A/N: Now comes the part where canon basically goes out the window. Hence why this chapter took longer than intended.

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It had been nearly two months since Ken Ichijouji, the boy genius of Tamachi, had gone missing. After all this time, the only lead the police had was the note he had left on his computer, implying he'd run away. There had been no sightings of him, and his fans were all fearing the worst.

A local TV station opted to interview his parents, not for the first time. They were both clinging to each other as they stood before the camera, visibly weary from weeks of fear and uncertainty.

"If anyone has seen our son… please, please tell us. Anything you know," said his father. "We're so worried. He's everything to us."

"Ken, sweetie… if you're watching this… please come home," said his mother. "We love you. And we miss you."

––

"Shouldn't we tell them?" said Yolei. "I mean… shouldn't we at least let them know he's alive?"

TK, Kari, Yolei and Cody were all sitting around in the computer lab, along with their Digimon. Yolei was sitting backwards in her chair, arms draped over the back, looking timidly at the others as she ventured to speak.

All of them had watched the interview on TV the previous night, and now they found themselves facing yet another moral dilemma. Ken's parents had done nothing to deserve this pain. Wasn't it the responsibility of the Digidestined to tell them where their son had run off to?

"I don't think there's a good answer to that," said TK. "We don't want them to worry, but… we can't just tell them he's all right without telling them where he's been all this time."

Yolei puffed out her cheeks. "Okay, so, let's just tell them then! Don't they have the right to know?"

"They would never believe us, Yolei." Cody was seated with his eyes closed and arms folded, quiet and composed. "They would say we're making things up. They might even accuse us of mocking them over their loss."

Yolei jumped out of her chair and balled her fists. "What?! Ken's the only one who would do something that rotten!"

The two of them likely would have gotten into yet another argument if Davis hadn't come running into the room at that very moment. "Hey guys! Sorry I'm late. I had to stay after class and clap erasers… I think every teacher in this school has it out for me."

"It's fine, Davis. Here, come have a look at this," said TK. He got out of his chair and let Davis sit down in his place. Davis looked at the computer screen and saw a new black square had just popped up on the map of the Digital World… far away from all of the other ones.

"Why did Ken… take over this spot?" he asked, leaning forward and squinting his eyes at the screen. "This is nowhere near the rest of the places he conquered."

"We were just discussing that. We're pretty sure he's up to something," said TK. "He's probably trying to lure us into a trap, like with the Dobermon."

Davis pushed out his chair. "Well, who cares? We can't just ignore this, can we?" he said. "There's Digimon in that town who need our help. We have to go save them!"

"We're not going to save anyone if we go marching headlong into a trap, Davis," Cody said impatiently.

"Oh, come on. You guys gotta toughen up! As long as Bearmon and his friends are with us, we'll be fine."

"We might as well go and look the place over," Kari said mildly. "If it looks like too much for us to handle, we'll back out."

Everyone glanced around at each other, and no one seemed to have any objections to this idea, because none of them spoke up.

Kari put on a smile. "There now. That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Hmph. Maybe Kari should be our leader," said Yolei.

––

As the Digidestined arrived at their destination, they saw that it was a town situated on the shore of a large lake.

It certainly had the look of a port town. There were a lot of boats floating in the harbor – on a better day, Digimon would be sitting in them and pulling up nets full of fish. The streets were lined with warehouses, probably filled with more boats and nets and other fishing supplies. The scenery of the place was quite beautiful; there were green mountains in the background standing protectively over the town. The lake was large enough that they couldn't see to the opposite shore, and the water sparkled in the sunlight.

But the Control Spire looming in the distance sort of ruined the mood.

That, and also the hundreds of the Emperor's slaves who had seemingly taken over everything. Even from where they were standing high above the town and looking down on it, the Digidestined could clearly see them patrolling the streets, leading groups of captured townsfolk away.

It was a good thing Bearmon's group had joined them, because they would clearly need all the help they could get.

Wormmon was there too, standing at the front of their large group so he could actually see – it was difficult always being so low to the ground. He wasn't enjoying the view, though. He ached as he saw the horrors being inflicted by his partner on all these poor innocent Digimon.

Why couldn't Ken just be friends with the Digimon? Why did he have to cause them all so much pain?

"This is the place, huh?" TK said as they all looked down at the town. But he seemed unusually fixated on it. A few of the others noticed him staring out at the lake, as though wracking his brain for some memory.

"That's weird," he said, looking around slowly. "This place feels… familiar. I think I've been here before. But when…?"

The others did nothing but silently exchange looks with each other. Clearly nobody knew what he was talking about.

"…Well, if this is a trap just for us, Ken is certainly putting a lot of work into it," said Kari, deciding to change the subject.

"This ain't no trap. He's serious about conquering this town," Bearmon growled, folding his arms. "But why here? There's nothin' important for miles around here."

"As far as we know," Cody said softly. "He probably knows something that we don't."

Wormmon didn't dare speak up, but Cody was right. In fact, he knew exactly what Ken was looking for in this town. He'd told Wormmon himself the previous night.

He'd been at his computer, like usual. He appeared to be running some kind of search… a very big search, since he'd had a map of the entire Digital World on his screen.

"Ken? Are you… looking for something?" Wormmon had asked.

"Not something… someone," Ken had said without turning to look at him. "Those Dark Masters that those kids mentioned… they sound like quite powerful Digimon. Just powerful enough for me, in fact." He grinned in anticipation. "I think I'll take one of them for my own."

Wormmon had been confused, to say the least. "But Ken… the Dark Masters are dead. The others said so."

"And that's where they're wrong," Ken had replied, as though it were just that simple. "If any of them possessed my genius intellect, they would know that." He typed in a few more commands, then sat back in triumph. "I've run an exhaustive scan of the entire Digital World, looking for any data signatures that matched the ones those kids described. And lo and behold."

He had pushed his chair out, revealing the bright red dot that was blinking in the middle of the map. "A perfect match."

He hadn't seemed to notice, or care, that the dot was centered in the middle of a lake.

Wormmon had been worrying over that conversation all day. One of the Dark Masters was still alive? After all this time? But what was it doing at the bottom of a lake? And… why hadn't it left? Maybe it was trapped down there… and Ken wanted to retrieve it? Wormmon couldn't let that happen!

He really ought to warn the others… but there was no way he could do that without coming off as suspicious.

He was pulled back into the present by Davis. "Geez, guys, it's like I said. What does it matter what Ken's trying to pull? Let's just free all those prisoners and take down that Control Spire! Whatever his plan is, we'll stop it before it starts!"

"Davis, we can't just go charging into town and announcing ourselves like that. We need to have a plan," said Kari, hooking her arm under his elbow before he could take off running. "There are too many of the Emperor's slaves for us to fight them all off at once. We'll probably have to – "

She was cut off as a loud beeping noise suddenly came from inside Yolei's pocket. Yolei gave a start and began rummaging around before pulling out her D3. The others all watched her as she stared at the screen.

"Guys, my D3 is going crazy," she said. "I… I think it's telling us there's a Digiegg nearby."

"Not just one," said TK as he watched over her shoulder. "That's an even stronger signal than last time, when we found the Digiegg of Friendship. I…" He looked stunned at his own words. "I think it must be two."

"Two Digieggs? In one place?" Davis exclaimed. "Does Ken know about this?"

"That must be it! That's why Ken's taken over this town!" Cody looked furious. "He's trying to get those Digieggs before we do!"

No, that wasn't it, thought Wormmon. Ken hadn't said anything about Digieggs… his computer couldn't detect their presence, apparently. Still, how strange was it that they would appear in the same place as the data Ken was looking for. That couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

"Right. Well that tears it! Now we really don't have any time to lose!" Davis pounded his fist into his palm. "Let's get down there and save the town, and beat the stuffing out of anyone who gets in our way!"

He noticed Kari raising an eyebrow at him, and he grinned sheepishly. "Uh, I mean… let's hang back here and think of a plan?" he said, rubbing the back of his head.

TK gave a nod. "Right. We need to decide who's going where. We need to find those Digieggs… but we also need to knock down that Control Spire. The town's not going to be saved until that happens."

"Yolei, Cody… I have a feeling those Digieggs belong to you," said Kari, turning to face the two neophytes. "After all, your last Digieggs were together too. You should be the ones to go into town and look for them. Will you… be all right handling that by yourselves?"

"They certainly will! After all, I will be there to protect Yolei," Hawkmon declared, making a grand gesture with his arm.

"I don't care how many slaves the Emperor's got, they won't stop me from protecting Cody!" Armadillomon agreed.

Yolei found herself growing flustered. "Ah… well… if Hawkmon says it's fine, then it's fine," she said, blushing a little bit.

"I think we oughta go with you guys. You're gonna be seriously outnumbered if you gotta fight off all of those slaves," said Bearmon, and the rebels gathered around him all nodded in agreement. "We can cause a distraction while you go look for them Digiegg things."

"That's a great idea," said TK. "Then Davis and Kari and I can go take care of that Control Spire. Kari and I have the most experience, and Veemon has two digivolutions. We… should be able to handle whatever Ken has guarding the place."

Unless it's something like Omnimon, was the thought that went unsaid among the entire group, but nobody came out and said it.

"Right, then. That's everyone," Cody said with a nod.

"Mmm… no, not everyone." Kari looked down at their one teammate who hadn't spoken up yet. "Wormmon? What do you want to do?"

Wormmon flinched as he felt everyone's eyes fall on him. He hated being the center of attention… especially now, when his paranoia was at an all-time high. He still expected one of the children to come forward any day now, any minute now, and accuse him of working with the Emperor.

"I…" Did it really matter what he chose? It was obvious by now that Ken no longer cared what he did.

"…I'm no good at fighting," he finally said. "I should go with Yolei and Cody. If they need someone to sneak around without being seen… I could help them with that."

Bearmon gave a chuckle. "Yeah… little ol' Wormmon doesn't draw a lotta attention to himself, does he?"

"All right. We've got our plan!" said Davis, balling his fists in determination. "Now let's get out there and make the Emperor wish he never messed with us!"

The children's partner Digimon, and most of the rebels, all cheered in agreement. The five Digidestined gave each other curt nods, and then they set off in different directions, preparing to put their plan into action.

And then the ground exploded.

At least that was what it looked like. There was a tremendous roar as an enormous Digimon came bursting out from underground, sending up a shower of dirt, uprooting several trees and sending them crashing to the ground.

Everyone screamed.

"We've been ambushed!" TK shouted.

Wormmon, who had been at the front of the line, had to scramble with all his might to climb out of the giant hole in the ground that had just opened up, barely managing to avoid falling to his doom. Then he spun around and stared up at the Digimon that was now towering over them. Its head was an enormous purple flower with a jagged mouth, and its body was a mass of long thorny vines… one of which had a Dark Spiral wrapped around it.

"Wha-what is that?" cried Yolei, clinging to Hawkmon as hard as she could.

"That's Blossomon… an Ultimate-level Digimon," Kari said gravely. "Ken can control them now too."

Everyone stood in silent panic as the Blossomon stood over them, wondering whether they should run or fight. Even if everyone Armor digivolved, it probably wouldn't be enough… the power discrepancy was too great. This Digimon could destroy them all in a moment.

But it only had its eyes on one of them.

It shot out two of its vines like arms, wrapping them around Veemon and pulling him in.

"Davis!" Veemon cried as he was dragged backwards. He tried to dig his fingers into the ground to slow himself down, but it wasn't enough. "Davis! Help me!"

The Blossomon pulled Veemon inside its mouth, cutting off the little Rookie's cries as it snapped its jaws shut. Before anyone could do a thing, it then burrowed back underground where it had come from, vanishing without a trace.

It all happened too quickly for Davis to react.

"Vee… Veemon?" It took him a moment to finally snap out of it. "Veemon!" He scrambled up to where the Blossomon had disappeared, but there was nothing but a wide empty hole. "Veemon! Where are you?!"

He started running around in a panic, frantically calling his partner's name over and over. Everyone else was still frozen in horror… especially Wormmon.

Why did Ken want to hurt Veemon? When was this all going to end? More and more, Wormmon's friends were falling to the Emperor's wrath, and it was all his fault… and even if he wanted to fight back, to protect them, he was too small and weak to do a thing.

After a moment, Kari slowly came walking up next to Davis. "Davis," she said unsurely, putting a hand on his shoulder. "If he… if he was eaten by Blossomon, then… he might be…"

Davis whipped around and glared at her. "No! Don't say it!" He cupped his hands over his mouth. "Veemon! Veemon! Can you hear me? You just gotta be like Boba Fett and fight your way out!"

Yolei stared at him. "What? That never happened in the movie."

"It happened in the expanded universe! You're just not a real fan!"

"Both of you, shut up!" TK shouted at them. "Davis! Your D-Terminal is going off."

"What?" Davis fumbled with his D-Terminal before flipping it open… and was shocked at what he saw.

"Hello there, Digifools! Surprised to see me?"

Davis's jaw fell open as he saw the Digimon Emperor's smug face grinning at him from his own screen. "You… you!" He gripped the D-Terminal in rage. "How are you doing this? This thing is mine!"

"Digimon Emperor! What did you do with Veemon?" Cody shouted at him.

The Emperor gave a dismissive laugh. "Oh, don't worry. Despite what you may think, I'm not interested in making him my slave. He's just here to answer a few questions." He seemed to lean back in whatever chair he was sitting in. "In fact, I've been on such a winning streak lately, I actually feel sorry for all of you. So… I'm giving you twenty-four hours to come and rescue him. If you can't make it by then… well, you've got no one to blame but yourself."

And then the screen went dark and the connection was lost. But Davis's D3 chose that moment to start acting up as well, and as Davis pulled it out and looked at it, he saw a bright red dot flashing on the screen. It looked almost like a tracking signal.

"Is that… Veemon?" he said, his voice wavering. "The Emperor's showing me where to find him?"

"Davis, I know what you're about to say. But you can't go after Veemon. Not right now," TK said firmly. "Don't you see what he's doing? He's trying to split us up!"

Davis shoved his D3 in his pocket and scowled at him. "Yeah, well, let him do it then! I'm not leaving Veemon!"

"Davis, you can't just think about yourself. You have to think about the entire group," said Cody. But Davis just glared at him too.

"I am thinking about the group! We can't even knock down the Control Spire without Veemon!" he shouted. "It's so easy for you guys to talk! Your partners aren't the ones in trouble! Well forget it! I'm going!"

"Davis, wait – " TK pulled a hand on his shoulder and tried to stop him from racing off – and then Davis spun around and threw it off, his eyes blazing.

"You think I'm gonna let the Emperor get his hands on Veemon for one second? After what he did to Agumon and Gabumon?"

TK immediately froze up.

Everyone else went silent as well. They had never seen Davis this serious before. He himself seemed to realize what a low blow his words had been, but he was too upset to care. Maybe Omnimon's death had hardened him as well.

TK finally squeezed his eyes shut and forced out a nod. "Okay. Fine… you're right. We have to save Veemon before the Emperor does anything. Just… be careful. And hurry up."

"I'll go with him. He's gonna need some backup," said Bearmon.

Gazimon did a double take. "What? But Bearmon! We need you! You're supposed to be leading us!"

Bearmon shook his head. "Ah, don't be silly. You guys'll be fine without me. You already know what to do. Just look after those human kids."

"Thanks, Bearmon. I really appreciate it," Davis said as the rebel leader walked over to him.

"Davis, please be careful," said Wormmon, eyes filled with anxiety. "Who knows what the Emperor is planning to do."

The truth was, even Wormmon didn't know this time. Though he suspected it had something to do with the memory he had shared with Ken. His stomach twisted up in guilt. But he wouldn't let it show on his face.

Davis gave a forced smile, then knelt down and patted Wormmon on the head. "Don't worry about a thing, Wormmon. I know Veemon's your friend. You'll see him again in no time."

Then he stood back up. "Okay… let's go." And he and Bearmon raced off.

"So what are the rest of us supposed to do?" Yolei demanded. "Just carry on like nothing happened?"

"We don't have a choice, Yolei. If we wait any longer, it might be too late to save those Digimon," said Kari.

"Right. Whatever Ken's planning, we have to put a stop to it while we still can…"

TK suddenly trailed off. He had been stealing glances down at the lake this whole time, like he couldn't take his eyes off it. And now, suddenly, his eyes went wide. He turned around fully, staring down at it.

"That's it. I remember now."

Patamon flapped over to him. "Umm, TK… are you feeling all right?"

"You remember too, don't you, Patamon?" he said, looking up at his partner. "We were here before. The seven of us." He didn't even notice everyone was staring at him now. "But we were on the other side of the lake. I never even knew there was a town here."

He furrowed his brow. "I don't think Ken cares about this town at all. I think he cares about what's underwater."

"…TK, what are you talking about?" Kari asked.

"Yeah, why would he care about what's underwater?" said Yolei.

TK turned to face the others. "Because that's where Gennai lives."