I don't own digimon.
Story 41
Is this the real life?
Clockmon wanted to believe that this was in some way real. That when he crossed over, he would not be met by fire and destruction of a threat allowed to run free. Instead, he would find a regular city with regular people. But how could he be completely certain this wasn't some kind of strange dream brought on by way of some rogue digimon? The answer to the question eluded him at every turn.
"This is the last time I'll get to see all of you, my pretties." Clockmon told himself as he stared over the various subdials and other timekeeping devices that awaited digimon to come and claim them. Not that business was really the definition of 'booming'. Or whatever the younger digimon were saying these days. "Now, let's see if I can get you done before the forces to be whisk me off to the Human World."
Staring down at his table, Clockmon was met with a circular alarm clock. Relatively plain when it came to the outer shell, his focus was on the front of the device. Decorated with a bunch of girls in bright colorful outfits, the clock digimon could only assume them to be witches. A set of black clock hands remained in place, unable to count nor tell time here. The background was made up of flowers, not that Clockmon really recognized any of the ones put in here. Heck, this wasn't even Quincy's to begin with. No, the blasted thing just showed up one day on his desk without any warning. No sign of the customer or really an explanation for why this clock was so important to begin with. Efen the other digimon who came in to have their timepieces fixed and/or checked could not place anyone owning the device. Let alone the characters on the front. Heck, there wasn't even some kind of maker mark to denote who had made it. Probably to add further insult to injury, no doubt. Why else would someone go through the trouble of this. Other than to fuck with him? It made zero sense.
Nonetheless, Clockmon reached to his right and grabbed a very skinny rod. Setting the clock down with the front taking the bottom, he got to unscrewing the posts holding the back in. Relatively simple work, Clockmon did his best to remain focused on the task at hand. He had done this his entire life. Heck, there had been a couple times the clock digimon had done it in his sleep. Not intentionally, of course. Moving to the next screw, all it took was a few turns. Then why did he feel the strangest case of deja vu. Try as Clockmon might to shake it out. The roots of it in his mind spread before he had a chance to fight it off. It could stay for now. But at the first chance, he was going to slice right through and get to the bottom of this. Especially as he moved to the third screw. Met with some resistance, that didn't stop the clock digimon from powering through to pull it out. Once he had, all it took was a touch of pressure to slide the back off. Instead of being met with the internals of the clock, Clockmon found himself staring at a folded piece of paper. Carefully pulling it out, he set it off to the side and turned his attention back to the clock. With the paper now removed, the sound of ticking echoing forth from the device filled his ears.
"That's it?" Clockmon whispered and stared at the back. If the only thing that was stopping the clock from working was a piece of folded paper, why hadn't it been dislodged from all the times he had moved it about his shop to make space for other projects? Defied all sense and logic here, especially ahead of his return to the Human World. Maybe Quincy would get a kick out of this. Part of him wanted to say yes, but the number of years that had passed made answering that question an absolute challenge. If nothing else, perhaps his partner knew someone that could get some use from this alarm clock.
Sliding the back plate on and screwing it back into place, Clockmon found his thoughts fixated on the note. What could possibly be so important that they needed to go through the trouble of hiding it in a clock of all objects? Especially since it made it pretty obvious that something was wrong with the clock.
"I guess a little look wouldn't hurt." the clock digimon thought and scooped the note up. Taking the time to unfold it, the deja vu from earlier intensified. Raising a hand to his forehead, pain pounded about within. Doing his best to ignore it, he shifted his attention back down to the note.
To the person who may discover this note,
I am sorry that this was the only way that I could get this message out. Things are not looking so good. The human world is on the precipice and there is nothing that can be done to prevent it from tipping into ruin. By the time you discover this, it's possibly too late to do anything to stop it, let alone delay the inevitable. Do not fear them. While they are unlike the digimon they have our best interests in mind
-A guardian angel
Setting the note down, Clockmon took a moment to examine his workshop walls. Part of him had hoped that the paper within would provide some kind of answer to the questions throughout his mind. Now, he was faced with even more questions. Questions that didn't have the easiest answers to find. Especially once he was whisked away from this place. If anything, it was probably best to hold onto this and the clock. Just to be on the safe side. Reaching out to the clock, he carefully grabbed hold. Getting pulled up towards the ceiling, Clockmon didn't even look to the possible portal above him. No, his work was very much done here and he should take a moment to savor it. Far too few digimon in the digital world quite had the appreciation for mechanical devices. Which made places like his the last bastions for those folks. Clockmon liked to think he managed to make a dent in all those requests, but the truth likely didn't even come close. He was sure of it. But there was little use in fixating on those regrets. No, the only thing that would do was stop him from focusing on what actually mattered here - getting back to Quincy and getting to the bottom of this strange message he had found in this clock. Preferably in that order. As long as the first objective was completed, the clock digimon could let the other objective go. Even if it turned out the answer was something along the lines of some children playing a game among each oth-
Clockmon didn't finish that thought, the portal making quick work as everything went dark.
.
On the other side, Clockmon found himself standing in a forest. Part of him wanted to believe that this was a place that he and Quincy had spent time in, but something about it felt off. Kind of like the deja vu that had come over him in regards to that alarm clock. Staring to the hand clinging to the alarm clock, he found the device still there. Still nowhere close to the right time, that could be fixed later.
"Phew." Clockmon thought and examined the frees. Relatively light wood, they were a far cry from the massive 'hiding trees' one could occasionally find in the digital world. Not that they were really that much help. If anything, that just made it easier for the more aggressive digimon to get their prey. But he pushed that thought away. The odds of being attacked in the Human World were awfully slim. Still would be a good idea to get out of here.
Slowly weaving through the trees and grasses, the clock digimon took the time to search for any sign of civilization. But as he looked, the deja vu from before threatened to rear its ugly heads once more. Couldn't the forces to be just leave him alone for a little bit longer? Maybe once he had found Quincy and could ask him a bunch of questions. Yeah, that sounded best. Not that he would get that luxury. Instead, the feeling would taunt and tease him for as long as possible for the sake of drawing this out. Absolutely rude of it. Especially since he couldn't quite grasp why he was feeling that way to begin with. If he could at least come up wi-
Pain danced across Clockmon's body, the clock digimon doing his best to not fall face first into the dirt. Just one more thing to add to the list of mysteries he found himself dealing with here. At some point, he would reach a point where the questions would give way to answers. But that felt a long way off. Heck, he could even be looking for the wrong answers and have absolutely no way of knowing that was the case. Little use in thinking about that right now.
Pulling himself up, Clockmon took a moment to look over his cargo. Relatively untouched by his near fall, part of the clock digimon wished he had pockets right about now. Would do a world of good in carrying around this stuff. When it was just his workshop, he could put it down some place and then come back to it later. Now, that luxury was far gone and Clockmon would have to make do with whatever storage that he could find. Especially once he got back to Quincy. Would he even accept that their partner had decided to dive headfirst into the repair and maintaining of timepieces. As jobs went, it was by no means the most glamorous of jobs. Let alone really bring with it the renown as stuff like astronaut or rocket scientist. Maybe if one told a kid about it, perhaps they would think it would be cool. They probably thought everything was cool, which made this a mute argument here. Pushing that thought out, Clockmon turned his focus back ahead. The space between trees was growing larger and flowers had begun to become a lot more common now. He had to be getting close here. Or this was just some kind of weird open area that sometimes existed in forests. Whatever it was, Clockmon picked up his pace. Taking care to step as light as possible, that still meant getting out of the way of trees. The last thing this forest needed was some idiot accidentally breaking a tree or two while trying to exit. Not that it would stop that stupid deja vu from rearing forth. As far as he could tell, this was the first time that he walked this path through the forest. But what if it somehow wasn't? Was there somehow a way that he could even prove that to be the case? Racking his mind for answers, Clockmon found himself coming up with nothing. Kind of like everything else that he had been faced with so far. Part of the clock digimon felt like a broken record right now. He would give just about anything right now to have something that served to fight against these feelings within and prevent them from overpowering him. That was perhaps asking too much here as the edge of the forest came into view. While part of Clockmon hoped to see something like a playground or even a parking lot, he was instead met with a grassy field. Stretching on for quite a bit, part of Clockmon found himself wanting more of the forest. At least that provided something in the way of a challenge to navigate through. This was just a long walk in the hopes of going in the right direction. By no means the worst thing in the world, there were definitely things Clockmon would much rather prefer doing right about now. Repairing clocks, talking to customers or heck, actually counting up the money he had earned that day. The last one was an absolute pain in the ass to do. Mostly because the concept of money was something that no digimon could quite decide on a basis for. Which meant one would find themselves faced with a variety of things that were sometimes resembling money. Other times, it would be nothing but fakes. Where the heck those digimon had found such a large cache of the stuff the clock digimon could not say. Nor did he want to even know in the first pla-
Ear Busting!
Before Clockmon could completely finish that thought, he was treated to an absolutely dreadful sound. Gazing about for whoever or whatever could be the source of this, Clockmon found himself staring down a duplicate of himself. Tempting as it would be to match their actions like some kind of bizarre comedy, the clock digimon pushed that thought out. Just doing that would leave him open to all kinds of attacks. Instead, he set the note and clock on the grass and then pulled his hammer out.
"Are you behind this?" he called out and was met with laughter from his duplicate. What about this did they even find remotely hilarious about this? He was dealing with a severe case of deja vu. The kind that refuses to give way in the face of everything thrown at it - regardless of the want to have it dissipate so that you can go on with your day.
"You already know the answer to that question." the duplicate Clockmon announced and brought their hammer out. Pointing it at Clockmon, both clock digimon took the time to pull their weapons back.
"Fine then." Clockmon announced and charged at his duplicate. All it would take was a single attack to end this. More specifically, a single Chrono Breaker. That would freeze his duplicate in place and they wouldn't be able to do anything here. It was flawless.
Chrono Breaker!
Slamming his hammer forward, Clockmon watched his opponent freeze up. Falling to the ground, it was the perfect opportunity to pick up the stuff he had to set down in order to do battle with his opponent. But when he went to reach for the paper and the clock, Clockmon found himself unable to move. Had his duplicate managed to land a blow on him? No, he had gotten the first strike in. Beyond the noise from earlier, there was nothing else that co-
"Do you know how many times we've danced this same dance?" a voice announced and forced Clockmon to spin around. Before him was yet another Clockmon. Just how many were in this one field? Better yet, why was this one all bloodied up? Far as he could tell, no humans were anywhere close.
"Depends. Are you the one who keeps giving me these feelings?" he announced and the other clockmon rolled their eyes.
"Let's go with that for now." the other clockmon answered as Clockmon did his best to meet their gaze. Nothing about this made a lick of sense. There should only be one of him. Maybe two in the highly unlikely case that he did travel back. "We've been very bad. Giving into one's own temptations without a second thought of the effects it might have on both worlds.
The words rolled out and Clockmon stared down at the ground. Part of him wanted to deny, to argue through in the hopes of seeing Quincy again. And yet, he knew this other Clockmon was right. Something had happened and he was behind it. Or at least, played a major part.
"What did we do?" Clockmon whispered and was met with silence from the possible opponent. Why did everyone feel like they had a need to talk in cryptic sentences and then blow him off when he didn't know what they wanted? They had to see the state and be willing to give some amount of sympathy. But no, that was asking far too much from himself.
"You refused to accept the future it was too give. Countless times you joined with 'others' to help start things again. Always hoping that this would be the one, ignorant of the fact that the very thing you sought to protect can no longer exist. An ironic paradox, don't you think?" the other clockmon cooed as Clockmon did his best to stay upright. This was not a small fuckup. No, the fact that there was even a world to walk around was proof that a higher power had intervened to make sure that things went wrong. Perhaps someone related to this guardian angel person? Entirely possible, but not something to dwell on right now. No, the only thing that mattered right now was getting this over with. "There is no punishment that we can give ourselves that'll equal our actions. Except one."
The other clockmon let out a chuckle, their body beginning to grow fuzzy. Fading in and out of existence, tears began to roll down their face. Clockmon forced his focus that way, just catching a couple words as the other clockmon disappeared. Taking a moment to compose himself, the clock digimon carefully spun around. Off in the distance, he could just make out a figure. Heading his way, Clockmon took a couple reluctant steps forward. Much as he hated this, the clock digimon had little choice here other than to wait and accept the outcome that he had caused. Enough damage had been done to this world. It didn't need any more.