Chapter 5
"Tai...please Tai…...I'm so sorry Tai."
Tai turned around in his sleep.
"Izzy...where are you. Please tell me where you are."
A young man with short red hair appeared a few feet away.
He had his hands in front of his chest folded like he was praying and looked up at Tai with teary dull eyes.
"Spiral Mountain...Tai...please stay away from here. It's not safe, please Tai... stay away."
He fell quiet and Tai could feel tears coming up in his eyes.
"Why don't you want me on Spiral Mountain? Are you trying to protect me from something bad? I don't understand."
Izzy turned around, seemingly hearing something that Tai couldn´t, a scared expression on his face.
Tai reached out, but Izzy disappeared before he could get an answer.
Waking up while screaming Izzy´s name, he fell of the bed and Kari came running into his run, sitting down on the edge of his bed when Tai pulled himself up.
"Did you see Izzy again?"
"Yeah. He's asking me to stay away from Spiral Mountain."
"You think they are holding him there?" Kari looked up to see tears in her brother's brown eyes.
"I don't know, I really don't. Why wouldn't Izzy want us to come and save him if he knows we would be able to?" Tai closed his eyes to blink away the tears.
"We should go there. What if Izzy truly is there? I don't want to leave him there all alone when we might actually know where he is now."
"And how do you think we do that? Digiworld isn't open for us remember? It hasn't been for a long time now."
"Can't you ask Izzy to open the gate for you? I mean, in your dream. I'm sure he can hear you even if he doesn't appear himself."
Tai blinked away his tears with a small nod, letting Kari guide him back into bed.
"Why would he open the gate if he doesn't want us to save him?"
"I don't know, but we can't not try."
Obeying her, Tai closed his eyes and tried to relax.
When he opened his eyes to darkness he knew he'd dozed off again and he immediately looked around in the hopes of seeing Izzy again.
"Iz? Can you hear me, are you there?"
He didn't get a reaction but wasn't surprised. In the beginning he'd tried to force himself back to sleep in the hopes of seeing Izzy longer, but the boy didn't always appear and never when Tai wanted him to.
"If you can hear me...please open the gate for me, please. Our Digivices can't open the gates so you have to open it from the inside. Please open it, Izzy."
He kept repeating that mantra until he woke up again to find Kari staring at him.
Shaking his head he sighed. "He wasn't there. I talked to him but I don't know if he heard me."
"Let's check then."
She rose to her feet and walked to the computer, grumbling irritated as the old thing took it's time to start up.
"Come on slowpoke!" impatiently she ruffled her fingers on the table, sighing when it showed a closed gate when it was finished.
"Maybe he needs a little time," she suggested as Tai sat down beside her.
Both stared at that horrible little red square in the middle of the screen for a while until Kari picked up her Digivice.
"Maybe...Digigate...open," nothing happened and Tai shot her a tearful glance.
"Maybe it only works for older devices? Who knows if Izzy remembers the D-3's?" she refused to give up now that they finally had a lead where he might be.
Sighing Tai picked up his Digivice and held it up.
A small ting was heard and the red square suddenly turned green and they gasped surprised.
"Kari...the gate..."
"I knew it!" Kari hugged her brother enthusiastically.
"You were right sis...I'm going to get Matt and Joe and then we'll go!"
"Yes, it would be wiser to take only a few so you can travel undetected. I'll stay here as back up and warn the others should you run into trouble," Kari nodded, both of them getting dressed quickly while Tai called Joe and Matt.
Both immediately came to his house despite the late hour.
"What's going on?" Matt asked when they stepped inside.
"We might know where Izzy is."
"He spoke to you again?" Joe asked with tired blue eyes.
"Yeah. He's asking me to stay away from Spiral Mountain so Kari thinks that is where they are holding him."
Matt and Joe stared a look and then Matt smiled as he noticed the open gate.
"It is worth checking it out if you have been able to open the gate."
"Be careful and bring him home," Tai nodded at his sister's request and the three males quickly made their way into the Digiworld and to Spiral Mountain as quickly and quietly as they could without their Digimon.
Coming near enough to actually see the mountain they hid behind some rocks and were horrified to see everything was on fire.
"It looks like the entire mountain is surrounded in it. How do you think we can get passed that without being noticed or grilled into Digi toast?" Matt asked.
"I don't know, but Izzy's there. I can hear his voice again and he's telling us to go away."
"Us? He knows we are here?" Matt frowned.
Tai nodded and Joe pushed up his glasses. "If he's really here then I refuse to leave without him and if he knows we are here he wouldn't let any harm come to us."
Rising to his feet he walked towards the flames without any hesitation and walked straight through them. From the other side they could hear him call out to them.
"Come on, we're losing time!"
Sharing a surprised glance, both Tai and Matt hurried after him.
"Did you notice that Joe is a lot more confident right now than ever before?" Matt asked, holding his breath as they walked through the flames, surprised that they didn't even hurt them.
"He just wants to find Izzy as badly as we do," Tai rubbed his temple.
"Is he still calling out to you?" Matt informed as he noticed.
"Yeah, but weakly. It is like he doesn't have any strength left anymore. His voice is so full of pain and despair right now," tears slipped down Tai's face and Matt squeezed his shoulder.
"We are going to get him back, I promise. None of us will rest until he's back where he belongs."
"Yeah. I wish he knew how much I loved him, though. Maybe it would give him strength to hold on."
"He knows."
Both Matt and Tai looked up to Joe, who sighed.
"Izzy's an empath, remember? You may be able to hide on the outside how you feel, but Izzy still knows. And I know that he knows how much you love him. Just as much as he loves you."
"He told you that?" Tai asked hopeful.
"He didn't have to; I could see it in his eyes whenever the two of you spoke."
"And the way you always helped each other, from the moment we first arrived in Digiworld at summer camp all those years ago," Matt added with a smile.
Shooting them a thankful smile, Tai moved forward with new determination.
"Let's get back our friend."
Smiling at Joe, Matt followed their leader, hopeful for the first time in a long time that they'd find Izzy.
Walking around the mountain Tai spotted a small entry underneath a small rock and ducked through, the others following him quietly.
Quietly they made their way inside and hid behind some rocks as they spotted several Digimon coming by, holding their breath as two Gazimon conversed together while passing by.
"Why are we the ones that have to feed the brat all the time?"
"Let's just say we gave him food, they aren't going to notice. They never do."
"No, we have to. They are finally making progress and Arukenimon won't be happy if we lose that now."
"They broke down several of his shields today; the power of Faith will be ours now any day."
"You mean Arukenimon's."
"Yes, I meant that," the second Gazimon correctly quickly as they disappeared around the corner.
"Let's follow them," Matt whispered as Tai and Joe seemed shell shocked for a long moment, following him quickly as he slipped out from behind the rocks.
They hid behind various rocks whenever the Gazimon slowed but eventually they reached the dark centre of the mountain. Everything felt cold and the Digidestined couldn't help but shiver.
"It's so cold, how can they survive here?" Joe asked, rubbing his arms.
"I don't think they have to," Matt admitted with tears in his eyes, pointing to where the Gazimon had stopped and slid open a hidden door before entering.
The door closed behind them and Matt pulled Tai back down when he made to follow them.
"Let's wait until they come back. We don't know how much space there is behind that door or what is in there."
"Right."
An hour passed before the door suddenly slid open again and the two Gazimon reappeared, one of them carrying a bloodied whip that made all of their stomach's hurl.
Matt had to keep a firm hold on both Joe and Tai to keep them hidden until the Gazimon had disappeared back the way they came from before they came out of their hiding place.
Joe hurried forward to slide open the door, revealing total darkness behind it.
"I can't see a thing, it is much too dark," Matt whispered uncertainly.
Tai glanced at him before he walked straight into the darkness, ignoring Matt's whispering call, Joe close behind him.
Izzy was there, he knew it and he wasn't going to let them hurt him anymore, not if he could help it.
Matt cursed and followed them, the door sliding shut again behind them, leaving them in complete darkness.
They paused long enough for their eyes to adjust to the darkness a little before moving on, seeing a long hallway.
Walking down it, it didn't take long before they reached a corner and Matt glanced around it to see a small cave. On the wall two or three torches hung and they all gasped in shock as they realised there was a young man chained to the wall with heavy black chains.
Even in the dark Matt could see various wounds in different states of healing visible through the torn clothes and what had once been bright flaming red hair was now dull.
"Izzy," Tai reached out to touch him but Matt pulled him back.
"Don't...you don't know if that is truly him or a trap."
Joe stepped around them to look at the young man closely, no reaction to their voices as his eyes remained closed.
"Let him go," surprised Matt blinked at the certainty in Joe's voice and let go of Tai's wrist, the other immediately stepping forward.
Carefully reaching out, he touched the younger man's cheek, like he didn't believe he was truly seeing what he did.
As soon as his fingers touched the dirty skin, dull eyes as black as the night flew open to look at him.
Tai's eyes filled with tears again as he softly stroked the hair out of the younger man's face.
"Hey Izzy," he whispered as Izzy stared at him, seemingly looking into Tai's soul.
But at Tai's words, tears appeared in his eyes.
"Tai?" his voice was no more than a pained whisper and it didn't sound at all like Matt or Joe knew Izzy to sound like, all hoarsely and raw.
But Tai smiled softly, tears spilling down as he let his hand slide from his face to his neck, cupping his cheek carefully.
"We need to get you out of here," he whispered as he looked at the chains and Joe and Matt took that as their cue to start pulling on them.
Izzy choked on a scream at their movements and they dropped them in shock, terrified to hurt him further.
"We need to find something to break them with," Joe looked around and spotted a small heavy stick that he immediately retrieved.
"This should do. Tai, hold him still so that he won't move away from our touch."
Tai nodded, placing his hands onto Izzy's shoulders carefully. "They won't hurt you, they just want to get you lose before someone comes back."
Dull eyes shifted back to him before he closed them with a small nod, body tensing as he tried to keep still.
Matt placed the stick through the ring that held the chains and started pulling against it.
Slowly the ring came loose and with a last bit of effort it fell down, releasing Izzy from the wall.
TBC