“It has to be one of us,” MachGaogamon said. Before this war, Arthur had been angry. Lost. Wanting nothing more than to lash out at a world he thought had been unfair to him. Throughout the war, he had grown. Though he still had much to learn, MachGaogamon was proud of Arthur. He had taken his first steps, and MirageGaogamon wanted to see how much farther he could go
Gagagigo had found Eria again, and with her help, he was able to heal from his madness. Eria had saved both Gagagigo and Arthur. How many others had grown throughout this war, and learned more about themselves? Everyone deserved a chance to heal, rather than erase all their experiences, good or bad. If allowing one person to gain all the knowledge in the world was what it would take to bring everyone back, then the price seemed more than fair.
And yet, MachGaogamon could not bring himself to volunteer. The Avatar had made it clear, the true price was your own identity. Everyone standing here now could only do so because they managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and yet there still had to be one final sacrifice.
“The way I see it,” said MachGaogamon, “One of us must make the sacrifice for everyone else’s sake. If we could bring everyone back, I would rather that we would all learn from this experience in ways that we can help our worlds, rather than forget about what has happened. I wouldn’t ask anyone else to forget, either. I do not wish to go back to the person I was before this war began. I am sure that there some of you who feel the same way. However, I also believe that some of us cannot bear that pain. It would make living so much easier if we could simply purge our greatest suffering from our lives.”
This was about more than Arthur or himself. The entire multiverse was at stake.
“If we reverse the multiverse to as it was before this war, it would allow Isamy and Protheus to return. I don’t care if their quest would be a wild goose. Right now, they’re both dead, and they should stay that way. It’s better for the entire multiverse than if we just brought them back, no matter how pointless their lives would be. What good would it be to prevent this war from happening again if Isamy and Protheus could just find something else to do? They would have millennia to wreak havoc all over again. Even if we would all have been dead for tens of thousands of years by then, allowing them to ever return is an option I refuse to risk.
“We are trying to reset the whole multiverse for everybody else, but for one of us, we have to sacrifice everything. There will be no going back for them. We cannot count on being able to spare that person. I don’t necessarily agree that knowing all there is to know would be some so-called ‘death of personality’, but nevertheless, it is a risk we cannot take lightly. Knowing that those we can save would be waiting for us after all this is done could hold any of us back from volunteering.”
The people surrounding him were either friends, former enemies, or people who had simply fought in this war for as long as him but still managed to be strangers. He was not the right person to ask this of so many people. However, a decision had to be made.
“I know it is selfish, but for that reason, I don’t think I can be the one to use the Key. What I can do is help ensure that whatever we decide, we can all be certain it is the right choice.”
Sora, Kairi, and Gagagigo all nodded, though none of them said anything.
MachGaogamon gave a heavy sigh. “With that said, I suppose there’s only one question left. Do we have any volunteers?”