Metal Zakerousmon shook his head, sending sparks out along the air. The screams of pained humans filled his ears as the Lightning Rotation tore through the streets, incinerating people instantly. Cars melted and contorted, many of them exploding. Shoes melted to the sidewalk as the heat turned the human flesh into putty. Birds fell from the sky in a blaze of feathers. The clouds above took a red hue, the moon being completely driven away. Whatever twilight Chevron's D-Power unleashed, the elements were rebelling horribly. Metal Zakerousmon took a step towards the city. His eyes were shaded over, like they were out of focus. A skyscraper shattered like glass.
"No…! I've got to…" He started. A voice whispered in his ear.
"You killed them… All of them…"
"No! I can still…"
"Do nothing. It is impossible."
"No!"
"You had your chance… and you lost control… your misjudgment will cause the destruction of all humans in the city. You failed, program… You FAILED."
Metal Zakerousmon's eyes widened. Those few words triggered something deep. Not just instinct, but something much stronger than such a natural operation. His programming came alive. He was a program. All programs that fail go to the Matrix Drive to be destroyed. The bad part was that Metal Zakerousmon, and the identity known as Chevron agreed. Humans were dying and all he could do was make it worse. It was time to step down.
The wolf became encased in light, slowly changing back. The fur became hair, the claws hands. The destruction in the background got a lot worse. The attack was gone, but things still kept exploding. Chevron sat in the dirt, eyes glassy and unseeing. He had let them all down.
Up on the hill Takato and Henry ran up behind Rika.
"What happened?!" Takato asked, frozen at the site of the city being demolished. Rika looked back.
"Chevron digivolved again… and got out of control. Why didn't he try to stop it, though? Idiot!" Renamon glared down at her.
"After an attack like that, I'd be shocked if he had enough power left to stop it. He does have limits, Rika." She growled. Rika looked away quickly.
"It looks like that dark Digimon is gone now…" Terriermon whispered, sitting on Guilmon's head. The humans and rookies approached the crater. Chevron didn't acknowledge their presence and still sat there. Takato reached out a hand and shook his shoulder.
"Chevron…?" The Digimon stayed silent. He just stared at the ground. Renamon noticed a trickle of blood dripping down from his neck. An ugly gash had appeared, the cut running deep.
"Why doesn't he heal himself…?" She wondered, watching Chevron for any movement. As Henry opened his mouth to say something, a design, like a tattoo formed on his knuckles. It was like Guilmon's hazard sign, but the triangles on the outside were point first halfway into the big triangle in the center.
"Marked for death…" Chevron breathed quietly. "Marked for failure… marked for sin…" He shook his head and leaned over. A noise above them captured some attention. A wormhole had torn open above them, electricity shooting to and fro. Chevron slowly stood up, wobbling a little bit. Renamon grabbed his shoulder to steady him. Chevron stared at the wormhole with detachment and whispered three words to the sky before the entire group was whisked away.
"I'm… a… freak…"
The feeling of nausea overcame the travelers, although it was oddly familiar in a way. The kids had never felt this before, and struggled to adapt. The Digimon winced at it, but had grown used to it, so it really didn't bother them. They stood in a large, white dome. It was gigantic by human standards, but to the Digital world, it was regular. Chevron trudged forward from the group, unspeaking. Renamon looked at Rika, who rolled her eyes and nodded as she went over to help the clumsy Takato back on his feet. He had tripped over Guilmon when they materialized. Renamon walked behind Chevron for a little bit. Suddenly, she hit an invisible wall in between her and Chevron, who had stopped.
"What the…?" A voice spoke ahead and above. It sounded like a chorus of the damned.
"WhAt PrOgRaM?"
"Program: 02846937 Code Base: CHEVRON" Chevron said aloud to the invisible voice.
"YoU aRe HeRe FoR PrOcEsSiNg… ArE YoU sUrE?"
"I am…"
Her blood went cold suddenly. Renamon knew what this place was and what was going to happen. She pounded a fist against the invisible wall. The area beneath her hand glowed and showed signs of weakness. She planted another punch, making the wall groan. It wasn't strong enough to be a prison, so it should be weak enough to destroy. Chevron tensed up.
A line of code burst from the back of his neck, trailing on and on, swirling around him and up into the ceiling. Chevron fell to one knee, gritting his teeth in pain. The code began to leave faster and faster, making him scream in pain on his knees. The line of zeros and ones became a blur of color, leaving his body as but a shell.
"30 pErCeNt CoMpLeTe…" The voice said.
"No!" Renamon yelled, pounding another fist into the wall. A fireball exploded into it next to her, as did a small ball of energy. Guilmon rushed up to the wall and battered it with his claws in swipes, Terriermon firing blasts from his mouth at the barrier. Inside, Chevron was doing worse. His heart began to flicker with weakness. His brain was barely registering any stimulus. But one part of his mind was still intact, sending his last visions of the world to a confused brain.
"60 pErCeNt CoMpLeTe…" The voice spoke, almost tauntingly.
Chevron gripped his head in pain as the code was further ripped out of him. His body was beginning to shut down. He looked over and saw his friends trying to get at him. A spark of recognition jolted a memory. All of them were under a tree in the park, actually happy. Happiness… It seemed so foreign… What was happy?
"80 pErCeNt CoMpLeTe…"
The invisible barrier weakened to the point of breaking. A frustrated Renamon leapt back and spawned a cloud of diamonds.
"DIAMOND STORM!" The crystals stuck into the wall, cracks issuing up from the floor and the attack point. She rushed forward and slammed a fist into the glassy material. It shattered into dust with one hit. Chevron screamed a final time and fell to the ground as the last bit of code was ripped out. Renamon turned him over onto his back, shaking his form.
"Chevron! Chevron, wake up! Please…!" The dark haired Digimon stayed quiet, his eyes closed. No blood ran through his veins, no spark of life in his empty brain. Chevron was dead.
"Chevron gone…?" Guilmon asked, confused and afraid. Renamon stayed silent, staring down at Chevron's corpse. Terriermon stumbled up to him and looked up at Renamon.
"It was what he was supposed to do… He said this would be his fate one day…"
"Yeah…" She replied. "… but why does it hurt so much…?"
The kids ran up and saw the dead guardian. Rika looked away, Takato put a hand on Guilmon's head, and Henry scooped up Terriermon. Silence was broken by a shrill laughter.
"A fool's death for a fool's toy…" The figure Chevron met in the park walked up to the group. He was a tall, silver haired man in a red overcoat. Black eyes looked down at them with no emotion. "He was too weak… He fell for it…"
"What do you mean?" Rika asked. The stranger looked at her darkly.
"I mean… I told him to come here. Even the strongest minds can be bent if you press in the right areas. He knew of such guilt to the point of begging me to kill him. And thanks' to the failure…" The figure said, lifting a hand, where the remains of Chevron's code swirled around it. "I now have the code necessary to finish my work." He aimed a hand down at Chevron's body. The corpse exploded into individual pixels of light and faded. "Even you could not save them, worthless program…"
Renamon stood up and looked at him, her eyes steely and lacking in anything but pure fury.
"You… I'll kill you!"
