EPISODE 32 - RUNNING OUT OF TIME
The trees whipped by in a blur of gray and dark green, fading into the background as the group raced through the forest. There was no time to be graceful, or to deftly leap over fallen logs or thick bushes. The Digimon stumbled over and through them, caring very little for their surroundings, focused only on getting as far away from Plutomon as possible.
Anna didn’t know how long they’d been running for. It could have been hours at this point. It certainly felt like it. She knew it hadn’t been.
“It’s been like five minutes,” Mabel said, and Anna rolled her eyes. Case in point.
They did not speak as they moved, the only sounds echoing throughout the forest being the pounding of feet on dirt and wings in air, the cracking of branches and leaves underfoot, the deep breaths that the Digimon took in, already tired from their fight with Plutomon. They didn’t even call out directions to one another like they had on the way to the clearing. They just ran at a tear, cutting a streak through the forest like the streaks Plutomon had cut through the field.
They didn’t know where they were going. Not the city, for sure. They just had to keep running. They didn’t know how long they were supposed to run for, or where they should aim, or how the other human and her partner - the Catalyst - would be able to find them. They didn’t know when it would be safe to stop, or if it ever would be.
The Digimon were exhausted and injured. They wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever, Anna knew. But they had to get away from Plutomon. Had to keep running. So they did.
In her lap, seated on Ember’s back behind Ezra, Bunny began to stir, and Anna brushed her antenna out of her face. She blinked a couple times, only just beginning to come to her senses, and then she caught Anna’s eye and heaved a deep, long sigh.
“How are you?” Anna said gently, and Bunny blinked again, then shook her head.
“I’m not sure,” she said, her voice quieter than usual, which was really saying something. “I… wish I could say I’m okay, but I don’t think I am.”
Anna nodded, feeling something unpleasant wash over her. “Yeah. I’m still a little… you know.”
“Shaken up,” Mabel offered, trying to be helpful, but Anna wasn’t in the mood for it. She ignored her, paying no mind to the frown that tugged at her lips, and continued.
“I think that was the worst moment of my life.”
She was, of course, referring to when Plutomon had grabbed Bunny and… infected her? Turned her manic? She still wasn’t sure what the group’s preferred descriptor was for that. He’d picked her up and pushed that weird indigo thing into her chest and then…
“I mean, your eyes went pure white, Bunny,” she said. “As if he could turn you into a manic Digimon just by touching you.”
Bunny was silent for a moment, looking down at her paws. Eventually she shook her head out and glanced up at Anna. “It wasn’t him touching me, though. When he was holding me, I was scared, but… I only felt it when he pressed that glowing thing against me.”
“And what did you feel?” Anna asked.
Bunny hesitated for another second. “My mind just went… blank. Everything around me started to… not fade away. I was still aware of it, but it was like my brain wasn’t registering it. …Probably because all I could focus on was his voice.”
Anna nodded, chewing on the inside of her lip. She didn’t know what to say - but Mabel did.
“He didn’t say anything to her,” she said, crossing one leg over the other and leaning forward in her seat on the couch. “Not until he dropped her. He just held her and then did his weird thing and then dropped her.”
…Hmm.
“He didn’t say anything to you,” Anna said, and Mabel smiled just faintly. She ignored her again. She was doing this for Bunny, not for her.
And Bunny was looking up at her like she’d just grown a second head.
“What? No, I’m certain he did, I heard him so clearly - well, not any words, but…” Her ears twitched and she looked off to the side, at the trees they raced past too quickly to get a good look at. “I heard his voice, and I knew he was telling me to do something. I just… don’t remember what.”
“He didn’t say a single thing, Bunny,” Anna said, feeling something sick swell in her stomach. “Not while he was holding you.”
One of Ember’s wings curled up to brush Anna’s side gently, and she leaned to the side to look at his face. He glanced back at her for a split second, then resumed his gaze forward, not wanting to trip and fall. “We met a Digimon who’d broken out of mania once,” he said, and Anna did not miss the way that both his and Ezra’s faces fell as he spoke. “She told us that when she was under his - Plutomon’s - control, she heard a voice in her head telling her what to do, and she had to do what it said.”
“That’s what it was,” Bunny said, nodding cautiously. “It wasn’t for very long. But I heard him telling me to do something, and I knew that I had to do it. …I guess it was probably something bad. I’m glad that I got away.”
“How did you?” Ember asked.
Bunny paused, eyes darting around as if searching for an answer, but she ended up just sighing. “I… don’t know. I just realized what was going on, and then… it stopped.”
“That’s it?” Ezra leaned back slightly to catch Anna’s eye, frowning. “Dollie said she had to specifically focus on pulling herself away from it. You didn’t do that?”
“No,” Bunny said with a shake of her head. “It was just… as soon as I became aware of it, it went away.”
“Plutomon did say something about her resisting it,” Mabel put in, shrugging. “He sounded pretty surprised. Like he’s not used to that happening.”
“He probably isn’t,” Anna said. “If that Digimon they met is the only one they’d come across who’d ever resisted it, it’s probably not very easy.”
Mabel tsked and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. “Well of course not. But it’s weird that Bunny was able to resist it effortlessly while ‘Dollie’ had to almost physically yank herself away.” She frowned, her mouth drawing into a thin line. “He said he can’t do anything to her. As if she’s immune.”
Anna looked down at Bunny, ears practically flush against her head and nose wrinkling. Anna placed a hand on her head, fingers spread to accommodate for her antenna, and Bunny blinked up at her, smiling the faintest of smiles.
“I wonder,” Mabel said quietly.
In front of Anna, Ezra patted Ember’s shoulder, before lightly squeezing the opposite side with his leg.
Ember snorted. “You can use your words,” he said in a low voice, tossing his head. “I’m not a horse.”
“Fine,” Ezra said, a slightly snappish tone edging his words, though his voice as ever held no malice. “Take me over to my boyfriend then. Asshole.”
“You just like saying that word,” Ember said, giving no response to the insult, but he changed his trajectory anyways, aiming for where Castor was running just behind Ren, with Alex on his back.
“Wouldn’t you?” Ezra replied, leaning forward slightly. “It’s a fun word to say. You should try it sometime.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Hi!” Alex’s voice came from the left, causing Ezra’s head to snap up and Bunny to flinch slightly in her seat. “What’s up? You need something?”
Ezra hesitated, then shook his head. “I just wanted to check in on how you’re doing,” he said, his voice softer than Anna had expected.
Alex looked at him for a moment, his gaze flitting back to Anna for a split second, and then shook his own head. “…There’s other people who are faring way worse than we are, you know.”
“We’re both doing as fine as we can,” Anna said, which wasn’t entirely a lie. “You don’t have to worry about us.”
“That’s not -” Ezra started, but he was cut off by Ren, directly ahead of them, slamming to a halt. Ember practically crashed into her, but managed to reel himself in just inches away from her tails. Ezra and Anna lurched forward, Anna wrapping her arms around Ezra and holding on for dear life as Castor ground to a stop just a few feet to the side of Ren. There was a whooshing of wings from above and then Pop and Dare descended, kicking up stones and dirt as they landed.
“What’s going on?” Alex called out, not moving from Castor’s back. Anna leaned around Ezra to look up at the front of the group just in time to see something moving in the trees. She tensed, her fingers tightening in Ezra’s jacket, and then a figure - two figures - emerged just ahead of them.
The human and her partner. The Catalyst.
“Are they both the Catalyst?” Mabel asked, ducking away from Anna as she tried to reach over to slap a hand over her mouth. “Why wouldn’t it just be one of them? If they’re both the Catalyst shouldn’t they be the Catalysts, plural?”
“Shut up,” Anna said, and Mabel smirked.
The human was tall, with pale skin and short black hair. Her ears had a lot of piercings - Anna didn’t think she’d ever seen someone with so many piercings, not even Moxie. She wore a black leather jacket and boots, with a white crop top and pale denim shorts. Anna could just barely make out faint scars running along her leg and waist, and when she closed her soft brown eyes, another smaller one over her right eyelid became visible.
And beside the human was a small black dog - or was it a lizard? It seemed to be both, oddly enough; a pale gray reptile wearing the coat of a white-striped black wolf. The claws on his feet and the spikes on his tail were yellow, matching the horn that sprouted from his head, while the claws of the wolf pelt were bright orange. He had a strange marking on his chest, with an oval-shaped yellow background and orange designs in the middle. He blinked tired golden eyes at the group, before looking up at his partner, as if waiting for her cue.
The human cast her gaze over the group, something distant in her expression, like she was somewhere else entirely. Anna knew that feeling.
The human smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “My name’s Quinn,” she said quietly, then nodded down at her partner. “This is Alpha. He’s my partner.” Alpha dipped his head, staring down at the ground instead of up at anyone else. Quinn furrowed her brow at him, then bit her lip and looked back up at the group. “Follow me. We’ll head back to the city.”
“What about Plutomon?” Harmony asked, worry evident in her tone. “Is he…?”
She didn’t finish her sentence, trailing off into silence and looking off to the side, but it was obvious what she was really asking.
Quinn hesitated, then shook her head. “No. He’s just been… dealt with. He’ll come back later, but we’re safe for now.” She nudged Alpha with her foot and inclined her head toward the trees, in the opposite direction they’d come from. “C’mon. Let’s get a move on.”
She did not move - and neither did Alpha, for that matter - until the humans had dismounted the Digimon and the Digimon had all devolved. Pop climbed up onto Moxie’s shoulder, Dare wrapped herself around Ryan’s neck, and Anna, Miguel, and Ezra all carried their partners. Anna looked down at Bunny to see her eyes closed and antenna drooping, and she frowned faintly.
They set out on foot toward the city. It felt much like it had earlier in the day, when they’d been heading toward File City for the first time, unaware of what they would find and what would happen. They’d thought - hoped - that they would find the Catalyst there and that all their questions would be answered. Instead, they’d only accomplished the first of those goals, and they had many more questions now than they did before.
Plutomon had once had a partner. Anna had suspected as such, ever since encountering Jokermon, what with everything he - Plutomon, that is - had said through Jokermon. But she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it, hadn’t wanted to accept it, because…
Her train of thought paused and she furrowed her brow. Mabel was silent, not wanting to interrupt her, but she tilted her head at Anna as she struggled to reformulate her thoughts.
…She hadn’t wanted to accept it because… because of a multitude of things. Because if he had once had a partner, then he’d know what it was like, right? He’d know what they had been through to get to him? He’d know that he was hunting down kids who just wanted to save the world, and he didn’t even care?
If Plutomon had had a partner, then… maybe Jokermon hadn’t been bluffing when he’d said all those things about humans growing bored of their partners and then getting rid of them when they got home. Was that what had happened to Plutomon? Is that why he’d told them not to ask about his partner?
But even with this knowledge, that he’d once had a partner and had once been through everything they had been through - it didn’t explain what Plutomon wanted, or why he was so determined to get rid of the group to make sure they couldn’t stop him. If he’d helped save the world in the past, then surely he’d have to know that they wouldn’t give up trying to stop him. He wouldn’t have when it had been him. Right?
Ugh, this was giving her a headache. Literally. It probably didn’t help that Mabel was, like, full demon right now, teeth and claws and horns and wings and tail and all. It always gave Anna a headache whenever she was like that, and she knew that it wasn’t entirely Mabel’s fault, but -
“You’re stressed, and so I’m stressed,” Mabel said, sounding defensive, but she looked over at Anna with something at least similar to an apologetic expression. “Just think about something else.”
“It’s not that easy,” Anna snapped, having to clench her teeth to prevent herself from baring them at the nothing directly in front of her. “You’re not the one destined to save the world. You don’t even feel it when we get hurt. If something happens and we fail and the whole world gets destroyed it’s not going to be your fault.”
Mabel frowned, her tail flicking beside her. “I’m just trying to help. I know you don’t like it, but that’s why I’m here, you know.”
She did know. She knew very well. She wasn’t entirely sure how her brain worked, exactly, or why it had decided splitting a poor imitation of her dead older sister she’d never met would help her get through life, but she knew that she had Mabel to help protect her. Fat lot of protecting she’d ever done throughout her existence, except for if you counted all the times she’d reminded Anna not to yell at their parents, but still.
Mabel rolled her eyes. “You know I can hear you when you do that, right?”
“I don’t care,” Anna said, and Mabel stuck her tongue out.
She sighed. She figured there was no way around it. She’d just have to deal with it like she always did - by waiting for it to go away on its own.
…It wasn’t ideal, and it didn’t always work, but…
At the front of the group, Quinn looked over her shoulder. Her eyes looked hollow, not helped by the faint eyebags evident below them. Anna subconsciously reached a hand up to run along the underneath of her own eyes.
“Are you all doing okay?” Quinn asked, raising her voice so those in the far back could hear. “Any injuries? Negative thoughts? Easily answerable questions?”
“…We’re fine,” Alex said, and several others nodded their assent. Quinn’s eyes narrowed and she inhaled slowly as she continued to stare at them.
“No you’re not,” she said, a sharp edge to her words, but Anna didn’t think she was mad. “I’ve been in your position before. You sure as hell aren’t ‘fine’.” She paused, looking down at her feet, and then shook her head. When she spoke again, her voice was softer. “When we get back to the city we’ll get you patched up. Hopefully we’ll have enough time to rest.”
“I have a question,” Ryan said, cutting in as soon as Quinn was finished speaking. She looked back over her shoulder at him, quirking one eyebrow, and he wasted no time in continuing. “Where the hell have you been over the past two months? We’ve looked all over the continent for you two and nobody has even seen a human. Have you been living underground?”
“Ryan,” Azure said quietly, voice laden with warning, but he was not the only one with the question.
“No, he has a point,” Ren said, and both Azure and Ryan looked over at her in surprise. She folded her arms and frowned at Quinn, tail swishing behind her. “Why is it that you only show up once we finally find Plutomon? If you were close enough to know he was here, you were close enough to File City for someone there to have seen you. It’s not that I distrust you entirely, but I find it a little suspicious.”
Quinn blinked. She didn’t look offended or upset, just a little confused. Anna supposed it was better than her being mad, or yelling at them, or giving up and abandoning them.
“If she yelled at us I’d let you yell back,” Mabel said. Anna ignored her.
It was not, however, Quinn who answered the question (or accusation) - it was Alpha. Anna had almost forgotten he was there, his black pelt blending in with the darkness of the forest around them and his silence not helping with his secrecy. He lifted his head to look back, first at Ryan, then at Ren. “We haven’t been into the city,” he said, his voice deep and quiet. “We couldn’t lead Plutomon there. He already hates it. We don’t need to give him more of a reason to destroy it.” Anna scrunched her face up, about to ask what he meant, but he continued before she or anyone else could. “We had to keep him away. From the city, and from you.”
“Also,” Quinn added, nodding at her partner, “we don’t exactly go around introducing ourselves as the Catalyst.”
Ren’s eyes narrowed further. “That’s exactly what you did to us.”
“Yeah, well, you’re different.”
“Regardless,” Alpha said before Ren could retort, “we have been looking for you. We couldn’t afford to be seen near the city, though. Plutomon has eyes everywhere, and we’ve been doing our best to avoid them.” He huffed, looking down at his claws. “As much as we can, at any rate.” For as silent as he had been up until this point, he certainly had a lot to say when pressed.
“How did you know we were here?” Harmony asked. She had one arm looped through Ren’s, and Anna couldn’t tell if it was for moral or physical support as they walked. “Not here in the city. I mean, I guess that counts. I mean the Digital World in general. How did you know there were other humans here?”
Quinn looked down at her feet, staying silent for a moment. When she spoke, there was something hidden in her tone that Anna couldn’t quite discern. “…Plutomon told me. He accused me of having dragged more humans into my mess. Called me a coward for not being able to face him alone.” She shook her head, then looked up at Harmony. “It’s not true, of course. I didn’t have anything to do with you all being chosen. I have no idea why you were.” She trailed off, her gaze falling back to the ground below. “…I don’t even know why I was,” she mumbled, sounding as if she hadn’t meant for anyone to hear it - but if anyone did, they didn’t comment on it, and if she realized she’d said it aloud, she didn’t say anything else.
It gave Anna pause for thought, though. Not about her not knowing why they were chosen, but… “You knew Plutomon?” she asked, looking between Quinn and Alpha. “Before today?”
“…Yes,” Quinn said hesitantly, not meeting Anna’s gaze. “He’s known about me ever since I set foot in the Digital World. He’s not a fan of us.” She looked down at Alpha and her face hardened. “…He’s the first Digimon we ever fought together.”
She didn’t continue, and Alpha did not add anything. Nobody else in the group had anything to say or ask, and they slipped into an unsettled silence as they kept walking. Some of the group muttered amongst themselves, but Anna tuned them out, focusing only on Bunny in her arms and Ezra and Ember at her side and Quinn and Alpha at the front of the group. It was all she could focus on. The only thing she could focus on that didn’t just make her feel worse.
Quinn had said that Plutomon would be back. When? How soon? How long did they have to rest and prepare? Would they stand any better chance against him when they next saw him?
This was just hurting her head more. She sighed and shifted Bunny’s weight in her arms to raise one hand to her temples, squeezing two fingers against it. She couldn’t think too hard about Plutomon and his motives and the end of the world. Not when she was already near seconds away from blacking out.
“You’re being dramatic,” Mabel said in a singsong voice, but it was enough to get Anna’s attention, and as she looked over at her, mouth half-open for some snappish response, she noticed that she had mostly returned to her normal self. Mabel smirked, crossing one leg over the other and reclining on the couch. “See? I’m all back to normal. No need to stress. You’re not going to die.”
“You don’t know that,” Anna said, but she had to admit that she was feeling a little bit better. It wasn’t much, but - but it was something. She sighed, placing her cheeks in her hands and closing her eyes.
“You’ve never died before,” Mabel continued, unperturbed. “And before you hit me with that ‘blah blah never been hit by a car still shouldn’t run into traffic’, I don’t think you can die from a headache. At least not one this small.”
“Not small,” Anna growled, then begrudgingly opened her eyes.
There wasn’t anything she could do. There was never anything she could do. For herself, or for anyone else, or for the world.
She’d said she wanted to do this, when she’d first found the others and found out why she was here. That she wanted to save the world. And she did! To show to Ezra and her parents and Mabel and everybody else that she could do something good, even despite everything that had stood and was still standing in her way. And she wasn’t going to give up. Whether out of stubbornness or spite or something else, she couldn’t give up. That was what Ezra wanted her to do. That was what her parents would expect her to do.
So she wouldn’t. She’d stick through with this and she’d save the world with Bunny and everyone else. She would. She’d make sure of it.
But she still felt so small, and her head still hurt, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
When they saw the first houses at the edge of the city, Quinn instructed the group to stay quiet until they found somewhere safe to stop. Half of it was that they didn’t want to worry any townsfolk with talk of insurmountable world-destroying threats, and half of it was that they didn’t want to draw the attention of any of those potential “eyes” that Alpha had mentioned. They didn’t need the instruction, as nobody was in the mood to talk anyways, but they nodded and followed Quinn and Alpha through the streets, heading deeper into the city. Anna noticed that Alpha seemed to be the one who was actually leading them, as Quinn kept looking to him for confirmation whenever they reached a fork or a turn. It made sense. Quinn hadn’t been in the city, but Anna presumed that Alpha had once lived there, or at least been there before.
“Here we are,” Quinn finally said, speaking low enough to only be heard by those closest to her. They’d stopped in a somewhat secluded garden - not the one the group had sat in earlier, with the fountain memorial, but there were trees and flowers and benches, and it was these benches the group sat down on. It hadn’t even been that long since they’d set out on foot, but the chance to rest their legs was a welcome one, and the Digimon who had carried them were especially grateful.
Maybe it also helped that they were finally not running away from the potential end of the world, but who really knew.
“Alright,” Quinn said once the group was settled in. She did not sit, but rather remained standing, facing the others the best she could, her hands on her hips and Alpha at her feet. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her fingers clenching for a split second before relaxing. “I’ll give you my - our - side of the story first.” She nudged Alpha with a foot and he huffed, one ear twitching.
“We’ve run into Plutomon a lot over the years,” she said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “He wasn’t always Plutomon. When we first met him, he was a NeoDevimon. An ultimate level. Wish he’d stayed that way. …That’s not really relevant.” She looked down at the ground, and her brow creased. She seemed almost nervous to be talking about her experiences with him.
“I’d be nervous too,” Mabel said, and Anna shushed her, even though it didn’t really matter.
Quinn nodded down at Alpha. “We’ve been partners for around five years. Plutomon, NeoDevimon, whatever, he’s known about us the whole time. I told you he’s the first Digimon we ever fought. He used to show up sporadically, whenever Alpha and… and I would come here to the Digital World. He made his intentions clear from the start: he was going to kill me. I didn’t know why at first. Alpha had told me there were aggressive Digimon, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. And then he told me that something was off about NeoDevimon.”
“It was the way he said it,” Alpha put in. “He didn’t say he wanted to kill her. He said he was going to. I’m all for people saying ‘when’ instead of ‘if’ when it comes to their goals, the fact his goal was to kill my partner notwithstanding, but it was…” He paused, scratching his cheek while he searched for words. “We didn’t know him - we’d never seen him before - but he acted like he knew us. Like he knew why Quinn had come here, and why we were partners.”
“Did you know why?” Miguel asked. Flip sat in his lap, practically curled up into a muffin, and Miguel stroked his mane while he spoke. “Why you were partners? Or -?”
“No,” Quinn said, then tilted her head as she thought. “Yes…? I knew we were partners to do something, but we didn’t know what that something was. At least at first. Then NeoDevimon showed up, told me he was going to kill me, and Alpha put it together pretty quickly.”
“We still didn’t know what exactly he wanted,” Alpha said, “in the sense of with us or the world, but it was clear that he was who we had been summoned to contend with. We fought, he won, we ran. He kept showing up after that. No matter where we went, he would always find us.” He said it matter-of-factly, with no bitterness or resentment in his tone. It was as if he was… simply stating the obvious, instead of telling them that Plutomon kept showing up to try to kill them. It was like it didn’t even bother him.
Maybe he’d just gotten used to it.
“Anyway,” Quinn continued with a light shake of her head. “Over the years, he’s gained more power. Pretty soon after we first met him, we found out about his whole… taking control of other Digimon thing. I assume you all know about that?” When the group nodded, Quinn sighed. “Yeah. We still don’t know how he does it. That’s one of the things we’ve never been able to figure out.”
“Tell her about that weird glowing orb,” Mabel said, leaning forward in her seat. “The one that he touched Bunny with that made her eyes white.”
“When we fought him earlier,” Anna said, paying no mind to Mabel’s self-satisfied grin, “he grabbed Bunny -” she nodded down at her partner “- and summoned this weird glowing indigo orb. He pushed it into her chest and when it phased through, her eyes went white, like the - like the controlled Digimon. It only lasted a couple seconds, and then her eyes went back to normal, and she said that she didn’t even have to shake herself out of it, it just went away. I dunno if that’s anything, but…” She shrugged. She didn’t look up at Quinn; she kept her gaze focused on the top of Bunny’s head, and then her face when she tipped her head back to stare up at her. She blinked, and Anna blinked back.
“I’ve never seen or heard of him doing that,” Quinn said, and Anna finally looked up. Quinn had her chin in her hand, frowning deeply as she stared down at her boots. “If that’s how he controls Digimon, it would make sense, but I don’t know why Bunny would have been immune.” She shook her head and dropped her hand, sighing deeply. Her gaze swept around the group for a second before coming to rest on Damien and Bumble. “Anyway. NeoDevimon evolved to Plutomon about a year ago. Not even in the middle of fighting, either. He just showed up one day, twice as big as he used to be and way more emo.” She stuck her tongue out a little, clearly trying to diffuse some of the tension. “More of a pain to deal with now. Least Alpha can make it up to mega too, though.” She nudged her partner again; he rolled his eyes, and she smiled.
“That’s pretty much our side of the story,” she finished, putting her hands back on her hips. “How about you all? It looks like you’ve… been through hell, to put it kindly.”
“Thanks, we have,” Damien said flatly, and Moxie giggled. He sniffed, and then cracked a faint smile of his own, the mirror of it in his eyes unobstructed by his shades, perched on his forehead. He arched an eyebrow at Miguel seated next to him and patted his leg. “I think he should tell it. He’s been here the whole time. Some of us haven’t.”
“What?” Miguel said, panic creeping into his voice. He looked between Damien and Flip and Quinn and Alpha, back and forth, eyes flitting all over the place. “I can’t, I’m not good at - I haven’t - there’s - I’m not -”
“Relax,” Damien said, grinning. “I’m joking. My real vote goes to Ryan.”
“Fuck you,” Ryan called, which only served to widen Damien’s grin further.
Quinn watched the exchange with something like amusement on her face, which then quickly shifted to bemusement. “…Actually,” she said, holding her hands up, “before you start… we don’t know your names.”
Right. They hadn’t had the chance to introduce themselves at all, so focused on escaping death and getting somewhere safe and listening to Quinn and Alpha’s story as they had been. They gave their introductions as quickly and precisely as they could, the two newcomers - the Catalyst, Anna corrected with a kind of sickening feeling in her stomach - seeming to mostly commit everyone’s names and identities to memory. When they were done, Quinn nodded and then looked at Alex and Castor, and Anna half-consciously followed her gaze.
“I guess I’ll tell it,” Castor said, managing to sound only a little nervous at the weight of the pressure placed upon him. He tugged at the nape of his cloak and breathed deeply, looking up at Alex, and then began. Everything from when the first six humans had first arrived in this world, to meeting Moxie and Damien and their partners, to speaking with Asuramon and Piximon, to traveling north and finding Anna and Bunny, to crossing to File Island to search for the Catalyst, to running into Plutomon just earlier that day. Others jumped in with their own additions or to correct some of Castor’s storytelling, sometimes taking over for longer than necessary, and to put in their own sides of the story when needed.
They talked about the manic Digimon, and explained to Quinn and Alpha why they called them such; they echoed the things some of those Digimon had said to them, about Plutomon and his knowledge of partnerships. They told them about Aldamon, and Bibi and Yoki, and Dollie, and Cam, and CatchMamemon and Cho-Hakkaimon, and Ramona. They explained the time dilation, and how they hadn’t been gone from the real world for quite as long as they had been in this world. Some of this, Anna herself had not heard, and she found herself listening with as much rapt attention as Quinn and Alpha (or perhaps only Quinn, as Alpha seemed more or less neutral on the whole ordeal).
Now, after all of that - after everything they had faced and fought and been through - they were here. They had found the Catalyst. They had found the archangel. They’d found everything they had been searching for.
And yet it didn’t feel like they were near the end. Anywhere close to it, in fact. Sure, they’d found who they’d been looking for, and they’d found Plutomon, and they knew who he was, but - but who was he? What did he want? How could they defeat him? Would they have to? Would they be able to?
“Then you showed up,” Castor was saying, and he looked at Alpha and then Quinn as he spoke. “You told us to run, and we did, and now we’re here.” He sat back, adjusting his paws as he shifted in his seat. “That’s our side. We know Plutomon is able to control Digimon from afar through the use of something, and other Digimon follow him simply because they believe in his goals, whatever they may be. He’s been using those Digimon to hunt us down to make sure we can’t get in his way. Because he knows what we’re able to do.” He dipped his head, looking down at a flower tucked between his claws, and breathed deeply. “He had a partner once. He’s been in our position before.”
“…I sort of figured that much,” Quinn said, nodding. “Well. Alpha did.”
“Do you know what happened to his partner?” Pop asked. “Has he ever talked about him?”
Quinn shook her head. “No. He’s never said anything. For all he loves to talk about how he’s going to kill me, he’s not one for discussing his past.” Her expression darkened and she closed her eyes. “I get it. Still would be nice, though. Maybe we’d be able to figure out if his partner was still alive.”
“Oh, right,” Moxie said, leaning forward. “We came across some sort of memorial earlier. I - we think it was for one of the humans who was part of Plutomon’s group. I’m guessing she wasn’t his partner, since he called them ‘him’ when we asked, but… someone else, maybe?”
Quinn lifted her head. “Was it Angela?”
Anna blinked. How did she…? If she hadn’t been in the city before, then she wouldn’t have seen the garden, and she wouldn’t have…
“Yes,” Moxie said, looking just as confused as Anna was feeling. “How -”
Quinn smiled, half sardonic and half bittersweet. “I’m… familiar with one of that group. Macy. She’s my girlfriend’s mother. Before you start -” She held a hand up to quell any rising questions, the smile slipping off her face. “She’s told me very little. It’s been twenty years and she’s… blocked a lot of it out. Her partner died. She doesn’t like thinking about it.”
“How’s she her girlfriend’s mother if it’s only been twenty years?” Mabel asked, as if nothing else Quinn had said mattered. “If she was like, sixteen max, probably younger, then she’d be thirty-six now, yeah? Quinn looks Moxie’s age. Macy would’ve had to have her kid when she was like nineteen or something.”
“That’s not impossible,” Anna said, feeling a twinge of irritation. “Plenty of people have kids when they’re that young. Or maybe she was adopted.”
“Yeah, but four years minimum after getting back from the Digital World where her partner and another one of the humans died?” Mabel shook her head. “Seems kinda strange to me. Let’s hope you don’t adopt a kid in four years.”
“I’ll be sixteen in four years,” Anna mumbled. “I’ll still be a kid.” Just like everyone else here.
And it didn’t matter. That wasn’t important. What was important was that Quinn knew one of Plutomon’s group, and even if they hadn’t told her much, it was better than nothing. It was better than the alternative - than all of the humans and Digimon being dead, and Plutomon being the only one who remained.
If his partner had died, was that why…?
“There was another human who died,” Quinn continued, and Anna’s stomach sank. “I can’t remember his name. I don’t think he was Plutomon’s partner, but…”
But it was still possible. It would explain a lot, for sure, but it still wouldn’t tell them what happened, or why Plutomon was like this now; surely he hadn’t been a Plutomon or NeoDevimon, whatever that was, back when he had had a partner - and now that Anna thought about it, she really didn’t like the implications of that.
Quinn shook her head out. “He hates his partner. I don’t know what he did, or if Plutomon was the one who did something, but… I don’t know. Something happened. We’ve never been able to figure it out, and it’s not like Macy has any idea.”
Anna blinked, and then frowned.
Sure. Twenty years had passed, and Macy had blocked a lot of her memories out, but - but surely she should remember whatever had turned Plutomon into… what he was now. If he evolved wrong, or if his partner died, or if something else equally as imperative happened - she would remember that, right?
How could she not?
“I know why,” Mabel said quietly. Her words were devoid of any of their usual mirth or teasing, and her face was creased with focus. “Because she didn’t see it.”
Anna looked over at her, one of her ears twitching. “What do you mean?”
“She would remember something like that,” Mabel said, meeting Anna’s gaze. “If Quinn had told her about NeoDevimon or Plutomon or whatever, and told her that he hated his partner, that would have sparked something. Probably. Maybe. …Whatever. Point is, the only way she wouldn’t know about it was if she hadn’t seen it, or heard of it, or know of it at all. And if she doesn’t know, then it would have had to have happened after she went back home. To the real world.”
…Oh.
Anna leaned back in her seat, her fingers ghosting across Bunny’s head. Somehow, she found her voice, speaking out loud for the first time in a long time. “So it happened afterward?” she asked Quinn, looking up at her. “After Macy went back home?”
Quinn tilted her head, confused, but Alpha spoke next. “…I see,” he murmured, raising a paw to his mouth. “I would imagine so. It’s the only explanation.”
“I think I’m missing something here,” Quinn said, putting her arms akimbo as she looked between her partner and Anna. “Back up and explain it to me.”
Anna could practically feel Mabel clamoring for control, and she focused all her energy on retaining her own position, locking herself there all on her own. She knew Mabel wanted to explain, she knew, but she couldn’t let her. She never could. She’d have to be content with having Anna relay it.
“Boo,” Mabel said, sticking her tongue out and folding her arms, but Anna ignored it.
“Macy would know if something had happened to Plutomon while she was here in the Digital World,” Anna started, absentmindedly stroking one of Bunny’s ears. “Even if she blocked out a lot of her memories, if it was something big enough to turn Plutomon into what he is now, she would have remembered. Like she remembers that her partner died. And if you told her about him - about meeting one of the partner Digimon from her group, she’d know who it was and what happened. But - you said she doesn’t have any idea. So if she doesn’t know, then it would have happened after she went back home. To our world.”
The group was silent for a moment, Quinn especially, everyone taking in the information and considering the possibility and going over all of the other questions that arose because of it. Eventually Quinn breathed out and shook her head, placing a hand on her cheek.
“I don’t know how I didn’t figure that out sooner,” Quinn said, looking down at Anna. “You’re a lot more intuitive than I am.”
Mabel beamed. “She’s talking about me, you know. I’m the one who figured it out.”
“I know,” Anna said.
“Tell her it was me who figured it out.”
“No.”
“Meanie.”
“It’s crossed my mind a few times,” Alpha admitted, and the look of mock betrayal and shock that Quinn gave him almost made Anna laugh. Almost. “I didn’t want to think about it too hard, though, because then it would just beg the question, when did it happen? What was it that happened? How did it happen?”
“That’s three questions, not one,” Bumble muttered, and Damien rolled his eyes, but at least looked pleased that his partner had spoken.
Ember sighed and slumped over, propping his face up with both paws, elbows resting on his knees. “But he’s right. If Plutomon only got evil after the humans went back home, then why does he hate his partner so much? Macy would remember that too, right? Like if they had some big fight or something?” Suddenly he shot up, his eyes sparkling. “What if his partner did die and that’s what turned him evil?”
“After he went back home?” Ezra shook his head, leaning down to tap his knuckles against Ember’s head. “What would have killed him there? Unless he -” He blanched, stopping rather inelegantly. Anna knew what he had thought of. She was thinking it too - and so was everyone else, presumably enough, if the looks on their faces were any indication.
Not a pleasant thought.
“…I don’t think we know enough to piece it together,” Ko said softly, and Anna’s shoulders slumped. “Maybe we never will. What’s important is we know who we’re up against.”
“Not really any use if we can’t fight him,” Dare pointed out, her tail lashing behind her. It wasn’t helpful - it just served to solidify their doubts and fears - but she wasn’t wrong. “Sure, maybe an additional Digimon on our side might help us hold out a little bit longer, but I don’t think it’ll let us defeat him.”
“Well, if Alpha can evolve to mega,” Flip said, gesturing at the Digimon in question, who drew himself up at the motion, “then we can too, right?” He looked up at Miguel here, wincing slightly as he had to crane his neck back to meet his eye. “Just give me a bit more of an energy boost and I’ll get right on it.”
“It’s more difficult than that,” Alpha said, right as Miguel started to protest. “It can take years to be able to reach that level, even with a partner. It took me four.”
“You can’t be serious,” Alex said, looking helplessly between Alpha and Quinn, but they didn’t budge. “It’s gonna take four years for us to be able to get to mega? We’re gonna be doing this for four years?”
“…If I’m being honest,” Quinn said quietly, looking down at her feet, “I don’t think we have that long.”
…
That… wasn’t reassuring.
But she was right, wasn’t she? They’d seen what Plutomon could do. They knew how powerful he was. All it would take was for him to show up again and go a little bit harder on them and they wouldn’t be able to do anything.
“I thought it was my job to be the pessimist,” Mabel said, spreading her arms out across the back of the couch. “It’s not as cute on you. Try being a bit more positive.”
“About what?” Anna grumbled, steeling herself to avoid showing any physical reaction. “What is there to be positive about? Plutomon could kill us if he sees us again. He probably will. If our partners can’t evolve to mega we don’t stand any chance against him.”
“You think his own group didn’t face something equally as difficult as him?” Mabel shot back. “You think they got to sit around and pick flowers and they saved the world that way?”
“Of course not,” Anna snapped. “What the hell is the point you’re even trying to make? Is it doom and gloom or do we have a chance? Make up your mind.”
Mabel glared at Anna, but her expression wasn’t one of anger or annoyance. Just… decisiveness. “I’m saying that whatever the hell Plutomon and his group dealt with was probably just as much of a struggle for them as Plutomon himself is for our group.” Anna noted her use of ‘our’, but did not comment, and Mabel continued. “But they succeeded. Plutomon still being alive is proof enough of that. If they could do it, then we can do it too. You can do it.”
She smiled over at Anna, flashing sharp fangs at her. “We survived the fight today. Even if we can’t defeat him, we can survive against him. And that’s what’s important.” She went quiet, and then shook her head. “This optimism thing isn’t really working out for me. But I hope you get what I mean. Anyway. Better listen to what Quinn’s saying. I think it’s something important.”
Anna didn’t respond, simply watched as Mabel leaned back in her seat again, and then she sighed and focused her attention back on the real world. Quinn had her arms crossed and a grave expression on her face, and several of the others were looking at her and Alpha with concern and worry.
“All we can do at this point is try to figure out what he wants,” she was saying. “If we know what he’s planning to do, then we can come up with a plan that isn’t just ‘hold him off until we have to run away’, yeah? Since I don’t think that’s going to work very well in the long run.”
Bunny patted Anna’s leg, and she looked down at her.
“They were talking about how we can defeat Plutomon if we can’t reach mega level,” she said, speaking quietly enough to go unheard by everyone except Anna. “Harmony asked if we really need to defeat him, and Alpha said yes.” She paused, her nose twitching as she looked over at the Digimon in question. “He seems… really determined about it. I wouldn’t say adamant, but… he believes that the only way we can save the world is if we defeat Plutomon for good.”
“How’s that going to happen if you guys can’t evolve further?” Anna whispered, and Bunny’s ears drooped slightly. “I know that there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to even if you can evolve, but we definitely won’t be able to if you can’t.”“I know,” Bunny said, her voice hiding a faint bitterness that Anna had only ever heard from her once before - one of the first nights they’d ever been together, back in the forest that she had first ended up in, all those weeks ago. The night that they’d had to run away from Tuskmon.
Bunny had said, then, that it was her fault they’d had to run. That she should have been stronger, should have fought back harder. She’d spoken with a barely contained frustration that Anna hadn’t heard from her yet. They’d only known each other for a few days at that point, but Anna could already tell that that irritation - that self-directed resentment - wasn’t typical of her. There wasn’t any way to prove it, and she certainly didn’t ask; she just knew.
And now here it was again, for much the same reason as it had been before. Because she thought she wasn’t strong enough or brave enough or good enough or whatever else. Even though she was plenty strong and plenty brave and she was the best friend Anna had ever had in her eleven years of life, and she’d only known her for a little over a month.
(She expected a snide comment from Mabel here, but none came.)
“We’ll be okay,” Anna said, half to reassure Bunny, half to reassure herself. It felt better saying it out loud. It made it feel more possible.
Bunny said nothing, simply frowned and looked back out at Quinn and Alpha, and Anna followed her gaze.
“I think that’s about everything,” Quinn said, crossing her arms. “Right now you should all rest. Have a snack. Drink some water. Get yourselves patched up.” She lifted her head to look up at the sky, where the dark gray clouds still blotted out what would surely be the moon by now. She didn’t look back to the group, so Alpha turned to them, the harshness of his golden eyes softening slightly as he took them all in.
“Do you need a healer?” he said quietly, inclining his head toward Alex and Damien, the most injured of them all. Damien’s leg was smeared with dried blood from the line down his thigh and calf, and Alex’s arm - already the subject of many past wounds - was practically sliced open. “There should be some in the town. I can find someone if you’d like.”
“I think we’ll be fine,” Alex said cautiously, glancing at Damien out of the corner of his eye and then looking back at Alpha. “We’ve had worse.”
“Besides,” Damien added, nodding at where Harmony and then Ryan were sitting, “we’ve got our resident doctors. They’ll get us fixed up real quick.”
“Very bold of you to assume I’m going to help you after how much of a dick you’ve been,” Ryan said, shaking his head, but even so, he pulled his backpack closer to himself and began to rummage through it - presumably for his first aid kit and the other supplies they had.
Harmony smiled faintly at Ryan, then turned to Damien. “I’m not a doctor,” she said, still smiling, but there was a hint of… remorse, almost, within her words. “It’s not really my calling, you know?”
“Funny,” Alex said, propping his chin up with his non-injured arm. “I seem to remember you claiming to be a licensed physician just a few weeks ago.” He grinned, and Harmony stuck her tongue out at him, but like Ryan, she dug into her bag for her supplies.
Wordlessly, Anna stood, hoisting Bunny higher into her arms as she turned to head deeper into the garden. She heard Ezra start to say something behind her, but he was quickly shushed - by Ember or Alex or someone else, she couldn’t tell, and she didn’t care.
She walked in silence for a bit, stopping only when she couldn’t hear anyone’s voices behind her. The trees were thicker here, blocking the view of the sky. She was slightly grateful for it. She didn’t want to see those ominous storm clouds anymore.
“Is everything okay?” Bunny said quietly as Anna sat down against the trunk of a small tree. She nudged her way out of Anna’s arms to move to sit next to her, peering over at her with soft lavender eyes.
Anna bit her lip. “I don’t know,” she admitted after a moment, curling her fingers against the grass they rested upon and fighting back every urge to rip chunks of it out. “I just… needed to get away from everyone. Just a break.”
“Some time alone?” Bunny suggested, even though she clearly knew what Anna’s response would be, and Anna did not fail to deliver.
She smiled humorlessly. “I’m never alone.”
“I know.”
They fell silent together, content simply in each other’s company. This was not new to them. When they had been alone, before they had reached Northern Pier and met the others, this had been common for them. Even while they had been walking they would often do so in complete silence, listening only to the sounds of their footsteps and the wind in the grass below and leaves above. They didn’t need to speak; they simply understood each other.
They would talk at night, before they would go to sleep (correction: before one of them would go to sleep and the other would stay up to keep watch. More often than not this was Bunny, because - as she had said - Anna was in a new world with no idea of what it held, and Bunny was all too familiar with it). About their lives, what they had been doing in the days before meeting each other, what they hoped to find as they traveled. They hadn’t even known they were heading toward Northern Pier. Bunny had said she’d thought there was a town up north, but she had never been that far before, and she didn’t know for certain. They’d simply… walked, hoping they would eventually find something or someone to give them a proper direction to head in, whether in the literal or metaphorical sense.
They’d found much more than that very quickly.
And yet Anna couldn’t help but feel just as lost now as she had back then. When she’d only had Bunny for company in this strange new world, she hadn’t known why she was here. Now, she very well knew why, and that was almost worse, because now, there was something at stake. There was something she had to accomplish. But how could she - how could they - accomplish it if they still didn’t know what to do?
They’d found who they were searching for, but that didn’t change anything when they didn’t know either.
“I kinda thought the Catalyst would be some great leader or something,” Anna said, barely aware she was speaking her thoughts aloud. “Someone who knows exactly what’s going on and can help us with it. But Quinn’s barely older than Ezra, and Alpha barely said anything, and they both know hardly any more than we do.” Her restraint broke, and she dug her fingers into the grass at her sides, pulling it out and letting it drop back to the ground. “The others said Piximon made it sound like the Catalyst was the missing piece to the puzzle. Like once we found them, everything would be easy. But it’s not. Nothing has gotten any easier. I’m still just as scared of what we have to do. I’m still just as doubtful that we’ll even be able to do it.”
She cast a glance around her room, looking for where Mabel had gone off to. She hadn’t spoken in a while; that was unlike her. She wouldn’t have left without saying anything, she never did that, but…
Mabel, sitting at Anna’s desk off to the side of the room, looked back over her shoulder. She didn’t say anything, simply blinked at Anna. It looked like she was writing something - probably in one of her journals, but Anna couldn’t tell for certain.
“You’re quiet,” Anna said, despite knowing what saying it would entail. She felt… weirdly isolated. Maybe that was because she was quite literally isolated at the moment, with only Bunny for company what with Mabel’s sudden silence, but it was still unsettling.
As expected, Mabel grinned. “Aww, you miss me.” Anna didn’t bother refuting the claim, and Mabel spun around in the swivel chair, crossing one leg over the other as well as her arms across her chest. “I’ve been taking notes. These conversations today have been very intriguing. I can’t just let us forget all this new information.”
“You better not be writing anything about me being scared,” Anna said, standing up and heading to Mabel’s side. She couldn’t read any of the words she’d written. They were English, but… muddled, almost, and when Anna tried to focus on them, they seemed to float away from her eyeline. She’d never been able to figure out how Mabel did this, whether it was some strange ability of hers or if it was just how writing worked in this place.
“You wouldn’t be able to tell even if I was,” Mabel said, voice almost singsong-like. “Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not. Do you think it’s important enough that I should?”
Anna must have pulled some kind of face, since Bunny looked up at her and smiled softly. “What did she say?” she said, barely above a whisper, the same way she always did whenever she spoke about Mabel.
Anna rolled her eyes. “She’s taking notes about the ‘intriguing conversations’ of the day,” she said. “Which probably includes this one I’m having with you.”
“If it helps,” Mabel piped up, which immediately marked it as not helpful, since it was Mabel saying it, “I do think what you’re saying is important.”
Again, Anna rolled her eyes, turning around to lean back against the desk. She frowned physically, and Bunny’s nose twitched in response, but she said nothing. “Me saying that I’m scared and I want things to be easy is important? Sounds more like complaining to me.”
“Well, yeah, it is complaining,” Mabel said, and Anna resisted the urge to go back to the couch, grab a pillow, and throw it at her head. “But the fact that you’re the one who’s technically doing all of this makes you a lot braver than me.”
Anna snorted. “You’re only not doing it cause I won’t let you.”
“Even if you did let me, I'm not sure I’d do it.” Anna stared at her curiously, and Mabel raised an eyebrow at her, as if confused why Anna wasn’t understanding. “Look. I’m your protector, right? I’m in charge of keeping us safe, whether it be stopping you from running into traffic or running your mouth in front of our parents. But this whole thing? This whole ‘saving the world from the spawn of Satan’ thing? That’s not really safe. That’s definitely going to get us in danger.”
“And yet you’re not stopping me,” Anna said, still not following, “like you’re supposed to.”
“Because it’s your choice. You’ve chosen to do this. I’m not supposed to interfere with that.” She paused, looking down at her journal on the desk, and then flipped it closed. “If you’d given me a say in the matter, I would’ve told you not to do it. Whether you would’ve listened to me isn’t the point. The point is that I’m letting you do this because you want to, and because you genuinely believe that you can.”
“I don’t, though,” Anna said, and Mabel shook her head.
“But you do. You’ve told me you do! If you didn’t want to do this, you wouldn’t have fought so hard against Ezra when he tried to keep you in Northern Pier. If you didn’t believe you could do this, you would’ve given up a long time ago, like you’re so fond of whenever something doesn’t go your way.”
Anna’s lip curled. “Do you have a point to this or what?” she snapped, glaring at Mabel.
But Mabel didn’t strike back like she so usually did. She stared at Anna, calmly and evenly, and then tilted her head and, confusingly, smiled. “If I were in charge of this body, I would’ve listened to Ezra and stayed in Northern Pier. Because I saw the scars he and the others were developing. I saw the fear and panic in his eyes when he first saw us on that bench. I heard it in his voice. I would’ve given up right then and there. Not just because of my duty to protect us, but also because I wouldn’t want to go through anything they’d been through.”
She leaned forward in her chair, tapping a finger against Anna’s nose, and Anna batted it away. “But for some weirdo reason, you do. You genuinely think that we - you - can save the world. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s something to do with Bunny. I don’t feel that bond that you do. Whatever it is, you do think that you can do this. And that’s pretty important.”
Anna was silent, speaking not to Mabel nor out loud for a good long while. She was half-aware of Bunny staring at her, head tilted and ears perked, but she didn’t look over at her, instead keeping her gaze fixed on the grass down in front of her. Eventually she groaned, throwing her head back and frowning up at the branches above.
“What is it?” Bunny asked.
Anna scrunched her face up. “She’s being encouraging, and I don’t like it,” she mumbled, and Bunny giggled. “Seriously. This is weird for her. She’s supposed to be a jerk to me and I’m supposed to hate her but she’s actually making me feel better about all of this. I feel like a fraud.”
“Change of heart?” Bunny suggested, and Anna - despite herself - smiled.
“Maybe,” she said, but from the way Mabel smirked over at her all self-satisfied and smugly, she didn’t think so.
Still, though… it was better than nothing. Better than the usual.
Better than having nobody there at all. I guess.
“I heard that,” Mabel said.
“Whatever.”
“…If I’m being honest,” Bunny said then, and Anna looked down at her. “I’m… still not feeling very good myself.” She looked down at her paws, turning them over to put the paw pads face-up, and then sighed long and quietly. “I mean… I know that Plutomon said I resisted it. And that he… can’t do anything to me. I’m guessing he means that I’m immune to his control, but… I’m still worried.”
“About what?” Anna asked, propping her chin up with a fist.
Bunny frowned, her ears drooping. “…That something’s going to happen and I will become manic. I didn’t say it earlier because of Ember and Ezra and… you know, but… it was really scary. I wasn’t in control of myself. I don’t even know what he was telling me to do but I know it wasn’t anything good and that really scares me.” She hesitated, looking off to the side and refusing to meet Anna’s gaze. “…I’m worried that I’m going to hurt you.”
“You won’t,” Anna said instantly, almost reflexively. She reached down to scoop Bunny into her lap, wrapping her arms around her and resting her head on Bunny’s. “You can’t hurt me. Nothing you could do would ever hurt me or make me hate you or anything.”
“Are you sure?” Bunny mumbled. Anna couldn’t see her face, but she recognized that tone of voice. The fear and doubt and everything else swirling around inside her head. “What if he tries it again and it actually works and then he tells me to… to do something to you? Or someone else?”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Anna said, and she realized she really did believe it. Even if Plutomon hadn’t said anything about Bunny resisting it, it just seemed so… out of the realm of possibility for something like that to happen to Bunny, and then for her to hurt Anna or anyone else in the group.
But… she remembered how she’d felt when she’d seen Bunny’s eyes go white, the terror and dread that had surged through her and rendered her practically frozen in place - and that was likely only a fraction of what Bunny herself had felt. She didn’t know what had been going through Bunny’s mind or how it had felt, but she understood her fear.
But she also knew that nothing was going to happen to her.
“And even if it does,” she said, squeezing Bunny just a bit tighter, “we’ll figure it out together. Okay? You won’t have to deal with it alone.”
“Do you promise?” Bunny said, voice barely above a whisper.
“I promise,” Anna said.
They sat together like that for a while, comfortable in the silence. They didn’t need to say anything more. Everything had already been said.
For once, Anna’s mind was empty. Mabel was silent, still working on her journal, and she didn’t look up even as she surely sensed that Anna was thinking of her. It was… oddly serene, really. There was still the comfort of knowing Mabel was there, enough to help Anna feel a little more safe. Her mind was rarely silent, even more rarely peaceful.
It was nice, really. Maybe things weren’t so bad after all.
“Are you ready to head back?” she asked. Bunny nodded, and Anna smiled and stood up, turning to head up the path they’d come down.
Maybe she should have remained sitting for a few more seconds, as the moment she took a step, she heard it again.
The rumbling that had preceded the distortion in the air, that had preceded the flash of light, that had preceded Plutomon’s appearance. She knew what to expect at this point, and reached out for the nearest tree, bracing herself against it as she felt the pressure inside her chest and lungs. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for it to end.
“That’s not good,” Mabel said, stating the obvious, and Anna shook her head as it faded away. She had to get back to the others. If Plutomon was back…
She didn’t want to think about that. She tightened her grip on Bunny and raced back into the main garden, where the rest of the group were reacting much the same way she was. They stood, looking up and around them, as if they didn’t know where it had come from - as if they didn’t know where Plutomon was.
That was also not good.
The light finally flashed, not far enough away to be reassuring - just a few blocks over, it looked like. Anna bit her lip and looked at Quinn almost instinctively, waiting to see her reaction or heed her advice.
She simply stared out at where the light had cracked the sky, her mouth pulling back in a grimace, and then she looked down at Alpha at her feet. He nodded up at her, and she sighed, closing her eyes for a split second before shaking her head out.
“Let’s go,” she called out, barely waiting for the others before she and Alpha broke into a run. The group didn’t waste a second, shouldering their backpacks and taking off after them. Anna clutched her purse tighter, letting Bunny hop to the ground, and - after just one moment of hesitation - followed.
As they ran, Digimon on the streets brushed past them, heading in the exact opposite direction, just as they had done when they’d first gone to confront Plutomon. Some were yelling; others were simply trying to get as far away from the area of interest as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t a certainty that Plutomon would be there. He hadn’t shown up immediately when they’d confronted him in the clearing; maybe, if they were lucky, they’d have time to reorient themselves, prepare for whatever they were going to face, come up with a better plan.
But could the Digimon even evolve again, so soon after -?
So caught up in her thoughts was she that she nearly crashed into Miguel, standing in front of her. She backpedaled and squeezed her way to the front of the group, trying to get a look at whatever had caused them to stop. All around them, Digimon were shouting, running, ducking for cover, but Anna could not see what from - until, suddenly, she could.
“Shit,” Quinn muttered, and Anna’s heart sank into her feet.
Standing in the center of the street, surrounded by cowering civilians, was Plutomon.
His eyes locked onto Anna’s own.
Quinn had barely started digging into her pocket for her digivice before Alpha was barreling forward, needing no command to rush towards Plutomon. The digivice started up its robotic ramble just as Alpha began to glow pitch black and then pure white.
“Evolutio-ion - enga- ult- ultim- ultimate evolution engaged.”
He was evolving faster than the digivice could keep up with, shifting first to a large bipedal dinosaur and then a taller dragon with four wings sprouting from his back, pulling back his fist, swirling with energy, almost before he’d finished.
“
Anna winced as he swiped his claws through the air, sending waves of black energy directly into Plutomon’s midriff - not like it had any effect. Plutomon took a step backward, still staring directly at Anna.
“You,” he snarled, his gaze piercing right through her.
Anna - for not the first time that day - suddenly felt very small.
He didn’t say anything else, even as Alpha slashed out at him again, simply sidestepped to avoid the attack. Alpha wheeled around, baring his teeth and flaring his wings out, and Plutomon raised a hand at him, the gems on his palm beginning to glow.
“He’s going to hurt someone,” Mabel said, once again stating the painfully obvious. “Not just us. I mean, obviously that’s bad too, but if he attacks here -”
“Wait!” Anna shouted, forgetting all the fear she was feeling for a second as she picked up Mabel’s train of thought. “Don’t! If you want to fight we should do it outside the city -”
Plutomon cut her off with a scoff, keeping his hand in the air but, at the very least, not attacking (yet). “This is not a holy place any more,” he said. “Respect is no longer deserved of it. It never should have been.”
Nobody had the chance to say anything before he whirled toward Alpha, aiming both of his hands at him. “
Alpha stayed where he was, taking the hit head-on with gritted teeth and flared wings. Anna realized what he was doing - if he had moved, Plutomon would have hit the buildings behind him. Even the few beams that hadn’t struck Alpha were enough to almost cut through the roof of the closest shop, and a few tiles crashed down through the ceiling, landing on the floor inside with a sharp shattering sound.
“Let’s hope that’s not a rental,” Mabel said, and Anna grabbed the coffee table and threw it at her.
“
Red, green, and blue light flashed, and Castor, Flip, and Ren rushed forth in their champion forms. Around them, the Digimon still in rookie stage followed suit, staying just behind the line that the champions formed to avoid being in Plutomon’s direct line of attack.
All bets were off at this point.
“
Plutomon swept his hands over the gathered Digimon, sending them and the humans behind them scattering. The humans ducked for cover, Anna running to hide behind a bench on the sidewalk next to Ezra and Alex. Her brother reached for her to pull her closer, and for once, she did not resist him.
“
“
“
Anna chanced a look out, and saw Quinn still standing in the middle of the street, but a bit far off from where she had just been, as if she had run from Plutomon’s attack but then came back out. She cupped her hands around her mouth and turned to the few civilian Digimon who were either brave or stupid enough to still watch the fight.
“Get out of here!” she shouted, raising an arm to point down the street in the opposite direction of Plutomon. “He’s not here for you! You’ll be safe if you get away!”
A few Digimon - a humanoid angel with a red hood and four golden wings, a silver-blue holy beast with smoke wafting from its back, a prairie dog with giant metal claws - hesitated and turned toward Plutomon, looking as if they were about to attack him - but Quinn spread her legs and arms wide, indicating for them not to get any closer.
“Go!” she yelled, and the Digimon heeded her warning, turning and running down the street, and not a moment too soon.
“
Anna looked back at Plutomon to see the tendrils of smoke shoot out of his mouths and shoot for the Digimon, trapping the three champions as well as Pop and Dare. Alpha shot forward from his position further behind Plutomon, swiping out and unleashing his own blades of energy directly into the mouths. When the Digimon were freed, Pop and Dare practically collapsed to the ground, unable to stand or move at all. Ren ran to pick them up and place them on her back, heading to their partners to deliver them before rushing back to the fight.
Plutomon did not care about making sure not to damage any of the surrounding buildings, and attacked with a reckless ferocity, almost more fiercely than he had earlier. Alpha was able to mostly keep his focus, but whenever he was knocked away, Plutomon was quick to turn on the rest of the Digimon - and they could not take his attacks as easily as Alpha could, even those in champion.
They were fighting a losing battle, and they knew it.
“We’re not going to give up, you know!” Quinn shouted at Plutomon, her fists raised as if she was prepared to jump into the battle herself. “You’re just wasting time! We both know nothing is going to come out of this fight!”
Anna frowned, about to ask Quinn why she was even bothering to yell at him - she was just wasting her breath trying to get through to him, he didn’t care about talking - but then Plutomon looked down at her, holding Ko in one hand and Alpha off with the other.
“After all this time,” he said, “and you still believe you can defeat me?” He sneered, looking down at Alpha, who was making a valiant effort to escape from Plutomon’s grasp on his neck. “I have told you time and time again that you will die eventually. You know I’m not a liar. I don’t understand why you don’t believe me about this.”
“
Alpha wrested himself free of Plutomon and slashed out, the beams of energy he unleashed enough to make Plutomon loosen his hold on Ko. The beetle flitted to the ground, landing with a heavy thump, then stumbled and fell to his side. On the other side of the street, Azure lurched forward as if making to run to him, but their feet remained firmly in place, and they grit their teeth. Nobody could afford to get too close to Plutomon, not even for a second.
Quinn, however, took a step forward. “You’re going to die one day too,” she said, voice dangerously quiet but still loud enough to carry down the road. “Maybe not because of us. Maybe we’re just buying them some time.” She nodded first toward the side of the street Anna was on, and then the other, and Anna felt something practically hollow out her stomach as she realized the implications of that. “But no matter how you die, it will happen eventually. Just as I’ll die one day.”
She took another step and stared up at Plutomon, looking for all the world as if she truly believed in what she was saying. She certainly seemed the part. Her chin lifted, her hands clenched into fists at her sides, her shoulders squared.
But Anna knew better. She knew what affecting confidence looked like. She knew that Quinn did not fully believe herself, no matter how hard she tried to act like she did, no matter how much she looked like she did.
What was more noticeable, however, was that Plutomon… paused. He went quiet, moving only to ward off attacks, but even the partner Digimon stilled when they realized he was not actively attacking.
He lifted his own head to look down at Quinn and blinked slowly. “I know,” he said, and Anna’s eyes went wide at just how gentle his voice was. Perhaps not quiet, and certainly not kind, but… there was something hiding in his tone that, for all she tried, Anna could not discern.
“I know this,” he repeated, dropping his hands to his sides. Behind him, Alpha growled, his claws beginning to glow, but Plutomon didn’t pay any mind to him. “I know it very well. And I know exactly how I will die, too.”
Quinn blinked, and Alpha’s attack faltered, and Anna frowned.
“Can he see the future?” Mabel said, finishing with setting the coffee table back in its original position. Anna almost considered throwing it at her again, but… maybe she wasn’t joking. If he knew how he was going to die, then, unless he was going to… you know… then maybe…?
She didn’t get to ponder it much longer, or even ask him what he meant, because in that moment, she felt it again. The disturbance in the air came before the rumbling, but she couldn’t focus on that, even with as loud as the rumbling was this time (which was also worrying), because she suddenly felt as if she were drowning. She reached her hands up to her throat, clawing at it desperately, trying to draw in air but failing. Nothing was coming through. It lasted for longer than it ever had, the constriction of her lungs squeezing out every last breath she had, the roaring in her ears drowning out all rational thought, almost like the ocean, almost like the clouds above had descended to wrap themselves around her and suffocate her -
And then from behind Plutomon spread a blindingly white glow, so bright that even when Anna closed her eyes she could still see his silhouette against the back of her eyelids. When the pressure on her chest and the thunder in her ears had faded, she cracked an eye open, and then they both opened wide as she saw what it was.
Plutomon stepped aside, revealing the rip - the tear - the rift in the very fabric of reality, ringed in that bright white light. Through the rift, Anna could see something - a place. It was like they were looking down at a city from above. Sidewalks and streets stretched far beneath (in front of?) them, breaking up chunks of buildings. A car was parked on the side of the road next to a lamppost. Beside it, past the sidewalk, was a bright green lawn, trees dotted around the grass with dirt paths winding between them.
Anna knew what it was, even if she didn’t know for certain.
And she could tell that Plutomon did too.
He turned around to throw Alpha further down the street, shooting one converged beam of light at him, and then looked back at Quinn. “Congratulations,” he said, voice dripping with liquid irony. “You were right. I was wasting time. Your time. I just needed to wait a little while longer.” He looked down at where Bunny stood just a few feet ahead of Quinn, and he seemed to somehow smile at her with his eyes.
He stepped through the rift, and then he was gone.
And as soon as he was - as soon as he had entered the rift, as soon as he had left the Digital World - they felt something else. Something shifted in the air, but not in the way it had before. This time, it felt more as if the world had been… kickstarted, lurching forward and juddering like a gear in a machine that hadn’t been operated in years, before sliding back into perfect rhythm. Anna blinked, disoriented but no worse for the wear than the other disturbances always left her, and looked back at the rift.
The car on the side of the road was gone. It wasn’t parked at all - it was stuck in time. Had been stuck in time. Through the rift, she saw more cars rolling past along the road, people walking along the sidewalk, the trees and grass swaying in the breeze.
The time dilation had been undone. The Digital World and the real world were in sync again.
Footsteps sounded on the pavement, and Quinn stepped toward the rift. Slowly, as the group realized Plutomon was gone and the fight was over, the rest of the group walked into the street, reuniting with their partners. The four evolved Digimon reverted to their rookie forms, and Alpha came to stand just in front of Quinn, looking not at her but at the rift - the portal.
“Are you okay?” Mabel asked, glancing over at Anna. “We didn’t get hurt, I know, but -”
“I’m fine,” she said, lying, and Mabel knew it too, but Anna didn’t care.
She scooped Bunny into her arms and waited.
Quinn stared at the portal for a long few seconds. Nobody spoke, not even to their partners. Nobody moved. The white light surrounding the rift flickered and shone, but neither it nor the rift itself disappeared.
How would you even repair a chasm splitting the air, anyway?
“We need to go,” Quinn said, not turning to look at the group. She dipped her head down toward Alpha, who looked up at her and nodded once. Quinn closed her eyes and breathed out slowly. “Now. Before the portal closes. I don’t know how much longer we have left.”
“Hang on, what?” Ezra said, stepping forward, and Quinn turned on her heel to face him - to face the rest of the group. He furrowed his brow, looking between Quinn and Alpha and Ember at his feet and the portal in front of him. “We can’t do that.”
“We can, and we need to,” Quinn said. She crossed her arms and swept her gaze over the group, lingering on Anna and Bunny for a second before she looked back down at her feet. “That’s what we need to do. You saw what just happened. Plutomon opened a gateway to our world and undid the time dilation.”
“Can’t we stop and think about this a bit?” Harmony asked, wringing her hands together. At her side, Ren was leaning against her, one arm wrapped around her shoulders, but she raised her head to look at Quinn. “I think we need some time to come up with a plan -”
“We don’t have any,” Quinn snapped, then closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “We don’t. I don’t know how long this portal is going to stay open. If we get stuck here -” She cut herself off with a click of her teeth. Anna knew what she meant, even if she didn’t know exactly what she was going to say.
“But -” Miguel started, and Quinn was quick to round on him too, though she managed to compose herself somewhat.
“You want me to be your leader?” she said quietly, and Anna couldn’t help but notice how her eyes once more flitted over to her. “Fine. I’m leading you.” She paused and balled her hands into fists, then placed them on her hips. “Plutomon just entered the real world. Our world. I don’t know why, or what he wants with it, or how he was even able to open a portal. But I do know that we have to follow him. We can’t save the world if we’re not in the world we’re meant to save. We are running out of time.”
Anna hugged Bunny tighter to her chest as Quinn looked around at the group again.
Anna was just as worried and unsure as everyone else was. Maybe even moreso. But like it or not, she knew that Quinn was right. If Plutomon had managed to open a portal to the real world, and if he went through that portal, that meant that whatever he wanted to do - whatever he was aiming to accomplish - was in that world. Their world. Anna’s world.
They had to do this.
“We’ll be okay,” Mabel said, and Anna relaxed a little bit. “Maybe we’ll end up in New York or something. I think that’s where I’d go if I were an evil Digimon going to the human world for the first time. Or maybe Las Vegas! I could take over the world by gambling.”
She was joking, and poorly at that, but she was trying to lighten the mood at least somewhat. Anna appreciated it. She looked down at Bunny, in her arms, whose gaze was fixed firmly on Quinn.
Anna inhaled, and then she nodded.
Around her, the group nodded and motioned their hesitant agreement, and then Castor stepped forward. He looked up at Quinn, his tail lashing and cloak drawn tight against his body, and he tugged at the hood.
“What happens next?” he asked. That was all he said.
But Anna knew what he meant. He meant a great many things with that question, and she knew all of them. What happened after they entered the portal? Where would they end up? How would they find Plutomon? How were they going to stop him?
He didn’t say any of it out loud. He just asked that one question, the same one ringing in Anna’s mind, and in everyone else’s, she knew: what next?
Quinn did not answer immediately. She looked at Castor, then up at Alex, standing behind him, then down at Alpha, and finally at the entire group.
She smiled.
“Next,” she said, “we hope that we hit the ground upright.”