EPISODE 45 - FIND A PLACE IN THE WORLD
For the second time that night, the group set out to confront their enemy. The city was silent and desolate, empty buildings looming over them as they walked through the streets, and the band of kids and Digimon was similarly quiet. They had nothing to say; everything on their minds had already been said, and they all knew what the others were thinking. The half-ruined roads and shops around them only served to further it.
They kept an eye and an ear out for any civilians who may still be remaining in the area, but they saw and heard nothing. It wasn’t just an absence of people - it was an absence of life entirely. No birds sang, even as the sky slowly started to brighten, heralding the new day. No squirrels or lizards scampered about, scrounging for any scraps of food that evacuees may have dropped in their hurry to leave. Even the few trees and patches of flowers that lined the sidewalks seemed to be wilting, as if Ordinemon’s mere presence was enough to sap the life from their leaves.
Speaking of.
Ordinemon seemed to have moved from the park they’d last seen him in, if the smoldering ashes and miasma rising from deep within the city was any indication. Nobody knew quite what to make of it - on the one hand, at least they wouldn’t be heading back into a barren wasteland covered in burning feathers, but on the other, it wasn’t a good sign that he was on the move, unhindered by the group’s resistance and able to terrorize even more of the city.
When they opened the map on their digivices, clicking on the white dot that signified his location brought up a garbled mess of text. It would have been indiscernible even if more than three members of the group knew how to read Digicode. It escaped the small information box that was supposed to contain it, overflowing off the border and then continuing past the edge of the screen, but when they tried to zoom in or out to see if that would help, the digivice crashed and turned off completely.
So it wasn’t being very helpful in regards to letting them know which direction to head in. They only knew where Ordinemon was through the lack of stars in one far-off section of the sky, hidden by his pitch-black wings.
Ryan found it somewhat poetic that he had managed to kill the stars, billions of years away, before he managed to destroy the world.
“What’s up?” Dare asked quietly, down at his side as always, and he breathed out.
She meant a lot of things with that question, and he knew all of them. Was he doing okay? How was he feeling? What was he thinking? Was he ready for this? Were any of them? Would it even matter if they were?
“Nothing,” he said, obviously a lie, but before she could press any further like she normally would have, he continued on his own. “I just…” He shook his head, shoving his hands further down into his pockets. “Just wish I could’ve helped everyone a bit more. If we’d had more time, or been able to find more…” He trailed off, unable to figure out the right way to finish his thought.
“You did the best with what you had,” Dare said, tipping her head, and Ryan dipped his chin. “Even if it’s not much, it’s better than nothing. We’d all be a lot worse off if you hadn’t done anything.”
He knew it was true. He and Miguel had scoured the area, hunting for any sort of supplies they could find, and they’d returned with barely anything at all, but even the little they had found had been enough to slightly rejuvenate everyone. The Digimon had almost fully regained their strength after the beating they’d taken, even if they were still a little slow, a little cautious, as they walked.
But it was hard to convince himself that he’d done enough.
Dare seemed to realize this, though, and was quick to change the subject. “Are you worried about Ordinemon?”
Well, that’s not really any better, but I guess it’s something.
Ryan didn’t reply immediately, instead turning his face to the sky and letting the faint breeze wash over him. The air tasted of smoke and ice, and something more metaphorical hiding in the undercurrents. Maybe despair. That seemed about right.
He definitely was worried, even if it was difficult to admit. If he was worried about Ordinemon, how was Dare supposed to be able to face him and not be? How could he say it out loud to someone who was relying so heavily on him?
And how could he even be worried about Ordinemon when he was more worried about Alpha and Quinn? About the rest of the group? About Dare herself?
He felt it would be more apt to say he was worried about everything. This wasn’t something he’d ever felt before, really. Worry wasn’t a common emotion for him; it was unfamiliar and unwelcome. He was supposed to take everything with ease, to push all his fears to the back of his mind, where he would never have to face them. Ryan wasn’t supposed to be worried or scared about anything.
But he’d never been more afraid of anything in his life than he was of Ordinemon.
“Are you?” he said to Dare, instead of answering directly.
She, too, thought to herself for a few moments before she replied. She tapped one claw against her cheek, her brow furrowed in consternation. When she finally spoke, it wasn’t what Ryan had been expecting her to say.
“Yeah,” she said, and he felt his heart freeze and shatter into thousands of icicles. Her tail swished idly behind her, occasionally brushing against Ryan’s leg, a comforting sensation in the middle of everything else happening around and within him. “I’m worried about him. He’s… really strong. I’ve fought as Doruguremon plenty of times by now. Raguelmon was difficult. Plutomon was impossible. And Ordinemon…” She sighed. “Impossible times one million. Millionly impossible. Even if I evolve to Dorugoramon again, I don’t know if it’ll make any difference.”
“Is this supposed to be reassuring,” Ryan asked flatly, but Dare shook her head.
“I don’t think I’d be able to reassure you if I tried. Mostly because I’m not reassured about any of it. I’m not exaggerating about any of this. It really is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. More so than Plutomon, which I guess makes sense, since he evolved, but.” She paused, staring down at her paws for a second, then heaved another sigh. “But… the point I’m trying to make isn’t that this is going to be a piece of cake, like, I hit him with one Brave Metal and then he’s dead instantly. It’s that… this is the hardest thing in the world, I know that. But I have to try.”
She looked up at Ryan here, her eyes sparking in the darkness, and she smiled faintly.
“And by god, am I willing to try.”
He didn’t quite know how to respond to that. She wasn’t really looking for him to, though, since she just shook herself out, nodded once, and resumed her attention on the road ahead of her, and Ryan followed suit.
She was so optimistic about all of this. Even after facing Ordinemon, both as Plutomon and actually as Ordinemon, and never winning, she was still so optimistic and hopeful. It almost seemed like she wasn’t worried, with how confident she had said she was still going to try, but… the things she’d said, the words she’d spoken…
Clearly, she was a lot more in tune with her thoughts on the matter than Ryan was.
He wondered if there’d ever been times in the past that she’d managed to mask her fear so well. Against Raguelmon? Meicrackmon, Meicoomon? Phelesmon? Any of the countless other Digimon she’d fought? He hoped not.
But looking down at her now, her face set in determination… it was as if she hadn’t said anything at all. It was hard to tell.
He knew well what it was like to cover up your emotions, to put on a mask and try to feel something you couldn’t, be someone you weren’t. He knew how it felt.
He shook his head and untangled himself from those thoughts.
As they drew closer to Ordinemon, the buildings around them were looking worse and worse for wear. Fading motes of the dark miasma from his wings hung in the air, having fallen from so high and so far that they’d evaporated long before reaching the ground - but even the yet diminishing feathers, carried by gentle gusts of wind and whatever other power they held that allowed them to float wherever they pleased, ate a little bit more of the world away when they landed. It was like dozens of fires had raged through the street, burning indiscriminately and able to tear through brick and concrete like it was wood. In the distance, a siren rang out.
The stars in the sky were uncaring - and missing - as always.
This really is the beginning of the end, huh?
They reached the park.
At least, where the park had once been. Now, it was nothing more than a field of dirt and dust and ash and smoldering miasma, craters pocketing the surface like it was a moon or asteroid, even though it was nothing of the sort.
Good thing we got out of here while we could.
Still.
Ordinemon had moved further away, deeper into the city, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. They could see where he hovered, several blocks away, just visible over the tops of the buildings in between him and them. Smoke and black fog rose up from his position, mixing with the feathers that floated around him.
They knew where he was now. That was where they were heading.
Alex and Castor led the pack as they changed course, something like dedication and resolve and dread mixing in the air around them. Ryan tried not to think about how it should have been Quinn at the front of the group.
She’s fine, he told himself, even though he didn’t believe it. She and Alpha are both fine. We’ll see them again.
The silence that settled over them as they walked was different now. Maybe it was because of that cocktail of emotions surrounding them. Maybe it was the buildings they passed by, battered and bruised by the dark feathers that had laid siege upon them. Maybe it was because they could see Ordinemon now, his featureless face and his impossibly large wings and his helixed limbs. Maybe it was all of it. Maybe it didn’t really matter.
Or maybe not maybe. Maybe it definitely didn’t matter.
When they were only a few blocks away from Ordinemon, the group clustered closer together and finally began to converse as they came up with a battle strategy, or at least something close to one. They needed to utilize each Digimon’s strengths to the fullest extent to give them more of an advantage. Pop was skilled with hit-and-away tactics, and luring the enemy’s attention away from her allies; Flip and Ko had the heaviest attacks, but needed time to recharge in between. Castor, Ren, and Bumble were the quickest, able to get multiple attacks in during the time it would take Ordinemon to launch one. Dare and Ember had both ranged and melee attacks, and would be able to change their battle styles depending on what was needed at the time. Bunny, meanwhile, was small enough to attack without drawing too much attention, and swift enough to hop away before Ordinemon could launch a counter.
This was all operating under the idea they would face him in their ultimate forms. It was simply too unrealistic to assume that they could all evolve to mega. If one or two of them could, like Castor had managed earlier, that would be even better - but they couldn’t solely hinge their strategy on that happening. They’d just have to make do the best they could.
It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it was better than nothing. They’d fought together enough times before for it to work.
Hopefully.
Before they broke out onto the street Ordinemon was on, the Digimon evolved to ultimate, slowly but surely. Dare stretched her wings out and then dipped her head down to Ryan’s eye level, and he reached a hand up to pat her cheek. She grinned, then turned to face Ordinemon, pupils narrowing into slits.
With one final check of themselves and their partners and each other, the Digimon surged forward to meet Ordinemon, and the humans crept away to get to safety.
Ordinemon said nothing as the Digimon began their assault, simply turned to face them and spread his wings out, scattering feathers throughout the air.
“
The Digimon dove and weaved through the attack, managing to dodge some but not all of the energy beams. Flip and Ko struck out with their hammer and horn as Ren sent her paper slips flying toward one of Ordinemon’s legs, and the blue fire from their explosions mixed with the flashes of lightning above them. Bunny formed her crossbow and shot an arrow of ice up at Ordinemon’s face, but it fell short and instead impacted his abdomen. Ember was quick to follow up with a rush of orange fire from his palms while Pop launched her sphere of plasma, engulfed by the flames and propelled forward with even greater strength. When Castor darted forward to slash out with his glowing red blades, Bumble and Dare were not far behind, firing a laser and metallic meteor directly at Ordinemon’s face.
While Flip and Ko recharged, falling back to recuperate, Pop swerved between Ordinemon’s rays, throwing energy ball after energy ball up at the angel to draw his attention. His head tilted down at her, and his wings flexed once more, the crystals on their topmost joints beginning to glow.
“
“
“
Ordinemon flared his wings out, and a storm of feathers rained down upon the battlefield, but they were aimed mostly at Ren and Dare. Dare took a step back in her position in front of Ren, and spread her wings wide. She closed her eyes and grit her teeth, preparing to take the brunt of the attack - in order to protect Ren, Ryan realized as the feathers drew closer.
But then Ren dashed forth, flinging her arm out and sending a volley of talismans toward the feathers. “
Dare cracked an eye open, saw Ren standing in front of her, and grinned, then rounded on Ordinemon as red energy began to crackle around her frontquarters once more. “
“They make a good team,” Harmony said from next to Ryan, and he blinked down at her. Her eyes were locked onto her partner, her brows furrowed in concentration, but there was a slight smile on her lips as she watched the fight play out from the safety of the alley they were hiding in.
“Yeah,” Ryan said, and her smile widened, even though she didn’t look up at him.
But Ordinemon wasn’t as happy with their teamwork as they were. After Dare retreated from her attack charge, he was quick to turn to her and summon more lights in front of him. “
Dare cried out in pain and Ryan grit his teeth, half grateful that he couldn’t feel it while she was in this form and half wishing that he could, so he could lend her a little bit of his energy. She crouched down low, spreading her wings defensively as she recovered, and the other Digimon around her took their chance to distract Ordinemon.
“
“
“
Though the attacks hit their mark, and though they succeeded in drawing Ordinemon’s attention, they didn’t seem to do any real damage, if Ordinemon’s passive twitching of his wings was any indication.
But that was all they needed to do - draw his attention. As his head tilted toward the three that had just attacked, some of the others stepped up to bat, readying their fists and horns and hands.
“
“
“
Once more, they struck true, and once more, Ordinemon simply tipped his head to the side. When the fire and ice had dispersed and melted, and Ordinemon opened his mouth, no doubt to call another attack, Dare shook herself out. Ryan watched as she stretched up to her full height, wings flexed and spread as far as they could go, the golden piercings lining their edges shining in the faint light of the other’s attacks. Beside her, Castor - who Ryan now noticed had fallen back to check on her and watch for Ordinemon, to make sure he couldn’t strike again - closed his eyes, then extended one arm in front of himself, pointing the blade on his gauntlet up at the angel.
Dare and Castor shared one look, yellow eyes meeting crimson, and then they grinned and faced Ordinemon together, both beginning to glow red.
“
“
Castor leapt through the air, swinging his arms and tail across Ordinemon’s chest, while Dare jumped into flight, carried onward by her beating wings as she shot forward. The two hit their mark at the same time, Castor slashing out and Dare ramming straight into one of Ordinemon’s legs. When their attacks and the glow across their bodies faded, they darted back to join their teammates, bracing themselves for whatever way Ordinemon would retaliate.
He stared down at them, a snarl beginning to tug at his lips, and then the crystals on his wings shone bright.
“
The beams shot down. The Digimon dodged as many as they could, but as always, it was impossible to completely avoid them. They made do, hiding behind rubble and half-destroyed buildings, dashing between the rays of energy like strobe lights at a party. It was clear, though, that Ordinemon was beginning to wear them down. Just as he always did.
And yet they kept fighting.
The humans continued to call out advice and warnings and encouragement to their partners, even though they knew they couldn’t really hear them, not with everything else going on - Ordinemon’s cries, their own attack announcements, the explosions and bursts of energy and city crumbling around them. But even if their partners couldn’t hear them, they knew that they could at least feel what they were trying to indicate: their unwavering, undying hope and belief and faith in them.
It felt a little impossible that they would actually be able to defeat Ordinemon, let alone injure him. But they had to keep going. That was what they were here for. They’d said, not even that long ago, that they couldn’t give up while they were still able to fight.
And even if they couldn’t fight, Ryan knew that they would still be here, making an effort anyway, trying their damn best to do at least something.
The doubt and fear that clouded his mind was hard to see through as Ordinemon continued his assault, easily overpowering each of their partners with relentless attacks and unseen strength. It was like a fog that clung to the edges of his thoughts, rolling over the ocean waves of hope that kept rushing forward, then receding, then returning once again. Half of him knew this wasn’t possible, and the other half knew that they had to try.
This is why we’re here, he told himself when that fog refused to dissipate. It’s why we met our partners in the first place. Whatever chose us for this task chose us for a reason. We’ll never know what that reason was, but if it decided to give us this power, to let us meet our partners, then it must be a good reason.
But this isn’t doable, that voice in the back of his head kept telling him. Nine ultimates wasn’t a match against Plutomon. They certainly won’t be against Ordinemon. Even if you had Quinn here, this would still be pointless. You should just give up already. Accept your defeat, like he’s been telling you to.
“
Ryan didn’t have a response to that. As much as he wanted to ignore it, it was still there, and it was still true, no matter how much he hated it. They really weren’t a match against him. Not without Quinn and Alpha.
Would they be, even if they were here?
So lost in his thoughts was he that he didn’t notice that Ordinemon had drawn closer to the alley where the humans were hiding, only barely obscured by the rubble surrounding them, and with Ordinemon came his miasma.
And with that miasma came one black feather, floating down from the sky, and landing directly on Ryan’s forearm, folded across his chest.
Instead of eating away at his skin, like all the other feathers ate away at the world around them and reduced it to nothing but ash and dust, it burned for a few brief seconds, shone with a bright light, and then disappeared.
It wasn’t supposed to do that. Right? Damien had told him and Miguel, when they’d returned from their looting mission, that people online were saying the feathers were burning them. Real burns, not just feeling painful for a couple seconds and then fading. But when Ryan lifted his arm to get a better look at where the feather had landed, there was nothing to indicate it had ever touched him - no mark or scar of any sort, nothing but the faint lingering pain it had left.
No idea what that’s supposed to mean, he thought, his frown deepening. But at least it’s not killing me or whatever. I guess that’s good.
“
More feathers rained down upon the battlefield, covering the Digimon and obstructing their aim. Similarly to how the feather had not injured Ryan, the ones from Ordinemon’s attack didn’t seem to do any more damage to the partners than his other attacks did. Of course, his other attacks did a lot of damage, and thus the feathers still hurt and impeded them, but it wasn’t tearing fur and flesh from bone like people online had been experiencing.
I wonder why?
But there wasn’t really any time to wonder why. Ordinemon was not letting up his assault, and the Digimon, though hanging on and pushing through, were clearly beginning to tire. They hadn’t been fighting for very long, but already the battle was taking a toll on them, physically and mentally.
And it was taking a toll on the area around them, too, that much was obvious. Ordinemon was doing most of the damage, as always, but the partners were not complicit in the destruction of the city. Buildings were crumbling, roads buckling and cracking, smoke and ash rising from nearly every square inch of the vicinity. The miasma was the biggest perpetrator, but Ryan watched as Bunny was thrown across the battlefield into a still-standing building, and it collapsed under her weight, spilling bricks and wood beams into the street.
And the attacks from the partners that weren’t hitting the area around them, the ones aimed precisely at Ordinemon or the ones he wasn’t able to deflect, weren’t doing any damage to him. He barely reacted when any of them struck him, shrugging off most attacks as if they were nothing more than a tap on the shoulder. When even one attack was sent his way, he’d retaliate with two more. He was too fast, even with his massive size, for any of them to keep up with. Too powerful. Too unbeatable.
As Ordinemon swept one helixed arm out to knock Ko and Bumble aside, sending them careening into the ground, Ryan clenched his fists.
They were just stalling for time at this point. Just as they always had, whenever they’d faced him. They were just trying to postpone the inevitable. They couldn’t defeat him like this, not if they were unable to evolve to mega. Not if they didn’t have Alpha and Quinn.
That voice in the back of his head was pretty damn loud at this point, and its words kept circling Ryan’s brain like a whirlpool. Nine ultimates weren’t a match against Ordinemon, because they hadn’t been a match against Plutomon. Even if they could evolve, even if Alpha was here, even if Ordinemon was still Plutomon, none of this was doable.
They could not do this.
Perhaps that was what their destiny truly was. To fail, just as the humans before them had failed. In twenty years’ time, when the earth was still struggling to recover from Ordinemon’s destruction of it, perhaps the overseer of the Digital World - whoever that may be - would call upon more children to fix their mess.
Would those children fail, too? Who would come after them? When would it end?
It’s not ever going to end. This is your life now. You are trapped in an endless cycle of trying and failing to win. But you can’t. Not like this.
What do I need to do to win?
There is nothing you can do.
When will this end?
It won’t.
The Digimon kept fighting, kept pressing on, kept resisting their defeat. Ordinemon attacked relentlessly, pouring attack after attack upon them, giving them no chance to rest or recover or regroup. Still they held on, refusing to give up, even on the verge of devolution and defeat.
Because even if all they were doing was stalling, at least that would give the world a little more time.
And maybe that’s all it needs.
Ryan closed his eyes, his head tipping down so his chin rested against his chest. He couldn’t watch any longer. He couldn’t bear to see his partner, or the others’ partners, take any more hits. Maybe they could do this, but he couldn’t.
But while he wasn’t looking, something happened.
Or rather, maybe it’s more like nothing happened. He had grown somewhat accustomed to the sound of Ordinemon’s voice, the chorus of attacks he would call out every couple of seconds, the noise of the energy beams or falling feathers he would summon. It had become almost like a song in the background, one he could mostly tune out if he wasn’t focused on it.
But when that song paused, and the only sounds remaining were the partner Digimon’s calls and the pounding hearts of the other humans standing with him, it instantly drew his attention.
Ordinemon was still hovering in the air - that had not changed. The partners had not managed to defeat him, or incapacitate him, or otherwise prevent him from attacking. He had stopped entirely of his own accord.
And he was looking out into the distance, deeper into the city, focused so intently on something in the sky that if he’d had eyes they would have glazed over.
Something split the air - a sound, a vibration, a light, a sensation - and then, in sync, nine digivices began to beep.
Ryan didn’t even wait before pulling his out and staring down at it. The map was open, and along the edges of the screen were numerous white dots, scattered across the city, pouring forth from one specific spot.
He turned around, lifting his face toward where Ordinemon had been looking, and caught sight of a glowing white crack splitting the sky in half, releasing dozens of Digimon into the night.
How, he thought, the only thought he could manage amidst everything, did we never see any of those over the past two weeks.
“Emergents,” was all Alex said, his eyes likewise fixed on the portal in the sky. He tore his gaze away and swept it over the group, something flashing within it, but Ryan couldn’t determine what it was. “We have to take care of them.”
“We can’t just leave,” Damien said, but Azure raised a hand to stop him and, surprisingly, he did.
“Some of us will have to,” they said, eyes flickering over toward where the portal still sat, Digimon still coming through. “There might still be people over there that haven’t evacuated, and we can’t just let them run rampant. Someone is going to have to take care of them.”
“But if they’re manic,” Anna cut in, almost before they finished speaking, “then if we defeat them, they’ll just strengthen Ordinemon, right?”
Nobody spoke for a while. Ordinemon still was unmoving, staring at the portal just like the humans on the ground. Ryan looked up at him, his brow furrowing in frustration and anger (and maybe fear), and as he did -
“
- Dare unleashed a cannonball, sending it flying straight at Ordinemon, and it struck him in the dead center of his chest.
Ordinemon recoiled, glowering down at her, and the rift in the sky sealed back up.
“We still have to do something about them,” Harmony said, picking the conversation back up, but Ryan wasn’t even listening to her, because the gems on Ordinemon’s wings were beginning to glow, and before he knew it he was running forward, digivice clutched close as he raised a hand to cup around his mouth and call out to his partner.
“DARE!”
“
Dare dodged the attack, slipping between the beams, alerted by the sound of Ryan’s voice. The other Digimon weren’t all so lucky, some being struck down or slammed into buildings, but Ryan wasn’t focused on them. Dare shot toward him, landing on the ground just a couple dozen yards ahead of him, and he was nearly knocked off his feet from the impact of her touching down none too gently.
“Let’s go,” he said, and he didn’t have to say any more for her to understand what he meant. Clearly, she had also seen the portal and the Digimon it had released, and so she knelt down to let him on her back without another word. He bundled his fingers in her mane, holding tightly as she took off once again.
When they zipped overhead the other humans, some of them remaining where they stood while others started toward their own partners, Ryan caught Harmony’s eye. Her mouth was open as she stared up at him, and then it began to move, as if she was saying something, but he couldn’t hear her over the sound of the fight still ongoing and Dare’s wings beating the air, and then she was behind him and he lost sight of her and Dare continued onward.
Ryan tightened his grip and tried not to let it bother him.
He wouldn’t have known what to say even if he’d known what she was saying or asking. Too much had happened, too quickly. The knowledge that Ordinemon was still able to open portals to the Digital World, much less call forth emergents, was almost too much to handle. Were these Digimon supposed to be a distraction for the humans and their partners? Was he really going to use them to power himself further? Or was there another reason he had summoned them?
Even so, Harmony and Azure had been right. They had to deal with them, whatever that meant. If they truly had emerged in parts of the city that were still inhabited - and, as they drew closer to the nearest reading on Ryan’s radar, it was becoming obvious they had - then they had to make sure they couldn’t hurt anyone. Killing them would strengthen Ordinemon further, yes, but they couldn’t just leave them to wreak whatever havoc they desired.
And if they didn’t kill them, Ordinemon would. With how destructive his attacks were already, and how much damage the emergents would do if left unchecked… it was safer to deal with them like this.
Is it really, though?
It had been such a snap decision. A rash judgment. He hadn’t even thought it over fully before he’d run toward Dare and they’d taken off. It was only just now starting to really settle in his head what he’d done, what they were about to do.
He couldn’t afford to let his mind slow down enough for his heart to catch up.
But now that he was away from the fight, away from the explosions and the shouting and everything else, with only his partner for company, it was starting to slow.
Had he made the right choice? Should they have stayed to fight? What if Dare was the only one who could have defeated Ordinemon, and he’d just doomed them all? Or, alternatively, what if he himself needed to stay behind, to help the others?
Yeah, right. As if they’d need me, of all people.
Why had it been his first instinct to flee? To run away? To let the others do the hard work, while he and Dare retreated to do something they’d already done dozens of times? Whatever the emergents were, they’d be nothing compared to Ordinemon, he already knew that much.
Was it cowardice that made him leave so soon? Or was it something else?
“Something on your mind?” Dare asked, turning her head to look back at Ryan, and he averted his gaze.
He couldn’t say anything to her. He couldn’t tell her, not while they had something they needed to do. He was hiding his worry from her the same way she’d hid hers from him, when they’d initially been on their way to Ordinemon, and though he found a bit of irony in that, he couldn’t bring himself to laugh.
Dare tucked her wings in and dove down soon enough, and Ryan braced himself for her to land. They ended up on a road - an occupied one, if the haphazardly parked cars and fleeing civilians were anything to go off of. As Ryan dismounted and Dare charged forward, he caught sight of the emergent, a massive green dragon with clawed arms for wings.
“
“Groundramon,” Ryan’s digivice read out as it reared back and roared, its eyes wide and white. “Ultimate level earth dragon Digimon. It usually lurks within the tunnels it carves deep underground, and it seldom comes to the surface.”
“
She was back on her feet before she’d fully recovered, dashing toward the dragon and once more stretching her wings out around it. Ryan frowned, about to call out and ask what the fuck she was doing, but as she opened her mouth and called out “
The sphere hit at point-blank range, and Groundramon was blasted into the ground, digging a crater into the asphalt where it stood. Dare, likewise, was pushed back by the force, but she dug her claws into the concrete and forced herself to stay where she was.
But her wings, still spread around the two of them, prevented the shockwave the attack generated from spreading too far. A few cracks splintered out from where Groundramon was shoved into the earth, and Dare’s own claws tore even more, but around them, the street was mostly undamaged. She was trying to protect both the people around her and the surrounding area the best she could.
Groundramon, however, did not care for that.
“
It slammed its talons into the ground, and from the point of impact, fissures spread out, cracking the pavement wherever they crept. Most of them shot underneath Dare’s feet, but even the ones that didn’t erupted into massive spires of hardened concrete and rock, shooting up from the ground like stalagmites and impaling anything that stood in their way - including Dare. She cried out again, taking a half-step back to get away from the stone spears, but she wasn’t willing to let Groundramon loose, and had to grit her teeth through the pain as she wrapped her wings around it once more.
“
Dare wasn’t going to give it one. With a cry of “
With no wings to block its way, Groundramon settled for shoving Dare aside with its arm-wings, then headed down the street, away from Dare and toward Ryan.
But… not really toward Ryan. He scrambled to the side instantly, putting himself on the sidewalk with a car between him and the dragon (maybe not the smartest choice, since it could just smack the car into him and then he’d be dead), but Groundramon paid him no mind. Its gaze was fixed on something in the far distance, its head low to the ground but eyes peering upward.
Ryan turned his head to follow its line of sight and saw, not far enough away, Ordinemon hovering in the sky.
Is it heading toward him?
“It’s not focused on me,” Dare said aloud, causing the few people still near her to scream and flee in fear. She cast a disappointed look upon them before meeting Ryan’s eyes, tipping her head to the side. “Only when I fought it. But now that I’m not a threat…”
Her eyes narrowed as she watched Groundramon amble its way along, only reacting to its surroundings whenever something - a fallen lamppost - got in its way, where it would reach an arm-wing or its tail around to sweep it out of its path. Its eyes never left Ordinemon, as if transfixed.
“All the recent manic Digimon were focused on fighting us,” she continued, speaking lightly as she began to creep forward, stalking behind Groundramon. “Raguelmon knew what she was doing, but even the other minor emergents didn’t give up on fighting until they were defeated. So why are these…” She shook her head out, then lifted it up, ears pinned back. “Hey, you! Groundramon! Can you hear me?”
The Groundramon did not respond. It crawled onward, unaware of anything around it, including Dare.
“Do you know where you are?” she continued. “Or what you’re doing? Do you know what sent you here?”
Groundramon growled, and Ryan flinched, ready for it to lash out, but it simply smacked a garbage can aside and continued down its path. Dare frowned, her lip curling back.
It’s not aware of anything going on, Ryan realized. Other than when Dare fought it, all it cares about is getting to Ordinemon.
Probably so he can kill it and absorb its strength.
So… do we even need to…?
But he looked around the street, at the half-ruined neighborhood they’d ended up in, and at the cars and street lights and hedges and houses that Groundramon had destroyed as it had traveled. The people that had fled their homes. Those that had been displaced by its desire to move forward, uncaring for anything that got in its way.
There had to be others throughout the city. Other emergent Digimon that the rest of the group were dealing with. Others that had crushed buildings and toppled trees and horrified civilians.
If they were left to continue on their journey, who knew how long it would be before someone got hurt - or worse?
Ryan took a deep breath, then swept an arm out to point at Groundramon. “We came here to take care of it,” he said, feeling the weight of that phrase more than ever. “So that’s what we need to do.”
Dare met his gaze, then nodded, her own eyes alight in determination. “Roger,” she said, already opening her mouth to form a cannonball. “
It struck Groundramon in the back, and it roared, spinning on its heel to face Dare. With its eyes blank from both mania and fury, it charged forth, flexing the claws on its appendages as it drew closer to her. “
Dare launched herself into the air, just barely avoiding Groundramon’s grasp. “
He pushed himself back up just as Groundramon rose to its own feet and locked its eyes onto him.
It curled its lip back in a snarl and slammed one talon into the earth.
“
Ryan didn’t have time to get out of the way before the rock spears jutted upward. One of them caught his arm, cutting a deep slice into his flesh, and he cried out and stumbled back, crashing into an overturned car behind him.
Blood dripped from his arm, staining his shoes and the concrete beneath him, and he closed his eyes and wrapped his opposite hand around it, hoping Groundramon’s next attack would be quick.
“
He cracked one eye open at the sound of his partner’s voice, just in time to see her slam into Groundramon, sending it skidding further down the street. The energy had barely faded from her before she called the attack again and reignited it, charging after the dragon and bowling it over once more.
“
“
Groundramon stumbled backward, releasing Dare of its own accord as it fell into a heap. It growled low in its throat, trying desperately to reach for her again, but in its mindlessness, it didn’t notice that its claws were dissolving into pixels.
Dare did, and she smirked humorlessly as she went up in red energy one final time. “
With a flash, Groundramon exploded into motes of light, and Dare stood alone in the center of the street, breathing heavily. She stared down at where Groundramon had lay for a few more seconds; then, one ear twitched, and her head swiveled toward where Ryan was still leaning against the car.
Instantly she was surging forward, coming to a stop just in front of him, and Ryan tried to ignore the screams and shouts of fear rising from the few remaining bystanders mistakenly assuming she was going to attack him. She lowered her head to be eye-level with him and pressed her snout against his cheek, taking care not to slash him with the blade on her nose.
The throbbing pain in Ryan’s arm hadn’t faded, but it was easier to push to the wayside as he reached one hand up to dig into the fur on her cheek. Dare’s eyes closed slowly, the hot breath from her nostrils doing wonders to warm Ryan’s face.
He’d never really been this close to her while she was in this form before, and it was somehow both pants-shittingly horrifying and the coolest thing he’d ever done.
When she pulled herself back, concern shone in her eyes as they looked down at his injury. “I should have been more careful,” she said, and Ryan immediately shook his head.
“It’s not your fault,” he said, his voice sounding a little choked, and he chose not to examine that for the time being. “Just… it just happens.”
“Still.” Dare’s ears flattened against her skull, but she didn’t pull her head away, even though it definitely wasn’t comfortable for her to be craning her neck like this. “Do you think you can keep going? Or should we head back?”
Ryan didn’t answer, his mind going blank as he searched for a response - no, not a response; the meaning of her question. Keep going? Where? Groundramon was defeated. What else was there to do? And go back? Where would they go back to? The motel was too far away, and they didn’t have anywhere else they could go. Anywhere that wasn’t either a desolate wasteland (the park) or an active disaster zone (the fight with Ordinemon).
…Oh. That was what she’d meant.
Ordinemon.
“We can’t go back,” he said, and this time his voice definitely cracked, and this time he knew why. He cleared his throat and averted his gaze, but it wasn’t enough.
Because now he knew why.
He’d run away. He’d run away from Ordinemon so that he didn’t have to face the fact he was terrified of him. That there was no way they could defeat him. That it was pointless, and they were wasting their time, and there was nothing they could do to win.
Ryan had run away.
Just like you always do, that voice in his head told him, and Ryan broke down into tears.
They came unbidden, unrelenting, streaming down his face like the blood down his arm. Dare’s eyes went wide, but he couldn’t look up at her, and so he sank down to his knees, burying his face in his hands. It didn’t do anything to stop the tears; if anything, they only flowed harder, leaking out through his fingers as if he was trying to stop a dam from bursting.
Ryan was crying, and he couldn’t stop it.
And it was right in front of Dare, the one person he wasn’t supposed to cry in front of - other than his dad, of course, or Devon, or his mom, or Cole, or - and the one person he’d never wanted to cry in front of. This wasn’t supposed to be happening. Ryan was supposed to be strong, a pillar of composure that she could hold onto, and here he was, crying, all because he didn’t want to do what he was supposed to do.
He’d run away, and he felt awful about it.
“Ryan,” Dare said. Her voice was full of not pity, or sympathy, or anything else he’d been expecting it would be full of. (Hoping, too, because if she was pitying him, or offering sympathy, or even annoyed at him, then he could handle that, because that was always what he received when he cried.)
Instead, all it held was… understanding.
“I ran away,” he said through sobs, still not looking up at her. “I didn’t - couldn’t face Ordinemon. I had to get out. I never - I didn’t care that I was leaving the - the others behind. I couldn’t do what I was supposed to do. I can’t -”
“Ryan,” Dare said again, and before he could say anything else, she was laying down next to him, wrapping her neck around him the best she could. “It’s okay. I understand. You still did something good.”
Ryan swallowed the lump in his throat, but he still couldn’t stop the tears. “How. How is this good?”
I ran away. I ran away because I was scared. Because it was the easy way out.
How was that a good thing to do?
“Dealing with the emergents is important, too,” Dare said, and Ryan curled his hands into fists and dug his nails into his palms, because that wasn’t it. “We came out here to do something good, just like the others are. It’s just as important as fighting Ordinemon -”
“No,” he cut in, shaking his head so viciously he was making himself dizzy, but he didn’t care. At least it was getting easier to speak, even if he was still crying and sniffling and looking like an absolute idiot. “That’s not why I did it. I’m not - didn’t come out here because of that. It’s because it was easy. It was easy to run away. I don’t…” He swallowed again, wiping a hand across his face. “I can’t do it. I can’t face him.”
For a few long seconds, neither of them spoke. Nothing moved around them. Ryan wasn’t sure if there were even any people left in the street. He really hoped there weren’t.
Even though the rise and fall of Dare’s chest against his back was more comforting than anything he’d ever had before, the silence she gave him in response was almost enough for him to break again.
But he didn’t, because Dare adjusted her position to lay her head down next to him and nestle up against his side, and for the first time since he’d broken down, he took a deep breath.
“So you ran away,” she said, voice gentle, and it took all Ryan had in him to nod. “And you’re upset at yourself for that.” He nodded again. “Do you want to fix it?”
He paused for a few seconds, then leaned his head back against her neck. “How,” he mumbled, his lip trembling. “How can I fix this.”
“That’s up to you,” she said. “You realized that you ran away, and you’re not happy about it. So what are you going to do about it?”
Nothing, the voice in his head told him. There’s nothing you can do about it. You doomed yourself to failure the moment you ran away. All you can do now is accept your defeat.
…Accept defeat?
That was what Ordinemon had wanted them to do from the very beginning. Every manic Digimon he’d sent after them had told them the same thing. Fighting back was pointless. He was going to win no matter what they did. The easiest way out would be to accept their defeat.
But they’d never listened, because why would they? They’d proven time and time again that they could win. Every manic Digimon that told them they were destined to fail had been proven wrong.
Because they hadn’t given up, and they hadn’t run away.
“The easy way out would be to accept defeat.”
It doesn’t need to be easy. That’s not why we’re doing this. We’re doing it because it’s what we need to do.
We couldn’t defeat Plutomon. We had to run away from him. But back then, we didn’t know what we were up against. We do now.
We ran away last time, but we’re not going to this time. No matter how much you want me to.
I can’t run away forever.
Ryan lifted a hand to his face and realized the tears had stopped.
“…I can’t run away anymore,” he murmured, and Dare shifted slightly. “I’ve… already done that too much. But… the thought of Ordinemon hurting you… I can’t stand that. The possibility of us losing…”
But he realized, as he spoke, that that was all they had been doing. Losing, over and over, to the same enemy, and coming back to try again, stuck in an endless ouroboros. Ordinemon would defeat them, and they’d come back, again and again and again, until they couldn’t stand anymore.
How much longer would it last? How much longer until someone got hurt? Or worse? How many people already had gotten hurt? How many would it take until Ordinemon had had enough?
Would he ever have enough?
Ryan felt something rising within him. Anger. Rage. Fury. It was familiar, but it felt different this time, somehow. Anger wasn’t a foreign emotion to him, that much was obvious, but right now, the way it was welling up inside his chest was… a new kind of anger. He was angry at Ordinemon for doing all of this - splitting the sky apart, destroying the city Ryan had found himself within, trying to bring about the end of the world. Hurting his friends. Scaring his partner. The fire that flickered in his chest was roaring now, reaching out flaming fingers for the archangel that had taken so much from him.
And Ryan was angry at himself - for allowing it to happen, for running away when he needed to stand his ground and fight. But not in the way he usually got angry at himself. He wasn’t going to beat himself up about it, or let that voice in his head tell him he was a bad person, a coward, weak.
He was going to take this anger and put it to good use. He knew what he needed to do now.
“I’m too angry at Ordinemon to let him off the hook,” he said, his hands curling into fists, and Dare blinked. “Everything he’s done and everything he wants to do. We can’t let him keep doing it. We need to fight. Show him that he can’t win.”
“I’m mad too,” Dare said, her pupils narrowing into slits. “He thinks he can get away with this? With hurting our friends? He’s underestimated us too much.” She stood up suddenly, stretching her wings out so that their golden rings clinked together, and grinned down at Ryan. “I wanna use this anger while I have it. Control it, and redirect it, and not let it take me over. I’m gonna put it to good use.”
She arched her neck, turning to look out at where Ordinemon still hovered, and her nostrils flared. Then, she looked back down at Ryan, golden eyes practically glowing. “What do you say about going and kicking his ass?”
“I’m…” Ryan looked down at his hands. The blood on his arm had dried by now; it no longer pulsed with pain. He closed his eyes, then took a deep breath and pushed himself onto his feet.
“I want to use my anger for good,” he said, meeting Dare’s gaze steadily. “I’m done with running away. I can’t keep doing that when everyone is relying on me. On us.”
“There’s the Ryan I know,” Dare said, face still split into a grin, and he laughed.
He was still scared. Terrified, in fact. And fear wasn’t something he admitted easily, even to himself. He was scared for himself and for Dare and for the rest of his friends, because they were his friends, every single one of them. Everything they’d been through was proof enough of that.
And he was scared for the world.
Ordinemon was so unbelievably powerful. He wouldn’t show the group any mercy the way they’d shown it to others in the past. So in return, they wouldn’t show him any. They’d never backed down from a fight in the past - why should they start now? If they had the chance to face him, and if there was a possibility, however slim, that they could defeat him, they needed to take that chance.
They had never faced anything of this magnitude before. They likely - hopefully - never would again. But that wasn’t going to change anything, and it wasn’t going to deter them.
Ryan didn’t need to face this alone. He had Dare, and Dare had him, and they both had everyone else, and they had the world, and they were going to get through this, no matter what.
I don’t need to run away.
“I’m really glad I met you,” Dare said then, lowering her head to push into Ryan’s side. “I… You’ve been the best possible thing that could have happened to me. And we’re going to save the world. You know that, right?”
“Yeah,” Ryan said, trying to hide the couple of tears that streaked down his face, because apparently he wasn’t done crying. He buried his face in Dare’s neck, breathing in the scent of her fur, smelling appropriately of smoke and copper. “I do.”
He couldn’t really think of anything else to say, so he just held her tight.
It felt a little like the night they had met, all those months ago, up on the mountain, when they’d first learned they were partners. Neither of them had had the words to explain how they felt, so they’d just embraced.
It had been the first time in a very long time that somebody had hugged Ryan, and in that moment, he’d known she was right - that they were partners. It had been like a silent agreement.
This is all we need, now and forevermore.
When Ryan managed to peel himself away from his best friend, he did nothing but shake himself out and nod once. Dare knew what to do, to kneel down to allow him onto her back, and she knew to head straight to Ordinemon. They didn’t have to exchange any words. They just knew.
Ryan checked his digivice as they went, noting that Moxie and Damien and Azure’s colored markers were not grouped with the rest near Ordinemon. Still out dealing with emergents, he supposed. Those three were probably the best equipped for it. He dug his fingers deeper into Dare’s mane as she flew, the cold air that rushed past biting into his skin.
He caught sight of the other humans on the ground before he noticed his marker drawing closer to theirs on his digivice, and he pointed down at them. Dare nodded and made to land, having to weave between fallen buildings before she found a safe spot to touch down.
They were only a block away from the group as Ryan dismounted, but when he turned to face them, they were already heading toward them - and Harmony was in the lead. Before he could compose himself, she flung herself straight at him, wrapping her arms around his body and burying her head in his chest. She squeezed so tightly that Ryan almost choked, but he managed to wrestle his own arms out of her grasp to give himself more room to breathe.
For a second, he hesitated, his arms hovering over her back as if afraid to touch her, but then she squeezed him again and before he knew it he was hugging her back, taking more care than she was to not squish her.
She adjusted her head so her cheek was laying against his abdomen, and in that moment Ryan finally realized just how in love with her he was.
“I was so scared,” she said, voice muffled by the fabric of his shirt that her mouth was pressed against. “You didn’t say anything before you left. I was so worried about you. You just left. I was scared that you were going to…” She trailed off, but she didn’t have to finish her sentence for Ryan to know what she meant, and almost subconsciously, he tightened his fingers against her back.
“I know,” he said, resting his chin on her head. “I’m sorry. I’m… I’m not going to do it again.”
Harmony sniffled and finally stepped back, leaving Ryan’s arms empty, except not really, because she moved her hands to grab his. Her eyes danced over the fresh wound on his arm and they darkened in fear, but when she looked back up at him, the smile on her face far, far outweighed it.
“You better not,” she said, voice a little shaky. “I’m gonna be really mad if you do.” She laughed, lifting one hand to push her hair out of her face and then place on her temples. “And to think, all that time ago, you were trying to tell me not to run off on my own with nobody to look after me.”
“I had Dare,” he pointed out, but he already knew what her response would be.
“That’s what you said back then, too,” she said, but the smile did not leave her face, even as she lunged forward again to once more wrap her arms around him.
The sound of paws tapping softly against the pavement drew his attention, and he and Harmony turned to see Ren standing next to Dare. The two shared a single glance, and then Dare grinned, flicking an ear.
“You missed me, didn’t you,” she sang, sidling closer to Ren and nudging up against her, which looked a little silly considering she was twice the fox monk’s size. Nevertheless, Ren closed her eyes and heaved a deep sigh, clearly trying to hide a smile.
“I missed your fighting prowess more than your personality,” she muttered, and Dare barked a laugh.
She turned back toward the fight, where the rest of the partners were still battling Ordinemon, holding out for as long as they could. Her tail lashed back and forth, the metal tip scraping against the asphalt. “Time for us to give him hell, huh?”
Ren dipped her head. “Indeed.” She looked back over her shoulder at Harmony, then moved her eyes to Ryan. “It’s good to have you back,” she said, so quietly that Ryan was half-convinced he’d misheard her.
He blinked, then cracked a smile of his own. “Go kick his ass,” he said.
Next to him, Harmony clenched her fists and nodded vigorously. “Show him who’s boss!”
“Already planning on it,” Dare said, smirking, and then she and Ren went up in a white glow.
Around Ryan, the world went white, too, much like it had not that long ago when he and Dare had faced Raguelmon. It disappeared quicker this time, just in time for him to catch sight of his and Harmony’s partners charging into battle, the glow fading from their bodies to reveal their mega forms.
“
“
Dare surged forward, the air around her igniting in fiery energy as she aimed straight for Ordinemon, while Ren took a somewhat subtler approach, sending a flurry of flames toward the angel. He wasn’t nearly as far away as he had been earlier; either the group had moved closer to him, or he’d moved closer to them. Neither was very ideal, but he didn’t seem to be focused on them, especially now that he had two mega levels to contend with. Their attacks actually managed to knock him back somewhat - it wasn’t much, just a couple of feet (which seemed like millimeters when compared to his size), but it was something.
As Dare and Ren rejoined the battle with the rest of the remaining Digimon, Ryan and Harmony regrouped with the humans.
They shared what had been going on with Ordinemon while he’d been away - that the Digimon hadn’t really made any headway, but they weren’t ready to give up yet, and the humans had managed to avoid injuries entirely thus far. Occupying him was better than leaving him alone, too, and it said something that none of them had devolved so far.
Sure enough, the three pairs that he’d seen on his digivice were indeed out dealing with more emergents, and likely would be for a while. Ordinemon had summoned many more than it had initially seemed; Ryan would have felt a twinge of guilt at having left after taking care of just one, but when he looked over at Dare, landing hit after hit upon Ordinemon in a way none of the ultimate level Digimon had been able to, it dissipated entirely.
He relayed to them what Dare had noticed about Groundramon; how it had been nearly entirely mindless, caring only about destroying whatever was in its way and fighting whatever engaged with it. Anna’s theory of Ordinemon summoning them to strengthen himself seemed to be the most likely answer when taking that into consideration. Despite the worry it instilled in everyone, they just had to be grateful that the emergent Digimon weren’t going to be going out of their way to injure as many civilians as possible. If they weren’t aware of their surroundings, they wouldn’t take notice of anyone around them, and any sane person would stay far out of their way.
But it then just begged the question of why they were mindless.
“Back when we first arrived in the Digital World,” Miguel said, his hands clasped together under his chin, “the majority of the manic Digimon we came across weren’t really aware of anything, either, right? They fought us when they saw us, but… maybe that’s because that’s all that Ordinemon told them to do. Because there’s been others that have been more in control, remember?”
“Like the Demon Lords,” Ezra said, nodding. “Before they were Demon Lords, of course. And there were others. Nohemon, Mephistomon, Jokermon, Arukenimon, Raguelmon… But there never stopped being Digimon that weren’t aware of themselves.”
Alex hummed to himself. “Maybe now that the Demon Lords are gone, Ordinemon doesn’t see a reason to give anyone else that same sort of power. I mean, if he wants them to die, why would he let them remain aware? That would give them the chance to try to run away or break out of it or something.”
“Like Dollie,” Harmony said quietly, her face falling. Ryan frowned, watching her out of the corner of his eye, but she shook herself out easily enough. “He probably doesn’t think it’s worth it to give them free will. I’d imagine it’s more difficult than just making them, like… follow his every order.”
“He must have controlled them in the Digital World,” Anna said suddenly, and all eyes were on her. She paused for a couple seconds, staring down at her feet and furrowing her brow, then blinked, her eyes lighting up. “That’s where he must have been, right? All the non-Demon Lord Digimon we fought were probably sent through by him. And… every time we defeated a Demon Lord, its Code Key probably went back to him. That’s why they disappeared.”
“And then he started controlling as many Digimon as he could,” Ezra continued, pounding a fist into the opposite palm. “He was planning for this. He knew he could just call them through whenever he eventually showed himself. Even though we have no idea how he’s able to do that,” he added in a mutter, his eyes narrowing in frustration.
“He’s using us,” Ryan finally said, surprising not only the others but also himself at the sound of his own voice. He frowned, looking out at where Ordinemon still hung in the sky, deflecting and firing attacks left and right. “The same way he’s using the manic Digimon. Every time we’ve defeated a manic Digimon, we’ve strengthened him. But he knows that we can’t just leave them be. And we know it, too.”
He broke off, looking down at the ground and folding his arms. This was just making him mad again. Mad at Ordinemon, and mad at the predicament they were stuck in. He suppressed a flinch as a flicker of pain went up from his chest; he didn’t have to look to know that Ordinemon must have struck Dare with an attack.
We can’t do anything about it.
…Why not?
“We keep fighting,” he said, looking back up at the group around him, meeting each of their gazes in turn. “That’s all we can do right now. So it’s what we should focus on.”
The others were silent for a couple moments; then, Harmony nodded, stepping closer to him. “It’s no use worrying about things we can’t control,” she said, placing a hand on her chest. “Ryan’s right. We need to fight.”
“Really inspiring motivational speech,” Alex said, rolling his eyes, but he was smiling. “Three sentences long and you’ve already got everyone on your side. Maybe we should make you the leader.”
“Please don’t,” Ryan said, and the others laughed.
But they seemed to agree; together, they readied themselves, then headed toward their partners, not that far away, but they had to be closer.
Just as they had earlier in the night, they called out encouragement to the Digimon, and it seemed to help a little bit. Dare and Ren were leading the charge, being the strongest out of all of them at the moment, but the others were putting in work, too. Ren would protect Ember and Flip with her Taizoukai Mandala while they charged powerful attacks to launch at Ordinemon; Bunny and Castor fell into more distractive roles in Pop’s absence, pulling the angel’s attention away from the others. Dare, meanwhile, was darting everywhere she could, pummeling Ordinemon with charged fists or blasts of red-hot energy whenever she had the chance. Between the two megas and the four ultimates, Ordinemon was having a hard time focusing his fire, and even when he could, Ren’s mandala was enough to nullify it completely.
And it was driving him mad. When another of his converged energy beams bounced right off of the invisible barrier formed by the mandala, reflecting back at himself and only barely avoiding putting a hole through his abdomen, he cried out, shaking the earth with the volume and fury of it.
“After all this time,” he said, knocking Castor aside with a sweep of his wings, “you still cannot face me head-on? How do you expect to save the world if you must hide behind a wall?”
“Oh, now you’re complaining about things not being fair?” Dare taunted, hovering near his head. “Seems to me like you’re just realizing how things have been for us this whole time!
The beam from her hands shoved Ordinemon to the side slightly, but he was quick to round on her, flaring his wings out. “
But he wasn’t quick enough. Ren managed to stop him in his tracks with a cry of “
“Ren!” Harmony yelped from beside Ryan, reaching an arm out ineffectively toward her partner, and it took all Ryan’s strength not to grab and hold her hand.
Dare dove after Ren, aiming to try to catch her before she landed, but that left the rest of the Digimon to fend for themselves against Ordinemon, and it was becoming clear that they were starting to tire. Ordinemon cast his gaze around the scattered ultimates, his wings flexing and flicking.
As Dare slammed into the ground with Ren in her arms, sending a wave of dust and concrete into the air, Ordinemon set his sights on the humans.
“
They ran.
There wasn’t enough time to think of a plan, or find a place to hide. All they could do was run from the attack and pray that they could dodge most of the beams. Ryan ducked beneath a half-toppled sign post and rolled to a stop next to a heap of rubble, shielding himself from the blast the best he could. His entire body ached with pain, both his and Dare’s, but he couldn’t afford to stop for too long. When the sound of Ordinemon’s attack faded, he peeked over the top of the pile, catching sight of a couple of the others across the street.
We have to regroup. He’s trying to separate us like he did last time. We can’t let him.
He took a deep breath and then emerged out onto the road, calling for the others to come join him. They did, slowly and steadily, following him as he searched for a better hiding spot and as Ordinemon fired another attack.
“
He rained attack after attack upon the group, sending them fleeing from one safe zone to another. Their Digimon tried their best to draw the angel’s attention, to knock him off course, to do anything to stop him from attacking their partners, but he was unmoved in his determination and dedication to eradicating them.
He was trying to start the same havoc he had earlier, when they’d had to flee. Driving them apart, forcing them away, sending them scattering across the battlefield. If he kept this up, they’d have no choice but to run again, and they couldn’t do that, because the last time they’d done that, they’d -
In the middle of the chaos, Ryan felt a hand grab his, grounding him in the turmoil. He looked over to see Harmony, her eyes locked firmly onto his. She smiled and squeezed his hand, and after a moment of hesitation, he squeezed back.
Between them and Ordinemon, Dare and Ren rose up into the sky, held their arms out together, and cried out in unison.
“
“
The blue flames melded with the burning energy beam and shot straight for Ordinemon. They struck him in the dead center of his face, and he reared back, his wings stretching to their fullest extent as he opened his mouth in a silent scream.
It was enough for the rest of the humans to join Ryan and Harmony in the middle of the street, and for the rest of the Digimon to attack.
“
“
“
“
Harmony was still holding Ryan’s hand. He hoped that she’d never let go, that she’d hold onto him forever, that they’d never be apart.
But he knew it wouldn’t happen.
He’d never thought he would’ve gotten to know her this well. Even before they’d landed in the Digital World, he’d seen her in classes and hallways at school, and wished he was brave enough to talk to her. He hadn’t known why at first. He never really thought like that about people. But when he’d given her that Renamon figurine in Mainframe City and she’d smiled at him like he was the only thing in the world, he’d finally understood.
And everything that had followed that had only sent him slipping deeper into this hole he’d dug for himself.
All he wanted was for her to be happy, and over the past few months, she had been.
Just… not with him.
He wasn’t an idiot. He’d seen the way she and Moxie looked at each other, the way they walked together, the way they seemed to laugh at anything and everything. The smiles they wore when they were together.
Ryan wanted Harmony to be happy, and if she was happy with someone else, he wasn’t going to take that away from her.
But right now, in the center of the street, as they stared down the archangel that would be the end of their world, he couldn’t help but want to hold her hand forever.
“
Another ray of light razed the battlefield, sending the Digimon scattering away from Ordinemon - except for Ren and Dare. Ren cast her mandala around Dare, then sent a wave of blue fire at Ordinemon. He reeled back, raising an arm, but Dare was quick to follow up, holding her hands out toward him and shouting “
When her attack faded and Ordinemon steadied himself, Harmony smiled faintly.
“They really do make a good team,” she said, and Ryan closed his eyes.
“Yeah. They do.”
“
Ordinemon’s cry wrenched Ryan’s gaze back toward him, watching as the feathers rained over the Digimon surrounding him. Ren and Dare jumped away, doing their best to protect the rest of the Digimon from the attack, with Ren summoning mandalas and Dare shooting blasts of fire and energy at the feathers. The other Digimon launched attacks up at Ordinemon, trying to stall or distract him so that the two mega levels could compose themselves and prepare to attack again.
But it wasn’t enough.
Ordinemon pulled himself away from Dare as she struck him, one of his wings curling around to shove her aside. She tumbled through the air, righting herself in due time, but Ordinemon wasn’t focused on her anymore. He was looking down at the humans again.
He opened his mouth, preparing to call an attack, and Ryan braced himself, ready to move at a moment’s notice - but Ordinemon didn’t say anything.
His head tipped ever so slightly to the side, and all he did was stare down at the ground.
“
“
As the first of the beams impacted the ground, sending a tremor through the earth, from out of the corner of Ryan’s eye, he saw a human run in, right in the path of Ordinemon’s attack.
He didn’t even stop to think. He just let go of Harmony’s hand and dove for them, trying to grab them and pull them away from the attack. Whoever this was, whatever they were doing here, he couldn’t let them get hit by Ordinemon’s attack. Even if he was putting himself in danger, he couldn’t let a civilian die.
He succeeded - somewhat. He didn’t grab them so much as he crashed into them, shoving them bodily away from the ray of energy, just a couple yards away from where it scorched the asphalt. He barely avoided the attack himself - he was lucky that Ordinemon didn’t think to readjust his aim and strike him down where he stood.
Not stood, actually. He fell to the ground, dust and miasma and light swirling up around him, and he groaned as the impact sank into his body. Distantly, he was aware of some of the other kids running to dodge the attack, and of Dare throwing herself into the line of fire to shield them, mostly because of the wave of pain that rolled over his body in response.
When the sound of the attack faded entirely, and he heard Dare cry “
A cough rang out from behind him, and he whirled around, his heart beating against his chest. The dust parted to reveal the person he needed to protect, hunched over and clutching one of their arms.
Standing in front of him, looking like they’d been through hell and back, was -
“Quinn?”
Her eyes widened as she met his gaze, her expression blank and dazed and almost fearful. She looked a mess, dirt and ash and blood caked onto every exposed inch of her skin, her jacket and shorts ripped and torn and stained. A deep gash ran along her thigh, dripping more blood, and it looked like a hole had been punched - or shot - through her chest, right above her heart.
She didn’t move or speak - she barely seemed to be breathing. It was like she didn’t know where she was or who he was or what was going on.
For a few tense, terrifying seconds, Ryan worried that she would run away, just like he’d wanted her to originally, before he’d realized who she was, before he’d known it was her. Something on her face had changed. He didn’t know what it was, but there was something there now that hadn’t been there previously. Something different about her, about the way she held herself and looked at him, like she was both meeting the gaze of a stranger and also staring right through him.
But then she straightened herself up, and a smile cracked the dust on her face. She looked exactly as she had back when they’d first met her, not even two weeks ago now, when they’d first faced Plutomon.
She was exhausted, and covered in soot and blood, and there was a glimmer in her eyes that hadn’t been there before, but she was still the same.
Behind her, a blur of gray and white shot past, going up in a white glow as it rushed into battle. Alpha emerged from the light, fully formed in his mega stage, grasping his blade tight and lunging straight for Ordinemon.
“
The light that accompanied his attack was enough to illuminate the street, casting shadows all around where Quinn and Ryan stood. Alpha shoved back against Ordinemon, giving him no time to retaliate or recover, pushing him further and further away from the humans. Around him, the rest of the Digimon joined in, jumping back into the fight as if not a second had passed.
“No!” Ordinemon shouted as Alpha slashed across his chest, leaving a glowing streak behind. “I had finally gotten rid of you! I’d done something right! Why have you returned? How did you defy death so easily?!”
“We’re more resilient than you think,” Alpha rumbled, raising one hand to aim at Ordinemon’s face. “
“
As Ordinemon hurled miasma at Alpha, the rest of the humans slowly crept forward, forming a semicircle around Quinn. The disbelief was almost tangible, hanging in the air like a thick cloud of smoke.
Ryan himself almost couldn’t believe it.
He hadn’t wanted to think that she and Alpha were dead - he couldn’t let himself slip into that pool of endless despair and defeat, couldn’t let himself face the fact that two of their group had died. Had been defeated. Killed. He’d held onto a sliver of hope, however naive it had been, that they were okay and they would come back eventually. Deep down, none of them had wanted to accept it fully, that they were gone just like that. It couldn’t be the end.
But it had seemed so improbable. Impossible. It was already a miracle that he and the others had survived Ordinemon’s initial onslaught, the one that had separated them in the first place; it was simply too unlikely that Quinn and Alpha had, too.
And yet here she was, standing right in front of them. She was bruised and battered and bloodied and there was still that look in her eyes that Ryan couldn’t place, but she was still here.
It almost felt unreal.
Quinn was okay. Alpha was okay. They were both okay, and they were alive, and they were here, and everything would be okay, and -
“
The beam of light shot right down into the middle of the group, and around Ryan, the world went black.