Kinda late in the day, I know. But at least it wasn't two or three whole days, huh?

Okay, so we have a little more of a group dialogue in this chapter, and I'm not quite sure how well I can portray that kind of scene. Let me know how it goes in a review, would ya?

Confessions

The final bell rang, and all the kids were more than ready to high-tail it out of the building. So far, for most, it had turned out to be any normal Tuesday. No special events occurred during classes, unless a short, two-minute interruption to a ninth grade science class could be called special. Teenagers dispersed into every direction to get to their after-school activities. Soccer practice. Band rehearsals. Computer club. Homework...

Kari tried to find TK after classes to check on him, but he was nowhere in sight. It shouldn't have been difficult to spot TK, with or without his hat. The golden-blond hair was recognizable anywhere, but the fisherman's hat was one of his trademarks, you could say. When the halls began to quiet down, it occurred to Kari that TK had probably already gone to the computer room. Perhaps they were all waiting for her. She hurried to find nearly everyone there, including some of the older kids, excepting Ken and TK. The former was the one who was usually late, not the latter.

Izzy Izumi sat working at the computer with Yolei behind him, watching. Davis and Cody stood over their group of in-training digimon as the little creatures devoured the bag of candy and food Yolei had brought. Gatomon had already made her way in from outside, and also watched the digimon with the same disgusted look she always wore. Wormmon had arrived before Ken, but Patamon wasn't there. Tai was waiting too, marvelling on how much the small digimon scarfed down, and secretly wishing he could have a candy bar or two himself. Kari remembered Matt and Sora also were planning on coming. Joe was busy. Mimi was in America.

Tai was the first who noticed her advent, "Hi Kari!"

"Hey Tai. Has TK been here?"

"Haven't seen him all day, which is unusual. Anything going on?"

"Hey, yeah!" Davis interjected, "What happened during science? You interrupted class over a stupid headache?"

Kari glared in return. "No!"

Davis tilted his head, taken aback at the sharp reply. Kari lowered her eyes. "Sorry. It...it's more than just a headache, Davis. Remember when something like that happened to me last year?"

"What, when you ran off to some dark corner of the DigiWorld?"

"Still clueless, aren't you?"

Tai cut in with his own question. "Clueless about what?"

"The Ocean." Kari replied simply, catching Yolei's attention.

"The Dark Ocean? You didn't go there again did you? Did you?"

"No…"

"Oh, okay good," Yolei Inoue returned her attention to what Izzy was typing, successfully suppressing any more sign of concern. Kari took a breath and decided to further explain her answer to Tai.

"It has something to do with what happened last year. The Dark Ocean. Daemon and his group. They may all be coming back."

"How do you know?"

Kari looked down from Tai's gaze. "TK. I think they're going after TK."

This time she had all their attention, Yolei and Izzy included. The digimon had stopped their munching on the food. The room was dead quiet. Tai shifted uneasily.

"Why him? Why not anyone else of us?"

"Maybe it's a hint," Davis put in brashly. "Maybe you two aren't supposed to spend so much time together after all!"

All eyes were now on him, focused with an unfriendly stare. He met each of their gazes his his own angry, though oblivious, look.

"What?"

Yolei was the first to speak, but not in response to Davis.

"It's not just him." She paused, taking a breath. She still hadn't told anyone else what had happened that weekend. Now was as good a time as any to bring it out into the open. "They also came after me not too long ago."

"What?" Davis blurted, incredulous. "What have they got on you?"

"What do they have on Kari? Or Ken? Huh?"

"Well, they're kinda dangerous…"

"As opposed to me?" Yolei's voice rose. "Who do you think I am? The darkness has a good reason to fear me too! Oh, hi Ken."

All eyes turned to the boy now standing in the doorway. His face, which had been pale and tired-looking before, immediately flushed at the sudden attention. "Hi guys."

He closed the sliding door behind him and held his arms open to catch Wormmon who decided to give him a warm welcome. Ken glanced curiously at each of the other kids' faces. "What were you talking about?"

He did have an idea of what was going on, being that he first opened the door while Yolei was talking about darkness fearing her. He just wanted to be sure, in case Yolei and TK didn't want anything uncovered yet. It was then Ken noted that TK hadn't even arrived yet.

"Well, Ken," Yolei said knowingly. "I was about to tell them about what happened Friday, but then this goggle-head thought he'd be clever for a moment."

She finished her sentence with a glare at Davis, who didn't notice. Most of the kids were still looking at Ken questioningly.

Kari asked first. "You were there too?"

Ken nodded.

"What happened?"

"I was going in after Yolei," Ken sighed. He didn't really feel like he was ready to explain, but he took a shot at it anyway. "There were too many of them for me to get to her, but I saw a yellow light off in the distance. I could only assume it was TK. I followed it, and was more than halfway to him before I realized Yolei wasn't following me."

"Waiiit a minute!" Yolei cut in. "So you didn't just abandon me, then?"

Ken shook his head, "Definitely didn't. I wouldn't do something like that."

Yolei gave a short, "Hmph," before he continued.

"I decided to meet up with TK before going back, and he was a great help. If it wasn't for him, we may not have gotten out of there in time."

"We did have some close calls," Yolei said. "More than once we thought that they almost got him."

"TK?" Kari clarified.

Ken and Yolei nodded. The former continued. "In fact, after we rescued Yolei, the darkness started going for TK almost immediately. I've been worried about him all weekend after that. Where is he anyway?"

"We don't know," Tai replied simply, though his voice was now etched with concern that matched what everyone else was feeling.

The conversation was interrupted by a tapping at the door. In reply, all the digimon scurried into their hiding places and Yolei scooped up the leftovers of the plastic bag of food hastily as Ken turned to open the door.

It was only Patamon, with a confused look on his face, hovering out in the hall. He scanned the group of kids over quickly, and his expression turned to worry.

Seeing TK's partner alone multiplied everyone's concern.

Hope you enjoyed!

FYI, thought I'd give a heads up that I may not get to updating tomorrow. Schedule looks busy. As well as this being the last chapter that I already had mostly written before posting. I'll be thinking about what will happen next though!