MPC 73X : Being Good

Desmond was hiding a few meters behind Demi. If his partner felt powerless, the tamer felt useless. He could use his cards to help him but what the point if they can't even aim the Zamielmon? Telling Demi to burn the whole forest would be the more extreme way to win but he didn't want to be forced to do so. Maybe the wild Digimon would just run away after a while. As soon as the human moved his eyes to look above, an arrow flew by him missing his foot by only an inch. That made the tamer jump back and hide behind the tree. His heart was pounding like a drum.

Demi was getting impatient and decided to plunge his bionic lance into a tree. The tree took the hit and a burst of laughter came out of somewhere up there. It was easy to see that the Zamielmon was having fun tormenting the two. Moving his armored head around, the SaintMeramon roared at the sky making his tamer shiver. Desmond nervously kept looking at his cards while trying to calm down. Which was rather hard. He wanted to tell Demi to revert into his fireball form so that they could try to run away but he had the feeling that the archer Digimon would just follow and most likely, delete them easily.

The fight would continue like that for the next fifteen minutes. Demi was spinning around with his left arm hitting every tree next to him. Arrows would be shot in every direction and after a volley or two, some of them hit the fire giant's leg. Demi felt on one knee and roared once more. This time, he was going to burn everything down. He opened his large mouth and he spewed fire everywhere. The leaves on the giant trees caught fire one after the other.

That angered the Zamielmon. The wild Digimon leaped from his hiding spot and shot more arrows at Demi's wounded leg. The SaintMeramon grunted loudly and tried to turn his body around to face the Zamielmon. He saw him readying three arrows and before he could say do anything, the projectiles flew and one of them hit Demi starting in his mouth making the fire Digimon fall on his back. With a chuckle, Zamielmon slowly made his way to the fallen Digimon and was ready to finish him with one last arrow.

It was then that Desmond rushed forward trying to tackle the Zamielmon. However, he wasn't strong nor fast enough as the Digimon just took a step right and trip the tamer. Desmond landed on his partner with a loud thud sound but quickly crawled to remove that arrow from Demi's mouth. A tiny fireball came out of the wound making the Frenchman lose balance again. The Zamielmon took aim once more but this time, he was aiming for the weaker human. The blond tamer turned around to meet the archer's eyes for a split second before feeling something sharp pierce his chest.

For some reason, Zamielmon didn't finish either of them. He just chuckled and disappeared from the tress that stopped burning leaving the ground darker around them. Desmond fell on the ground with that long arrow into his chest. The ground underneath was slowly soaking up the blood coming from the tamer making it turn crimson. The Frenchman's hands were shaking and he could feel them getting colder and colder. He could barely keep his eyes open as his breathing became heavy.

Demi quickly changed from his Mega form to his ultimate, and then his champion and lastly, to his fireball form. The small Digimon was hurt but compared to his tamer, it was nothing. "Desmond!" The Digimon shouted as he floated toward his tamer. "Desmond! Desmond!" As he reached to touch his hand, he felt that it did become colder. "Desmond!" He shouted again while holding his hand. "Demi..." The human could barely speak. "Desmond! Wake up!" The Frenchman opened one eye and tried to squeeze his partner's hand. "Stay with me! Please, stay!" Desmond closed his eye and began coughing. "Don't go! Please, stay with me!" The blond tamer tried to say something but only managed to mumbles some words. "It's okay, Demi..."

"No! I'm going to get some help!" Demi looked at the arrow and wasn't sure if he should remove it or not. His tiny hands reached for the wooden shaft and with a shakey pull, he removed the arrow but that just made it worst. Desmond grimaced at the pain. "Demi..." He whispered with struggle. Throwing the arrow away, the fireball inched closer to hold his tamer's head. Both of them were crying now. "Desmond! Stay, please, stay with me." The child Digimon's voice was trembling. "It's all my fault, I should have protected you!" The human shaky hand went to touch Demi's face. "Demi... Listen..." The Digimon nodded rapidly while trying to stop his tears from falling down.

"Demi... Stay strong..." He began speaking very slowly. "Please... Stay!" Desmond shook his head. "Don't worry... I'll stay..." Hope appeared into Demi's eyes. "Would you?" A hint of a smile drew on the tamer's face. "I'll stay... Here..." And hope disappeared just like that. "No! I want you to stay with me! I need you... I can't lose you!" It was clear that Desmond was getting weaker and weaker and there was nothing Demi could do to help. "Demi... Listen..." His voice was barely loud enough to be understood. "I need you to stay care of Sam and Hawk... Can you do that for me?" Demi nodded while crying. "We can take care of them together! Please, just stay with us, stay with me!"

"Demi... You are a good brother... Be good when you can..." Demi let his tamer's head slowly touch the ground. "Be good, Demi... Be good..."

The Digimon stayed with his fallen tamer as the stars came up. Silent and still, Demi was still holding Desmond's hand. He didn't want to let go as if it would change something. He lost the one that was most precious for him. He felt powerless, useless even. All he could do was to stay there until the body of his tamer fades away. If it were to fade away into data. Everything around him turned dark, his body being the only light. It has been a few hours now. Demi wasn't crying anymore. He felt numb and was hoping that Desmond's body would fade away. He knew that he was long gone now, he just wanted to make sure that his whole being was too. The Digimon was going to stay here, forever if needed.

The sun came out the day after. Demi felt asleep during the night and as he woke up, he saw two things on the ground. A pair of glasses, and a Digivice. The body and clothing weren't there anymore but the ground was still tinted in red. Demi slowly picked up the glasses and felt something warm in his hands. Part of him wanted to bury this here with the Digivice but then, he realized that Desmond would have wanted for Sam and Hawk to have them. However, he stayed there for another hour before hearing a bleeping noise. The Digivice's screen flickered for a second. Picking up the small device, Demi waited for another sign of life but nothing came.

It would take Demi another hour of just idling with the Digivice in hand before he gave up. It was over, Desmond was gone for good. He wanted to cry but managed to just stay there but numb. He didn't even know how to get to Sam and Hawk. What if they were waiting for him back at his home? He couldn't stay here forever, he had to go. But it was so hard just leaving that patch of ground. In the end, he placed the Digivice on the ground and held on the pair of glasses. The Device might be more useful, but the pair of glasses meant much more for him. "I'll be good... I'll be as good as I can." He whispered to the Digivice. "Just... For a bit longer..."

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Word Count: 1493