Summary: A rescue mission leaves Tai deathly sick, fighting a poison that none of the digidestined had heard of. Battling with guilt, fever and an unknown enemy trying to take over his body, Tai slowly begins to realise that he has to rely on his friends, or more specifically, Matt. //*light* Yamachi.//
Words: 4,550
Notes: A non-one-shot! Duh, duh, duh! The Yamachi is rather small, sadly, and won't appear for a while. I just liked making Tai suffer, I think...
*
Chapter One: To the Rescue!
"I think we should split up."
"What? Are you crazy? We can't separate at a time like this!"
"No, I think Koushiro's right, if we don't split up, then we won't be able to get into the castle."
"Aww, Sora, not you too!"
"Sorry, Tai, but what other way is there?"
Taichi Yagami let out an indignant huff. He hated it when the entire group was against him, but as leader, he had to listen to everyone. Beside him, Kari looked up worriedly, not liking the arguments.
They were trying to break into a heavily guarded castle, where TK and most of their digimon were held captive. Only Matt and Jyou still had their partners and Matt was in no condition to do anything. His worry over his little brother was clouding his mind and making him impatient just to leave. Tai looked over the group, taking in each of their expressions. Seeing how determined they were, he finally sighed.
"Alright, fine, we'll separate."
Koushiro nodded, proud of his friend for making what he figured was the right decision, "Good. Seeing as only two of us still have digimon, we should put one of them in each group." Murmurs of agreement ran through the group; it was a logical decision.
Jyou cleared his throat, "How about we have one group make a big commotion at the front and the other group sneaks in through the back."
"That's a good idea!" Mimi squealed, "But it'll be really dangerous!"
"I'm going in!" Matt declared, leaving no room for discussion.
As silence fell over the group, Tai finally decided to take charge once more, "We know, Matt. Jyou, Koushiro, I think you two should definitely stay behind. Along with Mimi and Kari."
Several of the group gasped, "K-Kari? Meaning you won't be going with her?" Sora's voice was that of complete disbelief.
Tai closed his eyes to control his emotion, "Right. I don't want her going into the castle. If she's with you guys, then at least I know that if things get bad, you can run."
A stunned silence followed; Tai had always been almost irrationally protective of his little sister. If at all possible, he never let her leave his side, especially if they were planning an attack like this. Matt in particular was studying the wild-haired boy, understanding to some extent what Tai was thinking. After a few moments, determined brown eyes opened once more.
"Like I said, Jyou, Koushiro, Mimi and Kari should cause the commotion. Sora, Matt and I have to be the ones who go in."
"Why?" Kari asked in a soft voice. There was no accusation or doubt in her eyes, simply a need to understand. Everyone else waited for the answer with baited breath.
Kneeling down to her level, Tai put on a slight grin, "Simple. Matt is going in no matter what, right? He and Sora make a good team, and we'll need Sora's brains to come up with some sort of plan. Jyou has to stay out because he's the only doctor we've got. If he's captured, then we're all in danger. Koushiro is too intelligent for his own good, so if any one can come up with a way to get their attention, it'll be him. And Mimi has a certain... finesse that I know she'll use to fix up every crack in the plan. Or at least make them obvious."
Kari nodded, but the rest of the group could only stare at their leader with something akin to wonder. Never before had they really been given a reason for Tai doing the things he does, if he even thought through a plan in the first place. They were stunned silent to find out that all they'd needed to do was make Kari ask! After all, Tai never could deny her.
Shaking her head to clear it, Sora smiled gently, "Sounds great. We've gotta get going now before it gets dark." With a final goodbye to each other, and a shout for good luck, the two groups split up. They knew they would have to act fast, because the raider digimon always returned by sundown.
As they were running towards the back of the castle, Sora made a realisation, "How do we know when they've made their distraction?"
Tai snorted, "Oh, I'm sure we'll know." Matt said nothing, his concentration on one thing and one thing only; getting his little brother back. Beside him, Gabumon was doing his best to keep up with the humans' longer legs. He didn't want to digivolve until it was necessary.
After another minute of running, the black castle came into view. So large was it, that they couldn't even see the end of the walls. Stationed at the back door entrance, two digimon stood, clothed in black armour. Some winged digimon could be seen soaring overhead, and quite a few more were standing defensively on the walls.
"It really is tight security," Sora whispered nervously as they all stood at the edge of the digital forest, getting an idea of their chances.
Tai grinned, "Yeah, but I bet the flying guys and the ones on the wall will leave. Then all we have to bash through are the guards at the door, right?"
Sora gave him a sceptical look but nodded none the less. Stepping back further into the safety of the forest, the three sat down, waiting for a sign of chaos from the front of the castle. Gabumon stood patiently where he could still see the castle. It wasn't long before Tai struck up conversation.
"So how do you think we should do this?"
Matt looked over with a glare, "Go in, find my brother, get out."
Sora sighed, "C'mon Yamato, don't be irrational. That's Tai's job."
"Hey!"
Ignoring the offended boy, Sora moved so that she was kneeling in front of Matt, "If you think it through, there's a better chance of things going smoothly, right?"
Matt snorted in answer, standing to escape the girl's intense gaze and wanting to simply barge into the castle. Seeing this, Tai's eyes narrowed. He didn't want to split the group up in the first place, but since it was already done, he figured he'd have to make it work.
Getting off the ground himself, Tai stormed up to the blond boy, "Listen up, Matt, 'cause I'm only telling you once. We're a team. Three of us. Our job is to get your brother and our digimon and get the heck out of here. If you go running in there, acting like you are now and get yourself hurt or captured, then it will be impossible to get your brother out!"
Matt growled, grabbing the front of Tai's shirt angrily, "You think I don't know that?! You think that if there was any other way to save TK, I would be standing here with you?" Sora gasped, but Tai's eyes were as calm as ever.
"It doesn't matter now, does it Matt? We're stuck together. If you don't get that through your head, then we're done for."
"Quit acting like you know everything! It's not your little brother stuck in some stupid bad guy's castle!! It's mine! So quit acting like you understand how I feel!"
"You think I wouldn't feel the same?!" Tai's voice rose to match Matt's even if, for once, he was not angry with the other. All he wanted to do was make him understand.
"I don't care!"
"TK's a strong, smart boy, Matt! He'll be able to handle himself even without your—" The sound of a fist connecting with a jaw filled the forest. Instantly, Tai felt his face throbbing, his head turned to the side with the force of the impact and his eyes a little dazed. Still, he didn't lift a hand up.
Matt simply stood there, holding onto Tai by his shirt. His hand tingled, going slightly numb from the punch, and his arms shook. The anger was draining out of him slowly but surely, leaving him with the consequences of what he'd done.
Feeling the other's shaking, Tai brought a hand up to cover the one on his shirt. A small, pained smile formed on his face as he turned back to Matt, eyes already forgiving. Seeing that only made Matt shake harder, until he finally let go of the shirt.
"Feel better?" Tai asked softly, not bothering to wipe off the blood trailing down from his split lip. As he expected, Matt said nothing. "Well, at least now we can go in as a team, right?"
A shaky nod came from the other, causing Tai's grin to widen. He encouragingly squeezed the other's hand before letting go and turning to Sora, instantly seeing her shocked expression. From the distance, a loud crash sounded. His grin faded to a look of determination and Tai walked forward, moving to stand beside Gabumon.
"T-that the signal?" Sora hesitantly voiced, a little shaken up from what she'd just seen.
"The flyers are gone," Gabumon affirmed quietly, "and the wall-guards are leaving now."
"That's it then, let's get going. Ready Matt?"
A determined fire seemed to light up within the once cold blue eyes, and Matt nodded. Waiting for the perfect moment, each held their breath. As one of the guards at the door turned his head toward the noises coming from the front of the castle, a silent agreement set the group in motion.
"Gabumon, Blue Blaster!"
The horned digimon wasted no time in obeying his partner, sending out a ball of blue energy towards the surprised guards. As soon as the light and confusion cleared, Tai tackled one of the armoured digimon to the ground, letting Gabumon take the other until Sora and Matt were in the castle. A sharp pain suddenly shot through his side, but Tai paid it no attention, the adrenaline quickly masking it.
"Close the gate!" Sora called, not waiting for Gabumon and Tai; they would make it. Nodding decisively, Matt began turning the crank that lowered a large blockade of metal bars. Seeing this, Tai and Gabumon jumped up, diving under the gate before it touched the ground. Panting lightly, Tai pushed himself up off the ground.
"Everyone alright?" Tai asked once his breath was under control. They had already set off down the large corridor that they hoped would lead them to their captured comrades.
Matt snorted, "Isn't that what we should be asking you?"
Tai grinned, "I'm fine! Let's just find the others so we can go."
Shrugging, Matt let the subject drop and focussed on the task at hand.
***
"Man, I wish they had a map or something!" Tai whined as they turned around in yet another dead end.
"I still don't understand why they had a metal gate but didn't use it," Sora murmured.
"Maybe it was a trap?" Gabumon suggested nervously.
"Doesn't matter!" Tai said confidently, "We're already in here, so let's just finish this!"
Matt let the encouraging words wash over him, helping to hold his growing worry and impatience at bay. Suddenly, they heard footsteps. Freezing, the four leaned up against a wall, straining their ears to follow the sounds coming from the approaching digimon.
"Some day, I'm gonna be a great ninja-mon! Then I won't have to go about feeding a bunch of vermin every day!"
A second voice snorted, "Yeah right, and I'll marry an Apemon."
"Hey! It could happen!"
"Whatever. Just hurry up and bring our prisoners their food."
The word "prisoners" grabbed hold of their attention, and without a moment's hesitation, they silently followed what they found out were two rookie digimon, both adorned with similar armour to the ones outside. It soon became obvious as to why they couldn't find their friends before; there was a secret door.
As one of the rookie digimon turned a small wheel and pushed on the stone wall, it gave way to what looked like a staircase. Carrying the food, the digimon made his way down, leaving behind the other. As soon as the second walked away from the new staircase, Matt and Gabumon rushed forward.
"Matt! Wait!" Tai hissed, rushing to keep up and leaving Sora to stand guard worriedly. As noiselessly but quickly as possible, they descended. Torches were their only source of light until, finally, the staircase evened out to reveal a much brighter room, with a row of cells on either side. Eyes widening, Matt picked up his pace, his sights set on the digimon that was bringing them food. His heavy, angry footsteps gave him away, and the digimon turned warily.
Stopping sharply, Matt glared, "Give me the password to let them out." No explanation, no introduction, just a demand. Gabumon and Tai were soon at his side, staring down the lone digimon. Collective gasps came from their captured friends, but not a word was said.
Through the armour, they could see their new foe smirk, "Why should I?"
Growling, Matt took a menacing step forward, "Because I said so."
"What a stupid reason! How about instead, I just let you join them! Oh, but that would mean I'd have to kill three to make room... how about that human?"
Any restraint in Matt snapped and, with a yell, he charged forward. The armoured digmon was still grinning, causing warning bells to go off in Tai's head that made him instantly dash forward to stop the blond. As the digimon pulled out what looked like some sort of dagger, and Matt was nearly on him, Tai literally pounced, dragging the other down at the same time as a sudden pain erupted in his shoulder. Biting back a yell, he protectively covered the lithe body beneath him and waited, ignoring the struggling beneath him.
"Tai! Let me go! He threatened TK! He could hurt him! He—"
"Gabumon will hold him off for a bit," Tai said softly, "But I'm not letting you go until you promise to be more careful!"
"Tai! This isn't the time!"
"Yamato!" Tai barked, his tone leaving no room for refusal.
With a slight glare, Matt nodded and Tai forced himself off the other, once again putting the pain to the back of his mind. Looking back to make sure Gabumon was doing alright, Tai ran towards what looked to be the control box. It had a large selection of brightly coloured buttons that were helpfully labelled. Seeing one that said "Open all cells", Tai grinned.
Meanwhile, Matt had digivolved Gabumon into Garurumon and they were now easily beating down their opponent. Unfortunately, he still wouldn't tell them the password, which Tai soon realised was necessary. This became obvious when the control panel said, in an annoyingly calm female voice, "Please enter password to continue with command."
Ignoring the fight behind him, Tai began punching in any combination of numbers he could think of.
"Incorrect password."
A different combination.
"Incorrect password."
Getting annoyed, Tai cursed the thing as he tried another set of numbers.
"Incorrect password."
"Gah! You stupid box! Let my friends out!"
"Tai!" A familiar voice called to him, belonging to Koushiro's digimon.
Turning in the direction of Tentomon's voice, Tai let out an exasperated sound, "Just hang on! I'm trying!"
"No! You don't understand! I think I know the password!"
"WHAT?"
Tentomon winced at the frustration in the other's voice, but continued, "I watched the other guy type it in a few times."
"Well, anything's gotta be better than this!" Tai encouraged, "So out with it!"
"Okay. Try 9262244!"
Shrugging, Tai put the numbers in, holding his breath as he waited for the panel's response.
"Password accepted. Now opening all cell doors."
"YES! You rock, Tentomon!"
"Aww, it was nothing," the bug-digimon blushed as the doors finally opened. At the same time, Garurumon sent a final, devastating attack that rendered their opponent unconscious.
"Brother!" TK's voice was Matt's only warning before he found himself holding onto 70 pounds of a brother.
"Takeru," Matt whispered, returning the embrace tightly. From the background, Tai grinned, a flash of worry making its way into his heart as he wondered if his little sister was alright. Taking a breath to calm himself, Tai cleared his throat.
"We should go now, before someone realises we're here. Hopefully Sora memorised the way or something!"
Matt looked over at the wild-haired boy and nodded, putting TK down and grabbing his hand to lead him up the stairs. The rest of the digimon followed with Tai pulling up the rear. As they burst through the entrance of the secret stairway, they were met with a fretful young girl who wanted nothing more than to smack her friends silly. Luckily, the sight of her digimon took all worried thoughts away and she pulled Biyomon into an embrace.
"Let's get out of here!" Tai stated with finality. The now rather large group all agreed and they were on their way. As it turned out, Sora had been contemplating the way out for most of her wait, so she guided the group toward what her calculations said would be the exit. To everyone's relief, the large metal gate came into view. Once again, Matt turned the crank. With a groan of protest, the gate rose slowly, revealing the angry faces of more armoured digimon.
"Aw man!" groaned Sora.
Tai laughed, "It's alright, we can take 'em, right guys?"
A chorus of agreement rose and they started the fight once more. Garurumon led the way for the digimon into battle, being the only one in his champion form apart from Gatomon. TK and Sora soon changed that.
"Patamon digivolve to... Angemon!"
"Biyomon digivolve to... Birdramon!"
The fight was nonexistent. With four champion digimon and two rookies, the others didn't stand a chance. Agumon, however, stayed back. He hadn't gotten a chance to truly reunite with Tai with all the chaos going on and he was worried. His partner hadn't seemed like himself, staying at the back and keeping quiet.
"Tai?" The small dinosaur's voice brought his partner's attention away from the dying fight.
The boy smiled brightly, "Hey Agumon!"
"Everything okay?"
Tilting his head to the side, Tai blinked, "Yeah, everything's fine. Are you alright? You didn't get hurt or anything, right?"
Agumon shook his head, but he couldn't let go of his worry over the other, "Do you want me to fight?"
Looking over at the other digimon, Tai shook his head, "Nah. It's over now." It was true; already Angemon had digivolved back to his rookie form.
"We did it," Matt sighed with relief, one hand still firmly holding TK's.
Sora nodded, "Yeah, we sure did."
"Should we get going?" TK wondered, looking over at the two digimon they could count on for transportation. Both Garurumon and Birdramon knelt down, making it easy for the others to climb on.
"Yup! Let's go see the others!" Tai declared as he jumped onto Garurumon, along with TK and Matt. Agumon still looked a little worried, but got on nonetheless. As expected, Tentomon and Patomon chose to fly along side Birdramon while the others rode, sitting on the feet. Sora relaxed into the familiar position and finally, they were off. Time to put the castle behind them.
***
As Tai had hoped, the other four had run when it got dangerous, shortly before Tai's group had left. They found each other easily, basking in the victorious feeling of accomplishing their goal. With the last of the sun's rays disappearing behind the horizon, the digidestined set up camp. As they sat comfortable around the fire, they discussed all that had happened.
"What exactly did you guys do? I mean, those guards cleared out quickly!" Sora exclaimed, her bright eyes trained on Koushiro.
With a blush, Koushiro shook his head, "You don't want to know. Really, you don't." Everyone laughed, the sound filling up the once silent night. Sitting between Matt and Kari, Tai kept a grin firmly on his face. Honestly, all he wanted to do was go to sleep. Or at least go off on his own to do something about the throbbing pain in his shoulder and side.
"What about you guys?" Jyou wondered, "Did you have any problems? Did anyone get hurt?" The blue-haired doctor-to-be was staring in askance at Tai in particular, but it was Matt who answered.
"It went fine once we found some digimon to lead us to the others."
Jyou breathed out a sigh of relief, "That's good. I was worried."
Little did he know, Jyou wasn't the only one who was worried. Kari kept glancing at her brother in concern, wondering about the change in attitude as well as what looked to her like a pained smile. Sort of like when he got hit in the head with a soccer ball one day at practice but kept grinning to show he was fine. Of course, the bruise on his cheek hadn't escaped anyone's notice, but Tai had already said it wasn't important.
Agumon was in a similar state. Seated in front of his partner, he wanted to confront the other about what was bothering him, because to the acute dinosaur digimon, there was obviously something. Still, he waited anxiously, until after many long talks, TK yawned.
"We should go to bed," Mimi stated after she yawned as well. It wasn't long before eight sleeping bags were laid out around the now-extinguished fire. Seven of them held what seemed like sleeping figures. Alone, Tai stared up at the star-filled sky. He had volunteered to take first watch, wanting to think over all that had happened. Beside him, Agumon sighed restlessly.
"T~ai," he whined, "What's wrong?"
Glancing behind him to make sure the others were truly asleep, Tai shrugged, "It's nothing much, Agumon."
"Nothing much? Meaning it's still something?"
Tai rolled his eyes, "You're so persistent!"
"I know!" Agumon grinned, "Now tell me."
Looking away from his digital partner's trusting eyes, Tai answered, "I just feel like I failed."
Agumon blinked, "Failed? Failed what?"
Tai shrugged once more, "I don't know. Failed as a leader. Failed as a partner. I mean, I was the one who pretty much got us into that mess in the first place! And then I let you get captured... and Kari was so worried for Gatomon... and Matt..."
"Oh, Tai," Aguman sighed, "Please don't blame yourself."
"But I'm their leader, Agumon! I'm supposed to make sure these things don't happen! And you're my best friend!"
"I'm back, right? You got me back, Tai. You saved me."
Tai snorted, "Sure. I jumped on some digimon, snuck around like a thief, tackled Matt and got the password from Tentomon. I sure saved you alright."
"Tai! Stop it! Are you just going to wallow in self pity like this?" Agumon ran around to the other side to catch Tai's fleeting gaze. He was stunned to see them glimmering, obviously wet.
"I'm sorry, buddy. I just... it's just hard sometimes, I guess. If I could, I would save this world all on my own, as long as the others could be safe."
Agumon smiled softly, "I know, Tai. But you don't have to. We'll follow you wherever you want to go. We'll always be behind you, especially when you need us."
"Yeah," Tai agreed softly, "You guys are the best." But who will be in front of me? Who will guide me?
Suddenly, a searing pain shot through his shoulder, causing the boy to bite down on his lip harshly to keep from crying out. The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth and his eyes watered, but he was silent. Agumon watched on, terrified to see the unexpected action from his partner.
"Tai?"
The voice didn't penetrate through the pain. That was how blinding and terrible it was. Why wasn't it fading to a dull ache like all the other times? Why was it so white-hot all of a sudden? Bringing a hand to his shoulder in an effort to stifle the pain, Tai couldn't help but let out a tiny moan.
"Tai?!"
Shuddering, Tai let the worried voice of his friend engulf him, bringing his attention away from the pain. It finally began to fade at an agonisingly slow rate, leaving Tai panting for breath. He opened his eyes, not knowing when he'd closed them in the first place. Before him, Agumon was staring up at him, fear and worry evident.
Tai put on a shaky grin, "I'm fine, Agumon." The pain had finally returned to the gentler ache he had grown used to.
Agumon shook his head, "No you're not!"
"It's just a cut, I think. Nothing to worry about."
Again, Agumon shook his head; it was obvious that he refused to accept that as an answer, "Show me!"
Tai was still for a moment before he finally nodded, turning his back to his digimon. He carefully pulled down his right sleeve, trying not to aggravate the painful cut any further. A worried noise came from Agumon.
"It's bloody," the digimon whispered fearfully.
Tai grimaced, "Is it really? I haven't actually gotten to look at it. My head doesn't turn that way." The feeble attempt at a joke had no effect on the little dinosaur.
"You should show Jyou," Agumon stated softly, looking away from the wound.
"No. That would just worry the others. I already failed once, I don't need to do it again. Besides, it'll heal, right?" Tai fixed his sleeve once more, turning to face his downcast digimon.
"But—"
"Please, Agumon."
Sighing dejectedly, Agumon nodded, "Okay."
"Thanks."
In the dark of the night, neither of them knew that their conversation had not gone unnoticed. Lying awake in his sleeping bag, Matt pondered over all he had learned. Originally, he had trouble sleeping because of all the raging emotions he had naturally suppressed, caused by the capture of his brother. As he accidentally caught Tai's confessions to his digimon, however, sleep became impossible.
He couldn't see anything, of course, so when it had gone silent and Agumon had cried out to his partner, Matt could feel a whole new set of emotions building. Sometimes, the digimon's voice was too soft for him to hear, but Tai's was as clear as usual, if pained, and it had given away a fact that would be vital to Matt's understanding; Tai was hurt.
When the voices stopped, indicating their talk was over, Matt found sleep continued to evade him.