Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Toei Animation does.

Ch. 26 The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

Growing up, children are taught certain facts in general about life that would be most beneficial to them on their voyage into adulthood. Things like:

1) Never take rides from strangers no matter how tempting their offer is.

2) Boasting will bring your downfall. It is better to be humble for you will be respected.

3)Never remark honestly about a woman's age or appearance, even if she asks you. It is not polite. Also, it is a trap waiting to be spring and for you to be pushed right over the edge and straight into the abyss of which there is no return. (The first part Tai learned from his mother, the second his dad often had warned him in hushed undertones when he thought his mother was out of ear-range).

Naturally, in less than half an hour on his run from the law, Tai managed to break all three of such valuable advice.

But before we review the Untimely Demise of One Taichi Kamiya and the Weirdest A-Team In Existence of Mankind or Monkind, it should first be revealed how Tai came to point 1.

oOo

Tai weaved through the endless throngs of people traversing the streets of Tokyo keeping his head low and coat's hood pulled tightly down over his face. It was late afternoon and much more crowded than usual due to the influx of salarymen and women ending work and starting home.

Home, which was where he wished he was headed. Back to his mom no doubt currently cooking some poisonous concoction in kitchen again; back to Kari who was probably trying to finish all her homework at once so she would have the whole day free to herself tomorrow; back to his dad who would stumble in later that night after a long shift, undress himself down the hallway to bed and his mother would shriek at him in the morning for leaving clothes all over the floor and couch.

But to go home was no longer an option. If he had been recognized that easily from strangers on the street, it wouldn't be too long until someone who actually knew him reported his name to the authorities. It was a strong possibility both the police and media were camped outside his place by now.

His D-Terminal beeped again for the twelfth time but he didn't want to stop in the middle of a moving crowd to answer it. He spotted an internet café to his right but he didn't feel safe enough to enter it. Sidling in what he hoped was a casual manner, he turned into the narrow alleyway that ran along the building's side. Leaning back against the wall, he fished his D-Terminal out of his pocket and flipped the top open where several frantic messages waited for him.

Surprisingly, the first three were from Mimi.

Tai! Have you seen the news?! They think you're like a space alien or something! Get out of sight quick!

You haven't answered. Are you alright?! ・゚゚・(д)・゚゚・

I'm sorry for getting mad at you even though you grew up to be such an inconsiderate, poofy-haired, giant chicken-legged stalker. (*▼ー(。-_-。)ゝ

-Mimi

Tai suspected Mimi had been informed that he had gotten safely away before she sent the third one. At least he hoped so.

Tai, I caught up with Mimi. Izzy just called us about what happened. He's calling everyone else now. Stay low somewhere until we figure out what to do. Maybe you should have bought a new phone before this.

-Sora

Ever since LadyDevimon had destroyed his cell phone at the park, Tai had been forever reaching for his nonexistent mobile and then using the D-Terminal as a last resort. Well, you try asking your parents for extra money to buy a new phone when you can't exactly explain how you lost the other one in the first place. And on top of that, you get preached at on how to endure suffering for awhile to learn a little responsibility, ugh.

Tai, there's this wacko news bulletin out there about how you're some humanoid ET. It's crazy! I'm trying to get in touch with Dad. Just be careful and hide that outrageous hair of yours before someone sees. Maybe you should consider cutting it after this madness passes. ( ̄ー ̄ +)

-Matt

Tai snorted. Matt was so freaking jealous over his gorgeous locks, always had been.

Just got off the phone with Izzy. Try not to draw attention to yourself wherever you are. We're formulating a plan. Please stay safe.

-Joe

Looks like Joe's anger at him had subsided as well. Even if he might still be annoyed by Tai's Super Sleuthing, he was also worried about his friend.

Are you at a safe location?

-Izzy

Leave it to Izzy to cut straight to the point.

Think so. Near this internet café, Tai typed sending the name of the shopping district he currently was skulking around.

Izzy's reply was instantaneous. He must have been waiting for Tai to message him.

Stay right where you are. Someone will come get you soon. Stand by for updates.

-Izzy

Pretty cryptic haiku, Tai wrote back. What are you planning, Mr. Bond?

Oh stuff it and just don't do anything stupid for like five minutes, Haiku God!

-Izzy

Tai grinned, the uneasiness in his stomach settling once he knew something was being worked on to get him out of this very unfortunate predicament. Five minutes? Sure no problem.

To be fair, it took Tai approximately nine and a half minutes to do something stupid.

After answering a flurry of incoming frantic messages from the younger kids, half of those from his sister, all of whom had seen that incriminating news bulletin, Tai assured them everything was under control and not to worry, that later tonight they would all be having pizza together. When in doubt and there are frightened children, always throw in pizza—it calms everyone down, he had learned over the years.

His D-Terminal beeped again with one more message, the one he was waiting for.

Walk towards the street corner. Your ride is here.

-Izzy

Making sure his hood was jerked down securely enough that his face wouldn't show, Tai stuffed his hands in his pockets and strolled in a laid-back fashion out of the alleyway. Joining the flow of the crowd with no problem, Tai headed towards the corner, wondering who Izzy could have gotten in contact with to get here so fast. It had to be one of their parents or relatives, but the only ones he knew of that could drive a car were Mr. Ishida and Jim Kido. Heck, even his own dad didn't have a license. He commuted daily like most average Japanese salary-men.

His feet hit the end of the sidewalk where the concrete met the asphalt. Tentatively, he lifted his head to see a green Land Rover roll to a stop in front of him. The windows were tinted. He couldn't see inside. The right driver's side window rolled down and a silver haired woman wearing a humongous burgundy striped hat turned her purple sunglasses gaze directly at him.

"So, how's it feel to be on the wrong side of the law, Digi Brat?" Arukenimon's smooth voice brushed over him like strands of cobwebs, raising the tiny hairs on the back of his neck.

Tai's first mistake was to stand there a moment too long simply gaping with one thought in his mind, Izzy, what the hell?

Arukenimon's plum-colored lips twisted downward into a scowl as he took too long lingering on the pavement. "Heard you needed lift, brat. Get in."

Tai's second mistake was to finally find his voice, follow the advice of point 1 and break point 3 at the same time.

"Sorry, I'm too young to accept rides from older women, especially soul-devouring, cradle-robbing hags like you."

Arukenimon unleashed a ghastly, murderous screech and jammed two gloved hands on either side of the window frame like she was going to crawl out of the vehicle and suck him dry on the spot. He seemed to have struck a nerve by the way her face kept phasing in and out from that of a human's to a more beastly digimon's.

"Oh, don't let such a childish taunt undo you, Arukenimon. I thought you had more control than that," a deep male baritone voice came from inside the Land Rover on the passenger's side.

"Trying to pick up other guys when you already have a date? Yeah, I'm not into that," Tai said, running purely on adrenaline, years of school playground insults and snappy come-back zingers.

The smart thing to do after such a degrading remark was to flee the scene. Instead, Tai watched fascinated as Arukenimon managed to climb halfway out the window, gloved hands that had morphed into wide hairy claws extending towards him…

"Enough," the baritone voice said, sounding annoyed. Arukenimon let out a startled squawk as she was bodily hauled back inside the car. "Mummymon," came the order.

The back door to the Land Rover flew open. All Tai saw were cords of cloth streaming through the air before wrapping around his body, binding his arms to his side and legs together tightly. Then faster than he could blink, he had been yanked forward and found himself sprawled face-first into the backseat of the car. There was a loud squeal of tires and the vehicle jolted sharply as it sped off and Tai had the vague realization that it was possible he had just been abducted.

His mouth hadn't been bound, so Tai pushed himself upright as best he could in his current condition and proclaimed his righteous indignation of the fact.

"Hey, kidnapping's a federal offense! You're all gonna get twenty years or more for this!"

"Can it, kid. You should be thanking us for doing you a favor and pulling you off the streets before the government got their sticky paws into you first."

Tai glared at Oikawa who had spoken from the passenger seat up front, who was smirking at him in the rearview mirror. Well, he supposed he must look ridiculous all wrapped up like an unsightly roll of toilet paper.

Mummymon wrenched harshly on the end of the cord in his hands, jerking Tai to and fro like a dog on a leash. "How dare you slander my darling Arukenimon's name! I'll have you know she possesses a noble heart pure of virtue and filled with undying devotion solely unto me! The weight of our love out spans the sea and grains of sand! Our destinies have been entwined since the beginning of time, written in the stars—"

Mummymon's love soliloquy was cut off abruptly by a round compact mirror bouncing off the side of his head.

"Shut up, you bandaged blockhead!" Arukenimon roared, gnashing needle-like teeth at him as she hunched over the steering wheel. The Land Rover shuddered as she made a sharp, angry turn.

"But my sweet poisonberry, I was merely defending your honor," Mummymon sniffled, rubbing where he had been struck. His eyes got overly-bright, "But if it makes you feel better, you can hit me again, as many times as you like!"

Oh God, I'm stuck inside an enclosed space with a psychotic spider and a masochistic mummy, Tai thought. If he had his choice, he'd take the men in black suits any day over this.

"Why in Mammothmon's name did Izzy send you guys?" Tai directed his question at Oikawa. He would have asked how Izzy got Oikawa's number, but the kid hacked into top secret military websites for a hobby. It had probably been easy. He just wanted to know if Izzy had gone insane.

"Oh, you are referring to the last message you received that you assumed was from him," Oikawa remarked airily.

Okay, that definitely changed things. "Uhhh, it's not?" Tai asked.

Oikawa held up a D-Terminal in his hands so Tai could see. "Did you kids honestly forget these things are a wide-sold commonplace device that the mass population makes use of?"

Well yeah, Tai thought they might have actually, but he wasn't going to admit that. With the joy of the Digital gateway being reopened and the long anticipated reunion with their partners and the excitement over Digimentals able to be stored on it, sometimes, it was easy to forget the rest of the world used something that was a major asset to the Digidestined—used it for something as mundane as making a grocery list.

"It was pathetically easy to hack into your little circle of friends' emails to track down your whereabouts," Oikawa said.

"Wait, so not only are you a kidnapper a dozen times over by now, not including me," Tai said remembering that Oikawa was responsible for implanting Dark Spores in children. "But you also stalk kids online and impersonate other people? You are such a creeper. Once I'm on the stand, no jury in the world is gonna let you walk free—"

"You'll find it exceedingly difficult to take the stand when you're being held in an unknown facility being used as one of the government's experimental lab rats, brat," Oikawa snapped and Tai was flung back into the very real, horrible reality that he had been branded as an alien/monster out with a vengeance upon humanity.

Tai squared his chin and glowered defiantly. "So what? Is there a bounty on my head already? Gonna collect the reward when you turn me in? Cash in on some upgraded technology so you can become a bigger pervert and conduct more masterminded schemes of becoming Supreme Evil Overlord of Both Worlds or whatever it is you're planning?"

Oikawa threw his head back and laughed throatily. "You've got a great imagination, kid. Mummymon, loosen the bindings and fetch that, would you?"

Tai felt the cloth cords relax their tight hold leaving just enough space between gaps for Mummymon to reach out and unclip his Digivice from his belt and remove the D-Terminal from his coat pocket.

"Hey, hands off!" he protested as Mummymon dropped the Digivice into Oikawa's out-held palm.

He watched as Oikawa held it up to the fading daylight drifting through the windshield. Several emotions flickered across the man's face for a moment, something like sadness and longing and resentment all at once, and then just as quickly it was gone and Oikawa was handing the Digivice to Arukenimon.

"Pull over and let me drive. Do what we discussed before," Oikawa ordered.

One minute later Oikawa was behind the wheel and Tai was watching helplessly as Arukenimon leaped away, scurrying sideways across buildings and streetlights until she was gone out of sight, and his Digivice with her.

Tai gritted his teeth and simmered furiously.

"You may not realize it yet, but I'm on your side, you know," Oikawa said.

"Sure," Tai bit out. "That's why you lured all those poor innocent kids into your Candy Truck of Doom and told them lies while you injected Dark Spores into them."

"I didn't lie to them. The Dark Spores will grant all their wishes."

"Yeah, at what cost? We'll have a dozen evil, chibi Digimon Emperor-wannabes running around. And Ken, you probably traumatized him for life, more than he already is. Do you know what a massive guilt-trip he is having over not being able to save them, for being the cause of what they might become?"

"Ichijouji played his part out well," there was a fond smile on Oikawa's face as he said Ken's name. Creep, Tai thought. "Perhaps, his role will have a reprisal in the future. Yours, o fearless leader, is just about to begin."

Tai didn't bother asking him what he meant by that. "You are really starting to get on my nerves. When my friends arrive, they are so going to—"

"Arrive where exactly?" Oikawa interrupted in an amused tone. "Where the location of your Digivice is? Where it is giving them a pleasant game of ring around the rosies led by Arukenimon?" The man's eyes darkened dangerously as he flashed a glance at the rearview mirror. "Don't think I don't know all about you meddlesome brats and your homing signals."

"Who are you?" Tai burst out. "How do you know about the Digital World so much?"

"The rest of your friends will arrive precisely when I desire them so and not a minute before," Oikawa said, ignoring the question. "The only thing I acquire right now is you and your assistance."

"News flash: I'm not assisting you with anything," Tai declared.

"So you children prefer to idle about with your head in the sand and hope mankind's memories of all this fade like five years ago," Oikawa stated. "Then your conscience will rest easy even while knowing you held the answers everyone was seeking yet still you did nothing to qualm the panic."

Tai bit down hard on his lip at the sore spot Oikawa had struck. "The world isn't ready to know," he said half-heartedly.

"To know about what?" Oikawa pressed on. "The truth? That there exists another world beyond this one? That people don't have to be confined to this one realm of limited possibilities and jaded promises? You rather humanity continue thinking Digimon are mindless beasts or demons bent on destroying the only livelihood people know instead of embracing this opportunity to introduce them properly to the real world. You would deny people the right to know that we are not alone, of what extraordinary and magnificent beings Digimon truly are instead of this vicious image of the half-picture people are presented with now? You Digidestined, the saviors of both worlds—such selfish children," Oikawa scoffed.

Tai's head was spinning dizzily. He felt like he should be arguing back, but Oikawa had somehow turned the tables on him. All he knew was that for the past several months, the Digidestined had been fighting an unknown foe with a hidden agenda. They had assumed it was Oikawa when he appeared on the scene and kidnapped those kids. The presence of Arukenimon and Mummymon had also been very incriminating. However, if what he was hearing was correct, it seemed like Oikawa was seeking out the truth about Digimon and the Digital World and perhaps was a bit rash in his actions—in a sort of mad scientist kind of way—if the Dark Spores were anything to go by. There still was the mystery of how Oikawa even knew of the Digital World's existence in the first place. In any case, there also rested the fact that Tai had been kidnapped but was more or less unscathed. But for how long and for what reason he had no idea. Oikawa was a riddle that refused to be unraveled easily.

"What do you want with me?" Tai asked feeling immensely tired all of a sudden.

"It's not what I want, it's what you want, if you look past your pride and decide to share the truth with those who deserve to know."

The Land Rover cleared a section of skyscrapers, made a turn and a familiar building loomed into view and Tai jolted in recognition, realizing what Oikawa intended.

The Fuji TV Station's silver exterior and glass windows shone a fierce orange-red like fire as the last rays of the setting sun spread across the horizon.

"As a geneticist, I may be more versed in the field of science than the media, however a colleague of mine who was a journalist once told me this: the best way to control the media is to control the circumstances in which the story is represented," Oikawa explained. "No one has stepped forward so far except some alien extremist and a handful of frightened victims that were unfortunately caught up in some Digimon's path. The news has played the alien invasion story from multiple angles enough times that watching a golf tournament would be less boring. They must be drooling in there for a fresh, new perspective on things."

"Yeah, if I don't get arrested before I even make it to the elevator," Tai muttered.

Oikawa grinned widely. It was unsettling. "So how about it, kid? Ready to shed some of that vain ego and spill some precious secrets to the world? We've been on hold for five years after all."

"No one will believe me anyway," Tai said. "It's pointless."

"It doesn't matter if people don't believe you!" Oikawa barked out harshly before regaining composure. "That doesn't matter at all. The point would be you have told your side of things. People will have heard, some may have listened. That's all you need right now: one simple chance to speak your part."

Tai stared hard at Oikawa's expression in the rearview mirror, but he couldn't see past the cold onyx eyes and mouth set into a tight lop-sided grin. Every fiber in his being cried out for him not to trust him and he didn't—but he hated to admit that he could see the man's point. That running wouldn't get him anywhere. He wanted to finish high school and go to college. He wanted a deeper relationship with Jun. Who knew how long this unseen battle against unknown forces the team had been fighting would go on for? It might take years. They couldn't keep letting the world think Digimon were an alien invasion. It wasn't fair and it probably would have terrible repercussions in long run. Still, it was Oikawa who concocted this grand scheme. Oikawa, who as much as he spoke about truth, Tai was sure he wasn't being completely honest with him either.

Tai steeled himself. "What happens if I don't agree to this press coverage? Gonna throw me to the feds after all?"

Oikawa chuckled darkly. "No, by all means, feel free to leave anytime you wish." He snapped his fingers and the cloth bindings surrounding Tai withdrew back into Mummymon's waiting hands.

"Here," Oikawa said tossing his D-Terminal at him which Tai deftly caught. "Contact your friends. Tell them you're in the clutches of the enemy. I'm sure they'll come swooping in to rescue you. Won't that be a sight to see: an army of monsters massing on the tv station. You children really don't think things through very well by the chaos you leave in your wake. It's no wonder the world assumes the worst of Digimon because of your bad examples."

Tai wasn't sure whether Oikawa was giving him a warning or insulting him. Perhaps a bit of both.

Tai hesitated, one hand on the door, one hand gripped around his D-Terminal. "Just out of curiosity, what were you planning on doing if I left?"

"Believe it or not, you were merely an unexpected added bonus I figured would shed some continuity to my own story. I always had intended to come forward when the time was right and share my personal knowledge of the Digital World. And I've known about it for a long time," Oikawa's lips pressed into a thin line. "Far longer than any of you children," he said in a scornful tone.

"Yeah, want to run that by me again of how exactly?" Tai tried wheedling an answer out of the man one more time.

Oikawa rested one hand on the steering wheel. "In or out, kid."

"Look, whether they believe us or not, the possibility of us walking out of there freely is slim to none," Tai said, looking at the choices he was faced with and not liking the outcome. "In the end, they'll just lock me up on suspicion of being in league with the aliens, and you for harboring a fugitive for however briefly, plus being delusional enough to go on live tv and confess you've been in contact with these so-called aliens for years. And if they actually do believe you, you'll get branded a traitor and co-conspirator too."

"You needn't fear conventional society and their simpleton mannerisms of running to the law every time they are faced with some anomaly," Oikawa said. "Mummymon and Arukenimon will each do their part as I have told them."

"Okay, another question before I walk away from you and your madness: why do you and Arukenimon follow every order this guy makes?" Tai asked Mummymon. "He's a human. Is he your partner?"

He really didn't like the idea of that, but considering how many children were coming forth with Digimon as their partners, all leading back to some past incident with meeting or even seeing one, he had to entertain the possibility.

"Don't be absurd," Oikawa cut in sharply, sounding deeply offended by that assumption. "They do as I say because they are modified that way. I created them after all."

Whoa, okay. And just when Tai thought the mystery of Oikawa could not possibly get any weirder.

"What?"

oOo

Kari's voice was near hysterical in phone Izzy held to his ear.

"I don't understand. Why would Tai just run off and not tell us? And he wouldn't just leave his Digivice behind. He must have lost it. He's out there somewhere and we have to find him!"

"Calm down, please," Izzy said. "Give me a minute to think."

He hadn't even told her yet that his D-Terminal account had been hacked into. Wherever Tai was at the moment, it was probably with whoever had sent that last message with his name attached to it. Izzy hadn't noticed until too late. He had been busy trying to find someone who could drive and who wouldn't balk at picking up an assumed criminal at a moment's notice—preferably one of the Digidestined's family members that knew about Digimon. He had happened to glance down at his D-Terminal mid-phone call to Joe's brother and his blood run cold when he saw the new message he had supposedly sent.

He had immediately tried sending another message to Tai to stop him, but found himself locked out of his own account. He tried not to think too hard about what dire predicament Tai might be in. There was no need to outright panic though. His next move had been to call the younger kids whose D-3's had a broader map range to try and track Tai down. Kari was the first one on the scene to follow her brother's signal which was moving at a steady pace and discover his Digivice on top of a running truck as if it had been placed there deliberately. Izzy did not like the foreboding feeling that came with the realization that someone out there knew about the working functions of a Digivice.

His D-Terminal beeped with a new message.

Taichi-sempai would only leave if someone was chasing him. I bet it's that creep-face, Oikawa! He enjoys kidnapping people! When I find him, I'm gonna smash him to a pulp!

-Davis

Don't be hasty chasing shadows. The last thing thing we need right now is to be looking for someone else who's disappeared, Izzy typed back, hoping he could dissuade Davis before he did something rash.

"It's all my fault!" Mimi cried from behind him and he felt two hands clench in the material on the back of his coat and tug. "I shouldn't have caused that big scene and made everyone fight!"

"Mimi, it's not your fault," Sora said placing a hand on her friend's shaking shoulder. "If it's anyone's fault, it's that sci-fi fanatic with his hidden camera and his twisted version of events."

Sora had apparently caught up with Mimi when she had stormed off and they were together when they saw the announcement. They had met up with Izzy quickly after. They were currently gathered around the corner of a busy four-way stop and kept getting jostled about by the moving crowd.

"We would still have all been together when that news bulletin broke and we would have figured out what to do! Don't say it isn't my fault!" Mimi exclaimed and her tugs began harsh jerks causing the collar of Izzy's coat to ride up and begin choking him.

"Do you think Tai left his Digivice behind on purpose? What if he thinks he's endangering us all and doesn't want us to find him?" Yolei's voice floated out faintly in the background where she and Kari were.

Kari's voice rose to an anxiously high pitch. "But what if he runs into trouble? He could get hurt. He needs Agumon with him!"

Why can't I look for Taichi-sempai and Oily-kawa at the same time? That jerk has a buttload of karma ready to be dished out to him and I wanna serve it straight to his face!

( `д´*)

-Davis

NO. STAY. WHERE. YOU. ARE. DON'T. MOVE, Izzy typed irritably as his collar dug tighter into the skin of his neck from all of Mimi's pulling.

Someone in the crowd brushed past him roughly, knocking the D-Terminal from his hands to the pavement. Izzy dove for it, but the screen already had cracked from impact before several sets of shoes stomped all over it. Izzy stood there, bent half-way over the sidewalk, one hand still on his cell phone held to his ear, the other stretched helplessly out toward his fallen device, and Mimi crying into the back of his coat with Sora trying unsuccessfully to pry her off.

That was the spectacle that greeted Matt as he arrived on the scene panting slightly from running there.

"Guys!" he burst out, blond hair sticking out in wild, wind-swept strands from beneath his hat disguise. His blue eyes were wide from behind his giant shades that had slid down the bridge of his nose. "Dad just called me. Guess who just showed up at the tv station!"

Over Matt's shoulder, the giant tv on the building showed yet another flash news bulletin. A very familiar face appeared on the screen. Izzy was aware of his mouth dropping open as he gaped widely. Behind him, he heard Sora take a sharp intake of breath. He wasn't sure whether this was better or worse than the last news bulletin. At least Mimi had stopped yanking on his coat, her crying having been reduced to soft, disbelieving sniffles.

On the cement, Izzy's D-Terminal beeped with a new message on its cracked screen. Amazingly, it still worked. Although the message appeared to have been sent purposefully delayed.

You're probably watching the news now. Don't freak out. I'm just approaching this from a different angle. Think of it this way: what would Plato do?

(^_^;)

-Tai

Izzy threw his head back and unleashed several loud, vulgar profanities to the sky.

oOo

Izzy was going to kill him, Tai thought. He shifted uncomfortably in the interview chair and wondered if he had made the right choice in the end. Even if he had been essentially blackmailed and pressured into it.

It's your decision, kid, Oikawa had said towards the end, having sent Mummymon away as well. But know that if you choose to leave, I'm still going to tell my own account of what Digimon truly are and what their existence means for mankind, and my version may have very differing opinions than yours.

He still wasn't sure why he hadn't been tackled to the floor immediately by the news station's security upon first sight and the cops called in. There had been only an initial slight panic and then a mad scramble for an interview to be set up right then and there especially when Oikawa had boldly proclaimed "The young renegade is here to confess everything." It had been actually insanely easy to gain entrance into what should have been a very tightly guarded location.

"These news hawks are nothing but greedy buzzards," Oikawa had whispered to him with a hint of smugness in his voice. "They know full well if they turn you in now, you might be 'accidentally swallowed up' in the system and conveniently disappear. No story, no tune-ins, no ratings. Right now, to them, you're the only one who can shed some light on the 'alien invasion'. You've just become their new golden goose. Try not to botch things up."

Tai was going to ask Oikawa when he was going to admit that he had "intermingling with aliens" too, but he had gotten dragged away over to one of the two overly-plush cushioned interview chairs were and practically shoved into it. He squinted past the row of bright standing lights and cameras focused on him, and could faintly make out the familiar figure of a girl behind them. He stomach swooped in surprise. Well, at least the mystery of where Jun had gone to "gain credits towards her chosen career path" had been solved. Jun had her arms crossed and a displeased scowl planted on her face. Her eyes were practically throwing out daggers. Whether it was aimed at him or his interviewer, Tai wasn't quite sure.

The young woman leaned forward in her seat and tucked a strand of chin-length black hair behind her ear as she glanced down at the notepad in her lap. The same young woman who had failed so miserably at documenting the Digimon at Fujiyoshida City.

"Hello, this is Tomoya Yoshino reporting from Channel 8 at the Fuji TV Station with a special news flash," she spoke cheerily, her voice smooth and crisp. "We have here with us at this moment, the young man involved in various monster sightings, now identified as Taichi Kamiya, here to tell the events of his story today. Kamiya-san, would you care to clear some things up for us and the viewers watching, such as what is the true agenda of these alien invaders?"

Wow, what an ice-breaking question. Tai knew he had come here to speak the truth, but he wasn't sure the first thing people should hear about Digimon be something like, "yeah, they're kinda mad because their home is getting destroyed by forces unknown so they're migrating over here to this world and they're in pain and people are firing weapons at them—please don't do that, it makes them angrier—and the technology and land on this side is new and confusing and makes them on high alert, dangerous, and prone to attack anything they view as a threat, which is basically everything."

"Well, first—," Tai spoke up nervously. His voice cracked and he paused to clear it. "First of all, I think we should take a step back and define the terminology you guys keep using. Aliens. I assume you mean the kind that's in movies with spaceships and stuff. Yeah, they're not aliens persay in this way. But they do come from an entirely different world if that's what you want to know."

Tai allowed himself to relax, pleased with how well he had handled that, and waited for the next interview question.

"And exactly how long have these aliens been contacting you for?"

Okay, had she heard absolutely nothing? Or did she just not care for details?

Jun looked like she wanted to run right up to Tomoya-san, rip the notepad from her hands, and beat her over the head with it.

"These aliens have a name: Digimon," Tai said heatedly. "Short for digital monsters. Digital. Are you not at all curious about what that means?"

"You didn't answer the question, Kamiya-san."

Tai leaned forward—a cynical remark on the tip of his tongue—and saw from his peripheral vision Oikawa shaking his head. Tai swallowed back his anger and tried to clear his thoughts. It wouldn't be too good for the Digimon's image if the person who was trying to defend them lost his cool. He didn't want to seem like some deranged alien abductee.

"I guess since maybe five years ago, is when I first became aware of Digimon," Tai said truthfully. "It was at summer camp and a portal opened to this other world and I was kinda swept up in it."

"A portal, you say?" Tomoya Yoshino looked very excited at his words, like she had magically uncovered some Ultra New Information. "Are the aliens we are seeing right now coming to Earth using these portals?"

"Ye-e-s," Tai's eyes were drawn to the flurry of movement in the background of people rushing around with sheets of paper in their hands.

"Do these portals open sporadically without any pattern or is there a specific origin to them?"

"Um… both?" Tai said.

"Please, clarify, Kamiya-san."

"Well, sometimes, especially now, portals have been opening at random, but they're usually activated through a computer."

A low murmur broke out in the room. Tai saw the tech people eyeing their computers with wary eyes and back up a safe distance like they were expecting a monster to pop out from the screen any second.

"A computer? How fascinating!" Tomoya Yoshino sounded brave enough when she wasn't in any physical proximity of a monster's path. "How exactly was this method discovered?"

Now would have been the perfect opportunity to tell them about the Digivices. Tai thought he wanted to do it. He had come this far. He was trying to do the right thing. And yet he just couldn't. Some gut instinct—purely possessive—swelled up within him and numbed his tongue.

You Digidestined, the saviors of both worlds—such selfish children.

How much Tai hated the fact that Oikawa was right.

"Well… if you're in the right place at the right time… the computer just activates the portal for you," Tai said elusively and couldn't bring himself to look at Jun's face, wondering what she thought of his omission.

"So, you're saying that the portal only opens for certain people and that you are one of them?"

Tai looked up. "Yes, I am," he said with a jealous pride laced thickly with self-loathing.

Tomoya Yoshino cocked her head to one side as if listening to something only she could hear. Tai noticed her earpiece for the first time.

"Kamiya-san," Tomoya-san said looking back at him. "Will you state here and now honestly: are you in fact a human of earth or an alien posing in the form of a one to allow us to sympathize with you better?"

Tai fought back to the urge to proclaim he was Starlord Galaxeo and he was here to turn mankind into stuffed exhibitions for his cosmic museum. He was a jittering bundle of nerves at the moment and stress tended to escalate his unique talent for sarcasm, making it all that much easier to ooze out. Besides, the people here were probably dumb enough to believe that.

"I swear as a Japanese citizen and a resident of earth, I am a human. A real human." Tai sighed. "My dad has a video of my mom giving birth to me. It's not pretty and he faints every time he tries watching it." He gave a small wave at the camera. "Hey, Mom, Dad. Sorry 'bout all this." He had no doubt they were watching right now.

"And as a Japanese citizen, did it ever once occur to you to report the findings of these portals and monsters to the government before now?" Tomoya-san asked.

"What, no," Tai said sharply. He realized too late how bad that had sounded. "I mean, I didn't really think about it. I…"

"I see. You said it first occurred five years ago, correct? I understand," Tomoya-san nodded pityingly. "You were just an impressionable kid who discovered something amazing and wanted to keep it all to yourself. A new world, new adventures, an escape from your ordinary life. But as you got older, the responsibility of keeping such a dangerous secret to yourself became clear. The consequences outweighed the advantages and you had second opinions of this world with monsters. When I look at these photos—" images of him at Fujiyoshida City and the skating ring at the park filled up the giant screen stationed on the wall beyond the two interview chairs. "I don't see a terrorist, but a young man seeing firsthand the damage of what his monster-friends are capable of."

Tomoya Yoshino was smiling at him, inclining her head ever so slightly as if to say 'agree with me'. She could be trying to help him, Tai wasn't quite sure. All he knew was that he was losing control of the interview. He had to try and pull it his direction. To convince people Digimon weren't brainless monsters despite appearances.

"Just tell us, Kamiya-san," Tomoya Yoshino gushed sweetly. "Tell us your story of how these aliens, these monsters tricked you into thinking you were special for discovering their world and then how they duped you once you served their purpose whatever it may be. Perhaps to gain entrance to this world? Did you unwittingly show them the way? It's all right. You can make that mistake up now. Just tell us these monsters' weaknesses, tell us their true agenda for coming here."

The blood rushed angrily to Tai's head and swamped his senses. For a moment, he didn't see Tomoya Yoshino, he saw LadyDevimon smirking cruelly at him as she spoke goading words of what an utter incompetence he was to Greymon. He saw himself in the aftermath of that battle, screaming at his friends, unleashing all the jealous rage that had built up inside for years.

We have no further value or purpose anymore. We're just an unneeded hindrance!

What had been the purpose of trying to speak the truth if the media refused to hear him out? It was quite evident they didn't care about the whole story. He had already fed them enough juicy tidbits to make up their own version and for it to have just enough half-truths for the mass population to devour it hook, line and sinker.

He started to rise to his feet. If Jun wasn't going to beat Tomoya-san over the head with her own clipboard he would.

A firm hand clamped down on his shoulder and held him back.

"So the media constitutes putting words into other people's mouths now?" Oikawa said from behind him. He chuckled darkly. "I believe that's illegal."

"W-who-who are you?" Tomoya Yoshino looked greatly offended like Oikawa had just stomped over her Big Break in her up-and-coming news career. Well, he probably had.

"Oikawa Yuukio," Oikawa introduced himself. "Geneticist. And I've been studying these so-called aliens for more than twenty years."

Well, that statement certainly created a flurry of reactions.

Less than a minute later, another plump interview chair had been hastily pulled up and Oikawa was sitting in it calmly sipping a mug of steaming hot green tea that someone had offered. Tomoya-san looked as annoyed as Tai felt. Probably because she had to restart her entire interview from scratch. She seemed engaged in a whispered argument with her earpiece.

"What's this? Senior priviledges?" Tai hissed leaning over. "I see monsters for five years get zilch and you see them for twenty and get—whoa, what, how long? How old are you even?" he sputtered.

Oikawa ignored him and set his mug down on the side table. He didn't wait for a question to be asked. He went straight for the kill.

"These so-called aliens that are intruding on your daily lives and upsetting your ordinary routine—you'd better get used to it—because they're going to be our permanent neighbors."

The low murmur in the background rose to a higher pitch with a slight edge of panic.

Tomoya-san narrowed her eyes. "Please explain, Oikawa-san."

"These portals are merely glitches: cracks in the seams of the fabric of reality that these creatures slip through. Once the main gateway is unlocked, there can be no reversal."

"You seem to be very knowledgeable about these portals, Oikawa-san. Would be so kind to elaborate for the rest of us who are not as fortunate to have an upbringing alongside aliens as you and your young friend here have," Tomoya Yoshino said, her voice dripping heavily with sarcasm.

And Oikawa spoke, weaving a fantastic tale about himself in his youth, uncovering a world totally different from this one through a video game of all things. How he communicated with the monsters inside it, how he knew the world was real but merely inaccessible at that point in time, and how as he grew older, he began looking for ways to enter this wondrous new world. For he had realized the two worlds were slowly merging with each other.

"The crossings over are nothing new. It is only now that they have been seen on a scale this large all over the globe. But they have been happening more frequently, especially this past decade. What astonishes me is how easily the human race is to brush these amazing events aside as nothing more than natural disasters or terrorist attacks, even when the facts to the contrary are right in front of their faces."

"I think we would have noticed an invasion of aliens like this before, Oikawa-san," Tomoya Yoshino said.

"You did, you've merely pushed it to the back of your minds as something else. That's how eager you all were to return to your ordinary, boring lives," Oikawa said. He wore a disgusted expression as if he couldn't comprehend why people would want to forget as something as incredible as encounter with Digimon. Tai, though, recalled Devimon and all the other evil Digimon they had faced and thought he might understand people's reluctance to remember.

"As a geneticist, I was called to look into the Highton View Terrace incident in the aftermath," Oikawa said and Tai started at this revelation. "The authorities were frightened that biological warfare might be in play. I found nothing of the sort, merely traces of the creatures I was familiar with and a gateway sealed shut. There were witnesses in police reports about seeing monsters, but of course they were all written off as hysterical and delusional. Five years ago, another gateway was opened over Odaiba and people took shelter in the Tokyo Big Top to escape these aliens that had suddenly appeared. But that was clearly terrorists holding people hostage, am I correct?" There was dark amusement is Oikawa's voice. He sounded like he was refraining himself from laughing.

There was a definite stir in the room now. Tai looked around. The news crew was whispering amongst themselves now, some with scrunched up faces with vacant, puzzled expressions that he recognized as trying very hard to remember something that was fuzzy in memory.

"Perhaps now, because these portals keep sporadically opening and these monsters do not all disappear in one day's time, it is harder to sweep over the evidence of their existence and claim something else happened in their place," Oikawa finished with a flourish.

Tomoya Yoshino was sitting straight-backed and rigid in her chair, her complexion quite white, her eyes round as marbles. "Ar-re you s-saying… these aliens wiped our brains before?" She all but shrieked in near hysteria.

Forget the clipboard, she was getting the entire mug of leftover cold green tea dumped over her head.

The damage had been done though. Half-clouded memories that had started to resurface in people's minds did the rest.

"That's right!" One short, bald man with glasses stepped forward pointing at them. "The aliens had us all grouped in the convention center like sardines in one giant storage pantry. They rounded us up and were gonna eat us in one big buffet!"

"They dragged my little Mia-chan away from me!" A woman shouted—an irate mother who looked horrified by what each new memory had dredged up. "They separated the adults from the children!"

The uneasy murmuring in the room had now been turned up to a full blasted discontented mumbling.

"Those monsters—they were looking for something."

"Something? No, someone."

"They put us all to sleep. One minute I was awake and surrounded by ghosts, then next I was on the floor waking up with everyone else. And there was something… something wrong with the sky…"

"Those children, yes! Remember? They went up in a beam of rainbow light into that other world in the sky!"

"The upside world, it's all coming back to me now!"

"Kamiya-san, you are one of those children, aren't you?"

It was Tomoya Yoshino who had spoken, her lips settled in a thin, curved grin like a crocodile that finally had its prey in sights.

"I thought something about you seemed familiar when I first saw the photos, I just couldn't place it. I was only a teenager five years ago, but I remember those kids going up in that rainbow light." Her eyes flickered over him briefly. "Your hair… it's exactly the same."

Tai really hated that he was beginning to consider cutting his hair.

Tomoya-san's grin grew wider, but no warmth emanated from it. "I don't know why, but I envied you all at that moment. Won't you tell us what happened, Kamiya-san. What did the aliens, these monsters, want with you children?" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Did they experiment on you? Tamper with your minds as well?"

She couldn't have picked a more dramatic note to end the interview on. For end it did. All the lights died and the room was plunged into darkness as the electricity in the building was cut off abruptly.

Pandemonium was instantaneous.

"W-w-what's going on?"

"Why'd the power go off?"

"It's those two!" someone shouted. Tai couldn't see but he was pretty sure that remark was aimed at Oikawa and him. "They were trying to brainwash us into thinking the aliens are our friends but we know better!"

To add more stress to panic, the entire Fuji TV Station shuddered mightily sending giant tremors throughout the floors and structure.

Tai leaped to his feet in the darkness. Was it an earthquake?

"It's the aliens! Those two sympathizers called for backup!"

"Let's get out of here!"

"That's just what they want! Us to come running out and turn us all into their personal guinea pigs!"

Someone grabbed Tai firmly by the arm. Tai jerked back, trying to wrench himself out of their grip, but they held on. He threw out a punch blindly as a last resort and felt his fist hit someone's shoulder. A pained grunt came from over his head and his other arm was caught and seized fast before he could throw another.

"Calm down, it's me," a gruff voice hissed and Tai immediately relaxed.

"Mr. Ishida," he said with relief.

Hiroaki Ishida released one arm and loosened his grip on the other, but did not let go. "This way, the both of you," he whispered. "Follow me."

The room was dark, but the exit sign and two emergency lights on either side of the door shed a sparse glow, enough to see the dim outline of Mr. Ishida as he led them swiftly past the on-going panic of the news crew out into the hallway. The power was out there as well, however it was considerably less gloomy by half one side of the hallway being constructed of wide, elongated windows. The night sky outside was clear allowing the moonlight to filter in through the glass panes and illuminate the ground outside of the tv station which was filled with a full blockade of cop cars.

"I'm afraid the authorities didn't approve of our unexpected flash news bulletin," Hiroki said grimly before fixing Tai with a stern stare that practically screamed disapproving parent. "I don't know what possessed you to come running to the media when everyone and their dog is out for your blood, but if you expected to sway people's sympathies towards Digimon, I could have warned you beforehand it's a lost cause. You noticed anything you said, your words got twisted. The news doesn't get ratings on sunshine and flowers, kid. It gets them on mayhem and panic, which is what you just spiked."

"I thought…" Tai felt his cheeks burn. "I just wanted people to hear our side of the story, to listen…"

"They did listen," Oikawa spoke up. He sounded quite satisfied. "Fear moves people faster than belief, kid."

"You!" Tai cried. "You said you were going to tell what Digimon's existence meant to mankind. All you did was ramble on about video games and made them look like some movie monsters come to life! You put more emphasis on the portals than the Digimon themselves and kickstarted the Grand Express of Bad Memories!"

"I told you before our opinions on the matter would differ," Oikawa said coolly. "You seem overly concerned that everyone should view Digimon in a positive light first and foremost. Yet I can guess you were never going to mention anything of the dangers that lay at hand in the Digital World, or the fact that at any moment some poor unsuspecting soul could fall into a rogue portal and be thrust out of space and time. Going to gloss over all the damage and destruction your monster friends seem to revel in? Going to start mankind's coexistence with them without sharing the full history?" A corner of his lip turned upward as Tai flushed guiltily.

"I know you were trying to do the right thing, Tai," Hiroaki sighed running a weary hand through his hair in gesture that Tai had seen Matt do countless times. "Maybe people will come to see Digimon not as horrible monsters or brainwashing aliens in the future. It's all about the timing and now is not good. The military is on their way here. You have to get away before they storm the place. Before I shut the building's power off—"

"That was you?!" Tai exclaimed rather impressed.

"I called Matt, told him you were here," Hirokai said. "Told him to bring the reinforcements, try to keep a low profile for once, and meet you on the roof. That was at least twenty minutes ago."

"So, the building shaking before…"

"That was probably them, signaling they're here. So hurry and go, before they send a SWAT team in here," Hirokai said giving the police below a furtive eye.

The door burst open behind them, making Tai's heart race fast.

"Wait!" Jun cried as she stumbled forward and grabbed Tai's hands in hers. Tai's heartbeat sped up again for a completely different reason.

"You, I cannot believe that you would—utterly stupid—big bad Mr. Foolish Hero Complex yet again!" Jun sputtered eyes blazing, and so upset she could barely get the words out.

"I have to go," Tai choked out, not wanting to leave at all. It wasn't fair. One of the few times he and Jun actually got to spend together, much less see each other, and he had done so sitting in a chair for almost half an hour talking to another girl over a conversation that had gone nowhere.

Jun's eyes widened. He could see her worry swirling within them. She clutched his hands tightly. "Take me with you!" she pleaded.

"No," Hiroaki interjected before Tai could answer. "If she disappears along with you two, they'll think she's been abducted. Or worse, they'll label her as being in league with you two all along."

"I already am!" Jun cried.

"Jun, think of your family," Tai said softly. "I don't even know when I can see my parents again. Everyone who knows me—not just my friends—are going to be watched very closely by the government. I have no idea what's going to happen next or where I will go. Please… stay."

He drew his hands away from hers slowly. Jun let hers drop limply to her side. The fire had gone out of her eyes.

A strong, heavy beam of light that was most definitely not from the moon rolled over their heads, weaving from one side of the windowed hallway to the other, causing them all to instinctively duck.

A loud buzzing sound reached their ears through the thick glass: it reminded Tai of a swarm of Flymon. He looked outside to see a small army of helicopters passing over Rainbow Bridge, making their way through the sky straight towards the tv station. A quick glance below showed some new arrivals in police ranks: two huge spotlights aimed up, their beams of light roving up and down, to and fro, across every inch of the building's surface.

Hiroaki swore. "Earlier than expected, those bastards. Get moving!"

Oikawa wasted no time, walking at a brisk pace down the hallway towards the stairwell on the opposite side.

Fingers dug sharply into the back of his coat as Tai turned to follow. "Be careful," Jun whispered, the warmth of her breath tickling the inside of his ear. "I don't trust him."

Tai paused for a moment, watching Oikawa's retreating form. "I don't either," he finally said.

The fingertips fell away, running smoothly down his back as they did. Tai took off in a half-sprint. He didn't look back. He didn't know when he would see her again.

oOo

Tai wasn't sure how many flights of stairs they had climbed, a terrible exhaustion weighed down on him already. He waited a few seconds with his foot on top of the next step, struggling to catch his breath and looked up. Oikawa was two flights above him already and still going strong. The power was still off, but each floor landing had a pair of emergency lights atop every door so the stairwell was not in complete blackness. The glow-in-the-dark neon green path markers on every step were also a great asset so you would not trip and break your neck.

"Hey," he called up, trying to stave off the strange sluggishness threatening to envelop him. "Just out of curiosity, how were you planning to get us out of here away from the mad mob if Mr. Ishida hadn't helped and my friends hadn't come? You never told me."

"You're right, I didn't." Oikawa's brittle, melodic laughter echoed off the stairwell eerily. "Yet you still went along with me."

Tai stared at the back of the man's head feeling very self-conscious of how ill-thought out the whole idea had been. Perhaps he had been a bit too keen on good intentions without thinking of the consequences of their actions. "This doesn't make us friends, you know!" he shouted. "This was a temporary truce! You still have to answer for what you did to those kids with the Dark Spores! Don't think you're off the hook yet!"

He was really in no position to be making threats at the moment, but for some reason Oikawa stopped and leaned over the rail to stare down at him, his face hidden in shadows that the dim lighting cast. "Those words make perhaps the most sense that have come out of your mouth all day," he said with a note of grudging admiration in his tone.

There was no time for Tai to make a snappy come back. A thunderous sound erupted—like that of the roar of a train pierced through the walls. There was a violent collision of some kind outside and then it seemed like the entire building swayed. Tai nearly lost his balance and clutched desperately at the stairwell's railing to keep from falling. He could feel the shock waves of the impact vibrating under his feet.

"Your friends are impatient," Oikawa said.

A faint rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat sound reached Tai's ears. It sounded similar to fireworks. An awful feeling settled in his stomach. Were the police outside shooting at something?

"That's our cue to make haste, I believe," Oikawa cursed and then he took off, racing up steps what looked like two at a time. Where on earth did the man get his stamina from?

Tai chased after him with a newfound vigor—the impact, whatever it had been, had driven all lethargy from his muscles at least. He tried hard to push away all thoughts of his friends being made target practice no thanks to him and his Foolish Hero Complex.

They burst out of the stairwell's door and into the hachitama. The giant silver sphere observatory gave them a spectacular view of the on-goings outside with its floor-to-ceiling glass windows. If they thought they had left chaos behind them they were mistaken. The Fuji TV Station had become its own private battlefield: the military helicopters that swarmed the night sky, the bright spotlights on the ground below aimed upward to make a target out of any stray Digimon that drifted into their beam. Explosions blasted all around them stemming directly from two Digimon—their silver and golden armor gleaming as they darted in and out of the spotlights' beacons—waging warfare on each other.

Tai's heart leaped into throat at the sight. What was BlackWarGreymon doing here? Why were he and WarGreymon fighting? How… how was it even possible for Agumon to have digivolved to his Mega form when he was not in current possession of his digivice?

"I'm in the hachitama now. Where the hell are you?"

Tai looked over at Oikawa. He was speaking into his cell phone to someone. He seemed completely unfazed by the fact that he was standing in the middle of a warzone.

"It's the round, silver object that looks like a disco ball, you nitwits. How can you possibly miss it?" Oikawa snarled.

Tai turned his attention back outside, his mind a jumbled mess of worry about his friends and partner and confusion over his digivice. He almost didn't notice the air inside the observatory becoming cooler, the air filling the space becoming heavy and humming with a kind of static electricity…

"The darkness…"

All the hairs on the back of his neck and arms rose. The voice was no higher than a murmur, faint, and hoarse-sounding, as if it were taking great effort to speak.

Something dark darted like a shifting shadow on his left side. Tai tried to follow it, but the movement was too fast.

"Beware… the darkness…"

The air was smothering like a dense layer of smog. Tai felt light-headed, as if he had been swimming underwater for too long. There was a dreadful sense of déjà vu hanging thickly overhead.

"Enemy… enemy… enemy…" the voice chanted, growing in strength with each mantra.

Tai could see the shadow now—a black mass with a definite figure—tearing up and down the walls of the observatory, circling the ceiling in a mad frenzy, before shooting straight down into the floor.

Tai knew what the shadow was even before it rose up and materialized in front of him—that still didn't stop the sharp pang of sorrow in his chest at seeing the familiar blue steeple hat adorned with a skull head.

Wizardmon—transparent and bit blurry around the edges—locked gazes with him. Wide blue eyes peered at him imploringly from underneath nebulous light brown bangs.

"Away… away…" Wizardmon moaned piteously.

Tai swallowed. How horrible it must be for Wizardmon to be trapped here not even able to take form most of the time; to be so close to the living and yet so far; endlessly wandering, with no hope of rebirth. What a cruel, tortuous afterlife. And he could do nothing to help him.

"I'm sorry," Tai said wincing at the emptiness the words offered.

Wizardmon floated backwards slowly, shaking his head. "Away… away…" he moaned again with a hint of urgency. The pressure in the room was expanding, swirling in volatile energy. Tai could feel it, rising higher and higher until suddenly Wizard flung up his staff and the heavy weight in the air collapsed inward down into it.

"STAY AWAY!" Wizardmon howled shooting towards Oikawa, his staff extended, translucent and pulsing with a captured power of some kind.

"Watch out!" Tai cried in warning.

Oikawa stood with the cell phone still held to his ear. He had seen Wizardmon's materialization, but the guarded expression had never once wavered on his pale face. He stepped calmly to one side and the beam of energy that sprang out in a white-hot, sizzling arc crashed into the window behind him. Glass shards went flying onto one of the horizontal, metal beams that held the observatory in place.

Wizardmon was fading once more, melting back into the shadows that the night so easily cast. His eyes caught Tai's one last time: desperate and beseeching. "Beware…" Then with a ghastly sigh, he was gone without a trace.

Tai stared where he had vanished, shaking slightly, horrified and in disbelief. Had Wizardmon just tried to kill someone? Did Digimon whose data got stuck in the real world lose all sense and go mad?

"You can see now why some people are never going to be comfortable about the idea of humans and Digimon living alongside each other if they have something like that happen to them," was all Oikawa had to offer about his deadly close encounter. He seemed in perfect health as he stepped carefully over the jagged, broken panels of glass sticking out from the remains of the window onto the metal beam outside.

Oikawa did not ask for Tai to follow him, but Tai did anyway, even though it was dangerous despite the metal guardrails placed on top of either side of the beam. He just didn't want to stay one second longer inside the observatory. It reeked of bad memories.

The wind blew mightily at this high altitude, hard enough that it threatened to pick up and pluck the two into the air and over the side. Tai clutched at the guardrail, realizing he should probably have texted Izzy via D-Terminal and tell him his location earlier. It was no use trying to do so right now. And there was no way in hell he was going back inside the hachitama.

The roar of the wind rose in volume, so loud it sounded like a horrible screaming. Then a dark shape swooped up in front of them, moonlight glistening off his armor and it was BlackWarGreymon bellowing his wrath to the heavens.

"So the prodigal son returns to the father once again, not seeking forgiveness but to finish off the flaw tarnishing his reflection!" Oikawa laughed crazily, throwing his arms out wide, with no regards to his safety. The wind tipped him over a bit, but he planted both feet firmly apart and did not budge any further.

BlackWarGreymon sliced through the air towards them like a silver bullet, claws outstretched. Tai could almost feel the pure rage radiating off him in thick, smoldering waves. WarGreymon slammed into him from the side, throwing him off his mark. The two Digimon barrel-rolled in the air wildly, claws locked together in a death-grip, and went careening into one of the lower levels of the tv station, disappearing in a spectacular display of glass shards and the spray of bullets that followed their wake.

Oikawa was still laughing. A wave of nausea passed over Tai as well as a dizziness that had nothing to do with vertigo. There were some dots he knew he should be connecting, but couldn't quite figure out where to draw the lines to.

There was an extra rush of billowing wind and the mighty buzz of helicopter blades as one soared in too close for comfort. Tai raised one arm as a shield against his eyes and squinted. That wasn't a military helicopter. Not with Arukeniemon sitting at the controls.

"Ooh!" Mummymon cried poking his head out from the backseat, pointing to the hachitama in delight. "It does look like a disco ball!"

"It's getting a bit crowded up here. I hope you're done playing games," Arukeniemon said, looking extremely bored.

"Wait, did you plan all of this?" Tai shouted at Oikawa's back, gesturing to the presence of military and the battling Digimon. At the terror-stricken news station they had left behind. "What for?"

Isn't it obvious? His mind screamed at him. Because he's EVIL!

Call him a fool that he most likely was, but for an hour or so, Tai had dared hope that someone else, anybody else besides the Chosen Children and their families could view Digimon in a positive light. Not weapons of destruction or pawns to be played in someone's grand scheme, but living, sentient beings that could coexist peacefully alongside humans; that the two species might lend knowledge to aid each other and build a better future.

It had been a brief and stupid dream, he realized.

Oikawa turned around. A terrible grin was stretched across that pale face from ear to ear, and onyx eyes shone fervently. For a split second, Tai swore he saw a flash of blue in those dark depths.

"I needed a distraction. You were very convenient," Oikawa said. Then he calmly reached into the inside of his coat and pulled out a sleek black weapon.

"Thank you for your assistance," Oikawa said pointing the barrel of the gun at him.

Tai didn't hear the loud shot he was expecting, yet he must have been hit, right? That's why pain was blossoming in his chest agonizingly, like tongues of flames were devouring his skin; why he was falling to his knees, slumping over on his side, why he couldn't seem to move, couldn't seem to breathe.

They said time slows down when you're dying. The helicopters in the sky appeared more like lazy fireflies than giant droning mosquitoes now. The explosions sounded faint and far off like the background of a movie playing in another room. He thought he heard his name carried on the wind, but that was probably his mind playing tricks, just some last desperate desire to see someone familiar in his last moments.

The excruciating pain had dimmed to a dull, burning ache. The cold had taken over, oh the cold… it was seeping up from the hard concrete through his clothes, worming under his skin, into his bones. Tai shivered, exhaling sharply. A small puff of white air burst past his numb lips. He imagined it was his soul leaving his body, because he could barely feel anything now. Nothing, nothing but the freezing cold.

The ground beneath him was falling away, fading into nothing and Tai shut his eyes and let himself flow away along with it.

To Be Continued…

A/N: I am so done with this chapter. I've combed through this thing countless of times and I still am not sure if I tied up all the loose ends just within this chapter alone.

Anyway, my beta, the lovely Rainbow09, was very helpful in pointing things out to my attention that I wouldn't have seen by myself. Lol, I have to quote her here ok. "Tai is pushing his luck with his alarming levels of sass, he just won't shut up." XD I've literally reached that point where the sub and dub and fanfics have all blended together throughout the years and I cannot recall whether it is canon or not that Tai's sarcasm multiplies tenfold under extreme stress. Anyway, it's definitely canon for him in this story, haha!

I know, what you guys are thinking: "wtf, how can she just leave us hanging like that?! What about the rest of the Digidestined? Oikawa, wtf, u bastard!"

I could leave you hanging without anything further said, but since I tend to update infrequently, I will ease everyone's anxieties. (Especially since I gave my beta a heart attack at the ending). Tai wasn't shot with a gun. Not a real one with bullets. It was taser gun. Those things are vicious and pack a punch. They put you out of commission for awhile. I sorta hate revealing this fact, but I'm not that evil an author to leave you all suffering while I take my time writing the next gut-wrenching cliffhanger—harrump!

You'll get multiple POVs next chapter. It will be the other Digidestined's version and we'll see how BlackWarGreymon an WarGreymon got to the point where they were. Oh my, Agumon can digivolve without the digivice? What does this mean? Trouble. With a Capital T. More angst, that's what.

Yes, Oikawa is a manipulative, scheming bastard—who has Myotismon living in his Mind Palace—making him doubly dangerous. It's my headcanon that Oikawa is still pretty much in charge of his mind. Myotismon just now and then whispers dark suggestions to him. So maybe Myotismon thought of the taser idea, but Oikawa definitely made the choice to do it. But yeah, there are a few moments when Myotsimon couldn't help but raise his head here and gloat. Poor Tai. Well, that's what you Chosen Children get for being an obstacle to opening the gateway. In the words of my beta, (you rock, Ray, I gotta share your words of wisdom). "I can see why would Oikawa's inner Vandemon play that kind of cruel card on him. It's some twisted form of revenge. the «This is what you get for being a gullible good boy» kind."

I hope you have enjoyed reading this. Please review and share your favorite scenes and thoughts. I loved hearing what you liked best and it's the only reward a fanfic author gets. I like knowing what my readers think and feel. And if you have any questions, I'm over on tumblr to chat!