A/N: We've almost made it to the end! And yes, in case you were wondering, some parts of the Dark Archangel series were inspired by the movie Dogma. (It's definitely on my list of top ten favorite movies.) I have nothing more to say except there will be a third DA story coming this November… or December… or whatever. Also, I'd like to apologize for the shortness of this chapter, but the end of it would be a significant place for it to cut off. Enjoy!

Chapter 9
Identity

"Attack them!" commanded Myotismon Shadow Mode, pointing directly at the two fallen angels. "And don't spare the remains… of InfernoDevimon!"

"What!" exclaimed Toxidramon. "Why only him? He did nothing!"

"He's a traitor," said Daemon. "I've had a premonition of it the entire time."

"Why would I be a traitor?" The fallen fire angel feigned a sense of betrayal. "I have been on your side since the night I fell into this ocean!"

Daemon advanced on InfernoDevimon, a fiendish plot brewing in his head. His eyes had the evil twinkle that only sparkled when such inspiration befell their owner. "Really…" he murmured, obviously not believing InfernoDevimon. "If you truly are on our side, then you will kill him!" He thrusted his finger in the direction of Myotismon Celestial Mode. As InfernoDevimon's face fell and he began to stall, Daemon continued, "Don't worry… one blow and it will all be over. Once again we demons will live in the splendor and glory that is ours in ruling the Dark Ocean!"

The fire demon mouthed the words "Forgive me" to his friend, then adamantly formed a large ball of fire before his chest. He stared at the angel, whose ice-blue eyes were not pleading to be spared, but who knew that InfernoDevimon would never hurt him. With tears in his crimson eyes, he shouted, "PURGATORIAN HOLOCAUST!"

It happened slowly and fluidly, as if in a dream. The blazing cross of flames shot straight towards the vampire, not ceasing for anything. Myotismon realized that the demon's intention was not to attack him, but save himself as well as his friend. If he were to make it appear like he was attacking the vampire but not doing so, he would be alive and able to help him. Myotismon held out his arms and prepared himself to take it all in.

Before the cross could touch him, there came a freezing blast of air. He gasped… his breath staggered… he was breathing in pure liquid nitrogen! So many painful memories flooded back and flashed before his eyes, biting at him like he bit so many helpless victims, only they were being repeated tenfold. He could count every tear inside his victims' eyes and the horrified expressions on their faces before they shattered into thousands of pieces before his eyes… every surge of Crimson Lightning and ever scar from whipping his victims… every henchmon's trepidation and despondence as the bars of their dungeon cells shadowed their faces… every victim that wandered into his domain and was stolen away into his castle… every single henchmon he tortured until they begged for death—Gatomon… DemiDevimon… BlackGatomon… Minotauromon… Gazimon… Pumpkinmon… Gostumon… DemiDevimon… LadyDevimon… Gatomon… Daemon… Gatomon… Phantomon… Bakemon… WIZARDMON.

A million hands gripped at his throat and pulled him downward, below the sand, into the black waters of the Dark Ocean of his soul. The water was so ungodly freezing, it pressed down on his chest and made his heart cold and hard… there was no goodness, no hope, nothing.

And then an image befell him—he was in the normal Dark Ocean again, where he could vaguely see his own Shadow Mode confronting Daemon and InfernoDevimon, with MarineDevimon retreating into the depths, lest he lose his power or worse—get deleted. Toxidramon stared at them intently, with an expression that clearly read, "I'm glad I'm not the one being attacked."

I must not stand by while PyroAngemon is tormented like that!

"Do you both take me for a fool?" interrogated Myotismon Shadow Mode, forming two whips of Mega Crimson Lightning which snaked through the air and wrapped around his two victims' necks. "InfernoDevimon, you above all. I take you under my wing and you turn against me. And Daemon… clearly aware of my master plan and ruining it by turning InfernoDevimon into your pawn rather than mine!" He glanced to the side to see Myotismon Celestial Mode, alive and unscathed, staring at them as if prepared to attack. The Mega Crimson Lightning retreated as its beholder hissed, "You!"

"INFERNO WING!" screamed InfernoDevimon, unleashing a wave of fiery bats upon Daemon and the Shadow Mode, the latter of whom shielded himself effortlessly and advanced on Myotismon Celestial Mode, his arm outstretched as if absorbing power into his hand, siphoning dark energy out of the scar.

"HEAVEN'S NIGHTFALL!" shouted Myotismon Celestial Mode. "DEFEND!" Then came an outburst of dark energy that was not necessarily evil; it had a silvery sheen that symbolized goodness. This blast knocked the other four to the ground below, but Myotismon Shadow Mode was hit the hardest. The air seemed to vibrate and push the four victims into the sand, and to his fortune InfernoDevimon managed to stand up. Myotismon Shadow Mode sat upward, and his face was adorned by a grin that was so malicious he looked like a demon.

"Myotismon! Save yourself!" exclaimed InfernoDevimon. "I'll take care of these two creeps."

"No, PyroAngemon, don't do it! You need to live!"

"No… I never had a place in the universe as an angel of the flame. I was too evil for the angels; too righteous for the demons; and to the Datas I was simply a freak of nature. I don't belong anywhere, and this proves it. You have a dear angel bride and an unborn son, as well as two worlds to fight for. I'm sure that the angels will be fine without me."

"PyroAngemon, NO!"

"Go, Myotismon. Elude your Shadow Mode while you have the chance."

"NO!" Tears glittered in the vampire's eyes at the prospect of such a loss. "You saved me twice. Had it not been for you, I would have not come so far. Fight if you must, but mark my words, you will live to fly again!"

A lone tear of lava rolled down InfernoDevimon's cheek, and suddenly it turned to water. The image of PyroAngemon flashed on and off where the demon stood, and he nodded. "You know what you are doing, right?"

"You are an angel, dammit, and if the Council won't let you become one again, I promise you that I will personally give you back your wings!"

The image of InfernoDevimon remained. He clenched his teeth and turned to Daemon and Toxidramon as Myotismon Shadow Mode stood up and confronted his celestial mode.

"Touching, just touching," he said sarcastically, putting on a fake pained expression and running a finger down his cheek. "I think I'm going to cry!"

"What the bloody hell do you want from me?" demanded Myotismon Celestial Mode.

"Your soul, of course," said Myotismon Shadow Mode. "I have been trapped in this godforsaken limbo for six agonizing months, plotting your demise down to the last detail. Whom do you think made caused InfernoDevimon to scar you? And what about Daemon, Toxidramon, and LadyDevimon? Did you not know that they were all under my command?" He started pacing around his victim, like a lion around the kill. "And… oh, yes. Do you know who that poor, abandoned Poyomon was? It was I! I had you fooled! My light side always was the naïve one…" He stepped up to him closely. "And now… he will be no more."

"HEAVEN'S NIGHTFALL! DEFEND!" Once again, the blast of energy hit the Shadow Mode full-force and hurled him into the ocean. Myotismon cast one glance back at InfernoDevimon, then flew towards where he could regain himself and find a plan. Across the entire lone isle, a cave beckoned him to enter, so he did so. Winded from the energy it took to do so—usually it was effortless, but here his abilities did not have a great magnitude… hell, the Defend would have killed the Shadow Mode if it had been on Earth.

Things were looking grim for InfernoDevimon. Once the Defend wore off, Toxidramon and Daemon stood up and advanced on the fallen angel, forcing him backwards until he was knee-deep in the water. He felt it eating away at his power, so he leapt into the air with all of his strength. He knew he had to destroy the others before they could find Myotismon.

"INFERNO WING!" he shouted, letting loose a barrage of bats on the other two.

Daemon glanced at Toxidramon. "EVIL FLAPPING!" He spread his cape and unleashed a mighty wind that knocked the bats against their master, burning holes into his suit and adhering them to his skin.

"TOXIC CRUSHER!" shouted Toxidramon. A green beam of light erupted from his hand, and the demon quickly dodged the blow before the poison fused itself into him.

Quickly, in a dangerous maneuver, he swooped downward, withdrawing his sword and aiming it directly at Daemon. "SATANIC SCEPTER!" he shouted, and it fused directly into Daemon's arm. The demon let out a scream so agonizing the whole world seemed to shake. InfernoDevimon was overjoyed; he was winning! "INFERNO WING!" Another flock of fiery bats shot out from nowhere and began eating away at Toxidramon, whose Flame of Grendel only made them more powerful.

InfernoDevimon was prepared to finish both of them off when suddenly he heard the dreaded "MEGA CRIMSON LIGHTNING!" Suddenly, he felt a bolt of lightning lodge itself into his back and emit the most agonizing and searing pain imaginable as electricity shot through his blood and burned him on the inside more than his fire could do so. Screaming bloody murder, he plummeted down into the waters below, where he felt the ice and the lightning make the worst combination of agony imaginable. He felt his breath staggering and his vision becoming clouded, but he stood up and decided that he would not let this death stop him.

"You will live to fly again!"

"PURGATORIAN HOLOCAUST!" he screamed so loudly his throat became hoarse, using every final fiber of his energy to create his most powerful and deadly Purgatorian Holocaust attack yet. It flew straight at Daemon in the form of a blue-hot dragon instead of a cross, which swallowed the demon whole and turned him into dark ash the second it did. In a split second, all that remained was the echo of Daemon's scream. Toxidramon promptly retreated towards the dark forest, and Myotismon Shadow Mode, who had become completely dry, was seen standing over InfernoDevimon as he fell backwards into the water.

"Say good-night," said the Shadow Mode, pinning him to the ocean floor so he could not breathe. The demon's eyes were pleading for one more chance, but he knew that his nemesis would not let him have it. The Shadow Mode narrowed his ice-blue eyes and shouted, "MEGA CRIMSON LIGHTNING!"

There was a flash of red light, and InfernoDevimon was gone.

The suspense in the air was so thick, it was almost deadly. Myotismon backed even farther away into the cave, into pure darkness where he could not be seen. All was in vain, as he heard the voice of his Shadow Mode closing in.

"I know you're in here!" he called out. "I can smell your fear!"

Unaware of what would be awaiting him at the other end, the vampire headed deeper into the cave, which seemed to have smooth, rocky floors and a low ceiling that dripped water as it sloped downward. Occassionally, he felt rocks underneath his feet, but he kept going even as it grew colder and got a musty smell. He could hear footsteps behind him and see somewhat of a crimson glow, and he felt as if he was able to buy some time as the tunnel twisted and turned. He knew that he was directly underneath the ocean, and that there was no escape…

And that was when he reached a dead end. He could hear his heart beating unbelievably quickly, not knowing what Myotismon Shadow Mode would do to him next—

He felt around, searching for an exit. Knowing how dangerous it was, he pointed his sword upwards and let it glow. There was a doorway above him, almost like a trapdoor. Not knowing what would be behind it, he opened it and climbed into MarineDevimon's undersea palace, which, unbeknownst to him, had been overtaken by his Shadow Mode. He appeared to be in some sort of domed battle arena, where the glass windows extended from the curved rotunda above the black marble walls to the top and revealed that this castle was in the exact center of a perpetual waterspout. Like the eye of the storm, this was placid—too placid. Glancing around, he saw no doors or portals to his freedom except the glass.

And then a fog rolled in and filled the room as Myotismon Shadow Mode burst through the trapdoor and rose into the air. He gracefully floated downward to the floor, which had nothing on it except tile.

"It looks like you're trapped, Celestial Mode," said the dark vampire, advancing on his lighter counterpart. "And there is nothing you can do about it. None of your pathetic friends are here to save you, and I will finally achieve what I have dreamed about ever since we separated." The Celestial Mode backed away so far he hit the black wall behind him—trapped between a vampire and a hard place.

"CRIMSON LIGHTNING!" shouted Myotismon in his own defense, but the lightning never came out.

Myotismon Shadow Mode laughed. "Do you believe that your pitiful angel attacks will actually work in here? This is the Dark Ocean, where attacks like yours are not welcome. In my palace, I am the one who makes the rules. The Dark Ocean is mine!" He laughed maniacally, then continued. "And now that I have got you where I want you, you will be mine again, and we will once again merge to become one Digimon… one Myotismon. The way we were before that no account Wizardmon separated our parts and made us this horrible yin and yang.

"Yes, look at me—trapped in this Hell with nothing to my name except the infinite control over its land and sea of dead emotions… what is the point of ruling if there is no one alive to rule over? No humans ever come down here, and Earth was our only goal… and we have never achieved that!

"Look at yourself… so alone and afraid, with a child arriving in less than nine months who will soon die thanks to the virus we created. Angemon has rejected you, and Wizardmon has done the same. Think about it—if they cared, they would be down here fighting for you.

"Neither of us is content separated from ourselves… will you allow me to merge with you and make us whole again… as one body and one mind? Open your heart and let me in, and soon I will give you a new beginning… together we can escape and achieve our dreams."

"NO!" shouted Myotismon Celestial Mode. "You will never take me away! I love Angewomon and will never let her perish!"

The Shadow Mode, glaring, took his Mega Crimson Lightning and pinned the vampire against the wall, forcing him to fly high above the ground, holding him around his limbs and his neck. Then he flew up there, seeing his counterpart struggling to break free, and flew so closely their bodies were almost pressed together. He lightly touched the scar with his finger. Slowly, he pressed it, and his entire hand phased through.

The Celestial Mode gasped, feeling a hand made entirely of ice grip at his heart and wrench it out… infecting it. He felt the hand worming through his body, attached to an arm, which skulked into his chest and forced itself into his arm… the Shadow Mode was entering his body through the scar, through all the darkness compressed into a blemish on his skin…

There was no escape from the Evil that entered, putting on his skin like a suit… suddenly, he caught his reflection in the glass as his Celestial Mode suit began to change color. All that was white turned black, and all that was silver became crimson. Finally, his pure white mask changed blood-red, exactly like his former one. The coldness seeped through his body in the form of the Shadow Mode's, clawing through and stretching until it felt the shape perfectly… he could no longer see… his feelings of love for Angewomon turned to hate! All of a sudden, he loathed that angel and wanted nothing more than to see her perish. Why had he even dreamed of becoming this Celestial Mode?

The scar was gone. All of the darkness spread through him, turning evil again.

One body, one mind…

But not one soul.

To be concluded…