Reality Redux
By ArchangelUK & Digicowboy

AAUK: Well here it is, the Keymaster is about to be revealed!
DC: Who is it.
AAUK: Read the damn thing and find out.... tsk... Anyways we do not own Digimon just this copy of Davis Motomiya's 'Yoga Noodle Masterclass'.
DC: Hey can i borrow that?
AAUK: ...

Chapter 28 - Digipocalypse Now (Part 1): Ligatus

Where the four Mega level Digimon had stood a crater now marked the spot, scattered around it were the injured bodies of Gatomon, Patamon, Agumon and Gabumon. As Dragomon withdrew his claw from the road TK, Tai, Kari and Matt made a run for their partners, gathering their injured friends into their arms they managed to scramble back to the main group as Aquillamon, ExVeemon and Garudamon gave cover.

"Kari..." Gatomon whimpered curling up into a ball, the girl pushed one of her bangs behind her ear out of the way as she looked down on her friend.

"I'm here Gatomon, ssh, I'm here."

"Is P-Patamon o-okay?"

"I'm sure he's fine."

"Where is he?"

"TK?"

"Over here!"

"Where's Patamon?"

"With me, he's not so good." TK called, looking down at the little orange Digimon who was smothered in red grazes. "You get better Patamon."

"Where's Gatomon?" The little Digimon squeaked, concerned eyes straining to see in the direction Kari's voice had come from.

"You're just as bad as each other you two." TK grinned and delicately picked Patamon up, then ran to where Kari was. "Here you go, easy now." TK placed the two friends next to each other, there was mutual checking if the other was okay before Kari realised Dragomon and Myotismon were unaffected by the attacks being thrown at them.

"What's happening? Why isn't it doing any damage?"

"Blast Rings!"

"V-Laser!"

"Wing Blade!"

"It's no good!" Davis cried out as the final attack like the others preceding it failed to make the slightest bit of difference. Everyone looked on in awe as Dragomon and Myotismon lashed out claws, tentacles and limbs in all directions sending every Digimon still standing straight back to the rookie level.

"How the hell?" Sora said, cradling Biyomon's dazed form in his lap but the question it seems would not be answered as the two Digimon turned to face each other. Each seemed to smile at the same time, though it was difficult to discern whether Dragomon was smiling with that big squid-like face of his. Both seemed oblivious to the DigiDestined below them, they were nothing to them now, less than nothing. The children who had bothered them for so long were now merely leftovers, ants waiting to be crushed beneath their feet.

Meanwhile two figures stood, somehow, at the entrance of what remained of a small Japanese shop, small bits of glass were stuck to their clothes, one wore a ripped leather coat, the other was bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow and stooped to pick up a staff of a rich dark wood.

Ben felt dizzy, everything seemingly kept crash zooming in and out, and he felt as though his lungs were full of bees or wasps. His chest was a mass of pins and needles, it hurt to breath and the cut above his eye was swelling and stung like the blazes.

"What's going on?" He croaked; the Digimon were trying to get up as best as they could some were trying to Digivolve again with mixed success. They were cowering though; their partners were trying to drag them away but a mixture of fear and courage kept them from moving. It was at this moment that the possessed human previously known as Yamashita chose to speak.

"The time... Has finally come."

A cloud of data shot out of Yamashita's mouth and the decaying remains of the portly former Toei executive hit the floor, turning to dust in seconds. The data cloud whirled around the Myotismon & Dragomon, protecting them from anything that might attempt an attack.

"Our task is complete." Myotismon smiled a fang-toothed smile, "And our destiny is assured."

"This... Can't be good." Angelus murmured, struggling to get the words out.

"Since when is it ever good?!" Ben grumbled and began pulling the Gatekeeper roughly in the direction of Mimi and Cody. "Can you see properly?"

"No."

"Do you know what's going on?"

"Not particularly."

"Oh goody."

"What's that light?" Angelus blinked and held up a hand to ward off the brightness, Ben looked confused as the cloud began to rotate faster.

"What light?" Suddenly Angelus's head snapped backwards, and he was no longer on Ben's shoulder. "What the fudge nuggets?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Angelus looked around in confusion, he was back in a bank of white cloud and his shoulders slumped as an all too familiar figure came into sight. "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore..."

"Our time grows short." Gatekeeper said, floating a good two feet in the air.

"This isn't the best of times for a chat you know." Angelus growled as Archangel ran up and skidded to a halt beside the warrior angel, after a couple of puffs for air the other version of Angelus nodded.

"No it isn't." He too glowered at Gatekeeper, "This certainly wasn't my doing."

"This foe," Gatekeeper began, "Isn't like anything you've faced before - it is beyond you all. The only thing that can defeat it is the one thing you refuse to accept, that which you have partly denied."

"...What????"

"Only the Gatekeeper can defeat the Keymaster in battle, with the aide of a Traveller. To do so however you must embrace that which you have partly denied."

"Meaning?"

"Me." Archangel blinked at Gatekeeper as though he had grown an extra head.

"You said you... I mean me."

"We are aware of this." Gatekeeper said coldly reverting back to his plural speaking.

"I have to embrace you?" Angelus sweat dropped and his eyebrows rose dangerously high up his forehead.

"Yes."

"Look not... now okay..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Angelus flashed a couple of times then re-materialised on Ben's shoulder, the Traveller tore his eyes away from the two evil Digimon and focused on his friend. "What the hell happened there?"

"Not now..." Angelus muttered, then realised where he was. Ben looked down at him totally puzzled. "Gatekeeper - don't ask."

"I won't."

Suddenly sparks began to fly from the data cloud and a strange noise filled the air, it was the sound of a scream, a bone-shattering scream. It was followed rapidly by two voices.

"Ready?" Dragomon asked cautiously, the vampire nodded.

"Myotismon!"

"Dragomon!"

"DARK DNA DIGIVOLVE TOO...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Ben? Ben?

Mother?

The time for your Ascension has will soon come.

Ascension?

You will become the Prime Traveller - The Alzari. You must aide the Gatekeeper in the upcoming conflict.

What must I do?

Be yourself... and hope Angelus can still be himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another swarm of data appeared and smashed into the first cloud, penetrating it and the merging forms of Dragomon and Myotismon. A maddened chuckle rang through the deserted streets and everyone stared wide-eyed at the glowing form now in the centre of the original data mass.

"Who's that." Cody whispered, Angelus and Ben finally stumbled over and fell in a heap beside him, Ben clutched at his ribs and closed his eyes in pain. Angelus held himself up by a hand to look at the new figure, his features twisted into a snarl as he took in the newcomer and realised who it was just as two voices now a singular voice called out it's name in triumph.

"...PIEDMON!"

"WHAT?" Was the chorus of the DigiDestined as the clown floated out of his protective cocoon and to a position above the chosen children.

"Oh it's so good to be myself again... And lookee here everyone's grown up so much!" He looked around at Ken, Davis, Yolei and Cody in turn and gave a beaming smile. "And new friends! Oh this is wonderful!"

"What do you want!" Ken demanded, stepping in front of Yolei with Wormmon at his heel.

"Are you the Keymaster?" Tai demanded, the clown blinked hard and looked towards Kari.

"Never the brightest one was he."

"HEY!" Tai yelled, but Piedmon didn't take any notice.

"Key chain master perhaps." Piedmon laughed, holding a hand to his face to try and stifle it. "No, I am not the Keymaster, let me introduce her though."

"Ben! Get them out of here!" Angelus yanked on the Traveller's sleeve.

"What?" Ben said loudly, "Hello, we need all the help we can get!"

Piedmon roared triumphantly as the cloud that had come out of the remains of Yamashita glowed a deep red then forced it's way into the manic clown. His eyes immediately glowed the same shade and intensity of colour an evil booming laugh echoed around the deserted streets of Tokyo.

"That voice wasn't Piedmon's." Izzy said in awe.

"The who's was it then?" Davis demanded.

"How the hell should I know!"

"You're the brains of the outfit!"

"Davis." Tentomon buzzed, "Belt up!"

The Gatekeeper continued to plead with Ben to transport the others away but still he would not do it.

"Why?"

"Now's not the time for questions!"

"Alright, alright." Ben raised his staff and the golden sphere atop it flared brightly. Angelus looked around at he spectacular sight - of nothing happening.

"It's not working." Ben said aghast and growled at the staff banging it against the side of a lamppost.

"What do you mean it's not working?" Angelus grabbed him by the collar, "I ask you to do ONE thing and you're telling me it's not working?"

"I dunno, maybe the batteries are dead. Stupid thing."

Piedmon's cry of triumph/ecstasy resumed as the mega Digimon seemed to grow bigger, shooting up 20 feet in a matter of seconds.

"My god!" Izzy's laptop was going into meltdown.

"What now?" Mimi whined, as the rest of the DigiDestined rejoined the main group.

"This is... impossible." Izzy stammered, "He's digivolving again!"

"But he's a mega! There isn't anything ABOVE mega!" Tai yelled at the Barer of Knowledge, Izzy growled and shoved him away, almost two metres backwards.

"What the hell do you think I thought!"

The growing harlequin Digimon was now far too big for the space it had occupied and it was pushing over several buildings. There was a shower of sparks as the red glow came into contact with steel and concrete, debris from the collision rained downwards thankfully nowhere near the DigiDestined. A sickening groan could be heard as the top half fell and then the bottom half collapsed underneath it, Yolei, Jun, Kari and Mimi screamed as a cloud of dust rapidly flew towards them along the ground. Matt shielded Jun as the wave of dust slammed into them, TK had pulled Kari and Mimi back round behind the wall where the injured Patamon and Gatomon were. Ken dived on top of Yolei to protect her whilst the others were able to shelter behind various street objects. The collapse/implosion of the building, a thankfully long ago deserted office block for the Toyota motor company had caught Ben and Angelus out in the open. Both had been blown back off of their feet but had since struggled back upright for the second time, Ben was now all but dragging the Gatekeeper forward.

"Ben!" Joe left his position with Sora and ran out to help the two back behind the remains of a series of phone boxes. They made it with some difficulty, Ben and Angelus had a variety of injuries - the Traveller was still bleeding from the cut on his head, the Gatekeeper's wings seemed lifeless and the white feathers were stained red in places from an injury somewhere or the other.

"Angelus, are you okay?" Sora held her boyfriend upright, putting pressure on the gash along his cheek.

"Oh, hey beautiful." Angelus managed, "Where's Ben?"

"I'm here Wingy."

"What's going on?" Izzy cried as he flung himself beside them, Piedmon had seemingly stopped growing but was now pulsing with the same red glow the cloud had possessed previously.

"Hybrid digivolution." Angelus announced, gingerly getting onto his knees.

"What the hell is Hybrid Digivolution?" Sora tried to keep Angelus still while she replaced the cloth on his face.

"The level above mega, it comes from Digimon Frontier. That's well, two TV series after yours."

"You actually remember something from Frontier?" Ben asked, sneaking a peek at the static Piedmon.

"Oh shut up. It's a slow process, not like Warp Digivolving and as Piedmon's merging with that cloud I'm assuming it's even slower. We haven't got long though, you DigiDestined guys need to get as far back as you can."

"What are you going to do?" Gomamon asked, "Come on we can take this guy, we can help!"

"There's nothing really you can do, it's up to us."

"Whoaaaa there!" Ben said putting his hands up in a 'timeout' signal, "US????"

"Yes."

"No way!"

"I can't do it on my own."

"You fought through a whole army of Scubamon on your own."

"You forget I had a bloody great axe and they surprisingly moved out of the way sharpish when they saw me swoop down with it."

"Still..." Ben began but was cut off by the booming voice of Piedmon.

"PIEDMON HYBRID DIGIVOLVE TOO... ARNAKMON!"

"Arnakmon?" Sora choked as the red glow dissipated revealing a massive arachnid-like creature, towering over everything with eight red and black stripped legs a bulberous body and a head featuring a set of mandibles and at the same time two fanged teeth. Eight purple eyes shone outwards through the dusty gloom.

"Of course." Angelus said, "It all makes sense."

"It does?" Gomamon asked Joe, "Since when did THAT happen."

"Gaaaaaaaaatekeeper." Arnakmon's voice was more snakelike than Angelus expected, the Keymaster smiled (as such) at him. "How nice to finally lay eyeeeeeeeees on you again."

"Ah crap." Angelus muttered and drew his sword from the sheath hidden behind his coat. Ben pulled himself upwards and joined Angelus in a rather un-nerving staring match with the Keymaster.

"Who is that?" Ben hissed, sensing he was in the dark about something.

"That is the Keymaster, or perhaps it should be Keymistress in this P.C age?"

"I like the old style besssst." Arnakmon laughed, "I am that which you cannot defeat."

"Arnakmon - the creature me and Jasmine fought, the Digimon Gennai told us about was the Keymaster after all. We could only seal Arnakmon away, your mother and I and now she is free." Angelus finished.

"Ah, Jasmine'ssssssssss progeny and the progeny of the Alzari." Arnakmon finally realised who Ben was, her eight eyes focused on the glowing staff in the Traveller's grip.

"What of it?"

"What's Alzari?" Angelus whispered to Ben.

"Ask me later."

"Is thisssssss all there isssss to stop me? A washed up Angelite and a boy pretending to be a man - ha, let ussss find out how fight rusty you really are Gatekeeper."

"Angelus!" Sora ran out beside the two, the Gatekeeper looked at the DigiDestined girl annoyed.

"Sora get back."

"But..."

"Take cover, you can do no more here." Ben ordered shaking his head.

"We've done so little though."

"Well it will have to do. This is between her and us now, it's always been his way - always between us."

"Yesssss Sora, always betweeeeen usssssssssss."

"Take care, and good luck." Sora kissed them both on the cheek before being dragged back by Biyomon.

"Go get 'em guys!" Davis cried out raucously, as the others took adequate safe vantage points.

Angelus readied his sword, "Well, this is it."

"You have a plan right?"

"Of course." Angelus grinned, "It consists of two parts."

"What's part one?"

"1) Kill it."

"And two?" Ben tightened the grip on his staff.

"2) Don't get killed in the process."

"Sounds good to me, good luck Angelus."

"Good luck Ben."

Then, with sword and staff raised the Gatekeeper and the Traveller charged...

To Be Continued....

Sora: The battle is joined! Who will triumph and if Ben and Angelus do will they be in time to stop Unification? It's a fight to the finish in the next chapter of Digimon: Reality Redux!

ArchangelUK 0:o)
Digicowboy c):o)
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