Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. I do not own Heroes of Olympus. 'Cause I'm playin' it all wrong...

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

So, I finally answer a question a few of you have asked on multiple occasions: What has the other group been doing this entire time? Hopefully, you all like the answer. There's not much to say, except...

Enjoy!

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Davis figured he had the worst luck in the group, and that was saying a lot. He'd give anything to have amnesia or a super cool brother who needed rescuing right about now. Instead, he'd been dealt a hand of crazy imaginary friends, unrequited romances, and an In-Training Digimon who still didn't have enough energy to stay awake for more than just a few minutes at a time. Oh, and did he mention the prophecy? That was like the topper on the cake. Yeah, he'd caught that little gem.

A miracle leads them to victory or death.

Having a crest had been pretty cool the first two seconds, but now it felt like the stupid little trinket was cursed. He wanted to blame everything on the little golden crest, but Davis knew better than that. His life had been unlucky way before he'd ever met Takato.

A thousand digi-years from now, when digimon would tell tales of their heroism, he figured digimon would talk about Takato's bravery, Kari's resilience, Yolei's stubbornness, Cody's resourcefulness, and that other dude – the other one with goggles – who either destroyed the world (way to go, Davis!) or somehow accidentally managed not to screw it all up. Maybe they'd mention his cooking too. It would be the least they could do.

If that wasn't bad enough, Davis was actually starting to miss having TK around.

Not that that was a big surprise. The guy was one of his best friends, even if he could be a pain, but it was for more than that. TK could be just as reckless as him, but he also knew when to lighten up. With TK around, at least then he'd have someone else around to pick at when things got too stressful – and someone to pick at him right back. He'd thought about picking at Takato a few times, but to be perfectly honest, the kid reminded him of a type of little brother figure. He worried he might make him cry if he said the wrong thing, which was totally weird since Takato had proven a few dozen times already that he didn't need any sort of protection.

But still. Davis wasn't in the habit of going around and kicking puppies.

As Yolei collapsed, Davis could only stand there and watch with wide eyes, way too far away to do anything to stop it. She would've cracked her head open on the loose scree if Cody hadn't caught her. Joe rushed forward. "What wrong with her?"

"She may have hypothermia," Izzy said. "But I'm not sure. I figured you'd have a better idea."

"She also broke her ankle," Cody said. "We've been trying to let the Digital World do its magic, but it seems to be taking a while."

"Can you help her, Joe?" Kari asked.

Joe looked Yolei over, from the top of her head down to her swollen ankle before nodding. "Yeah, I think so. I've picked up a few things about Digital World medicine over the years. I should have a few tricks up my sleeve that will help."

He pulled his bag off of his back and started to sort through the supplies. Most of what he pulled out went way over Davis's head – salves and creams and herbs and pill bottles. Davis eventually just looked away for his own sanity. Joe's first aid kit apparently had an entire hospital tucked away inside it. He was really going to have to talk to Cody about not being that prepared. Not that he'd even remembered a first aid kit… but he wasn't going to admit that aloud.

Sora hovered over Joe's shoulder nearby as he looked down on Yolei. She tutted like a worried mother hen. "I guess you all really have been through a lot."

Davis groaned and plopped down on the rocky freezing ground. "You can say that again."

Taking his cue, the others slowly sat down around the fire. Guilmon threw another fireball into the dying embers to return it to a blaze. For a few minutes, nobody spoke. Davis wasn't sure if it was because they were all just too exhausted or if they weren't sure how to start. Davis had figured that once they met back up with Tai's group, they would have a lot to say to each other, but the two groups simply regarded each other in a bit of an exhausted trance. Maybe they were hoping to just telepathically soak in all of the information without having to ask.

Finally he couldn't stand the silence. "So… the weather sucks."

The group stared at him as if he'd just sprouted a second head.

"What? It does…"

Ken's mouth twitched into a smile. "Don't mind Davis. He's just trying to break the ice."

"Literally," Davis added. "Have you looked outside?"

Sora groaned. "Davis, if you make another quip about the weather, I might throw something at you."

Mimi gave a tired sigh and tugged on the silver bracelet on her wrist. In the firelight, they all looked pretty ghostly, like they weren't really there, just figments of Davis's imagination. He pushed that thought away. He really didn't need any more imaginary friends, thanks.

"Oh, hi, Elecmon!" Palmon quipped suddenly. "What are you doing here?"

"That's part of their very long story, apparently," Elecmon said.

"We're glad to see you're okay," Gabumon added.

"You and me both, kid," Elecmon said.

"What do you know so far?" Matt finally asked.

"Nothing," Wormmon said. "We were just telling Izzy about what we've been through. He hadn't gotten to what all of you have been doing before Cerberumon and the Fangmon attacked."

"That put a decisive end to the conversation to say the least," Hawkmon added.

"I'd sure like to know what you all have been doing," Palmon added. "It seems like it's been quite the ride!"

"I agree," Sora said.

Davis exchanged a look with the rest of his group, wondering who was going to lose the silent battle of wills this time. Finally, Ken sighed, and took the reins, explaining everything that had happened since they left Izzy's apartment two days ago – the visit with Lord Baihumon, the warehouse, Sirenmon's underground lair. The others chimed in to add details he forgot, and Davis took it upon himself to explain the history behind Huang. He decided to lighten up the story with also mentioning his excellent cooking skills.

Matt and the others were good listeners. Nothing seemed to surprise them – Huang, the digieggs disappearing, the Crest of Miracles. But when Ken mentioned Datamon, Sora and Biyomon gasped.

"I knew we should've burned down his mansion when we had the chance," Matt said darkly.

"We didn't have time, Matt," Izzy reminded him. "We were still trying to follow Tai's trail."

"I'm just glad to hear that you all are alright!" Biyomon said.

Mimi shuddered. "Yeah, no kidding. That guy's a total creep."

"I can't believe you found a crest," Sora said staring at Davis's chest. "I haven't seen one in years…"

Davis looked down at the little trinket and tried not to feel a surge of panic at the reminder. He gave a shrug, hoping his pounding heart wasn't visible from the look on his face. "So far it's just been a really weird looking necklace."

"Give it time," Joe said softly from where he was still tending to Yolei. "You'll figure it out."

"What I want to know is if the Crest of Miracles is the only crest out there or not," Izzy said. "As far as I know, Gennai and his counterparts only ever made eight crests for the original eight of us, and then a ninth for Ken. So where did this one come from?"

"Maybe he made another," Tentomon said.

"But why and for what purpose?" Izzy asked. "If they thought the Digital World was safe, why would they feel compelled to make another crest?"

Nobody had an answer to that.

"Izzy, you were going to tell us what the rest of you have been through since we left your house," Cody said.

"And what happened to Tai," Kari whispered.

"Right," Izzy said.

He and the other older digidestined shared a look very similar to the one Davis's traveling party had shared a moment before: they were trying to decide who would get the exciting job of telling the story. Finally, Sora sighed, having apparently lost. She leaned forward, and the firelight seemed to age her twenty years, like the Digital World hadn't been treating her so well.

"Kari… I'm not sure how to start. I don't really have any sort of good news to offer. Everything we've learned about TK's disappearance… and what happened with Tai… See, the thing is, when we got to Primary Village, one of the first things that Izzy did was try to find a central hub where he could access the Digital World's… something or other."

"Mainframe," Izzy offered. "I pretty much brought up the log of who had been coming in and out of the Digital World the last week, and before the day that we met Takato… Well, the last portal to be open happened two days before TK disappeared. According to the Digital World itself, TK never stepped foot in the Digital World. So wherever he is… he's not here. Unless someone erased his entry."

"Can someone do that?" Ken asked.

"It's possible. The Digital World is just one big computer if you think about it and data is stored here like on any server back home, so anything that exists can simply be deleted. However, I don't know why they would," Izzy continued. "I wasn't even sure if logging onto the Digital World's mainframe would grant me the permission to see who had come in or not, so why someone would go to these lengths to delete TK and Patamon coming to the Digital World doesn't make a whole lot of sense."

Davis was suddenly reminded of Mr Fujiyama's computer class. He'd never really paid attention, but every so often, Mr Fujiyama would start to talk about computers in a way that would go way over his head. Yolei would often tell them about how Mr Fujiyama actually had no idea what he was talking about, but he had to sound like he did since he was the teacher, so Davis didn't even feel bad about tuning the guy out. But even with Izzy being the one sitting across from him giving the lecture, he still found his mind drifting more than it probably should.

All of this technical talk went over his head in a way that he didn't exactly appreciate. As much as he wanted to understand what happened to TK, he wanted to find the guy more. These big fancy words and technical jargon was making him think that TK had simply been downloaded, like they were, and he was just loose data somewhere on a floppy drive. If they found the right one, maybe they could just upload TK back into existence again, but he knew that wasn't the case. He knew it in a way that couldn't be explained, but it made it no less fact in his head.

"So…" Takato seemed uncertain about whether or not he should finish the question.

"We'll find him and where you're from," Davis told him.

"Davis is right," Cody said. "TK may not be in the Digital World, but that doesn't mean he's… gone."

"Of course he's not," Matt snapped.

Sora put a hand on his arm, and he simmered down enough to look away.

"After Izzy did whatever it is that he did," Sora continued, "it was like we had suddenly announced our presence to every pesky and evil digimon in the entire Digital World. We couldn't walk five steps without getting attacked."

"It was awful," Mimi sighed. "They chased us all around File Island. It was like Devimon all over again!"

"We tried to keep them away, but they just kept coming," Palmon said.

"Tai thought we were being followed," Matt said. "But anytime he or I would go to look, try to catch whoever was on our trail when they weren't expecting us, we couldn't find anybody."

"That's when I realized they were following the WiFi signal on my laptop," Izzy said, grimacing. "It took me a while to notice it, but this light here…" He pointed to a blinking red light on his laptop. "It had been on since we left the main hub. I was trying to find us another safe location to go to when I saw it, and I realized what was going on. I tracked the IP address that was tracking us, and realized that whoever was sending digimon after us, they were located somewhere on Folder."

"Datamon," Ken said.

Izzy nodded. "We decided we had to follow the signal. Whoever was sending attackers after us obviously didn't want us to find out information on TK."

"Which meant it was someone who had information on TK," Matt added.

Davis fiddled with the hem of his jacket. DemiVeemon slept peacefully in his lap, which was probably for the best. He didn't need the little guy trying to fight imaginary enemies again. This whole story was putting him on edge, though. He already knew the outcome, but that didn't stop him from sitting tense and at the ready, waiting for the bomb to drop.

"How did you guys get separated?" he asked.

"So we came to Folder, but…" Sora started and then stopped.

"Just like before, things didn't quite go as planned," Biyomon said. "We were attacked as soon as we landed."

"It wasn't our fault that time!" Tentomon said.

"No, they were waiting for us," Gomamon said. "They wanted to get us scattered, separated… and they did a pretty good job of it. Unfortunately."

"One second, Agumon and I were fighting side by side," Gabumon said. "And the next…"

Matt let out a small sigh. "I lost sight of everybody except for Gabumon for a while there. We got chased into the woods. It took a few hours for us to regroup. We thought Tai was just taking a bit longer to find the rest of us at first, but when he didn't meet back up with us by morning, we knew something was off. We've been looking for him ever since, trying to follow the trail he left behind."

"Barbamon took him." Kari's voice sounded far away, like she was envisioning the entire scenario in her head. "He's taken him as leverage."

Sora frowned. "Barbamon?"

"Yeah, he's some evil Demon Lord," Davis said. "He's been sending Kari nightmares, he made Sirenmon almost barbeque us all, and he's apparently taken Tai hostage." He gave the older digidestined a quick rundown about the other Barbamon related stuff that had happened: TK possibly or not possibly being with him, his relation to Datamon and Karatenmon, and the great Demon Lord prophecy about him having six other buddies.

Gabumon tugged on his fur coat. "Barbamon. The digimon that attacked us mentioned something about having a master."

"Just like Thunderbirmon did!" Guilmon pointed out.

"They may have been talking about Sirenmon," Elecmon said.

"Either way, Sirenmon worked with Barbamon, so it's all connected," Cody said.

"If Barbamon has something to do with TK's disappearance," Mimi said, "does that mean that he's responsible for Takato being here without any memory?"

"It's possible," Takato said slowly, "but unlikely. Everything we've learned so far backs up what I've dreamt… Gennai is behind me being here, and only he knows why."

"So far, we know that Takato uses a different digivice, some sort of power up cards, Guilmon can reach ultimate, and he probably isn't alone," Gatomon said. "There have been mentions of there being these other heroes, and the digimon we met back at the warehouse mentioned at least two other kids who used cards to fight."

"If Gennai's behind Takato being here, couldn't he be behind TK being missing?" Palmon said.

"If he is, he has some serious explaining to do," Matt growled.

"We won't know until we save him," Hawkmon pointed out.

"Takato has a team out there somewhere," Davis said. "Maybe they could tell us something."

Matt gave him a funny look. "About what, exactly?"

Davis hesitated. He had been on the verge of figuring something out, but the thought slipped from him like water through his fingers. "I… don't know. Something?"

"A good majority of the world still thinks that the Digital World is a hoax," Izzy reminded him. "Even if we could somehow announce to the world that we were looking for Takato's team of digidestined, it doesn't mean that they would come forward or even believe us. Their Digital World is nothing like ours. They may not understand the connection or significance of their finding."

Mimi's dazzling chocolate brown eyes stared at Izzy like he was speaking Greek. "Izzy, we know all of the other digidestined. If there was some secret second Digital World out there, don't you think we would have figured it out by now?"

"Not if…" Izzy's voice trailed off, like he'd just had a troubling thought.

"What?" Davis asked.

Izzy shook his head. "I'll need to talk to the other digidestined back in the real world, or – better yet – Gennai himself."

"Which leads us back to the problem at hand," Wormmon said.

"Does anyone else feel like we're going in circles?" Biyomon asked.

Matt shook his head. "We're wasting time. The deadline's tomorrow. We need to know what Ebonwumon can tell you."

Sora glanced out the entrance of the cave and nodded. "It looks like the storm is dying down. We don't know how long that will last. We should probably get moving while we have the chance."

Davis turned to look at the entrance of the cave himself. The zephyr outside had finally died down to a gentle snowfall. It still wasn't something that Davis would have chosen for himself to travel through, but at least they wouldn't be blown off the mountain and forced to call to their deaths.

"Are you guys coming with us?" Cody asked.

Izzy shut his laptop. "Yes and no. We'll help you find the entrance to Ebonwumon's lair, but we have our own trail we need to follow."

"Cerberumon," Matt said. He looked down at Gabumon. "Still got his scent?"

Gabumon sniffed the air. "It's growing weak quickly."

"We better go if we don't want to lose it!" Biyomon agreed.

"Wait," Davis said, his head starting to hurt. "What does Cerberumon have to do with any of this? How does it connect to us? To Tai? To TK? To Barbamon? To anything?"

"That's what we need to find out," Sora said as she stood. "And we've only got half a day to do it in."