Surrounded by concrete walls and fluorescent lighting that flickered every few minutes with a steady hum of electricity. With a long thin foldable metal table with multiple mismatched chairs, surrounded by multiple different consoles with different readouts and Liliana entered the room first, her lab coat flowing elegantly as droves and droves of small black glowing insectoid creatures swarmed around her creating an amorphous body, Liliana moved swiftly as if made of liquid as she checked each console. Liliana peered closely with her brow furrowed with worry looking above her the rim of her glasses, Star, Ryong and Lutyimon walked in and took the seats near the far right of the table. Ryong seemed to be a bit shaky as he took his seat, Ryong looked from side to side to ensure no one had seen. Lutyimon was looking worried at the screens in front of them and Star was staring right at him with a stern look, "You are going to the infirmary right after the debriefing…..and not another word." they said as Ryong began to open his mouth in protest, closing it with an obstinate scowl.
Liliana looked up from the last console, moving gracefully in front of Ryong and bringing out an ophthalmoscope to look into his eyes. "Let me guess, protocol blue?" Liliana said with a particularly savage tone, "I….had to….I got some valium for the colony, even albuterol." Ryong answered sheepishly as he pointed to his pack. Liliana pinched the bridge of her nose as Liliana let out a loud sigh, swiftly grabbing Ryong's ear as she began walking out of the debriefing room, "ow ow ow ow okay okay, jeez I am going, I am going damn it!" Star chuckled, shaking their head, "Lutyimon how close was he this time?" Lutyimon looked up, speaking in a hushed voice, " I think Liliana's vest worked, but he still reached stage 1, it was different this time though, he wasn't slipping away but as you saw he still had side effects." Liliana brusquely made her way through a pair of double doors, still covered in a pseudo body made up of the swarm glowing insectoid creatures. Ryong lumbered behind, with a scowl on his face, "I am fine, I just need some sleep." The room they entered was an obvious infirmary with 4 hospital beds set equally distanced apart, the wall had a multitude of storage units with windowed doors and glass jars filled with cotton balls, tongue depressors, along with various other items lined the cabinet countertop surfaces.
"Myrmacomon please seat the patient," Liliana said, ignoring Ryong as she began compiling different tools from draws. Two long limbs formed from the swarm body that surrounded Liliana that gracefully grasped Ryong and gently placed him seated onto the bed closest to Liliana. "Listen Ryong, I know you wanna be a burro and you are, you are a big stinky burro, but no matter how stubborn you are, your health is my responsibility, so do me a favor, sit up and shut up." Grabbing several scanning instruments, Liliana placed a sensor on Ryong's chest, temple and finger, "The ring of blue digitron around your eyes tells me you got to Stage 1, which means we need to purge your body of the excess digitron in your body before the toxicity begins to degrade your pseudocore." Liliana guided Ryong gently to lie down as she placed restraints on his body and head, "Seeing as you stuck with Protocol Blue it must mean at least the vest kept you grounded enough to stay in control." Ryong continued to scowl as he respond gruffly, "Well you fucking know everything Doc' lets just get this over with." A soft look came over Liliana's face as she attached an IV to one wrist with milky white liquid and another IV that pierced into his chest attached to a medical pump like contraption. Grabbing a mask connected to a green canister Liliana was about to place it on Ryong's face when he put his hand up, "Can we maybe not use the sleeping gas this time, I get…weird nightmares." Liliana shook her head in, "It's gonna hurt like hell you know that right?" "I'll take the pain over the nightmares, let's just get this over with the sooner the better."
As Liliana placed the final restraint on Ryong, she placed in his hands two small rods with cushioning wrapped around them, "Squeeze these, concentrating on that will help the pain." The pump connected to Ryong hissed periodically as it began pumping out of him a glowing blue liquid. It was quite clear Ryong struggled with pain in this moment, his face flushed with sweat, eyes forced closed as his knuckles turned white gripping tightly on the two rods given to him for stress release. The double doors of the infirmary opened once more as Clothomon and the tallest of the triplet digimon walked in, "Oh Hello Clothomon, Atropomon, what can I do for you?" Atropomon stood gracefully, with long black hair that reached the floor, with a beautiful lace shiny black dress, 2 pairs of arms and 4 pairs of striking red eyes. She spoke with a deep and sensual tone, "Damien would like my cute lil sis to get a check up," Atropomon fondly stroked Clothomon's hair as she guided her to a bed to be seated. "Stooop, Atropomon!" Clothomon waved her hand at Atropomon, her voice was child-like with an ethereal tone as it emitted from her mind, her face turning red as sat down on the white infirmary bed, her long hair flowing from side to side gently.
A low groan could be heard from Ryong as the pump continued to hiss periodically and a steady stream of the blue glowing liquid flowed through the tube connected to his arm. Atropomon looked over with a disgusted look on her face, "Abomination " she whispered, "I can fucking hear you bitch." Ryong said his eyes were still closed, Atropomon was shocked for a moment but quickly regained her composure. "Oh the beast speaks does he." "Tap..Tap..Tap '' Liliana was emitted an air of pure rage as she impatiently stared at Atropomon. Atropomon looked over at Liliana and her face sank as she quickly turned back to Clothomon, "I will be good, doctor, I apologize." Liliana grabbed several sensors and a strange gun-like tool as she walked over to Clothomon, "You of all digimon should understand what he is going through, I expect better from the eldest of the fate sisters." Atropomon stood silently ashamed as Liliana placed sensors on Clothomon and turned on the console next to the infirmary bed, it hummed alive with the screen lighting up and showing several different complicated readouts. Clothomon's ethereal psychic voice chimed up once more, "You should be nice to Mr. Ryong, he saved my life." Atropomon smiled as she looked at Clothomon, "Oh my adorable lil sis."
Holding the gun-like tool on Clothomon's temple who was gently humming a pleasant tune as she sat, Liliana pressed the trigger and the tool began emitting a gold light. At the same time Clothomon's three eyes lit up the same color and her body began to become semi-transparent as several circles of light encompassed her body for a moment before dissipating into light fractals. Clothomon was still sitting there with the instrument to her temple, but she was glowing gold as small fractals emitted from her body and semi-transparent in form. Staring at the display on the console connected to Clothomon Liliana could be heard every few moments with a , "Hmm" and a "That's good" before turning back to Clothomon, "How are you feeling at this moment?" The ethereal voice of Clothomon answered, "I feel tired but other than that I feel fine." Smiling, Liliana turned off the device on Clothomons temple and placed it on a shelf under the console she was looking at. The gold light subsided and Clothomon became solid once more, Liliana looked at the young digimon, "You are fine, you just need some rest, make sure Damien postpones today's training session okay, doctor's orders."
Atropomon and Clothomon exited the infirmary together, behind them Ryong still lay in an infirmary bed, the flow of blue liquid had slowed to a trickle. The double doors closed gently as the two digimon sisters continued walking down a concrete corridor. "Sister?" Clothmon's ethereal voice piped up, "Yes little one?," Atropomon answered back in a despondent voice. "Why do you hate Mr. Ryong?" Clothomon looked inquisitively at Atropomon with all three of her eyes. Letting out a loud and long sigh Atropomon put her hand over her eyes in frustration, "I don't hate him, I just know what he is and he is dangerous." "Atropomon!" Standing at the end of the corridor with a disappointed look on his face was Damien, arms crossed, his dreadlocks flowing freely, wearing a light blue button up and khaki shorts with brown boots. "What did I tell you about speaking like that about my mate? Are you taking a piss?" Looking completely dejected Atropomon held her head down as she approached Damien with Clothomon following quickly behind her.
"He saved yo life, both you and Clothomon and all you can do is be scared of him, that's a bloody fine howdy doo dee ain't it now." Damien kept his gaze locked on Atropomon who was trying hard not to look him in the eyes. "Now then, what did Doc Liliana say?" Clothomon skipped up towards Damien, "Doctor said training today is canceled and I get to take a nap, but other than that I am as you would say good as gold." A small chuckle escaped Damien's lips as his expression softened, putting his hand on Clothomon's head, "Did she now? Well, let's get some grub and some beer, I need to get munted." Damien looked at Atropomon who was completely defeated after being chastised twice already, "Come on you, let's go get some food ya wally." Atropomon looked up with a small smile as the three of them walked out of the corridor.
The sun had set and night had come, the sky was clear and the moonlight was almost as bright as the sun itself. In a tiled room with several large windows looking out into a cityscape from the mountain side, there were several mismatched tables and chairs. It was a commissary, two people could be seen sitting with only half of the lights turned on, in one chair was Star, in a royal purple and gold robe with soft tufts that lined the edges tied closed and soft purple slippers, in front of them was a short glass cup. In the chair opposite to Star was Liliana, her short strawberry blonde hair up in a bun, wearing a fluffy pink pajama set and red bunny slippers, holding a green bottle, the bottle label said "Buchanan Scotch 12 year aged." Liliana poured some scotch into Star's glass and her glass, "I was able to adjust Ryong's vest even further, thanks to the blue digitron I harvested from him, I think it should be able to withstand Protocol Blue and prevent Stage 1 for at least 10 minutes now." Star brought their glass up to their full lips before taking a sip, closing their eyes to savor the flavor, "What did your readings tell you about his condition?"
Taking a sip herself Liliana looked into the darkness of the other half of the commissary which was left unlit. "As we know, unlike any other human Ryong has had a fully formed Digicore since you found him wandering around the wreck of the signing day. Ryong Digicore is indistinguishable to a digimon, I have analyzed his DNA and he is definitely human, but at the same time he isn't. The digivice on Ryong's wrist isn't just a digivice it seems to allow him to activate the RGB Protocols. What I haven't been able to find out is why it causes Ryong's body to produce digitron and it seems the digitron is what's responsible for mutating him further, but is also responsible for making him immune to the Death X Error." Liliana paused for a moment to take another sip of her scotch and letting out a deep sigh she continued, "He's dying Star….he doesn't know it, Lutyimon doesn't know it." Star's eyes widened as they looked directly at Liliana, "What are you talking about?!" Liliana took a large gulp of the rest of her scotch, her eyes closed for a moment as the alcoholic burn spread from her chest all across her body.
"Everytime I extract digitron from him, Ryong has massive cellular decay occur across his body. His kidneys and liver are showing signs of chronic failure, I have been treating it during extraction but it's only getting worse as each time he produces just a little more digitron," burying her face into her hands Liliana let out a desperate frustrated cry. Star reached out and put their large hand on Liliana's back to comfort her, "Why haven't you told him Liliana?" "Because I already knew." Liliana and Star stood up startled, the chairs screeching as they moved, turning to face Ryong who was leaning on the open door of the commissary. Turning away from the two, Ryong began walking down the dark corridor, "Don't tell anyone else."
Ryong made his way to a door and sighed heavily before he opened it. Ryong faced a small dark room with solid concrete floors, one small window letting in rays of moonlight, and two military style cots set adjacent from one another. In one cot was Lutyimon sleeping soundly and snoring quietly as he laid on his stomach. Ryong sat in the empty cot as he looked at the window for a moment, his eyes wandered around the room, from the window to the wall which was slightly cracked, small chips had broken off the wall, Ryong set his sights on his pack and the half staff wrapped in cloth attached to it. Fiddling with the buckles on the pack Ryong freed the wrapped item and began unfurling it. Unwrapped it revealed a sectioned collapsed staff made of a brilliantly lustrous metal with a slender leaf blade spearhead on the tip, holding it vertically the spear intuitively extended to its full 6 foot length. With a soft grunt from Ryong the spear slowly retracted into a foot long rod with a slender leaf blade spearhead. "Silver Digizoid, Yggdrasil's last creation."
A young woman wearing black frilled top and short black skirt with elegant white feathered wings folded at her back, was suddenly standing in front of Ryong. Keeping calm Ryong, placed the retracted silver spear onto his bedside and looked up at the winged young woman in front of him. Her hair was silver blonde, short, a frilled black collar with small tasteful black roses lining the rim, her eyes brilliantly glowing hazel and she seemed to have an aura of dim blue light surrounding her form. "Who are you?" Ryong stared inquisitively at the young woman, taking note of every movement she made. "I am not your enemy Ryong," She spoke in a soft almost ethereal tone, "I need you to listen for I cannot stay in this form for long, having lost my other half. Please, Ryong take this memory and stop the Apple, or else all is lost." The young woman held what seemed to be a glowing blue crystal surrounded by 2 halos made up of pure light in the shape of different unknown symbols.
Almost instinctively without hesitation, Ryong reached out and touched the crystal, his body was thrust forward rushing forwards as wind whipped passed his ears, the scenery passing so quickly nothing more than distorted images could be seen. With a sudden jarring stop Ryong found himself in a completely different room surrounded by computer consoles, monitors and at the center were 3 large translucent pods connected to several different sized wires and tubing feeding into the floor, with a small console in front of each glass chamber. Each of these capsules seemed to be filled with blue tinted liquid and a person connected to several instruments. Standing observing these pods were two individuals, one that was a bipedal creature made of pure white light and the other was the young woman that had sent Ryong to his present location. They seemed to be completely oblivious to Ryong's presence, cautious he made his way towards the two standing in front of the pods.
"Have you sent the artifacts to the physical world?" a disembodied voice spoke its source seemed to the figure of light that stood over facing one of the capsules. "Yes, The Crest of Bonds, the Prime Digimental and the Spirit of Digisoul have been hidden." The young woman seemed to be looking Ryong's way as she spoke, walking towards the capsule on the opposite side of the creature of light. "Norun….." the creature of light spoke in its incorporeal voice, "I am not sure they will be ready in time, the Death X Error has already caused convergence and I can only hold back the flood for so long….I regret cannot be here to help." Norun looked at the illuminated figure that was still facing the capsule in front of it, "Yggdrasil, I have a plan, these three were created using what as left of Yuji, Kota, and Shinji, with your permission I can use the data from the Silver Digizoid to biomerge all three of them into one."
Yggdrasil placed a hand on the surface of the capsule, illuminating the face inside, a young boy with brunette hair, "You tried to tell me they were special, I thought you were just speaking as you always do about humanity, but they…they were so much more. I am sorry Norun, that I was blind, until it was too late, now we have to say good-bye and I was never able to show them what they meant, not to just the digital world…but to me." Yggdrasil's arms fell to their sides as they turned away from the pod to face Norun, "Goodbye….my sons." Tears streamed down Norun's face as she began pressing buttons on the console screens attached to the capsules. Ryong stood there stunned by what he had just heard, but as he began to understand, Ryong was once again propelled forwards as scenery blurred rushing past him and wind rushed past his ears in an almost deafening whistle.
Ryong blinked for a moment, only to find himself sitting, unmoved in his bed, the retraced spear beside him and Lutyimon sound asleep in his cot. Norun was nowhere in sight, silence rang in his ears, till he heard her voice echoing in the darkness facing him, "Find the Artifacts Ryong." Three images burned in his mind, a ruined skyscraper, a headless statue in a t-pose standing near a lush mountain side, and an enormous snow capped mountain with cherry blossoms near the base. Completely silent, Ryong laid down in his cot staring at the darkened concrete ceiling above him, "one…two…three cracks in the ceiling hmm," closing his eyes, the silence of the night took over once more as a gentle snoring emanated from Lutyimon and Ryong. The digivice on Ryong's wrist lit up as hundreds of numbers and symbols rapidly scrolled past on its screen.