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The fading sunlight cast long shadows as Gatomon and Wizardmon pulled up stakes and began walking again. Night was the most dangerous time, but it was for precisely that reason that they couldn't afford to rest. His agents were out then.
Gatomon shuddered reflexively at the rustling of leaves on the branches above. She knew it was only the wind -- it was too early yet for the bats to be out -- but even so... "Wizardmon?"
"Yes, Gatomon?"
"Do you really think..." She lapsed into silence as they walked. Twigs snapped beneath their feet. Finally, she finished, "Do you really think... that person could still be waiting for me? If I was them, I'd think they'd have gotten tired by now. I've kept them waiting an awfully long time." Her voice was somber as she spoke.
Wizardmon looked meditative, adjusting the straps on his pack. "I suppose there's no telling that, Gatomon. Anything might have happened. There's no guarantee we'll even be able to find them, with the Digital World being as large as it is. But, if the alternative is staying with him --"
Gatomon set her face in a stoic expression. "Yeah. You're right. Even if I never find that person, it's better to spend my whole life looking for them than let him keep his foot on my tail."
Not that Myotismon intended to give them a choice. They'd had some very close calls already, and somehow she had a feeling he wouldn't give up easily. The vampire wasn't one to let a victim get away. Long before she'd met Wizardmon, she'd learned that the hard way.
But the alternative was living in his bloody shadow, always a hair's breadth away from a lash of Crimson Lightning. It was one thing to know he'd beaten the life and soul out of her, reducing whatever she once was to an animal focused only on survival. It was another to pass by a collapsed traveler on the road and struggle to stop in her tracks, instinct urging her to just leave him be. Everyone else was doing it. What did one Digimon matter, anyway? She didn't need to waste her valuable time on some nobody. If she knew what was good for her, she'd let him rot.
...the day she did that, she had truly joined Myotismon as one of the living dead. And it had made her hackles rise to realize just how close that day had come.
"Wizardmon?"
"Yes?"
"If he catches up... promise me you'll run."
"I'm sorry, Gatomon. I can't promise you that."
"You owe me, you know. I could say I was calling in a favor."
"In that case, I'm afraid I'm just a deadbeat."
She sighed. "You're too stubborn for your own good, you know that?"
"Mm." He shot a glance behind him at the setting sun. "We need to be quiet. It'll be dark soon."
She nodded, and they continued their journey into the growing shadows.