EPISODE 47 - WAKE UP, IT'S TIME
“I’m just saying that you only need one hand to hold your paintbrush, and you don’t need either hand for Thousand Spells. You can carry me just fine.”
“I refuse to put you in any more direct danger than you are already in by simply being with me.”
“Wouldn’t holding me be safer than letting me fend for myself down here on the road?”
“No, because Ordinemon will likely be attacking me, and if he does attack you, I’ll need to be able to move in order to protect you.”
“Just use your -”
“No.”
Harmony sighed and scuffed her foot against the pavement below as she walked. Ren tilted her head down at her, one eyebrow arching high on her face, but did not offer any room for rebuttal. Not that Harmony had been expecting any, nor really determined to offer some. She was just joking. Trying to lighten the mood.
Because the mood was really dark right now.
Alright, it wasn’t that bad. Things were actually looking better than they had in a long time, pretty much ever since Ordinemon had first appeared, nearly twelve hours ago by now - had it really only been twelve hours?
It feels like I’ve lived through a lifetime in that time frame.
Azure’s plan was the best shot they had at actually being able to fight Ordinemon properly. Up until now, the Digimon had always had to worry about preventing civilian casualties and, to a lesser degree but still a notable extent, avoiding property damage. It had taken a lot of energy for them to be able to effectively lead an assault on Ordinemon while also focusing on those two things.
If he was at the ocean, though, they’d be able to let loose completely.
And he’ll be effectively cornered, Harmony thought to herself with a light nod. Since the only direction he’d be able to go, other than right through us, is further out over the ocean. And he can’t exactly destroy the world if he’s lost at sea. His miasma won’t do anything to the water.
Right now, she and Ren were moving to get into position behind Ordinemon, heading up the back with Damien, Bumble, Anna, and Bunny. Their task was to prevent Ordinemon from turning around or backing up too much while everyone else brought him toward the ocean, as well as making sure he couldn’t catch onto their plan. They were just trying to fight him like normal, after all! Nothing suspicious or questionable about any of this! Not in the slightest.
She looked around, catching sight of Damien and Bumble further down the road, both looking out at where Ordinemon hovered far away. Behind her, Anna and Bunny were following, talking quietly to themselves as they walked. Only Bumble was carrying his partner; Bunny was too small to carry Anna in her champion form, and Ren - well, that’d been gone over already.
She understood it, truly, but she couldn’t deny that she’d love to be carried bridal style by Ren until they got closer to Ordinemon.
Far ahead of them, the other teams were gunning toward their own positions, traveling slower than usual until Azure gave the signal. Ko and Alpha were leading the charge, while Castor and Pop would be working alongside them but mostly deferring to their orders. The four of them would be the main ones luring Ordinemon to their destination, taunting him with attacks and well-timed dodges. They’d be dealing the most damage to Ordinemon - as well as taking the brunt of his own attacks.
Off in the other direction - obscured by the buildings from this position, but Harmony knew they were there - were Ember and Ezra, one of the two teams delegated to staying at Ordinemon’s side and making sure he couldn’t get off track. They’d keep him on a straight shot toward the ocean and act as backup for the front group in case they needed it.
Harmony looked up to the sky and saw Dare flying forward, too, Ryan holding tight to her back as her four wings beat the air. They were the other side team, having the same task as Ezra and Ember, just on Ordinemon’s right instead of left.
She couldn’t resist a smile - it was good to have Ryan back. It was good to have everyone back, really.
Especially Moxie.
“I think it’s almost time,” Ren murmured, bringing Harmony’s attention gently back to the present. She blinked, taking in the scene one last time. Sure enough, the four duos at the front were steadily increasing their pace, and Ren had quickened her own steps. Harmony had to almost jog to keep up with her now, and Ren glanced down at her, amusement flickering in her eyes, but did not comment. Harmony stuck her tongue out at her, even though it went unnoticed (or just ignored, who knew).
If she’d just carry me, we wouldn’t have this problem, but nooooo.
She took a deep breath in, mentally and physically steeling herself in preparation for whatever was to come next. They only had one shot at this, and even though she was pretty confident in their abilities and the solidity of the plan, she couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. This was a big job. Something that literally nobody in the world had ever done before. Moving a hundred-foot-tall angel demon hailing from another world who was hellbent on the total annihilation of this world across the city to the ocean was… a crazy thing to say aloud, much less actually attempt, even less actually succeed at.
But we’ve got this. All of us.
Speaking of the ocean. Miguel and Flip might already be there by now, if they’d made good time, though considering Flip’s total lack of transportation assistance in any of his forms, they very well could still be on their way. They’d be ready to meet Ordinemon as soon as he reached the shoreline so they could make that final push to get him over the water and out of the city fully. Harmony could only imagine how nerve-wracking that must be for them, especially Miguel. He’d stepped up to the task readily when Azure had first suggested it, guilt and apologies lacing their tone and expression. He and Flip weren’t the only ones who could have done it, but they would be the best at it, considering Flip’s prowess in the water. And they’d said yes.
I don’t think I’d have been so quick to accept that job, Harmony realized, wringing her hands out. Even if I was the only one who could’ve done it… that’s a big ask. I don’t know how they were so willing.
But it’s good they were. And I’ll be sure to extra congratulate and thank them for it once it’s done.
Once this is all over…
Azure’s voice sounded from Harmony’s digivice, and she jumped slightly, not expecting the sudden sound. “Get ready, everyone,” they said, as Harmony lifted her digivice up to get a better look (for the zero good that would do her). “On my signal.”
She nodded, despite knowing that they couldn’t see it. Her heart was pounding in her chest now, and she swallowed the lump growing in her throat as she and Ren stilled to a halt, ready for Azure’s word. This is it. Like, really truly it. Am I going to be able to run fast enough to keep up with Ren? What if she actually does need to carry me and then she can’t attack Ordinemon? Do we leave it to Bunny and Bumble? But Bunny would need to carry Anna too, right? How is she going to do that if she’s still in -
“Now!”
Harmony yelped, once again startled by Azure’s voice, and for a few seconds she fumbled with her digivice, nearly dropping it as she struggled to get a better grasp on it. She started running as soon as she had it secured, chasing after Ren, who had already gotten a head start while she’d been busy trying not to lose the one thing she needed most in the world. Ren looked back over her shoulder at Harmony, concern shining in her eyes, but it dissipated when Harmony lifted a hand in a thumbs-up and Ren was able to focus ahead of herself once more.
Bright lights went up all over the sky, and Harmony’s head snapped upward, worry flooding her body - until she saw several of the partner Digimon emerging from those lights, freshly evolved into their mega forms, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Pop and Ember rose to the skies, finally visible abovehead, and she noticed Castor and Bumble had also evolved. With a brief look over her shoulder, she saw that Bunny had, too - only to ultimate, but it was better than nothing (and, indeed, Anna was perched rather precariously on her shoulder, holding tight to the spike on her pauldron).
“That’s a little unfair,” she muttered, more to herself than anything, but Ren overheard.
“My energy is still drained from earlier,” she said. “As is, I would presume, Dare’s. It’ll be some time before we’re able to evolve further again.”
“I wasn’t talking about that,” Harmony huffed, taking deep breaths as she ran. Good thing all that running for our lives in the Digital World got me into a bit better shape. “I meant Bunny carrying Anna. You sure you can’t -”
“If it comes down to it,” Ren cut her off, “then yes. But you’ll survive for now.” Her eyes narrowed and she cast her gaze upward, at where Ordinemon was slowly coming into view for them. Harmony followed her eyeline and noticed the frontmost group had already reached him and swung around to truly be in front of him, and as she watched, she saw Alpha summon his blade and strike out at the angel.
“
“
He raised a hand and aimed at Ordinemon, a green glow beginning to radiate from the center of his palm. “
The plan was in motion. They had begun.
We really cannot afford to fuck this up.
The front group kicked things off, each Digimon sending their attacks toward Ordinemon - Pop’s tornado, Castor’s familiars, another beam of energy from Alpha, a blast of lightning from Ko. They each struck true, and like always, didn’t seem to damage Ordinemon; they did, however, all hit at the same time, staggering him just a little bit and pissing him off enough to draw his attention. He opened his mouth in a snarl, his wings stretching out as far as they would go, and called out “
The attack missing only served to further irritate Ordinemon, and he surged forward.
It wasn’t much - maybe a city block or two, definitely nowhere near the amount of distance they needed him to travel - but it was a start. And that was something.
On either side, Ember and Dare readied their own attacks. Cries of “
And he did.
“
As Alpha lifted his hand to fire another attack at Ordinemon, the rest of the front group moved in as well.
“
“
“
“
Down on the ground, Harmony and Ren had finally caught up with Ordinemon, now needing to only move at a light jog in order to keep up with him. While the groups in the air kept up their song and dance, darting in to deliver close-range attacks and then retreating just far enough away where Ordinemon needed to follow them to counterattack, those behind them were not out of the fight. Harmony caught sight of Bumble, floating in the sky a couple hundred feet in front of her, firing off a series of needles from his swords, and from behind her, Bunny unleashed an icy arrow, sending it sailing through the air on a straight shot toward Ordinemon.
Ren summoned her paintbrush and swept it out in front of her, painting her symbol and practically throwing it toward the angel. “
She and Bunny were ground-bound, yes, unable to fly in these forms and thus unable to attack very effectively - but they had ranged attacks, and they weren’t going to let their lack of wings impede them. Another couple of icicles shot past Harmony’s vision, and Ren sent another talisman up at Ordinemon.
Ordinemon was moving, now, almost faster than Harmony had been expecting. Again, it still wasn’t much - compared to his size, it felt like a snail’s crawl - but it was exactly what they needed. There was a fine line they had to tread between “drawing this out too long” and “moving him fast enough for him to realize he was being moved”, and right now, they were dancing on it like they’d been practicing this routine for twenty years.
We’re doing really good!
When Ordinemon lunged for Alpha, wings furling inward, Ren took that as her cue, and she too ran forward, beelining straight for Bumble (pun fully intended). She sent a cascade of paper slips upward and detonated them midair, illuminating the street around them in blue fire, just enough to draw the wasp’s attention. His head snapped toward her, and he immediately nodded, zipping past her almost too fast for Harmony to catch sight of Damien, sitting on his shoulder - but she did, and she grinned and waved up at him, and she could have sworn she saw him salute back.
In order to throw Ordinemon off their plan even more, each group was switching places with each other occasionally, on no real rhythm or schedule, just whenever they felt like it or had the chance. If they were each in the same exact position throughout the entire operation, he’d surely start to suspect something - that wasn’t how battles really worked, or at least, not with him. Those in the back were switching around with each other; Ember and Dare were swapping places whenever they both moved in to attack Ordinemon at the same time; the frontliners were the most chaotic of them all, having no real formation to stick to anyways and just letting the flow of battle dictate their spots. It was making it less obvious they were all in specific positions and following a rigid, unbending battle strategy.
Honestly, looking at the fight now, once they’d all mostly gotten into the flow of things… it was becoming obvious that the back group had the easiest job of them all. All we have to do is make sure Ordinemon doesn’t turn around, and maybe give him a little push every now and then. Everyone else has to actually lure him where we need him to go.
Even though Ren wasn’t doing much damage against Ordinemon - being in her ultimate form, after all - she… didn’t really need to. Her attacks were just supposed to convince him that they were only trying to fight him normally, and that they didn’t have any ulterior motives.
And, so far, he didn’t seem to have caught on.
He was fighting them just as he always had - without holding back, yes, and with exceptionally powerful attacks that Harmony could tell were damaging the Digimon even in their mega forms, but he hadn’t changed his tactics. That was a good sign.
…Though “not changing his tactics” meant that he was still destroying the area around him as he went. As Harmony and Ren moved through the city, following Ordinemon, they could see that more and more buildings were falling victim to the dark feathers and general erosion caused by his mere presence and fighting. They had to dodge countless piles of rubble, both those that seemed to have been laying in the street for hours and new ones caused as they traveled, brick and concrete tumbling down from the buildings they had once been a part of. At one point, Ren had to pick Harmony up just to jump over a particularly large obstacle in their way, and for a second Harmony had hope that she was finally giving in to her request to carry her, but Ren set her back down as soon as they were on the other side.
Even the partner Digimon’s attacks were not being kind to the area around them. A blast of fire from Ember that Ordinemon managed to dodge was sent crashing into a faraway building, sending up massive plumes of smoke and flames from where it landed, and that wasn’t even all of it. They didn’t have time to stop and see whether it was okay - they had to keep going. All they could do was hope that nobody had been inside.
I know that once he’s at the ocean, there’ll be nothing else around him for him to destroy. Hopefully. And there’ll be nobody else around for him to hurt.
But…
But seeing more and more buildings and shops and apartments crumble away around and behind them was a little much. It was too hard to watch.
So Harmony kept her gaze ahead, trying to focus solely on Ren and Ordinemon. It was all she could manage to do.
“
The Digimon in the front continued to attack and retreat, practically teasing Ordinemon with how clearly they wanted him to follow, and he was all too eager to go along with it, even if he didn’t know it. Though he likely could have stayed exactly where he was and still manage to hit them, his desire for total destruction - and to inflict as much pain as possible - lulled him to attack them as close up as he could, firing point-blank or close enough more often than not. It was clear that it was taking a toll on the Digimon - Harmony saw Ko falter in place for a couple seconds after a direct hit to the chest - but they were still hanging on, and doing much better than they had in the past.
Probably because they’re mostly all in mega form, she realized. This was the most amount of Digimon they had ever had evolved to mega at once. Seven mega digimon against one that had the power of a thousand was barely anything at all, but it was better than nothing.
And they were still doing really well. It had probably been ten minutes by this point that they’d been at it, and Ordinemon still hadn’t noticed anything. He was moving exactly as they needed him to, he hadn’t caught onto their plan yet, they were minimizing property damage as much as they possibly could, and even if their attacks weren’t having any visible effect on Ordinemon, surely they were at least chipping away at him, right? He wasn’t invincible. They would defeat him eventually.
…Hopefully.
And, right now, everything was going great. Almost perfectly, in fact. It was hard to think of a way that things could be doing any better.
We just need to keep this up for a little bit longer, and then -
“
The anger in Alpha’s voice was enough for Harmony to snap her gaze up towards him, watching as he leapt forward to slash out at Ordinemon with a ferocity rarely seen from him, and that was saying something. She frowned - his attacking wasn’t odd, he’d been doing that the entire time, it was literally part of the plan - but his tone was different. Something was wrong.
Especially considering that, once his attack was over, he didn’t then jump back away from Ordinemon to try to lure him forward. Instead, he remained where he hovered just below his chin, and raised a hand toward his throat, the center of his palm beginning to glow green. “
“What is he doing,” Ren said, eyes narrowing as she watched him carefully. “He should know better than to…” Her voice trailed off as her glare likewise trailed to the side, and, with her stomach sinking deeper and deeper into her feet, Harmony followed her line of sight.
Her eyes fell upon Pop, hanging further back from the others, holding Moxie’s limp body carefully in her arms, and she felt her heart shatter.
She’s not dead, she told herself, watching as Pop brushed a strand of Moxie’s hair out of her face. She’s fine. She’s alive. She’s just hurt.
Those were the only words on loop in her mind as she watched with bated breath for something to happen. Alpha still hadn’t retreated from where he was attacking Ordinemon; Harmony realized, only distantly, that he was trying to distract the angel so that Pop could get herself and Moxie to safety. Castor and Ko were likewise holding Ordinemon off, and Dare was flying in to cover for Pop.
But all Harmony could focus on was Moxie, still laying in her partner’s arms as she lowered herself closer to the ground, and only once she saw Moxie raise a hand to her face did she finally let go of the breath she’d been holding and feel her heart start beating again.
She’s alive. That’s all that matters.
Ordinemon did not agree.
“
The attack was aimed directly at Alpha, who still hadn’t retreated to get back into position, and it hit him at point-blank range. For a second, Alpha fell in the sky, and Harmony felt her own self falling again before he righted himself. On his shoulder, Quinn steadied herself with a hand on the side of his head, and he nodded once before drifting backward away from Ordinemon.
But the damage had already been done at that point.
Ordinemon turned away from Alpha, his head turning slowly as he surveyed the surrounding area. He’d stopped in his tracks, hovering where he was, remaining in place and making no move to follow any of the other Digimon even as they prepared more attacks to fire at him.
His wings flicked slightly, then stilled, and he opened his mouth wide as his gaze fell upon the buildings below.
“
The beams of energy strafed the ground, searing in straight lines across the area. They seemed to be aimed at the city itself just as much as the Digimon around him; out of the corner of her eye, Harmony saw Ember falter in the air, hit by a stray beam that he hadn’t been able to dodge in time.
Ordinemon, clearly, was not happy with Alpha’s constant attacks, and now he was retaliating. Doing as much destruction and damage as he could just to rile them up, maybe scare them a little bit - that’d been his mode of operation every single time they’d pissed him off before.
And what sucked was that it was working.
When the initial attack faded, he was quick to call out another, sending a rain of feathers and then dozens more lasers cutting across the city. One beam in particular sliced through a building further down the street, and Ren immediately moved to protect Harmony, sending a talisman toward it in the futile hope it would be able to stop it before it got any closer. When that didn’t work, she turned to pick Harmony up and run, abandoning her position in order to keep them both safe.
He’s trying to disrupt and confuse us again, Harmony realized from where she was nestled in Ren’s arms. Just like he did the first time we fought him. We can’t let him win.
But they didn’t really have a way to not let him win. Their safety was their number one priority, even more important than going through with their plan - after all, if they were dead, they wouldn’t be able to finish the plan.
When Ren came to a stop a few blocks away and set Harmony down, she instantly turned back toward Ordinemon to send another attack his way, paper charms flying through the air toward him. From where they stood, Harmony could only see a couple of the other Digimon still in their correct positions - Alpha, most notably, and Ko and Dare, but nobody else. Either they’d had to move to dodge an attack, or…
Don’t think about that.
“
“
“
Next to them, something that sounded like a bomb going off rang through the air, and Harmony instinctively clasped her hands over her ears. She and Ren both whipped toward the source of the noise, and Harmony’s eyes went wide as one of the rays of energy cut right through an apartment building and came barreling toward them.
Ren scooped her up before she could even blink, turning on her heel and booking it as fast as she could away from the beam. Harmony squeezed her eyes shut, clutching her digivice close to her chest and trying to get her heart rate back under control. Sounds of destruction and chaos surrounded them as they ran, fading away not quickly enough for her liking, even as Ren kept running, unwilling to stop until they were somewhere safe.
Only once the buildings along the street stopped falling apart around them did Ren slow to a halt, kneeling on the asphalt below and setting Harmony down in front of her so she could place one paw on her shoulder.
“Are you alright?” she asked, concern furrowing her brow, and it took a couple of seconds for Harmony to calm down enough to nod shakily.
“Yeah,” she said, her chest feeling tight. She cleared her throat and looked around, spotting Ordinemon still up in the sky, now farther away from them than ever. At least it looked like Castor and Ember had rejoined the others, but Pop was nowhere to be seen. Hopefully that meant she’d gotten Moxie to safety.
Ren still didn’t seem convinced, if the look on her face was any indication, so Harmony forced a smile onto her own. “I’m fine.” She raised one of her own hands to pat Ren’s claws. “Honestly. I didn’t get hurt, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Ren stared her down for a couple more seconds, then closed her eyes and sighed quietly before straightening back up. She lifted her nose to the sky, taking a deep breath in, her tail flicking gently behind her. “It seems he’s stopped attacking,” she said. “We should be safe to head back. Stick close to me.”
Harmony nodded, and she and Ren set off, making their way back toward Ordinemon and the rest of their group.
They had to navigate around the destroyed streets the closer they got to him, torn asphalt and fallen buildings and all other sorts of debris blocking their way. Many a time they had to climb over mountains of rubble, or have Ren move crumpled cars out of the road; others they had to turn around and head back the way they’d come to find another path, with no easy way past whatever obstacles stood in their way. They hit dead ends more often than not, the way forward being blocked by a half-ruined building or the road itself being torn to shreds making it too difficult to cross. Above and around them, they could hear the attacks being shouted by their friends and Ordinemon, and the sky would occasionally flash with light, but they weren’t yet in a position - whether physical or mental - where they could rejoin the fight. There was simply no clear-cut path toward him - they had to make their own, and that was proving to be more difficult than expected.
Just keep moving forward. That’s all we can do.
But the cries of their compatriots were not the only sounds around them. At one point, as Ren helped Harmony descend a heap of bricks and concrete that had fallen from a series of storefronts, they heard something - something they hadn’t heard until now, when there was a brief lull in the battle above and the chance to actually listen in to what was happening down on the ground.
Shouting. Voices. Human voices.
Ren went still instantly, only her ears twitching as she listened closer to whatever - whoever - they were hearing. Harmony took a step closer, reaching one hand out to clutch at Ren’s sleeve, feeling much like a child grabbing onto their mother in a flash of fear.
It sounded like a cry for help, especially as it continued - it was impossible to ignore now, even though the battle had resumed and it was being drowned out by the much louder and much fiercer shouts from above.
Ren still said nothing, simply looked down at Harmony with a dip of her head. Though she did not speak, the question was evident on her face - do we help?
Harmony didn’t want to have to answer it. She wanted to get back to her group, her friends, and keep doing what they were supposed to be doing. She wanted to make sure Moxie was alright. She wanted Ren to keep fighting Ordinemon and not give up until he was dead or at the ocean.
But they were likely the only ones in this area, and if whoever these humans were really did need help, they might be the only ones who could offer any.
So she inhaled and furrowed her brow and cast one last glance out at Ordinemon, but she nodded, and Ren returned the gesture, leading the way toward the humans.
They seemed to be a few blocks away, and like they were getting further away - fleeing the area, perhaps? Thousands of scenarios and questions were running through Harmony’s head, and she had to focus intensely on following Ren as they picked their way through the ruined streets toward whoever these people were.
They rounded one final corner to see a massive congregation of people gathered in the center of the street, maybe around forty or fifty. Some were standing, others sitting; most of them were speaking very loudly and worriedly, and quite a few were moving around the area in a hurry, but only some of them seemed to be just pacing for pacing’s sake. Most of the ones walking around were doing so with purpose, striding from one spot to another, speaking to the larger group, and checking in with the vehicles positioned at the far end of the road.
Harmony frowned, taking in the scene and trying to piece it together in her mind, but Ren got it first.
“An evacuation?” she muttered, her ears flattening.
“Oh,” Harmony said, eyes going wide as she realized. That’s why there’s so many people here, I guess… they must not be able to drive because of Ordinemon’s destruction of the roads. So they’re moving by foot…? Or maybe as large groups in those vans?
Or maybe not. Past the vans, she could just make out what looked like a toppled building blocking the road; there was no way the vans would be able to get through that.
As Harmony tipped her head to the side, already trying to think of ways to help, one of the people moving with purpose - a middle-aged man who, judging by his attire, was likely one of the transportation officials in charge of moving these people - caught sight of her and Ren. He jumped and yelped in fright, his eyes wide with fear as they locked onto Ren, and then flicked between her and Harmony and back again several times.
His verbal and physical reaction was enough for most of the other people in the street to take notice, too, and most of them reacted much in the same way as him. The vast majority edged away, closer to the vans at the far end of the street; some made their way through the crowd to get even further away, while a few brave souls took a couple steps forward to get a better look at the giant fox monk.
Well, this is awkward.
After a few seconds of staring at Ren, the transportation official started toward them, seeming somewhat hesitant, but he waved his arms around to get their attention as he drew nearer. Ren looked down at Harmony for confirmation, and after a moment of her own hesitation, she nodded, then likewise started heading toward the official.
“Considering you didn’t immediately attack us,” he said, pushing his glasses further up his nose as he came to a stop a good few yards away from them, “I’m going to assume you’re not dangerous.”
“…No,” Ren said, seeming a bit unsure as to if she should be answering him instead of Harmony, and though he flinched a little bit when she spoke, it seemed to be more out of surprise that she could speak than any sort of fear. “We’re not with the angel, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” he said, wiping sweat off his brow with his forearm. He reached a hand out toward Harmony for a shake, and she took it cautiously, still not really sure if he was chill with Ren. “James Morris. You can call me Jim. I’m with the Department of Transportation, trying to carry out an evacuation here.” He pointed a thumb back over his shoulder at the still-gathered people. “One of the angel’s attacks just hit a nearby building and filled our route with debris. We’re stuck here until we figure out a new route, or find some way to move past this.”
“You need help removing the obstruction,” Ren said, a statement rather than a question. Her eyes were fixed firmly on said obstruction, giving “Jim” no real indication she was paying any attention to him aside from her words.
He nodded. “We simply don’t have the luxury to sit around and hope we’ll be safe until we figure out a new way forward, and it’s not as easy as we were expecting. The angel’s moving around a lot more erratically than it has been up until now, so we weren’t really prepared for this.”
Harmony resisted the urge to wince, knowing that the reason Ordinemon was moving like that was because of their plan. She couldn’t very well tell this guy that, though, so she kept her mouth shut and just looked up at Ren.
Ren also didn’t say anything, simply narrowed her eyes slightly and then started forward. Jim hopped to the side, gaping up at her as she moved forward and managed to effortlessly part the sea of people just by drawing near and walking through them.
He stared after her dumbfounded for a good few seconds, then looked back to Harmony. “Is she…?”
“We’ll take care of it,” Harmony said, not really in the mood to explain anything, and gave him a single nod before she followed her partner.
Ren was in the middle of trying to convince the other officials near the vans that she was here to help when Harmony caught up, and she saw her partner’s shoulders slump with relief as she arrived. One look was all Harmony needed to understand, and she gestured Ren onward as she straightened herself up and faced the officials.
“We’re here to help,” she said, really feeling the weight of that phrase as Ren summoned her paintbrush and slashed out at the giant pile of debris in front of her. “Jim said you need the road cleared. My friend can do that for you.”
“Why’s there another monster here?” one of the evacuees from behind her called out, and she bit her tongue to keep from shouting something back at them.
“Her name’s Ren,” she continued, smiling up at the officials, none of whom looked as convinced as Jim had. “She’s my best friend and she’s been fighting against the angel this whole time. We’re trying really hard to stop him so he can’t hurt anyone else.”
“
“Um,” Harmony went on, feeling a little uncomfortable now that literally everyone in the street had just seen Ren burn a slab of concrete into nothingness. “My other friends are all fighting the angel right now, too. We’re all trying to do our best. We’re taking him to the ocean so he can’t destroy anything else, either.”
“You’re ‘taking him’?” one of the officials said, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms. “What, like he’s some sort of dog on a walk?” The other officials around her chuckled, and Harmony felt something burn in her stomach.
“We’re baiting him. Once he’s at the ocean there won’t be anything else around for him to attack. Except for us.” She hoped that was enough to make it clear that they were putting themselves in active danger just to protect this city and its people. She didn’t like the way these officials were looking at her, like she was just a child who didn’t know what she was doing, or the way they had looked at Ren, like she was a dangerous monster who was going to attack them. “The angel’s the only danger right now. But soon he won’t be. We just have to move him a little bit more.”
“Moving it across the city the same day we’re in the middle of an evacuation,” one of the other officials muttered, rolling his eyes, and Harmony grit her teeth. “Real smart.”
Carrying out an evacuation the same day we’re moving a massively destructive angel monster across the city is real smart, too, she shot back in her head, trying to keep her face passive the best she could. Before she could figure out what to say next that wouldn’t put her on a government watchlist, footsteps sounded from behind, and she looked over her shoulder to see Jim jogging up to them.
“I just realized I didn’t ask your name,” he said, peering over the tops of the vans to try to catch sight of Ren, still calling attacks and destroying the rubble. “Either of your names. Assuming it has a name, that is.”
“She’s not an it,” Harmony said, but she had a feeling Jim didn’t mean any ill intent. “Her name’s Ren. I’m Harmony.”
Jim smiled down at her. “Well, I’m thankful for both of your help. I’m not sure what we would’ve done if you hadn’t shown up…” He trailed off, holding a hand up to his ear, where he had an earpiece in. In the pause, Harmony realized none of the other asshole transportation officials had said anything since he’d arrived, and had actually altered their body language and facial expressions to appear more friendly than they had when they’d been berating her. I guess Jim is their supervisor or boss or something…? Works for me. Anything to shut them up.
Before Jim could say anything else, Ren stepped into view from behind the vans, paintbrush held firmly at her side. “The obstruction is clear,” she announced, voice ringing throughout the air. “You’re free to pass now.”
A collective sound of relief went up from the evacuees behind them; Harmony had almost forgotten they were there. Similarly, she was relieved that they were happy enough about the help that they were willing to overlook the fact that Ren was “another monster”, as one of them had so masterfully put it. That also works for me.
“Thank you,” Jim said, glancing up at Ren, the faintest smile on his lips. “It means a lot that you were willing to take the time to help us.” He cleared his throat, and when he spoke again, it was a lot more serious. “There’s other evacuations taking place across the city, too. Several of them were also impacted by the angel’s attacks and are facing the same problem we are. If you’re able to, it would be a massive help if you could check in on them and offer some assistance.”
“Our main priority is to deal with Ordinemon so that this doesn’t happen again,” Ren said smoothly, dissolving her brush with a flick of her wrist. “We can’t afford to jeopardize our plan to check on every evacuation across the city.”
Harmony bit her lip and looked back to the officials, ready for an outburst - but none came. Jim simply nodded and placed a hand on his heart. “I understand. You have your role, and we have ours. It’s enough for me that you took the time to help us. If you do come across any on your way, though…”
“We’ll do our best,” Harmony said, and Jim smiled again.
They were interrupted by a ringing sound from Harmony’s pocket - a call from her digivice. She gave Jim an apologetic look as she pulled it out, and he waved her off, still smiling. Ren dipped her head and moved to usher herself and Harmony away so they could take the call, heading to the other end of the street, away from where the crowd of evacuees were slowly getting ready to move again.
The call was from Damien, surprisingly enough, and Harmony heard an intense sigh of relief come from his end as soon as she picked up. Though it could also have been a sigh of exasperation, if the first words he said to her were any indication.
“Jesus Christ, there you go,” he said, with a little bit of background noise drowning him out, but he was audible enough. “I was worried about you. Where the hell are you?”
Harmony frowned in confusion, and likewise, Ren tilted her head. “Huh?” Harmony asked, lifting her digivice an inch. Damien had been worried about her? “We’re fine. We had to change course and then we got lost and then ran into the middle of an evacuation.”
“Okay, cause everyone thought something happened to you.” Despite the gentle concern in his voice, he glossed right over that whole “I was worried about you” thing, which Harmony supposed made sense for him, but still, she couldn’t resist the faintest of smiles. When he spoke again, his tone was back to normal, even a little serious. “…Fuck you mean evacuation?”
Harmony frowned - had he not seen any? “Yeah, there’s evacuations happening all over the city,” she said, speaking slowly. “This one got stuck because one of Ordinemon’s attacks blocked their route. We stopped to help clear the obstacles.”
“Are you serious - ugh, we don’t have time for this,” Damien hissed, and though normally Harmony might have been frustrated with that attitude, she found herself silently agreeing with him. “They’re carrying out evacuations at the exact same time we’re trying to move a giant eldritch angel across the city? Are they stupid?”
“Yeah, I had the same question,” she muttered, and Damien scoffed. “Um. If that’s all you needed…?”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, and Harmony was able to perfectly see in her mind’s eye the dismissive hand wave he no doubt was giving her on the other end. “Good to know you’re not dead. At least, that you’re not, I haven’t heard anything about Ren, so, like, maybe she’s…”
“I’m alive,” Ren said coolly, eyes narrowed in disinterest. Harmony held back a snicker and Ren flicked one ear at her.
“Well, then, that just proves my point,” Damien said. The background noise had grown in volume, and he went quiet for a couple seconds before sighing again. “Alright. Better get your ass back here. We’re sort of back on track now, but we are sorely missing your help.”
Ren rolled her eyes. “Good to finally know I’m necessary to the operation.”
“We’re all necessary. Hurry the fuck up.”
“Wait,” Harmony cut in before he could hang up, as he was so wont to do whenever he was tired of talking, “how’s Moxie?”
She hadn’t forgotten about her, even throughout this whole little side adventure she and Ren had gone on. There hadn’t been any news about her even before then, and now that Harmony was finally able to speak to someone, this might be the only opportunity she’d have for a while.
Ren looked down at her, worry etched on her face, but Harmony paid no mind, staring intently down at her digivice. With each passing second it took for Damien to respond, her fear grew in size, scratching against her ribcage like a prisoner clawing at a cellar door.
Please tell me she’s okay.
“She’s… alright,” Damien said, and Harmony finally exhaled, relief flooding her body. “Injured. Obviously. But she’s alive, and conscious, and well enough for Pop to keep fighting. Just been relegated to the sidelines for now. Dare took over for her. Might be better this way, honestly, I don’t know why Azure decided she’d be better at the sides instead of with the rest of the heavy hitters at the -” He huffed and shut his mouth with an almost audible snap. “Whatever. Point is, she’s fine. You don’t need to worry.”
“She’s going to anyways,” Ren said.
Harmony reached a hand up to smack her arm, indignation flaring up, but it was quickly doused by the gentle solace that washed over her.
Moxie was fine. She was alive, and awake, and doing well enough for Pop to keep fighting.
She looked down at her digivice and smiled. “Thank you,” she said quietly.
For a second she thought Damien was about to say something - a noise escaped his mouth, barely intelligible over the background noise still ongoing and the general compression of the digivice’s speakers, that sounded almost like the beginning of a thanks in response - but then he cleared his throat, and Harmony wasn’t sure if she’d heard it correctly in the first place, or if it had just been wishful thinking on her part. “Yeah. Like I said, get back here. We don’t have all day.”
Well, that’d have to do, she supposed.
They bid each other farewell, and Harmony and Ren were quick to navigate back to the rest of the group. It was just as dangerous heading back as it had been to get here. The streets had not magically cleaned themselves - if anything, they seemed almost worse than they had been the first time around, which they very well may be, if Ordinemon’s continued stream of attacks directed at the Digimon and city around him was any indication. He seemed to have moved from where they’d last checked in on him; that was good. That meant the rest of the team had gotten him back on track and had made significant enough progress that it was visible at a second glance. Even despite the interruption and his anger at Alpha, he hadn’t caught onto the plan.
We have to make do with what we’ve got.
When they got closer to the general location of the rest of the team, Ren sent a flare signal into the sky, hoping it could alert Bumble or Bunny of their position. It was not, however, either the wasp or rabbit who spotted them first; it was Damien and Anna, down on the ground, further down the street. Ren nodded in satisfaction and immediately jumped back into battle, heading to where Bumble and Bunny were both visible a couple blocks over, firing attacks at Ordinemon just as they had been originally.
Anna was a little bit more visibly happy to see Harmony than Damien was, but that wasn’t saying much, since the only reaction she gave was a lift of her hand in a small wave. That was more than she’d ever really given Harmony, though, so she reciprocated with a grin and a wave of her own, then turned to Damien, eyes glued to his digivice.
“What happened to being on the frontlines?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. It was an attempt to distill the tension, try to ease the three of them back into the camaraderie they’d accumulated before the detour, but Damien’s reaction was so comically delayed Harmony wasn’t really sure if it was worth it.
“Huh?” he said, finally looking up from his brain-sucking amoeba known as a phone (because now that Harmony was getting a closer look, it was his phone). “We were never on the frontlines. That’s like, our whole thing.”
“I wasn’t talking about that,” Harmony said, sweeping an arm out to gesture at where their partners stood atop a building a couple roads down. “I meant sticking with our partners. You just sent them off into battle on their own so you could stand around playing mobile games?”
“I’m reading the news,” he shot back haughtily, but even as he did, he launched his digivice app to revert it back to its normal state. “About those evacuations you mentioned. So that I can make sure you don’t stumble into any more.”
“Plus after Ordinemon attacked the area we decided it’s safer this way,” Anna added before Harmony could retort. She wrinkled her nose slightly, her eyes flicking over to where Bunny fired an arrow of ice up at Ordinemon. “They’re fine. We’ve been following them and checking in on them when we can. We just don’t want to get hurt.”
Harmony breathed out slowly and crossed her arms. Well, Ren got her wish, I guess. No carrying me. At least not for now. “Is everything else okay?” she asked, switching the topic. “Nobody else hurt? Plan still going good?”
Damien grunted in dismissal. “It’s almost like you’d know these things if you’d stuck with us.” Harmony reached over to punch his shoulder and he staggered a few inches to the side, but otherwise stood firm. He raised his eyebrows and - a little sarcastically - moved both his arms to gesture at their partners. “Oh noooo. They’re getting awayyyyy. We better follow themmmmm. So that we can be on the frontli—”
“I’m going to say a bad word to you,” Harmony grumbled, and Damien smirked.
He was right, though - their partners, leaping from rooftop to rooftop in order to follow Ordinemon, were slowly getting further from them, and so the three humans down on the ground shared a nod and took off after them. As they ran, Anna looked over at Damien and Harmony, her brows pinching together.
“Do you think we should have them stop the evacuation? So that they won’t get in Ordinemon’s way? If they can wait until he’s at the ocean…”
Damien was quick to shake his head. “I think it’s too late at this point. If they’re already on their way, where else would they even go? Back to their homes that may or may not still be standing? It’d just do more harm than good.”
“We’ll just need to hurry up with Ordinemon,” Harmony added. “So that he can’t disrupt any more evacuations. Or hurt anyone.” She glanced at Damien, trying to catch her breath a little before speaking again. “We should call the others and let them know about it. Just in case.”
He nodded and pulled his digivice out, making a group call so he could relay the information, falling back a bit while Harmony and Anna continued ahead. They could see the Digimon a good fifty or so feet ahead of them, still traversing the rooftops and firing attacks up at Ordinemon whenever they got the chance. Things were finally getting back on track, it seemed like; that was good.
Pop, having moved to the sidelines, wasn’t as active as she had been initially, what with still having to shield Moxie the best she could from the stray attacks Ordinemon sent her way, but every so often she’d let loose an arrow or send Freyja toward him. He was still mostly going after the group at the front, and so far he hadn’t noticed their formation, thank god.
“
Racing footsteps sounded from behind, and Harmony craned her neck around to see Damien sprinting toward her and Anna, who were still moving at a moderate pace. He slowed down as he reached them, looking as if he hadn’t even broken a sweat.
“They said they’ll try to speed things up,” he said, pointing out at the frontmost group. “We’ll be sacrificing precision for it, though. But we haven’t really been all that precise before now, so I don’t know if it’ll even make a difference.”
“What if it makes him figure it out?” Anna asked, frowning. “If they speed up too much, he might notice it, right?”
Harmony bit her lip, trying to calm herself down before that possibility sent her spiraling. “I think we’ll be okay,” she said, but she wasn’t too sure of it, and she could hear it in her voice. “The quicker we get him to the ocean, the better, right?”
No one else will get hurt.
As the Digimon gradually picked up the pace - all of them, including the rabbit, wasp, and fox in the back - so too did the humans on the ground. They weren’t able to keep pace with their partners, no, much smaller and slower than they were, but the Digimon had to stop every so often to attack Ordinemon or figure out a good route from one rooftop to another, while the humans just had to navigate down the (somewhat unscathed) city streets. They were close enough to their partners that, if needed, they could call out to them and ask for help or something, which they did once or twice in order to clear an obstruction in their path. It was Ren who helped them each time, able to easily incinerate any of the rubble that stood between them with her talismans, while Bunny and Bumble covered for her.
The other Digimon up ahead had begun hitting Ordinemon with quicker attacks, less time between each one for them to recharge, and they were moving further away when they retreated or lunged out of the way in order to taunt him farther.
They were making good time as they moved through the city. They had maybe twenty more minutes until they reached the end of their journey - twenty minutes until they had him right where they wanted him, twenty minutes until they were done with leading him closer and closer to the water’s edge. All while he was entirely unaware of their destination.
He would be aware of it very soon.
But not soon enough.
“
Ordinemon fired the beam in a straight line, aiming right at Castor, who had just retreated after slashing out at his face. The attack hit the shield formed by his familiars, the three fiery creatures taking the blast and then disappearing in a rush of flames -
But the attack continued after they dispersed, just as Harmony froze, and it struck Castor, cape billowing behind him, one arm raised to protect Alex sitting on his shoulder, dead in the center of his chest.
He plummeted from the sky.
“
“No!”
Two cries came up from two different Digimon, one moving to distract Ordinemon with an attack while the other rushed forward like a blazing sun to grab Castor. Alpha swept his sword through the air to release a beam of light aimed directly at where Ordinemon’s eyes would be, and it managed to stun him enough for Ember to dart in and snatch Castor from his freefall. He was larger than the dragon knight, and though he was clearly struggling with the weight, he was able to steady him enough to let him go back to hovering midair.
On Castor’s shoulder, Alex clutched at his leg. From the distance they were at, Harmony couldn’t see them very clearly, and it was impossible to discern the expression on his face or if there was blood dripping down his pants. The only thing she caught was the nod of reassurance he gave to Castor, which was returned a little hesitantly. Ezra - also on his partner’s shoulder - reached a hand out, clutching at the empty air for a few seconds before retracting it and ducking his head.
Alpha and the other frontline Digimon were still battling Ordinemon, drawing his attention enough for Ember and Castor to seemingly converse quietly for a couple moments. Eventually they separated, Ember moving to join Ko and Dare in launching a joint attack against Ordinemon while Castor, summoning his familiars to watch his back, flew over to where Ember had just been positioned.
Another one down…
Harmony shook her head out, dispelling the fear that had started to accumulate. Alex seems okay. He’s well enough for Castor to be able to keep fighting, at least. He and Moxie - they’ll be okay. They will.
We’re almost there. We’re so close. It’ll be over soon
Please, let this be over soon.
I… don’t want to lose anyone…
She sniffed and wiped away the tear forming in the corner of her eye.
A hand on her shoulder startled her back to the present, and she looked over to see Damien watching her, his expression distant but not unsympathetic. Anna stood a couple feet behind him, her gaze a bit more visibly worried than his.
“He’s gonna be okay,” Damien said, squeezing her gently. “We all will.”
Harmony just turned her head and took a shaky breath in. “I… I hope so.”
So much has gone wrong already. First Moxie, now Alex… not to mention the evacuation… who knows how many other people might have been hurt already…
Did we… did we cause this? If we’d thought this through a bit longer, if we’d timed it better, if we’d been more careful… would Moxie and Alex still have gotten hurt, or could we have prevented it? What about everyone else? How many more people have to get hurt before it’s all over?
When will this be over?
“Oh no -”
Anna’s gasp was the next thing to shake Harmony from her reverie, and she looked over at the younger girl, dread gripping her body once more. Anna’s eyes were wide as she looked up at Ordinemon, hands clasped in front of her mouth, and Harmony followed her gaze up toward the angel.
What now?
Ordinemon’s wings stretched far across the sky, almost reaching their fullest extent. His head was tilted downward, fixed on something down on the ground.
Something, deep in the city, had drawn his attention more than the rest of the Digimon had, still attacking, still trying to pull him back toward them, still trying to distract him, still trying to -
“
The attack shot down toward the streets below.
It didn’t hit any of the Digimon.
Light and smoke and ash and miasma all welled up from the point of impact, somewhere too far away for Harmony to get a good look at from this point. She was only barely aware of the fact that she reached out to grab Damien’s hands, the nearest thing she could hold to keep herself upright, and she certainly wasn’t aware enough to tell if he gripped back or not.
What did he just do…?
“An evacuation,” said something with Quinn’s voice, and Harmony had to blink a couple of times before she realized Damien had his digivice out and open to a call with her. “We can see it from here. I don’t know why he attacked. We couldn’t do anything to stop it.”
“A what?” Harmony squeaked, entirely unable to stop herself. One of Damien’s hands was still holding hers, and it tightened almost imperceptibly. Her head was swirling too much to acknowledge it, though, and instead she swallowed thickly and stared down at the digivice with wild eyes, as if she could see anything on the other side. “Why did he -?”
“We’re working to redirect him,” Quinn said, and Harmony finally allowed herself to look back up at Ordinemon, where the rest of the Digimon were attacking Ordinemon with a renewed vigor, even Castor and Pop. “It’s… not going well. He’s still kind of focused on that evacuation. I need you three to go check on it. See if there’s any survivors. Anyone injured. Anything you can do to help.”
If Harmony was any more of an idiot, she’d think there was some sort of tremble in Quinn’s voice, but it was surely just distortion and background noise. Still, her words rang through the air, and Harmony could only manage a weak nod as Damien said something else to Quinn that she didn’t catch before hanging up.
He looked at her and Anna, determination etched on his face. “We’ve got this,” he said, the only words he spoke before he tightened his hold on Harmony’s hand and took one of Anna’s with his other, practically dragging them along with him as he started to run.
They called out to their partners as they got closer to them - they’d gotten much further ahead than was ideal while the humans had been otherwise preoccupied - and the Digimon joined them down on the ground, all three grabbing their partners so they could more easily and quickly get to the evacuation.
Ten deep breaths, Harmony told herself as they ran, Ren holding her close with the fabric of her sleeves practically blanketing her. Everything’s going to be okay. Ordinemon’s never had the best aim. He attacked us when Quinn came back and we ended up okay.
But… we had Ren’s mandala… and if we’re less susceptible to his miasma because of our partners… which nobody else has…
Ten. Deep. Breaths.
On the tenth breath, Ren, Bunny, and Bumble came to a stop. Harmony opened her eyes, feeling only marginally better, but it was big enough of a margin for her to jump down from Ren’s arms and, even if a little shakily, stand on her own two feet again.
They were a couple blocks away from where the attack had impacted, if the smoke welling into the air nearby was any indication. Ordinemon was still much too close to the area than ideal, but true to Quinn’s words, the Digimon in the sky were slowly but surely working him back on track. Castor and Pop had taken over for the missing back group, leaving his sides open, but it was the best they could manage at the moment.
He was moving slower now, slower even than the pace they had initially started with - so it was all for nothing? Harmony shook her head. Whatever reason he had for being so invested in this particular evacuation - which she didn’t really want to wonder about - was enough for him to mostly ignore the rest of the Digimon, even if he wasn’t able to get another attack in what with all the ones he was receiving. He seemed mostly to be stalling - waiting for them to tire, perhaps? Considering his next move?
That’s not our priority.
But surely he knows we’ll stop to help - is he using that to his advantage? What if he attacks another group? Is he trying to separate us -
…Ten deep breaths. I can’t afford to panic right now.
No matter what he wants, we still have to help.
Their three Digimon had gone on ahead to scout out the area, and Harmony, Damien, and Anna followed a good dozen yards behind. Maybe they should have been with their Digimon so that the people ahead wouldn’t think they were rogue Digimon, but there was a very real possibility that this was a trap of some sort.
A few minutes later, after traveling the progressively more and more damaged roads, they turned the final corner onto the street where the evacuation had been stopped, only to find it in chaos. Civilians were scattered everywhere, yelling and shouting and crying while the transportation officials tried frantically to either calm them down or deal with the destruction around them. Bumble had stopped at the curb, watching carefully but unwilling to move onward, while Bunny and Ren had made their way to the far end of the street, already getting started on clearing the debris all around.
When the humans got closer to him, Bumble glanced down at them, giving a short nod. “I will stand guard in case Ordinemon attacks again,” he said. “I am… not the best one to be dealing with civilians.”
“Too tough-looking for them,” Damien said, and Bumble simply tilted his head in response. Damien sighed through his nose, sweeping his gaze over the street, before looking to Harmony and Anna. “Permission to be the de facto leader of this mini operation?”
Harmony and Anna both blinked. They didn’t have to voice their confusion before Damien sighed again, holding his palms up in defeat. “No offense, but Harmony, you are far too panicked to be making any rational decisions, and Anna, you are far too young to be making any smart decisions.”
“Eat rocks,” Anna said, the neutral expression on her face remaining unchanged. “But. Permission granted.”
“Okay,” Harmony said, nodding slowly. As much as it stung to hear Damien say it, he… wasn’t wrong. She wouldn’t even know where to start with this situation even if she was in the right frame of mind, so if Damien was, he was probably their best bet.
“Great,” he said. “Harmony, go check on Ren and Bunny, make sure nobody attacks them. Anna, you stick with me, we’re gonna talk to those guys over there.” He pointed his thumb over at where some of the transportation officials were speaking to each other, further away from the mass of people spread up and down the street, to a point where it was obvious they were dealing with something else entirely. Then, he looked up at Bumble. “You stay right here. Keep doing what you’re doing. Yell at us if Ordinemon looks like he’s coming this way.”
“I will try my best,” Bumble said, and Damien smiled faintly, before he ushered Anna along as they headed towards the officials.
Harmony took a deep breath in and started making her own way toward the other two Digimon. She wove her way through the crowd, trying her best to tune out the voices around her. Each of them were filled with fear and worry, even those coming from people who were trying to look calm. She was able to recognize it anyway. She was all too familiar with it by this point.
She stayed, very deliberately, away from the opposite sidewalk. It was hard to tell, through the throngs of people and all the confusion and panic in the air, but the glimpses she did catch accidentally were not reassuring.
There were people laying down. Most of them had others crouched over their forms. Some were breathing, some not. All of them were stained with blood.
She tore her gaze away every time she found it lingering.
Sometimes one of the people she pushed past would reach out to her, recognizing her as the only calm ship sailing a torrential sea. They asked her if they were going to be okay, what was going on, if she knew what was happening, why they had been attacked, if they were going to be okay. Why that monster in the sky was there. Why there were other monsters down here with them. If they were in danger. If they were going to be okay, the ones on the sidewalk, the ones laying down, the ones breathing and the ones not and the ones covered in blood and the ones that were not going to be okay.
She didn’t have anything to say.
Ten deep breaths.
On the fourth breath, she heard a loud, keening cry from somewhere in the sky behind her, and then the very world around her began to shake.
Everyone around her scattered, screams ripping out of their throats and fear filling the air once more. Harmony just stood there, the only one unmoving. The only ship sailing the sea.
She was the only one still standing there when white light flooded her vision and a very familiar voice shouted “
Ren’s barrier went up around Harmony and most of the people in the area just as Ordinemon’s attack struck. Distantly, she was aware of Bumble and Bunny also moving, doing their best to shield those not covered by Ren’s mandala. It was all they could do.
When the smoke and miasma and mandala cleared, it took everything Harmony had in her to not fall to her knees and sob.
Ren took a couple steps closer and knelt down, placing one hand on her shoulder. “Harmony,” she said, her voice another disturbingly calm thing to break up the terror that had consumed everything else. “I need you here with me. Please.”
“I can feel it,” Harmony whispered, her fingers curling ever so slightly inward where they hung limp at her sides. She stared blankly at her partner, trying to bring forth any sort of emotion, but nothing came to the surface. “I can feel how much you hurt. It’s so much, Ren.”
“I know,” she said. “I know it is. I’m sorry. But I need to protect you, and in order to do that, I need you here.” She bit her lip, closing her eyes briefly, before she softened her voice. “Please, Harmony. I will keep you safe.”
“Can you keep them safe?”
Ren went quiet, her gaze falling down to the ground at her feet. Harmony could barely feel the words in her mouth anymore. All she could feel was the pain that had overtaken her the moment Ren had evolved. Everything around them - the shouting, the screaming, the people rushing about, bumping into her and Ren and caring not for what she was feeling - it was all background noise.
It hurt so much.
“I can’t promise you that,” Ren finally said, and some sort of feeling started to work its way back into Harmony’s body. She wasn’t sure if it was mental or physical - just that it was there. “I can’t promise that I can protect everyone here. I can’t even promise that I can protect all of our friends. But what I can promise you is that I will try.”
“Try,” Harmony murmured, turning the word over on her tongue. “You’ll… try?”
Ren dipped her head in a nod. “Yes,” she said softly. “I will always try.”
“…I think,” Harmony said, “that that’s all we need.”
She was sure of it now, that something had returned. It wasn’t the fear in the air; that was still there, and always had been, and maybe always would be. It wasn’t the pain that still enveloped her, holding her tight in an agonizing embrace that she couldn’t break free of.
The numbness in her chest faded away, and what replaced it was something like a burning fire.
People have died, she thought to herself. Too many people. But there’s still hope for the survivors.
We are that hope.
Even if we can’t protect everyone, we can do our best. We can try.
And even if all we can do is try, then… maybe we can save at least one person.
Ren stood up, cupping Harmony’s cheek with one hand. “Thank you,” she said, quietly, just for the two of them to hear, and a little bit of that pain consuming them subsided. “I will try.”
Harmony’s lips curled into a smile.
In the distant sky behind them, Ordinemon cried out again, and Ren slammed her staff into the ground.
“
Another attack rained down on them, and despite knowing it wouldn’t do anything more than the mandala would, Harmony dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms over her head. Around her, miasma and feathers swelled up, covering the area in darkness for a few brief, terrifying seconds. Ren grit her teeth and pressed the end of her staff even deeper into the ground, cracking the asphalt below with the sheer force of it. The mandala flickered once, but did not disappear.
Once the attack faded, and the feathers burned away, and they were certain there was no more immediate danger, the staff fell from Ren’s hands and she sank into a kneel. Harmony grabbed her arm, trying to steady her, and looked back over her shoulder at the scene behind.
At this point, the continued attacks were enough to scare the crowd into fleeing, ignoring the shouts from the transportation officials telling them to remain calm and stay in place until further instructions arrived. Ordinemon still floated in the sky in the distance, a bit farther away than the last time Harmony had looked at him, but nowhere near far enough. The other Digimon were working to draw his attention, focused more on protecting the people on the ground than moving him any further.
But he flared his wings out, and lifted his head, and then Harmony noticed something. It wasn’t anything up there, with Ordinemon, with the rest of her friends. It was something down here, on the ground, with her and Ren and all the people running from Ordinemon and whatever attack he would fire at them next.
Pushing through the fleeing mess, the only one going against the current, was one man, heading directly toward her - toward Ordinemon.
Before she even knew what she was doing, Harmony was rushing toward him, making her own way through the people in her way. She shoved and stumbled and moved as quickly as she could, trying to get to him, so she could lead him away, tell him to turn around and run, run away from that angel in the sky, the one that wanted to kill them -
When she broke out of the crowd and grabbed both his arms, trying to shove him backwards, all he did was stare down at her, his hands held close to his chest.
There was something hollow and haunted in his eyes, something she almost recognized, but she didn’t have time to examine it before Ordinemon, distantly behind them, let loose one final attack.
“
The mandala went up around them mere seconds before the beams impacted. It stretched far and wide, a larger radius than Harmony had ever seen of it, and it faded away quicker than usual. Ren held fast to her staff, though one hand slipped a little before retightening its grip.
Ordinemon did not move to attack again; Harmony gave one last glance over her shoulder to see that he was fully focused on the others once more, striking out at them for the first time in what felt like eons. Whatever it was that he had wanted with this evacuation in particular was no more. It was as if he hadn’t even noticed them at all.
But he had, and when Harmony looked back over at the man, dark ginger hair draped over his freckled cheeks and dull blue eyes, something about the way he was looking at Ordinemon made her feel a little ill.
He had loosened his grip at his chest, and Harmony’s gaze fell right towards it.
In his hands, he clutched a familiar device.
It was a bit crude, a little shoddy, a lot less well put together. It wasn’t entirely a single item - instead it was two pieces only barely holding onto each other, the edges chipping away and the screen cracked, wiring and metal bits stuck out at odd ends where it had been snapped in half.
Perhaps a long time ago, those two halves had made a whole, but now it was a crushed memento, broken apart by some destructive force with all the intensity of a dying star.
The man’s fingers tightened around it.
It wasn’t the same - she knew that. It was too outdated, too obsolete; too clunky, too blocky. It didn’t look anything like theirs.
But it was obvious what it was.
Harmony turned her face skyward, where the angel hung in midair, suspended by the force of its sheer will, and she took a deep breath.
“What’s your name,” she asked the man, not looking over at him yet. She watched the Digimon in the distance, her eyes fixed on Pop and Dare and Alpha as they traded blow after blow with Ordinemon.
She didn’t need to look over at him to know that he was looking at her, though.
For a second she thought he wasn’t going to respond. For a second, she worried he would disregard her entirely and keep walking forward, toward Ordinemon, toward his death. But then he sighed quietly, his breath shaking a bit, and pushed his glasses further up his nose.
“Elijah,” he said, his voice soft and gentle and so, so tired. It was an exhaustion that Harmony could not put words to, not because she did not know it but because she herself had felt it, was feeling it, and she could not imagine how to explain it to anyone else who had never felt it. “My name is Elijah.”
He didn’t say anything else. He just looked back at Ordinemon, and when Harmony finally glanced over at him, she saw the look on his face and, oh, something in her broke, snapping clean in half just like his digivice had.
Ren straightened herself out, finally recovered from the extent of her attack. The people around them were all gone by now; Harmony could hear Damien and Bumble far behind them, shouting something above the commotion, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Anna and Bunny - evolved to mega; when had that happened? - working to clear away some of the brand new damage that Ordinemon had done to the street. Ren stared at Harmony for a moment, understanding flickering in her eyes, and then she shook her head gently and looked to Elijah.
“You need to leave,” she said, her voice kind but firm. “It doesn’t matter if you have a digivice somehow. It’s not safe here.”
“I can’t,” he whispered, not taking his eyes off of Ordinemon. “I… can’t leave him. I can’t leave Pallas.”
Oh.
So that was his name.
Ren wasn’t as moved by the revelation as Harmony, or if she was, she certainly wasn’t showing it. She gripped her staff tighter as she looked down at Elijah, her gaze hardening. “It’s too dangerous for you,” she said, instead of anything else, any of the thousands of questions that Harmony was certain she at least was thinking. “You can’t stay. Not while Ordinemon is still here.”
“His name,” Elijah said, still not looking over at her, “is Pallas.”
“Pallas, then,” Ren said, surprising Harmony a bit. “I don’t mean to scare you, but you saw that attack. He will kill you if you stay here.”
Elijah went quiet, Ren’s words sinking into his and Harmony’s skin as the silence between them grew. All he did was stare out at Ordinemon - Pallas - and hold his broken digivice close to his chest.
When he finally spoke, just as Harmony was wondering if he would ever be able to look away from the angel, he did not say what she had expected him to say.
“So it’s… justice.”
Harmony frowned, resisting the urge to reach out and grab him. Ordinemon still had not turned back toward them - if anything, he had drifted further away, finally lured by the others fighting him - but the possibility, and the fear, of him attacking once more was still there. It was clear Elijah did not plan on moving anytime soon.
Harmony wasn’t sure what to do.
“What do you mean?”
Her voice startled her a bit, the words falling unbidden from her mouth. Elijah, too, seemed surprised, and he finally looked over at her for the first time since she’d ran into him, his eyes dim with resignation.
“It’s justice,” he said plainly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He sighed, long and loud, mostly through his nose, and glanced down at his digivice. “He’s going to kill me. Just like I killed him.” A smile twisted onto his face, but it was humorless. “Or, like I tried to.”
“What?”
She didn’t know why she was asking. She knew what he meant, what had happened between him and Pallas that had turned them both into what they were now. The digivice had been her first clue. The look on his face the second.
His words just now the third and final.
It didn't matter anyways. Elijah did not respond. But Harmony still knew.
This was Ordinemon’s partner. The one that he hated. The one he couldn’t even bring himself to speak about.
The one who had done this to him.
For not the first time that night, Harmony didn’t know what to say.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, because she didn’t know what she was going to do, and she needed someone to tell her.
Elijah shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. I… I don’t know what I can do. But… I can’t leave. Not again.”
“I…” Harmony bit her lip, staring down at her hands, wringing themselves out as they clenched and unclenched.
She understood it. Even if she didn’t know exactly what had happened, or exactly how Elijah was feeling right now, she knew why he wanted to stay. He needed to stay. If he’d already abandoned his partner once before, this may be the last chance he had to stay with him.
And didn’t everyone deserve a second chance?
She nodded. “Okay. You can stay.”
“Harmony,” Ren started, her voice laden with warning, but Harmony shook her head at her.
“It’s… I think it’ll be okay. You’ve been protecting me this whole time. One more person to guard… shouldn’t be too much of an issue, right?” She tried to smile, to diffuse some of the tension, but it clearly didn’t do much, especially because Elijah was once more staring at Ordinemon.
She took a step closer to him, again reaching a hand out, and this time she let it fall onto his arm. “We still have to finish with this evacuation,” she told him. The only response he gave was an ever so slight loosening of his shoulders, which would have to be good enough. “We… we’re taking him to the ocean. To minimize damage. Once he’s there, there won’t be as many people or buildings around for him to hurt. We’ll be able to fight him properly.”
Elijah nodded. He closed his eyes, then turned around fully, his back to Ordinemon at last. He looked up at Ren, his gaze flickering as he took her in, but it disappeared an instant later when he then moved it toward Harmony.
“I’ll help you.”
Harmony’s brow creased. “How?”
“He’s here to see justice served,” he said, something unreadable flashing across his face for a moment. “That’s what he’s always wanted. So I’ll give it to him.”
Justice… or is it…?
“He’ll go after me if he sees me,” he continued. “Like… like he did just now. He knew I was down here. I know he did.” He swallowed harshly, taking one hand off his digivice to run through his hair. “He’ll… he’ll go after me, and then he’ll…”
He trailed off, keeping his eyes firmly off of Harmony and Ren. Harmony felt a lump growing in her own throat and had to blink fiercely a couple of times to stay calm. She knew what he meant. She was trying not to think about it, but it was so obvious, even if the emotions hadn’t been leaking through the words he spoke.
It’s justice. He’s here to see it served.
“You’re going to let him kill you?” Ren said, breaking the silence and voicing exactly what was on Harmony’s mind.
Elijah smiled weakly, looking down at his feet. “If it’s what he wants,” he said. “If it’ll save the world.” His voice wavered, belying the confident air he was trying to put on.
Something about the way he said it made her think there was another reason he was willing to do it.
She didn’t ask.
Behind them, footsteps rang out, and Harmony turned to see the other four in her group fast approaching, Bumble and Bunny in their mega forms while Damien and Anna led the way. Confusion was quick to make its way onto each of their faces as they came to a stop next to the three, looking Elijah up and down with a silent question of “who is this?”.
But then Bunny’s eyes widened slightly, and she nodded down at his hands, just enough for Anna and Damien and Bumble to notice but not Elijah, and they all looked down at where he held his digivice, or at least what had once been a digivice and was now nothing but a pile of scraps, and then they looked up at where Ordinemon was distantly visible in the sky.
Harmony had a feeling that was enough for them to figure it out.
“Oh,” Anna said, quietly, softly, and that was all.
“Everything up ahead is sorted out,” Damien said, speaking more gently than she might have ever heard from him. There could have been a dozen reasons why, but he didn’t offer any of them up, and Harmony was too dazed and tired to figure it out. “We’re good to go whenever.” He glanced over at Elijah, trying not to make it too obvious, but the older man caught his gaze anyway. “…Um. Is he…”
“He wants to come with us,” Harmony said, holding her own hands close to her chest. “He… he said he’ll help.”
“I don’t know what he thinks he can do,” Damien said, a little bit of his signature disdain sneaking its way back into his tone. “He’s just going to get himself killed. It’s too dangerous.”
“I know,” Elijah said. He sounded a little distant, and looked as if he wanted to turn around to face his partner again, but he held firm. “I’m well aware. Trust me. Whatever… whatever you’ve been through…” His eyes flitted over the three humans, tracing the blood stains and scars that littered their bodies, and he inhaled slowly. “I’ve… I’ve done this before. I know it’s dangerous. But… I don’t care. Pallas is my partner. If there’s any way to convince him to stop, or change his mind…” He cracked another joyless smile. “I’m the only one who could do that.”
“But he hates you,” Anna said, and the smile instantly slipped off his face. “I mean, it seems like it, at least. He… told us not to talk about you.”
Elijah went quiet for a couple moments, staring down at the digivice in his hands. He didn’t speak; he just stood there, his gaze cast downward, breathing slowly, as everyone else watched and waited.
“I have to come,” he said eventually, barely above a whisper. “I can’t abandon him again.”
Damien opened his mouth as his eyebrows pinched downward, but Harmony reached a hand over to put on his shoulder, enough to convince him to snap his jaws shut and not say anything. He pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled sharply, then shook his head and crossed his arms.
“Fine,” he muttered, looking off to the side. “We warned you. You better be careful if you want to live.”
Elijah didn’t respond, which made something in Harmony’s gut curdle, but she likewise did not speak. She just let loose a shaky breath and wrapped her arms around herself, looking up at Ren for confirmation.
Her partner nodded, gesturing out at Ordinemon. “We still have a task to complete,” she said. “We need to bring him to the ocean. Elijah, you will stay with us until we arrive at the shore. After that…” She shook her head slightly. “We can figure it out from there. Stay sharp. Stick close to us. Do not take unnecessary risks. This goes for you three -” she looked down at the other humans “- just as much. We’ve seen what Ordinemon is capable of when he truly wants to attack us down here. I can’t guarantee I can keep all of us safe if it comes down to it. I will try, but… I can’t promise it.”
“Okay,” Harmony said, and the rest of the humans murmured their assent too, including Elijah.
They left the scene shortly after, once they were entirely certain that the rest of the evacuation had gotten back on track and that they were not abandoning them. Ren stuck close to the humans while Bunny and Bumble went on ahead, clearing rubble in their way and figuring out the best route to get them to Ordinemon.
Damien was quick to call the others, letting them know that they’d finished with the evacuation and were on their way back to Ordinemon. Quinn told them that they were steadily getting him back on track, and that they should be at the ocean soon; she’d been mildly injured in the midst of the chaos, but it wasn’t serious enough to put her and Alpha out of the fight, thankfully. Damien said nothing of Elijah, signing off instead with a promise to see them soon before he shoved his digivice back into his pocket.
Harmony didn’t question it.
Elijah was silent the whole way, saying very little even when Anna and Damien tried asking him about who he was and how he’d ended up here and what he planned on doing once they reached Ordinemon. His responses were simple and evasive, lackluster in their explanation and leaving them with more questions than answers. His grip on his digivice never loosened, and his eyes never left Ordinemon, and the look on his face never gave away how he was truly feeling.
Years of practice, Harmony supposed.
She wondered if Elijah had ever felt the way she had. When she had stood there in the center of the street, as Ordinemon had rained down attack after attack upon them, and everyone around her had been panicking and screaming and running, and she had just stood there, unmoving, unfeeling. Had he ever felt that? Had the rest of his team, whoever they may be?
And if they had, had it cost them what it had nearly cost her?
“I’m scared,” she said to Ren, ten minutes into their walk, the first words she’d said in quite some time.
It took a few moments for Ren to respond. “I know. I am too.”
That didn’t surprise Harmony as much as it should have.
Ordinemon. Their plan. Elijah. The world. All of it was scaring her. Anything could go wrong and there would be nothing she could do about it. She still didn’t know exactly what had happened between the two of them, what had turned Ordinemon into the angel he was now or what had made Elijah do it.
She didn’t know any of it. She didn’t know if she ever would.
But…
She had to allow herself a sliver of hope. Even though the future was dark, and they had so much to come in the future, she couldn’t fall fully into despair yet. There was still a chance everything would be okay. Maybe Elijah was right. Maybe he could help Ordinemon.
They would get through this together.
“I won’t let him die.”
Ren’s mouth twitched upward as she looked down at Harmony. “I… will try not to let him, either. But… it seems as if he wants to.”
It did. Harmony could tell, every time he talked about it. Even if he himself wasn’t aware of it, it was almost painfully obvious.
He’d killed Ordinemon. Now, Ordinemon would kill him.
Is it justice or revenge?
“I don’t care,” Harmony whispered, closing her eyes. Her feet felt heavy as they hit the asphalt below, but she barely noticed. She didn’t care. “I don’t care if he wants to die. I’m not going to let it happen. No matter what he tries, no matter what he does, no matter what he wants…”
She lifted her head to look up at Elijah, walking a few meters in front of her, and she felt something burn within her chest.
“I won’t let it happen.”
Harmony was going to do everything in her power to keep him safe. She owed him that much. He would make it out alive.
And so would the rest of them. She was sure of it.