Disclaimer: Digimon is a franchise owned jointly by Toei Animation and Bandai, and conceptualized by Akiyoshi Hongo. Doctor Who is a property owned by the British Broadcasting Company created by Sydney Newman. The concept of The Tamer v1.2: Another Digimon Adventure is a fanfiction idea. Please support the official properties.
The Tamer v1.2: Another Digimon Adventure
Chapter 50: The Boy Who Was Special
Davis looked down at Kari at his side happily, his chest tight and cheeks rosy from the fact that she hadn't let go of him. His mind was also hazy from the kiss she'd planted on him; one that didn't last as long as he hoped it would've but he wasn't going to complain about it. It seemed like Kari had finally made up her mind - stopping Myotismon seemed to have been just the thing he needed to do to make her see him as something other than a brother surrogate. He couldn't have felt happier. Yet he didn't feel as happy as he should've.
He couldn't dwell on it though because they still had to find a way out of here. Davis looked down at his digivice - it had opened a gate between worlds before. There was no reason it couldn't work here, "Digiport Open!"
He held out his digivice in front of him and watched the light of the tear between worlds appear. And just beyond it was the Real World - Highton View Terrace. It was night time on the other side, where the older digidestined, their partners, and even their families were all waiting for them with open arms. Davis and Kari led everyone out through the tear in time to hear the first fireworks go off. The sky lit up with a rainbow of colors as Davis asked, "Huh? What's going on?"
"It's New Year's," Matt answered, his arm around Sora, "We all saw it. You guys beat Myotismon at the stroke of midnight. Good job, Davis."
"You did? But how?" Kari asked, suddenly turning bright red in disbelief while Sora explained with a finger pointed up, "It was the same as years ago when the Digital World appeared in the sky. Only this time it was…wherever you guys ended up."
"Yeah, good job on taking out Myotismon," Izzy added cheerfully, "You had a lot easier time of it than we did."
Izzy was right, it did almost seem too easy. Everyone had spent all this time worrying about him and he went down like a chump…after he'd absorbed the data from BlackWarGreymon, Arukenimon, and Mummymon. With that much power and energy, he should've been unbeatable with all that power. But he wasn't.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when his partner began to brag, "He wash a piece of cake! One hit wash all it took to take him down!"
"Guess that explains Tamer's whole thing about you being important," Gatomon added slyly. Davis raised an eyebrow at that comment. How did Gatomon know about that? He'd never admitted that to anyone. He'd only told Kari that he'd met Tamer previously. How did Gatomon know about that? And then he looked at Kari, who was still flustered as Sora and Matt began prodding her with questions about their kiss. TK didn't seem all that bothered by it either, nor did Yolei and Ken. Something was off. But he couldn't quite place his finger on it.
Then another flash of light appeared beside them. He spun around in place, and found a tear in the fabric of reality. Tamer and Agumon stepped out of the hole in reality they'd just made with big smiles on their faces - Tamer placed a hand on Davis' head to mess his hair and smiled, "Good job Davis."
Davis had no idea how to react to the praise from this guy he barely knew or if he should even care about it. One thing was certain though - he wasn't going to let this guy get off so easily for what he'd done to his sister. He summoned all his soccer experience into one kick that he sent between Tamer's legs - sending the poor guy to the ground, "Ow! Okay, I deserve that."
"You deserve so much after what you did to my sister!" Davis snapped at him. Tamer ran a hand through his hair, "Sister? What did I do to your sister?"
Davis blinked, unsure if he was playing stupid of if he actually didn't know what he did to his sister. As he thought about Jun, he remembered that Kari had been looking for Tamer for a long time - wanted nothing more than to see him. And when he looked to the side, he saw Kari standing in disbelief with Sora and Matt. She had noticed his arrival and had done nothing to greet him despite how much she wanted to see him. And Matt, who claimed he wanted to deck Tamer more than once, actually seemed worried for his well being. This wasn't right.
None of this was right.
He looked down at The Digimon Tamer and asked the one question on his mind, "What is going on? What is all this?"
"Davish! What'sh wrong?" Veemon asked, running up to his side. Davis looked around him and gestured to everything he could think of, "Veemon, don't you get it? There's so much wrong with this picture! Kari hasn't run to her brother at all even though all she ever wanted was to get him back! She's been all over me instead, which is nice but…come on, I'm supposed to believe that she doesn't want to say anything to him? Matt and Ken haven't even tried to deck him. Tamer is just lying there and…"
Veemon frowned and crossed his arms, "I don't get it. Are you feeling alright?"
"Kari kissed me, Veemon," Davis repeated, now beginning to understand, "She wouldn't kiss me. She…doesn't see me that way. She wouldn't suddenly change how she's seen me for years just because we beat Myotismon. Myotismon! His last attack! What was it called?"
"Mental Illusion," Tamer chuckled from the sidewalk. He dusted himself off and brushed past Davis, then turned the boy to face him, "You rejected the dream, Davis. You had everything you ever wanted and you rejected it. If you don't want the dream, then live the nightmare. Your worst fears made real."
Before Davis could retort, Tamer turned to leave with Agumon - heading out into the street. Kari noticed her brother departing and chased after him, "Tai! Tai, wait!"
Tamer waved her off and used his digivice to open a gate without so much as a word to her. Both he and Agumon leapt through before she could catch them, leaving Kari standing alone in the middle of the street. Davis had just barely enough time to process the fake Tamer's last words to him when Kari turned around. Her eyes were covered in misty tears that just barely hid a fire, "What the hell, Davis?"
"Kari," he started to try and reason with her. His mind went blank with the sound of a car horn and lights suddenly shining on Kari's face. A small truck drove slammed into Kari at full speed before screeching to a halt, sending her flying. Davis's heart stopped as he watched Kari fly several feet down the road, coming to a stop at a cross walk.
"KARI!" her parents shouted as they ran to their daughter's side. Gatomon was the first one to get there, huddled over her partner's body and trying to get her to respond. The drivers of the truck came out, dumbstruck about what happened. The first gasped, "Holy shit. I didn't see her. Fuck! Is she alright!?"
"What was she doing standing in the middle of the road? Is she okay?" the other driver asked. Davis was just about to join Gatomon and Kari's parents when he felt someone grab him from behind and turn him around. It was TK and the look of anger on his face was enough to scare Davis into inaction as the boy threw him against the truck. TK pinned him there, growling angrily, "What the hell were you thinking Davis!?"
"TK!" Davis began, "It's a trick! All of this! It's-"
TK gestured at Kari, "Do you know how long she'd been trying to find her brother!? He was right there! And then you decked him! And now…"
TK paused as his gazed shifted downwards. It was hard to see in the dark, but the bright flashes of fireworks illuminated his face enough for Davis to make out the streams of tears, "I…I liked her…IDIOT! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"
He punched Davis in the gut so hard that the wind came out of his lungs and he ended up sinking to his knees. The force of the punch knocked the wind out of Davis and he gasped for breath, turning his head up to see TK staring back with a fire in his eyes. Patamon tried to reason with his partner, "TK! Stop it!"
"It's his fault, Patamon," TK shook angrily, "Kari's…"
Yolei frowned, "Look, TK. I get it - decking Davis isn't the answer here though."
"Why not?" TK asked her, and Yolei didn't answer. At first, Davis was certain she was coming to his defense but he saw the angered look in her eyes and knew this was far from the case. She was just as mad at him - just as bitter. It was on all their faces. They were blaming him.
"It sounds like a good solution to me," Gatomon snarled, suddenly rushing Davis with her claws out. Davis raised up his arms to protect himself and was spared only when Veemon leapt in the way to protect him, "Vee-headbutt!"
The two collided in the air and bounced away from each other, Gatomon landing on her paws while Veemon rolled into a stand, "What givesh, Gatomon?"
"Kari's dead!" Gatomon hissed at the two. Those words struck Davis harder than it should've - Kari was dead. Was this a dream? Yes, it had to be. It wasn't real before. There was no reason it should be now. Tamer even said he'd rejected the dream; live the nightmare. And this was a nightmare - Kari was dead and the others despised him. But if this was a nightmare, he wasn't going to fall for it. He tightened his hand around his digivice and looked at his partner, "Veemon."
"I hope you've thought of shomething Davish," Veemon said quickly, "I can handle two of them in a pinch. Any more than that and we're in trouble."
Davis frowned, pushing himself up just as the others started to gang up on him. At just above a whisper, he answered, "I do have an idea, buddy. Get ready to run on my mark."
He just really hoped this worked. He pulled Veemon close to him just as Gatomon readied to pounce again and pointed his digivice at his feet, "Digiport Open!"
A tear opened beneath them and they fell. He wasn't sure where they were going but anywhere had to be better than there.
TK and his parents decided to spend the first day of the New Year going to the New Year shrine visit. Matt and Sora had come a little earlier and had gone off to spend time together. It was nice to see his parents talking to each other happily. It seemed that their recent excursion into the void to fight Myotismon, and the danger the world was put in once again, sparked some kind of parental fear in the two that also rekindled their relationship.
Patamon looked up at his partner, "It looks like you're the only one in the family without someone special."
"What are you talking about?" TK asked his partner curiously. Patamon gestured towards Matt and Sora as they walked the perimeter of the shrine together. Then he gestured towards the rest of the digidestined who had all decided to come together to celebrate the New Year. More specifically, Patamon pointed out Davis and Kari. He hung around her and seemed intent on trying to win her over. TK immediately knew where Patamon was going with this and explained, "It's not like that Patamon."
"It sure seems like it to me," Patamon raised an eyebrow, "Why don't you go over and say hi?"
TK rolled his eyes, "She's just a friend."
Patamon scoffed, "Alright, sure."
Just as TK was about to rebuke his partner, he heard a faint and echoing scream coming from nowhere. Then a tear opened just above their heads, through which Davis and Veemon fell in front of them. Davis and Veemon coughed, collecting themselves from their rough landing before scrambling to their feet upon seeing TK, "Whoa, I thought for sure we'd get away from you. Back off TK! I don't want to hurt you!"
"Davis?" TK asked quietly, "What are you doing here? Weren't you over there with K…ari…?"
He did a double take to make sure his eyes weren't wrong. Davis and Kari were at one of the booths that had set up in the shrine; Davis was even trying to get Kari to share some cotton candy with him. Yet there was another Davis right in front of him. He asked, "What the hell am I looking at? How can you be over there and right here!?"
"Oh, good," Davis dusted himself off, "You're a different TK. Wait…how do I know this isn't still part of the illusion?"
"Illusion? Davis, what are you talking about? Why are there two of you?" TK demanded of the second Davis, while gesturing at the first, "And what was with that digiport a second ago?"
"Two of me?" the second Davis looked off in the direction of the first, "Huh…wait, is this your illusion? Oh man! Then how am I going to convince you that I'm not the illusion?"
"Well, you sound like Davis so that's a good start," TK snickered before taking a deep breath to calm himself down, "Tell you what - if you're the real Davis, tell me something only the real Davis would say."
Davis crossed his arms and grunted, "No way, there's no way I'm telling you anything until I know you're real. If you're the real TK, then tell me what the last thing you remember is."
"You asking me what the last thing I remember is," TK answered smartly, making both Veemon and Patamon cover their faces. Davis groaned, "I meant before that. MaloMyotismon! He shouted Metal Illusion. You remember that, right?"
"Yeah, why?" TK asked, then realized what Davis was implying, "Oh."
"Oh is right!" Davis pointed out, "That's how I figured it out. There was a lot of stuff in mine that didn't make sense and it took me a while to piece it all togethere. It's got to be the same for you!"
At soon as Davis mentioned that, TK found his attention drawn towards his parents. They had been awfully chummy with each other despite their otherwise tense history. It was almost like the years of not talking to each other didn't happen. He didn't give it too much thought because this was what he'd always wanted - for his family to be closely knit and back together in spite of everything that happened. But with Davis bringing up what had happened to him, he was starting to wonder if he was caught up in another illusion too, "There is something that doesn't seem right."
"Exactly," Davis pointed out, "And we have to get out of here before-"
"Dude, what's this?" the first Davis asked as he approached TK with Kari in tow, "I mean…Why are there two of me?"
"I mean, one Davis following me around I can deal with. Don't tell me I'm going to have two now," Kari added.
"Hey back off you phonies!" the second Davis shouted with a raised fist. The first Davis cracked his knuckles, eye twitching with anger, "Phony? You're the phony, dude! Get back Kari. JP, who is this guy?"
"What did you call me?" TK asked, wanting to be sure he'd heard the first Davis correctly. Annoyed, the first Davis groaned, "Oh, come on TF. This guy's obviously working with Myotismon!"
"Uh huh," TK nodded solemnly, putting a hand to his chin and giving his next action considerable thought before acting on it. And act on it he did when he threw a punch at the first Davis as hard as he could. The first Davis fell straight backwards, and was caught by Kari looking up at TK in shock, "TK!"
"What gives, dude?"
"Alright!" the second Davis cheered, relieved to see that he was believed over the fake. TK massaged his wrist and calmly explained, "The real Davis hasn't gotten my name wrong since the second time we went into the Dark Ocean. I don't know who you are, but you aren't the real Davis."
The first Davis stood there with his mouth hanging open. Then he started to laugh manically. The manic laugh became pure, uncontrolled howling as he finally clapped his hands together, "I see he's awoken you from the dream - everything you've ever wanted made real. Do you want to throw it away so quickly?"
"I mean…it's not real, right?" TK raised an eyebrow, "If it's not real, why would I want it?"
"You have no idea how ironic you sound," the first Davis jeered, "Fine. Bid farewell to the dream, and embrace the nightmare!"
The skies darkened overhead as thunder clouds rolled in, and lightning flashed across the sky. Silhouetted by the flash of light was the unmistakable shape of Devimon hovering over head with his arms spread out. In each hand, he held one of TK's parents hostage - his mother on the left and his father on the right. TK's blood ran cold and his heart started to race as the anger began to rush through his body, "No…no! NO!"
"Dude! It's not real!" Davis tried to explain to him. When TK turned his head to look at him, he couldn't help but notice that Davis seemed taller than before. More to the point, he was now at Veemon's height and even the little digimon had no way to hold back his surprise, "Whoa! TK! You're all short now!"
"I am?" TK asked as his voice squeaked. Patamon looked down at him, "TK, you look just like you did years ago!"
TK looked down at himself in disbelief, surprised to see that he'd regressed in age into his younger self. Even his clothes changed to match what he'd worn years ago. Then Devimon cackled above, his monstrous laugh echoing inside TK's head. When he looked back at Devimon, he saw his parents screaming and begging as Devimon began to crush them in his hands. TK cried out in despair, "MOMMY! DADDY!"
He felt Davis grab him by his shoulders and start shaking him to get his attention, "Dude, this isn't real! Snap out of it!"
TK couldn't hear him though, he was too fixated on watching his parents being murdered in front of him. He turned towards Patamon and begged, "Patamon! Please! You have to help-"
He stopped when he heard the sickening crunch from above. TK slowly turned his head back, just barely able to make out Devimon's form against the darkened skies. Then lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, and TK felt his heart sink into his stomach. Devimon let both his parents go and he watched, in terror as both their limp bodies fell to the ground. Then Devimon grinned, "Oh you poor thing. Still so haunted by the past…still so affected by what you saw. There's no reformatting here in this world. Your parents are dead, your friends are next, and you do nothing but shake there in your little shoes."
"TK! Snap out of it! This isn't real!" Davis shook him harder, but TK didn't dare pull his eyes away from Devimon. All of his anger, all of his hatred for the dark digimon and the terror he unleashed on them when they first came to the Digital World was gone - replaced only by fear and despair. He could hear his partner's voice calling out to him too, "TK! Listen to Davis! None of this is real!"
Devimon picked up his brother Matt in one hand and Kari in the other. Not them, TK thought. Anything but them. He wanted so desperately to help them but was too terrified to move. Then he felt something hard hit him across the cheek, and TK found himself lying face first in the dirt. The sharp pain pulled him out of his stupor enough to look up at Davis. The boy huffed, "TK! Look, I…don't hit little kids. But you gotta snap out of it! This is a dream!"
"A dream," TK repeated, his voice still shaking. Davis nodded, "Don't forget. Myotismon's attack was called Mental Illusion. Hell, the other me even said something about the nightmare a minute ago. None of this real."
That was right. Davis had just explained to him that this was all a terrible dream just moments ago. Why did he fall for a simple trick a second time around? He pushed himself back up and found himself at equal height with Davis again, "You're right…thanks Davis."
"No problem dude," Davis cheered. TK looked back up at Devimon leering down on them, trying to ignore the fact that he was suffocating both Matt and Kari in his hands again, "How do we get out of here?"
Davis raised up his digivice and grinned stupidly, "Well, this worked before, didn't it? It took us here. If we keep opening gates, we've got to get to everyone else eventually. Digiport Open!"
A tear appeared beside them, released a dazzling display of brilliant lights beside them. Devimon recoiled away from the bright light while Davis shouted, "Come on dude! Let's get out of here!"
TK didn't need to be told twice. Without a second's hesitation or a doubt in his mind, he grabbed a hold of his partner and followed Davis and Veemon through the tear in reality. The moment he passed through, he felt himself start falling and the wind rushing past his face. He could see Davis just ahead of him, on the ground with a wide eyed expression on his face. Thankfully, the boy had the sense to roll out of the way just as TK and Patamon slammed into the ground.
Kari, Gatomon, and Wizardmon sat under the shade of a tree in the Digital World. The children Oikawa had abducted wanted to stay a little longer and implored Tamer to let them stay in the Digital World. After some pleading, her brother eventually relented and allowed them to stay. After everything they'd all been through, he figured that a small break wouldn't hurt anyone. Even better, it would let the children who would normally never see the Digital World have a chance to see it with their own eyes. Davis and Veemon were ecstatic by this prospect and decided to give the children a small tour even though none of them knew where they were.
Davis asked Kari if she would like to tag along but was shot down by both TK and Yolei who seemed to pick up on the fact that she wanted to be alone with Tamer. It was an easy sell, with Cody and Ken playing on Davis' ego to encourage his quick tour. With Davis busy taking the kids on their tour as he guided them off into the Digital World, Tamer took the moment to join Kari under the tree and relax. There were no words to describe the joy she was feeling to see her brother beside her with his arms behind his head and with a contented smile on her face. Gatomon was less pleased to see him but didn't pick a fight in order to keep Kari happy. In fact, she was quite content just to have a Wizardmon with his restored memories beside her.
"Hey…Kari," he began to her with his eyes closed.
"Yeah?" she asked quietly, happy that her brother was talking to her. He peaked an eye open and turned it towards her, "I should probably have asked…way back…if things were to go back to how they could've been. Look, I'm not good at talking about stuff like this. What I'm trying to ask is…um…if I were to become human…to be your brother, that would mean we'd live together, right?"
"It might be weird for mom and dad," Kari answered quietly, realizing that she had no idea how either of them would react to Tai suddenly moving in with them after believing he was dead for so long, "But I think they'd be able to come around to the idea of you being there again."
Gatomon sprang up right away, "Wait, are you actually talking about living with Kari's family? Because I am not going to sit for having to share a living space with you."
"It's not your house, is it?" Tamer asked back quietly, "You do live in a house right? No wait, last I checked it was an apartment. No wait, I blew that up. Did I apologize for that?"
"We moved in with dad," Kari explained to Tamer, "After everything that happened, mom and dad talked. They made up and dad really seemed sorry about everything. Mom still has to work part time though so that we can afford to live in our home."
"Oh, well that's good," Tamer answered quietly, "Your mom…I mean, mom didn't say anything about it did she? The last thing I want is dad to know what I did."
"You're calling them mom and dad," Kari noticed.
"Is that weird?" Tamer asked. She shook her head and he breathed a sigh, "Good, because it sure is weird for me."
Wizardmon perked up to finally speak, "It is odd, Tamer, to hear you referring to someone who is younger that yourself as a parent."
In fact, she was even happier to see him calling their parents by those names. It meant that he was coming around - even if it was slowly. She was sure they'd be happy to be called those names for the first time in a long time. It was all so perfect. The only thing that ruined it was the sudden screaming that came from nowhere. Without a word of warning, Davis suddenly fell onto the ground in front of her with Veemon landing on his gut. Davis smiled for a half a second, but the smile turned into shock and he rolled out of the way in time for TK to land where he had been a second before with Patamon on his head, "What the!? What are you guys doing here?"
"More importantly, where did you all come from? We all saw you go off to give those kids a tour!" Gatomon explained before turning on Tamer, "Hey, you didn't have anything to do with this, did you?"
"I'm just as surprised," Tamer threw up his hands defensively.
"Perhaps it was some kind of new magic!" Wizardmon postulated, "Please tell me the spell you used for that. I would love to add to my repertoire!"
TK scratched his head as he collected himself off the ground and asked, "Is this another one of those illusions you were talking about Davis?"
Patamon looked around curiously, "It looks like the DigiWorld. Davis, this is what you said happened to you, right?"
"Yep," Davis dusted himself off and offered a hand to Kari, "Hey Kari, it's good to see you're okay."
Before Kari could think to take his hand, Tamer swatted it away violently and pointed his digivice at them, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Saving Kari, dude," Davis answered, swatting Tamer's hand and digivice aside, "What do you think you're doing?"
Kari didn't want a fight to break out between anyone and rushed between them as her brother explained, "You don't belong in this world! This world already has a Davis, Veemon, TK, and Patamon! Go back to yours!"
She turned to Davis in confusion, "Is that true Davis? You're from another world? I mean…another Real World?"
"Of course not Kari," TK explained, "This is all a dream! A trick by Myotismon. Davis was able to snap me out of my fake dream."
"Fake dream? We beat Myotismon!" Kari pointed out, recalling how Tai trapped him outside reality in the space between worlds. Davis sighed, "Look, the trick is to look for anything weird or something that doesn't match up. Anything that hasn't made sense. That's how you can tell it's an illusion."
Gatomon rolled her eyes, "We're with The Digimon Tamer! Nothing ever makes sense when he's around!"
Veemon added, "Davish shaysh it'sh ushually shomething shmall. Shomething that you want but doeshn't sheem right. Like with Davish, it wash having you on kissh him. And with TK, it wash sheeing hish parentsh together again."
"Veemon!" Davis gasped out in embarrassment as his face went bright red, burying his knuckles into his partner's head to shut him up. Veemon massaged his poor head, "What? Oh, sorry."
Kari looked from Davis, to TK, then to her brother standing there with his digivice still pointed at them. Then she looked to her partner, "What do you think Gatomon?"
Her partner narrowed her eyes as she began circling Tamer, "It'd be hard to tell if this Tamer is a fake. He always acts weird and it's not like he's always honest."
Kari's eyes rested on Tamer. This was her brother. There was no way he could be fake. But Davis was right. Something about this didn't feel real - but she'd been too happy to see her brother again to notice. Wizardmon placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention, "Excuse me, Kari. I don't mean to pry...but how would anyone be able to tell if they're real or not? Perhaps they're the illusions sent by Myotismon to distract us."
"Oh, come on man," Davis threw up how hands in frustration. Kari felt her eyes narrow on Wizardmon's suggestion. Now that she was thinking about it, he'd been awfully chummy with Gatomon when he shouldn't ever remember her, "Wizardmon, how long have you had your memories back?"
"My memories? Since before Tamer pulled you out of the void," Wizardmon answered quietly. Kari raised an eyebrow, "But how much longer will your memories last? I mean, last time it only lasted a few minutes."
Wizardmon sighed, his shoulders slumping and he answered, "Why couldn't you just accept the dream you were given?"
Now all eyes were on Wizardmon as the digimon stepped away from their group. Tamer stepped forward and asked, "Wizardmon. What are you talking about?"
"This," Wizardmon snapped his fingers and the world decayed slowly around them. Leaves dried up and turned to mulch, trees died and rotted away, and Tamer began to age rapidly until he turned into a rotted corpse. Kari reached out to help him, but he turned to dust the moment she even touched him. Kari gasped in shock, sinking to her knees in despair while Gatomon asked, "Wizardmon! What are you doing!?"
"You've rejected the dream. Now live the nightmare," Wizardmon tipped his hat and bowed, before vanishing.
The digital world faded into darkness, fading back to a dusty old apartment - one Kari immediately shared. Beside it was a desk their parents bought for them to use when they were old enough to attend school. Then she heard a faint shuffling behind her, just outside the bedroom door.
The door was a lot larger than she remembered, and it opened to reveal her mother dressed in a dark funeral dress. She was taller, younger, and more distressed, "Kari. It's time to go."
"Mommy?" she asked in disbelief, her mother slowly picking her up, "We don't want to be late. The service is in a half hour. It'll be the last time we say...good bye. To your brother."
"Mommy? No! Mommy, Tai's alive!" Kari tried to explain. Then Davis stepped in, much taller than he was a moment ago, "Hey! Back off Mrs. Kamiya!"
He tried to grab Kari but his hands passed right though them, like he was a ghost. Kari tried to explain again, "Mommy! Tai's not dead!"
"Kari, I know it's been difficult. But it's time to say good bye," her mother reasoned. She could hear Gatomon shouting, but she sounded so far away, "Kari! This isn't real! Snap out of it!"
"Let's go Kari," her mom said again, starting to head out the door. This was wrong. This was all wrong. Tai wasn't dead. He wasn't! Why wouldn't her own mother believe her? Whatever happened back then - when Parrotmon and Greymon attacked wasn't a dream! It was real! All of it was real!
"Kari! It's not real!" Her partner's and friends' voices continued to echo in the back of her mind. That's right, it wasn't real. She was just a little kid. What did she know?
"Snap out of it!"
Snap out of what?
"Don't listen to her, Kari!"
"Tamer is still alive! We can't let it end here!"
Kari shook her head in a daze. That was right. They still had to defeat Myotismon. She pushed her mother away, struggling against her as she shouted, "Mom! Let go of me!"
She finally pushed her mother away and was found standing a few feet away from her. She was smaller now, about the size Kari remembered her mother being, "Mom. Tai's alive. And after all this is done, I am going to find him."
Her mother frowned, "Kari. Sweetie. He isn't coming back."
"I'll bring him back," Kari answered, "Kicking and screaming, I'll bring him back."
Kari's mother stepped away from her in disbelief, shaking her head disappointedly, "I just don't understand Kari…why are you being so difficult?"
"I'm not being difficult mom," Kari answered, "This…none of this is real."
Kari's mother stared at her daughter silently, "Kari…this is real. You need to accept what happened."
Kari tightened her hands into fists and explained, "I did accept what happened mom. But I don't have let it control me. What happened was in the past…and it's time to move on."
As soon as she said those words, her mother disappeared. Their old apartment vanished too, replaced only with a blank empty void. TK was the first one to speak, "Are you okay Kari?"
Kari nodded, still processing what happened, "Y-yeah. I just need a minute."
Davis frowned, "That…was rough Kari."
"How did you guys get here anyway?" Gatomon asked curiously. Davis and TK both produced their digivices while Veemon explained, "Davish ushed hish digivice when you were killed in hish nightmare and we got ganged up on. That'sh how we got to TK'sh dream. And how we got here after Devimon shtarted killing people there."
"But how did you know it was a fake?" Kari asked Davis seriously, while gesturing to the world around them, "I mean this was…everything I ever wanted. How could you see through that?"
Davis stammered as he realized where this conversation was going and wasn't sure how to explain it to her with TK around. In fact, it helped last time since Gatomon was only half paying attention and Veemon was distracted with something else. After he realized he was taking too long, he blurted out, "Because in that world…you never let go of me. I mean…it's what I wanted. But you said you didn't see me that way. And that you weren't interested in that sort of thing. So…the fact that you suddenly were was weird. Then Tamer showed up and you completely ignored him. You didn't even go running to him! That was how I put it all together."
Gatomon nodded approvingly, "You're…a lot smarter than I gave you credit for. But what do we do now? The others still need to be saved!"
TK proposed, "I say we split up and go help them. I don't know what Myotismon is doing outside this place but the sooner we wake ourselves up, the better."
Patamon raised a question, "Yeah, about that. Why aren't we awake yet? More importantly, how are we jumping into each other's dreams?"
"Maybe it's because we're outside reality?" TK proposed quietly, "It'd make just about as much sense as everything else that happened? Are we really going to worry about that anyway?"
Veemon nodded, "That'sh right. Let'sh go shave our friendsh!"
Davis held up his digivice and pointed ahead, "Let's go! Digiport Open!"
Ken and Yolei stepped back out into the Real World hand in hand, just as Myotismon was finally defeated by the other digidestined's partners. They were back in Highton View Terrace just as the first few fireworks of the New Year were fired in to the sky. Yolei bemoaned, "Oh man, we missed it! I love the New Year's countdown!"
They were so distracted by the fireworks, that neither of them noticed their parents running up to hug them, "KEN!"
"YOLEI!"
Both kids were taken aback by the sudden arrival of their parents. Then Yolei's sister noticed something, "HOLD ON! ARE YOU HOLDING KEN'S HAND!?"
Ken tightened his grip on Yolei, not in anger - it was more reassuring while the girl went red in the face, "Y-yeah."
Her sister's face lit up, "Oh my gosh!"
Before she could get another word in, Ken pulled Yolei away into the crowd of parents who were now swarming their digidestined in children. Only Wormmon dared to follow them but he remained quiet out of respect for their privacy, even going so far as to cover his eyes. Yolei looked at him in surprise, "Ken, where are we going?"
"You looked flustered," he explained, uncertain of himself, "I thought…you might want to be somewhere else. Somewhere not around your sister at the moment."
"Oh…thanks," Yolei nodded, her face turning a bright shade of red. Ken was familiar with this reaction - all of his fan girls behaved like this but this was different. He found his face flushing too and his heart beating faster. Was he embarrassed? He covered his face in surprise as he realized he was. Then Yolei ran into hug him.
His heart raced faster as he felt her warm embrace. Then something else - she began leaning in with her lip puckered together. He knew what he had to do now, what he wanted to do. But something held him back from doing so - then a bright light appeared beside them that ruined what would've otherwise been a good moment for Ken. He turned his head to the side to see what caused the intrusion - Davis and Veemon. Ken did a double take while Yolei groaned, "Dammit Davis, you have the worst timing!"
"It was a little rude," Wormmon finally spoke up. "Yolei! Yolei, listen to me! None of this is real!" Davis tried explaining to her, "It's an illusion! A trick by Myotismon!"
A trick? By Myotismon. Ken racked his brain to think about when that would've happened. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks - something had been weird about all this since it ended but to see it be revealed like this was not what he was expecting. Yolei snapped in frustration, "Davis, what are you talking about?"
"Mental Illusion," Ken repeated quietly to himself. Davis turned to look at him and so did Veemon, "Did we get it wrong, Davish?"
Davis scratched his head, "That can't be right. I mean, she was about to kiss Ken. This has to be Yolei's dream! Who else would it be?"
Yolei groaned and put her hands on her hips as she readied to scold Davis, "I have no idea what you're talking about Davis! Get out of here! You're totally ruining the mood!"
Ken shook his head, "No, he's not. He's right. Something about this seemed off. I mean…Yolei, you're forward to a fault and sometimes act on your emotions. But you've never done something like this."
"Huh, I guess it is Ken's dream," Davis folded his arms in surprise as he watched Ken turn on Yolei. He placed both his hands on the girl and explained, "Yolei…I…I'm not good with these kind of things…so…you're a nice person and…what I'm trying to say is you're not the real Yolei. I'm sorry. Go away."
Yolei stood there with her mouth hanging open, stepping away from Ken. At first her expression was one of shock and despair - then it turned into anger, "Why couldn't you just accept what was in front of you? Fine…forget the dream. If you don't want a life time of joy, then accept a life time of your greatest nightmares made real!"
She vanished as she spoke those words, and foot steps echoed from behind them. They all spun on their heels together at the same time to face the new enemy. They were not prepared to face the Digimon Emperor - adorned in his blue robes, his goggles, and his messy hair. The boy scoffed at Ken, "Look at you. You've become so pathetic. To think I would degrade myself to being a slave of destiny who works for Digimon Tamer."
"Now that's a trip," Davis raised an eyebrow, "I mean…just wow."
The Emperor jeered, "And you have the idiot with you. How low have you sunk?"
"I haven't sunk!" Ken shouted back at the Emperor, "I realized what I was doing was wrong!"
"He's making up for it," Wormmon countered
"Wrong? What about it was wrong!?" the Emperor snapped back, beginning to pace around them, "Your brother is dead because of him! Ryo is lost forever! Thousands more have perished. He calls it destiny but the truth is it's all chaos! And by standing with the digidestined, you're standing with him! Are you sure what you're doing now isn't wrong?"
Ken frowned, "Well, I'm not kidnapping and enslaving digimon anymore. So that's a good sign that I'm not the bad guy anymore. And I'm definitely not using evil digimon on my side any more."
The Emperor mocked him, "You're right! It's better to let that lawless waste run rampant. It's not like another digimon invasion happened shortly after you started working with the digidestined. Oh wait! That's right, it did happen!"
"That was unrelated!" Ken countered quickly, only to be snapped at by his old self, "Wasn't it? Would any of the things that happened after you joined the digidestined have happened under your watch as Emperor? Would BlackWarGreymon ravage the Digital World? Would the boundary between worlds falter? How many more digimon and human lives ended because you walked away?"
"And what good came from being you?" Ken countered angrily, quickly losing patience with his other self, "All the digimon enslaved and killed? The monster we made with Ancient technology. The horrible machines we used. Not to mention the part where Same died again! Was any of that worth it?"
The Emperor began cackling to himself, "You're still not getting it, are you? This was always about preventing any more damage that the Digimon Tamer would allow to happen. He could've done something and he never did! That's what we were trying to fix! Are you really suggesting it would've been better to do nothing about it? To let it all happen!?"
Ken shook with a mix of anger and fear of himself. And yet, there was a dread of this other Emperor that left him uneasy. Then he watched as this other self took off his goggles to reveal that it was not himself he was speaking to but his older brother - Sam. His older brother pleaded, "Kenny, you could've saved me. You could've changed so much. Why are you being like this?"
The sight of his brother shook Ken - Sam was dead. So why was he here? He was at a complete loss for words as his partner asked, "Isn't that your older brother? How is he here?"
"I don't know," Ken shook in disbelief. Davis scratched his head, "Aw geez, Ken. We should...get out of here."
"Not yet. This is my mistake and I need to fix it," Ken shook angrily, stopping only to consider what he should say, "Sam, I'm sorry I couldn't save you. It's my fault that you died twice. Everything I've ever done has been to try and right a wrong from my past. But I can't keep being tied down by it. I can't let it...control me. Please, forgive me."
"No, Ken. I won't," Sam replied quickly, "You have to live with the horrible things you did. But more than that you have to live with the fact that mom and dad wished I had been the one who lived, not you. But there's one thing you can do to make it right and that's to finish what you started."
Ken closed his eyes, trying his best to restrain his guilt and his anguish over hearing his older brother say that. This wasn't true. None of this was true. But Ken couldn't bring himself to face his fake brother. It was just too painful. So he turned away from his brother and sheepishly answered, "I'm sorry Sam. Good bye."
Sam became all the more upset as Ken walked away, "Don't be stupid Kenny! If you don't finish what you started, you'll never be able to let go of your past! You'll be haunted by my memory forever!"
"Then I'll live with that. That'll be my punishment- to remind me that I have to be better," Ken said quietly. Sam was quiet after that and Ken looked back once only to find his brother was gone. He sighed, trying to stifle a sniff before turning towards Davis, "Thanks for waiting."
"Don't mention it," Davis put his arms to his side, looking pleased with himself. Ken shook his head in amusement than asked, "What are you doing here, anyway? How did you know this was all a dream?"
"It's a long story and I've already explained it twice. I'm tell you later. Now let's get out of here," Davis said, holding his digivice ahead of him and shouting, "Digiport Open!"
Yolei of all people did not expect to get a party when they all got back to the Real World, especially after they defeated MaloMyotismon. In her mind, it had been a team effort but the rest of the digidestined and their digimon assured her that his defeat had been because of her. Still, Yolei couldn't help but feel uneasy as everyone sat around in a local late night restaurant. It was a miracle that they managed to get a table to fit all of them together at such late notice but the owners had no problem with so many people as long as they could pay - something Joe's father was more than happy to accommodate.
Because of how large their group was, they ended up getting several tables pushed together and breaking up to sit with their respective families. To her utter delight, Ken chose to sit next to her at the table with their partners flanking either side of them. To her annoyance, her sister Chizuru was quick to notice, "You two are sitting awfully close, aren't you?"
She bit her tongue to stop herself from saying something she would regret but Ken answered, "I hope I'm not being impolite. I'm just…more comfortable around her."
Yolei could feel herself flushing from embarrassment when Ken said those words. And she could tell her sister was excited by it too when she leaned in to ask, "Ooh! Yolei, when did you get this close to Ken Ichijouji?"
She had no idea how to answer that since she had no idea Ken even felt comfortable around her. She always got the impression that she annoyed him. As she struggled to come up with an answer to her sister's question, she felt something grab her hand under the table and realized it was Ken. He seemed just as uneasy and nervous, and she could see his face lighting up a bright red. There was no doubt about it now in her mind. Ken liked her back. Then she heard Hawkmon mumble something about being worse than Davis and Kari. She couldn't help but throw a look their way to see Davis actually sitting with Matt and Sora at the opposite end of the table - chatting animatedly. It was odd, since he didn't usually talk to either of them. So what was he doing there? Kari on the other hand was sitting between her parents and seemed completely oblivious to Davis' absence. Instead, she talked to her partner and kept pointing at TK.
Before she could say anything about it, a commotion at the restaurant entrance caught her attention. And she blinked when she saw another Kari and Gatomon standing at the restaurant entrance trying to get in. They seemed frantic and nervous, arguing with the hostess who tried to explain that the restaurant was full. Yolei blinked to make sure her eyes weren't fooling her then back to the first Kari who seemed to have missed the presence of her doppelgänger. Yolei nudged her partner, "Hey, Hawkmon. Do you see that?"
"I do, and I have never been more confused," Hawkmon answered with a tilted head. The second Kari pushed past the hostess and into the dining room. Her appearance took everyone off guard, especially the first Kari who stood up right away, "Who are you? Why do you like me?"
"Does this have anything to do with Tamer?" the first Gatomon sighed. The second Gatomon pointed at her accusingly, "Shut your trap you Myotismon knock off!"
"Myotismon!?" the first Gatomon took offense, leaping up with her claws out.
"Stop it! Don't fight!" both Karis pleaded with their partners at the same time. Both girls noticed this and said, "Jinx, you owe me a soda. Double jinx, you owe me two sodas!"
Both giggled at the double jinx, until TK finally stood up, "Okay, so are either of you going to explain what's going on?"
The second Kari nodded, "You're...well, one of you is trapped in an illusion made by Myotismon. I already know it's not me, Davis, or TK."
"What are you talking about...other me," the first Kari asked, pausing as she realized just how absurd her words were. She shook her head and demanded, "How can this be an illusion? Yolei beat Myotismon!"
"Yeah! Are you saying we didn't really beat him!?" the first Gatomon said with an accusatory tone. the second Kari shifted her gaze to Yolei and ran to her, "This has to be your illusion, Yolei! Listen, none of this is real!"
"My illusion?" Yolei repeated quietly, completely lost on everything that was going on, "What do you mean my illusion? How can this be my illusion? If this is an illusion, shouldn't this all be an illusion? How do I know you're not the illusion?"
Kari sighed, "It's a long story. Davis was the first one to figure it out. The fastest way to tell if this is fake is to look for something that doesn't add up - it can be something small, but that's all it takes. Something that seems normal at first but the more you think about it, the weirder it gets. There has to have been something you've seen like that."
"You're taking advice from Davis?" Yolei asked skeptically, becoming more uncertain with every word coming out of this second Kari's mouth. Her mouth hung open as something seemed to click in her head before explaining, "He is...more observant that you think. Look, I know it sounds crazy but there has to be something off about this illusion that you've noticed."
Yolei blinked, "You mean besides the second you running in here? You still haven't said how you knew this was my illusion."
Kari groaned and gestured beside her, "Ken's sitting next to you and he's blushing. I'm not normally the one who can pick up on this kind of stuff. Heck, I didn't even know that Davis knew that I only...look I don't want to talk about it. But I know it now because he told me. Where was I going with this?"
"You're just like Tamer," both Gatomons said in unison while the second Kari continued, "Look, the point I'm trying to make is that it's obvious you like Ken but I don't think Ken has done much to show you how that he cares about you as more than a friend. So why is he suddenly acting the way you do around him?"
"I'm just...flustered," Ken said in his defense. As much as Yolei wanted to ignore the second Kari, there was something nagging her in the back of her mind, "Davis hasn't said a word to you since we got back."
"Huh?" the second Kari asked. Hawkmon choked on his water, "Yolei, you're not actually believing a word they're saying are you?"
Yolei shook her head, "I'm not saying I believe them. I am saying that it bugs me that Davis hasn't said a word to you since we got back. He didn't even sit at the same part of the table as you. He's sitting over there with Matt and Sora. And that confuses me."
"Is it that weird?" Davis asked anxiously, looking at Matt and Sora who were just as lost. The second Kari chimed in, "It is a little bit. I mean, normally you do whatever you can to make sure you're right next to me. Even at lunch and in class."
"Davish jusht wanted to get relationship advice from them. That'sh all," Veemon tried to explain. Yolei scratched her head at that, "What do you mean relationship advice? He's not in a relationship. He's trying to get a date with Kari. Their situation's not the same since Sora didn't avoid Matt because she's convinced he's her brother. I'm just stating the obvious. Besides, Davis isn't the kind of guy to ask for advice with things. He's more the kinda guy who runs head first into a problem and always manages to get out unharmed."
She paused to think about it, "Meanwhile, I'm the one who's constantly making mistakes like getting Musyamon killed or almost letting an entire village drown because I couldn't figure out that Golemon was a fake until it was almost too late."
"Hey, Yolei, don't get down on yourself," Kari tried to explain, "We're not even in the second illusion yet!"
"Second illusion?" Hawkmon asked. Gatomon explained, "Yeah, it's dumb: Myotismon put the first illusion inside another illusion. The first illusion is your dream, everything you've ever wanted coming true. But if you can see through it, you land in the second illusion where you live your worst fear. Kari's fear was having to go through her brother dying again."
"But this isn't my worst fear," Yolei countered happily, looking at Ken sitting at her side with a bashful smile at this party in her honor for defeating Myotismon, "This is everything I've ever wanted."
"Which is exactly what the first illusion is supposed to be," the second Kari pointed out. As much as Yolei wanted to ignore it, she couldn't. The doubt was there now in the back of her mind, eating at away at her. The first Kari sighed, "You just couldn't leave it be. She was happy!"
She turned on Yolei, "You were happy. But fine, deny the dream. Give it up. I just hope you're happy with your nightmare. This part my sucks. I'm leaving."
Yolei was stunned by that as the first Kari started to leave. Then the first Gatomon. Then Matt and Sora followed suit. Before Yolei could even ask what was going on, she witnessed Ken stand up from her chair without a word. On instinct, Yolei reached out to grab his hand, "Ken, where are you going?"
Ken answered without looking back, "Kari's right. This sucks. You suck."
"Ken-"
"We're throwing this in your honor because you beat Myotismon but anyone could've done that," Ken added, "To be honest, that's more a miracle than you realize since you're the girl who couldn't save Musyamon. A digimon is dead because of you."
"I didn't kill him!" Yolei argued but Ken retorted, "But you didn't save him either. I'll see you around Yolei. Or not. Whatever. Come on Wormmon."
"Okay, Ken," Wormmon bounced off the table and waddled after Ken as the two made their way to the exit. Yolei was about to call out after him but the second Kari held her, "Yolei, he's not real."
"But...wait, was I just dumped by a guy who doesn't exist?" Yolei mulled the idea over. Then Ken added, "Dumped? We weren't even dating. Look, Yolei. You're nice, but you're just not my kind of girl."
"What?" Yolei stuttered. Kari pulled on her hand to get her attention, "Yolei, focus. This is the second illusion. Your worst fear. Although, this isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I mean...I had to deal with Tai's funeral again. At least you don't-"
She was cut short when a loud stomp shook the ground. Then the roof of the small restaurant came clean off and a Tyrannomon appeared over head. Before anyone could say anything, Tyrannomon's massive claw came crashing down and flattened Ken in front of her. Yolei shrieked in horror as she watched Ken go limp in front of her, soaking in a growing pool of his own blood. Then the Tyrannomon turned on Yolei, "I never got to taste you, did I?"
"Yolei, this isn't real!" Kari tried to explain her while Hawkmon asked, "Yolei, who is that?"
"It's the Tyrannomon that tried to eat me...back when I was a little girl," Yolei managed, frozen in place by terror and shock.
"Yolei, I need to digivolve," Hawkmon explained, but Yolei couldn't find the will to move. She could still remember that day clear in her mind. The heat from Tyrannomon's mouth - the smell of the burnt bodies. Kari tried to pull her away but she was too frozen by fear. Kari exclaimed, "Yolei, this isn't real. It's an illusion that Myotismon made to scare you!"
Yolei couldn't hear her though. All she could focus on was Ken's dead body lying in front of her - another person she wasn't able to save. Another person had died because of her. She was so lost in thought, that she didn't even realize Tyrannomon was holding her until she was well off the ground. The dinosaur was a lot larger than she had first thought, its maw big enough to swallow a car. In her panic, she dropped her digivice and watched it fall straight to the floor where the second Kari caught it, "YOLEI!"
"Feather Strike!" Hawkmon reached for the feather on his head and threw it at Tyrannomon's claw. The large digimon winced in pain and dropped Yolei, screaming as she started falling towards the ground which was a lot further down than she remembered. Just as she was certain she was going to die, she felt Hawkmon's talons grab hold of her while he flapped his wings as hard as he could to keep her aloft, "Yolei! I know you're scared but now isn't the time to lose yourself to fear."
"But I'm useless," Yolei murmured as Hawkmon gently lowered her, "Ken's right. I couldn't Musyamon. I couldn't even save him. What good am I?"
She was snapped out of these thoughts when she felt a harsh sting across her face. She looked over to see Kari, her face torn between a mix of anger and compassion, "We've taken on a lot worse than a Tyrannomon. SkullGreymon. Kimeramon. BlackWarGreymon. Dragomon. So what's one Tyrannomon? Yolei, we've got this. You've got this."
Yolei blinked a few times, recalling how they'd defeated each of the digimon listed. This was just like the Dark Ocean with Kari all over again. She shook her head, trying to regain her senses and nodded, "Yeah, you're right Kari."
Kari placed her digivice back into her hand, "Now go show that 'mon who's the boss!"
Yolei nodded, turning to her partner who crossed his wings, "It's good to see you out of your stupor, Yolei."
"Let's get 'em," Yolei held her digivice forward, letting the light flow out of it into Hawkmon, "Hawkmon! Digivolve to! Aquilamon!"
Tyrannomon seemed a lot smaller now that Aquilamon was on the scene, using his claws to scratched at the dinosaur's rough hide and ramming into it with his horns when he could. The digimon flailed and moved about angrily, trying to swat at Aquilamon and occasionally shooting balls of fire at him to no avail. Then Aquilamon moved in for his final blow, "BLAST RINGS!"
The hit struck Tyrannomon square in the chest and he toppled over, crashing onto the ground before dissipating into data. Yolei shook for a moment - taken aback by seeing the monster that had nearly killed her go down so easily. It was unreal. Like a dream. No, this was the dream. None of this was real. Once she'd composed herself, she turned to face Kari, "Okay, so what do we do now?"
"This," Kari raised up her digivice and pointed it just ahead of them, "DIGIPORT OPEN!"
It was like a dream come true. The moment they defeated MaloMyotismon, everyone who had died years ago because of him suddenly appeared - including Cody's father and Ken's older brother. Once again, Sam didn't recognize Ken at first, but was more receptive to the idea that time had passed. For Cody, being congratulated and thanked by his father was the greatest thing he could have wished for. Although he tried to maintain his composure, Cody ended up crying into his father's chest - unable to put his happiness into words. Instead he just kept hugging his dad. When the two of them finally broke away from each other, his father congratulated him, "Thank you Cody. We're free because of you. I'm so proud of you."
Cody felt his heart skip a beat from the praise, but tried to remain relaxed, "Now we just have to get out of here."
As if the universe was answering him, a flash of light blinded them all. From the light appeared two figures - TK and Patamon. A second TK and Patamon. Cody rubbed his eyes, certain that the light had just made him see double. But then the second TK and Patamon began speaking to the first TK and Patamon, "Gee, Patamon. These illusions are really convincing. But whose illusion do you think we're in?"
"Well, there's Ken and his brother. Maybe it's his?" the second Patamon pointed at Sam. Both Ken and Sam stood with their mouths hanging wide open. It didn't take long for Ken to confront the second TK, "Who or what are you? Is this a trick? Is The Digimon Tamer pulling another one of his stunts?"
"Sorry, but no," TK shook his head, "Fact of the matter is I'm real. But this place isn't Ken."
"Not real? What are you talking about?" Ken cocked his head to the side and folded his arms skeptically. TK went on, "Yeah, look, I know this seems weird. Don't you remember what…MaloMyotismon…said…oh, no."
The second TK paused as he saw Cody, his smile turning into a frown as he pointed them out for Patamon, "I was wrong. This isn't Ken's illusion."
"What makes you say that?" Patamon asked as he followed TK's finger, "Oh."
Cody's father stood between them as both TK and Patamon made their way over, "What's going on here? Who are you?"
TK stared back at his father solemnly. Cody could tell there was deep contemplation going on inside TK's mind - he was uncertain of how to respond. Regardless, TK bowed towards the older man, "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Hida, sir. Your son Cody is a good kid."
"Oh," his dad paused, taken aback by the politeness in TK's voice but still keeping Cody behind him. Cody didn't want to defy his father so soon after getting him back but he had to ask TK anyway, "TK, what's going on. Why are there two of you?"
TK looked at Cody's father quietly, still frowning, "Cody…you're not going to like this. This isn't real. None of this is. We're stuck in an illusion MaloMyotismon created. I'm only here because Davis was able to snap me out of mine. And I'm here to help snap you out of yours."
Cody shook his head disbelievingly, "What are you talking about TK? This is real! All of it! We beat Myotismon. We freed my dad! How can any of this be fake?"
TK's frown deepened, "I know how it sounds Cody, but this isn't real. Davis figured it out first. The trick is to find something that doesn't add up. It can be small, or it can be big. No matter what, it has to be something that doesn't make sense."
Cody looked around at the void around him. Everything he'd seen so far made sense to him. At least, nothing he was looking at seemed out of the ordinary. Then Armadillomon made a comment he wished he didn't hear, "I was thinkin' it was odd that all these dead people came back. And that Ken's brother was okay with him this time when he wasn't okay with him last time. I mean, he did go and get himself killed if I remember right. He even argued with Ken last time."
"Armadillomon!" Cody scolded his partner, who could only offer in his defense, "I'm just sayin' Cody. I mean, think about it. Last time, Ken's older brother didn't even believe it was him he was talkin' to and he walked away mid sentence, straight into that laser that turned him to dust. So how could Sam be okay with it now?"
"I...don't know," Cody shook his head, looking at his dad desperately. That was odd, but that didn't mean that his father wasn't real. His father was alive. They'd saved him. Cody countered, "I do know that I don't want to lose my dad again."
"Cody," his dad began, leaning down to look him in the eye. Cody hated when his father did this, because it meant he was about to get a lecture or lesson of some kind - and the lesson was never something Cody wanted to hear, "I...don't want to die again. But if your friend is speaking the truth, you can't let your feelings get in the way of doing what's right. If...if this is an illusion, then you will need to let me go. It will hurt, losing someone always does. But I wouldn't be able to stand the idea of you being hurt because you couldn't let go of me."
"I can't let you go, dad," Cody explained, "I...don't want you to die again. I can't stand it."
Then Armadillomon's words struck him, "Cody, this is just like Ken and his brother."
Cody paused, looking Ken's way and seeing him standing there next to his brother. Cody trembled at the idea - finally now understanding why Ken had done what he did after all this time. He hadn't killed any digimon or enslaved them, but he'd be dooming them to that if he chose to have his father over anything else. Cody's father sensed his unease, "Be brave Cody. You can do this."
"Dad," Cody shook, knowing what he needed to do but too scared to do it. Unfortunately, it seemed this grand illusion would not wait on him to do it, as he heard Ken say, "You just couldn't do it, could you Cody? I made you this grand dream…and you're just throwing it away. Fine, live the nightmare you fear the most."
When Ken snapped his fingers, Cody watched his father turn to dust before him. Cody tried to grab hold of him, to keep some part of him a little longer only to watch the last grains of dust vanish. The little boy sank to his knees in terror, overwhelmed from losing his father again. It was too soon. How could he lose his father again? Then Ken cackled, "Do you see why I oppose the natural order of destiny and the reality the Digimon Tamer tries so hard to protect? Cody, we can bring your father back."
Cody looked up to see the Digimon Emperor standing before him with an outstretched hand, "The others wouldn't understand. That's why I spared you. If we work together, we can bring back your father. My brother. We can undo all the damage the Digimon Tamer allowed to happen. It doesn't matter how many lives we ruin, how many digimon pay the price. You will get your father back, I promise you that."
Cody felt his hand reaching out to the Emperor's, ready to accept his offer. He would do anything to get his father back. He could hear a voice telling him not to listen - to not do the terrible things he was thinking of doing. But how could he say no? He could have his father back, if only for a moment. He could get him back. All he had to do was take the Emperor's hand.
"Join me, Cody. Your father was an officer wasn't he? A man of the law? What is an emperor without his enforcer? Be my adjudicator, Cody. Together, we can rule the Digital World and bring order to this senseless waste."
Cody felt himself pulled back and realized TK was standing behind him with an angered expression on his face, "Back off, Emperor. Cody, this isn't right. You know that."
"That's right, partner," Armadillomon agreed, "This isn't what you're about Cody. I know you've bin' havin' yer doubts about Ken, but he wouldn't do anythin' like this and neither would you! Ken's on our side now. He wouldn't go back to this no matter what happened."
"Yeah, that's right," Patamon agreed, "Don't fall for this trick and don't listen to what this phony has to say!"
"Ignore the fools, Cody," the Emperor growled, "They could never understand us. What we've lost. The wrongs committed against us by fate. What we have to do to make things right."
Cody's lower lip trembled, as he was torn between two things. For so long he thought about the terrible things Ken had done, and how he never wanted to do it no matter what. But now, here he was. Ready to accept this invitation. He knew it was wrong to accept, but he wanted to so bad. He needed his father back. This decision was so hard but it didn't have to be. He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, streaming down the side of his face. He didn't want to do what he was about to. BUt he knew he had to.
He slapped the Emperor's hand away, "Never. I…would never insult my father's memory like that."
"Then you're a fool," the Emperor frowned, producing his whip. He raised it up to strike but was stopped by Armadillomon rolling into a ball to sweep his feet out from under him, "Not if I have anythin' t'say about it!"
The Emperor got up, ready to fight back, "Fools, don't think you can get away from me!"
"Okay, TK! How do we get out of here?" Cody asked quickly. TK held out his digivice and smiled, "Follow me! Digiport OPEN!"
Author's Notes: They've broke the nightmare. The final battle awaits them. Will the digidestined fulfill the prophecy? Will Kari see her brother again? Is Oikawa going to die? Find out all this and more on the next chapter of the Tamer v1.2 Another Digimon Adventure due out next Friday, August 31st at 8 PM CDT. If you loved it, let me know in the reviews section. And hey, I also welcome constructive criticism and speculation on the next chapter. Don't forget to follow the story to keep up with updates and to favorite the story to show support. That's all for now - let's take a look at previews for the next chapter.
Lillymon took off to join Imperialdramon in grappling MaloMyotismon, shouting, "HEY! REMEMBER ME!?"
"You shouldn't have made Kari my girlfriend is how!" Davis spat back.
"What if…what if the digivices are the million points of light?"
Davis rolled his eyes in disbelief, "Oh come on, Cody. Where are we going to get…a million…digivices…"
"I guess that's one way to interpret a million points of lights," Silphymon commented.
"They're beings of data, same as me and all the other digimon."
