Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ To Forgive, Divine ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

To Forgive, Divine.

Chapter 2

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"No..." was Tai's only reply to Gennai's order. He lowered his head. "It's not my f-f-fault! I-I tried..."

***flashback***

Both Tai and Mimi were leaving the store and Tai was carrying loads of packages and new clothes for Mimi. "Thank you for helping me." Mimi said to Tai.

"Anything for a friend" Tai replied. Izzy had been busy and Mimi needed some help carrying the packages so she managed to rope Tai into her shopping trip.

But as they went toward his car, someone from the alley grabbed Mimi away. Tai dropped the packages and ran after the assailant, only to find himself facing the business end of the gun.

The assailant had mask over his face to hide his identity. He shouted both to Mimi and Tai "Your purse and wallet! Quick if you value your life!"

Tai then lurched to the assailant to try and stop him. But the gun had gone off, hitting Tai in his leg. Tai yelped and went down in pain as the assailant told him "Bad move!" He then shot a couple times into Mimi before grabbing her purse and ran off.

Mimi never cried in pain, she just slumped down. Tai managed to crawl over to Mimi and held her in his arms. "Please don't die!" he said it over and over, crying a bit.

Ambulance finally came to pick up both and took them to the hospital. Tai had spent several days in the hospital recovering from the massive blood loss. The doctor said he was just a few minutes away from having bled to death.

Mimi never woke up at all.

Unfortunately, the assailant was never caught.

***back to reality***

Tai looked like he was about to have a breakdown from having to remember the last moments of his friend's life. He felt like he was about the throw up. He never noticed that the Crest of Courage hidden in his chest had begun to glow.

The Digiport gate closed down, much to Tai's surprise. He wiped his tears away as Gennai said "You were braver than you give credit for. You stayed with her even though you knew you needed help, allowing Mimi her last few moments in your safe and peaceful hands. But it took real courage to bring up sad memories, just as you did." The holo image extended his hand for Tai.

Tai was still shaking a bit from having to recall such a bad memory that he buried away for six years. He managed to find the holo's hand and they shook it. "Welcome back, Tai. I'm glad you've decided to stay with us."

Izzy had dropped himself even closer to the ground. "Oh what have I done?" Now that he finally heard the full story, he was beginning to realize Tai did indeed tried to help. And it was not his fault after all. Izzy could only bury his face in his hands. "Oh Tai, Tai... can you ever forgive me?"

Matt couldn't even look now that he found out Tai hadn't quit on Mimi and that he wasn't a coward after all. "Tai... I'm... sorry." Matt still couldn't look in Tai's eyes.

Tai finally took a look at Izzy. "It's my fault. I should have told you long ago but I could never bring myself to face the nightmare. I can forgive you if you can forgive me." Izzy only nodded. "And Matt, I accept your apology."

The holo image told Tai "You may come to my house. Your sister awaits you there." The image vanished as Tai started to walk away from the camp site. Now only three remained at the camp site.

-----

Later in the afternoon, TK was sitting all alone by the river. He was a bit shaken from Tai's full story. He threw a stone and it skipped across the surface a few times before it sank in the water.

Matt found TK and joined him by the river. "How do you feel?" he asked TK.

TK never responded, only continued to throw stone across the river. Matt looked at his little half brother who was now an adult. But TK was still his brother. "Please, tell me..."

***flashback***

Matt had finally found some free time so he flew to Japan to meet with TK and Nancy. When he arrived at their apartment, he called out "Mom! Where's TK? He said he needed me a few weeks ago."

"He's in his bedroom" Nancy turned and went to TK's room and said "TK, your brother is here to see you."

"Send him away! I don't have a brother!" came the angry sounding reply.

That word had struck Matt really painfully like daggers to his heart. Some months later when Matt got together with the family for Christmas, TK never spoke a word to him and wouldn't listen to him either. He hadn't seen TK since then...

***back to reality***

Matt clutched his chest. It still pained to this day. The words had stuck with him since then and no matter how he tried, the pain wouldn't go away. "...TK?"

"You wouldn't come when I needed you!" TK snapped. He was starting to get upset.

"Couldn't" Matt corrected before realizing he shouldn't have said it.

"Wouldn't!" TK countered. "I tried to get you to come home to Japan but you said you were booked for a month! You could have postponed your concerts but nooooo!" TK threw his arms up in anger. "You'd rather make more money!"

TK had started to cry a bit. Matt leaned over and patted TK's shoulder. "Can you tell me now why you needed me then?"

TK gave the silent treatment again. "TK, I can't read your mind and I can't help you if you won't talk."

TK sniffed and choked a bit as he thought back a few hours ago when Tai had opened up his old memory like an old wounds. He realized he can't keep it hidden anymore no matter how much it would hurt. "A few months after Mimi died, I started having strange fainting spells and I always felt tired even if I had long sleep. I always was feeling hungry no matter what I had. And I was having unusual weight loss. So my Mom took me to the doctor for some tests."

TK bought his knees up together and he buried his head in them. "The doctor found out I have Type 1 diabetes. All those candies I've been eating since Mimi's death had caused my pancreas to overload, accelerated the damage from a genetic defect, and eventually it stopped working properly. As a result I wasn't getting enough insulin and so my body couldn't get enough glucose to function."

He started crying softly. "If I hadn't eaten so much sugary stuff, I might not have had diabetes so soon! I needed you!"

He looked up to Matt, making an eye contact in non threatening way for the first time in many years. "I have to spend the rest of my life pricking my finger for blood test and sticking needles in myself for insulin shots."

Matt couldn't find any word. He could only rub TK's back. "What happened to you playing music just for fun?"

Matt finally spoke up "I'm so sorry. If only I knew..." He shook his head and then hung his head rather low. "I'll tell you what. When we get back, I'll take some time off so we can have some time together. If my agent objects, tough!"

TK looked up to his older brother and wiped the tears off of his face. "I'm sorry I called you mean things. Will you still be my brother?"

Matt leaned over to hug TK. "You're forgiven. I should have put my families before business. And you shouldn't let the diabetes rule you life. Maybe one day a cure would be invented that would reverse diabetes."

"You're right I shouldn't have let myself so down. I should have kept the hope that I could be cured. Thank you, I needed you a lot."

Both TK and Matt noticed the Crest of Hope had begun to glow from TK's chest. As if on cue, the holo image of Gennai appeared in front of TK. The holo looked odd because he appeared to be floating on the surface of the river. "TK, welcome back, and thank you. Your friend awaits you at my house."

As TK got up, he looked to his brother, who was still on the ground. "Good luck, bro."

Matt nodded as he watched TK walk in the direction of Gennai's house.

-----

As soon as TK entered Gennai's house, Kari grabbed TK. "I heard everything. I'm so sorry!"

TK wrapped his arms around Kari. "Save your self pity. The worst is yet to come." He said, referring to Matt and Izzy. "They hadn't spoken for many years and I don't know if they would ever get back together."

Kari gave TK an odd look. "That doesn't sound like Hope speaking. You're sure it's you?" Then she planted a quick kiss to show she was kidding a bit.

Sora and Joe came up to congratulate TK. Tai also met with TK and extended his hand. "That took a lot of courage to talk about it."

TK accepted the handshake. "It was you, actually that helped me. When you spilled your gut, it got me to thinking that keeping old emotions bottled up was causing our problem in the first place. And it defiantly made it easier for me to talk with Matt."

"Anytime, TK" Tai replied, and gave a friendly slug to TK's shoulder.

Gennai came around and handed everyone a cool glass of thick yellow cream. "It's egg nog. Drink up!" He took a quick sip. "Aaahhhh" he said. "And TK is right, those two remaining Digidestined have a lot of work cut out before they can rediscover their Crests and make peace between them."

"When they do get their problem out of the systems and their Crests healed, we can finally have a long overdue Christmas party!" Gennai looked up to the Christmas tree, which was missing only one thing. The star was not placed on top as of yet... "Oh that reminds me I hadn't invited your Digimon over yet." He had a bit of sheepish grin.

Kari asked "What drove them apart for so long?"

"I can't tell all the details. All I can say was that about a month after Mimi died, I tried to get in touch with Izzy but he wasn't checking emails. Since Matt was closer to Izzy's apartment at that time I had him sent over to Izzy's apartment to deliver my message. Matt tried and they have been spilt ever since."

"Can you tell me what the message that Izzy had to know was?" Kari was interested since it was so unlike even for Izzy not to check emails.

"The message was me" came the new voice from behind Gennai.

Everyone was beyond dumbfounded at the newcomer. "Oh my God!" Sora exclaimed and would have fallen if it wasn't for Tai. Kari had fainted dead away.

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What did Matt or Izzy do that drove them into a 6 years long non-speaking hiatus? Will Izzy and Matt ever reconcile their differences? And what or who was the newcomer??

To be continued...