Chapter 33 – The truth
"Digimental of friendship, up!" exclaimed Davis.
"Veemon armour-digivolve to... Raidramon!"
"Hawkmon digivolve to... Aquilamon!"
A day had passed since UlforceVeedramon was killed. The three in-training Digimon had just regained enough energy to at least digivolve to their adult-levels. This allowed the group to move faster with the help of Raidramon and Aquilamon.
"Good!" said Yolei, "Now we can travel faster!"
"I'm so glad, Raidramon, that you're so fast!" smiled the red-brown-haired man.
"Y-yes..." he said with little vigour.
"Is there something bothering you, Raidramon?" asked Wormmon.
"It's... it's nothing," he looked to the side, biting his teeth together.
There were two questions in him. He had asked himself one question so many times. Why couldn't he digivolve normally anymore? Why? It didn't make sense. Now that Wormmon, Armadillomon, and Hawkmon have been able to digivolve to their ultimate-level, the jealousy in him only ignited more. The black armoured dog wondered if it still made sense to fight. He was just a burden to everyone.
The other question that burned in him was why UlforceVeedramon was so easily killed. Raidramon had heard it. The blue knight did not want and could no longer serve King Drasil. He knew that, but why did UlforceVeedramon no longer want to serve him? Perhaps he had considered King Drasil to be flawed? The black-armoured dog would probably never know the answer to this question.
"Okay," Armadillomon replied simply, "But if there's something, you can tell us."
"Exactly!" the eagle agreed: "We are here for you, Raidramon."
"Thank you... but-" Raidramon said.
"Come one!" Davis cried euphorically: "We should finally move on."
"Davis!" his partner growled angrily: "You idiot! Don't you understand what position I'm in right now?!"
"Raidramon..." his eyes widened with horror.
The red-brown-haired man had not expected such an answer. The eyes of the black-armoured dog also widened. He hadn't even noticed that he had pronounced the sentence out loud.
"I... I..." Raidramon stuttered: "I am... You're an idiot, Davis! You can't even imagine what it's like to be powerless! Do you think it's easy watching the others have all the work while I'm just standing there and can't do anything?! But you think it's easy!"
"Rai... dramon..." Davis said depressed: "I didn't want to... I thought..."
"Just keep looking for excuses, Davis! I'm just a burden to everyone! Talk about how great it is to be able to digivolve to the ultimate-level! Praise yourself for being able to do it and ignore me! I don't care! I'm useless! Useless!"
Upset, the black-armoured dog let go a growl. Without warning, he squealed between Davis and Ken and just ran further out into the steppe.
"Raidramon! Wait!" his partner shouted after him.
"I'll take care of it," Wormmon said: "Wormmon warp-digivolve... BanchoStingmon! Don't worry. I'm going to catch up with him.!
"Please hurry up," Cody asked, "We don't know if we're being attacked by other Royal Knights."
"Cody is right. Please hurry up, BanchoStingmon," Ken said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"I will." the insect man nodded to the DigiDestined and the partners before rushing behind Raidramon.
Davis sighed heavily and rubbed his left hand over his eyes.
"Davis..." Cody said, somewhat insecurely.
"Raidramon never said anything like that to me." he said.
"He's just upset because he can't digivolve and our partners have reached their ultimate-levels in front of his own eyes," Ken said, putting his hand on his friend's shoulder.
"But that's no reason for him to shout at Davis like that," Yolei sighed.
"No." Aquilamon agreed.
"How about if we don't talk about it before him..." suggested Armadillomon.
"How do you mean that?" asked the red-brown-haired man.
"Davis... Sometimes I wonder if you're just doing so stupid or really stupid." the boy folded his arms in front of his chest: "Armadillomon means that we don't talk about our partners being able to digitize to their perfect- or ultimate-level."
"I'm not stupid, Cody!" Davis exclaimed angrily: "You and Armadillomon just take extremely complicated things into a single sentence!"
"Hey, hey, hey, hey," the young woman tried to calm the situation: "It doesn't get us any further. We want to help Raidramon..."
"That's why we shouldn't argue," continued BanchoStingmon's partner: "Raidramon is not doing well... He feels more and more useless, which I can understand."
"I think Armadillomon's suggestion is actually good... Let's stop talking about being able to digivolve to our perfect- and ultimate-level," the eagle said.
"But it's only going to work a little bit..." Cody sigehd: "Raidramon will see that our partners will digivolve to the said levels..."
"Hm... That's right..." Davis sighed resignedly.
"Maybe you should talk to Raidramon about it intensively," the young woman suggested: "I mean. This will help and-"
"You should finally tell your parents and sister that you are a DigiDestined," Aquilamon Yolei interrupted.
"This... if it helps Raidramon." the red-brown-haired man looked to the ground.
"It's going to help him, Davis," Ken said.
"Yes... Thank you."
BanchoStingmon hurried after Raidramon at high speed. He already had a huge advantage. Nevertheless, BanchoStingmon was faster. After just over a minute, he had already caught up with the black-armoured dog and stood in front of him, so that he came to a stop.
"Leave me alone!" growled Raidramon.
"Calm down," said the insect man: "What was this supposed to be?"
"What's wrong with you?!" he slammed his left front paw into the ground.
"Raidramon..." he knelt down to him: "Are you jealous of us? Because we can digivolve to our ultimate-level?"
"Yes!" his left front paw hit the ground again.
"At some point you will be able to digivolve normally again."
"At some point is not now!"
"Trust yourself and Davis, you'll get stronger!"
The black-armoured dog laughed dryly.
"Trust me and Davis?!" he shouted, "Did this trust make me stronger?! Can I digivolve to the ultimate-level like you?! No, I can't! So, where is your explanation, why can't I digivolve normally?!"
"You collect ener-"
"Don't come to me with a guess from Izzy!" he growled.
"Raidramon!" BanchoStingmon slowly became angry, but still tried to stay calm, but he didn't like how his friend yelled at him.
"What?! Oh, I know! You just want to oppress me because I can't digivolve!"
"That's not true! Don't you remember how we fused? We just had a goal!"
"Are you kidding me?!" screamed Raidramon: "Just because we could fuse, you mean that you can understand how I feel! For your information, I feel useless and weak! How am I supposed to protect Davis?! I don't want it to happen again."
"You mean the matter with Alphamon and that we were controlled by him."
"No." he shook his head: "I mean the thing that we allowed our partners to be kidnapped by him!"
"Alphamon is a Royal Knight... We wouldn't have had a chance against him."
"But now you have one, because you can digivolve to your ultimate-level. You are stronger than ever... And what about me? I can only digivolve to my rookie-level... I... I am useless. Come on. Don't hold back! Laugh at me!", the black-armoured dog closed his eyes, had trouble suppressing his anger even longer.
"I will never laugh at you, Raidramon."
"Do it!" he asked him: "Do it! I'm useless! You want it! Come on, laugh at me, BanchoStingmon!"
"I-"
"No excuse! Laugh at me!"
Angry, Raidramon again hit his left front paw on the ground. A small crater was created under the paw and a tremor. The insect man looked at the crater in horror. He had not guessed with such force. Even Raidramon reacted in shock.
"What did I-?!" Davis's partner, terrified, said, "How?! What?! Where did this strength-?!"
Visibly confused, he looked up to BanchoStingmon, then back to the crater.
"We... should go back to the others..." said the insect man after he had caught himself.
"Why?" asked Raidramon.
"We or they could be attacked by one or more Royal Knights," he said, "it would be better if we stayed together."
"I see.", the black-armoured dog sighed and closed his eyes.
He took a deep breath and wanted to apologize to his friend. But he knew BanchoStingmon had already forgiven him because the insect man was very understanding. Raidramon nodded to BanchoStingmon before both went back to the others. When the two reached out to their friends, Davis looked seriously at his partner.
"Man, Raidramon... What do you do for things?" he asked.
"I-" he began.
Suddenly the bush nearby rustled. Yolei left a scream in horror and jumped a metre back, hitting Aquilamon. Cody's face also showed shock. Armadillomon growled a bit while BanchoStingmon summoned his drones. The red-brown-haired man and Ken looked excitedly at the bush, while Raidramon was ready to attack the stranger. You could feel the tension of the group. No matter what came, it was certainly not friendly.
A Digimon with purple fur finally emerged from the bushes. Dorumon looked back and forth between the four humans and Digimon in amazement. He tilted his head to the left with a questioning gaze. Audibly, everyone breathed a sigh. It was just the purple Digimon.
"Wasn't here a forest?" asked Dorumon, astonished, scratching his head with one of his claws.
"We... We don't know," Aquilamon said after he pulled himself together.
"Really not?"
"Really not," Davis said, smiling slightly.
"Hm... What am I doing now?" the purple Digimon pondered briefly.
"You could come with us," Cody suggested.
"Yes. We are currently looking for a way back into the human world," Armadillomon said.
"Hm... Sounds good..." Dorumon replied thoughtfully, before nodding decisively: "Okay! I will follow you! Wherever you go! Perhaps a distortion will catch us that bring us back into the human world!"
"You don't believe that, don't you?" asked Raidramon.
"Exactly!" the purple Digimon laughed embarrassedly.
"In this case," BanchoStingmon said, before being enveloped by a light.
A short time later, Minomon showed up.
"Man...", somewhat offended, the in-training digimon looked at his partner: "I thought I could-"
"Minomon," Ken whispered to him, "We haven't agreed to talk about your perfect- and ultimate-levels before Raidramon. So please do it too, okay?"
"Okay..." Minomon muttered.
Raidramon also wrapped himself in a light and turned back to Veemon. Davis wanted to go to him and kneel down, but the blue dragon backed in front of him. Dorumon observed this with an expressionless face. He himself remained silent and dispelled a stupid thought before smiling:
"So... Do we want to leave now?"
"Where do we go?" asked Armadillomon.
"I don't know... But I want to see a certain place!"
"What place?" was Yolei's question.
She was really curious about Dorumon.
"Um... There is such a strange object in the place..." he tried to remember what it looked like.
"Strange object?" Ken repeated somewhat astonished.
"What strange object?" asked Davis.
"Well... The object was gigantic with tubes on top and... Um... the object is drifting on the water?" the purple Digimon tried to describe the object.
"You mean a ship?" was Aquilamon's question.
"Yes! Exactly! A ship! So it's like that!" smiled Dorumon: "Can you get me there? I mean... the area is very icy..."
"Sure!" the boy said, smiling: "It's best to take Ornithmon for it, right?"
"Yes..." Minomon confirmed.
"Good idea," Armadillomon agreed.
"What are we waiting for?" smiled Davis euphorically.
"Just that Aquilamon is doing a warp digitation," Ken replied.
"Okay, okay... Aquilamon warp-digivolve to... Ornithmon! Everyone hop on!" he couldn't stop laughing.
When everyone had climbed on top of him, the bird flapped with its large wings and rose high into the air.
"Since when can Aquilamon digivolve to its ultimate-level?" asked Dorumon.
"Only since yesterday," Yolei replied proudly.
Veemon clenched his hands to fists. Again, this issue came up. Cody looked angrily at the young woman. Didn't they talk a few minutes ago about not talking about their partner's perfect- and ultimate-levels anymore?
"Davis..." the blue dragon spoke softly, so that the others could not hear him.
"Sorry," he said, looking at him apologetically.
Veemon shook his head and sighed heavily.
"Hey..." Davis tried to cheer him up: "Cheer up."
"I know," he sighed heavily.
"What is it all about?" Dorumon suddenly asked.
"Huh?" this had surprised the red-brown-haired man.
"As you know, Dorumon... I can't digivolve normally anymore," Veemon said.
"That's... I'm sorry," the purple Digimon looked down on the back of Ornithmon: "You really can't digivolve normally anymore."
"No, no. It's okay," Veemon replied: "Izzy said I collect energy... I don't know if it's true, but it would explain my current state."
"I see... And when will it happen?"
"We don't know," Davis replied instead of his partner.
"But I hope soon!" cried the blue dragon.
The other DigiDestined and their partners looked at the three tacitly. Then they turned to a personal conversation again.
"I hope too!" smiled the purple Digimon: "What will your ultimate-level look like?"
"We don't know that either," the red-brown-haired man replied slightly annoyed, rolling his eyes.
"Hm... Maybe I will digivolve to... an ultra-cool Digimon that is even stronger than Seraphimon!" said Veemon euphorically.
"Like MegaAngemon!" joked Davis.
"We both know it's never going to happen," he slightly thrust his elbow into Davis' side.
"I want you to reach your ultimate-level really soon. I'd love to fight it," Dorumon said.
"Really?" the blue dragon sounded astonished.
"Why not!" the purple Digimon waved his tail slightly: "Of course only if you're new digivolution turns out to be an ultimate-level… But I honestly don't think your new digivolution will be a ultimate-level digimon."
"I'll show you! Guaranteed I will be an ultimate-level digimon!" exclaimed Veemon upset.
The purple Digimon laughed brightly. Basically, he didn't laugh at him, but he laughed because he wanted to encourage the blue dragon. But this backfired. Veemon growled insulted and turned his back on the red dragon.
"Oh come on. Are you offended now?" asked Dorumon.
"Yes," replied the blue dragon.
"I think he just wanted to encourage you, Veemon," Davis said.
"That's what I wanted!" the red dragon confirmed the words.
Suddenly Cody had to sneeze.
"Brr... It's cold..." the boy rubbed over his upper arms.
"Are we already there?" was the astonished question of the red-brown-haired man.
"Not quite yet. But I can see a ship in the distance," Ornithmon said.
Like Phoenixmon, he had sharp eyes. It occurred to the bird that he should fight against the phoenix. They were both Digimon, who resembled a bird. Although... Phoenixmon would have an advantage. She had already reached her ultimate-level just over a year ago. He has only been fighting UlforceVeedramon since yesterday.
"Great!" Yolei rejoiced: "Then you can rest."
"Yes... It's hard to keep my ultimate-level," Ornithmon said.
"I can understand," Armadillomon said: "It's also difficult. You use a lot more energy than usual."
"Ask me what it will be like in the real world... Are we going to be exhausted even more quickly?" asked Minomon.
"We don't know that until we're back in our world," Ken said.
"But I think your energy consumption will be the same." Cody said.
"Good!" the bird shouted, "I land now!"
Ornithmon flapped vigorously with his two wings and tried to land on the ship that was swimming on a lake. However, when his claws touched the terrain, the means of transport began to tilt to the side, forcing him to land elsewhere. But as soon as he wanted to fly up, he turned back to Poromon, causing everyone to fall on on the deck of the ship. Half swearing, Davis straightened up and rubbed his hip.
"Man... Couldn't you have turned back into Poromon a little later?" he complained.
"Sorry. I couldn't keep my ultimate-level," the in-training digimon apologized.
"Look at it positively, Davis," Yolei replied, "We didn't end up in the water."
"Brr... The very thought makes me freeze more," Cody said.
"Yes..." Armadillomon agreed with him: "I would have sunk like a stone."
"You have an armor-digivolution that can swim," Veemon recalled.
"Uh..." the armadillo looked to the ground and scratched it with his foot.
"We can't do armour-digivoltuion since we are able to digivolve to our perfect-level," Poromon said.
"What?!" the red-brown-haired man said in horror.
"Yes..." Minomon confirmed: "We can't do armour-digivolution anymore."
"And?" asked Dorumon, "Perfect-levels are stronger than an armour-digivolution, or am I wrong?"
"No, you're not wrong... But our partners are losing some useful skills," said the young woman: "For example, my partner could become a ninja and jump meter high."
"Or just that Armadillomon could swim because of an armour-digivolution," Cody added.
"Hm... that's bad again," said the purple Digimon.
"I don't mind," Armadillomon replied: "Sure. I think it's a pity I can't swim anymore, but I've become stronger and can protect Cody better."
"That's good again. It's always good to be able to protect those you want to protect," Dorumon smiled.
The group talked for a while until night. Then they went into the ship. But soon after, the purple Digimon came out again and watched the stars. In his eyes lay a longing look, while he sighed several times. Veemon, who couldn't sleep himself, also went out. He himself seemed a little depressed and at first did not notice Dorumon at all. It was only when he called him that he noticed his existence and joined him.
"Can't you sleep?" the purple Digimon asked him.
"Yes..." replied the blue dragon.
"Hey... I know you're in a conflict, but you should never forget that you have friends who support you."
"That's right..." he took a short break: "Say... Can you create distortions?"
"Where does that come from?"
"I'm only surprised all the time that you've gotten into a distortion in the human world... Normally, distortions do not seem to be so convenient."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm just surprised..."
Dorumon remained silent and looked at the water of the lake. The waves gently hit the ship and rocked it like that. The purple Digimon sighed and gazed into Veemon's brown eyes. He was exposed to serious eyes, which somehow appeared familiar to the blue dragon.
"Are you..." he broke off.
How did he suddenly come up with this idea?
"Who am I? Do you want to know?" asked Dorumon in a serious voice.
"No... I only briefly thought that your expression, if you look or speak seriously, seems familiar to me..." his gaze turned to the side, then again into the eyes of his counterpart.
"Veemon... I-"
A green laser raced towards the ship from the other end of the lake and struck the side. The means of transport threatened to overturn, while the purple Digimon and Veemon tried to hold on to the parapet. Luckily, the ship did not tip.
"What was that?!" the blue dragon said in horror.
Davis and his friends came to the deck and Yolei asked:
"What's going on?!"
"Someone attacked the ship," Veemon said.
Dorumon, meanwhile, began to growl. His entire body was tense as he looked at the other end of the lake with his eyes narrowed. At fast speed, a Digimon raced towards the ship. At first, the group could not identify who exactly it was. But as the stranger approached, they recognized him.
"Alphamon?!" Cody said, terrified.
"Damn!" shouted the red-brown-haired man.
"We have to land. It's too insecure here," Ken said, and began to run, closely followed by Wormmon.
The other DigiDestined, their partners and Dorumon also rushed ashore and into an icy valley. Basically, it was exactly the same valley where Gennai attacked the other DigiDestined with a Machinedramon and where Biyomon and Patamon reached their ultimate-level.
As the group tried to run up a path, Alphamon raced over their heads and landed on the ground, blocking their path. Then the black knight pointed his right palm on a rock and fired a green laser.
The rock broke and rocks crashed to the ground with a loud noise. Now the only escape route was blocked. With his teeth gnashing, Davis looked behind him, then to Veemon.
"Digimental of courage, up!" shouted the red-brown-haired man.
"Veemon armour-digivolve to... Flamedramon!"
"We should digivolve to our perfect-levels!" suggested Wormmon.
"Okay!" replied Armadillomon.
"This time we're not going to lose so easily!" Hawkmon said.
"Wormmon warp-digivolve to... BanchoStingmon!"
"Armadillomon warp-digivolve to... Spinomon!"
"Hawkmon warp-digivolve to... Ornithmon!"
"Let's go!" said BanchoStingmon, rushing to Alphamon, while Ornithmon rose into the air and Spinomon stood protectively in front of the DigiDestined.
Flamedramon himself walked in front of the dinosaur, spreading his claws on his left hand. Even if he was just an armour-Digimon right now, he would protect Davis.
"Do you really think you can defeat me, DigiDestined?" the black knight asked mockingly, before grabbing BanchoStingmon by the neck and hurling him against the ice wall.
Then he saw Dorumon:
"My, I knew there was another copy of me somewhere."
"Copy?!" the bird repeated in disbelief.
"That's why... I thought Dorumon was Alphamon..." the flame dragon said: "But it wasn't like that. He's a copy of him."
The purple Digimon closed his eyes and sighed heavily.
"That's a lie!" exclaimed Davis angrily: "Dorumon is not a copy! He's our friend!"
"He's a copy of me." Alphamon continued.
"He isn't!" Ken argued, "If he was a copy of you, he wouldn't have helped us!"
"That's why he wants to stop me," the black knight replied: "We can influence each other. For a copy, he got an incredible amount of power over me. He prevented me from carrying out my plans a few times... Through him, I have tried to spread mistrust among humans and their partners. Every time one of us gets a headache, the other has tried to take over the body for a short time. Which, by the way, had only worked twice, back then in Eldoradimon and in another incident."
"Tai had told us about it..." Cody raved when he recalled.
"However, I'm going to erase my copy now so I'm not bothered by it anymore."
Spinomon growled furiously and raced towards him despite the warning from Flamedramon. Alphamon jumped to the side and slammed his knee into the side of the dinosaur, causing him to fall to the side. The flame dragon had to swallow heavily.
Ornithmon rushed to the black knight and wanted to chase his claws into him. But he, too, was defeated by the black knight. He had fired a green laser at him, causing the bird to slam to the ground and leave him lying motionless.
"Even if your partners had reached the ultimate-level... They're still too weak," Alphamon said, pointing his palm at the group.
"I'm not your copy!" Dorumon suddenly shouted, "I was never your copy! I'm a completely different Digimon! I don't even know you!"
The purple Digimon hoped that he could convince the DigiDestined that he was not a copy.
"Do you really think that's true, copy?" the black knight asked him.
"I'm not your copy! Please, you must believe me!" cried Dorumon.
But the DigiDestined doubted him. What Alphamon said sounded far more credible than what the purple Digimon said. The black knight pointed his left palm at the group. Dorumon briefly closed his eyes before opening them again. The eyes flashed briefly in a red colour. Then he bit his left arm vigorously. Alphamon shrugged and lowered his arm.
"You… are his copy," Davis quipped.
"Well, yeah. I'm his copy!" the purple Digimon exclaimed: "Flamedramon! Kill me! I have a stable connection to Alphamon, if you kill me, you will kill him too."
"Do you really think the connection is so stable?" the black knight questioned, stomping his foot to the ground.
"What?!" Dorumon's eyes widened: "How? The connection is gone?!"
"How naive" Alphamon laughed, before his arm rushed to his copy.
He grabbed him and slammed him against the ice wall. The purple Digimon coughed for air as it was completely squeezed out of his lungs.
"Alpha... mon...", Dorumon panted angrily: "I..."
"Flamedramon! You can move! Do something!" shouted Cody.
"No... I..." he shook his head.
He was far too weak to help the purple Digimon who struggled to get free.
"Farewell, my last copy." Alphamon shot a green laser at Dorumon, who screamed briefly before turning into data.
With a sinister laugh, the black knight absorbed the data. He then sighed relaxed before turning to the DigiDestined and Flamedramon.
"Dorumon..." the young woman extoled as she held her hands in front of her mouth.
"Last time my copy saved you... This time, however..." he raised his hand and fired a laser at the flame dragon.
Flamedramon broke with his back through the rock blockage and stayed near the lake before returning to Veemon. Davis ran furiously towards Alphamon. He knew he didn't have a chance, but he didn't just want to stand idly by. The black knight laughed briefly and fired another laser. This time towards the red-brown-haired. Davis was thrown several feet into the lake. It had been foolish of him. He had not lost consciousness as a result of the attack, but he noticed that he could no longer move his body due to the pain. The red-brown-haired man felt the water enveloping his body. He wanted to swim to get to the surface, but because of the pain he couldn't.
"DAVIS!" Veemon screamed, jumping into the lake.