Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Toei Animation does.
Ch. 28 To Sleep, Perchance To Dream
Tai stared down at the teacup in front of him and had the vaguest thought that something was not quite right. Perhaps it was the mug itself. It was periwinkle blue in color and the handle was formed into a pair of butterfly wings. Tai didn't remember ever drinking out of a mug so extravagant, but tea was tea so he lifted it to his lips anyway for a sip.
Only there was no tea in the teacup.
It was filled to the brim with noodles and the broth tasted saltily of chicken and mirin sauce.
"No, no, you're not supposed to drink it that way," said a voice to his left.
Tai turned his head to see Gennai in his younger form perched precariously on top a stool with his feet tucked under him and both knees upright. Grinning cheekily, he held his own teacup out—it was orange with blue striped and shaped like an egg that had hatched—and demonstrated. With one hand he whipped out a pair of chopsticks and with an elaborate flourish dipped them down into a steaming pot on the top and drew out an unshelled hardboiled egg between them. Then dropping it into his mug with a plop, he began slurping the noodles noisily.
"That's not right," Tai said.
"Really? Do you think it needs more soy sauce?" Gennai asked.
"The eggs are supposed to cook in the broth. You've ruined the moon-viewing," Tai said setting his teacup down. "And you've forgotten the leeks."
"Well, I think I did just fine on my first attempt," Gennai sniffed in his own defense at his cooking. "Considering this recipe is from your own memory."
Oh, Tai thought as he took a second look at his mug and recalled how he used to make tsukimi udon as a child when his mother still forbade him from using the stovetop.
Something still was not quite right though.
"I never owned this teacup," he said staring at the butterfly handle.
"Now you're just being nitpicky," Gennai waved the comment away. "You're the one conjuring all this up. It's your dream, not mine. Well, really, it's both your dreams, I suppose."
A shadow fell over him and Tai looked up to see BlackWarGreymon standing across the table, fierce golden eyes boring a hole straight through Gennai.
"Are you the one he spoke of?" BlackWarGreymon growled, his giant, monochrome frame stiff with a subdued rage. "The ancient one, Plato, who claims any living thing that can think must have surely have a heart; the human who spews out nothing but riddles and deceit."
It should have been funny. Tai should have laughed and told him Gennai's fashion tastes and life advice ran more towards Jedi padawans than ancient Greek philosophers.
Except Gennai was old now again: wrinkled, beady-eyed, and hunched-back, sitting not on a stool but cross-legged on a tatami cushion.
" 'Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song'," Old Gennai hummed as lifted his egg-shaped teacup—now it was black with yellow stripes—and sipped at the broth.
Tai gazed back down at his own teacup, so shiny and blue. "I'll become a happy butterfly and ride on the glittering wind…" a hoarse mumble fell out of his mouth.
There was a presence at Tai's back suddenly, warm and familiar, and then Agumon was pushing his head through the crook of Tai's arm and elbow and curling into his partner's side like a reptilian cat seeking comfort.
"I'll come to see you soon, it's best to forget unnecessary things, there's no more time to be fooling around…" Agumon thrummed, wide green eyes focused intently on the Digimon across from them.
BlackWarGreymon took one shaky step backwards. "Stop this," he bit out, but the anger had vanished from his voice.
"What do you mean, wow wow wow wow wow?" Tai clutched at his throat in alarm as the lyrics to the unwritten song flowed out. "I wonder—" he choked slightly but continued on. "I wonder if we'll reach the skies…"
"STOP," BlackWarGreymon roared, cleaving the table in two with a swipe of his vambraced arm.
Tai's teacup shattered on the ground, the butterfly wings cracked in half amongst pieces of periwinkle shards floating in a spreading puddle of the tsukimi udon.
"Why must you give me this false hope when there is none?" BlackWarGreymon demanded, his tone deep-rooted in agony. "Begone from me, the both of you."
Agumon shook his head sadly. "Those aren't the right words."
"Again! Again!" Gennai crowed, now vibrant and young, standing like an acrobat with one leg on the stool and the other stretched out in the air. He clapped twice and it was as if a rewind button had been pressed.
The table was restored. The butterfly teacup was pristine and whole, steaming hot and full with tsukimi udon.
"I'll bec-come a happ…y b-butter…fly," Tai gasped stumbling over the words as if he were a broken wind-up doll doomed to repeat the same phrase over and over. "And r-ride… the glittering wind… Agu-mon… stop," he pleaded knowing that this strange dream, this bizarre charade was all his partner's doing.
"We have to save him, Tai. We can do it together," Agumon said, his voice filled with a subtle desperation. "We'll come to see you soon…" he crooned soothingly.
Tai blinked and there they were again: glowing, golden spider-like strands filling the air around them. Agumon lifted a claw and Tai watched a tendril reach out towards BlackWarGreymon as if to brush against him reassuringly.
BlackWarGreymon recoiled violently. "Keep your wretched bonds to yourselves," he snarled as he gazed in contempt at the thickly-coiled, golden braid that had looped itself around his waist like a belt. "I will find a way to destroy this, I swear it. I refuse to play captive for your trivial redemption games."
Tai flinched because he felt so very, very cold all of a sudden. It started in his chest and rain down the lengths of his arms until stopped at his wrists where the biting, icy chill dug into his skin with an angry vengeance. He looked down and saw the thick braid had wrapped itself into golden manacles around his wrists. Tai lifted them curiously and nearly fell out of his seat when BlackWarGreymon yanked on them harshly from the other end.
"Does it please you, Digidestined?" BlackWarGreymon scoffed. "Do you think it so noble and heroic to thrust yourself into self-sacrifice and play savior for me? Does it thrill you to toy with another one's destiny?"
"No, I d-didn't…" Tai stammered staring in shock at the manacles and belt that chained them together—at the golden collar that had formed around Agumon's neck. He felt a stab of guilt twist inside him. "I don't…"
"Nobody can escape Destiny," Agumon quoted, touching one claw to his collar with an eerie kind of fondness. "You can't find yours so we'll let you share ours."
In one quick stride, BlackWarGreymon was looming over them both, a black bonfire of smoldering fury. The manacles around Tai's wrists tightened sharply feeling like two frozen bands of ice. He felt it through the braided coil—a surge of suffocating anger and frustration rolled over him as the black fire swelled threatening to swallow him whole in its displeasure. Tai shuddered at the intensity of such dark emotions, at the burning cold licking at his very core, and hissed as his wrists began to go numb.
Then as abruptly as he had felt BlackWarGreymon's radiating ire, he didn't feel anything at all.
Agumon stepped closer to him, resting one claw on his knee as he matched BlackWarGreymon's thunderous gaze with an expression equally as bound and determined.
"No one decides my destiny but me," BlackWarGreymon proclaimed brusquely. "If you dare to impede me, I will drag the both of you down into the void with me." He melted back into encroaching darkness behind him and he was gone, the braided coil having vanished out of sight as well.
"He didn't finish the song," Agumon sighed looking dejected.
"You covet threads that were never meant to be yours," Gennai spoke, old and crooked once again, stirring the chopsticks counter-clockwise around the noodles in his teacup. The color was all distorted—fuzzy and grey like the static on a tv. "You so carelessly cast aside bonds which make up the very foundation of who you are today."
Tai glanced behind him and saw the other strands on the floor: discarded, strewn and tangled, not severed but oh-so fragile and thin… and pale… the bright golden color in them seemed to be ebbing weakly like an out-going tide.
He reached to pick one up, not entirely sure if he could touch it and sucked in a breath as his fingertips made contact. A myriad of emotions swept over him through it: devotion, concern, trust, love. The moment was fleeting, no more than a whisper in his mind, a gentle caress over his skin before the echo faded away and the strand grew dimmer.
Tai felt the tell-tale wetness of tears trickle down his face, knew he was crying but didn't understand why.
For the first time in the dreamscape, Agumon's blinding confidence appeared to waver.
"It's only temporary," the small dinosaur admitted with an edge of remorse. "I had to make room and there were so many it was difficult to unravel… so I just pulled at them…"
The burning coldness was back, burrowing its way through Tai's veins accusingly. The sickening pangs of guilt as he stared at the discarded strands were overwhelming. He brought the hand that held the limp threads to his chest as if he could somehow put them back in.
"These were important," he murmured, small bursts of panic rushing up from within to stir tumultuously alongside the guilt until it churned into dread.
"I can fix it, I promise," Agumon tried to console him seeing his partner's visible distress. "But I had to do it, Tai. We had to do it."
"You never asked me," Tai said, wondering what this bitter prickle in the pit of his stomach meant.
" 'To be sure, I must, and therefore I may assume your silence gives consent'," Old Gennai said a bone-weary expression making the wrinkles on his face deepen. "Was it worth it, do you think?" he issued to the pale glowing threads.
Agumon raised his head proudly and green eyes gleamed with a ferocious conviction. "He was alone and abandoned. He doesn't deserve to become lost."
"To shoulder someone else's destiny is a tiresome burden. Be careful you are not crushed under the weight of it," were Gennai's final warning to Agumon.
The dreamscape was dissolving, breaking into tiny grey specks like ash being carried away by the wind.
"And you, Digidestined, remember well Wizardmon's parting words," Gennai said opening his squinty-eyed gaze to reveal piercing blue eyes.
Blue eyes like Oikawa's had been for that brief second on the roof.
oOo
His tears were frozen on his cheeks when he woke up.
Before Tai even opened his eyes he knew by the biting sting in his skin that he was still outside in the frigid weather surrounded by piles and piles of that damn snow. There was a weight on his chest, some kind of layering draped over him. It didn't help much, the wind blew right through it and he shivered and twisted involuntarily, trying to soak some more warmth out of the crater's soil.
The hard surface beneath him creaked in protest as he turned and the layering on top of him fell away, and Tai found himself slipping off the plastic seats he had been lying across.
Tai gasped as the memories of the last few moments of consciousness came flooding back. He hunched over the side of the seats, someone's coat lying on the concrete floor blurring into focus as he started to breathe heavy and rapidly. Hands slowly eased him upright into a sitting position and someone pressed the top of an opened bottle to his lips.
Tai swallowed and the coldness of the water as it slid down seemed to sharpen his senses.
His friends' concerned faces hovered above him, but Tai pushed away the bottle of water when offered more, swatted aside their questions of if he was feeling alright and cast his eyes around furiously for the one person who he wanted answers from right then.
WarGreymon was standing on the opposite sides of the train tracks in the snow field where the girls had built their snowman. He towered over it, facing the children on the other side, his golden armor gleaming in the bright sun, and returned Tai's gaze, his expression a blank slate.
Tai stood to his feet. His legs wobbled slightly, and he waited a moment to steady himself. However, when he started forward, hands grasped his shoulders holding him in place.
"Tai, wait," Sora said, a nervous edge to her voice. "Maybe you shouldn't—"
"What are you saying?" Tai asked. He thought he sounded relatively calm despite the inner turmoil his emotions were going through. He was exhausted, frustrated and annoyed all at once. There was a bitter, prickly sensation coiled in the pit of his stomach. He knew it would only grow worse if they didn't let him through so WarGreymon could just explain. "He won't hurt me. He's my partner."
The words sounded strange to his ears, ringing with an air of untruthfulness in them. He could still remember that horrible, aching void of nothingness where Agumon should have been for those brief seconds that felt like forever when his partner had unraveled their bond. Unraveled it willingly without a second's hesitation. He could still feel the echoes of shock and anger from BlackWarGreymon when he had realized he had been tied to them, woven seamlessly into their pattern without warning or an invitation.
"No, that's not why—" It was Kari who spoke now, her hands curling into the material of his coat tightly as she bit her lip, cutting off her words, and glanced upwards.
Tai followed her gaze. Angewomon perched on the top of the train-station's roof, wings taunt, and her arms hanging stiffly at her sides, as if she was forcibly restraining herself from lifting them and lashing out at her fellow Digimon. Her helmeted head inclined an inch lower. Tai felt his skin tingle and knew she was looking at him. She said nothing, but Tai could feel her disapproval radiating down along with another emotion he couldn't quite place… worry, fear?
"Let go," Tai said quietly. "If she thought he was truly dangerous, she would have taken greater action by now."
When he felt his friends' hands retreat, he started towards WarGreymon again, the meaning behind the bitter prickly emotion he felt towards his partner dawning on him just then.
Betrayal.
"I will not ask your forgiveness even if you decide to despise me," WarGreymon said. There was no fluctuation of tone in the strong voice, however his sharp, green eyes were overly-bright and his straight posture a bit too tense.
He would be sad, Tai realized, and lonely if I choose to hate him.
For a split second, Tai reveled in the notion that he could hurt WarGreymon as horribly as he had been when their connection had been severed in half. He could simply never speak another word to him again, ignore his existence, and it would have the same effect as those few, terrible moments apart from each other had been. WarGreymon would only have reaped what he had sown.
Tai shuddered as the idea soured into something revolting. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath to calm himself, and reopened them. "I could never hate you," he said staring up at WarGreymon whose face was carefully guarded. "You're my partner."
It didn't feel very different having two partners now. He could vaguely sense BlackWarGreymon on the other end. There was just the barest brush of his existence resonating within him and nothing else. He supposed WarGreymon was shielding him from anything unsavory BlackWarGreymon might be letting through.
He could feel some tension dissipate from WarGreymon at his words.
"You do see, don't you?" Relief was shining in green eyes that gazed down imploringly at him. "We had to save him. It was the only way."
An image of BlackWarGreymon standing proud and tall against the snow, his face shrouded in sorrow flashed through Tai's mind.
"Do you know why I wish to find my destiny? So I can have some purpose, some reason for my existence. Because once I am gone, I am no more and never will be again."
"I understand…" Tai said slowly. "But… there's always another way."
WarGreymon's face hardened again. "We did not have time to find it. Whatever is going to happen is going happen soon. The portals are no longer closing now."
"Is that how you digivolved without me before?" Tai asked.
"Partly."
"Are you going to revert back to Agumon anytime soon?"
WarGreymon stared at him for the space of several long seconds before looking off into the distance. "I do not wish it," he said elusively.
Tai thought he understood however.
Izzy's words resounded in his head from that night after LadyDevimon's attack and Agumon vanishing without a trace.
"Our Digimon respond to our innermost desires…"
WarGreymon probably assumed that Tai would not want him to digivolve back to his Mega form for a good while after this incident.
He would be assuming correctly.
His friends weren't quite as understanding as him when he explained just how his partner continued to maintain a higher level so effortlessly and for so long.
"What do you mean the portals are no longer closing? How can you be sure?" Izzy asked once they had regrouped, albeit Wargreymon was standing a bit aloof-ish to one side and Angewoman was still playing sentry on the train station's roof.
"I just know," WarGreymon said, folding his arms across his chest.
"Do you have a source of information for your claim?" Izzy persisted. "Because if this is true, everyone is in real danger here in the real world. And I'm not just talking about some hair-brained government scheme to send a brigade of Self-DefenseForces through one in a futile and suicidal attempt to wipe out the so-called alien army on the other side. I mean, don't forget, not all portals lead straight to the Digital World…"
Kari and Ken's faces simultaneously drained of color as they visibly flinched and Tai watched as T.K. placed a comforting hand on the small of Kari's back as he looked on at her concerned.
Ah, Tai thought as he recalled the stories the younger kids had shared of their experiences within the ominous world of the Dark Ocean. From their accounts, he didn't think any humans would survive long there, not even Oikawa.
"So what, you're like sapping up energy that's leaking out of those portals?" Davis asked, casting a speculative eye over WarGreymon before turning to his own partner. "So, you didn't really have to de-digivolve last night then, right?"
"Yes, I did, Davis!" DemiVeemon cried hopping up and down excitedly. "If I hadn't you wouldn't have fed me those sweet buns! You allwus feed me lots to 'stock up muscle', 'member?"
"You only did it to stuff your face?!" Davis exploded.
"I get full faster when I'm smaller!" DemiVeemon shouted back, his logic fully sounded in his stomach.
"Minomon?" Ken asked, glancing at his partner.
"I think it was more out of habit than anything else," Minomon admitted, curling and uncurling his twin antennae nervously.
"Patamon?" T.K. voiced out loud. Patamon was clinging to the top of his hat and flapped his ears a few times before answering.
"When I'm Angemon… my thoughts… are different…" the small Digimon seemed to have trouble putting it into words. "I'm not… me… when I'm him…" Patamon's ears drooped low all of a sudden as he spoke the last. "And T.K. is always worried when I'm Angemon for too long…"
T.K. reached up, plucked Patamon off his head, and drew him close to his chest, tucking his chin down over him protectively.
No one said anything for a couple of seconds until Matt turned to Gabumon.
"Yesterday, when BlackWarGreymon threw you into Angewomon… you both de-digivolved though…"
"I had no energy left, Matt. Yesterday wasn't like today!" Gabumon protested.
"So the portals not closing starting happening between yesterday afternoon and last night sometime," Izzy murmured. "Incidentally, when we were also labeled alien sympathizers and terrorists. Interesting…"
"It has the stench of Oikawa all over it!" Yolei declared, her hands on her hips.
"We can't be sure of that yet," Izzy said.
"Did we watch the same interview, Izzy-sempai?" Yolei asked. "Did you not hear Oikawa ramble on and on about portals and how Gennai himself came to tell us that Oikawa wants these two worlds to merge? I bet he figured out a way to do it and the only thing he needed was to get us out of the way!"
Tai felt multiple gazes fall upon him. Distraction, was the word that lingered unspoken in the air.
"I'm saying this doesn't add up," Izzy said frowning. "The portals not closing do not equal the two worlds merging. They only represent holes, dangerous pathways caught in the fabric of reality, that may or may not lead to the Digital World. In the meantime, who knows what will come out of them. If Oikawa's goal is to enter the Digital World, going into one of those blindly is like playing Russian Roulette. He's smarter than that. This isn't his doing. It isn't what he wants. And Gennai came to warn us about BlackWarGreymon not Oikawa."
… it would be wise to stay away from BlackWarGreymon.
"He knew," Matt growled, feeling his hands clench into fists. He looked over at Tai who had been abnormally quiet upon waking up. His friend was standing in a relaxed fashion, hands in pockets, his face a picture of calmness that was a far cry from the screaming, thrashing mess he had been only a short while ago.
His eyes darted over to WarGreymon, whose own posture was a mirror image of his partners'. No longer did he resemble a golden, meditating statue.
"He knew what was about to happen," Matt whispered as his mind gleaned the few tidbits that had been revealed and tried to piece them together.
Gennai's face filled with pity. "What he is doing, no good can come if it… only pain."
Angewomon's furious accusations:
"You should never follow instructions left behind no matter how tempting unless you know the full extent of the side effects and consequences of what your actions will entail—least of all, those left by a Virus!"
The Virus that been in DarkTyrannomon, that had infected Agumon briefly, that had left what appeared to be blueprints behind in his head on how to infect a "host"… and WarGreymon had used that dark knowledge to do what he did… Matt felt nauseous.
"If I had realized what you were doing…" Angewomon spoke, her words directed at WarGreymon, ringing out with a bitter coldness that matched the snow. "You would not be standing as you are right now."
"You would see me destroyed?" WarGreymon asked, sounding more amused than threatened.
The Digidestined tensed as one. They were used to the few fistfights and slap-fests that broke out among them from time to time; however their partners fighting each other to the brink of deletion was not something that came up often. The memory of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon going at it was something each child tried to their hardest to forget.
"No, you are my friend, WarGreymon," Angewomon proclaimed with a passion that left no room for doubt. "And I consider you my ally. However, when you begin placing your own desires above the safety of your partner, you endanger his life and the unity of this entire team. Do not think I cannot or will not strip you down from that form to a lower level that will do less harm." Her wings fluttered in the wind behind her, seeming to expand in size. "You are not the only one who can see the threads."
If the children were confused by her last words, they only had a brief time to wonder about them.
WarGreymon had to have the last say. "You did not see them last night." He sounded smugly superior.
Angewomon flung herself off the roof at him, her wings beginning to emit a rainbow aura that for once did not feel peaceful at all.
"Wizardmon tried to kill Oikawa."
Angewomon landed heavily in front of the children, her breath coming out in short, shallow gasps as her wings trembled behind her. At least the rainbow aura had disappeared.
Tai felt everyone's eyes on him, but it was better this time than before. He had stopped a fight between two of their partners before it got ugly, and effectively steered the subject away from the golden threads he had been so sure he had hallucinated. He felt like he had seen something privy no human should have and didn't want to think on the implications of that. Plus this information was most likely significant in some way. It wasn't like he just wanted to avoid talking about what had been done to him…
"Tai, what—"
"In the hachitama," Tai explained, going over to where the pile of snacks still was and sorting through it. "Wizardmon appeared again. Chanted something about an enemy and tried to blast a hole through Oikawa. I might have warned him to get out of the way, stupid, I'm sorry. I mean, sure, I don't want him dead, but a sizeable wound, that would be great karma."
Tai's hand paused on a plastic-wrapped daifuku. He felt his throat begin to involuntarily close as he remembered how BlackWarGreymon had enjoyed the green tea flavored one. He tossed it aside and rummaged for something else.
"You know for a Digimon who's supposed to be dead, or stuck, or whatever we're calling it, his attack was pretty solid. Anyway, he tried to kill Oikawa. Maybe ghost Digimon have a six sense about who's rotten among the living and who's not."
A shadow fell over him. "That cannot be true," Angewomon's voice shook slightly. "Wizardmon would never take another human's life, not even in death. Even when we were nothing but minions of Myotismon, he knew and appreciated just how precious life is."
Tai opened a package of pretzels and crunched down on one. "There's a blasted out window on the hachitama that says otherwise," he said. "I mean, you probably could argue one of those helicopters did that, but I know what happened. I'm not saying Wizardmon has turned evil, though I did think he might have gone crazy being stuck and all. But now, I think he was trying to warn me Oikawa couldn't be trusted, even though I already knew that."
"If you knew that, why did you let him drag you off to an interview he probably knew was doomed to fail?" Matt demanded.
"I tried to tell everyone our side of what was happening," Tai said, echoing the very words Oikawa had spoken back at the news station and hating once more that the man had been right. "People will have heard, some may have listened. I don't consider that a failure."
An awkward silence was ensured to linger, but Tai did not allow much pause before switching topics abruptly.
"Did you know Oikawa created Arukenimon and Mummymon?" he asked, his eyes flickering up at Ken to watch his expression closely.
Ken's brow furrowed deeper and he blinked twice in a row at this apparently new piece of information. "No, but somehow, that does not surprise me at all." He said, his mouth twisting into a grimace. "Did he tell you that?"
Tai nodded, popping in another pretzel and munching on it. "Not only did he create them, but he claims to have infused their data with human DNA. His DNA to be more specific. So he is indirectly the creator of BlackWarGreymon if you all were wondering why the reason why DarkBroodingmon was out for his blood last night. Oh, and he seems to think killing him is his ultimate destiny."
"We have given him a new one now," WarGreymon proclaimed. The barest hint of affection leaked through the carefully guarded duel bond as the shields dropped for a few brief seconds.
It was enough time for the distant murmur that was BlackWarGreymon to rise up into an overwhelming crescendo.
Disbelief, horror, anger, betrayal, the myriad of emotions crashed over Tai in a furious ice-cold wave.
The bag of pretzels fell from his numb grasp, his hunger diminished. Slowly, he began to feel the odd calmness seep out of him and the faint edges of panic set in as it fully hit him.
WarGreymon had tied all three of them together. Partners were supposed to look out for each other, learn things from each other, trust one another… how could BlackWarGreymon possibly trust that they had his best intentions in store when something like this had been forced upon him?
What about on their own end? It was not so long ago that Agumon could not even digivolve due to Tai's own lack of confidence. It had caused his partner to take drastic measures in order to protect him. They had only just cleared that hurdle of self-doubt and now there was this forced bonding to consider. What if something went wrong… like SkullGreymon. BlackWarGreymon was already a Mega, but he wasn't fully Digimon, no matter what WarGreymon said. What if this bond infected him further? Like some foreign disease entering the bloodstream and caused BlackWarGreymon to mutate into a full Control Spire brain-dead Digimon? It would be their fault then, wouldn't it?
The volatile emotions swirled around inside him like a swarm of angry bees—he could hear the buzzing of their wings match in stride with the mad pounding of blood to his ears, of the fast-paced racing of his heart.
Tai shut his eyes tightly, afraid he would see those glowing, golden threads again…
He stood on the edge of a mountaintop that overlooked a snow-covered valley below, and engulfed in despair and rage, he bellowed wrathfully to the heavens he would have his vengeance one way or another, and the Digital Sovereigns were fools if they believed this false bond would tame him into some meek pet for humans…
Someone was calling his name. It was muffled since he found that he had both hands clapped over his ears. He dropped them quickly. He couldn't feel BlackWarGreymon anymore. There was only the sound of his own heartbeat drumming in his ears now—along with an outraged, feminine voice.
"… can't even shield him properly!"
"It was a mistake. It won't happen again," WarGreymon rumbled coolly.
"No, it will not," Angewomon promised with flourish and pointed one delicately-gloved finger at Tai, the tip of it beginning to gleam with a bright silvery light.
"Do not touch them. They're not yours," WarGreymon growled low in his throat, his black of his pupils narrowing into slits.
Tai wasn't one-hundred percent sure if he was talking about the threads.
"As noble as you think your intentions may be, it is clear you have no idea on how to maintain a duel bond and keep it stable," Angewomon said, half of her lower arm bathed in ethereal, silver light. "I have seen enough Digimon wither away into nothing because of a forced binding. The ones who weren't so lucky, went mad."
She stretched out one glowing hand palm-upward, reaching towards Tai's head.
Twin halves of a golden shield were slammed down in front of Tai, obscuring Angewomon from his sight, and gouging up chunks of cement and snow from the train station's floor at its impact. Tai looked up at his partner who loomed over him protectively, his entire frame racked with suppressed quivers of rage.
"I said. DO. NOT. TOUCH," WarGreymon snarled, his ruff, sticking out from under his helmet bristling upright.
Was it obsession, love? Possessiveness or paranoia? Tai couldn't tell anymore.
Turning his head to the side, he saw his friends' faces caught somewhere between terror and worry. DemiVeemon and Minomon had digivolved into their rookie forms. They stood in front of their own partners looking ready to digivolve further at a moment's notice. Kari held one hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. He could only imagine what Angewomon looked like.
Tai stood to his feet. "That's enough," he said firmly. Ducking under WarGreymon's arm, he walked out from behind the shield and rested a hand on his partner's armor. "Don't cut them," he said speaking directly to Angewomon.
He saw Angewomon's tense shoulders slump in astonishment. "You do not know what the consequences will be from keeping that bond intact. It is not safe," she warned him. She did, however, lower her arm, the silver light emanating from it fading away. Underneath his hand, Tai felt WarGreymon's angry trembles cease.
"No, I don't," Tai admitted. "But let me ask this," he shaded his eyes with one hand glancing up at the sun which hung high in the sky indicating it was around noon. He was sure it had been early morning before he had lost consciousness. "Will cutting them cause the same effects as before?"
"There may be some… discomfort involved," Angewomon divulged reluctantly. Her voice hardened. "But I promise I will take every precaution to make it—"
"Time-consuming?" Tai finished. "I suppose it might be nightfall before it's all over. Half the day's already wasted." He met Ken's gaze; the boy nodded following his line of thought. "Who knows what Oikawa has accomplished by now. Let's not give him an even longer window of time to further act on whatever he's planned."
He saw Angewomon start to protest and cut her off. "I'm fine. I can't even feel him right now," he said. "Can we just leave it alone? It's my decision."
"No, your decision would have been WarGreymon asking you what you wanted first," Angewomon corrected.
Tai felt his partner flinch and pull away from his touch at her words. He didn't look up to see his face. He wasn't sure what sort of expression he would find.
"I understand why he did it," Tai murmured more to himself than anyone else.
WarGreymon hadn't asked first… because he already had known what Tai's answer would have eventually been. Tai didn't know whether to be thrilled or concerned by that fact.
"That still does not make it right," Angewomon said.
"Look, we could argue about this all day. I'm not changing my mind," Tai declared, lifting his chin defiantly. "We'll deal with this double bond thing after we thwart Oikawa's plans—whatever they may be."
He wasn't going to be a hindrance—a distraction—to the team again, not this soon, not ever.
"I understand the urgency of taking down Oikawa," Izzy sounded about as tired and frustrated as Tai felt. "But we cannot just waltz back into Odaiba when I'm certain the police have no doubt blocked all access in or out at the moment, as per standard security measure against all threats, be it alien or terrorism."
"We're not terrorists!" Yolei fumed, blowing twin puffs of hot air through her nose in an angry snort. "And none of our Digimon directly attacked anyone if they bothered to review their source material! We shouldn't be blamed for BlackWarGreymon's actions! Can't they see we were trying to stop him?"
"BlackWarGreymon tried to blow up the tv station multiple times," Cody spoke up, his voice sounding small and tired, but his eyes shining with a bitter vehemence. "He was willing to take out multiple innocent lives just to get to Oikawa. That's an act of cowardice. The police have every right to try and protect people from a monster like him, even if they have to loop us and all other Digimon into the equation!"
Tai dimly remembered Kari telling him awhile back that Cody's father had been a policeman that had died in the line of duty. It was only natural for the boy to see justice's side of the law. However, his point of view appeared to spark an argument between the children. Tai watched them squabble, wave their hands in wild gestures, saw their mouths move, and heard nothing. There was only the faint, distant humming of bees in his ears and a small pain beginning to throb in the back of his head. He wanted very badly to reach up and massage the spot, to kneel down in the snow and rest his head against his knees, but didn't dare. Angewomon had never once shifted her helmeted gaze away from him. She was scrutinizing him closely.
What was she seeing, he wondered. Were the golden strands still there, wrapped around him, visible only to her eyes? He stood perfectly still and imagined he could almost feel them, thin yet strong little threads, growing and spreading, and knotting together, tangling them all up, him, WarGreymon and BlackWarGreymon, binding them so tightly that none of them could breathe…
A hand clapped down heavily on his shoulder and Tai released a surprised exhale of breath that he hadn't even realized he was holding in.
"Sounds good, right?" Matt's voice floated next to his ear.
"What?" Tai blinked at him.
"The plan," Matt said.
"The plan," Tai repeated toneless.
Matt frowned. "You weren't even listening, were you?" He peered closer at Tai's face obviously not liking whatever he found there. "Are you alright?" He bit off a half-laugh, half-curse at his own question before attempting again. "I mean obviously you're not, but do you need to sit down or something?"
Tai started as he realized that he had become yet again the object of everyone's attention. "I'm fine," he said, ignoring the speculative stares. "I just spaced out for a second. What's going on?"
They brought him up to speed. Apparently, Yolei's extended family, second cousins she claimed, owned a small corner store also, although it had been shut down for a year—something about ownership process. There was a basement underneath the shop that the Inoue's sometimes kept overstock supplies. Each family member had a spare key—herself included. It was a good enough location not to be an immediate target by police because it was outside their search perimeter's on the children's families, at least for the time being.
Now they just had to figure out some way to communicate with each other without cell phones or D-Terminals since Oikawa had found a way to hack into the email system of their friend group.
"Okay, hear me out!" Davis grinned. "We use the digivices like walkie-talkies! Don't gimme those looks!" he cried when half the group cast withering glances his direction. "It worked in Fujiyoshida City with our partners. It should work on any person who has a digivice too!"
Ken nodded, tapping his foot in impatience. "Let's try it."
In theory, it sounded valid and their success with it at Fujiyoshida gave them hope it would work again, but when they tested it out their first couple of attempts resulted in failure.
The younger kids tried with their DNA Digivolving partners: nothing. Tai and Matt tried first with each other then with their siblings: nothing. They tried in pairs of three and more: nothing. They tried distancing the digivices, then bringing the range in closer: nothing.
At some point, each of the children had ended up sprawled out over the hillside like an elaborate connect-the-dot game.
"It doesn't make sense. In actuality, there's a good ninety-three percent chance of this working," Tai heard Izzy muse far off to his left.
"Maybe we should all try thinking of a shared memory if we're trying to connect this way," Sora called out.
"I know! I know!" Davis shouted from his location near the train tracks. "Taichi-sempai! Remember that game we played when you first introduced me to Kari? I was the brave knight who had to save the princess but the rules were the Floor Is Lava so when I jumped off the couch to vanquish the dragon, I bashed my head on the dining table and then we all had to rush to the hospital so I could get stitches!"
"Wow, I never heard that story before," T.K. laughed, cocking his head towards Kari. "Princess Kari, huh?"
For the first time since her brother had been abducted, Kari allowed herself the smallest of smiles. "Tai was the princess. I was the dragon."
None of the children were standing close to each other, but the silence of the snow-covered countryside allowed her voice to carry with enough ease that her words rang as clear as a bell.
Tai saw Matt double over as he ugly-cackled no doubt over-exaggerating the scenario in his head.
"I wasn't wearing a nightgown or anything!" Tai felt the need to say in his defense. "Not that there's anything wrong with that. Kari just really wanted to be the dragon."
"I would have saved you, Taichi-sempai, if I hadn't cracked my head open!" Davis swore fiercely.
"I scored seven strikes on you. And cast a sleeping spell on the princess," Kari said, her smile transforming into an impish grin. "You both lost the game."
"DID NOT!" Davis and Tai exclaimed with twin glares.
Their voices resonated in unison out of their digivices.
"It worked! It worked!" Davis was jumping up and down in jubilant glee.
His excitement was contagious. The children tried again, this time concentrating on a clear image of the person they were trying to contact on the other end instead of merely talking into the digivice and waiting for a response. It was almost meditative.
"We're like Jedi," Davis' voice floated out from Tai's digivice as the boy waved wildly at him yards away.
Tai found himself swallowing down a chuckle, feeling the ominous mood from earlier loosen its icy grip slightly.
They got the knack for it after about half an hour which was when they had to decide their next course of action. After looking at the signs posted at the train station, they realized that due to their remote location, the train only crossed here twice a day: once in the morning and once in the afternoon. They had missed the morning one. There was one hour left before the train was due again. The problem was, the children needed to split up into two groups so as not to draw unwanted attention from law enforcement.
"Imperialdramon could take us as close as possible," Ken said issuing to himself and the younger Digidestined, eager to get moving. "He's too fast for the government's radar to detect. By the time they've realized there's an irregular phenomenon in their vicinity, he'll have de-digivolved and be off their charts."
"Then the rest of us could take the train there," Izzy perused. "We'll have to spread out in separate cars so it won't look like we're all traveling together."
"We can scout ahead and see what Oilykawa's been up to! Then we'll meet up with you guys at the storage house later and give a full report." Davis punched his fist into the palm of his hand, positively vibrating in anticipation at the prospect of spying on the man who had kidnapped both his sempai and best friend.
"Then it's settled," Izzy said, relief evident on his face that a plan, no matter how imprecise, was at least in motion.
Kari looked as if she might protest for the barest of moments, before thinking twice and nodded, her jaw square-set and firm. Reaching out, she grabbed Yolei's hand in her own and squeezed it tightly. Yolei's eyes softened behind her glasses as she gave a reassuring squeeze back.
So, his sister had decided the safest and quickest way to keep her brother safe was for them to apprehend Oikawa and foil whatever malevolent schemes he had concocted. Tai wished it were that simple. He knew though, even if they somehow captured the man and got him to confess his true goals, it would not be enough. Not for BlackWarGreymon or for his partner who wished to help him achieve his destiny, no matter what that may entail.
Still, he gave Kari a parting hug and told her not to worry, that he'd see her soon, and tried to appear as calm as he hoped he sounded. He thought Angewomon might have the same mindset as WarGreymon and refuse to de-digivolve, but it seemed she had more faith in her partner than his own did. Kari picked up the small white cat after she had reverted back and held her tight in her arms. Gatomon's eyes were downcast, her tufted ears drooping. She no longer seemed angry, more like disappointed. At WarGreymon for undertaking such a Virus-like tactic? At Tai who had stopped her from undoing what had been done? At herself for not realizing and acting more quickly? She said not a word to either of them as Imperialdramon sucked her and Kari into his beam of light to join the others in the protective shield on his back. Then like a shooting star, they were gone in a blink of eye.
"And now we wait," Joe sighed, taking his glasses off and wiping them meticulously for lack of something better to do.
"You're not coming with us," Tai said to WarGreymon, a statement more than a question. There was no way he could board the train in that massive form.
"What?" It was Mimi who had spoken, but all his friends had the same startled expression on their faces.
"I will come when the need arises," WarGreymon said taking flight.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Gabumon sounded confused and just a little bit angry. "The need is now. Aren't you supposed to protect Tai?" His striped fur ruffled the wrong way like a dog's hackles rising. "All you've done lately is cause him pain! You're being incredibly selfish!"
"Don't speak of what you don't understand," WarGreymon said, eyes narrowing.
"I was trying to understand!" Gabumon shouted, his voice cracking. "But you shut me out! You shut me out and now I can't even feel our connection anymore! So tell me what need is so great that you would willingly put Tai in danger and cut the ties that bound us to something greater?"
WarGreymon had faltered mid-air, Gabumon's words clearly striking a chord in him.
Beads of moisture had gathered at the corners of Gabumon's crimson eyes. "It was me. It was you. It was us together. For so long…" there was grief and loneliness rolling off his tongue so thickly it made Tai's heart ache. "Whatever you've done, whatever it is you're planning to do, I would have shouldered the burden with you if you had only asked it of me. You didn't need to do this alone."
A flash of regret glimmered briefly across WarGreymon's helmeted face, before it was wiped away. He turned his gaze away from Gabumon as if he were too ashamed to look at him. "I will find you," he told Tai. "I'll follow the threads." Then he was a golden streak on the horizon, like a beam of sunlight peaking through the grey clouds until he disappeared into the overcast sky.
Matt had crouched down beside Gabumon and had gathered him into his arms. His partner clung to him like a life-line, tears falling hot and wet onto his fur and soaking through the fabric of Matt's coat.
The Digidestined sat in complete silence in the cold for the next hour waiting for the train.
When it finally arrived, they boarded on separate cars: Izzy and Joe in the first, Sora and Mimi in the second, and Tai and Matt in the last. There was nobody except the two of them in the last car and Tai went to go sit by himself in the first row of seats figuring Matt wouldn't want him anywhere near Gabumon after that exchange.
Matt snatched his wrist up as he passed by and yanked him backwards next to him into a row of seats in middle. Tai waited for his friend to let go, but he never did.
"You've caused me such a headache," Matt grumbled staring out the window at the wintry wonderland rushing by. "More than my own brother ever did. Hope you're satisfied."
Tai wasn't sure if that was an insult or not so he remained silent.
"Gabumon's right though," Matt said finally turning his cool blue-eyed gaze on him. "Friends shouldn't let friends carry burdens alone. If you're thinking about running off and doing something stupid and self-sacrificing, I'll beat the living Hero Complex right out of you."
The tension in his chest eased and Tai had to laugh at that. "I think I'm beyond any help that your punches would have any effect."
Matt didn't laugh. "No one's beyond help. I don't care how trivial or mundane it may seem, if you have a problem, you can tell me. Even if I can't fix it, I can listen. Don't forget, you've always had more than one partner."
The protectiveness was blooming off Matt in gentle wingbeats of bright blue flames, so different from BlackWarGreymon's cold black fire.
Tai blinked and the threads winked into focus: the ones Agumon had discarded and pulled at until they stretched so perilously thin. They circled around him and Matt glowing weakly, looking so ragged and frail that they might snap at the slightest breeze that Tai nearly wept at the sight of them.
"So thin…" he murmured, sorrow heavy in his tone.
"What is?" Matt asked.
Tai cleared his throat. "My c-coat," he managed to say, too devastated to tell Matt the truth. "So thin… c-cold."
Matt scoffed. "Serves you right for buying something that's nothing more than a glorified sports jacket all because it's a knock-off your soccer idol wears. Well, I'm not giving you mine. There's no sense in both of us freezing."
But a second later, Tai felt the warmth of Matt's knitted red scarf around his neck as Matt unwrapped it so it would wound around both of them. The length was abnormally long—he remembered Matt telling him it was a present from his grandmother—so they fit well enough though Tai had to lean his head so that it was resting against Matt's for the scarf not to be too snug.
"Tell Sora or your sister or anyone about this and you're dead," Matt said, the tips of his ears flushed pink and not from the cold.
A moment later, Gabumon had clambered off the seat across from them and crawled up over their knees until he lay across their laps like a splendid, striped throw rug, his fur radiating warmth.
Tai began to doze off, the added heat making him drowsy. Sleep had not yet come to him fully when the threads filtered across his vision again. Perhaps it was his imagination, but he thought they were shining a bit more brightly than before.
To Be Continued…
A/N: I have no words. It's been four years since I updated and ya'll can think quarantine for making me write more. I will just say no matter how long the hiatuses on this fic, I will never abandon this story until it's done. I know where I'm going with this. I just have to drudge through the drudgery to get the parts I actually want to write. I will say my digimuse is back. I think the reboot is helping, although I have been wanting to write Tai angst so bad, it actually spurred me on to finish this chapter.
I hope the weird dream sequence sorta clarified what happened in the last chapter. Anything in quotes was Old Gennai impersonating Plato (because he's DigiYoda and a legit Troll). I listened to Erased Re:Re English version by Caleb Hyles on repeat while writing the majority of this. The lyrics just match so well with WarGreymon and his mindset.
Fun Facts: that story Davis was telling about how he first met Kari, I have written a little bit. It was so long ago when I first started it. If I finish it, I might put it in this fic somewhere or I may post it as a oneshot. It's chibi cuteness either way!
I had already planned for the children to use the digivices to communicate before the reboot made it canon. I'm extremely ecstatic about it!
Also, I've been rewatching Tri and damn, it just drives home what a deep bond Matt and Tai have, and for what WarGreymon did, you know there's going to be vestiges of that echoing through the frayed bond that Gabumon would feel.
Don't worry, things always get worse before they get better! Or something like that.
I thank you for sticking with me for so long. I have enjoyed reading your reviews, especially the ones that tell me they came back to reread the entire thing because they love the story. It gives me such joy that I could write well enough to destroy your souls, ahem, break your emotions into pieces, uhhh, I give you hangover feels from reading, that right? Anyway, if you have a favorite scene you can tell me that in a review if you don't know what else to say. Until, the next update, my lovely readers!
