Notes: I like to end with cliffhangers. Just a little warning. It's not that I'm mean or anything, but it helps me gather my thoughts to move on to the next part of the story. Anyways, I don't know when I leave a cliffhanger. To me, it's just a closing. And notes for this chapter? Any digivice can activate the portal. A response to some of the reviews: The last chapter wasn't a dream, but this chapter explains what happened, sort of. Angemon is also reconfigured.
~YAMATO~
I saw TK rush past me and Sora. He was upset, but I didn't go after him. Maybe I should have, but I needed to know what happened.
I eyed Hikari and she had come to chase after TK. "TK!"
I stopped her. "What happened?"
Koushiro stood impatiently. "Can we go inside and talk? I still have to set up the program in this last computer."
Hikari looked at Koushiro curiously. "A program?"
"It's to enter the Digital World," Sora explained. "We went around to everyone's houses and helped set it up."
"All except for here!" Koushiro was getting impatient. "Come on! After we set it up, we can worry about TK."
Hikari let us in and Koushiro instantly sat in front of the family computer. He began typing and linking up his laptop to the machine.
Sora thought it would be best for the three of us to leave him alone. "What's wrong with TK?"
I looked at Hikari, expecting an explanation. She looked away sheepishly. "I don't really know, but he seemed tired. Like he had something on his mind."
I smacked my forehead. "I knew it. I told him that if he had a problem, he could tell me about it. I should've at least stayed with him before meeting Sora."
Sora looked at me. "I would have let you cancel our date if you said something was wrong with TK, Yamato."
"I know, but TK didn't want me to worry." I turned back to Hikari. "Now what made him leave?"
"Well, I had a nightmare last night and I thought that TK was always there to help me. He offered to help me with my problem, but I didn't want it. Or at least not yet. I wanted to help him with his problem, but he said that it didn't matter. I shouldn't have listened to that stupid nightmare…" She trailed off.
Koushiro had just finished and exited the computer room. "A nightmare? Odd, I had one too."
Sora and I looked at each other. She asked Hikari, "Did Taichi have a weird dream too?"
Hikari thought back. She nodded. "Something must be wrong then."
Koushiro ushered us into the computer room and began sending e-mails to the others. "Where would TK go if he's upset?"
I thought about it. "To the park, home, or the Digital World. The park is a little crowded on Saturdays, so not a good choice to clear his head. If he went home, he would have discovered the program on the computer."
Koushiro nodded. "Then we'll all meet at the Digital World."
He whipped out his upgraded digivice and activated the portal. "Digiport, open!"
We were pulled into the alternate land. I looked at the clearing we stood in. It seemed peaceful and at once, I recognized Gabumon running towards me.
"Matt!" I knelt down and hugged my partner as he yelled my name.
"Hey! Have you seen TK anywhere?"
Gabumon shrugged. "Patamon went off somewhere though. That's probably where TK is."
"Gatomon!" I turned to see the catlike digimon climb down from a tree.
"Kari! Are you guys looking for TK?"
Sora looked up from Biyomon. "Yeah! Have you seen him?"
"He's talking with Patamon somewhere. I think it's best to leave them alone. Patamon is in the middle of one of his stories about what he did this summer. You won't want to interrupt him."
"How long ago was it?" Koushiro asked.
"About thirty minutes ago. Patamon gets really intense when he's talking about what he does."
"How long does his stories actually last?"
Tentomon flew up. "If you're lucky two hours. If not, they can last up to about four at the very least."
I saw Taichi, his two soccer prodigies, and Miyako enter the clearing. "I got the e-mail. Sounds important."
"We'll go over it later. We still need to wait for Jou, Iori, and Mimi, and then get TK."
"No need to wait for us! We're here," Jou gasped as he ran towards us.
Mimi walked towards us and made a face at Jou. "We would have been here sooner, but Jou didn't want to get his new shirt dirty."
At that moment, Iori ran towards us with some of his kendo gear on. "Sorry I'm late. Grandfather let me out just now."
"Now we need to find TK," I said. I turned to Gatomon. "Where did you last see them?"
Gatomon led us into the forest. "I'm not sure if they're still nearby. But we can always digivolve to find them."
We heard an explosion about a mile away from us. I immediately turned and ran in that direction. No doubt that was TK in trouble.
"Yamato! Where are you going?"
I took out my digivice and had Gabumon digivolve. It didn't work. "What's going on?"
"I'm sorry, Matt. Something is stopping me from digivolving."
The others checked their digivices. They couldn't digivolve either. I didn't care. I just kept running with the others behind me. "TK!"
I felt myself crash into an invisible wall. That hurt. I scrunched up my face and felt my nose bleed. I punched the wall, but to no avail.
"Blue Blaster!" The flames did nothing to destroy the barrier.
Taichi caught up with me and rolled his eyes. "You can't just dive in headfirst. I can, but you? Not so much."
I wiped up the blood on my face. "Okay, then. But what do we do?"
Taichi looked into the barrier. "Those trees look trampled. What do you think did all that damage?"
Sora looked at the scene. "It looks like SkullGreymon destroyed it for fun."
Daisuke was egging on Veemon to break the barrier. "Come on! Put your back into it!" Veemon stopped and fell to the ground.
"My head hurts, Daisuke." Daisuke went down to see if his partner was all right.
"Don't worry, Veemon. You tried your best."
Koushiro inspected the barrier. "Maybe we should talk about the nightmares now. This could have something to do with them."
Everyone shared their unpleasant dream and I waited as Hikari finished hers. "Darkness? Didn't we destroy it?"
Taichi and I were leaning against the barrier and it was beginning to disappear. The two of us fell backwards and turned around.
"Let's go!" I yelled. I looked at the digivice and was frustrated. Gabumon still couldn't digivolve.
Taichi was ahead of me, but he had stopped walking. He was hitting against another invisible barrier. "TK! Right here! What are you doing?"
"Pepper Breath!"
The fireball was reflected back at Agumon. He dodged out of the way and tried again. I ran up to Taichi and saw TK with LadyDevimon.
Angemon seemed hesitant. He didn't attack at first. TK was talking and I didn't know who he was talking to. "Is there something we should know, Hikari?" He stared at nothing.
Hikari came and she looked at the devil digimon. "What is she doing here? We have to do something!"
I saw TK try to defend himself against an unseen force. He kept calling it Hikari, but it didn't make any sense. Our digivices began to beep and I immediately had Gabumon warp digivolve. "Gabumon warp digivolve to…"
"MetalGarurumon!"
He crashed into the barrier with all his might. I watched as the other digimon digivolved and try to break down the wall.
Angemon crashed into the ground and I saw him look towards us. The look on his face was incomprehensible. It was like he didn't see us. I watched in dismay as the virus type digimon used one last final attack.
"No!" TK screamed.
LadyDevimon smirked. "Vile Wing!" Her sharp claws tore through Angemon.
At that moment, Angemon saw us. He turned to TK. He was using telepathy with his remaining strength. All of us could hear it resound in our minds. Then I understood.
TK was fighting against an illusion. Angemon stared at us and grimly smiled. I watched his data disappear. TK just stood there quietly.
"TK!" I yelled.
He didn't respond. He tore off his Crest of Hope. "Was it really worth this?"
He ran away from us and I knew that he was confused. Either he still couldn't see us or he was extremely upset Angemon had died again. I ran after him as the barrier went down. I looked around for a trace of him, but there was nothing to show me where he went.
Hikari picked up his tag. The Crest was still whole, but a crack ran through the protective cover. He must have stepped on it. "Yamato, do you want to hold on to it?"
I shook my head. I stared at where Angemon was. TK was so helpless when Devimon destroyed Angemon. Now this time, he thinks we killed him.
Suddenly I had an idea. "Let's go find the Primary Village."
Jou looked around. "That's going to be hard to do. We can try to find Elecmon and he can bring us there."
"I think I found it on the map of my D-3," Iori said. He pointed to his right. "It's this way."
I looked at where my brother had run off to. "TK! Are you there?"
Taichi shook his head. "Yamato, we should go. TK might try to find the village, too. He'll want to see if Patamon was reconfigured again."
I nodded and glumly followed him. I walked with Hikari. She still held his tag in her hand. I gently took it from her when she held it out for me. I sighed as I placed it in my pocket.
I was extremely upset. TK's crest in my pocket made me even more miserable. Maybe I should have let Hikari hold onto it. I went to walk with Sora and I looked down at Gabumon.
I can't believe Angemon lost his life to LadyDevimon. The evil digimon vanished before he fully disintegrated in front of us. But before he fully disappeared, Angemon gave us a pretty good mental image of what happened. It was a good thing he saw through the illusion at the last second, but I don't think TK understands. I barely heard his last thoughts to TK.
I stepped into the Primary Village and the baby digimon cheered as I saw Hikari went over to play with them. They were all so small compared to when we were younger.
Daisuke and Ken laughed as they were tackled by some of the bigger ones.
"Elecmon?" I looked everywhere for the caretaker. "Hey! Elecmon!"
The little red digimon appeared out of nowhere and carried a digi-egg. "It's been a long time since I saw this egg! Hey! The Digidestined!"
I instantly recognized the orange and white digi-egg. "Patamon!"
Elecmon handed the egg to me. "Where's the little tyke, TK?" He looked around for the bearer of Hope. "Shouldn't he be receiving the egg instead of you?"
I looked around. "TK isn't here? I would expect him to want to make sure his digimon was reconfigured."
Sora came over, carrying a Nyokimon. She let it down and it went after Biyomon. "That's weird. Maybe he thinks we really did attack him."
"But it's not that bad, right? We can just talk to him," Hikari suggested.
I shook my head. Taichi came from behind me. "It's not that easy," her big brother explained. "TK lost his partner once. Before you became a Digidestined, he lost Angemon to Devimon. This time he's being tricked into thinking it was us."
Ken called out from where he was playing with a few baby digimon. "What would they want with TK though?"
Koushiro had taken out his laptop and was working on it. I looked at the computer genius. "Koushiro? Any answer?"
He shook his head. "Not a clear one anyway. Apparently, there's a wide belief that Hope came directly from the Darkness. The Darkness gave need for Hope, because without Hope no one would believe in Light."
"But TK would never want to go near the Darkness, let alone return to it! He hates it," I stated.
Jou straightened his glasses. "But remember, Yamato, he thinks we destroyed his partner. He could have already gone into the Darkness for all we know so far."
I stared at the small egg in my hands. "Not if we get this egg to TK."
Elecmon looked at the little egg. "Well, you guys can take it, but be sure to take very good care of the Poyomon that hatches. I'll keep an eye out for the kid. He might have gotten lost on his way here."
Iori stared at the egg. "Well, before we leave, we have to decide who should keep an eye on the egg."
Hikari volunteered. "I can do it."
I thought about it for a moment. "I guess it's a pretty good idea. Your crest is close to TK's and I have no idea on how to hatch the egg."
Elecmon took the egg from me. "You have to care for it! You know, like a parent."
I smiled sheepishly. "Right." I pulled the Crest of Hope from my pocket. "You should hold on to this too." I handed it back to Hikari.
Taichi looked at both items. "That's a lot of responsibility."
Mimi picked up the egg from Elecmon. "How about Hikari hatches the egg and we take turns taking care of Poyomon? That can make things easier."
"But we can't take care of Poyomon unless we can use the Crest," Miyako said. "Only TK is Hope. The closest we have to that right now is Hikari."
Hikari sighed. "We'll just see how things go. How about that?"
I nodded. "Okay, let's head back home. We'll look for TK tomorrow. On Monday, we'll have to start worrying about school."
At the word school, Daisuke began to sulk. "Thanks for reminding me, Yamato."
Ken smiled. "Did you forget about the summer assignment?"
Daisuke smirked. "I didn't forget. We all did it in the beginning, remember? I'm more worried about the new teachers next year."
"It can't be that bad, Davis. I'll be coming back with you!" Veemon smiled.
Miyako laughed. "At least you guys don't have to worry about starting junior high school."
We exited the Digital World with our digimon and I stared at the computer screen.
"Yamato?" I looked down at Gabumon. He was extremely worried about my well-being. "TK will be alright. He can take care of himself."
I frowned. "I know, but I don't want anything bad to happen to him and us."
Sora pushed me out of the Kamiya's computer room. "You worry too much. Your brother is a good kid."
Biyomon jumped up. "Besides, we can take care of any problem!"
Tentomon and Koushiro agreed. Koushiro packed up his equipment and stood up. "I should get going. I have more research to do."
Hikari looked at the digi-egg. "I hope we find TK soon. He'll definitely want his partner back."
Gatomon nodded. "Just imagine what it would be like to lose me twice, Kari."
I winced. "You can't imagine it. You have to experience it. Something TK had to feel twice. If you want a better analogy, try imagining Wizardmon dying twice."
Gatomon apologized. "Sorry, Matt. I forgot." I apologized, too. That was far too harsh.
Sora and I left with our partners. Before I closed the door, I looked back at Hikari again. "Call me once the egg hatches."
"Okay, Yamato."
I closed the door and saw Taichi climbing up the stairs. He looked tired. "Man! I forgot we moved apartments today. I had to climb up the stairs three times, carrying this!" He pointed at his duffel bag.
Agumon followed behind him. "I offered to help, but you didn't want it."
"Because I forgot where we were going to live from now on!"
"See you tomorrow, Taichi," Sora said with a smile.
"Yeah, I'll see you two tomorrow."
I put my hands into my pockets. "I'll drop you off at your place then go home myself."
Gabumon and Biyomon kept up with our fast pace. They ignored the stares they got from the civilians. The people weren't very used to seeing digimon around. They know about the creatures, but they sort of don't understand how they work.
I fiddled with my Crest of Friendship and ignored the stares. I had more important things to think about. Like how I would find my brother. He could be anywhere in the Digital World or here at home. It was just a good thing Mom and Dad were away. They both had let TK and me stay together until they both got back from their business trips. Man, TK, where are you?
