Yes, I am going with the not-confirmed theory that it's Machinedramon's personality in control of Millenniummon. Differences in behavior don't really mean all that much when both Machinedramon and Millenniummon are shown to act differently depending on who they're speaking with. You end up with one consummate manipulator who acts like an automaton when he doesn't want his 'allies' to know how smart he is; snarky and utterly contemptuous when it's only minions and vermin in need of exterminating; gracelessly rude when it's Ken; and cultured and seductive when it's Ryo. The ability to wear masks like that is a known trait of those who see other people as things to control... and we're dealing with a creator of mind-control tech.
That's on top of the in-game discussion on how his behavior is being altered by a certain factor, and since that factor is altering his behavior by its absence and it's been absent his entire life, we really can't say that we've ever seen unaltered behavior. That's one of the questions that drives the AU this leads into, actually. There are illnesses, infections, allergies, that can 'completely alter someone's personality' from the perspective of outside observers not just when they make people sick but by chronic conditions being cured, because those things have been tampering with… long list, but a lot of things feed into your emotions, and that affects what you think and how you behave. So, if you consider your thoughts and behavior patterns your 'self…'
It is also definitely possible for one component personality sucked into another Digimon or pulled into a merge with other Digimon to take over instead of the personality that 'should' have been in charge, so if the Millenniummon digivolution/jogress would have had a personality of its own, given V-Tamer Daemon and Fusion's Bagramon that newborn personality could have been SOL.
"Alright!" the abominable snowmon said when they arrived in the grassy field someone had drawn a lot of lines on with chalk dust, although they didn't look like any soccer field Tai had ever seen. "I need you sitting in the eight compass directions."
Yes, that was definitely Piximon under all that white fur. Same old drill sergeant.
"Any particular order?" Tai wondered, looking at the circle inscribed on the floor and the low boxes with cushions they were probably supposed to sit on.
"Any parti-" Mojyamon started to sputter, then sighed. "Why would you possibly know?" he asked himself, looking up at the heavens before looking back at them. "The Child of Light in the East, the Child of Hope in the West..."
"Wouldn't it be simpler to place the crests for them?" Gennai asked, arriving from behind them carrying a picnic basket.
"Put the crests in the open any sooner than we have to?" Mojyamon scolded him. "We're only putting them out for the ceremony because we have to! It's way too dangerous to let that power fall into the hands of evil Digimon, when Millenniummon has to want to stop you from unsealing the Sovereign!"
Gennai looked duly scolded, but smiled.
"…Are you two partners?" Tai asked.
Instantly Mojyamon whirled to face Tai. Gennai tapped Mojyamon's arm with the end of his cane.
"While I'm flattered that you think me worthy of the honor, I'm afraid not, Child of Courage," he said with a certain degree of firmness, looking at Mojyamon, before actually turning to Tai. "Mojyamon is a very old and dear friend, who has helped me since not long after I escaped from the Dark Masters' attack on my temple, but that's all we can be. We artificial humans aren't capable of being partners to Digimon, so I was unable to help him in return."
"And what do you call placing that barrier, and…" Mojyamon tsked. "We need to get this barrier up. Give me that," he told Gennai. "I'll get the crests placed, you go sit there."
In front of the higher box in the center of the diagram, while Mojyamon fussed with the crests. "Hold your digivices out in front of you and channel your power through them into the crests," he told them. "Yes?"
Biyomon lowered her wing. "Where do we sit?"
"Behind the daises, of course, there's no room for eight champions inside the circle! And you're not sitting, this is a barrier, so you're guarding! Face outwards and look ferocious while you focus on protect-Yes?"
Gomamon kept his flipper up. "Champion? Why not digivolve to Ultimate? Or even mega. We've got the crests for now, right?" Why not power the ritual up?
"Isn't your ultimate digivolution Zudomon, Crusher of the Dark?" Mojyamon asked him. "Does it look like there's room?"
"Lilymon is smaller than Togemon," Palmon pointed out.
"It's a good thing we're doing a dress rehearsal," Sora said, looking around. The circle wasn't small, there was enough for two champions like Mojyamon to pass between each of the boxes, but some of their partners were pretty big in their Champion and Ultimate forms.
"Oh, I hope I'm not sitting next to Tai," Joe said. "Ikkakumon and Greymon… Will it mess everything up if we have to move the boxes out a little?"
On the way back from the field once the ritual was completed, a few of the older kids were quiet while Mimi tried to work out how to use the ribbon in her hair – she'd whispered to Palmon that it wasn't exactly her color, but it was a gift so she had to wear it at least a few times where Gennai could see. "I know it's raising a barrier and Gennai was part of a religious order, but wasn't that like…" Sora blinked down at the flowers in her hands.
Flowers. She didn't resent them anymore, but why was she the one who got flowers when Mimi's partner was a flower?
"Like a court magician making an offering to the gods presiding over different directions?" Izzy asked her. "Well, yes." He looked around at them. "You guys didn't know that? In the Digital World, humans are considered kami."
Matt blinked. "Wait, like… Gods?" Really?
"They have prophecies about us," Izzy reminded him.
"I saw the temples, but I thought it was more about the Crests?"
"Well, there are kami and then there are kami." There were kami who were very old trees, and there were kami who were the sun. "According to Gennai's religion, every Digimon has a patron human that can grant them power, immortality and some other kind of blessing that depended on the human. Digimon would go to temples to try to connect to their guardian kami and pray for the power to digivolve. Digimon who couldn't digivolve were considered abandoned by the gods."
"Ouch." Sora winced. "That explains a lot about Apocalymon."
"Huh," Joe wondered. "We can digivolve our partners, but… I bet it's based on legends of the ancient digidestined."
Tai nodded. "Humans came from another world to save them, so I guess the other Digimon wanted to believe that they could have partners too. I mean, who wouldn't want a partner Digimon?"
"Well," Izzy said conscientiously, "I can't say for sure, since the main database I have comes from Gennai's religion so it's definitely biased, but most of the tenets of Gennai's religion seem to have some basis in facts we have personal experience with, even if personal anecdotes are no substitute for proper experimentation. Our partners were connected to us before we ever met, so other Digimon theoretically could have ties to their partners, even without digivices. The question is if those bonds are strong enough to have any significant effect on the Digimon if the human isn't a Digidestined? It might depend on the human, too."
Everyone glanced at Kari. Yeah, some humans were more powerful than other humans, and some of them were probably more open to bonds than others, too.
Kari was frowning. "Does that mean that Digimon that make it to Ultimate or Mega are more blessed than rookies?"
"It's been interpreted that way," Izzy confirmed.
"Especially by megas, I bet," Joe said, frowning.
Izzy nodded. Probably. "The most blessed Digimon are the Protectors of Digidestined and the Sovereign, who were raised to godhood by their patron humans. Rookie Digimon are sometimes called children, so Tentomon and I are both Chosen Children. It would be prodigious if Gennai can unseal the Sovereign: they're a lot more powerful than ordinary megas and they're thousands of years old. They've personally experienced much of the history of the Digital World that's been erased by mass numbers of Digimon deaths causing them to forget the oral history, and the rearrangement of the landscape damaging the archeological record."
"Yeah, getting four powerful Digimon like that on our side is worth giving him a few more days to try to figure it out, if Millenniummon will let us have that time. Did you know about this?" Tai asked Gatomon.
"When I was younger, but Myotismon wanted us to be willing to invade the human world and attack the Child of Light," Gatomon told him. "I didn't think the person I was looking for was my patron god. Maybe I didn't let it occur to me, since humans don't come to the Digital world all that often, so no matter how much I searched the Digital World, I couldn't have found Kari."
"It's like guardian angels!" TK realized. "So I'm Patamon's guardian angel, too?" he wondered, looking up at Patamon, who nodded from the top of TK's hat.
"Piedmon was a mega because of Apocalymon, right?" Mimi asked. "Can Digimon become megas without a god's help?"
Izzy's thoughtful look vanished. "Yes," he said, glaring at the ground in front of him. "Digimon have tried a lot of things to accelerate Digivolution… or had those things tried on them. Machinedramon's factory was manufacturing Ultimates, and Digivolutions like Machinedramon and Megaseadramon were created by someone in the ancient past. Kimeramon was an artificial Digimon, too."
"So he was built that tough?" Matt asked. "Explains a lot."
"You don't expect something that big and heavy to be able to run us ragged like that," Tai agreed. "No food, no sleep, all the bombs: he kept us too worn out to fight a mega. It took a miracle for us to beat him."
Agumon nodded. "I wouldn't have been able to digivolve and use that attack if it weren't for Kari." And the light she'd channeled.
Kari shuddered. "Those poor Numemon…"
"Still," Tai said hurriedly, "I guess that's why Mojyamon got all upset when I asked. They're best friends, but Gennai's never going to have a partner to protect him. He must have been really worried about Gennai, and here we were, not knowing anything."
"Wow," Mimi said, shaking her head in pity. "All that time waiting and hoping, and they got the seven of us. Remember what we were like when Piximon met us?"
Matt and Izzy had the grace to wince. It was their fault the barrier around the temple was broken and Etemon found it. Since the hidden places were the only safe ones once the Dark Masters attacked, how much had they messed things up for the Resistance? Piximon's place had been pretty big, they wouldn't have built something like that unless they were planning to use it.
"Thousands of years in the Digital World between what happened at Heighton View Terrace and when we finally showed up. So they were probably expecting, oh I don't know, a little maturity?" Mimi shook her head again. Wow, those poor things. They'd been so wrong if that was true.
"Hey, the legend did say Chosen Children, right?" Matt said. "What were they expecting? We didn't know anything about all of this!"
"I think that's exactly Mojyamon's problem," Sora said, looking at him. "All those people praying to us, and we didn't know anything. A lot of us didn't really care about the Digital World, not at first."
"All that time praying to for someone to help, and I don't know if anyone heard them," Kari said sadly.
"Gennai tried his hardest to keep our eggs safe," he hadn't managed to save Gatomon, but he'd protected Patamon and the others, "and at first a lot of you didn't care." TK looked downcast. "Even me, I let Demidevimon…"
'It wasn't like we owed them anything,' the old Matt would have said. They hadn't asked for any of it. But… the Digital World really did need their help. All those people, all those years: someone needed to stop it, someone needed to protect them.
"We're lucky he didn't attack us one by one as we got here. How are we going to beat him now that he's even more powerful?" Joe didn't look all that hopeful, looking down at the roll of bandages in his hands. They'd given him something practical, something he could use to help other Digimon, but Joe might not be able to help them. What if he didn't have the power to keep them from getting hurt in the first place?
Horns began to sound.
Matt winced at the sound. "Hey, 'Queen Mimi,' your subjects are-"
"Sounding the alarm!" she called, running past them into town, Palmon following her.
"Well, he definitely looks like someone jammed together different Digimon," was Mimi's assessment. "Those are Machinedramon's cannons, but does his lower head look a bit like Kabuterimon to you, Izzy?" she wondered.
Perched on Megakabuterimon's shell, Izzy nodded. "Gennai loaded his data on the Kimeramon that appeared into my database. It looked like it was made up of parts from several of our partners' champion forms. That's why I'm glad we can still digivolve to Ultimate." Megakabuterimon's head didn't look like that.
"Is that a threat?" Joe asked, peering over Zudomon's head carefully. "Like he's going to chop our partners up for spare parts."
"Like he will," Izzy said, shuddering. "Judging from the particle reading, Kimeramon came from the future. There are other Digimon with the same champion digivolutions as our partners out there, but if we prevent Kimeramon's creation, that may create a paradox."
Time travel wasn't really all that weird compared to the rest of what they'd seen, so no one felt the need to ask: Tai once thought he'd time traveled himself, but it was just an effect of the time dilation between the Digital World and Earth. "So what does that mean for us?" Mimi asked.
"I'm not in a position to speculate, I just don't have enough informat-"
"Izzy," Kari scolded him. "You're worried."
"…all the theories I have aren't very good for us. Even if the Digital World is on our side, it's possible the universe may resist any course of events that would prevent the creation of Kimeramon in order to preserve itself. There are other Kabuterimon out there, but taking several Digimon and experimenting on them to create a single Digimon to send back in time to allow a Digimon like Millenniummon to ascend to godhood without a partner isn't something the good guys would do. Unless they had to, if it turns out to be the only way to create a stable time loop that doesn't involve Millenniummon winning."
"…I really hope not," Joe said, blanching.
"I think my expertise is a little more applicable than yours, Joe," Izzy said, looking worried. "We can still hope it doesn't come to that. Kimeramon's existence may be something from a potential future pulled into this timeline by Millenniummon's power. In which case as long as Kimeramon's existence remains possible – and almost anything is possible – we shouldn't have to deal with a paradox."
"So either way, worrying about it won't do us any good," was Tai's judgment. "He's got six arms he can use to block attacks, between the four on the lower body and the two that kind of ghost hanging over him has." There was a second head hovering above the head that looked like Kabuterimon's. It seemed like it was made up of energy, two large arms made up of the same energy reaching down from its shoulders. "I'll ask Sora when she gets back, but that head looks a little like Machinedramon's to me. Like his ghost is possessing someone else's body after you killed him," he commented, turning his head to look at Wargreymon's.
"We'll finish him off this time," Wargreymon said.
"Uh-huh!" Tai nodded.
"He's… letting… us come to him," Matt said, each word laden with reluctance.
His eyes met Tai's. One of the Digimon that ambushed them as soon as they arrived in the Digital World, before they even had a chance to get their bearings? The Digimon that pursued them all over his territory was letting them come to him and fight him on their terms, at full power?
"Trap," Tai and Joe said simultaneously, one confirming and one complaining.
"We're not seriously going to walk right into this," Joe said, looking around from Zudomon's back.
"He's got those cannons, they're already charged up and the barrier won't hold against a Mega's attacks," Mimi said, sitting in Lilymon's arms as her Digimon flew down to get her closer to Joe. "So yes, we seriously are. There's no Geneva Convention here, he'll aim for your hospital, because it's harder to evacuate." So leveling it would kill more people.
Garudamon swooped down, Sora standing on her foot and holding on to her leg with one arm. "Those are Megadramon back there flanking him. I can't see more than four of them, but they're carrying something," Sora said, putting the binoculars back in her bag.
"Alright. Once Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon have him pinned down a little, you flyers swing wide around him and take out the Megadramon since you can fight them in the air," Tai said, crouched on Wargreymon's shoulder as his partner walked next to MetalGarurumon. "MagnaAngemon and Angewomon on the left, Lilymon, Garudamon and MegaKabuterimon on the right."
That would give them a three-to-two advantage in one case, and much better in the other. MagnaAngemon could take down Megas, even if his powers were less effective against dragon Digimon than dark Digimon.
"Zudomon, you and Joe are our reserve. Hang back for awhile and see who needs help the-"
"You," Joe interrupted him. "You and Matt are the ones who are going to need help, but am I the only one who's noticed that he's not firing yet."
Oh crap. That went way beyond trap. That was not like Machinedramon. "Some kind of decoy or illusion?" Sora asked. "Did merging with Kimeramon mess with his personality?"
Tai grimaced. "We still need to take out the Megadramon, or they'll start shooting everyone in the back as soon as we start fighting Millenniummon. Alright, you guys who can fly go on ahead, see what you can see along the way. The rest of us will have to stay closer to town for now." Zudomon was the slowest, so if he got drawn out of position, they'd have to hope his armor held out or he'd be toast.
"Right," Angewomon said, starting to move off to the left to make a large circle around Millenniummon, MagnaAngemon following her.
"I'll cover you," Metalgarurumon told Wargreymon.
Yeah, Tai knew. If Millenniummon was still Machinedramon inside, he'd remember that Wargreymon was the one that sliced him like an onion.
"We're doomed," Joe said flatly.
"Don't say that," Zudomon said.
Joe shook his head, eyes a little wild. "No. Guys, this is not…" He looked down, clenching a fist. "Zudomon, let's go."
"You want us to charge into battle?" Matt asked.
"No, not you. Me and Zudomon. Someone has to spring this." Joe gripped his partner's shell tighter. "Let's go, Zudomon!"
"Right!" roared the great walrus, hefting his hammer and beginning to charge.
"I should be running away so there's someone left to try to do something after they get themselves killed… You're a bad influence, Zudomon!" they heard Joe yelling.
"The baddest!"
Matt groaned. "Joe really does have the worst luck."
"Hey, we like Gomamon's sense of humor," Tai quipped.
Then he spat, finding something in his mouth. He pulled his head back. Rope? Criss-crossed rope. A net? Past it, ground? That was a long way down.
Some weight landed on his head, knocking his face into the net again. He felt claws, trying not to cut him, like when Agumon was shifting during the night one of the times they were somewhere cold enough he needed to take advantage of his partner's internal furnace. "Agumon?"
"Tai?" Agumon's voice sounded dazed. "There's a Megadramon right above us!"
"I should have listened to Joe!" If Millenniummon wanted to kill them, he would have started already! And Machinedramon was not a big fan of letting anyone live, but especially enemies! He wouldn't have even considered capture unless he had something he thought was foolproof!
"Tai!" Agumon started to glow.
Not digivolving, or de-digivolving… "Here!" Tai pressed his digivice into Agumon's hand.
"No! I don't want to leave you!" Agumon cried, but even though Tai hugged him, that wasn't enough to pull him along with Agumon.
He hoped it was Gennai who had just warped Agumon out, but they were already captured and what was the point of putting them in nets if they weren't going to warp them still in the nets?
Tai looked around. Alright, they were going that way, towards some kind of glowing thing on the ground… He shielded his eyes as the glow enveloped them.
Was that… That was Piedmon's palace?
Even in the haze of sleep, he recognized the voice that was yelling at him. Izzy groaned. "Five more minutes, Mimi…"
"Izzy, wake up! There's a black ring on Palmon!"
That made him bolt upright. "Tentomon?" Oh no. There, on Tentomon's leg! Izzy's hand frantically clawed at his bag strap. "Use your digi-" Izzy's digivice was missing.
"Devimon took our digivices before we woke up!"
"Devimon?" Izzy looked in Mimi's direction, registering the bars. Cage. The land dropped off, and past it he could see ocean.
"We're on top of Spiral Mountain!"
"But Spiral Mountain shouldn't exist anymore! The old File Island was made entirely of black gears, it shouldn't have been replaced when the Digital World regenerated!"
"Well, you tell me where we are!"
Right. Laptop. He had his laptop. "Give me a second," Izzy said, and found himself looking at Tentomon.
His partner was just staring at him, without any trace of recognition in those segmented eyes.
"…Tentomon?" Izzy said, voice small.
Nothing. His partner wasn't answering him.
Izzy drew in a breath. Pulled his Pineapple laptop open. Right. There had to be something he could do. There had to be.
Stuffed animals.
They looked like stuffed animals.
The ring on Patamon was where one of his ears met his head, but Biyomon's was around her ankle, like the rings they used to track migratory birds. They were just standing there, not even blinking. Did Digimon's eyes get dried out?
If only Izzy was here he could hack into Etemon's pyramid (or Datamon's), but she didn't know if Izzy was still alive. She'd seen someone else in one of the other Megadramon's nets before Biyomon was dumped on top of her. Izzy and Tentomon were next, but then Izzy and Tentomon were gone and Biyomon wasn't moving anymore. Another blink, and TK and Patamon had replaced Izzy.
A God of Time, that was what Gennai had called him.
Making time pass faster in the Digital World wasn't all he could do. If he could make time pass faster for himself while everyone else was frozen, then he could just walk right up to them and step on them. Or capture them, like this, and make Biyomon and Patamon serve him.
Sora wasn't in restraints on a lab table like the last time she'd been captured here, but she was still trapped in this cage and she didn't know what to do, either to save her partner or to reassure TK so he would stop crying. If only she had her digivice, she should be able to free Biyomon, but it was gone.
Her partner… she'd let her partner become someone's toy.
"I knew it," Joe was saying, staring into space. "I knew it. It's my job to be the responsible one, someone has to be, and I let myself be optimistic. I let myself care about making you proud of me instead of keeping you safe, Gomamon!" He gripped his head in his hands. "I knew it. I should have run, I should have gotten you out of there, and now who's going to get any of us out of anywhere?"
Matt was dimly aware that he really should do something about Joe beating himself up, but right now all he could do was not beat himself up.
"TK's not here," he reminded himself, gripping the bar of the birdcage hung in the middle of the torture chamber and squeezing it to try to center himself. There wasn't even enough room to stand up. "TK's not here." Thank the gods.
"You get your hands off her, you-" Kari was yelling, grabbing the bars of her own cage forcefully enough to send it rocking, "Or I'll!"
TK wasn't here to hear the words Tai's little sister had somehow picked up. TK wasn't here to have the torture implements everywhere in the room used on him, or have to watch helplessly as someone else screamed.
Normally, if they had to be captured, Matt would want TK close, where he could try to grab him when they broke out, or do something to help him.
But TK wasn't here, in this room, where Gatomon was sitting with her eyes empty and a black ring in the place of the gold one on her wrist, on the lap of her former master as he watched them, anticipating what he was going to do to them and letting them have time to remember what he was capable of.
Myotismon was here, alive, again, somehow. Myotismon was here, but TK wasn't. So TK was somewhere else, where Myotismon wasn't.
Thank the Eight Million Gods.
From the crest-glowing episodes, it's interesting how much of a problem a strength turned against you can be (Mimi's crest is cheating - well, really, all of the crests are strong in their particular areas). Given the translation issues, Joe's is a little hard to pin down, but given how it acts and what it reacts to, it would be acting up in this chapter.
Defeating the Digidestined when they still had their Crests in a fair fight would be one heck of an impressive Worf Effect fight scene, but there is no way it happened that way. A fair fight? Even as Machinedramon, he didn't believe in them. The reason the Digidestined didn't have a chance is because Millenniummon is a cheating cheater who cheats. ...if you think that there's such a thing as 'cheating' in warfare, that is.
Time/space/dimension godhood is incredibly abusable, and he knows his science, programming and physics. He does stuff like repeatedly rewind time to undo all the damage the player has managed to do to him not as a scripted event, but like any other combat ability. He Munchkin'd himself explicitly impossible to defeat – setting up a stable time loop is a possible theory for how he did this. Unless the enemy has a power that lets them cheat right back, of course.