Chapter 10: Death Returns

"I don't know what's happening. That's up to the dark crest now," Will said.

"Dark crest?" Izzy questioned.

"My crest is the crest of darkness," Will said. We all stared at him, except for Kari, who apparently knew already. But our surprise was only amplified when both Kari and I began to glow, Kari a shining pinkish light and me a bright white light. The glow grew brighter and brighter until it shot out of us up at the egg. In the shapes of two arrows, the beams of light collided with the egg, and flew into it. We were all transfixed on the egg, wondering what would come out of it. Then a beam of black light shot out of it, creating a crack, and then another, and another. Slowly, the giant egg began to hatch above our heads.

In a blast of black energy, the egg was shattered, and a digimon fell to the ground amid us, landing softly on his feet. His all too familiar dress gave away instantly who he was, and his laugh only confirmed our worst fears.

"It's so nice to see you all again," Myotismon cackled.

"How, but we defeated you?" I said, still half unable to believe what was happening.

"My crest revived him," Will said, almost in agony. "It reacted to the light and hope crests to recreate an evil from the past."

"In that case I must thank you, child," Myotismon sneered. "You will die last!"

"You wish!" Drakemon yelled.

Drakemon digivolve to…..:Hydramon!

It wasn't as big as Skullhydramon, but it did still have five heads, mounted on long necks, all of which resembled Drakemon's head, including the protruding fangs.

"Soul Fang!" Hydramon's five heads screeched as each of them launched a blast of energy at Myotismon. He cast the attack off with ease.

"Crimson Lightning!" He yelled as he blasted Hydramon hard.

"Patamon help him!" I called out as I managed to pull myself together.

Patamon digivolve to…..:Angemon!

"Hand of Fate!" Angemon yelled as he attacked Myotismon. He had much more trouble dealing with Angemon's attack, which was very strong against evil digimon. But he was still an ultimate, and much stronger than two champions.

"Grisly Wing!" Myotismon's attack launched hundreds of bats at our digimon.

Hawkmon armor digivolve to…..:Hawsemon!

Armadillamon armor digivolve to…..:Digmon!

I looked over to see that Cody and Yolei's digimon had also digivolved, and were now attacking Myotismon. But none of them could match his power. His Crimson Lightning took out each of our digimon in turn, until only Angemon was left to protect us.

"Ah, you all seem so weak without your crests. It almost wasn't any fun to destroy you all," Myotismon laughed.

"You haven't won yet! I'm still here," Angemon declared. He called down to me, "TK, you and the other must escape. I'll hold him off!"

"Angemon, you can't beat him," I yelled.

"But I can save you, and that is what I must do!" He called back, and turned to face Myotismon. Myotismon prepared an attack, and Angemon braced himself.

"Everybody, we've got to get out of here!" Izzy called out. We all turned to run, until we heard a loud roar.

"Nova Blast!" A massive fireball erupted from the trees behind Myotismon and hit him square in the back. Garurumon then leapt out and tackled him to the ground. He quickly recovered and knocked Garurumon away as Greymon emerged from the forest, along with Tai, Matt, Davis, Ken, and Gatomon. Then we heard another loud voice coming from the trees.

"Let's see if you have any fun fighting me!" Paildramon yelled as he rose out of the trees. "Desperado Blaster!"

Myotismon was forced to focus all of his strength on blocking the attack. Then Greymon, Garurumon, and Angemon all attacked at once. Myotismon apparently knew that he couldn't take them all on, because when the dust cleared, he had vanished. We all knew better than to hope he was dead.

"Kari, are you okay?" Tai called out as they ran over to us.

"Yeah, Tai, we're alright. Thanks for coming though," Kari said.

"It's a good thing you got here when you did," Izzy started. "I'm not sure how much longer we could have lasted. Did you two talk to Mi, er . . ." Izzy cut himself off, remembering that Will was there.

"Yeah, we did," Matt said, "and we learned some really weird stuff. I think we should all go back to the real world for now though. We can talk about it there."

"Good idea Matt. I think everybody could use a rest," Izzy said. Everyone agreed.

Almost everyone was silent as we walked to the nearest digiport. Almost everyone.

"So what exactly happened?" Davis asked Matt.

"We'll explain later, Davis," Matt replied tersely.

"But who did you guys talk to?" Davis persisted.

"We'll explain later, Davis," Matt said more slowly and deliberately.

"But if you guys . . ."

"DAVIS WILL YOU KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!" Matt yelled at him. "I said we would explain when we got back to the real world, and we will."

It was quite an explanation that Matt and Tai had for us. Most of us were still trying to comprehend that Will had a crest of darkness. The fact that it went berserk in the presence of certain other crests was almost too much to believe, but we had all seen it happen. After the description of their conversation with Michael, Matt and Tai had some questions for Will.

"Why didn't you just tell us what the problem was?" Tai asked. We were sitting in the school's computer lab with the door locked shut. All of our digimon were there as well, with the exception of Tentomon, because Tai felt that with Myotismon back they couldn't separate.

"I, I guess I didn't think it was a problem. I didn't know their crests, and once I found out, I tried to get away, but,"

"Why couldn't you just tell us?" Matt demanded. "Then none of this would have happened."

"I . . . couldn't. I was," Will seemed almost lost in his own head, on the verge of tears. "I was afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Tai asked.

"I don't know! I was just afraid!"

"Tai, Matt, stop it!" Kari yelled suddenly. "It's just as much my fault. Will tried to protect us by leaving, and I dragged him back to the digital world."

Everyone stared at Kari for a few seconds, before Tai said, "Still, if he would have explained his crest to us, that wouldn't have happened either. Now we've got a huge problem on our hands. Myotismon is a very powerful digimon, and even though we fought him off today, he wasn't at full strength. Now we've got to think of a new way to fight him off, because we used our crests to try to shield the digital world, so we don't have them in us as much now. We don't have the kind of firepower that we used to."

"I'll help," Will said. "I have my crest still," he said as he pulled the tag and crest out of his shirt. "I caused this problem for you all; I have to help fix it."

"Well that's very noble of you, but you could have just not caused the problem in the first place," Matt said.

"Will you guys stop being so hard on him?" Kari said again. "This was beyond any of our control, even his."

"But won't the crest react again if he goes back to the digital world?" Ken asked.

"Michael told us that it will react again, but not as severely. If we can defeat Myotismon, any future problems won't be difficult," Tai explained.

"I feel that the best course of action is for everyone to go home and get some rest," Izzy began. "Once we've all slept and collected our thoughts, we meet in the park tomorrow to discuss our plan of action."

"That sounds like a good idea Izzy," Ken agreed. "It's hard to think when we're all wound up like this."

"Alright, that's what we'll do," Tai said. "I'll call Joe and Sora and explain the situation. Izzy, see if you can track down Tentomon, Gomamon, and Biyomon and relay the message to them."

"Good idea Tai. I'll get started as soon as I get home," Izzy said. He stood up and walked out the door. Ken followed, with Minimon in his back pack. Matt left too, with Gobumon draped over his shoulder pretending to be a carnival prize. Agumon followed suit as Tai left. We said goodbye to Cody, and then Yolei, and they left as well.

"C'mon Patamon, let's split," I said. "Kari, do you want me to walk you home?"

"No, you go ahead TK. I want to talk to Will," she said quietly, glancing at the boy who was now staring out the window on the other side of the room. In the quiet, I could hear him mumbling something.

"Shark, where are you, buddy?" he whined quietly, thinking that we couldn't hear him.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I whispered.

"He needs somebody, TK. Tai and Matt were too hard on him. I'll only stay a few minutes." She said.

"Alright, bye," I said. She echoed my words, and I walked away, down the hall, down the stairs, and out of the school. I stopped for a moment, and stared up at the sky. The vision of the digital world floating upside down in it was still all too vivid of a memory.

Say your prayers little one, Don't forget, my son, To include everyone
Tuck you in, warm within, Keep you free from sin, Till the sandman he comes

Sleep with one eye open, Gripping your pillow tight

Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
Off to never never land

Something's wrong, shut the light, Heavy thoughts tonight, And they aren't of snow white
Dreams of war, dreams of liars, Dreams of dragons fire, And of things that will bite

Sleep with one eye open, Gripping your pillow tight

Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
Off to never never land

Now I lay me down to sleep, pray the lord my soul to keep
If I die before I wake, pray the lord my soul to take

Hush little baby, don't say a word, And never mind that noise you heard
Its just the beast under your bed, In your closet, in your head

Exit light
Enter night
Grain of sand

Exit light
Enter night
Take my hand
We're off to never never land