Author's Note: Yay! 29'th of February! Leap Year! Celebrating with a brand new fic about the Tamers! It is my first with them, though. This is sorta alternate ending to the last episode. You'll read! Henry angst! I expect it to be around five chapters long, a short, but eventually sweet, story.
And I put the action to the 29th of February, too, although you won't notice it that much in the start. But just as an backthought, though!
Disclaimer: Don't own. Just like that.
"We have to get Ryo and Rika out of here now!" Renamon said while cradling Rika.
"I know," Cyberdramon replied gruffly. "But what about them?"
Renamon turned to see an unconsious Henry floating out of the vortex. Terriermon was nowhere in sight.
"Renamon," Rika said weakly, immediately receiving her digimon's attention. "You have too..." She trailed off, but Renamon still understood.
"I'm on it," she said and handed Rika over to Cyberdramon before starting down towards Henry.
While moving as swiftly as she could towards the boy, Renamon also tried to spot Terriermon. She would not willingly leave the charming little bunny in here, and she certainly knew that Henry wouldn't, but they hadn't much time left. If she still hadn't found him when Takato returned with Jeri, they would have to leave him behind, regardless of the consequences.
Henry was still unconscious while drifting further and further away from the group and the vortex, oblivious to the trouble he and his partner were in.
Renamon let out a frustrated groan as she watched Henry float further away from her. And it didn't help that she wasn't as fast as she usually was. Here, there was no firm ground to run on, just gravitationless air to float in. But she knew she had to get Henry, while she at least had a chance.
Finally, she reached the limp boy and cradled him in her arms. He was still weak from the battle, but at least alive. Renamon smiled faintly. Then he was going to be fine.
"Henry?" she whispered softly. But Henry made no reaction, so Renamon didn't try anymore. She started towards Rika, Ryo and Cyberdramon when something down in the vortex caught her eye.
It was a spinning white and green dot, that had to be Terriermon. Renamon was just about to start down to pick him up to, but was pushed back by an unseen force. After several other tries, she gave up, and watched helplessly as the dot started to light up.
Both vortex and digimon started to spin faster and faster while lightening up. Renamon frowned slightly at this. She turned her head for a second to see Cyberdramon with Rika and Ryo in his arms flying higher towards three smaller dots, which she assumed was Takato, Guilmon and Jeri. The yellow fox slowly turned again and watched with painfilled eyes as Terriermon was consumed by the spreading light. With one last defeated sigh, she flew back to the others again.
"Good bye, my friend."
But before she reached the little group, the light suddenly erupted from the vortex and consumed all of the D-Reaper, Tamers and digimon.
"Rika!" Renamon shouted when the vision of her Tamer faded into white. She tried to get to her partner's side again, but failed miserably when she couldn't see her. Realizing that she couldn't reach Rika, she focused all of her energy to protect Henry from any approaching dangers. The digimon curled up around the boy, waiting for the light to fade.
Slowly, the light did fade, revealing the city complete and free for any remains of the D-Reaper. It looked like the incident never happened. But it would always stay as a horrible memory in the Tamers' hearts.
When Renamon realized that the light had faded, she looked around warily, ready for action if anything happened. But nothing did. She was in the park, still holding the unconscious Henry in her arms. With one last look around, she began searching for the others.
Mere seconds later, though, she found them in an open grass field in the park. Naturally, Rika was the first to notice their presence.
"Renamon!" she exclaimed happily, and not nearly as weary as earlier. The others also turned to see. At first, they were happy because two missing team members had returned, but worry of Henry soon overtook them.
"What happened? Is he alright?" Takato asked worriedly while Renamon lowered Henry to the ground.
"Where's Terriermon?" Guilmon asked curiously. Renamon let out a sad sigh.
"Henry's going to be alright. He's just a bit weak after the battle," she answered calmly. "But Terriermon..." She paused.
"I couldn't reach him. He was lost in the vortex. I'm sorry."
The words hit the Tamers just as hard as when they saw Beelzemon trust his claws through Leomon. Yet another life was lost in battle, when they were helpless to do anything about it. Yet another Tamer was doomed to the eternal sadness caused by loosing his digimon. Yet another friend was erased from the plane of existence.
Jeri bent down and gently touched Henry's cheek with a sad expression.
"Poor Henry. Loosing your digimon partner is really hard. I know, obviously," she said sadly, but with a small smile. "But he and Terriermon had a much deeper bond than me and Leomon. We had barely got to know each other, but Henry and Terriermon had been together for months. Thinking of how I took it, I wonder how he will."
She stood up again while Takato laid a hand on her shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"He's going to survive," he said quietly, half joking, half serious. Because although he didn't think that Henry would attempt to suicide or anything, he wasn't sure how well he was going to take it.
A soft moan caught their attention as Henry started to wake up. Takato smiled one last time to Jeri before crouching down next to his best friend.
"How are you feeling, buddy?" he asked in a playful manner. Henry brought a hand up to his eyes, trying to shield them for the light. Then, suddenly a memory came back to him.
"Terriermon," he mumbled faintly. Takato bit his lip and looked at Renamon. But the yellow fox was frozen like a statue.
"Terriermon!" Henry mumbled again and attempted to sit up. Takato supported him with a worried look on his face, out of both concern for his best friend and out of having to respond to Henry's questions about Terriermon.
"Take it easy, Henry. You've been through a lot, as have we all," Takato said to distract his confused friend.
"No, where's Terriermon? Is he okay?" Henry said frantically while looking from Takato to the approaching Impmon. Everyone avoided his eyes. Henry frowned.
"What? There's something you're not telling me! Where is he?!"
"Henry - " Takato tried sadly while attempting to put a hand on his houlder, but Henry just shook his head.
"NO!" Suddenly, Henry leaped up and stood, rather unsteadily though, facing Takato with terrified, yet painfilled eyes. "Tell me where he is! Or what happened to him!"
Takato tried desperately to find words, but failed miserably, and ended up staring at the ground, unable to look at Henry's sad and desperate eyes.
Luckily, Renamon decided to make things a bit easier for him. She walked in between Takato and Henry, forcing the latter to look at her.
"Listen, Henry," she said carefully, but compassionate. "When we couldn't hold our mega forms anymore, we got separated. For us, it didn't matter so much. But when you and Terriermon separated, it was a bit worse. You were thrown out of the vortex, but Terriermon stayed. I managed to get you before the D-Reaper was erased, but Terriermon was locked up in the vortex. Yet, he managed to give us one last escape route through the light. But he didn't make it."
Henry stood, shocked, through the whole explanation. The only movement he made was the slight shaking of his head when the horrible realization struck. His partner, companion, best friend, second half, was gone. Sacrificed to a mutated computer program.
He sank to his knees while mumbling. "No, Terriermon, no, please! No!" Tears formed in his eyes, and was soon freely running down his face.
Takato sighed sadly. He hated seeing his best friend like this, but it was nothing he could do. Terriermon wouldn't come back, no matter what he did. So he did the only thing he could think of. He put a hand on Henry's shoulder. This time though, the other boy didn't shrug it off. He just screamed.
"TERRIERMON!!"
Well, what do you think? Great, good, fair enough, repulsive, any OOC'ness? Let me know, and I will fix it as good as I can!
Caellie
