Series: Forgotten Families||Title: Recollection In Pain
Characters: Taichi, Agumon, Daisuke
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 1,266
Genre: Drama||Rated: PG
Prompt: Yagami Taichi Week day #4, Goggles
Notes: Post-tri. Continuing the story set forth in the fics Smoothing Over, Passage of Time, and Faded Memories I am learning what is going on, and I am cackling!
Summary: It's time for Taichi to visit the hospital – and like those before him, he has no idea of who he's seeing or why he's there.
Taichi fed little pieces of meat to Agumon as they walked along the street. There weren't many thoughts in his head right now. Some people would have said that there never were – they weren't right, but they would have said it regardless.
"Is that all?" Agumon wanted to know as they came to a crossroads. A few people they passed gave him odd looks but at least no one seemed ready to drag out weapons and start attacking. Taichi counted that much as a win.
"We can have more later," Taichi reassured him, staring at the large building across the street. The hospital – why had he come here? No one he could think of was here. There probably were a few – the last couple of battles hadn't been kind – but he wasn't sure if he knew any of them personally.
But it wouldn't hurt to go see. He headed over that way, nodding a little to guards and nurses and doctors, none of whom seemed to so much as notice his existence, let alone Agumon's. Without being sure of why, his feet followed a path that he couldn't have said where it would lead him.
Down the hall, to the elevator, to a higher floor, down the hall again, Agumon padding along in silence with him, no one giving him a look or asking who he was there to see. A small thought flickered that this should have been unusual, that someone should ask questions, that he should know where he was going, but faded almost as soon as it existed.
It doesn't matter. Taichi told himself. Truth to tell, he wasn't sure of what did at the moment. He didn't let himself worry about it. He had more important things to deal with and once he checked this visit off his list, he could go on about them easily enough.
There were quiet voices in the room ahead of him. He wasn't sure if he recognized them or not. But he came closer, stuck his head around the doorway, and checked out what was in there.
Three guys and a girl – well, four guys. The fourth looked older, more of a young man than the junior high students the others had to be. Something seemed a bit off there too, as if Taichi should have known him as much as he did the others.
But something else caught his attention and he headed inside.
"Hey! You've got a pair of goggles just like mine!" Well, not quite like his, but close enough. They looked a lot like the ones he'd had when he was this kid's age. Whatever had happened to those anyway...
"It's you." The kid's voice didn't sound right – cold and flat and angry and wrong. Taichi couldn't remember having heard it and yet he knew that this person shouldn't sound like that, ever.
He took a step back, eyes flicking around. The four younger ones all glared at him as if he'd done something to personally anger them all – and the fifth one just regarded him with regret and sadness. Taichi thought that was worse.
Gennai. The name flashed through in a heartbeat and faded away. Gennai wasn't this guy. Gennai was either old or had tried to hurt them. Taichi wasn't sure of which, but didn't have time to think it over before everything else connected to the name faded too. He shook his head and moved further in.
What he wanted to say was to greet them and ask if everyone was all right, how had they been hurt, were their families coming for them? Before a word could get out of his mouth, that same one spoke again.
"Let me guess. You don't remember us."
Taichi's mouth fell open but not a word came out. He swallowed and tried again. "Why would I know you?" He didn't want it to sound cruel but he thought it did anyway. The way they all kept on glaring cemented it.
"Because none of you do anymore," one of the other boys said, the one with deep blue hair. Taichi thought it might be easier to look at him than the first one – and then changed his mind. Those violet eyes were every bit as cold and full of rage as the first boy's were, if not even more so. It looked to be a very old rage as well, one well-honed and sharpened.
Taichi tried to figure out what he might say that made sense. He wasn't having a lot of luck.
"I – I don't think I've ever met you?" He tried, and flinched at the way the cinnamon-haired boy's fists clenched.
The blue-haired one reached over, their beds close enough so that he could touch the first one's hand. "Daisuke. Calm down."
"I don't want to calm down. I want to punch him in the face."
Taichi glanced for a second at Agumon, who just smiled warmly up at him, perfectly willing to go along with whatever he wanted. He didn't doubt Agumon would protect him from evil Digimon but from angry humans? Who knew?
"Get out of here," the girl said, her voice too tired to be angry and yet somehow managing it. "Get out and don't come back."
"But before you go -" Something in the first boy's voice caught Taichi's attention and he looked back long enough to see something fly at him.
He caught it mostly by instinct and stared down at the goggles in his hands, confused. These were his old ones. He recognized plenty of the nicks and scratches on them. There were some that he didn't, but those looked fresher than the ones he did.
Slowly he raised his head to stare at the other, who stared back with eyes full of rage that he'd never seen before. It hadn't even been this bad when SkullGreymon had been around – either time.
A stab of pain lanced through his head, and Taichi stumbled, heart skipping beats, fingers tightening around the goggles as he drew in a stuttering breath. He raised his head again and this time when he looked at them, he saw. He knew.
Daisuke. Ken. Iori. Miyako. Gennai. His friends – the one who had guided them in the Digital World. They were all here, and he wasn't even of certain why, only the crushing sensation of guilt that refused to shift away no matter what.
No need for that. The voice whispered ever so softly, and he knew without knowing how if he looked he'd see nothing. At best the hinted existence of eyes watching. But nothing more.
His throat closed and he wanted to apologize, to do what he could to explain, and to promise that he would try to find out what happened and how to make it better.
Only before he could forge a single word, a wash of energy started at his head and rushed all the way through him. As it passed through, that moment of knowing and remembering faded away and he blinked slowly. What had happened? Had anything happened?
He held a pair of goggles in his hands. Where had those come from? Uncertain and a bit confused, he mumbled something about needing to feed Agumon and backed out of the room. The feeling that he should be there faded away, replaced by an even stronger sensation that he needed to be anywhere that wasn't here.
Perhaps it was for the best that he didn't hear the voices behind him in a very heart-felt and very furious argument. He wouldn't have remembered anything about it anyway.
The End
Notes: I know now who is responsible for the memory manipulation and why they're doing it. I have more little fics involving the older Chosen to slot little pieces in – and someone is going to suffer consequences for her actions. But that will come in due time.
