Furno:- Thanks, it's good to be back. But to answer your questions - I have considered a crossover with Marvel, but nothing is set in stone yet. Also, I will not be doing a crossover with Hunters - only Xros Wars. I cannot stand Hunters. It was an awful follow-up to what I felt was an incredible season, so I will be ignoring it's existence. And I also don't like the Fusion dub, hence why I am going with the original name. I am also not a fan of Frontier. I do like Data Squad, but it is unlikely I will do a crossover with it. For the most part I really enjoyed the final arc of Fairy Tail, but yes I would re-write it in a crossover because I would want to use it's villains and I always make my crossover stories go differently than canon, or what's the point in writing them? No, I do not watch Naruto or One Piece and have no plans on including them, nor will I ever. I have read Bleach, but it didn't really appeal to me. And my franchise does not have a name as of yet. I may give it one later, but as of now it is nameless.


CHAPTER 7:- RYO'S STORY


"The Digi… destined?" Predictably it was Takato who was first to speak. "As in… the…?"

"The same group that consists of Tai Kamiya, Matt Ishida, Davis Motomiya and all the rest of the characters from the TV show?" Ryo said and, despite everything, there was just a splinter of amusement in his voice. "Yes, that's exactly who I mean."

"But that's crazy," Henry frowned. "They're fictional characters. They can't possibly be real."

"Isn't that exactly what you first thought about Digimon themselves before you learned they were real," Ryo said pointedly. Henry opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again… he had no real way to contest that.

"We of all people should know what it's possible to find in other universes, Henry," Terriermon said. "Still, even this is hard to believe."

"It was very surreal for me when I first came to this world," Ryo said. "To have a TV show based on the exploits of people I knew, people I'd met."

"You've MET them!?" Takato cried, a distant shine in his eyes that was the clear warning signs of him going into full-blown fanboy mode.

"Of course I met them," Ryo said. "I'm actually in the TV show myself once. You know that kid that's wandering through the Digital World with Ken during his backstory episode? When he was younger?"

"That's… that's you…!?"

"Yeah, it's me. To be honest, I was always wondering if anybody would comment that I looked similar to that guy."

"Oh… oh my gosh… oh, this is so huge…!" Kazu looked on the verge of joining Takato in his hyperventilation. "I thought you were cool before, Ryo, but now…!"

"Do you think there's a chance we'll ever get to meet them too!?" Kenta was hopping on the balls of his feet. "Do you believe that we'll actually get a chance to see WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon and…"

"Focus!" Rika snapped. "Let's stay on topic here, shall we? You can nerd out about all this later!"

"She's right," Jeri agreed. "But… if you're from that world Ryo, then… why are you in this one now?"

"Long story… but I need to start at the beginning. You need to know who Millenniummon is now," Ryo's face tightened. "Damn… I hoped this day would never come."

"Well it's here now, so tell us. Who's this weirdo talking out of Monodramon's mouth?" Impmon asked.

"He said he was… Machinedramon?" Takato asked. "As in… I can't believe I'm saying this… as in the same one that WarGreymon cut to pieces?"

"The very same," Ryo nodded. "Except that unlike the rest of the Dark Masters, Machinedramon did not die that day. He was mortally wounded, his data scattered, but not dead. Machinedramon is a compilation Digimon, his body constructed of different parts from many different cyborg Digimon and reprogrammed to all operate together under a single consciousness. That programming goes right down to the atomic level, which is why Machinedramon was left alive even after he'd disintegrated."

"…Damn… that's hardcore…" Terriermon breathed.

"And… he was able to digivolve somehow into a higher form?" Jeri guessed. "Into this Millenniummon?"

"Yes, but with help," Ryo said sadly. "Help from the last of Apocalymon's creations left standing. A Kimeramon."

"Huh!? Kimeramon?" Kazu gaped. "But that's the Digimon that Ken created in the second season!"

"He created the second Kimeramon," Ryo sighed. "And I suspect he modelled his creation after a buried memory because he was there when I met the first Kimeramon. But you see, the two Kimeramon were made differently. The one that Ken made was made entirely from scratch, from duplicating the data of the different Digimon that made up its body. But the first one… that one was made very by Apocalymon in a far more barbaric way. Because he actually captured the Digimon in question… and butchered them. He literally merged their data and used their body parts to put Kimeramon together."

An ashen silence fell over the group. Ai and Mako both looked like they were about to be sick… and most of the others also looked ill too.

"…Why?" Elecmon finally asked. "Why did he do that?"

"He wanted subjects. Loyal ones that would plunge the Digital World into a world of darkness that would make everyone just as miserable as him," Ryo ran a hand over his face. "But the thing is, Kimeramon was just a prototype for Machinedramon. Both of them were made from the data of multiple Digimon, but there was a big difference between them. While Machinedramon was a single entity with one consciousness, Kimeramon had a massive case of schizophrenia. Every one of the tortured Digimon that made up his body was still alive inside him. It made him completely insane, a flaw that Apocalymon was able to remove when he made Machinedramon later."

"Oh God," Kenta whined.

"I always knew Apocalymon was sick and twisted… but that…?" Takato swallowed. "That's just wrong on so many levels."

"Pretty much," Ryo nodded. "And that's why Kimeramon never tried to kill the Digi-Destined like the rest of Apocalymon's creations. He was a raving lunatic, completely without direction or purpose and Apocalymon just abandoned him. But after Machinedramon found him… well… he found a use for him. The two of them DNA Digivolved into one single being… and that being is Millenniummon."

"A mix of Machinedramon and Kimeramon," Henry whispered. "Like how WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon together make Omnimon."

"Exactly. And Millenniummon gained a perfect mix of the two personalities. The wild Kimeramon side of him obtained clarity, ruthlessness and the ability to focus and drive for a single goal from Machinedramon. And the Machinedramon side of him gained emotion and capacity to feel from Kimeramon. Which means, Millenniummon is no longer schizophrenic but is still utterly mad, but now he's got an objective. He knows what he wants to do. And what he wants to have. And what he wants more than anything… is me."

"…Why?" Rika asked sceptically. "What's so special about you that some off-the-rails Digimon would want you so badly?"

"That's… the really twisted part," Ryo inhaled slowly, clearly gearing himself up just to spit the next part out. But eventually, he said, "You know how the second season of Digimon Adventure revealed that there were Digi-Destined all over the world?"

"Yeah," Takato nodded. "I always thought that was kinda random. The first season was very careful to set up that there were only eight chosen children total and suddenly there were loads. I didn't get that at all. It felt like a retcon."

"Well, there is an explanation, though the show never actually went into it. The thing is, the program who made the Digivices and Crests, Homeostasis, and it's subordinates never intended for there to be just eight chosen children…"

"Wait, wait… Homeo-what-now?" Takato asked.

"Homeostasis. That's the name of the being that possesses Kari to explain why the Digi-Destined were made. And the being responsible for making the Digi-Destined in the first place. Anyway, Homeostasis and its subjects were always hoping that there would be Digi-Destined from all over the world. Thousands of them. I mean, think about it - it makes far more sense to bring an army than just eight. They made all the Digivices at the same time and linked them all up to the Digimon partners right at the start of the campaign. But, as the show demonstrated, the Dark Masters interfered with the plan. A lot."

"There was that scene where Piedmon tried to steal the Digivices and the Crests from Tai and the others and Gennai stopped him," Kazu said.

"That was only one confrontation of many that the Dark Masters had with them. The last one, in fact. In all the others, they succeeded in their goal, stealing the eggs and the Digivices. In the end, the eight Chosen Children from the show were the only ones who had crests made for them in time, and even then they were almost lost. The Dark Masters stashed all the other stolen eggs and Digivices away, and Gennai recovered them and distributed them to their rightful owners after the Dark Masters and Apocalymon were defeated."

"Whoa… that actually makes sense," Takato breathed. "I can't believe I never thought of that."

"This is all very fascinating," Henry said, with a hand on his chin. "But what does that have to do with you?"

Ryo's smile was nothing but pained. "Because, Henry… I'm a Digi-Destined too. But like the eight original Digi-Destined, my partner was spirited away from the Dark Masters. In fact, you could compare my partner to Gatomon. The egg was lost, separated from its Digivice and it hatched by itself. And like Gatomon he wandered the Digital World, waiting for me."

"…Oh God," Henry whispered. He'd guessed where this was going.

"Yeah," Ryo nodded. "Gatomon was found by Myotismon… but my partner was found by Apocalymon."

"…No…" Jeri had her hands over her mouth.

"Wait… you mean…?" Suzie was still catching up but even she was close to realising what most of the others had already got.

"He was an Airdramon," said Ryo. "And he was pulled apart by Apocalymon and fused into Kimeramon. And then he, in turn, became a part of Millenniummon. Which means… Millenniummon is… my partner."

The horrified silence that followed was broken only by Jeri trying not to sob. Every human, every Digimon, Aayla… not one of them could think of a thing to say to that. Ryo could only stare at the floor. He felt every single second of that silence stretching on for what seemed like forever. He was waiting for someone to say they were sorry, but nobody did. And he was glad of that. It would have just felt hollow and feeble.

"But…" Takato said eventually. "Isn't the Airdramon part of him only a tiny part? There must be data from at least twenty different Digimon crammed together inside him."

"One little part is enough. A natural DNA Digivolution merges all the participants into a single being. A single consciousness. Not like the DNA Digivolutions of the Digi-Destined. In those digivolutions, the two entities involved were kept separate by the two Digivices. My original partner may have been just an Airdramon… but he became Millenniummon."

"If all of that is true… how the heck did he end up inside Monodramon?" Impmon asked.

"Well… I'll try to keep that story as short as I can," Ryo twiddled his thumbs awkwardly. "Basically, after Apocalymon's defeat, Millenniummon rose up to take his place as the most prominent menace to the Digital World. And he was a massive threat, capable of warping space itself. Naturally, when Gennai discovered I was his partner, I was called in to help the original Digi-Destined fight against him. We defeated him, and it was after that when the Digi-Destined gave up their crests to release the Four Harmonious Ones from their prisons…"

"Azulongmon and the others you mean?" Kenta prompted.

"They're the ones. The Harmonious Ones of the Digi-Destined's Digital World are exactly the same as the Sovereign in ours. It's quite an amazing coincidence."

"I wonder if their Zhuqiaomon is just as crabby," Terriermon muttered. Lopmon nudged him, both to show respect to the Sovereign and to let Ryo continue.

"Anyway, it turned out Millenniummon wasn't as dead as we thought so I was dragged back to the Digital World yet again, except this time my friend Ken Ichijouji was hauled along with me. That was when Ken met Wormmon for the first time. And since we couldn't rely on help from the original Digi-Destined now that their partners could no longer digivolve past the Champion level, Ken and I teamed up with the Harmonious Ones to beat him, and again we did. But this time as he disappeared he tried to infect me with a Dark Spore… and Ken pushed me out of the way and took it himself."

"And that's how he became the Digimon Emperor," Kazu nodded.

"I had no idea how bad the Dark Spore's effect on him would be," Ryo said despondently. "It made him ill, and I tried to look after him, but Millenniummon just kept coming back. He wouldn't stay down, and I had to keep returning to the Digital World to help the Harmonious Ones deal with him. And not only that, but Millenniummon found ways to digivolve to even higher forms. First MoonMillenniummon, who we were just barely able to beat. And then… ZeedMillenniummon. A dragon Digimon of pure chaos and frankly unimaginable power. A Digimon that not even the Harmonious Ones, or the Sovereigns, at their full power could defeat."

"Seriously?" Jeri breathed. "That strong?"

"I have yet to encounter a more powerful Digimon," Ryo said gravely. "And ZeedMillenniummon gained another ability - the ability to travel across space through different dimensions. He was easily able to push past the Harmonious Ones and abduct me, taking me through space to an entirely different Digital World… our Digital World. To this day I still don't really know why he brought me here. He said he wanted to show me something, but I was able to break free."

"How?" Guilmon asked. "If he's that powerful, how did you escape?"

"I'm not one-hundred percent sure. It just seemed to… happen. But I suspect the work of a Digi-Gnome. It's the only possible explanation as to how one minute I was being held in ZeedMillenniummon's claws and the next, poof, halfway across the Digital World away from him."

"Could have been a Data Stream," suggested Kazu.

"If it had been that he probably would have been taken with me. But that doesn't matter. What's important is I got away, but I was stuck in a strange Digital World with no way back home. And that is when I finally met Monodramon. I may be from a different human world, but Monodramon's a native Digimon. And he tagged along with me to try and help me take ZeedMillenniummon down. He was hopelessly out of his league, but he was determined to try."

Ryo smiled fondly as he leaned back in the chair. "Monodramon was exactly what a partner should be. What I'd seen from Agumon and Wormmon and all the rest. He was brave; he was loyal; he was a true form. He was what I imagined Airdramon might have been like if only we'd had the opportunity to get to know each other properly. And… well… I made a wish. A wish that ended up being granted."

"Monodramon became your partner," Henry surmised.

"I guess the Digi-Gnome that granted the wish put Shibumi's algorithm into my Digivice directly," Ryo said, pulling his D-Arc from his pocket and staring at it. "It morphed right there in my hand from its original shape to become what it is now. And immediately it linked up with Monodramon and suddenly I had two Digimon partners. I was a Digi-Destined with Millenniummon and a Tamer with Monodramon.

"And I think that was why the final battle between ZeedMillenniummon and us went the way it did. There was no chance we could beat him in a fight. He was far too powerful. And in the end, it wasn't me that beat him. Monodramon came up with the idea all on his own and executed it without telling me what he was going to do. But he was able to use the connection between them through their shared Digivice to force himself to DNA Digivolve with ZeedMillenniummon."

"He actually absorbed him deliberately?" Renamon said, her eyes uncharacteristically wide.

"Yeah," Ryo nodded. "I don't think it would have worked if they hadn't been partially linked already through the D-Arc. But it did work and, just like with the Digi-Destined's DNA Digivolutions it created two minds in one body instead of merging them completely. But Monodramon was able to take advantage of ZeedMillenniummon's shock to smother his consciousness, forcing him into a deep hibernation inside him and keeping him there even as they both regressed right down to a Digi-Egg on the floor in front of me."

"I've never heard of a DNA Digivolution like that," Rika whispered.

"Nor have I. I think it was a one-of-a-kind thing because Monodramon didn't take on any of ZeedMillenniummon's traits… except one. His savagery. I'm pretty sure that Cyberdramon wouldn't be nearly as brutal a Digimon as he is if ZeedMillenniummon weren't inside him. It's like a little of ZeedMillenniummon seeps into him whenever he smells a challenge. But ever since then, there hasn't been a peep out of Millenniummon or any sign that he might be waking up at all."

"Until now," Aayla finished.

"Until now," Ryo agreed, looking over at Monodramon sadly. The purple dragon might as well have been asleep. There was no way a casual observer could guess just how much menace and evil now surged within that little body."

"But then if you're from the world of the Digi-Destined," Jeri suddenly asked. "How can you live here now in our human world? How did you get your parents here?"

"I decided against going back to my world after Monodramon became Cyberdramon for the first time," Ryo explained. "He was constantly seeking out enemies and battles, so I felt this Digital World would be better suited for him since Digimon were always fighting each other in it, as opposed to the one back home where most Digimon got along. But I was pretty shocked when I learned that my parents were in this human world."

"So you had nothing to do with that?" Henry asked.

"I'll be honest," Ryo said thinly. "I'm not even sure if they're my real parents."

"What do you mean?" Rika frowned.

"I don't really know how I managed to get to this Human World for the first time. But, like all the Digimon that bio-emerge here, I did. And yet, although this was a completely different human world to the one I was born in, everyone in my old neighbourhood knew who I was. My parents were there. Many of my old friends were there. But there was no other Ryo Akiyama. I was the only one."

"That's so weird…" Takato breathed.

"Yeah. I don't know for sure, but I think Millenniummon may have been behind that," said Ryo. "I think there may have been another Ryo, a parallel Ryo, here before me and Millenniummon used his dimensional powers to send him to my world to take my place. It's the only explanation I've been able to come up with. But I have absolutely no idea whether he also switched my parents between worlds. For all I know, I could be living with a different Ryo Akiyama's mum and dad."

"Holy crap," Kenta murmured. "I can't even imagine what that must be like, coming home to that. Not knowing what happened… not knowing who your parents even are."

"It was rough," Ryo nodded. "But I had no choice but to roll with it. I settled down and I dedicated myself to being the best Tamer I could be. And I saw the Digimon TV series. I don't know why all of my story was left out, but I suspect part of the reason behind that was that unlike the rest of its characters I was a real person in this world too. I went looking to see if there was another Tai, another Ken, another anyone… but there wasn't. I was the only one with a parallel version of me here."

"It's so weird though… that the TV show was able to capture the adventures of these actual real people from another world so perfectly," Takato marvelled.

"Not so weird," Henry tapped his lip. "If the world of the Digi-Destined is parallel and intimately connected to our own, it's possible that the idea for the TV show crossed the barrier between our worlds on some subconscious wavelength where the writers thought they were making up stories that were in fact real. Or maybe there are just so many different universes out there in the cosmos that literally every fictional book, TV show and movie ever invented actually happened somewhere out there."

"So the characters from Naruto or Death Note or Harry Potter could be real out there in the universe too?" Terriermon snickered.

Henry nodded. "It's very possible. Heck, there could even be a TV show about us somewhere out there in the Omniverse."

"Maybe," Ryo agreed. "But the point is my role was reduced to cameos for some reason, and I was very grateful for that. But I worked hard. I became good enough at the card game to be given the title of the Digimon King. And I was relieved beyond measure when Monodramon hatched and I saw no signs of Millenniummon inside him. But then when he digivolved to Cyberdramon for the first time and I found it so hard to control him, I decided to go right back to the Digital World where he could do less harm. And after months there, that's when I met you guys and the rest you all know full well."

"You should have told us all about this Ryo," Rika folded her arms. "We had the right to know."

"What would you have done if I had told you Rika?" Ryo suddenly glared at her. "If I had said that a dangerous, maniacal beast capable of destroying the world was sleeping inside my partner? What exactly would you have done if you'd known about that?"

"…I don't know," Rika conceded, looking about at the others who all looked equally uncomfortable at that question. "But… still… you should have told us all the same."

"Ugh… I know. I know I should have. But like I said, I hoped I would never need to burden you guys with all this. I hoped it would never be needed."

"The real question is, what do we do now?" Renamon reasoned. "How do we get Monodramon back?"

Ryo looked up at his partner and baulked a little when he saw his eyes were now open. The two of them made eye contact, staring at each other in total silence. But the edge of Monodramon's beak just curved it's way upwards into a smirk.

A smirk that filled Ryo's head with images of the titanic jaws and horned head of Millenniummon wearing that exact same expression.

"I have no idea."