Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ The Dark Horizon ❯ Where do horizons end? ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: I don't own them. sad but true. Well this is the epilogue to dark horizons my little series from hell. I have had moments of pleasure with this series, but more frustration and writer's block then I think I would deserve if I was a reincarnation of the man who invented the infomercial or discovered Brittany spheres and got her that contract that opened the proverbial gateway to surround-sound hell. Well... maybe I deserve the writer's block if I had unleashed the pop pain upon the world... this chapter is too short, and uneventful. Its saving logic is that since they are immortal and lifetimes flow through repeating patterns where no drastic changes occur, it makes sense that this chapter wouldn't be a conventional epilogue. I was on the edge of making tai a hybrid like that clever reviewer suggested, but ultimately I decided to make him go chibi and illustrate that there is a purpose behind their incarnations, and that they didn't do what they had to do in the last lifetime. Sorry about the wait on this one... I have senior year finals and a trip to Aruba, so I was swamped for a while.

Mail me at logan91235@aol.com

Dark Horizon

by Logan

"Where do horizons end?"

The corridor was dark and cast into cool artificial night. There was a faint smell of pine cleaning fluid in the air as the renowned scientist made his way to the corridor's end which faced off like a small balcony into a much larger chamber which hazed like smokey air. The floor was metal, though a lavish carpet had been rolled outward from the main hall and now marked the path to where he was bid to go, into the large alcove filled with the soft smokey light.

He wasn't nervous for he had walked this same corridor several times this month alone. It was more then many of the more acclaimed politicians could boast. Being asked to speak before the newly formed council. A conglomeration of the ruling bodies of both the space transport guild, various colony governors, and also the appointed leaders of the various countries of the newly restored earth. This covenant was new in many ways. It was the first forum, since the ancient united nations, where leaders would be able to discuss and negotiate policy with the intent on resolving conflicts without resorting to another war.

As all truly visionary ideas are, this council was fragile in its adolescence. Hostilities could quite possibly break this fragile thing apart and leave all hope dust and ash in this world that for the first time, had a good foothold with which to recover. If this was to work then it needed coddling in its infancy... and it had been receiving just that since its origins. Immortals had taken up positions of power within the governing body of this conclave, and now they gently urged it onward in the right direction.

He stepped beyond the threshold and felt the warmth of the white lighting which bathed his skin in ivory and illuminated the copper tendrils of his hair. He looked up at the circular alcove which were stacked one on top of the other before the peninsula in which he stood. He looked up and found the familiar faces of joe who now resided as chief representative to the medical boards. The doctor looked down at him, though showed no sign of recognition. If this arrangement of hidden immortals was to be successful, it depended on secrecy.

"All to order! The conclave recognizes Izumi!" a female voice of soft timbre called out with authority bound to her position. Izzy smirked softly as he looked up at Mimi. She risked a quick smile to him before returning to her duties.

"Welcome back mr Izumi."

"Thank you for seeing me madam arbitrator, members of the conclave." he looked up at the figures of various men and women dressed in finer attire who now looked down on him with interest.

"Nonsense, your onions and observations have proved to be very notable. We value your insights." Mimi spoke in the tone of authority.

"Very well. I come to you on the issue of the new earth's colonization. Plans are being made to expand new colonies on the earth so it can establish further industry. I offer the conclave the benefit of a history lesson. Earth was destroyed by the very things now being brought forth. I am aware that it would be hundreds of years before the effects of this action to become notable, but I implore you all to remember the end result of those actions.

There are many issues that all demand attention, many more pressing then the reintegration to big industry on the planet. Relations to the new digital world for instance, or the fact that children are being born partnered to digimon who will potentially develop into very real threats. Even as we speak there are organic digimon out there who are capable of performing an act known as digivolution. It would appear that these digimon are different from those previously recorded in history. The digimon of the past were not capable of the mecha-digivolution that these new generation digimon are doing. It would seem that they have evolved as a species...

These matters are all pressing and bear great attention, but I fear that if we overlook the issue of development of the new earth it will begin a chain reaction of expansion and resource depletion that will ultimately lead us to the same end.

Another plague born of human mistakes may permanently eradicate digimon and human life. We were given a reprieve by the digital realm, but if we do not make significant effort I fear that we will eventually return to life trapped in the colonies with no planet of origin.

Humanity barley survived the wars and conflicts while in space. Colonies were never meant to house such a Populus, and the strain almost pushed us to extinction.

I ask that this conclave takes serious action in policing the expansion of mankind on the earth sphere. If we permit big industry to take dominion over the earth, we are damning ourselves to the same dark future we once endured." he paused as the delegates erupted in a thousand different conversations heated in argument as if his speech had stirred them as an alarmed flock of birds. He was silent as he heard them quarrel as all delegates do. There were accusations and argumentative shouts that soon set the chamber afire with baloney. Izzy was grateful as Mimi rose and quelled them with a strumming of a metal orb held in hand that served as gavel in this new conclave. It sparked and clanged against the metal cell which she peered out through as now she glowered upon them. several more clangs had spit out silver sparks before each delegate now hushed and looked into the girl's eyes. Mimi had smothered their words with a gaze capable of reducing magma to pyrite stone. Izzy had chosen well when he called her to be the head of this conclave.

Mimi was ideal... she bore no allegiance to colony or to earth. This life had began for her aboard a transport ship filled with vagrants without home. She had drifted her entire childhood and then mortal life without ever touching anything more then the hull of the large vessel where she had been born and supposedly would die therein.

In her mortal life she had been born from rape, and it would have seemed that her father carried a spark of perversion beyond that sin and straight to anouther. when she was thirteen her father finished what he began with her mother, and in the aftermath of that mind shattering hellish act, he awoke the true Mimi.

Only izzy and joe knew of her awaking into immortality this lifetime. The ship in which they traveled had been destroyed in an explosion of questionable origins. Mimi never owned up to the lethal discharge which killed her father and many other vagrant families. She had escaped in a pod, and watched as the prison her parents had sentenced her to, in their paranoia, was left as flaming scrap.

She had no alliances for all they knew, and she was well spoken with a gift for influencing others. She was accepted as the chairwoman mainly due to this act.

She spoke. "This conclave shall not be cast into further chaos. Each member who wishes to make a statement may do so in turn. Mr Kaiya, the conclave recognizes you.

"We members of the earth development guild deeply resent such allocations on your part mr Izumi. You have proven yourself to be a valued voice in this conclave, but do not step outside your expertise, you are a scientist and that doesn't give grounds to suck statements."

"With all due respect sir, my relation to this conclave is not classified to the scientific guild, I am a independent, and thus may speak on whichever field I choose. I meant no insult to your gild, but if you feel I am more qualified to speak scientifically I will do so.

Your conglomerates are among those in favor of the leveling of rainforest land. While i admit that will have little effect considering the amount you plan to harvest, it will however open the door to further advancements into the ecosystem. Less trees means less filtered air, which means more carbon dioxide in the oxygen. Excessive co2 filters into humans and builds up to the same epidemic found beginning in some of the lower income colonies.

I ask the representative of the medical guild to please explain the effects of the carbon syndrome..." izzy motioned to joe who rose and adjusted his glasses.

" Carbonic Muscularity Toxicity syndrome, or The Syndrom, as it has come to be known is a rising cause death among children in the space colonies. The excess of carbon dioxide in the air gradually builds up in the respiratory system, causing red blood cells to become deformed and thus causing all organs to begin to degrade. This syndrome grows worse each generation and ultimately ends in the death of children too weak to survive long enough to pass on the deficiency. The muscle tissue degrades rapidly, causing them to be bedridden. They tend to die of cardiac failure or of respiratory deterioration. It's a horrible way to die and completely avoidable with adequate filtration of oxygen."

Izzy had stopped listening now. The argument was now between them. he would not be asked to contribute further and so with a slight bow he departed through the same corridor he had just entered through. As he passed it he was joined by three figures, each armed and formidable. Izzy smiled to them as they joined him.

"How did it go?" Takeru questioned as he remained focused on the path ahead.

"I started a fight... they might make the right decision, but at least they will be talking about it. Mimi and joe will make sure of that."

" good plan koshiro." Kari mentioned as she trotted at his side. "Have Mimi there as head of the conclave to insure that everyone will have a chance to state their opinions... and with joe as head of the medical guild he can prevent any motion from being unanimous. They would have to focus on it as opposed to just skimming over the issue."

"Doesn't mean they will make the correct decision" TK said softly.

"No.."

"But at least they have the chance." Braedon chimed in as he brought up the rear. There were doubts about this conclave... but there was hope from within it. They didn't speak any more of it as their words soon became drowned away by their booted footfalls on the metal floor. Marching off to a war without end, but one that must be fought. The soldiers of destiny... the digidestined. A sad troop of battle weary soldiers bound to their station only in honor and the most altruistic aspects of the species from which they originated. They marched down the hallway and off to other errands that could potentially win an endless war under the faded, and yet limitlessly exalted flag of hope.

They walked down the hallway as only three. But in a way beyond all others, they were legions unto themselves.

**************

the woman's voice raised across the grassy lawn and fell upon the boy's ears he smiled up at her from where he sat stooped on the lush grassy earth. At his side was a white tablet of drawing paper and a box from which several crayons of various bright and sunny colorations spilled upon the grass. A small black furry digimon lay at his side curled up in sleep. The baby digimon had only recently hatched, and was still concerned primarily with sleep. His hair was a nest of chestnut locks that was vaguely proofed and tousled as is often the style created by active children without mind for hair care. He craned his neck back across the lawn and gave a smile as bright as the day around him. The woman with the long hair of a similar hue to the boy's waved to him as she called out.

"Tai, it's almost time to come in!" she called out as her blue sun dress flailed softly in the cool breeze that whispered over the treetops from the nearby. There was a resemblance between her and the boy, but not a truly profound one, as this boy's origins spanned somewhat farther than the woman would come to know. They shared the bronze complection as any two who loved the daytime would, but the nature of both mother and son was more clearly shown in their mannerisms. Both were innocent and that was truly special in this age of questioning and darkness.

Taichi was the only child of Natasha Lewis, widowed before her son's birth.. They were one of the first families to live on this new earth. Tomas was killed in an accident, leaving her and his son to a hard life. Tai was all that saved her from losing herself in the grief that could touch her all too easily if she didn't fight it.

He was born here, the first son of this new world. She had preyed for a healthy child, but never were expecting Taichi. All children are special in their own ways, but this one little boy seemed to be something more then what he appeared to be. He was gentle in a way that warmed the heart, and capable of more kindness and love then any other little boy could muster. He seemed different at times, in a way that could not be placed and could not even be adequately described. Though she was1 unsure of how exactly he was different, she thanked god for it, for he was all that could have dreamed in a little boy, and it was that difference in him that carried her through her great loss.

"Ok mommy! Just let me finish my picture!" he called back with a slightly childish slur to his speech. He grinned at her and then returned to his drawing. It was brightly hued and though somewhat scribbly, very well done for a boy his age. It featured a common theme for little kids who dreamed of adventure. The scene depicted a mech flying through the darkness of space with thrusters roaring. The scene could have originated from any story told from any one of the many wars in which mechs were present, though in all likelihood they were not grinning with large cartoonish smiles as depicted in this drawing.

Tai's current attention was focused on a large dragon mech which grinned with large sharp teeth, though not in a scary way. His tongue peeked between his lips as he concentrated intently on a straight line that proved to be far too difficult.

Upon finishing the stout six year old gathered up his supplies and carried them up the walkway and to the porch of the large brick two story house with digimon bouncing after in his wake. It was an actual house, for the first time people could live in homes again instead of slums. Tai struggled with the door and his supplies in an attempt to balance them while reaching up for the nob which loomed just high enough as to make it difficult.

After finally conquering the screen door the young boy burst inside alive with chatter of the artwork created. The door connected to the kitchen, and as little Taichi burst through he slipped on the tile and fell on his backside. His crayons spilled out over the soft cream-colored tile in cascades of color. The digimon seemed to giggle over tai's crash and continued down the hall and off to a converted dog bed which now served as his. Tai looked up sheepishly to his mother who was looking down on him with bemusement over his singular grace.

"So what did you draw honey?" she smiled as she took the crayons from him and set them atop the counter while the boy stood on tip toes with hands clutching his pictures held out for her to see. She smiled as she took the papers from him and began to flip through them with a gentle smile and words of praise to the young artist.

"You really like them mommy?" he questioned still on tip toes as he peered up from the corner of the paper and up to his mother. She lowered herself to his level and lay the drawings safely atop the counter. The boy happily fell into his mothers soft warm arms. She embraced him tightly and lifted him up without breaking the hug. He squeezed back in childlike rapture over the attention.

"They are really pretty tai.. You're such a good artist." she kissed his nose and he giggled. He laughed like only a child can, with their whole heart. She sat the boy on the counter and he peered down over his artwork with her.

"Which is your favorite honey?" she asked as he began flipping through the pictures until finnaly coming to the one he liked best. She leaned down and studied the image with some curiosity. It was unlike the others in setting. Tai liked mechs and old stories about knights and samurai and of corse the stories about the old digiworld... but this picture seemed to be set inside the boy's own room. It featured a representation of little tai smiling and holding hands with a girl who was roughtly the same size as he, but possessed two angelic wings. She was perched on his window sill and judging by the effort put forth into her depiction was special to the young artist.

"What is this picture of?" the boy looked up and grinned a little.

"This is my friend. She's an angel." he pointed to her and his smile widdened.

"She's an angel? But where's her halo?"

"Well... err.... she's not that kinda angel." he struggled with his words.

"She's cool mommy, we play together and she tells me thease really neat stories! And she flies! Just like a mech, but with neat soft wings so she's even cooler!! And the best part is she's my size!" he threw his arms up in the air in emphasis to how fast she could fly. she laughed softly as the boy began to happily babble about his imaginary friend.

"Has she taken you flying while you are supposed to be asleep?" he pouted a little.

"No... she's not big enough to fly both of us around. It would be so cool if she could, but maybe when she gets older, ya think?"

"Oh I'm sure she'll be flying you around all over the place in no time."

"You really think so?" his eyes grew big and sparkled with anticipation of flying through clouds.

"Would i lie to you squirt?" she smiled.

"No... but you'd tease me." he replied skeptically as he cut a playful glance to his mother who fained innocence.

"Cynic"

"Wha?" he cocked his head.

"Nevermind honey..."she reached into a small ceramic container on the far counter and withdrew two chocolate chip cookies. She handed tai one and laughed as the sheer ecstasy of a cookie washed over him and sent him off onto babbling about anouther subject simultaniously, this one all about his favorite cookies.

The woman listened as the boy spoke while nibbling and holding his cookie in two hands. She ate hers at a somewhat more leisurly rate when compared to the chattering boy who's face was now covered in tasty crumbs that had evaded his sweeping tongue.

Tai's mother turned away from the babbling boy and began preparing lunch for the two of them. yet as she was withddrawing a loaf of bread she turned back to the boy.

"Tai, what is your angel's name?" he looked up from his cookie and met his mother with a somewhat somber gaze for a child his age.

"Her name is Sora."

"That's a very pretty name... how did you cook up an unusual name like that in your little noodle?" she laughed softly yet he didn't get what was funny about it.

"Because she told me that was her name mommy..." he looked at her as if she were losing it. And that gaze hypnotized the woman for a time as to the complete earnestly behind it.

Normally when tai was playing tricks or even just imagining fantastic stories he had a grin to him that was insuppressible. He was not grinning in the least and that caught his mother for a moment before she finally dismissed it.

The afternoon grew closer as the sky changed from blues to oranges and reds and later purples and then finally to the starry skies of night. Taichi had ate dinner with his mother and now kissed her goodnight as he made his way up the carpeted stairs with a little more enthusiasm then most his age would show. He was a rare boy in that he never was fussy at the idea of going to bed. While his mother intrusted this fact to the sheer mercy of god which is not bestowed upon other parents to children of this age, little tai had a reason to look forward to the starry sky and luminous moon. It was under the black veil of night that a visitor came to him.

Tai stood on a little red stool facing a sink that was still too tall for him on tiptoes. He was brushing his teeth in his favorite light blue pajamas. He had made a detour to his room to grab them and change in the bathroom because he was a little shy about having his angel see him in his underwear. He blushed a little at the thought as he finished brushing and hopped down from the stool.

He rushed to his room as quietly as possible and waited at the door to hear if his mother was still up. The house was still and quiet as any Egyptian tomb. Tai focused hard on sounds beyond the gentle creaking of a house in the coolness of night. There were no footsteps in the hall and no sounds from the computer or television. Tai could usually hear her if she was down there, and the silence meant she was most likely in bed, after a minute more tai decided that the coast was clear and thus trotted over to his window and lifted it to its utmost.

The air outside was cool and moist with the gentle dew that would settle upon the grass in the following morning. It smelled of jasmine, which hung against the side of the house in a great tangle of vines and white flowers. Tai looked out at the sky which was painted silver with stars and crowned with the ivory jewel of lunar splendor.

He listened to the voice of the night around him as it sang out in the words of frogs crickets and soft winds, but among those lyrics none were so moving as the soft sound of wings on the wind. Tai stepped back as the figure of a child came to rest upon his windowsill her hair fluttered in the soft wind as two white wings curled at her sides. She perched there with all the poise of a great white bird as she looked in on the little boy with the blue pajamas. He watched her with a reverent awe that took him each time she returned to his window. Her face was that of a girl child's but the beauty of her seemed only born in heaven. She was more angel with that face then with the two white wings.

Her eyes took him in as ruby mirrors that burn not with destructive flame... but instead with a fire of spirit and soul that does not take from life as real fire does, but instead lends to it in a way that only those eyes and the sunrise which shares their hue can. Her pouty lips raised to a smile which cast her even deeper into radiance.

"You came." he smiled as he closed the gap between them and seized her in a gentle hug which was returned with arms and wings. She smelled like the flowers outside and was as soft to the touch as any of their petals. She lay a hand on the back of his head and pressed her forehead to his own while looking into his eyes.

"Of corse... you're my best friend tai." it was unfashionable for boys of tai's age to have female best friends, much less ones that you touch like he and Sora did. Somehow being as close to Sora as he could be made him feel better. Her touch triggered something very good inside him, and he did not recoil from that feeling. Tai called her his best friend, which was true, but also he had harbored a crush on her since the beginning of their interludes, and now he even planned to someday marry her, provided of corse that angels were allowed to marry. He meant to ask her about that sometime.

She slipped through the window and onto the carpeted floor of tai's room. She was a child in body and in many ways mind, but beyond the innocent surface of her lovely face there was a depth that exceeded the capacity to be seen. She was child in body and in mind, but the effect of the digital hybrid's genetic memory had once again brought her the awareness of her past lifetimes without the benefit of triggering.

Sora was in flux while bound to this child body. She was both awake and asleep in a difficult balance. Part of her was as mature as any of the immortals, yet just as much as she was aware of her true memory, she was that much a child also. The draw to Taichi was shared by both sides of the same coin, and thus she had chosen to reveal herself to him far sooner then caution would dictate. He proved to be all she had hoped and was unafraid. In fact he called her an angel...

The innocence and sweetness of his little mind had automatically caused the childish Sora to fall for him, the adult side of her didn't clash with the attraction either. She followed him to his bed where they both sat cross-legged facing each other. He was happily telling her about his day with a youthfulness that drew forth giggles from the child hybrid. Sora marveled at the sheer scope of his imagination that transformed grasshoppers to aliens and lizards to dragons. She listened until he finally finished his story and turned to her.

"Hey Sora... I was wondering something... you know those cool stories you always tell me about the digidestined?" she had told him about his past, though he took it more a game then a reality.

"Yeah, what about them?"

"Where do you hear all of them? Did your mommy tell you?" he cocked his head in inquiry.

"I don't have a mommy tai..." she replied in her childish voice that bore only the faintest ripple of the depth beneath. "She left when I was really little." tai's face washed over to horror as his childish completion made sense of her reply.

"She left? Who gives you cookies!?" Sora nearly fell off the bed as the adorable boy endeared himself even deeper into her heart. Regaining some composure she spoke.

"Well no one... but its ok, I take care of myself." his gaze brought sobriety to her as he spoke, not as the child, but as the sleeper within the child.

"Its not ok... no one should have to be alone like that." she blinked at him for a moment and observed the exigency about the look he was casting to her. not the look of a child, but instead the look of the ancient. She was on the verge of checking his wrist when he leaned back in bed reaching over to the nightstand and withdrew a cookie he had saved from his dinner. He reached over and lay it in her open hand.

She looked down at the chocolate chip cookie and then back up to the boy who was now grinning broadly. She cracked a small smile as she took a bite.

"Since you don't have a mommy, I guess I can be the one to give you cookies." he smiled softly in that child grin of his that was as frictionless as water against air. Sora was moved by a feeling she couldn't quite identify as she leaned over and softly placed a kiss on his lips. He froze as though he were a statue as she gently pressed her soft tulip lips against him, and as she pulled away, his face was painted in a cherry blush. She too blushed a little as his hand tentatively made contact with the spot her lips had consecrated with such sweet contact. They sat together in silence for a time as tai slowly allowed a smile to creep over his face. she took another bite of the cookie as his croaking voice came to him.

"T-that was my first kiss..." he whispered in awed reverence. She smiled as she turned over her wrist and tentatively fingered the pale shadow of a heart that would not darken again until fate decreed. Tai had a similar marking on his own wrist.

"No... it wasn't." she thought back over a sea of memories more precious then a sea of silvery pearls. "you just can't remember..."

"You were being for-real about all the stories you told me... about me being a hero, and you being a princess..." he asked with more credence to her tales.

"I was only a princess a few times..." she replied

"You were my princess though.... just like in the stories... We were married... We had adventures... we were grown ups..." his voice was as meek as a whisper.

"Yeah... we were a lot of things... and a lot of things to each other too. she touched his little hand with her own and he didn't recoil from the touch. He looked at her with a sadness in his eyes.

"I want to remember... I want to remember all of it." he whispered.

"Not all of the memories are good..."

"But some of them are worth it." he touched her hand softly, then squeezed it.

"Will I remember Sora? Someday?" he asked with all the innocence of his child form though motevated by a desire that teetered on what lays beyond childhood.

"Someday... you will. But once you remember, things won't be the same for you. You can't go back to being just an ordinary person. And you'd have to say goodbye to her." Sora smiled sadly as she motioned tword his mother's bedroom. Tai looked in the direction with downcast eyes.

"She'd be sad..."

"Yeah... that's why you shouldn't be in a big rush"

"But what if it never happens?"

"Then you'll have to settle for my stories. She grinned a little, yet cut short as her ears perked at a sound beyond the spectrum of tai's ears. He followed her gaze tword the door and found no indication of her attention. He turned back to a fluttering sound of birds on the wing, or in this case girl on the wing as a soft rustle of wind tousled his hair. She was gone in that same heartbeat that he felt the pressure on the bed lessen. Her only calling card floated in rocking sweeps downward motions on the veins of cool night air. The feathery plume made small circlets as it came to rest upon a bunching of sheet.

A moment later the nob rattled and turned as the oak doorway parted for tai's mother, who was clad in a blue bathrobe and silken white nightgown. Her dark hair cascaded over her shoulders as she stepped into the room and looked around with a perplexed expression.

"Tai... I heard voices. Who were you talking to?" she was slightly alarmed as she noted the computer was off and that nothing else that was capable of being the source of the noise was active. She looked at tai who cocked his head at her as he sat cross-legged on the bed.

"Hi mommy, isn't it past your bedtime?"

"Don't play around tai! I heard voices from up here." she was shaky at the thought of someone else being in with him, her little helpless Taichi. She knew that this world, though beautiful, could be dark.

"It was just Sora..."

"Tai this isn't the time for that."

"It was mommy... she was here!" she was preparing to continue, but stopped altogether as she saw the silvery white feather on his mattress. She shakily walked over and picked it up. It weighed nothing, but seemed to be made of something more then mearly plumes of wispy down. The feather was steel made silk that radiated with a warmth that was different then anything she had ever felt. It had a heat which radiated outward and into the bones of her fingers. It didn't burn, simply resonated with a warmth that bore no plausible source.

"Sora..." he repeated as she stared at him incredulously. Her words wouldn't come when she bid them and so she made her way to the open window. Her fingertips lingered on the sill as she looked out over the night. Clouds were laced with silver as they wafted across a star-speckled sky. In the distance trees swayed their branches which glowed faintly with a moonlight frost. A nightly breeze gently stirred the sleeping earth to gentle motion as grassy fields shifted and heaved like silver waves in a ocean of meadow. The sky hung over this small little world as a thing of mercy rather then a bleak shadow of eminent doom she felt the breeze and listened to the distant crashing of ocean waves.

She could feel herself being watched from that blackness, but the eyes of the night were not filled with menace. She was no psychic mind reader or clairvoyant in any extent, but as she stared out over that night, feeling the gaze of the being she could only name as Sora, she felt the compassion in those eyes. She debated closing the window, but instead hesitantly removed her hand.

She turned to little tai. "Goodnight honey..."

"Night mommy..." he replied as he shifted back into his pillow and curled around his blanket as though it were a person he wished to cradle and hold. He seemed different to her somehow... the birthmark on his arm seemed faintly darker and more clear upon his wrist, as though the strange little shape that almost looked like a picture of a sun got more tanned then the forearm on which it sat. He seemed older then six as he sat there looking at her with his head on the pillow, still the little boy she loved, but with a wisp of the man he would become someday. A silent wisdom tempered with a love that seemed almost supernaturally profound for a child's face, and still profound if it were worn by a ninety year old man who had known compassion for centuries. He would grow up to be a special person...

She turned to the door and left him there to his dreams. She returned to her bedroom, but not to the bed. Instead, she came to one of the bookshelves which littered her home and searched the spines until coming to a volume in brown leather. It was a encyclopedia of mythological creatures: demons, devils, gods, saints, and angels. She read the section on angels and found no being that matched tai's picture of Sora. She was no cherub, and no child archangel, but something about the boy's reverence to this Sora defined her clearly as much a seraph as any harp playing messenger to ever be depicted in song or word.

She turned to the beginning of the section and read a definition for angels. They had many forms and names, but they are beings of hope and salvation that in one way or another, protect and watch over humanity. Messengers bearing tidings of salvation to those who are without it. She thought of little Taichi's drawing. Him and Sora arm in arm.

She read from the book with awe as the eyes in the night watched her faint smile from the window's threshold. As she turned to the window from which she knew she was being observed she caught sight of the girl. A child's smile with eyes that pierced the heart. She had smiled before vanishing with no more then the length of a passing heartbeat between appearing and vanishing. Natasha knew that the girl had allowed her this glimpse.

"Protectors of hope, and messengers of salvation." she read softly aloud and smiled.

**************

"So we're angels now?" Sora laughed as she flew up and off to a distant tree from which to observe the house. She was a child, but also aware of the eternity of life she had known. It was a strange mixture to be so full of hope and also so full of despair. She had lost faith in all love but that of Taichi in the previous life. She died in his arms and was offered a chance at forgetting the memory of it all. She had almost taken the god's offer, but losing the memory would rob her of the memory of Taichi.

He was her north star, the one shining point of light which guided her. she had lost faith in love, but his light had once again guided her back. As a digidestined she had watched the corse of history unfold, and yet now she had no idea what her place in it was. She had been reborn as a digital hybrid.

Whatever moves the wheel of fate, god, or something beyond our perception, had willed her to be born once again as a hybrid. She didn't know the purpose behind this will, what she was destined to do as a hybrid, but now she looked forward to seeing where the winds of fate blew her, for in that instant when she had touched the essence of the god, and been offered the choice of freedom, she glimpsed a part of the destiny which they were ultimately traveling tword. She didn't know details, simply that whatever the purpose, it was beyond comprehension, and it involved Taichi and herself in some way.

Sora watched the mother for a time and then Taichi for a while longer before she would depart. She watched him and was filled with love. There was no ending as there was no beginning. There were times of peace, there were times of war. Lifetimes passed in a rhythm as ancient as the ocean's tides. Life maintains a balance of good and evil, it is all a no more then a thread upon a tapestry that is so massive its pattern is beyond comprehension. She didn't fear the future, and was not haunted by the past. The future would be filled with new evils and new trials for both immortal and mortal together. but a blow had been landed and a victory, however small, had been won.

The future had once been called a dark horizon, but somehow that seemed different now. The digidestined could change destiny, and maybe they had. The future that loomed before them seemed not as bleak as it had been, maybe it was just slightly different, one shade of lighter grey from the black which had once stood like the banners of distant armies advancing tword Armageddon. It was a small step, minimal when compared to the advancing evils of the future, a single stone to divert an ocean, but regardless of all else, the dark horizon loomed that much farther in the distance.

For the first time in a thousand years... Sora knew hope.

Have faith in tomorrow, have trust in today

find your truth in the moment and let come what may.

Build your own future, with your own hands

cast not a glance to the hourglass, keep no tally of sands.

The horizon beyond us can be dark or light

it's born of our actions, our wrongs and our rights.

Shadows will gather where light is forsaken

so guard close your footing on this path you have taken.

A word of assurance: you'll get what you're due.

And when the dark horizon comes, it's coming for you.

There are no endings...