Chapter 35: A Brighter Tomorrow

Disclaimer: I do not Own Digimon

Necronimon stared down at the scene below him contemptuously. The human children were attempting to console their fallen partners. All seven of them had been bested by him alone, even though they had all fought him at once. He could finish them off at any time, but he chose to savour his victory. He wanted the children and their Digimon to truly realize how powerless they were next to him.

"Do you see now?" he called mockingly. "This is the true, unhindered might of a Demon Lord. Know my power and tremble in fear; realize how pathetic you truly are."

Daichi pounded the ground in anger. "Damn it; we gave him everything we had and didn't even make a dent."

"I never imagined we'd face such a terrible power," remarked Seiichi.

Ayame mussed her hair in frustration. "How are we supposed to beat this guy?!"

"The simple truth of the matter is that you cannot defeat me. Once I kill all of you, there will be no one left to oppose me."

"We're not done yet!" roared Examon. He was currently struggling to his feet, pushing himself up with Ambrosius.

Necronimon, not pleased with the defiance, flew down to Examon and punched him square in the chest. The blow knocked Examon onto his back, but he still attempted to get back up. Around him, the other Digimon were attempting to stand as well. Necronimon landed in the middle of the other Digimon, chuckling malevolently.

"I supposed I have to admire your tenacity. That, or ridicule your stupidity. You have seen the extent of my power, and yet you still choose to fight me. Why not do the intelligent thing and beg for your lives? I might even be willing to show some mercy."

This time Hanae was the one to speak up. "You're a very bad Digimon, and we can't let you have your way. We're going to stop you and save all of the good Digimon we made friends with."

"Just for that, I think I shall kill you first."

Necronimon advanced toward Hanae, who stood there with a defiant look in her eyes. Anubismon stood up and placed himself in front of her, but was cast aside by a stream of shadows. Necronimon stood next to Hanae, twice her height, sneering down at her. He raised his scythe over his head but before he could strike, a voice nearby called out 'Infinite Darkness'. Necronimon turned towards the voice in time to see two massive spheres of dark energy flying at him. The two spheres struck him simultaneously and exploded, hurling him a great distance.

The children and their Digimon turned to see who it was that had managed to knock back Necronimon. Their eyes were met with Grandracmon, who had dark vapours spilling out from the jaws on his shoulders. He let out a great roar and charged at Necronimon, who was just getting back on his feet. Surprised by his new attacker, Necronimon was only able to raise his scythe to defend himself. Grandracmon clamped onto the scythe's rod with both sets of jaws and began grappling with him.

Necronimon's initial surprise continued, for Grandracmon was able to hold him at a stalemate for some time. The children looked on, awestruck at the strength the new Digimon was displaying. The fight between the two of them allowed the other Digimon a chance to recover. They managed to get back on their feet, and gathered together along with the children. Grandracmon gave a might roar and clamped down hard on the scythe with both sets of jaws. The rod splintered, forcing Necronimon to jump away from him.

"You strength is most impressive," he stated, eyeing Grandracmon. "Who are you; and how did you acquire such power."

"My name is Grandracmon. I owe some of this power to a couple of departed friends, but mostly to my partner. I believe you're acquainted with him; his name is Takeshi."

"Takeshi Umeko? The gullible brat that released the Demon Lords?"

"None other," he replied. The other children turned and saw Takeshi walking towards them.

Examon blurted out upon seeing Takeshi. "That was the kid that Fellangemon had with him when he went to take down the barrier."

"So he was alive," remarked Daichi. "Looks like I was right."

"Indeed you were," added Takeshi, before turning to face Necronimon. "Which is bad news for you."

"Well now, this is a surprise. Not only did you not get yourself killed, you even managed to find yourself a powerful partner."

"The two of us came together over our mutual desire to deal with you."

"What a charming story. It's unfortunate that it will have such a tragic ending."

"You'd like to think so wouldn't you? Get him Grandracmon!"

Grandracmon roared and opened his should jaws wide, calling out 'Infinite Darkness. Within each set a massive sphere of dark energy appeared. Necronimon sneered, and created another shadow sphere around his body. At the same time that Grandracmon unleashed his attack, Takeshi held out his Digivice, which fired a narrow beam of black light from its port at Necronimon. The beam punctured his shield, and proceeded to pierce through his chest. The barrier shattered just as Grandracmon's attack flew past, exploding as it struck him.

Necronimon emerged from the blast unharmed, but quite infuriated. He was holding up both hands and panting furiously. "I am growing weary of this. Your strength is formidable indeed, but it is far from enough."

"What about ours?" called out Daichi.

Daichi brought up his Digivice, aiming the port at Necronimon. From the port a narrow beam of light shot out, just like Takeshi's had; only his was blue. The other children followed Daichi's lead, holding out their Digivices towards Necronimon, all of which fired streams of light. Ren's was green, Ayame's pink, Seiichi's orange, Evan's red, Hanae's yellow and Kioko's was purple. Takeshi did the same, unleashing another stream of black light. The eight streams of light converged on Necronimon, bathing him in a field of bright, white light.

When the light died away, Necronimon was on his knees, clutching at his sides. The aura of shadows that surrounded him had dissipated. "I don't understand; where is this power coming from?!"

Examon chuckled at him. "This is the power of friendship, and the bond between partners."

"Um, sorry to interrupt," cut in Daichi, "but in my experience, the bad guys never get the friendship and unity speech. Let's just finish him off while we have the chance."

Examon nodded and raised up Ambrosius, the tip of which spread apart as a sphere of energy formed. At the same time, Apollomon brought the ornament off his back, Anubismon released and expanded his jewel and the others prepared to attack as well. All of the Digimon called out their attacks together; 'Pendragon's Glory'; 'Lightning Cannon'; 'Arrow of Artemis'; 'Sol Blaster'; 'Amulet of the Ancients'; 'Olympus Slash'; 'River of Power'; and 'Infinite Darkness'! The attacks collided with each other on top of Necronimon, resulting in an immense explosion. The resulting brilliance of the explosion forced the children and Digimon to avert their eyes.

When the blast cleared, Necronimon was still standing, albeit just barely. His robe was tattered, his arms were hanging limp at his sides and he had lost all but one of his wings. The other Digimon inched closer to him, preparing to attack again. He glared at them furiously, but in the end fell to his knees once more.

"This isn't possible; I was the strongest Digimon that ever lived."

"Don't you know anything;" chided Daichi. "The good guys always win in the end."

Necronimon didn't have a chance to retort, as his body dissolved into a mass of data and dispersed. When the last of his data was gone, a collection of cheers and yells arose from human and Digimon alike. Amongst the children there was much back patting, hair mussing and hand shaking. Even Takeshi, whom the others hadn't really met yet, was drawn into their celebration. He actually received a large amount of thanks from the others, since his arrival had given them the edge against Necronimon.

The group's revelry was interrupted by a mournful wail from Grandracmon. They all turned to face him at once, and saw bits of data leaking away form his body. As more data leaked away from him, he collapsed onto his side, before degenerating all the way back into Dracmon. Takeshi ran over to his partner and picked him up.

"Dracmon;" he called, "what's wrong?"

"It looks like my time is up," he replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember when we first met, I told you I was formed from corrupt data. I knew from the beginning that my body was unstable. I didn't tell you about it because I wanted you to be able to focus on the task of helping the other kids; not on worrying about me."

"What's going to happen to you?"

"I just said my time is up; my data is going to dissolve and fade away."

"Isn't there anything I can do?"

"I'm afraid not, but there is something I can do for you. Take my data with you back to the Human World and give it to your sister. If my guess is correct, it should combine with her DNA and compensate for the missing pieces."

"You mean it can heal her?"

"Not so much heal as patch up, but it should allow her to get better. Take it as my parting gift; a token of gratitude on behalf of all the Digimon who suffered at the hands of the Demon Lords."

Takeshi nodded to his partner, as tears welled up in his eyes. Dracmon let out a final smile as his body dissolved into bits of data. The port on Takeshi's Digivice acted like a vacuum and drew in the loose data. Takeshi remained silent. Around him the other children and Digimon fell silent and bowed their heads.

After Necronimon's defeat, the children and their Digimon had begun traveling around the Digital World. Their aim was to inspect the damage done by the Demon Lords, and to inform the residents of the Digital World that the danger had passed. At first Takeshi had been reluctant, but this was only because he had not been informed of the time difference between the Digital World and Human World. Once the other children told him about it, he was greatly relieved, since he knew that his parents and Chie wouldn't have to worry about him.

The first major stop they made was in the city, where they found Justimon, Meteormon and many others working to clean the place up. After Beelzemon had been killed, the army of Tankmon had shut down, and the city Digimon had been working to clear them away. Lopmon, Terriermon and some other small Digimon made use of Mekanorimon to aide the clean up efforts. It was here that they were able to have their first decent meal since splitting up to fight the Demon Lords. For Takeshi it was his first decent meal at all since coming to the Digital World.

The next location they visited was Primary Village, as directed by Seiichi. The village itself had suffered damage at the hands of Daemon, but Exveemon had already recruited some other Digimon to help with the repairs. According to him, a large number of new Digieggs; the eggs from which baby Digimon hatched, had arrived in the past few days. He believed that many of them were reconfigurations of Digimon who had been killed by the Demon Lords. The group spent some time tending to the newborn Digimon before moving on.

After about a week, their travels brought them back to the Forest Area. Of all the places they had visited, the forest was by far the worst off. Whereas all of the other Demon Lords had singular goals in mind, Belphemon had gone on a spree of mindless destruction. According to the survivors in the forest, Belphemon's rampage had killed many, and left countless others without homes. All the children could really do in light of this was tell them the news of the Demon Lords downfall and of the many Digimon being reborn at Primary Village.

Eventually they came across a site that seemed familiar to everyone except for Takeshi. It was Daichi who recognized it as the place where Seraphimon's castle had once stood. He realized this because it was here that he had found Belphemon. Beyond the crumpled mound the forest was in much better condition, since Belphemon had been stopped before he could carry on past that point. The Digimon couldn't help but feel nostalgic, as this was the first place they had a distinct memory of.

"Looks like we're back to where it all started," remarked Daichi.

Takeshi looked a bit saddened. "This wasn't where it started for me."

Ayame walked up to him and mussed his hair. "Buck up; consider this a chance to make a fresh start with your new friends."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It's just too bad that another friend couldn't be here."

"I don't think Dracmon would want you to be mourning over him like that," suggested Evan.

"That's right, he even gave you the opportunity to help your sick little sister," added Kioko.

"Yes he did, and for that I'll always be grateful. Speaking of that; when we go back to the real world, I'd like you to come with me."

"To visit your sister you mean?"

"Yes, she'll be happy to see that I've made some new friends. Plus I can tell her I'm a hero for saving all of you guys."

"Oh come on, you only saved Hanae. The rest of us weren't in any danger at the time."

"That's mean Daichi," cut in Hanae. "I'm very thankful that Takeshi came to save me."

The children and their Digimon shared a good, long session of laughter after that. Their mirth was once again interrupted, this time by a loud beeping from Takeshi's Digivice. He pulled it out of his pocket to find a message written on it. He couldn't read it, since it was written in the language of the Digital World. Kioko looked at the Digivice over Takeshi's shoulder.

"Something… something… gate ready," she read.

"When did you learn to read Digiscript?" asked D'arcmon, who was standing next to Kioko.

"Wizardmon taught me some, and I learned a bit by word association. Don't look too impressed, I can't read much of it."

"Wait, I recognize these," exclaimed Takeshi. "These same symbols appeared when I used this to come here in the first place. Maybe that means we can get home from here."

"Well then, I guess this is goodbye," said Coredramon. The children looked at him in disbelief. He and the other Digimon stepped away from the children.

"What are you talking about?" asked a confused Daichi.

"You have your world, and we have ours," replied D'arcmon. "Your task here has been completed. As such, it is time for you to return to your home. Although they do not yet realize you are even gone, there are those in your world that await your return."

"We're going to stay here and look after this world. Someone's gotta make sure we don't get any more crazed evil Digimon trying to take over."

"It would have been difficult for us to come with you anyways," remarked Dobermon. "As I recall Hanae, you said your home doesn't allow pets."

Hanae chuckled weakly, before running up to Dobermon and hugging him tightly. He nuzzled her and licked her face. The other children, save for Takeshi, hugged and shook hands with their partners one final time. After that, they gathered around Takeshi again, who began pressing buttons on his Digivice. A column of light spread outwards from it and enveloped the children. They waved to the Digimon, who waved back in return.

"Will we ever see you guys again?" called Daichi.

Coredramon called back to him: "Probably."

When the pillar of light surrounding them faded, the children found themselves back in the human world. However, much to their confusion, they were not back in Central Park. They were in some sort of garden, on a paved path lined with a few benches. There didn't seem to be any other people around.

"Hey guys, where are we?" inquired Daichi.

"I almost didn't recognize this place," replied Takeshi. "This garden is out front of the hospital where Chie is staying. What time is it?"

Seiichi checked his wristwatch, which he hadn't so much as glanced at while they were in the Digital World. "It's twenty minutes before five o'clock."

"Wow; that's only about half an hour after we left the park. We spent about a month in the Digital World right?"

"Yeah close to that. This means that for every day we spent there, only about a minute passed here."

"By that reasoning it's only been about ten minutes since I left. If that's the case, Chie should still be asleep."

"You gonna go visit her now then?"

"I think that would be best. If she was awake and I started sprinkling strange particles over her, she might go into a fit."

"Good point, let's go."

Takeshi led the other children towards the hospital's main entrance and brought them inside. They followed him through the main hallway and then down one of the branched halls. They walked about halfway down that hall when they came to a room with Chie's name printed on the door. Takeshi pushed the door open softly and peered inside. Chie was still asleep, her respirator humming softly. He stepped into the room while the other children waiting at the door.

Takeshi brought out his Digivice and held it out towards Chie. The port on it opened up and the data particles stored inside began to pour out. The data flowed over her body, which seemed to take on a dim glow. As the glow faded, her breathing seemed to become lighter. She opened her eyes slowly, glancing at him.

"Hello big brother," she said, smiling weakly.

"Hi Chie; how are you feeling?"

"Actually, I'm feeling kind of good right now. Do you think Doctor Jones gave me a different kind of medicine than usual?"

"I'm not sure; I wasn't in the room when he was here. Still, make sure you get lots of rest okay? We want you to get better as soon as possible."

"Okay, I will." She then looked past Takeshi to the other children. "Are they friends of yours?"

"Yes, very important friends. They were concerned about you so I brought them here to check on you."

"Why is the boy with the red hair wearing goggles? They make him look silly."

Daichi looked embarrassed, while the other children chuckled pleasantly. Takeshi gave his sister a gentle hug and then pulled the sheets back over her. She nodded to him and closed her eyes so as to drift off back to sleep. He smiled and backed slowly out of the room, closing the door after him.

Authors Notes: There you have it, Digital Demons has now been concluded. To everyone who has read through from start to finish, thank you. To everyone who has reviewed this story, thank you for your input. However; this is not quite the end. There is an epilogue coming up. Make sure you read the Epilogue, because at the end of it there will be a special announcement. After the Epilogue I shall be putting together a document containing various statistics about my version of the Digital World, as well as the characters that have appeared in this story. Once again, thank you for reading.

Revision Notes: Woo 3 chapter streak of no revisions. That means I did it right the first time in all of them. This also brings the revised edition of Digital Demons to a close. Thank you to everyone who reread it, and those who started new with the revised version.