14.
The Digital World's soil feels foreign without Patamon. The air itches beneath his clothes. He wants to cry out and run. His limbs are heavy. He knows though.
Patamon -Lucemon- is near. He hadn't realized it until now, that once you had a partner, there was a way to sense them. In a vague sense, he had used it before. It was how he had known in Shibuya that his Patamon was alive.
It was how he knew now.
He doesn't know what he is going to do when he sees him. He doesn't know what is going to happen when they find this adult level with the power of the ultimate, the power that can unbalance the worlds because that is just how dangerous ultimate levels are. That is why the Dark Masters had to be killed.
His Lucemon is worse because he can only grow stronger.
Ken struggles behind him, Wormmon in his arms, his gaze still foggy from a few days past when Millenniummon possessed him. He had believed them and looked away when they had told him him about it. He hasn't spoken much since, neither has Wormmon and there is something horribly wrong. He's always been quiet, as far as they can tell. Now he just seems drained.
What are they going to do? The only Ultimates can't fight anymore. Takeru wants to have hope, he believes and believes that they will somehow get through to Patamon, to the friend inside that monster's head. But he doesn't know how and that's the issue of Hope. He, now more than ever, wishes someone had the Crest of Realism. They could think of a plan, where he can't.
For now, all they have is to find Lucemon.
"Takeru!"
The voice, the loving ache in it, he knows it so well. But the sadistic tremble that makes it claw to rip out his eardrums, that isn't him.
"I see you've brought the Kaiser."
His voice is below them, and below the Chosen is an army of snarling and drooling masses of anger and suffering. Ken swallows.
Takeru shakes his head. "We've brought Ken."
Lucemon laughs, the sound almost sorrowful. "It's the same thing, really."
Maybe it is. But maybe it isn't too. All that matters now is that they fight, and they win. Even if Patamon doesn't.
That's what he would want, right?
A/N: Time for the home stretch!