The Paradox of Fear (Mix Topic: 61A, Wildcard61X)
Apr 8, 2019 3:55:58 GMT
Post by Zachary "Zaber" Scryer on Apr 8, 2019 3:55:58 GMT
MPC Name: What's A... Digimon? / Wildcard - "Face your Fears"
MPC Number: 61A, 61X Wildcard (54A- "Face Your Fears"
Reward Requested: Bits
Note: This is a double-topic so double the reward please.
WC: Over 3K+
The Paradox of Fear.
The night ended horribly as government agents came after them. It happened so fast. Both Zachary and Panthermon were on the hunt for a rogue Digimon who was tearing up parts of south Shibuya. However, it ultimately ended in tragedy as agents began to show up out of nowhere. Black vans and cars, men in black suits, and strange tamers with mechanical tools. They took down the rogue in their place, and immediately turned on them.
They didn’t ask questions-- they just attacked.
Zachary pants as he ran through the alleyway. Panthermon ran along the rooftops and fire-escapes that ran along the buildings. “Keep going, Zachary!” Panthermon shouted, urging his partner to run. “If they catch us we are done for!”
“I know that, Panthermon!” he gasped, able to hear the sirens and footsteps behind them of their pursuers. “Just disappear and get out of here!”
“There he is! After him!” he heard the voices of the agents behind him.
“DAMNIT!” Zachary shouted. They were catching up. Unlike Panthermon, Zachary was only human and he didn’t have the same agility his cat friend could do. There was a sudden bang-- followed by the sound like a deflating parachute. It was then a net seemed to sprawl out around Zachary.
He let out a cry as he tripped and fell, falling tightly into the net. His Digivice fell right out of his hand, clattering onto the concrete before him.
Alarmed, Panthermon immediately landed to the ground. “Zachary!” he growled, about ready to fight to defend him. But the men were fast approaching.
He tried and pulled, but he couldn’t get free. “Panthermon! No! Get out of here now!”
Shock came to the cat. “But I can’t leave you--”
“If you don’t, we both will be captured. Run now! NOW!!” he cried, desperate to save his friend.
The panther struggled, shocked and sad to be forced to flee, even at the orders of his human partner. When he saw the men get ready with another shooter to launch another net, Panthermon reluctantly growled and grabbed the fallen Digivice into his maw. Just as they fired the net, he vanished in a blur of shadows-- disappearing and fleeing from view.
He was torn between fear and relief to see his friend-- his partner, escape. Even as a rookie, Panthermon was a master of stealth. They would never find him. His relief, however, vanished as the men grabbed him and pulled him up to his feet. He tried to struggle but they didn’t let him go. They quickly handcuffed him, tossing his arms behind his back to keep him in place. “Let go of me!!”
As he was pushed back to the site of the Digimon attack, more men in black approached him. “Were you able to acquire the target?” one of them asked to the other.
“Negative. He escaped, so too with his associated device.”
“I see… and the boy?”
“Let me go you jerks!!” Zachary thrashed, but his arms were held fast to keep him from getting away.
“We can’t let him talk. Proceed with Morpheus Protocol.” the agent said. With that, another of them took out a camera like device from their pocket and proceeded to get in front of his eyesight. The men holding his arms held his head, keeping his gaze forward. “Don’t worry… this will all just be a bad dream…”
“No… NO!! Don’t--!”
FLASH!!
***
Another dull day, another routine trip to school. It was one of those hazy night sleeps where dreams happened in such chaotic order that he couldn’t remember what they were. He just woke up from the same bed, looking at the same ceiling of his apartment and got ready for school. The drawings he had sprawled on his desk was always on his mind, but he made every attempt to get to school.
Once again, he returned to the mundane, as if nothing had changed. He went to school, did his classes, studied and drew in the library, then took the train home. He felt lonely without his parents, but it was nothing new since he came to Tokyo…
But something nagged at the back of his mind as he went on his day. As if he kept trying to remember the dream he had. Something was off, and it was picking at him like an itch in his head he couldn’t scratch.
After the third day of the mundane, Zachary had his sketch book in his hand. Of late, he drew the panther-like creature he had drawn for years, but more often now it plagued his mind. He didn’t know why, and he didn’t seem to recall why it obsessed his mind so. Something he couldn’t put his finger on…
He made his way through the park, his usual route to get to the train station. He had this feeling he was being followed, a sensation at the back of his neck like someone behind him. However, he would turn several times and see no one.
That soon ended, however, as he entered a grove of trees… when no other people were around… a black blur appeared before him.
“Wha..?!” He dropped his notebook and jumped back startled. It was the same. The same black panther he drew, now before him.
“I’m sorry to be away for so long. After the attack I knew I had to keep my distance…” Panthermon said, “But for some reason our connection stopped working and…”
“What… Who are you?” Zachary exclaimed, baffled.
Panthermon’s talking stopped as he stood there on all fours, complicated. It was odd enough to see a black, talking jaguar in the middle of the park, in Tokyo of all places. However… it was even odder for Panthermon that his partner even had to ask.
“What…? Zachary It’s me,” he said, wondering why his friend and creator was confused. “You know who I am.”
“I… huh? I don’t…” Zachary rambled, feeling a headache coming on. “How do you know who I am?!”
Panthermon sat down, his front paws perched on the ground calmly like a regal feline as he looked to Zachary. “We know each other… Zachary, you know me. You created me…” he said, a touch hurt and confused.
Zachary trembled, unsure what was going on. He could be hallucinating or dreaming, but his trembling arms told him otherwise. He quickly picked up his dropped book, glimpsing at the same pictures he had been drawing.
“I… I don’t understand. You can’t be here. You’re just my imagination…” he said. It was then that he saw other people on the path, move towards him.
Realizing that he couldn’t stay there… Panthermon vanished, disappearing from Zachary’s sight. He blinked and the cat was gone.
By the time the jogger passed him, he began to slowly make his way towards the train station, feeling a bit unnerved at what he saw. And yet, he knew it WAS from his drawings.
Panthermon reappeared in the safety of the treetops as he saw Zachary walk along, now at a rushed pace. The panther Digimon glared in concern at his dear friend. Now he understood why his psychic connection with him was broken-- because he lost all his memories of him, including Digimon overall. The fear he saw in Zachary’s eyes was all too clear.
It wasn’t just that he forgot about him and Digimon. Zachary had forgotten that he was a Digimon born from his own imagination, a wish come to life. Whatever those men did to him, he was now oblivious to all the experiences they had shared together. A pain appeared in Panthermon’s chest-- where he would imagine a heart would be. It wasn’t that he forgot-- but it was because it was the worst thing that Zachary ever wanted to happen to him…
****
The past few days, Zachary was now scared. He kept seeing that panther showing up. It disturbed him so much he stopped drawing it. Though the image was both his inspiration, seeing the phantasm of this creature was starting to freak him out.
It probably wasn’t smart for Panthermon to pop in and out of places, but it was ehaveer that or being seen. That and cat nature to do just that. However, there were only few places for Panthermon to safely appear and try to explain to Zachary what was going on… and he would flee whenever he had the chance.
This time, it was on the train on his way back from school. He was reading a book as the train was crowded. It soon entered a tunnel as it traveled through the districts… and the power began to flicker. Zachary wouldn’t had noticed as he sat in his seat… till he heard the growl-like sound above him.
“Just listen to me please… I can prove I know you,” he said in a deep but calm voice.
As the lights dimmed and dark with the tunnel, Panthermon was up on the baggage shelf overhead. That and his invisibility, he could stay hidden without any issue. Zachary wanted to keep the voice out, but he didn’t have his earphones that day…
… “A while back you told me about your grandmother,” Panthermon said. “Your great-grandmother and how you met her in her late life. She was in a senior home and when you visited her with your mother. You had known her for years, but in her older age, she began to forget things. Events, places, and memories including you and others in her life.”
Zachary’s eyes widened, as he remembered that truth.
“She had altimers,” Panthermon purred, “You were so sad and shocked to learn she forgot events and people… even as much as family, you were traumatized to learn that could happen. That people could forget, and to be forgotten by others like that.”
His arms trembled, his headache came back as he struggled to keep the voice out. No longer just a sound, but a thought in his head…. The psychic link was trying to reconnect, but also his loss of memory keeping it apart.
“You told me this. You told me it was what you feared most… More than dying…” Panthermon spoke.
“SHUT UP!!” Zachary shouted, jumping out of his seat.
He turned but saw nothing there, an empty space where the black cat would be. His outburst caused everyone in the train car to look at him, as if he was some kind of basket case. He paused as he looked around, seeing the people stare at him. Realizing his outburst had caused more harm than good, he heard the doors to the train finally open at a stop. Without even considering it was the right stop, he got off… walking the rest of the way back home.
***
Zachary’s worst fear, the one thing he dreaded more than anything. How could that feline creature of known that? He walked home in relative peace, being no more than a mile away from his house when he got off the train. He took this time to get something some aspirin from the corner store to ease his head. First it was the same creature he drew, and then he knew about his great grandmother and the fear he had.
His headache kept looming in his mind, starting to really bother him. The sky had grown overcast and rain began to patter down on him that made him draw up his hood. He soon wobbled into his apartment building where he lived and quickly walked past the building guard who welcomed him in. Too tired to really respond to him, he quickly got into the elevator and rode up.
As it hit the 14th floor, he opened his apartment and stepped inside. Exhausted, he didn’t even bother to turn on the lights. He just took off his jacket and tossed it aside on one of the nearby chairs in the dining room area. He soon reached the living room, which overlooked the wide window-like wall that overlooked the rest of Shibuya. Even though the storm began to patter rain and flash lightning in the distance, he didn’t care. The patter of the rain seemed to sooth his mind as he flopped down on the couch and dropped his bag beside him.
He could hear the thunder crack in the distance as he heard the storm grow more intense outside and the rain enter more of a patter on the window. He just was so tired, seeing these ‘hallucinations’ that spoke to him. He felt as if he was losing his mind.
It was then he heard a sound. A clatter of something being dropped. He rose up from his position as he saw it. Something rolled out from the dark onto the carpet, as if it was tossed. He looked down to find it an odd looking plastic device. A round-shaped object that had a violet ring and buttons, tied by a similar colored cord. He froze as he saw the device. Someone was in the room with him…
“That belonged to you. It’s still yours…” a voice spoke in the dark.
Lightning and thunder went off outside the window, illuminating the livingroom-- and the panther that had been hidden in the darkness. Its eyes pierced out at Zachary, like a demon in the night.
“GHAAAAAA!!” Zachary screamed and fell flat backwards on his behind. OUt of pure instinct he took his backpack and threw it, scattering the contents and his notebook clattering near the cat.
However, Panthermon just sat there, unmoving. “Please stop screaming… We cats have sensitive ears…” he growled.
Zachary looked at the jaguar-like creature silently as he tried not to shout anymore. He felt like he was losing his mind.
“Tell me the truth, Zachary, “ Panthermon growled softly, “You recognize me. But you don’t know why.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about?!” Zachary shouted, and soon gripped his head. “God… I must be losing my mind.”
Panthermon took a step forward, but only so he could reach Zachary’s notebook now sprawled open. With a paw he opened a page, showing the pictures of him. “You been drawing me for years… I was born, existed because of you… but you forgotten how.” He looked up to Zachary. “You have forgotten how we met… and the adventures you had. You forgotten everything since you moved here.”
“That’s not possible! I… I would of remembered!” Zachary shouted.
A sigh escaped Panthermon as he realized why this was so difficult. “Those men really did a number on you. It’s almost poetic,” he growled, “You told you realized your worst fear after what happened with your grandmother. You worst fear was to lose your memory and who you were. That exactly is what happened to you by those men in suits. And you would never known this because it is your fear to even consider you forgotten something so important.”
Zachary’s headache was becoming unbearable as he felt like static was filling it. “Stop it already! I’m sorry but I just don’t know! I don’t know!! Just leave me alone, please!” he cried, falling to his knees.
The lightning lit up the dark room once more as Panthermon hated to see him in so much pain… but if he was going to remember, he had to face it. He had to admit he was scared to even think about losing what he lost. “Zachary, I am your friend. You’re protector, your partner. We worked together. You created me, gave me a purpose, and though what I am and why I am here alludes both of us… I care about you, and why I know you would rather know the truth than be ignorant and not remember!”
His voice growled in both anger and determination to break through as Zachary gripped his head. He now saw things as his eyes were closed. Static that flickered and images of things flashed in his head. “You saw creatures from a digital world, you traveled there, defended this city from those who would hurt it. And people-- humans at that, who would bury the truth, forced you to forget.”the panther said.
The hazy images flashed faster in his head to the point he felt like it was going to burst. Tears streamed down his eyes as he began to see it. The digital world, his drawings, his friends and the whole world that opened up to him. A cry of pain escaped him as he crumbled to the ground, realizing he had forgotten something important.
He forgot his best friend…and it terrified him.
Thunder echoed and faded in the distance as it was now dark outside, panthermon not moved an inch. The cat saw Zachary slowly rise back to his knees, breathing frantically as the truth sunk in to him.
The cat hesitated but soon lowered his head to look at his friend. “Do you… remember my name? Please tell me you remember…” he said, his voice betraying a bit of sadness.
After a few moments, Zachary spoke up, his hair hiding his eyes. “Pan… Panther… mon…” he spoke.
The tension the cat felt faded as he soon heard him speak his name.
Though still working through a painful headache, Zachary looked up, the tears in his eyes still streaming down. He remembered. He remembered how his panther drawing came to life as a Digimon, and learned what Digimon were… He remembered Panthermon was an extension of himself, and the thought of losing him was horrible. And it had happened.
“Panthermon… I…” Zachary gasped, unable to stop his tears. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
With his partner memory coming into focus, the cat Digimon approached him. The moment he was in reach, Zachary quickly reached out and hugged the large panther, his tears falling onto the cat’s fur. “I’m so sorry i forgot you… I can’t… “ he sobbed, slowly feeling the link in their minds slowly form once more.
“It’s okay Zachary… It wasn’t your fault,” Panthermon said, resting his head on the boy’s shoulder. A soft purr escaped him as Zachary held him close and pet his back, glad to have the company of his human partner again. Even a silent tear fell from his eye as Zachary hugged him.
Panthermon and Zachary had a connection far deeper than most, because he was born from Zachary’s own imagination and mind. As such, not only did they have a connection, his very data also contained the fragments of memories that gave birth to him. The agents might of tried to erase his memory of Digimon, but they couldn’t erase the part where Panthermon originally came from.
No one could take that part away from him….
The End.
MPC Number: 61A, 61X Wildcard (54A- "Face Your Fears"
Reward Requested: Bits
Note: This is a double-topic so double the reward please.
WC: Over 3K+
The Paradox of Fear.
The night ended horribly as government agents came after them. It happened so fast. Both Zachary and Panthermon were on the hunt for a rogue Digimon who was tearing up parts of south Shibuya. However, it ultimately ended in tragedy as agents began to show up out of nowhere. Black vans and cars, men in black suits, and strange tamers with mechanical tools. They took down the rogue in their place, and immediately turned on them.
They didn’t ask questions-- they just attacked.
Zachary pants as he ran through the alleyway. Panthermon ran along the rooftops and fire-escapes that ran along the buildings. “Keep going, Zachary!” Panthermon shouted, urging his partner to run. “If they catch us we are done for!”
“I know that, Panthermon!” he gasped, able to hear the sirens and footsteps behind them of their pursuers. “Just disappear and get out of here!”
“There he is! After him!” he heard the voices of the agents behind him.
“DAMNIT!” Zachary shouted. They were catching up. Unlike Panthermon, Zachary was only human and he didn’t have the same agility his cat friend could do. There was a sudden bang-- followed by the sound like a deflating parachute. It was then a net seemed to sprawl out around Zachary.
He let out a cry as he tripped and fell, falling tightly into the net. His Digivice fell right out of his hand, clattering onto the concrete before him.
Alarmed, Panthermon immediately landed to the ground. “Zachary!” he growled, about ready to fight to defend him. But the men were fast approaching.
He tried and pulled, but he couldn’t get free. “Panthermon! No! Get out of here now!”
Shock came to the cat. “But I can’t leave you--”
“If you don’t, we both will be captured. Run now! NOW!!” he cried, desperate to save his friend.
The panther struggled, shocked and sad to be forced to flee, even at the orders of his human partner. When he saw the men get ready with another shooter to launch another net, Panthermon reluctantly growled and grabbed the fallen Digivice into his maw. Just as they fired the net, he vanished in a blur of shadows-- disappearing and fleeing from view.
He was torn between fear and relief to see his friend-- his partner, escape. Even as a rookie, Panthermon was a master of stealth. They would never find him. His relief, however, vanished as the men grabbed him and pulled him up to his feet. He tried to struggle but they didn’t let him go. They quickly handcuffed him, tossing his arms behind his back to keep him in place. “Let go of me!!”
As he was pushed back to the site of the Digimon attack, more men in black approached him. “Were you able to acquire the target?” one of them asked to the other.
“Negative. He escaped, so too with his associated device.”
“I see… and the boy?”
“Let me go you jerks!!” Zachary thrashed, but his arms were held fast to keep him from getting away.
“We can’t let him talk. Proceed with Morpheus Protocol.” the agent said. With that, another of them took out a camera like device from their pocket and proceeded to get in front of his eyesight. The men holding his arms held his head, keeping his gaze forward. “Don’t worry… this will all just be a bad dream…”
“No… NO!! Don’t--!”
FLASH!!
***
Another dull day, another routine trip to school. It was one of those hazy night sleeps where dreams happened in such chaotic order that he couldn’t remember what they were. He just woke up from the same bed, looking at the same ceiling of his apartment and got ready for school. The drawings he had sprawled on his desk was always on his mind, but he made every attempt to get to school.
Once again, he returned to the mundane, as if nothing had changed. He went to school, did his classes, studied and drew in the library, then took the train home. He felt lonely without his parents, but it was nothing new since he came to Tokyo…
But something nagged at the back of his mind as he went on his day. As if he kept trying to remember the dream he had. Something was off, and it was picking at him like an itch in his head he couldn’t scratch.
After the third day of the mundane, Zachary had his sketch book in his hand. Of late, he drew the panther-like creature he had drawn for years, but more often now it plagued his mind. He didn’t know why, and he didn’t seem to recall why it obsessed his mind so. Something he couldn’t put his finger on…
He made his way through the park, his usual route to get to the train station. He had this feeling he was being followed, a sensation at the back of his neck like someone behind him. However, he would turn several times and see no one.
That soon ended, however, as he entered a grove of trees… when no other people were around… a black blur appeared before him.
“Wha..?!” He dropped his notebook and jumped back startled. It was the same. The same black panther he drew, now before him.
“I’m sorry to be away for so long. After the attack I knew I had to keep my distance…” Panthermon said, “But for some reason our connection stopped working and…”
“What… Who are you?” Zachary exclaimed, baffled.
Panthermon’s talking stopped as he stood there on all fours, complicated. It was odd enough to see a black, talking jaguar in the middle of the park, in Tokyo of all places. However… it was even odder for Panthermon that his partner even had to ask.
“What…? Zachary It’s me,” he said, wondering why his friend and creator was confused. “You know who I am.”
“I… huh? I don’t…” Zachary rambled, feeling a headache coming on. “How do you know who I am?!”
Panthermon sat down, his front paws perched on the ground calmly like a regal feline as he looked to Zachary. “We know each other… Zachary, you know me. You created me…” he said, a touch hurt and confused.
Zachary trembled, unsure what was going on. He could be hallucinating or dreaming, but his trembling arms told him otherwise. He quickly picked up his dropped book, glimpsing at the same pictures he had been drawing.
“I… I don’t understand. You can’t be here. You’re just my imagination…” he said. It was then that he saw other people on the path, move towards him.
Realizing that he couldn’t stay there… Panthermon vanished, disappearing from Zachary’s sight. He blinked and the cat was gone.
By the time the jogger passed him, he began to slowly make his way towards the train station, feeling a bit unnerved at what he saw. And yet, he knew it WAS from his drawings.
Panthermon reappeared in the safety of the treetops as he saw Zachary walk along, now at a rushed pace. The panther Digimon glared in concern at his dear friend. Now he understood why his psychic connection with him was broken-- because he lost all his memories of him, including Digimon overall. The fear he saw in Zachary’s eyes was all too clear.
It wasn’t just that he forgot about him and Digimon. Zachary had forgotten that he was a Digimon born from his own imagination, a wish come to life. Whatever those men did to him, he was now oblivious to all the experiences they had shared together. A pain appeared in Panthermon’s chest-- where he would imagine a heart would be. It wasn’t that he forgot-- but it was because it was the worst thing that Zachary ever wanted to happen to him…
****
The past few days, Zachary was now scared. He kept seeing that panther showing up. It disturbed him so much he stopped drawing it. Though the image was both his inspiration, seeing the phantasm of this creature was starting to freak him out.
It probably wasn’t smart for Panthermon to pop in and out of places, but it was ehaveer that or being seen. That and cat nature to do just that. However, there were only few places for Panthermon to safely appear and try to explain to Zachary what was going on… and he would flee whenever he had the chance.
This time, it was on the train on his way back from school. He was reading a book as the train was crowded. It soon entered a tunnel as it traveled through the districts… and the power began to flicker. Zachary wouldn’t had noticed as he sat in his seat… till he heard the growl-like sound above him.
“Just listen to me please… I can prove I know you,” he said in a deep but calm voice.
As the lights dimmed and dark with the tunnel, Panthermon was up on the baggage shelf overhead. That and his invisibility, he could stay hidden without any issue. Zachary wanted to keep the voice out, but he didn’t have his earphones that day…
… “A while back you told me about your grandmother,” Panthermon said. “Your great-grandmother and how you met her in her late life. She was in a senior home and when you visited her with your mother. You had known her for years, but in her older age, she began to forget things. Events, places, and memories including you and others in her life.”
Zachary’s eyes widened, as he remembered that truth.
“She had altimers,” Panthermon purred, “You were so sad and shocked to learn she forgot events and people… even as much as family, you were traumatized to learn that could happen. That people could forget, and to be forgotten by others like that.”
His arms trembled, his headache came back as he struggled to keep the voice out. No longer just a sound, but a thought in his head…. The psychic link was trying to reconnect, but also his loss of memory keeping it apart.
“You told me this. You told me it was what you feared most… More than dying…” Panthermon spoke.
“SHUT UP!!” Zachary shouted, jumping out of his seat.
He turned but saw nothing there, an empty space where the black cat would be. His outburst caused everyone in the train car to look at him, as if he was some kind of basket case. He paused as he looked around, seeing the people stare at him. Realizing his outburst had caused more harm than good, he heard the doors to the train finally open at a stop. Without even considering it was the right stop, he got off… walking the rest of the way back home.
***
Zachary’s worst fear, the one thing he dreaded more than anything. How could that feline creature of known that? He walked home in relative peace, being no more than a mile away from his house when he got off the train. He took this time to get something some aspirin from the corner store to ease his head. First it was the same creature he drew, and then he knew about his great grandmother and the fear he had.
His headache kept looming in his mind, starting to really bother him. The sky had grown overcast and rain began to patter down on him that made him draw up his hood. He soon wobbled into his apartment building where he lived and quickly walked past the building guard who welcomed him in. Too tired to really respond to him, he quickly got into the elevator and rode up.
As it hit the 14th floor, he opened his apartment and stepped inside. Exhausted, he didn’t even bother to turn on the lights. He just took off his jacket and tossed it aside on one of the nearby chairs in the dining room area. He soon reached the living room, which overlooked the wide window-like wall that overlooked the rest of Shibuya. Even though the storm began to patter rain and flash lightning in the distance, he didn’t care. The patter of the rain seemed to sooth his mind as he flopped down on the couch and dropped his bag beside him.
He could hear the thunder crack in the distance as he heard the storm grow more intense outside and the rain enter more of a patter on the window. He just was so tired, seeing these ‘hallucinations’ that spoke to him. He felt as if he was losing his mind.
It was then he heard a sound. A clatter of something being dropped. He rose up from his position as he saw it. Something rolled out from the dark onto the carpet, as if it was tossed. He looked down to find it an odd looking plastic device. A round-shaped object that had a violet ring and buttons, tied by a similar colored cord. He froze as he saw the device. Someone was in the room with him…
“That belonged to you. It’s still yours…” a voice spoke in the dark.
Lightning and thunder went off outside the window, illuminating the livingroom-- and the panther that had been hidden in the darkness. Its eyes pierced out at Zachary, like a demon in the night.
“GHAAAAAA!!” Zachary screamed and fell flat backwards on his behind. OUt of pure instinct he took his backpack and threw it, scattering the contents and his notebook clattering near the cat.
However, Panthermon just sat there, unmoving. “Please stop screaming… We cats have sensitive ears…” he growled.
Zachary looked at the jaguar-like creature silently as he tried not to shout anymore. He felt like he was losing his mind.
“Tell me the truth, Zachary, “ Panthermon growled softly, “You recognize me. But you don’t know why.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about?!” Zachary shouted, and soon gripped his head. “God… I must be losing my mind.”
Panthermon took a step forward, but only so he could reach Zachary’s notebook now sprawled open. With a paw he opened a page, showing the pictures of him. “You been drawing me for years… I was born, existed because of you… but you forgotten how.” He looked up to Zachary. “You have forgotten how we met… and the adventures you had. You forgotten everything since you moved here.”
“That’s not possible! I… I would of remembered!” Zachary shouted.
A sigh escaped Panthermon as he realized why this was so difficult. “Those men really did a number on you. It’s almost poetic,” he growled, “You told you realized your worst fear after what happened with your grandmother. You worst fear was to lose your memory and who you were. That exactly is what happened to you by those men in suits. And you would never known this because it is your fear to even consider you forgotten something so important.”
Zachary’s headache was becoming unbearable as he felt like static was filling it. “Stop it already! I’m sorry but I just don’t know! I don’t know!! Just leave me alone, please!” he cried, falling to his knees.
The lightning lit up the dark room once more as Panthermon hated to see him in so much pain… but if he was going to remember, he had to face it. He had to admit he was scared to even think about losing what he lost. “Zachary, I am your friend. You’re protector, your partner. We worked together. You created me, gave me a purpose, and though what I am and why I am here alludes both of us… I care about you, and why I know you would rather know the truth than be ignorant and not remember!”
His voice growled in both anger and determination to break through as Zachary gripped his head. He now saw things as his eyes were closed. Static that flickered and images of things flashed in his head. “You saw creatures from a digital world, you traveled there, defended this city from those who would hurt it. And people-- humans at that, who would bury the truth, forced you to forget.”the panther said.
The hazy images flashed faster in his head to the point he felt like it was going to burst. Tears streamed down his eyes as he began to see it. The digital world, his drawings, his friends and the whole world that opened up to him. A cry of pain escaped him as he crumbled to the ground, realizing he had forgotten something important.
He forgot his best friend…and it terrified him.
Thunder echoed and faded in the distance as it was now dark outside, panthermon not moved an inch. The cat saw Zachary slowly rise back to his knees, breathing frantically as the truth sunk in to him.
The cat hesitated but soon lowered his head to look at his friend. “Do you… remember my name? Please tell me you remember…” he said, his voice betraying a bit of sadness.
After a few moments, Zachary spoke up, his hair hiding his eyes. “Pan… Panther… mon…” he spoke.
The tension the cat felt faded as he soon heard him speak his name.
Though still working through a painful headache, Zachary looked up, the tears in his eyes still streaming down. He remembered. He remembered how his panther drawing came to life as a Digimon, and learned what Digimon were… He remembered Panthermon was an extension of himself, and the thought of losing him was horrible. And it had happened.
“Panthermon… I…” Zachary gasped, unable to stop his tears. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
With his partner memory coming into focus, the cat Digimon approached him. The moment he was in reach, Zachary quickly reached out and hugged the large panther, his tears falling onto the cat’s fur. “I’m so sorry i forgot you… I can’t… “ he sobbed, slowly feeling the link in their minds slowly form once more.
“It’s okay Zachary… It wasn’t your fault,” Panthermon said, resting his head on the boy’s shoulder. A soft purr escaped him as Zachary held him close and pet his back, glad to have the company of his human partner again. Even a silent tear fell from his eye as Zachary hugged him.
Panthermon and Zachary had a connection far deeper than most, because he was born from Zachary’s own imagination and mind. As such, not only did they have a connection, his very data also contained the fragments of memories that gave birth to him. The agents might of tried to erase his memory of Digimon, but they couldn’t erase the part where Panthermon originally came from.
No one could take that part away from him….
The End.
