Seth taps his fingers against his arm and thinks. There are limited numbers of Digidestined now, he and Asuka, Styles, Lana. It's not great, but it's not horrible either. He'll make do, as he always had. Unfolding from himself, he claps his hands together- a strangely satisfying muffled noise, thanks to the glove on one hand- and beams when the group immediately looks at him. "Well, let's go, guys. There's still enough of us here to do a quick scan of the digiworld, make sure everything's going well over there."
Some whisper, some scoff, there are a few audible mumbles that he chooses to ignore, still smiling benignly as they regroup and check their digivices for the map before settling in behind him, allowing him begrudgingly to lead the way. "Which one are we going to?" Styles asks, his accent thick as he hovers at Seth's elbow.
He stares at the dots, closing his eyes and letting his senses guide him. "This one," he exhales, touching one of the marks tenderly, just knowing on some level that this is where they are most needed. "Let's go, guys."
The digiport trip is short, quiet, tense, and Seth ignores the bad vibes behind him as he walks resolutely through the clearing, stopping atop a small hill that overlooks the village they're set to save. It seems quiet enough, but in a discerning way that tells him what evil lingers here is still there. He glances over and meets Asuka's eyes, confirming that she senses it as well too, and that's all the confirmation he needs as he sets off down the hill to go sort out yet another struggling village and its issues.
He never makes it, however, as there's a sudden, sharp flash of light and his footing stumbles. If not for AJ so close, gripping his shoulder and bracing him, he would've fallen entirely. "What... what was that?!"
"I don't know," Seth breathes, feeling weirdly distant, all of a sudden. Separated from his body, almost. "I... I don't know." Speaking is a struggle, he's not sure if the others can even understand him, but he struggles to take another step, then another.
AJ looks around with a frown and motions to the others. "Help me with him, he seems out of it. C'mon."
Asuka grabs him and pulls him upright, she and AJ moving in tandem to keep Seth up, keep him moving forward. He clings to them and tries to reclaim his bearings, but it's difficult. He gasps for breath and shakes his head, feeling hot and just uncomfortable. "I... I don't..."
"What is going on?" Lana demands, fully freaked out by Seth's strange actions, his face twisted in one almost of pain as he shakes his head left to right, just struggling to breathe. "What was that light?"
"Not sure," AJ says, still trying to keep Seth moving until they can get him out of the clearing and maybe somewhere more secure to figure this out. "Seth- ya gotta work with us, here-"
Then the voices start. Echoes of voices, sharp and pleading between giggles, and Seth's knees buckle. 'Come play with us, we're so lonely. Everyone else dies before we can have any fun, but you... you are strong!'
AJ and Asuka aren't expecting this and when Seth falls, he slips out of their grips and crashes hard to the ground below. "Shit!" AJ gasps, trying futilely to get him up once more.
"I hear them," Seth whispers, ignoring his attempts. "I... I feel them... They're nearby, they..." He struggles forward, crawling towards a hill overlooking the village reflected on the map now forgotten by the others. "They want... they want me to play with them... They're so young. And innocent, but... so strong, and their powers are so cruel..."
"Who is he even talking about?" Lana demands, ignoring the exasperated look Asuka shoots at her before they all turn their focus back onto Seth, still crawling desperately up that hill to try to catch sight of what it is he keeps hearing.
'We just want a taste... that's all, your power seems so delicious, please let us experience just a little of it... I promise we'll be good once you do.'
"That's a trap," Seth mumbles, shaking his head and ignoring the weird flood of thoughts and urges he has after their attempt at coercing him to do their bidding. "You want to drain away everything vital to me, but I can't allow you to. I still have so much to do..." He lifts his hand once he's further up the hill, looking out across the village finally. "Where are you? I see the village..."
The voice laughs. "I suppose you will just have to find us."
"I will," Seth promises. "My friends and I, we will stop you from causing more pain to this village, and any other like it."
"I await this," the voice cackles and Seth shakes his head, relieved when the pressure in his skull eases, and he can think.
The other digidestined are looking at him warily and he exhales shakily, regaining his balance and stumbling forward a couple of steps. "We have to..." He presses his gloved hand to his forehead and kneads it desperately, trying to rid himself of the vestiges of the headache, of their words echoing in his mind. "We have to find them. They need to be stopped."
It's Asuka who approaches him, a tense look on her face. "Seth," she says, slow and careful. "What was... that light?"
"A Digimon," he manages to say. "It... it tried to sneak attack, but..." He stares at his hands. "It didn't affect me like it expected." He looks up at the others. "It's... intrigued by me now, it wants to battle."
"Well, nothing concerning about that at all," AJ mumbles, following along warily as Seth stumbles forward, still trying to shake off the effects of both the attack and the digimon's words. "Does it wanna fight all of us or just you?"
"Me, I think," Seth says absently, still struggling just to keep upright. Although the attack hadn't truly hurt him, it had done something to him that he can't make sense of. "Maybe you all should stay here, I can- I can handle this."
"Oh please," AJ scoffs. "You can barely walk." As if to prove his point, Seth stumbles and AJ's quick instincts are the only thing keeping him from faceplanting, gripping him around the middle and pulling him upright once more.
"Thanks," Seth mumbles into his shoulder, blinking dazedly. He shudders and regains his balance, exhaling slowly. "I can do this." He can, and he does, trying not to think too much about the Digidestined following behind him slowly. The village is simple, quiet. He doesn't like the feeling of foreboding that greets him. Something guides him, this strange misty energy leading him straight to a house in the heart of the village, and he rests his hand against its door for a few moments before pushing it open.
He knows immediately. This is the right place. He stares inside absently and looks over his shoulder. "Please stay out here, this... this isn't your fight," he breathes out.
"Seth," AJ mutters, frustrated.
"For now," Asuka informs him. "We hear something, we come after you."
It's not great, but it'll have to do. Seth nods tensely and stumbles inside, Betamon's claws digging into his jeans with each step. The rooms are dark, he trips over things a few times, but it's clear when he finds the digimon- almost as soon as he walks into a room in the back of the house, immense pressure weighs him down, nearly presses him hard into the floor. He fights to remain standing, struggling for each breath. "Keramon," he chokes out- because he knows this digimon, even in a form altered by X-Antibodies, and a vicious cackle fills the air.
"You know my name," the creature says. "I'm truly honored by that. Everyone should know the name of the creature about to kill them."
Betamon reacts poorly to this, moving forward to attack- just to get slammed aside by some invisible force. "Betamon!" Seth cries out, watching as his partner hits the wall, and slumps down to the floor, unconscious. He turns back to Keramon and tries not to completely lose it. "How could you do this? Why do any of you digimon constantly have to do this? Villages that have never done anything, just wiped out within seconds by your cruelty. It makes no sense."
Keramon sighs. "You're a supposed messiah, right? You claim to understand sacrifice and the greater good. We need power, we need what these villagers can give us. It's simple as that."
He speaks so simply, so cavalierly about it all. Seth trembles. "Sacrifice is more- more important than how you make it out to be. It's a choice, it's not someone running in and stealing lives and homes away, it's..." His vision fails him now, and he stumbles hard into the same wall Betamon is collapsed against, a rough gasp pouring from his lips.
"You are changed," Keramon says simply, moving closer to him. "I can see it. I want it for myself." He creeps up Seth's legs and Seth doesn't even have the breath to yell, or kick him off. "It's so... powerful. Why do you keep fighting it?" He crawls higher up Seth's body, resting over his racing heart, and Seth bats at him, trying to get him to move, but Keramon's pincers dig deeper inside and Seth moans.
"Please- no-" There's a deep flash of light and Keramon exhales deeply, absorbing some of the energy. "Stop-"
"You are powerful," he mutters. "There's something there- you're not purely human anymore. This is why you think you know so much about sacrifice..." He cackles. "Who did this to you? Such fools, expecting a human to know what to do with so much strength..."
"Tonosama Gekomon," Seth pants, even as more of his light is drained by Keramon.
Keramon clicks his tongue. "Ah, that foolish creature. Explains a lot." His eyes start to flash pure white as he claims more of Seth's energy. "Such an abundance... it's almost hard to fathom he could give you this much..."
"Because he didn't!" Betamon cries out, Seth blinking hard as his partner, battered but back with it, lunges up and forward, slicing viciously at Keramon with his claws. The attack isn't as strong as it should be, and at an awkward angle, but it's enough to make Keramon loosen his hold on Seth, falling back to the ground near Betamon and snarl at the digimon. "Seth's always been strong on his own without Tonasama Gekomon or anyone else's help!"
Keramon laughs. "Oh, you're just as delusional as he is," he says softly, reaching out towards Betamon.
"No!" Seth cries out, moving quickly to shield his partner, kneeling down before him and holding on as another flash of light slams over them. He grits his teeth and moans as his body convulses.
"Seth!" Betamon cries out, staring up into his pale face in horror.
"It- it's ok," he promises, slowly releasing Betamon and standing back up, even shakier than he was before. He turns, pressing a trembling hand to the wall as he stares at Keramon. "I won't let you hurt him," he says, voice barely audible. "Not now, not ever."
"You can't even handle the power flowing through you, how do you plan on stopping me?!" Keramon demands, lunging forward once more- just to be met by Seth, who grabs him out of thin air and holds him close. "What-"
"Finish what you started," Seth grunts. "You think I don't understand sacrifice? Prove it-" And then he tips his head back and bites down a scream as Keramon greedily obliges him, clawing deep into his chest and draining more- more- more...
until Keramon's entire body glows white and Seth collapses to his knees, too weak to hold himself up any longer. Cackling, Keramon presses on, taking all that there is-
"NO!" Betamon cries out, watching helplessly as Seth desiccates before his very eyes. "SETH!"
But something happens. Keramon's entire body freezes, and he gasps, one quiet, mournful sound, before his body destabilizes and glitches against Seth's chest, immediately exploding in a shower of data. The only thing that remains is the abundance of pure white energy that he had taken from Seth, and Betamon cries as he looks from Seth's drained body and the deep glow of his strength.
"I... I have to do something," the digimon whispers, crawling towards it. He curls his claws around it, he holds it protectively, feeling the warm thrum of Seth against his skin, and turns once more to look at his partner. "Please- Seth- please-" He pushes the energy towards him, tries to hold it towards his torn up chest. "Reclaim what's rightfully yours. Please..." Tears drip down his face and he whimpers as nothing happens, the energy continuing just to glow and thrum, while Seth kneels there, lifeless and unresponsive.
It takes a few moments for Betamon to notice another light source, hear something vibrating- but when he does, Betamon gasps and watches Seth's digivice thrum from where it had dropped out of Seth's pocket and landed on the floor. Desperate for some sort of a miracle, Betamon grabs for it and watches as it glows in his hand. "Please," he whispers to it. "Do something. Bring Seth back. You have to- I can't..."
He yells out, terrified and in shock when the energy dissipates in his hand, and he cries harder. "Seth, no," he sobs, unable to look up and face his dead partner. "Please- why..."
He barely registers the touch on his head, down his nose, thinking it's Asuka or one of the other digidestined, so lost in his grief that he can't focus on anything else around him. It's only when he's picked up, and snuggled close to a familiar jaw, that he slowly blinks back to awareness, digging his claws into a Monday Night Messiah shirt, and- He looks up into Seth's warm, brown eyes, and lets out another wail. "Seth!?"
"It's ok," he whispers soothingly. "It's all ok, now, Betamon."
"But- but how?!"
Seth smiles, still stroking Betamon's forehead. "In the end, Keramon was the one who didn't understand true sacrifice."
