Chapter 31: When Worlds Collide
"We've got to get away from here!!!" Chris yelled out, trying to stand up and get everybody together.
"We are away! Look!!!" Tempesmon yelled out as the rumbling continued, the earthquake steadily intensifying. She pointed out over the Dark Ocean, no longer dark. In front of them, a terrifyingly huge mass of data swirled about from where the Daemon Corps had been but a moment before. Everybody looked up at the cloud of data that swirled before them.
"What the hell is that!?" Kristen yelled out from the ground, her eyes wide with fear.
"I think we should try and digivolve guys." Joey stood up, teetering a little, fighting to keep his balance on the violently shaking ground.
"They're merging!" Tentomon called out from the air, shaking as well, trying to stay airborne. "That data that crashed from the Dark Ocean, it was Millenniumon's! They're coming together!!!"
"If I could only digivolve!" Agumon looked nervously at the mass of data, spinning ever faster.
"But this doesn't make sense!" Chris called out. "How are we here!? What's happening!? And why won't this ground stop shaking!?"
"The worlds are coming together Chris. They're finally becoming one. When they're done," Agumon pointed at the endless cluster of data, "he'll be done." Dark clouds spouted from the mass of data, spewing forth into the skies, shooting across them and reaching to the horizon almost instantly. A few moments passed and the data began to slow down, the quaking reaching its zenith. Finally, the data collapsed in on itself, the shaking stopped, and a wave of darkness blasted out across the face of the planet. Silence ensued. Floating in the air in front of the digidestined was Armageddamon, the Digi-Deity of Darkness.
"Mwa ha ha ha ha…" His deep voice bellowed as he looked himself over. "It is good to be back." Armageddamon's red skin burned in the darkness, his wings stretching across for yards. A pair of horns curled out from his head, a ring hanging from his flat nose. Fire seemed to burn in his eyes, striking fear into the hearts of the digidestined. Light fell into his black armor, never escaping its clutches. He was hell incarnate in every sense. "Ah, I can feel it again. The power that once was taken from me so rashly is once again mine, and even more than before." The demon snorted a laugh.
"We digidestined have prevailed in the darkest of times before, Armageddamon! We'll prevail now!" Chris yelled out at the beast.
"I think not." Armageddamon lowered down from the sky, his wide wings flapping slowly. He landed on the ground in front of the digidestined and it buckled beneath him. He was only nine feet tall, small in comparison to many digimon, but so much power resonated from him that space and time bent in towards him. "You see, I have no match. Those digivices were created by those weaker than me." He threw his hand up, which looked like claws from the long, discolored nails. The digivices floated into the air, a dark light emerging from them. "So how can you expect them to do anything to me?" He shook his hand and the digivices turned towards their keepers. "They are mine now, and so shall they do my bidding." He threw his hand down and blasts of darkness emerged from them, slamming into the digidestined. However, they were not thrown back like they were with most attacks, but were held in place, taking the full brunt of the pain. Tempesmon was hit hardest; the powers of her digivice had been completely unlocked from her warpdigivolution. She quickly devolved, the darkness engulfing Jennifer, blocking her from the others' sight. All of them screamed in pain; Agumon and Tentomon sharing the pain of their partners. "Heh."
"Ohhh…" My consciousness returned to me, but pain shot through my data. "How can I be in pain? I'm a ghost?" I looked around me at the barren, black lands around me. "Gennai? Gennai!? Where are you?"
"I'm sorry James, but it's over." I turned around and saw an unfamiliar digi-ghost.
"Who are you?"
"You may call me Mr. Hida, but you once knew me as Gennai."
"Hida? Wait… isn't that."
"Yes, it is. As I said before, becoming a Digi-Agent is one of your choices when you die in the Digital World."
"Then you mean…" My eyes widened at the realization that hit me.
"Yes, I am who you believe me to be." Cody's father sighed heavily and turned away. "When I was younger, my son's age, Oikawa and I loved video games. We loved them so much that we began to make our own, eventually experimenting with digital coding itself. However, before we ever made any real breakthroughs, I lost my life, shortly after Cody was born."
"But how… how did you get to the Digital World?"
"I never made it there as you see me now. Instead, I faced the same predicament you now face." He floated a little closer to me, fatigue in the old ghost's eyes. "When I died, the worlds were close, very close. My consciousness became data, my body becoming so too once I was buried. My data was found by Azulongmon, and he told me about the Digital World, that my wildest dreams were true." I stared in amazement as he slowly approached me. "He told me that sooner or later, my blood would help save this world, and that I would have a chance to help it, if I became a Digi-Agent."
"So you became Gennai because you knew Cody was going to become a digidestined."
"Precisely." Cody's father was floating directly in front of me now. "I became the agent directly in charge of guiding the digidestined to what they had been chosen to be as best as I could. True, there were failures along the way, but I'm only human." I looked at him confusedly. "Well… sort of."
"But why are you a ghost now?"
"Because the Digital World has become too unstable to support the Digi-Agents. I am a ghost because Armageddamon has returned; my services no longer needed or worthwhile."
"So what, is that it? We lost?"
"I guess so. All I know is that my time on this world is spent, my help now no longer of any assistance you anybody."
"So what… do you plan to do?"
"Remember when I said… that I don't know what happens when you release your data?" Mr. Hida turned around and floated away, his 'arms' behind his back.
"Yeah."
"Well, I think… that I'm ready to face whatever happens." My eyes widened. "You know James, I think that there is a God, that he is waiting for me."
"Gennai this is insanity. There has to be something we can do!"
"No James, it is over. I wish I could go and tell you what happens, but apparently I won't be able to do that. I've helped you as much as I can, and there is no more I can tell you. I hope that… I was of some service." Tears came to my eyes.
"Please no Gennai, don't go. We won't stand a chance without you." Mr. Hida's ghost began to dissipate. He turned around as he did.
"There is one last thing." I didn't say a word. "Your digivice lies in the SLED headquarters in Columbia. It is in the evidence locker. You shouldn't have a hard time finding it."
"Why are you telling me this?" I wiped the fragmented data of my tears away.
"Because… I still believe that you are not a ghost because of the worlds. I believe that whatever powers that be have but greater plans for you." Gennai's data finally dissipated and he was no more.
"Goodbye Gennai. We'll never forget you." I lowered my head before the ground finally stopped shaking completely. I looked around me and tried to figure out where I was, but couldn't tell directions because dark clouds blocked the sun. "I hope you're right; at least partially." At that moment, I felt it. My digivice was glowing in the far distance, upon the horizon, calling to me. "Heaven help me." I blasted off into the distance, my speed beyond that of any living creature. Being dead has its perks.
"Please… no… please… AH!" Jennifer woke and sat up quickly, looking around herself. Everybody was knocked out from Armageddamon's attack. There were no scars; his attack left no physical damage other than the overwhelming pain it caused. Their digivices had been left with them, the darkness gone with Armageddamon. He was nowhere to be seen. "Chris? Joey? Agumon? Kristen? Tentomon? Are you guys okay?" She got to her feet, a tingling sensation in her head. Something was different. Chris was the first to stir.
"Ohhh man. What the hell hit me?" Jennifer ran over to him as he opened his eyes. He looked at Jennifer, blinked a few times, rubbed his eyes, and blinked some more. "Jennifer?"
"What?"
"What happened? Did you try to digivolve again or something?"
"What do you mean?"
"Your visor… I mean Kazemon's visor… it's pushed up on your head." Jennifer was a bit taken aback and stepped away as Chris stood up. She slowly reached her hand up to her head and sure enough, resting upon her hair, similar to the way my shades used to rest upon my own, was a white, metal visor: Kazemon's visor.
"How? What the…?" Jennifer could also feel a fluttering further back in her hair. She reached back and felt a small pair of wings poking out of her hair. Hanging around her neck was the Crest of Love. "What's going on?"
"I guess…" Kristen pushed herself from the ground, "that humans aren't meant to take on so much power. No human has ever actually digivolved themselves to Mega before."
"What about Takuya and all those other spirit kids?" Joey pushed up from the black ground, joining in the conversation.
"Well they were just embodying spirits, they themselves weren't actually the thing changing; the spirits were." Kristen quickly replied. "I guess when you devolved from Tempesmon, traces of energy were still left over."
"I do feel different. I feel… lighter." Jennifer closed her eyes and breathed deeply, a slight wind blew.
"Well we can figure this out later." Chris looked at Agumon as he woke up. "We have to find Armageddamon."
"Why?" Kristen looked out over the Atlantic, which now resembled the Dark Ocean; only the light was still normal, not negative. "It's like he said, we don't stand a chance. He can even control our digivices."
"We have to do something." Jennifer looked off to the south. "We're all that stands in his way."
SLED: the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. You'd think they would put a 'C' in there, but then it wouldn't make an actual word, which would be just insanity. I rocketed in front of the building, where just a few days before I had destroyed Lucemon upon it's front lawn. Now that lawn was gone, a black earth had replaced it. Life had long since passed away from the city; the nuclear plant at Savannah River Site had failed, melting down. I fought back my emotions thinking of my parents. I passed through the walls, following my digivice's call. I quickly found the evidence locker and passed through the heavy, locked, iron door. Inside, on a table by itself, was my digivice, black and white as it had always been. As I approached, static came onto the screen. A soft light emanated from it.
"Please let me hold at least this." I reached down and picked it up, somewhat surprised that I had been able to do so. "Okay, now what?" I looked down at my digivice and I could feel a dark power like never before coming from it. "What the hell?" Suddenly, visions popped into my head, pictures of thousands, millions all dying simultaneously; all at Armageddamon's hands. Even the digital ghosts of those who had died were being taken, all being absorbed into this one deity. I could feel this power drawing upon me. "Who is left? Please tell me, there is somebody left." I looked into the screen of the digivice and could see them. Chris, Agumon, Joey, Kristen, Tentomon, and Jennifer; they were walking towards the ruins of New York. It had been crushed by Armageddamon in the blink of an eye. The ruins looked familiar, like something out of a dream, a nightmare. Then I saw him. My eyes narrowed as I watched Armageddamon flying towards them, the last humans alive: the digidestined. "I'm coming guys." The digivice took the same ghostly density as myself and I blasted through the empty building, into the sky, and off to the north.
"I can't believe that anything could do something like this." Kristen looked in awe at the destruction of New York City.
"Believe it Kristen," Tentomon flew after his partner, "because it is what we are up against that caused this." They walked long the shattered, devastated buildings, dark clouds overhead, a cold wind blowing. Only the skeletons of the buildings remained; ruinous remains as if they had all been smitten by forces from beyond what they had ever known.
"I think we're the last ones." Jennifer looked around. "Everybody's gone. Everybody…" She shook a little at the thought.
"Mom… Dad…" Joey thought of his parents, as did everybody else. Chris looked up and turned around to his crew.
"Come on guys. We're digidestined damnit! What is always the darkest hour is always our finest! We've been in ruts before, faced darkness that seems indestructible, and always come out on top! We faced Myotismon, Lucemon, Blackwargreymon; hell, we even took on our own friends to get where we are today!" Everybody looked up, new life coming into their eyes. "Yeah, sure, it may be over. We may be done. Our existence may be just a pipe dream. But I'm not going down without a fight!" Chris pulled out his digivice. "If Armageddamon wants our data, then he's gonna have to fight for it!!!"
"YEAH!!!" Everybody let out a unanimous cheer at Chris' little speech.
"So let's do it. One last time." Chris looked down at his digivice for a moment before holding it out. "For us…"
"For mom…" Joey held out his.
"For dad…" Kristen did as well.
"For James…" Jennifer held hers out and they all closed their eyes, the digivices glowing. A few moments later, four digimon stood, ready for battle. Tempesmon, Wargreymon, Polamon, and Megakabuterimon. Chris and Kristen stood back, looking at their friends as they readied for their last battle.