Wisemon stood before a grey stone wall, thousands of runes etched into its surface. "You have returned alone."

The female digimon who had attacked T.K. the night before walked out of the shadows. "I could have taken him by force, but this works in our favor as well. He will begin to isolate himself. The chances of the other digidestined interfering with our plans will greatly decrease."

Wisemon looked down at the ancient book in his hands. "We are running low on time."

"If he comes against his will, it will be much harder to perform the ritual." She narrowed her eyes at the wall. "We cannot let it fail, this is our only chance."

Wisemon shut his book and started walking away. "As long as the boy survives long enough to complete the rite, nothing else matters."

#

Ken eyed Davis warily as he finished telling him what had happened. Davis shook his head. "We need to go back to the digital world."

"Now?" Ken looked at Davis skeptically. "What are we supposed to do, Davis? It's almost 5am and you haven't slept in like 24 hours. You need to get some sleep."

Davis shook his head. "I can't."

Ken frowned. "Davis, you're not the only one worried about him. You should let the others—"

"They don't want to go back until they know more." Davis yelled. "And I promised Kari." Davis exhaled slowly, calming down. "This has to be connected to the Phelesmon incident. He went back to those ruins for a reason."

Ken frowned. "This isn't adding up. If something was going on in the digital world, I don't understand why he wouldn't tell us. He has to know that it will affect all of us."

Davis hesitated again, flashes of T.K. in the dark of the ruins, desperately begging him not to tell anyone. "Yeah. I know."

Ken sat silently in thought, before speaking. "Listen, I'm sure that the others are doing what they think—"

"They aren't doing anything!" Davis covered his face in frustration.

"I get why you're frustrated Davis," Ken stood, remorse and guilt filling his chest as he remembered the harsh words he last said to T.K. "They haven't been around T.K. They haven't seen the look in his eyes." Ken sat back down. "T.K.'s been hiding something from me for months now. I thought it was all because of what happened between him and Kari this whole time, but maybe it wasn't that at all." As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he regretted it. He glanced at Davis expecting a barrage of questions, but he didn't act like he heard him.

Davis tensed at the mention of what happened between those two. It made his blood boil thinking about how upset Kari had been ever since he came back. "Whatever the reason, we need to go and confront him. What he's doing isn't okay."

Ken closed his eyes. "I can't help but feel some of this is my fault."

Davis raised an eyebrow at Ken. "Damn it, between you and Kari, T.K. never has to own a damn thing he does. How on earth could any of this be your fault?"

Ken looked up at Davis. "I've known there was something wrong, and it was getting worse. I knew it, but I just let him push me further away until it made me so frustrated that I said things I didn't mean."

"Ken, you can't seriously think that what he's doing is your fault. When someone pushes you away, that's on them." Davis stated firmly.

"Davis, stop." Ken's voice filled with irritation.

"No." Davis' voice grew louder. "This is all on him. What excuse does he have to treat any of us this way?"

Ken stood and walked away from Davis, his own frustration showing. "I backed him into a corner, I said if he wasn't willing to tell me what was going on and I said I was done with him. That I didn't care anymore! What kind of friend knows that there's something wrong and then says something like that to their face?"

Davis' expression turned somber. "Ken, it's still not your fault."

"No? I've been the only person he's confided in since he moved away. And the instant he starts shutting down and pushing people away, I just let him?" Ken shook his head. "I know him better than to let him do that!"

Davis felt it too. The guilt of how easily they all let him disappear from the group. His conflicting feelings of anger and worry making him sick. "We can't change what's happened up until now. All we can do is find him and start making things right."

Ken exhaled slowly, collecting himself. "I'm going to call Yolie and Cody. Then I'll head over to Izzy's and see what I can find out. By the time I have a plan together—"

"Ken, he's hurt. We need to go now." Davis insisted.

Ken stared at Davis hesitating, and then he sighed with defeat. "Fine. Where do we start?"

"The ruins? I don't know, it's better than sitting around doing nothing."

Ken sighed. "Davis, even if we go there now, there's no guarantee we'll even find anything. And if Izzy is monitoring the digital world for digivice signals, the others are going to know as soon as we get there."

Davis shrugged. "It doesn't matter. We need to go."

#

T.K.'s shoulder was aching as they made their way through the forest. The cold night air gave T.K. a chill. He could feel the dried blood under his sleeve, as he reached up and grabbed a tree branch to pull himself up the incline. Patamon was close behind him, watching his movements become more rigid and slow as the minutes passed.

"Shouldn't we stop and rest, T.K.? Patamon tried not to sound as worried as he felt.

T.K. turned to look at Patamon and gave him a sympathetic expression. "I know you're tired, and you're worried about me. But we can't stop just yet."

Patamon paused in the air behind him. "Why, T.K.?"

"I want to put some distance between us and the ruins. I don't want to be confronted by the others this soon."

"But didn't you say it looked like they went back home?"

T.K. turned and looked at Patamon tiredly. "They could come back any time."

Patamon gave T.K. a skeptical look. "We're both injured and tired from the battle earlier. If we're attacked again, I don't know if I'll be able to defend you even if I digivolve to ultimate, and in that case, in your condition it might be fatal."

T.K. sighed. "Fine."

Patamon gleamed with victory as T.K. sat down and leaned against a nearby tree. He snuggled up in T.K.'s lap before asking. "Do you really think Andromon will know anything?"

T.K. peered up at the sky. "I think that he may have some helpful information for us. He's connected to a host of different cities information servers around the digital world and I think that if anyone could help us find a good direction to go, he could."

"How long have you been planning to do this, T.K.?"

"Mmm…" T.K. thought for a minute. "A few weeks. I knew I had no idea where to start, and I wanted to wait until school was out for the summer, so I started getting my bearings and mapping out where I wanted to go, so I'd be somewhat prepared."

"That was a good idea." Patamon responded quietly.

#

Veemon looked over at Wormmon as Ken and Davis wondered around outside of the ruins slowly, searching for any clue where T.K. had gone. "That's all I know that happened last night." Veemon looked worriedly at his partner, holding tightly to the straps of the backpack Davis had brought with him. "And it doesn't look like Davis has had any sleep."

Wormmon looked on worriedly. "None of this sounds good at all. And I don't understand why Patamon wouldn't tell us what's going on either."

Veemon shrugged. "Maybe T.K. didn't tell Patamon anything either?"

Davis and Ken had been in the digital world for over an hour and the sky was beginning to lighten, the sun would be out soon.

Ken looked over at Davis and then down at the ruins that had collapsed in on themselves, making a large pit full of old stone. "Do you know what caused the ruins to collapse like this?"

Davis looked up from the ground. "Not really. We were inside when the shaking started. I don't even know how we managed to make it out in time, we barely escaped though. It might have been that other digimon we saw."

Ken sighed, folding his arms in frustration. "We've almost made a full circle around the perimeter, if we don't find anything soon we should go home, rest and get the others to help."

Davis looked at Ken with defeat. "Fine." He had to admit that he was finally feeling the exhaustion hitting him.

Walking ahead of Ken, Davis scanned the nearby forest. He stopped, seeing something red on the ground by the trees. Blood. Glancing at the ground, he saw that it led right to where he was standing. Blood was on the ground all around where he was standing. "Ken!" the excitement of finally finding something was quickly replaced with fear.

"Is that all his blood?" Ken's eyes wide with worry.

Davis shook his head. He hadn't been hurt badly enough for there to be this much blood, at least not when he'd seen him inside the ruins. "I…I don't know." He remembered what Kari had said—she heard him in pain. "It's the only thing we have to go on." He looked up at Ken. "If there's this much blood here, there's bound to be a trail through the forest, right?

Ken and Davis followed the path of dried blood for almost thirty minutes before coming to a stop at a stream. Torn, blood soaked cloth resting in the gravel.

"T.K. stopped here to take care of his injury." Ken swallowed hard. "Davis, he lost so much blood."

Davis knelt down, looking at the gravel, seeing which direction T.K.'s foot prints were headed. "It looks like he went west from here."

Ken closed his eyes, trying to compose himself. "T.K., where are you?"

"Ken!" Davis said his name sharply, pulling him out of his head. "We have to keep going."

Ken inhaled slowly and nodded. "Yeah. We need to hurry."

#

T.K. was relieved when they reached more level ground, his body felt weak and his injuries were taking a toll on him. The sun was just barely peaking over the mountains, sparkling rays of light shining into the forest through the forest canopy.

"Can we slow down a little?" Patamon begged.

"We rested for too long, I want to make up some time we lost." T.K. tried to keep walking, but a lightheaded feeling washed over him.

Patamon flew up to T.K.'s left shoulder and tried to steady him. "T.K.? What is it?"

Between the blood loss from his wound and the pain inflicted on his body from using the crests power twice, he was surprised it hadn't hit him earlier. "I'm just a little dizzy." He tried to play it off.

Patamon tugged at T.K.'s sleeve. "Maybe you need some more rest?"

T.K. looked up at Patamon. "We can rest when we get to the city."

Patamon stared worriedly. "We won't get far if you pass out."

"We need to get to the city." T.K. dismissed Patamon's concern and continued walking. It wasn't long before a nearby sound faded into hearing distance, freezing him in place.

Speaking quietly he looked toward the direction of the sound. "Is that…?"

Patamon looked back. "Voices?"

"Damn it." T.K. breathed. He could feel the panic rising inside his chest. Part of his plans to convince everyone he didn't need or want their help did not include being covered in blood and fighting dizzy spells. "Not now." T.K. tried to take another step, but the ground felt like it fell out from under him and he dropped to his hands and knees. "Damn it." His voice quivered.

Patamon's voice sounded far away, even though he was right in front of him. "T.K.! Are you alright? Say something, T.K.!"

T.K. closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. "I'm fine." He was tired of saying those words, tired of lying over and over again. "Just keep quiet." He hissed.

Patamon coward back from T.K., still staring at him worriedly.

T.K. opened his eyes, whispering lightly. "I'm sorry. I know it seems like I'm being reckless, and selfish and maybe even a little masochistic." He leaned back and reached up, touching the wound on his shoulder, realizing the impact from catching himself when he fell reopened the cut, fresh blood running down his sleeve, onto the ground. He cursed under his breath.

"I understand, T.K." Patamon's expression was full of frustration and worry. "And it makes me feel terrible that I would rather risk our friends' lives than watch you go through this. But I do. I understand why you're trying so hard, but you're hurt and I can't even digivolve to protect you without risking your life." Patamon didn't try to quiet his voice this time. "I'm scared!"