I Will Always Find You
«Taiora»

A/N: Welcome to my Taiora fic! A minor things to note: This fic also has Takari, and Koumi.

Special thanks to:

* MadDogLucario96, whatplanetdididial, Florencetheflowerfairy, & mahwish1 for helping me with ideas to help the plot flow better and with the summary of this story. When you have a chance, these are wonderful writers and deserve to be recognized. When you get a chance, check out their fics!

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Chapter 1
"Looks Like A Glitch"

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Eight pairs of feet pounded the desert ground in a mad panic, gasping for air while their limbs threatened to give out on them. The digidestined, who had all reached adulthood, raced for their lives towards the cave facing them. Everyone had been running as fast as they could for almost four miles causing their mad dash to quickly dwindled to a light jog. The desert heat was zapping everyone's energy and some could feel leg cramps about to set in. Each one either tightly clutched their respective digimon partners or were placed in a pocket due to them all devolving back to their baby forms, weak after a devastating and brutal battle. Several of their digimon partners were flickering as if they would die in their arms any second.

The cave that was within eyesight was their only hope left in escaping. Reaching it felt nearly impossible as the new reigning terror of the digital world, Chicanemon, a mega level digimon who was choosing to hide in the middle of the billowing mass of desert sand and wind he was controlling, inched closer to them as it towered over their heads like a tidal wave threatening to engulf each one. It felt as if he was teasing them, holding back his true power until boredom set in. They all would have taken the chance to jump in that swirling mess of sand and wind when the battle was occurring minutes before, serving as a distraction so their Digimon could recover and continue to fight, but look what happened to the new guy when this all started:

Dead in an instant.

Tai looked back, still racing forward, willing his bone-weary legs to keep going. His voice was straining for strength as he encouraged his friends. "We're almost there, everyone! Stick together! Izzy! Are you sure it'll work?"

Izzy, exhaustion setting in, was slowing down. "There's a sixty-five percent probability rate of success! Tai, are you sure you want to take this risk!"

"Sixty-five!" Matt growled in panic wiping his brow with the back of his hand. "That's not good enough!"

"Are you kidding me!" Joe cried, his breathing was becoming labored by the second. "I knew this was a bad idea!"

"My legs are getting tired!" Mimi whined trying to keep up.

"It's gonna have to be enough!" Tai encouraged. "Hang in there, guys! Just a little mor-"

"Mimi!" Izzy screamed as he watched his wife collapse in fatigue.

The tidal wave slowed to a crawl as if he was enjoying torturing his soon-to-be victim's last moments of life. Everyone stopped running away and turned back towards Izzy and Mimi, wheezing in the hot, dry air, shouting obscenities to the evil digimon. Izzy tried to help Mimi up, but it was no use. Her body was depleted of energy and shut down.

Joe reached them first picking up her legs and ordered to Izzy, "I got her legs! Get her arms! Come on!"

Chicanemon remained hidden in the billowing tidal wave of desert sand and wind as he boomed a deep, menacing laugh that echoed in the heavens. "My first victims! Welcome to my nightmare!"

"Not on our watch!" TK shouted back as he reached Mimi next, supporting her middle back. "Move it, guys!"

The three men ignored their wobbling arms and legs that were begging for a rest and slowly inched forward towards the cave.

Yuramon, trying to hang on inside Mimi's shirt pocket, her body flickering and becoming transparent, let out a weak, "Mimi..."

Hearing Yuramon, Mimi opened her eyes to observe her surroundings. Sudden clarity hit her: They weren't going to make it. Chicanemon was inches away, but teasing them until he was ready to end it all. Allowing them to think they could reach the cave was another mind game, out of countless others, he was playing. They were chasing another dead end, just like all the other plans before. Chicanemon, the Digimon master of illusions and memory loss, was going to win. Out of all their adventures together here, this was how she was going to die. This gave her the strength to do the only last thing she believed could make a difference. It was always better to go out in a fight than giving in.

Reaching for her digivice in her pocket, she aimed it at the tidal wave where Chicanemon hid praying that her plan would work. "You big jerk! You can kill me, but I'm bringing you down with me!"

"Don't say that!" Izzy reprimanded her, tears streaming down, regardless of knowing what she said was true. "We've always won before."

She smiled at her husband saying her goodbye. "I love you too."

Moments before Izzy, Mimi, Joe, and TK were swallowed in the tidal wave, a light shot out of Mimi's digivice encircling her body in a protective case. This wave of energy shot forth to the digivices of Izzy, Joe, and TK giving them the energy to do the same. A second light shot forth straight down the middle of the tidal wave causing Chicanemon to howl in pain. Right as Tai, Kari, Matt, and Sora were within arm's reach they watched their friends become swallowed into darkness. They all stopped dead in their tracks in disbelief.

Chicanemon came to a complete halt to recover his strength and to observed what the digidestined would do. How he was enjoying watching the remaining four digidestined suffer not knowing their friend's fates!

"No! TK!" Matt screamed, petrified at what he just witnessed. It couldn't be! His brother couldn't be dead! His knees buckled hitting the sand, his lungs burning as he continued to gasp for air. The sensation to throw up was growing until he gave into it.

Punimon, flickering in Matt's side pant pocket, tiredly spoke, "The digivice protected them, Matt. He's still alive. This has got to be another illusion."

Sora stared at the tidal wave in disbelief. "It has to be...Right?"

Kari clung to her older brother's left sleeve sobbing as she hugged YukimiBotamon tight. Her fiancé, TK, may or may not be dead. She could feel her knees wanting to give out as well.

An illusion, huh? That's all Matt needed to hear. "You sick bastard." The words followed out in a deep, low growl giving him the energy to stand once more. He wiped his mouth on his shirt. A light shot out from his digivice and encircled his body. "Nobody hurts my brother, or my friends, and lives to tell the tale!"

Tai swiftly took hold of Matt's arms. "Hold on! I know TK is in there, but what if it really is an illusion-"

"Hypocrite!" Matt shoved him away. "You'd do the same if Kari was in there!"

"I'm not being a hypocrite!" Tai argued with urgency pointing to the cave. "Izzy said there's a chance to get rid of Chicanemon once and for all hidden in that cave. They would have wanted us to keep fighting! So, let's do them proud and keep fighting!"

Matt swallowed back his tears and slowly faced Chicanemon. He answered his best friend, "Then go fight for us because I can't leave my little brother."

Sora ran to stand in front of Matt. She held his shoulders pleading with him. "Matt, I can understand where you're coming from, but we need you…"

Matt cut her off by tenderly hooking his hands to the side of her cheeks and gingerly kissed her forehead. He ever so gently moved the strands of hair from her eyes with a few fingers. Everything he ever wanted to say to her, but never found the chance to conjure in the open, was told through his lingering kiss and forlorn expression. Sora blushed as she realized what he was trying to communicate. As the light encircling Matt became brighter, he rushed towards the tidal wave and jumped in shouting his last words to his friends, "Go now!"

"Maaaatt!" Tai, Sora, and Kari wailed with all their might.

Sora began to cry not able to handle watching any more of her friends dying - or not dying if it was an illusion.

Kari sunk to her knees allowing the continuous menacing laugh echo in her ears. YukimiBotamon jumped into her shirt pocket and burrowed to the bottom.

Tai wanted to lay down and quit. He had let his team down. Botamon was severely injured, flickering and fading quickly as he stayed hidden in his pants pocket. Illusion, or not, he had two team members left, his sister and his best friend, whom he always loved, and he'd be damned if he was going to let Chicanemon take them away. He eyed the distance to the cave; less than a quarter of a mile away. They could make it!

"Get up! Get up right now!" He ordered them, not as brother and best friend, but as their leader. "We have a job to do. Get going!"

Sora looked to Tai coughing from some of the dust that flew her mouth. She saw the fear in his eyes and hoped that Izzy was right. She had to trust they were right. She always did. Fully recovered, the tidal wave began to slowly inch forward again taunting them.

Tai yanked on Kari's arm urging her to get up. "I said let's go, Kari!"

Sora held Kari's other arm helping her up. The three began their run towards the cave resuming their original mission while Kari continued to mourn her fiancé. Tai's heart broke. His sister was recently engaged after Tai gave TK his blessing. He always saw TK as his own brother and knew they'd be happy together. He promised himself when this was all over he'd do something nice for them, like book them a vacation. Something. Hell, he'd book all of his friends a vacation. He'd even tell Sora that he was in love with her…That is, if they were still alive.

Kari collapsed as her wearied leg muscles gave way from leg cramps and howled in pain. Tai and Sora looked back to see Kari struggling to her feet calling out to Tai for help. They rushed back to Kari. Before they could rescue her, Chicanemon swiftly used a vortex of wind to suck Kari into his tidal wave as she screamed for her brother - but not before a light burst out from her own digivice engulfing her head to toe.

"Kariiii!" Tai rushed towards her, a futile attempt to rescue her. "You bastard monster! Give me back my sister!"

"Tai!" Sora stood in between the tidal wave and her best friend pushing against his chest to stop him and urged him to continue the mission. "She's not dead! We have to believe that and keep going!"

"Who said she wasn't dead?" boomed Chicanemon mocking them. "She tasted delicious like the others."

Tai's digivice activated and a light encircled him. Sora's eyes widened in fear. She couldn't lose him. Not Tai of all people.

"Hey!" She smacked Tai on his left shoulder attempting to take the lead and ground Tai's emotions. With authority dripping from every syllable she commended, "We're getting them back, but I can't do this without you. Pull yourself together! The cave is right there!" She pointed behind her.

Problem was, it wasn't there anymore.

Sora and Tai gasped in dismay. This couldn't be happening. How much of everything was an illusion? At this point, they couldn't trust anything they saw in the digital world; not with this corrupted Digimon on the loose. This time for sure, the two remaining digidestined knew that the cave had to be there. It was probably even closer than what they were seeing before. Tai stopped glowing. He held Sora's hand and they both ran the rest of the way into the direction where the cave was supposed to be while Chicanemon threw insults their way.

"Do not let go of my hand," ordered Tai. "This is the only way to make sure he doesn't trick us. Got it?"

Sora squeezed his hand agreeing. "Hold your digivice up. It may help us find the cave!"

Of course! Why didn't he think of that? Tai followed Sora imagining the power he and Sora had residing in them would flow through their digivices and direct them the right way. Right after this was done, their digivices began to glow and the cave began to flicker before their eyes. There it was! Just like he thought, it was smack in front of them!

"Hurry, Sor! We're running out of time!"

"It looks like it's another glitch with the way it's flickering. Are you sure this is real?" Sora asked as they rushed inside the cave while it still flickered.

"Has to be," he followed behind. "Our digivices never failed us-Watch out!"

Tai stood in front of Sora protectively with one arm stretched out to the side blocking Sora while the other held his digivice out. Botamon and Nyokimon had jumped in front of their partners doing their best to protect them throwing their weak attacks to bide some time. A vortex swarmed inside the cave ready to swallow everyone until Tai's digivice glowed and a light encircled him while another shot out straight aiming to Chicanemon striking through the tidal wave. Chicanemon yelled in pain. Sora raised hers joining Tai with the same outcome.

Chicanemon roared in fury, the tidal wave inching back. With the last ounce of strength, the evil digimon fought the pain stretching his hands out of the tidal wave of sand and wind snatching both Botamon and Nyokimon and attempted to rush further in the cave to swallow the remaining digidestined. Tai pushed Sora to the ground laying on top of her, his last ditch effort to protect her as they both screamed in fear. This was it. Their last moments together. This was how it was all going to end. He failed his friends. He failed his sister. He failed Sora. He never got to tell Sora he loved her...

Wait. Why was it quiet?

Tai looked down to Sora's eyes confused. She was glowing, just like him. They both looked towards the entrance of the cave and saw the hot desert sun shining as a tumbleweed rolled by. The cave wasn't flickering anymore. Their digivices, that was also emitting a stream of light towards the entrance of the cave, stopped shining and they were no longer encircled in the light. Where did Chicanemon go? They couldn't have won. They needed that crystal. Chicanemon must've been severely wounded.

Tai rolled off of Sora onto his back depleted of all energy, drinking in deep, quick breaths. He knew he had to get up and continue with the plan, but he needed a few minutes to take everything in and gather his strength back. Botamon was gone. So was Nyokimon. He felt Sora taking hold of his left hand as she too, depleted of all energy, laid on her back trying to catch her breath while mourning losing Nyokimon. Maybe it was an illusion. Maybe it wasn't. If it was, why weren't their friends and digimon friends here when Chicanemon was hurt?

"Tai," she cried. "Oh, Tai..."

"We...We have to get up. We owe it to Nyokimon, Botamon, Matt, Izzy - everyone!" Tai whispered in a raspy voice, more to himself than Sora. "Get up, Sora."

"I'm trying," she sobbed, but none of her muscles were listening to her will to survive.

Tai turned his head to Sora, his precious Sora, forcing himself to remember every facial expression she ever made: The way she'd purse her lips in almost anticipation of what the other would say; the way she'd squint her eyes whenever something personal was discussed; her sweet smile whenever it was the just the two of them sitting under their tree, their spot where they always had serious conversations about life, at night. This was his strength to get up. Sora was his strength.

He slowly rolled to his belly while loudly moaning his aches and pains. Taking a deep breath in, and with shaky arms and legs that felt like they were on fire, he pushed himself to his knees. Slowly, he crawled forward down the cave's path. He didn't have the energy to walk anymore. The cave was shallow, not needing to crawl very far and he thanked the gods above for that. There laid the white crystal on a pedestal that stood three foot tall emitting a low, twinkling melody. Etched on all areas of the crystal were the symbols of everyone's crests. Their saving grace laid safely in Tai's palms. This would be what would defeat Chicanemon and reset its DNA.

Tai crawled back to Sora tucking the crystal in his pocket next to his digivice. When he reached her again she was sitting up with her back resting against the jagged cave wall. Her breathing was slowing. He sat next to her in the same way, showed her the crystal while still trying to slow his breathing, and placed it back in his pocket. Everything was going to be okay. He had to keep telling himself that.

Relieved, Sora lightly patted his hand. "Everything's gonna be okay, Tai. We found it."

"Sora," Tai whined licking his lips, "I need a vacation."

She laughed. "Well, shit, I'll join you!"

His lopsided grin showed. He turned to look at her, his head resting on the hard cave wall. "Promise? I'll take you anywhere you want."

She joked to see his reaction. "Always wanted to go to New Zealand."

Tai's facial expression faltered. "Uhhh, um, how about something more local?"

She chuckled guessing correctly on what he'd say. "Stupid Tai. Did you really believe me?"

Gripping her hand that was still laying on top of his, he scooted closer. He couldn't explain it, but he suddenly had this wave of urgency flow through him needing to tell her everything. What if they died saving the world and she never knew? Unsure if everyone else was still alive, or not, even his sister, he had to tell her. It wasn't the most romantic of places, but...

"What are you thinking, Tai?" She pursed her lips. "We have to believe-"

"I have to tell you something," he cut her off. "I-I don't know how much time we have left, or if we'll make it out of here alive. I wanted to, uh..." He blushed. This was hard! He shook his head trying to gather his composure. If Matt was able to convey how he felt before he left, then so could he.

"Sor, I, um..." His voice wavered.

She squinted her brows and leaned forward. "What's the matter?"

He bit his bottom lip fighting his insides with the urgency he felt quickly dwindling. She had to of known, right? He adjusted how he sat so he could grab her in a tight hug. Sora let out a quick "Oh!" being caught off guard and madly blushed.

Fighting his nerves he let out a deep breath and revealed his heart. "I know you're gonna hate me for saying this here and now of all times, but I'm in love with you, Sor. I've always been in love with you. I wish this could have been a more romantic place, but what's a little Digimon battle to put things into perspective?"

Surprised, Sora gently pushed Tai away enough to look up into his eyes. She couldn't believe his timing! "Now? You say this now? Out of all the countless times-"

He sighed lowering his head. That wasn't what he was hoping to hear. "It always seemed like you were into Matt. Everyone figured that time at Christmas that you and he were on a date at the concert before we were attacked. I sorta figured you two were kinda digging each other since then. Lately, it's like you and Matt aren't going out anymore, but how can anyone know if you're always so secretive? Still, after that, there were times I couldn't figure out if you liked me, or if I was just seeing what I wanted to see. Sor, can you help me out here?"

Sora groaned and playfully scratched both sides of his head with her fingertips. "We're twenty-one years old. How long were you planning to wait before I gave up on waiting for you, Tai? You complain about me being secretive, but so are you. I can count a handful of times, maybe less, of when you were kinda obvious yourself."

Fear ran through his veins. Forcing his head to lift so he could observe her facial expression, he wasn't sure what to expect to see. Nervously, he scratched the back of his neck asking, "Did you give up on me? Why didn't you say something?"

She sighed shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders. "You're confusing, Tai. One minute you're flirting with me, then I'm your best friend, and then, you're totally aloof to what I'm really trying to tell you. So, I guess I did give up..." She turned her head to her right, looking at where two of the jagged cave walls met. "Matt and I went on a few dates back in high school, but it didn't go further than that because you'd either say or do something to make me hope and wonder if you'd finally say something to me. He did ask me out on a date recently though, and I told him I'd think about it. I said I'd get back to him because, um, well, I couldn't help but still hope..." She locked eyes with Tai.

A quick, happy sigh flowed from Tai's lips in relief and joy. Sitting on his knees, he tenderly cupped her face, she did the same to his, as he softly rested his forehead on hers and closed his eyes. He lovingly nuzzled the tip of his nose with hers causing her to giggle, and purposely making her yearn for his lips. Tilting his head slightly to the right, after all these years they've known the other, he brushed his lips against hers making her shiver until he fully pressed his lips to hers. After what felt like an eternity, they parted, resting their foreheads together again not wanted to leave the other's touch. She happily sighed.

He caressed her left cheek. "You always wanted to visit the countryside, right? When we get out of this, I'll take you there. I pinky swear." He held up his left pinky grinning that well-known lopsided grin.

She snorted in laughter hooking her pinky with his. When they were teens, they used to always hold the other responsible when they sealed a deal this way. That's was one of the things she loved about Tai. Not only was he always there for her, but he always put others' needs before his. She knew he'd rather go to a hot spring, instead of the countryside. When this was over, if this was ever over, she'd tell him that.

Suddenly, the wind began to pick up. From afar off, the desert sand swirled in the air towering the height of the cave and a tidal wave was forming.

The two digidestined looked to each other with a renewed strength, nodded in agreement, and stood to their aching feet taking their digivices and crystal out into the air. As the light from their digivices beamed around them, while at the same time also shooting straight through the tidal wave, they walked to the entrance of the cave. The crystal didn't work.

Chicanemon let out a blood-curdling scream in pain. A vortex was formed and tried to suck Tai and Sora in. The pair ran as fast as they could to the back of the cave while the light surrounding them grew brighter. In their last ditch effort, cursing at the crystal to work, Tai held both digivice and crystal in one hand again towards the vortex that was infiltrating the cave. Sora held his free hand and lifted her digivice as well. The lights from their digivices attacked once again, but the crystal didn't activate. Instead, it glowed and was absorbed into his digivice.

"What the hell!" Tai screamed. "NO, NO NO! Work, dammit! Work! That wasn't supposed to happen!"

"It's...It's okay," she tried to comfort him even though she, herself, was admitting defeat.

"Sor!" He lifted his pinky and hooked his with hers. They had seconds left before their unknown fates awaited them. "Whatever happens, I'll find you!" He smashed his lips to hers in a panic seeing it race closer. "I will always find you! Do you trust me?"

Tears rolled down both of their cheeks as she replied, "I trust you!"

They held each other tight as they were overshadowed with sand and wind.

"Hi! This is the Taichi Yagami show! I'm Taichi and today...huh?"

Twenty-one year old Taichi stood outside on his front lawn wearing his high school soccer uniform bouncing the soccer ball on his knees as the video camera and tripod he recently bought stood in front of him recording. He wanted to start a vlog on a worldwide popular vlog site. His vlog would be about how to train harder in soccer. That would be hard to do, though, if his equipment kept literally flickering.

Taichi growled smacking the camera, but the flickering became worse to include the tripod. "Come on, man!"

The next door neighbor opened a window and stuck his head out to shout at him in annoyance, "Taichi, it's glitching. You know that's normal! Trees glitch. Houses glitch. People glitch. It's just another glitch. You know this! Leave your camera alone, or you'll break it!"

Taichi scrunched his brows and wasn't ashamed that his neighbor heard him sigh in frustration throwing his hands in the air. There goes his weirdo neighbor, Koushiro, with that crazy talk again. He'd rather humor the nut than have another half hour long debate about being in an alternate universe, things called digi-something or another, fighting a war, and all that sort. An uneasy, forced grin grew and he placed his hands on his hips. "Glitching is normal, huh, Koushiro?"

"For the last time! I'm Izzy, not Koushiro! You're Tai, not Taichi!" he rested his forehead on his right hand sighing. "This all feels normal to you because you're not listening to me about Chicane-"

Izzy, himself, glitched, fading in and out of reality. His body returned to normal. When he spoke again it was as if he had no recollection of what he was just saying. The rest of his reply was answered in an aggravated tone. "Yes! Not like you haven't witnessed it your whole life. It's just another glitch! Now, if you'd stop making so much noise outside I could possibly get my work done!" and slammed the window closed.

Taichi felt his body glitch, the same as Koushiro. Normal. Of course, it was normal. He watched it happen all his life...Right? Yes, it was coming back to him. Okay, he could get used to this. He looked back to his camera to restart his vlog. It wasn't glitching anymore.