Author's Note:

Urahara144: Thank you!

AngelOfLight04: I was able to find several pages that all had the Latin words for the sins themselves, so I know those are fine. But I had to type 'Seven,' 'Deadly' and 'Sins' in separately.

Tamara Caitlyn: Oh, you forget, there's still one digidestined left. ;)

Aero Angemon: There will be another battle, don't worry. And I hope this makes up for the last chapter being short.

Kaydreams: Thanks for reviewing!

takaishi hikaru: Hmm. You're probably right. I thought I ruined it after posting that chapter. But, I also think I managed to salvage it. Please keep reading and let me know what you think. =)

On with the show!

Chapter Fourteen

-The Apartment-

After filling the American team in on the latest plan, Sam headed out to find a portal that would take him to TK's apartment. Lou, another American, joined him to be sure nothing happened along the way.

The apartment was empty save for a Patamon lying on the master bed beside a digiegg. At the sound of their footsteps, the rookie flew up and through a Bubble Blast at them. It punched a hole in the wall.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," he apologized when he recognized the boys. "I was dreaming of Cadetmon and then I heard you coming and ... I guess I got a little carried away."

"Just a little," Lou agreed, brushing wall fragments from his jacket.

"Where are the others? Is TK back yet?" The boys shared a look and Patamon's heart sank. "They're all gone, aren't they?"

"Just de-aged. But don't worry, we'll get them back," Sam assured the digimon, then he looked at the digiegg curiously. "What's that doing here?"

"That's TK's mom's digiegg. She's out of town right now and can't come back until Friday."

"Does she know about ... any of this?"

"She knows something is wrong, but not what."

"We could use her help," Lou muttered. "But we can't wait three days."

"We won't have to." Sam grinned, Lou and Patamon looked at him strangely, but he didn't say a word until he'd taken them into the kitchen and picked up the phone. There was a list of phone numbers on the fridge. Sam looked it over once and then started dialing.

There was a long pause while the phone rang on the other end, then he was met with an irritated "Hello?"

"Mrs Takaishi? This is Sam Gibson, a friend of TK's from America."

"What's wrong with TK?" she asked immediately. Sam sighed.

"It's not so much what's wrong with him as opposed to what I need your help with, ma'am."

"I already told TK that I can't come home until Friday. If I finish quickly, maybe I can get there Thursday night."

"Well, I've been thinking about that actually. You see, they can't in their right mind keep you at work if TK or Matt is missing or injured."

"Is that what it is, then?" she wondered "Are they missing?"

"Not at all. We know exactly where they are."

Nancy sighed into the phone. "Even if they let me go, the earliest I can get there is tomorrow morning."

"That's fine. Thank you." Sam hung up the phone and grinned again. "She'll be here tomorrow. In the meantime, we're just going to have to wait."

"And pray," Lou added.

INVIDIA

-Milton, Ontario, Canada-

The Stana-creature appeared in a little internet cafe. It was pitch black outside, and snowing heavily. The clock above the door told her it was forty-seven minutes after midnight. She looked curiously around the room. It was crowded, all the tables were full, and no one noticed her until a young man standing behind a counter waved at her.

"Kyndrick, over here!" he shouted above the noise. She moved toward him.

"I was hoping you'd come back." He smiled at her, but she didn't seem thrilled.

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Uh, Dennis. Dennis Burke. We met last month ... here. You've come in here and talked to me at least four times since then."

"My memory is a little ... messed up tonight. I'm just on my way home to get some sleep. I suppose I'll see you around." She faked a smile and left before he could say anything else.

Once on the sidewalk, she pulled from her backpack a map and looked it over a few times before walking South. After a half an hour, she stood in front of a two-story house with a navy minivan in the driveway and the porch light on.

"The ultimate test," she muttered, walking up the path to the front door. She reached in her jacket pocket where she put the house keys, but the door swung open before she had the chance to find it.

A woman of about forty stood in the doorway, an older version of Stana in every way - from her short brown curls to her emerald eyes. They stood there, staring at each other for a few seconds before the older woman stepped onto the porch and wrapped the teen in a hug.

"I'm so happy you're home," she whispered in her ear.

"So am I," Stana agreed, her eyes flashing red for a moment.

GULA and LUXURIA

-Augusta, Georgia, USA-

Cecilia and Reid landed in a treehouse. On the floor beside them was an old, beat-up laptop that didn't look reliable enough to turn on, let alone open a portal to another universe. Nevertheless, Cece stuffed it into her bag and the twins slowly descended the ladder on to the lightly snow-covered ground of a park. There was only one nearby street light to see by. And luckily there was no one around to wonder why two teens were climbing out of a treehouse at ten to one in the morning.

The siblings started walking aimlessly down the street. They didn't speak, and made no move to pull out the map they'd been given. They didn't do anything at all until they hit Main Street, where people were coming and going out of the various stores, or walking home.

Cece stopped in front of a pizzeria and began sniffing the air. Reid stopped a few feet ahead of her when he noticed she was no longer with him. He turned back and studied her curiously.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't you smell that? It's heavenly," she breathed, taking in more of the scent of fresh pizza.

Reid scrunched up his face in disgust. "Don't get carried away. It smells worse than Acedia when she doesn't wash for three weeks. Let's go." He tugged at her arm gently.

"I want to go in. I'm starving," she whined.

"When aren't you starving? Come on. We've got a job to do." Cece had just started to reluctantly move again when the teens were stopped by a man at least five years older than them.

"Reid? Cece? I've been looking all over for you two!" He pulled the girl into a hug but she pushed him away quickly. "Where have you been hiding?"

The twins looked at each other hesitantly. They'd been told no one would be looking for them. Reid was the first to say anything.

"I'm sorry, sir. We were just visiting some friends out of town."

"Sir?" The man looked between them astounded. "Guys, it's me. Paul. We were at the orphanage together for twelve years. You don't remember me?"

The teens remained silent, but Cece glared at her brother for his mistake.

Paul let the subject drop for the moment, crossing his arms over his chest. "Okay, who were these friends you were visiting? Why haven't I heard of them before?"

Reid sighed. "You don't work at this orphanage, right? You're not our guardian in any way?"

"No, of course not." Paul seemed rather angry as he said it.

"Good. Then we don't have to answer any of your questions." The twins walked around the stunned man, but he recovered quickly and grabbed both of their arms.

"That may be. But I already promised Madam Kirk that I would bring you two back if I ever found you. My car's just down the road. I'm sure she'll be thrilled to have you back." All friendly tones were gone from his voice as he dragged the teens down the sidewalk and shoved them in the back seat of his car.

IRA

-Dublin, Ireland-

It was four in the morning on Tuesday in Dublin. Nolan had wound up being transported into an electronics store that had been closed for the night. After looking around for a little while, and examining the human gadgets that he found mildly interesting, he unlocked the door and left.

He was amazed momentarily by the lights of the city, and by the large amount of people. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he had assumed that there weren't very many humans. Like a small tribe. Watching only about a hundred people in one city in the whole world made the coming task seem nearly impossible, but he was never one to back down from a challenge.

"Nolan Drake, how do you survive here?" he muttered to himself as he started walking down one street, still watching the people around him. Somewhere in his head, he felt a sharp pain, but ignored it and started to pull out his map. Circled in red was an apartment address. His finger brushed over top of the address, but he shook his head and started looking at the other places circled. "We're not ready to go home yet. I have to know how you behave first. I can't slip up at the wrong time."

A woman walking by stopped when she heard him seemingly talking to himself. She studied him for a couple of seconds before making up her mind and approached him. She appeared to be in her mid-thirties, with a tanned heart-shaped face and long brown hair.

"Are you new in town, boy?" she asked him, nodding at the map.

He folded the paper so she could not see the places marked. "Yes. I'm just exploring a bit."

"At this hour? By yourself?" She seemed skeptical at first, but quickly changed to simply worried. "Do you have a place to stay?"

He thought this over carefully before answering. He wanted nothing more than to sit quietly and watch the people on the street, to learn their mannerisms and speech, but this woman was possibly giving him another - better - opportunity. To examine people up close.

"No. I was just searching for one."

"It's late. Why don't you stay with me for the night, and I can help you search in the morning? My name is Ellen Finnigan, what's yours?"

"Ira," he answered quickly and mentally kicked himself for it. They were all to assume the identities of their respective humans, no matter what. Only when together could they be themselves. "Ira Wrath. And that sounds perfect. Thank you."

AVARITIA

-London, United Kingdom-

Kaden studied himself in the bathroom mirror of the London Heathrow Airport. He frowned. In the middle of all the chaos back at the manor, he hadn't found the time to see what he looked like in his new body. And now that he was away from the others and could do as he pleased again, he was a little disappointed.

Humans weren't an especially pretty species, but they had their moments. There were a few of the Japanese digidestined whom he had admired before their de-aging. But this boy he was forced to live in was positively ugly. Dark brown eyes, a long nose and small mouth. His hair was a wonderful shade of blonde, sure, but it'd been cut into little tufts.

"I could've done a better job with my old claws," he muttered. A man passing by stopped and stared for a moment before hurriedly leaving the restroom. "And you probably burn at the first sign of sunlight." He glared at the porcelain skin.

The clothes he tried to ignore altogether. While they weren't exactly perfect for the winter weather, they were the only ones out of Kaden's things that the creature liked. Black running shoes with a grey pair of shorts, a short-sleeved white shirt and a black leather jacket. He was freezing by the time he stepped out of the warmth of the men's room.

Kaden had originally appeared behind the customer service desk. The woman working there was terrified, but he assured her that it was just an illusion. She preferred to agree with him than think of the possibility of losing her mind.

He looked over his papers while sitting in a quiet little restaurant. It was just opening and the only place he could find in the entire airport that was crawling with screaming kids. He could imagine how people handed the noise in the afternoon when it was only four-twenty in the morning..

The papers told him that Kaden Leach was originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, which was about two hundred and forty-six miles away. They did not explain why he had come to London, but the creature possessing him wasn't really interested in that part. Checking his pockets, he found that he had just enough money to get a seat on the next plane to Newcastle, but it would be for several more hours.

Settling into his seat in the restaurant, he decided to spend his time getting familiar with the humans.

SUPERBIA

-Abuja, Nigeria, Africa-

Taye consulted his maps as soon as he landed to try and figure out exactly where he was. He was in a darkly-lit bedroom with little furniture and a joining bathroom. Cadetmon's notes told him he was in the Dryden Hotel where he was supposed to be working as a cleaner. Thankfully the room had been empty when he arrived, but he was sure to leave before the person staying there caught him.

The young teen wandered down to the lobby and headed for the front doors casually, acting like a guest there. He had his hand on one of the door knobs when someone held onto his arm and pulled him back. He turned around and found a large man in his mid-forties staring down at him.

"Diya, what do you think you're doing here?"

"I beg your pardon?" the boy said, pulling his arm free.

"Don't play around, kid. You've been gone for over a month. Do you know how much trouble you're going to be in? Come on." The man grabbed his arm again, tightening his grip as Taye struggled.

"Where are you taking me?" he demanded.

"Down to the kitchen to see your aunt. She'll know what to do with you. And don't think this is going to get you out of work. Once your parents sort you out, you can pick up where you left off here. I'm normally not so generous, but your aunt's the best cook I've got."

Taye didn't say another word as they walked. He could have easily escaped the man's grasp without so much as breaking a sweat, but violence was never his thing. Though he could do it quite well, he preferred to manipulate people.

There were only two women in the kitchen when the men arrived. Taye figured this was due to the early hour. One of them looked to be about eighteen. The other was in her thirties, at least.

"Keeya," said Taye's captor. The older woman looked up from her work station. Spotted Taye, she ran over to the men and hugged the boy.

"Don't ever do that again. We thought you were dead," she whispered in his ear.

"I'm sorry, ... Aunt Keeya," he said through clenched teeth.

She thanked their boss quickly and when he was gone, she turned to the girl working behind her.

"Natine, cover for me while I take Taye home? I won't be more than twenty minutes."

Natine nodded and they left. Keeya called a taxi and pushed her nephew into the car before herself. When they started moving, she faced him.

"Where have you been?"

"It's a long story."

"Good. Because your parents are going to want to hear it."

He groaned, but said nothing. Mentally he cursed Invidia for telling him to meet Taye's family.

ACEDIA

-Soffiano, Italy-

"This is unexpected," Valeria said as she emerged from the desktop computer and found herself standing in a living room. She had been anticipating something a little more outdoorsy than this. From what Cadetmon had told her, the shadow digidestined had all run away.

She wandered through the house quietly, peeking into the upstairs bedrooms and watching the three humans - two adults and a young boy - sleeping soundly. There was a third bedroom that was unoccupied. It was obviously a girl's room. A vanity table, complete with all sorts of perfumes and make up sat in one corner, and half of the closet was filled with dresses and such. It was in the closet where Val hid a little later when then woman came in and looked around the room once. Shortly after, she watched the whole family leave from the bedroom window.

When she was sure they were gone, she plopped down on her new bed and turned on the tv. It was her idea of studying the humans.

-Milton-

It was now six o'clock on Tuesday night. Stana sat in her family's living room, watching her two younger siblings playing on the rug while her mother and step-father watch her from the couch across from her. Slowly, she looked up and met their eyes with a questioning glance.

It had been a long day. First they grilled her, asking where she'd been for the past month and a half, and who with, and why they should believe her when she explained that she really had no recollection of the time away from home. After that, the adults had taken the day off work and spent the entire time watching television with Stana, or helping her to regain some of the memory she was pretending to have forgotten. But most of the time they were just staring at her like they were right now, as if she was a bomb that could explode at any second.

"Stana, dear, do you want to help me in the kitchen?" her mother asked as she stood to begin making dinner. The teen followed her silently, dreading any second she had to spend with the two brats behind her.

For a while the woman didn't say anything either, busying herself with taking out pots and opening cans and taking things out of the fridge. Eventually she got around to putting three green peppers on a cutting board and telling her daughter to chop them. Stana did the work quickly - a little quicker, she supposed, than a normal human could have, but she hadn't come here to learn how to cook.

After a few more minutes of standing around doing nothing, Stana excused herself to use the bathroom. When she made sure the door was locked, she pulled out the D-Terminal and started typing a message to the others, telling them to start their work tonight, whenever they could get away.

Dinner was on the table when she returned to the main rooms. She ate silently - and with some difficulty - with the family. The human food was not as tasty as her usual meals.

"I'm going to go out tonight," she mentioned casually as she helped her step-father bring the dirty dishes into the kitchen where her mother was washing them. Both of the adults turned and looked at her. "Problem?" she asked innocently.

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," her mother said. "You just got back. And you still don't remember a lot."

"I won't be gone long," she promised. "I'm just going for a little walk. Maybe it'll jog my memory."

They eventually conceded, so long as she was back before ten. The girl smiled and waved at them as she walked down the driveway and sidewalk. When she was out of sight, she breathed a sigh of relief. She was on her way to the little internet cafe when she ran into her first victim.

He was a middle-aged man walking his dog. He seemed friendly enough, smiling as he started to pass her, but she quickly put her hand out to stop him.

"Something wrong, miss?" he asked, a little weary now.

She smiled sweetly and put her hand on his shoulders, looking him right in the eyes. "Not at all, I just wanted to say, I really like your dog." Her eyes glowed red momentarily, but the man didn't startle. His eyes were glowing as well. She released his shoulder and moved on. He did the same.

By the time she reached the internet cafe, she'd treated three more people to her powers. And they, in turn, had each treated three more people, and so on.

-Augusta-

Paul made good on his promise to Mrs. Kirk. He drove Cece and Reid straight to the Sunny Meadow orphanage and stayed for the questioning they got from Kirk herself. Neither of them said a word, angering both Paul and the older woman.

The twins were sent to separate dorm rooms that were otherwise empty, despite having four beds in each room. Kirk had told them to stay there - sleep, if they must - until the morning, at which point they ate in the kitchens with her instead of the dining room with the other children. Another hour of casual questioning did no good, however. They still refused to tell her anything, and whenever they did speak it would be to ask her questions about their life at the orphanage.

After breakfast, they were allowed to wander about the orphanage as they had before leaving. She did warn them, though, that their former beds had already been filled.

"This place is horrible," Reid complained to his sister as they sat together in the corner of the tv room and watched the other children. "It's no wonder these two ran away."

"At least the food's good," Cece admitted. He scowled at her.

"Just once, can you think about anything other than the food?"

"Of course. If you can for one day ignore all the pretty girls that walk past you." She grinned. Suddenly their D-Terminals beeped and the pulled them out.

"Are those the new video game systems?" asked an eight-year-old boy. "How'd you get them?"

"Go away," Reid growled quietly, so only the boy would hear. He wisely did as he was told.

"Where should we go first?" Cecilia wondered her twin after they'd read Stana's letter. "It's too far to walk to that busy street we were on earlier."

"Perhaps we could get a ride from that Kirk woman."

"Her? Don't tell me you think she's attractive."

"My cravings work in strange ways, you know that."

Cece gave a short laugh. "I know the main reason you're going along with this plan is to suck up to Invidia, yes. As for Kirk, go right ahead and turn her. I'll be in the kitchen if you need me."

-Dublin-

Nolan - or Ira, as he was being called - stayed with Ellen and her family until the morning. When she offered to drive him to a nearby hotel, he refused and told her he wanted to visit some friends first. In the end, she wound up giving him another lift, this time to his house.

His mother was waiting inside, just getting ready for work when he walked in the front door. She very nearly fainted when she saw him. He, of course, wasn't sure what to do - or say, for that matter, when she asked him if he'd been off searching for his father the whole time. According to the information Cadetmon had put together for him, Nolan's father hadn't been around for a year. No one knew where he was.

He'd eventually said no, and made up some excuse about needing to be alone to think. After that he spent the better part of the day alone in the house while his mother went off to work. He had to wait until it was nine at night before he received word from Stana. Mrs. Drake didn't say anything when he was reading the letter, but she did give the D-Terminal a strange look.

Nolan waited until she was going to bed before sneaking out of the house. He initially pretended to be going to bed himself, but heard her heavy breathing minutes later and climbed out the window. Happy to be at least partially free for the night, he took a walk around the neighborhood. Anyone unfortunate enough to run into him was met with a glare from orange eyes and soon found themselves becoming much angrier....

-Newcastle Upon Tyne-

It was three hours after arriving in the airport that Kaden's plane began to take board. The flight from London to Newcastle only took a half hour. But by the time he found a cab and an address to go to, it was almost eight in the morning. This was evidently too early for the other residents of Kaden's supposed home.

After searching twice, he found no house keys in his bag, so he knock loudly on the door before someone answered. It was a man, roughly around thirty-eight years old though he looked a lot older having not shaved in several days in not weeks. His hair was the same nice blonde color, but it was dirty. The man's eyes were much darker than Kaden's, almost black. He was wearing a bathrobe and smelled heavily of beer.

"What're you doing here?" he demanded a few seconds after opening the door. "I thought we made it clear, we don't want you here any more."

"I thought...." The teenager trailed off. This was certainly not was he was expecting of human families.

"What? You thought we'd change our mind and want you back?" He chuckled. "Why would be do that? You think we want you bossing us around all day, acting like you're better than us? No thank you."

"You're supposed to be my father though, aren't you?" He was starting to wonder if he'd found the wrong house.

"Not any more. I let you keep the clothes and gave you enough money for a ticket and food, now get the hell out of here." And he slammed the door in his son's face.

"Interesting," Kaden muttered as he left the house and wandered down the street.

When he finally got Stana's message at nine, he had already wreaked some havoc on the small town, having stolen some food for himself - finding this much more fun than paying - and taking a car as well. The car was easily disposed of when he saw the police cars following him. He emerged from the crash without a scratch, and hidden from the cops coming to investigate, until the time came to share his ability with them. They left the scene yelling at each other instead of the boy.

-Abuja-

Keeya left Taye in the care of his parents and only stayed long enough to hear his ridiculous excuse of having been staying with friends before she left to go back to work.

"Taye, we checked with your friends when you disappeared," his father told him. "Now where were you?"

The fifteen year old didn't seem to be listening. He was looking around the room - one large room serving as both living and dining room. The interest he showed in it, as if he'd never seen any of the furniture or decorations before, worried his parents.

"Are you sure you're all right?" his mother asked, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder which he quickly shook off.

"I'm fine," he said impatiently. "Don't you two have somewhere to be?" The adults shared looks.

"Not for a few hours," said his father.

"Your father and I managed to find work late last month, actually. You won't have to go back to working at the hotel with your aunt. We ... We know how you hated it there."

"Yes. And your sister's been helping us a lot as well."

Taye tapped his foot, becoming bored with the conversation. "Is she here right now ... this sister of mine?"

"She's upstairs, sleeping. She just got off work an hour ago."

"Hmm. I'll deal with her in a minute then. Come closer," he ordered. When his parents didn't move, he came to them, placing his palms on their arms and glaring into their eyes. Unnaturally bright blue eyes. When he let go, both of his parents started heading for the stairs.

"I'm going back to work," his father said. "I've done enough work already. No sense in wasting my time at that place."

"Lucky you. That company would fall apart if I didn't go in."

Taye grinned as he followed them. While they went into the master bedroom, he went into another. There was a girl around nineteen sleeping in the room. He put his hand over her mouth so he wouldn't have to waste time talking with her. When she opened her alarmed eyes, his were already glowing. And when he was sure she'd gotten a nice dosage of his power, he sat back and relaxed until he got Stana's message at ten, when he started going door-to-door.

-Soffiano-

Valeria had fallen asleep while watching tv. It hadn't helped her much anyhow, but it had been fun. The rest of the day she spent between sleeping and making frequent trips down to the kitchen for snacks.

She was woken for the last time when the De Luca family returned home at six-thirty. And she was more than happy to play along as they fawned over her and cooked a big meal in celebration of her 'returning home.'

The family became worried when she sadly told them that she had to go out for a few hours after Stana's message. But she did them all a favor, setting them at ease with a stare from glowing green eyes. She even managed to convince her father to drive her around town for the night.

-TK's Apartment-

While the shadow digidestined wreaked havoc across the globe on Tuesday night, it was already eight in the morning on Wednesday in Tokyo. Sam and Lou had stayed over at the apartment to keep Patamon company, and make sure no one came to steal the egg. Together they'd been able to work out a new plan and send messages to everyone else to be prepared.

Nancy came home to find the two boys sleeping in her living room. The rest of the apartment was relatively tidy, except for numerous coats, shoes and bags in her hallway from all the visitors they'd been getting since she left.

She found Patamon sitting at the kitchen table eating some cereal out of a bowl, without a spoon. She was sad to say that finding him like this had become a habit in the past few years, so she didn't bother to argue and chose instead to join him with her own bowl. There had been no time to eat before leaving the hotel that morning.

"So, are you going to tell me what's going on, or should I wake up the boys?" she asked by way of greeting.

The digimon slurped up the last of the milk in the bowl and frowned at her. "Do you want the short or the long version?"

"Do we have time for the long version?"

"Good point. So there's this digimon, Spetomon who has the power to de-age humans and digimon. But Cadetmon kidnapped his wife and would only return her if Spetomon de-aged all of the digidestined around the world."

"Oh, no," Nancy moaning, guessing what was coming now.

"Well, he got everyone but TK and Kari, who started working with Spetomon. But they were taken and de-aged yesterday with everyone else."

"Everyone else?"

"Well, you see, we figured out that the only reason Cadetmon was doing this now was because she'd found out that twenty-four new digidestined were coming. We managed to find all but one. The would be you."

"Me? How?"

"We're not sure. Our best guess is it's kind of contagious. The other families are digidestined as well."

"So, that's it. They're gone? And if I'd been here, they probably wouldn't be, right?"

"No, not at all! If you'd been here, they would've taken you too! And we've got a plan, but we do need your help."

"Perfect." Nancy stood up from the table, all thoughts of eating gone now. "Let's go."

"Wait! There's one more thing you should know. We found out that Cadetmon's not exactly in charge anymore. She answers to seven teenagers who call themselves the shadow digidestined and are being possessed by the digimon variations of the Seven Deadly Sins."

She sighed, glaring at the little creature on her table. "Is there anything else?"

"No. You should probably go get your digimon and crest now."

Nancy held open the swinging door. "Lead the way."

Author's Note:

There were so many reviews to answer, I didn't get a chance to say this above- there were 5,540 words in this chapter. That's my biggest chapter EVER!! -does happy dance-

Okay, now that that's out of my system, please review and let me know what you think. There will probably only be two chapters left, maybe ... if I really stretch it ... I can get three out of this.

-Lizzy