Chapter Four

Anger... No, more than anger. Maddening fury. Disbelief, and a deep sense of shame. He had been defeated. He, with all of his power and all of his strength, with all of his minions to command and while standing on the very cusp of victory, had been defeated. And by who? What great power or dread principality was it that had brought him to this sorry state?

The two babes of the group.

His soul had drifted alone through the barren wastelands of the void, hungering for something... anything. A sight. A smell. A sensation of any sort to relieve the tedium of nothingness. He would even welcome a touch of pain to tell him that he still existed. How long have I been here? Seconds, or an eternity? Was it death? He had been cast through the gate created by the archangel, known a second of blinding pain, and then had found himself here. Empty… Cold… Formless… I should have won!

"Hey, guys," cried a voice that came from somewhere, but was not his own. "Look at this. Look what I found." And then, with a brilliant flash of daylight, he could see again. Not through his own eyes, but through the eyes of another. My sword. He has my sword. And there Piedmon found a medium for his will to remain alive. For whatever reason, one of the children had picked up his sword. The child obviously didn't know and couldn't understand what it meant to him. But there was always the chance that one of the others would recognize it for what it was. The boy could not be allowed to show his friends.

Keep me, he forced the thought onto the consciousness of the child who had picked up the weapon. Why show the others? They'll just want me for themselves.

"Huh?" the boy asked, as if confused that he had thought such a thing. He moved to put down the weapon, but then stopped. If this had indeed been their final battle there was no good reason why he shouldn't keep a trophy. After all, a sword like this one could have ended his life mere minutes ago. But to not show the others?

Hide me. Here, take up the cloth at your feet and I'll show you. A sense of wrongness filled his new body. His host knew that something was not right here, but nonetheless knelt and picked up the cloth, surreptitiously glancing over at the others to see if anyone was watching him. They were all gathered around Izzy. They wouldn't notice. Still…

And then his fingers, yet not his fingers, were working the white cloth around the weapon. The power of the little cloth became active at his will, and the sword slowly contracted to a size that could be easily hidden from the others. It would be some time before the weapon would regain its size on its own, but while he remained concealed within his new host he could afford to wait. Revenge, or so the humans say, is a dish best served cold. "R… revenge?" his new body stammered in response.

"Hey, Tai?" A female voice reached his ears, and he felt a strong sense of love surge from his new body at the sound. Their leader. Good. "What have you got over there?"

"N… nothing," he snapped a response, tucking the toy weapon into his breast pocket. He moved to join the others, and Piedmon allowed himself to slip back into the darkness. Forcing his will upon the other, even for this short time had proved exceedingly difficult and tiring. But it will become easier with time…

That had been almost years ago. Three long years, and it had taken this long for him to finally gain a measure of control over this body, this long for the weapon to return to its full size and power. Yet perhaps the time had not been wasted. The youngest of the girls, the one who had called to him, had given up her spirit for dead on that day. His eyes alone could see it seeping from her daily. She would have already failed long ago, were it not for the foolish boy who was in the process of killing himself trying to sustain life for the two of them on his own.

Piedmon was unwilling to wait any longer. Soon the conditions would be right for the gate to open up between this world and his own. With his power and the eclipse occurring tonight, he would draw through that portal his remaining legions to join him. There were others, many others on the digital side waiting to join him at his call, and these he would use to ruin this world. But first, there was the matter of his revenge on those who had thwarted him in the first place…

"Tai? Oh, sure," answered Joe, picking up the phone. "Yeah, I'll be right over. Oh, and Tai? I think I found the answer to Gennai's questions. Well, some of them, at least," he amended. "I'll be there in about half an hour."

"Your place? About an hour?" asked Izzy when he had answered. "Sure, I'll come. Is it about the… situation?" Tai assured him that it was.

"Alone?" whispered Mimi with girlish delight. "Sure, I'd love to!" Hah! Foolish girl. "Just give me a little bit to get freshened up and I'll be right over."

"Well... okay," Sora answered hesitantly. "As long as you just want to talk this time."

*****

"Matt!" called T.K. "Tai's on the phone. He says it's important!"

"Tai?" asked Matt, taking the phone from his little brother. Throughout the day he had been trying to reach the others to see if they had come up with any better answers than he had, but for some reason no one was answering their phones. "Oh. Everybody's over there with you? Sure, we'll be there in a few minutes. What? Uh, I'm not sure if it's a great idea to leave these two alone right now." He paused. "Well, no she hasn't gotten any worse, but… well, okay, but let's keep it short, all right?"

Matt grabbed his coat. The sun was just setting, and it looked as if it was going to rain again tonight. "T.K.? Kari?" he called.

The two came and stood before him, casting shy, sideways glances at one another. "Something's come up, and Tai needs me to come over for a while. Do you two think that you can stay here without a chaperone for a while?"

The young pair nodded a response. "I'll only be about an hour, so behave, okay? Please?"

"I promise, Matt," said T.K. sincerely. Their conversation last night had shaken him somewhat, and he still looked somewhat weak and troubled, but the smile on his face was as still as pure and as innocent as it had always been.

Matt nodded once. "Okay," he said seriously, looking at the young girl beside his brother closely. "I guess I know what your promises are worth." And with that he turned on his heel and left the room.

Neither T.K. nor Kari moved or spoke for a few moments. They had, in fact, avoided speaking much of that entire day; Kari out of concern for T.K.'s health and T.K. out of alarm at what he had learned the night before. "So…" said T.K.

"So."

"Are you, ah, hungry… or anything?"

She giggled at him. The simple sound of her voice and her expression alone made his distress vanish at an instant. This was still Kari, and he cared for her deeply. "T.K., we just ate, remember?"

Oh, yeah," he answered with nervous laughter.

"So you and Matt… talked last night."

"Uhm... yeah." His face was crimson as he remembered some of the subject matter, his eyes shifting around nervously until they found a comfortable place on the floor. "At least now I guess I understand why Izzy fell out of that chair yesterday."

The tension became noticeably heavier in the room, and Kari was sorry that she'd brought it up. "How about a movie or something?"

"Great idea!" That was actually the last thing on his mind, as he had something that he desperately wanted to discuss with her, but he had made a promise. Kari sat down quietly on the couch and T.K. thumbed through the videotapes on the counter, quickly bypassing anything that could in any way be construed as a romantic film. He knew that Kari didn't care for action films, so he finally settled on a comedy. He pushed it into the VCR and then moved to sit down on the couch as well. But then he couldn't seem to make up his mind how close to sit to the girl. He paused for a moment…

"T.K.?"

"I… I'm sorry, Kari," he said, sitting down right next to her as he had usually done before his "talk" with Matt. "I really don't know what's wrong with me."

She took his hand as the movie started, giving it a firm squeeze. "I understand, T.K. But you know you don't have to be nervous around me... right?"

He nodded, and turned his attention to the screen. At one point during the film a natural feeling of closeness to the girl had come over him, and he removed his hand from her grasp and draped his arm over her shoulders, holding her close. She said nothing in response, but snuggled up closer to him for the remainder of the viewing. As the tape started to wind down, the boy started to get nervous again. Matt had said that he would only be an hour, yet he had now been gone at least half again that long. Matt, where are you? he thought.

Then the tape stopped, and she looked up from the crook of his arm. After a moment of awkward silence, she spoke. "I have no idea what we just watched," the girl admitted.

"Me neither," T.K. responded. The crest of hope was warm on his chest. He wondered if light was doing the same thing for her. "How are you feeling?"

She smiled easily in response. "I'm fine. I'm happy. I'm here with you, T.K."

The boy didn't honestly know how to respond. How can this be so easy for her? What she'd said made him feel warm all over, but not uncomfortable so, and he desperately wanted a way to express what he was feeling to her without making it sound either too childish or too adult. But he just couldn't reconcile those feelings with the adult situations that Matt had explained to him, and the confusion left him completely unable to articulate his emotions.

Her eyes were soft as she continued to look at him. "T.K., you know I understand. Whether you say anything or not."

Now the boy stared back, blinking. "Kari? How... how did you know what I--?" But his stammered words were cut short by the telephone at his side as it gave a loud and urgent-sounding ring. He gave her one last quizzical look before turning to pick up the receiver, "Hello?"

"T.K.? This is Tai. Listen carefully. I need the two of you to get over here right away, understand?" His voice was hurried and, hidden behind it, T.K. thought that he could just make out the confusing sound of a suppressed giggle.

"Tai? Is everything okay with everybody? What's wrong?"

"T.K.!" the voice on the other end snapped harshly back. "Don't ask questions. You and Kari just get over here right now!" And the other phone was slammed down in the young boy's ear with an almost deafening intensity.

T.K. was taken aback, and was left holding a dead line. "What did he say?" Kari asked.

"He wants us to come over." The boy replied absently, his brow furrowed in deep thought. There had been something about Tai's voice. Something chilling and at the same time oddly familiar, yet misplaced when he tried to assign it to the older boy. He stood silently for a moment, demanding that his brain tell him what was disturbing it so.

"Well let's go," Kari said, lightly pinching his arm to get him moving and taking an old jacket of his that Matt had set aside for her. Tai had not thought to bring her a change of clothes the day before, so now she was wearing one of the outfits that the boy had outgrown as well. T.K. took a coat for himself, and they left the apartment.

"Kari?"

"Hmm?"

"Have you noticed anything strange about your brother lately?"

Kari stopped and grabbed his shoulder, turning him so that he faced her. "Why do you ask that?" she answered, her tone implying that she had noticed just such a thing.

Confirmation. "His... voice?"

The girl gave the hint of a shudder, though it certainly couldn't have been cold within the confines of the thick coat. "It's not just that, T.K. It's... well, he just doesn't feel like Tai anymore. It's the things that he says... or maybe just the way that he says them now. It doesn't make any sense to me, but a lot of times I feel like there's somebody else talking to me and using his mouth to do it." She looked sideways at him, somewhat sheepishly. "I guess that sounds strange, doesn't it?"

"Actually Kari, I was just going to say the same thing. And I think--" The boy paused, looking pensive. "Kari, when he's talking to you like that, who does it remind you of?"

It was a bare instant of thought later when the blood drained visibly from the girl's face, and for the first time she could put everything together while awake and lucid. "T.K.! We were going to die! I... I was sure of it! The answer to the question! I gave up! I lost--"

"What I can give you? What people can't live without? Hope?"

The crests of light and hope were beating brightly beneath the children's clothes. "Now I remember! From that last day! Tai has, he was talking to... Piedmon!"

"After we beat him?" the boy replied, but it wasn't really a question. "You accepted that Piedmon was going to kill us, and when the rest of us thought he was gone, you knew that he really wasn't. And now he's done something to Tai... right?"

Kari's eyes were firmly set, even though her lips continued to quiver. T.K. felt a strong urge to hold her as close as he had when he was pouring his life into her, but restrained himself. "Let's get over there," she said. "Matt's been gone too long, and we need warn Tai before anything else happens to him."

*****

"Tai! I don't know what you're doing, but this isn't funny any mmmph--"

Each of the five bound and gagged children stared through incredulous eyes at their friend, who now was anything but. For some peculiar and unexplained reason he had dressed himself to resemble Piedmon... at least as much as he could with the materials that he was working with. His brown hair, far from being the tangled mess that it usually was, had been gelled and slicked back. He had colored his face with some sort of make-up, and that, if nothing else, was eerie. It was almost exact, down to the last detail. But most alarming to the group was that the boy was swinging a sword that looked to be one of the clown's own right over their heads, coming closer with each and every motion.

"Oh, haven't you figured it out yet?" It was Tai's voice, but the taunting, demented pitch to it was Piedmon's alone. He clapped a hand to his cheek in mockery. "It's career day at school, and I've finally decided what I want to be when I grow up!"

Matt struggled vainly against his bonds. He had heard Tai, Piedmon…whoever he was now… call for T.K. and Kari. If all of them were at his mercy, there was no telling what he would do.

"You all may be wondering why you're still alive. We'll it's very simple, you see. I want the five of you to be the first witnesses to my new trick. One of your friends from the digital world once suggested sawing you in half. When the little two get here, I think I'll start there!"

Matt's eyes were filled with hot tears of fury, and he was pulling so hard on the ropes that bound him Joe was surprised that he hadn't hurt himself. Mimi was sobbing too, but Izzy and Sora had their heads bowed, as if resigned to their respective fates.

"Ah, once again it will be just me and them! And this time… no angel to save them!"

"Tai?" a quiet voice whispered from the doorway. Sister, his borrowed body recognized.

The boy clown whirled. "What? Oh goody, you're finally here. The show can finally begin!"

"What have you done with Tai, Piedmon?" demanded the defiant young boy at her side. He was keeping the girl partially shielded behind him, and both seemed ready to bolt at any second.

"Oh dear, now you've gone and spoiled the surprise. Tsk, tsk. I won't bother to ask what gave me away, but suffice it to say, he won't be back for some time!" But then the clown grimaced, and for a moment looked as though he were in pain. T.K. and Kari kept their eyes on him, though the boy did take note of the others bound at his back. Then, surprisingly, the clown spoke again with a much different voice. "Kari, run!" he gasped, waving a hand in her direction. "Get out of here!" It had definitely been Tai.

That was more than enough for the two, and they were out the door in a second. "No!" Piedmon snarled, swearing. "That wasn't supposed to happen!" He turned to the others. "Be back in a sec!" and dashed after the frightened children.

The clown leapt up and slid down the rail of the slick handrail of the stairs in front of the building, showing incredible dexterity. "It seems to me that we've done this once before!" he called after his prey in a singsong voice.

The street was almost abandoned as T.K. and Kari ran, heedless of direction. The few people that they did pass looked at them in confusion, then in alarm as the sword-wielding clown passed them. "Where do we go?" Kari struggled breathlessly.

"Somewhere with a lot of people."

"You really don't think that being around a crowd would stop him from killing us, do you? He doesn't seem to be the bashful type."

T.K. squeezed her hand tighter. "I don't think we have any choice. We can't fight him, and we can't keep running forever!" Kari nodded, and together they turned and darted into a fancy restaurant, crowded with diners.

Seconds later Tai burst in after them. The attention that the children had received following their entrance was nothing to the stares that the winded clown with the sword was getting. "Sir," said the stuffy man at the front door. "We do have a dress code here."

The boy snarled, then started to chuckle. The laughter was slow and quiet at first, but then gradually began a steady climb that peaked in a maniacal and towering crescendo. He glanced across the room at the two exhausted children. "Humans. So petty," he said. Then he removed an object from somewhere in the folds of his ridiculous costume. Looking closer, T.K. saw that it was a small watch on a chain. "This will only take a moment. Now!" he announced to the crowd. "When I count to three and snap my fingers, I want a room full of… monkeys! Am I understood? One! Two! Three!" With each number he spun the watch once, and at the cry of three and a snap of his fingers, the eyes of all of the restaurant patrons glazed over.

T.K. was startled as a well-dressed lady seated next to him climbed on top of her table and stared at him blankly. Then she gave a screech that sounded as genuine as any ape that T.K. had ever seen at the zoo, and began to thrash about in a destructive manner. Soon the man at her side followed suit. Then another man, and another, and another, until all of the restaurant patrons were engaged in the same wild behavior.

"What?" breathed an astonished T.K. "How can you--?"

Tai (or rather Piedmon) grinned wickedly. "Oh come now, come now! Everyone loves monkeys! Get them!" he cried to the people, pointing at the two.

"T.K.! Let's go!" cried the brown-haired young girl, snatching his hand and towing him out the back door, away from the advancing horde of people. Now it was her turn to lead, dragging the stunned boy along. "I guess that rules out large crowds!"

T.K. glanced over his shoulder, then looked to the side. "Thanks for not saying 'I told you so'," he panted breathlessly.

"I told you so!"

It was such a simple reply, but the fact that the girl was comfortable enough to tease him at that most uncomfortable of moments caused a warm feeling to wash over him, chasing away the chill of the rain. I do love her! "Great time to figure that out," he muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing. Look! The park?"

The girl nodded an affirmative response, and together they turned into a narrow alleyway which led straight to the massive gardens. But then tragically and as luck would have it, at that moment Kari slipped in a puddle of water and fell awkwardly to the ground. "T.K.!" she cried in pain.

The boy stooped and grabbed the hand that he had dropped, trying to pull the girl to her feet. After a moment's struggle Kari did manage to get up, but then grimaced and fell against him. "T.K.! I hurt my ankle. I... can't... run anymore," she panted. The boy, panic-stricken, pulled her close and half-assisted, half-carried her further down the alleyway. But then a caustic voice calling out from behind stopped them in their tracks. "See what happens when you don't watch where you're going?" the evil clown taunted.

T.K. glanced back. Piedmon could easily be upon them in seconds at the rate that they were walking. "Kari... go!" he said, dropping her arm and shoving her away. "Even if you have to drag yourself, get to the park! Find some place to hide or… or something!" His lips quivered as though he would say something more, but then he stopped and turned his back on her, dashing back down in the direction from which they had come.

"T.K.! No! Please..."

But it was too late. T.K. slowed to sweep up a length of discarded steel pipe as a makeshift weapon, then continued on towards the clown. Kari fought back a sob and turned again, but she found that her leg wouldn't even support her enough to limp towards the park. How many times would these seemingly coincidental happenings keep reoccurring? How many had sacrificed themselves the first time they had fought him so that she could escape?

Piedmon actually seemed surprised when T.K. swung the steel pipe at him, though he had to have seen him coming from far away. He managed to drive the blow away with his own weapon, but not quite far enough to keep it from clipping him on the shoulder. He shrugged off the shock of it just in time to catch the boy's next swing with his own blade. "What is this?" he demanded, leering across the opposing steel weapons. "Do you think that you can beat me, you brave little soldier?"

"I don't have to beat you!" T.K. shouted defiantly, jumping back as Piedmon swung at his midsection and missed, the tip of his blade cutting through the boy's shirt. "I know you'll kill me, but when Kari gets safely away then I'll have won!"

The crest concealed beneath T.K.'s shirt had been slowly swelling into life as the boy had rushed to engage his foe and was now ablaze like a fiery brand, consuming all of his fear and weakness with its power. He had no clue how to fight against Piedmon, master fencer that the clown was, but that didn't seem to matter at the moment. He had seen Angemon fight with his long rod enough times to understand its mechanics, and the golden crest of Hope was almost overwhelming him with the righteous anger and strength of a true warrior.

"Ha!" cried Piedmon, joining the battle with a slash at the boy's head. T.K. ducked just in time, feeling the blade whistle only inches away from his ear. From one knee the younger boy struck the elder in the midsection, the golden strength which now permeated his blood trying desperately to make the contest even.

The two continued their desperate duel for several moments, with Piedmon becoming increasingly frustrated. This new body of his was still not one that he was used to, and the one called 'Tai' still clung to some measure of it, constantly thwarting his efforts to strike a blow to end the fight. The reverberating sound of metal on metal echoed down the alley as the edge of his sword was continually turned away by the child's unreasonable strength. How is this possible? he demanded of himself.

But then the clown, distracted by his anger, gave a sharp cry of pain as the little boy's weapon landed solidly upon his exposed ribs. "Damn! Enough of this!" he hissed from between clenched teeth, drawing his blade back for a final strike. "Trump Sword!"

T.K.'s eyes widened in alarm at the ghostly blue aura that surrounded the other's sword at the call, and hurriedly raised his pipe back to parry the blow. But now the clown's evil power was radiating through the blade, and when the two weapons collided the sword sheared off fully three quarters of the length of the pipe in an explosive shower of sparks. T.K. staggered back, looking stupidly at the smoking stump of metal in his hands as Piedmon's sword continued through to bury itself a foot deep inside the stone wall. The clown snarled, then leapt forward and smashed a forearm into the side of T.K.'s face that sent the boy sprawling backwards to land in a heap upon the ground.

"T.K.!" Kari screamed in horror, catching her hands to her mouth. A silent, breathless moment of fear passed for the girl before T.K. struggled to raise his bleeding face out of the puddle that he had landed in. And she could see... literally see the exhaustion and pain that was overwhelming him as he lay there.

T.K. had no clue as to why he was still alive. Why hasn't he killed me? he wondered vaguely, the thought struggling through the dense fog in his head. Gathering his will, he managed to focus just enough to shepherd his eyes to the side in order to investigate. The pain and the fatigue were all just too great. And Piedmon... Piedmon was still tugging angrily at his sword, trying to free it from the brick wall.

"T.K.! Help me!" screamed Kari again. The boy's eyes flickered back in her direction, and he recognized that she had not moved even a step closer to the sanctuary of the park. The crest was now burning so furiously that his skin was almost alight with its power, but still he did not rise. There was a limit to what his shattered body could accomplish, even with the object pouring so much raw strength into it.

But Kari would never make it on her own, and all three of them knew it.

T.K. pulled himself up to his knees, and from there, slowly to his feet. He could not run to Kari... he could barely even walk. It was closer to the truth to say that he staggered to her side and feebly grabbed at her hand, pulling the girl close and leading her towards the park.

Kari's arm was draped over T.K.'s shoulders as the two limped slowly into a grassy area and collapsed beneath a tree. It was impossible for either of them to go any further, as T.K.'s body had quite simply shut down from exhaustion. The boy was only half-conscious as Piedmon finally freed his weapon with a terrible pull and begin his slow, deliberate march towards them.

"Kari... please... go," T.K. murmured, somehow finding the strength to stand and slump forward to his knees, offering his own life to buy Kari an extra moment of hers. Piedmon didn't even bother with his sword, simply brushing the exhausted boy aside with a hand. Kari gave a cry and hopped, then tripped and proceeded to crawl to T.K.'s side.

She was on her knees as she looked up at the other. "Tai! Tai! If you're still in there anywhere," she shouted at the form that had been her brother. "You have to know that you'll have to kill me to get at him!" And with that the girl draped herself across T.K.'s prone form, embracing him tightly.

The pouring rain was sweeping the makeup off the boy's face in rivers, letting Tai's face peek at her from behind the ghastly white facade. "Gladly," the clown smirked at her with her brother's lips, advancing steadily on them. Kari couldn't watch. She turned T.K. over and pressed her lips hard against his, the mud smeared on his face rubbing off on her cheek. And as she pulled him close, his tattered shirt fell open to reveal the golden emblem lying dormant against his bare chest. Closer, and the pink crest of Light around her neck chanced to meet in an equally warm embrace with the crest of Hope.

And then a sound like thunder, a thousand, thousand kettle drums bursting at once exploded in the clown's ears as he was thrown back away from the pair. Suddenly he was terribly cold, immeasurably moreso than the rain had felt on his skin. So very, very cold…

A glowing nimbus engulfed T.K. and Kari, lifting the pair up and shimmering outward from the point where Hope and Light were bonded together in a loving embrace. A beautiful, wordless song of choral voices filled the air and cleared the sky, and the worries and agony of the past two years were forgotten in a flash of almost divine light. The two children laughed and Kari cried in joy as they knelt and hugged tightly, for the moment caring for nothing but one another. There was no pain, no fatigue. There was only the two of them together and the tangible joy that held them within.

It took a few moments for the joy to peak, then a bit longer for it to slowly lower to the two back down to earth from the heaven that they'd found together. And when they finally drew away from one another their crests separated as well and they became aware of their surroundings once again. The pair found Tai, face-down and unconscious at their feet. He had fallen to the ground beside them, inside the radiant light. The children stood as one and glanced around. The sword was no longer in his grasp, but where…?

And then they saw. Outside of the radiant halo the ghost of Piedmon floated, trying desperately to grab his fallen blade. The holy aura from the crests had allowed Tai's body in, but had rejected the evil and vile corruption of the clown's soul. Then he looked, terrified, as a shadow fell across the moon. The eclipse! And he was without a body! "No! No I won't go back to that! You can't have beaten me again! You can't have beaten me aga--!" And then with a sound of rushing wind he was gone, blown with evil blade back through the gate to whatever awaited him on the other side of the digital crevice.

T.K.'s awkwardness about Kari fell away as he stood beside her, their hands interwoven. There was nothing more to confess to her that she had not already learned while the two of them had shared the intimate light together. She now saw and understood him as he knew her, stripped bare of all earthly facades and failings. And he was unable to be ashamed that she had seen him so. "I suppose that it's time for us to have that talk now," he said. The girl did not answer, only nodding and resting her head on his shoulder in response.