Author's Note: This chapter is long overdue. I'm really, really sorry. See my computer just so happened to delete all my Digimon files (including the first half of this chapter) and somehow break the Word program I type with. I managed to fix it but it took me forever. So, without further ado, I present the next chapter in The Powers of the Crests!
Disclaimer: I own Matt and Tai plushy's that I hug every night, but that's about it.
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Matt stared at the spot where Joe had just stood a couple seconds ago. All that happened in such a short period of time had become too much for the young teen. His eyes became strangely vacant, devoid of all emotion.
Then he heard a whisper.
It's all you fault…
Barely audible, yet Matt heard every word. "Who are you?" He asked surprised.
Your friends are gone because of you.
"How was that my fault?" Matt protested.
You were supposed to watch over T.K., and Kari. How could you do that to your little brother? I thought you cared.
"Of course I care! I'll always care about him." Matt insisted firmly.
Then where is he? Are we so weak that you can't even protect him?
"No…I tried. Really, I did."
Oh give it up Yamato. You never did really believe that you were as good as the others, and you know what? You were right.
"They're my friends. We're equal."
You? You are a worthless Digidestined, unable to do anything.
"I'm not worthless."
Your parents realized that a long time ago. Why do you think they split up? They wanted to keep T.K. away from his useless brother, but T.K. still looked innocently up to you. But that wasn't good enough you. You broke your promises to him so many times that even he left.
"T.K.…T.K. would never leave me."
Yet he did. Along with all your other "friends". They found out the truth about you.
"My friends would never leave me. Would they?" Matt was losing confidence in himself, and the words being said to him cut him like knives.
I'm surprised that they even fell for your pretense for that long.
"I wasn't pretending anything." The voice continued as if Matt hadn't spoke.
Do you know why you always kept away from the others? It was because you were afraid they'd see right through you and denounce you as the fraud you are. But instead, they saw you as scared and shy. That's a joke. But you always did have a talent for hiding the truth.
"I…I…" Matt didn't want to say he was scared. "I was shy. But I proved that I was just as good as them and that they were my friends in the Caves of Depression."
Oh yes, that's right. You were there with your little furry friend. Tell me, where is he now?
"Gabumon?" Matt asked the darkness uncertainly.
Gabumon was standing right by Matt's side the entire time, but was invisible to Matt's clouded mind.
"Matt, I'm right here. What's wrong with you?"
Gabumon shook his partner to try to get his attention. Matt seemed to be in another world. His eyes were blank and he was talking to the air.
Gone, just like the rest of your "so-called" friends.
"No, Gabumon would never leave me! He's my partner. We went through everything together."
That's why he left, right? Face it, you're a worthless Digidestined, a worthless human being!
An identical version of Matt stepped out from the shadows.
"Who are you?!" Matt cried.
"I'm you. Can't you recognize me?" The twin smirked evilly.
"I'm not like you."
"But you are. I'm your true self that you've been trying to hide all these years."
"I'm nothing like you! I'm…I'm…me." Matt finished lamely.
"*You* are a worthless, hopeless, good-for-nothing, brat. I don't see how you got the crest of Friendship, when you have no friends."
"My friends…my partner…are…" Matt looked around vainly to try to find his companions.
"Gone." The dark Matt smiled as he watched his mirror image's torture. "You don't deserve that crest, you don't even have friends."
Matt touched the light blue sign of Friendship and took it gently off his neck.
"Look at that crest Matt. Does it really seem to fit you?"
Matt studied the engraved, light blue sign within the golden tag. The gold now looked darker and as Matt looked closer, he thought he could see pictures in it. Pictures of every one of his faults.
"That's not you, is it Yamato?"
The more Matt studied the crest and the more he thought about the stranger's words, the more correct he seemed. He was a solitary person, hardly suited to the crest of friendship. The stranger didn't seem so unfamiliar now. He is me.
A crack appeared in the crest. It started to get longer and wider every second.
"I'm right, aren't I?"
Matt nodded slowly without lifting his face. The whole crest cracked in half, until the only tag was holding it together.
"Why don't you give to me, since it obviously doesn't belong with you."
Matt stared down at his crest, then with one sudden movement, held it out at arm's length, as if he was disgusted by the sight of it.
Gabumon was watching his partner worriedly. He was still trying to get Matt's attention, but with no anvil. Then he noticed the crest in Matt's hand had a tiny crack into, expanding every second.
"No Yamato, you must believe in yourself! You are Friendship! You *do* deserve that crest, and no one knows it more than me." Gabumon knew the only way for the crests to break in, was to doubt in it and oneself.
Gabumon saw Matt hold out the crest, like an offering or something. Then darkness started to come forward and surround Matt, going towards the crest.
"No!" Gabumon snatched the crest out of Matt's hand.
"Gabumon?" Matt asked, seeing his Digimon partner for the first time since he heard that voice. Then he saw the crest in his paws. "What are you doing with that?!"
"It's yours Matt." Gabumon said, handing it over. But Matt refused to take it. He shrank back, as if the crest was poison.
"No, I want nothing to do with that—that thing. My friends are gone because of me, what stupid joke is this!" Matt whispered. "Me? Friendship?" He scoffed through his tears as he fell to his knees.
"That's right Yamato. Now, give me that crest." The evil twin suddenly became visibly to Gabumon, and reached out his hand.
Gabumon went on as if he hadn't spoken, and made no move to hand over the crest. Instead he held it closer.
"But Matt, your friends aren't gone because of you. And I'm still here, aren't I?" Gabumon talks gently to his destined.
"Yeah…you are! But where did you go? I couldn't find you before." Matt looks over and hugs his partner, who's been with him since the beginning of the whole adventure. "I missed you Gabumon, don't ever leave me."
"Matt, I've been here the entire time, you just couldn't see me. I'll always be with you and you will always have friends, whether you believe it or not." Gabumon told him firmly.
"My friends hate me. They left cause of me."
"No Matt, they were pulled away by who knows what, not by choice."
"Don't listen to him! Who are you gonna believe, yourself," the dark Matt pointed to himself, "or some furry creature who disappears and comes back to lie to you?"
Matt slowly stood up, processing all that had just happened.
"You know what? I'm gonna believe in *me*. You are not me. I can't believe you fooled me for so long, and that I ever doubted my crest, and thus doubted myself. I have friends, and I've proven that to them, and to me, many times over. And my parents do love me, even if they aren't together. I know who you are, and I want nothing to do with you." Matt put his crest back on and clenched his fists. "I am Friendship!" A bright blue light surrounds Matt and expelled all the darkness. The evil twin disappeared with one final shout.
Matt fell to the ground, breathing hard. Gabumon quickly ran over to his partner.
"Matt, are you ok?" Gabumon asked with one arm around Matt's shoulders.
"Yeah I'll be fine." Matt says panting. "Just let me catch my breath." After a little while Matt was back to normal.
"What was that thing, Matt?" Gabumon asked curiously.
Matt stood and stared off into the distance. "Well, I guess it's easiest to explain if I start from the beginning. My parents divorced when I was young, and separated me and T.K. I thought they didn't love me and it hurt. I became withdrawn from the outside world. When I went to school, I had no friends, only a tough reputation. People would leave me alone, except for the occasional stupid bully who would pick a fight with me. I never lost to them. Then I came here and met you guys. I was so scared of making friends that I had to go through the Caves of Depression before I realized they really were my friends. Remember the darkness that created the cave?"
Gabumon nodded.
"Well, after we drove out the darkness, I think that a tiny little bit that darkness still stayed buried in my heart. No one could tell and I wouldn't even admit it to myself. That darkness was my greatest fear, the fear that my friends would all turn on me, thinking I was worthless, and leave. When everybody disappeared, it was too much, I kinda lost it. But I would never admit that to anyone except you Gabumon. It was like my worst nightmare come to life. I guess it gave the darkness a second chance to try to take over. When I started doubting myself, I think that was what fed the darkness. But this time it's gone for good. I'll never lose confidence in me or my friends ever again!"
Matt had avoided Gabumon's eyes through this whole speech, now looked down at his Digimon friend. Gabumon just smiled.
"You are Friendship, Yamato. You will never be without friends."
"Yeah! Let's go find the others, what do ya say?" The screeching sound and bright light of a digivice followed. When the light was gone, a great blue and white stripped wolf stood in its place. Matt jumped agilely on and off they went.
~*~
Where am I? What happened? The last thing I remember was looking for Kari…
Tai sat up groggily and looked around at his surroundings. He was sitting in a grassy clearing.
"Where am I? Is anybody out there?!" Tai yelled out into the air.
"Is that you Tai?" A familiar voice called back from afar.
"Agumon?" Tai started running in the direction the voice came from.
Agumon suddenly became visible and Tai waved at him frantically. "Over here buddy! Whoa!"
Tai tripped headfirst into a trap. He was caught in a cage and was now hanging from a tree.
"What the? Agumon, get me down from here." Tai twisted around to look at his partner, but when he did Agumon wasn't there anymore.
Instead there stood a dark creature, unlike any Tai had ever seen before. It was triple Tai's height and had two horns protruding out of it's head and a long black cloak with a hood shrouding his entire body in shadow. All you could see of his face were red gleaming eyes.
"Who-who are you?" Tai knew none of his friends were with him and Agumon was who knows where.
The digimon didn't say a word; it just cast his hand over the defenseless destined and Tai fell backwards banging his head against the metal bars of his confinement.
~*~
Matt had been riding Garurumon for awhile now and was still calling out everyone's names as odd intervals.
"Matt, are you tired? Maybe we should stop and rest for a while." He suggested.
"No, I wanna find the others—" Matt gasped. "Did you feel that?"
Garurumon nodded. "Let's go."
Matt had a really bad feeling. He knew something was wrong but he didn't know what. He shook his head and looked ahead.
"Wait, stop!" Matt jumped off Garurumon's back and ran forward. Please don't let it be what I thought I saw.
"No, Tai!" Matt stopped and kneeled down by the shaking brunette. "Tai wake up. Come on, what's wrong with you?" Matt was shaking his best friend when he noticed something. Tai's crest.
"Tai, you broke it. How?"
"Crests can only be broken when the one carrying it no longer believes in it. Yours cracked too Matt." Gabumon said.
"Tai, believe in yourself! Wake up!" Matt gave a hard shake and Tai's eyes flew open.
"Tai, are you ok?" Matt asked concerned.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I really am. I am a coward. I am." Tai babbled incoherently. Then he finally seemed to realize Matt was there.
"You must hate me. I deserve it, I know I do. Just know that's I am sorry. I'll leave. I'll never come back and bother you again." Tai tried to get up and run away, but Matt didn't let him. He grabbed Tai's shoulder and made him sit down.
"What's wrong with you? What are you talking about?" Matt asked again.
Tai was now only mumbling over and over, I'm a coward, I'm a coward.
Asking questions wasn't gonna work, Tai crazy right now, and Matt realized that.
"Ok, Tai. Calm down. Shh…You're not a coward. It's ok." Matt sat down next to Tai.
"But…But I let all of you get killed. It's my fault you're dead!" Tai started crying. Matt was shocked. He had never seen his best friend cry before, over anything.
"Don't cry. I've never seen you cry before and I liked it that way. You were always the strong one, never afraid of anything. I don't know what happened to you but, I'm not dead, Tai. I'm right here." Matt comforted the other teen, and Tai's tears soon slowed then stopped.
"You're alive? And you don't hate me?" Tai looked at Matt with amazement.
"Yes and yes again. Why on earth would I hate you? You're my best friend." Matt was really confused. Why would Tai think I'm dead? But asking him too many questions now wouldn't help, Tai was unstable.
"Because, because I let all of you die. Even Kari! I just sat there and watched you guys. I'm a coward."
Grrr…back to this coward thing again?
"Tai, your crest is courage. You're courageous, for god's sake. How can you be a coward when you have the crest of Courage?"
Tai took the crest off threw it away without looking at it. "It broken, just like me. I don't deserve Courage as a crest."
Matt stood up and ran to catch the flying crest, but a dark cloud appeared. The crest flew right into it. Matt backed up. The cloud took on shape. It was the horned digimon Tai saw earlier.
"Give me that!" Matt demanded.
"Why should I do that? I want this crest. My master will be most pleased with me." The digimon looked down at the crest. "It's broken! How did you break it? I thought they were indestructible. Doesn't matter I guess. I'll just take yours instead!"
Matt backed up quickly and screeching filled the air.
"Garurumon get him!"
Matt turned back to Tai. "Come on, snap out of it! I don't know what happened to you, but you need to wake up! Your crest has just been stolen by an evil digimon. Hello…do you hear me!"
"I don't need that thing anyway." Tai says. Matt was getting really impatient. Fine, I'll deal with the digimon first than Tai. I don't want him getting hurt, cause I don't have time to sit here and wait for him to come to his senses.
Matt spun back around to the battle. Garurumon wasn't doing too well. Probably because of the long ride we took earlier. I would have him digivolve, but I don't know how long he'd be able to keep a higher form. We both need to get more energy. I'm not gonna risk him dedigivolving into Gabumon in the middle of a battle, forget it.
"Come on Garurumon, you can do it!" Matt yelled over the din of the battle. Garurumon went onto the offensive again and was doing pretty good until the other digimon knocked him off balance and blasted him back into Matt.
Garurumon changed back into Gabumon. "I'm sorry Matt."
"It's ok, it's not your fault." They both climbed back to their feet. Gabumon was too weak to digivolve again and the digimon was coming right at them.
Tai was watching the whole as if it was history repeating itself. "No Matt!!!" Tai finally woke up and Agumon appeared outta nowhere. "Digivolve!"
Greymon appeared and engaged the shadow digimon in a battle. Tai ran over to Matt and Gabumon.
"You guys ok?"
"Yeah. Took you long enough to wake up. " Matt grinned.
"There was no way I was gonna let history repeat itself." Matt just stared confusedly at Tai, who's attention was on the battle.
After a bit of a struggle, Greymon turned the other digimon into bits of data. He turned back to Agumon and returned to Tai.
"Agumon, where'd you come from?" Matt asked.
"Well, see, I was separated from Tai when we got separated from you guys. That digimon that I just beat captured me. Then he impersonated me and lured Tai into a trap. I was there, just in a hidden cage. Then he threw some dust over you and you fell unconscious. I couldn't make a sound for some strange reason and you weren't waking up. Then the cage you were in disappeared. You fell to the ground and after a few minutes, Matt showed up. When you wanted me to come to help you really badly, I guess that broke my cage." Agumon explained.
"It…it was all a dream!" Tai exclaimed.
"Huh?" Said everyone else.
"Ok Taichi Kamiya. Sit down and you are going to tell us your story because so far all you have done was confuse me." Matt sat on the grass.
"Alright, alright, chill." They all sat and Tai began. "Following Agumon's story, the part where he threw the dust on me, I'm guessing was some kind of dream inducer. But I didn't know that then. I thought it was real."
~*Flashback*~
Tai was walking down a deserted street in some part of Japan; he didn't recognize the area. He didn't even know why he was here. The logical reasoning in his mind right now was just to keep walking until he saw something he knew.
Then he felt something tighten around his neck. In a second's time, before he had time to react, he was surrounded, bound, and gagged.
"Come on yer stupid kid." Said the one Tai thought had dropped the noose around his neck. Probably the leader.
"Where are you taking me?" Tai tried to say, but it came out more as "Ere are ou tahing me?"
As a response to his question, one of the guys kicked him. Tai bit his lip keep from crying out. They walked the rest of the short way in silence. When they got to some kind of warehouse, they shoved Tai to the ground and filed into the room.
"We'll deal with you later."
When Tai sat up and his vision cleared, he looked around.
"Stay away!"
Tai gasped. That was Matt's voice. Tai inched in front of the crate. There were more of those thugs who attacked him earlier. Matt stood in front of the rest of his team.
"Don't you dare come any closer!" Matt was surrounded on three sides and crates blocked the fourth.
A guy standing in the shadows indicated for a man to go forward. As the guy approached Matt, Matt put up his fists. With a sudden burst of speed he was on top of Matt, punching and kicking the blonde teen. Matt fought back desperately and the fight looked like it could go either way when suddenly Matt threw the guy backwards, his head hitting the corner of a box.
Instantly three more advanced on Matt. The fight started again. Matt was out numbered three to one, but he still looked like he was doing ok, but one of the thugs smacked him on the back of his head and the other punched him in his stomach and Matt fell to the ground.
"No!" Tai tried to cry out to his friends but they couldn't hear him.
They were punching him and kicking him even though they could see that he was too weak to fight back anymore.
"No, onii-chan!" T.K. ran forward, and started attacking the men.
"T.K." Matt sputtered weakly. With one last effort, he stood up and pushed T.K. out of harm's way. One guy kicked him hard with his booted foot. Matt flew backwards, landing close to Tai, yet just far enough that Tai couldn't reach him. Just before he lost consciousness, he called out to Tai.
"Why aren't you helping us? Why are you such a coward?" Matt's eyes fluttered one last time and he laid still.
"No Matt! You can't. I'm sorry, please don't go! Come on wake up!" Tai pleaded through his gag to the blonde with tears running down his face. He got no response.
Tai turned back to the battle. T.K. was flying through the air and he smashed into a crate close to Tai and didn't get up.
"Help us Tai. What's wrong with you?" T.K. whispered. One by one his team fought, all of them suffering the same fate, and all accusing him of being a coward and not helping. Tai felt so hurt and he couldn't stop crying.
At last only Kari was left.
"Aww…look at the little girlie." A big beefy man taunted. Tai wanted to kill him, to kill them all for hurting his friends yet he couldn't move.
They kicked her once and she flew through the air, and landing right next to Tai.
"Kari, Kari wake up!" Tai words weren't understandable, they were just sounds. He nudged her with his knee, because his hands were tied up.
Kari cracked opened her eyes and said, "I thought you cared about us Taichi, but I guess not. You're such a coward." With one last sigh Kari too, lay still.
"No…No. This can't be happening." Tai was still crying. "I do care, I'm so sorry."
"What's over there?" The leader asked.
"Oh yeah, boss, we found 'nother kid. We thought you might wanna see 'im."
"Bring him over here." Tai was brought roughly over and made to kneel in front of the guy who they called boss.
"Take off his gag." It was removed and Tai screamed out.
"Why did you do that?! What did my friends ever do to you?!"
"Oh were those your friends out there? Oops, I'm sorry, but you don't care about those losers anyway."
"That was my sister!!!"
"You couldn't care less, otherwise why didn't you go help them?"
"Your men bound and gagged me, even an idiot like you could see that!"
"So what? Those ropes are fake. They would've came off if you really wanted them to. But you didn't. You know why? Cause you were scared that they would hurt you. You are a selfish little coward."
Tai struggle really hard and the ropes disappeared. The guy was telling the truth about the rope…and about him. They're all dead cause of me. I such a coward.
~*End Flashback*~
It all makes sense now! No wonder…
You ok Tai?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, but I lost my crest."
"No you didn't!" Agumon holds up the crest of Courage triumphantly. "Here you go. I found it after I defeated that evil digimon."
"Thanks Agumon! Hey, it's not broken anymore!" Tai exclaimed.
Matt said, "It only broke because you thought you were a coward. Now that you believe in yourself again, it's fixed."
Tai stared at Matt. "How'd you know?"
Matt turned red. "The same thing kinda happened to me." He admitted.
"My evil self made me think that you guys were all my enemies, and since my crest is Friendship, well, it broke. That evil thing used my greatest fear against me, but when I overcame it, I fixed my crest and beat the darkness. And that's as far as I'm going into that subject."
Tai stood up. "My dream was my greatest fear too. I am always afraid when we battle, Matt. I'm afraid that I'll screw up, that we'll lose, or that you guys'll get hurt. I was afraid that I would let you guys all down and you would hate me and think I'm a coward. But I'm not afraid anymore. I know we'll do good and win all the battles if we just stick together. I am Courage!"
Matt and the digimon stood up. Matt smiled at Tai and said, "Let's go find the others!"
"Digivolve!"
Greymon and Garurumon stood ready and Matt and Tai climbed on. They rode toward the setting sun, on the way to rejoin their friends.