Resolve

iorekbyrnison

His screams ripped through the air, piercing through the explosions and shouts of the battlefield around them. He knew this is what it felt like to die. He was being split apart. His skin burned and peeled and blood bubbled forth from his lips gushing and spilling onto the ground beneath him.

One crest.

That is what Gennai had explained to him only a few moments ago. Away from the prying, curious, brave ears of the rest of his friends, the digital senior had told him the key to defeating their new enemy. An enemy that couldn't be defeated by anything but the light of a dieing crest.

Gennai hadn't asked him to do it simply because he knew all along that Taichi would choose no other than himself for the task. He still possessed the power of the crest of courage, though Daisuke had taken over the mantle of leadership. He could still be of use in this situation.

Even if he had the time to think through all of the possibilities, Taichi's mind would have come up with nothing. He mourned shortly but fiercely the loss of his family, his friends, and his digital partner who stood silently by his side. He would no more share a room with his baby sister Kari, would no longer tag along to the digital world with the younger kids, attend band practice with Yamato, bother Sora at her mother's flower shop, sit in comfortable silence as Koushirou typed away on his beaten pineapple laptop, roll his eyes at Mimi's incessant love of pink, or wince dramatically as Jyou sterilized his newest soccer wound. He would never experience the overwhelming peace he felt in the presence of Agumon nor the contentment of hanging around the house with his mom and dad.

He mourned for that, but his decision did not waver. He would rather them live than be taken by this miasma that threatened the digital world once again. He would rather his death be the only burden on both the worlds.

Taichi wondered how they would rationalize his actions. Would they think he did it because he was the leader? Certainly a few of the younger kids would. Would Kari believe he had sacrificed himself for her? Would Koushirou look at the situation trying to find a logical explanation? Would Yamato scream and curse his betrayal of friendship in guilty anger? Would Sora and Mimi cry? Would Jyou take care of them all or would Takeru once more be the voice of reason and hope?

He knew above all else why this decision was easy. He knew why he could so easily throw away his existence, why he could so simply see the black and white of the situation. Taichi loved them. He might have been the bearer of the Crest of Courage but even a slightly less than average student like himself could tell you that courage was more than just bravery. Courage was the sincerity of feelings, the reliability of consistent actions, the love for the people around him, the friendship that tied him down, the knowledge that showed him the path to victory, the light and hope that was forever present, the miracles of life and the kindness to realize everyone was different, but no less useful. Courage without those things was simply foolhardiness and he had had his share of mistakes with that sense of recklessness. It was for this reason that he couldn't really believe he was throwing away all that he had fought for since that first day at soccer camp. No, his memory would live on even after his body decomposed and his friends began sprouting gray hairs.

Stepping forward was a battle in itself then. Taichi's body reactions were far different than the feeling in his heart. His skin crawled and his hands shook. The brunette could only imagine what his eyes beheld because those chocolate depths were the only things that showed the other digidestined his resolve before it was simply too late.

It wasn't easy being leader, but being friend, brother, son, and partner had always come naturally so Taichi stepped forward even as Koushirou began to scream his name. Walking toward the digimon that seemed darker than the depths of hell, it was only the flickering light of his crest shining like fire upon his chest that kept his path straight. The blackness shrank back, confused at Taichi's confidence, but lashed out full force against him.

He would do it for them because he loved them.

As the black flames engulfed his body he could only turn to meet eyes with the redheaded computer genius. Through the explosions and the screams their eyes locked, chocolate brown upon soulful ebony. "Goodbye."

And his screams matched Koushirou's only with much more agony and fading intensity as his life beholden on the crest broke, shattering into a million golden pieces cleansing the area of the fowl miasma. Taichi felt his bond with Agumon unwrapping itself from his soul, wrenching away the deep roots taking with it all the most potent emotions he had felt about his partner that had gone through so much with him. Agumon understood this because he too had things that he loved. The two were one in soul but two in physicality as Taichi briefly realized through his dieing anguish that Agumon only stood motionless on the other side of the black flames. The orange beast slowly shifting to Koromon then lower and lower until only an egg remained. Taichi knew this was goodbye as well. Looking down at his hands, no longer tanned from too much time playing in the sun, but a mixture of blistered red and blackened coal. He too was beginning to waste away.

Koushirou had once explained that whenever someone was harmed in the Digital World, they suffered in the real world as well. It was the reason why Taichi had faltered when saving Sora back on Server and also the reason he began to treat his friends' safety as more than a cluster of pixels in danger of deletion but a cluster of people with hearts, flesh, blood, dreams, and love in danger of loss far greater than death. The computer genius had never, however, postulated what would happen in the event of a death of one of the digidestined. Would they simply return to pixels and die in the real world? Would they be trapped in a digital limbo? Would they simply freeze like a computer program infected with a virus?

The red head would have his answer now, or at least partially, because Taichi felt the exact moment when the light of his crest and partner ceased to be. The original leader of the chosen children knew without a doubt that he would soon follow. And as his blackened figure finally stopped receiving signals of pain Taichi noticed blankly that his body was shattering just as the Crest of Courage before it. Idly he realized that his fingers were gone, dissolving into barely there particles and floating on the digital wind and then it was his arm and then his legs. There was no fear, only the deepest sense of satisfaction that he had completed his life doing only the things he believed in and loved. His friends may hate him, mourn him, curse destiny for making things turn out this way, but they would be alive doing it and that was all Taichi Yagami had ever asked.

He gave a great sigh, smiling as his lips disappeared and the last thing that the digidestined saw living of their leader was his melting chocolate eyes and his slightly singed, gravity defying, mane of brown hair before he faded, sparkling and glimmering like courageous flames into the sky.

-AN: Okay, so I know that I said 'Eyes' would be a one shot, but this plot won't leave me alone. I stand at work thinking how the story would develop through the eyes of different characters and how I can make the readers see my vision if I go back and explain the exact instances in which Taichi began to love the digidestined more than his own life. I think I will continue this as long as I can, because it makes me excited just thinking about it. :) Stay tuned for more, but be cautioned that whatever comes of this story will not be a conventional chapter by chapter fic. My plan is to have each chapter written so that it can stand well on it's own without anything other than the original canon back story.

More soon!