Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon. Toei Animation does.
Interlude III
"We need to talk," Gatomon said, urgency dire in her tone.
"Fine," Tai agreed. He had been half-expecting her to confront him the night before after his late arrival, but she had kept to herself prowling the far corners of the basement and staying in the shadows. "But we can talk outside."
The dim glow of the flashlight reflected off Gatomon's blue eyes which were shining with a strange sort of sympathy. She nodded and stepped aside. Tai grabbed the door handle and cranked it open as quietly as possible with just enough space for the two of them to squeeze through. They walked up the stairwell and stood in the back alley without a word for several seconds.
Tai took a deep gulp of the chilly air and exhaled slowly, watching the grey puff of expiration dissolve. He lifted his head to the sky, still wrapped in the purple-blue blanket of nighttime, and looked up at the scattered stars and moon, their white-cold radiance partially obscured by drifting clouds. He waited until he felt his head was clear from any cobwebs and his heart had stopped racing so fast before he spoke.
"Were you going to ask about the threads?" he said turning to Gatomon.
He had been expecting her to fill in the missing gaps in his memory with the events that had happened following his black out. Perhaps she might even given him a proper full down ear-chewing of the dangers of a dual bond that she had tried to tell him about before he had refused to hear her out.
What Tai hadn't been expecting was for his arms to suddenly be full of a white cat as Gatomon leapt at him and buried her face into his chest, muffling the sounds of her crying in the process.
"Wha—Gatomon?" Tai asked not sure of how to act, and a tiny bit alarmed. He had never seen Gatomon cry before. His sister's Digimon had always seemed so strong, so confident, hardly daring to ever show any sign of weakness as if she might be punished for it.
Now Gatomon's paws were kneading his shoulders and her tail was curled around his left arm tightly as she curled her body into a small ball in his arms. Her tufted ears were pressed flat against her head as small tremors wracked throughout her. He felt the warmth of her tears as they melted into the material of his shirt and heard her mumbling the same phrase over and over, "'msorrysorrysorrysorrysorry."
Not knowing what else to do, Tai stroked the top of her head as he so often did with Agumon. "Hey, it's ok," he said soothingly, thinking that maybe she was just feeling guilty about not realizing what shady scheme his partner had been weaving until it was too late. "I'll get the hang of this dual bond thing eventually. It's probably not the best route Agumon should have taken, but he really wants to save DarkBroodingmon, and once you get to know the guy a little, he's doesn't continuously think 'kill' and 'destroy' every waking second. He is sentient. He just needs a push in the right direction and me and Agumon can give it to him if we have enough time."
Gatomon shook her head at his words, lifting her face up from his chest to reveal watery blue eyes swimming in shame. "N-No," she cried, her voice quivering so hard, he could barely understand her. "The th-threads-s… what he d-did… to s-save Bla…Bla-a-aaahhhh…" she trailed off at the end as if she might start full out bawling.
"BlackWarGreymon," Tai finished for her quickly.
"Agu—mon… h-has… r-right id-dea… thr-threads bind h-him t-to this pl-plane…" Gatomon finally got out struggling to rein her sobs in. "But the b-bond… so uns-stable… l-like a raw l-lesion… t-things can g-get th-through…"
Tai stiffened as a lingering strand of cobweb filtered across his mind, a fragment of the forgotten dream caught fast.
"Tai, I'm sorry!" Agumon wailed. "I should have noticed sooner! But the threads, they're so tangled—it's my mistake! I won't let him get through to you again, I promise!
The image of the red threads emerging from the computer screen crawled from the darkness to haunt him.
"A human-partner b-bond makes us str-stronger," Gatomon spoke, taking several long breaths to calm down. "When we DNA Digivolve, we are temporarily forming a dual bond with the other Digimon and their partner. For Digimon, our power is amplified. For the humans, they share a deep connection to each other and sometimes can feel the other's emotions."
Tai thought of Davis telling him excitedly when Paildramon had digivolved how he could feel Ken's heartbeat alongside his. He thought about Gabumon crying into Matt's coat over the loss of his and Agumon's near severed connection and how deeply it must hurt. He wondered how much WarGreymon was shielding him from and if it was not only just from BlackWarGreymon.
"It's not s-supposed to be p-permanent… a dual bond," Gatomon explained. "It upsets the balance. The energy flow is pulled into too many directions. Sometimes it stays in one host and just festers until it erupts. It becomes parasitic in its very nature."
There was something drumming away in the back of Tai's head in a struggle to break free ever since the word 'balance' dropped from Gatomon's mouth. He felt like he was standing in front of a locked door and if he could find a way to open it, he would be able to remember an important message. He wanted to tell her stop talking so he could concentrate, but his voice died in his throat at her next words.
"You think I'm angry at Agumon for doing this to you without your consent, for undertaking a digital taboo in the first place," Gatomon said her whole body tense. Her tail uncurled from Tai's arm and began lashing agitated back and forth like a striped whip for a few strokes before it stilled. "I was. I wanted to cast down judgment on him so badly… then you mentioned Wizardmon…"
She raised her head to meet his gaze and the guilt was gleaming anew in her eyes. "And I started to wonder… if I had thought to use that tactic back then… at the hachitama all those years ago… with K-Kari," her voice broke as she spewed out the ugly confession. "Would he have survived?" Her claws were digging into Tai's shoulders deeper than they should have been, but Tai didn't flinch. Tears were flowing down Gatomon's cheeks and dripping off her whiskers as she began sobbing again from an old wound ripped open.
"I understand! I do!" she wailed. "Agumon doesn't want BlackWarGreymon to disappear, to get stuck, so he bound him to you both. I started to doubt myself with these horrible thoughts that I could have done the same with Wizardmon back then. But last night, last night…" she shuddered violently, her eyes going wide and unfocused. "He would have gotten to her, I see that now. The threads… you can't tamper with them and think others won't notice the weak links. A dual bond is both a blessing and curse the amount of power it promises."
Gatomon stared up at Tai and whatever expression he was making seemed to bring her back to her senses. She retracted her claws from his arm and hastily wiped a paw across her face to scrub away the tears. "You hate me now, don't you…" she said her tufted ears drooping low in disappointment at her own self. "I could have cut the threads last night. I should have. But I didn't. It would have been worse off for you if they hadn't come through and kicked him out." A small frown line appeared on her brow. "BlackWarGreymon came first. He was really angry…"
"Gatomon," Tai finally cut her off, his mind feeling bogged down by all this sudden knowledge and revelations. "I don't hate you for thinking that about Kari. We all want to save the people we love and desperate times call for desperate measures. I think I'm beginning to understand the dangers of this dual bond. But I'm completely lost on last night."
Gatomon's ears perked up in shock. "You don't… remember?" she seemed part aghast, part relieved.
"Yeah, are time lapses a side effect of this dual bond gig, because they seem to be occurring more frequently," Tai said bitterly. "You going to explain whatever happened last night or am I going to go back inside and wake up everyone to demand some answers?"
Gatomon bit her lip as she internally debated, and Tai felt a chill go down his neck as he waited, wondering what events had transpired that made both her and Jun so hesitant to share.
"I can tell you," a new voice came suddenly.
Tai and Gatomon jerked their heads up to see Ken standing at the top of the stairwell, his perfectly neutral mask fastened tight across his face.
Tai instinctively took a step back, a twisted panic rising within his chest.
The threads were uncurling from the back of Ken's neck, the same vibrant crimson, reaching over the boy's shoulders towards the video playing on the screen as if answering some unheard call.
"Maybe we should go back inside," Gatomon said, her eyes darting between them in worry.
"They'll just sugarcoat over everything. Is that what you want to hear or the truth?" Ken asked.
Tai set his jaw firmly, tired of being out of the loop and people evading his questions. He nodded, matching Ken's gaze with an unwavering stare. "Tell me."
oOo
Minato District. Odaiba, Tokyo. Japan.
January 2005. The night before…
Not only had Davis' group failed to locate Oikawa, they also had Noriko's ominous message about a meeting place the next day and wishes being granted. Knowing any promises made by Oikawa were most likely true but also understanding that what he offered always came with a price made the children dread what the next day would bring. On top of that, it seemed the older Digidestined had not been as discreet as they were at avoiding run-ins with the law and the news had already labeled their presence at Shimbashi Station as a second terrorist attack by alien sympathizers. Then as if they did not have enough problems on their plate, a new nemesis reared its horned head briefly before disappearing back into a portal, but somehow the children had the ugly feeling they had not seen the last of the creature.
There wasn't much they could do except wait for their sempais to arrive, although their first arrival was a visitor no one could have foreseen. Footsteps coming down the stairs from the top floor above had them all ready to engage fight or flight mode at a moment's notice, but none of them expected Jun to be the intruder.
"What are you doing here?!" Davis cried looking half-elated, half-furious.
"Nice to see you too, brat!" Jun greeted him with a swift punch to his arm as she walked by. "Where is the rest of your hero brigade hiding?"
She showed them the key and the note Momoe Inoue had given her and Yolei had become a little emotional upon reading it, but Ken could tell her tears were out of happiness from the overwhelming support from her family.
Davis had been a little less than enthused about his sister "crashing in on their mission" as he put it, but there was nothing really he could do about it. According to Jun, there had been cop cars turning onto the street as she had closed the front door's entrance behind her and when the others had dared to go up and look, there were at least three spotted outside. Cody had said it didn't seem like they had a search warrant for the building since no police came storming up the steps to bang on the door, but they didn't appear like they were planning to move from their parked positions anytime soon.
The children decided to let their sempais know about the current situation via the digivices and tell them to take the back alley entrance. They managed to get the message to most of them, but when they had tried to get in touch with Tai and Sora to warn them, all they received was a strange static. Again, there was nothing they could do. Slowly, the older Digidestined staggered inside in pairs: Matt and Joe first, then Izzy and Mimi, all of them looking bone-weary and footsore and also a bit surprised when they spotted Jun.
They tried contacting Tai and Sora multiple times as they waited but the signal refused to go through. In the end, there was a slight squabble over whether to go out and look for them and risk being caught by the police or to sit tight and hope that Tai and Sora had enough finesse to avoid being spotted on their way inside.
But the night dragged on, each hour grower later with no sign of them and the children grew more worried each passing minute of what could have happened, visualizing countless scenarios in their heads that ended badly, each one worse than the last.
The result was Matt pacing restlessly back and forth near the door, Jun sulking with her arms crossed as she stood off to one side apart from the group; and Izzy sitting down and disassembling a shiny black handheld device he pulled out of his coat pocket, mulling over each piece individually and typing randomly on his laptop as if searching for information that only he knew what to look for.
Then a knock came pounding on the basement door along with a familiar voice on the other side.
"Matt, let us in! Kari, Davis, someone open the door!"
oOo
"Kill me now," Davis muttered glaring across the circle where his sister and Tai were seated.
Jun was feeding Tai one potato chip at time which he ate between bites of the granola bar he was shoveling down. Ken was pretty sure one time Jun's finger had slipped into his mouth (not an accident he had deduced) and he was also pretty sure Tai might have licked the tip of it (also not an accident) by the way Jun's cheeks colored red. However, she had seemed more pleased than embarrassed since she didn't stop the hand-feeding and by the dopey smile Tai was casting her way, as well as their clasped hands and thighs touching, neither one cared a snitch about public displays of affection. Ken wondered if they were even aware of their audience or if they were stuck in their own little world where only the two of them existed. He couldn't fault them really, not after the day everyone had just had, especially Tai. They deserved a few moments of purposeful bliss.
"Ugggh, so their thing has been going on for more than two weeks now, longer if you count those months before when both of them were hanging out together but totally in denial," Davis grumbled. "The point is this is the longest relationship Jun has ever had. This time she's got Taichi-sempai strung up on her noose and he doesn't seem to even mind. I've tried warning him about her but it's like he's all too happy to have his blood sucked dry. She's got him under her spell. I can see it now. She's gonna graduate, move into her own apartment and next thing you know, they'll be picking out curtains together!"
Davis was his best friend and DNA Digivolving partner. Most of the while, their minds were in sync, but sometimes Ken had trouble following his logic. "I thought you always wanted Tai as your brother?" he said, not understanding the problem.
"I do!" Davis exploded. "But not at the price of seeing him with that demon!"
He might have spoken a little too loudly. Jun looked up at them and smirked at the outrage on her brother's face—before leaning forward and planting two swift kisses on both of Tai's cheeks. Tai gripped her hand more tightly before she could pull back and whispered something in her ear, perhaps another haiku, secret this time for only the two of them to share. The smirk morphed into a soft smile. Jun had a moonstruck, doe-eyed expression as she gazed at him affected by whatever words he had spoken.
Davis shoved an entire candy bar into his mouth to stifle a scream of irritation.
"I think it's sweet," Yolei said on Ken's other side.
"As you being a fellow demon of her kind, I can see why you would agr—"
Davis toppled sideways as Yolei leaned behind Ken's back and gave him a hard shove.
"Why are you always so mean talking about your sister?" she asked.
"She's mean first!" Davis scowled from his position on the floor. "I'm her brother and she hardly acknowledges me at home except to taunt me about 'playing hero missions'. She came here because she was worried about Taichi-sempai not me!"
But Ken remembered how Jun's face had brightened when she had come down the stairs to see Davis standing at the bottom of it. How it was only after Davis had demanded in an angry tone to know what she was doing there that she had punched him in response and resumed her haughty attitude.
One Christmas, Ken's parents had bought his brother a skateboard. Ken had begged to play with it, but Sam refused saying it wasn't a toy for babies. Ken thought he was being selfish and didn't want to share, so he snuck into Sam's room one day and fished the skateboard out of his closet to test try it out. The end result was him smashing nose-first into the pavement outside the apartment complex and bleeding all over his shirt. Sam had come home early that day to find him and was furious. Not that he had stolen his skateboard without his permission, but because he had injured himself, the very reason why Sam hadn't wanted him to play with it in the first place it turned out.
"You should appreciate your sister more," Ken said as he helped Davis sit upright. "Sometimes siblings can sound cross and say mean things to spite you, but it's only because they care about you. She probably hasn't figured out the right way to let you know yet."
Davis folded his arms across his chest and snorted a "hmmph!" but he stopped complaining at least for awhile.
The night wore on as the two groups shared their experiences and information they had gathered. As far as Ken could tell, the only positive thing about the entire day was that the younger kids had not been chased through the streets by police.
Then the incident with the laptop happened and the night went straight from mediocre bad to nightmare from hell.
Tai opened his mouth to share the message that it seemed only he had heard.
"Ken Ichijouji, you will give back what is rightfully mine."
It was an odd thing for Tai to say, but even more so was the intonation in his voice: older, deeper, with just a lilt of an accent. The words sent shivers down the back of Ken's neck at the very sound of them.
"Tai?" Jun said looking confused, reaching out her hand.
"Stop!" Gatomon came bounding from the shadows of the basement where she had been lurking for the last hour, skidding to halt on all four paws a few feet from him, fur bristling and her tail arched in a defensive manner. "That's not Tai! Stay away!" she cried rearing on two legs and elongating her claws in front of her into an attack position.
"What?"
That was Kari, her face twisting in shock. She took one step forward, but T.K. put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
"Ken Ichijouji," Tai, or rather Not-Tai, repeated in that same low and eerie voice that was simply wrong. He lifted his head to reveal the whites of his eyes had turned black. His irises were not their usual brown, but pupil-less golden orbs that seemed horribly ancient: full of hidden knowledge buried in their golden depths, yet they burned with such a sharp cruelness that froze Ken in place with the intensity of their stare. "There is a Dark Spore in your body that I have a claim to. You've foolishly thrust aside its benefits and negated its power. It lies dormant and useless. All that untapped potential wasted on a wretched human like you." Malice gleamed in the golden reflection. "You will hand it over to someone who can utilize it properly."
Ken's voice was stuck in his throat. He was finding it difficult to breathe. All he found he could do was to lift one shaky hand and place it over the back of his neck as if that could somehow prevent this unknown tormentor from ripping the Dark Spore free.
Fortunately, Davis had stored up enough repressed fury this night to put words in Ken's shut mouth. "That thing was driving Ken insane!" he spat throwing an arm out in front of him protectively. "Anything you want to use it for has got to be pure evil! We'll find a way to get rid of it for good one day but he's sure as hell not gonna hand it over to you! And get the fuck out of Taichi-sempai!" he yelled for good measure lurching forward like he was going to body slam whatever was possessing Tai. Ken snapped back to his senses fast enough to grab the back of his friend's shirt to hold him securely in place even as he tugged and raged at him to let go.
Ken's mind was whirling fast, calculating and making connections. "Are you Daemon?" he asked carefully.
There was a collective gasp around the circle. Izzy looked horrified and guilty at the same time as he clutched the laptop to his chest, understanding that the creature in the video was somehow present with them and using Tai as a medium.
"That is one name of many that I go by," Daemon said with Tai's voice, in a cadence that was too drawling, too disdainful for Tai to ever use. "As I am currently inconvenienced, only my psyche is able to enter your realm at this time. No matter, I can still absorb the Dark Spore in this crude form. Hand it over," he demanded, stretching a hand towards him.
Wormmon darted out in front, joining Davis to shield Ken from Daemon's reach. "Bug off!" he snapped, his twin antennae curling back in aggression. "You leave Ken alone!"
Ken swallowed hard as he realized with a sickening feeling in his gut that the answer to his problems was standing physically only a few feet away and although, ideally, he would have liked to have found a safer solution, he was out of time if he wanted to save those other children.
Sometimes, you had no other choice but to make a deal with a devil.
"You obviously know more about the Dark Spore than any of us even me," Ken said. "Do you know how to save those kids who have copies of it implanted in them?" He took a deep breath before continuing. "You can have it if you tell me a way to extract the copies from them."
"Ken, no!" Wormmon cried in dismay.
"Yeah, anything this creep says is gonna be a lie!" Davis yelled, pulling free of Ken's hold on him to turn around to face him. "I know you're worried but we can't trust the bad guy—it's common sense!"
"The Holy One knows I speak the truth," Daemon said casting a burning golden gaze down upon Gatomon before focusing on Ken again. "Abandon any hopes on saving them. They're not long for this world… and neither is this one." He spread Tai's hands wide palms outward. "His threads are so frayed—they were all too easy to manipulate." The pupil-less orbs narrowed into tiny beads of gold. "Return what is owed to me and I'll tell you how to put them out of their misery before they are consumed by darkness."
Gatomon's eyes were wide and stricken-looking. Her bared claws lowered in disbelief. "He's… not lying…" she said, her voice breaking slightly.
There was an eruption of noise: voices shouting, rising in volume, each person trying to be heard over the other, some demanding further explanation, some trying to get others to calm down, some just screaming angry curses and threats. Daemon stood silent and still through the tirade, his gaze never faltering from Ken, waiting, just waiting.
Ken straightened his shoulders as he stared at monster across from him wearing Tai's skin, and squared his jaw as he made his decision. He started forward, pushing Wormmon and Davis aside and Daemon reached a hand towards him, carving the most unsettling and satisfied smile upon Tai's face.
"No, you don't!" Davis exclaimed, throwing both arms around him in a crushing body lock. "Maybe you think sacrificing yourself for the greater good is all noble and repenting, but it doesn't change the fact that you're giving the villain an immunity booster! You give him the Dark Spore and we're dooming those kids and the entire world in the long run anyway! Listen, Ken, there's always another option and we'll find it! Together! Because we're a team!"
Ken stopped in his tracks, the words piecing through the veil that Daemon had cast straight to his heart. He wanted to believe those words so desperately. He had been alone for so long sometimes he forgot there were others to lean on for support, others who readily offered their friendship and who wanted nothing in return except for his mutual affection and trust.
"We can beat him, Ken," Davis said, relaxing his grip slightly. "Just not this way, ok."
"Ken," Wormmon said clinging to his leg and looking up at him with desperate blue eyes. "Don't go to him, Ken. Don't leave…"
The "me" was left unspoken, but Ken could still hear it, saw the dread and sadness clouding his partner's face, the same as when he had been the Digimon Emperor and ignoring him to pursue darker paths. A lump swelled his throat as he hesitated.
Matt was there suddenly by Tai's side, grabbing him by the arm before Gatomon or anyone could stop him. "Dammit Tai!" He shouted angrily in a vain attempt to reach through to his friend. "Don't just let him do whatever he wants! Fight back!"
The blank stare of those golden orbs did not waver. Daemon did not even bother turning his head to look at the human as Tai's hand snaked around Matt's wrist. "It's the law of monsters," he said with Tai's voice, flat and emotionless. "The weak will be destroyed."
A horrible cracking sound split the air alongside Matt's scream of pain as he was thrown backwards as Daemon released him with all the bored grace of swatting aside an annoying bug. Matt landed roughly on his side, rolling a few times on the concrete floor with the force of the momentum, clutching his arm and moaning in agony.
Sora called out his name in panic rushing over to where he had fallen and kneeling down beside him. T.K. cried his brother's name as well, but remained where he stood, keeping a firm hold on Kari, as if he were too frightened by the idea of what she might do if he let go. A pitiful little sob escaped her lips as shivers shook her whole body. She stood frozen in place looking hopelessly lost as she stared at the creature possessing her brother. In fact, none of the children moved, still shocked and uncertain of what to do.
Their partners weren't so hesitant.
The Digimon surrounded Daemon, ringing him in a tight circle. Gabumon edged a few inches outside of their ranks, his fur bristling with rage, low snarls spilling from his throat.
"Oh, don't attack!" Jun cried, wringing her hands helplessly. "You'll hurt Tai!"
She needn't have warned them. The Digimon all had sense enough to understand there was physically no way to attack Daemon outright as long as he was cocooned safely away in Tai's body. Their entrapment of him was only to ensure he didn't harm any more of the children. Jun hadn't been part of their group long enough to recognize a battle tactic, but they had no time to explain it to her.
Gatomon stepped forward, the other Digimon closing the empty space between them quickly. "Keep that laptop open," she told Izzy, keeping her eyes fixed on Daemon. "I'm gonna knock this megalomaniac straight back into his own corporeal form on the other side." Her tail-ring started to glow with an ethereal white light.
"Careful you don't damage the threads. I might pull the human's consciousness along with me," Daemon cautioned her in a dangerously serious tone. One corner of Tai's mouth curved upward ever so slightly as he saw he had struck a nerve when the light dimmed around Gatomon's tail-ring. "I'm grateful for whoever is responsible for the utter mess his threads have become. It wouldn't take too much of an effort to shred them into tiny pieces."
"Threads," Izzy said curiosity and frustration bubbling over his tongue. "That word keeps coming back up. What is its significance?" he asked Gatomon, but she only shook her head and refused to clarify.
"Keeping your pet humans in the dark is what sealed this one's fate," Daemon said, raising Tai's hand to his chest. "Go ahead. Send me back. I'll drag this one with me and devour him as an appetizer before I return for the main course." Golden orbs glittered hungrily at Ken across the ringed circle.
The tension in the basement lay thick and heavy, like a thundercloud waiting to split open and rain down a storm.
Then suddenly Tai's body gave a violent jerk as if it had been struck by an invisible lightning bolt. His spine snapped ramrod straight and his arms dropped stiffly to his side. He opened his mouth and it wasn't Daemon's drawling accent speaking through Tai's vocal cords like before. It was both Tai's voice combined with another, reminiscent of when their partners voices echoed together in the DNA digivolving process.
"You can't have this one. This one is OURS. Get out."
A startled expression flashed briefly on Tai's face before wrinkling into one of irritation as Daemon addressed the unseen entity in a mocking tone. "The False One speaks. You're not real, not even a viable threat."
Tai's head dropped abruptly so that his bangs covered his eyes. His shoulders sagged limply for a second before giving a wrenching back sharply. When he lifted his face up finally, his eyes were not his own, but they weren't Daemon's pupil-less gold either. His right eye was still golden in color but the black sclera surrounding it had faded to white. His left eye was a brilliant green hue and together the pair gleamed with a ferocious, vengeful passion. A third voice joined in, the underlying tenor resounding with an enraged protectiveness.
"Does this feel real to you?!"
The digivice clipped to Tai's belt began to blaze a radiant orange. There was an odd pressure in the air—it doubled over and over—until it felt like a heavy blanket was smothering everyone. A powerful, concealed energy fizzled throughout the basement.
Tai's features transformed into pure fury as his body was wrenched backward then forward like a marionette doll being yanked in two different directions at once by invisible strings. It was disturbing and unnatural to watch.
"You think you can save this pathetic human with your charade of a bond?" Daemon scoffed. "His unraveled threads were what made it so easy to latch onto. It's only a matter of time before he's lost in the web of his own demise. I should end his suffering for you both before that."
Gold and green eyes flashed in a fearsome, blinding anger at the threat.
"You will not touch him again. GET OUT!"
Great, heaving shudders began to shake throughout Tai's body as he bent over in the middle, his eyes snapping shut as his face twisted into a grimace.
"Izzy, now!" Gatomon cried, seizing the moment of weakness, her tail-ring illuminating the basement with the celestial light it cast out.
Izzy held out the laptop, his expression grim but resolute. The screen began to glow, reflecting the same silvery-white radiance.
Daemon didn't put up much a fight in the end, which was perturbing in itself. "You are only delaying the inevitable. Foolish humans," he said, the soft, velvet laughter flowing from Tai's throat bounced eerily around the four corners of the basement. "I will return to collect what is owed to me," was parting vow.
The children didn't see anything disappear into the computer, but both the light from the screen and Gatomon's tail-ring dimmed and faded, and somehow the air felt less volatile, more easier to breathe.
Tai slumped bonelessly to his knees where he stood and would have planted face-first into the concrete floor if Jun hadn't rushed forward to catch him, shoving through the Digimon who still surrounded him, her own legs caving beneath her under the weight of him.
"Oh, oh!" was all Jun managed to say, her breath coming in short, shallow pants as the adrenalin coursed through her. She looked up as the others drew near, her eyes wide and glassy in shock. "I d-don't kn—what—h-help him, please."
Tai stirred faintly in her arms, the quietest of moans escaping his lips. He raised his head ever so slightly and Jun's hands trembled as they swept back Tai's bangs from his forehead, trying to see his eyes but they were half-lidded and unfocused.
He threw up all over her sweater a moment later then promptly passed out.
To her tenacity, Jun didn't let go of her hold on him. She tilted his head up and to the side so he wouldn't choke on any of it, dabbing the sleeve of her ruined sweater to wipe away the traces of saliva and sick that trailed from his mouth.
Joe knelt down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and asking in quiet voice if she was alright.
"I'm fine," Jun snapped in an odd, nasally voice as if she were suppressing tears. "Him. Help Tai not me."
Joe gently cracked open one of Tai's eyelids, revealing his normal brown iris. More than one person breathed a sigh of relief at the sight. He shone a miniature flashlight directly into the pupil which dilated to the size of pin-pint in response.
"He's good," Joe proclaimed letting the eyelid drop back shut. "He probably lost consciousness due to being mentally fatigued by… that. The throwing up was the body's involuntary reaction to the stress."
There was a long pause where the children tried to process the past few unpredictable minutes. In all their joking about demon summoning, they certainly hadn't expected for the night to turn out like this.
"Joe," Sora called from Matt's side sounding distressed.
The Doctor Mode mask slid across Joe's face as he got up and walked over to where Matt was sitting, clutching his arm to his chest. His face was pale, almost ashen grey with pain. He did his best to refrain from crying out when Joe tenderly poke and prodded at his swollen wrist, but a few tiny "A-ah's" slipped out despite his effort.
Joe sighed as he withdrew his fingers. "It's fractured at the best and broken at the worst. You'll have to—"
"I'm not going anywhere!"
"Matt!" Sora chided.
"No, not when we're this close to putting an end to all this! I'm not leaving you guys and I'm not leaving Tai!"
His eyes darted over to where Tai lay limp and unconscious in Jun's arms. Mimi and Yolei had seated themselves on either side of her and were busily dabbing at Jun's sweater with damp toilets, trying to clean most of the sick off.
"You need medical attention," Joe said. "He'll understand—"
"He'll understand and won't blame himself for busting my arm while possessed by Digital World Satan?!" Matt exclaimed furiously. "The same guy who let Oikawa prey on his Foolish Hero Complex and drag him on tv only to dredge up forgotten memories and now people think Digimon are aliens who wiped our brains? The same guy who doesn't think it's wrong that his own partner forced him into a dual bond without asking him first, which by the way—how did that creep phrase it—'unraveled threads'?"
Angry blue eyes fell upon Gatomon who had been silent ever since she had pushed Daemon out of the real world for the moment. "I have no idea what these threads are that you and WarGreymon and Daemon all seem to be so knowledgeable about, but you need to come clean concerning them! This can't happen again!" Matt roared pointing at Tai. "This won't happen again! He's suffered enough!"
Gatomon opened her mouth exposing two tiny canines. A strange, foreign sound rumbled in the back of her throat. It might have been the start of a hiss; surely it wasn't a stifled wail. She turned and bolted up the basement staircase to the top floor without a further word, escaping any explanation.
Kari called her name but made no move to go after her. She looked tired and upset as she stood over her brother at a loss at what to do. Finally stooped down next to him and Jun and placed the palm of her hand on his forehead. "He's burning up," she said.
Joe whisked his glasses off to pinch the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. "Of course," he said. Shoving his glasses back on, he rummaged in his bag and pulled out an orange, cylindrical bottle. He peered at the white labeling, apparently finding what he was looking for. Popping the cap open, he shook out two white capsule pills and handed them to Matt.
"Take one now and the other in the morning," Joe instructed.
"What are they?" Matt asked, examining them. "Did you get these from your internship? They just hand you drugs like that?"
"Since you refuse to take my advice and go to a hospital, I don't have to tell you a thing other than if you want the pain and swelling to go down, you swallow them," Joe avoiding the question smoothly. "And try not to move that wrist too much. If it's broken, the bone will have to be reset properly. It'll be hard playing a guitar with an ill-aligned hand."
Matt didn't need any further encouragement and downed one of the pills dry. He let his injured arm drop to his lap, clutching it lightly with his other hand. An expression of worry reserved solely for himself for once was spreading slowly across his face.
Joe went back to Tai's side and dug into his bag once again. He pulled out a normal, over-the-counter acetaminophen pill and water bottle. Seizing Tai's chin in his hand, he pulled his slack jaw open enough to place the pill on the tip of his tongue. Then he tilted his head back and carefully poured a few drops of water into his mouth, telling Kari to stroke the skin around his throat gently which she did. Tai swallowed the pill out of involuntary muscle movement.
"There. That should bring the fever down," Joe said. He placed the water bottle and miniature flashlight in front of Jun. "He probably won't wake up for a couple of hours, maybe not until the morning. But if he does, check his eyes first. Make sure they're… his."
Jun nodded but made no move to pick them up, her arms still wrapped securely around Tai.
"That was incredible, Joe-sempai!" Yolei breathed, admiration shining on her face.
Joe was not flustered at all by the praise. "I'm training to be a doctor. We help people, save them if we can." A glimpse of sorrow flared in his eyes before it was obscured by his glasses glinting. "If I can't even help my friends, then what use am I at all?"
The children settled in for the night, making do with what little they had. Some used their coats for pillows, others spread them across their chests like blankets huddling together for warmth. Sora had strung up Matt's scarf around his neck and arm in a makeshift sling to make it easier for him not to accidentally jostle his injury. He dozed fitfully now, his head resting on her shoulder as she stroked the top of his head. Gabumon and Biyomon nestled on either side of their partners like two faithful watch-digimon.
Jun had sequestered herself and Tai into one of the far corners of the basement, her head in her lap as she hunched protectively over him, wearing the pale yellow sweater Sora had given her from her top layer of clothing.
Kari had gone upstairs to look for Gatomon but returned without her. She sat down next to Yolei who swung a comforting arm around her. T.K. and Cody sat beside them conversing in hushed voices, their partners slumbering in a cozy dog-pile of claws and feathers. They couldn't turn the lights on upstairs to search for her without notifying the next-door residents or any more patrolling cop cars that the residence was unlawfully occupied. Gatomon hadn't seemed to want to elaborate much on the mysterious threads anyway, so again, it looked like the night had brought nothing but setback after setback. They could only hope the morning came with answers to their questions.
They had flicked the basement's lights off as well hoping the darkness would allow them a better chance at sleep. They needed their rest for tomorrow if they planned to stop Oikawa. The only luminescence emitted was the glow from Izzy's laptop and the clickety-clack sounds of the keyboard as he typed frantically consumed by some task he had yet to reveal to anyone. But eventually, he too was overwhelmed by his body's exhaustion, and closed his laptop with a sigh, lying back between Mimi and Joe who had already been consumed by sleep, their Digimon stretched out alongside them.
Ken sat next to Davis against the wall, Wormmon curled up in his arms. It felt nice to have company in the darkness, good to have the warmth of body pressing against his side making him aware he wasn't alone in this anymore. It wasn't just him on his own personal quest down a path of redemption for his past evil deeds. He was part of something greater, just a piece of a larger puzzle that had yet to reveal the full picture. The guilt he felt for his past mistakes often made him forget.
Davis didn't ask him how he was feeling or if he blamed himself for indirectly being the catalyst that had caused Daemon to use Tai as a host. He simply slid his hand into Ken's and squeezed tightly, swearing a solemn promise out loud to the darkness.
"Tomorrow, we're going to save the world."
To Be Continued…
A/N: Ye gods, this chapter just dragged on and on! And when all you're writing is angst with little to no humor, it just sorta weighs on you. Don't worry, the next chapter won't be as heavy as this one. Kinda surprised no one sorta guessed what the red threads were doing the last chapter, but then I haven't really made it clear. I know there's more questions that have yet to be answered. I'll leave that job to Izzy and Gatomon next time.
So now that everybody knows what happened when Tai blacked out, you can go back and reread the last dream sequence with new eyes, muwahaha!
P.S. Daemon's "The weak will be destroyed" line totally from V-Tamers manga. I just couldn't resist mate, not when he was the one who said it.
You can speculate and leave your own theory in a review! Or tell me your favorite scene if you don't know what else to say. Until, the next update, my lovely readers!
Now THAT SCENE with fanart! Link in profile. Go see!
