The laptop was only the human-sized interface: the computer was the entire palace, all the walls around them filled with flowing digicode.
Millenniummon researching something was nice to feel: still hunting prey, and for him creating a new device was creating someone else's death, but it made Ryo's partner happy without anyone actually getting hurt.
Teaching was even better.
Telling Ryo about Mugendramon and the other Dark Masters' battle with the Four Holy Beasts, defeating and sealing gods of the Digital World before becoming a god himself? Remembered battle, remembered victory, a way to show off for Ryo.
MoonMillenniummon was actually a little miffed that there wasn't a lot he could do to show off for Ryo, strength-wise. Ryo knew he was powerful, normally literally invincible, so for him to go out and kill someone, even the Holy Beasts, wouldn't prove anything. He'd taken the digital world apart and put it back together back when he was Mugendramon. It was kind of… cute, that his partner wanted to impress him. Thinking about it made Ryo feel the kind of contentment he'd woken with, sensing that his partner was here, waiting for Ryo to wake so patiently, knowing that it would be worth it.
His partner's knowledge, though, the things he'd figured out? If only he didn't keep using his discoveries to kill and enslave people.
Looking up at him, Ryo let himself dwell on it for a minute, the combination of awe, pride and love that went with the thought My partner is amazing. Because he was, even if Ryo wished it wasn't so… Wished he could feel this way without having to feel sad that his partner did such terrible things with his power.
He felt those two heads smiling in the dark crystal, and the same feeling was returned to him only slightly bloody: MoonMillenniummon's partner was a prize beyond price, and oh, how they would hunt together, the secret knowledge that would be dragged into the light and the worlds that would be lain at their feet.
His mind insisted on imagining the sensation of a whispered promise in his ear, a brief kiss to his cheek as he pulled away from Ryo's side to return to his own work. It was getting to be too long since he'd seen sunlight again, and how long had it been since he last touched anyone? He was really, really regretting destroying Millenniummon's body, even if it made his partner stronger for the rebirth. He could have been held in a clawed hand, lay down on a leathery shoulder. He could feel his partner's warmth in his body, but not on his skin.
Need always brought his partner's full focus, and feeling him touch the Dark Flower blooming in his nerves helped, but not much longer now, oh not much longer.
He knew it was possible, anything was possible, but possible and likely were two different things and he could not fail his partner.
Three bands of golden digicode wrapped around his finger. One of seven things he'd let Millenniummon teach him how to make, that filled the dark god's core with emotions ranging from indulgent fondness of a student's first promising steps to murderous glee.
This was the one that mattered.
"A pity that human bodies seem to need touch to feel that they are connected to others. You should not have to feel that you are without a partner when I am here, Ryo. Not now that you are mine," his partner sounded regretful. "It is one thing to strengthen our bond, but to alter a human brain so it does not require touch risks damaging it. I will need test subjects. If you suffer too much, I will freeze you in time until I have conquered the human world." Giving him as many potential test subjects as there were survivors.
"No," Ryo said, alarmed. "Don't, please? If I'm there, frozen in time, not answering you, you'll feel alone. I can handle this: it's only feeling a little like… you're far away. It's better than not having a partner at all, and I could take that."
"Are you certain, dear Ryo? There is no need for you to suffer my absence anymore, and suffering for my sake…" When a Digimon was meant to protect their partner from all harm? Ryo felt his partner's instinctive distress and it made him want to cave, but he had to stay awake. Had to do something.
"It's part of what partners do for each other," Ryo knew. "I don't want to be useless when you're doing something important to you. I need to be there for this. I want to be there for you."
With luck MoonMillenniummon would think the apprehension was because Ryo was afraid of being weak, of not proving himself worthy of his partner instead of afraid for his partner. It was maybe a little too easy to put aside those fears and the fear his plan – such as it was – would be discovered when he felt Millenniummon's spirit wrap around him, coil under his skin and smile to hear his heartbeat.
That dark and deep affection didn't demand his full attention, it was just impossible not to drown in it. Not to sink down onto the bed and curl up, only barely conscious enough to avoid kicking the laptop. It was possessiveness, it was calculation of just how valuable Ryo and his power were to Millenniummon but it was also love, Ryo knew it. MoonMillenniummon's darkness didn't keep Ryo from feeling his wild joy that this treasure was here, was his, the same happiness to be with his partner he'd seen in Wormmon when Ken held him out to the camera to introduce him to Ryo in the other dimension. A dragon who had just stolen the Crown Jewels couldn't possibly be any more pleased with his new treasures than Millenniummon was with his acquisition of his partner.
It was almost ridiculous – he wasn't that special – except Ryo had met other people and their partners, seen Agumon's reunion with Taichi. He finally had a partner who felt that way about him. It was impossible not to return those feelings. He couldn't even try, not when he knew for certain they were there. If Millenniummon had just told them they were partners, then Ryo would have thought that the evil god didn't, couldn't care about anyone like this. That he'd never have a partner like Agumon or V-mon.
He couldn't let MoonMillenniummon digivolve again, not just yet, but the reason the link went both ways was that it was a cry from the Digimon's heart that caused their partner to respond, and rain down power in answer. MoonMillenniummon was insubstantial so he had to feed on data now, and without Ryo he would have had to get it from other Digimon so this was better, right? Even with the risk. His partner had overwhelmed Chimairamon's mind and the minds of more than a dozen other Digimon to get this powerful, but Ryo was here now, and his partner didn't need to hurt people to grow stronger anymore. Maybe he eventually might even be able to convince his partner to release them, just because it would make him feel better, and he loved his partner.
Darkness and cruelty and razor-sharp brilliance and love, he loved him so much even though it hurt that his partner hurt so many people, that he was hated and with good reason when…
"My ambrosia," his partner said, savoring every word the way he savored Ryo's power, the taste and data of his emotions.
His partner loved him, and when his own soul responded, Ryo felt the tipping point between so much and too much. His whole body shuddered with the force of the emotions consuming him, the energy flooding through him. The ache in his chest spread to his stomach, began to expand and it hurt as his hands clawed into the sheets, it was scraping him raw, burning him away with each breath, he loved him so much the power tore out of him, and-
His partner's love was replaced with concern, and without his other half's love reflected back at him the pressure halved, eased. He still felt like blood was pouring out of him, but it wasn't tearing its way out of him anymore. He may have whimpered: it hurt, but some of it was confusion. He was hurting because of his partner, and now he was barely feeling a shadow of the love his partner had felt for him a second ago: why? The part of him that knew Millenniummon's core like it was nothing but his missing piece come home didn't understand.
"You are still a Chosen Child, not even an Adult yet, and your power is vast. If you channel too much of it you will hurt yourself, and that is the last thing I want, my Destined One. Your ability to wield your power will evolve in time," his partner assured him.
"Too much already. Hurts," he said, and shuddered, curling up, forehead and closed eyes pressed against the bed, not looking into the darkness that was his partner. Even if he'd rather have a partner he could hold, like Agumon and V-mon, that darkness was still his partner, so if he looked at it he'd feel that love.
He felt his partner's concern and regret, like the back of a clawed hand gently brushing his cheek. He wished he knew what his partner's child form was, so he could imagine it at least. "Be careful, my Destined One. You don't have to feed me yourself. Your power is vast, but your ability to channel it safely? Don't strain yourself."
His partner was loving him again, but it was somehow warm and soothing, a balm after the passionate adoration, the manic glee of realizing that someone like Ryo existed, that this treasure was his to have and keep forever. Ryo let himself feel tired and hurt, let himself keep soaking it in, instead of trying to bury the pain so he could return his partner's emotion and let him feel loved. He was hurt and his partner wanted to take care of him now, so it was okay to be selfish.
"Were you pushing yourself for me?" his partner asked, watching him and ready to scold.
"Yes." Of course. He'd pushed himself for Agumon, for Ken: when he'd fought a god for someone he'd just met, of course he had to do everything he could to help his partner.
"You are a child and I am a being that surpasses the other gods of the Digital World. Your power is sweet, and I savor your adoration, but I don't need it… Well. Perhaps a little," Millenniummon admitted, and laughed. Not an evil laugh meant to intimidate, but a delighted, almost-giggle that was almost startled out of him by the realization that, "If you were anyone else this would be a weakness," anyone else he would resent it, "But I knew I had to have you before I realized your true nature. I do seem to need you here, my partner. But that is all I need from you, and you are human," Millenniummon reminded him. "Young and fragile. You must not strain yourself."
"It just happened. Maybe love me a little less?" he joked, but regretted it a soon as he did. Not that, please?
A dark chuckle made him relax again. "If you were anyone else that would be easy, but it seems there are limits to what I can do even for the sake of my Destined One. When you are older, perhaps? Yes, your capacity to bear the power of passionate love should increase once you've reached your adult form."
"What if it doesn't?" he asked quietly. "What if I get weaker? I mean, it's Chosen Children for a reason, probably."
His partner laughed, and it was oddly gentle, no mocking in it at all. "Do you really think that time will steal your power from you, my Destined One?" When time was his partner's domain, or part of it, and his partner loved him?
"Right," he said, relieved.
"Even if your further evolutions don't increase your ability to call on raw power, your skill at tactics and the number of weapons you possess will only increase." It wasn't the band on his finger that tingled, but the skin under it, to draw it to his attention. Millenniummon had internet access and knew the symbolism of a band like that. As long as he didn't realize that it kind of was appropriate, not just a way to camouflage something… not that people Ryo's age should be wearing rings anyway in the real world, but the Digital World's ideas of maturity were as different from human ones as their perception of death. 'Evolutions' instead of 'growing up.'
"You destroyed my armies twice," MoonMillenniummon said fondly. "Yet the tedium of replacing them only reminded me of you. I am very pleased to have you as the source of my power. Did you really think I would throw you aside for someone like the Children of Light or Destiny? If I had any interest in the Child of Light at all, I would have placed one of the alpha design Dark Seeds into her before you rescued her, in the hope that the damage the still-flawed design did to her mind would make it possible to reformat her into something less pathetic. But, by the time you defeated Vamdemon, even though at that point I thought you were called to defeat me instead of to be mine, I already found you far more suitable. I hoped that the Child of Courage's leadership meant he had potential despite his weakness relative to the other 'Yagami,' but alas." Like Hikari, Taichi had escaped the coldness that would have consumed Ken only because he'd bored Millenniummon.
"The others all were helpless without their digivices and partners, but you were able to lead, to fight and gather allies on your own. Skills it seemed they never bothered to learn came naturally to you, skills that would make you far more useful to me as a member of my forces, able to increase the power of my slaves. I decided to create an artificial Digimon, programmed to be loyal to me, to act as your partner. Then I found myself programming that Digimon with more and more power. I found myself giving Armageddemon's core access to a level of power I'd planned to keep for myself, because obviously only that level of Digimon could be worthy of you."
"Armageddemon?" Ryo wondered. A Digimon on MoonMillenniummon's level?
"Ah yes. 'Diablomon,'" the darkness chuckled, and this time there was cruel anticipation in it. "After Omegamon was too much for his Ultimate level, he returned to the Digital World to attain his final evolution and then destroy those rats who keep being rescued from their executions. But you pursued him, as I planned, and I couldn't have you harmed when you only had pathetic Digimon like that to defend you." Had Millenniummon done more than watch while Ryo killed Diablomon? "At least Diablomon neutralized the Child of Destiny: Wallace was pursuing research into artificial Digimon creation himself, and his questions were unnaturally insightful. One Chosen Child whose power guided them down the proper path in their research was already one too many to be allowed to continue until they learned enough to pose a threat. Since Diablomon didn't completely fail in his mission I haven't scrapped his core and started over. He will simply have to wait until he's regained his power to exterminate the Chosen Children, and for his reward I have promised him a cloned human tuned to be his partner." Otherwise, an artificial Digimon would have no partner. "Their union will be all the sweeter for the anticipation…" MoonMillenniummon noticed Ryo's fear. "Why would I create myself another partner when I have you?"
That wasn't it. "My parents live in Tokyo," Ryo said, voice quiet in the great hall. "If Agumon and Gabumon hadn't won, I was over at Ken's house. I couldn't have gotten home and forced them into the Digital World in time." Without his own Digivice he couldn't even have gotten into the Digital World himself if Gennai hadn't sent V-mon.
"Parents. From my research into human emotions and their relative strengths, this is one of the stronger human bonds?"
Ryo gave a small nod, still curled up, unable to look into his partner's darkness. "It would hurt if I lost them. Taichi, Yamato and Omegamon saved their lives." So they had protected Ryo from harm.
"I already gave you permission to keep the Eight who fought Apocalymon, since their partners fought at your command: it's the other potential Chosen Children I will have Armageddemon eliminate for me." MoonMillenniummon chuckled. "Oh?"
"Promise you'll still let him have a partner even if he doesn't end up killing any of them?" Ryo asked, aching at the memory of knowing that there was something so wonderful, a bond like that, and why wasn't there one for him, why?
"I suppose, dear Ryo, if he survives," his partner said indulgently, for he wouldn't let Ryo worry. "He would be eternally loyal to me, for such a gift – or you. I will inform him that he may thank your benevolence for the existence of his partner, when I craft him one. Even if one of my creations still wouldn't be your equal, it will be his partner." As precious to Diablomon as Ryo was to his creator. "Hmm, I believe I shall create it once I have finished my plans for the conquest of the human world. This way you will have loyal guards, if members of your kind attempt to target you."
For revenge? Trying to weaken Millenniummon? Thinking Ryo was a traitor to his species? For the sake of the distraction from the ache he asked, "What do you mean by level of power? You were making another god to be my partner?"
"Now I know that you are my partner, so only a god would be worthy of you, but I mean level. Once upon a time, Adult digivolution was considered the highest level an ordinary Digimon could attain, so it was called a Digimon's adult form. There were stories of Digimon who evolved beyond Adult, but they were legends from the days of the ENIAC and the war against the Evil God. The Evil God's servants were more powerful than any Adult, so the ENIAC summoned a human with the power to digivolve Digimon beyond Adult to serve as his priest. The artificial humans of the Order of Qinglongmon were modeled after stories of that priest. The Child of Courage's spiked brown hair was considered a good omen."
"Gennai had brown hair?" Ryo wondered what color hair he'd thought Gennai had. "I thought he was made with grey hair." He was a different kind of human, and didn't strange people have white and grey hair pretty often? That was just in stories, though.
"Yes, before the accumulated data drain caught up with him. Interesting that what humans call 'age' is their body's data-damaged form, the way a Digimon will revert to in-training…"
Data drain? Ryo noted it – if something was wrong with Gennai and his partner knew what it was, then maybe he would be willing to teach Ryo how it worked and how to fix it – but level of power?
MoonMillenniummon also realized that Ryo's question about his friend had brought them off-topic. "When they found a digivolution beyond Adult, they called it 'Perfect.' Then someone digivolved past Perfect to Ultimate, and countless more Digimon killed themselves trying to attain those digivolutions and became part of Apocalymon. Many Digimon will never digivolve past child, like that Wormmon, or even in-training. The existence of Perfects and Ultimates drove home how truly pathetic and helpless they were."
Said someone who could reach Ultimate in way less than three months and wouldn't know what it was like to just be unable to get any stronger no matter what you did, Ryo thought to himself.
"There is an even greater range of power within the Ultimate level than there is among Perfect Digimon: Omegamon's raw power was equal to a hundred ordinary Ultimates, but he was still an Ultimate. A level beyond Ultimate… can a Digimon that powerful remain stable? That is why I ordered Diablomon to return to the Digital World instead of achieving that Digivolution in the internet, where his data might have been trapped instead of returning to Primary Village. Splitting the Digital World in two would have confined any explosion of unstable data and energy to only half of its inhabitants." Millenniummon and his army would have survived fine, since they had to be killed in both dimensions, and everyone else would come back to life unless it was the half with Gennai and Ken in it.
Wait a second. Ryo frowned. "You made me a Digimon that could have exploded and killed me if I was powerful enough to get it to that level?"
"Strange, is it not?" his partner mused without a trace of regret, because really, as though he would allow his partner to come to harm. "To feel compelled to give such a powerful partner to a Chosen Child who was my enemy? I wanted to lure you to my side with the promise of a worthy partner… but then you proved you were my Destined One."
It made him feel invincible, really it did. Strong, worthy, wanted, loved. Not that he didn't have great friends and family, but partners were… to know that there was someone out there who lived for him, who always would. That certainty that he was loved was a rock to stand on. It felt like he could move the world, the problem was that Millenniummon was a very big rock and how was he going to keep it from smashing into the world? But he, he was safe here. Because the partner he had been promised would always, always keep him safe from harm… Oh? "I feel better now," he realized, uncurling and rolling over to look up.
"I would hope so," his partner said smugly. "An ordinary Digimon doesn't have the data to make a significant difference in their partner's condition, when humans are supercomputers." MoonMillenniummon was no ordinary Digimon.
"So you really did heal me?" The thought felt rare and strange, from what he know of Millenniummon, but Millenniummon would undo damage to himself, right? So was it so strange that he would bother to do the same for his partner? Of course he would, Ryo knew.
"Your physical structure is complex and error-prone. I will require further experimentation before I risk altering you, otherwise I would have checked for and healed your minor injuries before you awoke. This injury was to the digivolution link between us, and your stores of emotional energy, and I believe my grasp of digivolution theory is sound." Given the radiating smugness, that was 'I know damn well it is.' "Although it would be imprecise to say I healed you: certain energies are compatible with healing, as certain emotions are compatible with destruction. Destructive energies can make a Digimon stronger instead of tearing them apart, and positive emotions like love can fuel attacks, but certain emotions lend themselves to certain things. I gave you the proper type of data, and you healed yourself."
What he'd felt from Millenniummon after the injury, and when Millenniummon told him stories of the past…
"Nurturing does not come naturally to me," his partner said thoughtfully. "And yet when it is you, my dear Ryo? Now," he said, indulgence gone now that there was no more need to scrape the bottom of his core for any scrap of gentleness he could find. "I have enjoyed teaching you how to make your tools, but it is beyond time for you to learn digivolution energy theory. I will hear no arguments. I shouldn't have allowed you to waste your thoughts on the other Chosen Children when I should first have taught you the nature of your power and how to ensure you didn't injure yourself. I intend to digivolve into a form powerful enough to tear apart reality unshielded, so it will be simple for me to make reality fragile enough to be molded to my liking. I cannot exist at that level until I am certain that you will not be torn apart." That he could withstand his partner's energies, even so closely bound to them.
Ryo relaxed, pillowing his head on arms crossed behind his head as he smiled upwards.
"Oh?" his partner wondered. It was one thing to appreciate harsh training after the fact, it was another to look forward to it.
"You're protecting me, like partners are supposed to."
"Are you surprised? I am your partner."
Ryo shook his head, still smiling. "Not surprised," even if it was the Evil God. "It's just nice, isn't it? What I've wanted since I understood what having a partner meant. I'm glad. Even when we were enemies, you still wanted me to have a powerful protector."
Even when I first came to the Digital World, when I didn't ask to get dragged into this, he thought, even when I didn't have a partner who was in danger from you, I knew I had to stop you.
"No matter how much danger it put you in, no matter how many enemies stood between us, you still came to my side," the Evil God reminisced, voice echoing from the darkness above him. "Even then, I knew I had to have you." He chuckled. "But reminding me of my affection for you won't get you out of your lessons. The opposite in fact, my dear Ryo, when your life rests on this."
"Yeah," Ryo said, because that was exactly it, wasn't it? He loved his partner, so he didn't have a choice. He had to do whatever was necessary.
But if his partner loved him even when they were enemies, then he could have faith that his partner would definitely forgive him, for what he was going to try to do.
Armageddemon (Diablomon evolves to this fighting the 02 kids) is one of a handful of Digimon in the entire franchise specifically confirmed to have reached the level beyond Ultimate, which is called Super-Ultimate. Given how powerful Ultimates can get, taking him down is impressive.
The Wonderswan games and their timey wimey balls – the first of course being Mugendramon merging with a Chimairamon from the future, meaning history had to turn out such that the Chimairamon would be created, and since he was the only person who knew how, this meant he couldn't be defeated without causing a paradox…
Except the Dark Seed contained enough of his knowledge that a history could happen where someone else made that Chimairamon.
Anyway, the fact that something vaguely like the fourth game's middle of the last century-era events happened implies possibilities, but laying them out in detail… I don't know if I'll be doing that omake chapter.