Me: I don't own Digimon, of course! You all already know what I'd do if I did, so let's just get right to the story.
Tai: True, but I'm curious: What would you do if you owned Digimon-which of course, you don't?
Me: (eyes Tai with a look) I thought you of all people would know-you and Sora would get married, Davis and Yolei, Matt and Mimi-possibly-and T.K. and Kari.
Tai: Oh, right.
Digimon
Skirting the Edge
Chapter II-WarGreymon V.S. Imperialdramon
Sora was still at her house tending to the messy state of her room when it happened: A flash of pain starting from the heart and eating away at her soul like a cancer! Instantly, a part of herself was shrouded in pure darkness. Not knowing why, she screamed out the name of the one person who until recently, she thought she'd gotten rid of all her feelings for that person…
"TAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!" Seconds afterward, Biyomon came in, her eyes filled with worry, concern and a sense of relief.
"Sora! What happened; are you okay? Does it have something to do with Tai?" Trying to wipe away the tears from her face, Sora nodded.
"Finally! She's realized that a marriage between her and Matt can never happen-that's why she called for Tai. She's figured out who her true soul mate is."
"He's in trouble…I can feel it! Something tells me that we have a new enemy, and I think that enemy may be Tai himself…" The phone rang a second later and Biyomon went to pick it up.
"Hello? No, Sora's not in right now, but if you leave your name and number at the sound of the Spiral Twister attack being yelled out, she'll get back to you. Spiral Twister!!"
Sora started laughing as she reached for the phone.
"Cut it out, Biyomon! Hello? Oh, hi Matt. What? What about Tai? Where is he?"
At that moment, I felt my soul split in two as darkness took over my entire body. Obviously, Daemon had done something to bring me and Agumon here and take over my body, but why? Unfortunately, I couldn't answer that question, since I still felt like I was in my body, but someone else had taken over in the driver's seat.
I eyed WarGreymon and smiled-whatever had taken over me hadn't gotten to my partner.
That meant he could get out of here and warn the others.
"Tai! Tai, we're here!"
"The DigiDestined! Perfect-this will work to my advantage. You know what you must do." Daemon demanded. Against my will, I nodded and stepped forward.
"Yes, Master."
"Why are you listening to that overgrown pushover? You and WarGreymon should be creaming him-or at least wiping the floor with him-not working with him!"
Kari came up to me and she recoiled back when she got only a few meters from my face.
"Something's wrong with Tai. I don't know what, but he's not himself." Davis and the others came up a moment later.
"True, Kari-I'm not myself. I've just been liberated from all emotion, and so has WarGreymon." The part of me that was still me gasped, although no one heard it.
"Everybody, get outta here now! I don't know what I'll do to you as long as I'm under Daemon's control!" Of course, no one could hear me. No one but…
"What was that, Tai? Did you say something?"
I knew they couldn't see me smile, but I did anyway. "Get out of here! Daemon's got me under some sort of spell and he's going to try and get revenge on you by using me as his tool!"
"Guys, we've gotta go!" Kari yelled out.
"You're not going anywhere! WarGreymon?" The other DigiDestined gasped as WarGreymon's eyes flashed a dark red and he suddenly swooped downward and prepared himself for attack!
"Veemon…"
"Wormmon…"
"Digivolve to…EXVEEMON!!!/STINGMON!!!"
"ExVeemon…"
"…Stingmon…"
"DNA Digivolve to…PAILDRAMON!!!"
"Terra Force!!" WarGreymon's main attack went soaring toward the team and I was helpless within my own body to stop it.
"Paildramon Mega-Digivolve to…IMPERIALDRAMON!!!"
"Positron Laser!!" WHAM! The two attacks collided in midair and exploded. Behind us, Daemon laughed evilly. I wanted to wipe that grin off his face!
"What have you done to my brother?" Kari yelled angrily.
"I've done just as he said-I've liberated him and his partner from all emotion. That way, he has no feeling at all when he destroys the ones who've betrayed him!"
"What are you talking about?" Davis asked heatedly.
That's when I stepped in. "Out of all the members of the team, I thought you'd understand-you betrayed me when you had that crush on my sister, yet by the time you got over her, you still kept at least one or two of her pictures in your room! You betrayed me T.K. for the sole purpose of being Matt's brother! Kari, you're supposed to be my sister and back me up, but you instead date T.K., which is a betrayal in itself! The rest of you, I have no desire to defeat, but being allied with them signifies betrayal. WarGreymon!"
With a growl, WarGreymon flew in from above and prepared to deliver the final blow.
"NO! Imperialdramon Mode Change to…FIGHTER FORM!!!"
WHAM! Imperialdramon tackled WarGreymon and the two of them went hurtling to the ground.
"Imperialdramon, weaken WarGreymon, but don't destroy him!" Ken yelled out.
"What if he tries to destroy me?!" Imperialdramon retorted impatiently.
"Let me get this straight-Tai's vanished within hours of some 'incident,' and you choose not to tell us about it until now? Are you crazy, Izzy? He could be in serious trouble!" Matt insisted.
Izzy sweatdropped as he managed to keep away the one e-mail that he didn't want the others to find-the one that Kari had sent about me turning evil due to Daemon!
"True, but Kari and the others wanted to see if they could find Tai in the World of Darkness by themselves. Besides, us older kids don't have access to that world in the first place. We'd need Ken to be here, and he can't be in two places at once, can he?" Izzy replied. Everyone agreed with his statement.
Sora hadn't said a single word since she and Biyomon had gotten to Izzy's house. Matt noticed that something was definitely wrong when she didn't hug him like she usually did.
"You okay?" Sora looked up, but didn't say anything at first.
"It's Tai. I'm scared that something has happened to him and it's all my fault."
Matt smirked with ease. "Don't worry-I'm sure Tai's fine. He probably needed to let off some steam when he heard he wasn't going to be the best man at the wedding." Biyomon's eyes narrowed in irritation and anger.
"This is just one of many reasons why marrying Matt wouldn't work out-he doesn't show any emotion! He tries to coast through life, not having a care in the world about anybody! Sometimes I wonder why he got the Crest of Friendship in the first place!"
Sora finally eyed Matt, and he realized that he'd said the wrong thing.
"What if he's not 'all right?' Something's wrong with him; I can feel it! You're supposed to be Tai's best friend! Your Crest is the Crest of Friendship! Don't you care at all what happens to Tai?" Matt tried to hold his temper, but he knew that sooner or later, someone would press the wrong button and he'd snap. Matt had been hoping that I would press that button, and not Sora.
"OF COURSE I CARE ABOUT TAI! I'm just saying that it's not right for us to go rushing in there without knowing what's going on!"
"Calm down you two, before one of you has a stroke or a heart attack! I think we should just sit down and think about this rationally." Joe advised. At that instant, a dark portal opened up on Izzy's computer screen and Ken came flying out!
"Ken?! Are you okay? What's going on?" Izzy asked in shock. Mimi came rushing in with Palmon at her heels.
"A fine time for you to call me, Izzy-at 3:00 A.M. in the morning! I had to get off of three different planes before I could get here! What's so important that it couldn't wait until it was morning at my time?" she complained heatedly.
"You'll have to excuse Mimi. It's jet lag!" Palmon cracked. The Digimon laughed, but none of the DigiDestined were in a laughing matter-and neither was Ken.
"I thought…you guys…knew about…Tai, but you…obviously didn't get…Kari's e-mail.
Daemon's back…and he's turned Tai…and WarGreymon…against us…" Ken gasped.
Sora felt unshed tears come to her eyes before spilling over.
"Tai…"
"How much longer until Ken returns with the others?" Yolei questioned as Sylphymon and Shakkoumon went out to help Imperialdramon against WarGreymon.
"He left about five minutes ago, so we'll give him another five!" Davis yelled back.
"Terra Force!!" WarGreymon's attack sent Sylphymon and Shakkoumon spiraling to the ground! Seconds after that, Sylphymon deDigivolved back to Gatomon and Hawkmon; Shakkoumon deDigivolved to Patamon and Armadillomon.
"That felt like going up against Black WarGreymon…but 100 times worse, since WarGreymon's had more battle experience than Black WarGreymon!" Gatomon moaned angrily as she struggled to her feet.
"Maybe we should try using Azulongmon's power. There's no way WarGreymon could survive an assault like that!" T.K. suggested.
Kari was hesitant at first, but that's when she heard something.
"If you can defeat WarGreymon, you'll release whatever power's keeping him under Daemon's control! Give it you're all and remember what Agumon said once: 'If life hands you lemons, make lemon pie!'"
"Okay-let's do it!" Kari yelled out bravely.
"Patamon Digivolve to…ANGEMON!!!"
"Angemon…"
"Gatomon…"
"Digivolve to…"
That's when things went south. Daemon chose that moment, when two of our Angel Digimon were at their weakest, to attack.
"I don't think so! EVIL INFERNO!!"
I groaned from within my body as Angemon and Gatomon were scorched by the flames and weren't able to Digivolve to the Ultimate level! As Gatomon fell to her knees in pain, Angemon deDigivolved back to Patamon.
"Now, for the piece de resistance: WarGreymon! Time to finish him off!" I yelled.
"NOVA FORCE!!" WarGreymon spun around with his "dramon destroyers" aimed right for Imperialdramon! And my Digimon went so fast, that Davis and Ken's Digimon didn't see the attack coming until it was too late!
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Davis ran past me as Imperialdramon started his long descent to the ground, deDigivolving to Veemon and Wormmon on the way. He barely caught the both of them in time.
"Are you two okay?" Davis asked worriedly. Veemon and Wormmon weakly nodded.
"As 'Dramon' Digimon, we were completely defenseless against WarGreymon's 'Dramon Destroyers.' So, we'd have no chance at all if we were Paildramon or Imperialdramon." Veemon explained.
"That's just perfect! So, to even have ½ a chance against this guy, you guys would have to be Champion Digimon?! You've tried your best as ExVeemon against MaloMyotismon and against Black WarGreymon, so I guess it could work." Davis realized.
"Why don't we just give him no chance? Terra Force!!" WarGreymon's main attack went flying toward Davis, Veemon and Wormmon!
"Veemon Digivolve to…EXVEEMON!!!"
"WUHH!" ExVeemon was hit hard by the attack and was sent flying backward, but wasn't hurt that badly.
"Davis! Hold on; we're coming!" Matt and the other DigiDestined arrived on the scene with their Digimon at their highest levels. Daemon smiled evilly.
"The plot thickens…" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sora and Matt atop Garudamon, and my heart hardened with pain, anger and rage.
"Oh, Sora…if you only knew what you were doing to me, this whole thing wouldn't have happened! I wouldn't be within seconds from destroying you guys and your Digimon!"