Author's Note
I am so sorry for all of this. Only two more blocks before this thing is finished! Aiming to get the next block up in November! I promise the next block will be happier. Eventually.
Nexusworld
We were the cause. We are at fault.
We cannot draw from empty vaults.
With vacant hands, we're left to ponder.
If only then we had been told
Infatuations would grow cold,
We might have more than ash to squander.
- Dirt Poor Robins, "Human After All"
Episode 20
Marcus Damon hovered over Yoshi and Cody, pacing around their campfire as they waited for a response. By this point, they didn't care who it was from. Any communication would do.
After an uncomfortable silence, Yoshi asked, "Is it possible nobody told Miki what a code purple was?" When one gave off, unless it came with more information, the safety of all partner Digimon needed to be verified.
"Well somebody has to be working on it," said Marcus. "We haven't even started fighting yet. Who's out here dying already?"
Through a crackling radio, Thomas said, "Everyone here is accounted for."
"I think we're good here too, Thomas," said Megumi from the settlement. "It'll take a while for a full headcount, but nobody knows about anything wrong."
Miki finally got on: "Give us a minute, we're still looking for someone."
Taking the radio, Yoshi said, "Same with us. How about the other team?"
Silence followed again. Lalamon said, "Why is it all DATS people on the radio?"
"Oh… we good here," said Keenan. "Everyone else went back to bed."
Marcus blinked. "Wait, Keenan's with the other team?"
Yoshi turned sharply to Marcus. "One: read your briefings. Two: you need to help Kazu find Ryo. You know how Cyberdramon can get and if it's not at Isthmian, it's probably him."
"And if it's another situation like Gizumon, it could target Guardromon next," added Cody.
Miki chimed in again: "Is purple for Digimon only?"
"Yes," Thomas answered.
"Oh. We can't find Yuujin, but his partner's here, so I guess we're good."
Everyone around the radio looked at each other with concern. "Dammit," spat Marcus, running off. He was several paces away before Agumon caught on and followed.
They rushed through the night at close to a full sprint, catching up to Kazu and Guardromon in only a couple minutes. The armored robot always had been the slowest on the team.
"No sign of him," said Kazu. "Hear anything?"
"It's gotta be Cyberdramon," Marcus replied. "Everyone else says they're fine."
"What?! Who could take out Cyberdramon?" Even through his denial, Kazu's breathing grew heavier. "And where's Ryo? Nobody's getting through him."
"Seems this one has," said Guardromon, arms raised as Yuujin stepped into sight.
"Hey, Boss, isn't that one of the app guys?" asked Agumon.
The laser charged within Yuujin's armor as he intoned, "Target located."
"Get down!" Kazu shouted. Guardromon fell forward, toppling over as the laser passed above him.
"That's it!" Marcus balled his hand into a fist. "It's fighting time!" He rushed after Yuujin.
Between the metal armor, dead eyes, and stiff pose as he waited for the attack, Yuujin gave off no impression of humanity. But he still looked human, angering Marcus more. He reared back a fist and reared back, but Yuujin raised an arm and fired a bolt of electricity at him. Marcus fell to his knees, back curling in agony, screaming in fury.
Yuujin tried to walk past him, eyes directed back on Guardromon. Marcus interrupted his reeling to shoot up, smashing his fist through Yuujin's face. Yuujin barely recoiled.
Marcus scrambled backwards, still on the ground, his fist swelling with pain. The impossible resistance to the force of the punch and lack of anything burning within Yuujin's soul confirmed this wasn't human. This was a machine, carrying out the same wishes as Yaddith. Judging by the laser, Gizumon too. With that surely came the same patterns and invulnerabilities. What sickened him, however, was how the face was as human as any of the others he'd punched.
Thankfully, pain wasn't the only thing swelling in his hand. So was his DNA. As Yuujin continued his march toward Guardromon, Marcus shouted, "DNA Charge- Overdrive!"
ShineGreymon jumped in front of Guardromon. Yuujin paused, staring back at the large dragon obstructing his target.
"Great, but we still can't touch him!" Kazu shouted.
Marcus forced himself to his knees. "Then get him out of here!"
His partner stomped around, swinging his tail once to force Yuujin clear, then picked up Guardromon and launched into the sky, leaving Kazu behind them, totally exposed to the enemy. When Yuujin stared him down, Kazu backpedaled, raising his hands. "Okay, I don't know what your deal is but we can talk about this!"
Yuujin looked up at his flying prey, processing for a few moments before he hovered off the ground, without wings or signs of propulsion. He rose higher, matching ShineGreymon's elevation and floating after him. This impossible levitation was nowhere near as fast as ShineGreymon, but Yuujin pursued nonetheless.
With their partners gone, Marcus and Kazu just stared in astonishment. "What's going on?" Yoshi rushed up to them. "What are you doing? Where are your Digimon?"
Marcus pointed up. "ShineGreymon grabbed Guardromon and flew away from him."
"Who's him?" asked Lalamon.
"I don't know, he looked like one of the new app guys. Whoever he is he ain't really human."
Kazu nodded, folding his arms. "He just rose into the air like magic so he's not really hiding it."
"Where's ShineGreymon taking them?" Yoshi asked. "Back to the castle?"
"Uh…" Marcus pointed in the general direction ShineGreymon flew off. "That way."
Yoshi took a deep breath through her nose to calm down. "So… yes. Okay, you two run back to Cody and tell everyone everything. Whatever's going on, they need to be ready for it."
"Wait, what about us?" Lalamon asked.
She stared down the clearing. "We need to find Ryo."
Marcus looked up as ShineGreymon and Yuujin faded in the distance. Yuujin had already taken out one Digimon, one that must have needed some powerful weaponry to topple. ShineGreymon was on his own, leading him straight home, putting everyone there in danger. Most of them couldn't do anything to stop him. He turned to Yoshi and muttered, "See, now this is the worst."
Tai Kamiya clenched a fist as Thomas received the update. Learning how Haru had disobeyed him and brought Yuujin back on his own upset him because of this very possibility. Yet, he never expected it to actually come to pass. While he could no longer trust Haru's judgment, Tai still had faith in his ability to make a friend who wasn't going to turn out to be a destructive robot. That was why he didn't tell anybody at Isthmian about Yuujin's true nature. What would they have done with that information anyway, even now that it killed one partner Digimon and posed a lethal threat to everybody?
"ShineGreymon is drawing him back to Isthmian," said Thomas. "They are preparing to engage him there. There is the obvious problem, however…"
"Yaddith," Tai muttered. Thomas nodded. "How the hell did it get into him?"
"Yuujin was part of yesterday's network infiltration. The report said he was attacked." Thomas paged through a copy of the report on his monitor. "Izzy and I believed it needed to infect something with a source code… I suppose humans have one here, but-"
"He's not human," Tai spat, drawing Thomas's eyes over. "He was an android built by Haru's enemy back home. Haru brought him back to life somehow. Said he was human and good now." He shook his head. "I almost believed him."
Thomas stared back in astonishment, needing a moment to react to all that. His logical synapses kicked in, though, and he furrowed his eyebrows. "That… explains some of it, but-"
The opening elevator drew Tai's attention away. "Hold the door! Let's go." He joined Astra and Musimon on the elevator before they could even speak
"But Tai, don't you want-"
"I've heard enough. Pass anything on to Davis. We need to go now."
Astra looked at him with confusion. "Wait, where are the others-" He realized the answer himself and frowned. "Aw, is it another thing only Musimon can stop?" When Tai nodded, two fingers pointed down. "So not groovy."
"What is it this time?" Musimon asked.
With no eye contact, Tai muttered, "Yuujin."
"Yuujin?!" both Astra and Musimon exclaimed. The horror set in before they could ask anything else. Astra clutched the elevator wall to keep his balance, his head falling. Musimon slid off his head onto the floor, staring back up with concern.
Tai kept his eyes fixed on the door. "He killed Cyberdramon. We've got to stop him before he gets anyone else."
"But… how…?"
"Because he's an android!" Tai shouted. "Marcus even said he didn't seem human. This is what I warned Haru about!"
Musimon thought for a moment, "And if he's like the others, then… one of us has to fight him?"
"Right," was all Tai said as the door opened.
He sprinted through the hall into the courtyard. Astra and Musimon ran behind him, but lacked the energy to keep up. Turning back, Tai shouted, "Come on! We have to get up there now!"
By the time they joined him, Davis and Ken were ready outside with Imperialdramon. Agumon joined his partner. "We're going too?"
"We need to make sure this gets dealt with."
Once Astra and Musimon jumped on board, Imperialdramon set off.
"Straight to Isthmian, then?" asked Ken.
"No," Tai answered, taking a long look at Astra. "Stop by the settlement first. Eri's not getting out of this."
Haru Shinkai never stopped searching. Since the code purple woke up the entire castle and prompted a mandatory headcount, Haru tried to track Yuujin down. Once the Digimon were accounted for, most of the castle returned to bed, but only finding Offmon concerned Haru even more. Along with Gatchmon, they searched together.
They weren't sure if they were supposed to leave the castle, but they did, sifting through tall grass in the woods, shouting Yuujin's name for an hour in an inefficient, fruitless hunt.
"You really think Yuujin would go out here without Offmon?" Gatchmon grumbled.
"I don't know what to think," Haru whispered. Gatchmon was right, of course. Yuujin wouldn't run off on his own with no protection, and there should have been no reason to suspect any connection between him and the code purple. This was the good Yuujin. The old duplicitous Yuujin no longer existed, an obsolete version overwritten and forgotten. In fact, worrying about Yuujin as opposed to someone on a mission like Tagiru or Daigo's partners was silly. This logic failed to calm Haru.
A swaying flashlight ahead caught them and froze on them. By the time their eyes recovered, its owner was already wading through the grass to meet them. Izzy relaxed when he identified them, but Tentomon still said, "I know you're worried but we don't need you guys disappearing too."
"You can't find him?" asked Haru.
"No," answered Izzy. "But if it helps, we've confirmed the code purple was for Cyberdramon on the patrol team. Not that that isn't a crisis, but it doesn't concern Yuujin."
Offmon whimpered. "But what if Yuujin did it?"
Izzy's eyebrows narrowed. "Why would you ever think Yuujin would be involved?"
Haru and both Appmon froze. Without explaining everything, there wasn't a good answer.
Unfortunately, Izzy knew that too: "What is the story behind Yuujin? Tai was curious, but I was too engrossed with the Yaddith investigation to follow up. Now that it's over… his arrival is indeed suspicious."
"He's…" Haru's normal defenses failed to switch on this time. "He's my friend…"
Izzy looked back with skepticism. "Let's go back inside. You can explain everything along the way."
For the months of hiding it from anyone but his closest allies, all of Haru's secret spilled out with no force. Even with no reason to suspect his Yuujin of anything, the mere possibility spooked him into compliance. Maybe Izzy would appreciate the science. Maybe he could give Haru a reason not to fear the worst. Maybe simply telling the truth would be a relief on its own.
None of those proved true. Izzy listened to everything, withholding both judgment and comment, as they returned across the drawbridge and daylight set in. When Haru finished, Izzy reiterated: "So you reprogrammed a sentient AI to go from being a double agent to the friend you always believed him to be?"
Head low, Haru said, "It's not that bad, right?"
"How did you replicate his body?"
"Please, not now," Haru said with a swift head shake. "Just… tell me he couldn't be doing this. It doesn't make sense, right?"
Izzy kept a straight face. "Based on everything you told me… it's exceedingly possible Yuujin could be involved."
"But-"
"He's an ideal candidate for Algomon to bring here. And he had a run-in with him yesterday. I would wonder exactly how and why it happened, but it's all very plausible."
Haru turned pale. He wanted to pretend it was impossible. He wanted to raise all the questions and harp on Izzy's uncertainty. Deep down, Haru was a man of reason. Without hard evidence otherwise, everything suggested the worst.
A low roar overhead heralded ShineGreymon's arrival, flying in from the mountains, still towing Guardromon. They landed in the courtyard in front of Haru and Izzy. The flyer changed back to Agumon and collapsed on his back.
"Wow, that's exhausting without Boss around," he huffed.
Izzy kept his eyes in the air. "Where's Marcus?"
"I 'unno. Back there somewhere. Just trying to get this robot thing away from that other robot thing."
"Robot thing?" Haru asked, barely above a whisper.
The doors to the keep swung open and Takuya ran out, rushing up to Agumon. "What are you doing?! You can't leave Guardromon here!"
When Agumon chose recovery over response, Izzy said, "He can't hold that form for long without his partner nearby."
"That's a thing?!"
Izzy held his digivice out and evolved Tentomon to MegaKabuterimon. "Take Guardromon as far as you can. We'll try to hold off whatever's chasing him." Takuya nodded and Izzy's Digimon obeyed, scooping Guardromon onto his back and flying off.
Once they were gone, Takuya turned to Izzy and said, "I thought you said this was over. This is the worst one yet!"
"Has patrol identified it?"
"Yuujin…" Haru mumbled, dragging his feet toward the next figure hovering through the air. Even from a distance, he saw the blue armor, the expressionless face, and all the memories of that horrible time six years ago when his friend became his enemy. He fell to his knees, helpless to do anything but watch the disaster to come.
Takuya grimaced, then squinted at Yuujin's approach. "Any of this make sense to you?" he asked Izzy.
Izzy stared up before nodding. "Unfortunately, enough to accept it. Do you have a plan?"
"Tai's bringing the other two drivers up here. Until then…" Takuya took a deep breath and clutched his D-Tector.
Becoming EmperorGreymon, he shot into the air to protect his castle from the unbeatable threat. Izzy looked down. While Offmon sobbed alongside Haru, Gatchmon hadn't left Izzy's side.
"Any chance of helping him?" the Appmon asked.
The digidestined of knowledge sighed. "I don't know." He watched as EmperorGreymon launched a massive stream of fireballs at Yuujin. Yuujin stopped to absorb them, then carried forward. "Any chance you guys are willing to fight him?"
The search app Appmon stared forward at Haru and Offmon, both broken, both alone. "I don't know."
Eri Karan clutched Dokamon's hand as she rode in silence to the train platform. She didn't understand how Yuujin reverting could be possible or what she was supposed to do about it, only that Sampson offered no reassurances seated across from her. Even Meiko kept her head forward, denying eye contact as she drove.
"Do you really expect us to fight him?" she asked Sampson.
"We've been over this," replied the commander. "Only Appmon can harm these entities."
"His name is Yuujin," she barked. "Don't call him an entity."
"Eri…" pouted Dokamon.
Kudamon coiled forward down Sampson's shoulder. "Eri, this is a dire situation, and we've already had one casualty. There could be many more if he can't be stopped. I understand how hard it is to fight your friends."
"Do you?!" Her head shot up at him. "Do you really?" Kudamon gasped, but after sharing a disappointed look with Sampson he lowered his head and retreated.
When they arrived at the platform, Sampson made a call on his communicator as Eri stood as far from him as she could get. Meiko remained close to Sampson. When the call ended, he reported, "Tai will be here any minute."
That perked Meiko's head up. "Tai's going too?"
"That's my understanding."
Eri scoffed, imagining Tai somehow satisfied at Yuujin's turn. She imagined all the scolding, all the boasting of how right he had been, and all the promises for repercussions down the road.
"I'd like to go too then," said Meiko.
With a sneer, Eri faced her. "Why? You don't want to see this, do you?"
"I…" she looked down. "Well…"
She didn't let Meiko answer. "You have to be there for Tai, don't you?" Meiko stayed silent. Eri stepped in closer, voice rising. "Can't think about what we're going through though, right?"
"I…" Meiko draw in a shuddering breath. "This is bad enough without us arguing."
"Yeah, tell that to Tai when he shows up!" Eri exploded, hand clenched in a fist. "He won't care! He'll just expect us to end this! Like it's not going to kill us too!"
Meiko shook her head, eyes closed. "I know it hurts, but if it has to happen…"
"I don't care what has to happen!" After a few raspy breaths, the tears trickledout. "I just want Haru to be okay."
With a loud gust of wind, Imperialdramon landed on the tracks. Davis and Ken got out to help with boarding. Tai stayed on the dragon's back. When Eri didn't move, he yelled, "Let's go! We can't afford to wait!"
Meiko moved first, stopping when she reached Eri. Calmly, she answered, "Tai wants everyone to be okay."
She kept moving, toward Tai's awaiting arms. Eri remained frozen to the spot, tears refusing to subside, as Dokamon looked up with sad concern. Finally, loudly, she asked, "What about you?"
Now Meiko froze. A hand started to shake. Eri kept going: "Imagine what he's going through right now. Never mind what he did. He fought that hard to see Yuujin again. Don't you realize how important he is to him?"
Eri stood, turning around to face Meiko's back. "That first time Yuujin betrayed us destroyed him. Losing him almost destroyed him again. He only got through by believing he had another chance. If he loses him again… I don't know if he's coming back from that." She took two steps closer and shouted, "Can't you just have a little sympathy for him?!"
As Meiko trembled in place, Eri caught Tai's glare. He seethed, looking down to check the time on his digivice. It drove her to hold out longer. Standing right behind Meiko, Eri said, "Haru just wants to be happy with his friend. He didn't want this to happen. And now think about what we might have to do." Meiko's head dropped, her hand wiping away a few tears. Eri did the same. "If anybody here could understand what he's going through right now… I would have thought it would be you."
After a suppressed sniffle, Meiko sobbed, "I'm sorry." She sped across the platform, jumped on Imperialdramon, and drove herself under Tai's waiting arms. He still stared down Eri.
Eri sneered back, the inevitable beckoning louder. With an angry huff, she clutched Dokamon's hand and marched on board, refusing Ken's assistance.
As she passed Meiko, she stopped and muttered, "No you're not." Meiko flinched, but didn't turn around.
Eri ran to the back with Astra and Musimon and finally broke down crying.
Tagiru Akashi already hated sheltering inside the same cave from their last disaster. The one good from the previous fight was making it was nice and abandoned, confirmed with a sweep the night before, so it was an easy place to make camp. Some sort of thermal energy from the mountain even kept it warm in spite of the bitter winds outside. Bad memories still lingered, however. They had to make a new entrance after Marsmon collapsed the previous one. Mikey had been shot a few chambers away. Daigo and his entire team were lucky to survive. Everyone laughed when Tagiru suggested the place might be haunted. He wasn't joking.
Nobody was in a mood for humor when the code purple arrived. Their mandatory headcount didn't take long and Mikey ordered everyone back to bed while Keenan waited for an update outside where their radio could get reach Isthmian, but it didn't work out that way. Not with two teams so familiar with loss.
When it became clear that nobody was actually sleeping, Bearmon said, "So… Digimon get reborn here, right?"
"They're supposed to," said Christopher. "Doesn't always work."
"Gizumon messes that up too," Daigo added. "Marcus told me all about them."
Mikey held his hands up. "Hey, hey, try not to think about it. Get some rest." He sat at the entrance to the chamber with Shoutmon and folded his arms. Tagiru snickered at Mikey's incapability at following his own orders, then yawned and passed out.
He didn't know how long elapsed before Gumdramon jumped on his chest and poked Tagiru in the nose until he swatted him away. He popped up and looked around. Everyone else was awake, their heads down.
Tagiru turned to Daigo, who whispered, "Cyberdramon." Tagiru had no idea who that was and couldn't help but sigh in relief, despite the glares from some of Daigo's team.
"Is Ryo okay?" Mikey asked Keenan, who had popped inside to relay the news.
Keenan nodded. "Shaken up but Yoshi found him."
"Now who could kill Cyberdramon?" said Shoutmon. "Heck, I wanna know who would try!"
"That part confused me." Keenan blinked a few times. "Some Yuujin?"
"What?!" Tagiru blurted. His head darted around in a panic, but the reaction was more confusion and concern than suspicion. Only Daigo stared back, his teeth gritted, sucking in air.
"Yuujin?" Mikey prodded. "The appdriver? How's that possible?"
"Don't know," said Keenan. "Marcus said he had Gizumon powers and worked like Yaddith. And said he wasn't human. Like a robot."
Tagiru stood up, raised his hand, and shouted, "Mikey! I need to go back! Uh… no reason!"
Mikey stared back, confused, but only for a moment. He cracked a knowing smile and turned to Keenan. "Did they say what we're supposed to do?"
"Miki said stay put," answered Keenan.
"For real?" asked Daigo. "Even after the patrol guys lost someone?"
After some thought, Mikey nodded. "No, it makes sense. If he has Yaddith's data we can't touch it. And if he's dangerous enough to kill Cyberdramon we're better off staying away from it. We don't want to lose anybody else."
"What?!" Tagiru seethed. Knowing what was going on at home, no way could he stand being stuck in a cave, unable to help. "They need us! What happened to not turning our backs on them?"
Mikey only smiled back. "Tagiru, I get it. This is bound to be rough on Haru and you want to be there for him. It's cool. But we have our own job to do and it's pretty important too. We can't quit now, especially when there's nothing we can do to help."
"It's not our fight," Christopher concurred. "Making it ours will only get our Digimon killed too."
Tagiru grunted and stormed off, pacing around angrily. All he could imagine was the torture Haru was going through. He saw all their work, all of their plotting, and all of their successes exploding. If Tagiru couldn't bear it on his own, how could Haru?
"It could be worse than that," said Nene. "If it got into Yuujin, how do we know it won't get into anyone else?"
Christopher and Mikey both tensed up. So did Keenan, shaking his head before joining Falcomon outside for more transmissions.
A soft sigh came from Daigo's teammate. "Are we all going to get infected too?" Her Kamemon partner patted her lap.
Daigo stared at her and all of her fear before he sighed and stood. "Thing about Yuujin is… he wasn't always human."
"Daigo!" Tagiru jump up, a fist clenched. "Squealer! What happened to no narcing?"
"It's gonna come out anyway," Daigo sat again. "Yuujin was a, uh… android, I guess. He wasn't human until…" He glanced once at Tagiru, still fuming. "He, uh… showed up."
Everyone else stared at him, mouths hanging open. Shoutmon turned to Mikey. "Well no wonder he beat you at soccer." Mikey's head stayed down, deep in thought.
"Well," Nene paused to clear her throat. "At least we know it won't spread to us."
"Right." Daigo nodded. "Assuming no one else is a robot."
While the truth about Yuujin hung in the air, Tagiru barely kept in his anger as he muttered, "I can't believe you told them."
Mikey's head popped up. "Tagiru, you knew about this?"
Tagiru froze. The big cool secret he'd held since his arrival had spilled in front of him, and he couldn't bring himself to dishonesty. Not to Mikey. He took a deep breath, stood, and stared down his mentor. "Knew about it? I convinced Haru to try getting him back."
Nene and Christopher frowned and shook their heads, but Tagiru kept his defiant face on against whatever Mikey's reaction would be. He only lowered his head, released a deep sigh, and said, "I see."
"But that's why I need to go back! I put Haru through all this! I can't let him face it alone!"
"You're insane," said Christopher, shooting a harsh look back. "There's some evil robot running around killing our Digimon and you're responsible? They're going to eat you alive when they find out."
"So what about Haru?!"
"I bet he's smart enough to keep his mouth shut."
"That's even worse! What'll they do to Yuujin?"
"What they need to," Christopher huffed before turning away. Mikey eyed both of them nervously, but said nothing.
Daigo's head was down too. Tagiru lowered his voice and kept his pleading to him. "C'mon… Yuujin's in trouble and we're stuck here? You can't be okay with that!" Daigo flinched, his head shaking as it stayed down. "We can't let Haru face this alone!"
"Hey…" Daigo paused, summoning whatever conviction he could. "Rei's there. So's Himmy."
"Wait, what's Himmy doing?" One of his teammates chimed in, an eyebrow raised on his face.
"Well she's… helping Haru deal with…" Daigo stopped his explanation when he saw his three teammates and their incredulous, blinking stares.
He stood up. "Hey, Mikey… we really can't leave Haru on his own. It's not right."
Mikey stared back, not giving away anything. "Guys… don't make this worse. We have our mission."
"Screw our orders!" Tagiru jumped up again.
"No, it's bad enough you're involved with this! Christopher's right. They're going to be really angry when they find out Haru let this happen. If you ditch us on top of that… just… no."
Tagiru continued to plead. "Come on!" His voice only grew louder, tears forming. "Haru and I started this together! We're dealing with it together! If I can't-"
"Tagiru, for once in your life just stop talking!" Mikey's outburst surprised everybody, even himself. He and Tagiru stared at each other, both too stunned to react, no motion but Tagiru's streaming tears and Mikey's panting. Mikey didn't budge, the unbreakable leader putting his private in place. Tagiru held out as long as he could before wavering and falling back into his seat.
He couldn't decide what hurt more. Haru was alone and scared, staring into not just the nightmare of a hostile Yuujin for a second time, but the inevitable aftermath of angry fingers pointed his way. Bad as that was, Mikey dressing him down, grinding him from his equal footing as a legendary hero to a naive child, and Tagiru being unable to muster any sort of response. He wasn't just scared and upset and helpless to stand with his friend. He was right back at the beginning, an over-excited kid desperate to do everything, and unable to do anything.
Ren Tobari clung to the walls of the castle keep, bracing himself for the next round of explosions outside. Almost everyone else stayed downstairs, hoping the order to jump into the battle wouldn't come. But the basement blocked out most of the outside noise, including anything emanating from the fighting. Ren couldn't stand for that. He wanted to know exactly how close the danger was, and how much time he had to react.
Trouble was, he couldn't hear anything upstairs either. After EmperorGreymon's first volleys rattled the building, nothing followed. Just the same anxious silence he would have gotten sheltered downstairs. Even stranger, most of his company could fight. Matt, Sora, and Miki all walked by at some point, none of them rushing outside to join the fight, none with all that much urgency even.
The worry in their voices was the only clue that things were still bad. "So this can infect us now?" Sora asked Matt as they passed. "That's horrible."
Ren squeezed Dracmon's shoulder, staring at the source of the terrifying rumor. He couldn't sit idle. He needed to know when it was over. Or, if it wasn't going to end, he needed to know when to run.
Ryouma reached the top of the nearby staircase, carrying what was left of a case of bottled water. He joined Ren, leaning against the wall and letting out an exasperated sigh before offering one. Ren accepted.
"Everyone downstairs has hydration now. That will cease the panic." Ryouma said, in a haughty tone Ren knew to interpret as sarcasm.
"Any idea what this is about?" asked Ren.
"No." Ryouma frowned. "Something's out there. But if it were a typical attack, more would be fighting, don't you think?"
They let the thought hang until Koji rushed by. He stopped when he saw them. "Why aren't you two downstairs?"
Ryouma smiled and offered his last water. "Beverage?"
Koji grumbled and rushed out the door. Before it closed behind him, Ryouma saw the start of his spirit evolution.
Teeth grinding, Ren muttered, "The hell is happening?"
"I don't know…" Ryouma kept his eyes fixed on the door. "Let's find out."
He led Ren and Dracmon to the corner stairwell, the one spiraling up to the castle walls. The access door was locked.
"If we're really under attack, why aren't we up on the walls?" Ren moaned. "This makes no sense!"
Ryouma smirked and produced a key to unlock it. "Good thing I have privileges."
They rushed up to the north parapet. From a short distance, Yuujin floated towards them, eyes cold, not acknowledging them in any way.
"The hell?" mumbled Ren. "Isn't that the app kid?"
He didn't get an answer. Ren followed Ryouma's eyes below, where EmperorGreymon laid flat on his back, gasping for breath. There was no sign of injury, just pure exhaustion from spending all his energy fighting an unstoppable force.
MagnaGarurumon flew in from the corner, skipping any projectile or sword attacks and driving his entire frame into Yuujin's body. Yuujin fell back maybe a few feet, but resisted and floated lower. The metal wolf served a jet-propelled punch down into Yuujin's head, but it only drove him a few more feet down before Yuujin floated forward again.
"He's invulnerable." Ryouma's eyes widened. "They can't touch him."
Ren's face shriveled in disgust. "They can't kill it, so they're saving their real attacks and just trying to keep him out of the castle." He clucked his tongue. "Smart, I guess."
Rather than engage it head-on, MagnaGarurumon flew a few feet in front of Yuujin and stopped in his path. Whenever Yuujin tried to get around, MagnaGarurumon followed. After repeated attempts, even this robotic Yuujin sneered and muttered, "Move."
"How is that working?" asked Ren. "Doesn't he have-"
He did: Yuujin shot a vine out of his arm, ensnaring MagnaGarurumon's arm cannon and shooting him full of electricity. MagnaGarurumon shook, Koji screaming as he forced himself to withstand the voltage running through him. By the time Yuujin relented, Koji was breathless and reeling, but MagnaGarurumon stood his place.
The ultimate hybrid could not regain his bearings before Yuujin charged and fired his central laser directly into MagnaGarurumon's chest. He sailed backwards, dropping out of the sky and crashing in front of the moat. His form distorted a few times before reverting back to Koji, splayed out on the grass, unconscious.
"Oof." Ren shook his head in disapproval. Ryouma clutched the wall, gritting his teeth. Neither watched Yuujin float up towards them.
"Bastard!" The sight must have given EmperorGreymon a second wind as he charged in and smashed himself into Yuujin, who let the momentum carry him up and over the wall. EmperorGreymon followed.
Below them, Koji hadn't moved. The longer he didn't, the more Ren's eyes widened. Nobody else was in the area. "Is he okay?"
A band of digital data surrounded the body. Ren gasped. He'd seen that a hundred times before. Never for a human. Staggering back, he clutched Ryouma's sleeve. "Uh… I think he might be in trouble."
Ryouma was frozen in place, his wide eyes and heavy breathing revealing a worry Ren didn't think possible from him. Then again, Ren had seen enough in his time here to shatter his own apathy.
With only a quick look back, Ryouma locked his arm under Ren's and threw the both of them atop the embattlement. Another tug sent both sprawling over the castle wall.
"The hell Ryou-!" The moat swallowed Ren's shouting. He somehow splashed in feet first and popped up overwhelmed by both the cold water and getting thrown into it from forty feet above.
Ryouma flopped ashore and crawled to Koji, a trail of water behind him. He knelt over Koji, unresponsive and barely breathing. His body distorted, like skin trying to separate and escape before being pulled back in. Ren arrived and shouted, "Well what do we do? We gotta do something!"
They stared at the blue band surrounding him. Ten figures appeared around it, each a miniature, encased Digimon. They too pulsated, more wildly than Koji himself, all ready to burst into nothingness.
"What are these things?!" Ren cried. "What are we supposed to do with these?"
"Spirits…" Ryouma mumbled in awe. "The Digimon he uses…"
"Yeah, well they're about to blow!"
Ryouma didn't respond. He reached into his pocket. Ren pressed him again, but he didn't listen. He calmly brought out his Fusion Loader, registered the data, and swiped. The ten spirits dissolved at once.
"What the?"
"Digimon captured," Ryouma mumbled.
Koji's body stopped distorting. Ren was still rattled. If falling off the castle wasn't going to kill him, Ryouma loading weird tokens from another universe surrounding a gravely injured person might.
Ryouma didn't stop to admire his spoils. His eyes widened as he sucked in a gasp. Ren saw it too and fell backwards. "Crap!" he shouted.
Koji's shirt stained red over his chest. Ren and Ryouma looked at each other, knowing they had to check but both afraid to do so. Ryouma finally, hesitantly, pulled the shirt up.
A burn the size of Yuujin's laser scarred Koji's entire chest, his skin red and decaying rapidly. Ryouma jumped up to his feet, his hands shaking.
"Come on, we have to help him!" Ren's breaths increased too rapidly, hyperventilating as he staggered through the rest of his words. "I can't watch somebody else die!"
Torajiro Asuka felt Eri's tight grip on his arm as they neared Isthmian. Any second now they would catch sight of Yuujin. Neither knew how they'd react.
"We're in this together, okay?" he reassured her. Both knew what they had to do above everything else. The trick was staying in the right mindset no matter the deterrences.
"Oh no…" Musimon saw him first, a fraction of WereGarurumon's size but the only possible target inside the courtyard. The expressionless face, the armor, and the disregard for any of the attacks hurtled his way sunk both Astra and Eri. Sadness mixed with confusion which mixed with the steady focus on their lone objective. They resolved to complete it more now.
Imperialdramon touched down outside the castle. "You two know what to do," Tai commanded. "I'll get some answers." He rushed across the drawbridge. Meiko tagged along behind him, giving only a brief glance back at Eri.
"We certainly do," Eri growled before she, Astra and their Appmon ran across the drawbridge. Inside, Garudamon had joined the fight, h restrain Yuujin from the sides without getting in front of his laser. They still had to deal with the vines. Astra cringed when he saw the vines.
Dokamon led them to their sole objective: he found Haru, still on his knees, head to the ground, refusing to look up at the carnage. Gatchmon attempted to comfort him while Rei hovered over them, keeping an eye on the battle with a sour face.
Eri and Astra ran to him, both sliding in alongside him, hands on shoulders, trying to read his face. "Haru?" Eri said gently. "You still there?"
"How could this happen?" he whispered. "I took all this out…" He blinked. "I thought I took all this out…"
"Don't. We're going to get through this. All of us." Eri looked up at Rei. "Right?"
"No idea," answered Rei.
"You're not helping."
"We don't have a clue what caused this," said Gatchmon. "How are we supposed to undo it?"
WereGarurumon and Garudamon kept Yuujin pinned against the wall, suffering through a barrage of electricity jolts. Yuujin charged his main laser, scattering them both for a moment, barely dodging the beam as it crossed over everyone's heads and struck the opposite wall.
After catching his breath from that close call, Tai ran up to the appdrivers, Meiko quietly following. "Guys, any time now! It's never gonna hurt less!"
They tuned him out. Astra knew they weren't ready. He could barely stand the sight, much less the idea of having anything to do with killing Yuujin. It was too fast, even for him. Eri draped her hand over Haru's, pressing her forehead against his. They were even further away.
"There has to be something we can do!" Astra said, hoping to spur some productive thought.
"There is!" Tai barked
Eri shot up, glaring fire at him. "Leave us alone!" She returned to Haru before any rebuttal.
Meiko set a hand on Tai's shoulder, but remained silent.
He watched his two friends' Digimon take another round of electrocution, cringing the whole time. Before it was over, he dropped to a knee in front of Haru. "Come on, these are my friends on the line!"
"Hey, Yuujin's our friend, so back off!" Astra shouted back, surprised that he did so. He never got this angry, and he never disrespected his superiors. Yet doing both here came instinctively.
Tai rose, shaking his head in fury. "If something happens to one of those two I swear I'll-"
"Tai, please." This time Meiko stepped in with a gentle rub on the shoulder. Tai stormed off, not far enough away for Eri's liking. She still glared at Meiko, squeezing both Tai's hands and trying to preach calm.
Matt and Sora ran up to them, barely acknowledging the four appdrivers and buddies. "Tai!" Sora shouted. "Say you figured something out."
Tai gestured back at the appdrivers. "I brought these guys but they're not helping," he spat. "Where's Takuya and Koji? Where's Mikey and them?"
"Takuya and Koji are spent," Matt answered. "Mikey's team's on a mission."
"Dammit. What about all the hunters?"
"If we can't touch him, forget about them."
Sora added, "If they all ganged up together it might help. But with so many of them, if he gets his laser off… someone will get hit."
Meiko frowned. "You can't make them risk their Digimon like that." Sora nodded. Tai seethed, but couldn't argue the logic.
Matt turned away from the topic and marched up to Rei. "What about you? Why aren't you fighting? You don't seem like the supportive type." He realized Rei's buddy wasn't even there: the fourth Appmon present was Offmon. "Where's your partner?"
Rei glared back. "Hackmon's getting Maki."
Approaching them, Meiko stared back sourly. "Himekawa? Why?"
"Like he said, I'm not the supportive type." He gestured at Eri and Astra. "I didn't know these two were coming."
The struggle against Yuujin continued, a long string of grappling, with a few ineffective kicks and flame attacks thrown in out of frustration. Yuujin didn't stop trying to get through, charging and firing his laser several times. WereGarurumon and Garudamon got out of the way each time. Some were close calls.
Sora bit her lip. "Can it really get to all of us now? If it got to Yuujin, are any of us safe?"
"No," said Tai. "This is who Yuujin really is." Astra turned away from Haru to sneer. "Algomon brought it out of him, but he was always capable of this."
"How do you mean? He seemed really nice."
"He's an android. Programmed by their enemy to pretend to be Haru's friend." Tai's eyes narrowed. "He fell for it. Again."
Were he more physical, Astra might have had the urge to rush up and throw a punch. All of that was such a lie, or at least so distorted it may as well have been. That friendship was real, and even without having the chance to meet him, Astra trusted this Yuujin had been real too. He couldn't bear to hear it dismissed and discarded so easily.
But reality was what it was, leaving him and his entire team shattered and exhausted. One look at Eri and the way she bit her clenched fist told him she felt the same. If anyone was going to lash out at Tai, it was her. Instead she retreated back to Haru's shoulder. Astra did the same. He couldn't fight Tai. He wasn't about that. That wasn't groovy. All he could do instead was ignore him. None of their Appmon would lay a finger on Yuujin, no matter the stakes. They would stand by their friend and let the world play itself out.
Izzy Izumi sheltered himself inside the castle, retrieving his laptop to pore over any relevant logs. With Tentomon pulling Yuujin's target out of the castle, it was the only way he might have been able to contribute. Once again, the pressure was on to find something useful in this mire of information.
Between the Gizumon code, the space-laden test packets, and the record of the appdrivers' mission against Algomon, he could envision finding an answer to what happened to Yuujin. Izzy cycled through the moment of Algomon injuring Yuujin, trying to determine what data had transferred and if Yuujin's original programming made him either vulnerable or uniquely susceptible. He found most of what he needed to piece together a theory. By filling in a few blanks with his best guesses, anyone would have been satisfied by his findings.
A collision against the courtyard wall rattled the room, disrupting all the optimism Izzy gathered. Yes, he had an educated guess as to how it happened, but nothing to help resolve the situation. His obsession with determining the facts led him to those that were attainable, not the ones he needed.
"So you're hiding too," said Hackmon, standing in the doorway.
"Hackmon… you should probably be outside. I'm sure they need you."
"Rei needs me to fetch friends."
Izzy looked past him to Maki, eyes lost and cast away. "Himekawa… you knew about this?"
"What does it matter now?" she mumbled. "In the end, we still lose them."
"No." He pushed back his chair and popped up, slamming his laptop shut. "We have to save whomever we can."
"Easy for you to say," said Hackmon. "Consider what Gatchmon and I have to do."
"What you…" Izzy knew what Hackmon was alluding to, but his mind processed it differently. Instead, he realized what Hackmon could do. His capabilities offered a whole new opportunity, and perhaps the data he truly needed."
"Yes… I know what you have to do. If Algomon can hack Yuujin… so can we."
Neither Hackmon nor Maki reacted the way Izzy expected. The Appmon remained motionless and said, "Take this up with Rei." Izzy packed his laptop and ran, forcing Hackmon and Maki to keep up.
Outside, as Garudamon started to lose energy, WereGarurumon evolved to Mega to make sure Yuujin didn't break free. Izzy couldn't recognize the guy who helped stop Algomon. Instead he saw an unfeeling cybernetic beast wearing Yuujin's face. The way he pushed back against MetalGarurumon's might unnerved him.
Tai, in the middle of relaying instructions to Agumon, flagged him down. "Izzy, there you are! Got anything?"
"Maybe," he mumbled back, following Hackmon to Rei. Maki didn't move, frozen at the sight of the corrupted Yuujin.
"Himekawa, get back inside!" Matt ordered. She didn't budge.
"Maki, no!" Offmon shouted. She turned around, face sunken, unable to form words. She retreated to the far wall and leaned against it, keeping her distance from everyone.
When he reached Rei, Izzy pulled out his laptop and said, "We could hack into him."
Rei scoffed. "You don't think I thought of that already?"
"What's the problem?"
"Haru: how long did it take to rewrite Yuujin?"
Haru shook his head, shuddering. "Years…" He swallowed. "Years… and it's gone."
"And that's rewriting, not deleting bad code," Rei explained.
Izzy nodded, but said, "Even so, if we could see his code now we might be able to do something."
Rei stared at Haru, on his knees, his head buried. Eri, Astra, and Gatchmon surrounded him, offered comfort, and tried to tune out the horror in front of them. Dokamon, Musimon, and Offmon stood with them, ignoring the reality of the fight. Eri turned around to look back at Rei. He faced Izzy and sighed, holding out his appdrive to summon Revivemon.
"Rei… what are you doing?" Eri asked in a loud mumble. Rei didn't respond.
"Hold him still," Revivemon said to MetalGarurumon. He and Garudamon drove themselves against Yuujin's arms, pinning him to the wall as Revivemon drove his tendrils in. Eri shouted at Rei again, but he let Revivemon proceed undeterred. He pulled back out and retreated back to Rei and Izzy, dodging a laser along the way.
One tendril drove into Izzy's laptop. A folder popped up. "Prodigious. Thank you," said Izzy.
"Agumon Warp Digivolve to… WarGreymon!" He paid no attention to the evolution in front of him.
That said, he did not expect Tai and Meiko to join him so soon after it. "C'mon Izzy, what's going on?" His forceful voice rattled Izzy, fingertips shaking on the keyboard. "Can you figure this out?"
With a deep breath, Izzy launched: "You said Thomas downloaded data on Gizumon a while ago, right?"
"What does that have to do with anything?!" Izzy focused on the code on his screen until Tai took a breath and added, "Yes, why?"
"Henry accessed Yaddith in advance… and Haru accessed Yuujin in advance. That's how Algomon found them."
"So this is Haru's fault…" Tai shot him a stern look. Eri shot one right back. "Dammit."
Stepping in, eyes on both of them, Rei said, "If he had bad Yuujin's code the whole time why didn't he use it before?"
"Did bad Yuujin require some sort of directive to be… bad?" asked Izzy.
Rei didn't miss a beat: "I see. It couldn't be malicious autonomously, so it wasn't useful until Yaddith could be plugged into it."
Izzy nodded along. "He did it while you were fighting him. He replaced the programming Haru had done with the enhanced malicious code."
"All right already!" Tai exclaimed in frustration, head darting between Izzy and Rei. "How does that help us?"
"You asked for an explanation," said Rei.
Tai spun around. "Hey if you want to help, tell your Appmon to get back in there. He can actually do some damage."
"Tai…" Meiko held up a hand.
Izzy spared them from further confrontation, but not pleasantly: "Hmm… this is bad." He saw the problem in the code as soon as he scrolled down.
"What? What am I looking at?" Tai leaned in, frustration boiling into his inability to decipher anything.
Rei clenched his teeth, sucking in air. "Spaces."
"Algomon is inside Yuujin," Izzy added.
"Well, that explains the vines." Accentuating Tai, two flew out of Yuujin's arms, wrapping around MetalGarurumon and Garudamon's legs.
Izzy sensed Rei's deflation, going from frustration at the challenging situation to accepting the obstacle. Algomon's presence made hacking away the bad parts of Yuujin not just unfeasible but impossible. Izzy continued scouring the code, disappointed but still hopeful of finding something to make this easier.
"So… are you going to help us or not?" Tai asked Rei.
His badgering continued, but Izzy tuned it out. He focused on his screen and his something, highlighted and in pristine condition, offering enough relief for a contented exhale. The work continued, fingers dancing over the keys. When a task tripped him up, he stared ahead at the ugliness of the fight in front of him, not the ugliness going on behind him.
When he was satisfied, he saved the file and shouted, "Revivemon! Load this into him!"
Rei turned away from Tai and asked, "What will it do?"
"Enough."
He eyed Tai scrutinizing Izzy, but nodded at his buddy. Revivemon loaded the information from the laptop and shot ahead.
"Hold him down again!" Tai shouted. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon had no trouble with this.
"Wunder Genesis!" Revivemon fired a restorative beam. As it took hold, punctuated with a robotic scream, his tendrils drove into Yuujin's ears.
"Why don't you just revive him back to his good version?!" Eri asked, nearly a shout.
Rei didn't look at her, but replied, "If that was possible it would have worked when he was first infected."
"So why'd you do it now?" asked Tai.
"Restart to apply changes."
Revivemon finished and backed away, just as Yuujin hit his two restrainers with enough electricity to break free and fire a laser. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon were well off to the side and Revivemon drifted away from it.
Garudamon took it head on.
"No…" Sora mumbled, then exploded. "No!" She tried to rush forward, but Matt grabbed her arm. She broke free anyway. Garudamon crashed to the ground, glowed, and reverted back to Biyomon. But before Sora could reach her, she scrambled to her feet and ran, wing-assisted, back to her partner.
Biyomon was beaten and startled, all eyes on her as they waited for the signs. Matt held Sora close, bracing for the inevitable. It never came. Biyomon showed no signs of data disruption or pulsation or any of the dreaded omens. Sora didn't stop crying, huddling in Matt's chest.
Once Tai's heart retreated from his mouth, he mumbled, "She's okay." He turned to Izzy. "That thing hit her and she's okay!"
Izzy fell back against the grass and released a deep sigh. It wasn't his preferred way to test the update, but at least it worked.
Tai narrowed his eyes. "What did you do?"
" Algomon didn't tamper with the supplemental code containing Yaddith and Gizumon's data. I had those from before, so I found what matched and deleted it."
"Izzy that's…" Tai allowed himself grin. "That's what I want to hear! So it can't delete Digimon permanently anymore!"
Popping up again, Izzy answered, "More than that Tai. Without the programming from Yaddith…"
Tai's eyes widened and he turned back to the fight. MetalGarurumon likely didn't know Biyomon was safe or what the hacking did. With a roar, he charged in and slashed at Yuujin's chest, driving him to the ground with a louder, curdling scream. Haru cried out in response.
Yuujin clutched his injury, rolling onto his back, seething. It gave him the perfect view of WarGreymon overhead.
"Terra Force!" The giant fireball smashed into him head-on, incinerating the whole area. When it cleared, only charred, shriveled armor remained.
Tai held a steeled gaze on the wreckage, as did Matt, even as he comforted Sora. Haru bent over, heaving, ready to throw up. Astra and Gatchmon patted his back while Eri kept a murderous stare at WarGreymon. Rei cast his eyes away, finding Maki, still leaning against the wall, glaring at the carnage, tears streaming down.
"What?" Tai spat. Izzy looked up over his laptop to see the armor uncurl and float into the air. Vines poured out of all four limbs, stretching it out to nearly twice its size. Yuujin's head emerged from the top, eyes rolling around its sockets aimlessly before fixing on WarGreymon. His mouth opened and a beam fired. WarGreymon blocked it with his arms but was still knocked back.
After blinking several times in disbelief, Izzy said, "Now we know Algomon's in there… he just will not stay down."
Meiko Mochizuki wanted to cover her eyes and ears until the whole thing passed. She expected it would be painful, but she thought there would be somewhere to turn when it got too intense. Every direction was awful. Ahead of her, the ghastly fusion of Algomon and Yuujin tested two Mega-level Digimon. To her right, Sora still shook after nearly losing Biyomon, Matt offering whatever comfort he could spare while still focusing on the battle. To her left, Haru, Eri, Astra and their buddies sat trapped, forced to watch this nightmare play out while too attached to their friend to do him harm. Beyond them, Maki watched in horror and rage, witnessing the devastation that resulted from playing God.
For all his frustrated outbursts at Izzy or the appdrivers, Meiko could see Tai's command of the situation. WarGreymon dodged several lasers to slash at Yuujin, cutting off most of the vines in his arm. Yuujin howled in pain but leaped away to ensnare him with the rest.
"So how many times do we have to kill him this time?" Tai spat.
Izzy stared at his computer, which offered nothing. "I couldn't tell you."
"Don't tell me we have to knock him out like that time in Haru's world."
Rei raised an eyebrow. "What time in our world?"
Tai recoiled, seething before answering, "Never mind! If you won't help, why are you still here?!"
Meiko jumped between them, setting a hand on Tai's chest. "Tai, please." She decided this was her job. She wanted to be there because she knew emotions would run high. If supporting him involved directing his rage away from the appdrivers and towards something productive, she could handle that.
Once Tai turned away, Izzy spoke meekly: "Uh… to your question… we shouldn't have to worry about that. It may have a copy of Algomon's data, but functionally it's still Yuujin. It's not the real thing, nor is it undead this time."
"So what's the plan then?"
"Well?" Izzy shrugged. "Throw everything you've got at it until it stops moving."
Despite everything, Tai flashed a grin. "I like that plan."
He stepped forward, halfway to Matt and Sora, and called out, "Hey Matt! You as pissed off as I am?"
Matt shot him a hard look. "You bet I am."
Tai held out his digivice. Matt nodded and returned the gesture. Once their eyes locked on each other, their digivices glowed, as did WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.
Behind them, Meiko and Izzy drew in a long breath as they witnessed their fusion, realizing in Omnimon standing tall before them. Yuujin fired a laser at him. It did nothing.
"Supreme Cannon!" Omnimon fired his first attack. Yuujin dove out of the way and launched more vines at his new foe. When Omnimon broke free of them, Yuujin hovered into the air, dodging another round of fire.
"It's definitely not entirely Algomon," said Izzy. "I don't remember him being that nimble."
Still, with Yuujin's attacking power neutralized, Meiko no longer worried about the fight. She stared at Tai, eyes steeled and focused and in control. She didn't worry about him either. Matt and Sora and Izzy were just as calm and focused. The problem would be eliminated in short time.
"Tch," Rei muttered through his teeth. Revivemon reverted back to Hackmon and both of them stormed off. While Hackmon patted Haru's shoulder along the way, Rei passed him wordlessly, slouching against the wall next to Maki.
"Make it stop," Maki growled in a low voice, her mouth barely open. Rei shook his head. Her hand curled into a fist.
Meiko's eyes lingered in that direction too long. Away from the signs of assured victory, Haru stared up at Omnimon pounding Yuujin into submission. He felt every shot that landed on Yuujin, wincing and whimpering with every one, each sinking him deeper into the ground.
"Haru… uh, maybe you shouldn't watch this," Astra suggested, nervously touching Haru's arm.
"Yuujin… please…" Haru squeaked. Pushing up off the ground, he screamed, "Yuujin!"
Eri squeezed him as he fell again, her face a mess of tears. Dokamon did everything he could to keep her upright even as she put her all into supporting Haru. Meiko tried to look away from her closest confidante, her friend, the center of the universe… she tried not to sympathize.
An explosion snapped her back to the fight. Yuujin had fallen, leaning against the stone wall, panting, eyes still lost and wandering in Omnimon's shadow. When Meiko lowered her head, she heard a low beep on her. Her digivice glowed. Now her own tears fell. They came with a smile.
"Tai!" She ran up to him. He flinched, but returned his focus back to Omnimon. "Tai… please…" She gulped and presented her digivice. "Let me help."
Tai sneered. "How?" He shook his head, never looking back. "Stand back. We're ending this."
With a choking gasp, her face tensed and lightheadedness took over when she stumbled backwards. She didn't hear Omnimon's sword descend, or his charge, or his shout of "Transcendent Sword!"
Meiko did see it pierce Yuujin's face, and heard the loudest scream yet from Haru. Yuujin's eyes locked onto his friend, even with the blade between them. Omnimon pulled it out and Yuujin fell forward, his vines receding back into his armor through several raspy wails. He writhed on the ground, still yelling in pain. Yuujin found Haru one last time, trying and failing to mouth something before his data disintegrated and drifted into the air.
On one side of the courtyard sat nothing but grief. Haru hunched over, head in the ground, his body shaking with every breath. Eri and Astra had let go of all but a hand on his back, resigned to their own tears. Gatchmon needed to offer as much comfort to Offmon as he did to Haru. Beyond them, Maki, clenched fist and all, buried her head into Rei's arm. He glared at Omnimon as he split back into their In-Training forms and hopped back to their partners.
On the other side, Tai rushed out to greet Koromon, a relieved smile forming as he welcomed a conquering a hero into his arms. "I wasn't sure I still had that in me!" Koromon exclaimed.
"Me either!" Tai turned to Matt. Despite the arm around Sora's waist and Tsunomon's return, his eyes focused on Tai.
With the same grin, Tai approached him. "All these years and we still got it, huh?" Matt hesitated for a moment, but out popped his smile. He held out a hand. Tai slapped it.
Sora let out a deep, relieved breath, drawing Matt's attention. He rubbed her shoulder with his free hand.
"Uh…" Tai pointed at them.
Both their partners waved him off, Biyomon shaking her head and crossing her wings, Tsunomon closing his eyes and bounced up to say, "You don't want to get into it."
Heeding the warning, Tai backed off to find Izzy closing his laptop, his head down. "So… um…" Tai began.
"I'm sorry, Tai." Izzy stared at his closed computer. "I thought they took care of him in the network. I didn't expect him to have one last trick."
"Izzy…" Tai wasn't angry. He was humbled. "You killed the most dangerous thing about him. You made it so we could get to him… you saved the day." He sighed. "You came through… like you always do."
Izzy opened his mouth, stunned and eyes starting to water. When words failed to come out, he nodded repeatedly and managed to eek out a "thank you."
"I, uh… miss that. We should… catch up sometime." Tai shrugged. "You know…"
Head down, Izzy replied, "I would like that."
With a pat on the shoulder, Tai moved on to Meiko. The moment had defeated her. She crouched on the ground, clutching her head. Too much violence and too much suffering could have done it to anyone. For Meiko, the dots connected and she became too aware of what had happened. With one word, it became personal. It became unacceptable.
"Yeah… that wasn't pleasant," Tai said. "It's okay now."
When he set a hand on her shoulder, she whispered back, "Don't touch me."
His hand pulled back. "Uh… what?"
She popped upright, staring him down through a tear-streamed face. "Get away from me," she spat, marching off without an explanation.
Meiko loved Tai because he kept her alive. Not just with the obvious, direct acts, but in the mutual understanding of what needed to happen to her partner, and in the magic allowing it to be as painless as it could have been. Meicoomon's suffering nearly destroyed Meiko; the way she died spared her. Meiko had no idea if the situation was so hopeless Yuujin's death was the only answer. But when her digivice glowed she knew he could have found peace one last time. Tai denied him that.
She broke towards Haru. Everything was clear now, and she realized why his pain unsettled her so much. It was hers too, and the only way to release it was to share it.
Dropping to her knees in front of him, she lifted him up by the shoulders. He shook his head, a bit lip whimpering, "It's… this is all my fault, isn't it?"
On impulse, Meiko bound forward, drawing him in close and squeezing him as tight as she could. "Don't say that," she sobbed. "It doesn't help."
Somehow it relieved her to cry with him, to take some of that pain off his shoulders and allow herself to feel it with full intensity.
When she opened her eyes, she found Eri staring back. "Eri…" she said, sniffling. "I'm so sorry."
Eri's tears flowed even stronger, but she whispered back, "Thank you," before she wrapped her arms around both Meiko and Haru. Meiko allowed herself a calming breath. As terrible as the day had been, and how unconditionally bad it would stay for those around her, she couldn't remember the last time she felt so at peace with herself.
Next Time on Nexusworld- Episode 21: "Stand Up"
In this episode, Meiko finds it hard to help the appdrivers cope with their loss. The mountain team is ambushed just as Tagiru makes a startling discovery. Koji's injuries force Joe to go beyond his depths to save him.
"If that had been me I wouldn't have survived."
Author's Notes
Yuujin's form was a tricky thing to navigate, since he doesn't have too many abilities in Appmon originally beyond his lightning and levitation. Gizumon supplements the big laser that comes out of the chest and Algomon takes care of the vines, along with most of his mentality after WarGreymon knocks him out the first time. Without those additions he probably isn't all that threatening at all.
It might take a couple chapters, but we will swing back to Ryo dealing with losing Cyberdramon. There are just a few things we need to take care of in the immediate aftermath of Yuujin's death.
Kudamon being upset that Eri doesn't think he knows about fighting his friends is somehow the second reference to his fight with Gallantmon, after the one in chapter 14.
Re:Arise in Japan recently had an event featuring the four Harmonious Ones that presented their full evolution lines. Since Baihumon's featured both Bearmon and LoaderLiomon, it's safe to consider that tri. compliant, so we can now name the other three original Rookies: Kamemon, Muchomon, and Elecmon Black.
While the Ryouma/Koji stuff has been teased here and there throughout the story, it was only this chapter that I realized the Hunters/Frontier link with the digital bands. It's a nice happy accident that helps tie that subplot together.
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