Author's Note: My deepest apologies to everyone for not updating sooner! I kinda gave up for a while when ff.net was down, lotta stuff's been going on with me in the past couple weeks. Anywho, enough lame excuses, this is the last chapter, hope ya like it. I suck at endings. lol
By the way, much thanks to DigitalGirl562 for calling to my attention some minor details I accidentally left out in the first part of the story. What do you expect when I'm writing this stuff at midnight! lol. When Matt is falling out of the first story of his apartment building and Maremon snares him with his chains, I forgot to include that Matt is holding the chain around his neck, that's why his neck doesn't break while he's dangling there. Now that that's cleared up, enjoy the rest of the story! ^_^
"Matt! Matt!" T.K. called as he ran towards the image of his brother.
The decayed corpse disappeared and Matt sat upright, staring in amazement at his brother.
"Matt I came for you!" T.K. bellowed, as he skidded to a halt at his brother's feet.
"T.K.? Is it…is it really you?" Matt questioned skeptically.
"Sure is! Come on let's get out of here!" T.K. chirped.
Matt reached out his hand towards the younger boy. His face twisted in disbelief, as if he thought T.K. would magically turn in to something dreadful. T.K. wasted no time and flew into his brother's arms.
"I'm real!" he assured. "But you're in bad shape," he commented at the sight of Matt's bloody appearance. "Come on Matt, we need to get you out of here! Gabumon's waiting, and so are the other kids!"
"Gabumon?" Matt said, as if it were a distant memory, "The other kids…"
"Yeah let's go!" T.K. coaxed.
"I don't know whether to believe you or not," Matt stated. He looked down at his feet and blinked a few times. Then he placed his hand on his forehead, as if the pressure of deciding was just too much for him.
T.K. grabbed Matt's hand and placed it over his heart.
"Trust me big brother, I'm for real."
Matt could feel T.K.'s little heart beating. Now he was sure he wasn't a figment of his imagination, but something else still troubled him.
"You're real, but…am I still myself," he said looking at the cuts, scrapes, and bruises all over his body. There was dried up blood on his clothes, and places where fresh blood still bled freely.
Matt looked at his hand, it too was covered in blood. He placed it on his chest and waited. His eyes seemed to search the ground for something, and then he looked at T.K. and smiled.
"It's beating!" he cried, "My heart's beating again! Whatever it was that I was lacking, that was making me whole, must be back again!"
T.K. smiled, "Can we go now Matt?"
"Yeah little bro!" he paused, " but how do we get out of here?" he questioned as he gazed around in search of an exit.
"This way." T.K. said and took Matt's hand and pulled him over to a doorway. He opened it and something bright burst through the door and showered them in white light. T.K. led the way.
Gabumon stood there holding the dream catcher as tears rolled down his furry cheeks.
"I'm going to destroy this thing!" he cried, as he hoisted it into the air and was about to shatter it on the ground.
Then suddenly, a white light began to emerge from the dream catcher. It blinded everyone, and Gabumon had to turn away, dropping the dream catcher in the process.
When the light cleared, the dream catcher was gone, and in its place were Matt and T.K.
"Matt! T.K.!" Everyone cheered simultaneously.
"T.K.!" Patomon cried as he leapt into the arms of his digi-destined.
"Matt!" Gabumon sobbed, "I'm so glad you're back!"
The two were a welcome sight, that is until every stopped to realize that Matt was covered in blood.
"Gabumon…" Matt smiled weakly, "I'm sorry…" the words had time to escape just as Matt's eyes rolled back and he collapsed to the ground.
Gabumon ran towards his digi-destined and caught him just before he hit the ground.
"Matt! Matt speak to me!" Gabumon pleaded.
"Matt!" T.K. cried out in concern.
The other kids crowded around the still form of their friend.
"What do we do!?" Sora asked frantically.
"Matt!" Kari began to sob.
"He's not breathing!" Gabumon shouted.
Everyone called out to him, but Matt could no longer hear their pleas.
"It's not supposed to be like this!" Tai wailed. "Matt! You can't leave us!"
Suddenly, Tai's crest began to glow, then Kari's, then Mimi's, then Joe's, then everyone's! All the digimon shrank back to their primary form.
"What's going on?" T.K. asked.
"I don't know," Tai replied.
The light from their crests covered Matt completely, and when the light was gone the boy lay there. His cuts and scrapes were gone, along with all the blood. Tsunomon cautiously approached him.
"Matt?"
Matt's eyes slowly began to open and come into focus. He peered up to see the face of his digimon and then the faces of all his friends, and his little brother. Everyone had a befuddled look including Matt.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice a bit hoarse.
"Perhaps I can answer that," Gennai's voice could now be heard, but he was nowhere in sight. " You see, the power of your crests has done a miraculous thing. I'm not sure quite how to explain it, because I'm a bit puzzled my self, but as you all know, the crests work in mysterious ways. It seems that all of you had the same feeling in your hearts. You did not want your friend to die, and because all of you wished the same thing, the crests used that power to heal your friend. Well children that's about all the light I can shed on this….until next time!"
Then the voice was gone.
"Well, I'm just glad that you're back Matt!" Tai exclaimed.
"Me too!" everyone agreed.
Matt smiled weakly, trying to maintain his cool image.
"Well you guys, we should be getting back to the digital world," said Koromon sadly, hating to break the spirit of the moment.
"Yeah, so we can digivolve back to rookie level," added Salomon.
"Look!" Mimi shouted, " The sun's coming up! I have to get home!" She gave her digimon one last hug, knowing in her heart that their paths would cross again.
"Me too," agreed Izzy as he smiled at his digimon, neither of them needing to express words.
"Well then, I guess our little adventure is over," Joe commented. "I have to admit, it was rather enlightening."
"Plus we kicked evil digi-butt!" T.K. cheered.
Matt stood looking off into the distance.
"Look you guys…uh thanks," he managed.
"We know how you feel Matt," Sora chimed.
"Yeah buddy! See ya uh…today I guess," Tai said looking at the sun coming up over the hills.
Matt smiled. "I want to thank you again too Tsunomon."
"But what did I do?"
"You…you and T.K. gave me hope."
Tsunomon smiled before he entered the digiport with the rest of the digimon.
"You're welcome Matt." He said as his voice faded off into the distance.
T.K. latched on to Matt's hand and the two smiled and waved goodbye to their digimon as the sun rose higher in the sky. Then all the children parted ways. Another evil defeated, they could now return to their normal lives, that is, until the next time the digital world would call on them.
The End.
What? You didn't honestly think I would kill off Matt, not my most favoritest character. Awwww….I just love happy endings! *cough* Don't you mean sappy endings?? *rolls eyes* Nobody asked you, so shut up! *looks up to see worried glances from everyone* Was I talking with myself again, I'm just gonna go now. *turns red from embarrassment and sneaks off* Oh yeah, *whispers* R+R.