Epilogue
Back in the human world, two weeks later...
T.K. knelt silently by the side of his bed, his shoulders trembling with the force of silent tears while his head rested across folded arms. He'd fought this off as long as possible, and just couldn't do it anymore. The great burden that he carried, the heartbreaking pain that he felt... it was all just too heavy upon his young soul.
The boy drew a sleeve across his tear-stained eyes to dry them, then leaned on the bed so that he could stand. Even after taking it easy for the last couple of weeks, he was still unable to place his full weight on the left leg that had been injured in his fight against D'assan. Or more properly, if he understood the a'ladon language, against the demon Asaan. But whatever the creature's name was it was still hateful to him, and his teeth clamped down hard upon one another to think of it.
The full moon outside provided the only light in the room, and T.K. had resisted for some time the urge to close the curtains and lie in his bed. There was something important... something that he had to understand before he went to sleep that night... something about himself. And so the young boy limped over to the full length mirror hanging on the wall and studied his image within it.
He frowned at what he saw. He looked no different there than he had last week. Or the week before that, or even the week before that. T.K.'s brow furrowed tightly as he continued to stare at his image for a few more moments, then turned away in embittered frustration. "What is so special about me?" he demanded of himself quietly. Whatever it was, he just couldn't see it in the mirror. "Why did this all have to happen to me?"
"T.K.?" another voice whispered quietly, as if in response, and the door to his room creaked open and filled it with artificial light from the hallway. "You still awake?"
The boy turned with a sniffle, hoping that his brother would not be able to tell that he had been crying. "Yeah, Matt. I'm up."
The taller boy crept quietly inside, partially closing the door behind him. Then he turned and looked to his little brother standing there, his weight almost entirely on his uninjured right leg. And despite T.K.'s efforts to keep them hidden, the older boy did indeed take notice of his brother's tear-stained eyes. "You should be asleep, you know," he murmured.
T.K. allowed himself a small, very weary smile in response. "So should you."
Matt nodded, then looked down awkwardly as if he were studying the floor of the younger boy's room and both of them were silent for a moment. Then he looked up again, this time biting his lower lip. "T.K.? Tell me what's wrong... please?"
The pleading tenor of his brother's voice broke T.K.'s heart just a little more. He had no words to describe how he felt at that moment. The fear, the despair that he was feeling was real, he was certain of it and wanted nothing more than to have his brother there to help him face it. Yet he knew with a horrid certainty in his aching heart that, this time, there was simply nothing for his big brother to do.
Seeing the stricken look in the other's eyes Matt crossed the room to join him. Then silently, hesitantly, as if he were unsure of how the gesture would be received, the older boy gently placed a comforting arm around his younger brother's shoulders.
T.K. remained silent for a moment, then stared sobbing anew as he turned and buried his face against Matt's strong shoulder. The older boy gritted his teeth to keep from crying as well, out of concern for his younger sibling, and instead only held the smaller boy more tightly as he had so often when they were younger.
"Oh, Matt," T.K. whispered, his young voice thick with despair. "It was so... I mean... I don't know..." he trailed off, seemingly unable to put a cognizant thought into words.
"It'll be all right, T.K." the other whispered soothingly, holding onto his brother tightly. "Whatever it is, it'll be all right. We can face it together."
At that moment T.K. longed very much for the old days; when the simple feel of his brother's arm on his shoulder could chase away all of his fears and could solve all of his problems. Everything would always be all right as long as Matt was there. But then T.K. sighed and his shoulders slumped, his tear-stained face still resting against the older boy's chest. That had been in the old days, and before his life had become this complicated. With regret evident in his eyes he removed his brother's arm from his shoulders and turned away.
"C'mon, T.K.," Matt pleaded, looking down at the younger boy. "Tell me. Talk to me please... what is this? There's something about you, squirt, and it's scaring me. Something's changed, hasn't it?" T.K. opened his mouth to respond, but Matt stopped him with a glance. "And don't you dare even think about telling me that it's my imagination. We're way beyond that."
The younger boy allowed himself a very brief, very tired smile, about to have said that very thing... really more out of habit than anything else. "Okay, Matt. I won't tell you it's your imagination. Would you settle for an 'I don't know'?"
Matt looked on helplessly in response. "I don't... I mean, I guess... maybe... Is it the truth?"
T.K. sighed, lowering his eyes. That was a harder question. It might have been the truth...
************
"Takeru! Lord! Help me!"
The blond-haired boy turned to the side at the call of his friend, watching as the battle-weary a'ladon tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword and once again staggered forward and into the fight with the evil Beast, the ebony-skinned prince of demons. The little Warden was clearly dazed, and his blue eyes seemed to have trouble focusing upon his enemy.
T.K. nodded and made to take up a flanking position alongside the young creature. Working in tandem, there was a small chance that one of them could place the demon in a vulnerable position while the other held its attention. But then the human Paragon found, for some reason and at that most crucial of moments, that his feet were completely unwilling to move from where they were planted. Something, some unseen power was holding him back, and despite his best efforts he could not force himself forward to join T'Kai in his desperate final strike against the massive creature.
And then, as he again saw the distant look in the young creature's blue eyes and heard the murmuring of the Crest of Hope in his own ears, a painful realization came to T.K.: This was not his battle to fight. This time belonged to T'Kai alone... it was to be his sacrifice to make.
The human boy slowly reached a hand towards the a'ladon, as if he would take the other's paw and lead him away from this destiny. This was wrong in so many ways... it couldn't happen like this. Not when the little creature had so much more to offer his world. This couldn't be right. It couldn't be supposed to end this way. It didn't make any sense at all...
But now the golden fire of the Crest burst forth from T.K.'s outstretched hand and engulfed T'Kai's body within its divine aura. T.K., now resigned to helplessness, watched as the holy relic finished in the child what it had begun only a few short days earlier. After a few moments of purification the Warden T'Kai was no longer a frightened child, and was not even the great warrior which had slain the Saurian at the entrance to the cavern. No. Now, as he stood and faced his destiny, T'Kai was finally the great Paragon of his race that he had been born to be.
A great peace settled over the creature as the golden fire ceased to flow forth from T.K. and the Crest of Hope and slowly, as if awakening from a long sleep, the boy a'ladon opened his cerulean eyes. His fur was no longer the fiery auburn color that his mortal body had been clothed in. Instead it had assumed the holy light of T.K.'s crest as its own, and had been transmuted into a fine pelt of divine silver. His long ears were folded back over his head in righteous anger as he stared down the great beast opposite him, his enemy who would eagerly defile his entire world given the chance.
T'Kai raised his massive sword in one clenched fist, a salute to the One who had gifted him with this duty. T.K. looked on, astounded both at the size of the blade and the fact that the a'ladon child now possessed the Herculean strength that had to be required to lift it.
The silence in the cave was deafening... even the massive beast opposite the two children had ceased its incessant howling. One only had to be present in that room in order to feel the utter significance, the profound magnitude of that moment. Millennia had passed awaiting that very instant, and then, nodding his acceptance of it, T'Kai threw himself headlong into the darkness.
As the a'ladon moved D'assan again raised his head and gave another horrifyingly loud howl. The drizzle of small rocks and stones that were falling from the ceiling of the cavern suddenly became a downpour at the deadly call of the beast, and T.K. moved back at the last moment as a particularly large stone shattered the ground at his side. Helplessly the young human watched as his young friend rushed into mêlée with his foe, ready to offer his life in exchange for the safety of his race.
T'Kai's rear paws barely touched the ground as he ran, as if heaven was unwilling to wait for the moment and was already starting to draw him home. And then the young creature leapt at D'assan, hurling himself into the dark embrace of the massive, black-skinned fiend.
Another rock smashed into the cavern floor at T.K.'s rear, missing him by only a few feet, but the young boy paid it no heed. Now his eyes were locked on the vulpine form of the Warden T'Kai as he leapt, swinging his great, shimmering blade in a great arc at the demon-king.
D'assan stretched forth one of his titanic claws at the a'ladon, as if he would easily bat away this annoying little creature who was all that stood in the way of his dominion.
T.K. suddenly found himself able to move forward again, free to join his friend in the battle. But even as he stepped forward to help the young creature, he knew it to be too late...
"Holy Cross!" he heard the tenor of T'Kai's voice above the banshee call of the demon and the pounding din of boulders raining all about them. And the a'ladon's weapon became a silver blur as it slammed against the dark claw of the prince of demons, the deafening sound of a thousand cannons being fired at once exploding throughout the cavern as the two met.
************
T.K. collapsed back onto his bed as the memory fell away into the past, then looked up at his older brother. "I'll be okay, Matt. It just hit me kind of hard when T'Kai died, that's all. You try to get some sleep, and I'll see if I can't get some too."
It was nearly, almost, but not quite a lie, and Matt could hear it in the younger boy's voice. Not that T.K. was in pain about the loss of his friend; Matt was certain that that much was the truth. But from what Kari had told them, T.K. had accepted the necessity and the sacrifice when the Reverend creature called 'Cheyne' had explained it to them. It had to be more than that.
Nevertheless, the older boy managed a grin. "Okay, squirt, you've got yourself a deal. But I want you to promise me that if you need to talk about it some more that you'll come and wake me up, no matter how late it is. 'k?"
T.K. nodded wearily. "Okay, Matt. You've got my word that if I feel like talking about it any more, I'll come and get you."
The answer appeared, at least, to satisfy the older boy, who nodded and turned back to the door through which he had entered. T.K. limped slowly back to his bed and lay down, staring at the ceiling with his hands clasped behind his head.
Then the younger of the two closed his eyes and steadied his breathing, knowing that Matt would not actually stop listening at the door and return to his own room until he felt that his brother was asleep. T.K. opened one eye a crack and watched for a moment, then sighed in satisfaction as Matt's shadow vanished from the light creeping in beneath his door.
Sitting up again, quietly so as to not disturb Patamon who was sleeping comfortably beside his bed, the young boy started to pull on his shoes...
************
T'Kai's radiant blade burst into a thousand splinters as it clashed against Dassan's dark claw, instantly and completely obliterating the massive appendage. The force of the explosion sent T'Kai flying through the air momentarily, his size dwindling as he reverted to the child-like form that T.K. had met on the shores of the lake only a few days prior. Then his tiny body met with tremendous force the one stone wall which had not been destroyed by the demon and the little creature tumbled forward to the ground.
T.K. was hurled backwards and to the granite floor by the force of the blast, the young boy crying out in pain as his left leg twisted awkwardly underneath him as his tired body rolled to a stop. Glancing up briefly, he saw the demon king stumble backwards in agony, a large, resplendent sliver of T'Kai's shattered blade projecting from the dark center of his massive chest...
Or not so massive. For as D'assan staggered back he also appeared to be diminishing as he clawed at the silvery metal lodged in his chest with his one remaining hand. Angrily the Beast snarled, for though he could grasp the bright splinter lodged within his body, it appeared that he no longer had the strength necessary to dislodge it.
T.K. coughed once and his eyes were set to watering, the thick smoke billowing throughout the cavern now having taken on a decidedly acerbic flavor. Now dazed, he rolled to his knees and began a slow crawl towards T'Kai's shattered body. His leg ached horribly, forbidding him to rise and walk as he would have ordinarily have done, and the sharp stones on the ground shredded his golden shirt and scratched at his belly as he crawled, but T.K. paid them none of this any heed. His one focus was to reach the side of the fallen Paragon.
Out of the corner of his eye T.K. saw the demon stumble backwards to once again rest upon his dark throne, the wheezing gasps coming from his throat making him sound like a dying animal. The boy didn't really care... nothing mattered at that moment but that he was able reach his little friend.
After what seemed like a lifetime to the exhausted, blond-haired human, he finally managed to drag his lame body over to T'Kai's and drape a single arm over the child's furry chest. "T'Kai?" the boy queried weakly, again choking on the sulfurous smell in the cavern.
The young creature gave a quiet moan at the feel of the human boy's flesh against his reddish fur, but gave no further indication that he had heard.
"T'Kai," T.K. tried again, more insistently this time as he gave the other a nudge.
This time the creature's blue eyes fluttered once and opened, though the look in them was terribly vague and glassy. "L... Lord Takeru?" he murmured, a trace amount of dark red blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. "Did... did we win?"
T.K. could hear the snarling of the dark fiend at his back as it struggled to remove the glimmering metal which had impaled it. The boy was uncertain of the answer, but knew what had to be said. "Yes, T'Kai," he said with a nod. "You did it. You won."
The a'ladon shifted uncomfortably on the ground, and his head lolled flaccidly to the side. His back was broken, he was certain, and he could not even feel his legs. A part of him was oddly grateful for that, since he knew that both of them had probably been broken as well... if not from the collision with the wall then certainly from the fall thereafter.
"Good," he said weakly, in terrible pain but unable to move to remedy it. He just wished that he hadn't had to die down here, with the sharp pebbles jabbing into his back and the dark, putrid air smothering him. If only he could once again be outside, to be under the beautiful blue sky and to have the lush green grass as his bed. That would be just fine... but then, on second thought, he felt well content simply to have the Lord Takeru at his side in his final moments.
"Funny..." the little furry creature choked against the blood rising from his throat," I've been terrified of this moment my entire life, but now that it's here... I'm not really afraid anymore." T'Kai blinked, his blue eyes flitting around the cavern. "This... this is exactly what the Sight showed me."
T.K. was stunned. "You mean that you knew it was going to happen like this?" he asked, his voice sounding very hurt, almost angry. "Why didn't you say something? We could have done it a different way! Tied Davis up and left him outside or something!" The human boy's face scrunched up, and he buried it in T'Kai's furry chest and wept fiercely.
T'Kai could feel his life slipping away. He only had the strength left to utter one request, one that had to be granted. He could not bear to die with his human companion upset with him. "Please... please, don't be mad, Lor... T.K. It had to be this way, I know that now. You understand, don't you? I'm... like... you..."
And at that moment and while still cradled in T.K.'s arms, the Warden T'Kai died.
The human boy broke down and pulled the young creature to his chest, burying his face into the other's soft, auburn fur as tears poured freely from his eyes. The pain that he felt crushed him like some enormous fist, a blow that would be with him for a long time to come.
"Do not weep long, human child," a cruel, deadly voice whispered at his back. "You will be joining him in his flight from this world soon enough."
T.K. craned his head over his shoulder and saw the fiendish creature once again on his feet and slowly approaching him. At his back were thousands upon thousands of dark, hideous, wraith-like creatures who swirled about their master, shouting over and over again horrid, ugly obscenities and their unadulterated hatred of him. Even as the boy watched their number continued to grow, a new one forming every second out of the haze filling the cavern.
T.K. allowed T'Kai's limp body to slide to the floor and gripped his own staff, struggling to pull himself to his feet. It was, he grimly suspected, a futile gesture. For though D'assan had clearly been stricken by the sliver of the young creature's blade lodged in his chest, T.K. could barely even stand on his left leg... he was certain that he could not fight on it.
The Beast grinned evilly as he approached slowly, flanked by his dark minions who all the while continued to hiss their revulsion at the boy. "We hate you, Takeru Takaishi. Oh, yes, how we hate you. We will take your mortal soul and give it over to our master to be scourged for all time... You will become like us, human. Come, now, child... give yourself over to us..."
T.K. flinched in horror at the deadly song of the creatures, the light on his chest beginning to flicker as though it would come again to life, but hesitating as the boy listened to their heinous cries. A rain of despair started to fall on the young child as he heard over and over again the hatred of those thousands of lost souls who cried their loathing of him even though they had never met him.
************
T.K. slipped quietly out of Matt's apartment, not wanting to disturb the older boy. He knew that Matt wanted to help, everyone wanted to help, but the young hero just didn't feel that this was something that they could take away from him. It was hard, terribly hard for him to deal with on his own, and for possibly the first time in his life was unsure of how to react.
The golden-haired boy stepped out into the frigid night, wrapping his coat tightly about his shoulders. He was not really certain of where he was going, he just knew that he had to be alone. Alone with his thoughts now, the dark memories that plagued him. The ones that threatened to crush the life from his mortal soul if he would just let down his defenses for just a moment.
After wandering alone for some time, T.K. unexpectedly found himself at the entrance to a massive park just a few blocks away from his brother's apartment. (It was, though the boy did not know it, the same park were his brother had saved Rio from her suicide attempt during the prior year.) It seemed to him to be the perfect place to find solitude, and T.K. nodded as he entered the park and sat down on one of the wooden benches, watching as the silver moon sent its light down to shimmer on the cold waters of the lake in the center of the verdant grasslands.
Hate? They hated him? Those poor lost souls did not even know who he was, yet each had cried out time after time their terrible loathing of his very being. That had been something that he was entirely unprepared to deal with...
************
D'assan approached him on cloven hooves, a cruel grin on his silent lips and in his blood-red eyes as he allowed his dark minions to do his threatening for him. T.K. was still down on one knee, leaning heavily on his long rod as he attempted to get his injured leg underneath him. It was almost hopeless, the young boy knew, but even in the midst of all of this he could not allow all hope to die. He owed T'Kai that much, at least.
Then the demonic fiend and his minions hissed and fell away as a golden light appeared behind the young human, and a deep voice sounded over his shoulder. "Enough!" the newcomer cried, the shimmering curtain of his light falling over T.K. to shield him from the dark horde.
Then D'assan alone crept forward, his pupils narrowing into a pair of fiery coals within the darkness of his eyes. "Cheyne..." he murmured quietly, then paused. After another moment, he continued, his eyes never once blinking or moving away from the pair. "That is what you are called here, yes? What business is this of yours, hmm? It is time for this Paragon and I to have our reckoning. How dare you to interfere?"
T.K. chanced to look over his shoulder to catch a brief glimpse of the one standing behind him. Cheyne, the a'ladon who they had met at the temple on the mountain where Kiara had been delivered into their hands. But he looked nothing now like he did then. Now, instead of a middle-aged creature with brown fur wearing a somewhat tattered cloak, his pelt was awash in the holy silver that T'Kai had worn for a brief time. A golden light hung about him like a halo, and the cloth that he wore was a sheer white robe. At his side dangled a great trump inscribed with sigils that set T.K.'s heart to pounding, though his eyes could not decipher them at a glance.
"I dare to interfere," the other said with thunderous, unmistakable authority, "because you are already beaten." He indicated the thin length of T'Kai's shattered blade which continued to impale the fiendish creature. "You know the rules--"
The other howled at the word and snapped at the pair with his razor-sharp teeth.
Cheyne continued on as if the interruption had not occurred. "And though you seek to bend them and twist them and avoid them in any way that you can, you are forbidden to break them. Whatever is to come between you and this boy will have to be in another time, and another place."
The dark creature seethed in frustration at the chastisement, and his hell-red eyes narrowed and focused on T.K. "Listen to me, boy, and listen well. This is not over between us... it has not even begun. We know you now, and know why you have come... look for us, child. In the dark shadows of your dreams, in the jealous eyes of those who despise you, look for us... because it is there that you will find us."
Cheyne was now standing right beside the young human, who had been stunned into silence at the words of his enemy. The eyes of the a'ladon never left the horde on the other side of the cavern, but he rested a furry paw upon T.K.'s shoulder. "Come, boy, let us be gone from here. This place can prove harmful to your mortal body if you should stay too long."
As if suddenly reminded, T.K. coughed again as the fetid, sulfurous air continued to irritate his throat and lungs. Gritting his teeth he then forced himself to his feet, sharp needles of pain sending agony throughout his injured leg. Then the boy looked down at the body of his young friend, frowning as he realized that this was all wrong. T'Kai deserved more, much more than just to have his corpse lie forgotten down here in the bowels of the earth.
T.K. allowed his rod to fall to the floor with a clatter, and leaned over and placed his arms underneath the young Warden.
Cheyne frowned. "Why do you do this?" he queried sternly, knowing the young boy's intentions. "His soul has already flown away. Why do you now burden yourself with its earthly shell?"
T.K. was at a loss. "I... I don't know," he replied honestly. "But I can't just leave him here. That... that's not... right." He could not explain his reasoning, but after a moment Cheyne nodded as if he understood well enough.
"Very well then," the creature said, his silver fur continuing to shimmer as it kept the darkness of the cave at bay, "but go quickly. I would not see you dead down here before you are even presented with your true burden."
************
T.K. bowed his head. He was tired... so very, very tired. It seemed to the young boy as if he had been fighting all of his very short life. But what good ever came of it? Evil was always there, always returned in some manner or other. For every single agent of darkness that he helped to defeat, it always seemed that two would arise to take its place. T'Kai had given himself as a sacrifice and died, but the demon that he had 'defeated' lived on.
Why? The boy looked up, blinking as the bewildering thought struck him. At that moment, he realized that he could not think of or recall one good, one single very good reason to fight on any longer. Evil continued to thrive, the good and innocent continued to suffer, and the one that Cheyne had called a 'Paragon' of humankind could no longer think of any good reason to go on. As a veil of despair dropped over the young boy he unwillingly rose to his feet and marched toward the lake, his vision dimmed as the wraith-like demons at his back cackled their success and herded him onward.
************
"Daughter."
Kari sat up straight in her bed, pulling the covers up to her chest as she glanced about the darkened room. Someone had just spoken to her, she was certain of it. A voice that was vaguely familiar... but then again not so familiar. As if it had been magnificently altered in some way or another...
"Cheyne?" the young girl murmured into the inky blackness, quietly, to avoid waking the feline digimon who dozed quietly beside her. It had to have been the angelic a'ladon who had spoken. If the tone of the voice could not convince her, the word had to. No one else, that she could recall, had ever used that word to address her directly.
"Cheyne?" she hissed again, more insistently.
A tiny pinprick of light floated quietly over to her and rested on the edge of the bed, a light so small that she would lose sight of it if she did not keep her eyes focused directly on it, even in the darkness of her room. "No... not here, Daughter. Here I am called by another Name." The voice was the elder creature's, and it seemed odd to hear so deep a voice emanating from such a tiny creature.
"What--"
"That is unimportant right now. In time, you may come to know me by my Truename, but for now you are needed. Needed most urgently."
"By who?" the girl returned.
"The young one. Takeru. You must come quickly. We haven't much time."
Kari blinked in alarm and bolted from her bed, slipping on a pair of loose jeans and throwing a sweater over her head, the very hint that T.K. was in trouble lending a fervent speed to her actions. The girl snatched the Crest of Light from the desk beside her bed and moved to wake Gatomon as well, but then the tiny spark of light that was Cheyne interrupted her. "No. Allow her to sleep. Tonight it is not her ferocity, but rather your love for the boy that is called for."
Kari looked confused, yet nodded once as she draped the pinkish crest about her neck, then opened the door to her room and silently slipped out.
************
T.K. limped wearily up the spiral pathway which led to the egress from the dark cavern, the small, lifeless form of his young friend's body clasped tightly in his arms. Once or twice the exertion and lack of clean air in the pit made him dizzy, and only the fact that Cheyne walked between him and the seemingly bottomless pit in the center of the room kept him from tumbling into it.
"Are the others safe?" T.K. asked his enigmatic companion.
Cheyne's eyes appeared far away for a moment, then he turned to the other and nodded. "Safe, but heartbroken."
Far below, T.K. could still hear the endless howls of hatred and fury of the creatures that the boy had just learned were intent on killing him. A look of indelible sadness appeared in his eyes at the very thought, and a single tear fell down and splashed onto T'Kai's limp form. "This is so stupid," he murmured to himself.
Cheyne slowed, hearing in the boy's words something that apparently didn't sit well with him. "You fear them?"
T.K. looked as though he was considering the question for a moment, then shook his head.
"Hate them?"
Again, a negative response.
The pair had now reached the summit of their climb, and made their way to the large arch which led back into the more mundane caverns. "Then why 'stupid'?"
The young human bit his lip, seeking a way to phrase the question which had been galling him. "Did we win? From the way that you were talking to D'assan, it sounds like you think so, at least. But it doesn't seem to me that we did."
Cheyne frowned, glancing at the body clasped tightly in T.K.'s arms. "Because of his death?" he asked in response. When T.K. answered with a silent nod, the a'ladon continued, "Perhaps then because you were not aware of the alternative. T'Kai was, and he made his choice based upon what he knew. He was, as you are, a very special individual, and had a great responsibility placed on his shoulders."
"A responsibility to die?"
"In this case, yes. He poured out all of his mortal life into that one act, and it is the goodness and purity of his spirit, encompassed within that tiny sliver of his blade, which will keep D'assan as he is now." He turned his head to the side. "Is it so very hard for you to believe that the defeat of evil required a sacrifice of such goodness? You have born witness to it before."
T.K. opened his mouth to respond, then fell silent, knowing the event to which the other referred. But very few individuals knew about that time, and did any a'ladon? His eyes narrowed as he peered at the older creature. "Who are you?"
"Here? Now? I am called Cheyne. In your world, in that time, I am called something else."
The blond-haired boy looked a bit confused for a moment, then glanced down at the instrument hanging at the other's side. Somewhere, lost in his memories there had been a story... Then almost instantly his blue eyes shot back up again and locked onto the creature's dark brown ones. "Clever boy," Cheyne murmured with a small grin.
T.K. was stunned. "Should I... should I kneel to you?"
The other's smile was kindly. "Should the time ever come for you to kneel, Takeru, I assure you that you won't need to ask." He paused for a moment, watching as the human ducked his head and squeezed through the archway, careful not to strike T'Kai's head, then continued. "You are out of danger, and so it is time for me to be off. Rejoin us at the bottom of the mountain. I will have T'Kai's resting place prepared when you arrive."
T.K. nodded. "But... uhm, Lord? How will I find you?"
The creature's silver coat flashed as he vanished from the boy's view, but his final words remained behind to meet with T.K.'s ears. "The Lady Hikari is with us! You will know the way!"
************
T.K. plodded on towards the black waters of the lake, his conscious mind struggling to find an anchor in his memories. Somewhere, someplace within his mind there had to be something worth living for... if only he could remember. But it seemed as if all of his most wonderful memories had been buried beneath the black mountain of despair that the death of T'Kai had brought and the livid hatred that the lost souls had pledged to him. If only...
The boy couldn't think straight, his eyes not even seeing the cold waters of the lake in front of him, his body not feeling the icy waves wash against his legs or the savage demons at his back herding him onwards, clouding his thoughts. His brow furrowed tightly in concentration. If only he could remember.
"T.K.!" a light, almost memorable voice called urgently at his back. The voice was quite familiar to him, so the boy might have turned; might have, if not for the crushing weight of despair resting on his shoulders. T'Kai... dead. He himself, hunted by that fiendish demon and his thousands upon thousands of minions. Cheyne's words... that said without saying that he also might be called on to sacrifice his life. Year after year after year of too much fighting...
"T.K.!" Kari shouted again, now more insistently than before. The young boy was up to his knees in the waters now, and he seemed to be ignoring her. Frightened, she turned to the small speck of light at her side. "What's wrong with him? What is he doing?"
"He has been overwhelmed," the bodiless voice returned to her, a thoughtful concern in the words. "I feared that this might happen, after our conversation in the caverns. It has happened before, with others. He was asked to do too much, too soon. His mind is clouded in desolation, and as long as that is the case the demons will have power over him."
Kari's brown eyes focused on the boy, and she was startled as she too could see the foot-high, imp-like monsters shoving T.K. forward into the waters. Tears started to well up in her eyes, and she made as if to scurry down the hill in T.K.'s direction. "No, Daughter, stop!" Cheyne ordered urgently.
"No! I won't!" the girl retorted angrily. "They're killing him!"
"You can't fight them, child, not alone!" the other responded urgently. "There is another way. The boy has lost the anchor for his soul, has forgotten why he fights. You must remind him."
Kari looked confused. "Why he...? I... I don't under-"
Cheyne's voice was stern. "Don't you? You are innocent, Daughter, but never have been naive. You have known this for some time now. He fights for the light. He fights for his faith. He fights for the good of your world and its people. But above all things... he fights for you."
Kari's cheeks flushed a light pink, and the Crest of Light bound upon her wrist answered that blush with a crimson glow of its own. "T.K.!" she called again, the rosy light falling upon the young boy's back. Now, as he heard, the fair-haired child seemed to pause for a moment... if just a second. "Please, T.K.!" Kari continued to shout, and with each passing moment the light spreading from her wrist continued to glisten even more brightly.
T.K. stopped, waist-deep in the frigid water. Who was that who was calling him? He made up his mind to turn and find out, but for some reason he found that he couldn't force his eyes to turn and look back over his shoulder. Did it really matter anyway?
Kari sobbed in frustration, in fear for the boy. Then the little bit of light that was Cheyne's essence started to swirl about her head. "Remember, Daughter... remember what the two of you have been through. We have all seen it from Heaven, and still you hold it in your heart. Remember..."
A torrent of memories rushed over the little brown-haired girl. The first time she saw him. From the very start there was some kind of connection with him... even as a child she knew it. When he stayed with her, to guard her when her brother left her side. She had been so ill...
As they knelt together to offer a farewell to the fallen creatures after the horrendous battle in the sewers in the other world. The others had all been so intent on what was going to happen next that their sacrifice had been almost forgotten, but he had understood, had stayed with her.
The battle against Piedmon. She certainly would have died there, but for him. His courage, his faith had seen her live through it.
Two years later, as he poured out his mortal life into her body that she would not fail from despair. And how he had fought, alone, the hopeless battle that followed so that she would have time to escape... then how afterwards he had confessed his love in his charming, innocent way.
The journeys to the land of the a'ladon, his battles against the angel of darkness and the lizard-like Saurians... all for her.
Cheyne was gone, but his final words remained as a whisper upon the wind. "Shine, dearest heart. Shine brightly and for all that you are worth, for it is in your heart that he will find his life..."
How much she loved him.
During the time that the girl had been thinking the light from the Crest had continued to steadily increase, until when, with that final thought, it finally became so radiant that the pink glow was enough to turn the darkness of the night into day, illuminating the entire park from one end to the other. And with that light came heat, at least to T.K., who suddenly opened his eyes in amazement. Of course. That was why he fought, the reason that he continued to try.
Kari.
T.K. whirled about in the water, then reached up and tore the Crest of Hope from about his neck. With a grim look in his eyes, T.K. could finally see the horde of imp-like creatures at his back, hissing and spitting at him as they continued to try to force him forward into the deep waters. But now they were no longer pitting their strength against a human child who had lost the will to keep on fighting. As the golden fire leaked out from his tightly clasped fingers, the little demons finally were able to recognize why their master and other superiors had warned them against him.
The young human lashed out at the offending creatures with the holy fire in his hands, and though it may have been harmless to him, to the creatures born of darkness it was devastating. Four of their number were instantly cremated by the angry heat of the golden fire, and the rest fell away from him in alarm. T.K. trudged forth from the cold waters, throwing more of his fire at the creatures with every third step.
When the boy finally reached the shore, he again turned and faced the tiny monsters which remained before him. The holy fire in his hand was creeping quickly up his arm, until the one final time when he unleashed it upon the creatures in a massive golden arc. The imps, wisely perhaps, did not wait around to see what damage that great surge would cause to their tiny beings, choosing instead to scatter like leaves before the wind to wherever it was that they had come from in the first place.
T.K. was breathing heavily, shivering in the cold night air after having been thoroughly soaked in the dark waters of the lake. He stayed that way for a scant moment, his blue eyes flitting about the park to make certain that all of the little creatures were finally gone or destroyed.
Then the boy felt a tentative touch on his shoulder and he turned, knowing that the danger had passed. There stood little Kari at his side, the Crest of Light murmuring her love for him as it throbbed in time to the girl's own heartbeat. Her breath, visible in the frigid night air was coming in short gasps, and her soft brown eyes were filled with evident concern. "T.K.? Are you... okay?"
The last of the golden fire vanished from T.K.'s fingertips, chilling him on the spot. Exhausted from the ordeal, the boy briefly stumbled forward. "Kari?" he panted. "How... how did you know?"
"It was Cheyne, T.K. He came to me. Here in our world."
T.K.'s brow furrowed. "You mean Ga-- er... he came to get you? To save me?" The boy was struggling to keep a brave face in front of the girl even though he was rapidly losing consciousness.
Kari smiled as she took T.K.'s hand in response, then looked up in alarm at the clammy feel of his flesh. "Oh my God! T.K., you're freezing! Come on... we've got to get you back home!"
The brown-haired girl draped one of the taller boy's arms over her shoulders, assisting him up the small hill which led back to the street. Hopefully, there would be a taxi nearby or a policeman passing or just someone with a car to get them back to his father's apartment more quickly. His skin was icy, and his lips had taken on a pale hue as he struggled for breath.
T.K. almost fell three times by the time the pair reached the street. Bearing most of the larger boy's weight, Kari moved the two of them along as fast as she could, hoping, praying that a vehicle of some sort would pass.
And during the fifteen minutes that it took for them to struggle from the park to the apartment, not one did.
"Unbelievable," Kari murmured under her breath, groaning from the burden of almost carrying the boy along.
Finally, mercifully, the pair tumbled into the elevator at the apartment building, Kari pushing the button to the correct floor. T.K. was leaning heavily against the wall of the cubicle, his skin turning pale, almost a bluish color. "Hold on, T.K." the girl ordered fearfully as she stared at him, repeatedly pushing the button as if it would make the elevator move any faster.
Now Kari was forced to almost drag T.K. down the hallway to his door. Frantically she banged on it when they arrived, praying for Matt to get to them quickly. When there was no response she pounded on it again, then turned the knob and let the two of them in. T.K.'s drenched, exhausted body collapsed to the floor as they entered, and a loose piece of paper fluttered to the ground at Kari's feet.
T.K.-
If you read this, Patamon and I have gone to look for you. If you get home before us, STAY HERE! -- Matt
The writing on the letter was scribbled, frantic, but Kari had read enough of her own brother's bad handwriting to decipher it. Terrified, she slammed the door shut, then grabbed T.K. under his arms and dragged him towards his bedroom, straining against the boy's weight. "God... T.K.... next time, no second helpings of dinner for you," she muttered quietly, sobbing at the words at such an urgent time, then lunged forward one more time to get the boy's limp body into the room.
************
T.K. sat straight up in bed, flinching as the morning sun shone directly onto his face. He could still feel the golden Crest of Hope clasped tightly within his hand, and his eyes flitted about the room in momentary disorientation. Kari was asleep on a nearby chair, brown hair scattered about her face to make her appear much as T.K. had always thought an angel should.
The boy was about to roll out of bed to go to her side, to ask her just what had happened last night (his own memories were really quite foggy), when something occurred to him.
That being the fact that he didn't have one single piece of clothing on.
The boy's jaw dropped open and his cheeks reddened as he tried desperately to gather his thoughts. Wrapping a blanket tightly around his body, he quietly tried to crawl out of bed towards the dresser in the corner of his room, but at the movement Kari's eyes blinked wide open. "T.K." she exhaled thankfully, then leapt forward to embrace him, burying her teary eyes into his bare chest. "Oh, God, T.K.! I was so worried! I was so scared..."
The golden-haired boy awkwardly embraced her with one arm, careful to keep the blanket clasped tightly around him with the other. "Kari... oh, Kari, I remember now. You are my reason, the reason for my hope. Oh, I do love you," he murmured, pulling her in even more tightly. "I can't even say how much..."
The girl sighed quietly and turned to rest her cheek lovingly against his bare chest. "And Kari?" he whispered.
"Hmm?"
"How come I don't have any clothes on?"
The girl looked up in alarm, blood rushing to her cheeks as she turned her eyes away from him and backed slowly away, as if just now realizing his condition. "They... they were too wet and... and y... you were too cold and... and..." she trailed off quickly, stammering more awkwardly than the boy had ever thought possible for the ordinarily unshakable girl.
"Uhm... you mean... you... Uhm, rather, I... ah, don't remember taking them off mysel--"
Just then the pair heard the front door crash open, and the sound of footsteps as Matt came dashing back to the room where they were. Frantically the older boy flung open the door, his eyes locking onto his younger brother as he entered. "T.K.!" he shouted, relief flooding the sound of his anxious words. "Thank God you're..."
The boy trailed off as the entire scene seeped into his conscious mind. There was T.K., naked but for a thin blanket wrapped tightly around his lithe body. There was Kari, in the corner of the room, blushing a deep and rosy red and refusing to meet his eyes... and there was T.K.'s bed, unmade and looking much too well used for Matt's piece of mind.
"Uhm... Matt?" T.K. started slowly and holding up a hand defensively. "I know that I've said this before, but this really isn't what it looks l--"
Matt exhaled deeply, closing his eyes and turning around. "I don't wanna hear it, squirt. Just... just tell me that you're okay. Okay?"
"Uh... I'm okay..." It sounded more like a question than an answer.
"Good. I'm going back to bed. Call mom and tell her to call the school and tell them that I'm sick today, will you? I'm going to go back to sleep and convince myself that this was all just a dream."