Disclaimer: I do not own digimon

Chapter 3:

Great, another Kuwagamon. Once they had woken up from their campsite at the giant cactus, they decided to continue venturing off through the desert. It was about midday now, according to the position of the sun, and a wild Kuwagamon had come up out of the sun attacking Tai and Agumon. The partner digimon were yelling out for Agumon to digivolve, but Tai and Agumon didn't move; they were almost petrified in fear. He couldn't blame them, especially after what happened the last time Agumon digivolved, but that didn't help his friends. Kuwagamon was about to chop Tai and Agumon in half, when there was an explosion. Sand flew around in response to the explosion, and when they could finally see again they saw Kuwagamon was gone and Tai and Agumon were half buried in the sand.

They all were trying to figure out what had happened when they heard a high pitched voice uttering some kind of chant. They looked to the source of the sound to see some pink ball marching with a spear in hand.

"A powderpuff with wings!" Mimi yelled happily.

"Just don't use it on your face," Sora said dryly.

"Where's Kuwagamon?"

"Maybe that's him," he muttered quietly.

The little digimon stopped and turned around, "Ha! I am no enemy, nope nope. If anything you are your own enemies."

Biyomon ran towards the digimon excitedly, "Oh! I've heard of you. You're the famous Piximon, right?"

Mimi picked up the strange digimon in her arms. "You are?"

"Piximon is famous in the Digital World for his skills in training, but few have ever met him. His secret home is the training ground for all the great digimon fighters," Biyomon continued.

"And I've heard all about you too, but so far I am not impressed. You seven are supposed to be the digidestineds. Ha! You better be more careful or you'll end up being digi-dinners, yup yup. Without my spear and my magic, Kuwagamon would be eating you with a side of digi-fries."

"That's gross, thanks a lot," Mimi retorted.

"And that's not all. You digimon there; you're supposed to protect the children, but half the time they're protecting you. I want to see some guts; I want to see some courage!"

"But the news isn't all bad," Piximon continued, "Yup yup! From now on you all are going to train with me, especially you two guys." Piximon pointed at Tai and Agumon, "You two heard me. You need lots of help, and I have a special extreme training program just for you!"

Piximon then started marching off into the desert expecting them to follow, but no one budged.

"Should we trust a ping-pong ball with wings?" Joe asked to the group.

A conversation then followed where they debated following Piximon or not. Eventually the group decided it was safe, and then ran off to catch up with the tiny digimon.

TK stayed at the back of the group with Tokomon and his brother, as they continued to follow Piximon for what seemed like hours.

"Are you ok, TK?" Matt asked for about the tenth time since they escaped Kokatorimon's cruise ship. TK was getting annoyed by his brother's constant nagging and replied with a strained voice, clearly filled with annoyance, "I'm fine Matt."

This tone only seemed to worry Matt more, but at least it stopped Matt from talking. They continued walking in silence when Piximon stopped and announced, "Halt! We have arrived."

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked, "There isn't anything here."

Piximon then flew into the air and started twirling his spear around like a baton. "Pixi portal!"

Then this hole appeared, revealing a lush green jungle. After some debate, they decided to enter. The others complimented Piximon for his home when Sora looked back and announced that Etemon was here. Piximon explained that Etemon could not see through the barrier his home was encased in, so they were safe for the moment. Everyone let out a sigh of relief and they continued walking until they approached a set of what seemed like an infinite amount of stairs that led up this mountain to a house at the very top.

"Alright everybody, home we are. My house is just up these steps."

"We have to walk up there?"

"But I didn't bring my stair-climbing sneakers!"

"Yeah, and I just remembered that I am afraid of heights."

"Purely from a logical standpoint... it doesn't appear very safe."

"Is this part of our training?"

"Exactly!"

They all groaned, realizing the difficult task they had ahead of them.

Tentomon tried to explain he'd fly up to the top, when Piximon added the no-flying rule and then, "Haven't you rookies learned that the easy way is sometimes a trap!? Now, let's move out!"

The sun in the sky continued to fall as they kept climbing up the steps. The sky was now a dark red as the sun was about to disappear. He had to admit that he was getting pretty tired after all of this climbing.

Finally, they reached the top of the stairs and entered Piximon's house. Well, the place was more of a mansion. The building was circular, and in the middle was a huge stone statue of Piximon, spear and all. Piximon was marveling at the statue when Joe spoke up, "You said something about food...?"

"Ah yes," the little digimon exclaimed, "But first you have to earn it!"

Piximon then spun his spear around again, and pails of water and a bunch of cloths and brushes dropped to the floor.

"I want you all to scrub the floors! All the floors!"

They all started complaining, but Piximon hushed them and pointed at Tai and Agumon. Piximon explained that his special training for those two did not involve scrubbing the floors. He then left with Tai and Agumon, while the rest of them groaned in annoyance, but complied to Piximon's order.

"TK, let's have a cleaning race," Tokomon suggested, but TK simply glared at the digimon.

"No way," he stated simply.

"TK!" Matt scolded, "What was that all about?"

"Cleaning's not fun," he answered.

"But we can make it fun," Tokomon spoke up, a little hurt at TK's sharp response.

TK shook his head. "I'm going to get started over there," he announced.

"I'll come with..." Matt started, but he cut his brother off immediately with an ice-cold glare.

"No you won't," TK ordered.

Matt looked like he was about to protest when Izzy spoke up, "TK's right, this would probably go faster if we split up."

Matt wanted to argue, but Sora said, "That's a good idea! Don't you think so Matt?"

Matt reluctantly nodded, and they all went off into separate directions and started scrubbing the floors.

Time went by, and it was finally dark outside. TK dipped his brush in the bucket of hot water and started scrubbing at the floor with the same rhythm he had since he had started. He noticed Tokomon attempting to wash the floor near him, and TK couldn't help but smile at his partner's attempts at cleaning. He felt bad for yelling at his partner earlier, so he spoke up, "I'm sorry Tokomon. It's just been a long day, and..."

He was going to explain to his partner how he had felt so different since the SkullGreymon incident, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't want to worry his digimon partner with his negative feelings he's been having. It would only worry the little digimon, and he didn't want to do that to his partner.

"It's ok TK," Tokomon responded, a smile on his face, "I know it's been a long day, and you've had the others practically breathing down your neck this whole time. But..."

Tokomon looked like he wanted to say something but had stopped himself.

"You're worried about me too, aren't you Tokomon?"

Tokomon nodded, apparently nervous about TK's reaction to this.

"Don't be mad at me TK," Tokomon explained, "It's just that you've been... uh..."

"Different," he supplied.

Tokomon gave a slight nod. "Are you really ok, TK?"

TK was annoyed at the question, but didn't lash out like he had with his brother. Tokomon really cared about him, and he cared about Tokomon too. Lashing out at his partner would only make things worse.

He thought long and hard about his answer, but he didn't know how to explain what was going on. He hadn't told anyone about the reaction he had when he touched Etemon's dark cable, not even Tokomon. He didn't want to tell anyone until he understood what was going on for himself.

"I don't know," TK finally responded, speaking his thoughts, "I just haven't felt the same, ever since the whole SkullGreymon thing."

"TK?" Tokomon asked, clearly hesitant in what he was about to say.

"It's ok Tokomon," he reassured, "What is it?"

"Do you remember our fight against... Devimon?"

Sadness rushed through his veins at the memory of that battle. He solemnly nodded.

"Do you remember when Ogremon had jumped out of Devimon's stomach towards me?"

TK hesitated. He did remember; after Ogremon had done that little stunt, TK had felt a pain in the back of his neck. He had almost forgotten about that.

"I wasn't sure at the time, but I thought I saw Ogremon throw something at you. I was too distracted to see what it was, but I did feel a lot of dark energy coming from whatever it was. I never saw anything hit you, and you haven't said anything about being hit... but..."

"Something did happen," he said, a hand instantly went to the back of his neck. "It felt like something went into my body through the back of my neck. It hurt, but I was too worried about you to pay too much attention to it. Then, when you... you know... I felt so bad. I felt so sad, angry, and... hopeless. I heard a voice inside my head telling me to give up hope and that I'd feel like this forever, but all I wanted was for you to come back. The voice tried to get me to stop, but I kept wishing for you to come back. It was then that your digi-egg appeared, and I haven't heard the voice since."

Tokomon stayed silent for a while, not taking his eyes off of his partner, before asking, "Well what do you think about it, TK?"

Anger boiled inside of him. "I don't know Tokomon! If I did we wouldn't be having this conversation!"

Tokomon flinched at being yelled at, and TK suddenly felt awful for lashing out on his partner again. That was twice now in one day that he had yelled at Tokomon. He didn't know what was going on, and that scared him.

"Tokomon, what's wrong with me?" he asked, barely whispering, as tears escaped his eyes and dropped to the floor.

The two of them were unaware of an eavesdropping Piximon that had been listening to their entire conversation, but Piximon made his presence known as he yelled out, "Dinner time!"

TK could hear the others getting closer with their digimon partners. TK quickly rubbed away the evidence of his tears and picked up Tokomon into his arms. Once everyone had arrived, Piximon dropped to the ground and marched off into one of the rooms.

As they followed Piximon, the evidence of food appeared in the form of an alluring aroma. He could tell Tokomon was very hungry as the digimon started getting antsy the closer they got to the food. Then they saw a table that was low to the ground but set for the six digidestineds, their digimon partners, and, of course, Piximon. Piximon didn't have to make an announcement for them to find a seat and start digging into their meals.

The others, well it was mostly Mimi, complained about how sore they were from all the stairs and then having to scrub the floors. A conversation started up, but TK remained quiet. He still was upset about yelling at his partner and his brother.

"Are you ok?" Matt whispered to him.

'No,' he thought to himself, but he couldn't worry his brother. Even when they had split up to scrub Piximon's floors, he could tell Matt was keeping an eye on him. He wanted Matt to back off, but realized that yelling at his brother again was probably not the best way of figuring things out.

"Yes," he lied, feigning a smile. "And I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier. I've just been extra tired lately."

Luckily Matt seemed to buy it, as he nodded and said, "That's ok TK. Don't worry about it."

Good, maybe Matt would finally back off a little bit. Probably not, but at least Matt went back to eating. It was then that TK noticed Piximon staring at him. He wasn't sure how long the digimon had been doing so, but he ignored Piximon.

After they all had their fair share, Piximon ushered them into a room, which he said would be their bedroom.
"But there's no beds!" Sora stated!

"We can't sleep on this hard floor!" Mimi agreed.

Piximon didn't pay them any attention as he left the room while turning the lights off. The others sighed and accepted the fact that they once again wouldn't be sleeping on a soft bed. Come to think of it, TK couldn't even remember the last time he had a good night's sleep in his own bed back home.

There were utterings of "good night's" and a collection of yawns as digimon and humans alike drifted off into sleep.

TK couldn't sleep, though. There were just too many things on his mind. Apparently Matt and Izzy felt the same way because the two of them left in the middle of night, once they thought everyone was asleep. TK thought about going with them, but he really just wanted to be alone, so he waited for them to leave before exiting the room as well. Matt and Izzy were nowhere to be seen, so it was safe to assume that they had left Piximon's house for some reason. TK walked around to the other side of Piximon's statue and plopped down to the ground, his feet hanging down.

He heard wings flutter and sighed. It figured someone had heard him try to leave. He turned to see who it was but was surprised to see it was just Piximon. The pink digimon took a seat next to TK and laid his spear down to his side.

"What are you doing up so late?" Piximon asked. "You should be exhausted after all of that hard work."

"Oh that, that was nothing," he snorted. It was true. He didn't feel fatigued at all from the work Piximon made them do, which seemed weird, but he didn't really care at the moment. There were other important manners on his mind.

"I've been watching you," Piximon announced. TK had realized this. Piximon nearly stared him down the entire dinner, and then had appeared from nowhere when he and Tokomon were talking.

"And...?"

"And I can tell that you are very troubled."

TK snorted. "Wow, how did you manage to gather that," he said sarcastically.

"You feel conflicted, don't you?"

TK looked down to the ground. For being a little digimon, Piximon sure was smart and able to read people.

"What does it matter to you?"

"You're one of the digidestined," Piximon stated simply, "I'm here to help you all."

TK doubted that this puffball could help him understand what was going on, but Piximon was indeed smarter then he looked. Maybe the digimon would be able to help him in some way.

"I..." he started, but he couldn't seem to find the words, "I don't know what's going on with me. I used to be so happy, or at least I think I used to be. I can't really remember much of what I was like before the SkullGreymon incident."

"How did that affect you?" Piximon asked, surprised. "I thought that only had to do with Tai and Agumon."

He wasn't sure how Piximon knew anything about what happened with SkullGreymon, but it didn't matter how the digimon knew. "I don't remember too much. I just know that my body reacted to the dark energy that was used to make Greymon digivolve. It was enough to make me pass out, and when I woke up I felt like I had become a new person. A much... sadder person."

Piximon hummed, clearly in deep thought. "Keep going," the digimon encouraged.

"Well, since then I've just felt... dark," he said, not being able to explain in words how he felt, "I'm just sad all the time. I doubt everything. I can't think positively. I even get angry at my friends and my digimon partner," TK explained, tears starting to form again in his eyes. "I just feel like a light switch that used to be on all the time had turned off, and I don't know what to do."

Tears continued falling to the floor as his head was down and he was overwhelmed by this sensation of sadness. His eyes were closed, and he barely noticed that a dark aura, similar to the one he had when he picked up Etemon's dark cable, surrounded him.

"TK!" Piximon exclaimed.

TK opened his eyes and realized his digivice was shaking. He took it from his pocket and realized that his digivice had become an even darker gray than it was before. What was going on? He didn't know what any of this meant, or how to fix it.

Eventually TK calmed down, and the dark aura and his shaking digivice stopped.

"I can tell there is a darkness inside of you," Piximon uttered, his cheerful deposition gone, "I can't tell you exactly what is going on because I do not know, but I do know that there has been darkness planted inside of you. I don't think it was your own darkness to start out with, but now it seems to becoming your own. Darkness is an overpowering force. It does not allow any room for light, and if the darkness inside takes control of you, there will be no light left. This is something you will have to fight TK, if you wish to help your friends, the Digital World, and Tokomon."

TK was troubled by Piximon's words. "Is there any way to remove this darkness inside of me?" he asked.

Piximon shook his head. "Not that I know of. You may be able to use the darkness to..." Piximon answered, but then stopped suddenly shaking his head.

"What?"

Piximon didn't respond.

"I can use the darkness inside..."

"No!" Piximon stated sharply. "It is too dangerous and risky; I never should have brought it up in the first place."

"But..."

"No, TK. You should never embrace the darkness inside of you. You must fight it if you want to protect your friends, your partner, and the fate of the two worlds. Fight the darkness inside of you TK, and don't ever give in to it."

TK was about to ask the digimon more questions, but Piximon picked up his spear and flew away. TK was left by himself, sitting in the night. He thought about his conversation with Piximon. Apparently there was a darkness inside of him and, by the sound of it, it was getting stronger and stronger each day. Piximon said he had to fight the darkness, but he also started to mention that he could use the darkness. Piximon seemed to be afraid of that idea, but the digimon had mentioned it anyway. The idea of using darkness was confusing to him; wasn't darkness purely evil? Like Devimon. Devimon was pure darkness, and he was only capable of evil. Could that same power be used for good? No, there was no way Devimon would ever be good. Especially not after what he did to Angemon. TK hated that there was this darkness inside of him, but he didn't know what he could do about it.

Thinking about all of this only gave him a headache.

"TK?" he heard a tired voice squeak.

He flinched in shock at the voice, but turned only to see that it was Tokomon.

"What are you doing out here TK?"

TK jumped to his feet and shook his head. "Nothing, just getting some fresh air."

"You look like you were thinking really hard about something."

"I was, but it's nothing that can't wait till morning. Come on, let's go back and get some shut eye."

Tokomon didn't protest as he allowed TK to scoop him up into his arms and walk back to where the others were. After about twenty steps Tokomon was snoring in his arms. TK smiled down to his partner. As long as he had Tokomon with him, he would be able to figure everything out.

Morning came and they all were awoken to the sound of Piximon banging his spear against one of the pails of water. It was then that the others realized that Matt and Izzy were missing. Piximon explained that they had wandered off in the middle of the night to go find their crests. Despite their complaining, Piximon ordered them to get back to training.

This time they were doing some type of yoga, but they had only just started when Piximon announced that the barrier was broken. They all ran outside to see the hole in the barrier and a big red dragon digimon shooting off fireballs into the jungle.

They all ran down the stairs and then through the jungle to find Matt and Izzy running towards them. Tentomon and Gabumon welcomed their partners, but they didn't have much time for their little reunion.

A shiver went down TK's spine and he realized that Etemon's Dark Network cables were flying into the air, producing a hologram of Etemon who stroked his guitar and zapped the digimon of their energy. The cables then shot towards Piximon, the only digimon with the energy to fight, but TK quickly maneuvered his way in front of the digimon. Things were moving too fast for him to think about what he was doing, but he realized that he was surrounded again by the same dark aura, but this time it formed into a type of shield, which protected him and Piximon. As the cables came into contact with the dark shield, the cables were zapped and then disintegrated. More cables flew at them, but the same result occurred. Once all of the cables were destroyed, the dark aura faded and he dropped to his knees, feeling completely zapped of his energy, just like the digimon.

"TK!" Tokomon exclaimed.

It was then that he noticed the red dinosaur digimon, Tyrannomon, had shot a fireball in his direction. Piximon, though, flew towards the attack and braced himself with his spear in both hands. Piximon was able to shield the attack, but he was unable to perform any attacks of his own because Tyrannomon kept shooting fireballs nonstop at Piximon.

The fireballs continued to ram into Piximon and TK wasn't sure how much longer the little digimon could withstand the attacks. Luckily Tai and Agumon returned, but Agumon had digivolved into Greymon. The two dinosaur digimon fought, and this time Greymon was able to move around much better than at the coliseum against the other Greymon. Greymon picked up Tyrannomon, who was surrounded by dark cables, and as Greymon lifted the digimon the cables started snapping. Greymon then let out a victorious roar as all the cables snapped and Tyrannomon was thrown to the ground and dissolved into pieces.

TK had to fend off a lot of "Are you ok?" questions, but he was too tired to grow annoyed. Eventually he was able to convince the others that he was all right, though the others still had unanswered questions like what had actually happened when TK shielded off the attack. Piximon explained that it had to do with the power of the digivice, but TK knew he was just telling the others that as a lie to get them to calm down. It was apparent that Piximon didn't want to tell the others about their discussion they had last night, and that was fine by TK.

After recuperating at Piximon's house, they decided it was time to leave. They said their goodbyes to Piximon and walked back out into the desert. TK stole another glance back at the pink digimon to see Piximon waving at him with a look of almost admiration in his eyes. TK still wasn't sure what all was going on with him, but he knew that Piximon was right. This was something he would have to fight and figure out on his own.

"Ah, Piximon. Good to see you my friend!"

"Gennai," Piximon nodded, greeting the man. Piximon had decided it would probably be best to contact Gennai about the digidestineds since they had just left.

"What do you think of the digidestineds? Do they have it in them to save the Digital World?"

He nodded. "They may be silly kids and have a long ways to go, but I think that they will be fine. Our world is safe in their hands, but..."

"What is it Piximon?" Gennai asked, catching onto Piximon's uncertainty.

"It has to do with the smallest of the digidestineds."

"TK? The bearer of hope? What is the matter?"

Piximon thought about how to go about explaining this. "It's... I'm afraid that the dark forces threatening our world have attacked the boy."

"Yes, I'm aware of the Devimon incident and what happened to Angemon."

"That's not what I mean," Piximon quickly responded. "There's some dark force inside of the boy."

"What do you mean by this, Piximon?"

"I'm not sure what exactly, but I can tell that there has been some type of darkness planted inside of him."

"What? How could that be?"

"I overheard the boy talking to his digimon partner about the battle with Devimon. "Apparently the boy was struck in the back of the neck by something during that fight, and then the dark digivolution of SkullGreymon was somehow able to activate the darkness inside of the boy."

Piximon could tell Gennai was deep in thought. "Do you know what it could be?"

Gennai shook his head. "Even I do not know all of the plans of the evil forces threatening our world. But I do know that the bearers of hope and light possess the strongest threat against these dark forces. It could be that they are trying to use TK's power against us and use it for the sake of darkness."

"What are we supposed to do to help the boy?" Piximon asked.

"Nothing for the moment. I will keep an eye on the boy, thanks for the information Piximon."

"There's one more thing," Piximon added before the hologram of Gennai disappeared.

"What is it Piximon?"

"I think the boy may be able to use the darkness inside of him to become even stronger. In our battle today, he was able to protect from being entrapped in Etemon's Dark Network."

"No!" Gennai shouted. Piximon was taken aback, but Gennai continued, "We must not allow the bearer of hope to utilize the powers of darkness. It is too dangerous."

"I thought so too, but..." Piximon tried to explain, but was cut off.

"No Piximon. The powers of darkness can only be used for evil. We will not allow the digidestineds, especially the bearer of hope, to play around with such power. It could ruin any chance we have of saving our world."

"If you say so Gennai."

"Good. Now, I will keep an eye on the boy for now. Thanks for your call Piximon."

"Yes Gennai."

Gennai's hologram disappeared, leaving a troubled Piximon by his own. He could only worry for the youngest digidestined. He had sensed that the darkness inside had a strong grip on him, and the boy was not going to be able to simply get rid of the darkness like Gennai wanted. He thought TK could be able to use the powers of darkness for good, especially after how TK had protected him earlier, but Gennai was clearly opposed to the idea. Maybe Gennai was right. Either way, he too would keep a close eye on the bearer of hope.