Chapter 26: Confrontations

When we arrived home, Aunt Ruby, Lloyd, and I staggered inside, exhausted by the events of the night. My whole body hurt, probably due to my shot nerves. Gammamon was still sleeping in my arms, snoring softly. I started to head to my room when Aunt Ruby put her hand on my shoulder and stopped me.

"Come into the living room after you put Gammamon to bed," she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I'm going to need help explaining this digimon situation to Lloyd."

Once I got Gammamon tucked in, I headed for the living room. There, I found Aunt Ruby and Lloyd, sitting on the couch and holding each other, trying to comfort one another from the traumatizing ordeal they had just gone through. I heaved a sigh as I entered the room. Aunt Ruby took notice as I walked over to them and they pulled away. I sat down on the hair across from the couch.

"Is that thing still asleep?" Lloyd began.

"I told you, he's not a thing," I corrected. "His name is Gammamon and he's my digimon partner."

"What the hell is a "digimon?" I've never heard of something like that."

I spent the next hour explaining what a digimon was as well as all the bizarre adventures that my friends and I had been through. Lloyd didn't interject until I reached the part of the story where I had to come clean about why I snuck into the downstairs area of the Library to cut the power.

"That's why you were down there?" He asked with disbelief. "I thought you were just up to your usual antics."

"Nope. We had to do something to stop the storm that Raidramon had summoned, and I figured that that would have worked. Lo and behold, it did."

"I guess I can't say 'you should have told me,' huh? I wouldn't have believed you if you came to me with that story."

"Yeah, didn't figure as much."

"I owe you an apology then. I'm sorry for nearly banning you from the library when you actually had a good reason for doing what you did."

"Um… thanks…" I had never once heard him apologize, especially to me. Hell, he never even apologized to me for misgendering me in the past. It completely caught me off guard.

Aunt Ruby stood up and said, "I'm going to go get a glass of water. Do you two want anything?" she asked.

"Nothing for me," I replied.

"I could use a stiff drink right about now," Lloyd said.

"You know I don't keep any alcohol in this house," Aunt Ruby said, smiling a little. "I'll be right back."

She got up and headed into the kitchen, just leaving me alone with Lloyd. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "All of this is just so… Strange. I'm having trouble processing everything you're telling me, Piper."

"It can be a lot to take in all at once," I replied. "I'm sorry that your date night is ruined."

"Don't worry about it. You weren't the one who kidnapped us."

"They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"No, but… well…"

"What's wrong?"

"They took our cellphones and they… took something important from me." He looked like he was lost in thought.

"What'd they take?" I asked.

He was reluctant to answer. "It's… If I tell you, you can't say anything to Ruby. Okay, Piper? You have to promise."

"I promise. Now, what was it?"

"...I got her an engagement ring, but that creepy teddy bear took it from me. She didn't see it, luckily."

"You did what?!" I demanded. "You were going to-"

He quickly shushed me and I stopped talking. "We've been dating for years now. You shouldn't be all that surprised."

"I am, though." The thought of Lloyd becoming my uncle-in-law was horrifying to me. I didn't hate him, at least, not anymore, but that didn't mean that I wanted to live with the guy.

"Promise you won't say anything," he repeated.

"Yeah, I promise."

Aunt Ruby returned shortly after that with two glasses of water. She handed one of them to Lloyd and sat down back down on the couch beside him. I continued my story, detailing our fight with Devimon and how we had thought that with him destroyed, the digimon attacks would stop. We had no idea that this Vulturemon was going to take over immediately afterward.

"This is difficult to wrap my head around," Lloyd admitted. "I'm just worried about that little friend of yours."

"He's never taken that form before. Unlike the others' digimon, he has multiple evolutions that he can change into. I'm not sure why he's like that, but it's saved our butts more times than I can count."

"But this evil form… why did he change into that?"

"I don't know."

"How exactly can we trust that creature to hang around you when we know he has a form like that? I think he's way too dangerous."

Aunt Ruby placed a hand on his knee and said, "Gammamon is normally a good boy. He wouldn't deliberately hurt one of us. I think he might have turned into that monster because he was scared for you, Piper."

"You think so?"

"Fear can make us do strange things."

I hummed as I averted my gaze to the floor, thinking about what she said. Had Gammamon only acted that way because I had been so close to dying? Vulturemon was out to kill me, and Gammamon's fear and anger must have affected how he digivolved. I would have to keep that in mind going forward.

There would be no real rest for me that night. I couldn't fall asleep no matter how much I

tried. I was a little envious of Gammamon as he slept soundly through the night. I rolled onto my side and stared at the wall, trying to will myself to sleep. Aunt Ruby and Lloyd had already retreated to her bedroom for the night, and I was sure that they were sound asleep after the ordeal they went through. That just left me, wide awake late at night. I checked my phone and groaned. It was six in the morning. At least it was the weekend and I could sleep in.

That creature that Gammamon became… I pondered on it for a while. What would happen if he became that again, and how could I prevent it? I hated to feel the way I did, but I was a little afraid of Gammamon. The way he attacked the others' digimon and nearly attacked us as well left me terrified of what else he could digivolve into. What if that wasn't the only violent form he had? Was there really a side to Gammamon that I had just never seen before?

My mind traveled to other things and I remembered what Riley said about destroying the dark core. I figured that now was as good a time as any to do something about it. I got out of bed, and crept to the kitchen. There, in the bottom drawer of the kitchen counter, was where we kept all of our tools. Aunt Ruby didn't have a proper toolbox of her own, something that Lloyd teased her about constantly as he was something of a handyman. From the drawer, I grabbed a metal hammer. With my tool in hand, I headed up to the roof, where I would break this thing and end Devimon once and for all.

Once I was on the roof, I summoned the dark core from my digivice and sat it on the floor. I raised the hammer and brought it down, striking the dark core as hard as I could. I had expected it to shatter, but instead, I felt a shock run through my arm as the hammer bounced right off of it. The core rolled a little, but that was all. The dumb thing was completely unharmed.

"That doesn't appear to work," I heard Renamon say from behind me.

At this point, I wasn't all that surprised by her sudden appearances. I turned around to face her. "Just whose side are you on, Renamon?" I asked.

"Do not worry. I'm on your side. Think of me as a double agent."

"Could you help me destroy this thing?"

"It clearly can't be destroyed, and besides, that's not why I'm here."

"Why are you here?"

She took a few more steps toward me until we were only a few inches apart. She looked down at me and said, "I'm here to get rid of that Gammamon."

I felt my stomach clench and my skin bristle. "So, you aren't on our side, then."

"That digimon is dangerous and needs to be exterminated."

"You aren't going to touch Gammamon."

"Piper, you don't understand what he is."

I shook my head and backed away but she moved closer, taking a step forward for each one that I took back until she had cornered me at the edge of the roof. "I know what he is. He's my best friend and my digimon partner," I shot back.

"That's where you're wrong, Piper. He was never meant to be your partner."

"Oh yeah? Then who was?"

"I was to be your partner."

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "That's impossible. Gammamon was the one I met in cyberspace."

"It was an accident that you two met."

"Just shut up! I don't want to hear any more of this. Gammamon's my partner, not you or anyone else. Would you just leave me alone already? I'm tired of all your cryptic talk."

She backed away and folded her arms. Her tail swished back and forth and she let out a sigh. "Fine, I'll leave, but I do have one last message to give to you."

"What is it now?"

"Your mother says "hello." Until we meet again, Piper."

Before I could say anything more, she vanished into the shadows, leaving me alone to contemplate on what she had told me. I refused to believe that anyone other than Gammamon was meant to be my partner.

I returned the dark core back into my digivice and sat down on the side of the building. I watched the sky as daybreak was steadily approaching. I used to climb up onto the roof to watch the sunrise all the time when I was younger, but I sort of lost interest in it as I got older, preferring to sleep in. I was so lost in thought that I hadn't even noticed the door open.

"Piper?" I heard Gammamon's little voice say as he stepped onto the roof.

"Hey, buddy," I replied, turning to face him.. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay," he said somberly. He walked over and sat down beside me so we could watch the sunrise together. The sky and clouds were painted a beautiful golden hue as the sun peeked over the horizon, bringing about a new day. I had nearly forgotten how beautiful the sunrise looked.

"It's so pretty," Gammamon said.

"It sure is."

"Do you think the others will forgive me?"

"They will, buddy. I bet that they already have."

"I feel so sad..."

"Just promise me you'll never turn into that again."

"I didn't mean to. I was so scared that Vulturemon was going to… going to…" He became choked up and I hugged him tightly.

"It's going to be okay," I assured him. "We'll be just fine."

We stayed that way for a while as we watched the sunrise. Once the sun was further in the sky, Gammamon and I headed back to bed. I decided against telling Gammamon about Renamon being on the roof and the things that she told me. I figured it wasn't all that important at the moment. Besides, I didn't really believe her. I had no idea if she was even telling me the truth, but then again…

How did she know my mom?