I eyed her, briefly wondering if she was leaving it a verbal assault or if I was actually in danger. Hardly.
"What? Have I pissed you off some?" I asked sarcastically. "Let's go inside, no need for the neighbors to hear." I walked to the bedroom, waiting for her to come, which she eventually did.
"Do you even care about my feelings? You don't even look at me, but I feel like I can't even say anything without seeming like a whiner."
"I'm sorry, Renamon, really, but you need to tell me these things, not save them up like this. I mean, look at Raia, sure she might seem like kind of a crybaby to you, always venting emotions, good or bad, but that's healthy. You can't keep that shit bottled. Hell, I used to have a problem with it, but I'm better off now." She eyed me scornfully.
"You've still been spending much more time with her."
"Well," I said, wandering about the room, my eyes never coming back to Renamon "Take the other morning for example. She was crying! Hell, I had to take care of her!"
"Is that what it takes!?" Renamon cried out, snapping my view back to her. Her eyes had misted up and she was about to burst. "Do I have to cry!? Will that make you love me!? Will that make you care!?" She was full blown now, crying, her eyes already getting red. I stood, taking the torrent of verbal beatings she was going to throw out. "You took me in! I was unloved and you were going to care about me! Love me! I was scared, but I never showed it! Then she came back, and I had my doubts, but you said it would work, you said you could do it. I trusted you, and you give me this… this shit!? No! I may have lost one tamer, but I'm not afraid to lose another because he's selfish! I just want someone to care!" She slowly collapsed, crumpling to the floor, and I walked to her, tried to comfort her, but she hit me. She smacked me in the chest, I'm lucky she didn't break a rib.
"I do care." I said softly. "I wouldn't lie to you. I love you both so much, but I can't bear to see this happen. I hate myself for all of this mess. It's my fault and I know it." I got close and pulled her into an embrace, fighting her struggles until she finally gave up and melted into me, sobbing hard on my shoulder.
"I miss her." She said softly.
"I know you do."
"I cared about her, genuinely, and she abandoned me, left me for no one to love." Her voice was getting rough from the heavy sobs and tears had already soaked two thick lines beneath her eyes. "She never cared. I was a tool to her. Data, that's all. Everything I did was to try to make her happy, and she left me like I was a piece of trash." I held her tight, kissing her gently on the head.
"Whether you believe it or not," I whispered to her. "You mean something to me. You're strong. You're stronger than me at most times. But you know what? When you aren't strong, that's when I'm here. You can hold the weight of the world, but when you need me, I'll not only share the load, I'll take it entirely, and all the while, I'll help you back up and be right behind you when you're ready again." She held me tight, nuzzling her head into me. I sat and stroked her head for a while before she pulled away and looked me in the eyes. She kissed me, gently at first, then adding pressure until she was kissing me full force. Soon she broke away again and looked me in the eyes.
"I want you." She said, her voice full of pain and need. "I want you and no one else." I nodded, feeling her hand drift down on me. She needed someone to make her feel wanted, loved. Everyone does, really, and I saw my failings clearly over the past few days. If this would comfort her and even partially make up for my shortcomings as a tamer and lover, I would do it, not that I wouldn't want to anyways.
"We'll take this slow." I said. "I want to be able to enjoy every moment with you." I wouldn't take advantage, she would lead me where she needed me; that was what was right. This would be my act of redemption.
I placed a hand on her back and led her to the bed, using my hand to slowly lay her down. I smiled warmly and crawled onto the bed next to her. (You all are missing about 915 words that are a bit too "strong" for FanFiction, so head over to my SoFurry (SeraphXIII) and check it out in full. Once again, you have to have an account to be able to view my story due to the rating on it.)
She clung tight to me and stared into my eyes, her nose brushing against mine. "I love you." She said.
I smiled and kissed her. "I love you too." I wrapped my huge arms around her and used my size to try to enhance the comfort of the embrace. "I'll never stop caring, even if you do." She took on a somewhat sheepish look.
"I'm sorry, I hate to act so needy."
"It's natural, and you're hardly needy. Everyone needs attention, and I wasn't giving enough of it. I'm the one who should be sorry."
She snuggled up to me and didn't reply, just as well I suppose, I didn't want to argue about who should be sorry.
I woke up next to Renamon; I guess I'd fallen asleep. I thought back upon the previous night and realized I hadn't gotten Raia to come back. Worse yet, I'd told her to hide, but I had no clue where she'd gone. I thought to her over the mental link, but I got no response, at least at first. After a moment, a thought stream began to flow through into my mind.
A world swirled into existence, first a pixelated monochrome, then clarity and color came. Raia was being backed up to a wall by a figure and a long arm was pressed to her chest, and despite her resistance, he had her pinned. It took me no time at all to realize this was a re-occurrence of her nightmare. I wondered who the figure was as I felt myself unable to move, but the harder I looked at the figure, the more of a black blur her became. I heard a sort of cackling laugh and he pressed himself to Raia. I wanted to rush at him and tackle him away from her, but I couldn't force myself to move, as if I were constricted by chains.
My eyes shot fully open when I heard her scream. Goddamn it, he's hurting her! I thrashed and thrashed in my own mind, trying to fight the restraints, but to no avail.
"Mmm, you're mine now." The figure said, his voice shifting in tone, making it impossible to place. Then he licked the side of her face. The son of a bitch licked her!
"Raia! Goddamn it no!" I screamed, watching tears burst from her eyes. She looked at me, right then, directly at me, leaving a confused look on her pained face. She can hear me? She can hear me!
"Raia!" I screeched, trying to make myself undeniably noticeable. "Raia! I'm here, it's a dream!" She stared directly at me, the tears soaking her fur making me feel as if I were betraying her by not doing more. "Wake the hell up! You have to wake up!" Her eyes opened wide with revelation and I was quickly booted back to my mind with Renamon tending to me.
I was on the floor, probably due to me not being able to stand when I wasn't technically conscious, and Renamon was kneeling next to me.
"We need to find Raia. She fell asleep somewhere and just had a nightmare." I said.
"This is what I was talking about, she has the slightest problem and you have to run to her side." Renamon said with a snort of derision.
I glared at her. "A nightmare of her being raped." I said, grabbing Renamon's attention quickly. "What's more, when I was in there, I could feel a presence similar to the one in the dream I had, and that means someone's in her head." Renamon nodded, remembering the night I'd woken up screaming.
"Alright, I'll try to track her." She pulled to my feet and led me outside. Soon enough she had a scent. "We need to hurry, there are others there."
We got to Raia to find her running from the SkullSatamon and NeoDevimon from before. A growl formed in my throat as I pulled out Renamon's digivice and a random card, hoping it would be blue. To my surprise, it wasn't. In fact, it was a pure white card, which shone just like the blue cards. I questioned whether to scan it, but the sight of Raia being cornered by the two ultimates made me desperate enough.
The card scanned through and its shine transferred to the digivice, which shone brightly, along with Raia's, which I pulled out. The two digivices gained an attractive force and collided, despite my attempts to keep them apart. The result was Raia's digivice with a complex ice blue tribal pattern inlaid on it. I noticed that it had two card ports, one on each side, and realized it was a dual digivice. I pulled another card and this one came up blue. Here we go! I slid the card through the right port, and looked up to see Raia become Taomon. Her gaze shot to me and I did a quick two-finger salute, the blue card perched between them, then scanned it again on the left, causing Renamon to digivolve.
"Give me a ride, we gotta get in there!" I said, feeling myself lifted and placed on her shoulder. As we rushed to Raia, I noticed she was holding her own well enough to survive till we could help. I dug through my deck and found the card I'd been aching to use. I struck it down the right, giving Raia quite the edge.
"Gungnir, heavenly spear!" I called out as the weapon materialized in her hands. The two demons tried to back away, but we had gotten too close. They ran and Raia did the only thing she could, throwing the spear to strike the SkullSatamon in the back. NeoDevimon appeared to hesitate a moment, then yanked out the spear and picked up SkullSatamon, continuing to run.
"Well, looks like those two won't be bothering us." I said, walking to Raia. "Hell, I digivolved Taomon here and she didn't even get to fight! In all seriousness, are you alright?" She nodded as she degraded. Renamon, now rookie once again, walked to her and hugged her.
"I'm sorry." She said, in a display that confused both myself and Raia. "All along, I've been thinking of you as a whiner, or a baby. You aren't. You are just like your tamer, a fighter." Renamon glanced back to me and I re-examined the digivice.
"So that's it…"
"What the hell?" Raia asked. I looked at her queerly, not used to her cursing.
"There was a white card, I scanned it, and this happened." I said. "It must be because you two actually like each other now. Go figure." I pocketed the digivice and smiled as we returned home.
This hall really does suck. How do kings and the like spend so much time just sitting here, doing nothing? He thought, his pondering disrupted as a voice echoed through the hall.
"They…they're too strong."
"Nonsense!" He said, annoyance entering his tone. "Even with the other, you should be able to handle them easily!"
"Not when they can become," a cough interrupted a second voice. "Ultimates. Or when they can use modifications," a second cough, "that shouldn't exist!"
"Ultimates? You're sure?" he questioned, knowing the snag this would create in his plan. If they had reached, ultimate level, not just her but the other as well, he would have to do this himself. He even briefly pondered the use of his most powerful form, before banishing the thought. No, it won't come to that.
"Yes sir." The voices chirped.
"Very well," He said standing and walking to them. "You are of no more use to me then." He used one arm to crush the skull of the uninjured and looked down at the second.
"Sir, please!" the poor creature cried before being devoured by a simple attack.
"Useless pawns." He said, sighing as he returned to the comfortable chair. "Now I'm going to have to mail-order a new set of minions." He sat and tried to relax, maybe he'd call in one of the whores to relieve some stress. "At least you never fail me, chair." And with that, he called in a couple LadyDevimon to "help" him out a little.