[fanfic] Digimon Adventure 02: Tears of the Hawk

[higuchimon]

Title: Tears of the Hawk
Friendship: Miyako & Yamato
Word Count: 3,639||Status: One-shot
Genre: Drama, Friendship||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Digimon Friendship Challenge 2: Digimon Adventure/02 Arc: round 5
Summary: What will it take to pull tears from eyes that cannot weep? The loss of a friend, or the loss of one's own self?

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Miyako wept. Her eyes were dry and her features set, but she wept all the same. Her arm throbbed, and she tightened the bandage without bothering to look.

He wasn’t that far away. She could probably get to him. Maybe they could even both get away without being hurt or captured.

“If one of you gets captured, then don’t stop to try to save them. It isn’t going to do any good.”

Taichi’s words echoed in her mind. She didn’t want them to be true, but Yamato knew the consequences as much as she did. He probably knew them better.

She glanced up just a little, enough so she could see through the hiding tree’s protection. No one out there would even notice her, so long as she stayed within the trunk, and kept quiet. The tree’s magic couldn’t protect her if she stood up and started to sing opera, of course.

“Where are they?” Asuramon gripped Yamato’s arms with his two lower ones and shook the blond man furiously. From the bruises already flowering on Yamato’s face, the questioning had been going on for minutes, at least. “Where are those friends of yours?”

Yamato’s lips twisted in pain, but he smiled mockingly all the same. “How much of a friend would I be if I told you?”

That earned him another smack, one that left blood trailing down his face. Yamato didn’t seem to care. Miyako smiled herself, and there was even less reason to than Yamato had. The smile forced itself on her lips regardless.

“How much of a friend will you be when the Lady makes you tell her where they are?” Asuramon taunted. Miyako couldn’t see if Yamato shivered from where she hid, but she knew that she was.

Again, Yamato held firm. “I hope she has a lot of time to waste trying to make me.”

“It won’t take nearly as long as you think. No one refuses the Lady.” Asuramon dropped Yamato to the ground and set one foot on him firmly. Keeping him there thusly, the Digimon yanked several long vines from the surrounding trees and wrapped them around his prisoner.

Miyako didn’t take her eyes off what was going on for a moment. She knew what Taichi had told them all, and it didn’t matter. She wasn’t just going to let the Lady get hold of Yamato. It was more than just the fear of what would happen if she did. It just wasn’t right to leave a friend prisoner like that.

The question was, how was she going to do it? She didn’t have Hawkmon with her. Her eyes burned a little at the thought of that, and she shook her head briefly, fighting back the pain. She was going to do this on her own. That was what they had to do now. No more partners to do the fighting for them.

It probably wasn’t entirely true to say that she didn’t have Hawkmon. Koushirou had tried to explain it to them all more than once, and Miyako was certain she understood it in her head. Just not in her heart. She didn’t just want to have his abilities. She wanted to have Hawkmon, her friend, with her.

She clenched her fists, thinking. Koushirou’s explanations had been thorough. Each of them had the digital patterns of their partners impressed up on them. It had been the only way to save anything of their partners when the Lady had struck. Some of the Chosen Children hadn’t even been that lucky.

The practical upshot of having those patterns meant that each of them was now an odd combination of human and Digimon. Physically, most of them looked about the same. There were exceptions, such as Taichi and Takeru. Taichi looked slightly more like a humanoid dinosaur than he did a human anymore, with the orange scales of an Agumon. Takeru, on the other hand, had unequivocally merged with Angemon, complete with white wings and the ability to fly. He spent most of his time doing just that, seldom interacting with anyone else anymore unless it was during a battle.

They had more than just the looks, though, and even those who didn’t resemble Digimon had the abilities of one. Sora didn’t need wings in order to fly, nor did Iori need Submarimon’s form to breathe underwater.

Miyako, on the other hand, had yet to develop anything. She knew that she would. They all knew it. With this process being roughly akin to Digimon evolution, it was more than likely inevitable. The issues just finding what would get it going for her.

It doesn’t have anything to do with the Crests. At least not that we know of. Ken’s power had erupted when his parents had been killed. Miyako wasn’t even certain if he could have made the Crest of Kindness glow anymore. Not after everything that had been going on. He didn’t seem to care all that much anymore either.

She didn’t have a lot of time to decide what to do. She glanced out again quickly, and resisted the urge to slam her fist against something. Asuramon had dragged Yamato to his feet and they were already almost out of sight. And she couldn’t do anything about it. She was the next thing to helpless.

Her D-Terminal vibrated against her leg, and she checked it quickly.

Where are you two? Is everything all right? I heard that Asuramon’s in the area, be careful.

Miyako sighed as she began to type up her reply. Too late with that, Taichi. We already ran into him. It hurt to type what came next. He’s taking Yamato to her. I’m going to try to get him back before he can.

The reply came within seconds of her sending it. No, you’re not. Get the supplies back here. We’re going to be leaving.

She knew he was right. She didn’t want to believe it, but she knew anyway. She looked out from the tree again. Asuramon and Yamato were already out of sight.

I’m on my way. Maybe if she could actually use Hawkmon’s power, to whatever degree, she would have been able to help Yamato. Now all she could do was what he’d made her promise she would do anyway: go home.

She still had to be careful, though. Asuramon wasn’t the only one of the Lady’s warriors that patrolled this area. It had been stupid of them to take this route, but it was the quickest way to get to the drop spot for their supplies. Or it had been, at any rate. Who knew what kind of new arrangements they were going to have to make with their suppliers back on Earth now.

Getting back to base was going to take at least half an hour. If she’d been flying or if she could have just walked, without having to keep an eye out for trouble, it probably wouldn’t have taken nearly that long.

It also would have been a lot easier if there had been any of the gateway televisions left closer to base. The Lady and her warriors had destroyed those in the first few hours of her assault on the Digital World. Finding one now was an occasion of rejoicing for days. Keeping it safe after that was the next thing to a miracle. Miracles had been in short supply in the last year as well.

Once she was certain that there was no one lurking in the area, Miyako slipped out of the hiding tree, her share of the bags clutched tightly in her hands. She did her best to ignore the remains of Yamato’s half of the supplies. Asuramon had torn his bags apart, tossing the contents around, and grinding them into the dirt. Theoretically, he had searched for evidence of where the resistance had hid itself. Miyako thought he was doing it just for the pleasure of ruining something.

She made certain not to take the same route back in that they had taken out. That was something else that Taichi had drilled into them all over the last few months. They couldn’t do anything that would allow the slightest chance of discovery.

I sure screwed that one up. She hoped that they had a backup place somewhere. None of them knew everything about the plans, except maybe Taichi. Or Yamato. Those two were their leaders…or had been. Now Taichi was the only one in charge.

An hour crept by as Miyako herself crept through the woods. She paused frequently and watched her back trail, alert for any sign that some of the Lady’s goons might be there. It was nervous work, but the alternative was worse.

It should’ve been me. Not him. If it hadn’t been for Yamato’s reflexes, it would have indeed been her.

She didn’t have time to fret about that now, though. Her eyes still burned with tears she didn’t want to shed. She ached for the days of her youth, when every emotion had spilled out of her easily, and she’d wanted to be able to bottle some of them up. Now she had what she wanted, and she would have given anything to have that freedom back again.

“Miyako.” She looked up to see Takeru standing on a tree branch near her. There was little difference between him and how Angemon had once looked, except for the fact Takeru didn’t conceal his face with a helmet. “I heard.”

Miyako’s head drooped at once. She knew she was back in safe territory now, but she still couldn’t let the tears flow. “I’m sorry, Takeru.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It is!” Miyako snapped back sharply, looking up at him. “It was my fault. He told me that Asuramon was coming, and I was stupid enough to want to just talk to Chizuru some more! I haven’t talked to them in so long, and I wasn’t listening!” She should’ve shut up and done as he’d told her. But after going four months without having heard a single word from her family, she’d ached for news.

Takeru just looked at her. His eyes were even bluer than they’d been before the mergence, and she couldn’t stand to look at them for very long. She looked away. “I’m sorry.” Useless words, but there were no others that could be said.

“Go inside.” Takeru told her quietly. She nodded; what else could she do?

When she made it inside, everything in there was just as much of a madhouse as she’d expected. For a place that harbored perhaps thirty people at the most, there appeared to be nearly a hundred running this way and that. Overseeing it all was Taichi, and if he had tears of his own which he wanted to shed, Miyako couldn’t see any sign of them. Of course, she wasn’t sure if he could still cry or not.

He spied her moments after she entered the main room and nodded abruptly. “Take those to Mimi. Then start getting your own things and get moving.”

If this had been any normal return from a mission, she would have taken the supplies to Mimi while Yamato had reported on everything. They’d done that before, at least a dozen times. Nothing will be normal again.

Truth to be told, nothing had been normal since the day she had wakened to Hawkmon’s anguished cry, and the mass warning had been sent out. A mysterious Digimon and her minions had struck at multiple locations, disabling the connections between Earth and the Digital World. They’d had only a short amount of time to cross over and set up a resistance operation.

Mimi was too busy to have anything like a conversation, and Miyako wished that it had been otherwise. No matter what had happened, she’d always loved speaking with the older woman. They’d always been open and honest with each other. It was sort of part of being Chosen of Purity together.

“Thanks, Miyako.” Mimi did manage to squeeze her hand a little before taking the supplies and shoving them into larger bags. Miyako nodded and headed off quickly towards her own room. Maybe they could talk once they had settled in at the new place, wherever that was.

She didn’t have much to pack. A half dozen changes of clothes, a few mementos that she had built up since their new war had begun, and that was about it. They only had one computer that still worked, and Koushirou was the one in charge of that one. Her own laptop had died six months after they’d set up shop here.

A quick look around showed her that there was nothing else she needed. Her bag over one shoulder, she started back down the hallway. She didn’t make it very far, unfortunately. Before she’d taken a half a dozen steps, the entire base rocked to a powerful explosion. Dirt, rocks, and tree roots scattered everywhere, with brilliant sunbeams arcing through what had been their protective cover only seconds earlier.

Miyako found herself flat on the ground and jumped to her feet, kicking off some of the dirt chunks on her as she did. Familiar voices rose in terrified shrieks, and she hurried towards the main room. That was where it was going to be, she was sure of it.

Just as she had thought, several of the Lady’s minions had poured into the exposed hideout. Her eyes flicked everywhere until she saw who she was looking for.

Yamato. Beside Asuramon. Not tied up this time, though. He wore a tight-fitting outfit of black leather, and his eyes were completely blank. She had seen that look before, in other people who the Lady had captured.

“Yamato.” She scarcely realized she had said the word, until he turned to look at her. There was recognition in his gaze, but nothing like the warm friendliness that had always hallmarked him before.

“Miyako.” There was no need to ask what he was doing. The Lady ruled his mind now, and he had brought them all here at her bidding. Miyako’s stomach churned at the sight. “Surrender.”

She shook her head quickly as sweat tricked down the back of her neck, though it wasn’t a hot day at all. “You know we won’t do that. No matter what she’s done to you, you should know that.”

“It is useless to resist her. My Lady will rule the Digital World.” Yamato clenched one fist, and a nimbus of sapphire blue power formed around it. He’d been one of the first to access his power, and it had increased as he’d practiced, until he was more or less at the same level as Metal Garurumon.

Miyako opened her mouth to deny that, but before the words could leave her lips, Taichi pushed her back and stood in between her and the blond. “Yamato, back off.” Brilliant red light, the power of WarGreymon, enclosed his own fists.

“Taichi, you need to get out of here!” Takeru’s voice came from above, and Miyako looked up to see the angelic human hovering in the air above the ruined ceiling. “You’re the only one who knows where the new hideout is. If you get captured, we’re all done for.”

Miyako knew she was going to have at least one nightmare about what Takeru had just said. The blame for all of this rested with her only. There was only one way that she could make up for it. “Let me hold him off, Taichi. Both of you leave.”

“You don’t have your power, Miyako.” Taichi pointed out. He was right about that much, but Miyako didn’t care.

“Go. If anything happens, it’s only what I deserve anyway.” She meant that sincerely. If she hadn’t been so stupid as to ignore Yamato’s warnings, then he would have been paying more attention to their surroundings, and not to her, and he would have heard Asuramon coming. This was her issue to deal with.

Taichi drew in a breath, but Takeru landed between the two of them. “She’s right.” His voice caught a little bit. “Yamato would say the same thing. Some fights you have to do yourself. Whether you want to or not.”

And sometimes, you have to fight your friends, to help them. Miyako remembered that day long ago, when Daisuke had won the Digimental of Friendship, by realizing the hard choices that sometimes must be made. Now, it was her turn.

Taichi threw one last glance at Yamato, then another at Miyako, before leaving. Every stride spoke clearly of the fact he didn’t want to be doing this. His choices were as plain as hers were. He did slow down once or twice to get rid of some of the invaders, but overall, he kept going until he was out of sight.

Only Yamato stood there now against her. Asuramon and the others were scattered, trying to run down others of the group, or getting any sort of trophies that they could.

“Surrender.”

“No.” Miyako set her teeth and clenched her fists. She would buy time for them all to get out, as little as she could. It might not even be enough, given that so many enemy Digimon were already going through the corridors. “You’d be helping me if you could, Yamato. We can’t just give up and let her rule everything.” Her mind raced, searching for words that would speak to his heart. His heart was still there, wasn’t it? Buried under the Lady’s commands, but it was still alive.

Yamato took a step towards her. Was it slower than it should have been? It was hard for her to judge. “She is the Lady. It is her right to rule the Digital World. We cannot stop her. We should not stop her.”

“If I wanted to hear her talking, I’d talk to her and not you. That’s not what you believe. That’s what she’s making you believe.” Miyako’s fists shook. There had to be some way to stop him. Any second now, he was going to blast her, and then there would be nothing and no one to stop them from rendering the entire base into dust and capturing everyone.

“You have no reason to fight me. Asuramon and his warriors will capture everyone else. Surrender.”

Again she shook her head in denial. “I don’t care. I’m not going to do it.” She would not stand down, not for as much as a second. Any time she could save them would be enough.

Yamato moved closer, and this time she was certain of it. His steps were slower than they should have been. “You don’t want to do this, Yamato. You’re fighting her, I can tell that you are. You’re one of the Chosen, not one of her people.”

“I belong to the Lady.” Again one fist rose, surrounded by blue light. “If you will not surrender, you will be killed.”

Miyako raised her chin defiantly. At any cost. “Do it then.”

His hand thrust forward, the power exploding from the end of it. She could almost see it coming towards her, as time slowed down to a crawl. Deep within her, power stirred unexpectedly. None of those who had had their powers react had ever been able to describe how it felt.

They didn’t need to anymore. Miyako knew. It was so simple that any of them should have figured it out before. Determination was power. Their Digimon had always been there to protect them, so now, in turn, they were there to protect each other.

Her bones were liquid. Her flesh was fire, but there was no pain at all. Between one breath and the next, she had moved, and where Yamato’s blast might have taken her head off, there was now a hole in the far wall.

She flapped her wings, and realized belatedly that her wingspan was far too great to be contained underground. Energy still swam along her being, and she tilted her much larger head now to look down at Yamato.

He stood there, his hands clutching at his temples, shaking. Miyako began to move forward, wanting to snatch him up and take him somewhere safe. Perhaps they could find a way to free him from the Lady’s control, if they had enough time to work with.

Asuramon was there, throwing fireballs at her from all four hands. “We go!” He hissed towards Yamato. “They’ve escaped.”

Yes! She had done it. Or it had been done. It didn’t matter which.

Yamato cast one quick look at her, and the dullness cleared. Yamato, her friend Yamato, looked at her. He said nothing, but his lips twitched slightly into a smile and he nodded for a moment.

Congratulations. Get going. He mouthed the words quickly before the dullness clouded his eyes over again. His shoulders slumped, and he turned away with Asuramon.

Miyako beat her wings slowly, the knowledge of how to fly singing in her veins along with how to breathe and how to let her heart beat. She didn’t want to watch Yamato leaving them once again. Without knowing how they could get him back, there was nothing that she could do.

She spun up into the sky, watching as the rest of the enemy forces left the ruins of what had been their base. She would have to find the others, and tell them what she had seen. Yamato still was in there, somewhere, and they would find the key to freeing him.

Miyako kept flying, rising higher with each stroke of her wings. She threw her head back and cried out, a raptor’s cry, and in that cry were all the joy of flight and the sorrow of loss and the determination of the future.

Hawks could not cry. Not even digital ones.

But Miyako’s tears finally fell.

The End