Chapter 38:- Didn't You Realize?

"H-How?" Yumi, overcome by shock, instinctively took a step back. "Since when?"

"Remember I told you that I had wondered the world for many years before meeting Keiji?" MagnaAngemon responded. The sudden change from a pre-pubescent voice to a deep one unsettled Gatomon even more. "Let's just say I went through a lot in those days."

"T-then why were you hiding it all this time?"

"...Keiji impressed me. A mere human fighting off Leomon without any help. I wanted to follow him. See what he could achieve. But when I learned that he hated or kind to the core, I decided to play weak, helping him build his army from the shadows."

"But then you were looked down on. Bitterly underappreciated." Yumi was still finding it hard to take the revelation in.

"Sadly, yes." MagnaAngemon smiled. "But I had grown too fond of the boy by then. Even though some of the things he did to digimon mortified me, I could bring myself to hate him. Let alone leave his side."

'That explains a lot. I can't believe Keiji is oblivious to all of this. Or maybe…' Gatomon frowned.

"Well, you really are loyal to that guy." She finally turned serious and began to glow faintly herself. "But I am too am loyal to those I am fond of. So I will stop you, no matter what it takes!" With that, the Gatomon digivolved into LadyDevimon. And it wasn't a second after she had evolved that she flung herself at MagnaAngemon, tensing her left arm.

~x~

"Are you sure, Sir?" Gaomon was reluctant at leaving his partner and going off to fight.

"Yeah. I have to defeat him on my own. It's something I must do." Thomas responded as the grip on his digivice tightened. The blue rookie took a deep breath before nodding. "Alright, Thomas." Thomas smiled as he began to DNA Charge.

Soon, Gaomon had once again Double Warp-digivolved to MirageGaogamon and broke through the mountain walls to exit the mountain, joining ShineGreymon and the others in the battle.

"Flashy exit." Keiji was quiet during the whole exchange between Thomas and Gaomon. "You must be pretty proud, being partners with a monster like him."

"I know they are Digital Monsters but I don't like the context you put it in." Thomas placed a hand on his hip and looked sideways at Keiji, smirking. "But seeing how you were looking at us closely, could it be that you are jealous?"

"Ha! Stop joking." Keiji placed the remote on the table, and stood in front of it, blocking Thomas's view.

"So I have to destroy the remote to break your control over the digimon, right?" The blonde asked.

"Probably."

"I hate destroying inventions. But I guess I have no other choice in this situation."

"Maybe."

Thomas frowned at the lack of answers. Realizing that nothing would come out of asking the guy questions, the blonde ran towards him, his fists clenched and ready to strike. Keiji too took a defensive stance.

At a suitable distance away, Thomas grounded his left foot into the rocky floor, and struck out his dominant hand, aiming for Keiji's chin. But his opponent caught his right wrist with his left palm just in time and pushed it away, also pulling in Thomas simultaneously, his grip on the wrist not loosening in the least. He then bashes his head on Thomas's nose.
Thomas was not expecting such an off-handed move. But owing to his reflexes he pulls his head back as far as he could and was successful in avoiding a critical blow. But the tip of his nose was hit nevertheless. Fighting back the sudden nausea, Thomas gripped Keiji by the back of his hand and bent him forward, ramming his knee into the boy's gut. Keiji let out a cough in pain and let go of Thomas's wrist pushing the boy away with all his might, using both his hands.

Thomas stumbled back, placing a palm on his nose and Keiji staggered, pressing both his knees together and twisting his feet slightly inwards in order to force himself not to fall. He gripped his stomach and cursed.

"Fighting dirty, are we?"

"Well, you started it. At least I didn't bust your face in, just now."

"Oh please, you just weren't able to, with my arm blocking the way."

The blonde frowned and wiped off the blood trickling down his nose with the back of his hand, straightening up.

He once again took up his boxing stance while Keiji took his. Thomas eyed Keiji, analyzing his fist position, arm position, body angle, foot angle, leg angle. There were no open points. Nothing to take advantage of.
Keiji too studied his opponent. And found no faults. He could not predictable what Thomas was planning to do. He could go in for a punch with his dominant fist, but fake it and swivel around with a kick. Or he could fake it and punch with his left fist. Or he could not fake at all. It was also possible that he would go straight in for a kick.
No one moved, each of the men studying the other. Finally, it was Keiji who made a move, realizing that he would be taking in more data while dueling Thomas. He opened up a barrage of punches, not giving time for Thomas to move back and counterattack. Thomas yielded, using both his arms to defend himself from Keiji's punches. 'Urgh he isn't pulling any of his punches in the least. And I can't do anything until at least one of his attacks slows down. Even by a little bit.'

'This guy… 'Keiji grimaced.'He isn't letting down his blocks at all. And I can't make a sudden change in my approach until he falters. If he is late to react to even one if my punches, I can find an opening and change my approach!"
But, unfortunately for Keiji, he was the one to lose in the battle of endurance. One of his punches finally lost momentum and Thomas seized the moment to slightly squat down. And while Keiji's arm was still extended, the blonde dealt an uppercut to the chin.

Keiji was lifted into the air and fell back, his, falling on the rock with an audible thud.

Thomas first looked at the boy now lying on the floor and then at his arms, which had turned red, with his wrists having a tinge of blue. But he couldn't afford to tend to his bruises now. Keiji was apparently knocked out cold but there was a possibility that he would get up soon. So the blonde set his eyes on the remote and walked towards it. He pulled it up and weighed it, frowning at the buttons which had no demarcations.

The remote wasn't too heavy and was quite simple in design. It was yellow in color with black accents and had six small, circular buttons arranged in two rows and two columns, with a larger, square button in the center, between the second and the third rows. All the buttons were dark grey in color sans a small red one which was placed separately at the top. Overall, the remote was just about a centimeter bigger than his palm.

Thomas continued to stare at the remote, trying to decide what to do with it. If he were Marcus, then he would have just smashed the remote and be done with it. But he wasn't. And the blonde could not shake off the possibility that freeing the digimon from the 'poison's' control was also only possible through the remote in his hand, and that by destroying it, he would ruin their chances of becoming free. Worse case scenario? It could trigger off the 'poison' embedded in the digimon and all would die.

Thomas let out a small groan. His email were aching. His nose was aching. And the lack of information was starting to tick him off. He turned to look at the fallen Keiji and considered tying him up and interrogating him when he woke up.
"Well, that will leave a bad taste in my mouth." The blonde once again turned back to look at the remote. "I must find out the answer to this on my own."
"You sure you're smart enough?"
"...!"

A hand suddenly grabbed Thomas by the ankle and he was pulled down, his head slamming on the corner of the table before hitting the ground. The man called out in pain as he writhed on the floor, covering his left eye with the palm of his hand. He groaned as he crawled onto his fours and turned around and fell back, his right arm propping him up and his knees folded. His right eyebrow frowned as he saw Keiji smirking at him, blood trickling down the side of his mouth. He was still lying on the floor.

"Thought you could be done with me so easily?"

Thomas let go of his eye, revealing a deep cut near his eyebrow, narrowly missing the corner of his eye. Blood had started to flow from the cut and his palm was dyed red. The ends of his lips curled up.

"Well, I would be disappointed if I was."

~x~

LadyDevimon clawed at MagnaAngemon with the nails on her left arm. But her attack was blocked by the opponent's Excalibur. MagnaAngemon pushed her backwards and Yumi came to a skidding stop, digging her left hand into the ground in order to not be pushed too far back.

By this time, the angelic Ultimate had powered up his Excalibur and flew low towards LadyDevimon, reading himself to slash her. But his attempt his counteracted by the opponent who used the chains wrapped around her right arm to tie up the Excalibur and push it away. The sudden retardation caused MagnaAngemon to fall to the ground at Yumi's feet.

Yumi smiled in amusement at the sight briefly before jumping into the air,dragging MagnaAngemon with him, her chains still tied to his Excalibur. She flew up quite high, before swinging MagnaAngemon around her thrice before releasing him. MagnaAngemon was sent flying off, and he could do nothing to stop himself. By the time. He slowed down, LadyDevimon had already sent out a "Darkness Wave"

He tried to save himself from the bat-like creatures by shielding himself with his Excalibur and the purple armor adorned on his right arm. But he could not block the whole of the attack and winced as his wings were burned. He let out a low growl at his opponent.
He then uses his own long-range attack, firing a 'Soul Vanisher' at LadyDevimon. To counter, his opponent transforms her left hand into a long sharp spike-her renowned ability 'Darkness Spear'- and charges at MagnaAngemon, facing his attack head-on. She slices through the light energy using her arm-turned-lance, aiming for MagnaAngemon's head, but is intercepted with his Excalibur. In this clash, the one with greater strength won, the 'one' being MagnaAngemon. He pushed LadyDevimon away and manifested his 'Gate of Destiny' while the other Ultimate was still recovering.

"Urgh!" Panic was evident in LadyDevimon's eyes, who knew that escaping from this ability was nigh impossible. Desperately, she caught hold of MagnaAngemon's right hand and clung on as the doors fully slid back and she started to be drawn in.

MagnaAngemon exclaimed, "H-hey!" He tried to make LadyDevimon let go with his free hand, but the grip around his wrist only tightened.
"You...Won't kill me."

"Huh?"

LadyDevimon looked up at MagnaAngemon. "You can't kill me."

"And what makes you so sure of that?" Her claim annoyed the Ultimate. "You think I don't have the guts?"

"...Take it as you like." She struggled to grasp at MagnaAngemon with her other hand too. "Don't you know, why Keiji never let you go out for battle?"

"...!" MagnaAngemon was trying his hardest to not be controlled by Yumi's words, but what she was saying continued to make him curious more and more.

"You idiot! It's because he likes you! He hates himself for it, but there is no denying that he had grown fond of you, a digimon."

MagnaAngemon became rigid.
"That's why he never let you go out to fight! He was afraid that you we too weak and naive, and would die easily. That's why! No matter how easy a mission was, he couldn't let you go." It was getting harder to resist the pull of the Gate. "And you know what, I think he is right! You don't have it in you to kill someone. You're having second thoughts right now, correct?!"

"...You know, Gatomon?" MagnaAngemon finally spoke up. "Your sweet talk has been bested by your desperation. You think that egging me on would work in your favor?"

Yumi's eyes widened. "Ah! No! NO!"

Not paying heed to her pleas anymore, MagnaAngemon pushed LadyDevimon away, not looking away until she was sucked up into the Gate, screaming till it slid shut.

A/N: I love and hate fight scenes at the same time. It took me three weeks just to get the last bit done. And I still feel that there is something more to add to it. Hopefully you guys can understand wth heck is going on.