Everywhere: Part Eight: Holding the World in Your Hands

Disclaimer: Duh!

*~*

"Who?" Kari asked, totaly confused. Jason was looking murderous.

"Osamu" Jason repeated. The name seemed to annoy the evil child greatly.

"There is no such person anymore!" The boy cried insanely. "I am the Digital King! That is all you need to refer to me as!"

"Who's Osamu?" Tk asked, ignoring the boy's furious state.

"Osamu... my brother, Osamu..." Jason said. (A/N if anyone didn't see that one coming, well...) His rage was turning to dissapointment very quickly.

"Osamu, how could you do this?" Jason wailed. Tear were forming in his eyes. "Everything here is innocent! They did nothing!"

"This is just a taste of what I went though!" Osamu yelled. "I was inoccent too! Didn't you remember our little incident?"

"Gee, what a role model to grow up with..." Tk muttered. Osamu turned to him.

"I suppose you all think it's funny, do you? The great Jason's brother, the brother no-one knows about, is causing all this. Brother against Brother. Too bad we couldn't have a deciding party." Osamu dragged the last words out very carefully. Droplets of tears starting to leave Jason's eyes.

"What does he mean, deciding party? You mean like another brother or something?" Kari asked Jason. Jason covered his ears with his hands.

"Why Kari, didn't Jason ever tell you about little Leruki? Shame, shame Jason, keeping secrets from your friends like that..." Osamu appeared to enjoy the pain that was going through Jason.

"Shut up!" Jason yelled, falling to his knees. Uncontrolable tears were now flowing freely down his face.

"No, Jason, I won't." Osamu turned to face Kari and Tk. "Leruki was our brother. He still would be if it hadn't had been for your friend Jason"

Jason let out another moan of pain. But for who? Kari thought to herself. For Osamu, for me, for someone if his past?

"Leruki was the youngest brother. It was ten years ago. He was 2 years old when I last saw him. When any of us last saw him. Jason took his little brother to main street. Dared him to cross the road. Taunted him, calling him a chicken..." Jason fell on his hands and knees in the dirt at these words. The sound of his weeping almost drowned out the story Tk and Kari were being told by Osamu. But Osamu wouldn't let that happen. His voice only grew louder.

"So little Leruki crossed the road. He made it, too. He would've been okay if someone hadn't yelled out to him that he was still a chicken. So Leruki crossed the road again. But he forgot to check if the lights were red or green. A speeding car shocked him. He froze. The driver of the car didn't notice a two-foot high person standing in the middle of the road. And then... a sickening crunch of bone on gravel. The screech of a car. A screech that was heard a mile away." Osamu's voice echoed through the empty forrest. Jason remained on the ground, crying about the memory of his younger brother.

"Didn't you think that our parents moved away and left us behind for a reason? They blamed me for the death of Leruki simply because they thought Jason could do no wrong, and Jason didn't own up. And because I was meant to be babysitting them. Our parents wanted to escape their emotions about the so called 'accident'. They were reluctant to leave Jason with me in case I took a knife and slipped..." Osamu made a motion of a knife slitting his brothers throat.

"It was an accident... if I had known the consequences of my actions, I wouldn't have done it..." Jason cried. Kari felt a deep sympathy towards Jason, and yet shocked that she hadn't known about it earlier. Jason quickly wiped his tears away on the back of his arm, and ran off.

"Hey, Jason, wait up!" Cinnamon yelled out, then ran off in the direction Jason had gone. Kari was about to follow Cinnamon when Osamu stood in front of her, blocking her path. Kari retreated, frightened, but also angry.

"Don't you care about your brother?" Kari spat out at Osamu. "Don't you care that he is in pain, that he is tormented by this accident, that he wants to move one?"

"He didn't care when I was blamed for Leruki's death. He let me take the blame. So why should I feel sorry for him?" Osamu asked.

"He's your brother!" Tk yelled

"Yeah, great brother, getting me in trouble and not owning up. Honestly, I don't know why I'm even having this conversation with you! I should you destroy you right now!" Jason said, then smirking at the idea. He cupped his hands as he had before, and a blue orb of energy formed in his hands. Kari's eyes widened with fear. Tk ran up to her and knocked her sideways just as the ball was released. It missed the pair by inches. Patamon couldn't take any more.

"Boom Bubble, pop!"

The attack hit Osamu in the stomach, winding him. Kari and Tk scrambled to their feet, and ran as fast as the could. Their digimon stayed behind.

"You can't escape me!" Osamu yelled, but stopped as GatoMon's claws made contact with his face. He let out a shreik of pain, before PataMon attacked him again.

"Enough!" Osamu yelled, and cupping his hands, threw a ball of energy at the two digimon. They screamed, and dodged it by mere centimetres. Osamu grew more and more furious, throwing more and more spheres of energy at the digimon, forgeting about Tk and Kari. This process repeated itself a few times, before Patamon and Gatomon scattered, confusing Osamu as he tried to decide which digimon to throw the next energy ball at. I know that if I throw one at Gatomon, Patamon will attack from behind, and if I attack Patamon, Gatomon will attack from behind... there's got to be a simpler solution...

Osamu suddenly had a very evil brainwave.

*~*

Jason finaly stopped running as he reached a waterfall that he recognised. Where Kari, Tk and I first got ourselfes into this mess... he thought miserably. Cinnamon finaly caught up to him, puffing heavily.

"Jason *puff*, why did *puff* you leave?" Cinnamon asked, trying to catch his breath. Jason hung his head.

"Because now Kari and Tk know about my past. They probably all think I'm a horrible person. Mind you, I am a horrible person for what I did...."

"Jason, you are not a horrible person! You were only four years old, you didn't know any better! I mean, you've dedicated about four years of your life to trying to save the digiworld! I think that makes up for anything you did as a child!" Cinnamon said. Jason shook his head.

"No, I am still a bad person. I stole the life of a person. If it wasn't for me, probably none of this would've happened! Cinnamon, it's all my fault!" Jason wailed. Cinnamon rubbed up against Jason's leg in the manner of a cat, as if to comfort him.

"It's not your fault. You can't control another persons actions. You're not a bad person. You made a childhood mistake, but so what? You weren't in control of the person in the car! It was no-one's fault. Just an accident! You have done so much good that you can't be a bad person!"

"But I didn't own up for what I did! That makes me a bad person. Osamu got the blame for something he had no control over, something he did not do. I could have stopped him getting in trouble, and stopped him resenting everything so much. He wasn't home much because he was here, right? Well the only reason he was here was to get away from me! Everything's my fault...."

"Jason, don't do this to yourself! Don't beat yourself up about something that wou had almost no control over! It's not your fault that your brother has done something bad! Don't give up now, not when the others need you the most! They are still back there, needing your help, and yet you are abandoning them to wallow in self pity! If you want to be a good person, you need to do good things!" Jason stood up abrubtly, shocking Cinnamon. He looked renewed, refreshed, and shocked at himself.

"You're right. I don't know what's come over me lately. The shock of my brother being behind all of this really hit hard, and I suppose the best thing I can do is help my friends... you never know, they're such good people that they might even forget about my past..." Jason trailed of in a sad tone for the last few words. But the look Cinnamon was giving him made him hold his head up high.

"Come on, Cinnamon. Let's go help our friends." The two turned around and ran back in the direction they had come.

*~*

Tai paced anxiously up and down his living room while his parents were sobbing silently on the couch. His friend Matt was over, who sat on a chair with a blank look on his face, still trying to accept the fact that his little brother had been missing for almost two days.

"How did this happen?" Tai asked, finaly flopping down on another chair. "They were so sensible, it's not like they take rides from strangers or anything like that."

"But according to Mrs Pruit (A/N just pretend that Mrs Pruit lived in the next appartment from Jason, and she's tan elderly lady) she saw Tk and Kari walk into Jason's appartement, with Jason, and they never left! There's no other way of getting out of this appartment block from Jason's appartment than to go past Mrs Pruit's appartment.Ó Matt said, trying to keep up his hope that Tk and Kari hadnÕt actualy been kidnapped.

ÒWell, what else couldÕve happened?Ó Tai asked Matt. Matt opened his mouth, about to speak, to tell Tai that Tk and Kari were all right, but couldnÕt think of any other explanation, so he closed his mouth and hung his head. Tai closed his eyes, trying to concentrate.

*~* FLASHBACK *~*

Tai stood outside the move theatre several minutes early. He had purposly arrived before his sister had asked so he could get out of there before a traffic jam started. He leaned against the side panel of his car. The sun shone down it's bright rays upon his face, and the birds inhabiting the nearby trees twitered away loudly. He was about to walk into the movie theatre to escape the heat of the day, when a girl from his college emerged from the building. He felt his heart skip a beat as he saw her in her trademark pink outfit for when she wasn't in their college uniform. She was a student from America who was doing her degree off campus while she was on a brief studying break. Suddenly, she spotted him, waved, and ran over to him.

"Hey Tai, what are you doing here?" Mimi asked, her pink hair bouncing wildly. Tai grinned.

"Picking my sister up from her date. I don't know HOW I got roped into it, though. She always could wrap me round her little finger..." Tai said. Mimi giggled.

"So, how was the movie?" Tai asked. Mimi looked confused.

"What movie?" She asked. Tai rolled his eyes.

"The movie you just saw. You just came out of the theatre, so you must have seen a movie." Tai said, trying to jog the ditzy girl's memory.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, finaly getting the point. "It was okay, a bit too sappy in parts, but it had my ideal guy in it."

"What, the person acting or the personality of a character?" Tai asked.

"Both!" Mimi squealed. "The actor was a really good actor, rich, handsome and charming. And the character was kind, romantic, strong, smart and really hot."

"Ah! I have competition, now, do I?" Tai joked with the pink-haired girl. She giggled some more. Even though they weren't going out, Tai often wished they were. He was different when he was with the girl - he changed from his spontanious self to a kind, caring, smart, brave person - a real gentleman.

"So, whatcha doing on Saturday?" Tai asked, plucking up his courage. Mimi shrugged.

"Probably staying in. Watch some t.v. or something. It's not like I've got anything better to do." Mimi said.

"Well, maybe we could, like, meet up here and see a movie or something...?" Tai asked, staring at his cross trainers.

"What, like, on a date or something?" Mimi asked. Tai bit his lip.

"Well, yeah, if that's okay with you... I mean, if it's not, that's cool and all..." Tai trailed off, still acting thoroughly fascinated with something on the ground.

"Sure!" Mimi said brightly. She had been hoping for a while that maybe Tai would ask her out. He was definatly the hottest single guy her age she had seen in Odaiba so far, and the nicest to her. Tai looked up at her.

"You - You're serious?" Tai asked. Mimi giggled - again! Tai thought. But it's a nice giggle... I think I could almost learn to love it.

"Of course I'm serious. Would I joke with you?" She asked innocently. Tai raised an eyebrow.

"Retorical question!" She hastily added, and Tai laughed.

"So, what movie do you want to see?" Mimi asked Tai. He shrugged.

"How about Kate and Leopold?" Tai suggested. Mimi shook her head.

"Uh, sorry, I just came out of that movie. I've already seen it." Tai's brow furrowed.

"What? Are you sure?" Tai asked.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I know what movie I just saw." Mimi said, a little confused at Tai's question.

"But... but you can't have! That's what my sister and Tk are seeing, and this is where I said to meet me. They're not out yet." Tai pointed out. Mimi shrugged.

"Maybe they went out a wrong exit or something?" Mimi suggested. Tai shook his head.

"No, Kari knows which exit I always park at." Tai said, getting slightly worried.

"Well, just give them a few more minutes. I'm sure that they'll show up."

*~* END FLASHBACK *~*

Mimi was wrong... Tai thought bitterly as he remembered the day. They never showed up, and now...

"Tai?" Matt asked, giving his friend an anxious look. This broke Tai's train of thought.

"Hmm?" Tai asked, vaugely aware that there was still other people in the room.

"Nothing. You were just in a sort of trance, or something..." Matt commented. Tai suddenly looked up at Matt.

"Matt, this is just a thought, but... if the last place Tk and Kari were seen were at Jason's appartment, maybe we should go check it out? I mean, we should quickly check with Mrs Pruit once more, just to make sure, but afterwards, I'm sure Jason wouldn't mind helping us out." Matt nodded his head in agreement as he couldn't think of anything better to do.

The two got out of their chairs, and left Tai's sobbing parents alone in Tai's appartment. They set off to Mrs Pruit's appartment, hoping to find some answers. Upon arrival to her front door, the two knocked, waited several moments, before the door was opened by a cheerful old lady, accompanied by her pet poodle, Sooty.

"Hello, Tai, Matt," Mrs Pruit said in a friendly voice, gesturing for the two boys to come in. They gave her a grateful smile, and walked into her very grandmotherly appartment.

"Sit down, both of you, and make yourself comfortable. Tea?" She offered. Tai and Matt both sat down on the oversized chairs.

"Ah, no tea for me, thanks." Tai said.

"Neither." Matt said. "But thanks for offering."

"Mrs Pruit, we were actualy wondering if you could tell us again about the last time you saw Tk and Kari." Tai said as Mrs Pruit sat down on her couch. Her dog, Sooty, jumped up next to her, and lay down.

"Of course I can tell you about the last time I saw Tk and Kari! I mean, important things like this I don't forget that easily. It was just the other day. I was looking out the window because... well, I don't remember any more. But I was looking out the window, when Kari, Tk and Jason came cahrging past the window, laughing away. I watched them run into Jason's appartment, and slam the door behind them. I had no clue what had gotten into those children - the way they were running about, you would have thought a tiger was chasing them.

"So I went back to doing whatever it was I was doing, which took a while - not that I remember what it was, or anything. But by the time I finaly tore myself away from the window to give Sooty his dinner, it was nightfall, and I hadn't seen Kari, Tk or Jason leave that appartment. And then, a few hours later, you came knocking on my door, asking if I had seen either of them. And that's all that happened." Mrs Pruit finaly finished her story - the same story Matt and Tai had heard before. They both sighed, slightly miserably.

"Actualy, come to think of it, I haven't seen that Jason boy around ever since Kari and Tk went missing, either," Mrs Pruit said, thinking hard. "Yes, that makes sense... he normaly comes over to take Sooty for a walk in the mornings, but he hasn't been doing that. I don't know if that helps, though."

"Thanks Mrs Pruit. We'd better get going," Tai said gloomily as he stood up. Matt followed suit, and the pair left Mrs Pruit's appartment, and walked next door to Jason's appartment. Tai knocked on the door, and waited for a few minutes. After no answer, Tai knocked again, managing to make the knock sound a little irratated. After no answer, Tai wrapped his hand around the handle, and to his shock, the door was unlocked. He pushed the door open, and peeked into the appartment. No-one was there.

"Hello?" Tai called uncertainly into the appartment. Nobody answered. Tai walked into the room, followed by Matt.

"Kari? Tk? Jason? Anyone?" Matt yelled. Still, no answer was heard. Tai and Matt exchanged a glance, then started looking around the appartment, trying to find a clue of where Kari and Tk might be.

"You know what Matt?" Tai asked as he walked into the small kitchen. "If Jason hasn't been seen since Kari and Tk have, do you think he could be with them?"

"I don't know. I mean, I've never even met this Jason person. I feel a bit wierd rumaging through his appartment...." Matt said, as he searched through the pile of science books on the coffee table.

"Matt, quick... check this out!" Tai yelled excitedly. Matt gave his friend a curious look, and ran over to where he was standing. Tai was examining an empty glass of milk that was on top of a rather messy note. On the note, it read:

Jason,

Hey, it's Kari. I came round here cause I left my spare key here. The door was open, so I came in. Listen, I gotta talk to you. It's about a guy I met the other day. He's the guy from the dreams! His name's Tk, and I really want you to meet him. Come round to my place as soon as you can.

From Kari

"Okay, that about Tk being a guy from her dreams? That's messed up." Matt said, his face plastered with a look of disgust. Tai rolled his eyes.

"It's not like that. She told me that she was having wierd dreams about people she felt she knew... you know, like a long lost friend or something. She must have thought that she used to know your brother or something." Tai said.

"Oh..." Matt said, though not thouraly convinced that Tk wasn't Kari's 'dream guy'. And the way Tk had gone on about Kari after only meeting her one time... he was sure that Kari was Tk's 'dream girl'.

"So Kari must have been here before, telling Jason to go to our house... where Tk was. Then they must have all decided to go to Jason's appartment... that still doesn't help very much." Tai bit his lower lip, trying to think of possible explanations. Matt left him there to explore more of the appartment. He walked past the couch, past the dining room table, past the computer...

Matt quickly spun around to get a closer look at the computer he had just passed.

"Tai...!" Matt called, not taking his eyes off the computer screen. Tai came running up to him, looked at the computer, and gasped.

"What do you think it is?" Tai asked Matt.

"No idea... none at all..." Matt and Tai looked closer at the screen. Matt reached out his hand, and placed it on the screen. He screamed as it started to pull him into the computer. Tai grabbed onto Matt, but it was too late. They were both pulled into the portal on the screen.

*~*

Osamu, in a flash, turned around and let out an attack at Kari and Tk. Kari placed a hand on Tk's back and slammed them both down onto the ground, so the attack flew over their heads, missing them by inches. Patamon and Gatomon gasped, and in their moment of shock, Osamu released another energy ball at the digimon. They quickly snapped out of it, and dodged the attacks. They darted over to their digidestined partners, worried if they were alright or not.

"Kari!" Gatomon yelled out. Kari lifted her head off the ground, just in time to see Osamu aiming another onslaught at her. She rolled out of the way, but to her absolute horror, the blue streak of energy caught Patamon and Gatomon in it's path. The two digimon were slammed against a tree from the force, then slid slowely to the ground. Tk, too, raised his head of the moist earth to see the injured digimon fall to the ground. Kari and Tk quickly scrambled to their feet, and ran over to the digimon. Osamu let out an evil cackle.

"Well, Kari, Tk, what do you have to say now? Jason has abandon you, and your digimon are too weak to fight. You know it's over. You can't keep running forever." Osamu said, smirking at the two children at his mercy. Kari glared at Osamu.

"How can you talk about your brother like that?" She yelled at him. He shrugged.

"Very easily. You see, Kari, unlike you, I have never had a brother that cared for me. Or that I cared for, for that matter." Kari was shocked.

"How... how do you know about my brother?" She asked, getting angry about how much information Osamu knew about her.

"Why, Jason of course. He told me everything. From your cat Miko, to your brilliant test marks. It's so easy to get vital information from friends...."

"You son of a BI--"

"ENOUGH!" Osamu barked. "If you have finished insulting me, I would like to destroy you and get on with taking over this world... and the other one."

"Yeah, well, I haven't finished insulting you." Tk said, taking part in the verbal assult on Osamu. "You know how bad it was being innocent and getting put down, so how do you think everything here is feeling? You are a cruel, heartless, annoying, mean, evil, cold..."

"Malicious, slime-sucking, horrible creature. You don't even deserve to be called a human!" Kari finished for Tk. Osamu raised an eyebrow.

"Is that the best you can do? You think you can inflict pain on me by calling me names? Well watch and learn, digidestined, because you are about to learn how to cause REAL pain to anyone, anything, anywhere, any time."

Kari gasped as Osamu hld his hands out flat and begun chanting something. The energy ball in his hands was growing bigger and bigger... Kari hugged Tk tightly, trying to hold the tears back from falling down her cheeks. Tk squeezed her tightly, jamming his eyes close tightly.

"I love you Tk" Kari murmered quietly to Tk.

"I love you, too." Tk whispered back, tears threatning to escape his eyes. Then, with an almighty heave, they heard Osamu release the ball of energy at them. They waited for it to hit them, then suddenly, they heard an atomic blast, then... silence. Tk opened an eye, and looked around him. He released his grip on Kari, who also seemed rather confused. Osamu, however, was looking furious.

"What happened?" Kari asked. Tk shrugged, then watched Osamu as he fell to his knees. Kari and Tk exchanged a glance, then looked around for what might have stopped the blast from hitting them. What could have happened? Kari asked herself. We were standing there, and the blast stopped right between us and Osamu. The only way we could have been saved is if something stopped the blast... but what?

Kari suddenly gasped.

"What is it?" Tk asked. Kari pulled on his sleeve,and pointed to where the blast had hit. Tk's jaw dropped open.

There, lying motionless several feet away from them, was the image of a body.

The body of Jason.

*~*

Okay, I did this part in about two hours, so it probably sucks BIG TIME. I had time restriction cause I'm in Singapore airport. My fingers have gone all floppy, my ears are ringing cause I'm right next to one of those stupid speakers, My head is pounding cause Jayde slammed it in a locker right before I left for Singapore (don't ask) and I'm REALLY bugged cause they are only playing M2M on this stupid radio thing... ugh, I hate airports. But anyway, this was probably very very predictable cause for some reason my friends like nice predictable stories. And I felt sorry for Tai so I had to pair him with Mimi, and cause someone wanted a Michi fic... I don't know who, a friend or a review. Comments to: rio_blaze_dione@hotmail.com

Cinnamon scrolls? I'd kill for one about now.

Rio