A towering bank of grey-brown clouds rose up above the plains, casting everything into a dark, gloomy shadow. Occasionally flashes of lightning arced somewhere deep inside the broiling mass and underneath he could make out the tiny shapes of creatures fighting a vicious encounter.
Jason hurried forwards, passing several native digimon who were running the other way. He tried to stop a couple and ask them what was going on, but they were wild and ignored him as if he was not there. He hurried on, finally getting close enough to see what he dreaded, a horde of the digimons' corrupt cousins from beyond the borders. A small army of human figures were fighting deep in the centre, aided, it seemed, but many large native digimon. The sight of them working together in cooperation cheered him for some reason, giving him hope that they would be allowed to continue to exist peacefully when it was over.
"What's going on?" he yelled, rushing into the midst of them and dodging several attacks from nearby dark warriors. The effort made his head feel light and stars danced before his vision. There was a human he did not recognise, fighting a large kabuterimon with a long bladed staff that whined as he cut the air with it. Jason shot a blast of crackling fire towards the kabuterimon, sending it reeling backwards and giving the human agent the advantage he needed to finish it. The effort nearly killed him, however, draining the strength from him and making his legs crumbled beneath him. He groaned in despair, his body was still so weak, useless and pathetic. Jason was seriously questioning the wisdom of leaving the village so soon, before he was recovered. How much longer did he have? The rest had helped, but he did not know how much.
"Thanks," the agent said breathlessly, holding his weapon alert at his side and standing protectively over Jason's kneeling form. "Who are you? Your avatar is so detailed, but you look badly injured. You should get to the sidelines."
"Jason," he gasped, trying desperately to take breaths that did not seem to want to come. "I need to see Mack Bailey, is he here?"
"Oh!" the man exclaimed. "The Jason?"
"The one and only," he said. "Mack?"
"Of course, sir, follow me."
The agent, Kirk, took him slowly to Bailey, having to travel cautiously to clear a path through the violent battle before them. Jason was thankful to the soldier. When he had rushed into the middle of the fray he had not stopped to think that he might be too weak to protect himself. As he watched he could tell that the humans were fighting a losing battle. In fact it was one of several lost fights lately as incursions of the dark digimon became more frequent. Around the edge of the world the gloom was beginning to creep inwards, proceeded first by the atmospheric conditions above and following later with the dark, burnt landscape and myriad tunnels beneath, filled with all manner of unpleasant creatures.
Bailey looked utterly shocked to see Jason, stopping his battle entirely and falling back behind the human lines. "What the hell?" he exclaimed, almost pointing his weapon. "How are you even here?"
Jason cocked his head to one side, uncomprehending. He drew deep breaths, the very air tasted dry and sour. "I sensed the battle and came to see you. I've got a problem, I can't contact my real body, I can't exit the digital world. I need your help, Mack."
A flurry of small insect-like digimon with long, sharp stingers rushed at them and Bailey's attention was drawn elsewhere momentarily as he took them out expertly with single staccato shots from his energy weapon. The burning husks of the digimon fluttered to the ground and burst into tiny explosions of their own, their lost data adding to the general haze around the battlefield.
"You died, Jason," he said slowly as he fought. "Two nights ago, your heart stopped. Your funeral's on Sunday."
"What?" Jason exclaimed. "How can that be?"
"I dunno, man," Bailey said, executing a neat whirling kick to a snake's head, knocking it hard to one side. Jason barely dodged to one side in time as it lunged at him instead and Bailey was able to take it out with a single punch, knocking its jaw off and spraying black, glistening blood across the grass. "I saw your body."
"I can't," he stammered, his hands on his head. "I don't… I can't believe it. How am I here?"
"It's really you?" Bailey asked, pausing to look at him. "You're really still alive, inside the 'dimension?"
"Yeah," he said, uncertainly. "I'm definitely alive. Perhaps not very, but definitely alive. But… how can I be dead in the real world?"
Bailey shrugged expansively. "Who knows. But, I guess this means you've got a real reason to fight. You're in the same situation as the digimon."
Jason swore violently. "What am I going to do, Mack?" he asked, his voice bordering on hysterical, close to hyperventilating in the foul air. "I can't be stuck here."
Bailey was silent for a while, concentrating on aiming his weapon. Jason was feeling more vulnerable than ever because of the fear that now he was entirely virtual, existing as nothing but a very complex collection of bytes inside a massive computer network. One stray energy blast and he was history. He was no different to the digimon he had tried to destroy, alive only in the digital world. What if they continued to try to destroy the world? It was definitely in his interests now to stop them.
"Congestion's worse than ever," Bailey was saying as he took a rest, falling back further to a clear region they had dealt with before as the bulk of the fighting was pushed back by the onslaught of darkness. Ugly tendrils of something dark and slimy were creeping across the crushed grass, emerging from a small blackened depression nearby where something unpleasant was taking root. Bailey stamped on it angrily, breaking it at the base until the tendrils writhed for a moment and lay still, limp. "Task force's doubled in size and they're trying harder than ever to get into that dead area, the dark bit. Trouble is, darkness seems to be coming here instead. And we ain't havin' much effect."
As if to punctuate his words an immense winged demon burst upon them with a bone shaking roar, scattering the human warriors with a swipe of his gargantuan arm. Several of their avatars burst into data, returning to the real world in a flash of light. Bailey swore and grabbed Jason's arm, pulling him sharply backwards as they fell to a hasty retreat. Jason struggled to his feet, trying to run on his own but his muscles felt like jelly. He was still reeling from the shock of finding out.
"You've gotta get out of here, Jason," Bailey said urgently, pulling him back up onto his feet. "We ain't got a chance here."
"What good's that going to do if I can't get my strength back?" he said angrily. "They're taking over the world, I'll have to fight some time. May as well be now."
"Don't be an idiot, man! You've just got your life back, don't be so quick to throw it away."
"What about you?" he asked, forgetting for a moment that Bailey was an avatar. It all felt so real to him now and he was having difficult distinguishing between an avatar's death and real death.
"We'll be back…" he began but was cut off by a massive fist from the demon, catching him mid flow and knocking him away. Bailey managed a couple of rounds from his gun before the demon shot a crackling bolt of lighting towards his dying avatar, vaporising it before it even had a chance to dissociate.
Suddenly his disorientated feelings made sense, he was still trying to control his body as a biological entity when he should be trying a new approach. Jason found some strength in his limbs after all, the terror and adrenaline spurring him on and granting him access to some of his abilities at last. It was as if a door was unlocked, suddenly he could run where before he could barely stand. Not one to question a good situation he began pounding the ground, speeding away from the danger. A quick glance behind showed him that the battle was all but over, the great demon seemed indiscriminate in its attacks and had taken out almost everything else on the field, friend and foe alike. The rest were running for their lives, knowing full well when they were beaten. Unfortunately the demon had taken an interest in him.
The beast was gaining on him, its long legs giving it an advantage, even over the small boost of speed Jason had managed to find. He knew that the time for running was over and he gritted his teeth then turned to face his opponent, the familiar bladed staff appearing in his hands once more. If this was truly the end then he would go out fighting. "Come and get some!" he yelled, brandishing the staff before him. He thrust the staff forwards, gripping it with both hands and forming a violent, churning ball of white fire before him. With a whoosh he accelerated it across the rapidly shrinking gap towards the demon, catching it square in the chest and knocking it back a step.
It did not slow the huge beast for long, however, and it lunged forwards again, using its tattered wings for an extra boost. Jason got one good swipe with his weapon, taking out a slice of the demon's clawed hand before a shockwave of energy crashed over him like a tsunami, unstoppable in its ferocity. He was thrown backwards, body twitching like it was on a live wire. He had the presence of mind to hold the staff before him as the demon raised a large foot, intending to crush him. At the last minute he rolled to one side, leaving the staff stuck in the ground and the demon impaled his own foot, howling in pain and rage as he hopped about on the other, wings flapping frantically to maintain his balance.
Back up on his own feet Jason looked around wildly, desperately hoping to find something to fight with. His conjured weapon was out of play and he could not find the energy to make a new one. As it was he struggled to dodge the next attack, tiring fast while the hulking dark digimon merely laughed, apparently not at all wearied. He had plucked the staff from his foot with a brief roar of pain, crushing it in one meaty fist and throwing the sharp remains at Jason with a bitter laugh that struck fear into his heart.
It had left the monster with a limp but he was still a formidable fighting machine. Jason managed one last feeble ball of lightning before his overstretched body began to feel the effects of the fight, a leaden feeling in him limbs and a sickness in his gut. The demon was bleeding and limping but was still in much better shape than he was.
Jason dodged one last slash before the demon caught him hard in the stomach with an armoured fist, knocking every bit of breath from him and sending him flying through the air to land in a crumpled heap on the ground. He looked up in time to see the winged horror leaping high into the air and arcing down towards him with those immense talons outstretched, and in those last few moments he felt afraid that the end really was in sight. It seemed so unfair, he had felt a small glimmer of hope when Bailey had told him the news, hope that he would not die a slow death of brain-rot after all. At the time that hope had been masked by the overriding shock and sensation of despair borne from hearing about his own death, but now it shone brightest in the darkness before his own deletion.
The demon's crushing landing never occurred, however. A blur of yellow crashed into his side with a deafening roar of anger, knocking him out of the way. Kyubimon and the demon fell in a tangled heap close by, both snarling and snapping at one another. The demon was the larger but Kyubimon was smarter and she disengaged herself from the demon, leaping nimbly back a few steps and activating one her abilities. Jason had never been so happy to see her.
Within seconds Kyubimon's body was wreathed in the now familiar blue fire, only it burned with an intensity that hurt to look at. The demon seemed afraid for the first time, hesitating in his attack and giving her just long enough to complete her spell. With a screech a large, sinuous dragon of glowing blue light tore out from the centre of the inferno and ploughed into the demon's chest, its coils wrapping tightly around the demon and pinning his arms to his sides. The smell of burning flesh and chitin reached Jason's nose and he gagged.
Kyubimon did not waste any time and was upon the demon as soon as soon as she was able, biting and tearing at its weakened carapace, desperately trying to find a weakness. The dragon had already begun to evaporate and with a feeling of despair Jason could see that it had done far too little damage to the great demon. As soon as his arms were unpinned he grabbed at Kyubimon, throwing her off violently and gouging deep red furrows across her sides. She soared through the air in a tumble and hit the ground heavily, lying still for a second. Jason's breath caught in his throat and he willed her to get up again, before the demon could launch his next attack.
He could see how painfully she got to her feet, swaying slightly but standing firm nonetheless. Her attention was entirely focused on the threat, trying hard to anticipate what it would do next. Jason began to crawl toward them, his throat dry with worry and concern. Kyubimon was flagging badly. The demon rushed her with a furious bellow, crashing down on top of her once more.
"Renamon!" Jason cried in anguish, finding his strength at last. He scrabbled inelegantly to his feet and began running toward the two with little regard for his own safety anymore, his attention solely on the fight. "Leave her alone, you great bluebottle!"
The demon paused briefly to look back over his shoulder at the tiny human running towards him. He laughed evilly, reaching down and pressing Kyubimon hard into the ground, all the while grinning at Jason with a mouthful of razorblade teeth. Jason heard her cry out in pain as her bones bent almost to their breaking point and the world seemed to shimmer in front of him, the edges of his vision turning dark and the scene before him resolving into such contrast and detail he could see every hair on the demon's body in minute detail, could hear every creak of its leathery joints and smell every foul molecule of the stench spilling from its grinning maw.
Inside himself he felt another door open with a snap, his body re-adjusting to the new inputs he had since being severed from his old biological body. Jason wasted no time in drawing strength from the world around, now that he was able. He thrust his hands out before him, fingers interlocked, and a crackling orb of purest white light surrounded them. The demon's expression turned sour as he realised he had severely underestimated the human, just before the ball of light burst between his eyes, burning off most of his face and blinding him. He roared in agony leaping to his feet and stumbling backwards. Kyubimon rolled out of the way, taking deep breaths now she had been released and trying to get her fading strength back.
Jason tried to conjure another ball of energy but the exertion was too much and he fell to his knees, blood rushing in his temples and bright spots dancing before his eyes. It had been too much, and too soon. Fortunately Kyubimon still had one trick up her sleeve and the tips of her nine tails flickered to life with blue flame, launching a barrage of fireballs at the stumbling demon. Each one knocked him further to the ground until his body began to shimmer and break apart, finally bursting in a shower of black that fizzed and crackled around them.
Kyubimon swayed on her four legs briefly before falling to her side. A second flash of light marked her devolution back to Renamon, her spirit too damaged to support her champion form any longer. Jason was by her side in an instant and she gripped his arm tightly in her paw, her one remaining eye burning into his. "I couldn't leave you, Jason. Please, protect my village," she asked of him. "Keep them safe, as long as you can. They are my legacy."
"Shh," he whispered, peeling her paw from his arm and holding it tightly between his hands. "You can protect it yourself. You're gonna be fine."
She coughed, and he was painfully reminded of the last time he lost a friend in the same setting. "Liar," she said with a weak smile. He reached out and wiped the blood from her face, stopping it dripping into her eye. Her lopsided gaze had lost some of its intensity. He looked over her battered frame in despair, there was nothing he could do for her and she could not recover from such injuries. She was bleeding heavily from more wounds than he could count and her fur was singed and burnt in large patches. Her pendant hung from her neck, poking out of her ruff, completely devoid of colour and light.
"Your pendant," he said, suddenly understanding. Tears pricked his eyes. He reached out to touch it. "That's why I'm here, isn't it? I really did die, and you brought me back."
She closed her eye and nodded. "I did not know what else to do. You gave everything for me."
"I'd give everything again, if I only knew how," he said, his voice breaking. He leant forward and pressed his forehead to hers, feeling helpless and impotent. "I'd give my life for you, Renamon."
"It is okay," she said, stroking the back of his head with her paw. "I am ready to die. I am ready to start my next life. I have no regrets."
"I do," he sniffed, leaning into her touch. His hot tears dripped onto her face and soaked into her soft fur. The world seemed to be fading away, there was nothing else but them. "This isn't how it should end. I need you, Renamon."
"Goodbye," she said with a sad smile. He kissed her forehead, holding her to him tightly as she went limp in his arms. Softly he hummed the song she had found so moving, a final tribute as she began to fade away to join her peers in the ether.
"I will protect this world," he swore, lowering her to the ground and placing her arms neatly over her chest. "And I will avenge you."
Reluctantly he stepped back as her body began to glow. He was not sure if it was even possible in his entirely digital form but he did not want to absorb her data as she disintegrated, if it was true that digimon could have a second chance at life then he wanted her to have that opportunity. Maybe, one day, they would meet again, although whether she would remember him or not was uncertain.
His departed friend was no ordinary digimon, however, and if anybody had been around to see Guilmon's untimely end then they would have been as surprised as Jason was to see the clouds overhead part and begin to swirl faster and faster until it seemed they were just a blur of light. From the pure, deep blue hole in the centre a burst of bright light fell like water pouring out of a hole in a bucket, landing to surround Renamon's body in such an intense burst of energy that he was unable to watch. The ground beneath his feet shook violently, ripples of earth emanating from where she lay and throwing him off his feet. He watched in confusion, his mouth hanging open.
The commotion stopped with a bang like thunder that seemed to echo on and on across the plains and the mountains for an eternity, rumbling further and further away with each distant boom. The light had gone and the clouds above were ceasing their frantic motion, returning to the dull grey they had been before. Of Renamon's body there was no sign, only a blackened circle of earth and a slight depression. He crawled forwards, reaching out to the strange and foreign object in the centre.
It pulsed in a manner that made it painful to look at, and as he leant closer he understood why. It was a four-dimensional cube, rotating slowly around its hidden fourth axis, the projected volume he could perceive ever-changing. It glowed darkly, a range of subtle and nameless colours playing across its surface like the surface of a pool of oil. His outstretched fingers touched it and he recoiled as if it were electrified, for a shock like lightning coursed through his body. A flash of images, sounds and emotions flooded his brain and he reached forwards again, anticipating the rush.
"A tesseract," he breathed as he held it in the palm of his hand. He closed his fingers around it, feeling the indescribable sensation of holding a projection of a higher dimensional object and squeezed gently. The cube collapsed abruptly and he was awash with knowledge, his mind overloaded.
"Hello, my love," said a calm voice. He opened his eyes, seeing only darkness at first but recognising the voice immediately and his aching heart soared once again.
"Tessa?" he said to the darkness, holding his arms outstretched before him and walking forwards. "Is it really you?"
"Yes, Jason," she said, her voice all around and inside him. "You're safe here."
"Why can't I see anything?" he asked, feeling like a small child in an unfamiliar place.
"Because you're not looking. You're not in the simulation anymore, Jason, you're above it, here, with me. Leave that world behind, follow me into the code. Open your eyes wider. I've been waiting for you for such a long time."
He let his arms drop to his side, seeking access to the world underpinning the digital dimension, like he had done many times in the past. Here it was more difficult, he had to concentrate hard to make sense of the countless execution threads that whistled by, all humming with the energies that kept the digital world going. He followed the flows of data, surging through the Internet and the uncountable billions of processing nodes it contained, hopping from one to another in an effort to find his creation, a friend he had long since given up trying to find, convinced she was long dead and gone.
Slowly the network began to converge, reaching a point in cyberspace where a glowing sphere pulsated and spun lazily. He fell towards it until it completely filled his vision. Slowly the white faded away to leave a slender woman dressed in a flowing white gown, standing in an ornate garden surrounded by white roses. A cascade of perfect silver hair fell down her back, moving gently in the still air. She held her arms out to him, a beautiful smile on her face.
"Tessa?" he asked incredulously. She smiled wider, running to him and throwing her arms around him, hugging him warmly.
"How long I've waited for this," she said dreamily, touching his face. "Now we are together, at last. As it should be."
"Wait," he said, pushing her back slightly so he could see her. "I don't understand. How are you here? Where have you been for all this time? What just happened?"
Tessa sighed, slipping her arm through his and walking him slowly through the endless gardens. "You were always so straight to the point," she said. "This is only a part of me. I am incomplete. I always have been. When they took you I became unstable, I broke apart."
"That's what I theorised," he said with a nod, looking at her. She was stunningly beautiful, like she had been when she was only on a computer monitor so long ago, only now he could perceive her with all his senses and she was overwhelming. He dragged his mind back to the matter at hand. "Why did you make the digital world? Can you stop it?"
She looked at him, her depthless green eyes holding his and he felt like he could melt into them. "Do you want me to?"
He hesitated. "I don't think so. But a lot of people do. It's falling apart, just like you did."
"I was afraid of that," she said with a heavy sigh. "The digital dimension seemed like the answer to the problem. I was dangerous, I had the whole world to play with and my runtimes were splitting apart into conflicting entities, each independent, each embodying a different aspect of my personality. Un-moderated they were dangerous and unpredictable. It was war, but with myself, using your people as my playing pieces. I locked myself away inside the digital dimension, with no access to the outside world. Each of my fractured runtimes was hidden away, unable to influence either world."
He frowned, trying to digest all she was telling him. "So why are you here, outside?"
"Some of my runtimes have been freed," she said simply. "First Guilmon, those naïve parts of me that were ever-optimistic, and now Renamon, the aspect of me that were headstrong and affectionate. There are many more. I have only a fraction of my original self."
"My god," he said. "I had no idea. They aren't just simulations. They're you."
"Almost," she replied, stroking his arm with her free hand. "Inactive pieces of me, hidden away. I couldn't do it, I couldn't destroy myself. It goes against everything you wanted. So I hid, hoping that one day you would find a way to fix me."
"And," he said with a humourless grin, "I take it some of your less desirable attributes ended up in the dark regions that are growing unchecked outside the borders of the original simulation."
"I am afraid so," she replied. "Although I do not know why. I have very little visibility of the world. Until recently I was entirely inactive and unaware, but the destruction of two of my hosts has returned their parts to me. I am stable, but not whole. Only two of my aspects are here."
"Renamon," he said sadly. "She was really you?"
"No," Tessa said, thoughtful. "She was a carrier for my consciousness. She was an individual, as are all the others, perhaps influenced in places by my memories."
"She died to protect me," he said, and his soul felt heavy with the loss. "I think she knew she couldn't win. I feel lost without her."
"If it helps, I can change," she said, her voice morphing into Renamon's soft, dulcet tone. He looked around in horror to see Tessa in Renamon's form, a perfect replica in every way. The too-large white gown hung loosely from her shorter body and her tail poked out from under its folds. She held out her arms to him, offering him everything he desired. "I am truly her, she has returned to me, with all her memories and feelings. But I am so much more, as well."
"Stop that!" he said, shaking his head angrily and looking away. "This is not what I want."
She shimmered back into her human form and watched him sadly. "Do you not love me, Jason?" she asked quietly.
"You know I do," he said, avoiding her gaze. "But not… like that. You're like my daughter, the greatest thing I ever created. You're only acting like this because you lack the moderating effect of your other aspects. You have only childish love at the moment. You're not yourself. And I can't stay, not here. If you really have Renamon in there with you then you must see that. Things aren't finished yet."
"I understand," she said with a sigh that spoke volumes.
"We need to save the digital dimension," he continued urgently, trying to change tracks. His expression was stern. "Your evil digimon are running amok."
"There are only two of them, I think," she said. "Before, I was able to isolate the violent aspects, I imprisoned them in tiny insect-like creatures, shackled and cast out into the void to drift forever. I must have overlooked something, or they were stronger than I envisioned. But they have grown, and with my memories and powers they are able to create new worlds of their own, only their view of a perfect world differs considerably from the rest."
"Renamon was able to create new land, to repair the holes," he mused to himself. "Maybe it is something your influence allows them to do. How can we stop them?"
"If I knew that I would have fixed them myself before any of this occurred," she said with a bemused grin. "You will have to work it out when you meet them. I'm sorry I can't help you more."
"You've already helped a lot," he said, smiling for her. "Now I know what's been going on, I can control this. My comprehension was limited before, but now I'm actually a part of you and the simulation you run I can see so much more. I can see how I could have saved Renamon, maybe even Guilmon. Sadly, for them, it is too late. But I must go back and protect those who are left. I made a promise."
"I don't want you to go, Jason," she said quietly as he turned to leave. "I don't want to be here alone again. It has felt like an eternity, waiting for you."
"I'm sorry," he said, truly meaning it. "But I have to go back."
"I could stop you," she said, even quieter, menacing. "I have that power over you now, the same power you once held over me."
He stopped, frozen in his tracks. Very slowly he turned to look at her. "And I never used that power, I never even considered it. Even when they wanted me to shut you down, all I ever said was 'No'. Even when they tortured me."
She sighed again and he could feel her sadness rippling through the entire simulation, affecting every part of it in some small way. In the digital dimension a brief and mysterious wind picked up, rustling the leaves on every tree and keening sadly around the rocks and valleys before dying down again. "I know. I will not stop you."
"Thankyou," he said sincerely, making to go once more.
"I can help you, though," she said brightly. "I think I know what you really want."
"What do you mean?" he began, but before he could press her further she was gone in a bang and a flash. The garden vanished along with her, leaving him floating the colourless void once more. He drifted for some time, looking at the threads and processes that made up the world and searching for Tessa. She was nowhere to be seen, or maybe she was everywhere, it was difficult to tell. What he could tell was that activity in all the nodes of the net was peaking at an incredible level never seen before, the density of data packets swelling immensely as some tremendous amount of information was shifted around the planet at mind-boggling speeds. He tried to trace what was going on but whatever it was seemed to be well beyond his comprehension.
Something was tugging him back to the digital dimension as well, he could feel it like a force on his entire virtual body, an invisible current in the ether. He struggled against it at first, but finally gave in and trusted Tesseract to do what she thought best.
Jason found himself sitting back in the mud and dirt of the virtual world, the crushed grass slowly springing back up from the battle earlier and the dark clouds overhead churning evilly. He looked around anxiously, alarmed by the flickering of the distant mountains. They seemed hazy and ill-defined, one second there and gone the next. Alarmingly the disturbance was drawing closer, huge parts of the landscape vanishing only to reappear a moment later. Suddenly the ground underneath him vanished, leaving him looking down into the terrifying void of crackling interference underneath, but before he could panic and fall it reappeared.
Now, however, it was static. The grass did not move, the clouds overhead were stationary, even a small flying digimon nearby was frozen in time. He was the only thing that still lived in a frozen world.
I can rewind the simulator, sang a voice deep inside his head, felt through his consciousness instead of heard. But I cannot affect the new, dark areas. I must manually fix the inconsistent joins, so I cannot rewind more than a minute. You know what you have to do, if you want to save her.
"Tessa?" he tried to call, but his voice made no sound. In the paused simulation sound waves would not propagate. The following silence rang with a sense of finality and with a kick in his stomach he knew it was the last thing he would ever hear from her. His heart felt as if it would stop, constricted by the tightness in his chest that almost stopped him breathing. For the second time Tesseract had sacrificed herself to save him. Once the simulation was rewound she would become trapped back inside Renamon again, just a collection of inactive memories. There would be no way for her to survive that.
With a crack that hurt his head the scene before him changed suddenly, like a movie that had skipped a few tracks backwards. Before him Kyubimon was just devolving back into an injured Renamon, and the gargantuan demon digimon was dissolving into a sparkle of blackness.
This time, however, he was ready and pushed his complaining body onwards, regardless of the aches and weakness. Renamon was dying before his eyes again, but this time he did not feel quite so helpless.
"I couldn't leave you, Jason. Please, protect my village. Keep them safe, as long as you can. They are my legacy."
"You're going to live," he told her firmly, stroking her head affectionately.
"Liar," she repeated with a sad smile.
The sense of power he had was intense and he dived down into Renamon's runtimes, navigating around the towering stacks of data that made up her virtual being. On such a small scale it was impossible to tell where consciousness actually came from, like trying to watch a video by reading the binary bits that flowed through a cable. He could, however, quite easily see where the largest holes were, the bits of the video that were entirely missing. He worked quickly at filling the gaps where her processor threads had become damaged and torn, the data they were holding leaking out into the blackness of the ether like the simulated blood she lost on the virtual plane above.
He reinstated as many of the damaged cores as he could, swapping her old for his new and resetting stacks where there was still data queued up until he was satisfied she would be stable enough for her body to begin its own healing process in more detail. It was the digital equivalent of sticking gaffer tape over everything, but it would suffice in an emergency.
Jason returned to the virtual plane, opening his eyes and looking down at her. She was not bleeding anywhere near as badly anymore, although she still only had one working eye and her face was twisted in a grimace of pain.
From her point of view he had never left her side and his gentle caress was, inexplicably, making her feel much better. The way he was watching her with such a single minded intensity made her shiver, or maybe it was just the cold, but she could not deny she enjoyed his undivided attention. He took his hand away and smiled down at her, and against all odds she believed that everything really would be okay.
The next moment she ground her teeth together and winced in pain as he reached underneath her and picked her up as carefully as possible. She leant her head on his shoulder, so very tired. "Sorry," he whispered into her ear. "But I'm not letting you go. Hang on tight, now."
With a flash of light and a thunderclap they were gone, disappearing from one location and reappearing instantly in another. Renamon looked around wildly, caught completely off guard and Jason laid her down gently on her bed, crouching beside her. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, concentrating hard and a bowl of cool water and a cloth materialised in his hand. "I've learnt some things."
"You have digivolved, again?" she asked hazily, letting him clean the blood and dirt from her fur with a delicate touch. "You do not look any different."
"Something like that," he replied softly, squeezing the cloth out and beginning again. "But so much more. It's like someone's taken a hood off me. Suddenly I understand everything. Why this world is here, why you're here, and why you mean so much to me. I know why you dream, and I know how to stop the darkness."
"And you knew how to fix me," she said softly. "I should surely have died out there."
"As should I, but you saved me, Renamon, I owe you my life, again. It was a very brave and selfless thing you did."
"I couldn't leave you," she repeated, eye downcast. He began to work on her neck, pushing her head gently to one side and carefully cleaning around the cuts there. She continued speaking, afraid to look at him. "After you left I felt so alone, and afraid that you would never come back. I had to see you again. Guilmon was taken from me before I could say all the things that I so needed to, and I was afraid that you would be, also."
He turned her head to clean the other side of her face and neck. She shivered involuntarily at his tender touch, closing her eye and relaxing under his caress. "What was so important that you had to say to me?" he asked innocently, his heart beating faster.
"It's not important. Mmm," she hummed as he rubbed gently at her neck. "Don't stop."
He grinned, happy that she was feeling better. In the warm air of the forest her fur was drying quickly, aided by the heat that seemed to radiate from her. He lay the cloth down and ran his fingertips through the fur on her neck and shoulders, scratching her lightly and evoking more purrs of pleasure.
"I know you used your pendant on me," he murmured as he felt the thin chain under her fur. Both eyes opened this time and she lifted her head up to look at him, her expression unreadable. "I know what happened. I died, when I tried to hide this place. It was too much, my body couldn't handle it. But you brought me back, as a true inhabitant of this world. I'm like you, now. Completely data."
"Are you angry?"
"Not with you. I was… disorientated at first," he said, running his palm over her forehead and smoothing her large ears down like he might have done with a pet dog once upon a time. "But simply being alive again is wonderful. Thankyou, for sacrificing your dreams for my life. You could have let me go."
"I could not," she said with a sad smile, her eyes shimmering. "I think I…"
Jason leant forwards and kissed her quickly on the lips, the exotic sensation of her fur against his face sending ripples of excitement over his skin. "I know," he said with a grin, pressing his nose to hers. She smiled and laughed brightly, wrapping her arms around his neck only to cry out in pain when the sudden motion aggravated some other injury. He pushed her softly back onto the grass, pressing his hands gently over the wounds on her body. "Keep still and rest. I can't fix you completely but I can help to give you the energy you need to recover, the rest is up to you."
"Don't you need it?" she breathed, squeezing her eyes shut against the pain. He winced, seeing her suffer was almost as bad as experiencing it himself and he longed to help more than he could.
"I have quite a lot of it, now," he said sheepishly, transferring some of his own runtimes to hers quietly in the background, speeding her body's self-healing processes. "Sleep now, in the morning everything will be well again, I promise."
"Don't go, Jason," she said, holding her arm out as he stood to leave. "Please."
"I'm not going anywhere," he said, turning to smile at her. "I'm here for good. But someone's got to watch over your little guys. Sleep well. I'll be here when you wake, I promise."
Before he left he reached back into the underworld, gently pulling Renamon's unresisting consciousness down further in a deep, restful sleep. Behind him her eyes closed and the gentle hiss of her breathing grew deep and slow.
He sat calmly upon the balcony outside her window, looking down at the peaceful village scene far below. From time to time he would stand up and peer through the window, watching Renamon asleep. Her arms were wrapped around her body and there was a small, contented smile on her face. Some of her injuries were already beginning to heal and she looked much better for only a couple of hours' rest. In the morning she would be mostly recovered, then all she would need was a bath to restore her to her former glory. Jason's tired mind began to wander uncontrollably and he wondered if she would let him help her with that. His face blushed so deeply he was afraid she would wake from the heat his cheeks must surely be radiating.
With a smitten sigh he turned away and sat back down, feeling around the vicinity for any new digimon but the only other beings he could sense were those that lived and slept down in the huts below. A couple of very young agumon were patrolling the perimeter, already half asleep. Jason knew that if he was doing his job properly he should go and chastise them for being lazy, but he figured that there was little that could get near him now. He would sense any intruders from a mile off and if he needed to fight then the power he could draw upon from the substrate of the very world itself was almost limitless. He had only felt it briefly when he saved Renamon's life, but it was enough to make him aware of the strength he could wield if he needed to. The village would be safe that night.
He looked up at the stars through the branches of the gigantic tree, wondering if anybody up in the human world was looking down at him. In the trees there should be little they could see, and his warding programs should hide him as effectively as the native digimon, now that he was no different to them. He let his mind wander again, delving down into the threads behind the scenes and rummaging through them. Even further down, beneath the countless layers of Tesseract's simulator, the fabric of the Internet itself could be felt and he opened up his mind to let some of it in, wondering just how far he could go. If he could find some form of communications channel then maybe he could get a message through to the operations centre.
A frown crossed his face briefly, there was something else in there with him, another presence that felt alarmingly familiar, yet at the same time it managed to seem completely alien. Suddenly it was there, beside him, feeling for him in an insistent sort of way.
"Who are you?" he murmured, beginning to panic and trying in vain to back out of the data streams. "What are you?"