A Different Kind of Healing

Worrisome...

Those three days were absolute torture for Shoutmon because not only had the calls come more frequently, but they haunted his every waking activity! He couldn't eat, sleep, sign bills or preform any of his kingly tasks without dozing off and having Taiki's gradually fading voice pierce every fiber of his sanity! He didn't know how much more of this he could take!! Wisemon had better hurry with that machine or else he was going to drive himself completely crazy! He had to put his second in command, Balistamon, in charge in his stead.

"Hang on Taiki... just hang on a little longer... please!"

He begged knowing full well the boy couldn't hear him. He tossed and turned through the many sleepless nights completely engulfed by the fear of what was yet to come! Shoutmon lay in bed just shaking, trying hard to concentrate on something, or anything else to no avail! What worried him most was, on the third night, the calls stopped all together! By this time, they were already so weak and scratchy, he could even tell Taiki was starting to lose hope Shoutmon could even hear him! Shoutmon's wild and surprisingly vivid imagination took over shortly after the last call, he was sure he had finally lost it!

'Had he been ripped to shreds? Humans come back with the code crown, right? Don't they have that too? What if they don't?!?! ... I would have failed to save my best friend.'

Even the mighty Shoutmon, king of the digital world had begun to grow weak and weary due to the constant block of stress that grew larger and heavier by the hour! Though, his desire to transverse the gap to the human world began to fade upon imagining what awaited him on the other side.

'Would his room be covered in blood and organs?? They're organic... full of gross blood and guts and stuff... Digimon bleed and basic bone structures, but we don't have much in the way of human organs and stuff..."

Shoutmon cringed slightly upon imagining what human organs looked like. He remembered exactly what human blood looked like! The memory was as clear as day as he remembered seeing Taiki take on the young Yuu in a sword fight and getting himself a massive slash in the arm! Shoutmon suddenly felt incredibly sick, he quickly threw back the sheets and charged towards the nearest bathroom only to unleash the day's rations of DigiNoir into the toilet, quickly flushing it down. He then collapsed upon the ice cold, stone floor in a seated, crossed legged position.

'Humans only have one life right? That's why they're so afraid of getting hit by a single Digimon attack! Even something as small as a simple punch could mean the permanent end to them! Just like the very first day I met the three of them.. Omnimon, quite forcibly, brought them to the digital world after Taiki had promised he'd rescue me. I ended up punching a rock thinking they were going home... but now, I'm glad the only thing that ended up getting smashed was the rock... Their data doesn't come back after they've been...'

Shoutmon shook his head violently, forcibly gulping back that large lump of fear, trying hard to come up with a new topic again, without much luck.

'They're gone... forever!'

He sighed upon remembering how Taiki kept telling him this over and over and over again, trying to explain just how big of a risk he was actually taking to aid the red, dragon type Digimon. He slowly made his way back to bed, using his mic as a crutch while hoisting himself onto it and settling back into the sheets once more. Shoutmon rolled onto his back letting himself get tangled within the silken sheets of his massive canopy bed, a small groan of pure misery escaped his parted jagged jaw. Just when he thought his nerves couldn't take any more, the heavy wooden door flew open slamming against the opposite wall with a thunderous "BOOM" causing the entire room to shake! "WAHH!" Shoutmon shrieked jumping about three feet from his bed letting out a startled yelp when Wisemon entered the room. He quickly threw the sheets off, glaring angrily at the brown robed Digimon! A terrifying roar ripped from his throat as he then shouted!

"HEY, WHAT'D YA DO THAT FOR?"

It took a second for Shoutmon to realize who it was standing at the door before bolting over to him completely leaving the yellow scarf on his bedside dresser. Wisemon then held up his hands hoping to stop the Digimon from completely crashing into him only to have Shoutmon again grab the top of his robe with a fierce snarl.

"WHERE IS IT!?!??"

Wisemon then slapped the angry red Digimon away only to brush himself off and gesture towards the door. His voice was glazed over with a calm malice. "This way SIR... It resides in the courtyard." Wisemon then turned to calmly lead the way hoping his calm would rub off on the fiery Digimon in his wake but unfortunately, that was not the case as Shoutmon pushed past him and zoomed towards courtyard as if carried by the wind. Eventually, both Shoutmon and Wisemon were in front of the massive teleportation machine in the courtyard. The machine was what you'd normally expect any teleportation machine to look like, it had one very tall antenna with a large electric orb on top sparking to life upon flipping a switch next to the main floating keyboard panel to the right. To the left was a small metallic transfer capsule. It needed so much digital energy that it slightly warped the sky above to form an incredibly tiny swirling funnel similar to the zone transferring ones. How Shoutmon didn't see this light show from outside of his window as they were working on it was a mystery to both! "So I just go in here, right?" Shoutmon asked curiously walking around the machine giving the it a once-over. Wisemon sighed and nodded while pressing a button on the console letting the capsule open with a loud hissing noise! Shoutmon quickly hopped inside as the glass door shut tightly locking him in with a hearty clack! Wisemon rapidly typed several different codes into the keyboard before punching a giant green button with enough force to slightly crack it.

"Oh, one more thing, my king... I only have enough memory to make four trips, hopefully, that won't be needed... It only needs to take you there and bring you back. NOTHING more... Do not overuse it or you may be stuck drifting between spaces for eternity... Oh, and good luck!~"

The last part was a bit too flowery and sweet for Shoutmon's taste but he begrudgingly nodded. Gritting his razor sharp teeth, he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to see. He folded his arms and took a deep breath before being completely submerged in a deliciously warm light! His body rapidly melted into an energy-light based code then sucked through the tiny, straw sized funnel. The next thing he knew, he was being materialized within the fusion loader's inner white void, but this time it seemed more vast without everyone taking up space within it. He gulped knowing exactly what he had to do next and slowly walked towards the giant screen, completely shaking with both fear and worry.

Thirty minutes went by, still nothing from the fusion loader, then forty! The tears that had once flooded down his cheeks had since dried up. He then threw the fusion loader as hard as he could against the adjacent wall with a loud metallic "Bang"! He didn't know if Shoutmon could even use the fusion loader again or if he could even hear him at all... He knew for a fact that Shoutmon would never turn his back on him nor would he turn his back on anyone for that matter! They had been through so much together, there was absolutely no way he would ever ignore him... right? Those final thoughts haunted the boy before he collapsed in the corner of the room in a strange, unnatural position letting the sheer exhaustion from the many sleepless nights finally take him.