Intertwined Destinies

Previously in Intertwined Destinies:

Etemon has been defeated, but the digidestined weren't unscathed. Tai was almost fatally injured and was saved by Jade when she transformed into Phoenixmon, but instead of fighting Etemon herself, Phoenixmon allowed Tai and Greymon to fight first. Greymon digivolved to the Ultimate level and became Metalgreymon, and it was his attack that opened a dimensional rift. Etemon was sucked into the rift, but before the rift could close Tai and Metalgreymon were also pulled through. No one knows where they ended up, and no one is sure about what to do.

The next chapter of their adventure awaits...

Chapter 15: The Power of Truth

It didn't take Jade long to realize that she couldn't stay with the digidestined anymore. She could hear their silent condemnation for letting Tai fight on his own without them, and even though Joe had held her when she cried, she knew that on some level he also blamed her. It hurt, but she didn't blame them as she also blamed herself. Tai had almost died in her arms before she saved his life, but that didn't mean that he was completely recovered. The others were afraid, and maybe having Tai around would have helped them.

But with Etemon destroyed, and taking his Dark Network with him, Jade could sense Tom a lot clearer. She waited until the others had settled down to rest for the night, before standing with the intention to leave. She got maybe ten meters before Gabumon noticed her departure.

"Jade," he hissed. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Gabumon," Jade murmured. She turned back to the digimon, noticing that the other digimon were conscious but the humans weren't.

"Don't you like us anymore?" Gomamon asked, his eyes tearing up.

"The others will understand in time why you protected us and not Tai," Biyomon added.

"Why did I protect you and not them?" Jade asked her, kneeling on the ground. Tokomon jumped into her arms and nuzzled her face sympathetically.

"Because you trusted that Tai knew what he was doing," Gabumon continued, walking up to her so that all the digimon were surrounding her. "We all did."

"He nearly died," Jade sobbed, cuddling Tokomon close to her. "And I just let him go off on his own. And now he's…he's…"

"He's not dead," Palmon whispered. "We don't know where he is, and we can't really feel Agumon anymore, but we know that he's alive."

"He's not in the Digital World," Jade explained. "But I don't know what world he was thrown into. He might be able to return if he's in the Dream World and maybe the Human World if he works his digivice properly. But he might never return if he's in the Shadow World, and the Prison World is impossible to escape from."

"He'll be back," Biyomon reassured her. "We digimon can't be separated for long."

"You never answered my question earlier," Gabumon pointed out. "Where are you going?"

"To find my partner before he gets here," Jade whispered. Her eyes looked to the horizon as she searched for what she could sense but not see. "He'll kill you all before I have a chance to explain anything. I have to go find him before he finds you."

"When will you be back?" Tokomon asked sadly.

"I don't know," Jade told him. There was a flash of light in the distance, and all conscious turned to look at it in fear. Jade set Tokomon down and before any of the digimon could stop she took off at a run. They called out after her, and she was sure that the humans had woken up at the noise, but she didn't care. She just kept running.

"Jade?! Come back!" Joe called as soon as he saw that Jade was running off. The other children echoed him, but there was nothing that could stop Jade now. She transformed into Phoenixmon and flew up into the sky faster than they had seen her fly before…and crashed into another digimon with enough forced that the digidestined and their digimon felt the shockwave. But by the time they figured out what the shockwave was, Phoenixmon and her assailant were gone.

Phoenixmon grabbed a hold of her attacker and forcefully pushed him to another part of the Digital World far away from the digidestined, digimon and darkness. It was a neutral area that Phoenixmon had discovered when she was flying with Lucemon. It was known as the Wasteland, and its name pretty much summed up everything about it. Nothing lived in the Wasteland, it was just dust, rocks and bones. It was located to the far north, not quite to the icecaps, but just before. It was cold, but there wasn't any snow.

The two digimon flew apart as soon as they were above the Wasteland, and they stared at each other without making a sound.

Her opponent was Horcruxmon, of that there wasn't a single doubt in her mind. His wings were black, his tattered clothing of the darkest cloth, and his staff was menacing in its silver glory. His skin was as white as ash, and dark circles hung from his eyes. He looked thin, unhealthily thin, and his red eyes were bloodshot and angry. He, clearly, hadn't been doing well.

With a shout of anger Horcruxmon lunged forward and swung his staff, and if Phoenixmon hadn't moved she would have been cut clean in half. She flew up and struck out with her own staff to hit him across the back of his head. Her strike was blocked and from Horcruxmon's free hand came a blast of dark energy. Fire met the blast and soon light and shadow were colliding across the sky. Had anyone been below them they would have been both mesmerised and terrified at the same time. The aerial ballet was captivating, but each attack was lethal and had the potential to end one's life.

The Lord of Darkness, once upon a time, was unmatched in battle. His cool head and brilliant tactical strategies had endeared him to most of the dark digimon. There had only been a few who disliked the change in ruler, but that was because Lucemon had allowed them to do whatever they wanted in the Shadow World. The so-called Dark Masters, recognizing Horcruxmon's association with Phoenixmon as a weakness, had lashed out at her and the world she governed over. But their success in ridding the world of her had backfired.

He may have hatched in the Digital World, and he may have the ability to digivolve just like any other digimon, but Horcruxmon was not a true digimon. He was a dark creature, and not a whole one. He had been human once, a wizard, and to gain immortality he had shattered his soul into seven pieces. As such, he wasn't completely sane unless he was with Jade. She was the only thing that could keep him grounded, and when she left, he slowly spiraled into insanity.

This meant that while he may have been a match for Phoenixmon's superior power, he lacked the much needed ability to strategize that would have allowed him to defeat her. His insanity was doing more damage than Lucemon had ever achieved, but no one had ever been able to stand up to him and rein in his destruction.

Until now.

Phoenixmon gathered her energy for her most powerful attack, and with a final look of sadness at her partner, she blasted him with her flames and sent him crashing him to the ground. He lay still, and Phoenixmon slowly spiralled down so that she was standing in front of him. As she looked into his glazed red eyes, she realized that despite her close presence now, he still didn't recognize her, not totally. So she pulled off the purple bell from her ankle and threw it at him. It landed on his chest.

The purple bell was Devimon, all his dark energy trapped in an unbreakable casing, but it was also a part of Phoenixmon. The outer casing of the bell was a part of her, and she hoped that it would be enough to ground him until he was no longer trying to kill her. The effect was almost immediate, the hint of insanity in his eyes faded as his hand held the bell in a white knuckled grip.

"It's been a long time, my brother," Phoenixmon said eventually. Her voice echoed over the plains, the musical tinge to it making Horcruxmon flinch.

"Master," he growled, longing in his voice. "Is it really you?"

"It is me," she promised. "My memory was in tatters when I was sent back to the Human World, and it's only recently that Piximon helped me to remember everything. You've certainly scared them enough that everyone I've met has warned me to stay away from you."

"You were gone!" Horcruxmon screamed as he sat up. "It was like a part of me had died! And there was no one who would talk to me, or help me! I needed you!"

"So you destroyed part of File Island, flooded this world with the darkness of the Shadow World, and ensured that all digimon feared you?"

"If they feared me they wouldn't get too close!" Horcruxmon shouted at her. "If they didn't get close, I wouldn't care about them! If I didn't care I wouldn't get hurt! Again!"

"Gennai knew what you meant to me," Phoenixmon told him. "Did you go to him?"

"Like Gennai would help me," Horcruxmon scoffed. He looked at the bell in his hand and his expression became curious. "Who is this?"

"Devimon," she explained. "I figured you could use his energy or make him one of your minions or something, before I remembered everything. Now I think that if you hold onto it, you will be able to keep your mind sane."

"I have no more need of minions," Horcruxmon said as he conjured a chain to attach the bell to. It slipped around his neck. "I had one and he betrayed me."

"Who?"

"Myotismon," he stated in anger. "He found me when I was destroying some island in the middle of nowhere and pulled me back to the Shadow World. He helped me control everything, but over the centuries it just got harder. I think I destroyed the Shadow World, I haven't been there for a while."

"Where did Myotismon go?"

"He's set up his own kingdom in the Digital World, that's the last I heard of him," Horcruxmon explained. "I have no idea what he's doing now, but he betrayed me so he deserves to die. I'll use his data-stream to rebuild my desert!"

"Tell me, from the beginning," Phoenixmon ordered as she sat opposite him.

"Well, I guess I was a bit distraught at the beginning," Horcruxmon began. "I remember holding you as your body broke apart into data particles…

It was like the world had gone silent as he banished Piedmon back to the Shadow World where he would be dealt with later. His scythe rested in hand and at every sudden movement he spun to look at it with an angry red glare. And then one sound penetrated through his anger, leaving fear in its wake. The pain-filled groan had him spinning and dropping his scythe in order to lift the Angel of Truth into his arms. Blood had stained her once gold dress red, and the dagger that was draining her power still rested in her chest.

"It's…too late…for me…brother," she whispered painfully.

"Never," he told her furiously. "Don't talk like that! You will be fine! We'll get that dagger out of you, and then you're healing abilities will save you, and we can make sure that the so-called Dark Masters are confined for eternity in the Prison World."

"The dagger…stops…me…from healing," she whispered as blood dripped from her mouth. "I will…not…survive."

"You have to! I don't know what to do without you!"

"I…can make…it…back to…my World."

"But-!"

"Please…Tom," she coughed, and the shudder went through her whole body. "I…don't…have…much…time…left."

"Master?!" Tom begged. "Please, stay with me?"

"I…will…be…back…one…day," she promised. "…Live…for…me?"

"Master?" Tom begged again. Tears slipped down his cheeks from under his cloak. "I will! I will make you proud!"

"You…already…have," the angel whispered. She smiled, and then she burst into data fragments. Tom stared at his empty hands in horror, his body began to shake, and then he screamed out all his anger and disbelief. He gathered his power into his hands and blasted the ground below him. Dirt, dust and rock shot into the air and what was left was a giant crater. He could sense the digimon around him, feel their disbelief as their ruler died in front of them, and see their anger and hate directed at him for not saving her. He turned and flew away as fast as he could. He wanted to avoid their glares.

He didn't stop flying for hours. Every few minutes he would throw a ball of energy at the water far below him, causing fountains of water to shoot up into the sky. He finally spotted a small island in the distance, and he shot towards it desperately. He really hoped that there were no digimon on the island as he had every intention of destroying it.

He stayed there for a really long time. Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. The land he stood upon was no longer green and thriving, it was dead. His rage had killed the land and made it uninhabitable, and now that his rage had run its course all he could do was lie on the ground in his Rookie form and stare at the death without seeing it. It wasn't until a pair of shoes appeared in his line of vision did he move at all.

"My Lord, what have you done to yourself?" a voice asked. Tom looked up at one of the dark digimon he had created shortly after Lucemon was defeated. Running the Shadow World on his own had been hard, so he had created a helper who would look after everything while he was with his Master.

"Myotismon," Tom identified, before sighing and letting his gaze lose focus again. "What are you doing here?"

"You have been gone for a year, My Lord," Myotismon told him. He leant down and lifted the kitten into his arms. "The dark creatures are getting antsy in your absence. The Dark Masters have escaped from us and are in hiding while they regain the strength that you stole from them. And I have been hearing rumours about what happened to the Lady Sovereign, already I can feel the light becoming dimmer here."

"She had no successor," Tom told him, hanging limp in his arms. "It's up to the digidestined to keep this world going now. Take me back to the Shadow World. I have some revenge to plot."

Myotismon did as he was ordered. But Tom never got better. The best that had happened was that he had stopped moping and had returned to where he was strongest, but in time even that became awful. Tom's desire for revenge, and his hatred for the Dark Masters, drove him insane. Little by little the Shadow World was destroyed.

First it was the deserts, the areas where there was little life. Then the mountains disappeared, and the islands that were scattered throughout the ocean disappeared too. Entire landmasses faded into nothing, and space became hard to find. The dark digimon escaped to the Digital World where there was a chance that they would be able to live for a little longer, and without the Sovereign to preserve the light, the darkness was thick enough that they could live comfortably. The dark creatures that hid in the Shadow World escaped to the Magical World where their existence could be explained away, though once they arrived they hid in the dark forests and oceans until a time they would be able to go home.

Through it all, through every plan and every attack, Myotismon was right by Tom's side. At the beginning he had tried to maintain the Shadow World, but during one of Tom's raids he was exposed to a virus. This virus attacked his mind slowly, so slowly that no one noticed that something was wrong until it was too late. For centuries the virus whispered into Myotismon's mind, about how unstable Tom had gotten, and how he would be a much better ruler. In time, Myotismon agreed, but the Shadow World was now so small that all it had left was an ocean, the forest and one lonely mountain. So instead he targeted the last thing that Tom had any semblance of affection for.

The Digital World.

He would rule it, and once it was under his control, he would move on to the Human World. From there it would be a simple step to take the Magical World, the Dream World, and all his prisoners would be thrust into the Prison World where they would never be heard from again. He broke away from Tom, and the Lord of Darkness saw his desertion as a betrayal. He had no one he could trust now.

He destroyed the mountain in the Shadow World before sitting on the beach in his Champion form and plotting the demise of every digimon, dark creature, magician and human. None would escape his rage.

During his plotting, he felt something, a spark of warmth in his mind that he hadn't felt in centuries. It was so brief, so shocking, that he felt he needed to destroy it instantly. It was a threat to him, it had to be. But where was it? Tom opened a portal to the Digital World where he could feel its echo. He flew towards it, over the land and the ocean. In the distance was an island and when he landed he shivered. This place was a bad place and deserved to be destroyed as well.

"Well, if it isn't the Little Princess' most devoted protector?"

Tom spun and stared at the digimon who had spoken. He recognized Andromon, and he had fond memories of him, even if he didn't like him. Andromon looked almost as shocked as he was that he was there, but Tom still had a mission that he had to finish.

"We thought that you had died," Andromon continued. "With the strength of the darkness here we knew that something had happened in the Dark World."

"Shadow World," Tom hissed his correction. His world was dark, but the proper name was Shadow World.

"Gennai warned us that you might be here soon," Andromon said, ignoring the correction. "I expected you earlier, as soon as I recognized Her I knew you wouldn't be far away, but I guess Devimon's dark shield hid Her from you just as he had hidden Her from Gennai. He hadn't even known of her arrival until the digidestined spoke of her."

"Who is Her?" Tom demanded. He had no idea who Devimon was, nor did he care. No digimon was worth his time or attention unless they had something worthwhile to give him. "What are you babbling about Tin Can?"

"You don't remember Her?" Andromon asked in shock. "But surely…you and she were inseparable! You never let her out of your sight because you were afraid that the other digimon would take her away from you. You always called her Master."

"I am my own Master!" Tom snapped.

"The only reason you live was because our Sovereign spared you," Andromon growled, his tone cold and threatening. "She saw something in you that needed to be protected, and now you don't even have the decency to remember her?! If Jade could remember you she would be so disappointed in you!"

My name's Jade, what's yours?

The childish voice and laughter echoed through his mind before he could block it. It made his heart hurt and he refused to let it impair his judgement. He glared one more time at Andromon before flying up into the sky. It was obvious that something had happened on this island, the very island that held a bad memory for him. He tried to remember what that memory was, but the agony that the thought created was enough to convince him that he didn't need to see the memory.

The spark was gone now; it was only an echo on this island. Very clearly, the spark had run away before he could catch it. Angry now, he flew north. The spark would make its appearance again soon,and when it did, he would destroy it!

Weeks passed before he felt it again. It was to the west, and it was powerful. The light behind the spark made it look like an inferno to his senses, and he was doubly prepared to douse it before it could grow bigger. He was over the desert now, it was getting closer. It was almost within his grasp! Closer, closer, it was almost within his grasp…

CRASH!

"…and then we fought here. This bell hitting me, and the little ring that it made, it was like the veil had been lifted from my eyes, and all of a sudden I remembered you."

Phoenixmon remained silent as he finished his tale. Tom's insanity was what stood out to her most of all, as well as the fact that he had regained some of his sanity by holding onto the purple bell that she had thrown at him. Maybe if he had something of hers that contained her power, he would be able to keep his mind when they were apart for long periods of time. That would be important because she couldn't see the digidestined leaving without her, despite their almost overwhelming desire to go home.

"How aware are you of the situation in the Digital World?" she asked him eventually.

"Myotismon has his own kingdom to the west of Server," Tom explained slowly. "I haven't checked up on him in a few centuries though, so that's probably changed. The Dark Masters were in hiding in the south, but whenever they sensed me coming they would hide and continue building up their armies. Minor 'Dark Lords' have tried to make their mark on the Digital World, though the digimon in general have kept them from screwing everything up."

"Do the names Etemon and Devimon ring a bell inside that brain of yours?"

"Devimon, yes, that useless digimon tried to take over Myotismon's kingdom. The Bakemon are notorious gossips and I listened to their inane chatter to find my enemies. He was banished to some island in the middle of nowhere where he couldn't hurt anyone."

"He was banished to File Island where he terrorized the young digimon," Phoenixmon told him with a frown. "You know what File Island meant to me."

"…File Island," Tom breathed in sudden understanding. "That's why when I got there Andromon was only surprised that it had taken me that long to get there. Stupid Tin Can, at the very least he told me that you had gone but not where.

"And Etemon?"

"Etemon has been a minor power in the Digital World for a century or so. He had a hard time taking over, so when he found out about the crests somehow, I guess he decided to gather them to gather more power. He's been pretty quiet among the gossipers."

"He almost killed the digidestined," Phoenixmon scolded him. "Have you paid any attention to those under your control and protection?"

"No," came the reluctant reply. "I just felt so lost without you and not even Lucemon's teachings could keep me grounded. I can't rule without you. I thought that I could, but it was like there was a part of me that was missing and as they years went by it got harder and harder to think straight. It's only now I feel like I'm been in control of my mind."

"Are you going to pay attention now?"

"Are you going to leave again?"

"I would rather stay here for the rest of eternity," Phoenixmon told him honestly. "But I am human as well. I need to go back. Gennai told us both that I have a destiny there, just like we have one here."

"So you're going to leave me again?" Horcruxmon looked so depressed that Phoenixmon pulled him into a hug without a thought. He clung to her like a child would cling to his mother, even though he was taller than her.

"Let's go to the Shadow World," she whispered in his ear. "We can see what damage you've done that can be fixed, and then maybe we can go looking for Gennai. I'll introduce you to the digidestined when we come across them, and if we stumble across Myotismon I can have a talk with him if you want."

"Okay," Horcruxmon mumbled. He suddenly started to glow as he de-digivolved and soon Phoenixmon was holding a black kitten. She cooed, a brilliant smile lighting up her face, and she flew up into the air. With her staff she opened a portal to the Shadow World and moments later they were gone from the Digital World.

The Shadow World was a mess, and Phoenixmon couldn't help but gasp in horror. She had been to the Shadow World a few times when she was younger, and she hadn't liked it because it was so dark. But now, all that was left of the Shadow World was a forest and the ocean. She hovered above the forest, staring at the end of the world, literally, so she looked down at Tomomon in her arms.

"I guess I was a little distraught," Tomomon muttered as he, too, looked at the diminished world.

"So we'll spend some time fixing it," Phoenixmon told him. "We can make the forest habitable in the next few weeks, then we'll spend some time in the Digital World until I go back to the Human World, and while I'm there you can work on re-creating the borders of the Shadow World."

"How long will you be?"

"It depends on how much the timeline is out of sync," Phoenixmon told him as she flew down to land on the beach. "A few years at least, if I'm back for a few days in the Human World. One day in the Human World, I think, is nine years here."

"I can last a few years without you," Tomomon allowed reluctantly. "But only if you promise that you won't stay away for too long this time, and you leave me with this bell, it helps."

"I can promise that," Phoenixmon said with a smile. "Now let's get to work!"

Tai stared at the landscape around him that was instantly familiar and foreign. If he had to name where he was, he would have to say that he was back home, alone. The others hadn't come with him, but he did have his digimon partner who was now, once again, a Koromon. He felt light-headed, there were so many people around him, and he had no idea what he was doing.

"Where are we Tai?" Koromon asked curiously.

"My…home," Tai told him in shock. "We must have opened a dimensional rift from the Digital World to this world. But why was it only us that came through? Where are the others?"

"Um, Tai, why is everyone looking at us?" Koromon asked, now nervous as he noticed that there were a lot of humans staring in their direction. His eyes traveled up to look at Tai, and he thought he understood. "Tai, your shirt has a hole in it."

Tai looked down suddenly and saw something that was definitely not normal-looking. His shirt had a hole where Etemon had blasted him, but there was also blood soaking into the edges. The skin underneath was only faintly scarred, like the wound had happened years ago instead of minutes. Children, typically, didn't run around with blood on their clothes, and certainly not in the quantity that he had on his shirt. He picked up Koromon for two reasons, one was to ensure he wouldn't get trampled, and the second was to hide his chest from the concerned eyes of the general populace.

He started to run into the protection of the trees, before looking around and deciding that if he didn't want to draw unwanted looks into his direction, he would need to change his shirt. That meant that he would need to go home. The thought brought a small smile to his face, and he wondered how long he had been gone for. He vaguely recalled Gennai saying that the timeline was out of sync, but, admittedly, at the time he had been concentrating more on not throwing up than listening to him. But then there was the discrepancy with Jade. She had been six when she gone to the Digital World, but according to the digimon she had been gone for hundreds, if not thousands of years. But it was only three years…

Maybe that meant that no time had passed and at that very moment he, and the others, were being sucked into the Digital World back at camp? But if it was a dimensional rift, was he back on the same day, or in the future, or even in the past? His thoughts started to confuse him and he decided that the best thing he could do was go home, change and maybe sleep off his headache, and deal with everything as it occurred.

"What are we going to do Tai?" Koromon asked as soon as he noticed the change in Tai's pace. He knew that his partner had come up with a plan of action and was now working on enacting it.

"We're going to go to my house," Tai said softly. "I need to change my shirt before some well-meaning police officer comes to find out if I've been in a fight or to question me about who died."

"Died?"

"The blood on my shirt Koromon," Tai explained gently. "Anyone who looks at it will know that someone lost a lot of blood, and best case scenario needs to go to the hospital. Worst case, someone died."

"But, you're fine," Koromon told him. "Aren't you?"

"Nothing that a bit of sleep won't cure," he reassured him. Then his voice changed tone. "I wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for Phoenixmon, and I'm pretty sure that for a moment there I actually died."

Koromon went really pale, and Tai stopped walking so that he could check on his partner. He hugged him close and went on to explain why he was saying this.

"Koromon, I know that the Digital World is a dangerous place, and the digimon that we fight against aren't all benign. But it hadn't actually hit me that if we died there, we wouldn't be reborn like you digimon would be. The only reason that Jade survived when she was younger was because she was half-digimon. At least, that's what she told me."

"Who's 'she'?" Koromon asked.

"I don't know her name," Tai explained as he continued to walk. "She was waiting for me, when I closed my eyes, and she said that it wasn't my time yet. She told me that I needed to be strong, and that the true danger that we face, it's not in the Digital World. There is something in this world that is growing in strength, and if allowed to grow it will destroy this world, and all worlds attached to it."

"So our enemy isn't a digimon?"

"No, I think our final enemy will be human."

Tai didn't say another word as he continued to walk home. The girl he had seen was familiar to him. At first he thought that it had been Jade all grown up, except for the fact that the older girl had red hair instead of dark brown. He had no idea who she was; she could have been Jade from the future trapped in the realm of the dead and who had decided to meddle with mortal lives. She could also be a relative of Jade's, maybe her mother? What was her mother's name? Tai didn't think that Jade had ever told him, but he knew that he had heard it before. Had Sora told him?

"Wow, is that your house?" Koromon asked as soon as Tai stopped outside his apartment complex. Tai looked up and the familiar building and smiled.

"It's an apartment building," he explained. "Lots of families live there. I live on the thirteenth floor, apartment number 6."

Koromon continued to gape at the building, but he didn't say anything more as they moved. Tai was silent as they traveled in the elevator, and he was hoping that he didn't run into any of his neighbors. His attire meant that they would worry, and then they would talk to his parents, and then there was a chance that they would blame him for getting into trouble.

They made it to the thirteenth floor without seeing anyone, but it wasn't until they got up to the top that Tai realized he didn't have a key to get in. Inwardly he cursed, but he still reached out to try the handle. To his immense surprise the door opened at his touch. It was unlocked. Slightly apprehensive now, Tai walked inside and shut the door behind him, locking it securely. It wasn't that he didn't trust his neighbors, but leaving the door unlocked was like asking to be robbed.

Three sets of shoes were lined up neatly in front of him: his mother's, his father's and Kari's. They were all home? While he was at camp, his parents were supposed to be visiting his grandparents, but because Kari was sick did that mean they cancelled their trip? He called out a greeting to see if anyone would answer him.

"Maybe they're out?" Koromon suggested when no one responded.

"I wonder where they went?" Tai mused aloud.

"Maybe they went to the Digital World," Koromon told him.

"That's not funny!"

He slid his shoes and gloves off and walked to the fridge. He remembered that there were cans of drinks that he could drink, but when he opened the fridge there was only one left. He took a couple of mouthfuls of the soda before handing the can over to Koromon to finish. As he watched the digimon drink, he decided that it would be better if he slept before having fizzy drinks. The fridge door shut and he stared at the calendar without his expression changing.

July 31.

He'd gone back in time? He currently existed in two places at the same time. Was he still at camp, or was he still playing with Jade in the tree? His eyes traveled to the clock above the television in the lounge room. According to the clock, it was only nine in the morning. If he remembered correctly, it had been around twelve o'clock when it had started to snow. So for the next three hours he would exist at the same time as his other self.

Tai looked at his left arm without expression. He remembered Datamon crushing it, but when Phoenixmon had done, whatever she did, it hadn't felt like that anymore. It was, at worst, still broken, or at best bruised. He could still move his fingers, and he determined that the arm was probably fractured. He would need to keep it still so that it could heal.

"Hey, Tai?"

"Yeah Koromon?"

"I'm hungry."

Tai smiled and dropped his hands to his side. Koromon had just digivolved to the Ultimate level, so it was no wonder that he was hungry. He was just surprised that it had taken the little digimon this long to say anything. He was about to open the fridge again to make something, when a soft sigh echoed from his bedroom. The two of them turned to look at who made the sound, and Tai's eyes widened as his little sister opened the door.

"Hi Tai," she said.

"Kari?" Tai stated in shock. "Are mum and dad here?"

"They went to visit grandma," Kari told him with a puzzled frown. "Remember?"

"And they left you here alone?"

"I'm a big girl," Kari told him seriously. "Hi Koromon."

"How did you know his name?" Tai asked her.

"Maybe she knows my name," Koromon began, "because your sister is a lot smarter than you."

Kari laughed and walked into the room as she rubbed sleep out of her eyes. Tai's eyes widened as he realized what Kari would see and think if she saw his shirt. He grabbed Koromon and held him across his chest before walking out from behind the kitchen bench. He needed to get into his bedroom, or the bathroom, without Kari seeing the shirt.

"I'm going to change out of these clothes," Tai told her quickly. "When I'm changed I'll make us something to eat."

"But you never cook," Kari told him in surprise.

"I learnt from Matt when we went to the Digital World."

"Where?"

"I'll tell you all about it, after I've changed. Deal?"

Kari nodded and a happy smile lit up her face. Tai grinned at her before sliding into the bedroom and shutting the door. Koromon looked at him in confusion, but Tai didn't really explain as he sat him down on his bed. Koromon watched in silence as Tai stripped out of his bloodied shirt and began to hunt around for something cleaner to wear.

"Does it hurt?" Koromon asked as he spotted the faint scarring on Tai's front.

"Not anymore."

"And your arm?"

"Twinges a little," Tai admitted as he looked at it. "It's a lot better than it should be though."

"And are human ribs supposed to look like that?"

"Like what?"

"Are they supposed to stick out like yours are?"

"We haven't always had a lot to eat Koromon."

"But-"

"Koromon," Tai interrupted. "We rely on you and the other digimon to keep us safe, and you need energy to do that. The best way you can get energy is by eating."

"So you give me more food than what you need?" Koromon sounded distressed, and Tai recognized that and tried to reassure his partner.

"I know that the others call me their leader, and Jade has told me often that everyone would fall apart without me, and that puts a lot of pressure on me. I need to make sure that everyone has enough energy, and enough food. Jade has been starved all her life, and just because she's used to it doesn't mean it's alright for her to starve herself now. TK is small and needs energy to keep up with us. The digimon are the only ones who stand between us and death, so they need food to keep going."

"And you are our leader and you can't be starving yourself."

"I'm not starving myself," Tai told him as he started to rummage around in his cupboard. "I'm just…waiting until there's enough food for everyone before I stuff my face."

Koromon nodded, even though it distressed him that he hadn't noticed his partner giving away his food so that others would be able to have more energy. He vowed to watch what Tai ate closer in the future, before asking another question that had been bugging him.

"Why didn't you want Kari to see your shirt?"

"She's my little sister," Tai tried to explain. "I want to protect her from the bad things in the world, so what she doesn't know about what I've been through, won't bother her."

"What are you going to tell her?"

"Everything aside from any injuries that we may have sustained."

"May have?" Koromon asked him. "Don't you want your sister to know that you've been hurt, still are hurt?"

"She'll just worry," Tai told him as he slid an old blue shirt over his head. "And when she worries, she makes herself sick, and then she stresses out, and it's not healthy for her. It's better if she just doesn't know."

"If you're sure."

"I am," Tai promised. "Now, I'll make us something to eat, and when we're eating I'll tell Kari about the Digital World. I also need to sleep, I'm exhausted."

Koromon nodded his understanding, if he didn't agree with the human. Tai lifted him into the air again and carried him back out to the kitchen where Kari had pulled up one of the bar stools so that she could sit at the kitchen bench and watch him.

As he cooked eggs for them, he talked about how he and the others had been pulled away from the campground after the snow storm and dropped into the Digital World. He narrated their travels on File Island and their battle with Devimon, after editing the parts he didn't want to tell her about, and then he talked about how they met Whamon and their arrival in Server. He showed her his crest while they were eating, and he finished by describing how he and Metalgreymon had defeated Etemon, completely ignoring how he had almost died.

Kari was suitably impressed, and wanted to visit the Digital World as well. Tai showed her his digivice and told her about how it was the only thing that allowed him to enter the Digital World, though he had no idea how to get back. Kari was disappointed, and Tai didn't know what to say to make her feel better. He was now feeling more than a little dizzy, and he had managed to get through an entire omelette, but now he just wanted to go and lie down for a few hours.

Koromon realized after going through his omelette and Kari's leftovers, that he really needed to go to the bathroom before he made a mess all over the table. Kari took him to the toilet and waited outside the bathroom for him to finish, and Tai disappeared to the lounge room and collapsed on the couch. He was asleep before he could lay his head on the armrest.

"How embarrassing," Koromon muttered from the bathroom. "Why would you want to hang out with someone who's such a pig?"

"Because you're cute," Kari told him from outside the door.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Do you want to hear what happened to me at school?" Kari asked, changing the subject slightly. "We took a farm field trip and I tripped and fell into the pigpen. The kids were laughing at me, 'til Tai jumped in. Know what he did? He played in the mud with me like I had done it on purpose."

"Wow," Koromon uttered.

"Tai does bug me sometimes," Kari admitted. "But he is the coolest big brother in the world. And I know that something's bothering him. Do you know what it is?"

"He's probably worried about the others," Koromon told her, sweating slightly with nerves. "We did kind of leave them all unexpectedly. And Tai's very protective of all of them, especially Jade."

"Can you tell me about Jade?" Kari asked him. "Tai told me all about her from her letters before he went on camp, and I helped him to make a bracelet for her birthday."

"Jade's amazing," Koromon told her happily. "She started out as this shy little thing that was afraid of everything, but she always had something kind to say to us digimon. She thought the world of Tai and they were inseparable. When Devimon separated us, I know Tai was the most worried about Jade because she didn't have a digimon partner to protect her. But he fought to get her back and because of his determination we all made it back together."

"So he likes her?"

"Oh yeah," Koromon agreed. "He likes her a lot!"

Kari giggled a little before Koromon announced that he was finished. She helped him clean up and carried him out of the bathroom. She stopped when she saw that Tai had fallen asleep on the couch in the lounge room, and she sighed in concern. Koromon jumped from her arms to land gently on Tai's stomach, and as he was so out of it he didn't even flinch at the unexpected weight. Kari turned the television on and she and Koromon watched the news.

It was the same as usual since summer began. Freak weather phenomenon encircled the globe and while the news reporter spoke, not once did he mention the monsters on the screen as cameras showed the locations of the main discrepancies. Kari had stopped mentioning the monsters when her mother snapped at her, but she still saw them.

"That's Meramon," Koromon suddenly stated. "And that's Seadramon, and Frigimon, why are there digimon on the television screen Kari?"

"You can see them too?" Kari asked him in return. "They've been there for weeks now, but no one believed me. Mum yelled at me and told me that I wasn't allowed to stay up later than eight all summer."

At that moment the power went off and Tai's digivice went berserk. It started to flash brightly, an alarm started go off, and Tai woke up with a jump that was so abrupt that Koromon would have fallen to the ground if Tai and hadn't wrapped his arms around him. He pulled his digivice off his belt and looked at it in confusion, but while he was doing that Kari noticed something else that had changed.

"What's wrong with the computer Tai?" she asked. Tai looked up at the computer and walked over as he recognized a familiar red head.

"Izzy?"

"Can you hear me?!" Izzy asked, his voice cutting in and out from static. "Danger! Tai?!"

"Izzy?" Tai asked again as he grabbed the computer screen desperately. "I'm here!"

"Tai! Wherever you may be, don't come back here!"

"I can't just leave you there!" Tai yelled at him. "I have to come back! I could be your only chance!"

"Digital monsters…total chaos! You're better off where you are! Don't come back!"

"You know me better than that Izzy!" Tai called before the screen went blank. He stared at it blankly before calling out Izzy's name again. His digivice had gone silent and the power had turned back on, but inside Tai was panicking.

"They're in danger Koromon," he said as his hands let go of the computer screen. "We have to do something."

"What can we do?" Koromon asked him.

Tai didn't know. All he could do was stare at his digivice, thinking about what it could do. It could fight against the darkness in the Digital World, and it could help his friend to digivolve to the next level fairly easily, but what else could it do? They hadn't gone to the Digital World until they had the digivices in their hands, but there had to be more to it. Had Jade made it possible for them to go? What was the purpose of the digidestined? As Phoenixmon, Jade was powerful enough that she could defeat their opponents fairly easily, but she hadn't…why?

He felt so useless, standing there staring at a blank computer screen and his inactive digivice. He needed to be doing something, but what? He walked away from the computer and began to pace around the lounge room. Kari and Koromon watched him move in silence. Koromon knew that Tai was thinking, but Kari was just worried.

"Just relax Tai," she requested of him. "Have some watermelon. It'll cool you down."

Tai nodded and retreated to his bedroom. Kari cut up some watermelon for him and brought it into him before returning to sit with Koromon. Tai waited until she was gone before he pulled his ruined shirt from where he had stashed it. He couldn't let Kari or his parents see it, they would flip. He folded it up so that the tear wasn't visible and shoved it to the back of his cupboard. While he was there he stared at his clothes. He needed to get back to the Digital World, and he needed to take some stuff with him so that he could help.

Food? Clothes? Medical supplies?

"I could take some shoes for Jade," he whispered. He looked at Kari's shoes. Granted, he hadn't paid much attention to how small Jade's feet were, but he knew that they were small and she was close to the same size as Kari. Kari had an old pair of black sandals that she didn't wear anymore, and if Tai looped his belt through the sandals he could carry them at his waist until he found Jade. His gloves were shoved into his back pocket, and without Kari or Koromon noticing he slipped some aspirin into his pocket for future emergencies.

He sat down on his bed and held his left arm with his right. He needed to see the damage without anyone else around. Holding his breath, Tai pulled the black armband that stretched from wrist to elbow off his arm and stared at the black bruises in the shape of a hand. On his forearm were faded scars, but the white lines were fairly noticeable against the mix of pink, purple and black of his skin. His self-diagnosis said that his arm was fractured and that it would be healed in a few weeks if nothing else happened to it. He swallowed two aspirin to help with the pain and pulled the armband back on.

At that moment the phone rang and Tai darted out of the room just as Kari picked it up. He asked her who it was, but she didn't answer him and focused on the person on the other end of the line. When Tai heard her say that it was their mother on the other end, he desperately wanted to rip the receiver from her hand and listen to her talk, but he restrained himself. He had other things that he needed to focus on.

"Mum says that there's bed weather and will be home later than she and dad thought," Kari told him after she put the phone down.

"It's the digimon," Tai said with a nod. "Earth is in as much danger as the Digital World is. The dimensional rift is allowing the digimon to cross over and because of the timeline being out of sync both worlds are slowly crumbling."

"So what do we do?" Koromon asked him

"We need to find a way back."

"Are those my shoes?" Kari asked him.

"Yeah, you don't mind if Jade borrows them do you?"

Kari shook her head but was prevented from answering when the apartment started to shake around them. Tai pulled Kari to his side and pulled her out onto the balcony. He didn't think it was an earthquake, and he needed to know if the attack had been from a digimon.

"Oh no, Tyrannomon," he cried. "What's he trying to do?"

Tyrannomon shot a blast of fire at a building, and blowing a hole in it. Tai gaped in horror before rushing back into the house and pulling his shoes back on. Koromon jumped after him, and his distress was plain to see as he asked what was going on.

"Kari! Stay here where it's safe!" Tai ordered. "Koromon and I have to find that dimensional rift! We have to find a way back to the Digital World!"

As they ran they heard Kari call out to them, and while Tai knew that she didn't want them to go, he knew that they needed to. So he ran as fast as he could to get to the ground, and then he ran as fast as he could towards Tyrannomon. The dinosaur digimon hadn't moved since his attack, so when he faded away into nothing Tai stopped in disbelief.

"What happened?" he gasped out. "He's gone!"

An explosion to their right had them turning to see another digimon looming above them

"Drimogemon!" Koromon cried out. The two of them changed the direction of their charge to Drimogemon's location. However, just as they got close to him, he vanished.

"No way," Tai breathed. "The digimon are drifting back and forth through that dimensional rift! We have to find it and go through it before those monsters destroy both Earth and the Digital World! It'll take all of us working together to stop them! We've got to get back!"

"Even if we did, I can't help you," Koromon stated as he leaped from Tai's arms to the ground. "In spite of all I've eaten, I can't seem to digivolve. So I can't fight! I'd just get in the way."

"I need you Koromon," Tai told him sincerely. "We can't win unless we fight as a team. Don't you give up now!"

"Tai! Koromon! Wait for me! I want to go with you!" the two of them turned abruptly as Kari's voice reached them. Tai felt fear for his sister being outside while there were digimon terrorizing their home, and he ran to her to gather her in his arms.

"Kari, I told you not to leave home!" he told her. "You can't come with us. It's too dangerous!"

"Please, Tai! Oh please, please?" Kari begged. Koromon looked away from the siblings and noticed something across the street from them. He called out to Tai in alarm as he recognized Ogremon waiting to cross the street to where they were standing. Tai instantly pushed Kari o that she was hiding behind him, and he and Koromon stared in confusion at the green digimon who could have been a statue.

"Why don't the people notice him?" Koromon asked. "He's just standing there!"

"What's he waiting for?" Tai asked aloud. "Is he waiting for the light to change? Maybe if we wait, he'll disappear like the others!"

His hope wasn't meant to be, for as soon as the light changed to green, Ogremon shot across the road to where the three were still standing. Koromon leaped up and away at the last minute, and Tai threw himself over Kari to protect her from the rubble that Ogremon's attack had sent flying into the air.

"Are you alright?" he asked once the rubble stopped falling.

"Koromon?" Kari asked, looking around. Tai felt a twinge of hurt that his sister was more concerned about Koromon than for her brother, until he realized that Koromon was no longer on the sidewalk with them. He spun around on his knees frantically, looking to where his best friend had gone.

"He's up there!" Kari spotted, pointing to the apartment buildings opposite them. "He's trying to fight that monster single handed!"

Koromon was leading Ogremon on a merry chase up and away from the people, but Koromon was still an In-training level digimon and wouldn't be able to fight well against a Champion level digimon. His attacks didn't so much as cause Ogremon to blink. Tai could feel his heart sitting in his throat as the fear of losing his partner grew.

"Koromon! Digivolve!" Tai cried desperately.

"I can't do it unless you use the digivice!" Koromon called to him.

"I don't know how to use it!" Tai told him. "You'll have to use my energy like you did in the colosseum!"

"I don't know how I did that!"

Tai thought back, clutching the digivice in his hand. For a digimon to digivolve they needed to have enough energy, their partner could be in some kind of danger, or the human's emotions were extreme enough that they could force a digimon to digivolve. Tai didn't want to expose Koromon to his hate and anger again, so instead he focused on how much he wanted to protect not only his friends, but the people around them and anyone who couldn't protect themselves. His hand tightened on his digivice and he gasped as his energy rushed out through him to Koromon, just as Ogremon hit him with his club.

"Koromon!" Tai cried. The digivice lit up like a beacon, and Koromon started to glow brightly.

"Koromon digivolve to – Agumon!"

As Koromon began to digivolve, a hole in the sky appeared and started to suck in everything relating to the Digital World, and the rubble that the digimon had created. It was bright, and Tai instinctively knew that this would be his last chance to get back.

"The dimensional rift is opening up like a giant vacuum cleaner!" Tai gapped.

Agumon landed on the traffic lights just above Tai and Kari, and as Ogremon leaped at him again he attacked with his Pepper Breath and sent Ogremon flying up into the dimensional rift. And then Agumon was floating up, and Tai feared for a moment that his friend would leave him behind.

"Come back!" he called as he started to run forward. Small hands grabbed his arm before he could go far and he knew that he had to choose between Agumon and Kari.

"Stay with me Tai!" Kari begged. Tai wanted to, he needed to know that his sister was safe, but if he took her home now he would never be able to return to the Digital World.

"No, go wait for mum and dad," he told her.

"I'm sorry," Kari mumbled as her head came to rest against his back.

"For what?"

"You're right, I know you have to leave."

"I really do," Tai told her. "Okay?"

"Okay," Kari agreed.

"Agumon can't digivolve without me, this is my fight too," he said. He held up his digivice in his left hand and immediately he felt his body lighten as it was pulled into the sky as well. "I need to make sure that they're safe, that she's safe."

"Please be careful," Kari begged. She held onto his right hand for as long as she could, but eventually Tai was too high for her to continue to hold on, especially as he wasn't holding her hands.

"Bye Kari," he whispered.

"Bye, bye Tai! Don't forget about me!" Kari called after him. Tai watched as she got smaller and smaller, but he knew that he couldn't take her with him. It was too dangerous for her as she was, and he knew that if his mother found out she would be really mad at him. But now, he had achieved what he wanted. He was going back to the Digital World.

Lights flashed passed him rapidly, and with his eyes opened now he realized that he was traveling down a large tube of some kind. If he looked closer through the walls he could see several other tubes of slightly different colours. He wondered where they led to. He was definitely going to the Digital World, as it was his digivice leading the way, and he was reassured of his destination when he crashed into hot sand.

Looking around, he was relieved to see Agumon next to him, and when he saw the rubble of what could have been a pyramid, and endless to each horizon, he was pretty positive that he had arrived at the exact same place he had left from. He stood up and brushed the sand out of his hair, pulling on his gloves once he was done.

"Well Agumon, we're back in business. Now we've got to decide what our first move is!"

"Well, we have to find our friends," Agumon suggested. "Then we have to make sure that you and the others get home safely."

"Not until we conquer all the evil digimon!" Tai told him with determination. "Otherwise, neither one of our worlds will ever be safe!"

"Right!"

Tai looked at the digivice in his hands before slipping it onto his belt again. They needed a direction, and walking aimlessly didn't really appeal to him. He looked to Agumon and thought about everything the digimon had told him.

"Can you sense where the others are?"

"They're a long way away," Agumon told him. "And it feels like they've separated. But if we walk that way, we should find one of our friends."

Tai looked to where Agumon was pointing and nodded. He trusted that Agumon knew where to go, so he started to walk. It was important that they got back together; otherwise both the Digital World and the Human World would never be the same again. He was sure of it.

First off: Wow! That was the fastest reponse for any chapter in this story so far. Thankyou to everyone who reviewed, the lovely Okami Princess for betaing this chapter, and lozzy161 for putting up with my nagging when she was supposed to be doing homework (hehe). Love you guys! You're the best!

Answers to those who asked questions that weren't answered in the chapter just uploaded:

Impstar: Not as susceptible, but she is sensitive to dark energies and can pinpoint their exact location and sometimes intentions. She didn't defeat Etemon because Tai requested the first shot. As he had just been attacked, Phoenixmon allowed him first dibs. As for the rest of the Potterverse, oh yeah. I have so many plans for those characters and Voldemort. Hehe

OSR fanatic: Good question, but at the moment she is not staying. She will return to England at the end of summer camp, but before the second season starts she will be back in Japan and the Digital World altering things to help fight against the darkness that is once again, leeching into the Digital World. When she is back in Japan she will attend a magic/muggle school.

Kurai's Calisto: You're close, but it was Guilmon's partner who turned her back on him, Wizardmon's partner died tragically. Tai's mum will get her moment, but not until the digidestined are all back in the Human World.

Venas: Wow, you had a lot of questions. Let's see, yes, there will be recognition, but she won't be happy to begin with. Guilmon won't show up for a few chapters yet. Wizardmon's fate is a secret, and Tomomon will stay in the Digital/Shadow World while the digidestined look for Kari. Jade will return to the Human World, and go back to England. Your pairing is spot on, Tai is my favourite character and I love how he grew into a responsible and mature teenager (and he became a diplomat! Go figure!). Think of Tomomon as the protective father who needs to approve of his daughter's suitors. Finally, Kari and the Shadow World...haven't decided yet. As for the fanart, I can't draw very well but I drew my inspiration from Google Images: Dark Angel (for Horcruxmon) and Anime Angel of Fire (for Phoenixmon). If you would like to have a go, I'd love to see what your imagination can come up with.

Guest: Jade will end up with Tai, eventually. She is only nine now, there's still quite a few years before she will even think of Tai like that.

Next up in Intertwined Destinies:

Chapter 16: Inner Powers