Disclaimer: Of course I don't own it… I don't even know what happens in the canon story… sheesh…
AN: Thanks to all who reviewed, especially to those who helped out with my questions. Umm… as to TK being out of character… you're probably right, but heavens, I certainly can't tell… I'm sort of developing the characters as I go from before the canon begins, and believe me, they will get very out of character. The lives they lead will be very different than the show, if I'm doing this right. But I really do need comments like that, to help me be more critical of my own writing, so please keep up the reviews.
Also, as to the names of their parents… I believe Tai's mom is named something like Lily, and the rest I'm just making up. Please ignore the fact that the parents have rather English names and the kids have Japanese names… I'm pretty much flying by the seat of my pants here.
Besides, what's in a name, anyway?
The Road Not Taken
Chapter Two
It was a night of early spring,
The winter sleep was scarcely broken;
Around us shadows and the wind
Listened for what was never spoken.
Though half a score of years are gone,
Spring comes as sharply now as then—
But if we had it all to do
It would be done the same again.
It was a spring that never came;
But we have lived enough to know
That what we never have, remains;
It is the things we have that go.
"Wisdom"
Sarah Teasdale
For a brief moment, the gate had been open.
The Darkness stirred, watching, as the Parrotmon it had sent into the world was defeated. The Chosen children had been visible, for a moment. The forces of Light were rising again…
The collective consciousness of the Darkness rippled in fury. The Light could not be allowed to triumph again… if only they could solidify their hold on the Digital World before the children came of age. The Child of Light was already weakening, as the darkness crept over the Digital World, her health would begin to fail. Her resistance was strong, but it would topple eventually, without reinforcement. The Power of Light was simply not designed to physically defend its bearer… it was supposed to maintain the Light of the Digital World… it couldn't keep doing both for much longer. She would fall… in the end.
Was it enough?
Gennai and the Guardians were formidable opponents… no doubt their plans were well made. Light might be ailing, but if Hope intervened, he could sustain her, or possibly even function in her place.
Perhaps…
What if Hope was removed from the equation? They could not kill him; his Crest would almost certainly prevent that… but what if he were to… disappear?
Light would be beyond help… and without Light and Hope, the rest of the Crests would be scattered and divided.
And powerless.
The idea had promise…
Nancy looked from one son to the other, an expression of puzzlement flitting over her features. Matt was dozing off over his eggs, and TK was blatantly asleep, his head barely missing his little bowl of Cheerios. Surely she would have heard them if they were up last night, she thought to herself as Matt continued to nod off. What on earth had those two been up to?
Malcolm whistled jauntily as he entered the sunny kitchen, attempting to straighten his tie as he walked. It was a beautiful, golden Sunday morning, and the cheery weather was fueling his mood. His tune cut short as he noticed his two somnolent sons, practically napping in their breakfasts.
"Whoah," he chuckled, grabbing some bacon from the platter as Nancy slapped his hand away.
"Plate, heathen! Were you raised in a barn?" she laughed, handing him a cup of coffee. He sipped it gratefully.
Swallowing, he gestured at his sons. "What were those two up to last night?"
Nancy shrugged, absently straightening her husband's wayward tie. "I was just thinking the same thing, myself—wait, where are you going in a tie?" She asked, a note of accusation finding its way into her voice.
"It's Sunday." The harried mother added, narrowing her eyes.
Malcolm had the grace to look abashed. "Well, people do watch TV on Sundays, dear…" Seeing that her expression did not change, his tone shifted to one of defiance. Hell, he was going to work to support her! What was she complaining about? Setting his mug down so hard its dark contents sloshed over his hand and the white countertop, he faced her levelly. Her gaze was coolly condemning, and seeing it, he realized where Matt had inherited the icy disdain that formed the bulwark of his emotional defenses.
Not, he reflected, that his six-year-old should even have emotional defenses at his age. So maybe their family engaged in a little emotional warfare. What family didn't? Besides, that was back in the old days, before TK was born. Almost against his will, his dark eyes shifted from his icily irate wife to his youngest son, whose golden head was buried on tiny arms. Nancy's bright eyes followed his gaze, almost softening before narrowing further.
She frowned fiercely, refusing to be swayed by the sight of her small son, refusing to be swayed by the thought of what a renewal of tensions might do to his innocent spirit. Of course, Matt's innocent spirit hadn't stopped her from calling her husband unspeakable things… but she couldn't picture TK jaded and cool, as Matt had been rendered by the acts of ice and fire that had been played out before his impressionable young eyes. They had committed acts of terrible spite… the distance between love and cruelty was so minute, the lines so blurred with too many bitter tears, as their marriage had collapsed between swiftly crumbling palaces of passion and slowly ascending walls of indifference. Nancy's eyes flicked from her young sons to her husband as she wondered whether the two bright souls alone were worth bailing out a sinking ship with her bare hands.
As if sensing the swiftly mounting tension in the room, TK stirred, his sleepy murmur rousing Matt from his sleep-deprived stupor as well. Two pairs of blue eyes, one set narrow and frosty, the other set wide and deep, each registered the tableau before them… and a small voice spoke through the steel forged silence.
"Have fun at work Daddy!"
The voice was cheerfully ordinary and nonchalant.
It was chipper.
It was TK.
Three pairs of extraordinarily surprised eyes, each long used to witnessing such battles—although this fight had barely begun by Ishida standards—looked that the voice's owner in shock. Matt was especially impressed by his brother's nerve… and innocence, if it could be called that. Perhaps, Matt thought, it's more of a total lack of guile. As his parents gaped, he began to grin broadly, looking more his age than he had in a very long time.
However, no one in the little family was more surprised at the outburst than TK himself. He hadn't intended to say anything… but the place inside him, the warm, golden place that was older than the rest of him, had chosen that tense moment to wake up. TK was hard pressed to explain the light inside him… it was just there, telling him what people were feeling or what to say in hard situations like this one. It also had an annoying habit of being really, really noisy when he wanted to be naughty and not letting him do the fun things Matt seemed to get away with. Matt said that it was his conscience, whatever that was, and that everyone had one. But his was so loud.
And then there was last night.
TK shuddered slightly, not really wanting to remember the battles he had seen. The voice had been loud and insistent all through the day before, its tone becoming more and more adamant as the day went on. As night fell, it began to grow desperate… but TK hadn't known how to make his family understand what he knew was coming. He was just too little, and he was more scared by what he knew than anything else… he just wanted to run and hide, but it simply wouldn't let him. He had tried everything from tears to reasoning, but his parents had been patronizing and tucked him to bed with whispered platitudes and a nightlight. A nightlight! So he had crawled out of bed and gone to the window, watching and waiting to see what would happen. Then the colors came… and in terror, he had done something he had never done before.
He had reached for it.
Always, previously, the deep light inside of him had operated of its own accord, coming and going as it willed, and he had generally acquiesced to whatever commands it made. But this time, even as the voice of the light was screaming in his spirit, as the unnatural numeric luminescence spread across the night like a dangerous infection—this time, he had reached for the profound brightness, pulling it towards him like a security blanket, a shield that could never fall. The light had welled up from where it slept in his soul, stronger than he had ever felt it before… and it joined with him, the sure, steady thread of memories and thoughts sweeping him up like a dazzling river.
But after the light had gone, it had left him exhausted, confused, and terrified of the presence inside him. As he looked at his astonished family and silently regretted his outburst, he realized his actions of the previous night had a further consequence.
The light inside him was very awake… and very powerful.
More powerful than the rest of me?
TK simply didn't know.
Nancy brought her eyes away from her startling son and back to her husband, who smiled somewhat sheepishly. She stood silent for an indeterminable moment, before sighing in a tacit symbol of defeat. "Yes, dear, have a nice day at work. I'm taking the boys to the park this afternoon, so dinner will be late."
She turned away from him, beginning to drop dishes into the sink with only slightly more force than was strictly necessary. "Don't feel you have to hurry home on our account." Gripping the edge of the sink until her knuckles turned white, she smiled tightly over her shoulder at him.
Malcolm, painfully aware of his sons' eyes on him, moved stiffly to her side and kissed her mechanically. "Have a nice day, dear…" he glanced at the tiny, unraveling family pointedly before adding, "I'll be home early."
His eyes and his words were clear: This is not my fault.
Malcolm left the sunny and cold kitchen, walking tall under the accusing eyes of his wife and the beseeching eyes of his children. He repeated the mantra to himself all the way to work.
This is not my fault. I am not to blame. I won't feel guilty.
Taichi Kamiya had spent the morning in an extended state of relief. After the trail of destruction he, Hikari, and Greymon had left across Odaiba the night before, he was sure he was going to be grounded until college. But his mother, after wandering dazedly through the apartment surveying the damage, had finally concluded that Tai and Kari alone simply weren't physically capable of that level of devastation. When the news wrote the damage in the city off as the result of a low scale earthquake, she accepted that explanation.
So Tai and Kari escaped all of the blame, much to both of their relief. Tai looked over at his sister, who was quietly amusing herself by attempting to tie her shoelaces. Her expression was completely childlike… and completely unlike the wise, perceptive face she had worn all through the Greymon escapade of the day before. Tai almost shuddered as he remembered her last words to him before she crumpled to sleep on the sidewalk, spoken in a tone too old for her naïve face.
"Don't worry, Taichi, you'll see him again…"All of that seemed in the past, though, as she sat on the floor in a patch of summer light, diligently trying to get her tiny fingers to correctly manipulate the laces. Her little lips were moving as she did so, and he crept closer to hear what she was saying.
"And then the bunny goes around the tree…and… and through the hole…! Darn it! …Okay…make an X… tuck it un…der… …"
Kari's chestnut eyes were all but crossed as she glared at the offending laces. She stuck out her tongue and began again, apparently not noticing her brother standing directly behind her. Tai watched her for a moment longer as an evil plan began to form in his mind. Smirking to himself, he bent down until his mouth was directly behind her ear. Taking a deep breath, he prepared to yell…
"Don't even think about it, Tai." Kari muttered, not looking up from her laces.
Kari smirked as Tai's mouth shut with a snap, a bemused expression crossing his face. His bemusement quickly turned to chagrin when he heard his mother clear her throat behind him.
"You aren't picking on your sister again, are you Tai?" Lily Kamiya asked in a tone that said the answer had better be 'no' if Tai knew what was good for him. He gulped and turned to face her, summoning up his best and most serviceable expression of innocence.
"Well—er, you see…" he fumbled, looking anything but blameless as he flushed guiltily.
Kari sighed slightly behind him, amused at her brother's obvious lack of finesse. She was almost tempted to let him sweat it out, but her conscience got the better of her, as it usually did, and she turned quickly. Surveying the scene, with her mother growing more and more exasperated, and Tai's disclaimer getting more and more incriminating, she opted to stage a distraction before he confessed to something they'd both regret.
Pitching her voice into its most endearing tone, she smiled brightly at Lily. "Look, Mommy, I tied them all by myself!" she said, pointing proudly at her shoes. Lily glanced at her daughter and a broad smile broke over her features, dispelling her aggravation.
"Wow, honey, and you're just three years old, too! I'm so proud of you! Let's go in the kitchen and I'll make you and Tai a special breakfast as a reward, okay?" she said, picking her small daughter up and carrying her towards the kitchen, examining the newly tied shoes as they went. "Wow… this is such a good job, too…"
Tai watched them go, wonder creeping over his face. Shaking his head, he muttered, "HOW does she DO that?" He had to admit, though Kari could often get him into trouble, he had to admire her methods. When it came to getting her way with their parents, she was nothing short of a professional. It was rather inspiring, really.
Following his mother and sister, Tai's train of thought was dispelled as the smell of whole-wheat sugar-free pancakes and tofu sausage began to waft out of the kitchen. He groaned quietly, promising himself a he'd buy a popsicle at the park later with the change he'd found under the bed yesterday… he certainly wasn't going to be eating much of breakfast, that was for sure.
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leafs a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
"Nothing Gold Can Stay"
Robert FrostMatt sighed as he sat on the swing, scuffing his already dirty sneakers into the well-worn swathe of dust beneath him. The bright sunlight was glaring down on the Odaiba park, not really affecting any of the children but sending the vigilant mothers and fathers into the shelter of the deep emerald shade of the trees planted by the sidewalk. The kids ran and shouted despite the heat, to the apparent chagrin of their parents who, by the looks on their faces, were already anticipating various ailments ranging from heatstroke to sunburn. His mom had been talking furiously into her cell-phone all morning… first to Grandma, during which conversation she had cried twice, and then to her editor, attempting to take over someone's column when they went on extended leave. She had brought them to the park and then waved them off to play, instructing Matt too keep an eye on TK.
Matt sighed with exasperation at the very thought that he would have to be reminded to do something he was always doing anyway. Glancing around, he saw his mother standing with several other women in the shade, still firmly attached to her cellular phone.
Some things never changed. He had hoped that their family would finally be whole again when TK was born, but it seemed the brief respite had only been a temporary détente in the span of a much larger war. On top of all that, he also had last night to worry about.
Matt wasn't really sure what had happened last night… but he had a terrible feeling about it. Somehow… it made him get that feeling he got when TK needed him, which he had always been able to sense. It had started when TK was a baby… when he had first come home from the hospital.
Matt remembered that day clearly and fondly, despite how young he had been at the time. When he had seen TK at the hospital, a strange feeling had washed over him, warming him straight through from the top of his head to his toes. Something bright had awoken inside him that day, something that he had pushed down and forgotten in the midst of the small wars his parents had been waging.
That light inside him seemed, among other things, bent on protecting TK. It certainly didn't seem to do much else.
The day TK had come home, the atmosphere of the house had changed completely. The family seemed much happier and no one seemed to get angry at the little things anymore, and Matt finally felt like he had a place in this new family. An important place… and it was ironic, because he had been so afraid that the baby would take his position in the family, but really, TK had helped him find his niche.
And after TK came, it was a much nicer family to have a place in.
Matt looked around the park, watching the other kids play, instinctively looking for TK. There was a brown haired girl chasing a boy in goggles screaming something about puking in a hat, another little girl, the boy's sister, he thought, eating the popsicle he'd seen the boy buy earlier… she was looking rather ill, actually. She was sitting in the sandbox, looking rather pale and washed out in the harsh light. Near her was a girl with the largest, pinkest bow in her hair that he'd ever seen, who was giggling wildly with another girl… a boy with book… some soccer players…
Where was TK?
TK's green hat, his fashion statement of choice, normally alarmingly easy to spot, was nowhere to be seen. Matt's stood up from the swing, his 'brother' sense going from its low rumble of danger that it been stuck on since the evening before swinging into full alarm. Something was very wrong. TK never wandered far from Matt… and he certainly had better instinct than to go anywhere with a stranger.
Matt began wandering the park… it was brimming with children of all sizes and description, but TK was nowhere to be seen. Ice blue eyes began to brim with tears as the young boy began to panic.
He couldn't have failed TK… he couldn't have!
Nancy sighed in annoyance as Matt tugged at her skirt. Smoothing the wrinkled fabric, she frowned at him disapprovingly, placing her hand over the phone as she addressed him.
"Not now, Matt, Mommy is working. Go play." She didn't seem to see his tearful face.
He tugged again, the tears spilling down his grungy cheeks. The other mothers were giving Nancy extremely disapproving looks, which only annoyed the woman further.
"Not now, Yamato!" She ground out, smiling thinly at the other mothers.
But Matt was beyond taking 'no' for an answer. "But Mommy, TK is GONE."
Nancy's head snapped around, her eyes going from her son to the crowded playground with lightening speed. Panic widened the blue orbs that scanned the children desperately, seeking a flash of green or gold that would pinpoint her precious youngest.
The cellular phone all but shattered as it hit the ground.