I don't remember much about the final battle against Piedmon. Myself and many of the other Chosen were turned into keychains and forced to allow Kari and TK to save us. I was out of it afterwards-after everyone was saved from being keychain figurines- leaving my Digimon to defend themselves and me, digging deep into their own powers to digivolve to their highest forms alongside everyone else. I have a feeling Yuugo helped them; I had seen a few Eaters take out a couple Vilemon, Yuugo's form flashing in the distance.
Soon, with everyone's powers, Piedmon was sealed away alongside his army of Vilemon.
But… Gennai soon told everyone that the real enemy wasn't the Dark Masters. I was almost offended.
The battle wasn't over. Not yet.
The Last Evil Digimon was our last foe in this adventure.
Apocalymon.
We all fell into this strange void, the digimon following quicky. Eventually, we all began to float, stopping our descent and preventing our deaths.
"Mistress, are you alright?" questioned Cutemon, the only one of my Digimon who couldn't evolve. She simply didn't have a Digivolution Tree. Instead, she was a powerful healer without a rank. I nodded to her.
"Where could we be?" questioned Izzy. His laptop began to ring, showing that Gennai had called.
"This darkness is probably endless." Gennai spoke.
"Gennai-san!" exclaimed Izzy.
"Hey, what's the deal?!" Tai exclaimed.
"We defeated the Dark Masters!" Matt yelled.
"But you haven't beaten the source that has brought all evil in the first place. The evil source that came from the Wall of Fire." Gennai said.
"The Wall of Fire?" questioned Joe.
"There are ancient inscriptions on the walls of the Ancient Dino Region. This is what they say: Long ago, something appeared from the other side of the Wall of Fire, which is located deep within the Digital World. For awhile, it wasn't awake… But when it finally awoke, its power, its existence, warped the fabric of space-time, and almost brought this world to total destruction. The Digimon could not beat it alone, so they called upon Chosen Children from the Real World to help eliminate it. I'm sure young Will knows who they are."
"So that means…" Tai gasped.
"You guys are not the first group of Chosen to have come here, and not the first that I have attempted to kill." I spoke. My memories had awakened me from my stupor.
"Then... the reason we were brought here is because something came out of that Wall of Fire again, right?" Sora asked, "And that's our real enemy?"
"There was also a prophecy." Gennai said, "Written on those same walls. It said that, before long, a large darkness will enter this world from the Wall of Fire once again."
"A large darkness…" Matt looked around at the void of darkness around us.
"This darkness around us? You mean where we are? Are you saying that this darkness is our enemy's true form?" questioned Tai.
"You could say that." Gennai replied.
"But it has a physical body." I said, remembering when Yuugo and his group had to face this enemy. They had only managed to seal it away. Sanada Arata had been a skilled hacker, even back then. He was an expert at messing with digital codes.
"Fight it with caution, children!" Gennai exclaimed.
"Wait, don't go!" Izzy exclaimed.
"How do we fight something that we don't even know about?" Tai asked.
"What did he mean?" Joe asked, "Is this different than the Digimon we've fought before?" Despite his earlier demeanor in my castle, Joe had returned to his normal, nervous self. Izzy closed his laptop.
"Its existence itself is likely to be fundamentally different than what we are used to." Izzy said.
"We can still win!" Matt exclaimed, "Children just like us defeated the same creature long ago!" he raised his fist.
Well, more like a year ago…
Tai nodded.
"You're right." Sora said, "There must be a way."
We suddenly heard a deep groaning.
"What voice is that?" Kari asked, afraid.
"It's creepy." Mimi said.
"It sounds like it's coming from everywhere." Angewomon, Kari's partner, said.
"It's… It's saying something." Tai said.
"Yes… Listen to the lingering remnants of our regrets."
"Regrets?" Sora asked.
"Who is that?" Joe asked. Apocalymon appeared, though his core body hadn't yet.
"This is the digimon that appeared?" Izzy asked. Apocalymon soon fully showed himself in all his creepy glory.
"What the hell is that thing?" Matt asked.
"Apocalymon, a digimon shrouded in darkness. It's not even verified whether or not he even IS a digimon." I said.
Apocalymon began to laugh, "Do you consider us ugly? It's true, isn't it? That is what you're thinking, isn't it? We are, after all, the ones who were thwarted through the evolution process."
"The evolution process?" Izzy asked.
"Digimon have continued to evolve, again and again, throughout the years. Did you know that there were some who disappeared?"
"It is inevitable for some species to disappear during the evolution process." Izzy said, "If they aren't able to adapt to their environment-"
"Silence!" Apocalymon exclaimed, scaring most of the other Chosen.
"'Inevitable? You think a single word can put an end to this entire matter?!" Apocalymon roared.
"What are you getting at?" Matt asked.
"Are you saying that we have no right to live?" Apocalymon asked.
"No, I'd never-" Izzy began.
"Yes. We are the digimon who disappeared through the evolution process… The resultant buildup of thoughts that have cursed our sad and hateful fates!"
"You were created from the dark hearts of the digimon that disappeared?" Sora asked.
"Dear Chosen Children and your dear digimon. We have been looking forward to meeting all of you."
"What?" Wargreymon, Tai's partner, asked.
"What do you mean?" questioned MetalGarurumon, Matt's partner.
"Listen. While we lay buried within a deep darkness of utter coldness and sorrow, you were on the other side, enjoying yourselves, playing and laughing happily in the warm light. WHY?!" Apocalymon suddenly roared, sending a wave of energy to push everyone back.
"Is everyone okay?" Tai asked once he recovered.
"Yeah, I'll manage." Matt said.
"Yes." Izzy nodded.
"We're okay, Tai." Sora assured.
"What have we done to deserve this?!" Apocalymon yelled. He dug his clawed fingers into his shoulders, causing himself to bleed green 'blood', "Why must we weep tears of grief while you enjoy cheerful laughter?!"
The green blood traveled down Apocalymon's arms. Mimi turned away, covering her eyes.
"No! I don't want to see this!" she cried out.
"We too, have tears that fall from our eyes and feelings that flow from our hearts. Just who decided that we were to be deprived of this world and sentenced to oblivion?!" Apocalymon removed his claws from his shoulders, showing the wounds on them, "We wanted to live! We wanted to live and speak of friendship, justice, and love!" he gripped his shoulders, "We wanted to use this body to be helpful to this world!" Sora looked away while Joe looked at Apocalymon, horrified. Ryo and Sam seemed angry.
"Are you saying that this world has no need for us?" Kari, Ken and TK looked terrified, "That we are meaningless?!" the wounds on his shoulders healed themselves.
"It has self-regenerative abilities!" Sam exclaimed.
"Then we shall rule this world! We shall make this place belong to us. All who get in our way will die!" Apocalymon began to laugh again, "May the light be forever cursed where it stands! Ultimate Stream!" he fired a white beam of light at Kari.
"Kari!" Tai exclaimed. Angewomon moved to protect Kari, getting hit and thrown back while still protecting her human. Kari looked at her partner fearfully.
"Angewomon!" she exclaimed.
"Kind and gentle children. That was a sign of our friendship. The next is…love! Bloody Stream!" he sent a red, whip-like attack at Mimi, causing Lillymon to intercept and get hurt instead of Mimi.
"Lillymon!" Mimi exclaimed.
"Justice! Mugen Cannon!"
"Sora!" Garudamon protected Sora from the large energy beam, getting hit in the back.
"Could it be-" Izzy looked on in fearful awe, "He can use all the attacks of the Digimon we've met!"
"But then means we'll have to face the combined force of all the digimon we've ever fought!" exclaimed Joe in fear.
"Does that mean we can't win?" Sora asked.
"We have to." I said.
"We can't let that thing get to us!" Tai exclaimed, "Get back into position!"
"We just have to work together!" TK exclaimed. Kari and Angewomon nodded.
"That's right! We can't pull back anymore!" Matt exclaimed.
"You haven't yet seen just how terrible we can be." Apocalymon said, raising his hands, "Death Evolution!" he outstretched his hands towards us, and made his medieval flail-like claws close around all the Digimon other than Cutemon.
"I'll make you understand what we felt as we disappeared during the evolution process." Apocalymon promised. The Digimon glowed as they were forced to de-digivolve back to rookie, or champion, in the cases of Gatomon, BlackGatomon, and Mikemon.
"No way!" Matt exclaimed.
"Everyone turned back…" TK said.
"TK, I'm sorry." Patamon apologized as he flew to TK's side.
"It's not your fault, Patamon." TK assured his partner.
"But we can't win like this." Kari said. Gatomon floated over to the Chosen of Light.
"Don't give up!" exclaimed the white cat-like Digimon.
"It's okay!" exclaimed Gabumon, "We can still fight!"
"If we just evolve again…" Tentomon began.
"That's right! Evolve one more time, guys!" Joe exclaimed. My digimon and myself knew that none of the Digimon had the energy to digivolve.
"Leave it to us." Gomamon said.
"I'm a little hungry, though…" Palmon said.
"It's okay. Just put some spirit in it!" Agumon said.
"We're counting on you, everyone!" Gabumon exclaimed. Everyone nodded, and we all went to grab our digivices, but…
"Death Claw!"
Using MY Devimon's attack, he grabbed and destroyed everyone's crest, though he couldn't shatter the brand that marked my digimon as mine.
"Our crests!" Tai exclaimed.
"They're destroyed…" TK mumbled.
"Now we can't make them evolve!" Sora exclaimed.
"I see you are beginning to feel and understand the despair we had felt from being unable to evolve."
"U-Unbelievable…" Joe said, "Our crests are gone!"
"How can we win against him if we can't evolve?" Mimi asked.
That was easy. We couldn't…
