It sucks, being injured. Getting laid up and not knowing if you can help, if you can do anything at all to save... anyone. Seth is still groggy, disoriented, but he remembers in the back of his mind that he has to do something. Help someone. He's lost in these swirling, anxious thoughts, unable to clear his mind, focus, anything, when he feels a soft touch scraping through his hair. "Betamon," he whimpers, and that clears some of the fog out of his mind as he blinks and blinks again, realizing he's in Luke's hideout. "Betamon?"
"Seth!" his partner cries, then scurries around when Seth struggles to sit up, get his feet under him. "No, no, you're hurt, Seth! You shouldn't be moving!"
Seth exhales sharply, then looks over at his partner, his best friend. "The others have been gone for how long?" Betamon's falter is all he need to know. "I need to... I need to be there for them, I'm... I am their leader." Shinsuke might not agree, but it's true. He had been for years, and he will always see himself that way. He is dizzy when he finally stands. The world tilts warningly around him, and aches slide up between his ribs, through his chest, and he moans, almost folding in half just to make it all stop.
"Seth, please!" Betamon begs him. "Get back in bed, you're too weak for this!"
He's been told that his whole life- you're too small, you're too little, you don't have the ability, we don't know if you can- and he's already proven those people wrong. So he trudges forward, little by little, until he finds himself outside. There are a few digimon milling around at the mouth of the cavern, but Seth ignores them, trudges resolutely towards the portal.
Betamon continues pleading. "Seth!" he all but sobs. "Please!"
Ordinarily, Seth would be back in bed within a second if Betamon kept crying out to him like that, but the others need him, and he knows more about Docmon and his abilities than anyone else. He needs to be there, no matter what. "Betamon," he says quietly. "Please. I need to do this, and I need my partner by my side."
This stops Betamon's cajoling and begging, and everything falls silent as Seth trudges forward just a little more. He smiles when, a minute later, Betamon falls in step, reluctantly, next to him. "I'm here, Seth. Let's do this."
The smile they share is tense, full of pain and worry, but it's a good first step as they hover in front of the portal. Seth shakes his head, hopes this works, and holds his digivice out. "Digiport... open!"
