The Truth Will Come Out [Owen]

Owen had been bracing for this meeting the moment he had responded back to the message he had received from the digimon twins Vee and Gummy about their human partner Justice. While he knew that it was a big thing to ask, he figured out the reason why they would turn to him. After all, Gummy was his son Bezil's boyfriend, and the emotional state of a human partner could take a big toll on the partner digimon. Owen knew this because his husband Hikaru and several of his children also had human partners, so he recognized his own interests in this going well.

Also, given that Owen tried his best to be a good father to his children, a good friend to his friends, a good husband to his husband, and, above all, be someone others can turn to when they need help, he couldn't turn them down.

The Gaomon mostly paced about the now partially restored city of Ys, humming various songs to himself as he walked around the yards, checked out the view on the balconies to the beautiful sight of the Shining Sea, as he waited for this meeting to take place. While he still had young children in his family to take care of, he had asked Bezil, Matty and Jimmy to take over that for today. While baby Lewis was shy and timid, he did at least enjoy playing with his brothers. And even if Matty and Jimmy were pranksters at heart, he trusted Bezil to lay down the law if they overstepped their boundaries.

Owen had received a message that they were approaching and attempted to constitute himself. Even though he had never really got to know Justice, other than at the time of the hurricane emergency in Whitewater, he thought of this as no differently to his previous role as a Recon Captain, gearing up for a gentle talk to a Private who had suffered trauma on the field of combat. Well, even though he knew the trauma was different in this case, well, he'd still do his best to be helpful. Eventually, word came from him from the person on duty at the entrance of Ys of the arrival of the individuals that they were looking out for. A Veemon, Gumdramon and a human.

Owen acknowledged them and made his way to where they were. The Gaomon, dressed in his usual outfit of a khaki soldier's shirt, the insignia of the sword-and-wheel of the 7/71st Recon on his shoulders, a red bandana on his forehead, and boxing gloves hanging off his belt for when he'd need to use them in combat, waved to them.

"G'day there!" he said. "Glad you could make it. You guys going okay since the hurricane from back then?" he queried. Once they answered, he would continue, cautiously, knowing that at any moment, Justice could simply decide to just up and leave, according to what he was told. "So, I hear you've got some issue that needs sorting out? Vee and Gummy filled me in over Tamernet. Could you please follow me?"

Owen was aware of the set-up that would lure Justice in without him suspecting. While he disapproved of the deceit, he decided that it was probably for the best, if Justice's response to this... "intervention" would be to simply up and leave. However, he had replied quite clearly in a message back to them.

"Alright. For this process to work properly though, it'd be best if both of you were present as well, for support. Things like this need the human's digimon partners present so that we're all on the same page."

He kept it deliberately vague so even if Justice saw the message too, he'd still be under the impression that they were going to indeed get an Infini-store replacement.

Once they were securely in a private room (there were many in Ys, it being a formerly abandoned city, now gradually being repopulated thanks to the efforts of KIZNA), thankfully with an active fire in the fireplace, making the temperature comfortable, Owen would sit on a chair, then offer Justice, Vee and Gummy some warm beverages.

"So, before we do this, I just thought I'd might like to catch up with you guys." the Gaomon said, smiling. "We first met in Whitewater, and it was a horrible event and I'm sorry it happened, but, we all came out of it alive..." he turned to Gummy. "And given that one of you has since become quite enamored with my son Bezil, I thought I'd ask, out of courtesy, how are you all going?"

He hoped that they'd take this gentle opening as intentioned - just as a means to break the ice and get comfortable.

Owen had to smirk at Gummy calling him "old man". In times before he would have bristled at this, but, given that his son was in a fling with the digimon that had called him that, yeah, he decided it was appropriate enough. Still, he felt the need to give a bit of push-back. "Heh, not too old to kick your ass, sonny." he replied.

Still though, Owen felt unhappy at having to keep up the deceit to bring Justice into position with what his partners wanted. If anything, the ideal situation would have been for Justice to approach him on his own auspices, but, as far as he knew from communications with his partners, that would have been impossible. From what Owen knew, Justice had stubbornness and pride in himself and the path he had walked so far, but, this path was not bringing him fulfillment. And that his partners had approached him like this to try and help him out, Owen had to play this delicately.

When Vee talked about fighting the hurricane, Owen had to chuckle. "Not to rain on your parade or anything, mate, but, heavy weather events like that happening? Only gods can stop those. For the rest of us mortals, all we can do is hold up and shelter."

Owen was then pleased to hear that Gummy wanted to continue his relationship with Bezil. "That's so great, and given that he's been in such a good mood since your first one, I think he'd be pretty ready for a second date." he said, with a smile.

Then Owen's amber eyes turned to Justice, awaiting his response. Vee had to nudge him to respond, and he gave an offhand answer that all was fine, he supposed.

The Gaomon knew that wasn't true, given what Gummy and Vee had already told him. While he hadn't received the full story, he knew so far that Justice had lived a very problematic life with a difficult family. Owen could empathize with this, because many digimon under his command came from similar shitty backgrounds with horrible families. Just... this was the first instance in which he had to deal with a human on this.

Supposing that there was in fact little difference between humans and digimon, Owen felt the need to press further. He gave a worried look to Vee and Gummy, indicating that he'd need them to cooperate if this next part got difficult. Then his eyes returned to look at Justice. "You're sure about that?" he began, taking a long swig of his cup of tea, then flipped the cup in his paws. "I might not have a human partner myself, but, I know enough tamer-digimon groups to know that there's something kinda off here, and I'm gonna be honest here."

Owen put down his cup and looked at Justice directly. "Despite your experiences together, you haven't been able to evolve your partners to the Perfect level, have you?" he asked. "I'm sure that you'd like for that to happen, but, it simply can't, as long as you're hiding your emotions from them and your friends."

The Gaomon knew that this sentence would be risky to state. In fact, he wouldn't blame Justice if he just left the room and never spoke to him again. But, he had taken the message from Vee and Gummy seriously enough to give this some effort. As long as Justice remained here, Owen would try and help him.

When Owen had first received messages from Vee and Gummy, he voiced his objections to them, saying that it wouldn't be right to lure Justice into such a talk on false pretenses against his will. But, it had been made clear to him that it would be the only way they could help the tamer. There would be no way Justice would have agreed to something like this, so all Owen could suggest was something of a talk where he could, as gently as possible, help pull him out of the dark place that he was at.

While it might have been morally questionable if it had only been for Justice's sake, it was for the sake of Vee and Gummy too. Owen knew this, and he also knew that if Justice stayed the way he was, keeping his trauma bottled up and his emotions hidden, it would risk huge consequences for his partners, if he was unable to evolve them because of these. And so he had reluctantly agreed to this meeting taking place.

Owen had asked that they tell him nothing of Justice's secrets though, that wasn't for them to say, and he had made it clear from the exchange of messages that he knew nothing of the specifics that they knew. All he knew was that Justice needed help, and as a patient, gentle digimon with experience in helping others with trauma, he would do his best to help.

"Justice, please, you don't need to get angry about this, mate." he said, trying to calm him down, but didn't approach. He knew that this sudden shock had put Justice into a fight-or-flight response, and felt betrayal at being tricked, but it was important that all tried to remain calm and reasonable for this to work. "Your partners set this up because they care about you. They don't know how to do it themselves, so they turned to me for help, and I want to give it."

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to help Justice calm down by himself, he turned to Vee and Gummy. "I think it'd be helpful if you two say how much you care about him and why you wanted this to take place." he said, gently. "Don't insult or judge, just... be nice?" he advised.

Owen nodded at what Vee said, then turned to Justice. "I promise that I don't know anything about the details of what you told your partners that made them come to this decision." the Gaomon said, hoping that facet of information would be helpful in that the human was assured that his partners hadn't told this behind his back. "And if you don't want to share, then that's fine, it's none of my business." After all, this was being held against Justice's will. All Owen wanted to do was to provide a safe and healthy setting for Justice and his partners to work out their problems.

Owen then said nothing as Vee and Gummy revealed their feelings to Justice. First to talk was Vee, and it was clear the Veemon loved having him as a partner. But it seemed the problems that Justice was having was related to his own human family.

Owen didn't know everything there was to know about humans, but he did know that every human had a biological mother and father. Most humans that he knew - Yuuki, Colin, Tadao, Nik, all the others, they mostly liked their families. Well, Tadao - the partner of his eldest son Logan, that was at the very least questionable, but, for the most part, human families seemed to be the same as the digimon family he knew with Hikaru.

But, it seemed that Justice's family was the root of his problems. Owen didn't say anything though and instead listened to what Gummy had to say. It was clear that Gummy wasn't as open with his feelings as Vee was, but, he said enough that was helpful. Then Vee finished up with an affirmation that he deeply cared about Justice.

"Thanks for that, guys." Owen said to Vee and Gummy, then turned back to the human. "So then, Justice... quick check on you, mate. How do you feel right now?" he asked, gently. He wanted to know the mindset that Justice might be feeling after that, and once he knew, he'd be able to figure out the next step.

Owen initially said nothing as Justice responded, claiming that he couldn't help him. The Gaomon remained silent in his seat as Justice explained, the fire in the fireplace by now reaching its full strength, but even though it warmed the room, Owen felt cold from the look that Justice gave him.

Then he opened up about his feelings. Justice said that he felt like he was a failure, that all he got was mockery from his friends, family and associates. And the worst of it was that one of them was his own mother.

Owen actually reacted to this, making a small gasp. No wonder Justice felt this way. His own mother had mistreated him. He understood now. He had been conditioned to bottle up all those feelings of being hurt by those that he trusted and relied on, so now he was reacting with anger. Owen didn't react to Justice's lashing out at him immediately. That was what he had trained for after all in his old life - people reacting with anger and outrage when their deepest problems were questioned. In fact, he wasn't intimidated at all, merely trying to hold his own tears back at the fact that he was looking at someone who was so hurt.

Justice angrily questioned his motives, why the hell he would agree to this meeting in the first place, and how he could possibly relate to and understand his problems, and that he lived a comfortable life himself.

In the silence that followed, Owen was silent for a few seconds, his yellow eyes looking straight into Justice's.

"I agreed because I do understand, and I care." he said eventually, his voice clear, calm and gentle. "I have a family myself, and I understand how important it is to have good people in your life. I'm so very sorry to hear that you've been hurt so much by people that you trusted and relied on when you needed them. And I want to help you heal from all that hurt. Your feelings about it are valid."

Owen needed a few moments to gather his thoughts here. Honestly, this was something different to what he was used to. The trauma he had helped others with was mostly of a different nature, soldiers under his command traumatized by seeing their best friends killed in front of them, seeing them suffer from the loss, others that were shellshocked survivors, Owen was used to dealing with trauma from violence. This one, meanwhile, was a trauma of a different kind.

But first, there needed to be a line drawn in the sand. Owen eventually spoke.

"You said that I can't help you." he said. "I dispute that. If you give me a chance, Justice, I promise that I will help you. I won't claim that I can cure you of all your troubles in an instant, but, I can help you. That's something you humans and we digimon have in common. We don't do well alone. But, if you let me and your partners try and help you feel better, we'll do our best. And the only way we can do so is if firstly, we're honest, and secondly, we focus on what's real and shut off what isn't."

Owen hoped these words would at least begin to settle things down. But he hoped to make progress by starting with the most obvious example.

"For example, you claim that you're no good to anyone, but for the past few minutes we've been hearing just how much your partners love you. I'd say that was pretty real, wouldn't you?"

Owen hadn't meant to hurt Justice by mentioning his own family. While the Gaomon could indeed never relate to knowing exactly how it felt to have a bad family, he at least thought he knew enough about having a good one that he could help. And it wasn't like he had never met anyone with bad families before, one would be surprised about how many young soldiers came from terrible backgrounds that ended up under his command.

He was at least glad that Justice at least acknowledged what he said, and he was grateful to Vee and Gummy for providing that foothold. He then watched as Vee tried to say that deep down his mother loved him, but, from Justice's reaction to that, he knew that was a false statement. Deep down, Owen felt incredible sympathy for the human, suffering rejection from his own mother and wanted to hug him so bad, but restrained himself, knowing that such impulsive reactions would be unhelpful here. He had to be gentle and patient, and so that's what he would be. If Justice asked for a hug, however, he'd gladly give one.

Owen then stood up and accepted Justice's phone, looking at the picture it displayed. It was that of a clearly happy family - similar to his own when it had just been himself, Hikaru, Logan, Haku and Bezil, only with humans. But, as Justice revealed, one day, when the authorities were called on them on a particularly stressful situation, the father had simply upped and abandoned them.

And then Justice further piled on with the comment that his father was cheating on his mother from the start. That outraged him deep down. A family built on deceit from the start... that was trying to build a house on quicksand. And now here was Justice, left to suffer from his father's casual abandonment. Owen clenched his fists (although taking care not to break Justice's phone), thinking that this was one human that he would actually punch in disgust.

Justice then told of what would happen afterward, that his mother mentally suffered after being abandoned and made to look after him and his siblings. In this, Owen felt at least some sympathy to the mother, in that she most likely did not end up mistreating Justice with her full and conscious intent. But, at the same time, he understood why Justice couldn't forgive her. She was his mother, and at the time, the only one he could rely on to protect him from the horrible things of the world. And she had failed him.

Eventually, he had to say something in response. That couldn't be left just there. Justice had just unloaded a lot there. Owen wanted to continue being stoic, gentle and patient, but he felt that what Justice had said needed some validation. That Justice would reveal such raw emotions, it must be terrible for him.

"That's really horrible, and... I'm so sorry that happened to you." he said. "Before we continue... would you like a hug?" he offered. "I understand if you don't want one, just... I'm offering one if you need it."

Immediately Owen felt foolish for asking such a question. Just in his own experience of being a father, usually when one of his children were upset, a hug to validate their feelings physically and let them cry out their pain usually made the aftermath more amicable to deal with. It was something he had learned from his own father, and it had worked wonders with soldiers under his command that had never felt the affection of another digimon, feeling that affection, it healed them. Owen hoped that he could at least begin to help Justice this way.

"Alright, that's okay." Owen said, not wanting to force Justice to do anything before he was ready. It seemed that right now the young human wanted to simply tell the rest of his story. The Gaomon hoped that his providing a sympathetic listening ear was helpful to him.

It seemed that after that, Justice was something of a delinquent in his childhood until the age of ten. From what Owen knew about humans, that was about halfway to their point of adulthood. He was a little disturbed about the point about incarceration, but didn't say anything about it when Justice said it wasn't relevant.

Then the next horrible point to come was hearing that Justice's mother was actively suppressing and stunting his growth because of her own selfish wants. Owen had to prevent himself from reacting angrily to that. How dare she do that. Owen would never think about doing that to his own children, he made it a point to let them grow and flourish however they wanted, just as long as they never did so harmfully. That she would treat Justice in this way, well, as much as he tried to hide it, there were signs that Owen was outraged deep down at this, namely his ears folding and his body stiffening. He didn't growl or bare his teeth though as he would when he was uncontrollably angry - and he only got like that when family or friends were immediately threatened.

It was the injustice of it. The soldiers under Owen's command had volunteered to be exposed to the things that had given them trauma. While it didn't make their pain any lesser, it was at least something they had mentally prepared themselves for. But in this case? Justice hadn't made any conscious decision to expose himself to that. All he had wanted was to live a standard life with his family for protection, and instead they treated him like that. It was so sad.

When Justice said that he felt like she was still manipulating him like that, after all this time and from so very far away, and seeing him break down from that, he stood up and joined in with hugging him. So, that was the crux of it. Justice had been emotionally abused and hurt by his own family. And given that he knew that humans usually relied on their parents for around 20 years, that was a very long time. No wonder he felt so resigned to it. He hadn't had the chance of having a good experience in such an important developmental stage in his life. No wonder he wanted to hide it from everyone. It was betrayal, hurt and shame, and that was the kind of feeling that could paralyze anyone without assistance.

"We're all here for you, mate, it's gonna be okay." he said gently. "You're safe now."

Owen would patiently wait for when Justice was ready to continue. Until then, he'd gently pat his back, thinking of what to say next that could start the path of healing from what those that had been his "family" had put him through.