"Everything Burns"
Okay, someone requested that I make a version of this with Daisuke as Davis, so here it is. I hope everyone likes it. Please enjoy and review!
Walking around in the forest Davis Motomiya had come to realize that he was lost.
Another genius move on his part of getting separated from the group and being stuck in the Digital World without any help if he got attacked by a rogue digimon.
That being sarcasm of course.
Of all people it just had to be him that got lost from the others who would be very annoyed when they found him because they had to waste their time when they could be doing something more productive.
"Man, which way do I go?" he asked himself as he looked around.
"Do you mean in this forest or in life?" someone asked.
Gasping, he spun around to see that a large tree he had walked by had come to life as he stared at the mahogany haired boy with yellow eyes and had a shrub as a moustache.
"What are you and what do you mean 'in life'?" Davis asked him feeling confused and also on guard.
He chuckled deep in his throat as he walked over to the boy with his tree roots as legs and gave a small smile that was meant to be comforting, but it gave Davis chills.
"What I mean dear boy is that in life you have many paths to take that determine who you will be in the future. I wonder what path you will take." He said.
His voice was deep, but soothing like a grandfather's voice would be like.
"Uh huh. So who are you and why does my future matter to you?" Davis asked as he gave him a wary glance.
"Oh, forgive me. I am Cherrymon." He introduced.
"You're a digimon? Er, duh. Makes sense that a talking tree in the Digital World would be a digimon. Man, I am dumb." Davis sighed sadly.
Cherrymon had a certain look in his eyes as he looked the boy over sensing a small hint of depression bubbling under the surface.
It was obvious by the sadness that shone in his dark brown eyes that he had dealt with self-doubt and wondered about whether he had a meaning in this world, a purpose in life that made him special.
"Who told you that you are dumb?" Cherrymon asked.
"A lot of people." Davis answered.
"Like whom may I ask?" he inquired.
"Um, my parents, my sister, Yolei, Cody's pretty much said something that means he thinks I'm stupid. It's also obvious that TK and Kari only tolerate me half the time." Davis said.
Saying the things he had already figured out loud made it really hit him where it hurt.
Did any of his friends truly care for him at all?
"My, that sounds unsettling. Are these people truly your friends if they do this?" Cherrymon asked.
(Nearby…)
"I can't believe he got lost! Actually, I can. I don't know what I was saying." Yolei Inoue ranted.
She, TK Takaishi, Tai Kamiya, Matt Ishida, Kari Kamiya, Ken Ichijouji, Cody Hida, Veemon and the other digimon were looking for Davis since he had walked off from the group when they were helping fix the Digital World up after their battle with MaloMyotismon.
"Yolei, please calm down. This is a new area we haven't been to. The trees are very dense and make it hard to walk around here. It's a wonder not all of us have gotten separated or lost." Ken told her.
"And it just had to be Davis." Gatomon sighed.
"He really should have stayed closer." Hawkmon said.
"I'm sure we'll find him soon enough." Armadillomon assured.
"Hope he's okay." Veemon whimpered in worry for his human.
"Aw, he'll be fine. He's a tough kid." Tai waved off the dragon's worries.
Cody, who was at the front with his D-3 held out in front of him, gasped as he got a signal to track down their missing member.
"Found him. He's right through this patch of trees." He said pointing up in front of them.
"Finally." Matt sighed.
They all ran over to the trees and looked through the small openings to see that Davis was about 10 feet away from them in a clearing speaking to a large tree digimon.
"Of course they're my friends! Why would you ask something as dumb as that?" they heard Davis ask.
"Who is that digimon?" Cody asked.
"It's Cherrymon." Gabumon said as Matt gasped.
He had a run in with a Cherrymon before and it ended in him turning against his friends and brother, attacking Tai while he forced MetalGarurumon to fight WarGreymon.
Could this be the very same one from all those years ago trying to make Davis turn against them?
"You just said that they belittle you. If they were your friends, then wouldn't they treat you as their equal or at least notice the pain they cause you?" Cherrymon asked.
Davis was at a lost from that as he bit his bottom lip and held a fist to his chest as he thought this over.
"I-I… But they are my friends. Aren't they?" he asked as tears sprung in his eyes.
"What? Why would he even ask that?" Yolei asked insulted.
"Listen and you might learn something." Tai quietly hissed.
The group all kept as quiet as they could so that they could focus on what Cherrymon and Davis were saying to see when they should jump in to help him out.
"In your heart you know the truth. They aren't your friends. If they are, then they aren't very good ones. How many times have they made you cry?" Cherrymon cooed.
That made the tears fall freely from Davis' eyes much to the Digidestinds' and digimon surprise.
"That many times? How cruel. Tell me what they say or do to hurt you so." Cherrymon requested as he gave the boy a sympathtic look.
"Yolei always calls me dumb or finds a way to insult me while TK, Cody and Kari undermine everything I say while they laugh at my faults. I thought at least Ken was still there to be my friend, but even he's turning away and laughs with them. I don't think they would even be my friends if I never became a Digidestind." Davis sniffled.
He felt so pathetic revealing his pain to this stranger and crying like a child, but he couldn't help it.
How long had he been holding his emotions in?
It was time they came bursting forth before he went insane from holding it all inside.
Kari gasped softly as her hand covered her mouth in shock when she saw how much pain they had caused him with their joking while Ken had tears twinkling in his eyes from hearing that he had hurt the person who was supposed to be his best friend.
Out of everyone, Davis was the person who had faith in him to become good and tried to convince the others while they just shot the very thought down.
"Do you feel that you should continue down the path you're on? Why stay when all you'll get is more pain from those who use you as a scapegoat?" Cherrymon cooed.
Davis was shaking as if he was freezing as he cried harder at the fact that the Digidestineds didn't care for him at all.
"Why did you become a Digidestind? Why did you choose to risk your life for a world filled with people who fight to break your heart and soul?" Cherrymon asked.
"I don't even remember anymore. It's like over time I forgt. I don't know why I bothered with going through all of this to just get treated the way I do. I mean, no one yells at Yolei, TK, Cody, Kari or Ken when they make a mistake. I don't think anyone cares if they do make a mistake, but when I do it, they all pounce like a pack of starved wolves. It's worst when they do it behind my back and I know they do, I've seen it." Davis sobbed as he dropped to his knees.
"It's so hard to fake a smile and act like nothing's wrong after just hearing them insult you and laugh like you're some big joke." he cried.
TK felt his heart sink down into his stomach as he felt sick from hearing those words and seeing the tears falling down Davis' face that was flushed from crying.
Tai had his fists clenched tightly as he came to realize that this was his fault for not seeing that there were problems circling around the boy he had claimed as the new leader.
Guilt was filling Yolei as she thought back to the times she had gotten mad at Davis for the smallest things and would yell at the boy.
True, Davis had insulted her too, but it was small and playful as if he didn't mean to cause any harm, but Yolei still took offence and viewed the younger boy as the enemy.
Veemon was whimpering as tears fell down his face as he stared at his partner as he realized that all of the emotions he kept bottled up were finally coming out.
He had heard the boy crying at night when he thought Veemon was asleep, but he did hear him and wondered why he was so sad and asked hin, but Davis would dry his tears and force a smile as he assured him nothing was wrong at all.
"Oh, don't cry. Why waste your tears over such horrific people?" Cherrymon asked as he cupped his hand under the boy's chin making him look up at the old digimon.
"What am I supposed to do then? If I confront them, they'll just say I'm being too sensitive or just making it seem like something it's not for attention while the older kids just stand by watching and do nothing like they always do when the others insult me. It's like they don't even notice." Davis said as he worked on drying his tears with the sleeve of his blue jacket.
Cherrymon smirked as he realized he had the broken child just where he wanted him and would make him turn against his friends like he had done to that blonde boy four years ago.
Humans were fragile creatures, especially when they were young and impressionable.
"Take your revenge." He said.
Matt tensed up at this as he knew that this was the part that would change everything between the group.
Davis looked up at Cherrymon with stunned eyes.
"Revenge?" he asked.
"Yes, revenge for everything they have done to you. They hurt you and you should hurt them back. It's justice after all." He said.
"What do we do now?" Wormmon whispered.
"I don't know. I never thought we'd have to face Davis as our enemy before." Tai said as he began to sweat.
He didn't want to admit it, but Davis was the strongest member of the second generation and Veemon would willing fight alongside with his human no matter what.
"How do you know he'll go against us?" Agumon asked.
"It's what I would do. I did do that, remember? But what we did to Davis was worse than what was wrong with me." Matt said.
He was the child of Friendship, out of everyone, he should have been there to help out the boy who had inherited his Crest, but he hadn't even bothered to do so.
This was all his fault, he should have taught him of his mistakes so that he could learn from them and wouldn't have to face this current problem.
"You want me to hurt them?" Davis asked.
"Yes, hurt them. Kill them even. It will ease your pain and you will be reborn even stronger without those people who lived to drag you down." Cherrymon said.
Anger filled Davis' eyes as he then slapped Cherrymon's hand away making him gasp and the boy stood up quickly with a glare.
"You really think I'd kill them?" he demanded in disbelief.
"Of course. They broke you, trashed your soul. They think of you as trash." Cherrymon tried to reason.
"That doesn't mean I can kill them! What kinda person would be stupid enough to try to kill their own friends just to make their pain go away?" Davis asked.
He had no idea how that question made a certain blonde 15 year old moan in displeasure as he thought back to how he had easily turned while Davis was fighting Cherrymon's influence.
"You need to do this. You know it deep inside of your heart." Cherrymon stated.
"No, what I know is that you got one twisted mind. They may insult me, bring me down and hurt me, but they're still my friends and I would die before I hurt them!" Davis said fiercely.
The other Digidestinds all gasped in shock and awe at what he had just said, the girls now crying along with Ken.
"Fine then. You know, I thought those who inherit Friendship were easy to manipulate just like that boy with the Gabumon was, but you proved me wrong. You may be stronger than he was or you're just a masochist." Cherrymon chuckled darkly.
As he went to attack the boy, Veemon quickly dove into action and tackled Davis to the ground and out of the way of the attack.
"What?" Cherrymon asked.
"Veemon, you made it!" Davis exclaimed.
"Yep. Now let's get this guy." Veemon grinned as Davis nodded with a smirk.
"DIGI ARMOUR ENERGIZE!"
"Veemon armour digivolve to…Raidramon: the Storm of Friendship!"
Mounting his dragon, Davis hung onto the spikes as Raidramon shot off at Cherrymon and used his Electric Bite on the plant digimon's arm making him scream in pain, then Raidramon jumped away.
"What should we do about him, Davis?" Raidramon asked.
"I don't know." Davis answered as he narrowed his eyes in thought.
"Destroy him!" Matt called.
Gasping, the second duo of Friendship looked over to see Garurumon had jumped on out of the thick trees with Matt on his back and ran up to their side.
"Cherrymon will only go after another kid who is broken and turn them. We need to take him out once and for all." Matt said determined.
Something flashed in his azure eyes that made Davis feel curious, but he brushed it off as he nodded.
"Then let's get him." he said.
"Come and try it, Keepers of Friendship. But it still won't change what you both know." Cherrymon glared.
Growling at each other in agreement, Raidramon and Garurumon faced Cherrymon as he threw small cherry bombs at them, but the dragon and wolf quickly jumped out of the way and attacked him with their Howling Blaster and Thunder Blast.
Cherrymon screamed in agony as he was assaulted by the flames and lightening, then shattered into data particles that floated off into the sky.
As they watched, the other Digidestinds and digimons walked out of the thick trees and went over to their friends as they both had stoic expressions as they watched the data float away into the sky.
"Davis, are you okay?" Kari asked softly.
The mahogany haired boy's head was bent down to hide his face so no one could see what he was feeling or thinking.
"No, I'm not. Cherrymon was right." Davis said stunning everyone.
"No he wasn't." TK denied.
"You should never take revenge." Patamon said.
"No, not about that. About the fact that you guys don't really care about me." Davis told them.
"That isn't true." Ken said as he ran up to his best friend's side.
He then looked at them all with molten chocolate eyes that made them all freeze in place when they saw the conflicted emotions racing in them.
"Oh really? Then what's my favorite color?" Davis asked.
This stumped them at why he was even asking such a rideculous question, but they decided to play along if it made him feel better.
"Blue." Yolei said.
"Wrong. It's red." Davis corrected.
True he always wore blue, but that was because he liked the color.
Red though had always been his favourtie color because it complimented his fiery personality and passion.
"Yeah, but I bet you don't know our favorite colors." Yolei challenged.
"Lavender." Davis answered pointing at Yolei who was shocked since he had gotten it right.
"Green." Davis continued pointing to Tai.
"Yellow." He said pointing at Cody.
"Amethyst." This was directed at Kari.
"Teal." That would be TK.
"Sapphire." Ken's favorite color.
"And gold." Davis said as he looked over at Matt last.
"Tell me I'm wrong." He challenged them all.
No one said a thing since he had correctly guessed their favorite colors.
"This is my point. You don't care enough about me to know what my favorite color is. If you don't know that, then you don't know what my favorite song, movie, book, author, band or TV show is either. Do you even know if I have allergies or a phobia? No, you don't. We're supposed to be friends, but how can you be my friends if you don't know any of the facts of my life?" he asked.
Everyone kept silent as they looked down sadly since they thought hard to see that they truly didn't know the details of his life or about anything that made Davis who he is.
Shaking his head in disgust at them all as he pulled off the goggles that Tai had given to him, the guy who he viewed as such an amazing person once that he would work really hard to make him compliment him or respect him as much as Davis did him.
"Here, I never wanted them in the first place. I only took them to make you happy, but I could care less about that now." Davis said as he threw the goggles down to the ground right at Tai's feet.
Feeling like he lost a part of himself, Tai bent down and picked up the goggles and looked them over as he felt he had failed greatly.
He took a child's trust and shattered it.
"I hope you all have a nice life." He said as it looked like he was going to cry again, but was holding the tears back.
Raidramon took the hint and then took off into the forest, heading towards the digi port to take them back home.
When he was gone, Kari broke down crying as Gatomon rushed to her side to comfort the distressed brunette.
"We… We really hurt him. Didn't we?" Yolei asked sadly.
"I don't think he'll ever trust us again." Cody said as he stared at the ground feeling like scum.
He was supposed to be the reliable one.
Ken was sobbing at the fact that he had just lost his best friend for being so stupid, falling to his hands and knees as he let out a wail of misery.
Wormmon rushed to the indigo haired boy's side to comfort him, but knew that losing Davis was just as painful to Ken as it was losing Sam.
"He'll come around and forgive us…right?" Armadillomon asked.
"It's hard to tell. From what we saw, I wouldn't be surprised if he never did forgive us and ignored for the rest of his life." Hawkmon said regrettably.
The digimon were at fault here as well since they could have said something to stop their partners from being so disrespectful to their friend/leader, but instead they just laughed along.
"Why are you all just standing around?" Matt demanded making them all look at him.
"Our friend is hurt. We need to try to help him instead of just feeling bad for what we've done in the past." He said.
"But he doesn't seem to want anything to do with us." Wormmon said timidly.
"That doesn't matter. We can still try." Garurumon said.
With that, the original Keepers of Friendship took off in the direction that their successors had gone off in, determined to catch up to them and help him out.
Raidramon was running quickly across the planes of the Digital World when he heard the pounding of footsteps.
"We're being followed." He stated.
Looking back, Davis frowned when he saw it was Matt and Garurumon who were chasing after them.
"What are they doing chasing us? Pick up the pace. We need to lose them." He told his dragon.
"Got it." Raidramon said.
The dirt kicked up as he increased his speed making Matt frown as he realized that they knew he and Garurumon were on their tail.
"Hurry, Garurumon. We're losing them." Matt urged.
"Right." The wolf snarled as he went faster.
Soon enough, the two digimon were running alongside each other, Matt looking over to Davis who was focusing on what was ahead of him so he could ignore him.
"Davis, we need to talk. Pull over." He called to the younger boy.
"What?! Sorry, can't hear you!" he yelled back.
Frowning in displeasure at this, Matt decided that he would have to take drastic measures to get Davis' attention.
He leaned down and whispered his plan into Garurumon's ear, the wolf looking worried about this, but nodded in confirmation as he kept the pace with the dragon.
"What are they planning?" Davis muttered.
Garurumon swerved right in front of Raidramon, making him take a turn to where a field of long grass was located and they both ran in that direction.
"What are you doing?" Raidramon asked.
"You'll see." Garurumon said.
As they raced each other, Matt carefully stood up on his wolf's back and then lunged at Davis, arms locking around his waist as he twisted his body and forced them both off of the dragon as they both went falling into the soft long grass that broke their fall.
The two digimon stopped running and turned to their partners in worry in case they were hurt from the fall.
Matt was lying on his back with his arms wrapped around Davis, keeping him in place as he had his chest against his.
"Let me go!" Davis yelled as he tried to struggle out of Matt's arms.
"So you can run off again? Not gonna happen, Davis. We're talking and we're going to stay here as long as we need to, even if it takes all night." Matt said sternly.
"What about your dad? Won't he get suspicious if you don't go home?" Davis asked.
"What about your family?" Matt countered.
"They won't care, they never do. Now let me go!" Davis yelled as he thrashed around in Matt's arms but he tightened his hold on the boy bringing him closer to himself.
"After you told me that stuff? No way, now start talking. Why do you think your parents won't care?" he asked.
"Because they told me they didn't care! They call me stupid just as much as the others do and Jun just teases me all the time! I just want to go somewhere where I can be alone and not have to worry about any of this stuff for a long while." Davis cried.
"You'd have to deal with it some time. And with the Digidestinds. I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I should have been looking out for you. I, out of all people, knew how fragile the power of Friendship is. Cherrymon tried to get to me too." Matt confessed.
Davis stopped moving when those words came out of Matt's mouth and he looked into his azure eyes to see age old pain hidden there.
"What?" he asked in surprise.
Seeing he relaxed, Matt loosened his hold, but kept it firm so he couldn't escape easily as he launched into his story.
"TK was kidnaped by Puppetmon and he saved himself. It was then that I realized that he didn't need me anymore and it really hit home. I thought watching over TK was my one purpose in life, but now that he could save himself, it left me with nothing to live for." He explained.
Raidramon and Garurumon laid down side by side as they listened to the tale that the blonde was telling.
"After the divorce, I was used to being alone, so when I got thrown into watching TK at camp and then the Digital World, it freaked me out. I didn't know how to be a big brother. Tai did a better job of it and it annoyed me. After I got used to the idea of looking out for TK, he just grew up so fast that I lost my chance to really be there for him. Cherrymon found me when I started to doubt my worth to the group. He convinced me to get rid of Tai and I attacked him and then ordered MetalGarurumon to take out WarGreymon. I really messed up there. When I saw you with Cherrymon, I froze in fear because I thought he would fill your heads with lies, but he didn't. Unlike me, you called him on what he was and fought him. I wish I had your strength back then." Matt said.
Feeling his arms move, he looked down to see that Davis had wrapped his arms around his waist as best he could while he rested his forehead on the taller boy's chest.
"What're you doing?" he asked with a blush.
"You looked like you needed a hug." Was the younger boy's response as he tried to hide his blush.
Hugging was the way he had made Veemon feel better after Gatomon rejected him and it had even helped Ken when he was having nightmares of the Digimon Emperor.
It was the only thing that came into Davis' mind to help Matt feel better and he was expecting Mr. Cool to punch him for it.
Instead, Matt simply smiled as he returned the hug as he saw that Davis was actually very similar to him than he first thought.
He was another brother who he could look out for and protect.
Garurumon and Raidramon both smiled at this as they reverted back to their Rookie forms while they watched their partners hug.
It looked almost as if they were brothers who were making up after a huge fight.
"Do you think you can forgive the others for what they did?" Matt asked.
"Maybe later. I have a right to still be mad at them since I've been keeping my feelings in for way too long." Davis told him.
Chuckling at that, Matt stood up and hauled Davis up onto his feet.
"Can we go eat now?" Veemon asked.
"I am a bit hungry myself." Gabumon admitted.
The two Keepers of Friendship laughed at that as the foursome headed off for the digi port to go back home to get some food to eat, Matt using Davis's D-Terminal to send a quick message to the others that he found the boy and they were going home.
Maybe one day the child of Courage and Friendship would find it inside of himself to forgive the others for the pain they put him through, but right now he just had to go through the healing process first.
And Matt was intending on being there at his side to help him along the way even if he had to go through the horrors of having Jun throw herself at him in the process.
But as long as Davis was happy, then that's all that matters.
The end.