Tarini gazed at the crest on her digivice. "Wonder why this is on my digivice?" With a shrug, she clipped her digivice to her waist.
The original Digidestined gathered in one clump. "If we make it through this," Allison suggested, "I think we should have a celebratory party."
"Thinking that far ahead," Tai asked wryly. Allison nodded.
"Right now, can we please get back to the present," Izzy asked.
"Sure."
"It appears that Tarini is the bearer of the Crest of Hope for her group." TK held his crest in his hand. "But what I want to know is do we need to pass our crests to them."
Izzy looked over at him. "I don't think we do. After all, the crest is on her digivice." TK nodded thoughtfully.
"Now that that's settled," Matt said, "what do we do now?"
"It's getting dark," Joe said. "Why don't we set up a watch and get some sleep?"
"Sounds good," Mimi said. "So who's the watch when?"
"Tai and I first, then Izzy and Allison, then TK and Kari," Sora suggested.
"Sounds good to me," Kari said. The others agreed.
"Then it's settled," Tai said.
"What's settled?" They all looked over to see Sarran, her arms crossed over her chest as she demanded the information from them.
"Watches for tonight," Kari said quietly.
"You settled that without us," Jihan asked accusingly. The other new Digidestined walked over. "How dare you!"
"Calm down," Joe said. "We have good reasons for not including you in the watches."
"Really? Then why don't you fill us in?"
Joe was speechless for a moment, but Allison smoothly filled in the silence. "You will need your strength to help your Digimon digivolve. Our Digimon can digivolve more easily than yours. That's an undeniable fact, proven because, except in Bordemon's case, your Digimon have only digivolved with the stars. They will need your energy to digivolve. Thus, you have to rest, if not sleep."
"Besides," Tai said, "you saw how ineffective Stabordemon was against the Digimon of a Dark Digidestined. Our Digimon can provide enough defense.
"He's got a point, Jihan," Vari whispered.
Jihan was silent, but fury was etched on her face. As the new Digidestined walked away, Allison looked worriedly after them. "Did we just split them?"
"Maybe we did, but I don't think we can tell yet," Matt said. Then they settled in for their watches.
Ross opened the message he had received from Michael. "Capture the Digidestined of Hope?" He must mean the older one, the bigger threat. So how will I manage that?"
Vulepmon looked up at him. "What about Miamon? He can get him for you, right?"
Ross considered this for a moment. "No, we're going to get him ourselves."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!" Vulpemon cringed. "You, as Vulesmon, have the power we need to catch that Digidestined!"
TK gazed outwards. His blue eues started to close, but he fought to stay awake. Patamon was asleep at his side.
Suddenly the Dark Digidestined they'd encountered before showed up. Vulesmon walked over to TK. "Lights out, Digidestined." As he reached toward TK, TK's eyes widened.
"Patamon! Kari! Someone! Help!" Vulesmon touched TK's forehead.
"Nighmare Snare!"
Kari turned just in time to see a black thing shoot from Vulesmon's paw to TK. She didn't have time to react when Vulesmon picked him up. The Dark Digidestined smiled cockily at her. Then he and his Digimon walked away.
"No!"
The next morning, Kari refused to speak to anyone. All she had said was, "TK was captured last night."
Patamon, too, was quiet. He apparently took the kidnapping of his partner hard.
Jihan got frustrated with their downcast attitude. "We can't just sit around here, moping. We have to take action. We've got to rescue TK!"
Patamon looked at her. "Yeah. Let's do it!"
"Wait a minute," Joe said. "We don't know where he is. So how do you plan to rescue him?"
"We'll find where that Dark Digidestined is," Sarran said. She looked over at Izzy. "And I know you can help, Izzy."
Izzy opened his laptop. "Alright, I'll help." He worked for a while as the others watched. "Got it!"
"So where is he?"
Izzy stood up after he closed his laptop. As he pointed, he said, "That way."
"Let's go," Patamon said.
TK curled up as he continued to see only the nightmare Vulesmon had given him. Ross laughed at his torment. "Funny how it's an adult that's caught in this fear, in this despair." Vulpemon didn't respond.
The Digidestined made their way up to the fortress. Its black walls were intimidating. The flag flying above it was black with a yellow cloud raining. "Could that be his crest," Msaada asked, pointing to the flag. No one answered her.
"So we have to get in there?" Izzy nodded.
"How'd he build this place so fast," Vari asked. "It's only been a week since we learned the Dark Digidestined even existed."
"It doesn't matter," Sarran snapped. "Now how do we get inside this fortress?"
Izzy frowned. "I don't know."
Michael read the message that Ross had sent him. An evil smile spread across his face. "So he's sent the First Digidestined of Hope into a nightmare. Perfect."
Pilofmon looked up at him. "But what about the Second Digidestined of Hope?"
Michael looked at him suddenly, startled by his question.
"Well?"
"You've got a point," he said slowly.
TK's nightmare continued even as Ross watched. Vulpemon ran up. "The Digidestined are outside."
"What!"
"It's true."
Ross looked at him. "Let them enter my maze. They'll never make it out of there."
"Of course."
Will the Digidestined make through Ross' maze? What will happen to TK and will they be able to break the nightmare's hold on him? Tune in next time to find out.
