Well it's Sunday, so that means time for another update, and this one is the biggest one yet, so everyone be happy! Yay!

Oh yea, one thing I forgot to ask last week, the little action scene from last chapter, how was that? I'd really appreciate some opinions on that because the other stories I'm planning are more action fics and I want to know if how I'm doing the action is readable. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I do not own digimon

Chapter 11 …But Not the Same

Davis

I was waiting in the elevator of the Kamiya's apartment, waiting for everyone else to show up. I enjoy my sleep as much as the next person, especially when I'm exhausted from a battle, but I also hate wasting a day, so most mornings I'll get out of bed pretty early, usually to practice some soccer on my own. That was probably one of the big reasons I was the only freshmen on the Varsity squad at our high school.

That also explained why I was waiting on the others. I'd ended my personal practice early, since we had a team practice today, and arrived at the Kamiya's a little early. This also meant that I could ride the elevator up to meet everyone at the Kamiya's floor. I was planning on surprising Tai and Kari by being there when they arrived at the elevator.

The elevator went up past the Kamiya's floor, since I'd been sitting in the closed elevator for a few minutes. Someone on the floor above had obviously called for the elevator to pick them up. When the elevator reached the next floor it stopped, and opened. I was expecting some person I didn't know to be on the other side of the door so I was a little shocked to see Sora standing there.

"Davis." She said in surprise, seeing me standing there. "What are you doing here?"

I just looked at her, and glared a little bit. I'd once been pretty good friends with Sora, not one of her best friends but that was mostly been because of the age difference, and the fact that she'd had Tai. I know you're probably wondering what that has to do with anything, but Tai and I were a lot alike, even before we started hanging out so much, so she hadn't needed too friends exactly alike. Of course for that same reason I'd gotten along with Sora real well. I mean if someone's exactly like your best friend you'd probably get along with them pretty well.

Of course the little…rift between the two hadn't exactly done great things for our friendship, since I was firmly in the Tai camp.

So I wasn't exactly happy to see her, especially since she was one of the main reasons that I'd been in the digital world and forced to fight against my friends. She looked a little hurt as I glared at her, and I softened my expression a bit. Sure she'd been horrible to Tai, but I'd never been one to stay angry at people, especially friends.

"Sora." I replied, trying to not sound like an asshole. "I'm walking to school with Tai and Kari." At that point I decided to put my feelings on the way she'd been treating Tai out into the open. "Something you'd know if you'd been paying any attention for the last six months."

That I could tell had gotten to her, and my expression softened a little bit more, I wasn't really that great at being a jerk intentionally so I couldn't be that mean to her, so I was a little confused. How do I act? Like nothing happened? Or that Sora was the reason that someone I considered family was hurting more than I could ever imagine? Luckily for me Matt decided to show up at that moment.

"Hey Davis!" He greeted warmly. Me and Matt had been pretty good friends, seeing how we shared the friendship digital trait, though our friendship was nowhere near as close as mine and Tai's. That was before the whole Parasimon incident, which seemed sure to spark a little better friendship between the two of us.

"Sora." He greeted in a not unfriendly tone of voice, but it definitely wasn't the tone he usually used with his girlfriend. Then I remembered that Matt had told me he'd broken up with Sora. Geez, this was not going to be a good time for Sora, especially when Kari got here. And if Tai finally broke down and got angry with Sora, this could turn ugly.

The elevator started moving down, towards the Kamiya's floor, and the confrontation I knew was coming got closer. A second later the elevator rang and the door opened. On the other side was Kari, just Kari no Tai.

"Kari!" Matt and I say fairly happily.

"Kari." Sora says, also a little warmly, much to my, and I'm pretty sure Matt's, surprise.

"Hi Davis. Matt." Kari fairly warmly but not how she would normally great me. I knew instantly that something was wrong, most likely the fact that Tai wasn't with her. "Hey Sora." Kari says, with almost no change in her tone of voice, and that had me do a double take.

Did Kari just greet Sora like a friend? That was quite possibly the most unexpected thing that I'd ever heard. Judging from how far open Matt's mouth was he was just as shocked.

"Kari, where's Tai?" Sora asked, looking past Kari.

"He was gone this morning when I woke up; in fact he didn't even wake up yesterday at all, so I still haven't talked to him." Kari replied, talking almost like she had been before all of the…problems…arguments, whatever you wanted to call it, started between Tai and Sora.

This had Sora look very disappointed, almost as if she'd wanted to see Tai for some reason. Kari seemed to notice this as well, and patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry, he'll be at school, then you'll get your chance." Kari tells her, cheering her up. Now my mouth is even more open that Matt's, and I'm completely confused. The elevator trip is spent like this, and when we reach the bottom, I pull Kari aside.

"Kari, what's going on?" I ask, gesturing towards Sora, who is walking awkwardly with Matt up ahead.

"Sora apologized, and she seemed to realize all that she'd done. And she seemed to want to fix everything." Kari said, looking off, as if she was remembering something. "In fact she pretty much said she'd make Tai happy again if it was the last thing that she did." I looked a little shocked, but I guess I could understand.

Sora seemed to know exactly what to say to get Kari to start to forgive her, though that wasn't surprising, seeing how well they knew each other. Well. If Kari can forgive her, I guess that I can do the same, or at least try.

The rest of the trip to school was uneventful, we all chatted fairly friendly, almost like old times at least for a few minutes. You could tell there was a lot of strain on our group though. All of us had been deeply affected by Sora's decisions and actions with Tai, and even with me and Kari trying to be nice, you could tell that there a huge strain. We stopped talking after about three minutes, finishing our walk to school in silence.

Matt and Sora both left for their classes, while Kari and I walked to our first period class. We had that class with T.K. and Izzy, who was stuck taking a freshman elective course. Most of the digidestined actually attended our high school.

Yolei and Ken were a grade above us (Ken had insisted on attending our school after the battle with Armageddemon, and only skipped ahead one grade, so he could be in Yolei's grade), while Cody was stuck in middle school. The other original digidestined, except Joe who was in college and Mimi who was in America, were all two or three grades above me and Kari and T.K., but we all still usually got together during lunch, well except Sora and Matt. Matt would try to sit with us every day, but Sora would take him away the second she saw Tai.

Just thinking about that reminded me of Tai, who I still hadn't seen yet. I got up to go look for him around the school when our teacher walked in.

"And just where do you think you are going Mr. Motomiya?" She asked giving me a disapproving look.

Oh crap I think to myself trying to think of a way out of this one.

"Well, you see…" I start, rubbing the back of my head, still trying to come up with an excuse.

"I asked him to get me a water bottle!" One of the nearby sophomore girls in our class jumped up into the conversation. "He was just going it go grab it for me."

I look back at the girl, who'd I only talked to once or twice before, surprised she was helping me out.

"I see, well you should have asked him to go sooner, since it is now time for class to start, everyone to your seats." The teacher said, walking to the front of the classroom.

I sit down next to the girl and turn to her. "Thanks." I tell her smiling a bit.

"No problem." She smiles right back. We talked for the rest of class, and that distracted me for pretty much the entire class. I walked in a bit of a daze out of class, a little shocked. The girls in middle school had never really noticed me that much, probably because they knew that I was obsessed with Kari, but I didn't have that same reputation here, since she was dating T.K. It was actually a little nice to talk to girls who seemed interested in me.

That kept me occupied throughout the entire day, until I got to soccer practice that afternoon, then I remembered that I'd still not talked to Tai. I quickly changed heading out to the field where I knew Tai would be already warming up. Sure enough I can see a person practicing out on the field, and the size of the hair easily identifies him as Tai.

I stop to watch Tai's practice for a second, and immediately know something is wrong. I'd played soccer with Tai for a number of years now, and knew how he played very well, mostly since I emulated a lot of his style, and what Tai was doing now was all wrong. All of the moves that he was performing were flawless. I mean, like they were better executed than any I had ever seen before, and I'd been to quite a few professional matches over my life. Now Tai was good, but he couldn't perform like that as many times as I was seeing, it was almost mechanical. None of the heart and soul that Tai usually poured out into soccer was present in his moves. And there was the little fact that he was still injured as far as I knew, he really shouldn't have been practicing that hard on his bad leg.

It was like he was going through the motions, but just wasn't feeling the moves. I knew then that something was the matter. Sora must have yelled at him again, or worse just ignored him all day. I head over towards Tai intent on talking to him about what happened.

"Hey Tai…" I start to say, and he turns to me, and what I see stops my words in my tracks. I'd never been very good with emotions, always more of a funny guy who could cheer you up than the person whose shoulder you'd cry on, but I was trying to be there for Tai, but his eyes made me stop. Ok, I know what you're thinking, no I wasn't staring into Tai's eyes, I was just looking him in the eye when I talked to him.

Tai's eyes, they were completely devoid of emotion. I mean literally there wasn't a hint of any emotion in his eyes, and that scared me quite a bit. The next thing scared me just as much.

"Davis." Tai said in a voice that was just as devoid of emotion as his eyes, and I was terrified. What could have happened to make this happen to Tai?

Sora

My alarm clock buzzed and I slowly got out of bed, still really groggy. I slowly moved towards the alarm clock that was on the dresser across the room from me. I turned the alarm off and look around, trying to clear my thoughts. That's when it hits me, today is the day!

That gets me pumped up. Today is the day that I can finally start fixing things with Tai, and eventually tell him what I've been dying to tell him for nearly six years now. I quickly get dressed, remembering that everyone leaves pretty early for school, and I'll have to rush a bit if I want to go with them.

I get out in record time and head out the door, I think shocking my mother a bit. I usually waited for Matt to come pick me up, but that was how things used to work, but not anymore. I quickly headed towards the elevator at the end of my floor and got the first of my many surprises that morning.

"Davis." I said surprised to see the goggle headed boy standing in the elevator. He didn't live in our building, and as far as I knew only visited Tai and Kari who lived down a couple of floors from me. "What are you doing here?" I had to ask, despite the fact that it was kinda obvious why he was there.

He glared at me for several seconds, as if deciding how best to respond to me.

"Sora." He replied, not like a complete jerk, which I would have deserved, but also not like the Davis I knew. "I'm walking to school with Tai and Kari. Something you'd know if you'd been paying any attention for the last six months."

That last statement had a bit of bite to it, and showed me just how much damage my actions had caused to my friends. Davis and I hadn't been best buddies, but we'd been good friends. I was able to put up with him a lot more than the other digidestined because I was used to how Tai had acted. In fact the close mirror that Davis was to Tai was one of the reasons I had gotten along with him so well. That had probably also been one of the big reasons I no longer talked to him so much, he reminded me of Tai so much.

All that combined had me look downcast at his statement. Davis seemed to notice this because his expression softened considerably, and I was about to apologize to him, and tell him the same things that I had told Kari when Matt showed up.

"Hey Davis!" Matt greets the younger boy enthusiastically; obviously the two of them had grown a little closer thanks to their experience the other day.

"Sora." Matt greets me in a distant tone, and I add Matt as yet another person that I've managed to hurt, and offend through my actions. Geez, I'm quickly running out of people who will actually look at me, and talk to me in something other than a cold tone of voice.

The three of us go down the next couple of floors, and I'm working up the nerve to try and apologize to both of them, but we reach the Kamiya's floor first. The door opens and Kari steps up, without Tai.

"Kari." Davis and Matt say, greeting her warmly, like the good friend that she is.

"Kari." I greet her as nicely as I can, hoping that she had really forgiven me, and there will be someone on this elevator who isn't giving me the death glare. Davis and Matt both seemed surprised that I'm greeting Kari that nicely, but I just ignore them.

"Hi Davis, Matt." Kari says, smiling at each of the boys, and then she turns to me, with the smile faltering only slightly. "Hey Sora." She managed to say hi to me almost as nicely as the two boys, and I let out a huge sigh of relief. With Kari not hating me, fixing Tai should be much easier.

Now I needed to find out where Tai was, because if he was in his apartment there was absolutely no need for me to go to school because I needed to talk to Tai, not waste time in class. "Kari, where's Tai?" I ask her as I look past her.

"He was gone this morning when I woke up," She replied, talking in nearly the same tone of voice that she had always used with me. "In fact he didn't even wake up yesterday at all, so I still haven't talked to him." She added seeming to anticipate my next question.

Now I was pretty disappointed. I'd really wanted to start making things up with Tai right at the start of the day, but now it seemed I'd have to wait.

The elevator ride down was a pretty quiet one. Despite the fact that Kari was no longer actively hating me, things weren't exactly good between the two of us, and I hadn't even started to apologize to Matt and Davis yet, so that made for a very awkward walk to school.

When we finally reached the school I immediately searched for Tai, hoping to talk to him during his free period, but I had no luck, he was nowhere to be found. So I went through the morning like that, searching for Tai between classes, but never being able to find him. I wasn't sure if he was avoiding me, or had left school, or if I just had really bad luck in my search, but I couldn't find him.

At lunch I started to despair a bit. I sat away from the other digidestined, knowing that sitting with them right now would probably not be good for anyone. It pained me to realize just how much damage I had done to the friendship of my oldest and closest friends, but I could work on fixing that after I'd fixed things with my oldest and closest friend.

I was glancing around the lunch room at this moment when I spotted him, or rather his hair. Tai was outside in the courtyard that most of the students didn't use because of the heat sweeping through the city. My heart skipped a beat as I saw him sitting there, and I got out of my seat, heading out the door.

I walked up to him, and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Tai…" I said, and my voice was quite weak. I was starting to get choked up, afraid that he wouldn't even turn to look at me. Of course if he hadn't that might actually have been better.

He turns and looks right at me, and I look in to his warm brown eyes, expecting some pain, and anger, but what I see is much worse. Tai's eyes are dead. Yea, I'm sure you're wondering how someone's eyes can be dead, but that was the only way to describe them.

Tai's eyes had been one of my favorite things about him, they still were in fact. They were always so welcoming and inviting, ready to welcome you anytime, they would shine with laughter or mischief all the time, and just looking into his eyes I could lose myself for hours. All that was gone now. There was no happiness or welcome. No anger or pain. Nothing at all, his eyes were empty, there was no shine or sparkle in them, just brown emptiness.

"Tai…" I say again, sorta stupidly, but I'm too shocked to do anything else.

"Yes Sora?" He asks, and his voice seems to rip into me. It's the exact same cold voice that he used when he was fighting the Parasimon, only now that I listened I could tell that there wasn't even anger in his voice, it was just dead, emotionally.

I honestly didn't know what to do; I looked into his eyes for about three more seconds, and then bolted, running back into the cafeteria, already tearing up.

I've Destroyed Tai, I've completely ruined the best thing that ever happened to me I thought to myself as I tried to get away as fast as possible. In fact that was the biggest thought running through my head the rest of the day. I didn't really seek out Tai again until towards the end of the day.

By that time I'd gotten a bit of my resolve back, mostly because I knew that this was all my fault. If I ever wanted Tai to be happy again, which was in fact one of the biggest things on my mind, Tai being happy that is, then I'd have to work hard at it. The situation had obviously moved beyond the simple I'm sorry and poof its fixed stage.

All through tennis practice my game was off because I was working on a way to approach Tai, and by the time practice was over I still hadn't thought of anything.

Oh well, here goes nothing… I thought to myself as I walked towards the soccer field, where all the boys were coming off of the field. I found Tai rather easily (after all with hair that big, who wouldn't notice him?) and moved towards him. All the other players seemed to have kept their distance from Tai; even Davis was watching him apprehensively, from a distance. He was the first to notice me, and he ran towards me.

"Sora, don't, Tai's really out of it…" He started to say, but I just held up a hand stopping him.

"I know Davis, I chickened out of this earlier when I tried to talk to him, but I've got to talk to him." I told Davis, before moving past the young boy.

"Tai." I state as I stop a few feet from him. He fixes me with his dead stare.

"Sora." He replies with his dead voice, and I shudder, but press on.

"Listen, I know you're not feeling great, we can all see that clearly, but there are some things I need to talk to you about, and apolo…." I manage to get most of that out, but before I can say apologize Tai holds up a hand, silencing me.

"Sora, I owe you an apology." He said, louder, but still emotionlessly. I choke on my words as he says this, and try to stop him, but he beats me to it.

"You were completely right the other day. I've been a horrible friend to you and Matt. The two of you deserve each other, and I won't be bothering you anymore." Tai says all of that, and walks away, leaving me there. I don't notice it but Davis had approached us to hear the conversation.

"But Tai…" I say futilely after his retreating form, "I'm the one who should be sorry, I was wrong." With that I collapse into tears, and fall on my knees.

"Sora…" I hear a voice say, and I look up to see Davis standing there, holding out a hand. "Don't give up yet, he just needs some time."

I take his hand, and he pulls me to my feet. I look at him and nod, getting a little of my determination back.

Matt

So this morning was pretty awkward. Of all the things that I'd expected when I walked to the elevator running into Davis and Sora had not been on the list of remotely possible, but hey that's life for you.

I didn't mean to act like an asshole of sorts to Sora, but she had gotten me captured by an evil parasite digimon the day before, because she couldn't deal with her own feelings, so until she at least apologized she'd be getting the cold shoulder.

The elevator ride was awkward because Davis seemed to be emulating me, or at least showing some common sense for once and not putting his foot in his mouth. That's one of the things I actually liked about Davis. He usually spoke his mind, even when it was entirely inappropriate to say that out loud, he still did it. It really did remind me of Tai when he had been younger.

I actually sorta sensed that the whole Parasimon had acted as a bit of a bonding experience between me and Davis, and since I was no longer seeing Sora, who had prevented me seeing Tai that often, or any of our friends firmly in the "Tai Camp" I fully expected to become better friends with Davis over the next couple of months.

So today did seem to be the day of surprises because when we arrived at the Kamiya's floor I expected Kari to completely rip Sora a new one. The best I was hoping for was that she would refrain long enough for us to make it out of the apartment building so I could find appropriate shelter, preferable a fallout shelter somewhere.

The last thing I expected Kari to do was to greet Sora like a friend and chat a little bit, just like old times. I'm pretty sure Davis was just as surprised as me, though at first he contained his surprise a bit better, but not really for long. Pretty soon the two of us were standing there with our mouths open, not really knowing what to say or think.

When we reached the bottom of the building Davis dropped back a bit to talk to Kari, and I was left alone with Sora. There was a very awkward silence between us, something neither of us was really used too at this point; after all we had been dating until the day before. I wanted to say something, but I wasn't really sure what I was going to say. Part of me wanted to apologize to Sora, and make things up with her, I mean, I know that sounds weird but I still liked her more than any other girl I had met, but I knew I couldn't. Tai needed me as a friend, and even more importantly he needed Sora to snap out of whatever was wrong with her and go back to being his friend.

The other part of me just simply wanted to yell at her. She'd gotten me captured and controlled by an evil digimon who had used me to attack my friends, all because she couldn't deal with her own feelings. That was one of the things that had really pissed me off these last couple of days, Sora's lack of ability to deal with her feelings.

Well, luckily for me Kari and Davis rejoined our group before I could decide what to do, and we left for school. The walk was quite honestly one of the most awkward things I had ever gone through. Even though Kari had apparently forgiven Sora, none of us could really bring ourselves to start a conversation with her, and I think I knew why.

Even though she had never done anything mean directly to any of us, her actions with Tai had affected all of us, hugely. I don't really know exactly what it did to Kari and Davis, but I know with me I really felt like a jerk. I mean who wouldn't? You find out you dated a girl that your best friend had had feelings for most of his life, and that the girl liked him too, and you'd taken her away from him. Then the girl turns into a complete bitch to your friend, hurting him at every turn, and you do nothing. It is a real easy way to feel like a jerk, especially since I was supposed to have the Crest of Friendship. There was a huge joke. I didn't deserve that Crest. I was probably the worst excuse for a friend in the entire world.

These thoughts really consumed my thoughts as we arrived at the school, and I broke away from the group quickly. I'd finally admitted to myself how horrible a friend I was, and honestly I didn't want to be near anyone, no longer trusting myself near them.

I arrived in the classroom that we were supposed to wait in for our classes later that day, sorta hoping to find Tai. I needed to apologize to him, and tell him what Sora had told me months ago, and then maybe I could face my friends again. When I entered the classroom Tai was easy to pick out of the group, and I went straight up to him.

"Hey Tai, I need to talk to you." I say as I place a hand on his shoulder, turning him around. When I do I see it, the same thing that had sent anyone who saw Tai running. His eyes. Now I don't usually stare into guys eyes or anything like that, but in this case it was unavoidable. His eyes were empty, completely devoid of any sort of emotion, and when he spoke, his voice was just as empty.

"What's up Matt?" He asked in a dead tone of voice.

I took a deep breath. I would not chicken out of this. "Tai, I need to apologi…"

"No Matt you don't." Tai stopped me in mid-sentence. "I should be the one apologizing, I've been a horrible friend, causing a rift between you and Sora. You don't have to worry about that anymore though, I'll leave the two of you alone now."

Those words hit me like a brick wall, and I instantly knew that something was very wrong. Tai turned and walked away from me at this point, heading out of the classroom, and I didn't have the will power to follow him.

What happened to him? I ask myself.

Don't be an idiot another voice said in my head. You know exactly what happened to him, he finally lost it. And guess what? It's your fault! All your fault!

I sat back in my seat as part of me finally shouted what I knew was the truth, I had helped ruin and hurt one of my best friends.

I went through the rest of the day with that thought in my head. I specifically avoided everyone I knew. I didn't deserve to go near any of those people that called me a friend, because honestly I didn't deserve their friendship.

Well, there's your emotionless Tai, and almost everyone's reaction to him. This chapter sets up most of the rest of the story, at least a few of the big points, other than fixing Tai of course, I wonder if anyone can figure out what that is? Oh well, that's it from me, so let's get to the (hopefully) less confusing preview.

"I think that something is seriously wrong with Tai." Sora stated simply.

"Really? Did you just figure that out?" Kari snapped back, and Sora held a hand to her mouth.

"Sorry, that came out wrong." She said, quickly apologizing. "I mean other than the whole emotional turmoil that I put him into."

"Sora! Hey Sora!" A familiar voice called, but Sora couldn't really identify the voice. "Over here Sora!" Sora turns and sees one of the last people she expected to see in her school library, Joe Kido.

So hope that's less confusing, but I'm sure I failed epically oh well, next review responses! Yay!

Supershooter: Lol yea, that took a lot of effort to get, and I think this week isn't a big cliff hanger, at least I hope lol. Thanks! And yea, I was thinking about splitting this chapter up when I wrote that preview so I only included the stuff from Davis, but changed my mind before posting, so that's part of the confusing bit lol. Lol not really disappearing, just going home. What did you think of Tai in this chapter?

TaioraWarrior: I'm glad you liked davis, and actually found his stuff amusing, that's what I've been going for the entire time. I can't really stand stories that spend time bashing Davis, mostly because the authors don't seem to have realized that he actually grew up (a little lol) Sora may have to try that, just wait till next chapter, Sora remembers some of the things she did to try and snap Tai out of it lol. And yea, I always liked DemiVeemon, and was that reference in your story about DemiVeemon by any chance inspired by last chapter? Because I couldn't stop laughing when I read that lol. And yet again thanks about Davis. Good work yourself getting two chapters up in one night! You managed to get it, because I read them as soon as you posted lol.

DephsXylex: Yep! Tai always comes through for his friends, even when he's an emotionless person. Yea, though they're not all the way made up, it'll take a bit more work for things to go back to close to normal, but more on that next chapter. Sorry but unfortunetly there is a lack of Tai for a good part of the story. I realized that this was supposed to be Tai's story, and he isn't in like a quarter of it, which is a bit of a fail on my part, but he'll (eventually) make his return, and it'll be a grand moment! Lol and thanks!

anonymous08: Yea I know. Technically the last two chapters are the ones that were the high mark of the story, before it starts on the falling action and conclusion, but I do have good news, there's at least seven more chapters and an epilogue, not to mention a sequel, so it's not over yet! Yea, how did this chapter do for the cold and depressed Tai?

Melovingyou: lol I know, but cliff hangers are so much fun! (jk lol) and no problem, as I said last time I'm now really excited to rewrite this story, and just you wait, Tai will be surprised, especially with how Marcus gets his D.N.A. charge, but I got a surprise or two that I think (hope) you won't see coming. And how did you know exactly what couples I was going with? lol