Hello again. No, i am not dead. Sorry for the late update on this one, there was a LOT of stuff i wanted to change and ideas and time were robbed from me by work. But! Without further ado, i present ch. 2 of Equality.
Chapter 2 (Renamon's POV)
I blinked my eyes to adjust, trying to stand up. I was on a couch, not pavement anymore. As I shifted, I realized I was sore, but no longer in pain. A blanket was neatly tucked over me and as my eyes focused I saw, not a face willed with contempt, but with concern. Nonetheless, I reacted without thinking, jumping to land deftly behind whatever and whoever had taken me.
Unfortunately all I managed was a rough jolt on the couch, sending adrenaline through sore and unresponsive muscles. Seeing this, my captor decided it was a good idea to give room, stepping back but keeping watch. Why was I here? The last thing I remember was a fight, some random guy had stepped in to help, and I was walking away to find a place to recoup when…
"You fell shortly after the fight. My best guess is that hyperchip card wore off too quickly and you didn't have the time to recover. I picked you up and carried you here, this is my house. I sealed up what wounds I could and gave you a anesthetic program to ease the pain while you heal. You should be okay and moving in a few minutes."
I willed myself to calm back down, taking in my surroundings. Wait a minute, he looks familiar.
"Are you the man that hit that other Renamon?"
He smiled at this and nodded his head. "Yeah, well. I refused to let him beat up on you, least of all in public. No one, be it human or digimon, should treat their mate like that. Nice fighting, by the way. He was twice your size yet you held your own quite well."
I shifted again, feeling beginning to return to my extremities as the anesthetic wore off, its job done. "It was nothing, really. The cards you used were very well thought out. You must have practiced with your partner a lot to master card strategy that well."
He seemed to shift uncomfortably, and a hint of sadness flashed across his features at that last statement, but responded nonetheless.
"No, I have no partner, but I did spend a long time working on card strategy. You never know when you may come across someone who needed help, like today. I am still looking for a partner; they all seem content to fight in the arena their whole lives." His eyes lit up for a second, looking at me. "Unless…"
"No." I said quickly. I had no intention of being anyone's so called 'partner' and slaving away my life for them. No, a tamer would only mess with my plans, my life. I couldn't have some human soaking up credit for MY success. I would be better off alone. Besides… "I plan to head out as soon as I am able. I'm sorry, being partnered wouldn't suit me. I don't think I could sit here and do nothing for the rest of my life."
He chuckled, an odd reaction seeing as I'd just told him off. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why.
"What?"
"How do you think I feel? Out of all the digimon I've met not one, NOT ONE, wants to do anything more with their life than fight for power in the arena or sit around and waste their life away doing nothing in a dead end job. So I have been forced to sit here, waiting for a partner that never comes. One by one they walk out that door, some without a second glance. All I ever wanted was someone who wanted more than this, to go out and explore, not just this world but the digital world. To adventure, explore, discover, and maybe even figure something out about ourselves, become better people. Instead, I am stuck here, alone, running in circles. I wish the digivices would come back, at least then I would know if I was meant for more than this."
I was stunned. He seemed carefree, content, and even easygoing. But underneath the surface, he was anxious, nervous, and unstable; Discontent with his life. I could empathize, but I just couldn't go with him, I had my own goals to pursue. No, he was better off waiting here for a different partner, and I was better off without a tamer.
"I am sorry. I'm not what you're looking for. I hope you will find what you're looking for someday. Thank you for all that you've done, but I have to go."
I stood up, shakily at first but steadier as I moved towards the door. Party of me wanted to stay, but I knew that I couldn't trust him. If life had taught me anything, it's that you can't trust anyone. No matter how much you want to. It didn't stop me from turning around for one last look into his eyes. And that was when I felt it.
A tug, a pull, and undeniable urge. A sudden realization, a light in his eyes. Both of us knew. Neither was able to turn away. It only lasted a moment, fleeting as quickly as it came. But it felt like a lifetime. All my hopes, all my dreams were gone. All my training, all my suffering was for nothing.
I could try and resist, run out the door, try to live the way I wanted, but I knew it would be useless. It was undeniable. Almost like someone had taken a chain and bound us together. We were bonded, linked.
We were partnered.
"Oh no."
(Justin's POV)
She pushed her back against the wall, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor in the fetal position. She buried her head in her knees, hands clawing at her head. I knew it too. We were partnered, a lifetime bond that rarely ever broke.
"What's up? I thought… this is supposed to be good! Partnership itself is a power boost, and now I can scan for you, so you won't be pushed around anymore. Why are you so upset?" I asked her, bothered by the fact she hated even the idea of being my partner.
She mumbled something into her thighs, not looking at me, remaining buried up against the wall. Sighing, I joined her by the wall, sinking down the same way she did. I don't know why I did; it just seemed like the right thing to do. She cracked an eye to look at me, as if gauging my reaction.
To be honest, I was mostly dejected. I spent my whole life looking for a partner who would join me, stick with me thick and thin and enjoy exploring and traveling across not just my home but theirs, the digital world. Not many humans ever ventured out of the cities in the digital world, it was dangerous, even for tamers with digivices. Now my only chance was blown, partnered with a digimon that didn't even want to be partnered.
She cocked an eyebrow, obviously confused by my reaction. Momentarily distracted from her own feelings, she pulled her head up to look at me. "What's the matter with you? I thought you'd be glad about this."
"I wanted someone who…" I let out a breath, frustrated at the lack of words to express my feelings. "Someone who wanted me, wanted a partnership, wanted more out of life! Not just power and money in the arena, or a ticket to carefree life. You obviously didn't even want a partner, which I guess makes it even worse. Not only am I not getting what I want, I've obviously messed with your life, and in the process I've messed up both our lives." I buried my head in MY knees now, felling the pressure of my failures weighing down on me. I had messed up. Again. Adding to a large list of failures I had been building up.
She noticed my rapid downward spiral and pulled my arm down, forcing eye contact. She had worry worth on her face, something rare for a renamon to display emotion at all, much less that.
"That's not all of it. That may be a part of it, but it's not the whole reason. You're not telling me the truth. What's going on?"
I sighed; frustrated I wasn't even able to hide one stupid thing from her. Within 45 seconds of being partnered too. I uncurled, bracing myself for what I had to tell her. We were stuck together for life, she might as well know.
"This is not my first time being partnered."
Her worry changed to surprise, and then quickly shifted back to the expressionless stare that was trademark to all renamon. Probably bracing herself, same as me. I pushed forward, words falling like water from a broken dam.
"Her name was Sasha, an agumon. We were partnered back when digivices were still given to tamers, we were perfect together, and no matter the odds stacked against us we always won. Then one day we were fighting and… and I screwed up, okay? I let my own stupid head get in the way. She… she didn't make it. She was deleted and absorbed and all I could do was watch and scream. It was my fault."
I gripped a necklace I kept under my shirt, a symbol no one had ever seen but me and her. And that wouldn't change with Renamon.
"She always wanted to go back and explore the digital world. She was always saying how she would like to visit her old village, see this mountain, that river. If it wasn't for me, she just might've. But now she's gone, and I was left with the hope that someday I could explore it for her. Down to this day I've been searching for someone who will go with me into the digital world to explore, just like she wanted. Like I wanted. I'm sorry I ruined your life, just because I can't let go of a stupid dream, as if it could bring me closer to her."
Renamon stayed quiet while I told my sob story, patiently listening. By the end of it I was in tears, reliving the incident over and over. Only I knew the truth of what happened that day, and it would continue that way, regardless of the fact Renamon was stuck with me for life. Separating was a nightmarish process; both parties would be sickly, weak, and tired for years before the symptoms went away. Partnership was supposed to last forever. She scooted closer to me, rubbing my shoulder consolingly at a total loss of what to do. She was doing the best she could, renamon generally avoided emotions like black plague, and her I was, a crying mess on the floor.
"It's okay," she said, "my plans don't seem as noble as yours. Besides, you don't control who you are partnered with, the digignomes do that. There must be a reason we were put together, and if I can live with that, so can you."
Her words comforted me a little, and eventually I pulled myself back to reality. Stopping up the tears, fixing my expression, restoring non-self-pity thought processes. I pulled myself up off the floor, lending a hand to bring her back to her feet.
"Okay, whew. *sniffle* Now that that's over with. No turning back now, we're stuck together. I don't know where to go from here but we have a WHOLE lot of time to figure that out. For now, I'm hungry. What kinda food you like?"