Chapter 37:- The Reason Why

"Heh! So it was you." Gatomon looked at Patamon, clenching her paw. "Still not tired of stalking me, I see."

"Why...Why did you betray us?!" Patamon ignored her statement. He was already breathing heavily, even though WereGarurumon was the one who carried him and ran all the way.

"I did what had to be done, Patamon. You really think I put Keiji before my family? Heh! How naive."

"YUMI!" Patamon cried out threateningly. But before he could say anymore, the WereGarurumon tilted his head. "Keiji? You mean Master?"

The orange rookie stiffined at this question while Yumi 'tch'-ed.

"Keiji? Did he belong to a village or something?"

No one replied. And Patamon was quick to regret this, as his silence was taken by the Ultimate as a negative.

"Then he is a human? Are you telling me that I was being enslaved by a human?" As realization hit him, WereGarurumon suddenly welled up in anger, which was very rare for the laid back digimon. This time, he didn't wait for confirmation. "That bastard is going to pay!" He turned about and was about to run off, when Patamon finally reacted.

"WereGarurumon, wait!" The rookie called out desperately.

"You… Why do you follow him?" WereGarururmon stopped at Patamon's cry, but did not turn to face him. "Is it fear? Or does he blackmail you with something else?"

Patamon hesitated. "I...Am afraid I cannot say why myself." He shook his head. Yumi idly stared at the orange digimon. 'You still haven't realized it, huh, Patamon. You're denser than I thought.'

"I see." WereGarurumon replied. "Well, whatever. Now that I know his identity, my hatred for him has suddenly grown tenfold. I'm going to kill him and leave with Gabumon. We're sick and tired of this shit." And with that, the digimon ran off without waiting for a response.

Neither of the two left spoke till WereGarurumon was out of sight. Then Patamon let out his anger.

"What were you thinking?! You idiot!"

"Idiot?" Yumi finally spoke up. It's not like I work under him anymore. I defected, remember?" She placed a paw on her hip and smirked. "And aren't you the idiot here? What are you thinking, coming all the way here? What exactly do you plan to do against us, you damn rookie?!"

"I am here to take you back, of course!" Patamon's ears were erect, his teeth bared. "Master always sees to it that traitors are swiftly dealt with!"

"Master? Don't bring him into all of this. It's clear as day that you're not here on his orders. That guy must not even have realized that I'm gone. He's too fixated on the humans. But the greatest clue to that is that you are here. Keiji would never ever let you go out, no matter what the situation."

"That's-"

"Don't try to contradict me, Patamon. You know that it's true. But even if he did, which he did not, why would he send you alone? Even I can single-handedly defeat you without digivolving. And despite that, here you are. Even if that WereGarurumon was here to help, he wouldn't have faced a chance against some ten Angewomons." Gatomon's tail twitched. "So tell me...Why...Why did you come?"

Patamon was quiet, unable to respond now that Yumi had put forward the hopelessness of the situation. Calming himself as much as he could, he thought of how rashly he had acted in the heat of the situation.

When it became apparent that Patamon was at a loss of words, Yumi closed her eyes and shook her head in disappointment. She then turned around. "Just leave, Patamon. I am not interested in killing you right now." She started to walk away, the tip of her tail flicking right and left in annoyance.

~x~

"You didn't have to do that!" Thomas exclaimed in shock. "Why did you kill him?!"

"Shut up." Keiji dismissed the blonde. He had kept back the remote and was now picking off the noodles stuck to his pants. He 'tched' at seeing how soggy his grey, well-cut pants had become, before addressing Thomas again. "It is an established rule that you die if you defy me. Yet the digimon had the guts to turn around and leave in my presence, without me dismissing him."

"Where do you get off with that high and mighty attitude?" Gaomon finally spoke up, clearly agitated. "It's a miracle you're alive. Even with that remote of yours and whatever you drugged them with, a few digimon could gang up and kill you with ease." The rookie smirked. "You must have had some strong digimon backing you up."
Keiji became rigid at this statement and gritted his teeth, his blood boiling. But Gaomon had already turned his attention towards his partner. He looked up at Thomas with a stern expression on his face "Sir, I have known you for a long time now. And I can say with certainty that you would never have befriended someone with such an attitude and outlook on the value of life. For you to say that you were close friends with a person who kills on a whim, while you have dedicated your life to cure people, is unbelievable! I don't know how he was a few years back, but, Sir, he is not the Keiji you knew anymore!"
Thomas looked down at the digimon, who was looking at him directly in his eyes. "Gaomon...You-"
"Be quiet, you monster!" Keiji suddenly burst out. "Everything I accomplished was by power alone. Humans are the pinnacle of evolution! They are the greatest beings to be ever created! You think a few mere digimon would've defeated me?!" He clenched his fist so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. "And where do you get off, spouting about the value of life? Wasn't it you digimon that first came and wreaked havoc in our world? What I am doing is just taking revenge. Revenge on you digimon for taking my brother away from me!"

"...So that's what happened, huh." Thomas took a deep breath. "Thank-you, Gaomon. I am alright now." He gave his partner a reassuring smile before turning his attention back to the boy before him. "I am… Really sorry for your loss. Ryuunosuke was a good kid. He was your last family-"

"I don't need your pity, Thomas." Keiji interrupted with as much spite as he could. "And I swear, if you spout some crap like you know how I feel, then I will make your death even more painful."

"...You are right. I don't know how you feel. But I can tell you that you are exacting revenge on the wrong digimon." Thomas shook his head. "The common masses had nothing to do with what happened in our world. If you want to take revenge, you should've taken it on the Royal Knights. Of course, that would've been impossible, to be honest."

"You just don't get it, do you? Just killing off the Royal Knights wouldn't have been enough. They need to feel the same despair we felt. Seeing the very population they were entrusted with get annihilated." Keiji's eyes were distant. His tone had completely changed from angry to a detached one. "That's what I aim to do. I'm going to watch this world burn. With flames bigger than those that engulfed our city."

"...Then aren't you just as bad as these 'Monsters'?" Thomas asked. "No, you are worse. Considering that their target was a city and yours is a whole world."

"I don't mind becoming a monster if it means that I can get my revenge."

"And what will happen after that? The digimon won't stay quiet. They will attack the humans. There will be an all out war between the two species. And I don't think humans can win in the long run-no. I think that a war should be avoided in the first place."

Keiji kept quiet. But it became apparent to him that Thomas was going to wait for a reply or else would call out on him. Something he couldn't bear. "...I don't really care one way or the other. I just need them to pay for killing Ryuu."

"That's it? That's your reason being killing hundreds of digimon and ruining the lives of thousands of others?" Thomas wasn't even shocked. He just looked disappointed. And this made it worse for Keiji.

"You're right, Gaomon." The blonde continued, not taking his eyes off Keiji. "He really is not the Keiji I knew."

Keiji grimaced, his face twisting into something almost not human. "Shut it, bastard." His voice deadly cold. "I don't need you to tell me if I am or am not myself. And you don't have to-"

"Keiji." Thomas forcefully cut in. "Please. Just try to clear your mind and think carefully about what you're doing. You might still be able to get away from this without serious repercussions. Didn't you always think before you acted? Even more than me-"

"That's enough, Thomas." Keiji's face was now turning bright red. "The last person I want to hear about selflessness is from you. You seem to be forgetting that you are the reason why the whole calamity occurred in the first place. Selfishly using every dirty method at your disposal to save your sister, not thinking about how you actions would affect others. If you hadn't cooperated with Kurata, then he couldn't have torn through space." His voice was acidic. "All that death and destruction would've been avoided if you had just thought things through!"

"I could never have predicted that happening." Thomas responded in a low voice."Kurata had a backup plan-" He suddenly took a deep breath and his tone changed."No. You are right. It was my fault, to an extent. And I greatly regret what I did, even to this day."
"But regretting it won't bring back-"

"But what's done is done." Thomas pressed on, cutting off Keiji."It might haunt me for the rest of my life, but what I should focus on right now is the prevention of something like that happening again. Whether it's in the Human World, or the Digital World. And if it entails that I must fight and suppress you," Thomas clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms. "Then I won't hold back."

~x~

"...I don't really know why I am doing this. You're right. This is all very irrational."

Yumi's ears twitched but she didn't stop walking.

"I guess it's just my ego." Patamon continued. He was gazing at his feet with a sad smile on his face. "It's really funny. That I am going to break the promise I made to myself for something so trite."

"Promise?" The word was enough to make Gatomon turn around, just to see Patamon looking at her with new found resolve in his eyes. And then a blinding light engulfed him.

"D-Digivolution?" Yumi's eyes widened in shock. "Since when is he able to do that?!"

But that wasn't the greatest surprise. When the light faded, the one standing in front of her wasn't an Angemon.

But a MagnaAngemon.

"I'm going to take the escapees back, Yumi. Even if I have to kill you to do it."

A/N- Was planning to publish this by December in order to keep a bimonthly schedule but got really busy. Anyways, a very belated Happy New Year! Let's hope for a wonderful 2017.