Halfway to Heaven (Open, NPC)

After what he imagined had been around a week of mindlessly roaming around the Digital plane without any clear goal or direction, the man named Carlos decided it was as good as time as any to return back to the human world, and to try to think just what to do.

For that however, the rather undynamic duo had to find a way back to the city of Terminus and its relatively safe portals. Surprisingly enough, they had actually managed to get themselves a small lift by way of a friendly Birdramon that happened to be heading in the same direction, and who was willing to help them get to their destination.

Of course, there was a small catch: their ride there apparently had to make a stop on the way there to deal with some small businesses. Considering this was still a more convenient and quicker way of travelling than walking on foot, Carlos didn’t mind the detour, he was still getting a free ride out of the deal and got to see another new area of the Digital World, which was always a plus.

Unfortunately for Carlos, Dio was quick to voice his discontent, both at the actual waste of time the detour was, but mostly because of the actual direction said detour was headed. A place high above the cloud known as the Empyrean Skies. It only took a short description of the place for the man to understand immediately what his partner’s problem with it was.

After all, it was only logical to assume that someone that proclaimed himself to be a “Dark Lord” would obviously have some gripes against such a holy place. It was the equivalent of bringing a cat to be part of a dog show.

As the imp knew well enough he wasn't going to have to suffer through this regardless of what he actually wanted, he spent most of the ride sulkily looking at the ground below them getting farther and farther away as they began their ascension, not so much because he enjoyed the view but rather wondering if jumping off at this height would be lethal for him or not. He was almost willing to take the risk if it meant not having to deal with that place, but after the whole incident on Terminus he knew better than to try to separate from his partner again.

After about 20 minutes of silent uninterrupted flight however, the large bird began to slow down her ascent as she approached a small island of clouds that (somehow) were solid enough for her to stand on.

“Now what?” The visibly annoyed imp asked.

“I’ll be stopping here for a moment to rest. Feel free to get down and stretch your legs while you can. We’re leaving in 10 minutes.” The feathered digimon replied.

With nothing but an annoyed huff for a response, Dio jumped off the bird's back to the floating island, his tamer following close behind. Well then, off to keep themselves busy for a bit, it seemed. It didn't took long for Carlos to notice they weren't the only ones stopping for a rest there, as he soon caught a glimpse of a small winged figure sitting not too far from them.

There were two things that immediately stood out to Carlos as she approached the other living soul atop this floating island. Firstly she looked as small up close as she did from afar, and looked not unlike a fairy from one of the stories his mom told to him back when he was a kid. Secondly, she was quite a chatty one.

“Uhm, hi there…” Carlos could barely get the words out before she kept asking away, the hyperactive fairy barely stopping between a question and the next.
While it took the man a bit by surprise, Dio certainly didn’t appreciate this fairy coming out of nowhere and pestering his already bad mood seemed to worsen as soon as the fluttering fairy began bombarding them with question after question.

“Bugs up here are certainly huge.” He commented, his calm tone barely masquerading his contempt. “Good thing I brought a bug repellant.” He was quick to add, raising one finger, a small fiery orb forming at its tip.

Carlos, having learned from their previous encounters with other digimon was ready for this, and was quickly to grab his partner’s hand, quickly snuffing out the fire with his own gloved palm. “Easy now, Dio.”

The imp merely glared angrily at the human for a moment, but didn’t say anything.

“Well, I am human, last time I checked. I don’t know anyone by the name Haru though.” He replied with a shrug to the fairy as soon as her questions subsided for the moment. “Name’s Carlos by the way. Pleasure.” He said reaching out for a handshake…before realizing that was probably a bad idea with someone of her size, so he merely used it to point at his partner by his side. “This piece of…happy fun times here is my partner, Dio.”

“And how we met is none of your business, fairy.” The tiny megalomaniac chimed in, folding his arms with a glare.

“He teleported into my backpack, I took him home, fed him, and he’s been glued to me ever since.” Carlos quickly said, summarizing their meeting in a rather brief snippet, before looking back at his partner with a smile. “See? That wasn’t so hard.” He said, enjoying the unamused expression the imp gave him in response.

While Carlos found endlessly amusing that there would actually be a fairy digimon named after Tinkerbell of all things, he didn’t say anything about it, knowing better than to make a tamer less digimon angry. Their encounter with the Apostle K had pretty much taught them that lesson the hard way.

“Heh, yeah good luck, cranky is his default mood.” He said to the small fairy with a snicker, playfully prodding his partner’s side with his elbow, which didn’t exactly made the imp smile. Quite the opposite actually.

“The same could be said of your constant stupidity, Carlos.” He said with a tone filled with nothing but annoyance. He then turned to face Tink again. “Hmph, you can say that again, I had hoped I’d never had to get close to this wretched land. What brings someone like you to this place?” He would ask, somewhat curiously, if only to steer the conversation away from him for a moment.

“And who the hell you’re calling cute?” He would soon chime in, annoyed at the fairy’s teasing tone. The last thing he needed was for Carlos to tell everyone about his days as an In-Training brat.

“Eh, we are a pretty nice bunch.” Carlos shrugged, paying no mind to his angry partner besides him. “Well, most of us are at least.”

“Tsk, you can bet I’m cool. I was trained by a Royal Knight Apostle.” Dio said, puffing out his chest , a smug and proud grin plastered across his face as he did so. He was particularly proud of that last fact and would not hesitate to bring it up every time he could into a conversation.

When she mentioned her reason for coming here however, the imp’s expression seemed to soften somewhat. “Memories? Yeah, I kinda understand where you’re coming from with that.” He said with a shrug, knowing full well how that felt. Having a part of your past be missing like that, it wasn’t pleasant. At least she had a good idea where to start looking though; he was still at a loss as to where he could find answers. Not that it was a real priority right now.

“Shame those memories brought you here of all places though, I’d would have rather never coming here on the first place.” He said, looking upwards with clear contempt for what awaited them above the clouds.

“Well, actually we’re just passing through, our ride happened to come this way and we didn’t really have much of a choice.” Carlos chimed in, his hands hanging lazily on his pocket. Granted, he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t curious as to how a city in the sky inhabited by angels looked like, but didn’t want to put his partner through such a bad moment just to satisfy his own curiosity.

“Hmph, sure, the dark lord might be willing to protect you…for a prize.” Dio said, a somewhat evil smile on his lips. Carlos let out an exasperated sigh.

“For the last time Dio, asking for souls in exchange of protection is not a good business practice.”

“Heh, yeah, I’m pretty great. The Dark Lord Dio is certainly one of the strongest Impmon around.” Dio said, his smug expression growing and growing with each compliment received. Maybe he had misjudged the fairy; nobody with so many good things to say about him could possibly be bad!

Carlos, not wanting all of that sucking up to get too much to his partner’s head, felt the need to gently knock him down a peg or two. “Well, actually she offered to train him after getting his ass handed to him…by her. Great learning excersise if I do say so myself.” He said with a sly smirk. Gently, indeed.

Dio shot a murderous glare at him for a moment, before finally replying a simple “…screw you, Carlos.”

What Tink said did piqued the imp’s interest and made him perk up a bit.“Hmm, what sort of deal are we talking about here?” The self proclaimed dark lord asked, scratching his chin.

Carlos shook his head amused at the sincerity of the fairy. Poor thing probably didn’t understood he was mostly kidding…key word mostly, as Diohad asked for a soul as payment for a favor the man asked him back on the real world. But thinking back on it, it was probably his way to avoid helping Carlos with cleaning the dishes.

“Nah don’t worry about it, we can work it out later. And no, you don’t have to give us your soul.”

"Shut up! Both of you!" The imp would snap as soon as he heard the fairy's attempts at silencing her laughter, even before Carlos was able to say anything. Folding his arms he turned around, avoiding eye contact as his face got red with embarrasment and anger. Even as the fairy apologized, he didn't even bother to look behind himself as he replied, "Oh, you can keep your lies to yourself!"

Carlos shook his head a bit, feeling slightly guilty over making fun of his partner. Just a bit. But he knew it wouldn't be long before the small megalomaniac would spring back from his pouting...as long as Tink didn't push him further that is. Taking advantage the "Dark Lord" wasn't looking at them, he leaned closer into the fairy's ear.

"Don't worry, he'll get over it soon...just uh, don't push your luck too much, he has good aim." He whispered, trying to sound reassuring. Key word being trying...

"So anyways, what is it you wanted to ask us? Go ahead, we don't bite."

To say the duo was taken aback by Tink's sudden outburst would be putting it mildly. None of them ever expected her to react like that to Dio's sulking, but arguably more surprising for Carlos was his partner's reaction. Having someone talking to him with that tone, saying such things without any kind of filter...truth be told Carlos expected his partner to just lose it at any time and respond to Tink's verbal beat down with a good ol fireball to the face.

The imp simply stood silent with a completely dumbfounded expression, eyes wide open as the fairy kept going on and on. Even when she suddenly stopped, seemingly realizing her mistake and started apologizing, Dio didn’t say a word, looking back at her with an almost expressionless face. Carlos gulped a bit, fearing the worst was about to happen.

But…surprisingly it didn’t. The expected explosive outburst of violence never came. Instead Dio simply sighed a bit, looking upwards at the clouds, somewhat contemplative, before looking back at the fairy.

"No...don’t apologize. I have to admit you... raise some good points.” The purplish imp admitted, shaking his head a bit. “A ruler with thin skin is no ruler at all. That said…” his expression suddenly turned into a bit of a sly grin as he got closer to the fairy, lightly tapping her head with one finger, “..you’re quite a brave little fairy. Not everyone has the gall to say to the Dark Lord what really is on their mind. You have my respect.”

Carlos sighed in relief, happy that such a small argument hadn’t ended in violence (again). With a smile he then tried to reassure the now seemingly fearful Tink.

“Aw come on, don’t worry so much! I don’t know anything about the Empyrean Skies either…or anywhere else in the Digital World for that matter. And its not stopping me from going.”
It couldn’t possibly be that bad. Right?