Chapter six: Father-Daughter Moment

Matt was bandaging up Mara's head. Luckily he had brought bandages just in case someone got hurt even though he knew Sora was carrying a small first aid kit and Joe had brought a bunch of supplies.

"There, finished." He said as he applied the last bandage. He watched her as she slept. He couldn't help but wonder why she was here and why she looked so much like him. Gabumon, being a wolf, noticed that she had Matt's scent on her but then remembered that Matt was the one who carried her into the cave they were in so he shrugged it off.

"Will she be okay?" He asked.

"I'm pretty sure." Matt answered. Just then Gabumon's stomach began to growl.

"I'm getting pretty hungry, I'll go get us something to eat." With that said, he left the cave in hopes to find food, leaving Matt and Mara alone. Matt sat up against the wall of the cave collecting his thoughts. He thought about how TK didn't need him anymore. He was a big kid now who didn't need his older brother leading him by the hand. He let a tear trickle down his cheek and quickly wiped it off. Mara awoke to find a fog of darkness starting to engulf Matt's body. His eyes were dark and cold. They had no life. Mara jerked her head up. She knew where she was, who she was with and what was happening. Instead of calling him by what she usually called him, she decided it would be best to call him Matt.

"Matt!" She got up from her laying position and ran towards him shaking him lightly.

"Matt snap out of it!" She ordered. Matt simply turned his head to her with no expression whatsoever.

"How do you know my name?" He asked with no emotion in his voice.

"That doesn't matter! You have to snap out of it! You can't let the darkness swallow you up!" He turned away from her.

"What do you mean? There's no darkness." Mara took his hand into her small ones. He stared at her.

"Matt I know how you're feeling right now." He scoffed.

"No you don't, you have no idea of what I'm even thinking."

"You feel that no one needs you or love you." Matt perked his head up when hearing this. Mara held onto his hand tighter.

"But you mustn't believe that, everyone has a purpose in the world, and you are loved by many people."

"Like who? TK? He doesn't need me."

"He's just trying to do things his own way, but there are other people who need you in their lives."

"Name one."

"Me." Matt faced her again. She felt her forehead and knew that he helped her.

"You bandaged me up." Matt sighed.

"So what? Anyone could have done that."

"But still you cared about me enough to do it, and anyone who cares for someone else is always loved by another." He faced the ground.

"Think about your parents, think about TK, think about the digidestined." He didn't even look up at the mention of them.

"Think about... Sora!" Matt's head jerked up when she said that.

"Sora? Why would you mention her?" Her voice became soft and gentle.

"Because she cares for you Matt, just think about it." Matt thought back when she helped him at the diner when Demidevimon was wrecking everything. He remembered when Phantomon attacked and Sora tried to protect him. He remembered when he yelled at her for destroying Kiwimon, he thought she hated him after that, but later on, she said she believed in him when he made the decision of going off on his own and even suggested of splitting the group obviously to watch over him. She was also glad to see him when he defeated Puppetmon. As he thought about these things the darkness slowly rose. Mara began to shed tears of happiness.

"Sora's not the only one who cares for you, your parents may not love each other anymore but they care about each other and they care about you too, and just because TK doesn't need you doesn't mean he doesn't love you." Matt listened to the wise little girl and released tears and wasn't afraid to show them.

"And Gabumon is your best friend for life, he cares a lot about you." Matt closed his eyes as he cried not showing his face, clenching Mara's tiny hands. She looked at him not knowing if she was helping him or just making it worse. She looked down to the ground, then lifted her head up quickly as soon as she heard Matt speak.

"You know, you're pretty wise for a little girl." He lifted his head to face her. She beamed when she saw him smiling at her. The darkness had left him; his eyes were back to normal, sapphire and full of life. The cave disappeared along with the darkness. She let a few more tears run down her cheeks. Matt brushed them off.

"Why are you crying?" Mara just smiled warmly at him and giggled.

"I'm just so happy to see you back to normal." She then hugged him tightly, surprising Matt. He returned the hug and gently pushed her away to face her.

"Thanks for helping me." She giggled once again and gave him a small peck on the cheek. He blushed wondering why she was being so loving, she only met him a couple of hours ago. He then saw a picture sticking out of one of her pockets. It was the one she was looking at previously. Mara saw that it was falling out and tried to catch it but Matt caught it before it touched the ground. He gasped when he saw who was in the picture. She gulped. It was him.

"Who is this a picture of?" Mara took the picture and put it back in her pocket.

"It's my daddy when he was younger." Matt eyed her with suspicion.

"I-it's a strange coincidence that he looks like you isn't it?" She asked trying to convince him that it wasn't him.

"I guess so." He replied. Mara sighed.

"And it's also strange that you fell from the sky, knew who Gabumon was, knew who I was, knew my friends' name, my brother's name, and knew my parents divorced!" Mara stepped back a few steps. Matt got up to his feet eyeing her with a stern look. Mara trembled.

"Well, I, um..." Matt knelt down in front of her. Mara dared not look him in the eyes.

"Tell me, how do you know all this?" His voice softened. She finally looked up at him and sighed.

"Alright, my name is Yamara, and I come from the future." Matt grinned.

"I thought so, am I your dad?." Mara began to cry. Matt, surprised by her reaction, hugged her to calm her down.

"Yes, you are!" She managed to say between sobs.

"Well why are you crying?" She clenched his now wet shirt.

"Because I'm afraid that my brother and I won't be born now!" She cried. He began to pat her back. Then stopped in realization that he had a son as well.

"I have a son too?" Mara wiped here tears and pulled away from him.

"Yeah, he's five years old." She giggled a little.

"He looks a lot like mom but acts like you."

"Can you tell me who your mom is?" Mara began to let her tears flow again.

"I'm sorry but I can't, I'm too afraid to take the chance of not being born." Matt wiped her tears away. She smiled.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me anything you don't want me to know and I promise not to say a word about this, okay Yamara?" She giggled and nodded.

"You can just call me Mara." Suddenly they heard sobbing coming from where the cave entrance used to be. Matt and Mara got up to check it out. They were relieved to find Gabumon wiping a couple of tears from his face.

"I love these father-daughter moments!" He said between sobs. Matt blushed a bit.

"How long have you been standing out here?" He asked nervously. Gabumon calmed down.

"Sorry for eavesdropping but I heard the whole thing." He smiled. Matt and Mara returned the smile.

"It's okay Gabumon." Mara said warmly. Suddenly four voices caused their heads to turn.

"Mara!" A voice that sounded like Kari's called.

"Ariyo!" TK called.

"Where are you?!" Hiroshi yelled out.

"Come out come out where ever you are!" Patamon cried. Mara rejoiced and ran in the direction the voices came from.

"Mara where are you going?!" Matt and Gabumon ran after her.

"Come on we better keep going." Said Hiroshi sadly. Kari then heard someone running towards them and saw a figure coming closer.

"Look!" Kari called. Hiroshi, TK, and Patamon turned towards the figure.

"Hiroshi it's me!" Mara yelled out. Hiroshi smiled as he ran towards her. They hugged happy to see each other. Hiroshi then noticed her bandages.

"What happened?"

"I just had a little accident!" She replied blithely. Her head didn't hurt as much so she took the bandages off and stuck them in her pocket.

"Mara, wait up!" The others turned to see Matt and Gabumon heading their way. TK giggled with glee.

"Matt! Gabumon! What are you doing here?" Matt ran towards his little brother and gave him a hug.

"Oh so you're Matt." Hiroshi tried act surprised. Matt stared at him.

"TK's told me a lot about you!"

"Who are you?" Matt asked.

"This is my cousin Hiroshi!" Mara answered. Matt was taken aback. 'TK has a son? Heh, he looks a lot like him.' Matt thought. He let go of TK and shook Hiroshi's hand.

"Nice to meet you!"

"Likewise!" Hiroshi said.

"This is great! Now we just need to find Ariyo!" Kari said. Hiroshi took Mara aside.

"Did you tell Matt about being his daughter?" Mara frowned.

"Yes, but he said he wouldn't tell any of his friends." Hiroshi sighed. They walked back to the others. TK was explaining to Matt what has been happening.

"Ariyo is Mara's brother right?" Asked Matt. TK nodded.

"Well we better go find him before the Dark Masters do."

"Oh yeah, no one can see these kids except for the digidestined and our digimon." TK said.

"Wow." Matt said. The seven of them started to wander off to find Ariyo.

"So where do you think Ariyo is?" Kari asked. TK thought for a moment.

"I think he's with Sora." Matt eyed him as he continued his conversation with Kari.

"Have you noticed that each kid has been with one of the digidestined?"

"Yeah it's strange, they also resemble each of us too, I mean I know we must be their ancestors but they look too much like us to be a hundred generations ahead of us." Kari thought out loud. Hiroshi started to become nervous. Matt whispered to him.

"You told them they were your ancestors?" Hiroshi nodded. Matt and Mara shook their heads.