By: 7 of 11
Chapter One

Wind howled through the forest, uprooting trees that were not strong enough to bear its force, and bending those that could. Rain pelted the ground turning the dirt into soggy mud. Lightning occasionally flashed in the sky, illuminating several large mountains in the distance.

At the foot of one of these mountains, a cave mouth yawned open. Seated well away from the rainwater pooling at the entrance, a young boy watched the storm rage outside of his shelter. His ears, which had been improved over several years of living in the wild, strained to hear above the tumult of the storm.

He stood, as a leathery flapping gradually became audible. The sound was followed moments later by a winged lizard. It was roughly as long as the boy was tall, and its body, though deceptively slender, was clearly well muscled under the skin. The lizard's bright emerald eyes sparkled with intelligence and cunning. A mouth arrayed with razor sharp teeth and a long, whiplike tail made it very clear that if you valued your head it was best not to annoy this creature.

The lizard shook droplets of water from its wings. It turned its lithe head to the boy, who had been standing there quite patiently. The lizard spoke, in a voice that sounded perpetually melancholy and depressed. "Jake…there are more."

The boy called Jake looked puzzled. "More? Zegimon, what do you mean there are more? More what?"

Zegimon blinked slowly. "More like you…more humans. I saw them over on the other side of the mountain, trying to climb it. If this storm lets up, I estimate they will be near here by tomorrow."

Jake brushed his long, unruly, light brown hair out of his eyes and unconsciously brought his hands to the tag, which hung on a chain around his neck. "You mean there are more…people? From my world? Are they adults or kids?" he asked, a tinge of excitement in his voice although he was clearly trying to hide it.

"They are small like yourself."

Jake didn't bother to conceal his excitement anymore. "I don't believe it! More kids! I…I…" he sat down. "I haven't talked to anyone except you Zegimon-don't get me wrong you're great to talk to but I would like more people to have conversations with-for the four years I've been in the Digiworld!" He frowned and looked out into the storm. "But still, it's hard to imagine someone willingly being out in this storm."

However, there WAS someone willingly out in the storm. Eight someones, in fact. Although not all of them were out there willingly.

"I swear, we're all going to catch pneumonia and die." Joe muttered. "Won't that be fun. Why can't we just stop under some cover and rest? Because if we don't die from pneumonia, exhaustion's gonna get us. And my glasses are fogging up." He took off his thick glasses and rubbed them with his shirt to try and clear them up, but since his shirt was wet it really made the problem only worse. Grumbling, he put them back on.

"Oh, just stop whining Joe," Tai looked over his shoulder at the straggler. "We're almost at the top, and look, the storm's beginning to lighten up!"

"Wonderful. Then we have coming down to worry about. And aren't we lucky that its not a constant sheet of rain, now its just a downpour."

"If you shut up and stop complaining, it won't seem that bad." said Sora, who was near the top of the procession. "Look, even T.K. and Kari are complaining less than you." She motioned to the two youngest of the group, who were climbing, albeit slowly over a large rock outcropping, helped by Matt, Palmon and surprisingly Mimi, who hadn't complained even once, which was even more surprising.

"Yeah, come on, Joe, its not that bad." Piped up the ever-cheerful Gomamon. "Just keep on putting one paw in front of the other and its fine."

Joe grumbled some more, but he fell quiet after a time. He protested once when Biyomon perched on his head to rest so he couldn't see and he tripped over a rock and slid about thirty feet back down the mountain, but other than that, he was very good-natured… for him, that was.

"Well guys, we're at the top!" Tai gestured around him to illustrate his point, but as the summit was shrouded in a cloud, the effect was rather lost.

Agumon sat down on a rock next to Patamon to rest. "So now what do we do?"

Matt answered simply, "We go back down." He sprang to his feet. "We aren't accomplishing anything just by lying around here."

Palmon walked to the edge of the mountain and looked down. When she looked back up, she was obviously shaken. "And how exactly are you planning on doing that? I don't think you've taken a look." At this, the entire party looked over the edge and every single one of them that couldn't fly visibly paled. It was almost a completely vertical drop to the jagged rocks far below.

"I suppose if we had Biyomon, Tentomon, and Patamon digivolve, they could carry us down…" said Sora, but she didn't look too certain.

"Hey!" T.K. shouted. "Look, everyone! There's a path over there!" He pointed off to the side of the mountain, where there was indeed a twisting path to the base of the mountain.

"All right T.K!" Tai shouted, sprinting towards the path, most of the others following.

"Wait! Guys, who or what could have carved this path into solid rock? And why? Guys!!" The others didn't even slow down to listen to Joe's warnings. "I don't know why I try." Sighed Joe as he too took the path.

The crevice loomed before Izzy, stretching down farther than he could see. "Whoa," he said. "You wouldn't want to fall down here."

Mimi took off her large hat and ran a gloved hand through her hair. "So how do we get across? We can't jump across, that's for certain. And this time there's no trail carved in the rock."

The group thought, yet produced no solutions. Kari suddenly felt a prick on her leg, and looked down to see what it was. Gatomon was looking behind them, poking Kari frantically with a sharp claw. "Ow! Cut that out, Gatomon!" But the catlike DigiMon kept on poking. "Stop that, Gatomon! We're trying to think about how to cross the canyon!"

A voice spoke up from behind the group, causing all of them to jump in unison. "It'd be a lot simpler if you took the bridge."

They turned to see a boy sitting on a rock behind them, with a dangerous-looking lizard DigiMon perched right next to him. The DigiMon's bright green eyes never wavered from the group, and its tail flicked several times. The boy had spiky, unkempt light brown hair, and mesmerizing gray eyes that reminded Kari strongly of the clouds they had encountered up on the peak. He was wearing a jungle green shirt loosely, and well-worn blue jeans. He was very good looking, she thought. And, Kari noticed, he was wearing a tag around his neck imbedded with a crest they hadn't seen or heard about before, and he had a Digivice on a chain that was clipped to a belt loop. Did this mean that he, too, was a Digidestined?

The boy cleared his throat. "I said, it'd be a lot simpler if you took the bridge over there." He pointed, and by reflex, Kari looked. Laid across the crevice was a fallen tree trunk, which none of them had noticed before.

Matt was the first to speak. "Who…who are you? Why do you have a crest and a Digivice? Are you a Digidestined? How did you get here?"

The boy held up his hands. "Whoa, whoa. One question at a time, please. First of all, I'm Jake, and this is Zegimon." The lizard bowed its head in greeting, yet its eyes never moved.

"I'm Tai."

"Sora."

"I'm Palmon, and this is Mimi."

"Matt here."

"Gabumon."

"I'm Agumon."

Kari spoke, her voice a bit flustered. "I'm Kari, this is Gatomon, that's T.K., and that's Patamon."

As the rest of the group introduced themselves, Jake stood up. "I have a crest and a Digivice. Because, like you, I am a Digidestined." Joe started to say something, but Jake cut him off. "I know, I know. You guys are the Digidestined, right? Well that's not right, exactly. I was the first human to ever come here, as far as I know." His eyes grew more misty than they were before. "I was transported here four years ago, and I've been living in the wild for all that time."

Mimi was incredulous. "Four years? When I first came, I got sick of the place in four MINUTES! How did you ever survive four years?"

"It wasn't easy," agreed Jake. "But it can be done." A drop of water fell on his head, and he looked up. "Looks like the storm is coming back again. I'm afraid the other questions will have to wait. If you'll follow me, I can take you to my home, and you guys can rest, wash up, and have a bite to eat. Best of all, its sheltered from the storm. Come on!" He walked across the tree trunk calmly. Kari, without really stopping to think, followed him. Of course, then Tai, her older brother, had to follow her. And everyone else was close behind.

Chapter Two

"So exactly how did you get here?" asked Sora, leaning back against the walls of the cave. "I mean, we all were transported here at the same time, and we were all together. It doesn't make any sense for one single Digidestined to be brought to the Digiworld."

Jake sighed and hunched closer to the flickering fire they had built. "I don't know," he said at last. "I went to bed one night, and I didn't notice anything irregular. I woke up in the middle of the night, and there was this Digivice-of course I didn't know what it was then, but I do know now-on my table. I picked it up and was transported here. Then I met Liquamon," he pointed to Zegimon, who was perched on a ledge near the cave's ceiling. "Who is Zegimon's deDigivolved form. I've been here ever since."

T.K. looked at Jake. "Don't you miss your family and friends? Aren't you lonely?"

Jake was silent for a long time. "Of course I miss them. I just…gave up on them, I guess. I doubt I'll ever be able to go home. And neither will you guys."

T.K. shook his head. "Nope, you're wrong! We've been back there!"

Tai spoke up. "I went back twice."

"Really? You've been back there? Tell me what happened! I haven't been back in so long!"

They launched into a long explanation of how they had followed Myotismon to the real world, and fought him in a series of bitter conflicts. Gatomon and Kari interjected when needed. "So I Digivolved into Angewomon and destroyed Myotismon with my Celestial Arrow attack," Gatomon said. "But he had killed my friend Wizardmon…" her eyes began to water. "And then he wasn't even defeated, but he Digivolved to Venom Myotismon. So Wizardmon died for nothing…" tears began to trickle down her face. "He died for absolutely nothing."

"That's not true, Gatomon!" reassured Biyomon. "Remember, he saved Angemon from Myotismon's Grizzly Wing attack! And he caused your love for him to make Kari's Digivice glow, which made DemiDevimon drop it! So he really saved us all."

"I hope so," sniffed Gatomon. "I still really miss him."

Kari put her hand on her DigiMon partner's head. "It's okay. We all really miss him. Just try and remember how he helped us by getting the real Crest of Light and everything else! If he hadn't been around, you probably would have never discovered you were the eighth DigiMon!" she pointed out.

A melancholy silence set in. It lasted for a long while before Jake decided to break it. He stood up and walked to the back of the cave, out of everyone's sight. He returned moments later holding something in his hands. "I hope you don't mind if I play this," he said, holding up a large harmonica. "But I've gotten kind of used to playing it late at night to keep from getting lonely."

Matt looked at him. "You play the harmonica too?" he inquired. "So do I." He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out his own instrument.

"Yeah!" cried Gomamon. "Let's jam!" Even the stony-faced Zegimon cracked a toothy lizard semi-smile at this.

Jake started into a steady blues rhythm, playing the bass line. After a few seconds of Matt not playing, he stopped. "Uh, feel free to join in at any time, Matt."

"I know that!" said Matt, an expression of annoyance on his face. "I was just trying to figure out when to come in! Now lets start again." Once again, Jake began the bass line. In several seconds, Matt joined in with a top part. The two of them played a wonderful duet, with several notable parts, including a solo by Jake which traveled all the way up his harmonica's range and back down again, and Matt's incredible improvisation ending. They stopped to a warm round of applause.

Jake smiled, but then it disappeared suddenly. However, no one noticed this. Except for Zegimon, whose bright emerald eyes were locked onto Jake's face. Jake heaved a sigh, which also went largely unnoticed.

As the fire died down, most of the others went to sleep. Jake remained awake, however. When he was sure everyone was slumbering soundly, he stood up. Narrowly missing stepping on Agumon's tail, he walked out of the cave. He climbed up to above the cave's mouth and hiked a ways up the mountainside to a grove of trees. Ignoring the dampness of the bark, he pulled his way up one of them.

Jake grabbed a stone out of his pocket and heaved it at a bunch of berries hanging farther along the branch. He missed, and sighed again.

Flaps echoed through the air. Startled, he rolled out of the tree and crouched down. "Who's there?"

"It's just me, Jake."

"Oh. Zegimon. I thought you were asleep." Said Jake, climbing back to his perch.

Zegimon ruffled his wings once. "I was, but you should know by now that I sleep very lightly. I heard someone walking, and I woke up. I saw it was you, so I followed." Zegimon looked at the berries hanging from the branch. "If you want to get those down, this method is simpler…LASER WHIP!" Zegimon's long tail glowed a bright crimson, then swung around releasing an arc of energy that cut through the berries' stem. The berries fell to the ground.

"That's great, but I really don't care."

Zegimon rested his large eyes on Jake's silhouetted form. "What's wrong?"

"The truth is, I don't know, Zegimon." He closed his eyes. "I haven't been around people in so long-four years! I'm not very comfortable with them. And look what they've been doing, going around saving the Digital world! I've been here for FOUR YEARS, Zegimon, and I have just been staying here doing the same things night after night. I don't know…I'm just not like them, I don't understand how or why."

The branch above Jake shook as Zegimon alighted upon it. "I heard them talking during your harmonica playing. It was…" he thought. "Sora, Gabumon, and Tai. They said that they would invite you to come with them on their journey."

Jake exhaled through clenched teeth. "Why am I not surprised? I don't know…I want human company again, but have I really been alone so long that I've overestimated it? They're all fine, but…and then there's the part of going up against the evil DigiMon. I don't have the guts to do that! That's why I just stay in the cave." He reached his hand to his neck and removed the crest. "This is the Crest of Nobility. Hah! I don't deserve this…I don't deserve any of this!" He flung the crest as hard as he can into the night. Zegimon flew after it, and returned a few minutes later with it held in his claw.

He dropped it into Jake's hand. "You never know, Jake." He said, his eyes sympathetic. "Believe me, you never know." The two of that stayed like that for a long time into the night.

"What do you mean you aren't coming with us? Are you crazy?" shouted Tai. "Come on, I mean, you'd be a valuable addition to the group and all. Plus, you can…uh…you can…play the harmonica well! That's something!"

Jake stood there impassive. "I'm sorry. I just don't feel up to the task of traveling all over the Digiworld. Again, I'm sorry but my mind is made up, and you can't change it."

"But…but…" sputtered Tai.

Sora put a hand on Tai's shoulder. "Calm down, Tai. He doesn't have to go with us if he doesn't want to."

Tai was still mad, but he managed to rein in his emotions for the moment. Patamon spoke up from where he was hovering beside T.K.'s head. "We will miss you, though."

Jake cracked a small smile. "I'll miss you guys too, but I just feel that I belong here. Maybe we'll meet again." His words were hopeful, but the tone of his voice suggested he felt otherwise. Everyone else looked the same way.

"Well…I guess this is goodbye." Murmured Palmon.

Jake nodded. "I guess so…well…goodbye."

As the Digidestined turned and walked off, Jake cleared his throat, causing all of them to turn back. "Yes?" Asked Izzy.

"A piece of advice." Jake pointed to up along the craggy mountain range. "That way, although longer and more rough, is the route I would recommend. Do NOT go through the lowlands."

"And why not?" Kari said. "It looks fine to us."

Zegimon took to the sky and circled over the group, finally coming down to perch over the cave entrance. "I can't say from experience, but we've heard…things…coming from over there. Some say that the land over there is Devimon's territory."

Tai laughed. "Don't you remember? We defeated Devimon! Nothing that he had can hurt us as long as we're a team! Right?"

"Don't be too sure of that, Tai. Remember this warning." Admonished Jake. However, Tai had already turned to leave, as had most of the other Digidestined.

Joe turned to him, a knowing look on his face. "Now you know how I feel all the time."

Chapter Three

"I still don't know why we couldn't have listened to Jake." Remarked Biyomon as she flew along besides Sora. "So what if it was a bit longer? He said it was safer, and he has been here for four years! So he probably knows what he's talking about."

"That's easy for you to say, Biyomon! You can fly! And besides, we haven't seen any thing to worry about and we've been walking for almost two hours! It's safe!" Retorted Gomamon.

Mimi sat down abruptly. "My feet are killing me! Can't we rest for a few minutes?" The others blearily spoke up in agreement.

"Well, this looks as good a place to stop as any," said Matt, looking around the area. "It's open, but there's shelter nearby if we need it, see that grove over there? Also, the river nearby will give us the water we need. In fact, I think that we should camp here for the night. It looks like it starts to head uphill into the mountains and I doubt we'll get much farther when we start the climb."

"Matt's right." Izzy said, lying down. "We won't make it to any good sites for camping in the mountains, and if we did find one, the odds of severe weather changes are much more significant at higher altitudes."

T.K. looked confused. "So what does that mean?"

"It means that it'll rain, T.K." Sora sat down and leaned her back against a tree trunk.

"Ohhhh."

Izzy sat upright. "We'll need to make a fire, but all the wood around here is supersaturated with water from the river. Who wants to go look for firewood?"

"I'll go." Volunteered Kari.

"If Kari's going, I'll go too!" T.K. stood up.

Sora shrugged. "Someone's got to keep an eye on those two. I'll go."

Gatomon, Patamon, and Biyomon all agreed to go with their partners as well.

They waited, but after no one else volunteered, the six of them turned and walked into the forest.

Jake paused from stirring the chili he was making for him and Zegimon. Something definitely didn't feel right. However, he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Jake?" asked Zegimon. "What is it, Jake?"

"I'm not sure, Zegimon…" Jake dropped the spoon and looked straight into Zegimon's eyes. "I really don't like this."

The ground shook. Then it shook again. And again. And again. The five remaining Digidestined were jolted from peaceful slumbers. Tai mumbled "Sora…" before fully awaking.

Tentomon looked at Tai strangely. "What did you just say?"

Tai's face started to turn a bright shade of magenta. "Oh, nothing, nothing at all."

"Really? Because I could have sworn you said S---mmphh!" Tentomon was cut off as Tai clasped his hands over the DigiMon's speaker/mouth thing.

Mimi interrupted them. "What in the world is that?"

A gigantic robot was walking beyond the mountains-it was so big, in fact, that its upper body could easily be seen over the peaks. It was the robot's footsteps that had woken them up.

"That's Cybermon. He's Andromon's Mega form! Usually, he's very docile, but he is extremely territorial, and may turn violent towards intruders. If he does decide he wants to destroy you, you had better watch out, since he's loaded for Bearmon. His Pulse Cannon will rip through a champion-stage DigiMon in seconds, and his Cluster Missile attack will knock any flying DigiMon out of the sky!" piped up Tentomon, as always, with the necessary information.

"Do you think that we're in his territory?" inquired Joe nervously. "Probably we'd better back off."

"Oh, don't worry Joe!" Agumon said. "If we were in his territory, he would have detected us by now, and we would definitely know it."

As if to punctuate Agumon's words, Cybermon began to turn around. However, he passed the group of Digidestined, and seemed to focus on a point a few hundred meters away, in the forest. Deep in the forest.

This suddenly dawned on Matt and Tai, who bolted upright in an instant.

"T.K.!" shouted Matt.

"Kari!" yelled Tai.

They looked at each other. "Sora!" they both shouted. Together, they took off at a dead run towards the wood-gathering group, the others following closely behind.

T.K. picked up another stick from the ground, adding to the accumulating pile of wood in his arms. Suddenly he heard the crackling of sticks. Someone was coming this way-fast. He turned, just in time to see Matt and Tai come crashing through the trees.

"T.K., Kari, Sora…we've got to get out of here! No time to explain! Come on!" panted Matt.

"What are you talking about, Matt?" Asked Sora.

"No time!! Come on you guys!" T.K. walked over to Matt, and Patamon followed.

"So what's this about?" T.K. looked up at his big brother.

Matt started to run. "Come on we need to get away!" T.K. was stunned but then followed, as did the others, still unsure of what was wrong.

A root caught Sora's foot, however, and she fell to the ground. "Sora!" cried Tai, and he turned back to her.

It was then that a hideous screeching filled the air, along with a bright blue light. Several explosions rocked the area of the forest where they had been moments earlier. Tai was hurled up in the air and flung into a tree. He slid to the ground in tremendous pain. He willed his eyes to open. Kari was a few feet away, virtually unharmed, luckily she had been huddling behind a rock when the attack came. T.K. and Matt were farther away, so they hadn't been affected as much. Even now, they were climbing to their feet. Of Sora-Tai looked to see her limp body in the center of the devastation. Fighting waves of nausea and pain, he struggled to stand up. He rushed to her side.

Sora was in bad shape. Blood was pooling all around her body and there was a growing crimson stain on her stomach. Burns covered much of her body. She didn't look like she would survive.

It was at that moment that the other Digidestined ran in. "Oh, my…" said Mimi, clapping her hands to her mouth as she saw Sora. The others simply couldn't speak.

Agumon was the first to spot the problem. "Uh guys? There's still the little thing about an insane robot." He pointed to where Cybermon was leveling his smoldering Pulse Cannon at them. "I think we have trouble!" And that was a definite understatement.

To Be Continued…