EPISODE 41 - END OF FOREVER
Learn patience.
Those words had reverberated throughout Damien’s mind as the world around him had faded into nothingness, feeling less like a voice and more like a sensation, like they had simply been etched into the walls of his consciousness. When he’d opened his own eyes, he’d found himself in the same white space that he knew Moxie was in - similar, yet different. Not the same plane of existence, but something like it.
Now, he sat with his arms propped up on his knees and Bumble, in his baby form, in front of him, peering up at him with big, unblinking eyes.
Damien sighed, tired of the silence. “I don’t get it.”
“Don’t get what?”
“This. How this happened.” He gestured around at the area they were in, as if that would elaborate. “Any of this. Us joining the others and going on this bullshit adventure and ending up here. I can’t really explain it. It just feels… weird to me, in some weird surreal way. Maybe it’s because I never really imagined this would happen.” He smirked wryly, raising one eyebrow. “Maybe the fact we’re sitting in an empty void full of nothing but glowing dust particles is messing with my brain. I don’t know.”
“It doesn’t really matter if it doesn’t make sense,” Bumble said, ever-helpful, and Damien meant that genuinely. “Because it is happening. And it’s because all of this has happened that it is. Who cares if it’s weird, or unexpected, or anything else? All that matters is that we’re here.”
Damien smiled again and chewed on the inside of his lip absentmindedly. In a sense, Bumble was right. None of the who or what or why of it mattered. What did matter was that it was happening. Damien and Moxie had made it this far. Bumble and Pop were evolving to mega. They were facing off against a Demon Lord.
And they were still alive, despite it all.
It reminded him of his conversation with Miguel, all that time ago, the evening of the MarineDevimon fight - and even the one before that, on only the second day he’d known him. When Damien had told him that he was only doing this to prove to the Digital World or whatever higher powers that may be that he was just as worthy of saving it as any of the rest of the group. That he could do it. That it didn’t matter if he wasn’t destined for it, or supposed to do it - he was still going to do it, just because he could.
And… he realized that that wasn’t exactly it.
Damien frowned, looking down at his hand, opening and closing it slowly. It wasn’t just out of spite that he’d done it. Maybe that had been the driving motivation at first, but… over the past few months, very little of what he’d done had been because of spite. Or even just to prove his worth, really. All of this? Joining the rest of the group, going on this journey, ending up here back in this world, facing Lucemon? (Even if he’d tried to run away at first?)
He’d done it because… it was the right thing to do.
God, I think I’m going to be sick.
But that was it, wasn’t it? It had taken him damn near five years to finally be able to do something good in the world. In either world. He’d spent so much of those five years begging for the opportunity to present itself to him, and finally, finally, after all that time, it had - and he’d still only thought he’d been doing it out of spite. Or to prove to someone that he was better than he seemed. But none of that was why he’d really been doing any of it. He’d known it all along - he just hadn’t wanted to accept it.
But here, in this strange place, with only his partner - his soulmate - for silent, content company, he felt like he finally could accept it.
These five years… I think they’ve been worth the wait.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Bumble said then, dragging Damien’s attention back to the present. He looked down at him, his partner meeting his eyes readily. “But we’ve finally reached this point.”
“Honestly, I was getting a little sick of waiting for so long,” Damien said, grinning. “But you’re right. It doesn’t matter anymore. You ready to kick Lucemon’s ass?”
“As ever,” Bumble replied smoothly, so oddly mature for such a little Digimon. Damien laughed, and Bumble closed his eyes in what he could only assume was his imitation of such.
From out of the corner of his eye, Damien saw a yellow glow begin to spread, reaching toward them with sunny fingers. That must be our cue, he supposed, and even despite himself, he couldn’t resist the smile that crept onto his face.
When the light had almost overtaken them completely, he reached down to pick Bumble up, the only time he had since they’d found themselves here. He didn’t say anything, and neither did Bumble; in silence, they simply embraced, ready for whatever would come their way next.
It’s time to begin.
“
“
Fading sunset lights and distant cries brought Damien back to the present, standing on the street with Moxie’s hand in his as they stared up at Lucemon. The Demon Lord took a single step back as the pink and yellow glow dissipated from Pop and Bumble, revealing their new forms, and its eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch.
Damien tightened his other hand around his digivice.
It was Moxie’s that spoke first, though. “Valkyrimon,” it said, voice smooth as ever. “Mega level warrior Digimon. It is the possessor of such speed that it shows up like a gale, then slashes at the opponent with a swiftness too quick to catch with the eyes.”
“TigerVespamon,” Damien’s digivice said as soon as Moxie’s was done, as if it had been waiting for it to finish. “Mega level cyborg Digimon. It boasts an astounding degree of stamina that could not be imagined from its slight and thorny silhouette, and it never stops moving during combat.”
Those names were apt, Damien had to admit.
Their height difference was more pronounced in these forms, and not just because Bumble hovered a few feet higher than Pop did, both of them floating in the air as they faced Lucemon. They’d both become more humanoid, Bumble especially, but even Pop had lost her feathery haunches and arms in place of sleeker human-like anatomy. She was clothed in a white bodysuit, decorated with gold and silver armor around her chest and abdomen, and silvery lattice-like armbands and boots. Belts were laced around her waist, holding up a bright pink sash that draped down around her back and thighs, as well as a quiver of arrows and the sheath of a golden sword.
Her face was obscured by a helmet shaped like an eagle’s head, with two golden eyes set just above its beak to compensate for the pitch black visor that covered her own. Curly reddish-brown hair peeked out from under that helmet, blowing faintly in a nonexistent wind, much like the large feathered wings that burst from her back, each white feather tipped with pink. She tilted her head at Lucemon, clenching one of her fists, the forearm of which braced a diamond-shaped shield, then raised her opposite hand to the sky. With a hawk’s cry, a small golden bird swooped in from out of nowhere, then perched on Pop’s fist, its eyes fixed on Lucemon.
Bumble, meanwhile, was closer to some sort of cyborg wasp, if the digivice description was to be trusted, and he certainly looked the part. He stood taller than Lucemon now, and glared down at it with the cyan compound eyes positioned on either side of his head, like a true wasp. His body was composed of gold and black armor, imposing enough on its own, and it was only made more intimidating by his sharp claws, spiked feet, and V-shaped headpiece looking almost like horns. A dark blue scarf was wrapped around his neck, the tattered end fluttering out behind him as if propelled by its own personal breeze.
He clicked his mandibles together threateningly as he spun twin energy blades around in his hands, each of them glowing a bright teal. The four pale blue wings that emerged from his back twitched slightly, like he was ready to take flight at any moment - but he didn’t need them to fly, evident enough by the way he was still hovering in place, just next to Pop.
They exchanged a single glance, the determination in their gazes clear even without visible or emotive eyes, and then looked down at Lucemon.
The angel lifted its chin, its wings furling inward as it matched the two Digimon’s energy. “Is this how you want to play things,” it said, voice softer than Damien would have expected. It dipped its head and closed its eyes, saying nothing for a short while. Bumble and Pop watched it intently, Bumble’s wings flitting behind him and Pop’s golden bird tilting its head back and forth.
With a hiss, Lucemon looked back up at the Digimon, its eyes blazing cold. “So you won’t sit down and let me do my job? Fine, then. Let’s see how well your new forms hold up!
It hurled the black and white orbs up at Pop and Bumble, its fingers flexing. Damien frowned, watching as neither Pop nor Bumble moved while the flaming spheres came ever closer. When they were just about to hit, Bumble raised his swords, then slashed them through the orbs in a series of rapid flurries. “
The orbs dispersed in an instant, but the shockwave that was typical of their collision rang out anyway, and Damien and Moxie were thrown to the ground. Damien grunted, shoving himself up to look back at their partners.
Bumble managed to keep himself upright in the air, his wings flaring out to help keep his balance, while Pop let herself drift backward with the force. “We’ve got our work cut out for us, don’t we, Freyja?” she mused, turning toward her golden bird. The bird - Freyja - let out a single chirp, and Pop grinned, then turned down to Lucemon. “
She pulled the crossbow off of her back and plucked a single arrow from the quiver at her side. It shone bright, even in the darkness of the night, and she nocked it with effortless precision. As she pulled the string back to aim at Lucemon, Freyja rushed forward, keening a harrowing cry as it dove for the angel.
Pop let the arrow loose, and it flew forward on an impossibly straight course, right for Lucemon’s chest. As it and Freyja approached, they were consumed with an otherworldly golden glow, and when they struck Lucemon’s chest, the arrow dissipated with a flash and Freyja swooped away, heading back for Pop’s outstretched arm.
Lucemon stumbled backward, flaring its wings out to keep its balance. It hissed, baring its teeth up at Bumble and Pop in turn. “You’re getting on my nerves.”
“Sore loser, angel fuck,” Damien called out, cupping a hand around his mouth to carry his voice. Lucemon’s head snapped over to him as its wings furled inward in fury, and it raised one arm, its hand curled like a claw as if to rip out his heart. Moxie was quick to grab onto Damien’s sleeve and yank him backwards, but Lucemon called out an attack anyway, eyes ablaze.
“
Bumble was first. “
Not to be outdone, Pop was quick to follow up. “
It hit its mark, and Lucemon toppled over, its wings flaring out for balance a second too late. It crashed to the ground and the spell circles disappeared with a flash, inches away from where Damien and Moxie stood. Lucemon righted itself instantly, turning on Pop and Bumble with a newfound anger, seemingly forgetting entirely about the humans it was supposed to kill.
Works for me.
Moxie pulled Damien further back, and he relented, letting her take them both away from where the three Digimon continued their fight. Feeling a bit more confident in their partners’ ability to occupy Lucemon, Damien finally turned his back to the fight to survey the surrounding area with Moxie.
Lucemon had trapped them at the intersection, with the buildings both further up and down the street crumbling into ash and brick. Flames licked at the sky, smoke rising from what little of the remaining buildings they burned, clogging the air with a heavy thickness. The occupants seemed to have left before they had been hit, which was fortunate, because the interior of the buildings hadn’t fared any better than the exterior. Shattered glass littered the street, and Damien and Moxie had to take extra care not to impale themselves on any sharp debris as they moved.
The only empty street was the one that split off to the side, the stem of the top of the T they were currently at, and even it was a danger zone, with chunks of the asphalt torn up and scattered around from the attacks Lucemon and their partners had been - and still were - flinging at each other.
If they were to run - and they weren’t, they couldn’t - that would be the only way out, unless they wanted to climb through piles of rubble and make themselves an even easier target for Lucemon. It was a shame, then, that Damien could hear sirens ringing in the distance - not far enough away.
We don’t have long before the police arrive. They’re just going to make everything worse. Who the hell even called them? We haven’t seen anyone around in ages -
“
Damien shook his head out and returned to reality as Lucemon hurled its flaming orbs at Bumble and Pop, one for each of them. Pop leapt backward out of the way of the white orb, while Bumble cut through the black one with his swords, then turned on Lucemon as they began to glow brighter.
“
“Bumble!” Damien shouted, drawing the attention of both his partner and Lucemon. He ignored the angel and focused solely on Bumble, resisting the urge to take a step forward. “We need to finish this soon! Give it your all!”
Bumble nodded, gripping his swords tighter, but in that short moment, Lucemon attacked. “
The earth shook, and Damien felt like the wind had just been knocked out of him, or maybe like he’d cracked a rib - but the impact of their landing shouldn’t have done that, right? Even as he held an arm up to shield his face from the billowing dust and took a deep, shaking breath, he felt like his whole chest had caved in, but patting it with his unoccupied hand revealed it to be in perfect shape.
…Is it because Bumble was hurt? He frowned, lowering his arm to catch sight of his partner. Humans share pain with their partners when they’re evolved to mega. That’s what Quinn told us, isn’t it?
That fucking sucks.
Lucemon stood over Bumble, aiming one hand down at him as if to hold him in place. Bumble grit his mandibles, clearly glaring up at Lucemon even without a facial expression, but he made no move to get up.
Lucemon smiled, satisfaction carved onto its face. The look in its eyes was undeniable: it knew it had won.
It had, however, forgotten about one thing. One very important, very angry thing.
That being Pop.
“
She rushed forward in a flurry of wind and sleet, frost swirling around her golden sword. Freyja keened and took to the air, swooping overhead as Pop struck out at Lucemon, forcing it backwards and off of Bumble. Where the sword hit Lucemon, ice began to spread, rushing over its body and freezing it with sharp cracking sounds.
Lucemon cried out and shoved her away, and as soon as she pulled her sword back, the ice covering its chest snapped and shattered. Growling, Lucemon rose into the air, flapping its wings as it stared down at Pop and Bumble, the former helping the latter get back up onto his feet.
“
“
“
The Digimon kicked the battle off again, the reprieve lasting for only a second. Damien managed to tear his gaze away from them for long enough to catch sight of Moxie, standing further down the conjoining street and looking panicked.
He was at her side instantly, being careful not to put too much pressure on her left side as he grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. “Hey,” he said, keeping his voice as gentle as he possibly could at the moment, which was to say not very, but more than if he hadn’t put in the effort. “You doing okay?”
She blinked and shook her head, putting a hand to her temples and gritting her teeth. “They’re going to be here any moment,” she said, closing her eyes, and she didn’t have to elaborate for Damien to know who she meant by “they”. She was right - they didn’t have much longer. The sirens in the distance were still blaring, having gotten even louder since Damien had last paid attention to them. That probably wasn’t a good sign.
“I know they probably stand a better chance now,” Moxie continued, nodding over at their partners, “but - but if the police get here, I don’t know what’ll happen - if Lucemon will attack them, if they’ll attack Pop and Bumble, if Pop and Bumble will even be able to do anything -” She cut herself off with a groan, looking as if she was going to sink to her knees, but Damien tightened his hold on her right arm and she took a deep breath in.
“They’ll be okay,” he said, even though he didn’t know if they really would be. Lucemon seems to be wearing down a bit, judging by how it’s taken their last few attacks, but not enough. Not by a long shot. Maybe with a little more time, but we don’t have any more time, not right now, when the cops are probably only a few blocks away -
Flashes of red and blue caught Damien’s attention, and his heart sank into his feet as he turned to see the first police cars screeching to a halt further down the street. As officers began to file out, each with guns drawn, Damien grabbed onto Moxie’s hand and ran, pulling her along behind him as he dove to hide behind a big enough chunk of asphalt. They couldn’t afford to be seen.
Lucemon had ceased its attacks as it spotted the police, and now floated in the air, separated from them by Pop and Bumble, who weren’t sure what to do - keep fighting, or wait for the officers to act? They exchanged quick glances, not wanting to take their eyes off of Lucemon for too long, but with subtle nods to each other, Pop turned to face the cops while Bumble kept his gaze trained on Lucemon.
Not like he really needed to. Lucemon tilted its head as the officers approached it, making no move to attack either them or the two partners. Damien frowned - wouldn’t this be the perfect opportunity for it to take Pop and Bumble by surprise? Not that I want it to, but…
“Stand down!” one of the officers, the one currently in front, shouted up at the Digimon. It was hard to tell if he was saying it because he actually believed the Digimon would heed his words, or if it was just a formality, but it didn’t really matter, because Pop and Bumble obliged anyway. Slowly, Pop raised her arms in surrender, while Bumble simply stilled his flickering wings, unable to risk giving Lucemon a chance to strike.
And, most surprisingly of all, Lucemon lowered itself to the ground and folded its wings.
Damien’s frown deepened.
“What do you expect to do?” it asked, lifting one hand palm-up. In the center, a red orb appeared, glowing faintly against the darkness of the night for a split second, before it clenched its fist and the orb - the Code Key - dissipated. “You have no partners. All it would take is a single attack, and you’d be dead. Is this really how you’d like your lives to end?”
The officers were quiet for a moment, speaking amongst themselves in hushed tones, though they kept their guns trained on the Digimon. They didn’t seem entirely surprised that Lucemon could talk - was it possible that they’d noticed in previous fight footage that the Digimon often spoke and verbally called out attacks, or was it just less mind-boggling than the fact they were currently facing off against three giant monsters?
Eventually the frontmost policeman looked back up at Lucemon. “You have ten seconds! Stand down or we will open fire!”
Lucemon rolled its eyes, looking over the collection of officers with a bored expression. “Really, now? Is that supposed to be a threat?” It sighed and shook its head. “Well, you tried. I respect that, at least.”
“Five!” the officer shouted. “Four! Three!”
“Two,” Lucemon said, joining in on the countdown and managing to shock the officer into silence, lifting up two fingers. “One.” It lowered one finger - then, the other, closing its hand into a fist. “Zero.”
With a smile, it flared its wings out and lifted into the air. “Let’s have some fun.
“Fire!” the officer shouted, either ignoring or oblivious to the glowing circles forming underneath him and the rest of the officers. Gunfire echoed off the few remaining buildings as bullets poured forth, aimed not just at Lucemon but Pop and Bumble as well. Pop hissed and raised her shield to protect herself, while Bumble slashed out with his swords to deflect as many of the bullets as he could.
But protecting themselves quickly became the least of their concerns. The spell circles shone brightly for a split second, then formed the glowing barriers, trapping most of the police force within. The bullets bounced off of the hard light walls, and the officers stopped firing when they realized they were indirectly shooting themselves. Pop and Bumble exchanged glances once more, unsure of what to do, but their hesitance didn’t last long.
Lucemon snapped its fingers, and the barriers disappeared, replaced by cries of pain from the officers. Several of them slumped to their knees or fell to the ground, but those that remained standing and kneeling were quick to focus fire on Lucemon once more, directed by the lead officer. As before, the bullets seemed to amuse it more than harm it, evidenced by the joy that lit up in its eyes.
Bumble and Pop weren’t exactly faring the same. Even though most of the guns were aimed at Lucemon, they were clearly hurt, even if Damien hadn’t been feeling all of the pain the bullets were inflicting on Bumble, tiny burning pinpricks flaring up all over his body. He’s covered in armor and he’s a Digimon, why the fuck are regular gunshots doing anything to him - Whatever. That wasn’t the point at the moment. What was the point was that he and Pop were caught between trying to persuade the officers to stop fucking shooting at them, and fighting back against Lucemon to both defeat it and maybe stop it from hurting any of the officers (even if Damien didn’t really care about that last part).
Just like before, they seemed to agree to split the tasks. Bumble turned on Lucemon, spinning his swords, while Pop approached the officers carefully during a lull in their gunfire, holding her empty hands out to hopefully show she meant them no harm. “We’re not trying to hurt you,” she said, raising her voice to help it carry but keeping it soft enough to not be threatening. “We’re also trying to stop the angel. Please stop shooting, you’re just making things more difficult.”
But her gentle words were cut short by Lucemon, rushing toward her, seizing its chance to attack. “
“
“
They lunged toward the angel, swords at the ready, slashing out with ice and bursts of blue light. On the ground, the police continued to rain bullets upon the Digimon, and Damien hissed as pockets of pain began to litter his body again. Lucemon evaded most of Bumble and Pop’s attacks, sometimes striking out with its own, but for the most part it was content to simply dodge - until it wasn’t.
After throwing Pop into Bumble and sending both of them spinning to the ground, Lucemon set its sights on the policemen once more. It lowered itself down, its boots tapping gently upon the asphalt as the officers took a moment to reload.
It didn’t say anything. It barely even moved. As Bumble and Pop struggled to get back up onto their feet, it held its hands out to form the two swirling orbs of energy.
The officer at the front - the leader - looked up at Lucemon, his teeth clenched and jaw tightly set. “Open fire!” he shouted, holding his arm out at Lucemon, but he wasn’t quick enough.
“
“
As Lucemon hurled the orbs and Bumble jumped forward to engage it directly, Pop lunged for the officers, her sword and bow sheathed but her shield held out toward Lucemon. She dug her heels into the asphalt when she landed in front of them, ducking her head and bracing herself for the blast. She grit her teeth as the officers’ bullets landed on her, even as she stood there against Lucemon, ready to take the hit just to protect them.
The orbs collided before they reached her, releasing the shockwave in a radius so wide that even Damien and Moxie, still crouched behind the rubble, were knocked over. When the light dissipated and the gunfire died down, Damien pushed himself back up, helping Moxie get back onto her knees, and peeked out from behind their makeshift hiding spot.
Pop stood, breathing heavily, her wings limp behind her, in between Lucemon and the officers. Most of them had also been knocked down, still struggling to get back onto their feet, granting a brief reprieve from their bullets for Pop - which seemed necessary at the moment. She lifted her head, clenching the fist that held her shield, and drew her sword, pointing it at Lucemon.
“You would throw your life away,” Lucemon said, tilting its own head, “all to protect humans that would rather have you dead? What sort of allies are those?”
“They are not our allies,” she ground out, her sword unwavering. “But as much as it would bring me no greater pleasure than to see them gone, that is not your choice nor mine to make. They are not your enemies. Your fight is with us.”
“My fight, maybe,” it said, its wings curling inward. Further down the street, having been knocked aside by both the shockwave and Lucemon itself, Bumble readied his swords as they began to glow blue; Lucemon’s eyes flickered back to him for a moment, but it quickly returned them to Pop. “But his fight is with this entire world. If they are part of it, then they are his enemies, and if they are his enemies, then they are mine as well.”
“They need to stop fucking chitchatting,” Damien grumbled, quietly enough that only Moxie would hear it, but she shot him her strongest death glare anyway. He rolled his eyes, turning to look at Bumble as he steadily approached the angel.
Lucemon, too, was aware of this. “
This, it seemed, was what Lucemon had wanted. As the officers began to fire again, it turned back to Pop and surged forward, gripping her by the neck and driving her into the ground. She cried out, beating her wings to try to shove it off, and though it hopped backward and away from her, it was entirely of its own accord - evident enough by the way it then held its arms down at her, a glowing circle beginning to form on the ground. “
The spell circle flashed, and Pop screamed, curling up as the attack sank into her skin. Next to Damien, Moxie inhaled sharply, and he glanced over at her as she pressed a hand to her chest. She looked ready to faint, her eyes wide and fingers held almost like claws, as if she could sink them into her skin and wrap them around her heart.
This sharing pain thing really sucked.
But - much to his dismay - Moxie ignored Damien’s attempt to reassure her (which was really just him placing a hand on her shoulder and hoping that would do something), instead pushing herself up and rushing out into the street. Damien watched her go for a few seconds, too stunned to act, before he grit his teeth and got up to follow, praying that the officers wouldn’t perceive them as a threat and fire on them, because they were very vulnerable humans, not giant monsters from another world that could (mostly) shake bullets off as if they were minor inconveniences.
“Don’t you fucking dare shoot at her!” he shouted as he got closer to the police. Moxie didn’t pay them any attention, and even as Lucemon turned toward them when it heard them approach, its pupils instantly constricting in fury and a thirst for violence, she ran right past it toward Pop, still laying crumpled on the ground with her wings askew.
To his surprise, but complete relief, they didn’t shoot. In fact, the foremost officer turned to his subordinates and raised a hand in the air. “Hold your fire!” he announced, then turned to Damien, who came to a stop next to them, away from Moxie.
Lucemon lifted into the air with a flap of its wings, the center of its palms beginning to glow.
“
Ah, there was the cavalry. Bumble slashed out at Lucemon, driving it away from Damien and Moxie and the officers, further down the street towards the half ruined buildings. As Lucemon prepared to counter and Bumble worked to put himself between it and the others, and Moxie helped Pop sit up, the lead officer finally spoke to Damien.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said, and Damien clenched his fist to keep himself from rolling his eyes. “This is practically a warzone, kid. Where’s your parents?”
“I’m twenty,” Damien lied, then nodded at Moxie. “So’s she. We’d appreciate if you could stop shooting at our - at the bee and the bird woman.”
Damien knew he shouldn’t talk to cops. That was the one thing his parents had always drilled into his and Moxie’s head, time and again, sometimes coming from completely out of the blue: don’t talk to the police. He knew they weren’t on his side, not really, even if they were also trying to stop Lucemon (though they weren’t doing a very stellar job at it). They weren’t his friends. They didn’t want to help him.
But he had to tell them to stop fucking shooting at Bumble and Pop, right?
“We know what we’re doing,” the officer said, and Damien only barely bit back a laugh. “These things are dangerous. Even if we’re only a distraction to them, we’re wearing them down enough for them to hopefully finish each other off soon.”
Damien grit his teeth. “You know that those two -” he pointed down at Pop and then over at Bumble in turn “- are trying to protect you, right? Did you not see any of that? Have you not heard what they’ve been saying?”
The officer scoffed and shook his head. “If they really wanted to ‘protect us’, they wouldn’t be here in the first place.”
“They don’t really have a choice in the matter,” Damien spat. Neither our partners nor the other Digimon that have been coming through. “It would do you a lot of good to listen to what they’ve been saying and maybe get it through your thick - …realize that they’re fighting against the angel just like you are.”
“That thing’s no angel,” one of the other officers said, and this time Damien did roll his eyes. Yeah, no fucking shit, but calling it Lucemon would make you think I’m some sort of Satanist, and then you’d really shoot me. The officer looked over at Damien, then at their superior. “I can take these two away if you’d like me to.”
“They’re not going anywhere,” came Pop’s voice, and Damien’s head snapped toward her. She’d managed to stand up and was leaning on Moxie for support, despite their height difference making it a little silly-looking. Though her eyes were hidden, she was clearly glaring at the lead officer, even as she straightened herself up and folded her wings. Freyja, who had been incapacitated with Pop the entire time - it seemed they shared energy - cocked its head at the officers from its position on her shoulder.
Moxie glanced up at Pop, who nodded at her and then faced the officer again. “They’re our partners. If they go, then we go. And if we go, you’re left to face that angel on your own.” She lifted her head, looking out over the scattered policemen, and her mouth twisted into a frown. “You’ve already suffered one casualty. How many more can you sustain until you’re satisfied?”
“You don’t belong here,” the lead officer said, glaring up at her. “Whatever you are, wherever you’re from, whatever you want to do here, you’re not wanted. You’re doing more harm than good by even being here in the first place.”
“Maybe so,” Pop said, keeping her voice even. “But we’re also the only shot at taking down that angel.” She didn’t say anything about why they were really in this world, or that they were also their only shot at taking down any other Digimon that would emerge in the future; Damien knew she didn’t want to give that away, or complicate matters any further. “So unless you’d like to face it on your own, we’re going to stay, and we’re going to fight.”
She didn’t say anything else before she turned on her heel and began to run, heading to where Lucemon and Bumble were fighting further down the street. Moxie watched her go for a moment, then sighed and looked to Damien, despair wallowing in her gaze.
He felt very much the same.
“You also shouldn’t be here,” the officer said then, looking from Moxie to Damien. Damien wanted to scream. “I don’t care what your connection to those things is. Like I said, this is a warzone. You’re going to get yourselves killed.”
And you aren’t? Damien clenched his jaw and looked out at where Bumble and Pop hovered in the air, each pointing their swords down at Lucemon as they prepared their attacks. God, maybe mom and dad were right. I shouldn’t have fucking said anything. These people are useless.
“You’re injured,” one of the other officers said then, nodding at Moxie with furrowed brows. “Which one of them did that to you?”
Damien resisted the urge to ask her why the fuck she would assume it was one of the Digimon that had done it, much less one of their partners, but he held his tongue. Moxie blinked as she turned to the questioning officer, then glanced down at her side, visibly resisting a wince.
“The angel,” she lied. Clearly, she didn’t want to go into detail about the other two Digimon they’d fought earlier, which Damien understood. “Like we said. Our partners are trying to protect us. They wouldn’t hurt us.”
The officer rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You should get that checked out.” She waved a hand around dismissively, before she turned back around to speak in hushed tones to one of her companions.
“…Thanks,” Moxie said dryly to her back, frowning. A sarcastic quip of I hadn’t considered that or something similar went unsaid, but Damien could tell from the look in her eyes that she very badly wanted to say it. Thought better of it, thankfully, because they didn’t want to add “personally offended cop” to their list of enemies for the day.
Damien bit his lip as he turned back to face the battling Digimon, ignoring the cops while they conferred amongst themselves for the moment. Bumble and Pop had managed to drive Lucemon further back down the street, away from the humans - away from us - but Lucemon was still soundly kicking their asses, evidenced by the shocks of pain that shot up all over Damien and Moxie’s bodies whenever it landed a hit. Their partners were doing the best they could, and their best was pretty good, but Lucemon wasn’t showing any signs of stopping soon.
Which was bad. Very bad.
We can’t even call Quinn, he realized, his gaze flitting between the Digimon and the still-quiet officers. If another monster and human show up to join the fight, the cops are going to go insane. Not to mention that the others dealing with Demon Lords might need the help more -
“Open fire!” the lead officer shouted again, and as the rest of the officers began to rain bullets upon the Digimon, Damien felt something within him snap.
“Are you fucking stupid?” he yelled, gesturing wildly at his partner and managing to not flinch as the bullets struck Bumble and echoed their pain throughout his body. “How many times do we have to tell you not to shoot at our partners!”
“That’s enough out of you,” the lead officer growled, turning deathly eyes upon Damien. “We know what we’re doing. You need to leave before we make you leave.”
Damien’s jaw dropped, and he bit back a laugh. “Are you threatening us?”
“Damien, don’t,” Moxie warned, coming to stand next to him. Her eyes were wide with despair and panic, and if Damien hadn’t known her so well, he wouldn’t have been able to recognize the slight quiver in her voice. He closed his eyes and pinched his forehead, turning away from the officers before he lost his last remaining shreds of self-control.
He was at his wit’s end.
The gunshots started to die down, and along with them, the pounding in Damien’s head. Slowly, he cracked one eye open, then the other. The officers had stopped to reload; Bumble and Pop had Lucemon cornered further down the street, the three locked in a standoff as they recovered from their previous attacks.
For a moment, Damien could have sworn Lucemon caught his eye and smiled.
Fuck it.
He had to do something, right? At least, that’s what he told himself as he darted out from behind the police barricade and booked it toward the Digimon, ignoring the shouts from the officers behind him telling him to come back. He was praying to gods he didn’t even believe in that they’d hold their fire and not shoot now that there was a human in the way, but knowing how they usually operated, he wasn’t very optimistic.
This is so fucking stupid.
He heard footsteps behind him as he ran, but he recognized them. That was the only thing that kept him from turning around and decking whoever it was in the face, because if they hadn’t been Moxie’s, they would’ve been one of the cops. Even so, he still felt the urge - she wouldn’t have ran if he hadn’t, and if they got shot or hurt, it would be -
He shook the thought away, instead focusing on the Digimon as he got ever closer to them. Pop struck out with her sword while Bumble shot bullets from his own blades; Lucemon drifted backward, trying to get out of range, but Pop’s attack caught one of its wings and Bumble’s needles hit it straight in the chest. It hissed, stumbling and dropping into a kneel for a split second, just as Damien and Moxie arrived. As if motivated by their appearance, it pushed itself back up and flared its wings out, but the movement was janky, almost sluggish.
Are they finally winning…?
“As if calling for backup wasn’t enough,” it snarled, glaring down at Moxie and Damien, “you’ve dared to show your faces to me again. Not confident in your partners’ abilities? Or is it that you really do want to die?”
“The fuck are you talking about,” Damien muttered, only half willing to amuse Lucemon. “We didn’t call for backup. Because those assholes -” he jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the cops, far behind him “- would have shot them.”
“They’re who I’m talking about,” Lucemon snapped, its wings shaking. “Your partners couldn’t handle me on their own, so you called other humans to do your dirty work for you. They don’t even have partners of their own. You’ve doomed them to their deaths all because you can’t accept your own defeat.”
“We didn’t call the police,” Moxie said, taking a brave step forward. “We don’t want them here any more than you do. They’re making our lives more difficult, too.”
“They showed up because there’s monsters wrecking the city,” Damien affirmed. He noticed Bumble inching closer to Lucemon, but said nothing, instead simply looked back up at the angel. “And it’s their job to take care of that. Not like they’re really able to do anything, they probably just wanted an excuse to shoot something, but -”
“There’s other ‘monsters’ wrecking the city in other places,” Lucemon cut in, and Damien bit his lip. “So why aren’t they there, hmm? Why do they think I’m so important? Just admit you’ve lost and make this easy for all of us.”
“We’re done with you,” Damien said, grabbing Moxie’s hand and darting to the side just as Bumble struck out at Lucemon.
“
“
The tornado knocked Lucemon off balance and directly into range of Bumble’s attack; he slashed his blades across its abdomen, shoving it down onto the pavement with a crack. Damien and Moxie stopped a short distance away, putting a garbage can and streetlamp between them and the Digimon, and then turned to face each other.
“If Lucemon is telling the truth,” Moxie said, her voice a rush, “and there really are other Digimon throughout the city, then -”
“There probably are cops dealing with them,” Damien finished, his heart sinking as he realized the meaning of his words. “Shit. Miguel and Flip, and Ezra and Anna and their partners, and who fucking knows how many of the others are out and about -”
“I have to go ask,” Moxie said, inclining her head toward the cops. Damien felt his face fall, his expression growing impossibly darker than it already was, and Moxie turned pleading eyes upon him. “I know. Trust me, I know. But they’re the only ones who would know anything.”
“You could call -”
“If they’re in the middle of a fight,” Moxie cut in, “and there are police there with them, calling them would only serve as a distraction.” She paused, swallowing harshly and looking down at her digivice clutched in her hand, refusing to meet Damien’s gaze. “I’ll be fine. Just… keep an eye on these guys. I’ll be back soon.”
She didn’t look back at him even as she turned on her heel and ran back towards the officers, raising one hand - the one not holding her digivice - halfway into the air in surrender. Damien watched her go for a few seconds, his heart hammering in his chest, mind racing as it prepared for the possibility of the cops deciding they didn’t care about her and opening fire anyway, and then he squeezed his eyes shut and turned back toward the battling Digimon.
And - finally - it seemed as if Lucemon was faltering.
“
“
Bumble swiped his swords through the air, each one cutting across Lucemon’s body and forming a glowing X for a moment. Lucemon stumbled backward, one of its knees buckling, and it dropped into a kneel, clutching its chest as it stared down at the ground.
Bumble and Pop each took slow, careful steps forward, preparing for Lucemon to spring up and attack again. It didn’t. The wasp and valkyrie exchanged a single glance, then gripped their swords tighter.
In a faint flash of light, the tips of Lucemon’s wings began to pixelate.
Oh, thank fucking god.
“It doesn’t matter if you defeat me,” it said, voice hauntingly soft, still looking downward. “Whether I win, or you win, it doesn’t matter. None of it ever mattered.”
With a smile, it glanced up at Pop and Bumble, then over at Damien.
“You don’t stand any chance against him now.”
It said nothing more, simply lowered its head once again as the glitching of its wings grew fiercer. Damien clenched his fist, steeling himself as Pop and Bumble readied their attacks - the final blows.
“
“
The arrow and energy beams hit at point-blank range, with an explosion of blue and gold light and a force nearly rivaling Lucemon’s own attacks. When the light and dust settled, and Damien’s ears had stopped ringing and hands had stopped shaking, Lucemon was already dissolving into pixels.
For a moment, after it faded away, its red Code Key hung in the air, glowing just faintly; then, it too was gone, as if it had never been there at all.
Pop and Bumble devolved almost instantly, consumed in their own swirling pink and yellow light. They fell to the ground unceremoniously, Pop’s wings splayed out and Bumble’s legs tucked close to his body. Damien didn’t even think before rushing to their side and picking them up, draping Pop over his shoulder and using both arms to hold Bumble.
He should be feeling something. Right? They’d just defeated a Demon Lord. The very same Digimon that had, months ago, stared him dead in the eye and told him he shouldn’t be there, that he didn’t have any part of this. He should be feeling pride, or victory, or even something as simple as relief.
Instead, he was just… numb.
…It probably didn’t help that he was holding two very heavy and very exhausted Digimon, standing in the middle of a ruined street, with dozens of cops behind him, and his sister -
“Damien! We need to go!”
Startled, Damien whipped around, tightening his hold on Bumble, to see Moxie running toward him, eyes wide and Digivice clenched so tight in her hand her knuckles were almost white. She shot past him so quickly he spun around on his heel, and then lurched forward, being pulled along by her grasp on his wrist. He didn’t bother arguing, just ran with her, doing the best he could with both of their partners in his grip.
They went back the way they’d originally come, when Pop had carried them in her own arms, trying to flee Lucemon - they dodged fallen debris and rubble, paying no attention to the indistinguishable shouts of the officers behind them. They ran until they couldn’t feel their feet anymore, until Damien couldn’t even sense the weight of the Digimon he held, until the yelling and sirens and still crumbling buildings had all faded into background noise. They didn’t stop even then, simply switched to walking and sticking to the shadows, avoiding the few passerby they came across. They just had to get away. They couldn't stop. Not until they were safe.
Only once they turned a corner and found a parking garage did they come to a halt, climbing past the barricade and sitting up against one of the many empty walls. They were out of view of anyone who would be walking past outside, and the only cars within the building were parked far enough away that, if their owners were to return, it would be too difficult to spot the four of them in the dim light.
Damien set the Digimon down, handing Pop over to Moxie and letting Bumble curl up in between his legs. They were exhausted; clearly, the fight and their evolutions had taken more out of them than Damien had initially expected. He leaned his head back, bouncing it against the wall once, and then closed his eyes.
The four sat in silence for a while, listening to the sparse noises of the street behind them and each others’ breathing, trying to regain their composure. They didn’t speak. What even was there to say? They’d won, but was it really a victory after everything that had happened?
“That was some quick thinking,” Damien said, still not opening his eyes, but he didn’t have to to know Moxie was staring at him quizzically - it was obvious from the silence she responded with. “Before they evolved. Buying them some time by pretending to sacrifice ourselves. I wouldn’t have thought of that.” Because the only thing that had been going through my head was that Bumble was going to die and I couldn’t help him.
He’d caught on easily enough, playing along with it to let Pop and Bumble reorient themselves and figure out a plan of their own, but he couldn’t say it would have been his first idea. Or his second. It probably wasn’t even in his top ten, honestly.
Moxie was quiet for a few more seconds. Damien’s eyes finally blinked open as he looked over at her, only to see she was staring down at Pop, in her lap, playing gently with the feather on her headband. Damien tilted his head, but said nothing, simply observed her, the way she refused to meet his gaze or answer his compliment.
“…Yeah,” she said eventually. “No big deal.”
Then she winced, her nose wrinkling and eyes squeezing shut. Damien frowned. “What’s up?”
“Um,” she said, still not looking up at him. She bit her lip and curled one hand into a fist, then relaxed it, pressing it gingerly against the charred left side of her shirt. “…This still hurts. A lot. And I still have… a really bad headache…” She cut herself off with a groan, leaning forward to rest her forehead on Pop’s back.
Damien’s blood ran cold - in all the chaos that had occurred, he’d nearly forgotten Moxie had been literally blown up by a bomb. What the fuck kind of asshole brother am I? “Why didn't you say anything earlier,” he said, because he couldn’t bear to say anything else.
With her head still pressed against her partner, Moxie managed a weak smile. “We sorta had… other things to focus on, didn’t we?”
“You could’ve said something,” Damien shot back, ignoring the way his heart rate was speeding back up. He placed his head in his hands, trying hard to calm his breathing. “Fuck. Okay. We gotta go back to the motel. I know we can’t go to a hospital or anything but someone there’s gonna know some way to -”
“We can’t,” Moxie said softly.
Damien tensed, on the verge of losing his shit. “Fuck you mean we can’t, you’ve literally been hit by a bomb, we need -”
“We can’t go back, not yet -”
“You need to take care of yourself!”
“The cops,” Moxie cut in, her voice as forceful as it could be in her current state. She lifted her head, fixing Damien with her hardest pleading gaze. “There are others. Other Digimon fights… other police. Across town. They said… giant bear thing, and an orange lion, and a rabbit woman. They’re… not doing well.”
Fuck.
That had to be Ember and Bunny - and whatever they were fighting was clearly a Demon Lord if it meant the cops had to get involved, no matter which side “wasn’t doing well”. It was most likely that it was Ember and Bunny that weren’t, so they should probably go help, but -
“Can you even make it that far?” he asked. Moxie just shut her eyes and curled her fingers around Pop’s body, not giving a clear answer; in response, her partner shuffled slightly, then pulled herself up into a sitting position. Bumble reacted in kind, stretching himself out gently and then looking over at Pop.
“We can evolve,” Pop said, glancing up at her own partner and then Damien. “We’ll carry you there, and we’ll try to help. I don’t…” She trailed off as she stared down at her claws, then clenched them into fists and closed her eyes. “I don’t know how much help we’ll be able to give, but we have to try. Even if all we can do is protect Ezra and Anna…”
“If it’s what we have to do,” Bumble said, dipping his head, “then we’ll do it.” Pop nodded, then shook herself out and hopped backward, and Bumble was quick to follow. Damien frowned again, unsure of the situation, but he didn’t really have any say in it. With a flash of yellow and pink light, they stood in their champion forms, and slowly, carefully, Damien and Moxie headed to Pop’s side to climb on.
“Probably should have done this after we left the garage,” Damien muttered as Pop and Bumble started forward, struggling to maneuver around the entrance gate, but his comment went unacknowledged. After a bit of finagling, they were out, and they took to the skies, with Damien giving directions from his digivice.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” Moxie said from behind Damien, her voice muffled. She tightened her grasp on his sweater, her fingers trembling just slightly. “I’m…”
“It’s okay,” Damien said. “I was being a dick too. All in the past.”
“But…”
“I said it’s okay,” he echoed, softer this time. “We can talk later if you want to. Save your breath.”
Moxie didn’t reply, simply dug her fingers deeper into his sweater. Damien held back a sigh, then looked down at his digivice, at the yellow and pink dots inching ever closer to the orange and two white. Belphemon, one of the white dots said - presumably the Digimon they were fighting. The others pulled up information on Ezra and Anna’s digivices, complete with little pixel icons of their partners. Bunny seemed to be in her Crescemon form, but Ember… Well, Damien had never really paid attention to anyone else’s sprites, but it didn’t really look like Flaremon. Had he evolved to mega? Why hasn’t Bunny?
“I see something ahead,” Bumble called out, and Damien lifted his head to look at where he was pointing. Sure enough, in the distance, but not far enough away, a giant hulking monster was visible just over the line of buildings, smoke and black flames emanating from its body. Something smaller than it, but still large in its own right, flew around it, a blur of orange and red and black.
That’s got to be Ember.
“Let’s go,” Damien said, and Pop and Bumble nodded as they picked up the pace and altered course toward it.
He realized, then, that he could hear something - something further away than the beating of Pop and Bumble’s wings. Up until now, his hearing had been shot out by the gunfire and the Digimon’s attacks and everything, and only now was it starting to come back… and he could hear distant roaring and crashing, as well as sirens, as they drew closer to the fight.
Great, he thought to himself, tone dismal even in his head, we’re going to have to talk to the cops again. Just what I wanted.
“Duck!”
Pop pulled her wings into her body and dove down so fast Damien was almost thrown from her back, only managing to keep his hold by clutching onto the pink feathers that sprouted from the ruff of her neck. Moxie didn’t react much, simply wrapped her arms further around Damien’s midriff.
Something hot and oppressive shot over their heads - Damien glanced up and saw a blast of fire, black like the flames that had encircled the big Digimon’s body, lash out in a wide radius. Pop landed on the ground a moment later, her talons nearly cracking the pavement; Damien and Moxie were quick to dismount, and a moment later, she took off again, heading toward the Digimon further down the street with Bumble not far behind.
Damien took a second to get his bearings, keeping a hand on Moxie’s back as they tried to figure out where they were. The giant Digimon - Belphemon, presumably - had left a trail of destruction in its wake; even the ground Damien stood on was torn and buckled, with cars and signposts and street lamps alike all having been trampled as it headed down the road. Buildings were crumbling and burning, glass and brick and clay spilling into the street and turning the area into even more of a disaster zone than it already was. Currently, Belphemon was locked in a standoff with Ember - who, yes, had very clearly evolved to mega - and Bunny, still in her ultimate form, flightlessly confined to the ground while Ember got more up close and personal with it.
And as if things couldn't get any better (read: worse), there were more fucking cops up and down the street. Great.
But most importantly, if Damien squinted, he could just barely see two human figures crouched behind an overturned car further down the street. Ezra and Anna, probably, and even if not, they still had to go see who it was so they could potentially escort them out of the area.
So that was the direction Damien started in, pulling Moxie along with him, trying to stay out of sight of the cops and the Digimon and anyone else who may have been watching. Pop and Bumble had already reached Belphemon and were flying around his head in an attempt to distract him, so that Ember had the time to fire up a more powerful attack.
“
Damien and Moxie practically skidded to a halt next to Ezra and Anna, ducking down to kneel next to them and hopefully avoid being spotted. Ezra looked over at them with wide, panicked eyes, while Anna peeked out from behind him.
“Hey,” Damien said, trying really hard to remain calm about this entire situation.
Ezra blinked a couple times. “Hey,” he said in turn, clearly also trying to stay calm. “Uh. Good to see you?”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that question mark,” Damien said, flinching when he heard a loud crash from somewhere up ahead, but not daring to try to see what it was. “Heard you needed some backup. Though it looks like Ember’s doing alright.”
“He’s not,” Anna said, and Ezra’s jaw dropped as he glared at her incredulously. “It’s true. I know he evolved but he’s still getting his ass kicked.”
“Don’t swear like that,” Ezra said, still frowning. “And he’s doing fine. Better than -” He cut himself off with an audible snap and averted his gaze; whatever he had wanted to say, he obviously thought better of it. He glanced back up at Damien. “…Thanks anyways. We probably could use the help. This thing is huge.”
“Yeah, we saw,” Damien mumbled. “Don’t know how much help we’ll be, but can’t say we didn’t try.”
He filled the two in on what had happened with Lucemon, everything from when it had showed up to Bumble and Pop’s evolutions to fleeing the cops. He elected to leave out everything about Zanmetsumon and his fight with Moxie, figuring it wasn’t really relevant (and also it was super embarrassing), but he told them about Bombermon and why Moxie was injured so severely. For her part, she pitched in when necessary, but remained mostly quiet; Damien told her she was free to head back to the motel if she needed, but she’d simply shaken her head and pointedly avoided looking out at the Digimon. In return, Ezra and Anna shared what had been going on with Belphemon - that it was Astamon, that it had turned another Digimon manic with a Code Key, that it had leveled the street as it had walked - and where things were currently at.
Nowhere good, that was where.
“
Pop and Bumble weren’t doing a whole lot of damage to Belphemon, either. They hadn’t evolved further, instead remaining in their champion forms - whether it was because they couldn’t evolve or simply didn’t want to make themselves easier targets was hard to tell, but Damien was betting on the former. They were serving mostly as distractions, keeping Belphemon’s attention away from Ember and Bunny, who were both able to deal slightly heavier hits, though even they were struggling to have any real effect. At the very least, Belphemon was having a hard time focusing on four separate, moving targets.
…But being unable to focus on a single target meant that it was lashing out at everything around it - the Digimon, the buildings, the street, the few officers who were dumb enough to be within range of its attacks, everything. The damage Belphemon had already done had only been the beginning, it seemed; the street was almost unrecognizable as such at this point, covered in rubble and half-destroyed buildings and torn up cars. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any civilians nearby - had they been evacuated by the police, or…?
Damien shook his head.
Even with a mega level on their side, they were still no match for Belphemon. It was destructively powerful; if it was able to reduce an entire city street to nothing but brick and dust just by moving, how the hell were they supposed to defeat it?
“Is Bunny going to be able to evolve,” Damien said, thinking more to himself than anyone else, but Anna heard him anyway.
“Can you guys please stop asking me that,” she groaned, putting her head in her hands. “I don’t know. I’m not in control of her.”
“Evolution goes both ways,” Damien said as he glanced over at her. “Run out and put yourself in danger and she’ll probably -”
“Are you being for real right now?” Ezra snapped. “What the fuck kind of suggestion is that? She’d get herself killed!”
Damien held his hands up defensively, feeling his mood sour instantly. “I wasn’t being serious, obviously, I’m just saying -”
“And I’m saying this isn’t the fucking time for that, you’re being a dick for no reason while we’re in the middle of a fight with a Digimon we can’t win against -”
“It’s not really our fight, though, is it?” Damien said, sweeping an arm out to gesture at their partners. “It’s theirs. Which brings me back to my original point, which is that they can’t fucking win this if one of them doesn’t evolve, and even then, things aren’t looking good.”
“Can you cool it with the nihilism,” Moxie murmured, and Damien shut his mouth, only because it was her who was asking.
Ezra still wasn’t happy with him, though. “I’m not trying to be hopelessly optimistic,” he said, “but we don’t really have any other options. Bunny can’t evolve. Your partners are probably still too tired to even get up to ultimate. If we call anyone else in, Belphemon’s just going to kick their asses, too, or they’ll get shot by the police.”
“So, what,” Damien said, leaning back slightly. “We just sit around and do nothing? Hope that Belphemon gets tired and gives up? If it’s like literally any of the other Demon Lords, it’s going to keep fighting until it’s dead, which it won’t be if nobody else evolves -”
“Just give him some time!” Ezra yelled. “He’s fine, he can do this! They can win! Just be patient!”
“We don’t have time!” Damien pushed himself up, not even caring that he was no longer covered by the car. “Look around you! Everything’s gone to shit because you’ve let this drag on too long! You have to do something!”
He didn’t want to admit that hearing Ezra tell him to be patient, so soon after that hollow voice in his head had, had flipped a switch in him. Nobody got to tell him to be patient. Not after he’d waited five fucking years for all of this. Not when they were one wrong move away from failure.
Not when they were so close to dying.
“
The roar drew Damien’s attention away from his argument, and he looked over at Belphemon to see it rearing back and slashing its claws through the air. They released dark blades of energy, soaring through the air, aimed directly at their targets.
Bumble and Pop.
When the attack hit, it exploded in a flash of black light, and then yellow and pink.
The next thing he knew, Damien was sprinting forward, ignoring the yells from his companions as he darted toward his partners. They were falling. They’d devolved; the attack had sapped all of their remaining energy. It was a miracle they weren’t dissolving into pixels.
Damien cursed himself. I shouldn’t have let them evolve when they were already so tired. We shouldn’t have come here. They don’t even want our help. We should have turned and left and gone back to the motel, where we’d be safe -
He didn’t catch them.
They slammed into the ground with the force of an earthquake, and only by sheer willpower was Damien able to keep standing and running. He didn’t even wait for the dust to settle as he reached their sides before leaning down and picking them up, once more draping Pop over his shoulder and cradling Bumble in his arms.
He just picked a direction and ran. All he knew was that he was heading away from Belphemon, away from the cloud of smoke and black fire that encircled it - he didn’t know if he was running toward the others, or back the way he’d come, or right into a line of police officers. He just ran. His feet hurt so much, but he ran. He didn’t stop. He couldn’t.
Until the road was torn apart in front of him.
Damien came to a halt so quickly he fell on his ass. The heat and smoke from the black flames that flared up from the road washed over him, but he didn’t even feel it. He clenched his fists and pushed himself up, still holding onto Bumble and Pop.
He turned around to see Belphemon, fifty feet away and drawing closer, staring him down.
He didn’t move. All his momentum had been drained out of him, all his adrenaline and fear. For the second time that evening, all he felt was numb. Empty. Endless, pitch nothingness.
He met Belphemon’s eye and made no move to run.
Somewhere behind him, or maybe off to the side, he heard a voice; maybe it was Ezra or Moxie yelling at him. He couldn’t make out what they were saying. It probably didn’t really matter. All that mattered was where he stood at that moment, staring down the monster that would be his death.
He closed his eyes.
“
This is it, he said to himself, this is how I die. Because I’m too much of a fucking idiot to even think about running. I have my partners in my arms and I can’t even save them.
Everything I’ve done wrong today that’s led me to this moment, to this point in time and space… fuck it all. It’s all my fault. This is what I get in return, I guess.
I just hope this doesn’t hurt.
It didn’t.
The attack never came. Something grabbed Damien, pulling him close and then away, out of range of the attack, and he tumbled to the side, skidding across the pavement for a few feet. Then, it was silent and still, save for the crackling of nearby flames and a roar from Belphemon.
As the fire and smoke died down, Damien cracked an eye open to see Bunny, a few yards away; it seemed as if her grip on him had faltered as she’d been caught by the edge of Belphemon’s attack, and he had slid further away from her. He was just behind a pile of torn asphalt on the road, but she was out in the open, tucked into a kneel.
Damien sat up straighter and pulled Pop and Bumble close, chancing a quick look down at them; they were unconscious, ash littering their body, but breathing steadily. Once again, he thought he heard someone shout something, but it was quickly drowned out.
“
Damien pushed himself to his feet, starting toward Bunny, still crouched on the ground as she recovered from the previous attack. He didn’t get far before something flashed in the corner of his vision, and he turned toward it to see Anna, running in and reaching out toward Bunny, her eyes wide and filled with tears.
In her hand, her digivice began to shine.
She reached Bunny just as the blades of darkness hit, and Damien’s vision was flooded with smoke and black flames and a searing white light.