"What do you mean?"

"Just as I said, T.K. I…don't know where we are. After I…you know, I…came here. I'm not sure what, or where, this place is." She said as she gestured to the blank landscape around her, and then looked back to him. He tilted his head in disappointment, but they both jumped as the silence was interrupted.

"Isn't it obvious?" They heard what sounded like an old man laugh, and upon recognizing it, called out in happiness and amazement simultaneously,

"Gennai!!" The elderly man appeared before them in his usual blue-robed attire, and he grinned at them in that special way of his.

"Why, hello, kids! Looks like you've gotten yourselves into a bit of a predicament, eh?" He chuckled as they gave him flabbergasted looks.

"Gennai, could you please tell us where we are? I…don't like it here." She looked up at the bleak world above her and moved closer to T.K.

"Of course! The answer is the solution to this riddle: I am a place between Heaven, Earth, Hell, and Limbo. I am also where eight children saved the world with the help of Digimon. Now, what 'where' am I?" They gasped in amazement as they stared at each other and then turned back to him.

"We're in the Digital World?!" He laughed at their expressions.

"Where else do you think you'd be? Honestly, do you think I'd let the Eighth Digidestined die and go to wait in Limbo until her fate is chosen? Be serious, really." He crossed his arms in front of his chest and wriggled his mustache playfully, and they laughed.

"So, how did I get here? And these clothes; I thought only people who actually entered Heaven wore these." Kari speculated, and motioned towards the clothing and accessories that adorned her petite figure.

"As soon as your soul was released from your body, I brought you here. As for your clothes, you were already wearing them when I got to you. That's something to be very proud of indeed, my dear." She blushed and nodded her thanks and acknowledgment.

"I…I see. So…what am I doing here anyway? Am I able…" She gasped in a perhaps-realization. "Can I go back, Gennai?" T.K., understanding her wave of thinking, watched the man hopefully.

"I'm afraid I'm not completely sure on that. You'll have to answer that one yourselves." They looked at each other again, and then T.K. asked him,

"What are you saying exactly?"

"You have to figure it out on your own, of course! You didn't think it would be that simple, did you? For Kari to come back, each of you must give away something that is precious to you."

"But that doesn't-" Suddenly, T.K. peered down as he felt something tugging at his legs, and saw the darkness that had taken his brother, Sora, and the rest of them under its spell from both earlier that day and four years ago. It pulled him down halfway into the blackness, and no matter how hard Gennai struggled to make the darkness disappear or how hard Kari tried to pull his arm out of its socket (just kidding) while trying to help him, he soon found himself falling through the desolate air, getting one last look at her angelic face as she screamed his name.

/ \ / \

He came to (I meant to write that) the same as last time he'd gone to that 'in between' place: breathing heavily, looking around the room to see the Digidestined staring at him with worried eyes.

"Are you all right, T.K.?" Mimi looked at him cautiously, a comforting hand on his shoulder, and he sighed in relief to be back with his friends. He smiled up at her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for worrying." Her face softened to a reassured smile, and she nodded.

"Did you see Kari again?" Tai asked, and the boy looked at him, a small, happy grin on his face.

"Yeah. Yeah, I did. You don't have to worry, though. She's all right," Everyone's eyes widened, but Tai nodded for him to keep going. "She was an angel, Tai; a beautiful, beautiful angel. Gennai brought her to the Digital World as soon as her spirit left her living form, and he said…he said that she could come back to us. But…for her to do that, both of us have to give up something precious to us. We don't know what that means, though." He sighed, frustrated and looking at the floor, but then turned his eyes back up to Tai. The high schooler stared him in the eyes as his own shined with glee, the glee that his sister was safe in their home-away-from-home.

"Do you know her exact location?" The boy shook his head.

"No, I don't. It was a place I'd never seen before; I'm sure it was some special place, perhaps one of Gennai's own creation. I'm not sure." Tai nodded understandingly, and then went on to tackle slightly more important matters.

"Okay, now all we need to do is find out what this special thing is that you have to give away. The question is, how do we do that?"

"I think I may have an idea!" Izzy spoke out, and unearthed his laptop from his backpack. Setting it on his legs, he began typing furiously, and everyone gathered around the small chair. When he stopped typing, he turned to the others a bit to see expectant faces, and he began. "Do you recall the day we found VenomMyotismon and Gennai sent us that Prophecy?" He paused to make sure he received nods from everyone, except the new Digidestined, since they had not been Chosen Children back then. "Well, the Prophecy said that when arrows shot from the angel Digimon, Angemon and Angewomon, into Tai and Matt, a miracle would happen. That worked, didn't it?"

"Sure did!" Matt cried enthusiastically, and Izzy continued.

"That time the precious thing they had to risk was their brothers. So, maybe, they have to risk something else, something even more special to them." Tai nodded as he thought the idea over.

"Thanks, Izzy. We can always count on you." He smiled at the boy in deep appreciation, and the fourteen-year-old grinned.

"I'm glad to be of help, Tai."

"But what could be more important than us?" The rock star of the group asked, and everyone stared at him. T.K. laughed heartily, and hugged his brother tightly.

"No one could replace you, silly." Matt embraced him as well and smiled.

"Thanks, bro." Their parents watched on wistfully.

"I'm so happy that their relationship wasn't destroyed completely when we separated." Ms. Takashi sighed.

"Yeah, me too. I'm just glad they were able to get things straightened out between them while they were in the Digital World four years ago. It's thanks to that place, their Digimon, and all of these people around us that they are who they are now: a true family. That's all I care about." Mr. Ishida said, and his wife smiled at him.

"I think we've finally grown up, John." (I made up his name since I don't know his real one.) She chuckled, and he blushed.

"Yes, well…I learn as I go." He chuckled as well, and the divorced parents beamed; they had finally come to an understanding.