I want to thank you all for reading this, and I was to give special thanks to Miaou5 for helping me write this chapter. This story was a lot of fun to write and I hope you enjoyed it. Now, without further interuption, I proudly present the conclusion to "The Ressurection War"
APOCALYMON: ARMAGEDDON
Last time Apocalymon got Davis and reunited with his old body. Taichi and Kari completed Datamon's download. I am whole again! I arrived at the battlefield just in time for Piedmon to give me his last words. The Digi-egg of Courage appeared and turned into the Crest of Courage. It then transformed into the eight crest, the one I call the Crest of Light. Angewomon digivovled to Holydramon. The Annihilation Wave is picking up speed and heading towards us. Now, the final battle is about to begin...
Kari grabbed onto Holydramon's horns. She watched the other Digidestined fly away. her eyes stared at Yolei until they were out of sight. "Sora," she thought, "Sora....I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you. I wanted nothing more that to be with you forever.....but, we can't now. I had to do this. I love you, Sora, and I always will."
She then closed her heart. Her mind needed to be focused on the task at hand. She turned to the evil Digimon floating in the sky in front of her. Holydramon tilted her head upwards to look at Apocalymon. Kari held tight onto her Digimon's horns to keep from falling backwards.
The reborn Tai Kamiya stared up at the giant Mega in the sky in front of her. "You...you delight in hurt and pain. You relish in death and destruction. Life is nothing more that something to be thrown out and discarded. How many have died at your hands? How many deaths have you caused? Well, this time it will be your death!"
Apocalymon laughed. "We'll have to see about that. Many have tried, but they all died." He started laughing. "Speaking of which, you are stupid! Stupid for blowing your second chance at life. Even if, through some divine miracle, you were able to defeat me, you still have to escape before the Annihilation Wave destroys the Digital World...Ah! Here it comes now."
Holydramon turned her head so she and Kari could see to the right. They could see over the mountain range. It seemed like a bright explosion. The light cast a dark shadow at the mountain's base seconds before it was ripped apart. The mountain crumbled into dust that littered the ground. That soon swallowed by a river of lava. As soon as the lava ran underneath them, the sky began to storm.
Holydramon turned to the left. The wave continued to destroy everything in its path.
"Well," Apocalymon ask, as the thunder and lightning boomed and cracked in the background,"Shall we get started?"
"Davis!" Kari suddenly said,"Where's Davis?"
Apocalymon started to laugh,"I'm afraid that the one you call 'Davis' is gone. When Anteiramon regressed him to his Digi-egg, his 'soul' if you will, went on to a higher plane. Davis is gone."
Kari half smiled. "Then there is no reason for us to handle you gently. Holydramon, lets go and don't worry, you can take him!" The Crest of Light shown a bit brighter around her chest.
Holydramon shot forward. Apocalymon blasted his eight claws at them. The dragon Digimon dodged one claw, but another zoomed to claim her. Kari hold on tight as her Digimon zoomed up to avoid it. As her Digimon weaved her way thought the claws, Kari shouted,"Its payback time, Apocalymon, for twenty-four years of blood and death!"
One of Apocalymon' s claws struck Holydramon in the middle of her long body. She fell to the lava below, but luckily, she landed on one of the remaining islands. Kari held on tightly as her Digimon landed on her stomach. "Get up!" Kari said.
Holydramon quickly flew up into the air. She continued her frontal assault to get to Apocalymon's vulnerable torso while the Apocalypse continued around them.
The rest of the Digidestined were flying as fast as they could through the sky. "We're almost there," Cody said, looking at his laptop,"The signal from the Digital Gate is right ahead."
The other Digidestined who were riding on Aquillamon with him nodded.
"Good," Michael said, glancing to the person next to him. Jun was still crying her eyes out. He reached over and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Jun, I-I'm sorry for your brother."
Jun didn't say anything. She just leaned over and started to cry on Michael's shoulder.
Yolei glanced over her shoulder and saw the two of them. Her eyes started to water. T.K. observed this. He wanted to reach over and comfort her, but he hesitated.
"There's the gate!" Ken shouted from on Exveemon's back.
"Let's go home," Willis said.
"But..."Yolei said,"What about Tai? We can't just leave..."
"Yolei," T.K. said, placing his hand on her shoulder,"We both know that....Tai..can take care of his-herself." He was hesitant to call Kari by her real name, but he knew it would calm the crying Yolei."
"Okay," Yolei said, reluctantly.
The last remaining Digital Gate was a large television set sitting on a small hill in a grassy plain. The Digidestined held out their Digivices and the television screen lit up. Right before Yolei directed Aquillamon into the gate, she looked at the area they had just come from. "Tai," she thought to herself,"You have to win. I need you to come home."
Holydramon dodged another claw. She swam through the air, narrowly missing the grasp of another.
"Enough," Apocalymon said,"Fight me!"
Holydramon got tired of doing nothing but defending and running. She charged Apocalymon. He blasted her down with one of his claws.
"Okay," Kari said,"We can't get close to him as long as he has those claws. We need to get rid of them first."
"Gotcha," Holydramon said, rising into the air. The dragon Digimon floated into the sky and crouched, ready to attack.
Apocalymon didn't waste any time. He started his assault again, mercilessly attacking with his claws. He shot one of them towards Kari and Holydramon. The duo continued on their path towards Apocalymon. Holydramon waited until the claw was a few feet in front of her, then she pulled up quickly and with a flick of her tail, she sent the claw flying back at Apocalymon.
"Ah!" he cried in surprised, instinctively blasting the claw away with a red energy ball from his hand.
"Ha!" Kari laughed.
Apocalymon growled. "You may have one claw down, but I still have seven left!" He shot two more claws at them. One shooting from the right, and the other from the left. Holydramon soared into the air and both of the claws blasted into each other.
"Damn!" Apocalymon shouted as two more of this claws were destroyed,"How can you be so fast?"
"Three down," Kari said,"Five to go."
Apocalymon wasn't going to give them time to formulate an attack. He quickly shot them forward, all of them except one of his claws were fired. Holydramon dodged one and grabbed another with her tail. She brought that one around and into another one destroying those two. A third claw was heading towards her. She grabbed it with her teeth and smashed the fourth one with her tail, then crushed the one in her mouth.
Holydramon and Kari them turned to Apocalymon. "Do you want to try with the last claw?"
Apocalymon growled. "Can I ask you a question, Tai?"
"What?" Kari asked, her over shirt flowing in the back from the wind of the storm.
"What is the point of continuing this battle?" he asked, crossing his arms,"Why do you insist on fighting? The Digital World will blow up in less then two hours. Why die just to defeat me?"
"Because," she said, holding tightly onto Holydramon's horns, "This is destiny! It was meant to happen! We were meant to battle each other."
Apocalymon started laughing,"This is not destiny, it was Datamon's manipulations."
"Right," Kari said,"Whether it was divine intervention or mortal emotions, we were meant to battle! It is destiny!"
She looked down to her chest and saw the bright object around her neck. "and I am now equipped with this Supreme Crest. You have no chance against us!"
"You know what?" Apocalymon said,"I just realized something. That crest is the same crest that Piedmon sent Myotismon to earth to find."
Kari smiled. "Yes. He heard the rumor and assumed it was an Eight Child, but, Myotismon never found one. The Crest of Light is mine!"
"Indeed," Apocalymon said,"Had I know that your crest, the Crest of Courage, could transform into the Supreme Crest, I would have had my servant Etemon destroy the crests, instead of trying to destroy you."
"He failed," Kari said, slightly smiling,"Just like Devimon did. You servants were nothing compared to the Dark Masters!"
"Well," Apocalymon said, holding out his arms,"Let's continue this, shall we?" He put his hands together and fired a massive beam of energy from his palms, down the sky where Holydramon was floating.
The reborn Tai's Digimon opened her mouth and shot a massive beam of fire. The two energy attacks hit each other in a maelstrom of energy. The energy caused a storm of wind that sent streams of lava into the air. "Don't give up," Kari told Holydramon,"Keep pouring it on!"
"How's it going down there?" Agumon asked.
"Holydramon and Apocalymon are currently engaged in a energy battle," Jijimon said, leaning on his staff,"They are so far holding their own."
Agumon sighed. "Tai," he thought,"You need to survive. The entire Digital World is counting on you. If you don't stop him now, this world will be reformatted to suit Apocalymon's vision. All the reconfigured Digi-eggs will be his slaves. You have to stop him!"
The two heard a cough. Turning around they saw Genai walking down the hall. "Um, the Annihilation Wave is here."
The two nodded and followed Genai to the balcony of the tower. They watched the bright light of the wave stream over the desert. "Did you e-mail the Digidestined?" Jijimon asked.
Genai nodded. "Yes, they will know the fate of the three of us."
"Not that it matters now," Agumon said,"But did you find out why the three of us won't be reconfigured?"
"Well," Genai said,"I am not a Digimon, so I knew all along that I would not be coming back. As for the two of you, well, I'm sorry. All I know is that the for some reason, your programs have been removed from the original configuration. I'm sorry."
"Well," Jijimon said, as the Annihilation Wave head towards them,"At least I have died at the end of the world."
Agumon smiled,"Goodbye Tai."
The wave passed under the tower, crumbling the foundation and sending the temple into the sea of lava beneath it.
The two beams that were fighting for control at the critical point in the battle were creating a whirlwind of energy that aggravated the storm in the blackened sky. Apocalymon growled and made his red beam stronger, bringing the end of the beam closer to Holydramon. The dragon Digimon breathed her fire stronger, sending the clashing point closer to Apocalymon.
"I'm not going to lose, hear me?!" Apocalymon yelled. He shouted making his beam even bigger and stronger.
"This is it!" Kari said, gripping tighter on Holydramon's horns, "Go!"
Holydramon poured even more fire out. The end of both beams, the clashing point of this battle, was a mixture of yellow and red. Orange light was streaming from all sides of the clash.
Apocalymon screamed. His beam quickly shot in size, overpowering Holydramon's flames. "Oh no!" Kari said,"Get out of the way!"
Holydramon stopped her fire breath and went to move, but Apocalymon's beam, augmented with her own rebounding flame, hit her in the stomach and sent both Kari and Holydramon crashing into the small island.
Kari lost her grip and fell to the rocks, hitting the back on her head. Her eyes closed and the Crest of Light faded. Holydramon was covered by white light and regressed to Salamon.
"Oh no," Cody said, looking at the computer screen.
After having returned to earth, the Digidestined set up the computer lab computers so they could keep track of the battle happening in the Digital World.
"What is it?" Yolei asked, hystericly,"Its...its Tai isn't. Something's happen to her!"
Cody looked down. "She was doing well, very well. With her new Crest of Light, she could have beaten Apocalymon, but, he overpowered Holydramon before she could use it. Its...its over. I'm sorry, Yolei."
Yolei started crying loudly. T.K. came over. He placed his hand around her shoulder. "Yolei, I'm sorry. I knew how much she meant to you."
Yolei started crying onto his shoulder. "What am I going to do?" she sobbed,"No one will ever love me like that again. Tai, oh Tai!"
Michael clenched his fists. "Kari, no," he said,"Tai!"
Tai's eyes slowly opened. "Where am I? Its so dark...Hey! I'm..I'm my male self again, but, why?" He looked around and noticed that he was floating in a dark void. He looked down and saw a small circle in the darkness where he could see his female body lying, lifeless.
"Oh no!" he thought,"I've been separated from my body! Is that why I'm not Kari anymore, because, this is my spirit, and I'm on my way to the afterlife...but, that means I'm...I'm dead."
"Are you just going to give up?"
Tai turned and saw a familiar figure floating towards him. "Piedmon?" he asked.
"Is that all you have?" Piedmon asked," Are you just going to give up? You can't!"
"But...but Piedmon," he said, sadly,"I've lost. I've let everyone down."
"Listen to me," Piedmon said,"Apocalymon is the worst evil ever visited upon the Digital World. He appeared out of nowhere and started a chain of horror and death across the Digital World. He was looking for something, searching for something."
"What?" Tai asked.
"The power of good," Piedmon said,"the power of right, the power of light. He was looking for the ones that could destroy him. He was afraid that someone with the power of light would be born some day, a Digimon that was the strongest of all! You must destroy him, and avenge all those he has killed. You have the power within! Destroy him!"
Kari's eyes shot open. She saw Apocalymon headed towards them. "Salamon!" she cried, getting to her feet, the Crest of Light started glowing around her neck "Digivolve to Mega, hurry!"
The small body of Salamon was emersed in light. She quickly grew to a slightly larger cat, then to the body of a woman with wings, then a giant dragon. Kari once again jumped onto Holydramon's head. She grabbed the horns on both sides of her head with her hands. The crest glowed even brighter. Holydramon and Kari soared into the air, passing Apocalymon in a blur.
He turned around. The duo was floating in the air higher then them. "This has gone on long enough!" Kari said,"Let's end this now!"
"Kari!" Cody said,"She's..she's back!"
"What?" Yolei asked,"Tai's still alive?"
Cody nodded, looking at the computer code on the screen. "Yeah, I just started receiving Holydramon's Digital Signal again...Kari's back in action."
"Yes!" Terriermon said,"Holydramon will kick that guy's butt!"
"But," Cody said,"Unless they hurry and make it to the last Digital Gate, the Annihilation Wave will reach it first. If the wave destroys the ground, the television set will be destroyed in the lava. The two of them will no doubt survive the explosion, but, when the Digital World reconfigures, they will be seen as viruses and destroyed."
"No," Yolei said,"Tai, hurry home, please."
Apocalymon clenched his fists. "So, you're still alive, huh? Well no matter!"
Kari didn't say anything to him. The crest around her neck glowed even brighter than before. "Holydramon, let's finish this!"
"Right," her Digimon said,"Now, hold on tight." Holydramon flew forward, aiming straight at Apocalymon's lower cube body. Kari's knuckles were white as she held onto Holydramon's horns. A light shield appeared in front of Holydramon. The dragon Digimon plowed through Apocalymon's cube body. He held in pain as Holydramon and Kari emerged on the other side.
Apocalymon yelled in pain as the lower portion of his body dissolved away, all that was left of him was his torso. He floated in the air glaring at Holydramon and Kari. He put his hands together. "You are finished now! Do you hear me! I am going to kill you!" He, once again, fired his massive red beam at them. This one was bigger than anything he created before. Every bit of his energy was in this beam.
Kari closed her eyes and turned her head. Her crest started to shine. "They say the eyes are the windows to the soul," she then turned to Apocalymon and opened her eyes wide,"So, Apocalymon, take a good look at mine!"
The light streaming from her eyes lit up the darkened sky. Apocalymon adverted his eyes. There was so much light, he could hardly see. He did, however, see Holydramon open her mouth and say,"Holy Flame!"
A massive amount of fire emerged from her mouth. The two attacks hit each other, once again, but this time, Holydramon's fire easily overpowered Apocalymon's red blast. His red beam dissolved as the flames came closer to him.
"Ahhh!" he yelled out as the flames overcame him. As the fires burned his Digital flesh away, he glared at Holydramon and Kari once last time before he vanished. Gone, forever.
Holydramon stopped her attack, and Kari looked at the disappearing smoke. Her face showed no emotion as Holydramon turned around and flew off.
Cody started blankly at the screen. "I..I don't believe it..."
"Its..its Tai, isn't it?" Yolei asked, lifting her head from where it was resting on T.K.'s shoulder,"Apocalymon killed her for real, this time."
Cody didn't say anything.
"Please," Yolei said,"I..I can handle it. She's dead, isn't she?"
"The fight is over," Cody said,"I'm only receiving one Digital Signal. Apocalymon is dead."
"What?" Ken asked.
"Holydramon beat him!" Veemon cried, louldly,"Yes!"
"But it won't matter if she and Kari can't get to the gate before the Digital World explodes," Ken said.
The room fell silent. "Tai," T.K. said,"You are willing to die, to make sure that Apocalymon doesn't win. You gave up your own life, so that others would be free. You're always like that."
Yolei started crying again. "Tai...."
"Well," Kari said, looking at the ground,"We just overcame the Annihilation Wave." She looked at the ground and saw the red sea of lava, then the light of the wave, then the grassy area of the grass plain.
"And there's the Digital Gate," Holydramon said. The t.v. was right where the other Digidestined had left it, on a small hill in a grass plain.
"But we have trouble," Holydramon said, looking down,"The fissures are over taking the wave. They're going to reach the t.v. and if they do that, the gate will fall into the fault line. We'll be stuck here!"
"As long as the lava doesn't reach it, we're fine," Kari said,"Just move faster!"
The fissure line streamed across the ground, right under the t.v. When the ground began to fall into the fault, the t.v. fell with it. "Get down there now!" Kari commanded. Holydramon flew through the giant hole and into the fissure.
"We're never going to make it!" Holydramon said.
"We are going to make it," Kari said,"Never say die!"
Holydramon picked up speed towards the falling t.v. "Almost most there..." Kari said, holding out her Digivice.
All around them, the the Digital World started to rumbled. "The Digital World's exploding!" Holydramon shouted.
"Focus on the gate!" Kari said. She kept her eyes on the gate,"We're almost home....."
The lava fell into the fissure, and the Digital World detonated. The entire planet was destroyed. Silence, was the only thing that remained.
Three days later......
The music wasn't blasting loudly, threatening to bring down the walls around the speakers. It was slowly and quiet. The light wasn't blinking rapidly from a strobe light, it was, instead, moving slowly from the ball chandelier the was attached in the middle of the ceiling. It wasn't a rock concert, it was a formal dance.
This was a new thing for Kari. She had never been to one before, not as Kari, and definitely not as Tai.
She sat in her chair, her hands resting on her lap. She scanned all the others that were also seated. She suddenly didn't feel so weird, there were lots of people sitting and watching the dancers. Most of the other Digidestined were sitting there, Michael, Cody, Ken, and Willis was there. Kari then turned to the dance floor. Her eyes rested on Yolei and T.K. They were dancing together. Yolei was his date.
Kari couldn't sort out her feelings. Peel away the physical body, and she was Tai. Peel away the physical body, and Yolei was Sora. And Sora and Tai were destined to be together, so why was Tai now a girl, and Sora was with T.K.?
Kari turned her head away from them. Every time she looked at Yolei and T.K. together, she felt her heart start to break. She wanted to be with Sora, but the two of them were now the same gender, she couldn't. Yolei wasn't gay, and Kari wasn't either.
Kari decided to look around the people sitting again. She saw Jun at the far side of the ball room. She was actually smiling. When Kari looked at Jun, her problems were nothing. Davis was gone. Jun had lost her younger brother. Kari could only imagine how Jun felt. She had never lost anyone in her family.
That wasn't entirely true. She had lost her first Digimon. Agumon was dead, and he would not be coming back. Cody had found that Genai had sent them an e-mail before the Annihilation Wave had destroyed the Holy Tower. He explained that Agumon, Jijimon, and Genai would not be reconfigured. The three people that Kari had depended on so much were now gone. Without Genai, Kari would have to be the taskmaster of the Digidestined. Not a job she was looking forward to.
She looked down to her outfit. She smiled slightly at the sleeveless pink dress that she was wearing. At least she picked out this dress before she found the Crest of Courage and her memories of Tai had awakened, or she might have come here in jeans.
She found herself looking at Yolei once again. "Stop it!" she told herself,"I'm not a guy anymore." She was a girl now, and she would have to accept it.
But being a girl wasn't all that bad. Okay, so there were more things going
against than for her at the time. But she would get over it. And there was always the plus of wearing a skirt. She had already been praised more times than she cared to remember for the very dress she was now wearing. And, she thought sheepishly, those compliments weren't just empty words. She did look startlingly pretty, for the reborn Tai. Though Yolei looked gorgeous too...Kari shook the thought out of her mind.
She was Kari now, not Tai. And Kari was a girl. 100%. Of course, there would
always be a part of her that loved Sora and embraced being Tai. But for now, she had a life to live--as a woman. And there were undoubtedly advantages to being a female. She wouldn't have to keep up false bravado when there wasn't any left. Like Tai. She could show what she felt, show fear, even cry without being scorned by the rest of her sex. And she wouldn't be forced to protect when she felt like being protected herself. There had been times when...when she was scared. When she would've gladly turned high tail and left. But she had been Taichi back then. He had been bent on sacrificing his life, if
necessary, for the rest of the team. But now that she was Kari, the feeling...well, it hadn't lessened, of course. But it had been modified, and made more feminine. She couldn't really explain it. But those feelings had changed, all right...
And, as her eyes followed Yolei around the room, they settled on T.K. He had
grown up so much since the war began. Sure, he was pretty mature before, but now...he was so different. So much more collected, stronger, even...Kari blinked. Hotter? She grinned. Yeah, there were definite advantages to being a girl. You could check out guys, for one. Especially if they looked like...well, T.K.
No, she thought, shaking that thought out of her head as well. Though her physical being was a girl, her spirit was still Tai. And T.K. was really Matt, and being with Matt on an intimate level brought chills down her spine.
She sighed and lightly grasped the fabric of her skirt. She couldn't be with a girl, because she was a girl, and she couldn't be with a guy, because her true male self was repulsed at the idea. While she was sure that that would fade, for the moment, she was alone.
She noticed that the song started to change. She looked up. She heard the music and watched Yolei and T.K. dance. When she did, she saw Davis's smile, and felt the guilt he must have felt about making Jun cry. As she listened to the music she heard Piedmon's laughter, not the malicious, crazed laughter of the ruler of Spiral Mountain, but the calm laughter of the warrior who died against Apocalymon. She heard the laughter and realized for the first time how Piedmon repressed his urges to fight on the side of good.
She heard the music, and saw Agumon's smile, she listen to the music and heard Jijimon's wisdom, and Genai's knowledge. She heard the music and saw them all. She smiled, and felt the tears well up behind her eyes. Then the music faded, but her memories of them didn't.
She got up and grabbed her purse. She walked out of the ballroom, not even looking back when Michael called out her name.
She walked to the spot where Jijimon's Holy Tower once stood. The Digital World had reconfigured itself, just as Cody had said it would, except for Agumon, Jijimon, and Genai, as well as Piedmon and Davis.
Kari knelt down in front of the shrine she was building. She had already placed Piedmon's sword into the ground, blade down, standing it up straight. She them placed Davis's goggles around the hilt of the sword, letting it dangle. She then took out her old Digivice, the one that the part of her had as Taichi, the one that connected to Agumon. She had put a string around it, intending to wear it as a pendant. She now put it around the hilt as well.
The only thing she had that she could use as a memorial of Jijimon and Genai was Jijimon's staff, and the helmet that was part of Genai's machine that fused Kari and Taichi together. She rest Jijimon's staff against the sword, and put the helmet on top of the sword hilt.
She stood up and looked at them. "Piedmon, Davis, Agumon, Jijimon, Genai. Thank you, thank you for everything you've done. I will always miss you."
She then turned around and walked into the sunset.
When she was on earth, she started wandering, and found herself at Yolei's apartment. She had intended to go in and tell Yolei exactly how she was feeling, but, just as she was about to, she saw T.K.'s shadow pass in front of the closed window. Her hopes started to fall apart.
She smiled slightly. "I hope he makes you happy, Sora. And, while we can never be together, I still love you, and I always will."
She turned around and started walking home.
THE END.
Thanks again to Miaou5 for helping me write this chapter. She wrote Kari's little speech about being a girl. So give her credit for that. To all you readers, thank you for reading this. I really enjoyed it.
iiii
APOCALYMON: ARMAGEDDON
Last time Apocalymon got Davis and reunited with his old body. Taichi and Kari completed Datamon's download. I am whole again! I arrived at the battlefield just in time for Piedmon to give me his last words. The Digi-egg of Courage appeared and turned into the Crest of Courage. It then transformed into the eight crest, the one I call the Crest of Light. Angewomon digivovled to Holydramon. The Annihilation Wave is picking up speed and heading towards us. Now, the final battle is about to begin...
Kari grabbed onto Holydramon's horns. She watched the other Digidestined fly away. her eyes stared at Yolei until they were out of sight. "Sora," she thought, "Sora....I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you. I wanted nothing more that to be with you forever.....but, we can't now. I had to do this. I love you, Sora, and I always will."
She then closed her heart. Her mind needed to be focused on the task at hand. She turned to the evil Digimon floating in the sky in front of her. Holydramon tilted her head upwards to look at Apocalymon. Kari held tight onto her Digimon's horns to keep from falling backwards.
The reborn Tai Kamiya stared up at the giant Mega in the sky in front of her. "You...you delight in hurt and pain. You relish in death and destruction. Life is nothing more that something to be thrown out and discarded. How many have died at your hands? How many deaths have you caused? Well, this time it will be your death!"
Apocalymon laughed. "We'll have to see about that. Many have tried, but they all died." He started laughing. "Speaking of which, you are stupid! Stupid for blowing your second chance at life. Even if, through some divine miracle, you were able to defeat me, you still have to escape before the Annihilation Wave destroys the Digital World...Ah! Here it comes now."
Holydramon turned her head so she and Kari could see to the right. They could see over the mountain range. It seemed like a bright explosion. The light cast a dark shadow at the mountain's base seconds before it was ripped apart. The mountain crumbled into dust that littered the ground. That soon swallowed by a river of lava. As soon as the lava ran underneath them, the sky began to storm.
Holydramon turned to the left. The wave continued to destroy everything in its path.
"Well," Apocalymon ask, as the thunder and lightning boomed and cracked in the background,"Shall we get started?"
"Davis!" Kari suddenly said,"Where's Davis?"
Apocalymon started to laugh,"I'm afraid that the one you call 'Davis' is gone. When Anteiramon regressed him to his Digi-egg, his 'soul' if you will, went on to a higher plane. Davis is gone."
Kari half smiled. "Then there is no reason for us to handle you gently. Holydramon, lets go and don't worry, you can take him!" The Crest of Light shown a bit brighter around her chest.
Holydramon shot forward. Apocalymon blasted his eight claws at them. The dragon Digimon dodged one claw, but another zoomed to claim her. Kari hold on tight as her Digimon zoomed up to avoid it. As her Digimon weaved her way thought the claws, Kari shouted,"Its payback time, Apocalymon, for twenty-four years of blood and death!"
One of Apocalymon' s claws struck Holydramon in the middle of her long body. She fell to the lava below, but luckily, she landed on one of the remaining islands. Kari held on tightly as her Digimon landed on her stomach. "Get up!" Kari said.
Holydramon quickly flew up into the air. She continued her frontal assault to get to Apocalymon's vulnerable torso while the Apocalypse continued around them.
The rest of the Digidestined were flying as fast as they could through the sky. "We're almost there," Cody said, looking at his laptop,"The signal from the Digital Gate is right ahead."
The other Digidestined who were riding on Aquillamon with him nodded.
"Good," Michael said, glancing to the person next to him. Jun was still crying her eyes out. He reached over and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Jun, I-I'm sorry for your brother."
Jun didn't say anything. She just leaned over and started to cry on Michael's shoulder.
Yolei glanced over her shoulder and saw the two of them. Her eyes started to water. T.K. observed this. He wanted to reach over and comfort her, but he hesitated.
"There's the gate!" Ken shouted from on Exveemon's back.
"Let's go home," Willis said.
"But..."Yolei said,"What about Tai? We can't just leave..."
"Yolei," T.K. said, placing his hand on her shoulder,"We both know that....Tai..can take care of his-herself." He was hesitant to call Kari by her real name, but he knew it would calm the crying Yolei."
"Okay," Yolei said, reluctantly.
The last remaining Digital Gate was a large television set sitting on a small hill in a grassy plain. The Digidestined held out their Digivices and the television screen lit up. Right before Yolei directed Aquillamon into the gate, she looked at the area they had just come from. "Tai," she thought to herself,"You have to win. I need you to come home."
Holydramon dodged another claw. She swam through the air, narrowly missing the grasp of another.
"Enough," Apocalymon said,"Fight me!"
Holydramon got tired of doing nothing but defending and running. She charged Apocalymon. He blasted her down with one of his claws.
"Okay," Kari said,"We can't get close to him as long as he has those claws. We need to get rid of them first."
"Gotcha," Holydramon said, rising into the air. The dragon Digimon floated into the sky and crouched, ready to attack.
Apocalymon didn't waste any time. He started his assault again, mercilessly attacking with his claws. He shot one of them towards Kari and Holydramon. The duo continued on their path towards Apocalymon. Holydramon waited until the claw was a few feet in front of her, then she pulled up quickly and with a flick of her tail, she sent the claw flying back at Apocalymon.
"Ah!" he cried in surprised, instinctively blasting the claw away with a red energy ball from his hand.
"Ha!" Kari laughed.
Apocalymon growled. "You may have one claw down, but I still have seven left!" He shot two more claws at them. One shooting from the right, and the other from the left. Holydramon soared into the air and both of the claws blasted into each other.
"Damn!" Apocalymon shouted as two more of this claws were destroyed,"How can you be so fast?"
"Three down," Kari said,"Five to go."
Apocalymon wasn't going to give them time to formulate an attack. He quickly shot them forward, all of them except one of his claws were fired. Holydramon dodged one and grabbed another with her tail. She brought that one around and into another one destroying those two. A third claw was heading towards her. She grabbed it with her teeth and smashed the fourth one with her tail, then crushed the one in her mouth.
Holydramon and Kari them turned to Apocalymon. "Do you want to try with the last claw?"
Apocalymon growled. "Can I ask you a question, Tai?"
"What?" Kari asked, her over shirt flowing in the back from the wind of the storm.
"What is the point of continuing this battle?" he asked, crossing his arms,"Why do you insist on fighting? The Digital World will blow up in less then two hours. Why die just to defeat me?"
"Because," she said, holding tightly onto Holydramon's horns, "This is destiny! It was meant to happen! We were meant to battle each other."
Apocalymon started laughing,"This is not destiny, it was Datamon's manipulations."
"Right," Kari said,"Whether it was divine intervention or mortal emotions, we were meant to battle! It is destiny!"
She looked down to her chest and saw the bright object around her neck. "and I am now equipped with this Supreme Crest. You have no chance against us!"
"You know what?" Apocalymon said,"I just realized something. That crest is the same crest that Piedmon sent Myotismon to earth to find."
Kari smiled. "Yes. He heard the rumor and assumed it was an Eight Child, but, Myotismon never found one. The Crest of Light is mine!"
"Indeed," Apocalymon said,"Had I know that your crest, the Crest of Courage, could transform into the Supreme Crest, I would have had my servant Etemon destroy the crests, instead of trying to destroy you."
"He failed," Kari said, slightly smiling,"Just like Devimon did. You servants were nothing compared to the Dark Masters!"
"Well," Apocalymon said, holding out his arms,"Let's continue this, shall we?" He put his hands together and fired a massive beam of energy from his palms, down the sky where Holydramon was floating.
The reborn Tai's Digimon opened her mouth and shot a massive beam of fire. The two energy attacks hit each other in a maelstrom of energy. The energy caused a storm of wind that sent streams of lava into the air. "Don't give up," Kari told Holydramon,"Keep pouring it on!"
"How's it going down there?" Agumon asked.
"Holydramon and Apocalymon are currently engaged in a energy battle," Jijimon said, leaning on his staff,"They are so far holding their own."
Agumon sighed. "Tai," he thought,"You need to survive. The entire Digital World is counting on you. If you don't stop him now, this world will be reformatted to suit Apocalymon's vision. All the reconfigured Digi-eggs will be his slaves. You have to stop him!"
The two heard a cough. Turning around they saw Genai walking down the hall. "Um, the Annihilation Wave is here."
The two nodded and followed Genai to the balcony of the tower. They watched the bright light of the wave stream over the desert. "Did you e-mail the Digidestined?" Jijimon asked.
Genai nodded. "Yes, they will know the fate of the three of us."
"Not that it matters now," Agumon said,"But did you find out why the three of us won't be reconfigured?"
"Well," Genai said,"I am not a Digimon, so I knew all along that I would not be coming back. As for the two of you, well, I'm sorry. All I know is that the for some reason, your programs have been removed from the original configuration. I'm sorry."
"Well," Jijimon said, as the Annihilation Wave head towards them,"At least I have died at the end of the world."
Agumon smiled,"Goodbye Tai."
The wave passed under the tower, crumbling the foundation and sending the temple into the sea of lava beneath it.
The two beams that were fighting for control at the critical point in the battle were creating a whirlwind of energy that aggravated the storm in the blackened sky. Apocalymon growled and made his red beam stronger, bringing the end of the beam closer to Holydramon. The dragon Digimon breathed her fire stronger, sending the clashing point closer to Apocalymon.
"I'm not going to lose, hear me?!" Apocalymon yelled. He shouted making his beam even bigger and stronger.
"This is it!" Kari said, gripping tighter on Holydramon's horns, "Go!"
Holydramon poured even more fire out. The end of both beams, the clashing point of this battle, was a mixture of yellow and red. Orange light was streaming from all sides of the clash.
Apocalymon screamed. His beam quickly shot in size, overpowering Holydramon's flames. "Oh no!" Kari said,"Get out of the way!"
Holydramon stopped her fire breath and went to move, but Apocalymon's beam, augmented with her own rebounding flame, hit her in the stomach and sent both Kari and Holydramon crashing into the small island.
Kari lost her grip and fell to the rocks, hitting the back on her head. Her eyes closed and the Crest of Light faded. Holydramon was covered by white light and regressed to Salamon.
"Oh no," Cody said, looking at the computer screen.
After having returned to earth, the Digidestined set up the computer lab computers so they could keep track of the battle happening in the Digital World.
"What is it?" Yolei asked, hystericly,"Its...its Tai isn't. Something's happen to her!"
Cody looked down. "She was doing well, very well. With her new Crest of Light, she could have beaten Apocalymon, but, he overpowered Holydramon before she could use it. Its...its over. I'm sorry, Yolei."
Yolei started crying loudly. T.K. came over. He placed his hand around her shoulder. "Yolei, I'm sorry. I knew how much she meant to you."
Yolei started crying onto his shoulder. "What am I going to do?" she sobbed,"No one will ever love me like that again. Tai, oh Tai!"
Michael clenched his fists. "Kari, no," he said,"Tai!"
Tai's eyes slowly opened. "Where am I? Its so dark...Hey! I'm..I'm my male self again, but, why?" He looked around and noticed that he was floating in a dark void. He looked down and saw a small circle in the darkness where he could see his female body lying, lifeless.
"Oh no!" he thought,"I've been separated from my body! Is that why I'm not Kari anymore, because, this is my spirit, and I'm on my way to the afterlife...but, that means I'm...I'm dead."
"Are you just going to give up?"
Tai turned and saw a familiar figure floating towards him. "Piedmon?" he asked.
"Is that all you have?" Piedmon asked," Are you just going to give up? You can't!"
"But...but Piedmon," he said, sadly,"I've lost. I've let everyone down."
"Listen to me," Piedmon said,"Apocalymon is the worst evil ever visited upon the Digital World. He appeared out of nowhere and started a chain of horror and death across the Digital World. He was looking for something, searching for something."
"What?" Tai asked.
"The power of good," Piedmon said,"the power of right, the power of light. He was looking for the ones that could destroy him. He was afraid that someone with the power of light would be born some day, a Digimon that was the strongest of all! You must destroy him, and avenge all those he has killed. You have the power within! Destroy him!"
Kari's eyes shot open. She saw Apocalymon headed towards them. "Salamon!" she cried, getting to her feet, the Crest of Light started glowing around her neck "Digivolve to Mega, hurry!"
The small body of Salamon was emersed in light. She quickly grew to a slightly larger cat, then to the body of a woman with wings, then a giant dragon. Kari once again jumped onto Holydramon's head. She grabbed the horns on both sides of her head with her hands. The crest glowed even brighter. Holydramon and Kari soared into the air, passing Apocalymon in a blur.
He turned around. The duo was floating in the air higher then them. "This has gone on long enough!" Kari said,"Let's end this now!"
"Kari!" Cody said,"She's..she's back!"
"What?" Yolei asked,"Tai's still alive?"
Cody nodded, looking at the computer code on the screen. "Yeah, I just started receiving Holydramon's Digital Signal again...Kari's back in action."
"Yes!" Terriermon said,"Holydramon will kick that guy's butt!"
"But," Cody said,"Unless they hurry and make it to the last Digital Gate, the Annihilation Wave will reach it first. If the wave destroys the ground, the television set will be destroyed in the lava. The two of them will no doubt survive the explosion, but, when the Digital World reconfigures, they will be seen as viruses and destroyed."
"No," Yolei said,"Tai, hurry home, please."
Apocalymon clenched his fists. "So, you're still alive, huh? Well no matter!"
Kari didn't say anything to him. The crest around her neck glowed even brighter than before. "Holydramon, let's finish this!"
"Right," her Digimon said,"Now, hold on tight." Holydramon flew forward, aiming straight at Apocalymon's lower cube body. Kari's knuckles were white as she held onto Holydramon's horns. A light shield appeared in front of Holydramon. The dragon Digimon plowed through Apocalymon's cube body. He held in pain as Holydramon and Kari emerged on the other side.
Apocalymon yelled in pain as the lower portion of his body dissolved away, all that was left of him was his torso. He floated in the air glaring at Holydramon and Kari. He put his hands together. "You are finished now! Do you hear me! I am going to kill you!" He, once again, fired his massive red beam at them. This one was bigger than anything he created before. Every bit of his energy was in this beam.
Kari closed her eyes and turned her head. Her crest started to shine. "They say the eyes are the windows to the soul," she then turned to Apocalymon and opened her eyes wide,"So, Apocalymon, take a good look at mine!"
The light streaming from her eyes lit up the darkened sky. Apocalymon adverted his eyes. There was so much light, he could hardly see. He did, however, see Holydramon open her mouth and say,"Holy Flame!"
A massive amount of fire emerged from her mouth. The two attacks hit each other, once again, but this time, Holydramon's fire easily overpowered Apocalymon's red blast. His red beam dissolved as the flames came closer to him.
"Ahhh!" he yelled out as the flames overcame him. As the fires burned his Digital flesh away, he glared at Holydramon and Kari once last time before he vanished. Gone, forever.
Holydramon stopped her attack, and Kari looked at the disappearing smoke. Her face showed no emotion as Holydramon turned around and flew off.
Cody started blankly at the screen. "I..I don't believe it..."
"Its..its Tai, isn't it?" Yolei asked, lifting her head from where it was resting on T.K.'s shoulder,"Apocalymon killed her for real, this time."
Cody didn't say anything.
"Please," Yolei said,"I..I can handle it. She's dead, isn't she?"
"The fight is over," Cody said,"I'm only receiving one Digital Signal. Apocalymon is dead."
"What?" Ken asked.
"Holydramon beat him!" Veemon cried, louldly,"Yes!"
"But it won't matter if she and Kari can't get to the gate before the Digital World explodes," Ken said.
The room fell silent. "Tai," T.K. said,"You are willing to die, to make sure that Apocalymon doesn't win. You gave up your own life, so that others would be free. You're always like that."
Yolei started crying again. "Tai...."
"Well," Kari said, looking at the ground,"We just overcame the Annihilation Wave." She looked at the ground and saw the red sea of lava, then the light of the wave, then the grassy area of the grass plain.
"And there's the Digital Gate," Holydramon said. The t.v. was right where the other Digidestined had left it, on a small hill in a grass plain.
"But we have trouble," Holydramon said, looking down,"The fissures are over taking the wave. They're going to reach the t.v. and if they do that, the gate will fall into the fault line. We'll be stuck here!"
"As long as the lava doesn't reach it, we're fine," Kari said,"Just move faster!"
The fissure line streamed across the ground, right under the t.v. When the ground began to fall into the fault, the t.v. fell with it. "Get down there now!" Kari commanded. Holydramon flew through the giant hole and into the fissure.
"We're never going to make it!" Holydramon said.
"We are going to make it," Kari said,"Never say die!"
Holydramon picked up speed towards the falling t.v. "Almost most there..." Kari said, holding out her Digivice.
All around them, the the Digital World started to rumbled. "The Digital World's exploding!" Holydramon shouted.
"Focus on the gate!" Kari said. She kept her eyes on the gate,"We're almost home....."
The lava fell into the fissure, and the Digital World detonated. The entire planet was destroyed. Silence, was the only thing that remained.
Three days later......
The music wasn't blasting loudly, threatening to bring down the walls around the speakers. It was slowly and quiet. The light wasn't blinking rapidly from a strobe light, it was, instead, moving slowly from the ball chandelier the was attached in the middle of the ceiling. It wasn't a rock concert, it was a formal dance.
This was a new thing for Kari. She had never been to one before, not as Kari, and definitely not as Tai.
She sat in her chair, her hands resting on her lap. She scanned all the others that were also seated. She suddenly didn't feel so weird, there were lots of people sitting and watching the dancers. Most of the other Digidestined were sitting there, Michael, Cody, Ken, and Willis was there. Kari then turned to the dance floor. Her eyes rested on Yolei and T.K. They were dancing together. Yolei was his date.
Kari couldn't sort out her feelings. Peel away the physical body, and she was Tai. Peel away the physical body, and Yolei was Sora. And Sora and Tai were destined to be together, so why was Tai now a girl, and Sora was with T.K.?
Kari turned her head away from them. Every time she looked at Yolei and T.K. together, she felt her heart start to break. She wanted to be with Sora, but the two of them were now the same gender, she couldn't. Yolei wasn't gay, and Kari wasn't either.
Kari decided to look around the people sitting again. She saw Jun at the far side of the ball room. She was actually smiling. When Kari looked at Jun, her problems were nothing. Davis was gone. Jun had lost her younger brother. Kari could only imagine how Jun felt. She had never lost anyone in her family.
That wasn't entirely true. She had lost her first Digimon. Agumon was dead, and he would not be coming back. Cody had found that Genai had sent them an e-mail before the Annihilation Wave had destroyed the Holy Tower. He explained that Agumon, Jijimon, and Genai would not be reconfigured. The three people that Kari had depended on so much were now gone. Without Genai, Kari would have to be the taskmaster of the Digidestined. Not a job she was looking forward to.
She looked down to her outfit. She smiled slightly at the sleeveless pink dress that she was wearing. At least she picked out this dress before she found the Crest of Courage and her memories of Tai had awakened, or she might have come here in jeans.
She found herself looking at Yolei once again. "Stop it!" she told herself,"I'm not a guy anymore." She was a girl now, and she would have to accept it.
But being a girl wasn't all that bad. Okay, so there were more things going
against than for her at the time. But she would get over it. And there was always the plus of wearing a skirt. She had already been praised more times than she cared to remember for the very dress she was now wearing. And, she thought sheepishly, those compliments weren't just empty words. She did look startlingly pretty, for the reborn Tai. Though Yolei looked gorgeous too...Kari shook the thought out of her mind.
She was Kari now, not Tai. And Kari was a girl. 100%. Of course, there would
always be a part of her that loved Sora and embraced being Tai. But for now, she had a life to live--as a woman. And there were undoubtedly advantages to being a female. She wouldn't have to keep up false bravado when there wasn't any left. Like Tai. She could show what she felt, show fear, even cry without being scorned by the rest of her sex. And she wouldn't be forced to protect when she felt like being protected herself. There had been times when...when she was scared. When she would've gladly turned high tail and left. But she had been Taichi back then. He had been bent on sacrificing his life, if
necessary, for the rest of the team. But now that she was Kari, the feeling...well, it hadn't lessened, of course. But it had been modified, and made more feminine. She couldn't really explain it. But those feelings had changed, all right...
And, as her eyes followed Yolei around the room, they settled on T.K. He had
grown up so much since the war began. Sure, he was pretty mature before, but now...he was so different. So much more collected, stronger, even...Kari blinked. Hotter? She grinned. Yeah, there were definite advantages to being a girl. You could check out guys, for one. Especially if they looked like...well, T.K.
No, she thought, shaking that thought out of her head as well. Though her physical being was a girl, her spirit was still Tai. And T.K. was really Matt, and being with Matt on an intimate level brought chills down her spine.
She sighed and lightly grasped the fabric of her skirt. She couldn't be with a girl, because she was a girl, and she couldn't be with a guy, because her true male self was repulsed at the idea. While she was sure that that would fade, for the moment, she was alone.
She noticed that the song started to change. She looked up. She heard the music and watched Yolei and T.K. dance. When she did, she saw Davis's smile, and felt the guilt he must have felt about making Jun cry. As she listened to the music she heard Piedmon's laughter, not the malicious, crazed laughter of the ruler of Spiral Mountain, but the calm laughter of the warrior who died against Apocalymon. She heard the laughter and realized for the first time how Piedmon repressed his urges to fight on the side of good.
She heard the music, and saw Agumon's smile, she listen to the music and heard Jijimon's wisdom, and Genai's knowledge. She heard the music and saw them all. She smiled, and felt the tears well up behind her eyes. Then the music faded, but her memories of them didn't.
She got up and grabbed her purse. She walked out of the ballroom, not even looking back when Michael called out her name.
She walked to the spot where Jijimon's Holy Tower once stood. The Digital World had reconfigured itself, just as Cody had said it would, except for Agumon, Jijimon, and Genai, as well as Piedmon and Davis.
Kari knelt down in front of the shrine she was building. She had already placed Piedmon's sword into the ground, blade down, standing it up straight. She them placed Davis's goggles around the hilt of the sword, letting it dangle. She then took out her old Digivice, the one that the part of her had as Taichi, the one that connected to Agumon. She had put a string around it, intending to wear it as a pendant. She now put it around the hilt as well.
The only thing she had that she could use as a memorial of Jijimon and Genai was Jijimon's staff, and the helmet that was part of Genai's machine that fused Kari and Taichi together. She rest Jijimon's staff against the sword, and put the helmet on top of the sword hilt.
She stood up and looked at them. "Piedmon, Davis, Agumon, Jijimon, Genai. Thank you, thank you for everything you've done. I will always miss you."
She then turned around and walked into the sunset.
When she was on earth, she started wandering, and found herself at Yolei's apartment. She had intended to go in and tell Yolei exactly how she was feeling, but, just as she was about to, she saw T.K.'s shadow pass in front of the closed window. Her hopes started to fall apart.
She smiled slightly. "I hope he makes you happy, Sora. And, while we can never be together, I still love you, and I always will."
She turned around and started walking home.
THE END.
Thanks again to Miaou5 for helping me write this chapter. She wrote Kari's little speech about being a girl. So give her credit for that. To all you readers, thank you for reading this. I really enjoyed it.
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