Words: 4,125

Notes: ... the end found itself, I guess u.u I still have another short epilogue thingy (the true ending), which I can post soon, but still... this story that was never meant to go anywhere ended up being my longest FINISHED story to date ^^ I think I'll miss it~

*

The Final Battle

He had very little of his mind left, all of it concentrating on keeping his fingers curled around the shadow-creature's freezing arms. He had no thoughts in his head other than the need to protect his friends. He didn't even know what was going on in the world around him, dream or reality. All Tai really knew was the pain; if his pain stopped, it meant he had let go of the shadow and his friends would be in danger. So he never let the pain stop. Well... that was the plan, anyway.

The reality around him—or at least the shadow's perception of it—showed his body fall as the creature returned to Tai's dreamscape, anger nearly tangible around it. Tai wasn't aware of this new development, though, because all of his attention remained on maintaining his deadly grip.

~You are a great nuisance!~ a voice tried to tell him, though he hadn't listened. The shadow seethed as it tried to pry Tai off. ~I will kill you! And then every one of your friends!~ If he had been capable of understanding the words, Tai would have laughed; it was the most the shadow had ever said, and the most human emotion it had shown.

The pain was increasing, he dimly realised, but he couldn't seem to mind. After all, pain meant he hadn't failed. Suddenly, he felt an imagined feeling of wind passing around him and the cold in his body fade. You let go, his mind informed him, but he had no time to contemplate it as the terrible sensation of pins and needles engulfed his whole body.

A frigid cry of frustration was the last thing he heard before he was roughly dumped back into reality.

***

As he slowly regained control of his senses, Tai realised it wasn't much different from unconsciousness. He still couldn't move and he still couldn't rest knowing it would put his friends in danger. The only positive change was that his mind was a little clearer—he was able to think, and thus able to realise that it would only be a brief reprieve. He wondered how the shadow had made such a stupid mistake as flinging him toward his body...

Taking advantage of his temporary state of awareness, Tai forced words out of his too-dry mouth, "Wha—oing—on?" Or at least, he tried to; the words somehow came out both slurred and cracked. Nonetheless, it had the desired effect as he heard his sister's cry of relief.

"Tai! You're back! I knew you couldn't hurt me!" Though he couldn't define her for the fuzziness of his vision, he was able to figure out her general direction. Not that it mattered; he could hardly turn his head.

A soft sad voice rose from somewhere out of his line of vision, "You can't stay long, can you?" Tai shook his head as best he could, tears building at the sound of his angel's voice. He wanted so much to let go, to give someone else his terrible burden, to sleep peacefully in Matt's arms...

But he wouldn't. He would finish this whole thing once and for all. The sudden conviction and strength of spirit—the result of being with his friends and no longer alone—made an almost forgotten smile form on his tired face. Everything would be okay, he told himself, closing his eyes wearily. Everything would be okay...

***

"What?! How can there be no cure?" Agumon cried desperately, squirming out of Lilymon's grip to stand face to face with the monkey digimon.

"We had no reason to make one," Kosarumon said indifferently, as if it were a mere fact and not the thing on which their friend's life rested.

"But there must be something!" Mimi begged anxiously, tears springing to her eyes.

The monkey considered it, "Well, once I remember we had to use a potion that took the controller out of the digimon, because the digimon's body was about to leave our world and we wanted to keep our new worker. So the potion gave it a physical form." Suddenly, Kosarumon found herself scooped up into the pink-haired girl's arms tightly.

"That's good enough!"

"It doesn't hurt the host, does it?" Tentomon asked cautiously, not yet daring to hope once again.

Still surprised, the now very-content monkey digimon shook her head absent-mindedly, "No, but the controller turns into a pretty scary shadow creature."

Reassured, Tentomon asked the question that was on all of their minds, "Where is it?"

Kosarumon pointed to a small purple vial with her tail, "Right there." Instantly, Mimi snatched it from the table, clutching it to her chest much like she was doing to the digimon. Within seconds, they were gone, racing back to the others with a vengeance. Amazingly, they didn't get lost.

When first Sora's soap-soaked body came into view, and then Koushiro and Biyomon's, Agumon called out triumphantly, "We've got it!"

The entire group was in the air before even a minute had passed.

Stunned, Kosarumon waved after them belatedly, "Bye..."

***

~I should have killed you long ago!~

It was the shadow's livid voice that told Tai he had once again lost consciousness, for once just going straight to the weird place where he could hit trees but went right through people. He was pleasantly surprised to find himself standing, only the bearable pain from reality coursing through him. It was like he had never fought the shadow—like he was getting a second chance. Unfortunately, his enemy seemed awfully angry.

~There will be no more playing, now~ the shadow hissed vehemently.

When were we playing? Tai thought to himself tiredly, thoroughly sick of fighting. Regardless, the creature crawled its way through the very air itself, heading straight for him. Oddly enough, Tai didn't really care; his attention was on the reality that he couldn't touch. On Matt and Kari and their faces lined with worry as they took care of his body.

The shadow was speeding up, nearly upon him, but Tai was entirely relaxed. There's no need to fight, his body told him. The clawed, undoubtedly ice-cold hand that reached out for him brought things quickly into perspective, and suddenly a fire lit in his very spirit. A confident grin spread across his face.

"Try your worst! I may fall, but I'll never stay down!"

***

It was Patomon who saw them first from his position on TK's head. Originally, he had thought it was just a passing digimon, but as the flying creature drew closer, he realised it could only be Birdramon—which meant they may have found an antidote. Excitedly, he began to jump up and down on his partner.

"They're back! They're back!" Instantly, everyone was looking to the sky, spirits soaring, save for the very confused Matt.

"Who's back? The others? When did they leave? Why—" He was silenced by his little brother's sudden embrace.

The young boy looked close to tears, "He'll be okay, Matt! Tai's gonna be alright!"

Kari's grip unconsciously tightened, her eyes fixed on what was now very clearly the rest of their group. She couldn't tell if they had any cure or not, but she let herself hope. When they were just about on the ground, the area erupted into chaos.

"We got it!" Mimi shouted, jumping off her ride's foot and running up to Jyou. Sora was close behind and Koushiro was already at Tai's side.

Matt, however, was getting annoyed, "You got what?"

Sora turned to him, a gentle smile on her face, "The antidote, of course." Blue eyes widened as a small purple bottle was pulled out, suddenly feeling very close to tears himself.

"There's only one problem," Koushiro began, still looking over his friend sadly, "The potion gives whatever's controlling Tai—"

"A shadow," Kari put in quietly, forcing herself to loosen her now too-tight grip.

Koushiro shrugged, "Right, well it gives the shadow a physical body. But—"

This time, it was Matt who interrupted, "For Tai, it doesn't matter! There's fifteen of us! We can fight it!"

"Exactly," the small genius confirmed.

"Can we hurry it up?" Agumon growled impatiently. He wanted his partner back. Without a word, Sora handed Matt the bottle and with one fortifying breath, the blond uncorked it and pressed it to their leader's lips.

Please let this work.

***

He was on his knees again for the umpteenth time. True to his word, no matter how much the shadow forced him down, he always got back up. Often, he was too lost in his own world of pain to even realise he was standing, but somehow his body was actually listening to him.

Then the oddest thing happened; the world around him began to crack, as if it were made of glass, and the shadow creature was frozen where it stood—hand mere centimetres from Tai. The first thing to shatter was a tree, sending very realistic shards of itself into the wind. Within seconds, these shards had crumbled to sand and were gone.

The landscape followed, until Tai was floating in near absolute darkness, only the shadow still with him. He had no idea what was going on, but he watched bewildered as the creature started to crumble too. Slowly, he felt himself falling, his mind finally shutting down for a much needed dreamless sleep.

His last coherent thought was if it was possible to fall asleep when you're already sleeping.

***

When nothing had happened at first, they thought that the antidote had failed. Hands had begun to clench and tears to build. Then, without warning, Tai's body convulsed, and for a very terrifying moment, they thought they'd made his illness worse. It wasn't until they noticed a mysterious black shadowy substance seemingly seeping out of their leader that they realised what was going on. It was like a swirling mass of darkness, shaping itself into a vaguely humanoid figure.

"It worked," Jyou exhaled disbelievingly, unable to look away from the creature that was nearly fully-formed.

Mimi, on the other hand, couldn't stand to face the nightmarish shadow, "That was inside Tai?" Her voice was full of the same fear that made her want to run very far and very fast. The same fear that was inside all of them. Instead, she clenched her fist and forced herself to look at the creature. Like the others currently surrounding their leader in a defensive circle, she was tense and, in a sense, ready to fight.

As soon as its mouth had formed, the shadow let out a vehement hiss, "He was mine!" Unlike in Tai's mind, this voice was much less strong and powerful, as if the creature was weakened.

Regardless, its words caused a very violent reaction in Matt, "He was not yours! He would never be yours! He's too strong for something as pitiful as you!" The rest of the group stood frozen, agreeing with the words wholeheartedly but not expecting them from the blond loner's mouth.

The shadow seemed to grow even blacker in its anger, body finally finished shifting. It now had what could be called legs supporting it, but looked more like the roots of a tree. Its arms were the most human-like, apart from the deadly claws and overly long fingers. Its head—everyone tried not to look at that, for all the evil and hate inside of the shadow had obviously gone into the formation of its head.

"That is one ugly creature," Mimi let out accidentally, voicing her thoughts. Though the others didn't laugh, their hands unclenched slightly as a bit of the tension was relieved.

The shadow only grew angrier, "I will destroy him!"

But almost instantly, he was facing seven very fight-ready champion-level digimon.

"You won't touch him," Agumon spat, feeling almost as though he could digivolve all on his own just to get some form of revenge on the thing that had hurt his partner so. But he knew it would be pointless anyway; they had more than enough firepower, if the shadow's panicking was anything to go by. As Garurumon took a step forward, the creature hastily moved its own root-like legs back, head swivelling to look for options.

There were none, and the creature knew it. Still, it charged blindly forward, heading straight for the one most like to rip its very head off. Matt smirked, and without a word, Garurumon gladly attacked, dragging the shadow down with sharp claws ready to tear. The last thing the creature managed to do before its body dissipated into a black fog was let out a long, inhuman scream. Then even the fog faded, leaving only the stunned silence that follows a long-winded battle.

After a few moments, Sora sunk tiredly to the ground, "That's it."

Jyou, however, snapped into action, "We still have to get rid of his fever and keep his wounds from getting infected! It's amazing his body was able to fight all of that, and I don't think he'll have any strength left to fend off the rest of it. We need—"

But Kari cut him off, relief on her features, "He'll be okay now." Her voice was that of complete confidence, as if she could see into the future.

"...I hope you're right."

***

It wasn't until midnight that things settled down for the digidestined. Jyou had finally managed to bring Tai's fever down to the point where all that was left was to let it run its natural course. Then he gracelessly joined the younger ones in the world of deep unconsciousness. Kari had fallen asleep hours before, after she knew her brother was safe, even though still plagued with fever. None of the others questioned that deep faith.

Mimi and Sora had been acting as Jyou's gophers—running off to get whatever he needed to bring Tai's fever down. They had settled into sleep shortly after the doctor-to-be, their digimon partners doing the same. Koushiro was working away on his laptop furiously, inputting every scrap of data he'd learned from the whole fiasco, while his eyes discreetly strayed from computer to Tai. He wasn't about to let his friend out of sight again.

TK, though he'd also gone to bed shortly after the sun set, had stayed persistently by Matt's side up until then, keeping his brother company while they watched over their leader. Now, the night was calm, silent except for the steady clicking of Koushiro's keys. Even Matt's body had surrendered to exhaustion, and he had fallen asleep on top of Tai, slumped over in an undoubtedly uncomfortable position.

Finally, all was peaceful.

Then, abruptly, the clackity-clack of computer keys stopped. Koushiro's gaze no longer flickered, but remained fixed on the seemingly motionless body of his best friend. Patiently, he waited.

The first sign that something was happening was the twitch of Tai's uninjured arm, followed by a heavily stifled groan. Smiling slightly, Koushiro pushed his computer to the side and crawled closer to their waking leader. He waited a few more moments until brown eyes slid open.

"Hey Tai."

The boy in question only grunted, mind barely working enough to make out the other's soft words. It didn't help that he had at least fifteen pounds of dead-weight on his chest. But as he looked to see what exactly that weight was, a fond smile grew on his face and he relaxed, finally turning his attention to Koushiro. Questions began running through his mind, but they were cut off by his friend's smirk.

"Don't even start," the small genius laughed, "First off, you've only been asleep for a few hours. You'll definitely need more. Second, everyone is perfectly fine. The shadow went down instantly. Third, it's gone for good. And fourth, we made sure he took care of his own health while he was watching over you." The last, though it wasn't said directly, was obviously a reference to Matt.

Tai blinked, surprised at the depth of Koushiro's understanding of him. Then he grinned and tiredly shut his eyes once more, reassured that all was well.

"Oh, and Tai?"

Almost annoyed, Tai didn't even bother look at his friend, replying with only a soft, "Hm?"

Koushiro gently laid a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Everyone needs support sometimes. It's what makes us human."

As he faded back into another dreamless sleep, Tai managed one last thought:

Being human is a lot more than I ever gave it credit for.

***

Tai didn't wake up for quite some time after talking with Koushiro at two in the morning, long enough that the others had already had both breakfast and lunch. When he finally drifted back into the world of the living, and managed to open his eyes, he was completely alone. His sister was not curled up beside him, where he last remembered her. Koushiro wasn't sitting nearby, fingers running over computer keys. And Matt wasn't at his side, the steady presence that Tai had almost come to expect. Everyone was gone.

It wasn't a very heart-warming thought.

For that terrifying moment, it was like Tai's worst fears had come true. The others had realised he wasn't a good leader and left him behind. Even his sister had given up on him, and Matt, and Agumon—but then he snapped himself out of his panicking thoughts. His friends wouldn't do that, right?

Groaning, Tai attempted to turn over and go back to sleep, hoping to banish the stupid, run-around-in-circles type thoughts. He was stopped, however, by a sudden jolt of pain washing over his body, originating from his shoulder. The first waved caused a domino effect, and soon he was reminded of every imagined hit he'd taken against the shadow. Angrily, Tai forced himself to sit up anyway, sick of all the pain and sick of being under its control.

"Stupid body," he muttered when only his shoulder remained throbbing, barely even able to recognise his rough voice. For a while, he just sat there, debating whether he should try to stand up.

A surprised voice broke into his musings, "Tai?"

Jumping slightly in his spot, the boy in question tried to turn to the voice, recognising it instantly. Unfortunately, turning wasn't an option with his battered body. Annoyed, Tai cursed it once more, though not aloud.

Suddenly, Matt was right in front of him, crouching to his level, "How is it that when I leave for two minutes, you finally decide to wake up?"

Tai blinked once before a wide smile took over his face, spurred on by the warmth spreading from his heart. His angel had never left him after all. He had the nearly insatiable urge to tackle the other to the ground and never let go, but his shoulder painfully refused. He settled instead for simply taking in every inch of the one he didn't want to live without.

His eyes stopped abruptly on the still-bandaged hand. The happiness shattered, making way for reality.

"Tai?" Matt questioned softly, falling back into a much more comfortable sitting position. He was a little worried about the other's silence, coupled with the suddenly guilty expression. Where had the smile gone so quickly? Following Tai's gaze, he realised what had captured the other's attention.

"I could have stopped it," Tai whispered painfully, not even sure himself who he was talking to.

Matt sighed, "Don't start that again. Haven't we already been through this?"

The brunet shook his head wildly, "I'm sure I could've stopped it! All I would have had to do is... is... I don't know, but I should have tried harder! I never wanted to hurt you—" He was cut off by a tight embrace, both because of the warning twinges of pain and the sudden comfort.

"It's not like it'll never heal," Matt told him in a slightly scornful tone, not letting him go.

"But—"

Matt growled, "What do you want me to do? Hate you for it? Break your hand? Never go near you again?"

Instantly, Tai was returning the embrace desperately, burying his head in the crook of the other's neck, "No..." Matt could feel the warm liquid soaking into his shirt, but he didn't care. He was out of ideas to get Tai to forgive himself. If this didn't work...

Using a soft voice, Matt tried once more, "What do you want me to do?"

"...Forgive me..."

"I do."

"...I know," Tai finally admitted, barely a whisper.

Hesitantly, Matt let go, waiting for Tai to do the same so that he could look into chocolate brown eyes. There he saw the pain and the guilt—the heavy burden that Tai had to bear—but also the strength with which he'd always borne it. The strength they had all come to depend on, knowingly or not. Somewhere deep down, Matt knew that if they didn't clear everything up now, Tai would simply add it to his already too-heavy weight and move on until it festered like the wound on his shoulder. He couldn't let that happen. For once, he would have to be strong for his leader.

"You didn't fail, you know. None of us are hurt, and you're going to be fine. We're all together, aren't we? How could that be failure?"

Tai would've answered—to say that it was his fault in the first place—but the words just couldn't seem to make it out. Perhaps it was the slowing tears, or maybe from all the abuse his throat had taken over the last few days, but regardless, he was forced into silence.

Matt himself was at a loss. Honestly, he wasn't cut out for this comforting thing. He didn't know what to say to make everything all right or how to make his best friend—no, Tai was more than that—let go of his own pain and guilt. All he had going for him was a sincere concern and need to see the other well again, inside and out.

Seeing this, Tai stopped the guilty rambling in his head and cleared his mind, looking at the situation from a different light.

Did anyone get hurt? I hurt Matt, he reminded himself. But no, that had already been forgiven.

Was anyone uncertain? Scared? Sad? Just me... He realised that his wellbeing was the only thing the others were currently worrying about.

Was there anything he could've done differently? Everything—but what could he have changed, realistically? He isn't a fortune-teller, so it's not like he could have avoided the others getting captured. He wouldn't have let Matt take the poisoned dagger even if he could see the future. Really...

"I hurt you," Tai stated matter-of-factly, laying out the facts for himself. Blond brows furrowed in confusion, but Tai continued nevertheless, "I didn't do it on purpose. I don't know how I stopped the shadow, and probably couldn't have figured it out. It wasn't really me, anyway. I can't see the future. I couldn't have changed anything."

A thought suddenly occurred to Matt; if he hadn't charged blindly at the enemy digimon, then Tai wouldn't have gotten poisoned in the first place. In the sense, he had caused the other to suffer so terribly. He would have been the reason for the nearly indistinguishable light to fade.

The two looked at each other searchingly, and against everything Matt would have expected, Tai smiled brightly, "I made mistakes, but that means I'm human, right? We all make mistakes, but that doesn't mean we fail. In the end, I don't think I'd change a thing."

The innocence and purity that was Tai seemed to wash away all of Matt's building self-doubt, as if it had never been there. It was the same for everyone; Tai was their leader, and they put their complete trust in him. In return, he kept them together, never blamed them, never let them down.

Finally, Matt smiled too, "It's the past, right?"

"Right!" Tai laughed, "Now if my shoulder would stop hurting, everything would be perfect."

"Oh, and I suppose my hand means nothing?"

"Exactly."

Gently, Matt knocked the other on the back of the head, "Idiot."

Tai got his silly, characteristic grin on his face, "Yeah, but you still love me, right?"

All of a sudden, both boys froze, twin blushes spreading across their cheeks. These blushes deepened as each thought over the events of the last few days. Though no one said anymore on the subject that day, two hands hesitantly entwined; a silent comfort. A silent promise for something more.