A/N: I have a ko-fi page now! If you want to help me stay caffeinated to keep the words flowing, my account name over there is corneroffandom. Thank you! Either way, enjoy the chapter.

It's not good. Imperialdramon Paladin Mode is tall, and intense, and everyone begins to doubt if they could truly get any kind of offense against him. Apollomon stands before him, Beelzebumon, so many powerful Digimon but none of them look too encouraged as he laughs at them. Seth fumbles with his digivice, wishing that MegaSeadramon could make it to mega. He's always felt like a liability for that- he's the leader of the Raw team, but it's yet another thing Dolph has beaten him to. His partner is securely able to make it to mega whenever he wants, while Seth and Betamon are trapped at this obviously weaker level.

Seth groans softly and watches as Apollomon gets swatted aside like he's nothing, Imperialdramon thrusting his sword right towards him. Shinsuke looks unimpressed, barking orders at his partner in Japanese, but there's very little to be done for it as Imperialdramon continues sending him on the defensive with wild swings of his sword. Dolph does try to help, to his credit, but Imperialdramon treats him the exact same way. He digs his fingers into his eyes, imagining Dean returning to find Seth still pathetic, still weak, still-

"I am not needy," he mumbles. "I am not weak. I WILL NOT BE PATHETIC!" MegaSeadramon turns to look at him and Seth holds his digivice up. "I believe in you, MegaSeadramon! We can do this!" Another swing of Imperialdramon's sword and he's close to beheading MegaSeadramon thanks to the distraction caused by Seth, when there's a blast of energy and Imperialdramon yells out as he's knocked back from the wave of power suddenly issuing from Seth's Digivice, blanketing MegaSeadramon.

Metal coats his body as he grows in size. "MegaSeadramon digivolve to... MetalSeadramon!" he calls out, quickly wrapping around Imperialdramon and tightening around him so he can barely move. As he clings, he writhes around until his snout is in position and bites, hard, into Imperialdramon's side. He screams out in pain and sends his sword scraping against MetalSeadramon's armored side, the pain only growing when MetalSeadramon adjusts and places his nose against Imperialdramon's head, blasting him with bright, overwhelming energy.

"No!" he yells. "I will not be defeated like this, I will-" He struggles harder, his sword scraping into MetalSeadramon's flesh between the armor plates, MetalSeadramon barely registering the agony as Imperialdramon starts to fracture, overwhelmed by the new energy coming from the freshly digivolved creature.

"Your ego got the best of you," MetalSeadramon tells him coolly. "I will take great pleasure in defeating you." This time, the energy blasting from his snout is overwhelming, engulfing Imperialdramon fully and delating him upon impact.

As soon as the last of the data drifts away, Seth walks up to his partner and brushing his fingers over his cool flesh, feeling the armor against the soft flesh of his fingers. "'I'm so proud of you," he says. "It's been a long time coming."

MetalSeadramon nods, nuzzling against Seth. "I agree," he says. "As much as I'd like to celebrate this further, we have a fight ahead."

Seth nods, hesitantly pulling away. There are still five evil digimon to contend with, but things are slowly inching in thier favor. He hopes it lasts.