Smoke Snake

Chapter 2

Davis darted between the crates, ignoring the screams of his comrades behind him. He didn’t typically have plans for things, but on this one, he didn’t even have the slightest guideline aside from “not dying”. Because, in all fairness, he didn’t have much to plan with to begin with.

Our digimon are exhausted they’d told him, earlier. It’s too dangerous, we need to back down on this one.

As if!

Davis quickly ducked as Kimeramon’s beam went above his head. So, he’d had better odds. So what? Weren’t they heroes? Weren’t they chosen?

The others could hide if they wanted. But Davis, Davis wasn’t like them. Davis was like Tai. He was the bearer of courage.

So brave he was and brave he’d be! He didn’t know fear. He had nothing to fear. Everything would work out! Everything would-

Oh god, crap.

Okay, okay, everything would be okay, it was just a stumble, nothing to-

He saw the beam coming at the corner of his vision- too slow-

Something heavy pushed him out of the way, a hand firm on his wrist to prevent him from falling flat on his face.

“What,” TK’s voice was breathless “just what do you think you’re doing, Davis?!”

Evidently, he didn’t expect any real answers, because his grip got stronger and TK got to running again, dragging Davis behind him. Kimeramon roared in rage and set off after them, most likely tired of missing them with long range-attacks.

“Wait-” Davis tried to protest, noticing where TK was guiding him. “We can’t leave. We have to fight!”

“And how?!”

“I don’t know, but we have to! Aren’t we heroes?! Aren’t we supposed to face danger head on and come out with a smile?!”

TK growled at that, teeth bared like a beast. The glare he sent Davis sent shivers down his spine, but he wouldn’t back down on this. He wouldn’t. “Davis, you need to stop thinking about heroics and start thinking about saving your darn li-LOOK OUT!”

The sudden injunction startled him. By reflex, Davis craned his neck to look behind him, trying to spot whatever he had to dodge-

He felt the hand around his wrist loosen and, faster than he could react, TK kicked him behind his knees, making him fall.

“Why, you-” His anger vanished, however, as Kimeramon’s talon slashed inches above his hair.

TK was fast. Faster than Davis was. He had reflexes worth his weight in gold, and experience precious to the whole group. However, he’d only had so much time.

(Davis would think, later, remember the day over and over, think about what ifs and maybes and if TK hadn’t tried to save him maybe things would have been different

but he didn’t, and it hadn’t)

TK’s breath came to a sharp, choked halt.

One of the three claws that poked on the other side of his chest, surely, must have punctured a lung.

“TK!” Kari screamed at the top of her lungs.

Kimeramon jerked suddenly. The fragile little boy’s body flew across the room to meet the wall. There was the sickening crack of breaking bones.

The body slid to the floor. Kimeramon moved. Someone screamed. Kari’s voice rose again.

“NO!”

Then Davis’s lungs flared up.

Not metaphorically.

There was no fire, but Davis was burning. His hands flew at his chest, clawing frenetically at his shirt in a panicked attempts to cut the fabric, cut his skin, cut his flesh, anything that could let out the growing flames between his ribs. Everything was hot, too hot, way too hot. He was melting. He was dying.  Oh, god, he was dying.

He opened his mouth to scream, but something was crawling up his throat, troubling his breathing. He coughed once, twice, choking. Until finally thick black smoke poured out between his jaws like a faulty engine.

Nothing else existed. Davis was aware of sounds, of flashes of colors occurring around him, but he could not process them. There was only him, only him, him and his shallow breaths and his pounding heart and the inferno in his bones.

Distantly, he heard the ocean roaring.

He coughed some more.

“DAVIS!”

The voice cut through the haze of pain like a whiplash.

"Demi-” he coughed again, pain growing between his eyes. “Demiveemon?”

He tried to focus on his partner, anchoring himself in the present. The blue paw felt deliciously cold against his scorching arm, the familiar voice pulling him out of his daze.

“Davis, we need to go!”

Something liquid started running over his face. Bringing his palm to wipe it informed him that the source was the newfound horn at the base of his nose. Pulling his hand back informed him that it was blood.

“Davis!!”

There was a crash.

Davis scrambled back on his feet, frantically looking around to take in his surrounding. Where where where where?

There!

Curled between two crates, a figure with glasses- Yolei, alive and kicking, safe and…

Oh, good lord almighty, what was wrong with her legs?

(He breathed out some more smoke. What was wrong with his lungs? He was running out of time, he had to move on.)

On the other side, near the wall- a small figure he could only identify as Cody, flanked by three digimons, all gathered around-

Oh.

That was a lot of red.

TK didn’t seem to move, no matter how many hands poked and grabbed and pulled.

(No time, no time, where were the last one??)

Finally, Davis turned around.

For all the heat in his body, Davis still managed to pale.

There, standing, fists balled and back straight, was Kari. Kari, one hundred twenty centimeters and forty-five kilos.

Kari, who was flickering.

Like the screen on an old TV- in and out, clear and then grainy, colors to greyscale, back and forth. The air around her was filled with tremors like the space above asphalt on a hot day. Winds were picking up, blowing away the sand that had formed at her feet.

And between those flashes, in the space between two blinks- for an instant, a second, half a breath, on the step between perception and reality-

Davis saw.

It had no shapes to contain it, and no words to describe it. Davis could only catch sight of it through a veil of smoke, for the brightness of it forced him to look away. But it was well enough to make out that it was huge, and powerful, and hungry.

Far away, he heard the ocean get louder.

Among the crates, Kimeramon struggled to get back up, as if it was held down by something that was not quite on this plane. Kari the human, his friend, his crush, roared with her high pitched child’s voice, and the thing that was Kari and perhaps has always been pulsed.

“Davis!” Demiveemon called again, pulling at his sleeve.

This time, Davis listened.

He bolted to join Cody, noticing that Yolei had gotten to him despite her twisted legs. Power in numbers, they could surely find a way out together or… something.

This quickly turned out to be a bad idea.

Seeing TK up close was much, much different that observing him from afar. His body was twisted in an awkward angle that could not possibly be reproduced by a person possessing a spine. His torn clothes were drenched in blood. His eyes, glassy, were half open.

He wasn’t breathing.

Cody’s hands were shaking. It took Davis a moment to realize that his own were, too.

“Davis?”  a small white digimon rose his voice- Tokomon, Davis recognized,Patamon’s previous evolution, because Patamon could not evolve without TK, and TK was- "What do we do?“

What should they do?

They were all looking at him expectantly- broken and beaten as talons tore Yolei’s shoes and more yellow plates grew over Cody’s skin. What could they do?

Once upon a time, Davis thought being the leader was a blessing. But then again, he’d thought the same about being chosen.

"I’m…” he started, unsure.

Then TK’s body moved.

He tensed, startled. How…?

No, that wasn’t a conscious movement- there was no doubts that TK was still very much dead. Yet the body moved, twitched in a more natural angle, as if his spine was…

Gatomon must have understood first, because she shred TK’s shirt with one swift paw to get a better look at his back.

TK’s spine was pushing itself into place.

They all watched wordlessly as- a miracle, nothing short to a miracle occurred before their eyes. When the body was back in an actually feasible position, his skin started bubbling out- and the vertebrae pierced the skin like spikes.

There were a few seconds of silence.  

Then TK’s eyes flipped open and he breathed in.

“KARI!” It was Gatomon who screamed. “KARI, HE’S ALIVE! HE’S ALIVE!”

Davis wasn’t sure if she ran really fast, or if space itself had shrunk between her and TK- but one moment she was over there, and the next Kari crashed next to him to kneel beside her friend, a trail of sand in her wake.

Alive as he was, TK still didn’t seem conscious. It didn’t stop Kari from holding onto him tight, whispering sweet nothings with tears in her eyes.

Davis extended a hand to pat Kari’s shoulder. In comfort, maybe, a reassurance everything would be okay.

Kari bared her flat teeth at him and hissed.

She didn’t react when he flinched.

Davis was really the dumbest of all, wasn’t he? All this time, all this time he’d thought-

He’d thought Kari was human, and TK wasn’t. Because TK was way too open and way too proud of his teeth, and weren’t books judged by their covers? He’d thought Kari like himself -like who he used to be the fire in his heart reminded him- he’d thought that because she had no claws and no horns the Digiworld hadn’t taken the pound of flesh she owned it.

He’d thought them in love, maybe- crushing on each other, for sure. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! Why had he needed to see Kari clutching the wounded body to see it? Their love for each other ran much deeper than just romance. They physically couldn’t live without each other. They were each other’s complement, anchor, partner- soulmate. They shared a bond only kids with the same broken bones could. They were good people, for sure, they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t; but if a choice had to be made between them and the world, Davis had no doubts they would they would strangle every humans with their bare hands to keep each other’s safe.

“Kari.” Gatomon said, softly. “Kari, we need to go. We need to get him help.”

Kari nodded, faintly, as if she were in a land far, far away. Obviously reluctant, she removed an arm from TK’s back and wrapped it around Gatomon and Tokomon instead.

Gatomon shot Davis an apologetic look. “See you in the real world, okay?”

Without so much as a word for them, Kari flickered.

And just like that, they were gone.

The ocean stopped roaring.

The smoke cleared, and Davis breathed in much easier.

(They found their way back by foot. The computer room was a mess, keyboard and floor smudged in red. A single paper, on a desk; called Tai, getting the old crew to help, see you tomorrow. None of them would admit it, but they were all relieved they wouldn’t have to face their monster of a friend again tonight.)