...

So, it's been awhile huh?

I'm so sorry this had taken so long. It was a combination of getting stuck, and then shifting my focus mostly to original work. However, the wait;s now over. All the drabbles are done, and will be posted quickly after a little editing to smooth things out.

So, I hope you enjoy this chapter after such a stupidly long delay!

(Identify your own)

Data Fragment 21: Ascend

It all happened at once.

A scarlet beam of light shot up in the distance, and all Digimon began to glow red. The Rabbit Deva digivolved into a dark-colored Cherubimon. Leomon digivolved into the dark bear-puppet WaruMonzaemon. Guilmon did not digivolve, but his red scales turned black. Parasimon did not digivolve either, but remaining clinging to Guilmon, pulsing with ever-brightening light. Cyberdramon went over to Ryo, silent, and kneeled before him.

Ryo did not move. He was accosted by conflicting senses and desires both inside and outside of himself. He struggled to see the world, but all he could see were its mechanics, strings and streams of programs and numbers. So he sought to find his core self among these other thoughts and identities wired into his mind. He found that core, but it was splitting and fusing with something else. It was writhing, unstable, vulnerable. It couldn't stay that way.

I want…he thought almost deliriously. I want…I want…I want…

We want everything.

Ryo paused. Did that thought come from himself? No, it was that other part, the him that was not him. No, that was not fair to say. It was a part of him, something that assimilated with him because he allowed it to.

We can have everything, if we ascend.

Ascend…? asked Ryo, but he knew what the other one meant. Digivolution. Something that should have been impossible for a human in any circumstance, much less in a world where most Digimon were deprived of it. But Ryo didn't doubt his other terrifying yet knowledgeable self. If he just wished it.

Wish it. Wish it! WishItWishItWishIt!

Even this other part of him was going mad with desire. It was infected with the same virus that Guilmon had been hypnotized into releasing. And he, Ryo, was razed by it, blood rushing, heart throbbing, mind singing tunelessly. He wanted, he wanted, he needed-

He became aware of how the world was supposed to look again, though he still saw traces of code beneath the surfaces and beings. Cyberdramon was still before him like he was waiting to be knighted. The final piece of needed data, finely cultivated for this moment. Cyberdramon knew it, but here he was, supine. He seized his Digivice, summoning the light-whip with a sharp snap of his wrist.

Cyberdramon still didn't look up, but he broke out into a fanged grin. "Now, finally, we shall ascend."

Ryo (or was that his other self?) couldn't help but chuckle a little. Then with one quick slice he beheaded Cyberdramon. The body instantly exploded into data bits, which Ryo absorbed. He felt varying degrees of surprise from the others, but all of them knew to some degree what would happen, and what was going to happen now.

The red light radiated off his skin like heat, but there was no warmth, only a peculiar crawling sensation under his skin and muscles. He studied the luminance with a mild curiosity. This was what it was like to digivolve? This was new to his other self as well. He had been born all-powerful, a Mega from the start.

Ryo felt the power uncoiling within him, the pressure becoming painful. But he stayed stubbornly silent, until the power abruptly ripped out of him like a reversed lightning bolt. Then he screamed, the cry persisted and distended until there was no longer a voice to yell with.

When the scarlet pillar of light finally fizzled out, it revealed a giant chimerical creature. Its had a draconic head with a blue mane, four insect-like limbs ending in mismatched claws, two legs covered in dark fur, and two huge cannons mounted to its back. Just above its body hovered a glowing dragon-like form, either skin or wraith.

Like any other Digimon freshly evolved, it proudly roared its new name.

"Millieniumon!"

IIIIII

For the What-if Challenge: What if Ryo was the True Enemy instead of the D-Reaper? (via Milleniummon)

Next chapter will be up in the next day or so. There will be about a day or two between each chapter, to give every time to catch up and read.