Chapter Twenty: Without a Veil

Taiga woke up at three in the morning and his V-Pet was still blank. He sighed as quietly as possible, in order to avoid waking a lightly snoring Niko on the other side of his room. He rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. As he did, he saw a thin shadow moving back into the now cramped bedroom. Honestly, it hadn't been this way when he was ten. Growth spurts, they were a mess.

Rina kept slipping along the wall until she made it back to her own small futon, away from the two of them. Taiga had watched her do it, watched her roll on her side and go quiet and small. Why did she come, if she was going to do that?

Because she wanted to come.

Taiga rolled on his side, debated getting up, going between Niko and Rina like he used to do when they were small. He could imagine the warmth right now. He gripped his lukewarm V-Pet, feeling that ever-present, sometimes silent ache in his chest. Then Niko's snoring grew a bit more and the sound galled Taiga forward. HE clumsily crawled out of bed, heavy comforter in hand. Normally it would take two hands, but the weight of the fabric felt like nothing to his hands these days. He threw it over him, over them, and rested under it. His fingers reached on her pajama shirt and tugged. Rina shifted and rolled over.

"What?" Despite her voice being a whisper, it clanged loud and clear in his ears.

Taiga blinked. He hadn't been thinking of anything except that he was lonely on his bed. Her red eyes looked at him with clear concern, however, and it sent a different feeling into his stomach: discomfort. He wanted to shake his head, say it was nothing. But he couldn't get the words to come out.

"You don't have to go," he finally blurted out softly. "I… it's… you can stay here, with us! It's not like… this doesn't change anything."

Rina looked at him for a while, then she laughed. No, it was a sob. It was a sob and he always did this why did he screw up this much?

"I need to," she finally said. "I need her, you don't understand, I can't leave her like that."

"Then you can just come back," he said, trying to sound reasonable and logical like she always did.

Rina shifted, drawing up her legs and shaking her head. "I hate it here. I hate it here, all the time." She squeezed her eyes shut and when she opened them up again they were glowing. "Everything smells like petrol and chemicals and it's always cold. All people talk about is breaking other people here. I hate it. You guys are the only things worth staying for."

"Then we'll go with you."

Rina shook her head no. "You can't!" Her voice was loud enough that Taiga almost didn't notice Niko's sudden silence. "Aki and I kill Digimon, Taiga. We kill people. We're soldiers, gang brats. We have… we made a contract. If you come with they'll kill you both." She waved her hands a little in agitation. "They don't have a choice. Everything's… fragile and hurting and you'll be two more mouths to feed in that hellhole."

"Rina, I don't exactly live next to Niko because he's a born socialite." Taiga could feel his eyes watering and tried to clamp down on it but it was hard because everything in her was shaking and that wasn't normal. "His dad paid for my everything. I've done that before. I… as long as it's with you guys, I can do it again. I-" Taiga swallowed. "I know I can."

Rina opened her mouth but no sound came out but more odd whimpers. Something lashed against fab- the tail. God. God god god, everything is so screwed up.

Niko shifted, clambering over Taiga and hugging Rina to his chest. "Stop making my girlfriend cry, bro," he grumbled, voice slurring with sleep.

Taiga made a face in the dark, secretly swelling with relief. Okay, Niko could probably handle this. He knew how to handle Rina in a different way. "Your girlfriend," he managed to say, grasping Rina's sweaty palm. "My friend bro."

"Yeah, well, there's a reason you're not the reassuring one here."

Rina made a wet noise. Niko exhaled a little and Taiga took that opportunity to pull the comforter over them.

For a while, Taiga was content listening to Rina's breathing soften and her quiet crying fade. He wished he knew what words to say, what could prove they belonged together, as friends or whatever. But nothing seemed strong enough, good enough. None of it was real. Because all of it, all of it was temporary.

Then, clear as day, he heard Niko say, "Let them try. I'll gut them myself."

Taiga hoped he was lying and made himself not look to his silent V-Pet for answers.

…

Fergus, being ever observant, felt those eyes. Yet he couldn't go. He didn't want to. Mirei was leaned on his shoulder, deeply asleep and peaceful. For all the darkness in her skin and the vivid colors she wore, it was all too easy to imagine her fading away, disappearing off into the sky, into nothing at all.

How close it had been, before. How close he had been to losing everything. Because of her, because of a meddling old woman who had pretended at parenthood. And now, now to the metaphorical monsters under the bed, to people who failed their trials, to so many awful, awful things.

"How could everything end up like this?"

His sister's face scrunched in her sleep and Fergus paused, waiting for her to relax. She never used to be this easy to wake. She would sleep like the dead and damned most of the time. But not now. Not after living purely n the wilds, in the feral land where children and digimon broke alike, not after losing her home and family. Not with no memories of being loved.

He would help her remember. That was what brothers did, no?

"So you'll shepherd her too, Fergie?" The little dragon's voice melted from the air, sneering and pitiful. "That doesn't really work. I've tried."

Fergus watched Mirei sleep on and hesitated. Was Vitium not a threat to her?

"She'll never think of me as an enemy, as someone to fear. But let's talk about you, Fergie."

Mi settled on the grass, but not as a little girl. All he could see now was a small, black dragon, scarred by great claws, blue eyes haunting and staring straight forward.

"You're deceiving my sight on purpose."

She waved her tail. "Irrelevant. You've always been around her less than I have. You think if you're just kind and out of the way, you'll be rewarded with results, if you're just passive and lame-hearted, things will change. Papa made that same I guess it's better than being your teacher."

She didn't cackle like a villain, that little dragon. She just spoke, knowing and miserable and frightened. She was also unfortunately easy to jump at being honest and cruel. "My mentor has long since lost interest in me."

"Lonely, isn't it?" When he didn't respond, she snorted. "You're such a coward. You could stop me, you know. If you tried. If you fought. But you won't. You're a god. You're too good for a darkling like me. You're too busy with your own little student. Let me know how that goes when he's turned on you."

Fergus could think of words, counters, but rage was boiling in his gut, so perhaps that was what made him reply, so caustic: "And you could end this and change your destiny, if you had your own courage."

She did laugh now. "I thought you wanted our baby sister to survive this time. After all, we've only got one shot left."