Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon,

Dawn of Darkness

Chapter 2: Temptations.

"The others sent me here."

Agumon was sitting on the green couch in the living room of Tai's home. It was in the middle of the night, everyone else was asleep. Beside him was his human partner, whose chocolate brown eyes focused intently on the dinosaur-like Digimon.

In front of them was a short wooden table that was littered with empty glass plates, fair-sized crumbs, and half-eaten food.

"Gennai and the others were defending a small gathering of defenceless Digimon." Agumon recounted. We were holed up in a large cave on File Island last time I remember."

The Digimon looked down sadly. "We were invaded by those... things.". Agumon held his legs to his chest, rocking himself. "They were just like the creatures you humans keep as pets, but without fur or skin."

"They just kept coming." Agumon continued. "We knew we would eventually run out of energy if we kept fighting, so we decided to hide."

Tai contemplated Agumon's story for a moment. The Digimon looked like he needed a break anyways. Besides; skeleton pets? It seemed like something from a horror movie.

"Were those things Digimon?" Tai asked.

Agumon shook his head solemnly. "I didn't recognize their species."

Tai nodded before a thought hit him. Something Agumon as Koromon said about the Skullgreymon they fought earlier.

"What did you mean about Skullgreymon not being normal?" he said.

Agumon stayed silent for a while, remembering his fight with the brutal beast. He remembered how it had pinned him down and how they met face against face.

And he remembered how empty the Skullgreymon's eyes were. Only darkness seemed to exist within them, and it was virtually dripping on him.

"It was the eyes." Agumon said quietly. "I know it would normally be green, but there was nothing there."

Tai nodded. "One last thing. How were you able to open a portal to earth without a Digivice?"

"The Sovereigns." Agumon answered. "Gennai led me to them so they could open a portal. They had to close it quickly to prevent any of those things from escaping the Digital World.".

The scene fell into dead silence with that. Tai contemplated the information given to him. Eventually, the need for sleep overwhelmed Tai, breaking the silence with a yawn.

He got up. "Look. I'll tell the others in school tomorrow. For now, try to get some sleep.". With that he turned on his heel and walked to his room.

Agumon followed Tai's lead, laying down on his side and shutting his eyes to get some rest.

"We have a new student today class."

It was morning in the sprawling metropolis that was Tokyo. The sky outside wore a bright face that day. Unfortunately, the students inside Tokyo High School weren't the same.

Some were chatting with their group of friends talking about lateat gossip. Some students had their head down, sudying a book. And others were grumbling about another boring day.

But everyone raised their heads and looked towards the front of the large classroom at the sound of the teacher's high-pitchdd voice.

Except for one.

Smack-dab in the middle of the classroom was Tai, tanned face lying against his wooden desk. The main reason he did not hear the teacher, whose name he had forgotten thus just calls her 'Ms.'. His brown hair was even messier than usual, the result of hurried preparation from school.

"Tai... Tai... Tai..."

Yet, even as he dozed away, he could hear a faint voice calling his name from the darkness.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain flare up at his mid-section, jolting his mind back into reality. Awake, he rubbed the sore spot for a while before looking to his left, the only one who could have woke him up.

"What was that for Sora?" he said with a scowl.

"She was merely following directions, Mr. Kamiya."

The hair on Tai's neck stood as straight as his back did as the voice resonated. Ignoring the laughter of the other teens in the room, he turned his head to the front, seeing the teacher's black eyes glowing angrily. Her long slender arms were folded, but anyone in the classroom could tell they were tensed.

Beside the teacher was the new student. He was wearing the standard green polo shirt and jeans uniform for the school. His long, messy brown hair was combed neatly to the left of his face.

Buy what caught Tai's attention was his dull yellow eyes that were staring at the white wall standing at the back of the classroom.

Who the heck has yellow eyes?, he mused.

The teacher kept the fire of her glare. "Mr. Kamiya, since you graciously decided to have a little nap in my class, you can be Benjamin's tour guide for the day.", she said sternly. She then turned around, "Now, we can start the class."

When the teacher's back was fully turned, Tai dropped his head onto the his desk with a soft 'thud'. On his way down, the sight of Sora watching him smirk at him, amusement evident in her orange eyes, appeared at the corner of his left eye.

Screw you Sora, he thought. Screw you.

"Guys, this is Ben."

Four of the older Digidestined minus Matt and Mimi were gathered around a circular table in the corner of ntheir school cafeteria. They, minus Izzy, were looking curiously at the new addition.

"First of all, introductions." Tai called.

He directed his hand to a man with semi-long sky-blue hair sitting across from where Tai was sitting. In front of the man was a small stack of books. He had small-frame glasses and was smiling welcomingly at Ben.

"This is Joe." Tai said. "He's a year older than most of us, so he's a senior.".

In an attempt to be friendly, Ben gave Joe a smile and a smal wave while Joe responded with a wave of his own.

Tai then moved moved his hand to a boy to Joe's left. Like everyone else, he was wearing their standard uniform. He had short Red hair and large black eyes that were busy scanning the screen of a silver Apple laptop he was typing away at.

"This is..." Tai sighed exasperatedly. "Izzy, can you at least pretend to show interest?"

"Hm? Oh hi." Izzy responded quickly without looking up from his work.

Tai looked at Ben and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry. Izzy loves his laptop. I swear he'd marry it one day." Tai said as he rolled his eyes. Ben shrugged in response.

"I heard that." Izzy said, still not looking away from his laptop.

Tai then directed Ben's attention to the only girl in the group. She was wearing a green blouse, standard uniform. She had short, fiery orange hair and matching maroon eyes. Like Joe, she was looking his and Tai's way with a welcomin smile.

"And this is Sora." Tai said. "You have her to thank to being assigned the best tour guide of the school."

"Hi Ben." Sora greeted. "And sorry for inflicting this idiot onto you."

Tai scowled at that statement. "Hey! I'm not an idiot anymore, thank you." he said indignantly. "I've grown up. Ask Agumon.".

Sora raised an eyebrow, the smile still not leaving her face. "Really? Well I haven't noticed."

Tai held his scowl while Sora held her smile for a while. Then, out of nowhere, both exploded into a fit of laughter. Ben just looked between the two and smirked. But before anyone saw him do so, his face went neutral.

"So Ben." Joe started, trying not to let him feel left out. "What's up with the eyes?"

"Yeah!" Tai butted in as he stopped laughing, curious about Ben's eyes as well. "I mean, who has yellow eyes?"

"Tai!" Sora scolded.

"What? I'm just commenting on how unusual yellow eyes are." he defended. "Now, is that eye colour natural or not?"

"Contacts." Ben said quickly, his hands gripping the edge of his seat tightly.

Joe raised an eyebrow at how the new recruit answered a simple question. He didn't know if anyone else saw it, but he saw him straighten his back as he answered.

"You okay?" Joe asked.

"Just fine." Ben replied, much calmer than before. "By the way Tai, can I talk to you, somewhere private?"

"You have feelings for that Sora girl."

Tai flinched, not only at Ben's bluntness, but also at how much truth those few words held. He subtly looked around using his eyes to find that the hallway was completely empty, completely devoid of anything except for them and rows of lustrous steel lockers.

But he was dumbfounded by Ben's deduction. How did he find out? And as Ben's yellow eyes bore into his own brown ones, he felt a torrent of cold sweat run down the back of his neck.

"That's crazy!" Tai lied. "I don't have 'feelings' for Sora.".

"But you do." Ben retorted with conviction.

Silence befell the two teens. Ben was not letting him go until he admitted it and Tai was looking around for an interruption. As the silence overstayed its welcome, the akwardness came to the point of being ss unbearable as a hot, humid day.

Tai sighed, relenting. "Fine, I do have 'feelings'. Want a medal to go with your deduction, sherlock?". He said the last part sarcastically.

"Does she know?" Ben asked.

Tai shook his head, a few tears threatening to leak. "No. And she shouldn't. She has a boyfriend."

"So? Just win her from him!"

"I can't!" Tai shouted, at the back of his mind hoping no one was spying on the two of them. "I can't because her boyfriend is a close friend of mine.". A few tears spilled out, so he turned away from Ben and faced the lockers.

Ben contemplated quietly for a few seconds on how to get to Tai. He had to choose his next words extremely carefully if he was going to succeed in this endeavour.

"Maybe you just need to show her how much you have grown up." he suggested.

"That was a joke, Ben." Tai informed. "We do that all the time."

"Was it Tai? Was it?" Ben prodded. "Maybe the reason she chose your friend over you was because he was more mature.".

Tai thought about his words.

"How do you suggest I show my maturity?" he said.

Ben smirked. "Well, I say the next time the Digital World has some trouble, you go save it yourself."

Tai's eyes widened. The thing was, the Digital World was in turmoil, invaded by an army of living skeletons. The way Agumon described it, something big was at work here.

He looked at Ben "But doing that is practically suicide."

Ben's face warped into a scowl, frustration at Tai's refusal to just to go with his suggestions. "Look. By averting a disaster by yourself, you are also relieving your friends of this burden. Carry it yourself and you keep them safe."

Ben put a hand on Tai's shoulder. "You do care for your friends, right?".

Tai nodded.

"Then you can show you care by saving the Digital World alone the next time disaster strikes. Your friends Joe and Izzy certainly looked busy. Plus, you can show Sora how mature you really are. In essence, you'll be..." Ben felt a wave of pleasure run down his spine at the next word, "...killing two birds with one stone."

Tai fell silent. He had to admit, Ben had a point. Maybe trying to save the Digital World isn't such a bad idea. Maybe it was a way he could show how much he cared for his friends. Maybe it was a way to win Sora.

"But seriously, I'm okay with Sora dating someone else. I accepted it two years ago." Tai informed Ben.

"Maybe, but wouldn't you prefer her dating you?". With that, Ben turned on his heel and prepared to leave. "Just think about it."

But what Tai didn't see was Ben's mouth twisting into an evil smile as he walked away.

As Tai walked home that afternoon, he juggled his choices.

Tell his friends about what was happening in the Digital World and share his burden with them. They had already sacrificed much in the past incidents, he would hate to add to that sacrifice.

Or, not tell his friends, save the Digital World himself. He would have to sacrifice more, but that way, he can keep his friends burden free. They wouldn't have to sacrifice anymore. Plus, he could show everyone, not just Sora, how much he had grown. Everyone, including himself.

It was practically a suicide mission.

But for his friends, he would do anything. Even face death and spit on its dark face.

With that thought, he ran home to tell Agumon of his plan.

(AN): Well, that was quite long for something written in two days. Honestly, I thought this was gonna come out tomorrow because I was spending most of my free time playing Diablo 3 on the ps4.

Some of you might say you did not see my villain in this chapter, but let me say this; you did see him, but not in the way you would think.

So anyways, thanks to those who reviewed the first chapter. If you see anything you like or didn't like, review and let me know.

Laters.