DIGIMON TAMERS: AFTERMATH
BOOK 3
by Vashkoda
(Disclaimer: This work of fiction uses characters belonging to Toei and Saban without their permission. I am getting no profit from it. I only do it because I think Digimon is a great show, and I want to keep the story alive!)
Henrika and Canis Black Thanks for being such loyal readers, even after my long hiatus!
'k guys, The stage is finally set, so let's roll!
---------------------------------------
The machine digimon glared at them as he charged up his cannons.
"Mugen Canon!"
"Copy Paste!" shouted HighAndromon.
Suddenly four copies of Grani, Dukemon, Elecmon and Juri floated in the air beside them. They didn't last long, however, as each of Sujinmon's four cannons took out a clone.
"We have to set Juri down! We have to go to Crimson Mode!" shouted Dukemon at Grani.
"No!" cried Juri, fumbling through the deck. "Just give me a second to try and find a-" She paused in surprise as she noticed a card that she hadn't seen before. She was positive that it hadn't been in the deck when Takato had handed it to her. The card featured a golden dragon with orbs similar to the Sovereign's floating around its body. It had eight eyes instead of four, and large spikes and horns protruding from its back in place of wings.
Praying that the digi-gnomes were at work, Juri slashed the card through her D-Arc.
"Digimodify! Huanglongmon's Tai Chi, activate!"
Elecmon began to glow with power. The image of a Yin-Yang disk of red and green light suddenly manifested around him.
Sensing that an attack was coming, Sujinmon sent one last volley of energy missiles towards them. MarineAngemon and Sakuyamon both cried out and spent the last of their energy summoning a shield around Grani. The blasts shattered the barrier, but the resulting shockwave dispersed itself harmlessly before it could reach them. The other Tamer Megas quickly rushed forward to catch the exhausted pair before they collapsed to the ground.
After growing to a blinding intensity, Elecmon finally unleashed the disk. It sped towards Sujinmon, giving him no chance to escape before it fell on top of him and began drawing away his energy in what seemed like a very painful process.
The group gasped as the red digimon's data ripped apart. The two halves were sent to opposite ends of the disk, where they melted apart to reveal the bodies of Ryo and Monodramon. The disk then fell away from Ryo and condensed itself over Monodramon, continuing to whirl and flash different colors. The dragon Rookie growled in fear, then froze as the disk began to draw a dark substance from his body.
"No," groaned Ryo, struggling to get up as he saw what was happening to his partner. "No, stop!" he shouted louder.
Juri looked down at Elecmon, but the digimon shook his head at her helplessly. He had already summoned the attack; now there was no way to stop it.
The shadowy mass condensed itself into two serpents, joined and coiled around each other. Their cold eyes fell on Ryo for one brief moment, then they screamed and clawed at the air, ripping a hole in the fabric of the Digital World. Ryo jumped to his feet and chased after it, but the creature slipped through the opening and sealed it behind him, vanishing from sight.
"Ryo!" cried out the Tamers, rushing to his side. The teen did not return their joyful smiles.
"Do you know what you've done?" he seethed, kneeling beside Monodramon to help him stand. They thought at first that he was speaking to his partner, but he turned his angry gaze to Juri. "Do you realize what's been unleashed?!"
Juri was taken aback by his accusation. "I...I had to stop you," she said simply, looking to the others for support. "I thought you'd be happy we got that thing out of Monodramon."
Ryo clenched his fists in frustration, then shook his head and sighed, forcing himself to relax. "You couldn't have known..." he said softly, climbing back to his feet. "That thing is Zeed-Milleniumon. He's an extremely powerful and indestructible digimon, not to mention psychotic. He's also my partner."
The other Tamer Megas stared at him in surprise. "But what about Monodramon?" asked SaintGalgomon, glancing at the small purple dragon.
"The only way we could control Zeed was by merging him and Monodramon together," Ryo explained. "My D-Arc helped control his rages. But now, left on his own, he'll try conquering the world again. I have to go after him."
"Then we're coming with you!" Dukemon exclaimed.
"You can't. Only I have the power to travel through time."
Sakuyamon shook her head in disbelief. "Through time? Since when could you do that?"
Ryo raised his D-Arc and pointed it at the place the dark serpents had disappeared. A light from the digivice shot outwards and reopened the hole in space.
"Since ENIAC gave me the power, but that was in a different time and a whole other dimension. Look guys, I'm sorry I never told you any of this--to be honest, I was hoping I could leave my past behind. The truth is that I'm not from your world. I traveled here hoping I could finally find a place to call home, but now I see that my mission isn't finished. I wish I could stay and help you guys out, but I'm sure you'll be okay without me."
Monodramon wore a bemused expression as he listened to their exchange. "What about me?" he finally asked Ryo.
The Legendary Tamer offered him a grim smile. "Well buddy, I'd say you owe me a few favors for what you put me through. Besides, I can't control Zeed without your help." The digimon nodded in understanding.
"Okay, I help!"
Ryo turned to the others and flashed them his trademark smile. "Take care of yourselves, guys. Maybe we'll see each other again, but if not, thanks for all the great memories." He clutched Monodramon's shoulder as they braced for the jump.
"Ready, buddy? Okay, one...two...go!"
The pair vanished through the opening, which disappeared a second later. The Tamers continued to stare at the place they had been,
"Well, that was...different," said SaintGalgomon after a long moment of silence.
"Juri, where did you get that card?" asked Dukemon suddenly. "That one wasn't in my deck."
"And I've never even heard of it before," frowned Sakuyamon. Juri handed her the card, and the fox digimon read the inscriptions aloud.
"Huanglongmon, Mega level god-beast digimon. Guardian of the center of the Digital World." Ruki examined his statistics. "This guy's really strong. His powers are over light and darkness; life and destruction. No wonder his card was able to take apart the data from merged humans and Digimon."
"So he's a Sovereign?" asked Beelzebumon in surprise, glancing at the four other god-beasts.
"Piiipopa." Do you think that card will work on Baihumon and HighAndromon? asked MarineAngemon.
"Oh!" gasped Juri suddenly. "I think I know...."
Qinglongmon nodded weakly. "Light and Darkness, the final two elements of the Digital World. They have been here all along, but in a different form."
"Culumon and Calamon--the D-Reaper," Juri finished.
"That giant blob has a name now?" snickered Beelzebumon.
"It doesn't look like that anymore," frowned Sakuyamon. "Or at least, it didn't before it merged with Culumon. Now I guess it looks like this." She passed him the card.
"Culumon told me he would help it learn right from wrong. They both just wanted to fulfill their true purpose, without hurting anyone again," said Juri sadly.
SaintGalgomon whistled in amazement. "So they became a Sovereign. That's really something."
"Speaking of which-" said Dukemon, eying the other Holy Beasts, "Shouldn't we be doing something about these guys?"
Zhuqiaomon ruffled his feathers angrily. Xuanwumon's four eyes narrowed. To everyone's surprise, Baihumon and Qinglongmon stepped in front of them, defending them from any attack.
"Just as Culumon's guiding the D-Reaper, Baihumon and I will guide the other Sovereign. We won't ever allow something like this to happen again," promised Qinglongmon.
"Shiuchon, you're talking like you're gonna be sticking around this place," frowned SaintGalgomon.
"That's because I am. Me and Baihumon both."
"Nothin' doing!" snarled Beelzebumon. "I'm not letting that miserable goblin keep my brother!" He glowed for a moment, then split back into Ai and Impmon. The girl grabbed her digivice and the card Sakuyamon had handed to her. Before anyone could stop her, she slashed it through her digivice and pointed it at Baihumon.
"Digimodify! Huanglongmon's Tai Chi, activate!"
The glowing Yin Yang disk appeared around Impmon. The little digimon looked up at his Tamer uncertainly.
"No! If you separate them, Baihumon will cease to be! Chaos will return to the Digital Plane!" cried Qinglongmon.
"Then you'll just have to find someone else to replace him! Impmon, release the disk!" ordered Ai.
The others could do nothing but watch as the circle of red and green light came to rest over the tiger Sovereign. He looked at Ai with an expression of sadness, doing nothing to defend himself as the power of the disk ripped apart his data.
Makato materialized on one end, while a green goblin digimon with spiky yellow hair appeared at the other. The Tamers recognized it as a Shamamon, the de-evolved form of Sepikmon.
Immediately the cold weather and dark clouds returned. Ai shivered and ran towards her brother, unable to stop herself from hugging him despite her anger and disappointment. She felt tears welling in her eyes.
"Ai," whispered Mako. "I'm sorry."
"Not as much as you're gonna be when we get home," said his sister, laughing and sobbing at the same time.
Makato pulled himself away from her. "I'm sorry, Ai," he repeated. "But I can't go back with you. I have to stay here with Shamamon."
The anger quickly returned to his sister's face. "What do you mean? Mako, stop being an idiot! Impmon's your partner, not that ugly creature!"
Makato's furious glare startled Ai into silence. "He saved my life, and if you insult him, you're insulting me, too. We're joined, now. He's as much my partner as Impmon ever was!"
Shamamon, who had dropped to his knees in supplication before the Megas, lifted his head in surprise and hope as he heard the Tamer speak. Suddenly a glowing digivice appeared in front of Mako, similar to the one Ai wore, but with the white and purple colors inverted. The boy snatched it out of the air and held it proudly before him, as if he had always expected it to be there.
Ai's gaze dropped the ground as her shoulders sagged in defeat. She just didn't have the energy or will to fight anymore.
Makato turned his gaze to Impmon. The digimon looked crestfallen, but when he noticed Mako watching him, he gave him a tight smile and tried to look more cheerful.
With hesitant steps, the boy approached him. "Impmon...."
"Look, I'm happy for you, kid. We've had some good times, and I'll never forget them. But things change, I know that. I just hope you..." the digimon paused to sniffle and wipe away his tears, "You just take care of yourself, capiche?"
"Impmon, we're still partners. We always will be," Mako reminded him. "I love you and Ai with all my heart. That's why I want you to keep an eye on each other. Because some day I'll come back, and then I want all of us to be a family again."
Impmon's eyes widened in surprise. "You promise?" he asked tentatively.
"Promise," affirmed the boy, giving his partner a tight hug. Impmon sighed and returned the embrace.
"Guys, take care of yourselves, all of you," said Makato, addressing the rest of the Tamers and their digimon. "Shiuchon and I will do our best to keep this world in one piece. But there may be times when we need to call on a little extra help."
"We'll be ready," said Dukemon, speaking for all of them. Mako nodded and turned to Shamamon. The boy extended his right hand, and after an initial moment of shock, the goblin reached out and clasped it in his own.
An evolution sphere formed over them, hiding them from view. Soon it burst open to reveal Baihumon, who no longer looked quite so wild as before. Now that the Mega was no longer fully under Shamamon's control, Mako could finally express himself.
"Thanks for everything, guys! Please tell our parents not to worry."
"Easier said than done," muttered Ai and SaintGalgomon in unison, exchanging a look.
The four Sovereign nodded at each other, and suddenly they were gone.
"Geez, our group just keeps getting smaller," remarked Sakuyamon with a grimace. "Anyone else planning on staying behind?"
Most eyes were now on Juri and Elecmon. The two eyed each other uncertainly, though to everyone's surprise, the first to speak was SaintGalgomon.
"I'll stay, at least for a little while. Terriermon has a lot to atone for, and I don't want him to have to go through that alone."
"I...I think I'll stay, too," said Juri finally, exchanging a look with her partner. "Leomon can still do a lot of good around here."
"My Mega do even more good," suggested Elecmon with a wink.
"Maybe..." Juri allowed, though she still looked uncertain.
"Well...well then I'm staying too!" cried Dukemon.
"Pipipo." We can't all stay. Someone has to go back and tell our parents!
"Yeah, you know they won't be happy about this," Ruki reminded them. "Jen and Shiuchon might be able to get away with it because of their dad. Ai, you're going to have a really hard time convincing your family to let Mako stay. And Juri-"
"They won't stop me," said the girl confidently. "They know that I never really got over what happened to me before. If I tell them that what I do here will help, they'll let me go. But you-" she said, turning to Dukemon. "You have no excuse."
The knight looked shaken. "But Juri, I can't just leave you here!"
"I'll have Elecmon with me. And the others who are staying."
"But-"
Juri reached over and planted a quick kiss on the Mega's cheek. "I'll be all right. I need to do this first, okay? Then later when I come home, there'll be time for other things."
Dukemon didn't know what to say. Impmon broke the awkward silence with a graceful leap aboard Grani.
"So when's the next train outta here, huh? I'm missing all my soaps!"
MarineAngemon peeped something in reply.
"Oh yeah? Well at least I don't watch cartoons!"
"Whoa, what happened?"
Hirokazu looked up at the sky to discover in surprise that the Earth cybersphere was nowhere in sight. His eyes darted left and right at the trees and benches lining a small dirt path in the park.
"Ai used the Huanglongmon card on you," chuckled Kenta, who stood nearby with Tsukaimon on his shoulder. Impmon, Ruki, Renamon, Takato, and Guilmon were also there, smiling down at him. Along with one other.
"You!" cried Kazu, hastily backing away from the gear-shaped digimon beside him. "You loaded my data!"
The Haguramon winced. Before it could muster an apology, Ruki advanced on Kazu angrily.
"You should be thanking him!" she cried. "He saved your life, and as HighAndromon, he fought against the Sovereign, the rebels and Ryo, and helped us save the Digital World!"
"He was very brave," agreed Ai.
"He was? I mean...yeah, of course he was, 'cause he was merged with me! And we were...wait, we were HighAndromon?!" Kazu shrieked. "And I was unconscious the whole time? My moment of glory and I missed it?"
"You sleep. I do all work," grumbled the Haguramon.
Kazu and Haguramon continued to argue back and forth, though the rest of the group could tell that the two were only being playful. Everyone was relieved to be home, and most of all, they were grateful to be alive.
Of course, nothing from then on would ever be the same. They would have to adjust to the changes wrought by the reformatting, which had altered much more than the digimon and their world.
In a way, the Tamers, too, had been reformatted. But, as Takato and the others would eventually discover, change was not always such a bad thing....
THE END
* Final notes - a story about the story: This fic began with the idea of reformatting the DW, and what that might mean to the Tamers and their digimon (plus it allowed me to bring Leomon back, which I always wanted because he's just too cool). Then I realized that bringing everyone back as a digi-egg would essentially take away the Sovereign, and I considered what effect that might have on the DW, since they're essentially its guardians. Then I realized that Antiramon can evolve to Qinglongmon according to the cards, and thought up the idea of switching Lopmon's Mega from Cherubimon to Qinglongmon, making him one of the new Sovereign. I wanted to have more than just a single Tamer Sovereign, but none of the others' digimon could evolve into one, so I essentially had to pick a new partner and give it to Ai or Mako, who otherwise had to share one digimon between them. Going backwards, I looked at all the de-evolutions of all the forms for the three remaining Sovereign, and settled on Shamamon (mostly because I thought Sepikmon was cool--and this was before he appeared in '04). In trying to decide between Ai and Mako, I wondered how the two would have gotten along with Shiuchon, who was also around their age. I decided to give Shiuchon a crush on Mako, given their common involvement in the project, and realized that if Mako was also a Sovereign, they would get to spend more time together as they helped rebuild the DW (I had this cute idea for a picture of Qinglongmon and Baihumon snuggling together, but I never got around to drawing it). So I wrote Books 1 and 2 with only those ideas in mind, not really having any plan beyond that (except that eventually they would have to run into the D-Reaper, and that the Sovereign would be messing things up because they were new on the job and had no clue what they were doing). The idea of the Sovereign having lackeys to do their dirty work seemed natural (they once had Devas, after all), so I decided to give them a new breed of 'Chosen', and thought it was perfect irony to have Terriermon instead of Lopmon be the servant this time. Even better, the fact that Terriermon has a different Ultimate form (golden armor) in the cards/movie thanks to the digimental of Fate gave me the idea that the other Chosen would also be golden armored 'Fate' digimon (Maildramon and Gold V-dramon). Even though those two are supposedly Champion-level, I had their extra status as 'Chosen' make them Ultimate level. Eventually I knew there had to be an ultra-villain in the story. I considered making it the D-Reaper again, but a lot of people hated having a non-digimon be the Big Bad of '03. I had to do something with the D-Reaper now that I'd introduced him, though, and that's when I came upon a card of Huanglongmon, the 5th Sovereign (yes, he exists! So do Raijinmon, Fujinmon and Sujinmon, by the way). Reading that his attack was 'Tai Chi', along with speculation that his yin-yang attack involved light and darkness (the last two "elements" of the DW, which were brought up in '04 but never in '03), I decided that Culumon and the D-Reaper combined should turn into this guy. But why would two low level digimon turn into a Mega? At first I considered having them use a human as a catalyst (Juri is the obvious choice), but then at the last minute I decided against having yet another human trapped inside a digimon. I figured it would be enough if she got the two talking peacefully, and that they would have enough power between them to go to Mega anyway. But then my problem was that Huanglongmon would be much too strong an opponent. He would also be much too strong an ally. So I only let him appear at the end, and even then, only through his card. So again I needed a new villain. And that's when I figured I'd make Ryo and the three 'jin digimon the Big Bad (especially when I learned they show up in the Digimon World 3 game right before the end). And it helped that I learned Monodramon was really merged with Zeed-Milleniumon, the big villain in yet another series of Digimon games. So it all actually worked out perfectly. And since I made Huanglongmon's attack be able to split apart data, I figured it was bound to split Zeed from Monodramon again, and I had yet another twist to the story.
So yes, this was a very complicated fic, which started as a simple random posting on Pojo's old board. And now here it is, finished. *sniff* Ah well, all good things must come to an end. Maybe there'll be more, if I find time and other good ideas. I'm glad to know others enjoyed it too. So big thanks again to all you who let me know this thing was worth finishing. I'll try to repay the favor. See ya 'round.
-Vashkoda