directly at Matt causing his body to burn to dust. Those sharp, piercing claws stabbing Kari in the chest sending blood everywhere. MagnaAngemon trying to fight against the digimon alongside the other digimon, but to no avail. And then that vicious digimon turned on him and put one of his claws on the top of his chest and then bringing it down slowly, cutting the skin as the claw progressed down his body, stopping at his heart and then…

It was as soon as they had met Gennai and walked to his house that the images started. They were so surreal. He had looked at his bare chest and constantly looked around to make sure his brother and best friend were ok, and they all were every time he looked up… but that voice reminded him… if he didn't surrender himself then that voice… that digimon… Daemon, he assumed, would make them real.

He had just been walking with the others before, bam. A scene with Daemon attacking Matt appeared before him. Then his senses would come back and everyone was around him. Every time he would think about telling someone another scene would flash through his mind. Patamon had figured something was up, but when his partner asked him if everything is all right he responded in the affirmative. Another scene. Then that voice had told him what to do. And that led him to where he was right now.

If only Patamon would have listened to him then at least his partner wouldn't be in trouble too, but now he had brought his partner into all of this. At least the others were safe… for now. Maybe he could think of something to stall Daemon.

As they flew literally through the dark cloud, black water pellets stuck to his face. Water's not supposed to be black, is it? But clouds aren't supposed to be this black either. And isn't it going to be morning soon? Something was going on, and he knew Daemon was behind it.

Off in the distance was some sort of temple that stood on top of the cloud. It was a faded, no fading- the temple was getting darker every second- gray color. Digimon, none of which he recognized, were sitting in circles around fires scattered about the cloud, all looking like they had just been in a very gruesome, devastating battle. Although they were just on a cloud, even the cloud looked worn out, random holes in it here and there. The place and all the digimon were in havoc, but there was something else radiating in the air. Fear. Pain. Hurt. Despair. Hopelessness. Regret. Even SkullSatamon and Ornismon seemed to tense up as they drew near the temple. He couldn't help but shiver as a chilling sensation came on his own body.

They landed a good fifteen feet away from the stairs leading up the temple. Ornismon shook his body causing him and Tokomon to go airborne and land on the cloud. As soon as they were tossed, Ornismon flew back to join the other digimon. SkullSatamon was shaking, but the digimon took a deep breath and with a strong, unwavering voice ordered, "Go in, child of hope."

He obeyed, knowing that neither he nor Tokomon wanted to get slapped around by SkullSatamon. Nerves overwhelmed him and a cold sweat started to bead on his cheeks and forehead. The darkness, the despair, and the fear within the temple seemed to be so heavy that it weighed him down. It was clear that this temple was meant to house a powerful force, but he didn't think it was meant for this evil.

As they enter the temple, he spots a statue in the center of the room. It wasn't standing up on display like it should, though; it was knocked over and lying on the ground. At first he didn't think too much of it, but then as he got a better look he realized it was a statue of Seraphimon. Seeing the digimon reminded him of when his partner first digivolved to Seraphimon, shuddering due to the fact it was a bad memory. He looked between his partner and the statue, wondering if there was any connection, but then discarding the thought as a chilling voice echoed in the room.

"Welcome, child of hope," the voice said.

As they passed the statue he saw a cloaked figure sitting on a black throne. The figure had a sorcerer's pointed hat covering his face but not covering the two small, blue eyes. Protruding out of the hat were two horns. Two black and purple wings extended from his back to each side. Out of his sleeves came two claws, purple in color, fingertips blood red.

After taking all of that in, he didn't care to respond.

"SkullSatamon, you are dismissed."

"Yes, Lord Daemon," SkullSatamon replied, fear and anger clear in his voice. Daemon didn't seem to mind.

When SkullSatamon was out of the temple, Daemon stood up and clapped. He was thrown off guard at the digimon's actions.

"Very good Tapirmon. I didn't expect you to succeed, but I am pleasantly surprised. You are dismissed."

"Thank you Lord Daemon," a new voice said from behind him. He jumped in shock and turned around to see a helmeted mini-elephant digimon floating behind him. Where the digimon's legs should have been was a mini cloud that somehow managed to uphold the rest of the digimon.

Without wasting any time, the digimon floated away as fast as he could. As soon as Tapirmon had left, a huge weight seemed to lift off his shoulders. Suddenly all the images that had flooded his mind were gone. All the sadness, hopelessness, and despair were gone; he actually felt kind of good. But then he remembered where he was and fear gripped him tightly. What had he been thinking? Why did he go with those digimon and surrender himself? He... he had been tricked. All those images, Tapirmon must have been behind them. And now because he had fallen for the trap he had endangered not only himself but Tokomon as well.

Daemon laughed, "Now you are starting to realize what is going on."

"You… you tricked me." He realized he sounded pathetic, but it was all he could muster.

"Guilty."

He tried to put a brave face on and claimed, "You won't defeat us. You may have me, but you won't get to the others. They'll defeat you. We have new crests!"

A warm feeling started to come up his chest, countering the chills the temple had on him, but he didn't pay any attention to it.

"I know about the crests you fool. And the others, I'm not too worried about them. Once I have the dark spores from kindness I will have all the power I need to destroy you all and then some. There is no hope for the digidestiends, I have won."

Dark spores? Weren't those the things way back that… oh no. Ken. He's going after Ken. Those dark spores, they had power too. It was what MaloMyotismon had used to gain the power he had. If Daemon got his hands on the dark spores… he had to warn the others. But what could he do? He was trapped. Tokomon was still asleep in his arms, and the others were many miles away from here. There wasn't anything he could do to fight Daemon. Maybe everything really was hopeless.

"And as my first act towards victory, I will destroy you, the one who poses the most threat, even though it is slight. With you gone, nothing will stand in my way towards ruling the Digital World."

'Seriously. What is it with these evil digimon wanting to rule the Digital World?'

'I knooow! All of them sound the same. I am all-powerful. I will rule the Digital World. I will destroy you. Blah blah blah.

'It's all talk, but none of them can carry out what they say can they.'

He blinked in confusion. Those words had just run through his mind, but they weren't his own. They even had sounded like two different voices in his head, one of a boy and another of a girl. Weird.

'Oh, we're confusing the boy Fida,' the feminine one said.

'Not my problem Gilda,' the one presumably named Fida replied.

He shook his head trying to throw out the voices. They were in his head, but they weren't his own thoughts. It almost sounded like there were two people stuck in his mind. Great, now is not the greatest of all times to be going crazy.

Daemon was talking and he could hear the digimon's voice, but the two voices in his head were too prominent for him to make out Daemon's words.

'You're not going crazy numbnuts!' Fida said.

'Umm… then what's going on?' he thought, trying to respond.

'Oooo he talks! Well, thinks. Doesn't matter. Anyways, I'm Gilda and the other one is Fida. We're beings from the world of sacrifice!'

Fida had said it so cheerfully, but it only confused him more. His head was starting to hurt.

'We can save you, but it's going to be at a cost,'

'That's right. Now, what do we want Gilda?'

'I really like that hat.'

'But what about me?'

'You can take that puffball the kid's holding.'

'No, that's his partner. He wouldn't sacrifice that. Oooo! I know. I always wanted a pair of shoes. I'll take those!'

'Good, so now it's settled. You ready to get out of here kid?'

He quickly tried to take in all that was going through his mind, but he was getting a headache in the process. Then he realized that the last statement had been directed to him.

'Uh… what?'

The male one sighed heavily while the other giggled giddily. Just then Daemon's voice came through to him.

"Hell Inferno!"

Suddenly black flames were being sent right at him and Tokomon. He could feel the intense head even at the distance he was away from Daemon, and it only kept getting hotter with every second. Just as the flames were about to hit him, the voices in his head continued.

'I guess we should stop this.'

'Do we have to?'

'Yes! I won't get my shoes if we don't!'

'You realize they're boy shoes right?'

'Fida!'

'Fine.'

Suddenly everything just… stopped. The fire was inches away from his face, but he couldn't feel the heat anymore. Daemon was watching expectantly as his attack was just about to hit its target. Tokomon lay in his arms as silent as ever. Then two balls of light formed overtop each of his shoulder; one was blue and the other was pink. They flew right in front of his face and then the voices came back, almost sounding as if they were coming from the lights themselves.

"So, kid, are you going to make us a deal?"

"Uh, what's going on?"

"You really don't have much time. Do you want us to save you and your friend?"

"Yes!" he said without thinking. Of course he wanted out of here, especially to get Tokomon to safety.

'Good, then it's settled,'

Suddenly everything was filled with light and he had to cover his eyes. A rush of wind then came and blew his hat off of his head. Then his shoes were pulled off of his feet from some unseen force. Every time he tried to open his eyes he had to shut them again because of the brightness. Then, the light faded and he heard voices.

"We need to go after him!"

"But we have no idea where he is!"

"Um, guys. I found him."

He opened his eyes to see that standing right in front of him were all of the others, all with confused and worried faces etched across their face. He couldn't help but smile as he realized he and Tokomon were safe and at the dumbfounded expressions on the others' faces. He was safe. He quietly thanked the two mysterious beings who had helped him escape from Daemon.

'You're quite welcome. I really like your shoes! And the hat looks really good on Fida!'

'Gilda, we have to go. TK, we will be seeing you again.'

He looked around to see if the two balls of light were there, but they were gone. He also realized that his shoes and his hat were indeed gone. He didn't care, though. He had escaped Daemon and he was with the others and everyone was safe. Despite the fact that Daemon was still out there, he couldn't help but feel really optimistic about their future.

The relief he was feeling right now was greater than any he had felt in a long time. After Gatomon had come rushing into Gennai's house yelling about TK being gone, they all had got up and he quickly left in order to search for his younger brother. He had just got off the stairs when Tai had caught up with him. Eventually the others joined soon after and they convinced him that they needed to come up with a plan before they did anything. During their discussion, Davis mentioned that we shouldn't even go after TK, causing him to receive death glares from him and Kari. Not too much later, TK had all of a sudden appeared with a smile on his face, as if he hadn't been taken away from Daemon. He was the first one to reach the young blonde and he gave his brother a tight hug, which his brother returned. When they pulled away from each other, TK's smile was gone and tears were falling from the blonde's eyes.

"Matt…. I… I'm so sorry… for how I treated…"

He shook his head. "Don't worry about it bro."

"No," TK said firmly, "I was a jerk. I don't know what I'd do without you Matt."

After hearing those words he felt a huge weight being lifted off his shoulders. With everything that's been going on and with the way TK had yelled at him recently, he had started to believe that his brother didn't care for him, that he was no better than a piece of crap in his brother's mind. Hearing his brother say those words, though, made him smile the first time he had in a long time.

"I love you TK."

"I love you too Matt."

In other circumstances he wouldn't have said this out loud with all of the other digidestineds surrounding them, but this was too great a moment for any of his friends to matter at the time. He had needed to say those words for a long time, and even more so he needed to hear those words as well.

"TK!" a voice suddenly cried out, interrupting their moment. A blur of pink went by as his brother was tackled into a hug. He laughed as he realized it was Kari. She was squeezing TK really tight and his brother's face started blushing.

"Kari… you're… Tokomon…"

She withdrew a little bit and TK relaxed. He hadn't even realized that his brother's partner was in his arms in his in-training stage. He wanted to ask what happened, but TK's attention was all on Kari. He noted that his brother's face stayed red, maybe even became darker, and Kari blushed as well.

"Oh, sorry TK," Kari said quietly, "I'm just… when Gatomon told us…"

"It's ok. I'm fine. See?"

Kari completely withdrew the hug and smiled. "I'm glad."

All of the others expressed their relief; some giving TK hugs, others shaking his hand, and, in Mimi's case, completely broke down in tears. After all of that was done he wanted to ask his brother what had happened, but Yolei interrupted.

"TK, where's your hat? And why are your shoes missing?"

TK smiled and then recounted in his story how after they had met up with Gennai he had started having terrifying images and the chilling voice of Daemon telling him to surrender himself. He told them how a digimon by the name of Tapirmon had been causing the images and how he had not known why he was having them. Then they listened as TK shared what Gatomon had already told them about Ornismon and SkullSatamon, and then TK continued talking about the cloud, the temple, Daemon, and the two mysterious voices in his head. TK finished his story with how everything stopped right before Daemon's attack hit him and then everything becoming bright and a wind blowing his hat off and something pulling his shoes off, and then landing here. Unfortunately, TK's story only brought up more questions.

"Prodigious! I wonder what those two mysterious life forms were!"

"Why did you go!? You should've talked to someone!"

"There were voices inside your head? You're crazy."

"You walked on a cloud?"

"Guys!" he called out, tired of hearing all of the voices. Thankfully they all stopped and everyone was silent.

TK then spoke up, "I forgot to mention one thing. Ken," his brother said, turning towards the boy mentioned, "He's after you."

"What? Why me?"

"He said something about the dark spores."

"Of course!" Izzy said, "Remember how MaloMyotismon used the power of the dark spores to turn into his new form? They must contain some substantial power force inside them, and Ken still possesses them inside him."

"I won't let him hurt you Ken. I promise," Wormon spoke up.

"Thanks buddy," Ken replied to his partner.

"Well, then that settles it!" Tai said.

"What do you mean Tai?" he asked his best friend, looking at him questioningly.

"We wanted a plan of action and now we have one. Daemon is going to come after us if we wants Ken's dark spores, so we don't have to go looking for him. All we have to do is just wait for him to show up."

"It won't be that simple," TK responded.

Everyone looked at his younger brother before TK continued, "Daemon… he is more than we've ever faced before. Plus, there are other digimon. At the temple, there were many vicious-looking digimon I didn't even recognize hanging around the temple. Plus they all were nervous and scared… I'm guessing of Daemon. He's not one to be taken lightly."

"Then what do you suggest we do TK? It's not like we can go back to the real world and not face this guy!" Davis fired back.

Tai added, "Unfortunately, Davis is right. We don't many other options at hand."

"I think we better find out how to use these crests and fast," Sora said.

"She's right. They sound like the only thing that would give us an upper hand," Joe piped up.

Everyone added their own two-cents worth before he decided to speak up, "Guys, either way our digimon are in no condition to fight right now. I say we go back down to Gennai's house and get a good night's rest. We can take turns on who stays out here to stand watch."

They all agreed and after a little more time it was decided that he would take the first shift followed by Tai. He and Tai were chosen because as of right now they were the only ones who could digivolve into megas. And if Daemon were to show up then a mega was their best chance at stalling. After the arrangements were decided, everyone headed down the stairs except for him and Gabumon. He turned to walk towards a nearby tree he could sit up on. Then he heard his brother's voice from behind him.

"Matt, can I stay out here with you?"

He immediately wanted to answer in the negative, but he realized that the last thing he wanted right now was to be alone. Plus, although he didn't want to admit it to himself, he was afraid TK would somehow manage to disappear again, and that was the last thing he was going to let happen.

"Sure TK," he finally responded, and his brother smiled, still holding Tokomon in his arms. They sat next to each other, backs rested on the tree he had been walking towards. They had talked for awhile and in that time Gabumon had fallen asleep as well as Tokomon- who had stayed asleep the entire time. He could tell his brother was getting tired and couldn't help but chuckle as his brother started doing head nods.

"TK, get some rest."

TK tiredly nodded and instantly closed his eyes, falling asleep. Not too long after, TK's head fell and rested on his shoulder. At first he was embarrassed by the contact, even though no one was around, but then he smiled as memories of their first adventure came back to memory. Many times in the Digital World TK had fallen asleep in the same position he was in now. Sure TK had been eight years old back then, but still there was something about tonight that made him feel like he was back on the first adventure. It was then he realized that it was because he finally had TK back. Not that TK had been gone, but, in a sense, he had been gone. Right now, in this moment, it felt like the old TK, the young, silly, happy-go-lucky optimistic TK, was finally back. He couldn't help but smile as he stared blankly into the night.