I don't own Digimon or any other names used in this story.
Digimon World Wars
Chapter 14 - Duo's Resolve
(Three Months Later)
Rex was sitting against the wall of the training room, having just once again gotten his ass handed to him by the training instructor Asuma Sarutobi. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't overcome the man. Asuma's digisoul was several times stronger than his, and covered his whole body, reinforcing all of his attacks and lessening the damage from Rex's attacks. Even when Duo, Haru, Kiru, and himself, tried taking him on four against one, they still got beat.
In the last three months, the destined had taken down a few more small bases without much problem. When they weren't preparing to destroy one of DATS's bases, they spent all their time training. Duo, Rex, and Haru had been taking kendo lessons from Setsuna, it took a lot of convincing and begging on the boys part, to get her to agree. Asuma trained all of them in hand to hand combat, as well as digisoul control. Within the last months the rest of the destined had unlocked their weapons, and most of them now could control their digisoul enough to charge it to any of their limbs.
The destined weren't the only ones training, all the digimon were constantly being trained by a digimon named Asuramon.
Asuramon, Ultimate Level, Demon Man Digimon, Vaccine Type
Asuramon continually taught them new fighting techniques and had them training and exercising constantly.
Kiru walked in and sat down next to Rex, "Do any better today?"
"What do you think?" Said Rex grumpily.
"I'll take that as a no," chuckled Kiru. The two became silent until Kiru decided to break that silence, "You seen Duo lately?"
Rex sighed, "No, he's barely left the lower training rooms in the last two weeks." Rex still remembered the event that had caused Duo to spend all his time training, never taking a break to hang out with any of them or even just to grab lunch with them in the cafeteria.
Two weeks ago, Uryu had come to Rex holding a newspaper that had been sent from the resistance's allies in the real world. Uryu handed it to him and asked him if he knew anything about it.
The headline of the newspaper read, 'Duo Maxwell Still at Large For Murder' Rex had stared in disbelief at the article, refusing to believe any of it. Something tugged at the back of his mind, as he remembered Duo saying something about DATS killing someone close to him. Rex had told Uryu to hide the newspaper and make sure Duo didn't see it, but fate wouldn't have it.
Duo walked around the corner as he said that, and pulled the newspaper away from him, despite his protests. Rex remembered watching his friend's face go from simple curiosity to rage and disgust as his eyes skimmed through the article.
Ever since then Duo had spent all his time training, and had stopped socializing with the rest of them, the only one who had seen him since then was Veemon.
"Think he'll be alright?" Asked Kiru.
"I think he needs time to himself," said Rex, "Veemon told me that the man Duo was accused of murdering was actually killed by DATS, and that he was the closest thing Duo had ever had to a father." Rex ran his hand through his hair and sighed, "Can't blame him for wanting to be alone, but I hope he knows that we still got his back."
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Duo stood in the middle of the training room delivering a barrage of punches and kicks to a punching bag. As he beat on the bag, memories of the past flooded his mind, memories of when he met the old man, of when he had fought against the thugs to save Eureka, of when he had met DemiVeemon, and of course of Himura dying in his arms. Duo's digisoul covered his right fist as he began to punch the bag harder.
It didn't matter that he had defeated Striker, that he had killed the man who took Himura's life. Striker's death had not brought him closure, if anything it only made things worse. DATS had pinned Himura's death on him calling him a murderer, even if what they said was a lie, he still was a murderer now. He had sent Striker to his death without any mercy.
Duo winded his fist back and his digisoul flared, covering his entire lower arm, he slammed it against the bag, knocking it off the chain and into the wall.
Duo sat down on a chair in the corner of the room his digisoul still covered his hand all the way up to his elbow. He should have been happy, he had finally made some progress and increased the strength of his digisoul, but he wasn't.
He had told himself that he was fighting for Himura, to prove what he had told him was true, that he was a hero, but that was impossible now. At that moment Duo wasn't sure what he was fighting for anymore.
The door suddenly opened and Duo jerked his head up, to see who had come to disturb him. He was surprised to see Setsuna walk in, a look of annoyance on her face.
"You know it's rude to beg me for sword lessons and stop showing up after only a month of training," said Setsuna.
Duo wasn't in the mood for this, he got up, heading for the door mumbling, 'sorry,' to her. But she closed the door, and punched him in the chest forcing him back.
"What the hell are you doing?" Duo was now pissed, and it didn't help that Setsuna had drawn her digivice and formed her weapon 'Yunagi'.
"I advise you to get serious Duo!" Duo jumped back as she swung her sword down on him, and began to dodge attack after attack. Setsuna was serious she was attacking as though she meant to kill. Duo didn't want to fight against her, but if she was going to keep this up, he didn't have a choice.
"Digitize, Kuroryuu!" Duo's digivice turned into his black blade, he used it to parry Setsuna's attacks, still not attacking back himself. "What the hell is your problem!"
Setsuna slashed her sword horizontally and Duo turned his sword upside down in his hand and blocked it before throwing a punch towards her chest, she smirked and wrapped her arm around his and twisted her body around bringing her foot up, hooking it around his head and using his own momentum to throw him over her.
Duo landed hard on his stomach and before he could get up she pinned him down with her foot, holding her blade to his head.
"Is this all you got? When we first met I thought you were a man with more strength and resolve then this, I guess I was wrong," Duo gritted his teeth in anger, ignoring the blade next to his head he heaved his body up forcing her to stumble off of him, and jumped back to his feet.
"What do you want from me?"
"I want you to stop being an emotional shut-in, and remember what it is we're fighting for!" Shouted Setsuna. She jumped forward slicing her sword horizontally again. This time Duo ducked underneath it and spun his leg around to knock her feet out, but she jumped over his leg and brought her sword down on him. Duo blocked with his sword as she pushed her blade down on him.
"I joined this team because I wanted to avenge Himura, and I did," said Duo. He pushed up with his sword and she jumped back away. "That old man told me I was a hero, I wanted to fight to prove him right, but I already failed him! He never would have wanted me to seek revenge or to take another's life."
"WE'RE AT WAR! DATS will stop at nothing to complete their plans, do you think they care about how many people and digimon they have to kill until it's done," Setsuna stopped, calming herself down before speaking kindly, "We have to stop them by any means necessary, we have to save as many as we can from them," Duo didn't know what to say, he knew she was right, he had to fight and he had to be willing to cut down his enemies to protect the innocent.
"Duo, don't you have someone you want to protect?" Duo froze, remembering the faces of those he didn't want to lose. He saw Veemon, he saw all his new friends, Rex, Haru, Kiru, and everyone else, and he saw someone he hadn't seen for months, he saw Eureka. He thought surely she wouldn't want anything to do with him now that he was labeled a murderer, but still he'd never be able to forgive himself if anything happened to her.
Setsuna sheathed her sword, and took a quick draw stance. "Duo, show me your resolve." Duo clenched his sword tight in front of him, he had made up his mind, he would fight and take down all those who threaten the safety of those important to him. Duo's sword began to glow black as Setsuna charged at him one more time.
"ZANGANKEN!"
"DRAGON SPLITTER!"
Their swords clashed with tremendous force, causing a shockwave throughout the room that knocked away everything in the room and shattered the window on the door.
The two stood still, swords still held against each others, before they both stepped back. Setsuna returned her sword to normal and walked to the exit.
"Thanks," said Duo, looking away from her.
"Just promise, you won't ever forget what you're fighting to protect." Setsuna left, leaving Duo to gather his thoughts. After a couple of minutes he left the training room and made his way towards the cafeteria.
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(Three Days Later)
Duo, Rex, Lavi, Ling, Hinata, Negi, Sanji, Shuhei, Setsuna, Kotaro, and Uryu were being flown out to attack one of DATS's larger bases. It was hidden in a large temple DATS had taken and converted into one of their bases. They were to attack from the front, while the other half of the destined hit the enemy from behind. It was a simple plan, they had the element of surprise, and they would be squeezing the enemy from both sides. According to Andromon, Patamon, and Wizardmon, taking out this base would deal a heavy hit to DATS's forces on the delta continent.
The eleven of them sat in the back of the ship, that had just enough room for them, while one of the Guardromon flew them out close to the base.
Negi sat next to Kotaro and Duo, staring at his digivice, "You okay in there Veedramon?"
"Are we there yet, I'm getting claustrophobic," said the tiny picture of Veedramon.
"Wow, I'm surprised you even know what that word means," laughed Kotaro. Veedramon threw a little tantrum about Kotaro insinuating he was an idiot.
"Are we there yet Guardromon?" Asked Shuhei.
"Almost, we'll be reaching our landing coordinates in five minutes," answered Guardromon. They remained silent until Guardromon brought them to a landing about a mile away from the enemy base.
"Alright Guardromon, you wait here, this shouldn't take too long," said Lavi as he pointed his digivice out, "Guilmon, Realize!" Guilmon appeared in front of his partner as the two began to make their way towards the base followed by the rest of the group after they released their digimon as well.
The group made their way silently up towards the base, keeping an eye out for enemy patrols. Gaomon and Renamon ran ahead of the group scouting ahead while Impmon and Veedramon kept their eyes on the rear.
They reached the base's location without any difficulty, which unnerved a few of them. Their bases had been getting attacked for the past couple of months, but they hadn't put out extra protection on one of their key bases.
"Gaomon what's wrong?" Asked Kotaro. Gaomon had been sniffing the air and seemed to smell something that was putting him on edge.
"I smell blood," stated Gaomon.
"You smell what now?" Said Lavi. A few of the other digimon began to sniff the air and confirmed what Gaomon had said.
"Hinata, use your power to scout the base out for us," said Palmon.
"Oh yeah, none of us have seen your ability yet, show us," said Negi.
"Alright," Hinata drew her digivice, "Digitize, Byakugan!" Hinata's digivice turned into a ball of light and separated into two smaller pieces of light. The two balls of light floated into her eyes, causing her irises and pupils to disappear and her veins to pop around her temples. She stood still staring off into the distance for a few seconds.
"I don't get it, what's she doing," said Guilmon.
"I don't know, but it's a little creepy," said Impmon. Palmon whacked Impmon in the back of the head.
"Her ability let's her see extremely far distances, as well as through walls and three hundred and sixty degrees around her," said Palmon.
"That's a pretty cool ability, you could probably see all sorts of things with that," Sanji began to fantasize, until Setsuna gave him a death glare, and he let go of his dirty thoughts.
Hinata continued to scan the area around the base until she saw something that made her shudder and put her hand over her mouth.
"What's wrong?" Asked Duo, they were all on edge, Hinata was shaking, something bad was up ahead of them.
"They... they're all dead," whispered Hinata, as her eyes returned to normal and her digivice reformed.
"What?" Rex and Duo ran off towards the base, with Veemon and Flamon behind them. They reached the gate to the base and walked in. No one was around, they walked towards the temple where DATS had hidden their base and still weren't seeing any signs of life.
Suddenly Flamon shouted in surprise, "G-Guys!" Veemon, Duo, and Rex ran towards him as he pointed to something laying on the ground. A severed human arm laid in the grass, the four of them turned away unable to comprehend what was laying in front of them.
Lavi and the rest of the group joined them. Shuhei and Uryu walked into the temple and found more disfigured bodies. They searched the temple thoroughly, before walking out and advising the rest of them not to go in.
Uryu radioed Guardromon and the rest of the destined about the situation while the rest of them stood around, horrified by the carnage that stood before them.
It began to rain as Haru's team joined the rest of them, most of their group were just as shocked and horrified as them, even Kanda was on edge.
"What could have done this?" Asked Yumichika.
"I'm not sure, but I think it's safe to say whatever it was had to have been extremely powerful, all of this bases digimon were destroyed too," said Shuhei, "I looked up and down, there wasn't a single unused digimon container."
"They didn't show any mercy, even the women were killed," added Uryu. The rain was beginning to come down harder, as the two Guardromon landed the ships in the base to transport them all back.
The two robot digimon stepped out of the ships to assess the damage of the area, so they could give Andromon an accurate report.
Duo and Veemon were sitting on a log away from the group, Duo was shaking, not with fear but with anger.
"Duo, what's wrong?" Veemon was concerned for Duo, worried that all the death around them was going to make him re-live his painful memory.
"No one deserves to die like this." Duo looked up toward the sky, he wasn't a religious person, but at that moment he was praying for these people.
Veemon looked at Duo who was staring up at the sky silently, and saw his eyes suddenly dart to something and his mouth open as he jumped to his feet.
"Duo! What is it?" Duo didn't answer but instead pointed up to something in the sky. Veemon looked up trying to find whatever Duo had seen, but didn't see anything.
"GUARDROMON LOOK OUT!" Duo's shout made Veemon jump as he turned to one of the Guardromon who stood at the foot of the temple. Veemon froze in fear as he saw a demonic creature standing behind him. Guardromon turned around as the creature punched his arm through the machine and ripped him in half.
"GUARDROMON!" Shouted Shikamaru, the group looked in horror at the skeletal creature, who was now holding the two halves of the robot and laughing to himself. Guardromon faded away as the second Guardromon charged out of the temple toward the creature.
"GUARDIAN BARRAGE!" Guardromon fired missiles at the creature, the creature continued to laugh to itself as the missiles hit him.
The smoke cleared showing that he was completely unharmed. He shot forward in an instant and impaled Guardromon with his staff.
"BONE BLASTER!" The end of the creature's staff fired a powerful blast of black lightning, destroying Guardromon from the inside out.
The destined were forced to watch in horror as the Guardromon were destroyed, it happened so fast, and none of them were prepared for it.
Duo's fists were shaking with rage, and his digisoul was expanding up his arm to his shoulder.
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!"
The creature craned his neck towards Duo, and stopped laughing.
"You want to know pathetic human," the creature stepped forward, pointing his staff at Duo, "BONE BLASTER!" Duo grabbed Veemon and jumped out-of-the-way as the black lightning destroyed the area he had stood on.
"Duo!" Rex ran to his side and helped him up as the rest of the destined surrounded the skeleton creature.
"I am SkullSatamon, one of Daemon's most loyal soldiers!" SkullSatamon bowed to them.
"Are you the one that did this!" Shouted Shuhei.
"DATS is your enemy too, you should be thanking me," SkullSatamon laughed to himself again as Shikamaru tried to scan him. His digivice fuzzed for a bit before it finally got a reading on him.
SkullSatamon, Ultimate Level, Undead Digimon, Virus Type
'This is bad, this is really bad!' Thought Shikamaru.
"Of course for me all humans are my enemy, you disgusting creatures dare to set foot in the digital world," SkullSatamon had stopped laughing he was now eyeing each and every one of them like he'd want nothing more than to tear them all apart.
Nodoka, Hinata, and Elie were all trembling, SkullSatamon eyed the three of them a wicked smile playing on his lips. Palmon, Terriermon, and Lunamon stood in front of their partners determined to not let him anywhere near them.
"You digimon are pathetic, you follow these humans around like pets, all of you deserve to suffer the same fate as the entire human race!"
Haru, Musica, Wormmon, and Dorumon also stepped in front of Elie, while Kotaro, Negi, and their partners shielded Nodoka from SkullSatamon's gaze. Kankuro and Ling stood next to Hinata, trying to let her know that they would protect her.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" SkullSatamon slammed his staff against the ground causing a small shockwave, that pushed against them, forcing them to step back.
"IT'S TIME THAT THE HUMANS RECEIVE THEIR JUDGEMENT, BY ORDER OF LORD DAEMON!"
The destined all drew their digivices, as their digimon charged forward, hellbent on bringing the psychotic digimon down.
~To Be Continued~
It's a truth that in love and war,
World's collide and hearts get broken,
I want to live like I know I'm dying,
Take up my cross, not be afraid
Is it true what they say, that words are weapons?
And if it is, then everybody best stop steppin',
Cause I got ten in my pocket that'll bend ya locket,
I'm tired of all these rockers sayin' come with me,
Wait, it's just about to break, its more than I can take,
Everything's about to change,
I feel it in my veins, it's not going away,
Everything's about to change.
War of Change by Thousand Foot Krutch
Thank you for reading.
Characters
Asuma Sarutobi
This is a character from Naruto, in the Naruto series he was Shikamaru's teams sensei.
Weapons
Hinata's Byakugan - Her all-seeing eyes that will let her see things all around her as well as long distances away.