VENGEANCE

Chapter 24 – Gennai Explains it All

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All Digidestined and digimon, sans TK, Kari and their partners, made it back to Asuka Laboratory safe and sound. Gennai was already waiting for them with a grim expression on his face, but before anyone could ask him of what was troubling him, the youthful master motioned for his companion, HolyAngemon, to restore the states of the Digidestined and digimon using his healing technique. Doumon and Jewelbeemon marveled of the astounding sight and the advance technology the laboratory had to offer. Doumon then approached Gennai and greeted him, and the man's face turned into a puzzled look before a dawn of comprehension appeared on his handsome face.

"Doumon," he said in acknowledgement. "It's been a long time."

"It is indeed," Doumon replied. "I am glad to meet you, after all these times. And I see that you have grown into a fine young man."

Gennai blushed slightly, and the comment coming from the purple furred fox priestess intrigued the Digidestined.

"What does she mean by that?" Yolei wondered, with a slightly puzzled look.

"It's nothing actually," Gennai replied with a smile. "It's only that I've met Doumon when I was approximately at your age."

All of those who were present inside the lab nodded upon the comment. It seemed that Gennai and Doumon were old acquaintances. Gennai then motioned for everyone to be seated on the carpeted section of the lab's blue marble floors, which was at the corner of the lab where no machines and computers were placed. One of the Piximon there offered to send in some cushions for them, but they assured that they would be just fine without them. Everyone then sat themselves on the red velvety carpet in a circle. Each Digidestined sat with their digimon, followed by HolyAngemon and his disciples, Piximon, Doumon, Jewelbeemon and GrapLeomon. Between GrapLeomon and Davis there was a vacant space.

"So what brings you here, Doumon?" Gennai asked as he plopped down at the vacant space.

Doumon's expression narrowed slightly. "It seems that something is also troubling you, Gennai. I believe we are thinking of the same thing. Why don't you proceed first, and I will follow?"

Gennai nodded, and looked over the four Digidestined with a slightly depressing expression on his face. "So I see that you've already met Chaos Specter. However I really don't expect him to be able to become Duskmon and Velgamon."

"Yeah. He's really tough when he was Duskmon or Velgamon. The Digimon Analyzer wasn't able to identify either one of them," Davis said. (See Ch. 19 – Discovery of a Recent Past)

"Did you accidentally left out their entries?" Wormmon asked.

"Impossible!" Piximon said indignantly. "We're pretty sure we've included all digimon, right Gennai?"

Gennai nodded weakly. "Piximon's right. When we developed the analyzer until its current stage now, we have made extensive researches throughout the Digital World to seek for all types and species of digimon. The only reason why the analyzer wasn't able to produce statistics for Duskmon and Velgamon is because those two digimon are not your average digimon. They aren't purely digimon either."

"Huh? I thought all names with the extension -mon are referring to digimon?" Yolei asked.

"You're correct, Yolei," Gennai said. "However there are some special cases. Duskmon and Velgamon are such cases, as they are actually more leaning towards being corrupted manifestations of the element of darkness. In your world I believe they can also be termed as spirits. In fact, an alternate Digital World dimensions parallel to our world had once displayed such rarity of a case. The group of Digidestined there used these digimon spirits to evolve into digimon instead of being partnered with them to protect the Digital World from evil. One of these chosen initially fell under the influence of evil, and was given control of the Spirit of Darkness. Using this spirit, he had somehow digivolved... or in that world, it was termed as Spirit evolved... into Duskmon and Velgamon. After he joined the side of good, he had tapped into the real power of darkness and no longer became Duskmon and Velgamon, but their true manifestations of darkness. This event proved our theory pertaining to an earlier event happening way back in our world, during the times where this world was first invaded by the forces of evil.

"They are called the Legion of Darkness, and it was due to their coming the first batch of Digidestined was summoned in the first place. One of the enemies they have faced was Duskmon and Velgamon..." Gennai's voice trailed off as he seemed to be loss of words.

"It just doesn't seem to make any sense," HolyAngemon muttered. "How can Chaos Specter gain control of these two corrupted spirits in the first place?"

"Somehow he must have attained them from other dimensions unknown to us," Gennai replied instantly.

The Digidestined were all too awed of hearing this new fact to even speak up. They were at first thrilled of hearing that there was another batch of Digidestined on other analogous dimension, and were also confused. The concept of the world having multiple dimensions were one of the hottest debated topics back on their world, and here the theory was already proven.

"There's another Digital World other than this one?" Cody inquired politely, diverting Gennai from his thoughts.

"Why, yes. In fact, the Dark Ocean and the Dream World were two of the other alternate dimensions parallel with this Digital World. As for the alternate Digital Worlds... all of them were actually belonging in the same plane once, which was a very long time ago. It is recently learnt that the existence of digimon and the original single Digital World is made possible by a group of resourceful humans coming from an alternate world to your home world."

"I'm confused," Veemon said, baffled by the revelations. Davis seemed to be agreeing with him as he was scratching his head in confusion.

"You can say that again," Ken agreed.

"Funny you two should say that, when an old friend of yours came from an alternate dimension himself," Gennai said with a wink. "Don't you two remember a boy who went by the name of Ryo Akiyama?"

"Should I? The name doesn't seem to ring a bell," Veemon replied, confused more than ever now.

"I remember him!" Wormmon supplied. "Ryo's a friend of us during our early adventures in the Digital World. We teamed up together to fight that monster... Milleniumon. Ryo was partnered with a Veemon back then..."

"It could be another Veemon, but as far as I know Veemon is one of a kind," Gennai said.

"Hey! Just how many partners do you have before me, Veemon?" Davis demanded, and glared to the small blue dragon.

"Don't look at me like that! As far as I know, you're my only partner Davis. You're the one who released me from the Digi-Egg of Courage," Veemon answered defensively. Gennai merely chuckled upon seeing the exchange between the two of them.

Ken's expression became thoughtful. "I've never known that Ryo came from another dimension? I thought he said he came from Kyushu?"

Gennai nodded. "Right. But what he didn't know back then was that it was an alternate Kyushu from your world. "

"This is too confusing," Ken grumbled. "But I sure wish I'd have the chance to meet him again."

"Don't worry. One day I'll brief all of you with all the details about it. Doumon, would you like to add anything to what I've just said?"

Doumon quickly stood up and went to the center of the circle. Her expression grew more sober than ever.

"Yes, thank you Gennai. I am here with grave news. Not too long ago, Chaos Wargreymon had intruded the Kulon Mines where I am residing as one of the guardian there. He was searching for the Zeed Crystal which I and the other guardians of the cave were assigned to guard by our benevolent lord Ebonwumon. My assistants and I made a deal with him, where we would battle each other. Should he lose the fight he had to turn back and leave the cave. Unfortunately I lost the fight, and by the honor of the deals I had to allow him to proceed. Then, Chaos Wargreymon had engaged himself in a fight with the other guardians, and had deleted them all. He had retrieved the crystal successfully, but somehow the crystal bonded himself with him. When I found him several days later, the Zeed Crystal was already embedded on his chest plate."

D'arcmon raised a hand. "Is this Zeed Crystal somehow purple in color? Because my brothers and I encountered him back at Mariner Bay Village, and he had a purple crystal on his chest plate."

"That seems to be it," Doumon agreed.

"What's so important with this Zeed Crystal anyway?" Davis huffed.

"Perhaps I can explain it," Gennai replied and went to the center of the circle as Doumon returned to her seat. "We have to start way back, from the one digimon who had begun it all – Milleniumon. Around three years ago, Milleniumon made his first appearance on our world, resulted from a permanent DNA Digivolution from a Kimeramon and a newly digivolved Machinedramon. He had wrecked havoc in this world, forcing us to summon back the second batch of Digidestined – who are Tai and the others – to our world. Reunited with their partner digimon, all of them battled Milleniumon but the evil digimon managed to trap all of the Digidestined and their partners inside his dark domain. The only one who managed to escape from capture was Agumon. For a while, we didn't know what to do..."

"Wait just a minute! How can a Kimeramon exist three years ago? As far as I know, Ken was the one who created that freak of a monster! No offense, Ken." Yolei added quickly.

Ken shook his head. "None taken. Actually, I created Kimeramon based on a manuscript I've found with the ship given to me by Chaos Specter. Someone must have created a Kimeramon once, and have left the instructions with the ship."

"As a matter of fact, you're right," Gennai replied. "The first batch of Digidestined faced a Kimeramon once. But let's continue to what I was going to tell.

"After the capture of the Digidestined and seven of the destined digimon, Agumon and I encountered a lone boy who was somehow brought into this world with a Digivice. He is Ryo Akiyama, and strangely he didn't have a partner digimon with him. Ryo was as baffled as we were of the reason why he was brought to the Digital World, but the reason became apparent when he was attacked by a Kuwagamon sent by Milleniumon to get him. Using his Digivice, he had somehow digivolved Agumon into Greymon and beaten the Kuwagamon. Seeing this, Agumon then asked Ryo to team up with him to save the Digidestined.

"They made it together to Milleniumon's dark domain and engaged in a battle with Milleniumon. Ryo's Digivice then Warp-digivolved Agumon into Wargreymon and the two Mega battled each other while Ryo went to look for the captured Digidestined. He freed them from captive and together, the Digidestined joined Wargreymon to battle Milleniumon again. Tai and Matt then DNA Digivolved Wargreymon and MetalGarurumon together to form Omnimon and defeated the dark digimon. In order to prevent the same thing from happening again, the Digidestined released the power from their crests to seal the Digital World from being invaded by other evil forces, sacrificing their digimon's ability to digivolve into Ultimate and Mega. It was a heavy blow for them, but it had to be done. Ryo and the Digidestined then parted ways, and for a while the Digital World was at peace again."

Gennai stopped momentarily to ensure that the others comprehended with what he was telling. It seemed like all of them did.

"Let me guess," Yolei spoke up. "That wasn't the end of Milleniumon."

"Indeed," Gennai answered, nodding at the same time.

"How did you know?" Davis asked in wonder.

Yolei smiled proudly. "Duh! I think it's pretty obvious. Besides, I was waiting for the moment where Ken showed up." Ken blushed slightly upon hearing that.

Gennai chuckled lightly and resumed to his story. "Like a bad smell, Milleniumon returned in a year. Sensing danger coming into our world, the Azulongmon residing in the Digital World in Ryo's dimension summoned Ryo and told him that he was once again needed. In the meantime, in our world, Ken was brought in when he received a Digivice and was united with Wormmon. Ryo arrived soon after with a Veemon he'd met while on his way to my home. Together they were successful in digivolving their assigned partners into Champion level and after a series of long adventures the four of them finally faced Milleniumon again. Of course, Champions were no match against a strong Mega digimon such as Milleniummon, but then when Ryo's and Ken's thoughts and feelings synchronized as one their digimon DNA Digivolved into Paildramon. With what I would say as a stroke of luck – Paildramon miraculously was able to defeat Milleniumon once more but before his demise he spit out a few Dark Spores – with one of them struck into Ken's neck. I had Wormmon to stay with Ken until he was healed before sending him back home, while Ryo was summoned back by the Azulongmon from his world.

"Once again, I thought that was that. But of course, I was wrong again. Milleniumon rose again for the third time and had acquired a new form – as MoonMilleniumon. This time around however, this Digital World was of no interest to him. He had decided to look for Ryo and kill the boy for being the cause of his two times failures. Before that he decided to leave a fragment of himself back in this world – as the Zeed Crystal – so that if he was defeated again in Ryo's dimension, the crystal would be his way of returning back to power almost instantly. But by then, the Azulongmon in Ryo's world had already begun training Ryo for any upcoming threat from Milleniumon again. This was done without the other three Sovereign digimon there knowing."

"Wow!" Ken exclaimed, rubbing the back of his neck subconciously. "I thought we're done with Milleniumon by then!"

"Sovereign digimon? Who are they?" Cody wondered.

"The Digimon Sovereigns there are the equivalent counterparts of the Harmonious Ones we have here in our world," HolyAngemon answered.

"There are more of them?" Davis said in disbelief, trying to picture two Azulongmon together. He frowned and shook his head. "This is getting weirder every second."

Gennai grinned. "Wait till you hear this part. It's definitely a shocker!" He continued with his story.

"In the world Ryo was living in, as bizarre as it may be, Digimon was a popular television show and many products had been spawned from the show, one of them being card battle games..."

"Say what? No way!" Davis cried in surprised. "Really?" The other Digidestined's faces were definitely a picture-perfect moment as well, with their eyes opened wide and mouths forming an 'O'. The digimon were half as bad themselves, with the exception of HolyAngemon and his disciples who maintained their calm demeanors. All other four Ultimate digimon looked mildly surprised as well.

"Yes," Gennai replied, smiling. "Can I continue?" All of the others there nodded.

"Owing to his experience of having faced real life Digimon, Ryo easily mastered the Digimon card-battle game and became an expert. Azulongmon planned to use Ryo's profound knowledge in wielding those card games to his advantage when he had to face Milleniumon again. Thus, he changed Ryo's original Digivice into a special type of Digivice with the ability to enhance the abilities of any digimon partnered with him with the use of those battle cards. Unfortunately when MoonMilleniumon arrived, Ryo was without a partner. MoonMilleniumon opened a time gate and hurled Ryo back into the past. Ryo ended up at the early days of the Digital World and met a digimon called Monodramon, and the world's first computer – ENIAC."

"Prodigious! I bet Izzy would love to know about this," Yolei said, using Izzy's signature saying on purpose.

"I'm sure of that," Gennai replied, and resumed his tale.

"ENIAC told him that MoonMilleniumon had now attained his true self, in the form of ZeedMilleniumon. ZeedMilleniumon had learnt of the existence of multiple Digital World dimensions and was determined to conquer all of it. ENIAC then partnered Monodramon with Ryo and sent the two of them into the future where ZeedMilleniumon was running amok. Upon learning that Monodramon was partnered with Ryo, ZeedMilleniumon became strangely furious and felt a sudden loss. It was revealed, much to Ryo and Monodramon's surprises that ZeedMilleniumon was supposed to be Ryo's partner digimon as well. It had always been that way, but neither of them realized it. Ryo refused to accept ZeedMilleniumon as a partner, and the latter became furious and challenged Monodramon into an ultimate battle. However Monodramon was only a Rookie while ZeedMilleniumon was one of the most powerful Mega digimon – even rivaling the power of any Harmonious Ones or Digimon Sovereigns.

"Even with the modify cards Monodramon still was no match for ZeedMilleniumon. And ZeedMilleniumon proclaimed that with him not being able to be partnered with Ryo, he would destroy everyone and everything in sight! Monodramon, severely injured in the fight, told Ryo to take ZeedMilleniumon as a partner and to abandon him, but Ryo would have nothing of it. As ZeedMilleniumon was unstoppable, Ryo came up with a decision. Using one of his modify cards – which was a DNA Digivolution card – Ryo gave Monodramon the ability to DNA Digivolve with any digimon, causing both Monodramon and ZeedMilleniumon to merge into one, producing a Digi-egg. The process was sealed permanently with the modify card. The Digi-egg soon hatched and evolved into Monodramon again, and thanks to ZeedMilleniumon's power Monodramon was able to maintain his Ultimate self as Cyberdramon. However it came with a price as well: Cyberdramon was much too feral to be kept in his world, so Ryo was forced to stay with Cyberdramon in the Digital World to tame his partner's feral self. He became the first Digidestined to be known as a Digimon Tamer, and later he met the other Tamers as well."

With that, Gennai had finished his story. Everyone was unusually quiet, especially Ken, as they were pretty much admiring the tales of Ryo and Milleniumon.

"That's definitely enlightening," Wormmon commented, breaking the silence.

"Awesome!" Veemon chirped with sparkling eyes. "I don't know whether I was the one who was once partnered with Ryo, but if I did, I'm sure am proud to be one!"

"Hey! What am I?" Davis exclaimed indignantly. "Chopped liver?"

"Huh? Well, you're... okay," Veemon answered with a smirk.

Davis mock-pouted. "Okay? Just okay? I resent that!"

Veemon laughed. "I'm just kidding, Davis. You're my partner; of course you're way cooler than Ryo! You're my best friend!"

The others guffawed of seeing the exchanges between the duos. Even the serious Doumon and Jewelbeemon were seen straining their smiles.

"Well, what now?" Cody wondered. "I do think that the story was great, Gennai, but don't you think we've got a little bit sidetracked from our original intention? What about the Zeed Crystal?"

"Young Cody is right," GrapLeomon said with approval.

Gennai nodded. "I forgot to mention about it. The Zeed Crystal was found by a servant of Ebonwumon short-after MoonMilleniumon went for Ryo. Ebonwumon took the crystal from the digimon after his release from the Destiny Stones. He had brought it over to his domain and assigned his followers to guard the crystal, knowing that the Zeed Crystal was the only way for Milleniumon to be unleashed again. He also had cast a protective spell to ensure that that would never happen."

"What baffles me is why the crystal was bonded with Chaos Wargreymon?" Doumon said. She shifted slightly.

"I don't know that myself. Perhaps the crystal was attracted to Chaos Wargreymon's power," Gennai suggested.

Jewelbeemon, who was silent throughout the conversation, finally decided to voice her opinion on the matter.

"As far as I can understand, all of Chaos Specter's actions seem to be directing on achieving one goal – to achieve the power of time. He had even acquired the prophecy of time." Jewelbeemon proceeded with the details of what the prophecy of time had cited. All of them managed to get some clue of what the prophecy had stated, but towards the end of it they were practically left in the dark.

"Well, now at least we know why he'd captured the four Harmonious Ones," Gennai said. "It's a start."

"Why does Chaos Specter want the power of time so badly?" Ken wondered.

Davis snorted. "Hmph. He's a bad guy. Does he really need a reason?"

"This is not like one of those bad guys we see on TV, Davis!" Yolei snapped.

"I know. But look, he's been conquering a few quadrants in the East Sector, but doesn't seem to be putting much effort on it aside from stationing powerful digimon to look after the places he had taken in. If what he really wants is to achieve the power to control time, then why bother doing those other unnecessary things?" Davis reasoned.

"You know, what you've said makes sense. Now that's scary," Yolei replied with a smirk. Cody and Ken chuckled mildly.

"Well, I... HEY!"

"Perhaps he just wants to kill some time..." Hawkmon shrugged. "...or just to show off his dominance."

"Makes sense," Armadillomon quipped.

"For now, I think it is possible to assume that Chaos Specter has the intention to bring back Milleniumon to life," Doumon suggested.

"Milleniumon and the one mentioned in the prophecy," Jewelbeemon added.

Davis frowned. "I hate to think of how we're going to face Milleniumon if he's back. We no longer have Imperialdramon with us; only Gatomon and Hawkmon still have the DNA Digivolution power."

"Can't we use Gatomon's Tail Ring to restore our digimon's ability to DNA Digivolve?" Ken asked.

Gennai shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid not. The Tail Ring's power is limited to three pairs of digimon only, and to sustain Gatomon's own Champion power. If I force the ring to give up all of its remaining power to restore your digimon's DNA Digivolution powers, it will only result in the destruction of the Tail Ring, and still it's not guaranteed whether the digimon would be able to DNA Digivolve again."

"Besides, Gatomon would be heartbroken if she lost the Tail Ring again," Hawkmon supplied. "It's a gift from Wizardmon from what I have gathered."

"Speaking of Wizardmon... there might still be a way," Gennai suddenly said; his blue eyes seemed to twinkle.

"What about it?" Yolei wondered.

"I'll tell you later... I'm not sure whether it'll work or not. Although I'm quite positive..."

"Yeah, you'll do that. So what do you suggest we do now?" Davis inquired.

"For now, I'll have to do some research. All of you will return to your home for today. Tomorrow we'll work on freeing Tree Top Village, and Yolei and Cody still haven't achieved Transdigivolution yet..." Gennai replied before Doumon interrupted him.

"I must find Chaos Wargreymon before his master got to him."

Piddomon cleared his throat. "I think Chaos Wargreymon is no longer under Chaos Specter. He had helped us freeing Mariner Bay Village from Chaos Seadramon's minions."

Doumon looked extremely relieved to hear that. "Really? I did not expect to hear that. But we still have to find him as he is now having the Zeed Crystal with him. If he is no longer in the service of Chaos Specter, then he is in danger as the Zeed Crystal power can corrupt him. I have to find him."

"We'll do that, but it would be helpful if you reach your Mega form first," Gennai replied sternly. "For all we know, Chaos Specter might have him already. He wants the power of time too much to just let Chaos Wargreymon amble around freely. Chances are Chaos Wargreymon is already captured. If we're going to look for him, the Digidestined is going to need to prepare full force of their power. To have a good chance of fighting Chaos Specter's remaining generals, all of the Digidestined must be able to Transdigivolve. Doumon will also need to become Kuzuhamon again, as any Mega digimon would be of help."

Everyone voiced their agreements, and Gennai opened a portal to the Digidestined's home world to let the children return first. GrapLeomon then offered Doumon and Jewelbeemon to join him with his trainings inside his gym in order to improve their fighting skills. HolyAngemon and his disciples also excused themselves and retreated to their temple underneath the lab. The only ones remaining now inside the lab were Gennai and Piximon. Gennai then asked Piximon to establish a connection to Zephyr Tower of the Blue Dragon Island, as he would like to make a proposal to the appointed guardian of the island.


Author's Notes:

Some excerpts of this chapter have been written quite a long time ago, especially the part pertaining to Ryo and Milleniumon. However I couldn't find the perfect place to insert it in previous chapters, up until this chapter came along. Then there's a few research to be done about Ryo's back story. I know some of the points given here contraindicate with the original one, and there are a few added plots that I've created as well, but as far as the series Digimon 02 and Tamers are concerned, it served as quite a logical connection, right? Oh yeah, I know... I've been ignoring the movie where Ryo made a cameo. I just based my story on some of the information from the Wonderswan games and an event mentioned in Digimon 02 about the kids giving up their crest powers, and ties them together to make this chapter.

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DTV - Thanks for the informative review. I think this chapter pretty much answers the majority of your inquiries, although I've made a few changes here and there to add flow in the story. As for them going to Mega... it's too soon to tell. I'm not in favor of making them too powerful yet. And as for the International Digidestined, they will be featured in the currently-planned sequel of Vengeance (that is, if I can even finish writing Vengeance first) as the wielders of the remaining Diginizers. About the first Digidestined, I'd say that their adventures took place during 1995-96, so they're not much older from the rest of the gang. I've started researching about Frontier because there are some aspects of Frontier I'm basing this fic upon. (Hint... Duskmon... hint) Oh and by the way, Diginizer stands for Digital Energizer. Chaos Specter only refers to Ryo by his surname because he doesn't know Ryo that well like Gennai or Ken does. I changed some bits about Ryo, especially about his place of origin (or in this case, dimension of origin) as the idea of him bringing his family from one dimension to another disturbs me to no end.

Digi fan – Thanks for the review, and stay tuned as they will be Transdigivolving very, very soon.

Lodis Lord - Thanks for the review. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Not much action, but more revelation.

Quinton Notwen - Hey, thanks for reviewing. Sorry I haven't been able to read all of the chapters of your work yet. Anyway, I think Aquilamon's choice of evolution would be either Silphymon or Garudamon (according to Megchan), although for now I'm trying to work on some of bits of scene where Yolei and Hawkmon would Transdigivolve. It will be the first time when a female Digidestined merged with a male Digimon. It would be hilarious, and confusing at the same time. I can't wait to get those chapters out, but only after I work on them as much as I could. AI's dialogue is pretty hard to write as well, I was referring to a few shows and fics I've seen and read on how a computer with an automated voice response should answer when it is asked a question.

J.D. Guy - Thanks for the compliment. I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's not much but I have to get it out before proceeding with the next one.

CustomMagnum - A new reviewer! Thanks for the review. Stay tune for the future updates.