Chris nodded. "Whatever you say." He bent down carefully, coming close enough to the ground for her to hop off.

"Thanks." said Christo, well... hopping off.

Kamika giggled as she watched the pair. "Either of you wanna go find food??" She suggested.

"That's probably the right thing to do," Christo said, "Seeing as I don't think we've eaten much since yesterday."

Chris's stomach growled. "I'll agree to that. But why don't we all go together? That way it won't be just one person out there on his or her own."

Kamika shrugged and agreed. "Sure, that's fine with me."

"That would be the safest way," Christo said, "Seeing as Woodthingymon might still be running about. Hey Labramon," the last remark, obviously, was directed at her digimon, "We're going food-hunting! Come on!"

Chris nodded. "Yeah... I think Tekumon will be staying here, though." He looked over to where the 'mon was, and sweatdropped. "Doubt I could get him off of Foxmon, anyway..."

Christo sweatdropped, MAJORLY. "I don't think I want to know what they get up to," Labramon commented.

Kamika sweatdropped then giggled. "Puttimon!" She called for her own digimon. The small bear walked over. "We're going for food!" Puttimon just nodded and for some reason, stayed quiet. Kamika blinked but shrugged at her digimon's weird behavior. "Let's get going, shall we?"

"Alright," Christo grinned, "Let's go find us some food!"

"Yep!" Chris nodded, heading off into the forest.

Christo and Labramon followed.

Kamika grinned too. She followed behind the two.

Chris started looking around. The forest seemed kinda foreboding with the sun going down, and he couldn't see much. "You see anything worthwhile? I don't."

Kamika shook her head. "You'd THINK we'd find some food in here. . ."

"Nope," Christo said, "No fruit trees or anything."

"We could at least gather some firewood." suggested Labramon.

"I get the feeling that won't be difficult... but a good idea."

Kamika nodded. "It's better than going back empty handed."

"And you never know, we might see some food while we're at it." added Christo.

Chris nodded, and started gathering up some sticks.

Kamika helped him out, taking a few herself.

Christo gathered sticks as well--the dry ones, at least. Then she dropped them all again, laughing at Labramon, who was carrying sticks in her mouth. "Whoops." Christo sweatdropped. Labramon glared.

Kamika giggled slightly, shaking her head. Puttimon gathered a few sticks herself.

Christo busied herself, picking up all the sticks she had dropped. Labramon was picking up sticks in her mouth, and making a small pile on a previously stick-less part of floor.

Chris smiled quietly. "Quite a group we've got here..." He stood up with sticks in hand, and noticed that the woods were starting to get a bit foggy. "We better head back, guys. It's getting darker, and I'd hate to be lost out here."

Kamika nodded. She took Christo's hand and smiled at her. "Let's get going."

"OK." said Christo, slightly reluctantly, picking up her sticks AND Labramon's (she was rather annoyed about that) and heading back.

Chris nodded. "Right... so who knows the way back?"

Kamika face faulted. "You're kidding. . . ."

"Afraid not..."

"I think we came that way." Christo said, pointing.

"No, we came that way!" said Labramon, pointing the opposite way.

Kamika sighed. "This isn't good. . ."

"We're in deep schtick." Chris sighed and sat down heavily, dropping his sticks.

Hayamon smiled reassuringly at Fiona. "He'll be okay. We just used up a lot of energy in that battle..." The furry little brown Digimon laughed a bit. "And we didn't have that much in the first place!"

He yawned widely, and shuffled the final few paces towards his partner. "I'm kinda tired, too... please, make sure nothing bad happens to Thi, would you?" Hayamon's eyes drifted closed. "Thanks," he murmured, too tired to hear a response anyway.

Fiona nodded and smiled as the little Digimon went to sleep. She patted Isthian on the head and looked up towards the others. "Can anyone else explain to me what's going on?"

Sayu glanced at the darkening sky. Gizamon had long since fainted from exhaustion and overheating, and she carried him piggy-back style. Sighing, she knew she'd have to find somewhere to sleep. Spotting a hut that was randomly in the middle of the desert, she walked up curiously, and knocked on the door. Getting no answer, she grew frustrated and pounded on the door. Finally, annoyed beyond all belief, she simply opened the door. There were two strange digimon there, and they yelped, hiding quickly under a table.

"Please don't hurt us! We didn't know that that would upset Lord Metalseadramon so much!" The smaller one sobbed.

"Wha' da hell're ya talkin' 'bout?" Sayu demanded.

"Huh?" The two peeped out from under the table, and their jaws dropped. "A... A human?"

"Yes I'm h'man! I needa place t'stay t'night. C'n I stay here or not?" She grumbled, vexed. The two digimon nodded hastily.

"Sorry. I'm Scubamon, and this is Divermon." The smaller one said. "Come on, it's cooler downstairs, 'cause it's underground and there's this huge lake and all." Scubamon led Sayu (who still carried Giza) downstairs. Divermon started to follow behind, but he stopped, shock written all over his face.

"Gizamon?!" He gasped, incredulous. Sayu paused, and turned.

"Y'know 'im?" She asked, a bit surprised. Scubamon had stopped, and run back to see if the thing on the human's back was really Gizamon. Sayu placed the unconscious Digimon on the floor.

"Of course we know him! We thought the Digidestined had killed him or something, because Lord Metalseadramon had sent him out to spy on them. But, you're a Digidestined. What's he doing with you?" Divermon glanced at Sayu, who sighed and held up her digivice.

"He's m'Partner. DUH." She sighed. The two Digimon's jaws dropped.

"NO WAY! Gizamon, a Digidestined Partner?!" Scubamon gasped in astonishment. Sayu rolled her eyes, annoyed. Divermon, sensing this, changed the subject.

"Is he all right?" He asked, referring to Giza's unconsciousness. Sayu shrugged.

"Well, he was tired anyway when we started t'cross th' desert, an' I think he don't like heat too much." Sayu said, not too worried.

"Tired? Why?" Scubamon asked, blinking curiously. "Gizamon was never that tired when we knew him..."

"Yea, well, he couldn' digivolve when y'knew him, could he?" Sayu sneered, smirking at their disbelieving expressions.

"DIGIVOLVE?!?!"

"Yeah, yeah. Now, I'm tired, so d'you have a place where I c'n sleep f'r t'night?" Sayu cut in before either could say anything. They blinked, and nodded, embarrassed.

"We can talk in the morning?" Scubamon asked. Sayu shrugged.

"Sure, why not?"

Taira had watched quietly the battle over Tug-o-war. She kept thinking how childish it was. Then she thought how fun the idea was. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to see the whole result. Her mind had started to take control again. White light was flashing into her eyes blocking any view. The sounds she was hearing all at once turned to silence. "Foxmon...." She whispered. But she couldn't hear her digimon respond with a worried tone.

Suddenly the forest had returned. Everyone was missing though. No battles were being fought. This of course was only in her mind. Outside everyone was still carrying on with life. Teegs was on the ground. Her head was pounding and her mind was confused beyond hope. She was back. The real Taira Futeki was back.

All she could do was stand up and rub her forehead. Everyone had once again appeared, but Taira was suddenly frightened with fear. The past few hours have been a daze. The night sky had appeared above her, but last she remembered was morning and a brief flash of a fight between her and Kamika. This was all too much. She had to get away. Far enough away from all the confusion. She would think hard about what her mind had done. To compute all that was happening.

Teegs looked down to her hand and saw a coil ring around her left ring finger. Memories upon memories had started to flood into her mind. The dissipating Guardromon, Isthian...and her kissing... All of this was re-entering. She tore off screaming a long "Noooooooooo" into the forest till her voice was no longer heard from the others. Foxmon had de-digivolved from hunger and was now a small digimon. Cubimon had taken the large digimon's place and was now trailing after her partner. Cubimon had lost track of her and was more confused. Was she ever going to figure out her partner? The doubt of why she had been joined with this human started to wonder into question. Suddenly she felt a slight nudge. Averting her eyes in the touches direction she was face to face with the pink bird digimon that Taira had saved before.

Taira had gone as far as she could. Eventually she collapsed on a soft bed of grass and cried. Too much was happening all at once. Too much feeling was coming out. From anger to love to sadness and to happiness. Eventually she cried herself to sleep.....

"I'm hungry..." Labramon moaned. Christo did not respond.

"Christo?"

"Mmmm?"

"I'm hungry."

"You already said that."

"Well, I'm still hungry."

Cubimon and Poyomon eventually stopped underneath a tree randomly. They were both shaking with hunger. "Maybe we should go back..." whimpered the Poyomon.

"No, we have to find Taira..."

Chris shivered. At this point, his T-shirt wasn't doing wonders for keeping him warm. "We have to figure out some way to keep ourselves warm... It's getting really foggy and cold." He looked around. "Unfortunately, I have no idea how to make a fire... but if we wanna make one, we better move quick, before the fog makes everything too damp. It's already getting sorta close."

Christo drew her jacket around her and shivered. "I'm scared."

"Don't worry," Labramon told her, "We'll be Ok."

Chris's teeth were chattering now. "D -do either of y-your guys' D -D -digimon have a fire at-attack? Brrrr... I think we're g-going to freeze soon... and I D -don't think either of you ca-can make fire....right? W-wonder where Tekumon is...?"

The aforementioned digimon was actually rather occupied with Foxmon... or was, until she disappeared, along with Taira and that odd pink puffball. Tekumon blinked, and flapped over to where Isthian and his little digimon were. He poked them gently. "Hey, either of you know where everyone is?" He looked around. "I don't see Chris, Kamika, Christo, Sayu, or Taira anywhere... all their digimon are gone, too. Except for me." He looked around, seeing that Kyrainia and Fiona were the only other ones left in the clearing. "Great... we're all split up again."

Kamika frowned as she saw both Chris and Christo cold. "Let's light a fire. . . That way I think we'll be able to warm up." She suggested, picking up the sticks that they had found awhile ago. "Puttimon, can you do anything to light it up?"

Puttimon nodded. "Love and Fire!" She yelled, the neatly bunched sticks catching on fire. Kamika smiled.

"Here you two! Now we have some warmth, at least!"

"Great, I'm freezing..." Christo muttered, crouching down by the fire and rubbing her hands together for warmth.

Chris smiled up at Kamika and Puttimon. "You guys are lifesavers! Thanks!" He pulled the second pile of semi-dry sticks closer to keep the fire stoked, and huddled in close by the fire. Of course, this was a rather small fire, and so he ended up having to kind of wedge in next to Kamika and Christo. "Ehh, sorry... it's kinda tight in here."

Kamika shook her head, "That's okay. . ." She said. Sighing, she picked up the object attached to her belt. "The digivice. ." She mumbled softly to herself, which was probably heard by the other two beside her. "Hmm. . .I feel like I'm forgetting something. ." She thought out loud, wondering what she might have been forgetting.

The only response Isthian and Hayamon gave Tekumon was a snort and a whimper, respectively. Oh, and Hayamon snuggled a bit closer to Isthian for warmth, but I'm not sure that counts.

"Of course, the digivices!" Christo slapped her head, and took out her digivice and fiddled with it, "They show us where the others are!" She pointed in the direction that seemed to be the way back to camp.

"I told you it was that way!" she smirked at Labramon.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever..."

All the digivices flickered for a second and went blank, only blinking on with the clock every now and then. Any attempt to switch them to the map function was met with a rather nasty sort of fizzling sound.

"Damn." Chris couldn't even get the blasted thing to work, no matter how he tried. He didn't want to use his tech-power for the moment, as he was worried it'd bring that...thing... up again. "Guys, something's gone wrong with my digivice. Are yours working?" He moved closer to the fire. "This thing is going out..." He shoved a couple more sticks onto it, and was rewarded with the sight of them catching fire and burning brightly.

"FLIP!" Christo yelled, "I CAN'T GET THIS PIE-CRUSTED THING TO WORK!!!"

"Taking your rage out on the digivice won't help, it's not its fault it's broken." Labramon pointed out.

"SHUT UP!!!"

"Sorry..."

Kamika couldn't believe it. She realized her stupidity in forgetting that the digivice had a map but then when they FINALLY figured it out. . . . They broke. "What the heck?!!" She couldn't help yelling out. Although she didn't mind that she wasn't alone, she didn't want them to STAY lost away from their friends. Frowning, she turned to Puttimon. "Is there something wrong with the digivices??"

Puttimon shrugged. "Heck I know."

Kamika just sweatdropped. "Right. . . Ask the digimon get strange digimon answers. . ." She sighed wondering what they could do to get back.

"Heeheehee! They'll never figure out where we've gone!"

"Yeah! Ohh, this is SO COOL! We never get to go out at night!"

"It's so great not having to just do whatever everyone else says to!"

"We're gonna have so much fun!!"

The Tanemon's chattering stopped dead like their progress when they saw that they'd just bounced into a clearing filled with...

"HUMANS!!"

The little Tanemon looked at the hulking creatures wide-eyed for a moment. Then they resumed giggling and gossiping as if nothing had happened.

"Oh look," Christo said, pointing at the Tanemon, "They're so cute!"

Chris moved back hurriedly. "What are those things? They may be cute, but some cute things can be dangerous!" He pulled a medium-sized stick out of the pile, ready to defend himself if need be.

One of the Tanemon giggled back at Christo. "You're pretty cute yourself, for a human!"

"Ahh," pouted another one, "everybody's always saying we're cute. I'm sick of it! I DON'T WANT TO BE CUTE! I want to be big and grown-up and strong already!" It threw a little hissy fit.

The third one smiled charmingly at the group. "So what are you all doing here? Are you looking for an adventure, too?"

They all soundly ignored Chris and his fatuous threats.

Although Kamika had been previously peeved at the sudden destruction of the digivices, she found the Tanemon awfully cute. Picking one up, she grinned. "How adorable! Can I take one home?" She asked, giggling slightly.

Puttimon sweatdropped as she turned to a Tanemon. "She's so weird. . . ." She commented.

The Tanemon blinked. "Is that a human??"

Puttimon nodded, "Yup, a digidestined."

"A digidestined?! I've heard of them! I can't believe they're here!"

Puttimon sweatdropped, "Yeah. . They're real."

The Tanemon grinned and stared at Kamika in amazement. "Wow. . "

"We were kinda thrown into this adventure without knowing it," Christo told the Tanemon that had asked them if they were looking for an adventure, "Hey, you didn't happen to pass any other humans, did you? We're kinda lost..."

"Humans? MORE humans? Yikes, this place is being overrun!" said the Tanemon that had been bitching about the lack of respect, Tally.

Dippy, the Tanemon that asked about adventure, just smiled and winked, though. "No, we didn't see any, but we do know our way around the forest!"

"...we do?" asked Haffy, the one that had complimented Christo.

Tally bounced against Haffy in rebuke. "Sure we do! We've been out lots of times before!"

"Yeah, but never alone..."

"Ahh, whatever!" laughed Dippy. "We're Tanemon! The forest is our specialty!"

"YEAH!!"

Chris hesitantly put down the stick. "So what are you three doing out here all alone? Pardon me for saying this, but you seem a bit young to be out on your own in the night..."

Gizamon moaned, and blinked open his eyes. He was on his feet in a second. He was on a make-shift bed, with Sayu on a similar bed beside him, scowling in her sleep. The beds were on the shore of a humongous, underground lake. They seemed to be in some sort of cave. Turning around, he saw stairs leading upwards, and, staring at him from where they sat on those stairs, two very familiar Digimon...

"Scubamon?! Divermon?!" He gaped at them. "But... but..." He shot a glance at Sayu.

"Your Human there turned up 'bout an hour ago." Divermon said curtly.

"Is it true she's your Digidestined?" Scubamon blurted out. "'Cause if it is, Lord Metalseadramon would -- " He gulped, and brought a finger across his neck, making a sound to indicate Gizamon would be dead meat. Gizamon winced.

"I know... but..." Gizamon sighed, and explained his meeting of Sayu.

*Flashback*

Gizamon watched the Digidestined from the bushes. Well, as long as he had this job from Lord Metalseadramon, might as well have some fun... And he did know the Otamamon who lived in the lake three of the Digidestined were in just then... he crept away, found the Otamamon, and informed him that some sort of evil things were trespassing in his lake. Sniggering as the Otamamon ran off, indignantly muttering ways to fulfill his revenge, Gizamon moved to a bunch of trees near the lake so he could watch... and ended up tripping over something. He jumped to his feet, and whirled around, eyes wide. There was a Digidestined there, unconscious. Apparently a late arrival. But, that didn't make sense... Nine Digidestined? Eyeing the girl suspiciously (she was so dirty and smelly and her clothes were so... old), he paced around her, feeling that she was familiar somehow. Then, his stomach did a flip-flop. Ahh, dammit. He couldn't be a Digidestined Digimon... could he? He didn't remember much before his old Master, and then had come Metalseadramon, finding him while he was guarding the... and taking him as a servant... Dammit. The girl, scowling, groaned as she opened her eyes, blinking blurrily. She stared at him. He stared at her. A look of utter rage came over her face, and she screamed something at him, which he couldn't hear because one of the Digidestined in the lake had just screamed. The girl, sneering at him and kicking him aside, turned to look through the trees. A look of utter disgust and contempt came over her face as she saw the other humans, and she turned, walking in the other direction, grabbing him by one of his spikes and dragging him along. As soon as they were out of hearing range of the other Digidestined, she dropped him, and, placing a foot on his back to keep him from escaping, bent over to hiss in his ear.

"Who da hell're ya an' where da hell am I? An' if ya don' tell me, Anubis'll have yer bloody corpse fer supper." The girl smirked. Gizamon was mentally cursing. First he found out he had to work against Metalseadramon (who would surely kill him), and next, he gets a mangy, evil, arrogant girl for a Partner! But he answered her, fearing she was as likely to kill him as Metalseadramon now was.

"I'm Gizamon, your Digimon Partner, and you're in the Digiworld. You've been summoned here, as a Digidestined, to save it... And that's a Digivice in your hand." He added, and she looked about to question him about the small bronze device. She scowled at him. "Uh... mind telling me your name?"

"Sayu," she spat, glaring at him. "Does bein' m'Pardner mean yas gots ta follow m'round?" When he nodded fearfully, she scowled again. But she took her foot off of him, which was a humongous relief. "I don' hafta hang 'round wit' DEM, do I?" She asked, jerking a finger in the direction of the lake.

"Uh -- "

"Good." Without giving him a chance to respond, she dragged him off again, where they had ultimately ended up in the swiffer-sweeper, met the other kids, and decided to stay with them, for a little while. After some walking and fighting, they had split up again, ended up in the desert, and reached where they currently were.

*End Flashback*

Scubamon and Divermon stared at him a moment, before bursting into hysterical laughter. Which was quickly silenced by Sayu waking up, stuffing rocks in their mouths, glaring at them, and going back to bed. Gizamon snorted, before helping them to get the offending rocks out of their mouths.

"So... why are you guys here? I thought this was the place we set up to hide if we got into trouble with Metalseadramon..." He trailed off, seeing them wince.

"Oh... well... we, uh... kinda..." Scubamon stuttered guiltily, looking to Divermon for help.

"Lord Metalseadramon heard us talking about him, just as we were agreeing that he's a self-satisfied, bigheaded, overly commanding jerk." Divermon said, blunt and to the point. Gizamon quickly stifled his laughter, with a worried look at Sayu, but she slept on. Smirking at them, he shook his head. Scubamon and Divermon both grinned, and the three went to bed, each relieved that the friendship between the trio hadn't died.

Kamika turned to them. "Actually that's a good thought. Isn't there a lot of bad digimon around here? Shouldn't you be. . Well. . Probably somewhere safe?" She asked curiously.

Tally snorted at Chris. "You don't have a clue what you're talking about!"

Haffy stuck her tongue out at Tally. "You're only seventeen!"

"Yeah, and you're not even that!" teased Dippy.

"Sooo?"

"Err... so... you shouldn't be sayin' that?"

"I can make fun of whoever I want!" declared Haffy proudly. "Besides..."

"WE'RE STILL DOING BETTER THAN YOU!!" shouted Tally, finishing her sentence.

Chris snorted quietly. "Seventeen, huh? You act like you're five-year-olds..." He looked around edgily. "There's not... more of you, are there?"

Kamika blinked. "You have ages??" She turned to Puttimon. "So then how old would you be?" She asked curiously.

Puttimon sweatdropped and coughed afterwards. "Let's just say that it's nothing you need to really know. . ."

"O.o The Tanemon are 17?" Christo asked. She turned to Labramon, "How old are you, then?"

"Not sure... Not that much older than the Tanemon, I think. I digivolved to Rookie at exactly the same moment as you picked up your digivice."

Haffy looked at Chris for a long moment with her lip quivering. Then she started crying -- and wailing.

Tally stoically ignored her. "There are lots more Tanemon back home, but we're the only ones out here tonight." She smirked a little. "What 'bout you?"

"We were with some other humans and digimon, but we got split up." Christo told the Tanemon.

"Geez, not too bright, are you? Even experienced forest dwellers" -- and here Tally was clearly referring to herself -- "don't go out alone these days. I'm surprised you haven't all been killed already." She paused thoughtfully. "Wouldn't be surprised if the other humans were dead by now, too."

Dippy went over and started to try to comfort Haffy.

"You watch what you say to my partner!" Labramon growled, all defensive-like.

"Labramon?"

"Yes?"

"Don't threaten the Tanemon," Christo turned to the gaggle of in-trainings in front of them, "You'd be surprised. We've got through a lot of stuff I wouldn't have thought possible."

"Oh, yeah, like I'm afraid of you. Betcha wouldn't stand a chance of catching me in here!" Tally flicked her leaves contemptuously.

Haffy, hearing that, finally settled down. "Yeah!" she chirped, suddenly happy again. "We're just great in the forest! We could hide anywhere. People would just think we're rocks!" She giggled merrily.

"Uhh, Haffy?" Dippy sweatdropped. "We pretend to be plants."

"Oh, yes, that's right!" Haffy giggled again, unfazed by her mistake.

"But, hey," said Tally, continuing on her conversation, "I guess you must be more impressive than you look. So what's your plan now?"

Fiona yawned. She was tired. And yawning was what people did when they were tired. She looked over to Isthian, who was still unconscious. She tried to piece together what all had happened, but that wasn't going to happen soon... Fiona didn't even know where over half the group was. She laid down beside Isthian, realizing just how hard the ground was, and fell asleep.

"I'm boooorrrred..." Haffy whined. "This isn't being fun at all!"

"But we're getting to talk to humans!" protested Dippy. "Isn't that cool?!"

"NO! They're BORING! I wanna go play..."

Dippy looked at her for a moment, then squealed eagerly. "Yeah! Me too!" She giggled and started bouncing merrily off into forest, Haffy right by her side.

Tally's eyes widened. "WAIT FOR ME!!" She hurried after her friends, but then stopped and turned around again. "Oh, and you humans? Good luck surviving the night!" She smirked broadly and turned her back to them. "Don't let the Jagamon bite!" she called out over her shoulder, before disappearing into the dark underbrush with a rustle.

Isthian groaned. The sun was beating down on him, and he could feel the sweat on his forehead from its heat. He opened his eyes blearily and stretched -- and felt someone beside him. With their head pillowed on his chest. He froze and looked down at them slowly and cautiously.

"AAAAAAH!! DÆMON WOMAN!! I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY, I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING, I SWEAR!!!"

Isthian leapt to his feet and took off running, despite the fact that Fiona had still been asleep and showing no signs of wanting to kill him. "Had" being perhaps the key term.

Hayamon woke with a start and a groggy snort. He quickly saw that there was no danger, however, and immediately settled down. "'morning to you, too, Thi," he mumbled thickly.

Kamika stared. Those Tanemon were. . . Leaving. She blinked, wondering if she should stop them. "Er. . . Tanemon!" She called out. Hoping that would stop them. Unfortunately they were way out of sight by then.

Puttimon sweatdropped. "You really have to work on your timing."

Kamika pouted as she turned to Puttimon. "It's not my fault."

The digimon rose an eyebrow. "Really now??" She smirked slightly.

Kamika just sweatdropped. "You know. You're becoming more and more human each day."

Puttimon grinned. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"Not really. No."

The bear digimon face faulted at the words. "I shouldn't have asked. I should have just shut up."

Kamika grinned. "Ahhh. . I'm exhausted. What are we gonna do?" She asked, slightly stretching. She turned to the other two digidestined.

Isthian's screaming woke Fiona just in time to see the boy not only awake and screaming, but running very, very far away. "ISTHIAN!" she yelled, and then gave an exasperated sigh. "It is way too early for this." Fiona then got up and began chasing after Thian.

Penguinmon, however, just sat there blinking at Hayamon. "Do you get what's going on?" he asked. "Because I don't."

"I say we stay here. We don't have anywhere to go, and this is as good a place as any."

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