T.K. turned his head away and peered down at his lap as his own eyes clouded with tears. He closed them, but his eyelids shook as he struggled to keep his tears hidden, not wanting to look like that crybaby he'd been when he was younger. Just as Matt was about to comfort him again, a new hand appeared on T.K.'s shoulder, and the boy looked to his side to find his friends, Ken and Cody and Yolei smiling at him, and it was then that the tears that he'd held back streamed down his face. (Davis had fallen asleep a long time ago, considering he'd stayed up until four 'o clock that morning playing video games, as it was a weekend. Well, the end of one, anyway).

"Don't worry, T.K., Kari's strong, we all know that. She's the strongest person I've ever met, and I believe she can make it through this. You have to as well, if she's too make it out of here." Yolei told him gently.

"Yeah, T.K., Yolei's right. If you," Ken whispered as quietly as he could into his ear, "The one who loves her more than anyone else," He pulled away and resumed the three-way conversation. "Gives up on her, then she's finished!"

"Don't give up, T.K.," Cody smiled, his eyes shining as tears quietly filled them. "If you give up, then that means we'll all have to. You're the Chosen Child of Hope, and it's all of our hope on yours." He swiftly wiped his eyes and took the twelve-year-old's hand, holding it firmly as he placed his other palm against it, and the others of their team soon joined in and placed one palm after the other on top of T.K.'s. He simply stared at them in confusion, and then he understood.

"All of your hope on my hope! I remember now! That was what I said on our first adventure in the Digital World, when we were just about to defeat Apocalymon, our final and most deadly enemy," He smiled at them whole-heatedly, his eyelashes clinging to the tears they'd managed to capture. "Thanks, you guys. I didn't give up then and I can't give up now! No way!" They all raised the mountain made of their hands into the air, and cheered, synchronized,

"Yeah!!" The old Digidestined grinned at the kids that were giving them newfound hope, but then Joe's face turned dark. Izzy saw this and asked, concerned,

"What's wrong, Joe?" The boy's eyes peered at the floor.

"We still haven't told him yet."

"Oh…"

"Told who what?" Tai asked, and T.K. left his ring of friends to stand by them in shame.

"…Tai…?" T.K. began, and the boy's cheery face turned to a frown.

"What is it?" The boys looked at each other, and then turned their heads towards the person in question.

"There's something we need to tell you. It's…we know something about Kari's virus that most of you don't."

"Really? What is it?!" Tai asked hurriedly, but when he saw their plagued expressions, he quieted and let them finish what they'd started.

"It happened in the Digital World four years ago, the day T.K. defeated the Atriomon and saved Kari. When you were all out in the water at the beach, Kari requested that we, Joe and I, talk to her about something. Of course, we said yes, and went with her to talk privately. There she told us that she couldn't talk to you about it and begged us not to say a single word to you. Then she said that she could feel her immune system, which, as you know was weak when she was younger, but that it had actually gotten much, much weaker over the years, which is the opposite of what the doctors were saying. See, the doctors were fooled because her…well, actually the HDIRD had taken a break from killing her white blood cells, and that's why, she said, the doctors had the wool pulled over their eyes; because of the trickery of the disease. It waited until the doctors found her 'cured' and 'well' to show itself again, which is what happened four years ago, and it finally struck her down today. I'm sorry we never told you, Tai. We didn't know what it was back then. We're all sorry." By this time, Tai's face was filled with shock and betrayal, and even more tears ran down his face. Izzy saw this and his face softened even more than it had.

"Tai…We-" The genius didn't even have time to finish as Tai came crashing forward and pinned him to one of the chairs. The computer geek's eyes widened as he saw the rage and sorrow his leader felt, and immediately regretted not telling him sooner. He didn't look away, though, and stared him right back in the face, ready for anything he got, which probably served him right anyway. He heard the commotion around them as the friends and parents tried to get Tai off of him, but it was soon blocked out as Izzy was staring into those pained eyes that lay in front of him, and the felt fifteen-year-old's tears splattered onto his face. Abruptly, a memory flowed back into his mind, and his eyes widened; he knew what he had to say. "Tai, I know you're furious at me, but…" The room went dead silent (no pun intended :P) as the quietest of the original Chosen Children began to speak in his loudest and most serious voice. "At least know this: Kari didn't want us to tell you because she didn't want you getting hurt again, emotionally speaking. She loves you so much that she would rather have lived in silent fear of what was going to happen to her, than to cause you more pain like she did when you were younger. She knows you still grieve about the accident you caused that almost killed her when you were little, and that's why she didn't want you told of what was going on. That's the reason, Tai, because your sister loved, and still does, love you more than anyone else." Izzy stared hard into the boy's eyes and was relieved when they began to soften and realization came to mind. Tai began to slowly lift himself from the young scholar, and sat back in his chair with his head in his hands, his eyes glazed over as if in a daze. Izzy sighed heavily and wiped the tear stains from his face as Matt and Mimi helped him to his feet, but he soon returned his understanding gaze to Tai. He softly strode over to his friend and placed a warm hand on his shoulder, causing the boy to look up at him sadly. Izzy took one of the seats beside him and sighed while smiling caringly.

"All right, Tai, look. I know that what we did was wrong and we're all really sorry for what we've done. We shouldn't have kept that information from you when it involved your sister. We'd forgotten about it until today; you have to believe that we would never hurt you on purpose. We love you, Tai…all of us." He comfortingly beamed at the confused high schooler and patted his hand before raising his up own hand to gesture to all the people around them. Tai smiled, knowing what his friend was trying to do.

"Don't worry, Izzy, I understand. I'd like to apologize to you too; I'm the one who pinned you to the chair! Hey, you're not hurt anywhere from that are you?" He asked worriedly, and the head of the school computer club laughed as he rubbed his left shoulder.

"Ah, just a small bruise, it doesn't matter. It'll be gone by next week anyway. Then again, with my luck, I'll probably hit it again before the afternoon is over!"

"I thought being the master of klutz's was my job!?" Joe pointed out, and the room erupted into brilliant laughter.