Hello people! It's time for a new chapter! Chapters 9 and 10 from the rewritten version are already up on AO3. The link is in my profile. I suggest you go read that version instead. I hope you like this one. Please review!
Chapter 23: The Final Battle
We were standing in front of the Digimon Kaiser's headquarter once again. All of our Digimon were behind us in their Mega-Levels. I swallowed hard. That was it. Our final battle to save the Digital World. Beside me, I could feel Sora getting nervous. I couldn't blame her, I would be scared too if the same thing happened to me.
"It's gonna be alright."
"Huh?" She looked at me with a confused look.
"We're all here for you. We won't let anything happen to you."
"She's right, Sora." Houomon stated behind her.
"Thanks, guys." Sora replied with a smile. "Let's go."
It wasn't that hard to enter the headquarter. Once again, I felt very cold. I glanced at Sora to see if she was feeling the same and she was shivering. I noticed Yamato nudging Takeru on his ribs. Apparently, he was worried about her too.
"Sora, is everything okay?"
"Yes, everything is fine. I'm just feeling the same cold sensation from last time."
"I'm feeling it too. Not as strong as last time, but strong enough for me to want to wear a sweater or something."
"Isn't it better for you to stay outside then?" Yamato suggested. He looked at Sora, who looked away when she noticed his eyes on her. He sighed frustrated.
"Let's find the Kaiser and get this over with as fast as we can." Takeru tried to change the subject.
"You don't need to look for me. I'm right here." The Digimon Kaiser appeared on the hall, with Chimeraimon behind him.
"It was about time you appeared this time." Taichi snapped. "I thought you still wanted to be a coward."
"What did you say?!" The Kaiser threw himself towards my brother and they began to fight.
"Taichi, what are you doing?!" I asked desperately. "Stop this."
"Somebody please do something."
Jou held the Kaiser while Yamato took Taichi away from him. I, Sora and Takeru watched the scene with disbelief.
"You should be ashamed for thinking the Digital World belongs to you."
"And it does!" He shouted. "You keep getting in my way and it's making me angry."
"You're such a spoiled annoying boy."
"Don't you dare talk to me like this! Chimeraimon!"
The created Digimon advanced towards us, most specifically towards Yamato.
"Yamato!" MetalGarurumon came from behind him and crashed into Chimeraimon.
That was the cue the other five Digimon were waiting for to start attacking. Even with six attacks, the damage on the enemy was still pretty low.
"The attacks aren't working!" I exclaimed in shock.
"I don't understand why." Takeru said. "There are six Mega-Level Digimon. It should be enough to destroy it."
"What do we do now?"
"There's nothing you can do. Chimeraimon is invincible."
"We'll find a way to defeat him. You shouldn't underestimate our strength. WarGreymon!"
"Gaia Force!"
WarGreymon's attack was able to hold Chimeraimon back a little and the other six Digimon took it as an advantage and attacked it too. This time, they managed to cause a bigger damage, but still not enough. The Digimon Kaiser burst into laughter.
"You are pathetic! You still think you can win this battle! It's time to accept I'm better than all of you together."
"You'll never be better than us." Taichi shot at him. "Anyone who does bad things to other living beings will never be better than us. You can try, but that's only it."
"Shut your mouth up!"
"When you don't have good arguments, you turn to screaming and threatening."
"You better take that back, or I'll…"
"Or you'll what?" Takeru dared. "That just proves my point."
The Kaiser was at a loss of words, so he resorted to violence. He hit Takeru on the face with his whip.
"Oh my God!" I covered my mouth in shock.
"Takeru."
Takeru simply touched the area the whip had hit him and then looked at his palm and fingers colored with the red from his blood, but he didn't seem to mind the injury on his face. Instead, the look on his eyes was completely different from the usual. He threw his white hat on the floor and ran towards the Kaiser, throwing a punch right on his face.
There was a deadly silence in the place as we all tried to understand what was happening. Not even in my wildest dream I would imagine Takeru beating someone up, and I'm sure the other five Destined Children would agree with me.
Yamato quickly ran to try to pull his brother away from the fight. He grabbed him by the waist, and Takeru tried to get himself free. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Didn't you see that he had hit me on the face with his whip?"
"I did. But you never fought with anyone in your life before."
"Well, I'm sorry if that guy got on my nerves."
"You'll pay for what you did." The Digimon Kaiser hissed.
"Shut the hell up!" Yamato shouted. "You deserved this."
"Don't talk to me! I'm superior to all of you! You shouldn't even be here."
"What is your plan anyway?" Sora's voice echoed, making all faces turn to her. "The Digital is not a game and the Digimon are not toys." She walked past all of us towards the Kaiser. Chimeraimon was getting ready to attack, but she didn't seem to mind.
"Sora, are you insane?!" Taichi asked loudly. "Chimeraimon is aiming at you!""It is a game, and you all keep ruining it!"
"You're a Destined Child and know nothing about it. That Digimon that is always behind you is your partner and you're always treating it badly."
"It's not worth being my partner!"
"You should know Digimon are living beings. They feel, they think, they talk."
"What?!"
"You brought pain to all of the Digimon you turned into slaves. You tried to take my partner away from me. This is unforgivable."
"Shut up! Shut up!" The Kaiser yelled. "Come on, Chimeraimon! Destroy all of them now!"
Hououmon flew towards Sora and picked her up with her claws seconds before Chimeraimon's attack hit where she had previously been. The Digimon put her down in a safer place around us and then joined the rest of her Digimon friends in the fight.
"You should know Digimon are alive just like us." Sora began to walk again, but not for long. She looked down at her wrists and noticed both Yamato and Takeru were holding her back.
The Digimon Kaiser had his eyes widened at what he had just heard. "What do you mean they are alive just like us?"
"It's exactly what you heard." I spoke. "It's not that hard to understand, really. Sora said it all. You're a Destined Child and don't even realize such a basic thing."
"Hikari." Taichi ran towards me. "It's pointless to knock some sense into this guy's head."
"We should at least try it! You taught me not to give up on people. I believe his good version is in there somewhere and it wants to come out." I turned to the Kaiser again and for a moment I was surprised to see him on his knees with his hands in his head.
"What have I done?"
"It's never too late to regret what you did and start over." Wormmon stopped near him. "Let them destroy this Digimon you made up to control this world before it's too late."
The Digimon Kaiser looked at the Digimon beside him and picked him up before standing up. "Please forgive me."
"I already forgave you, Ken. I always believed the real you were still there."
"Wormmon."
"It looks like it's over." Taichi stopped beside WarGreymon. "You know what to do."
WarGreymon and the other five Digimon gave their final attacks and defeated Chimeraimon and the Digimon Kaiser for good.
"Are you going to be okay?" I asked the boy.
"I am. I'm sorry for everything I did. I promise I'll make up for all the pain I've caused."
We watched him leave with his partner. Ours returned to their Rookie levels and ran towards us.
"You were great, Agumon! I'm so proud of you."
"Thanks, Taichi." Agumon grinned.
"We should go back now."
Mimi smiled when she noticed the portal was opening in the Digital World. "Koushiro, they are coming back!"
"What?!" The boy rushed to his laptop and was taken to the ground with our arrival. "Why does this always happen to me?" Koushiro complained. "Can you please get off me?"
"Are you alright?" Mimi grabbed Taichi's hand and helped him stand up.
"I am." He smiled at her and then wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her on the cheek.
"Is it over now?"
"Yes, it's over now. The Digital World is at peace again."
"Oh I'm glad. How was it?"
"Sora and Hikari were able to knock some sense into the Kaiser's mind and it helped us."
"That means we can go home."
"We should enjoy this house for a couple of days." Mimi suggested. "We deserve it."
"Is that okay with your father?"
"I don't know. I have to ask him."
By the time Yamato returned with the positive answer his father gave him, we all were hanging out in the pool area of the house. Mimi was beyond happy about it. She and Taichi were lying by the pool, with their feet on the water and their arms around each other.
"I wonder how Ken is doing right now." I said, more to myself than anything.
"He probably will take some time to reflect about his actions."
"Do you think he might join us?"
"It's hard to say, really." Taichi let go of Mimi and sat down. "I wouldn't mind it though."
"Maybe it will happen." Mimi rubbed Taichi's back and he looked at her. "I'm just glad everything is over now."
"Me too." He lied next to her again and looked into her eyes as he touched her cheek. "Right now, I just can focus on one thing."
"Oh yeah?" Mimi's eyes sparkled for a brief moment. "On what?"
"How about I show you instead?"
"Eww gross." I said rather jokingly and stood up. "The last thing I need is to see my brother kissing."
"You're just jealous."
"Not at all." I retorted. "I'm only eleven. Having a boyfriend is far from my priorities for the next few years."
"As it should be."
"Don't mind your brother, Hikari." Mimi joined the conversation. "I think you're right."
"What?"
"You should just admit your girlfriend stands by the right Yagami, brother." I stuck my tongue at him.
"Okay, that is so unfair!"
"Taichi, baby." Mimi whispered. "Can we go back to what we were about to do?"
"Of course." He leaned over her and kissed her lips timidly at first and the kiss quickly was heated up when Mimi's tongue entered his mouth and played with his.
Mimi grabbed his arm firmly while her other hand touched his cheek. Taichi leaned even closer to her, if that was possible.
Sora was sitting on the balcony. Most people wouldn't do that at all, but flying through the skies on Birdramon's claws made her not to be afraid of height. Yamato walked out after going upstairs and seeing her through the bedroom she was sharing with Mimi and Hikari.
"There you are." He stopped by the balcony a few meters away from her. He didn't want to take the risk of having someone walk in and catch them and find out about their secret relationship. It was the last thing he wanted to do though.
"I didn't feel like being around everyone right now."
"Still thinking about what happened in the past few days?"
Sora bit her lower lip and kept looking ahead. She knew he understood her better than anyone in this. Yamato grabbed her hand and she immediately looked down at them before glancing inside to see if they were safe.
"You're still blaming yourself over what happened."
"I can't help it, I'm sorry."
"Sora, that wasn't your fault." He stood behind her and hugged her from the back. "Besides, we defeated the Kaiser, didn't we?"
"We did, but…"
"No buts." Yamato said firmly. "I don't want you to worry about this anymore. It's over, we won."
"You're right. I shouldn't be stressing about it anymore. Sometimes I wonder if the dark side will try to reach for me again and there's nothing I or anyone else can do." There was a worried tone in her voice. "Like three years ago."
Yamato tightened his arms around Sora and she leaned her back against his body, closing her eyes. "We never really talked about this later, did we? Even if you hadn't said it back then, I'd still know you were carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders."
"Well, Taichi had given me a very important task. In some way, the future of our and the Digital worlds were on my hands."
"I have no doubt he trusted the best person to do this. You'd do the impossible to achieve that task." Yamato smiled. "And for the record, I would have gone after you again if I knew what was happening. You're just that special to me."
Sora looked up at him, so that their eyes were locked on each other's. A smile appeared on her lips. "You're that special to me too."
Yamato bent over her and reached for her lips upside down. Sora was a little confused how he would be able to kiss her like that, but went for it anyway. Their lips had just touched when they heard footsteps coming up and quickly broke away from each other. The blonde stood a little away from his girlfriend, so they wouldn't get caught.
"You don't need to pretend you weren't making out just because I am here."
"God, Takeru." Yamato mumbled and came a little closer to Sora again.
"You two are really risking getting caught by any of them when you sneak away to spend some time together alone."
"Yes, we know." Sora spun around and crossed her legs over the balcony wall, so she could see both the balcony and the street.
"Please close the curtains."
"Isn't it better if you just tell everyone already? People will start to be suspicious if you keep sneaking out like this."
Yamato looked at Sora, who shook her head negatively. He then turned his attention to his brother. "We prefer to wait a little longer."
"To see if it's gonna last. You've told me this before and I think it's quite clear it is. You just need to believe in your relationship a little more."
"He has a point."
"I know. But I still prefer to wait a little more. Is that still okay for you?"
Yamato bit his lower lip and looked away. Takeru sensed he may have brought up a delicate subject and felt bad about it.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to create any confusion between you two."
"It's not your fault, Takeru." Sora said reassuringly. "We actually have been talking about this for the past few days."
"Yeah, don't feel bad about it. Neither of us is angry at you for this. Right, Sora?"
"Right."
"Okay, good." Takeru smiled. "Well, I'll be downstairs with the others. Don't take too long to join us."
"We won't." Yamato made sure he and Sora were completely alone again before he wrapped his arms around her again.
Both of them had no idea about what to say to each other after that conversation, but they didn't have to. Being around each other's company was enough, It was all they needed at that moment.