EPISODE 44 - TAKE THE JUMP
Silently, the group followed Quinn and Alpha through the city streets.
They’d barely had time to grab their coats and digivices before leaving. Quinn hadn’t waited for them before she’d set off, with only Alpha in tow, and they’d rushed to grab only their necessities. The rain that had obscured the sky all day had faded earlier in the night, but the biting wind was cold enough for them to need to slip their jackets and sweaters on anyway.
Even if it had still been raining, they had a feeling they’d still be able to see the figure that floated in the sky - the one they were currently headed toward.
It wasn’t really doing anything at the moment, simply hovering in place, but that peace wouldn’t last long - call it a hunch. They all knew who it was. Though it looked nothing like him, over ten times his size with large feathered wings instead of a flared cape, they just knew.
They didn’t know, however, why he looked so different.
(Or maybe they did, and just didn’t want to accept it quite yet.)
And they also knew, deep within themselves, that they wouldn’t be able to do anything even when they did approach him. They’d barely made a dent in him last time, even with Alpha’s help near the very end. The fights with the Demon Lords over the past week had been, for them, a struggle at best and a beatdown at worst. They weren’t even sure how consistently the Digimon would be able to evolve up to mega again.
And if he’d managed to rip a hole through the worlds…
But we have to try.
They didn’t bother with stealth as they moved. There simply wasn’t the time to do so - they had to be quick. The giant monster floating in the sky would probably be a bigger concern for anyone awake at this hour, anyway, and who wasn’t awake after what had just happened? The tremors echoing throughout the very earth below their feet, the stillness and tightening in the air, the light that had flashed like a star going supernova.
It played on repeat in Alex’s mind. The way he’d woken up, immediately filled with a fear he hadn’t felt in many days, and realized what was going on - all of it.
He frowned, and looked over at Quinn, at the front of the line and closest to him aside from Castor at his feet and Ezra just a few steps behind him.
“Do you know what’s going on?” he asked, despite knowing it was useless. When she didn’t answer, instead of dropping the subject, he decided to press. “Or… why he looks so different? Or why he appeared now? Or how he managed to -”
“No,” she snapped, surprising him with both the intensity and subject of her response. She was visibly bristling, refusing to look him in the eye but aiming her words directly at him. Her voice shook as she spoke, mirroring her hands currently balled into fists at her side. “I don’t. I don’t know what’s happening or what’s going to happen or if we even stand a chance against him or if it’s even worth it. I don’t know anything.” She inhaled sharply, staring down at her feet with dark eyes. “I’ve never known anything.”
Alex shrunk back and didn’t respond. He didn’t know how to.
Turns out he didn’t need to, because Quinn continued for him. “Come on. We’re wasting time.” She ushered them along, saying nothing more, nothing as any sort of reassurance or confirmation or anything.
Not like it would have helped either way.
As they walked, heading towards the dark spot in the sky, they passed other people in the street, mostly running or otherwise moving quickly - away from the figure. A few of them called out to the group, or shouted at them, or asked them why they had monsters with them, or told them they should be running away, too. The group just ignored them. They didn’t have the time nor the energy to explain anything that was going on. They couldn’t afford that.
Hopefully the past few weeks would have taught them to stay far away from the angel in the sky, but Alex wasn’t very confident.
The figure seemed to have emerged right above the park that the group had been frequenting recently - the very same park that Alex and Castor had talked in, the day they’d met Kiki and fought Lilithmon. He tried not to let that bother him. As they got closer, more and more people rushed past them, fleeing from the monster, yelling and screaming, even as it simply floated in the air motionlessly. A few were standing around, shouting up at the monster and filming it. Some of the group attempted to convince them to leave; none were successful. They just had to ignore them and keep going. It wasn’t worth it.
Alex raised his digivice toward the figure as they approached, switching to the analyzer and aiming it upward. It didn’t react immediately, working to locate the Digimon through the camera, and when it did, the screen simply glitched out, providing no information. Alex frowned. For a moment he considered quitting and trying again to see if that would help, but no sooner than he had that thought, it began to burn in his hand. It was hotter and fiercer than when Castor had first evolved to mega, and he only barely stifled a yelp as he shoved it back into his pocket and shook his hand out. It was like whatever this thing was, it was too much for the digivice to handle - or it didn’t even know what it was.
That wasn’t a good sign.
As they headed deeper into the park, dread settled deeper in Alex’s gut.
They didn’t know what they were going into. Not a single one of them knew what they were about to face, what they would be up against, if they even stood a chance. The fear that permeated the air around them was almost overwhelming. Even if none of them would admit it, whether aloud or to themselves, they were terrified. And rightfully so.
This really is the beginning of the end, isn’t it?
He looked down at Castor, walking right next to him, eyes trained solely on the road ahead of them, ears and tail held stiff, and he sighed.
At least I’ve got him, huh.
Eventually, sooner than Alex would have liked, they reached the center of the park. It was as close as they could get without positioning themselves directly underneath the floating angel, and it felt like they were simultaneously too close and yet too far away.
And, for the first time since it had emerged, they fully took in the figure above them.
It was ginormous, even bigger than it had seemed from further away, and it had already been massive enough to block out the majority of the sky with its jet-black feathered wings. Two large crystal orbs, deep red in color, were inset into the topmost joints of those wings, glowing faintly but otherwise reflecting no light. Its skin was a sickly white, each of its limbs too long and gangly to be proportioned correctly, and those limbs and the ends of each tentacle-like strand of hair ended in a helix appendage, fading from pink to murky orange to deep indigo. Alex couldn’t see its eyes, obscured by its hair and the darkness of the night, but he didn’t need to. He knew they wouldn’t be white.
He didn’t know whether it would be better or worse if they were.
As the group came to a stop, staring up and up and up at the Digimon, it tilted its head down at them.
Quinn was the first to step forward, one hand clutching her digivice and the other raised to her mouth to help her voice carry. “This is it!” she shouted, her voice barely trembling. “This ends here and now!”
For a few agonizing seconds, it did not respond, simply stared down at them with its concealed gaze. Quinn stood resolute, refusing to back down, and behind her, Alex clenched his own fists, ready for whatever would come next.
And then the Digimon’s lips pulled back in a snarl, revealing an inky black mouth and rows of vicious shark-like teeth, and he hissed.
“I didn’t think,” he said, his voice loud enough to carry down to the group below as if he were standing right in front of them, enough to rattle their bones and shake them to their cores, “that you would be so foolish as to stand against me.”
Quinn’s mouth twitched, but not in the way indicating she was about to speak. Alex frowned, something heavy forming in his chest, and he looked back up at the Digimon.
Silence filled the air between them.
No one knew quite what to say or do in response. With that single response, that horrifically familiar voice, they knew for certain now just who they were up against, who this was, or rather who it had once been and now was only an echo of. Plutomon had been strong enough to wipe the floor with nine ultimates and one mega. Ten megas might have stood barely a chance against him.
But this? Whatever this was, whatever he had turned into, whatever had happened to him or whatever he’d done to become this…
They really were foolish, weren’t they?
Surprisingly, it was Harmony who spoke next, holding her hands close to her chest.
“Why are you here?” she asked, calling up to the Digimon, pleading with him. “What do you want?”
Again, it simply stared down at her, its mouth curling into a frown, and she hesitantly backed up, but refused to tear her gaze away. Ren placed a paw on her shoulder, likewise glaring up at the Digimon.
His wings twitched and he turned his head to look out at the sky. “This is it,” he said, reciting Quinn’s own words. “This is the end. I have waited for far too long, but finally, everything has been set into motion. My time has come. The end of the world is nigh.”
“We won’t let that happen,” Alex said, almost unaware he’d spoken until he heard his own voice. He glowered up at the Digimon, reaching down into his pocket to grab his digivice. “We’re not going to just stand by and let you do whatever you want! We’re here to stop you!”
“You’re welcome to try,” it said, once more baring its teeth. “Whether you die now in battle valiantly, or later when I destroy the worlds, the outcome will remain the same. Everything will fade in the end.”
Alex furrowed his brow.
Destroy the worlds…
That’s what he wants. To destroy our world and the Digital World.
How is he going to accomplish that?
He didn’t get a chance to ask. None of them did. Azure opened their mouth, and Moxie tilted her head, and Alpha lifted his chin, but none of them got the chance.
They never would.
The Digimon raised its face to the sky, flaring its wings out as it began to wail.
“
For a moment, there was stillness, the very world around them seeming to slow to a halt, as if frozen in time, not unlike the world they had glimpsed through the portal back in File City. Suspended in that second, waiting for whatever would come next, Alex allowed himself one singular pessimistic thought.
We’re all going to die today.
And then the air around them erupted into a vibration so fierce he was knocked off his feet.
Shining lights appeared in the space directly in front of the Digimon, arranged in an almost star-like formation. They glowed brightly for a brief moment, then pulsed, and from each light shot out a pitch-black stream of energy, converging together and aiming directly down at the group, still struggling to get to their feet.
The beams impacted, and everything felt like it began to burn.
Within seconds, it was chaos.
Colored lights went up around the group, signaling the partner Digimon evolving, warping straight to ultimate level. The humans cried out in pain, some of them pushing through it and standing up anyways while others crumpled to the ground, nearly incapacitated from the force of the attack.
The partner Digimon rounded on the angel in the sky, moving to stand between it and their humans, and they attacked.
“
“
“
The humans moved quickly, helping each other up as they retreated deep within the treeline, trying to get out of the angel Digimon’s sight. They checked each other over for injuries, making sure no one was too seriously hurt. The attack seemed to leave just a lingering pain instead of any physical wounds, which they’d just have to take as a blessing the best they could.
It throbbed through each of their bodies, sending waves of nausea and dizziness to each and every one of their heads, but they steeled themselves and focused on the situation at hand as best they could.
“
“
“
Alex turned to face the fight and saw, strangely, what looked like massive flecks of ash falling from the sky. The angel’s attack had not physically burnt anything, whether human or foliage, and none of the partners were aiming at the trees. He frowned, taking a few steps forward and reaching a hand out to let one of the pieces land in his palm.
It wasn’t ash; it was a feather.
And it burnt his skin just as his digivice had when he’d tried to scan the angel. He hissed and shook it out, letting the feather fall to the ground. When it touched the stone pathway below, the area around it began to burn like paper held to a flame, growing black and crumbly within seconds before finally dispersing into ash - for real, this time.
The feathers were eating away at whatever they touched, like they were comprised of burning energy.
Except for my hand.
“
“
“
He didn’t have time to worry about that.
The angel cared less about preserving the natural beauty of the park than any of the partner Digimon did, and even they were having to forego that in favor of fighting back with anything they had, no matter if they took down a few bushes or benches here or there. Several of the angel’s attacks had veered far off course, toppling trees and tearing up the grass and destroying lightposts. Some of it seemed intentional, as he’d turn and fire beams of black energy at the surrounding buildings every now and then, like he wasn’t even trying to aim for the partners - but Alex knew he was, from the way he rounded on them so quickly whenever one got too close.
The black feathers rained down carelessly, swept back and forth by the air left in the wake of the Digimon as they ran and jumped and fired attacks. Each one that landed on the ground or in the trees began to burn away at whatever they touched, consuming mindlessly, leaving dark spots of wreckage in their wake.
Another feather landed on Alex’s hand, burned brightly for a few seconds, and then dissipated entirely.
As Alpha lunged for the angel, sword in hand, Alex took a deep breath.
“
He lifted his digivice up, switching to the analyzer once again and clenching his other fist tight. As it worked to scan the angel and examine its data, it began to burn once more, heating up like a miniature sun held in his hand, but he remained steadfast, pushing the pain to the back of his mind as he held his arm up and out and focused only on what was directly in front of him.
The screen of the digivice flickered once, twice, and then shone with a light brighter even than Alpha’s blade when it slashed across the angel’s chest, and Alex squeezed his eyes shut.
“Ordinemon.”
His eyes snapped open with a sharp intake of breath.
So that’s his name.
The digivice was steadily working, trying as hard as it could to scan the angel. The Digimon. Ordinemon. Alex grit his teeth, keeping a tight grasp on the digivice and refusing to give in to the pain.
“Ultra level. Unknown Digimon.”
Ultra level?
He just had to push through. No matter how much it hurt, no matter how fierce the burn the digivice was giving him, he had to keep going.
“It appears when the world… is meeting its end.”
The end of the world…
That’s what his attack was called, right?
He had to figure out what this thing was. What it could do. What they were up against.
“…Negative emotions flow out of its wings, and its feathers will spread miasma throughout its surroundings.”
I guess that’s what those feathers are. Negative emotions…
It’s called miasma. That makes sense.
What they could use against him to gain the upper hand.
“The endlessly overflowing miasma is capable of… covering the entire world, resulting in the end of all life.”
Is that how he plans to do it…? By spreading the miasma?
To give them a fighting chance.
“However, it… …plans to… first return the world… to nothingness.”
How on earth is he going to do that?
If they even stood a chance.
The digivice powered down, its energy depleted, and Alex threw it onto the grass below, biting his lip to keep from screaming as he cradled his hand close to his chest. The heat radiating from it was almost enough to singe his tongue when he raised it to his mouth to blow on it, and he swallowed every profanity he wanted to cry out in pain.
His palm was a mess of blistered red skin, the pain from his digivice seeming to remain even though he’d dropped it ages ago.
But it had worked.
Of course we have a chance.
“It’s called Ordinemon!” he shouted, turning and running back toward the rest of the group, still behind him deeper in the trees. “Don’t touch the feathers! They’ll burn you!”
(Even though he’d touched one and it had disappeared instantly, leaving only a faint warmth behind, he didn’t want to take any risks.)
The others stared up at him, some crouched on the ground and others standing by, ready to move if needed. They looked like a mess, huddled there in the darkness of the night, waiting for some sort of sign or signal, anything to tell them what to do next.
Quinn met his gaze, her own full of fear and regret and guilt, and then ducked her head.
“I knew,” she muttered, voice weak. “I knew this would happen. I should have seen it coming. Alpha said…” She broke off, still refusing to meet anyone’s eyes, shaking her head as she stared down at the ground.
“What?” Anna asked, staring up at Quinn. “What did you know? That he’d evolve? But he was a mega, I thought they couldn’t evolve further…”
“They’re not supposed to,” Damien said slowly, his own eyes locked onto his shoes. “But there’s stories. Legends. Myths, mostly. They’re not supposed to be real, just ancient history distorted to the point of fiction.” He huffed a humorless laugh, shaking his head out.
“But it’s real,” Quinn said, finally lifting her head. Her eyes shone with something indiscernible, but whatever it was, it wasn’t anything good. “We figured it out tonight. We fought the last Demon Lord. He told us that… the Code Keys, the Demon Lords, everything, it was all just a distraction. Defeating them and freeing their Code Keys just granted Plutomon more power. All along, every time we’ve defeated a manic Digimon, it’s just been strengthening him. That was the point. That’s why he sent them out here. So that they would die and grant him more power.”
She looked around at the group, then out at where Ordinemon still hovered in the sky, not far enough away.
“And with enough power, he managed to evolve.”
Silence filled the air.
No one knew quite what to say. What to think. What to make of it. Mega Digimon weren’t supposed to evolve. It was supposed to be the final stage, the ultimate form that a Digimon could achieve, but… that’s what they’d thought about their partners’ ultimate stages at first, right? Only when Plutomon had shown up did they realize there was yet another stage beyond that.
And this time, Alex didn’t think that a new ultra-leveled ally would show up to save the day.
“…I had a feeling,” Ryan said, the first to speak, “that Plutomon - Ordinemon, whatever - sent Raguelmon out here to die, after Dare made it up on the spot. She was bluffing, but Raguelmon… she seemed to consider it. Like it was true. But… I didn’t think it would extend to the Demon Lords.”
“So that’s why they didn’t care about dying,” Miguel said. “Because they knew that they were just making Plutomon stronger.”
“I mean, it makes sense,” Azure mumbled, lacing their fingers together. “Either the Demon Lords killed us and made his job easier, or they died and gave him more power… it’s a win-win for him. An’ a lose-lose for us.” They sighed and rubbed their forehead, sinking to the ground to sit next to Harmony.
Across the circle, Ezra clutched his arms, drawing into himself as best as he could and forcing a smile. He didn’t look up at anyone, even when Alex tried to give him a reassuring look, just shook his head. “He knew we’d fall for it.”
Of course he had. He’d been a partner Digimon once. He’d known exactly what they’d fall for.
We’re as naive as he said we are.
But they couldn’t dwell on it for too long.
“
Ordinemon’s cry stole their attention away, turning back to face the fight and prepare for whatever attack he had called. Their partners were in disarray around him, some of them only barely holding onto their forms or each other. Only Alpha and Castor still stood against him, facing off together, their blades raised to protect their partners.
The gems on Ordinemon’s wings glowed brightly, and then fired out in dozens of beams, aimed straight for the humans.
“Get down!”
Everyone shouted it, humans and Digimon alike, as they dove to avoid the attack and the Digimon moved to protect them. The beams sailed over their heads, but their radius was wider than it had seemed at first, and when Ordinemon flared his wings out to readjust the aim, they shot directly at the heap of humans still laying on the ground.
Their partners were too slow to reach them, exhausted and injured as they were, except for one.
Castor.
With a faint flash of red, the world around Alex went white. For a second he wondered if Castor hadn’t been quick enough, if the attack had hit them straight on and killed them, and he squeezed his eyes shut.
But when he opened them and looked up, he just saw his partner standing in front of the humans, with Atho, Rene, and Por forming a shield to block the attack.
He felt a deep ache within his body, pain humming faintly throughout his veins, and he breathed a heavy sigh of relief even despite that fact. It was a familiar feeling. It’d been almost two weeks since he’d felt it, but it was like no time had passed as all.
Despite the pain, he’d never felt better. He’d been waiting for this for some time.
When the attack died down, Castor, in his mega form, turned to look back at Alex and dipped his head.
With a flourish, he whipped his cape around and darted straight for Ordinemon, brandishing the blades on his arms as his three familiars surrounded him.
“
The fight raged on, the rest of the Digimon given another surge of motivation by Castor’s evolution. While the rest of the group behind him helped each other up, Alex focused his attention on the battle, observing Ordinemon’s movements to try to find a weakness, something they could exploit or attack to gain an advantage.
His attacks were ruthless and unrelenting, just as they had been as Plutomon, but pushed to the extreme now that he was so much stronger. When one Digimon would strike him, he’d fire an attack back at three of them, then send off another one for good measure. He still shot at the distant buildings every now and then, when he could afford to take his attention off of the partners. Though their energy was waning, and their attacks were nothing compared to his, the sheer number of them was enough to mostly keep Ordinemon occupied, even if “keeping him occupied” mostly meant “taking five direct attacks in a row”.
Castor and Alpha were leading the charge, weaving in and out of the others and staying out of Ordinemon’s range as much as they could. They were the heaviest hitters at the moment, even if that was a small bar to cross, and the others seemed to have gotten the idea by now, distracting Ordinemon by using themselves as bait long enough for one or the other to get a hit in. Though it was working, Ordinemon was alert enough to know what they were doing, and strong enough to not really have to care about it. The distraction was working, yes, but he was still able to strike Alpha and Castor whenever they got too careless.
It’s better than nothing, but they can’t keep this up forever, Alex thought, grimacing. Sooner or later, the others are going to have to evolve too.
Ordinemon stretched his wings out, lifting himself higher into the sky, and raised his head.
“
Sooner sounds better than later.
From Ordinemon’s wings spread a deep black glow, darker even than his feathers or the night sky behind him. Nothing else happened. Alex frowned, squinting to get a better look at Ordinemon - and then he realized it wasn’t a glow, it was a mass of the miasmic feathers, heading toward the Digimon below as they spread out to cover the area.
When they struck the Digimon, they cried out in pain, and Alex himself hissed as a couple landed on Castor. For the most part, they seemed only to injure the Digimon, rather than knock them off their feet and completely disorient them - it sucked that “injuring the Digimon” was considered an only, far from the worst that the attack could have done, but it was going to have to count.
And yet they weren’t letting it get to them.
“
“
Castor and Alpha struck Ordinemon in the chest at the same time, and he hissed, throwing his arms out in frustration. He didn’t seem wounded or even affected by the attacks, just… annoyed.
And so he retaliated.
“
This time, the beams from his gems were aimed straight for Alpha and Castor, floating just in front of him. He called the attack so suddenly, and aimed it so quickly, that they didn’t have time to react.
The beams collided head-on, and the two knights fell from the sky.
“Castor!”
Alex was running forward before he even realized it, ignoring the cries from the others behind him and the Digimon ahead of him. He just shot straight for Castor, crumpled on the grass too close to Ordinemon for his comfort, struggling to push himself up and back onto his feet.
He looked up and caught Alex’s eye, and then his own widened.
“Don’t!”
“
Ordinemon’s attack shook the ground and brought Alex to his knees, falling to the ground with a thud. The lights and black energy surrounded him, blocking out everything around him and leaving him alone and vulnerable and defenseless. Everything he’d never been before.
But Castor stood above him, shielding him with Weltgeist and his three familiars, putting everything he had into holding that position and protecting Alex from the attack, from Ordinemon’s unfiltered rage and vengeance. Alex stared up at his partner, jaw hanging open, heart hammering in his ribcage, as the attack slowly subsided and Castor finally swept his arms out to send the force of the energy back at Ordinemon.
The angel recoiled, flaring his wings out and preparing to attack again, but Alpha lunged for his face, dancing in the air around him and distracting him long enough for Castor to kneel next to Alex.
“Are you alright?” he asked, his familiars still facing Ordinemon. He reached one massive hand out toward Alex, a single claw nearly as long as he was tall, and Alex grabbed it to support himself as he stood back up. He nodded gingerly, testing his body for any pain. Nothing more than what he’d already had, so that was good.
Castor returned the gesture, then faced Ordinemon once more. “I appreciate your concern for me, but you’re far more fragile than I am. Please don’t do that again.” He dipped his head, looking back at Alex out of the corner of his eye. “Go back and keep the others safe. Make sure they’re okay, too. I’ll be fine.”
Alex nodded again and Castor took off like a shot, aiming straight for Ordinemon’s face with his familiars trailing close behind. Alex watched him go for a second, then set his jaw and turned back toward the treeline, where -
Quinn was standing just a few feet behind him, her fists clenched and face twisted like she was holding herself back from snapping at him. Alex shrank back slightly and she sighed, looking instead at where Ordinemon was holding off Alpha.
“I thought you were done with being an idiot,” she said, her words cutting like knives through the pain Alex was already feeling. “Go back. And don’t do that again.”
“What are you -” he started, but she raised a hand to silence him, and he closed his mouth.
“I’ll be fine.”
That was all she said. She didn’t leave any room for argument, or for him to respond at all. She just ran forward, toward the fight, toward Ordinemon, toward her partner. Alex reached a hand out after her, his fist closing around empty air, and he swallowed the lump growing in his throat before turning back to the group.
“What is she doing?” he asked when he rejoined them, Ezra immediately coming up to check him over. “She’s just going to get herself killed. And she called me an idiot.”
“She’s delusional,” Damien said bitterly, kicking a twig at his feet. “Said she was going to try to ‘end this’. Whatever the fuck that means.”
Alex frowned, taking Ezra’s hand in his own. “Like, end the fight?” She can’t end it right now. Ordinemon is way too strong. It’d take hours for us to be able to wear him down enough for us to even be able to start doing damage, and that’s if we survive that long. Does she think she can just ask him nicely to stop?
Damien shrugged, and none of the others had any answers, so Alex resigned himself to shaking his head and simply watching the fight unfold.
The park around them was being torn to shreds by the attacks from the Digimon - from both sides. Ordinemon’s were far more destructive, and he was far less careful, but the partners were doing their fair share of damage, too. Not to mention the miasmic feathers still raining from the sky, burning away whatever they landed upon. Sooner or later, there wouldn’t be any ground left for them to stand on - figuratively and literally.
They needed a plan, and fast.
“What are we thinking?” Alex called to the rest of the group, wincing as Ordinemon struck Castor with a beam of energy. He couldn’t afford to take his eyes off the fight, so he projected his voice the best he could so the others could hear him. “Should we keep going?”
“You mean fighting?” Ezra asked, not making the same effort as Alex to be heard. He wondered if that was intentional or not. “What else can we do? We can’t talk to him.”
“Clearly we can’t fight him, either,” Ryan pointed out, and several of the group nodded in agreement. “Obviously we have to fight him in order to defeat him, but he’s way too powerful, and we’re not strong enough.”
“If the Digimon could evolve to mega,” Moxie said, sounding hopeful, “they might stand a chance, but…” She deflated, and all the optimism in her voice was gone when she continued. “I don’t know if they’ll be able to. Is there enough time…?”
“Obviously there’s enough time, because there’s nothing else we can do,” Damien said, but his words were less abrasive than they normally would be. “If all we can do is fight, then that’s the only thing worth doing at the moment.”
Harmony frowned, clutching her hands to her chest. “But the Digimon… can they keep going? Don’t… don’t you all feel it, too?”
“Feel what?” Azure asked, but the look in their eyes was enough proof that they knew what Harmony meant, and Alex knew it too.
Miguel was the one who continued for her. “They’re…” He shook his head, staring down at the ground and running a hand across a reopened slash along his arm. “They’re growing weaker. They can’t keep fighting for much longer. I know they need to, but…”
“But it’s not worth it,” Anna whispered, “if they’re risking their lives to do so.”
Silence washed over the clearing.
The consensus was clear, but nobody was happy about it, even those who had suggested it. If they ran, if they abandoned the fight and left Ordinemon to wreak whatever havoc he wished, there was no telling if they’d be able to stop him. If they’d be able to fight him again. If they retreated, he might just follow them, hunt them down and kill them while they were unable to defend themselves. They wouldn’t stand a chance. The Digimon would be devolved and the humans would be vulnerable and all he’d have to do was aim one single attack at them and they’d be done for.
Everything they had fought for over the past four months would have amounted to nothing.
I can’t let that happen.
This can’t end here. All that we’ve done, everything we’ve been through, it can’t end like this. I won’t let it.
Even if the outcome is the same either way… at least we’ll have died trying.
We can’t give up now.
“I know it’s scary,” Alex said, and he only realized he was speaking aloud when Ezra tightened his grip on his hand. He turned to face the others, his back to the fight for the first time since it had begun. “And we’re way outpowered. But this is what we’ve been waiting for for months. Everything we’ve been through has been so we can get to this point. I… I don’t think we should give up while we still have some fight left in us.”
He was talking about the humans here with him just as much as he was talking about the Digimon. If they were still in it, if they still believed they stood a chance, they had to take that and use it.
He knew well just how powerful the bonds between human and Digimon were. Maybe, if they were still willing to fight, the Digimon would be too.
For a moment - too long of a moment, feeling like it stretched into eons - nobody spoke. Nobody moved. It seemed as if nobody was even breathing, even as the battle raged on behind them.
For a moment, Alex thought it hadn’t been enough.
But then Ezra squeezed his hand and stepped forward, determination glowing in his eyes. “We keep fighting,” he said, dipping his head. “While we’re still able to. We keep going until we can’t anymore.”
“Because there’s a chance we can do something,” Azure said, clenching their own fist. “And we hafta take it while we can.”
“Especially since Quinn is still out there all on her own,” Damien muttered, tugging on his sunglasses. “Probably should do something about that.”
“Right, sort of forgot about that part,” Alex said under his breath as he turned to face the fight again, and, with the others, started forward.
He wasn’t going to run out and put himself directly in the line of fire again. Quinn was right - he was supposed to be done with being an idiot. So were the others.
But she was, too, and they had to bring her back before she got herself hurt.
As they got closer, he could see her standing just beyond the treeline, trying valiantly to avoid Ordinemon’s attacks but still struggling. Castor and Alpha were still at the forefront of the battle, hitting the angel with their heaviest attacks while the rest of the Digimon simply did their best to protect themselves while landing a punch or firing a projectile every now and then. Quinn was calling out encouragement to Alpha - at least, that’s what it seemed like, at first. When they came to a stop near her, warily keeping themselves within the cover of the branches above them, Alex could hear just exactly what she was saying, and see what was on her face as she yelled up at her partner, fists clenched so hard her knuckles were white.
“Keep going!” she shouted, taking one step forward. She didn’t seem to have noticed the others had approached her, or if she did, she didn’t give any indication. “You have to keep fighting! Give it everything you have! Whatever it takes!” She broke off, raising one hand to her head and bundling her fingers in her hair. “You can’t give up!”
It was actually hard to tell if she was yelling at just Alpha, or all of the Digimon as a whole. Her eyes darted over the battlefield, never staying on any one Digimon for too long before moving to the next, and she kept scraping her feet against the dirt beneath her as if she was about to run at any moment.
Her words were much the same as Alex’s had been to the group just a minute prior, but the tone of her voice was so much different. Rage curdled in her voice, licking her words as she spat them out like they were made of fire. She didn’t seem able to keep them in for very long before they came spilling out, unbidden, unrestrained. Even as Alex stepped even closer to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, the only change was that her entire arm tensed. She didn’t take her eyes off the fight. She didn’t stop yelling. She didn’t look over at him.
Her eyes didn’t stop watering.
Alex stared at her for a single second longer, then took up his own stance beside her, turning his face toward where Castor zipped about near Ordinemon’s chest. He lifted one hand to his mouth, cupping it to help his voice carry as his words mixed with Quinn’s.
“You can do it!”
Only then did something in Quinn’s demeanor change. It wasn’t much; she still didn’t meet anyone’s eyes, or relax her posture. But when she cried out again, aimed at her partner, floating in the sky and barely visible against Ordinemon’s pitch black wings, her tone finally softened, almost to the point of cracking.
“We can do this!”
Around them, the rest of the group stepped up, their chants melding with Alex and Quinn’s, bright and sanguine against the surrounding darkness of the night and the falling feathers. They yelled everything they could think of, all the words they had longed to tell their partners but had never been able to vocalize, until the sound of their cries overtook the noise of the battle they were fighting. Their Digimon struck in tandem, each attack punctuated by a shout of encouragement or determination or hope. When Alex’s throat began to sting and he took a deep breath in, he saw not only Ezra beside him, holding his hand tight, but also Anna, and Ryan, and Damien, and everyone he had laughed with or cried with or fought with over the past four months of his life.
This, he thought, heart thrumming against his ribcage, beating in time with his friend’s voices. This is what everything has been leading up to.
For a few long, hollowing minutes, standing together and cheering on their partners, Alex almost felt as if this was doable.
And then Alpha, glowing blade in hand, leapt straight for Ordinemon’s face with one single call.
“
After the attack exploded in a flash of light, so intense Alex had to shield his face with a hand, there was no immediate reaction. Alpha darted backward, out of the way of whatever Ordinemon would surely fling his way next, and Castor floated up next to him, his three familiars ready to act.
But Ordinemon did nothing.
It wasn’t that Alpha’s attack hadn’t hit its mark. He had plunged his sword into the space on Ordinemon’s face where his eyes would be, if he even had any, shadowed by the tendrils of hair that covered them. There had been no outcry of rage from Ordinemon, no hiss of pain, no physical reaction whatsoever. It was as if Alpha hadn’t done anything at all.
That assumption, and the growing repose in the clearing, was very quickly dispelled when Ordinemon tipped his head back and screamed.
The caterwaul echoed off the trees, the buildings, the empty space around him. It ricocheted and surrounded the group, Digimon and human alike, as if trapped in a swirling vortex made of nothing but his voice. It did not hurt to listen to, the volume loud but tolerable, but whatever emotion was in it - if there even was one - was almost unbearable.
When Ordinemon snapped his mouth shut and flared his wings out as far as they would stretch, blocking out the moon and the stars and anything else in the night sky, there wasn’t even enough time to ponder what had sparked that response from him, because he instantly called out once more.
“
It took less time for the lights to appear this time. It took far less time for the beams of energy to shoot from them, all aimed directly at Alpha.
It took what felt like a lifetime to watch them impact, and explode in a flash of light, and for Alpha to be consumed in a paradoxical black glow, shrinking down to his rookie form in a similar flash of a second, and for him to plummet straight toward the ground.
“ALPHA!”
Quinn was gone in an instant, racing toward her partner as fast as her feet could take her, arms outstretched to try to catch him. Alex started forward as well, but a firm tug on his hand held him back, and he looked over his shoulder to see a grim expression on Ezra’s face. The message was clear - if he followed her, he was putting himself in just as much danger as she was.
“I thought you were done with being an idiot.”
And I thought you were, too.
All he could do was watch as she ran toward her falling partner, as the rest of the Digimon either dove to catch him or rounded on Ordinemon, and as Ordinemon himself flexed his wings and gave one final cry.
“
Each beam was focused on an individual Digimon this time. Slowly, one by one, they too were consumed in light as they devolved, much like Alpha had, falling from the sky like colored stars. Nothing in the world could have stopped any of the humans from rushing toward their partners, even Alex, even as Quinn’s voice echoed in his head.
She’d done it first. Wasn’t she supposed to be leading by example?
The attack continued even as they tore across the battlefield, trying to get to their partners as quickly as they could. They swerved between and dove under the beams, avoiding the energy emanating from them and the feathers that still rained down from the sky. Even once they faded, they were quick to return, aimed differently this time, constructing new obstacles in their paths.
When Alex finally found Castor amidst the mess, he practically skidded to a stop next to him, falling to his knees and clutching him tight. Castor groaned, trying to wriggle out of his hold, but Alex just bundled his hands even tighter in his blood-red cape. I’m not letting you go, he tried to say with his embrace, since he couldn’t quite get any words out around the lump in his throat. I’m not leaving you again.
“Please,” Castor murmured, his head sinking to bury into Alex’s chest. “I have to fight. I… might be the only one who…”
Alex shook his head viciously, letting Cas pull back but keeping his firm hold on him. “I can’t let you,” he rasped, wincing as, around him, the beams faded and then reformed once more. “You need to save your energy.”
“I’ve got plenty of energy,” Castor said, even though it was clear from the look in his eyes that he was running on pure adrenaline. He made to start toward Ordinemon, but Alex pulled him close again, and this time Castor didn’t even struggle, simply went limp in his hold.
“Pick your battles,” Alex said, lowering his own head to rest upon Castor’s. “We need to get out of here. Retreat and… form a new plan or something. That’s all we can do right now.”
Slowly, Castor nodded, and he and Alex stood up, checking themselves over and then scanning the battlefield. In the chaos, it was nearly impossible to see or hear anything, through the bright lights and the scattering of dust and dirt and feathers that surrounded them, but Alex could make out blurry shapes around him. He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath, then called out, as loud as he could manage at the moment.
“We need to retreat! Everyone stick close and follow Castor!”
Castor dipped his head and ignited his claws in bright red energy, swinging them through the air like a sparkler. Alex nodded down at him, and they ran, maneuvering between the energy beams and feathers as they raced to get off the battlefield, with Alex calling out directions every now and then as, slowly, the rest of the group fell into step behind them.
It was difficult, with Ordinemon’s attack seemingly unending and the area around them eroding further and further by the minute, but it didn’t take long to reach the edge of the park. They didn’t have enough time to stop and check each other over, or make sure they were each doing okay; once they could see more than a foot in front of them, Castor snuffed his claws out, and Alex nodded, and then they took off.
They headed down the street they emerged onto, not even caring where they were heading. Ordinemon did not chase them, but his attack followed the group as they ran, making their escape hazardous. They dodged each feather and beam of energy that came their way, but they did not stop.
As they fled the park, the fight, the scene of the crime, taking shortcuts where they could and hiding from Ordinemon’s attacks by heading down alleyways whenever they could, they noticed signs of evacuation all around them. It was relieving to see that most people had gotten out already, that hopefully no civilians had been caught in the crossfire of their battle, but the sheer destruction that heralded the evacuation brought them back to the grim reality of the situation. Even buildings nearly ten blocks away from the park had been - and were still being - struck by Ordinemon’s attacks and besieged by the ashen feathers that carried on the wind and their own ordained paths.
Alex didn’t even have enough energy left to care about the fact that they were giving up.
It was hard not to be reminded of how they’d fled from Plutomon when he had first shown up. How they’d been considering it even before Quinn and Alpha had shown up. And then he’d just come back, following them into the city that was supposed to be their sanctuary. Would Ordinemon hunt them down later? Was he going to stay there in the park, destroying everything around him with miasma and darkness alike?
He’d said he wanted to destroy the world. Both worlds. How long did they have to stop him?
Could they?
They had just been saying that they couldn’t give up, not while they were still willing to fight. They had shouted together, calling out to their partners and reassuring them that they were still there with them, and they’d said that they weren’t going to give up. That they could do this.
And now, here they were, running from a fight they had started against the angel that was going to destroy their world.
But they couldn’t do anything about it. They couldn’t even think about it. Right now, all they could focus on was getting as far away as possible, to save themselves and their partners. Was it cowardice? Maybe. Was it selfish? Probably.
But was it the only thing they could do at the moment? Yes.
They had to get to safety. They had to recover while they could, and come up with a new plan, and then go back in once they actually knew what they were doing. Running in headfirst was not the way to go when it came to Ordinemon. If they stood any chance at defeating him, they’d need to -
“Wait!”
Alex stumbled to a stop, nearly falling to the ground as he whirled around to face Miguel. The rest of the group halted, too, strung together so tightly it seemed like they were afraid they’d get separated if they were too far apart. Down at Alex’s feet, Castor lifted his head, and Alex frowned.
His heart was still beating too fast for him to focus on any one thing for more than a few seconds. He saw Ezra next to Anna, the latter sporting a shallow gash down her thigh. Azure and Damien stood nearly shoulder-to-shoulder, their partners in front of them like guard dogs. Harmony was holding onto Ren as she grit her teeth, one leg lifted off the ground - the gunshot wound Beelzemon had given her had reopened, blood trickling from it slowly.
But it was Miguel in the center of it all, with Flip held tightly in his arms, that raised his voice, his eyes wide and breathing heavy, and said, “Where’s Quinn and Alpha?”
And as he said it, and as Alex’s eyes scanned over the group, mentally going over each and every person and Digimon he could see, he realized something he’d failed to notice amidst the havoc of their escape.
His heart skipped a beat, then seemed to double its pace, and he felt a swelling in his throat that felt like vomit.
Quinn and Alpha weren’t with them.
For the first time since they’d fled, his mind was blank, as empty as the space at the front of the group where they should be standing was. He looked from Miguel, to Ezra, to Castor, and then at that empty spot, right next to himself.
…What should he do?
What next?
That was something Castor had asked the two of them, only an hour after meeting them, as they’d stood in the center of the square in File City staring at the portal that Plutomon had opened. He’d stepped forward and looked at both of them and asked what next? and Quinn had smiled down at him and she’d immediately had an answer. In that moment, Alex had known that she was their leader, the one they’d been missing all along.
He’d been trying to fill that spot since they’d first arrived in the Digital World. He was the only one who was willing to do so. They needed someone to lead them and keep them together as they tried to figure out where they were and how they could get home and then, later, why they were there in the first place.
But Quinn had so readily and easily answered Castor’s question, one which could have had a thousand different meanings, but she’d managed to figure out what he meant and she’d smiled and she’d known exactly what to say.
And now she was gone, and the hole in their group that she had filled was as cavernous as it had been up until they’d encountered her in that forest clearing.
What do I do?
They couldn’t go back to Ordinemon. Not while he was still raining down attacks upon the surrounding area. He’d turned his attention away from them when they’d gotten too far, but if they approached him again, he’d kill them instantly. They were in no shape to be fighting again. There wasn’t even any telling if the two of them would still be there.
But what could they do without them? Without their leaders? What now?
What next?
Ryan lifted his head and looked over at Alex.
“Lead the way.”
They kept going until they couldn’t hear Ordinemon anymore, or see the flashes of light in the distance signifying his attacks. They were far away from the scene of the battle by now, and the buildings around them had not been touched by either his attacks or the miasmic feathers.
They stopped in an empty street, practically collapsing onto the asphalt and sidewalks. Their run had long since turned into more of a trudge, trying to put as much distance between themselves and Ordinemon as they could, but they hadn’t been willing to stop until they were far enough away to be able to pretend like everything was normal.
Around them, the buildings down the street were empty, scattered lights left on with nobody inside to turn them off. Cars were parked haphazardly up and down the street, their drivers not having gotten far before they’d decided it would be easier and quicker to escape on foot. Even the people this far away from Ordinemon hadn’t wanted to stick around to see what he would do, or how long it would take to get closer. The group took some solace in that fact, in knowing that maybe even just stalling Ordinemon had been enough to save some civilians.
Alex was glad they’d left, but seeing just how empty and lifeless the streets were, with evidence of people having left in a panic as quickly as they could, made his blood run a bit cold.
Nobody knew quite what to do. They had no idea where Quinn and Alpha were, or what had happened to them, or if they were okay, or what to do next. Ordinemon was clearly so much more powerful than Plutomon, and Plutomon had been enough of a struggle for them. Even though the Digimon had reached their mega stages now, they still couldn’t do so reliably or easily.
They didn’t really stand a chance, did they?
But the lack of direction gave them a chance to rest. If they’d known exactly what to do next, they might not have given themselves the break they so desperately needed. If they knew where Quinn and Alpha were, Alex knew he’d be the first to go looking for them, to make sure they were okay and to bring them back so they could be safe.
But they didn’t. So all they could do was sit, and wait, and take the short amount of time they had left to rest.
Ryan and Miguel had volunteered to go poking around in some of the nearby abandoned stores, looking for food and first aid kits and any other supplies they could get their hands on. Alex knew it was looting, but he really didn’t care. Nobody else in the city was going to need this stuff. They were all evacuating and getting to safety, where they’d have shelter and food and water. The group was stuck here, pinned between Ordinemon and the end of the world, and they needed everything they could get, even if it meant breaking and entering and shoplifting and so many other minor crimes that he didn’t know nor care about.
The injuries they’d sustained had not been minor. Alex’s arm wound, he realized only once they stopped, had been torn back open, staining his palm red as the blood dripped down, and he had a brand new slash across his shin (perhaps that was why running had been so hard). He’d already noticed the gunshot reopening on Harmony’s calf, but the bite from Fangmon, on the same exact leg, was also soaking through her jeans. Anna’s own thigh injury was making movement difficult and painful, and the bite on Damien’s arm had been roughed up when he had (apparently) dove across the grass to catch Bumble as he fell.
They weren’t the only ones with blood staining their clothes and pain wracking their bodies. They checked each other over as they waited for Ryan and Miguel to get back; they’d left their partners behind, arguing that if anybody was still around, they wouldn’t be happy to see any other monsters. The Digimon were all curled up together, trying to rest while they could, though sleep was not coming easily to any of them, evidenced by the twitching of tails and furrowing of eyebrows that Alex caught glimpses of whenever he looked over to check on Castor.
Damien sighed, leaning back against the building he was propped against as he stared down at his phone. Yes, his phone. He had deactivated his digivice as soon as they’d stopped, insisting that he check the news to see what was going on; nobody had had the strength left in them to argue, and even if they had, Alex wasn’t sure if anybody would have. He certainly wouldn’t.
“I’ve got good news and bad news,” Damien said, obviously trying to lighten the mood. He didn’t wait for anyone else to respond before he continued, swiping his thumb across the screen to scroll down. “The good news is that every news station in the entire world is reporting on Ordinemon.”
“That’s good news?” Azure said, raising one eyebrow.
“There’s reporters still nearby,” Damien went on, disregarding them entirely. “For some fucking reason. They’re not sticking around for long, though. The feathers are still spreading everywhere, and they’re…” He squinted down at his phone. “Giving third degree burns to anyone who touches them. Wow, okay. I did not need to see those photos.”
Alex frowned, his attention piqued. “Wait,” he said, drawing all attention. “When I touched one of them, it just stung for a little bit, but it didn’t burn me. Like putting your hand on a really hot bowl of pasta that you’ve nuked in the microwave for three minutes. It didn’t burn me.”
“Maybe you didn’t touch it for long enough?” Harmony suggested, leaning forward. She was sitting with her injured leg stretched out in front of her, with Moxie’s pink sweater tied around the gunshot, the more immediately pressing wound. She flinched as she glided her fingers across the bite mark, still seeping blood through the denim. “I wouldn’t put it past anyone else to just pick one out of the sky and hold it for really long to get a good look at it.”
“You’d think they’d drop it as soon as it started to hurt, though,” Ezra said, leaning against Alex’s back. Anna was sitting closer to him than Alex had ever seen, almost looking as if she wanted to bury herself in him. They’d been like that for the past few days, ever since they’d come back late one evening, ignoring everyone else’s eyes. It was hard to tell if it was a good thing - Ezra hadn’t shared details with Alex - but they at least seemed to be at peace.
“Remember, worms for brains,” Azure said, holding a finger up, and even despite everything, Alex managed a smile.
“And that’s all good news,” Moxie said, her eyes darkening as she looked toward her brother. “Somehow.”
“Compared to the bad news?” Damien snorted and held his phone out, and the group leaned in, getting a real good look at a cell phone for the first time in two weeks. “Yeah. That’s all really good news.”
“They’re calling in the MILITARY?” Azure cried, their hands curling into claws in the air. “Are they STUPID? What the fuck do they think they’re going to be able to do against him?!” They gestured out at where Ordinemon was still hovering, just faintly visible against the darkness of night.
“I mean, it’s better than calling animal control, I guess,” Harmony muttered, her lip curling slightly as she tugged on her makeshift tourniquet. “At least it’ll distract Ordinemon for a little bit.”
“It’s going to make things a lot harder for us,” Ezra pointed out. “Since when we go back in to fight, they’ll think our partners are more monsters they need to gun down.”
“Shit, I didn’t even think of that,” Moxie said, holding a hand to her temples.
Damien shook his head, swiping and tapping at his phone for a couple seconds until it began to revert to digivice state. “Not to mention they’re not even going to do anything against Ordinemon. Just make him mad. We’ve seen what the police could do, or couldn’t do, against regular old Demon Lords. Don’t think a tank is going to do much better with whatever the fuck he is.”
They fell back into silence, simply taking the time to sit together and rest while they could. Ryan and Miguel returned before long, with snacks and water bottles and whatever bandages they could get their hands on. It wasn’t much; they weren’t able to get into the biggest store nearby, not without breaking a window, and they didn’t want to risk impaling themselves on glass and then not having anything to fix that. They immediately set to patching everyone up the best they could, along with Harmony’s help. Despite Ryan’s insistence that she rest, she wasn’t willing to sit back and watch, and he quickly gave up on trying to convince her.
They wiped away blood and taped up injuries, wrapping gauze around legs and arms to apply pressure and stop the blood flow. Ryan brought up the idea of going back to the motel to get their first aid kits, but shut himself down before anyone else could comment. It was too far away, too risky. They’d just have to make do for now, with what they had. Alex tried to reassure him, saying they’d be fine, but he wasn’t fully certain, and just a cursory glance at the others revealed they felt the same.
Once they were done, with splints and bandages and thin strips of fabric dressing them up as much as their clothes, they divided up the food and water and separated into smaller groups, collecting their partners (who had woken up by now) as they dispersed. The stretch of road that they had made their home base was similarly too small and too big; though everyone was within eyeshot of each other, it felt like a yawning chasm had opened up between them all, cutting off any sort of connection they may otherwise have.
And yet none of them wanted to close the gap.
Alex sighed and tipped his head back to hit the streetlamp he was sitting against. Next to him, Castor shuffled slightly, getting into a better position with his head resting upon his paws and his cape curled tightly around his body. The beef jerky they’d shared was discarded, nothing but crumbs and the plastic bag left behind to indicate it had ever existed. Castor had eaten most of it. Alex wasn’t very hungry.
“I don’t know how we’re supposed to do this,” he said, the first thing either of them had said in a very long time, and he closed his eyes.
He was talking about more than one thing. Fighting Ordinemon, of course. Getting the strength to face him again, and to be able to evolve to mega so they stood more of a chance. Saving the world from him - both worlds.
But he also meant so much more. How were they supposed to survive this? To come out the other side mostly unscathed? Even just barely unscathed? If all of the group survived the battles that were to come, that would be the best possible outcome, but it was looking more and more certain with each passing minute that it wasn’t the most likely. They’d already seen that today.
There was no way to tell if Quinn and Alpha were even still…
And that was the crux of the issue.
How were they - how was Alex - supposed to do anything without Quinn and Alpha to lead them?
“They’ve always known what to do,” he went on, speaking mostly for his own benefit, but the twitch of Castor’s ear was enough indication that he was listening. “Both of them. No matter what was happening, they knew what we were supposed to do. Whether it was to fight, or run, or come up with a new plan…” He looked down at his hands, faint traces of blood still caked into the lines of his palms.
“How are we going to do any of this without them?”
Alpha had always been the one leading the front in fights. The only one out of all of them who was the most prepared to fight Ordinemon, in whatever form he may be. And Quinn… Quinn had always known what was going on, what was bothering each of them, and what to do. The world could be ending, and she’d know exactly what to do to prevent it.
Even if she’d admitted to him that she had no idea what she was doing, that she’d never known, Alex didn’t believe her.
He’d seen her in action, more times than he could count, more times than he wanted to remember. Everything with Plutomon, and Lilithmon, and even tonight, with Ordinemon - she’d been their shining beacon in the darkness of night, the one they could always rely on.
And Alex… he couldn’t live up to that.
“Everyone’s looking at me now that she’s gone,” he said, his hands curling into fists to subconsciously hide that they were shaking. “I don’t know why. Why me? What can I even do?”
He squeezed his eyes shut again and braced his hands against the pavement, feeling the concrete beneath his fingers, cold and hard to the touch. Everything he couldn’t be, and everything he needed to be right now.
“I can’t do what they do.”
For a few long, agonizing seconds, there was only silence. Silence and stillness. Nothing moved, or spoke, or seemed alive at all.
He felt so… alone.
And then Castor pushed himself up, stepped closer to Alex, sat down next to him, and laid his head against his arm.
“You’ve led us since the very beginning,” he said, sounding much more like Jesmon than Hackmon in that moment. His voice was deep and rich, and so comforting that Alex almost forgot where he was and what he was doing. “From the moment you arrived in the Digital World, you’ve been leading us. All of us. Even after we met Moxie and Damien, and Anna, and even Quinn… you’ve led us through it all.”
He pulled his head back to look into Alex’s face, tipping his head to the side just slightly, enough for the faint light of the streetlamp to reflect off his eyes, like they were glowing.
“You’ve gotten us this far. We believe in you for a reason. That’s why we’re following you.”
Alex met his gaze for only a second more, then looked back down at the ground.
“After we defeat Ordinemon,” he said, instead of everything else he wanted to say. “If we defeat him… what happens next? Do our lives just go back to normal? Can they? Do you guys get to stay with us here?”
He breathed out carefully, trying to focus only on the warmth of Castor pressed up against his side.
“…Is it selfish of me to even hope for that?”
He knew it was.
The real world was not the Digimon’s home. That much was patently obvious. It wasn’t just because the rest of the humans in the world would not want to share it with monsters; it was so much more. They didn’t have the space they needed to live, to roam, to fight. There was no free data in the environment for them to draw from, to gain their energy from.
If they died here, they would be gone forever.
But a small, childish part of Alex didn’t want to accept it. He wanted Castor to stay here, with him, forever. He couldn’t bear the thought of them being separated. He’d known his partner for all of four months, and he already knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.
He knew it wasn’t possible. He knew he was just as selfish by asking Castor to stay here as Castor would be if he asked Alex to live in the Digital World with him. Alex couldn’t make the Digital World his home. He knew he never would be able to.
And he couldn’t expect Castor to do the same for him, no matter how much he wanted it.
But it didn’t stop him from wanting.
Castor dipped his head, his tail flicking slightly. “Whatever’s meant to happen will happen,” he said, blinking up at Alex slowly. “We can’t change our destiny, but we can ensure our future.”
He looked out to the sky, where Ordinemon was still floating in the far off distance, obscuring the stars and the moon, and he smiled.
“It all comes down to this.”
They’d made it this far.
Even if it seemed difficult, even if it seemed impossible… so much of the rest of their journey had, too. Everything leading up to this moment had been grueling, and painful, and exhausting, and they’d still done it. They’d gotten to this point in time, and they had to keep going.
They couldn’t give up.
We can’t sit here and wait for something to happen to us, wait for Ordinemon to come this way. We have to take the chance we’ve been given. We have to do something.
Because I’ve always done something.
That was what had gotten him this far - sticking to his guns, and never backing down, no matter how much he wanted to and how impossible whatever laid in front of him seemed, and always, always, always doing the right thing. Sometimes it was the only thing he could do. He couldn’t give up now, just as he hadn’t given up in the past.
He’d always had Castor, and Castor had always had him, and they’d made it work. Together. And everyone else - he wouldn’t have made it this far without them. They were all in this together.
They needed each other.
And right now, they needed to do something.
“You ready to go kick some digital ass?” he asked, looking down at his partner, and Castor blinked once, then smiled.
“Always.”
They gathered in the center of the street.
They all knew, even without words, what was coming. It was clear in the way Alex called everyone to attention, the way Castor checked with each of the Digimon, the way they stood together, facing the black wings in the sky. They knew what they had to do.
“We’re going to fight,” Alex said, addressing the group, though he did not take his eyes off Ordinemon in the distance. “Just as we always have. We’re not going to give up while we still have some fight left in us.”
It would be dangerous. It would be tough. It would be the biggest battle any of them had ever been in, ever dreamed of.
But they had to do it.
Quinn and Alpha were relying on them. They still didn’t know where they were or what had happened or if they were okay or if they would ever see them again (don’t think like that), but they had to do this. For them. For the world.
It was what they would do if they were here, and so Alex was going to do it, too.
It all comes down to this.
They straightened themselves out, giving each other one final once-over, lending support to those who needed it. Alex took one final look at the street around them, at the abandoned buildings and forgotten cars, and then he turned to the rest of the group. The people and Digimon who had been with him since the very beginning, and if not, it certainly felt like they had.
They had each other. They’d always have each other.
When they were done, when they were certain they were each okay and ready for this, prepared for what was to come, Alex turned to Castor, kneeling down to be eye-level with him. They stared at each other for a few long seconds, and then Alex lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Castor, much like he had on Twister Mountain in the pouring rain, all that time ago.
“Cas?” he said, his voice muffled from his mouth buried in the cloak. “I… I think we have a lot coming up soon. I can feel it. And… I don’t know if I’ll get another chance to say it, so…”
He pulled himself back, wiping his arm across his eyes, and smiled down at his partner. “Thank you,” he said, his voice cracking slightly, but he didn’t try to cover it up or pass it off. “Thank you for everything. Everything we’ve been through. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Castor said, smiling in kind, and his eyes were shining with unshed tears, tears Alex could feel in his own eyes, even as he tried to blink to hold them back. “Let’s do this.”
“Let’s,” Alex said, his grin widening as he stood back up and turned to face the group.
He felt like he was floating. …Not floating - falling.
Alex was falling. It was so familiar. The pounding exhilaration, the thrill of the descent, wondering what was to come at the bottom. The fear that overtook him, sinking into his gut and snaking its way up his throat until he couldn’t get any words out.
It wasn’t new to him. He knew this feeling.
But this time, with his best friend at his side, it didn’t feel so bad.
Together, the group headed toward the darkest part of the sky, steeling themselves for what was to come.
This wasn’t the end yet.