***Disclaimer:  I don't own Digimon

                  ***Like I said b4, had to make a new account and repost cuz I got a new e-mail address.  Thanks again to all those who already R&R'd.  Part 2 is about 900 words shorter, but I think it's a little more interesting.  This is where it really gets into the Sorato stuff and where the action starts to happen.  I hope you like it!.

Can't Take Nothing For Granted Part 2

Matt opened his eyes and looked around.  Every one of them were sprawled all over the ground, all looking a little dazed and confused.  As he sat up he bumped someone and realized it was Sora.  "Sora, Sora, are you okay?" he asked, lifting her up a little.

         She opened her eyes and smiled a little.  "Yeah Matt, I'm fine," She answered.

         They stood up and organized themselves.  The look of confusion on their faces only grew as the surveyed the land around them.  It looked barren and dead.  There didn't seem to be anyone around, anywhere.  They hoped they weren't too late.

         It was then that they heard a small voice coming from behind them.  "Kari?  Kari!  It's you, you're here!"  They all turned to see Gatomon running towards them.

         "Tai, you made it!" Agumon called, not too far behind Gatomon.  Matt watched as Tai and Kari hugged their Digimon, and just became more anxious to see Gabumon.

         "Yeah buddy, we're finally back," Tai replied.  "But where are the other Digimon?" 

         "We're right here," they all heard Gabumon say.

         The only thing that could have made Matt happier at that moment would have been a kiss from Sora.  "Gabumon!  You're okay!"  Matt said, running to greet his friend.

         "Yeah, I'm fine.  We all came back here to report what we've seen, but we didn't expect you to be here."

         "Yeah, we're here," Matt replied casually, trying to save his cool, carefree reputation.  "What happened here?"

         "It's Wardevimon," Patamon told them.  "I don't think Angemon alone can stop him this time."

         "Wardevimon?" Joe asked.

         "Yes," Gomamon answered, "Devimon digivolved.  He's much bigger now, more powerful, and better equipped for battle, and he's pure evil."

         "How could he digivolve?" Sora asked.  "We defeated him, I thought he was gone."

         Biyomon looked at Sora and said, "We did, and we're not completely sure how he came back.  The only explanation we can think of is that he was reborn in the Primary Village."

         "Well, if Devimon was reborn, then can't every evil digimon we've battled come back too?" Izzy pondered aloud.

         "That's a good question Izzy," Tentomon replied.  "We can discuss if more after we find some shelter, it's getting dark."

         "Is there any shelter left?" Mimi asked.

         "Yeah," Palmon told her, "fortunately not all of the Digiworld looks like this yet."

         "Then we better get going," Tai said.

         They began their hike to the nearest place where they could find cover.  Matt spent the whole trip stealing glances at Sora.  Once or twice they even made eye contact.  He wanted to talk to her but didn't know what to say.

         "If you like her, Matt, you should talk to her," Gabumon asked.

         "Huh?"  Matt was daydreaming and took a second to register the remark.  "Like her?  What makes you think I like her?"  He knew he could talk to Gabumon about it, but he was just too shy and embarrassed.

         "Well, the blushing doesn't exactly help you keep your secret.  Just tell her how you feel, I have a feeling she feels the same way."

         "No she doesn't.  Why would she when she can have Tai?"

         "You'll never know if you don't talk to her."

         "What do you know?  I've never seen you with a girl."  They had dropped back behind the group now, and Matt let his voice rise a little.  " I'll talk to her when I'm ready, and I'm not right now."

         "I can talk to Biyomon, and she can talk to Sora and find out how she feels."

         "Gabumon, listen to me, I'll take care of it my own way.  I'm just afraid, that if she doesn't feel the same way," he had trouble getting those words out, "it'll ruin our friendship too.  Now stop bothering me about it, don't pressure me into it."  He was having trouble hiding his growing annoyance.

         "Matt, I'm sure you have nothing to worry about.  This is Sora, she'll understand, whether she feels the same way or not.  Now go.  Talk to her."

         "Would you just lay off!" he yelled.  "I'll do it when I'm ready!" 

         The whole group stopped and looked back at them.  Matt looked at Gabumon and saw the hurtful expression on his face.  Luckily he hadn't yelled anything about whom they were talking about or what he wasn't ready to do.  They all began walking again, and Matt and Gabumon spent the rest of the hike in silence.

                  *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *

The group of children and digimon walked until they reached a lake in the middle of a forest.  Matt gazed out over the water and saw an island in the middle attached to the shore by a

sand bar.  He remembered this place like he had just been here yesterday.  It was where Gabumon first digivolved to save him from Seadramon, and the place where they said goodbye to their Digimon.  His memories were interrupted when he heard Tai say, "I think we should stay in the cover of the trees.  We don't have a trolley car for shelter on the island this time."  They all agreed and settled into a nice grassy area just beyond the shore.

         It was late, and they had already walked a considerable distance and were all pretty worn out.  It didn't take long before most of them were asleep.  Matt just lay there with his eyes closed, thinking of Sora, happy to be here with her again, despite the circumstances.  He then thought of Gabumon, and how rude he was to him.  He shouldn't have snapped at him like that.  This whole time he wanted Gabumon's advice, and then he rejected it.  He heard the sounds of someone walking around and opened his eyes to see Sora out to the island.  He didn't say anything, just watched her sit down in the middle of the island, silhouetted in the moonlight.

         Finally, after admiring her from afar from a few minutes, he got up and walked out to the island.  She looked up as he came up behind her.  "Mind if I sit down?" he asked?

         "No, go ahead," she replied.  "Couldn't sleep either?"

         "No, not really.  It's a nice night too, so I thought I'd come out here with you."

         After another one of those darn awkward silences, Sora finally said, "Are you scared Matt?"

         "A little, but we've done this before, and we've always come out alright in the end.  We shouldn't be careless, but I know we can beat this guy."

         She smiled, gosh how he loved that smile.  "Yeah, I guess you're right."

         "Besides," he said beginning to blush and looking away, "I won't let anything happen to you."

         "Really Matt?  Do you mean that?"

         He turned his gaze back toward her.  "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it."

         "Can I tell you something?"

         "Anything," he said, looking into her eyes.

         "You have to promise not tell Tai though."  She looked a little upset, but Matt thought that lost, little girl look was cute, and it just made him want to make every problem in her life disappear.  "This is so hard, I don't want to hurt him."

         "You have my word, anything said here is strictly between us."  She was so beautiful.  The silvery light of the moon made her hair shimmer, and the reflection of the stars seemed to dance in her eyes.

         "I like you, Matt, a lot.  I care about you so much, and I've felt this way for a while, but I just didn't know how to tell you."

         "Oh, Sora, you don't know how happy you've just made me," he said, caressing her face gently.  "I've wanted to tell you the same exact thing, but I really didn't think you'd feel the same way.  I mean, with Tai always around, I thought you might've liked him."

         "No, that's not how I feel at all.  That's why it took me so long to tell you, but I never felt for Tai that way.  I just don't know what I'm going to do though.  I know he likes me, and he's going to be so upset.  How am I going to…"

         Matt quieted her by lifting her chin and giving her the sweetest, most caring kiss someone his age could.  For that moment it seemed that the whole world had stopped revolving, nothing existed except Matt, Sora, and that kiss.  They both moved away slightly, looking deeply into each other's eyes.  Wardevimon could've attacked at that moment, and neither of them would've noticed.

         She leaned in close to him and laid her head on his shoulder as he put his arm around her.  They sat there and talked for most of the night before returning to where the others sleep, not even realizing how much time was passing.  Someone else did notice though.  Tai had woken up just in time to see his best friend, and his first real crush, kiss.

                  *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *

         They all woke up shortly after sunrise that day, deciding they should get an early start.  They did some fishing and gathered some fruit from the trees before they left.  Matt apologized to Gabumon and told him what happened during the night, and he was pretty sure Sora had told Biyomon.  They decided not to tell anybody else yet.  They didn't want this to distract anybody from their current mission. 

         Matt couldn't help noticing that Tai was acting a little differently.  He seemed kind of distracted and moody, and he was quick to lose his temper.  He dismissed it and figured he was just a little worried about facing Wardevimon.

         He and Sora tried not to spend too much time together, paranoid that someone was sure to figure out what was going on.  When he saw Tai watching them, and sometimes what looked like glaring at them, he began to grow even more paranoid.  If he found out, it could cause a lot of trouble within the group, and would make their mission a lot more difficult.

         Matt and Sora finally found the chance to have a minute alone together, when he went to gather firewood to take with them, and she went in search of more food.  They left in opposite directions, but soon caught up with each other.  They still continued their jobs, they just did it together.  Just when Matt took Sora's hand in his, Tai jumped at him and knocked him to the ground. Matt rolled over and raised his arm in time to block a punch.  "What's wrong with you, dude?" Matt asked while trying to roll out from under Tai.

         "Isn't that what I should be asking?!  I thought you were my friend Matt, but you're nothing but a backstabber!"  Hearing that made Matt mad enough to start throwing his own punches, instead of just blocking Tai's. 

         "Matt, Tai!  Both of you stop right now!" Sora yelled.

         They continued rolling around on the ground hitting each other for several minutes before they were finally stopped, but it wasn't Sora's plea's that stopped them; it was the dark figure looming over them.  They both sat up and stared at it in surprise and fear.  He was a huge, dark centaur like digimon, but it certainly wasn't Centauromon.  The horse half of his body was black, while the skin of his human half was a dark gray.  He wore a helmet and some kind of armor, and a silver gauntlet on his right wrist with what looked like retractable sword.  He also wore a shield on his left arm that appeared to be attached to him.  He towered over the two boys with an evil smirk on his face as Sora watched from behind.

         He reared up into the air, and it looked like he was preparing to trample them.  Matt and Tai wasted no time, and took this opportunity when he wasn't looking to get up and run.  Matt grabbed Sora's arm and they raced to the rest of the group.  Could this be Wardevimon?, Matt thought as he ran.  It doesn't look anything like him. 

As they neared the others they began shouting a warning, hoping the digimon would be ready to fight before the monster caught up to them.  They could hear the hoof beats rushing up behind them just as they reached the other kids and they're already digivolved digimon.  "Thunder Blade!" the strange digimon yelled as he came crashing out of the trees.  A bolt of lightning exploded out of his now extended sword at his command.  It was a lot like Centauromon's attack, but they all had a feeling it wasn't a black gear corrupting this digimon.

"Howling Blaster", Garurumon yelled as he leapt at the new enemy.  The other's quickly followed his lead.  "Nova Blast, Needle Spray, Meteor Wing, Hand of Fate, Celestial Arrow, Electro Shocker, Harpoon Torpedo."  Their attacks were to no avail as the enemy digimon deflected them all and continued an attack of his own. 

"You've got to digivolve to the next level!" Tai called.  The digimon needed no more prompting than that, and in no time they were all at their ultimate level.  They continued their attack, but they just weren't strong enough.  Before long, they had run out of energy and dedigivolved back to their rookie stages.

"Gabumon, Agumon," Matt said, "you've got to warpdigivolve now!"

"Gabumon, warpdigivolve to…Metalgarurumon."

"Agumon, warpdigivolve to…Wargreymon."

The two mega digimon began a relentless attack, not giving the enemy the opportunity to fight back.  It didn't take long for the strange digimon to realize he would be overpowered and defeated.  He fled without so much as a glance back at them.  He just yelled "He who fights and runs away, lives to kill another day!"  With that he was gone, and an uneasy peace returned to the area.

"Who was that?" T.K. asked.  "Was it Wardevimon?"

"No," Tentomon answered.  "That was Ariesmon, the digimon of war.  From what I've heard he's just as evil and heartless as his master Wardevimon, though not nearly as powerful."

"So now we have to worry about him and Wardevimon?" Mimi asked.  "I don't think I can handle this."

"Don't worry Mimi," Joe said soothingly.  "We're in this together, and we can do anything if we work as a team."

"But only if all the members of the team trustworthy."  Tai shot a glance at Matt.  "It's hard to help your digimon fight, when you're worried about yourself being stabbed in the back"

"It doesn't help when certain members of the group are immature and can't handle the fact that they don't always get what they want."

"What's going on Tai?" Kari asked.

"Why don't you ask the two love birds?" At that, the whole group turned to look at Sora and Matt with surprise and curiosity.  They came clean with everything that was going on between them.

"I'm not going to stay here and put up with this." Tai fumed.  "We're here to fight, not make out!  I'm leaving and finding Wardevimon on my own.  At least I don't have to worry about him turning on me!"  Tai began walking off with Agumon at his heels.

"No, wait Tai," Izzy called.  "You guys can work this out, you're best friends.  Don't you remember what happened all the other times we were split up?  Haven't you ever heard the saying 'Divide and conquer'?"

"Who cares?  Let him go," Matt said with vehemence in his voice.  "We don't need cry baby's in the group anyway!"

Tai was nearly out of sight now and didn't look back or respond in any way.  Matt didn't care if Tai never came back.  At least he didn't think he did.  It wasn't until they heard a scream from the woods in the distance about ten minutes later that Matt felt bad for what he'd done to his best friend.  They ran in the direction of the sound, and as they came closer, Matt thought he could see and orange figure lying on the ground in the distance.  That scream was unmistakably Tai's, and it was Matt's fault that he was out there alone.

         *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *                 *

                  ***What happened to Tai, and when will Wardevimon show himself, instead of sending his flunkies.  Will Matt, Sora, and Tai work out their problems, if they can find Tai?  If you like it go read Part 3 and the R&R!