Present: The Real World

"No!" Tai screamed at the top of his lungs.  "Kari!"

He and Matt threw themselves at the stone doors that separated them from their younger siblings.  "TK!"  The two young men pounded violently with their fists, scraping and cutting their skin.  Blood started to trickle down the sides of their hands.

But, for them, physical pain was the least of their worries.

"WarGreymon!" Tai cried.  Tears poured from his bloodshot eyes.  "Keep firing!  We have to break through!"

"But Tai..." the giant knight-like dinosaur shook his head.  The constant bombardment of attacks was having no effect on the rock wall and was wasting precious energy.  But that wasn't what bothered him.  He was frightened at his Digi-Destined's show of anger and hostility.  His partner was the keeper of the Crest of Courage.  But this display of determination wasn't courage.  It was a desperation fueled by hate.

Matt swung around, looking up at his Mega-level digital monster with eyes that burned with fury.  "Do it, MetalGarurumon!" he yelled.  His voice was harsh with a heated passion, but something else lingered in his tone of voice as tears streaked down his face.  It was sadness.  It was worry.  It was fear.  "TK is in there!  We have to go in after him!" he pleaded.

But the wolf digimon just stood there, doing nothing except looking down upon his human partner with extreme concern.  He had never seen Matt so distraught.

Tai huffed and puffed, his chest rising and falling as he breathed hard.  He looked up at WarGreymon with infuriated eyes, but, when he saw that his digimon was not going to obey his orders, the rage quickly vanished and was immediately replaced with gloom.  It hurt WarGreymon to see Tai so despondent, so torn apart, especially when Tai turned his back to him and proceeded to attack the sealed doors once again.  Matt quickly followed.

"RRRRAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!" the boys growled.

Tai ran up to the doors, throwing his body against the massive stone as if he thought it would have an effect.  "I have to get her!"

"TK!" Matt cried.

Davis and Ken stood side by side with Paildramon and Valkyrimon behind them.  The boys' eyes started to water as they witnessed the older boys trying to do the impossible, all for the sake of their loved ones.  Everyone, human and digimon, just stood there in an aching silence as their hearts went out to Matt and Tai.

But Sora couldn't stand it anymore.  It was tearing her up inside to see her boyfriend and her best friend that way.  "No!" she screamed through rolling tears.  Her face was red from crying so hard.  "Stop it!"  She ran to them, her arms reaching out to the young men who held a special place in her heart.  "Stop it!"

MetalGarurumon and WarGreymon quickly de-digivolved back into their Rookie forms.

The blonde boy repeatedly beat on the rock wall, aggravating the cuts on his hands.  "TK!"  But suddenly, he felt a pair of trembling hands grab his own.  He turned to yell at whoever was trying to stop him.  "You can't..." he raised his voice.  But when he saw a pair of wine-colored eyes looking sorrowfully at him, he stopped mid-sentence.  "S...So...Sora...?" his voice cracked, hoarse from screaming and crying.

The red-headed girl held Matt's bloody hand in hers, bringing it to her chest.  "Matt..." she barely got out his name.  Fresh tears started to make their way down her cheek.

"Tai!" a little yellow dinosaur called out the brown-haired boy's name, running to him.

The young man kept pounding away, but with every hit, he became weaker.  "No..." he cried, speaking softly.  His voice hinted at exhaustion.  "Kari..."

Agumon reached Tai just as the boy fell to his knees, covering his face with his blood-stained hands.  "Tai..."  The Rookie-level digimon didn't waste another second.  Agumon opened his small arms and took his human partner into a loving embrace.  "Tai..."

"I failed her, Agumon," Tai's body shook.  "I couldn't even help her..."

"No," Sora shook her head.  Her hand reached up and touched Matt on the side of his face gingerly as she peered deep into his blue eyes.  "There was nothing you could do.  Nothing any of us could do," she told him.  Then she turned to look at Tai as well.  "But they can take care of themselves," she continued.  "And they are together with their digimon."  Her burgundy eyes sparkled with a faint amount of hope.  "You have to believe in them."

"But if anything were to happen to TK..." Matt started to say.

But Gabumon wouldn't let him finish.  The little furry creature stepped up to the young man, reaching up and taking hold of Matt's other hand.  "We'll find him," the digimon assured him.  "And Kari and Cody and Tsuriai, too."

"We'll find a way back to the Digital World and destroy Negabyte once and for all," came a new voice.  Davis stood beside Ken, his hand balled in a fist and his arm up in the air.  "And we'll bring everybody home."

The quiet, shy dark-haired boy known as Ken looked on at the scene of humans and their digimon partners as he cradled Leafmon in his arms.  Paildramon and Valkyrimon decided to de-digivolve as well, and now DemiVeemon sat on Davis' shoulder, and Hawkmon stood beside Ken.  "So this is what it's like to be part of a team," he spoke lowly to himself.  No one else could hear him except his and Yolei's digimon.  "To be part of the Digi-Destined."  A single tear trickled down his cheek.  He couldn't get the image of a certain lavender-haired girl out of his head.  Yolei had been hurt badly in an effort to protect his parents from the Viral Agents.  And now, he stood there, wondering about her as he watched the heart-wrenching scene at the gate to the Digital World.  He was learning that, to be a Digi-Destined, you had to face danger, you had to protect the ones you loved, and you had to suffer unspeakable anguish.  "It hurts."

Suddenly, Ken felt someone reach up and touch his arm.  "Yes," a slightly familiar voice answered him.  "It does."  The dark-haired boy looked down.  He discovered a feathered digimon looking right back at him, but with compassionate eyes.  He was neither smiling nor frowning.  He could see that the bird-like digital monster was sad, but he was also hopeful.

"Hawkmon..." Ken's heart reached out to the poor digimon.

"But it will be alright in the end," the bird digimon continued.  "It may take a while, but we can make it go away," he said.  "The pain will heal."  Then the bird hung his head, his eyes shut tight as he remembered the way Yolei screamed for his help when she was attacked.  "I just hope Yolei..."

Ken fell to his knees, reaching his arm out to the Rookie-level digimon and hugging it.  "She'll be fine," the boy tried his best to comfort the sad digimon.  It was hard enough trying to hide his own uncertainties.  "My parents will make sure she's taken care of."

Davis spied his new friend, Ken, hugging Hawkmon.  He'd overheard their brief conversation.  His brows furrowed as a mix of emotions welled up inside of him.  He was angry at the Viral Agents for what they had done.  He was worried about his good friend, Yolie, for whom he was slowly developing an attraction.  He was scared for his friends trapped in the Digital World, which seemed to be infested and controlled by Viral Agents.  "Why...?" his voice trailed off.

Why...

Scene 6

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