Disclaimer: I have written a Haiku about disclaimers:

What do you think? Errrrr…It’s, um, good (crosses paws). Ha ha. I can see you crossing your paws, Batpig.

But, never fear! This will not be the last story I write! I fully intend to write another! But, that’s enough talk. Uh-huh. You talk twice as much. The court agrees.

What will happen now?! Nothing exciting. Tai will kiss Sora, and someone says `All’s well that ends well`. Mimi, I will tell you how to make a love potion for Matt if you put a dark ring on Batpig. All right! (Batpig gets those weird red eyes as DEM puts a dark ring on him) Batpig, go fetch Matt! Yes Mistress…

"TAI?!" Matt yelled. Tai didn’t react. He just stood there, glaring at the digidestined. There was a coldness in his eyes that had never been there before.

"Me," he said calmly. His voice was harsh, as if he hadn’t ever cared for anyone in his whole life. His eyes flicked from digidestined to digidestined, recalling memories of them.

He looked at Mimi, trembling. He took in her outfit and sneered, "Still an airhead. What a surprise." Her eyes filled with tears of hurt. She couldn’t believe that it was Tai who had said that.

Then his gaze flicked to Izzy. The redhead stood, paralysed with fear, but most of all, shock. He (Tai) sighed, "I might have guessed you would still have that pathetic computer strapped to your back." Izzy bit his lip, trying not to reply.

Joe bit his own lip (some very chewed lips) as Tai’s gaze swept to him. However, he couldn’t stop trembling. Tai sneered, "Good to see the group can still rely on you to wet your pants." Joe stayed in the same position, but he could feel a small flame of anger spring up in his mind.

TK frowned as Tai looked at him. He was expecting a comment about how young he was, so he was surprised when Tai said, "I have to admit you grew a bit since I last saw you, but you look just as harmless. Some things never change." TK clenched his fists, but was secretly pleased that Tai thought he had grown up (You mean he hasn’t really?).

Kari couldn’t believe that it was her brother saying all of these things. When he looked at her, their gazes locked and Kari could see a tiny flicker of emotion in his eyes, but a moment later, it was gone, "Well, you seem to have managed to not get killed without me. I guess miracles will never cease." Kari could feel her anger grow, but fought it.

As he looked at Sora, he saw the hurt in her eyes. She couldn’t believe he had once been her boyfriend. They locked gazes, then looked away. Tai spoke, "Looks like you didn’t miss me, then. You seem pretty happy." She glanced at him, but he wouldn’t look back until she’d looked away again.

Matt wouldn’t wait for Tai to say anything to him. Instead, he (Matt) said, "Tai, why did you leave? We needed you!"

"No, Matt. None of the group needed me." Tai replied. His voice was calm, but they could all hear the anger that it masked.

"DIDN’T NEED YOU? Of course we did! You were the leader!"

"And got us into every single mess! I was hopeless! I didn’t even check to see if where we were going was safe! Any of you could have got killed!"

"You got us out of them, too! You were the one who killed Etemon, MetalSeadramon and Machinedramon! And you helped with VenomMyotismon and Piedmon!"

"Agumon killed them! And you could have killed VenomMyotismon with MetalGarurumon, but you let WarGreymon risk his life! And MagnaAngemon defeated Piedmon, not me, or Agumon!"

"I couldn’t have defeated VenomMyotismon by myself! Besides, what about the others? Are you telling me you left just because no one needed you?"

"Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying! I almost got all of you killed, and you made it a bit obvious that you didn’t think I should be in charge!"

"What, are you saying it’s all my fault? You’re the one who kept fighting me!"

"What about that time you fought me when we were supposed to fighting Puppetmon? The whole group split up because of you!"

"That was just a mistake! Anyone could have done it!"

"Oh, sure, I can just see Joe wrestling me to the floor! And you beat Puppetmon yourself, remember? You certainly didn’t need me then!"

"I was just protecting the others!"

"From Puppetmon, or from one of my mistakes?"

Matt couldn’t think of a reply. Tai smiled, then turned to Pterodactylmon, "Take them to somewhere where they can rest. I will talk with them later."

Minutes later, the group was split up, the girls going into one room, and the boys in another. As soon as Pterodactylmon left, Matt exploded, "I can’t believe it! We don’t see him for ages, and then he acts as if he’s been brainwashed!"

"Brainwashing usually means losing your memory, and he had plenty of that," Izzy pointed out.

The girls were having a similar conversation, "He said that I couldn’t take care of myself! I mean, we’ve had our moments, but he’s never gone that far!" Kari yelled.

"I know. And I can’t believe that he said all that to Matt! Those two didn’t exactly get on before, but they’ve never been like that," Mimi agreed. Sora didn’t say anything. She just looked out of the window, thinking of the boy Tai once was.

Tai stalked outside. He kept walking, until he stopped to rest on the edge of a cliff. He stared out to sea, then his eyesight travelled down to look at the sharp rocks at the bottom.

There was a stomping noise behind him, and he turned to see his Greymon walking towards him. He smiled, "Hi Greymon. Did Pterodactylmon tell you?"

"Yeah. You know, Tai, Matt had a good point. Any messes you did get us into, you got us out again."

"I know, but do you think I’m going to tell him that? I’m not sinking that far!"

"All the same, you should talk to them. If you can’t face Matt, don’t see him. If you don’t want to see them all together, see them one by one."

"I’ll think about it," Tai replied, waving a hand, motioning that he wanted to be alone with his thoughts.

Pterodactylmon flapped a wing against the boys’ room’s door. TK opened it slightly, then fully when he saw it was. The Digimon swooped in and perched on the end of a bed. The other boys looked up.

"Hi, Pterodactylmon. What are you doing here?" Joe asked.

Pterodactylmon sighed, "Well, Tai asked me to ask one of you to see him by yourself. The problem is, I don’t which one of you to ask, so I thought I’d let you decide."

"You call him Tai now? What to happened `The Dino Master`?" Matt asked, "And besides, why does he want to see us?"

"I thought you would know who I was talking about then. And all I know is that Greymon told him he should try talking to you."

"His Greymon? As in, the one who digivolved from Agumon?" Izzy questioned.

"They all digivolve from Agumon, but yes. That one. Anyway, who’s coming?"

There was silence for a minute, then Matt asked, "Are any of the girls coming, or is it just the boys?"

"One boy, and one girl. If you have any more questions, I’m sure Tai’ll be happy to enlighten you."

The boys exchanged glances, then Matt stood up, "I’ll go. There are a few things I want to ask him."

"OK. Wait here, whilst I get a girl."

As soon as the door was shut, they all looked at Matt, but he looked away. Garurumon frowned (I am sorry the Digimon have not been involved. I couldn’t think of somewhere to put them). Ever since this whole `Dino Master` thing had started, Matt had been acting the same way he had whilst they were fighting the Dark Masters: Avoiding his friends if possible, and not really acknowledging their status as friends (when did she start using those words? More importantly, what do they mean?).

A minute later, Pterodactylmon returned, with Mimi walking just behind him. As the two adults, their Digimon and the pterodactyl Digimon set off, Matt whispered to her, "Why didn’t one of the others come?"

She replied, "Sora was too busy remembering Tai as a kid, and Kari looked as if she would rather swallow a fly."

Matt smiled at her, and she returned the gesture. Then they looked away, but as they walked along, Matt found himself thinking how sweet her smile looked, whilst Mimi thought about how handsome his smile made him look. However, she thought that he didn’t really need it, as he was already the most amazingly gorgeous boy she’s ever met…

Finally, Pterodactylmon stopped outside a door with the crest of Courage carved into it. Matt took a deep breath, knocked, then he pushed it open and walked inside, closing it behind him.

Tai was leaning on the windowsill, with his back to Matt. There was silence, then Matt cleared his throat. Tai turned round, then frowned when he saw who it was, "What do you want? Still have some insults to say to me?"

"No. I just wanted to ask you something," Matt replied.

"What?"

"How did you get this whole thing going? I mean, getting all these Dinosaur Digimon working together must have been hard."

"It was. And it took a while, believe me. It just started off with a couple of Digimon, then more started arriving, and, eventually, it evolved into this." He waved his hand out of the window.

"Impressive."

"Er, Matt? Do you want to see something?"

"Fine, as long as it doesn’t include football skills."

Tai grinned, then pulled something out of a drawer, and held it out. It was the crest of Courage, inside its tag, just the way it was eleven years ago. Matt gaped at it, "Where did you find it?"

"Right here, in this castle. I could find yours if I looked."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But I’d best talk about it to all of you."

"Well, Mimi’s outside."

"I might as well have a chat with her too. But, Matt?"

"Yeah?"

Tai winked, "Don’t rush into a relationship with her, OK?"

Matt’s mouth dropped open, but Tai ignored him. Matt left, and Mimi entered. He waited outside, until she walked out, then they set off, with Togemon walking, Garurumon padding, and Pterodactylmon flapping behind them.

When Matt reached his room, he found that all the others had already been led to wherever they could eat. At least, that was what Pterodactylmon told him. He was glad. He wasn’t hungry, and he wanted time alone to think. Well, not entirely alone. Garurumon was still with him, of course.

It was same for Mimi, except she eventually went to have her dinner. By the time everyone got back, Matt had gone outside.

He walked along with his hands firmly wedged in his pockets. Garurumon glanced up at him, "Matt? What’s the matter?"

His partner didn’t look at him, "Nothing. I just wanted to be alone." They carried on walking, when Matt stopped. He could see someone’s silhouette on a cliff, and he recognised the spiky hair.

Minutes later, he sat down next to Tai. He (Tai) glanced at him, but Matt just stared ahead. Soon, the two of them started to feel sleepy. Tai yawned, "We’d best get back to the castle."

When Matt opened the door to his room, the other boys were all asleep, except TK. He opened his eyes when his brother fell on the empty bed next to him. He whispered, "Where were you?"

"Outside," Matt replied. TK couldn’t get anything else out of him. He sighed and rolled over. Soon he was snoring quietly.

The next day, Matt had to explain to the boys what he and Tai had talked about (Mimi had told the girls her conversation the day before) during breakfast. When he finished, there was silence, then Joe said, slowly, "He knows where our crests are?"

"Yes," Matt replied, just as slowly, to annoy him. Just then, Tai walked past the door.

He paused for a second, "In case anyone’s interested, I found out where your crests are this morning."

Izzy stood up, "Really?" Tai just nodded. He continued, "Where?"

"In the basement."

Matt frowned. Tai was being too abrupt. He stood up next to Izzy, "What’s the matter?"

Tai sighed, "The other day, a Tyrannomon spotted something going down there. It could be nothing, but you can’t take too many chances."

"What if just two or three of us go down to check it out?"

"I suppose so. Anyway, I’m definitely going. I used to be the leader, after all."

"I’ll go too. Just in case you chicken out."

None of the girls fancied the idea, and then Izzy said, "I’ll go with you. Someone needs to make sure that the two of you don’t end up fighting."

Soon, the three men were standing in front of a set of stairs that led down into the basement. Tai went first, then Matt, and then Izzy. As they reached the bottom, Matt asked, "Tai, why did you say that you used to be leader?"

Tai didn’t answer, but he became fascinated by a bug crawling across the floor.

Suddenly, they heard something coming out of the darkness, saying, "Courage and Friendship. Just who I wanted. Knowledge can have a nap, though."

Out of nowhere, a black hand collided with Izzy, knocking him out. Then the corridor became illuminated, and Matt and Tai gasped.

Standing in front of them was a black dragon, with a looooong tail, which ended in a sword shape. His scales sparkled like black jewels, and so did his eyes. A drop of blood fell from his teeth, and the two men shivered. Then the dragon threw some kind of necklace at Matt. He caught it and looked at it. It was his crest. He looked up at the dragon.

He growled, "My name is Darkdramon. I hold the dark crests, and I came here to destroy your group’s crests. However, I’ll give you one chance to save them."

"Wait a second. Dark crests?" Matt interrupted.

"Yes, dark crests. As in Fear and Despair and so on. But I have far more than your pathetic group. I have War, but you don’t have Peace. I have Pride, but you don’t have Modesty."

"This is a nice chat and everything, but would you please get on with it?" Tai interrupted, rubbing his forehead.

"Well, if you two stop interrupting, I will. Anyway, I can draw on the powers of these crests, which means I can make humans and Digimon feel the power of them. Actually, I was part of the reason you two kept fighting. I just used a bit of Hatred to power up the hatred you already had in your hearts.

Hatred is probably one of my favourite ones to use, actually. I used that to start the argument eleven years ago that started this whole `Dino Master` business. It was so much fun watching the two of you fighting like that. Then I just used some Sadness to make Courage here so upset he ran away."

Tai clenched his fists, and Matt could feel his anger bubbling up inside of him. Then he (Matt) thought of something, "Why did you want all this to happen? And why did you knock out Izzy, but left us conscious?"

"Because there is a rhyme about me, and the two of you. Actually, it’s more like a prophecy. It goes like this:

Therefore, I must test you. If I don’t, who knows what could happen?"

Matt and Tai looked at each other. Then Tai frowned, and Matt knew what he was thinking. Simultaneously, they took out their digivices and held their crests in the other hand. The crests began to glow, and so did Greymon and Garurumon.

"Greymon digivolve to MetalGreymon!"

"Garurumon digivolve to WereGarurumon!"

Darkdramon smirked as the two ultimates headed towards him. Then he traced a shape in the air. Black smoke hovered where he had drawn, in the shape of a sword, with blood drawn on it. Some kind of lightning was hitting the tip, "Crest of Darkness, use your power to send them back to the beginning!"

The shape started to glow, and then black fire shot from it, engulfing the two ultimates. There was flash of light, and then two strange Digimon fell at Matt and Tai’s feet. One of them looked like a black blob, with yellow eyes and small ears. The other was a red blob with black eyes and three cones on its head.

Matt and Tai picked them up, and then they both looked up at Darkdramon’s face. He was smiling at them, "So, I am the victor. And as the winner, I now kill you. And soon your pathetic friends will follow."

The two men felt their anger boil up inside them. Then Tai opened his mouth, "We wouldn’t have got this far if we gave up to Digimon like you! I don’t care if you’re the master of anything, we won’t let you win!"

Matt joined in, "We’re a team, and neither of us will let our friends down!" He turned to Tai, "Right?"

"Yeah. Come on, let’s get rid of this creep before lunch!"

Their crests began to glow slightly, and their Digimon followed suit, "Botamon digivolve to Koromon! Koromon digivolve to Agumon!"

"Punimon digivolve to Tsunomon! Tsunomon digivolve to Gabumon!"

The two rookies each stood in front of their human, glaring at Darkdramon. The dark dragon laughed, "Right, I get it. Two rookies are going to kill me. Wait a second, I need to write my will."

Tai frowned, "Just because they’re rookies at the moment, it doesn’t mean they can’t digivolve! We’re a team! We never give up, because we know there’s a solution to every problem!"

Matt joined in, "We work together, because one of us always knows what to do! That’s called Teamwork."

"We may get scared sometimes, but we always help each other to conquer it. Otherwise we wouldn’t be a team!" As Tai said this, his crest began to glow brighter.

"We’re all friends, and that’s what holds the team together. Friendship!" Matt’s crest began to emit a bright blue light.

The two crests glowed brighter and brighter, until their light filled the tunnel and everyone had to shield their eyes. Then all the orange light combined and formed a T-Rex, whilst all the blue light formed a wolf.

The T-Rex roared, and then became pure light again, except it started swirling around Tai and Agumon. The wolf howled, became light, then started to swirl around Matt and Gabumon. The two men felt a part of them being transferred into their Digimon. Darkdramon just watched in horror. Then Agumon and Gabumon cried out, "Agumon extreme-digivolve to StarGreymon!"

"Gabumon extreme-digivolve to DiamondGarurumon!"

StarGreymon looked like man in WarGreymon’s armour, except he didn’t have WarGreymon’s wing armour. Instead, he had a huge gold star on his back, with the crest of Courage carved into it. He held a smaller star in his left hand, and wore a pair of gold and orange gloves and boots. Greymon’s tail grew out of his `behind`. Instead of WarGreymon’s orange hair sticking out from under the mask, StarGreymon’s hair was brown and spiky. Just like Tai’s…

DiamondGarurumon looked like a cross between a man and a wolf. His arms and legs were a wolf’s, but he stood upright, just like a man. He wore diamond armour, which covered his arms, legs, back, and face. It was all see-through except for the mask, which looked more like steel. He was wearing torn jeans and a torn T-shirt. He had two pairs of wings like MetalGarurumon’s growing out of his back, except they were diamond. Icy blue eyes glared out the eyeholes in his mask. Launchers were built into his arm armour, and a huge diamond was on his back, in between the pairs of wings. The crest of Friendship was engraved into it. Two blue and white streamers were attached to his mask, and trailed behind him. Garurumon’s tail curved out his you-know-what, just like the streamers. A few strands of spiky blonde hair trailed out of the mask.

"What the…" Tai began, but didn’t know what to say. StarGreymon turned to look at him.

"Well, what do you think?"

Matt gaped, "How…Who…"

"Oh, I guess we’d better introduce ourselves. I am StarGreymon, an ultra Digimon. When Tai proved his courage, and had the same thoughts about teamwork as Matt, I digivolved to the highest level. My Nova Star is one of the most deadly attacks in the Digiworld."

DiamondGarurumon joined in, "My name is DiamondGarurumon. When Matt’s thoughts about friendship and teamwork were the same as Tai’s, I went ultra. My Diamond Blaster will take care of almost any enemy."

"Nova Star!"

"Diamond Blaster!"

StarGreymon’s star became consumed by fire, as he flung it at Darkdramon. Both of DiamondGarurumon’s launchers shot two large diamonds at the enemy. Darkdramon stood still for a second, then he smirked, "Well, if that’s how you want to do it, let me join in. Dark Dragon!"

His outline seemed to waver, and then smoke started to rise from his body. It formed itself into the spitting image of Darkdramon, and swooped towards the star and diamonds. It passed through them easily and almost extinguished the two Digimon as it did so.

Tai frowned, "StarGreymon, don’t let that creep beat you! There’s two of you, so you can easily get rid of him, if you work together! Keep trying! He’s trying to make you give up!"

Matt clenched his fists, "DiamondGarurumon, you can handle him! He doesn’t have any friends, and you’ve got plenty! Tai’s right, he’s just trying to make you give up!"

Tai glanced at him, "What was that?"

"I said that you were right!"

"But you’ve never said that before."

"I know. Before, I wasn’t really thinking about how important the whole team was. Tai, I’m sorry all this happened. I never meant to say all that to you in the park all those years ago."

"I didn’t think you did. Matt, I’ve always thought you were really important to the team. I mean, because you left, the whole group separated. We really did need you."

"I feel the same way about you. When you disappeared, we all split up to find you."

"And we managed to get home because our Digimon beat Apocalymon. That was real teamwork."

"Yeah. The name of the game is teamwork."

Just then, a weird golden light started to glow on their chests, in the shape of two lines twisted together. It glowed brighter and brighter, until nobody could see anything except light. Then it faded, except there were still two floating spheres. One of them swooped down and touched StarGreymon’s large star, then disappeared. The other did the same with DiamondGarurumon’s large diamond.

StarGreymon grabbed his large star and pulled it off his back. DiamondGarurumon tugged his diamond off. Then the star began to glow orange, and the diamond became illuminated with blue light.

"Star of Courage!"

"Diamond of Friendship!"

The orange star was sent spinning through the air, towards Darkdramon, with the blue diamond following it like a torpedo. The two attacks collided with the evil Digimon, and he screamed. Then the golden light appeared again. This time it was just a small glow on each of the men’s chests. They each put a hand over it, and shouted, simultaneously, "Light of Teamwork!"

The light consumed the tunnel once more. Darkdramon screamed louder, then exploded into digi-dust. Then every thing went black for the men.

Kabuterimon was the reason that everyone knew what had happened before the men came round. He hadn’t come down with Izzy, as he was finishing his breakfast. When he came down, Darkdramon was just using the crest of Darkness. He had the sense to stay hidden, and watched everything. When the two men fainted, he turned round and buzzed away to get the other digidestined.

When everyone knew what had happened, they couldn’t believe it. Then, a week later, the two men woke up in their separate rooms. The first thing they did was to see how their Digimon were. Then they met up at the top of the stairs, and walked down together.

There was a silence as the others saw them. Tai glanced at Matt, who returned the look. Then they both started to redden. They felt like everyone was watching them as if they were on TV (In a way, they had, actually).

A few days later, Tai sprung a surprise on them, "You know, we should be going home soon."

Matt repeated, slowly, "`We`?"

Tai sighed, "Look, I’ve actually missed Earth a lot, so I thought I’d go back home."

So, the next day, they returned. Joe rushed home, and Izzy followed suit, as he had a date that night. Kari and TK walked off laughing at something Matt had said, leaving him, Mimi, Tai and Sora under the floating cherry blossoms.

Sora cleared her throat, "If you liked, Tai, you could stay with me."

He looked at her, and nodded. He knew what she meant. They wandered off, hand in hand, together again.

Matt looked at Mimi. She looked back, and, without meaning to, they ended up kissing. They pulled away soon, and separated in a daze. Matt looked up at the sky and knew that, at last, his life was going right…

Batpig: Please stay away from that subject.