EPISODE 10 - TWO'S COMPANY
Understandably enough, the next day was… tense.
For lack of a better word.
The group was abuzz with chatter from the moment they woke up; who were these humans, how long had they been here, did they know how to get home, did they know if there was a reason they were here, were they the humans who had saved the world in the past.
Beetlemon had said they had two Digimon with them - perhaps partners of their own? A bird and a bug, apparently. He couldn’t remember exactly which kind of Digimon they were - chances were that Beetlemon did not have the best memory - but at least the group had something to go off of.
Harmony was just desperate to get there.
Truth be told, she was… on good terms with everyone in the group. Even if Ryan could be a little angsty at times, and even if Flip was occasionally just a biiiiit too rambunctious - well, don’t ever tell anyone, but she’d almost come to think of them all as friends.
Perhaps her affections were not returned. She didn’t care. She thought they were all great! In their own unique ways. And even if normally she wouldn’t think to even talk to these people, the circumstances they’d been put through had allowed her to get to know everyone a lot better and realize they weren’t all as bad as they seemed.
Ren did not agree.
It was early in the morning, maybe the earliest they’d ever woken up on this helltrip. They were all eager to get going and meet these people, and it had just sort of happened that they all woke up sooner than usual. No matter! They were just as rested as they always were (which, in some of their cases, was not very, but they managed most of the time, so it should be fine). Sure, they were a bit sick of mushrooms and apples and oranges for breakfast, but you gotta do what you gotta do. They’d eaten quickly, and in relative silence; they just wanted to finish as soon as they could, so that they could start walking as soon as they could, so that they could meet the other humans as soon as they could.
Their surroundings were the same as they had been the past few days: uninteresting. There was dirt, there were dead bushes, there were alive bushes which at first glance seemed to be dead from how brown they were, there were rocks and sand and maybe a tree here and there. So. Not much to gawk at in the scenery department. Not a big deal! They could rely on conversation to boost everyone’s spirits and pass the time.
Except Harmony, deep in a conversation with her own partner, was now starting to regret that idea.
It had started out innocent enough; just the two of them discussing the day(s) ahead, how far they’d come, what they would do when they found the humans. That last bit was what had sparked Harmony’s regret, for apparently Ren was not looking forward to meeting them - the exact opposite of how Harmony was feeling.
She should have expected it, from how Ren had reacted to the news yesterday, but still.
“We know enough people as is,” Ren was saying, her arms folded. Her gaze was fixed on the skyline ahead of her, not looking down at Harmony. “There’s no need to take a day-long detour just to meet some more.”
“No, but,” Harmony said, waving her hands around, “it’s already on our way! There’s no reason we should skirt around it just so we can avoid social interaction!”
“I’ve had enough social interaction to last a lifetime,” Ren replied. Harmony normally would have laughed at this, but she was getting just a bit fed up.
“What, are you saying you wished you’d stayed behind in the forest?” Harmony said, putting a hand on her hip and letting the other one drop to the side.
Ren sniffed, lifting her chin toward the sky. “I didn’t say that and you know it.”
“I just,” Harmony started, before sighing and shaking her head. “What is it with you?”
“Nothing’s ‘with me’,” Ren said coolly, finally looking down at Harmony. “Everyone’s just overbearing and I don’t see why we need to add even more people to our ever-growing group.”
“Chances are, after we talk to Asuramon, we’re all going home anyway,” Harmony mumbled. “It’s just a few more days till we get there.”
“Going home, unless you’re all here for a reason,” Ren added, flicking an ear.
Harmony halted for a moment, her hand sliding off her hip and reaching up to comb through her hair. Ren cast a glance back at her and slowed down to wait for her to catch up.
Harmony sighed again, falling into stride beside her partner. She’s right. What if… we do have to stay here? I mean… All this with the virus, and our partners, and what Aldamon said. It would make sense, wouldn’t it?
…We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Besides. Even if they could go home, what would happen to their partners? Would they leave them behind? If so, would they see them again? Or would they come back to their world with them - and, if that was the case, how would we hide them from our parents?
Would they even need to be hidden?
Worrying about the future had always been one of Harmony’s least favorite activities, so she pushed it to the side. Thankfully, Ren dropped the topic, but kept up her defensive body language.
Harmony closed her eyes, trying to forget about everything and just enjoy the walk. They did have a long way to go, after all. It would be made so much shorter if she could just live in the present and forget all her worries.
So she did.
Their surroundings changed quickly enough, much to the relief of everyone - in fact, several of the humans and Digimon alike let out collective sighs of gratitude once the first patch of bright green grass was spotted.
Harmony realized, for the first time, that - excluding the town square back on the mesa and the few not-quite-dead bushes up on Twister Mountain - it had been a very long time since they’d seen any living foliage. Circuit County had really been their last time even seeing trees - real trees, not the sort of crumbly ones which looked like they would topple over if they were so much as touched. And, hell, when was the last time any of them had seen a natural source of water?
Turns out, the deadness of the area past the mesa was all just a facade hiding the true lush grasslands that followed. The sky even cleared up, turning from a murky gray seeming to precede a storm into a bright blue, with thin white clouds scattered here and there. The grass was almost painfully vibrant compared to the browns and grays they’d become accustomed to since leaving Circuit County.
There were no telephone poles like there had been on the Vast Plateau, nor were there any vending machines as far as they could tell, but the realization that not every square inch of their journey would be barren and lifeless was a huge mood-booster. Why, they even picked up conversation with one another, Ren included, which relieved Harmony to no end.
Of course, eventually it turned back around to the prospect of meeting these new humans. Harmony felt her stomach lurch once she realized Ren had dropped back and was no longer participating, but her partner gave her a gentle nod as if to reassure her that she wouldn’t say anything too negative - at least, not for now. This calmed Harmony somewhat, but before she could pontificate about it anymore, she resumed her investment in the others’ conversation.
“They’re going to know how to get home,” Alex said, crossing his arms. “If they have partners, why the hell wouldn’t they?”
“We have partners and we don’t know how to get home,” Ezra said with a shrug.
“Yeah, but we were dumped in here without consent,” Alex countered.
“Who’s to say they weren’t?”
“We don’t even know if the Digimon that Beetlemon saw with them are their partners,” Azure pointed out. “They coulda just been traveling with them.”
“What are the chances of two humans traveling with two Digimon and those Digimon not being their partners?” Ryan said, which Ezra nodded at. “Most Digimon don’t give a shit about humans, right? If there’s humans and Digimon fighting bigger, stronger Digimon together, it’s pretty likely that there’s something going on.”
The Digimon were mostly staying out of this, likely not really knowing what could be said that would provide any other insight - Ryan was right, and they knew it. Harmony knew it. Sure, the Digimon that they’d managed to partner up with were great (for a given definition of “great”), but most of the other Digimon they’d met? Not so much.
Harmony sighed and furrowed her brow, gripping the straps of her backpack tightly. There was so much they didn’t know about this world, and even if the two other kids did know more than them, could they… really just go home?
That thought made Harmony jolt up - not from the sort of dedication she felt to this world (that was something she would stew over later), but rather -
“Do we even know they’re kids,” she mumbled, more to herself out of confusion than anything, but Ren, walking at her side, heard her.
“As far as I know,” she said, “it’s only ever been children in the Digital World. Not that I’m big on history, though. Castor?”
The dragon, startled at having been addressed, looked up at her with his hood drawn up over his head. “What’s up?”
“You would know the most about the stories,” Ren said. “Of the humans and Digimon in the past. Wasn’t it always children?”
Castor sucked a breath in, frowning, before he hesitantly nodded. “I think? Aldamon… never really talked much about it, and when he did, I was really young, so I don’t remember. But, yes, if I remember correctly, the most recent time, it was definitely children.”
“Back up a second,” said Alex, the only other human really dialed into this side conversation. “‘Most recent’? Implying that there’s been more than one time?”
Castor stopped, getting flustered; he tugged on the nape of his cloak as he gestured with a paw. “Well - I told you, I don’t know much, but - Aldamon always spoke about it as if it’d happened before. And so did the other Digimon I’ve met who knew about it.” He sighed, his eyelids drooping. “Chances are it’s happened more than once, yeah.”
“The internet’s only been around since, what, the eighties?” Harmony chimed in, rubbing her cheek. “It can’t have been too many times.”
“The Digital World is about more than just your internet, you know,” Ren said, raising an eyebrow. “Didn’t you have technology before that?”
“Azure,” Harmony called, not knowing the answer to Ren’s question and not wanting to risk sounding stupid. The kid in question turned around to face her, and when they saw her face, they and Ko both hung back to walk alongside her. Harmony recounted the basics to them as they nodded along, then asked the same question that her partner had asked.
“You think I know about this,” Azure said finally, “because I’m a nerd?”
“That’s not what -” Harmony cried, her shoulders tensing up. “I just thought -!”
Azure laughed, waving a hand around. “I’m just teasing ya. Yeah, we had technology before the internet. The first computer was invented in… the late thirties, I think. The Digital World’s more about… technology as a whole, as opposed to the internet itself. Or so it seems.”
“What makes you think that?” Harmony asked, more as a prompt than a doubt of Azure’s knowledge. They took it as such, and shrugged before continuing.
“Well… maybe not technology so much as just things that use energy - electricity in particular. Remember the telephone poles?” The other five present nodded. “What do telephone poles in our world run on? Electricity. Same as vending machines. Same as computers - or, their batteries do, but you get my point. And some of the stuff we’ve seen, like the pixelated bushes and the circuit board tree bark, is stuff typical of computers.”
“But you said it’s more than computers,” Alex said.
“I know. But computers are obviously a huge part of it - you know, with how we got here and everything.” Alex rubbed the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly, as Azure cast an accusatory glance his way. “So there’s computers, there’s telephone poles, vending machines… I wouldn’t be surprised if we eventually run into more weird stuff like that.”
“That doesn’t explain the street signs we saw back in Host Forest, though,” Harmony said, her eyes narrowing. “What do you think about that?”
Azure paused for a minute, staring off into the distance; Alex, Harmony, and their partners allowed them time to think, while Ko hummed to pass the time and fill the silence. Eventually they blinked and shrugged apologetically.
“I’m not actually sure about that,” they admitted. “Maybe… cause cars run on electricity? Their batteries do,” they added, before Harmony could say something about gasoline. “I dunno. But if there’s street signs, there’s gotta be traffic lights somewhere. And other things, too. Maybe even neon signs?”
“Midnight Isle,” Ren said immediately. Harmony blinked. Ren seemed to notice that no one knew what she was talking about - not even Castor or Ko - and she quickly continued.
“It’s a part of File Island,” she said. “All taken up by a giant city. Neon signs everywhere.”
“Have you been?” Harmony asked.
Ren shook her head. “I had a…” Her voice faltered here, and she looked down at her feet with a slight frown. “I knew someone who went there a lot. Told me all about it. Every time. I could probably navigate it in my sleep even though I’ve never visited, from how much he told me.” She stopped at that, not meeting Harmony’s eyes. She decided not to press onward, and instead turned back to Azure.
“So you say all this,” she said, “about - the technology, and the electricity, and all that. But that doesn’t explain why it’s here.”
“I was getting to that,” they said, quite patiently. “Obviously this is all just a theory, and if any of you guys -” they looked around at the three Digimon, who perked their ears up “- know that anything I’m about to say is wrong, please correct me.” Ren and Castor nodded, while Ko gave them a thumbs up. Azure took a deep breath, steepling their fingers together in front of their nose.
“We ended up here because Alex got an email on his computer.” Nods all around, even from the Digimon, who by now had heard this story enough times that it was almost like they’d been there with them. “An email with a very sketchy link attached to it, and he clicked on it. Next thing we know, we’re hurtling down to earth - or at least we think it’s earth - at a hundred miles an hour. And then we land, completely unharmed -” they broke off at this point, muttering something under their breath about fall damage “- in a brand new world full of monsters that we eventually find out is completely comprised of data and is known as the Digital World.” They paused, letting the recap sink in completely before continuing. “My theory is that our worlds are linked somehow, and some sort of spare data from this world made its way to our world, where it manifested as a spam email that got sent to Alex’s computer. By interacting with the data, it pulled us in and dumped us here without any explanation.”
“By ‘interacting’,” Harmony said before Azure could go on, “do you mean, like, doing literally anything with it? That it wasn’t the link itself that sent us here, but rather the entire email?”
“It’s what I think,” they confirmed, nodding. “So even if we - or Alex, rather - had deleted the email, sent it to spam, forwarded it, etcetera, we’d still end up here. Because we interacted with it in any way, shape or form, it was alerted of us and pulled us in.”
“I beg to differ,” Alex said, hands in his pockets.
“Then beg,” Azure said, lifting their chin. Pause. “Go on.”
Alex cleared his throat, closing his eyes for a slight second. “I think it was the link. You didn’t - you didn’t see what the email itself said, right?”
Azure shook their head. “I was too busy yelling at you for ignoring me.”
“Exactly,” Alex said. “It - in the body of the email, a few lines above the link, it said… something about wanting to begin?”
“Begin?” Harmony questioned.
Alex nodded vigorously. “Yeah. I think it said ‘are you ready to begin?’. And, y’know, it was a school computer, I thought it would be fun if I clicked on it and it led to some website that was like ‘congratulations, you just won a free iPhone seven!’ or an Amazon gift card or something.”
“Why would you do that,” Azure said.
“School computer, man,” he said, shrugging. “I dunno. Seemed funny at the time. I knew it would get a laugh out of Ezra. And it wasn’t the first time I’d taken a spam message seriously and treated it as a genuine question.” He coughed. “Also I did it to bother you ‘cause I know you hate it when people fall for that sort of stuff.”
“Wait,” Harmony said, halting in her tracks suddenly. Alex and Azure peered back at her, stopping as well. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to hold on to the string of thought she’d just had. “I… have a confession.”
“Ooh, juicy stuff,” Ezra said, popping up behind her and scaring the shit out of her. He grinned and dodged a swipe she made at him before sidling over to Alex, leaning up against him. “I wanna hear this.” Ember followed, hot at his partner’s heels.
“Can we get a move on, though,” said Ren, a few yards ahead of them, not having stopped walking when Harmony had. Harmony nodded, starting forward again and working with Alex to quickly relay the gist of their conversation to the two newcomers.
“Big brain time,” Ezra said at the end, tapping the side of his head. “You guys are too smart for me. Remember, I failed almost every class last semester.”
“That’s cause your teachers suck ass,” Alex retorted. “It’s not your fault.” Ezra shrugged, picking some dirt off of his sweater, but said nothing.
“Anyway,” Castor said, the first thing he’d said in quite some time. He nodded up at Harmony. “What was your confession?”
Harmony swallowed, averting her gaze from everyone present. “Uh - well. A few nights before… we got here, I got a weird text message. It said, like… ‘are you at peace’. Nothing else. No links like you, Alex. Just - that was all it said.” She wrinkled her nose, still looking down at her feet. “I dunno. It was weird. I chalked it up to some prank text.”
(She couldn’t tell them what it had actually been - what she’d actually taken it as. Not now.)
“Spooky,” Ezra said, fake shivering. “Probably not as spooky as mine, though.”
That got everyone’s attention. Seven pairs of eyes snapped to him as he smiled, his plan having thoroughly worked. Harmony completely forgot about her own weird message as she turned to him.
“Picture this,” he says, holding his hands up in front of him in a sort of mock-camera angle. “I just got done screaming at Alex over text about the homework. I’m about to actually go and do said homework when I get a message from an unknown number. Okay, nothing huge, I get those all the time from prospecting ladies.” Here he winked, earning a giggle from Harmony and a groan and an eyeroll from Alex. “But then I go to check it out. It’s completely blank. It doesn’t even have a number, it just says ‘unknown’. Probably a spam text. But - instead of saying something like ‘want to see my ass?’, or ‘there are hot singles in your area!’, it says ‘will you follow your heart?’ Like it was asking me in the most roundabout way if I wanted to go on a date or something.”
“That’s the ideal way to ask someone out, though,” Alex said, tapping his chin. “If I’m ever in a relationship, I want them to text me shit like that. No more of this ‘babe when are you coming over, my parents aren’t home’ sort of stuff. Give me Socrates-level philosophy.”
Ren was quiet for a second, focusing on something in the near distance. She looked at Harmony out of the corner of her eye, a slight frown on her lips. “…I get the feeling that I don’t want to know what any of that means.”
“Protect her,” Azure said immediately, reaching a hand up to pat her head. Ren squeezed her eyes shut, obviously not entirely pleased with the gesture, but not quite yet willing to go back on her previous day’s statement of how she actually kind of liked Azure.
“If people back home saw you they would be all over you,” Harmony added, nodding sagely. “And not in a good way.”
“Harmony, aren’t you a furry artist?” Ezra asked, placing his hands on his hips.
“I am NOT!” she yelled over Alex and Azure bursting out laughing. “I will not stand for this!”
“Then what’re all those drawings all over your notebooks?” Ezra said, a mischievous glint in his eye. “Pretty sure I’ve seen some furries on there.”
“Those are normal animals! I’m sorry that I’ve got a cartoony art style!”
“You drew a blue wolf and stuck it on the front of your binder,” Alex pointed out, finally over his bout of laughter. “I think at that point it constitutes as a furry.”
She huffed and crossed her arms, looking off to the side and glaring out into the distance. Ren tilted her head down at her partner, her tail swishing back and forth.
Ember, who up until this point had been listening with something between amusement and confusion, suddenly spoke up. “There’s something out there.”
The small group turned their heads in his direction, and indeed, out across the swatches of green grassland was a small shape.
“That does not look good,” Harmony muttered.
It was hard to see, from their distance, but Harmony just knew that it was a Digimon. Probably an infected one, with their luck!
“Who wants to bet that that’s our next not-so-friendly monster friend,” Alex said with a sigh.
It was actually Dare who had seen it first, it turned out, as she and Ryan were at the front of the group while the others had had their little debacle. (For some reason, Alex had not complained about them leading.) She’d stopped dead in her tracks maybe fifty feet ahead of them (both she and her partner were fast walkers, and had quickly taken the lead when not being weighed down by the others), and the mini group, plus Miguel and Flip another twenty feet behind them, gathered around the two of them when they saw the need for a holdup.
Harmony edged forward, setting a hand on Ryan’s shoulder as she passed him. Sure enough, if she looked very hard, she could swear she saw some sort of creature (a Digimon) hovering in midair.
She frowned, and Ren came up to her side, narrowing her eyes and folding her arms. The fox looked over down at Dare, whose head was still tilted as if it would help her see better.
“That looks like a FanBeemon,” Ko said, from Dare’s other side. He paused, raising a claw to his cheek and scratching it. “But they’re not native here.”
“Bet I could take it in a fight,” Dare said proudly, puffing her chest out. Ryan rolled his eyes, but said nothing.
Native Digimon? Harmony thought, paying no mind to Dare’s jokes. She’d have to ask about that later.
“It’s obviously seen us,” said Ren, following Harmony’s lead by also ignoring Dare. “There’s no point in trying to avoid it.”
“So, what, we just run straight in?” Harmony asked, scrunching her face up. “Isn’t that exactly what you wanted us not to do when it came to the other humans?”
Ren scowled, electing to ignore her partner’s (very valid!) point in favor of turning to Alex. “We going in?”
“Why are you looking at me,” he said, but the way he lit up told Harmony that he liked being looked to as the leader. She smiled faintly.
Alex sighed, shrugging a shoulder. “If it’s seen us, Ren’s right. If we try to avoid it, it’ll follow us. Might as well make it a short trip for the both of us.”
“That’s considerate,” Miguel mumbled, frowning. “Do we have to fight?”
“If it wants to,” Alex said cheerfully. Miguel closed his eyes, rubbing his temples, and Flip nudged his hand reassuringly.
“Joy,” Ryan said, sounding not entirely joyful. “Shall we get a move on?”
They set off again at a slower pace than they had been going at before, possibly because despite their determination, none of them were really looking forward to having yet another fight. The Digimon - a FanBeemon, presumably, as they had no reason to not believe Ko - stayed in place as they approached; it did not turn around, did not walk (or fly) forward, did nothing except hover exactly where it was.
“Definitely a FanBeemon,” Ko said once they were a bit closer. Harmony squinted against the sun, trying to get a better look at it. It was, indeed, a small yellow bee, with black stripes and teal accents. Its gray wings fluttered back and forth in the wind, keeping it in the air despite its body seeming much too large to be supported.
…Harmony shook the thought away.
Alex extended an arm outward, signaling to the others to stay back, as he and Castor took a few steps forward. Harmony stood up on her tiptoes to see over Azure’s shoulder; Alex and Castor were walking up to the bee, Alex’s hands spread out to signal he was coming in peace. He looked down at Castor, still a few feet away from the Digimon, before looking over his shoulder and nodding at the others. Slowly, they crept forward also, trying their best to appear harmless.
“Hello,” Alex called out, still perhaps six or seven yards away from it. “We’re just passing through. We’re sorry if we bugged you.” Immediately his face took on a horrified expression, realizing what kind of joke he’d just made and possibly fearing that he’d come across as rude. Castor buried his face in his hood to stifle his giggles; the others behind them had no such hood to do the same, but managed to steel themselves well enough.
The FanBeemon’s eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch. It peeked around Alex at the others in the group, eyeing them all suspiciously, before nodding, and then -
It began to twitch its antennae, rubbing them together and creating an odd sort of sound which was definitely reminiscent of the buzz of a bee. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, certainly not enough to hurt their ears, but Harmony felt herself instinctively clap her hands over her ears nonetheless.
From just looking at the bug, she got the feeling that if it wanted to, it could absolutely release an ear-splitting screech with those antennae; it simply chose not to, and for that she breathed a sigh of relief.
Though, whether this exact noise was just a warning or a call to arms was anyone’s guess. Harmony opted for the preferred outcome and desperately hoped it was just a warning.
Or - maybe it wasn’t even that. As she slowly removed her hands from the side of her head, letting them drop to her sides, she saw the FanBeemon had turned around and was flitting over just past a small hill in the distance. It made the noise again, looking down at something on the other side of it, before looking right back over to the group.
“FanBeemon use their antennae to call their allies to their side,” Ko hissed quietly before FanBeemon could fly back within earshot.
“Wonderful,” Azure said, smiling thinly. “Here’s hoping they’re friendly.”
Harmony wrung her hands out, reaching one of them down to clutch Ren’s hand; her partner squeezed back in reassurement. The fox lifted her head out to FanBeemon’s hill, frowning, and Harmony, not wanting to look at the bug, saw her partner’s expression change from defensiveness to shock to confusion.
Following her gaze, Harmony looked back out to where FanBeemon was and saw another Digimon with it - a small pink eagle with a feather stuck in a headband around its forehead.
The two Digimon flew back over to the group, stopping just short of a few feet away, and landed. They convened in hushed tones for a few moments before the bee settled back and the bird took a step forward, nodding at the group.
Closer up, Harmony could see that the bird’s wings also acted as hands; each wing had three gray claws on the end, seeming to work just like fingers. While her body was a sort of warm pink tone, her beak and feet were pale yellow, and her entire head was stark white, save for two pink markings under her golden eyes. The headband on her head was actually a belt, and the feather was tucked into the back of it, just peeking up over the bird’s head.
The bird cleared her throat, clasping her “hands” together. Harmony felt herself tense up, both with anticipation and maybe just a hint of nervousness.
“You’re not from around here,” she said; her voice was light and sweet, very high-pitched but not in a childish sense. “May I ask what you’re doing here?”
The group of twelve paused, each of them looking for an answer; surprisingly, Harmony found herself speaking first.
“We’re not sure,” she said, shrugging. “We… didn’t exactly choose to come here. To this world, I mean.”
FanBeemon frowned, tapping its - his - foot against the ground. “Where are you from?” His voice, unlike his friend’s, was much deeper, sounding a lot more like Ko’s, yet more masculine and affirmative.
“The - the human world,” Harmony said, finding no reason to lie but still stuttering over the words.
FanBeemon fixed her with a hard teal stare. “Where in the human world.”
A pause; Harmony hadn’t exactly been expecting to have to give a more specific answer. Fortunately, Alex was prepared.
“California,” he said, without any fuss about it.
FanBeemon’s eyes narrowed again, tilting his head slightly to the side. The bird Digimon placed a claw on his shoulder, and he brushed it off.
“B -” she started, but he shushed her, shaking his head. She sighed, then shook herself out.
“Excuse our impudence,” he said, dipping his head. “We’ve never seen humans.” The bird recoiled, frowning at him, but he ignored her.
Which she did not appreciate.
“For crying out loud,” she said haughtily, shoving him away. “This is the first we’ve seen of other humans here in this world, and the first thing you do is lie to them?”
Harmony blinked, completely spacing out. Other humans? Lying? What -
And then it clicked.
“A bird and a bug,” she said, in a completely normal speaking tone, which means that the two bickering Digimon heard her. They snapped their attention back to her, the bird looking a bit confused and the FanBeemon still a bit sour. She paid them no mind. “That’s what Beetlemon said.”
The bird’s eyes widened and she leapt into the air, her clawed arm-wings seeming to work just as well as normal bird wings. “Beetlemon! You -”
“They’re the Digimon who were with the humans,” Azure cried, catching on. They jerked their head back, pointing down at FanBeemon. “The hell do you mean you’ve never seen humans?”
“To be fair, we can’t exactly prove that these are the same ones,” Ko muttered, barely audible. “It could have been any other bird and bug Digimon.”
“No, they’re right, we do have humans,” the bird said, her eyebrows furrowing as she started to anxiously ramble. FanBeemon rolled his eyes. “And I’m sorry he lied to you, really I am, we should go take you to them, they’d be so -”
She was cut off by a howl coming from behind her, just over the hill; from the way she and FanBeemon exchanged glances, Harmony suspected that it was not their humans.
“What was that,” she said nervously, reaching a hand out to grip Ren’s again. This time, her partner did not squeeze back; she pulled her hand away, gently, and crept toward the two Digimon, her ears pinned back as she looked out to the hill.
“He’s back,” the bird said, relatively calmly for how worried she looked. FanBeemon nodded.
The bird then turned and looked over her shoulder at the group. “I’m Pop. This is Bumble. We need to deal with this.”
Without another word, the two of them took to the air and rushed to the hill, determination etched into their faces.
Ren and Dare were not far behind, nor was Castor. Ko, Flip, and Ember were a bit more hesitant, but followed as well. The humans went too, not wanting to leave their partners alone.
They crested the hill; far off into the distance they could barely make out what seemed to be a house surrounded by trees, but the more pressing matter at hand - and what was physically closer to them - was the giant red and white wolf currently engaged in battle with Pop and Bumble.
Maybe it was more like they were engaged in battle with it, as it seemed to be absolutely kicking their asses. Ren and Dare, leading the other four Digimon, were only a few moments behind, and they instantly leapt into the fight as well.
Pop paused midair, looking around at the other Digimon in confusion before turning around to gaze at the humans. She said nothing, simply returned to the fight, but her uncertainty was plainly visible on her face.
“
“
“
Its attack hit Ren, despite her attempt to jump backwards and out of the way. She was sent flying backward, landing with a grunt, and Harmony inhaled sharply, only letting loose the breath when she saw her partner get back up - a little shakily, and she stumbled even once she had her footing, but at least she was standing.
Castor and Ko leapt forth with their own attacks, while Dare circled around it as quietly as possible to try to get it from behind and Flip worked on drawing its attention away. Pop and Bumble, both of whom were now looking around as if they couldn’t believe they were being helped, quickly joined Dare in trying to attack it in its blind spots.
Unfortunately, the wolf seemed to have very sensitive hearing, and it whirled around to face Dare, its ears pinned back and saliva dripping from its jaws. She recoiled, flaring her wings out to appear intimidating, but she was no match for the wolf, as it was three times her size.
And it was probably a champion, considering its size and power - but then again, so was Meicoomon, and she wasn’t nearly as big as this one -
No time to think about that now, though. Harmony stiffened as the wolf leapt toward Dare with a growl of “
Even though six rookie Digimon had been able to defeat Cyclomon, eight rookies were no match against this champion. It grinned widely, displaying every long tooth in its mouth as it howled again and opened its mouth for another attack.
“
It didn’t do much damage, but it disoriented the wolf, causing it to stumble around and forget that it was about to prepare an attack; this opening was just enough time for Ren, Flip, and Bumble to each hit it with their respective attacks.
“
“
“
Ren’s punch, Flip’s torrent of water, and Bumble’s energy stingers hit it across its body, pummeling it from three different directions. It yelped, whipping its head around and snarling, before turning back around and running off in the same direction it had come from, its tail practically between its legs.
Harmony wasted no time in racing down to Ren’s side; her partner was knelt on the ground, breathing heavily, one fist pressed to her chest and the other one propped on the ground to help support her. Harmony flung her arms around her partner’s shoulders, leaning into her, and Ren brought the hand on her chest up to hold Harmony’s face.
Around them, the other humans and their partners reunited as well, with Ryan inspecting Dare for any major injuries, despite her trying to push him away.
Harmony cracked an eye open, turning to look behind her at a sudden noise. Pop and Bumble were a bit far off in the distance, possibly having recoiled after the wolf’s retreat, but what was most shocking -
“There’s humans,” Harmony mumbled. Ren flicked an ear, gently disentangling herself from Harmony and following her gaze.
Indeed, crouched down in front of the two Digimon, with their backs to the group, were two humans. Pop suddenly perked up, tapping her human and pointing at Harmony, an unreadable expression on her face.
The two humans turned around slowly, finally coming face to face with the rest of the group.
It was silent in the field for a few moments, save for the rustle of the grass in the wind; then, the two new humans stood up, the girl starting toward the group while the boy hesitated before following.
The girl was maybe two inches taller than the boy, but what was most striking was that they looked almost the exact same. Dark skin, curly black hair (though the boy seemed to straighten his), both of them quite tall. No doubt they were twins, or at least siblings.
As they approached, the girl broke into a sort of run, whereas the boy continued his casual walk. The girl came to a stop just a few feet away from Harmony. Pop followed, stopping just at her feet, and the girl smiled and knelt down to pat her head. Pop then hopped up onto the girl’s outstretched arm as she stood up, the two of them looking much like a knight and her hunting falcon.
She smiled, scanning the group and lingering just for a second on Harmony before she waved at all of them. The boy arrived at this point, Bumble close behind, and he looked down at the bee before straightening back up and surveying the group.
The new girl broke the silence. “Hi,” she said, smiling again. “Thanks for the help.”
No one knew what to say; what could they say? What is there to say?
“No problem,” Alex said, stepping up closer and stopping at Harmony’s side. “Uh. You’re… the humans that Beetlemon fought, right?”
The girl blinked, then nodded. “Yeah. Technically he fought our partners -” she looked pointedly at Pop, then down at Bumble - “but yeah.” She tilted her head, one eyebrow furrowed. “Why?”
“We ran into him,” Harmony said. “He told us about you, and… well…” She trailed off, but Ren picked up where she had left off.
“They’re looking for a way home,” she said, glancing around at the kids. “They thought if they could find more humans, perhaps they’d know how.”
The boy frowned, his gaze trained on his feet. “Tough luck,” he said, a sort of bitter humor in his tone. “Even we can’t do that, and we’ve been here for years.”
Harmony gaped, and the girl scrunched her face up. “Well,” she started, rubbing her nose with a hand. “I mean. We haven’t been here for all the years we’ve known about this place, but… we can’t exactly get home right now. But it’s not as bad as it sounds.”
“Not as bad as it sounds?” Ryan laughed, spreading his hands out. “In a world full of monsters. With no other humans around. That sounds pretty bad to me.”
“‘S not like the human world’s any better,” the boy mumbled, kicking his foot against the ground. The girl’s shoulders drooped and she sighed, but did not argue.
Pop ruffled her feathers, nudging the girl’s cheek with her beak. “If they’re not going to introduce themselves,” she said, then cleared her throat. “This is my partner Moxie. That’s her brother, Damien, Bumble’s partner.” She nodded over at the boy, who gave a peace sign by way of greeting. Moxie smiled, nodding at the group. In turn, introductions from the larger group went around quickly, with the two human’s eyes widening as they took in just how many of them there were.
“So you know about the partner thing,” Azure said once they were done.
Moxie nodded, but Damien spoke. “Course. We got the digivice and all.”
A slight pause, and then Azure made a sort of “ohhh” noise. “The app?”
Damien blanked for a second, then shrugged. “The thing on the phone. Whatever.”
“Called a digivice, huh,” Harmony breathed, pulling her phone out of her pocket and switching it on. She sighed upon seeing that her app had yet to finish downloading, but the four whose apps had finished launched them up.
“Fancy colors,” Moxie said, inspecting each of them in turn. “Weird that you guys have it too.”
Harmony frowned. “What do you mean, us too? I thought if anything, you guys wouldn’t have it.”
“We’ve had our partners since we were twelve,” Damien said flatly, scrolling through his own phone. “Of course we’d have it.”
“Oh, yeah,” Moxie said. “Speaking of. How did you guys… even… get here?”
Harmony raised her eyebrows and Ryan laughed. “Oh boy,” he said, shaking his head. Damien didn’t look up, but cocked an eyebrow.
Alex sighed, sucking a breath in. “…Uh. Could we - sit down, maybe?”
Moxie and Damien exchanged glances, but both shrugged.
“It’s… a long story,” Harmony said, by way of explanation.
They got more than just a chance to sit down.
Moxie and Damien were kind enough to invite them back to their house, which was indeed the building they had spied during the fight with the wolf - Fangmon, Pop said. Turns out it’d been bothering them for the past few weeks.
(While they were walking to the house, Castor had had everyone hang back behind the four newcomers so he could talk to them - Fangmon had been infected. The other Digimon nodded their assent, while the humans, too far away to have properly seen its eyes, gave sighs of disappointment.)
(They could deal with that later.)
It was a small house just past the hill, nestled in a sort of copse of pine trees (or something close to pine trees). They were welcomed in; it was homey and pleasant, and a welcoming break from the endless wilderness that the group had traveled through, despite their stop in the city.
“So that’s everything,” Harmony said, still looking around the room - they were all situated in the kitchen-slash-living room, some of them sitting in various chairs and on various couches, some of them laying on the floor, some of them (Harmony and Ren included) seated at the kitchen island. “Up until we found Pop and Bumble.”
Moxie paused, currently working on filling glasses of water for everyone and their Digimon (they had running water! And a fridge! And air conditioning! And probably a lot more, but that was what Harmony had noticed first). “Odd,” she said, turning around and offering a glass to Harmony. “That’s almost exactly how we got here.”
“Oh?” Azure asked; they were propped up against the wall on the living-room side, with Ko sitting next to them. “How did you get here?”
“The first time, we were just pulled in through our computer,” Damien said, sitting on the other side of the kitchen island from Harmony. “So kinda like you, I guess. A couple days beforehand we got really weird messages, and because we were stupid, we replied. The next time we used our computer, we got a pop-up asking if we were sure about something, whatever the hell that meant. I clicked yes, and then we fell and landed here. We found Bumble and Pop straight away.”
“It was like they were waiting for us,” Moxie added, a sort of wistful tone coming over her voice.
“We were,” Pop said, still perched on Moxie’s shoulder. “Bumble and I grew up together. All our lives we knew that we were supposed to meet someone.”
“And then we got our digivices,” Moxie said, finishing passing the water around and taking a seat next to Damien. “Anyway. We had an option on our digivices that allowed us to travel back and forth between worlds. At the end of the day, we went back home. Didn’t want our…” She frowned faintly, then shook her head. “We didn’t want to leave Pop and Bumble behind. So we brought them back with us.”
“We came here pretty often,” Damien said, gesturing with a hand. “Sometimes we’d leave them here. Sometimes we’d bring them back.” He sighed, swirling the ice around in his glass. “It went on like that for a couple years. Us visiting every so often. Getting to know the world. Eventually ending up here.”
“Then one day,” Moxie said, looking down at the floor, “we…” She trailed off, her voice growing quieter. “We just wanted to see them again. So we did, and now we’re here.”
“Isn’t your family worried?” Harmony said quietly. Damien inhaled sharply and she cast him a worried glance.
“They know,” Moxie said. “They’re fine with it.”
“It’s not like it would matter either way,” Damien said, closing his eyes. “Our digivices don’t let us go back anymore. Dunno why. The option just disappeared entirely.”
Miguel frowned. “You’re stuck here?”
“We’re not really ‘stuck’ if we chose to be here,” Damien said, and Miguel closed his mouth.
Silence washed over the room; Pop fluffed her wings awkwardly, and Ren swished her tail around.
“So there’s no way to go home anymore,” Alex finally said, from his position on the couch next to Ezra.
Moxie shook her head and gave a sad smile. “No. I’m sorry.”
Another silence, but this one was shorter than the last and broken by Castor instead. “So we’ll just keep going, then,” he said, looking up at Alex. “To Asuramon. That was the plan.”
That got Moxie and Damien’s attention. “Asuramon?” Moxie asked. “At the volcano?”
“Yeah,” Ember said, nodding. “You know him?”
Damien fake gagged, and Moxie swatted him away with a hand. “More or less,” she said, casting a stern glance at her brother.
“What’s with all that?” Ryan asked, looking pointedly to Damien.
Damien snorted. “He’s fulla shit,” he mumbled, crossing his arms.
Ember, in Ezra’s lap, looked taken aback, almost comically so. “He is not!”
“Oh, you know him?” Bumble muttered, the first thing he’d said since out on the plains.
Ember hesitated before reluctantly shaking his head. “No,” he mumbled, wiping his nose. “Not personally. But I heard he’s cool.”
“Yeah, one word of advice,” Damien said, smirking. “Don’t take anything he says literally. Actually, don’t take anything he says at all in any way. Again. He’s full of shit.”
“Well damn,” Harmony said, popping one cheek out. Beside her, Ren pricked an ear up. “He’s really the only lead we have.”
Moxie blinked. “On what?”
“Why we’re here,” Miguel said; he was on the floor, Flip curled up at his side, lazily lapping at his water. “Aldamon said we might be here for a reason.”
“Which I refuse to believe,” Ryan announced. Dare, around his neck, giggled. “All I care about is getting home.”
“Yeah, well, tough luck,” Damien said, repeating what he’d told them out in the field. “You may as well make the best of it while you’re here.”
“Wait wait wait,” Moxie said, holding her hands up in a whoa-there sort of gesture. “What reason would you be here for?”
“Destiny,” Ryan said in a mock singsong voice, clasping his hands together and holding them near his chin as if he was swooning.
“I don’t agree with his mocking,” Castor said, pulling on his hood, “but he’s right. We - …Aldamon, a friend of mine… thinks that since there’s been humans here in the past with partners, then these ones might be here to do the same thing as they did.”
“Which would be what,” Damien said, propping his chin up with a fist.
“To save the world,” Castor said simply. Pause. “The Digital World, to be specific. But probably also the human world.”
“You think a bunch of kids and their monster buddies can save the world,” Damien said, a flat question.
“It’s happened before,” Castor retorted, visibly bristling.
Damien opened his mouth, but Moxie was quick to act, and slapped a hand over it before he could say anything. “Why don’t we not fight,” she said in a low voice, looking pointedly at Damien. “They’re got their reasons. Let them be.”
Damien backed off with a shrug, supposedly content to leave it at that. Moxie rubbed her temples, letting loose a deep sigh before looking over at Castor. “Sorry,” she mumbled. She then turned to face the group as a whole, smiling weakly. “Why don’t you stay here for the night? You’re heading out in the morning, right? Take some time to rest.”
They left it at that; Miguel got up when he saw Moxie beginning to prepare dinner (Harmony had been so caught up in everything going on that she’d barely noticed the sun beginning to set), intent on helping her, and Harmony followed as well, wanting to be some sort of use. It was a bit early for dinner, but they hadn’t really stopped for lunch, having been caught up in the whole Fangmon thing, so no one said anything about it.
Ryan pulled her away after a bit, though, gesturing toward the front door. She excused herself, casting an apologetic smile to Moxie, but the taller girl waved her away with a smile of her own. Ren followed Harmony, and Ryan led her out around the house, out of earshot of anyone. Dare was around his neck, as per usual, but she hopped down when Ryan came to a stop, leaning against the side of the house.
Harmony raised an eyebrow at him as he sighed.
“Is this it?”
She blinked. “What?”
“I mean,” he mumbled, scratching the back of his head, “are we really just going to leave tomorrow. We met the other humans and now we’re leaving.”
Harmony peered closer at him, causing him to shift uncomfortably. “…You don’t want to leave them.”
Ryan sighed again, rubbing his face. “That’s not - shit. Wasn’t what I meant, but whatever. I just - we’ve… been practically on our own the whole time -”
“There are twelve of us,” she said. “Not exactly ‘on our own’.”
“- and now that we find more humans,” he continued, ignoring her interruption, “we just turn around and continue on our merry way as if we’d never met them.”
“They seem to be handling themselves fine.”
“Again, not what I mean.”
Harmony closed her eyes. “Are you saying they should come with us?”
“If the whole destiny thing is true,” Dare said, “then maybe they’re a part of it.” Ryan didn’t say anything, nor give any indication that he agreed with her, but Harmony knew that he was thinking the same thing.
So much for not believing in destiny.
Ren sniffed. “And you say that why,” she said quietly, her turn to speak for her partner. “Because they have partners? Because they have digivices?”
“Because -” Ryan cut himself off, running a hand through his hair and groaning. “Fuck if I know. A feeling, however stupid that sounds. I just - …it’s complicated.”
“It’s not up to us whether they come with,” Ren pointed out, leaning against the wall next to Ryan. “Ultimately, they need to make the decision to come with us. Kidnapping is typically… frowned upon.”
“That’s true,” Harmony said, nodding at the fox.
“I never said anything about kidnapping,” Ryan said, placing his head in his hands. “Just feels kinda weird, leaving them behind like this.”
“I’d say we’re doing just fine on our own,” Ren mumbled, barely audible. “No need for anyone else to join the group.”
Of course she’d think that, Harmony said to herself, frowning slightly. “We can talk about this later,” she said to the other three, turning back to the house. “When we’re not discussing things behind their backs.”
Because that’s never turned out well for anybody.
They ate; Harmony was glad to have a real meal in front of her, and she cringed a little as she thought of the upcoming days, when there would be no more settlements to stop in at. Conversation picked up between the sixteen of them - what a large group they were growing to be - and Harmony found Moxie very nice to talk to. (As opposed to Damien, who was still pretty closed off to everyone.)
It didn’t make it any less of a surprise, though, when after everyone had finished eating and was settling down for the night, Moxie asked Harmony to step outside with her. Her fears caught up with her and racked her mind with worries that she’d somehow heard the conversation with Ryan earlier, but it turned out she just wanted to chat with her a bit, and not about anything related to what the next morning would be like. She invited Harmony and Ren up to the roof of the house, Pop showing them how to climb up the side of the building so they could sit down and look out onto the moon-washed plains.
She hadn’t really fully appreciated the serenity of the place, earlier, when they had been walking; opposed to what the mesa and Twister Mountain had been like, the long grasses swaying gently in the nighttime breeze were almost enough to make Harmony forget that she was in an alternate world.
Not quite enough, but almost.
…Was it just her, or did this place feel familiar?
“Thanks for helping with dinner earlier,” Moxie said. Pop, seated at her side, nodded her thanks as well.
Harmony was in between Moxie on her left and Ren on her right. The fox’s ears perked up just a bit, then settled back down when she saw Harmony smile.
“No problem,” she said quietly. “Miguel really did all the work, though.” She hesitated, then dipped her head. “Sorry that I left in the middle.”
“No worries,” Moxie said, waving a hand as if to dismiss the very thought. “Honestly, I really brought you out here because - well…” She sighed. “To put it simply, you’re easy to talk to. The easiest out of your bunch, at least.”
“I’m flattered,” Harmony said with a slight giggle. “You’re quite nice yourself.”
“Why thank you,” Moxie replied, doing a bow as best she could while sitting down. “I just…” She sighed again, propping her chin up on a hand as she gazed out into the grassland. “The… destiny thing that - what was Hackmon's name? Castor? - what he talked about. It kind of resonated with me.”
“Oh?” Harmony said, trying her best to sound only vaguely interested.
Moxie nodded. “I’ve… only ever told Damien this, but… ever since we met our partners - ever since we first came here, to the Digital World… I’ve always felt as if there were a reason for it. As in, some sort of deeper reason rather than just pure accident.” She closed her eyes, letting out a deep breath. “Like we have some sort of reason for our partners and why we’re here.”
“A destiny sort of reason,” Harmony said slowly.
Moxie nodded again, more vigorously this time. “Exactly. It’s just a feeling I have, and there’s no way to tell for certain, but what he said got me thinking. …I don’t know. Just something to mull over.”
“Well,” Harmony began, choosing her words carefully. “If you… want to… you could come with us. To meet Asuramon. And find out if it’s all true.”
Moxie shrugged one shoulder offhandedly, petting Pop’s head with the opposite hand. “…I couldn’t leave Damien.”
He won’t want to come, Harmony realized, feeling a sharp pain in her gut. Pushing the feeling deeper down, she nodded, smiling. “I get it. Offer stands, though.”
They sat in silence a bit longer; Ren said nothing, though Harmony knew she was just bursting to talk. Her gaze fell to the ground below as she remembered their conversation earlier that day.
Is she upset that I told Moxie she could come? What if she had said yes? Is she even still caught up about it?
What does she think about all this?
“So, confession time,” Moxie said suddenly, breaking the tense silence. Harmony jumped a little, but settled down as Moxie placed a hand on her back to calm her.
“Go on,” Harmony said.
“I’ve known you for less than a day,” Moxie said, pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear, “but - I’d like to be able to call you a friend. I know it might be a bit soon, but… you know.”
Harmony grinned, propping her cheek up with a fist and managing to blush only slightly. Oh, thank goodness I’m not weird for thinking that same exact thing. “Honestly? Same here.”
Moxie laughed, and Harmony opened her mouth to say something else, but before she could even form words, she was cut off by a howling sound from out in the distance.
She cast a glance at Moxie - the taller girl’s expression had quickly changed from one of delight to one of determination. Her brow was furrowed and her eyes narrowed, one hand hovering over her pocket and the other on Pop’s head.
At Harmony’s side, Ren tensed up, curling a lip back in a snarl as she got to her feet. She crouched down, looking over her shoulder at Harmony, before she leapt off the roof and down to the ground.
“Ren!” she called, looking over the edge, but a nudge at her side snapped her attention back up to Moxie, extending a hand down to her. Harmony took it, rising up as well, following her down the side of the building to land on the ground.
Pop was sitting on Moxie’s shoulder, her expression matching her partner’s. Moxie glanced at her out of the corner of her eye and nodded ever so slightly - Pop nodded back in much the same way and took to the air, flying after Ren, who by now was far away from either of them.
“I’m going to guess that’s not a good thing,” Harmony said, trying to lighten the mood. Moxie breathed out, shaking her head as she started after the two Digimon. Harmony quickly followed, not wanting to be left behind.
Eventually they caught up to their two partners; Ren was crouched down, the fur around her neck standing on end and her tail bristling. Pop was hovering in place next to her, beating her wings to stay aloft. Ren held a hand up to Harmony, signaling for her to stay back. She reluctantly obliged, but not before peeking around the fox’s shoulder to get a look at whatever it was they were facing off against.
And - surprise surprise - it was Fangmon.
“Shit,” Moxie hissed between her teeth, glaring at the red and white wolf approaching them. It opened its jaws wide, releasing another howl, before rushing forward to meet Ren and Pop.
“
“
“
“We need to go get the others,” Harmony said, glancing fervently between Ren and Moxie.
The taller girl tightened her fists, a grim look on her face. “We can’t risk it. We can’t leave our partners.”
“There’s no way they can beat him on their own,” Harmony cried, gesturing wildly at the three battling Digimon. As if to accentuate her point, Fangmon smacked Ren aside, sending her flying past Harmony to land in a heap a few feet away. Harmony winced as the fox sucked in a deep breath, pushing herself to her feet again.
“Pop,” Moxie called, cupping her hands around her mouth to help her voice carry. Her partner snapped her head over to face her, having to lift higher into the air to avoid Fangmon biting down. “Can you -?”
Pop seemed to hesitate midair; she glanced down at Fangmon, currently trying to wrap its jaws around Ren’s face, and shook her head slowly. “I - I don’t know,” she said, a tinge of regret in her voice. “I’ll try, but…”
“Trying is all we need,” Moxie said, quietly, possibly only to herself, because Pop gave no indication that she’d heard it.
“Eight rookie Digimon were only able to chase it away,” Harmony said quickly, tugging on Moxie’s arm. “Two of them stand no chance.”
Moxie’s eyes were closed. “We… might have a chance,” she whispered.
Confused, Harmony chanced a glance over at the fight - Pop was hovering in midair, squeezing her eyes shut but having to crack them open every few seconds to make sure Fangmon wasn’t aiming at her. Ren was still trying to hold it off, but its snapping jaws and sheer size made almost every effort completely futile.
Ren bared her teeth, flexing her claws, before jumping high into the air as her arm ignited with blue flames. “
She drove her fist into Fangmon’s snout, causing it to yelp in pain. It shook its head out, flinging her off before it rounded on her, its lips curled back and every single one of its teeth exposed. It raised a paw, planting it firmly on the fox’s chest; she struggled, but was unable to move, trapped by its weight and looming jaws.
Fangmon’s mouth curled into a smile, its pure white eyes unblinking, before it began to gather black-purple energy in its mouth.
“REN!”
Harmony didn’t even know at first that she had started moving; only once she was between Fangmon and her partner, fervently pushing against the wolf’s chest, did she come back to her senses and realize that she’d run over without thinking, desperate to save her partner from whatever Fangmon was about to do.
It blinked, finally, before growling low in its throat and turning its attention to Harmony.
She could hear Moxie yelling in the distance, and Pop flapping above her frantically, but Fangmon threw her to the side as easily as she could have flicked a fly off her shoulder. She grunted upon landing in the grass, instantly rolling to her side to try to get up, feeling her arms fumble beneath her as she tried to push herself far away from the infected Digimon, drawing ever closer, its jaws dripping with spittle and its teeth glinting in the low moonlight -
There was a loud snap, and then pain coursed through her body like she’d never felt it before.
She screamed.
Something wet fell down her leg. She couldn’t feel her arms, but got the vague sense that she’d reached down to touch it. Her hand came away stained with something red, a sickly sight which almost made her retch. Her hands were shaking and her eyes were out of focus; she couldn’t see a foot in any direction.
Am I dying?
Her leg was throbbing, endlessly, as if she’d been… stabbed. Bitten. Very seriously injured. She felt dizzy - maybe she’d just lay her head down a bit, get some rest before trying to stand up and find her partner.
Am I dead?
Well, what else would that bright blue light surrounding her be, if not the light at the end of the tunnel?
Accompanied by the fact that everything went dead silent, save for the sound of her own heartbeat, slowly beating, fading away into a vague white noise in the background…
Is it my heartbeat, or Ren’s?
A muffled beep came from her back pocket, accompanied by a vibration. She swung her hand around, trying to reach down for whatever it was (her phone?) before giving up and letting it slump back down to the ground.
Something spoke; maybe this was death.
“Evolution engaged. Please do not turn off the phone while evolution is in progress.”
…Hm.
Maybe not dead yet.
She blinked, once, twice, trying to clear away the fog surrounding her vision. She avoided looking down at her leg, but saw Moxie crouched over her, something wet falling down her own face. Pop was at her side; Fangmon was nowhere to be seen, but she could still sense it.
She also sensed Ren nearby, and she craned her neck around - despite the shooting pain that the movement caused her - just in time to see her partner transform into something new.
She fell down onto four legs, growing much larger, and what once was a singular tail was now nine, each of them tipped in glowing blue flames. Her paws, too, now sported blue flames erupting from the ankles; the fur around her neck grew much longer and scruffier, and a blue and white rope, tipped in metal points on both ends and tied into a bow at the back, settled around her neck. Her snout was colored white, and two blue zig zag markings were visible under her eyes.
“
Even through her pain and delirium, Harmony managed a weak smile.
“Kyubimon,” came a calming voice, the same one which had told her not to turn her phone off - so, probably her phone. “Champion level bewitching beast Digimon. It is feared as a harbinger of destruction and decay, but in ancient times it was revered as an emissary of peace.”
Ren, despite her new form, wasted no time in jumping back into battle; she leapt over Harmony’s head deftly, landing a few feet to the right, where Fangmon had been watching the whole thing play out. With a snarl, she bowed her head, flaring out her nine tails as the blue flames grew brighter.
“
“
“
Her entire body was coated in the blue flames by the time she reached Fangmon. She opened her mouth wide, blazing furiously, and slammed right into it head-on. It didn’t seem to affect her, but rather only Fangmon; it stumbled backward, shaking its head out and glaring at her.
“
“
Fangmon, deciding it valued its life, turned tail and ran once it saw Ren’s fireballs, heading off from where it had come.
Harmony groaned as she propped herself up. “Can’t -” she hacked out, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Don’t let it get away.”
Moxie looked uneasy for just a split second, but ultimately nodded at Pop. The pink bird took to the air, flapping after Fangmon as fast as she could. Ren, too, was on her way, but Pop, having come in at a different angle, reached Fangmon first.
“
“
The blue flames coating her body were brighter this time, perhaps wilder; regardless of if it was just Harmony’s faintness playing tricks on her eyes, Ren swiped at Fangmon’s face with one fiery blue claw, and before it could even widen its (blank, soulless) eyes, it exploded into data particles, scattering upon the ground like embers from a fire.
The fire surrounding Ren died down; she stood, panting, her chest heaving and head bowed, for a few moments, before she was overtaken by a bright blue light and returned to her rookie form.
Even then, the yellow fox looked worn out as she collapsed to the ground, hands on her knees and something shiny trailing down her face, coming from the corner of her eye.
Moxie carried Harmony back to the house, one arm supporting her back and the other hooked under her knees. (Harmony tried, even through her injured stupor, not to think of how she was basically being carried bridal-style.) Turns out the pain she had felt had been Fangmon biting down onto her leg; she didn’t look at the injury for long - she’d never really enjoyed the sight of blood (and oh boy, was there a lot) - but it did seem to be pretty bad. So bad that she wasn’t even able to walk, hence why she was being carried.
Ren had offered to carry her at first, but after stumbling when standing back up, Moxie had taken over. Ren was obviously still too exhausted to do anything like that for now, but she covered up her guilt over not being able to help her own partner by walking right at her side, holding her hand and staring resolutely into the distance.
Damien, possibly worried about his sister’s and her partner’s absence from the house, was standing outside with Bumble as they approached - he saw Moxie carrying Harmony (and, furthermore, the bright red blood leaking from her wound) and immediately rushed forward to help get her into the house and seated at the kitchen counter, where Moxie would hopefully be able to find something to help patch her up.
The commotion awoke nearly everyone currently trying to fall asleep in the living room, and it turned into quite a scene.
“Didn’t know you were so good at this,” Harmony mumbled, stifling a yawn.
“Mom’s a nurse,” Ryan said gruffly, laser-focused on his current task. “Didn’t ever think the questions I asked her would come in handy, but here we are.”
Moxie, sitting next to Ryan in front of Harmony (currently having her injury cleaned and bandaged the best it could be with the supplies at the house), furrowed her brow, but her expression was still soft as ever. “I wish we could do more,” she mumbled, raising a hand to her mouth. “I’m sorry.”
Harmony hissed as the alcohol wipe burned for a split second, then winced, trying to wave Moxie’s regret away. “It’s okay,” she managed through the pain, squeezing her eyes shut and gripping the countertop tightly. “Better than what Azure got when they got hurt.”
“That was hell,” Azure confirmed, nodding, from the other side of the room. “Just some bandages. Granted, I wasn’t bitten, but it still hurt like a bitch.”
Currently, the only ones in the room were Harmony, Ryan, Moxie, their respective partners, and Azure, who was really mostly there for moral support - they’d been sliced open by a giant bloodthirsty monster not too long ago, and Harmony didn’t object to them wanting to keep an eye on her. Ryan was currently fixing her up, Moxie was there for much the same reason Azure was, and Dare and Pop were just there to keep their partners company. Everyone else had been ushered out by Damien upon him realizing it would be a very big problem if all fourteen of them gathered in the kitchen to observe Harmony’s glorious new flesh wound.
“And then you got magic healing from those Pucchiemon,” Ryan added, glancing over his shoulder at Azure for a split second before returning to cleaning Harmony’s wound. He paused, staring off into space for a minute. “Fuck, I wish one of us had one of them as a partner.”
“Oh, am I not good enough for you?” Dare teased from her position on the floor. (Sitting around his neck while he tried to fix Harmony up would impede his movements, something he’d told her when she had tried to do so.) “I see how it is.”
“You know that’s not what I mean,” he mumbled, not taking his eyes off of Harmony’s leg. He looked up at her, tilting his head slightly. “This doesn’t need stitches, right?”
“You tell me,” she said weakly. “You’re the doctor man.”
“Do not call me that.” He frowned down at the wound. “No, it doesn’t need stitches. I was asking if you would be okay with it if it did.”
“Better than dying from blood loss,” Moxie said, tapping her chin thoughtfully.
“It’s not that bad,” Harmony complained, trying to shove Ryan away but fumbling as she did. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she sighed. “I’m not going to bleed out, but if you think I need stitches, so be it.”
“I don’t think we even have medical needles here,” Pop said, currently perched on Moxie’s shoulder. She turned to face Ryan. “If we did, do you even know how to do stitches?”
“I know first aid,” he snapped. “I’m sure I could manage.”
“No stitches are better than bad stitches.”
“She doesn’t need stitches!”
Harmony took the moment of Ryan focusing on something other than her leg to twist her head around - gently - to look at Ren. She was propped up against the wall of the living room, eyes closed, pointedly avoiding participating in the conversation. Harmony sighed, raising a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear.
Ren hadn’t taken Harmony’s injury well - she hadn’t said so, but Harmony got the feeling that she felt it was her fault. If she hadn’t been caught by Fangmon, Harmony wouldn’t have jumped in. If she’d gotten up quicker, Harmony could have gotten away in time.
If she’d evolved sooner, she could have protected me.
She shook the thought away before it was even fully formed in her mind. None of this was Ren’s fault. She did the best she could with what she was handed. Hell, if Harmony hadn’t stepped in, who knew what would have happened to her?
Terrible things, probably. None of which, in her half-awake state, she particularly wanted to dwell on, so she shoved the thoughts out of her head and settled on smiling gently at her partner.
Ren’s eyes were still closed, but her ears twitched just a little.
“That should do it,” came Ryan’s voice, snapping her into the present. She smiled at him, too, then at Moxie, a silent thanks to both of them for the help they’d given her.
She looked down at her leg - Ryan hadn’t bandaged it (he’d said something about it needing to “breathe”, and that if the bleeding continued tomorrow he’d see about bandaging it), but it was certainly looking a lot better than it had been half an hour ago. Definitely not stained as bright red.
Which was good. Really good! Especially considering this was the second major wound the group had suffered in the past week or so, and that they still had who knew how long until they could get home.
This was fine.
“Thank you,” she said, nodding again at both Ryan and Moxie. Ryan rolled his eyes and Moxie waved it away before standing up to help her get down off the counter.
“You can sleep in the guest bedroom tonight,” the taller girl said, letting Harmony lean on her as she got adjusted to the pain that shot up her leg every time she took a step. “Again, I’m sorry we can’t do more.”
“Better than dying from blood loss,” Harmony joked, smiling through the pain. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ren push herself off from the wall and follow them as they left the room.
She fell onto the guest bed very unceremoniously, taking care to not roll on top of her injured leg. Ren settled in next to her, leaning her head back on the pillow with her arms folded across her chest.
“Hey,” Harmony said, before Moxie turned away. “About what I said tonight. You’re… still free to come with us. If you want.”
Moxie smiled, one hand on the doorframe as she looked over her shoulder. “I’ll think about it,” she said quietly. “Get some sleep.”
“Night,” Harmony whisper-yelled as Moxie turned off the lights.
“Goodnight, Harmony,” Moxie returned in the same way, before gently shutting the door behind her.
Harmony and Ren lay in silence for a while, before the latter broke it by rolling onto her side to peer at her partner with bright blue eyes.
“Are you sure you’re okay,” she said, quietly, unblinking.
Harmony, still lying on her back and staring up at the ceiling, sighed. “I would say yes,” she started, “but… it does hurt. Quite a lot.”
Ren didn’t reply immediately; she returned to her original position, looking up and following Harmony’s gaze as she did so. “I’m sorry.”
“This wasn’t your fault,” Harmony said, finally looking over at the fox. Her brows were furrowed, one ear twitching.
Ren closed her eyes, folding her hands across her chest. “Just like it wouldn’t have been yours if you hadn’t jumped in.”
Harmony shut her eyes as well, feeling tears welling up. “I can’t let you do this alone all the time. We’re partners for a reason.”
“I’m supposed to protect you.”
“You can’t do that if you’re dead.”
Ren went quiet, and Harmony glanced over, afraid she had struck a nerve. Her partner had turned away from her, rolled onto her side; Harmony reached a hand out to place on her shoulder, and she raised a paw of her own to pat Harmony’s.
“Get some sleep,” Ren mumbled, letting her paw drop to her side. “Hopefully you’ll feel better in the morning.”
Harmony dropped the subject after that; Ren was right. Maybe she’d feel better after a good night’s sleep.
She scoffed inwardly. Yeah, right. Like sleeping will make me feel better about what I did. She sniffed quietly, trying not to disturb Ren, and squeezed her eyes shut.
Harmony couldn’t be entirely sure, but right before she drifted off to sleep, she thought she heard Ren mutter something under her breath.
Sorry I couldn’t protect you.