2 years. I can't believe it's actually been that long since I last updated this. First of all, I'd like to apologize for the delay in getting this story updated. I've been meaning to get around to it, but I've had a severe case of writer's block, particularly with this chapter. That brings me to my next point; I'd like to apologize in advance for the quality of this chapter. It's both shorter and lower quality than I'd like, especially given the lengthy delay, but it's a problem that I've discovered with trying to manage so many characters at once. As a result, in the future, I will try to keep the characters into smaller groups, so that I can adequately give each of them the time that they deserve.

A lot has happened since I last updated this, not the least of which is the release of Adventure Tri. Because this was conceived and begun before Tri came into existence, it will likely be ignoring any canon continuity from it, although I may decide to incorporate certain elements in. Finally, as this story is straying further from my original story tags than I'd thought, I will be taking a look at modifying those tags to more appropriately match the story. With this chapter out of the way, I will hopefully be able to finish the rest of part 1 in a more timely manner, although given my previous history with delays I can't promise any specific time frame. As always, please review and let me know what can be improved upon!

Chapter 12: Reunions

A cool night breeze blew off of Tokyo Bay, traveling inland towards the city. The tangled mess of buildings did little to deter the wind, and it slipped through the narrow paths until it reached the group of four young adults making their way deeper into the city. Yolei shivered as the chill wind blew into her. After adding Joe and Cody to their group, they and their partners had begun to make their way back towards the convention center once again, but Joe was still shaken from his experience, keeping their progress to a painfully slow rate.

Suppressing a groan, Yolei gritted her teeth and struggled hard to keep her frustration from showing. At this point there was no way that they could possibly reach the convention center before the fighting ended. Not that it really mattered; all of their digimon were exhausted from their various encounters, and it was unlikely that they would even be able to digivolve, much less fight. That fact was little comfort to Yolei. Knowing that both one of her best friends and her boyfriend were in the middle of a potentially deadly situation and that she could do absolutely nothing to protect either of them was driving her to the edge of insanity. Fortunately, she'd always been a passionate person, and had long ago learned to rein in her emotions that she'd used to allow to flood out so strongly. Hanging out with her DNA Digivolution partner, Kari as well as Ken, both of whom tended to keep their emotions bottled up deep inside, had caused their personalities to rub off on her, if only slightly.

The one bright spot in their journey was seeing how happy Mimi seemed to be to have Joe around again. She'd been shocked at just how bubbly Mimi had been acting since Joe had joined them, and had to keep from giggling at Joe's reactions; he'd always been calm and rational, and seeing his steady, easygoing nature desperately trying to keep up with Mimi's hyperactivity was quite an amusing sight. It was definitely a nice distraction from the grim situation and her own anxiety. Smirking slightly, Yolei decided that she'd have to tease her friend about the scene later. Mimi had had a field day when she and Ken had started dating, and Yolei hadn't heard the end of it for weeks. Now, she could get her back for that. It was all in good fun; they were great friends, and that kind of playful teasing was to be expected.

"What's up with Mimi and Joe?" asked Cody, causing Yolei to jump slightly as she was shaken out of her thoughts. Cody had made his way over to her and was keeping his voice low so as to prevent Mimi and Joe from hearing. "They're acting just a little weird. I've never seen Joe this flustered, and we just got back from rescuing an entire boatload of people, literally!"

That made Yolei smile a little bit. Despite his intelligence, he was terrible at reading people and their emotions. She immediately generated the perfect snarky response to her younger friend. Signaling Cody to come closer, she waited until he was within whisper range before speaking. "You see Cody," she began, "when a man and a woman love each other very much…"

In shock, Cody missed a step and nearly faceplanted into the pavement. Awkwardly regaining his balance and composure, he began to whisper back harshly, "I think I'm old enough to have already heard about the birds and the bees Yolei, but what does that have to do with…" His voice trailed off momentarily as he realized what he was saying. "You're kidding me," he said accusatorily to Yolei, although his voice betrayed his lack of conviction. Yolei's grinned widened, confirming that she was indeed being serious. Shaking his head, Cody muttered to himself, "Just shows how much I know nowadays."

"Hey! Keep up you two!" Mimi called back at Yolei and Cody, "We don't want both of you getting lost, and then having to chase you down!"

"I think we've all done enough chasing people down for one night," quipped Joe wryly.

"Sorry about that," apologized Cody as he ran to catch up, with Yolei quickly following suit, "Yolei and I were just talking. About… things." His voice cracked slightly as he spoke, a small sign of his embarrassment over the topic.

Glancing at Yolei, Mimi tried to glean insight into what her friend had been saying. The poorly concealed grin on the violet haired girl's face confirmed her suspicions, and she gave a barely audible groan. I'm never going to hear the end of this, she complained silently.

"We're almost there," Joe announced as he continued to hobble along, completely oblivious to the situation, "The convention center's just up ahead."

Mimi breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever teasing was headed her way would have to wait.

"Ah, give me a break!" grumbled Tai angrily as he kicked a loose chunk of concrete. All of his pent up emotions from the crazy night were now crashing down on him, a fact that was not helped in the slightest by Daemon's final revelations. He and his friends had defeated many powerful digimon over the years, from Myotismon to Apocalymon and finally Armageddamon. But nothing that they had ever faced before could have prepared him and the others for Daemon's power. Even with the combined power of Omnimon and Imperialdramon fighter mode, it had been a close run thing.

And that was nothing compared to what was coming, if Daemon was to be believed. It was difficult to imagine beings stronger that him, but despite his reluctance to believe anything the demonic digimon said, Tai's gut instincts told him that it was the truth, and that worried him.

The feeling of a hand on his shoulder jolted Tai out of his thoughts and back to reality. Turning to look, he saw Matt looking at him concernedly. "Easy Tai," the blond man said, "I know that you're thinking about what that creep said, but we can all deal with that later. Right now we have more pressing issues to worry about." He nodded in Ken's direction, where the injured man was trying his best to keep it together. Beside him crouched Davis, who was clearly worried about his friend. The bond between DNA partners was strong, and while Imperialdramon had been fighting, Davis had been able to realize the full extent of Ken's injuries through the link.

With a sigh, Tai broke away from his brooding and returned his attention to the present. "Have Agumon and the others returned yet?"

Matt shook his head. "They must still be looking around, because they haven't made it back. I hope that they manage to find the others, especially Joe. Ken's in a lot of pain as far as I can tell, and none of us have the medical expertise to help him. If he doesn't get treated quickly, that wound could get a lot worse."

That thought did little to help Tai's mood. He didn't believe that Ken's injury was life threatening, painful as it looked, but it was large enough that the man had lost a fair amount of blood. Furthermore, with it still being open and exposed, the risk for infection grew. He hoped that Joe still kept medical supplies on hand. If he showed up at all.

The sound of footsteps stumbling through the rubble drew Tai's attention, distracting him from his brooding. Turning towards the direction of the noise, he caught sight of movement and observed as Agumon and Gabumon scurried hastily towards them with two others in tow. Despite himself, Tai grinned slightly as Izzy and TK entered clear view. It might not have been Joe with his much needed medical skills, but seeing friendly faces was a good sign nonetheless.

"Izzy!" called Tai, "it's good to see you in one piece! Are you two okay?"

Izzy gave a weary nod. "We're all fine Tai, just completely exhausted. That NeoDevimon was quite a handful, even for Angemon and Megakabuterimon. I'd say that we're lucky to still be in one piece, but I guess that we fared better than he did." He glanced around for a moment. "What about Davis and Ken?" he questioned, "I assume that whoever was causing this is taken care of, but what about them?"

"They're both a little shaken up," interjected Matt as he walked over to join in the conversation, "but they should be fine. Ken has an ugly leg wound that needs tending to though. We were hoping that Joe would get here to help patch him up, but you two are the first that have made it back here."

Frowning, Izzy replied, "We're the first ones back? I would have thought that at least some of the others would have gotten here before us, seeing as we were delayed for so long. I suppose it is possible that they ran into trouble as well, but still…"

"The others had trouble too, I'm sure of it," said Tai, with both conviction and bitterness in his voice, "You were right about what was going on Izzy. Daemon was the one behind all of this, and I'm certain that he had plenty of his goons on hand to cause us problems. Even with the four of us and Imperialdramon and Omnimon we were barely about to take him down. If we hadn't gotten here when we did, Ken and Davis would have been goners. I know that he would have wanted to keep everyone else away long enough for him to deal with them."

Izzy nodded, but his eyes betrayed his concern. "That does make sense," he said, "The last time that Daemon showed up he brought his servitors with him, so it would be reasonable to assume that he found some new flunkies this time around. I just hope that everyone's okay. We barely survived, and there's no telling what the others had to confront."

"I'm sure they're fine Izzy," TK said confidently, "We were able to take care of ourselves back then, and I know that they can handle anything that that horned freak sent their way."

"Of course we're all right!" shouted a new voice, causing everyone to spin towards the direction it came from. The sight of Yolei racing towards them, hands waving in an attempt to get their attention, with Joe, Mimi and Cody in tow greeted the eyes of the onlookers. The quartet closed the distance between them and the rest of the group, anxious to get an update on the night's events. Yolei, however, was slightly annoyed by the apparent lack of confidence in their abilities. "Was there any doubt that we could handle ourselves?" she asked upon drawing nearer, her tone daring someone to question her.

Davis had always been one to tempt fate however. "Of course there was!" he asserted, "How could any of us be certain that you'd be able to make it safely without me there? Everyone knows that I do the heavy lifting in the group!"

From the glare Yolei gave to Davis, it was obvious that she wanted to strangle him, but his impish smile made it impossible for her to stay angry with him. Instead, she gave a sniff and turned her head away. "Please," she said, "we all know how good your track record is with staying safe. I remember there was something about you falling off a bridge then nearly getting killed by Tortomon as part of some crackpot scheme to make Veemon digivolve…"

That made Davis flush slightly. That had not been one of his better moments. "It worked, didn't it?" he said, "Maybe it wasn't my best thought out plan, but it all worked out in the end!"

Overhearing the comment, Veemon leapt over to get in the action. "Don't make fun of Davis!" he snapped, "You weren't so great yourself when you tried climbing that control spire!"

Everyone stared at Veemon for a moment, then broke out laughing, the situation finally giving them a moment of levity after the evening's trials. Veemon looked back and forth looking decidedly confused. "What's so funny? Was it something I said?"

Wiping a bit of moisture from his eyes, Cody shook his head. "You do know that Yolei wasn't trying to insult Davis, right?"

"Yeah, it's just part a game that they play," chimed in Tai, "Trying to see who can bug the other the most."

Veemon blinked a few times, his expression showing that he still didn't quite comprehend. Finally, he shrugged his arms into the air. "Ehhh, I don't get it." His comment sparked another, smaller round of chuckles from the group.

Tai's mirth was short lived however. Surveying the group, he mentally accounted for everyone and his expression darkened. "Kari and Sora haven't made it here yet. I'm going to go look for them. Agumon, you coming with me?"

"I'm right behind you Tai!" Agumon replied. The two moved to head off on their search, but were cut short by a feminine voice cutting through the night.

"No need to come looking for us. We're right here!" The group turned to see Sora moving towards them, with Kari not far behind. Tai gave an inward sigh of relief at the sight of his sister and friend unharmed; with everything that had occurred, it was a pleasant surprise that no one had been seriously injured. As the latecomers joined the rest of the group, Tai returned his attention to the problem at hand.

"Joe, Ken's leg got injured during the fight with Daemon. I didn't think it looked overly serious, but you're the medical expert here. I'd like you to take a look at it and see what you think."

Joe nodded. "Of course. Even if it's not life threatening, it could still become infected. It's a good thing I keep some basic antiseptics with my emergency supplies."

"Wait a minute!" yelled Yolei concernedly, "Why did no one tell me Ken was hurt when I first got here!?" Tai and the others glanced around sheepishly, realizing that they'd neglected to mention Ken's condition earlier. Worriedly, Yolei rushed over to Ken, followed by Joe, who began checking over the wound.

Leaving Joe and Yolei to their work, Tai turned to consult with Matt and Izzy, who suddenly shifted to make room for Sora to join them. She and Matt's eyes met briefly, then the two glanced away with slight embarrassment. "Alright," said Tai, "now that we're all finally back together, we need to plan out our next move."

"That should be pretty easy," responded Izzy, "Can't you hear those sirens? There are bound to be police here any minute. With all of the damage that Daemon and his goons have caused, it's a wonder that they haven't made it here already. And how do you think we're going to look, standing here with the ruins of the convention center. The logical assumption is going to be that we're responsible, so we need to get out of here before anyone shows up."

"Yeah, but that's easier said than done," objected Matt. "The police have already cordoned this whole area off, if what we saw earlier is any indication. It would be hard enough for us all to sneak past them even if we were all fine, but with Ken injured, I'm not sure that we'd be able to get out of here without being caught."

"We could see if the our digimon could help us slip out," interjected Sora thoughtfully. She gave a glance down to where Biyomon was nestled drowsily against her leg, then shook her head. "Unfortunately, we have the same problem there. Everyone's completely exhausted after fighting. Asking them to digivolve to help us escape is just too much."

"Well, I suppose that we could try opening a digital gate and escaping by means of the Digital World," offered Izzy, "but I'm not sure that's going to be any safer than our current predicament. Things didn't seem to be going too well, even on the short trek that we took earlier. And remember, the Digital World is so unpredictable that anything's bound to happen. With our digimon in the state that they're in, if we get into trouble, we probably won't be able to get out."

"Don't worry about use," buzzed Tentomon, "We'll still protect you, no matter how tired we are. Have a little faith!"

"It does seem like our only real option at this point," mused Tai, "Alright Izzy. We'll go with your plan this time."

Izzy nodded. "Hey, Cody," he called, "Can you come over here for a minute?" The younger man, who had been chatting with TK and Kari, turned and hurried over. "I need you to open another digital gate, so that we can all get out of here." Carefully removing his treasured laptop from his bag, Izzy opened the device up and turned it to face Cody.

Directing his D3 at the computer screen, Cody breathed in and said, "Digiport, open!" For a moment, nothing happened, but then the familiar confirmation noise emanated from the computer, and the screen changed to indicate that the gate was open.

"Great," said Tai, grinning with relief, "Everyone! Gather round! Joe, how's Ken doing?"

"He'll be fine," responded Joe, as he, Davis, Ken, Yolei and Mimi approached, "But he might be a little weak for a while. As soon as we can get him something to eat and let him sleep, he should be good to go."

"Sounds good to me," said Tai, "Now, everyone, we're going to try to get back by means of the Digital World, like how we split up earlier. The police are probably already on the way, so this is really the only ticket out of here. So, gather round and we'll be—"

"Greetings, my young friends," came a voice from the computer, cutting Tai off. Everyone's head snapped towards the sound of the voice, and there they could see an image of mustached old man with a topknot waltzing across the monitor. "I'm glad to see all of you together. We need to speak, at once."

Izzy grinned at the sight of the old man. "Hey Gennai! It's good to see you again!"

"Wait, that's Gennai?" asked Yolei, "but… he was so young the last time we saw him! What happened to him?"

"Nice to see you as well Izzy," replied Gennai, "As for my appearance, I'll explain a little bit more when you all arrive. We have much to talk about."

Bunching together as closely as possibly, the group stood in the light emanating from the screen, and were drawn into the Digital World. At the last minute, a panicked Izzy grabbed on to his computer before he too was pulled in. The experience of shifting dimensions between the real and digital worlds was always odd, as it felt like falling in nearly endless space, but by now they had all become accustomed to it. With a sudden rush, they all hit the ground, letting them know that they had reached their destination.

Izzy noted with relief that his laptop was with him and hadn't been damaged. He closed it up and looked around. The world was still shrouded in gray, giving it a depressing and ominous feel. Gennai stood looking at the jumbled mess of humans and digimon as they struggled to separate themselves.

"Okay Gennai," said Tai as he pulled himself to his feet, "We're here, now what was it that was so important for you to tell us? And why are you old again anyways?"

The barest hint of a smile crept on to Gennai's face. "I would tell you to keep your goggles on again, but it seems that you've grown out of wearing them. If you all will follow me, I'll try to answer any questions that you have as we go."

As soon as everyone had collected themselves, Gennai began to lead them further into the digital forest. "I suppose the most pressing question is about my appearance," Gennai said, "You see, for the last few years, I've kept my consciousness separated into parts, in order to be in several places at once. You all have been keeping me busy, trying to conceal evidence of this world's existence from yours. Unfortunately, doing so puts quite a strain on these old bones, and splits up what power I have left. So, with recent events, I thought it about time to rejoin my parts."

"I'm not sure even you're going to be able to hide the Digital World's existence after tonight Gennai," sighed Tai, "so many people were bound to have seen something that it can't just be dismissed as delusion this time."

"That's not quite right Tai," interjected Izzy, "remember that old man that we bumped in to? He didn't seem to notice Agumon or Tentomon even when he looked right at them."

"You're correct about that Izzy," said Gennai, "After so much exposure to your world, the Digital World seems to have adapted to it in order to conceal itself from people. Digimon in your world create a disturbance, called a digital field or cloud. It's almost like a mist that hides them from anyone except for digidestined or others who know what they're looking for."

"Ahh," said Izzy, "So, the digimon can change and adapt, just like evolution in our world. But here, the process is quicker, so we can actually see the effects!"

"That's correct," replied Gennai. Noticing that Tai was about to inquire further, Gennai stopped in front of what appeared to be the entrance to a clearing and turned to face the rest of the Digidestined. "Now, I know that you all must have questions about tonight's events, but I am not the one to explain them. I'll let them give you all of the details."

"And just who are 'they'?" demanded Tai.

Gennai glanced back at him just before entering the clearing. "The Digimon Sovereign."