A simple Key [Carlos/Closed]

As embarrassing as it was to accept healing from K, as it felt almost like asking for charity, he would be lying if he said it didn’t felt good to be rid of the pain. He felt the energy sip into him, revitalizing him and healing his wounds. A while later he would stand back up and quickly go back to sitting by Carlos’ side.

“ThanksIguess.” He muttered out, his blush slowly dissipating while he scratched his now painless back.

Once again, her questions regarding his possible past got him thinking for a good while. He pondered for a good while before giving her the answer he felt was right.

“I won’t let my past dictate my future…but I don’t know if I should just forget it either.” He said, looking at his feet, looking lost in thought.
“I mean, if you’re still holding onto that memory there must be a reason.” Carlos chimed in.
“Yeah...it’s like, I feel there’s something I should remember about it…but I just don’t.” he said, with a shrug.

As the fox proceeded to count down the problems the digital world was experiencing at the moment, Carlos couldn’t help but feel a bit worried, if almost sad. Other than some small issues (namely the high chance of death by giant digimon) this whole world seemed like in a better state than the Earth, and yet here they were, discussing two possibly world ending threats that could possibly end with everything. Seemed as this place wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows as he expected.

She would soon raise a pretty worrying point about one of the threat’s power. Apparently this DReaper had been powerful enough to defeat even her, and judging by her tone, she hadn’t simply “lost” that one time. That was something even Dio couldn’t ignore.

“Almost destroy…you mean…deleted?” The imp asked, for being careful with his wording, not wanting to upset K with his question.

Both her sheer power and masterful control over said power was certainly impressive for the two, but nothing could prepare them for when she’d raise her massive sword above their heads, dwarfing the trio so much it forced Carlos and Dio to look up, completely awestruck.
Then, shortly after, finally came the moment of truth, what the imp had been waiting for since they had began talking. His key, or at least K’s take on what his key was.

Power.

She did say it was mostly conjecture on her part, but truth be told, Dio felt she was probably right, or at least on the right track. The word did mean a lot for the small imp, it had been beaten into his head over and over ever since he had been reborn. Power kept him alive. Power brought respect. Power helped you defend that which you treasured most…so it only made sense his first key would be power.

Before he could think further in that, K would talk once again, offering him a rather generous offer: teaching him, schooling him, whatever the case was, the offer boiled down to the same thing. She wanted to offer him a helping hand…almost literally, as he would soon find out.
His eyes would widen just a bit as she’d gently placed one hand on his head, the faint blushing returning once again to his cheeks. Damnit it, he almost wished she’d go back to slamming him about, at least he’d know how to react to that. He really wasn’t used to any of this kind and cuddly nonsense…even if this brought back a faint memory of Carlos’ girlfriend scratching his Pagumon form behind the ears, and how soothing that felt. So, in a weird way, he was welcoming of it, if only because it didn’t feel condescending, but genuinely caring.
Yet another thing he hadn’t felt in a long time

“Heheh. But what if they ignore me too, how else am I supposed to get their attention?” He asked half jokingly half seriously, before falling silent for a moment, thinking her proposition very thoroughly.

“In that case…” He stopped, trying hard to find the right words, “…ugh why is it so hard to ask this…K, would you teach me about my key…teach us how to get there?” He asked, looking up expectantly at her for a moment, before shooting a glare at Carlos.

“If I’m to get stronger so should my partner. It’s nonnegotiable.” He declared, not wanting his partner to have second thoughts. She was right, they needed each other if they wanted to grow stronger, but it would be pointless if Carlos didn’t agree with the decision he had taken for both of them.

However, the man couldn’t have been happier. Having the chance of being trained by the digital equivalent of Buddha (that knew how to fight) was obviously too good to pass on, especially for a lover of old timey kung fu movies like he was.
“You kidding me? Of course I want K to teach me!” He said with a wide smile, sounding uncharacteristically excited at the prospect.

"Its settled then." He would nod with a grin, before looking back at the fox, waiting for her response.

“Too rough? Hmph, I can take whatever you throw at me, I’ll still come back.” Dio said somewhat proudly, even puffing out his chest a bit as he did so. “Besides, I’d rather that than if you would have gone easy on me.”

As usual, she did raise a good point about not letting his past take control of his future, something that, while he thought was a bit farfetched, he wasn’t going to allow to happen regardless. Dark Lord or not, he had escaped the Dark Area looking for a brighter future to himself, and he wasn’t going to let any of his memories, real or imagined to take him away from said goal.

“Duly noted, I’ll let you know if I find out a bit more about my past.”

That said, as soon he saw K’s reaction upon being asked details about her fight with the Dreaper, the purple digimon couldn’t help but immediately regret having brought it up. Luckily, she wasn’t all that angry or upset over it, it seemed, and was willing to let them know of her hard fought battle…and the price she almost had to pay for it.

“Damn…I’m sorry.” Was all the man could say, unsure what even would be the appropriate response. After all, she had died…but had gotten a second chance. Most didn’t get that lucky.

“Well…at least you’re still around and not…you know.” Dio said, somewhat awkwardly. The thought of a Dreaper controlled K was…a whole new level of frightening. That amount of power on the wrong hands could easily send the whole world into a chaos that could last for years…if it even survived that.

Both partners were quick to drop the subject as soon as K continued with her own answers, not wanting to ruin the mood with such bleak thoughts.

Especially now that the mood had cheered up considerably, as evidenced by the small yet beaming smile Dio now had. He was certainly glad she would be willing to show him her ways.

“Thanks…” He said in a completely sincere and happy tone...for all of five seconds, as the blush would return momentarily before he awkwardly rushed the subject to ignore it. “…ahem, anyways! Let’s get started!” The imp said with a cocky grin, standing up from the stump with a quick jump, looking positively pumped for this.

“I’d much rather know we’re the door, keys and locked are located without being able to open them than having to stumble around blindly trying to find them.” The man commented, scratching his head. In other words, he’d rather have his partner get some help finding his way like this, even if they would have to be the ones to do the walking.

“Oh, ok.” The man would say, a hint of disappointment in his tone. Well, guess he wasn’t going to get training with digital Obi Wan just yet. At the very least K was nice enough to give him something else to do in the meantime, something that could possibly help them out in the future.

How ironic it was however that she would be sending him to do all that to Whitewater, the place they had tried to find and the reason they had stopped to talk with K in the first place. It seemed that one way or another she had still helped him reach Whitewater. “Just point me in the right direction and I’ll get there.” He said with a nod.

However, before they could get started it seemed K had something else to ask of them. Namely, a promise regarding D-reapers and Spires. The duo shared a glance, wondering what she could ever ask of them, before turning back to face her.

“Ok sure, what is it?”

“Well, we have plenty of time these days, so maybe we should get together and share life stories.” Carlos chimed in. He said it half jokingly but honestly was a bit curious as to what kind of life both of the digimon had had that led them to this moment, to being as they were now.

Seeing the usually dispassionate and calm K looking sad, even if it was for a moment, was a good sign for the two of them that it was probably wise not to ask her further questions about it, even if they were curious. Despite having some gaps in the memory department, Dio knew full well the pains of deletion and being reborn, so he wasn’t about to pressure her.

“Hmph, you're one of a kind, K. I don’t think I could forgive someone if I they deleted me. Specially if I remembered who they were.” Dio said, rubbing the back of his head. He wasn’t sure whether to admire her for being able to forgive someone like that, or find her too naïve to do such a thing. As far as he knew, if you forgave your killer you were only giving the chance to come and kill you again.

Alarmingly, as soon as she said that she seemed to be overtaken momentarily by…something. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to apparently stun and daze her for a moment, and while she’d soon continue acting as if nothing was wrong, that was something neither of them could ignore.

“You sure you’re ok?” Carlos asked, even offering her a hand to help her get back on her feet, not that she ended up needing it of course, and they would soon moved to the next subject as if nothing happened.

“Eh, don’t worry about me, there’s always next time.” He’d later shrug to the renamon, not wanting to make a big deal out of it. Was he still somewhat disappointed by this? A little, but at least she was giving him something to do and not simply leaving him by the wayside. “And don’t worry, if I die it’ll probably be on me.” He added with a chuckle.

Surprisingly, what she made them promise wasn’t to avoid those large threats completely as they were expecting her to (possibly because that would be impossible in the long run), but telling them to be extra careful around them, as well as giving them pretty good advice on how not to die to them. Not even Dio thought of saying a witty comeback to her, this was no joking matter. With a serious expression, the duo would nod once in agreement.

“We promise.”

With that out of the way, it seemed like their new adventure was finally ready to begin, all that was left was for Carlos to make his way safely to Whitewater.

“Alright…guess I’ll be seeing you later. Try not to upset our teacher too much, will ya Dark Lord?” The young man said, a teasing smile on his face.

“Only if you try to not get your dumb ass killed without me around.” The imp replied in a joking tone almost unlike himself, which gladly surprised Carlos. He was so used to his partner replying in a rather more violent fashion to even the more harmless of his jokes. Perhaps this was all they needed, a good teacher to show them the right way.

The man chuckled to himself a bit, patting the imp on the head as he did so, which was met with an annoyed huff from Dio.
Standing back up again, he then turned to face K. “Be safe you two, alright? I won’t be long.”

And with that he began walking walking down the road once again, following the general direction that K had pointed him towards, looking back at the other two while waving a bit. The imp simply stared back until his tamer was out of sight, not returning the wave at any moment.

“Stay safe, dumbass.” He would then mutter to himself, looking somewhat melancholic for a moment, before turning to face his would be “sensei” for an unspecified amount of time, grinning with anticipation. The training could not begin soon enough.

“So, when are we beginning? The Dark Lord wishes to start the training posthaste!”

Meanwhile, some distance away from them, the young human found himself alone on the road, the chirping of birds the only thing keeping him company on the walk. Twenty minutes of walking later he would find himself face to face with the city he would be spending some time in, not too far in the distance. There was just the smallest feeling of loneliness now that he found himself just like he had been a week ago: partner less. Turning back one more time to look at the wilderness behind him, he couldn’t help but think about his partner, and how much this training would actually change him.