Author's Notes: Reading week has started. I've borrowed some Discworld novels to read over the week while I write my essay and this story. By the way, there will be an epilogue after Ascension and in that epilogue, I will finally tie up the ultimate loose end in the story and explain how the Digimon tamers arrived in the Eastern realm in the first place.
Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon in any form whatsoever. Bandai, Toei and ABC own the rights and all that stuff. The term 'buttweasel' originated from InQuest Gamer…I think.
Ascension – V 3.3
"Just where exactly are we going to meet up with the others? They think that you're still back at Gennai's house, recuperating…" GCM trailed off when he noticed that Megidramon was sniffing the air for a scent. Shadowgallantmon gave a chuckle. "When all else fails, just follow the nose. Remind me to get him a doggy treat if we do meet up with the others. I've got to see how the others will react when they see this. That ought to make for some interesting entertainment."
Now technically, Megidramon is naturally born without patience. When this new situation was explained in layman's terms by GCM, he had to try not to hit the dark knight, no matter how infuriating he may be. But one can only take so much. Before the others knew it, the dragon threw a punch and hit Shadowgallantmon's chest. Gallantmon felt the breath knocked out of him while GCM slightly winced. Megidramon also felt the pain but it felt pretty damn good when he hit the dark knight. "That's it, punk!! I'm taking you out!!!" GCM moved in between the two and whipped out his weapons with the tip of his staff against the dragon's throat and the blade of his sword inches away from the dark knight's head.
"Enough. Both of you. Megidramon, keep trying to find the others. As for you, do us all a favour and keep your mouth shut!!" The crimson knight's acidic tone had not gone unnoticed by the other two virus Digimon. Megidramon returned to the task at hand while the dark knight simply grumbled to himself. Gallantmon gave a cough. "Ouch…Megidramon can really pack a punch."
"Now the important thing is getting Grani. You can't stay and explain all of their questions. Just give them a quick explanation and then move out of there. We'll stay concealed and follow you when you leave." The group then flew in silence as Megidramon kept sniffing the air for a scent. Eventually, they found themselves over by a large cliff overlooking an ocean. Gallantmon blinked. "I can hear the voices of the others!!"
"You better get going. The three of us will remain here…hey!!" GCM stopped the dragon who had wanted to check up on Rika. While Gallantmon leapt down to join the others, GCM struggled to restrain Megidramon. "Don't even think of going down there!!" Shadowgallantmon shrugged. "I'm not interested in making them piss their pants…not yet anyways. Besides, watching you try and restrain dragon breath is more entertaining."
"Well if you're just going to stand there, will you help me restrain our primitive counterpart here?" Shadowgallantmon just gave a blank look indicating that he did not really care. GCM sighed. "You really are a buttweasel, did you know that?" At this remark, the dark knight blinked as a small sweatdrop appeared. "Uh…right." 'Buttweasel?' (AN: Happy, Alex?)
The Digidestined gave gasps of surprise when they saw Gallantmon land on the ground. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be back at Gennai's house resting?" asked Kari. The holy knight didn't answer her and went straight to the unconscious Sakuyamon, who was being held up by Justimon. "What happened to her? Why is she red instead of yellow?"
"I don't know. It could have been something to do with Grani or something else. All I know is that she gained some new powers. After killing Reapermon, she started to totally lose it!!" Justimon passed the shaman Digimon over to Gallantmon who knelt down by her side. 'Did she really fuse with Grani? What did he mean when he said that she was losing it?' "Rika? Rika, can you hear me?"
When Rika heard his voice, a small wave of comfort passed over her. The Digimon Queen narrowed her eyes. "What in the hell is goggle head doing here?" Sakuya had a gentle look on her face. "You had better go to him." Rika gave a small nod as she focused on returning to reality. But it was hard to get back up. And oddly painful. She could feel that her body was being stretched and pulled in all directions.
"Takato…?" She found herself in the arms of a white knight…wait. How could that be possible? She wanted to ask him more questions but he beat her to it. "Did you fuse with Grani?" She nodded weakly. Gallantmon gave a mental groan. 'This could be troublesome.' "You've got to separate yourself from Grani. Focus on expelling the data from out of your system and the rest should take care of itself."
She started to focus whatever energy she had left into the separation sequence. The others gave her some room as they noticed red particles of data leave her body. The red armour eventually turned back to yellow. As soon as all the red particles were out of her body, they all came together to reconstruct the machine. Gallantmon placed the shaman Digimon down gently and turned his attention to the machine. "Grani!! Are you alright?" The machine gave a reply. "All systems appear to be in normal parameters including my grafting function."
Sakuyamon sat up. "Are you kidding me?!? When I grafted with you, I started to hear voices in my head!!" Ken looked at the glider. "So that's what you did? I thought that you were meant only for Takato over there. Does that mean that you could graft yourself on to any Digimon?" It beeped once and Minomon delivered the message. "Yep." Imperialdramon had transformed back into Demiveemon and Minomon a moment ago.
Davis brightened up. "Hey!! Maybe that could give Imperialdramon a power boost to get him to become Paladin Mode again!! Or something like that!!" Yolei rolled her eyes. "You just can't let go of Imperialdramon in Paladin Mode, can you?" The leader for the Digidestined shrugged. "Well, he is pretty cool when he's like that."
"Renamon? Are you alright?" Silence went by for a moment before her partner was able to give an answer. "Yes. I do not know what had happened in the last few minutes though. One moment, we were battling Reapermon…my mind shut down for some reason and now we're here. What did happen?" Rika gave a small sigh of relief. "I'll have to tell you later. Right now, I've got something to do."
"Are you sure your graft program is alright? Rika was hearing voices in her head…or so she says." The machine started to beep a few times, saying that it did not have an explanation to what had transpired inside the female tamer's head. Gallantmon was about to think some more about the subject when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder to find Sakuyamon. "We need to talk."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"How is it possible that ArcaDemon is still standing up? It doesn't make sense unless he's not a virus Digimon. But my Digivice says otherwise…" After ArcaDemon had digivolved to mega, he took out Megagargomon in one hit and forced them to change back to tamer and Digimon. Henry took out an Imperialdramon Paladin Mode card from his deck. "If I remember correctly, Zero's ability cuts the power of all virus Digimon fighting him in half. Why isn't it working?"
Terriermon offered his thoughts. "Because ArcaDemon has been taking a ton of steroids and is a massively strong viral son of a bitch!!" He blinked when he received a glare from his tamer. "What? It seems like that's a plausible explanation for why this guy is so strong!!" The boy just shook his head as he focused back on the battle. It would be some time until his partner is feeling well enough to bio-merge again. He checked his D terminal to see if he had missed anything.
Taichi wiped some sweat off his face as he scanned his notebook. "There's got to be something in here that can turn the tide of the battle around!!" Neo gave a psychotic laugh. "There is no way you can defeat me now!! My victory is at hand!!" ArcaDemon and Zero were deadlocked in battle.
"This isn't going well. Taichi!! I could really use an idea about how to beat this guy!!" More sweat rolled down the tamer's face. 'If I knew a way to beat this guy, then I would share it with my partner. But Neo is a sharp guy and has made sure that ArcaDemon has covered every single angle!! That means this battle has become a race to see who can fight the longest…'
Another hit later and ArcaDemon was on his back. Zero leaned on his sword to try and catch a breather. "Get up, ArcaDemon!! We are not going to lose to these third rate trash tamers!!!" Zero was trying to focus his remaining energy into a final attack to finish the other Digimon. "Taichi!! We got a problem!! Rika's gone insane and is flying around the digital world with a new power at her control!!"
"And that could mean trouble…Zero, revert back to your dragon form!! We've got to find the others and help Rika out!!" Zero complied happily as using his Paladin form was draining much of his energy. At least in his lower mega form, he could conserve a small bit of energy. Neo took this opportunity to yell an order to ArcaDemon. "Attack them now!!"
But the virus Digimon had little energy to try and pursue the retreating tamers. "I do not have sufficient power to do so, Neo." The white haired tamer growled as he saw Imperialdramon fly away. "The next time we meet, we will finish this once and for all!! Do you hear me?!? I will claim victory and you will taste defeat!!!"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Why are we moving over to that side?" hissed Shadowgallantmon. GCM had to be careful while moving in order to stay silent and to keep Megidramon from doing anything rash. "If we had stayed here, our position may have been compromised. The Digidestined and Justimon have to simply look at a spot from a certain angle and we will have been discovered."
The dark knight snorted as he silently kept behind the crimson knight. "That's not it. I know what your real intentions are, Casanova. Rika's stressed out and the little private discussion that she's having with dork face down there may change some things between them. I say you're more worried about our associate's emotional state after the talk." GCM just kept observing what was happening down below.
"Look…if you're wondering how I was able to bio-merge then all I can say is that I have no clue. All I know is that it just happened when I was in danger. That reminds me, how come you haven't transformed back yet? Anyways, I've got to get going with Grani soon because…" Sakuyamon held up a hand to stop the holy knight from babbling further. "Renamon is going to check out about the transforming thing but we can talk about that later. I just want to talk about us for a moment. During that time when I had to talk to the other voices, I had to figure out where we were going and…I don't think I can keep on going like this. We should just stop having this relationship before we end up breaking each other's hearts."
Up above, the dark knight crowed with delight. "Hah!!! I knew it!! She's dumping him!! So much for your devotion to your dear lady!!" This earned him a glare from both the crimson knight and the dragon. But Shadowgallantmon just snorted in response. "What? Can't handle the truth?" However the crimson knight's concerns were focused on something else. 'She would have transformed back to normal seeing as there is no current crisis. There's something not right here…' (AN: The trio are up above on a lower elevation, crouched to the ground to avoid detection. That along with sharpened hearing has enabled them to pick up the conversation.)
"So are you saying that you don't love me anymore?" asked Gallantmon in a rather nervous tone. The shaman Digimon just clenched her staff in frustration. "Yes!! No…I don't know!! I'm just not sure of anything anymore. There are so many other things in my life that I have to experience and live through…assuming that I get through this first. And what makes you so confident that things can last between us?"
Gallantmon's eyes softened. "I can understand where you're coming from, Rika. You haven't lived with faith for…I really have no idea how long you've lived without faith. In any case, I promised to carry enough faith for the both of us. I won't leave you like your father did…" He didn't get much of a reaction from Sakuyamon so he gently grasped her shoulders. The holy knight took a breath before speaking again. "Remember back at home when we started off on this whole relationship thing? We weren't exactly sure what to do since we had never done this before." She gave a small nod. "Yeah…I remember."
Knowing that she remembered, he continued on with his statement. "I said that we should just be ourselves and go from there. But you were still insecure since you haven't exactly been the nicest person back then. You kept thinking that you should try and change in order to get along with others more easily or something like that. At that point, I made a promise to you. I promised that I would be patient with you while you tried to find yourself. If you needed to crash and burn a few times before finding the person you wanted to be, then I would be there helping you to stand up and try again." She just gave him a shocked look. "Why would you do all this?"
"Because I love you. I can't explain it in great detail but seeing you happy gives me immense joy and seeing you sad gives me great sorrow." It was almost a childish explanation but it was enough to make Rika feel even guiltier than ever before. The next thing she knew, she was holding on to the holy knight like he was her lifeline. Gallantmon could feel her body shaking as she silently sobbed.
The moment was interrupted by the sound of clapping. "Where is that coming from?" asked Cody. That question was soon answered when he heard a familiar and chilling voice. "Bravo, dork face!! You just set a new record for the number of times you made me sick to my stomach!!" As the attention of the Digidestined and the others were focused on the trio up above, the only thought that ran through GCM's mind was 'oh, bugger.' (AN: The term bugger belongs to Terry Pratchett)
Shadowgallantmon just chuckled. "Now I see where you get all your romance moves from. Dork face down there is a natural at making girls all sappy and emotional!!" GCM just looked at him and proceeded to smack him lightly on the head. "You sir, are a smeghead." The dark knight rolled his eyes. "And you, Casanova, have got to learn how to insult someone properly. Wait a second…you called me sir!! What the hell?!?" By that time, the crimson knight had let go of Megidramon and joined the others down by the beach.
That wraps up this installment. Anyways, Rika's inner demons have not been fully resolved and I will get down to doing something again with Sakuya and the Digimon Queen. I also figured out where I want to go from here…sort of. It will be some time before the epilogue takes place so stay tuned. Last but not least…to all Rukato fans, please don't kill me. All I'm doing is justifying why they got together in the first place. I think that's it for now so see you on the other side!