Life had been insane, putting it simply. Heath had been taken by Arkadimon just before Wade had been sent to England to film a movie, which kept him from entering the Digiworld, trying to find a way to rescue Heath. Every minute not spent in meetings with staff from the movie, or behind the camera, he dwelled on how to rescue Heath the fastest upon his return to the WWE roster. Even random check ins from the other Digidestined hadn't calmed him because silence never meant anything good, especially when to do with Heath. Heath was at his best when he was vocal and excited, silence never meant anything good from the man.
So Wade had been relieved to return to the States. Relieved to resume wrestling, relieved to step foot in the Digiworld once more. But he hadn't seen Heath, or heard anything about a suspicious human. It was quiet. It was peaceful. It was awful. He soothes Lopmon and even checks in on Boodah, who is miraculously fine. Wade takes him for a long walk, still lost in thought, until he hears it. Footsteps behind him. Boodah, who is normally calm and agreeable during walks, starts rearing up as if to fight, his ears low against his head as he begins to growl. "Whoa, boy, what's wrong?"
Growing more and more certain that it's the owner of the footsteps behind him causing Boodah to lose his ever-loving canine mind, Wade turns slowly and... comes face to face with his best friend for the first time in weeks. "Heath," he breathes out, hands almost dropping Boodah's leash in shock.
Heath's sneer is wrong, his eyes are dull, and all in all, it's clear that he's still under Arkadimon's control. But he's on earth, Wade has a chance! He can do this now... one-on-one, just them. He'd put the Digimon back in their digivices for this walk to not freak the neighbors out, but he's relieved to call upon them now, watching Heath's face closely as Lopmon appears. There's no sign, not even a twinge, but Wade keeps it together. Fishes out his digimental and holds it aloft along with his digivice. Lopmon hops onto Wade's head and watches grimly as Gatomon changes into Nefertimon with some envy.
Nefertimon stares at Arkadimon with an unimpressed sneer and shuffles closer to him. "You will not possess Heath Slater's body for much longer, vile creature. I will make sure of it."
He laughs at her, Heath's normally boisterous, life-loving guffaw sounding ugly and twisted. Wade hates it. "I will just come back again and again and again until you are all crushed under my feet," he tells her coldly.
"Good luck with that," Nefertimon says coolly, a blinding beam of light blasting out out of nowhere and bringing with it a slab of stone. As she slams it towards Heath, Boodah paces restlessly at the end of his leash, clearly agitated by the sights and sounds around him. Lopmon eventually hops off of Wade's head and uses his lengthy ears as wings to float down and settle on top of Boodah. Wade can't decide if the dog knows Heath's partner already or can recognize a friendly presence because he relaxes and pants at Lopmon as the Digimon pets him, Nefertimon and Arkadimon's war raging on.
The most frightening part of it all is that, even though Arkadimon's in the body of a human, he's able to access his Digimon attacks and use them normally, tentacles growing from Heath's hands and legs, circling around and trying to pierce Nefertimon, who's doing all she can to dodge them. This attracts Boodah and Lopmon's attention and the dog barks sharply just for one of the tentacles to swoop back around and slap him, sending him skittering and whining off of the sidewalk into the street.
"No!" Wade yells, moving quickly to get him out before traffic comes through. "Boodah!" He's huge, but it's manageable, even with Wade's history of arm injuries. Adrenaline, he thinks, helps as well as he hoists the big dog up and carries him a few feet to safety. "You're ok, you're ok."
But Lopmon is not, tears in his eyes as he stares at the body of his now mutated partner. "Heath, I'm so sorry," he whispers. "Lop punch! Petit Twister!" He alternates between his attacks, sometimes slapping Heath with his ears again and again, and sometimes blasting him with a small tornado that causes him to double up as he struggles for air. He's emotional, he's in agony, and he doesn't realize until it's too late- a tentacle slaps him far, far away into a building and he collapses down, sliding to the pavement.
"This is your fate!" Arkadimon screams at them in the bastardization of Heath's voice that sounds so awful to all of their ears. Wade and Nefertimon can do nothing but gape, the armor digimon finally acting and moving forward to attack Heath with another pillar of stone when there's a strange flash of light. "No," a familiarly accented voice replies, the normal tones that they're used to this time. "No, your'e wrong." It suddenly makes sense. Heath is fighting against Arkadimon! And for an insane moment, he'd won out control of his own body.
Overwhelmed, Wade stares down at the thrumming digivice in his hands and realizes that it's not his- it's orange, not a dark blue. It's Heath's. He looks up, the pieces of the puzzle fitting together, and he instinctively tosses it to his friend, watching as more awareness returns to Heath's eyes, his hand reaching out for the digivice. When he snags it, there's a sonic boom like sound and Wade instictively drops to his knees, shielding his head... but when he looks up, Heath is standing before him, healthy and whole... awash in brilliant, beautiful light.
"I'm so sorry," he gasps, southern accent at its maximum. "I can't... stay for long... but Lopmon... Go, partner. GO!"
Lopmon needs to hear nothing else as the power of the digimental that he had unearthed when crashing into that building and the light of the digivice circles his body. "I'll get you back, Heath! I promise! Lopmon armor digivolve to..." His body changes, grows. Flames surround him, licking at his fur and paws. "Lynxmon!" he cries out, voice deeper.
Nefertimon circles Arkadimon, Lynxmon shaking off the leftover power from the digivolution, and immediately tackles his partner again, pinning him to the ground. It's still Heath in there, which makes this harder, but when Heath looks up at him, he merely smiles. "I know ya will. I'm proud of ya, Lynxmon. You're... incredible..." And that's it, his eyes turn dark, his voice becomes evil, and Heath is gone once more.
"I don't know what to do to fix this," Lynxmon gasps as he stares down at his warped partner, who could slice him to pieces with a tentacle at any moment.
"I have an idea, but I'm not sure if it'll work," Nefertimon says slowly. "And you'll have to get off of him to try it. Do you know my combo attack? I can normally only do it with another Digimon with a light-based attack, but perhaps your flames will be an alright stand in..." The digimon stare at each other for a moment.
"I'm willing to try anything," Lynxmon whispers, slowly pulling away from Heath.
Arkadimon sneers, his tentacles already whipping around, but then- he yowls in pain. Boodah had leapt, Boodah had bit into the nearest one, and Boodah was hanging on. "Foolish mutt!" Arkadimon screams, trying to shake him off, but nothing was working. "GET OFF!"
Wade decides to help. Lunges into the fray and starts slamming his elbow into as many as he can. It hurts, it's tiring, but it distracts Arkadimon long enough for Lynxmon and Nefertimon to get the timing right. "THERMAL MANE!" "GOLDEN NOOSE!" Two ropes of flame and light combine to circle around Heath's body, ensnaring his tentacles and, as much as the flames clearly hurt, the light seems to be affecting him more as he screams and tugs at Heath's orange hair.
"NO! SON OF A BITCH, STOP!" His control is wavering, Heath's body arching and thrashing around as the light and fire engulf him. Wade is afraid that they've killed his best friend but then a flood of data streams from his pores before simply disappearing and all any of them can do is watch and hope as Heath sags against the ground, his face shadowed by his hair so none of them can see his expression, if he's ok.
Wade finds his strength eventually, enough at least to step awkwardly over and kneel by his best friend. When Wade touches him, his flesh is warm, his hair is soft. He feels fine, seems unburnt, but... "Heath?" he whispers. "Heath?"
"I'm here. I think," Heath mutters after a moment and Wade closes his eyes, his hand tightening on Heath's shoulders.
"You bloody fool, you scared me half to death," Wade is in the middle of lecturing him when Heath tips forward and buries his face in Wade's chest, effectively quieting his rant.
"Sorry," he mumbles, clearly exhausted. Wade closes his eyes and wraps an arm around Heath, ignoring the fact that ordinarily he's not much for hugging. "Sorry for attackin' ya... and sorry for everythin' else... but not sorry for savin' ya when you almost drowned, a'course..."
Wade laughs weakly, blinking hurriedly to keep from crying. He's back, the bloody ignoramous is back... "Of course... stop apologizing and just sleep, you ridiculous man," he sighs as Lopmon and Gatomon, now dedigivolved, surround them, Boodah close behind.
"That sounds nice," Heath sighs before wrapping his free arm around Boodah's warm neck and squeezing him. Lopmon floats up and rests on top of his head, a small smile on his face. "I've missed y'all..."
He sounds halfasleep, barely with anything, so Wade gives it a minute before mumbling, "We've missed you too."
Heath chuckles, shattering Wade's hope, and sighs, nuzzling deeper into his warmth. "I heard that."
"Shut up and go to sleep, Heath."
