"A long while after I went off on my own to find out who I was when we returned to the Digital World to stop the Dark Masters, Gabumon and I had found ourselves wandering through a seemingly never ending, dark cave. Then I started talking about not having a purpose anymore since T.K. could protect himself, and how I never let anyone else in after my parents separated, and I yelled at Gabumon, telling him to leave me alone. He told me that if that's really what I wanted, he'd do as I wished and go; I apologized and poured my heart out to him, telling him how much I hated being alone. He told me that he'd always be there, that I didn't have to be alone anymore, and it was then that I also realized that you guys really did care for me, that I was never really alone in the first place. I just made it that way… The next thing I new, a black darkness shifted from me up onto the cave wall, and I discovered that it was the darkness I'd been carrying in my heart since I first came to the Digital World. When the darkness disappeared, so did the cave, and that's when we ran into Joe." He nodded to the sixteen-year-old next to him, and the boy started his tale.
"I'd left Mimi to go find Matt, along with myself, and when we ran into each other after he got out of that cave, we ran into T.K. a while after that. He'd been traveling with Sora to find us, but he told us that she had been pulled into a dark hole that now rested on the ground. We climbed down into it and found Biyomon with her; she (Sora) was curled up with her head on her knees, and the same darkness that had swallowed Matt now had her. We tried to wake her up, to pull her from the position that she was in, but she held fast and mumbled some pretty strange things as she sat there. She kept saying that one phrase over and over, and we finally got through to her when she asked why we were the ones chosen to save both the Digital World and ours, and we answered that perhaps it was because we were the only ones who could. We broke through her shell, and the darkness cleared from both her and the cave, just as it had for Matt."
"Does that help?" They all nodded. Tai looked at the four beside him in wonder and hurt; if only he'd seen how much Matt was going through when they were younger, or how much doubt Sora had harbored within her. He would have helped them get through their problems, comforted them and been there, but he hadn't been. He hadn't been by their sides when they were lost in their own blackness… He was startled from his thoughts when a strong hand rested on his shoulder, and he turned his gaze to see his best friend sitting there beside him, smiling all the while.
"Hey, you're not thinking about us, are you?" He teased, and the boy looked at the floor again while he sighed and smiled slightly. He'd been 'discovered', it seemed. "Just because you didn't notice, doesn't mean you weren't there for us, Tai," The eldest Kamiya sibling looked at him strangely; it was as if the boy read his mind! Then again, he had always been easy to read in the first place. Still, he listened intently to the boy's words. "Every other time we needed you, you were there. This time, you weren't, and perhaps…it was for the best," Tai was about to ask how that could be, but Matt continued before he could utter a sound. "Think about it for a minute. If anyone else was around us at the time when we were all by ourselves, do you think we would have opened up like that? Opened our tightly barricaded hearts to the world as we did? No, and that's because we always put on a mask in front of our friends, and sometimes our parents, one that was happy and barely showed that we had problems at all; in truth, though, we were breaking inside, our hearts were not open to anyone or anything, not until we could be alone that day, when we could finally come to terms with our problems and face them head-on. That day, for me, was the most eye-opening of my entire life, and it probably was for Sora, too, am I right?" The girl grinned and replied,
"Yeah. I don't think I would have become who I am today had I not recognized my fears and erased them from my heart. I remember being so hopeless then, all by myself except for Biyomon, and yet at the same time I felt so determined…I was determined to get back and help you defeat Piedmon, Tai; that is, after finding the boys. I knew I couldn't leave you, Izzy, and Kari to fight alone like that, but I also couldn't let myself go on knowing of the chances we had of losing. I suppose I was selfish for letting my own doubts overtake me, for not getting myself out of that cave as quickly as I could to get the four of us back to you as soon as possible, but I couldn't find the strength inside of me to find the way out myself. Then these guys came along," She smiled and gestured to the boys beside her, and went on. "And they helped me realize that just because the lights go out and there's no on beside you to protect or hold your hand, or when a certain task is set upon you against your wishes, and there's nothing you can do about it, don't think about your uncertainties and worries; instead, you should think about the reason, and the reason for us to be saving both worlds was because there was no one else in the world with feelings so strong. What I mean is, out of all the kids in the world, we were the only ones with the feelings that our crests represented, the only ones whom those exact emotions shone through so strongly."
"Sincerity." Mimi and Yolei said.
"Reliability." Joe and Cody replied.
"Friendship." Matt and Davis spoke.
"Knowledge." Izzy and Cody chimed.
"Courage." Tai and Davis remarked.
"Love." Sora and Yolei countered.
"Hope." T.K. grinned.
"Light." Tai quietly added in for his little sister, and they all smiled at each other. The parents of both the new and old Chosen Digidestined Children (I combined them!) beamed at them admirably, seeing how much of a bond these special adolescents shared, simply over living creatures from another dimension that were made of ones and zeros (data). They'd seen first hand how their children had changed after their encounters with the Digimon; Cody, for example, had learned to speak up and be heard, rather than just listen and never be noticed; Dais had learned that to be brave isn't to be reckless. It merely means taking care of those around you, and putting them before yourself. Ken now understood the true meaning of friendship, and how friends help you instead of hurt you, that they mold you into the beautiful person that you will someday become. Izzy discovered that just because his parents adopted him without his knowing, it didn't mean he had to isolate himself to his computer to shield himself from the truth; since he and his parents had understood each other since he first went to the Digital World when he was ten, they'd hung out more often and were definitely much more involved in each other's lives than before the Digimon had come. The Digimon had changed all of their lives for the better, and they'd always be grateful, they knew.
In the midst of their proud gazes, however, Clairice rushed round the corner to stand in front of them all, sweating and eyes watery. Joe put up his hand to silence those whom had not noticed the girl and were still talking, and everyone immediately clamped up. Waiting for her to catch her breath, Joe inspected her appearance closer, and his eyes widened in realization at what must have happened to make her behave this way.
"I…I'm sorry," She started, still somewhat breathing hard. "Your sister…" She looked to Tai, and then shifted to his parents. "Your daughter…has gone into a coma-like state. If you wish to speak to her one last time, you must do so now."