"MATT!!!" T.K. screamed as Diablomon took a swing at the holder of
Friendship but all were surprised when Diablomon came flying towards them.
"Augh!" the digimon exclaimed as he hit the floor, "You will pay
for that Friendship."
Matt simply smirked and shook his head, "No Diablomon, it is you who will
pay for your sins."
The digimon's face filled with horror and dread when he saw the glow become
brighter and Matt held the palms of his hand up to the sky, the light condensing
into a ball in his hand. The light formed a small disk which then floated all
the way to Matt's digimobile, inserting itself into a space. Matt's smirk became
larger as his hand traveled to the phone. Diablomon saw this as his last chance
to escape and 'I may as well take Friendship down with me.' he thought as he
sped back towards the seemingly unsuspecting Matt. However, quick as a flash,
Matt brought his hand back up and was pressing the enter key to fire.
The whole area was filled in the blue light with an explosion blowing everyone
back when the disk hit Diablomon. As the light dimmed down, the Digidestined
watched in amazement as hundreds of souls started appearing from where Diablomon
once stood. T.K. and Gabumon ran up to Matt, who was kneeling on one knee to
support himself as a familiar spirit walked towards them.
"Hey Matt, T.K." it said in a kind voice.
"Hi Grandpa." they both replied.
"Matt, I want to thank you for helping us. You have no idea what it's like
being stuck in that hell hole."
"That's Ok gramps, I was just helping my friends." Matt shrugged but
thankful his grandfather was released from Diablomon.
"You must hurry back to the real world now before another soul joins us. My
son, your father, doesn't have much time left, spend it with him and show him
that there is another life after death." Their grandfather said with tears
forming in his eyes.
"Don't worry Grandpa, we will." T.K. replied solemnly, placing his
hand on Matt's shoulder.
"Thank you boys, you two always did have good souls." the smiling old
man told them as he started walking towards the column of light that reached
from the ground to the heavens.
"Goodbye boys, I'll see you later."
"May your soul live in peace Gramps." Matt silently prayed before he
felt T.K. pulling him up from the ground.
"How in the heck did you do that?!" the younger boy asked in
amazement.
"Do what?" his brother replied, an eyebrow raised.
"That thing with the blue light."
"I honestly have no idea."
"T.K.! Is Matt alright?" Joe asked as he ran up to them, Izzy flanking
him.
"Yeah, I'm O.K. Joe." Matt replied before his body revolted against
his words and he felt a sharp stabbing in his stomach, doubling over in pain.
"I think you're body disagrees Matt. Come on, let's get you back to the
real world." Izzy cut in before Joe could say anything.
"What?! You thinking of going back without us?" A voice demanded from
over the other side of the cliff. Standing there were the other 4 of the younger
digidestined.
"Well if you want to go back Davis, hurry your ass over here then!"
Tai yelled back, placing his new tag into the mobile as Gennai had instructed.
Instantly the scenery around them seemed to melt and they soon found themselves
standing in Izzy's study again.
"Wow, that was weird!" Yolei muttered as she looked around.
"You can say that again." Mimi announced.
"That was weird." Cody said then burst out laughing. Ken just looked
at him with a confused expression on his face and walked over to Izzy, who was
helping Joe and T.K. sit Matt down in a chair.
"What happened while we were in that black crevice?"
"Nothing much, I've got a written account of the prophecy from Gennai if
you want to go over it." he told the boy, pointing to his laptop that was
sitting on the floor over near Sora, Tai and Kari... in the exact place where he
had dropped it. His eyebrows furrowed at this new data but shook his head and
returned to helping Joe with Matt.
"I think we may as well go home." Kari announced, "I mean,
there's nothing we can do now until we know when our battle with the new emperor
will be."
"I agree Kari, besides, I'm starving and I think Izzy always eats
out." Tai muttered as his stomach rumbled.
"Well, actually, he usually eats out with J..." Yolei started when she
felt a hand clamped over her mouth and Izzy whispering some threatening words in
her ear.
"Mmm, what was that Yolei?" Mimi asked, knowing her sharp, matchmaking
ear caught on something.
"Um, n..nothing." Yolei stuttered as she looked away. Davis sighed and
turned to Mimi,
"What she was saying was that Izzy usually eats out with Joe." he
blabbed out but was having second thoughts about saying it when he heard Izzy
growl quietly at him.
"Oh, how cute!" she squealed and ran over to them.
"So how long has this been going on? Would you like to double date one
time? Do you guys really love each other?"
"Uh, hello. I COULD BE DYING HERE MIMI!!" Matt shouted as he started
to shiver. Mimi just sighed and walked over to Tai and Sora.
"We better go before he has a heart attack."
"Don't even say that Mimi!" Izzy exclaimed as he looked at her.
"Jeez, why is everyone so touchy at the moment?" she commented before
walking out the door, "I'll call you guys later!"
"Bye Mims!" they all called out.
"We'd better get going too." Tai said to Kari, who nodded.
"You coming too Sora?" he asked, noticing that she was staring at
Matt.
"I'll stay here for a bit longer. I'll see you tomorrow Tai." she said
before giving him a peck on the cheek, him turning and walking out the door with
Kari.
"Bye T.K."
"See ya Kari." T.K. replied as he watched her disappear then turned
his attention back to Matt. He didn't even notice the other digidestined kids
walking out as well.
"Can you stand Matt?" Joe asked as he kneeled in front of the injured
man.
"I don't know." Matt gasped as he tried to push himself out of the
chair but fell back down, clutching his side in pain, "Ah, shit it
hurts!"
T.K. squeezed his brother's shoulder, trying to reassure both of them as he
said, "I'll be okay Matt, we'll get you home and you can rest there."
"I don't know T.K, he might have some internal injuries here. I think we'd
better get him to hospital just incase." Joe muttered as he looked around
Matt, trying to see if there was anything wrong with him.
"We can take my car if you want." Izzy said as he looked at Joe, who
looked back and nodded.
"Can you help me lift him T.K.?" Joe asked as he picked up one side of
the chair. T.K. followed his actions and picked up the other side.
"Take him down in the elevator and I'll get the car ready." Izzy told
them as Joe and T.K. carried Matt out to the landing and over to his newly
installed elevator. Izzy moved to follow them but stopped when he saw that Sora
was the only one left standing there, the others must have gone home.
"You want to come Sora?" he asked with kindness in his voice.
"I've caused him so much hurt already, I think I'll just go home." she
replied as she looked down at the ground, a tear rolling down her face. Izzy
sighed, wishing that it wasn't him doing this, but there was no one else who
knew Matt's true feelings.
"Sora, you are coming and that's it!" Izzy ordered and pulled her out
the door and down the stairs before she had a chance to argue.
They arrived outside to see Matt laying down in the back seat of the 4WD, T.K.
in the boot along with Joe. Sora, seeing that she wasn't going to get out of
this ran around the other side and got in the passenger seat, Izzy jumping into
the drivers.
"Hold on." he said as he turned the key and drove as fast as he could
to the hospital, Joe complaining about feeling car sick. As they got there, Joe
and T.K. picked Matt up and carried him into the emergency room.
"Here, you can sit him here." an orderly told them as he placed a
wheelchair in front of Matt and wheeled him off to a room.
"Joe? What are you doing here?" a familiar voice asked, placing a hand
on his shoulder.
"Matt's been injured and I couldn't tell what's wrong. Could you see if you
could take care of him?" Joe asked his older brother.
"Yeah, I'll get over there then. Just sit down and I'll get back as soon as
I can." Jim said, nodding as he ran after the orderly that had Matt. T.K.
was about to walk after them, but was held back by Joe.
"He'll be okay T.K., Jim will take care of him."
T.K. just sighed and sat down.
"I just didn't want to have to do this again. Once is enough!" T.K.
exclaimed as he ran a hand roughly through his hair, his eyes showing the stress
that he was going through. Joe looked at the teenager, then at Izzy and Sora who
looked from T.K. to Joe.
"What does he mean?" Joe asked them. Sora just shook her head and Izzy
looked at the ground. They were both surprised when T.K. looked up and told Joe
the story.
"Dad's dying of cancer. Matt and I had to wait for 10 and a half hours on
the 1st to find out what was wrong when he wouldn't wake up that
afternoon." T.K. relayed to him, "What day is it today?"
Izzy looked at his mobile phone, "It's the 18th today."
"I can't believe that we've been away for 16 days." T.K. muttered,
"It's only what... a week 'till Christmas."
A tear rolled down his cheek, followed by another and another,
"I just wish that both Matt and Dad are there." he cried. Sora felt
her bottom lip tremble at his thought as she sat down and rubbed his back.
"It won't come to that T.K. They will both be here for Christmas, they want
to be here for your birthday."
"I just don't know anymore!" he wailed as he turned and hugged Sora,
"I don't want Matt to die! I don't want him to die!"
"Shh, it's alright T.K. Jim will be back soon and Matt can come home with
us." Sora told him as she hugged him back.
"I just hope that Jim can do that." Joe whispered to Izzy, who nodded.
"I should have known what was going to happen." Izzy said as he shook
his head, obviously angry at himself. Joe stepped up to him and hugged him,
"It's no one's fault Izzy, you weren't to know. Hell, I'm the one with the
crest of Reliability, I should have grabbed him out of there."
Izzy looked up at him and shook his head again tears coming to his eyes,
"No you don't understand! I saw what was going to happen in the prophecy, I
should have stopped him and used my knowledge to help him get out of there not
to get himself nearly killed." Joe sighed as he pulled Izzy closer as he
let his love cry into his shirt.
"It's no one's fault Izzy." Joe whispered again as he noticed his
brother coming towards them.
"Jim, what's going on?"
The look on Jim's face was not encouraging as he would have hoped as his brother
motioned for Joe to follow him and lead him around a corner away from T.K. and
Sora.
"Well?"
Jim sighed heavily and shook his head.
"Matt's not looking too good Joe. He doesn't have anything broken and
nothing has ruptured which would cause his internal bleeding. I found a deep cut
on his side which was the cause of his discomfort and so I stitched that up but
there seems to be a foreign body inside him which is the cause of his internal
bleeding. It's not fast but the prognosis isn't good. I'm afraid he might not
last more than two weeks."
Joe shuddered at this news, his head falling and tears starting to form in his
eyes. Jim watched his little brother with sadness in his eyes and pulled him
into a hug.
"I'm sorry Joe, this is the part of the job I hate. I'll do my best to keep
Matt alive for as long as possible."
Joe nodded his head,
"Does Matt know about his condition."
"Yeah." Jim replied, "He didn't seem that fazed by it."
"O.K. I think it'll be better if Matt tells everyone else... Is he able to
go home."
"I don't see why not. He's awake and moving quite well, just get him to
look after his stitches." Jim said to Joe's thankful smile.
"I'll go sort the paperwork out then." Jim told him before walking
down the corridor. Joe looked back to the corner nervously, wondering what he
could say but took a deep breath and walked back to his friends.
"Well, how is Matt?" T.K. asked, his eyes pleading to Joe to have some
good news.
"He's able to go home now, Jim's just getting the paperwork sorted
out." Joe told him, almost ignoring T.K.'s question. T.K. let out a sigh of
relief and smiled, looking off to where his brother's room was.
Monday, 19th December
Sora looked up at the door infront of her, and the
hand that was suspended in the air, poised to knock. She took a deep breath and
knocked loudly, not sure if Matt would hear her. She was surprised when the door
was opened and she looked down to see Mr. Ishida in his wheelchair at the door.
"Hi Sora, I take it you want to see Matt." Bill Ishida said as he
wheeled backwards to allow the young woman to walk through the door.
"I didn't know that you were home Mr. Ishida." Sora replied as she
followed him down the corridor.
"Yeah, I got released on the 15th. Nancy brought me home and I've been here
ever since." he told her as he opened Matt's door and rolled in.
"Matt, you've got a friend here to see you." Bill said as he pulled
the doona off his son's head.
"But daddy I don't wanna go to school." Matt mumbled as he pulled the
sheets back over his head. Bill sighed and rolled over to the window and opened
the blinds.
"I'm afraid it might take a while for the drugs to wear off Sora but you
can wait here till he's up and around."
"Drugs?" Sora asked surprised, her head looking at the man.
"Yeah, they had to drug him up so as to put the stitches in. Didn't Joe
tell you?" Matt's father stated, a questioning look on his face.
"No, where are the stitches?"
Bill rolled over to his son's bed and pulled the sheet's off to Matt's waist.
There Sora saw the white protective patch that was starting to get stained with
blood on Matt's side.
"I'll go make some tea. You want any?" Bill asked, suddenly seeming so
full of life since the last time Sora saw him a month ago.
"Sure." she answered absentmindedly, still looking at the patch.
Obviously the cut had been quite deep but how did he get it? It wasn't when he
and Tai were fighting, then the image of Diablomon punching Matt in the stomach
flashed across her mind, she remembered seeing the flash of sunlight off of
something near Diablomon's hand. That must have been it.
"Oh Matt." Sora whispered as her hand gingerly advanced to where the
patch was and, using the lightest touch, felt the area. Sora instantly drew her
hand back as Matt flinched, shocked that it was so painful even with that small
touch.
"Momma?" Matt muttered as he slowly opened his eyes and turned his
head in Sora's direction.
"No Matt, it's just me." Sora replied as she brushed the hair out of
his eyes. She saw Matt smile brightly at her.
"What do you mean it's JUST you?" he returned as he started to sit up
but moved to grasp his side as a seering heat and stabbing pain came from it. He
felt Sora's left hand move to his to keep him from touching the wound and her
other hand touched his bare back, supporting him as she helped him to lay down
again.
"Ah! Fucking hell!" he swore as he gasped, "What happened?"
Sora quietened him down and stroked his head as she told him of what had
happened at the hospital.
"I'd better ring Joe and get him to thank Jim for me. Man, poor Izzy must
think this is all his fault." Matt sighed as he stared at his ceiling.
"How did you know?" Sora quiried an eyebrow raised.
"Because this was all in the prophecy and Izzy was one of the few who read
it." Matt muttered turning his head to look at her.
"Who else did?"
Matt turned his head back to the ceiling, "Me."
Sora was about to ask something else when Matt's cell phone started ringing.
"Yep." he spoke into the phone.
"Huh? That was today?" Matt lifted his arm and looked at his watch.
"Yeah sure, but I'm not sure how much I can do. I got into a bit of a fight
on my vacation and I've had to have stitches in my side."
"Yeah."
"No, you can tell EJ that I'm still up to it."
"That was tonight as well!?"
"Shit! Yeah I'll be there."
"See ya." Matt told the other person and hung up, seeing Sora looking
at him, confused.
"That was our manager. Apparently I have a recording session that started
20 minutes ago, that and I've also got to do one or two songs with Elton John at
his concert in Odaiba tonight." Matt told her.
"Yeah, the Elton John concert is on the 19th, which is today. You were
going on about it for weeks when you first got the news." Sora replied.
"O.K." Matt muttered as he rubbed his hair, "I'd better get going
to the studio then."
"How on earth can you when you can't even sit up in bed?" Sora
demanded. Matt replied by rolling onto his good side over to the other side of
the bed and dropping to his knees on the floor. Stiffly and painfully, he got to
his feet and stood looking at Sora triumphantly.
"That's how!" he said, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Sora just rolled
her eyes and sighed.
"I'll drive you over there then." she told him and was surprised when
Matt didn't put up a fight.
"Thank you Sora. Do you mind if we take Dad too?" Matt asked.
"No." Sora replied, smiling.
"Great, I'll just go get changed then." he said and kissed her on the
cheek before walking off to the bathroom. Sora walked out of his bedroom in a
daze and sat down at the kitchen table, snapping out of it when Mr. Ishida
placed a cup of tea in front of her.
"Thank you Mr. Ishida." she said, taking a sip.
"No problem, so what's going on today?" he asked.
"Matt's going to a studio recording today, that's why he's getting changed
now and he's got a concert tonight. He want's you to come with us."
Bill almost spit out his tea in surprise. "What?!"
"That's what Matt said." Sora shrugged her shoulders, both looking at
Matt when he came out of the bathroom.
"You don't mind coming do you Dad? I just thought it would be good for you
to get out of the house." Matt asked his dad, who shook his head.
"Great." he exclaimed and took a hold of his father's wheelchair and
pushed down on the handles, tilting it backwards as he ran with his dad to the
door.
"Ah shit Matt! What the hell are you doing?" his father asked as he
started laughing.
"Trying to make you laugh." Matt said as he smiled, Sora watching him
and a smile creeped across her face as well wondering what he would be like when
his father eventually did pass away.
"We going then I take it?" Sora asked as she walked out the door
behind them, leaving Matt to lock the door as she rolled Bill into the elevator.
"We sure are." Matt told her, trying to ignore the pain that had
flared up in his side.
"O.K. Everyone! Quiet and Action!" the producer directed as he pointed
to Matt through the glass. Matt nodded and the quiet beating of Kip on the drums
could be heard. Soon after Sammy start playing the keyboard and after that Matt
and the other guitarist, Josh, joined them. The music was pounding the walls for
the introduction until the sound quietened and Matt stepped up to the
microphone.
A/N: The parts in " " are what Matt sings solo and * * is
where the whole band sings
"Everyone get up
Let's make a sound
A party's over here
So let's dance around
The sun's getting low
But what's the rush?
We're running the show
And gonna mop the floor so pick up the pace!"
*Summer's here so jump on board
Come on everybody
The surf and sand's calling our name
It's our destiny*
"Let's grab the fun
Everyone
And take it to the sun
There's no school
To make us blue
So let's go keep it cool"
*Summer's here so jump on board
Come on everybody
The surf and sand's calling our name
It's our destiny*
"When it's all over
I will know
Just how far we came
No matter what
I'll be happy
If I spent it all with my friends"
*Summer's here so jump on board
Come on everyone
Party all night
And don't hold back
No one know's when it'll end
This is our destiny*
The music died down and there was a silence before the producer tapped the
technition on the shoulder and he pressed the stop button for the recording. A
huge smile came over the producer's face as he gave the band a thumbs up, which
caused the whole band to cheer as they walked out to the hall.
"Another number 1 hit there." their producer announced as he pulled
Matt, Josh, Kip and Sammy into a group hug.
"Well, we've just got to wait and see that J.P." Kip said as he took
another sip of his drink.
"Is that it for the day?" Josh asked as he packed up his guitar. The
producer, J.P, looked at his watched and raised his eyebrows,
"Yeah. We got one good recording so I'm happy, we just need that last one
for this album."
"Maybe if we record that one live at our next concert?" Matt
suggested. J.P looked at him and a smile came across his face.
"You are one smart kid, you know that?"
Matt just laughed and said his goodbyes. Walking up to his father and Sora, Matt
was taken aback when his dad rolled up to him with a huge smile on his face.
"Thank you for taking me to one of your recording sessions Matt, I'm really
proud of you."
Matt just stood there, speechless, until Sora came up and stood next to him,
"Everyone is proud of you Matt. We'd better get going and I can drop you
off then take your dad home."
"No, you two are coming to the concert with Elton tonight." Matt
announced and walked them to the car.
"But Matt..." Sora started but was cut off by Matt.
"No but's Sora. I want you and Dad to be there, besides Dad, Mum and T.K.
are going to be there too. Everyone is Sora."
The young lady just sighed in defeat and nodded her head in agreement as they
continued walking to the car.