Chapter 5: Doubt


Tk hated himself. How could he think that the digimon were safe on Server? They were always around the digidestineds when they appeared. It was like some weird telepathy that told them where to go - this time shouldn't have been any different. If only he'd realized it earlier then maybe he could have searched the entire castle from towers to dungeons for the digimon and set them free.

Currently, Tk was running about. Opening doors and crashing into pillars. Where could they be? He went around a sharp corner, the sweat flinging off his face. It was then that he swore he saw a flash of gold on a wall. Curiously, he walked forward his head tweaked to one side. There is was again. He put his hand up to the wall, a grand tingling met his senses. He pressed harder and his hand slid through.

Continuing, he put the rest of his arm threw and was surprised to touch something spiky. He drew out his arm and looked at it intently. I pin prick of blood was flowing from his thumb. Eagerly, he walked into the wall.

His blue eyes glazed over with unshed tears. The happiness in his heart from seeing them was beyond words.

"TK!" They screamed.

"Guys." Tk dropped to his knees, tears flowing from his eyes. He whispered to Kari that he had found them, and then greeted each with a hug. The biggest hug he saved for Patamon, "I'm—so glad—that you're—all right."

Patamon's voice matched the sobbing of Tk's, "Tk—I missed—you so much."

"What a nice reunion."

The icy voice chilled his blood. The tears in his eyes froze. Slowly Tk got to his feet and turned around. "What do you want?"

"Well my Little King it seems like you've been wondering around where you shouldn't be. Sticking your nose in places in doesn't belong."

"What are you going to do about it?" Biomon yelled in a voice unfit for the digimon of love.

"You, little digimon, are no match for me so mind your manors. May I also remind you you can't digivolve."

"Patamon, you can." Gatomon whispered into his ear loud enough for Tk to hear as well.

Tk nodded.

PATAMON DIGIVOLVE TO—

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The screams were powerful and painful. Tk's body convulsed on the floor, moving in quick flinching motions. His screams were deadly, they pierced the digimon's ears whom looked on in shock while grasping their ears. Devimon laughed.

Patamon and the others tried to get close to Tk, but they were kicked, punched, and thrown away.

The pain didn't stop for ages, in fact, it appeared to be getting worse. Tk's voice was lost but his mouth gaped open with the unmistakable pain echoing in its noiselessness. His body continued in the same painful, jerky motions.

After what seemed like 5 hours, but was really 5 minutes, Devimon stopped the pain. Tk's body collapsed onto the floor, hardly moving except for the heavy motion of his chest. His eyes were blank and stared without focus.

Devimon walked forward and threw Tk's body over his own shoulder ruthlessly.

The digimon fired their attacks, but Devimon waved them of with a flick of the wrist. Relentlessly, they ran at him.

Boom!

With little ease and an exasperated smile from Devimon, he rammed them into the wall.

When at last the world stopped spinning and focus was regained, the digimon let our a gasp of regret: Devimon and Tk were gone.


Stealth and speed, that's what he had. Through miles of barren rocks and emptiness he walked. One might say it was pure determination that caused him to keep going despite the stabbing pain in his chest.

Matt hadn't thought things through, he still hadn't started thinking. He went off by himself knowing only he had to save his brother. He'd been blaming himself ever since Tk's apparent death. At the time, Matt had been neglecting Tk for his band. Tk must have felt abandoned; Tk had workaholic parents and a neglectful brother.

Mom was always busy with work, going this place and that place. She often got home after Tk had gone to bed, and left before he got home from school. Her love was strong, but her attention giving skills were lacking. Dad was no better. He was always at the TV station, even Matt whom lived with him saw him only in passing. Maybe this is why his parents broke up; they were married to their careers.

Tk must have been having some issues or problems - he was a teenager and that's what they did - but his personality made him never want to bother others. His troubles were his own, never to be burden upon anyone.

Crap! Matt had thought. I should have tried a little harder; I should have been there a little more.

Even since the tiniest of hope had formed that Tk might be alive, Matt had prayed he would have a chance to redo things. Take his brother out for lunch or maybe just be there when he needed to talk. For this is why Matt kept going. After losing Tk, he learned how to cherish every moment. He would run a thousand more miles until his body collapsed just so that he could have his 2nd chance.


Matt approached the very familiar castle. Once close enough, he ran his hand against the wall, it seemed real. He entered.

What met his eyes can be described as beautiful or horrific depending on the situation. For Matt it was both.

Beautiful: Tk sat, alive and healthy, on a throne.

Horrific: Tk sat on a throne with a wicked smile on his face.

Had Patamon been right and Kari wrong? Had Tk been the cause of all this destruction?

"Welcome to my castle, brother!" Tk's voice boomed with remnants of an elevated ego. "May I help you with something, or would you just like to look around." His arm made a sweeping motion revealing a wrist of elegant gold bracelets.

Matt rushed forward his hands held outward to greet his little brother. "Tk, I'm so glad to see you—"

"Stop!"

Matt stopped his ambush. He looked into the matching set of crystal blue eyes in question. "But why?"

Tk tapped his foot angrily on the ground. "You are not to approach me in such a wild fashion."

"But we're brothers—"

"Correction: we were brothers!" Tk placed his hand beneath his chin and raised it a few centimeters to look more smug.

"But Tk—"

"I said enough!"

Matt's watery eyes evaporated as his temper rose, "Tk this is no time to act like that, get down here now."

A devilish chuckle escaped Tk's pursed lips. A last when the laugh had ceased to echo he continued, "You are in no position to tell me what to do, for I am King!"

"Tk this is stupid, let's go home!"

"DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT, FOR I AM KING!" Tk raised what appeared to be a staff similar to Wizerdwon's, but much more decorative. Out from its tip came a bolt of red light aimed directly for Matt's head.

Matt looked at its approach, his eyes wide in disbelief. How could his own brother do this to him.

THUD!

Matt flopped to the ground his head banging against the hard floor. His eyes barley registered the intense flash of light that erupted behind him. Then, in focus, came Tai's heavily panting body atop him.


"Tk?" Kari stood a step forward from everyone else; her voice was quiet and disbelieving. Tears rolled from her eyes like water from Niagara Falls, her dirtied pink shirt was completely dampened.

She collapsed onto her knees.

"Good evening, everybody."

Tai picked himself off of Matt and looked behind him at the 10 foot diameter of smoldering rock. "What is this about, Tk?"

"Hump," Tk's head went up in a rude gesture, "this is about the perfect Kingdom, my perfect Kingdom."

"But you're hurting others, it's not like you Tk." Sora's voice was strong and worried. They were beginning to doubt what Kari had told them.

"Don't pretend to know me!" Tk snapped back.

"But—"

"YOU DON'T KNOW ME AT ALL. YOU ALL NEVER GAVE A DAMN ABOUT ME WHEN I WAS ALIVE, SO DON'T TRY TO DISPOSE OF YOUR GUILT NOW!"

"But Tk, we never meant—"

"STOP WITH THE PATHETIC LIES—"

"TK we love you." Matt was on his feet looking up into the twisted face of his brother.

Suddenly, a dark cloud slithered its way to Tk's side, "How touching, they love you Little King Takeru." The cloud formed into the looming figure of Devimon.

"Get away from him!" Matt shouted with obvious dread and anger.

The new digidestineds, while having never seen Devimon still recognized the pure darkness that radiated off of his body. Ken, most certainly, sensed what he feared most.

"But he wants me here. He's the one who sought me out."

"What?" The digidestineds, excluding the sobbing Kari, asked.

"It's true," Tk responded, "I went looking for Devimon. He could offer me something I was lacking. That something is attention."

"And now King Takeru has all the attention on him."

Matt's worst fears had come true. He was, in fact, responsible for his brother's death and thereby switch to darkness. "I'm sorry, Tk it's all my fault—"

"No it's not."

The voice was weak and quiet, yet it had the digidestineds chilled to the bone. They slowly turned around and met the voice whose figure lay in the shadowed doorway.


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Xanpluto