As she was now, it was hard for Dorugamon to fly with a human passenger on her back. Then the roar and the resulting shockwave nearly threw them both off, Zei only managing to hold onto Dorugamon while her partner tumbled around in the air before regaining balance just in time to land with a skid on a nearby road.
Groaning softly, Dorugamon pushed herself up with Zei’s help, but then quickly found herself being pulled into a hug with her head on her shoulder. The gesture, while appreciated, was so abrupt in that situation that she couldn’t help but wonder if something was wrong with her human partner… until she remembered that something was wrong with her human partner.
“Zei, is everything okay?” she asked her, her voice gruff, but mellow with concern. “What happened up there?”
Zei remained eerily silent for a moment before a hushed tone responded back. “Takeda… He killed Dirk.”
“... Sonova-” As annoying and grating as she found the human to be, even she couldn’t help but bitterly growl when she received the news. However, that wasn’t her main concern. “Did he do anything to you?” She sighed with relief when she felt her head moving against her fur in a shaking motion.
Zei finally pulled away to look at Dorugamon, but what the Champion saw sent a shiver down her spine. For one, there was very little life left in the brown eyes that used to glimmer with youthful energy and she could see a fractured sanity deep within the dull eyes. She looked more like an undead with just enough self-consciousness to live like a human and, whatever had happened up there, her already battered spirit had just about reached its breaking point. What she said next, however, reminded her that she still had her fighting drive, just not one inhibited by her feelings anymore.
“Dorugamon, we need to Biomerge. We have to stop… whatever it is up there.”
Dorugamon was wary. Zei was clearly mentally unstable at this point, yet still cognizant enough to recognize the danger of their situation. There was also the fact that she hadn’t heard from Alphamon ever since their merger with NeonGuilmon and Siggy, so there was no way for her to know what would happen if they tried.
Still, when she looked at her now, it almost felt as if she was looking at herself, just with less fur, no tail, no wings and no claws. It made her wonder if it would be different this time around, that something interesting would happen. Beneath the scarred gaze, she could still see the same determination that helped them both pull through tough situations and gruelling battles and, as she came to realize, while she was understandably concerned, she was never afraid of Zei regardless of her state of mind and she couldn’t help but smile because of it, the sheer strength of their trust in one another helping them tunnel into one sole goal:
Stopping Millenniummon.
“Well, we’re already knee-deep in this clusterfuck anyway. Might as well go all in,” the Champion replied with a fanged grin and then felt Zei gently pressing her forehead against the red gem on her head. Standing up, the young human reached for her white Digivice and watched it glow, but then nothing happened and the two were left in confusion. “Okay… What’s going on?”
Looking at the Digivice, then trying to recall any details of everything that happened in the building, Zei then said, “... Could it because of that Digimon’s presence? It was artificially created, so I assume that it functions differently to a naturally born Digimon.”
“Makes sense. Fucker must’ve been equipped with some substitute program to function that inhibits our Biomerge, or at least slows it down,” Dorugamon disdainfully growled. "Let's hope anyone around fare better than we do now." With no other option, the two were left waiting while they watched the battle unfold.