LIFE AND DEATH
By milesprower06
Chapter 10 – Aftermath
Fear clasped onto Renamon's heart as she stared down at her unconscious Tamer on the roof. His right forearm was lightly bleeding from what looked like bite wounds. A small section of his clothing in the middle area of his back had been burnt away where Guilmon had attacked him, and weeping flesh was now visible.
The two Digivices were nowhere to be seen.
She looked over at Guilmon, standing next to her, looking even uneasier than she. Takato had gotten through to him. That's how they Biomerged together.
Henry ran up and knelt next to him. Since he was the closest thing the Tamers had to a field medic, Renamon and Guilmon gave him the room he needed to assess Takato's immediate condition.
Not wanting to move him before he had a chance to know where he was hurt, Henry carefully grabbed Takato's left hand and felt his wrist.
"I've got a pulse…but…" Henry began, keeping his fingers lightly pressed on Takato's wrist.
"It feels too slow."
He looked at the bite wounds, and where Guilmon had hit him with his Pyro Sphere.
"This looks like a serious burn."
Renamon had heard enough. "How can we help him?"
"We can't do anything here. We need to get him to a hospital, now. I don't like how slow his pulse was." Henry said.
Renamon quickly, but carefully, picked Takato up. Since she was unable to digivolve without Takato's help, and Terriermon was in no condition to do so, they couldn't get down the way they got up here, and had to take the roof access door, and went down several flights of stairs, the emergency lighting system their only guide. Since his cell phone was still dead from the EMP blast, Henry needed to get to the command center first, so he could arrange for transportation from Yamaki, rather than look around the tower for help at random.
HYPNOS NORTH TOWER
COMMAND CENTER
8:30 PM
Yamaki was keeping an eye on the few active monitors. Riley was up in the central dome, trying to reboot what systems she could. Yamaki was down in the surrounding tech support area, trying to get the generators charged again.
Henry Wong came into the command center, with Terriermon on his shoulders. Renamon was behind him, with a limp Takato in her arms. Yamaki stopped what he was doing and walked briskly over to them.
"What happened?" he asked.
"BlackWarGreymon's been dealt with. We need to get Takato to a hospital as soon as possible. Do you have any vehicles that weren't killed in the EMP blast?"
"Not in the immediate area, but I had a chopper in the air out of range of the EMP blast. I'll get communications up next and call it back. Get back up to the helipad. I'll get it here as quickly as I can."
Henry nodded, and returned the way he came, Renamon and Guilmon close behind. He sensed the vixen wanted to object, but this was the quickest way right now. They returned to the helipad and waited.
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The last thing Renamon wanted to do was just stand around and wait, but they really couldn't do anything else. She looked down at her Tamer whom she held in her arms. She wanted so desperately some response; some sign of life out of him, but there was nothing she could do. Her heart pounded impatiently, until finally, 5 minutes later, they heard the approaching sound of helicopter blades. More and more lights in the downtown area were coming back on. Half a minute later, they saw a searchlight on the nose of the chopper sweep the roof of the North Tower, and held on the group on the roof. It descended to just a half a foot off the roof, but did not land completely. Yamaki must have made clear to them the haste they had to get Takato medical attention. Renamon boarded first, followed quickly by Guilmon, Henry, and Terriermon. They didn't even strap in as the door was closed by one of the Hypnos agents, and the chopper moved away from the towers.
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Henry was as concerned for Takato as Renamon. He saw MagnaGallantmon take that last hit right through the chest – but Takato was relatively unhurt in that area, save for whatever may have happened when Guilmon slammed into him with his Rock Breaker. He wasn't an expert at judging a person's medical condition, but he had the general idea of the normal rate of the human heart, and Takato's was way off – it seemed too slow to him. What had happened, and why did Renamon and Guilmon come out unharmed? Did Takato get the full force of the attack? If so, how? And why?
These were questions that were going to have to wait for the time being. It wasn't long before they got out of the affected areas and landed at the nearest hospital with a helipad. Two orderlies and a gurney were waiting. Henry allowed Renamon to exit the chopper first, and he, Terriermon, and Guilmon followed. As she set Takato gently down on the gurney, Renamon removed his goggles from around his head, and held onto them for safekeeping. The orderlies quickly wheeled the now occupied gurney over to the elevator leading down into the hospital, and rushed him down to the ER. Henry and the three anxious partners waited for the elevator to return, and went down to the waiting room. Henry went to the nearest phone and called the Matsuki bakery, letting Takato's parents know where they were, and gave them the hospital's address. His mom said they were on their way immediately.
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As the three Digimon and Tamer stood in the waiting room, Renamon's anxiety continued to build. Minutes seemed like hours. She desperately wanted a doctor to come out and tell them everything was going to be fine.
She gazed down at the pair of goggles she held in her paws. She felt Takato would want her to have them during this time. After all, she was his partner…
The thought of that word shifted her mind to the third part of the biomerge. She looked over to Guilmon, who waited almost right at the double doors to the ER. He looked uneasy; he stared at the tiled floor, and his ears hung low. Renamon got up and walked over to him.
"Guilmon, are you alright?"
The red raptor slowly shook his head, and shivered for a moment.
"I hurt him…I hurt Takato…"
"You couldn't help it."
"Are you sure? I saw him…I wanted to stop, but something inside just kept on telling me to attack. It wasn't 'til I saw myself in his goggles that I knew what I was doing was wrong."
"But what matters is that you overcame the virus, that you remembered him. Besides, what you did to him isn't why he's here."
"Then what is?"
Renamon couldn't answer that, not for sure. She was pretty confident it had something to do with BlackWarGreymon's last attack before dissipating entirely. The attack was so fast, but time had seemed to slow. She saw her data sphere turn gold right before that beam ripped through them. Did he…deliberately…?
"He wouldn't…" Renamon said aloud.
"Huh?" Guilmon asked.
Henry also wondered what Renamon was referring to.
"What is it, Renamon?"
"When we biomerged…our three data spheres were different colors. Right before that last attack, I saw my sphere turn to Takato's sphere color."
Guilmon thought back to the battle.
"I think Renamon's right. I think I saw my sphere turn gold, too."
"What are you getting at, Renamon?" Henry asked.
They were about to piece the obvious theory together when Takahiro and Mei Matsuki, Takato's parents, rushed into the waiting room.
"Is he alright?" Mei asked.
"We don't know. He's still in the ER." Henry answered Takato's almost frantic mother. Both she and Takahiro then noticed Guilmon next to Renamon.
"Guilmon!" Takahiro exclaimed.
"But, how?" Mei asked.
Apparently, Takato hadn't made his parents aware that BlackWarGreymon had revived Guilmon; probably because earlier tonight, he wasn't one hundred percent certain he could save Guilmon from BlackWarGreymon's control.
"It's complicated. We aren't sure how it happened ourselves." Renamon told them.
Then, the sound that everyone was waiting for broke the conversation again; a doctor came through the double doors from the ER. All six pairs of eyes were now on him.
"Well?" Renamon asked.
"Is my son alright?" Takahiro asked.
The doctor cleared his throat, as if considering how he wanted to put the news he had.
"Well, he's alive. But, I'm not sure how."
"What do you mean, 'not sure how'?" Mei asked.
"First, we looked his injuries over. Two of his ribs have been broken; one has a hairline fracture, and the other is completely broken. The bite wounds on his right arm weren't incredibly serious; we treated and gauzed them. The burn on his back is second-degree. Whatever hit him; if it wasn't for his clothes, it could've been a lot worse." the doctor paused for a moment, and then continued.
"Those injuries were clear. What's puzzling about his condition is…his heart rate."
Henry figured something wasn't right with his friend's pulse. "What's so puzzling?" he asked.
"It's too slow – way too slow. From a medical standpoint, the heart can't sustain the body with a rate as low as his. His lungs are exhausted as well, and we can't figure out why. We've hooked up a respirator just to make sure he keeps breathing. But…" he paused, looking uncomfortable for a moment.
"With a heart rate this low, medically speaking, he shouldn't be alive."
Not a word came from Takato's friends and family.
"But he is," the doctor quickly added. "But we can't do anything for him. We can't find a reason as to why his heart rate would be this low, so epinephrine would be too dangerous. If he's going to pull through, I'm afraid he's going to have to do it on his own. He's being transferred to the third level, room 214." the doctor said. Saying no more, he turned and walked back into the ER. The group immediately went to the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor.
When they stepped off on the third floor, they went to the receptionist's desk, and were directed to room 214.
All six of them walked into the room without a sound. They laid eyes on the unconscious Takato, dressed in a hospital gown, laying in the hospital bed; the white sheets drawn up to his chest. A respirator mask was banded around his nose and mouth, and to the right of the bed, was an active, albeit a slowly beeping heart monitor, and a wheezing respirator was in place right next to it.
They stood silently around his bed, until Mei burst into tears, breaking the silence. Her husband embraced her in an attempt to soothe her, but dealing with what happened to his son wasn't any easier for him, either.
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Renamon didn't make the connection until she was standing in the room, staring at her Tamer in the bed. Other than the physical injuries from his confrontation with Guilmon, Takato was fine, save for his heart and lungs; and those two vital life-supporting systems were exhausted to the point where doctors didn't understand how he was alive.
'The heart and lungs...in the chest, where MagnaGallantmon was hit.'
Takato had taken the hit himself. But it wasn't a physical hit – BlackWarGreymon's final blow had attacked his very life force. She stared down at the goggles that she was used to seeing around his head.
"Why?" she said aloud to her Tamer. "Why would you do such a thing? Together, we could have endured that attack."
"You don't know that." Henry said to her from the other side of the bed. "You can't, because that's not what happened. I don't know what would've happened if you took the attack as one, but I do know he did what he did because he wanted to protect the two of you. That's how much he cares for you," Henry said. He looked over at Guilmon, standing next to her. "That's how much he loves you."
Renamon stood silently for several seconds, and then looked over to the foot of the bed, where she got nods from Takato's parents, as well. She looked down at her unconscious Tamer in the hospital bed. Henry was right. Renamon spoke aloud to her partner.
"The doctors say that the fact that you're alive goes against all medical reasoning. So medicine can't help you. But I know what the powers of friendship and love can do, Takato. We're all here, waiting for you to come back. We are lost without you. Come back to us."
She slowly drew the covers back several inches, and gently placed his goggles in his right hand, closing his grasp around them with her paws. She pulled up the chair that was next to the bed, and sat there next to her Tamer, waiting for him to awaken. Takahiro went and got three more chairs for himself, his wife, and Henry. Terriermon stood on Henry's shoulder and Guilmon was content to stand next to Renamon. All eyes were fixed on Takato, urging him to fight, letting him know that all the support he would ever need was right here, surrounding him.
And so they waited.
