Chapter 21 The final chapter!

Time seemed to slow down as he was pushed out of the way and Izzy hit the ground, his eyes closed and unmoving.

"Izzy...Izzy!" he crawled to him and lifted him into his arms, carefully trying to avoid the burns on the younger man's body.

Blood was covering the younger Digidestined and Tai's heart clenched.

"Izzy...please wake up...wake up!"

He carefully shook him, but Izzy didn't open his eyes, unresponsive in Tai's arms.

Tears appeared in his eyes as he desperately searched for a heartbeat, unable to find one.

"Don't do this to me, please ...Don't leave me," he shook Izzy more violently.

"Tai..." from the corner of his eyes Tai could see Matt knelt down beside him.

"Tai."

Ignoring his friend, he shook Izzy again, crying when he got no reaction.

"It's no use, Tai...he...he's gone."

"No! Izzy's strong."

"I know he is, but you have to be realistic, not even Izzy can reverse death."

"Yes he can! He brought us back too, so he'll just have to concentrate his powers and come back to me."

Sobbing, Tai brushed his tears away violently, leaving traces of blood and dirty behind as he did.

"He can't, Tai," Matt tried again as his own eyes filled with tears.

"Matt's right, Tai," Joe knelt down on his other side and slowly began to pull Izzy's body away from him.

"No, it will be all right, he'll come back."

Joe shook his head, his own tears falling as well. "No...I'm sorry but he won't, Tai."

"He did so before. Everyone thought he was dead but he came back then. Why can't he do the same thing now?"

"He won't just pop out of the bushes saying it's all a prank. He's gone. He sacrificed himself to save us," Davis whispered, rubbing away his own tears. "He gave his own life for ours."

"Then I want to die too," Tai pulled away from Joe and took Izzy's hand.

"Kill me."

"He wouldn't do that."

"Yes he would!"

"He wouldn't want you to."

"I don't care!"

Matt closed his eyes before punching Tai right across the face, causing the other to stumble. "Damn it, Tai1"

"W-why?" shocked Tai looked up to Matt, not bothering to brush away the tears again as he laid there. "He pushed me out of the way. It should have been me instead of him. Why? Why did he push me away?"

Matt took a deep breath. "Because he loved you and didn't want you to get hurt. He...he loves you so much, Tai. More so than you will ever imagine."

"I can't...how can I live on without him again?"

Matt wiped away his tears as he knelt down beside him.

"Because that is what he'd want. I bet he's watching over us now with those intensive black eyes of his, wondering what the hell we are all crying about. And yelling at us for wasting so much precious time to have fun."

Tai chuckled despite himself. "That does sound like him."

"He'd want each and all of us to live life to the fullest and not look back to the bad times."

Tai nodded slowly, brushing a hand over Izzy's lifeless body before turning his gaze to the others.

"It's over, isn't it?"

Kari nodded. "Yes, it is."

"Wait, I thought Izzy couldn't bring us back for good, will we disappear again?" Sora asked and they all turned to Gennai.

"I...I'm not sure," he glanced down at Izzy's body. "Izzy is...I mean was very strong. I don't know how strong he truly was. If he was truly strong enough to bring you all back for good."

Davis knelt down beside Veemon when he felt something inside his pocket and frowned as he pulled out Izzy's tag and crest.

"Where did you get that?" T.K. asked.

"Izzy gave it to me while you guys were distracting Eucaliptusmon. He said to use it if he wouldn't make it. I...I didn't understand what he meant."

Joe looked at the small crest inside Davis' hand. "It is Faith and Knowledge combined. He combined his two crests...why?"

"He knew," Kari took the crest from Davis.

"Knew what?" Yolei asked.

"That he wouldn't make it. Why else would he give his crest to Davis?"

Cody nodded. "That makes sense, but still. Why would he give his crest to Davis? What good would a crest without an owner do? Unless he stored power into it, it is useless."

Matt and Joe's faces both snapped up at that.

"Of course, he thought of a back-up plan."

"To revive himself?" Mimi asked confused.

"No, he knew that as long as he was alive, Dark Digimon would hunt him down. Alive he would only bring us into more danger and he'd never want that. He stored his power to bring you guys back," Matt realised.

Tai nodded as he took Izzy's crest from his sister. "Hold out your crests."

They all did as they were told and taking a deep breath, Tai held Izzy's crest in the middle.

It immediately lit up and as his light weakened, the other crests began to glow one by one until Izzy's crest lost its glow completely and snapped in the middle.

The other crests kept on glowing as they floated up to their owner's neck and they could all feel the power as their glow surrounded them completely, blinding them from their Digimon's gaze.

Closing their eyes against the bring light, they realised they were being brought back home.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

An old man walked past the graves to one small grave at the end of the cemetery.

A grave that was surrounded by all kinds of flowers, leaving only a small entryway and the stone itself free of them almost as if by magic.

A soft wind blew into the man's face, but he paid it no attention as he knelt down by the grave with difficulty.

Tired brown eyes showed old age and lots of experience in a life well lived as he brought a trembling hand up to the letters engraved into the tombstone.

For years, there had been nothing inside the little grave.

But after many years, a place was given to him to visit the one he loved most and he had been visiting it every day for the past eighty years now.

While his right hand kept tracing the letters, his left pulled out a red rose from his jacket and placed it down onto the grave.

A gentle smile appeared on his wrinkled old face as a light breeze moved through his hair but didn't disturb the flowers.

With one last glance at the small grave, he rose to his feet and went back the way he'd come, pausing at the end of the lane to see flowers crawl away from beside the grave, making place for another one between them.

The sight should have frightened him, but he only smiled and nodded warmly as a young man with red hair and eyes as black as coal looked to him.

"Soon...you keep waiting for me, Iz. Soon, we'll be together again."

The boy dipped his head slightly in acknowledgement before disappearing again and the old man turned around to disappear around the corner. Knowing his time was finally coming.

The end.

I wrote two alternative endings to this story. They can be found on my profile.