Disclaimer: I do not own digimon.

Hey everyone! This is a little late of an update, but I got it done didn't I? I'm pretty proud of myself for that. Anyways, review, favorite, follow, etc. and I hope you enjoy the chapter :3

Chapter 13:

Never before had she felt as comfortable as she did right now. Well, that wasn't true. She was lying right on hardwood floor and currently using someone's arm as a pillow. It definitely wasn't as nice as her bed at home, but that wasn't the point. It was the person she was with that made it so comfortable. Izzy.

She had spent a lot of time thinking about him for a while now, maybe a month or so. For some reason she just couldn't get him off of her mind. Whenever she was in New York she wished she could go right to Japan and spend time with Izzy. When she was in Japan she constantly wanted to be around the boy. It wasn't until her talk with Sora that she realized what she felt towards him, love.

Ever since then she had decided she was going to start flirting with the boy and see if he would get what she was doing. Being as socially awkward as Izzy is, though, she doubted it, but she had a backup plan in case Izzy didn't ask her out; she was going to do it for him. She was thinking tomorrow during the day sometime, as long as they weren't fighting for their lives again.

She smiled as she snuggled and pulled her body closer to Izzy's. The warmth from the computer genius' body seeped into her body leaving no place for coldness. Ever since she was a little girl she always pictured marrying a prince charming. Someone brave, someone strong, someone handsome. And then they got married and lived happily ever after in a castle with unicorns and fairies and such. Ok, maybe that was an unrealistic dream and maybe Izzy wasn't the prince charming she pictured when she was a child, but to her right now Izzy was perfect. All of that unicorns and castle stuff didn't matter as long as she had Izzy.

Despite how happy she felt, she couldn't help but let a little guilt sit inside her. She was being quite rude to Michael. She wasn't even sure if she had talked to him at all yesterday, well, despite that almost kiss.

How could she had almost kissed Michael? It's not like he wasn't cute or anything, but Michael was her friend, just a friend. She had even told the blonde multiple times. But somehow Michael had mesmerized her when he was over. He used the charm he was famous for and made her completely forget about Izzy and everyone else. And she would be lying if she hadn't felt little butterflies start stirring inside her when their lips neared each other and almost touched… but that had just been a spur of the moment thing. She didn't love Michael; that she was sure of! She loved him as a friend, but she didn't love Michael. Yet she felt awful for leading him on the way that she did. She must have really made it seem like she loved him… and maybe she did.

No! She closed her eyes hoping all of these confusing thoughts and feelings would go away, but they didn't. Images of Michael and Izzy kept flashing through her mind. It almost as if there was some sort of competition going on between the two where the winner was the one who popped up in her head the most. Her head started to ache and she was about to get up from the ground when something started banging on the door to Gennai's house.

A high-pitched voice was calling out to them in-between the bangs and she immediately got up.

Everyone else was slowly waking up as well, but she, along with a couple of others who must've been awake like her as well, was already up and running to the door. Kari got to the door first and slid it open.

"…danger! Tai and Matt… Gran Kuwagamon… TK!"

"Tokomon, what's wrong?" Kari asked, alarmed.

"They're in trouble! We have to hurry!"

Tokomon looked like he was about to charge towards the stairs and run outside so she made her way to Tokomon and picked the digimon up into her arms.

"Tokomon, it's ok. Just tell us what happened," she said as sweetly and as calmly as she could. Apparently it worked because the little digimon relaxed a tiny bit and started telling his story.

Everyone was awake when Tokomon told them about how they were keeping watch outside when this digimon named GranKuwagamon attacked them. MetalGarurumon apparently couldn't handle this digimon and TK also got hurt in the battle. Tai then went out to take his turn to stand watch and found Tokomon. Tai said that TK needed Joe to look over him and that he was going after GranKuwagamon in the forest. Needless to say, everyone was thrown into panic by the time the story ended.

"What are we going to do?"

"We have to go after them?"

"We have to make sure TK's alright!"

"How are we going to take down this digimon?"

"How are we going to find Matt and Tai?"

"Everyone needs to SHUT UP!"

They all became quiet and turned to the one who let out the sudden outburst, Izzy. His face turned red when he realized everybody was looking at him, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Listen. We need to form an educated plan and fast because it does'nt seem like either Matt, Tai, nor TK have much time to spare. So here's what we're going to do."

Izzy then told them what he thought they should do next. Joe was going to immediately look after TK. Cody, Ken, Michael, Willis, and Yolei were going to stay back with Joe and TK in case Daemon tried to attack and get TK again. This left Izzy, Sora, Davis, Kari, and herself to go after Tai and Matt.

She had to say that she became even more attracted to Izzy when he stood up and took over the leader position. No one had expected it and even after Izzy finished they all looked at each other in shock.

"Now let's go!" Izzy said with urgency. This broke them all out of their paralyzed shock and they ran up the stairs leading up to the surface.

Izzy was in front, with Kari to his side. Davis was trying to keep up with his girlfriend, while Cody and Joe ran side by side. She followed the two boys, which must have meant Yolei, Ken, Willis, Sora, and Michael were behind.

When they finally emerged from the lake hiding Gennai's house, they were shocked by how dark everything was. Yeah, it was nighttime, but this was unlike any nighttime she ever saw. Usually the Digital World's moon and stars were shining brightly in the sky, but no lights were seen from the sky above. Everything was… black; as if she were in a shopping mall while the power went out. She barely could see the others in front of them and ended up bumping into Joe.

"Hey!" Joe called out.

"Oh, sorry Joe. I just can't see anything."

The others muttered their agreement. How were they going to be able to find the others if they couldn't even see each other standing right next to each other?!

"Quick everyone! This way!" Tokomon called out. The little digimon must have jumped out of Kari's arms because she could hear the little digimon's feet skittering across the grass. She looked in the direction she thought Tokomon was running and quickly spotted a tiny orange dot in the distance. No one spoke up as the rest of them had no choice but to try and follow Tokomon in the almost unpenetrable darkness.

The little orange dot continued to get bigger the more they ran, and eventually she realized it was a fire. Once they were within twenty feet of the fire, she quickly spotted a dark figure that resembled a body on the ground next to it. Realization caused her to figure out that the figure must have been TK.

Within a couple of seconds the entire group was standing around a decent sized fire as they waited for further instructions. All of them were horrified by TK's wounds, which consisted of bruises, scratches, and a gash on his right side. Joe, who always carried a medical kit around with him, was using the best he had available to try and help TK. Kari was standing behind Joe, constantly looking from TK, to the forest that was now visible, and looked to be having some inward debate. Sora was getting antsy as she simply couldn't keep still and was getting tired of waiting. Sora had always been the motherly figure of the group, and it must hurt her that TK was so badly hurt as well as Tai and Matt being missing. Izzy had a pensive look on his face, and the others were nervous and scared, not knowing what they were to do, or what was going to be in store for them. Finally, Sora broke the silence in the group with an angry groan.

"Argh, I can't stand this Daemon creep anymore! We've got to find Matt and Tai and defeat Daemon once and for all."

"Sora," she said as calmly as she could. Really her heart was broken. Why couldn't things be as simple as they were on their first adventure where no one got hurt and they always ended up winning in the end.

Sora looked at Mimi apologetically and responded, "Sorry Mimi, but I can't stand here any longer. I'm going to find Tai."

"I'm coming with you!" Kari suddenly outburst.

When everyone looked at her confusingly, Kari said, "What? Tai is my brother after all!"

"If you're going, then I'm coming too!" Davis answered, putting a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder.

"We might as well stick to our original plan," Izzy said and looked at her, "You ready to go Mimi?"

Fear gripped her. Fear always gripped her. She hated fighting. She hated her friends being in trouble. She hated every single bit of their situation. But she had to do something if she wanted things to get better. It was the whole part of being sincere. If you want something done, then you actually have to take action; you cannot just wish and not act. She looked to Palmon, who was standing by her side, and Palmon smiled and nodded. She smiled too and looked to Izzy saying, "Let's do it!"

Joe then stopped his work on TK and quickly pulled something out of his bag. "Here," he said, "If you guys are going into that forest you might need this."

Joe pulled out a flashlight and handed it to Izzy. Everyone then turned to Joe and glared.

"You had a flashlight this entire time and didn't think to say anything sooner?!" Yolei shouted.

Joe blushed. "I forgot it was in there until I had to look around in there for some bandages."

"I'm not waiting any longer!" Sora burst out again.

"Yeah, let's go guys!" Kari seconded.

She had to say she was extremely nervous about going into that forest, especially with that GranKuwagamon creature roaming around the woods. She had heard of Kuwagamon before, and that digimon was scary enough as it is, but this GranKuwagamon must really be a bad bug. And she hated bugs. But if it was to save her friends, then she would deal with as many bugs as she had to. So Izzy turned on the flashlight and led the group as they walked towards and finally entered the thick forest.

"There, that's all I can do for now."

He examined his work on bandaging up TK as best as he could and winced. He didn't have enough material to wrap up a wound as major as TK's, but he had tried the best he could. At least the bleeding had finally stopped. Granted, TK never woke up; he only grimaced in pain when he was being moved around, so it wasn't much of a motivation booster to the rest of the digidestineds. Especially since there were still two of them missing out there, and there was no telling if they were as bad or even worse off that TK.

Cody was the first to speak up. "Is he going to be all right?"

He thought about it for a few seconds. He knew what he wanted to say, but yet he couldn't bring himself to say it. Still, he gave the most optimistic and realistic answer there was.

"It's hard to say Cody. The bleeding stopped, which is good. But I'm afraid the cut might be infected. I can't do anything else, though, so the best we can do is wait for him to wake up."

The others didn't like that response. They were hoping for a 'Yes, he's going to be fine, he just needs to rest,' or something of that sort. The six of them that were left by the fire decided to sit down, and their digimon partners tried to rest as best as they could. Except for Gomamon that is.

"Hey Joe! Are you doing ok?"

He looked at the seal digimon and put on a fake smile. "Of course Gomamon. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Um, well, two of you're friends are missing, five of them went off into a dark, creepy forest to find them, and another one is gravely injured."

Sometimes he really, really wanted to slap his partner. Instead, anger, along with worry and fear, boiled up inside of him.

"Fine. I'm not ok," he said sharply.

"Woah, no need to bite my head off Joe! I'm just trying to make sure you're alright!"

He sighed. It was times like these that caused him to be stressed. Stress caused him to be uptight. Being uptight caused him to be really sharp and kind of mean to others. He hated times like these.

"Sorry Gomamon, I just don't like this situation at all."

Gomamon hummed in response. When Gomamon didn't speak, he said, "Why don't you try to go get some sleep with the others?"

He nudged his head towards the other digimon that were knocked out cold. Even Yolei, Ken, and Willis were sleeping on the soft grass as well. This only left Cody and… wait a second. Where was Michael?

"Hey," he said to no one in particular, panic starting to grow in his voice, "Where's Michael?"

The others didn't wake up, but Cody stood up and looked around and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, he was just here a couple of minutes ago… at least I think."

Great. Now there was something out there stealing more of the digidestineds away. The hairs on the back of his neck started to spring up and his whole body tensed. Maybe they should wake the others.

"I know where Michael is."

He turned towards his partner and looked at him with a questioning look.

"You do?"

"Yeah, he walked off with Betamon while the others were just starting to leave to go find Matt and Tai!"

His body relaxed a little, but there were still more questions that needed to be answered. Like…

"Why didn't you tell us when you saw them walk off?" he asked his partner accusingly.

"I just figured they needed some alone time and would be back soon. Or maybe they left something in Gennai's house. I don't know."

"Why would Michael walk off like that?"

"Michael's missing?"

They turned to see Willis rubbing his eyes, yet quickly regaining his senses. He didn't know Willis or Michael too well, but he did know that the two of them were pretty good friends. At least he thought.

"Yeah, Gomamon said that the two of them just walked off not too long ago."

Willis's eyes widened as his two partner digimon woke up as well and jumped onto the blonde's shoulders.

"Uh oh!" Terriermon said.

"I have to go after him!" Willis exclaimed.

Without further ado, Willis was running off into the darkness. Cody tried running after Willis but Willis was faster and was disappearing into the darkness.

"You don't even know which way he went!" Cody yelled after the blonde, but Willis had disappeared and Cody stopped his pursuit.

By now the ruckus had caused all of the sleeping digimon and digidestineds to wake up.

"Why are you guys being so loud!?" Yolei asked tiredly, yet with a dark tone. Apparently she didn't like being woken up by Cody's screaming.

"Michael and Willis are gone," he informed her.

Yolei gasped and looked around to see if it was true. Her eyes then stopped and locked in on something and she smiled a big smile.

"You're awake!" she shouted.

Confused, he followed Yolei's eyes and saw she was looking at a woken up TK.

"How could I sleep through all that screaming?"

Immediately the atmosphere lightened as they forgot about Michael and Willis and were surrounding TK, checking to see if he was all right.

When TK tried to sit up, Joe gently, yet firmly, pushed TK back to the ground.

"You need your rest TK."

"The boy's right, child of hope. Too bad you won't be able to get any by the time I'm done with you all."

Just as quickly as it had lightened, the atmosphere became extremely heavy as they all became aware of the digimon standing not too far away from them. The creature was wearing a red cloak and purple claws extended from the arms. Dark red eyes pierced through the darkness and seemed to be penetrating into his own. The younger ones instantly recognized the digimon while he slowly realized that this was the digimon they were waiting to face. This digimon was the new evil. Daemon.

Where was he? Where was his best friend? He looked around and the night only seemed to be getting darker as more time went on. How long had he been wandering around now. An hour? Maybe two? It didn't matter. He wasn't going to stop. Not until he found Michael and taught him a lesson.

"Uh, Willis? Don't you think we should head back to the others?" Lopmon asked.

He shook his head but didn't respond other than that.

"But we can't see anything and there's not a chance that we are going to run into Michael!"

Just then, Willis ran right into something and took a few steps back to regain his balance. His nose throbbed from where it hit whatever he had run into. He also listened and heard footsteps against the grass.

"Who's there?" he asked boldly. The footsteps stopped.

"Willis? Is that you?"

He recognized the voice; it was Michael. He was relieved he had finally found his best friend, but rage took over.

"Michael! What the hell did you think you were doing running away like that?!"

He flinched at his own words. He usually never got angry. This time was different. He was furious.

Michael had been his best friend for life. When he moved from Colorado to New York, Michael was the one who helped the transition. Michael was the one who helped him out when he was feeling lonely or made him laugh when he was down in the dumps. Michael had always been there for him, but now Michael was running away from him. What had changed? Why was Michael acting so strange?

And it wasn't just Michael that he was furious at. He was angry at Daemon for hurting TK as much as he did. He was angry at GranKuwagamon for stealing two of their top ranks. He was mad that there was nothing he could do to stop any of it, and he was helpless to do anything unless he learned his crests. And just how does someone learn the crest of miracles and destiny? You can learn to be courageous, or friendly, or sincere. You can't learn miracles though. Or destiny. In fact, those were the two things he understood least.

Why did he, a regular… ok, super genius teenager, become a digidestined? Why did he get two twin digimon partners while everyone else only got one? Why did he and the other digidestineds always end up in deep trouble and someone had to end up getting hurt? It seemed like his destiny sucked, and unless he learned to understand miracles and destiny he was pretty much defenseless when facing Daemon.

So it wasn't just Michael he was angry at, but Michael was the person he was going to vent all his anger onto right now.

"Willis… I'm going to defeat Daemon."

He was shocked by his friend's response, but then had to resist the urge to laugh.

"You? Going to defeat Daemon all on your own?"

Michael paid no attention to his mocking tone. Actually, Michael's voice sounded angry.

"I'm stronger than what you all think."

He took a deep breath and said, "Michael, I didn't mean that you were weak. But you can't honestly think you'll defeat Daemon all on your own."

"I can and I will; it's as simple as that. And I'm going to destroy anyone who stands in my way."

"Oooo. Is that a threat?"

"Sure is!"

Literally out of nowhere Michael's fist landed a direct hit on his face causing him to take multiple steps backwards to stay on his feet. Terriermon and Lopmon jumped off of his shoulders looking for a way to help their partner.

"Electric Shock!"

This time he was able to spot the attack. A string of electricity shot from what must have been Betamon directly at Terriermon and Lopmon instantly sending voltage through the two digimon's bodies causing them to cry out in pain.

He didn't have time to call out to his partners, though, as he felt Willis get on top of him and pin him down. Although he couldn't see it, he was certain Michael's fist was drawn back ready to land another punch. But before the attack came, laughter sounded out from an unknown source.

The voice sounded like the devil himself. It had a deep, raspy tone filled with hatred. Although it was laughter, he could tell that there was great pain in whomever it was that was laughing.

"Who's there?" he heard Michael call out as he got off of Willis. He used this time to get up as well and looked around for the source of the voice.

The laughter stopped and a shout rang through the air.

"Bone Duster!"

Red flames shot out from in front of them to their right. The fire struck a tree causing it to burst up in flames, giving ample light to the surrounding area as the fire spread from tree to tree.

With the new light, Willis was able to spot Michael who was standing right next to him, Terriermon and Lopmon who both had recovered from the previous attack, Betamon, and a new figure. This digimon, cause it had to be a digimon, was embodied by golden armor. Skulls were placed on his knee caps and chest. A sharp sickle was the digimon's right hand and the left hand was a claw with a gray canon sitting on top. The digimon's head, a golden, horned skull was looking right at them with bright red eyes.

"Allow me to introduce myself, the name's Reapermon."

Micahel growled, which Willis was sort of creeped out by, but at least Micahel wasn't punching him. His left eye was still stinging from the impact and he was sure he was going to have a black eye the next morning… if he made it to next morning.

"What do you want with us?"

"What do I want with you? Nothing more than what you two were doing just now."

"What do you mean?" he asked, though he had his suspicions.

"Pummeling each other into oblivion, of course! It makes the job so much easier for me!"

He turned to look at Michael who put his head down and looked off to the side. Michael then glared back at Reapermon.

"You have no right to interfere! Get out of here now, or suffer the consequences."

Again, Reapermon laughed. "And what would those consequences consist of?"

Michael didn't answer. Instead he turned towards Betamon and took out his digivice. Betamon nodded and white digivolution light surrounded all of them. Betamon changed forms first to Seadramon and then to MegaSeadramon. The sea serpent stood up tall, looking down upon the gold-armored digimon. Willis didn't wait to join in on the fight. He and Michael may have been fighting each other just a couple of minutes ago, but he still loved Michael and was willing to fight alongside him no matter what the cost was. Terriermon and Lopmon then jumped into action as they also digivolved into their ultimate forms and stood by MegaSeadramon, glaring at Reapermon.

"Fine," Reapermon gave in, though not one bit of worry was in the digimon's voice, "Have it your way."

She had to find them. She had to save them. There was no way she was ever going to give in to her enemies and let them hurt and take her friends like they have been. It was finally her time to stand up and fight.

But, despite her eagerness, there was nothing she could do. They had been wandering practically blindly through the forest for ages without any sight or clue as to where the others were. Despite the lack of success, she couldn't help but kind of enjoy wandering through the forest.

"This brings back memories of our first adventure," she said.

"I know what you mean," Izzy replied, "We walked through many a woods in the duration of our first pilgrimage here in the Digital World."

"I remember when all of a sudden the ground started moving on its own and we all started disappearing because of Puppetmon," Kari said, finally sounding a little happier than she had for a long time.

"Who in the world is Puppetmon? He sounds like he'd be the mon for having some fun!"

She couldn't help but laugh, "Too bad you weren't with us then, Davis. All Puppetmon wanted to do was play games."

"Sweet!" Davis cheered, "When am I going to meet him?"

"Never Davis," Kari answered, "MetalGarurumon froze him to death."

"Why'd he do that?"

"Because Puppetmon was one of the members of this group called the Dark Masters."

"Oh, I hated those creeps! They were always barging in and trying to destroy us all the time!" Mimi complained.

"Just like every other evil digimon we came in to contact with!" Sora said.

"Everyone quiet!"

This voice was Biyomon. Sora turned to her partner and looked at her curiously.

"Why Biyomon? You didn't like talking about…"

"Shh!"

This time Biyomon looked at her alarmingly, letting her know that she wasn't joking around here. Everyone got the gist and stayed silent. Then she heard it. It was a low humming as if a million bugs were swarming around in the air. Then she heard a faint, yet familiar voice.

"Terra Force!"

None of them hesitated when they ran off towards WarGreymon's voice. As they ran they saw light surround them from the fire WarGreymon's attack caused. Trees were being cut in half as easily as toothpicks and fell to the ground creating a loud rumbling sound.

It took about a minute or two of sprinting to reach the intense battle. WarGreymon was maneuvering around the trees trying to chase after this huge black bug. It had to be GranKuwagamon. WarGreymon tried a different approach as he yelled out, "Great Tornado!"

WarGreymon started spinning until he became a cyclone that shot with extreme speed towards GranKuwagamon. The beetle digimon swiped with one of his pincers striking WarGreymon. The attack was so strong that WarGreymon flew back causing him to stop his attack. The dramon destroyer then looked around to spot his foe, but GranKuwagamon was nowhere to be seen. But then the digimon flew in from above towards the unsuspecting WarGreymon.

"X-Scissor Claw!"

GranKuwagamon's two pincers crossed each other forming an "X" shape and he came crashing down onto WarGreymon who tried to use his shield to defend himself. But it was to no avail, as WarGreymon crashed heavily into the ground with GranKuwagamon on top of him.

"Nice going GranKuwagamon. Now it is time to finish off these newcomers as well."

Out of nowhere a new digimon appeared. This digimon had white angel wings extending from its back, but this digimon was clearly evil. He was surrounded by dark purple armor and his right arm was really a sharp spear. Two horns came out of its head and the mechanoid digimon had a light blue tail that was swaying back and forth like a dog just about to start playing around.

It was hard to pull her eyes away from the digimon, but she managed to do so and spotted Tai looking between Matt, who was on the ground in front of him with Gabumon, his helpless partner, and the new digimon. Fear was etched across the boy of courage's face, and fear threatened to grip her as well, but she was determined. She was going to fight. There was nothing that could stand between her and the ones she loved. She had to have hope. She had to fight.

Yet she second guessed herself as the new digimon let out a roar.

"Dark Roar!"