"That was a bit…anticlimactic, don't you think?" Agumon asked Tai as the group watched the defeat of Dragomon.

"Does it matter? Either way, they won!"

Tai felt elated, seeing the younger DigiDestined defeat an enemy much tougher than that sought out for – it put to rest all the fears that he had over the past few weeks.

"So, when do we celebrate?" Gabumon asked.

"I say we wait till tomorrow when they're back in and everyone is rested; tonight's fight was one for the ages."

"I couldn't agree with you more," Hiroaki said to his son.

As the older DigiDestined, their Digimon, and the parents went their separate ways, each celebrating the glorious win, one Digimon was lurking in the shadows.

"You fools – you forgot about me! Oh well, until next time…"

Within the Digital World, all the Digimon and their partners were wiped out from what they had to endure over the last hour.

All the Digimon was in their In-Training forms, catching up on some much-needed rest.

All the DigiDestined and Noriko were not far from them, as they were lost in a deep slumber.

The only one awake at the time was Gennai.

'It seems like my time here is done…for the time being. Who knows when the Digital World will need my presence again?'

As he started to walk away, his eyes lit up – there was one more thing he needed to do.

Reaching into his inner robe pocket, he pulled out a small tail ring that belonged to a certain Digimon.

'Good thing I found this; otherwise, the battle would have been much more difficult to bear.'

Gennai held the ring tightly in his hand and closed his eyes; in a split second, all the Digimon were digivolved up to their Rookie selves.

'There we go! Thank you, my dear friend.'

As he waltzed over to Gatomon and slipped the ring back onto her tail, Gennai smiled.

'The ring helped control the darkness to some extent – hopefully, you understand the true power of it someday.'

With that, Gennai left the same way he came in – through a makeshift portal.

As the sun started to rise in the Digital World, it was Gatomon to first stir awake, feeling a little bit of weight on her tail.

'What is…no, it can't be?'

She whipped her head around to see her tail ring back on her, beaming in the sunrise.

"Yes!" she said silently, not wanting to wake the others up.

A few minutes went by before Gatomon became anxious.

'Oh, I can't wait any longer to show him…'

She hopped up and searched around until she spotted Veemon, sleeping close to Wormmon.

'This is going to be so much fun!'

Gatomon wandered over and shook the blue dragon until he was mumbling under his breath.

"C'mon, Davis, five more minutes at least."

"Psst – I don't have that long to wait."

Veemon's eyes shot open as he heard Gatomon speak to him, adrenaline flowing through his body.

Gatomon laughed. "You're too cute when you are alerted awake. Check this out!"

As she showed off her tail ring to him, he was hypnotized of the magnitude that it carried.

"I wonder," he said as he tried to sit up, "if that helped us with the fight."

"Who cares," she said as she pinned him down on the ground, "we won and it was all thanks to you!"

"Yep! Me…and Wormmon," Veemon said as he pointed to the sleeping worm a few feet away.

"So…do you remember what we were doing before all this took place," she asked seductively.

His eyes showed a bit of confusion, while hers showed a bit of longing.

"I think so…we were in the station ready to—"

Before he could finish, he felt her arms wrap around his neck, and as they laid down together, her lips met his.

The embrace lasted only a few seconds before both Digimon heard a familiar voice call out in the distance.

"Veemon – we did it!"

As Gatomon pulled away, Veemon felt disappointed.

"We got to do that again, I wasn't ready."

Gatomon giggled. "Okay, we'll do it when Davis isn't hugging you to death."

"When he isn't—"

Veemon was interrupted by the sound of footprints and his partner standing over him.

"Vee – oh, I knew you could do it!" Davis said as he engulfed his partner in a bear hug.

"Davis…I'm glad you're excited, but can you please not squeeze me to death? I'm still a bit sore from the fight!"

"How are you sore? You didn't get hit with any of the attacks?"

"Yeah, well killing Dragomon took a lot out of me!"

Davis lightened his grip on Veemon to where he was holding him in his arms.

"There, better?"

Veemon wrapped his arms around Davis's neck, "Yes, thank you."

Kari was the next to appear, and Gatomon went giddy overseeing her partner.

"Hey, you got your tail ring back!" Kari said as Gatomon leaped into her arms.

"Yes, I do," she said as she shook her tail, "and I'm sure it missed me as much as I missed it."

Kari snuggled her partner tight, "I'm glad this is all over and behind us."

"You can say that again!"

Ken, Cody, Yolei, and TK all came over together to their respective partners, either gently waking them up or ambushing them.

"Yolei!" Hawkmon cried, "Do you have any idea how early it is?"

"Who cares, we won! We won!"

As Yolei hopped around with an insufferable Hawkmon in her arms, the others laughed as the scene unfolded.

"Ken," Wormmon said as he was stirred awake, "I did good, right?"

A few pets from Ken reassured the worm, "Yes, you did."

"Well, what's there to do now?" Patamon asked.

"I guess we celebrate, whether here or back home," TK said.

"I like the idea of being back home," Armadillomon said, "it sounds like it'd be a lot of fun."

"Fun…may not be the right word in this case," Cody said with caution.

"Why would you say that?" Yolei asked.

"Leiko – what if she caught wind of what took place."

Davis sighed, "So? What went down was in the Dark Ocean, not in Odaiba."

"…You do have a point," the youngster said as he went back to petting his Digimon.

"All that matters is that we all made it out alive, right?" Davis asked.

The DigiDestined nodded as they turned their attention to Noriko who was walking up to the group.

"Hey, glad to see that—"

Davis was cut off when Noriko embraced him in a hug.

"Thank you, for all that you have done."

"…You're welcome," he replied, returning the hug back.

As they broke apart, the DigiDestined sought out for a television that would help transport them home. In a matter of minutes, they did just that.

MESSAGE
From: Davis
To: DigiDestined
Subject: Party Time…for real!

'Please head into the station when you can. We're going to party like never before! Don't worry about anything…we'll get it covered.'

Back in the station, Davis sent out his message to the older DigiDestined.

"What do you mean by 'we'll get it covered,'" asked Kari.

"By we, I generally mean Yolei."

"Hey, my parents run a convenience store, not a buffet."

"Mmm…a buffet would sound lovely right about now," Veemon said as he rubbed his stomach.

"So then…local Japanese takeout?"

"It's New Year's Day – who would be open?"

Before Davis could answer, a buzz from his D-Terminal gave the answer.

"Oh, it's Tai – he said that all parents are pitching in for food as they had a late…late-night discussion. They've been up since dawn baking for us."

As he closed his device, Davis said, "Well, looks like that covers everything, I guess, right?"

The rest of the group nodded in acceptance, and within an hour's time, all the parents and older DigiDestined were in front of the station, celebrating the victory from the night prior.

"I have to say," Tai said as he made his way over to Davis, "you guys really impressed us."

"Well, thanks…how did you guys know?"

"We watched the whole thing unfold from here."

"Really?"

Davis was taken back at the sheer fact.

'So, everyone in Odaiba saw us fighting…they saw us as the heroes.'

With that thought lingering in the back of his mind, Davis continued to celebrate, knowing that the evil of the Dark Ocean was contained and that the Digital World and Odaiba will see better days up ahead.