MPC 54A: Pulling Legacy and Family from Perdition [Solo]

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Like he had promised, Owen was taking his new son Bezil on another adventure today. The Backup Bayou was an interesting yet risky place. Owen had explored it himself some months ago, and now on this day he returned, hoping to show his Gumdramon kid the sights of the place and tell him the stories of what happened.

"Huh, cool, do you know who made these ruins, dad?" Bezil asked as they walked past some ancient mudbrick structures through the reeds and soggy soil.

"Nope, I don't know, mate" Owen responded. "They probably pre-date the old DWR though".

"Ooh, right, those guys" Bezil nodded with understanding. "Do you think the DWR got as far as this place, dad?" he asked curiously. The DWR, or Digital World Republic was an old nation of the digital world that Owen had once lived and fought in as a soldier. He had told Bezil many stories of his time as a Recon Captain and the furred Gumdramon was fascinated by it, wanting to hear a new story every day. Owen was starting to get to the point where he was running out of such stories, given that there was little that he did remember clearly.

"Heh, possibly. At its height the DWR covered the whole continent" Owen replied. The Gaomon and Gumdramon explored the Bayou further, Owen more carefully taking his son across the muddy river where he had fallen in. From there they went deeper into the bayou.

"This is where I found my digimental" Owen said to Bezil, pointing to a large peat bog. He briefly focused and made it materialize - the golden artifact appearing in front of them. "The digimental of confidence".

"Oh wow, dad, that's awesome!" Bezil beamed, trying to touch it, but the digimental was assimilated with Owen's data and only appeared as a projection. Bezil's yellow eyes instead looked up at his. "Hey, dad, do you think I'll find a digimental one day?"

"Of course you will, mate" Owen chuckled, mussing Bezil's head between his ears. "You're an adventurous little guy, you're gonna find loads of things son, I know it".

Bezil beamed up at him, blushing at the praise. The two had grown a very close relationship. While Owen still loved his husband and other sons, they had humans to look after them. With Bezil, it was just him, and Owen was determined to never let him feel lesser because of it.

Then Owen snapped his attention behind them. He turned at once, his smile turned to a scowl.

"Son?" a voice repeated, sneering at the both of them. "You're even pretending to act like a human family now?! How pathetic... the humans come to our world and you pretend to be just like them. You sicken me!"

"Bezil, stay back, this guy's trouble" Owen told the Gumdramon firmly. It was the digimon he had fought on his last visit here. A water demon digimon that carried a heavy weighted staff. Perfect level. Sagomon.

But Bezil glared at Sagomon as well, an expression of anger on his face. "Hey! Don't you insult our family!" he snapped. "And what's wrong with humans anyway? You got a problem with them?"

"Oh, I do, and so should any self-respecting digimon" Sagomon replied. "The humans will bring nothing but ruin and suffering to the digital world, and sycophantic little lapdogs like you greet them with open arms. Disgusting doesn't even begin to describe it".

"Bezil, calm down, mate" Owen urged the little dragon, but the Gumdramon was outraged that his father was being spoken to like that.

"Oh yeah?! Call my dad disgusting one more time and he'll kick your ass!" he boasted.

"You think that can frighten me, you little brat?!" Sagomon snapped, and before Owen could stop him, he lunged forward, swinging his staff so that its heavy weighted end slammed into Bezil. The Gumdramon gasped as the wind was knocked out of him, then he flew backward at least twenty feet, landing with a thick wet splash in the peat bog.

"BEZIL!" Owen yelped with horror, almost jumping in after him, but he realized it was too dangerous to do so. Not with Sagomon standing right there. The bog would slow him down and make him an easy target to finish off. His only choice was to digivolve, but...

"Go on, digivolve to your Perfect form" Sagomon said, sneering. "Let's see what good your jetpack does here"

No... he was right. The peat bog and swamp gases were flammable. If Owen used his jetpack here he could set the whole bog on fire and roast Bezil alive. No, he couldn't do that. But... what could he do?

"Bezil, don't struggle!" Owen told the Gumdramon, who was sunk up to his chest. "You should just float if you don't try and move! Don't worry, I'll get you out of there!"

"Dad... I'm sinking!" Bezil wailed. Owen stared as he realized this was true. Why... oh no! Bezil's heavy hammer tail! It was weighing him down!

Owen then thought what to do. How he had coped in the same situation... of course! The diving gear! Owen reached into his tunic pocket and pulled its program from it, materializing the breathing mask. Bezil would still sink, but he could still breathe if he received it.

"Bezil! Quick! Catch this!" he told the foundering Gumdramon, then tossed the gear over to the muck. But to his shock, Sagomon quickly leapt and intercepted it, using the blade on his staff so the breathing tube was sliced in two. The gear was useless now!

"I'm sorry, did your son need that to live?" Sagomon sneered. Owen gave a furious snarl in response. At once he digivolved all the way to his Perfect form, MachGaogamon, but didn't dare to ignite his jetpacks. Sagomon laughed and launched an onslaught of hits at him.

"Dad! H-help!" Bezil cried, now down to his neck in the quicksand-like mud. Owen urgently looked around for something to help him with. A rope... a vine, anything! But doing this in the heat of battle when he was fighting with a disadvantage only caused him to have his face smashed in with Sagomon's weighted staff.

Bezil could only watch helplessly as Sagomon launched an onslaught of attacks at Owen, fighting with such ferocity that Owen's digizoid wings were dented and buckled from the force of the attacks. He tried to fight back, but Sagomon was too nimble and fast, easily able to overwhelm his grounded opponent.

The last thing Bezil saw as his eyes sank below the surface was Owen's battered body collapsed on the ground, de-digivolving back to his rookie form.

"BEZIL! NO!" Owen screamed as the Gumdramon disappeared under the bog, leaving only a rush of bubbles in his wake. He tried to crawl along the ground to desperately try and save him, but felt Sagomon's staff on his back, followed by an immense electrical shock that caused everything below his waist to go numb. Owen was paralyzed.

"I wonder what he's thinking down there, hm?" Sagomon asked, his voice a sickly sweet poison. "'It's gonna be okay! Dad's gonna beat up that bad guy and get me out in time!' perhaps? Or 'I can't breathe... why is this taking so long? I can't hold on much longer...'"

Owen watched with horror as another rush of bubbles 'gloop'ed on the surface. The sucking bog was squeezing the last of Bezil's life from him. Owen struggled to move again, but his legs simply wouldn't respond. He snarled wordlessly and flailed his head around, but the paralysis had shut down all mobility.

"I suppose you're wondering why I'm doing this..." Sagomon continued. "Forcing you to watch a loved one die, one so young and innocent... well, Owen, or should I say... Captain Jaelin of the 7/71st, you did the same to me on that day".

All at once, Owen remembered. The last stand of his old unit, defending the gates of the old DWR capital from the traitor forces. Countless digimon had died there. Yes, the evil traitors, snarling and lashing out in their attempts to pass and bring ruin to Owen's home, but others too... the wounded, the yielded, those that had de-digivolved. All of them had to die. And all of them did die, so that not a single digimon was left to absorb the data of the fallen. And it was Owen that had made it so.

"I watched as my friend begged you for mercy" Sagomon continued. "And in response you put your claws through him. My best friend... shattered into a million pieces, that was the last thing as I remember as I lost myself and ended my life then against your claws as well. I couldn't match you then, but I can now..."

More bubbles on the surface of the peat bog. Owen could tell that Bezil was still struggling down there, trying not to breathe and drown. But he must be so scared. So terrified...

And betrayed.

Owen had promised to keep him safe... and he had failed. What would he tell Hikaru? What would he tell Logan and Haku? And Cion? How could he live with himself, that he had buried his own son through his weakness? Owen could almost hear the words of old admonishing him.

"So, 'Owen'. You're the digimon that inherited my data and saw fit to continue my legacy?" the voice spoke in his mind, dripping with contempt. "How dare you. How dare you think yourself worthy of that legacy? I made the world of old fear the 7/71st Recon. I swore to my comrades that I would not fail a single one of them until my dying breath.Thousands of the DWR's enemies died by my hand and my command as I fought to keep that oath, and you... you whimper in defeat as the digimon you call your son struggles to live and begs for your help"

"...Captain... Jaelin?" Owen whispered, not believing what he was hearing. He could almost see the outline of the digimon he once was - the blue digizoid armor, the long flowing red cape. "I... can't move" he tried to explain.

"Can't... or won't?" the Recon Leader responded with scorn. "Just months ago you pulled the digimental of confidence from this very pit. If your son dies today, Owen... then you deserve to die with him. Now I order you to stand up, save your son, and prove yourself worthy of leading my unit!"

Owen growled in response, attempting once more to move his legs, to stand up... at first they only twitched in response, but Owen's growling grew more fierce. He forced them to move, through sheer will and determination. They would move, he commanded it!

A glowing golden aura began to flow through his fur. Sagomon stared, narrowing his eyes.

"What are you doing?" he asked. And in response the Gaomon gave a roar so forceful that Sagomon was blown back off his feet.

This was the day that Owen would reclaim his legacy. This was the day he would prove himself worthy - not only as commander of the 7/71st, but as a father. Here stood an old enemy, and there in the bog was his drowning son. He knew there was only one way to deal with both.

"Gaomon... Warp-Digivolve!" he roared, then grew to a height of ten feet. Blue digizoid armor formed on his head, his waist, his forearms and lower legs. Massive clawed gauntlets formed on his paws. On his chest, a white head in the form of some demon formed. The evolution finished as Sagomon struggled to return to his feet.

Knowing he likely only had seconds left, Owen then dove straight into the bog. It would have ordinarily slowed him down, but he could move so fast through it! He felt something soft and warm a few metres under, then he carefully held it in his arms. Then, he righted himself, turned, then rushed back out of the mud, emerging to Sagomon's utter shock. Even though he was now dripping with mud, holding an equally muddy Gumdramon in his hands that was coughing and gasping for breath, his yellow eyes seemed to glow with righteous malice.

"...MirageGaogamon" he spoke, fury evident in his voice.

"What... how?" Sagomon asked with disbelief.

"You tried to kill my son" Owen replied. "For that, I will end you".

He said nothing more as he rushed forward, too fast for Sagomon to register, and ran him through with his sword-length claws. Just as Captain Jaelin did long ago. Sagomon gave only a small gasp before shattering into data.

The danger passed, Owen landed on the bank of the bog, letting Bezil down on solid ground. The Gumdramon fell on our fours and coughed up a lot of mud, but he was still alive at least. He wiped his face from the filthy peat and turned his yellow eyes up at his father.

"Are you okay, son?" Owen asked gently.

"Y-yeah" Bezil answered, coughing again, but gave a smile up at him. "I knew you'd save me, dad"

Owen said nothing more and gently raised his paw. Even if it was covered with a heavy gauntlet, caked with mud, he gently petted Bezil with his thumb. He was safe, for now.

"Dad, can we go somewhere to wash off?" Bezil then asked. "This stuff stinks!"

Owen chuckled. "That's a good idea, mate" he agreed. "Come on, you can ride on my shoulder, let's head to Rosewood"

And so, Owen and Bezil emerged from the bayou. Filthy, shaken, but closer than ever before. As the beast knight flew through the air, he wondered what Captain Jaelin would say to him now. Wonder was all he did, he did not hear the voice again. But, in the clouds ahead, he thought he saw the shadow of something familiar, who simply gave a nod of approval.

The 7/71st was back. Perhaps not so much feared, but, from this day on, Owen was determined to make it known. But one thing was for sure, it would never, ever get in the way of looking after his family.

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The end