A/N: I don't own digimon. Dont I wish I did! I actually updated quicker than I thought, because the last chapter ended on kind of a cliffhanger and I felt bad haha. This one might be shorter than usual. Enjoy!
"Kari!" Angewomon shrieked. She flew off, into the woods where Kari's body had landed. Everybody was stunned.
"Kari..." TK whispered. His best friend. The most important person to him, his rock, his shield, his other half. He stood by helpless as she was mercilessly killed by Daemon. He fell to his knees and lightly touched his face. No tears were brimming on his eyes or falling on his cheeks. In his stunned misery, his body could release no emotion.
"Kari!" Tai cried. "Kari! Kari!" Her brother was running towards the forest as well. "No, Kari!" His eyes were red already; tears fell in a steady stream down the older boys face, but he took to his dejection in a different matter.
"You monster!" He whailed. "You beast! You heartless creep! You'll never get away with this! Agumon, warp digivolve!"
He reached down for his digivice, but couldn't find it. TK noticed the wild, panicked look in Tai's eyes. He felt like he was disconnected from reality; the things he was seeing were real but he was not registering them. It was if he was only an observer to the current events, that Kari's life was the only thing that anchored him to this universe.
He, too, noticed that he could not locate his digivice, but he could not bring himself to care. What did it matter about beating Daemon now that Kari was gone forever?
"Look," Sora, who had put her arms around Tai and had tears of her own streaming down her face. "DemiDevimon's got our digivices."
It was true; the blue furball had rematerialized and joined Devimon's army, and his claws were 10 digivices.
"Excellent work, DemiDevimon," Daemon congratulated. "Now they'll never stop me."
TK noticed that nobody even seemed like they wanted to stop him anymore. Tai was sobbing so hard he was shaking into Sora's arms. Joe was trying to comfort Mimi's loud, harsh crying, but he was tearing up and shaking too much himself. Izzy was with Yolei and Cody, trying to get them away from the digimon and into safety, but they kept trying to break away and find Kari.
"She's not dead, she's not dead," TK heard Yolei say. TK wished to God it was true; he could hope beyond hope but he knew it was no good.
He was on all fours now, his head towards the ground. He could hear the faint battle marches going on behind him, but he didn't look up. He didn't check to make sure he was out of danger.
A pair of arms draped themselves over TK's body. He could tell it was Matt by the way his brother was holding him.
"Come on, TK, its not safe here." His brothers voice cracked. TK knew he was right, but he could not move. He could not even cry for his best friend, the sense of despair filling him to the very core.
"Begone from him," the nightmarish voice rang out. He felt his brothers arms violently thrown to the side. He looked up to see that Daemon had come to him.
He's here to finish me off, TK thought. He killed Kari and now he will kill me, just like he meant to all those years ago. Maybe that isn't too bad. Whats the point of living if it hurts like this?
"I need you, Bearer of Hope." TK looked up, shocked and confused. He noticed that the battle had stopped completely. All of his remaining friends had been tied up and removed to a farther location. Sometime during the fight, Angemon had become Patamon again, who was lying silently at Davis' feet. TK could not answer the hellish fiend before him, but instead could not hide the look of surprise. At least he was feeling something...
"Your crest," the demon said. "It is worthless, yet I cannot win without it. You have already given up, so give me your crest. Release Hope to me."
TK recalled something he learned in school. In the Greek myth of Pandora's Box, when she opened the box, all of the world's evils were unleashed. The world blamed Pandora for her curiosity, but in the end, one thing remained in the box. Hope would not abandon humanity. Hope was the last thing they had.
Kari was the last thing I had, TK thought. She gave me my hope, and now that she's gone, what do I have?
Maybe I should give it up. It's worthless baggage now. He looked at his friends. He saw their faces, etched with pain and shock. He knew that they could, and would, keep fighting, but TK had come to the conclusion that he wasn't as strong as his friends. His time in the Digital World had left him exactly the same.
He knew that he could not fight anymore. He could not bring himself to put effort towards victory, when it was so obvious that it could not be achieved. He reached behind his neck and took off the crest. He held it in his hands and stared at it, the light around them reflecting off of it. For the first time TK noticed that it was bright, even though it should be night. He didn't feel curious about it, or even surprised. He could faintly hear Patamon and the others calling to him.
"What good is Hope if it can't protect you?" Daemon whispered. "All you have to do is give me the crest."
TK couldn't make up his mind. His crest sat there, dead, and would not glow. Everything he did, the crest stayed the same. He relaxed his hand, and pointed it towards Daemon.
The cloaked digimon grinned, and TK could see that he still had the same pitless eyes. The eyes that showed nothing beneath the creature, no warmth or light or soul.
Don't do it, TK heard in his head, and though it wasn't his own voice, he felt that he had thought it. TK, never give up hope.
Kari. Kari would never give up. She would never get up to this monster, this darkness. The light combats the darkness always, and Kari was the bearer of light. And Light and Hope were connected.
Daemon's hand was inches away from the crest when TK whispered, "No."
Kari would never surrender. She would fight forever, spend all eternity contending with demons, rather than face defeat. For her, above all things, TK realized that he could not go through with it.
And finally, finally, the Crest of Hope began to glow.
Daemon was pushed backwards by the light. TK was shocked; it had never glowed this brightly before. He noticed that Patamon had stood up, but something still held him back from making him digivolve.
"Foolish boy!" Daemon screamed. "You defeated me last time because only the youngest of the originals can destroy me. The youngest is gone now!"
"I dont care about your prophecy!" TK shouted, the light of his crest giving him back his voice. It was stronger and clearer than it had been for days; the tiredness from his lack of sleep had been eradicated. He was upset, angry, and now, above all, determined. "I don't care about anything you have to say. You tried to kill me, my friends, and destroyed one of the most important people in my life. If I truly cannot destroy, then I would die trying!"
"TK!" a voice cried. His eyes found the source. Above the forest, flying towards them with grace and speed and power, was Angewomon. And she was carrying Kari. "TK!"
It almost too good to be true, but it wasnt. Kari was waving to him, calling to him, telling him that she was coming. The look in her eyes told TK that he would never feel lonely again, and he finally released the tears that hadn't come before. With this new outbreak of emotion, TK's crest became blinding, and he heard his enemy cry out, and he felt new strength coursing through his veins.
"Patamon!" TK cried out to his partner. The small, orange digimon flew straight into the light of the Crest of Hope.
"Patamon warp digivolve to...Seraphimon!"