EPISODE 42 - TO THE MOON AND BACK
Anna didn’t know why she’d run forward.
It was impulse, for sure, but she’d acted on a lot of impulses in her life, and none of them had been this bad. The only thing that had been going through her head was that Bunny was in danger, and she had to do something to save her, even though there wasn’t really anything she could do.
So she ran. She ran to her partner, ignoring Ezra and Moxie and Mabel all yelling at her to keep back, to stay out of the way, to not head directly into the line of fire, to not run. She didn’t even really notice she was running, at first; all she knew was that she had to get to Bunny. To her partner.
She only realized what she’d done when the attack hit.
The dark energy exploded in a burst of black smoke and flames, coating Anna’s vision until the only thing she could see was her own hands. Something sent her flying, crashing and tumbling to the ground, thrown by the force of the attack detonating.
Even then, it still didn’t feel real.
She coughed, pushing herself up onto her elbows. Her digivice was burning a hole in her palms, shining almost like a star within her hand, and all she did was clutch it tighter as she got her bearings, as she tried to figure out what had just happened and what she’d just done. She blinked, looking around slowly and wearily, and her eyes landed on Bunny.
Bunny, crouched over her, putting herself between Belphemon and Anna, her shield held up as if it could prevent any other attack Belphemon might launch. Her teeth were grit, determination etched onto her face as she stared Belphemon down, almost taunting him.
Anna coughed again, even as the smoke and flames began to die down. Bunny’s head snapped toward her, her eyes softening instantly, asking a silent question - are you alright? Anna nodded, and Bunny smiled, just faintly enough that nobody else except for Anna would be able to see it.
She was still standing. Despite it all, despite everything, she was still standing and still smiling.
Anna smiled back.
“Final evolution pending. Do you want to proceed?”
Down the street, Belphemon growled, the earth rumbling from the sheer force of it. He lifted a paw, preparing to strike, to attack again.
She wouldn’t give him that chance.
“Yes,” Anna whispered, closing her eyes. She knew what was coming next. She knew what was about to happen.
“Final evolution engaged. Please do not turn off the digivice while evolution is in progress.”
“Here we go,” Mabel said to her. “This is it.”
“This is it,” Anna replied, as the glow and heat from her digivice died down and Belphemon’s roar shook the air. This is it.
Show joy.
Anna opened her eyes.
For a moment, she wondered if something had gone wrong, and Bunny hadn’t actually evolved. Had she fallen asleep? Was she dreaming? She came here in her dreams often. She never wanted to. She would jolt awake, shivering from chills and fear alike, whenever she ended up here.
But it wasn’t that place. It was just hauntingly familiar to the void that encapsulated her mind, the one she saw whenever she opened the front door of the home in her head, the one Mabel would disappear into for hours at a time. There was nothing around, just white space and an endless horizon.
And her partner.
Anna knelt down next to Bunny, picking up the tiny ball of white fur and inky black eyes and holding her tight against her chest for a few seconds. When she lowered her hands, she closed her eyes, a brief dark reprieve from the almost blinding light that made up this place.
When she opened them again, she smiled.
“I’m really happy this happened.”
Bunny glanced up at her, the little nubs that served as her ears twitching slightly. “What happened?”
Anna exhaled slowly. “That I answered that text message, even though I wasn’t supposed to. That I met you, even though I didn’t know where I was. That I came along with the others, even though Ezra didn’t want me to. I know why he didn’t want it. But I’m glad I did it anyway.” She paused, her fingers curling inward to run through Bunny’s fur. “It’s all been worth it. All of it. Even the scary parts.”
When Jokermon had told her that she would kill Bunny when she went back home. When Mephistomon had held Ezra in their claws like a prisoner. When Plutomon had stared her down in the middle of File City, as if he could see everything inside of her. When Belphemon had attacked Bunny.
All of it.
“I’m happy too,” Bunny said then, and Anna glanced down. Bunny nestled deeper into her palms. “I really am glad that I’ve come along with you. I know I don’t really… show it a lot. I’m sorry. I want to.”
“It’s okay,” Anna said. “It’s alright that you don’t. I’m just happy that you feel it.”
She couldn’t hear Mabel’s voice here. When she tried to look inward, to see if she was simply remaining quiet, or sitting at her desk, she found that she couldn’t see any of it. Her mind was blank - pitch black, as if to contrast the white void she was currently sitting in.
It was… oddly discomforting. She hadn’t thought she would ever feel that way about not being able to find Mabel or examine her headspace. So many times over the past six years had she wished that she had never found that home in her head, that Mabel didn’t exist, that she had a normal mind - and now that she did, all she wanted was to go back to the way things usually were for her.
She was so used to hearing Mabel that, now that she couldn’t, she just felt… alone.
She knew she wasn’t. Wherever she was, it was just doing something with her mind; Mabel was still in there, no doubt waiting for her to return, so she could berate her and call her an idiot for running directly into the line of fire. Even aside from that, she had Bunny, right there in her hands.
But when she was so used to having a second voice, a second person, living in her head…
She didn’t dwell on it.
“Is there anything you regret?” Anna asked Bunny, looking down at her once more. “About any of this?”
Bunny blinked one single time before she replied.
“No.”
The suddenness almost shocked Anna. She would’ve thought for sure Bunny would have felt a little regretful or guilty about something - about the night they’d first met, about the fight with Astamon, about something else Anna couldn’t think of. There was a lot to regret. Anna certainly did, and that was just within the past few months.
So hearing Bunny say she didn’t regret anything was… comforting, almost.
“This journey,” Bunny continued, ducking down, “has… taught me a lot. I’ve seen so much more of the Digital World than I ever imagined I would. I even came to your world. There’s… a lot of bad in the world, but I don’t think the world itself is bad. Either of them.”
“…Yeah,” Anna said, running a hand over Bunny’s head. “You’re right. I’ve had a lot of fun in the time we’ve been together. It’s… it’s been a really long time since I’ve done something for me. I’m glad I’ve been able to do this.”
“I am too,” Bunny said, and Anna smiled. “I’m glad that we did this. We’re… we’re going to be best friends forever, right?”
She looked up at Anna with a silent plea in her eyes, enough to almost break her. Anna pulled her up closer to her face and nuzzled her cheek against her body, and Bunny giggled.
“Forever,” Anna confirmed, nodding fiercely as she lowered Bunny again. “Plutomon doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We’ll always have each other.”
“Always,” Bunny echoed, voice a quiet whisper. “That’s good. That’s a really long time.”
“It is.”
Around them, the white light grew stronger, harsher, creeping toward them slowly. Anna took a deep breath in and closed her eyes, the glow almost too much for her to bear. She lifted Bunny to her chest again and held her close, just savoring the moment for as long as she could.
“I’m glad I met you,” she said, mere moments before the light consumed them, she knew. She had to say it. She needed Bunny to know - to know that Anna would always love her, and support her, and be there for her, no matter what.
No matter what happened, they would always have each other.
“
When Anna opened her eyes again, white light was still fading out of view; this time, though, at its kernel was a Digimon, rather than a place.
That Digimon was Bunny.
Even as the sounds around her rushed back into her ears, Anna could hear her digivice beep quietly, and she lifted it up to get a good look at it as it began to speak. “Dianamon. Mega level god man Digimon. Just as the moon has two sides, light and dark, its personality is of a two-sided nature, and its beauty conceals a terrifying power.”
Bunny lifted her chin at Belphemon, still growling where he stood further down the street, and gripped her scythe tighter.
She wasn’t much taller than she had been as Crescemon, maybe a couple inches or so. She’d become almost completely humanoid, losing the animalistic haunches and head in exchange for slimmer legs and a flatter face. White and lilac armor covered her body, accented with gold and darker purples, all of it moon themed; crescent-shaped spikes adorned her shoulders, while her boots had giant cleaved moons decorated with sleepy faces, much like the pendant she wore on her chest as Lunamon. Additionally, the gauntlets on her hands were almost shaped like little rabbit heads, each with two “ears” sprouting up and resting over her forearms.
She seemed to have a sort of skirt around her waist, pieces of white armor layered to look like ruffles. As if that wasn’t enough to drive home the magical girl aesthetic, two long yellow ribbons trailed from the scarf around her neck, each about twice the length of her body and flowing in the air like they had their own personal winds to keep them permanently in motion. Like her previous forms, six stretchy tendrils emerged from her back, one of the only spots on her body not covered in armor, gelatinous and spotted purple. They matched her eyes, gentle and lavender as always, as well as the single strand of “hair” that draped down over her masked face.
In her hand, she held her weapon - a double-sided scythe, the blades shaped like crescent moons and decorated with little sleepy faces of their own. It was this scythe that she pointed at Belphemon, both ends beginning to glow white as she glared up at the Demon Lord.
“Your end is nigh,” she said, voice loud and clear, carrying throughout the chaotic street as if it were an empty field. “
She wasn’t wasting any time, it seemed; the light on the blades grew brighter, and then she swept the scythe through the air, releasing two glowing crescent-shaped beams of energy sailing directly toward Belphemon. They hit their mark, one impacting him in the chest and the other the side of his face, and he roared and reared back.
Clearly, it was having much more of an effect than her ultimate form’s attacks had.
“
“Oh, now you get out of the way,” Mabel said, still trying to calm herself down. She’d tried to practically wrestle control away from Anna once she’d realized what their body had been doing, when Anna ran in toward Bunny, but Anna had been laser-focused, shoving her aside with barely a second glance, especially after what had happened earlier. Now, Mabel dusted herself off, frowning disapprovingly at Anna, even though it seemed a bit hesitant. Anna didn’t like the way it was making her feel. “That was a real dumb move back there. You’re human. Our body is human. We could’ve been killed.”
“I don’t care about your opinion right now,” Anna said, as kindly as she could manage. “She wasn’t going to move out of the way on her own. She did the same for Damien. Why aren’t you mad at her?”
“Because she won’t know I’m mad at her and it’ll be a huge waste of my energy,” Mabel shot back, sitting back down on the couch, “and also, she’s a Digimon, it’s her job to protect us. She’s at a much lesser risk of death if she gets hit by an attack. You know this.”
Anna rolled her eyes. “Maybe say that to Damien before you get on my case about it. He did it first.”
“He doesn’t even know I exist.”
“Good.”
“Now you’re just being rude.”
“
Belphemon unleashed his flames in a wide radius, staining the air black with smoke. Anna coughed and dove behind a chunk of asphalt as Bunny took the hit head-on, holding her scythe up to block some of the attack but otherwise remaining still. Anna winced as she felt the burning pain wash over her own body. She’d been aware of this, and expecting it, but it still wasn’t pleasant.
“
He did not move even as the moon flew closer to him. Only once it impacted his face and exploded in a dazzling display of light did he roar and rear back, swiping his claws through the air as if to dispel the illusion, even though it was already gone. When he calmed down, lowering his paws to the ground, he growled, his gaze flicking between Bunny, still hovering in the air, and Anna, not hidden nearly well enough behind her makeshift shield.
His eyes narrowed, and he opened his mouth.
“
From out of nowhere, Ember rushed in, striking out at one of Belphemon’s arms with several rapid, fiery punches. Belphemon roared again and shook him away, and he went flying through the air, crashing into a building and sliding down into a heap.
It was all the distraction that was needed, though. Anna heard footsteps echoing from behind her and turned to see Damien running toward her, still holding Bumble and Pop. When he came to a halt at her side, she took the bird from him, cradling her in her arms and doing a really good job at not letting on how heavy she really was.
“You good?” he asked, putting on an air of coolness, because even when the both of them had almost died, he still couldn’t afford giving up his tough guy persona. Anna nodded and he returned the gesture, then looked back over his shoulder, at where both their siblings were still standing behind the overturned car. “Let’s get back while we can. Follow me.”
He started off again, and Anna followed, casting one last glance back at Bunny, helping Ember up from where he’d fallen. When they reached the car, Anna handed Pop off to her partner, who took her carefully and with shining eyes. She avoided Ezra’s gaze, instead turning toward the scene of the fight again, her hands clenched into fists.
Ezra wasn’t satisfied with that. “That was a stupid thing to do,” he said, putting a hand on his hip; Mabel wasn’t able to hold back a smile, clearly amused by his own lecture he was giving about the situation, and Anna had to restrain herself from throwing a pillow at her. “You know better than that. I don’t care what you were thinking, you could’ve -”
“Ease up,” Damien cut in, and Anna blinked, kind of pleasantly surprised by his defense of her. “I did it first. Everything turned out okay in the end. Sounds like she took my advice to heart.” He smirked over at her, and she only barely held back a smile in return.
“You’re a terrible fucking influence on her,” Ezra said, anger and malice in his voice rather than the good-natured humor there usually was when he swore like that. “Doesn’t matter that everything turned out okay, what if it hadn’t? You of all people know not to -”
“I said ease up,” Damien snapped back, the smirk gone from his face in an instant. He hoisted Bumble higher up in his arms and glared at Ezra; if he’d had a free hand, Anna knew he absolutely would have pulled his shades down over his face. “This isn’t the time for this shit. Rip into her all you want later, just maybe not now, when we’re in the middle of an insanely dangerous and destructive battle.”
Ezra’s mouth shut with a click of his teeth, and he crossed his arms and looked away, muttering under his breath. Damien stared him down for a few more seconds, then sighed and looked over at Anna, but he remained silent.
“Ezra’s right, you know.”
“I don’t want to hear it from you,” Anna grumbled, and Mabel went quiet.
Out on the battlefield, Ember had gotten back onto his feet, and he and Bunny stared Belphemon down, floating in the air right next to each other. The chains around Belphemon’s body clinked as his claws dug deep grooves into the asphalt.
“Do you truly believe this will save you,” he growled, nostrils flaring. “That your evolutions are anything more than an inconvenience to me. That you can win.”
“Yes,” Bunny said, clear and confident, not a drop of hesitation in her tone. Next to her, Ember dipped his head in a nod, his wings flicking gently. “Even without these evolutions, we would have found a way. These forms serve only as proof of that.”
For a moment, Belphemon was silent - then, he rumbled a laugh, his eyelids lowering slightly. “The light of your courage is admirable,” he said scornfully. “Very well, then. Show me this newfound strength you pride yourself on.”
Neither Bunny nor Ember spoke, either in response to Belphemon or to each other, as they began to move. Slowly, they drifted apart, then rushed forward, flying down the street toward Belphemon, perfectly in tune with each other.
Then they stopped, coming to a halt next to each other. They glared up at Belphemon, their eyes filled with determination as Ember raised his fists toward Belphemon and the tendrils on Bunny’s back flexed and stretched out.
They cried out in tandem, their voices melding into each other, as the mantles on Ember’s hands and the ends of Bunny’s tendrils began to glow.
“
“
They fired simultaneously, dozens of icy cold and red hot arrows shooting toward Belphemon. Bunny unleashed her attack first, and it was quicker than Ember’s; the twinkling ice arrows, gleaming in the light of the moon, struck Belphemon’s chest, and the effect was instantaneous. Ice spread everywhere from the point of impact, much like Crescemon’s own Ice Archery usually did, but this was faster, more wild in its coverage of Belphemon’s collarbones and abdomen. It cracked and shone as it crept outward, and Belphemon roared, reaching a paw up to try to claw it off.
Then Ember’s arrows hit, directly where Bunny’s had only moments before. When they touched the ice, the fire flared up, beginning to burn white and spreading over the sheen of frost that coated nearly the entirety of Belphemon’s torso by this point. Belphemon roared again, louder than before, sounding almost pained. The glowing fire and shining ice exploded in a flash of white, and Belphemon was brought to the ground, supporting himself with one clawed hand digging into the concrete, the other still clutching his chest.
He released a slow, rattling breath, turning his furious crimson eyes upon Bunny and Ember, still hovering just beyond him.
“
Anna turned away, not wanting to see the attack strike her partner, even though she felt it in its entirety. Barely suppressing a wince, she looked over at her brother, whose own face was twisted in discomfort. He caught her eye and frowned, but said nothing; she averted her gaze once more, looking instead at where Damien and Moxie were conferring with each other quietly, still holding their partners.
“You need to go,” Ezra said, cutting into their conversation and drawing both of their attention. “Back to the motel. You can’t stay here.”
“We’re not going to leave you,” Moxie said, the first words she’d spoken in quite some time. They clearly took a toll on her; her voice was weak, her words themselves even more so, but there was a light in her eyes that showed she was serious. “We can’t.”
Still, Ezra shook his head. “Your partners are out of commission,” he said, nodding at Pop and Bumble, still out cold or at least appearing as such where they lay in their partners’ arms, and then at Moxie. “And you’re injured. Badly. I’m not confident about this fight either, but you’re…” He sighed and shook his head out again, running a hand through his hair. “…You’re doing more harm than good by staying here. The best thing you can do is leave this to us.”
“You’re one hundred percent sure?” Damien asked, brows furrowing. “I know none of us can fight or help in a more useful way, but, like… I don't know, moral support?”
“You’re awful at moral support,” Ezra shot back. Damien didn’t try to argue, just shrugged his shoulders, and Ezra folded his arms. “You need to leave. Before you get hurt any more, and before we end up becoming a bigger target. It’ll be easier for Anna and I to stay out of the line of fire if we don’t have to worry about four others.”
Anna could tell Mabel wanted to say something, probably along the lines of “He’s right, listen to him”, but she didn’t. Anna glanced over at her, one eyebrow raised in something akin to dull surprise at her silence. She was sitting at the far end of the couch, and she met Anna’s gaze, but still didn’t say anything, or emote at all, really. Anna frowned, but didn’t press the issue - there were more important things at hand.
Damien was silent for a moment, looking from Bumble to Pop to Moxie and then back up at Ezra. He sighed through his nose and shook his head gently, but stood up, helping Moxie to her feet too. “We’ll have Quinn come and give you some backup. She’ll be more useful than us.”
“If she can get here in time,” Anna mumbled, not really meaning to speak out loud, but only Ezra looked at her. He regarded her carefully, then looked back at the twins and nodded.
“Stay safe,” he said, reaching over to help hoist Pop higher up into Moxie’s arms, placing her head on Moxie’s shoulder. “Don’t get into any more fights on your way back.”
“We’ll try,” Damien said, rolling his eyes. He turned to move, but then looked back over his shoulder at Anna, catching her gaze. “Good luck. You’ve got this.”
With that, he and Moxie headed off, ducking behind any cover they could find as they moved down the street, away from Belphemon and the still-waiting police officers further up the road. Anna watched them go for a couple moments, dread pooling deeper in her belly with each step they took, then tore her eyes away, focusing back on the fight.
She didn’t really know if they did have this.
Ember and Bunny had managed to effectively pin Belphemon against one of the buildings lining the road, one that had already been destroyed by his rampage and their attacks, so it didn’t really matter that more bricks were crumbling down as they pushed him up against the half-ruined wall. He couldn’t back up without stepping into the building properly, and though he clearly didn’t care about preserving public property, he would have just become more trapped if he did. Likewise, he couldn’t turn either way without exposing himself to attacks from the two Digimon, and so he resorted to growling and swiping out with a paw every now and then.
Bunny and Ember floated in the air slightly to either side of him, Bunny pointing her scythe out and Ember’s wings flared out as if to act as a shield. They seemed… hesitant. As if they didn’t know what to do. They looked like they wanted to attack - Ember’s lip kept curling as if to call out - but they didn’t, simply exchanged glances for brief moments so as not to look away from Belphemon for too long.
Anna’s frown deepened, and without thinking, she started forward.
She felt Ezra’s fingers grasp the end of her sleeve, but his hold was weak, and she kept moving unimpeded. For a moment she continued alone, and then she heard footsteps behind her as Ezra followed, heading toward their partners.
It was at this exact moment that the police finally decided to actually do something for the first time since they’d arrived about fifteen minutes ago. A couple of the cars that had been stopped further up the road began to move again, driving down to where the Digimon (and Anna and Ezra) were; a few stayed where they were, but the officers that they belonged to moved with the rest of the cars, walking purposefully with guns trained on the Digimon.
They didn’t seem to notice Anna and Ezra - at least, at first. One of them, head turning to scan the environment, probably to see if there were any other Digimon lying in wait, caught sight of where they had stopped in the middle of the road. They appeared to frown, then moved to walk towards them, gesturing for a couple other officers to follow.
Ezra reached down to grab Anna’s hand, and though normally she would have yanked it away, something (Mabel’s eyes boring into her skull) told her to listen to him.
“Remember what I’ve told you about talking to the police?” he whispered to her, glancing at her briefly.
“Yeah,” she said.
“And what’s that?”
“Not to do it.”
“Exactly.” He looked back up at the still-approaching officer, now merely yards away from them. “Please let me handle this.”
He didn’t usually say please when asking her for things like this. Usually he thought he could tell her to do whatever, and that she would listen and do whatever he asked without question. He was, of course, usually wrong, because he didn’t own her and he certainly didn’t always know what was best for her, but also because he never really said please, or even thank you on the rare occasions she did follow along.
So the fact he was saying it now was enough for her to shut her mouth and take his words to heart.
“We’re going to have to ask you to exit the area,” the leader of the small group said as she came to a stop in front of them, her voice loud. “This is a dangerous place to be right now. Those monsters could attack at any moment.”
“The lion and the rabbit woman are our friends,” Ezra said, his grip on Anna’s hand tightening unconsciously. “We can’t leave them.”
The officer stared at him, suspicion etched onto her face, then over at the Digimon. Ember and Bunny still had not moved, and surprisingly, neither had Belphemon, trapped as he was. The other officers had reached them and were pointing guns at each of them, mostly at Belphemon, but there were still quite a few aimed at the partners as they yelled for the Digimon to stand down. Anna’s empty fist clenched tighter.
“They’re monsters,” the officer in front of them said, frowning. “They have leveled nearly this entire block. It doesn’t matter if you want to… ‘be friends’ with them. You need to leave.”
Ezra bit his lip, clearly weighing his options carefully. The officer rolled her eyes and looked over her shoulder at her companions, then gestured with her empty hand. They nodded, and split off, heading toward the Digimon and leaving only one other cop with the lead officer. She looked back down at Ezra and Anna. “We’ll take you to safety and call your parents. I don’t know how you’re here, we evacuated this street, but it doesn’t matter. Come with me.”
“We can’t,” Ezra said again, and the officer’s eye twitched. “It’s not that we want to be their friends, it’s that we are. They’re trying to stop the bigger one from doing more damage.”
“Assuming you’re being honest,” the officer muttered, putting a big emphasis on the assuming, “they’ve done just as much damage as the bigger one. You need to let us handle this.”
Ezra grit his teeth, visibly resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “You can’t handle this. Guns aren’t going to do anything against Digi—against the monsters. They’re not like regular animals. You’ll just make it upset, and then it’ll attack you.”
“Sounds like a lot of excuses,” the other officer mumbled from behind the leader, and Ezra glared at them. The leader held a hand up to silence them.
She seemed to agree, though, staring down at Ezra with a mix of impatience and distrust on her face. “Right. Highly trained professionals can’t handle this, but the children with monster friends can.” She shook her head, casting her gaze out toward where the Digimon were still having their standoff. “I don’t believe you about this. You need to get out of here.”
“I told you, we can’t,” Ezra said for a third time, opening his mouth to continue, but he was very quickly cut off as gunfire began to sound from down the street.
He and Anna whipped around, steeling themselves against the pain flaring up all over their body as they watched the officers further down the road open fire on their Digimon. Anna felt her gut lurch, and instinctively, she started forward again, only stopped by Ezra’s firm hold on her hand.
“They’re just going to make Belphemon mad,” Mabel said, propping her chin up with a fist. She was still a bit distant, and seemingly entirely unbothered by this whole situation, but that was only outwardly; Anna could tell she was just as worried as she was. “Bunny and Ember are going to be too distracted to attack it, and it’ll take its chance to attack them. And maybe the cops, if we’re lucky.”
“You can’t shoot them,” Anna said, looking back up at the officer next to them, who stared down at her curiously. Ezra squeezed her hand, clearly trying to get her to stop, but she pressed on. “We told you. It’ll just make them mad.”
“It’s hurting us, too,” Ezra mumbled, clenching his jaw firmly, but he went unnoticed.
“We know what we’re doing,” the officer insisted, finally at the end of her patience. She reached out toward Ezra, taking hold of his arm and turning to march away. “You need to leave before you get hurt. I will not be liable for a civilian death today.”
“As if she’d get reprimanded for it,” Mabel muttered.
Ezra wrested his arm free of the officer’s grip, his own patience depleted too. “We are not leaving,” he snapped, taking a few steps backward away from both of the officers, moving to put Anna slightly behind him. “And we’re not civilians. This is our fight.”
The officer didn’t get to reply before shouts and roars came up from behind them. Anna whirled around to see Belphemon had broken past Bunny and Ember’s weak barricade, distracted as they were by the gunfire pouring upon them, and was barreling down the street, unhindered by the bullets practically bouncing off his hide.
He was heading straight for Anna, eyes ablaze in witless fury.
A blur of white and lavender shot past, coming to a stop just in front of her. “
Belphemon’s strides halted as soon as it began to form, but his momentum carried him onward, almost like a runaway train having come off its track. Up near his head, Ember was flying about, firing attacks in a desperate attempt to draw his attention, but it was pointless now that Bunny had called her attack. Belphemon’s eyes, empty and awe-filled, were fixed firmly on the ever-growing moon, glowing so bright it was almost as if the sun had risen from beneath the earth and ended up in Bunny’s possession.
Belphemon was still skidding along the ground even as Bunny threw her scythe to the side and flung the moon at him. Only when it exploded against his face, scattering into sparkling embers and stars, did he come to a full stop, knocked backward hard enough by the impact to offset his momentum. He fell in a heap, his bulk hitting the ground hard enough to send tremors and shockwaves through the asphalt. Anna’s legs wobbled, and then buckled out from under her, and she, too, fell into a kneel, pressing her hands against the ground to steady herself.
She coughed, waving the dust around her away, and looked back up at Belphemon. Bunny still stood where she had launched the attack from, but her head was hanging low, her arms almost limp; she was hovering mere feet above the ground. Ember landed next to her, putting himself between her and Belphemon protectively, growling as the flames between his wings began to burn brighter.
Slowly, carefully, Belphemon pushed himself up, and Anna’s heart sank in her chest.
“Don’t even think about it,” Ember snarled, taking a step forward. Behind him, Bunny lifted her head slowly, and reached one hand out toward him, as if trying to tell him to stop.
Belphemon rumbled low in his chest, his gaze sweeping over the two partners in front of him, Anna and Ezra behind them, the officers who had moved to stand on either side of him. He chuckled faintly, looking back up at the Digimon. “You’ve proven yourselves to be worthy adversaries. You are no match for him. But you have bested myself. That deserves commendation.”
The wings on his back flicked slightly, and the movement drew Anna’s eye. The chains that had been wrapped around them - and, furthermore, the rest of his body - were disappearing, fading into pixels that drifted into the sky like sparks from a fire. Belphemon raised one paw, flexing the claws of his gauntlet; they, too, were disintegrating before their very eyes.
But not quickly enough.
“
Belphemon slashed his claws through the air, unleashing the beams of darkness directly at Ember and Bunny. The two of them were instantly on alert, Bunny managing to gather up some last reserves of strength just enough for her to raise her scythe.
“
“
The flames between Ember’s wings shot forward in a concentrated blast, cutting through Belphemon’s attack and striking him directly in the chest. He roared, trying to rear back, but didn’t have the energy left.
Bunny’s attack only sealed the deal.
The crescent blades practically sliced through his arm and across his cheek, helped by the pixelation that had spread further up his body. He roared again, almost feral in its intensity.
With another shaking thump and more tremors, Belphemon fell one last time.
“This will not be a setback,” he growled, practically gritting the words out. He was focused mostly on Ember and Bunny, who had come to stand in front of him, but Anna could tell he was talking to her and Ezra just as much. “I have served my purpose. You will see in time.”
He took a deep breath in and closed his eyes, looking for all the world as if he were asleep.
Slowly, the pixelation spread over his body, more of his fur and wings fading away. The process was slow; Belphemon was large, and though Ember and Bunny surely could have sped the process up by attacking again, they remained in place, watching the Demon Lord crumble before them. His eyes remained closed, and the breaths he took were peaceful.
It seemed, at the very least, to be a painless death.
When he had finally faded away entirely, his indigo Code Key floated in the air for a moment. Bunny lifted her head. Seemingly without thinking, she stepped forward, reaching out toward the Code Key with one hand, just as she had for Ember merely minutes ago.
It disappeared in a flicker of light, and Bunny’s fingers closed on empty air.
They didn’t even have a chance to revel in their victory - not like they would have anyway, but still - because, from behind Anna, the two officers that had apprehended her and Ezra began to shout at them, drawing the attention of Anna, Ezra, their Digimon, and the cops further down the street.
Anna started to turn around to try to figure out what they wanted, but she was instead greeted by Ezra running toward her, grabbing her arm and dragging her with him as he headed for their partners. “We need to go,” he said in between breaths, his grip on her wrist leaving no room for argument. “Before they start asking more questions.”
“Have Ember devolve to champion and carry you away,” Mabel said, for once in her life actually being useful. She frowned. “I’m useful all the time.”
It was a reasonable suggestion, though, and Anna relayed it to Ezra as they ran. When they reached their partners and came to a halt, Ezra called out to Ember. “Can you devolve to Firamon? We need to go!”
Ember nodded, and he and Bunny were consumed with orange and white light. It faded away to reveal Bunny, as Lunamon, and Ember, as… Coronamon.
He blinked, looking down at his paws, then up at Ezra. “Uh… sorry?”
“Damnit,” Ezra hissed, but he was quick to formulate a new plan. He and Anna both reached down to grab their partners, and, with one glance over at Anna to make sure she was following his lead, he started off again, heading further away from the police officers, even as they continued to call out after them.
They ran past ruined buildings, torn roads, crumpled cars, toppled street lamps. Anna tried not to let it bother her, keeping her eyes firmly fixed ahead as she and Ezra ran. They didn’t have time to let the consequences of their actions weigh on them.
We tried our best, didn’t we? Isn’t that what matters?
Belphemon would’ve done more damage if we hadn’t stepped in. He probably would have killed someone. We prevented casualties. We did the right thing.
Right?
Surprisingly, yet again, Mabel did not comment. Anna didn’t even bother trying to see what she was doing instead; if she was watching her with concern, or half-asleep where she sat, or maybe over at her desk writing in one of her journals. It didn’t really matter. At least she wasn’t being an asshole for no reason like she usually was.
When she and Ezra turned onto a street that was, finally, populated (even if only by two people sitting at a bus stop a few feet away), they stopped, taking a few moments to recover from their mad dash away from the scene of the crime.
Ezra pulled his digivice out of his pocket, flicking it on and switching to the map. A few colored dots were all huddled together on it, yellow and pink and black and blue and purple. Some others were scattered about the city, probably dealing with other, hopefully less important emergents; Ezra thumbed over the red dot, biting his lip as he read the information it brought up, then tapped out of it and zoomed in on the bigger cluster.
“Shouldn’t be too far of a walk,” he said, voice somewhat distant. “Maybe twenty minutes.” He paused then, looking up at Anna, concern barely hidden in his gaze. “You doing okay?”
Anna and Bunny both nodded. Ezra didn’t look convinced, but glanced back down at his digivice anyway. Anna held back a sigh, her own eyes trailing downwards to look at the top of Bunny’s head, still in her arms.
“You really worried me, you know.”
Anna blinked and looked back up at her brother. His eyes were still firmly fixed on his digivice, but his shoulders had tensed, his mouth drawn shut in a thin line. Ember, whose forehead was supporting Ezra’s digivice, turned his head up slightly to try to look at his partner.
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
When she’d run out to grab Bunny? Yeah, of course she’d worried him; he’d made that clear enough already. Why was he bringing it up again? So he could rip into her even further, now that they weren’t in the middle of an insanely dangerous and destructive battle, as Damien had so accurately put it?
And why was he bringing it up now, when they hadn’t even gotten back to the motel yet? They were still awfully close to the scene of the fight; shouldn’t they at least keep walking a little bit before saying anything? This wasn’t really the time or place for it.
But Ezra still didn’t look up at Anna. He bit his lip, sighing gently, and shook his head out. “…Earlier,” he said, and Anna couldn’t resist the ice-cold fear that crept over her body, as if she’d been struck by one of Bunny’s attacks. “When we were arguing, and then you yelled, and then…” He closed his eyes. “You just seemed so… different. I don’t know what it was, but… nothing like that has ever happened before. I didn’t know what it was. I still don’t. I’m just…”
He trailed off, not even bothering to try to find the words for whatever he wanted to say. Anna cast her own gaze to the ground, avoiding Bunny’s stare. She couldn’t tell him what it was.
Because it had been Mabel.
Anna had exploded in a way she never had before. Her frustration with Ezra’s attitude, and her anger at his control over her, and her fear of Belphemon, and so many other things, had all consumed her until they were all she could focus on. She’d lashed out with more vitriol than she usually did, so sick of everything Ezra had been saying and doing all day long, and all week long, and all month long, and all her life.
She’d nearly spilled her secret. That they’d had a sister once, long before even Ezra had been born. That she’d overheard this years ago, late at night, when she was supposed to be asleep but had heard her parents arguing and crept downstairs to listen in. That neither she nor Ezra were ever supposed to learn about this.
That she now had that sister living in her mind.
She’d made a promise to herself, shortly after discovering Mabel in her head, that she’d never tell anyone about it. She couldn’t. They’d think she was crazy, or making it up for attention or pity, or just imagining things, or maybe they would believe her and they’d give her treatment for it to take Mabel away.
For all Anna hated her sister and everything she represented, she could not bear to live in a world where she did not have her.
But she’d broken that promise. It had only been a few days after meeting Bunny, back in the Digital World. She’d overheard Anna talking to herself quietly one night; she hadn’t even realized she’d been speaking aloud until Bunny had asked her who she was talking to. She’d hesitated at first, trying to decide whether or not to tell this little monster she barely knew. She didn’t even know back then that they were partners, or destined to save the world, or whatever. But Bunny was the only Digimon she’d met that had been kind to her. That had given her the patience and freedom she had longed for all her life.
So she’d told her. Of course she had. Knowing now that they were connected by a bond transcending worlds that none of the group fully understood, it made sense - but back then, she hadn’t had any context for it. She’d just known that she could trust Bunny. That she could tell her.
She’d broken her promise. The promise she’d made to herself, and to Mabel, that she would never tell anyone about what went on in her head. Mabel had protested it over the years; she wanted at least Ezra to know about her. She was his sister, too. But Anna had never budged, and over time, Mabel had learned that she never would.
But she had.
And she’d nearly done it a second time. She’d been so caught up in her argument with Ezra that she hadn’t been paying attention to Mabel. Mabel had been paying attention to her, though, and when Anna had faltered, just one wrong word away from sharing everything she’d worked so hard to keep a secret, Mabel had seized her chance.
She’d taken over the body. For the first time in her life, Mabel had been in control.
And the only thing she’d done was apologize to Ezra.
Anna had immediately shoved her out of the way as soon as she realized what was happening. She’d yelled at her to go away. To leave. Mabel hadn’t listened, of course - when did she ever - but she’d remained silent for a good long while after that, sitting on the couch where Anna had thrown her and staring down at her hands in her lap. There’d been too much going on for either of them to really pay any attention to each other, or talk about it, or even acknowledge what had happened. Anna hadn’t really wanted to. Mabel had broken a rule that Anna had set in place years ago, and though she was furious about it, she didn’t know what to say. What to do.
The hope and fear and remorse in her voice - Mabel’s voice, speaking through Anna’s mouth and using her voice, but still her voice - had been too much to handle.
So she’d ignored it. Mabel had ignored it. Bunny hadn’t said anything; Ember hadn’t even been there to see it happen. She’d thought that would be the end of it. Something that had happened once, and never would again, and nobody would ever speak of it.
Clearly, that wasn’t how it’d turned out.
“It was nothing,” Anna said. She still stared downward, keeping her eyes on the concrete below her feet. “I was mad. And then I regretted it. And then I regretted regretting it. Because you were being a jerk. To me and Bunny. But then I realized getting angry wouldn’t solve anything. So I calmed down.”
The lies passed through her mouth so easily, a practiced feat from the many years of having to explain to those around her why she always seemed lost in her own head, or why she hadn’t been listening to them, or why she was talking to herself.
She couldn’t tell him the truth.
(Couldn’t she?)
Ezra didn’t respond for a while. In her head, neither did Mabel; Anna chanced a glance at her, only to see she was sitting at the end of the couch, her cheek propped up with a fist as she stared off into space. Anna frowned somewhat, but didn’t say anything. She didn’t think Mabel would reply even if she did.
“Okay,” Ezra finally said, just when Anna was starting to wonder if he’d even heard her. He finally looked up and over at her, his eyes somewhat obscured by the darkness of the night and the tiredness settling over his face. For a while, they just stared at each other, neither of them knowing what else they could say or do. Their partners, in their arms, were similarly quiet, but it seemed that was more due to their exhaustion from the fight.
Eventually, Ezra sighed and shook his head again. “We should head back. It’s getting late. Don’t want to make the others worry.”
Anna nodded, and the two of them headed off once again, though they walked somewhat slower now. Ezra had returned his attention to his digivice, leading the way back to the motel using the others’ markers; Ember and Bunny remained silent, having no energy to speak. Ember even had his eyes closed in Ezra’s arms, as if he was trying to fall asleep.
Anna couldn’t get the image of Belphemon settling down to sleep as he died out of her mind.
“Are you feeling okay?”
She blinked, and looked back over at Ezra. He still wasn’t looking at her, as if he couldn’t bear to face her after everything that had happened, after everything she’d done and said.
He continued before she could insist that she was. “After the battle. You didn’t get hurt? Doing… feeling alright?”
Instantly, all the fight flooded out of her. He wasn’t pressing further on the Mabel issue; he was just making sure she hadn’t gotten injured. Though she’d prefer if he dropped the subject entirely and left her to walk in silence all the way back to the motel, this was… it was acceptable.
“Yeah,” she said, which was also a lie. “I didn’t get hurt. I just… have a headache.”
That was true, at least. Whatever Mabel had done to take control, whatever had happened in her brain, it was hurting. It wasn’t a new experience. She was used to them, by now, the migraines that would persist for hours, if not days, whenever Mabel’s presence was too strong.
It didn’t make them any more tolerable.
Ezra cracked a small smile, the first sort of facial expression he’d made in a while. “We probably have some Advil back at the motel. You can take a couple. Make you feel right as rain.”
“It’s okay,” Anna said. “It’ll go away eventually.” She dropped her eyes to Bunny, still resting in her arms. Her breathing was peaceful, her chest rising and falling slowly, like an ocean under the moon. She was likely asleep. Anna wished she could be, too.
Still sitting at the end of the couch, Mabel shifted slightly. Anna looked over at her, holding back a sigh, and then closed her eyes.
“They always do.”
Anna got her wish.
She woke up the next morning after a very long sleep with the sun shining on her face. The curtains over the sliding doors were pulled open; she blinked groggily, not even bothering to sit up as she slowly came to.
She felt a little better. Still a little off, like usual, but her headache was gone. That was good. They’d gotten back to the motel late last night, and Anna had almost instantly fallen asleep while Ezra had relayed everything to Quinn. She’d curled up in bed, digging herself under the covers and clutching Bunny close to her chest, the way she’d slept every night since meeting her.
She’d had fitful dreams last night, mostly filled with Belphemon and Dianamon, but Mabel had snuck her way in there as well, as she usually did.
That hadn’t helped much.
(Or maybe it had.)
Anna closed her eyes and looked around the front room, regaining her bearings. She’d actually slept on the couch last night, instead of in the bed on the far side of the room - the same bed that she had in her real room back at home. This room had changed a fair bit over the years, usually to reflect however her bedroom and the living room in her house were arranged at the current moment; it was a strange combination of them. The couch and coffee table were in the center, Mabel’s desk was off to the right, and Anna’s bed was on the left wall. In the center of the wall behind the couch was the door, leading to the rest of the house, where Anna never really went if she could help it.
She only ventured out of this room when Mabel was in The Void, and even then, she usually preferred to simply stay here, enjoying the short reprieve and break from Mabel for as long as she could. Mabel’s trips to The Void were the only times Anna was truly alone, and though she couldn’t bear to be on her own for very long, there were times where the discomfort of solitude was more preferable than the annoyance of Mabel’s presence.
This was not one of those times.
Mabel was nowhere to be seen. She must have left the room overnight; somehow, she was able to act even when their body was asleep. It had always confused Anna (and, admittedly, made her a little jealous), but she’d never figured it out. She didn’t think she ever would.
She’s probably upset with me, Anna realized. It made sense, really. The past twenty-four hours had been… difficult, for the both of them, and for a multitude of reasons. If Anna was in Mabel’s position, she’d have snuck off undetected too, if only to spare herself from the anger of the other.
But at this current moment, Mabel’s absence was the opposite of helpful. Anna needed to talk to her about something, something really important, and right now she couldn’t risk leaving the body unattended to try and traipse about the house (or, god forbid, The Void) to look for her. Of course the one time Anna actually needed Mabel around was when she had decided to leave unannounced.
For a moment, Anna remained where she lay, her eyes closed as she stared around the room and tried to come up with a new plan of action. She knew what she wanted to do today, and it had to be today, or she’d psych herself up about it and get too overwhelmed and then it would never happen - but she couldn’t do it without talking to Mabel first.
Well, she’d have to deal with that later. Sighing, she finally pushed herself up into a sitting position, letting her legs dangle off the side of the bed. The covers had gotten all messed up while she’d slept, no doubt a result of the dreams she’d had, as per usual. She wasn’t the only one in the room; curled up in the chair on the far side of the room was Alpha, his eyes closed and breathing steady enough for it to be clear he was asleep. Anna observed him for a few moments, then blinked and slid off the bed, stretching herself out carefully. There wasn’t any way she’d be able to go back to sleep now, so she might as well start her day.
When she was finished getting ready, she grabbed her digivice off the nightstand next to her bed and checked the clock - 9:27 AM. That wasn’t too bad; she and Ezra had gotten back at around 10 PM the night before. She really shouldn’t be feeling as tired as she was after having gotten nearly twelve hours of sleep.
Whatever.
She pulled the door to the poolyard open and stepped out, her eyes taking a couple seconds to adjust to the light. Some of the others were scattered around the area, eating or talking with each other, but only a couple looked over at Anna as she emerged, one of them being Quinn.
“Hey,” she said, lifting a hand in greeting. “Good to see you. We’ve got some actual takeout for breakfast if you’re interested. Alpha can heat it up for you if you’d like.”
“I think he’s asleep,” Anna said, reaching the nearest table - the one Quinn and the boxes of food were at - and inspecting the goods. There was a box entirely full of bacon and sausage, and one with a stack of pancakes and French toast that had clearly already been sorted through and taken from. A separate container had mixed fruits, while another was full of little tubs of butter and syrup, some of which were half-empty. Anna wrinkled her nose in consideration, then grabbed a nearby paper plate and picked out some strawberries and pancakes.
“Doesn’t matter,” Quinn said, and Anna glanced up at her to see her smile. “I can wake him up for a couple minutes. He’ll survive.”
“It’s okay,” Anna said, and opened her mouth to continue, but she was distracted by Bunny hopping up into the seat next to her. She blinked her big purple eyes over at Anna, and Anna returned the gesture, their own weird variation of saying “good morning”.
“How did you sleep?” Bunny asked, voice quiet as always.
Anna shrugged and popped a strawberry into her mouth, trying to look casual about it. “Fine,” she said after she’d swallowed. “You?”
Bunny nodded. “Yeah. It was interesting being Lunamon again. I got used to being small enough to lay on your chest comfortably.” Anna smiled faintly and one of Bunny’s ears twitched. “I’m not tired, though. So that’s good.”
“Maybe being Dianamon gave you some extra energy,” Anna said, and Bunny huffed a small laugh, her cheeks growing pink.
“It was also really weird being her. Me. Something like that.” She looked down at her paws, brows furrowed for a brief moment. “I’ve… never really felt that strong before. Like I could hold the moon in my hands. Not even as Crescemon. It was kind of… intimidating, almost. I’m not used to that amount of power.”
“You were a mega level for the very first time,” Quinn said; Anna blinked, having almost forgotten she was still standing next to them and listening in. “Alpha felt the same way when he first evolved to Alphamon, too. Not like he’d ever admit it to anyone but me. Fortunately, he’s not here right now, so I can say whatever I want about him.”
“Are you sure about that?” Alpha said, and Anna, Bunny, and Quinn all jumped, startled by his sudden appearance. He blinked up at each of them slowly, looking incredibly unamused and unimpressed, then glanced up at Bunny. “She’s right, though. I don’t think you and I are the only ones to have felt like that, either. It’s a lot of strength and power we’re given by our partners. It makes sense it would be intimidating.” He paused, frowning faintly for a second. “Was it upsetting?”
Bunny shook her head, and Anna instantly felt relief wash over her. “No. It was just… a new experience. It was like when I evolved to Crescemon for the first time, but… multiplied by a hundred. It wasn’t a bad feeling, though. Just different.”
Alpha nodded. “Fortunately that’s the final stage of evolution, so you won’t have to go through it again. I can only imagine how overwhelming it would be if the feeling of evolving to Dianamon was multiplied by a hundred.”
Bunny went impossibly pale, her eyes wide, and Anna couldn’t resist a smile. Across the table, Quinn rolled her eyes, arching one eyebrow down at her partner.
“You could stand to be a little less discouraging.”
Alpha sniffed. “I don’t see how that was discouraging.”
Anna ate the rest of her breakfast in relative silence, sharing her strawberries with Bunny, who’d taken quite a liking to them (she’d never had the Digital World’s equivalent, due to them not being native to Server Continent). Quinn and Alpha remained nearby, Quinn scrolling through her phone and frowning at it regularly while Alpha curled up under the table to take another rest.
…She had a lot on her mind. Mabel was still nowhere to be seen, and Anna was starting to get a bit worried, but as before, there really wasn’t anything she could do about it. She’d just have to hope that she’d show up eventually - ideally sometime within the next ten hours, which wasn’t too far-fetched of a time frame, Anna hoped.
But she couldn’t just sit around doing nothing until that happened. There were other ways in which she could be productive, other things she could do - and she had to admit she was kind of morbidly curious about one of those things. When she finished her breakfast, having eaten her fill (or close to it, at least) and thrown away her trash, she approached Quinn, with Bunny held in her arms, and asked for one of those things.
“I’d like to go downtown.”
Quinn blinked up at her, then leaned back in her chair. “How come? Something on your radar?” Under the table, Alpha stirred quietly, but didn’t say anything.
Anna shook her head. “I just want to go out. I think… I’d like to see the damage from the fight last night. It was kind of hard to keep track of it when we were in the middle of it. And just… I dunno.” She trailed off, losing steam somewhat, and shrugged one shoulder. “I think it might… help. To see what happened.”
Quinn regarded Anna for a few moments, her expression oddly unreadable. Anna shuffled her feet, feeling a lot less brave than she usually did when asking for things, which was strange, because this was a really easy thing to ask for and Quinn was a very easy person to talk to. Eventually Quinn sighed, not in defeat or resignation but rather agreement, and stood up, stretching her arms out above her head. “I’ve been meaning to check it out, too. We might as well.”
Anna blinked, a little surprised that she had accepted so quickly and easily. From beneath the table, Alpha also picked himself up, shaking his fur out and padding out into the sunlight once more.
“It’s going to be a bit difficult for me to get around,” he said, staring pointedly up at Quinn. His partner tilted her head, her brow creasing as she met his gaze, and then her mouth pulled back in an apologetic grimace.
“Yeah, I think I’m gonna have to leave you here,” she said, folding her arms. Alpha frowned and opened his mouth, about to protest, but she shook her head, quieting him instantly. “We’re not going out for an emergent. I haven’t seen any readings on the radar all day. If my math is correct, and I’m almost certain it is, there’s only one more Demon Lord left to deal with, and it hasn’t appeared yet.”
“And what happens if it emerges while you’re gone?” Alpha retorted. If Anna didn’t know him better, she’d think he sounded a little offended that Quinn was suggesting going out without him.
Quinn shrugged and put on a smile. “Then we have Bunny deal with it while I call someone here and tell them to send you on after me. You’ve stayed behind while I’ve gone out a couple times already. Earlier today, even. I’ll be fine as always.”
“Never been hit by a car, never will,” he muttered, and Anna’s mouth quirked into a smile. He seemingly caught her eye, and pinned his ears against his skull, but sighed and shook his head out. “There’s no arguing with you, is there?”
“Nope,” Quinn said cheerily, and this time Anna fully laughed.
Alpha sighed again. “…Alright. I’ll allow it. Be safe. Please do call if you run into trouble.”
Quinn knelt down to pat his head, and he pushed into it, his eyes closing for a brief moment. “I will. I’m not an idiot. Besides, if something does finally show up, you can bet your ass I’ll want to be the first one to deal with it.”
“If you say so,” Alpha muttered, and Quinn smiled at him as she stood back up. She turned to Anna and gestured forward with a hand; Anna took the lead as they headed out, but stopped near the gate to let Quinn through first so Anna could follow her.
They didn’t chat much as they went; Anna felt a bit awkward about it at first, trying desperately to think of something to say, but the expression on Quinn’s face was calm and casual, seemingly happy to lead the way in silence, and Anna eventually relaxed as well. In her arms, Bunny was similarly quiet, but whenever Anna looked down at her, she would glance up and blink or wrinkle her nose or smile gently, and Anna would return the gesture.
The silence gave her more time to think as they walked, too. Her intention with this trip was to clear her mind, help her focus on the bigger thing at hand, but even as she’d told Quinn that it would help, she knew seeing the wreckage from the fight was only going to clutter her mind further. She wasn’t so oblivious as to think that Ember and Bunny had been entirely faultless for the property damage that had occurred. Most of it had been Belphemon, yes, and probably the vast majority of it at that, but Ember and Bunny weren’t entirely absolved. She’d seen the fire that had wracked the street; primarily black, but there had been orange flames mixed throughout, melting the ice covering the street quicker than the black.
But she had to see it. Had to know what, exactly, had occurred; what had been left behind, spared from the battle, and what hadn’t. In the heat of the moment, she’d been too focused on the fight itself - and everything going on with Mabel and Ezra and Damien and Moxie - to really pay attention to her surroundings, past a general sense of “there’s a hiding spot over there”. She didn’t know what had really happened.
Even if it would eat away at her with guilt and regret, she had to see it.
When they neared the scene of the fight, Quinn held up a hand to slow Anna down and motion for her and Bunny to remain silent. Bunny went limp in Anna’s arms, doing her best impression of a stuffed animal, and Anna followed Quinn’s lead, surprisingly less annoyed at her silent command than she’d expected she would be.
In daylight, and when not in the battle itself, it was easier to see what had happened, what the Digimon had done to the place. There was police tape stretching across most of the street, so they couldn’t exactly get up close and personal with the damage, but they stopped right at the tape, getting as good a view as they could. Other passersby had come to check out the area, too, some of them looking more interested than others; nearly all of them were taking photos or videos. Anna subconsciously tightened her hold on Bunny.
The fire had left the most obvious indication of the fight ever having taken place; black scorch marks littered the street, sometimes crawling up the buildings lining the road or the streetlights and trees along the sidewalk. Those streetlights and trees were, for the most part, bent and broken, some even ripped out of where they had once stood and left to lay defeated on the ground. Brick and glass littered the asphalt, only some of it looking as if it had been cleaned up, certainly not all of it.
Aside from the scorched ground, it was pretty easy to tell what had been Belphemon’s fault and what had been Ember and Bunny’s. Belphemon had been large - for lack of a more detailed description - and so the buildings that looked as if something the size of an airplane had crashed into them had clearly been his doing. The grooves cut into the road, from his scraping claws as he had walked along, were also evidently his; Anna wondered, for a brief moment, if those would even be fixed, or if they’d simply become part of the ever-growing collection of potholes coating the roads.
But the damage that wasn’t as large and obvious - broken windows, smashed walls, small chunks of concrete and asphalt littering the street - were clearly from Ember and Bunny. Belphemon had tossed them about a fair bit, even if not directly, and their attacks hadn’t always been aimed entirely accurately. Anna frowned as she noticed a suspiciously Apollomon-sized indent in the wall of one of the nearby buildings, cracks splintering out from the point of impact and dislodging brick and concrete here and there.
“Certainly did a number on the place,” Quinn muttered from next to her, and Anna bit her lip.
Bunny tensed almost imperceptibly in Anna’s hold, and she squeezed back gently, trying to reassure her. She knew that Bunny probably had a lot to say about the situation, or at least a little to say, but she couldn’t risk speaking, not when they were around so many people.
Quinn tapped Anna’s arm and started to move, heading down the line of tape, and Anna followed. They walked around a bit more, trying to see more of the damage from different angles, but it didn’t really matter - it all looked the same, no matter where they viewed it from, no matter how hard Anna tried to ignore the remorse flooding her chest.
I don’t know why I thought this would help.
“I don’t, either.”
Anna whirled around in her seat on the couch. Mabel stood in the entrance of the room, leaning against the doorframe with her arms folded and one eyebrow raised. When she caught Anna’s eye, she smirked, then pushed herself up, shutting the door behind her and vaulting over the couch to sit down.
“I can tell you missed me,” she said, grinning. Anna rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything; Mabel leaned toward her slightly. “Come ooooon. It’s obvious. Normally if I showed up unannounced like this you’d be all ‘ugh, go away, I was doing so much better without you around’.”
“I do not say that,” Anna said, crossing her own arms, and Mabel laughed.
“You certainly think it.” Mabel sighed and stretched her legs out, lifting them to place on the coffee table. Normally, Anna would tell her to take them off, that she was being disrespectful on purpose and that Anna didn’t appreciate that, but this time she remained silent. Mabel noticed this, too, and once more arched a brow at her. “Wow. Missed me that much, huh?”
“I need to talk to you,” Anna said, cutting straight to the chase. Outside, Anna curled her fingers against Bunny’s fur, still following Quinn. They’d headed down a different street, one that Belphemon had been walking down but not attacking. The road was closed off, important-looking vehicles parked up and down the street as repair services worked to clean up the damage, but the sidewalk was free game.
Mabel blinked, but didn’t seem very surprised by Anna’s demeanor or words. She didn’t say anything at first, simply stared at her with something a little like concern or understanding in her gaze. When she finally did speak, it wasn’t anything Anna would have expected her to say.
“It’s okay.”
Anna frowned. “What?”
“I know what you want to talk about.” Mabel looked down at her hands in her lap, and then pulled her legs off the coffee table. “And… I mean, I don’t know why you’re asking permission from me. It doesn’t really have anything to do with me.”
“It does,” Anna said. “It’s entirely about you.”
“But it’s not me,” Mabel said softly, and Anna bit down so hard she thought her teeth might shatter, even though that wasn’t possible here. “I’m not… I’m not really her. You know that. I know that. Even if I hate to admit it… I’m not the real Mabel.”
“Yes you are.”
The words spilled from Anna’s mouth before she could think them through.
The hesitation, the uncertainty in Mabel’s voice, saying how she wasn’t really Mabel… Anna knew that just by thinking about it, Mabel would know how it made her feel, but… it was enough to nearly break her. She’d never heard Mabel like that. Not even the night before, when Anna had yelled at her and she’d just sat and taken it, had she sounded like that. She was always sure of herself. She always knew what she wanted to say, and what she meant with her words; she wasn’t like Anna. Anna never really knew what to say, even when it mattered most. Sometimes she had to rely on Mabel to help her formulate her thoughts, because that was one of Mabel’s strengths.
So when she’d said that she wasn’t really Mabel, and she’d hesitated, yet still meant every word she’d said…
Mabel glanced up at Anna, something shining in her eyes. She didn’t speak; Anna didn’t know if it was because she still didn’t know what to say, or if she didn’t have anything she could say, but it didn’t matter, because…
“You’re just as real as I am,” Anna said. She wanted to think that she didn’t know why she was saying this, but that wouldn’t be true. She did know why. “We’re both people. You might not look like our body, and I might have existed longer than you, but… we’re both here, aren’t we?” She managed a smile, even though it was weak, and clenched her fists. “You’re real. You are Mabel.”
“But,” Mabel started, “I’m not the real Mabel -”
“You are.”
Again, Anna said it without really thinking, but she didn’t care at this point. She had to say it. She had to tell her.
“You’re Mabel,” she said, trying to ignore how the look on Mabel’s face was making her feel. “Just as much as she was. Maybe… maybe, if she’d lived, she would have turned out different than you. Maybe she would have looked different. Maybe she would’ve been nicer.” She smiled again, somewhat sarcastically, and then looked down at her hands. “But… even if she had, you still would have been Mabel, even if you’d been the you that you are now. It doesn’t matter how different you are from her, because you are her. No matter what, you’re still Mabel.”
She paused, her words faltering. Mabel was still staring at her with so many confusing things dancing within her eyes. Normally, Anna would be able to tell what they were, but something about now - whether it was what they were talking about, or what Anna herself was feeling, or Mabel intentionally hiding them - made it impossible to discern.
And that scared her.
When Mabel still didn’t speak, Anna took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a brief moment. She couldn’t bear to look at her. Not right now.
But she had to. She had to look at her. See her. Show her that she was here.
“…I know that I never say it. I… don’t know if I ever will again, and I’m sorry for that. But…”
Anna had to face her sister.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she met Mabel’s gaze. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t steady; she felt her eyes pricking gently, and she had to focus specifically on keeping her eyes on Mabel’s, trying desperately as they were to avoid the situation.
“I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you’re my sister.”
She couldn’t avoid it forever.
“I love you.”
Something on Mabel’s face softened.
“So.” Anna finally tore her gaze away, looking once more down at her hands folded neatly in her lap. “That’s why I wanted to ask you. Because… I know you’ve wanted me to do it for years, and I’ve always said no, especially after last night, but…” She shook her head out. “I think I have to. I need him to know. I’ve kept it from him long enough. But I wanted to make sure that… you were okay with it.” Anna bit her lip and hesitated for a moment, then barreled on. “I don’t… think that I’ll tell him about the you here. Not yet. That’s kind of a lot. But… he deserves to know, I think. You’re… you’re his sister, too.”
She sat back, finished with her question, her request, her plea. She still didn’t look at Mabel. She couldn’t bring herself to.
For a few moments, the two of them sat in silence. In the real world, Quinn was speaking to Anna, something or other about Belphemon and the fight the night before; she nodded along, but couldn’t really make out the words. She was focused too much on what was going on inside her head. Quinn didn’t seem to notice, or if she did, she didn’t say anything.
When Mabel finally spoke, it was quiet, and Anna finally lifted her head to look her in the eyes and see that she was smiling.
“…I think that would be nice.”
They ran into him quickly enough.
He’d been gone when Anna had woken up. She hadn’t bothered asking where he was - she knew that he’d be out, somewhere, even if she didn’t know exactly where. It hadn’t been an issue. It gave her more time to think about what she was about to do and how it would irreversibly change her life.
It hadn’t been enough time, apparently, because catching sight of him - even from far across the road, and even before he’d seen her - was enough to hollow out her stomach and leave nothing but fear and nausea in its wake.
But she had to do it. She’d already promised Mabel. She’d promised herself. She couldn’t back down now - if she couldn’t do this one simple thing, how would she ever be able to save the world? This was nothing in comparison to that.
(Even though, in a sense, doing it would be destroying her own world.)
He was alone, standing on the edge of the sidewalk and staring down at his digivice. Well, not entirely alone - he held Ember in his arms, much like Anna was holding Bunny as she and Quinn unintentionally approached him. He still hadn’t noticed either of them, focused instead on whatever was on his digivice - an emergent? But Anna and Quinn’s digivices hadn’t gone off.
It didn’t really matter either way. Anna bit her lip and steeled herself, then tugged on Quinn’s jacket sleeve, drawing her to a stop. Quinn turned to face Anna, concern creeping onto her face as she placed a hand on her hip.
Anna spoke before Quinn could even open her mouth to ask what was up. “Ezra’s over there,” she said, pointing at him, and Quinn followed her line of sight. “Could I… go with him? I haven’t seen him since last night.”
For a moment Quinn hesitated, as if unsure of what to do - let Anna go, go with her, or keep her here? - but then she nodded. “Yeah, I trust him enough. I’m gonna head back to the motel, then. Alpha’s probably having an aneurysm without me around.” She grinned here, and Anna smiled lightly in response. “I’ll see you later, then. Curfew’s still in effect. Unless you run into something, but if you do, call me, alright?”
“We will,” Anna said, Bunny nodding her agreement. Quinn nodded back, then waved goodbye as she turned around and pulled out her phone, no doubt to find the way back to the motel.
Anna watched her leave for a couple seconds, her stomach battling her gut the entire time. Bunny tilted her head upward, eyebrows creasing. “Are you okay?”
Anna didn’t answer. She couldn’t think of what she would say, even if she’d wanted to, and she didn’t really. Bunny sighed softly and went back to playing dead; Anna lifted a hand to pat her head reassuringly.
She turned to look back over at Ezra, who still hadn’t moved. He seemed to be chatting quietly with Ember, holding his digivice close to him so that it looked like he was on his phone. Anna chewed her lip gently, then shook her head out and started on her way.
“Are you scared?” Mabel asked, echoing Bunny’s prior sentiments, but in a far more direct and attuned way. Once again, Anna did not respond, but she didn’t need to for Mabel to know the answer anyway. Mabel frowned, more out of concern than annoyance, which Anna appreciated.
Ezra only looked up and saw Anna approaching when Ember pointed at them, having spotted them before he did. He blinked, his eyebrows arching in surprise, then smiled when she reached his side.
“Hey,” he said, tilting his head, and then he frowned. “…Were you out here alone?”
“We came with Quinn,” Anna said, pointing in the direction they’d come from. “She just left.”
“Wow, she must really hate you,” Ember said, looking up at his partner, and Ezra bopped him on the head. Ember giggled, grinning wide, and Ezra rolled his eyes down at him, then looked back up at Anna.
“Wanted to spend some quality time with me, huh?”
Anna just stared up at him.
This is it.
I have to do this. I have to tell him. If I don’t do it now, I never will.
…I think it’s been long enough. I think it’s time. I think… I know that this is the right thing to do.
I can do this.
For the first time in her life, Anna actually believed that.
“Actually,” she said, ignoring the way her heart thrummed against her chest and her mouth went dry and her hands began to shake, “I… I need to talk to you about something.”
They found a quiet place, away from prying eyes, where no one would overhear them, or run into them at all. It allowed their partners to engage in the conversation, as well as provided a sense of security, however small, to the four of them. There wasn’t much else they could ask for at the moment.
It had been such a spur of the moment idea. If Anna had had the time, if they hadn’t been down here in an unfamiliar city, she would have done it differently. Found a better place for them to sit and talk. Figured out what exactly she wanted to say before she actually said it. Prepared herself for what was about to happen. What she was about to say. About to do.
She never thought this day would come. She hadn’t ever wanted it to. It had been her secret for six straight years - hers and hers alone. No one else, save for her sister, would ever know about it. She would take this to her grave. Hopefully an early one, at that.
But things had changed. The past month had shown her that. The past month had done that. This journey that she’d been swept up in had changed her in more ways than she would have ever imagined possible. She’d seen a world she only could have dreamed of. She’d met her best friend, her soulmate from another reality. She’d been faced with danger and death and fear unlike any she’d ever felt.
She’d told her sister, for the first time in her life, that she loved her.
And she was really happy. Never before had she ever been able to say that. She hadn’t been truly happy in years, not since before she learned about any of what she was about to tell her brother. But over the past month, she had been. She still was, really. Even if what she was mostly feeling was dread and fear and despair, there was still a constant note of joy that permeated through everything she’d seen and done and would do. Seeing that other world, meeting her best friend, fighting monsters the likes of which she had only ever seen in her nightmares… despite all of it, she was still happy.
Even as she sat and told her brother about everything that had plagued her since she was five years old, the only thing she could focus on was how happy she was that she was finally at a point where she could tell him.
She struggled to find the right words to say. She stumbled over them, repeated herself, stuttered. She was clumsy with her explanation, having to go back and restate things she hadn’t elaborated on enough. But she did it. She didn’t back down. She kept going, because if she stopped, she feared she wouldn’t ever pick back up. She just had to keep going. For her sake. For Ezra’s. For Mabel’s.
It was difficult, really, to explain to her brother that he was not the first. That, before him, he had had a sister once. That she had died. That he had only been born because their parents needed a replacement, something to ensure that their first daughter’s legacy would continue, in whatever fucked up way they could manage.
That Anna was that replacement.
It was a long talk, only half because Anna didn’t really know what she was saying most of the time. Saying this out loud, all of it, not just snippets and the important things like she had to Bunny, was harder than she’d expected, and she’d already known it would be hard before she’d even had the idea of telling him. Emotions she hadn’t had a release for in six years welled up and poured out of her mouth, her eyes, her hands, every contact point along her body. They gathered together on the ground where she knelt, pooling together every feeling she had, mixing until she couldn’t tell one apart from the other. She’d have to scoop them up, clean the area, dispose of them in the trash instead of littering in a city she didn’t belong in. She didn’t know if she’d be able to hold them in her hands, or if they’d spill over the edges of her fingers, if she’d never be able to wash them away.
But her hands were not the only ones that reached down to collect them and help her clean up the mess.
Bunny. Ember. Ezra.
They were all there with her. They listened to each word, heard every feeling in her voice. Ezra’s own face was a kaleidoscope of every emotion Anna herself was drowning in. Confusion. Anguish. Hurt. Guilt. Grief.
Joy.
He was glad that she was able to tell him, he said. That she trusted him enough to come to him about this. That it didn’t matter that it took this long for her to work up the courage; that what really mattered was that she had, eventually.
That none of this was her fault.
She’d already known that, but only in an objective logical sense. Of course none of it had been her fault - she hadn’t been alive, or even dreamt of, when Mabel had been born. She wasn’t responsible for their parents’ decisions.
But hearing him say it to her, that it wasn’t her fault, none of it was her fault, assuaged a fear she hadn’t known she had been harboring. It was good to hear someone say it out loud.
And then he said he was proud of her.
For what, she didn’t know; she couldn’t hear anything else he said after that, over the ringing in her ears and the buzzing in her head and the tears that burst forth, refusing to be contained. She couldn’t hold on any longer. Not after that.
Nobody had ever told Anna they were proud of her.
She felt like she could finally live, now that she had told him. Even when she was crying, and he was crying, and Ember and Bunny were crying, and Anna didn’t think she would ever be able to talk about this again without crying, she was glad that she’d told him. After six years, she was finally free.
He didn’t know all of it. There was still the secret of the sister in her head, but he knew what had happened. How it had affected her. Why she had told him when she was five years old that he was the only one she could trust.
He knew that Mabel had existed at all.
The person she was closest to, the only person in her life that she had ever had, knew about their sister. And that meant a lot to her.
(And to Mabel.)
It made her really, really happy.
They began their trek back to the motel after they’d all composed themselves, after Anna and Ezra, together, as one, had cleaned up their swirling emotions coalescing together. They’d said everything they could say. Exhaustion had crept upon them much like the evening had. As the sky above them faded into twilight, they walked together, sticking close, holding their partners in their arms as they had become so used to doing.
“I’m also really proud of you,” Bunny whispered to Anna, quietly enough that their brothers couldn’t hear. “For telling Ezra. And me, all that time ago.” She glanced upward, blinking once. “I’m really glad we met. I’m lucky to have you in my life.”
“That’s what I said to you last night,” Anna said, poking Bunny’s cheek teasingly, but she couldn’t resist a smile of her own, even despite everything. “You’re not allowed to steal my lines.”
Bunny giggled, her eyes squeezing shut for a moment, before she looked back up at Anna and smiled softly, her eyes shining in the rising moon’s light.
“I’m glad that you’re happy,” she said.
In Anna’s head, Mabel smiled.
“Me too.”