Ben10 & Digimon Tamers

Heroes and Humanity

Part 02: Humanity and Heroes

What Happens in Bellwood... – Chapter 42

Song: Bastion Original Soundtrack - Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme)

Originally Written: Tuesday, January 5, 2016 143PM to Tuesday, March 15, 2016 1047AM; Wednesday June 29, 2016 216AM to 411AM Revised 659PM to 902PM

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A/N: Trigger warning. The plotline picks up in this arc "What Happens in Bellwood...", so expect more warnings. Thank you for reading.

"Albedo?" Jenrya questioned, voice groggy.

Albedo fumbled around on the bed, pulling at the sheets. His hands shook and his heart beat wildly in his chest. By the time he managed to get the sheets off of him, Jenrya was sitting up. "M'fine." He slurred out.

Jenrya's hand ghosted over his arm.

"Don't..." He swung his legs off the side of the bed.

Sleeping with Jenrya was a bad idea, he knew, and he had done it anyway. Maybe he thought being next to the tamer would have eased his restlessness, but that was a dumb thought in itself.

"Albedo?" Jenrya questioned, voice full of confusion.

"M'fine I said." He breathed heavily. In the darkness of the room, he ran his hands over his face. He looked at the time. He felt certain that Jenrya did not want to hear that a To'Kustar made a building fall on him. Not so soon after the Invasion.

"Do you-"

"No." He snapped. He stood and looked up at the ceiling. A part of him wondered the odds of there being a To'Kustar waiting around outside at this moment. "Go back to sleep." He cursed his wavering voice.

He slipped out the bedroom, in just a t-shirt and pajama pants. He didn't look back as he closed the door. He looked at Fridge, who stared at him, eyes glowing in the darkness of the living room. He took note of Hugh, leaned up against the wall and Swamps, sharing the convertible couch with Fridge.

He walked to the bathroom, bare feet padding quietly on the floor. He stepped inside and debated on closing the door for a good while. He settled on closing the door. He slid down against it, and shut his eyes tight. He covered his ears. Multitudes of soulless green eyes looked at him in blood lust. He allowed himself to shake. No one could hear a person shake.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, but he heard two voices speaking, too low for him to understand, and then footsteps retreating. He had to admit that at least the monster Tennyson was kind enough to kill him instantly instead of torturing him this time. It wasn't much comfort.

He stood up and washed his face, fumbling around in the darkness. He dared not turn on the light; he wasn't sure if he'd like what he'd see if he did. He washed his hands for good measure, before his body let him know he needed to use the bathroom. He wound up washing his hands again.

Fridge was laying down again, Hugh's tail kept wagging, hitting the couch. Swamps was about to fall off the couch bed. Wasn't the first time he would. He heard feet tapping and looked down, then looked around.

He walked over to the kitchen while scratching his back. He saw Terriermon fling himself up to the table, ears flapping. He watched curiously.

"Henry put the kettle on for you." The digimon sat on the table looking up at him as he munched on a snack bar.

Albedo looked at the stove. Steam slowly wafted from the kettle's spout. He walked to the cabinet, and retrieved a mug from it.

"Fridge told him you were still on edge from the Invasion."

"Hm..." He nodded as he fixed himself some coffee. Jenrya was like his shadow lately, following him everywhere he could. He wouldn't be surprised if Jenrya had said that he wasn't going back to bed until he knew of his well being. He shook his head and sat at the table.

He laid his head on the table. Terriermon kept looking at him as though he were expecting something from him. He looked at the small digimon, red eyes intensified by the darkness of the kitchen.

"Fridge is an odd name, isn't it?" The edge of the digimon's ears folded up against the tabletop he stood on.

Albedo gave him a bland look.

"Terriermon's not a name like that."

'Beezlemon's comment was perfect for him.' Albedo lifted his head. Still, the random blathering served to distract him from the green eyes plaguing his mind.

He sat silent, for he didn't trust himself to speak in the conversation Terriermon seemed to be trying to get out of him. He looked at the kettle, steaming away on the stove.

Even after the break he took in the bathroom, he could still feel the weight of the building on him in the last moments of the dream. The last thing he saw was Juggernaut's blue eyes staring him down, almost as though the entity was curious about something. That's what it looked like to him at any rate, not that he had a lot of time to dwell on it with Tennyson's arsenal, especially the To'Kustar gunning for him.

He supposed he should be glad that there wasn't a feral To'Kustar to team up with Tennyson's aliens. He'd be even happier if he ceased having this set of recurring nightmares.

"What are you singing?" He looked at Terriermon. The song itself wasn't annoying, but Terriermon couldn't sing too well. He found it annoying and grating.

"It's from one of Kazu and Kenta's video games." Terriermon held the snack bar's wrapper in his tiny paws.

"About a wall?" He raised an eyebrow, as he spoke in a quiet voice.

"Henry tried to explain it to me, but he either forgets or someone interrupts him, the loudmouths. Something about a war." The digimon flapped its ears as though it were mimicking the act of shrugging his shoulders. "Henry didn't like it much, but I do, so I sing it to annoy him." The digimon grinned.

Albedo had a feeling it was more to annoy others than to annoy Henry. "Fridge sang quite a bit during the takeover." He tapped his fingers against the table with the slightest touch, "The younger ones would sit around him in the safehouse as he sang."

Terriermon peeked into the living room, looking at the blue alien.

"He even caught Rika's attention." He smiled a small smile. He closed his eyes. "After the Incurseans disabled the ID masks, few could understand him when he sang, but human and alien alike gestured and spoke, asking him to sing anyway."

Terriermon remained silent.

He opened his eyes. "You are still on edge from the Invasion as well, hm?"

"No." He replied quickly. "I'm just fine. Nothing like aliens trapping you about in a giant test tube." The digimon spun around.

He wanted to say he understood what Terriermon meant, but he figured that he wasn't speaking of his physical form. He stood up and grabbed his empty mug. "They tortured you." He spoke even softer than he had before. He felt eyes on his back as he poured water from the kettle into the mug and prepared another cup of coffee.

"What makes you say that?" The digimon's voice wavered.

"The look on Jenrya's face whenever he came into contact with an Incursean." He returned to his seat, "and logic. The Incurseans specialize in torture. The only one consistently more extreme with torture is Vilgax the Conqueror." He replied simply, "I spent some time years back, studying their records."

The digimon sat on the table, ears drooping. "Never had that happen to me before. Not like that."

He held his mug in a strong grip.

"I've been thrashed, trashed, thrown around like a Princess Prettypants ragdoll, and nearly deleted a buncha times. Never tortured though."

"Jenrya only knows they attacked you." He looked at his mug full of black shimmering drink. He held it up to his lips.

Terriermon raised his tiny arms and long ears, "Henry will lock me up in a padded room and tell me I'm not allowed to go anywhere again." He flopped over on his belly.

"I can't see Jenrya doing that. He gets quite annoyed when others try that with him."

"You weren't there the time I had to fight Gorillamon, or the time with the giant chicken." The digimon moaned on, voice muffled from his position. "Henry's gotten much better at it, but he'll ask what they did and how far they went. Everyone'll ask. It'll be the worst thing since the first time I had to dress up as Princess Prettypants."

Albedo shook his head. He didn't didn't think Jenrya would react in such a fashion. Maybe he'd be more likely to blame himself if anything.

'Synchronizing...'

He jumped in his seat, spilling coffee on his hands and the table. He held in a hiss as he set the cup down and got up to rinse his hands. He moved in a daze.

He suddenly remembered Incursean grunts yelling. Their mocking laughter and their questions of confusion. 'But, I was never in Hypnos...' He looked down at his hands hovering over the sink. Cool water ran on them. He turned around and looked at the small digimon moping on the table.

He remembered watching Incurseans cower in fear of Attea, no answer for what Terriermon was, or what he was capable of. He had watched lesser grunts jeer and badmouth Bullfrag in jealousy. He heard Terriermon's cries, both of pain and retaliatory attacks, sick of them shocking him and poking and prodding and pulling at him. Sick of them trying to get answers out of him, and being punished for not answering.

He walked over to the table, hands dripping wet. He remembered the containment cell, similar to the ones in the labs on floor B25. It was large and overbearing, too large for such a tiny creature, but small and entrapping just the same.

He pressed a hand against the table. His eyes shifted from Terriermon to the table. Rage and frustration not his own filled him. He took slow deep breaths, grasping among memories and feelings not his own, following Ryo's advice to him. His heart raced, and his limbs shook. It all mixed with images of Tennyson's aliens attacking him.

He thought he'd fall sick, and the coffee he just drank would reacquaint itself with his hand. 'Juggernaut...?' He looked at Terriermon again.

At some point the digimon stood up and he now looked back at Albedo, ears hanging like arms connected to slumped shoulders.

He closed his eyes, and pressed his fingers to them. Incurseans, Attea, Bullfrag, and Tennyson's alien forms flooded behind his eyelids, a mix of dreams and memories he was certain he didn't have before. He opened his eyes and blinked.

Terriermon's beady black eyes somehow felt quite piercing now from their usual laid back look.

He felt a layer of sweat on his face as he rubbed his temples, feeling the start of a headache coming on. He wished his heart would calm itself already.

"That was new." Terriermon's voice was curious and soft.

He moved back to his seat. He sat down and held the mug of coffee in his hands, keeping it on the table at the same time. He didn't trust himself to pick the mug up, let alone drink anything and keep it down. The shocking that rendered him immobile and worried Ryo came to the forefront of his mind.

"Everyone keeps saying you're fainting," The digimon continued, voice still soft, "but you're..." He shook his head, ears flailing and flopping.

"I'm not. Not in that sense of fainting." Albedo quickly replied.

"What the heck?" He frowned, "Did you-?" He walked a short distance across the table. He looked up at Albedo. "Did you tell anyone?" He sounded as small as he actually was.

It reminded him of the times he comforted Jenrya when no one else would.

"I can't say whether or not he would for sure, but I don't believe Ryo would have told anyone." He took a deep breath. "He's more concerned with other things."

"Yet." Terriermon flopped onto his belly again. His ears flared out on either side of him. "What a mess of digital doo doo." He rolled onto his back, careful of his ears.

Albedo had to agree, as much as he didn't want to. He rubbed the digimon's pudgy belly. "The last thing I remember of the invasion was seeing something hit you as Gargomon."

"An Incursean shot at me." Terriermon blinked, "I wasn't fast enough. They nearly hit Henry."

"But they hit you instead. You were weakened by their previous assault." He tapped his fingers against the digimon's stomach.

"Stupid frog people." Terriermon swatted at his hands with his ears. Then he sat up. "I couldn't sleep either." He spoke after some time of focusing on the stove.

"I know." He propped his head up with a hand, watching him. His heart ceased racing some time ago, to his relief. Only fatigue plagued him now.

"Don't tell Henry." Terriermon asked quickly.

Albedo took a deep breath, "This isn't my secret to tell."

A/N: If you're wondering what song Terriermon is singing, it's the song written up above, from the game Bastion.