**Presently** Monoku/Jadramon
The two form an uneasy alliance under the watchful gaze of the third within our shared mind. We’re standing along the edge of a volcanic plain. Its slate-gray monotony broken up only by a series of yellowish red rivulets of lava. Another thing breaking up the monotony of the landscape is a swath of shadows pouring forth as if from thin air. The shadows drip like ink even as they take on some semblance of form, all across the landscape. We continue to back away from the volcanic plain, down the pristine sandy beach.
Monodramon’s mind grumbles, Aint no way I’m going down like this, not after all that. Almost dead to some crazed Weregaruru, dropped almost all my evolutionary stages, fell nearly from orbit. Hell no.
Jaku’s mind pleads, I’m of a like mind Monodramon, err, obviously. What can we do though?
Jaku is correct in their worry. Our backs are to the proverbial wall, up against the ocean’s edge. Despite our attempt at fleeing the encroaching host of shadows, we’ve nowhere left to run on land. We’ll have to take to the skies to have any chance to survive. A point of interest lies in that particular southerly direction, and since its elevation is far above us, it likely belongs to a chain of skybound floating islands. We, the third, had caught a glimpse of it while plummeting to our doom earlier as we were being brought into existence. A doom that was thankfully averted, though that averting may prove to be short lived if we can’t produce enough lift to begin a strong glide.
Monodramon’s mind orders, Alright lamebrains, listen up, we’re not a flier, we’re a glider. We need an updraft. We’re at a good place for them, heat of all that lava sending low pressure towards the sea, cold air off the sea dropping high pressure along the beach. Just a tiny bit of digital physics that happens to work like out there in the real world, off the net. Chop chop, find one, let’s go!
Running along the beach, we instinctively cast our senses about, feeling the breeze in each location as it changes, raising and dipping as its pressure builds and wanes. There, there’s a strong updraft. We simply have to leap over a horde of clamoring inky shadow beasts to reach it. No problem, right friends?
Monodramon’s mind grumbles, Aint friends with either of you lamebrain ridealongs.
Jaku’s mind hems nervously, Erm, sure, no problem, um, us. This is so weird. Do we just kind of bunch the haunches and leap?
Monodramon’s mind barks, And arm out numbskull! I swear, rank amateurs.
Monodramon’s methods may be questionable, but he is correct, we are, and Jaku especially, amateurs in our shared form. Moreover, he’s right to chastise and remind Jaku to keep the gliding fins straight and outward. Leaping high over a horde of hostile creatures into their midst in search of vertical elevation adjustment would prove quite a fruitless effort without both wings outstretched. In fact, it would be more than fruitless, it would be hazardous, bordering on suicidal.
Jaku’s mind is determined to not let Monodramon down, feeling responsible for his current state. It’s a somewhat unfair assumption of responsibility and burden upon Jaku, since Monodramon did eat their soul after all. One would find it quite understandable if Jaku were in the midst of hysterics after hearing their soul was gobbled up as data. Thankfully, they’ve committed to being at the top of their game at least until our situation improves. Perhaps Jaku will have a nice lie-down in our mind, leaving us with a half unresponsive body, if we find somewhere safe.
Monodramon’s mind shouts, Oh like hell they will! Ridealong, human, kid, whatever. You keep it together. Y’hear me? You, well you’re not doing so bad at holding up, all things considered. Sorry about the soul thing. Again. Stupid third whatever-the-hell in our head. MY! Head.
Jaku’s mind attempts to hide its joy, I’m grateful for the, um, pep talk Monodramon. As far as the soul thing, well, I don’t think it’s sinking in. I mean, I exist, and I feel like I was a contiguous existence from, well, my entire life, up to my death, and continuing after in the new body with you.
Monodramon’s mind tries to play it cool, Yeah, like, sure, and stuff. Like, who the hell knows what human souls do? They don’t re-digitize, or decode, or de-evolve, or any of that. I mean, I don’t know how many have ever even been to the Digital World for crying out loud. I mean, humans that died here. This might be a first.
The three of us nod somberly at Monodramon’s supposition. Jaku’s death at the hands of friction, gravity, and asphyxiation was certainly a lamentable occurrence. Even still, none of the three of us have the wealth of knowledge that an elder digi such as wisemon, babamon, or jijimon might have. We really can’t even begin to guess the accuracy of Monodramon’s conjectures.
Monodramon’s mind grumbles, Alright lamebrains, head in the game. We’re doing this, it’s now or never. If you screw this up, I’ll take solace in the fact that you’re going down with me.
Monodramon really needs to work on his pep talks. Still, of the three of us, he is technically the most experienced, despite Jaku being slightly older by several years. We highly recommend Jaku do as Monodramon has suggested. Even the third would prefer to continue existing, despite the hostile environment in which we exist. The hostile environment is your mind Monodramon, in case that wasn’t clear.
Monodramon’s mind retorts, Hey! I resent that. It was perfectly clear lamebrain. Ya bunch of braindead bumpkins make me really want to explode. Soon as we find some place safe from this crazy shadow nonsense, we’ll, I’ll, find some fights to hop in on, bust some skulls, and be back to Devidramon in no time flat, compared to the time it took me the first time around. Not being dark data is going to make it a breeze to get back what I lost. When we’re Devi, we won’t have to worry about whatever craziness is going on down on the ground. I, me, when I am Devi, I won’t have to! Argh, bunch of lamebrain incompetent ridealongs infecting my brain!
The third of us can sense Jaku’s attempt at stifling their burble of emotions that would lead to laughter. It’s a valiant effort, but wasted due to the third’s narration of Jaku’s thoughts.
Monodramon’s mind snarls, So, think this is funny, do ya, pal!?
Jaku’s mind backpedals, No, no, absolutely not, sorry. I just, um, found it humorous that you have the time and energy to care about correcting your own mental pronoun narration. Having the time and energy for that, despite our current circumstances is impressive.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Monodramon’s, ready to rant off on an angry tangent is caught offguard. Monodramon’s mind mutters, Ah, right, well, yes. We, grr, I, have the capacity to do exactly that, but I’m going to be focusing on getting out of here alive now, so everyone just shut up.
Jaku does their best to comply, but the third only exists as a narrative entity analyzing the thoughts and cohesiveness of the pair. We literally could not stop if we wanted to. One does not simply pause their own existence for someone else’s relief. Monodramon does have our sympathy however. We know we’ve been difficult in response to Monodramon’s tenaciously persnickety behavior. In some regards, that is on us, but mostly on Monodramon for his draconic pride, his immaturity, and his terrible attitude and outlook.
Monodramon’s mind is grumbling as it tries to ignore us, the third.
Still, with what amounts to a heroic effort, we find ourselves carried aloft by the updraft we’d been aiming for during our sprint. The pair coiled their separately controlled muscle groups in unison to perform a leap as strong as, or stronger than, any vertical jump Monodramon had ever previously done.
The only thing now is to keep Jaku from getting distracted too many times between now and the floating islands. Each distraction risks at the minimum a short altitude drop. Enough of those might become a setback that we can’t recover from. As we leave the lava-plains, the areas of competing air pressure fronts will become more sparse. If there are no updrafts after Jaku’s mind wanders, we may be trapped in a glide that slowly places us into the grasp of all the shadow creatures below.
That’s it, steady on you two. Despite your ojbections Monodramon, we’re acting cohesively, at least for the moment. We’re making incredible time, and gaining solid altitude. The three of us notice the floating archipelago shake, as if it were rocked by a particularly strong earthquake. A disconcerting occurrence for a series of floating islands in the sky, to be sure.
Are our senses attuned to magic? There is a scent wafting across the breeze, it’s reminiscent of enchantment somehow.
Monodramon’s mind grumpily answers, Of course we can smell magic, we’re a dragon numbskull. I mean, I’m a dragon! Ugh. Friggin’ ridealongs. But, uh, yeah, floating islands are partially held up by magic. Only, we shouldn’t be able to smell it, that only happens if the enchantment starts breaking, letting the magic out. Oh hey look, a Digi-farm, we can snag some meat. I, I can snag some meat. Blasted hell.
Monodramon immediately forgets about the possible plight of the farm digimon in favor of satisfying his hunger, his belly. Some things about being dark-data are truly ground into one’s nature until they’re almost innate, it seems. Jaku’s mind begins getting distracted with worry for the digimon living on the islands.
Jaku’s mind asks, Monodra, is there some sort of way to stop the enchantment from leaking? Maybe not on all the islands in the archipelago, maybe just the one with the farm on it? I don’t see any other people, or, uh, digimon on any others. The only other interesting one has a big obelisk, and it’s basically connected to the farm island.
Monodramon’s mind grumps, Oh hell no. I am not giving up my data to go patch someone else’s shoddy enchantment. You can forget about it. I’ll raid the farm, catch a breather as the island crashes down, and then take off to find some other safe place.
Jaku’s mind recoils before pressing, But, Monodra, what if nowhere else is safe? What if all the floating islands all around the world are crashing down right now? Everything will be washed over by those shadow-things that were rotting the landscape below.
Monodramon’s mind perks up in confusion, Say what now? That, that can’t be a thing. Can it?
While Jaku’s mind isn’t prepared to rebutt, we can assert that it most definitely could be a thing. If shadows can pour forth from tears in the universe to blanket the land, and a whole archipelago’s enchantment can break at once, it seems perhaps nothing horrible is off the table in regards to what can happen.
Monodramon’s mind swears, Awe hell. Fine, I’ll go play hero, just this once. After that, I’m going to find a nice high cave to block off, making a little hoard, and hibernating til this nonsense is over.
Jaku’s mind shrugs, relenting, Anything you say Monodramon, I’m just glad we’re not going to let all those farm digimon die.
It would appear that Monodramon has returned to ignoring Jaku, and the third, us. We are approaching the farm’s floating island at a rapid clip however, so at least there’s that. We can also tell that Monodramon hopes that the data he spends patching the floating enchantment will be our data. Monodramon is of course caught off guard by our spilling of his secret desire. The desire is deplorable if he would even think for a moment of its implications. Spending two lives, two existences without their consent? Truly awful Monodramon. Truly awful.
Monodramon’s mind is flooded with embarrassment as we’re about to touch down. We glide along the circumference of the farm island, seeking an anchor-point for the enchantment. Sadly, they’re often low on the islands, so that inhabitants can’t accidentally destroy the anchors. There it is, and the source of the problem is also clear. A ball of shadow seems to be stuck half-in, half-out of a tear in the fabric of the universe. It’s swiping wildly at anything nearby, and the only thing nearby happens to be the anchor. It would appear to be much the same for the other islands of the archipelago now that we know what to look for.
Monodramon’s mind decides a course of action, Okay ridealongs, sit back and watch how this is done. Going to blast this shadow with fire til there aint nothin’ left!
Monodramon does work up an impressive flame, but the ethereal nature of the shadow monstrosities appears to be unaffected by the heat. The light cast by the flame however is another matter. The shadow recoils and retreats back into its tear in the fabric of spacetime. Moments later, the rift is sealed from the far side. We have a feeling that if a few more shadows are driven off back to their home by this method, they will eventually wise-up, and stop sealing themselves back in their shadow universe.
For now however, we glide down to the island bearing an obelisk, to drive off a shadow at its anchor point as well. We will have to fix both anchors if we want the farm to remain floating, due in part to the absolutely massive depth of this island. After another bout of flame, both anchors are safe momentarily, though they are damaged enough that they must be repaired, or they will still crash before long.
Monodramon’s mind sighs, Alright you two lamebrains, we’re going to have to be quick. Spending this much data is probably going to drop us all the way out of Monodramon, again. When I say we, I really mean we. Can’t have you relaxing or freaking out for even a second. We have to fight to stay Monodramon until we can claw our way back up to the farm island. Can’t exactly claw or fly as Tsunomon.
Jaku’s mind readily agrees to the plan, and we have to admit, we will need to follow Monodramon’s lead on this. He sinks our claws into the cliff-face below the outer edge of this obelisk-bearing island. From our vantage, we can feel, and see, Monodramon attempting to repair the seal with our own data. He of course does not get to choose which data, or he’d likely be rid of us. We don’t relish the idea of being trapped in an inanimate seal.
Monodramon shudders, the combined effect of the sum of us each imagining being trapped for an eternity in a sense-less magical seal. We launch ourselves back into a nearby updraft to slam clumsily into the bottom of the farm island, where we latch on as Monodramon repeats the process. Sure enough, as Monodramon nears completion of the patching of the enchantment’s seal, we can feel our form attempting to compress in order to maintain resolution. We will de-digivolve very soon, or our resolution will scatter, shatter, as we die trying to fight it.
Jaku’s mind fights off panic and fear as it attempts to work synchronously with Monodramon’s. The pair struggle claw over claw, digging in and dragging us up the cliff’s face from below. In moments our form begins to fritz, our arms momentarily disappear, and we’re barely able to dig-in in time as they return momentarily. Just a few more claw-holds. Just a bit farther. We’re almost there.