Duty

2LT Joseph sat there on his knees with a crippled, broken, dying body in his arms. He had hoped he'd never see this day come but understood when he arrived in this foreign place that this was a real possibility.

"I'm sorry, lieutenant." said the dying man before he closed his eyes and entered his final sleep. The lieutenant closed his eyes and brought his hand to his face, slowly raking his face in order to keep his composure. He laid the dead soldier down and stood up.

"Doc!" The platoon medic rushed over to the lieutenant. "I want you to collect the casualties and take them back to the company C-P. Collect the dead and place them together. Give a report to Sergeant Harrison before you leave." The medic nodded and set about on those tasks. "Sergeant Harrison!" The lieutenant moved to the PSG, who was speaking to the other SLs. He turned to the lieutenant.

"What is it, sir?"

"We need to keep moving. As soon as Doc gives you the casualty report, we move."

"Sir, we should hold here until we get reinforced."

"Sergeant, we don't have time. We are the tip of the spear; the advance can't stop here. Our duty is to take that bridge, we'll have to make do with the men we have."

"Sir, our duty is to keep our men alive."

"Sergeant! This isn't Afghanistan, we have to keep moving, keep pushing the front forward. We cannot stall out here; we are the ones who will dictate the tempo of this operation, not the enemy. Do I make myself clear, sergeant?"

"Yes, sir."


"I place my life into your hands, Michael." Renamon said, slowly fading out of consciousness.

"Renamon, please stay awake! I'm not gonna lose you like this." She became unresponsive. He frantically searched for options. He looked at his digivice, the screen now growing too bright to safely look at. He decided to try the buttons and pressed the left one. The screen's light faded, and Renamon started to glow instead. She began to float into the air, coming upright with a swarm of light and data beginning to surround her, cocooning her into an egg-shaped orb.

"Renamon digivolve to…!" Her voice rang out from the orb, reverberating throughout the air as if it were a herald from the Almighty. A few seconds later the orb burst, revealing the transformed being inside.

"Kyubimon!" She said. The being Renamon transformed into was larger, standing a bit shorter in height, but as a quadruped resembling a fox more feral than Renamon was. Her fur was the same golden yellow with white accents. Her head was longer and more foxlike than before, with multiple purple marks under the eyes and a yin yang symbol on the forehead, but the eyes were the same black scaleras with glowing cyan irises. Around her neck was a large rope with barber pole styling in a bow pattern with the ends capped with golden balls. Small strings of diamonds hung from the rope under the neck. Yin yang symbols were present at each upper leg joint. She had nine tails, with the tips flaming with white flame. The white fur on the legs were flaming in a similar manner.

"Rena… mon?" 2LT Joseph asked, in awe of the transformation.

"I am Kyubimon now, Michael. I have digivolved thanks to your loyalty and bond with me. I now have the strength to perform my duty, my duty to protect you."

"Impossible!" The now recovered dinosaur digimon said, just as shocked as the lieutenant at the digivolution of the nearly destroyed Renamon. "These humans can't give you the power to digivolve."

"That is where you are wrong, Tyrannomon. My tamer is my strength, not my weakness. I will always be able to defeat spiteful beings such as yourself as long as he stands with me."

"Even with this new power, you will not be able to defeat me. Fire Breath!" Tyrannomon started to spew flames from his mouth at Kyubimon. 2LT Joseph watched the flames make their way towards them, but did not move, ready to be consumed by the flames with his partner by his side.

"Fox Tail Inferno!" Kyubimon spread her tails radially and launched white fox shaped flames from the tips of her tails. The flames consumed the fire beam coming from Tyrannomon and continued on to him. They struck him, sending him flying back, scorched.

"This can't be!" He cried.

"But it is, your hate for humans will be your demise." Kyubimon leapt into the air. "Dragon Wheel!" She began to spin into a flaming white spiral and launched herself at Tyrannomon. The flames formed into a dragon head shape at the leading edge and engulfed the dinosaur. He screamed one last time as he dissolved into data. Kyubimon landed gracefully on the ground where Tyrannomon once stood.

"Veemon," Kyubimon called out, "absorb his data before it disperses." The small blue digimon closed his eyes and concentrated, the data slowly moving towards him and eventually being assimilated into his body. His wounds all healed up, and he was back on his feet, ready to go.

"Thank you, Kyubimon." Veemon said. CPL Ku, on the verge of tears, hugged his recovered partner.

"Kyubimon, you did it," the lieutenant said to her, "you defeated him. You saved us all." 2LT Joseph walked up her and hugged her, a hug she could not return in her new form. "You were amazing." He released her and stepped back to be face to face. "You are amazing." He brought his hand gingerly to the side of her face, moving slowly to her ear, and began to scratch the back of it. Kyubimon closed her eyes and released her stress as he scratched. When she opened her eyes half a minute later, she found his staring right back at hers, his face expressionless.

"Kyubimon, I…" 2LT Joseph paused because Kyubimon began to glow again but did not begin to form an orb. She transformed back into Renamon, his hand still behind her ear, eyes still locked onto hers. "Renamon, I…"

"I know." She cut him off. She gave him a warm hug, holding him tight in her arms. "I know."

He closed his eyes and thanked God for delivering his guardian angel to him.