Chapter Twenty-nine- A New Beginning



Jesi's eyes opened slowly to see Yolei leaning over her. Yolei smiled when she saw Jesi waking up.

"Welcome back to reality," Yolei said happily.

It took Jesi a moment to realize where she was and remember what had just happened. She was lying on a picnic table inside a large wooden building at the amusement park. Jesi sat up and looked around.

"Where's Ken? And where are the others?"

"Ken is outside waiting for you. You were the last one to wake up. How are you feeling?"

"How long where we asleep?" Jesi asked.

"A few hours, it's morning now."

Jesi rubbed her eyes and hopped off the table. It was hard to believe that Shadowmon was really gone. They had actually found the power to beat him. Jesi pinched her arm to make sure this wasn't just some wonderful dream.

"Ouch!"

"What did you do that for?" Yolei asked as they walked outside to meet the others.

"Oh, no reason."

When Jesi and Yolei stepped outside the others were all standing around or sitting at picnic tables chatting. Ken saw Jesi and hurried over to her. He threw his arms around her and hugged her, almost lifting her feet off the ground in the process.

"Ken, I thought I had lost you for good," she said when Ken let go of her.

"Don't worry, I would never leave you, not in a million years."

Just then something dawned on Jesi.

"What happened to Arukenimon and Mummymon?"

"They're gone," Ken said "The others told me after Shadowmon was deleted Arukenimon and Mummymon made a quick retreat."

"But what if they make another monster? We might have to start all over again." Jesi sighed and sat down on a bench next to a picnic table.

"Don't worry about that Jesi," Izzy said. He walked over to her and opened up his laptop. "I have some good news." Izzy loaded the map of the digital world and held it up in front of her. "Go ahead and scroll down, notice anything?"

Jesi pressed the down arrow and scanned each square and it moved up the screen. When she got to the bottom, her eyes lit up.

"The control spires, they're all gone!"

"Every single one," Izzy said, slapping his laptop shut. "It seems Arukenimon put all her faith into Shadowmon and used up every last control spire on him."

"Finally," Ken sighed "Those awful creations of mine are gone forever."

Jesi stood up and grabbed Ken's hand and squeezed it tight. Her touch reassured him that he was no longer alone, and didn't have to worry about his horrible past as the Digimon Emperor.

"But Izzy, what if Arukenimon and Mummymon try taking over the Digital World on their own?" she said.

"I highly doubt two goofy ultimates like them could take over anything."

"They couldn't even rob a convenience store!"

Jesi turned when she heard Davis's voice. Davis and Cody were walking up with arm fulls of food.

"Chow time!" Davis said.

"Mmm!" was everyone's response.

As the Digidestined sat down to eat breakfast, Jesi noticed that two of their companions were missing from the group.

"Where are Matt and Tai?" she asked.

"They left a while ago, before you woke up. I'm pretty sure they're at the lake," Kari said as she began eating.

"I wouldn't go looking for them if I were you," Sora snickered. Everyone looked at each other with big grins on their faces, and ate a well deserved meal.





Meanwhile a short distance away, Matt and Tai floated in the middle of the lake in Matt's swan shaped boat.

"I wanted to fix it up, but I couldn't wait to show you," Tai said. A gentle breeze blew Tai's soft, fluffy hair.

"Don't worry about it, I just can't believe it's still here after all these years." Matt said.

"It's not very beautiful anymore though, not like it used to be anyway," Tai said, flicking a chip of peeling white paint into the lake.

"Hey, beauty is only skin deep, or in this case wood." Matt laughed.

Tai turned and looked at him. "But you're beautiful all over," he said, inching a little closer to Matt.

"How would you know what I look like all over?" Matt said with a little smirk on his face, moving closer to Tai.

"Come on, I've seen you in your birthday suit before, remember that booby trap hotel with the hot spring when we first came to the digital world?"

"Oh yeah, the hot spring." As they talked their bodies were moving closer and closer together, until they almost touched noses.

"So like I said, you're beautiful all over Matt."

"I've grown up a lot since then you know. I've changed, we both have."

Taichi placed his arm around Matt and pulled his head until they were about to kiss.

"How about you show me how much you've changed?"

"Only if you show me too."

"Deal."

Matt and Tai's foreheads touched and they both grinned at each other, showing their pearly whites.

"And Matt, one more thing."

"Yeah Tai?"

"I...I love you"

"I love you more"

Matt softly pressed his lips to Tai's and leaned him back in the boat. Soon Matt and Tai could no longer been seen through the windows of the boat as they lied down, and the small swan shaped craft gently rocked back and forth in the middle of the lake.





Kari sat leaning against TK with his arms around her after everyone had finished eating. She felt like all her energy had been magically returned to her and was stronger than ever.

TK leaned his face against Kari's head and rubbed against her. He gave her a tiny kiss on her forehead and Kari sighed. It was a sigh of complete contentment and relaxation.

"TK, how long do you think the Digital world will be safe?" Kari said quietly.

TK pulled Kari closer to him and she rested her arms over his, which were wrapped around her stomach.

"Kari, the digital world is never really safe. The powers of darkness will always exist and they will always threaten the digital world and real world alike. That's why we're here, to protect both worlds." TK's hands started to tense up, and he stared off into the distance.

"TK hates the powers of darkness so much...but he won't admit he hates them. TK is so sweet most of the time, but it seems like he has a lot of anger hidden deep inside him. Everyone thinks it's because of Angemon being reconfigured during the last battle with Devimon, but I think there's more troubling him than just that. What happened to you to make you like this TK?" Kari thought to herself. She gazed up at TK's face and his piercing blue eyes looking ahead. He seemed to be focusing on something, but not actually looking at anything.

"TK, do you promise you'll always care for me?" she said.

TK's mind suddenly snapped back to reality. "Of course I will Kari."

"I guess that's all that matters for now," Kari said to herself.





Later, when the digital sun was high overhead, Matt and Tai arrived back at the group of picnic tables where the others had been resting all morning.

"Where have you two been?" Davis snickered and poked Tai in the side.

"None of your business Davis," Tai said, pretending to be angry, even though he obviously wasn't.

"We should probably go back soon," Izzy said, who was sitting on one of the tables with his computer in his lap. "Our parents are probably worried sick out us, we've been gone for two days."

"Hmm, that means today is Sunday!" Mimi said happily.

"So?" Izzy said.

"Well it's still the weekend, and in New York it's not even morning yet, so we have a whole day to just stay here and have fun!"

"Yeah! Mimi's right," Tai said. "We never get to have any fun in the digital world, we're always fighting something or knocking down some stupid control spire! Last time we thought we had some free time our summer vacation in the digital world was cut short, so lets make up for it by having a day of fun!"

"But what about our parents, Tai?" Izzy said, raising a finger in kind of a know-it-all Izzy way.

"They can wait for us for one more day! And besides, they're not stupid, they've probably figured out where we are by now!"

"I don't know Tai, you're parents never seemed that bright to me," Matt chuckled, who immediately received a light punch in the stomach from Tai.

"Well," said Joe, joining in the conversation, "I have my never-ending supply of toilet paper with me in case anyone has to go!" he said, and held up his bag.

"It's settled then," Tai said. He stood up on a table and held his arms up in the air. " After all, we are in an amusement park, so let's go have some fun!"