After convincing Dorugoramon to follow him back to where Examon was, Parasimon had started the return trip with the fellow Mega in relative silence. Although their relationship wasn’t the worst, at least not compared to the lost cause that the Twelfth Knight’s interactions with some of the other partner Digimon were, it wasn’t exactly one that inspired deep conversation. 

At least, not until Parasimon bit the bullet. 

“Pardon me for asking, there hasn’t really been a good time to do this before-” He hesitated at first, debating whether [i]now[/i] constituted anything resembling a ‘good time’: but once again, he decided to bite the bullet. “But what the hell’s going on with you and Alphamon?” His relationship with the First Knight could generously be included with those ‘lost causes’, but his somewhat limited knowledge of the Tamers and their Partners suggested that Dorugoramon and her were one and the same; which his ability to think critically rejected as absolute bullshit, comparing the sheer difference in demeanour between the dignified, if utterly irresponsible First Knight and the foul-mouthed, perpetually-angry beast dragon he was accompanying now. 

“It’s complicated and I mean that in every possible way.” Unlike what her feral demeanor might have suggested, it looked like Dorugoramon wasn’t against the idea of a civil conversation, debatable as Parasimon’s topic of choice may be. “From what I was told, it looked like Alphamon, at some point in a distant past, decided that she wanted to sleep in on her job, so she made me.” A soft growl from the dragon’s maw as she tried to piece together something coherent to follow up on that. “Apparently she created me using a part of her core data as a starting point and let me run with that on my own while she roleplayed the sleeping beauty. No idea how she did it - she never explained - but that apparently explained why she and I us share the same body, but are independent of each other, in a way.”

“... Uh-huh.” Wow, she wasn’t kidding about the complicated part. But the gritty details and particulars aside, that explanation offered one essential element of clarity: “So, you’re completely different people after all?” It wasn’t much, but it definitely made sense of the relationship between the two; as well as the outstanding difference in personality.

“Yes, believe it or not, but she started calling the shots once she woke up and I got relegated to the back seat whenever she did that. I was essentially her ‘civilian’ mask for much of my waking hours and she made me out of a curious whim to boot,” Dorugoramon growled, partly with disdain for her origin and partly out of bemusement at the idea that the Knight of the Empty Seat’s idea of sating her curiosity was to [i]create a new digimon[/i]. Such flagrant use of extraordinary power would’ve made quite an amusing story had she not been the punchline to said story.

“Hmm.” Maybe this hadn’t been the best thing to use to start a conversation. Nonetheless, Parasimon didn’t stay deterred for long. “If it means anything to you, I couldn’t give any less of a shit about the First. Her going off into the wild digital yonder might have got me into this mess, but I’ll be damned if it’s anyone but me that gets me out of it.” Not that he had much choice in the matter, he thought to himself. All he could do now was make sure that when he went out, it was a way that left a big enough dent in Moon=Millenniummon to soften it up for the rest of them. But pushing that dark thought back to the back for now, he supposed everyone had their own mess to crawl out of: and Dorugoramon had just laid hers bare. “Whatever she had to do with your birth aside, does it really matter now if people th- if people [i]know[/i] you’re your own Digimon?”

While Dorugoramon had yet to fully get over being stuck under Alphamon’s shadow, the freedom now in her grasp made her realize just how inconsequential her early hang-ups about her identity and existence were. “No, I suppose not,” she replied, her voice softening somewhat. “It was annoying at first, but now, it doesn’t even matter anymore.” Pausing for a moment, the dragon then turned to Parasimon and added, “Besides, we’ve both moved on past that, literally in her case. Left the house to me and moved to a new place.”

If Parasimon’s degenerating, incoherent facial features included anything resembling a brow, he’d have quirked it at that. But they didn’t, and he decided it was best not to mire an otherwise surprisingly pleasant conversation in his continued distaste for the First Knight. 

“That’s good, at least.” He wasn’t really sure what else he could add at this point, however. “Hopefully you’ll make it through this and live to enjoy the world waiting for you on the other end.” More than could be said for him, at least; and Parasimon sighed softly. Maybe it was best to come clean with someone about what he’d seen. Dorugoramon had been comfortable enough to talk about her existential hang-ups, so maybe he could force himself to talk about his own. “So, when you were-”

But something stopped him mid-sentence as he heard something up ahead. His flight ground to a halt, and he held his two right arms out in front of Dorugoramon in case the same sounds had fallen upon deaf ears. 

“Do you hear that?” It was faint, especially with the winds around them, but if one could perceive it, there was the sound of joints creaking to life and an electric hum rising to meet it.

Silence as Dorugoramon stopped, then quietly turned her head slowly from side to side, as if to better discern whatever noise Parasimon had brought to her attention, but it was clear that she heard it. “Yeah,” the dragon responded, her voice deep with caution. “Don’t think I recognize it though.”

Parasimon narrowed his eyes, peering into the distance. Like Dorugoramon, he couldn’t make out the owner of the sounds at this range; but as orange light blazed through the fog to discern what was ahead, he made out a shape rising from the ground. Vast, and humanoid if not for the massive wings and tail that sprouted at different points from its back. 

“... Oh, fuck off.” Of course it was just Examon waking up. 
---
Examon’s awakening wasn’t exactly the smoothest. The moment he’d come to, it was as if he’d fallen asleep completely drained of energy, all attempts to move beyond twitching or feebly rolling about entirely futile. 

But he’d expected that much. After all, that was what his plan with Alphamon had been to counteract. 

“Ready?” 

“At your command.”

The two consciousnesses reached out to each-other, and took hold of their prone body. What had only been able to twitch and struggle moments before now shakily regained full control of itself; and Ambrosius Longini returned to Examon’s hand as he stuck it into the ground, using it to pull himself up as his body groaned in resistance. 

“Fuck, were these always that heavy?” He grumbled, nodding to the Caledfwlch on his back as they hung down like weighted packs. Alphamon’s presence was slowly making them bearable, but the musculature and technology that connected them into the remainder of his body was only slowly making the massive digizoid wings bearable as he tried to regain his balance. 

“Perhaps it was simply the stupor of awakening talking. Dorumon occasionally said something similar whenever she woke up from a long nap,” Alphamon replied with a soft chuckle as she assisted in pushing Examon’s body upward, gradually working on bringing every fiber within to life. The weight of the humongous wings was quite a burden, but she wholeheartedly believed that it wasn’t a challenge they couldn’t surmount.

“I guess. Talk about swapping one weight for another, though,” Examon grumbled, laughing darkly as he realized the irony of the situation. If he could get out of the hell they’d just escaped from, this should be nothing by comparison. 

Indeed, it was only a few moments later when the wings began to rise of their own accord. As his muscles finally returned to acceptable functionality, the life force that powered his chassis slowly followed suit: and he found himself able to stand by himself. “You adjusting alright?” 

With Examon’s body now erect, Alphamon shifted her focus to monitoring their surroundings, a hard task given the ever-present fog that obscured their general vicinity. Still, they got through their first hurdle and that was something to be happy about for now. “Yes, thankfully.” 

Examon nodded: maintaining his balance, he looked around with Alphamon to increase their chances of picking up something from their surroundings. Unfortunately, it seemed that they still had a way to go until they had full functionality of their body. His senses, previously sharp even with the strain of the Hazard, were now fairly dulled even without the fog encroaching on them. He couldn’t see or sense anything more than a few tens of meters away at present, and all he could make out from there were the abstract, obscured shapes of his surroundings and the thick red and black mist. 

So, it came as something more than a shock when a dark shape rushed through his blind spot to join him, almost knocking him over again as it hovered in the air above him. 

“Took you long enough.” Even through the sudden jolt of shock and the poor state of his senses, the shape’s voice was enough to clue Examon in to its identity. “Rough time in there?” 

“Fucking hell, you don’t know the half of it.” As Parasimon rejoined him, Examon felt an inordinate amount of relief. Even with the Knight’s terse demeanour, it was good to have company. “I never thought I’d be glad to see you, but here we are.” 

Moments after, Parasimon and Examon were soon joined by Dorugoramon as she landed just a short distance in front of the latter, growling with worry as she hastily clambered towards him on all four only to stop when he was within an arm’s reach. Once she was certain that it was really the gargantuan dragon she knew, the silver dragon sighed, then tucked her wings while looking away with a scowl - an approximation of one her draconian face could make anyhow. “Well, you’re back, at the very least,” she mumbled under her breath.

“Can’t exactly say I’m in one piece, though.” Examon sighed. He didn’t know how much time they had, so as much as he wanted to wait and recover and catch up, his hands were tied. Might as well cut to the point. “I’m going to take what he said and assume you two got the same rough experience that we did from that thing up there?” He composed himself, stretching his wings outwards to help his balance as he looked from Dorugoramon to Parasimon and back. “Siggy hasn’t made it out yet.”

“... Then how-” Parasimon froze, descending to the ground as his wings faded out. His limited knowledge also had him under the impression that two minds were needed to move a biomerged body, so how on earth- “How the hell are you up if there’s only one of you in there?”

“I assume Alphamon finally picked up some chores to do, like helping you not be a sitting target?” That little information certainly caught Zei’s attention, but Dorugoramon quickly interjected, knowing how the human half felt about the man in question and feeling that letting her speak when she was so high-strung probably wasn’t a sound idea. 

“I’d like to reward you for the accurate guess, but given our situation, I don’t suppose you would settle with a ‘yes’ and a kiss on the head from me, would you?”

Well, there was something to thank the temporal nightmares for: keeping her from cringing and reeling back from hearing Alphamon’s refined, distinctly feminine voice coming from the eldritch maw that was Examon’s; that was one kind of nightmare too many.

“I’ll take the ‘yes’. Keep this kiss,” Dorugoramon replied with the most deadpan tone her part-mad-part-feral self could muster.

“... Wait, wait, hold up.” Parasimon remembered the end of his conversation with Dorugoramon now. He hadn’t quite processed what he was seeing yet, but that memory set his mental gears turning to catch up. Alphamon had left Dorugoramon. Examon was moving without his partner’s help. Now… [i]this unspeakable horror.[/i]

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2aYoOM34-o]Realization dawned on Parasimon like a new day.[/url]

“...” With a slow, audible creak of crystal against crystal, Parasimon leaned in to stare at Examon- or, more appropriately, Alphamon in the body of Examon- with what was perhaps the most recognizably bemused face his muddled features could muster. “... Someone, anyone. Please tell me I’m still in that thing’s trance.” 

“If this makes you feel better, you’re not the only one who wants to strangle her, so feel free to get in line,” Dorugoramon chimed with a faint smile tugging her metallic lips, having finally found a sense of humor in Alphamon’s initially-frustrating ‘creative’ solution. 

Pulling the eldritch dragon’s maw into a polite smile - something she never got a chance to show until now, Alphamon looked at Parasimon straight in the eye and noted his response internally. “Strange as I will sound now, I sincerely hope that this isn’t the most horrifying sight you’ve seen thus far.”

“I think you’re the most horrifying thing I’ve met in my life in general.” Parasimon’s eyes couldn’t blink, but they sure could twitch in their sockets. “Examon, please come back out here. I’ll take you any day over this awful woman.” 

The fog around them had been nothing but an absolute eyesore and thick enough to silence them, to say nothing of the perilous condition for its presence in the first place, and, for a moment, the sight of Dorugoramon suddenly crumpling to the ground might be a giant red flag.

However, as the pair watched her body shudder, they could hear what sounded distinctively like a snicker, then a loud, bark-like guffaw as she slowly rose to her feet, clutching her side while letting it all out. 

For the first time since she and Zei Biomerged, Dorugoramon [i]laughed[/i].

“Did you hear that, Alphamon? Finally, someone gutsy enough to say that to your face!” the dragon grinned, metallic fangs visible from one end of her maw to another. She was practically batshit crazy by this point, so she might as well go all the way. While none of the party assembled here could tell, even Zei noted the humorous tone well enough to let out a faint chuckle only Dorumon could hear.

“My, how mean,” Alphamon cooly replied with a chuckle of her own, never once dropping her smile. However, a closer inspection would reveal a strong hint of relief mixed in with amusement in her smile. “Still, that’s good to know.”

“EXAMON, I SWEAR ON MY LIFE, ON MY VOWS AND TO WHATEVER GOD IS OUT THERE-” That was about the point that whatever composure that Parasimon had left evaporated on the spot, his already-twitching eyes bugging out of their sockets and his jaws finally opening to mime and swing along incoherently with his now-manically screaming disembodied voice: “COME BACK OUT HERE BEFORE I KILL MYSELF EARLY”

“Alright, alright, calm down.” Although broken by what was obviously restrained laugher, Examon’s voice audibly emerged from his body this time as he regained control from Alphamon. “Gotta give it to you, you got that out to her in fewer words than I did.” Alphamon’s smile, however, remained and threatened to crumble into the same guffawing laughter as Dorugoramon’s as Examon struggled to hold it in. 

“I hate you. I hate you so, so much, you overgrown lizard.” Parasimon seemed anything but amused, but his composure noticeably improved as Examon assumed control back. At the very least, he limited himself to glaring at the Dragon Emperor rather than try to assault him with his eyeballs, and his voice returned to a normal volume and pitch as his jaws closed back up. Letting out a deep breath to dispel the overwhelming disgust that was gnawing at him, he turned and pointed to Dorugoramon. “No wonder she’s so angry, she has to deal with you idiots all the time.”

“Glad to know that you understand me now.” Dorugoramon, having finally stopped laughing, replied with an amused smile as she gradually regained her composure. The chance to laugh her angry heart out seemed to help her to mellow out somewhat, but that would most likely last only until Moon=Millenniummon was back in her sights. 

“I don’t blame her either, for what it’s worth.” Examon’s repressed laughter finally released itself as a darker, more restrained chuckle. Parasimon and Dorugoramon’s words, however inadvertently, got him back on track to the matter at hand: Siggy’s situation. 

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWSB3WZYuv0]“But anyway- you guessed right.”[/url] Examon coughed, and straightened up the best he could. Seemed that, in the last few moments, enough control over his body had returned to let him stand steadily and move about. “Alphamon’s stepped in to ease control over the biomerge because Siggy hasn’t come to yet.” He sighed, trying not to let the dark expression creeping up his face to completely take hold. “I don’t know how long he’ll be or how well me and Alphamon can coordinate without him. But we can’t wait around to find out, especially with what we’ve seen.” 

“At a time like this, I sure as fuck wish there’s anything we can do to help,” Dorugoramon snarled, her anger returning with the serious mood. It was safe to say that she was speaking for more than just herself. “Still, with Alphamon watching your back, at least you’re back up. That’s better than being an unconscious dead weight on the ground, like what we did not too long ago.”

“Honestly, as horrifying as this all is, I agree.” Parasimon sighed, trying to compose himself fully again as he tried to weigh in. “At least with the First in there with you, you can move and fight. After the shit I saw in my own trance, I’m not sure if I can blame your human for being stuck out there. You and me, we’re old bastards with nothing much to lose, and by all measure we barely made it out. Humans or not, I’m surprised any of you kids made it out of there intact to begin with.”

Parasimon paused, as his words made him remember what he’d been ready to tell Dorugoramon before they discovered Examon active again. Once again, he debated the logic of mentioning anything about it; and once again, as he’d just said, he decided he had nothing to lose. 

“I know it’ll take time for you to get your shit together without your partner up and about in there, even with the First. You’re not a sitting duck until then, but even so- if the worst comes to the worst, I’ll take one for you from that thing up there.”

“... What?” Examon stared at the insect Knight. His experience in his temporal torpor had reminded him that Parasimon wasn’t as clear cut as he presented himself in any respect, but this was a strange turn even with that in mind. Where did this come from? “Parasimon, what the fuck are you-” 

“I don’t make it past the end of this.” But Examon didn’t get the chance to finish, as the steel-faced Parasimon clarified. Seeing the Dragon Emperor freeze up in shock at his words, he paused: and then continued. No sighs this time, just cool resolve. “At least, I don’t make it in any outcome worth gunning for. That thing told me one thing while I was in there, and I got the message loud and clear. If I survive the battle, it’s at the cost of us losing. Of both worlds and god knows how many others going up in flames.”

“You’re not seriously letting it get into your head, right?” Parasimon was far from what Dorugoramon would consider to be a friend, but even she found this news to be distressing. When she noticed the look of resignation in his eyes, however, the metallic dragon snarled and roared as her tail flicked hard enough for the sharp tip to slash the road underneath, creating a large gash where it cut through the road like hot knife through butter. “Dammit! Are you seriously telling me you’re fine with this?!”

“I’ve tried, but there’s no escaping the facts.” If Parasimon was moved by Dorugoramon’s words, he didn’t show it: the steely look on his face seemed to be there to stay. “If I live, the world dies in my place. If I die... nothing’s guaranteed, but we might just be able to make it to see another day.” He took a deep breath, looking between the stunned Examon and the emotional Dorugoramon. “But more than anything else, what got me through- what got me out of there- is that this is how it needs to be. I’ve done some awful things in my time, more than I could ever possibly set right. This won’t even make a dent in that, but that doesn’t matter. We can’t that [i]thing[/i] win, and if I can make sure that doesn’t happen- [i]make sure the world has the chance to heal from everything we did to it-[/i] I’ll gladly offer myself up to make that happen.”

“... So be it.” And unlike Dorugoramon, Examon nodded. “Fight to the end with us.”

Admittedly, Dorugoramon was the outsider among the two former members of the Royal Knights, but she knew that their previous status played no part in what she considered to be an asinine decision. “Examon, just what the hell are you thinking?” the incredulous dragon had to consciously hold her tongue lest she said something she would regret in her moment of anger, but her other half soon took that as a cue for her to speak.

“So long as you have no regrets, do what you see fit.” Zei hadn’t uttered a word since learning that Siggy had yet to regain consciousness, but she had been listening to every word they said and she could understand the source of Parasimon’s resolute will. It was then that the dragon’s incredulity turned into sheer disbelief.

Once again, Examon nodded, this time to Zei. 

“I hate this every bit as much as you do, Dorumon. The thought of losing even a single person more to that monster makes me want to throw up. But I saw things while I was in there, too- and as much as I hate what it means, I can’t hate what he’s saying.”

“Examon?” Parasimon spoke again, for the first time since he’d outed his knowledge of his fate. 

“I spent a long time hating you for everything that happened while we were Knights, Parasimon.” Examon’s voice was heavy with emotion, almost all of which seemed directed at himself. “But now I know that I have to shoulder some of that hate for myself. All those years, I convinced myself I was helpless- and I convinced myself that you were just a monster on Imperialdramon’s leash. And maybe, just maybe if I’d actually tried treating you as a person instead of a thing, we could have stopped that mess before things ended up the way that they did.”

Examon looked up at the sky silently, before continuing. “I’m sorry, Parasimon. I failed everyone, you included. I might not be able to properly make that up to you, but I can at least honour you now.”

“Examon, for God’s sake.” Finally, Parasimon sighed. He’d been expecting a reaction from Examon when he decided to open up, but this was far past the pail. “You don’t need to apologize to me for anything. You don’t need to honour me either, this isn’t about-”

“I know. It’s about doing what needs to be done.” But Examon’s own steely gaze remained unbroken as he looked down from the sky to rest it upon Parasimon. “It scares me, really, how alike we are. You say you got through what you saw because this is how it needs to be? What got me through was the same decision. Make no mistake, Parasimon. I’m not apologizing to you for vanity. It’s a promise to not make the same mistakes I made all those years ago. A promise that when fate comes to us with its fangs bared, I’ll stand and fight instead of running away or burying my head in the sand. I wasn’t lying when I said that the thought of losing anyone else today makes me feel sick; so let me make something else clear. I’m not going to help you die. I’m accepting your help so we can put that thing in the ground together. If we die doing it, so be it. We’ll die doing the right thing, and maybe we’ll spare others that same fate.” 

Once again, while Examon and Parasimon vented their feelings and determination, Zei remained as silent as the grave after having spoken her bit. Dorumon had expected her to fret about Siggy, but the human kept her maw shut and simply shifted control back to her before retreating to the darker part of their shared mad mind until such time when she could indulge on her feral desire. When she thought about it, at least Parasimon and Examon had something of a noble goal to drive their actions; neither she nor Zei had such a thing or even cared enough to have one anyway.

“Fine. If that’s how thing’s going to go, I might as well shut up,” Dorugoramon replied with a dark snarl. Yeah, fuck rational thought. Who needed it at a time like this? “Not even [i]we[/i] care about what would become of us anyway, so it’s not our place to even question your decisions.”

Much like Zei, however, Parasimon was near-silent as Examon met his resolution with his own. Almost as if he’d returned to Moon=Millenniummon’s grasp, he stared, seemingly blankly, at his former nemesis. 

“Good grief.” And then, against all odds and all logic, he broke out in laughter. Dark chuckles, but sincerely amused instead of mocking. “I don’t know what’s more ridiculous. What you just said, or the fact I’m agreeing with you.” Shaking his head, Parasimon collected himself and ceased his laughter before: “Alright, Examon, have it your way. Fate’s gonna eat me alive, but I might as well get stuck in its throat and choke it on the way down.” 

“Just don’t go dying on my account, you bastard.” Examon nodded resolutely to Parasimon. “Come hell or high water, me and Alphamon will get through this, and I’m sure Siggy’ll be back with us before we know it.” And, turning to Dorugoramon, he added: “And I’m sure she knows that better than any of us.”

“Good point.” Dorugoramon mumbled under her breath. That point, she’d have to readily concede which might partly explain why Zei had remained mum about it.

Now that they had sorted majority of their excess baggages, she figured that it’d be a good time to steer them back to the main track. “Alright, if we’re going to take on that thing, we might as well regroup first. Five of us all nicely assembled is a good first step, but having everyone back together would be important if we want to stand a chance.”

“Right.” Parasimon nodded, before remembering the details he’d provided Dorugoramon with. It was best to let Examon know, as well. “The only one of you I haven’t seen or heard somehow is your speedy little blue friend. Dynasmon was with me when I found you here, and went off to find the other two while I grabbed this one.” To punctuate the point, he raised his spear and pointed it in the direction of the bay. “They went that way, if we head down we’d have a challenge to miss them.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Examon didn’t pry for further details, but couldn’t help but feel a knot of concern as Parasimon mentioned that UlforceVeedramon was unaccounted for. Whatever the case, staying here and asking questions wasn’t going to do them any good. So, he spread his wings and slowly took into the air, beckoning for Parasimon and Dorugoramon to follow as he began to pick up speed.

"I have to admit, those were some inspiring words." Hearing a dark chuckle behind him, Examon saw Parasimon catch up with him in an instant, carried by his strange new wings. Once again, the sentiment seemed genuine, but then the insect Knight had to add: "Shame you had to waste them on a dead piece of shit like me." 

"You think so?" Examon couldn't help but laugh himself. He really did keep ending up in the most bizarre possible scenarios, from partnering with a human to taking up arms with the former Susanoomon of all goddamn people. 

“"I don't.” Nonetheless, a moment passed and the laughter petered out, giving way to a more serious expression. “Like I said, Parasimon, it was the same decision that got us through what we saw. After all, if you were ready to throw your life away, why would you have come back?"

Well, they now had a new objective in hand and a clear consensus on finding UlforceVeedramon. While they had no leads on him right now, that was no excuse not to try and look for him. “Alright, looks like we’re all set,” Dorugoramon growled and, with a beat of her wings, took off with a leap to catch up with Examon and Parasimon. “Can we save the wooing and flirting until after we get everyone accounted for?”

“Well, I guess some things never change” Examon replied with a playful huff: but nonetheless, he picked up speed as Dorugoramon joined him. Within moments, the two dragons were forging ahead at high speed towards their destination, leaving their regrets and qualms behind them. 

Along with Parasimon, who watched them go as he hovered upright, seemingly frozen in midair if not for the expression of bewilderment that slowly spread over his face.

“...” [i]Try as he might, he couldn’t answer Examon’s question.[/i]