"It's about time you showed up, whoever you are!" says Daisuke loudly as they all turn to face the voice. Standing in the doorway is a tall grey Digimon encased in white-and-gold armor and with large, tattered-looking purple wings protruding from his back. Taichi runs forward and joins Daisuke at the head of the group, scowling at the intruder. He really hates these villain types.
"I am Dynasmon," the Digimon says, his voice echoing enormously. "And I am here to destroy you."
"Oh my god, how predictable," Jyou sighs from somewhere behind him.
"Hawkmon, hurry up!" Miyako yells urgently. When Taichi glances at her, he sees she's standing beside Ken, who is scratching out a delete symbol on the wall.
"Boom bubble! Pah!" says Patamon. As the Digimon of the bearer of hope, he's almost always the first to attack in his rookie form. The others join in, but predictably Dynasmon brushes off the colorful flurry of tiny attacks easily.
Koushiro is typing away on his laptop hurriedly. "Dynasmon is a mega-level Digimon," he reads out loud, "Apart from his tremendous physical strength, he also has an amazing defense, and can fly at great speeds. It is rumored that he can control the many powers of light."
"I would say that rumor is true," says Sora dryly, gesturing to the walls.
"So, Dynasmon, is it?" Taichi shouts, hoping he can stall the Digimon and maybe even get some information out of it. "What the hell are you trying to do here anyway?"
"What does it look like I'm doing, foolish child?" Dynasmon laughs, causing Taichi's scowl to deepen. He is, after all, no child these days. "I'm harnessing the power of your world and using it to control mine! And soon, your world will be devoid of power, and I will rule over them both!"
"And that doesn't sound familiar at all," Tailmon says in her bitingly caustic way.
"What, you're going to start an energy corporation and take over Wall Street?" says Jyou, only half-joking.
"These bad guys are all the same," says Agumon from Taichi's side. "No imagination."
Taichi looks at them all and can't help a small grin. They're experts at this, at the tug-of-war game that is baiting an enemy and yet holding them off until they can deliver that final blow. Even these seemingly meaningless, petty comments are a part of this.
"Miyako, go!" says Hawkmon from above, rapidly descending. As Dynasmon turns to look at Miyako, Hawkmon shouts, "Feather Slash!" The attack does little, but it does serve as a distraction and Dynasmon turns his back on Ken and Miyako, not noticing them carving into the wall.
"Hawkmon, what did you label it?" Ken shouts desperately.
"The digiglyph for victory!" Hawkmon shouts back, catching his feather and then throwing it right back at Dynasmon. Taichi snorts at the name.
Ken quickly carves the symbol and activates the new set. It glows briefly.
Taichi looks up to see the large purple area overhead blink out of existence.
"Great!" he says. "Now, everyone listen. All of you need to work on getting rid of these damn things. Yamato and I will fight Dynasmon."
The others nod.
"No," says Yamato.
"What?"
"I won't fight with you," says Yamato shortly, crossing his arms over his chest. Taichi feels one thing at this: burning, irrational anger. Can't the stupid idiot see that this is what has to be done?
"I won't protest that," Dynasmon rumbles. "Dragon Thrower!"
The attack comes straight for Yamato, and Taichi pushes him out of the way.
"Taichi!" Agumon yells, warp-digivolving and countering the attack.
"Everyone, get to work!" Taichi yells over his shoulder. He doesn't look back until he's satisfied the others have stopped their rubber-necking. He then turns back to Yamato and grabs him by the shoulders. "Listen, we've got to jogress. Dynasmon is a mega!"
"So what?" says Yamato bitterly, struggling against Taichi's grip. "We're not the only ones who can jogress."
"Yeah, but Omegamon's the strongest!"
"Yamato, please," Gabumon pleads.
"I can't hold him back much longer," growls Metalgreymon.
Yamato glances down at his Digimon, then back up at Taichi. He scowls. "Fine then. But I don't have to like it."
"Who said anything about you liking it," mutters Taichi, but Yamato's words sting.
"Gabumon?" says Yamato, ignoring Taichi. His partner nods, then warp-digivolves.
"Taichi!" says Koushiro from behind him. Taichi turns his head.
"What?"
"I'm going to use a carving to power the jogress! It should make your attacks stronger!"
"Hurry!" Taichi replies.
"It's almost done. I just have to activate it," Koushiro answers.
"Well, stop talking and activate it!" Taichi shouts.
Koushiro does.
A shining light envelops Taichi and Yamato and their Digimon and Taichi relishes the familiar feeling of warmth that fills him as the two Digimon jogress.
But when the light dissipates, Taichi realizes that something is off. He can feel - he can feel Yamato's heartbeat. It thunders against his own chest frantically, like an animal trying to get out of a cage.
How strange.
Wait - hadn't Daisuke said something about that?
Taichi struggles to remember.
"And I could feel Ken's heart beating along with mine! It was totally awesome!" Daisuke's enthusiastic voice rings in his head.
And Hikari had said something about feeling the same phenomenon when Tailmon and Halsemon jogressed.
But . . . why hadn't Taichi felt it before?
Why now?
Distantly, he hears Omegamon's voice shouting, "Transcendent Sword!" But it doesn't seem important.
He thinks back to the fight with Diablomon, and suddenly it clicks.
Their hearts had been in sync.
Of course.
And now . . . and now. And now they're in the worst fight they've ever been in, a fight that Taichi doesn't even completely understand the full of, and Yamato won't even look at him properly, and Taichi's emotions are more muddled than ever, and he's angry and he's lonely and miserable and their hearts are out of sync for the first time ever and he knows two things for sure.
"Taichi!" comes a voice from far away. It sounds like Koromon. "Taichi, it's over! Snap out of it!"
He knows, more certainly than anything he's ever known, that he loves this crazy, stupid, stubborn boy, despite it all.
And he knows that, more than anything, he really, really wants to cry.
So he does.
To say the least, they're all a little surprised when Taichi, their great and glorious leader, doesn't snap out of his reverie and flash them his cheeky smile like they all expect him to, but bursts into tears.
"Taichi?" says Koromon worriedly, bouncing up and down next to his partner. "Taichi, are you all right? Taichi, what's wrong?"
Taichi's sobs are terrifying. They're loud, harsh, desperate, uneven, ragged, hysterical cries of pain, like something has ripped out his insides and left him bleeding and dying on the ground. Like a mortally wounded animal. It's something Mimi would expect from a disintegrating evil Digimon, but not from someone like Taichi. She's never seen him cry before, and it's an enormously unsettling thing.
"What do you think happened to him?" she asks Sora nervously. Sora's staring at Taichi with a very worried look on her face, and she doesn't answer Mimi's question.
"Do you think they set something off when they killed Dynasmon?" Jyou says from her other side. Mimi frowns. That would make a lot of sense, wouldn't it? But what exactly could they have set off to cause Taichi to react like this?
"No, they didn't," Koushiro replies. "We made sure that nothing like that would happen while those two were fighting. Besides, all the mines were already gone when Dynasmon was destroyed."
"Then what is it?" says Tentomon, completely confused.
"Excuse me," says Yamato coldly from behind them. After they've all turned to look at him, he says quite calmly, "If you no longer need me, I'll be going now."
"Don't you dare!" Hikari snaps, quite unexpectedly. Mimi glances at the normally collected girl and notices her stance, stiffly defensive, like someone expecting a blow to the stomach. She's trying to protect Taichi, Mimi realizes, and resists the urge to start crying herself. This is not how things are supposed to be.
"Why not?" Yamato challenges her.
"Why not?" Hikari says in a voice of deadly calm. "Because my brother is crying on the floor, that's why not. What kind of friend would you be if you just left like that?"
"I'm not his friend," Yamato spits out.
Mimi gasps in shock and shakes her head in wonder. Even though Yamato is infamous in Japan for his good looks, Mimi can't help but think he looks very ugly at this moment, his face contorted in rage.
Yamato turns and begins to walk away again, pausing only slightly when Takeru calls after him.
"I'm going with him," Tsunomon tells the rest apologetically. "I'm sorry for his behavior."
Koushiro nods. "Make sure he doesn't turn off his digivice again. I'll be along in a few days to set him up with a computer so you can get to and from the digital world."
"Thank you very much," Tsunomon says, bowing his head slightly and turning and bouncing after Yamato. "Yamato, wait!"
Hikari shakes her head. "I'm sorry, Takeru, but sometimes I just can't stand your brother."
"Me neither," Mimi jumps in without thinking.
Takeru sighs. "He's just upset."
"Yeah, mentally upset," Mimi can't help but add.
"Mimi!" Sora admonishes, but Mimi can see a hint of a smile.
"Okay, everyone," says Hikari, "I'm going to take care of Taichi. You guys head on back."
Daisuke nods. "We'll wait for you at Koushiro's apartment."
Hikari shakes her head. "It's okay. You all go home."
Daisuke looks like he's going to protest, but the look on Hikari's face seems to convince him otherwise, so that an exaggerated look of dejection settles across his face. It becomes even more exacerbated when Takeru leans over and kisses Hikari on the cheek.
"Good luck," he whispers in her ear.
What makes this scene so much different from the ones she'd witnessed when she'd first met Daisuke, Mimi reflects, is that Daisuke's disappointment fades quickly, so that the next moment he's exchanging childish insults with Miyako as if nothing's happened, as if - as if his continuing infatuation with Hikari is now more out of habit than any truly romantic feelings. A strange development, but nonetheless an improvement, Mimi decides. She remembers how bull-headed and angry he had been when the pair had announced their engagement.
"All right, let's get out of here," says Takeru finally, throwing one last smiling look at Hikari before turning to Koushiro expectantly.
Koushiro has luckily left a computer with an open digiport on at his place, so he leads them out of the castle, opens another gate from his laptop, and then they're back in the real world just like that.
"Oh, Mimi," says Koushiro. "I forgot we have to send you back to New York from the Digiworld. I'll open another gate."
"Thanks, Koushiro, but I'm not quite ready yet," says Mimi, eyeing Sora and Jyou in turn. She's not leaving until she knows exactly what was going on with Taichi back there, and she's got a gut feeling that Sora's the one to ask. As for Jyou, she has yet to give him a proper goodbye.
