As with my previous stories, I'm going to begin chapters by shouting out the people who have reviewed or commented since the last update. This time, I'll shout out everybody who reviewed since I started posting, so thanks to SloaneRisette, Oragonking
The Castle
"Got it!" Izzy slammed his fist down on the desk. He had succeeded in eliminating the worm on his server. "The worm is gone, and the system's up and running again. Now, we just have to wait for the trace to complete."
A beep sounded from the terminal.
"That was fast."
"Don't look a gift Indramon in the mouth," Tentomon piped up.
"You found where the worm sent that data already?" Ken asked.
"Yes… after a fashion," Izzy nodded. "It's been sent to an area between the Digital World and the Real World. It's not an area I'm familiar with… but I have heard of it before."
"Where?" Yolei asked.
"During the battle with Ordinemon, when Hackmon appeared to warn us of what was going to happen to our world, he mentioned that Ordinemon's presence would cause the world to collapse into the Quantum Sea… I wondered what Hackmon meant by that, so after Gennai recovered, I asked him and he described it to me. Given that description, there are a small number of us who have been to the Quantum Sea before."
"Who?" T.K. asked.
"Kari, Ken, and Yolei," Izzy confirmed. "The Quantum Sea is also sometimes called the Dark Ocean. It's also where we sent Daemon seven years ago."
The memory of the Dark Ocean sent a cold shiver running down Kari's spine, and she clutched her arms involuntarily.
"That place…" she whispered. "I remember… how cold it felt… and how alone it made me feel…"
"Do you think it's Daemon who's behind this?" T.K. asked.
"We won't know until we go there ourselves," Izzy answered.
"No…" Kari shook her head. "I don't want to go back there…"
T.K. and Davis stepped forward, both intending to provide Kari with some sort of comfort, but Tai got there first.
"Kari? Look at me. You're not that girl any more. You beat that darkness before. You know you don't have to be afraid of it."
Kari took a deep breath.
"Yeah… you're right. Thanks, Tai," Kari offered a small smile.
"We'll all be there this time," T.K. added. "I'll be there. You won't be alone."
Kari looked at him quizzically.
"Erm, I mean…" T.K. said bashfully.
"That's sweet of you, T.K.," she replied, drawing a slight blush from him. Davis looked away from the scene, a slight look of annoyance on his face.
"How do we even get there?" Cody asked.
"Couldn't we just follow the Kuramon's signal to it?" Davis suggested.
"Kuramon was able to get through because of its relatively small size, so it managed to enter the Distortion Space created between the Internet and the Dark Ocean," Izzy explained. "But the signal cut out not long after, so that way has probably closed off."
"Can't we just open a new gate?"
"Normally, the gate opens when you're under the influence of bad emotions," Ken explained. "If you're feeling low, or depressed, or even angry. You can't open it at will like a Digital Gate."
"You turned the Digital Gate Daemon was going through into a gate to the Dark Ocean, right?" Yolei said.
"I can't do that anymore, though," Ken shook his head. "The Dark Spore… it's gone."
"What?!" everybody shouted.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Yolei said.
"When did you lose it?" T.K. asked.
"I think it was taken after we were defeated by Alphamon," Ken explained. "At first, when we all woke up in the Real World, I felt completely numb. I just thought that was because of what had happened to us, but when everybody else recovered, I still felt as if something was missing. I asked Gennai, and he figured out that the Dark Spore was gone."
"That might explain why the evil Gennai could take on your form as the Digimon Emperor," Izzy suggested. "Still, that poses a worrying thought."
"Wait… the evil Gennai?" Tai thought.
"What's wrong?" Kari asked.
"We defeated Ordinemon, but in the chaos, that Gennai got away," Tai explained. "I always thought that once Homeostasis shut King Drasil down, that Gennai just disappeared. Or maybe when the real Gennai returned. What if he wound up in the Dark Ocean instead?"
"We would have to ask Gennai," Izzy said. "He might also be able to help us find another way into the Dark Ocean."
"That is concerning," Gennai said.
Izzy and Tai remained in the Real World, while the Digidestined had arrived at Gennai's house to seek direction. They had all agreed that it was not right to force Kari, the only one left with any sort of connection to the Dark Ocean, to attempt to force a gate open. That meant having to ask about an alternative method.
It also meant asking Gennai about the possibility their foe was he himself.
"I don't have any recollection of what happened after King Drasil captured me," Gennai confessed. "You already know that, though. What I think happened is King Drasil extracted a part of my own code and warped it to its own ends. You know that there are variants of myself across the Digital World, so it's not a process that damaged me. They're all made from parts of my own code. It's just that this one variant was warped against my original purpose, which is to serve as a guide to the Digidestined. As to whether my dark self was sent to the Dark Ocean after King Drasil's shutdown, it's possible. Once it dealt with Drasil, Homeostasis enacted a lockout that either forced all entities who had been altered by King Drasil to reboot to remove its influence, or be purged. The Royal Knights who had been corrupted to serve King Drasil's will, such as Alphamon, were restored to their original state. Assuming he tried to return to the Digital World through a Distortion instead of a Digital Gate, that distortion may have wound up altered so it had one exit."
"So, if we're facing you, how do we stop you?" Davis asked.
"You could try attacking him directly," Gennai said. "The Dark Ocean is much like the Real World in its most primal form. So, if a Digital Being is destroyed within it, it can't be reborn."
"Like Wizardmon…" Gatomon lamented.
"I don't know if we could do that," Kari said. "I mean… if he's there, and this is his fault, then he has to be stopped, but… we can't kill him."
"The only other way would be to bring him to the Digital World, and I could arrange for Homeostasis to decompile him and merge his code with mine," Gennai said.
"That sounds like a bad idea," Davis remarked.
"I wouldn't get his behaviour, but I would get his memories," Gennai said. "The remaining data would be deleted, so, technically, he wouldn't be killed. Just… returned to me."
"Okay, but how do we even get to the Dark Ocean to find out if it is him?" Yolei asked.
"There is a gate in the Digital World that leads to it," Gennai replied. "But it's in a place that you might not want to go to."
"It can't be that bad," Davis said.
"Many dark Digimon have been drawn to it," Gennai explained. "If you go in there, you need to be prepared to fight your way through to the gate that will lead you to the Dark Ocean."
"Okay, but where is it?" Davis asked.
"You're not going to like this," Gennai answered. "The one gate is in a place that a few of you here have been to before, sat atop a mountain."
Gatomon gasped.
"Myotismon's castle!" she said.
"That's correct," Gennai confirmed. "Remember that Myotismon's castle has a door that can be opened by arranging a set of cards in the correct order. That door then leads to the Real World if you figured out the correct order of the cards. But other orders of the cards could send you to other worlds. That's how you get to the Dark Ocean from the Digital World too."
"Hi! Sorry we're late!" a female voice called from the doorway of Izzy's office. Izzy turned around as Mimi and Joe stepped in with Palmon and Gomamon.
"Oh, hey," Izzy said, before turning back to the computer.
"You've already missed them," Tai said.
"Oh, hey, Tai… wait a moment!" Joe started. "Tai?! What did you do to your hair?"
"Oh, nothing," Tai evaded, brushing his bangs. "It was just time for a change."
"Well, I think it makes you look hot," Mimi winked, teasing Tai.
"Erm… thanks, I guess?" Tai held a hand behind his head in embarrassment. Izzy silently grimaced – he had previously had a crush on Mimi.
"I've been busy emailing other Digidestined across the world… well, those who still have partners," Izzy explained. "If they're up against the evil Gennai, then we'll need as many hands as we can get, especially since we don't know his plan at the moment. It took all eight of us and Omnimon Merciful Mode to stop him last time, but we don't have that option anymore."
"The evil Gennai?" Joe repeated.
"That creep again?" Mimi grimaced.
"We don't know if it is him, but it's better to be prepared," Izzy replied. "We were caught unprepared last time, and that was almost a world-ending event."
Izzy's computer beeped.
"I've got a few responses…" Izzy said. "Okay… Michael said he will watch over the Digital Gate in New York. Catherine will keep an eye out in Paris, and Rosa's got her eye on the gate in Mexico. Well, this is interesting…"
"What?" Joe asked.
"Willis answered as well, but he answered from a plane…" Izzy replied. "He's on his way to Japan, so he says he'll join us soon."
"Excuse me, but who's Willis?" Mimi asked.
"Oh, yeah…" Tai said. "Davis and the gang met him a few years ago, but most of us here haven't…"
"I've only ever communicated with him via e-mail," Izzy explained. "Willis is the Digidestined who created the first Diaboromon. He's also… fairly unique in that he's one of the very small number of Digidestined who has twin Digimon."
"He gets two Digimon? No fair!" Mimi exclaimed.
"Well, I'm sure he might agree with that last sentiment for entirely different reasons," Izzy continued. "After we defeated Diaboromon the first time, the virus he carried escaped into the Real World and tracked Willis down. It infected one of his Digimon, driving it insane. Magnamon and Rapidmon, the other of Willis' Digimon, had to destroy him after he Dark Digivolved to Cherubimon. It sounds like it was almost as bad as Ordinemon, the way it could reverse time locally and regenerate itself."
"Oh, that's horrible!" Palmon exclaimed, her hands covering her mouth.
"Yeah, I'm glad I've never Dark Digivolved into a monstrosity!" Gomamon added. "I'd hate to have to force my friends to destroy me."
"Okay, but who else have we got coming?" Mimi asked.
"The only other Digidestined who responded so far was Meiko, which is surprising," Izzy replied. "She did say she had something to tell us, but I'm not sure how she can help without Meicoomon."
"Oh, so your long-distance girlfriend is going to come too," Mimi grinned, nudging Tai gently.
"Sh… shut up!" Tai replied in a fluster.
"I never thought I'd see this place again," T.K. said. The Digidestined had arrived at Myotismon's castle. It had seen better days: even from the foot of the mountain it was built upon, the Digidestined could see the walls had crumbled. They had already climbed the stairs, and were now faced with the castle's main gate.
"This place still gives me the creeps," Gatomon remarked. She was being carried by Kari, who felt her partner shiver.
"Do you think…?" Davis began. "I mean, the Digital World did reset, and all the old Digimon came back to life afterwards."
"If he did, he won't remember us," T.K. replied, though his voice carried a hint of uncertainty. "He might not even know about the Digidestined."
"Well, he'll remember us this time if he's there," Davis clenched his fist. "Let's go!"
"Follow me," Gatomon said. "I remember the way."
The Digidestined followed Gatomon through the gate. The grounds inside the castle were eerily quiet. Just like from the outside, the walls inside the castle gates had seen better days.
"We're being watched…" Kari said. "I can feel many eyes on us."
"Yeah, there's a seriously creepy feel around," Yolei agreed.
"The Digimon that lived in this castle before still live here," Cody observed.
"Let's get going," Ken suggested. "The sooner we find the gate, the sooner we're out of here."
They continued into the castle, following Gatomon's lead. As they stepped into the main chamber, a voice rang out.
"Who has entered my castle uninvited?" came the voice.
"It is him…" Gatomon said. "Myotismon…"
"Leave now, or sink into darkness!" Myotismon warned.
"Follow that voice!" Davis said. He ran forward.
"Davis, wait!" Ken reached out, but it was too late. "Argh! Come on, Wormmon. We'd better catch up to him before he does something stupid."
The remaining Digidestined chased after Davis through the castle's corridors. They found the main chamber, where Davis and ExVeemon had confronted Myotismon. The latter was sitting on a giant throne, his head supported by his hand as he slouched in his seat. He looked annoyed by the interruption. He sat forward and looked over at the new arrivals.
"So, it's humans who have dared trespass in my castle," Myotismon said, getting to his feet. "I told you to leave my domain, and now I'll destroy you all and feast on your remains! Grisly Wing!"
Myotismon launched a swarm of bats from his hands at the Digidestined. They leaped out of the way of the attack.
"Vee-Laser!" ExVeemon fired a cross-shaped wave of energy from the sigil on its chest at Myotismon, who whipped his cape in front of him to absorb the attack. He flipped the cape back behind him and raised his hand.
"Crimson Lightning!" Myotismon attacked with a beam of red energy that shot from his fingertips like a whip, striking ExVeemon. ExVeemon crashed into the floor and de-Digivolved to Veemon.
"Veemon! Are you okay?" Davis ran over to his partner, cradling him.
"Esh… I think I landed on my tail funny," Veemon replied.
Kari and T.K. nodded to each other. Gatomon and Patamon stepped forward in front of everyone.
"We'll handle this guy!" Gatomon said.
"'Handle' me? You'll 'handle' me?" Myotismon scowled. "You shall pay for your disrespect!"
"You ready?" Patamon said to T.K.
"Let's do it," T.K. nodded, gripping his Digivice.
"Patamon Digivolve to… Angemon Digivolve to… MagnaAngemon!"
"Gatomon Digivolve to… Angewomon!"
"We'll be right behind you!" Kari said, standing her ground. "Go!"
"Two Angelic Digimon…" Myotismon growled.
"MagnaAngemon, let's do this quickly," Angewomon said. "I don't want to be in Myotismon's presence any longer than I have to be."
"Either my reputation precedes me, or you think we've met before," Myotismon glowered. "Either way, there won't be anything left of you to remember me with! Crimson Lightning!"
Myotismon's attack struck at Angewomon, glancing at her right shoulder. She cried out as the attack hit, and Myotismon took the opportunity to close the gap.
"Angewomon! Look out!" Kari cried out.
"Get him, MagnaAngemon!" T.K. ordered.
"Excalibur!" MagnaAngemon unsheathed the blade of energy from his right gauntlet and swung it at Myotismon, who flew upwards to evade.
"For two Angels of Light and Hope, you don't present much of a challenge," Myotismon sneered. "I expected more! Perhaps if I destroy the humans you're with, you'll provide more of a challenge! Nightmare Claw!"
Raising his hands, Myotismon fired a dark aura at T.K. and Kari.
"Watch out!" T.K. pushed Kari out of the way and dived. The dark aura struck the floor where they had stood. T.K. landed awkwardly on top of Kari.
"Are you okay?" T.K. asked, shifting himself off of Kari.
"Yeah…" Kari replied, getting to her feet. Her face got close to T.K.'s and she stepped backwards, blushing slightly.
"Let's get this over with," T.K. said, turning away from Kari. "MagnaAngemon!"
"Angewomon, I'll need you to draw him in close," MagnaAngemon said.
"Got it!" Angewomon flew towards Myotismon. MagnaAngemon flew backwards, raising Excalibur.
"Gate of Destiny!" MagnaAngemon drew a circle in the air. The circle solidified into a rotating golden gate that cracked open.
"Celestial Arrow!" Angewomon extended the angelic bow on her left glove and shot an arrow at Myotismon. Myotismon dodged.
"Heaven's Charm!" Angewomon fired a cross of light energy. Myotismon dodged again, but this time the dodge brought him in close enough to the Gate of Destiny. His cape started to drag him towards it.
"Wha…?" Myotismon struggled. "Impossible!"
Angewomon flew forward and kicked Myotismon in the face, sending him flying through the Gate. It closed and vanished.
"That… was almost too easy," MagnaAngemon remarked.
"He was a lot less powerful than when we first fought him," Angewomon agreed.
"Maybe he hadn't had time to build up to full strength," T.K. wondered.
"Come on, let's find the others," Kari suggested. Angewomon and MagnaAngemon de-Digivolved to Gatomon and Patamon, and the four of them left the empty main chamber.
Behind the throne Myotismon had once sat on, a small bat-like creature popped his head up.
"Well, with Myotismon gone, I guess I'm the lord of the castle now," DemiDevimon grinned.
The hall with the dimensional gate was abandoned. In front of the gate stood the plinth on which the Digidestined would have to set cards into a specific order on a 9-slot grid in order to get the door to open. The cards in question sat on the plinth in a deck.
"Which cards will we need this time?" Patamon asked.
"Probably the ones with evil Digimon," Davis suggested.
"It doesn't work like that," Gatomon shook her head. "There are ten cards, and you have to place them in the correct order."
"If I remember right, last time we figured out that it was Rookie, Champion and Ultimate," T.K. recalled.
"Gomamon, Elecmon and Gazimon on the top row," Gatomon recalled. "Unimon, Drimogemon, and Kuwagamon on the middle, and Andromon, Digitamamon, and ShogunGekomon on the bottom. In that order. Vaccine, Data, Virus.
"We had an Agumon card as a spare," Patamon added.
"There are more cards this time too," T.K. remarked, looking at the deck. "Impmon, Devimon, Dragomon… there are more Virus Digimon in it this time. Maybe Davis is right: we have to use all Virus types this time."
"They'd still have to be in a certain order," Ken said. "Oikawa used the wrong cards and opened the door to the Dream World instead."
"Okay, so let's try it out!" Davis stepped forward.
"If we start by putting the Virus Digimon from last time where they were…" T.K. said. Davis took hold of the cards.
"Where?" Davis asked.
"On the right side, going down from Rookie, to Champion, to Ultimate," T.K. said. "Gazimon, Kuwagamon, and ShogunGekomon there."
Davis followed T.K.'s instruction and placed the cards on the right of the grid. Kari looked at the remaining cards.
"Put Dragomon at the bottom in the middle," she advised.
"Any reason for Dragomon to go there?" Ken asked.
"Just a feeling," Kari replied.
"Okay, Dragomon in the middle," Davis obliged. He placed Devimon and Impmon above, leaving him with Tsukaimon, Devidramon, Megadramon, and Gigadramon. Tsukaimon, a Patamon lookalike with purple skin instead of yellow, was placed at the top. Devidramon underneath.
"So, we just have to figure out one more!" Yolei said.
"This is just mean," Davis said, examining the two cards. "They're too similar. What even happens if I get the wrong card?"
"Maybe it opens up to whatever's not the Dark Ocean or the World of Dreams?" Wormmon wondered.
"Any ideas?" Davis turned to the other Digidestined.
"Myotismon knew all the combinations, but he never tried anything that didn't lead to the Real World," Gatomon replied.
"Ugh… Well… I gotta pick one, so…" Davis examined both cards. After a moment of thought, he picked the Gigadramon card.
"Here goes nothing," he said, placing it into the remaining slot. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the ground started to quake, as the large doors ahead of the Digidestined started to creak open.
"I hope that was the right one!" Cody said.
As the doors opened, a pair of black, bandaged arms shot through the gap between them and grabbed the door, forcing them open wider.
"Hahahaha…" a sinister voice echoed from inside the doors.
"Grr… I'm tired of being laughed at by the bad guys," Davis clenched his fists.
"Well, isn't that all you're good for, Davis Motomiya?" answered the voice. It sounded very familiar.
The arms forced the doors open wider, and a white-furred foot stepped through. A horned head followed through.
"It is Kimeramon…" Ken stepped backwards as the gigantic Composition-type Digimon stepped into the chamber, glaring down at the Digidestined.
"How observant," the voice replied. "Of course, you would know."
"Argh! Show yourself!" Davis shouted.
"As you wish…"
A figure stepped out from underneath Kimeramon's legs: he was the same height as Ken, but with longer, spiked hair. He wore a deep purple trench coat with golden accents and shoulder pauldrons, and his eyes were covered by purple-tinted glasses with a golden frame.
It was the Digimon Emperor.
"No way!" Davis said.
"It can't be…" Ken said.
"Oh, look at how pathetic you all are," the Digimon Emperor said. "Especially you." He pointed at Ken.
"You aren't me," Ken growled.
"I was born of the darkness inside you," the Digimon Emperor retorted, "So I am you, in a way. But to see how you've become so weak without me… now I'm free of you, I can do whatever I want!"
"That's not Ken!" T.K. added. "That's the evil Gennai!"
"How rude of you," came another voice. A taller figure in a black robe, with brown hair stepped out from the shadow cast by Kimeramon and stood beside the Digimon Emperor.
It was Dark Gennai.
"I should thank you for opening the Gate that allowed both of us into the Digital World," Dark Gennai said. "I sent Diaboromon to retrieve the data that I couldn't get myself, but I knew you would try and come after me. I counted on it."
"What have you done…?" Kari gasped.
"It's true that I once used Ken's Digimon Emperor self as a costume," Dark Gennai grinned. "I was hoping to sow distrust among your elders. Perhaps they were going to think Ken had relapsed and killed his own comrades and was responsible for everything that was happening!"
Ken clenched his fists in anger.
"But after the Ordinemon incident, the Dark Spore I took from Ken began to speak," Dark Gennai continued. "It even remembered everything that had happened to Ken from the time of the Digimon Emperor's reign in the Digital World! And so, I used the power of the Dark Ocean I was banished to, to give it form! I didn't know it would actually choose the form I borrowed! How poetic! And how ideal for somebody to command Kimeramon while I enact the next portion of my plan."
"Yeah?" Davis glowered. "Well, we beat both the Digimon Emperor and Kimeramon before, and we can do it again!"
"You'll find this one is much stronger than the first," the Digimon Emperor grinned darkly.
"We'll see about that!" Davis clutched his D-3. "Are you guys ready?"
"Ready!" the other Digidestined nodded.
"Then let's Digivolve and take these creeps down!" Davis raised his D-3 into the air.
And that's the end of the chapter! Join us next time as Dark Gennai's plan comes to fruition!
Again, Myotismon's being used here as an 'obstacle antagonist' because he's been done before. I was just going to include the castle with some Devidramon, but that wound up not being interesting enough to me. The idea behind Myotismon is that he too was 'reset' like other Digimon that were destroyed. In this instance, he no longer remembers the Digidestined, so all of his plots, plans, and failures have been erased. To him, they're just a nuisance invading his home.
I'm also aware that Willis appears in one of the Japanese radio dramas, in which he actually interacts with Mimi, but since the events of that drama contradict both the end of the film (in which Kokomon returned) and Kizuna (in which we can see Willis with both Terriermon and Lopmon), I'm choosing to ignore it. Also, I know technically the English version of Adventure calls Lopmon's Mega form 'Kerpymon', but I never liked that name, and it definitely feels out-of-line with the other Mega-Level Angel Digimon whose names are all unaltered.
I think it was a missed opportunity not to have the Digimon Emperor as more than a costume in tri. I wasn't actually expecting it to be Ken, since he had clearly been defeated at the start, but it would have been a cool idea if the Digimon Emperor persona had somehow 'split' apart from Ken – either by accident in the wake of Ken's defeat at Alphamon's hands, or by force – and operated with Dark Gennai to bring about the reboot.