HNA: Hey everyone! The story is drawing to a close- there's only one chapter left after this. I've got a couple one shots and songfics set during this story that I'll be posting though. Big hugs for those of you that have been reading faithfully. MerryB, and cousin Emmza, this chapter's for you guys.

Tai: Hedgi Naysomay Aisling does not own digimon. And it's a darn good think, cause if she did, I'd quit. Speaking of which…

HNA: Tai, come on, it wouldn't be a story without you! You need to read the letter. What if I get Sora to make you cookies?

Tai: no more almost dieing?

HNA: I promise I won't almost kill you off again. or Kari.

Tai: throw in the cookies and it's adeal.

Moving on

RR: Twilight in Rain: in the second chapter, Pella snuck a letter into Joe's bag.

Light of Hope 07: yes, you can breath. Don't stop breathing, that'd be bad. D'ja really think I could kill them all off with three chapters to go? It's been on my profile that it's gonna be thirteen chapters long. I'm glad you love me as an author. I love you as a reviewer : )

Digidestind of Balance : it was easy for them to be found because I wrote this late at night and wanted to go to sleep. You can now read the letter!

Princess Jaded: the moment we've all been waiting for! I've done four versions of the letter. I like this one best.

LoneWolfVampire13: Babbling is a wonderful thing, I do it always. If I posted it all at once, no one'd review tho, so yeah. No, I'm not out to get you. And I'm not trying to get you on crack- I don't approve of any sort of drugs. : )

Here's the long awaited CHAPTER ELEVEN!


Tai slid a finger under the seal, and tore the envelope open. He had been half expecting it to explode, or contain a deadly toxin, but it contained only a small something wrapped in tissue paper, and two sheets of lined paper, covered with smudged pencil letters and erase marks.

He unfolded the tissue paper to reveal a photograph it was simple, just black and white, and very small, but it was obviously Kari and Pella, beaming at the camera, a lake in the background. Why had this been included? Tai threw it to the ground, and unfolded the sheets of paper. Clearing his throat, he read aloud only the first line.

"Tai, Matt, everyone,

I.."

"I can't." he said quietly, shaking his head. "I just can't."

Sora took the letter, and praying for strength, read.

" Tai, Matt, everyone," The paper was covered in what looked like dried droplets of water.

" I'm sorry, So sorry. I didn't have a choice- I did what I was ordered to do, whether I wanted to or not. A curse, or something, I don't remember. I can't remember anything for an entire month of my life. But regardless I am to blame for- oh, matt, tai, you must hate me so much- I hate me for what I have done by the time you read this letter. Please believe me, I didn't want to do it. I didn't want them to die, I DIDN'T WANT THEM TO DIE! I tried to warn them, because i.. I knew, I was told the Plan, but then he took you and I knew I couldn't keep them from searching, and I was so afraid, so I wrote this. I never wanted this to happen- Kari was my best friend, she was my best friend. And although you won't want to hear this, not from me, not from the monster- I loved T.K. I did. I never wanted to hurt them. You must believe it, i..

I know that simply saying sorry is not going to turn death to life, I know I can never clean my soul for the terrible things by now I have done. Oh, God please, hate me, I need your hatred.

I betrayed you- I stole the prophecy from Gennai for my Master, but.. but I did not tell him, did not give him all. I give it instead to you, as a way to partially redeem some small part of myself. The words were:

'But should Dark Serenity chose the right

Sameself before Hope or Light

The Crest emerged after souls fight

Her spirit find a way past the plight

Become yet a crest of light

Restore what was taken to the right'

I do not understand it, for my mind is still misty with anything to do with the world of my Master. But I know,. I feel, that you will.

I do not ask for what you can not give, what you should not give: forgiveness. But I feel you should know that I… that I took no pleasure in my action it is all my fault, all my fault. I never meant for this to happen, never. Please believe that. I beg you to hate me less for the dark act, knowing now what I have told you. I understand that you will never be able to think of me without hatred and bitterness because of their deaths. I accept that as my fate. I will never forgive even myself until I die and beyond even that.

I truly am sorry,

Pella Ellowen."

Sora finished reading, and looked up. She had no explanation for the letter. What had Pella meant- 'their deaths' ' I never wanted them to die.' It sounded like she thought that.. like she thought that.

"She thought she'd kill T.K and Kari." Mimi put two and two together. " I don't know what to make of this, but it sounds like she thought she'd be ordered to kill them, and did. I mean, she said she couldn't help but do what she was told. That's awful."

Tai and Matt just sat there, unable to take it all in.

" But they aren't dead… she killed herself." Matt licked his lips nervously. What did the letter mean? Had she really.. .could it be that Pella hadn't been a willing servant of Voidmon? But she had bowed and spoken so casually about the others- but then, she had never truly locked them up, had she?

Joe cleaned his glasses on his filthy shirt. " It sounds like she really was trapped in the situation. And if she did kill herself, rather than one of us, she must have been desperate to end this mess without hurting you. Maybe we were wrong."

"But why didn't she just say something, anything about this?" T.K asked quietly. "She could have told us, warned us.. anything."

"Would you have listened?" Izzy asked. "If she had told you, one, you would have gotten angry with her for working with evil, even against her will, and you would have gone to rescues Matt anyway. And don't say she could have warned us before hand- we can't all be ready to fight off a digimon every minute of the day. Voidmon would have gotten one of us sooner or later."

"It's true," Kari said, nodding. She would have gone to save her brother, or any of her friends, even if she had known it might kill her.

Tai was starring at the now rather dirty photograph. The carefree days of smiling at a camera were gone- for Pella they'd never come again. Kari had been right all along- Pella had been forced into it all. And she'd never said a word. How long had she been a servant of Darkness, he wondered. She had betrayed them. She had caused his family, and his family of friends, heartache and pain. But she had chosen to destroy herself before she would hurt her friends any more. She had thought she'd be forced into killing two of her friends, and yet had embraced, welcomed the hatred. She had been a strange girl.

Matt looked over Tai's shoulder at the picture. He had taken the photo with his first camera. Pella no matter how cruel she had seemed in that room, had saved his brother. Could it be that she was truly a good friend? Regardless, she was dead now.

Sora shook her head. The silence was driving her nuts. Pella had never truly betrayed them, it seemed. She had done all she could to avoid hurting them. After all, she had left the key to the cell in the cell, and she had confessed to everything in the letter…to her part, her reasons, and the fate she would accept. Sora found that she couldn't hate the girl. Pella had been a closed friend of hers- it had been hard to believe the others when they told of what had happened.

T.K felt himself shaking as he remembered all the days he had spent with Pella- had she really.. loved him? It hadn't seemed like it. It was she who had convinced him to ask Kari out- something he had been about to do before the whole fiasco started. He reached deep inside himself, and found that he believed the words of the letter, and the tear splotches left behind. He had been wrong. She had been true. he knew now what she had meant, telling him that she 'did what she did for him' she had cared so deeply for him, she had known he could only be happy with Kari. By 'for us' she had meant 'for the memory of me.' He felt peace.

Mimi reached into her own pack, and pulled out a necklace. It was a silver oval, engraved with the words 'I am a Child of God'. She handed it to Kari. " Pella left this at my house last week- it was in my pocket when we left. I think she'd want you to have it."

Kari opened the locket, and a small scrap of paper fell like a drop of milk to the ground. Kari opened it, read the words, and replaced it, hanging the locket around her neck.

"Tai," she said at long last. "Let's go home."

Everyone laughed. Home. Had it really been less than a week? It had seemed like decades. Home.

******

Since Izzy's laptop was gone, the group would have to go to Gennai's house to return home. Since they no longer had to hide or conserve strength, it only took an afternoon, after a few hours nap, to reach the lake shore. The digital world was alive again. Since the destruction of Voidmon by the mysterious creature, everything he had wrought was reversing. The world was safe again. the prophecy had been negated. Life could go back to normal. Soon, Gennai would send them home, where they would have to find a way to explain everything to the parents…

"Gennai?" Tai called into the lake. The waters parted instantly, and the gang entered the house.

"Digidestind!" the old sage greeted them. "You have saved us again. Thank you. I will send you home, as I see you are without your laptop." He raised an eyebrow at the redhead.

Izzy frowned. "It had a disagreement with some stone."

"I see, now, I'll have to ask you to be quiet, as my guest needs rest. Of course, nothing is going to wake her, I don't think, but still. I can send you home with the next sunset - In about an hour . Wait out here, if you please. Cookies?"

They declined the offer of cookies. But at the mention of the guest, each of the children looked at the back door.

"She?" asked T.K.. Was it the digimon from before?

"Yes, She. I'm afraid she's more dead than alive, and might never wake up, but there isn't much anyone can do, even on Earth." Gennai had grown very serious. "I haven't a clue who she is, but I had heard legends about the digimon that left her here- Ziyazenmon- pure peace is what she is, in spirit. She fights with ribbons of peaceful prayers. What she was doing with a-"

"Wait. What does this Ziyazenmon look like?" Matt demanded.

"Like a faerie, silver and blue." The confused mentor said. "Why? Have you seen her?"

"Yes… I think so." Tai said. He wasn't sure if the beautiful creature he had seen had been real or a vision caused by his crash to the floor.

Without a word, Kari got to her feet, and threw open the door. Lying on a woven mat was a pale form. The form of a girl,. She was breathing only shallowly, and paler than natural, even in the dim light of the backroom. Her hair was covering her face, but it was apparent who it was. Pella.

" how?" the others joined Kari in the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" asked a voice from the darkness, and a shape emerged. A dark blue, foxlike digimon. Ziyamon. The whole adventure had truly come full circle.

" I'm sorry." The digimon said. "but my partner is in.. a coma. She's never going to wake up, all because of me."

The little creature burst into tears.

TBC..

Hey everyone! Thanks for 50 reviews. It really made my day. Now, since I'm sure you all want to know, I went to a person who takes out teeth, who told me that it wasn't wisdom teeth, but a canker sore! Sore wow, I feel much better now. Thanks for your support. There will be one chapter after this… remember to review. Please. I mean it. I hope you like the chapter. It was really hard to write. I mean, the after thoughts of the letter were super hard. It took me all week to create them. Now do you see why I love Pella? It TOTALLY wasn't her fault! Think, Ella Enchanted meets dark rings/spirals. That's basically how poor Pella was. If you want to know what was inside the locket, say so in a review. It's based on reality- I have a locket just like that with a piece of paper inside. And here I go babbling… ok, go review! I want to get to 60 this time!

Thanks everyone.

Hedgi Naysomay Aisling.