Chapter 3

Matt clenched his ears shut at the noise surrounding them. "It's unbearable!"

Tai managed to look up enough to see seven large Digimon jump out of the while ball.

"Guy's! We are under attack!"

He let Agumon Digivolve and so did the other two.

With little difficulty they defeated them and came to the conclusion that the others would probably be under attack as well and ran to aid them.

Coming close Tai suddenly spotted Izzy beside Ken and felt his heart clench.

What the hell was he doing here.

"Damn!" Tai took a sprint and ran right passed the surprised Bijtmemon, who did nothing to attack him and stopped in front of Izzy.

"Tai…I," scared black eyes met his own brown gaze and Tai swallowed.

"Give me the strength," he whispered as he grabbed Izzy's hand and pulled him closer.

Izzy's eyes widened slightly before a golden glow fell over them and he closed his fingers around Tai's.

A powerful red shield appeared in front of them, clearing a path right to the closest gate.

Everyone looked around confused as the Bijtmemon were forced backwards and the Digidestined and their Digimon were surrounded by the shield.

"What the hell?" Matt turned to Tai and Izzy, to see the younger boy stare at Tai with a strange glow in his eyes but Tai moved his attention from Izzy to him and Joe.

"Matt, Joe, take the others to the gate."

Joe turned to look at him confused.

"Now!"

Tai wrapped an arm around Izzy's waist, the younger boy motionless except for his wide eyes.

Blinking Matt and Joe both broke out of their shock.

"Come on guy's, before the shield collapses!"

Matt and Joe forced the confused others to run with them towards the gate.

Tai looked back into Izzy's eyes until the black eyes met his and moved the hand he was holding close to his heart.

Izzy looked up at him guilty. "I'm sorry Tai."

Tai placed a finger on Izzy's lips.

"We'll talk about it later Iz. Right now the only thing that matters is to get you into safety before the shield collapses."

Tears appeared in the dark eyes as he nodded and tightened his grip on Tai's hand.

Tightening his grip Tai pulled him with him as they ran after the others, the shield collapsing behind them.

Matt and Joe led the last few of them through the gate when they turned just in time to see Tai and Izzy running half a mile behind them.

"They will never make it!"

"They will have to!" Matt pushed Joe inside before he could argue and waved at Tai to motion him to hurry up, but Tai was hit from behind and lost his balance, pulling Izzy down with him as he fell.

"Oh no," Matt whispered, leaving the gate without a second thought to run back to them.

"Tai get up!" Izzy was pulling on Tai's arm but Tai couldn't lift himself upright and Izzy wasn't nowhere near strong enough to pull him up by himself.

Matt reached them and grabbed Tai's other arm and together they managed to pull him to his feet.

"He's out of it, he can't walk," Matt worriedly stated.

Izzy took one look at Tai before glancing at the collapsing shield before he turned his gaze to Matt.

"Take him to the gate, I'll keep them away as long as I can."

"No!...don't…I…leave me…" Tai managed to say between rapid breaths as he tried to break out of Matt's grip to stop Izzy.

Izzy smiled sadly and placed a hand on Tai's cheek to make him look at him.

"I'm the reason they are here. I can't let them hurt you," his eyes shifted to Matt's.

"Promise me you'll keep him safe Matt."

Confused Matt swallowed as he nodded. He had no idea what Izzy could possible do to get them out of there since Tentomon was out but he nodded anyway.

"I promise…Izzy…you …how…"

Izzy shook his head and turned his gaze back to Tai, tears appearing in his eyes as he turned away from them.

"Bring him into safety Matt," he ordered and Matt nodded again, seeing the determination in Izzy's black eyes and didn't argue further.

"Be careful. I'll come help you as soon as I get him into safety," he swore as he began to pull Tai with him towards the gate.

Izzy looked at the Digimon that stopped in front of him as the shield collapsed further.

"You're not getting them," Izzy swore and the Bijtmemon laughed.

"We want you Faith…and we will get you and once we've got you we will kill all your precious little friends, just because we can."

Izzy looked back at his two friends and a golden glow appeared in his eyes again.

"I cannot let you hurt the ones I care for."

A stream of red light surrounded Izzy as the Digimon attacked but they couldn't pass the red light.

They were thrown backwards when they hit the shield but didn't stop as cries of pain erupted from them.

Throwing themselves over and over again at the shield, Izzy had trouble blocking them and he dared a glance towards the gate to see Matt and Tai had reached it.

With a nod he released the shield a few moments later when the Bijtmemon were thrown backwards again and ran to the gate, followed by the angry group of Bijtmemon….

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Mat let out an annoyed breath as he pulled Tai with him while the other tried to struggle.

"Please…leave me, you have to help Izzy."

"Sorry buddy I can't. I promised Iz that I would keep you safe," he shifted Tai's weight a bit more on his shoulder.

For such a thin boy he sure was heavy and his struggling wasn't helping much.

"Please Matt...you don't know…you…. you don't…"

Breaking into sobs he let himself be dragged along as he was unable to walk on his own well enough to struggle.

Matt ignored his further pleas, not daring to stop or turn around to look at their younger friend in case he'd be tempted to turn around.

Reaching the gate he finally dared to turn around and blinked surprised as he saw a red light surround the boy.

"Izzy's using that…is that what they are looking for?" He asked himself as he saw the Digimon didn't pay them any attention but attacked Izzy with full force.

A small sound had Matt turn his attention to the gate and his eyes widened as he saw the gate was closing.

He looked back at Izzy, who was now running towards them as fast as he could.

"Izzy! The gate is closing!" he screamed as Izzy ducked an attack by one of the Bijtmemon.

"What do they want Izzy so badly? I don't understand."

He began to move back to run to Izzy and leave Tai at the gate as the other began to regain some of his strength when a piece of the forest exploded near Izzy.

He was thrown side wards by the explosion and landed bodily onto the ground.

He didn't hesitate to immediately begin to run back, gate closing or not when Izzy's eyes flashes, visible even from this distance and he and Tai were bodily thrown into the gate as it closed.

Tai screamed Izzy's name but they were unable to do anything else but close their eyes against the blinding light as the portal forced them through and they lost sight of Izzy.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Tai hit the hard ground, immediately shifting and turning so that he could reach the computer.

"Open the gate, Izzy's still in there!"

T.K. shot him an apologetic glance.

"We can't. The gate closed behind us and it turned into a one way. We tried to open it but our Digivices won't let us open it."

Tai stared at the gate, fumbling for his Digivice as he refused to listen to the blond's words.

"Digigate open!"

Nothing happened and Tai repeated his command repeatedly as tears jumped in his eyes.

"Oh god, Izzy…Gate open!...please…please….please open!"

Matt placed a hand on Tai's back as he broke down into sobs before he looked at the computer screen which only gave a closed gate.

"He was hurt and they were after him, not us," he wasn't really asking, even as he turned a questioningly gaze back to their sobbing leader.

"What was going on, why did they want Izzy so badly?"

Tai looked from the screen to Matt, teary brown eyes locking on his own blue ones and he sighed.

"Because Izzy has powers that none of us has," he admitted slowly.

Ken frowned before his eyes widened in realization.

"Faith…the power of Faith…Izzy is.."

"The Digidestined of Faith…yeah," Tai confirmed.

Everyone looked at Tai in shock.

"There…there is another Digidestined? Why didn't you tell us?" Yolei shrieked.

Tai sat down on a chair and pulled his hand through his hair in raw anger.

"Because Gennai said it would be too dangerous. Every dark Digimon would want Izzy's powers, the power of the Digidestined of Faith. He said it would be too dangerous to tell you guy's and I believed him!" he snarled the last bit as he knocked on of the work computers from the desk in anger and despair.

Ken paled. "I…I called him. It's my fault he came to the Digital World."

Davis put a hand on his shoulders as silent tears started to form in Ken's eyes.

"You didn't know. He should have told us, then you never would have called him."

He turned his accusing gaze to Tai but the older boy just closed his eyes before grimacing and turning to the door.

"Tai, where are you going?" Kari asked quietly.

"I need to find a way to get Izzy back, there has to be a way."

His gaze fell on the laptop Izzy had left behind and he quickly gathered it, holding it against him as he walked out of the computer room, leaving the others alone.

Joe sighed as he moved to the door too. "Tai is right, there has to be a way…there just has to be," he said softly, determination in his eyes.

"We'll find it Joe. We won't rest until Izzy's back here."

They both left the computer room as well and the others looked at one another.

"Do you think Biyomon and the others will be all right?" Sora asked softly and Mimi turned to the screen. They will be a lot more mobile without us slowing them down. Besides, you heard Matt, they were after Izzy. I doubt they'll concern themselves with our Digimon."

They all looked at each other silently, knowing Izzy was probably all alone in the Digital World and not knowing if he was still alive or not…