Digimon Adventure: Continuing Evolution

1. And So It Ends...

PART I - AFTERMATH

1. And So It Ends...

"Hey, Tai...?" The diminutive dinosaur was looking up at him expectantly. "What will you do tomorrow?"

Tai considered for a moment. "That's a good question. Who knows what tomorrow may bring?" A pair of butterflies winging their way into the sky caught his eye. He watched them go, captivated. Then suddenly he had an idea. "Tomorrow, we can—"

Agumon was gone.

He stood there, frozen. So...it really is true, then, he thought. The abrupt silence was overwhelming; he could hear his pulse pounding in his ears. Agumon was gone.

He turned his head from the empty space where he'd been as the fear began to set in. Agumon was gone!

He thought he'd been ready. He thought he was prepared. After all, they'd had to say goodbye to their digimon before. But this was unlike before. He looked at the cracked digivice in his hand and watched as it turned to stone, now a useless lump of granite. Agumon was gone!!

His body trembled uncontrollably, and then the tears came. A sob broke free from his lips—the first of many to come—and, after struggling for a few seconds his knees finally buckled, and Tai collapsed to the ground. Agumon was gone! Gone! GONE!

Tai screamed. He couldn't help it. His brain couldn't accept what his eyes were insisting was real. So very real. The world seemed to cave in around the dead rock clutched in his palm which had been a tangible evidence of the bond they shared. A bond that was now broken forever.

He screamed again.

A couple of beachcombers diverged from their path, giving a wide berth to the clearly insane man sobbing on the walkway.

He cried until he was dizzy from exertion.

He cried until his lungs ached.

He cried until the world was swallowed up in the black oblivion of his heart, for Agumon...

his cherished partner...

was gone.

A/N: I decided to revisit this scene from LEK because I wanted a deeper look into Tai's experience and perspective of that event, and thought it would be a good jumping off point for the story. I hope you find that it remains faithful to what is shown in the film, except that Tai's breakdown is stronger and a little horrifying. He has just lost his partner, and though I loved how it was portrayed in the movie (I feel that Tai and Matt show a strength of character and emotional maturity in their somewhat reserved display of grief in the film that I hadn't expected), I felt that something of the gravity of their loss was sacrificed, which is why I amplified that sense here. I think of it not as changing the film exactly, but showing more; you can picture that right after the camera fades out and we leave that scene that Tai completely loses it, even becoming a little unhinged as we will see in the next chapter. Also,  I'm going to list the titles of episodes that I reference throughout the fic for the more obscure references or Easter eggs so readers can look them up if they so choose in case it's been a while since you've gone through the show and need a refresher. For example, the chapter title is a callback to the very first episode, "And So It Begins..." I have currently finished the first twelve chapters so far (and don't worry, most are way longer than this), and will update this story on a weekly basis until we're all caught up. Next time on Digimon Adventure: Continuing Evolution—Chapter 2. Hope and Desolation.