Chapter 29:

Ten Faces of Evil: Part 4

            When Tai awoke, he looked himself over. He was a ten-year-old. He got out of bed, when he heard a loud yelp. He looked down and saw a white-haired cat. He called out a name, "Kari? Don't tell me that's you."

            The cat looked at Tai. "I guess you're my partner, huh?"

            Tai nodded. "You're finally a digimon like Gatomon, huh? I wonder if I'll become like Agumon in some world." He suddenly remembered what happened in the last world. "Are you okay? I mean, you were in the hospital!"

            Kari shook her head. "I.. I don't remember that. What are you talking about?"

            "It was the world where I was a girl, and you were a boy. You were unconscious in the hospital because Emperor Tai stole the energy from that Kari…and…we found out that my female double remembered about the reality switches!"

            "She what?"

            Tai nodded. "I read her diary. Before I went to sleep, I left her a message in the diary. I hope it didn't totally freak her out."

             Mrs. Kamiya poked her head inside her room. "Oh, you're awake. What do you guys want for breakfast?"

            "Uh, we're coming," Tai said, following her outside.

            After a long breakfast, Tai dressed in his usual clothes. There was a knock at the door and Mrs. Kamiya answered it. A second later she knocked on Tai's bedroom door. "Tai, it's Sora. Are you dressed?"

            "Uh, yeah."

            She opened the door and a ten-year-old Sora walked inside. "Are you ready?"

            "Ready for what?" he asked.

            "The reunion!" she sighed, "Mimimon's waiting downstairs in Mom's car. Aren't you are Hikarimon coming?"

            "Of course," Tai said.

            Sora sighed. "I just have to use the bathroom. I'll be right back."

            Once she walked out of the room, Tai and Kari stared at each other. "What reunion?" Kari whispered.

            "I don't know," Tai said, "Hopefully, Takato, Derwood and Rika will be there."

            "What about the others?" she asked.

            "We lost Ryo, Sara, Sam and Emperor Tai," he said, "Matt said he saw them disappear into a portal while they were fighting against..something. I just hope they're okay."

                                                *      *        *

            When Emperor Tai opened his eyes, he saw that he was lying in a dark room. "Wow, what hit me?" he asked, sitting up.

            "The same thing that hit us."

            He turned and saw Sara and Sam lying next to him. "Where's Ryo?" he asked.

            "He's not here," Sam gasped.

            Sara looked around. "Where is here?"

            Emperor Tai stood up. "We'd better find out. Come on."  He led the two girls into a long hallways that was dark and decaying.

            "This is the Digidestined Base on File Island!" Sara gasped.

            Emperor Tai stared at her. "How did you know that? I didn't even recognize it."

            Sara held her head. "I..I don't know. I'm suddenly feeling really weird."

            "Me too," Sam said.

            They kept walking down the hall until they reached a room with a computer inside. "This is the security room," Emperor Tai said, "Hmm, they haven't reorganized in a while, I see." He started typing.

            Sam looked around. "I hope Sora doesn't know we're here."

            Far above them, the Digimon Queen sat on her throne and watched Emperor Tai, Sara, and Sam on her monitors. "So, they're looking for the truth, huh? Well, maybe it's time to tell them!"

            She looked back to a monitor showing Tai and Kari. "Let's see how they're doing."

                        *          *          *

            Sora brought Tai and Kari to the school computer lab. Some of the digidestined were there, but those that were missing were digimon. Davis and Ken were there, but Davis had a blue dinosaur that looked like Izzy, and Ken had a green worm that looked like Yolei. Matt was there, with a Patamon creature that looked like TK. Cody had a digimon that looked like a cross between Gommamon and Joe, and they had meet Mimi in the car. Sora's partner looked like Mimi and Biyomon fused together.

            "Allright," Davis said, "Now that we're all here, are we ready to go?"

            "Sure," Sora said, "Lead the way."

            Davis nodded and held his digivice to the screen. "Digi-port open!"

            They arrived in a grassy field that was filled with humans and digimon. "Wow," Tai said, "This is a Digidestined Army." He turned to talk to the other Digidestined, but they had disappeared into the crowd. He did hear his name called, so he turned around and saw an ten-year-old version of Derwood walking towards him. At his feet were a small fox girl and a dinosaur boy.

            "Takato and Rika," Kari grinned, "You've become digimon too?"

            "We are digimon," Rika answered, "For our entire lives."

            Everyone looked at her. "Sorry," she said, shaking her head, "Being fully turned into digimon has awakened Renamon's memories in me. It's a really weird feeling to suddenly have your mind crammed full with another set of memories."

            Takato nodded. "Yeah, me too. I'm starting to feel like Guilmon."

            Tai looked around at the group of digidestined. "Anyone here could be our next opponents. An entire army against us."

            "Well," Kari said, "The only ones we haven't fought yet are Davis, Ken, Izzy and Yolei."

            Derwood crossed his arms and mentioned to them. "And guess who's partnered up."

            Tai frowned. "We have to keep our eyes on them."

            *                      *                      *                      *                     

Back in the Emperor Tai world, Emperor Tai, Sara and Sam were still playing with the computer. "I think I got something!" Emperor Tai called. The two girls jumped behind him and watch the computer monitor.

            The screen showed an image of Sora sitting inside of the Digidestined jail cell. She was still wearing her tennis uniform. "Hmm," Sara said, "This must be right after Kari and Tai stopped her from killing your parents."

            Inside of the computer monitor, Sora looked at the bars of the door when Davis came over. "Why did you do it, Sora?" he asked.

            "Because!" she shouted, "He took everything away from me!"

            "He's dead!" Davis shouted.

            "No he's not!" Sora shouted, "I know he's not! I know he's just sitting somewhere, watching me! I have to get even!"

            Davis stared at her for a long time before he said, "Your trial is going to be as soon as we can schedule one. I'm going to send Mina to talk to you."

            "I don't need a psychiatrist!" she snapped.

            He just turned and left.

            Sora placed her head in her hands and started crying. "I know he's alive, I know it." She laid down on the bed and placed her hands under the pillow. When she did she felt something weird. She moved the pillow and saw that there was a lump in the mattress. She reached inside and pulled out a large book. "What's this?"

            She opened it and started flipping through it. "This was Tai's? He was studying other..realities?"

            She read the book long into the night until she finished it. "I don't believe it! If Tai was able to make it to another reality…then maybe that Tai that was killed really wasn't him! Then maybe the reason I can't remember even being arrested is because someone else was me!" She stared at the book,  "I have to know."

            The image on the screen turned to static, then showed an image of Sora walking through a graveyard.

            "Wait a minute," Sam said,"How can we be seeing this?"

            "We shouldn't be seeing any of this," Emperor Tai mumbled, "There weren't any cameras in the prison cell. I mean, they may have added them after I left this world, but the only reason we're seeing this image is because she wants us too."

            Sara's eyes opened wide. "You mean, she knows we're here?"

            "Quiet!" Emperor Tai barked, "I'm watching this."

            On the computer screen, Sora walked over to Tai's grave. She started digging.

            Emperor Tai watched with horror. "She dug up the grave of my..old body?"

            Sora pulled Tai's coffin out of the ground and threw open the lid. She saw the lifeless body, then shook her head. "What am I doing? I escaped the prison, dug up the grave, and for what? What am I trying to find?"

            The body started to glow a dark light. "What the?" she asked. She touched the deceased and her body was suddenly enveloped by the dark light. She screamed out in pain and she fell to the ground. The computer monitor went blank.

            Emperor Tai stared at it. "Something in my old body turned her into the Digimon Queen?"

"But the screen's not working," Sara said. Once she reached over the screen came back to life.

            The computer showed an image of a hospital room. The Kamiyas were standing around a hospital bed, which was inhabited by Kari. She was very weak and her heart monitor was falling. "Kari!" Tai shouted, kneeling beside her, "Kari! Please, you can't die!"

            She looked at Tai and held his hand. "I'm sorry. Goodbye Tai."

            Her heart monitor stopped, and Tai collapsed onto the ground. Sara, Sam, and Emperor Tai watched the screen as a brown light emerged from Kari's dead body and floated into the sky.

            The screen changed again.

The Digidestineds were assembled in front of Tai. "It's over, Digimon emperor!" Matt shouted,"I don't care who you are, I'm going to stop you now!"

"Ha!" Tai laughed, jumping off of his throne,"You can't stop me! I am the Digimon Emperor!"

Matt punched Tai square in the nose. He stumbled backwards, then Matt punched him again, this time in the stomach. Tai found himself on the floor in front of his throne. "Give up yet, Tai?" he asked.

"Never!" he shouted. He swung his legs around to know Matt onto his side. He grabbed a dagger from inside of his cape. "No, Matt, I will finally have revenge!" He slashed the dagger down and cut open Matt's throat.

"Matt!" Sora screamed as th other Digidestineds tackled Tai to the ground. Sora knelt beside him. "Matt."

He just reached up and grabbed her hand tightly before she felt it go limp. "Matt!"

            A yellow light emerged from Matt's body and flew out of Emperor Tai's castle. It floated over the skies of the Digital World until it met up with a brown ball of light. The two lights merged with each other, turning into fertilized egg. The egg developed into twin fetuses, which developed into two fourteen-year-old girls, one with blond hair, the other with black. Before the two girls could even move, their merging created a rip in the sky, which they were pulled through. The computer screen blacked out once again.

            Sara, Sam and Emperor Tai stared at each other.

                                                *          *          *          *

            Back in the Digital World, normal Tai was busy with a problem of his own. He was staring at the food in front of him. "Do I want a hamburger or hot dog?"

            Derwood stepped up beside him. "You still haven't taken anything to eat yet?"

            "Hey, I'm deciding, okay?"

            "Just take both of them!"

            Tai frowned and grabbed them. "Shut up!"

            He followed him over to the where Kari, Takato and Rika were sitting. He sat down in a lawn chair and started eating. Kari looked at him. "Are you sure you should be eating like that? What if the digidestined decides to attack?"

            Takato suddenly dropped the food he was eating and his eyes turned red. "What's the matter?" Derwood asked.

            "Someone's coming!" he growled.

            The group turned their attention to where Davis, Ken, Koushiromon and Miyakomon were standing. They watched in horror as Dark Rings appeared on each of their wrists. The two digimon grinned evilly and Miyakomon fired a blast of pollen from her mouth. All of the digidestined and digimon instantly fell to the ground. Tai and his group stared at them. "What did you do?" Tai shouted.

            "I just put them to sleep," Miyakomon said, "It's just a little trick that I picked up from studying plant digimon in my world."

            "Alright," Kari said, "You're the last Digidestined to fight, right? So if we win, we go home?"

            Davis laughed. "We'll worry about that if you win." He turned to the others. "Ready?"
            "Let's do it!"

            Davis merged with Koushiromon, turning into Exveemon. Ken merged with Miyakomon, becoming Stingmon. Both merged digi-humans then merged with each other, digivolving to Paildramon. It didn't stop there, as Paildramon digivolved to Imperial Dramon.

            None of Tai's group showed fear. "Who's fighting?" Derwood asked.

            Imperial Dramon laughed in a mixture of all four voices. "All of you will challenge me!"

            Tai grabbed his digivice. "All right, Ready Kari?"

            She nodded. "Yeah."

            Rika and Takato turned to Derwood. "Grab your digivice and point it at us."

            He nodded. "Right. I've never had a Digimon partner before."

            Tai's digivice started glowing and pulled Kari into him. "What's going on?"

            "I don't know!" she shouted.

            "Hikarimon merge to Silyphymon!"

            Takato and Rika were pulled to Derwood. When the digivolution light was gone, Gallantmon stood in their place.

            Silyphymon looked himself over. "What just happened?"

            "I don't know," Gallantmon said, "We're merged together!"

            Imperial Dramon laughed. "This is going to be easier then I thought! Let's go!" He pointed his cannon at the two digimon. "Positron Laser!"

            "Jump!" Silphymon shouted, as he leapt out of the way. Gallantmon obeyed and did the same. Imperial Dramon's attack destroyed a group of trees.

            He was going to fire again, when he noticed what his opponents were doing: Gallantmon was stumbling around, while Silphymon's arms seemed to have minds of their own. Imperial Dramon started laughing. "I get it. You're having trouble fighting as a fused being."

            Inside of Gallantmon, Derwood shouted, "We have to attack him! When I say go, run!"

            "Right!" the other two said.

            "Go!"

Gallantmon ran forward. Derwood wanted to attack by using the lance and swung from the left, but Rika wanted to swing right. Takato wanted to kick. Gallantmon lost balance and fell over.

            "Hang on!" Silphymon shouted. He tried to fly over, but fell onto his face.

            "Kari!" Tai shouted.

            "I didn't know you wanted to fly!" she shouted back.

            "Just run!" he shouted. They ran over to fight, but Tai swung their left fists and Kari swung the right. Silphymon fell on to the ground again.

            Gallantmon was on his feet. "We've got to work together!" Takato shouted.

            "How?" Derwood asked, "I've never done this before!"

            "Open your mind," Rika said, "I know you can feel us. Don't close your actions off to us."

            Derwood concentrated. "Hey, I can feel you."

            "That's right," Takato said, "Don't close us off. We're not three separate beings anymore, but one Digimon. Rika, Derwood, I am with you, together we can't be beaten!"

            Gallantmon looked at Imperial Dramon. "We are one! You are finished!"

            Imperial Dramon floated into the sky. "Positron Laser!"

            Gallantmon brought his shield over and blocked the laser. He pierced Imperial Dramon's stomach with his lance. The dragon screamed and fell to the ground. Gallantmon saw the Dark Ring on his arm. "There it is!"

            He pointed his lance at it. "Lightning Joust!" The Dark Ring blew apart and Imperial Dramon dedigivolved to Davis, Ken, Koushiromon and Miyakomon. Silphymon and Gallantmon went back to normal too.

            "That was interesting," Tai said.

            "Likewise," Kari nodded, "But that was everyone, right? We're done?"

            "She said five world, remember?" Rika asked, "This was only four."

            "Who do we fight next?" she asked.

            "I don't know," Tai said, "I guess we'll find out."

            *          *          *          *          *          *          *

            Back in the Digimon Emperor Tai world, Sora watched them throught her monitors. "They beat Imperial Dramon too!" she shouted, "I guess we have to take care of them ourselves."

            Gabumon and Agumon nodded. Sora opened a portal with her hand. She was about to jump through when the door was thrown open and Emperor Tai, Sara and Sam ran through.

            "Ahh!" Sora said, "You made it."

            "What did you show us?" Emperor Tai asked.

            "Just the truth," she said, "After I touched your dead body I was enlightened."

            "What was inside of me?" he asked.

            She smiled. "Try to remember, the desert five-years-ago."

            "What about us?" Sara asked, "Am I Matt Ishida?"

            "Yes and no. More correctly, you and Sam are the daughters of Matt and Kari. You have memories of your parent cells, but you were both reborn. Now, if you'll excuse me, your friends will soon enter the fifth world and I have to be there." She and her two partners jumped through the portal.

            "We can't let her get away!" Emperor Tai shouted. He jumped after her, followed by Sara and Sam.

            To be continued….