Disclaimer: Digimon is a franchise owned jointly by Toei Animation and Bandai, and conceptualized by Akiyoshi Hongo. Doctor Who is a property owned by the British Broadcasting Company created by Sydney Newman. The concept of The Tamer v2.0: In His Name is a fanfiction idea. Please support the official properties.
The Tamer v2.0: In His Name
Chapter 46: Juri, Let Us Save You
Juri felt fear as she heard the monster's voice echo inside of her head. It was scared and in a panic. And being able to share a mind with it - to be unable to distinguish its own panicked thoughts from her own - was beginning to take a toll on her.
"Refocus resources, focus strength on absorbing in the other world, acquire more strength, it must not be allowed to win."
Although it spoke in its usual monotone, the fast pace made her wonder just how much of its behavior was motivated by fear or cruel calculation. As it spoke, more images flashed through her mind of the Digital World. Countless digimon fighting for their lives, trying to hold back an advancing sea of red that wouldn't stop. Then another image came to mind of a golden haired angel bathed in beautiful white light piercing through the sea of red. And the voice screamed in its head.
"More time! More strength! Need more time! Acquire more resources! Grow in strength! It must be defeated! IT CANNOT WIN!"
The voice's coherence turned into full on garbled static as she felt pain like a needle in her brain. She grabbed at her head to ease the pain, but only felt it get worse. She gasped as images of a bright light enveloping the Digital World moved through her head. She could feel the world shaking as she fell to her side and curled up into a ball. All she could feel was unbelievable pain and she just wanted it to stop.
"TALISMAN OF LIGHT!"
"RAPID FIRE!"
"JUSTICE BEAM!"
"METAL WOLF CLAW!"
The attacks cried out as the partner digimon did everything they could to keep the D-Reaper from reforming around the train car. The rest of the humans were gathered at the train car trying to get inside. And from what Rika could see, Juri was on the floor inside the train car with Calumon in her arms. She was so close, yet she seemed so far away.
Juri barely seemed to register what was going on - that the D-Reaper had retreated and that she was going to be rescued. In fact, she looked to be in some kind of pain. Rika banged on the window to get her attention, "JURI! JURI!"
The girl didn't react to her. Calumon did though. His ears expanded upon seeing Rika and he cried something out, but it was completely drowned out by all the noise around them. It looked like he was trying to get out of her arms, struggling against her. But try as he might, Juri's hands tightened around him until he started to gasp for breath.
Rika slammed on the window, trying to get through the window until Ishida pulled her away, "Get behind me!"
He drew his pistol from its holster and fired at the window, shattering the glass with two shots and reaching through the window to get the door open, "Come on! AH! GOT IT!"
The door slid open and he squeezed his arm to keep all the blood from draining out. He'd cut his arm on all the broke glass just trying to turn the handle and his wife was helping him keep pressure on the wound, "Hurry! Get her out of there! The sooner we go, the better! I don't think Matt's going to-"
"GOT IT!" Rika said, not waiting as she rushed inside to see Calumon begging to be let go and Juri still doubled over on the floor in pain. The little digimon begged and pleaded, "PLEASE! SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH JURI AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT BUT IT'S SCARING ME! PLEASE GET ME-"
Calumon froze for a moment as one of Juri's hands reached out to trace a pattern on his forehead. Once she finished, the little digimon let out the most horrific scream any of them had ever heard. As he wailed in agony, a light burst forth from the mark on his forehead. It blinded them for a moment, but Rika was able to see Juri speak in a mechanical drone, "Upgrade in Progress."
Upgrade in Progress? Oh no. Rika's mind raced, overcome with panic as she tried to figure out what else the D-Reaper could have to throw at them. Then she felt herself pulled out of the train car and on to her back.
"RIKA! Look out!" Taomon's voice cried out. Once Rika's vision returned, she saw what looked a behemoth of a blob monster standing over her, with one foot raised just above her head. She rolled clear of the attack and scraped her arms on the gravel just as the foot came crashing down on top the tracks. She rolled onto her side and looked back up at the monstrous creature.
This thing had the emaciated torso of something vaguely humanoid. The rest of its lower body was missing, as if it had been ripped clean of its lower half and left to crawl its way around on just its own two arms. Despite that, it was still tall enough and large enough to be as dangerous as it was terrifying, especially since it had almost stepped on her just a moment ago. Taomon landed beside her and scooped her up, "It's not safe! All of you! Get back!"
"You don't have to tell us twice!" Ishida shouted, gripping his arm tight as he and his wife hurried their way towards MetalGarurumon. Taomon leapt back away from the train car as the hulking monster turned on them, giving her an aerial view of the fight. And Rika could see they couldn't hold the train forever.
The D-Reaper was slowly swallowing up the space they'd made with the military's bomb and it was only a matter of time until it swallowed them up whole. And from this elevated position, she could also see all the various D-Reaper creatures attacking them. Some looked like the bird creatures from before but now with guns growing out of their 'wings'. Others looked like giant pink squid monsters with smiley faces drawn all over its body.
One of those smiley faces opened up wide to reveal a gaping maw filled with rows of bulbous eyes and misshapen teeth covered in viscous slime that oozed out of its mouth. With its tentacled appendages, it swung at the ground around them while growling.
Rika gasp, "This is no good. We have to stop that thing!"
"We have to save Juri!" Taomon reminded them.
"We can't save her if we can't get to her!" Rika countered.
"Then we'll have to get her to us!" Henry cried out. Rika turned her head towards him, "What are you talking about? Bring her to us? We CAN'T even get to her!"
"We can't get to her! But we can get near the train car!" Henry shouted out, tapping his partner on the head. He gestured over towards Imperialdramon and Rapidmon flew off towards the dragon. Rika blinked as she watched him fly off towards the dragon, trying to follow the boy's logic. Train car? What was he even thinking about?
And why did he need Imperialdramon of all digimon...
"What is he thinking?" Taomon asked allowed.
"I think I just figured it out," Rika said, patting Taomon on the shoulder, "We need to cover Imperialdramon. Ryo! I mean Justimon!"
"WHAT!?" he cried out, voice just barely audible over the sound of all the fighting.
"We need to protect Imperialdramon!?" Rika shouted at him. That time he seemed to hear her and he turned with what was definitely a shocked expression under that helmet he was wearing over his face, "Protect Imperialdramon? He's a giant dragon who can fly faster than sound and has a cannon so powerful it blows up mountain ranges! What does he need protecting for?"
"We can't protect this place forever. He's going to grab the train car and get it out of there!"
"That's…" Justimon paused for a moment to consider it before mumbling, "…not a bad idea, actually. Okay, We'll protect Imperialdramon."
"Then what are the rest of us supposed to do until then?" Beelzemon growled at the top of his lungs, firing his shotgun and his cannon freely at any target that moved within range of his weapon.
Rika would've thought that part was obvious and gestured at the surrounding monsters the D-Reaper was currently throwing at them, "What do you think we should be doing?"
"Hey! Don't get snippy with me! You guys are always complainin' 'bout that one kid leavin' ya outta the loop, so don't go whinin' when I ask ya not to do the same to me!" Beelzemon growled, turning back towards the D-Reaper swarm. The other mega level digimon were hitting it with everything they had but it was obvious that the power gap was not something they could overcome. These new D-Reaper creatures were fast enough to avoid getting hit and strong enough to not even flinch when the attack hit its mark. Really, all they were doing was buying time. Which made speed all the more important.
Imperialdramon was already on top of the train car, using his claws to separate it from the other cars and lifting off into the air. The other D-Reaper creatures registered what was happening and moved to intercept the dragon before he could get to high into the sky.
Rosemon, HerculesKabuterimon, Magnadramon, Seraphimon, Vikemon, MetalGarurumon, Hououmon, and Beelzemon gave everything they could to hold the swarm of creatures back. However, their numbers were too great for the megas combined might to be enough. Especially when their combined might was just barely able to knock down one of these things. As their space slowly disappeared, they either took to the air or hopped on top of the train car to keep shooting at the attackers.
"Running out of room here," Rosemon said, cracking her vines at any of the creatures that were getting too close. Beelzemon positioned himself beside her, firing his beam cannon freely.
He fired off two more rounds and snapped, "So quit yapping and keep fighting! What kinda weapon is that anyway? Who uses a whip?"
"Who uses an old shotgun?" Rosemon countered.
"And here I was thinking the fox dame was bad," he grumbled, firing his cannon again. Justimon landed on the roof of the train car and punched a pair of the bird creatures that were sneaking up on them from behind.
Both megas were taken aback, but didn't dwell on it. There was a lot to be mindful of in this battle. Taomon and Rapidmon also set down on the roof, if only to give their partners a place to stay out of harm's way as the fighting raged around them. Rika called upwards towards the flying dragon, "Imperialdramon! You need to move faster!"
"Working on it! This thing ain't exactly light and if we move too fast, you guys will all go flying off," the two minded dragon responded as he continued to ascend skyward away from the pursuing red mass. Once he was at least above the nearest buildings, the rest of the digimon ascended with him since the growing mass of the D-Reaper made the area around the tracks completely hard to defend. Then the unthinkable happened - the swarming D-Reaper monsters began to swarm upwards.
The grounded creatures piled on top of each other, climbing on top of one another to make a grab at it. The ones who could fly threw themselves at either Imperialdramon to hurt him or on to train car. None of them individually would've been able to do much by themselves but all of them hitting it at once was enough to make the train car start to slip out of his hand. Imperialdramon tightened his hold to keep it from flying off while the others tried to fight the swarming creatures off.
Rika cried, "THESE THINGS ARE EVERYWHERE!"
"We'll hold them," Taomon said, swinging her brush to drawn as many symbols as possible, "Talisman of Light!"
"RAPID FIRE!" Rapidmon shouted, firing his gun arms in every conceivable direction. But nothing they could do was putting a dent in the numbers the D-Reaper was throwing at them.
"This isn't working. We need to change strategies," Henry said aloud. Which was a lot easier said than done. After all, what other strategies could they use? They were outnumbered, outmatched, against an enemy who could upgrade itself on the fly against whatever they could throw at it. What else could they do?
"AAAAAAHHH!"
A flash of light blinded them briefly as they heard disembodied screams come crashing down beside them. Kazu, Kenta, Guardromon, MarineAngemon, Tamerkato, and Guilmon. She wasn't sure if she wanted to celebrate or throw a punch at him in anger, "Gogglehead!? Please say you're not about to run off on another part of your plan!"
"Hello, currently separating the Digital Worlds which we can't be there for if we don't want to get our personalities split in half. What's going on?" Tamer spat out as he tried to steady himself, "And what are we on? Why is it...oh, is that Imperialdramon?"
"Aw yeah, dude! Right in the middle of the action where I wanted to be!" Kazu punched the air ecstatically. He was already preparing his digivice and deck, running to the edge of the train car to survey things, "Now we get to help out! Digimodify!"
Kazu swiped cards like crazy through his digivice and gave Guardromon a swath of power-ups and Machinedramon's canon to go with it. Guardromon planted his feet firmly in the ground and fired the first shot, obliterating a hole in the swarm of attacking D-Reaper creatures that made the rest of them stop in surprise.
"Alright! That's how you do it!" Kazu said excitedly, "Come on, Kenta! You help out, too!"
"I...uh...yeah," Kenta took out his own deck and started fumbling for cards to power up his partner. Tamerkato looked around and remarked, "Wait, are we on a train car?"
"We couldn't snap Juri out of her funk or get her out in time so we're just taking the entire car," she explained to him. He nodded and threw his goggles over his head, "Okay. Get her and Calumon out of here! Guilmon! DigiModify! Angemon's Wings Activate! Speed Boost Activate!"
He hurried over to his red dragon partner and leapt onto his back. The dragon let out a loud belch before taking off into the air, whining, "We're not going to use a digiport again, are we?"
"Not this time buddy," he said, "DIGIMODIFY! WARGREYMON'S SHIELD ACTIVATE!"
Rika snapped her attention back to the fight as it was playing out in front of them. She was just about open up her deck to modify her partner when she heard a loud noise behind her. She spun around to see another of those puppet scythe creatures just inches from her face, ready to strike at her. Its blade was already over head, ready to strike her down. Rika tried to move her feet away in terror but was unable to do so. All she could do was stand there and watch the blade come down on top of her.
"Leave her alone!" Rosemon shouted as she leapt between them, taking the strike across her chest before swinging her whip around to wrap itself around the creature. With another swing, she threw it into another of the bird creatures and away from them. She took another swing to take out as many of the creatures as possible before collapsing to one side, "Ah...are you okay, Ruki?"
"I'm fine...thank you," she answered, watching her mom's wounded partner trying to hide the pain. But it was obvious that strike did more harm than she was admitting, especially since she was buckled over with a hand over where she was hit and talking between gasped breaths.
Taomon moved in front of them, "Sorry, I was distracted."
"Don't be. We just need to get her out of here," Rika said, feeling Imperialdramon turn and try to fly away with the train car still in his claws. Her mom's own partner had leapt in the way to protect her. She took up her digivice, recalling what Justimon and Beelzemon had said about biomerging. Now was as good a time as any to try it again. She raised up her digivice and readied a red card from her deck, "Okay, let's do this Taomon. Digimodify! Digivolution, ACTIVATE!"
She heard a heartbeat as Taomon was enveloped by a bright light, "Taomon! Digivolve to!"
A warm feeling grew in her heart until it completely wrapped itself around her, blinding everything with light, "SAKUYAMON!"
Rika stood tall, feeling the heavy armor upon her much taller body. It took her a moment to steady herself before raising her staff into the air, "Okay boys. You want her, you're going to have to get through me!"
Us, Renamon's voice echoed in her head.
"Right, us," Rika replied.
"Who are you talking to?" Rosemon asked from behind her.
"Nothing," she replied, watching as the creatures swarmed forward to attack. She swung her staff every way she could to strike down as many of the D-Reaper's creatures as possible but even she could tell this was a wasted effort. Everyone she brought down meant another one would appear to take its place. And if she didn't know any better, she would say they were getting stronger.
Henry swiped more cards to give Rapidmon the power boost he needed to strike back against these creatures, but even he could tell the fight wasn't going their way. They were barely getting any distance from the D-Reaper's advancing monsters and it seemed all their efforts really were for nothing at this point. Still, they couldn't just give up. They had to keep trying until either the Juggernaut could be activated or it could get away. He glanced back into the train car to see Juri curled up into a ball on floor, seemingly in incredible pain. Calumon was beside her, passed out on the floor. Then she started tracing her fingers across his forehead as she announced, "Upgrade in Progress."
"No," Henry said in disbelief, finally understanding where these things were coming form just as the light shone forth from Calumon's head. Calumon's eyes burst open as he began screaming in unbelievable terror again. It was Calumon. The D-Reaper, through Juri, was using Calumon to upgrade itself and make stronger forms to fight them. And if they wanted to win, they needed to get Calumon away from her.
"RAPIDMON!" he called out to his partner who was busy peppering away more of the D-Reaper creatures with ease. Once Rapidmon found a moment to talk, he turned his attention to Henry and asked, "What?"
"It's Calumon! We have to get him away from Juri!" Henry explained, "As long as the D-Reaper has control over Juri, it can upgrade her indefinitely! We need to get them away from each other!"
"Uh...okay...good luck?" Rapidmon said, turning his head as another creature was coming to attack him. He blasted it with gunfire until it was gone and turned back to Henry, "I mean...I don't know about we. I'm way too big to fit inside that thing."
Henry did a double take as he looked back at his partner and then size of the train car. Yeah, of course. But he still had to get in. And Rapidmon was now too busy fighting off more of those creatures to actually be of some kind of help. He'd need to find another way in and he looked around until he spotted a hatch in the roof of the train car.
That was his way in. He made his way over to it and tried to pry it open, only to find it stuck in place. Maybe it was just rusted shut or maybe the lock really was that strong. Either way, the damn thing just would not open.
"What are ya doin?" Beelzemon called out as he looked over his shoulder. Henry looked up from the gate, "I'm trying to get inside! We need to get Calumon away from Juri if we're going to stop more of these things from showing up."
"The pip squeak? Geez, how much trouble is that lil' guy? Here!" he stooped down to pry the hatch open himself. It didn't take much effort for him, but he ripped it open and threw the hatch at one of the attacking scythe creatures, "OKAY! GET IN!"
"Doing it," Henry lowered himself into the train car slowly but found himself dangling in the air, legs swinging towards one of the seats only to be left dangling up there. He couldn't get within reach of any of the seats so he did the only thing he could do - drop himself down onto the floor below and trying to catch himself as he landed.
He toppled over on to his knees when he hit the floor which was enough to snap Calumon out of his pained trance, "Henry!? HENRY! Please! Help me! She keeps-"
"Don't worry, I'm coming," Henry said, running over and trying to pry Calumon free of Juri's grip. The girl was surprisingly stronger than she looked and nothing he did could get her arms to budge or loosen her hold on Calumon. All the while, Calumon screamed to be freed as Juri mumbled quietly to herself.
"She's...not...budging," Henry said as he kept trying to get it open to no avail. He gazed when he finally let go, trying to think of other options but he just couldn't think of anything that didn't involve hurting Juri. But what other choice did he have? He didn't like the idea but it was the only one going through his mind and maybe it would work? He reeled back his hand and apologized, "Sorry, Juri."
...
Pain across her cheek was all Juri could feel as the world around her came into focus. She looked around, unsure of what was going on when her eyes lay on Henry standing over her. Did he slap her? Why? She shook her head and looked up at Henry, "Henry? HENRY!? Where are we!? What's going on!?"
"We need to get out of here. Come on!" he said trying to get Calumon from her arms only to find that she was still holding him tight.
She tried releasing him but her arms wouldn't budge. In fact, her entire body below her neck wouldn't move and panic began to set in, "I can't move! I can't feel anything! What's going on!? I don't like this!"
"Juri! Juri!" Henry said, trying to get the girl's attention, "I think the D-Reaper still has control over your body. Don't worry, we're working on a plan to save you. We just need to get Calumon away from you."
"Me?" Calumon repeated.
"Calumon!?" Juri said as well, eyes wide with disbelief.
"I'm sorry, Juri. The D-Reaper is using your body to use Calumon's power and make itself stronger. If we can't save you, the least we can do is get him away from you while we think of another plan," Henry said to her. They were abandoning her. That's what he was saying. Of course they were abandoning her. What good was she without her partner? After all, Calumon was the one who needed saving. With him, they at least might able to change things by making themselves stronger. What good would rescuing her do?
"WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG, KID!? THESE THINGS ARE EVERYWHERE!"
"No," Juri gasped, recognizing that voice. She looked up and saw Beelzemon peering down into the train car through a hole in the roof.
He fired off two more blasts from his gun and added, "We're running out of room! Get her out of there!"
"The D-Reaper still has control over her body!" Henry argued back at him, before turning to her, "Don't worry Juri. We're not leaving you! I promise!"
But none of that registered with Juri. All her attention was on Beelzemon now. The digimon who killed her partner. The one who caused all of this by giving Calumon to the digimon. And right now, all she wanted was for him to go away.
"NO!" she cried away in terror, "Go away!"
"What!?" Henry repeated in surprise as Calumon cried, "No! Juri! Please don't do this! We're trying to help you! We're all trying to help you! You need to fight it! Please!"
"Fight it...Fight it..." she repeated quietly, her mind still racing with the memory of when Beelzemon killed Leomon. Her heart was racing and whatever fear she felt vanished into fire. It was replaced only by resentment.
They will abandon you.
They were trying to.
They have the one who killed your partner with them.
They did.
They don't value you, Juri.
That wasn't true, was it?
We value you, Juri. Together, we will punish Beelzemon.
"Yes," she said, losing herself in anger as the voice echoed in her brain, Upgrade in progress.
...
"Juri! Fight it!" Henry said as Juri's eyes locked on to him. They were blank again. The D-Reaper was in control again, "Upgrade in Progress."
"Crap!" was all Henry managed to say. Then he heard glass shatter from behind him and something grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. It pulled hard, dragging him through the glass and back out of the train. Once he was out, he could see what attacked him with his own eyes and they widened in surprise. It was one of those tall creatures with multiple eyes on its head and more mouths than any reasonable creature could possess. It let out a dull roar in his face that drowned him in the awful smell of death as he acknowledge the situation he was in.
"Crap," was all he could think to say as it threw him towards the red mass below and he fell, "CRAP!"
"HENRY!" Rapidmon called out. He was falling now. Everything else was just a blur as he accelerated towards the burning red mass below him. He really hoped Rapidmon's speed boost hadn't worn off yet. Because if it hadn't, he was screwed. And he closed his eyes as his death came racing towards him, "CRAP!"
"HENRY!" Rapidmon said. He opened his back up to see Rapidmon just within reach. He was so close. Henry tried reaching back out to his partner when he heard a voice around them, "Heads up!"
It was Tamerkato, riding atop Guilmon. Then Guilmon threw the shield with all his might so that Henry landed on it. And he bounced off it as quickly as he hit it, back up towards Rapidmon, "GOTCHA!"
Rapidmon threw him onto his back and jetted away from the red mass, just in time for the other D-Reaper creatures to notice and come after them. Rapidmon tried fighting them off with his guns while also trying to balance Henry, which he appreciated since he was barely holding on at these speeds. But that didn't stop his partner from finding time to drop jokes, "I take it things didn't go well?"
"You think?" Henry answered back as he tried to get his bearings. His hands were shaking from his near death experience and his heart was pounding so hard he could feel it in his ears. He reached for his digivice, "We're going to have to change our tactics buddy. This is going to be hard to do."
"Just say when," Rapidmon said as he tried to put more distance between them and the pursuing D-Reaper creatures. He flipped through his deck carefully, trying to not lose any more cards than he already before finding the red digivolution card, "Okay, got it."
"Make it fast," Rapidmon said as he skid to a complete stop. Henry used that chance to swipe the red card and cry out, "DIGIMODIFY! DIGIVOLUTION ACTIVATE!"
He felt a surge of energy run through his body and his heart rate increased. Light blinded him and Rapidmon's voice echoed, "RAPIDMON! BIOMERGE TO! MEGAGARGOMON!"
"Oh hey, it worked," Henry said aloud. It's about damn time, Terriermon's voice echoed inside his head, So what do we do now? I guess we just keep holding them off.
Beelzemon's mouth fell open as Henry was pulled out of the train while Juri continued to sit on the chair, staring in silent disbelief. This couldn't be right. She just watched her friend get taken away by one of those things and she didn't seem the least bit fazed by it. Was it because of the trauma of what he did to her partner? Was it because of this red thing all the humans were freaking out about. It didn't are sense but he did know one thing. He needed to get Calumon away from her before she did another one of those upgrade things.
"Fine, I'll do it myself," he mumbled as he ripped the hatch entry wider so that he could leap inside the train car. Naturally, Calumon started freaking out and crying at the sight of him, "Oh no! Not you! Please! Don't hurt me!"
"Oh shaddap! I'm here to help!" he said, reaching for Calumon and trying to pull him free of the little girl's arms. All it took was one pull and a yelp from the little digimon for him to understand why Henry was struggling so much. This girl must've been a lot stronger than she looked to be holding Calumon so tight. Hell, he almost wondered what humans did to be so strong. He didn't recall any particular times when she'd worked out or did any kind of muscular exercise...
Wait...why would he remember anything of the sort? He didn't know anything in particular about her. Actually, now that he thought about it, where was that sock puppet of hers? She usually used it when she needed to express herself. And why did he know that? He never interacted with her so how did he have all these memories of her when...
He paused as he thought about it. He killed her partner. He absorbed her partner. Beelzemon always thought he'd just gotten a power boost from it but he'd never stopped to consider...if he'd also gotten more from it. He had memories that weren't his floating around inside his head. Leomon's memories...
Maybe...maybe he could talk to her?
He relaxed his grip on Calumon and put a hand on her shoulder, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself before he spoke, "Juri...I need you to give Calumon to me."
Juri continued to stare ahead blankly. He had to admit it was annoying. No...she was scared...she was angry...
And all those feelings were definitely aimed at him. After what he did, how could they not be? He took another moment to calm him breathing before adding, "I...I'm sorry for what I did Juri. I know nothing I do can bring him back."
He paused, trying to think of what to say next. He wasn't very good at this sort of thing. Then again, his only frame of reference was Mako and Ai being forced to give each other half hearted apologies when their parents scolded them. But he still had to try. He owed Leomon and the others at least that much. But he was good at one thing...giving one hundred percent effort at something he wanted to do.
"But I will save you! I promise you that much! So please, let me save you! Just for the hell of it. Let me get you out of here. But to do that, I need to get Calumon away from you!"
No answer. No remarks from her. Just silence.
That was a good sign, right? He didn't know the first thing about humans. Still, he tried to pry Calumon from her arms again. Still nothing. He pulled harder but nothing.
Juri could feel herself doubling over in terror. She didn't want to watch this. She refused to give Calumon to Beelzemon. And who was Beelzemon fooling, saying he was going to save anyone? He was only good for one thing: killing. But that wasn't going to be her fate. She wasn't going to die. Not by Beelzemon and not by this thing they were fighting.
"NNNOOO!" she cried out in anger. All she wanted was for Beelzemon to go away. And she felt the smallest hint of happiness as she watched him get pulled away by one of the creatures outside. But that happiness turned to panic as she realized she might've just thrown away her only chance to be saved. What had she done?
Author's Notes: Will Beelzemon be okay? Can they still save Juri? Will the team get the Juggernaut ready to fire in time? Find out all this and more in the next chapter of The Tamer v2.0 - In His Name, due out in three weeks on Friday, 31st at 8 PM CST! I know, I'm sorry. I know I said we might be back to the normal update schedule but then COVID spiked and now things are busier than they were before. I'm sorry for bringing up false hope. If you loved the story, don't forget to favorite and to follow to keep up with the latest updates. And leave a review with any thoughts you guys might have! That's all I have for now, let's look at previews for the next chapter!
"It's fine," he assured her, "Everything will be fine. I'm still in control. But if this goes sideways…I'm sorry. For everything. For not being open and honest from the beginning. For all the times I lied…and for what happened to Leomon. I never wanted to see anyone else get hurt, especially not because of me."
And then he vanished into the darkness along with the eye. Juri was alone. And as relieved as she was to see the thing was gone, she didn't want to be left alone in the dark, "Tamer!? Tamerkato! I mean…ah! Wait! Don't leave! Please!"