Hello everyone! Here I am again! Sorry for the long wait, but I finally managed to get this chapter done. It didn't turn out exactly how I expected, but the next ones will be better, I promise. I hope it's still worth reading. Please review, your opinion is important.
Chapter 16: The Power of Friendship
Taichi, Sora and the rest of us watched with shock the Airdramon dropping Agumon and Piyomon next to the Kaiser.
"We have to do something!"
"We can't attack. They are too close to our enemy."
"Piyomon."
"Dammit." Yamato looked at Sora and then to Koushiro. "Isn't there anything we can do at all?"
"Our plan to invade his headquarter is pretty much destroyed now. I have to think of something else."
"Go fast."
"Hey! It's not easy when our partners can't evolve."
"If we destroy the black towers they can."
"But you know it won't be enough. Their levels will be different. They will be defeated in no time."
"You're right."
"Look!" I said. "He's about to use the dark spiral on them."
"No! Piyomon!" Sora ran towards the Kaiser.
"Come back here, Sora. It's dangerous."
"Don't you dare hurt her, you idiot!"
The boy burst into laughter. "You think you can offend me? You're going to have to try harder."
He whistled and a Tyrannomon appeared a few meters from Sora. She was seeing it, but somehow was unable to move.
"Sora! What are you doing?"
"He's going to attack you."
"Piyomon."
When the enemy Digimon was ready to attack Sora, Takeru jumped and took her out of the way.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." She sat down. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"What are you doing, Sora?" Mimi said angrily as we approached them. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"Mimi, calm down. I'm sure she knows that."
"How could you do such thing?"
"Mimi, give me a break. It's not Palmon who's over there, so you don't understand what I'm feeling."
"I'm sorry, I didn't…"
"Try being a little more understanding next time."
"I only said that because I was worried."
"You know what?" The tennis player stood up and made her out of the crowd. "Leave me alone."
"But…"
"I'll go talk to her."
"What are you doing here?" Sora asked as the blonde sat next to her. "I said leave me alone."
"Don't be so upset with Mimi. You know she meant well after all."
"It's the way she said it."
"I know she has her own unique way of saying things. Thought you'd be used to that by now."
"It's a lot to take in, Yamato." She buried her head on her hands. "A few hours ago I was landing in London."
"And now you're here."
"Yeah." She sighed. "Sometimes I don't think I can handle it."
"Of course you can." He put his hand on her shoulder. "You're stronger than you realize."
"Thank you." She looked at him and smiled. "How did you get so sweet?"
"It's part of my charm." He smirked.
"I'm serious." She playfully slapped his arm. "Thank you for being so caring with me."
"You're welcome. Of course I care about you. We're friends."
"Is that all we are? Friends?"
"Do you want us to be something else?" He looked intently into her eyes.
"I don't know."
"Cause I'd totally be up for it."
"I said I don't know!" Sora replied rather loudly. "Like you said, there's a lot on the table. We're close friends."
"Which increases our chances to make it last. We already know each other."
"I guess so."
"I'm not saying we should go ahead and get married. I'm saying we could give it a shot and see how it goes."
"If we don't work out, what will we do?"
"We'll have to try hard to get past it. But I would like to think we will work out."
"You're so optimistic it almost convinces me."
Yamato grabbed her face and made her look at him. "What is missing for that almost turn into a completely?"
"The one thing you're about to do." She closed her eyes and leaned in towards him for their long-awaited kiss.
It was sweet but yet passionate. It was amazing how well they fit together. It wasn't anything like her kiss with Koushiro. It was like… Yamato was the person she had been waiting for her whole life. And he was always so close to her. Love can appear in the most unexpected places. They broke away after some minutes and let their foreheads touch lightly.
"I can't believe we did this."
"It's true. It happened." He looked away for a minute. "So what now?"
"We'll have to talk about it later. Right now I just want to save Piyomon."
"Okay, so let's go."
"What took you guys so long?" Taichi asked as he saw both of his best friends coming back.
"We were just talking."
"Ahh you two are holding hands!"
"What are you talking about, Mimi?" Sora quickly took her hand away, with her face blushed.
"Are you together? Oh my god, you kissed!" The pink haired girl exclaimed.
"This is not the time, Mimi." I said. "We need to focus on getting Agumon and Piyomon back."
"We already destroyed the black tower and the Digimon are able to evolve. It's not much, but it's all we can do."
"Alright." Yamato grabbed his digivice. "Are you ready, Gabumon?"
"Always."
The four Champion-level Digimon weren't enough to beat the Kaiser's army and were defeated one by one.
"This is not good."
"Togemon, are you okay?"
"Not much, but I'll be fine."
A bright light appeared and we all had to cover our eyes to see what was happening, though we didn't need to.
"This can't be happening!"
"We were able to stop him earlier, but not this time."
"I never thought I'd see the day where I had to face a dark MetalGreymon."
"Me neither."
We all watched in shock as my brother's partner stood before us.
"Mimi, watch out!" Taichi yelled as MetalGreymon aimed its attack at her, but Togemon jumped in and received its power.
"Togemon! Oh my god!"
"I think we should hide, so we can create a plan."
"The Kaiser will take this world down if we do so. "
"Yeah, we can't let that happen."
"Hello, kids." A familiar voice echoed.
"Gennai!"
"We need your help. Isn't there a way to let our partners evolve to their mega levels to help bring Agumon and Piyomon back?"
"This is exactly why I contacted you." He took a long look at all of us. "Indeed, there is."
"That's awesome!"
"Well, what is it?"
A medium blue crystal ball appeared right in front of Koushiro and he immediately grabbed it.
"This ball contains the power from one of the Digital World's guardians. It should allow your Digimon to evolve despite the black towers."
"Great!"
"And how do we use it?"
"It works automatically. Just put it next to your partner and they will receive its power right away."
"Alright."
"Good luck, everyone. I hope you can do what you have to and save your friends."
"Thanks for your help, Gennai. We appreciate it."
"Okay, bye."
"He's so weird." Taichi said with his hands behind his neck. "I've known him for years and I still can't understand why he can't even say you're welcome."
"Taichi, this is not the time."
"Some people have more difficulty at certain things than others. It's understandable."
"We don't have time to waste. We need to hurry and stop the Kaiser."
"Let's go."
Koushiro put the crystal ball on the ground and our partners evolved to the next level. I could see everyone's apprehensive look on their faces as we waited for the artifact to work. I couldn't help but smile as the ball grew brighter.
"It's working!"
Soon the six mega-level Digimon were standing before us.
"Now I think we can fight this kid equally."
"Let's find him before he uses MetalGreymon to kill other Digimon."
"Uh…"
"What happened, Sora?"
"What if we can't remove the dark spiral? What if the only way to bring them back is by killing them?"
"We hope not to get this far."
"But it's a possibility, right?"
"Sora, dear… we shouldn't worry about this now. We'll fight them and see how it goes."
"I know. I know. I'm sorry. I'm just worried about her."
"We understand. But trust us, we'll bring her back."
"Alright." She put on a brave face. "Let's do it."
The dark spiral the Kaiser was holding fell to the floor and broke when Airdramon received AtlurKabuterimon's attack.
"You evolved! How is that possible?"
"You shouldn't underestimate our power."
"Let Agumon and Piyomon go."
"Never!" He shouted. "They are necessary for my plan."
"What plan? Are you trying to conquer this world?"
"How smart are you?" He said ironically. "You figured out my plan."
"What the hell are you thinking?" Takeru yelled. "Digimons aren't meant to be your slaves! They are beings with feelings."
"Feelings? What are you saying?"
"They have feelings. Did you really not know that?"
"Your partner over there." I motioned him with my head. "He loves you unconditionally. He'd give his life for you."
"What?" He looked down. "I deserve a better partner. I didn't choose him."
"Of course not. We don't choose them. They choose us."
"Why? Why did you choose me?" The Kaiser kicked his Digimon off Airdramon. "You'll never be good enough to be my partner."
"Did he really do that? That's so mean!"
"This guy is so rude."
"Ugh… someone needs to put him back to his place." Mimi closed her hand into a fist and then started running.
"Mimi, what are you doing?"
"He can't do that and think he won't be punished."
"Mimi, our partners will do that for us."
"Flower Cannon!"
Airdramon got away from Lilimon's attack and Agumon fell off him in the process.
"Agumon!" Taichi ran to his partner.
"Taichi, look out!"
"Are you ready?" He stood up and grabbed his digivice.
"Yes!"
"What are you doing with that?" Piyomon asked as she tried to escape a Bakemon. "Didn't you hear what they just told you?"
"Yes, but it doesn't matter to me. You can't have feelings on your own. You're made of data."
"It doesn't matter!" Mimi yelled. "Don't you see Piyomon is hurting? If she didn't have any feelings she wouldn't be."
"Let her go!" Sora ran to her. "Can't you see what you are doing here? You're causing pain!"
"Why would I release her?"
"Because she has done nothing to you. She can't pay for your stupidity."
"Oh, you're gonna pay for that." He whistled and another evil Digimon appeared near the girls.
Mimi ran back to where we were, but Sora stood still where she was.
"Sora! Not again!"
"Didn't you learn the first time?"
"I need to save Piyomon." She said as she looked over her shoulder and then looked back at the Kaiser. "You won't put that thing on her."
"What?!"
"If you were, you'd have done that by now. But you're hesitating. You were affected by what we said about the Digimon having feelings."
"No, I'm not!"
"We should take this opportunity to save Piyomon. The Kaiser is distracted, he won't even notice it."
"But how are we going to attack that Bakemon without hitting her?"
"From behind." Koushiro said. "She won't feel much if we attack that way. Takeru, do you think HolyAngemon can open a gate so the others can push him in?"
"Yes, absolutely."
"And when Piyomon gets free we can fully attack."
"Alright."
We started putting our plan into action immediately. Wormmon, the Kaiser's partner, must have figured out what was happening because he was the one who freed Piyomon.
"No!" The Kaiser kicked him when he realized what his partner had done. "Which side are you in?"
"It wasn't fair to her. She's innocent."
"You don't get to decide what is fair or who is innocent. You're useless! I don't need you!"
He kicked Wormmon once more and he fell from Airdramon.
"Oh my god!"
"Sora!"
"Piyomon!" Sora opened her arms widely and then hugged her Digimon tightly.
"I'm so sorry I worried you."
"It's okay. I'm glad he couldn't do anything to you."
"Me too."
"Well, it seems like everything is over."
"It looks like it."
"Hikari, come take a look." Angewomon called me and I ran to her.
"He doesn't look good."
"Is he going to be okay?"
"I don't know."
Before we knew, he vanished and his ashes flew to the city where Digimon are reborn.