A/N: With the heart lost in the fright of the night, embrace love, for the heart's greatest might is in that bright light.

SORA


'Where are we?'

'Sora, I love you, but please stop asking that.'

She pouted, 'Well, I'm sorry.'

His handsome features softened, a rare occurrence, but one that made her heart flutter when his mouth tightened into a smile.

'No… I'm sorry, Sora,' he said sweetly. 'It's just… we've been pulled into the Digital World, but we can't find them. Two years is too long…'

'Do you remember what I said?' she reminded him, shaking a finger educationally. 'We need to get this off our chests, here and now. If the restaurant proved anything, it's that we're all falling apart,' she felt a great sadness anchor her heart, still like a stone. 'We've been through too much… to just hate each other.'

'Well, I know one thing for sure.'

Sora looked to him in wonderment, lost as to how anything could be certain.

'I'm glad that I got to know you guys at all,' Matt said, 'and as long as I remember that, I'll never hate you or the others.'

Sora couldn't help but smile, the heavy pull she felt within her lightening, those familiar butterflies fluttering within her stomach, all because he was there with her. Years ago, when they first met, she would have thought love was something years away from mind, and just the thought about it was enough to make her queasy. But now, she was grown and understood the gift it really was.

She saw his face, and then looked away, red-faced, her eyes slow to take notice of a portion of the Digital World she had not before seen.

She remembered ancient temples from books and photographs she had seen, standing tall but worn with vines and ivy twisting around and bridging great distances between them, the thriving city beneath it giving no inkling of how old and dilapidated it truly looked.

Dots moved beneath the rock outcrop they had walked up like a gentle slope, the city grand, but not as amazing as what swirled above; water domed around the city and onto the tops of catacombs behind them. Air bubbles frothed like clouds. It was spectacular to behold.

'Where do you think this is?' Sora whispered. 'I know we didn't see all of the Digital World, but… why were we pulled here?'

'My best guess is that they've probably started kingdoms or something,' Matt screwed his face up, apparently mouthing words to try and remember. 'Well… I think that Gabumon said they might do this, y'know, after we left.'

'That'll make directions easier, I guess…'

'How d'you figure that, Sora?'

She shrugged, smiling brightly. 'Well, hope's got to start somewhere. Once we find Gabumon and Biyomon, we'll be able to find the others quicker.'

'And Agumon.'

Sora frowned, feeling the bitter bite of resentment within her and taking notice of the boy's face, the one she had known since childhood, and the one that had been acting coldly toward her lately.

'I didn't know he was such a wuss,' Matt joked, but Sora's heart was still blackened by anger for the restaurant they were in not long ago. 'Hey, c'mon, we were all pretty hot-headed. I broke before he did, remember?'

He jerked his back, Tai limply climbing higher on his back. Matt had been carrying him without complaint for around an hour while he and Sora tried to work their way out of the catacombs. The once arrogant leader of the Digidestined had regained his old clothes, as had they, but unlike them, he still had the immaturity that caused them so much grief on previous ventures into the Digital World.

'I said I'd slap him until he woke up,' Sora reminded him bitterly.

'Like I said, it wasn't his fault that time. It was mine.'

'Then for the other times!' Sora protested hotly. 'How about for when he nearly got me and Izzy caught in Etemon's pyramid? Or when he was a jerk at Whamon's funeral? Or how about last week, when he tried to get me to go to his soccer match when I'd told him you and I were going shopping, then got mad about it?'

'He probably has his reasons,' Matt said too reasonably, making Sora feel a simpleton. 'Besides, we're not perfect. I started that argument and you yelled at him when he tried to calm everyone down.'

'Whatever,' Sora mumbled, knowing there was sense in what he was saying, but not wanting to admit it so soon after being called a 'tomboy'. She knew she deserved it, but he knew how small it made her feel and used it anyway. 'How's your cold doing?'

'Gone,' Matt said, making a movement to indicate his chest, Tai interfering with that by nearly falling from his back. 'Well, you get the point.'

'Want me to take him for a while?'

Matt blinked thrice at her.

'What?'

'Well… look, I don't want you to take this the wrong way but… could you actually manage?'

Sora puffed out her chest. 'Of course I can! How rude is that!'

Matt paused, his eyes searching her for a few short seconds before he lowered to a knee carefully. 'C'mon then, if you're sure. But we should really get a move on for this city. Maybe they can give us directions, like you said.'

Sora smiled when he winked at her, her stomach tying in knots within her; she had particularly loved that part about Matt, the part that Tai desperately needed to get: he trusted people, and he never insulted them without a reason, that reason mostly being, yes, Tai.

'C'mon, show me how a real man carries an unconscious friend.'

Although he had that devious side Sora bitterly had to love, despite the flush it brought her to, conflicted between laughing and screaming at him. She got to a knee beside him, Matt helping her to ease and stretch Tai's leg over her back whilst he crawled forward, careful to place him on Sora's back entirely, stepping up before her and making her feel small with an appreciative nod, one that said he had been tired by it and he saw their little switch as a job well done.

Why was it Sora could see all of his faces and still think him perfect?

She shook her head, clearing the light clouds in her mind.

Now Sora felt flustered for another reason; she tried, but was barely lifting off of the ground – she was disappointed, having bet on tennis to have given her the strength for it, but Tai was like a boulder upon her back. He wasn't fat or greatly muscular, so it brought about the sting of truth about her gender, the one she hated; she simply lacked the strength Matt did.

'Problem, gigantor?' Matt japed, offering a hand down to her which she reluctantly took, wresting all of Tai's weight to one side as she rose and readjusted him upon her back. 'Sora, not to sound a bit of a jerk, but are you sure you can-'

'I can do whatever you can,' Sora said strongly, silencing him. 'Although he is really heavy…'

'Kari wasn't kidding – how much did he eat in the restaurant?'

'Never mind that,' Sora whispered beyond the strain to stay upright. 'I don't like that we just left the bill, whatever happened.'

Matt smiled that sweet smile again.

'Don't worry about it so much. The band's practicing real hard for that festival, remember – the cherry blossom one?'

Sora thought on it. 'You'd really use your money from that?'

'You guys are my friends, and you're very special to me.'

How could he dare to say such things so loudly? Sora felt faint from the very idea, her legs quaking beneath her from the shock.

'Easy, easy!' Matt grabbed her front and Tai's back, steadying them. 'Man… are you totally-'

'Matt, I love you, but get moving already.'

He lifted his hands defensively and walked slowly by her as they tread down the outcrop's slope, Sora's feet aching after two minutes of walking toward the city that got larger and larger as her trainer shoes from years past, even if a little bigger, were being stomped into the rocky ground, Tai's weight like a penalty for a great crime. She was already slick with sweat, but nearly dropped Tai when she absently tried wiping her face, unbalancing him.

Once again, Matt jokingly steadied them, but to her vast relief, he had noticed and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wiping her face relatively dry. Once again he asked, and once again Sora flared defensively, saying it was no trouble, and so they carried on.

'So, Sora,' Matt slowed once again to her mercilessly slow pace, wiping her face free of sweat. 'Joe got me wondering; what'll you do once we graduate?'

Honestly, he had caught her completely off-guard, as the thought of it before had always made her melancholy and sad, prompting her to put it out of her mind. As a matter of fact, she sighed when the memory of her mother complaining about it that very morning came back. She simply shook her head, mindful of her childhood friend with the attitude problem as he slumped down her back a little.

'Well… I'm not really all that sure. Mom's told me that her flower shop'll always have a place for me, but she says it'll be a final option only. She wants me to decided and try for what I want.'

Matt smiled, 'Your mom's a smart lady. You shouldn't ever give up on what you want, Sora.'

'You are so not trying to bring the band into this, aren't you?'

'I'm serious!' he defended onerously, dramatically flailing his hands at the same time. 'I mean, the band is great and all, but… I want something to do with science; it's always been my best area, like Izzy has computing or whatever it's called.'

That was true – Sora could tell by the little jog of her memory that whenever she had seen Matt studying at school, it was always one of the three sciences, and he was sure to read them like novels, something Mimi would have found irksome if she still went to school with them, but Sora loved; perhaps it was the intelligent type she liked…

The thought felt like fire, her face erupting into a fiery red.

'I'm not like you,' Matt said silkily, helping her stay upright again. 'You're perfect at everything. Home Ec., science, math… not to be a jerk, but I hope there's anything you're bad at, because I feel a little inferior over here.'

Sora smiled happily, completely forgetting her duty to hold Tai and momentarily loosening her hold of his legs, distracted and exhausted, letting him slip and finally fall to the ground behind her, the force pulling her over and on top of him.

'Tai, I'm so sorry!'

She twisted her body off of him, looking down upon his face; it was not awake. The fall had done nothing, and his eyes remained sealed loosely, as though he were in a deep sleep. His breaths were slow and shallow, his chest rising and falling in relation…

Why was she noticing all this?

When she heard Matt's foot step beside her, she pulled away from Tai, falling onto her backside sluggishly, breathing heavily and embarrassed of the look she could not wipe from her face. She got the same look when her mother walked into her room unannounced. Why would she wear it now?

'Tai?' Matt sounded distant, taking no notice of her stupidity and lightly slapping his face, letting her compose herself. 'Tai? Hey man, this isn't funny. Wake up already.'

Sora crawled over, uncaring of the gravelly scraping at her knees. 'Tai, come on. Joke's over. We get it, you got out of walking and it was very impressive.'

Her attempt at humour was more for herself than anything, but he still did not stir. She felt a rising panic in her chest and cursed herself, slapping him a little harder than Matt was, yet all that did was bring sore redness to his face.

'Tai!'

Matt grabbed her by the wrist when she went to do it again, shaking his head. She felt tears sting at her eyes, the pandemonium, panic and fear from when Tai and Agumon vanished in the desert resurfacing and trebling in an instant.

'He'll be fine,' Matt said, though his voice left much to be desired. 'I mean, he's come back from worse. You know him better than any of us, right?'

'Yeah,' Sora sniffed, knowing that he was right – he was more stubborn than the average person, she grew up in that truth. 'I know, but still… why isn't he waking up?'

Matt stared down at his face, and then a look Sora dreaded came back – uncertainty.

'Worst case scenario,' Matt said slowly and gently to her, making her feel a little better, 'is that he might have hit his head when we got here. All the other times we came to the Digital World, we were falling. Maybe he just ran out of luck.'

'"Ran out of luck-!"' Sora felt herself choke up.

'Don't cry,' he said urgently, working Tai's limp form back into a piggy-back once more with ease and haste. 'Let's get him to the city. Quickly, all right? No lagging behind with needless crying – he'll be fine. Promise.'

They turned to begin their way to the looming city, cast with vines and decadence when Sora felt her heart leap into her throat, nearly prodding into the point of a makeshift spear, which she gathered as sharp rock tied to a wooden stick before the shock of what held it became clear.

'To koros ven mienthros? Tara colos mo nemenk ra?'

'Yet nolos ven mienthros takalas…'

'To koros, nyet takalas!'

People.

People in the Digital World other than themselves or the other Digidestined. More than that, they were certainly not children or teenagers, but had a strong air of nomadic people that had been there long.

They had bronzed skin and rich, supple skin and muscle, a group of women and men together in blue garb that covered only their necessary areas decently, with large masks on, carved with threatening, simple images like a demon upon them.

Perhaps a tribe?

They went on at each other in their own tongue, Sora frozen in horror, afraid to breathe with the spear's tip at her throat. Matt had one to his, but his eyes were only for her safety, which gave her enough strength not to cry out in terror as she felt like doing inside.

'M-M-M-Matt… I'm…'

'I know,' he whispered, his voice still strong and without fear. 'I know. Don't be scared. I'm with you, Sora.'

The people made her gasp and feel the prod of the rock's tip at the ball of her throat, their masks turned to face them with false, tribal eyes. What they were thinking behind the masks was beyond her, and quite frankly, rational thought was, too. She was scared, and that was all she was.

'You speak Milo's tongue?'

A woman spoke to them, her hands loosening about the spear's spine. The others did the same, but Sora's eyes were all for the one still inches from her throat.

'Where are you from? Speak now! Tara colos mo nemenk ra!'

The woman pointed at them like intruders within her home, which Sora figured they were, her misting eyes flitting to Matt's expression, and she knew through the special link she had with him that he thought the same, and so he spoke, arms wrapping around Tai's legs nervously, nearly upsetting his balance.

'We're from… the surface,' Matt said this with his eyes darting between her and the watery sky above and then back to her. 'We… we're… our friend here needs help… can you help us with him?'

The woman might have hesitated, as she slowly retracted the spear of the one with it pointed over Sora's throat, letting her breath a tad easier, though her heart was still stuck in it. Then she grasped her mask and pulled it off, revealing herself a kindly looking woman with blue markings under her eye and a glinting blue crystal dangling from her necklace.

'What are your names?'

'I'm Matt,' he said, looking to Sora urgently, but she couldn't manage it, her throat seizing up. 'And this is Sora – the most precious person to me.'

The woman eyed him crookedly, suspicious. 'And your friend?'

'This is Tai.'

She walked over casually and inspected him with an inquisitive look. Matt didn't dare to twitch as she did so, Sora assuming he gathered what she had; this woman was the leader.

'I am Kida,' she said slowly. 'You shall come with us and we shall inspect your friend.'

'Right…' Sora managed, breathing heavily. 'Where are we, anyway?'

'This is Atlantis,' Kida said, making a gesture, the others removing their masks and retracting their spears, bowing in greeting. 'You are the first visitors in a long time. Milo and I sealed the entrance long ago.'

'Why?'

'It does not matter,' Kida said quickly, nodding in the direction of the ancient city. 'Atlantis is welcome to you.'

'But why'd you seal it if we're welcome?'

Kida's face turned quickly into a scowl.

'Never mind,' Matt corrected. 'Do you think you can help Tai?'

'We shall see. Come.'