Repaying the debt...(for Mireil's Wizardmon)

[Observer]

It's been some time since Renee visited this place, and last time it was under ... difficult circumstances. A moment of emotional stress, weakness from a crushing defeat at the hands of a fierce and vicious enemy. She remembered why she did come here that day. To drown sorrows, succumbing to weakness and self-pity. The renamon was still ashamed of that.

Time heals, however, and Renee managed to pass through crisis somewhat. But she never forget anything, remembering her trip to the pub in greatest detail. Everything, every smallest bit of dialogue - it seemed that the drink had a strange effect on her memory pattern. Or maybe the black pirate-like patch on her eye served as a permanent reminder.

... but if you can, bring something that can help other digimon, that's what "she" would've wished for ... - she remembered the phrase quite well. Renee had her fair share of negative traits, but ungratefulness wasn't one of them. On her back there was a fairly decent load of medicaments encased in a big container with a red cross - something she snatched from Hypnos supplies, it wasn't that hard. Not with her abilities.

The guard didn't even bother blocking her way this time - he recognized the face, since she was the only weird-colored renamon in these parts. Renee searched with her eyes for the Wizardmon, and soon spotted him in his usual place in the corner of the room. With his hat on his eyes, he appeared to be sleeping again. Walking there, she took a sit opposite to him, putting the container unto the ground.

- Hello? Knock knock! - she knocked at the table in front of him, chuckling a bit.

[Mistral]

"Hmm?"

The wizardmon's small nap was interrupted by the knocking and the immediaately pushed up his hat a little to see who was requesting his services. Instead of a client, the one who interrupted his nap was that silver renamon he met several days ago, she looked a lot better than in her previous visit.

"Miss renamon, it is indeed a nice sight to see you healthy again"

Well, not completely healthy, her body seemed to be void of injuries and she was completely sober, but the same eye that was covered in dirty rags before was now covered by a black eyepatch, a clear sign that her eye still hadn't healed yet. Nevermind, as long she were still alive, there was nothing to regret or feel sad about.

He noticed soon that next to the renamon's seat lied a container with a red cross, the universal emblem of medicine related goods. Judging by the size, the bandages and disinfectant he previous gave her were hardly comparable with that there might be inside it. Could it be that she came to return the favor and make it double?

"That is a very generous gift what you have there, I talk for all the digimon in the bar when I thank you for your generosity, finding non expired and sterilized medical goods is no easy task. Please, feel free to ask for any drink, I'm inviting"

It was a bit suspicious how she acquired so many medical goods in perfect state when the last time she looked so dirty and poor, but he could no longer deny that this renamon was deep down a good digimon. Since their first meeting no harm was brought to the bar and unlike the first impression of a serious only business, no fun digimon she gave to the wizardmon, she seemed to actually care for the welfare of the abandoned hotel's inhabitants. He then decided to no longer doubt everything the renamon did accept that maybe she was simply a misunderstood digimon.

[Observer]

- Well, I wouldn't mind some tea. But no alcohol. At all. I still feel ashamed for what happened... it was a momentary weakness, I am not to repeat that again... - Renee replied, turning away a bit, touching the eye-patch. Opened the container, which did a slight hiss upon revealing what it had inside. Bandages, syringes, painkillers, and various assortment of scalpels, and other surgery tools made for field surgery. Apparently these were meant for some sort of a military hospital.

- Well, you just need to know where to look... - she made a comment about how she got the supplies. In fact, she didn't really want the wizardmon to inquire deeper about how she got them, since it wasn't exactly a legal way, and he was not aware of whom she is working for. So far she managed to convince her partner that this place was of no danger to Hypnos or humans, and that it would be better to simply keep an eye on it, and she was that eye, no pun intended.

- The city is getting restless. More spawning digimon managed to wreak havoc. I heard the military took some casualties too, and they seek vengeance. Better keep the guys here, and not wander off anywhere away from here... - she added. That information she received from Larry shortly upon return - after her hasty retreat, one of the helicopters that came to rescue was destroyed by the angemon. Her partner took it ... a bit too close. As well as losses taken at other places. It was a warning - should inhabitants of the hideout do something to jeopardize their position here, and there were chances that Hypnos would barge in, guns blazing... But that was something wizardmon couldn't be allowed to know, yet.

- By the way, who's that "she" you mentioned when I left the place back then? Never saw anyone here to match the description. She runs the place or something? - Renee asked a question, confusing the mysterious entity for someone around here.

[Mistral]

"Master Numemon, tea for two please"

While this place was called a "bar", it was more like a restaurant with plenty of variety of drinks and meals for all ages, at least the ones they could secure, so tea wasn't something weird here.

So, she knew where to "look" for medical supplies. Had she used that excuse during their first meeting, the wizardmon would've feel very suspicious and even investigate about what the silver renamon did when outside the bar, but now he wasn't really interested in that, the vulpine digimon proved to be well intentioned and so far she gave no reasons for him to think she was dangerous.

She also made mention of an abnormal number of digimon appearing in the real world lately and how even the human militia was involved. Now it was clear that the renamon was either very observant or belong to a group unrelated with the numemon bar, but whatever, her intentions were good and even warned the inhabitants of the hotel about the dangers of going out while this human vengeance quest lasted.

"If the situation is like that, even more reason to go out and try to save those lost digimon before the humans deleted them, that's what she would've done"

The renamon grew curious and asked him about this "she" he spoke about. It was a painful story to tell, but he was already used to share his memories with other digimon, it was a way to understanding each other, to share their life experiences and learn what lead them to become what they are now.

"She ... was a special person from my past that helped me become what I'm now, a gatomon with a heart of gold who devoted herself to helping digimon is distress and wished for a peaceful world. She was the kind of digimon who would give up her life to let others live, and that was how she died, forever faithful to her own ideals"

The scene was still fresh in his mind, how she was unceremoniously deleted in a flash. Her death was so sudden that they never had the opportunity to say some final worlds before forever separating each other. It was clear that in movies dying people always had time for final worlds no matter how terminal were their state, but this wasn't fiction and she simply died leaving nothing behind in a fraction of second that felt like an eternity in the battlefield.

"Around two years ago when the red digital reaper appeared in the digital world, all the digimon of the world set apart their differences and worked together to help to protect our home, both my gatomon friend and I included. It was certainly ironic, the world where all digimon coexisted together that she wished for only become a reality when everybody joined forces against somebody they hated even more than they hated each other. We fought together against this horrible entity and she paid the ultimate price for trying to save another digimon when it was obvious that it was a to kill or to die situation with no space for trying to play here, had you been there you would understand how terrible the situation was, that abomination didn't simply delete digimon, it completely erased their data ... she pushed another digimon to prevent it's absolute eradication and she got completely erased instead, when that thing attacked, it left nothing that could be reincarnated as a digiegg, she was gone for real, forever."

The D-reaper ... what a horrible abomination born out of the very nightmares, it was an entity who cared not for anything but the absolute destruction of all digital being and completely erased the data of its victims, when it killed somebody it broke the cycle of death and rebirth and completely destroyed the data. It was the ultimate enemy of the digital world but now was just a bad memory that would haunt forever those survivors who lost everything they cared except their own lives during that cruel battle.

"And that was the history of my dear friend gatomon and the reason why I do everything in my power to help as many digimon as possible even risking my own safety. For her sake, for her memory I want to keep alive her ideals and not let them die along her"

[Observer]

Renee did not quite expect such a sudden outburst of information from Wizardmon's part. She just asked a simple question, one she considered casual, but it seemed that she accidentally hit some sort of a weakspot. Ar maybe the wizardmon simply wanted to tell all this to someone, you know, getting something off the chest. The renamon didn't mind, however, she owed him that much.

What followed was a story of an idealistic gatomon, who wished to help everyone and save everybody, and sacrificed herself to save some one she didn't even know. And that sacrifice ignited the fire Wizardmon tended to carry in him.

- I am sorry for your loss... - that was probably the only thing anyone could say in such a situation. Renee put her cup of tea down, silencing for one minute. A minute of silence for the fallen. That was a custom in the human world, a due to the dead. She did not know what they did in digital world as a substitute.

This was ... a position Renee could never understand. No, she wasn't oblivious to concept of helping others, or to a concept of sacrifice, that one she implemented in the battle against angemon, when she blocked the ray coming at her tamer with her own body. But the question one always had to put before doing so was "Is such person worthy of being sacrificed for?", with many factors taken in consideration. One who has responsibilities, and on whose skills a certain platform is held, must always consider this, and that was why Renee didn't like the intention of Wizardmon going and saving more lost digimon. She would try to prevent him from doing something foolish, even if it was to honor an old friend...

- A squad of soldiers is making their way across the battlefield... - Renee started talking, not even returning to her tea. Perhaps telling a story, with intent of making obvious conclusions, would be more effective than a straight attempt of talking him out of it. - ... Upon getting into cross-fire, one of them is injured. The medic bravely goes into the fire-zone to save him, and drags the body on his back. He saves the soldier, but gets shot instead, and dies. The squad continues to move forward, and through the course of battle many more died from wounds. Because they had no qualified medic to tend to them. - she ended her little tale.

There was another reason as to why she tried to convince him not put himself into danger like he meant to do. The reason was that ... he wanted to save spawning digimon, while she had the job of killing them. There was a chance that during a particular mission due to some horrible set of circumstances they might face each other. And that was something she did not wish to happen, but knew that fate had a habit of making most improbable things happen, and this was one of them.

- I'll put it plainly. This is the squad... - she said, strolling through the surroundings with a glare. - ... and you're the medic. Who will take your responsibilities if you run into a patrol and perish? What will happen to all these people? - she put a question she pretty much considered rhetorical, and waited for an answer.

[Mistral]

The silver renamon seemed to understand the wizardmon's tragic story and through a little example she wanted to make him realize that everybody had their duty to perform, even if that meant to stop being idealistic and accept that some losses are unavoidable and that sometimes certain people and digimon are simply more important and worth saving than others. He sipped from his tea cup as she spoke and completely emptied it before he answered to her tale.

"I understand your analogy, but I'm no medic nor somebody irreplaceable."

He paused a little and thought about the next tragedy that followed to the gatomon one, that time when he tried to save everybody just like gatomon did and not only failed to achieve his goal but also disappeared when those he wished to save needed him the most.

"There was one time when I tried to be a leader, it was after the death of my friend gatomon. The place I called home went under the siege of an unknown enemy that seemed to be more interested in conquering the city than in obtaining our data and I tried to make the difference and save everybody to atone for failing to save gatomon .... things didn't end well"

There is one phrase that says "do not bite off more than you can Chew", and it was exactly what happened to him, he tried too hard to save everybody and at the end he saved no one, truly his greatest failure.

"To make the story short, I failed and disappeared when my group needed me the most. Thinking back, there would've been a lot less bloodshed had I not rallied a resistance force and quietly surrended instead"

The time for remembrance was over and the wizardmon looked all over the bar as if trying to show the renamon how everybody did their best here and that he wasn't one of the major members of this organization, if you could call it, known as the numemon bar.

"As for the point of my story, is that I'm easily replaceable here, I'm not as important as you think as all I do is to give a few hints to newcomers. The only time I tried to be important was the time I caused the most harm and since then I don't pursue positions of importance so the moment I disappear I'm not going to be missed too much. However, if I die I want to do it being loyal to gatomon's ideals, I don't know if you understand about this but sometimes, for some people, being faithful to their ideals and goals is more important than their own lives and they would be more than happy to die as long they have no regrets about the way they lived."

If in silver renamon's analogy he was compared with a field medic, he actually saw himself as just a mere messenger, one that could be replaced by any other if he were to disappear. That's why he dared to save other digimons, because he was more expendable than the others and the only one self-sacrificing enough to try it, just like gatomon was. He too was guilty of being idealistic, but unlike gatomon, he was both idealistic enough to believed in them and cynical enough to know that no one would follow them unless HE did it and because he owed her too much to let her ideals die no matter how impractical they were. As long he could honor his dead friend he was more than happy to die following the same path she followed, and who knew? Maybe those ideals could indeed become a reality if enough people were touched by his actions.

[Observer]

Renee just stared at her reflection in the teacup while she listened to another long explanation of Wizardmon as to why he must do this and that, despite what logic and common sense were saying. It was just "I need to honor my friend by putting myself in danger over something not quite worth it". That was irrational, foolish, selfless disregarding any survival instinct, it was ... something Renee would never do.

- You're blaming yourself for leading hopeless resistance? For leading the digimon that were ready to die for their own homes and ideals, just like your gatomon? There's no crime in that. - she said, taking a sip from her cup as well, there was enough staring into it for one day. ... and experience is often based on our own mistakes, and considering all these events you mentioned, you should be more experienced than anyone around here. It would be a crime not using all of that knowledge just because tripped and fell to the ground once. - she shrugged.

The motives were clear so far - this one was deep into atonement shtick, perhaps too deep. It could lead somewhere dangerous, if not payed attention to, or so Renee thought. She would not want to see another one gone because of foolishness - she barely escaped with her life when being foolish. And she could not comprehend silly rabbit idealism.

And her own motives for talking him out of this were ... mixed. For the most part she didn't want him running around playing hero - the risk of running into a hypnos operative was far too high. She knew this, he didn't. So she had to find a way to make all of them sit in their hideout quietly, and don't mess into things. That way her own secret would be secure. She wouldn't mind if someone else would be running around looking for lost digimon, as long as it wasn't Wizardmon - she only had so few people she could call something close to friend, to spare.

- I saw you talking an ogremon out of doing something rash and unpredictable, and getting common sense into that thick skull takes talent. If, say, I'd tried that, I'd surely fail. I speak with the voice that will never move people. You don't just give out hints and advices - they do what you tell them to do. And that is a lot of influence... - she said, finishing up her tea, and scanning the Wizardmon through with a glare from her only eye.

- And you're not suited for scouting stealthily around the city. Only a blind one will mistake you for a human, and I don't think you'll prove too nimble on your feet once the shooting starts... - she said and made a pause. She wasn't sure about what to say next ... she had a sure-fire idea of how to keep this trouble away, but wasn't sure if she'd be able to pull it off. But the decision was made soon enough.

- ... Everybody has to do their part, and not do something that they're not suited for... Listen, I still keep lurking around the city for the majority of the time. I can seek out and lead lost ones here, if they do not pose any danger, while you can keep things organized here. That Numemon is only good for a quartermaster, and someone needs to lead people here. We have a deal? - Renee inquired. She wasn't sure how she was going to pull this off, needed to kill spawns and save spawns at the same time, but she figured that the latter could be done in off-duty time, and most of the spawns were evil, so they would deserve it anyway...

[Mistral]

"You have a point there, but you shouldn't take any extra risks for me, I have the feeling that fate has more important things reserved for you"

The wizardmon was not an oracle nor could see the future, but sometimes he "sensed" when somebody was going to have an important role in the nearby future. Be for good or for bad or what was exactly going to be influenced by her deeds he didn't know, but he was certainly sure that the silver renamon's actions would eventually shape the future or something, maybe just a single person, or maybe even the world. That was one of the reasons why he got so attached to his gatomon friend, the moment he met her, hr felt she was going to cause some impact in the future, although he never realized that the one touched by her actions was going to be him and not the rest of the digital world.

"I thank you for thinking so highly about me and I thank you even more for caring about my safety, but I already made a decision just like how you surely made our own and decided to follow your own path. It is foolish I know, but it is what I want to do even if only tragedy awaits me."

He already made up his mind and nothing outside of life changing incident would make him rethink about his actions. Such was the strong devotion he had for his dead friend that he was willing to die for the sake of creating that one peaceful world they wished for.

[Observer]

Renee facepalmed when she heard the Wizardmon's answer. Why, why, why did he persist? Did he have a death wish or something? He just refused to listen to every single word of common sense, and was perfectly calm while doing so. Was he insane or something? All these question Renee kept to herself, admitting that it is not within her strength to convince him.

- Pfft. I doubt your Gatomon would have wanted you get killed for her cause. One martyr after another... - she said as she stood up from her place. There was slight disappointment in her voice, with a pinch of ... pity? While probabilities of bad ending for such actions weren't quite as certain, but they were still high - at least 80% of spawning digimon were effectively destroyed either by Hypnos, or tamers. Chances of getting caught in the crossfire were thus high.

- Well, I think I should be going now. I will return once I have something new to bring, or to say... - she said and turned around to go to the exit, but, before doing so, tossed one last remark:

- And ... be careful. Do not go seeking anyone at nights... When darkness falls upon the city, chances of running into a military patrol at the spawning point ... approaches 100%. I just know something bad will happen... - she shook her head, and went for the exit, disappearing in the dark doorway like a ghost.

[Mistral]

A tone of disappointment could be heard within the renamon's words, she clearly didn't like at all how the wizardmon thought. It was a bit painful to be labeled as a death seeker ... and maybe she was right, since he lost both gatomon and his fellow townspeople in the digital world, his will to live grew weaker and when he wasn't educating newcomers or going out, all he did was to waste away his time sitting on a chair with his hat covering his eyes and thinking about the past and how little value his life had now without his precious friends.

"My life has been a long series of tragedies and misfortunes, I fear not for what happen to me next. I'm alive, yet I feel dead inside ...."

His sole pleasure in this lonely life was information gathering, and even then that was just a minor palliative for his wounded heart. Not even all the knowledge of the world would bring back the dead nor his happiness and he knew that well.

He unfolded some city maps he had lying nearby his usual place and examined it, looking for an area that wasn't mapped yet. It was a product of his extensive research and pretty much had marked all the places that were safe or could potentially have valuable goods. It was his most important contribution to the numemon bar inhabitants and he was determined to finish it soon or later once he knew every single place in the city. If he was going to live enough to complete it was an enigma even for himself, but for the sake of gatomon's ideals he was going to end it and make of it his ultimate contribution to the digimon cause, so in the future digimon with more willpower than him could safely move within the city and save more lost digimon than he could ever do.

He informed all the digimon in the bar about the information regarding human military movements during nighttime that silver renamon gave him and returned to studying his info maps, he was so close to finishing it that he would ignore the very warning he gave to the other digimon for the sake of completing his most ambitious project.

[end of thread]