Part 3
"Is is really you, Tai?" Yamato asked the former leader of the Chosen, as surprised as the rest of the group to see their friend alive and well. His appearance was definitely different from what they remembered. His hair now possessed orange streaks in it and underneath his cloak he wore steel-gray armor colored fire-red in various places. He held up an armor-covered hand to them, a sphere of digital code surrounding him as he began to grunt in pain.
"Stay back!" Taichi told them as the code swarmed his body, stripping him of the powers that saved the lives of his friends. As the code vanished and he rose to his feet, his appearance was closer to what he was before he retreated to the Digital World five years prior. His upswept hair was somewhat shorter but the style still recognizable, a pair of broken black goggles around his neck. To an observer, it would seem as if he were fighting a war.
"Tai, dude, what happened to you?" Daisuke asked his mentor. "I mean, you swooped in like one of those manga heroes or something."
"Not to mentioning taking on a Digimon that nearly demolished all of ours at only the Ultimate level." Ken added.
"Listen, guys." Taichi started to explain to them, his chocolate-brown eyes hard as he looked at he group of Chosen. "A lot's happened in the Digital World, and to me, in the last few years. There's a lot you need to catch up on and I'll try to explain. Believe me, it's a long story."
"Tai, where's Agumon?" Takeru asked, noticing the orange dinosaur was nowhere to be seen. "I thought he was with you."
"Like I said, T.K., it's a long story." Taichi looked away from the Chosen he once led with the mention of his partner, not wanting to tell them the fate of his partner just yet. The memory was still fresh in his mind, too fresh to recount to them now. There would be time to tell them everything eventually, but not yet.
Away from the reunion of the former leader with his comrades, Sora contemplated quietly to herself. Taichi was finally home, her oldest friend returned after vanishing without a trace. Part of her felt elated, as if a great weight was lifted from her shoulders. She had missed Taichi dearly, not as much as Hikari had but still strongly. They had shared so much once before, a bond established years prior forged by many trials that tested them in both the real and Digital Worlds. Yet deep within the auburn-haired woman's mind, there was something else that beckoned her forward. It was a feeling she thought had died years before but was only beginning to resurface.
"Tai?" she said to her oldest friend, her breath nearly catching in her throat as he looked into her ruby-colored eyes with his own. They were the same chocolate-brown orbs as before but they now possessed a tinge of green.
"...What's wrong, Sora?" Taichi asked.
"You... you should probably see Kari later on." Sora told him. "She hasn't exactly taken your leaving very well."
"I know..." Taichi replied, remembering all too well what had happened on the day he left the real world for what he believed to be the final time...
(Flashback)
"Please don't leave, Tai." Hikari had pleaded with her brother as he began to pack the last of his things into a duffel bag, Agumon holding it open for him. "You don't have to go."
"You don't understand, Kari." Taichi replied, a dark look in his eyes as he turned to his sister, startling her somewhat. "I don't have a choice anymore. You heard Azulongmon's warning. A Digimon's coming that you'll need WarGreymon's help with. Right now, Agumon isn't at his best potential and... neither am I."
"That doesn't mean you have to leave us behind!" Hikari blurted out, almost to the point of tears as she stood in front of her brother. He was holding something back, something that was killing him inside. It was a darkness, a force Hikari could sense around him for days since their meeting with Azulongmon and Gennai. "Tai, we're your friends. I'm your sister. Why won't you let us in?"
Taichi glanced to the ground, hating himself for putting his sister through this. She was begging for him to stay now, to still be the older brother she loved once more. Part of him wanted to, perhaps even to tell her his true motive for abandoning leadership of the Chosen.
But it was too late for that. Time was running out.
"...Agumon!" Taichi summoned as he took out his digivice, ignoring Hikari pulling on his arm in desperation.
"Tai, don't go! We still need you!" Her only reply was being swept into a tight hug from her sibling, the hot wetness of tears beginning to stream from both of their eyes. He couldn't stop now, not when so much was on the line. She would survive. All of them would with Yamato and Daisuke to fall back on. He had to go now, before he regretted it later.
"Stay strong, Kari." Taichi whispered. "Stay strong for me." He then pointed his digivice at the computer on his bedroom desk, seeing the familiar Digital Gate open. He turned around one last time as Agumon joined his partner, seeing the sorrow-filled look on Hikari's face. "I'll be back, Kari. I promise."
"TAI!!!" Hikari called as she tried to run after her brother, grief in her eyes as it snapped closed. She collapsed onto the floor, sobbing violently over her brother's departure.
(End Flashback)
"There's a lot all of us need to catch up on." Yamato said to the group. "Right now, we need to regroup and find out what Izzy's learned."
"Right." Taichi added. "I'll meet up with you later after I check on Kari." With that, the small group returned to tending to their wounded Digimon.
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The citadel was as quiet as a mausoleum as the figure reclined on the marble throne, his mind ablaze with dark thoughts. He was at home in the silence and shadows. This was his solace, his promised kingdom within the darkness of the Digital World. For Neo Saiba, his life was still far from complete as long as HE walked the earth.
The silver-haired young man blamed Taichi still, not merely for the death of his sister but for bringing him to this point. It was his fault that Rei's life was taken from him, the only light in his life extinguished far too early. It was his fault that he was forced to seek him out, to drive him and his allies away from his new kingdom. It was HIS fault, no one else BUT him!
"So Taichi has returned to his friends in the real world, has he?" Neo asked no one in particular, a sinister look in his smoldering gray eyes.
"Yes, master." the shadows replied in a multitude of voices.
"Well then, this changes things dramatically." Neo rose from his throne, clasping his hands behind his back as he approached a nearby window. The landscape was slowly becoming a grayscale parody of itself, whole pieces of land becoming consumed by static images like a television with no signal. "He will no doubt go to warn his friends about me then, won't he?"
"Correct, master."
"In that case, we shall prepare for the return of the DigiDestined to my kingdom." He turned his head slightly, seeing that he was joined by a woman draped in shadows. Her skin was porcelain-white, a stark contrast to the skin-tight leather outfit she was clothed in to complement her jet-black hair and dragon wings.
"Is Dragomon ready for Phase Two, Askaraamon?" Neo asked his consort.
"Yes, Lord Neo." The female demon-type Digimon said smoothly. "Although he wishes to have some... fun with his own consort before he begins."
"The transition is beginning smoothly, then?"
"There were some initial problems at first. She did resist, as did her partner, at first. Nevertheless, they were persuaded to forsake the light as you did, master."
"Excellent." He reached into his shirt pocket, revealing a gray version of Hikari's original Crest of Light. "The old saying is, after all, to do unto others." He the crushed the now-ancient power in his hands, it's source depleted years before, before returning his attention to the landscape.
"So what now, master?"
"We wait. It is Taichi's move now and I doubt that puppy Tamer will sit still for long before he and his trash Tamer allies come after me." Neo lifted the sleeve on his shirt, revealing a broken device on his wrist that could've been a digivice once. Like Taichi's, it's LCD was also destroyed, the white surface scratched and weather-beaten.
"You will return, Taichi, and I will have my revenge."
