Disclaimer: You know, saying this disclaimer has become the bane of my existence. I can't sleep, eat, or even concentrate properly. You would think that I was a walking zombie if you saw me. So guess what all you uptight corporate lawyers, I refuse to say this disclaimer anymore. What are you gonna do about it, huh? (CRASH! the door to my room is knocked down by an evil corporate lawyer.) You will do this disclaimer, says the lawyer. What if I don't? (Lawyer walks over to cabinet, opens secret compartment, and takes out one of my digimon tapes) I see you have every episode here, says the lawyer, It'd be a shame if they were to somehow catch fire. (He then proceeds to hold up Yamakis' lighter) AHHHHH! NOOOO!, okay you win, I don't own digimon, there you happy now? Good, says the lawyer, now keep it up or I'll have to come back. (Lawyer then jumps out window, flying off into the night) Alright, I said it, and if you read this disclaimer, I congratulate you. Be warned, this chapter deals a lot with Ben's past and feelings. Now read the fic, while I hide my tapes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I could see that Pinmon was getting anxious. They had been waiting for an answer for over 10 minutes, although I could've sworn it was more like 10 hours. At first I had just wanted to shout out "Yes, yes, of course I do!" But then I started thinking about it. This was to be one of the biggest decisions of my life, so there was no way that I was just going to rush into it.
"Do I really want to be a DigiKnight?" According to what Pinmon had told me earlier, a DigiKnight was to protect, serve, and just plain help the peace loving, good digimon of this world. But this was no game I was playing, or some show I was watching. This was real life. I imagined myself getting crushed by a Tyrannomon, or pinned like an insect by a Togemon. I could really get hurt, even...die. Was I willing to risk my life for others, beings I didn't even know, or who were not even human? I just didn't know.
O
I watched Ben intently. I still gripped his shoulder to let him know that I supported him. But what was taking him so long to decide? Didn't he want to be here? Didn't he want to become a DigiKnight?, hell, he was one of the chosen 10, the last to be chosen. But he couldn't know about that yet, it wasn't time for him to know. I thought that I knew what he would decide to do. Maybe I was wrong...maybe he wasn't ready. No!, I felt it through our bond, even if he couldn't yet. He was ready, and more powerful than he thought he was. I wanted him to stay with me, fight by my side. Sure he wasn't much to look at, but that didn't matter to me. Plus, he was my brother, not physically of course, but mentally, and even spiritually, I felt him to be family. I needed him, and I felt he needed me, he just had to say yes!
O
I stood there still undecided. Was I going to give up my life, just to become some kind of digital cop? Would I even be able to go back home, damn it, I didn't even know if I could go home now! I felt Pinmon squeeze my shoulder, and I looked him in the eye. He said he was my partner, this great yellow porcupine. He'd already become my friend, but what did I really know about him?
As I looked at him, I thought that I felt something, almost like someone giving me a huge bear hug. But it was more of an emotional feeling, than a physical one. "He called me his brother," I thought, "he said a brother in arms, but did he mean more than that?" I then started to think about my own brothers, and the rest of my family. "Was there ever a time that we got along peacefully with each other?" I thought to myself. I had never liked my brothers, we had always had a rivalry among us. It was a relief to me, when I finally moved out. Even then I was still criticized by them, I disliked them so much, it could even be said that I hated them.
My mom though, was a different story. She was always there for me. She always encouraged me to try new things, and become involved in activities. I should have listened to her. I never joined anything in school. I was an outcast, constantly harassed, bullied, and made fun of. I had things stolen from me, thrown at me, and even once, I was stabbed, with a pencil but it hurt like hell. I hated my life so much, that I would fake being sick, just to avoid school. It got so bad that by the time tenth grade rolled around, I couldn't handle it anymore, I snapped. I then moved to a new school and things got a little better, but not much.
I was always asked, what are you gonna do after high school? I hated that question, for I had no idea. I suppose it's my fault that I went to college for accounting. My school had been offering that as a class, and my mom had me take it. I actually did pretty well. Then the one time that I told my mom that I liked it, BAM!, she's getting all these college pamphlets and brochures for me to look at. I just couldn't tell her no, she was one of the only few people I cared for.
Life after high school became routine, I went to my classes during the day, and worked nights and weekends. It was boring, dull, and stupid, but at least I was doing something with my life. At least that's what I kept telling myself. The only thing that seemed to brighten up my day would be a thing that others my age would laugh at me for liking, saying that it's for kids. So I kept my personal life just that, personal. I loved digimon damn it! I loved the characters, the stories, the adventures, and most of all the relationships between the humans and their digital partners. Then the show got cancelled. That was a very sad time for me. Sure it may have only been a cartoon to others. But to me, it provided the perfect escape from my life. I got over it though, just as I had with my whole life, and soon I was just back to my regular boring routine of existence.
Now though, my life had taken an interesting twist. One that I know was for the better. I was here in the actual digital world, being given a chance to do something with my life. Not only that, but I even had a partner! I shook my head, clearing out any doubts. What was I doing even thinking of refusing? I was chosen damn it!, I needed, no..., wanted to do this. I smiled at Pinmon and his face lit up with hope, and that made me really happy. I needed to do this not just for me, but for him as well it seemed. I turned back to the group of digimon who were awaiting my answer. I blinked in surprise, for it seemed as if though Etemon and Beelzemon had fallen asleep where they sat. I smile again and said, "I have decided." Angemon nodded, and then poked Beelzemon and Etemon awake with his angel rod. "I want to be a DigiKnight, and help in anyway possible."
Their reactions to my decision were different. Angemon smiled, Andromon simply nodded, while Etemon was his usual witty self, "Well, it's 'bout time baby, uh-huh." Beelzemon looked at him and said, "Shut yer yap monkey-boy, the decision ain't easy ta make!" Pinmon on the other hand, surprised me the most. I suddenly felt myself in a powerful vice-like embrace. "Ben, I'm glad you said yes." "Pinmon?" I choked out. "Yes?" "Could you let go now, it's kinda hard to breathe!" Pinmon blushed as he set me down, "Sorry, just kinda got carried away, hehehe." "Don't worry about it." I said, checking to see if I had any broken ribs.
"Well boyo, now thatcha made yer choice, you ready fer the next part of our little test?" said Beelzemon. "Sure," I replied, "bring on the next question." "Ha!, a question, you'd wish it was a question, uh-huh!" I looked toward Angemon, "So the next part isn't a question?" "No Ben," Angemon said with a sad smile, "now is the part where you must prove yourself." "You must succeed in this phase of the initiation, or you will not be proven capable of performing as a DigiKnight." said Andromon in his monotone voice. "What do I have to do?" I asked. Beelzemon hopped off his bike, and said, "Follow me." Then he started walking around the thrones. I followed, and saw that behind the thrones was a simple wooden doorway. "You gotta go through here." said Beelzemon quietly.
"That's it?" I asked, not convinced that it was. "Nah, course not." said Beelzemon, "once ya and Pinmon go through this door, you're gonna be faced with a challenge." "Pinmon's going in with me?" I asked. "'Course he is, he's yer partner. He's ta face this challenge with ya, and help in any way he can." "So, what happens if I fail?" said Pinmon worriedly, "Does that mean Ben fails?" "No," said Angemon coming up from behind us, "this is Ben's test, you are to simply assist him in it. You can in no way cause him to fail, so do no worry about it." "Okay." said Pinmon cheerfully. "Um...Beelzemon?" I said, "What kind of test is his exactly? I mean what am I supposed to do in there?" "Good question," said Beelzemon as he opened the door, revealing a blinding light that caused me to cover my eyes. "I can't answer ya though, cuz everyone's test is different." "How do I know what to do then?" I said, still covering my eyes because of the light. "Whatever comes natrally I guess." said Beelzemon, "Well good luck." He then grabbed both Pinmon and me and shoved us through the doorway.
"Not again!" I said, falling to the floor with my eyes tightly shut. I heard a thump and soft cursing from beside me. "You okay Pinmon?" I asked. "Yeah I'm fine," he said, "hey Ben, what's wrong, you got something in your eyes?" "What?" I said, opening my eyes a little to see where he was exactly. "Hey!, what happened to the light?" "Never mind that Ben, I think where we are is more important." I looked around in surprise at my surroundings. We were no longer indoors, in fact we were on top of a grass covered hill surrounded by forest. Not the gigantic trees that I first encountered, but just regular sized trees. I stood up and looked for any signs of the castle, or the door that we had been pushed through. I didn't see any sign of them though. "Is this the test Pinmon?" I asked. Pinmon just shrugged his shoulders and said, "This isn't what my test was like." "Oh, well I guess I'm supposed to do something, but what it is I have no idea."
"Come on Ben, it's getting dark out, we should find a more sheltered place to make camp." I looked up to find that he was right, the sun was just starting to set. "Alright, where should we go then?" I asked, for I had no idea how to set up camp. "Let's start walking and when we find a good spot, we'll make camp. If we don't find one, well, let's worry about that when we come to it." Pinmon then started walking down hill, towards the setting sun. I followed after him, but not before I felt a sudden cold breeze, which caused me to shiver. "Huh," I thought, "that can't be a good sign." I decided to ignore it though, and followed Pinmon into the forest.
It was at least a half-hour after the sun had set that Pinmon said we should stop. I started to look for firewood. "No need for that Ben," said Pinmon, "it's going to be a warm night." I was going to argue with him, but decided against it, for I had no idea how to make a fire, and he didn't have his supplies with him like the first time I met him. I sat down next to Pinmon, who was laying against a fallen tree. I was about to close my eyes and try to sleep when he asked me a question. "Hey Ben?" "Yeah?" I mumbled in reply. "I don't mean to be rude or anything, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but I was wondering, well..., um..., when you were asked if you wanted to be a DigiKnight..." I saw where this was going, "You want to know why I took so long to answer?" "Well, yeah, I mean I understand that it's an important decision, but what were you thinking about that took so long?"
I turned so that I was facing him. "You sure you want to know?" I asked. "Of course I do, I mean were partners, it's only natural that we should get know almost everything about each other." I sighed, "Alright then, but, please don't tell anyone else, I'm only going to tell you because you're my friend, and I trust you." "I'd never betray your trust Ben." said Pinmon, looking a little hurt that I'd even think such a thing. "Sorry, but I had to make sure, well anyways..." I then proceeded to tell him what had been going through my mind when I was asked to make the decision.
I finished telling him about an hour later. I would've been done sooner, except that I found it harder to talk about my past than I though it'd be. "Well..., no wonder it took you so long to decide." said Pinmon. "Yea, but what about you Pinmon?" "Huh, what do you mean?" "I mean, what made you decide to be a DigiKnight?" Pinmon sat up from where he'd been laying, "Oh, I guess you could say that I was born to do it." Now it was my turn to be confused, "What do you mean by that?" Pinmon chuckled and said, "Most DigiKnights choose to become one as they get older. I, on the other hand, knew I was to be a DigiKnight at a very young age." "How'd you know?" "Because of our bond Ben. You may not feel it yet, but I have felt it since the moment I hatched from my egg, in fact that would be the exact same moment that you were born." I was shocked, "You mean we were born at the exact same time?" "Yep, that's how all the partnered humans and digimon are born. It ties us together in a way that friendship never could. We are basically brothers Ben." "You're not kidding are you?" I said quietly, for I was amazed and in shock. "Nope." "Well then, we should get to sleep so I can be ready to face this challenge." "Okay then Ben, well goodnight." said Pinmon, laying back down into his curled up sleeping position. I smiled, and made myself comfortable as well. "Goodnight...brother." I said as I closed my eyes.
Cold, darkness, snow, ice...where was I? I was so cold, it seemed to reach deep inside to suck out all my heat. I shivered, and tried to stand up. I couldn't, I was frozen to the ground! Where was Pinmon?, where was I? Pinmon help me, I need you! The snow is piling around me like walls. It was getting hard to breathe. I couldn't feel anything except the cold. Tired, so tired, I should just go to sleep. When I wake up I'll be warm again...yes, when I wake up.
Crack!, I woke up instantly, finding myself being surrounded by warmth. Crack!, "Ow!, what are you doing Pinmon!" I cried out, for he had slapped me hard across the face. "Ben!, you're awake!, finally, come on, we've gotta make a fire." I was still groggy from just waking, "What?, why?" "Look around you Ben!, why do you think it's so cold!" I glanced around, then rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things. It was snowing!, and by the amount on the ground, it must've been just after we fell asleep. I found that I was numb all over, and if Pinmon hadn't been able to wake me...., I didn't even want to think about it. I started looking for as much dead wood that I could. I gathered several different pieces that didn't seem to be to wet. Pinmon was already next to a pile of his own, trying to get a fire going. He was making sparks with what looked like rocks, and was light a tiny pile of kindling. As I came up next to him, the kindling finally caught. Then the wind started to blow. Pinmon and I shielded the tiny flames with our bodies, and so far it had worked, we weren't going to freeze! But, fate can be cruel. As the flames started to burn brighter and stronger, the wind suddenly blew even harder! We were still protecting the fire with our bodies, but not from above. A loose pile of snow fell from the tree above us, right onto our fire! I started to laugh aloud, while Pinmon looked like he was ready to cry.
I stood up and said "Come on, let's go." Pinmon looked up at me like I was crazy, "Just where do we go to?" "I don't know, but we gotta get moving, or else we're gonna freeze to death. Maybe we'll find a cave or something to spend the night in." I held out my hand for him to take. Pinmon nodded and grabbed it, then we started off, deeper into the forest. I was starting to feel again, and found that I hurt, particularly my face, which Pinmon had been slapping. As we trudged through the forest, the snow seemed to be getting less. I guessed that it was because of the overhead canopy, it got thicker as we continued, creating an umbrella of sorts against the snow.
We stopped after awhile, for Pinmon had spotted a shelter of sorts. It was basically, a bunch of fallen trees. But they had fallen into each other, creating a small gap in between them. We crawled and stayed in there for the rest of the night. The snow seemed to be behind us, and it was warm and dry under the fallen trees. Before I succumbed to exhaustion, I had one more thing to do, "Pinmon?" I said. "What?" he said, breathing heavily. "I just wanted to thank you." "For what?" he said. "For waking me up, although, did you have to bruise me?" I laughed as I rubbed my sore jaw. Pinmon laughed along with me, "Sorry about that, but you wouldn't wake up, and I couldn't think of anything else to do. Anyways, it's you who saved us." "What do you mean?" Pinmon laughed and said, "Well if you didn't snore so loud then I wouldn't have woken up, and we would've both frozen." "That's not funny Pinmon." I said while laughing. Pinmon laughed again and said, "No, it's not, but it's true. Well, goodnight bro, it's about time we got some sleep." I agreed with him and soon we were leaning against each other, oblivious to the fact that it started snowing again.
O
I awoke to the scent of freshly fallen snow. I started to stretch and noticed that Ben was leaning against my side. I then pushed some branches out of the way, to look outside. Snow was everywhere, I guessed that the snowstorm had caught up with us and broken through the thick canopy of the forest. I sighed, because I hated walking through the stuff, it clung to my fur, and water froze between my toes. I wondered why it was warm inside this wooden cave of ours, but then guessed that our combined body heat had been enough to warm the small enclosure. It was past dawn, and I was about to awaked Ben when I noticed the tracks. I stepped outside and saw that they were right outside our shelter, but then they just stopped. I stood there in confusion when I heard the growl. I really should learn to look in every direction, including above me.
O
I woke up to yelling and screaming. I looked for Pinmon, and saw that he wasn't with me. I got to the opening as fast as I could and jumped outside, looking for the noise. Then the yelling stopped. I heard a strange gurgling noise and ran to the right of the shelter. What I saw will remain in my memory forever. Pinmon was being held in mid-air by the throat, desperately clawing at the hand choking him. The attacker was a Fridgimon, I recognized it from the first season. It held Pinmon there, smiling at Pinmons' pain. I didn't know what to do. The Fridgimon turned to look at me, and seemed to grin. It then proceeded to shake Pinmon while choking the life out of him. Pinmon's entire face had a bluish tint to it! He was going to die if I didn't do something! I got mad, no I wasn't mad, I was furious! This digimon was going to kill my brother!, I had to do something! I felt something come over me then, it was a force, a torrent of power!, it was then, I think, that I snapped.
I don't remember much of what happened next, except that I had reached down and grabbed something, I think it was some kind of thick branch. Then the next thing I knew was that I was standing over the Fridgimon, and it was bleeding heavily from its' face, and had bruises all over its' body. I turned from it, and looked for Pinmon. I found him crumpled up on the ground nearby. I rushed over to him, he was conscious. "Are you okay?" I asked him. He nodded, and hoarsely said "I'm okay..., but..., look out!" I whirled around to see the Fridgimon about ready to pound me into the ground. Instinct took over, and I lashed out with my weapon. I didn't realize that one of its ends was pointed like a spear. It went straight through the Fridgimons' eye. I stood there a moment, in shock, while blood poured from its wound. It didn't make a sound and just stood there as still as a statue. It then fell to the ground, twitching before it stilled. I stood there is disbelief, and watched, as its body literally dissolved before my eyes.
I was still staring at the spot when I felt something grab my arm. "Ben, Ben, are you okay?" said Pinmon. "What have I done?" I whispered, I don't think even Pinmon heard me. "Ben look there's the door, the test is over, we can go back now." I didn't respond to Pinmon's talking. I just stared at the spot where the Fridgimon had been. "Ben?" What had I done, I had killed! "Ben, what's wrong?" I HAD KILLED! "Ben?, come on say something." I think it was then that the shock wore off and I fell to the ground sobbing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whew!, this is my longest chapter yet. But once again, another cliffhanger! BOO HA HA! I know it's mean of me. But what do you expect? Almost none of you pitiful mortals review my work, no matter how many times I ask you to. REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW my work you insignificant beings. How else am I supposed to get inspiration to write more. It's not like I get paid to do this or anything. Although it'd be great if I did! To those who have reviewed, I give you my thanks and everlasting gratitude. But the rest of you pathetic creatures should be stripped down to your birthday suits, staked over a fire ant nest, and covered in honey! Bow before me mortals, and those who review my work! For we are few and great! (Crash!, the evil lawyer comes back through the window I had boarded up) "I've got the honey and ants, and you are a mortal yourself Knight!, come here!" Crap! (I run away as quick as I can), and as always, I'll close by saying one thing, BOO HA HA!