Ben10 & Digimon Tamers

Heroes and Humanity

Part 02: Humanity and Heroes

What Happens in Bellwood... – Chapter 53

Originally Written: December 1, 2016 243AM to 318PM

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A/N: Happy Holidays everyone! Thank you for reading!

"Why should I trust you?" Albedo looked at Ryo, arms folded. His nails dug into his arms, as he sent the Legendary Tamer the strongest glare his tired, baggy eyes could muster.

Recently he was transferred to another apartment building of an undisclosed location. His only clue was that he recognized the Tokyo Metropolitan building looming far in the distance.

The plumbers apparently greatly misjudged his intelligence and observational skills. There were two plumbers on the building's roof across the street. One dressed in casual clothes walking around the apartment complex, and three more living in the apartments next to the one he was currently in. That was just the ones he could one hundred percent prove were plumbers.

Yamaki and a few other high ranking plumbers deemed that house arrest would be the better punishment for him at this time, from the requests, suggestions and orders of their higher ups. Albedo didn't buy it for one bit. There was no way he would allow himself to accept any of it.

"All the plumbers, especially myself, who were involved in your case have your safest interests in mind." Ryo stood calmly, hands in his pockets.

Albedo looked around the small apartment. A bland pale couch against the wall, a table next to it. A small TV. A small kitchen down the short hall. The standard bathroom behind him in a small room with that same stupid mirror above the sink where Tennyson frequently mocked him. Every time he looked at it, at that.

Currently he stood just inside the apartment, occasionally eyeing the kitchen table. Bland, pale and pristine next to its equally bland and pristine chairs.

"Bullshit." He shook where he stood. His heart raced in his chest. "You're such a liar!" He continued, "Just like the rest of them! Manipulative, do whatever you want as long as it fits in the law and keeps you ahead."

Ryo looked at him with narrow eyes, "You've been listening to Swamps."

Albedo scowled, "He has nothing to do with this!"

"Then what is this about?" Ryo held his hands out at his sides, "You're making things difficult. I only want to help you. And I don't understand why..."

"You told me." He clenched his teeth as he breathed in heavily. That plumber disguised as a civilian was making his rounds again.

Ryo shook his head, a frown on his face. "You remember now."

"Now? I never forgot." He growled as he lowered his head. He felt his eye twitching ever so slightly, "And you are a liar. It was foolish of me to trust you or any plumber." He lifted his head and glared at Ryo, "I won't do it again."

"Are you serious? After all I've done for you, you think I'd go back on my word so I could hurt you or something!?" Ryo clenched his fists. "Why would I have waited so long, then? I could have dropped you right off at Hypnos moments after picking you up from the hotel!"

"You knew I wouldn't fall for it then." Albedo felt burning rage flow through him. It was all he could do to keep the lights from flickering, however that nuisance worked for him.

Ryo pulled out his D-Terminal and opened it, searching for something. "You think I would be that cruel to you? I never would have let that happen to you. Not just because Henry asked me to make sure it didn't, but because I remember that look on your face when I saw you after all that time." Ryo looked downcast and sighed. "Here."

Albedo looked away, arms still folded, fingernails probably drawing blood on his arms.

"Look at it."

Albedo huffed and breathed out through his nose heavily.

"This is the mission report of the invasion. My side of events."

His eyes glanced at the D-Terminal Ryo was holding out towards him.

Ryo sighed, and pulled it back. "Underneath is a comment section open to higher ups and the one who wrote the report or that section of it. In this case, myself. 'Tamer Zero One, Ryo Akiyama, has failed to mention when, where and/or how he knew of fugitive Albedo's whereabouts pre-invasion.'."

Albedo looked at Ryo, "You..."

"I've been temporarily demoted for not providing detailed, truthful mission reports. As we speak, the board is debating on if they should take the risk and backlash of putting me under arrest for assisting you. Somehow, I'm still the only thing standing between Fridge, Swamps and Hugh being arrested as well." Ryo put his D-Terminal back in his pocket. "So, if you think for a moment that I don't consider you important in my life. If you think that I'd willingly allow you, you who refused to let me fall in stagnation, who got me to see that just because I'm a Tamer, and Plumber without formal education, didn't mean I couldn't get it, or get anything in my life other than being stuck as a Tamer or Plumber. If you think I'd l-let anyone torture you b-by putting you in a cell...Going back on my own promise..."

Ryo blinked back tears. "If you don't trust me, fine. I get it. That's who you are. Just know that I would never ever hurt you like that. I wouldn't hurt anyone like that."

"You acted like you didn't think I remembered. I was there." Albedo spoke softly.

"It looked like you didn't. It wasn't gonna help you to force something you didn't seem to remember out of you. Especially if it was something like that. When we realized you didn't seem to remember, we consulted Jeri, Beelzemon and some alien plumbers who specialized in memories and/or the mind. Didn't mention you in name, or appearance. We didn't say anything that would give any hint we were asking about you. The consensus was to wait for you to remember."

He looked away, unable to watch Ryo hold himself with no pride of cockiness in this manner anymore. In the back of his mind, he wondered if Ryo was telling the truth. Despite Ryo's words, he couldn't be sure. Not after what happened. He shook his head. Before where fiery rage rushed through his veins, now a cold dread settled, making him weary.

"The board however said we needed to move on, and you needed to be found at all costs."

"So you found me, and now I'm here. Just in a larger cell." He held in a sigh.

"Not quite."

"Not quite my backside. There are plumbers everywhere around here, Ryo." He shook his head. This did not make sense. Nothing made sense. The whole thing just made him want to curl up in a bed next to Jenrya and hide under the covers. But between Jenrya's well warranted but not wanted concern and the nightmares, no way was something like that going to happen.

Ryo sighed softly, "I need you to know that I will not hurt you. This...this won't work otherwise."

"What are you going on about?" He snapped, "I'm surrounded by plumbers. There's no chance of me going anywhere, so for you, what does it matter what I know or trust about you!?"

"Because I need you to be cooperative and I really think it'd be better for everyone if it was of your own free will." Ryo placed his hands in his pockets.

He shook his head, "You can't tell me anything that would make this make sense can you?"

Ryo smiled sheepishly, "Not without consequences."

"There are such things as good consequences." He snapped.

"And there are times where bad consequences outweigh the good."

Albedo saw that civilian disguised plumber calmly waltz back down the hall without a care in the world. At least, that's what it looked like to him.

He walked past Ryo and watched the plumber.

"Al?" Ryo stood next to him.

"That plumber is wearing an ID mask." He looked at Ryo. "He's stumbling as though he's not used to his new height." Albedo narrowed his eyes.

Ryo only smiled at him and placed a finger to his lips.

"Just like Hugh." He looked back at the plumber still calmly walking down the hall. "But that's not Hugh is it?"

"Nope." Ryo replied calmly. He sniffed loudly.

Albedo shook his head, "I'm not sure what to think of any of this," he folded his arms, "but I know this much. You probably will not hurt me." He scowled as he looked off to the side, "And if you should try, I'm confident I can overpower you, even if you're Justimon. The same for any plumber." He glared at the plumber walking down the hall.

"I can work with that."

Ryo leaned against the wall.

"Hmph." He had only been here a few days, but he could already tell that this was not to be anything but an annoying experience. He wondered if there was any chance of this experience being peaceful. Maybe everyone would give him a long enough stretch of peace that they'd forget to bother him, and then he could give them the slip. He wondered if Jenrya would come with him, long as he left those looks he gave him behind.

"What...what do you remember?"

Albedo froze and looked off in the distance.

"It's not something I should ask, but it would help me gauge."

"You mean at Hypnos?"

"Yea..."

"Fridge, Swamps and Hugh were taken in for questioning along with myself." He placed his hands in his jacket pockets. "At the end, I was told to wait while another plumber would take me to a guest room. I supposed I should say Yamaki spoke with me most, as he was the one questioning me. Two other plumbers came in, a human male wearing a suit like Yamaki's. Black hair cut short, and a long pale plain face. Black sunglasses hid his eyes. The other was a human female with blond hair, brown eyes, also dressed in a suit."

"Two plumbers..." He fell silent for a moment, as he looked down at the now empty hall. He ignored the phantom feel of their cold hands on his person, dragging him down Hypnos' cell lined halls as though he were a large sack of meat. "One had messy red hair, cut short. He was tanned, as though someone had placed him in one of those ridiculous tanning beds. The other male had long black hair, reaching his lower back, tied up in a low ponytail. He had a pale complexion." He held back a shiver. "Their hands were cold as they dragged me." He spoke softly.

His eyes trailed around, back and forth, searching for any sign of trouble. If Ryo hadn't been standing next to him, he was sure he would have forgotten keeping his superior Galvan demeanor in order to look around him, turning every which way. Alas, he didn't, to his own surprise.

'Nonbiological life signs detected...' He remembered Juggernaut's words booming loud in his head. He heard his sneakers scraping across the ground, making him trip on his own two feet. They lifted him up by his arms with ease, even as he struggled with all his might. He heard laughter of some inmates locked within their cells and the displeased shouts of others Albedo now deemed had a useful amount of intelligence to them.

He was vaguely aware that he was looking at another person, another plumber most likely, walking to an apartment. Keys jingled, like the keys on the black haired male's pants.

"They had a Neumina with them." He spoke just above a whisper. "One held me while the redhead one dragged the other two plumbers into the room and locked them in."

Memories jumped in his mind, uneven and scattered and broken. As though his mind couldn't, wouldn't cope with seeing the entire incident in order from start to finish.

"They're working for Tennyson." He could not stop shaking now, try as he might.

He felt hands on his right shoulder, "Al? Come on back, Albedo." Ryo's voice sounded distant. "You're in an apartment in Japan on Earth. We're about to have lunch."

He shook his head, "Green." He shut his eyes and shook his head. He clenched his fists in his jacket pockets.

"Green?"

Hands guided him to turn around. He looked at the floor. Then he looked up. "Their eyes."

"Shit..."

He pushed Ryo's hands off of him. He thought he had moved to sit on the couch, as was his intention, but he found himself on the floor next to it. He leaned his back against the wall. Maybe Tennyson wouldn't see him if he made himself small. Maybe no one could see him, he hoped. If people could see him, then Tennyson or his geek squad or plumbers could see him. He'd find himself back in a cell, no matter what Ryo or Jenrya or anyone said.

"Their eyes. A dark, yet bright green. It had to be him. It had to be. No one else has green eyes like that. It's his scheming to ruin me." He ran his hands through his white hair, pulling at the strands. He rambled until his throat went sore, his mouth dry, and his thoughts made no sense, even to him.