~*Project: Moment*~
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit
~*Chapter 12- Heartstrings*~
A soft buzz seeped into Sora's consciousness, and she stirred, her eyes flickering open. A curved silver wall greeted her eyes...
She was floating, at the center of some sort of hollow, metallic sphere. Her head spun, and she didn't understand... Then she felt the strange, creeping sensation in her chest, and began to shudder violently. Something was happening. Something was...unfolding....
The shuddering calmed, and the thing inside her was still. Dizzy and almost too exhausted to be frightened, she found herself gazing at the small lights that studded the chamber walls, all sending beams of silver-white light toward her aching chest. The pattern they lay in was familiar.
It was almost like...
She shook her head, wearily, and closed her eyes. She was too tired. So very tired...she needed to...rest...
Tai stood staring up at the afternoon sky, his arms wrapped around himself as if he were cold, Joe silent beside him. A single Swoopmon hovered high above the complex. Other Swoopmon buzzed here and there around the complex, as though watching them, but this one simply hung in the air like a metallic North Star, unmoving and menacing.
"It's been there all day," Joe said softly. Tai nodded; he didn't trust himself to speak. He hadn't trusted his voice, ever since he'd seen Sora...
Seen her be...
*Dammit!* he thought, shaking his head as the tears threatened to spill over again. *Why? Why now? Oh, god...*
A soft voice spoke up behind them.
"Tai?"
He turned, to see Yuki standing there, Davis at her side. They looked tired and drawn; her hair hung limply in tangles around her face, and he had dried blood on his cheek. They held tightly to each other's hands, sharing the instinctive support of fellow disaster survivors; in the girl's other hand was a small, shiny cubical object.
"Tai, there's a message coming in on the Command frequency," Yuki said, still just as softly but with urgency in her voice.
He stared at her, uncomprehending.
"It's for you," she said, handing him the videocomm. With a feeling of heavy apprehension, Tai pressed the Receive button, and a dark image blossomed before him, wreathed in shadows.
"Taichi..."
The voice was unfamiliar, but the malicious red eyes on the screen of the handheld videocomm were unmistakable.
*The Xenophobe,* Tai thought, his heart darkening with hate. That filth had killed Sora! His fists clenched involuntarily, his fingernails biting into the skin of his palms, nearly drawing blood.
"I believe my pets have something that belongs to you," the Xenophobe continued. Tai stared at the screen, choking on rage. It didn't seem to notice his fury, or perhaps simply ignored it. "And I believe you may...want it back."
"What?!" Joe stammered, thrown. Tai was silent.
"And what makes you think that?" he said after a moment, his voice cold and deceptively calm.
"You should realize that already, Taichi," the Xenophobe said with a dark, syrupy chuckle. "I know you humans and your personal loyalties...of course you'll want her back. But then again, if you'd rather I simply killed her..."
Tai's heart nearly stopped.
"She's...she's alive?!" he whispered, feeling numb.
" 'And kicking', as I believe your human speech pattern goes," it said with crystal-clear disdain. "Well? Decide quickly; my pet is growing impatient."
Tai looked up at the sky to see that particular Swoopmon flying in quick, tight circles, as if champing at the bit to do something. He looked back at the screen, and swallowed hard.
"Let her go!" he said hoarsely, his heart aching from too many switchbacks in the last few days. Here, not here, dead, not dead... He just wanted it all to stop! He needed to rest...
And he needed Sora back.
The flaming eyes in the shadows narrowed shrewdly. "You're sure?"
"Positive," Tai rasped, too drained to play games.
"Very well," the Xenophobe said, dry satisfaction filling its voice. "Enjoy your fate, human."
The Swoopmon did a neat loop-the-loop to the ground and opened the door in its abdomen, spilling out a silent body onto the ground. Then it shot off into the air again, and disappeared over the horizon in an eyeblink. The rest of its species followed it.
Tai dropped the videocomm and sprinted toward the spot, followed closely by Joe. Sora was still and pale, her eyes closed, but Joe grabbed her wrist and nodded.
"She's alive, Tai. Her pulse is steady."
Tai felt something loosen in his chest, and suddenly he could breathe again.
"Oh, thank god," he whispered, and pulled her into his arms. She stirred, and opened her eyes.
"Tai," she said, looking drained and frightened. She swallowed, licked dry lips, and coughed. "Tai," she repeated, "why did you do it?"
"What?" he said, startled.
Her hands clutched his shirtfront.
"Tai," she said, her faint voice sounding on the breaking point from fear, "there's something inside me..."
A terrible laugh came from the abandoned videocomm, and Yuki snatched it up, staring at the screen. The Xenophobe leered out at her.
"I remember you, little one. How is your face?"
Yuki choked, and Davis moved to stand protectively behind her.
"Enjoy what we left of you," the evil thing sneered. "You've got twenty-four hours to live."
"What?!" Davis snapped.
Halfway across the courtyard, the sign over the Arena flared into life with a whine of machinery, showing 24:00:00 in blood-red numbers. There was a soft click, and it began to count down. Sora let out a gasp and jerked in Tai's arms.
"What is it?" he said, alarmed. She looked up at him, her face pale as a ghost.
Something inside her chest, next to her heart, had moved.
"Oh, my god," she whispered, horrified.
"What?!" Tai asked quickly.
The Xenophobe smiled, white fangs flickering in the light from his eyes...
"It's a bomb," he said.
Yuki let out a cry and threw the videocomm to the ground as though it had become red-hot, as Davis shouted in alarm. Tai stared at the little machine in horror, and then looked back at Sora, who was huge-eyed with terror, hand over her heart. Joe sucked in his breath.
"You have twenty-four hours," the voice continued from the comm. "I want to enjoy this to the fullest. Don't try to leave the complex; there are Morphmon outside, hidden around the walls. You'd be dead before you took a step."
Yuki began to cry softly.
"Isn't there anything we can do?!" Davis shouted.
"Yes," the Xenophobe said, great pleasure in its voice.
"What is it?!" Tai cried, desperate.
The thing chuckled darkly.
"You can kill the girl. Her heartbeat keeps the bomb ticking."
There was silence in the courtyard. Another chuckle came from the videocomm.
"Have fun," the Xenophobe said, and the comm switched off.
"Tai, you have to do it!"
Tai leaned wearily on the outer wall of one of the complex buildings, resting his cheek against the cool, rough synthstone. His head hurt, and his heart was aching. *I'm tired of being the one people look to,* he thought bleakly. *I'm tired of leading, I'm tired of danger, I'm tired of making life-or-death decisions...
*How can they expect me to decide...this?*
"No," he said, his voice rough from too much shouting...too much crying...
"Tai, please," Sora said, her face pale as milk, but set resolutely. She'd been arguing with him for the last hour, trying to make him see. All these people were trapped here, and...well, the last thing she wanted to do was die, but she was dead either way! He had to understand that! He just had to... "Please, do it... I can't stand knowing all these people are going to die because of me!"
"Sora, I can't," he said, refusing to even think about it. "I can't!"
"Yes, you can," she insisted. "No one else will listen to me-"
"They shouldn't!" Tai shouted, whirling, and she saw that his face was tear-streaked. "What do you want me to do, just grab a pistol and fire?! I can't do what you're asking! It's crazy!"
"It's the only way!" Sora wailed. "Tai, do you think I want to die?"
"You're sure acting like it!" Tai bitterly snapped. How could she possibly do this? To come asking him to...to kill her? Or to find someone who would? He knew noone would obey; Sora was too important to destroy. Without her, there was no hope, no reason to keep trying...they were all doomed anyway, if she died here! But she wouldn't listen... "Don't you understand? We don't turn on our own kind here! No matter what! Sora-"
"Tai, I'm sorry!" she cried, grabbing his arm-and he snapped, as the words of the letter and the echoes of his dream flared up into agony at her words.
"Goddammit! NO!!" he yelled, and wrenched away, with a roughness he hadn't intended. Sora lost her footing with a cry, stumbled and fell at his feet. She didn't try to get up; her shoulders slumped, and she began to sob inconsolably into her hands. Tai felt his anger melt into shame, and he knelt beside her, sliding his arms around her and holding her close.
"Tai..." she whispered, opening her eyes at his touch, still crying. "I can't let you throw away your world for me."
"Oh, Sora," he sadly said, looking at her with tired chocolate-brown eyes. "Don't you understand? You are my world..."
And they cried together, there behind the last remaining ammo depot, as Tai rocked her in his arms...
The sun was setting in another blaze of light as TK and Kari walked quietly through the shattered courtyard, the young woman helping her companion over and around heaps of wreckage and blasted synthstone.
"The sunset's really bright," Kari said softly, holding tightly to TK's arm as they made their way through an area littered with gravelly chunks of stone. "I think that's supposed to be good luck..."
TK sighed. "It's the explosions," he said. "They throw dust into the air, and it makes the sunset redder."
Kari stared at him, stopping. "TK?" she said. He shook his head.
"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I know you're trying to help. You're always trying to help me, I know you are, and it's great, but...unless you know how to turn off that bomb without killing Sora, I'm afraid there's nothing you can do this time."
"Command is working on it," Kari said, but TK bowed his head.
"Command isn't superhuman," he sighed. "And these things are. Kari, unless there's some kind of miracle, that's the last sunset we're going to see. Or...you, anyway." He swallowed, and there was a long pause before he spoke again, haltingly, as though exposing a part of his soul to her that he rarely shared with anyone. "Sometimes, I'm afraid I'm forgetting things. Like what a sunset looks like, or the way light plays on water, or the exact color of your eyes..." He fell silent for a moment. "That's what hurts the most. Forgetting you."
"TK, you'll never forget me," Kari said, sliding an arm tenderly around his waist and resting her head on his shoulder. "My eyes don't matter in the long run. It's me that cares about you."
"But I can't take care of you," he said bitterly. "I'm forever stuck on your good graces. Sometimes I feel so...helpless..."
Kari winced. He sounded more than helpless. He sounded hopeless, and when TK was in that bad of shape, you knew things were beyond serious.
"You don't have to take care of me," she told him, brushing a strand of hair out of his clouded eyes. "I'm fine, TK...and who knows? Joe's been working on something to fix your sight; maybe someday-"
"But we don't have someday," TK said, as she gazed up at the clock before them with his arm around her shoulders.
21:52:47.
"We've only got now..."
Night came to the Project. Around the buildings that remained, those that still had electricity began to turn off the lights, settling down for a short, uneasy rest. Sora and Tai made their way home from the main medical wing, after a series of scans and a weary prognosis by Joe and his compatriots.
The bomb was a tiny thing, insect-like in shape, and had probably been in the strange projectile that hit her. It had wrapped miniscule arms around her carotid artery, the largest one in her body, leading directly to her heart, and extended dozens of little stings into the artery wall to stay in place. To remove it might easily start a flow of blood that would be impossible to stop, and would kill in seconds. Even trying to reach it could have that effect, the area was so tender from its original entry. Sora had described what she'd seen inside the Swoopmon, but they hadn't been able to figure out its significance.
"What I don't understand," Joe had said, rubbing his temples, "is how they healed the wound up so well. Nothing we've seen so far has had that effect on human tissue, or anything even remotely close to that kind of regenerative power. It's like they just instantly re-grew the damaged tissue...or if not instantly, then insanely quickly. It makes no sense..."
*Nothing makes sense anymore,* Sora thought with a sigh, as she followed Tai silently down the hallway. Had it really been just five days since she'd last seen Mimi and the others? It felt like five years. Sora was too tired to think, too tired to do anything but put one foot in front of the other. She shook her head, and kept going.
It was all she could do.
Yuki lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling of her shared room. Once shared room; the other bed was cold and empty, still unmade from when its former occupant had left it for the last time. Yuki hadn't known the girl well, but any loss hurt...
*She wasn't even on a military Team,* Yuki thought sadly. *She worked in Nutrition... I wonder if Kari knew her?* Her thoughts were random, and wandered like an abused animal trying to find a place to lie down where it wouldn't be kicked to its feet again. Such a place was hard to find. Everything she thought of seemed to lash out at her. The Quonset...tattered, and stinking with blood from the victims stacked there. Tai...sad, frightened, about to lose the person he cared most about, one way or another. The Arena...silently ticking down their time left to live on the clock that so many people had once stood urging to hurry up and start their game...
Davis.
A smile flickered for a split second on Yuki's exhausted face. Davis was...well, he was something, that was for sure. For a moment, she wished that she could have lived long enough to know him better. She wondered how she'd never noticed him before.
*I was too wrapped up in Tai to see straight,* she remembered, with a shake of her head. *I'm not making that mistake again.* Then she realized that she wouldn't get the opportunity, and swallowed.
She hadn't been to church since she'd joined the Project, but now was as good a time as any.
"Dear Lord," she whispered into the empty silence of the room. "Please, give us another chance..."
Taichi Kamiya couldn't sleep.
He stared at the ceiling of his room, the stars pooling cold silver light across his blankets. Tai felt cold inside, and powerless, and very, very afraid. He hated feeling that way, but even that hate was nothing but another emotion on top of all the others that were tearing him apart from the inside out.
*From the inside out...that's how they're going to destroy us all,* he thought, shuddering at the many ways that could be taken...and then feeling even colder as he thought of the most literal way. *Sora...*
He was going to lose her. And he couldn't do a thing about it.
Tai let out a pained sound and rolled over, slamming a fist into his pillow. It felt good, and he did it again, and again, making the bed shake as he rained blows on the innocent thing, letting out his anger and frustration and pain. He finally realized that he might wake Sora up, and fell silent, collapsing onto the pillow. He might have cried again, but he'd done that too much lately. His eyes were drained dry, and it hurt more that way, to be unable to spill out his excess feelings in a cleansing stream of tears... This was a sort of bottling-up, and it ached in his eyes and his heart as he lay there, trying not to think about the day to come.
The day they would have to decide.
The day she was doomed...
It was too much. Tai cried out, and sat up, flinging his pillow at the wall.
There was a soft sound from outside as it hit, and he heard the Hide-a-bed move.
"Tai?"
He winced. He'd screwed things up again...now she was awake, and he'd have to talk to her again, to see her. It was all he'd ever wanted, but it hurt so much to look at her now and know what was inside of her, to know she'd be gone in the space of a day...
He got up and went to the doorway, looking out into the hall. Sora stood at the far end of it, bathed in silver moonlight and dressed in an old T-shirt and shorts of his. They were too big, and made her look small and fragile as she wavered there, her face haunted.
"I'm sorry," Tai said, quickly but softly. "I woke you up, didn't I?"
"I haven't slept all night," Sora whispered. "I couldn't..." She swallowed, swaying on her feet, and Tai took a step forward, lifting his arms slightly, as if to catch her if she fell.
"I..." he whispered, his voice trailing off painfully.
"Oh, Tai!" she cried suddenly, her eyes huge and terrified, her voice strained. "I feel like I'm standing at the edge of a cliff, and I can feel the wind behind me, trying to push me off..."
Her voice broke, and she suddenly rushed down the hallway and into his arms, as tearless as he, but breathing in jerks as though her lungs were still trying to sob. He held her tightly, desperate to help her somehow, and in those moments her lips found his.
This was not the warm kiss they'd shared earlier. It was a frightened, desperate, pleading thing that looked for satisfaction and found nothing, but in a strange, sad way it was comforting, and Tai found himself kissing back, just as desperate, trying to blot out the misery of the past day in the bitter-sweet sanctuary of her arms. He felt dizzy...
It took him a moment to realize that he was halfway to the sofa, Sora's arms and legs wrapped tightly around him, his arms holding her just as tightly. He froze, breaking the kiss, and Sora whimpered, burying her face in his shoulder like a child seeking comfort.
*That's exactly what she is,* Tai realized. *She's too afraid to know what she's doing, and...so was I.* He swallowed hard. *To do anything now would be to take advantage of her in the worst way, and I don't want to look back on our last night together and remember that. But...I can't leave her alone out here...* Tai took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then gently kissed Sora's cheek and turned, walking back to his room and carrying her carefully with him...
Behind him, the door swung softly shut.
__________________________________
Coming soon- Chapter 13: Never Say Die
(AN) Enough bittersweet Taiora for you? ^_^ Incidentally, it was the events of this chapter that first appeared in the jumble of ideas that is my brain. The rest of the story is built from the beginnings I made into this chapter. I hope it was up to snuff...I'm very nitpicky about my heavy-emotion chapters. I spent several minutes rewriting one of the sentences in here... -_-*
Anyway, I said I'd have this chapter out by Sunday...and here I am, right on schedule! Dudefish... To keep chapters coming in timely fashion, and to find out how our happy team is going to deal with this new obstacle, keep your eyes peeled for the next action-packed chapter of "Project: Moment"! *pauses for a moment to bask in the sparkly author-vibes* Yess! I have the power!! (Can you tell I'm hyped up from successful writing? ^_^) Oh, and...don't forget to review! -Bandit O_o
A Digimon Fanfiction by Bandit
~*Chapter 12- Heartstrings*~
A soft buzz seeped into Sora's consciousness, and she stirred, her eyes flickering open. A curved silver wall greeted her eyes...
She was floating, at the center of some sort of hollow, metallic sphere. Her head spun, and she didn't understand... Then she felt the strange, creeping sensation in her chest, and began to shudder violently. Something was happening. Something was...unfolding....
The shuddering calmed, and the thing inside her was still. Dizzy and almost too exhausted to be frightened, she found herself gazing at the small lights that studded the chamber walls, all sending beams of silver-white light toward her aching chest. The pattern they lay in was familiar.
It was almost like...
She shook her head, wearily, and closed her eyes. She was too tired. So very tired...she needed to...rest...
Tai stood staring up at the afternoon sky, his arms wrapped around himself as if he were cold, Joe silent beside him. A single Swoopmon hovered high above the complex. Other Swoopmon buzzed here and there around the complex, as though watching them, but this one simply hung in the air like a metallic North Star, unmoving and menacing.
"It's been there all day," Joe said softly. Tai nodded; he didn't trust himself to speak. He hadn't trusted his voice, ever since he'd seen Sora...
Seen her be...
*Dammit!* he thought, shaking his head as the tears threatened to spill over again. *Why? Why now? Oh, god...*
A soft voice spoke up behind them.
"Tai?"
He turned, to see Yuki standing there, Davis at her side. They looked tired and drawn; her hair hung limply in tangles around her face, and he had dried blood on his cheek. They held tightly to each other's hands, sharing the instinctive support of fellow disaster survivors; in the girl's other hand was a small, shiny cubical object.
"Tai, there's a message coming in on the Command frequency," Yuki said, still just as softly but with urgency in her voice.
He stared at her, uncomprehending.
"It's for you," she said, handing him the videocomm. With a feeling of heavy apprehension, Tai pressed the Receive button, and a dark image blossomed before him, wreathed in shadows.
"Taichi..."
The voice was unfamiliar, but the malicious red eyes on the screen of the handheld videocomm were unmistakable.
*The Xenophobe,* Tai thought, his heart darkening with hate. That filth had killed Sora! His fists clenched involuntarily, his fingernails biting into the skin of his palms, nearly drawing blood.
"I believe my pets have something that belongs to you," the Xenophobe continued. Tai stared at the screen, choking on rage. It didn't seem to notice his fury, or perhaps simply ignored it. "And I believe you may...want it back."
"What?!" Joe stammered, thrown. Tai was silent.
"And what makes you think that?" he said after a moment, his voice cold and deceptively calm.
"You should realize that already, Taichi," the Xenophobe said with a dark, syrupy chuckle. "I know you humans and your personal loyalties...of course you'll want her back. But then again, if you'd rather I simply killed her..."
Tai's heart nearly stopped.
"She's...she's alive?!" he whispered, feeling numb.
" 'And kicking', as I believe your human speech pattern goes," it said with crystal-clear disdain. "Well? Decide quickly; my pet is growing impatient."
Tai looked up at the sky to see that particular Swoopmon flying in quick, tight circles, as if champing at the bit to do something. He looked back at the screen, and swallowed hard.
"Let her go!" he said hoarsely, his heart aching from too many switchbacks in the last few days. Here, not here, dead, not dead... He just wanted it all to stop! He needed to rest...
And he needed Sora back.
The flaming eyes in the shadows narrowed shrewdly. "You're sure?"
"Positive," Tai rasped, too drained to play games.
"Very well," the Xenophobe said, dry satisfaction filling its voice. "Enjoy your fate, human."
The Swoopmon did a neat loop-the-loop to the ground and opened the door in its abdomen, spilling out a silent body onto the ground. Then it shot off into the air again, and disappeared over the horizon in an eyeblink. The rest of its species followed it.
Tai dropped the videocomm and sprinted toward the spot, followed closely by Joe. Sora was still and pale, her eyes closed, but Joe grabbed her wrist and nodded.
"She's alive, Tai. Her pulse is steady."
Tai felt something loosen in his chest, and suddenly he could breathe again.
"Oh, thank god," he whispered, and pulled her into his arms. She stirred, and opened her eyes.
"Tai," she said, looking drained and frightened. She swallowed, licked dry lips, and coughed. "Tai," she repeated, "why did you do it?"
"What?" he said, startled.
Her hands clutched his shirtfront.
"Tai," she said, her faint voice sounding on the breaking point from fear, "there's something inside me..."
A terrible laugh came from the abandoned videocomm, and Yuki snatched it up, staring at the screen. The Xenophobe leered out at her.
"I remember you, little one. How is your face?"
Yuki choked, and Davis moved to stand protectively behind her.
"Enjoy what we left of you," the evil thing sneered. "You've got twenty-four hours to live."
"What?!" Davis snapped.
Halfway across the courtyard, the sign over the Arena flared into life with a whine of machinery, showing 24:00:00 in blood-red numbers. There was a soft click, and it began to count down. Sora let out a gasp and jerked in Tai's arms.
"What is it?" he said, alarmed. She looked up at him, her face pale as a ghost.
Something inside her chest, next to her heart, had moved.
"Oh, my god," she whispered, horrified.
"What?!" Tai asked quickly.
The Xenophobe smiled, white fangs flickering in the light from his eyes...
"It's a bomb," he said.
Yuki let out a cry and threw the videocomm to the ground as though it had become red-hot, as Davis shouted in alarm. Tai stared at the little machine in horror, and then looked back at Sora, who was huge-eyed with terror, hand over her heart. Joe sucked in his breath.
"You have twenty-four hours," the voice continued from the comm. "I want to enjoy this to the fullest. Don't try to leave the complex; there are Morphmon outside, hidden around the walls. You'd be dead before you took a step."
Yuki began to cry softly.
"Isn't there anything we can do?!" Davis shouted.
"Yes," the Xenophobe said, great pleasure in its voice.
"What is it?!" Tai cried, desperate.
The thing chuckled darkly.
"You can kill the girl. Her heartbeat keeps the bomb ticking."
There was silence in the courtyard. Another chuckle came from the videocomm.
"Have fun," the Xenophobe said, and the comm switched off.
"Tai, you have to do it!"
Tai leaned wearily on the outer wall of one of the complex buildings, resting his cheek against the cool, rough synthstone. His head hurt, and his heart was aching. *I'm tired of being the one people look to,* he thought bleakly. *I'm tired of leading, I'm tired of danger, I'm tired of making life-or-death decisions...
*How can they expect me to decide...this?*
"No," he said, his voice rough from too much shouting...too much crying...
"Tai, please," Sora said, her face pale as milk, but set resolutely. She'd been arguing with him for the last hour, trying to make him see. All these people were trapped here, and...well, the last thing she wanted to do was die, but she was dead either way! He had to understand that! He just had to... "Please, do it... I can't stand knowing all these people are going to die because of me!"
"Sora, I can't," he said, refusing to even think about it. "I can't!"
"Yes, you can," she insisted. "No one else will listen to me-"
"They shouldn't!" Tai shouted, whirling, and she saw that his face was tear-streaked. "What do you want me to do, just grab a pistol and fire?! I can't do what you're asking! It's crazy!"
"It's the only way!" Sora wailed. "Tai, do you think I want to die?"
"You're sure acting like it!" Tai bitterly snapped. How could she possibly do this? To come asking him to...to kill her? Or to find someone who would? He knew noone would obey; Sora was too important to destroy. Without her, there was no hope, no reason to keep trying...they were all doomed anyway, if she died here! But she wouldn't listen... "Don't you understand? We don't turn on our own kind here! No matter what! Sora-"
"Tai, I'm sorry!" she cried, grabbing his arm-and he snapped, as the words of the letter and the echoes of his dream flared up into agony at her words.
"Goddammit! NO!!" he yelled, and wrenched away, with a roughness he hadn't intended. Sora lost her footing with a cry, stumbled and fell at his feet. She didn't try to get up; her shoulders slumped, and she began to sob inconsolably into her hands. Tai felt his anger melt into shame, and he knelt beside her, sliding his arms around her and holding her close.
"Tai..." she whispered, opening her eyes at his touch, still crying. "I can't let you throw away your world for me."
"Oh, Sora," he sadly said, looking at her with tired chocolate-brown eyes. "Don't you understand? You are my world..."
And they cried together, there behind the last remaining ammo depot, as Tai rocked her in his arms...
The sun was setting in another blaze of light as TK and Kari walked quietly through the shattered courtyard, the young woman helping her companion over and around heaps of wreckage and blasted synthstone.
"The sunset's really bright," Kari said softly, holding tightly to TK's arm as they made their way through an area littered with gravelly chunks of stone. "I think that's supposed to be good luck..."
TK sighed. "It's the explosions," he said. "They throw dust into the air, and it makes the sunset redder."
Kari stared at him, stopping. "TK?" she said. He shook his head.
"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I know you're trying to help. You're always trying to help me, I know you are, and it's great, but...unless you know how to turn off that bomb without killing Sora, I'm afraid there's nothing you can do this time."
"Command is working on it," Kari said, but TK bowed his head.
"Command isn't superhuman," he sighed. "And these things are. Kari, unless there's some kind of miracle, that's the last sunset we're going to see. Or...you, anyway." He swallowed, and there was a long pause before he spoke again, haltingly, as though exposing a part of his soul to her that he rarely shared with anyone. "Sometimes, I'm afraid I'm forgetting things. Like what a sunset looks like, or the way light plays on water, or the exact color of your eyes..." He fell silent for a moment. "That's what hurts the most. Forgetting you."
"TK, you'll never forget me," Kari said, sliding an arm tenderly around his waist and resting her head on his shoulder. "My eyes don't matter in the long run. It's me that cares about you."
"But I can't take care of you," he said bitterly. "I'm forever stuck on your good graces. Sometimes I feel so...helpless..."
Kari winced. He sounded more than helpless. He sounded hopeless, and when TK was in that bad of shape, you knew things were beyond serious.
"You don't have to take care of me," she told him, brushing a strand of hair out of his clouded eyes. "I'm fine, TK...and who knows? Joe's been working on something to fix your sight; maybe someday-"
"But we don't have someday," TK said, as she gazed up at the clock before them with his arm around her shoulders.
21:52:47.
"We've only got now..."
Night came to the Project. Around the buildings that remained, those that still had electricity began to turn off the lights, settling down for a short, uneasy rest. Sora and Tai made their way home from the main medical wing, after a series of scans and a weary prognosis by Joe and his compatriots.
The bomb was a tiny thing, insect-like in shape, and had probably been in the strange projectile that hit her. It had wrapped miniscule arms around her carotid artery, the largest one in her body, leading directly to her heart, and extended dozens of little stings into the artery wall to stay in place. To remove it might easily start a flow of blood that would be impossible to stop, and would kill in seconds. Even trying to reach it could have that effect, the area was so tender from its original entry. Sora had described what she'd seen inside the Swoopmon, but they hadn't been able to figure out its significance.
"What I don't understand," Joe had said, rubbing his temples, "is how they healed the wound up so well. Nothing we've seen so far has had that effect on human tissue, or anything even remotely close to that kind of regenerative power. It's like they just instantly re-grew the damaged tissue...or if not instantly, then insanely quickly. It makes no sense..."
*Nothing makes sense anymore,* Sora thought with a sigh, as she followed Tai silently down the hallway. Had it really been just five days since she'd last seen Mimi and the others? It felt like five years. Sora was too tired to think, too tired to do anything but put one foot in front of the other. She shook her head, and kept going.
It was all she could do.
Yuki lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling of her shared room. Once shared room; the other bed was cold and empty, still unmade from when its former occupant had left it for the last time. Yuki hadn't known the girl well, but any loss hurt...
*She wasn't even on a military Team,* Yuki thought sadly. *She worked in Nutrition... I wonder if Kari knew her?* Her thoughts were random, and wandered like an abused animal trying to find a place to lie down where it wouldn't be kicked to its feet again. Such a place was hard to find. Everything she thought of seemed to lash out at her. The Quonset...tattered, and stinking with blood from the victims stacked there. Tai...sad, frightened, about to lose the person he cared most about, one way or another. The Arena...silently ticking down their time left to live on the clock that so many people had once stood urging to hurry up and start their game...
Davis.
A smile flickered for a split second on Yuki's exhausted face. Davis was...well, he was something, that was for sure. For a moment, she wished that she could have lived long enough to know him better. She wondered how she'd never noticed him before.
*I was too wrapped up in Tai to see straight,* she remembered, with a shake of her head. *I'm not making that mistake again.* Then she realized that she wouldn't get the opportunity, and swallowed.
She hadn't been to church since she'd joined the Project, but now was as good a time as any.
"Dear Lord," she whispered into the empty silence of the room. "Please, give us another chance..."
Taichi Kamiya couldn't sleep.
He stared at the ceiling of his room, the stars pooling cold silver light across his blankets. Tai felt cold inside, and powerless, and very, very afraid. He hated feeling that way, but even that hate was nothing but another emotion on top of all the others that were tearing him apart from the inside out.
*From the inside out...that's how they're going to destroy us all,* he thought, shuddering at the many ways that could be taken...and then feeling even colder as he thought of the most literal way. *Sora...*
He was going to lose her. And he couldn't do a thing about it.
Tai let out a pained sound and rolled over, slamming a fist into his pillow. It felt good, and he did it again, and again, making the bed shake as he rained blows on the innocent thing, letting out his anger and frustration and pain. He finally realized that he might wake Sora up, and fell silent, collapsing onto the pillow. He might have cried again, but he'd done that too much lately. His eyes were drained dry, and it hurt more that way, to be unable to spill out his excess feelings in a cleansing stream of tears... This was a sort of bottling-up, and it ached in his eyes and his heart as he lay there, trying not to think about the day to come.
The day they would have to decide.
The day she was doomed...
It was too much. Tai cried out, and sat up, flinging his pillow at the wall.
There was a soft sound from outside as it hit, and he heard the Hide-a-bed move.
"Tai?"
He winced. He'd screwed things up again...now she was awake, and he'd have to talk to her again, to see her. It was all he'd ever wanted, but it hurt so much to look at her now and know what was inside of her, to know she'd be gone in the space of a day...
He got up and went to the doorway, looking out into the hall. Sora stood at the far end of it, bathed in silver moonlight and dressed in an old T-shirt and shorts of his. They were too big, and made her look small and fragile as she wavered there, her face haunted.
"I'm sorry," Tai said, quickly but softly. "I woke you up, didn't I?"
"I haven't slept all night," Sora whispered. "I couldn't..." She swallowed, swaying on her feet, and Tai took a step forward, lifting his arms slightly, as if to catch her if she fell.
"I..." he whispered, his voice trailing off painfully.
"Oh, Tai!" she cried suddenly, her eyes huge and terrified, her voice strained. "I feel like I'm standing at the edge of a cliff, and I can feel the wind behind me, trying to push me off..."
Her voice broke, and she suddenly rushed down the hallway and into his arms, as tearless as he, but breathing in jerks as though her lungs were still trying to sob. He held her tightly, desperate to help her somehow, and in those moments her lips found his.
This was not the warm kiss they'd shared earlier. It was a frightened, desperate, pleading thing that looked for satisfaction and found nothing, but in a strange, sad way it was comforting, and Tai found himself kissing back, just as desperate, trying to blot out the misery of the past day in the bitter-sweet sanctuary of her arms. He felt dizzy...
It took him a moment to realize that he was halfway to the sofa, Sora's arms and legs wrapped tightly around him, his arms holding her just as tightly. He froze, breaking the kiss, and Sora whimpered, burying her face in his shoulder like a child seeking comfort.
*That's exactly what she is,* Tai realized. *She's too afraid to know what she's doing, and...so was I.* He swallowed hard. *To do anything now would be to take advantage of her in the worst way, and I don't want to look back on our last night together and remember that. But...I can't leave her alone out here...* Tai took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then gently kissed Sora's cheek and turned, walking back to his room and carrying her carefully with him...
Behind him, the door swung softly shut.
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Coming soon- Chapter 13: Never Say Die
(AN) Enough bittersweet Taiora for you? ^_^ Incidentally, it was the events of this chapter that first appeared in the jumble of ideas that is my brain. The rest of the story is built from the beginnings I made into this chapter. I hope it was up to snuff...I'm very nitpicky about my heavy-emotion chapters. I spent several minutes rewriting one of the sentences in here... -_-*
Anyway, I said I'd have this chapter out by Sunday...and here I am, right on schedule! Dudefish... To keep chapters coming in timely fashion, and to find out how our happy team is going to deal with this new obstacle, keep your eyes peeled for the next action-packed chapter of "Project: Moment"! *pauses for a moment to bask in the sparkly author-vibes* Yess! I have the power!! (Can you tell I'm hyped up from successful writing? ^_^) Oh, and...don't forget to review! -Bandit O_o