DISCLAIMER: I will never, in the history of my entire lifetime, own Digimon.

Author's Note: Here it is. The final chapter. Chapter thirteen. Don't you kind of find it ironic that there are thirteen digidestined and thirteen chapters. Anyway… I would have had it up sooner but (random excuse). But that doesn't matter because it's finally finished. Now don't let me keep you up.

That said… enjoy!

The Courage to Face the Darkness

Chapter Thirteen- A Very Unlikely End

The bright light emerging from MysticWizardmon continued to shine. The intense amount of light blinded everything. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the light dies down. Tai and Sora opened their eyes and then dropped their jaws. "Where are we?" Sora asked. As the two looked around, all they could see is a sea of blue light surrounding them. Both Agumon and Biyomon were unconscious beside them. Matt was no where to be seen.

"I don't know where we are, Sora," Tai replied. "But it can't be somewhere good." Suddenly, something caught Tai and Sora's attention. Michael and MysticWizardmon, who was still glowing, were standing right in front of them. "No way! He's still alive?!" Tai exclaimed.

"Actually Tai, he isn't," Michael said. MysticWizardmon then stopped glowing and de-digivolved into Tapirmon, Wizardmon's Rookie-level form. Tapirmon then de-digitalized and his data was spread throughout the sea of bright blue light. "You actually won, Tai. Just like I knew you would."

Tai was apparently in shock because he didn't move for a few minutes. Finally, Tai's brain recovered from the mental shock and Tai responded the best way he could, "WHAT?!"

"You seemed surprised, Tai."

"What does that mean?! You knew I was going to win! What was with your digimon glowing like that? What is going on?!"

"Well I guess I do owe you two an explanation. I guess I'll start like this; I never intended on obtaining all ten crests."

"WHAT?!" Tai and Sora yelled at the same time.

"Can you let me finish?" Michael responded. He then waited a few minutes while Tai and Sora calmed down and then continued speaking. "As I said, I never intended on obtaining all ten crests. This was just a cover for my real intentions."

"And what intentions were those?" Sora asked.

"To restore the balance of power between the ten crests," Michael answered.

"Why would you need to do that?" Tai asked.

"Yah," Sora continued. "The balance of power between the ten crests was fine. Each crest was separated and given to one person. That seems pretty balanced to me."

"Actually," Michael replied. "Even is each crest was held by only one person, that doesn't mean the power of the crests could become unbalanced. If one crest loses its energy, the other crests have to make up for that energy in order to preserve the balance. That's why I came back to the human world. One of the crests lost its power. I made it my job to fix it."

"Wait," Tai interrupted. "How can a crest lose its power?"

"If the holder of the crest loses their greatest quality, the one that the crest states, the power of that crest fades away. Like what happened to you Tai. You were so afraid of tell Sora that you loved her, that you lost all of your courage. That deactivated your crest."

"It did?"

"Yes it did. And if it stays deactivated, it might have caused trouble for the balance and both worlds would be destroyed. I couldn't let that happen. That is why I fought you guys. I needed to become a huge threat so that way I could get Tai to muster up the courage that he always gets to save the day like he usually does when up against tough enemies. After that, the power of the crest would return and the balance would return to normal."

"Though that plan sounds good in theory, couldn't you just tell us that my crest's power was gone. I could have just tried to muster up some kind of courage to reenergize the crest. This way we wouldn't have to have gone through this whole battle and my friends would still have their digimon partners."

"That wouldn't have worked though, Tai. If I just told you, the courage you tried to find wouldn't be the pure courage you always show. You would only excerpt your courage because you had to, not because you wanted to. When you fight, you desperately want to win and your pure heart and soul give you the courage you need because you are the one who wants it. When you finally admitted your feeling to Sora, you did it because you wanted to, not because you had to."

"You make a good point," Sora said "But why did you have to fight the others also? Why not just Tai?"

"Two reasons. I needed to be seen as an unbeatable evil that Tai would need to have courage to face. Collecting the rests from everyone and destroying their digimon was the only way to show that I was a threat. The other reason was to keep the other crests from losing their powers. When one crest loses its power, the person who has the crest could have a negative impact on the other crest holders. For example, Tai's lack of courage could give you guys the impression that there isn't any more reason to fight. Takeru could lose all hope in fighting and then lose all hope in general. Another crest would become deactivated. The others would soon follow. The all of the power would rest inside only one crest and both the digital world and the human world would be destroyed."

"But why give the crests to you?" Sora asked.

"Because of my crest," Michael answered.

"But your crest is the crest of Darkness," Tai replied. "You even said the quality you have that got you the crest was the want for power. Isn't it evil?"

"Most people would think that. But just because the crest is called the crest of Darkness doesn't mean its evil. My quality for wanting power is not a bad thing. I actually don't want unlimited power. I just want enough to protect the things I care about. And with Wizardmon as my partner, I have all the power I could ever want. That is why I was given the crest of Darkness. I was the only one with the special quality that didn't want too much power. And since I already have all the power I could ever need, holding onto the other crests would allow me to regulate the power, preventing the crests from losing their power. That's why Wizardmon became so strong."

"Well I'm personally relieved that the universe isn't going to be destroyed and that you aren't completely evil. But there is still the damage done to the city form the battle and the fact that all of my friends' digimon, including yours, are gone for good. As you know, when a digimon is destroyed in the real world, their data has nowhere to go and the die for good. Like what happened to the first Wizardmon we knew of. We have no way of ever getting them back."

"Yah," Sora added. "Even though you helped save both worlds form complete destruction, you still killed our friends and scarred the minds of our other friends."

"Don't worry about that," Michael replied. "I've already taken care of that."

"You have?" Tai asked, confused.

"Remember the blue glowing energy around Tapirmon before he disappeared. Well that was MysticWizardmon's finally and ultimate spell. When I have the power of at least eight crests, MysticWizardmon can create time travel."

"Time travel?!" Tai and Sora exclaimed.

"Yep, time travel. The spell erases the events that took place in the two day period that this fight dragged on for. No one will remember what happened except for the digidestined and the digimon."

"You mean that…" Tai began to say.

"Yes, all of the digimon I destroyed will be alive again and all of the crests will be returned to their owners."

"That's awesome."

"It sure is." Two digital portals then opened up, one behind Michael and one behind Tai and Sora. "Now it's time for us to part ways. The portal behind you leads to the human world."

"Wait, where are you going?" Sora asked.

"I'm going back to the digital world. Back to the library."

"But why?" Sora asked.

"Yah," Tai added. "You're a digidestined like us. You are a good guy and you helped save the world, even if it didn't seem like it at first. Come with us back to the human world. You helped us. You're our friend."

A small tear of happiness rolled down Michael's cheek. "Thank you for those really kind words Tai, but I can't. Even though you and Sora can think of me as a friend, I've done some terrible things to the other digidestined. I could never get them to trust me."

"There not that hateful of people," Tai replied. "Maybe if they got to know you, you could become their friend to."

"Nice try, Tai. But you know that won't happen. I chose this path when I chose my course of action. I must take responsibilities for them. Thank you again though. I wish the best for both of you and for the others as well. I hope that one day the others can learn to forgive me. Until that day comes I must go. If you ever need my help, come find me." Michael then stepped into his portal and it closed.

"Goodbye, Michael," Tai said. "Hope we meet again." Then he and Sora stepped into their portal and it closed.

Tai and Sora then found themselves standing outside of their high school building. Everyone else was leaving the school passing by them. Each one seemed care free for school had just been let out for a week.

"We really went back in time," Sora said.

"I know," Tai replied.

"It's a shame that Michael couldn't come with us."

"Yes, but at least I still have you."

"You know, technically since we went back in time, we never had a first kiss." Sora stated.

"Your right," Tai replied. "We should fix that."

The two teens came together, their lips pressing up against the others in an affectionate and warm kiss. The kiss continued for a few minutes until they were interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Did I miss something?" the voice said. Tai and Sora separated for a moment to see matt standing next to them, with a perplexed look on his face. "Care to fill me in here?"

Tai and Sora couldn't help but laugh as they began to kiss again. The two were filled with joy. They had managed to finally admit they loved each other and saved the world. Courage had finally defeated the Darkness.

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Note: I can't believe it's finally over. I thought I would never get though this story but somehow I did. I want to thank everyone who was read my story. If you didn't read this story, I wouldn't have written it. Oh, and I bet you didn't expect Michael to actually be a good guy in the end. Well I couldn't let a digidestined be evil. Also a friend dared me to end it like this. And Michael is actually based off of me. Again, another dare. I don't understand why guys have to follow though with every dare they are given. That's what I get for being a guy. And as a promised, Tai and Sora are officially together. Tough if they have actually ended up together in the anime that would have been better. Oh well. Please review this chapter. It is the last one you'll have to do for a while. Maybe I might make a sequel. If you think so, write it in your review. Thanks again.