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"Favorite Digital Monster"
Gatomon's whole body went rigid as she woke from her nightmare. She allowed herself a couple seconds of heavy breathing before sitting up and looking around the room to ground herself back in reality.
Not more than a foot away, Kari still slept, not having been stirred awake by Gatomon's movement. Other than the girl's steady breathing and some snoring from the bunk above, the room was still and silent, and free of the chaos that had been overwhelming Gatomon's mind before she regained consciousness.
Gatomon shook her head, internally chastising herself for her brain's continued fixation on the same dream. This had been a regular occurrence over the last few weeks, having basically started immediately after the defeat of Ordinemon. Now restless and agitated, Gatomon stood up and began to quietly make her way out of the bedroom.
Select images from the nightmare appeared in the front of Gatomon's mind, hindering her walking speed somewhat. None of these images, however, actually pertained to her time as part of Ordinemon. For whatever reason, her conscience was able to separate her own involvement in the monster's creation from Meicoomon's persistent infection.
Instead, her conscience was more preoccupied with the moments before she and Meicoomon became one.
Gatomon's mind took a brief break as she reached the screen door that led to the Kamiya's balcony. After leaping upwards to undo the lock, she used her paw to pry open the door just enough so that she could slip outside. With the same movement, she jumped up and sat on the balcony's ledge, where she let all of her senses take in the clear summer night.
It took only a couple seconds for her thoughts to return to Ophanimon. More specifically, her Mega form's "Falldown Mode", which she had assumed briefly when Kari had believed her brother had died in one of their many battles in recent weeks. A Digimon paradoxically born out of dark thoughts in order to destroy evil, Gatomon had lost all sense of herself while in this form. All that had remained was a desire to seek and destroy.
Dark DigiVolution was not a new concept to the Digidestined. Being that it was Kari's despair that had called Ophanimon, Gatomon should have been able to once again separate herself from the event. In this instance, however, she couldn't.
Gatomon glanced down at the golden ring on the end of her tail, meant to protect her from evil and darkness. She had no inclination as to whether or not that included the powers that turned her into Ophanimon.
And what about the darkness that's already inside me?
A troubled past separated her from the rest of the Chosen Digimon. She had spent a significant amount of time in the servitude of Myotismon, carrying out a number of deeds she still regretted. Those times served as a reminder of all the things she knew herself to be capable of.
Gatomon turned her attention to her paw, where a scar from one of Myotismon's many "lessons" was once present. While the rebooting of the Digital World resulted in its removal, her memories of these times were restored shortly afterwards. She wondered if the scar no longer being visible meant that it was no longer there.
The screen door sliding open snapped Gatomon back to the present. She slowly turned her head, not necessarily needing eyeline to know who was approaching her.
"Everything okay?" Kari asked, with a weak smile and concern in her eyes.
"Just wanted to step outside," Gatomon answered. "Between Agumon and your brother, the air's kinda stale in there."
Kari's smile widened before disappearing entirely. "You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"
"I do."
Gatomon still was kept her feelings inside, not quite ready to share what was on her mind. In regards to her past, it was nothing Kari didn't already know about. Worse, none of the other Digimon showed any sign that they carried around the same baggage she did. It felt unfair to repeatedly burden Kari with the same stories over and over again.
When it came to Ophanimon, on the other hand, it was made plainly clear by the way Kari had been carrying herself around lately that their thoughts on the incident were the same. They each blamed themselves for what happened, and any conversation on the matter would likely devolve into a tug-of-war match over the guilt. Gatomon was determined to find another way to be there for her best friend.
Kari gestured back into the apartment. "Since neither of us is sleeping, you wanna go see what's hiding in the kitchen?"
Gatomon raised an eyebrow. "Got any catnip?"
"No promises. You might have to settle for a can of tuna instead."
Gatomon shrugged and got down from the ledge. "That'll have to do, I suppose."
The two of them stepped inside and Kari closed the door behind them. Gatomon still wasn't sure how they would get past this or how long it would take. She just knew that she was going to do right by Kari, and do everything in her power to make sure she never left her like that again.
Author's Note:
So just imagine that for every prompt that asked for "favorite [insert topic here]", I probably had a list of potentials to sift through before either picking one at random or going with whatever I felt as though I had something to write about. This prompt presented an interesting challenge, being that the second entry already asked for my favorite character. I wasn't sure if that meant I was picking my favorite Digimon based purely on superficial reasons. Even with stuff like that, though, I usually think from a place of character first, so I ended up with a compromise here.