A/N: Challenges:

The Prompts in Steps Challenge, 4.01 – oneshot, gracious
Diversity Writing Challenge, c23 – write an alternate ending
The Driven by Tears Boot Camp, #009 – abnormal
Becoming the Tamer King, Sheer Valley task

The poem is an expert of "If the Hero Falls" for another Diversity prompt.

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Paying Back

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Because, when the hero fell,
who'd offer their hand
to pull him up again?

They'd try, of course.
The stars would try
but all the stars in the world
couldn't replace the Earth's sun

Even if there are a thousand stronger stars
further away…

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It wasn't irony.

It should have been, but it wasn't. Because Taiki was just that kind of guy, driving himself into the ground for everyone else so of course it was something like that which was going to leave him in a bad way, and he'd wound up in semi-bad ways before. Usually, though, it was falling asleep while standing up and simply needing some sugar (or a more substantial meal) and a nap. Occasionally he pulled a muscle or something. Something that took an ice pack or a bandage and then was fixed.

But his was different. This was a full on attack: an attack from a digital power that had struck him full on. And though he'd still been conscious at the end of it, it hurt more. It did more damage.

By the time they left the quartz space, he was unconscious, and fading fast. A sudden drop, because he'd been shaking Shoutmon's hand just before. But the digital world was different like that. Something was keeping him up. It fell away when the doors all closed. And he fell.

They called the ambulance. There was nothing else they could do. No enemy to fight (though Tagiru could swear Ren had punched Ryouma at some point during that, even if it wasn't the poor guy's fault he'd been possessed for over a year and his entire tenure as a Hunter). They shoved Tagiru onto the ambulance too because he'd already fought for that spot and come in second place, and he didn't have the time to argue Ryouma should go instead. And maybe that wouldn't have been well received, either. Maybe not even by Ryouma.

Still, he felt pretty useless in the ambulance. And in the waiting room of the emergency room as they did things behind the curtains he wasn't supposed to see. But a nurse came and explained a few things. How the hit in the chest had shocked his heart and now it was beating funny, or something like that. And how some funny heart beats would go back to normal if you shocked them, or gave some sort of drug, and some didn't. And how they sometimes came back, and it seemed to be one of those semi-stubborn recurring things because they were having trouble keeping his heart rate steady.

By the time the others found adults to drive them and had crowded the hospital room, Taiki had been intubated and tucked into ICU where only family was allowed.

He came out a few days later, and surprisingly, he didn't look like he was on death's bed. But not everyone who crawled out of ICU looked like that, apparently. Inside ICU was another story though, and the children had to take the doctor's word for it because they weren't allowed in, and Taiki's parents weren't really the right person to ask when their son had just been there.

In any case, Taiki was out of the ICU and awake and he had to be fine, right?

Well, apparently. Or not. They did some fancy scans while he was comatose and came up with a bunch of scars in the walls of the heart: the source of those funny rhythms. And those sorts of things weren't really repairable either. And nice entry points for bacteria and things like that. In other words, his heart was forever fragile. More drugs and tests and not overworking himself, and that made things difficult because Taiki was Taiki and helping everybody.

And the only way he wasn't going to if there was no-one left to help.

And they'd all been helped by Taiki by some point or other. So surely they could put that experience to good use.

Unfortunately, only Ryouma agreed with Tagiru's bright idea at first. Maybe because Ryouma desperately needed a way to make up for things, even if it wasn't him, wasn't his fault. And Taiki was fine with that. He'd said so. Tagiru was fine with that. The others were a little iffy but maybe they just needed time, or maybe they just needed Taiki to be normal again because it was unnerving seeing the famous hero in the state that he was in, even if he was still trying to grin at the end of it.

So the two of them did their best. Helping out at school first of all because they often needed help and they were things somewhat easier to do. And then town, and then others started joining them: Zenjirou (with Akari staying at the hospital to make sure Taiki didn't try to join in), and Hideaki and Yuu…and then Airu and Ren, and Tagiru ordered them after Ryouma so they could patch things up and become friends all over again.

And the others join in. And some of them make a club at school because Kaoru saw it in an anime and it worked and they got even more people involved. People helping people and it made everything great, but it didn't magically patch up those scars on Taiki's heart and make him perfect again. But it was still his legacy, far more important than the basketball club, almost as important as the digimon. Important enough, when the digimon were in a separate world and they couldn't communicate anymore…

But, sometimes, Taiki was in the hospital too long and it seemed like he'd be better off on the other side, with Shoutmon, where he didn't have to hold back. Because they couldn't mend that. They could only make things possible without him, to let him relax, or choose his own way if the opportunity ever came.

And then it did come. Or maybe it was there all along because one never really knew with the Old Clock Maker. He was strange that way. But he had the same expression as Ryouma on his face: that same haunted look even though he had no reason to be guilty, because it could just as easily been one of the other heroes instead and who knew what dimension travelling would have done to them. Taiki seemed to understand something that escaped the rest of them, but even he was surprised when the Old Clock Maker offered to send him to the digital world: to that place where his heart wouldn't be his limitation all over again, where he could help people to his pleasure. Or, rather, help digimon.

Because Taiki was the kind of guy who couldn't sit still, even if they took the load from him.