Chapter 8:
The Trial of Tai Kamiya
When Tai awoke this time, the first thing he noticed was that there was no sunlight to lit his room; in fact, he didn't appear to be in his room. As he stared forward he saw a row of bars, and he thought that he was in a crib, which meant he was once again a little baby. Upon closer examination, he found that he defiantly was not a baby, in fact, he was his regular age of 16! He was just starting to enjoy being his true self, when a thought entered his mind: if he wasn't in a crib, where was he?
He sat up and stretched his arms, glancing around. There was only a small bed, sink, and a hole in the ground, which he could wager a guess what it was for. A wave of panic overtook him as he realized that he was in a jail cell. "I'm a criminal?" he asked himself.
He walked over to the bard up door and glanced out, surprised to see that he was in a darkened hallway, filled with cells, but all were abandoned. "I guess I'm the only one here," he said,"What's going on here?"
He heard footsteps and saw that Davis, TK and Yolei were walking towards him. "You're awake I see," TK growled,"Sleep well?"
"Actually," Tai started,"I've been having some weird...."
"I don't care!" TK shouted.
"TK," Yolei snapped.
"We've come to let you know that your trial has been scheduled for five o'clock today," Davis said, doing his best to keep to his anger under control,"Your lawyer will be by shortly."
"My lawyer...?" Tai asked,"Trial...? What trial?"
"Don't tell me you've forgotten what you've done!" TK shouted.
"What are you talking about?"
TK chuckled slightly,"Fine. Your trial for the murder of my brother!"
As Tai sat on the bed in his cell, his mind began to race. "I killed Matt?" he asked, glancing at his hands,"What could possibly have driven me to do that?"
"If you don't know, I think we might be in trouble."
Tai glanced up and saw a blond haired girl in a red dress standing in front of the bars,"Who are you?"
"I am Catherine," she said,"and I will be your lawyer."
Tai smiled slightly as a Gotsumon opened his cell door and Catherine walked inside carrying a breifcase. She sat down in a chair that the Gotsumon guard had brought in. "I must be in the Digital World," Tai thought,"This is a Digidestined trial then, but...hmm."
"Well," Catherine said, opening her breifcase,"I think we should get started. " As she flipped through the papers she sighed.
"What is it?" Tai asked.
"I have to say that you have amassed quite a criminal record. I don't think there will be anything we can do to prove your innocence."
"What?" Tai asked. How could a lawyer give up so easily?
"I'm sorry," Catherine shook her head,"We are going to have to plead guilty, It might lighten your sentence, or we could try insanity."
"Insanity?" Tai asked,"Won't we need a psychiatrist evaluation?"
Catherine smiled slightly,"I don't think that that is the best course of action. We'll have to try to plead guilty. I have looked over the charges and I'm sorry, but I can't think of any other way out."
Tai sighed,"If you think that's best."
"I do," Catherine said, placing the papers back into her breifcase,"I'll see you later today then. Good luck.."
"Yeah," Tai smiled slightly as Catherine left the cell. He sighed as he heard the bar door clang shut.
He took a deep breath and was about to lay on the bed, when he heard sniffling behind him. He turned and saw Sora standing in front of his cell, tears forming in her eyes.
"Sora?"
"Why did you do it, Tai?" she cried,"Why?"
"Sora, I..."
"I thought you were our friend," she cried,"and after what you did to Kari..."
Tai felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach,"Kari?" he asked,"What did I do to Kari?"
"You know damn well everything you've done!" Sora sobbed,"Tai, why did you take Matt away from me? Why?"
Tai was trying to think of something to say, when he said what he assume the Tai of this world might say,"I don't know."
"Not good enough," Sora sobbed,"You use to be my best friend, now I'll hate you for the rest of my life! I hope you got what you wanted!" She ran off, leaving Tai by himself.
"What has my other done here?" he asked, lying down on the bed,"He murdered Matt and did something to Kari. What could he have done? Why would he even....wait....wait, what if....what if this is the world that my evil 'double' is from? Maybe not, but..."
He sighed and glanced at the clock that was hanging on the wall above his bed,"2:30, only a few more hours until blast off."
He moved his hands to rest underneath his head, when he felt something inside of the pillowcase. He reached inside and pulled out a small journal book hidden inside."What is this?" he asked, flipping though it. As Tai read through the book, he gasped at the pages.
"Wormholes in space?" he gasped, reading the notes,"Energy from the sun strengthens reality boundaries, attempted crossing at night. Humans become more in-tuned to the supernatural when they're asleep.....by training your mind, you can blast a hole in reality...."
Tai dropped the book as he realized what he was reading,"This world does have the guy that stole my world!"
Tai opened his eyes when he heard the clock chime. "5:00," he muttered,"Go time."
He spun around and sat up, surprisingly, at the same time as Catherine and the Gotsumon gurads appeared.
"Try to stay calm," Catherine advised as she and Tai walked down the hall,"If you become too nervous the judge might not think about lightening your sentence."
Tai nodded, his head swelling with anxiety as he thought about what he might discover.
The inside of the court room looked as it would in a normal setting. He saw a courtroom full of Digidestined and Digimon, a small section for the jury on the side, and the judge's booth at the front.
Catherine lead Tai over to their small table. when he glanced over to the other table, he spied Davis and Yolei seated at the other table. "Must be the prosecutor," Tai thought,"I never thought that Davis would do something like that."
Tai stood with everyone as the judge entered the room. He was slightly amused as Geni entered the room and sat at the judge's booth. "Prosecution," Geni said,"You may give your opening remarks."
Davis stood up,"Thank you, your honor. I hope this to be a short trial, as there are sure to be other things we could be doing. It is my intention to prove to the jury that Tai Kamiya, the heinous and terrible Digimon Emperor, murdered Yamato Ishida in cold blood, and that his actions ten years ago directly resulted in his sister's death."
"Kari's...dead?" Tai thought,"And I did it?" He became so depressed that he missed Catherine's opening statement, even though it had been interested in seeing how it was going to go considering he was just going to plead guilty anyway.
Geni cleared his throat as he mentioned to Davis. "You may call your fist witness."
Davis nodded,"Thank you, your honor. I would like to call Red Veggimon to the stand."
Tai smiled slightly as a red radish bounced up to the chair next to Geni's booth. "Please state your name and former title, for the court," Davis said.
"Red Veggimon, Captain of the Dark Guards."
Davis nodded,"And whom did you serve under?"
Red Veggimon hesitated, then pointed at Tai,"Taichi Kamiya, the Digimon Emperor."
"And did you serve him willingly?"
"No," Red Veggimon shook his head,"He attached a Dark Ring to my arm that made me his slave. He forced me to mercilessly destroy and kill, all in his name."
"And you were finally freed, by whom?"
"Yamato Ishida," Red Veggimon sighed,"Right before Kamiya fought and...and killed him."
There was a slight murmur in the courtroom, but it quickly stopped. "Thank you," Davis nodded, "You may step down."
After Red Veggimon left, Davis turned to the courtroom,"I now would like to call, Gatomon to the stand."
"Gatomon?" Tai thought, as the courtroom began to talk loudly. Geni slammed his hammer down.
Davis helped the small cat onto the witness booth. "Now, Gatomon you are the former partner of Hikari Kamiya, correct?"
Gatomon nodded,"Yes, I was."
"Could you please explain to the court what happened on October 27, 2000?"
"Well, it started out on a pretty normal day, but, then Kari, Tai's sister, began to feel really ill, I mean, she had been pretty sick for the past couple of weeks, but, that morning she could hardly open her eyes, and she started throwing up violently. Her parents rushed her to the hospital when she started coughing up blood, but...it was too late to save her. She died a few hours later."
Davis nodded,"What did the doctors say was the cause?" he asked, softly.
"An advanced form of pneumonia," Gatomon sniffled,"She had always had a weak immune system, ever since she was little."
"And what caused her immune system to become weak?" Davis asked.
"Taichi Kamiya took her outside and made her play soccer with him when she was sick," Gatomon growled,"She ended up in the hospital."
"The doctors said that Kari probably just caught the flu day, right?"
Gatomon nodded,"Yes, but because her immune system was weak, it opened the door for pneumonia."
"Where do you suppose she got that flu?"
"From him bringing her into the Digital World!" Gatomon screamed, pointing her claw at Tai,"For throwing her into the ice covered pond and getting her soaked! It's his fault!"
"That will be all, thank you," Davis said,"My next witness will be, Agumon!"
The murmuring in the crowd grew even louder, as the orange dinosaur climbed into the witness's booth.
"Agumon, you are the partner of Taichi Kamiya, are you not?" Davis asked, placing his hands behind his back.
"Former partner," Agumon clarified.
"Right," Davis nodded,"could you explain what occurred to Taichi Kamiya after his sister's death?"
"Well..he became..withdrawn...alone...he would hardly talk or see anyone. He mostly just sat alone in his room, staring at the computer screen. The only one he would talk to was Sora..."
"But that was before Christmas Eve, correct?"
"Yes," Agumon sighed,"We were going to see Sora, when Tai found out that she was going to give Matt some homemade cookies that she had made. He was really depressed, but...it wasn't until after Matt's concert was attacked that Matt leapt in the way to save Sora. Tai had figured it out by then, that Matt and Sora were going out."
"Kamiya lost it after that, didn't he?" Davis asked.
"Yeah," Agumon sighed,"He couldn't take it anymore, his sister was dead, and now the girl he had a crush on was going out with someone else. It drove him insane. He started entering the Digital World more times then he ever did before. He was doing strange things too, like building black towers and strange rings. He started imprisoning Digimon, calling himself the Digimon Emperor. When I confronted him about this, he placed a dark ring on me too. I was now his slave, like all the others."
Davis nodded,"Thank you. My next witness is Takeru Takashi."
The courtroom was dead silent as Matt's younger brother approached the bench. "Mr. Takashi," Davis said,"You were the younger brother of Yamato Ishida, known as Matt, correct?"
"Yes," Tk nodded.
"You were part of the team that confronted Tai Kamiya, the Digimon Emperor, on the day of his downfall, correct?"
"Yes," Tk said,"We had been following his fortress for days before we finally caught up to it. The team included Matt, Sora, myself, as well as many of our friends from around the world. When we finally confronted him, he attacked us with everything he had, but he couldn't defeat us. Matt decided to fight him one on one, and then...Tai killed him, right in front of our eyes, then...then......" Tk trailed off as he struggled to speak.
"You were then able to capture him, correct?" Davis asked.
Tk, still unable to speak, simply nodded.
"Thank you," Davis nodded. After TK had taken his seat, Davis turned to Geni,"The prosecution has no further witnesses."
"Very well," Geni nodded, turning to Catherine,"The defense may call its first witness."
Catherine turned to Tai and nodded, then faced Geni and rose. "The defense rests, your honor."
The courtroom became a madhouse of chatter as everyone began to talk. Geni slammed his hammer down many times before the courtroom was quiet. "Do you mean to say you wish to make a plea?" he asked.
"We do," Catherine said,"My client pleads guilty to all charges."
The courtroom once again shouted and screamed before Geni slammed his hammer even harder. "One more outburst and this courtroom will be cleared!" he shouted.
He turned to Catherine and Tai,"You truly wish to plead to these charges?"
"Yes," Catherine nodded, as Tai stood.
"Very well," Geni said,"Taichi Kamiya, for the crimes you have committed against the Digital World, and the greatest crime of murder, I sentence you to death by lethal injection! Court adjourned!" He slammed his hammer down a final time.
"Your honor!" Catherine called, but Geni was already gone.
As the courtroom cheered and screamed, Catherine turned to Tai, a shocked look on her face,"Taichi," she said,"I..I'm sorry, I thought that...."
Tai nodded, somberly,"T..tell me," he said,"When will my...sentence be carried out?"
"I...I don't know," she sighed,"a few hours, I guess."
"I've got to fall asleep before then," he thought,"Or I'm going to die for something I've never even done!"
Tai kept his eyes focused on the ceiling, hoping sleep would come, but it didn't. His heart was racing too fast, and his stomach felt as though it was going to through up.
"Having a rough, day, huh?"
Tai turned his head and saw a fourteen-year-old Sara standing in front of the bars of his cell. "Sara!" he called, in a sigh of relif,"Can you help me? I can't fall asleep..."
"Do you know what the Digital World will do for a lethal injection?" Sara asked.
Tai shook his head.
"They'll use anesthesia, an overdose, but...."
"Like when you need an operation?" he asked, smiling,"I'll fall asleep at first before it kills me, right? And if I'm asleep,, then I'll move worlds, right?"
"Yes," Sara nodded,"But...when you fall asleep, another 'Tai' will enter this world."
Tai's smile faded,"Wait, you mean that, when I leave, another Tai will enter..and die, in this world's Tai's place."
"Yes," Sara sighed.
"Is there any way to avoid that?" he asked,"Like put this Tai back...?"
"If it were that simple, we would have done it already."
"We?" he asked.
Sara sighed,"Sam and I."
"Who are you?" he asked.
"All will be revealed soon," she said.
"When?" he asked,"When I'm dead?"
"You're going to move worlds, remember?"
"I'm not going to let anyone die," he said,"I'll stay here the whole time if I have to."
Sara shook her head,"You can't. You have to return to your original world to stop the evil Tai. Besides, you won't have a choice. Reality won't allow it."
"Then I'll defy it!"
Sara hesitated for a long time, then reached inside her pocket and threw out a small red pill.
"Take that," she said,"Right before they lead you to the execution room. It will increase your consciousness awareness, enabling you to leave this world right before that body dies. And if that body is dead, then no more Tai's may enter this world."
Tai glanced at the pill,"Alright, cool."
"However," Sara said,"If you manage to make it back to your own world, you will not have a body, as this Tai will not be able to leave your body."
"What?"
"My original plan was to repair time and space by simply having you return to your own world. There cannot be two Tai's of the same age and gender in the same world at the same time, so by simply having you return to your world, would erase whatever this Tai is doing to stay there, returning him here, and you there. Now, he won't be able to come back here, and he won't change, period. He'll still have your body."
"So what am I suppose to do?" he asked.
"Take the pill," Sara ordered,"I'll take care of the rest." She started walked away.
"Wait!" Tai called.
"I'll see you in the next world!" she shouted back.
"Perfect," Tai sighed as Sara left. He sat back down on the bed and stared at the red pill until he heard Davis and the Gotsumon guards coming from down the hall.
"Go time," he sighed, popping the pill in his mouth and swallowing.
"Kamiya," Davis said, as the Gotsumon opened the cell door,"Let's go."
Tai was still completely nervous as the Gotsumons lead him down to the other end of the hall, which he was surprised to see was simply an room with a table. Jyou was standing there with a syringe in his hand. He didn't say anything as Tai was order to lay on the table and strapped down.
"Do you have anything you want to say?" Davis asked.
"I'm sorry for everything," he said, truly meaning it. He wasn't sure what was going to happen, but he wanted to be prepared.
Davis nodded,"I'm sorry it had to come to this. Dr. Kido..."
Jou sighed, finding a place on Tai's arms. Tai took a deep breath as he felt the needle enter his skin.
Almost instantly, his eyes began to drop, despite how hard he forced them open. The world began to go blurry, as his body felt extremely heavy. He found that it was hard to breath, and noticed that he had lost all feeling in his hands and feet. That empty feeling passed up his body until finally reaching his chest, when he felt his lungs actually stop, before his eyes closed shut.
Tai now found himself in floating above his body, glancing down. He was worried for a second that he really had died, before he noticed a glowing...rip...in the area above him. He knew that this was the tear in reality, and so made its way towards it, hoping that it would lead to home.