Hi! First off, how many of you were pissed off at the random MattxSora pairing in season 2? I for one most definitely was! So now I'm writing a sequel, sort of. Please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I, gamings-reminiscence, in no way shape or form, own neither the Digimon franchise nor the characters and Digimon mentioned within it. This is written for fun and is just an idea that sprung into my mind at random!

Digital Mind Games: Revelations

Chapter 1: A New Beginning

The University of California Los Angeles or as most would like to call it, UCLA. One of the top 3 Universities in the United States, as well as 13th in the Rankings for the 500 top Universities in the World, thousands of students with grade point averages ranging from 3.9 to 4.5 apply to this University from all across the globe. On average about a quarter of the applicants are accepted. Even among the accepted there are many who decline the invitation simply because of the staggering price of yearly tuition and board. So if one were to have a full time soccer scholarship to said University, room and board handsomely paid for, it would be safe to assume that one would be relatively ecstatic for such an opportunity. Well…

A tall, well built tan Japanese man drained his fourth Gatorade of the night, a towel covering the top half of his face while his bare shoulders heaved at every breathe. Half the men on the field, including him, were shirtless while the other half had their jerseys on. Off to the side laid a score card standing up right. On it said Shirts-39 Skins-40. Around him, several other young men were leaving the field, many of the younger faces limping away or slung over the arm of another equally exhausted player. UCLA was also known for their impressive sports program.

UCLA's athletic teams, the Bruins, have won 125 national championships, including 104 NCAA team championships as of 2009, which is more than any other university. Despite 92% of the school population coming from the United States, many of the soccer players were recruited, like the man, on a global level, and would eventually move on to a national team soon after graduating. There were countless examples of athletes graduating from this very campus and making it onto the global stage and achieving world renowned fame. At least, that's what the coach oh so colorfully explained to him the day he set foot on campus 4 years ago.

The Japanese man straightened up to his full 6 foot height and threw the rag off of his head, revealing a soaked mop of brown hair. With a small grunt, the man proceeded to perform a series of stretches to relieve his body of the after affects of that night's practice game. Of all the teams sponsored at UCLA, their soccer program was by far the most respected and revered, anyone on the team was already being scouted by teams after their first year playing, so the coach said.

After a few more slow exercises, the man made his way over to the dorm shower rooms, where the quiet sounds of running showers echoed off the walls and into the dark night. No words were exchanged, just a nod of heads, a quick shower, and off to the dorms for a well earned… all nighter finishing up that research paper due in, the man looked at the digital clock next to his bedside table, 12:30 am; 8 hours. With a sigh, the man threw himself onto the computer chair and proceeded to stare at his marvelously blank word document on the screen. He could still clearly remember the look his upper classmen had given him on his first all nighter and their all too encouraging words of "Welcome to College life! The Monsters and Rockstars are in the 'fridge."

A bright morning. The birds were chirping, the sun rose at just the right angle to notice the fresh dew on the tree leaves and from the dorms of the soccer team, came the peaceful sounds of… panic.

"Crap I overslept hella much!!"

"Did anyone finish their Humanities paper?!"

"Damn it, I didn't study for the exam yet!"

"Ahh I fell asleep!"

"Shut up! I don't have classes until 12!!"

"Screw it, I'm skipping the first few periods."

From the room on the second floor of the five story dormitory, the Japanese man was currently doing the happy dance with his finished paper. On the cover of his paper, it read in neat print, "The History of Political Science and the Effects of The Current Economic Stimulus, by Taichi Yagami Kamiya." After a quick change of clothes, the man practically pranced down the stairs after safely placing the 'sacred paper' in his backpack. He exited out of the building and breathed in the fresh morning air (A/N Don't you love how the world seems to be going right after a successful all nighter for a huge paper?)

Running a hand through his hair, he slipped on a pair of black aviators and followed the path to the nearest cafeteria. Inside, several students were grabbing their first meal of the day, and trying their best to not look like they either spent the night partying or working on homework due that morning. After grabbing six pieces of French toast, a cup of syrup, four strips of bacon, and a large glass of orange juice, he placed them on a pink tray and balanced it all on one hand as he searched the crowd for some familiar faces. On the upper floor near one of the balconies, Tai could clearly make out a fuzzy head of orange hair. With a goofy grin, he ran up the stairs to the second story, his long legs allowing him to skip three steps at a time. At the top, he greeted his sleepy friends, while still balancing his food, until he made it to one of the three balconies. In one of the chairs sat a lanky man around the same age as Tai typing away on a laptop while munching on a muffin. Tai was about to sneak up on the man until said man, without looking up from his work said, "Morning Tai. Please tell me you finished that paper."

Tai practically deflated and slipped into the chair next to him, "Yeah, stayed up all night to finish it though. How'd you know it was me?"

"First of all, it was more like START the paper last night. You wouldn't have known about it unless Caine told you about it. And second, you said hi to 12 people before even getting close to me."

With a bright grin, he dug his fork into a piece of French toast, "What can I say? Soccer keeps me busy."

Now it was the other man's turn to grin, "Yes, like it has been for four years now. Honestly Tai, how in the world did you manage to keep your grades up this long without getting a girl to do your work for you like you did as a Freshman?"

"Ouch, don't remind me. Naomi sounded like a smart name, so I figured she was smart enough!"

"Yeah, ignoring your naming prejudice, what you didn't expect was that she was just a junior in High School here for the Science camp."

"Haha…yeah… how's Mimi?"

"Venice has been pretty good to her. Wanna talk to her? She's on AIM."

"Naw I'm good, I don't wanna get hungry reading all the recipes she's cooking up."

Thankfully for Tai, his genius friend Koushiro "Izzy" Izumi had gotten into UCLA by his own power and was currently majoring in Computer Programming. Ever since his adventure in the Digital World, Izzy had been pursuing knowledge on the computerized sentient beings. His theory had originally been to alter the digital world to rid it of the virus digimon, but realized that like in most societies, there had to be a justifiable evil in order for many to follow a stable government, or in the Digital World's case, the four Sovereigns. Without a dark to balance the light, the programs would remain inactive until the very space the digital world resided in would collapse.

Although that was the reason he had told Tai for attending, Tai would teasingly say through their first year there that the real reason was to see a certain brunette digidestined. Izzy was already set on going to Tokyo University until Tai called him at the airport in Los Angeles. All it took was for him to say that Mimi would be attending through way of her modeling company, and Izzy was on a plane to L.A. His transcript was transferred over and for the short time before soccer season, he had roomed with Tai. He would spend countless nights staying up at odd hours helping Tai with his less than perfect English. As soon as his parents gave him his college fund, all it took was a two hour Socratic Discussion with the Dean and he was in. Since Mimi was already a renowned model in New York, there were many instances where Izzy lost the will to be more than just friends. It wasn't until their sophomore year that a New Year's party brought them together, and they've been inseparable ever since. Tai couldn't count the times he asked them to double date with him and a girl he met when he used to party constantly.

Mimi's influence on Izzy was obvious; he joked around more often and dressed much more fashionably. At the moment, he was dressed in a white undershirt with a black and orange flannel shirt left unbuttoned along with a pair of dark wash jeans. A pair of orange, grey, black, and white Nike Air Max Lights finished off his clothes (A/N Google it. The shoes exist if you don't believe me.) 'The man should definitely shop with Meems more often.' Tai shuddered at the over-sized orange button ups, green shorts and purple shoes he used to wear back in the day.

Mimi had probably changed the most. Not only had she calmed down considerably, she usually had no trouble keeping up conversation with Izzy for hours on his latest project, while Tai, who was working on a law degree as a back up, was left in the dust. 'A Smart Model' was the oxymoron Tai used to tease her with until she changed her occupational choice to foods. To the bliss, and sometimes pain, of Izzy, she fed him whatever she learned while interning with a Chef at a Art Institute. 9 times out of 10 they turned out delicious. The other time was well spent face first in the dorm toilets. Now that she was on a trip through Europe, Izzy wasn't sure whether he should miss her or tap her phone lines to see who she's talking to. 'The sap would probably do both.' Tai thought with a smile.

There was an amiable silence while Tai tore into his food until Izzy started, "You know, now that Thanksgiving break is coming up, me and Mimi were thinking of going to Shin-"

"Sorry Izzy, I gotta head to class to turn in the paper so I can get in a few more hours of sleep! Catch ya later!" With a smile, Tai ran picked up his things and ran off, sunglasses hiding both his eye bags and an emotion that Izzy knew all to well. 'He still hasn't gotten over it.' With a sigh, he closed up his laptop and walked down the stairs to his morning class. 'Tai, how long are you going to keep running from this?'

After Tai arrived to class and turned in his paper, he fished through his key filled pockets until he found his trusty iPhone. His parents gave it to him as a gift for surviving a year in a college halfway across the world. Izzy had tweaked it so that the voice recording application could span for more than a few hours and upped the quality of the sound. Not to mention that with every scroll of the screen, he could impersonate almost any digimon's voice stored in Izzy's laptop. April Fool's Days have never been the same for UCLA with those two around. After setting his phone to record, Tai, like any health respecting student who just spent all night working on a paper, slipped off his shades and walked to his desk. There, he pulled at the sleeves of his white thermal, crossed his arms, and fell asleep in them.

Dream Sequence

Tai opens his eyes to a long corridor with a fork at the end. There, he sees two figures, standing on different ends of the forked corridor. The corridor where one stood suddenly catches on fire. A door behind the person opens yet he makes no move to go through. The person on the other side, completely unharmed, looks at him and he can hear a voice, but cannot make out the words "…" he moves towards the figure, again he hears a voice from that same person, words unclear, "…" He stops, already knowing what path he should take. Changing direction, he bolts into the fire, the smoke and flames obstructing his vision until the figure he was so desperately chasing after looks in his direction. The figure's eyes go wide, "…! …?!" Without a response, Tai tackles the man through the door but before Tai himself can go through, the door shuts itself. Pointlessly, he tries to pound at the door and throw his weight into it. It refuses to budge. Then the voice seeps through the fire.

"They won't come for you."

"…" Tai weakly pounds at the door, the smoke slowly shortening his breathing.

"The darkness is all that you have left."

"No…" He presses his fists into his ears, his back sliding against the door to the floor.

"He stole everything from you."

"Shut up…" He grits his teeth in frustration.

"You will be left alone."

"Shut up."

"You hate him don't you?"

"Who do I hate?!" He stands up.

"You want to kill him!"

"NO I DON'T!!!" He breathed in deeply, glaring at the surprised professor at the front of the class.

"Mr. Kamiya, I understand that you would not want the judicial system to be left in the hands of a single party, but could you please leave your comments to yourself?" Embarrassed, Tai slowly sits back down, snickers and whispers going through the class. He pulled out a notebook and a pencil hoping that taking notes would help him forget about the dream he just had. But he couldn't stop one thought from coming out before he focused on the lesson, 'That voice…why did it sound… like Piedmon…"

For the rest of the day, Tai made a point to fall asleep at least once in his classes, but they were all met with the same dark but peaceful slumber that only seemed to last a few minutes. 'I should have tried to stay in the dream longer.' He thought while going to the library to study for midterms that were coming in up right before Thanksgiving Break. Caine, a goalie on the team, as well as his room mate had taken up Psychology as a major. He had once said that to continue a dream, once you're in the state between consciousness and reality, that pulling feeling you get once you wake up, you should stay in it by keeping your eyes shut and your breathing even. It's much easier to go back into the dream that way, since it takes a few days of consistent thought of that dream for it to reoccur in your sleep again.

To his luck, he found his friend Caine sleeping on the lap of an attractive woman on the couches in the lounge area of the library. With a smile, he walked up to the couple. She looked up from her book and noticed Tai walking towards them. Before she could say anything Tai raised a finger to his lips and sent a wink in her direction. She smiled flirtatiously at him and remained silent. Tai unrolled his earphones and stuck them into the jack of his iPhone. Casually scrolling through the songs, he kept stealing glances at the woman who more than happily smiled at each one, 'Ah college life. When classes kill you, your social life brings you back from the grave.' After picking the right song, he gently slipped one ear bud into Caine's visible ear and hit the play button. The bass could be heard from outside the buds as his friend jumped from the amused woman's lap, "GAH! HMM-SHI-THE FU- TAI! THE HELL WAS THAMMFF" Before they would get kicked out by the pissed off librarian, Tai slammed his palm into the goalie's mouth.

"Just a wake up call, nothing else can wake you up after all." Which was true. When they first moved in together, Tai, as well as the rest of the team would constantly be woken up at 6 in the morning to a loud rap song that repetitively said, 'WAKE THE F#$% UP! WAKE THE F#$% UP!!' Needless to say, the team threatened to vote him off if he didn't either change the song or lower the volume.

Tai smiled at the woman who was trying her best not to laugh at Caine's stupefied expression, "Hey babe, could you give us a minute? Just need to talk to my friend about something." She smiled back, her voice coming out smooth as velvet, "Sure thing, see you at the party Caine" and walked away.

Caine spared a second to watch her walk away, Tai chuckling amusedly, "Well she knows how to flirt, but knows when she's going too far. She controlled her hips walking away, and all she did was smile at me. Plus she was reading Dante's Inferno. Smart, classy, and hot. Nice choice!"

Caine smiled stupidly as her figure turned the corner, "Yeah…you can't find a girl like that just anywhere."

"Hmmm yeah…" His mind wandered off to an orange haired tennis player somewhere far away. But then he remembered a blonde haired best friend and shook the thoughts away, 'Probably wasn't meant to be anyways'

The young Filipino man smoothed back his black spiked hair and looked at Tai with a frustrated expression, "So what did you want so badly that I needed to lose my pillow?" Tai, thrown out of his reverie, looked at Caine for a second as if he were trying to remember why he was there.

"Oh yeah, you like interpreting dreams right?"

"Yeah? Why do you ask?"

"Well I have a pretty weird one I want you to look at."

"Hey if it's a whacked out wet dream, I can't do anything like that! You'd need a girl for that!" Everyone within hearing range shot strange looks at the two athletes. Tai stared at Caine oddly before shoving him into a study room.

"What?! Why would I be having wet dreams? Girls aren't something I usually have problems with."

Caine pulled up a chair and flopped down. "Dude, I've been your room mate for almost four years now. I hear everything you shout out in your dreams."

"…Do you hear that often?"

"No, it's usually every few months or so."

"…Good."

"You say something?"

"Yeah, my dream's nothing like that. But," Tai went on to explain how he fell asleep in his first class, the corridors in his dream, and the realistic feel of the flames and smoke after running into the fire. Caine studied Tai's expressions while listening through his story, how his face softened at the mention of the mystery people, the worried look at the words he was able to make out in the dream, the calm expression when talking about rushing into the flames yet the look of longing still apparent on his face. That's what he loved so much about psychology, being able to take apart a person from the inside and rearranging them into a tangible, conclusive mindset. That and the completely lost looks he got from the soccer team whenever he talked about it. After Tai finished his dream, Caine rubbed the back of his neck, a tell-tale sign that he was thinking.

"Ok, most dreams don't usually use any senses besides sight, yet you had touch, hearing, and smell as well. Dreams that utilize more than one sense are called Lucid Dreams. I'm guessing that you weren't aware that you were dreaming right? Tai nodded at him.

"Most psychologists would put a client into sleep induced hypnosis. They are placed in a Lucid Dream when faced with a certain event, trauma, things like that. My assumption would be that your dream sticks more to home than you think. It all seemed very real to you because that is the reality you have placed yourself in.

"Now this is where things get complicated. Despite popular belief, there is no set definition for symbols that end up in dreams since each individual person has a different experience to be coupled with that specific symbol. For instance, imagine that you're in an empty street and you see a nameless figure running at you. Now to one person, it can be interpreted as a past trauma that had led to rape. Yet to one who has never experienced that, the man could be a metaphor to a mistake that literally caught up with them." Tai nodded, trying to take all of the info in.

"Ok, so what do I have to do to make it clearer?"

Caine beamed at the man, "Always the perceptive one. Without proper knowledge, I'd just be playing a guitar without the strings; it looks right from afar but in the end, no sound comes from it. So Tai, is there anyone in your life right now that would fit the bill of these mystery people?"

Tai, who was sitting on the edge of the study table, fingered his sunglasses with both hands. "I'm not sure who they were; their shapes were dark and blurred."

"Do you think you could know who they were?"

"Well they WERE talking to me."

"But you don't remember what they were saying."

"… No… but there was another voice that I COULD hear." Tai looked into the reflection of his sunglasses, the words coming to the surface, "You hate him don't you? You want to kill him!"

"That, my good sir, was your subconscious thought. In all dreams, the picture you see is what goes on in your mind. Everything in that dream was your own thoughts but Tai, everyone's got skeletons in their closet, no one's purely good or bad. Everyone has some shades of gray in them. Even so, it would seem that those two people hold a pretty close place in your heart. You were willing to throw yourself into the 'fire' to save that person. But it didn't sound like the person wanted saving, it ignored the exit. You had to force that person away."

"…yeah it's always been like that. I've always tried to push him in the right direction."

"So one of them is male."

"Yeah. Wait. No. I think it was…" Tai got off the edge of the table started pacing back and forth. Caine held a thoughtful look for a couple of minutes, as if debating whether he should say what he wanted to say. Tai noticed that look, "Bro, you got any ideas?"

"Yeah, but we just learned about it in class. Not sure if I should actually TRY it."

"Hey just call me the test monkey!"

Caine grinned at the metaphor, "Everyone on the team calls you that."

"Yeah, if I can do THAT stuff, then I can handle whatever you're cookin up there." Tai poked his forehead with a chuckle.

He shoved Tai's finger away, "Alright, I warned you; it's not my fault if it feels like you're on an acid trip."

"That's the spirit! So what you got planned?"

"Well, you know the therapy I was talking about? When psychologists put their clients into a Lucid Dream?"

"Yeah."

"Well it's called narrative therapy and we're gonna try it. It's going to be really shallow, so you can snap out of it whenever you want to. We're going to try and go back into your dream. Sound good?"

"Ooh. Sounds cool! I thought that was just the stuff in movies!" Tai's eyes lit up excitedly.

"Dude, how can you go from mature to childish without sounding even a little fake?"

"Years of experience, bro. So how we gonna do this?"

"Alright, first, help me close the blinds," Caine gestured to the glass that made up a wall of the study room, "then I want you to lie down on the table."

"Ooh, not trying to take advantage of me are you?"

"Tai, shut up." After all was said and done Tai was laying down on the table, face up. Caine had brought out a notebook and pen and was playing with a tape recorder of his own off to the side. "Ha, I've never really done this before, it's kinda weird. Alright, now recording the session with test monkey," Tai flipped him off, "…Tai Kamiya. Now, I want you to breathe in deep, slow intervals." He did as he was told, "Good, keep that rhythm, relax."

"That's what she said."

"Tai! No talking unless I say so."

"That's what-Sorry, I know, just a little nervous."

"Anyways, breathe in, breath out." There was a period of silence. "Ok, you should be feeling very relaxed now. I will count down to one, at one, you will fall asleep. 5. 4. 3. 2, and…1." Tai's head fell to the side, yet his breathing stayed consistent. "Tai, can you hear me?" Caine's voice questioned softly. "Yes." Tai breathed out.

"Good, now I want you to think back. Think back 8 hours ago. Think back to your dream during Political Science." Caine waited a few seconds, "Are you there Tai? What can you see?"

"Yes… I see… a corridor."

"Good, what's in the corridor?"

"A bunch of… doors… but they're locked."

"That's right. Keep going."

"I'm…I'm walking forward…and there's… a split… two… two corridors. There's… someone there… someone on both sides… they're just standing there. It's warm… there's… a bright light…a fire… on one side! Someone's still there! I need to stop it! I need to-"

"Tai! Calm down! If you panic too much, you'll wake up. Calm down. Calm…down." Tai's breathing, which had grown eratic, slowed down, until it returned back to its even state.

"Good… stay that way… we don't want to lose your progress. Now, what is happening?"

"…I'm walking towards the other person… it's saying something… it's saying…"

(A/N if it isn't obvious already, a dream sequence will be in bold)

"Tai…" he moves towards the figure. It's image becomes clearer with each step; a woman, with orange shoulder length hair can be seen. She continues, "I'm sorry… I… love" He stops, already knowing what path he should take. Changing direction, he bolts into the fire, the smoke and flames obstructing his vision until the figure he was so desperately chasing after looks in his direction. A man, with dark blonde hair stares furiously at his figure, "You idiot! Don't you know it wasn't supposed to be me?!" Without a response, Tai tackles the man through the door but before Tai himself can go through, the door shuts itself. Pointlessly, he tries to pound at the door and throw his weight into it. The door refuses to budge. Then the voice seeps through the fire.

"Tai? What are you doing?! Tai!!"

"They won't come for you." He gets up.

"Tai! You are going to wake up in-"

"The darkness is all that you have left." He pushes back to the front of the corridor.

"3."

"He stole everything from you." He feels his way back until the smoke clears.

"2."

"You will be left alone." He turns to the other corridor. The man and woman are embracing each other, the woman's face buried into his shoulder. He feels himself smile.

"1!" With a gasp, Tai opened his eyes to see him standing upright. Confused, he looked down to see Caine lightly grasping his arm. Turning around, he sees the table overturned and resting on the other side of the room. "Did I do that?"

"Yeah man, you did."

"Woah…"

"Right? So what happened to the other part of the dream?" Tai blinked trying to remember it.

"I'm pretty sure it ended."

"Ended? Just like that?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, I guess. Why don't we save the interpreting for another time? We're attracting some attention." Tai turned back and noticed that the door was open, the librarian looking in curiously, "You two haven't been fighting in here have you?"

Tai grinned sheepishly as he ran a hand through his bushy hair, "No, nothing like that. Sorry ma'am." The librarian stared at him disbelievingly, but Tai just smiled at her. "All right, but put that table back in the center."

"Roger!"

After she had left, Caine sighed at him, "Man. I should've taped that! I hella would've gotten extra credit for it!" They shared a small laugh, "Well," Tai threw his arms up in a stretch and noticed he had something clutched in his hand, his cell phone oddly enough. He took a second to stare at the screen before pocketing it, "why don't we worry about the game next week instead of raising your A++?" Agreeing, they both hauled up the table and carried it to the center of the room.

"Anyways, so much for studying. Practice is starting up in a bit, why don't we grab something to eat and head off?" At the mention of food, Caine's eyes lit up.

"Hell yeah! And the price for my services can go to you paying for my food!"

"I GUESS! Just hurry up and find your car! I don't feel like walking." Caine nodded and ran out of the library.

"Hooo…" Tai ran a hand through his hair while reaching into the pocket of his jeans to pull out his iPhone. "Something's definitely going to happen." Instead of a black screen in sleep mode, the crest of courage shone brightly off of his phone's screen, "Let's just hope we're prepared for it." Tai stuffed the phone into his backpack and walked out of the library.

Done!! Yay! That was long. I mean REALLY long. I know I should be working on Apolake's Rising, but I had an urge to watch Digimon and then I remembered how annoyed I was over the random MattXSora pairing! It seemed weird to me. Taiora all the way! Then I had a story in mind and a crossover to use so yeah, hear it is! I'm still thinking about the title though, it kind of sounds like someone had already thought of it so I might just change it. Now I'm working on two stories, I wonder if I can update a little more for both. Time will tell I suppose!

Until next time

-gamings-reminiscence