warning: bad things are about to happen.
4-6
Taichi's small figure pads into the clearing right when Hikari hits the ground, blood dripping. Takeru doesn't even hear him scream, his knees are buckling with a whole new type of pain, like Bastemon's claws, one that's torn between eating him and eating the fallen HolyAngemon. It seems to settle and Takeru hears his partner howl in pain for a moment. THen it leaves him entirely and Takeru forces his eyes open to see-
A black cloud. That's the only way he can put it. It's a storm cloud coiling up right over his head and rushing forward. HolyAngemon's groaning was incredibly loud but Takeru has to ignore it and force his jelly legs to move and knock Taichi out of the way-
He fails and Agumon's great lumbering feet stop mid-step, only for his next one to make a crater. Taichi is screaming so loudly Takeru thinks he'll rip up his vocal chords. It soon gets drowned out by Agumon's rapidly shifting roar. It grows heavier and more painful by the second, mixing with the fainter whimpering of his HolyAngemon.
"It hurts, Takeru," his partner whispers. "Make it stop."
I can't, he wants to say.
"You want it to stop, do ya?" Pinocchimon is back and through the squint of pain, Takeru can see melted metal and singed wood. His red eyes are even - no, don't look. "I'll make it stop - forever!"
Takeru isn't sure who shouts their denial but consciousness spirals away absurdly slowly as HolyAngemon shrieks and something.
Else.
Flies.
Up.
He sees red bat wings and that's all before the end comes.
Takeru thinks he hears Hikari's voice.