Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon
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Chapter 20: What Must Be Done
T.K.'s POV
For the next 24 hours we did nothing but train, with a two hour break here and there. I spent all of my time training with Piximon specifically while everyone else trained on the various stations. As I sat there, catching my breath, I couldn't help but admire at everyone's improvement. Matt was going through the obstacle course like a champ; dodging everything in his path and slicing through dummies like tissue. Joe was now on the obstacle course and doing just as well, he was staring to us his hammer more affectively, like he was fighting with a short staff. Tai was now sparring with Sora in the ring; Sora was amazing at keeping her distance so she could throw her star, but Tai was equally amazing at dodging and blocking it. When Tai did get close enough, Sora was able to use here folded star like a short sword. Izzy had moved to the targets to practice throwing his axes and by his accuracy you would think he was doing it all his life. Mimi was tearing apart the target dummies with her whip, with Izzy's advice, had figured out how to send a current through her whip so it would straighten out like a sword for close quarter combat. Kari was the most impressive of all; she was becoming a real expert with her bow. She was shooting on the run, shooting multiple arrows at a time, blind shooting, all with amazing accuracy.
"Come on T.K.," Piximon called to me, "One more time."
"Of course," I took one more drink of water and went back to the center of the ring with spear in hand.
"Begin," Piximon ordered.
I began to go through the motions of an exercise routine I had been practicing for the past 5 hours. Spinning, flipping, slashing, stabbing and guarding with my spear. Piximon had physically prepared me for this fight, but now he wanted to psychologically prepare me.
"Do you know what needs to be done," Piximon asked harshly.
"I do," I answered as I continued.
"And are you resolved to do so?"
"Absolutely?"
"Then why are you still afraid?"
I was thrown off by his question dropped my spear and looked at him, "What do you mean?"
"Start again," He yelled. I picked up my spear confused and started the routine again. He asked again, "Now, why are you still afraid?"
"I don't understand," I replied.
"I can see the deep fear in your eyes; something is clouding your mind. Are you afraid because Patamon is not with you?"
"Not anymore."
"Are you afraid of NeoDevimon?"
"Not even a little bit," I said speeding up my movements from frustration.
"Then what is it T.K.?"
I thought about what it could possibly be; nothing came to mind, until I looked out of the corner of my eye, "I don't know."
"What is it T.K.?"
"I don't know!"
"Yes you do," Piximon called me out, "and if you don't confront it, it will hinder you in battle."
"No, it won't," I kept speeding up and going harder, "I'm ready!"
"Are you willing to stake the others' lives on that?"
"I already have!"
He lowered his tone "Even Kari's life?"
"Arrrrrrrrgghhhh" I ended the exercise by thrusting my spear into the ground with all my strength; I fell to the ground exhausted.
Piximon hovered by me and gave me some water, having finally figured out my problem, "She has no idea, does she?"
I sat up and took a drink, "Gennai only told me and Tai; Matt might know as well."
"So there IS something between you two?"
I looked at him confused, "What does that mean?"
"We Digimon can be quite the gossiper," Piximon said laughing, "Besides I see the way you look at each other."
Piximon pointed to the others, who were taking a break, and I could see Kari was staring at us. She waved at me with a smile and I waved back.
"Have you told her how you feel," Piximon asked.
"I was planning on it before all this happened, and now…"
"I understand," Piximon interrupted, "So it's not fear, well not exactly."
"Then what is it," I asked, "Because to be honest, I'm not even sure."
"You obviously love her T.K.," Piximon said with a smirk, "you made that pretty clear with how you reacted to my questions earlier. And I may not know a lot about you humans, but I'm more than certain from what I've seen that she feels the same way about you."
"Well isn't that just great," I said annoyed.
"And therein lies your problem," Piximon said as his tone lowered, "On one hand, you don't want to tell her how you feel because you haven't truly accepted the fact you will die, no matter what you think…," I sighed knowing he was right, "and on the other hand, you're afraid that if you tell her, it will devastate her in the end…sound about right?"
"I think you hit the nail on the head," I admitted.
"You do realize that it will be discussed in the strategy," Piximon warned.
"I was afraid you were gonna say that," I replied.
Piximon put his hand on my shoulder, "When the time comes, I'll let you explain," I nodded in reply. Piximon floated higher and yelled, "Alright Digidestined, gather around." Everyone came running over to Piximon, Kari ran right to my side; Piximon hovered to our eye level, "Excellent job Digidestined! You have all improved tremendously in one day, you definitely aren't the same kids I met 8 years ago."
"Yeah we are," Tai grinned, "We're just older and wiser and have this cool looking armor."
Everyone laughed. "Always the kidder Tai," Piximon commented, "Get some water, catch a breath, and meet me inside in 10 minutes; it's time to strategize."
With that Piximon went inside. We all went over to the water fountain and relaxed.
"Phew," Tai said after a drink, "I don't know about you guys, but stick a fork in me cuz I'm done."
"I'm with you Tai," Matt commented as he sat down, "I can't believe we've been training for a whole day."
"Well actually, considering the breaks we took, we really only trained for about 18 hours and 45 minutes," Izzy commented.
"Well Tai, you were definitely right about Izzy," Matt commented, "He's still the same brainiac he was 8 years ago." Everyone laughed at the comment, even Izzy.
"Hey," Mimi interjected, "There's nothing wrong with that." She and Izzy smiled at each other.
"Let's face it," Joe started, "No matter how much older we get, we're still basically the same people; in a good way."
"In the best of ways," Mimi added.
"But different in some awesome ways," Tai started, "I mean I would have never thought of Izzy or Joe would pick up a weapon, let alone be so good. I mean did you Joe race through that course?"
"I'll take that as a compliment," Joe replied and then looked at Izzy, "you got some amazing accuracy with those axes Izzy."
"Thank you Joe," Izzy replied, "but my improvement is nothing compared to the girls."
Sora looked at him with a weird face, "And just what is that supposed to mean?"
Izzy panicked realizing his poor choice of words, "Nothing, I mean…training was easier for us…not because we're guys or anything…You're weapons required a different level of skill…in fact probably more than ours…and…and…"
The others started laughing, "Relax Izzy, I get it," Sora assured him, "and thank you."
"I think most improved goes to my little brother over here," Matt changed the subject.
"Yeah," Tai added, "I would've never guessed that little kid from 8 years ago would be the one I saw twirling that spear around like a pro."
"But this isn't like 8 years ago is it," I commented bringing everyone back to the reality of the situation.
"Something bothering you little brother," Matt asked.
"I'm sorry," I said realizing what I had done, "I don't mean to rain on everybody's parade; I know we're all enjoying these new skills we got, but I think we're getting away from the reason why we've been training."
It got really quiet for a second, "We haven't forgotten T.K., we're just taking a break from it; that's all," Kari commented as she sat next to me.
"No, he's right Kari," Tai interjected as he took his last drink, "break time is over; let's head inside everybody, time to go to work."
"Right," everyone else said in unison.
As we all started to walk in Kari grabbed my hand and pulled me from the others for a second, "Are you sure you're okay T.K.," she asked concerned.
I could see the worry in her eyes, and as much as I wanted to tell her the truth, I didn't want to add to her worry. I took her hand and looked into her eyes, "I'm fine Kari, I promise."
"You two coming," Tai called from the door.
"Yeah," we answered in unison.
The three of us walked down the hall and saw Piximon and the others waiting by a door.
"Nice of you to join us," Piximon commented, "Shall we?"
Piximon opened the door and we walked into a small meeting room with a table big enough for all of us. We sat around the table; Piximon snapped his fingers and a holographic layout of NeoDevimon's castle and the surrounding area appeared on the table.
"Where would you like to start," Piximon asked.
We all looked at each other until Tai stood up, "Before we get started, I'd like to say something."
"Go ahead Tai," Piximon answered.
Tai took a deep breath, "I know I've been falling back into my leadership position lately and you guys don't seem to have a problem with that. It seems to me that the Digimon are going to look to us as the generals for this battle. Well…not to sound like an old man, but I don't think I should be the leader this time around."
We were all taken back by Tai's statement, "Then who do think should be in charge Tai," Piximon asked as if he already knew the answer.
Tai pointed at me, "T.K."
"T.K.?" everyone said in unison.
"Yeah," Tai answered firmly.
"But why," I asked confused.
Tai began to walk over to me, "T.K., you've grown up a lot these past 8 years and nobody can deny that. When you younger kids first took on your roles as the main team, you were ready to step up to the challenge and helped the others along; you basically lead the team until Davis was ready to step up. Over the past couple of days, I've seen that same drive and then some; hell, you were the first one to step up and accept the challenge we now face…" He reached me and put his hand on my shoulder, "I had my turn as leader, but this, this is your time to lead us; no one in this room is more dedicated then you, and I know every Digimon out there and every one in here would be proud to follow you."
I looked around the room and saw everyone else nodded in agreement at Tai's argument.
"So what do you say T.K.," Tai asked as he put his arm around me.
I looked at Kari one last time and she smiled at me; I looked back at Tai, "Okay Tai, I'll do it."
"Alright," Tai exclaimed as he embraced me while everyone else clapped and cheered.
"Well," Piximon interjected, "now that that's settled, where would you like to start T.K.?"
I sat back down and took to my new position as seriously as I could. I looked over the map for a second and then turned to Izzy, "Izzy, how much do you actually know about NeoDevimon's castle."
"Not too much, I was unconscious most of the time when I got there, but with what I did see and how talkative NeoDevimon's subordinates are, I think I have a general since of how they're set up," Izzy answered.
"Piximon, have the Virus Busters been able to find anything else out," I asked.
"Ophanimon sent scouts after the meeting; word is they should be returning soon."
"Then let's start with Izzy; layout what you know," I requested.
Izzy stood up and started, "Well this is where his main forces rest; over here is where he stores Hypnos…"
After Izzy told us all he knew, Piximon gave us all the information that the Virus Buster scouts had gathered and we started putting together a plan of attack. For 6 hours, we considered our forces and his forces, did our best to consider what NeoDevimon might do, argued with each other about opinions, until we came to a plan that seemed like our best bet:
"I still don't know about this," Matt complained, "I think it's too risky."
"Everything else we've talked about has been risky Matt," Tai argued, "This has the least amount of risk."
"I agree with Matt," Joe interjected, "With the number of forces we have; there just has to be a better way."
"I know it seems like that Joe," Sora added, "but don't forget what our forces consist of."
"I haven't; I'm just saying, can we really afford to rely on that fact alone," Joe argued.
"We're not relying on it," Izzy added, "It's just what it's going to take."
"We only have 6 hours left until we reconvene with the Digimon and it took us 6 hours just to come up with this," Mimi added.
"Which is why we should reconsider…"
"Matt, Joe," I stood up interjecting, "I understand your concerns, but we have looked over every other possible strategy and this is our best bet. Matt and Joe sat back accepting I was right, "If they don't like it they don't have to fight with us, but this is the only way we are gonna get to NeoDevimon and Hypnos. Now does anyone else have something to say?"
Kari spoke up, "We still haven't talked about what we are going to do when we confront NeoDevimon. I know it has something to do with the DigiMemories, but what exactly?"
I sat back down and started to think. I looked around and saw that Sora put her head down; Izzy, Mimi, and Joe were just as curious as Kari while Matt was containing his anger. I couldn't bring myself to say anything else.
Just then, Tai stood up, "When Gennai asked to see me and T.K. alone before we left, we told us what needed to be done." He paused to look for my approval and continued, "When we bring the DigiMemories together, they will create a weapon powerful enough to defeat NeoDevimon. I must be the one to wield this weapon and deliver the final blow. However, someone also has to restrain NeoDevimon in order for me to do so. T.K., being a bearer of the element of light, must be the one to do this. That is why it is only he, matt and I who will go after NeoDevimon, Matt will be our backup."
"How is T.K. supposed to restrain NeoDevimon," Mimi asked concerned.
Tai was hesitant to answer and sat back down everyone looked between him and me for an answered.
"Tell them T.K.," Piximon requested.
I took a deep breath and stood up, "I have to physically hold NeoDevimon in place for Tai to strike." I paused as I made eye contact with Kari, then I looked away, "However, I will not be able to escape Tai's blow." I saw everyone's face begin to understand what was coming next, "In order to kill NeoDevimon…I must die as well."
The room fell silent. Sora looked between Tai and Matt but she didn't seem to be surprised, Joe and Izzy kept their heads down, while Mimi and Kari looked on the verge of tears.
"T.K., you can't be serious," Mimi argued.
"I have already accepted that this is what has to happen, and I expect you all to respect my decision," I interjected.
"There has to be a more logical solution than suicide," Izzy argued.
"If there was Gennai would have told us," Tai added quietly.
Suddenly Kari got up from the table and ran from the room crying. My heart sank, I hadn't felt this sad since I lost Angemon. Matt got up and stormed out as well. Before I could chase after them Piximon grabbed my shoulder and shook his head.
"You Digidestined, go back to your rooms, relax, clear your heads; I'll come get you all when the time comes." With that Piximon left the room.
"Mimi," Sora stood up, "Let's go check on Kari." Mimi wiped her tears and the girls left the room.
"I'm gonna go work on the virus for Hypnos," Izzy said as he stood up.
"I'll come help," Joe added. They both left the room.
Tai came over to me and put his hand on my shoulder, "I'm gonna go talk to Kari and your brother."
"I'll be on the training ground," I answered coldly, "I need to clear my head before I talk to anybody."
"I think we all need to clear our heads," and with that Tai left.
As he closed the door behind him I broke down and started to cry. All I could think about was how much I had hurt Kari, thinking she would never forgive me. Now how could I tell her how I feel?
Kari's POV
As I ran to my room I couldn't stop myself from crying. How could he not tell me? How could he be okay with this? How could not even consider how I felt about it? I got to my room and slammed the door behind me and buried my face in my pillow. Was I going to lose him without telling him how I really feel?