A/Ns: "Darkly Destined" is my take on what could happen if there were opposite crests... "dark" crests, if you would.

For the sake of the story, I am mostly ignoring the "25 years later" part of the last episode of season two. The time this fanfiction takes place in is roughly three years after the end of season two; I will also eventually be incorporating Digimon Tamers into this. (Don't ask how; it's complicated and I'm only going to explain it once – when it needs to be explained in the story.)

If you're curious:

Tai, Matt, Sora, Mimi, Izzy – 18

Joe – 19

Davis, Ken, T.K., Kari – 15

Yolei – 16

Cody – 13

I will be using the dub names, because I am more comfortable with them, having only seen the dub.

I am trying to avoid using too many original Digimon; at present, I believe I will be using two over the course of the story, and that's one more than I would have preferred, but oh well. On the other hand, I will have several original human characters.

This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a romance. There may be a few couples, but for the most part, they will only be proven canon ones. (Again ignoring "25 years later," because I do not support any of those couples... or lack thereof, as the case may be.) In any case, the story will not at any point focus solely on romance.

Warnings (for the entire story): Spoilers, violence, some foul language. If there are any future warnings that need to be added, I will note them in future A/Ns.

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or anything related to it.

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Chapter 1:

Ominous Beginnings

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"I want to give Oikawa a happier ending," Cody said softly.

The others looked up from the scripts they were reading, expressions showing a varying range of surprise.

"In the show?" Davis asked unnecessarily, waving his copy of the script for the animated series currently being produced. (The most recent episodes of the show Tai had laughingly dubbed "Digimon Adventures" had depicted the original DigiDestined finding their crests; there was a ways to go before they even started scripting the part of the story that came four years later.)

Cody nodded solemnly. He had never quite recovered from the sad and lonely death of Oikawa. In the end, the man had died when MaloMyotismon had; they had been too closely linked for too long for it to be any other way.

"You know, I've been thinking about that," Mimi leaned back in her chair, looking thoughtful. "The end of the show, I mean. Just having it be the defeat of MaloMyotismon and the death of Oikawa... and then finding Gatomon's tail ring, of course... don't you think the fans will be disappointed? Cody's right, we should make it happier!"

"Yeah," Yolei agreed. "It seems... too sparse, somehow. And there are too many loose ends."

"Maybe we should show what 'our' lives are like years afterwards? Maybe twenty-five years?" Izzy mused. "That would wrap up the story nicely, don't you think?"

"But we only know what our lives are like now!" Tai protested.

"So we'll make it up," Kari suggested, smiling. "After all, most people aren't going to know it's based on real people." Sora laughed.

"Sounds like fun!"

"What sounds like fun?" A dry voice asked from the doorway. "Are you kids rewriting my show without telling me?"

"Of course not, Mr Hideki," T.K. replied with an innocent smile. "We're changing what hasn't been written yet, so it can hardly be called 'rewriting."

Rinsuke Hideki, the producer of the animated series, raised his eyebrows. He was a man in his prime at thirty-six years of age, with tousled black hair and gray eyes. He had produced several hit TV shows and movies, and his wife was a famous actress. Rich and powerful, the DigiDestined had been startled at his offer to make a TV show out of their adventures when he inadvertently had a run-in with Ken and Wormmon, and found out about the Digimon.

Behind him was Erisa Arawa, the main artist for the show. A somewhat introverted woman in her early thirties, she had chestnut hair and wide, black eyes. She clutched a sketchpad closely, looking interested in the possibility of something new to draw.

"We wanted a happier ending, and one that wraps up the show better," Joe explained.

"Well, let's work it out and then we'll run it by the writers," Rinsuke sighed dramatically. "Though why you kids insist on coming up with the end of the show while we're still not that far in from the beginning is beyond me."

OoOoOoO

After the meeting, the DigiDestined congregated in a secluded area of the park, where their Digimon met them.

"How's our TV show going?" Veemon asked eagerly. All the Digimon had been very enthusiastic about being on TV, but aside from being used as models for the artists and animators, they had not been very much involved; not many people knew about them.

"We made the ending happier," Ken told him as he lifted Wormmon into his arms. "And we added on a 'twenty-five years later' part to wrap up the end of the show."

"The show won't end for a while, though," Gabumon pointed out with a frown.

"It's necessary to think about it now," Matt replied.

"Tai, how can you put something about twenty-five years from now in the show? It hasn't happened yet." Agumon blinked, baffled.

"We made it up," Tai shrugged. He was a little displeased with how the ending had turned out; Matt had won the coin toss for who got to be married to Sora, and Kari had insisted that his adult persona have shorter hair so as to look more business-like. In retaliation, he had tried to have Kari and T.K.'s adult personae be married (much to their embarrassment), but Davis had been strongly against that, and neither Kari nor T.K. had been too eager to have something so presumptuous in the show. (Yolei, on the other hand, had been able to convince Ken to have their future personae married. "All in good fun," she had grinned, and Ken, red-faced and bewildered, had agreed.)

"We get to make up stuff about ourselves?" Gomamon grinned. "Can we – ཛྭ

"No," Joe cut him off. "We can not."

"But you didn't let me finish!"

"You didn't need to; I know what your ideas are like."

"Whoops, got to go," Mimi interrupted, looking at her watch. "I've got a dinner date. See you all later! Palmon, meet me back at home, okay?"

"Okay, Mimi," Palmon agreed. Mimi waved jauntily to the group, and hurried off.

"It's nice that she's living in Japan again," Sora commented. "It just... didn't feel right, when we were all split up."

That didn't warrant a response; the others all knew what she meant. They were, after all, bound together by destiny.

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Gray earth, gray skies, gray trees, and a dark ocean. A place of darkness, it was the opposite of everything in the Digital World; the flipside of the same coin. One young man knew it by what he had seen of it; thus, he called it the "Dark Ocean," and that is how the humans knew it.

Those who lived there called it Corrupted Data. Those who lived in the Digital World did not call it anything; only they who had associated with the DigiDestined knew of its existence, and they condemned it.

The Digimon who lived in Corrupted Data struggled constantly to be free of it, for in many ways, it was a prison; a place of exile. Once they escaped, they fought to remain apart, for twice trapped, they could not escape again.

Many of the DigiDestined's enemies had originally come from there: Devimon, Myotismon and many of his henchmen, the Dark Masters and their servants, Diaboromon, and Daemon. They all escaped – and when each was completely destroyed or banished, it returned.

Corrupted Data would never allow them to escape again; they could trouble the DigiDestined no longer.

But there was a loophole to this rule... and one Digimon who knew it.

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"Ayah, I do not often get guests. Do sit down. Would you like some tea?" Kolmon smiled in a sickeningly pleasant fashion at the group of Digimon who had barged into his mansion's sitting room.

And such a quaint little room it was, with its wonderful plush furniture! Well, it was as quaint as anything could be in a world that would allow nothing but gray, anyway. Kolmon himself could blend in easily if he wanted to; a tall, man-shaped Digimon with pupil less white eyes, a skeletal frame, and batlike, membranous wings, his coloring was also all grays. He wore a ragged suit that hung off his body in pieces; only his trousers were in any sort of decent shape, and they were torn mid-calf.

He brushed at his suit now, making a show of fussing and pretending that he wanted to look presentable. The smugness radiating off him belied this illusion; his guests weren't fooled in the slightest. All present knew why this particular group had sought him out.

"No idle chatter," Myotismon, who acted as the speaker for the group, growled at him. "We are here about a serious matter."

Kolmon smiled lazily at him. "Really? How interesting. Still, I must insist that you at least take a seat; looking up at you all does strain my neck so. Well? Sit, sit." He gestured them into the seats arrayed around his own chair. Those who could fit in the chairs did so; the rest settled as best as they were able.

"This is quite an honor," Kolmon said with a cheeriness that did not reach his eyes. "I do believe I have in my presence all – every single one – of the Digimon who were able to escape our little realm... only to be returned again. My, my, what a gathering. I see not all of you have been able to regain your previous forms, however." He smiled toothily at Myotismon. "Such a shame."

There was a tense silence, where Kolmon continued to smile in an impudent manner at his guests, and his guests became more frustrated with their host's taunts.

Eventually Kolmon crossed his legs and clasped his hands about his knee, still smiling. "So, gentlemen – and lady," he inclined his head briefly to LadyDevimon, who snorted, "how may I be of service?"

"We had heard," Myotismon began with a cool, dignified demeanor, "that you were aware of a... loophole, of sorts, in the law that binds us here now for eternity."

"My, that's cutting straight to the point, is it not?" Kolmon raised his eyebrows. "Perhaps I do, perhaps I do not. Should, however, I have knowledge of a 'loophole,' as you put it, why would I share this information with you?"

"We had also heard," Myotismon continued, ignoring the interruption, "that you are somewhat... interested in the affairs of a certain band of humans. Or more specifically, one of their mentors."

Kolmon narrowed his eyes. Myotismon very carefully didn't smirk.

"Yes, yes, we all know I detest Genai for sealing me here," their host said crossly. "Are you suggesting that you have the means to destroy him?"

Myotismon held out his closed fist, turned it upside down, and opened his hand. Small, spiked objects appeared, floating gently inches from Myotismon's skin, rotating slowly.

"Yes," Myotismon said softly as Kolmon stared with interest at the Dark Spores he held, "we are."

Kolmon smiled widely. "In that case, my dear Myotismon, I do believe I may have some knowledge of your 'loophole.'"

OoOoOoO

"Do hurry up," Kolmon encouraged his guests cheerfully. "I know stairs are a bit difficult to manage for some of you, but you've all gone and gotten me interested and I really must see events progress."

The procession descended the large stone staircase to Kolmon's basement. When they reached the bottom and entered into a dimly lit room, they stopped and surveyed their surroundings. Unlike the rest of Kolmon's modern mansion, this room was cold, damp, and styled archaically. Against the back wall of the room were eight stone pillars, with rectangular holes carved into them. What light there was reflected off of something within the holes.

Kolmon walked up to the first pillar, and pulled something out. With his hands behind his back, he turned and smiled at the other Digimon.

"The secret to escape from this place once it has claimed you for eternity," Kolmon said, displaying what he held in his hand, "is... to be attached to a human as their partner."

His guests stared at the black digivice and crest in his hand. Being of the original model, the dark color looked strange on the digivice; the crest was etched with the same emblem as the crest of Courage, but being black, it obviously stood for something very different.

"Where did you get them?" Piedmon demanded, walking forward and taking the crest to examine it. Kolmon shrugged slightly.

"They were here when I moved in," he explained. "Corrupted Data obviously always intended to have its own human representatives... to be able to traverse the worlds again, all you need do is be affiliated with those humans. Well, should you be chosen as a partner to one of them, you will be reduced to Rookie or Champion form, but I'm sure that's no barrier if you truly want to leave this realm. And with the help of those same human children, the rest of you should be able to leave here, as well."

"Who are the humans, then?" Daemon near snarled.

"That," Kolmon smiled, "is where this gets interesting. You see, they have not yet been chosen. There apparently have been no humans who match the dark crests well enough to be chosen; however, if you have enough of those Spores of yours to spare..." Kolmon eyed Myotismon thoughtfully.

Myotismon smiled. "We might make humans who match the crests. But how to make ourselves the Digimon who will be their partners?"

"And which of us should be the partners?" DemiDevimon asked, flitting about anxiously. "There's a bit more than eight of us, you know."

"You cannot control either of those factors," Kolmon told them cheerfully. "You will just have to trust to luck."

The group of evil Digimon collectively glared at him.

"In that case," Machinedramon rumbled, "why should we go through with this at all? Good or evil, I do not like the thought of more humans running around the Digital Planes, let alone being... stuck with them."

"Ah," Kolmon crooned, "you needn't worry about that. You see, I think you'll find these humans to be... malleable, or at least more to your tastes. That much is obvious by what these crests represent."

Diaboromon regarded him with narrowed eyes. "How much of a risk will this be for us?"

"Well," Kolmon reasoned with a shrug, "the partners will have to be Digimon from Corrupted Data, and there aren't exactly that many here, are there? It's not that much of a risk. Now, why don't you release those Spores – they'll find their way to the human's world."

Myotismon frowned at him a moment longer. "If there are fewer than five of us chosen as partners for these humans, our deal's off."

"Fine," Kolmon agreed coolly.

Satisfied, Myotismon materialized eight Dark Spores. "Find human children who could match these crests," he murmured to them, "and preferably ones who would be..." He smirked at Kolmon. "...Malleable."

The Dark Spores zoomed off, and vanished.

The digivices of the Darkly Destined glimmered.

OoOoOoO

Somewhere else in Corrupted Data...

Two Digimon watched the small spores race across the sky, vanishing as they moved into another realm.

"That does not bode well," Wizardmon murmured.

His companion, a small dog-like humanoid called Strabimon, shook his head. "It doesn't matter if it's a good omen or a bad one," the Rookie informed his friend. "We're not involved."

"No," Wizardmon agreed, "but we may yet be..."

OoOoOoO

Golden eyes followed the paths of the Dark Spores, watching the sky even after the Spores had vanished. A purple-striped tail flicked, the golden ring hanging off the end rotating slowly.

Destiny was falling; he could feel it. He supposed that something had happened involving Corrupted Data's bid for power – the black digivices and crests that the four Guardians of the DigiWorld had declared would never find their owners.

Dispassionately, he stared upwards, never uttering a sound.

Eventually, the Digimon turned his eyes from the sky, and kept walking.

OoOoOoO

A/Ns: Kolmon is an original Digimon (please don't take him without permission); Strabimon is not. I'm aware that very few, if any, of you would have heard of him, and that's true of several of the Digimon that will show up in the series. If you want a good picture of what they look like, just go to Google Image Search, and plug in the name of the Digimon in question. I'm sure it'll pop up.

When Kolmon says "I believe I have in my presence all – every single one – of the Digimon who were able to escape our little realm... only to be returned again," that does not mean that he is necessarily right in that belief. Wizardmon, for one, has also left and been returned again. (My theory is that when he fell from the sky into the Digital World with no memory of where he came from, his original place of being was the Dark Ocean, but more on that later in the series.)

I get all my information on Digimon from the "Digimon Palace Analyzer," at http /ww w.boesvel d.biz/digimon/Digimon20Analyzer/index. html (Take out the spaces.) It's very in-depth, and very well put together. (It's also NOT MINE.) You should all give it a look!