Have You Ever…

Chapter 5: Last Chapter: The Child of Courage and Justice

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

Special Thanks to: jarski: Thanks for reading and reviewing, you're sweet! :)

roxas24: Don't worry; it'll be alright in the end. (You know, this chapter). I hope you keep reading!

Mintbaby: Yeah! I made you cry. Lol I'm so kidding! Thanks for reading and reviewing. And you need not worry, Marcus'll be alright! :)

Now, on to the story!

"Hey Mom, you should tell us about Uncle Tai. You never got to finish telling us about him." Said 16-year-old Marcus to his aging mother, who had suffered more than enough loses to last her a lifetime.

The woman looked at her son, then to his digimon, her daughter and her digimon, and her husband and the egg resting in his lap. She had told them a lot about their Uncle Tai, but she had lied about some of it. She had said that she had lost communication with him, which wasn't entirely a lie, but then said that it was because he was constantly traveling. She knew her daughter would be sad. The poor girl hated deaths. The woman hadn't dared tell them about her student, best friend, and other son who, should he still be alive, would be about eighteen years older than Marcus.

"Mom? What is it?" Kristy asked her, staring into her red eyes.

The woman looked over at her husband, Spencer, who gave her a knowing look. He knew about his wife's past. There would be no trust between them if he didn't. "It's all right Kari. You can tell them. They'll understand." He assured her.

Kari sighed, murmuring, "I'm sure."

"They will, Kari. They will." said a rough, but gentle and kind voice.

Kari had to smile. She looked up at the "guardian angels" that watched over her and her family. Tai Kamiya- her dead brother, Davis Motomiya- her dead best friend, Takato Matsuki- her dead student, and Takuya Kanbara- her first dead son. "Whatever." she told her brother, who had tried to reassure her, making two of the other three laugh.

"Well if I were you, I wouldn't want to talk about all of that either. They'll understand." Takato stated wisely. He hadn't laughed, but was smiling at the two kids that couldn't see them.

Kari nodded. "I know. But... will they? I mean, really?"

"'Course."

Spencer talked his children away from his wife, who seemed to be talking to herself. Spencer knew who she was talking to. They had talked to him once or twice. But the kids didn't know anything about them, as was to be expected. You couldn't know something you had never been told about. Marcus and Kristy were trying to both listen to their father and stare at their mother, who they were getting very worried about.

"Mama, who're you talking to?" asked Kristy. She kept looking around, but yet she could see no one.

"Don't worry, it's nothing, she's just thinking aloud. Hey did I ever tell you about that time I-" Spencer started, trying to draw attention away from the red-eyed woman, but he was quickly interrupted by his son.

"Yeah Dad, you did. Mom, are you okay?" he asked her, rubbing his neck almost nervously.

Kari looked at her children, and smiled a sweet smile. She looked at the spirits, and said, "Just a sec guys." She looked back at her children. "What do you need?" her eyes were dull before, Marcus, Kristy, Agumon, and Biyomon had all noticed. But then, once she looked at the kids again, they were bright and lively, in a way that they had never seen.

"Who're you talking to?" Agumon asked her, feeling slightly uncomfortable, the way that he was able to feel an extra couple presenses that shouldn't be there.

Kari just smiled at him, and then looked at her husband, and up to the spirits, who all five shrugged (that includes Spencer). She then smiled to her children. "I'm talking to my brother and his friends." she replied curtly, telling the complete truth.

Kristy got up out of her chair. "Did you get a new phone? Are you texting them? Can I see?" she asked, swiftly moving over to her mother. She looked in her lap, but there was nothing there. "You are not! You're lying!" she accused, crossing her arms and sitting back down.

"Did I ever say that I was?"

"Well... how else will you talk to them?" asked Biyomon.

"For all you know, they're standing right above you, right now." Spencer defended, nodding over to them, signaling to one of the spirits. Swiftly, as though wanting to pick on his sister's kids, Tai meandered over to where Kristy had just sat down. "Man, I wish she could feel it when I touch her. I would be poking her all day long, and there would be nothing she could do about it!" he laughed, trying to touch Kristy's head.

Spencer was barely able to hold back a laugh.

"That'd be funny." Kari agreed.

Marcus shook his head, and looked down at Kristy when she tugged his sleeve. He bent down so she could whisper in his ear, "Mom and Dad have lost it, let's get out of here while we can!" "I know what you mean, but we can't leave them to fend for themselves!" he hissed back at her.

Kari, noticing they were talking, looked at them, instead of her brother, who was now using Kristy to lean his elbows on, though she couldn't feel it. "I'm sorry, did you say something?" she asked them, knowing full well that they in fact had, but weren't telling anyone.

The siblings blushed, and shook their heads. "Um, how were you talking to them?" Marcus asked.

Kari gave him a confused look. "Can't you see them? Oh... Tai, you're so mean! They probably think we're crazy and it's gonna be all your fault!" she exclaimed, realising that Tai hadn't yet revealed himself to the children, and neither had the others.

"But this is fun, being able to talk behind their backs. We could tell you secrets and they would never know!" Takuya laughed, making Takato and Spencer laugh lightly as well.

"And besides... they've always thought you were crazy!" Davis exclaimed, defending for his friends.

Kari turned to glare at him, and said flatly, "You aren't helping Davis. Go somewhere else." Although in her voice she held a light joke.

"Davis?" Marcus asked.

"Tai, be fair! Show yourselves, all four of you!" Kari snapped.

"Fine..." Came the voices of all four spirits.

Kristy whipped her head around. Agumon growled lightly, and Biyomon squawked threateningly. "Mom, what was that?"

Kristy turned her head, and screamed when she saw the grinning face of an eleven-year-old, chocolate eyed boy right up in hers. She scrabbled back into Marcus's arms, who really wanted to scream profanities to the heavens, and would be doing so if his parents hadn't been there. When he glanced around, he found out something; they were surrounded! Three other figures-besides the one in front of Kristy who had stood up now-surrounded the family of four. They all had an orange glow to them. "Stay back! I can have Agumon attack if you come any closer!" Marcus exclaimed, holding Kristy tight against him.

"Yeah! And I will! this is what you get for interrupting my dinner! Claw Attack!" Agumon yelled. He leapt at Tai, who stood still as stone. He slashed at him, gasping when nothing happened to the boy, and his claws felt nothing but air. "What?!"

"They must be copies! Find the real one!" Marucs ordered.

"Claw Attack! Claw Attack, Claw Attack, Claw Attack! Marcus, nothing's working!" Agumon exclaimed, having tried to slash all of the others. Nothing had happened to any of them! Agumon was getting frustrated.

"Aw," one of them started. The kids looked at the one who looked exactly like their mother; light brown hair and sparkling red eyes, except that he was a guy. "It's so cute the way that they try so hard." he finished.

"It's not cute! These are completely refined battle moves!" Agumon snapped, now fuming. He tried to slash at the boy once more.

Takato didn't even try to move, but let the attack come. "Go ahead. I'm open. You can try me." he taunted.

"Agumon go!" "Biyomon, you too!"

"Claw Attack!" Screamed the two digimon, flying at the red-eyed child and slicing at him, but hurting each other instead.

Agumon held his arm, while Biyomon held his forehead. "What was that for?" they both snapped.

Kari giggled at her children, especially when Tai asked her, "why won't you stop them?" She replied with, "well, it's not like they can hurt you anyway."

Marcus and Kristy gaped at their mother, and Biyomon and Agumon stared at her. She was not supposed to be talking to them! They were invading their house! "Hey, what do you mean that we can't hurt them? You know full well we can!" Biyomon exclaimed, clearly offended.

"No, I know full well that you can't! Stop trying, you'll wear yourselves out." Kari told them, insisting that they sit down. Marcus grouched, and did as his mother asked, gently guiding Kristy into her chair, but dragging it closer to him and further away from the strange boy next to her. "Why can't we hurt them? We're plenty strong!" he asked.

Kari popped some chicken into her mouth. "I know that you are. But that doesn't mean that you can attack everything in the first place!" she said, looking at her brother and smiling brightly at him.

Marcus turned to glare at the boy that his mother was smiling at so happily. "Maybe they look like that because they're a ghost digimon! Ha, like Bakemon! They can change their shape to whatever they want, right?" Kristy offered.

"No way! I am not that lowlife, terrible excuse for a digimon!" The maroon-haired child snapped. He yelped when the red-eyed boy slapped him upside the head. "Be nice. They're not lowlifes, just easily persuaded and loyal." he hissed in defense for the ghost digimon. He then smiled at Kristy in a brotherly sort of way. "Guess again." "Uh... Soulmon?" "Nuh-uh." Takuya said. "What other digimon could you b- Phantomon! You're definitely a Phantomon!" Marcus exclaimed. Davis snapped, as though he wanted them to get, and was disappointed. "Oh... so close. It's there, on the tip of your tongue, I can see it!"

Kristy suddenly screamed. "Are you... are you real ghosts?"

"Ding ding ding! Kari, you raised them to be smart!" Tai joked. He smiled at the confused kids, and at the angry digimon.

"That's right. We were killed a while back." Takato told them, a new look in his eye. "Then why're you here?" Kristy asked, shaking and wanting to climb back in her brother's arms and hide, despite how stupid he could be sometimes.

Tai jabbed his thumb toward Kari. "Gotta take care of my sis, don't I?"

"Sis? Mom, you said you only had one brother, and you said he was traveling!" Marcus said, now confused more than ever.

"Yeah... do you really think that I would be able to tell you that he was dead?" Kari asked. She couldn't look her children in the eye, and they both noticed how guilty she looked. They looked at their father; he held the same expression. "What, Dad you knew?" Kristy asked.

Sampson nodded. "Yeah, I did. They've come to talk to me a few times, actually. Especially Tai..." he said, gesturing to the on next to Kristy. "Tai? That's Uncle Tai?" Marcus asked., incredibly surprised. Kristy stared at the spirit in a new found fear.

Tai glared at him. "You got something wrong with Uncle Tai?" he asked him, his brown eyes showing no less than tons of anger.

Marcus quickly shook his head.

Kari sighed. "I was afraid that I would have to tell you about them. Well, first off, yes. This is Uncle Tai." she said. She gestured at her brother, and then suddenly giggled lightly. "Kind of a disappointment I know but... he'll have to do."

Tai mock-glared at her. "Just leave Kari." he hissed playfully.

"My house." Kari said.

Tai stuck out his tongue playfully at her.

"How old were you when you died, Uncle Tai?" Kristy asked.

"Huh? Oh, it's been such a long time that I'd forgotten... eleven? Right Kar-Kar?" Tai asked, blinking in confusion at his cheerful sister.

"Right. Because of Apocolymon."

"You were killed by a digimon?!" Marcus yelled.

Tai blinked at him. "Right. All four of us were." he told him, glancing around at the other Courage's.

"Oh..."

Kari then waved her hand at Davis. "This is one of my best friends. Davis Motomiya. He was also eleven when he died, he was killed by MaloMyotismon."

"Oh yeah! Mrs. Ichijouji told us about him!" Kristy exclaimed.

"Right. This is my student, Takato Matsuki. He was killed by the D-Reaper. It wasn't an actual digimon, but it seemed to do it." She looked at her student, who smiled at the children and waved cheerfully. "Hey!" he said. Marcus glared at him; all of them.

"And this, Marcus, is your older brother. His name is Takuya Kanbara."

Marcus tilted his head and looked at his mother. "B-big brother? I'm a little brother?!" he asked, eyes widened in horror.

Kari nodded, unable to hold back a chuckle. "Right. He was my first son." she said, smiling overly cheerfully. She smiled again over at Takuya, who smiled back at her. He couldn't have been more proud of his mother for telling her kids about the four of them.

"Okay... so I understand why Uncle Tai and... nii-san, I guess... stayed after, but why you other two? Or perhaps, why you?" Marcus said, staring Takato in the eyes. Takato smiled lightly at him. "You wouldn't understand this, but... Courage has to protect Light. And all four of us are Courage- as are you, Marcus- and your mother is Light. We have to protect her." he said.

Tai laughed the Courage Tamer. "Couldn't have said it better myself, Kato." he said. Takato replied with sticking his tongue out and crossing his arms. Tai laughed at him again, "you never change." "Haven't had to."

Marcus watched them, astounded. They were all so brotherly! "You guys treat him like a brother; but he isn't part of the family. Why?" he asked curiously. Tai glanced at him, and wandered over to the suddenly hurt-looking Tamer. He captured the young brunette in a quick hug, and started to give him a noogie. "But he is our little brother! What are you talking about, Marcus?!" he whined almost child-like. "I'm not apart of the family either. We're all Courage; practically the same person. So, we're all 'family'." Davis explained intelligently, smiling down at Marcus and Kristy, who sat watching the exchange between Tai and Takato amusedly, as Takato insisted that Tai let him go. "...Oh... Sorry..."

Takato finally managed to pop his head from Tai's grip, his hair now up in a funny fashion. "It's fine; you weren't to know. Didn't expect you to." he said, smiling brightly at Tai, who hugged him tightly, brotherly, again, just really fast before either of them could get too embarassed.

Kari shook her head at her older brother and his friends.

"Unfortunately... we can't stick around for very long at a time. It kinda stinks, but I think that we've overpassed our limit time here." Davis said, sighing and glancing up at the sun as it shone just above the horizon.

"...Wh-why do you think that?!" Kari asked. She was desperate. She, afterall, didn't want to lose all of her friends and family! Why would they want to leave her?!

"...I'm so sorry, Kari, but we do have a set amount of time. A few years at the most. We've spent six..." Tai agreed. He heard Takuya and Takato sighed. "I don't want to go..." whispered Takuya, sighing again. "B-but... stay another night?" Kari begged.

"Yeah!" Exclaimed Agumon, wanting to teach those boys a lesson.

"Yeah, you should. You could tell us a bunch of your stories that Mommy won't tell us." Kristy exclaimed happily. Davis smiled at her. "...Tai, that would be okay, don't you think?" he asked, ruffling the little girls hair as she smiled at him.

"I... I think so... Yeah. We should stay..."

"Please do..."

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Okay terrible ending, but I didn't know how to end it and everything. It was so hard!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry it was so bad...

So that's the end of the story. Maybe if you have more ideas for it, you can send them to me? Please! Then I can continue it and make a better ending for it!!!!!!! Please!!!!!!!

Anyway, please remember to R&R!!!!

With Love,

Ja ne! :-)