Chapter 8: The Tale of Sir Locus

Chorus, 2552 (10 months ago)

Locus lay on the floor of the Communication Temple panting and exhausted, he could hear Felix shouting to the Reds and Blues even more bloodthirsty than before. As he tried to get up, Santa appeared next to him with thought that would change the mercenary's life forever.

"What are you doing here?" Santa asked in his deep, extraterrestrial voice

"We are here to kill the simulation troopers" Locus answered in a tone of exhaustion and emptiness.

"Will this secure your victory over their forces?"

"No"

"Then what is the point?"

"I don't know"

"What do you know?"

"I don't know anything"

"Then what would you like to know?" Santa asked with curiosity

"Felix, what is he afraid of?"

"You were broken by war and despair, Felix saw to it that you would never recover because despite what he may claim, only one of you needs the other to survive."

"What are you saying?" Locus asked

"Felix is afraid of you" Santa stated simply

"So Washington is right, I really am a compliant and enslaved monster."

"Once upon a time, he and Carolina were not so different from you. But now, you have a choice to make."

"A choice" Locus echoed in thought

"Will you lay here and wait for capture and life imprisonment where you won't have the chance to make things right? Will you join Felix in his meaningless and downright hopeless fight against the Reds and Blues? Or will you make the same choice the Washington and Carolina did and become a better person?" Santa asked

"I'm not sure if I can become a better person, but if I get up and do what is right, then maybe I can do some good, and hopefully through that good I can earn a second chance." Locus replied

"So have you made your choice?"

"Yes" Locus stood and activated his Active Camouflage and followed the sounds of yelling and gunfire up to the fight. When he arrived he stayed behind a pillar and watched as Felix began yelling anew.

"Tucker!" Felix screamed at the top of his lungs "You and the others are idealistic and hopeless losers, stop hiding and face destiny!" Tucker walked up right behind him as he finished

"Come and get me" Tucker said simply as he ignited his energy sword. Felix ignited his own sword and charged Tucker. The two fought for a moment before Felix expertly disarmed Tucker and kicked him to the floor only to be forced into giving up ground and activating his Hardlight Shield as Donut, Grif, and Lopez began shooting at him.

"You give Orange dudes a bad name" Grif shouted as the rest of the Reds and Blues surrounded Felix. Felix began thinking about what to do next until he saw the shimmering form of Locus walk right in between Tucker and Grif. Felix, thinking he had won, began to laugh maniacally with no small amount of madness in the tone.

"You fools, this is over" Felix said as he continued to laugh until he heard a clatter at his feet, looking he saw that Felix had thrown down his SAW machine gun. Locus materialised a second later shocking the Reds and Blues who pointed their weapons at him. "Locus, what are you doing? You were supposed to kill them!" Felix exclaimed

"I'm done taking orders from the likes of you, I'm making a choice here and now to work towards a better tomorrow, for my sake as well as recompense for the lives that I've ruined." Locus said simply leaving the Reds and Blues confused while Felix was both infuriated and terrified.

"Then you can die with them!" Felix yelled as he grabbed the gun and began spraying the bullets at everyone in front of him. As the other Reds and Blues began to fire on him he activated his shield and returned fire causing them to scatter. Felix then almost instinctively felt a trigger get pulled and as he swirled around he saw a sticky detonator get stuck to his shield, he began immediately trying to find a way out of this.

"Hey Felix" Tucker said stirring him from his thoughts "Catch" Tucker said as he threw a grenade at Felix who realized that he was dead.

"No wai-" Felix began as both the grenade and the detonator exploded throwing him off of the temple causing Felix to fall to his death. Locus picked up Felix's sword and used it to activate the Communications Temple.

"The temple is now ready for use, you may send your message when ready" Santa said as he appeared instantly, Locus put his new sword away and began to walk away.

"Where do you think you're going?" Tucker asked him "This doesn't change anything, you still killed people"

"I know" Locus said as he turned back to them "and I will make things right, but I won't do it from inside a jail cell"

"We will find you" Church threatened as he appeared next to Tucker

"No you won't" Locus said simply as he activated his Active Camouflage and made his leave. He reached the ship that he and Felix had hidden and left unaware that Malcolm Hargrove was about to make a final strike at the Reds and Blues that ultimately ended with Church's sacrifice.

Delta Cola, 2552 (3 months after the War on Chorus)

Locus walked through a tundra almost exactly like Sidewinder as he hunted down his target. He had gotten a report on his radio that a group of pirates had been terrorizing the local populace of the Delta Cola colony for several months now under the threat of death. Locus saw firsthand the aftermath of one of their 'parties' and knew immediately that they needed to be stopped. Locus kept walking and after a couple of hours, stumbled upon the pirate base. He saw corpses of armed men all around the base and went inside the small structure to investigate. As he went deeper inside he found a group that appeared to be eerily similar to the Reds and Blues (the Blues and Reds).

"Loco, were almost out of power, will this work or not?' Temple asked in aggravation

"Yes" the Caboose look alike replied "This will be the perfect test run for our drill, we'll destroy the colony here for sure though."

"That's acceptable, we can just pin it on the Reds and Blues, those **** traitors deserve it for siding with freelancers." As Locus heard this he knew he had to do something, he had allowed enough people to get hurt in his life and he would die long before he sat around while it happened again. He used his cloaking technology to sneak past the other Blues and Reds that were standing guard and made his way to Loco and the machine. Loco activated the machine to begin the 'test run' of the drill. As Temple walked away back to his office, Locus knocked the Blue out cold and went to the machine. He looked over it and realized that although Loco obviously was good at engineering, he was stupid enough to make a machine that nobody but himself understood, on second thought maybe Loco wasn't that stupid. Evil yes, but smart enough to hide instructions for operating this drill from everyone. As Locus cursed himself for what was quickly turning into a failed attempt to save innocent lives, Gene and Surge spotted him and began shooting at him. Locus ducked and returned fire with his new SAW machine gun. After a firefight that lasted for about two minutes, Temple arrived onto the scene and aimed his sniper rifle at Locus however, being the terrible shot he is, he missed Locus entirely and hit a core component of Loco's machine instead. There was an explosion and when the smoke cleared the machine was irreparably damaged and Locus had vanished without a trace.

Server Continent, Digital World 1999 (one week after the search for the eighth child began)

Locus woke up groggily and found himself in a forest. He pulled himself up, checked his gear, and began to explore the area. After wandering for a good hour, he saw smoke rising in the distance and decided to go and investigate it. Along the way he heard the sound of someone fighting and decided to take a look. When he got there he found a rabbit like creature (Terriermon) being attacked by a trio of Devidramon, through the audio receptors in his helmet could hear what was being said.

"Give it up runt" One of the devidramon sneered

"In your dreams" Terriemon managed weakly as he panted for breath

"Were wasting our time" the second attacker said

"Yeah, let's just delete him already." The third said earning nods of support from his comrades. Locus had seen enough and decided to help the creature, he pulled out his SAW and began shooting at the Devidramon. He caught them by surprise and they ended up running for cover while Locus ran to Terriermon.

"You ok?" Locus asked

"Momentai" Terriermon managed before passing out. Locus threw a grenade at the Devidramon, picked up Terriermon, and sprinted towards the smoke hoping to get the creature some help there. Luckily, the smoke was coming from the chimney of a bakery in a village populated entirely by Terriermon and Lopmon. As he got closer he was greeted by a Lopmon, she noticed Terriermon in his arms and gasped in shock.

"This way, quickly" Lopmon said guiding him into the village and taking him towards her house where she treated Terriermon's injuries and made sure he was getting rest. "Thank goodness you got him here when you did"

"Glad I could help, but what is this place and who are you exactly?" Locus asked

"Oh, sorry where are my manners?" Lopmon began "I'm Lopmon and this is my twin brother Terriermon."

"Brother?"

"Yeah, we came from the same digi-egg like all of the other Lopmon and Terriermon here in the Twin Egg Village."

"The Twin Egg Village?"

"Yep, were kinda like the Primary village on File Island except the only digi-eggs that hatch here are for Lopmon and Terriermon."

"Primary Village? File Island? Where have I landed myself?" Locus asked mostly to himself shocking Lopmon

"Wait, are you a human?" Lopmon asked

"Yes"

"Oh, that explains it" Lopmon said before taking time to describe the Digital World to Locus who in turned shared his own story, he expected Lopmon to hate him after everything he had done but she just said. "Well, at least you're doing better now, the fact you went out of your way to save my brother proves it."

"Thanks Lopmon, that means a lot" Locus said as Terriermon woke up. Almost as if on cue, explosions could be heard as the Twin Egg Village came under attack by the same trio of Devidramon from before. As the attack took place, Locus immediately rushed out and began shooting at the Devidramon, he knew at his point that his current weapons wouldn't do much good against them but at least he could give the Terriermon and Lopmon time to get away. Locus was doing fairly well both in distracting the Devidramon and dodging their attacks. That being said, there was only so long that Locus could keep at it against three Champion level digimon.

"Dark Gale!" one of the Devidramon yelled unleashing a dark electrical storm from it's mouth and hitting Locus. Locus was thrown back into the wall of a house as the storm left his shield disabled and his armor damaged, luckily the shielding had taken the brunt of it but he wouldn't survive another hit like that. Locus tried to pick himself up only to find that his ankle was sprained and collapsed to the ground again. The Devidramon came close ready to finish off the mercenary. "Crimson Claw!" The Devidramon yelled as he thrust his claw downwards intent on killing Locus. Locus could do nothing but watch as the attack came at him. As the attack was about to get, the Lopmon he had spoken to jumped in front of the claw taking the attack for him.

"Lopmon!" Locus yelled pulling himself over to where she was lying while the Devidramon picked up the villain ball and did nothing to harm or stop him. "Why?"

"You were risking yourself protecting us, I couldn't just let you die." Lopmon said weakly as she began to flicker

"What about your brother?"

"I know he's in good hands, he'll be okay, please make sure he lives a good life."

"I will Lopmon, I promise." Locus said, his helmet hiding the fact that while he didn't weep he was indeed sorrowful at the current events.

"Lopmon!" Locus turned around to see the bandaged Terriermon coming over.

"It's okay Terriermon, I was never as strong as you but at least I was able to help someone." Lopmon said as she became weaker and the flickering became more intense.

"I'll never forget you sister" Terriermon said

"I know" Lopmon said before she burst into pixels as she was deleted. As Locus and Terriermon were silent, the Devidramon trio began laughing.

"The weak shielding the weak, how amusing" the leader chuckled

"Seriously, just give up and die already" The Devidramon that killed Lopmon said with a sigh as his laughter subsided

"Back off!" Locus yelled at the Devidramon who frankly were reminding him way too much of Felix.

"What was that?" The Devidramon leader snarled

"I don't care if I die here" Locus began "But I won't allow anyone else to get hurt because of me. I made mistakes, I used to be like you, no more. It's about time I went back to who I used to be and if stopping you is the way I do that then I will do it."

"Not alone you won't!" Terriermon yelled "I won't let them hurt anyone else either." As Terriermon and Locus stood in front of the Devidramon, a flash of light appeared in the skies above them and from that light a digivice fell into Locus' hands. The digivice surged to life and Terriermon was back at full strength and ready to fight alongside Locus as his bandages literally fell off in a dramatic manner.

"WHAT?!" The Devidramon exclaimed in shock as the digivice came to life once again. Terriermon was empowered greater than before.

"Terriermon digi-volve to…"

As Terriermon digi-volved he became as tall as Locus and quite muscular as well, somehow pants grew onto his legs, his hands became massive machineguns as a sash of bullets coud be seen around his torso along with red markings on his face.

"Gargomon" Once the digivolution was complete Gargomon sprang into action. "Gargo Pellets!" he yelled firing his Machine guns and deleting the Devidramon that had killed his sister instantly.

"Crimson Claw!" The remaining Devidramon yelled as they rushed Gargomon hoping that if they got close enough he would be mistaken, boy were they in for a rude albeit amusing awakening.

"Bunny Pummel!" Gargomon yelled as he beat the Devidramon to the ground. "Gargo Pellets!" Gargomon fired his guns point blank at each of them ending the fight. Gargomon reverted back into Terriermon and hopped on Locus' shoulder as the mercenary finally managed to pull himself up to his feet. "We did it Locus" Terriermon said

"Yeah I guess we did" Locus said solemnly as his thoughts wandered back to Lopmon

"Momentai, Locus" Terriermon said with a sad smile as he guessed what was on the mercenaries mind "I miss he too, but we gotta keep going or else it'll all be for nothing. Those Devidramon work for a nasty digimon called Myotismon, if we can beat Myotismon we'll finally have peace."

"Sounds like a plan partner" Locus said

"Only problem is that Myotismon has gone to Earth to track down the eighth digidestined child."

"Digidestined?"

"People like you Locus, who have bonded with a digimon and have been chosen to help protect both Earth and the Digital World."

"You mentioned Earth, if Myotismon is there how are we going to stop him?"

"I don't know" Terriermon admitted "But Azulongmon will know"

"Azulongmon?"

"He's basically an extremely powerful digimon part of a group called the Sovereign. Most of the digital world think that he's a myth, but the Terriermon and Lopmon of Twin Egg Village know he's real. He's the one that created this village for us."

"So what, he's like a Digimon god?"

"Pretty much"

"Where is he?"

"Up there" Terriermon answered pointing up to the peak of the massive mountain that stood behind Twin Egg Village.

"I guess we're going hiking then" Locus said. The duo spent the next couple of hours getting food and water packed for their trip. As they were about to leave the remaining villagers returned.

"What happened to your sister?" One of the Lopmon asked

"She died standing against the Devidramon" Terriermon replied "Locus and I took care of them as soon as we could after that so you guys should be safe here again, at least for a while."

"You make it sound like your going somewhere" a random Terriermon commented

"We need to get to Earth" Locus replied "If we can work with the other Digidestined to stop Myotismon attacks like this one won't be much of a problem for quite some time."

"You two will be going up to see Azulongmon then." the Lopmon from before stated earning nods from the pair "Good luck" she said as the other villagers cheered them on while they went and began their hike up the mountain. The journey was rough and lasted for about two weeks but eventually they made it up there without running into an enemy. As Locus and Terriermon made their way onto an outcropping where they could stand comfortably. Once they arrived, thunder roared through the sky as Azulongmon descended before them.

"Who are you?" The great digimon asked as he beheld Locus and Terriermon. Locus explained his story including his life a a soldier and a mercenary as well as arriving in the Digital World and meeting Terriermon who then explained what happened in Twin Egg Village. "You two have quite the story" Azulongmon said "Amazing how you were chosen to be a Digidestined Locus, I may be powerful but I am neither Omnipotent nor Omniscient and the Digital World works in ways that I rarely understand. Even so, I have confidence that you will do well and continue to prove yourself to be a much better person than before. Perhaps I can give you a gift to aid you" Azulongmon said as an orb of light floated down to Locus revealing a tag and crest. "This is the Crest of Redemption, I know you will use it well."

"Thank you Azulongmon" Locus said

"Now about getting to Earth, well things have become complicated." Azulongmon said

"What do you mean?" Terriermon asked

"The Digidestined were defeated by Myotismon a week ago, they are still alive but scattered and imprisoned across Japan and their partners are being held captive as well although I don't yet know where they are being held. As it stands you are currently the only ones capable of cleaning this mess up." Azulongmon explained

"Perhaps" Locus said "But we need more than strength on our side to win, we need dumb luck as well with an emphasis on dumb."

"You're talking about those simulation troopers aren't you?"

"Yep"

"I agree, in fact this Carolina you mentioned seems to be a great candidate for being a Digidestined as well."

"Somehow I'm not surprised" Locus smirked underneath his helmet

"The sim troopers though" Azulongmon said with a worried look in his eye "Can I scan your weapons and armor Locus?"

"Sure" Locus said allowing the Sovereign to scan his weapons and armor

"I have allies that can make much stronger versions of these with a nearly indestructible material called Chrome Digizoid" Azulongmon explained "It might take some time but within the next few weeks the sim troopers as well as you, Carolina and Washington can personally become quite a pain for Myotismon's forces. Until then, I'm afraid you will just have to make do with what you have."

"Understood" Locus affirmed as Terriermon saluted

"Are you ready to go?" Azulongmon asked

"Whenever Locus is" Terriermon said

"Let's do it" Locus replied

"Alright then, good luck you two" Azulongmon said as he used his powers to send them to Earth.

Kamiya Residence, Tokyo, Japan (One hour after the fall of Japan to Myotismon)

The parents of the Digidestined gathered inside of the Kamiya apartment as Myotismon officially declared victory over Japan, they were mortified to learn that their children had been marked as the enemies of the state and were sentenced to death for their 'crimes'.

"I didn't think that things could get much worse after that freak began his attack but now." Matt's father said letting the obvious dread settle in.

"Are we really just going to let this happen?" Tai's father demanded

"What can we even do?" TK's mom asked

"I don't know, but anything is better than just sitting here." Tai's father replied, his wife was about to say something when a flash of light appeared in the apartment, out of the light Locus stepped with Terriermon astride on his shoulder.

"This isn't over, not yet." Locus said

"You're a Digidestined like our kids" Joe's father said

"That's right, I'm new but I know that we have a chance, but we have to be willing to risk everything." Locus stated to the group

"But if we fight back, won't Myotismon hurt our children?" Sora's mother asked in concern

"He'll do that either way" Izzy's father said "At least if we try we have a chance."

"Yup" Terriermon said with a smile

"Who are you?" Tai's father asked

"I am Locus this is Terriermon, and we are here to fight"

And we're back, sorry about that guys, I started a new job and on top of that I'm still dealing with online courses and the fact that it took me forever to decide how to handle Locus' backstory, but don't worry I'm back now and will be posting at least once a month (hopefully more but you never know). Now can The Reds and Blues get past their feelings about Locus and cooperate with him? Or will the fight end before it even begins? Find out next time in Chapter 9: Reconciliation.