A/N: Hey guys! Look, it's here! I almost didn't get to write this. Busy as heck yesterday. Anyway...
Xros-Hero, it's ready! Time for the true epicness!
darkin520, yeah in the show she mentions she and Yuu are siblings about twenty times but I decided to keep it quiet and let her say it instead. The conflict in here is so much fun and I'm really hoping the ending I've decided on isn't one that falls flat. Since we're almost there and all. :)
This was also the part where I questioned if these short of chapters was a good idea. Ah well.
Enjoy!
XXXII. Loyalty
"Is this what strength is?"
"Indeed it is," Taiki replied quietly. Are we ready?
No, but I have the feeling we'll be doing this anyway.
Good. He looked at them all and nodded. "Akari, Zenjirou, we're going to need your power, now more than ever. Use this." Taiki took his Xros Loader out, smiled at it a moment, and threw it for the pair of them to catch.
Akari sputtered. "But Taiki, we-"
"Couldn't use it last time!" Zenjirou finished. "We couldn't even use a DigiMemory! It's yours, isn't it?"
Taiki shrugged. "Yes, and I want you to use it. Now, go on. Hold it and remember. Remember OmegaShoutmon. Remember that moment." He bit at the side of his mouth, holding back words for a moment. Then he turned to his fellow Generals. "Think of your happiest moments, the moments you want back more than anything in the world. Believe we can get them back."
"What are you going to do, Taiki-kun?" Nene inquired, nevertheless taking her lavender Xros Loader in both hands.
He smiled at her, as though relieved she had asked. "Well... it's quite simple and yet... not all that simple at all. You all can activate this last attack... this Final Xros... I'm just going to direct the energy to do it, using the Code Crown." Kiriha raised an eyebrow and Taiki flushed. "Okay, it's not that easy... but I can't explain it properly either. The Code Crown is in my head. It knows how to do this. I have this vision; it carries out that vision. Just like the dimension I pulled you into after Eternal Darkmare... and when I attacked Bagramon..."
"And the red light," Kiriha finished. Taiki nodded. "How?"
"Che! Kiriha, you're asking that now?" X7 was grinning beneath his face mask as Darkness Bagramon shattered the air and stepped through. Around him gathered black energy, swirling into a mantle. "This is the Code Crown that revives the dead and will make me the King! It chose Taiki; so it just makes his reality. Stop making everything so damn complicated."
Kiriha chuckled. "There is something to be said for being an idiot like you." He looked over at Bagramon's glowing form, and smiled. "I want you to disappear."
Taiki waited, watching the others slowly listen to his directions. Then he smiled, eyes pitch black and abyssal red. The round is almost over.
"But the game has only just begun."
Taiki shook his head at Bagramon. That's where you're wrong. The Code Crown shifted slowly, swirling from embers of red to diamonds of gold. It sang in his ears and he laughed a little, the brittle noise loud in the silence of his friends.
Then Shoutmon roared and charged. "Final Xros," the General whispered with glee.
The world was bathed in golden light.