*Disclaimer* - I don't own the characters, never have done, never will do. Sueing me will earn you all of $5.36 and if you're really that desperate for cash then you can start saving money by getting the hell off the internet. Unless you have a completely free server of course. In which case I envy you greatly. Anyway, on with the fic...

A Love Born of Hate (Part Eight)

All Your Digimon Are Belong To Myotismon

"Matt is gonna *hate* me for this!"

Through my bleary, semi-conscious vision, I could see Mimi cocking her head to one side. "But you and Matt always hate each other," she pointed out reasonably.

"And besides," Jyou added, "what happened to Takeru wasn't your fault. There was nothing anyone could have done to stop it. Don't beat yourself up over it, Tai."

"I don't have to," the dejected leader said miserably. "Matt'll do that for me."

"Huh..." The three of them turned to me as I struggled to sit up. "Tai... Takeru... What?"

Looking very nervous, Taichi explained the situation. "Us four are awake, but, uh, Sora and Koushiro and Takeru are still pretty out of it. And -"

"Takeru!" I scrambled over to where my little brother lay in the corner, patches of blood covering his fleece.

"Oh God, Takeru... are you okay? Speak to me!" I turned frantically to Tai. "Will he be all right?"

"We, uh, think so. The ice shards didn't go in too deep, he'll be pretty sore when he wakes up, but other than that he'll be okay... we think."

"Unless the shards were poisoned, of course," Jyou pointed out in his usual helpful, optimistic manner. I scowled at him and he shut up. I noticed that Tai was being kinda quiet, which was unusual, he was usually all mouth. Well, that and hair, of course.

"I'll just, uh, sit here with Takeru until he comes round." So saying, I sat beside my brother and took up his hand. "Come on, otoutochan..."

Jyou, Mimi and Tai drifted away and left us alone. I kept up the encouragement. "You ain't badly hurt, Takeru. You'll be alright, li'l bro. I'm here. I love you, kid."

I suddenly became aware that Taichi was still hovering behind me, watching us with a faraway expression on his face. My first instinct was to yell at him to get lost, couldn't he see this was a private moment? But I bit back on it and smiled instead. "Hey. Deja vu?"

"Huh?" Tai looked at me strangely. "No, why?"

I chuckled to myself. "Oh, no reason. Take a seat, Tai, I wanna talk to you."

"Um... okay." He sat down beside me on the dusty concrete, and I began.

"It's not your fault, Tai. Jyou's right. I'm not gonna start a fight with you on this one."

"Why not? You fight with me on everything else."

"Hey, I'm making an effort to be nice here," I warned him. He smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. Hey, deja vu yourself... recognise this dungeon, by any chance?"

Now he mentioned it, I did. It was the same dungeon I had been kept in when Myotismon had captured me for the first time, back when me and Tai had been trying to rescue the rest of the DigiDestined. Funny how things turn out... now we were all back here. They would've done better to go on without me. Gabumon had been taken to a different cell back then, and all of the digimon were missing now, too. Just great. "Yeah, I recognise it," I muttered. "Unfortunately."

"Hey, don't knock this place," Tai joked. "Regular four star hotel, this!" Then becoming more serious - "We made friends here, remember?"

I began to feel uncomfortable about the turn this conversation was taking - I don't do mushy reminiscing. "Yeah, whatever."

Tai looked slightly hurt. Oops. "Hey, I didn't mean that. We *are* friends... right?"

"Oh yeah, the best ever!"

I chuckled. "Okay, we don't make the perfect team. But..." I trailed off, not sure what I was trying to say. "I guess I mean... oh heck, I dunno what I mean!" I laughed nervously and ran my fingers through my hair. Tai gasped.

"Matt! Do you have any idea what you just did? You just MESSED UP YOUR HAIR!"

I gasped myself. "Noooooo!" I mock-wailed. "My life is over! Uh... do you have a comb?"

Tai pointed to the great fluffy bush sprouting out above his goggles. "Do I look like I have a comb?"

"Man, you don't look like you ever had a comb."

"Hey! It took me ages to achieve this look!"

"Yeah, man... I mean, it must take hours to drag yourself through a bush backwards like that..."

"Hmmph!" Tai thumped my arm, and I thumped him back. He thumped me again. I pushed him to the floor and dangled my fist in front of his nose. He slapped it out of the way and brought his knee dangerously close to my groin. I winced and eased off. Tai grinned. "Bow to my superiority !"

"Your superiority my ass!" I yelled. The hentai implications of that little statement hit us both at the same time and we collapsed laughing on the floor.

"You're a sicko, Matt," Tai choked out between gasps. "Gross!"

"Yeah," I agreed. No matter how strongly I feel for Tai, I'm only eleven years old and that kind of thing is still definitely gross in my humble opinion.

"Guys... Mimi? What's going on?" Just as Sora woke up Koushiro stirred too, and soon all six of us were up and about. Only Takeru was still unconscious. I cast him a worried glance before turning my attention to what Sora had to say.

"I found an open window on the second floor," she was telling us, "so Birdramon and Kabuterimon flew Koushiro and I up to it. Kabuterimon and Birdramon de-digivolved, and we slipped in undetected and began searching for Takeru."

Tai looked at Jyou accusingly. "I thought you said they'd been captured!"

Jyou looked embarrassed. "Well, I thought... I assumed..."

"The worst, as usual," I muttered. "Nice one, Jyou."

"Sorry."

"Anyway," continued Sora, "we made our way down to a dungeon - not this one - and we found Tokomon passed out on the floor. Tentomon Super Shockered the lock and we got him out. He told us Takeru had been taken to a nearby prison, so we searched around and found him too. A guard came and we ran for it back the way we came, and we got outside just in time to see you guys in need of some serious help. Are you all okay? How's Takeru?"

"He'll be alright," I reassured her, with a lot more confidence than I actually felt.

"This is all my fault," Tai muttered. "If I hadn't turned round to look at Kelimon, if I hadn't been so mean to you all the time, Matt, if I wasn't so *stupid*..."

"Hey hey hey, time out," I said, surprised. "You being mean to me? I thought I was the one who was always mean to you!" Tai shook his head. "Forget that, dude. We gotta get out of here fast, before someone gets hurt *really* badly... and then it will be my fault. We need a plan." He paused and looked round. Everyone was looking at him. He nodded. "All right, give me time to think of something. I will get us out of here. I promise."

The whole group spirit rose after that. For a couple of seconds I felt a pang of the old jealousy, but pushed it away. It was just that - well, if Tai had been someplace else and *I* had made that speech, there would have been a hell of a lot of mistrustful muttering going round. Everyone has confidence in Tai, he's a natural leader, and I guess I'm... well, not.

Tai went off into a corner on his own to think of a miraculous escape plan, and I sat with Takeru. "Hey, little bud," I whispered. "How's it goin'?"

"My tummy hurts," Takeru whimpered. Then he stirred and opened his eyes. "Matt?"

"Takeru!" I grabbed him and hugged him until he complained that I was making it hurt, so I put him gently back down. Tears trickled down his cheeks and he rubbed them away with a grubby hand. "How d'you feel?" I asked him.

"Like a pincushion," he replied, sniffing. "Are you okay, Matt? Did we get Kelimon?"

I shook my head slowly. "No, we didn't get her. Not this time, anyway, but we will. And everyone else is fine, it's just you who's a little banged up. You were really brave, you know."

"I was?" Takeru's eyes shone at my praise, and it wasn't just the tears. "You really think?"

"Course I do! You think I'd lie?" I made my voice go all funny and deep. "Mister Ishida does not take kindly to being called a liar, Mister Takaishi. You're not calling me a liar, are you?"

"Oh Matt, cut it out," laughed Takeru. "You don't need to put on the Mister Ishida voice anymore. I'm a big boy now."

"An' who says I do it for you, huh?" I demanded, but then I relented. "Okay, I won't anymore. You're growing up real fast. I think you'll be getting a beard any day now, whaddya think?" He giggled as I scrutinised his chin for whiskers. "Not yet, kiddo. But pretty soon now."

"I've got it!" yelled Tai from the other end of the room. Six heads turned sharply, and Takeru tried to peer around me to get a better view.

"What? What has he got?"

"We can just -" our leader began excitedly. But then he hesitated, and his face fell. "No. It wouldn't work. Forget it."

"We could -" Sora started to say, but Tai shook his head.

"It won't work, I said. Just forget it, Sora. There's only one thing that will work now... GUARD!"

We all looked at each other. "Perhaps he's surrendering?" suggested Jyou hopefully. Koushiro shook his head. A Digimon walked in.

"Yes? What do you want?"

"I want to talk with Myotismon." It was an order more than a request, and it certainly convinced our guard.

"I-I'll let him know," he stammered, and fled. We all turned to Tai.

"Just what in the hell are you up to?"

"What are you going to do, Tai?"

"I still think we should surrender."

"He know what he's doing, don'tcha, Tai?"

"I think he's just being silly!"

"This does seem somewhat irrational, and would most likely irritate Myotismon further."

"Shut up, all of you!" Tai bawled. We fell silent. "Takeru's right, I know what I'm doing. But I'm not going to tell you what I'm doing, because you won't like it and you might not let me do it."

"Sounds dangerous to me," I commented suspiciously. Tai nodded.

"It is. But it'll work, I'm positive of it."

"Myotismon will see you now. Come this way. Stay back, the rest of you!" The guard began to unlock the cage.

"Do as he says," commanded Tai in a low voice. We stayed back as he was dragged from the cage and shoved across the dungeon. I closed my eyes to block out the sight of him sprawling on his face. He got back to his feet and began to climb the stairway.

"Tai, wait!" I called out, running to the bars. I was getting very bad vibes about this idea of Tai's. "You, uh, said it was dangerous. As a leader, you should avoid putting the group in danger at all costs!" I was desperate for him not to go.

Tai looked back at me and smiled sadly. "The rest of you won't be in danger. Hey, Matt... take care of Agumon for me."

"Take care of... but... Tai, you'll be coming back, right?" He was shoved up the stairs and out of sight.

"TAI!" I yelled frantically. "Come back! Please, Tai -"

The slam of a door was heard. Cursing and footsteps. The sounds receded, and the dungeon was plunged back into silence.

"No," I whispered. I swallowed hard and scrunched up my eyes. "NO!" I kicked the iron bar in front of me as hard as I could, and pain flooded through my foot. That was okay, the pain felt good. I kicked it again, then slithered to the floor. God, what had he done?

The rest of the DigiDestined looked at each other helplessly. We were nothing without our leader, I realised. What stupid thing had he gone and done now? Oh yeah, be a hero, Tai, I thought bitterly. And get us all killed while you're at it.

"Matt?" Takeru asked in a voice that trembled. "Tai *is* coming back, isn't he?"

"I don't know, kiddo," I had to admit. "I just don't know."

We all sat around in silence for about half an hour, until the door crashed open and Myotismon swept in. We all jumped and scrambled to our feet. I clenched my fists. Myotismon laughed.

"Your pitiful leader," he spat contemptuously, "has offered himself up to me in exchange for the freedom of the rest of you and all your Digimon. Heh... it was an offer I had to refuse. Why bother to strike such a deal, when I already have *all* of you under my power? I could kill you all in an instant!"

"Then why don't you!" yelled Takeru suddenly, who had been hiding behind me up until that point. "We don't have our Digimon, we can't defend ourselves! If you want us all dead, then why haven't you killed us already!?"

Myotismon scowled. "I have other plans. You are all going to be entrusted to the care of a dear friend of mine." So saying, Myotismon extended an arm towards the doorway behind him. A feminine hand reached out and elegantly took his, and in came Kelimon. Takeru hid back behind me again.

"You're all coming with me, DigiDestined," she purred. "You, your Digimon and your bruised and battered friend." So saying, she produced Taichi from nowhere and flung him towards us. He passed straight through the solid metal bars and landed with a thump on the floor. I shot over to him and he opened his eyes and looked at me.

"Matt? Ungh... ow."

Nothing seemed broken, but his whole body (or at least, what I could see of it) was covered in huge purple and yellow bruises. A thin trickle of dried blood encrusted one cheek, and blood still ran freely from his nose. "Oh man, what did he do to you?" I whispered. Tai shook his head weakly.

"Not him... her. She wants to use... our power... to..." He stopped and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. "To find new worlds... like, like our world... and conquer them all. Our families, Matt, all our friends... they'll be killed, or made to... to be slaves. Like Myotismon. We can't stop her, she's too powerful... she'll *make* us help her..." He licked his dry lips and swallowed. "We're doomed."

Kelimon laughed, and Myotismon joined in. "You will be taken to my home in the morning," Kelimon informed us, "and there you'll be put to good use. Ciao for now..." The ugly pair left us alone again. Jyou plopped his head into his hands.

"I knew this was gonna be a bad day right from the start."

"Oh, who cares about your day!" burst out Mimi. "I'm tired and I'm cold and I'm hungry and I don't *want* to be a slave, I want to go home and have people wait on me and let me eat chocolate ice-cream from the tub and wash my hair with egg shampoo, I want to see my Mom and Dad and sit on the sofa watching telly where it's nice and safe and dry and I don't have to worry about any scary monsters except the ones in my closet, I want to talk with all my friends about boys and homework and makeovers and I WANT TO GO HOOOOOOOMME! OHHHH..."

"That's all you have to worry about?" muttered Jyou under the noise of Mimi's bawling. "If I don't get back to the real world soon then I'm not going to be able to catch up on all the schoolwork I've missed and I won't be able to pass any of my exams. I've got more to lose than a few home comforts and a couple of false nails, Mimi. I have *real* worries."

"OH YEAH WELL JUST TRY THINKING OF SOMEONE ELSE BUT YOURSELF FOR A CHANGE JYOU!" Mimi yelled back at him. "JUST BECAUSE YOU LIVE A BORING GEEKY LIFE DOESN'T MEAN THE REST OF US HAVE TO!"

"Hey, that's not fair, Mimi," said Sora. "We all miss home in different ways, but-"

"Just butt out, Sora," Jyou snapped, clenching his fists. "This has nothing to do with you."

"Yeah, Sora!" shrieked Mimi. "Mind your own stinking business!"

"Jyou, Mimi; Sora is just trying to help," Koushiro spoke up. "Maybe you should listen to her."

"I can handle this, Koushiro."

"Yeah, and what would you know anyway?" Jyou challenged the smaller boy rudely. "You barely pull your head out of that damn laptop twice a year, it's a wonder any of us recognise your face!"

"Those of us who can bear to look at it," Mimi added savagely.

Sora began to lose patience. "Just shut up, Mimi! If you whined less and thought more, difficult as it is with a brain the size of a pea, the DigiDestined might actually get somewhere!"

"Oh yeah, you can *really* handle this, can't you Sora?" drawled Koushiro, smarting from Mimi's insult and not really caring who he took it out on. "Think you're the sensible one out of all of us... don't make me laugh."

"And like you're the most sensible person here!" Mimi shot at him, smirking. "You live in a world of your own, filled with dirty hentai webpages!"

Koushiro reddened with rage. "I most certainly do not! And none of you are exactly what I'd call prime examples of sensibility, are you? A prodigiously idiotic bunch, if you ask me!"

"Well nobody asked you, Koushiro, so keep it shut."

"What would you know, Four-Eyes!?"

Takeru slapped his hands over his ears. "You're all acting like jerks!" he yelled, but nobody heard him. I pressed my lips together in a firm line and began dragging Tai, still semi-conscious and dazed, over to a safe corner. Then I stood up and surveyed my bickering - no, almost *brawling* friends in consternation.

"I SAID YOU'RE ALL ACTING LIKE JERKS!" screamed Takeru. All four turned on him.

"Shut UP, Takeru!"

That did it. "SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!" I bellowed, but nobody paid me the slightest bit of attention. Mimi was shrieking the loudest, so I changed my tactics.

"MIMI! LOOK! A FRECKLE ON YOUR NOSE!"

That got her attention all right. "What? Where?" she squealed, crossing her eyes and trying to get a good look at her own nose. "A freckle! Argh!"

"Mimi, there is no freckle," I told her. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to Jyou... "Don't you DARE all start arguing again!" I bawled. Silence filled the dungeon and I glared at my friends. Yeah... they really were my friends. I never realised that before. "Now listen to me, all of you," I commanded. "I don't want to hear about who said what, and I don't want to know who started it. I just want it to stop, right now. This isn't helping. It isn't helping Taichi, it isn't helping me and it isn't helping any of you. Quite possibly it's helping Kelimon, though, cause while you're all bickering you're not planning an escape. We can fight, or we can stick together. Anyone who wants to fight can go stand at the other end of the dungeon and fight there." Pause for effect. "Well?" All four of them hung their heads in shame, not moving. "Good," I said, feeling pretty damn pleased with myself. I fixed them all with the evil eye for a bit, then turned back to Tai!

"How ya doing, baby?" ...Feck! Did I just say that? Balls! Oh *no*...

"I'm okay, I think..." Tai started to push himself into a sitting position, then hesitated and looked up at me, flicking his little fringe out of his eyes. "Yamato... did you just say...?"

"Say what?" I asked innocently, steeling my nerves to restrain me from running screaming across the dungeon. Act normal, Matt. Gulp.

"Uhh... nothing. Guess I must have imagined it." He eyed me distrustfully as he leaned back against the wall, and I smiled at him casually. Act normal. My chest feels tight... oh yeah, Yamato, and remember to breathe.

Tai closed his eyes and muttered something I didn't catch. "Huh? Whaddya say?"

"I was just wishing I could see a way out of this... but I don't. I really don't. I promised the others, but... I just don't think I can deliver this time. There really isn't anything we can do."

I snorted. "What are you talking about, of course there is!"

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Well, Takeru's always trying to be like us... maybe now *we* should do what *Takeru* is doing."

"You've lost me. From what I can see, Takeru is reminding himself of the lyrics to 'Three Blind Mice'. How's that supposed to help us?"

"Not that, jackass!"

"Well, what then?"

"Hope," I told him simply. "We hope."

"Hope for what? Quick and painless deaths?"

"Come on, Tai! This isn't like you. You're the optimist of the gang, right? Don't pull a Jyou on me. The others look to you for support."

"Well, I guess they can look somewhere else for a change..."

"You don't sound so sure anymore."

"I'm not. I'm not sure of anything right now, to be honest. What's the point of being a leader if I can't lead them anywhere?"

"That doesn't matter. They feel better just having you around..."

"Yeah right."

"...and so do I." Hello, I am a dork! You'd better appreciate what a sacrifice that was, Yagami.

Tai looked at me sharply. "Really?"

"Uhh..."

"So you look to me for support, do you?" He was grinning broadly now, but I was beginning to think this had been a bad idea. I had put a lot of pride on the line to raise his spirits, and if he just treated that as a joke then I'd probably curl up and die of the heartbreak right there on the spot. Sorry to be mushy, but that's the way I felt about it. "Well?" Taichi prompted.

"Whatever, Tai. Whatever."

Tai chuckled. I was inches from painful tortuous death by loss of pride when he finally got serious and said,

"Thanks, Matt. It... means a lot to me."

I smiled. "All in a days work."

"You know, that speech back there was pretty good. Short but, uh, sweet. And the pep talk you gave the others was kinda impressive too... you'd make a pretty good leader after all, y'know. Don't look at me like that, I mean it." My heart was singing - praise from the mighty Taichi! O happy day! "So..." he continued, "seeing as I'm in no state to be hope-inspiring, why don't you give them the little speech you gave me? You know, the whole hope thing... raise their spirits too."

"Uh, I dunno, Tai, you know me..." I was prepared to lay down a little pride for and cook up a special speech for Taichi, but the rest of them could forget it. This whole spirits-raising jobbie was a private matter.

"Okay. I'll have to do it then."

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Why, Yamato, I'm standing up. You can't deliver a speech sitting down. And then there's the whole striding around thing, and the waving your arms about, and leaping up and down getting everybody to be enthusiastic..."

"You can't do that, you're hurt!"

"Nice to know you care, but it has to be done by someone. And it looks like that someone is me. Unless..." He turned the full puppy-eyes routine onto me, and I just melted into a little puddle right there and then. Putty in the hands of a master.

"Ungh..."

"Sorry, Yamato? What was that?"

"I said all right, okay already, I'll do it!"

Tachi grinned cheekily. "Knew I could count on you, Matt. I owe you one."

"Yeah, too right. Um, okay everyone, listen, uh, up!"

"Save the speeches, you pathetic little twerp." Kelimon flung the door open with a bang and glared at us all with venom in her eyes... whoops, don't look at the eyes. "There's been a change of plan," she barked. "We're leaving tonight. Now. Move yourselves, come on, hurry! I don't have all night. Razor Shards!" The padlock shattered as we cringed away from the attack, and Kelimon jerked the gate open with ratty impatience. "Out!"

We trooped out silently, me helping Tai to stagger unsteadily along the hallways. Myotismon was nowhere to be seen... I wondered if he was aware of this last-minute change in plans. Finally, we reached the huge front doors.

"If anyone tries to make a run for it," Kelimon hissed, "I will instantly kill one of the others. You know I can do it. Don't try my patience. You there! Open these doors."

"M-M-Myotismon d-didn't say anything ab-bout anyone l-l-leaving tonight, m-miss..."

"I don't CARE about Myotismon, and I don't CARE about YOU! RAZOR SHARDS!" The terrified Digimon tried to duck, but too late. I averted my eyes from the sight of the wretched creature pinned to the wall, blood pouring from the fatal wound, and tried to block the sound of its dying squeals from my ears.

Takeru clung weeping to my leg as an enraged Kelimon smacked the lever over with a bloodcurdling howl of fury, and the doors creaked slowly open. Grabbing Koushiro by an ear, she marched out and flung him into the back of a silver chariot with dangerous-looking spikes on the wheels, motioning for us to follow with a toss of her head. Sora, Jyou and Mimi scrambled in, I helped Tai to climb up and then lifted Takeru into the dim, bare space inside. Kelimon grabbed the back of my collar and shoved me roughly inside, and I sprawled face-first into the carriage with my companions. I wondered briefly where Gabumon was before the doors were slammed shut and we were all plunged into inky blackness.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I know, I know, it was way longer than all the other parts. So sue me! I know this was a bit long in coming, I've been a bit busy lately, but I'll try to get part nine done quickly, m'kay? :) -Kae Ti xx