Lost and Found [Cas/Metal Drive]

"Hm... yes, I understand. Alright."

Tch - that was far from a pleasant call. Clenching that disposable phone, Denryu found himself giving a mental sigh, pinching his sinus between his thumb and forefinger. For better or worse, Dr. Mikemon had the right idea calling ahead of Doctor Cross' arrival, but this? This was quite the tough pill to swallow.

"Tch." At the side of the room, Angel crossed her arms, clicking between tensed fangs. "Well? You going to be alright?"

"Are you?" Closing his eyes, Denryu walked right past the Renamon, her fur standing on edge as her General turned that comment right back around on her. "Be ready for her arrival in about an hour, and let Breach know that he doesn't need to raise hell when the front door start's ringing."

---

For Cassandra, the time away must have felt like an eternity, and those last few hundred yards must have felt like a metaphorical mile. Just how would the base accept her? How much did they know, would they even recognize her, would they even accept her? Several questions, some more rational than not, must have plagued her mind - especially at the sight of that display.

However, just a few second later, that 'Access Denied' would be replaced with a series of dashes, the door hissing right in front of her as it opened - leading to that familiar elevator, the button already lit for the lower levels. Just below, Volt was holding that button, the Kokuwamon giving a light buzz.

"Sorry, just doing the maintenance here, doctor." Right - an acquaintance with Cassandra at best, it was much easier for Volt to digest the information. "The, uh, 'cat' family filled us in. You want me to page someone to start the tea?"

"Alright, I'll let someone know." With a mechanical click, Volt sent over the message, the Kokuwamon still keeping up an idle hum as he closed that maintenance hatch. All things considered, it was a short and uneventful elevator ride to the bottom - and as the door opened and the Baalmon asked her question, the machine blinked.

"Hm? Oh, yes, go right ahead. Common area, I think." He idly nodded in that direction, and should Cassandra make her way down there - down what were homely, familiar halls at this point - she'd finally find Angel and Denryu. The Renamon herself stood just around the corner, arms crossed, simply keeping an ear on the place. Denryu, though, found himself sitting, idly spinning that flip-phone in his hand as Cassandra walked in, not even looking in her direction at first. It wasn't intentional - the man was simply so lost in thought that he hadn't even realized she'd entered the room.

When he did notice, his hand would tense, slowly putting that phone down on the table. Words took a moment longer: he'd slowly stand in the Baalmon's presence, his eyes finally confirming what the doctor said over the phone.

The eggs. The state of her D-Terminal. That weird pendant around her neck. And, of course, the elephant in the room, the lack of the doctor's humanity. Though she no longer needed an EV shield - and, perhaps for the first time, she'd realize the draft in the room - this was still hard to accept.

... But not the this that was Cassandra being a Baalmon. No, the only one Denryu was cursing at was himself. If only he had his team, if only he could have been there himself! But, as it was, the General gave the doctor a nod. "Guess the world's not done exploding around us yet, huh?" Managing a more relaxed breath, he leaned back, and tapped at the cushion next to his. "Angel, see what we can do about getting an incubation area set up, will you?"

Dr. Cross wasn't the only one with an interest in the eggs. As the bag was set down on the table, the Renamon stepped up, crouching next to the table to look at them with interest - well, in particular, the golden-colored one, carefully swaddled up in its own towel. For a long few seconds, she stared, before swearing lightly under her breath.

"You fucking idiot... you'd better not forget what you promised me, Dagger."

Carefully stepping away, Angel would make her way out of the room, to see what space they could make to set up a proper incubation area. This left Denryu and the Baalmon alone, Denryu looking on briefly as the fox turned the corner. Cassandra had it right: thinking clearly, it was a simple enough choice to make, but that didn't make it any harder. "And that's not even considering the impact of destroying the statue. A D-Reaper event of the same scale as the desert, except in a populated space..."

He didn't want to think of the consequences. Those words were followed by several seconds of silence, the General mulling over everything that had happened over the past few days. There were a number of things he could bring up - Holly, Dark, the movement of DATS in the real world - but none of that seemed all too important for the moment.

No, Denryu kept silent, and instead brought an arm around, resting it across the Baalmon's shoulders, pulling her just a bit closer.

"Thankfully, its a shit-show that we won't have to watch."

Denryu gave a sigh, keeping his grip around Cassandra's shoulder as the Baalmon settled in. For everything that had happened, at this point, not a lot needed to be said. After all, the incident and the effects had been playing nonstop on the television and the radio every waking hour of the day, the news so prevalent that Denryu had caught up on it, and Cassandra likely kept herself in the loop as well.

The Wisemon was nowhere to be found, reported as destroyed and loaded by the leader of the Knights of the Rose. Ebonwumon briefly came into existence, its life reversing the damage to the core of the forest. Both jovial celebration and fear still rang throughout the Digital World, and the echoes of the event spread far and wide...

... So much so that Luminas managed to overthrow its more bigoted government. Thanks to the doctor, and thanks to everyone else, one of the goals that they'd been striving for since the start were finally achieved. Without his own hand at the critical moment, though, everything just felt so surreal, especially with this result.

But that did leave one question unanswered - where was Denryu when the doctor called the first time?

"... Bell's here." Starting somewhat out of context, Denryu started to explain: "I mean, the Floramon, the one Demon had been with for a while. Around the same time as the incident in the forest, Bell mentioned that she was fearing for her life, and by the time we arrived, Volt could already sense several threats in the forest around us. It was... likely the Wisemon's doing as well, wanting to secure what he could to ensure that things would go his way going forward."

He sighed: "We got her out. Took a few bumps, couldn't stay in contact - but I knew I couldn't pull you or Dagger away from helping out that Cherubimon." The end result? "We got her back here, with thankfully little more than a concussion to show for damage. We managed to torch out her lab, too."

"I'd say most aren't that well-rounded. You and Mikemon are probably two of the few exceptions."

Denryu gave a small smile of his own, gently leaning against Cassandra, letting a calm hand rub through the top of the Baalmon's back through the worn hair. The doctor's following words were somewhat depressing, but all things considered, those who saw weren't exactly aware of who she was to begin with, right? The General didn't voice that, but at the very least, Cassandra didn't seem too distraught.

She had one thing right, of course. "Oh, don't worry about that, you're just as deep in this mess as I am. Luminas might have straightened itself out, but there's not a single zero off my bounty yet." He gave a sigh, simply slipping into the moment.

"Though, what do you think? I fake my death, we hit some calm farm out in the middle of nowhere and let the world blow us by?" It was a tempting thought... but Denryu found himself shaking his head just a moment later. "... Like I could sit still like that."

"I'm not sure about cannibalize, but Angel would probably run Dagger ragged." Denryu managed to share a chuckle at their collective dysfunction, but really, this was their reality. Even before meeting Cassandra, the General had always sought some greater purpose in the Digital World, and the doctor managed to give him both the direction and stability he needed to keep going.

But, at least for a little bit, he could appreciate the gentler fantasy - just taking a day or two for themselves, while they were waiting for the next job to roll on in. "I'm sure Guru would love some sort of teaching job. And... well, I guess I could dust off my math books at some point." Sheesh, now they were here? Figuring out what to do next?

"Don't know. I have a few working in Rosewood on-and-off but we're just waiting for the news to die down before being active again." The sighting of the turtle had inevitably brought attention back to the dragon - which could lead back to their actions in the desert. Better not to stress anything in their current fragile condition. For now, the General would press closer, pressing his own kiss on the Baalmon's cheek...

... To the annoyed cough of a Renamon a few feet away. "... The, um, nursery is set up." The fox, slightly blushing, cast her gaze away from the two of them.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for you two. If there was ever a fit for Denryu, its definitely you."

Angel actually managed to crack a small smile at that, giving a sigh as she shook her head. "Just forgive me if I'm a little wracked. I might not have been in the mess, but we're certainly full up just dealing with the aftereffects."

Anyway, that was neither here nor there. As Dr. Cross followed along with the eggs, Angel would slide open a door on the right side of the hall, revealing a clear, clean-enough room, and about as simple a nursery as one could manage out here in the dregs: two medium sized cardboard boxes, each a little over half full with freshly shredded newspaper. The room itself was dry, and this far underground, ideally warm enough to keep the eggs happy.

"This is about as good as we can do on short notice. Its out of the way, so no-one will accidentally bother them, and we can put up a sign on the door anyway so the others will know why this room's opened up now." If allowed, Angel would carefully take that golden colored egg, and set it on the left box, gently caressing her hand across the front of the shell.

"How many people did your self-sacrificing act save this time, Dagger?"