T.K. kept a steady pace until he was sure that he hadn't been followed. His heart felt like it might jump out of his chest. If they had decided to fight, Patamon wouldn't have gone past champion—he banked on them assuming he would.

Patamon watched T.K. worriedly, seeing his breathing become more labored and his hands quivering. Patamon held his breath when T.K. finally came to a stop. "T.K.?" he asked gently.

T.K. grabbed the tree next to him, leaning forward, dry heaving. He coughed, his breathing strained and labored. He slowly knelt down to the ground, his whole body shaking, tears stinging his eyes.

Patamon was at his side, his hand gently resting on T.K.'s leg. "When was the last time you ate something?"

T.K. shook his head. "I don't know."

Patamon stared at their surroundings as he spoke. "I have something very important to say, and I need you to hear me."

T.K. shut his eyes tightly. "Mhmm…?" He wished he had something in his stomach to throw up, anything to subside the nauseous feeling for even a moment.

Patamon spoke calmly, but his tone was firm. "I would fly into fire for you, I'd follow you into hell if I had to, I'd take your side even if it was the wrong one." He finally looked up at T.K. "But I will not continue to go along with this if you refuse to take care of yourself."

T.K. looked at Patamon somberly. "I'm sorry." Tears ran down T.K.'s cheeks slowly. "I just…" his voice trembled. "I haven't been able to keep anything down at home." He admitted quietly. "I haven't been getting much sleep either."

Patamon's concerned expression deepened. "Why didn't you tell me?"

T.K. tried to respond but had to stop or he knew his body would make him try to vomit again. After a few minutes passed, T.K.'s voice came in a whisper. "I didn't want to make it any harder to convince you to go along with my plans. I knew you would be opposed to begin with, so it felt like just another reason for you to go and tell the others or refuse to help me if I didn't."

Patamon looked at T.K. sadly. "I may not agree with your choices right now, but you're my partner."

T.K. felt more tears stinging his eyes. "I can't do this without your help."

Patamon shook his head and grabbed T.K.'s hand with both of his. "And there's no way I would let you do it without my help."

T.K. closed his eyes again. "Earlier, when I was talking about doing whatever it took to stop the others from chasing after me, you said it sounded like I wasn't planning on there being an after. After whatever this is."

Patamon gripped his hand even tighter. "There will be an after, T.K."

T.K. opened his eyes, more tears running down his face. "I've never felt more hopeless in my life."

Patamon shook his head. "T.K., you literally have the crest of hope inside of you!"

T.K. smiled lightly. "It's pretty ironic, huh?"

Patamon frowned. "Look at me, T.K."

T.K. looked down at his little friend. "Patamon."

"We're going to find out what they want and we're going to put a stop to it." Patamon's voice was filled with confidence.

"Yeah." T.K. inhaled slowly. "But before I do anything else, I think I need to finish what I just started."

Patamon tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

#

Ken and Davis appeared on the floor in front of Izzy's computer in his apartment. Neither one of them looked up as they quietly gathered themselves off the floor.

Davis had his eyes fixed on the carpet, refusing to look up even when Kari called his name.

"Davis?" she ran up to him. "I'm sorry!"

Davis frowned, looking up into Kari's eyes. "Sorry? For what?"

She looked away guiltily. "I told the others about what I heard when I passed out, and that I told you, too. That's why you went and got Ken to go back with you, right?"

Davis looked at the floor again. "I just…"

Kari grabbed Davis and hugged him tightly. "Thank you."

Davis felt even guiltier. "Don't…Don't thank me, I didn't do anything."

Ken looked across the room, surprised to see Yolie walking up behind Kari, giving him a concerned look. "Yolie?"

"Hey..." she didn't seem herself.

Kari looked at Ken's confused expression. "I called her. We've explained the situation to her."

Davis frowned. "Cody?"

Yolie shook her head. "Can't get a hold of him. It's the weekend, he's probably at the dojo."

Finally Matt spoke up, drawing everyone's attention. "You're here now, so start talking. You said you found something, do you know where T.K. is?"

Ken saw Davis' reluctance and took over the conversation, all eyes on him. "I guess, I should just start with the important part. We did find him."

Matt's eyes grew wide. "You did? Is he—?" Matt stopped short. "Wait, if you found him, why didn't you call us? Why didn't he come back with you?" the anger rising in Matt's voice made Ken look down.

"Matt, let him talk." Sora pulled at his arm gently.

Tai shook his head. "Can you not see the looks on their faces, Matt? Something happened."

Matt ignored his friends. "Well?"

Ken took a deep breath. "We found blood, outside the ruins. A lot of blood."

Davis looked up at Kari, adding. "You really did hear him. When he was attacked trying to leave the ruins."

Kari had a chill run through her body, recalling how excruciating T.K.'s screams sounded. "So, it really wasn't just a dream?"

Ken continued quickly at the look on everyone's faces. "We found him a little while later."

"How bad was it?" Matt asked quietly, his fists shaking.

Ken shook his head. "It's bad, but it could have been worse, all things considered."

Matt couldn't hold it in anymore. "Is he alright?"

Ken nodded. "He'll survive. I was able to clean it and put clean bandages on him when he…" Ken hesitated. "When he passed out."

Matt's face turned red with anger. "Why didn't you call me?"

Ken shook his head. "His pulse wasn't at a dangerous rate and it seemed more important to make sure I took care of the cut."

Davis spoke up this time. "I was the one who decided not to call you guys."

Kari frowned. "But, why?"

Davis shrugged. "In hindsight, I realize that was not the right decision. But at the time, based on T.K.'s response to seeing us, I thought it would be better to try to find out what was going on with just the two of us there."

Sora frowned. "And what was his response to seeing you guys?"

Ken looked at Davis and then back at everyone else. "Irritated?"

Davis scowled, remembering the way T.K. had greeted them. "He was pissed off."

Tai saw Matt was about to boil over. "So, okay. You guys talked, he passed out and then you took care of his injury. Then what?"

"When T.K. woke up…" Ken exhaled, trying to collect his thoughts. "When he woke up, we talked for a while. He wouldn't give me any answers and started…"

"He had some really spiteful things to say and basically told us to go fly a kite."

Matt couldn't hold it in any longer. "So, basically he was just pissed at you two, for whatever reason, and instead of calling any one of us there, to get some real answers, you just let him walk away?"

Tai put his hand on Matt's shoulder. "Calm down, Matt."

Matt shoved Tai's hand off his shoulder, facing him. "Calm down?"

Davis yelled loudly, interrupting Matt. "When we told him we were going to take him back with us, he threatened us with a fight."

Matt's heart sunk. He remembered the day he had made Gabumon battle against his friends clearly, and the lasting scars it left on his heart. "Did you fight?"

Ken shook his head. "We considered what the outcome would most likely be, and decided that the chances of succeeding were not worth the potential harm it would inflict, so we had no other choice but to let him go."

Matt glared at the floor. "If I had been there…"

Ken looked at Matt helplessly. "There's two other things, I think are worth mentioning." Everyone's gaze rested back on Ken. "He said, 'I just don't want anyone to get hurt because of me' and when I asked what he meant by that, he wouldn't answer me." Ken looked down at the floor. "He also said it he only got hurt last night, because you guys went after him."

Matt grunted and turned, walking out onto the balcony without a word.

Sora looked like she wanted to go after him but she decided to let him work through his thoughts alone for now. "Tai, what do you think is going on?" she looked up to see Tai was also watching Matt, a pained expression on his face.

"I don't know, Sora. But unless T.K. decides to fill us in or we somehow get some new information, all we can do is speculate." Tai turned to look at his sister. "I just hope that we figure it out soon."

Kari watched Ken as he sat down on the sofa, burying his face in his hands, Yolie sitting next to him, her hand on his shoulder. She looked at Davis and quietly asked. "You said T.K. was saying spiteful things?"

Davis shrugged. "Ken believes T.K. said those things with the intention of pushing us away."

"But he looks so upset." She said sadly.

Davis looked over at Ken. "Ken probably won't admit it, but, T.K.'s words hurt him. Doesn't matter why you say something cruel, it's still cruel."

Kari look at him sadly. "Davis…"

Davis nodded. "I'm sorry I broke my promise. But at least I was able to take some medical supplies with us this morning. If anything, it might help T.K.'s injury heal a little better. He really has you to thank for that, since I only thought to bring it because of what you said before I left."

"Ken said it's bad. How bad exactly?" Kari's eyes gleamed with the threat of tears.

Davis wanted to say it'd be fine, not to worry. But he swore he'd never lie to her again after last night. "The cut on his arm went deep enough to slice into his muscle. He really needs to have it stitched up at the very least. But he could be left with permanent damage to his dominate arm."

Kari wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, trying to compose herself. "Does he know that it's that bad?"

Davis nodded. "He probably knew before we showed up, but Ken told him anyway." He knew this was hard, but he had to answer all her questions.

She nodded slowly. "What did he say to you?"

Davis hesitated. "Mostly accusing me of not actually caring what happens to him. That I never considered him a friend because of my jealously." He hated to say the words out loud, it sounded much more reasonable than he wanted.

"Not too farfetched." She smiled lightly at him, teasing. "But he can't really believe that."

Davis closed his eyes. "I don't know. Maybe? But maybe Ken's right, maybe he was just trying to think of anything he could to piss me off."

Matt's raised voice startled everyone as they looked out at the balcony, Matt's phone to his ear, him yelling loudly. "You can't just run off without some kind of explanation!"

#

Matt walked out onto the balcony, letting the hot afternoon air wash over his body. He took several deep breaths, trying to calm his anxiety. "What the hell is happening, T.K.?" He stared out over the city, trying to come up with some logical reason that would justify his little brother's actions.

He leaned his elbows against the railing and pressed his clasped hands against his forehead. "T.K."

Suddenly his phone started vibrating in his pocket. He let out an exasperated groan and pulled his phone out to look at it, certain it was another one of his agents or band members, as they'd been blowing his phone up since dawn.

He froze, staring in disbelief, T.K.'s name and picture on his screen. He straightened, for some reason hesitating to answer. He blinked and shook his head, hitting the answer button quickly. "T.K.?" Matt's voice cracked.

There was a long silence before T.K. finally spoke. "Hey, Matt."

Matt let out a sigh of relief, heading for the door to go back inside. "It's really you. I'm not just imagining this, right?"

T.K. didn't respond.

"T.K.?" Matt frowned, letting the door handle go. "Are you alright?"

T.K.'s voice was cold. "I just wanted to straighten some things out. Before they get any more out of hand."

Matt turned back around. "Are you going to tell me what all this is about?"

T.K.'s voice was almost void of emotion. "I left you that note as a curtesy, not for you to put together a man hunt."

"Excuse me?" Matt snapped.

"What part of, 'I'm okay. I'll be back before school starts.', was hard to follow?"

Matt could hardly speak over the shock of T.K.'s attitude. "Hold on. Were you really expecting me to just accept that and go along my merry way?" Matt couldn't stop the laugh that escaped his lips. "You can't just run off without some kind of explanation!"

T.K. went silent again.

"Are we really doing this over the phone, T.K.?"

"Matt?" Tai spoke from the doorway, slipping out and closing the door behind him quietly.

Matt ignored Tai, inhaling slowly, running his hands through his hair with frustration. "You're not stupid. You knew I'd go looking for you."

"I considered the possibility. But I wondered where it'd fall on your priority list." T.K.'s snide response was thick with animosity.

"What do you mean, priority list? You're always one of my top priorities!" Matt cursed loudly, fighting the urge to keep yelling.

"Listen," T.K.'s voice calmed. "I'm sure that this has been a big inconvenience for you. You should get back to your studio and maybe do a makeup dinner for Sora."

"Make up dinner?" Matt asked.

"Well, coming after me last night ruined your plans, right?" T.K. reminded. "I mean, is it my fault for thinking you wouldn't even find the note for a few days? You were supposed to meet Sora after practice. I had no reason to suspect you would be on my heels."

Matt shook his head. "Okay, T.K., that's not fair. You were the one always telling me to go out and not to worry…" his voice trailed off.

Tai gave Matt a questioning look, but he couldn't focus on him right now.

"Ah, right, there is it. Did it finally click?" T.K. made a clicking sound. "Look, I'm not mad. You have your own life."

"Hold on—" Matt tried to argue.

T.K. continued, not allowing Matt the opportunity to respond. "But could you just do me one favor? Let me have mine."

Matt snapped. "What the hell is wrong with you—?"

"Matt!" Tai hissed, grabbing Matt's wrist, ripping the phone away from his ear, looking down at the screen.

"Back off!" Matt tried to pull the phone back, but Tai's grip was too strong. He reached down and tapped the speaker phone icon, refusing to release his arm.

T.K.'s voice came over the speaker. "I don't really understand what the problem is. I thought you'd actually be relieved to have me out of your hair for the summer. Instead you caused all this."

Matt closed his eyes angrily, taking in a deep breath. "I'm done playing games, T.K. You had your fun, you riled me up. Now, just tell me where the hell you are and I'll come get you."

"Listen, I'm not coming home." T.K. said matter of fact.

"You're hurt. Badly." Matt argued angrily. "I'm not taking no for an answer. You either come back right now or I'll come and drag you home myself."

"Did Ken not mention that this only happened because you guys showed up?" T.K. scoffed.

"You act like I knew that would happen." Matt replied defensively. "Maybe you should have told me what was going on before you ran away from home!"

"I don't really considering it running away from home. I haven't had a real one of those since, what, three?"

Tai shook his head, muting the phone so T.K. couldn't hear. "Listen to him. He's obviously digging for a way to hurt you. Don't let him." He unmuted the phone quickly.

Matt stared at Tai helplessly. "I'm sorry you felt that way. I didn't know."

Tai gave Matt an encouraging nod.

T.K. hesitated. "Yeah, well its kind of difficult to know how someone feels if you've never bothered ask them."

Matt's expression faded from anger to guilt. "T.K., I want you to listen to me, and I mean really listen." He paused. "Whatever is happening with you right now, if it has you so scared you can't trust me or any of your friends, I'll die before I let you face it alone."

"It's a great sentiment, really." T.K.'s sarcastic reply made Matt's heart sink. "But, where were you up until now? I mean, I've had to face pretty much everything else alone. What makes this time any different?"

"I have always tried to be there for you, T.K." Matt clenched his jaw.

"The times where you didn't have a choice, don't count." T.K.'s tone hardened. "You've always resented me, Matt. You've always known I was the reason our parents got divorced. I split our family apart."

"Wait, what?" Matt's head spun. "T.K., who told you that?"

"What? About the divorce or you hating me?" T.K. asked lightly.

Matt pulled his phone back to his ear, taking it off of speaker. "Don't ever say that. I don't hate you, and I never did."

"Hey, don't get so defensive. Once I found out, it was easy to understand why you treated me like nothing but an annoyance growing up. I was the reason our dad…" he stopped, correcting himself. "Your dad divorced our mom, ripping your family apart." T.K. stopped, letting the words sink in before continuing. "At least it's out in the open now, we can both stop pretending we care about each other and just move on with our own lives." T.K. put an emphasis on the last words.

Matt opened his mouth to say something, anything. "T.K., I…" the phone beeped, indicating T.K. had hung up. Matt pulled the phone down and stared at the call ended screen. "No, no, no, no." Matt started to panic. "T.K.?" he clicked on his name, trying to call him back. Voicemail.

Tai saw Matt panic before, but never like this. "Matt?"

Matt shook his head and dialed it again. Voicemail. "When did he find out?"

"Was it true?" Tai looked at him skeptically.

"About me hating him? No!" Matt scowled. He inhaled deeply, trying to clear his thoughts. "But, about the divorce, yes. It's a long story." Matt buried his face in his hands. "I'm such an idiot."

Tai grabbed Matt by the arm, making him look him look at him. "Breathe."

Matt's eyes were full of fear, tears threatening to run down his face. "I thought…" Matt choked on his words. "If he thinks that I…what if he really thinks that?"

Tai shook his head. "Listen to me, Matt. This isn't black and white. It's painfully obvious something's wrong."

Matt's expression grew more concerned. "We have to go after him."

Tai tried to stop Matt from running inside. "Wait, let's talk this out."

Matt swung the door open, ignoring that everyone had been, and was stills staring at him. "I'm going back, someone open the gate."

Tai walked in slowly. "I think we should all sit down and talk for a minute."

"I'm going, now." Matt growled.

"Don't open that gate." Tai demanded.

Izzy looked back and forth between them. "Don't put me in the middle of this!"

"Just listen." Tai begged, coming up behind Matt.

Sora grabbed Matt's arm gently. "Can you at least tell us what happened first?"

Matt looked at the floor in defeat. He tried to recall everything, summarizing the conversation as best he could until he reached the last part.

"Is there anything else?" Ken asked, seeing Matt hesitate and Tai staring at him sympathetically. "There's more, isn't there? What else did he say?"

Matt couldn't bring himself to repeat what T.K. had said. "He…"

Tai took over, making Matt's chest tighten. "I don't know the details behind it, but T.K. brought up something about their family that Matt didn't know T.K. was aware of." He hesitated. "He said that Matt has always resented him for it." Quickly inserting before curious questions starting rolling in. "Which Matt obviously doesn't."

Kari looked at Tai, confused. "He was just doing the same thing that he did to Davis and Ken."

Tai hesitated. "I've been trying to sort through everything I've been hearing, trying to wrap my brain around some kind of actual coherent explanation."

"And?" Matt snapped.

Tai ignored him, knowing he was not in the right state of mind. "The less likely scenario is, T.K. really thinks everything he's saying is true."

"But how can he think that?" Matt looked up at Tai exasperatedly.

Tai looked at Matt sadly. "I think we can all agree T.K. has always been pretty easy going most of his life. I've always admired how good he was at letting things slide off his back." Tai paused, looking for the right word. "It's easy to forget how our words and actions can come across to someone, especially if they never express that it's hurting them. And well, we can't control how he interpreted our words or actions."

Kari looked down sadly. "So, T.K. meant what he said?"

Tai hesitated at the sadness in Kari's eyes, looking around he continued. "No. I don't think he did. In fact, I think that Ken is 100% correct in assuming this is all some elaborate way to push us away."

Matt groaned loudly. "So why are we sitting here, playing this damn game?"

"I think that we all need to stop and really think this through. There are two options. Option A) We get everyone together and scour the digital world until we find him, force him to tell us what's going on and face the real repercussions of showing we have absolutely no trust in him or the adult decisions he has made."

"He's not even 18 yet!" Matt hissed.

"Bullshit, Matt. That kid was forced to grow up a long time ago. He's more an adult at 17 than any of us were when we were going into college. Hell, he's probably more an adult than any of us are today."

"He's not showing that right now!" Matt retorted.

"Maybe he is showing it!" Tai yelled over Matt. "Maybe you can't see it because you're acting like a child!"

Sora grabbed Matt's face, making him look at her. His scowl fading when he saw the tears in her eyes. "I think, Tai's right."

He shifted his eyes away from her, fighting back his own tears. "But…"

Ken took the moment of silence to continue the conversation. "Tai, what's our other option?"

Tai exhaled slowly, reluctantly looking away from Matt. "Option B) we take all the facts into consideration. T.K. is involved in something dangerous in the digital world. He's worried that we're going to get hurt because of him. He's going as far as to try to destroy all his relationships to keep us away. And he got hurt because we chased after him." He saw everyone waiting for him to finish. "T.K.'s trying to protect us at a very high cost, and I don't just mean by risking his life. He's risking what I can imagine is the most important thing in his life—his friends."

Matt had his face toward the floor, away from the group, his shoulders shaking subtle, Sora standing protectively close. "What exactly…" Matt's teeth were clenched tightly. "…are you saying we should do?"

Tai hesitated, swallowing down the lump in his throat. "We stop chasing after him."

Matt shifted, looking up at Tai disappointedly. "Damn it, Tai." He shook his head slowly. "You had to say it, didn't you?"

"If I thought that going after him alone would only risk my life, I'd drop everything and go." Tai's voice grew quiet. "But I would never put T.K.'s life at a greater risk if I had another option."

"So that's it? We just let T.K. deal with whatever this is, all alone?" Davis shouted angrily.

Tai looked at Davis helplessly. "I can't force any of you to see this from my perspective or to follow my advice. But, if you put yourself in T.K.'s position, desperate enough to do what he's doing right now, all alone. How much harder do you think an already painfully difficult job would become if he was not just fighting his enemy, but also his friends?"

After a few moments of silence Izzy cleared his throat lightly. "I had mentioned this to Tai, Matt and Sora last night. But I do feel like its important information for everyone to have, and I'd like to elaborate a little more."