A.N.: I return at last with an update! And it's actually worked out to be the longest chapter yet, which kind of makes up for how long it took? Hopefully? I can only apologise for the delay. I have epilepsy, and last week I got a late night (as in, 9pm) call asking me to have an EEG at home this week. Which meant that my weekend was spent staying up really late so that I was tired enough to have seizures while rigged up to the computer. Not the best way to write, if I'm honest.

But it's here! It's written! And it actually flowed a lot better than I had intended towards the end - so much so that once again, a scene has been pushed to the next chapter. Still. There's a few more answers in this section, so hopefully that will compensate. Please do let me know what you think! (And I swear, the next chapter will not take so ridiculously long to write.)

Sunday, 8:07pm

They had been walking down the dark tunnel for a good half hour or so when both Takeru's D-Terminal and Taichi's phone bleeped to announce a message. Almost instantly, hands gripped Takeru's arms. He cried out with pain as unseen fingers closed over ruptured blisters, scrapes, and bruises. Hands patted him down, locating his pocket and grabbing both his D-Terminal and D3. Despite the futility and painfulness of the gesture, Takeru couldn't help struggling against the ropes around his wrists. What was he going to do if he lost them?

To judge from the sounds, he wasn't the only one being forcibly restrained. It was maddening to hear the clamour unfolding, while being unable to see anything other than vague movements through the weave of the sack over his head. He heard Taichi's voice loudest, demanding that his phone be returned to him, and apparently Agumon, Tailmon and Patamon had chosen that moment to rebel, too. Koushiro cried out just once before falling silent.

"Silence!" barked a now-familiar voice. "You will gain nothing by struggling. If you make any further attempts to escape you will be brought down where you stand. Brecht, Darek, Mihalis - unhood the humans."

Takeru blinked as the hood was pulled from his head. The lights around him made his eyes water. Even the gloom of what turned out to be a tunnel through raw earth seemed bright after being unable to really see for so long. Nearby, he could see Taichi and Koushiro adjusting to the light as well. Agumon and Tailmon remained hooded, but he couldn't see the sack carrying his partner.

"Now, if you three would be so kind as to tell me what these…things are, and why they started to make that noise? Some kind of tracking mechanism?"

The speaker was so short as to be tiny, wearing worn clothes in earthen colours. His face was littered with scars; the left side twisted into a mess, with a patch over his eye, while the right was raked with four parallel gouges down his cheek, with a fifth marking his jawline. He was probably one of the ugliest people Takeru had ever seen, but he seemed to command the respect of the mismatched gathering despite being not much taller than Agumon. In his hands he held Taichi and Koushiro's digivices, Taichi's phone, and Takeru's D3 and D-Terminal. If the situation hadn't been so tense, the sight of them piled precariously in his small hands might have been comical.

No one spoke. Takeru looked at Taichi, waiting for him to speak. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Koushiro doing the same. Taichi's attention, meanwhile, was locked on the small figure holding their various devices.

"They're not tracking devices," Taichi said at last. "They won't bring any harm to you. But I would like some assurance of safety for my friends before I start giving you any more information than that."

The small man twisted his mouth into what might have been either a scowl or a smile.

"Oh that's rich," he said, handing their devices to one of his companions. "You attack a member of my squad, and then have the gall to demand security for yourselves? How very human of you. Very well. If you won't speak, we have no choice. Someone else can do the questioning. Hood 'em again."

Just before the hood slipped over Takeru's head once more, he saw Taichi lurch sharply to the right, dodging his own blindfold. The rest had to be pieced together by sound alone.

"And what about my friends?" he heard Taichi say angrily. "I suppose you're going to tell me it wasn't your people who attacked us last night? Who-"

There was a soft thump, and Taichi grunted with pain. Takeru braced himself for another struggle, but the firm grip on his arms didn't waver at all. Their captors' leader spoke once more.

"Any more games from you, and you will regret your actions, understood?"

To judge by what he could hear, Taichi's response was to spit on the floor. Takeru winced at the sound of someone striking the older boy again. He felt completely powerless. What could any of them do? Nothing. He and Koushiro were in bad shape after their fall, and now none of their partners could digivolve. Surely Taichi had to see that it was better to co-operate for now? It would help none of them if he got himself beaten to a pulp.

There were no more sounds that he could decipher. Movement of some sort; that was all he could determine. After a minute or so, he felt the person restraining push him forward and he stumbled - then yelped as the hands gripping his arms hauled him upright again, managing to jar the wound on his shoulder in the process.

"Move," said a voice close to his ear.

He staggered as he was pushed once more, but managed to stay upright. Their captors drove them forward in what seemed an endless march. Takeru ached all over, from injuries and the exertion alike. The injury on his shoulder grew hotter and hotter as they marched, until it drew as much of his attention as the blisters on his face, rubbed raw by the sackcloth hood. He walked in near silent misery. No one spoke, and with only the vaguest sense of movement from through the weave of the material, he began to feel smothered by the stale air and sense of claustrophobia.

How long would they be forced onwards like this? It had to be getting on for several hours since they had been captured - the growing emptiness in his stomach attested to that. They were still in the same tunnel, too - he could feel the unevenness of the ground as he walked. Every now and then stones would dig into the underside of his feet, which already burned from the seemingly endless march.

Now and again he would hear muffled sounds from the others, mostly after the sporadic demands from their captors to "Keep moving!" Occasionally he could hear Patamon's grumbling from the sack he was being carried in, or Tailmon's hiss of irritation. Taichi remained silent for the most part, as did Agumon, but Koushiro seemed to be struggling if the regular pained yelps were anything to go by. The longer they walked, the more bitterly Takeru regretted ever telling anyone that Patamon had de-digivolved while they were both still in the air. If he'd just kept quiet, Koushiro wouldn't have asked him to talk about it, and they wouldn't have been yanked back into all this.

With nothing else to distract him as they marched, Takeru couldn't help but stew on things. After all, there was no letup. Nothing to see, no one to talk to. No company save his own thoughts, despite the fact that he was technically surrounded. The hunger pangs had come and gone, leaving him to wonder just how long this forced march had - or would - take. He started to stumble more, making his guard haul him upright by the arm time after time. From what he could hear, the others were faring much the same.

Finally, long after he had thought he could take no more, they halted. He sank to his knees while somewhere in front of him there was a metallic clang, followed by a grating of stone. The hand gripped his upper arm once more and hauled him to his feet, eliciting a groan. After a few steps he tripped on an unexpected step in front of him, landing hard. With his hands bound, he took the brunt of the fall on his left shoulder, arm, and the side of his head, having tried to turn in mid-air. Pain erupted down that arm and in his toes, and he cried out in pain.

Somewhere above, he heard a snort of laughter. It took every ounce of his restraint not to lash out with his legs and try to kick whoever it was - most likely the person who had been hauling him upright through their march along the tunnel.

Someone grunted. "Pick him up and get moving. The sooner we're rid of them, the sooner we can head to the mess hall."

Takeru bit back a whimper as rough hands hauled him upright again, jarring his shoulder. He could feel a growing dampness around it. Apparently Jou's bandage had finally soaked through.

The remainder of their journey was utterly disorienting. They were led along winding corridors, and down a flight of irregular steps which even their captors seemed to recognise posed a risk of injury, as they were advised to be careful and feel for their footing. The lights were far brighter than those in the tunnel, and there was a hum of noise and activity. At last their bonds were slashed, and their hoods pulled off. Takeru's eyes were still watering from the light when he was pushed into a small room. Someone threw a sack which squeaked with Patamon's voice in afterwards, before logs rose out of the floor to block the six of them in.

Patamon wriggled out of the sack and staggered over to Takeru, who sat down and pulled his partner into his lap. He leant back against the wall, then sat up straight again as the pressure on his back jarred the bruises and the wound on his shoulder. Everything hurt. He closed his eyes and hung his head, hugging Patamon and revelling in the fact he could breathe freely again. After a minute or so he looked around.

The room was clearly a prison cell of some sort, although he had never seen its like. The bars locking them in were slender logs which rose from floor to ceiling. Tailmon was attempting to squeeze between them without success. There was a rough bed on a stone shelf in the back of the room, where Koushiro sat, his face grey. Taichi was inspecting his injured wrist. Agumon was slumped against the wall opposite Takeru, evidently exhausted.

Taichi sighed. "Well, there's nothing more we can do for it right now, Koushiro, but I don't like the looks of this. It's pretty swollen."

That morning - or afternoon, it was getting increasingly difficult to remember which was which - Koushiro would have protested that he was fine. He had protested that he was fine, in fact. Now he simply sat and nodded once, staring off vacantly into space. He didn't even question what sort of place they were in. If ever Takeru had needed a sign that Koushiro was in bad shape, this was it.

Tailmon gave up her attempts to fit between the bars, and sat down with her back to them, resting her chin on one hand.

"There has to be a way we can get out of here," she said.

To their collective surprise, it was Koushiro who spoke. "Of course we can get out of the cell. The bars are only made of wood. Agumon could burn them easily while the rest of us gathered back here out of the way. Of course, then we'd be lost in the middle of an unknown prison which is probably underground - and at least half of our group are in no shape to walk, let alone fight our way out against an unknown but doubtless numerous amount of guards who are more than capable of apprehending us. Face it. We need to rest, and we need to eat. Escape can come when we've done both."

"He's right," Taichi said grimly. "I want out as much as anyone - and I want to find Hikari as much as you do Tailmon - but it's not going to help her if we make a break for it right now. We're in no shape to help anyone like this."

Tailmon perked up an ear, and turned to face out into the corridor beyond the bars. She frowned.

"What's wrong?" Takeru asked, changing the cross of his legs to stop his foot going numb.

"I thought I heard someone moving," she replied.

"Well, they said they were going to question us," Patamon said. "Maybe it's a guard?"

"I don't think it really matters," Taichi said, sitting down beside his partner. "I don't see what we can tell them if it is a guard. The last lot weren't exactly open to reason."

Agumon lifted his head. "Maybe it's someone with some food? I'm starving."

Despite everything, Takeru felt himself smiling. At least there were some things which never changed.

Sunday, 11:45pm

Ken stretched. His back was stiff and sore from having hunched over his laptop for the last few hours. It wouldn't have been so bad, he told himself, had he at least a little more to show for his efforts. As it was, he and Miyako had managed to translate all of two paragraphs from the document Gennai had found, before Miyako had bowed out for the night and fallen asleep on the sofa.

He didn't blame her for being tired, of course. By all accounts, she had been awake late into the night, and then up early in the morning, trying to reassure the Yagamis that Hikari would be okay. Still, he could have used the help. Even having transferred much of the relevant information off of Koushiro's laptop so that he could read them at his own pace, it was slow going, and none of the others were able to help. Jou was too worried about everything, and Mimi and Daisuke were…the wrong people to ask. Tentomon might have been some help had Koushiro been around, but as it was he might as well have been a second Jou, worrying endlessly about the silence from the trio of Chosen in the other world.

It had been more than three hours now since Miyako had sent a message to Taichi and Takeru, telling them about Sora's disappearance. They had all debated how much to tell them, and finally whittled it down to the bare facts, and that they hoped to have more news soon. And then…nothing. No response. The minutes had ticked by, and it had become increasingly apparent that something must have happened.

Ken had been surprised at how well Mimi had managed to keep the parents calm. Of course, he was still getting to know the older girl, really. His interactions with her had been few and far between all the while she had lived in America. Now she was sat at the dining table with Mrs Takaishi and Mr Yagami, still reassuring them that everything would work out fine. Mrs Yagami had retired to her bedroom a little while ago.

Jou sat with Daisuke, talking about what Daisuke was to do in case of various unlikely emergencies. He was nodding tiredly as he spoke, and more than once Gomamon had suggested that he lie down. Jou had refused.

It was no good. There was something in the atmosphere - an air of exhaustion perhaps - which utterly prevented his ability to focus. He pushed the laptop away with a sigh, and stood up. Heads turned in his direction.

"I, ah, need to stretch my legs," he said sheepishly. "There's still no word from Gennai other than that he's seeking an audience with Qinglongmon, to know if they have anything."

Guilt nagged at him. People were relying on him to translate the document which still made so little sense; to find, somehow, a way to bring everyone home. So far all he could tell them was that it was a copy of a much older document, and said something about there being many worlds - which he had told them already, and wasn't news in any case. Mimi had shuddered when he mentioned it, and said that Gennai had told them that fact years ago.

It was good to walk around the apartment for a bit, even if he was only pacing back and forth by the sofas. He could feel his back relaxing as he stretched and moved. While he wasn't a stranger to late nights sat at a computer, he was normally better at giving himself regular breaks to prevent cramps and eyestrain. Of course, normally the lives of his friends weren't at stake. No one was going easy on themselves at the moment. He could see Mimi and Jou both yawning, struggling to stay awake after their long days.

Wait. Something struck him as a little odd about that. Jou had been up early, he'd admitted that much - and he'd been tired still from his earlier involvement. But Mimi hadn't even fully known what was going on until earlier that day. It was late, certainly, but Mimi often stayed up late to chat to some of her American friends on the weekends. He looked at the clock and frowned. It was also close to midnight.

Jou's voice had trailed off at about the point when Ken had got to his feet. Now he watched the older boy rub an eye sleepily, not appearing to notice that the movement left his glasses skewed. Daisuke had apparently realised something wrong as well, to judge from the slightly worried expression he shot in Ken's direction. They both turned almost simultaneously to look at Mimi, who was yawning again. Her head nodded, as though she were about to fall asleep where she sat.

"I'll wake Miyako up," Daisuke said quietly, as Gomamon nudged his partner sharply. Jou flinched and sat up sharply, but sagged down again almost immediately.

Mrs Takaishi seemed to have worked out what was going on. She had stood, and was encouraging Mimi to get to her feet.

"We need to get her to lie down," she said, turning to Mr Yagami. "Is it okay if I take her into Taichi or Hikari's room?"

"Hikari's room would be best, I think," Ken said quickly. " I mean, if that's okay. It's just that if - when - the others come back, so far Taichi's room is where they've all vanished. So it could get rather crowded in there."

Mr Yagami nodded, and stood too, helping to guide Mimi into the bedroom. She seemed to be falling asleep while still upright. Palmon followed closely behind.

"Jou! Jou, are you awake?"

Ken turned at the sound of Gomamon's voice. Jou had slumped against the sofa, his glasses askew. Gomamon was prodding him and getting no response.

"Is that normal?" Tentomon asked, hovering above him.

"Well how should I know?" Gomamon replied with uncharacteristic sharpness.

Miyako - having been prodded into wakefulness by Daisuke - sat up and looked at the clock. "You should move back," she said groggily. "It's midnight soon. That's when it'll start, if it's going to."

Daisuke nodded. "Yeah, Takeru fell asleep kinda like this yesterday. We couldn't wake him up, and then at midnight, it was like…like this black cloudy stuff appeared out of nowhere, and he vanished."

"But you don't think that Jou or Mimi will disappear, am I correct?" Ken asked.

They both shook their heads. Ken frowned. It was one thing to be told about everything that was going on - and a part of him couldn't help but wonder why they hadn't told him sooner - but quite another to be faced with the reality. And the reality was that Jou had just fallen asleep, as had Mimi, both more or less at the same time. There was nothing at all natural about that. He rubbed his eyes. No wonder Miyako had taken a nap earlier - staring at the laptop all evening was making his eyes grow heavy. Which was odd, because normally he found it all too easy to stay up late while studying on his computer.

He stifled a yawn. Perhaps getting back to work would help. There was nothing much else that he could do, really. Besides. They needed answers.

"Jou!"

Gomamon had leapt up onto the sofa, and launched himself at his partner. Before anyone could stop him, he had landed, and the shadowy clouds which were billowing around Jou engulfed him as well. From Hikari's room, they heard Palmon cry out for Mimi.

Ken gaped. There was something decidedly unpleasant about the sudden, silent way the clouds had appeared. It was like nothing he had ever seen, and yet - something about the clouds seemed almost familiar somehow. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. That had to be his imagination. He was just tired. Beside him, Daisuke sighed.

"I guess now we just have to wait, right?"

"Right," Miyako replied, grabbing Daisuke by the arm and yanking him away from Jou. "And no touching them, either. Come on, Ken. We should get back to work."

Sunday 11:55pm

Without their digivices, phones, or Takeru's D-Terminal, there was no way to tell exactly how long they had been sat in the prison cell. Tailmon remained by the bars, her ears pricking now and then when she heard movement.

Taichi was dozing against the wall opposite Takeru. Agumon sat beside his partner, propping him up. Koushiro, by unspoken agreement, remained on the cell's bed. Takeru was fairly sure that he couldn't have lain down even if he wanted to - he hadn't mentioned the wound on his shoulder to the others, but even the brush of fabric over it if he moved was enough to make him wince. At least the bleeding appeared to have stopped once more now that he wasn't moving. His whole shoulder felt uncomfortably warm, as did the blisters on his face. Jou would have a fit, he thought.

Patamon had recovered enough to fly up and inspect every inch of their prison, although there was nothing of any use to them. It was a small, plain room, with no windows or lamps. The only light came through the bars from a source off to one side, making the far side dim and shadowy.

They had sat in silence for the most part. After all, what was there to say? They were all exhausted, and his and Koushiro's injuries only compounded that tiredness. In all honesty, he wasn't even sure if Koushiro was even awake. When had the others last slept properly?

Tailmon's ears twitched again, and she stood up.

"What is it?" Takeru asked, speaking softly.

She frowned, and shook her head. "Someone keeps trying to sneak up on us. They get so far, but then turn around and run off again." She hissed with apparent frustration.

"Maybe they're just checking up on us? I mean, once they see that the bars are still intact they don't need to get closer. We're not going anywhere." He sighed. "And everyone at home will have realised that something happened to us by now. Some rescue party we are. I hope Hikari and Yamato are okay."

There was a soft thump from somewhere in the hallway outside. Tailmon flinched, and turned, pressing herself against the bars to try and see what was going on. Patamon flew out of Takeru's lap and did the same. Takeru sat upright, wincing at the stiffness in his back. For a moment the three of them remained almost motionless, save for the flapping of Patamon's wings. Then there was the unmistakable sound of footsteps growing closer. They were soft, and light, and when the figure came into view Takeru realised why. It was just a child. A child with large, moth-like wings sprouting out of her back. She regarded them with eyes as wide as his own.

"Did…did you say "Hikari"?" she asked.

The effect of her words was instantaneous. Tailmon gripped the bars tightly enough that her claws bit into the wood, and Takeru lurched forwards onto his hands and knees, wincing as he did so.

"Where is she!" Tailmon cried furiously, waking Taichi with a start. "Where is Hikari!"

"Hikari?" Taichi said, rubbing his eyes and staring at their visitor. "She's here? Where?"

The child - she looked to be no more than seven or eight - backed up, her wings fluttering.

"She… she was here a while ago. She was just in the cell down the hall. Are you her friends? And… are you Tailmon? She asked where you were."

Tailmon's eyes widened. "Was here? Where is she now?"

The girl shrugged. "I know she was going to talk to the Elders, but that was hours ago. I guess she wasn't trespassing after all if they didn't send her back here. I only watch the prisoners."

"But you're just a child," came Koushiro's voice from the back of the cell.

The girl folded her arms and pouted. "Am not." She frowned. "So you are Tailmon."

Tailmon nodded. "Hikari is my partner. I need to know where she is."

"We all do," Taichi said. "She's my sister. Can you…could you find out where she is?"

"Nuh-uh. You're prisoners. That means I can't tell you anything."

"But… you just told us about Hikari," Patamon said, settling on the ground beside Takeru.

The girl took a breath as though to talk, and then stopped. "Well I meant to do that," she said at last. "I was questioning you. Like the Elders will."

Taichi sighed heavily. "Just what we need," he muttered, so softly that Takeru almost didn't hear him. "Some weird kid wandering around pretending she's important."

Takeru shook his head. Whether or not the child was going to tell them anything more, this was a good development, surely? Hikari was somewhere nearby, even if they didn't know where exactly. Admittedly they were in no shape to stage a rescue yet, and they didn't have their digivices even if they managed to break out, but they were all alive, and certainly they had been in worse situations before. He tried not to think about the fact that at least in those worst situations their partners had been able to digivolve.

Tailmon's ears twitched once more, at the same instant as the girl turned to look in the direction she had appeared from. A second later they all heard the footsteps - harder, heavier ones. The girl leapt into the air, her wings turning to a rich brown blur as she flew out of sight. They heard her voice a moment later, nearby and almost breathless with apparent excitement:

"Minka! I was waiting here like Alwyn said, and they brought in those new prisoners so I was watching them like before, and then I heard them say Hikari's name, and one of them is her brother and there's the cat Alwyn saw disappear before too!"

"What?" a new voice said sharply. The footsteps started again, and a second or so later a new figure appeared on the far side of the bars. She was human - or looked it, at least. Takeru didn't want to make any assumptions at this point. She wore what looked like armour of some sort, made of leather, and had dark hair pulled back from a stern face.

"Who are you, and what business have you in the Forest?" she said, folding her arms.

She was tall, Takeru realised. As Taichi got to his feet with a grunt, it became apparent that she had to be the same height as Jou, if not taller. She stared down at Taichi with a grim expression on her face. Tailmon moved to stand beside Taichi, watching her warily.

Taichi folded his arms as well. "Like I told you people earlier, I want some assurance that my friends will be safe before I tell you anything," he said. "Two of my group are injured, and none of us have had anything to eat or drink since we were rounded up and forcibly marched here blindfolded - hours ago. Not to mention the fact that our things have been taken away, including medical supplies which we need. Give me one good reason why I should just co-operate with you."

It was moments like this, Takeru thought, that Taichi really proved himself a born leader. Gone was his carefree attitude, pushed aside by the need to look out for his friends. His team. He met the woman's eyes defiantly, and held her gaze through a long silence. Finally, she sighed and looked away, turning to the girl.

"Nonie, shoo. Go fetch yourself something to eat."

The girl folded her arms again. "But what about Alwyn? Where is he?"

"On a mission," the woman replied. "Now go."

She watched as the girl pouted, then turned and flew out of sight. After a second or two she turned back to the cell, levelling her stern gaze at Taichi once more.

"You will co-operate," she said, as though there had been no interruption, "because I am required to introduce those brought before the Elders. And if you don't co-operate, I'll have to get one of the Fae down here to interrogate you, and frankly, I don't want to have to do that. You won't like it at all, trust me. I can make no offers of treatment or security; it's not my job. That's up to the Elders. But they are not unreasonable, and they have already welcomed one former prisoner with honours today. Apparently they're in a good mood."

Takeru felt his heart hammering in his chest. To judge from Taichi's face, he wasn't the only one. Surely she could only be talking about Hikari?

Tailmon hissed with frustration.

"Where is Hikari now?" she snapped. "We know you have her here somewhere."

The woman sighed. "As I have told you," she said. "I can tell you nothing. I have taken my vows of service to the City. But I bear you no ill-will. Truly, I would be saddened if I were forced to call for one of the Fae."

"Why?" Koushiro said, making everyone turn to look at him. "What is it about these "Fae" that's so bad?"

"You don't know?" came the reply. "The Fae are…they will extend their will into your minds and make you tell all you know. Only a very few are able to resist - and none of those few are human. You have a choice. Speak willingly and retain the privacy of your minds, or unwillingly with no will of your own to hold back secrets. I do you a kindness by giving you this warning, as one human to another."

Takeru shuddered. This world just kept getting worse and worse. Looking down, he saw Patamon watching him with a worried expression on his face, and tried to force a smile. It didn't work.

"Very well," Taichi said, his voice cold. "Seeing as we have no real choices here: I am Yagami Taichi, and my companions are Tailmon, Agumon, Izumi Koushiro, Takaishi Takeru, and Patamon. We were in the forest because we were looking for my sister, Yagami Hikari, who was kidnapped in front of Tailmon a day ago.

The woman nodded once. "And do you claim the title of Chosen Children? I warn you, there is no purpose to lying. The Elders will know if you speak untruths."

Takeru gaped. When Taichi didn't answer, he realised he obviously wasn't alone.

Koushiro grunted and Takeru looked round in time to see him try to stand, then sit back heavily on the bed, wincing.

"Taichi," he said, his voice hoarse. He cleared his throat. "There's only one way they'd know that," he said quietly.

"I know," Taichi replied. He turned to the woman, his eyes cold.

"Yes, we are," he said venomously. "And if I find out that one of your…Fae got hold of my sister to tell you that-"

The woman shook her head. "I can tell you nothing, because of my vow," she said. "But the Elders have the answers you seek. I shall fetch your escort."