#He already had to go through this with Haru; he ain't having it happen to her too!

[webbedphantom]

"... I'm sorry, she has an arranged WHAT!?!?"

[catsafarithewriter]

Are you still taking asks, if so Protective Baron

A/N: Here's a secret: I'm always up for taking asks ;) I pondered on this, and wasn't sure if you were thinking more self-sacrificing protective or angry protective, so I guess it'll be a surprise ;) enjoy!

x

"I know I have said this many times over the years, old friend," Toto says softly, "but this is the most reckless thing you've ever done."

The Bureau is quiet – too quiet – and so there's no way for Baron to miss Toto's gentle warning. Even the mantelpiece clock is silent, its second hand frozen a moment before the hour.

Baron tears his gaze away from Haru's still form, lifeless, but not dead – not yet, not if he has anything to say about it – laid across the sofa. He listens out for a breath that never comes. "Can you blame me?" he asks.

"It's not a matter of blame," the old crow Creation replies. "It's a matter of what else you're going to lose in the attempt."

"I'm not going to lose her," Baron snaps.

Toto and Muta exchange glances, and the unspoken agreement between them unnerves Baron more than any raised voice.

"Baron," Muta offers, uncharacteristically softly – like a mourner at a funeral, Baron thinks, and then discards the thought angrily, "this is kinda out of our hands. Death came for her – literally, with the bones and the scythe and the hourglass..."

"We've faced bad odds before."

"Not these kinds of odds," Toto says.

"We have time–"

"Time is very much the one thing we do not have." Muta gestures across to the desk. "Look at her hourglass, Baron! The only reason the last grain of sand hasn't already fallen is because you've pulled some fancy-schmancy time-freezing trick with the Sanctuary, but that ain't a solution!"

"It'll break the Sanctuary," Toto warns. "You can't put that kind of strain on this place for long."

"Then I'll save her before it gets to that point!" Baron retorts. He paces the Bureau, trying to look anywhere but that fateful hourglass.

It's an insultingly simple affair, too simple for the value it holds, and only contains a single speck of sand – suspended moments from falling. The handful of sand it had first arrived with, before Baron had been driven to such physics-breaking extremes, had each vanished as they fell through the upper glass. It sits atop his desk, still and quiet and ominous.

"It's not your fault," Toto says in the awful, unnatural silence. "What's happened to her... you had no way of knowing."

"Yeah, how could you have known being so close to a Creation world and its magic would be toxic to a human?" Muta adds. "It's not like either of you ever got a manual on this stuff. And Haru – she never let it slip to any of us."

To stay with him, Baron thinks. Because she would have known that he would have barred the Sanctuary doors from her if he'd had any inkling of the damage it was doing. Because in her heart-first recklessness, she would rather have risked it than walk away from the Bureau.

From him.

"She's not going to die," he says, and there is steel in his voice. "I won't let her."

"With all due respect," Toto says carefully, "I don't think Death is asking your permission."

"Then I'll just have to make sure he listens." He gathers up his top hat and his cane, throwing a sorry smile to his friends. "She's not dying," he promises. "Not today." And he steps out into the Sanctuary courtyard.

Out here, time resumes its steady march, the air alive in a way it had been lacking in the Bureau. He approaches a cloaked figure, their face veiled in shadows which give the impression of a skull. In one bony hand, a scythe rests.

"Have you come to your senses?" Death asks. "Will you relinquish the mortal?"

Baron stares up to the hood, to the empty abyss where eye sockets lie hollow in place of irises and pupils. "You're not having her."

A rumble rolls through Death. "Her time has run out, Creation. At best, you have bought yourself a goodbye, but mark my words, it is a goodbye."

"There must be a way. There always is."

"I am the one constant," Death replies. "Once the sands of her hourglass have run their course, they cannot be renewed nor returned." The hood inclines in a way which could almost be an apology. "Her time is up, Creation."

Baron's heart beats an unfamiliar staccato; a heady mixture of grief and love runs riot in his veins.

"Can they be traded?"

He feels Death's eyeless sight turn on him. "What?"

"The sand," Baron says. "You said it could not renewed or returned – but can it be given from another hourglass?"

"Gifted," Death amends. "It must be willingly given from one's own hourglass, but you, Creation, cannot."

"I must have an hourglass. Every living thing has an hourglass, you told us, and I live."

"Indeed," Death concedes, "but yours," and he sweeps an hourglass out from the recesses of his cloak, "is a Creation's."

The hourglass before Baron has a wooden frame, carved with intricate leaves, and the glass possesses an almost iridescent sheen – like his own stone-cut eyes. But it is the contents which is the strangest of it all.

There is sand within, but it is frozen in place, the grain fused together in an almost glassy fashion.

"You are an immortal," Death says. "You can no more portion out a fraction of your lifespan, than you can halve eternity. It's all," Death intones, "or nothing."

"Then take my all."

The bony hand tightens around the strange hourglass. "You understand what that will mean for you."

"I understand enough," Baron says, and he does. He understands that Haru will live. That's all he has to understand. "Give her my time. All of it."

Death looks to him with something that might be pity. The skeletal fingers dig into the glass. Cracks spiral out.

"Then so be it."

The hourglass shatters.

And in the Bureau, Haru wakes.

[manofmanymons]

So a followup to that other anon's question: how do you think the Survive crew would handle the events of either Tri or Adventure 2020? Either facing the enemies or being in the same situation. Your pick.

Really glad you said Tri and not LEK <3

I think they'd handle the early stuff well. Taking down monsters as they come, being welcoming towards The New Person. They don't have an 02 equivalent group to suddenly have go missing but if they did I like to think they would notice. But also that's me just being mad at the writers in Tri bc I don't even think it was in character for the 01 kids not to notice jsjskdn

This has nothing to do with the important part of the plot or the enemies I just want you all to imagine a world where more of these kids are going to the same school together and they're all having fun at a cultural festival.

Characters I think MIGHT say something if their partner got infected:

-Shuuji bc he'd feel like his responsibility is to the group as a whole

-Kaito bc if Miu got hurt bc he didn't say anything he'd feel awful and tbh Dracmon would probably say something if he didn't anyways

-Aoi for similar reasons of "I can't let everyone else get hurt bc I was selfish" if even she can't stop crying while telling the others

-Maybe Miyuki? She's definitely someone who would take the L for the team but at the same time...actually yeah I just realized Renamon would tell everyone HERSELF bc she's not risking Miyuki getting hurt jsjdjd

Aaaand yeah that's about it.

Minoru I feel would try SO hard to fix it himself without anyone finding out, even to Falcomon's protests. Takuma is kind of a toss up on account of the whole "player character" thing but considering there is at least one route where he cares more about Agumon than like...the world itself, he might not have it in him to something. Miu would absolutely not risk saying something that might cause anyone to think they had to destroy Syakomon. Same with Ryo and Kunemon. I think Saki would be similar to Minoru in the sense of "I can fix this." After all, Ceresmon can heal herself, right? She would simply not accept that maybe this virus is beyond those powers. No nope nope, her partner is FINE.

I kinda joked about it before but genuinely I do not know how Akiharu would work in the Adventure universe. I'm choosing to imagine him as baby Haru but then also still Takuma's jogress partner bc we need that Omegamon. How did that happen, I don't know, I'm not paid enough (at all) to think of these things. Also I do not think that version of him would be able to tell on his partner.

I think they would handle their partners losing their memories...about as well as the Adventure group. A lot of a panicking, a lot of crying, a lot of trying to do anything at all in the world to stop it. And they would 100% go to the digital world to find them again.

It would be kinda funny if all their partners were in their in training forms though and all the kids except Takuma were like "what the fuck is that thing" isiiskdnd

I guess we kind of already know how the Survive group would react to thinking Takuma was dead for an extended period of time, huh?

Who would be the holder of the goggles in his absence? Minoru? Probably Minoru.

Oh man, it would be so crazy if one of these kids partners ever fused with an evil digimon to make a bigger eviler digimon as a direct result of their grief. Ain't seen nothing like that in Survive ever hahahaha...hah.

Hah.

I guess the ending would probably also happen about the same way? Lure Big Evil Digimon away from the city, hold out until Takuma gets back and they can just Omegamon their way through it.

Too bad it wouldn't be nearly as gay though :(

I'll be honest I only ever actually got about twenty or so episodes into Adventure 2020? I didn't not like it I just accidentally got behind and never had the will to catch back up. I would kill to see the Survive crew having to zoom call into a battle tho ksjsndn

The real question is are any of the Survive kids as fearless and badass as 2020 Takeru bc that little guy was NOT fucking around.