[tri OOM] Infiltrating Castle Vamdemon

“Far as I go,” Trailmon says, pulling to a stop at the foot of the Mountain of Analog Reasoning, just close enough that Castle Vamdemon’s shadow falls over them.

Yamato doesn’t reply at first. It’s strange being here, in a part of the Digital World that wasn’t Rebooted. The castle is still ruined, with barely more than its foundations intact, the mountain it stands on is still split down the middle where he and Gabumon cut through it. It rattles him to think that while the rest of the world has forgotten them, this castle still shows the signs of their presence.

“Thanks, Trailmon,” he says. “Wait here for us. If we’re not back in three hours, leave.”

He checks his wrist computer, opening up the quarantine program. Gabumon, Tentomon, Palmon, and Patamon are all there, protected from the Infected area immediately around the castle.

He knocks on the top of the carriage, then hops off, landing in the grass. One by one, the others poke their heads out of Trailmon’s carriages and hop out as well.

“Seven years, huh?” Takeru asks, peering up at the castle. “It’s weird to be back.”

“We won’t be here for long. Everyone ready?”

“Ready.”

“Ready!”

“Ready.”

“Let’s go, then.”

---

Getting into the castle is surprisingly easy. Yamato thought there would be guards, but the stamped out campfires and abandoned tents suggest that any bandits still loyal to the Mystery Man scattered and fled days ago.

“Guess they figured out we were coming and scarpered,” Takeru mutters. “I think you might have traumatised them in that battle, aniki.”

“Killing an Ultimate-level does leave something of an impression,” Koushiro adds.

“So long as they’re gone, that’s all that matters. It makes things easier for us,” Yamato replies.

Mimi pulls her coat tighter around herself, glancing around. “It’s still super creepy, though. Why’d the Mystery Man pick this place anyway? It’s a ruin with a basement.”

Yamato skims his gaze over the crumbling walls, shattered tanks of liquid, and collapsed statue, before his gaze alights on a mural at the far end of the castle, of eight brightly coloured symbols arranged in a circle. “Sentimental value, I guess. Form up on me, whichever member of Team Daisuke he’s got here has to be in the basement.”

---

The basement, or what’s left of it, probably used to be a crypt for Vamdemon to sleep in, and before that … who knows. Yamato’s sure Gennai had some use for it during the years when this was his castle.

“Miyako!”

Mimi’s yelling and sprinting across the room before anyone can stop her. It’s almost empty, stripped clean of any furniture or coffins or statues, with just a computer console at one end and, behind it, a blue tank filled with liquid and -- …

It’s weird to think that it’s been months since Yamato’s seen any of Team Daisuke. But here one of them is: Miyako Inoue, floating weightlessly in the tank with a breathing mask over her mouth and nose, eyes shut. Her hands are clasped in front of her, and clutched in them is the sleeping form of Hawkmon, her partner Digimon.

“Koushiro!” Mimi calls, beckoning her over. “We have to get them out of here.”

“R-right,” Koushiro says, and Yamato can see the colour drain out of his face, his shoulders tense as expectations suddenly fall on them. He jogs over, though, and starts working at the console.

He’s still working after a minute, and then two, and then five, even as Mimi whispers to Miyako that they’re going to get them out of there.

“Koushiro,” he says, drawing up alongside him. “How does it look?”

“It’s a …” Koushiro has to stop and gulp in air. “Yamato-san, I don’t know if we can … It’s a …”

“It’s a life support system.” Koushiro’s voice, but not coming from next to him. Yamato whirls to see another Koushiro -- the Mystery Man, complete with his usual smug smile -- leaning against the doorway. The Mystery Man cracks a slow grin, pushing off the doorway to walk towards them. “That’s what you were going to say, right?”

“Life support?” Mimi asks. “She’s not injured. She’s fine!”

“That’s not it,” Koushiro says, shutting his eyes. “She was healthy when she was put in there, but it’s taken over breathing, nutrition, maintaining vital functions. If we make a mistake getting her out, she could die.”

“Then don’t make a mistake,” Mimi fires back. “We can’t just leave her -- …”

“Don’t make another mistake,” the Mystery Man says. “You already made one, right, Koushiro?”

“Be quiet,” Takeru snaps.

“Exactly how many people died because you couldn’t stop the Reboot? Billions, right?” The Mystery Man asks, taking another step closer. “Everyone was so sure you’d save them, but you just weren’t smart enough, were you?”

“We told you to be quiet,” Yamato snarls. The Mystery Man falters at that, taking a step backwards.

“He’s right. He’s right, I couldn’t stop the Reboot, and I couldn’t cure the Infection, and I still don’t even know where I made the mistake in the first place,” Koushiro says, shrinking in on himself. “If I … I could get it all wrong again. If I make a mistake here, then Miyako-san could die.”

“Hey, listen to me,” Yamato says, grasping Koushiro’s shoulder. “Remember the battle? You thought you’d screw up there, and you didn’t. You saved me and everyone else.”

“That was one success. I only need to fail once to ruin everything,” Koushiro says. Yamato’s hand is suddenly grasping empty air as Koushiro backs off from the console, face drawn and shoulders shaking. “I can’t do this. I don’t … if I get anything wrong, anything, then she’ll …”

“You’re right, you can’t do this,” the Mystery Man says kindly, his shape shifting again to Sora’s face and body, his voice changing with it. “But it’s okay. Miyako will be safe here. She won’t age or get sick, she’ll just be preserved, forever.”

Takeru scowls. “That isn’t any different from dying. Koushiro, you’re the only one who can do this.”

Koushiro shuts his eyes, shaking his head sharply. “I can’t.”

“That’s right,” the Mystery Man murmurs in Sora’s voice. “It’s okay. It’s okay. You just aren’t up to the task. There’s no shame in that.”

“I -- …”

“He’s right.”

Mimi. Her voice is harsher than Yamato’s heard it in a while. The Mystery Man gives a cheery smile, his shape shifting into Yamato’s own, as Mimi steps towards the console, hands clenched into fists.

“Hey, look at me, ‘Shiro,” Mimi says. Koushiro slowly opens his eyes, wincing as he makes eye contact. “He’s right. There’s nothing wrong with failing. And I’m scared too, y’know? I’ve felt helpless ever since the Reboot. Everyone else on the team has found a way to help, and I haven’t been able to do anything. I’m terrified right now, because we could die or lose Miyako-chan or anything like that.”

“Mi -- …”

“I can’t tell you that you didn’t fail. It just wouldn’t be true,” Mimi says softly. “Maybe if you’d figured out a cure, the Reboot wouldn’t have happened. Or if you’d been just a little faster when you made the AR Field, we could’ve saved Palmon and the others.”

Koushiro flinches backwards. Yamato sees Mimi’s hand snap out, then settle on his shoulder, squeezing.

“And maybe if I’d let you talk to Meiko and find out what she knew, instead of dragging her away and yelling at you, you’d have figured it out in time,” she adds.

“If I hadn’t hidden that Patamon was Infected, maybe we could’ve stopped it spreading. You might’ve been able to study him and figure out a cure,” Takeru adds.

“I knew something was wrong with Takeru, and I didn’t push to find out what it was. I knew Gabumon was saying goodbye, and I was too afraid to ask him why,” Yamato says. “And it isn’t just those of us here. Taichi, Sora, Jyou, Hikari, Meiko, all of us fucked this one up. It wasn’t just your failure. We all failed.”

“And that’s okay, right?” Mimi says, flashing a smile. “Everybody makes a mistake eventually, you know? I can’t tell you that you definitely won’t make one here. But we can’t leave her, and you’re the only one who can do this, so you still have to try.”

“We trust you. There’s nobody else we’d trust more with this,” Yamato adds. “Pick yourself up, brush yourself down, and if this does go wrong, then we’ll find a way to deal with that.”

The Mystery Man scoffs. “Sentime -- …”

Takeru’s fist crashes against the side of the Mystery Man’s face -- Yamato’s face, and Yamato quietly decides that he’ll table the weird mixed feelings involved in watching his baby brother punch his evil doppelganger for a later date -- out of nowhere, and his head snaps to one side. The holographic disguise flickers for a moment, before he staggers and, in a flicker of blue static, vanishes.

“That’s better,” Takeru says.

“He won’t be gone for long.”

“You ready to go, ‘Shiro?” Mimi asks, squeezing Koushiro’s shoulder.

“I …” Koushiro swallows hard. “Y-yeah. I’m ready. I’ll need to run the program to safely disengage the life support and transfer vital functions back to Miyako-san. Yamato-san, I’ll need you on the far side of the console, keeping the chemical levels stable and locking down any failsafes as they activate. Mimi-san, you need to be ready to open the release valve when I say so, and Takeru-kun, you need to be ready to open the tank on my mark.”

It takes a moment for realisation that he’s actually giving orders to flicker across his features, and Yamato sees him shrink back on himself, embarrassed and awkward.

Yamato flashes him a smile, throwing a quick, two-fingered salute. “You heard the man. Everyone get into position.”

When they’re in their places, Koushiro starts working, his fingers flying across the console. Across from him, Yamato focuses on his own display, regulating the chemical levels as they go, flicking his hands across the keyboard to cancel any failsafe programs as the alerts appear.

He tries to ignore the sirens that start blaring or the way the blue of the console screen turns abruptly red and starts flashing with warnings. Trust Koushiro.

“Mimi, release valve!” Koushiro barks. Mimi drags down a lever, and the blue liquid starts draining fast. “Takeru, open the tank in three, two, one …”

Takeru slams his hand against a button. The tank slides open, the glass retreating to either side, and Miyako falls forward, the breathing mask coming loose. Mimi catches her, easing her down to the floor, and slowly unclasping her death grip on Hawkmon.

“Did it -- …”

“She’s breathing,” Mimi says. “She’s breathing. She’s okay.”

For a second, Yamato thinks Mimi’s going to cry -- and then she does, loudly and messily, but at least he knows they’re tears of relief.

He’s about to talk when a sharp jolt of static hits the air, and the scent of pollen wafts past his nose.

“You two …” he starts. His eyes go to Koushiro first: There are tears of relief streaming down the boy’s face, and at his chest, his Crest pendant is glowing purple. Slowly, he tilts his gaze over to Mimi, still crying her eyes out, her own Crest pendant glowing green. “Guys, your Crests, they’re …”

“I can feel Palmon again,” Mimi says softly. “I can feel our link.”

“I can feel Tentomon,” Koushiro says. “Our Crests are …”

Their powers are back.

Yamato feels sick, and he’s not sure if it’s happiness or anxiety or just the sheer enormity of it all. It’s been months. He was sure they’d never get their powers back, that he should stop hoping and just settle into the idea that this was their last mission, that they’d never be the Chosen again.

But their Crest pendants are glowing. More than that, Yamato can feel the power of the Crest of Knowledge bleeding off Koushiro like sharp bursts of static, and the power of the Crest of Sincerity rippling out from Mimi like the smell of grass and flowers.

“We can worry about it later,” he says, willing himself to focus. He slides his coat off, wrapping it around Miyako and lifting her up. Takeru picks up Hawkmon, cradling him in his arms. “We need to go.”

---

The Mystery Man is waiting when they get out of the basement.

He’s not alone. BlackWarGreymon floats behind him, his eyes red and glassy, arms hanging loosely by his side.

“Let us by,” Yamato says.

“No,” the Mystery Man says. He’s wearing Yamato’s face again, with Yamato’s fury, shoulders squared and expression icy. “You aren’t leaving. If another Reboot comes, then corpses will do just as good a job as living bodies to stop it.”

“Why are you doing this?” Mimi calls, shouldering past Yamato. “You keep saying we’re friends, but you locked Miyako up, you’ve got Daisuke and Iori and Ken locked up somewhere, you keep trying to kill us, you’re trampling on the memory of BlackWarGreymon and the others. What kind of friend does that?”

“It doesn’t matter. None of it matters,” the Mystery Man says. “Why should it matter if I’ve betrayed you? You betrayed me first.”

Yamato narrows his eyes. “W -- …”

“BlackWarGreymon,” the Mystery Man says. “Burn them.”

BlackWarGreymon’s head snaps up. Then he floats down until his feet touch the ground, settles, and starts walking towards them.

“Yamato-san, open the quarantine program,” Koushiro says, stepping forward to stand with Mimi. “We’ll need Tentomon and Palmon.”

Yamato opens his mouth to protest, then shuts it again, flicking open the display on his wrist computer. It opens up to the pastel colours of the playpen in Koushiro’s quarantine program, with Tentomon, Palmon, Gabumon, and Patamon peering out of the screen.

With a flicker of light, Tentomon and Palmon jump out, careening forward as they land and putting themselves between their partners and BlackWarGreymon.

Yamato has to stop himself from yelling that they all need to run, that this is the wrong place to fight. When he was alive, BlackWarGreymon had taken on all of Daisuke’s team and won, nearly destroyed the world, tangled with Taichi and lived to tell the tale. Facing him when they’d only just gotten their powers back, hadn’t even had a chance to test how well they were working, was the kind of stupid and reckless thing he would usually do, not them.

BlackWarGreymon takes another thunderous step forward. Yamato forces himself to plant his feet and trust in Koushiro and Mimi.

“Ready, Tentomon?”

“Ready, Koushiro-han.”

“Ready, Palmon?”

“Ready to go, Mimi!”

Koushiro and Mimi pull their digivices from their belts, lifting them. Yamato feels that jolt of static again, feels pollen itching at his nose, as their pendants flare brighter. Above, the sky boils into dark clouds flashing with purple lightning, crackling and spitting. Around them, flowers burst from the ground and bloom in moments, as moss and grass tear through the crumbling stones of the castle, spreading outwards.

BlackWarGreymon lunges. Light bursts out of Koushiro and Mimi.

“Tentomon, evolution! Kabuterimon.”
“Palmon, evolution! Togemon.”

A boxing glove attached to an a massive, animate cactus hits BlackWarGreymon first, punting him into the air. A huge, oily purple insect crashes into him a moment later, bearing him up into the air and tossing him away, just in time for a beam of electricity and a spray of needles to slam into him.

“Kabuterimon, super evolution! AtlurKabuterimon.”
“Togemon, super evolution! Lilimon!”

Yamato sees the bright red shell form over Kabuterimon’s back, and his horn lengthen and split like a rhinoceros beetle’s. A second later, Togemon is wrapped in the petals of a flower and emerges as a fairy dressed in leaves and flowers, soaring up to join AtlurKabuterimon.

BlackWarGreymon rights himself, stabilising himself in mid-air. A ball of fire forms between his fingertips.

AtlurKabuterimon and Lilimon open fire, knocking him off balance again with bolts of energy. With a roar, he charges for them, trailing red and black flames.

The static in the air grows sharper. Looking out from the castle, Yamato sees the thunderstorm above them spread until it covers from horizon to horizon, seething and burning with lightning so thick that the sky is just a mass of colour. On the ground, the flowers bloom brighter and taller, spreading out beyond the Great Lake Area and into the Server Desert, turning mountains and sands into seas of plantlife.

Koushiro’s eyes flicker purple. Mimi’s eyes flicker green. The glow around them brightens until it’s almost too dazzling to look at.

“AtlurKabuterimon, ultimate evolution! HeraklesKabuterimon.”
“Lilimon, ultimate evolution! Rosemon.”

From the light, a golden, many-horned insect emerges, with lightning crackling across its wings; and next to it, a woman dressed in red, with her face engulfed by a rose.

“BlackWarGreymon!” The Mystery Man yells. “Use your shield!”

BlackWarGreymon’s shield snaps shut in front of it, only to shatter a second later as Rosemon’s rapier pierces through it. He reels back, gathering fire around him again.

“Gaia Destroyer,” Yamato hears him snarl in broken, metallic tones, as flames gather into a miniature sun, blazing red. He hurls it towards HeraklesKabuterimon and Rosemon, searing the air.

HeraklesKabuterimon stretches its wings, gathering lightning in them and funnelling it up to his horns. Besides him, Rosemon presses her hands to the jewel at her throat, gathering red light into the shape of a rose between her hands.

“Giga Horn Buster.”
“Forbidden Temptation.”

Yamato sees the two beams, purple and red, hit the fireball. For a moment that seems both too short and too long, they push back against each other. Then the fireball dissipates, and the two beams continue, landing against BlackWarGreymon’s chest.

He roars, and for a few seconds the light is too bright to see anything. Then it fades, and he falls out of the sky, armour chipping into cubes of data. He shatters before he hits the ground, and the last of his data fades as it floats away.

The Mystery Man just stares at the fading cubes of data. Even seeing it on his own face (or maybe because he’s seeing it on his face, Yamato can’t pinpoint what emotion he’s seeing. Anger? Resignation? Sadness? Fear? Relief? It’s impossible to get a fix on what he’s looking at.

He’s still looking at the Mystery Man when he sees the flicker of light out of the corner of his eye, as HeraklesKabuterimon and Rosemon shed their extra data and shrink down to Tentomon and Palmon.

“Nice work, Palmon!” Mimi chirps.

“I try~.”

“Good going, Tentomon.”

“Ah, um, thank you, Koushiro-han.”

“Why?” the Mystery Man mutters. He whirls on them, and Yamato’s face is gone, replaced with Ken’s. “All those years ago, you must’ve known where this would lead us, so why are you getting in my way?”

“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” Mimi says flatly. “And we have to get Miyako-chan back to town. Sorry.”

The Mystery Man seems like he wants to say something else, but then he just shuts his eyes, smiling to himself. He’s still smiling as he teleports away, leaving them in the quiet ruins of the castle as the storm clouds fade away.

“Congratulations, guys,” Takeru smiles. “You got your powers back. This is huge, we’ve got to tell Taichi and Sora and the others, right?”

“I’m proud of both of you,” Yamato says. “But now we really all need to get back to town, so let’s go.”