Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. If I did, there'd be so many random forgotten mistakes...

Author's Note: Written for the Novel with Prompts Challenge found on the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges forum. The prompt for this chapter is "late".

I was going to post this yesterday, but my grandmother passed unexpectedly. I guess my terrible winter hasn't quite ended, but I don't foresee this causing any delays in updates. If updates slow, it's due to either lack of inspiration or I'm stuck. But since I'm super excited to get to this next arc, hopefully things will go pretty smoothly and neither of things will happen. Also, I left a formatting error in the previous chapter (the whole -hook after the chapter title thing). That's what happens when you go so long without updating that you forget to remove random reminders like that out of your document!

Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Four

Takato dreamed he was wrapped in spiderweb, hanging upside down like a hunk of meat. Everything hurt – his arms, his legs, his chest, his head. Especially his head. It felt like a stadium was sitting on his skull.

"If I'm dead," he murmured, "why does it hurt so much?"

"You're not dead," said a man's voice, sounding way too amused at his predicament. "Just a little banged around."

Takato's thoughts floated from his body. He heard digimon yelling, his friends screaming, fiery explosions, but it all seemed to be happening on another plane of existence – getting further and further away.

He found himself standing in an earthen cage. Tendrils of tree roots and stone whirled together, confining him. The two thickest pillars were each adorned with their own specialized crest. Outside the bars, he could see the stone floor of a broken throne room, a stone archway at the far end, and above them, the ruined black stones of a decrepit castle.

Next to him in the cage, a man sat cross-legged in brown robes, his head covered in a hood. He reached up and pulled his hood off, revealing a youthful and handsome face that seemed gentle – but also hardened with suffering.

"Gennai," Takato said.

"Welcome to my prison," said the digital entity. "I'd offer you a drink, but I seem to be missing my tea set."

Takato stared at him. His memory was a little fuzzy about what happened right before he blacked out, but he was pretty sure that his friends were in danger right at this moment, and he was here – somehow – being offered tea. It didn't seem right.

"Don't worry about your friends," Gennai said, as if he could read his mind. "They will be okay, and they will see you through – for now."

"For now?"

Gennai gestured to the earthen bars of his cage. "There are many trials ahead. The very Digital World stirs against us."

"You're a digital entity," Takato pointed out. "Why can't you just escape?"

Gennai smiled sadly. He got to his feet and made his way to the perimeter of his cage. He studied his prison for a moment before he stuck his hand out as if to reach through the bars. As his fingers passed between the earthen tendrils, the very flesh seemed to explode into data particles, dispersing every which way. Takato suspected that if he tried that, he wouldn't be nearly as calm.

Gennai's arm should have been gone. A very gruesome stub should have been left where his hand had once been. But when he retracted his arm, the hand reassembled itself all on its own as the data came back together. Nothing about it had changed. Even Gennai appeared merely pensive as he studied his own appendage as if watching it disappear was a totally normal everyday occurrence.

"Loose data cannot exist within the Digital World," he said. "When digimon are destroyed, data can sometimes be lost in the rebirthing process, but even then, that data doesn't stick around in the Digital World for long. It gets lost in the fabric between worlds; it does not stick around in our own. And yet these powers have found a way to unwrite the very programming of the beings within this world. They wish to harness my loose data to awaken a sleeping evil. If I try to escape, they will succeed. If I stay, they will still succeed – in a few more days. They have already succeeded in extracting the data from my counterparts. You must find me before it is too late."

"Not to sound totally unsympathetic," Takato said, "but why are they waiting? Why not just destroy you now if it's so easy?"

"They have their reasons," Gennai said. "I trust Centarumon has explained the power of the winter solstice?"

Takato nodded. "So… if this evil wakes up on the solstice, he'll be more powerful than if he were to wake up today?"

"Exactly."

"But how did you get here? How were you caught?" Takato asked.

Gennai sighed. "We have experienced peace for many years, but the gates between the Real World and the Digital World have remained opened. And this time of peace has made many of the other digital entities forget why we have peace in the first place. Some believe that we should forcefully close the gates between the Human World and the Digital World, that we digimon and digital entities alike have become too involved in the affairs of humans, especially with the influx of digidestined from all around the world. They believe that the continued exposure to the Human World will cause more enemies to stir."

"Well, that explains why Baihumon wasn't our biggest fan."

"Yes," he said. "I have never agreed with the idea that humans bring more chaos than peace to our world, but even I was curious as to why the gates have remained open for so long. It is… most unusual." Gennai moved back to Takato's side and lowered himself into a meditative pose down on the ground. "As a guardian of the Digital World, I am often quite sensitive to the changes of balance within our world, able to know when darkness is at our doorstep. But this time—" He hesitated. "I felt the first stirrings of something one month ago. I did not wish to alarm the other entities or give them more reason to believe that closing the gates would be necessary, especially if our world was on the brink of being in danger once more. I knew that if I were to find the answers that I needed, it would have to be done alone, so I went investigating. My investigation led me here."

"It was a trap," Takato guessed.

The digital entity nodded. "It was only once I was here that I was able to feel the strength of the darkness that had been growing just beneath the surface, but it was far too late. Our enemies used my data code to then lure my counterparts – all of them – here as well. Then they were destroyed, one by one, until I was all that was left, and I do not have much time. The Digital World's greatest enemies threaten to rise again. The digidestined can only hope to defeat them with the help of other heroes not of this world. And the one whom the Demon Lords serve… he cannot be defeated – only kept asleep."

"I don't understand. What heroes? What do you mean asleep?"

"You will soon," Gennai promised. "It will all make sense very soon."

The cage began to constrict, the tendrils spiraling tighter. The red jagged heart crest glowed red as its pillar added another inch to its girth. Gennai's image distorted like a television screen during a bad storm. Outside the cage, Takato could see shapes gathering around the black digiegg – lumbering creatures with hunched backs and red eyes. And unless Takato's eyes were tricking him – they appeared to be nothing more than solid shadows bowing before the egg. He heard moaning and crying; screams of agony echoing off of the castle walls that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. Their cries seemed almost seductive – yearning for him to join them in their despair.

"Hurry, Takato," Gennai said. "We're out of time. You'll be waking up soon, and my captors are returning. I will not be strong enough to appear to you again, not even in your dreams."

"Wait," he said. "Baihumon told us you were playing a very dangerous game by bringing me here. What did he mean?"

Gennai's eyes suddenly grew very heavy with sorrow, and Takato wondered if he really had done something that might be more dangerous than whatever the evil dudes that were holding him captive were doing.

"I have breached barriers, weakened the fabric of our world," he said, "so that I could make an exchange. It was the only way to bring our heroes together. The enemy counts on us being at only half strength, and if we remain that way, we will all be destroyed. You are a bridge to bring our worlds together, to give us a chance at hope."

"What? I don't—"

"I can't tell you more," Gennai said. "Not with the enemy so close. He may be listening. But find this place. It's where seven first became eight. And tell Izzy the time is right. He'll help." The scene began to dissolve. "Goodbye, Takato. Beware Circuit. Your most dangerous enemy awaits you there. If you are to fail, it will be by her hand."

"Who is it? What are we going to face?" he asked.

But Gennai's image faded, and Takato awoke.

x X x

His eyes snapped opened. "Gorillamon!"

"Hey, it's okay." Kari sat behind him on Nefertimon, holding his waist to keep him balanced. Davis sat behind her with Guilmon and Veemon in front of Takato. Several feet to their left flew Cody, Yolei, and Ken at the front. They all flew peacefully through the chilled winter sky as if nothing had happened.

"Didn't we crash-land?" Takato asked, bewildered. "I thought—"

"Dude, it's okay," Davis said. "We got away, but you got a nasty bump on the head. How are you feeling?"

"Do you need some aspirin?" Kari asked.

Takato's head throbbed, so he took the offered water and aspirin. He remembered the warehouse, then walking down the catwalk with Guilmon, then a digimon looming over them – a giant gorilla, unless his memory was playing tricks on him – and then everything went black.

"Takato, I was really worried," Guilmon said.

"I'm sorry, boy. But… how did we—wasn't Gorillamon—?"

"Cody and Davis saved the day," Yolei chimed in. "They were amazing. Especially Cody."

"It was nothing," Cody said quickly.

"Cody, shut it!" Yolei snapped, which looked particularly odd since she was beaming so brightly. "You were awesome. Takato, you should have seen it."

"Hey, don't we get any credit?" Davis and Veemon whined.

"Nope."

She told Takato everything he'd missed – how Ankylomon and ExVeemon had single-handedly dealt with Gorillamon and Dokugumon; how Guilmon had digivolved all on his own, becoming Growlmon, and saved Cody from becoming barbeque; how Cody had come up with a way to defeat Orochimon before they noticed that all three digimon were beginning to reform; how they'd managed to get him and Ken onto the backs of Halsemon and Nefertimon and gotten them back in the air just as they'd started to hear the digimon roaring for vengeance inside the warehouse.

Takato was impressed. Not only was his partner, Guilmon, so cool that he could digivolve all on his own, but Cody – the youngest of their party – was a lot more resourceful than he gave him credit for. And despite Yolei trying to downplay Davis's part in it all, he was starting to understand why the others kept deferring to Davis's judgment. Izzy had been right; he shouldn't underestimate these guys. And despite how relieved he was that everything had turned out alright, he felt horrible. He'd stepped right into an ambush and spent the whole fight knocked out while his friends fended for themselves. He felt like he should have been better than that; he should have known better.

When Yolei told him about the other kids that Gorillamon and Dokugumon had vendettas against, the boy with the Terriermon and the redheaded girl, both of whom apparently used cards as well, Takato felt like his head was going to explode. Gorillamon… Terriermon… cards… Takato felt like he should know exactly what they were talking about, he should know that boy, but the name was missing from his mind.

"I'm not alone, then," he said. "There are other digidestined like me."

"Dude," Davis said, "you were never alone. You've got us."

"I—I know that… but it's just something that Gennai said. I was having this dream…"

He told them what he'd seen, and what the digital entity had said inside his cage.

"An exchange?" Nefertimon asked. "What does that mean?"

Takato shook his head. "But Gennai's dangerous game is me. Just by bringing me here to the Digital World, I have a feeling that he did something bad… something that's having really bad rippling effects… something that could potentially threaten the entire Digital World—"

"Or save it," Ken added, his dark blue eyes searching Takato's face with such a deep intensity that it nearly made Takato feel uncomfortable. "That bit about the sleeping enemy – that sounds like the dragon Davis told us about."

Davis cleared his throat. "About that… he kind of appeared to me back at the warehouse in a pool of muddy water."

"It wasn't a very good look for him," Veemon said.

Davis told them about the big face in the warehouse yard. "I don't know if he's completely unkillable," he said, "but he can't be defeated by a little Veemon action as awesome as you were, pal."

Veemon frowned. "I just need a second shot at her!"

"He wanted me to betray you guys, but I was like, 'Dude, do you even know who I am? I don't listen to my teachers. What makes you think I'm going to listen to a bunch of muddy water?'"

"He's trying to divide us." Kari let go of Takato as she moved her arms away from around his waist. He could sense her tension without even looking at her.

"What do you mean?" Ken asked.

"It's just… Why are they toying with us? Who is this dragon, and how is he connected to Barbamon?"

"Barbamon?" Takato didn't think he'd heard that name before, and he didn't appear to be the only one. Everybody was now staring at Kari like she'd grown a second hand.

"I mean…" Kari's voice quavered. "It's just a name… I think Homeostasis may have mentioned it as someone possibly working with whoever is behind all of this…"

Takato got the feeling there was a lot more bothering her, but he knew it wasn't his place to press her and everybody else seemed too hesitant to do so. She'd had a pretty rough morning following a pretty rough week.

Davis scratched his head. "Well, I dunno about Barbermon—"

"Barbamon," Kari corrected.

"Yeah, that. But Old Mud Snout mentioned another name. Beafymon or something."

"Beafymon? Never heard of him," Armadillomon said.

"But if Huang wants him to rise, he sounds like bad news," Wormmon said.

Takato envisioned that dark digiegg in the middle of the old reflecting pool – growing larger as Gennai grew weaker. "Would it be a totally wild guess if I said that I think Beafymon – which I'm guessing is not his name – was the digimon inside the dark digiegg?"

"Let Gennai die so that some evil digiegg could hatch? Yeah, that sounds like something Huang would want," Davis said.

"What I want to know is who these other heroes that Gennai mentioned are," Cody said. "If they're out there somewhere, how do we find them? Who are they?"

"And if they were just other digidestined," Nerfertimon said, "why wouldn't he just say that?"

They flew northeast, and Takato became lost in his thoughts – all of them bad. He wasn't sure how much time passed before Nefertimon dove through a break in the clouds, and below them, glittering in the morning sun, was a city at the edge of the seashore. A crescent of stone-carved buildings lined the shore. Behind them, stretching out to the south, was a vast grid of ocean for miles.

"Circuit," Takato guessed.

He thought about what Gennai had said in his dreams. The one who would probably be the one to destroy him would be waiting here. If he was going to die, it was going to be here and soon.

"Well, that's one problem down," Ken said. "We got here alive. Now, how do we find these armor digimon?"

Takato saw a flash of movement below them. At first, he thought it was a small plane, but it was too small and too alive. The digimon spiraled toward the skyscrapers, and Takato fumbled for his D-Power. The name popped up immediately: Pteramon. Armor Digimon.

"How about we follow that one," Takato suggested, "and see where it goes?"