“Alright, let’s… [i]ignore[/i] all the implications of this for now and focus on what’s important. Not letting that thing blow up the universe.” Getting back on their feet again wasn’t the smoothest affair in the world, but Dirk and Belzemon managed before long. Whatever the nature of their situation, it seemed that the return of Dirk’s soul and consciousness to Beelzemon afforded them similar function to a Biomerge: with the two working in tandem, it was just like old times. “Right.” Despite Beelzemon’s attempt at strength in concision, Dirk felt their stomach churn aggressively as real physical sensation returned. They were both still shaken from the trauma of the last few hours, however hard they tried to fight past it. “Last I saw, the others all made it past killing it the first time- BanchoLeomon probably could have soloed it himself with how badly I pissed him off before.” “... Come again?” “... Right, you weren’t there for that. Long story, don’t ask.” Dirk felt their stomach clench again at Beelzemon’s words. Then, however, came some clarity: “The shock of… [i]that[/i] was what set me off. Imagine what happened a few months ago, but worse.” “Okay, I get the picture.” Maybe not asking was the better option after all. Old habits died hard, and Dirk figured he could go back to amateur psychiatry later. “But if the others are around, we can try and track them down before it’s too late. Any idea where we can find them?” “Last I saw any of them up close, they were still fighting them. Where they could have gone after that is anyone’s guess.” Beelzemon groaned. Maybe he should have just stayed in the trance after all. “I don’t know, Examon sticks out like a sore thumb wherever he goes, maybe we can-” Beelzemon never quite got to finish his sentence. With stealth entirely unbecoming of such a massive form, a dark shape emerged from the thick fog nearby, freezing in place as myriad violent lights fixed themselves upon the Demon Lord below. Sensing the presence, Beelzemon froze too: and then sprung to life with a start at the sound of the voice that met him. “... Excuse me, but where the [i]fuck[/i] have you been, you fickle little bastard?” Parasimon asked, his appearance halfway between a ray of light in the dark and the appearance of a swarm of locusts. --- BanchoLeomon was well on his way back over towards Examon’s location, leaping across rooftops and debris when his attention was diverted with a quick look down at the streets. “When did you grow a goddamn conscience, you rotten old fascist? Before or after you nuked the entire Digital World into compliance?” “At least I grew one in time to step up. I’ll ask you again, Demon Lord. Where the fuck have you been while we’ve risked everything?” Parasimon confronting...Beelzemon?! That crazy bastard was back? With a scowl, BanchoLeomon landed against the side of a building, kicking off with both feet and crashing down onto the street next to Parasimon, giving the Demon Lord a death glare. “Really? You want round two? Now? I’ll be honest, I’m surprised your arm’s back this fast. But without that Crest of yours...you really want to waste our time when there’s bigger fish to fry?” At BanchoLeomon’s arrival, several of Parasimon’s eyes darted to watch him while the others remained trained on Beelzemon. Something about his words seemed… suspect? Had he missed something along the way? That impression only got stronger as Beelzemon jumped back in. “Oh thank god, Lucas, Leomon.” The Demon Lord that the Knight had been squabbling with seemed to give way to the human sharing a body with him. “Look, there’s a lot to explain-” “Oh, right. We can start with why you snapped and started killing civilians.” BanchoLeomon spat, his fists clenched. “An even FUCKING dozen, you homicidal ape.” “... Hold on, what?” Parasimon’s bemused expression of confusion was echoed by a wide-eyed response from the human behind Beelzemon’s eyes: but before either the insect or the lion interrogating him had the chance to follow up, the Demon Lord himself was back in control. “Look, I know full well I can’t run from what happened, with or without you reminding me of it.” Beelzemon’s attempt at sounding defiant was undermined by the queasy edge to his voice, the renewed memory of what had happened threatening to turn his uneasy stomach to outright volatility. “But, like you said, we have bigger fish to fry.” “Seriously, did I miss another civil war?” Parasimon felt more and more out of his depth with every passing moment. BanchoLeomon narrowed his eyes. “I don’t have a reason to believe you. What’s stopping you from stabbing me in the back during the middle of the fight just to get your Crest back? Which I’m not trusting you with, by the way. Damn thing doesn’t even work for me.” “You can keep the rotten fucking thing, I-” A mixture of nausea and fury turned Beelzemon’s voice into a shaky mess: but he stopped speaking before he could finish. Freezing in place, his face remained in a combination of readiness to scream and vomit for a few seconds, before he took a deep, shaky breath and collected himself. And then he spoke in a tone and timbre unmistakable to either Lucas or Leomon. “He won’t, because I’m here.” Dirk answered for the both of them. “Congratulations,” BanchoLeomon drawled, without missing a beat. “You can mimic the voice of a dead man. I know you completely snapped when it happened, but I was there too.” “Christ, you’re as stubborn as always.” Dirk’s frustration seemed a lot more even than Beelzemon’s, and he quickly bounced back with: “Lucas, you said that when you first met Leomon, he was born again from an egg, didn’t you?” The leonine Digimon narrowed his eyes, Lucas’s voice coming out of his mouth. “How’s it feel that Siggy’s probably got a bigger dick than you?” Parasimon rolled his eyes. Mammals and their reproductive organs, honestly. “Look, I don’t know the ins and outs of your group’s politics, but is this really-” “Hey, fuck off, it’s a solid eight inches if you look at it from the right angle!” But the blow struck home. Frustration became outright indignance, and Dirk’s voice completely engulfed the slight hints of Beelzemon’s own. BanchoLeomon blinked at that, looking poleaxed. “I saw your head get cut. Off. How the hell are you alive?!” He glanced aside to Parasimon. “How else am I going to be able to tell if he’s lying?” “... Point conceded,” Parasimon deadpanned to BanchoLeomon as he stared at Beelzemon losing his mind over the slight on his private parts. Really, he should have expected this by now. “Don’t you go conceding it, you don’t even have one!” It seemed that it had done more than confirm that he wasn’t lying: it looked like it had distracted Dirk from the point entirely. “Hell, if I wasn’t a ghost right now, I’d wop it out on the-” But once again, he froze up: and a moment later, with a shake of his head, it was Beelzemon himself back in control. “Okay, settle down, five and a half.” Beelzemon groaned, before turning his attention back to BanchoLeomon. “Right, so as he was saying before you brought… [i]that[/i] up, I think it’s similar to how Leomon came back when you two first met.” He took a deep breath. “The Digivices can’t completely reconstruct a human’s body like it does for us when we revert to eggs, but it can preserve them as some kind of ghost. There was some more to this, but I don’t even think I understand that. Ask pineapple-head when he’s done overcompensating.” “...You’re stuck like that, then.” BanchoLeomon took back over from Lucas, nodding. “The situation’s bad enough right now that I’ll shelve the previous incident for now. We need all the help we can get. I’ll talk to MirageGaogamon about it as well. If...when we make it through this, we’ll get back to the matter.” He stepped up to Beelzemon, leaning in close to the Demon Lord’s face. “One [i]hint[/i] that you’ve been lying the whole time and using Dirk’s memory, though...and I’ll make you wish you died half an hour ago.” “Right.” Beelzemon nodded, relieved that they were back on a relatively even heel at last. “After what we’ve seen, you don’t have anything to worry about there- let’s just get back to the others before it’s too late.” “I was with Examon and… whatever the other big angry dragon’s name is just before I foud you two.” At that point, Parasimon chimed in, the volume of his voice snatching the conversation into his corner. “I fell behind because… well, I fell behind, but I know the direction that they were headed in. Dynasmon is in the same rough direction and I think it’s the same for the other two, but first things first-” Parasimon paused. Performing the telepathic equivalent of taking a deep breath, the giant insect collected himself- “Can one of you [i]please[/i] explain what happened before I got here?” And took fire at the elephant in the room with all the power that he could muster. “Because one moment I’m shouting at the Demon Lord for deserting, and the next it looks like I missed another goddamn civil war. I swear, the deeper in I get with you humans, the more I think the Sovereigns had a tighter grip on things.”