Purpose

Shadow- "Hello yet again. This part of the story's almost over, (one more chapter after this, and two more parts!) so stick around! The good stuffs coming soon..."

Renamon- "It took you 80 chapters to get to the good bits?"

Shadow- "Um... not what I meant... oh, and if anyone says "Deus Ex Machina!", I'll fcking kill you! I stab at thee!"

Renamon- "..."

Shadow- "...what?"

Renamon- "O... kay... Shadow does not own digimon..."

Shadow- "And review!"


mainframe

The digidestined walked into the entrance hall of the mainframe. They stared. Things had changed. A lot.

The once shining white walls had half-rusted through, creating jagged plates which hung ominously off of the walls and ceiling. The digi-gnome that had let them in was the only source of light. Apparently, the overhead lights had rusted with the rest of the building.

A loud, agonizing screech echoed through the hall as the doors behind them closed. As they finished, a large plate fell from the ceiling, blocking the door.

Tai sighed. "Well... I guess we can only go forward now..."

The others nodded, then turned to follow the digi-gnome's light, which led them further into the mechanical decay.

After spending a few minutes picking their way through the debris that had already fallen from the ceiling, the digi-gnome stopped. It turned back to them, laugh/giggled once, and few up, disappearing into the shadows above.

"Well, that's just great..." Tai said. "What do we do now?"

A distant click sounded, followed by a deep, low, continuous thrumming sound that began to echo around the room. Slowly, a few lights began to flicker on. "About time!" Takuya yelled. "Why di-" the rest of his sentence died in his throat as the flickering lights lit up what was before them.

The large area in the center of the mainframe, which had housed enormous forests, rivers, mountains, seas, and the spire in the center, was in ruins. The forest was dead. The rivers were gone. The mountains were rubble. The sea had turned a blood red. The spire lay where it had fallen in the fight with Sacrosamon. Surprisingly, large pieces of it seemed to be intact still, especially the upper and middle sections, which had not been vaporized before.

The digi-gnome floated back down, squeaked once, and moved off towards the remains of the spire. The digidestined shrugged, and took out their digivices. They got on the backs of the digimon that could fly, and followed the digi-gnome.

After a few minutes of playing 'follow the stupid glowing thing', they landed next to one of the larger pieces of the spire. The digi-gnome floated inside through a large hole in the side. The digidestined followed. "Wow..." Sora whispered.

The platform on which they had revived their friends before stood in front of them. Nothing had changed. Except...

"Why is it sideways?" Davis asked.

"Because, this piece of the tower is laying on its side." Izzy said.

The digi-gnome bobbed up and down, squeaked, and flew over to a panel on the wall next to the platform. It disappeared in a burst of light, and the screen turned on.

A voice echoed from the static covered screen. "Ah, good... the digidestined..."

A distant sound of clanging metal echoed outside the room. "At last... I may get a chance... to rest..."

"Who are you?" Tai asked bluntly.

The voice sighed. "I... am the mainframe... I am the digital world itself... and I am so very tired..."

"What'd you need, a caffeine pill, or something?" Trish asked.

"Is that how you stay so perky?"

"Shut up!"

The voice chuckled. "No... I'm afraid it's much too late for that...what I remain here for... is to tell you the bad news..."

"That's a great purpose..." Rika muttered.

"I would've written you a note... except I don't have arms..." the voice said. "Anyways! This is what I have to tell you... you will not be able to wish your friends back as simply as you did before..."

"Why not?" Izzy asked.

"The digital world has been weakened by successive blows... the one that did the most damage was the destruction of the real world... The digital world can not last long without it... So I have had to spend most of my digi-gnomes to keep it running... but I have nearly run out..."

"What does that have to do with bringing our friends back?" asked Trish.

Henry thought for a moment, then said "Is it because the digi-gnomes' channeled our wishes the first time that we were able to bring back our friends?"

"It's a little more complicated than that... but essentially yes. Fortunately, it is the platform itself that brought your friends back... it just used the digi-gnomes for energy..."

"But... if the digi-gnomes are gone..." TK asked, "What will it use for an energy source?"

The voice paused. "I'm afraid... it will require power... lots of it... something only the highest level digimon can produce..."

"And we just fire that into the platform?" Tai asked.

A tinge of annoyance seeped into the voice. "No... there's no receptor for it... and it would require a great deal of energy to build... but there is another way..."

"Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like this?" Kratomon asked.

"It will require several digimon...or humans... to stand on the platform... and let themselves be destroyed."

"What?!" Tai shouted. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! We're not going to give up some of our friends!! Ever! That's what this whole trip is trying to undo!"

"I'm sorry..." the voice said. "There isn't another way..."

"Damn it!" Tai yelled. After a pause, he said "O-okay, who's being killed?"

"Tai!" Izzy shouted. "Listen to yourself!"

"I know!" Tai shouted. "...but... Kari... she's my little sister..."

Everyone was silent for a moment. Yggdramon finally spoke up. "We'll do it."

Martamon shot him look. "Yggdramon! What are you talking about."

"Whenever we tried to do something right, we always screwed it up..." Yggdramon said. "We might finally be of use to them..."

Kratomon and Yuamon nodded. Martamon paused for a moment, then sighed. "All right..."

The four digimon flew over to the platform. As they started to glow, Izzy shouted out "Hold on a minute! There has to be another way!"

Yggdramon shook his head. "There isn't..." as the light became too bright to look at, Yggdramon shouted. "Goodbye, digidestined! I'm glad we could be of use to you in the end!"

A large shockwave shook the room, the light disappeared. The four digimon were gone.

The voice started speaking again. "Good... final sequences initiating... digidestined, start focusing on your fallen comrades... wish with all your hearts for your friends!"

The digidestineds collectively closed their eyes, and started wishing. Slowly, but surely, light began to collect on the platform and outline their friends.